Coronavirus can’t break their training bond
“Make it a great day. If you don’t? It’s your own damn fault.”
GLENDALE, Wis. – OK, hold on. Before I lose you. Before you stop reading because you’re wary that quote is another rah-rah-rah ( blah-blah-blah) pep talk from an eternally perky person who never has a bad day, please hold on.
Give me one minute to tell you about two men: Garrett Stangel is a personal trainer who owns one fitness gym in Glendale, Wisconsin, and opened a second in Wauwatosa on March 1. He has a passion for helping everyone of all abilities. And that passion for inclusiveness led him to one really special guy.
Justin Greenwood suffered a traumatic brain injury playing college football nearly two decades ago. His field of vision has shrunk to the size of a pinhole. He has problems with his legs, and balance can be a challenge. He’s smart and funny, but a new challenge has made talking difficult.
Both were down and out amid the coronavirus pandemic. They’re so used to working out together, and then, in the cruelest irony, they had to stay home … to stay healthy. With stay-at-home orders that shut down nonessential businesses, including gyms, Greenwood and Stangel could not train together. It left Greenwood unmotivated to do at-home workouts alone and Stangel depressed, especially when doctors, nurses and health care workers marched to the front lines of the fight for our health and he was left to ask, “Am I not essential?”
OK, are you still here? Because this is what happened recently.
A concerned Stangel kept checking on Greenwood, calling, and calling … and Greenwood kept declining to work out alone. Stangel had enough. On a day when it was still snowing in May, Stangel threw some weights, a medicine ball and a gallon of disinfectant into his car and told Greenwood: I’m coming over. We are doing this. In your yard. Separately but together.
Snowflakes powdered one workout in Greenwood’s Glendale driveway. Greenwood made fun of Stangel’s cold ears under a hoodie; Stangel pushed Greenwood to lift, pull and run – with compassion, but no mercy. And both men found their purpose again.
For Greenwood, 38, his traumatic brain injury meant his peripheral vision was gone.
“If you make a fist and look through the hole of your hand – that’s how much Justin can see,” Stangel said.
Greenwood was told he might be immobile, living in a nursing home, if he survived at all. But Greenwood, who works at Industries for the Blind in West Allis, has that competitive fire to push himself.
Now, Stangel has Greenwood doing box jumps, gym sprints and boxing at his gym, Balance Fitness. Imagine doing these things while looking through a straw.
And at the end of the workout, the two fall in to their ritual:
Stangel: “Let’s make it a great day.” Greenwood: “If you don’t ...”
Stangel and Greenwood: “It’s your own damn fault!”