Could You Manage If You Had To?

I think what we do at Starke is important. We help people to become stronger, fitter, and more well rounded as athletes and individuals.

Becoming strong is something I think is important for anyone at any age no matter what your limitations are.

Recently one of our members fell down the stairs at home and broke her leg. She has been in an air cast and on crutches for three weeks now. I have been texting Shelley to see how she's been holding up. Yesterday she wrote me an e mail and it gave me a different perspective and another reason for why we train.

I know we train to get stronger, we train for sport, we train for fun, we train to get stronger before and after surgery and train to regain strength, mobility and functionality after an injury.

One thing I never thought of is being strong enough to deal with an injury that can happen at any time. A fall, a car accident, an accident in the shower or on your bike.

If something were to happen to you would you have the strength to deal with the obstacles that would face you?

Yesterday Shelley was at her doctors and said he was happy and surprised to see how quickly she was healing up and that her break was showing good calcification. I'm sure that has a lot to do with her years of putting in five days of resistance training and boxing at the gym.

Thank you Shelley for your words and a reminder as to why it's important to be strong for what life throws at us.


A letter from Shelley...

Hello fellow Athletes

I just wanted to send a little note in regards to my recent accident. 

Three weeks ago I fell and broke the side of my left foot. Good thing it was my left foot and not my right foot because I can still drive! One does not realize how fast you can fall and break a bone even if you are in great shape! Things happen in an instant!

Even though I was set up with a walking boot and a night cast I still required “crutches”! When I was leaving the hospital a patient told me that the crutches would “suck” and my arms and shoulders would be in constant pain. I did not like hearing that because I felt horrible as it was! However, I have to say that my arms and shoulders have never once hurt or ached in the past three weeks of using the crutches.  

The reason I have not been hurting is because of the strength and conditioning that I had been doing prior to the accident. In fact I have to say that the strength in my arms and my right leg have really come in handy with manoeuvring around the house and in and out of the car! I never thought I would be saying this but thank goodness for the “pistols” that Paul makes us do. They really have come in handy when I have been trying to stand up! 

I cannot say enough about strength and conditioning training. Even though no one can for see the future the strength training that we do now will have a great impact on our future health.

Thank you Paul for pushing us!!!

Shelley Karpa