Pool Therapy First Session

Today I experienced my very first pool physical therapy session. Let me preface this post with the fact that 1) I've never seen, let alone been in, a therapy pool before, and 2) I had previously looked at some exercises in a book for water workouts and after completing these exercises, ended up in quite a lot of pain for the following week.

I had to shower before getting into the pool, which I think is pretty typical, except that I was early, so once I was wet and freezing, I had to go sit in the waiting area by the side of the pool for 5 minutes. Next time I'll try to time it better. But then I was invited into the water to do a quick warmup. There was a waterproof wheelchair that I didn't need to use, but that I was impressed was even made, and a ramp with a handlebar that gradually let you enter the pool. I used the ramp and was very pleased to find 92 degree water. Fabulous.

Along the perimeter of the pool were two handlebars which reminded me of the bar on the wall of a ballet studio. My physical therapist, Jenn, had me "warm-up" by walking forward, backward, and side-to-side across (and back) the shallow end of the pool. Then, she secured a floatation belt around me, and taught me a whole bunch of exercises to be done at the side of the pool in the deep end. I started out with a "deep run" for 2 minutes, followed by a "power walk" for 2 minutes, followed by "flies" (hello adductors and abductors!) for another 2 minutes. I did three rounds of these exercises, followed by a minute each of "quick scissors," "abdominals" (i.e., keeping my body steady with the bar and bringing my knees into my chest), "bicycle" "straight-leg deep" (i.e., similar to the challenging exercise I've been doing on land), and "scissors" which is like "flies" but I'm at a 90 degree angle and can't let my butt fly away from the side of the pool. Then I do some stretching, (hamstring and thighs). Then I moved into the shallow end to do some leg raises (lateral), leg swings (forward), leg circles (lateral), knee swivels, quad extensions and hamstring curls. That was a lot to remember, so I got a laminated card (so it can get wet and I can bring it with me to the pool) with pictures of the exercises and instructions on how many of each to do.

Basically, it took me 45 minutes, but without the instruction in the future, I think it's about 30 minutes of actual work. There were a few exercises that I felt immediately, and a few more that were somewhat challenging, but I asked Jenn a few times if I was doing something wrong because I didn't really feel it. She checked my form, chuckled and said I am doing it right. She told me that we'll eventually add resistance, but she wanted to make sure I learned the exercise and had the right form during this session, and see how I do.  But I didn't fully comprehend her chuckle until I got out of the pool.

YOWSERS!!! Gravity hit me and I felt like I had just finished boot camp. I got a phenomenal workout. And apparently, when I had previously tried to do exercises on my own, I did them completely wrong. And, given that I have difficulty gauging my effort level in the pool, I had completely overdone it too. So working with Jenn was VERY helpful and in order for me to not do anything stupid on my own, I made sure to check and double check what I'm "allowed" to do on my own, and how often. Here's what I get:

• I can swim!!! (No breast stroke, that'll hurt my hip). BUT, I don't HAVE to use the pull buoy as long as I don't have any pain (though I can use it if I want). No pushing off of the side of the pool though. No swimming on days that I do my pool PT exercises. 
• I should try the pool PT program on my own 1x this week. (That'll be Sunday or Saturday probably). I shouldn't do it every day, and since I've got PT again on Friday, that means tomorrow is a swim day or rest.

So, I'm pretty excited. She told me to take it easy on the duration, but pay attention to how I feel. I think that given how hard I worked my legs today (and my abs, wow), I will probably go ahead and focus on my upper body tomorrow and use the pull buoy tomorrow so I can be at top form for PT on Friday. 

YAY!