Project Motivation

week 4

2010-02-16T07:52:00.000-08:00

Mondays I am always feeling refreshed because of my two day weekend of resting. Its all about rest and recovery. So I was feeling good so when I got to the gym M was upstairs so I took it upon myself to start with push ups. Well, I was so pumped I decided to do 200 push ups!

I really enjoy chest days and I am not sure why. We headed over to the smith machine and I transfer on to the incline bench. Imagine a flat bench, now imagine one just one notch up, that's where I was :) So, we start with 5 sets of 10 starting at 30 lbs. The last sets is always the hardest but it is nice to know that if I need just a little lift M is there to help. I love the motivation and energy he brings with him everyday. He has faith in me that I can do it, and that makes me want to over achieve. When we get finished with that set he brings the bench up one more notch and I so 3 sets of 10 starting at 30 lbs and finish at 50 lbs. This set was super hard for me, but we never quit.

Everyday I roll in to the gym I think about the machines that I haven't had the chance of using either because I can't get upstairs or they are too high for me to transfer to. This machine in particular is on the middle level that I roll past every day. It is called the Pec Dec. Well today was my lucky day!! M picked me up and just threw me on there like it was nothing. I was so super nervous sitting up there because I had nothing in front of me to push me against the back..I felt that at any moment my hand was going to slip and then I would be on the ground :( But M got a square cushion thing and a yoga belt and strapped me in. The reason for the cushion was so that the belt wouldn't cut into my stomach, and to tell you the truth just a belt wouldn't have held me up. This is not the exact machine but you can get a feel of how scared I was with just a bar on top to hold on to. I do 5 sets of 10 starting at 30 lbs and finishing at 70 lbs. I get down and head on over to my hand bike and hit 40 minutes on level 3.5 WHOO my face was rosy red when I got finished.

Tuesdays are do not look forward to the gym only because M is making my pull ups a very big deal. He wants me to, in due time, be able to strap me in to my chair and lift both me and my chair. Last week I had such a hard time but today I was going to prove myself wrong. I am going to do my pull ups, get them over with and move on to the next exercise. I do 5 sets of 5 without ease. YAY!!
The next machine I am not sure of the name but it is designed to work your traps and little bit of your chest. If you can imagine sitting in those little tiny bicycle seats and doing flies above your head. I do 10 sets of 10 starting at 30 lbs, my last two sets which were at 110 and 120 lbs, they were tough but M helped me through it. My palms were facing away from me but the next set was a hammer grip, which is my palms facing in to each other. Again, 10 sets of 10 starting at 40 lbs. I get on the bike and rock out 40 minutes on level 3.5.

Yay for Wednesdays! It's the middle of the week and I have to work on my bi's and tri's!! M had to me do a very interesting workout on my biceps. M calls it the penitentiary curls, it is just like doing preacher curls except you do 10 small reps, 10 medium reps, and then 10 full reps. We start out on 25 lbs.and do 3 sets ending at 40 lbs. M says the reason why it is called that is because the men is prison don't have the weight needed to improve their biceps so they just do more reps. I really enjoyed this exercise a lot. We stay at the same piece of equipment but we move to hammer curls. I start at 10 lbs. and do the last two sets at 15 lbs.
This next machine [pictured below] is a bicep extension machine. M shimmy's me in there and I do 3 sets of 10 starting at 20 lbs and finish the last two sets at 30 lbs.

After we get finished with my biceps it's not time for triceps. This next exercise is quite a breakthrough for me. If it wasn't for M helping me concentrate on my core I wouldn't be able to even touch this. This is overhead cable extensions for triceps. Now obviously I am sitting down doing this but I have to lean forward and flex as much as I can to that the weight doesn't pull me back. I do 5 sets of 10 starting at 10 lbs and finishing at 40 lbs.

The last and final exercise of the day is dips. The machine that I do my dips on is an ab bench with handle on the end. It isn't very high which makes it easier but still tough to do. When M gets me in position it is really tough because my legs stretch out and get really tight and I am not high enough in the air because every time I dip down my feet hit the ground. I do 3 sets of 10 and then head on over to the bike to do my 40 minutes on level 3.5!

