Vicky's resilience, setting an example

We had the pleasure to ask a few question to Vicky last week. She has such a glowing personality and we knew we would be inspired by her journey.

Take a listen and learn about the power of sport in general, weight lifting in particular. She is helped by Brett, one of the trainers who has established is business Blue Fitness Marble at Willpower Gym.

Below is a transcript of the video if you prefer reading:

WP: Hi Vicky. Hi. All right, tell me a little bit about your health journey.

Vicky: Oh sure, so back in 2009 I was playing soccer, played soccer my whole life. I grew up in Brazil and I was playing goalie that night and moved forward on my left leg to catch the ball and a girl came in really fast and was trying to knock the ball out of my hands. Instead her knee connected with my thigh and dislocated my knee and that exploded the tibial plateau.It ripped three ligaments apart in my knee right off the bone. It gave me nerve damage so I had to have three surgeries within a year and actually relearn how to walk at that point because my ankle doesn't work anymore. It doesn't get a signal so even though the damage was in the knee it impacted my ankle more than anything else.So I wear a simple L-bracket that keeps my toes from dragging so I won't fall down.

So I started CrossFit, kind of gym workouts to help me strengthen myself after I started walking again. I did a lot of rehab that was specific to sports enthusiasts, so sports medicine rehab and I got to the point where I fell in love with lifting.I fell in love with lifting weights, with being in the gym, with seeing how strong I could be. I played with a lot of weight lifting, typical weight lifting and then moved into more of the bodybuilding type weight lifting later.

I've had quite a few trainers.My current trainer is Brett. He's here at Willpower and I love working out with him. We've been together I think now six or seven years.It's been quite a while and he's also helped me through my recovery from breast cancer.

So back in 2023 I was diagnosed with breast cancer and that really, the treatment, the radiation, all of that really took me apart and I had to start over from zero.

WP: So from your knee injury and then through breast cancer and lifting weights through that, how have you seen your body and your mind change over time while recovering from your knee and breast cancer but kind of continuing on, you know your fitness health journey?

Vicky: So one of the things that I have noticed is the more I move my body the better I feel and so it started with simply going back to Pilates class, starting at ones on the way back, moving up to one and a half and now I'm in twos. So that's a level inside Pilates of how difficult it is. I moved from three days a week to five days to week and now I go seven days a week. Part of my post-cancer treatment I take tamoxifen which dries out all your joints and I find if I don't work out early in the morning I don't move very well.I tend to rot on my couch because everything's stiff and I don't feel good. Then coming into the gym to lift three times a week really helps me, helps my mind-body connection.

I find that when I'm in the gym everything else melts away.I'm able to really focus on my own health, my own well-being and my big target is I'm going to turn 60 in two years and I want to be the strongest version of myself as I go into this next phase of life, retired from work but now trying to live life to the fullest.

So we work on lots of things here in the gym that will help me be able to get my suitcase by myself up into the overhead compartment and carry my own things as well. So we do a lot of things that will strengthen the bones and help me recover from cancer treatment.So that's all physical.

WP: Mentally, how does it help you?

Vicky: Actually I call it the dreadmill because I do dread being on the treadmill but I find that that time as I'm walking I especially like when the weather is nice. I'm a fair weather walker when I walk outside because I don't want to slip so I have to be very careful when I walk.I don't want to do any more damage to the leg but I've gained a lot of confidence through a lot of the work that I've done with Brett here in the gym and so I do walk outside when the weather is nice and that really helps rejuvenate me. It helps clear my mind. It helps refocus me on the tasks that I have during the day.Well thank you for your story.

Thank you and I'm super happy to be here at Willpower and working out with Brett every day.