We are all adaptive athletes.

We are proud to bring you episode 110 with our special guest, Travis Pollen.  Travis is an athlete, coach, and author whose background, as he’ll explain, is steeped in strength and conditioning. Travis discusses how despite being a born a congenital amputee, he never places barriers on himself or other athletes.  This combination of perseverance and competitiveness led him to become a record holding paralympic swimmer.

Travis collaborated with me to help build a two part article in which we discuss the nuances of coaching athletes with physical impairments.  Because he is a practicing CrossFitter and regular competitor, he is even more familiar challenges of taking full body functional movements and altering them so that they are accessible to every adaptive athlete.  I even breech the controversy of performing movements to a standard that could become mechanically unsound, particularly for an athlete who is even more prone to compensation injuries.

Travis intelligently walks us through how bridging the gap between rehabilitation and strength training is a matter of working within the range of motion or movement pattern that makes sense for that athlete. Sometimes that means taking a step back and putting other options on the table – such as machines.

With training goals that are no different from able bodied athletes, Travis explains how getting stronger develops not only a physical edge but a mental fortitude. This has ultimately allowed him and so many others to set lofty goals and perform the unimaginable.

EMPOWER YOUR PERFORMANCE.

To learn more about training adaptive athletes, check out my article or better yet, find Travis Pollen on social media.  He is @fitness_Pollenator on IG, @trpollen on Twitter, and his fFacebook page can be found HERE. You can also visit his website.

I Am Adaptive. Go to this website right now.  I promise you will be changed by what you see.  This company has an incredible mission statement and I can’t say enough good things about it. Plus, they have a badass logo and if you buy a shirt, you can support their cause.

Join us next week when we chat with Dr. Allison Brager. If anyone out there has the balls to complain about their work and training schedule, perhaps you’ll reconsider your list of excuses when you imagine a day in her life.  She is a practicing neuroscientist, sleep specialist, educator, and 2015 CrossFit Games Competitor.

Travis’ Training Playlist  Inspired by the life-changing masterpiece in filmmaking: “Never Back Down”

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