Tiffany Dennis

 

​Wendy,

I want to thank you for working with me for the past few months to help build strength and better overall movement in my body.  I am 75 years of age and “wearing down."  It makes me feel good to let you know I can tell a big difference in bending and movement since we have been training.  However, more important than that is my shoulder/neck are feeling so much better. I had been hurting on the right side for more than 6 months. It hurt so much to just turn my head to the right that I had to turn my whole body in order to look that way. I had some therapy and saw a chiropractor for approximately 5 weeks. It helped some, but not a lot. After working with you for 10 sessions, both my shoulder and neck are much better. I must add that I have also been doing my homework , as you suggested, which is very important to do to between our sessions. Again, Wendy, thank you for making my life better!

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Regaining Strength and Confidence in the Elderly

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Client: Ruth |  Olympia Athletic Club Location: Maryville, TN

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Several months ago, a co-worker asked me about the possibility of working with his 85 year old sister-in-law, Ruth. She had developed complications from the shingles virus, which affected the nerves in her spine, rendering her unable to stand on her own. Though she wanted to return home, as long as Ruth could couldn’t stand or walk with a walker she would not be able to. I agreed to meet with her, but told my co-worker I couldn’t make any promises.

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I met with Ruth in her room at the transitional care facility along with her daughter, son-in-law, my co-worker, and his wife. I discussed what I could try to do with her in regards to personal training. I could tell immediately that one of the things Ruth needed was some confidence building.

That day we started very slowly, with exercise tubing and using just the weight of her body. I focused on upper body and core strength using exercise tubing, and added some additional exercises to increase her flexibility and range of motion. All the exercises were done from her wheelchair in the sitting position. I could tell she felt better and more energized when I left.

 

We began to meet twice a week. Each time we made a little more progress. Her wheel chair sat very low and made it difficult to use the walker to pull herself up. I discovered that she needed to be sitting a little higher in a chair in order to stand up using the walker. I moved her from the wheelchair to the adjustable chair in her room, which she could sit in at a higher level. We started practicing leaning on the walker from the chair doing push ups and squats in order to build her muscles and give her strength to stand up. We worked on biceps, triceps, chest, and back using exercise tubing and 6 and 8 pound dumbbells. I could see her confidence building within just a few sessions.

 

We then began to work on hip abduction, adduction, extension, and flexion using just the weight of her legs. Within a few short weeks she was getting up with the walker and going to the bathroom by herself. We were one step closer to getting her home.

Each time I went to see Ruth I could see improvement both physically and mentally. The adjustable chair in Ruth’s room was perfect for

reclining in and doing bridges and pelvic tilts for her core. Ruth was a hard worker and determined to get back home. In addition to what she did with me, she was able to get to the exercise room at the care facility and ride a stationary bicycle.

 

I knew we had really made progress when I arrived at the care center one day and she was practically at the door to meet me. She had walked with her walker all the way from her room to the front lobby area. Every session we would spend time walking down the hall with the walker. In her room we would push the walker aside and she would hold my hands and we would take side steps, forward steps a, backward steps and essentially danced together.

 

After three months of working together, Ruth was ready to go back home. Her family was pleased with her physical accomplishments and felt good enough about her condition to at least let her try to live at home. It was a very rewarding experience for me to watch Ruth go from not being able to roll over in bed or get up out of her chair to walking with a walker and standing by herself. Some of it was the consistent strength exercise, but a lot of it was building her confidence that she was capable of more than she thought she was.

 

Ruth is now living at her home and we continue to work together once a week. In addition, she does the exercises I’ve given her on her own on alternate days. We’ve started to walk from her condominium to the gym so she can ride the recumbent bike. We then walk back to her condo and complete her other exercises and work on flexibility. Now Ruth is even driving herself to church on Sunday. Just the other day her brother-in-law (my co-worker) told me she was a miracle

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