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All right, welcome to the AdaptX podcast where we have discussions with people who are building

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inclusive businesses, advocating for inclusion, or excelling in adaptive sports. Our intention is

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never to speak on behalf of those with disabilities, but amplify their voice and share their journey

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with you so you can be inspired and motivated to take on your own. Today I'm joined by Sam Schaefer,

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an athlete, coach, and an advocate. Malways has been to start these discussions focusing exclusively

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on the disability because I don't want to imply that it's the main characteristic about the individual,

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but I think we're going to have a really cool story to share with you today. But maybe we can

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start before that. Maybe your childhood, athletic background, academic experience, career aspirations,

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so maybe we can start with before your amputation. So where do you grow up? What were you passionate

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about? Yeah, so I grew up just south of St. Louis, Missouri, about a 25-minute drive away from the

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city. And I was definitely like, I was a hockey nut, but sports in general. If I were to sum up what

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I wanted to be, like growing up, I wanted to be a pro. If it was hockey season, I wanted to be a hockey

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player, I wanted to be a baseball player, I wanted to be a... So I kind of played a little bit of,

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I didn't play, I wouldn't say everything, but I played all the normal sports. I played baseball,

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soccer, basketball, through grade school, middle school, and in high school, I ended up mostly

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just focusing on soccer. That didn't end up really going anywhere. But from there, that's whenever I

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went to college and I made the decision to join the military after a few semesters.

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And I realized, because I realized that that was not taking me a direction that I wanted to go,

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just felt like every semester was further away from something that I was going to be happy doing.

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And I had an older brother that was in the military. He had just come back from a deployment. My dad and

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I drove out to see him as he came back. And there was just like this sense of like, this is where

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I'm actually supposed to be. Awesome. So you enlisted in the military at 19, 20 years old?

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Yeah. So I was 19. Like I said, I was like three semesters in the college. I did the normal

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high school right into college. I went to the University of Missouri. And it was fun. It just,

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like I said, I didn't, I was just getting this feeling that I wasn't going a direction that I

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was going to be happy with. And you mentioned in some of the posts that I was reading and stuff

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that I was reading about you, a specific incident during training that seemed to cause the cascaded

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symptoms. Yeah. So I was in the combat control training pipeline. So it's a special operations

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career field. And I was, we were just on a run. We were running back from the pool. I ended up

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clipping a curb. And as I land, I land on the outside of my foot, it rolls, rolls my ankle so

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bad. Like I remember the sensation of my heel touching my ankle, like the inside of my heel

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touched the inside of my ankle. And my infinite wisdom, I got up and continued to finish the run.

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It was about another mile. And that is what led to complex regional pain syndrome. There was some

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other like more physical injuries, like there was a fracture, there was definitely ligaments,

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ligament issues, but it led to a nerve condition called complex regional pain syndrome. That injury

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occurred September 6th of 2011. And is that, is that diagnosis that's well understood or did you

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have any kind of pushback from medical professionals in terms of how they were diagnosing it?

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It is not well understood. The name is pretty ambiguous, complex regional pain syndrome. That

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kind of says it all. Everybody gets it, like nobody gets it the exact same. The treatments are very,

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I don't want to say like difficult, but like, it's just like it's almost random on who,

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on who is successful with treatment and who is not like I was completely treatment resistant.

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The interesting part is that it typically is pretty challenging to get that diagnosis.

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I had the fortunate unfortunate scenario where I walk in to the clinic. I don't really know what's

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going on to be honest. I'm 20 years old. All I'm thinking is how do I get back to training? I might

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be 21 at this point. And they start doing some testing and the woman goes, have you, oh, so

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you, looks like you've, so have you already started your med board? Which is a medical discharge,

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basically. And at this point, I'm thinking I'm getting back into training. And the doctor tells

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me he's like, this is the most clear cut case of complex regional pain syndrome I've ever seen

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in my whole life. I'm really sorry. At this point, I hadn't even entertained the idea that this was

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going to force my removal from the program much less the military. Yeah, so that so when you're

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kind of first met with that news, probably not knowing much about CRPS in general. What was the

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next step? PT, OT? Yeah, so they had me in physical therapy. And part of why I got sent to that doctor

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was they had me doing ankle sprain physical therapy for like six months straight. And then accused me

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of lying when I said that my pain was still was where it was. I was like, no, I don't want to be

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here. I want to get back to training. I was like, I'm not here because I think it's a good time.

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And finally, somebody finally just was like, you know what, maybe what if he's not lying?

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Like, unfortunately, that was the culture. I had to prove that I wasn't lying about the pain that

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I was in. And they sent me to the they did these tests and they were just like, yeah, sorry.

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Yeah, we've heard that from like a couple other guests that had these complex conditions that

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are a little more ambiguous. And it just seems so bizarre to me. Like, why would someone who's

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highly motivated, who really is passionate about what they want to do, like, I guess,

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relegate themselves to just like therapy, like, why would anyone lie about that?

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Yeah, it's like, it's not like the paychecks that good. Like, we did the mistake of figuring

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out our per hour one time and we shouldn't have done that. That was depressing.

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What was so so you were discharged from the military? And did you find another passion

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or kind of how did your career proceed from there? Yeah, so I was very fortunately I was

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introduced to CrossFit in February of 2010. This is just before it started to like really get the

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big momentum. When I first started CrossFit, there wasn't a shoe for it. Everybody had like four pairs

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of shoes in their backs. They didn't quite know what to go with. And I mean, you had people running

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in vibram five fingers, you know, all these, all these like wild things. We're just trying stuff.

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And so I knew I remember thinking before I left, I was like, man, when I get out,

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I bet I'd like to coach this. This would probably be a fun thing to coach.

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So I kind of kept learning about it. And I kept, you know, that that had piqued my interest very

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early. And from there, and then I went when I got discharged, that's what I went back to.

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My discharge took a long time. I like said, I was six months into the injury.

