My Journey With Health And Fitness – Finding Courage

Wahoo!! Finally had an appointment with the specialist regarding my ankle. Apparently I have been doing everything right and the ankle is healing. I showed the doctor my brace and orthotics, went through the exercises I do everyday and discussed my daily exercise routine. She says things are healing nicely and probably within the next 6 months I will be back to 100%. She told me as long as I use my brace when running and my ankle doesn’t hurt then I am good to keep doing it. So, ran this morning and I have to say I really enjoyed it.

I have been with my fitness center for nearly 2 1/2 years now. It’s funny but sometimes I think of how far along being there has brought me both physically and mentally. There are things that I never thought I could do that I have managed to accomplish. Every time I conquer one of them I just feel a little bit stronger. You have to remember, more than 30 years ago I fell through a ceiling destroying my knee and my back and therefore I have a lot of phobias of certain things such as platforms just because of the fear of falling. No, it’s not logical but then phobias rarely are.

As an example, the first time we were doing pullups I refused to do them. They are set up with a large band stretched between 2 posts. You step on to the bands from a bench, grab the bar over your head and do pullups. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? For me it was terrifying. But after it being an exercise in several classes I decided to suck it up and give it a try. Guess what? It was not that big a deal and now I do them all the time. It just took a bit to get my head wrapped around the fact that I was not going to fall and that the band wouldn’t collapse and I was fine.

Yesterday was Circuit Friday at the fitness center. It is one of my favourite classes as it is always challenging. The instructor sets up 10 stations of various exercises and you do 45 seconds in 4 rounds rotating through the stations. Yesterday one of the stations was a box jump. This is where you leap up onto a box or step (with several risers so it is quite elevated) and land in a squat. Now this is something I have refused to do. Again, the terrifying thought that I would miss the step and fall or worse that the risers would collapse is actually paralyzing. And so, the 1st 3 rounds I did air squats which was the modification the instructor had provided.

I was on round 4 when I said to the instructor, if you coach me through it I will try the box jump (she was so excited when I said this). I got to that station and she stood on the opposite side of the step holding her hands out for me to grab. Not only did I successfully do that first jump but continued on for the rest of the 45 seconds doing it multiple times. Do I feel confident about doing this again, no, but having said that I know I can do it so I will try it again next time.

I have to admit I cried a little after accomplishing that 1 little station. I had managed to once again conquer my fears and accomplish a task that I refused to do previously. But let me be clear, this was not just me doing this, it was the supportive community that I belong to at that fitness center. Did the rest of the participants know what I had done? No, but that instructor did and I am pretty sure she felt the same pride that I did.

So conquer those fears. I can attest to the fact that if you face them you can tear them down. Once you have done that there is no going back. Not sure what my next one will be but after yesterday I know I can do it.