Ahh thursdays. The joy of working on my shoulders :) M carries me upstairs and I get on this machine that looks very intimidating. The handles are what seems like behind my head but once I start to work out the way my hands are make sense. I do 4 sets of 10 starting at 25 lbs and finish at 40. Then we head over to where the free weights are, free weights are so much harder than using machines. M explains it is harder because you are using your secondary muscles. So I do side raises...[don't laugh] 5 sets of 10 using only 8 lbs. It was super hard but I got the hang of it. I then go to lateral raises and do the same weight.

M carries me back downstairs to do my ab work out but today was much harder! I did 8 sets of 10, each time I rolled over I did 10 push ups instead of just 1. Man I was tired after this work out!!

[pictures soon]

Week 3

2010-02-09T05:59:00.000-08:00

I absolutely hate back days but they are essential to what I am training for I have to come in the gym with a go to attitude. I came in the gym with a lot on my mind and mentally I just was not there, which is not a good thing. The gym is a place to not worry about a thing and just focus on the task at hand. M brought a friend with him named..we will go with A. We start out the day with some alligator walks and push ups. M told A show me his stomach and let me just say shoo! He was ripped, definitely gave me some motivation for the day.

We head upstairs to an older model smith machine to do my pull ups. I don't know if I was nervous because there was someone there watching me but doing pull ups was just do hard. After about 10 minutes of pep talking I did my sets and we went on to the next machine.

So we head on over to do lat pull downs. I do 5 sets of 10 starting at 10 lbs and finished on 50 lbs [per hand]. I then do lat pulls still 5 sets of 10, 10 lbs to 50 lbs [per hand]. 50 lbs. was super tough but M and A said this "I know grown men that can't lift this much, you are doing great". When I have someone there pushing me I feel like I could rule the world, this is the magic of have a trainer. He pushes me to my limits and it feels amazing! We do two more machines for my lats, again 5 sets of 10 and going hard.

Bi's and Tri's day went really well. We pushed the limits this week and exceeded what my expectations were, and let me just say this week has been the hardest but waking up sore always feels good. It tells me that I am doing something right and to just push harder the next week.

Thursdays are shoulders! We headed over to the Smith machine where I rolled right underneath it and basically just lifted the bar over handed as much as I could. We didn't put a lot of weight on this exercise because it was tough. I do 3 sets of 10 and then we head upstairs. This exercise is by far my favorite for shoulders. I did what is called the Arnold press, your seated holding two dumbbells with your fingers facing you, then you want to lift the dumbbells but rotating your hand so that your fingers are now facing against you. I did my 3 sets starting with 15 lbs and moving up to 20 lbs.

This week I moved up my time on the stationary bike to 40 minutes at level 3.5. It feels so good when I am getting in my car knowing that for the past 3 hours I have done nothing but pushed the envelope and getting excited to see what happens the following week.

[week 1- week 3]

Week 2

2010-02-05T02:53:00.000-08:00

Week 2 was tough. As soon as I rolled into the gym M said "OK, Megan on the ground..." So I rolled over in front of the Kenisis wall and got down on the ground. He walked over and got a long stair stepper thing, turned it over and said "OK, roll over into it, we are going to do the alligator walk" I just looked at him like WTF? So, I rolled over, he got my feet situated and basically walked with my hand dragging me legs with me. I had to take 10 steps forward and then 10 steps backwards, we did 3 sets of these.

The next exercise was my abs. Now, I cannot do "normal" crunches, seeing as how I only have half of my stomach, but M created this great workout that any para can do. I moved over to where the mats where on the ground. I get myself centered and tie my legs together and M goes to get a weighted medicine ball. I am laying flat on my back and M is standing at my feet. He throws the ball at me and when I catch it I stretch it behind my head almost laying my arms on the ground and I throw it back to him as hard as I can. But when I throw it I don't use my arms, I use my core so I breath really hard making a [sssssss] noise. Everything that I do involves this technique of breathing and I can be the first to say as a paraplegic that my core is developing from this exercise. I can feel deep tissue flexing when I do this, and that is something I did not have before working with M. As I am throwing the ball back to M, I use his breathing technique, use very little arm movement and roll over to the left on my stomach, them I do a push-up, roll back over but the next time I roll over to my right and we repeat doing sets of 10.

