Barbell Shrugged - Fittest One Arm Man on Earth - Real Chalk #109

Episode Date: January 7, 2020

This episode tells the story of Logan Aldridge. An adaptive athlete who has earned the title “the fittest one arm man on earth.” This title, as you can imagine, required a lot of sacrifice in more than one aspect. And the way that Logan tells that story... Is nothing short of inspiring.    In this episode we talk about how he lost his arm, what working out is like with 1 arm, some of his ridiculous PR lifts, and so much more. To say that you’ll be motivated after hearing this may be the understatement of the year.  ---------------------------------------------------------------- Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc-ep109 ---------------------------------------------------------------- ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/ barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Tuesday. It's time for another episode of Real Chalk. This week we're with Mr. Logan Aldridge. Happens to be the fittest one-armed man on the planet for the Adaptive CrossFit Games. He also happens to be somebody I've known for a very long time, and I've always wanted to hear the story of how he lost his arm. So I asked him that in this podcast. So you guys are going to hear him slowly start to tell the story, and you're going to be like, oh my god, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming.

And then you'll hear how he lost his arm. So I will just give you a quick little tip. It is in a boating accident. So you guys will hear the story and you will start to cringe. And then you'll be like, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God. But he never let that get in his way. He started all sorts of cool things, co-owner and director of Wheelwad. He talks for adaptive training.

He's a bodybuilding.com athlete. He does a lot of inspirational speeches. And he's just cool. Like talks for adaptive training. He's a bodybuilding.com athlete. He does a lot of inspirational speeches and he's just cool. Like I really, really like him a lot. So I was excited to have him on the show. He has so much to talk about, so much to lay down, so much motivation and just so much drive to just kind of transfer through the mic and into you guys. So I got to meet him out in New York City. I'm currently in Austin right now meeting up with some other people that have on the podcast. But this is definitely one of my all-time favorites in terms of storytelling. You guys are going to be so, so, so pumped on it.

So before we get into the podcast, I just want to tell you guys that if you're listening to this right now on the Tuesday, which happens to be January 7th, that is the absolute last day that you guys can sign up for my carb cycle challenge, which has been converted into the keto cycle challenge. You guys are all, you know, well aware of the carb cycle challenge, but I turned it into the keto cycle challenge, a.k.a. the earn your carbs challenge. And it's just more of a style of eating where you have, like, very, very low carb days followed by refeed days. And it's kind of the style of eating that I, kind of invented. I think in my opinion, not a lot of people were eating this low of carb when I was doing it, but then also adding in these refeed days. And for those of you who have ever been part of one of my challenges or read about it or anything like that, you guys get a free ebook of choice. So I have all these different types of ebooks. You guys get to pick one. And then also the top three all get a thousand

dollars cash. You get lifetime access to a group, which I actually just did a 45-minute live Q&A where everybody got to ask all these questions and hang out with me in the group. I do it every week. And just like all sorts, you get a free month of Chalk Online, which is another value of 20 bucks.

And it's a great thing. For those of you not interested in the challenge at all, though, I did just come out with my new book that everyone's been anticipating for a very long time. It's a 40 day workout plan that are in 10 day cycles. And I mixed together German volume training, different variables of rest breaks and different tempos to create a truly one of a kind program that's going to give you German like volume effects, but also give you a little bit of cardio in your workout while you're doing some bodybuilding. So I'm really, really excited for the program. The very last 10 days is called Hell Week. And instead of

having rest breaks in between the 10 sets of 10, which are super set it by the way, everything is for time on that particular 10 day cycle, whereas the preceding weeks have all sorts of different rest breaks and all different tempos and all sorts of stuff. So it's a very exciting program. I sold an insane amount of books on the first three days, and everyone's been tagging me in it ever since. So it's been going really, really well. So I'm pumped on this program. It's probably my favorite program that I've created to date

just because it doesn't exist. It's my own style that just is straight up just very, very unique to me. So I'm excited for it. So you guys can go to jimryan.com, G-Y-M-R-Y-A-N.com. Check it out. All my listeners get a discount of 25% off, if I remember correctly, and it's real chalk in all capital letters. It doesn't work on every single program, but it works on quite a bit of them,

and it will definitely work on that new program. So, all right, without any further ado, I hope that you guys love this episode. If you do, make sure you tag myself and Logan Aldridge. Make sure you guys subscribe to the podcast. Make sure you guys tell me how much you love everything that I'm putting out, hate how much everything I'm putting out. Send me a DM. Send me your favorite quotes, whatever it is.

I am very excited for you guys to hear this podcast again. I know I've said it a million times, and I hope to see you guys in my DMs soon. Here we go. All right, ladies and gentlemen. We are still out here at the Strong Event in New York City standing up with Logan Aldridge. That's right. And if you guys aren't aware of who this is, he is an adaptive athlete. He has one arm.

But he also has done some really, really cool things. If you've ever seen any of the adaptive athletes, he's like the one guy I feel like is highlighted the most. He's like you have 255-pound clean. Yep, 255 clean. 200-pound jerk. 200-pound jerk. One arm, ladies and gentlemen. Crazy.

Yeah. I've just been doing fitness for a really long time. Yeah. Well, like you, man. And now you are a Nike athlete. You were just telling me off air. Yeah. You were complimenting me on my shoe collection.

