Tips to Keep Going

by Suzanne Andrews

I Start Working Out, but keep Stopping and Re-Starting – Any Tips to Keep Going? 

Staying or getting in shape isn’t always easy.  Whether you’re beginning or beginning again, here’s an inspiring behind the scenes story filming my last DVD, to help you keep going when the going gets tough!

Scary turbulent plane ride, brutal weather, computer crashes, my series producer, Glenn Poyer, recounts the harrowing behind the scenes events filming Arthritis Relief Walking Workout… 

When Suzanne Andrews read Amazon’s Vine Voice five star review (by Deborah Broadhurst) of Arthritis Walking Workout, tears of joy streamed down her face, as it was the realization of a dream 10 years in the making – “one that had been diverted many times,” says Suzanne, who consulted with several doctors during the six month writing and research process that goes into each and every Suzanne Andrews Functional Fitness DVDs. “There were two, maybe three times that this walking program never got made.”

As happy and motivating Suzanne Andrews seems in Arthritis Walking Workout, you’d never suspect the founder of Functional Fitness on Public Television just completed one of the most harrowing projects of her career.  Sure, Arthritis Walking Workout, based on medically proven movements to ease arthritis pain, was shot at the most beautiful gardens in North America, the Butchart Gardens, with an exquisite plethora of flowers in the background, giving the viewer the image of serenity. But getting there was just the beginning of harrowing moves you don’t see on the DVD.

Before we were about to leave, Suzanne had a major accident while preventing a patient from literally getting crushed to death. The patient was OK but the 400 pound impact tore Suzanne’s rotator cuffs, leaving her with 0 function.  She couldn’t even lift her arms, dress, or wash her hair so how was she going to film a fitness video? After emergency surgery, she did three hours of therapy a day in excruciating pain.  It took one year to go from not being able to lift her arm at all to regaining 99% function.

During recovery, Suzanne interviewed many doctors for the project.  Because all the doctors mentioned reducing stress retards arthritis symptoms, Suzanne travelled 4000 air turbulent miles to add a stress releasing atmosphere to the workouts. A trip that should have lasted seven hours turned into twenty five harrowing hours!

Arriving just hours before the hair and make-up call time of 4 AM, the crew awoke sleep deprived to an atypical bitter cold rainy day for summer weather. Graham Bell, Public Relations director at the gardens, came to the rescue by providing umbrellas to protect the specialized light weight professional cameras that took three years of savings.   Suzanne Andrews, who is susceptible to the cold due to a thryoid disorder, kept moving - even in between takes - to stay warm. After continuous takes of three (8) hour days to film the two workouts (imagine exercising for 8 hours straight!) and six months of editing,  the finished editions went to our presenting Public Television Station to receive frame by frame scrutiny from the program director and the station engineer. Suzanne anxiously awaited their constructive critique. After one particularly long day of treating rehab patients, Suzanne opened up her email and began shaking.  The episodes were rejected. People were in the background and the station would not accept the film that way. After the initial shock, a serious problem solving session ensued and after another 4 weeks of specialized editing, the people in the background vanished.

The workouts were finally ready to be sent for DVD mastering and the unthinkable happened – the external hard drive with the entire edited workouts crashed.  All that hard work - gone! What to do? Were the raw clips on another hard drive? A huge sigh of relief.  All the raw clips were on another hard drive. The editing process began once again. The end result? A high production broadcast quality DVD featuring two walk workouts in the most beautiful garden in North America.

To say we are thrilled to introduce Arthritis Relief Walking Workout is an understatement. Getting a 5 star review makes us want to do the happy dance!

Have you gone through a tough time in your life?  How did you get through it?  Leave a comment and together, we can help each other get in the best shape ever!

Suzanne Andrews is a licensed Occupational Therapy Clinician with 30 years exercise expertise. Airing to over 49 million on Public Television, Suzanne Andrews, a licensed Occupational Therapy Clinician, (they specialize in function) creates evidenced based fitness programs for specific health conditions. Originally created in 2008 with it’s first run on WDSC TV, Functional Fitness with Suzanne Andrews broadcasts on 113 Public Television stations.

By Collage Video | | fitness, Functional Fitness, goals, Motivation, story, Suzanne Andrews, Weekly Blog |
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