You know when you look at someone and are in awe of their courage and strength to keep moving forward no matter the obstacles that are thrown at them - Trevor is one of these inspiring people!
Read Trevor’s story here and hopefully you will be inspired to keep moving forward and remain positive in the face of adversity..Just as Trevor has done.
Trevor’s Story - In His Words
“Over the years I have seen people offering excuses as to why they are unable to do a workout; due to leg pain, shoulder pain, back pain, too tired, too overweight etc. Some of these may be very real but, in many cases, they are just excuses that hold people back from achieving a better life for themselves.
I have first hand experience in this regard so let me share my story with you..
In 2018 I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis or RA, which is an autoimmune disease. As well as affecting my joints, it also decided to attack my lungs, causing shortness of breath and low blood oxygen saturation at times of exertion.
During a routine chest scan at the end of 2020, to compound the issues I was already facing with my RA the consultants found an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm or AAA. This led to many discussions and clinical meetings on how they were going to repair the AAA or if indeed they wanted to do it at all. Basically, there was a high chance that my breathing issues would worsen; or I may not make it through the surgery!
But luckily, I managed to convince the consultants to go ahead with the surgery and repair the AAA. But unfortunately as forecast, my breathing issues did worsen off the back of this.
The surgery also led to a sharp reduction in weight, where I lost a stone in muscle from being just over 13 stone to rapidly going under 12 stone in a couple of weeks!!
This leads me onto my history with Rich and Functional Fitness Bristol.
I have been training with Rich since before Functional Fitness even started, so that’s now more than 10 years.
Over that time he has helped and guided me to obtain my fitness goals and to reduce my body fat, where I used to be over 18 stone at my heaviest.
As a result of that 10 years of training and coaching, I have no doubt I was fitter and better able to cope with the issues that hit me later, whilst improving my recovery from the life-saving surgery.
As soon as I could - I got back to the workouts after the major AAA surgery, using Rich’s knowledge of my ability and his extensive experience he adjusted my sessions for me as required.
He is adapt at making the sessions challenging enough for my ability but not so hard that I dread coming back, which I think is where a lot of less experienced personal trainers would have gone wrong (in my opinion).
In addition, the many complex health issues that I have to contend with do not seem to phase Rich during our 1-1 sessions, and his patience and empathy shown toward me is very reassuring.
Even after 10+ years of training with Rich, I am still doing 2 or 3 sessions each week as I find that the exercise routine seems to open up my lungs, which in turn helps to reduce the anxiety that can arise from my breathing problems.
I also keep my training level up because I know I’m in the best of hands with Functional Fitness Bristol and I’m always so impressed with their in-depth knowledge and passion for training.
So if you are thinking about missing a few sessions due to that annoying, irritating pain or if you just don’t feel like it, my suggestion would be to do the session anyway. Do not let these reasons stop you, I feel pain and inflammation every day!
If I curled up in self pity every time my joints seized up, I would never be able to train consistently and stay as healthy as I can.
I hope you never have to go through what I have in the last few years and that by telling my story you will be able to make it to that special session – the one that makes all the difference.
If you are in a similar health position to myself and you feel confused and lost to what you can/should be doing for your health and fitness, then reach out to Functional Fitness Bristol - you will not regret it”.
Best wishes and good health,
Trevor the Personal Trainee
Inspired by Trevor’s story?..
If you can resonate with what Trevor said and need a kick start or just some simple guidance on how you can start training safely and effectively with the knowledge that the training you are doing isn’t going to make you any worse - Contact Rich on rich@functionalfitness.me to arrange a FREE phone consultation.