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Physical Therapy Continues

I continued physical therapy this past week with sessions on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My therapist introduced squats, leg curls, and lateral leg raises back into my routine – one exercise at each visit.

I’m supposed to avoid lifting heavy objects and I am still focusing on doing back extensions (bending backward from the waist). I’m to continue to stay away from any type of flexion (bending forward from the waist) and twisting.

The hardest part of compliance for me has been not lifting heavy objects – my job requires that, specifically when moving the bench in the gym. Lifting and rolling the workout bench for my clients is something I do daily and quite frankly, the bench is so cumbersome that some of my clients wouldn’t be able to lift it. It doesn’t hurt when I do it which makes it easy to forget and before I know it, I’ve either moved it for a new exercise or out of the way.

When I left PT on Friday, I was given a list of exercises to do for homework five days a week…

  • Squats
  • Clamshells with resistance
  • Single-leg balance on a foam pad
  • Pilates swimmer

 

For Me, Just Say No to Planks – at Least for the Short Term

On my first day of PT, my therapist had me switch to only doing a one-minute plank three times a day. Three years ago, I worked my way up to a five-minute plank which I did religiously to help strengthen my core. Last year I started breaking the continuous five minutes into two two-minute planks and one one-minute plank, all usually done in a ten minute period (sometimes over the course of the day).

Just as I was starting to suspect that planks were causing the numbness in my foot, Thursday evening’s plank confirmed my suspicions when after a day of zero numbness, my right foot went numb ten seconds into my plank. When I told my therapist on Friday, she cut planking out of my daily routine and substituted pilates swimmer in its place.

Once my back has healed, she’ll gradually reintroduce planks back into my routine.

 

And Now on to a RunDown of this Past Week’s Workouts…

 

Running

Still no running…

 

Biking

With my physical therapist’s blessings, I fit in four rides on my spin bike (affiliate link) for a total of 50 miles this week.

 

Strength Training

Per my physical therapist, I cut back to upper body exercises only and that cut my time in half. As I mentioned at the top of this post, my PT is gradually adding in leg exercises in our sessions and on Friday added some of them back into my home routine.

 

Yoga

I’ve suspended yoga until I get the all clear from my PT.

 

It’s on the Blog

In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…

 

In addition to the workouts I mentioned above, here’s a complete rundown of my workouts from this past week (completed either outside or in our home gym)…

 

  • Questions:
  • • What favorite exercises have you had to stop doing for a while because at the moment they were doing more harm than good?
  • • What’s your favorite cross training exercise? 
  • • Did you run in a race this weekend? 

 

And that’s my rundown… Have a great week!

 

Disclaimer:  This post may contain affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a small commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.

 

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I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but those of the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!