Meet Mary: A Century of Wisdom and Resilience

How many centenarians do you know?

At EFW, our VIP Centenarian is Ms. Mary Adkins who celebrated her 100th birthday on August 25th.

Our story began in 2017 when I first met Mary junior who became a client. After several months of working with me, Mary asked me to meet her sister Susan who was struggling with mobility due to bad hips. We met for lunch and soon after I was working with Susan.

I'll never forget what Susan said to me after a few months of training her. She said, "I'm ready to get moving on my other hip replacement. You've shown me the possibilities for myself and I'm excited and ready to go!" She's been training with me ever since.

In the meantime, the girls shared with Mary senior about how much better they felt since starting with a personal trainer.

Interested in training as well, Mary senior and I connected and before long I was seeing her consistently 2x per week in her apartment. Following COVID, Mary has chosen to train in our studio and comes 2x per week where she works one-on-one with Coach Susan.

Mary has always been an advocate for people exercising and feels it is a life long commitment. Mary worked with a personal trainer in Washington state for years before moving to Houston. When we connected she already had a strong base to work from.

Mary's training sessions have included but are not limited to:

✅ Walking with pace (either through the halls of the apartment complex or outside)

✅ Resistance band pulling and pushing and planks and push-ups

✅ Sit to stands; squat taps; and hinges

✅ Pulling heavy items from the floor & standing up with them

✅ Side stepping with resistance

.....and climbing stairs or performing step ups

Mary is experiencing some age related decline that impact her vision and hearing. But, she is still an avid reader and great conversationalist. She keeps up with family via texts and FaceTime. She enjoys shopping trips and bi-weekly appointments for hair and nails and an occasional ice cream or scotch. 😜 And she reminds me often that style does not and should not decline with age!

Mary took a day off from training last week to enjoy the barrage of family and friends visiting for her birthday but was back to her routine this week.

Her quick wit and sense of humor as well as her dedication to being in the studio is inspiring to all who meet her. We are blessed that she is a part of our community!

Who inspires you to keep moving?

Till next time,

Jackie

PS: enjoy some of the pictures we captured at one of two birthday parties held last week in Mary's honor. One would have to weight train to have lifted that birthday cake! 😵‍💫