It sounds so simple just to walk!—place one foot in front of the other... Meet my new and improved Titanium knee! As I step into 2012, I look at BAVX—not from the usual perspective of a BAVX Trainer but from that of a full- fledged recipient.

Anything less than constant activity and mobility is a foreign concept to me. My life for 34+ years has been teaching adaptive physical education (pre-K-12), conducting BAVX trainings for teachers and therapists, and pursuing excellence on the golf course. I stop moving only when forced to.

Realizing and finally accepting how weak my whole leg was after the surgery, I sat back and thought about Bill Hubert’s explanation of his bag/feet movements. I added the seated adaptation to my growing number of prescribed physical therapy exercises. When the stationary bike was added as therapy, I modified the BAVX movements, passing a bag from hand to hand, crossing my midline in synch with pedaling. After each biking session, I did a few more bag/feet patterns while sitting, eventually gaining enough confidence to do them when standing.

While on the bike, my husband would often stand in front of me for partner bag rectangles, ovals, and ‘X’ passes. Now that I’m back to 95% normal, am I certain that BAVX played a significant role in increasing my walking mobility? Did these exercise patterns strengthen my leg? Were the BAVX bag/feet exercises crucial to the speed of my recovery? While I cannot prove this is so, I am certain that after each BAVX session my weight bearing was more stable, even, and provided more rhythmic motion. My thinking process to tighten the quadriceps prior to stepping became more automatic as did proper foot placement.

Having now been on the receiving end of BAVX, I have an altogether personal way of sharing its benefits with my workshop attendees and my staff.

—Candi Cosgrove, M.Ed., BAVX Instructor Therapeutic Rec Spec, Brain Gym Consultant www.candicosgrove.com