Barbell Shrugged - 134- Kevin Ogar: Life After The Injury

Episode Date: July 30, 2014

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are honored to be joined by Kevin Ogar. Just in case you aren’t aware, Kevin became well-known after fracturing his spine at a competition in January 2014.     It’s only been six months since that devastating, notorious injury, but Kevin seems remarkably recovered, at least spiritually and emotionally. You should have seen him smile wide when he was telling us about the bright white Stacie Tovar shorts he was wearing underneath his pants. “Yeah, I’m actually wearing them underneath here. I heard she was going to be over at the Barbells for Boobs tent…I thought I would challenge her to a booty-shortshowdown.”   That group has been so supportive and caring for Kevin and his family these past few months, causing a bit of a stir at their Crossfit Games tent would be the least he could do in return. Also, it would just be a good time. That’s one of the lesson’s that Kevin has taken away from the injury. “Now that I’m in a wheelchair I really like to push the limits of what I can get away with.”   It’s hard not to love that attitude. I must admit, I’m not sure I could keep that perspective, especially after such a freak accident. That’s really all it was, a freak thing on an otherwise routine set of snatches. An off catch with a modest load. A dumped repetition that changed a life forever. The question has been begged over and over by now, “Is Crossfit dangerous?” But Kevin flatly denies that. It was more about the angle, the odd timing, the one in a million shot that did the breaking. In truth, he’s one of the rarest of patients. Most injuries of this sort are attributed to skiing accidents, vehicle crashes, and other sorts of routine activities where the risk is more widely known and accepted. But this is different. In fact, it’s hard to identify another case like Kevin’s at all. The injury was anything but an inevitability.   Our conversation started to turn visceral and raw when Kevin began to describe how the injury felt. At the moment of fracture his nervous system went into extreme shock and alarm. His whole body burned with pain and sharp electricity. I just sat there as he spoke, quivering a bit, growing more and more queasy by the second. I couldn’t imagine the feeling, and I couldn't respect the guy more for what he has endured.    Eight Dilaudid fueled, motionless days followed the injury. At first the doctors didn’t want to lose Kevin to shock and blood loss. Next up was the intense spinal surgery that would place his back into alignment. The approach was from the side. The ribs were split and dislocated. His organs had to be removed and his entire core reassembled. “That surgery has a 35% survival rate.” That only made the weight of this injury all the more heavy. I could hardly stand the thought.    Despite the dangers and risks, Kevin couldn’t have had a better surgical outcome. Still, he know’s he has a battle ahead. “They say the chances of me walking again all on my own are less than 1%, but I’m the king of small percentages. I'm 3% of the world's population as a Ginger 3%. I have blue eyes, which means I’m 1% of that population…So, I like small numbers.”  Kevin began his rehab by facing his first big physical challenge, getting upright in a wheel-chair. “I know it sounds easy, but it’s so hard. It feels like you’re sitting on top of a balance ball, only imagine if your leg’s didn’t work.” Still, he did it, and he’s still at work. What remains of his core musculature has begun to adapt. His nervous system is reinervating and adjusting in astonishing ways. Hell, the guy still manages to have a six-pack, despite the damage.    No, there are no guarantee’s here for the recovery effort, but there’s cause for optimism. Who know’s what technology will come in the coming years. For paraplegics and spinal cord patients who are able to keep their bodies strong and fit, anything could be possible. If you can remain resilient, tough, and hard to kill, then you should feel optimistic. Kevin’s got that written all over his face. His happiness and positive outlook are true.    Kevin is training as hard now as he ever has, but the goals and outlook have obviously changed immensely. It’s no longer about maximizing strength and fitness, it’s more about not sucking so bad at life in general. It’s about attacking weaknesses, which now include showering, going to the bathroom, and getting back up into his chair after a fall. Sled pulling, prowler pushing, dumbbell work, gymnastic drills, it all has a place in his regimen.    That’s where the biggest lesson of Kevin’s story shines through, I think. Progress on the small things is incredibly rewarding. Consider going back and working on the basics. It might be your posture, your foot position, your timing, whatever. Remastering it will be one of the most rewarding things you can do. If you get injured, do not stop. There’s always something you can still do. So do it! Something is better than nothing, always. And who know’s, this enforced change might just be the best thing for you. For once, you might be forced into doing something new, something necessary. You’ll have to develop and utilize new tools. That’s always a good thing.    I don’t think there’s a limit to what Kevin can achieve. He might walk again, I hope. But he’s definitely not going anywhere. He will keep finding new ways to train and compete as an adaptive Crossfit athlete. He’ll keep working to share the message of fitness with other patients, bringing the support and community that have made such a difference in his life since January.    Revelry, revelry, you have our full support, Kevin. There’s no limit to what you will achieve.    To learn more about the cause and support Kevin’s efforts, make sure to check out KevinOgar.com. You can also follow him on Instagram and Facebook in order to stay up to date on all the latest developments.    Thanks, Kevin. It was truly an honor to meet and chat with you.      Chris

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we interview Kevin Ogar. Hey, this is Rich Froning. You're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Mike Blutz. I'm here with Doug Larson and Chris Moore. CTP behind the camera. And we are here with our guest kevin ogar and uh we're gonna be talking about all sorts of kevin ogar stuff today including his ability to ginger so hard yes we're gonna define what ginger means to him and uh if you're just listening then of course as we always say

you're gonna miss out uh because uh yeah kevin's wearing a sweet shirt if you're just listening, then, of course, as we always say, you're going to miss out. Because, yeah, Kevin's wearing a sweet shirt if you're listening. He says, I would ginger you so hard. Yeah. One of my favorite shirts. It's fantastic. Another thing you've got going on today, besides your shirt, is you're sporting some shorts. Yeah, underneath my regular shorts, I'm sporting some Stacy Tovar shorts. It's actually what I asked for when I walked. I didn't know you were Tovar shorts. It's actually what I asked for.

I didn't know you were actually wearing them. I'm actually wearing them underneath here. The famous white booty shorts. Yeah, so I walked into the Reebok tent. I said, I need Stacey Tovar shorts because I was told that she was going to be by the Barbells for Boobs tent, which is where I'm spending most of my time this weekend. Yeah. And I was like, well, if she's going to be there in booty shorts,

I got to challenge her to a booty short showdown. Oh, man. A who wore it better. So I'm wearing them all day until she stops by and then I'm stripping down to just those shorts.

What time is this happening? We can make sure to be there. I want to be there. I have no, like she just found out about this because I posted it on Instagram. Like she didn't even know it was happening

until about 30 seconds ago. All the best things in life just sort of spring up. She may still not know. She may not have checked Instagram yet. Who knows? We need to make sure that. You know the best thing about your situation, Kevin. We got to communicate with Stacey.

You can go up to somebody, Kevin. You can go up to Stacey Tover and say, I would really like it if you would do this for me. You could insert anything there. If she says no, she's going to feel like a real bitch about it. Like, really? You're not going to do this for me? Well, I changed my mind. I'll do anything you want. Well, I was told when I got hurt that I was inappropriate

before I got hurt. And now that I'm in a wheelchair, I'm really trying to push the envelope of how far I go before people kind of get a little freaked out. Like the, uh, like an old man will like push the limits of,

uh, cursing and raunchy behavior. Cause like, well, fuck it. I'm old. I mean, who's going to say something to me?

Yeah, you are. I mean, what percentage do you think you've pushed it further than you would have normally? Oh, way further than I've ever pushed it. Like 15% or are we talking

like 500 we're talking at least 100 farther yeah yeah 200 increase and inappropriate behavior we have a plan at some point in time whenever i get a chance we're going to wrap my legs in like uh like foam or something like that and have me wear pants and and roll down the street with some people and wait to wear in this big crowd i wanted to do it this weekend but i figured people would freak out a little bit too much and make sure my legs are nice and padded and roll around with some friends and make sure one of them's kind of a skittish and emotional and just throw my chair sideways and like completely eat it hard and turn around, turn around, point right at them and be like, you did this to me. Why would you push me out of my chair? And see how, ow. That's another good one.