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Whenever I got diagnosed, it was 15 months after my accident that I actually got discharged. I had

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there was a couple people that fought that didn't want to do it for some reason. I don't know whatever

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their personal stuff was. And so I got into there. I used part of my severance check to pay for my

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CrossFit level one. And I began began that process. And within a year, I was coaching CrossFit or

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CrossFit style classes, wherever I could just starting to get that experience. Still really

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with a with a very poor understanding of what was actually upcoming for me, you know, I'm still

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now only a couple years into this, what became a nine year journey. I didn't really understand.

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I was young enough that I was definitely in denial. I was just trying to like desperately

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cling for everything I could to get because I got told you'll never lift again. You can't be

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as an operator. You can't be in the, you know, use in the Air Force, you will never run again.

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You will not, you know, you can't play soccer. You can't like, that's all I got. I got this huge

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list of can't ever's. And I'm just sitting there like, I can't like, it hurts when I do nothing.

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I'm going to go do this thing I enjoy, because it's still going to hurt. And through that,

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I started to learn that strength was an asset that if I train my function well enough, that even

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though that function was deteriorating, if I could continue to raise the level of what 100% was,

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if I was only going to get 20% that day, well, I'd rather have 20% of a bigger set of capacities

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than 20% of a smaller capacity. So it kind of became that journey. And again, some of it was

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very hard headed. Go figure a 23, 24 year old single guy who's just like desperate to be like,

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who wants to get back to life was a little hard headed in that pursuit. But like,

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that's kind of where all that started. And then like you said, diving into the coaching realm,

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learning, learning, learning. And that was what I've done as a profession actually ever since

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that I was coaching for years with CRPS, some of that time on a cane and on a forearm crutch. And

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then when I got back to walking, I went back to coaching. Yeah, I saw in one of your posts,

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you said something along the lines of that walking makes the pain worse, but not more so

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than losing your fitness. So it's like, I mean, we all have, I guess, like challenges, whether

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you're able bodied, adaptive, etc. And I know some of our clients that are in like a rehabilitative

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state, maybe post stroke or post injury, like sometimes get frustrated at the work they have

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to put in. But and I don't mean to demean that in any way. But at the same time, I'm like,

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I have to work to maintain my fitness. So like our goals, like the goalpost might always be moving.

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But that doesn't mean you should stop, I guess, moving towards it. But I think like your stuff

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with CrossFit, did you ever, was it ever hard to convince clients of kind of your expertise if

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you're coaching with like a visible physical assistance like your cane? Did anyone ever question

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your kind of authority in that regard? You know, I had been coaching in that same room for so many

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years before the cane became necessary. That it was, I actually felt it more than they did.

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They knew my expertise. They I've been working and helping these people for years. Some of them

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over five years, I've coaching and helping them with pro helping them progress.

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That like it was more of a it was more of a more in my head than it was anywhere else. Like, I

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assumed that I was going to get pushback and feedback. And I never did at least not to my face.

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I never did. No one ever said, Well, I don't want to go to his class because of

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because of everyone's like, because I was always I still do I'm still doing classes and courses

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and learning things like, and that was partly what I was known for is that like Sam is still

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learning Sam is still working on building. He knows a lot. And he is he worked and everybody

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knew how hard I worked at my coaching. I have said over and over, I am 10 times the coach that I

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am the athlete. And most of my athletics are just simple R and D for my coaching. Yeah,

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that's still the case. I mean, I think some of the the information that I came across that you had

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shared on training strategies for amputees is definitely the best that I've seen. I haven't

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seen a ton of solid resources, but even like the way that you describe like equal weight

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distribution between feet, like all that stuff and underneath the prosthetic to improve that

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like those queuing and those external cues and the strategies and the modifications, I think are

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second to none for for that space. But so you started CrossFit 1112 years ago, adaptive division,

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adaptive CrossFit probably wasn't really a thing. Obviously, it's gained a lot more steam in the

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recent years. But were yeah, were there any other like adaptive athletes? Would you even were even

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considering yourself an adaptive athlete at that time? Nope, was completely unfamiliar with the

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term. I didn't know that I fit into that that category as somebody was CRPS. Yeah. I didn't

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like it was an because like it's an invisible injury. So nobody came and talked to me about it.

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So like I was like completely unaware that any of that existed until my amputation.

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I had done a little bit like so once I knew that I was for sure pursuing amputation,

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I reached out to a local organization called DASA and they had a sled hockey program. And so I

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started playing sled hockey because that allowed me to get one I didn't realize that I actually did

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qualify for because that's when I learned that I actually already was an adaptive athlete by

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classification with CRPS. But I was going into that room with the idea of like,

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I can spend time with amputees and learn from amputees about being about what that means.

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Like, because like you said, there really aren't a lot of resources. Like that's part of been my

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motivation for putting out the information that I'm doing is very simply like this is what I was,

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I googled and couldn't find when I was going through the process a few years ago. Yeah,

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I thought that was an interesting, I thought that was an interesting timeline because when I was

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kind of looking back at your stuff and trying to read about you, I saw sled hockey stuff before

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your amputation. And then so so that was kind of an interesting perspective. Like, were you,

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were you working towards amputation? Like, did you have that in your mind? And you were like,

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I want to kind of build up the skills now beforehand?

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Yeah, so I knew that that's the direction I was pursuing. I was, I got a lot of resistance from

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the VA. They didn't, I fought with the VA for nine months before my to get my amputation.

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So that was in that that was also the window where I started playing sled hockey. Again, part of it

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was to get acclimated to the environment. And like, again, I wanted to learn everything I could.

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I was like, I had this unique opportunity to begin life as an amputee on purpose.

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Yeah. To begin that chapter, not as an accident. And I wanted to I was like, how I don't know,

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dumb is the wrong word. But how poorly how what a poor use of my my time and resources,

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if I don't go out and try to actually gain some perspective and understand

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everything I can before it happens. What was the pushback from the VA or what's what's the hesitation?

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Um, they just didn't want to do it. Like, she was like, well, this seems, I don't know,

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I'm uncomfortable with this. And I'm like, well, I'm uncomfortable with this.

