About me (because it’s all about me).
I am a 59 year old Pilot looking to retire by the time I’m 65. My daily duties require me to go to the terminal get into a small flight deck and sit for periods of 10 hours a day and then walk out of the terminal. Sometimes I have to take roller bag for overnights and put it in an overhead bin. Before starting my training with Shannon this was an ordeal. I often looked up my flight and which gate I was departing from to see how much of a walk I would have to endure as I would have to stop quite often to rest my back. It locked up from the long distance walks. As I got on my aircraft I had to brace my arm by my side just to wrestle the overnight bag into the bin making sure no one was looking as my shoulder was in pain and I could barely push the bag up due to the weakness in my right arm.
I was sitting on my couch in the spring of 2018 wondering how I was going to make it to retirement at 65. I was wondering how my health would be after I retire and how I would do all the things I like; travel, sightseeing, walking, and just having an active life would be my goal.
Because of where I live I had driven by the gym almost on a daily basis. I looked at it all the time and I knew I had to get back to it but until that spring I was afraid to even enter. I went on a weight loss program (lost 25 lbs.) and mustered up the courage to go see about working out as I had done when I was younger. When I got in the door I looked at all the equipment and the people doing their training and I felt lost. It had been so many years I wouldn’t even know where to begin. The owner offered to set me up with a trainer, Shannon, to ease into a workout routine that I could handle.
Right from the start Shannon greeted me with empathy and asked me what I wanted to achieve. I told her all about my work problems and daily life issues and how I wanted to make it to 65. Shannon did an assessment and quickly discovered I was, as I thought, a train wreck, though she would never say it that way, much too kind. After a short time of watching me do a few exercises she determined that I had a rotator cuff problem and sent me to see a pysio therapist for help. He immediately assessed me and said Shannon was right. He did the pysio, connected with Shannon and gave her recommendations and we took a team approach and have corrected the problem for the most part. I look at Shannon as a health care provider more than just a trainer. I believe she is genuinely concerned for my physical health and by extension my mental wellbeing and can assess me everyday as to what we will do during a session. She can tell by the way I walk into the gym how my body is feeling and will tailor the work outs to suit my condition.
Shannon took interest in my goals and assessing me to get the right program. She let me proceed at my pace and showed great empathy towards me never letting me fail. She always instills in me a sense of accomplishment which fosters a positive environment for me to excel in. I look around the gym and see people doing exercises that I would like to do but I never felt I could get to that level. She believes in me and offers to try new things to push me. I do things now I never would have thought possible.
I believe that I have shown such improvement in the last year I feel like a new person. I look forward to going to the gym. I feel it’s a necessary part of my life to see Shannon and I look forward to ever better health under her guidance. I don’t have to stop during my long walks anymore, I can lift my overnight bag into the overhead bin easily, I can make it through the long sits and walk tall when I leave work, and most of all I just feel good enough to make it to 65.
Shannon knows, it’s all about me.
