Soon vacation!

This is my last time at the gym for some weeks,- going to Gran Canaria for 3 weeks. My paradise island away from ice,snow and cold weather!

This will be my view......

It will be very good for my back and the rest of my body going away from the winter in Norway.

At the gym this week I did this:
Treadmill: 11% increase, 5km and 15 minutes

Plank: 6 + 3 (3 more than earlier!)

LOL I tried to take photo of how my feet are hanging in the straps,- hehe,looks strange

Sideplank: 6 (left and right)
Lifting stomach with feet on a big fitnessball: 10
BOSOball: balancing + squats on the ball (10X3)

Manuals for my vrist: 4 kg,10X3
I also did some pulldown and some of the other devices.
Today I got a good massage from my physioterapist after the excercises,- nice reward 💓

This week we had some more snow, and they say we will get much colder weather,- maybe 15-20 degrees minus. 

So it will be some weeks without excercising (when I come home it is Christmas holiday), if I am online maybe I will write here, if not you will hear from me when I am home in Norway again 💜

Take care and do not overdo Christmas preparations !

Maybe you can tell me if you do some excercises when you are on holiday? Or do you just relax?




Big hugs 💗

Winter.......

Last week we had the winterweather I (and my back) hate! First nice white snow

Nice to walk, not slippery and temperature was -5 degrees C wich is nice 😊
Then we got RAIN 😟 So it was pure ice to walk on!

And then the worse: dry snow on top of the ice! Even Dennis was having some problems!

I had to find my ice help devices,- 

 When I have these on my boots I feel safer 😊
I also use my poles with the spikes out

The weather on Sunday was beautyful,- sunny and not too cold so we had to go for a walk even of the snow on ice.......

On Monday I was at the gym,- did my plank and sideplank and the excersises on the fitnessball, and the manuals on my fractured vrist.

My physiotherapist gave me one more thing to do: On the BOSO ball (half fitnessball). When I stand on it it feels good for my back to stand still and just balance 💓 Now I also shall do squats on top of the ball 😎 And I can do it! 10 squats fast, a little pause and then 10 two more times.
I really surprise my self at the gym,- would never have taught I could do all of these things 😏

How are you? What do you do at the gym? Or do you excercise at home?

Hope all of you are having a nice day?

Are you ready for Christmas? 🎅
 
I am looking foreward to having a holiday on a nice,warm island in December 💗

 
 
 

Busy week

Snow is here, and my rose are drowning 😊

Only one day at the gym this week, due to appointements with my heartdoctor.
I have some atrie flutter and murmur (? extra sound in my heart). I know when I got the flutter,- to busy job as a voluntary in the jazzfestival in 2005. The extra sound in my heart I might have had all my life,- it doesn't bother me, but if the valve (?) get stiff they will replace it with a metal type. 
I go for checkups every 2-3 year,- so I feel safe 💓

Do you have heartproblems? Because of the scoliosis?

Yesterday I was meeting the doctor, he did ultrasound and EKG.
 

My heart 💓

Today I was connected to a 24-hours EKG device.

6 of these wires

With a small computer collecting data

 Tomorrow I will go back to the hospital and they can read the small computer. Last time my pulse when I was a sleep was 170! Hope it is better now.

The winter is not a good time for my back,- it is slippery and cold. But I love the crisp air, and my dog loves it!



Do you have winter now? Snow? How does you cope?


Wishing you all a nice day 💓

 
 

Still going strong.......

I struggle to get back to excercise 3 days a week,- but at least I manage 2 days 💪
Yesterday I started as usual with the treadmill,- now I do 11% hill and 5 km same as I did last winter 😊

I only walk for 15 minutes so far, not 30 like last winter,- but I am getting there.

After walking I did the new excercises,- plank, sideplank and the excercises on the big fitnessball. My physiotherapist says I do them the right way so I hope I will feel progress soon! My lower back is ok with these excercises, but my stomackmuscles gets sore. That's a good thing because strong muscles in stomach is important for supporting the back.
 Maybe some of the fat will go away too? 😏

I also did use some of the devices in the gym,- rowing is one of them.

Now I use 10, only 2 levels left 👍
I also used the manual on my left hand because of the fracture last winter, now I use 4 kg.

We are getting closer to winter, -5C last night and the ground is icy so I have to be carefull when I am out walking. Last year we had lots of snow on this day, luckely now we have nothing 💓

Frozen flowers

I enjoyed a very nice basketball game on Saturday with my nephew playing. My back was really sore after the game (bad seat) but sometimes you just have to things that your back does not like 😏

Do you have winter coming? Do you usually have snow? Or do you have summer now?

