Session #7 brought another challenge for Loolwa and me.  She was clearly starting the session from a disadvantage, icing her groin when I greeted her.  

Nina Moore

She reported experiencing pain/discomfort at a level 6-7, which is fairly high on our scale.  After chatting with Loolwa for a few minutes about exactly what she was feeling and where, then observing how she was moving, I decided that we could proceed with the session, albeit cautiously.

No elliptical trainer for that session. In my opinion, the benefit did not outweight the risk. So we used the stability ball as a part of the warmup, as well as for the exercises. The core muscles are involved in nearly all stability ball exercises, so it’s a good way to get the body’s core temperature elevated and increase muscle temperature and blood flow – the purpose of a warm up.

We then continued to use the stability ball in a number of different exercises, but reduced the number of reps and sets.  I had Loolwa get up often, to check in with her body. I wanted to closely monitor where she was on the pain/discomfort scale, so that I easily could identify anything that might be exacerbating any pain, then either regress the exercise or change it completely.  

(Nina demos ball exercise)

We were overall pretty successful, and by the end of the session, Loolwa felt better than when she started.

Session #8 was a great session.  There was minimal pain, more exercises, more reps, and more sets. And more smiles! I look forward to seeing what the next session will bring.  I feel that we may be on the verge of a breakthrough . . .

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