11/10
So my right knee is right up against the hand towel in the bathroom, and I can feel it gently brushing up against my knee! I have really been trying to keep my shoulders retracted and depressed, and I feel the overflow down into my low back and glutes when I do that as well! I wonder what are some cues to help my posture in my lower body I can work on?
So here’s what I found, some exercises to help reinforce proper lower body and trunk positioning for sitting. These are a few exercises that target core and hip stability!
1. Seated Pelvic Tilt
2. Seated Marches
3. Core Bracing Exercise
4. Hip Flexor Stretch
5. Seated Forward Bend
6. Trunk Rotations
These exercises are helping reinforce the positioning cues for sitting and are building strength and endurance to support proper sitting alignment! This has been cool because they all are things I can do throughout the day while seated! I do have to do “modified” seated marches, but at least that’s a start!!!
Shoot! Doing 30lb curls isn’t too bad! Holy cripes, I just had a pretty intense workout just now! I had a chat with Schmüle when I was in the gym, and he had some tips and ideas for me! He was mentioning to try to do 100 reps of hammer curls with 5 pounders, and holy smokes! That was cool!
My arms are shakey right now, I’m pooped!
What’s been really interesting is how much fuller my legs feel while I’m wearing these compression pants. My upper thighs, my glutes and hips, and especially my abs! My shins and calves are tired too! I’m feeling them! And the tingling in my feet has really really changed! Small changes, everyday, but I really feel how this helps me be conscious of my abdomen’s position, and how to keep it more and more engaged! Trying to be more and more conscious of my body!
11/11
So as I’m waking up, I had these thoughts last night. I was seeing myself getting up and standing without knee blocks! Or other people! I was still using my hands, but I’m wondering if there are different ways for me to be able to do that? I’m very curious to explore this!
My legs are feeling most interesting today, starting from my lower back, my glutes and hips, my abdomen, my hip flexors, my quads, hamstrings, there’s so much to pick up on this morning! I can really feel these hamstrings, and they need to relax. My hip flexors are! My mid section and thighs are feeling warm! And then my shins, very interesting feeling there too? Calves feel the bed beneath them. And my feet are going in and out of a feeling of coolness, and the entire foot is feeling so very significant!
I’ll have to remember to do my sitting exercises today! Those were really good yesterday, I’ll have to continue to expand upon them!
If I can keep working on getting my feet off the footplate, and onto the ground, I think I have a chance of getting myself up and doing some good stands these days!
11/12
It’s really interesting hearing someone try to teach people about ideas that are really important for us to learn and apply in our own lives. It’s really fascinating how people will invest so much time into something that is for someone else or doesn’t directly benefit them. Just some random thoughts from today.
Wow I maxed out the machine doing 5 reps of the lat pulldown machine! That was really cool! All these exercises from below my waistline/ below my center of gravity have all been really engaging! Maybe it’s time to try some seated deadlifts!
Okay, so I did them with a little assistance! But ended up over exerting and then peeing my pants. Shoot. That was fun…. Gym time over.
11/12
I’m waking up and feeling how my quads and glutes really are showing up today! Also with my calves and shins! This is most significant as well! I was trying to do some glute bridges while lying down, it was dark, my eyes were closed, and I have no idea how much I was moving, but I can feel my glutes engaging when I’m doing them! My shins and calves are also trying to do something as well!
These compression shorts have really helped me be so much more aware of my core, hips, glutes, and thighs! I really like that! I’m laying down right now, and so many signals are making their way down there! I need to figure something else out. How do I work my quads, glutes while lying or seated? How can I engage them while also trying to get my hamstrings to chill out??
11/13
This day was busy. Work at downtown office, therapy, out for food, Modest Mouse concert, this day was so busy I fell asleep at concert! Giant mountain I had to climb in the theatre. The ramp on the outside of the theatre going down to the pit was pretty steep! this took a good amount of effort to get myself up! I was pretty proud of myself for making it up it on my own! this wasn’t the story for going down, I definitely asked for some help. Dead. tired. Woo! this was a day!
Days like this are interesting because the way my body responds to days like this. I’m really hoping for some big changes tomorrow! I was really doing a lot today, and it showed! By falling asleep 3/4 of the way through the concert, holy smokes! That means I was TIRED!!
11/14
So, I’m sitting and wearing this Hyperice Venom on my back, and it’s got heat and vibration. This feels wild. This is a ton of sensation, and it’s even radiating down my legs as well! I will have to use this from time to time and see how it can help my lower back tightness and increase sensation as well!
This has been a most interesting day. Having been exhausted from the day before, my legs are responding in ways I would never have believed. I’m literally doing sit to stands (modified) from my chair! In such an interesting way!
11/15
Pushing through my feet. This has been a major development this week. I really have been very conscious about pushing through my feet, and it’s really been helping! I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the increase activation of my legs this week! I’ll be honest I feel like I really do have to put my body in positions that are uncomfortable and that I have to get my way out from! To many assistive devices I think is kinda sorta hindering me? I think? I guess it’s that I need to work through alot of this on my own, then it seems to be significant.
Is there such a thing as neurological fatigue for muscles? I’m wondering, I don’t know much about this topic so I will have to do some research!