He always has the freshest shoes I've ever seen. Every single time. You'd almost think he was a wheelchair athlete because his shoes are so fresh. Oh, these adaptive jokes are going to just come off so easily. I know. I noticed the first thing you said is, I have here standing with me. I was like, yeah, good thing I'm not a seated athlete. I said, let's go ahead and ask the audience to give me a round of applause

and rub it in what I can't do. Well, you program for people who have all sorts of things, right? Yeah, every sort of impairment or limitation or whatever the case may be. Yeah, man, and that's the cool part about when you experience it not only for yourself, but when you understand the methodology or the approach of uh at the end of the day a concept that i constantly reiterate is that like we are all athletes we differ by degree not kind it's a very greg glassman crossfit background quote but uh it resonates really well with the way we look at an adaptive quote-unquote adaptive athlete someone so it's just anyone with any form of permanent

impairment of any degree physical psychological mental like those are all very relatable things mine's just profoundly obvious you see me walking and you're like oh the dude's got one arm yeah and so when i do a push-up it's like oh that's kind of crazy well dude that's probably harder i went to olympic training center and i saw some of the paralymbians training yeah this is in chula vista california yeah and i saw this big black dude throwing the shot put and he had both arms both legs and i was like what the fuck is so adaptive like what's why is this guy in the paralympics like he's blind i was like holy shit you're wild right that's pretty fucking hard to do yeah and he throws it and he basically just like is waiting for the

coach to say like it was far and i have no idea and i'm like holy shit that that's the coolest thing to watch man when you watch uh visually impaired athletes track and field I did Paralympic track and field for a little bit the guide runners it's the fucking coolest thing in the world on the 200s you know you got you start in the turn you come out of the turn the guide first of all the guide is like an Olympic level runner yeah it's like straight up in the Olympics because they have to keep up with the Paralympians and the Paralymp' times are typically like half a second different than the Olympic times. So these guys are just incredible. But you can't see anything, so they're tethered by a piece of shoelace to each other's middle finger.

And that guy is just coming around the corner and just talking in a really soft tone like this, you know, full-on sprint. He's like, subtle lean to the left, subtle lean to the left, straighten up, straighten up, straighten up. And you're sitting there on the infield, like, listening to them talk, and it's like watching a horse race or something. You're like, oh, my God, this guy's the jockey, like leading this elite animal on this path of just conquering. And you can't see anything, so you're just saying, freaking zero to 100, give it everything you got and just go.

And it's just so cool to watch the camaraderie that happens with those athletes. Because this is their guide. It's their guide on the track, but it's also their guide, like, camaraderie that happens with those athletes. Because it's their guide. It's their guide on the track, but it's also their guide, like, as they walk around the rest of the day, they just have a hand on their shoulder. It takes them around. So that is the coolest thing that I've had since losing my arm at 13, and, gosh, I've had more life with one arm now than with two, is meeting and having experiences like that,

meeting those people where i'm like man my shit doesn't matter at all but like it's really cool to see the profound impact and the positivity other people bring to their situation or impairment or just you know whatever the case may be the obstacle that has been presented to them yeah so i think i think nobody really wants to ever ask someone with one arm or one leg like oh dude what, what the fuck happened? Or how's life? And blah, blah, blah, blah. So let's hammer those questions right now that people would normally not want to ask. Go ahead and how did it happen?

In a quick. Yeah, I love that you ask. I love when people ask. You're right, though. We're conditioned to think that that's a very sensitive subject and we shouldn't. I think the curiosity I find refreshing. I think people want to know. And that's why I often, especially on a platform like this with a podcast,

you don't see me, but you might have been mentioned and understand I have one arm. I want to shed light on it. I want you to know exactly what happened. So, yeah, very briefly, a quick explanation. 13 years old, extremely competitive wakeboarder, very into it. Family. I'm, like, getting ready for it. I'm, like, scratching out. I'm like scratching out.

What's he going to say? What's he going to say? What happened? Was it a shark? I don't know. And I was just super into wakeboarding. And so I just finished today training and I was pulling in the rope. So the rope has ended up basically like a tourniqueted around my upper arm because I was looping it over my thumb under my elbow.

Like we do with like an extension cord or something, you know, to wind it up. And that rope got caught in the propeller of the boat. So basically the propeller coiled the rope up and didn't suck my arm into it but made a tourniquet occur around my bicep and tricep. So as I was holding it, like, over the thumb, under the elbow, sort of loop system, when it pulled tight, it just slipped off the thumb and cinched down around my upper arm. And it didn't, like, fall off or anything. I mean, I was just standing there. My arm just kind of, like, went limp, but I was just standing there.

It just cut it down to the bone, so it didn't cut through the bone. Yeah. So it just looked like a rope was coming in, going inside on my inner bicep and just coming out on the outside of my tricep, basically. And my dad, my parents were on the boat. I was a 13-year-old, like, scrawny, little 13-year-old punk kid. And my dad, my parents were on the boat. I was a 13-year-old, like scrawny, little 13-year-old punk kid. And my dad stepped over and unwound the rope. And as soon as he did that, it was just fucking bloodshed.

Like straight Quentin Tarantino type of movie, like blood, like just the whole. Did you like pass out from looking at it? Surprisingly, no. I mean, I freaked out. I was like, holy shit, this isn't happening. In my mind, I was like, oh, well, this isn't actually happening. This is just a dream. This is just a bad nightmare.

But, yeah, when he unwrapped, blood shed everywhere because the artery right out of the heart, you're pumping right into your left arm. Okay, so when this rope went around, it cut through your skin and everything. It cut through skin. Okay. It cut through all muscles, tendons, ligament, artery, everything. Down to the bones, the only thing there. So when they pulled the rope off, did you see your bone or no?

No, you just saw this suture. Because this is a 360-degree laceration. So your arm is still attached. It's still attached. Yeah, it's just limp. It's just out in front of me. My dad unwound that. That's when you release the pressure from those severed arteries and everything else there.

And it was truly like a water balloon of blood. I mean, it just exploded. A white 24-foot wakeboard boat was red. And the time it took my dad, after unwinding, to rip his shirt off and wrap it around it and pull it tight, the whole boat was red. That saved your life, basically? That saved my life, yeah. Doctors say for certainty, I'd have bled out in five minutes, for sure. Wow. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think most people would freak out bled out in five minutes for sure. Wow.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think most people would freak out in that moment and not know what to do. And so, like, again. So there was no amount of time to draw it out, but I don't want to get too caught up in it. But it's important for me to say this part because it was profound on the way I perceived my recovery. I should have, if I hadn't died, I should have at least lost consciousness because I lost so much blood. Somehow I didn't. I stayed to.

I stayed conscious and aware of what was happening. We were rushed to a local shitty hospital that, well, I shouldn't say shitty. They're a good hospital. Try and do what they can do. But it was just a small community hospital, and they couldn't handle level one trauma. So they called, and this was North Carolina, Virginia border area. They called the hospital a few hours away, UNC Children's Hospital, and they were like, yep, we've got a helicopter in the air on its way to you.