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Yeah, you're like, like, they're like, you're perfectly healthy. I was like, I am not perfectly

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healthy. I was like, I'm in massive pain. I haven't slept in nine years. Like, like they know all

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this stuff. But like, there really isn't there wasn't a way to treat. Like I had I had failed

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pretty well every treatment. Um, at in the first 18 months. And the only I had so they

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whenever I got out and I was at the VA in the VA system, most of my treat, most of the treatments

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to try were already we had already tried and seeing no success with. So that I got asked if I

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want to invite you in permanently. And I expressed concerns with with that. I was like, I don't think

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that that's a wise strategy. I was like, we know how that story goes. You give me opiates. I develop

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a habit. I either keep getting more opiates, or you become a or you start, or you get into heroin.

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That's that that is like the story. Like that's there's so many vets with that story.

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And I told and I expressed that concern. I was like, I don't think this is a good strategy.

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And they looked me dead in the eye and go, Oh, so the pain must not be that bad.

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Yeah, that's yeah, that's that's crazy resistance. So it's like that that was the start of my

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relationship with the VA in 2012 2013. And it never really recovered. Like there was that there

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was just not really anything to do. And I wasn't going to go ask for help. And all that we're

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going to say was, well, which pill do you want? Which I was like, again, this is that there's

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that there's no end in sight. I didn't know that amputation was even an option at that for a long

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time. And so like we didn't have a good relationship or we didn't have a relationship, I should say.

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So when I came to to seek out amputation, there was like, well, you like I had someone tell me

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you haven't even tried to get better yet. And I've done nothing but bust my but bust my butt for

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nine years at this point, gone through like more pain than I ever could have fat, I could fathom.

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And it was kept getting worse. Like I had to be like, if I couldn't squat 400 pounds at a time,

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my walking really got bad. Like I had to be that strong just to function.

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Yeah, that's that's another interesting thing. I think, well, as in response to come the beginning

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of that conversation, not that CRPS isn't a disability, but we do hear from some of our

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guests in terms of like, how much their life improved after their disability. So if we consider

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amputation, like your main, your main physical disability, not this year, PS wasn't, but like

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people talking about how much better their life gets after their disability. So in your case,

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there's really no comparison. No, not even close. Like this was, they saw amputation as a failure.

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And I saw getting out of pain as a success. Yeah, absolutely. And I was willing to throw any punch

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that I could throw for that success. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's hard now that like you have a

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visible disability. I think people are people are prone to like pity that. But in your, in your regard,

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it's like the best thing that could have happened to you. The best thing I've ever done for myself,

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the best gift I ever could have given myself, my wife, and the rest of the world. Yeah. There's

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a version of me that was in massive pain, couldn't get anything done. Couldn't talk, couldn't express,

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I couldn't express myself. Like I was just so blocked up from just so much pain. And now I've

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got this opportunity to free up like my brain's got all this like space to operate. And like,

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it was a really wild experience getting out of pain, especially those first few months.

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It was a really wild scenario. Did you experience any like phantom limb pain or any residual

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discomfort after the amputation? I did. Yeah. Nothing crazy, especially like in the first

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month, some bad days and some good days. But I also, I was fortunate that with my amputation,

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my surgeon also did did work on my nerves with a procedure called targeted muscle

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re-innovation or TMR. If you are somebody seeking an elective amputation or you have this opportunity

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that your amputation is happening on purpose, that absolutely should be a part of your procedure.

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And it did a lot to mitigate phantom pain. So the point that I really don't have them anymore,

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every once in a while, and I can almost always tie it to my left glute. I'm a left,

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my, I lost my left foot. My left glute gets really tight. I will get some of that phantom pain.

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But other than that, it's very, very minimal at this point.

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Are you above the knee or below the knee?

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Below. Below the knee. You mentioned squatting 400, like while you had CRPS and kind of having a

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high level of fitness, did you talk to anyone that had experience with kind of using fitness

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and exercise to manage CRPS symptoms? Like, do you think anything you did exacerbated symptoms

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or improved symptoms? I didn't, I never found resources to talk to. Part of it was I didn't

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seek it out like aggressively. The few times that I did try to like kind of look into support groups

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or information type stuff, I just, it really wasn't my jam. I found a lot of people leaning

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into how bad it was versus what we could, what can you do? And that mindset and what, what I

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learned from that was with CRPS, you have to stay on the gas. Like you have to, the second you stop,

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you're, I never saw anybody get back on the bike. You had to keep pedaling. And so that's what I

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learned from that. And so it became a big trial and error. So like it, I started off, I was doing

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CrossFit. And as the condition progressed and worsened, I could running became an issue. Jumping

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rope and bigger impact. And then it became simply coming off of a pull up bar, could mean three weeks

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of exacerbated pain. If I don't do, if I landed on my left foot at all. So a lot of, so then it

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became like increased like, like prolonged heart rate, like intensity, you know, again, all the

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things that kind of CrossFit works into with like longer pieces, then the duration became an issue.

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So I had to learn how, I had to learn how to assess. And I learned a lot about assessment

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in that process. And so like, okay, that's gone. And I just, I had to be, I had to drop the ego.

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Yeah, yeah, I really want to do it like everyone else, but I can't. Or if I do, I'm going to trade

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that one hour of doing things like everybody else. And I'm going to be absolutely miserable the other

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23 hours of the day and be capable of getting nothing else done and being a useless human being

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because I'm in so much pain. So then, so then that's where the dive into like strength became

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more of a thing. It started with, so the natural move was to go to Olympic weightlifting. I was

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like, okay, I like the fact that it's still very technical, very skill based. You know,

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because when I had my feet planted in together, I was moving bilaterally, I wasn't having near

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as much stuff getting flared up as unilateral like walking was harder than deadlifting.

