Following a Stroke, Tim Taylor Found Resilience and Community at CrossFit Convergence
Tim Taylor was a regular at the 6:30 evening CrossFit class on Thursdays at CrossFit Convergence in Tallahassee, FL.
It was like any other class for him on February 23, 2023 — he hit a metcon and even PR’d his clean and jerk. His wife, Jennie, was coaching the class, and after the hour was up, the couple left the gym, picked up dinner, and went home to crash.
Around 5 a.m. the following day, things began to go sideways.
“I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom, and suddenly, I started feeling a little different. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew something was up. I collapsed on the floor in the bathroom, which obviously had never happened to me before,” Taylor tells the Morning Chalk Up.
In the middle of it, Taylor still thought it wasn’t that big of a deal. “I remember thinking, I’ll just get up and sit on the toilet. I will get up, stand up, and I’ll be fine. This will pass.”
But he couldn’t get himself up.
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“I was lying there, and I could tell my right arm was numb. I was telling my body to do things and trying to move on the floor, but my ability was gone,” Taylor remembers. “My right side was paralyzed. It was not moving and not listening to my brain.”
Taylor understood what was probably happening. He knew this was a symptom of a stroke, and thankfully, his wife heard the commotion in the bathroom and rushed in.
“She came in, asked me if I was alright, and wanted to know what was happening. I couldn’t answer her – I tried to speak but could not get any words out,” Taylor says.
Jennie quickly called 9-1-1, and the ambulance got to the house to take her husband to the hospital. He was quickly diagnosed with an ischemic stroke and spent several days in the ICU.
This type of stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is blocked or reduced, preventing brain tissue from getting oxygen and nutrients. Brain cells can die in minutes, so the quick response from his wife and the ambulance was vital.
When Taylor was discharged from the ICU, the actual work began.
“I was in a live-in rehab facility for a month. I did therapy daily — occupational, physical, and speech,” Taylor says. “I was there for about a month, and then I came back for outpatient rehab three times a week.”
The insurance-covered therapy sessions were about to run out, and the rehab had built Taylor up enough with the basics — enough that he could move his rehab to CrossFit Convergence.
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Jason Lentz, the owner of Convergence, started working with Taylor one-on-one.
“We started easy, scaling many things, but now we’re getting more intense and complex,” Taylor says.
Tim’s base of fitness changed the trajectory of his entire recovery.
“For the entire time I was doing rehab, I was thinking how my fitness made it easier to fight back,” he says. “I was able to bounce back, thankfully. I think of people who are not in great shape, who are overweight or have very little fitness at all, and I think that task for them of recovering from this would be much more difficult, if not impossible.”
It wasn’t just the physical help CrossFit gave Tim that expedited his recovery — the work ethic he gained from it over the years was invaluable.
“That helped me in the therapy world and doing basic things. I was intense about it and tried as hard as I could,” he says. “It wasn’t surprising; I knew it would be hard and taxing on my body. But I had felt that before in CrossFit — I knew the feeling of uncomfortable.”
It has now been six months since Taylor returned to the gym, and he is feeling fantastic.
“The support from everyone at the gym has been phenomenal,” he says. “When I returned, they were so motivating, always pushing and cheering me on. The community is wonderful.”
The community ran deep for Taylor from visits from members in the hospital, food deliveries, and more.
“There was an ad at the Games last year that CrossFit may not be for everybody, but CrossFit is designed for anybody. And that resonates within the walls of our gym,” Anna Saunders, a coach at CrossFit Convergence, tells the Morning Chalk Up.
“Tim had this life-altering event happen to him physically, and CrossFit and the community are meeting him at the stages of life that he needs,” she says. “Our coach, Jason, is designing his training sessions to help him reach his future goals and meet his everyday needs right now.”
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Taylor continues on his road to recovery, even winning the gym’s “Comeback Award” in 2023. But he understands the concept of “slow is fast.”
“There are times that I do get frustrated and a little depressed — I want the recovery and the progress to come faster. But you have to be patient,” he says. “It’s a good reason to have a wonderful wife, friends, and community to keep you moving and avoid getting discouraged. I’m grateful that progress is coming, even if it is slowly.”
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Featured Image: @crossfitconverge / Instagram