The Sevan Podcast - #9 - Logan Aldridge
Episode Date: May 21, 2020Fittest 1 Arm Man on Earth https://www.adaptivetrainingacademy.com/ The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ ... Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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What's up?
Bam-o.
I hear you. Can you hear me?
That's the most important part. Can you see me?
I see you. You're very crisp.
That is high-definition BSLR you're working with right there.
I'm going to stop the video. you don't deserve to look at this face
probably right
can I just tell your story
yeah
that's a pretty good
that's a perfect place to start
so you're holding on to some line
that's attached to a boat
and one end gets caught on a prop like a fucking horror
movie nightmare tightens the rope around your arm bam oh you're a one-armed guy couldn't even
couldn't even reenact it if you tried yeah and your mom says to you
that's you jump in here we're like going back and forth and your mom says to you, that's you jump in here.
We're like going back and forth.
And your mom says to you, you're like, mom, what the fuck?
And your mom says, it's just an arm.
Powerful, powerful words.
When I was 23 or 24 years old, I came home from college and I was sitting with my mom
down by the water in Benicia, California with my great Dane that she told me not to get but i got it anyway of course and she's
paying for my college and i've been going forever and i look at her and i say mom i've been smoking
weed every single day like 10 times a day i think it's a problem you know what my mom said
you should fix that yeah you should fix that and she gave it should fix that. And she gave it no energy. And we went on to the next conversation and boom,
I don't think I ever smoked weed again. I'm 48 years old. It was weird.
It was when I heard you tell your story, I was like, wow,
moms have this like magic power. And I tell my mom the story. She's like,
I don't remember that shit.
Of course. But I mean, you talk about superheroes, right?
Yeah.
And typically it's portrayed most when you reflect and you find those moments
or you realize that memory, that was like a pivotal moment.
Everything changed.
It's profound.
You remember it forever.
In the moment, it was like no big deal.
It was nothing.
At least in my experience.
Does your mom remember saying that to you? Does your mom remember that?
Oh, absolutely. And her intention was nowhere near what it's,
what its application has turned into for me.
Right.
Her use of those words is try to calm herself down, you know,
try to get her to grasp. Holy shit. My son, is he about to die?
I don't know. He just lost the blood.
There's more blood out of his body than in
his body what's going to happen but when i have to provoke that question and that thought in my
mind at 13 years old scrawny little kid that's what she needed to say for her mental health
and to be a uh or try to portray herself as a solid sound figure for me, you know, in this uncertain experience and what the hell's going on.
Mom, what if I lose an arm? Logan, it's just an arm.
Is it, is it the fact that she gave it? Like I always, I always,
I can only speak for myself and that's why I'm projecting on you.
But it was the fact to me, I always thought, Oh shit.
It's the fact my mom gave it no energy that it went away.
Like, why do you think that that was such a profound, like, do you think,
Oh, my mom doesn't think it's, do you think subconsciously you're like,
Oh, my mom doesn't think it's a big deal. I only have one arm.
I guess I won't think it's a big deal either. Like, how does that work?
What, what, what was the mechanism that kind of helped you transcend this loss?
You know what I, well,
how I explained that message and how I interpreted it was just a perspective shift.
It's just an immediate perspective shift.
And you can do this with anything, anytime, any instance in life, no matter what.
For this example, our human anatomy, we have two of a lot of things.
And it's just an arm.
In my mind, what I heard from that was, oh you're right i do have another one like there is another one and i know that's
not the typical like oh yeah you're fine in this life if you have one but you're much better off
you have one arm than if you don't have a life so my my perspective shifted immediately from those words to recognizing abundance, recognizing the good.
And the good in that moment was that I was alive and I was conscious.
You know, I lost more blood in my body than I should have to be conscious.
I stayed conscious for way longer than I should have.
I never went unconscious, which is wild.
How many hours had it been since the accident when she said that to you?
At that point it was two hours, hour and a half in.
That's a lot to process for a 13 year old boy.
Yeah. I was left-handed, you know, so it was my dominant arm. Had a bright future ahead of me for
lacrosse. That was really my team sport of choice.
And I was attempting to go professional wakeboarding.
That's how I had to have it, finishing wakeboarding.
But it wasn't just like a recreational fun day on the lake.
That was my sport.
That was my jam.
I played lacrosse because I went to an awesome school that had a great program.
But my goal was becoming a professional wakeboarder.
How old are you, Logan?
29.
Do you have kids yet?
No.
Yeah, you're too young. I'm taking care of myself.
Kidding me?
I watch your kids though all the time, man.
We have to say something about that.
It's amazing.
Amazing.
I feel like I'm a part of your family.
That's awesome.
You do a great job of that.
It's so cool to see how you can use a fricking platform like Instagram and flip the script,
man.
Forget these influencers and the filters and the fricking all this shit going on on it.
No, you're like, Hey, what's up?
Here we are.
These are my kids.
Let me tell you what happened today.
And I watched it and I'm like, this is awesome, man.
Don't get me started.
Your dad, has your dad ever, um, it's funny.
I have 200 questions here in front of you.
And I told myself, I'm like, I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. don't get me started um your dad has your dad ever um it's funny i have 200 questions here in
front of you and i told myself i'm not gonna have a conversation with him i'm just gonna plow through
questions but i just didn't have it um your dad i wonder how much blame he put on himself he was
driving the boat right exactly like i would probably if that happened with my sons and i was there
and i had nothing and i and i was there i would i don't know i would lose my i would just
i mean i don't mean to say to to to step on your pity party for losing your arm but
fucking this guy made you it was no big deal you're his pride and
joy you're assisting chapel you're his everything right i had no idea you know 13 years old not
it was probably not until seven or eight years later did the light bulb moment go off my head
and i was like holy shit how is this experience for my parents? Like what happened with them?
That's those are good parents, by the way,
they should protect you from having those thoughts.
You want your kids to kind of take you for granted until,
until they're ready not to. That's awesome. Okay. Tell me more.
So my dad, well, first of all,
I know I've told my story like a hundred times on different podcasts,
but I got to say very impressed with you already.
You know all the details, man.
This is awesome.
So thank you for doing the deal.
I did.
I did like five or 10 minutes of research on you.
Okay.
Google Logan Aldridge.
Tell you 20 times I lost his arm.
That's pretty accurate.
Yeah.
So no.
So my dad, man, my dad, you know, growing up was like the superhero to my brother and I. I have an older brother, a few years older. Blue collar hard worker, owns our family business, commercial refrigeration. He's always gone, construction sites, managing his crew, company, traveling. Didn't see him a lot.
Your mom's a loan shark.
Yeah, yeah. And she was crushing it before I wake.
And, uh, we were traveling the world doing all sorts of awesome things. My dad was the
fricking, you know, early home late when the jeans and just going to work, getting his hands dirty
and supporting your dreams and supporting your dreams to be a professional wakeboarder spending
every moment free moment he has taken care of his early morning rides late night rides never did i appreciate that obviously like most
privileged kids and you shouldn't you shouldn't that's our job as parents
they can word they can thank us later yeah well it was you know years later and i thought so i
want to tell you a bit personal, something personal.
I've never talked about this on a podcast before,
but I think it helps when you talk about my dad and you want to know about my
dad and how I feel, uh, this is important for me to say, you know,
after my accident, I lost when I was 13, um, puberty,
going to high school, 14, 15 15 i get my learner's permit i get my driver's license
at 16 yeah which that was that's the story in and of itself me taking drivers in with one arm
just freaking lean back in the car just cruising like a gangster and the driver's that teacher
can't you can't say 10 and 2 over here bro no this is freaking 12 only but uh anyway um when i was after my accident
my parents ended up separating getting a divorce when they were when i was around 16 so a few years
after my accident my accident was a moment that brought them together they needed to come together
to figure out how they're going to deal with their son's
traumatic injury and his
life moving forward.
So 14, 15, and beginning
of 16,
as a family, we were a unit
because we needed to be.
It was critical
for my life,
my health.
They never in my whole life did I ever know my parents, my health. They never, never in my whole life
did I ever know that my parents had any problems.
Like, you know, it never portrayed to us.
We never knew about any issues.
And it was ultimately,
without going into too many details,
they just, I had grown out of love with each other
and we're just going separate directions, right?
The kids had gotten older.
My brother was off to college.
I was well
on my way obviously at 16 in the near future so it was a harsh reality but it was what what
happened was my mom moved out of our house and our house was like like a compound like
grandparents live next to us aunt and uncle live up at the top they moved out i'm turning 16 i got
my driver's license i am still just like every other average kid at that age,
a little bit of a jockey, a little bit of a punk,
a little bit of an extreme sports enthusiast.
So the only things that matter is girls.
Yes. Never home. Definitely not home.
Yeah. I was never home.
Yep. Yep.
So, and this is the part I deal with.
I have the most guilty conscious about this because um my father this blind side of
him the separation he had no idea he was just blue collar working all the time thought love is love
things are great it'll be better kids will be gone we'll have a house for ourselves that just wasn't
the case and now i can see fast forward now they're both remarried happily married it's been incredible um great for them but in that
moment um at that age when i basically abandoned my parents i was like i'm 16 my parents are
getting divorced i'm gonna just i'm off i'm kind of on my own my dad was trying to figure out you
know his situation as a newly divorced man and what he was doing and supporting me still under this household but not
really knowing how to run this household anymore um i i say all that to give some context to
like my dad is the most people talk very highly of their parents and they view them as a hero
um but like my father has never it sounds so so cliche and so in a like inappropriately wrong to
say but like he's never perfect that's what this podcast is for what is it what he's never done
wrong he's like a perfect man it's i i mean he he gives money to his siblings if they need it he
he's never yelled at me and growing up up, I got shit beat out of me.
I got the wooden spoon or the leather belt on the butt,
but never raised his voice.
Never.
Never had to.
And I respect and healthily fear him more than either of my parents
growing up.
My mom, she would chase me around the house, beat my ass for sure.
She laid down the law.
My dad was always poised and always wanted to be the
loving the loving side very caring and thoughtful so when my accident happened i forgot about all
that i forgot that that's the type of character that's the person that he is and i just thought
he was just my dad who needed to be my dad needed to go to work checking at the hospital see how your son's doing and that'd be it
but um you know like i said earlier and it was like that five six seven years later when i
reflected and i said well what did my parents think at this moment that's when i realized that
i the trauma was on my dad the trauma was not my mom it was not her figuring out no look it's just
an arm it wasn't me losing my
dominant arm at 13 whatever i don't even know any better i'm only in 13 years at this arm doesn't
grand scheme of things is a blip on the radar the trauma was the guilty conscience associated
with my father because he was number one goal his number one goal was to protect logan aldridge like
everything in my life is about protecting my three boys everything's about safety yeah and especially on a boat doing extreme sports where you're flying
around in the air and slinging people around but you know it's chaos on the water and so many
unfortunate accidents happen so especially on the boat most cautious and so for that to happen
under his watch with you know his wife my mom on the boat
with some family friends and other very young kids on the boat to witness this
he it was really tough it was really tough for him and you know those kids still who were on the boat
yeah yeah were they like dude that was some crazy. One was like a toddler and the other was I think seven or eight.
That's probably the biggest story that ever happened in that person's life.
That kid was very much scarred from that.
Now he's a Marine and I'm pretty sure he's special forces.
So I think he's turned that into processing it.
Yeah, i think so
but yeah has your dad ever grabbed you and held you logan and said oh my god i'm so sorry or
if i would give you my arm or have you guys had like just a face-to-face has he
has he actually said anything to you about that day now that you're older we've talked about it
that's why that's what i did you know six seven years after when i'm reflecting on the fact that
i'm living this long i'm off into college I remember yeah talking about it I'd call my dad
and be like what what was this like for you when this happened and and you know he said it was
it was a huge it was a big struggle we never had that moment of just like breaking down and me recognizing the
blame he put on himself we had a conversation and it was very enlightening
to know that he struggled with that and then the part that really upsets me is
how he dealt with that and then the burden of a divorce before there was any resolution or closure or
communication about the previous guilty conscience and burden.
