Strength Over Surgery, Charity’s Journey at PowerStrength
Charity Plaxton found herself at a daunting crossroads in her life, grappling with a major choice that left her feeling uneasy and conflicted. Presented with 2 options, neither of which appealed to her, she felt an overwhelming sense of discomfort.
“I had herniated my disc in my lower back and basically was given the decision to wait until it got acute again and have surgery and have things fused together and surgically fixed – or figure out a way to build core strength so that I could protect everything around it so that it never happened again,” Charity said.
She had serious doubts about what surgery would actually accomplish. Despite encouragement from those around her to have the surgery, Charity remained against it.
“I’m not interested in surgery,” Charity said. “Everybody that I spoke to said I should just get the surgery, everybody gets the surgery. It didn’t feel like it was going to fix the issue, whatever was causing the issue in the first place was still going to exist and I was still going to be in the same place only having had surgery and then still immobile and then hurting disk, after disk, after disk. That was terrifying!”
THE FINAL STRAW
The alternative was almost equally as scary for Charity. The thought of irritating her discomfort in an effort to build core strength made her hesitant to take the first step.
“It is pretty terrifying to be honest with you because every exercise, every thought about what I would do to strengthen those muscles was the possibility that I was going to put myself back into this very painful acute phase,” Charity said.
She had battled back pain for years, but just chalked it up to aging. She considered it a natural part of life, but it got to the point where it was impacting her on a daily basis.
“I think that most people who start to creep up in age, you perceive it as your back goes out, you have a back spasm, you have a tweak, or something like that,” Charity said. “But it was basically my back progressively getting worse and worse as I got older, and what little core muscles I had were just getting progressively weaker and weaker because I stopped doing any of the things that would cause it to flare up, basically.”
It was on a vacation that the pain became so intense that she knew something had to be done. The thought of not being able to do the things she wanted created a wake up call that she could no longer ignore.
“There had been a bulging disk for probably 20 years that had been progressively showing up on the x-ray, which is why I didn’t actually think I was going to get better after the surgery,” Charity said. “The biggest issue was that we had gone on a backpack travel trip to Belize, and carrying the backpack, riding the golf cart, walking everywhere, and the plane ride there and back pretty much threw it into a very painful acute phase, resulting in nerve damage, all kinds of gnarly stuff.”
THE DECISION TO GET STRONGER WITH POWERSTRENGTH
Fed up with the pain, and knowing that she wasn’t going to have surgery, Charity made the decision to get stronger. She came to PowerStrength, in part because her son, Jaden, had already embarked on a similar journey.
“I sent my son, who had a pars fracture in his back,” Charity said. “He is a football player through and through, sports are his life, and he was in a really bad situation. He was in a back brace for several months and he needed to rehab and get back. We interviewed a bunch of different places to figure out what was the place that wasn’t just going to be the vanilla-everybody-walks-in-and-does-all-the-same-exercises (type of palce).”
PowerStrength tailors exercises to each individual based on sport, physical state, ability level to help them reach their goals. Sessions are made up of no more than 6 people per coach to assure one-on-one attention needed for safe, optimal performance.
Jaden started out doing one-on-one personal training at the Plainfield location with General Manager Brian Paulson, but was quickly moved to the small group sessions. Brian, and the staff at Plainfield quickly identified what Jaden needed and went to work to help him accomplish his goals.
“They were able to put him in the core classes to start building up that strength without having to have special one-on-one sessions and he picked up an incredible amount of strength that way,” Charity said. “I figured if it worked for him, maybe this is the right place for me.”
FINDING RESULTS
Despite her initial reservations, Charity went to work to build up her core strength and prevent the back pain that had plagued her for so long. With hard work, dedication, and the entire PowerStrength team by her stride, she has made tremendous progress.
“I found hope in the fact that I feel like I have control over this thing that had control over me for a really long time,.” Charity said. “I also did (1-on-1) personal training with Brian for a while with that same threshold where I was able to join sessions, basically because the sessions aren’t one size fits all. I’ve been able to gain control over that feels like it’s going to work, that doesn’t feel like it’s going to work, but everyday I come in I don’t have to think about whether the thing that I’m going to be asked to do is going to hurt me because everybody understands the condition, everybody understand the journey that I’ve been through here and that is the thing that I appreciate the most about coming here is I don’t have to think about it. I feel like they are on my team and I don’t have to ask for special treatment, I come in and they just know what I need to be doing and not doing.”
SHARED GOALS
Charity and Jaden are sharing their PowerStrength experience because they are both working toward similar goals and overcoming similar injuries. The circumstances are comparable, but that is not necessary for an adult over the age of 40 and a high school athlete at PowerStrength.
