The pain of being injured

The month before I started my first outdoor fitness boot camp session at Blackburn Park, I tore my hamstring. The night it happened, I will never forget. Nor will I forget the sound of the muscle tissue tearing. I was in a kickboxing class and threw a sliding side round double kick. On the second kick the muscles just tore. It was like slow motion. Partially because I had never had a major injury like that, but mostly because I knew what it meant - I was going to be out of action. The next day, I thought, "I will just try to run." I got up, walked down the stairs of my condo and tried to take a step. I remember the pain and the fact that not only could I not run, but I couldn't walk. I was supposed to head to Piedmont Park that day and begin instructor training for all of the instructors in the groups for our old business partners. I was so excited and honored to be doing that. And in a very short second, I realized it would not be my turn. I cried all day.

You see, at that time, I didn't have a group of instructors to support me. It was just myself and my husband Chris. And although we had business partners, they had their own groups to run.
I also didn't have a wonderful soft tissue chiropractor to go see. Just some sucky MD that didn't know shit about athletic injuries and prescribed two weeks complete rest and two months to heal to 80%.

And so I waited for the leg to heal. In two weeks I could jump rope and jog lightly, but my hopes of ever sprinting again were left behind. A week later, on a rainy day in March, I was leading a warm up and the pavement was wet. Now at this point, Chris and I were still working with our old business partners in Piedmont Park the month before we were to start our first group at Blackburn. Chris had the fast group, I had the slower group. My foot slipped out from underneath me during a lunge in the warm up and my hamstring tore again. It was so bad that I couldn't walk. I hopped out of the way, over to the curb. The really dissappointing thing wasn't that an instructor stepped in and moved the group away, or that I couldn't lead. It was the way the other instructors handled the situation. Everyone left. There was even a doctor in the group that was an instructor and he didn't even ask if I was OK. At that moment when I was sitting on the curb waiting and praying that someone would find my husband and have him come help me to the car, I decided that I would NEVER treat my instructors like that. At that moment, I made more progress as an instructor than I had ever made. It defined me. My ability to not give up. My determiniation to make my new business succeed. And my new found respect for other instructors. That day molded my vision of the type of instructor I wanted to be surrounded by. And NOONE at Piedmont Park fit the bill.

I went to the hospital when someone finally found Chris and cryed again that day.

My hamstring eventally got stronger and Blackburn quickly grew into a great camp. We met a bunch of really great people and by 2006 we paved the way for Fitness Boot Camp in Atlanta to explode. But once again I found my self injured. Not with a torn muscle, but with an overuse injury for running up Freedom Hill at Blackburn too many times. My calves and solues were very weak. So much to the point where it hurt to take a step.

This is about where Dr. Steve came in. Dr. Steve is a soft tissue chiropractor and his office used to be at 2669 Osborne Road (yes, where the studio currently is located). And one day, Lauren (an instructor at Blackburn at the time- now the owner of the Midtown Territory of TABCC and our first licensee) told me that this doctor fixed her knee. An injury she had for a long time. So I went to see him about fixing my hamstring. I had always wanted to be able to sprint and jump again and thought this might be my chance. Little did Dr. Steve know, but that encounter would change both of our lives over the next years. Dr. Steve did some tissue work on my hamstring breaking up the scar tissue and he also did acupuncture. Then he sent me out to give it my all. He had no idea what that meant. The next day I was in his office and couldn't walk. That was his introduction to boot camp and giving it your all. He quickly learned that the boot camp mentality was much more intense than any other fitness organization and that 50% for us is like 100% for most people.

He did fix my hamstring. Today I am almost as fast as I was in short distance and four times as fast in longer distances. I can jump and throw double kicks almost as powerfully as I used to. He also fixed my calf problem. I am not longer afraid of the hills, but rather attack them now. And what I learned from all of these injuries is that you can never give up. That an injury is not a curse, but rather a blessing from which to learn about yourself, your fellow instructors and those around you. Now, when I get injured there are four or five wonderful instructors that step up. "How can I help? What can I do?" For that I am forever grateful. I am also grateful for Dr. Steve and the certainty that no matter what injury I face, he will give me an honest diagnosis and do whatever he can to get me healthy as quickly as possible.

So when last week my knees started bothering me, I knew I should have got in to see Dr. Stever, but my schedule was just so busy. And then Tuesday, my body forced me to make that appointment as my knee gave out and the pain was too much to handle on my own. So just when things for the 2008 season were coming together and falling into place, the balance in life caught up to me and I find myself in that familiar seat at Dr. Steves table. And yes, when I found out it was torn tissue and that I would be out for a couple of days I cried (not in front of Dr. Steve of course - he thinks I am tough). Just like every boot camper, I don't want to be injured, I want to continue making progress, to continue giving it my all.

But unlike in the past, I now know that if I rest a few days, I will be back to 100% in a fraction of the time and that in the mean time I have a team of kick butt fitness boot camp instructors to support me. I also know that this injury could only mean one thing... 2008 is only going to get better. Watch out Atlanta. Watch out America. The American Boot Camp Company is ready to show you how fitness boot camp is done.

See you at the park with the best fitness boot camp instructors around. What a team we make.