Free Press, Sunday July 7, Page E-1 LIFE, Grandmother drops 145 pounds " Grandmother drops 145 pounds in four-year journey to fitness By Patricia Montemurri Detroit Free Press Staff Writer Brenda Badish bounced up the 21 stairs to Hamburg Fitness Center’s workout room with the nimble lightness of the fit and the fast. The 72-year-old doesn’t hold on to the rails — her toned leg muscles and pumping arms provide all the support she needs. Almost four years ago, the grandmother of nine and retired University of Michigan employee, joined the fitness club in Brighton with her daughter’s encouragement. Hobbled by arthritis, Badish arrived with a walker. She needed a boost to stand on a treadmill, and couldn’t climb stairs. She weighed 275 pounds. On Monday, a transformed Badish, wrapped a sweatband around her forehead and climbed aboard a stationary bicycle. Fitness trainer Kelly Fletcher yelled out directions and affirmations to the 15 women signed up for a cycle fusion class. As they pedaled slowly to warm up and then adjusted the bikes to increase resistance, trainer Kelly Fletcher yelled out: “Brenda, relax your shoulders” and Badish’s upper body complied. The routine increased in intensity, and the resistance became greater and the effort harder. “C’mon Brenda,” exhorted Fletcher. “When you train with me, there’s no slack.” “It should be excruciating,” said Fletcher, as she counted down the last 30 seconds as the women grunted and stood to pedal through the heaviest resistance settings. Badish kept up, amidst a room of women ranging from a teenager to 20-year-olds to homemakers in their 40s. When Fletcher required the class to do lower-body squats and hold them for a six-minute series, Badish’s back side held the position lower and longer than even the youngest of the group. Nearly four years and 145 pounds ago, Badish pooped out on the treadmill at a speed of 1 mph. At home, she slept in a chair, used an oxygen tank and couldn’t tie her shoes. Since the Christmas Eve 1997 death of her husband, Frank, Badish said she battled depression, and fueled it with food. Arthritis gripped nearly every joint in Badish’s body. She suffered from psoriatic arthritis, degenerative arthritis and flare-ups of gout. She took a myriad of pills to deal with high blood pressure and joint pain. It hurt, she said, to “I figured I was a few weeks away from pushing up the daisies. I could push up daisies or I could decide to enjoy them.” “I decided to enjoy them,” said Badish, describing how she came to grips with how far her weight and well-being had spiraled out of control. At the fitness club, Badish met certified personal trainer Fletcher. “Will you take me on as a client,” Badish said she asked her. Fletcher, she said, “never hesitated a bit. She said yes.” Badish credits the rapport she and Fletcher developed as key to Badish’s steady progress. “She listened to me. She trusted me,” said Fletcher. Fletcher urged her first to try pool exercises, where the water made Badish feel more agile. Badish wrote down everything she ate, while Fletcher listed all the healthier alternatives. Over time, Badish enjoyed the treadmill and the bicycle. She shot baskets in the gym and played racquetball. She ended up taking six out of the eight specialty classes that Fletcher teaches. Badish exercises at the gym every day now, and sometimes she makes two 60-mile round trips from her home in Gregory to partake of morning and evening exercise sessions. It’s how she keeps the arthritis at bay. “If I stop exercising, it’s back to all the pain,” said Badish She’s training for her 2nd T-Rex Sprint Triathlon — a 3.1-mile run, 12.4 miles of cycling and one-half mile of swimming — on Aug. 14 at Island Lake Park in Brighton. To prep, Fletcher leads Badish and others in evening bike training routes through the Kensington Park area. Fletcher helps Badish train for the triathlon swim sessions, too. At last year’s Sprint triathlon, Badish came in second from last. It was Fletcher — Badish’s mentor, exercise master and motivator through nearly every squat, stroke and step of the way — who came in last. “There wasn’t anyway I was going to go in front,” said Fletcher. “I did this for her.” Fletcher has been a fitness trainer and certified trainer for 35 years, and at the Hamburg facility for five years. After giving birth to four children, Fletcher found herself much heavier than her ideal weight. She felt her effectiveness as a trainer was compromised by the extra pounds. “Not a lot of people came to my class because I was large,” said Fletcher of Brighton, whose personal training business is called “Killer Fitness LLC.” “I just put my head down and practiced what I preached,” said Fletcher, “and lost 80 pounds.” That was about 15 years ago, said Fletcher, when she told her family she was drastically changing the meal plan, with an emphasis on vegetables, fruits, low-fat and lean cooking. On the gym floor during class Monday, Fletcher led Badish and the class through sprints. Her workout companions look to Badish as inspiration and motivation. Badish completed every sprint. She breezed through a relay that involved walking and lunging forward, then returning to the start by walking and lunging backwards. Her classmates clapped and urged her to completion when Badish was the last to complete a series of jumps and squats to move forward and back. “Brenda’s a rock star,” said Michelle Vedder, 46, of Brighton. “She’s stronger than most people I know. She’s a total inspiration. She comes 7 days a week.” “Every day, she amazes me,” said Vedder. “Brenda’s a maniac.” Badish’s answer to the compliment: “The older you get, the crazier you get.” Working out has greatly worked to the benefit of Badish’s health. Badish’s rheumatologist at the University of Michigan Health System penned a 2012 summary of his patient’s accomplishments. Wrote Dr. Robert Ike, who also is an associate professor at the medical school: “When I last saw her in April (2012), she was down to 135 pounds, virtually half of which she weighed at the start of her exercise program. It has been remarkable to see her progress, and gratifying to see that several features of arthritis have become much less problematic now that she has lost the weight and attained much better overall fitness.” While Badish was losing weight, other family members turned their focus to fitness. Son Damian Badish, 48, and his wife, Sharon, 47, both joined the gym last year because of mom. “She’s been the inspiration,” said Damian Badish, an auto repairman. Since then, he’s done several 5K races with his mom, accompanies her on bike training rides and has signed up for the Sprint triathlon in August. He had doubted that his mom would stick to the exercise routine “I was just amazed someone her age could do something like that,” said Damian about his mother’s first mini triathlon last year. “This year, we’re going to do it together.” He said the family long worried about his mother’s health, watching how her weight put an end to her ability to enjoy one fitness activity, golf. He doesn’t try to compete or beat his mom now. “The light,” he said, “belongs on her.” Brenda Badish, 72, of Gregory couldn’t walk up the stairs when she began her return to fitness. JARRAD HENDERSON/DFP Badish, before she started her new health regime. Badish holds a pose June 27 at Hamburg Fitness Center. KATHLEEN GALLIGAN/DFP Brenda Badish is training for her second T-Rex Sprint Triathlon. “I did my first (triathlon) when I was 71,” she said. JARRAD HENDERSON/DFP Far right: Trainer Kelly Fletcher teases Badish for liking Fat Tire beer. Right: Badish at a daily workout. Photos by Kathleen Galligan/DFP"
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 00:36:51 +0000