My New Normal

Imagine this: you're an Olympic sprinter in the final heat of the gold medal race and you are nervous as hell. Not because you are doubting your skill, training or grit, but because you're worried that you might have an epileptic attack at any moment and lose control of your arm.

Sounds frightening to say the least. Well my friends this is what Jenny LaBaw has dealt with her entire life. Diagnosed with epilepsy at a young age Jenny has battled through all sorts of social and physical issues related to her disease, but because of her resolve has managed to be crowned the 6th fittest woman in America, be a collegiate soccer player oh and run across the entire state of Colorado in a month (531 miles).

* Tune into this weeks episode to hear Jenny's story and learn more about these topics:

* What is epilepsy and how does it effect Jenny

* How Jenny manage her disease throughout playing high level sports

* Why Jenny kept her disease private and why she eventually decided to go public

* Why Jenny got into CrossFit and why she's not doing it as much

* Moving Mountains: Jenny's run across Colorado for awareness

* Why Jenny thinks sharing your story is important and what affect others have on her

* How to develop mental grit and not be defined by your diagnosis

To learn more about Jenny head over to her website https://jennylabaw.com/

or follow her @jennylabaw on all the social media

Info on Epilepsy Foundation: https://www.epilepsy.com/

Listen to My New Normal Podcast here:

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iTunes

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To check out my Functional Training for the Adaptive Athlete Online Course (eligible for 0.5 CEU's for NSCA under Category D), visit: https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course/ (https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course/)

Help My New Normal raise $2,500 for Challenged Athlete Foundation in 2019: http://support.challengedathletes.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1289385&pg=personal&fr_id=1611

Welcome to Episode 6 of My New Normal Podcast! Today I’m joined by the amazingly awesome Sara Olson and David “Chef” Wallach from Crossroads Adaptive Athletic Alliance.

Crossroads Adaptive Athletic Alliance is an amazing non-profit organization that helps adaptive athletes participate in fitness through education, grants, and competition.

Chef’s adaptive story started way back when he was a child and he tried to “stop himself too many times with his head.” He suffered multiple concussions due to his daredevil nature and was consistently trying to push the envelope. Chef had trouble in school and was labeled by some teacher’s as learning challenged or disabled. As he later discovered, the troubles he had as a child were more likely related to the injuries he suffered.

But by his own account, his true adaptive story started when a marine named Nick Tom walked into his gym. Nick was wounded very seriously fighting in Kandahar and was a bilateral, above the knee amputee, among other very serious injuries. Nick was so optimistic and so quickly progressing through his PT at Walter Reed that he was referred to the gym as a higher level of therapy.

When Nick arrived, it really started a conversation about how they should create a coach/client relationship between adaptive athlete and coach and how a set of metrics should be defined to show progress and data, and what are the places that progress should be shown. And not only that, but how do we make it easier for ALL athletes with permanent differences feel comfortable and included.

Sara’s background is in the Navy as an EOD tech, currently reserves, but by nature of her job she has many friends (of results of incidents in the field) are now adaptive athletes. She got a call from Chef and a mutual friend about hosting a functional fitness competition for adaptive athletes and thought “sure, how hard can this be!”

When they really started getting into it, they discovered that less than 50% of the competitors were veterans and that what the athletes needed was a community to get involved in deeper than a yearly competition.

In this episode we’re talking about:

* How Crossroads Adaptive Alliance helps the Adaptive Community

* Chef’s Adaptive Journey

* Sara’s Adaptive Journey

* The evolving nature of the coach/athlete relationship

* How to be a better coach to the Adaptive Community

To Learn More About Crossroads Adaptive Alliance go here:

http://crossroadsalliance.org/

https://www.facebook.com/CrossroadsAlliance/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqbpB-dkO4HvYvfWjP-xhrg

Listen to My New Normal Podcast here:

YouTube

iTunes

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To learn more about wheeled athletes & most common injuries that put someone in a wheelchair such as spinal cord injuries check out: https://www.drtheresalarson.

On Episode 5 I sit down with my friend and mentor Dr. Kelly Starrett to learn about dialing in very specific things that will help you where ever you are on the spectrum of human, adaptive, able bodies, injuried, old, young etc. Kelly also keenly discusses the biopsychosocial model of physical therapy and how it is revolutionizing how we take care of ourselves. Listen, apply to your life, and pay it forward.

