“Like most young girls I did dancing (tap and jazz) at an early age. I completed the exams as far as I could. In New Zealand at that time, there was not much you could do with dancing, so I decided to become an aerobics instructor. I became a certified aerobics instructor at the age of 19. Although it was not dancing, it gave me the chance to be creative with warm up routines. I ended up teaching at Club Physical Gym, where I still am today. As an aerobics instructor, I learnt anything new that came about. I taught Step, Circuit classes, Tai Bo (kickboxing), did full-on Boxing as well (fully trained), New Body (movement with small hand weights), Flex or Pump (weight class with barbells), Sculpt (toning with hand weights), Slide (like step but using a slippery surface where you slide from side to side), Spin (on bikes), Pilates – pretty much everything that was available, I learnt it. I taught at the Gym part time and taught all types of classes, right up till my first child, at the age of 39. I had a bit of a break to look after my baby and started to get back into teaching about 6 months after giving birth. I noticed that I was getting more injuries from weight-bearing classes. Even though my form was good, my body was telling me that it didn’t like it. I didn’t listen to my body and continued with most of these classes. I did start to cut down on more high impact classes, but stuck with the weight-bearing ones, until my second child, at the age of 42.
After teaching Essentrics for 3 months, people would come up to me and say ‘you have lost so much weight’. I was shocked as I still weighed the same, BUT what had changed was the shape of my body. Yes, I was still the typical pear-shaped Kiwi, but I was standing taller and gave the illusion of lost weight. Plus, the type of eccentric training means the muscles are elongated, again making you appear thinner. I continued to teach Essentrics, along with a few barbell classes, when in 2013, I started to have major issues with my knee. I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis - from many years of doing weight-bearing exercises. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease, so it’s from ‘wear and tear’. I was told from the specialist to stop all weight-bearing classes and that I would be certainly looking at a knee replacement within the next few years. This led me to give up all classes apart from Essentrics. I was and still am determined NOT to have a knee replacement. The more I taught Essentrics, the more levels I did, the more exams I passed, the more I wanted to learn. In all my years of instructing, and previous examinations, I have learnt more about the anatomy through Essentrics. To this day, 4 years later, I still find myself learning more about the muscles in movement. I have learnt the more you move, the less pain your body is in. I have learnt that even when my knee is painful with the osteoarthritis, if I don’t keep moving and using it, it gets worse. So many people, as soon as they have a diagnosis, give up, they stop moving, when this is the worst thing they could do. I understand that my knee is likely to get worse, but I believe that through Essentrics I can avoid this operation.
2 Comments
Last fall, I was fortunate enough to meet Angela Sutcliffe when she registered for the fall session of Essentrics classes. After one month of classes, she posted the following status update on Facebook: "Today I stubbed my toe ... and it hurt, oh how it hurt ... and after I finished hopping around the house screaming words they didn't teach me at the convent I paused and realized OMG, IT HURT. What you don't know about me (although you may now) is that I can be the Queen of Denial, so for the past three years or so I hadn't wanted to admit to myself or anyone else (especially NOT a medical professional) was that I couldn't actually feel my feet ... they were sort of numb-ish with a bit of tingling. Oh my GP had sent me for all the typical tests ... for diabetes etc. and they had always come out negative ... but still I had a nagging little question about why don't my feet feel right ... why do they feel like they're in a very tight plastic bag? So today, when I felt pain in my foot, it confirmed what I had thought was happening, that feeling was coming back to my feet ...I noticed they were no longer freezing but they were actually warm to the touch. And when I went to my Essentrics with Amanda - Ottawa class and we were doing our stretching I finally understood... the problem with my feet wasn't "organic" in the sense of diabetes, it was tight beyond belief muscles right down to the tips of my toes, and thanks to stretching, moving, lengthening my muscles, my tendons, my fascia ... everything is coming alive again and, for today anyhow, that pain was my body saying "I'm waking up". The reason I'm telling you this is that for a long time I thought health was about diet alone ... about "when I get to a certain weight" ... if I eat right ... but now I have incontrovertible evidence that health is about eating but it is also about moving because no matter how much - or how little - you weigh, tight muscles will slowly take away your quality of life. Whoohoo. Sometimes pain is a good thing! Feelings ... (I'm on the right track!)" Thanks Angela! I'm so glad you've discovered the power of Essentrics. |
Categories
All
Archives
March 2024
AuthorAmanda Sterczyk is an international author, Certified Personal Trainer (ACSM), an Exercise is Medicine Canada (EIMC) Fitness Professional, and a Certified Essentrics® Instructor. |