Cause that's part of it, right? That's part of being a father. You don't want,
you want to keep the family together for your kids and,
and you want your kids to be safe. Yeah. It's a lot, man.
It's cool that you had that talk with them. It's really cool.
You had that talk with them. Wait till you have a kid.
Then it's going to, your brain's going to just.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
My friends are having kids and it's some of the coolest explanations you
started here. And I know you've, you've said them all the most elegantly,
frankly, but when people explain that, that,
the thing that I'm watching some that the thing that and i'm watching some netflix
documentary about babies and i'm learning all the science behind like the chemicals in our brain
with men and obviously definitely women what's the doc i want to see it what's the baby okay
it's incredible women's hippocampus forever changed like that whole motherly instinct thing
completely scientifically true and then there is effects on men.
So especially in that first year, if the father is touching that child often, changing diaper, being present, there is drastic chemical changes in the brain forever.
Side note here real quick.
I don't think that mic in front of you is working.
I think the mic that I'm hearing is from your computer.
What do you think?
See, I wish you wouldn't have called me out.
Yes.
I'm like, how does it sound like that?
I can't figure it out.
I spent 30 minutes before this podcast trying to figure this shit out.
You have a faux microphone.
That's a fake microphone.
You're just being a poser right now.
It looks good, man.
I look like I could be on a pit crew. I could be a you're just, you're just being a poser right now. It looks good, man. I look like a pit crew.
I could be a fricking sports commentator. I could be anything.
When I was really well, you look great.
After this show, I'm going to help you fix it.
Please.
When I met, when I met my wife, she was in college.
So she's in her twenties.
So I saw her as a college girl figuring out life and partying.
And then I saw her turn into a young woman, then a woman.
And then I saw her turn into a mom and I got to witness all three phases and
man was that just so much fun. Yeah. The mother phase is the best.
I mean, at least from, from my wife, all that other crazy shit,
that kind of goes away and it's, um,
I hope I don't get in trouble for saying that. Um,
but the mother phase is awesome.
So, um,
how many one-armed guys are there in the country, in the United States?
742.
That really?
No, I don't fucking know. Are you kidding me?
One of the interesting things,
one of the interesting things I heard you say,
um,
so I,
and I remember,
I remember hearing this years and years ago.
So you don't know how many one arm guys are in the country?
No.
Okay.
Um,
and there's not some weird stat you have,
like it's always the right arm that's gone.
You don't know any,
any weird one arm numbers or anything like that.
No,
no,
no.
Most extremity
amputations though if you're talking amputations are due to traumatic most are due to traumatic
injury whereas most lower extremity amputations are due to chronic disease diabetes type 2 diabetes
so i remember someone saying that they were in the prosthetic business and business was
exploding and their two biggest customers were motorcycle accidents and type 2 diabetes So I remember someone saying that they were in the prosthetic business and business was exploding.
And their two biggest customers were motorcycle accidents and type 2 diabetes.
But there were still no comparison.
Type 2 diabetes was like causing the prosthetic industry to explode.
By far.
Now, the population of upper extremity people that I know, and there is a lot.
It is.
I mean, it's a valid question.
Mask.
I can't put a number on it. I don't know statistics, but definitely thousands, thousands,
and thousands that I know personally and network with. It is fascinating. And it's awesome that you say that because it is fascinating to me, the amount that are due to motorcycle accidents.
Remarkable, like heavily, heavily outweighs any other type of accident
or illness or injury in terms of traumatic well not illness in terms of traumatic accidents
illness is you know diabetes is the number one cause for impotence and the only guy i know
orthotic and prosthetic industry i studied say that again say that again sorry i worked in orthotic
and prosthetic industry i stuck in college i went again. Say that again. Sorry. I worked in orthotic and prosthetic industry. I studied in college.
I went to UNC Wilmington up here in North Carolina at the beach.
Go to the beach, go to class, wait for it all day. No problems.
I went to college on a beach town too, man. It's amazing.
I went to a beach town and did some college.
That's right. That's right.
And you don't wear one.
You're saying you studied it,
but you don't even wear one.
I saw you had a video
where like you were touting
someone you had
that was just all cables and shit.
But then I look for videos
of you wearing it
and there's no,
you're a one-armed guy.
No.
Yeah.
So I studied,
I went to school for business.
I was in business school,
but I studied additive manufacturing.
So 3D printing.
I was very, very interested in that in college and did a lot of independent studies, went to a lot of
different conferences on that sort of stuff because I saw a huge opportunity with prosthetics
and specifically the sockets and the fit, how that artificial limb fits to a residual limb of an amputee. And this use of additive
manufacturing was not only cost-effective, a better fit, but also more comfortable and
faster production. So it was like a win-win on every front.
Why don't you wear one?
The process is archaic. I don't wear one because I am an upper extremity above elbow amputee. And when you talk about above elbow, below elbow, above knee, below knee,
those joints dictate a massive amount of functionality with artificial
human awareness.
So look at the, all right, our leg, if these are legs,
what do they need to do?
What does the knee really need to do?
You need to be able to ambulate.
So a prosthetic leg needs to help you walk.
And that's at the base functionality. That's what it needs to do you need to be able to ambulate so prosthetic leg needs to help you walk and that's
at the base functionality that's what it needs to do you can do this and the knee needs to bend
and allow some gait travel you know it's complex but pretty simple upper extremity arms you want
to replace an arm you want to replace an arm a hand look at the shit we do with these things. Look at this.
Look at the how in the, I don't care where, we're pretty advanced.
You know, we've come a long way in technology,
but biomechanically we have not figured out all that. You have a very nice arm, by the way.
You have a great arm.
Oh, thank you.
Maybe the blush.
Appreciate that.
Tattoos are new.
So you found it was being more hindrance. I wore one. Sotoos are new. So you found it being more hindrance.
I wore one.
So here's what happened.
For you personally.
Upper extremity, I had one.
I had a $100,000 one.
I had computers all in it.
I could crush bottles.
And I was like a freaking iRobot with that thing.
But functionality-wise, I was more disabled wearing it than not.
Because it was a huge, heavy thing. And a a strap went across and my armpit rubbed and i tried to pick it up and it would get
would knock over things you know it was just now granted maybe if i spent a lot of time practicing
with it i could have gotten better but i'm under the impression that my native anatomy i want to
use this residual limb as much as i can i want to desensitize my uh distal end
so all the nerve endings that make it sensitive and if you just wear a thing over it all the time
you lose the opportunity to do so so prosthetics are training wheels am i oh you just gave a good
reason why circumcision is bad but with that different different podcast different podcast
okay yeah i want to know where you're gonna go with that but, different podcast, different podcast.
Okay. Yeah. I want to know where you're going to go with that.
There's a guy, there's a guy I see walking around my, my town,
about a mile from my house. I see him walking on time and he has,
he has no legs, but he's got legs. He's got two prosthetic legs. Yeah.
And he cruises and he cruises around and I,
and he always wears like really short shorts, right? Like strutting his shit.
Like, look at me, motherfucker. And I want to go. And if he was wearing pants, I would never in a,
and it's hot where I'm at. If he was wearing pants in a million years,
I would never know if he had prosthetic legs. I mean, maybe if I studied him,
I might be like, Hey, something's up with his gate, but man, he moves good.
And would it be inappropriate if I walked up to him and just started talking to
him about it?
No, not at all.
No, not at all.
I encourage that.
You know, it's something, it's funny when, you know.
Because I want to, my brain explodes when I watch them.
There's no right or wrong to this topic, but I, I encourage curiosity.
I want kids who are standing at me in the grocery store
to say, excuse me, sir, where's your arm? Like, I want that. Uh, I think it's an awesome teaching
opportunity. How often does that, how often does that happen? Very often, but most, and not that
instance, what happens most often is I just hear it. It's not directed at me, but it's mommy,
often is I just hear it. It's not directed at me, but it's mommy,
where's that man's arm? You know? And then the parent goes, Oh,
I'm so sorry. I'm so that please don't say that.
And I'm like, no, that's a great question. I would,
I would probably would have said something worse if I was that age, but that's awesome. Let me show you what this thing looks like. Look at this.
I used to have an arm. I don't need more. I didn't eat my vegetables.
This is what happens. Eat your vegetables.
Have you said that?
Oh yeah, definitely. I've done that.
I've done that one in the literally the parent looks at me and goes,
I didn't listen to my mom.
Yeah. Right. Right. So I've had those instances. I encourage that.
I think curiosity is key. I think it's cool to have kids or anyone,
but what I find interesting is when somebody, even adults in conversation,
you say, I don't mean to be rude, but what happened to your arm?
It's like, why, why would that, why is that rude?
Why would that be rude to be curious, to be so thoughtful,
to want to know if anything did happen how it did happen i think
what's happening is and we talk about this in our adaptive training course is that like language is
very important and we come as society from this ableist perspective of language whereas you see
me and you immediately think i lost my arm so i'm missing something there's something that's not
there that should be.
And there's a psychological effect that starts to happen where it means I'm less than that
means I'm not normal. So I have normal. And there's a lot that starts to happen with that.
And we talk about in our course, the importance of person first language, especially with
disabled groups, but really in any aspect of life right like what's that mean person first
language i was agreeing with you about like like yeah people with two arms see you and they think
oh he's missing an arm yes i have two arms and it's all relative we only know what we know right
so we start comparing it to like a regular human being that has two arms and two legs but there
was some term you use there especially first with the language. So one more time, person first language. Yeah. Explain that to me. That's technical and
you don't have to get lost in the semantics all the time, but that would be like saying,
instead of like, Oh, we have a deaf person in the class. It would still be, Oh, we have someone with
a hearing impairment or someone who is deaf in our class. So it's putting the individual before the identification impairment
or category, if you will.
So a person in a wheelchair rather than they're a wheelchair user.
And so it's subtle.
And where we break this rule is in fitness.
We call, I refer to myself and this population as adaptive athletes, right? Technically
that breaks the person first language, but it has so much positive brevity to it. Like it's an
empowering term. And frankly, what are we, what are we doing? Are we going to get lost in the
fact that we've got to say 14 words, just to say that this person is an adaptive athlete.
It's a short term that works well, but technically what we should say is this is an adaptive this is an athlete with adaptive needs
if we wanted to be technical with the psychology of language then you're gonna hate this next idea
i have i'm typing in your email and your email is uh logan at adaptive training academy.com
and i'm thinking this motherfucker
should just have Logan at One Arm Guy.
That's a great point.
Yeah, it should just be
because then I go back and I'm like,
did I spell everything right?
Am I missing everything?
I'm thinking Logan,
L-O-G-A-N
at One A-R-M
or shit.
That's it. One arm.
Logan at one arm.com. I got it. I bet you one arm.com is taken.
You better believe it.
I'm going to tell you a story and I don't know if this story is true,
but I don't know if that matters. So there's, there's a friend of mine. He's not really a friend of mine,
but I wish he was a friend of mine. And every time I see him,
I hug him and I treat him like a friend. His name's Kyle Maynard.
Do you know of him? He has no arms and no legs.
Of course. Of course. Okay. So, um,
I heard he was giving a talk to a bunch of soldiers.
This is the part that I don't know if it's true or not,
but I heard he's giving a talk to a bunch of soldiers and he gets up there.
And the first thing he said,
and they're all soldiers who've had like some shit happened to him,
like a limb blown off or something, something happened to them.
And he gets up there and the first thing he says is, man,
I feel sorry for you guys. Have you heard this?
Okay. So maybe it is true by the way. I wish, is that the creatine FIDAID?
Yes. Yeah. Oh oh all right flintstone
vitamin man you ever take a flintstone vitamin now it's in a can pre pre-covid when i was balling i
was i had two cases of that coming to my house a month that's why that's one of the luxuries i cut
away so you should be drinking his immunity aid right now if you're asking me i'm just i'm just
a sucker for the word creatine i just just think I'm going to get buffed.
