The blog below is from one of HitFit509’s members, Brenda. She has been a staple in the gym and wanted to share her trials and tribulations with you.
“As I look back and reflect on my journey to get healthy and look at the coming year with anticipation on new goals I am excited by all the gains I have made through this past year. Some of these gains are evident in my new abilities and confidences and some of these gains are less visible.
When I started working out a year ago at HitFit 509 I had never “worked out” in a gym in my life but I knew that if I started I would have to follow through (something that has always been a challenge for me). I have great people that I work out with and the trainers are amazing! Never once did I feel self conscious about my abilities and the encouragement to continue was much needed. I remember those first few months and how I would be so tired but I would make it through. If I could just do one round of exercises, then two and then more all the while one of the early goals was to keep up with my two friends. It had taken a while to do it but after about 7 months I noticed that I wasn’t behind them anymore but keeping up! The trainers and their encouragement and the pushing me to try and to do my best, the modifications that were made for my limited ability was something that I needed and that “permission” so to speak to believe that I could do something!
From not being able to ride the stationary bike standing up, not being able to do a pull up without someone helping me to barely able to use a 10 pound weight and not being able to jump over hurdles to where I am now. There were so many milestones that I was able to check off because of the encouragement and the hard work that I put into my workouts is so cool to look back on. The progress that I have made has been awesome and to that I owe my friends for their continual encouragement and the trainers for pushing me when I didn’t think I could do it.
Within the first month I was standing on the bike while riding it and then the gradual increase in the weights as I moved through the third month. Sometimes things are still hard for me to do but I approach them with a greater confidence then I did in the beginning. For me this was huge! Power through and try harder is what I tell myself now instead of the “I can’t do this” or “it’s to hard”.
One of the most amazing things that I was able to accomplish was the jumping over the hurdles. It only took me 8 months to do but boy the feeling of doing it was nothing I will ever forget. I remember watching my friends being able to do it with ease and I thought to myself “I want to do that!”. So I challenged myself and worked hard and then one day I just did it! I came home and showed everyone that video but the best part of showing that video was seeing the reaction of my children. That to me was priceless.
After 10 months I got up the courage to try to do a box jump. If you don’t know what those are they are where you jump up on top of a box 18 inches high. As I stood there looking at the box and trying to get the courage up to actually do it the trainer came over and said “are you ready to try it?” Boy was I ready, I only had to do a small amount of box jumps verses more box step ups and not only that it was again something I wanted to do just like my friends who do it with such ease. As I stood there trying to get ready and trying to not worry about removing the skin from my shin I just did it! The joy and the excitement that I felt was such a wonderful experience! I can still feel the excitement every time I think about it.
Once I started to see that I could do things that I couldn’t do before I became more confident to try things that were still a struggle for me. One of those was pull ups. When I stated the trainer had to actually help me do a pull up and that was with me standing on the strongest bands! Over time I was able to graduate from the strongest bands to using the red band and doing them with ease. Then one day after about 11 months of working out the trainer said “why don’t you try with the grey band.” I told her that I didn’t think I could do all 10 pull ups on just the grey band and she said “you only have to do a couple and I believe you can do it” So I tried and guess what! I did it! I walked away thinking I only have to challenge myself to do just one and then one day I will be able to use just the grey band like my friends. This is a goal that I continue to work on and I know that one day I will accomplish it just like the others.
A lot of the modifications that I have used over the past year have gone away now and for that I am excited that I can continue to check those off of my list of things I want to accomplish.
While this is mostly about the progress I have seen in the gym there are many outside the gym that I am just as excited about and while one isn’t as more important than the other it is worthy of mentioning. When I started this journey one of my goals was to being to go hunting with my husband and not have to come down off a mountain on my rear end because my knees hurt so badly. This year I was able to check that off my list of accomplishments! What a great feeling to know that I didn’t slow my husband down or that it didn’t end in tear because of the pain. Another great accomplishment was splitting wood, while I could do that before I couldn’t keep up with my husband and now I am able to do so! Or when my husband needed help lifting a very heavy generator into the back of the truck for a friend to use and to do so where I actually helped and he didn’t have to take most of the weight on him. I can still hear the pride in his voice when he tells his friends that I can help him more then I could have before.
While these are great examples of my journey there are more that I can show people but it is my mental health on top of all these physical accomplishments I have made. Working out after work every day helps with my mood when I come home, I am no longer grumpy or bringing work home (hooray for ball slams on those tough days!) I now get cranky when I don’t work out and I recognize the need for it on a consistent level. What a great stress reliever and an awesome anxiety cure! My drive to follow through on different areas in my life can be attributed to my experience in working out. I found that if I just focus on completing something all the way I can do it. There is less self doubt and more confidence. There is more determination and there is more I can do this!
Our motto between my friends and I from the beginning is that you can only improve from here! This continues to be my motto and one that I apply to all areas of my life not just my gym experience. For this I am grateful and I am looking forward to this New Year to more challenges and more goals that I can cross off my list. If you are looking at a gym membership this year and are looking for a place where you can see wonderful progress, HitFit 509 is the place to be!”
