Doing what you can, when you can’t do what you want

I have been an active individual all of my life. For as long as I can remember my left shoulder has caused problems for me. In recent weeks it has been worse than normal and I have even seen a surgeon to get it looked at. They gave me 2 options cortisone shot, or go in and look and perform surgery. With some guidance I am choosing option 3, rehabbing it and getting it looked at when awesomeness goes into full effect in about a month.

While I have been sidelined with this I haven’t been able to be as active as I would like to be due to pain levels. I have made it my point to make sure to take a good look at my nutrition and get it on a good level.  It has taken about a month of really working at it but I have gotten to a point where I don’t want to eat junk food. Yes I still have ice cream, but I don’t want it all the time, and it is in smaller portions. I am lucky enough to have a large garden at my disposal ripe with fresh lettuce, broccoli,  squash, zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, corn and green beans (there are other veggies too but these are the ones I like). 

Even with the sporadic workouts and indifferent energy level while trying to rest and rehab I have managed to lose weight, because of the change in diet. This gets me very excited for when I am able to get back into longer training bouts because I have spent the time working on my nutrition, that my fitness will be able to pair with it well. I am making the best out of the situation I am in. 

Making a change like this doesn’t happen overnight, it took a month for me. And it isn’t always easy. But sitting around and feeling sorry for yourself while you heal or deal with injury, doesn’t help you heal, it just hampers your mental state, leading to other compounding factors. 

I have taken this setback of pain as a learning experience, I am a nerd of course, and I like challenges, taking the easy isn’t fun, and you don’t get anything out of it. So if you happen to get injured or are hindered from doing an activity you want to do, do what you can to better yourself by focusing on another variable and improving something else.

The best thing I do all week

I work with personal training clients, I coach my swimmers, I study different books, I am exploring different hobbies with my newly acquired free time. While these activities make up a good portion of my week and they are enjoyable and make up my life there is one hour each week that stands above the rest.

On and off for almost a year now I spend my Tuesday nights volunteering with the YMCA Challenger program as a buddy helping with various sports. Out of everything that happens in my week this is the best thing I can do. Through Challenger I have been fortunate enough to get to know a lot of young people with physical and or mental impairments and help them play sports and have fun while doing it. The most important aspect is that the athletes have fun, and I don’t think I have ever seen an athlete leave unhappy. 

No matter how my day or week has been I look forward to Tuesday nights. I look forward to the smiles and happy faces of the kids given an opportunity to play a sport they enjoy with friends. Tonight we were in the second week of our bowling program, and the pins were flying. Earlier in the summer I helped with baseball, and last fall was tennis. The sports create a strong community for kids who might not have gotten a chance to participate otherwise.

I write this post as words of encouragement to promote volunteerism of any kind to help something that is close to you. I have chosen to donate an hour of the week to Challenger, you may choose to help other charities, any amount of help is appreciated. Realize that you always have something to give even if you don’t have the monetary resources to do so. I don’t have the money to give a lot yet but when I do, it will be given to others who need it in my community. Giving your time is a valuable option and it allows you to gain a perspective you might have missed in your life journey thus far. Just my one hour a week has helped me create friendships and help others, this is truly the best thing I can do all week.

I have a Masters... now what?

Last Thursday I finished up my last two assignments for my Masters degree in Exercise Science. Between this last 5 week semester of two classes, work and trying to have a life I was extremely busy. However I will always tell you I would rather be busy than bored.

After I finished up my assignments I took a minute and just sat. I let my mind wander to the places it goes when I let it. This time it started to think about how that could potentially be the last assignments I ever turn in to get a grade for a class. For me that is a tough concept to grasp.

  

In grade school I got work done easily and in high school I was too busy being a big fish in a pretty small pond to focus on my grades, I was complacent, because I didn’t have to apply myself.  I got my reality check quickly when I was in college. I had more freedom then ever but school was actually something I had to work at. For the last 2 and a half years of my college career I worked harder than ever before, I still could have done better but it’s a moot point now. After unsuccessfully getting into Doctorate of Physical Therapy programs, for now two years, last summer I applied and got into an online master of science program from California University of Pennsylvania in Exercise Science, with a concentration in rehabilitation sciences. This program was again an eye opening experience. The program at CALU is in conjunction with the National Academy of Sports Medicine and allowed me to get a certification as a Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES). All and all it taught me a lot about movement which has aided me as a health professional and a personal trainer.

Some of the other courses focused on different aspects of Exercise science, advanced exercise physiology, nutrition, research etc. My favorite among these courses was a leadership class. Like all classes you get out what you put into it, this one was a tad bit different. It forced me to look at me as an individual and analyze what I do and don’t do well. It was humbling but truly necessary for personal and professional growth. That class made me a personal mess and created an uneasy feeling in my stomach when working on some assignments. I mean who likes to be brutally honest with themselves and realize they have a lot of areas they can improve on to be a better person. But after the weeks of exercises and reflections I came out a lot better than when I started. I had realized I wasn’t a very fun person to be around due to the lifestyle change of work and school and living back with my parents. So I applied those changes and started to feel a lot better about myself and as soon as my outlook changed life started to change for the better.

I have been in formal schooling for 20 years. I am burnt out, but yet it has been a constant in my life that is hard to think of being without. I have been finished for 3 days and I am already bored.  I now get to really focus on continuing to learn about different aspects of fitness not present in the traditional educational realm, myofascial release, movement, programming for specific needs, and whatever else I want to read (Batman graphic novels to be specific).

I am still contemplating going back and retaking the pre-requisites I need to try and get into a Doctorate program. But as for now I will bid adieu to formal schooling, I will learn everyday as much as I can, as a professional and a person and summon up all the patience I have to see what lies ahead (more on that later) because it has a lot of potential to be a fun and crazy ride in the near future. 

I’m excited for it

David J Bromberg MS