Have you ever known someone who carries pain but never shows it?

That’s how it is with Heather.

She is a warrior.

Whereas I can usually spot subtle body cues to tell me of another person’s discomfort, with Heather I have to consciously remember to ask about her Inflammatory Arthritis . . . and how the symptoms are playing out that day. She is so full of grace and a soul-enriched beauty that it almost appears as if she has risen above her pain.

But for those who live with the discomfort of arthritis, autoimmune disease, or other chronic pain . . . there’s no true transcendence . . . only better or worse ways of managing the symptoms.

Having already lived for most of her life with tendencies towards anxiety and depression, she’d become all too familiar with how easy it can be to drop out of life, to make excuses, to not move . . . from feeling tired or not feeling well.

Yet, she’d discovered over the years, that the benefits of exercise were so much more than physical . . . that she also benefitted emotionally and spiritually. Those benefits have allowed her to stay engaged in life.

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After being diagnosed with Inflammatory Arthritis earlier this year, Heather lost momentum in doing some of the things she loved . . . including her yoga practice. She turned to The Fittest Me in hopes that increased strength would reconnect her with the more challenging positions of yoga that had recently alluded her.

As a result of her strength training with us, she has experienced various benefits . . . some of which she hadn’t anticipated:

• improved stamina and strength for yoga

• greater confidence in moving again

• knee pain completely eliminated

• better grip strength

• overall upper body strengthening

• stress relief

In looking at what has stood out to her over the five months she’s trained at The Fittest Me, she said:

“I always feel known and heard in these walls . . . that what I need from day to day is being considered. You see me as more than a woman of my age with prior experiences. I know that I can trust you to stretch my limits without going beyond my abilities. Working out here has built my confidence.”

Heather, it is always a pleasure to work with you. May you continue to gain strength and utilize movement as one of your tools for combating the symptoms of arthritis.

-Coach Rebecca