So I heard he gets up in front of all these people and he says what no other
man in the world could say to them. Kyle Maynard says,
I feel sorry for you guys. Cause I was born like this.
You guys actually lost a limb. And I'm just like, Holy shit. What?
Like I wish I could be in the room when
he drops that bomb that's so like it's so much power he's there's so much he's conveying to
those people he's like challenging them and empathizing them at the same time absolutely
when you look at your own life you're you lose the arm at 13
i mean it is you lose the arm at 13.
I mean, it is, you lose the arm, right?
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, exactly. Yeah.
Don't get wrapped up in this language thing, but it's just, it's important to be aware of because you can understand how that can affect
the psychology of something better. But yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
I lost my arm at 13.
It's, um, and are you glad you had your arm?
Do you ever think, or is this an irrelevant question? Um,
are you glad you had your arm for the first 13 years?
No, I love this question. Um,
I'm so glad I had it and I'm so glad I lost it.
Wow. I don't believe you.
Absolutely. Are you kidding me? You see see how weird i am do you notice how like
i'm already a bit of a different type of person i believe that to be true in myself way before
losing an arm losing an arm no i don't have to even say anything you don't even have to get to
them you can just look at me but that dude is different i think that is fucking awesome i think
everyone should want to be different than anybody they've ever known or seen and i think that is fucking awesome. I think everyone should want to be different than anybody they've ever known
or seen. And I think that's awesome.
I followed you on Instagram.
I can't remember what the first video I ever saw of you was,
but I saw something and I'm like, Holy shit, this guy's,
this is fucking really cool. This guy has one arm and he did that.
Like I can't do that. And I have two fucking arms. Like what the fuck?
And then the first and only time I've seen you in person,
I was like a fucking little girl. Just do you remember where it was,
where I saw you?
I saw you on an airplane.
Oh, it was an airplane.
We were headed out to.
Oh yeah. That doesn't count. Cause that was,
that one I was just kind of shocked. I saw you. Cause I had,
that one took me a second to piece together. That's the guy from Instagram.
Yeah.
But I saw you working the fit aid booth at the CrossFit games.
Yeah.
And I just got, I couldn't believe it was you.
I was, I was so excited and you're right.
There is something different about you.
I'm pretty sure I had the same feeling about you, Sivan.
I don't think you're, you have the blue check mark. All right.
You're famous. You're famous.
Mine's a prosthetic. Mine's a prosthetic. I'm cool.
It's a blue, it's a blue check Mark.
Um, so we don't know how many one arm guys there are.
We know that most people who have limbs missing,
it's because of chronic disease. Um,
we know that, um,
you were in that business and you were surprised at how many, um many amputations there were from like motorcycle accidents and shit. Right.
So I would like to just explain like, why, why am I here? Why,
why do I do fitness? Why am I so into this?
It's not just because I want to have a six pack and all that stuff.
And throw in there why you haven't thrown in there.
Why you haven't done steroids.
Yeah. Well, I don't know yeah i don't know why you assume that
but you know that's another question i'm just kidding i assume you haven't yeah that's kind
of mean to say that to someone why haven't you done steroids i did not you're assuming i haven't
done steroids i got you think this is naturally kidding me no but i want to tell you why i'm here um in the orthotic and prosthetic industry
yeah biggest epiphany was wow i thought i was going to meet people who just went through a
boating accident just went through a motorcycle accident and lost a slim and were these active
go-getters or doing stuff already and i was going to be the guy who said hey there's still a ton of
opportunity cool places to do things there's resources there's, hey, there's still a ton of opportunity and cool places to do things. There's resources.
There's training regimens.
There's equipment.
I can help you create custom equipment with added manufacturing, 3D printing.
The reality of the situation was it's chronic disease.
It's psyched.
People are coming in, barely hanging on to life.
Unfortunately, they're resulting in a partial foot amputation nothing changes in their lifestyle
and that's a lot of socioeconomic factors that's a lot of stuff outside of their control frankly
but i don't believe that but go on another subject yes but a lot is within their control
i do i know where you're going to go with that and i um i was fascinated to see that I thought all throughout college that in the orthotic and prosthetic position for myself, not as a practitioner, but just for the role I was going to play, that I could add value and create a solution there.
I quickly realized that I pigeonholed myself.
This is not at all where you create the solution. If I make a better fitting socket for someone who's 150 pounds overweight and has a horrible lifestyle and understanding of health and wellness generally, it does not matter how advanced or how creative the 3D printing machine has or that socket is.
They're never going to wear it.
They're going to continue to destroy their bodies.
they're going to continue to destroy their bodies and the crazy statistic is once that diabetic patient has one leg amputated there's a 90 chance the other leg will be amputated within five years
wow is that true yes oh man so that is so sad that's one of the saddest statistics yeah that's
you can imagine and that is frankly i i rest. They don't change their lifestyle, right? Because they don't change their lifestyle.
That statistic resonated with me for about a week. And, uh, and I quit, I was like, I'm not,
this isn't where the solution happens. It happens in fitness and health and wellness before you have
to resort to an orthotic or prosthetic practitioner.
Hashtag CrossFit.
Amen.
That's what I did.
That's what I did.
I was doing CrossFit on my own, in my own gym or whatever gyms with friends.
In college, I weightlifted every day.
Every day.
The group of buddies, you know, I played on a club lacrosse team and my group of buddies,
we went to the gym every day and we lifted like birds and that was fun.
and my group of buddies went to the gym every day and we lifted like birds and i was fine and i graduated and was working this job and you know seeing my life unfold of going to work in the
morning coming home at night going to the gym doing that uh and realized that i wasn't making
any friends wasn't meeting any people so i started going here in raleigh north carolina started going
to all the affiliates there's a ton here there's a lot per capita. And I went into all of them and a lot of them were awesome.
A lot of them are not, you know, it depends on who you get in that moment,
whether it's owner or coach or something.
Why did you go to a CrossFit gym?
Cause I've been doing these sorts of workouts.
So you found it online first and they started doing it. Okay.
Same with me. Okay.
Dot com every day. do what's there and
just check the box go home that's it okay and i thought that was awesome but i was super unfulfilled
uh you wanted to meet a girl is what i'm hearing yes you want to meet a girl i was super unfulfilled
socially and tinder was not cutting it so okay i had to go into a crossfit box and um i went to
all of them but it was it did not take long it was the first
gym I went to where I experienced a group class that I said okay epiphany I said this is the
answer and not only is the answer but this is exactly what I've been saying since I lost my
because I don't know if you know this about me, but I was a motivational speaker,
a professional speaker at 14 and did that for many years throughout high
school.
And all credit to my mother for believing in me to put me on stage like
that. I never would have pursued that, but it was very comfortable doing so.
Do not fear public speaking at all. I enjoyed it. I thrived in that environment.
And all I did was just tell my story,
break my story down into a template of how any challenge or crisis or issue in life,
you can apply a similar template to and have that same thought process and resolution in mind.
So after doing a lot of the speaking stuff, I started to,
um,
where was I going with this?
The gym, the gym, you started hunting women. That's my interpretation.
When I finished the group class, I was like, what do I talk about when I speak about the importance of attitude and
surrounding yourself with a community and believers and people that will
support you and cheering on effort, not, you know, placement.
And I'm like these sorts of things just unfolded in a 60 minute experience.
And yeah, words were said, hi, I'm this person. Hi, I'm this,
shake your hand, high five at the end. And that's when I said to myself,
I said,
the end and that's when i said to myself i said a crossfit class is a motivational keynote speech in one hour you get to experience and embody what a presenter typically tries to tell you
no excuses never give up always push through get comfortable being uncomfortable you know
these terms and phrases you must the teachers at phrases. The teachers at the gym must've felt crazy pressure when you're in the class,
you're sitting there rating them. Okay. 3.2 on dress, 5, 6.6 on presentation.
I'm all about entertaining. I just want people to have a great time.
I want to give them a great time. And this is when, you know, so yeah,
I realized that immediately in crossfit three months later i
was getting my l1 um and not at all to become a coach because wait a second you're telling me an
l1 is applicable to a one-armed guy can you believe that no holy shit i'm pretty sure i'm the first
ever to do that hold on tell me about the l1 because I am a fucking fan boy.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah.
And it's, it's, as you should be.
My L1 was in Wilmington, North Carolina.
It was, it was awesome.
It was great. And I remember some of the staff members asking me to come out and demo to the group, or they called me out.
We were talking about burpees.
And they called me out. We were talking about burpees and they called me out. I forget the exact context of it all,
but other people in that group have told me this story to remind me of it,
but they called me out and were like, so Logan, how do you do burpees?
And I was like, I do exactly the same way you do that.
And everyone else. And guess what? They suck just as bad that way.
Like I don't need to
change anything about it i just do it and it wasn't me trying to be like you know combative
combative or anything i was just like don't do that okay i'm gonna fly on the wall here i want
to be learned and taught the same way you would teach any and everyone else if you have some ideas
or tips or tricks for some one-on-one stuff, love to hear that. And who was it?
I'm not
going to remember his last name. Jason?
Not Fernandez.
Power back. No.
I know who you're talking about.
Skinny dude. Skinny dude.
Oh, McDonald? UFC
fighter? No.
Jason.
Shoot. I even meet him at the games every year he's always in the booth with
the crossfit store area and he's like oh man i feel horrible for not knowing his name or his
last name not as bad as he feels not as bad as he feels he he taught me something in that seminar
that is a teaching point i teach in our adaptive training course now.
And that was we were going over the split technique.
And on the split technique, I was like, all right, I definitely want to do this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to go overhead.
But what's happening with my feet?
I know we say if you're lefty, you use this foot, righty, you use this foot.
But for me, I feel like it's not much of a choice.
It's kind of going to be a stability position issue here and he didn't have the answer but he thought through it with me
i'm like let's think about that all right one arm overhead let's say if your right arm's overhead
what happens if you're split position and your left foot forward and we went into that position
and he did some like tactile stuff to try to see where i where i feel unstable and he's like oh
okay yeah that's
definitely not the right way or i don't think that's the right way let's try the other foot
so i put my right foot forward and my left foot back hand overhead and it was a nine-day difference
like he couldn't move he couldn't like i was extremely solid and so we developed reasons why
that is right there on the spot he was like well that makes a lot of sense if you go back to that other way you your body wants to open up because the side bearing load your one-arm bearing
load has no support directly underneath it that's your back foot so you guys discovered something
about fitness in the l1 have you ever seen that anywhere else so basically if you're doing a split
jerk your the foot that goes forward is the same foot that is the arm that you
have.
Yes.
But this goes a step further.
I'm not trying to,
is that true?
Is that like biblical?
Is that,
is that,
that is true.
That's like fitness,
like truth.
That is the truth we discovered in this moment.
Okay.
It,
I think it's contradictory.
Okay.
Because in the CrossFit Games this past year, they had to do single arm split.
And it was a rule that they had to do opposite legs.
Oh.
So it was the opposite to the standard we created through trial with me.
And I thought that was very interesting.
In the adaptive community, we talk about that a lot. But I thought that was very interesting. We in the community, we talked about that a lot,
but I thought that was very interesting.
I don't know if that was intentional to complexity and skill or, you know,
weight that way is light enough that it really doesn't matter in terms of
safety and the movement, but like that's.
Do you practice both?
I don't know.
You just go right foot forward always.
Yeah. If I'm doing, if I'm, if I'm doing like that, what they were doing, like a 70 pound dumbbell,
I'll switch. But if I'm with a barbell, I'm taking a barbell overhead.
It's retro forward because right arm is bearing mode.
Yeah. That's crazy that you can do that with a barbell.
That's fucking nuts. Um,
is it, did I see that you had a 500 pound deadlift that that's can't be true i must have read that wrong right sorry no that is that is correct that is um 160 pounds yeah that is
incredible tell me how how how many years were you deadlifting before you did that?
Two, three.
You weigh 160 pounds?
Yeah.
