Massenomics Podcast - Ep.23: Trevor Battah

Episode Date: September 11, 2016

For this week's episode, Tyler traveled deep into the heart of Texas to interview adaptive athlete Trevor Battah. Trevor does a lot of CrossFit-style training, but he does it all with one arm. And Tyler won't even squat unless he's wearing his oly shoes. Trevor is a great dude, with a great story and a powerful message, and we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did! Here's a video of how well Tyler handled his workout with Trevor...  Went to Texas and tried to hang in a gnarly workout with Trevor Battah, aka @bagggz .. it quickly turned into a highlight reel of me leaning on things while trying not to vomit.. Trevor will be on next week's episode of The Massenomics Podcast.. Stay Tuned! @massenomics A video posted by Tyler Stone (@tylereffinstone) on Sep 7, 2016 at 6:36pm PDT   Don't forget to LIKE and SHARE this episode on Facebook... Make sure you LIKE the Massenomics Facebook page... If you don't already have a closet full of Massenomics gear, go to the MASSENOMICS STORE and load up on swag... Also, please CLICK THIS LINK TO GIVE US A 5 STAR RATING ON ITUNES... Click this text to follow Massenomics on Instagram... Vote Massenomics for President in 2016... Have your barber shave our logo into the side of your head.. Maybe get a Massenomics tattoo while you're at it.    Or you could sign up for our email newsletter at the bottom of this page. Stay Strong, M

Welcome to Massanomics, the world's strongest podcast. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Massanomics. Make sure you go visit massanomics.com. There you'll find the rest of our powerful content. While you're there, check out our store and buy yourself some of that sweet Massanomics gear. We'll just get started. So we are here in the massonomics. We're not in the massonomics studio, but this is the massonomics podcast

just outside of San Antonio, Texas. Where are we at, Trevor? We're in Cibolo, Texas. Cibolo, Texas. So I pronounce it wrong every single time I say it. Cibolo. Cibolo. Cibolo Texas Cibolo Texas so I pronounce it wrong every single time I say it so Cibolo Cibolo Cibolo so I'm here with Trevor how do I pronounce your last name Trevor it's Bata it's Bata Trevor Bata so I found Trevor via via the interwebs um I spend more time than I probably should cruising around on Instagram and Trevor uh caught my eye

a little bit by he trains kind of in a similar way that I do with you know there's a fair amount of conditioning but there is an awful lot of you know Olympic lifts and um some you know just pretty wild stuff all that on its own is not that interesting except that Trevor does it with one arm that's right which is uh is is pretty gnarly. So I don't know. What do we want to dive into, Trevor? We can start. I suppose we just start right away. If you'd like to share with us the story of how you ended up from a guy with two arms to a guy with one.

I figure a story that ends in less limbs than you started with is always an interesting story. Yeah, well, I used to be kind of a wild kid. But that doesn't really relate to how I lost my arm or why I lost my arm. But I decided I wanted to get a motorcycle when I was 21 years old. So, I mean, me and my buddy had been thinking about it for quite a while. So we would always watch sport bikes, or I can't remember what the name of the show was, but Stump Bikes or something like that on GSN or something like that.

And just out of nowhere, we're like, hey, man, let's go get our motorcycle license. So, I mean, it was just like kind of out of nowhere. We didn't tell anybody. I didn't tell my girlfriend. I didn't tell my parents. We went and we we just went for it so one day you know we just went and got our motorcycle license and the next day you know we were at the dealership bought a couple sport bikes and uh we had a lot of fun with it uh but it only lasted about five months before I had my accident. So I was doing speed limit, everything normal.

Just driving in center lane of traffic, just regular day in the middle of the day. So an older guy, I guess, pulled out in front of me in a pickup truck and I T-boned him. And pretty much it was just 90% severed on impact. an older guy, I guess, pulled out in front of me in a pickup truck and I T boned him and, uh, pretty much, uh, it was just 90% severed on impact. No shit. Yeah.

So, um, I couldn't, I can't remember anything. I want to be able to tell you what I was wearing that day or what day of the week it was or anything, which is usually my go-to question with all of our podcast guests is what were you wearing?

I couldn't tell you. I mean, uh, I have no recoll all of our podcast guests is, what were you wearing? I couldn't tell you. I mean, I have no recollection of the accident at all. But from where it happened, I can pretty much know how it happened and why it happened based off the police report. But it happened in an area where there was kind of like a turning lane in front of a turning lane type deal. So it was kind of like a turning lane in front of a turning lane type deal. So it was kind of like a blind intersection. So the gentleman was pulling out in front to get across the street, and it was like right where the road curved. So I guess he just turned out blindly, and boom, I T-boned him.

No shit. Yeah. Did you – now, at that time, you were driving the speed limit. Were you always the type that drove the speed limit, or did you get pretty gnarly? No, I got pretty gnarly. I mean, I'm not going to lie. I had topped out my bike a couple of times at like 178.

