Six and a half year go, Kean Corkery was tending to his yard underneath the warm August sun. With a new home and a brand-new baby, Corkery decided to take advantage of the summer weather and fix up his barren front lawn. The last thing Corkery expected was that within 24 hours, he would be undergoing brain surgery to remove a bleeding mass of vessels from his brain.
At 9 a.m. that day, Corkery's forearm began to go numb. About an hour later, he lost feeling in the tip of his tongue. Thinking that he pinched a nerve, the longtime landscaper tried to shake it off. But when he began to feel dizzy, he knew something wasn't right.
After driving to Westhealth outpatient healthcare in Plymouth, Corkery noticed that his legs weren't working right. Unsure what was wrong, Westhealth doctors advised him to go to Abbott Northwestern Hospital. Concerned about his health, Corkery attempted to hop off the doctors table to drive to Abbott Northwestern but he lost all movement on his right side. At just 37 years old, Corkery was suffering a stroke.
Today, though Corkery still has mobility issues with his right arm and leg, he's a survivor. Determined to help others live healthy lifestyles, Corkery is the owner of a new Maple Grove gym, Athletic Nation. Located off East Fish Lake Road, the small, one-employee (Corkery himself) facility offers one-on-one personal training opportunities. And though the gym is only a few months old, Corkery's passion for fitness really heated up that fateful summer day.
Road to Recovery
Growing up in Iowa, Corkery always was involved in sports management from the University of Iowa and moved to Minnesota, where he worked at Flagship Athletic Club in Eden Prairie. "I worked there for eight years and then moved to a smaller gym in Stillwater," he says. "At that point, I was looking for a switch and had some interested in starting my own landscaping company." Four years after founding his lawn care business, Corkery Companies, he suffered his stroke.
"After they performed surgery, I was in ICU for a few days, and then the doctors told me that I could go home. The only problem was that I didn't have any feeling in my right side," Corkery said. "[The doctors] gave me the option to go to the Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute, so that's what I did."
For three weeks, Corkery lived in the lower level of Abbott Northwestern, where he spent hours teaching himself how to do daily tasks. "At the time I wore contacts," Corkery says."So I had to learn how to put those in again. I was right-handed, and it was my right side that wasn't working, so i had to learn how to write and brush my teeth with my left hand."
With support from his family, including his wife Jane, Corkery's rehabilitation paid off. After six weeks of sitting in a wheelchair, Corkery was finally able to stand again.
Slowly he resumed his profession. Though his walking was unstable, lawn mowers and snow blowers doubled as walkers. "I was self-employed, and I needed to work to receive health insurance," Corkery says. "I think that because I needed to work, I forced myself to learn how to get back onto my feet."
26.2 miles
In 2004, two years after his brain hemorrhage, Corkery found himself at the Maple Grove Community Center, listening to a question-and-answer session about running a marathon. He read about a program called "train to end stroke," and sparks began to fly.
"I always wanted to run a marathon," he says, "but I didn't know if I could physically do it." Though his rehabilitation helped him regain normalcy in daily life, the stroke left Corkery with some irreversible damage.
"My large motor skills are okay, but it's the fine motor things that are hard," Corkery says. "When you walk, you land on your heel and roll to your toes. But with me, I can't control my right leg. My foot just drops to the ground. And with my knee, it can only be bent or extended, nothing in-between."
Determined to run the Arizona Marathon, Corkery began training. Months of long-and-short-distance runs ensued, and all the while he was fundraising. When the big day came, Corkery hobbled across the finish line six and a half hours after starting.
"I was so proud because, with the help of my amazing family, I raised more than $10,000 for the American Stroke Association," he says. "My race was not pretty, and it hurt, but I finished."
The same dedication and drive led him into his latest endeavor, launching Maple Grove's Athletic Nation.
Training for results
During the spring of 2008, Corkery's longtime friend Jim Lancaster gave him the idea.
"Jim had heard of the concept of Athletic Nation and wanted to know if I'd be interested in bringing one to Maple Grove," Corkery says. "I learned more about it and decided that I really agreed with the concept."
Founded by Dennis Mulgannon in 2000, Athletic Nation is a personal training gym where members pay for one-on-one training and boot camps with a certified personal trainer. Geared towards residents between the ages of 25 and 55, Corkery's clients visit the small gym about three times a week. Each session is an hour long and involves a variety of exercises including a one-mile run.
"Really it's about allowing people to live healthy lives," Corkery says. "We hold people accountable, and we develop relationships with our clients. After all, working out is supposed to be fun."
