“Adapting my workouts to my body, lifestyle and age has been an adjustment,” shared Abby.

As a former athlete, she knows firsthand the demands that peak performance can put on your body. Now a medical doctor in Minnesota, Abby lives a busy life personally and professionally. After decades of pushing her body to the limit, she started to feel the impacts.

“I struggle knowing when to push myself or when to rest. I never knew if I was challenging myself to grow or taking my workouts too far.” recalled Abby.

Motivated to be her healthiest, over the years Abby stayed committed to working out and being active. Although injuries have slowed her down at times, she never allowed them to halt her progress. After dealing with a variety of setbacks including a labral tear in her hip, Abby was forced to alter her workout regimen. She began working in lower-impact sessions of yoga and massage to combat the strain on her body.

Leading With Self-Care

Part of Abby’s motivation comes from her career. As an MD, Abby sees the impacts of negative health outcomes play out in the lives of her patients daily. Seeing her patients struggle with life-altering conditions such as strokes and cardiovascular issues, motivates her to take care of herself to maximize the life she’s been blessed with.

This desire to enjoy life to the fullest drove Abby to make changes to improve in 2020. Since then, she’s lost over 60 pounds allowing her to do all of her favorite activities with ease. From horseback riding to tennis, Abby enjoys seeking creative new ways to stay active with her family and friends. She finds joy in trying new forms of exercise and the memories it allows her to make with loved ones.

Data Based Decision Making

After improving her overall health, she was looking for a way to take her fitness to the next level. Coming from a medical background, Abby understands the importance of personal data in pursuing her health and performance potential. Although she had gut feelings and ideas about her fitness level, she was curious about what her data would reveal.

After hearing about Human Powered Health from a family friend, Abby decided she would give the tests a try.

“It’s not every day you get the chance to find exact numbers relating to your body.” Abby said.

To get a complete picture of her health, Abby decided to get a DXA body composition scan, VO2max Test and a Running Gait Analysis. This combination of tests would give her an idea of her improved body composition after her weight loss, how efficiently her body is utilizing oxygen and any imbalances in her running gait as a result of her previous injuries.

Abby remembers feeling uncertain about whether performance testing was for her, as she’s never considered herself an “endurance athlete”. However, her desire to better understand her body overpowered her nerves and she proceeded with the testing. Her appointment was nearly two hours from start to finish, and she was eager to have the results broken down for her.

Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast

As an internally driven person, Abby tends to push herself in her workouts and life. So she was surprised when her physiologist told her that lowering the intensity and lengthening her workout would improve her endurance faster than high-intensity training. This counterintuitive information allowed her to make better decisions about when to work out, for how long and at what intensity.

The Running Gait Analysis confirmed what Abby had suspected: the years of injuries had altered her running form. She discovered that her right glute needed strengthening to support her body for peak running. Although this was not one of the areas directly injured, it had been impacted by years of supporting and overcompensating. Lastly, Abby discovered that her VO2max was slightly lower than what she had anticipated.

While this information was a mix of positives and negatives, Abby left relieved to discover the facts about what was going on with her body. Mostly, she was happy that this information was accessible to her.

A Health-Filled Future

We are inspired by Abby’s story of lifelong commitment to health. It takes courage to invest in uncovering truths about your body, especially after persevering through injuries. We are excited to continue monitoring her progress and will be cheering her on wherever her fitness journey takes her. We believe in Abby, as she’s a great example that True Health is Self-Made.