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You know, and then, you know, I still had deteriorations, you know, we had to change up how I

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squatted at times, you know, I had to be ready for, I had to have a plan A, B and C for if my leg was

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going to not cooperate with the program squatting or pulling or whatever it was. So Olympic weight

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lifting, I kind of put a focus on that for a while, learned a lot. Things became too inconsistent to

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training together. I moved on to more just flat out strength bias. I got into throwing. I don't,

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that was kind of a middle finger to the condition that wasn't really about trying to get better,

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I think. I was like, you know what, I really want to give this a try. And I think I'm running out of

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time. I truly believed I was running out of time to be able to try things and figure it out. Because

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again, I still didn't know that amputation was an option. So I thought I was just done. And so like,

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but like continuing to learn, I was like, okay, so I've never, I've never dived very hard into

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rotation. So that that was a big piece of that one, you know, trying out different methods,

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you know, odd objects became like way more valuable than barbells. So like, you know,

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just different things like that is so I became a very good scientist. I became very good at running

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every bit of training as an experiment. Yeah, and I think that like some of the best

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learning experiences that I have had have been my own trial and error. So I like your experience

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having to modify everything for kind of symptoms that are always ever changing probably made you

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such a better coach. And maybe like, obviously your clients might not have CRPS, but there's no

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way that there's not similarities in terms of how they respond to different exercises and how you

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can kind of make those modifications on the fly. So I always tell people like, when we're introducing

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them to working with people with disabilities, like training adaptive athletes makes you a better

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coach for all populations. And I think there's way more similarities and differences. Absolutely.

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Everything that works for me works better for able-bodied. That's the funny part. Just to find

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something that works is like, works, works here for me, works all the way up here for able-bodied

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because you get to use all you get to get all the benefits. Yeah, exactly. Again, I learned a lot

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about modification. I learned a lot about how to relate with an athlete when things aren't working

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right, strategies on how to work better. Like, yeah, I picked up so there was so much that I

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learned and like also teaching them how to be a more present athlete. Like, you know, the word

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gets thrown a lot, I'll be present, be present gets thrown around a lot. But like, one of the things

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that I really learned was how to be very aware mid-lift, how to actually feel my hamstrings,

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feel foot pressure and be aware of it in the middle of a dynamic lift. And then I was able to then

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transfer that and then I realized how valuable that was. And I started learning how to teach

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other athletes to do it and then go figure, set their game on fire. Yeah, so that and then combined

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with probably when some of your physical ability to demonstrate movement is taken away, I would

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imagine that makes you a much better verbal communicator because you don't have the same

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luxury of like me demonstrating how to do a squat. You have to succinctly outline the three or four

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coaching points you want to communicate and it makes you a much better verbal instructor as well.

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Absolutely. And that's where I started developing. That's where I really got good at developing

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drills. That's where the band, that little banjo you're referencing, that came before my amputation.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So after your amputation maybe, or I guess when did you have

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your amputation? It was a year ago, a year and a half ago? August 26th of 2020. Yeah, okay. Oh,

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so a few years back. Yeah, three years post amputation, not quite three years with the leg.

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Okay, so that was in the middle of COVID. Yeah, it was whenever the operating room started to open

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back up a little bit more freely. Okay, all right, cool. And over these last few years,

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what have been like the sports that you've gravitated towards? Have you competed in adaptive

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CrossFit? Yeah, so I've done a little bit. I've done the CrossFit open a couple of times. I was,

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I did the very first one for the adaptive. I mean, I've been doing the CrossFit open

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probably five or six years before my amputation. So yeah, I have done CrossFit. I was actually on

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the first all adaptive team to qualify for and compete in a major CrossFit competition, the

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Abelbody division. Two other amputees invited me to come down to Miami and we did Wada Pelusa

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in the Abelbody division, which was just a ton of fun and a really like impactful thing. We got to

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have a lot of good conversations. We got to build a lot of fans for the adaptive division. Like,

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you know, people were coming and talking to us afterwards because like, they got to see us compete

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next to a fitness level that they understood their friends were out there. So they knew how fit their

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friends were. And now we're not just like a feel good, like, Oh, no, these guys are actually

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fails. Like, yeah, you should go check this out. And we'd go tell them when the next event was and

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we'd go in, we'd see some of these same people there and we'd go watch the events with them. And

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we got to do stuff like that. So I've done CrossFit. I've done a few Highland games. I've got back

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into throwing. In May, I threw a game where there's eight world records for adaptive Highland games

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in each adaptive division. I broke five of them in the same game. That was pretty, pretty cool

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experience. I said I played some sled hockey schedules currently not permitting for that one

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right now. Unfortunately, hockey is like hockey is like the lifelong passion for me. Like, I don't

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remember becoming a hockey fan. I just always was. But this winter, the plan is to get my is to get

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into more stand up skating. And I've already been invited to a couple of beer league teams. So if

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I ever so that so that if that that that ever needs to be tickled, I've got I've got a place to go

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there. That's pretty cool. Um, I think what else I've really gotten into a good little bit.

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Right now, do you feel like you would gravitate towards standing hockey as opposed to sled hockey?

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Now? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. For what reason? I like using my legs. I'm big by sled hockey standards.

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If you watch like the national team, it's a lot of double amputees.

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Shorter sleds, they're more maneuverable. Not that I couldn't not that I can't get it done. And I

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had a ton of fun with it. I just love the idea of getting out there and get my legs going.

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But I still have them, you know, so it's like, I've always kind of wanted to do it. I've never

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really gotten to play. I was a really undersized kid growing up. And I was also in a big family

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and hockey is not a big family sport. So never actually got to never got to like play growing

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up. So why not? I learned to skateboard. I learned to skateboard on an on a prosthetic for the

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first time in my life, you know, so yeah, all good examples of how life has improved significantly

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after your amputation, just the opportunities that's provided.

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I was I wanted to ask about just like how you perceive adaptive sports versus something like

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standing hockey. So I guess you kind of said that you like to use your legs, but it was just one

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of the things that kind of came to mind as I was prepping for this is and you have the unique

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perspective of kind of having played both and having the capacity to play both. And I often

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wonder if like introducing quote unquote adaptive sports to able bodied individuals would kind of

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make the prevalence of them greater and kind of make the popularity of them greater. So I'm just

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always interested in how I kind of adaptive sports can exist more in the mainstream.

