Here's a little background on my situation, as brief as possible.
In late May of 2005 I was diagnosed with cancer, which was in my
spine. I had back surgery in which my T7 vertebrae was removed
(that's where the tumor was) and replaced. I also had radiation
treatments and chemotherapy, all of which ended up lasting up until
June 2006.
So I was more or less totally bedridden for three full months, as I was
unable to walk unassisted due to the compression on my spinal cord
that the tumor had caused. Fortunately I was able to walk again by
myself by about March 2006.
And while I was able to walk again, I was constantly feeling tired and
shitty because of all the chemotherapy, and the fact that I had been
bedridden for so long.
Now all my treatments have finished, and I have been given the
cautious all-clear from my neurosurgeon, radiologist, and oncologist.
I am walking 45-50 mins at a time now and sort of getting back to
normal life, but I am quite overweight and very unfit from the last year.
So I want to enlist the help of a personal trainer to sort of get me
started, and I was wondering what were some of the qualifications and
traits I should look for in a physical trainer, and how I could go about
finding one. I do have a gym membership, and I think they offer
personal trainers, but beyond that I don't really know what's out there
and what to look for. Any help or insight would be very much
appreciated.
If you belong to a gym then it is likely you'll have to use one of their trainers if you use them at the gym. So that's a good place to start looking.
It would be helpful if you could find a trainer with a degree in sports medicine or experience/training as a therapist. This type of trainer would have more knowledge, or at least greater sensativity to your needs.
Otherwise you want one with a degree, preferably, but it's always a crap shoot with personal trainers, with or without. Make sure to ask if they have any experience working with back injuries specifically. Go in with a clear idea of what your goals are, and ask how rapidly you should expect them to be achieved. Your results should come in a reasonable time with consideration to your limitations.
Keep us posted on your progress and your search for a good trainer. I'm sure plenty of folks will offer een more advice.
Thanks for the advice thus far - it'd probably be easiest just to go through my gym, and see who they have available. I guess the most important thing is explaining my situation as best as I can and seeing who has the background to deal with that the best.
I've just never interacted w/ trainers before so I'm not quite sure what to expect.
I'm not on any sort of nutritional program at the moment - I'll have to see about a dietician...
MTG I agree my neurosurgeon might be a good person to ask, but he's so fucking hard to get a hold of, lol.
Incidentally I already did the PT/OT bit from July to February.