Raissa Laurel Subijano: The ultimate fitspiration

In my 30 years in the fitness industry, I’ve heard every excuse you can think of when it comes to skipping exercise. Like: “I don’t have time. I’m too tired. I lack sleep. I have no energy. I’ll just work out tomorrow.” You’re only as weak as your strongest excuse. Let’s face it: We’re all guilty of this at some point.

But once in a while, you’ll meet someone who transcends the norm. People who truly have no excuses, they simultaneously achieve greatness and inspire everyone in the gym. One such person is Raissa Laurel Subijano.

Raissa, as she is known to her friends, is an intelligent, hardworking young woman — a law graduate, in fact. She is an elected councilor in the city of San Juan and a bilateral amputee. You may have heard of her story from a few years back.

“It was in 2010, September 26 to be exact. I was on Taft Avenue, in front of McDonald’s, waiting for my friends, who took the bar and …  at exactly 5 p.m., something exploded. They say it was a hand grenade,” she recalls. “That day changed my life. It was a hard decision for my parents to have my legs amputated.”

According to the non-profit organization Amputee Coalition, a bilateral amputee is a person who is missing or has had both arms or both legs amputated. In Raissa’s case, it was her legs. She moves around nowadays with the help of prosthetics.

The World Health Organization estimates that there are 40 million amputees throughout the developing world. The main causes for amputation, or the surgical removal of all or part of a limb, are vascular disease (54 percent) including diabetes and peripheral arterial disease, trauma (45 percent), and cancer (less than two percent). The Amputee Coalition of America estimates that there are 185,000 new lower extremity amputations each year just within the United States.

But you don’t hear them make excuses.

Raissa was a regular gym-goer before her amputation and the accident didn’t stop her from going to the gym. In fact, it even fueled her drive to become fitter than ever.

“Fitness is important to me since I’m a bilateral amputee,” Raissa explains. “I need to be fit. Actually, since I’m carrying myself, I can’t gain weight. I need to work out. I need to do cardio. Being fit makes it easier to walk around.”

She works out with her personal trainer thrice a week before going to work. From afar, you will never guess that Raissa is different from everyone else in the gym. Her program isn’t different from that of the regular clients. She starts off on the treadmill for her warm-up, followed by workouts that focus on stability, balance, and core strength, such as cable single leg squats and side shuffles, and finishes off with ab work like bicycles and leg raises.

These exercises are designed to increase muscle strength and maintain the movement in your joints, which are very important especially in the case of bilateral amputees.

The results of her training really show. Her trainer, Jeanette Carpio, couldn’t be more proud of her progress. “When we started working out, Raissa had a hard time doing a lot of the exercises that she’s doing today — especially lower body movements such as the squat. Now, she can execute these pretty well,” Jeanette shares. “Raissa has no idea of how much she inspires everyone in the gym, including me,” she gushes. “Don’t give up. Just stick with the program and we’ll reach our goals.”

Countless Filipinos all over the world already consider Raissa Laurel Subijano an inspiration. I think it’s safe to say that we can also consider her a fitspiration.

“After the accident, a lot of people are surprised — they’re wondering why I’m happy,” Raissa says. “I’m just thankful for my life because I had a 20-percent chance of survival.”

She beat the odds then and she beats every excuse in the book now. Despite the challenges she faced, Raissa rose to the occasion and emerged with a successful career, loving marriage, and unquestionable fitness. We all have something to learn from this amazing woman.

We may not be in the exact same situation, but everyone has his/her own obstacles to overcome. Fitness is a process and not just an end result. What’s important is making the choice to silence the excuses and get started on the road to fitness.

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Post me a note at mylenedayrit@gmail.com or mylene@goldsgym.com.ph.