I'm like, yeah, we'll give you a wheelchair ride. Go ahead and sit down. And then the second they touch my legs, I scream ow really loud and see if they freak out about it. They probably freak out every time, right? Every time. Convince someone to stab you in the leg or something. And then freak out if they go too deep.

I've had friends ask if they could tell that they could night's my legs. And that's a real thing. So they keep asking if they can stab me in the leg with a fork and see if I can feel it. Jesus. I haven't let them yet. I have good friends. Like, you know, I can't feel it, but there's still the risk of infection and structural damage.

I'd rather not add on to the situation. I'm still going to bleed. I'm still going to bleed. It's not a good thing. We were talking earlier. I got a buddy who's got an arm that's paralyzed. And, yeah, one of the biggest things for him is just beating up his arm sometimes. He doesn't realize that he's, you know, dragging it across something where it's on something hot.

Yeah. And, yeah, then you have that risk of infection or something like that. Yeah. I do that all the time. Like, I'll hear something like thud. Like, we'll drive here, and we'll take a turn turn and I'll hear something like thud real hard against the door and I'm like, what the hell? And I'll look down and it was my leg just blasting the door.

Oh, man. Or I'll wheel around and I can't figure out why my chair won't move and it's because my foot's caught in a corner and I'm just trying to wrench it through. It's a complete meathead. You won't move, chair. I'm going to make you move. If it doesn't fit, force it.

That's what we always used to say back in the Navy. You forget how simple of a lesson pain is. The only thing it's there for is to keep you from dragging your flesh through situations you really shouldn't be doing. And when it's gone or it's dulled, next thing you know, you could be shutting your car or your leg in a car door or some shit. I mean, it's just that easy to do. You lose your ability to tell where things are. Yeah. Extraordinary.

So you were, what would be the proper terminology? You paralyzed? Yeah. So this would be like six months ago or was this last year? Like six months and 14 days. Six months, 14 days. I was at the OC Prodown. Yeah. And that was out here.

Yeah, it was real close to here. I'm actually saying, I have to drive past the fairgrounds where I got injured like every single time I want to go to the games. What goes through your head

when you make that drive? Eh. That's what I mean. Well, so far you seem remarkably zen about it. Could you fill in everybody who may not know the details? Because the day that it happened, I had friends that were there.

They were taking video. They sent me the footage, and it didn't look like an epic, dramatic thing. It was like, oh, it's like Kevin kind of fell down, and then that was that. So we were doing that three rep max snatch, which was kind of my bread and butter. Like I was wholeheartedly expecting to win that event. I didn't think anyone there was going to really out snatch me. Yeah. What were you going for that day?

I was starting with 235. I wanted to get up to like 275. So you're not an inexperienced weightlifter? No. You were trained and strong and capable. Your form was probably fantastic. There was no reason to think something would go wrong. You know, it was one of those things like, and everyone out there that's lifted weights

before, I just kind of felt one of these before where I went up and the pull felt good and I caught it and the catch just felt like off. Like I just wasn't, I just didn't want to stand up with it. And I was like, it's 235. I'm not even, I'm not worried about this weight. I'm just going to, I'm going to dump it and, uh, and just pick the bar back up and start over. Like there's no reason to try to.

I actually, ironically enough, was dumping the bar so I wouldn't hurt my elbow. In retrospect, I'd probably just rather have the elbow injury. Yeah. But so, you know. It makes my elbow pain not seem so bad anymore. Yeah, I was bitching about my elbow yesterday. I'm like, well, I see. Perspectiving. so i bailed um backwards it wasn't the greatest bail i've ever had but not also not the worst bail i've ever had and next thing i know i was uh in incredible pain yeah

from what i saw it was like the bar met your shoulders like almost like simultaneously your butt met the ground. Is that right? Sort of. The theory is the initial hit's not what did it in. Yeah. Not a lot I can talk about as far as what exactly happened because there's some stuff going on with that right now. Gotcha. But it doesn't seem to me that the initial hit off the top of my shoulders is what.

Yeah. It kind of looked like it folded your spine into a C, like it kind of like smooshed you, or like did it break in the middle of your back? Is that what happened? Low back, like T11, T12, like right above where your lumbar spine starts. Gotcha. Right.

So a lot of people, I mean, I don't know. I mean, it sounds like there's some things going on in the background you might not be able to talk about everything but i have like especially like older weightlifting coaches you know they go you know they're being you know they're like oh you know is crossfit dangerous you know doing these movements under fatigue and things like that you know what's your opinion now after this has happened and they they kind of point at you as it's you know the example yeah to say uh to say cross it's dangerous because so we'll i'll say this about my accident if you watch the video that's online you will see the

weights behind me perfectly stacked up when i go to lift and then after i get hurt you'll see the weights about five feet farther back so that's pretty much all I can say about what actually injured me. But to say, like, I got injured because of CrossFit or because of weightlifting or whatever the hell you want to say is like saying some guy's out running, gets hit by a drunk driver, and that's running's fault. Right, right. Yeah, people conveniently somehow overlook every other major sport where injury is just the price you pay or it's a risk that's there when you're pushing things to the outer boundaries of what you can do. People get hurt in football or soccer or fucking t-ball. Imagine injuries happen when the effort is being pushed to max. What happened to me, the bar had to hit me in my low back

at the exact right spot, at the exact right angle, the exact right time for this to happen to me. They told me if it would hit me like an inch or two in a different direction, I'd still be up and walking around. I'd be hurt, but I would still be walking around. So, I mean, it's a one in a million shot. Like I was the, I can personally say that, you know, I was the only person inig hospital for rehab that got hurt by a barbell there were plenty of people there who were hurt from uh from skiing from other sports from jumping off of buildings and from every conceivable there's there's a guy there that got hurt he was just wrestling around with his friends and fell over his couch wrong is a quadriplegic now wow so i mean like there, there's inherent risk with everything.

Any other case of paralysis that's relatively well-known you're able to look up after your injury of people who were hurt cheating with barbells? I actually search for some, and I can't find a single case of someone being paralyzed by a barbell. And it may be out there. I may just not be really good at using the Google machine. You call it a Google machine, so I don't think you're good at using the google machine

i can't find a single case of someone being paralyzed i mean i can find cases of people like breaking like legs or femurs or elbows or whatever but not someone getting paralyzed this is the thing that always seems to happen you're it happened it was what it was. It's exceptionally high profile because you are – everybody who wants something to hold against CrossFit looked right to you, which made this situation all the more bizarre. Even people like – maybe like three weeks ago on the Drew Irvin podcast and we're hearing him saying that's proof of why you really shouldn't be pushing barbells to extremes.

These guys are doing these max lifts and they're pushing for reps and it's just not safe to do. I think everybody's got to take pause and realize this is one isolated event that happened against extraordinarily small odds. Maybe the only guy who's ever happened in the history of barbells, which is a long history. I think what people are forgetting about weight training is that no one ever, no matter if you're just a weightlifter or a crossfitter, just goes in and goes, I'm going to snatch.

All right, that's it. See you later. Like if you look at like Russian training, they deadlift, they snatch or do their Olympic lifts and then they squat. Or like in America, most times we like squat, Olympic lift and then do auxiliary. There's always a sequence. And to think that like anyone going into any lift is 100% is stupid. And what you also got to remember about my accident is that I wasn't lifting a high percentage of my one rep max.

It was probably about 70%. And it's a weight that I've hit for a set of five in the gym, being fatigued, perfectly safe. It's not like I was going for... I was smart enough to know that I had just ran three miles under load. I'm not going to come in and take my three rep max snatch and be able to hang snatch it for three.

