Chicken Soup for the Handicapped Soul

Scariest Exercise + Favorite, Most Trustworthy Person = Favorite kind of day.

I feel like I should write a book. But, I don't know how I'd ever describe half of the stuff that I want to put in the book. I think it's indescribable. Especially at training. Brian figured out today a better way for me to do my rows....a better way to find me some counterweight/counterbalance, so it's not so difficult for me to pull back. And then we did these lower back exercises again. They are ones that I would classify as me strongly disliking them. I choose to do them because I know what our ultimate goal is in doing them and I'm hoping I like the outcome. But, I don't like them. They scare me and make me feel vulnerable and they're super, super hard. And, they kinda remind me of being at physical therapy when I was little, which wasn't a blast by any stretch of the imagination. But, Brian makes me laugh and makes a couple good-natured remarks to get me going. And when I get real uncomfortable he just starts talking and letting me know he's there and I'm not going to fall without him catching me. And he recognizes to me that it's really hard and he knows it is and that really helps me out a lot. It makes it much less of an expectation. When I start out and I can't do them right because my back is too weak (which is the purpose of doing them, to get it stronger) he can tell I get frustrated (or I tell him) and he tells me it's okay that it's weak and we'll just keep working at it. He tells me he knows it's hard but he's proud of me for working through it. And he encourages me to keep going. And when I get scared cuz I lose my balance, he catches me. And I know he's there and I'm not alone. And then, when we were all done today, he gave me a hug. And I knew it was okay to be me and he wasn't disappointed that it doesn't look like it should and I was comfortable in my own skin again. ....that's the best way I can describe it, but unless you go through it and need all of that, I don't think any words do it justice. This is what I tell him all the time: He knows it sucks, and because he knows that, it makes it suck a whole lot less. :)

Cambered Bar Bench - 105 lbs. 2 sets of 8. 110 lbs., 4 sets of 8.
Cambered Bar Rows - 85 lbs., 4 sets of 8. 2 sets I was blocked up a lot higher than usual. Brian usually props the end of the bench up so that the exercise hits my lats more. We started talking and I said it's still real hard for me to do rows because even though I'm strapped, there's no counter weight because my legs are just dead. So he added extra blocks and it actually helped a great deal.
Dumbbell Single Arm Rows - 35 lbs., 4 sets of 10. Same on this, he left me up higher than usual. It felt a lot better on my arms, and it hit my lats real well.
Biceps Curls - 12 lbs., 1 set of 12. 15 lbs., 2 sets of 12.
Rotating Reaches - for my lower back. I don't know how many we do. I'm too concentrated on the exercise to pay attention to anything else. We do one side and then the other.

<3 Stretching <3