Wishing everyone a great day with not much pain!

Remember:

 
 

My story

This is my scoliosis story:
I was born in 1955 on a beautiful small farm outside Kongsberg, Norway. When I was 4 years old 2 things happened: my brother was born and my mum dicovered that something was happening with my back. I also complained about headache every day.




 

She took me to our familydoctor who sent me to a doctor for children in Drammen. He sent me to Oslo, to Sophies Minde the hospital that treated scoliosis.
My first doctor was prof. Alvig, a proper old,skinny professor with a bow 😏 They found out I had a S-scoliosis, idiopatic (cause unknown) and the degrees where 40+.
My first brace was a bodyplaster, it was over my left shoulder, around my body and down to my right knee! I wish I had a photo! A tiny little girl with this big plaster 😄 I could not sit straight on chairs but I learned to use my mum's bicycle! 🚴

After some months they decided that the plaster did not help me, so I got my Blounts brace.

The first was very simple, later I got Milwaukee with more pillows and straps.
I had to use these braces 24/7 for 8 years. When I was 15 I had my youth revolt and delivered the brace to the doctor and said I was fed up! The year before my mum died av malignt melanoma so I think it was part of both sorrow and beeing a teenager 💔
After these 8 years with braces my curves had increased to 60+ degrees! So I was not better, but without braces I think it would have been much worse. I don't know why I did not have surgery, but I am happy I did not!

Me and my mum 💖

I lived my life like everyone else,- studies, work, sports, hobbies and friends and family 😊
The first time I started to feel some pain in my back was when I was about 40 years old 💓
Then I ask for a new appointment at the hospital where I was treated earlier. The x-rays showed that my curves ahd increased to 90 and 85 degrees 😢 But I am lucky because it hardly show when I have clothes on! My biggest problems have been my daily headache (+ sometimes migraine) and some asthma (because one lounge has less space)

 
In 2003 I was on a discussionforum for women (this was before Facebook),- and one day I asked if there where other women with scoliosis in the forum? It was! So I decided to start a group for people with scoliosis in Norway and contacted the society for people with backproblems (Ryggforeningen i Norge) and our group was official during 2004, it still excist 💓
After a while I also started 2 groups on Facebook,- Skoliose Norge and Skolioseforeldre. They are growing and filled with lovely members supporting each other 💗

I have always been active but I have not been doing excercises like I should have at the gym, I only started May 2016 (and in September I started to blog about what I do at the gym). I have learned during this journey that my body is different from people with a straight spine,- I use other muscles and my body react different. But it is ok! Everyone is individual 💓 I hope I will get a super old age (I am only 62 now 😊), I noticed after a few months that my posture was much better, so I hope I will feel not so exhausted after a while........

I check my bone density every 3. year. This is the last photo. The black parts are arthritis, and you can see my curves are pretty big.

7 years ago Dennis came into my life 💓 He was 2 years old, Lhasa apso (sacred dog from Himalaya)

 With Dennis I have to go for walks every day, sunny,rainy,cold or warm weather 🌞⛅⛄

 2 winters for 6 months each time we lived on my paradise island Gran Canaria ( I have lived there for many winters before I got Dennis) Lots of lovely walks in nice warm weather 🌞 I hope we can go back again! Warm weather is so much better for my body.

I like to challenge my self and last year I managed to reach a top just outside my hometown again,- 30 years since last time! Asthma was bad, but I did it!

I hope you all are having a nice time? Big hugs 💖

 

 
 



 

New excersises!

The physioterapist gave me new excersises last week and I was SO sore!! It only means I have been using other muscles than ususally 💪

I use the treadmill for warming

The physioterapist want me to use excercises without the devices, he want me to do excersises where I use my own weight.
+

Plank with feet in the straps. I have the blue pillow under so I know I get high enough.

+ 

 Then I do sideplank. It is not easy to see but I lift my hip from the floor.

 Here I also lift my hip from the floor

I sit on the ball; first I move my hips to both sides and the back and forth, and then I lift one leg at the time and balance on the ball.
I do plank and sideplank 6 times X 2 and the rest 10 times X 2

I still have to train my fractured vrist,- now I do it with 4 kg

This new program is much harder, and after the first time I was soooo sore 😉 But it gets better for every time I do it! I hope I will feel a change in my body now, more than when I only use the devices 💪👍

Do you do some of these excersises? 