Mondays are chest days and each week varies as to what chest exercises we will do. From flat bench, to incline, to decline. I like chest days right now because when I wake up in the morning man am I sore. It feels good :)

Tuesdays are back days and not a favorite of mine, mainly because it is a weakness for me. Doing pull ups is quite a challenge for me, but M always reminds me that this is mind over matter. So I put my mind into it, do as many as I can and then we move on to the next exercise.

Wednesdays are Bi's and Tri's day! We didn't do any heavy lifting, M just wanted to see where I was at with my strength. It wasn't bad, I will just say that! Today was also the first time I have ever done any kind of boxing. M brought in his punching mitts and shields to use. The awesome thing about this training is not only does it help my arms it helps my balance! Again, using the energy from my core and creating that energy to move to my fingertips.

Each day I come in to work with M, we always start with different kinds of push-ups and different movements. I worked on doing Chinese push ups which was a difficult task but I succeeded none the less! He is doing something great with me, he is changing my life.

Week 1

2010-02-02T09:08:00.000-08:00

Today was the day that I actually got to go upstairs! M picked me up, and threw me over his shoulder and just trucked upstairs like it was nothing. It felt awesome to finally be able to see what I have been missing out on for 6 months...

Today was chest day. The first thing I did was transfer onto the bench press. M didn't put any weight onto the bar, because the first two weeks are purely muscle recognition. He is figuring out what is stronger and what muscles are working better. I start doing my bench press 5 sets of 10, and although there was no weight on the bar, M was standing over me pushing his weight on the bar with his hands, making it a little harder. The reason he said he did this is so when I come back and we start putting weight on, it won't be so hard! Logical thinking I would say :)

So after I finish my 5 sets, I roll over to a decline bench which M has to put me on. There is no way I would ever be able to get on that bench without some help. Again, 5 sets of 10 but instead of staying at the same weight, we go up 5 pounds each set. I am lifting the weight straight up to the ceiling (which was pretty tough on the last two sets).

The next set was me on a seated incline bench doing an incline chest fly. (5 sets of 10, going up 5 pounds each set). After I got finished with that (which was quite a struggle) I got down on the ground and did push ups until l couldn't do them anymore. I think I got about 20 in before I collapsed to the ground in just exhaustion.

M helped me into my chair went downstairs to finish up my workout for the day...the stationary hand bike. On level 3 for 20 minutes and each week I will have to go up not only in time but in levels too.

[Picture week one]

About Me

2010-01-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

"No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined." - Harry Emerson Fosdick
Two years ago, I was in a 4 wheeling accident that left me paralyzed from the sternum down. The past two years of my life have been quite a roller coaster, from the first day I arrived home to this day which is day 772. I have reached every goal I have sought out after, but this next goal is huge! For the past 10 months I have been working out at my local gym in Asheville, NC. The only downside to being a paraplegic and working out at this gym, is there are three levels - one of which I am accessible too. There is a second floor that has a plethora of equipment and machines which is unaccessible to me...until recently. Monday through Friday I would go in, do my little work out, and go home. But, a couple of weeks ago a man named [well, we will just call him] M started to work out within the hour that I was there. We talked a few times, him asking me what my goals were and if I had reached any of them yet. My answer to him was no I hadn't, but what he said to me next was a huge surprise. He wanted to train me to reach my goal.

Before my accident I was a very routine person. Get up, go to work, drink all night, and do the same thing day in and day out. After my accident, everything changed. I have gotten very involved in adaptive sports. For example: Hand cycling, water skiing, snow skiing, kayaking, soon tennis and whatever else I can get involved with.

The ASAP (Adaptive Sports and Adventure Program in Charlotte,NC) hosts Cycle to the Sea, which is a 3 day 180 mile bike ride from Charlotte, NC to Myrtle Beach, SC. After being injured for a little over 2 years now, I am determined to do this ride all the way through and that is where M comes in. He has agreed to donate his time and efforts to get me where I need to be for this ride. This blog was created to update and see the difference. Every two weeks I will take a picture of my upper body and talk about the workouts that I am doing so that hopefully you can be able to reach your goals as well and go above and beyond your expectations.

"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible." Arthur C. Clarke