How tall are you?
5'11".
Do you know how much your arm weighs, your right arm?
Exactly.
Yeah, if I had my other arm and I was just built and I worked out like this,
this arm, I'd probably be close to
almost 180.
Really? You think that arm weighs 20 pounds?
I mean, it's big, but let's not
exaggerate. I mean, your biceps and
forearm look big, but 20 pounds?
Yeah.
They were saying when I was 13 and they took
it off that that scrawny-ass
version of me, that that arm weighed like
10 pounds. No shit.
Yeah. Our bone density like we are we are freaking
heavy I mean obviously all of
our weight is here majority
of our weight is in our torso but like
Adrian Bosman
weighs 165 pounds
yeah he's got
both arms no
he's I don't think he's 5'11 I want to say
he's 5'8 were I want to say he's 5'8".
Were you ever fat?
No.
Because you're pretty shredded.
Have you always had a nice physique?
Yeah.
Do you have a girlfriend?
Fiance, yeah.
Oh, shit.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
She ran across the gym.
Met her at a crossfit gym.
Dropped into Cellar Fit Aid.
And next thing you know, I was asking her out to a Jack Johnson concert.
Wow.
Yeah.
That's really cool.
How was Jack Johnson?
Oh, amazing.
Amazing.
I got to surf with him.
I surfed with him in Hawaii when I met Bethany Hamilton, the girl off from Shark Attack.
Oh, dude, that's one of my favorite posts when you're over there,
when you're doing that jump roping with her.
That is so awesome.
So freaking cool.
Any sparks between you guys?
Any sparks between you guys?
Be honest.
Yes.
Yeah, it looked like crazy sparks. I'm telling you.
Not in that way, Savant.
Don't be getting me in fucking trouble, man.
I'm just telling you.
You got family and kid and that,
and I got Beyonce sitting in the other room.
Hey, you, everyone can be married and there can still be got fiance sitting in the other room. Hey, you,
everyone can be married in there can still be sparks.
They were all coming off of her.
Not you.
It's really cool though.
That's like,
have you seen the movie soul surfer?
I don't know if I have,
but I'm,
I've read a bunch of articles on her.
And what's funny enough,
the one time that I saw her was on an airplane.
Also,
I was going to Hawaii and she walked past me.
Now, Soul Surfer is like super Christian movie.
Okay.
I'm good with that.
Most of my guests are super Christians.
Maybe you should watch it because I get name dropped in it.
She reads my letter.
My letter, after when my accident happened, my best friend at the time sent her a letter.
Her accident happened nine months before me.
Fucking shark attack.
Crazy.
So, my accident happened, and I was following the surfing circuit very well.
I knew her and Alana Blanchard very well.
I paid close attention to them.
Before losing my arm, the day before losing my arm, I was surfing.
I was out at the coast surfing.
Surfed all the time.
I wasn't away for any surfing.
Very knowledgeable of her.
And so my accident happened.
My best friend wrote her a letter.
She was getting thousands of letters a day, thousands.
And her brother was managing all of these letters and figuring out which ones she should see or shouldn't see.
And it's all portrayed in the movie to a T.
It's so cool.
But, like, she's having, like, a really shitty time thinking she can get back into one-armed surfing.
She has a bad competition she tries to go to and just gets wrecked and wrecked and wrecked and she's like
i'm over this i'm over this and uh comes home and then she reads my letter that i wrote her
saying like hey you know friend just lost his arm he's north carolina he's in eighth grade
and seeing you is inspiring him to get back to wakeboarding and playing
sports. So, uh, it's so cool. So she,
she made sure that the director of that movie put that part in because when
my accident happened, she called me in the hospital. So in real,
in real life, in real life, 16 years ago, when the accident happened,
um, that letter was seen by her brother, Noah and her brother, Noah.
And when this was happening,
turned to her and she read it. And she called. She called my house while I was in the hospital.
And my brother called the hospital and said, hey, dude, some one-armed surfer chick just called
and left the voicemail. And so I listened to the voicemail. Very short, just saying, hey, you know,
I heard you just lost your arm. Got a letter. I just want you to know you're gonna be very capable to
do whatever you did before and were you like shit i'm already over this my mom fixed my shit already
too little too little too late bethany i mean i mean she was icing on the cake she was the one
where i was like hell like yeah and it's not just me either it's not just me i'm not alone in this and that's
absolutely the case in anything in life you're never alone but it's easy uh in
trials and tribulations to feel isolated and it was definitely easy as a 13 year old kid doing
all that i'll just talk to you and be like be like, this is only happening to me. Which arm did she lose?
Do you know?
Off the top of your head?
Her left as well.
Was she left-handed?
No, she was right-handed.
Shit, her story
ain't got nothing on yours.
Are you kidding me?
The freaking beast of the ocean?
Yeah, she's amazing.
It is.
God, her story.
I get so freaking jazzed up about it.
I'm going to see the movie now soul surfer
i'm gonna watch it tonight with my boys and then and they're both on netflix soul surfing on netflix
and then i should be getting paid for this and then unstoppable her her other feature film that
just came out she serves freaking jaws man she goes out there and serves that with one um but
yeah so after she called me uh i got out of the hospital got my stitches out
cleared to go back in water we went out of hawaii i flew out there my parents went out there my
friend who wrote the letter flew out there with us so we all all went out there oh so you know
her know her yeah we're friends good friends so we hung out i taught her how to wakeboard she
never wakeboarded before we got a wakeboard boat on the island in kawaii and wakeboarding she obviously taught me how to surf gave me a lot of pointers on one-armed surfing
and um yeah man we're in touch i went out like three or four more times over the past
over the next two or three years i thought that was just some one-armed publicity stunt to sell
your to sell your jump rope oh my gosh so let's talk about that jump rope yeah i think dave should put that jump
rope in the games yes if i i love not for one arm people for two arm people and they gotta use it
with one arm when dave has said that there has to be events that test skill there has to be an
unknown unpracticed untrained skill that's presented and you know it used to be pegboard be the pegboard, used to be the paddleboard, used to be
some of this stuff. And now you're kind of like,
where are you going to go with these skill things?
What a cool, organic way
just to throw
out a little shout out to the adaptive
training world by featuring something like
the monorail.
Where do I buy that? I want to buy one right when we get off.
Where do I go to buy that?
That would be amazing, man.
RxSmartGear sells it. So So rxsmartgear.com.
Are they the only ones who sell the one arm jumper?
They sell it and Equip Products sells it.
Which one do you use?
I, I mean, Dave Newman, RX Smart Gear.
Okay. Oh, it's Dave. That's right. He's awesome.
Yeah. He's a man, dude.
Yeah, he is a man. Same as us. Okay. I'm going to go out and I can just get it easily on the website.
It's not like special order. I got it.
Yeah. Okay.
Whatever colors you want and all that stuff. And yeah, man, we, we, you know,
you know,
I worked at Eastward for a few days and we'd be at the booth and I would just
whip that out. You know, when booth traffic was slowing down,
I just whipped that thing out and just do a couple of double unders.
Everyone would stop and be like, Oh, like let me let me try that thing and uh we already know how frustrated people can get with their jump rope you give them this freaking bar and
they want to snap it in half it is so funny uh it's comical for me what was the learning curve
for you like was it difficult no no i uh so my invention of that was out of necessity. Uh,
it was the open, it was the open 2015.
I think it was 15.2. I had a jumping rope on it.
I was doing a scale version, so single owners, 100 single owners.
And I went into the gym that day. Every day when I went into the gym,
I was like, I'm going to be challenged today.
Something's going to be on that board that I've never considered how to do.
And I'm going to figure out, I'm going to look at someone who's an athlete doing it.
And I'm going to ask what, or observe what the stimulus, what happens to them when they're
doing that, whether it was 10 burpees on the board.
What does it look like when somebody finishes 10 burpees?
Who's a fit person?
And I'm going to attempt to adapt that in a way that's suitable for me and
maximizes like my physiology and the stimulus that I would get.
So if I can incorporate this, I would, but sometimes I'll just do things.
So for the jumping rope, for instance, I was like, okay, I get it.
I know what that looks like. It feels like for somebody to watch somebody do it,
but what's the movement pattern?
What's really going on here and what's the task accomplishment bounding on the ground rope passing under you hands out on the
side generating little circles from the wrists blah blah and i thought okay how do i mimic this
well maybe i can use uh an object like a rig and with the appropriate jump rope i can attach that
handle into the side of the rig and mimic this motion by keeping this hand on the
outside yeah i like it i like it try that didn't work bad you need both if you have one oscillating
point not the other it just gets all wonky and wobbly okay went home that night a little bit
defeated just kind of like racked my brain i'm like it's gotta be like jumping rope like holy
shit i never thought i
would have to jump rope again but now that's definitely makes sense and what a cool thing
to be able to do anywhere i definitely need to figure this out and like i told you i played a
ton of lacrosse i went home and that night i thought again what is the pattern doing all right
if i can't get out here on this side i don't have enough limb over here to try to attach a handle
here i know that's not going to work that That loop is going to be hitting me inside the head coming over. So I said, all right,
if I can't be out here and jump rope, what if my one arm can be here and I can do circles like this
with a bar? The way I was connecting these dots in my brain, I was looking at lacrosse shafts that
I have in my room. So I literally picked one up, grabbed some athletic tape, stuck jump rope handles in on each side of the cross shack,
tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, went in the next day, did 15.2 or whatever it was.
Um, and did all the single unders unbroken. And that's when I was like, I am on to something here.
Um, after that, it was just, all right, next day, let's try double unders.
And I got like,
And did you take, and you took that idea to Dave Newman?
So he is, he was working on something similar.
He used that sort of design to help teach able-bodied people how to stay
within this, this teaching point of jumping rope.
You want to stay within this picture frame, this window.
And he thought that was a great tool to bring elbows in.
And it did for a
little bit but the application ended up being really useful for crystal crystal um canto another
single arm female single arm athlete on early on across the scene she was involved and um crystal
canto yeah you remember i knew a Cantu and I knew a crystal,
but I didn't know a crystal Cantu.
Well,
no,
no,
you didn't.
So anyways,
yeah.
Lance,
I knew Lance Cantu and I knew crystal McReynolds,
but no,
but no,
anyway.
Okay.
Strong names.
And anyway,
good people,
both good people,
both good people.
Yeah. So I did, I invented that for,
for my knee and Dave had something similar. So we came together and said, you know, I was not in the business of starting a jump rope company. I was absolutely in the business
of empowering people with one arm to do something they've never been able to do before or assuming
they could never do again. so he manufactures distributes the
jump rope i'm super fortunate to you know get jump ropes whenever i need them from him
uh and send them to people like bethany and others that deserve them uh do you think she's using it
yeah she loves it she sent me videos all the time oh that's awesome deadlift harness and stuff and
rowing handle so i've invented a few other pieces of equipment the the deadlift harness and stuff and rowing handle. So I've invented a few other pieces of equipment, the deadlift harness I use and the rowing handle.
So it allows you to row with one arm very comfortably.
How old were you when you did your very first deadlift?
See, it's hard for me to answer because I've always been an athlete growing up.
My parents put me in sports performance camps summer camps
growing up where it was like literally like agility ladders and like vertimax machines
pre-accident yeah yeah this is when i was like 10 11 years old like very young kid i'm just
trying to think how do you get to a 500 pound deadlift i mean i know guys who've been just
training their whole life for a 400 pound deadlift i I really don't know. I really don't know. I remember.
Well, here's what I'll say. And this is going to sound salesy, but it's true.
Impossible without training, having trained and developed my symmetry of my posterior.
If I deadlift with one arm all the time, no way.
To make it clear for the listeners or viewers
if you're watching, this deadlift is not
done with me grabbing that bar in the middle
with one arm and standing up.
I think you know that, Saman.
It's my harness.
I'm using two points of contact.
I'm making, as much as
I can, symmetrical
position on the deadlift.
I never trained that way, especially after 13, obviously. So I'm making as much as I can symmetrical position on the deadlift.