It's not that people would forget. It's like, how could he do that? He should know better than to try this under these conditions. But you did know. If we were sitting there going to watch you do that, you you said what are the odds anyone of these these guys would be seriously hurt or paralyzed we would all say as much as we know we've all been around this shit for over 20 years or whatever our whole lives we would say that's just not gonna happen i've never

heard of it happening we would say it's most infinitesimally small likelihood of all well i hit i had 245 in the back for three before i walked out there that was originally going to be my opener and when i was walking out my training partner said hey no one's hit over 230 just go for 235 you're essentially being conservative too so i mean it wasn't it wasn't the weight it wasn't the load it wasn't the movement there were um again those extenuating circumstances that are kind of out of my realm of talking about right now that sure they cause some problems after you uh after you became injured where did you go uh western medical santa anna they uh got me there pretty quickly and um as luck would have it you know i always say like god had to be on my side because

the second best spinal surgeon in california happened to be on call that night and happened to be opening up enough to get me in what worked so I mean you ended up being paralyzed but what other risks were being mitigated when you went in um well they couldn't give me any uh like painkillers because they didn't know exactly what was going on with me you know um since this has never really happened before there was really no protocol for it so they couldn't give me painkillers or anything. So I kind of had to deal with it until... I guess this pain would be not your typical... Man, that wad was tough pain. This is a deep, terrible, fearing...

This is like every nerve in my body felt like it was on fire. Your body must have been in a... Every alarm switch in your body must have been flipped. Fingers, head, ears, everything. Every inch of me was just on fire. So your nervous system just didn't know what was going on no i mean my spinal cord had been just torn in half it was freaking out my

whole body was in shock like you can uh see in the video um at a certain point where my whole body just goes completely locked out um the system just gets overrided it's your system's natural reaction to something like this. It goes into shock and tenses up completely. They try to keep further damage from happening. And so they were worried about me going into shock. They were worried about my body being such in shock that it completely shut down and I'd be dead.

So the survival rate for a complete severing of your T11, T12 was pretty low, but only because most of the time it's from like a 70-mile-an-hour car crash. Right. There's other things going on there. This was isolated to just your spine. So they told me it was literally like taking that whole car crash just to my spine. When you have an injury like that, I've had some injuries. Can't compare to this, obviously,

but we've all been hurt to some extent. That time period is weird. Everything's a daze. You don't know what's going on. Do you recall any specific memory from this period? Everything had to be coming in flashes of pain and light and confusion.

I was so in and out the first like week that I was in the hospital. Like I'll have people come up to me and, um, I've had friends and I'll remember a little bit after they say something like I'll remember flashes of stuff. But, uh, like I had friends like fly out from,

uh, um, Colorado. I had friends fly out from Missouri. I had family flat from Missouri and I just, I barely remember them being there. Um, for like the first like five or six days I was in the hospital because I was just so um so drugged up and kind of dazed and um you know even after I got out of the ICU they moved me up to uh like I guess like general care like even at that point I was still so out of it and

still like yeah I'm assuming you went undergo some cert you went on did some surgery yeah i had two surgeries so i had um the first one uh they came into the side um i have some pretty gnarly scars too which is you know chick stick that chick stick scars so um i have two scars over here one they had uh puncture my lung like deflate my lung and going through the side to um put my spine back in line oh man so my doctor is like deflate my lung and going through the side to put my spine back in line. Oh man. So my doctor is like sitting there and I, I don't remember this at all. Luckily, um, my doctor came in and was explaining to my girlfriend and my training partner, Matt, um, like what the surgery entailed, like survival rates for the surgery, like just kind of trying to prep us and getting the heavy stuff out of the way. Yeah. Uh, so don't go in from

the back. They went in from the side. They way. Yeah. Uh, so don't go in from the back. They went in from the side. They went in from the side. They couldn't go in. They couldn't go in. They couldn't go in from the back and safely like realign my spine without potentially messing it up worse. And so they,

uh, split me open, uh, use like forceps to kind of like split my ribs apart, which are still, I think dislocated to this day. I still like have them pop all the time. And then the doctor was telling me afterwards,

like they had to like take out my organs and like set them on a table next to me i'm gonna throw up that's intense man and like go deflate the lung and then go through there to put the spine back together and like took you apart and reassembled you yeah basically so now i'm getting a sense of like you would definitely want the absolute best. This is a lot going on. You need a surgeon who is just like almost divine. Yeah. So there's less. I think it was like 35% survival rate for the surgery. I'm surprised.

I'm assuming the surgery was absolutely necessary. It was either a 35% chance of, or like 35 or 38% chance of surviving the surgery or 0% chance surviving without surgery. Wow. Yeah, I'm always interested in the stats when people are going in for surgery, like the choices they're having to make. Obviously, this sounds like... I didn't have a choice.

It was either do it or not do it and not be around for much longer. Yeah, two surgeries. What did the other one look like? Second surgery is actually my cooler scar and it was the safer surgery after they got my spine back together um i have a giant scar down my uh spine in the back where they just went in and they fused me from t10 down to l1 so i have four plates two rods and eight screws so you can just sit up straight yeah sort of like

the rest of my my back still bends around it and so i can i can still kind of slump into it yeah yeah no right here it is always going to be. Nice and rigid. Yeah. I wish I had that when I was dead lifting before I got hurt. You and me both. I got the worst posture in the world. Do you have any more surgeries scheduled?

Like you're trying to make some improvements? No. They said normally people have to go back in and fix the screws. They'll go back out and some of the bone will lice away a little bit yeah and so they have all these things and um i've gone in for uh numerous checkups and cts and they said that the screws were perfectly placed and they haven't seen anyone with a better um setup than mine they said the one thing i need to worry about is is what i'm getting back and i'm trying to get after it. So like that is, um, uh, twisting and bending my rods. So therapy wise, what, what's the next for

you? Is there, is there hope that you could get back to doing more actual activity on your feet someday? Uh, so the chances of me like walking on my own, um, I've been told it like less than 1%, but I mean, I'm, I'm the king of, of small percentages. I'm 3% of the world's population as a ginger. I have blue eyes, which means I'm 1% of that population and I'm a paraplegic because I'm 2% of the world's population. So I like small numbers. That's going on a quote of some kind. I gotta make note. It's a small numbers are easier for me to count. So less than 1% chance of me walking on my own, but that's without any kind of technology like spinal implants, which are coming out with, but that's without any kind of technology, um,

like spinal implants, which are coming out with, but, um, and there's probably, I mean, you're, you're,

we've, we've all seen, um, we've watched the video you got, you doing like rope climbs in the gym and training and doing, you know, Olympic work and shit still, which it's hard not to see that and be like,

this is, I'm going to the gym right now. Cause I was like, yeah, I probably won't train today. My knees a little sore sore i'm feeling a little tired like oh shit kevin you motherfucker i'm going to the gym now there's no excuses when you're following on instagram just makes me yeah it's inspiring because yeah you can't complain about where you're at if you're if you're out there crushing i mean it was weeks later you were in a pool right yeah um smiling it

was about three weeks i did i love swimming like i was a swimmer throughout my entire entire childhood and i really like swimming and so being able to get back in the pool and and move around and feel like so i don't want to feel like say like i feel confined in my chair um or anything like that but when i'm in the pool like i can move just as well as anyone else like there's nothing i can't do in the pool my my back gets relaxed i get like the decompression. It just, it's just really cool for me. I myself think the pool is cool because it's one of the environments where

gravity gets off my dick for five minutes. Kevin, you, uh, you had this dazed state of just this week that was really, I mean, intense is not the word you were pushed to the absolute limit of what your body could tolerate and still keep going going. When did you first sort of emerge from the pain and the sedation stuff to kind of

get your head around what had happened and you had that you had to have that moment where it's like what happens now uh you know i i can remember distinctly like just going in and out of like the like the drug fall they had me on dilaud, which is an amazing drug. I heard it's amazing. It is. Do you have any? Not anymore. They took that away from me pretty quickly. So I needed to learn to lie about like,

one to 10, what's your pain at? 10. I'm like a three. All right, we're going to take the Dilaudid away. I'm at 10. Is that because they thought you were going to get addicted to it? Yeah, it's pretty addicting.

I don't think I'd ever get addicted to like painkillers they just make me feel horrible like i my doctors to this day still want me to like take painkillers and stuff like that and i've told them well they get paid to push that shit right so like i like even when i went to my doctor last time i was like i don't i don't want any more of my painkillers i'm fine like yeah i'll deal with the soreness and pain a little bit. That's better to me than the way these make me feel. And he's like, well, I'm just going to prescribe them for you anyway. Aren't you like most people? Don't you want to run away from your pain?

