My name is Jenny Rodriguez, I’m a mother, trainer, competitor, promoter & survivor 🙂
I’ve always had passion for sports and fitness but learned first hand how strength training can change your body after building myself up after a horrific car accident.
I became a personal trainer because I love helping other people reach their potential.
Whether it’s a mom realizing she can still have the body she wants after having kids, A teenager learning that being fit can be fun.
An elderly person finding strength and mobility they thought they lost or a competitor understanding that competition prep isn’t about killing yourself with cardio or doing a starvation diets.
I love showing people that you can become the best version of you no matter what obstacles are in front of you.
… my car hit another car head on……I survived, barely and would in the months that followed find out just how strong I could be. 1 week in a coma, 3 months stuck to a hospital bed, 6 months in a wheelchair, months after months of surgeries and physical therapy to learn how to walk again. Being told I might never walk again stirred within me a determination to prove them wrong. And I did, I healed in record time, got back on my feet against all odds and still aim to push myself beyond my limits.
Now I have a Squat PR of 205lbs, Deadlift PR of 265lbs. I’ve competed in 4 shows, done a mud run and an obstacle course and I’m not done setting personal records yet.
Point being you can overcome anything if you put your mind to it
Never let anyone tell you, you can’t cause if you believe, if you fight and work hard. You CAN do anything.
Continue below if you want to read the full story
in their life will or has encountered something that logic just can’t explain. In my case it was an experience that followed a life changing incident which made me realize that I actually have a purpose and that I am supposed to fulfill it. This is a story about an accident I had in 1998 and small incidents that happened afterwards that made me realize that I’m stronger than I believed myself to be.
On the night of Friday, the 13th of March I made a decision that set in motion events that forever changed my life. I decided to drive home on no sleep. I remember about 10 minutes of this drive, a drive through a fjord that is known for dangerous roads, next thing I remember is waking up in a hospital bed with my parents standing next to each other looking at me.
Nobody really knows what happened. It is most likely I fell asleep since no tire marks were found, but the fact remains: At approximately 8am that morning I hit a SUV head on.
My car which was an old 4 door Nissan was totally smashed, it looked like a piece of aluminum paper that somebody had curled up to a ball and thrown away. I was literally sitting on the front tire and my dad told me later on that the only thing still intact of the car was the glove compartment box. I was wearing a seatbelt which is one of the reasons I’m still alive, the SUV’s front end was all torn up but the rest of it was ok. The driver though, a 62-year-old gentleman not wearing a seatbelt, died instantly. Another reason I’m still alive is that the first people to arrive at the scene were 2 members of a crash unit of the city’s fire department. Now for an explanation, the crash unit is the one that bring wire clippers and that kind of stuff to the crash site to cut victims out of the cars. They just happened to be on their way to the next city to give lecture on the subject with all the equipment needed – guess I was just lucky. After hours of work to get me out of the car I was transported to the city’s University Hospital where my injuries were assessed. I was in critical condition after all the blood I’d lost with a list of injuries that included: a collapsed lung, a liver not functioning, crushed spleen, jaw broken in 2 places, both wrists, an elbow and a thumb and 3 ribs broken, hip broken in 2 places and both legs so badly broken that for a while they weren’t even sure they could be saved. I was between life and death for 24 hours while the doctors did everything they could to put me back together, then I was in a coma for the next six days. Six days in ICU where my friends and family took turns sitting next to my bed talking to me trying to get some kind of reaction from me. On the Friday one week after the accident I woke up.
Waking up is the first thing I remember and I remember it clearly because the first thing I saw was my parents standing there next to each other looking at me, now at that time my parents had been divorced for 14 years so it was really strange to see them standing together, at that sight I realized something serious had happened. The next couple of days went by in a drug induced high and hallucinations since my drug dose was being lowered. Then, the day before I got out of the ICU and to my own room at the orthopedic ward, I got the news. I was told that my legs were so badly broken that I might never walk again, my right leg had been so crushed that they were still thinking about amputation and there was such a big piece missing out of my left leg end knee that it might be shorter or at least they didn’t think I’d be able to ever bend that knee again. But on the day of my accident the doctor on call just happened to be one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the country – guess I was just lucky. Not only was I told that I might have to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair or at least on crutches, but I was also told that a man had died in the accident. Now that’s a pain I wouldn’t even wish for my worst enemy. Never before have I ever felt the world just disappear from under me, nor have I felt it since. I hope that nobody I know, have known or will know will ever have to know the feeling of being responsible for somebody’s death.
The next day I was transferred to the orthopedic ward where I would spend my next three months. I was stuck to a bed with my jaw wired together for a whole month, not being able to eat anything but soups and milkshakes and I still don’t like soups and milkshakes. After that, things started to progress, I was allowed to try out a wheelchair and as glad as I was to get out of that bed even though only for 10 minutes I thought about how much I wanted to get out of there and 2 weeks later I was allowed to stand up just for few seconds and with doctors holding under both arms so I wouldn’t put any weight on my fragile legs that still had more steel in them than bone. How good it felt to be upright for the first time in 2 months! I decided then that no matter what, I would walk again. The determination and rush that I felt with that decision helped me stay on track and lit the fire of my determination.
My recovery was miraculously fast, so fast in fact that the city’s newspaper saw a reason to put me on front page. To me it was a sign that I was meant to walk again and one day 4 months after the accident I was assured that I had a guardian angel helping get back on track. It was one day after a series of bad news and an operation were a bone graft was moved from my hips to my legs because they weren’t healing like they should, I was lying in bed (what else) my determination kind of low when suddenly I felt a hand on my foot, I opened my eyes because I hadn’t heard anybody come in but I didn’t see anybody, but without a doubt there was a hand lying on my foot, just holding it gently, I could feel the warmth. For a long time, it was just there and I felt good, felt assured that I was being watched over and that I was getting help from some higher power. I got scared when a nurse came in and walked right over where “it” had been standing and I didn’t feel the hand anymore but as soon as the nurse left the room it appeared again, warm and healing on my foot. Needless to say I felt even more determined now to get back on my feet and continue on the path I had been put on. I did spend 5-6 months in a wheelchair before I could stand up again and then 2-3 months on crutches but on New Year’s Eve 1998-1999, nine months after the accident I was at my favorite dance club dancing the night away and 2 months later the knee that I was told would probably never bend, bent 90°.
After all of that time in the hospital I was down to 90lbs! I was only skin and bones and really needed to build muscle, so with help from several friends I got into weightlifting and I fell in love with it. Now 19 years, something between 20-30 surgeries later, I can jog, bike and dance! For the most part I walk without a limp, my knee bends 104° and nobody notices that at one point there was doubt I could ever walk again. It is with certainty that I will be able to follow my path and continue to push myself no matter what obstacles may lay ahead.
I celebrated my 10-year accident anniversary by competing in the All Forces National Championship in Tampa FL in Oct 2008 and it was a great experience, I learned so much and met great people! I’m hooked. I’ve done 3 more shows since then.
I weight train 4-6 days a week, my squat PR is 205lbs and I have a deadlift PR of 265lbs. I’ve done a mud run and an obstacle course and I’m not done setting personal records yet.
Since then I’ve become a certified personal trainer and I love helping people overcome their own obstacles as well as continually learning new things about how to improve our health and physique through training and nutrition.
Well this is my story, my journey so far, and despite having some disabilities and a lot of scars for a lifetime I’m glad this happened because it truly has made me a better person. I only wish it hadn’t come at the cost of another man’s life.