Owner, Broken Giraffe Function and Fitness

I had chronic low back pain for nearly two decades. As a teen, I sustained sports injuries, and fell downstairs, breaking my coccyx. By adulthood, I was used to back pain after exertion, sitting, or when fatigued. I did not leave the house without pain reliever in my purse.

Between full-time work, night school, volunteering, and commuting, my schedule got very full. With my limited time, I relied on high-intensity exercises such as aerobics classes and running, on my lunch hour at work. I figured the less time I had available, the more intense I need my workouts to be.

When I became pregnant, I could no longer take Naproxen to cope with back pain. The classes and running were exhausting. Since I saw little value in an exercise that wasn’t high-intensity, I stopped exercising altogether by my third trimester.

The birth did not go well and required intervention. For weeks, I was in a lot of pain in my pelvis and right leg but assumed it was normal. Six weeks post-partum, I immediately returned to running. I worked with a trainer that had me on a high-weight/low-rep program and chalked my pain up to deconditioning. The back pain got worse, my right leg started collapsing, and I couldn’t stand longer than a few minutes.

Eventually, I saw a pelvic floor physiotherapist. She diagnosed me with pelvic floor hypertonicity, a common cause of low back pain and contributor to a difficult birth. I ceased high-intensity/impact, weight-loaded exercise for 6 months, and focused solely on rehabilitative exercises for my core, back, and pelvic floor.

While I made tremendous progress, this did not mean I was ready to run or join spin and body pump classes after physio. This gap of finished-physio-but-not-quite-able-to-return-to-group-classes was the idea behind Broken Giraffe Function and Fitness.

I started to learn about the Minimum Effective Dose (MED) exercise theory, proper core connection, and the importance of recovery. For this cardio junkie, this was a game-changer.

Instead of seeking intensity, I moved towards consistency. I spent less time working out, but I was leaner, stronger, and most importantly, no longer dealing with daily pain.

Changing careers, I got certified as a Personal Trainer in 2015, and opened Broken Giraffe Function and Fitness in 2016. I love sharing my experience and knowledge with my clients Niagara West, Ontario and other areas, and watching them successfully move from rehabilitation to performance.