So, I’ve noticed something. I’ve been able to contract my leg muscles in the seated position, and do some contractions isometrically. I think I need to keep doing this!
Okay so today been really interesting, I really need to be pushing through my feet!!! This is huge!!!! I have been noticing all day how my legs are responding so well to this very mindful work, I just need to keep progressing it!
My legs feel super wild right now getting out of the standing frame! It’s 10:05pm, I’m pooped, and my legs have been engaged all day! They have been listening to me, for such a significant amount of time!!!
The amount of muscles in my back, abdomen, upper and lower hips, glutes, thighs and quads is incredible right now. I can take full breaths. My lower left side of my abdomen is releasing! I can feel a sneeze coming up the way it should feel without all the tightness!
11/16
“Pushing through your feet” has been the mental imagery I’ve really been working through this week! I’m really feeling it!! Seriously waking up earlier this morning, I was able to feel how significant my quads have been engaging lately!! The outsides of my legs too, I think it’s the vastus laterals, that’s coming onto the scene!! I will need to help him out, and continue to expand upon his strength and abilities! That’s the biggest muscle in our quads, and I really need to focus on them!
Here are some additional mental images and connections I’ve been working on to help during my rehab, these have been fun to use to help with my mental imagery! I’ve been really trying to make these ideas much more second nature.
1. Engage the Core: Imagine pulling your belly button gently toward your spine, creating a “strong trunk” to stabilize movement.
2. Lengthen Your Spine: Picture a string pulling you upward from the top of your head for an aligned posture.
3. Lift Through Your Arches: When pushing through your feet, imagine lifting slightly through the arches to avoid collapsing inward.
4. Grounded Heels: Think of your heels “rooting” into the ground for stability and power.
These cues are helping me enhance control and muscle activation while promoting good alignment. It turns out these mental images really help! I really like having these ideas to reference back to, to help me keep myself focused.
So made it to the gym today, on the floor, got some rest, played some chess. Doing a lot of thinking. Working on these legs. Seems to be enough going on in the world, how come I also need to be working on everything that I am as well?
As I’m working on some bicep curls, and doing some on the cable machine, I decided to do some with my feet planted on the ground. I really want to work more and more on using my feet planted, and using them in these isometric exercises! They are trying! I’m at like the lowest weight setting possible, but my legs are going! So I can work with that! It feels like I’m trying to work them isometrically, that’s what these sit-and-holds feel like I’m doing? Something to think about!
“Isometric exercises can be an excellent stepping stone to eccentric and concentric movements. By holding static positions, they build foundational strength, improve neuromuscular control, and enhance joint stability. This helps prepare muscles and tendons for the dynamic stress of eccentric (lengthening under tension) and concentric (shortening under tension) movements. Once you can perform isometrics with ease, you can gradually add small ranges of motion to progress toward full dynamic exercises.” I feel like this is what I’m doing! Slowly working isometrically, and moving up to eccentric and concentric movements!
I guess to think of something you are doing as fair or unfair requires a good amount of context to be given. We all are given a fair amount of time to be able to work through our issues (or are we?) . Whether or not the resources are all there is another story. Depending on how far back in time you go too, also helps with what’s “fair” or “unfair”.
Was it fair for me to have gotten ran over and put in the hospital? Definitely not, that is a wild thing for anyone to think. Is it fair or unfair for me to have gotten the care and support that I’ve had since the accident? Well, some folks wouldn’t have had a lot of the same opportunities I’ve had, that’s for sure. I’m really fortunate, to have kept my head on my shoulders that I do have. It’s been helping me navigate this crazy world so much better. It’s really a matter of perspective with this.
Is it fair to also have to be dealing with so many additional health related issues? Clogged sinuses from sinus polyps, eye styes, cavernous hemangioma with organizing thrombosis, or an angiokeratoma? these are a short list of some of the other issues I’ve had to deal with, just in the past year! To say this is fair, also is a matter of context! When you have just one of these issues, it really might not seem so bad. But if you stack up one after another, it really starts to become a major inconvenience. Like, I might be really under selling it..
It also is hard to assign “fairness” to something like this. Since we don’t get to choose what happens to us in life like this. So I’ve never put myself in the camp of “this is unfair”. It’s been hard, and I would never wish this on anyone, but I’m still not going to say that. It’s not good for us to do that to ourselves, constantly telling ourselves that our situation in life isn’t fair when we aren’t actively working to make a change or better ourselves. I know that I’m trying to do so many things throughout the day, and each day I’m taking time to focus on my legs. We can only do so much, and I’m trying to make the most of my time! Because of that, it helps me get to bed and not thinking about, “what if I did Blank?”
I’ve been feeling so much more stable. My quads, calves, glutes, and shins are engaging so much throughout the day, it’s truly been incredible! Every morning this week, I woke up and realized that I was pushing through my feet just a bit more, and I was able to stabilize a bit more as well in the chair! Moving my feet on and off the footplate has been a game changer! just small little incremental movements, these are all really important for my development!
I was brushing my teeth, and washing my face, and I had my feet on the ground! It was truly remarkable how much more stable I truly was! This was a first, and I need to expand upon this! Just one day at a time. That’s all we have, and that’s all we can do. I can’t live in the past, but I can work today for a better future.
The Astronaut on Earth 
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