Barry Stalker shares what it’s like balancing myasthenia gravis with a job that keeps him on his feet all day, and how he’s learned to “pick and choose your battles” by adjusting work, workouts, and family time.
Transcript
Balancing MG with being a personal trainer. It is tough in some respects because, obviously, I’m on my feet all day long. Anyone who does have MG, or myasthenia gravis, you know that all my friends, you just do feel permanently sort of a bit slouchy and a bit low.
And actually my, my job is to try to be polar opposite to that, to kind of get people to sort of motivated as possible.
So I think one thing I’ve done, especially, you know, I speak to my wife every day this last year of relapsing is, you know, I say it in the best of times is, it’s pick and choose your battles with this.
There’ll be times when times are good, you can kind of run with it. And there’ll be times I’m like, I want to take my foot off the gas. And it’s sort of rarely do I have to do it, but I might have to cancel clients.
You know, there’s I try not to work. And also with a small, a young toddler, I try not to work too many early mornings, too many late nights. I have to try and balance, you know, with having a toddler and just life and work.
Toward the end of the week, I start to get more tired. End of the day, I get more tired. I try and keep most of my workload to the early part of the week, and by sort of Thursday, Friday, some sort of back down, and then Saturday only work for half day in the morning with clients.
So it’s, I think the one thing I would say is, it’s just, it’s that putting your foot on and off the gas and kind of judging how you feel on that day, you know, whether it’s work-wise or whether it’s my own training, obviously I still work out.
So it’s sometimes I grab hold of a dumbbell and think, “yeah, I can do that today.” Other days, mmm, I won’t attempt that. I’ll, I’ll grab something a bit light and I’ll do that with, with no guilt because ultimately this, this is more important, this is my health, than lifting some weights for 45 minutes, an hour.
You know, I think most people with MG, you know, weak limbs, weak arms, weak legs, if I were to say to someone, “squat,” and they’re like, “I can’t,” well then don’t. Like, do you know what I mean? It’s one and sort of things adapt the different exercise around it, I think.
So I think the key thing is whatever you choose to do, whether that’s going to the gym, a bike ride, a walk, you know, whatever it is, it’s just what do you feel you can achieve.
What, what you know, I can’t walk for 10 minutes. Start with five. You know, I can go the gym one day a week. OK, great, try two. I mean, it’s one of those sort of things where just, just slowly, slowly, incrementally. If you can add it up, there might be days again, foot off the gas, and just slowly, you know, add things on.
But it’s one of the sort of things that I say to people because again, I get contacted by a lot of people with regards to MG and fitness and what like, I can’t tell you what to do or you know, a, without being there, but I can’t tell you what to do because your MG may feel different to my MG, and your medications might be different to mine, and your symptoms might be different to mine.
People look at me, oh you’re fit and healthy and strong with myasthenia, but don’t, don’t look at me. It’s a false dichotomy because as I said, my ground work was there two decades before I got sick, and it’s such a big part of my life.
But that being said, you know, I’ve had, you know, this year, for example, I got sort of winded in April, that sort of, the relapse started. I didn’t lift a weight for probably three months because I couldn’t. But it’s one of sort of things where I’m not. My main concern is getting up, you know, getting strong as best as possible.
And then I kind of got back to sort of some general weight training and, you know, some cardio work probably just after — it was August. So for about three months, it really didn’t do anything because I couldn’t do anything, I didn’t want to do anything. So my concern was getting that sorted first and then — but even that is August, September, October, November, it’s been what, four or five months?
Even that’s been a very gradual, slow process of just incrementing a little bit more weight, a couple more repetitions. You know, maybe not doing two, maybe doing three workouts a week or whatever. So it’s just, you know, just gently, gently, gently adding that up. Over periods of weeks, months, whatever.
But also the flipside is it’s just if you need to take time off, take time off, sort of thing. So, but that’s what I always say again, for the personal trainer in me, try and log everything to some degree. You know, if you are prime example, you are going to the gym.
Why did that? How did I feel? Great. OK, well let’s try and duplicate that again in two days time or next week or or whatever. Because obviously again, use myself as an example. I’m rapidly coming off my medication for this relapse, but every time my meds drop, I have about three or four day period, I feel absolutely exhausted. So it’s like those days I’m probably not going to train. So it’s just, it’s just learning to sort of, I think a lot of people nowadays want these one word answers and what they don’t exist, it’s, it’s, it’s you and how you feel that particular point in time. And it’s there are guidelines for sure with that with anything in life.
But it’s I think it’s how you adapt it to become your best, you know, your best needs and wants and sort of not sort of worrying about all “that guy’s doing that, that girl’s doing that” sort of thing. And it’s, well, here I am and that’s where I’m at. And that’s kind of, you know, we’re going to go type thing.