So, yeah, I definitely did some crazy stuff. But it just so happened that when this happened, it wasn't anything that I was doing wrong. It was just unfortunate. Yeah. know anything that uh i was doing wrong it was just uh unfortunate you know yeah so um yeah i spent uh about two weeks in the hospital uh five days of that was a medically induced coma i guess um so they spent five days while they had me in a coma trying to reattach my arm and uh they were unsuccessful which i guess is turned out to be a very good thing because i also have what's called a brachial plexus injury so what is that that is um the brachial

plexus is actually nerves that uh control the movement in your arm okay so those were ripped from my spinal column so even if they were able to reattach my arm, it would just be this dead lifeless hand. It would just be there, yeah. Yeah, that would just be this dead weight and kind of in my way. And I probably would have gone back to amputate anyway. So I kind of just woke up with it like that and pretty fortunate that they were not successful in reattaching it. That would have just pissed you off, wouldn't it? Probably.

and reattaching it that would have just pissed you off wouldn't it probably i mean you know after you know so waking up in the hospital you know uh obviously i was very heavily heavily medicated so um first thing i remember is them just you know ripping tubes out of my throat and uh just throwing up all over the nurse basically and uh i want to say it took me a good 48 hours to actually grasp what the hell was going on just because I was that doped up on morphine. Yeah. And, you know, by the time I realized, you know, I actually grasped that my arm wasn't there. You know, I knew something was wrong. I thought maybe my legs were broken, my arm was broken, or maybe I'd lost a leg or something like that. I wasn't entirely sure.

I was very hazy in and out of consciousness. Shit was just weird at that point. Yeah, shit was fucked up. So, yeah, by the time I realize it, I realize I'm missing an arm. It's the middle of the night and I'm by myself in the hospital bed. I go to try to move my arm and I can't. So I reach up, reach over, over feel for it it's not there i think i was like my first real day of consciousness and uh so i call my dad and

i'm freaking out you know i'm like what the fuck and you could tell you can hear in his voice he's just like like he doesn't know what to say he feels really bad and yeah you know he's like well i'm coming over there i'm like no you know what i'm good don't worry i'm good i'll see you tomorrow so i pretty much just sat with myself right there and i knew i knew i had already seen my family and everything like that i knew shit was fucked up and i was just like and now's the time to pull your shit together you know you have to show your family that you're strong yeah you're gonna get through this because more than anything i was okay with it the second i realized it i came to terms with it and i was like you know what i'm gonna be all right but more than anything i gotta make sure my family's gonna be all right so i gotta i gotta

show them i'm i'm good what um how old were you at that time i was 21 wow yeah that's awfully young. Yeah. How, how, what is that rehab like? It was excruciating. I mean, aside from I suppose, I mean, a lot of it has, I would guess is just dealing with the actual, I mean, I suppose, did you have other injuries as well? Well, other than, you know, the amputation, no, I didn't break any other bones. I was wearing a helmet. Oh, shit. Just, you know. Was it just that one arm was just in a terrible spot when you hit the thing?

You wouldn't know, I suppose. I wouldn't know, I guess. I guess I just, I don't know if I went flying and I clipped something, I clipped the hood of the car or something. Or maybe that's just where the direct impact was that you know that it that it took the brunt of the force of the impact i have no idea um so so the the arm was really the only thing you had to rehab then for the most part yes uh i mean my body felt like you know obviously i'd have been hit by a truck because it was hit by a fucking truck and it definitely felt like it, you know, um, I'd say, I think I was walking about three or four days after I woke up, uh, was walking around. Um, one other thing that I had to rehab in there was

that both my lungs had collapsed, you know, other than all the road rash and the amputation, my lungs had collapsed. So I had a lot of difficulty breathing, a lot of, a lot of difficulty catching my breath and just, you know, I definitely did not feel anywhere close to normal. You know, I just felt fucked up. And, uh, so probably I think I left the hospital 10 days after the accident, uh, walking on my own. And, uh, it was just, the pain was excruciating. Now that I'm older and I know a lot more about amputations and brachial plexus injuries, I think that a lot of the pain that I was experiencing was mostly due to the brachial plexus injury, because if you talk to somebody that just has a brachial plexus injury and not an arm amputation, you know, the pain that they described is a lot of the pain that I was

going through. And, you know, I didn't know what the hell was going on with my body. I just figured that that pain was because my arm was cut off. Yeah. Which is right. I suppose that's not going to feel good. No. Yeah. But I mean, you know, to describe the pain a little bit, it just feels like it feels like an open wound, like, you know, as if my arm was amputated, but somebody taking like a mixer or a dagger and just jamming it up there constantly. Yeah, I mean, just the most excruciating pain. And, you know, that pain didn't even start to subside for about two years after the accident. And then, but now, I mean, it's's for the most part the pain is very few and far between and definitely manageable really yeah so you so you still have like ongoing pain from

the injury it'll pretty much come and go but mostly the times where i'll experience pain is you know when i'm stressed out or something like that i'll get like a jabbing stinging pain is it based upon like movement or anything like that or is it just something that comes and goes i think it's mostly stress uh movement sometimes if i move my arm in a certain way or fire some nerves that are kind of kind of dead or not used to receiving signals like it'll kind of feel like it'll kind of feel like i still have an arm but it's like kind of cramped up and like crushed under a two-ton rock type feeling so indescribable pretty much i mean i mean that's the best it's really something that's very hard to describe but that's probably the best way i can describe it. Crazy, crazy. So at that point, you know, how long was it before you were able to be active, like even like used to doing all the day to day stuff?

