Happy Monday.
I hope you all had a great weekend.
Krystie, Milly, myself and my family are in the Bay of Islands. A holiday for my folks and a chance for a little get away for us. Out for a day sail yesterday and we were treated to some acrobats from a pod of playful dolphins.
A little different for today’s newsletter. Bex Hodge a client of mine shares her fitness journey from broken to unstoppable.
Enjoy! ……
Hi guys,
For the majority of you that don’t know me, I am Bex Hodge, a 27 year old deer farmer who loves to lift heavy weights. I love my job, it can be very full on at times and it’s not unusual for me to work 10+ hours a day, 7 days a week for long extended times in the Spring/Summer. My favourite hobby/exercise is deadlifting, don’t get me wrong, I love lifting any heavy weight but deadlifting definitely takes the cake.
Now lets rewind 6 years, it’s safe to say that I was at a crossroads in my life. I had an injury plagued year with multiple shoulder dislocations, and unfortunately the last one I had physio tried to strap my shoulder up which resulted in my collarbone dislocating as well. What started as a simple dislocation turned into a frozen shoulder and a collarbone that was dislocated more than it was in place for 7 months. I couldn’t lift my arm at all let alone get my hand high enough to be able to ride a farm bike (which ironically is quite handy when you’re a farmer). I saw multiple doctors and physio’s, they said that they had never seen a shoulder so bad and suggested I should give up farming and go look for a desk job, they even went so far to say that I would never be able to do anything above my head again. Naturally I was devastated, I went home feeling rather sad and down in the dumps, all I wanted to do was be a farmer. Thankfully my sadness turned into anger, after all how dare they say that I couldn’t be a farmer, I had been brought up to believe that you could do anything in life if you applied yourself.
Mum suggested that I try going to a personal trainer, I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first but I was keen to give anything a go. I started going to a local trainer, and within no time I started to see improvements. Before I knew it I was strong enough to start farming again, sure my collarbones still popped out once or twice a week and I had no strength above my head but who was I to complain, at least I could farm. One of the perks of sitting still for so long was getting chubby (much to my disgust). In my usual all or nothing way I decided to put myself on a diet and up the cardio as I thought that’s what you had to do to lose weight. I ran 15+ kms most days (I killed three semi-commercial treadmills in the matter of months), worked a full day on the farm and ate no more than 800 calories, much to my disgust I got fatter. I couldn’t understand it, I was constantly exhausted and to be honest I felt terrible, I didn’t know how I could keep going like I was.
Thankfully Mum had started going to Results Fitness and suggested that I should try it out as well. The first thing Paul asked me was “are you sure you are eating enough”? I thought he was crazy suggesting for me to eat more to lose weight, he suggested that I get a fitness watch so I could measure how many calories I was burning. Well blow me down, it told me I needed to eat an additional 1000 calories, I could not believe it, surely I would get fat by eating that much more? I was sick of being hungry and getting fatter so I thought I may as well eat and get fatter. As it turns out when I started eating more I started to melt, the fat dropped off me, my energy started to come back and I was feeling better than I could ever remember feeling. I was amazed at how fast I got strong training with Paul, he saw my collarbones as a challenge and he set about fixing them. I cannot believe how far I have come in such a short time, I have been training with Results for coming up a year and not only can I do stuff above my head I can single arm push press 28kg. My collarbones hardly ever dislocate, I eat when I’m hungry, I am in good shape and I am making plans on setting an official world record with deadlifting. Sure I still have things that I really struggle with but that is life, most importantly I have learnt to relax and enjoy the journey. I cannot express my gratitude enough to Paul and Krystie, they have brought sanity and healing to my life, and made the impossible possible, I am a changed person, to which I cannot thank them enough.
So there you have it, don’t let someone tell you what you can or can’t do, if you want something find a way to make it happen, don’t be afraid of lifting heavy weights and most importantly surround yourself with people who can help you achieve your dreams.
Bex Hodge
ps for those that missed it. Here is the link to Bex’s World Record. 30 reps, 1 minute, 100kg
Have a great week,
Bex ‘ the deadlifter ‘ Hodge
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