{"id":32,"date":"2020-03-19T17:38:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T17:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/?p=32"},"modified":"2021-07-15T16:13:55","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T16:13:55","slug":"bill-hathorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/bill-hathorn\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Hathorn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When you least expect someone to change your life, it happens.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My client of 14 years, Greg O\u2019Quin, called me and basically told me to call his best friend to see about training him.  GULP.  I have nothing but respect for Greg, so (ya\u2019ll know how I feel about phone calls) I called him\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told me the wonderful things Greg had told him about training with me.  He then went on to tell me about his medical history, his recovery, his concerns and what he could and could not accomplish in his physical capacity.  I sat quietly listening to a broken man.  There was no way I was not finding him a spot on my roster.  This was going to be a challenge, but I was ready and willing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On our first impression date, Bill was timid, resistant, apprehensive and challenged.  My goal was to get him out of his comfort zone and earn his trust.  \u201cI can help you but you have to allow the process to work.\u201d  He began to relax and comfortably work in directions I pushed him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long after, I would see him getting a little \u201cfroggy\u201d and balancing with no hands, almost skipping with leg cross overs, stepping with no assistance, pushups, squats, rowing, cycling and so much more.  You see, I wasn\u2019t helping Bill, he was helping himself.  His confidence was exceeding my expectations.  His will to live big was coming to life.  His love of physical activity was more than it had been in years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill taught karate for over 40 years.  He has all kinds of fancy names for moves and kicks and punches.  I\u2019m lost most of the time but his story telling is captivating\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karate was his life.  He was telling about these \u201ckata\u201d sequences he performed before he got sick.  His face just lit up when he spoke about it.  He said, \u201cI\u2019m going to do one for you one day.\u201d   \u201cWith certainty Bill, I know you will\u201d.  That day came sooner than later.  He said, \u201cI think I\u2019m ready\u201d.  His stare confident, his form still sharp, his balance with pivot turns, his one-legged kicks, and the poise of any sensei, Bill completed it.  There are no words to describe my heart at that moment.  I had tears streaming down my face (as I do now).  I witnessed a broken man be brought back to life.  What an incredible moment it was.  Since then, I have been fortunate to see more kata movements (and cried every time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is was perseverance and determination look like.  Bill Hathorn is a gift.  His life is a testament of what can be achieved in the worst times.  It\u2019s never too late to get your life back or to show off your kata moves.  Age is no factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is something special and I look forward to seeing his chipper self 3x a week.  Be bold and be ready for anything when I get a hold of you.PS.  Bill fought Chuck Norris\u2026  I KNOW RIGHT! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay Strong, Mitzi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
My friend, Bill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WHEREIN I SING THE PRAISES OF ONE MITZI FAIRBANKS<\/em><\/strong> by Bill Hathorn
I\u2019d like to give a shout-out to Mitzi by telling you where I\u2019ve been and how far I\u2019ve come with her help. The last couple of years or so, have been, I dunno, not a lot of fun?  In December of 2017 I fell and broke my hip.  While in rehab, I rolled over in bed one night and it broke again.  Then I developed pneumonia and flat-lined.  That was kinda a bad start to a bumpy ride.   In early 2018 I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma\u2014a form of bone cancer that causes the bones to be soft and brittle.  It\u2019s in a dormant stage, but I travel to the University of Arkansas Medical Science Center in Little Rock every 3 months for tests and treatments and visit my oncologist here in  Alexandria once a month for tests and shots.   During one of these visits to Arkansas in the spring of 2018, during a routine MRI, I was found to have 6 compression fractures in my lower back.   It seems the cancer had weakened my bones without me knowing it and the pain had gotten pretty severe.  It was also around this time that I developed Peripheral Neuropathy in my lower legs.   In April of 2019, I had an amazing surgery\u2014Kyphoplasty (or Vertebroplasty) to repair two of the vertebrae.
In June of 2019, Dr. Jeffrey Garrison discovered I had a torn meniscus in my left knee.  During the examination, he found that I have what he calls a non-functioning PCL\u2014posterior crucial ligament.  You\u2019ve heard of athletes tearing their ACL?  Well, the PCL is the ligament behind the knee that stabilizes it.  I didn\u2019t even know I HAD a PCL, and then to discover I did\u2014only it didn\u2019t function got me sorta indignant on myself and Dr. Garrison.  Mine just doesn\u2019t work.  You can hold my shin bone and actually just roll it around in the socket.   It\u2019s not pretty to watch and likely not fun to read about either but that\u2019s how to best describe it.  ( I spent 15 years as a catcher in baseball, over 40 years studying and teaching karate, and a helluva lot of time walking up and down mountains and maybe that combination has taken its toll.)  At any rate, at my age \u201468 and counting, an operation is not an option.   So, he went ahead and repaired the meniscus and that was no big deal\u20146 weeks of therapy to rehab it.  But something else happened.  For the year or so prior to this surgery I had been pretty much confined to a bed or a wheelchair\u2014and I had to actually be lifted into the wheelchair.  I also required 24-hour care, 7 days a week.  After  6 weeks of rehab, I had graduated to a walker(Oh, happy day!) and so, on my follow up visit with Dr. Garrison, we decided to continue the therapy for six more weeks, and then 4 more weeks after that\u2014all to strengthen my quads to improve stabilization in my left knee.