And I never trained that way, you know, especially after 13, obviously.
So when I got into CrossFit, I would say the first year almost of CrossFit was pure one arm, everything unilateral.
So I was like, this is just the way it is.
Let me see what happens.
Let me be a test subject and see what happens if I train un laterally for a year? And I did, and there was no,
there was no problems. I've never had back issues. I've never had shoulder problems. Everybody tells me, you know,
you got the keyword warriors that like to tell me, you know,
I'm not going to be able to put mom over my head when I'm 50 or something,
but like talk all you want.
I'm not lying as truthful as I can be when I say I've never had some sort of
injury or issue from training this way.
So it was actually going to be one of the questions I asked eventually too,
because you know, one of my hands, one of my elbows, just the other day,
I did 20 rope climbs, not legless,
but I did 20 rope climbs pretty quick as fast as I could.
And my elbow has been bothering me a little bit since then.
And then on my other arm, my shoulder bothers me now and again.
And I was just thinking to myself, man, when you got one, you can't,
does that creep into your head? Okay. I don't want to hurt this guy.
This is my, this is my bread and butter.
Are you too young for that?
No, I think you are pretty young.
I think about it, but like, what a, what a way to live your life.
Right. I agree.
That would suck. I mean, at the CrossFit Games,
I did the one ton challenge.
Are you familiar with that thing that was going on?
No, but I think I saw you clean and jerk something crazy, like 200 pounds with one arm.
255.
Yeah, that's nuts.
I went for 265 and on a clean, I got caught underneath the bar pretty bad.
And the bar did that classic thing where it like, you know, pulls your wrist back.
It like fell off my front rack,
but my hand didn't get out of the way. So it bit my wrist back.
So I have had in full transparency,
a little bit of a wrist issue since then over the past.
Yeah. I'm going to be honest. It makes me uncomfortable.
Like when they had that guy riding the motorcycle at the CrossFit games doing
flips. Yeah. I can't watch that shit yeah and just
watching i watched an old video of you last night or two nights ago putting up 200 pounds overhead
with just like it was nothing and i was just you know i felt my butt pucker a little i'm like oh
i do wonder that though i do wonder that i appreciate that you say that like what is what
am i really showing the world and this is what i I feared. Like when that video, that 200 pound one, that one was,
that one went,
I guess you'd call it viral.
Like it was on Barstool Sports
and all over the place.
Oh my God.
You've been on Barstool?
I couldn't believe it.
Legend.
Legend.
Were you naked?
How do you get on there?
When that shit went viral,
I,
it was very important to me to tell people that
i did not just like willy-nilly put this weight over my head like i've been it wasn't like hold
my beer watch this this has been like oh i mean granted that's not been my goal my whole life but
like in some weird way that's like my life's work as an
athlete to be able to do that the way i trained after my accident in order to wait for the amount
of training i did on grip strength so that i could ride sessions and compete and flip and spin
by holding on to that handle like that's the only reason but like that, that's why I, I excelled in CrossFit because I trained,
like my whole mission was I'm at one arm.
This one arm is going to be the strongest one arm anyone has ever seen.
And that was for benefits of lacrosse.
That was for the benefits of wakeboarding.
And the translation from that, trying to do a very two arm skill or sport with one arm
was I developed some versions of
some brute strength i think that i didn't realize i was developing and not necessarily through
resistance training or weightlifting it was just through action through sport i developed that
and i think that's why you know back to the deadlift thing i think that and using my harness
and training with that harness every time i can pull off the ground, introducing some symmetrical pulling coupled with the years of this sort of
brute strength training of my hand and arm and shoulder.
I think through consistency, my body was just like, all right, let's,
let's grow, let's grow, grow, grow, get stronger, stronger.
See what happens.
There's an arm wrestler in Canada. His name is Vern Martel.
He only has one arm. He is a freak of nature,
thin man with just a fucking like cannon like yours,
like one of those fiddler crabs.
And I have a friend who has one leg and his leg is fucking so weird,
strong. Like he can just do pistols he can just do like it is it's uh you
kind of can't get your head wrapped around it yeah yeah i think that's what it is people can't
imagine you have 200 or 250 pounds over your head sorry 255 and uh something seems you know you're
watching it so you're empathizing and you think you're doing it and you just feel your own
personal arm, like snapping, you know what I mean?
Because there's no,
there's no real way to empathize what it's like to have only had one arm for
15 years and just train it exclusively.
Right. And there's a lot of credit to people saying,
that's probably not the safest thing.
True statement.
Right. And then there's a lot.
I'm not going to live my life. What you're saying. I can't live my life like that. I'm statement right and and then there's a lot i'm not gonna
learn what you're saying i can't live my life like that i'm 28 i'm gotta i gotta i refuse i
refuse i'm so curious about what we as human beings are physically but what i'm discovering
as i get older i'm actually really curious more about like mentally and socially and psychologically
what we're capable of but i'm absolutely fascinated what we're capable of, but I'm absolutely fascinated with what we're physically capable of.
Because I get to see examples every day. You know,
my career is an adaptive training.
I get to see examples of a T6 paraplegic,
someone paralyzed right at their pec muscles doing ad mat sit-ups.
Literally defies medical science,
like what they should be capable of doing. And I see,
my example is pales in significance compared to cases and people I get to
experience and work with. And like, when you realize that you,
there's this whole, wow, that's so impressive what they did.
It's it's, it doesn't become a wow factor anymore. It's like,
fuck yeah, we're capable with that. Hell yeah. Someone with no legs can.
How about that freaking, how about that freaking nature?
It's one of my favorite videos ever. I must've watched it a hundred times.
That guy, I'm embarrassed. I can't remember his name, but he gets his wheelchair to the back of the truck. It was like three years ago.
Oh, Zach, Zach Rule? Yes. I saw saw that video i was just like holy shit what an he's a savage he's like he'd
bench press 500 pounds so there's that and then he really is dude he is a savage he is you know
it was a birth defect for him so he had to get his legs you know the portion of his messed up legs removed at like four years old but that dude's family like he
would be like six seven he would be a monster his hands are like the size of my entire chest he's
huge hilarious zach rule that dude is wild yeah what a great what a great uh what what a great
instagram account have you ever had a moment
logan where you look up to the heavens and you start crying and you say why me or i i i'm gonna
say no you haven't done that but but i talk about this when i give um when i'm giving some keynotes
about the importance of grief um and the short answer really is no, but the detailed answer is apps.
We all, it is a crit.
I believe it is critical when you're trying to face a challenge or an obstacle
or a traumatic, whatever, a thing in life.
Unknown, overseen in reflection, there has to be a moment of grief.
If it's a, if it's a bad thing, it's a negative thing.
Not lost my mind.
Right. Uh, and you know, words just arm and all right things gonna be good things will be good
you know i'm like two weeks into like my two and a half weeks stay in the hospital
and uh at that two weeks you know i've gone from icu to the pediatric ward now i'm just in
pediatric ward just kind of making sure everything's feeling good before i get out
and yeah i had a moment of grief.
I had a moment where I got up from bed late at night and saw my figure in the
mirror for the first time, or it was the first time I like hit it. I was like,
Oh my, I am what I used to think were like,
like scary crippled people. Like I am what I used to think was like,
well said, yes. Like a circus carny,
like you did something and a drug and your arm got used too much and it fell
off or something. I was like, I am now that negative association.
I've always seen. I'm the freak show. Yeah, exactly. That's a great way to say it.
Yeah. And that was heavy.
Then that's not what triggered the grief. That's not what triggered the emotional response, but it was that.
And then, you know, this was before Facebook too, in 2004.
This was when they used a platform called Care Pages and Care Pages was like Facebook,
but you would just say, this is my account. People would say, oh, I'm thinking of you, praying.
People would say, oh, I'm thinking of you, Frank.
So I recognized that and then sat in my bed, and my mom and I were reading through the most recent posts.
And they are friends, you know, eight, 12- and 13-year-old boys, you know, that are friends of yours telling you in a post that they love you and that they miss you. And they're thinking about you.
Intimacy most 13 or 14 year old boys never have in an honesty.
And in that moment, that's what triggered this emotional.
Oh my God, I am a freak freak show but all of my friends now look at how good people are
like my grief came from realizing how fortunate i am how lucky i am but also at the same time
how jaded i was in my perception of people with impairments and so like and now i deserve to have to live this way because i had that
perspective now and and uh it was like a 30-minute session my mom and i
bawled our eyes out bawled our eyes out i didn't i never thought why me why this happened to me
not at all because like i just said like it actually made it make more sense why it happened
to me but um there was about a 30 minute session.
And then we concluded that session with me saying, all right, I,
I am promising myself that I'll never feel this way again.
I'll never let myself feel this way again. Um, and that was,
I'm a huge believer in suppressing deep feelings. Yeah.
I don't think I've ever told myself something like that before.
But it was true.
It wasn't to suppress it, but it was just like, this is useless, useless energy.
Going, having the moment of grief is critical.
If you skip that process and go to healing and then to recovery and then to whatever the steps may be for you,
you are destined to have some PTS, some issue, something that just you can't create closure for unless you really immerse yourself in the grief mindset.
immerse yourself in the grief mindset.
Logan,
there are thoughts,
our brains are these thoughts, right?
They're these, they're these radios that are just playing, right?
And this end it's being transmitted from somewhere or it's coming from inside,
whatever the fuck you want to believe. And then there's you.
And then there's me. And then there's, and you can tell,
you can come to yourself who is not your thoughts and tell your thoughts to stop.
You are not allowed in here anymore.
I'm so it's a,
it's a,
but first you have to be,
you have to be yourself. I thought, can't tell a thought to go away. Now you got just some fucking weird echo
chamber has to be that, that yes. What'd you say? Awareness. Yeah. Yeah. It has to be this,
this awareness that is you that tells that thought. Okay. I mean, man, people will live
a whole lifetime and not know that trick. It fucking amazing but it sounds like you were your own story you can say one more time
you can write your own story you can change in your head
the narrative holocaust survivor and you can write a story about you being a freaking war hero or
whatever you can turn that into the narrative.
It's the best thing that could have happened. And like I said earlier, losing my eye, I'm so glad
that's the best thing that happened to me. It's just stories. And it's balancing expectations
versus reality. Like we expect so much. And during during this pandemic there's a lot happening in terms of uh the
realization that expectations are quite different um and and never guaranteed and i say that because
that's my life my life i lost an arm everybody said all right you lost your right arm you lost
your left arm your dominant arm you're probably not gonna write again i'm like why can't
i write again like yeah i know i suck at it but like just give me some time i'll get better at it
eventually and i did but like that was literally told to me in the hospital i was given a laptop
as i went into the eighth grade to take notes in school i told and i went about one week like that
and i put the laptop away i had note takers assigned to me in every class to
provide me notes handwritten notes so they ever seen one of them quit taking notes for me i don't
care if i fail i don't care they did and i started writing every day in class and now my and my
teachers i went to a very prestigious private school here in raleigh and my teachers had
contact with my doctors and they told them like yeah he's probably not gonna write for a long time
so if you need to get into assistance and guidance and all this stuff.
And I shut all that shit down week one. And I said, I'm going to write.
And that's the only way I'm going to learn is through writing.
And I did. And a month later I was writing with my right hand.
And it's just an example of expectations.
Setting the bar low for people is not good.
If we accept the expectations of others,
especially the negative ones, we'll never change the outcome.
If you're not just cold, you have one arm, you can't do pushups.
I'm just never going to do a pushup.
When I was 16 years old, 16, 17, God, I don't remember,
but it was probably one of the most memorable evenings of my life
i had had a girlfriend for a year and we had some alone time and i reached into the back of her shirt
and i unsnapped her bra with one hand it was my first bra i ever unsnapped and i did it with one
hand it was like opening like i, I remember actually having this thought,
this is like better than the first 16 Christmases I had. This is,
there's no present better than, than,
and actually when I, when I, uh, the, the,
the demented soul that I am every time I see you, I'm like, I can do that.
