After a particularly nasty car accident, I was badly injured.
I went through three separate surgeries to repair the damage to my ankle, knee and hip.
Once I was released from the hospital, I followed up with physical rehabilitation. While it certainly helped, I was left with quite a bit of pain. I had difficulty sleeping at night, climbing stairs and going to work everyday. After a few months, I no longer wanted to rely on pain pills. I didn’t like the way they made me feel, and I worried about long-term side-effects. However, I wasn’t willing to spend the rest of my life suffering debilitating pain. I decided to sign up with a personal trainer who specializes in recovery from injury. We started with a consultation, where we discussed my issues and my goals for improvement. The personal trainer then designed a workout program targeted at my strengths and weaknesses. We meet four times per week at the gym. Each session starts with a very thorough warm up that involves my entire body. Once I’m warm and loose, we move onto some aerobic exercise. When I first started, I was limited to pedaling the bike without any resistance. I worked my way up to the elliptical and eventually the treadmill. After cardio, we switch to strength training. At the end of the program, we always finish with a deeper stretch and focus on improving flexibility and range of motion. My personal trainer changes things up for every session and keeps it interesting. He is very supportive and encouraging, but never lets me slack off. Since hiring a personal trainer, I’ve seen a significant decrease in my level of pain. I’m getting steadily stronger and feeling more positive about my total recovery.