Member
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 724
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 724
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Sally, I too push myself to exercise. For me it's hard because of foot pain, but some of my exercises are done on the bed, both the strengthening and stretching. I find the stretching is more important than the strengthening because, like Debbie, I get bad muscle spasms if I don't do my stretching every single night. I am working on the upper body by doing what the PT calls "girl pushups" against a wall, which has strengthened my arms better than any of the vinyl pull routines. I put my feet about a foot and a half from the wall, and hands against the wall, and just do pushups that way. I started with 12 and have doubled that now. My arms have been my weakest muscles all my life, so I am amazed that I could gain this much strength from doing this simple exercises. As I say, the vinyl pulling exercises didn't have as much effect, although they helped some.
The stretching has to be done for quite a bit of time each day to make sure the muscles are really fully relaxed. I am also now able to self-massage my leg knots since my hands and arms are stronger from the pushups. Also I was desperate with the leg knots,
and desperation does prompt one to try harder.
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