Fit Mom's Blog

THINGS THAT MOTIVATE ME

My good friend, Becky Stull, one of the fitness instructors at the YMCA recently had a heart attack. I love my fitness instructors!! She has a really important story to tell about how she continued to workout throughout her recovery and her current fitness goals.

1. What kind of certifications do you have and how many classes were you teaching at the time of the heart attack?

I am certified by ACE (American Council on Exercise) for both Group Fitness and Personal Training. I also am Certified by Spinning and I have taken several certification classes through the YMCA to teach their specific programs, such as, Healthy Back, Weight Management and Yoga on the Ball. At the time of my heart attack I was teaching 7 classes a week. 3 Spinning, 2 Resistaball and 2 Active Older Adults low impact aerobics along with subbing Pilates Reformer sometimes.

How long have you been teaching at the Y?

I started teaching at the Y over 20 years ago back when there was only hi-low aerobics! How time flies when you are having fun. “Back in the day” they let anyone teach who thought they could. No certifications required.

Have you always been involved with exercise?

I didn’t start exercising until I was 31. I remember going to my first aerobics class. I felt so awkward and had no idea what the heck a grapevine was, but was determined and came back for my second class 2 days later and was hooked from there. My girls at the time were 1 and 3. Like most of you it was great to come to the Y and put them in the babysitting and have that hour to myself.

2. Explain the type of heart attack, and your recovery from it. What kinds of exercise were you doing throughout your recovery period?

I am not sure what kind of heart attack you’d call it, but it wasn’t typical. They did an angiogram while I was in the hospital which showed that my arteries were clean. Since they couldn’t attribute it to clogged arteries, they said it was due to a virus. I have to think they are right because over the course of the year before it happened I had a very nagging cough which had lingered on after having a typical cold/flu. Hind site being 20/20 I should have gone to the doctor, but I don’t think that even he would have put it together that something had gone wrong with my heart because of what I do for a living. As far as recovery, I’m not sure that I will actually recover. Having said that, they have wonderful medications that have made it so that I almost feel like my old self. So I am able to go about my business most of the time as if nothing ever happened. I am however facing the possibility of having to have a pacemaker put in. The reason being that after 6 months of recovery I had a second echocardiogram which actually showed no improvement in my heart function. That was pretty surprising to me since I had had a marked improvement on the treadmill. The treadmill and the weight machines are what I solely used to build myself back up.

3. Now that you are well, how many classes are you teaching a week?

I am recently back in my resistaball class 2 times a week. That class probably shouldn’t be called resistaball any more. We use every type of equipment in that class, the rubber bands, the hand weights, weighted bars, bender balls, gliding discs and now we have the BOSU which is a great tool. Then I have 3 Pilates Reformer classes on the schedule. I’m going to go back into my former Active Older Adults Aerobic class soon to see if I can teach that and I’ve already been back in the Spin room to sub a time or two. I am going to g through a full weekend training in January for Pilates Reformer and another instructor and I have just signed up to go to a fitness convention in April in CHICAGO!

Do you have any fitness goals you are working towards right now?

My main fitness goal right now it to try to work on taking off the pounds I put on since this all happened. Before, I was teaching 2 classes a day several days a week and when I only had one class I’d walk in the treadmill. So when I got sick I went from working out 2 hours a day to only being able to do 30 minutes and only at about 1/4 the intensity I used to do. That, with all the medications I take which slow down my heart rate and lower my blood pressure you can see that I am kind of behind the 8 ball on that one. I guess also, try to keep working as hard as I can and hope that my heart will get strong enough so that I don’t have to have a pacemaker implanted.

4. Can you offer any tips, bits of wisdom, things you’ve learned from this whole experience?

Yes I do. Don’t ignore yourself! I only get paid when I work and I never made time for doctor check ups because I’d loose pay. My other excuse is I’d tell my classes that I was afraid to go because they’d find something that would make it necessary to take a pill for, but that pill would do something to me that would make it necessary to take another pill to counteract what the first pill was doing to me.

Right now I have 6 different prescriptions and they are all working fine!