They threw me in the ambulance, took me on the way to the helicopter. In the ambulance, my mom's in there with me, you know, being a mom, pretty worried, but also just, like, trying to come for me and just be there with me. And I remember asking her because I thought I couldn't feel my arm throughout any of this. Like, my arm was laying on my lap while I was in the ambulance, and I thought my arm was hanging off away from me on the side. So I was like, that's weird. Like it feels over there, but it's right here on me.

And that's when I asked my mom. I said, Mom, what if, like this is the first moment in my head. I said, what if I lose my arm? And without skipping a beat, she looked at me and said, Logan, it's just an arm. And, you know, she was probably saying that just for her own sanity just to like be a mom and be like whatever logan if you just live this is going to be fine yeah um and that's all the way i took it for at the time but in the hospital when the reality came that yes logan we got to amputate your arm we can't they tried saving it tried to do all this stuff and and they couldn't so they said yeah we're gonna amputate

your left arm and i was left-handed uh It was heavy news because it was my dominant arm. But when that moment hit, when I was like, what am I going to do because I'm about to lose my dominant arm, the phrase, it's just an arm, came into my head. And when it came into my head, I immediately was like, all right, that's not so bad. That's not so bad. And not because, I mean, I was appreciative. I was going to live.

That's great. But it wasn't that I wasn't just trying to find this, uh, gratitude and just being able to be alive. I just tried to eliminate the, uh, the severity of the whole community, my whole world, my friends and family, and everyone feeling so sorry for me. I tried to lower the sorriness. I was like's like, what is sorry going to do? I can cry every day. I can be sorry with you. I can be hateful to God or whoever. Why did you do this to me?

Just an angry human. Yeah, you can do that. And some people do, and that's their choice. It's truly their choice. I just, in my mind, and I often think of like Forrest Gump when I think of this, in where he just keeps running. In my mind, I know exactly what life is like if I'm like, oh, woe is me. It sucks.

I have one arm. I need help. But what I don't know, what is uncertain, and what is exciting to me is like, all right, what does it mean to just own it, have one arm, just own it, and try to do the wakeboarding, try to play lacrosse, try to do whatever life throws at me that I would have attempted to do with two arms. It'll be different. I'm sure it'll be different. But let's see if I can accomplish the same task.

And that's what life turned into. And then, gosh, what's now 15 years later, I can say with certainty, and this isn't me just trying to be, you know, like stoic or whatever, but, like, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, for sure. I can say that. Absolutely certain it was the best thing that ever happened to me uh and i think that was my goal i think that was my goal at that time it was like i want to make this unfortunate incident an accident injury illness whatever the whatever it is for anybody's life in the moment it's always worse it's always the worst it'll ever seem 100 yeah and it's always worse than it really is but if we can get through it and put some reflection perspective on it we can uh

shift the mindset and say i'm so glad that happened or else i wouldn't be here or be doing this or had learned that or whatever the case may be so yeah man that's a long-winded answer to no but i mean all of that was all of that was needed you know you know what i find is interesting is like why don't you ever wear a prosthetic? That's a great question as well. I did. I had all of them. So I was an extremely crazy active kid.

So they released me out of the hospital with still like bandaging and all that on my nub. And I go skateboarding. And I fall on my skateboard because I was like trying to jump six stairs or something. And I slipped back on my left arm and in my mind I was like your left arm's there stick your arm out and it wasn't there so I snapped my little humerus in half the day before I was supposed to go get my prosthetic so the prosthetic took it like almost a year and a half after having one arm to get my first one which as doctors they want to get you into the prosthetic as soon as possible because they want

to introduce this artificial limb and training it as soon as possible. I went a year and a half just figuring out life with one arm. So when I got the prosthetic I was like this thing is – A fucking year and a half? Yeah. What the fuck? Yeah. That's ridiculous.

It's because that bone is so fragile. There's nothing they can do to brace it. I just had to kind of live and let it just slowly heal. So that was your fault because you fell? Oh, yeah. That was my fault. Oh, it was bad. It was ready. I was ready to be of live and let it just slowly heal. So that was your fault because you fell? Oh, yeah, that was my fault. Oh, it was bad. I was ready to be fitted, but I fucked it all up by falling.

My mom was so mad. And it was huge. It was like the size of a pumpkin, my arm. Only bone I've ever broken in my body. I'm surprised you didn't break your fucking skull. I know, right? Because you didn't have an arm. Yeah, and it was just this little humerus.

That saved you? Very lucky. Fuck, man. You keep getting luckier and luckier. Very lucky. But, you know, that getting luckier and luckier. Very lucky. But, you know, that was the first bone I ever broke in my body, so that was quite an experience. It was so fucking painful.

That was worse than losing the arm, I tell you. Oh, man. Snapping that thing. So long story short, I got a prosthetic arm, a super elite one. It was a myoelectric arm, so it had all these computers in it. All I had to do is flex my little bicep and it would tell the arm to lift up and open the hand and like i had them so i could like crush beer bottles so like the hand was so strong i could hold a beer bottle and squeeze

squeeze squeeze squeeze and it would shatter it so like that was a cool party trick oh wow i mean i was still like 14 so it wasn't like i was going to parties doing this but i was like all right if i'm gonna have this arm i want it to be like fucking awesome. And it was in how it worked and like the technology within it. But what wasn't awesome was like it made me more disabled. I truly believe that we live in a world and a way in which if you have one arm, you can make some few minor tweaks to things that you do on a daily schedule and you can function really well with one arm like we live in that world today more so than ever and so the

prosthetic by the time it was introduced it was like okay here's this big bulky thing and i'm above i'm above the elbow so like the only anatomical lever hinge i have is my shoulder and my lever like the amount of humerus I have, is pretty short, maybe six inches, five, six inches. So I don't have much lever on this long limb that's pretty heavy weighing off of me. So long story short, I've had all the arms. I've used them. And practitioners, prosthetists, say that the upper extremity individual,

a prosthetic arm is a training wheel. It's meant to just comfort them on the progression to the eventuality of you're going to be doing things with one hand. And I had one for like a jet ski so I could ride my jet ski. I had one made for my dirt bike so I could get back on the dirt bike. And then with all those things. I had one made for swimming with a so I could get back on the dirt bike. And then with all those things. I had one made for swimming with a fin on it, a paddle on it.

