- Roland Seward was a competitor on NBC's "American Ninja Warrior."
- Then Seward fell 15 feet and broke his knee in eight places, jeopardizing his career, goals and dreams.
As any athlete will tell you, fitness is a mental game even more than a physical one. Still, that can be a hard lesson.
Roland Seward, 31, was always physically fit. He played football for seven years in grade school, trained others for nine years in the U.S. Navy and became a personal trainer and massage therapist in Mount Vernon.
Seward was operating at peak condition until six months ago. He'd made it onto NBC's obstacle course competition show, "American Ninja Warrior," the "St. Louis Qualifier" episode, cruising through challenges such as The Bridge of Blades and scaling The Warped Wall with ease.
Then he took the worst blow of his life.
Seward plummeted 15 feet onto the edge of a trampoline, smashing his right knee in eight places while at an unofficial obstacle competition in New York with other people from the TV show. Seward was using sticks to climb up rungs on the Salmon Ladder, and he missed one rung.
"I went into shock," Seward recalls. "My leg was straight and then from the knee down, it flopped to the left, the way it's not supposed to bend like."
Doctors had never seen an injury like it, so they made Seward a case study. He shattered his ACL, PCL, LCL, patella tendon and popliteus tendon. He broke off a piece of his tibia, dislocated his fibula and cracked his patella.
"Long list, right?" Seward says.
Seward's injury jeopardized his personal and professional life. He had to freeze the massage portion of his Fire & Ice Fitness and Massage business because he couldn't give proper massages without full use of both legs. He couldn't carry groceries, drive or shovel snow.
Still, Seward was back at the gym with crutches tucked under his muscled arms in less than two weeks, doing the bench press, bicep curls and other upper-body strength exercises.
It was hard for a while to recruit clients while he was on crutches himself, but then Seward discovered that he could be an inspiration to others who needed to stay fit after an injury, accident or surgery. He could turn this trauma into a tool to help clients.
He was nicknamed "X" for "No Excuses."
"I feel like I'm giving other people more motivation. They're working harder because they see me still in the gym," Seward says. "That's pretty cool."
This isn't his first injury, but it's the worst. When Seward was 2, he broke his leg jumping from a chair to the couch, pretending to be Superman.
Seward's wife, Keena Seward, was there when her husband plunged 15 feet. And she's been there through his long recovery.
"His injury is so bad, there's no comparison," she says. "Yet throughout it all, he's maintained such a positive attitude. Honestly, he's amazing."
Twitter: @AmySowder
Roland's tips on keeping fit during recovery
1. Your injured body is going to use all your nutrient supply, so green leafy vegetables are your best friend.
2. Stay off your injured muscle for six weeks. Ligaments take nine months. (Follow doctor's orders.)
3. Surround yourself with people who help lift your spirits.