Well, I mean, I kind of prided myself on, you know, from the very beginning, just, you know, not having any excuses, not like, like, oh, I can't open this Ziploc bag, or I can't tie up this trash bag, or I can't drive my manual transmission car. Don't tell my wife that you tie up the trash bags because I won't do anything. Yeah. So, I mean, from day one, I tried to never really make excuses for myself or my situation. I always try to have a positive attitude and say, you know what? I can do this. I just need to do it a different way. From making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to cooking food or whatever. If you think about making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with one arm, trying to spread the peanut butter across the bread, it doesn't sound like much, but it's kind of a bitch

to do it with one hand, but no, you just figure out, you know, different ways of doing things. And, uh, I've always kind of prided myself on that. And, uh, you know, I always thought I was kind of a bad-ass for the way I, I handled and carried myself with, uh, with one arm. You know, I never, I didn't want to accept help from anybody, which I guess is kind of stubborn, but you know, I just wanted to prove to myself and everybody else that, especially my family, that I was going to be okay, no matter what, I was gonna be able to take care of myself. I was going to be able to be independent and, uh, just basically try to carry on, you know, the way anybody else would in normal life and not be, you know, sorry for myself.

Yeah. How, um, so as you, as you go through that, um, you know, you're the, let's say the, the recovery time from, let's say just the wound, how long is that take? Cause I think that's a, you know, from, from just an amputation standpoint there's a lot going on with just um just getting that healed yeah just a wound i think it i mean is relatively quicker than i i can remember i think we're only talking about a couple months a few months for the wound to actually heal the stitches to come out you know and the scar tissue to start growing. Yeah. Only, only a few months. Yeah. And when did you, I guess, were you doing any sort of training before the accident? No, you know, and, uh, it was always kind of one of those things. I was like, you know what,

I'm going to get back in the gym. I'm gonna, I'm gonna lift. I'm gonna, I'm gonna work out, you know, you know, and it was just always something I had thought about, but I had never actually done. I don't know if I was scared or if I was just, you know, I didn't really have anybody to go with, or I didn't know, you know, where I was going to work out or what people were going to think, or if I was going to get anybody to help, but it was just something I never did. And, uh, you know, I kind of got into a little bit of a bad way there after you know my accident you know just kind of self-medicating with you know drugs and alcohol and you know just trying to subside you know the pain and pretend like everything was good by drinking alcohol and you know smoking weed or taking pain pills and you know i suppose pain pills is something that uh like you pretty

much were allowed to have yeah they actually gave me heroin patches you know which is just like um it's like a patch that you know basically just delivers heroin directly into your bloodstream and you know i put that thing on one time and thank god i was strong enough to say fuck that you know and i it was good because i didn't take a lot of those pain pills you know when they gave them to me i mean i took them for a little bit and uh i i knew that they weren't helping i just felt like a shitty human being and i still was in pain so i didn't take i didn't take them you know yeah but uh i definitely did uh you know smoke everything else you could you know drink alcohol and you know uh but uh that definitely put me back i'd say you know so after

the injury then at what point did you did you slide into start training or what made you start training at all let alone the way that you did, like, what what got you off your ass, so to speak? So I had this friend at work. And, you know, she told me that, you know, she lifted weights, and that she did CrossFit and all this stuff. And I was like, Wow, you know, that's pretty cool. I'm like, I was talking to her about diet, too, because I was I was starting to, to take nutrition seriously, because I was overweight, and I wanted to to lose some weight and I wanted to get in shape. And I was talking to her about nutrition and stuff like that. And she's like, hey, you know, she knew I had one arm.

She's like, hey, check out this Instagram page. Do you have Instagram? I'm like, yeah. So she tags me in it. And it was I am adaptive. Yeah. So I checked it out. like i said i used to think i was a badass and then i see these all these adaptive athletes um logan aldridge was

the one that flipped the switch for me i don't know if any of you guys know who logan aldridge is but he is i follow him and i believe on instagram it's at Aldridge Logan. Is that correct? At Aldridge Logan, yeah. Yeah, I highly recommend following him. He is just an adaptive badass. So we have a very similar injury. I mean, we both have an upper arm amputation. But the only difference is he has movement in his nub, in his stump. But for the most part, basically the same injury. So what did it for me was I got tagged in a video of Logan Aldridge on, I think it was