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So I think a lot of it is really simply an education process. You can see a lot of it

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on the women's side as well. I would say like the women's side of a lot of sports are a little bit

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ahead of the adaptive side, but we're going through the same process. And what we're fighting is how

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established able bodied sports are, but it's more it's so the way I put it here is I was really

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fortunate when I first went into a sled hockey sled hockey locker room in that locker room was

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the goalie for Team USA who recently became the first ever Paralympic athlete to be inducted into

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the US Olympic Hall of Fame and then the captain of Team USA who is a double double above knee

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congenital amputee in Josh Paul's Steve Cash being the goalie. That was that was who I was in a

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locker room day one. I realized really quick that had if Josh had been born with both his shin bones,

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he still would have been an Olympic athlete. Same caliber of athlete. It just happens to have a

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disability. The expression is what changes like my if I hit the same level of proficiency on a

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movement or in a sport as somebody who's able bodied the expression is going to look a little

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different. Like if you want to just put it into like weightlifting terms where that may be that

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level of proficiency, skill, strength, let's just say all that being equal might be a 300 pound lift

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for you that might only be a 250 a 250 pound lift for me. It's understanding that it's just it's

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understanding that language. It's kind of like watching in a different language. So again, it's

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a lot of education. It's also there's the unique opportunity in 2023 where we've all got social

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media. We've got I've got a 4k camera in my pocket. It's people putting themselves out there like

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you know being out there and like being willing to be that educator. You know, one of the guys on

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the US sled hockey team that's gained a lot of popularity is Jack Wallace. He's done a ton on

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like TikTok where he is where he will this is here's something to learn about sled hockey today.

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And that sort of stuff does go well. And then from that and then it's also tempering expectations.

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People think that because adaptive athletes aren't making the same money as LeBron James that

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we're being discriminated like, no, it's just got to build a little bit like these structures have

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to build an understanding that we are planting a tree we may not get to sit in the shade for.

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And I'm good with that. Like I'm doing these things, you know, I was supposed to be actually

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have a boxing I was supposed to box on Saturday. I was supposed to have a fight fell through had

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opponents had eight opponents back out and elect not to fight me, unfortunately. But like part of

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it was like, I want to demonstrate that this stuff can be done well. Did they back out because of

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your amputation? I wasn't told that that was actually the reason but I was told that yeah, they didn't

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want to be the they didn't want to take that L is what it is. It'll happen. It'll happen eventually.

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Because it was able bodied opponents. Yeah. But like part of that it wasn't because I wanted to

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yes, I do want to fight and I want that experience. But like it also became an opportunity to like

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demonstrate like no, this can be done well. And here I'll show you how like we need a like in

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the adaptive space we need a lot of those people because it's not me who's going to get paid.

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But there's a kid that may see that and start working on his boxing now and turns into a great

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freaking boxer. Yeah, because he saw that. Yeah, you talk about it as like I like the lens of

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representation instead of like inspiration. It's one thing that I've asked some of the guests that

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we've talked with like, do you like being considered an inspiration? Or do you kind of prefer people

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express that differently to you? I would say I kind of struggled with it a little bit early on.

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You know, I don't love going to Aldi's and having some some older woman grab my shoulder and tell

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me how amazing it is that I that I'm out getting groceries by myself. Come on, man.

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I can do more than you can. Yeah, that's well, that's that's just like that's just the education

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piece. I think like people don't know what to say. So they just default to what they think is like

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the nicest thing to say, but they don't really realize. So it's like, I've kind of moved towards

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I'm pretty neutral on it. So I kind of had this like moment of clarity with it because it was like

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a point where it was like it was bothering me a little bit. So it's like, I felt like I was being

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patronized a little bit. And I was like, you know what the reality is inspiration is derived from

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wherever you are currently. Who am I to take that away from somebody who feels maybe a little lower

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about themselves or they're just not as far on their journey. And they look forward and they see

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like, okay, this is very doable. That's inspiring to me. Who am I to reign on that? Like, why would

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I want to get in the way of that? The world is a better place if more people are doing more things

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that are more physical, they have more belief in themselves. The world's a better place for that.

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I'm not going to be a jerk to somebody who says that I'm an inspiration to them.

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Do I don't get excited about it? I don't seek it. I don't need it. If I never hear it again,

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that's fine. But like, cool, like I'm glad you found me then. Like I am glad you found my page.

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You got questions, ask them. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah, it's like you want you want to inspire action,

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not just compliments. It's like you want to inspire someone to like get after it,

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like because of what what they say you do. That's a way better way to say it than I did.

373
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:24,560
I thought yours was very eloquent. I want to inspire action. No, I love that.

374
00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:31,440
Yeah. So you've recently kind of picked up running. You have your hands in a lot of

375
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:35,520
different buckets for sports. Oh, I also want to ask, like, have you tried amputee soccer?

376
00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:42,640
Not like on a field, like not in a game. I have, I have a pair of crutches that I've taken out and

377
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:48,880
kicked the ball around a couple times. It's fun. Yeah, a friend of mine, a friend of mine is the

378
00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:54,000
captain for the US team. So, and they're always, they're always looking for people. So him and I

379
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:58,160
were talking this morning, we're hoping to have a training camp next year, next October, actually,

380
00:36:58,160 --> 00:37:04,400
in the Boston area. So, oh, cool. I love, I recently went up to Boston this year for the very first

381
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:09,760
time. And if New Hampshire isn't my favorite place on earth, I don't know what is. Yeah. Yeah.

382
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:14,960
I like New, I like the, the like New Hampshire vibe a lot better than the city vibe for sure.

383
00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:19,760
We're about an hour outside of Boston, where my gym is here. So definitely not city like

384
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:24,480
more New Hampshire vibes than Boston vibes. Okay. Then yeah, I need to link you up with less leg

385
00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:32,560
then. Are they in Boston? New Hampshire. Tina Hurley's in, in a. Oh, I follow, I follow Tina on

386
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:37,120
Facebook. I think we're, I think we're friends on Facebook. Yeah. So there's also, are you familiar

387
00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:42,720
with Noel Lambert's Born to Run Foundation? I'm not familiar with the foundation. I know who she is.

388
00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:49,200
I can probably say I followed her before she was on Survivor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, she's pretty local

389
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:57,200
to me here. And I know they've been gifting running blades to various people. Yeah. So you,

390
00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:03,040
so you got your first running blade recently? A couple of years back to Boston. Yeah. Okay. All

391
00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:08,240
right. Boston earlier this year. What was that first experience like kind of getting out to run?

392
00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:15,360
It was weird. I felt real heavy. So for perspective, I think I was around 175 whenever I got hurt.

