BROOK PARK, Ohio — Tracey Brown is no stranger to overcoming challenges. For several decades, the personal trainer has been pushing her clients and herself to the next level of physical fitness. But she’s come to know her own strength is more than physical.
“Everything they said I can’t do, I’m showing them that I can do,” Brown said.
She talked to News 5 at the Old School Iron Gym in Brook Park while working with her trainer Monday.
“She was definitely one of the hardest working clients I ever had. She was very determined, she didn’t quit, she had a lot of discipline,” said trainer Michael Ely.
Ely is coaching Brown for an upcoming bodybuilding tournament. On Saturday, she’ll be competing in the physique section of the National Physique Committee (NPC) Natural Ohio Championships and Expo.
“She was going to make the comeback way better than the setback. And that’s what she did,” said Ely.
In 2018, Brown needed 20 weeks of intensive rehabilitation after a dropped weight tore her knee in three places. By early 2019, she was allowed to train again without restriction and got back to peak physical condition for an out-of-state competition.
“I traveled to California for a fitness show, passed out before I got to the show, to wake up 3 days later from a coma to find out I suffered a stroke,” she recalled.
The doctors told her the weight dropped on her knee months earlier had likely caused a 12-inch blood clot in her leg. The clot triggered the stroke and significant damage.
“[They told me,] ‘You’re paralyzed on the left side, not sure if you’re going to walk or do anything ever again… and definitely not back in the gym doing what I’m doing,” she said.
Brown remembers challenging the doctor’s diagnosis.
“He proceeds to tell me statistics. ‘You’ll be living with a lifelong disability… x,y,z you may not be able to do.’ My words to him were, ‘Hey, you don’t know the God I serve. I’m definitely going to get up,’” she said.
She spent several months in a California hospital undergoing physical therapy before returning home for more work.
“Every day is a recovery for stroke survivors, we have to understand,” she explained.
Ely was the one to suggest Brown return to bodybuilding competitions.
“I knew she needed a goal. I’d seen how far she came from her stroke, but I knew she could come farther,” he said. “There was no doubt in my mind she could do it, as long as she wanted to commit to it and do it. And she decided to do it.”
Brown has been training 4-6 days a week for more than 6 months to condition for competition.
“She never viewed herself as a victim, she never viewed herself as having a disability, she never made any excuses,” Ely said. “She’s motivating and she’s an inspiration to everyone else.”
Brown sometimes still struggles to control her left side. But she said the stroke gifted her a new level of empathy for her clients with physical challenges and a new level of resiliency.
“I’m still smiling, I’m still here. So guess what? I don’t want to live my life sad,” she said. “I want to live my life knowing I was successful in everything I did and continued to push. So in spite of what happened, I’m here today and I’m going to keep pushing every day.”
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