Since February is Heart Month, we chose Terry Reeves for Februyary’s Extraordinary Athlete. Many of you know Terry as he has been with us at CrossFit Odyssey for a while now. Terry is 65 years old and works at Parkland hospital and he is the husband to his beautiful wife, and two beautiful daughters. Terry also had a quadruple bypass about 7 years ago and this Thanksgiving he had open heart surgery again for a clogged artery.

Terry felt something strangely familiar before Thanksgiving and went to get it checked out. They found a blockage and immediately planned his surgery for the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Several things worked against him including genetics. But these things worked in his favor:

First of all – he saw a doctor immediately!! Guys, do NOT play around with this stuff – go see your doctor!! It can literally save your life!
Second – he works out regularly and eats right. When he had his heart scoped before this recent surgery the doctor remarked that his heart looked surprisingly good and attributed that to his hard work with diet and exercise. Terry has been CrossFitting for several years now – in Houston before he joined us here at Odyssey. He does it all – deadlifts, cleans, snatches, handstands and all of the challenging stuff we do. He also counts his macros to keep his diet clean and under control.

At 6 weeks post-op Terry returned to the gym and started with very mild movement. Eight weeks was the first day he could do a push-up without pain. He is back at it and determined that he is going to continue to live a long healthy life!

Congratulations, Terry, on your Journey to Extraordinary and I hope you have many, many Valentines left to enjoy!