I can move freely again

I met Ashleigh Gass in Tampa Florida in November of 2017 and conducted several training session with her. I learned several principle, techniques and exercises that positively changed my quality of life and the way I train.

I am a Special Forces Soldier with 21 years in the Army and 12 combat deployments. During my time in 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) I have received three purple hearts for injuries sustained during deployments in Afghanistan. One was from a large blast injury and the other two from sustaining bullet wounds to the right hand, buttocks, right leg and right back area. These injuries have left me with severe mobility, and pain issues, in my leg, right shoulder and back. My back become such an issue in 2016 that I ended up in a wheel chair temporary.

After training with Ashley I have started to incorporate much more body weight, stability, mobility and gymnastics exercises into my workout regime. I have started to incorporate Jefferson Curls and back bridging exercises into almost every warm up. Core exercises focus around exercises such as pikes and hollow body rocks. Weighted mobility exercises and the use of therapist to scrap tight muscles and tendons have greatly increased my ability to move freely.

Our first workout together she had me conduct seemingly simple exercises that led me to being completely smoked. I remember that she has us do 5 rounds of hollow body rocks. Seemed incredibly simple and during the first round I commented to myself about how simple the exercise seemed. By the end of round two my entire core was on fire and I had great difficulty completing the next three rounds. After these and doing pikes I was left sore the next day in places I am not sure I have ever had muscle soreness in. She had me do Jefferson Curls with a very low weight and explained the progression of this exercise to eventually being able to do your body weight. I have incorporated doing these into almost every workout and for the first time since I can remember I don’t wake up with my back locked up and extremely painful.

After incorporating mobility and gymnastics exercises into my routine I feel like I can move freely again and with minimal pain. At 41 years old I can still easily outperform most of our younger soldiers. This was not the case four years ago before I started heavily incorporating more mobility and gymnastics exercises into my routine where pain and mobility issues effected my performance.

Chuck