No, thank you. I'll face this. Yeah, I don't know. Painkillers don't. Another interesting ginger fact is that anesthetics don't work as well on us. Our liver metabolizes them faster. And so they don't really work very well for me. They just make me feel like shit.

Wow. We're learning a feel like shit. Wow. We're learning a lot about gingers today. Ginger facts. Yes. I mean, at one point did you say this would happen? You know, the odds are stacked against me. Certainly my life is never going to be the same again. I remember going in and out of, I don't want to say consciousness,

but kind of like coherency. And just kind of each time I would become coherent, kind of think about my situation, thinking about what was going on. And, um, you know, there wasn't a second I wasn't surrounded by like friends and family. Like my parents flew out, my, um, my brother and sister flew out, um, uh, like half my cousins flew out and, um, just everyone just came out all friends and like people, like I had, I had friends from elementary school that I still talk to every once in a while, like one of them flew out cause she heard about it and was hanging out with me so i was i had a lot of support a lot

of people to kind of like um soundboard off of and kind of talk to her spread really quickly we all are immediately aware of it i think the coolest part from my perspective was just that you know anybody can talk shit about there's plenty of obvious things to critique crossfit over but one of the things that's still quite strong is that the community just fucking responded so powerfully and so quickly to you yeah and then i i give 100 credit like so i've been friends with the people over at barbells for boobs for for years um z and her whole team have been um amazing to me as a competitor before i got hurt and uh once i got hurt um z and everyone just kind of stepped up even more and made sure everyone knew what was going on like they literally shut down operations for barbell spruces like a week

to come up with like over our strong and design the logo and set up everything up for me and set up the funly account and like made that their main premise for like almost a full week and um i literally owe them and their entire organization my life. They're amazing people. Yeah. How long did it take after you had been hospitalized and had surgeries and stuff like that to start doing anything physically active? They wouldn't let me move.

I tried to. I asked for a wheelchair a couple times. And they wouldn't let me move until, I think, eight days after my accident, nine days after my accident. The same week I flew out to Craig. So they're like, well, you're going to go to Craig. Might as well get you used to a wheelchair. So got me up in a wheelchair, and it was interesting, you know,

sitting up for the first time. Really weird. Did you have that moment like, wow, I'm now one of these people. This is me. No, my first thought was, I'm going to fall over. It was like literally sitting on a yoga ball in a cross-legged position

and trying to sit straight up. Oh, wow. Yeah, imagine. They were holding me and they would let go and I would just... So do you have to engage your muscles in a different way than you used to?

Yeah, so when you guys are sitting here um even though you probably don't realize that like your glutes are like um compensating for shifts and uh that explains that feeling yeah okay yeah you're like hip flexors are keeping you pulled tight so you can kind of compensate for where you're shifting and sitting who's gonna say to compensate for where you're shitting. Yeah, yeah. That too? That too. That's a whole other problem for paraplegics. We'll have to talk about this. Yeah.

So all I have is what's left of my abdomen and my low back, which was, at the time, had been torn off my spine and then sewn back on. So I really didn't have, I only had my abs

to hold me upright. So it was a little weird to sit around. So what muscles can fire and which muscles can't? Where does it kind of cut off? So my injury line's right below my belly button. But I have full, I won't say control. I have full, I can flex all my abs.

So my abs still work, all of them. The ones below. You got a six pack? Yeah. Oh yeah. Even now, Kevin, what is my excuse? Shit.

This motherfucker's got a six pack. The funny thing is the lower two abs are on delay. So if I flex my abs or do anything like that, I can feel the top ones kick on automatically

like you would. And then three or four seconds later, the lower abs are like, yeah, I guess we'll do something. that's interesting so and then there's i have um my neurosurgeon did some tests and uh some of my like the the vertebrae and the nerves that are kind of above my injury line are noticing that things aren't firing below my injury line they're starting to try to like go down and innervate some of that stuff so i have a few i'm getting back a little bit bit of hip flexor on each side like nothing big nothing i can really do but i can it makes it easier to do stuff because i kind of move my hips around and shift and stuff so it's an incredible

lesson this too is like your body took such a hugely stressful shattering you know deeply shaking injury and look how it still keeps fighting on to try to grab back function and re-intervate. That's why I guess you're a small percentage guy, but there's never a reason to abandon the small percentages, especially now when we're emerging into a future where there's all kinds of interventions that could come.

There's no way of knowing in 10 years time what Kevin might be able to do especially if he keeps being as fit as he can in the meantime. Well, and the way I look at it is that most people who have gone through this situation that I'm going through right now weren't as active or as healthy. I mean, not that I was the greatest person ever before I got hurt,

but I definitely was a little bit fitter and ate a little bit better than most people in America. That makes you more resilient right there. I credit it to me still being alive. They told me that the blood loss is usually what kills people, and I'm 100% convinced that the fact that my red blood cell count was so high from training and the way I ate that it saved my life.

When I came out, most people are anemic and have no protein stores and just kind of screwed in that level and had to get them back up within a week. My protein stores were normal. My, my, uh, um, iron count was fine. Like everything was back to pretty much a normal level, which is low for me, but you know, healthy for most of the people. I just had that chat with Mark Devon, like being strong. Was it Mark saying being strong makes you tougher and harder to kill is the best reason to be strong. I think that's a Ripto quote.

Ripto. I think he referenced Ripto in the talk he did at our mastermind meeting. Right. This is a great example of it because you were strong it had nothing to do with yeah you were prepping to win something but you had prepared your body for the most intense kind of battle and it's giving you a chance and you you just made an interesting quote actually you said it wasn't like i was the best person before i'm paraphrasing yeah obviously there's a hint that you think this has not all been of course a negative experience oh no like there's a hint that you think this has not all been, of course, a negative experience. Oh, no.

I don't know. In my life, I've done a lot of stupid things. I wasn't always super fit. I always played sports. When I got to college, I did a lot of dumb shit. College? I got pretty fat. I went from went from like 180 pounds my freshman year to like 245

by the beginning of my sophomore year oh I would that's gains at the time hashtag gains son at the time I thought

I was like yeah I'm lifting big weight that's why I gained all the weight and I look back at it I'm like no you were just fat dude you was drinking beer

and benching too much that's exactly what I was doing and so like it's one of those things like bad things happen but usually there's always good coming out. I mean, uh, I was really raised in a religious household. Like I grew up Lutheran and, um, I've always kind of had, uh, a faith that kind of got me through a lot of that

stuff where I can look back at some of the worst things that ever happened to me and, um, kind of see why they hadn't happened for the best things that happened. You know, I got, I got kicked out of school, uh, after my sophomore year of college. And that's, that's when I found, uh, CrossFit. That's when I found rugby. That's when I found all the sports that I still love to this day. And it's when I met my girlfriend that I've been with, uh, with for almost seven years now has been taking care of me ever since I got hurt. And that's why I moved out to Denver. It's, it's literally my whole, whole life up to this, like up to now was based off something bad that happened. And so I kind of look at the situation and that was my first thought when I got hurt is,

you know, yeah, this sucks. This is horrible. This is the worst thing I probably, hopefully have to deal with. But hopefully because this is the worst thing that's happened to me, the greatest thing that's ever gonna happen to me is also gonna come out of the situation.

Yeah. Well, let's take a break real quick. We come back and we can talk about some of the good things that have come out of this whole. Let's take a break real quick. We come back and we can talk about some of the good things that have come out of this whole situation. This is Andrea Ager and you're listening to Barbell Shrug. For the video version, go to barbellshrug.com.

Barbell Shrug is brought to you by you. To learn more about how you can support the show, go to barbellshrug.com and sign up for the newsletter. And we're back with Kevin Ogar. And you know what? We were all pretty scared. and sign up for the newsletter. And we're back with Kevin Ogar. There he is. And you know what? We were all pretty scared. I really wanted to know.