I Am Adaptive's page, of him jumping rope with a modified jump rope that he made. And I mean, seeing that to me was just like, holy shit, you know, uh, I made up all these excuses of why I wouldn't start doing fitness or working out. And, you know, and I, I think I'm this bad-ass cause I can do everything myself and I drive a manual transmission car and I can, you know, I can still build RC cars and drive them. I thought I was this badass. Like I never let anything get in my way. And then I see, I see this guy just jumping rope and I'm just like, you know, with one arm with a rig that he made, I'm just like, holy shit. And then it just spiraled out of control from there. I cracked out

on I am adaptive's page and I found damn near every one arm adaptive athlete I could find from Logan Aldridge to Luke Erickson to, um, you know, I don't know if you know any of these guys, but like Luke Erickson, he was born without his, uh, his arm and, uh, he has severe scoliosis and, you know, just seeing him do cleans and, you know, CrossFit. I was just like, holy shit, you know, I really need to set my game up. And then from there, it's just like, all right, so I need to set my shit up. So I started working out. How exactly did you like, where did you go first?

Like, what was I do? Go to a place? Did you just buy a bunch of gear for your house? Did you? Yeah, I started out real small. I never joined a gym or anything like that. I just, uh, you know, one weekend I went with the wife. I was like, all right, let's, we went to the sporting goods store. Uh, I picked up a little bench and, uh, you know, a handful of dumbbells and I was like, all right, sweet. I only got to buy one of each, you know, a handful of dumbbells. And I was like, all right, sweet. I only got to buy one of each, you know. That is funny.

When I go shop, when I go look at that stuff, I was like, you look at dumbbells. I'm like, well, fuck, I got to buy two. Why do they even sell them one at a time? Well, you're the man for one at a time. That's exactly why for motherfuckers like me. But, yeah, so I started out real small. I bought a couple of dumbbells. And, you know, I didn't know how far it was gonna go. I didn't I really didn't know if I had the mental toughness, you know, I mean, I really wanted to push it. And so I just started doing, you know, just regular bodybuilding type stuff with some dumbbells. And, you know, I also made my own jump rope rig you know it wasn't anything as awesome as logan had made but you know i could just went to the hardware store i bought a i bought a speed

rope from the sporting goods store i went to the hardware store i bought like a little key chain and a vice grip and i i just uh took off one of the ends of the one of the handles of the jump rope hooked it up to the key chain, and vice-scripted to my trash can, and I just start jumping rope. Oh, with it on one side. Correct, yeah. So it was almost like somebody was just holding the other side of the jump rope for me. And I looked like a complete fucking idiot doing it,

but I started videotaping everything and and posting it on my instagram because i felt like you know if if i was gonna find logan aldridge doing this shit and it was gonna change me i want to do the same thing for someone else i wanted to be you know that that person that someone found and said holy shit this motherfucker can do it uh i can do it too and uh you know fortunately, you know, fortunately enough, you know, after everything that I've done through my Instagram and everything that I've posted, uh, I've had a few people that have found me and, you know, they were in some bad ways with similar injuries and now they're working out and kicking ass. And it's just really

awesome to see, to make that change for somebody. I'm glad that I had that opportunity to do that for some people you know like as logan did for me and yeah you know i mean he changed my life the girl that tagged me in the the instagram post changed my life they all did in more ways than they'll ever know it's funny how far that'll go with just one person tagging you on something yeah i mean it was just it was like a light switch like i said it just boom holy shit you know especially for me you know thinking like i didn't know there holy shit you know especially for me you know thinking like i didn't know there was one-armed guys out there doing that type of shit doing cleans doing

you know jumping rope you know doing crossfit yeah bench pressing you know 165 pounds you know for one arm i don't care who you are if you can bench press 165 pounds with one arm you're you're a fucking badass massonomics listeners i i have a challenge out there for you guys. I think we all need to practice the one-armed bench press. And anybody out there listening, practice your one-armed bench press. Don't hurt yourself. But let's see what you can do. Tag us in your videos on Instagram.

I think that'll be a lot of fun. Just for the record, I'm not claiming I can do 165 pounds but i do know i want to know what can be done out there yeah i mean there's this guy i follow uh his i think his instagram name is jjb he's a brachial plexus he has a brachial plexus injury so just basically his whole left arm i believe it's his left arm is just completely paralyzed and it so he keeps it in a sling it's not amputated or anything like that he's a power lifter and i i don't want to say what his max is but i know he bench presses 165 like nothing and it's very fucking impressive you know that's crazy you know so seeing things like that as you know an amputee when you when you see that you you've never seen anybody work out before and

there's this guy who's bench pressing 165 pounds at a power lifting meet you're like well what the fuck you know i need to step my shit up so that's that's basically what did it for me what um what now you you said you just you just kind of started with like the uh you know the the jump rope but what had gotten you into trans transitioning into some of the like the, you know, the the jump rope, but what had gotten you into trans transitioning into some of the like the CrossFit type type stuff with say, the, you know, the Olympic lifts and some of the more functional training? Well, I mean, just that kind of as my gym grew in my garage, you know, I bought more equipment, bought more equipment, you know, I've been buying equipment and working out in my garage for about a year and a half now.