I can, I can, I can, the most important present in the world.
I can unwrap that with one
hand the one with the hooks are a little more different the ones with the hooks are a little
more difficult but you can still do it you can squeeze it oh yeah you can totally do it totally
just flick the fingers that's it have you had covid no because i see you doing some really
bad practices i saw the way you tie shoes and you have to step on your lace with your other
shoe. That's a lot of germs flying around, buddy.
It's all over the place, man. You see how I shoot a bow?
With your mouth?
I bite it. Yeah.
Yeah. I saw that. So.
COVID all over that shit.
And you know, by the way, I have no germ fears, by the way,
that was complete sarcasm. So let's talk about that bow.
I saw you grab the bow with your mouth.'s talk about that bow i saw you grab the
bow with your mouth i did see that and i saw you shoot the coveted fide that's disgusting you
should have to do jail time for putting a hole in a fide i know right being that i don't have any
it was a good harvest um next time shoot an empty one or fill it with water please you make it a
prop today how doesn't that hurt your teeth or is's the tension on the bow. I mean, I know Josh Bridges can't do that.
I mean, how does that hurt your teeth?
No, not at all. I go to the dentist. I say it's no problem.
I have a pull weight on that bow of 45 pounds.
I've shot 60 and 60 and 45 legally. I can go hunt with that,
but I don't, I really do just target shooting.
But as you can imagine, a certain amount of tension so that you can prove that you can kill the animal
or something yes yes if you're below 45 pounds the and pull this change is different on what
it sends obviously but okay below that then the arrow is with the cambers it's not going to be
able to go fast enough for a healthy kill so yeah you've got to
have at least 45 pound draw weight i made a post on instagram suggesting that you and josh bridges
fight did you did you ever consider that or did you just let that kind of slide by i would love to
awesome he's always challenging me to fight and i'm not going to fight him but someone else needs
to fight him and then i just was like shit i love. I revere him. I've never actually met him.
I've been like in the room that he's in and that's awesome moment,
but I know you two are very close. So if you can help orchestrate that,
I will make the hate.
So basically you're saying if the only way you can meet him is in the ring,
you'll do it. Let's do it. All right. Absolutely.
So now I'm going to start just hammering you with my questions because we're getting late.
Yeah.
And I have something I want to talk about down here.
So you're going to give me a chance to talk about something later.
Okay.
I'm going to ask you this one question and then you can go straight to that.
So you did, you were way into lacrosse and there's a lot of cool videos of you actually on,
on YouTube and on the web of you managing that lacrosse stick.
I don't know shit about lacrosse, but it's obvious you're very proficient.
And it looks like ballet. It's beautiful watching you move the stick.
And then you were doing wakeboarding. I didn't see any videos of that,
but then it also said you were going to do motocross. Yeah.
Once again, like I get really uncomfortable about that.
I'm like, why the fuck is this guy?
Why would this guy want to get on a goddamn motorcycle?
Yeah, I don't, I don't want to get on a goddamn motorcycle yeah i don't i don't want a i don't
want to get on the streets with the motorcycle uh there's a rebellious part of my brain that wants
to but i look at the data i feel like i told you right all my friends lost them on motorcycles like
i'm not trying to that's where i'll draw the line like i'm not trying to that's where i'll draw the line it's like i'm not trying to lose this one but motocross yeah absolutely i raced motocross before my accident like the
very young 50 cc like little pocket bike division um and frankly that was a
reason i had to do it again was to prove to myself that i can okay i didn't need to go race again i didn't need to do any of that but i needed to be on at least like 125 cc like full-size bike and do what i need to do to ride some laps to jump
a hundred foot jump at the you know the finish line triple like i that was my goal you did that
with one arm yeah yeah so with the bike it's super easy actually you just
you you put a what's called a gpr hydraulic steering dampener onto the tree of the bicycle
or the motorbike and so this allows you to have one through ten uh stiffness on the bars
so i also did a lot of like hair scrambles. So, you know, when you ride through the woods with your bike and all that,
you have the bar busters on your bars so that you don't hit your hands.
But I started off with that to get a lot of control with one arm on the bike.
So that made, that was the way I was introduced to riding with one arm.
Was that made for one arm guys?
No, it's just made for like extreme downhill racers.
People who just can't afford speed wobbles.
Yeah. So I did that and this is like, this was a fricking plush set up. You do that. And then
you just convert the twist throttle to a thumb throttle. Like a jet ski, right?
Remember these brands? Yeah. Like jet ski, thumb throttle. And then that was game changer.
Cause now I could actually get some purchase
on the handle and hold pretty well and just have here for acceleration. And then these two fingers
front brake clutch. So you flip the front rig over and you stack it on top to be up high,
the clutch down below with the middle finger. So clutch, you know, foot shift and then gas.
Can you still do that? Is that an automatic response for you?
If you were to do that today, like do you own a motorcycle now?
Absolutely. No, I don't. I, if I did, that's, that setup would be a go-to.
I have a downhill or a mountain bike, you know, full suspension,
mountain bike, do that stuff as well. Similar setup,
a steering dampener goes right into the thing and different brands called
Hopi steering stabilizer that goes right into the thing. Different brands called Hopi steering stabilizer that goes right into the
tree there gives you the same sort of range.
And then similarly, I just flip the front brake over.
So I just got two brakes actually for the bike. I convert it into one.
So it's a splitter. So it's 60% rear, 40% front.
Sounds expensive.
It does get a little pricey.
Okay. Tell me, what do you want to talk about?
So I wanted to talk about what I'm doing now.
Okay.
What I've done throughout this pandemic and the excitement I've had with it.
Tell me, what pandemic?
The chronic disease epidemic? Epidemic epidemic epidemic tell me so what are you doing
now you're you're just all cloistered at home on an assault bike i imagine as you were aware i used
to work for like a beverage company fit it um awesome company love those guys to death uh and
i was in yeah i've been on seminar staff with our adaptive training course.
You know, CrossFit used to own this course.
We used to be a specialty course.
So I was a red shirt under the CrossFit umbrella with a course.
When all this restructuring happened and we became an entity, it was scary.
But the best thing that could have happened to us.
So I am just so excited about what I've just busted my
ass to produce. And I'm just hopeful that you can give me the opportunity to talk about it.
Tell me, tell me, tell me. I'm excited.
Adaptive Training Academy. I apologize. It's a long email, but it filters out those who pay
attention to detail or not, you know, so it helps. But the Adaptive Training Academy is a company
that, or the organization that came about after we separated from crossfit and we're still their preferred course we still
pay the affiliation to be preferred course but um we've had such exciting expansion from um being
our own entity and what i mean by that is uh through this time we took our education into
an online format similarly to how crossFit did with the level one.
And we did it so much so with respect and appreciation of our association
and affiliation with CrossFit that we use the same authoring system that
CrossFit uses. And in this, in other words, when you take our course,
you're using the same program that, yeah,
platform that CrossFit uses rise 360 and then we've spent what would
have took us six months to develop we did in three weeks my my partner with ata alex
seminar staff member who lives out san diego um he flew out here to north carolina with me
and for three weeks we spent like literally 20 hour days editing,
coding, shooting video. I am,
I appreciate everything that you do Saban,
but I am not that type of person.
And I constantly found myself thinking like,
is this the kind of shit Saban is super good at?
I was like, Oh my God.
Now I understand why that is such a high value position because I know I'm so close to tears
realizing you get this one thing done and you have like 67 more of those to do.
And you know, that one thing took you three days of the most meticulous work you've ever
done.
And so it was incredible, incredibly rewarding.
So we launched in the beginning of May, the online online course and our feedback has been remarkable.
Our adaptive and inclusive training online course teaches an athlete, an affiliate owner,
a coach at that affiliate, anyone how to work with adaptive athletes appropriately, how to
look at an ableist perspective like we talked about, workout an rx workout on crossfit.com how do you host a class a group setting and make sure
that someone who rolls in in a wheelchair feels included in that environment for the psychology
in that importance of community but also gets an effective and safe workout that's what we do in
our course that's what we teach so i'm very happy with what we've produced.
And I just wanted to use your platform as an opportunity to share with the
listeners that if they are an educator, if they are a physical therapist,
occupational therapist, rec therapist, CrossFit coach, athlete, participant,
and you're interested, or you have your level one,
you probably, you might not believe me on this salon but i strongly believe i strongly believe the very next form of continuing ed after
your level one should be this adaptive and inclusive training you know why i think so
why why i'm just like really feeling you here is it actually has nothing to do with people who've lost a limb.
No, it's for, it has to do with, pardon me?
It's for sprained ankles.
Yes. And people who are a hundred pounds and the people who are a hundred
pounds overweight.
Absolutely.
The stuff I'm assuming I've not taken your course that I could learn is so
applicable to people who've put on so much weight that they've
crippled themselves absolutely boy man if if civilization is going to survive
we can't do another covid i'm so glad you say that we either have to let those people die
or we have to fucking fully fully like roll out the red carpet into the CrossFit box or into
the healing center. So people can get off the refined carbohydrates and sugar. And what do you
do? You take this CrossFit adaptive training course and they show you how to deal with people
who can't fucking touch their shoes, who can't lay on the ground and stand up. Yeah. I'm feeling you
dude. It is spot on Savant. and i am grateful for the opportunity to share
that on your podcast because that's not what we've gotten on some podcasts it's been great to talk
about it and all that but no one's gonna make it to the end you waited too long on this it's always
focused on oh great now more wheelchair athletes and one-armed athletes can come in yes it's what
we're teaching you we teach you that specifically how to work with those populations but the overarching principles methodology and theme
of our education is if you hit it on the head it's fine like and that is what this world needs
more than ever right now is the word handicap a bad word yeah no it's that word okay um he's like
accessible because what would you use that word like handicap parking
like is this gym handicap accessible you could just say is this gym accessible okay um
i think the world has more people i think the world i don't know what the word is i'm gonna
let you pick the word i think the world has more people who are
I think the world has more people who are disabled than abled because of,
and not people like you who were in an accident, but people who've made fucking lifestyle choices for 30 years that have
disabled them.
Yeah. That's a statistic I can, I can share with you.
There's one in five people have a permanent disability.
Yeah. And imagine you could fix people you could fix people who
don't have permanent disabilities but man they better fucking get on the bandwagon now
exactly why should one in five people have a disability yet if i asked you or someone else
we probably don't know of an immediate person one of five people yeah why is that doesn't have a disability
why is that because culturally socially we've isolated them you don't you we don't our world
isn't accessible our world is inclusive so they stay home why would they come out why would they
be involved in community events right you're not. You're not.
Yeah.
Okay.
So this course leads you to inclusive and accessibility in the gym space.
But frankly, we're trying to create change on a much bigger platform than in the gyms.
But in the gyms is where it starts.
Just like I had the epiphany that it wasn't in orthotic and prosthetic industries for people with disabilities.
I had the epiphany that it wasn't in orthotic and prosthetic industries for people with disabilities.
For creating a healthier world, a world where we can live and healthcare isn't so reliant on,
we have to focus on the fitness first. CrossFit health is, in a weird way,
it's exactly what Adaptive Training Academy is doing, right? We're focusing on a niche population to remind you that this is applicable to anyone who is in a situation where they have some sort of limitation that affects work capacity.
That's all definition of an adaptive athlete is a person with a cognitive or physiological impairment that causes limitations, which are limitations are observable and measurable.
You ask them to do something, you'd be able to witness this.
And obesity could be that.
Absolutely.
Which then affects work capacity.
Our goal as a trainer, and you know this, this is all that I want to say.
Our goal as a trainer
is to increase work capacity
and decrease the limitation.
There's not much we can do about impairment
unless it's temporary.
For instance, my fiance,
she sprained her ankle this past week
and really bad.
We had to go to urgent care and all this stuff.
So she's temporarily impaired.
Did she get to COVID?
Did she get to COVID?
