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Once a week, I'm fortunate enough to work with a brave young man and an incredible family. In my training career, I've worked with a number of successful people: professional athletes, rehabilitating folk, and simply hard working people who achieve the small daily steps to overcome their challenges and achieve their goals.
This Young man is special because he is 15 years old and has cerebral palsy. Because of his neurological problem, his muscles atrophy. Yes, our neurological system keys and inspires our muscular system. He is currently in physical therapy. My goal as a trainer, is to instill a love of movement for a lifelong behavior that will nourish his life.
We usually play games, like the squat game. Who can stand up first? Me, or him? It's a riot for both of us but he gets a healthy dose of exercise in a fun environment. Today was particularly interesting.
Today, h---- came in and complained of being tired. An interesting ploy to get out of doing his work. His mother, who knows well how to manage him and has instructed me on the intricacies of his behavior allows me full reign during his workouts. I'm the coach. He's the client.
So, he put his head down. I playfully started to talk with him but in all honesty, as a human being, I didn't want this particular challenge today. I'm tired too, kid.
So, I tell him, let's just walk around the gym. We do something different. About 10 steps in, and I work at a large gym, I decide to play another patented game, only I didn't patent this one: Hide and seek. All of the sudden, this young man comes to life. He's exuberant and excited. But wait, I remind him, weren't you tired? (Snicker). He ignores the comments.
Along the way and after 2 rounds of hide and seek ( when I say that I simply mean he hid In a Designated area and I retrieved him with a sense of fun) we squat on the TRX rack. He loves it. We pick up a few balls and weights at the gym. After 15 minutes, he's had a great workout without realizing. We end the workout with a lap on the recumbent bike. He sets an all time personal record for speed and we both leave the session rejuvenated and excited for the rest of the day.
I'm grateful to work with someone like him because I'm genuinely moved by his progress, and inspired by his effort. Because of the muscle atrophy, falling (especially when we first started) was a genuine threat. In the event he hits his head, that trauma could have significant and serious implications. If you've ever worked with anyone who has palsy, then you know the trembling of the limbs because of the misfiring of the nervous system can be pretty severe. H---- had moderate
trembling. Naturally, during one of our sessions (before he underwent PT) he fell. But before he started to dramatically overreact (which he had been prone to overreaction) I borrowed a movie line.
"Why do we fall down?"
He looked at me quizzically. I asked again.
"Why do we fall down?"
He shrugs.
"To learn to pick ourselves up." He stands up as though nothing happened. Pick ourselves up, indeed.
Sadly, about three months ago H----- misses about 2 months of our weekly sessions but joyfully because he was to begin physical therapy. Haphazardly, as I'm walking to the gym for an appointment, I see H----'s mom. And there he is, behind her in a wheelchair with a cast around his ankle.
"What happened?"
"His first day at PT, he was so excited he tripped and fell while twisting his ankle."
I look down at this young man, seated in the wheel chair.
" why do we fall down?"
And he retorted,
"...to learn to pick ourselves up."
Yeah. You're god damn right.
His ankle has healed, he's back in PT and I get to work with him once a week.
May you learn how to pick yourselves up, every day.
-Coach Paul
