Wade’s newest fitness goal comes down to doing 1 sit-up. In his words, do a sit-up, unassisted, no cheating—for the first time. Wade’s “The Sit-Up Movie” wittily chronicles his fitness journey towards his #NoMoreNevers goals as well as his battle with dermatomyositis. Throughout his short video he challenges the viewer to consider what goals they thought they could never achieve.
When Wade was 5, he was diagnosed with a rare form of arthritis called dermatomyositis. Dermatomyositis is a neuromuscular condition that causes inflammation and weakness of the muscles and skin. Growing up, Wade experienced major flexibility losses as his muscles atrophied, tightened, and shortened. Wade has been highly committed to his fitness journey over the past few years. He started exercising his upper body and core which he hadn’t really ever done before. He joined his first gym, Vital Strength and Fitness, began training for a marathon, and began preparing to do 37 burpees on his 37th birthday. Wade’s goal is to improve his functional strength and eventually begin to try out new sports for the first time.
The Ultimate Triple Threat
After a snowboarding accident, Wade began to see his physical therapist, Casey, at Therapydia Denver. His rheumatologist, Jason, his Vital personal trainer, Todd, and Casey, came together to assess what some of Wade’s barriers to his goals might be to create a holistic wellness plan. Wade needed to strengthen his core—and one way to do that would be to do a sit-up. In Wade’s case, it’s more than just increasing his muscle size in his core area (i.e. hypertrophy). It’s having all of his muscles in his core area to coordinate one major movement without any joint restrictions (i.e limited lumbar flexion). It also has a day-to-day significance—sitting up, getting out of bed, or reaching over to get some favorite snacks.
#NoMoreNevers
To get this goal, Wade and his team developed a weekly fitness program. It included going to personal training three times a week, physical therapy once a week, an intensive cardio regimen, and daily stretches. Unfortunately, no major effort comes with its setbacks. Wade’s dermatomyositis came out of remission for the time in 20 years. With doubled recovery times and buckets of daily medication, Wade hardly lets it slow him down from completing his prodigal sit-up. According to Wade, it’s not about some sappy monologue, he’s going to do a sit-up.
What’s your #NoMoreNevers?
Thank you Wade for sharing your dynamic fitness journey with us!
