Building Muscle...

I think my hard work is paying off...

When Kendra first approached me at therapy today, she wanted to know how I've been feeling since Tuesday's workout. I told her, "I've been extremely sore." She asked where, and I pointed to a point just above the knee.

She said, "That's the bottom of the quad, and you know exactly what we did to work that. It has a long way to go to get back to normal."

I think that's the story with a lot of my muscles...

A few weeks ago, I was at rock bottom. My strength was "non-existent," and I knew I had a long way to go.

When I first started my PT almost two weeks after my surgery, I struggled with just about everything I was asked to do. In fact, my session lasted less than 40 minutes because Kendra didn't want to cause any pain.

My knee was still really swollen, my stitches weren't exactly "finished" healing the wound (I busted one at one point!), and I was still using the walker at home.

I remember when I first started doing clam shells. It was so freaking painful... to get to 30 was pushing it. Today I did 100.

How about when I first got on the bike: I was going at 25 RPM and it took everything I had to make it to 10 minutes. Today my RPM (cadence) is around 65 and I can easily make 25 minutes (the only reason I get off is because my butt hurts!).

One of the exercises is in the picture above. Instead of using both legs, I'm to try and go as long as I can with the bad leg. The goal is to go a full 5 minutes with one leg.

When I first learned this exercise, I struggled big time. I could go about 15 seconds (a few dips) with one leg and then the majority of the time I spent using both legs. Today I realized I'm now able to go a majority of time with the one leg... but I still can't make it the full time with just the one leg.

The point I'm making is it feels so good to be making progress. I can feel the results... my muscles hurt! Ha! But, it's a good feeling.

I probably can compare it a little to my marathon training. If you remember (for those that have been following this blog for several years), you don't just go out and say, "I'm going to run 26.2 miles." You have to work up to that.

The first week I would focus on getting to 2-3 miles consistently... in a few weeks I'd be up to 5 miles on a run. Eventually, I could get to running around White Rock Lake (9 miles) in a single run after a few months.

I guess that's the same here...

Case in point: Tuesday's blog focused on how difficult it was for me to bend the knee to get to that point where I could take a "down" step. I struggled to get the first one... and then, in time, I made it to 10.

Today, I made it to 30. Yay Me!

Kendra was very pleased, and said I had a great workout today. She said I'm just making awesome progress.

Well, I'm determined... that's one characteristic I have in my nature. I know what I lost, and I want it back. "Eye of the Tiger!"

But frankly, I just think I've got a great therapist who knows how to push me... I can't wait to see where I am in a few more weeks!