I was too scared to ask. He made me feel better during the break. Kevin, tell us about your cock. All the ladies out there want to know. I get this question. It's not the first time I got this question. It's usually from women, but they always ask if my junk still works. And the comment I wrote down, yes, it still works.

I don't have any control over it, so it's like being a 13-year-old boy again. So you got a great excuse. Yeah. You just roll around with a heart on. You joke, but sometimes I do, and i'll just look down i'm like oh well he's awake i hope no one notices let's keep rolling through here wow man fascinating what what other curious things you've discovered about your new daily rituals and habits like things that are now uh much different like i guess going to the bathrooms the whole thing uh you know

showering all these little daily activities people take for granted yeah it's it's like uh it's like being it's a damn good thing we don't remember like being like one or two or three years old because the shit sucks like having to learn how to like poop again and wipe your own ass and yeah and shower and uh and everything it's a little weird i will say that i now have an excuse to take a really long time when I'm pooping, so it's a nice little relaxing break where I sit there and, like, I read, like, half a book, like, watch a whole season of Dexter, and then, you know, come up the other end, yeah.

What makes the process so long? Is it, I mean, you obviously got to set up and all that kind of stuff. So I got to get a special chair with a cutout in it since I don't have any. The way my injury works, you have high motor neuron and low motor neuron. And they told me I was probably more or less low motor neuron. So instead of being on the fritz, my muscles aren't really on the fritz. They're kind of just locked up internally. And so I had to get a special chair with a cutout on the side of it.

So it raised me over to the seat and i literally have to it's called uh digitally stimulating that sounds fun it it's it's a fancy way of saying i have to finger my butthole to get not electronics yeah as in your fingers so it's's... Not nearly as advanced as I thought it was going to be. Digital stimulation. Was it an iPad app or something? No, man. You never said that. I was thinking,

there's going to be this computer next to you and there's these lights going and you got to hook something up. No, it is super low tech. The only way to get it, like the sphincter to loosen up, you go in there and just kind of make a nice little circle

and hope something comes out. So you kind of have to plan your poops, like one poop a day at the exact same.'m as regular as you can get it's every single day at the same time poop programming what time what time is that i want to know when i should be shaking your hand it was actually like right before you got here it was right before i got here so i showered afterwards don't worry so yeah and then like showering you have to flip I have a special chair for that too

where I hop over onto a chair and kind of have like use you know those railings you see in like handicap bathrooms

we actually do use those so you have to like so don't put shit on the railings Peter yeah yeah and if you can poop in a different stall

besides a handicap bathroom I'd really appreciate it because that's the only place I can go to take a piss. Yeah, I mean, I remember I was at a Padres game, and there was a couple guys trying to get into the handicapped area, and at a ball game, everyone's just going, and people were just going in there and pissing all over the seat. I'm like, and there were some of us that were like,

hey, stop doing that shit. You're being a jerk. So I don't have to switch over to the toilet to go to the bathroom, but I can actually, you know, it's called IC

and it's called intermittent caffeine so I can just like cath from my chair and go pee, but I need somewhere to actually do it. I can't just like

roll into the men's room and like whip my junk out and like jam a tube in and hey everybody, how's it going? Yeah, just do that in front of the urinal. Yeah.

So, and my chair doesn't fit in like normal stalls and so there's been times where i've like rolled into actually on the way here flying here i rolled into a bathroom um you know go to the bathroom before i got on my flight and every every single stall was open except for the handicap one this dude decided that that was the one he wanted to go to because it was comfy so i just sat outside the door till he was done. Like, I can't feel it. I mean, I don't have, like, the pressure that I need to pee, so I can sit there and I just kind of have to time it. And so I just sat outside and waited for him to walk out. I go, hey, thanks.

To make a critiquing eye contact with him after he gets out. You know, we were just at a comedy show. You don't even have to. I think he'll never use that one again. We were at that Tony Hinchcliffe comedy show. He had this whole bit about everybody that shoots right through that one, two, three stall and that cushy, luxuriously open handicap stall. He talked about that moment where you're sitting there and you see quite dramatic

with the wheels roll up and a slight pause. You go, oh, shit. He's like, do I pick one leg up? What's my play here? And he gets out. He says, what do you do? He said he went CP. Yeah, he went CP.

What he does, you pick one arm up and you start limping and you go gets out. He says, that's what he do. He said he went CP. Yeah. He does. You pick one arm up and you start limping and you go in circles. He started doing his bit, but it's curious to hear you've actually, I've actually done waiting for a guy to come out. Then you just gave him the look of shame. Like, you know,

this is the only place, this is what I have left in this world. You son of a bitch is a spacious shit stall. And look what you're doing. Yeah. I mean, I do that. I do that more

so with uh like handicap parking so i can't get out and out of my car without like the handicap parking the van accessible one because my the doors don't open wide enough for me to get my chair and pull it in and so like i literally like will roll and one of my pet peeves is people who are overweight and get handicap stickers because they're overweight. And so I'll literally roll past them in my car. I go, no, you probably need that more than I do.

Me and my wheelchair, we're going to go down and park over here and have to wheel all the way to the store. And you just kind of see them. Uh, what do I say? What do I say? So,

I mean, it's, it's, uh, it's the only place I can park. And so I get, I get frustrated with people cause they're like, they'll pop.

I saw a guy pop out of his truck, hang his handicap tag, and then pick up a generator and carry it inside. I was like, oh, you obviously need that. Awesome, bro. Thank you. Appreciate it. To be fair, though, did you used to shit in the... Kevin, let's be fair now.

To be fair, I used to. Yeah, that thing is luxurious and awesome. I will say I never parked in handicap spots. I refuse. I don't do that either. I used to. The thing is luxurious and awesome. I will say I never parked in handicapped spots. I don't do that either. I refuse to. I thought that was like, even before I got hurt, I would call people out for doing that. I don't do it just because I'm afraid I'm going to get towed away.

No ethical reason. No moral reason. The handicapped stall thing was my gig because I was just too fat to go into the normal stall. I can't fucking, it was like Chris Farley in the bathroom with the airplanes. I can't reach my ass to wipe it. I gotta go over here. See, the handicap stall thing isn't as big a deal to me as the handicap parking

because like there were 2% like paraplegics actually like need those stalls or like 2% of the world's population. It's like running into a unicorn. This is good to know because I'll tell you right to your face. I'm not going to stop shitting in the handicap stall. The one thing that is like

when there's 18 stalls and then the one handicap stall and I roll in there and I'm like, you chose that one over the rest of the 18 and you have... So if they're all full,

maybe. It's really just me being like, I want that stall. You're in it. Please get out of it now. Yeah. Does 2% of the world's population sound like a really high percentage to anyone else? Well, you're doing the math. There's much smarter than all of us. I mean, two out of every hundred

people is paraplegic. That sounds really high. Yeah. I guess how many people are paraplegic or paraplegic quadriplegic or have some kind of like spinal cord injury that prevents them from using a full function of their limbs. Oh, well, I didn't know it was that high. It's not necessarily even- That's how you pointed it out. I thought it would have been like one in 10,000 or something. That's the number I was given at Craig. I don't fact check doctors, so they could be completely full of shit lying to me.

They're full of shit, man. It looks smart to me, sir. You've got a coat on. So let's go back to the dick questions. Okay. Go for it. So you said that you get random boners just like you're 13 years old, like walk around junior high school,

but can you get a voluntary boner? Like if you want to get a boner, can you get a boner? Uh, yeah. I mean, I can, but it's,

it's because I, there's great pills or what I call a dick bricks. They have a little shot. Yeah. They have shots that you can inject. Oh my God. Oh really? Yeah.

Straight up. So, Oh man, I want to give a shot in my dick. What do you think Ashley? Should we try it? She's down. Ashley's like,

whatever. As long as you have a boner, I'm cool. This is like porn industry innovation right there. So it's, it's actually, there's, they have a lot of different ways.