Now we are getting closer to winter here in Norway, I have sorted out the flowers I want to take care of inside during winter, and are taking away the rest of the plants and the furnitures. It is a sad time of the year, but today we have lovely sunshine 💓🌞

Hope you all are doing ok?
Big hugs to you all 💖

 

Getting better!

Finally I am getting better after the surgery and the pause from the gym! On the treadmill I did 25 minutes on Friday 👍 I did the whole program (without legpress) 😏
On Wednesday my physioterapist will give me a new program,- I am excited 😊

After this cold summer I really miss living on Gran Canaria! I hope I can afford 2-3 weeks this winter!
I hope you all are ok? Big hugs 💓

So happy!

My nephew is in Miami just now to sort things out before he moves home to Norway after several years in college. WHAT a week he choose! With the really bad hurricane Irma heading for Florida his flight was cancelled! He joined 30 other Norwegian in the Norwegian sailorchurch in Davie, where they lived during Irma. 

We where anxious this weekend because we didn't manage to get connected with him, but before I went to the gym the seamen's church had a new status on Facebook,- they where all safe 💓💓💓

So when I came to the gym everything was so easy! "No" problems with ackings or breathing 😊  Pure adrenalin 😍

I hope all of you who live in the trail after Irma is ok! Big hugs 💓
 

Is it dangerous?

Lot of people ask if excersising is dangerous for the scoliosis? 

At first we have to remember that every scoliosis is individual! Then you have to check out what is ok for you and your back. My physiotherapist say that we can do everything, but we can start carefull and then increase when we find out how it is for our body 💪

This is how I did:  

The first time I was in the gym the physiotherapist and I tried several of the devices. I was amazed of what I could do! I was so much stronger than I had imagined!
So we picked some excersises to start with,careful and with light weight and fewer repeatings until I knew how my back and rest of the body reacted. (You find the first times at the gym in September 2016)
After a few months I got comments about my posture! People asked if I had become taller??

1

2

3

As you can see I straighten up,- not in my spine of course but in my posture 💓 And some of the excersises are pretty hard, I really am exhausted when I finish. But that just mean I have tryed my best! 

Why do I hurt after excersising, people ask:
 
Sometimes I get sore in my legs, shoulders and back,- but it goes away the day after or after a few days. It is not dangerous 😊 Healthy people get this too! But if you get scared, maybe you can do less for a while and then try more repetitions or weight later?

It is wize to talk to your doctor or physiotherapist about what you do at the gym, and hopefully they are modern and understand that it is very important that we strenghten our muscles in back and stomach to prevent pain!

I really hope a lot of you start on this journey too 💗 Maybe you can leave some comments about what you do to get stronger? I don't care if it is just "small" things or if you are bodybuilder (yes, I know a few with big scoliosis that are bodybuilders !), Usain Bolt or what you do. Please tell me 👍

We are getting autumn here now, so when I went out for a walk with my dog it was raining and chilly.

Wishing everyone a nice day without much pain 💗

Edit: One thing I have experienced is that my body do not always respond to excersis like it does for people with straight spines! If the photo on the devise say I train back I maybe feel that I train my stomach! All because of the crooked spine 😉 So it is important to get to know your own body, maybe some of the excersises must be changed a little, or modifyed for you to get the right work out.


 

It is hard.....

This week I skipped Monday at the gym......... I was so tired and did not have any inspiration.
But on Wednesday I first had massage from the physiotherapist, and then went into the gym. I still have to be careful with my foot, but it is getting better. I have really experienced this summer how important good feet are for the back!! As most of you know I have big curves, 90 and 85 degrees and very little pain. After the surgery in June I have been walking "funny" because of pain, and my lower back really hurts 😢 I am sure it will be better as soon as the foot is ok, but I am not very patience.......


This is what I did at the gym:

Level 8, speed 70, I only managed 10 minutes this time

25 kg, 10 X 3

 

I love to balanse on this ball! I really feel my posture gets better 👍

For my fractured vrist

To do this the best way I have my arms crossed on my chest. Weight as you see on next photo, 47 kg, 10 X 3

This is the rowingmachine I use. Level 9, 10 X 3. As you can see 12 is max.

This is mostly for my posture. Only 12 kg, 10 X 3

I have managed 40 kg, but 30 is max just now. 10 X 2

A little bit tired when I have finished 😊

Tomorrow is a new day at the gym, I have to get back to do 3 days a week again 💪💗

I hope you all are ok?