By Eric Martinez
May. 31. 2011-
About a week ago my brother and I were doing our usual leg routine at the gym at our usual time. As I got done doing a set of dead lifts, a woman said “hey you are using your back too much when you come up, lean back more and explode with your legs.”
I thought to myself why is this woman that I don’t even know trying to correct my form, this woman walks around the gym with hand free crutches every night, but her upper body is built very well. It also occurred to me that this was the same lady that I was very curious about what had happened to her, I wanted to know about her injury and how she still comes in every night to the gym and works her ass off. I mean this lady is in great shape and goes all out on her upper body workouts and still has the courage to do certain unilateral exercises for the leg she can use, it’s amazing to see. So I finished my workout, went over and introduced myself to her. Before I begin to tell you about our conversation, let me just say that I am glad I had the opportunity to speak with her, she really inspired me and gave me more motivation overall.
After introducing myself I asked the woman what happened to her legs? She said that she was in a major car accident about two years ago and that only one of her legs works, her other leg has no knee cartilage or anything, that’s why she uses crutches to get around. I then asked her, what drives you to still come in every night and work so hard? She said before her accident she used to compete in bodybuilding, triathlons, and was always active in weight lifting. Weight lifting is her life and that’s the best way to put it. She then said as long as she has one leg to get around than that’s all she needs, she hates when people use injuries as an excuse to quit something they love doing. She also said something about lifting heavy weights gives her that extra push in life, and that she used to be much bigger and stronger and she can’t stand having a slender physique. Then she said everything in life happens for a reason, you just have to keep pushing through adversity and overcome any obstacles that come your way, never quit what you are passionate about, never make excuses for things you can’t control in life. Throughout the conversation she was so positive and full of energy when speaking to me; I was simply amazed by this woman’s spirit. After speaking with her, I thanked her and told her it was a pleasure getting to know her and I will see you around.
The reason I wanted to share this story is to inspire and motivate people to live a better active life. We should really appreciate everything we have in our lives and especially our health, even though we have many things thrown our way in life. Not everyone is fortunate to live a healthy life, but the people that can, need to take advantage of it and stop making excuses. After seeing the way this woman works out night after night with one leg at such a high intensity, gave me more motivation to step up my game in and out of the gym, she truly inspired me. So if you are someone that says, I am too tired, I feel lazy, it’s too late, it’s too hard, something hurts, give me a break! Those are typical excuses to not do some exercise that will only benefit your health in the long run, people that are diagnosed with diseases, born with disabilities and are not healthy would kill to live an active life like most people are able to. Everyone has personal issues, work issues, financial issues, ect. It is still no reason to make excuses, if a lady with one leg can do it, so can you! So start making small steps to living a better and healthy life that we all deserve, one percent better each day will eventually lead us to where we want to be. Peace and god bless.
“Live A Dynamic Lifestyle”