Cause one of the big things they, it's not really talked about a lot of different ways because one of the big things they, it's not really talked about a lot because I guess like sex is taboo or whatever, but one of the big things they talk to you about, one of the classes they actually make you go through, whether you're a guy or a girl in rehab, is like sex ed. Like how do you have sex

or how do you do anything like that? Like post-injury when you have a spinal cord injury because I mean, most guys don't have a lot of control over it so i mean they tell you lesson number one ladies and gentlemen you're new to this stuff so we'll give you some information first things first chicks are going to ask you about your dick and bars here's what you need to keep in mind first things first you tell them this they run you through the whole protocol now i know i know not to switch gears off the dick stuff but no i want to hear the rest of what he was about to say. Oh, it wasn't fun.

No, they have a whole slew of things to help. For girls, it's not. So I always kind of thought that girls had it a little bit harder. Because some of the paraplegic friends I have have it a little bit harder because it's harder for them to cath. It's harder for them to do some of the stuff. But the one place they have it easier is in like the sex realm because they don't have to worry about like erections or anything and so they don't have as much stuff on uh uh like sex for women as they

do for guys but they have a whole bunch of different things like they they run you through they actually uh gave me a book that's called is fred dead is fred Yeah, and it was written by a guy who's a paraplegic on, like, sex after spinal cord injury. The guy's name's Fred? I think he was calling his penis Fred, but that's... Oh, Fred is the penis. Yeah. Ah.

Yeah, so it... It's okay to put it together, huh, Chris? It is a... Yeah, I'm paralyzing my mind sometimes, especially after a 2 a.m. night. It's a whole book, and it has, like, all the stuff on like like where to get sex toys and what kind of like uh um like erection help you can get and where to

get it and how to talk to people about it and um but it's still a sex book and so my doctor gave it to me and i had it in my room at craig and i didn't think i just had it sitting like underneath something and my parents walked in they're trying to like organize things for me and my had it in my room at Craig and I didn't think I just had it sitting like underneath something. And my parents walked in, they're trying to like organize things for me. And in my, my dad picked it up. Oh, this is a nice and kind of set it down. Still as awkward for him as it was when you were 13. And then, well, then it was even more awkward because my aunt came in later and saw the same book. And I was like, Oh, son of a bitch. So, so we've all seen videos of you doing, you know, cool workouts that, you know, you would, you would hope you'd be able to do after you have some type of traumatic accidents, like doing rope

climbs or overhead presses or something. But we've seen a few videos, but what comprehensively does your training look like these days? Like what else are you doing? Uh, so, I mean, I'm pretty much still just doing like a, kind of like a lifting, lifting and crossfit style stuff. Like, um, it's just a change of focus like before injury i was focused on like being uh the best crossfit athlete i could like all the skills and drills i could possibly get my hands on um getting as strong as possible making sure my motor was up just that kind of stuff now it's um it's switched in most everything i do is is geared towards uh making you know the the original meaning, like the original purpose of

CrossFit was to make every like, train not to suck at life, you know, so that's basically what I've gotten back to. So a lot of my training is based on stuff that I know I struggle with. So I struggle with balance and like front to back and side to side. And so a lot of my stuff is trained with that. So I was at CrossFit Costa Mesa with Max Mormont, and he was really helping me kind of try to figure some of this stuff out, and one of the workouts had pistols in it. He's like, well, you obviously can't do pistols. I was like, yeah, but I can do it. So we figured out that we could do one-handed wall balls.

And the reason being is that it has the same kind of premise where it's that unilateral work, but it's also a lot of balance work for me. And so it's not just throwing and catching one-handed, but once I catch one-handed, it's pulling me left and right. And so I can switch hands and kind of do that. So my approach to training now is I kind of still train with Matt Hathcock. He's still my training partner. I think I slow him down a little bit, but he doesn't complain about it.

Screw that guy. But you know what's interesting about that is that that's what everybody that should be the mindset in training people do what other people doing they mimic they take on programming they do wad because that's what everybody else is doing you're in a position where you're you're returning to the very fundamentals what training should be like what are my specific issues and what are the most creative ways i can help myself function better in this environment by choosing the right exercise? Yeah. And so that's basically why I approach everything.

So I just kind of look at Matt's program and what he has for himself. And then I kind of try to figure out what I can switch out and benefit me the most. So I don't – someone asked me yesterday if I – like when we have a 400-meter run, if I just wheel 400 meters. Excuse me. if like when we have a 400 meter run if i just wheel 400 meters excuse me and i told him not usually because like for me wheeling 400 meters it takes a really long time and i don't get winded like it's not running for me anymore because i can coast if i can hit a hill i just let go and just let the hill do the work for me um because i'm not stupid um and i have these awesome wheels i hated running before i got hurt so i'm not gonna actually

try to run harder now that i'm hurt and so like i switched out for like skier you know rowing or or something where you know it mimics that same uh uh cardiovascular aspect skier is probably great for you seems great yeah yes you're not you're not mimicking shit you're using a lot of other tools that you would normally be using or that you might not have used a lot previously yeah i mean um like what are some of your favorite training tools now that now that you're uh paralyzed uh sleds prowlers um i've been doing pulling them uh pulling them dragging them so i'll strap them to me and like wheel forward to mimic like having to drag something behind me right or i'll have a rope attached to them and do like actual pulls because it wants to yank me forward and it's one thing i really struggle with um i've been doing a lot more uh dumbbell work um just to get that balance

balance back and um kind of keep my shoulders healthy um a lot of the stuff is like uh me working on stuff i know I didn't do. Like, so like transfers where I have to press up and shift my body. So I do, uh, what I call paraplegic L sits where I put my feet up on like, uh, ab mats and then press into what looks like an L sit, but it's really just me pressing up. Cause that's one thing I really need to get really good at the transfer, uh, safely. And so, um, and believe it or not, you're going to get older. And shit's going to get harder. And it's going to get really hard.

I mean, it gets hard for everybody who ages. Just sitting on the toilet gets harder for everyone as they get older. And now you're going to have to build up probably as much muscle mass and as much coordination and everything while you're young so you can keep hold of that as long as possible. Yeah. A big thing I do is I try to get out of my chair and onto the ground at least one time in every training session. Cause one of the big problems, if I'm rolling around and I hit a curb and I don't pop my wheel up properly, I'll eat it.

Like I'll fly straight out of my chair and I need to know how to get back into my chair safely without, you know, tipping the whole thing or, you know, there might not be anybody around. Yeah so i mean uh craig was actually really good at that they literally like tip your chair over for you all right get back in let's toss you this is over this is in colorado yeah craig hospital in colorado they're um they're to me that they're they're the best spinal hospital you could go to like most um olympians go there if they get any kind of spinal injury um i mean there's big stories no it's a game and i can went there and that must be a you could go to. Like most Olympians go there if they get any kind of spinal injury. I mean, there's big stories.

I went there. That must be an extraordinary environment. One thing that comes to mind is all these years I'd noticed like research people had done on people who had been injured, paralysis of this kind. They always compare their happiness to other kinds of people.

The classic one is this group over here wins the fucking lottery and has $100 million still in their lap. And this is a population who just had their life wrecked through similar injuries as you. There's a population of people you would swear would be miserable and would feel sorry for themselves. And the other one you would swear would be rich and rewarded and happy now. And, of course, what is classic in those experiments is it's not the population you think. A year after these circumstances changed, the people who won all the money are miserable and fucking really matters and to make progress in their therapy, to be able to see their little toe wiggle one time

and to know that there's still reason to hope and to put all their focus on these tiny little things and to appreciate what it is to drink a cup of coffee, to stand up straight in your chair while you're doing it, or to get a bed on your own. All of a sudden, all the big things in life you thought were important are all stripped away, and now the most essential elements of life

are all you can really focus on. Has that been your experience? That's been exactly my experience. Before injury, my focus was making the games. That's all I was focused on. That was it. It's hard to be satisfied, too. You want more and more.

