Where There's a Will There's a Way

For a while now, Billy, one of my good friends at the gym, has been working out with his wife, Katherine. Their enthusiasm and ability to encourage each other through a hard workout is inspirational for many of us.


Unfortunately, as their progress and strength has increased, the growing workload has exacerbated a congenital nerve problem effecting Katherine's ability to work legs. In fact, the initial prognosis from her doctor was that she must never work legs again or risk permanent nerve damage. Needless to say, this has been disheartening for both and we haven't seen either one for the last two weeks. Despite this seeming death knell to her fitness goals, my hope is that she doesn't give up entirely, because in reality she doesn't have to.

Although unable to do any leg work that effects the hips and pelvis, meaning squats, leg presses, cycling, running, etc, she can in fact do light leg extensions and if she focuses on staying stationary, seated and lying leg curls. She can also do most upper body work, albeit with grater care and focus than was required previously. Not an ideal situation, but one that still offers opportunity for continued improvements in her physique and level of fitness. If she wants it, she can still achieve it.

Looking back over my own four decades in the gym, will admit that I have never faced a situation quite as serious as Katherine is now dealing with, but I have been injured dozens of times playing sports, sometimes seriously, and at times have been forced to work around an injury for over a year as it slowly heals. Had I stayed away from the gym altogether, I would have lost significant strength, aerobic fitness, and would have likely gained weight that would have been very difficult to take off. In fact, I believe that I would not have overcome some of my injuries at all, had I not continued to focus on working other parts of my body and gently working the afflicted area until it had healed.

Four years ago, I tore my subscapularis, the internal rotator, on my right shoulder. I am now forced to do shoulder and chest presses using dumbbells almost half the weight of my previous best efforts and have to keep my upper arms almost parallel with my torso. Not ideal, but I have managed to maintain almost all of my upper chest and deltoid mass, and have even improved the tie-ins because of the movement I have been forced to use.

My goal has always been to ever raise the bar on my own level of fitness, despite the passing years, despite injury and illness, despite increasing responsibilities at work and at home. It's not always easy. It's not always fun. But with motivation, creative use of exercise, and good time management, it can be done. As the title of this entry says, "Where there's a will, there's a way."