 Welcome to Scrubbing In. I'm Paul Ross. I'm going to take you around Navy Medicine to show who we are and what we do. I'm on the helicopter pad at Naval Medical Center San Diego where some of our most severely injured service members are flown in to receive care. We're going to be joining the folks over at the comprehensive combat and complex casualty care facility to go through some of the rehabilitative processes our wounded warriors go through on a daily basis. And I don't know about you but I'm ready for a workout. I started off my morning at the agility clinic where I was going to break a sweat. The type of high-intensity workout we were doing helps reacclimate service members after sustaining injuries. I'm here with Coach Cruz and he just put me through one of the harder workouts I've ever been through. Explain to me kind of what your goal is with the guys. Well the main goal is to get the guys back on their feet and they bring them here after they are ready to go and exercise and move their bodies. At the same time trying to identify future athletes for this quarter by Olympics. Little did I know my day was just beginning. Before I could catch my breath it was off to Pilates and not the ones my wife does at the gym. There are some similarities but in this case when you're doing exercises on a reformer you're getting resistance from springs. The Pilates were a lot more intense than I thought they would be but at least I had some company. A wounded marine named Alan. So Alan what are the benefits of doing these types of exercises for your recovery? Like Mike was saying before it keeps you I like this machine preferably just because it allows you to kind of go your own pace a little more rigorous because it's a lot we can't do a lot of cardio exercises you know running we can do the hand cycle and ski machine but this gives you an opportunity to work up like a lot more sweat like you said focus a lot on your core arms and kind of builds everything up around while you know you're recovering you're building this back up as well so I mean it's definitely very useful. I appreciate you letting me work out with you good luck in your recovery. Next up the rock wall. I'm here with Dawn Golding she's a physical therapist this morning I already did an agility clinic Mike put me through some hard Pilates and now she's going to help me climb a rock wall but I think first we need to get these on so. Well all the way up and the most important thing is to tighten your waist belt first. Okay are you sure the most important thing isn't how cool I look in this. This is Caleb weekly artillery marine who was wounded on the battlefield he's going to be kicking my butt up the wall. Let's do it. On my way up the wall I had a little time to think mostly of whether or not Dawn had a good hold of the rope but she's a pro so I kept on climbing. The other was how these exercises have helped service members like Caleb. So Caleb tell me how therapies like this you know that are alternative how do these help you overcome or get back from your injuries. Well a lot of mine is leg weakness so and I also have a broken ankle so on my right side and my left legs all messed up so this is more so on the strengthening side and it's one of those things that with the way my leg was didn't think I'd be able to do it especially with the left leg injury and the right arm injury so between the different physical therapy training every day getting that strengthening back up this just proves to me where I'm at and what I can and can't do. Is this something like were you doing this before you were injured rock climbing. So this is like this is like home for you then. I'm just glad that I was able to get back to it and if it wasn't for the help of the physical therapist here and actually a lot of it was them pushing me past what I was actually thought I was capable of doing or wanting to do is what got me back up here and got me you know back to doing what I love and what I enjoy. Though I knew the climb up the wall would be hard I had no idea the trip down would be harder but after a few tries I finally got the hang of it. After Caleb kicked my butt up the rock wall he gave me a chance to redeem myself over in the pool. When we were there Caleb filled me in on one of the things that motivates him to work so hard every day. The sweat and the blood and the tears so to speak I mean all the time spent in the pool is just helping me get ready. My ultimate goal is the end of October I'm running the Marine Corps Marathon I'm running the 10k. That's my goal I haven't ran in almost two years like I said so a lot of the pool a lot of the strength exercise like climbing the rock wall physical therapy giving me here and just getting that motion down so once I get out and I'm able to do impacts and hard stuff like that with my legs it hurts but it's not as bad so hopefully the reward that I'm trying for is it's going to be worth all the sweat and tears I put into this. He also introduced me to his friend and instructor of the swim clinic Miss Betty. I just got done climbing the rock wall and now Miss Betty who's an exercise physiologist has me in the pool to do some more exercises can you tell me a little bit about what we're doing. Yes we are doing what is called the aquatic therapy we are trying to the idea is to find a way to get some a good cardio workout strengthen the body strengthen the leg be able to do things that people usually do outside but now are not able to do due to injury so we we are doing you're using the same muscles we're doing the same motions but we are in the water so we are not paying the toll of being of weight-bearing of being working outside. After a long morning of learning how hard our wounded warriors work on a daily basis it was time to take things down a notch with some yoga. The team at the comprehensive combat and complex casualty care unit also known as C5 focus on patients mental health as well as their physical health and yoga is just another way they do that just as i was reaching inner peace it was time to do something a little more my speed boxing but in this boxing class no one gets hit all the punches are on pads held by the instructors to ensure participant safety all of the focus is on stress relief cardio balance confidence and most importantly fun and it's something that when they go to their next phase of life when they transition from the hospital there are warrior boxing programs around the country it's a real growing activity great great after a long day of working out what better place to end my visit to C5 than a trip to the beach where i would hang 10 or as a wounded warriors inform me just surfing while i was there i ran into a familiar face miss betty how often do you guys meet we're out here every thursday every week every every week every thursday morning out here at delmar surfing and how did this start we started surfing uh over five years ago um a soldier came um i was working with the soldier and he wanted to go surfing he was from hawaii he used to surf big waves in hawaii and he came back from iraq he was missing an arm and a leg and he was wondering if he can still go surfing and he said sure we'll go surfing yeah after learning what the surf clinic was all about i caught up with one of the wounded warriors who was going to help me ride some waves starting with the basics the very basics okay that of course is the nose you know that goes out front yep got it okay so i imagine the hardest part is going to be from going from laying down to popping up um yeah and i was right but eventually i got the hang of it and i saw how it benefits wounded warriors physically as well as mentally because let's face it it's fun give you a chance to like work through stuff or whatever you know because you're you're out there and instead of in the rest of the in the rest of the world you got all these other things or whatever you're kind of focused on just one thing but at the same time you got a little bit of gap in there to where you can uh think about stuff i'll work through it so but sadly like all good things it had to come to an end as did my trip focusing on wounded warrior care okay thanks for having me out here today betty you did great you're the natural it's fivey thank you for the lesson yeah thank you and uh it's a great thing you guys are doing here for wounded warriors good luck and we'll uh see you next time throughout this episode the people at c5 have put me through a lot of physical activities like the rock wall but it's nothing compared to what our wounded warriors face on a daily basis i've seen their courage and commitment up close and i've also seen the hard work being done by our staff each and every day thanks for joining us on scrubbing in we'll see you next time