393
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:24,560
I was 195. Like a solid 195 going around. I was like, Oh man, I feel real heavy because I hadn't

394
00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:29,280
bounded like that in years, like years and years and years. And it was the first time running in

395
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:37,920
like 12. And yeah, but like, I, my brain caught on to it. I knew I understood the mechanics because

396
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:43,040
again, like you said, I couldn't, I couldn't like show people how to run. So I'd get really good at

397
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:49,760
the understanding and verbalizing how to run with the athletes I was coaching. So I was able to then

398
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:55,600
get to apply that and like learn that over a couple of days. You know, because I understood how to

399
00:38:55,600 --> 00:39:00,480
cue it. So now I just had to do it to myself. And like, that's where all the work, all the,

400
00:39:01,120 --> 00:39:07,440
all the, the whole process came to this like huge culmination of like, Oh, you can express this now.

401
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:14,240
And that was very cool. Are you using your running blade in CrossFit as well? Is it a better

402
00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:21,200
option for that type of training? So I'm not really doing CrossFit right now. But I would not,

403
00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:26,800
because it would be like equivalent of doing these movements off the ball of your feet. If I were to

404
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:30,960
be getting back into that, I'd probably be doing something more like the hybrid foot, like the

405
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:36,800
cheetah explorer from Ocer, where it's got a heel. That's probably a little bit more or honestly,

406
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:44,000
I'm using the forever foot from Levitate. And that thing is sweet. Yeah, for maybe for people who

407
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,760
don't have much knowledge of prosthetics, would you be able to kind of succinctly break down the

408
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:54,480
difference between like your everyday leg and like your running blade? Okay. So try to be as

409
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:58,880
succinct as possible for this incredibly complicated. Yeah, I know. That's what's a little tricky.

410
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:06,960
So we can oversimplify it and put most prosthetics into two categories. Absorbing energy

411
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:12,400
or expressing energy. So like a running blade is expressing a lot of energy. It does not do a lot.

412
00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:17,760
It does almost no absorption. It's all about the return and that springiness gives you that feel

413
00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:25,040
of running. And then like, that's not typically what you want to walk around in every day. So

414
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:29,760
you walk around feet, they've got a little bit more, they've got less return, they're a little

415
00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:36,160
softer, they've got more, again, there's more energy absorption happening and less return.

416
00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:39,120
It's a lot more comfortable to walk around. Like I said, if I were to walk around in my

417
00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:43,600
running blade all day, my hip would be jacked up. It would feel terrible to walk and be like walking

418
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:49,360
around on my tippy toe. There's a reason that, because running, optimal running happens on the

419
00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:54,800
front of the half of the foot, your running blades only have the front half. And now what I

420
00:40:54,800 --> 00:41:00,000
was describing is a foot that has, that actually lives in the middle of that. So I would be able

421
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:04,720
to get some more of that movement. I'd be able to pull, like again, put it in the crossfit setting,

422
00:41:04,720 --> 00:41:08,320
if I were going to do some like lifts and stuff like that, a lot of your barbell lifts are flat

423
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:14,080
foot lifts. So because I'd have that heel on that, on that specific foot, I'd be able to get that,

424
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:17,280
get some of that propulsion, not as much as a running plate, but some of it,

425
00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:24,160
while still having the balance that comes from being leaning towards that everyday foot style.

426
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:31,040
Yeah, that makes all perfect sense. And what is, since you seem to be the one that's always

427
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:35,360
after specific tangible goals, do you have a specific running goal?

428
00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:46,000
Find its logical conclusion. So I've signed up for a 30K in May. I'm going to be running the

429
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:53,120
Bryce Canyon 30K trail run. Good bit of climbing. It's going to be, you know, it's not technically

430
00:41:53,120 --> 00:42:00,960
ultra distance, but my understanding is that it's an excellent introduction to ultra,

431
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:06,240
to ultra running. So I know that like I'm running for experience. I'm not running because I want

432
00:42:06,240 --> 00:42:11,200
to run. Now I have found there. Now I've really learned some stuff through this running journey

433
00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:17,600
already. Like my boxing footwork has improved with my, as my running improved, like my technique,

434
00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:23,200
my boxing improves. And that's been awesome because it will you get hit less. The better

435
00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:29,440
your footwork is the less you get hit. So there's that side of it. I really want to see how far,

436
00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:33,760
how far I need to take it to really start to maximize or optimize that. Like what's the,

437
00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:41,040
what's the best like return on investment there. And then like for me, like I want an experience,

438
00:42:41,040 --> 00:42:48,400
like I'm not trying to like not, I'm straw running marathon at some point, because the 30ks 19 miles

439
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:52,400
in a tough terrain, I'm assuming if I could do that one, I could probably then turn around and

440
00:42:52,400 --> 00:43:00,320
run 26 on flat paved road. Not the same, but similar capacities. Yeah. But like I want the

441
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:04,240
experience. Like I want to see things like even just some of the runs I've done already, I've

442
00:43:04,240 --> 00:43:09,280
got done some trails. I've done some just like really nicely well taken care of paved runs even.

443
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:13,360
And I was like, I love this experience that I'm getting. And this is not the same as walking.

444
00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:18,720
And it sure as heck isn't the same as watching on someone else's social media. So like I want to

445
00:43:18,720 --> 00:43:24,320
see what sort of experiences are out there for me. Is the is the uneven terrain of trails tough for

446
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:30,240
the foot? Um, you know what, I have had less challenge than I expected. The other thing is it's

447
00:43:30,240 --> 00:43:35,600
super precise. So this, so that prosthetic isn't as big with the running blade. It's actually a

448
00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:41,920
lot smaller. And I was like, Oh, that's actually if I'm good at my vestibular system is in good

449
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:50,080
shape. It's a minor, not an advantage, but like it's not a hindrance at all. Like I've yet to

450
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:55,840
find an issue and I've not gone anything crazy technical. Um, but I've had no issues. It's been

451
00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:59,840
really fun. You got it. I would say you don't start on trails though as an amputee.

