Andrew Schrauben

I haven't written about rehab in a while, but it's been going well. My shoulder is getting much stronger and doesn't click nearly as bad as it used to. I can actually put my hands in my back pockets and then take them out again without a loud popping noise in my right shoulder. My exercises now consist of higher strength stuff - my favorite (and most difficult) is the "step-up" where I get into a push-up position, arms extended, and then walk my hands up one stairstep and back down again, over and over. Walk up, walk down. Very tiring but my shoulder is quite stable while I do it, so that's a good sign.

I'm also rehabbing my rib cage injury. The PT discovered that it's not costocondritis (rib cartilage inflammation) as my primary care doc thought; rather, it's a strained abdominal muscle. I did some stretches for a week and it felt noticeably better very quickly. Now for this week I have to do planks. Those are also tiring, but also quite fun, especially the ones you do on your side, kinda like a sideways push-up.

A cool tidbit - one of the patients that I've seen frequently at rehab is a basketball player for Western Michigan University (I'm not sure if he's current, or recently graduated). He's only about 6'0" (short for basketball) but this guy is RIPPED. Watching him do some exercises, he's as strong as he looks - I would describe his movements as "explosive". He tore his calf muscle a while ago and he's getting it back to full strength. The way he was exercising, I'd say his injured calf is stronger than my healthy one! He's a pretty nice guy, too.