A women whose rare condition has caused her to break up to 200 bones in her life, has become an avid fitness fanatic as she refuses to let her disorder hold her back.
Jasmine Manuel, 22, has Osteogenesis Imperfecta Type 3, also known as brittle bone disease, which causes her to endure agonising fractures and has left her immobile.
Ms Manuel, who has undergone 22 surgeries in her life, can often be seen doing push-ups and crunches around Kennesaw State University, where she is a student.
She said: ‘I like working out because it’s proving that I can do it.’
Ms Manuel, who makes music under the pseudonym ‘Mini Producer’, is even behind a social-media campaign, known as Rollout Fitness, that promotes being active among disabled people.
She said: ‘There are a lot of pre-conceived ideas about what people with disabilities in society can do and I think it is so cool to have that opportunity to really change that mindset’.
Osteogeneses Imperfecta Type Three affects around one in 20,000 people to some extent.
Jasmine Manuel, whose condition has caused her to break up to 200 bones in her life, refuses to be held back by her disorder and has become a fitness fanatic despite the risk of fractures
The student can often be found working out at her university’s gym, saying ‘no excuses’
Ms Manuel (pictured using a weight machine) impresses herself when she does not fracture
‘The motto I live by is, “no excuses”‘
Speaking of defying expectations, Ms Manuel said: ‘A lot of doctors have said different things about what I was going to be capable of, and every day I am just proving that I got this. I can do whatever.
‘I don’t have time to pity myself because there is nothing to feel sorry for, this is what it is.
‘I don’t really have a choice but to be positive and live my life.
‘The motto that I would say I live by is, “no excuses”.’
Ms Manuel has even recently taken on YouTube Fitness guru Shaun T’s Insanity Max 30 workout regimen.
She said: ‘I have been able to make Insanity Max 30 work for me just by winging it, because, it is super high intensity so you kind of have to think quick.
‘I just wanted to see if I could do it honestly. I was like, “Man, this is kind of crazy, this could not work out or every bone in my body is going to break.”
‘But the fact that I could do it, was like, “Hey man I am about to hit up Shaun T.”
Ms Manuel uses her Rollout Fitness Instagram page to spread the message of defying the odds when it comes to staying fit and has even started training another woman who is also in a wheelchair.
She added: ‘Fitness for people that have disabilities is important to me because it’s really just about showing you can do it.’
Ms Manuel wishes to inspire disabled people to get fit, adding she is proof it can be done
Ms Manuel is forced to think quickly when following high-intensity YouTube fitness tutorials
She believes her fitness proves to doctors who doubted her future she is capable of anything
Ms Manuel (posing with a friend) is even training another wheelchair user on being active
Chronic pain is the hardest challenge
Speaking of the impact of her condition, Ms Manuel said: ‘The worst effect that OI has caused, is believe it or not, the chronic pain.’
‘Breaking bones is a lot easier, because it eventually heals but with chronic pain that never goes away, that’s an everyday thing.’
Her mother, Wanda Manuel, says her daughter always been determined despite facing challenges from the moment she was born.
She said: ‘When Jasmine was born she had six broken bones.
‘So you are talking about both arms, collar bone and three ribs, so that’s how her early life started.
‘And then after five months, she probably broke something every month and when Jasmine was about two years old she had all four leg bones rodded, which means that she had small metal rods that were inserted into all four leg bones.
‘Jasmine has always been very strong willed. So just her personality and desire to keep going made it easier.’
Wanda adds that although she worries about her daughter’s ambitious fitness goals, she lets her do what she desires.
She said: ‘I have had to learn to let go. I can’t bubble wrap her, I can’t protect her, she is a grown woman and she has got to live her life.’
As well as training, Ms Manuel, who is due to graduate this July, hopes to become a successful music producer and has recently signed to an independent label called Starkast Nation.
She said: ‘I enjoy making music because that is my escape.
‘I always say music is like my sports because I put just as much time into it as if I was playing basketball, or some sport.
‘I break easily, that’s what it is. But music, I have a say in that and creative control.’
Ms Manuel’s mother Wanda says her daughter is always resilient when facing challenges
In the first five months of Ms Manuel’s life she suffered a fracture around once a month
At two years old she had small metal rods inserted into all four of her leg bones
Even as a youngster, Ms Manuel (pictured with her family) was strong willed and kept going
Ms Manuel (pictured at prom) refuses to pity herself and is determined to stay positive
Ms Manuel, an aspiring producer, finds making music an ‘escape’ where she has ‘control’