This week's episode is a VERY special one where I sit down with Gail Doerr. Gail has been a member at Fortitude for almost 3 years now. About 6 months ago, Gail bumped up against something that is many of us who exercise regularly bump up against. Gail got injured.
The ugly truth is that it happens and it happens in our gyms. As gym owners, we try to create as many buffers against injury as possible but as Gail and I discuss sometimes sh*t happens. Gail had some issues that we didn't know were there. Primarily flexibility and mobility related issues that crept in, in part, because we didn't have the knowledge or processes in place to identify them. Then one day, after a simple workout of rowing and box step-ups it was hard for Gail to get out of bed the next day. After trying chiropractors, doctors, and physical therapy Gail was discharged because she wasn't getting any better but she wasn't getting any worse either. She was sent home being led to believe that living with pain that registered a 5 out of 10 was a good as it gets for her.
As a facility owner, stories like Gail's led to countless sleepless nights and almost closed the doors of Fortitude. I got into this to help people, then every few months someone would get hurt and I would ask "What the hell are we doing wrong?" So, what did we do about it? We got better. Honestly, when Gail initially developed symptoms of pain in her low back and hip we did not have the knowledge or resources to help her. Then, we started working with a company called Active Life and all of that changed. Seth and I went to an assessment workshop in Wisconsin and that same week I reached out to Gail to offer her a free assessment just to see if her problem, that no one else could fix, was something that was within our capacities to try and help with. And... It was.
After the 2nd personal training session, Gail emailed me that her pain was around a 3 consistently and she felt that she had learned more in the 2 hours that we worked together than she did through months of other interventions. After only 8 weeks Gail registers her daily pain between a 0 and 2 when it used to be 5-8!!
Though she is not done with her custom program yet, I expect to see her almost entirely pain free on a consistent basis very soon. This is one podcast that you do not want to miss.