452
00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:04,560
Um, you really have to have that gate pattern figured out. You have to have like, there's a

453
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:11,760
like, there's way, a way bigger strength prerequisite to run on an on a running blade

454
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:16,960
than it is just to run able body now run now able body running probably has has the same thing.

455
00:44:17,680 --> 00:44:21,920
But on the blade, you have to, you have to be stronger so you can control the blade

456
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:27,120
and not get controlled by it. How did you get affiliated with Tino's organization there?

457
00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:33,920
Um, she found me on Instagram actually. So, um, she, I got a message from less leg more heart

458
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:40,480
and she was like, Hey, um, I took a look at, you know, we've been watching your social media for

459
00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:45,840
a little bit. We think that we, I think that we align on some goals. Uh, would you be willing to

460
00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:51,760
get on a zoom call? And, um, so we hop on this call. Uh, it was immediate. We clicked right away

461
00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:58,800
and she's exactly right. Um, we're both about making everything accessible. Uh, so, so that they,

462
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:03,920
they, uh, they work with a prosthetic manufacturer called levitate and that's so they gift those

463
00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:09,760
running blades. I didn't know this. I was actually being interviewed to be a recipient, um, that day

464
00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:15,040
as well. And so they ended up flying me out to Boston. Um, I did some media stuff and content

465
00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:19,040
stuff for less leg more heart. And then we went down to the D one facility in Boston

466
00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:25,920
and we, um, levitate puts on these, uh, events called test runs. So like, Hey, if you sign up,

467
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:30,240
you're an amputee, we will put you in a running blade and you will have the option to test one

468
00:45:30,240 --> 00:45:34,880
out. We're going to teach you a little bit about how to use it. And, um, you know, they do these

469
00:45:34,880 --> 00:45:39,600
events to spread awareness and because levitate is big thing is accessibility of these running

470
00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:43,920
blades as well. I'm sure you're aware of how difficult it is for a lot of amputees to gain one.

471
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:48,960
Yeah. Levitate sells theirs direct to consumer instead and they sell them for $2,000.

472
00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:53,040
You get a payment plan for under $200 a month. The blade gets shipped right away.

473
00:45:54,720 --> 00:45:57,840
So like they're, so again, we're all three of us are on the same page.

474
00:45:58,640 --> 00:46:05,120
I was gifted a levitate running blade and kind of the rest of the story wrote itself, um, being

475
00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:09,600
a coach for as long as I had and I was just kind of working on it. And they were like, I got put

476
00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:14,560
on the spot like, Hey, Hey, Sam Schaefer, where you at? And this is, I had spoken and met the, uh,

477
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:20,720
the owner of levitate on a zoom call about six weeks prior. And, um, he puts me on the spot.

478
00:46:20,720 --> 00:46:24,880
He's like, Hey, why don't you come and teach us, teach us, you know, warm us up and teach these

479
00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:29,920
guys. It's like, All right, let's figure this out. And we figured out that I know how to get

480
00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:36,400
amputees. I ran the same sort of drill concepts that I was doing for myself. And we had 30 amputees

481
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:42,480
with a quality running gate within 20 minutes to include a handful of AKs. And it was incredible.

482
00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:46,320
It was like this like crazy, like, Holy cow. Now what happens if I get time to actually

483
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:52,240
really refine this process? Yeah. Yeah. That sounds like it would be a great clinic to,

484
00:46:52,240 --> 00:46:58,080
to bring to other organizations for sure. Yes. Yes. Um, you mentioned one of your values that

485
00:46:58,080 --> 00:47:04,480
aligned well with less like more heart was making, um, fitness or sport accessible. What do you think

486
00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:10,000
needs to be done in the fitness space to make it more inclusive and accessible? Um,

487
00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:16,320
from the able body perspective, these athletes cannot be seen as the boogeyman.

488
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:23,920
They can't be seen as this like really difficult to work with. And then from the adaptive side,

489
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:29,360
from the athlete side, we got to understand that these people are learning. They're not going to

490
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:33,360
have it all figured out. And there needs to be a little bit of grace with that as well. Like,

491
00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:37,760
there's a lot of people that are very, that are trying very hard, but they're not there yet.

492
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:42,240
So like if you got to, got to understand your, understand the reality of the scenarios that

493
00:47:42,240 --> 00:47:48,400
we're walking in, like people haven't been studying amputee, squatting, deadlifting, running

494
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:54,160
for decades, the way they have able bodied. They're still learning how to translate all that stuff.

495
00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:59,920
And there's very few people like myself that had almost a decade of that sort of coaching and

496
00:47:59,920 --> 00:48:05,440
learning and then became an amputee. So that's why that's where I feel a responsibility to be

497
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:10,480
putting out the content that I am now, because again, that makes it more accessible. It's,

498
00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:14,720
yes, it's great for amputees, but there's, I've had able bodied coaches that have passion.

499
00:48:14,720 --> 00:48:19,200
Like I want to serve this community. I just don't know how. Yeah. Yeah. I think we've,

500
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:23,120
we've written, I've written a little bit about that where like, I think sometimes

501
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:31,120
what holds businesses back is just the fear of not being able to accommodate for someone. So they

502
00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:37,440
like don't even promote themselves or they don't even make the effort to be more inclusive, because

503
00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:40,720
at some point they're going to run into a condition that they're not familiar with,

504
00:48:40,720 --> 00:48:44,960
or they're going to run into a scenario where they're not sure what to do. So to hear from

505
00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:51,760
an athlete like yourself, where you're kind of giving someone like myself the grace to kind of

506
00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:57,280
figure out what the best solution is together, I think that's an important message to communicate

507
00:48:57,280 --> 00:49:01,760
and maybe put more people at ease. Like we're not expected to have all the answers. We're just

508
00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:06,880
expected to care to find the solutions. So I hope that's a message that would resonate with

509
00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:12,240
some people that might be a little hesitant to enter this world, but that are needed to kind

510
00:49:12,240 --> 00:49:16,960
of make the industry as a whole more accessible. Yeah, it's funny. Yeah. Like I've seen some very

511
00:49:16,960 --> 00:49:23,840
qualified coaches that I think would kill it in the adaptive space, but they're afraid to do it for

512
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:30,480
that reason. And then you see people that just flat out like, oh, my cousin was an amputee,

513
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:34,320
so I'm passionate about this. And they don't do any education, but they tell people all about how

514
00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:38,640
much they care. And now they're out there, I'm like, oh, no, you're not, oh, this isn't helping.

