It’s been a good run, but it’s time to retire.
Can your fitness outlast your folder? It can if you don’t give up on yourself.
When we started 15 years ago, Andrea – then 65 years old – told me, “I need special help.” I would soon learn what that meant.
She had TWO spinal discs removed – one in the neck and one in the low back. These were replaced with a combination of donor bone and titanium plates.
She was unable to move well and wanted to go for a walk and vacuum without pain. Seemingly humble goals made more ambitious by the physical state she was in.
Our focus was on postural alignment, core strength, and teaching her how to move well while aligning body parts optimally.
Everything we did was connected to something in her life that mattered. Along the way, we sprinkled enough fun and enjoyment into it that she enjoyed the process, even though it was slow going.
Progress was slow, then fast. Within a few years she was doing what she called “big girl exercises.” I will never forget that day she was excited enough to do certain exercises that she attached that label to them.
For her, it meant she felt she had moved on from strictly pain management and corrective exercises and had begun doing exercises that “regular” people (without two spinal discs removed) would do.
And she’s never looked back. She has had setbacks. A hip replacement a few years ago. Another neck surgery shortly after that. But she values the lifeline that fitness has provided for her.
She has forever changed how she lives so she has forever changed her life.
I see her about once a month to give her new exercises or challenges and that’s it. She’s embraced a new lifestyle.
Over the years, I’ve had to tape her folder back together several times. It’s stuffed with 15 years of session notes and her workout programs. It was time for the folder to retire.
Rather than discard it, I gave it to her as a symbol of her dedication – possibly the most odd yet most meaningful gift I could give. Things were very hard for her for a long time. But she maintained that steady commitment.
Her fitness outlasted her folder. I hope your fitness can too.
Don’t give up on yourself. Don’t give up on your fitness. Very few of you reading this will have faced physical circumstances worse than the ones Andrea has. I’m so proud of her for choosing better over worse and I hope you do the same!
