By Aaron Cordy
LIFE is full of setbacks and challenges. It is how we embrace those challenges, manage those setbacks that determine our outcomes.
Rien Silverstein has faced and overcome many challenges in her life. Suffering from congenital weakness in her ligaments, especially in her knees, leading to osteoporosis, frequent falling, and surgeries have been part of Rien’s life for most of it. At her worst, she was confined to a wheelchair after knee replacements. With the help of a lovely husband, Maurice, an Ottobock knee brace, Aquamoves fitness classes, an endeavouring determination and positive attitude and some inspirational frogs, she has rebuilt her fitness, reversed her osteoporosis and improved health beyond her wildest dreams.
“I always felt like I would get better. I’ll improve as I get older. People my age are starting to need knee replacements, or have had work done, you know. There’s people around me and people in the class that I go to at Aquamoves, that say, ‘I have sore this and sore that.’ But I’ve got artificial bits everywhere, so I’m okay,” said Rien.
New Year’s Eve before COVID was Rien’s last big fall, cracking her knee and putting her in the hospital for a month, then another five months in a wheelchair.
“That fall was the worst fall I ever had, and it was life-changing. I sat there in that hospital listening to the frogs and watching them outside the window. I could hear the frogs, and I thought, if the frogs can survive droughts, I can survive. Those frogs saved my mental state.”
The German-designed Ottobock was a game changer for Rien, gifting her more mobility than she had had in years. With the encouragement from her husband Maurice, she began the fitness classes. Working out has improved Rien’s muscle strength by 48 per cent.
“This C brace has helped me to bend down to the ground. I can pick up stuff off the floor. I can walk. I can walk from here to there. I use a frame so I don’t fall over, but I don’t use it for my weight anymore. And I can stand without hanging on to anything because my legs are getting stronger,” said Rien.
“Working out at the gym has been a life changer for me. It really has. Don’t underestimate the work that exercise can do for you, to make you feel better. I’d like people to get out there and go to the gym when you’re my age, which is 72. I feel like it’s a perfect time of our lives. Women who are semi-retired or retired, to take up doing fitness classes to keep fit.