So, I mean, just as it progressed, you know, every month I'd go to the sporting goods store or I'd shop around online and I'd buy a new piece of equipment. Well, when I bought a barbell and I knew other guys out there were doing cleans or snatches or, you know, I said, well, you know, now it's time to start training. So I never had any formal training. Anybody showed me how to do it. All I knew is what I'd seen from watching other people do it. And, uh, I just practice, practice, practice, practice, and kept going, going, going. So once I got to Olympic lifts, um, I started trying to do CrossFit type stuff, you know, you know, functional movements and, you know, uh, wads and stuff like that. And, um, I met these guys, uh, from warrior fitness. Uh, they're a local,

a local fitness group that found me on Instagram. So I started training with them and they do kind of CrossFit style stuff. And, uh, you know, it definitely picked up my conditioning and, uh, I got into doing that type of stuff. What's, um, what's a little background on warrior fitness? What are they, what is their program there? We're fitness is ran by, uh, two guys, uh, Marco and, um, Trey. Um, they're both Trey's, uh, a Marine Corps, uh, veteran a Marine Corps veteran and Marco is, I believe, an Army veteran who lost his leg in Afghanistan, I believe. And so their kind of deal is, you know, the mission isn't over. They search out wounded veterans or, you know, retired veterans that are, you know, either active duty or not duty anymore and try to find a home for them to come work out with that everybody can kind of relate to

and realize that, you know, yeah, I guess, you know, that the mission isn't over and that you can make a difference in all these veterans lives and, you know, and just kind of come together as a whole through fitness. And, uh, and it's a really strong, uh, it's a really strong group. And, uh, I believe in it a lot. And, uh, those guys are just awesome. And I can't thank them enough for welcoming, welcoming me. And, you know, I'm not a veteran or anything like that, but you know, they, they, they treat me as one of their own and let me work out with them and it's pretty awesome that's awesome is there any um do they have do you know what their website is is that uh something we can pull up here or do you happen to know how they can be reached or is there if anybody wanted to reach out to them i think it's just warrior fitness uh warrior

fitness center.com or warrior fitness.com not sure you can google warrior fitness in the san antonio area i assume and narrow it down so um yeah we wanted to give them a bit of a shout out if anybody is uh wants to contact them certainly certainly look certainly look that direction um trevor what else did we want to cover here we had uh i do have a few uh a few questions like um you know some of the lifts that you do or some of the movements that you do i suppose every single one of them started as basically a challenge right like something that you you had not done because you hadn't even done it before the accident let alone now. So did everything start as like, well, I, I want to do this or was it always just kind of a, you know, it, it existed. So you felt like you needed to try to figure out

how to do it. No. Yeah. I mean, it was definitely a want to do it, you know? Um, and I think it, what it was, was just seeing that other guys were doing it. It was just kind of like, okay, you know, well, if they can do it, I can do it. So it was also something, you know, I needed to prove to myself, you know, but also definitely had this huge desire to, to do that and, uh, to get in shape. And, you know, once I started working out and, uh, you know, I just kind of got addicted to it. You know, I, I just, I have like no real desire to drink alcohol or do any drugs or anything like that so it definitely got me clean i stopped smoking cigarettes uh everything and i

just kind of made fitness my lifestyle and uh it's obviously for the better i mean you know i feel 100 better and um you know i love it i'm addicted to the pain you know the pain that you feel after you know having a brutal thrash session is is unlike anything else the pain waking up next day is the greatest feeling in the world i mean it makes you feel alive you know so uh it's an addiction the workout we did today was pretty much fucking awful for a guy my size that's for sure well you held your own very well i was definitely uh definitely impressed it ended up being like almost an hour of just constantly just fucking thrashing just shit and it was hot it's hot in texas i don't know if you guys know that but in august texas is hot yeah and i don't know what i

was thinking but yeah it's 93 degrees humid as fuck and just i mean just absolutely brutal and of course we worked out right at 12 o'clock yeah like a couple of idiots but um yeah i actually i had to leave guys i had to leave and go back to the hotel because i didn't bring a change of clothes i wasn't thinking and uh and i was so wet that like when i got back into the rental car the seat was still disgusting after i after i changed but that's why you rent cars um but uh what were some of the some of the lifts or some of the movements trevor that were the hardest to pick up on or what took you the most time what was the most frustration that you had with with something

well definitely any arm amputee can tell you that uh overhead squats are the biggest fucking bitch for us um i mean it's i mean your range of motion has to be fucking impeccable in order to hold the bar straight overhead and squat that kind of weight. Yeah. It's ridiculous. And there's one guy out there. His name is, uh, shit. I'm drawing a blank,

but, his Instagram name is victory. I think his name is Hugo, but, uh, the, he is just an absolute beast. He,

he'll clean like over 200 pounds. He'll, he'll squat overhead, squat, snatch like one 70. He's just an absolute animal for for anybody that's uh interested in seeing what that is like take a kettlebell hold a kettlebell with one arm over your head and then just try to get into like a full depth squat

and it is you'll feel like you'll get i don't know when i do it that's the one movement i'm pretty good with like you know snatching catching don't know, when I do it, that's the one movement. I'm pretty good with like, you know, snatching, catching in the hole. Like my mobility is pretty good for that. But when I go to that one arm, if you don't have the thoracic mobility to do like a single armed overhead squat, even with a kettlebell, it's fucking terrible. Yeah. I mean, it's really unexpected, but it's actually pretty fucking terrible. You kind of have to, you know, dip your opposite shoulder down and it's just brutal.