My motto before I got hurt when I was training and competing was, um, you can be happy, but never be satisfied. Um, because there's always something to push more towards. And so now that I've gotten hurt and I've kind of gotten back to, you know, um, the roots of what I've always wanted to do with my life. And, um, and I have the time now to, to kind of focus on that. And, um, that. And it's really kind of changed my perspective. I still say, you know, make sure you're happy, but don't never be, like, satisfied. But I think I mean by satisfied now more I mean don't be stagnant, you know. Do you think people could stay in the game just a lot? Like you are in an extreme sense going back and relearning everything. You have to, to try to walk and to function. But there are so many people just to make this practical.

So many people who keep pushing forward, forward, forward all the time. They forget that going back is a very useful thing. Like the most simple things you can imagine in your life, you could go back and revisit them and do them better and appreciate them for what they are. Well,

and I mean, that's the way I looked at training before I got hurt is, you know, never get away from the basics. And I would catch myself not working on the basics of like weightlifting or gymnastics. I'd always make sure we, or Matt would always make sure we got back to, to working on that kind of stuff. Like we never stopped practicing like hollow body positions or, you know, like set up positions for snatching. I mean, I've probably done a few thousand snatches in my life and, you know, we never stopped practicing like the, the,

the basics of those kinds of things. And so I think everyone could benefit from going back to like the basics of anything of anything in life and benefit always something good there's always so far you can push when you're a great athlete there's always so long you push you keep getting new things new stimulus and new ways of motivating yourself if you go back to something you do suck at just to get a little better at it and refine it it spills forward it's actually one of the most rewarding things like for me just do handstand push-ups like i would say was one of the most rewarding things i ever imagined because i never saw myself even trying much that's doing it was way better

than bench pressing 700 pounds you know that's that's been one of my favorite things about you know being in this wheelchair is i never have to do handstand pushups again. I hate those things. They are the bane of my existence. And I don't care if I do ever walk again, I'm never doing those things again. Do you have any advice for people who, I mean, have injuries temporary or permanent? You know, we have people that are like, I sprained my ankle. They don't show up to train for three weeks. I'm like, what the hell is wrong with you? The other coaches in here that will,. I'm like, what the hell is wrong with you? Yeah, there are coaches in here that will change the movements for you. Yeah, so that's the big thing.

Now that at our gym, people are kind of starting to figure that out because they're watching me and they can't come in and look at me and go, well, you know, my wrist kind of hurts, so I just didn't want to work out today. You know, like skip the whole body. Yeah, you hurt me, Kevin. My wrist kind of hurts, so I just didn't want to work out today. You skipped the whole body. Yeah, you hurt me, Kevin. My wrist hurts. So I guess you can always do something. There's never a reason to stop.

I don't want to say training, but improving what you're doing, whether it be just your own personal fitness or the sport you're going for. There's always something you can do to train for. Just because you can't squat doesn't mean you can't go in there and work on your shoulder stability, your shoulder health, or something like that. In a lot of ways, little injuries make people better. If you bang up your wrist and now you can't do front squats like this, well, you have to go do something else you wouldn't normally do,

and that helps build that variety for you. I call it forced rest days or like uh forced different focus days like yeah like what happens to a buddy of mine in the mma world like they have their their few moves that they always do and now all of a sudden they can't throw that special kick that that always lands for them so they have to like bring new tools into their arsenal that's uh that's i actually found out yesterday um that that's how the skier was developed, is that the guy who built its daughter was an Olympic skier, and for some reason, compartment syndrome is prevalent in them. And so when they couldn't ski anymore because they would mess their calves up,

they made the skier, gave them a seat, and had them do ski ergs in their seats so they could still work on their conditioning and their pull for skiing. When they were beating up their lower legs too much yeah yeah wow are you still are you competing in anything now i think i saw you on a basketball court in a photo somewhere oh yeah that was in craig that was actually like their that's their like temporary uh like physical therapy area while they're building their new um peak center the new gym. But, yeah, I'm trying to get back into actual, like, what I didn't know, and I kind of feel like an ass for not knowing this beforehand, is there are a lot of adaptive CrossFit athletes out there.

There's way more than me. I'm not the first one. I'm not, like, reinventing the wheel here and being the first guy to, like, do a rope. Reinventing the wheel by getting hurt. Yeah. Still training. Yeah. But, you know, there's a lot of a lot of other

guys out there who are putting on competitions and a lot of organizations who are doing that kind of stuff so i'm definitely gonna get back in the competition specifically for adaptive athletes yeah yeah yeah there's um there's a few um what is it adaptive crossroads is a company that's putting stuff on and um cross at rubicon yeah um puts um's people who run that company and they put stuff on. They invited me down to a competition in November and there's another one in August and stuff. And so you just go down there. That's in Colorado?

I think those are in Texas. Okay. Man, I got to see Kyle Maynard compete at sectionals. Yeah. I think it was 2010. I guess that was the one year they had sectionals. Yeah. I'll tell people about Kyle just briefly so they can get a frame. Yeah. I think it was 2010. I guess that was the one year they had sectionals. Yeah. I'll tell people about Kyle just briefly so they can get a frame.

Yeah. No arms, no legs. Yeah. Born on him. He was a collegiate wrestler. Yeah. And now he does some MMA stuff. And yeah, he does some pretty amazing things.

Things that you would go. This guy does anything he wants to do. But for the Georgia sectionals, I was there as a spectator. And they had to run up Stone Mountain back. So, like, he strapped up and went. And then he came back. He crawled on his belly up the mountain. He came back later.

I don't know what happened in between. But I was doing some other stuff. I was actually working, so I didn't follow it. But it was really amazing to see him, how they changed some things, where he was jumping over something with his whole body, you know, in place of another movement some other folks were doing. I was sitting there watching him and going, man, I have no excuses to not do anything. Is that the CrossFit No Excuses guy?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I. Yeah. I actually introduced him via the phone last night for the first time. And the dude texts faster than I do. With what? His voice. His, I guess, he has, I guess, the humerus of his arm.

And so I guess he texts with that. But he was getting texts out before I could get him back to him wow so I mean like he's he's a perfect example of like finding ways to adapt and do things like there's not anything I don't think he can do and you know the thought that popped in my mind was you got to be some people learn this the hard way and other people can learn this now I mean there's there's no time for sitting around and waiting for opportunity. You have to, I guess, constantly search for ways to say yes to opportunities and push forward and do the things you really want to do in this life. Or you could be the kind of person who's always only noticing the reasons why they can't do something or shouldn't.

Yeah. And, you know, one of the things i really want to do now that i'm out of hospital i'm back to kind of crossfitting you know it'll probably be like a year or so down the road when i kind of get stable get like my regular life back to as normal as possible for me and um is i saw um you know i had a huge support system i had the whole crossfit community behind me i had my family behind me i have great great friends. Like I was never alone. Like I always had someone there to make sure that I was in, you know, the best spirits I possibly could be like, it's, it's not easy staying positive through a lot of that stuff. Um, you know, you have those thoughts creep in your mind, like this sucks is horrible. I just don't want to try. Like everyone does. If anyone tells you they didn't, they're, they're full of shit.

Um, and so it's, I saw it was really easy for some of the other people that i was in the hospital with um who didn't have the support i had to kind of go the other way and you know that thing to witness man i didn't think it was when i was in there i didn't think it was fair that i had i got all the support and and then they didn't so one of the things i really want to do is uh is once i get stable once i can start using you know what the CrossFit community is giving me to help other people, is to go back and make sure those people have some form of support. Is that the calling now, man? I mean, is that one of the big missions you feel drawn to?

