“It’s Just an Arm” – Logan Aldridge
Did you know? April is Limb Loss Awareness Month! More than 2 million Americans live with limb loss or limb difference, and more than 28 million are at risk of amputation surgery. Approximately 185,000 amputations occur in the United States each year. We love being a part of this community of resilient people and so that’s the theme we are going to celebrate this month – RESILIENCE! You may have read Sarah Hill’s letter last month articulating this character quality, so this month in honor of LLAM we are highlighting stories that embody this principle.
After a freak wakeboarding accident at 13 years old, Logan Aldridge asked his mom if he might lose his arm. “It’s just an arm,” she said. And that’s the simple mantra that has set the tone of Logan’s life as an amputee ever since.
Logan deadlifts 500lbs. He does pull ups and handstands. He golfs and does archery. If he wants to do it, he figures it out. And he figures it out for other people, too. Logan started the Adaptive Training Academy (ATA), an adaptive and inclusive fitness education community that empowers individuals . He’s taught seminars all over the country and he just led an entire community of adaptive athletes through eight different divisions of the international CrossFit Open.
For Logan, it’s always been this way. From his first physical therapy appointment where he requested to do sprints on the track to the way he invented the first ever jump rope for single-armed athletes and gym warriors, Logan’s resilience has been propelled by his fervor for life in every aspect of what he does and the best part of it is that it’s something he shares.
Exceeding Expectations and Conquering New Horizons
One thing Logan noticed in becoming an amputee is how little was expected of him anymore. He recalls a doctor telling him that it would take years to write legibly with his non-dominant hand and he had it mastered within weeks. He noticed what low standards that those with limb loss or differences were held by in terms of their strength and health. So in 2012, Logan partnered with Alec Zirkenbach, a US Navy veteran and seminar staff of CrossFit Headquarters, a fitness education platform, to begin the transformational work of an entire culture. The two of them would become the leaders and head trainers of the CrossFit Adaptive Course, teaching fitness coaches how to work with those with limb losses and differences as well as cognitive impairments.
As the influence of Logan and Alec’s initiative to empower through education grew, they began to connect with other individuals of influence within their sphere including Chris Stoutenberg – founder of WheelWOD, an adaptive fitness programming and competition organization – as well as Kevin Ogar, gym owner and CrossFit seminar staff. In 2019, ATA would be formally founded and the “core four” would begin to lead the fitness industry in adaptive fitness education of their own accord by teaching seminars and providing informative experiences for health industry leaders – for coaches, athletes and therapists.
The ATA was established on the principle of challenging the status quo assigned to people with disabilities in order to create equal access to fitness training and a healthy life. Using a collaborative approach, ATA gathers together experts and specialists worldwide to advise and advance the ATA education system for higher levels of inclusion and adaptation. For the leaders of ATA, it’s not about just getting by. It’s not about being okay with just functioning at a basic level. ATA believes in the resilient spirit of those who overcome their differences in a manner of expression and strength.
The Mindset of Adaptability
Logan’s story might sound like a win in every way – some people just seem to have an “it” factor that makes hard things seem more easy to overcome and it would be easy to consider Logan to be the unattainable exception. But in between every line of his growth experience and successful operation has been a challenge and unexpected hurdle of hardship. It’s just that Logan simply doesn’t choose to look at the big picture with that lens.
One of the most recent hurdles was with the implemented lockdown mandates of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down ATA’s ability to operate its live seminars. As Logan was just about to quit his job to commit full time to his founding project, it could have appeared as though he was stepping into a blackhole. Most people may have taken that as a sign, even. Logan quit his job anyway and spent 6 weeks of 16 to 18-hour work days to completely remaster the platform and trajectory of how ATA continues to operate today, virtually. ATA now represents more than 50 countries, has trained more than 800 different gyms or organizations and has graduated more than 1,300 individuals through their education courses. As the world came to a screeching halt, Logan did anything but slow down. In fact, he absolutely took off.
Last month, ATA was recruited by CrossFit – one of the most influential training philosophies of the 21st century – to add eight separate divisions to it’s annual, international competition to be inclusive of adaptive athletes. For the course of three weeks, ATA led the charge of adapting workouts to be inclusive of those with limb loss or differences, neuromuscular, intellectual and vision impairments, short stature and with varying levels of paralysis. It wasn’t about making the workouts any easier, it was about making them appropriate and comprehensive for a complete population. It was about letting everyone get to experience what it is to do very hard things. It was about teaching others that the principle behind #ItsJustAnArm can apply to anyone. It was educating the world that resilience is an inherent quality of human nature if we lead with that sort of expectation.
So how do we know Logan? Logan was a part of the fitness leadership team for our first ever men’s retreat, The Forge, in 2020. But long before that, he became friends with Bethany Hamilton. Through a series of circumstances arranged by Logan’s friend, Logan flew out to Kauai as a young teenager to wakeboard and surf with Bethany. Their similar age and love for water sports bonded them in some ways and Logan remembers her firm encouragement that he was still capable of anything that he’d want to accomplish.
“Bethany was the first person to make it really cool to have one arm. I wanted to follow that.”
-Logan Aldridge
And from then and until this point, Logan will adamantly express his gratitude for that experience, his friendship with Bethany and the many people who have come alongside him in this journey. He’s humble in the way he speaks and gives praise and credit to his partners and peers. He is as excited to learn as he is passionate to teach. He is all-in on changing the paradigm of the world in its perception of limitation. Logan knows resilience in his veins because he has practiced it, despite circumstance, over and over again.
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