Yeah. Like, well, I can't even do it without having my, you know, I suppose my arm probably weighs about 40 pounds. Probably. I have to have my other arm out to like counterweight, which you don't probably have that luxury. No, definitely do not have that luxury but uh but but no i that's an interesting thing to try if anyone wants to give it a try just a traditional you can do it with a kettlebell do not do it with a barbell first but um just with

a kettlebell overhead snatch is or overhead squat is freaking terrible yeah when i do it i feel like a i feel like a baby learning how to walk i start moving down and it just i just come i fall apart right away i just get mad yeah i mean it can definitely make you feel like what the fuck is wrong with my legs i have no range of motion even your even your shoulder you know you know just trying to keep it straight you know you quickly realize what your flaws are when you try to overhead squat with one hand what else was there that was uh that was a real bugger as far as the training end goes i mean definitely the jump rope i mean i've been hitting it hard on the jump rope uh

trying to do trying to get a hundred unbroken double unders um i have a pr of 67 unbroken double unders. Um, I have a PR of 67 unbroken double unders, uh, jumping rope. So I have a rig it's made by RX smart, RX smart, Gil smart gear. It was developed by Logan Aldridge. Um, and it is just fucking bad ass. And I've been obsessed with the jump rope, obviously, since it was kind of like the light switch for me that got me into this um i've been trying to perfect my double unders and uh you know i've i've been hitting it pretty much every day and uh that is very difficult uh to master for me at least um you know just trying to because you there's a little bit of a weight difference you know obviously so trying to keep your weight balanced while you jump straight up in the air and not and keep that balance you know repetitively jumping high enough in the air and and keeping

your body straight enough to to to do a double rotation yeah and still stay straight enough to, to, to do a double rotation and still stay straight enough to where you don't trip up on the rope. You know, it's, it's definitely interesting. And there's obviously, it's a lot different doing it, um, with the rig that I have than just say regular double unders. Um, it's basically just, uh, about, I want to say a three foot bar with, you know, a rope attached to both ends of it. So you're actually rotating, uh, the bar from basically the center of your waistline instead of from at your side. Yeah. Right. So, so you kind of have, since you're rotating it from the center of this bar, you have to keep it straight enough and level enough to where you're not wobbling the bar and throwing off the rope so gotcha so it's definitely

been one of the harder things that i've been and one of the things i'm most proud of accomplishing is being able to string together double unders shit let alone 67 of them but my goal is 100 you know i want to get to that 100 unbroken for you guys listening i've been uh been training with a jump rope not exclusively by any means but for a year and a half to put this into context and the most i've got is is 30 so that's pretty that's pretty impressive yes definitely and i usually fuck up just because i get tired and quit yeah i mean i feel like i'd be a lot better at it if my shins weren't constantly fucking killing me from jumping up and down but uh what um what's when you think i i suppose you're always kind of looking for the next thing like like what

is the next thing that you would like to incorporate that maybe is a little bit out of reach right now or that maybe you uh what's what's kind of the next challenge that you want to plug into your game well i do want to do a lot of overhead work like i said you know overhead work is definitely my weakest point and uh probably the biggest area i need to improve on snatches, overhead squats, snatches, you know, complexes, things like that. I mean, that's my biggest area of weakness that I want to work on. Also, you know, one other kind of tool I want to incorporate into my training is, you know, I do deadlift what I think is quite a bit, at least for my size and my weight and uh you know only having one arm

but uh i do want to develop a strap to where i can pull more evenly because right now i just pull my deadlifts from the center of the bar uh-huh so uh again logan aldridge he's developed a strap that he wears and able to pull evenly and straight you know um and i kind of want to i want to get into that as well and actually make one of those straps so i can pull more evenly and more weight because right now you know when i'm pulling 240 pounds up you know it's the torque you know from doing it with one arm uh is really fucking up my back yeah it's and it's and i suppose mechanically like you're loading your back very differently yeah i mean it just doesn't i mean i love doing deadlifts obviously um but it definitely doesn't feel right doing it with one arm you know so i want to be

able to pull more evenly and make a rig to to do so we had um one of our gym members leah she had uh she broke her arm like pretty pretty bad had surgery pins it was it was a whole fucking mess and a really really lengthy rehab so when she had got back to dead lifting they had done the same thing where it was a it was a strap around basically to where to where the one hand would be around the shoulder and back and then um and then she held on with with the other arm and yeah at least that way she was able to get back to pulling yeah instead of uh but yeah i couldn't imagine pulling with one hand and i guess on that subject do you have anything that that you notice that really is does kind of mess you up because of the asymmetry yeah some of the movement i'm not lie. My body feels fucked up, you know, when I,

it's mostly when I sleep, you know, and that's probably more than anything my fault, but I feel like I sleep in kind of like a fucking corkscrew position and yeah, it definitely fucks with my back. And I do think I sleep like that because, because I don't want to put the weight on my one good arm. I don't know if it's kind of like a nervous thing, like it's being restrained. I don't like ever feeling like my arm is restrained. Like right now, I'm fucking freaking out because I have to hold a microphone. Oh, yeah. Because it's really, really limiting your options right now.

