-
My Weekly Journal – 07/23 Through 07/29
Below is my weekly journal I do for my personal YouTube subscribers. You can view my journal entries by going to my website. Click HERE to view my personal website.
07/23 Through 07/29 – It seems as if it is either feast or famine in regards to how my week is going to go. After finally getting all the repair work done on my house, I thought this week was going to be somewhat quiet. To my surprise, this wasn’t the case. As I sit here writing my journal, I’m staring at the other desk that’s in my home office and I have three stacks of mail that I have to go through in the next few days. Since I pay all my bills online, I know I have nothing due, it just seems a little depressing to know that I have not yet opened all my mail.
Everything went great with my workout on Thursday with Laura and her physical therapy student, Miles. Like usual, we started working out on my neck muscles. I feel after the past few weeks, the muscles that keep my neck from falling forward seem to be a little stronger. After we finished all my exercises, Laura had a few new exercises for us to try on my neck muscles. These exercises were more isometric in nature. Laura took the yellow resistance band and put it on my forehead. While standing behind me, she pulled my head back and had me pull my head forward while she applied resistance. While my head was in the forward position, I had to slowly allow my head to go backward toward Laura. We did a total of ten repetitions. While I was doing these, I thought to myself that this exercise seemed very easy to do, but when I got to the fifth repetition, I could feel the muscle in my neck starting to quiver. The last five repetitions were difficult to do. Laura even made the comment that she could see the muscle in the back of my neck tightening up. After the first ten repetitions, and after resting for about fifteen seconds, we did another set of ten repetitions. After repeating this exercise for a total of twenty repetitions, we did the same exercises bending my neck to the left and to the right. Since the muscle in the back of my neck that controls my head from falling forward is still slightly underdeveloped, Laura is going to continue using the palm of her hand on this particular exercise. She told me that when this muscle starts to develop, we will then use the yellow resistance band on this exercise as well. As I get stronger, we’ll move to the different resistance bands to add more resistance.
I did a podcast this past week were I discussed the importance of adding SMA to the newborn screening list in all fifty states. While there are a few states that have already started screening for SMA i07n newborn testing, there are many more who have yet to follow suit. Adding a disease to this newborn screening list s a difficult process, and even though SMA has been added to the national list of diseases to screen for in newborns, it must also be adopted by each individual state. Surprisingly, some states are going to be extremely slow in adding this to their list. Please take time out of your day to listen to this very important podcast because this subject is very dear to my heart. Click HERE to listen to my podcast.
In this week’s video, I’m going to discuss the link between circadian rhythms and spinal muscular atrophy. Circadian rhythms are the way that our body reacts biologically over a 24-hour time period. These circadian rhythms not only control how we sleep, they also control how we feel for the entirety of the day, from the time that we wake up in the morning, until the time that we go to bed at night. A recent study was conducted where researchers linked the negative side effects of circadian rhythms to those of us who have spinal muscular atrophy. Some of the results that these researchers found during their study were quite surprising. Click HERE to view my video.
I hope that all of you have had fantastic week and I hope your upcoming week will be better than the previous. Do something for yourself this upcoming week that is going to make you a better person. Until next Sunday, God bless.
-
3 Replies
-
Thanks for sharing Michael! Hope this week will be a little quieter for you, and that all of your house repairs went smoothly.
It’s interesting you bring up the neck muscle exercises with your physical therapist. That’s one thing I haven’t really done. During my appointments, I stretch my legs and arms a lot, and my PT has been putting weights on my legs toward the end of each appointment. Do you feel that working your neck muscles is helping?
-
Absolutely. The resistance band approach is great for me. I think my neck may be a little stronger than yours, but get your PT to do isometric exercises on you neck muscles, I think you’ll like it.
Exercise #1 – Have your PT put her hand on the back of your head. As he/she pushes your head forward, you resist, trying to keep your head from going forward. (This is the hard one for me).
Exercise #2 – The same as #1, but have your PT put their palm on your forehead and push your head backward. You resist, trying not to tilt your head back as they push.
Exercises #3 & #4 – Do the same as #1 & #2, only do the left and right side of your head.
REMEMBER – I’m not telling you what to do, I’m just making suggestions. Check with your PT & doctor first.
Here’s a video I did a while back on some of my exercises. It doesn’t include my neck exercises. This is one of my older videos, so excuse the poor quality. Click HERE to watch it.
-
Good to know. Thanks for the tip!
-
Log in to reply.