Like father, like son

Feb. 22, 2010

In my early teen years I wanted big muscles. I was a soccer player and had strong legs but my arms left a lot to be desired. My uncle had given me the pieces of an old weight set that he had many years prior, and I wanted to workout the way the football players did. My favorites were bicep curls and the bench press. (Hey, I was a kid who saw it took arms to do the bench press, not knowing what muscles it was actually working.)

I even went as far as going to the library and finding a book with instructions on building your own weight bench. Of course, my dad did the bulk of the material gathering, cutting, drilling, and my job was basically sanding and tightening a few bolts that he would have to tighten when I hit my point. (Like I said, I needed bigger arm muscles.) I think it could be said that I got my (parent’s) moneys worth out of it though. I can’t claim to have the ripped arms that I hoped for, but mentally I felt a little better about things.

Of course now, no one could have convinced me that I would lug around a 30+ pound kid as much as I do now. The hardest part was probably dealing with the seizures a year ago as the only place Nathan would have any comfort was up on my shoulder. I think that I had him up there for the better part of three hours while in the hospital. It was primarily the right shoulder, but he would settle for the left for five-minute respites every now and again to keep from cramping up. It’s no different now, that same right shoulder still seems to be one of his favorite places to be.

One of the main goals for Nathan’s intensive therapy was to build his arm strength. Just like anything else, it seems that his setbacks are 30% physical and 70% motivational. Anyone who’s seen the video, saw his work in the cage and how he definitely got his arms worked. Part of our home program is to do the same type of exercises with a Theraband. It’s not exactly the same as the range of resistance isn’t as great as using the cage, sandbags and pulleys, but until we have the money to build and the space to put it, these will do.

When Nathan ‘works out’ most of the time, I think a kitchen chair has enough weight to provide resistance for him, but all I =picture is any Looney Tunes cartoon where stretch is given to an item and suddenly the stationary object shoots across the screen crashing into the character. So we took it to the other extreme. We’ve tied it to the support beam of the house in the basement. I figured if he can move that we can stop worrying about arm strength (or at least move to the next higher resistance Theraband.) Actually I’ve used the same beam with the little resistance bands I got for $2.50 at Target to help my shoulders during softball season, or if Nathan’s been there just a little too long.

I can’t say that I’ve been the most consistent with these exercises, and we know it needs to change if Nathan’s going to get his arms stronger, or at least maintain what he did in Cinci. But it’s not because of his lack of interest. I first noticed it the other day when he was sitting in his chair in the family room that he tried to point in what we thought was his eating chair’s direction. He didn’t seem that interested once I got him in there but as I walked toward the basement door (still in the same direction) he got excited. I had left the light on from a previous trip down there, and to him the glow was the invitation to go play.

As soon as I put him down on the floor, (because I was curious as to what he thought he wanted down there) he started rolling toward that support beam. He was less than enthusiastic about the Theraband that he was supposed to be using, but wanted to “Pulllll!” (we overdramatically grunt when exercising) the same bands I was using along side. Right now, he doesn’t get much tug on the bands other than to get it straight out, but he sure will giggle if he thinks he’s workin’ hard like dad. The basement used to be the place where he would watch his Pat the Bunny tape, now it’s his personal workout facility, and he just can’t get enough.

I have tried to get him to do his exercises with my bands, but unless I’m doing it, it doesn’t seem to be nearly as fun. So this is our subtle way of telling Jessi, we need her back and quick. We’re hoping to get our schedules coordinated soon and get back in the routine as I know Nathan misses her, and she’ll probably have the magic touch to get Nathan to show off that he can pull, when Dad does too. In case I haven’t said it lately, I’m still very lucky to have him for a son. Especially as a motivating factor in my life, he makes every day special and knows how to make me smile both inside and out.

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