A Burn Survivor Regaining Confidence in the Gym

“Relearning to lift weights went beyond functional strength. It helped me regain my identity.” This is my story.

In May 2016, a life-threatening vehicle accident burnt 75% of my body. Three weeks after my accident, I woke up from a medically-induced coma and found what occurred. Most of my fingers were gone. Arms in the air. Skin transplants began at my feet and legs, then my arms, torso, neck, and face.

I pondered how I would heal, but my main concern was the severe pain of not being able to eat or drink. I recall wondering, when can I drink Gatorade again? Without the burn, doctors thought I would have left the hospital in eight weeks. They doubted I would survive the weekend.

Before moving to “the floor,” where my open wounds could heal, I was in the intensive care unit from early May until mid-July. After my wounds healed, I entered rehab. The rehab facility gave me a vision for my future. I learnt to walk, climb stairs, pick up pencils, and open plastic water bottle lids. These duties are difficult when your hands are boxing gloves from how the physicians wrapped my skin grafts.

At the end of August, three months after my accident, I was released from the hospital. I met someone crucial while in outpatient treatment. Mo was a part-time personal trainer and physical therapist. In addition to helping me with my recovery, Mo found that I was a gym rat who went at least five times a week. Mo promised to get me into the outpatient center’s attached gym shortly. Yes, I thought. After a rehab session in late December, Mo said, “Come on Joey, let’s get you on a machine for something very basic.”

My first gym visit after my injury was scary. Could I shred my skin or injure myself? What might I do here? I’d suffered enough.

Mo took me to a cable machine for standing bicep curls. He configured the machine to zero weight and placed the bar on my wrists. My elbows were still bandaged to avoid infection. I worried what might happen if I sweated while exercising. Struggled through mental barrier. I raised and lowered the curl bar. Single rep. I did another. Two more. I remembered my skills. My confidence returned.

I spent 30 minutes following my outpatient rehab sessions in the gym testing my new physique from that day till the early new year. At the end of January 2017, I graduated from treatment, but I continued. I committed to come to the center and working out more. I used fitness to rebuild self-confidence.

My years at the gym before my injury started paying off as I modified standard lifts to fit my new physique. I couldn’t lift a dumbbell anymore, but I found I can curl a kettlebell on my wrists to target my biceps. I can bench press on a Smith machine but not barbells anymore. I can perform lat pulldowns but not pull-ups.

Plank, my favorite core workout, is my proudest lift modification. I can’t press my toes into the ground or sit with my elbows at 90 degrees. Instead, I move an exercise ball up the long side of a gym bench to start my plank. I gently press my right and left knees onto the ball and slide forward until the exercise ball is on my shins and my elbows are on the workout bench. Consider it a raised plank. Amazingly, the workout strikes my abs like a plank.

Learning to lift weights again went beyond functional strength. It allowed me to be myself again. As I worked out, I saw that I might return to a regular life. Over seven years of labor illustrates what’s possible when you try. I thank Mo, my doctors, my family, and most importantly, myself.

I had felt being a burn survivor would be my weakness. It’s now my greatest strength.