Former & future certified fitness trainer currently injured & fat but on the comeback trail

yffudcm
yffudcm Posts: 11 Member
edited November 2019 in Introduce Yourself
Howdy! I've had MFP for several years but I haven't used it. I was in terrific shape years ago, but I injured my lumbar spine at work (I was a certified trainer but it was not my main job) and then exacerbated that injury in the gym by being stupid and thinking I was a superman). I was conservative when training others but I took way too many chances when training myself and I've suffered for it for years.

After I injured my lumbar spine, I then injured my right shoulder and sustained nerve damage in both arms in an accident. After that I gave up. I thought I'd never been in shape again so I just laid around and got fat and somewhat depressed. That was almost ten years ago.

To make a long story short, I've been getting in shape, I've lost 55 lbs of the 75 lbs I gained, the nerve damage is mostly healed up, the right shoulder is mostly better, and in 28 days, 17 hours from this moment, I'll be getting two ActivL artificial discs implanted into my lumbar spine.

I learned about ActivL while taking a cross-country train. I sat next to a Hollywood stunt woman who had worked on a number of very famous movies. Like me, she had two herniated lumbar discs which forced her to quit doing stunts. She got the ADR surgery and was able to go back to work.

I looked it up and found a video of a guy who had the ActivL discs implanted and he was doing power cleans with 135 lbs. Now, 135 lbs isn't a great amount of weight (I used to power clean 1.5x my body weight for 4-6 reps at a time), but it's a tremendous amount all things considered.

Anyway, I just thought I'd say "howdy."

Replies

  • AliNouveau
    AliNouveau Posts: 36,287 Member
    Welcome back.
    Injuries suck. Yours sounds like it was a doozy.

    Good luck getting back fit
  • GlobeYack
    GlobeYack Posts: 42 Member
    Wow. That is truly inspiring. I have physical problems similar to yours and more so I can relate. I'm sorry to hear you've gone through so much in your life but at least you're here to tell it.

    I appreciate you taking the time to write all that. It must have been a hard road for you to go down.

    I'm not a health professional by any means whatsoever but I would like to be there for you and to support you if you'd like.

    Please feel free to message or add me. 😊
  • yffudcm
    yffudcm Posts: 11 Member
    edited November 2019
    Thanks for the kind words, but I don't know how much of an inspiration I am as my back is in such terrible shape because of my own stupidity. The initial damage wasn't my fault but my activities in the gym afterwards that exacerbated the injury were. As I mentioned above, I had a conservative approach to my client's training with safety at the forefront but, because I had been incredibly fit in my earlier years, I had an irrational belief that I was invincible. In the weeks and months following my lumbar injury, I was doing insane things in the gym that no one with a back injury should be doing (e.g. standing calf raises with between 500 and 600 lbs).

    My L4 and L5 lumbar discs were basically smashed and then during my 8-10 year layoff from the gym (the period where I gave up because of my back and arm/shoulder injuries) the discs became desiccated.

    I remember the actual moment that it went from bad to worse and it was my own dumb fault. Fortunately, I live in an age in which medicine and science have given us things like the ActivL artificial lumbar disc, and I'll be able to tackle the weights again—more intelligently this time, of course.
  • AliNouveau
    AliNouveau Posts: 36,287 Member
    yffudcm wrote: »
    Thanks for the kind words, but I don't know how much of an inspiration I am as my back is in such terrible shape because of my own stupidity. The initial damage wasn't my fault but my activities in the gym afterwards that exacerbated the injury were. As I mentioned above, I had a conservative approach to my client's training with safety at the forefront but, because I had been incredibly fit in my earlier years, I had an irrational belief that I was invincible. In the weeks and months following my lumbar injury, I was doing insane things in the gym that no one with a back injury should be doing (e.g. standing calf raises with between 500 and 600 lbs).

    My L4 and L5 lumbar discs were basically smashed and then during my 8-10 year layoff from the gym (the period where I gave up because of my back and arm/shoulder injuries) the discs became desiccated.

    I remember the actual moment that it went from bad to worse and it was my own dumb fault. Fortunately, I live in an age in which medicine and science have given us things like the ActivL artificial lumbar disc, and I'll be able to tackle the weights again—more intelligently this time, of course.

    Isn't it funny how we tell others to be careful yet treat our bodies completely differently.

    I totally get you. I had shoulder pain for 2 years before I had it checked and by the time a year later I had surgery it was completely messed up.

    I hope you are recovering well and back at it. When you're used to being active it's hard to not be
  • yffudcm
    yffudcm Posts: 11 Member
    Ugh! I hope you can get some relief for your shoulder. I know how debilitating shoulder injuries can be. My right arm was almost useless for about two years and, in that time, my upper arm girth decreased by an inch as compared to my left arm.
  • AliNouveau
    AliNouveau Posts: 36,287 Member
    yffudcm wrote: »
    Ugh! I hope you can get some relief for your shoulder. I know how debilitating shoulder injuries can be. My right arm was almost useless for about two years and, in that time, my upper arm girth decreased by an inch as compared to my left arm.

    atrophy happens so quickly doesn't it?
    I had surgery to repair it and I'm coming along. It already feels better than it had been. Yay for modern medicine

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