Our bodies are constantly communicating with us in a lot of different ways and since my accident that left me paralyzed in a wheelchair, me and my body have become pretty close friends and depend on each other!I’m sure my body was talking to me long before my accident but I was always busy with my own agenda and wasn’t interested in its input. I was too busy poisoning it with drugs, alcohol, bad food, or even no food. My body was just basically a vehicle that I took for granted and didn’t keep up the maintenance on.
By no means in my preaching appreciate what you have because I’ve lost something, I have just become a lot closer in tune with my body. With the level of my injury between my fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae my body is affected with some paralysis from the chest down, also I have very little triceps (it is impossible for me to do an over the head tricep extension) and forearm/hands (cannot grip a bar very well, definitely no piano playing). Because my arms have been effected as well as my lower body I am considered a quadriplegic/tetraplegic however I do have feeling throughout my entire body and even have some muscle control in my lower body (some muscles work some don’t and some work better than others). Most quadriplegic/paraplegics are not completely paralyzed! I was under that impression before I knew anything about it so I thought I would just clarify it!
The human body is amazing, incredibly fascinating, and beautiful (that would be my main attraction to working out at a gym because I love to watch people specially you ladies!) I’m a person that pays close attention to detail not to judge or criticize but that’s how I get to know someone whether it’s their personal appearance or the person themself. I feel like if a person is showing something whether it be a birthmark a particular muscle etc. etc. it is something they want people to see and know about themselves and who doesn’t like these things pointed out and complimented on. Making someone smile is something I love to do and the reward I get is priceless. I got a little off track their sorry! But if you pay close attention to your body it will talk to you.
Listening to my body is something I must do so that I can prepare my body to compensate for my injury, basically my body is running on back, shoulders, upper chest, and I sat muscles, everything else has been affected by my injury so I’m missing some use of some pretty major muscle groups. I found that the muscles that don’t work as well, mainly my legs, react according to my diet and the amount of exercise I do. I depend on my upper body for a lot from trunk control to transferring in and out of my wheelchair and pushing my wheelchair. The healthier and the stronger I am the easier it is for me to accomplish these tasks. If I eat a bad meal my body will let me know, I’ll feel rundown, jittery, week, and overall crappy. If I don’t exercise I’ll tire out easily, feel rundown, lack motivation, low self-esteem and low self respect, and depression is more likely. It is amazing how much I tribute to my diet and fitness program.
My diet and exercise program directly relate to my sex life, remember I told you I only have some upper body muscles that do most of the work. Rolling around in bed and doing some lifting and trying to maintain stamina (you women seem to have the stamina thing and I refuse to be left behind lol) I must maintain a healthy diet and exercise program. After my injury my sex life was hindered a great deal, I had low energy, low stamina, low sex drive and other issues that are just too horrible talk about lol. It wasn’t until I decided to get healthy and physically fit did my sex life improve (in some ways better than before my accident), my sex drive increased tenfold which caused me to have more energy than I knew what to do with, and my newfound stamina could keep up with the best of you ladies lol my newfound strength definitely improved my lifting ability lol. I’m not talking about all this to be a pervert I’m just trying to point out that our bodies communicate to us and respond accordingly!
Maintaining a healthy diet and exercise program has also given me a little more use in my legs just in the last few months I have been able to start doing what I call assisted squats (basically using parallel bars to squat down as far as I can and stand back up with the assistance of my arms I can manage two sets of 10 now! They say you get movement and feeling back usually in the first two years, and it is been over seven years now and I still feel like I get things back all the time and this I attribute to my diet and workout program. Before I started working out and eating healthy I was barely able to push up off my wheelchair to lock my legs out to do a transfer (now when I getting into bed when I have one hand on my wheelchair and one on the bed during my transfer I sit there and bounce from side to side like I’m dancing lol sounds stupid! But I’ll take it!
The point I’m trying to make here is that our bodies talk to us if we listen and they respond according to how we take care of them. So take the time to listen to what your body is saying to you and then give it what it needs and it will reward you! you might just be surprised!
Michael C.
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