I heard about Alina through a friend after I went in search of a way to strengthen my body to the point where I could carry around my toddler for more than 10mins without a 2 day recovery.
Most people would think that’s an easy task for a 34 year old male, but unlike my counterparts, I had a major spinal surgery under 3 years ago.
A dual level spinal fusion in my lumbar spine was the result of an overly active, and extreme life of skateboards, snowboards BMX and 2 car accidents. First year it was learning to walk again, physio and getting around the house, yard and eventually to drive a car.
We had our child in this year and the tiny little infant could send my back into spasms just from carrying her around.
Second year was the realisation that she’s not getting any smaller, and I would have to address this one day soon or I would never live a "normal" life with my child.
I continued physio, changed my diet, and started walking a lot. My walk began to get faster to the point I could jog 2-4 steps albeit painful, but I had a goal. Each week I would try to add one more step in my jog (if you ever watched Forrest Gump break from his braces then you can picture me doing that because that’s as close to the real picture as I felt)
Each month I would use my body's own resistance to build more strength in hopes that I could get back to a "normal" life.
When I met my wife I was young, fit and had no off button, 5 years later I was a mess and out of shape. I wanted to give back to her the body of the person she had met, wanted to pick her up, pick our child up and climb every mountain.
We eventually moved back to the beautiful Sunshine Coast, by this stage I could carry my daughter for 10-15mins at a time, but still took a day or 2 to recover from it.
I decided one day to push a mental and physical boundary and challenged myself to walk up Mount Coolum with my family.
My wife carried our daughter up the mountain in a baby sling... I thought to myself, why not carry her for the 20 min walk back down, I mean I had made it up the thing so if I took my time I could do it, and so I did!
At the bottom I felt amazing, endorphins firing, goals smashed and a great day out with the family. The next morning I woke up with a very sore back as if I had been carrying a car around the day before (she is only 11KG)
2nd day the pain was still there but now that I was recovering I contacted a mate and asked him if he knew any PT's in the area because I couldn’t go another day knowing every time I had one good day, it would take two bad to even out!
He told me about two, one was a guy who worked out of a gym franchise and was your run of the mill PT, who after a quick google I found no results of positive or even negative feedback..NEXT... He told me about Alina…. a quick google again, body transformation photos, a long list of happy clients, I decided I would give it a go, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by not going out on my own and jumping in a gym to workout how I had done a decade before I had major surgery.
I met Alina in a coffee shop where she laid out what she does, who she is, and we set out goals.
Not long after I was getting up early in the mornings for my F.I.R.E. (Focused Intense Resistance Exercise) sessions with her and a lovely crew.
Each week went by, and every bit of tailoring was met with care and skilled professionalism.
Smashing goal after goal I noticed back at home that I could carry around my toddler more and more with every passing week.
11 weeks later I went for a 5km bush walk in the falls of Montville with my family and carried my daughter for over an hour without a single twitch the next day!
By week 12 I had just over doubled my starting weights and learnt a set of gym life skills that will continue to help me grow for years to come.
If you ever thought you should shape up, couldn’t ever get better or wanted to try to push the limits of your body to work with your mind the way you want to imagine, then I hope my story helps inspire you to give it a shot.
Alina is an amazing person and trainer and I wouldn't have settled for less than that to get me to my goals.
