Logan Aldridge Can Single Handedly Outlift You
Who’s Logan Aldridge?
With a 315-pound front squat and a 455-pound deadlift, Logan Aldridge is strong. Like, really strong. He’s also only got one arm.
Wait, what?
Logan was just 13-years-old when a rope he was handling was caught in a boat propeller, severing his left arm. His dad tied a tourniquet and called an ambulance. When Logan asked his mom, what will happen if he lost his arm, his mom said, “Logan, It’s just an arm.”
Her response was his most important lesson.
Logan says her comment is what solidified his perception to this day. “At the end of the day, I’d still have my life. Whatever happens, we’re going to make it through this.”
Moms are the best.
Being left-handed, Logan had to learn how to write, how to tie his shoes, how to button his pants, all with one hand. “I knew I had to move forward,” he says. “I immediately went into problem-solving mode, started to learn how to write with my right hand, make the best of a less-than-ideal situation, and embrace my situation.”
And embrace it he did. Just two years later, Logan was the youngest competitor at the 2006 O&P Extremity Games for amputees, taking second place in wakeboarding.
That’s rad.
He still wakeboards, but now you’re more likely to find him in a CrossFit gym, training and competing, and generally slaying everyone in WODs.
An instructor on the CrossFit Adaptive Staff, Logan keeps on motivating others. “We hear inspiration a lot, especially in the case of active amputees. Inspiring is cool, and I’m grateful to do that, but motivation is different than inspiring. You can be inspired sitting on the coach, but when you’re motivated, you’re ready to take action and still change. Something has happened that’s made you ready to move. And I say hey, let’s move together.”
Logan is out there every day, in CrossFit gyms, running Spartan Races and triathlons, and competing in things like the WheelWod Adaptive Championship.
“My life’s purpose now is to motivate others,” he says. “To try and show a kid out there that’s just suffered an accident, an injury, or illness that they can pursue whatever it is they’re passionate about.”
Logan Aldridge was involved in a wakeboard accident when he was a kid. While riding in the ambulance, he remembers asking his mom, “What if I lose my arm?” Her response: “Logan, it’s just an arm.”“The ‘It’s Just an Arm’ moto became a way for me to remind myself that perception is the first step to realizing that (life is) an opportunity and you have the power of choice to determine how it goes,” he says.Aldridge became passionate about CrossFit when he noticed that his coach and community were treating him like just another athlete, “not some guy missing an arm,” he remembers.Aldridge is a CrossFit Seminar Staff member with the CrossFit Specialty Course: Adaptive Training. He helps teach trainers and athletes how to make CrossFit accessible to athletes with a wide range of impairments, from the non-permanent (trauma, injury or illness) to the permanent (congenital disorders, combat trauma, automobile accidents, etc.).Details on the CrossFit Specialty Course: Adaptive Training ? bit.ly/CF-SME-adaptive-training? by People Are AwesomeAdaptive CrossFit
Posted by CrossFit on Wednesday, April 11, 2018
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