And with all those things, you use it until you realize you don't have to use it. You can just do it with one arm. And that was my progression. And I think it's important that I say that because I've often seen upper extremity individuals get so focused on the device. They can't live without the device. Oh, I would do that, but I need to put up my arm on it you know is we need to be comfortable in our own skin really and the way that our body is now you know and how we can work with it so that was really important to me and that's the same sort of philosophy i translated into to fitness and adaptive training when i got started with all that stuff so now that you have one arm and you're doing, obviously,

actually your training is really not that much different than everybody else's. No, dude, that's the thing, man. Yeah, you're still doing clean and jerks. I mean, I teach a lot. And there is really great methodology and teaching points to understanding adaptive training. But I don't know how good or bad this is to really even say, but I'm a bit hypocritical in a sense because I don't train necessarily the way I educate. I beat myself up because I believe in that sort of training for me,

or at least I've seen that sort of training work well for me. So in other words, what I'm saying is a burpee, you know, if I'm training with you and we're doing burpees and wall balls at 20 pounds, I'll just, I know you're going to beat me because I'm just going to do the same burpees as you, and I'm going to do the wall balls at 20 pounds. When I know if I were to, quote, unquote, adapt it properly, I should reduce the wall ball weight, and I should maybe put a pad or something under my impaired side for the burpees

to help get a little bit of resistance, not to help with the push-up or dropping into the bottom of the burpees to help get a little bit of resistance not to help with the push-up or the or dropping into the bottom of the burpee but just to help give some uh contact for my impaired side to not have to go face to the ground every burpee on one arm those are some tweaks i could make and justified it and i think you would agree but all right yeah logan that's that's legit that's your rx that's your you're gonna do this workout same way i but uh my philosophy and maybe this is because i had an older brother who was, like, always hard on me and just was the kind of guy who was just, like, have tougher skin and kind of beat me up all the time. And I love him to death, and we're best friends now.

But, like, it was that older brother mentality. I think that set me up for after my accident and when I was in the fitness environment, specifically CrossFit and training alongside other friends, I was just like, no, man, I'm going to do what you do. To a certain degree, right? Like putting 185 over my head when I first started, that wasn't a thing. I mean, scaling. Scaling was happening all the time. But I refused.

I never once said if I lost a workout against an able-bodied person, I said, well, of course they beat me. They have two arms. That thought has literally never came across my mind. And I think that's why I've had some really good progression as an athlete because no excuse in my head other than be fitter. Like that's all. When someone would beat me, I don't care if two arms, seven arms. I don't care. I'm not looking at you like, oh, they have more limbs and that's why they won.

No, I'm like, Logan, if you were fitter, you probably could have beat them. And that's the story I tell myself often. And frankly, every day as an athlete. And I think that's a good mindset to put me in to, to continue to come back and never, never give yourself this opportunity to go down this excuse rabbit hole. What are like some of the things that you would tell like your two armed self right now? Like, you know what I mean? Like, what are some of the things that you've been learning? And obviously you're more grateful for different things. Yeah.

And you say it's the best thing that's ever happened to you and stuff like that. Like, I feel like you have definitely 100% different, like, mental capacity than, like, everybody else right now because of this incident. So, like, what are some of the things that you think that would help other people right now who just, like, they're just fucking little grumps and they are ungrateful little fuckers, right? Oh, man. You know, the simplest answer is attitude is everything. And I don't like that answer, but it's truthful.

I don't I find it fascinating to think about that topic of like, all right, who would you have been, Logan? And I've heard that's definitely not the question I like, all right, who would you have been, Logan? And I've heard – That's definitely not the question I'm asking for sure. No, no, no, no. But I think of that and I think of what would I tell the two-armed Logan or I think of how to get someone out of a slump or like am I this way because of some special mindset or did I just say – Well, there's people complaining right now because they don't have enough time in the day to work out or they don't have this, they don't have that. They're like, motherfucker, I just have one arm and I still did the same workout as you or whatever. You know what I mean?

I always love that quote by Phil Knight. It's if you have a body, you're an athlete. Exactly. He doesn't say. We are all athletes. He doesn't say if you have two arms and two legs, you're an athlete. He says if you have a body, you're an athlete. And that's why I said earlier, we differ by degree, not kind.

We're all the same kind of athlete. But it's pure mindset, man. It's attitude mindset stuff. And I don't know if I would have been this way had I not lost my arm. I've often had interviews with people. They're like, Logan, yeah, no, this is a characteristic trait. This is how you would have been in any fashion or way your life would have unfolded. This is who you would have evolved into be.

I frankly disagree. Like, I think I was a fucker before my accident. I was a punk, and I was a rebel, and I enjoyed that. I thrived in that. I just liked being extreme. I loved extreme sports. I wanted to wakeboard as a profession. I'm pretty extreme, too.

Yeah, man. That's why we're bros. Did we just become best friends? Dude, I can't wait for you to come to Newport, and I. Yeah, man. That's why we're bros. Did we just become best friends? Dude, I can't wait for you to come to Newport. I'll show you around. It's going to be so fun. I can't wait either. But, you know, yeah.

So after my accident, I was very humbled. I was like, all right, holy shit, Logan. You should probably be nicer to people. And you should probably understand that tomorrow is not guaranteed. And I think that was the biggest, at 13 years old, to really appreciate that wake-up call and not just say, oh, my parents take care of me, I'll figure it out, and I'll have one arm.

But to really, it was like, I was like, all right, Logan, check in. Check in with yourself. Like, what the hell just happened? And why? Was there any part of you that thought you might die at the moment? Or not really, because you were so young. You're like, oh, I'm just going to lose my arm. No.

No, I mean, when it happened, when the blood went everywhere, yeah, I thought that. But that was the moment where I said, oh, yeah, this is so fucking crazy. It's a nightmare. This is just a nightmare. And so I actually had my dad. This is like kind of the surreal part. I had him take me out of the boat. We got to our dock.