In the span of 6 months, I had had back surgery, knee surgery, and 4 months of therapy.   The therapy was positive for me \u2013except for two things:  1) We worked only my lower body the entire time and, 2) It was mind-numbingly repetitive.  For four months I did the same 20 or so exercises 45X\/day, an hour\/day, 3 days a week with almost zero variation.

OK, so now I\u2019m done with the rehab\/therapy, am definitely feeling progress, am getting around (barely) with a walker, and figuring this is about the best it\u2019s going to get for me.   But I didn\u2019t want to resign myself to that, didn\u2019t want to back-slide, and decided to look into some other options\u2014one of which was a gym not far from my house..  I figured I\u2019d need a personal trainer to show me around and get me started but maybe for no longer than a month.  I had no idea what I was getting into.     Greg O\u2019Quin is a life-long friend of mine who, through all of this, had been supporting and encouraging me every step of the way. He knew that the two things I missed most in life were fly fishing and travelling.  Our idea was that, if I could continue to show improvement in my mobility, I could travel to Colorado and fish with him on some of the many rivers I\u2019d come to love there.   We went over my idea of the gym, the fact that I didn\u2019t want to backslide from what I\u2019d accomplished, and he said he had a trainer he\u2019d been seeing for about 14 years (who was, truth be told, as much of a mental therapist as a personal trainer).  He said her name was Mitzi Fairbanks, she kept it interesting, and he\u2019d give her a call.

After a few days of phone tag, I actually got to speak with her, and we scheduled a meet-up for the following Monday. I CAN SAY, WITH NO RESERVATION WHATSOEVER, THAT THAT PHONE CALL CHANGED MY LIFE AND MY OUTLOOK ON WHAT MY LIFE COULD BE.   At that first meet-and-greet, I gotta say I was pretty skeptical.  I went over with her all the same stuff I just wrote about here\u2014maybe in the back of my mind kinda half-way thinking (hoping?) I would scare her off.  She just looked at me and, I swear, the girl never batted an eye.  [In truth (and in hindsight) I think she was sorta eyeing me like some rough piece of stone (or more likely balsa wood) that would give her plenty of opportunities to test her mettle\u2014both as a personal trainer and as a person.]  She had a confidence about her that was bordering on, but not quite, smugness\u2014 like she was already saying to herself\u2014Yeah, I got this!  Now don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014I liked this but, if I\u2019m being honest, she was a tad on the scary side\u2014kinda like a mad scientist wringing her hands at the opportunity to see just what she could do with such a sad, pitiable specimen, all the time her mind racing ahead of itself.   <\/em>If you know Mitzi, you\u2019ll know exactly what I\u2019m talking about.   But I did have a couple of concerns.  One that we would train only 2X\/week.  The other was that we\u2019d only go for 30 minutes a pop.   This didn\u2019t seem quite enough.  She soothed my doubts on the first one by agreeing to work me into her schedule for a 3X\/week routine. And after the first 30 minutes of the first session, I was easily convinced that 30 minutes would be just fine, a gracious plenty, thank you very much!  Within 10 minutes of the first workout I knew I had found the perfect person for what I needed.  We\u2019ve been on a happy roll ever since\u2014well, happy for me at least.  Well, MOSTLY<\/em> happy for the two of us at least.  There was, in fact, the one time she damn near ended what had been, by all accounts, a pretty good relationship.    We approached a station where she rigged up two straps with handles on them.  That would have been fine but she took it a step further.  Instead of having me hold onto both handles and pull myself up from about a 45 degree angle, she looped one handle into the other and had me try it with one arm.  I was feeling all cocky about myself, thinking she had the confidence in me that I could even attempt this when one handle slipped out of the other and sent me sprawling half-way across the gym!  I lived to tell the tale but, I have to say, it\u2019s taken a while for her to regain all that confidence we\u2019d worked so hard for.  In truth, I was barely rattled.  She, on the other hand, decided I needed a break while she composed herself and vowed never to go back to that machine again.  Not ever! (Hell, now that I think about it, I can\u2019t say if we\u2019ve even stepped foot in that PART of the gym since then though I could be wrong about that.)   There are many, many great things about training with her\u2014her confidence, her encouragement, her patience(!), her enthusiasm, passion, knowledge, communication skills, support, cheerfulness, and her honesty.  But one of the biggest things is her crazy creativity.  Every time we approach a machine, I chuckle to myself wondering what in the world she\u2019s going to use if for.   I mean most times a particular piece of equipment has an obvious purpose.   I mean you jump with a rope, throw a ball, lift a weight, push on this, pull on that, right?  But it\u2019s a rare day when she uses ANYTHING for its intended and clear purpose.  And rarely, if ever, do we do the same thing twice from one session to the other.    She absolutely delights herself in finding inventive ways to get more uses out of the most ordinary looking tool in the gym. <\/em>  I\u2019ll look at her and say, \u201cThis really wasn\u2019t intended for this exercise was it?\u201d  She\u2019ll get this grin on her face and say,\u201d Probably not.  So?\u201d  And off we go as I dutifully agree to pretty much whatever she tells me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


