Understanding what true strength is. . .

. . .has become a part of my life in the last few months. A friend of mine named Jim, who is a client as well, just defeated cancer for the second time in two years. Christmas of 2005 he had testicular cancer (seminoma) and beat that with radiation. This Christmas he battled the same cancer that had spread to his lymph nodes, and he defeated that with Infusion Chemotherapy. This man and his wife have trudged through some serious shite in the last 16 months, and he smiles through it every day. he returned to kettlebell training last week, and has come back strong. Soon, he will be stronger.

A few months ago I received a telephone inquiry from a man who wanted to interview me for the position of Strength Trainer for his 12 year old son Sam. Sam contracted meningitis, which led to encephalitis, which then led to cerebral ataxia, a brain injury that left him, as his parents described, like a victim of a massive stroke. He was curled over, unable to speak or move, being spoon fed, all before puberty. Sam was left with no balance, and no stregnth in his body. To this day, he walks with a stumble and had a very hard time stabilizing his body in any given position. Snatches and Get Ups were out of the question. He got sick when he was ten years old. As far as the doctors can tell, Sam has made a remarkable recovery. From no motor skills at all to living the life of your every-kid, the physical and mental rehabilitation this boy went through was tougher than any workout I could cook up, any 10 minute snatch test, or any teen angst. Sam's father hired me as his son's trainer. The one who would take his baby boy into the arenas his physical therapists and doctors could not. I will admit, I was very nervous about this whole thing. I consulted with two M.D's in regards to whether or not this kid needed me, or a more experienced individual. They both threw it back in my face and said that if the kid's parents trusted me, and if PT just was not enough, was there any question that I was the one to get this kid strong and playing sports again? The Doctors hammered me with encouragement and off I went. Sam and I did nothing but practice the KB dead lift and military press for four weeks. After rapid improvement in his Kb lifting and in his day-to-day, we stepped it up slowly, and diligently. Yesterday, after only ten weeks of weight training, Sam performed his first set of kettlebell swings with an 8kg 'bell. I was jumping all over his parent's living room and high fiving him like he just scored a game winning goal. Because he did. He won. A bacterial infection that entered his body with the intent to kill him had lost. Sam is healthy, strong, and making quantum leaps in his life every time he moves his feet.

For those of you who may not know me very well, I have been manic-depressive my entire life. I will not trump up my personal struggles, because there are people like Sam, and my friend Jim, who have faced much more ferocious adversaries in their lives. My battle is within my head. When my body hurts, so does my brain, and, I think, vice versa. But it is a fight. I have an enemy who lives under my skin and tries to take my legs out every so often. My clients and friends and family tell me that I can beat it, and that if I ask for help I will get it, and that my career may be threatened if I do not. And most recently, I have listened to them. In no horn-tooting fashion do I say this, but I have gift. And it suffers every time I cocoon. Every time I go internal and hang out in dark places, I lose a bit of that gift. But I have been coming back strong and stronger each time. And with the examples given to me by Jim and Sam, I see that no malignancy, no bacterium is any match for the power of the human spirit. That sounds so terribly cliche, and I know that people die from cancer and infection, but for those who go down swinging, there is another who will fight on and show people like me what true strength really is.

Fighting,
Eric "Will" Williams