America Day 1 - TheraSuit Session 1

Today I had my first session at the Pediatric Fitness Center in Keego Harbor, Michigan, where they specialise in using a specially designed suit called the TheraSuit.

The person helping me to learn to use my muscles is Chris.

The first hour of my session is used to warm up my muscles so that they will be nice and loose so that I can use them more easily. It felt pretty good to be warm all over!

Then my muscles were stretched. This is nothing new to me, I have this done all the time, it doesn't hurt, but I cried anyway! My limbs that weren't being worked on were weighed down with sand bags. This stopped me from moving around and rolling off the table and is done to make me very aware of the muscles I have in my torso. The only muscles I am able to use at the time because they aren't weighed down.

Chris is showing me which muscles I need to use so that I can move my legs. In this photo I am using my leg to push down on a pully that has a 1kg weight on it. This will help me to gain strength in the muscles I need to use. It is very hard work!

Weight bearing on my arms to help me long sit is a lot of effort. I will need to learn to do this so I can use my arms to prop myself up and to help me balance while I am sitting.

I practiced standing up too. I can't begin to explain how terribly hard this all was for me today. I have lots of muscles I have never used before!

After my big day of exercises, I will be back again to do this all again tomorrow - PLUS MORE! Tomorrow I get to try the TheraSuit!