PT natter: doing PT laughing
Apr. 3rd, 2022 12:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elisemSo I found a way to crack myself up laughing while doing one of my PT exercises. And it's also probably actually a good thing to try on its own physically therapeutic merits.
Some of you know I've been taking voice lessons since early in the pandemic. I started the voice lessons because I thought the breath work might help improve my diminished lung capacity. (It has.) Voice lessons turn out to be wonderful, helping me in a lot more ways than I expected, both physical health-wise and heart/mind/spirit-wise.
There was and still is a lot of learning to really breathe deeply and thoroughly, to let air in and let it out, to invite it and to direct it. So while I was trying to do one of my PT exercises for core strength and ankle proprioception tonight, I started doing some good big breathing with it. Didn't sing, because J is asleep and I don't want to wake him, poor dear -- and he can definitely hear me singing from another room. I really hope the unexpected laughing didn't wake him. But it was so funny.
The exercise is one where I stand a few feet away from and facing a tall narrow mirror so that I can see myself within the confines of the mirror. Then I lift one foot from the ground and try to maintain the same verticality I had with two feet on the ground, so that I can still see myself framed in the mirror.
It's an exercise I've always had trouble with. Many health professionals, most of them physical therapists, have remarked that I have almost no proprioception in my ankles. Standing on one leg is a significant challenge for me. The combo of very little ankle proprioception and an insufficiency of core strength means that I wobble and wobble and flail my arms. Sometimes I fall right over.
So I was doing those tonight, and feeling pleased that I actually managed to keep three-quarters of myself in the mirror frame and didn't actually fall over even once, although there was some flailing. All of a sudden, I started wondering if I could center and keep myself from tensing up in not-useful ways. I started doing some of the deeper breathing and centering I've been practicing for voice lessons, and what the hey? It worked! It took my mind off of fretting about whether I was going to fall over this time, because it added one too many things to the stack of what I was doing, and apparently fretting fell off. Realizing this is what got me started laughing.
So I still can't keep all of me in the mirror when I stand on one leg, but I sure had a good time trying tonight. And I do think it helped a little. I'm going to try it again next time.
Question, and feel free to ignore it if you like:
Do you have a complicated relationship with balance?
Some of you know I've been taking voice lessons since early in the pandemic. I started the voice lessons because I thought the breath work might help improve my diminished lung capacity. (It has.) Voice lessons turn out to be wonderful, helping me in a lot more ways than I expected, both physical health-wise and heart/mind/spirit-wise.
There was and still is a lot of learning to really breathe deeply and thoroughly, to let air in and let it out, to invite it and to direct it. So while I was trying to do one of my PT exercises for core strength and ankle proprioception tonight, I started doing some good big breathing with it. Didn't sing, because J is asleep and I don't want to wake him, poor dear -- and he can definitely hear me singing from another room. I really hope the unexpected laughing didn't wake him. But it was so funny.
The exercise is one where I stand a few feet away from and facing a tall narrow mirror so that I can see myself within the confines of the mirror. Then I lift one foot from the ground and try to maintain the same verticality I had with two feet on the ground, so that I can still see myself framed in the mirror.
It's an exercise I've always had trouble with. Many health professionals, most of them physical therapists, have remarked that I have almost no proprioception in my ankles. Standing on one leg is a significant challenge for me. The combo of very little ankle proprioception and an insufficiency of core strength means that I wobble and wobble and flail my arms. Sometimes I fall right over.
So I was doing those tonight, and feeling pleased that I actually managed to keep three-quarters of myself in the mirror frame and didn't actually fall over even once, although there was some flailing. All of a sudden, I started wondering if I could center and keep myself from tensing up in not-useful ways. I started doing some of the deeper breathing and centering I've been practicing for voice lessons, and what the hey? It worked! It took my mind off of fretting about whether I was going to fall over this time, because it added one too many things to the stack of what I was doing, and apparently fretting fell off. Realizing this is what got me started laughing.
So I still can't keep all of me in the mirror when I stand on one leg, but I sure had a good time trying tonight. And I do think it helped a little. I'm going to try it again next time.
Question, and feel free to ignore it if you like:
Do you have a complicated relationship with balance?
