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AnnMarie's Story:

My Lesson. No life is without struggle. However, it is within the “constant” and the “being” that we overcome our struggles and grow stronger from them. This is my lesson.

In the Fall of 1995, I held my father’s hand as he fought to hold on to the weakened lifeline of his failing body. He had been in ICU for a month, as he struggled to recover from open heart surgery in which he had his own faulty heart valves replaced with pig valves. He barely made it through the first surgery. And just when he had learned that he was due to go in for another replacement procedure (pig valves don’t last forever), my father told my uncle that he’d rather die than go through the surgery again. And that is just what happened.

On August 11th, 2001 at 9:05 p.m., I held my father’s hand again as he slipped into a morphine induced coma and exited the world, ending his struggle forever.

Heart disease runs deep in my family. My grandmother died when my father was 12 from heart disease. My uncle suffered multiple strokes and heart attacks until he finally died in his 40s. And when my grandfather finally passed, he was deaf, blind and had very little motor skills left from a stroke that took away his dignity and eventually his life.

It was May 2007 when I found myself in the ER at 3 a.m. in the middle of the week. Shallow breaths woke me from a sound sleep as I gasped for enough oxygen to fill my lungs. During my visit to the ER, the doctor told me I had a heart murmur and referred me to a cardiologist. It was during that visit that I learned – just as my father had learned at my age – that I too had developed faulty valves.

Stiff, clunky valves were forcing my heart to work twice as hard as the average heart to pump blood through to the rest of my body.

When I went to visit the cardiologist, I was about 25 pounds heavier, working like a dog, didn’t have time to exercise, and my diet consisted of the junkiest of the junk foods. It was a sad sight. My doctor told me I needed to exercise, minimize my stress level and eat healthier to fend off the valve replacement surgery in my future. I needed to lose the fat I was storing around my midsection and keep it off. And above all, I needed to avoid depleting myself. Hmmm … exhausting myself -- is that what they call it? As a true extremist – I’m either on the boat or I’m off the boat entirely – I had no idea what it meant to STOP before complete depletion. If I wasn’t exhausted in everything I did, well then, I felt like I needed to keep going. This “stopping before over exerting myself” thing was a new concept for me and one I knew I had to learn and work on. With the heartache of my dad’s death resurfacing with my diagnosis, it became an obsession for me to find this balance.

This is where The Bar Method comes into play. I had tried everything to exercise my cardio. Kick boxing. Wight lifting. Hot yoga. Running. You name it. And I always found myself physically depleted, exhausted – not energized – after my workouts. My doctor was telling me to exercise and not exhaust myself. That balance was not easy to strike. In order to not feel exhausted, I felt like I had to compromise the integrity of my workouts. And well, that didn’t suit my type A personality, nor did I feel like I was getting the results that I expected spending so much time at the gym.

When my friend – none other than THE Melissa Wilson -- introduced me to The Bar Method, I was sure it would be just as draining as the other workouts. I had grown frustrated by my workouts. I started to believe that it wasn’t the workouts. It was me. It was simply my body, and I would never find the balance required by my doctor.

Oh, but on the contrary. I found The Bar Method to be intense, meticulous, challenging and above all – invigorating – in a way that I had never felt before. It is that surge of energy that follows an hour at The Bar that keeps me coming back for more. Finally, I found a workout that doesn’t deplete me!

I suppose over the past couple of months, you could say that The Bar Method actually COMpletes vs. DEpletes me (okay, and you could say that The Bar Method “had me at hello” too … LOL).  Let me explain.

Shortly after I signed up for the monthly unlimited package, I learned – right around the holidays – that my job was going away. While I didn’t get laid off, I was told I needed to start looking for a job in another group at Microsoft. Stressful. Just a few short months after that, I filed for divorce. Even more stressful. It’s funny how some things are so certain in life – like genes and family history – and some things are just not certain AT ALL.

However, I am thankful for the constant things in my life that make the stress of struggles and uncertainties easier, more manageable, more acceptable.

With the tremendous focus and endurance it requires, my Bar Method workout is THE constant in my life right now. It’s always there. I can go there every day and never feel depleted. It’s helping me keep my health in check, which will please my cardiologist. And, it’s building up my resilience and ability to “get out of my head” during my workouts. It is my energy source during my recent life changes and my life source as I continue to keep my heart strong.

So while indeed no life is without struggle, and I very well may have to have my valves replaced eventually as my father did, I am thankful for the energy and the “being” I gain from The Bar Method. I am stronger from it in more than the physical sense. If I can get through three sets of “Thigh” and a set of “Pretzel,” and feel more energy from it, I know I can do anything -- land the perfect job, get through this divorce and even take on surgery when I need it and come out stronger on the other end. Thanks guys.

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