He carried me. And I was like, Dad, just bring me to my room. And he was like, no, we have to go to the hospital. I was like, no, no, no. You don't understand. Like if I see myself sleeping, it'll trigger me to wake up and we can all like, cause I'm sure we'll all just wake up, have breakfast and we'll go, we'll go train today. And I was like, this is just a, this is a ridiculous nightmare. I was like, just show me, show me me and I'll wake up. And he's like, like i'm sorry he's like i'll i'll show you your bedroom and he carried me up the stairs to the bedroom and i yeah and he opened the door and i was like i looked at it and i just remember having this like deep sigh and be like oh shit and that was it was fuck he actually brought you there yeah yeah it was a

moment it was a moment i mean the door to go outside where we were going was like two steps away so okay it wasn't like super inconvenient but it was to it was a great way to say this is happening yeah as a subtle way for a father to tell you you know without being like hey man this is let you come to your own conclusion this is happening um and however you need to deal with it that's okay like however you need to think about it um and then once that happened though it wasn't like i broke down in tears and was like oh no it's you know it was the it was the reality i thought was happening i was just trying to have a false hope of this might be a dream and when i saw that it wasn't i just simply had a deep breath and accepted uh the reality and determined the possibilities of what might happen.

So now that you've been around other adaptive athletes and you've seen all these different things, like what are, what's probably like one or two, like the top things you heard that were like so much gnarlier than your story where you're like, fuck, thankfully like that didn't happen to me or I don't have that disability or something like that. Is there anybody who's like... That could be its own podcast because, holy shit. Just crazy, crazy stories? Yeah.

This is the funniest part because his name is actually Logan as well, and I'm called Upper Logan because I'm missing an arm. His name is Logan Farr, and we call him Lower Logan because this dude, 21st birthday, was at a bar. Behind the bar was some train tracks. Next thing he knows, he has been dragged down the train tracks, ran over by a train, has cut off both of his feet. His feet. Not his legs, but his feet. And this dude is the craziest, craziest individual I've ever met.

Like, had he lost his feet or not, this dude's a nut. And I love him to death. Wait, so how did he lose his feet? He was just there. He was there at the bar, got blackout wasted, 21st birthday, out with friends, probably out dicking around on the train tracks. You know, he tells this story. But at the end of the day, all that they know happened is he got ran over by a train both of his feet got cut off and he got

dragged by his achilles tendon by the train for like uh a few hundred meters so he's all fucked up scraped up but like his body was fine his limbs are fine he's just missing both of his feet like right like literally just the feet at the ankle so Oh, Jesus. So he has prosthetics, and, you know, they look like massive shin guards that he wears. And he was, like, 5'10". Now he's, like, 6'4". Oh, sick. Maybe that's what I should do. Exactly, man.

Yeah, yeah. That's what more CrossFit athletes do. Yeah, Jesus. All of a sudden, all these guys will be going to the NBA. It almost sounds like he was drunk, and he's like, I'm going to put my feet on the tracks. I'm going to go put my feet. Dude, if you met this guy, you would understand that this is totally likely that he went out of the train tracks to fuck around. Wow.

He's a hilarious dude. Okay, so now I know how to be six inches taller. Good nugget for the show. Seriously. All right, all right. Yeah, there you go. Jeez. So is that your top one?

Yeah, that's the top one. That's the coolest one. That is pretty much. I mean, a lot of other ones are like, you know, birth defects and other things. Yeah, okay. And surgeries followed up later. But, yeah, I mean, there's trauma stories. I mean, Kevin Ogar, are you kidding me?

I was there for that. I was competing. Exactly. I competed right next to him. That happened right in front of me, dude. That was gnarly. Every time I think about that, it gives me goosebumps. That whole event was so gnarly.

I'll never forget. We had to do an event where in the same event in that same year, we had an event where it was a 5K run. Actually, it was a three-mile run, which is technically pretty close, same thing. But the first mile was with two 53-pound kettlebells. The second mile was with one 53-pound kettlebell. And the last one was no kettlebell. And each mile was separately timed, a separate event.

So you're running three miles, and, like, we're all trying to figure out how to hold these kettlebells. The double kettlebell one was awful. I can't imagine. It was, dude, people were trying to hold them, like, their shoulders they were doing like all these i mean dude it was brutal mile for a mile and then you got as soon as you ran past the line you dropped it then you had one and you obviously just like held it like boombox style and it was fine i mean you switched it and it was no big deal but the two and then at the end just had one mile left and you're just sprinting yeah exactly but that was that was one of the most brutal events I've ever – I'll never forget it because it was so brutal.

That sounds brutal, but also sounds like a much better opportunity than the alternative. So imagine if it was no kettlebell, kettlebell, two kettlebells. Oh. The psychology that would have played into effect. I probably would have quit that workout for sure. Yeah, dude, that's wild. Yeah, that event that event man that was savage crazy the workouts the environment i i wasn't there it was before my time i went to

three or four of those things they were they were nuts they were nuts yeah that actually i posted a photo of my instagram like a couple days ago and it was it's really there's a photo of me doing a squat with like 500 pounds and it's like in that moment was when i had absolutely nothing and i did so good in this particular year yeah i got second place and it just like propelled my entire my entire career like that i look at that photo and like i could like cry on the spot yeah this is like literally the most important moment of my whole life that was and it's like in that photo it's like oh it just means everything to me i love that photo that's cool.

So for you right now, I think of adaptive athletes. I don't know how everybody else is, but you're the first person I think of every single time. That's awesome. I tore my bicep tendon the other day, and you wrote something. You're like, now you know how I feel. And I was like, fuck it. I thought of you every single day. And what do you see yourself doing right now in the community?

Is there anything really big you're doing right now in the community? I know you've written a shit ton of books, which we need to get formatted and sell for you at some point i know we always talk about that yeah i think we're on we're on the brink of that in some really big ways yeah i appreciate you asking that and i appreciate you saying that you uh you do think of me when you think of things adaptive uh that's been that's been a bit intentional like i've never been so passionate and so assured that this is my life's purpose uh than i am with adaptive training. And what I mean by that is, yeah, I want to be an advocate and a resource for those with any sort of limb difference, upper extremity, obviously, one arm, lifestyle, life hacks, how to cut your fingernails, tie your shoes.

