Inspirational story #2 comes from Archie Baxter who has lived in Martinsville for 43 years.  If you see Archie walking around town or at Anytime Fitness, be sure to congratulate him on his hard work and perseverance.  Thanks for sharing Archie!

One Monday morning when I tried to get out of bed, I had the most excruciating pain. I couldn’t stand up or even straighten up. I could only walk all bent over and the pain was unbearable. The doctor said it was my sciatic nerve and gave me some medicine, which helped a little but not much. Finally, as a last resort, I went to a chiropractor. After 11 weeks, I was much better but still wasn’t totally back to normal.

During my recovery, as I was walking into Walmart with my lower back hurting and weighting 309 pounds, it finally dawned on me that I wasn’t going to be around very much longer if I didn’t get serious about losing weight. I was going to have to do something or I would end up riding in a wheelchair, not being able to walk anymore. And immediately I thought that I’m much, much to heavy for Nancy, my wife, to be be able to help me get into a wheelchair and push me around. I then realized if I didn’t do something about the weight, that is exactly what was going to happen!!!

As I thought about how I was going to get the weight off, I remembered seeing people walking at the high school and thought that walking might be a good idea. So I drove out to the high school parking lot. I got out of my car and started walking. I had walked less than 50 yards and turned around, looked back at my car and thought, “I’m a long way from my car and I’m not sure that I can walk back to it.” But I did and that was my first day of walking.

Each day as I walked, I would try to set goals to reach, such as being able to walk to that big tree, or walk to a sign by the road and try to reach that in the next few days. Then I’d try to set a new goal for the next few days and try to reach that, etc.

I was determined to make it work, so I just kept going out to the High School and walking day after day, week after week, month after month.

Before long, I was walking from the High School down to East Middle School and back to my car.
After a while I could from the high school down Illinois St. to Columbus St. then all the way down Columbus St to Ohio Street then back to my car.

As the days passed I would just keep going a little farther from my car and walking back. Slowly but surely, as the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months, I walked a little farther and a little faster until eventually I could walk four miles a day and as fast as I could.

Outside walking is fun and good exercise, but it has it’s many drawbacks. In hot weather I would sweat so much that when I got back to my car I was soaking wet with sweat. When I would get caught in the rain, I would get water in my shoes and walking with your clothes soaking wet and water in your shoes is not a pleasant thing. Walking in cold weather is unbearable. Not only are you battling the bitter temperatures, but also trying to locate the patches of ice.

One day as I was walking near East Middle and Smith Elementary schools, I stubbed my toe and tripped. It was a hard fall—face first. I threw one arm up to try to protect my face and tried to use the other arm to break my fall. Luckily my fall, as hard as it was and as fast as it happened, wasn’t that serious. However, it made me start thinking that maybe there is a better and safer way to exercise and lose weight!

One day when my wife was shopping at Kroger, I decided to go check out Anytime Fitness. Not knowing what to expect, I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised. First, the staff was very knowledgeable and friendly. They showed me around and explained how some of the machines worked, etc. Time slipped by quickly and I said, “I really have to go pick my wife up at Kroger.” The nice lady said, “Go pick her up and bring her back and we’ll show her around too.” So I brought her back and she was as impressed as I was. We joined on March 4, 2011 and have been members ever since.

After joining Anytime Fitness, I continued losing weight and was very glad that I didn’t have to walk outside anymore.

Two years went by and I was diagnosed with extreme arthritis in both knees and the doctors recommended total replacement of both knees. Exercises before and after a knee replacement are critical and if you don’t do them the way they want you too, it can be very painful. Doing my pre-op exercises at home and then enhancing those exercises at Anytime Fitness helped me immensely.

Before I could leave the hospital they stressed that I had to be able to bend my new knee 90 degrees by one week after I left the hospital. They stress it all the time before surgery—do your exercises so you can bend your knee 90 degrees in one week after surgery. And you also have to be able to bend it 120 degrees in 2 months. The day that I was discharged from the hospital, they did one last check on my new knee to see how far I could bend it. The nurse said to bend my leg back as far as I could so she could check it. She checked it and was silent. She asked me to do it again… I became quite worried as I thought there must be a big problem and they may not release me.

The nurse said again, “Pull your leg back as far as you can and let me check it.” She checked it again and didn’t say a word. She stood up, looked at me and the other nurses with a big smile and said, “It’s already 90 degrees!!!”

Without a doubt, the reason that I could bend that knee that well is because of the pre-op exercises that they gave me to do at home and the enhancement exercises that I did at Anytime Fitness.

The place is always clean and well maintained and the members are always respectful about cleaning and sharing the equipment.

Jodi Pike and her staff effectively communicate with their clients and create a warm, positive, welcoming atmosphere. They have some great personal trainers to help new clients or to help take current clients to the next level of fitness. The trainers and members are always friendly and considerate. You can tell the staff truly cares about their members. Great people and everything one needs for a good workout.
——A Great Place To Workout——Awesome Staff —— Great Location——

Archie’s Before and After