It's one of them. Another big thing I've actually been working on for almost two years now with a buddy of mine. He's a two-tour Marine and got blown up in twice and you got blown up twice yeah um jesus has like tbis and short-term like he has a tbi with a traumatic brain injury um neck problems um he had really bad short-term memory loss and um and so he uh he was really struggling when he got out and um found crossfit i started working with him on like training and like, uh,

nutrition stuff. And he told me it completely changed his life around. Like he like just flipped everything from like being depressed about stuff and just not want to do things to just the gun hole. So, um, he brought me on a project he wanted to work on where we're going to try to, um,

raise funds and take like mood disorder and like physically disabled vets and basically pay for their first year at CrossFit. You put an extraordinary perspective. All of a sudden, I had this sense of like, you know, we all were saying, yeah, it's great. The community responded to Kevin and amazing. He'll be okay. But that's awesome to hear in a powerful way that, yeah, when you're in your position though, will receive that support but then it only serves to highlight maybe the one of the key messages you need to see was that these other people aren't getting that support dude there is no fucking ogre strong community that rises up to take care of this random kid or this woman who had this injury now what do they do who is there

to help them out and give them the you know so all these people only the only people that had supported him was their insurance and i don't think I need to tell you guys how crappy that is to have insurance company who don't care about you be the only people that are supporting you. Yeah. Um, so the, we're calling it the, the, we've started working on getting a, a, a five one C three nonprofit status and raising funds and paying for not only just the CrossFit side of stuff, but also, um, bringing on like bringing on like the nutrition side of things and just kind of blowing it up from there. What's that going to be called?

The Reveille Project. The Reveille? Yeah. So it's the wake-up call in the military. And so Ryan, the guy's name. I don't remember that. Reveille, Reveille. You always slept through it.

I did. And so he said it was kind of like CrossFit was kind of like his wake up call, like the bugle blasting in his ear and waking him up. And so that's, he named it. I mean, it's, he started this in 2011. He didn't actually approach me about it until like

end of 2012, 2013. So, but that's, we're gonna do that. And then I eventually want to take uh the other strong name and whatever i can build it up into and um you know work with crossfit and get these like newly injured people once they get done with rehab in the crossfit it's it's you know it saved me mentally and physically completely and so i don't see any reason why why i shouldn't try to get more people into it what can we do to help this guy?

It's like, shit, man. We've got to rally around and help you get some heat around this effort. What's your average day look like now? When I'm back home, it's pretty similar to what it used to be. Wake up, breakfast, poop. I usually spend most of my time either at like at the gym um i'm back to coaching um not really getting paid dude i just really love coaching like i've been uh coaching people and training people since i was uh 21 um how old are you now 28 okay uh almost i'm basically 29 i'm getting almost 30 better coach now you say suck it up

you know suck it up and run guys they don't give you shit i guess now they say yes you know i think i'm a better coach not because i like make people feel bad because they're one of our key qualities of good coaching making your clients feel bad yeah no but i've had to um so before you know i could rely on like if I wanted someone to move some way, I could show them, like, all right, this is how I want you to look when you're squatting. This is what you look like. This is what I want you to look like. And now I have to rely completely on tactile and verbal cues to kind of get people to move the way I want them to. That's fascinating.

It's, I think, I don't know if it's made me a better coach yet, but I think it's going to make me a better coach because I think it's going to help me figure out how to reach more people with coaching. Communication. Yeah. You're going to have to be a better communicator. So, I mean, I spend like three or four days a week coaching at CrossFit Unbroken alongside Matt and Nathan over there. What town is that in? Inglewood, Colorado, basically Denver.

Okay, so real close to Denver. Yeah. And so I do that. I work out three or four days a week still and then the rest of my time I usually spend trying as best I can like answer emails or respond to people I feel like I'm horrible at it because I feel like no matter how much I respond I still like have people haven't responded to yet. Um, but I also was a professional meathead for seven years. And so I don't know if exactly like emails and paperwork is my, my forte. Not your unique genius.

Yeah. We heard, we heard when you came in that you had the, uh, the barbells dropping for your ringtone for the text message. I do. Yeah. It's,

uh, it's actually fairly common. I'm broken to have that as your, your tech zone. So you need to send us that file. Cause we get asked every day. Can you sons of bitches make a ringtone out of that noise on the, on the show?

I don't even know. I mean, I remember we talked about it on show. Someone asked for it and we're like, Oh no, someone make it. So I, Oh,

one of our training partners, Christian, um, uh, found it, I guess, either listening to you guys and you guys put up a link or something like that. He found it and put it on his phone. And then when we heard it, I was like, yeah, I'm going to steal that from you.

And so I had him send me a link, and I stole it from him. And then other people heard it, and I would just forward it. We kept forwarding around the link. We need to make that available on the website. I don't know if – We kept forwarding around the link that it was at. So what? Tell the people to listen. You need to make that available on the website. I don't know if... We kept forwarding around the link that it was at. So what? Tell the people listening that you're talking about the barbell dropout.

Oh, we're talking about the barbell at the intro. The intro of the show. The tink, tink, tink, tink. Yeah. We'll figure out a way this time. That was a good... Let's end this thing once and for all. We will put that in the show notes.

A link to that damn thing. I'll make it if I have to. I'll figure out a way. It can be done. I mean, it sounds like maybe it was on our website at one time. It was on your website at one point. Oh, God. That's how bad our memory was. I remember clicking on it.

It was a big barbell shrug header. They had that thing and you clicked on it. I have no memory of that. We do things and then forget about it. No, it's funny because a bunch of people at our gym would have it. We'd be lifting and someone's phone would go off and all of us would think it was ours so we'd all

nope not mine so all right is there anything else uh you want to touch on anything you want to promote we got what revely that revely project yeah um i'm gonna be strong i'm gonna be at the um barbells for boobs booth for a lot of the day today. So if you want to come by and chat or just kind of check out. This will post later, so it doesn't matter. But what we'll do is on social media today, we'll make sure to inform people where they can check you out.

What time are you going to be over there? I'm heading there after I leave here. We can go by. We'll be at Fit Aid, and we'll be walking around the CrossFit Paralyzer. We need to stop by the Barbell for Boots booth. Yeah, and we'll maybe send out an Instagram and let people know that you're over there, and we'll just podcast it with you.

Yeah, those are my people. We're actually staying in Costa Mesa next to them. Oddly enough, we couldn't find a handicap-accessible roll-in shower hotel close to the, like, a handicap accessible rolling shower, uh, hotel, like close, close to the, like in Carson or Torrance or anything. So we, I was like,

well, I'll just, I'll just stay in Costa Mesa next to the Burrell's hoops. So any big parties going on this weekend? Oh man, I'm, I am not a partier. I,

I, uh, I did that when I was young and now if it's past nine o'clock and I'm not in bed, I'm a little pissy. Well, maybe you can, uh, we'll get you all cafe'd up

and come out to our party Sunday. We're throwing one, aren't we, Mike? Sunday evening we'll do some kind of party. We'll see what happens. I always want to throw a party. I'm like, yeah, we're going to throw down. 9, 930 rolls around. I'm like, fuck, I hope no one comes over. I just want to go to bed.

I am old. That's my only plans. I'm just hanging out at the games this weekend and kind of rolling around trying to see and think as many CrossFitters I can stop and see. It's funny. Sometimes people walk past me and wait until they're right here and yell at me and then sprint on.

I only bite once. You guys can come say hi to me. It is interesting. People think they're going to come talk to you and you guys can come say like hi to me it is interesting people think they're gonna come talk to you and you're not gonna like it or whatever but you wouldn't be out

rolling around if you didn't want to talk to people no I'm a pretty friendly guy like I it doesn't bug me when people stop me or want to talk to me

or chat or anything like that and any hot girls that want to sit in his lap I heard he'll just let you sit in his lap I have been known to give out wheelchair rides. Have you met our friend Jackie? She likes wheelchair rides.

It's fun. I was giving one of our the barbells for boobs people a wheelchair ride and I was getting, I like to mess with people. So I got going pretty fast and I just grabbed my wheels and stopped. She kind of... Again, I like to mess with people. So we got going pretty fast and I just grabbed my wheels and stopped.

And she just kind of... If people want to find you on Instagram, Twitter, what's your handles there? At Kevin Ogar. Kevin Ogar, that's it. Just a simple man. Yep. Make sure to go over to barbellstrug.com, sign up for the newsletter.

And we will inform you when we post these cool ass episodes and do other cool shit too. Hey, Kevin, you don't mind if we come out to Denver area and train with you, right? Absolutely not. Come on out. I would love it.

Yeah, let's do that. Awesome. All right, thanks for coming on.