515
00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:47,120
I'm trying to find that line. It's hard. That's the other thing is understand that it is challenging

516
00:49:49,520 --> 00:49:54,640
to get the stuff figured out. We're trying to figure out how to do something and use an inanimate

517
00:49:54,640 --> 00:50:02,880
object as a tool. It's a challenging task. And again, yeah, it's so much perspective.

518
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:08,640
Again, it's perspective, grace and like, let's figure it out together. Let's be committed to this

519
00:50:08,640 --> 00:50:14,240
quality. And that's the thing I think that is missing a little bit is there's not enough people

520
00:50:14,240 --> 00:50:19,520
that are committed to the quality of what's happening with these athletes. They think, oh,

521
00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:24,720
that their job is to be their cheerleader. No, like just because that bar got off the ground

522
00:50:24,720 --> 00:50:29,280
and they stood up does not make it a good deadlift. And your job is not to say great job.

523
00:50:29,280 --> 00:50:34,480
Your job is to be like, all right, here's how we do it better. Yeah, we talk about how adaptive

524
00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:38,960
to be a good adaptive strength conditioning coach, you have to be a good strength conditioning coach

525
00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:44,320
for all populations first. So then you can kind of apply those principles. Like you said, you knew

526
00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:51,200
the running gate, and then you were able to apply that to an amputee. But if you had just

527
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:57,040
immediately gone to like, oh, I'm very interested in helping people post-amputation, learn how to

528
00:50:57,040 --> 00:51:01,440
run, but you didn't do that due diligence of learning gate mechanics and learning biomechanics

529
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:07,360
of running beforehand. It's like, you're just a cheerleader. And that could be that could be a good

530
00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:12,160
thing. But we do need to kind of raise the standard, I guess, a little bit in terms of how adaptive

531
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:17,120
athletes are trained. Yeah, exactly. It's teaching methods as well. It's not just flat out knowing

532
00:51:17,120 --> 00:51:23,040
running gate mechanics are how do you develop them, the teaching side of it. Like, you have to just

533
00:51:23,040 --> 00:51:29,120
you have to be a great teacher for this. Yeah. Yeah, well, we're very interested in following

534
00:51:29,120 --> 00:51:34,800
along as you prep for that 30k. Is it next spring? This coming spring? Yeah, yeah, I've still got a

535
00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:40,000
lot of time. Yeah, enough time for me to get a little too overconfident and zealous and think,

536
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:46,000
maybe we'll do a 50. That tends to be how it goes. If a marathon is good, an ultra marathon must be

537
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:50,640
better. I tell people that all the time. I got clients, they run their first 5k and they're like,

538
00:51:50,640 --> 00:51:56,080
so now I'm thinking of signing up for a marathon. And I'm like, more is not always better. Like,

539
00:51:56,080 --> 00:52:00,080
and people that run marathons aren't inherently better than people that run 5k. Is it's like

540
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:05,120
correct? I'm not in the 5k this weekend with my wife. There you go. If people are interested in

541
00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:10,000
learning more about you, or kind of finding you on social, where's the best place to do so?

542
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:16,000
Two places. The best one to go to is definitely my Instagram. That's what I've been doing the longest

543
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:24,880
at Sam Schaefer 1. S-A-M-S-C-H-A-E-F-E-R. And then the number one on Instagram. I know there's

544
00:52:24,880 --> 00:52:31,520
about 96 ways to spell Schaefer and they all make sense. I'll link it in the show notes so people

545
00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:39,120
can go right there. Appreciate that. And then I am early on in my YouTube career, where I'm trying

546
00:52:39,120 --> 00:52:44,080
to put out a combination. I'm actually going to be doing all my run prep, all my stuff, everything

547
00:52:44,080 --> 00:52:48,560
that I learned for this 30k. I'm going to be going in depth on my YouTube channel. So there's

548
00:52:48,560 --> 00:52:54,800
going to be like a recurring vlog. So I'm going to be discussing just running as a whole, what I'm

549
00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:58,640
learning on the amputee side, but more than anything, I want to communicate the process of

550
00:52:58,640 --> 00:53:04,720
figuring things out. Because my process isn't going to be the same as yours, or my absolutes

551
00:53:04,720 --> 00:53:09,040
aren't going to be the same as yours, but you can mirror the process to figure out your version of

552
00:53:09,040 --> 00:53:14,880
it. And that's my goal at the end of this, is someone's going to learn how to figure it out. I'm

553
00:53:14,880 --> 00:53:20,640
also tying that in with some amputee specific education stuff. We talked about that video the

554
00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:25,680
other day. I started a series and I just got started called the concept of cue and a strategy,

555
00:53:25,680 --> 00:53:30,560
where I'm going to take a concept of a common movement or movement pattern. I'm going to figure

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out, I'm going to tell you exactly how I've been successful cueing it to a prosthetic,

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and then a strategy for you to take it home and know whether or not you're getting it right.

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Yeah, so those will all be amazing resources. I love following along with people's training

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on YouTube. A couple of my favorite athletes and marathoners that are very open with their training,

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for some reason. I love watching that process, so very much looking forward to following along

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with yours as well. Sam, I'm glad we connected. I appreciate the time that you gave me this morning

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to touch base and feel very fortunate to have you in our community now and appreciate you being a

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part of it. Yeah, thank you. It's a pleasure. It's all mine and I hope we can figure out some more

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stuff to do together. Absolutely. Thank you for listening to the AdaptX podcast. Our effort to

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amplify the ideas of our guests and create more inclusive and accessible industries is futile

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unless these episodes reach a larger audience. If you enjoyed our discussion today, please leave us

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00:54:28,240 --> 00:54:32,960
a rating or review on whichever platform you use. And if you would like to learn more about AdaptX,

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the course that we teach to health and fitness professionals and the projects that our organization

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is working on, you can subscribe to our newsletter through our website, www.adaptx.org. Until next Monday.