Yeah. It's like, fuck. I hate holding shit or feeling you know, feeling like, you know, my arm is tied up. So, um, so I kind of sleep all fucked up on my amputated side so that my good arm is free. I don't know if it's like, uh, a mental thing, but yeah, I definitely think that fucks me up. You know, I do feel like I may, my body's a little bit crooked and, you know, obviously, you know, my right bicep

is a lot bigger than my nub, you know, my, my right trap is definitely bigger than my left trap. And, you know, even I see it in my quads, my, you know, my right quad is bigger than my left quad. You know, I can definitely feel it. It's not something that's good. And it's definitely something that, you know, I should work on evening myself out and, uh, pulling more evenly. So that's definitely a goal of mine as well. You know, it's a struggle. And I suppose though, you know, doing, doing work and training and ending up with some asymmetries and a little bit of that is still better than doing absolutely nothing. Cause I think you would still have the same, the same like unbalanced movement patterns throughout your 24

hour day that you'd still would have to compensate for. You just wouldn't be as strong or in as good of shape. Yeah. And you know, and it's, I'll notice, you know, I'll be sitting at my desk, I got a desk job and I'll notice that, you know, I'm sitting all crooked and, you know, I'll fix myself. So, I mean, it's not just the lifting aspect of it. I mean, it's just the weight difference and, you know, uh, just the way, you know, I carry myself with one arm, you know, it's going to cause imbalances in my body. And it's just, I mean, more than anything, it's just something I need to focus on and work on. Well, I think there's a lot of, uh, a lot to be said for that. I, I remember where I heard it's just something I need to focus on and work on. Well, I think there's a lot to be said for that. I don't remember where I heard it at, but I wish I could give the right person credit.

But they said, you know, it's not so much what you do in the hour that you're in the gym that is going to affect the way your body feels and recover. You know, it's the other 23 hours. And if you sit slouched and shitty, it doesn't matter how good your form is in the gym. Your back's going to be a wreck. Absolutely. And I do catch myself like I'll sit on my leg and then my leg will be all fucked up or something like that. It's just little things that you got to be careful of. as far as far as the the daily the day day-to-day life what is the one like one thing that you think people would be the most surprised about that is like sneaky difficult that maybe like the average

person wouldn't you know like if i if if joe blow next door got an arm amputated what would be the one thing where he would be like fuck that is so hard why why is that the one thing you know i don't want the two or three things i don't want to sound like you know an ass or anything but honestly a lot of a lot of things didn't come that difficult for me with the adapting to life you know one-armed there is a lot of cool shit i can do uh one arm that you know people do seem to be impressed by like i could probably type faster than most fucking people with with one hand you know and a lot of people see that and they're just like what the fuck dude you can type faster than me i'm like i know i know i can you know and uh yeah i could do cool things like i can shuffle a deck of card with one hands i can tie my tie my shoe i can do pretty much anything i've never really let anything hold me back if i

felt like there was something that was holding me back i figured out a way to do it like shuffling a deck of cards you know so i think that's there i think there's a lot of cool things i've learned how to do but i don't i just don't feel like anything I had ever been limited by anything, you know, with only one arm. And, you know, I do go around a lot and kind of forget, I, you know, I kind of have to catch myself. Sometimes I forget, you know, that I'm the one armed guy, you know, like, I mean, to me at this point, it's just, it's second nature. I mean, I don't feel like there's anything that can hold me back or anything I'm limited by. I sometimes forget.

I'll be at a birthday party with my kids or something and I'll be like, why the fuck is this kid staring at me? Oh, yeah. That's right. I'm the fucking one-armed guy. It used to bug me. It used to bug me a lot, especially the first three, four, years little kids coming up to me and like what happened you know and you know you just realize that they're kids or you know or anybody for that matter and you know you get over it but uh that's probably the hardest thing adapting to was just uh the public perception you know of you that's probably the one thing now that

i think about it that was the hardest thing to deal with. Yeah. So, so, so there, there wasn't any, any like one, one thing where you're just like, fuck, that was really hard. It really is just the overall mental. It's all a mental game. And I suppose if you have to adapt to one thing, you might as well just get on the road and adapt to everything. Cause you still have to do it all you know yeah wild yeah i mean i still i drove a manual transmission car before my accident i still do i mean it's my daily driver i drive tell me a little bit about how that goes down uh well well it's kind of an interesting story um so before i ever even woke up in the hospital, my parents bought me an automatic car thinking that I would not be able to hop back into my Mitsubishi Evo and drive it.