I swear there are least a dozen pieces of equipment that we\u2019ve visited at least a half-dozen times each, that we still haven\u2019t used for their original purpose\u2014for what the designers actually intended them for.   (But, if I\u2019m being honest, I\u2019ve come to the conclusion she really has no clue as to what at least half the machines were intended for in the first place and is just making  things up as we go along.) <\/em>  There are a couple of downsides to training with her though:  She has a nasty habit of saying \u201cOK.  You\u2019re done\u201d, when I know damn well we\u2019ve only been at it 10-maybe 12 minutes tops, and she\u2019s sure enough cheated me out of a good part of my allotted (and paid good money for) time. And I realize it\u2019s a pretty safe bet that I\u2019m not going to make the cover of GQ this spring as she\u2019s promised (more than once!).  That\u2019s just some sort of cruel little joke she likes to play but I go along with it.  It seems to make her happy and that\u2019s OK too even if it comes at my expense.     And while I might not make the cover of GQ this spring (or next, or ever), I AM going fly fishing in Arkansas in a few weeks and I AM travelling to Colorado to fish with Greg this summer!  And I AM cooking for friends, showering without help, grocery shopping, walking my dog, driving myself to appointments, and doing so many of the little things that we all take for granted until we can\u2019t do them.  And I owe all of this to Mitzi. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n


One last thing:  In karate there are these things called kata.  They are increasingly difficult sequences of pre-arranged moves addressing different responses to actual fighting scenarios.  They take varying degrees of balance, strength, flexibility, and coordination \u2013each of which I\u2019ve been totally devoid of these past years.   Early on I had told Mitzi about  katas and told her that if I could only get to the point where I could do just one of the most basic, beginner kata all the way through, I would feel like myself again.  Well, one day, after doing some balance drills that reminded me of one, I showed her Naihanchi Shodan.  I looked over at her and I\u2019ll be damned if the girl wasn\u2019t crying.  A few days later I showed her another, slightly more advanced one.  She cried again.  <\/strong>Now if that doesn\u2019t make her something very, very special, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to tell me what does.   While I might never make the cover of Gentleman\u2019s Quarterly, what Mitzi has given me is more than enough.  Way, way more.  And it\u2019s more than I could have hoped for.  
And, to be sure, one day I\u2019ll perform an advanced black belt kata for her.  That should REALLY<\/em> set her off!  And I might just bring her a trout from the Eagle River in Colorado!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you least expect someone to change your life, it happens. My client of 14 years, Greg O\u2019Quin, called me and basically told me to call his best friend to see about training him.  GULP.  I have nothing but respect for Greg, so (ya\u2019ll know how I feel about phone calls) I called him\u2026 He… Continue reading Bill Hathorn<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athlete-stories","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/33"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.strongwithmitzi.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}