No, God, no, she didn't get to COVID. She went to the hospital. I mean, that stuff. So she's temporarily impaired. Did she get to COVID? No, I'm not saying she's not going to go.
She went to the hospital.
I mean, that's where they're handing that shit out.
We're super healthy here.
And we take care of it, so we're immune.
And you have a healthy diet.
Look at you.
You have a healthy diet.
Yeah, well, no, I don't.
You don't.
You don't want to say that about me.
I eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's every night. Do you really? Yeah, man, I don't. You don't want to say that about me. I eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's every night.
Do you really?
Yeah, man.
I can't gain weight.
Hey, that's because you're 28.
You better stop.
I'm telling you that shit will catch up to you.
I can't wait.
I can't wait to be overweight and have a reason to go work out every day.
So, going back to saying, are you tired?
Are you tired?
Do you want to be on the podcast as the,
as just a guy and not the one arm guy?
Fuck this one bullshit.
Yes. Yes.
My mission is so that the next generation you, it's not,
it's not a superhuman to be one arm and be super fit.
It's not out of the ordinary and it's respected and it should be given the
platform of professionalism as an athlete, but it's not hand clapping. Oh my gosh, you have one
arm and you work out. That's so inspiring. I'm so inspired. You go to the grocery store and you
take all of your groceries to your car by yourself in one arm. That is so inspiring.
Do you have to go pee?
Can I help you with your buckle?
Can I help you with your buckle?
Fuck that, man.
Fuck that.
See, like, that's the world.
That's what I call hand-climbing events.
But here's the thing.
I'm 48 and I still can't stop staring at you.
And it's not because you have a great body
and because you have big arms and because you're good looking.
It's because you're missing a fucking arm
and my fucking brain can't get fucking wrapped around it. just have this i stare i look at you then i look
away and i look again there's something in my brain that just wants to um i believe that totally
what i mean like i'm the same i'm the same way but if you walk by the mirror and you're like what
the fuck look at that shit this little chicken wing hanging off my shoulder. But if that's the case where we don't get the recognition that general public deems we deserve.
And I say we, and I don't like to do that. I don't like to go down this hole of like, we need more spotlight we deserve this but this is at the root of my passion i believe that what
a paralympic gold medalist should receive the same exposure and everything that an olympic
gold medalist receives why is it so downplayed and and there's a lot of i know a lot of answers
okay questions but like that's okay how about this why Why is LeBron James better than a one-armed
LeBron James? If the one-armed LeBron James would be, well, the LeBron James of wheelchair
basketball. Why didn't that dude set up with the Nike sponsorship and, and because media,
because we don't cover it. We don't make it important. We don't put it on the television.
And because media, because we don't cover it, we don't make it important.
We don't put it on the television. So what you're saying is like, we want,
you can't help but stare. You can't help but look at that.
Right. Like when, like when CrossFit started and the women were doing stuff that only men could
do 10 years earlier, the women kind of stole or like,
like now they're kind of stealing the show.
Yeah. Yeah.
How about this? How about a business that has a, sorry,
I don't mean to put you on the spot, but yeah, I mean to put you on the spot.
How about a business that doesn't have a handicap or sorry,
doesn't have a ramp, a disabled ramp. I mean, I'm learning the vernacular.
It doesn't have a disabled ramp, but can't afford a disabled ramp.
And so they shut it down. that happen no just any place a
place that sells incense and bongs like just imagine a store that only has stairs going up to
it and there's a complaint i mean does that i i hear about that shit happening like in berkeley
i'm from berkeley and i hear about stores getting shut down because they don't provide access
to disabled people and i'm like this is fucking crazy. This,
this is store owner can't make more than 50,000 a year. And they're being,
they're being pressured to put in a $50,000 ramp. Like,
I don't know all the details on that.
Defend your community, Logan, defend your community.
You have to build things to code. All right.
Now there's certain code that helps takes into account people in wheelchairs.
Right.
But I'm not under the impression that every place in this world is going to
make sure that they've made themselves accessible for people with
impairments, permanent impairments or disabilities, I should say.
So like it is going to happen, but we can limit that a lot
and we can create, first of all, awareness.
Awareness starts with education.
And until we're educated and we know it's a problem,
then we're never going to fix it.
We're never going to pay attention to it.
And you're right, like more uppity places,
you might get someone who feels And you're right, more uppity places,
you might get someone who feels that they're being shunned from this community because you're not accessible.
And I'm sure there are court cases
where it's absolutely positioned to be like,
I was denied my right of entry or inclusion
into this thing, ends up becoming a whole lawsuit or whatever but i don't
think that's the intention of people people are trying to be people with impairments aren't trying
to be spiteful they're just trying to create some awareness they're just trying to say hey i'm a
person too i i'd like to be involved or considered and that's not always going to be easily done but
it's a dialogue that we should be open to having and it should be totally understood why
it wouldn't happen it's definitely a dialogue we should be willing to have
i love the fact if this podcast only revealed one thing is that you
were in the you were doing the right thing by going into the prosthetic um business because
you yourself had one arm and you wanted to make it a better
life for people with one arm. And instead of going down that, continuing down that road,
when you realize that wasn't where you could have the most impact, the most impact you could have
would be to teach people personal responsibility, which is, Hey, you can do this on your own. Not
even taking a dig. You didn't take a dig at prosthetics
but you felt like the better way to help people um who were uh challenged um
like you you know at 13 they had they had they lost an arm um was to um it's it's sort of the
gandhi thing you're going to teach them you're not going to give them a fish you're going to lost an arm, um, was to, um, it's, it's sort of the Gandhi thing.
You're going to teach them. You're not going to give them a fish.
You're going to teach them how to fish.
And I just think that that's,
if there's one thing to take away from this podcast, it's like,
that's really hard to do.
Imagine you own 20 McDonald's and then you realize killing animals was wrong
and you want it to be vegan.
How would you give up those millions and millions and millions and millions of
dollars?
You were on your path and your passion and you pivoted and you want it to be vegan, how would you give up those millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars? You were on your path and your passion and you pivoted and you,
and you walk the walk.
That's a really great way of saying it.
Frankly,
I've never had said so elegantly,
but,
uh,
that's very true.
I,
I don't care about me being able to clean whatever way or deadlift whatever way. I don't care. I am competitive. I'm very competitive.
You seem very competitive. How do you wash your hand? How do you wash your hand?
See, I just kind of don't.
Really, your hand is just, it's just a giant viral load there's no this is exactly
why i haven't gotten covered because my immune system is extremely strong
so i in the shower i know how you wash it you you you rub it on yourself
no seriously if i wash it's it's this it's it's. If I wash, it's this.
It's finger dexterity.
So it's like a palm, fingers all the way up in the palm,
and then thumb comes on the backside.
Wow.
Oh, you should watch the YouTube of this, people.
This is, wow.
Now I know why your fiance is with you.
Got strong fingers.
That is incredible.
The first time you had to wipe
your butt with your other hand
because you lost your
I know what you're really asking.
Your left, we'll get
there. You were too young.
You were too young. By the time you needed that
right hand, you were proficient in it.
When you
were things like that weird in all
seriousness you're left-handed you lose your left hand like is it wiping your butt is that an issue
or no you quickly it's no joke you concentrate and buckle down and get it done yeah you don't
yeah you don't lollygag around there uh no things like that i don't remember being
a problem like brushing my teeth i remember being like problem. Like brushing my teeth, I remember being like, oh, how do I do this?
And then once I figured out how to put the toothpaste on the toothbrush,
I was like, oh, this feels like weird with this on.
It's kind of dangerous.
I've actually done that, tried to brush my teeth with my left hand
and I'm right-handed, and it's dangerous.
If you're not concentrating, you could fucking –
Yeah, you'd chaff yourself in the mouth or something. Yeah. How many times a week does that happen If you're not concentrating, you could fucking. Yeah.
Yeah.
How many times a week does that happen where you're putting tooth on the toothpick to toothpaste on the toothbrush and you miss,
or it lands in the sink or.
No, no.
Cause it happens. I have both hands and it happens to me once a week.
You know,
it's interesting thing about being someone who's attempting to live
independently with a disability.
I can speak to myself pretty adeptly,
but like having one arm and trying to accomplish the same tasks that you do,
I will probably give that task a lot more close attention than you ever would
because I'm having to recreate the structure, the way in which I do it.
If that makes any sense, you know, it's called being present.
Exactly. With that example of brushing teeth, like I'm very present.
What I do, I have a electric toothbrush now. And so it has a larger hand.
Fucking cheater. I knew we were going to get to the bottom.
You gotta be adaptive, you know, adapt to your surroundings.
So I put it under my armpit and I just hold it like that.
So then the toothbrush has right here and I just put a little toothpaste on it
there, put the toothpaste down, pick up the toothbrush.
I have an amazing video of someone brushing their teeth.
I'm going to send you when this call is done.
Why are you laughing? Have you seen it?
No, I know. I just can't imagine what,
what could be amazing about someone brushing their teeth.
It's amazing. It's making its way around.
I have enough questions to do a whole nother show. I think I should like,
this is the craziest part. I don't,
I've never been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. I feel like I definitely have it,
but I've never been diagnosed with it. I've tested a lot as I definitely have it, but I've never been diagnosed with it.
I've tested a lot as a kid and they were always like, no, it's great.
Great.
But I say that to say, I feel like you,
you gave me like a little lead on a story and I never got to finish the
story.
Which one, which one is probably 20.
I don't even know. I don't even remember. There were so many topics.
Where were we?
People all the time will be like, dude, you started this and you never came back and wrapped it up yeah was it the girls
bra off that's why i talk about that because i jump around like that in my head too the only
topic i'd like to get back to is is if taking the girls bra off that is a good one
have girls ever dated you just because you have one arm That is a good one.
Have girls ever dated you just because you have one arm?
Just they want to just try it out?
No.
Yeah, well, I don't know. I mean, it's as valid as any reason.
Maybe that's what her intentions were.
Maybe you're unboxing some stuff right now for me that I didn't realize.
You definitely love the attention
and yeah and there would be no other way to do it because the other side of it's fucking a nightmare
to not like the attention yeah but well you know i want to be respectful too of uh like you said
this earlier about kyle like there's a lot of people in this community, uh, adaptive CrossFit, um,
that were born that way. You know, they don't know any different.
They don't mean to be, Hey, look at me. Hey, look at me.
I can do this with, I can do this movement. And I just lifted this much weight.
They're just doing, they're just doing their own.
And a lot of that is like character and behavior and personality.
Like, are you the type of person that wants to be put in office out there?
Or are you just more close, closed in,
close to the heart with your information and stuff? But like, you know,
I think that's an interesting thing because yeah,
people who were born in such a way don't feel like they're missing anything or
the psychology is so much different.
I see us making this movement you know and this is creating this platform and this empowerment education adaptive education training competitions and all that
i just can anyone can anyone be like you and bethany be like, so you guys are both beautiful. You both have these followings.
You both have these platforms. You both have nice bodies.
You guys both live this positive life. You both like, and it's like, yeah,
that's why, that's why I invited you to be on the podcast.
If you were 40 pounds overweight and sitting on the couch and feeling sorry
for yourself without an arm, I wouldn't have fucking had you on.
Right.
Maybe I would have.
That could have been interesting that actually would be great um uh you were saying earlier this and this is kind of a good note to finish up on what advice do you have for people like
um who might be feeling sorry for themselves whether they and i'm not talking about people
who are disabled or ambulatory or not ambulatory, or I'm just talking about like, what is it?
We started the show saying you could write your own story.
There's a time you can flip the script.
There's moments where you can change the words, the word you used perspective.
How do I do that?
How do I change my perspective so I can get on that road to being as happy and
as beautiful as you and Bethany and myself?
Great question. First of all,
I think you need to set your reality and understand something I alluded to
earlier, like what expectations are doing for your psychology, for yourself.