I figured all that stuff out. And I've learned from others in an open source way. How the fuck do you cut your fingernails? Exactly. See, that's a little plug. You've got gotta go check out my youtube channel see okay interesting but yeah man figure you figure all that stuff out you have to you know uh how to cook in the kitchen how to put on a tie how to dress well you know all that stuff it's just it's life and you figure it out and i think that's super cool to share that content i can't get past the fingernails i'm sorry i will bring that up we will we will have to We will have to send you that video. But no, no, seriously though, I am, my mission is not about

training one-armed athletes. It's not about preaching that everyone should be doing CrossFit, which I mean, functional movement, yes, everyone should be doing, but whatever. It's not about all those rabbit holes. What I'm trying to do is create empowerment and inclusion and opportunity. And what I mean by that is we live in a world where societally, culturally, if you are impaired, it's literally implied in the word, but if you are not able, you're disabled, right? So you're missing a limb. Something's happened that is called a permanent impairment in your life that limits work capacity or function.

And, like, this all, I've been reading and am fascinated by the history of disability. And, like, we've come, and I think everyone knows this, such a long way from where we were. Like, back in the 1920s, the cripple games was a real thing. We would never use that word cripple now. It's so derogatory. They called it that? It was called cripple games, yeah.

And that was totally cool. When was the first Paralympics, for instance? Oh, God. Not very long ago. I should know the exact date. But it's a young organization. When was the first cripple games? Before that or now?

Oh, this was, yeah, way, way before. 1920s. So. Because I remember back in the day, like, if there was a birth defect, they would literally, like, kill the child. Yeah. Yeah. And that was everything from, you know, cognitive to physical. Yeah.

And all sorts of other things. But anyways, I digress. But there is some really exciting stuff happening in the world that I am so grateful and honored to be a part of. And that is the way in which I'm a part is within Adaptive Training Academy and Wheelwod. There are two organizations that are at the forefront of taking education, that empowerment and knowledge side and opportunity for individuals by training physicians, training therapists, training the athlete themselves and the coaches on how to work with this population, how to be very comfortable and work with them. A lot of us are if we've been in the industry long enough, and that's great. But we want you to understand why you're going to do the

things you're going to do with that athlete. If squatting is the goal or in the group class you're teaching or in the programming that you're currently offering, if someone in a wheelchair wants to be involved and get fitter and healthier, you should understand what correlates in functional movement for them as a squat. And so that's some information that we explain, and we explain it in a way it's... What would they do? Sorry. No, that's okay.

Yeah, we can go down that. Can you just give me a quick nugget on that? Yeah. Like, what would they do? Because if they don't have legs, I mean... Movement pattern. I feel like I'm pretty good about this, but, like, that question stumps me. So what are we doing in a squat?

What's happening? Like, what is the general theme, the biggest theme that's happening? Hip movement? Yes, but even core engagement. Broader than movement? Yes, but even broader than that. Core engagement? Broader than that, like so macro. Body awareness? Yeah.

We're taking our body low and then up. We're bringing our body, our mass, our center mass, we're taking it down and then bringing it back up. So movement pattern is what we focus on and functional movement themes that may be occurring within that. So you can't just give them a pull-up, right? No, no, no. Okay. Because it's the load. It's sitting, right?

Yeah. Squatting is us getting up from being seated. What does someone in a wheelchair have to do that would be similar to that in terms of life. In other words, if you're in a wheelchair and you want to get out of your wheelchair, you have to press down to get your body to move in space up for you then to either rotate or whatever. So dips correlate well with a squat. Oh, I like that. They don't have to. It's not plug

and play. The last thing we're trying to do is create a textbook where it's like, win this, do this. If this, do this. We're not trying to make an Excel function here. Practical applications for that athlete. But we're trying to get you to understand the why. Yeah. And so, yeah, you could do dips. You could do bench press.

Practical is AKA functional for this person. Yeah. Yeah. So we go down these methodologies that explain the why. So you're able, now you're equipped to handle any sort of condition that comes in front of you. I don't care if it's CP, muscular dystrophy, or any form of neurological or cognitive. We're educating you on all the different ways in which you look at those and then the blanket of the methodology in which you approach. And for this whole thing, for there to be an adaptive training academy,

that means there's a lot of people doing it. So, like, give the listeners, like, what's the number of adaptive athletes out there right now? Oh, gosh. I mean, thousands, thousands, tens of thousands. Okay, keep going. It's got to be hundreds of thousands. It's got to be hundreds of thousands. But they're not edified.

They're not known. Yeah. And, frankly, that's kind of our job. Like, I feel responsible in the future for bringing life. Are they actively seeking you guys out? Are a lot of these people actively looking for this stuff? The greatest part, the reassurance that we continue

to have is, you know, our course was previously CrossFit. We were under that umbrella. The transitions and the changes that have been made at CrossFit headquarters were scary at first but have been so clearly now the best thing that ever could have happened to us. And frankly, we should have done that a long time ago

because now we are not a CrossFit course. We're teaching adaptive training methodologies globally. I don't like when anything's defined by something. I can't stand it. Everyone always asks me why I called my gym chalk. I never called it CrossFit chalk since day one. Yeah. Never.

Exactly. I think it's one of the reasons why it always did well. Yeah. No one ever really has to identify themselves as a CrossFit athlete. The sign doesn't even say CrossFit on it. I don't care what your position is on CrossFit. Yeah. Come try this out.

Yeah. Guaranteed you'll like it. Whatever. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, the opportunities are there globally, globally. And so that's why I'm so excited to continue to be very open source in the sense, in the way in which we share this information. If there's first, the number one thing that we advocate for is that we don't know it all.

Like, that's how we start all the seminars. How I preface anything that I talk to my athletes about, or, I mean, some things I know a lot about in terms of one-arm stuff but the big sense the global application of adaptive training we rely on the experts and if there's something that i believe i do well is that i never stop learning so when i find those who are experts in their field i i dive deep on understanding where their background is how they've came to learn that and the way in which they teach it. I believe I am very great at taking that information and relaying it in an adjustable way that's

effective to the audience that we're trying to reach. But the greatest part about the audience we're trying to reach now is that it's literally just everyone. It's the orthopedic surgeon who is interested because he's seen a patient of his who used to be 80 pounds overweight in a wheelchair able to get in and out of their wheelchair now and ambulate move all around the house and he's like how the hell did he all of a sudden change his life like that yeah and then when you say oh yeah we had him doing the seated burpees you know we had him doing these different movements and uh it is just we're literally doing it.

