Sept. 12, 2022

This paid piece is sponsored by GreatLIFE Golf & Fitness.

This wasn’t how Rodney Henderson ever planned on joining a gym.

Earlier this year, he was content to use his home fitness equipment, conveniently situated in the apartment he had above the shop where he builds race cars and engines.

The late-spring derecho changed everything.

“It tore the whole building up, tore the roof up,” Henderson said.

The next day, as he was trying to move furniture out of the apartment, it got even worse.

“I was doing it by myself,” he said. “I had a recliner, and there’s a small landing on the steps, and it just got away from me. It got hung up and came loose, and I fell all the way to the bottom in a dive. It was ugly.”

He broke his shoulder and sternum, an elbow and a heel.

“We got the furniture out and moved to a dry spot, but with everything else going on, I just kind of gave up on the fitness equipment,” he said.

Fortunately, an acquaintance who was building a shop nearby ended up offering it to Henderson while his shop works through rebuilding.

In June, he began going to GreatLIFE’s Woodlake Athletic Club, not so much to work out but to try to ease his pain.

“I had to gain range of motion in my right elbow,” he explained. “At first, I did the whirlpool and swimming pool. And then I found the sauna. And I’d sit there for 10 minutes to begin with and straighten my elbow out and bring it all the way back in. And that would help. I just kept doing it, and it got better and better.”

When he went for a checkup a few weeks later, “the doctor was totally impressed,” he said. “They said, ‘I don’t know what you’re doing but keep doing it.’ And I just said I joined Woodlake, and I get in the sauna and stretch it and do some floating around and swimming, and he thought it was amazing. He couldn’t believe how fast it came around.”

Henderson also discovered Woodlake’s Recovery Lounge and loves his time in the HydroMassage chair.

“I wish I had one at home,” he said. “I had so much pain between my shoulder blades and lower back from the fall, I could hardly walk or stand straight,” he said. “I sat in there, and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is it.’ I was going every day and then every other, and now it’s every two to three days. And one time I was doing two sessions at a time in there, and I really feel like that made a big difference for me.”

Even beyond the impact his membership has had on his recovery, Henderson points to the friendships he has begun building through coming to Woodlake as a big benefit.

“The members I meet are always eager to help if you have questions or anything,” he said. “There’s always friendly people. And the staff has just been great. Any questions at all, I have absolutely no problem whatsoever getting help.”

While he can’t push or pull with his right arm, the plan is to continue his time in the gym as he’s able to take on more of a workout.

“I’m still trying to get there at least every other day,” he said. “It’s just made such a difference for me.”

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