And I pretty much woke up and told them to go fuck themselves and to keep the car, return it, and that I didn't fucking want it. And just hopped in the car and drove it. I mean, that was it. I mean, it was just, it would just shift faster. You just moved from the steering wheel to the shifter to back of the wheel yeah just yeah i mean just just shift fast and get your hand back on the wheel that's it you know um i never you know even thought about it never thought that it was something that i wasn't going to be able to do you know my parents automatically assumed i wouldn't i said why you know i mean i just always kind of had that mentality did that

make you mad to the point where you're like i'm gonna fucking figure this out right no i was furious that they even assumed that i couldn't you know i was like i'm not even awake yet and you're already making assumptions of what the fuck i can't do you know so um it was definitely that probably was kind of like well yeah fuck fuck. I can do it anyway. So, um, yeah, I just always tried to never say no to anything or say, I can't do this or I can't do that. I mean, I'm a determined motherfucker and I'll figure it out. Yeah. It's more about how you can than why you can't. Right. Absolutely. What, um, have you ever thought about, thought about competing in any of the, the adaptive divisions in some of the, there's more than a handful now of competitive events out there

with, that are adding adaptive divisions. One of them, including, I think Guadalupalooza has one. And I see those types of competitions more and more. Is that something that you think would be in the future for you? Absolutely. I mean, that's the goal. I definitely, definitely want to compete, you know, and not necessarily just in adaptive divisions either. I mean, I wouldn't mind competing and, you know, just a regular CrossFit event or, or anything like that. It's not about first place or last place. It's about going out there and doing it. And it's definitely something I've been working towards and want to do in the future but in all honesty i don't feel like i am anywhere near near ready you know well i think um i think

i think at least that you might as well just do it it's one of those things like you said it's not about finishing first or last and i think more it's more about just getting rolling and doing it and if you do it and you, it'll just be like starting on day one where you're like, oh, fuck. All right, here we go. Yeah, that's true. And then you build on to the next. So I would highly recommend it.

And the cool thing is I don't know if – I'm sure not all of them are, but nowadays the world's so well connected with the internet. I see all the time – I believe Waterpalooza, they even have it broke down to where it is as level of a playing field as possible you know before it would be like um when you see these events it would be like uh there would be an amputee division or for a leg amputee the people that actually had the leg amputated below the knee would be at a huge advantage for people above the knee right yeah absolutely and um and same thing with with with different lengths of the arm amputation and so they have uh now they actually

have it broke down into so that you're competing with people with the exact same nearly the exact same level of movement exactly and um and that's pretty cool that that it's not it legitimately is apples to apples at that point, which is pretty fucking sweet. Yeah, I think it's badass that the community has actually grown that much to where you can – you have enough people with one specific – like exactly specific injury that there's enough of those people to compete together. Like, you know, there's actually like when I first started, I had the hardest time finding another brachial plexus injury person that was working out, you know, and, uh, you know, now I know about four or five of them, you know, with brachial plexus injuries that are either working out powerlifting or, you know, doing CrossFit and kicking ass, you know, so it's, it's pretty awesome to see, uh, you know so it's it's pretty awesome to see uh you know how much it has grown every every day i find somebody new and it's it's just awesome well what else did we have

to cover trevor i think we're uh we're kind of nearing the end is there um is there anything else you want to get out there to uh to the people of massonomics or um yeah i mean just um you know no matter how shitty of a day you're having, just, you know, always remember that, um, you know, it, uh, there there's a life is nothing but a series of speed bumps, you know, and I can definitely, uh, say that I've had my fair share of speed bumps and, uh, you know, it's just all about getting over those speed bumps and realizing that, uh, you know, the next day is going to be better than the last and things are always going to get better. And just, you know, no matter what, uh, don't have any excuses and just go out there and get shit done. You know, your,

your arms hurt, your feet hurt. Well, fuck all that. Just, you know, put in the work and you'll get what you want, you know? So if I don't lift because i forgot to bring my lifters uh you're fired you're fucking fired so well guys i think that'll do it for us today um trevor can be reached on instagram it is at bags with three g's and a z is that correct or is it that is that is correct three g's and a z bags i highly recommend looking them up we will um we'll have that posted in our show notes as well on the website um don't forget um make sure you go to our facebook page like our facebook page go to massonomics.com buy yourself a shirt um tanner you can follow him he runs the official massonomics instagram page that's at massonomics i can be reached on instagram at tyler f and stone that's t-y-l-e-r-e-f-f-i-n stone

tommy is tomahawk underscore d and i can't believe i remembered all them guys instagram handles that's pretty good i don't remember what else I'm supposed to hustle you guys for. Go to the website, go to the bottom of the page, and sign up for our email newsletter. And, boy, I think we've got everything covered. So from, how do I pronounce it in Texas again? Cibolo. From Cibolo, Texas, somewhere between San Antonio and Austin. I'm Tyler, and thanks a lot for listening.

Thanks, Trevor. No problem. You just heard the Masanamics podcast with your ears you're welcome check us out on Facebook find us on Instagram at Masanamics and make sure you visit Masanamics.com

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