Week 11 Knee Update: New Favorite PT

I saw a different Physical Therapist this morning and he was amazing! I left the session feeling strong and competent. He was so engaging and we chatted throughout the session. It was nice to be able to chat without feeling like I am overstepping by asking about my PT's personal life. My regular PT is not really a chatty person, so usually I am left to talk to other patients or insert myself if conversations going on around me.

Today my exercises included biking with a high resistance, squat walks with the resistance band, steps ups with a 10 pound kettlebell, calf press one-legged at 115 pounds, bulgarian split squats, then lying down hamstring workout with the exercise ball, and finally backward and lateral walking on the treadmill.

This other PT was awesome about praising my progress and told me multiple times throughout the session that I was doing very well. I have never been a verbal words of affirmation girlie, but I think I may be become one. As we chatted we realized that we lived in Vegas at the same time. He actually lived in Henderson, which is where I served the first few months of my mission! He told me about his kids (7 and 10), his mission in Ukraine, how to say "I'm Loving It" in Ukrainian (я люблю його), his doctoral program, and shoes. 

He gave me a fist bump when I finished the session. I asked him how to approach the leg curl machine because I have been experiencing a lot of pain when I use it. He told me "You should NOT do an exercise that is causing major pain. We can provide a modification. There are so many other ways to work your hamstring that will not cause discomfort." I felt so validated, and I felt like he really listened to me. He then taught me a modification for the exercise and walked me through the process. 

Before the end of the session I told him that I've been really pushing myself because I am trying to avoid future injury. He laughed when I told him how I got injured. I told him, "While nobody technically won the game, I lost the most." We laughed about the ridiculousness of the situation. Then as I iced my knee I told him about how hard I found the balance squats to be last week. Then he said he also struggles with his balance. He demonstrated how he would try to teach balance squats and it had me rolling over laughing. It was hilarious, then he was like, "What do you mean you don't understand how to do it? I demonstrated it perfectly. Ugh, okay, I'll show you again if you insist." I was in literal tears at how funny it was. 

We talked about his trail running, he was very interested in my new Hoka's. He was wearing Brooks, so I imagine he's in the market for some new running shows. He joked that I am so good at walking backwards on the treadmill that I'll be ready for Everest. I laughed and said, "Ummmm only if I do it backwards. WAIT. I could actually break a world record for hiking the mountain backwards. You know what, I think I'm going to do it."

He asked what I do for a living, and he thought I said I work for the "supernatural department". We laughed about how fun that would be. I told him that SUU has some really spooky sounding classes. When the icing was done, he forgot to turn off the ice machine. The hose leaked water all over the table. We laughed about it.

He was seriously so great, and I am really thinking about switching to him. He was attentive the whole session, gave an appropriate amount of praise, answered my personal and PT questions without seeming annoying, and made me feel both confident and comfortable.