A Clients Tale- Andrea's Story

“Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you.

Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out…” Alanis Morissette (1995, Ironic)

It was a beautiful spring day in Canton, OH when the simple act of leaning over our

hotel room’s desk to unplug my phone charger changed my trajectory, initially very

painfully and then into a blessing for my overall health.

My husband and two sons and I had ventured down to Cleveland and Canton Ohio

areas to see the Great American Total Eclipse of 2024. We made it into a mini-vacation,

with stops at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame and then

to find the best spot to be in the path of totality and witness almost four full minutes of its

beauty.

On the morning of April 7 th I did the simple tasks of packing up our belongings at our

hotel and felt a sharp pain in my low back. I figured I could do some stretches and work

it out and it was probably due to all the driving we had been doing to get to Ohio from

just outside Peterborough, Ontario. Unbeknownst to me, this was the straw that broke

my proverbial camel’s back as I was later diagnosed with a herniated disc. I managed

the pain through the day with Ibuprofen and topical analgesics, but after the Total Solar

Eclipse on April 8 th , we had an 8+hour drive home. Not pleasant!

Once home I continued gingerly moving around and medicating to ease the pain. I was

able to get into my chiropractor and with the range of motion I had to go through to

figure out the cause of the pain, the whole situation was aggravated and by the morning

of the 12 th , I was incapacitated and experiencing pain close to levels I had not felt since

childbirth!

As I navigated this first week from the 12-19 th , I initiated several therapies -herbal,

essential oils, a TENS machine, hydrotherapy, hot & cold therapy, and lots of rest. I was

told there was nothing “to do” just let it “calm down” (which enraged me more) and it will

get better. By the third week, I was able to move, albeit slowly, and realized I needed to

ask for more help. Enter Trish Trull-Pritchard.

I have known Trish for years and knew she now operated Intro

Health and Fitness. After a quick call to see how she could fit me into her schedule, I knew this

would be the support I needed to heal properly.

Over the next year I met Trish weekly and we gradually built each week on the previous

week’s exercises to achieve my goal of a stronger, healthier version of ME. Trish’s

knowledge of the human condition and her specific training on anatomy, movement, and

strength training gave me a recipe to succeed. The one-on-one focus allows her to

tweak any exercise I attempted in her gym, and she gave me verbal cues to ask myself

when I would be training at home.

Trish’s inventory of training tools, both physical apparatuses and mental tips, enabled

me to progress weekly from simple stretches using my own body weight and gravity to

bearing an impressive amount of weight in a safe environment. As we worked out in her

gym, her attention to detail was progressively getting me results and she diligently

recorded all my successes. Whether it was her choice in music to help motivate or her

words of encouragement, I progressed out of using my pain as a guide to using my

strength as a guide. When I started, I was doing light loads or using my own body

weight with bird dogs, dead bugs, and glute hamstring raises. We advanced to goblet

squats and rack pulls. By week # 12, I was doing deadlifts with 140lbs for three sets of

eight reps. This evolved to 180 lb deadlifts and using a trap bar deadlift exercise. Trish

also incorporated single leg movements like the Bulgarian split squat which as Trish

taught me “simultaneously opens the hip complex while strengthening it”. Her

experience and knowledge base were regularly put to use to either strengthen a weak

spot or alleviate an area of tightness. She encouraged me to listen to my body and I

responded to her cues.

A further depth to Trish’s training is her experience as a Somatic Mind/Body Healing

Practitioner. This was a separate session that I could book with her to address a greater

awareness of bodily sensations and release stored emotions. This was a surprising

escalator to my healing response and enabled me to gain greater self confidence and

feel a sense of relief and peace. This mental and emotional component to what Trish

can offer has underestimated benefits!

I got to experience firsthand the joy of being able to celebrate a one-year anniversary of

my injury by doing a 180 lb deadlift, something I had never imagined doing!

As I have now embraced the empowering feeling of being able to strengthen my body

and the cascading benefits of my physical and mental health, Trish has an added

component of training that she is able to facilitate. When I hit a plateau with my at-home

training, Trish and I scheduled a session where she visited me and evaluated the tools

and equipment I had and provided me with a tailored workout I could do at home to mix

it up and continue my growth. This session allowed me to get new uses out of

equipment I had at home, and she also made some suggestions on future equipment I

could consider when it was feasible to do so.

The encouragement, knowledge, compassion, energy, and experience that Trish can

share with her clients, is limited only by the hours in the day. Intro Health offers people

of all ages and stages of health a safe, professional, supportive, friendly, and

knowledgeable environment to develop whatever your health goal may be. All this

happens with a healthy dose of humour. I thrived on personal achievements and

discipline to keep me going, yet Trish will tailor a program that evolves with each

person’s methodology and mindset. My journey taught me that life and the Universe had

a funny way of helping me out. Trish made the experience from pain to power one filled

with compassion, laughter, and self-confidence and I am becoming the best version of ME.