PT-what does that mean anyway?

Is it pain therapy, post trauma? Nope, it stands for physical therapy. I wish it stood for peppermint truffle ice cream 🍦, ice cream is much better.

When I went to my first day of physical therapy, they were talking to me and my mom. They had me do a couple of things, just to see where I was at. At that time I could lift my arm to about, 90 degrees. They told me that my shoulder blades stick out naturally (aka winging) and that I needed to pull them back into my back to strengthen the surrounding muscles. They also said that my upper quadrant, ( my upper back) wasn’t strong enough, and that my shoulder hurt because I was using my shoulder for the work that my upper quadrant needed to do. Now, during my physical therapy appointments I’m working on rehabilitating my shoulder and strengthening my upper quadrant. I am not winging as bad now, and I have gotten much stronger in my upper quadrant. I have gone from hardly being able to lift my arm to back hand-springs on my trampoline. I am now strengthening all of my muscles to where they were before my injury.  Just recently, (about 3 weeks ago) I got another cortisone shot. It hurt a little bit more than the last one, because he was trying to pin-point it a little more than last time, but it helped so much.

I have daily exercises that I am doing geared specifically at these muscles.  First I use a yoga ball.  I do different stretches with it where I lay on my stomach and lift my arms holding weights.  I also use it to help with push ups.  My dad got me a yoga ball that I keep in my room so I can do my exercises at home as well.

I also use a Theraband to help with the stretching of my shoulder.  I use these in gymnastics a lot too, so thankfully I had them around.

My dad also got me a weight set.  I started with the 2 lbs, and am now using 5 lbs!  I also use these in my yoga ball exercises.

I’m glad I can do my therapy at home as well as at pt and the gym. I’m looking forward to healing soon and getting back to my sport.

I will be posting my progress in a little bit, so stay tuned!