 Welcome to Scrubbing In, I'm Paul Ross. I'm gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna break a sweat. The type of high intensity workout we were doing helps reacclimate service members after sustaining injury. 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 you guys, 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, you know, 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? 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'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 Weakley, 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 did 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? I used to be on the rock climb, yes. So 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 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 and exercise like climbing the rock wall physical therapy, giving it in 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 us is gonna 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 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 are using the same muscles, we're doing the same motions but we are in the water so we are not paying the toll of weight bearing, of being walking 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? Well out here every Thursday. Well out here every week, every Thursday morning out here at Del Mar, surfing. And how did this start? We started surfing over five years ago, a soldier came. 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 we said sure, we'll go surfing. After learning what the surf clinic was all about, I caught up with one of the wounded warriors who was gonna 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. So I imagine the hardest part is gonna be from going from laying down, popping up. Yeah. And I was right. But eventually I got to hang a bit. 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, whatever. You know, cause 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 think about stuff and how to work through it. 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. Spidey, thank you for the lesson. Yeah. Thank you. And it's a great thing you guys are doing here for wounded warriors. Good luck and we'll 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.