From Feet Pain to Relief: A Stretching Success Story
Most everyone that I work with, privately or in a group class, has a story about how they wound up seeking Stretch Therapy to relieve some form of pain in their body.
For some, stretching is a last resort effort to avoid surgery.
Some want to avoid injuries so they can stay active.
Some just want to feel good in their body all the time.
Some of my students have become so tight that they can hardly move — so they move less and less.
I always know my private student’s stories because we spend a lot of time together. I don’t always know the stories of the many students who attend my classes at my studio or at the local YMCA that I teach at.
A few weeks ago, at the end of my stretch class at the Y, a man approached me to ask me if he could tell me his story.
You see, during that class, while we were stretching our feet, I told everyone that I had a new private student coming to my studio that day.
He is a personal trainer who is on his feet all day. His feet were killing him; he could hardly stand on them at the end of each day. He had tried everything to get some relief, but nothing had helped so far. One of his clients had recommended him to me, so he was coming to see if stretching would help as a last resort.
This story had impacted the man who had been stretching with me at the Y that day.
He told me, “I want to tell you my story, so that you can tell this to your new private student today who has feet issues.”
He told me that his wife had recommended that he try my stretch class at the Y to see if it would help him. He said that when he started taking my class, his feet were hurting so bad, he could hardly stand it. He told me a story about him being at Home Depot, at the back of the store, and his feet started hurting so bad, he didn’t think that he would be able to make it back to the front of the store. He had to sit down!
He had been to the podiatrist, other doctors, and physical therapists. None had been able to help! None had been able to identify exactly what was causing the pain in his feet.
But it wasn’t his feet causing the issue — it was his tight quads and calves causing the pain.
He didn’t realize that until he came to stretch in my class!
He told me that since began stretching, his feet no longer hurt him. He was proud to announce that he had walked the entire mall with his wife and had no pain in his feet at all.
He had his shoes in his hands and reached inside one of them to pull out his orthotic insert. He said, “And these ‘blank blank’ things cost me $600. And didn’t do a ‘blank blank’ thing to help me.”
I asked him why he still had them in his shoes if they didn’t work, and he said, “Because they cost me $600 ‘blank blank’ dollars.”
So funny!
He said, “Connie, you have no idea how much stretching has truly changed my life! I wanted you to know, and I want you to share my story with your student today so he will have hope that his feet will get better if he stretches.”
Seriously, I almost cried right there in front of him. You can’t imagine how much this man and his story touched my heart.
Truth is… his wife brought him to my class hoping that it would help him. (Way to go, wife!) But he kept coming back to classes. He put the effort and time into his busy schedule. Sometimes with her and sometimes without. He showed up!
To be honest, I see him there in classes, but he is very quiet — I never knew that he had issues with his feet.
I saw his wife a few days later and told her how much I appreciated her husband telling me his story about his feet and how much it meant to me. She was shocked that he told me. She didn’t know. She said, “I can’t believe he did that. He is usually so quiet and private. That is amazing. Stretching has truly changed his life. Thank you, Connie.”
I said, “No, no, thank you for bringing him to class.”
There really are not big enough words to express how much his story means to me. To know that my love for stretching had a small part in changing the trajectory of a person's life is the most rewarding thing that could ever happen to me. It has motivated me to keep on keeping on my path of teaching and educating people about the life-changing benefits of stretching!
I hope this story has also motivated you to stretch so you can stay active and feel great in your body at all times!
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