Edman’s sense of humor a plus

“Cathi is funny,” says trainer George Gersch who’s paired with the Daily Herald’s Catherine Edman. “She has the remarkable ability to find humor in just about anything, which has helped her meet many of her challenges. And she’s competitive. As Cathi’s fond of saying, ‘Failure is not an option.’ Her determination and indomitable spirit enables her to overcome difficult situations.”

From a physiological standpoint, Edman is fairly typical of the people Gersch works with at Push Fitness. Her challenges included chronic knee and hip pain, limited range of motion in her left shoulder, along with chronic headaches.

“After three sessions of Muscle Activation Technique,” Gersch says, “we were able to relieve her chronic knee and hip pain and restore full range of motion to her shoulder. The frequency and severity of her headaches also has been reduced.

“Once we began to exercise in earnest, we had to overcome her biggest fear — further damaging her knee. By correcting her movement patterns, Cathi realized she could in fact, squat and lunge. Then there was no stopping her!”

Unfortunately, a few weeks ago after sliding down some stairs, Edman sprained a ligament in her knee.

“She’s healing well,” Gersch says. “But in the meantime we’re working really hard on her upper body and have slowly begun incorporating lower body exercises as her knee allows.”

Given all she’s been through, Gersch has no doubt that Cathi will continue to make excellent progress no matter what life throws at her.

— Gerry Alger