“We have a ton of conversations about it which is the thing that I’ve observed about PowerStrength, which is you can make it as much as you want to make it,” Charity said. “He has high aspirations for football and he’s got a lot of ground to cover since his injuries and I think we both feel really confident that if he puts in the time, which he’s on 3 sessions a week now, that he absolutely can cover the ground, catch up to his peers, and actually start performing to a level that he wants to. We talk about that consistently, I think we are both often talking about how football isn’t life, core strength is life and that is the main priority for both of us. He’s got a football path, I’ve got a grow-old-and-play-with-grandchildren path, but at the end of the day we’re in the same race. I think I have probably referred 10 people here because we are at completely different levels of play, he’s 16 and I’m not, and we both fit in here and that is a pretty cool thing for us to share.”
Charity is not new to fitness, she has done workouts at home, bootcamps, and even joined a gym, but struggled to find success because she was not motivated. Her workouts at PowerStrength are laid out for her when she arrives, they are carefully crafted with her specific needs and goals in mind. Beyond that, she has found a community of people that are invested in her journey.
“I think where I’m at is I know I have to keep doing this and these guys make it really easy to keep doing this, and they don’t make you feel bad when you don’t show up for a week when you have a grandchild, you have stuff going on, you go on spring break, life happens, or you’re sick. They pick you right back up where you left off and the thing that feels different about here is, I’ve been to other places and they’re encouraging, and they’re delightful, and they’re helpful, and they say all the right things, this is the first place I’ve been where I feel it. And it’s not the cliche we’re family, we’re going to have a barbecue thing, they do those things, but I appreciate being seen, and the understanding that I think everyone else knows that the journey is not over. I’m not in a race to make all-state, I’m in a race to make 75 and play with the grandchildren and they treat that with the same respect as they do the collegiate athletes that are coming through here.”
PREPARED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER
Charity is gaining strength and escaping pain at PowerStrength, but recently she has a new reason for being strong. Her first grandchild was born and the title of grandma is not one that she plans to take lightly.
“Beyond exciting,” Charity said when talking about her granddaughter. “Everybody makes their own life choices. It just feels like when you hit 40 those get a lot more urgent, that is kind of the decision I made was I want to be the grandma that can play with the grandkids, and that involves work as it turns out. It is an amazing experience and I started here last August and I feel like a completely different human right now. The strength that I have now versus how tentative and scared to pick up anything that I was a year ago, it is night and day.”
INDIVIDUALIZED EXERCISES
Everyday people are feeling stronger and more energetic thanks to the customized workouts provided at PowerStrength. This has been a game changer in Charity’s life and she is spreading inspiration to others. PowerStrength met her where she was at and her success serves as an illustration for others who want to embark on their own journey.
“The people I tell about PowerStrength are the people that want to do it differently,” Charity said. “There’s hundreds of classes out there, there’s bootcamps and numerous other places you can go for a standard workout, or gyms you could join, or tools that you have access to. The people I tell about this are the people that don’t like the one size fits all, they don’t want to workout with 40 other people. They want a meaningful workout, or there’s something that they are trying to fix, or addressed that they need to have understood. Everybody has goals, you want to be fit, you want to be healthier, but PowerStrength, they know how to work for a specific goal and with a specific challenge and actually turn that into, ultimately, a strength. I don’t think I would go anywhere else, most of the people I know, I refer here, to do this, to find out their own path, to figure out how to work with the team to solve their stuff.”
While Charity feels much better and is doing the things she wants to, including playing with her granddaughter, she will likely always deal with discomfort from time to time. It’s a problem that she is now able to address quickly with the team at PowerStrength, which is a much better and more effective solution than was previously at her disposal.
“When I have pain, quite frankly, Brian and I have a conversation about what it is and what we ought to do about it. Today I came in early and did some stretching exercises because of some pain that I was having. Now I have 3-4 next steps to do with that because the pain I was having was not my herniated disc, it was muscle tightness that was pulling on other things. In the absence of that conversation I probably would have just sat at home, taken a muscle relaxer and just laid there until it went away versus knowing the right path to get me through it and for me that is the big difference. I know the long-term answer is stay active, I just don’t have the same training that everybody here does in order to know what is the safe path through those hiccups.”
Charity feels younger again, and she plans to continue to come to PowerStrength as much as she can moving forward. Even when life gets in the way for a few days or even a week, because she knows the difference that PowerStrength makes in her life.
“Do I feel worse when I don’t come here, yeah! With the birth of my grandchild I missed a week and I very much felt it,” Charity said. “Coming back and going through this, I feel better. If I don’t come at least 2 times a week, it doesn’t take long for that over 40 stuff to come back.”
READY FOR A STRONGER, HEALTHIER, MORE ACTIVE LIFESTYLE?
Men and Women over 40 seeking a stronger, more energized lifestyle can join the personal training programs at PowerStrength. No previous workout experience is required as each program is customized to the fitness and ability level of each individual.
Multiple small group and private sessions are offered in the early morning, mid-morning, late afternoon, and evening.
Click HERE to learn more program details and schedule your risk-free consultation.