Good-bye Mr. Miyagi

My trip down Rehab Road with Mr. Miyagi has ended.  It was a bittersweet ending.  I don't think he'll miss me, but I will miss him and the routine and the schedule.  Remember on my first visit when my grip strength was 10 pounds on my left side while my right side was almost 70 pounds?  On my last visit with him, my left side got up to 50.5 pounds when I squeezed the handle.  Still not perfect but within the "acceptable" range (acceptable for who I don't know, but he said it was so I'll believe him.  After all, I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night, so what do I know?)   I have some work to do at the YMCA on my own to increase the grip strength more, but it is a definite improvement.  Of course I still can't properly apply enough pressure all around on a rubber stamp and on one of my creations to get a clean copy on the first try, but that just means I'll have to practice more. 

The first day of Occupational Therapy I could hardly lift a 2 pound weight to do simple bicep curls.  And then, I could only do maybe 10 of them at a time with a long break between sets.  The last day of OT, I was up to a 6 pound weight (don't laugh, I know it isn't a lot, but for me it was!) and doing curls for a full minute.  Again, still a ton of room for improvement but it gives me hope, and a goal. 

I absolutely hated the Wax on/Wax Off exercises that Mr. Miyagi made me do.  I could not imagine doing them for more than the 2 minutes at a time that I was forced to endure in the beginning.  Last day, I went 15 minutes!  Now, before most of you say, okay, no big deal.  Try standing and holding your arms up for 15 minutes straight at shoulder level.  It's harder than it sounds.  I'll wait, go try it for 1 minute.  Get your kitchen timer out and try it.  Your shoulders get a harder workout than you realize by this simple exercise.  I wont even ask that you hold anything in your hand when you do it.  Just hold them up.  Ready, Set, Go! 

Okay, now that everybody is rubbing their shoulders and upper arms, let me say that the folks that work at Jim Thorpe are, in my opinion, Miracle Workers.  Mr. Miyagi was the first of them that I met and from that first day I have been dazzled by how they make simple tasks into exercise so that you don't even realize you are exercising, while at the same time building your body up. 

My first trip to the YMCA with The Warden is this coming weekend and I'm a little afraid to see how that goes.  This is  where I'll have to definitely employ some boundaries and not try to keep up with the person next to me, but just go at my own pace to keep increasing my strength and endurance.  But for now, I have to hustle off to PT because Mama isn't done with me yet.