This Saturday was my first visit to Absolute Center. I’ve been dissatisfied with my regular physical therapy for a while: two visits a week, forty-five minutes each. When I broke my thumb, I was prescribed that same amount of physical therapy. There is such a difference, though, between healing a broken bone and recovering from a spinal cord injury. Unfortunately, whoever makes the decisions about my care at my insurance company is not aware of the magnitude difference.

To supplement my PT regiment, I am working with a trainer who specializes in a pilates-based rehab. The pilates equipment, which all looks like torture devices, is incredibly good at targeting and isolating my areas of weakness. I know from climbing how easy it is to learn compensatory patterns of muscle activity. These hide your weakest links, allowing the imbalance to continue. As my muscles regain activity sequentially, I am learning bad habits that affect my posture and my gait. Right now I have a broad range of strengths in each leg. And I have a weak side and a strong side. What was interesting to note is my right leg, which is just starting to have activity, is better than my left at performing many of the exercises correctly. With my therapist we jokingly referred to my strong left leg as the “corrupt” one and the right as still “innocent.”

I can’t wait to go back for another intense three-hour session. One of my goals is to attend a session each week. Right now, the cost of the trainer and the issue of transportation are standing in my way. But I am working on addressing both.

Here is a video of me on the CoreAlign, finally using my weak glutes to push my legs apart instead of using my quads. Each leg is on a sliding platform; the platforms are connected by a spring.

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