hello and welcome to Episode 9 of Enough Said podcast
this episode is a little bit different
I'm going to give you something a little bit personal
so you know
not who I am and what my credentials are
and my experience
but why I understand these standards are so important
so my name is Jamie Jones
I've had over 22 years
of a career as a personal trainer
strength and conditioning coach
and remedial massage therapist
and my journey began when I was 15 years of age
playing AFL football and I broke my arm
eight weeks before a big footballing trip
to go train with some AFL clubs
and that was devastating of course
just a young man chasing some dreams
um had my arm in a sling for 8 weeks
and remember getting the cast off
and going into my mum's little Holden Barina car
and I couldn't even wind down the window
uh that's right
there was the old wind down windows back then
so yeah I didn't have the strength so I started
I bought my first pair of dumbbells
started doing some curls in my bedroom and pretty
and haven't stopped exercising since so that's
25 years ago now into my 40s
and I've done a lot of cool things fitness wise
and achieved a lot of cool things as well
so high level Crossfit competitor back in the year
About 20 years ago
um held a powerlifting world record ran a Marathon
I've done 24 hours of burpees three times
lots of cool extreme stuff
which you do when you
when you feel like you're invincible um
and that's all great that's all experience
and that was cool things to tick off
but how I've got to this point
I've been thinking about standards
for a long period of time um
and what really triggered the motivation to go for it
was back uh
September 7 2,025
I was doing a fitness event with a friend
it was on Father's Day
so we trained together for about 13 weeks prepared
did a trial run of the event two weeks beforehand
did it 5:00am before work
no worries no soreness
we weren't trying to win the event
just trying to have some fun
um and then go enjoy a good Father's Day
and then about 75% of the way through the event
I collapsed and came to in the first aid arena
and yeah it was a it was game on from there
um
I might go to extra to details
cause it might be triggering for some people
but when I was in the ambulance
I was having really strong convulsions
my kidney was failing
I had kidney failure liver failure
massive convulsions
to the point where I thought I was gone
well guess I am sharing the details
but obviously I'm here now
I'm well
but after coming to from some loss of consciousness
I remember opening my eyes
my arms are out wide my legs are dead straight
and all I could do was open my eyes
and I thought I was paralyzed
so my initial thought was
I could watch my son get married
so from my neck down was this
yeah unexplainable feeling of paraplegia
like I could not move I could not activate
I was stuck so after 25 years of taking care of my body
achieving cool things apparently
you know preparing for this event correctly
all of a sudden I'd lost the use of my neck arms
shoulders fingers
hips knees
toes you name it
there was no signal happening whatsoever
um I lost my memory for a little bit
and slowly that cognition came back
obviously having experience in this field
I knew what they were doing to me
so I was trying to beat the test um
but that's when it not at that point
but once I was recovering
it made me realize that sometimes at some point
some people lose their ability to move
and that's what that feels like
and it's fucking terrifying
there's no other way of saying it
and thankfully I was able to get things firing again
build back slowly and we're nearly 12 months later
and I'm fine and everything's OK
but some people don't get that
or some people don't know what the body's all about
and how the muscular skeletal system works
and will have that lack of movement permanently
obviously there's injuries that cause that
but my passion now is to provide these standards
to encourage people
encourage you to keep using your body
because if it goes
it's a terrifying feeling
and
if I I'm grateful enough to now say it was meant to be
so I know what that feeling feels like
and I can help you and others never have that feeling
hopefully
because decline sucks and loss of movement is full on
and if you have a choice to do something about it
if you have a choice to move your arms and legs
don't take it for granted
and this is what these enough standards are all about
regular movement enough range
enough strength so you don't hurt yourself
but you also have continuous capability
and trust me when that
if that feeling of loss of movement comes to you
yeah it's
it's weird and it's scary and it's intimidating
and I've got a massive appreciation for those people
who have spinal cord injuries
that inspire others find a way to still be them
because that was a tough period for me
no doubt about it and yeah
the way I exercise now just full of gratefulness
and enjoyment of expressing some strength
and some range and a little bit of challenge
versus the torture I used to put myself through to yeah
be the best I could with that's maturity
that's just my journey but you know
the human body is is special and it's unique
and we've
got to continue to nurture it for as long as you can
so yeah that
that's how I've started all this podcast
and shared my standards because I don't want anyone
to unnecessarily feel how I did in that moment
and I believe that I know this will help others
thanks so much for listening
for now that's enough said