When Liz came to see us at Strength House she was suffering from a torn hamstring injury and back pain and injuries before her pro boxing debut fight. She also has degenerative discs and was told she might need an operation. From being unable to walk without pain to winning her first pro fight, here is her story in her own words. Thank you Liz for the kind review.
I signed with my manager Tony Pill in Oct 2020 and got my pro license in March. Due to lockdowns, all fights were off for a while but we trained hard to make sure we were ready to go when restrictions were lifted. When dates finally came up for my debut it kept getting cancelled or moved as lockdown continued. I continued training with my coach Ricardo Edwards all the way through 2020 and every time we thought we had a fight date we went into camp where training and intensity increased but only for the date to keep getting pushed back. The lengthened camp led to me getting some issues with my back caused by the enormous physical demands of the sport, the volume and intensity of sustained training combined with an old injury. I was finally 8 weeks out from my fight when I tore my hamstring and also had a back issue which was gradually getting worse but was irritated mostly after training not during.
This is when I came to see Greg at the Strength House who helped me strengthen some weaknesses and make it through to my debut. I felt confident and strong during the fight and didn’t even think about my back once and this resulted in my first win! My main focus was getting through the fight then post fight I had an MRI. We found a few issues including 2 degenerative discs (L4-L5 and L5-S1) which had annular tears. The MRI also picked up I had something called Retrolisthesis which is a backward slippage of the vertebrae and compression of my S1 nerve roots. Not the best news and possibly career ending.
As a fighter and so I am conditioned to train hard and through pain. Even though I am a personal trainer myself I need someone to coach me as despite knowing better I’d push through my injury to try and train by masking it with hot baths, stretching, massage and acupuncture which turns out made things way worse and was not fixing the root of the cause.
The following day post fight i struggled to even walk and stand for more than 20mins without pain. I sat down with Greg and the team and we made a plan to get me back stronger and the speed and way I have responded to Greg’s training has been unimaginable. I’ve learned so much (even as a trainer myself) and if I’d carried on, on my own, I’d probably be waiting for an operation right now. I have paused my boxing training temporarily while I focus on training at Strength House to get my body strong and completely pain free. I can’t wait to get back in the ring soon and ready to fight again early next year.
Update – Liz continues to train with us at Strength House, is out of pain, stronger than ever and working towards her next fight.