I believe expectations are prejudgments that we make on ourselves and others that typically limit our
potential so once we look at that or think about that definition of an expectation we expect
something to be something we expect someone to do something for us later or do something and it
will be this way and if it's not then we've either had our we're either let down or we're elated so it's
typically it's always that way it's either like you didn't do what i thought or what you did way
more than what i thought so it's black and white in that way for perspective wise once we understand
that expectations are always there presented in our consciousness, but are never fulfilled perfectly.
And then we think about the lens in which we look at the world or that,
that event or that expectation, um, for perspective,
my favorite tool is literally just as a practice. This is words,
changing words, change your have tos to get to
that's it and any any part change your what say that again i missed that change your change your
have tos to get tos you don't have to you don't have to do anything you may think i have to take
out the trash you may think i have to go to work but if you replace that with i get to take out
the trash i get to go to work babe i have to go talk to, I get to take out the trash, I get to go to work.
Babe, I have to go talk to Logan Aldridge right now. I know.
It was such an exciting thought yesterday or two days ago when I called him,
but now I just want to play in the yard with the kids, but I have to do it.
That's where I was fucking up. I should have been like,
I get to talk to Logan Aldridge. Okay. I'm feeling you. I'm feeling you. You see what happens? All you do is change.
Oh my God. I get to talk to Logan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it already better.
It's that it's the same trigger that it's just an arm did for my brain.
And it helps fix my anxiety too. I'm already less anxious thinking of it that way. I get,
I get to do another podcast. I'm so stoked because usually, I mean, that is really working for me
because when i'm when
it's 11 o'clock at night and i've had two white claws and i'm working on my third i'm like fuck
this dude logan's awesome i'm getting on the podcast then come in the morning i'm like oh
what the fuck did i i scheduled a podcast with someone i'm so scared i know that was the case
because you you instagrammed me and then you didn't text me back for like four days so i was
like oh he regrets this idea.
No, no, that's not true. That's a little different.
I'm always, um, you know what I'm doing?
People always ask how to get on the podcast and I'm just like,
I'm just flowing. Yes. Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm just like,
it's extremely authentic and it's very,
I don't even know who I'm going to have on what we're going to talk about.
I just, I just thought, Oh, I really liked this guy.
I follow you on Instagram.
You're one of the few people I follow actually look at his shit.
So I was like, all right, I'll have them on. I hate small talk. You did none of that.
It was the most refreshing podcast to be on.
We literally started the zoom and we started talking like that is freaking
awesome. I love it. Brass tacks sort of stuff. Like elaborate, tell stories.
I'm a talker. I'll talk for days, but like, forget the small talk. Let's dive in talk let's die i believe i got to talk to you i can't believe i got to talk to you
you get isn't that cool man like really that one fires me up the most and i've been saying that
for years and it's uh i practice it i practice it all the time i'm you have this perception of me
and i'm happy and all this stuff but I am just as human as every
other human in the world man I have horrible days I have excuses I have weeks where I barely make
it into the gym like I'm absolutely that way you know like anyone else but I try to practice these
things that I preach and when I do it puts me back on this path and it recognizes the abundance and
and it makes me fired up i get
passionate and i realize my purpose in my life and i realized losing my mom was the best thing
that could have happened to me and i realized there's so much opportunity to impact people's
lives in ways that i never could have before and so i then i'm fired up and then i'm like what am
i doing sitting here on the couch i have i have to get up and do something and then my own psychology
happened to it so i get to get up and do something but really i have to get up and do something. And then my own psychology happened to it. So I get to get up and do something, but really I have to get up and do this.
Like this is my, this is my purpose.
Are you going to have kids?
I hope so.
I mean, you want kids?
Yeah. One day.
Oh, I didn't want kids. I mean, trust me, there's no hurry.
And I have three and I can't believe I have,
I can't believe there was a time I never wanted kids. And then we got one.
And then I was like, I need more. I need more, but there's no rush by the way.
I'm just wondering like, if you, if it's something you think about, I mean,
and then the next question was,
I wonder if you'll be safer with your arm when you have kids,
because like I'm already way safer in everything I do.
Like the street in front of my house,
I would ride my bike on it all the time. Now that I got kids, there's not's no there's not even a there's not even a reason for me to go out there that's
a great point you know i love that you keep asking this question about kids and i can't wait to tell
my fiance about that because the only discussion we ever have about children are your children so
if we have kids we're just hoping that their hair is exactly like your kid's hair and that we raise them that exact way.
So if we do, that'll be the way.
You'll be an amazing father.
Oh, thank you.
I bet every father hopes, every parent hopes they'd be great at it, but I hope so.
Just so hard to watch all these documents
made a documentary i'm telling you that's what made me feel like yeah i want to experience that
i really want to experience that like that was the part where they really made it like hit home
for me there really is no rush by the way i had my first kid in my 40s there's no rush my wife had
uh the first kid when she was 39 and especially if you guys are crossfitters and exercising yeah everything stays working for
a while yeah that's great you are on the um adaptive athlete adaptive academy athlete
adaptive athlete seminar staff yeah adaptive training academy yeah adaptive training academy
staff yeah what's the website for, for people to go check out?
Yeah. That's that whole mouthful. Adaptive training academy.com.
Okay. And what are the chances if I sign up,
what are the chances if I sign up that you would actually be an instructor at
the class I go to?
So here's the cool thing. The online course is built. It's done.
Okay. So the online course, you just sign up and you just get started.
Now there are hundreds of videos where you're going to be listening to Logan.
Logan is going to be talking to you, explaining a teaching point,
showing a demo and example.
You're going to have Kevin Ogard in there talking about all the different
wheelchair stuff and different.
A lot of star power. A lot of star power.
That's a lot, man. And we've got Chris Stoutenberg, you know,
the guy who runs the wheel watch stuff,
three-time Paralympic wheelchair basketball champion.
And we've got Alex Erkenbach, you know, across the seminar staff member,
naval officer, wounded naval officer. So we've got a,
and we've got this incredible lady, Kristen Arnold.
She's a former games athlete.
She lives in Arizona and she's pursuing her phd in universal design and education
in other words like inclusivity and accessibility in education uh she has a son with autism and
down syndrome and so she is like definitely smartest person in the room and she helps us
embed this concept of inclusivity and accessibility and kind of like universal design for anybody you know
we can't how hypocritical would we be if we're this adaptive training academy and the only way
you can take our course is by listening and what if you're deaf and so then we just like totally
knocked out the whole population so our course is very different i i want people to understand
and yes i'd love to give you free access to the course and you can take it whenever you want
and i'd love to offer your listeners a code 10 all caps s e v a n 10 okay damn you get 10 off our course our course is 399
so that's a pretty good little savings there um and yeah like i said our feedback has been
phenomenal highly recommend people checking it out for even if you don't work with any adaptive athletes it's great
for understanding how to think about customizing fitness in order to maximize safety effectiveness
and inclusion that's the basis of what we're teaching we do that in 70 sections it's a robust
how many sections 70 sections we interactions. There's clickables.
There's graphics.
You know, if you've taken the CrossFit programming course,
have you taken that one?
It's very similar to that.
So it's interactions.
There's touch and feel stuff.
We have drag and drop stuff.
There's flashcards that reiterate teaching points.
Everything you see in the video is put,
the main teaching points are then put in text.
So if it was a lot thrown at you at once, you're seeing it again.
And then you interact with it again.
And then there's a quiz after that section.
So it's not overwhelming and it's not redundant, but it is thorough.
And I don't mean to brag, but I'm extremely proud of what we've developed and put online.
We incorporate intellectual disabilities.
We incorporate sensory, so hearing and visual impairments,
how to consider them in a group setting and how to consider coaching.
Visual impairments. What does that mean? Like if they're ugly,
like you can't see so good.
Same answer should be an adaptive athlete. He's visually impaired.
You're right impaired you're right
if he tried that you guys wouldn't let him right
what if I identified
what if I identified with you
listen my personal fitness goal
has always been it was the first day I joined
the CrossFit gym
I was on a podium at a local competition
like Abelot like just you know all the local dudes in the town who are all jacked or whatever.
Have you done that yet?
No, because like there's some really fit people here in Raleigh.
Like I just can't win.
You gotta go somewhere smaller than that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I like to show up, kind of be unknown and just do it all like straight up do it all and even if like one
workout has muscle ups like maybe i'm really bad on that one workout but like i win every other
one and i end up like being on the podium and just not making a big deal about it but just
that's the competitive side of me wanting to just be like i fucking beat you all with one
off can you believe that no scaling my buddy with um my buddy with one leg he he told me he hates this shit like um the
statement oh you did so good for a one-legged guy he just told me he fucking hates that yeah
he's always hated it yeah absolutely but people just can't help it people people man we're all
people yeah we're all humans um far more similar than we are different for no matter what wow no matter what is going on
more wisdom logan i mean it's is that not the most truthful thing you ever heard right right
all fucking way more water different right we're all we all got blood we all got bones
we all got skin way more similar than we are different. We just highlight the differences because that's what we think is
important to uniqueness and all this. But then the detriment to that
is negative association with limitation and all that sort of stuff.
So we're far more similar than we are different.
Thank you for your time. Thank you. It's an honor.
This is the most fun I've had, man. Awesome podcast. Tell your fiance thanks for your time. Thank you. It's an honor. This is the most fun I've had,
man.
Awesome podcast.
Tell your fiance,
thanks for your time.
Tell your dog for keeping the barks down to a minimum.
Yeah,
really.
I can't believe she did that.
It's a great day.
And,
um,
I'll see you around brother.
Yeah.
Do you want me to send you,
uh,
a case of email?
Well,
I can send you all the things you want.
Sorry.
I didn't mean to interrupt. What were you going to say? What? So I definitely want you to give me your address and I can send you all the things you want. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. What were you going to say? What?
So I definitely want you to give me your address and I'll send you a lot of
today. But like, do you do like show notes or anything afterwards?
At the end of this,
like do you want links to the site and the course and that sort of stuff?
I haven't, but if you send me all that, I'll put it in YouTube. Yeah.
Please do that. I'll do that. Usually I'm just so you want to know the truth. So I'll finish this show.
It'll go up to the cloud zoom cloud.
And then I'm so fucking excited to post it and get attention for myself that I
fucking just rush it out as fast as I can.
I love it. I love it. I assume that you did podcasts like that.
I don't know.
And like everyone's like, there's no intro, there's no outro, there's no notes.
You don't even give shit about your guests. I'm like, I don't care. I just like everyone's like, there's no intro, there's no outro, there's no notes, you don't even give shit about your guests.
I'm like, I don't care,
I just want some comments on my Instagram.
I'm like, I'm just excited.
I'm just excited.
I know that's the case for you because yesterday,
once we realized that we weren't recording a podcast,
I think two minutes later,
you were in your garage doing an Instagram video
talking about kids and parenting and something.
I was like, this motherfucker, he was just trying to get out of doing podcasts. No, that is really true. doing an Instagram video talking about, uh, parenting and something.
He was just trying to get out of doing podcasts.
No, that is really true. A half hour before the podcast, I come into my office and my computer's updating and it says it has fucking
like 32 minutes. So I text you and I said, it has 22 minutes.
I just took 10,
10 minutes off to try to make you feel better and make myself feel better.
And I'm like this fuck and it's a really cheap computer.
And it was just chugging. I was like, Oh,
always that's always when it happens, right? When you got something to do.
All right. Yeah. Send me any links you want.
This will be my first one where I actually give it some love.
There we go. Appreciate it, brother. Thank you so much.
Hey, so what should I put is what should I put as your title?
So normally I don't put what their title is. Should I put, um, Logan,
it'll be seven on podcast nine, Logan Aldridge.
And then we should I put adaptive athlete, adaptive seminar staff.
Should I just leave it blank? Like I do for everyone.
Should I put guy with one arm?
I mean, I don't like to say this, but it's technically true.
I'm the fittest one-armed man on earth.
Oh, perfect. That's okay. I can say that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay, good. That's it. Done.
Fittest one-armed man on earth.
Peace.
Later, man.
Bye.