Tyler is one of those ‘forever athlete’ kind of people. He is up far too early. He is in the gym before most people want to think about existing, and often exuding a level of energy that I personally feel offended by. Especially when I walk in the doors at 5:45am with a cup of coffee in my hand, still trying to shake off my sleepiness.
Let me give you readers a little background on Tyler before I continue (trust me, it’ll help with the whole imagery, painting picture thing). Tyler Weldon works as City Manager for the Tallahassee and Valdosta division of D.R. Horton, and is 51 years old. He also loves Instagram reels (this is less important, but if you’re friends with him be ready for an avalanche of content sent your way). That being said, when he’s not spending time doing badass work things and being old, he’s really active. He takes hybrid group classes at Momentum Fitness. He hikes, bikes, canoes, and loves anything to do with endurance training and being outside. He recruited me to assist him in all of his fitness endeavors and unlock new levels of athleticism along the way.
You may think, “Oh my gosh! Abigail, what an awesome client to reach out to you!” Think again. When a client wants to accomplish, well, EVERYTHING, it’s hard to get them to focus on anything at all, and even harder to get them to remain injury free because in all the excitement they tend to do this thing called- hmm, what is it? oh yeah!- too f*cking much. Oh! And at the time of him onboarding with me he was not able to run due to medial knee pain in his right knee. (Yes, this is foreshadowing.)
With clients such as Tyler, you cannot simply tell them that they are doing too much; they don’t care and will assume you just do not understand their physical abilities and continue to work as hard as they damn well please. So I outlined his schedule will all the events he wanted to do, a phased out plan on how to do all of these races and excel in them, and a few words of both advice and warning (it went something along the lines of “this is really quite stupid and we will likely change this but here is your plan”). We got to work. He kept doing too much, and I kept structuring the training plan to increase stability around the pelvis, improve his hip and ankle mobility, and improve strength in rotation/anti-rotation.
About three months into our training, he was beginning to understand just how important the foundational components of training and recovery are, such as nutrition and rest. He realized a lot of his goals were unrealistic. He started observing that he felt great during and after our training sessions, and when he deviated course is usually when he felt pain and fatigue. Thus, he let me revise the training plan, and he began to adhere to it. He took recovery protocols more seriously. He started to feel better.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, Tyler is grappling and running through shooting drills at a Protector 1 Course in Austin, TX and experiencing zero knee pain. Two weeks ago he was hitting blues and blacks on the slopes in Colorado with zero knee pain. Not only is he doing all of this without pain, but he feels strong.
In all seriousness, Tyler is an absolutely incredible client. He works hard, he is a great human being, and he has progressed so much since we have started training- not just physically but mentally. He is confident in his own body’s ability to perform, and THAT, is a win. Let's keep stacking those wins, Tyler.