Name : Graham Tyler
Age : 40+
Occupation : Gas and Power Economist
Trainer : Nelson
I guess I have never been a fitness freak. Like many I have flirted with getting and maintaining fitness throughout my adult life but have never stuck to it. I came to see Nelson and the Functional Training Institute Singapore (FTI) following an accident. In this accident I broke my upper arm, humerus, which required surgery to ensure that the bone would heal straight. As with many such injuries the broken bone was not the problem, but the soft tissue were. As I was also diagnosed with “frozen shoulder”. After the surgery I was told by the specialist that frozen shoulder is a condition where there is little medical knowledge. He forecast that it could take up to two years to unfreeze and one day it could well clear up on its own. Concurrently I was undergoing physiotherapy, as keeping the arm moving was also recommended during the recovery period. But there appeared little improvement in my range and pain management over the following three to four months. The outlook appeared to be a slow and long recovery period. My wife came across Nelson and the FTI on Facebook via a mutual friend. She noticed a post from Nelson featuring how he had helped a fellow frozen shoulder sufferer recover. The rest as the saying goes is history, I was put in contact with Nelson and started my rehabilitation.
I have never used a personal trainer before. I was therefore surprised and a little sceptical when Nelson said we could fix the frozen shoulder within a couple of months. But I also thought I had nothing to lose and was reassured by knowing that Nelson has had previous experience in fixing this condition. I started nervously at first, thinking that this was one was those Alpha Male/Female gyms where the fittest of the fit hang out. Over time I realised that most of the clients were ordinary folk from all walks of life. Many like me recovering from injury and striving to become pain free. I was pleased that even though I still had restricted movement, my very first session with Nelson had improved the range of movement in my injured arm. We signed up for a package and visited Nelson two or three times a week, each time seeing an improvement in the arm range and pain management. After two months I now have full range of movement. Although I need to continue my exercises daily or else the shoulder refreezes. The pain management is also much better and is limited to when the arm is pushed to the limits of my movement. Nelson achieved this by looking at the problem in a holistic fashion and not just focusing on the injured arm. Therefore, many of the exercises and treatment looked at my posture, all of the muscles in the upper body and lower body too, such as hips. Quite quickly I felt my posture improve and felt reinvigorated after each session with Nelson. The early sessions focused on deep tissue release, with the later sessions on retraining muscles. Although each session would have mix of both release and retraining. No two sessions were identical, with different emphasis and new techniques applied each time. Nelson was calm and very patient, which helped given my lack of balance and hand-eye coordination. At one of the early stages when we had a major breakthrough Nelson showed real joy in the improvement in my arm movement. At this moment I realised he really puts emotional capital into his clients and I felt that he really wanted to fix my shoulder.
I have been training for about three months so far at FTI. The real takeaway for me has been the discipline to continue exercises between sessions, so that there is no remission and each time I can make small steps to improve. This level of discipline in my daily schedule I have not applied since doing a distance learning degree in my late 20’s. The incentive for me is to continue this discipline such that I can achieve what I have promised to my wife, a Graham 2.0. Otherwise all of Nelson and my time and effort would be wasted. I would certainly recommend Nelson to anyone who is determined to improve their fitness. Especially anyone like myself who is recovering from injury and wants to improve pain management. Six months ago the prognosis was that the shoulder could be fixed in up to two years. Thanks to Nelson I now have full arm range movement in around two months; as he first estimated on my fist visit.