We're defying the expectations that were put forth in the medical world, that were put forth in the therapeutic rehabilitation world. of saying that we we have defied and have created a new way we're saying we want to better understand all of your knowledge and your profession and show you what we're doing and see if you're interested in helping bridge the gap so what makes us different what makes us an academy and i believe the umbrella of all things adaptive whether it's fitness or lifestyle or inclusion and opportunity empowerment, is that we're implementing an advisory board. We're bringing on the experts in the world, the neurologists, the best neurologists who can speak to TBI and neurological disorders in a way medically that we don't know and I want to learn.

So making sure that we edify and back our knowledge and information with credible PubMed studies and proper academic resources. I always talk about PubMed studies. It's so easy to look up and they're free. And people just love taking people's word for it. Or like the back of a bottle says, you're going to get five times the strength if you take this pill. It's like just take the two minutes on your little smartphone. I mean, that's more important now than ever. Just look it up.

More important now than ever. And we live in a world where, yeah, we use Instagram accounts to tell us exactly how we should eat, sleep, train, recover. And not all of it's bad, some of it's great but I think we have to be our own advocate and especially I take it very seriously the knowledge that we're sharing, this adaptive training stuff, I've watched it

change people's lives it's applicable to all of us too who either own gyms or they're trainers or you're just a regular person and you like this show for instance and you're in the fitness community now you know a thing or two when you see someone who is adaptive, you're just a regular person and you like this show, for instance, and like you're in the fitness community, like now you know a thing or two. Like when you see someone who is adaptive, you're going to run into someone adaptive at some point. Yeah.

And whenever like I see anything new, I hate to not know anything about it. Yeah. Yeah. It's not if, but when. Yeah. And that's been the coolest thing. We used to say that just because we like, we were very adamant and probably pretty biased about what our course was teaching but

the feedback the you know we've taught over 50 courses we've taught over 500 a thousand people globally this course so far and the feedback we've heard is exactly that it's like man i was just learning this just to be a better trainer uh within that year i had an adaptive athlete come because and they didn't come because they knew I had this certification. They just came, and I could speak to what they needed, and then they were so excited about it, they started talking about it to their friends and their family, and they brought another athlete. So those who aren't seeking this adaptive inclusion or opportunity because they believe morally it's the right thing to do, but they're just learning

it because they're trying to learn to be better, they end up being the ones that win with it and take it places. It's another language. And grow inclusion in a way that we're not seeing happen traditionally now. And I think the biggest thing, the thing that excites me the most, is the adaptive athlete themselves have more confidence than ever because they don't have to feel like, oh, I have to go to a physical therapy place to train because that's where they understand how rehabilitation and working with someone with a spinal cord injury works.

No, you can go to a CrossFit gym. You can go to freaking Gold's gym. You can go anywhere. You can go online and get programming from this guy, and hopefully he's taken our adaptive training cert, and he can speak to understanding how to program for a seated athlete. And I really do believe we will have adaptive training and what it means and what we're doing much more globally accepted and synonymous with strength and conditioning and all the other facets of training that we know in the future because I am dedicated to making that happen in my lifetime.

And that's what I'm on. Do you ever go in front of big groups of people and talk and all that stuff now? Yeah, that's a whole other discussion. I've been a professional speaker since 14. Really? I didn't know that, actually. Yeah, after losing my arm, my mom realized I was very comfortable just talking about my injury and what happened to me, especially to little kids or even to some adults who would ask, surprisingly. And at 14, she at the time worked for Wells Fargo Corporate.

She was in wholesale lending and was the number one rep in the country. So she carried some weight at the annual conference. And the company knew about my accident, and she had told them that I was very comfortable talking about it and I'd be more than happy, without asking me, that I'd be more than happy to present. And present as in, like, be the guest speaker at the annual Wells Fargo National Conference. Which is how many people?

Huge. Yeah, thousands of people. Huge auditorium. That was your first one? 14-year-old, first speech I gave, hour long. Wow. And I did. I did exactly that.

Dude, before my accident, man, I was the cheese ball in the sense that like i was an entertainer i did like youth modeling i did like i look like a little cowboy like i love being in front of the camera i love the attention yeah i wasn't one of those guys that was like especially in that moment i wasn't all nervous or like no mom i don't want to do that i was like heck yeah all right i'm gonna tell all those grown-ups about what happened to me and how this, something like this, not like losing an arm, but an event unforeseen could happen to all of you adults. And here's this 14-year-old kid who gave a speech that apparently was well-received. A lot of the members in the audience and a news channel was there, all of which thought that it was not my first speech, which is the best feedback you can get for the first speech you ever give. And I was confident.

I had energy. I told a message that was relatable to professional life and their own personal life, whether it was a divorce or any sort of unforeseen or unfortunate event happening. I connected those dots between mine and that. And, man, it was a snowball effect after that. So the media coverage from the news turned into another company wanting me to speak and another group and this sales team and this organization. And I needed to hire a marketing firm. So I brought on a marketing agency and built out a website. I co-authored a book with my mom at 15, talking about my perspective and her

perspective as a parent going through the accident. It was self-help book so give you some action items on how to think retrospectively internally and think about how you could apply these steps to your life and started a non-profit logan aldrich foundation raising money for children's hospitals partnered with nintendo we and put we stations in hospitals so kids could game and stuff. And hosted golf tournaments. You know, did all the stuff, man. Cool. I just loved it. And that was like 14 to 18.

And while going to a great high school in Raleigh, North Carolina, I graduated, went to college, and I really put all that stuff on pause when I went to college because I wanted education. I was very encouraged. It was very encouraged to not go to college and just continue the professional speaking career. But I wanted education, and I wanted to just be a kid. You know, go to college and be a college bro. So how often do you speak now?

It's really become – I wish it was more of a profession for me, but it's been more of a hobby. You get big money for speaking at the big events. I do. I do. I get some great money. And it's great to be able to take some of that and put it back into my foundation and make sure it's going to a better cause than just funding what I'm trying to do. But it's been very alongside what I've been trying to do with adaptive training. It coincides with one another.

I'm trying to empower people when I speak professionally, and I'm trying to empower people when I speak to adaptive training. Adaptive training just right now is a little bit more micro and focused within an industry, within a space. Yeah. Whereas professional speaking is for anyone with personal development desires or mindset and stuff like that. Yeah. I think you can intertwine the two pretty easily. Exactly.

Yeah. There's always opportunity there. Yeah. And they always exist together. I would almost be more apt to listen to someone on stage with one arm than two. Especially if he's going to talk about business or he's going to talk about fitness or whatever. I'd be like, I've got to listen to this motherfucker's got to say.

Yeah, dude. Yeah, listen to me, man. If he was Cyclops up there with an eye in the middle of his forehead, I'd be like, holy shit. I can't stand still on stage either. So I bring a lot of energy to my presence on the stage and I have a lot of fun with it. That's just who I am. I love it. Yeah, I just do it for fun. I just do it for fun now. It's the

right thing to do. I have an awesome job. I work for Life Aid Beverage Company. I live in Raleigh, North Carolina. I do their sales and distribution on the East and manage the gym channel. So it's an awesome job that supports me as an athlete as well. So it's a really cool place for me to be right now. Do you type with one hand or do you voice everything into the computer? Dude, I type. I only type. I never use voice to text.

I never use voice into the computer. But, like, in college and even now, like, sitting at a Starbucks working, I'll be typing an email and I'm, like, aware of my surroundings. And I'll watch other people stop what they're doing and just stare at my hand while I'm on the keyboard. Because I swear, man, I'm solid. Like, I don't look at the hand.

It just flows over the keyboard. And I type well. Yeah. I suck at typing with two hands. I guarantee you type faster than me with one than I do with two. It's really bad. You just got sausage fingers, man. You're popping on that keyboard.

Dude, I tried really hard, like, recently to, like, get into texting. But I just can't. Like, I love just doing voice memos. I need to do need to do that it literally was invented for me i should probably do that even instagram i get so many dms i i almost almost exclusively voice people back oh that's cool and they like it because then they get a little it's like a little bit more personal touch yeah and they know for sure that i answered and not somebody else yeah but for me it's really just a selfish thing because i think it's faster that's a good point and i feel else. But for me, it's really just a selfish thing because I think it's faster. That's a good point. And I feel like I can – sometimes it's so hard to get your point across.

Well, true. It's a huge paragraph of shit that they're asking. I'm like, oh, my God, I just can't. I'm just going to voice it. I love phone calls. Yeah, phone calls are great. Bring it back to the old school days. Well, I don't know.

If I see a phone call, I'm like, this motherfucker thinks I'm going to talk to him right now. True, true. So is there anything else that you'd like to add to this podcast for anybody? No. Obviously, they can go find you at Adaptive Training Academy. Yeah, yeah. On social, on Instagram, we're Adaptive Training. Check us out.

We're very active on there. We're very proud of the platform we've built on there and the education that we have available to anyone. Just click it and go and check it out. But also your Instagram. There's some crazy shit on there. Yeah, you can look at my personal Instagram, Aldridge Logan, last name, first name. Okay. And you guys have to see it.

Check it out. Where did you get shared on? Was it Barstool? Yeah. And then you blew up after that, right? You got a big. Oh, my gosh, man. Yeah, that world.

That was wild. Yeah, to experience viralness was a weird experience. Would you go from like 10,000 to 50,000 people or something nuts like in one shot? Oh, yeah, man. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it was really cool. And forget, like, I don't care about the viralness of it, like the fact that it went on all these platforms. It's awareness.

Yeah, it's awareness. And it was unbelievable. Google reached out to me, said that that video was one of the most searched items of 2019. Holy shit. Yeah, it was included on Google's end-of-year search for 2019 because that video in my name was one of Google's top searched things. And I know of a lot of significant events that have happened this year

that I am nowhere near more important than. So I'm like, why the hell are people searching for me? What exactly were you doing in the video? The one-armed 200-pound clean and jerk. Okay. Yeah, so that was at the Wheelwad Games, which is like the competition where it's the CrossFit Games of adaptive athletes where we deem, you know, in your respective category,

upper, lower, or seated, the fittest person on earth. So I'm very proud to say, because I worked really hard in training to get there, that I won last year. It was by no means a layup. Like, I had to bust my ass. There are dudes that are way fitter than me. And I was very grateful and appreciative to have that hard work pay off and be the fittest one-armed dude in the world right now.

That's so rad. Yeah, yeah. That's so cool. It's pretty awesome. Okay, so we got Aldridge Logan. We got Adaptive Training Academy. Is there anything else you want to – oh, your YouTube. What is it?

Oh, it's just Logan Aldridge. Okay, Logan Aldridge. Just Logan Aldridge. Sweet. And then – And please check out AdaptiveTrainingAcademy.com. That's where we're offering the online courses and the in-person live seminars. And a lot of really cool information can be learned on there.

We give out free stuff, too, with the blog on there as well. That's awesome, dude. Thank you so much. It's a good story. Pleasure to finally get on here. I've known you for a while, and I still never knew the story of how it actually happened. Isn't that crazy? Even that is cool.

I'm stoked on that. It's an honor to be on here, man. I remember you telling me it was a boat thing, and that's it. And I was like, fuck, what was this boat thing? That's typically what I say. Boat and a rope, you know. Yeah. Right on.

Well, thank you again. Guys, I will have another show for you coming up here. The next person I'm going to be talking to is the muscle doc. I don't know if you guys know who that is. Jordan Shallow. I'm pretty sure you guys have seen him before. But he's got all sorts of good stuff to tell you. And I'm going to try to get him to talk more about some of the peptides

and different things that are out there and all the supplement type of stuff. So I'll see you guys on the next episode. Thank you so much. If you guys listen to this episode and you love it, you have anything to say, make sure you tag myself and Logan. Not just myself because Logan wants to know that the love is there. Make sure you find that video of him clipping his fingernails because i am very interested in seeing that it's on the instagram now you gotta go find it a one-armed guy clipping his own fingernails think about it look it up