Here are topics covered on the show

* Most Embarrassing Moment In PT School

* How following the practice act makes you a bad physio

* How coaching changed Kelly's practice as a physio

* What makes people change behavior

* Working with adaptive athletes

* 1st principles

* The mental health side of improving health

* Embracing being tribal animals

Here is how to reach Kelly Starrett

MobilityWOD Website (https://mobilitywod.com)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mobilitywod/?hl=en)

Listen to My New Normal Podcast here:

YouTube

iTunes

Google Podcast

Spotify

To learn more about wheeled athletes & most common injuries that put someone in a wheelchair such as spinal cord injuries check out: https://www.drtheresalarson.com/wheeled-athlete-spinal-cord-injuries/ (https://www.drtheresalarson.com/wheeled-athlete-spinal-cord-injuries/)

To check out my Functional Training for the Adaptive Athlete Online Course (eligible for 0.5 CEU's for NSCA under Category D), visit: https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course/ (https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course/)

Help My New Normal raise $2,500 for Challenged Athlete Foundation by January 31st 2019: http://support.challengedathletes.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1289385&pg=personal&fr_id=1611

Imagine this: you grew up in in bad gang ridden neighborhood in Chicago, your only escape was basketball, but before puberty was even over you lost the use of your legs. How would you deal with that? Many people would give up on life or give in to being a part of a gang to feel accepted. Meet Jaime Baltizar, the afformentioned hypothetical is his new normal and unlink that many he did not give in or give up. Instead he became a wheelchair basketball badass for University of Illinois and parlayed that skill into a career as a basketball coach. Tune into this weeks episode of the My New Normal Podcast to hear Jaime's story and find out the secrets to his unwavering mindset.

Topics Covered on This Weeks Podcast Are:

* Jaime's Story

* Dealing with judgement from living life in a chair

* Adapting to a chair sport after playing in out of the chair

* Dealing with gang violence

* The mindset of resilience

* The impacts of high intensity functional fitness on sport

Help My New Normal raise $2,500 for Challenged Athlete Foundation by January 31st 2019: http://support.challengedathletes.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1289385&pg=personal&fr_id=1611

Listen to My New Normal Podcast here:

YouTube

iTunes

Google Podcast

Spotify

To learn more about wheeled athletes & most common injuries that put someone in a wheelchair such as spinal cord injuries check out: https://www.drtheresalarson.com/wheeled-athlete-spinal-cord-injuries/ (https://www.drtheresalarson.com/wheeled-athlete-spinal-cord-injuries/)

To check out my Functional Training for the Adaptive Athlete Online Course, visit: https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course/ (https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course/)You can receive 0.5 CEU's for NSCA under category D

On the 3rd episode of the My New Normal Podcast I am joined by my friend, former client oh an super bad ass pro paralympic athlete Alana Nichols to talk about how she learned the character trait of resilience. Alana broke her back during her senior of high school while attempting a back flip on her snowboard. At this point Alana was a highly recruited softball player in New Mexico and the injury completely destroyed her identity, but it didn't stop her. She eventually became a 5 time medalist in the paralympics. Tune into this episode to hear Alan's story and learn how she was adapt to her new normal and become more successful as a professional athlete than most of her able body peers.-How Alana got injured-Finding your identity post injury-Finding your tribe-Building empathy-The importance of finding a coach who can challenge you and make you feel normal as an athlete-How functional fitness can be applied to sports

Learn More About Alana Nicholshttp://www.alanajanenichols.com/ (http://www.alanajanenichols.com/)https://twitter.com/alananichols21 (https://twitter.com/alananichols21)https://www.facebook.com/alanajane21/ (https://www.facebook.com/alanajane21/)https://www.instagram.com/alanathejane (https://www.instagram.com/alanathejane)

To learn more about wheeled athletes & most common injuries that put someone in a wheelchair such as spinal cord injuries check out: https://www.drtheresalarson.com/wheeled-athlete-spinal-cord-injuries/To check out my Functional Training for the Adaptive Athlete Online Course, visit: https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course/

Charles Darwin once said it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change. On episode 2 of the My New Normal Podcast I sit down with wheelchair badass Keith Concur & adaptive coach Chase Gentilhomme to learn how they have adapted to survive in their new normal, and now are thriving in this state.

Keith is craftsman, hunter and athlete by trade who lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle accident while helping to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Keith defines thriving in his new normal as he so eloquently says in this episode "I've done more shit in the 12 years I have been in a chair than most will do in their whole life."

Chase is former Naval Officer & overweight kid, who suffered from major knee problems his entire life and after getting sick of being told what he couldn't do figured out how to get himself strong and mobile. Now he is poised to take that passion for adaptation and his love for helping people and become one of the world's best physical therapists and adaptive athlete coaches.

* Topics Covered On This Episode

* Ice Breakers: sprit animals, 5 words to describer yourself and what do you want to do when you grow up

* Origin stories

* First line of care for adaptive athletes

* How to mentally deal with traumatic injuries

* How to grow past "why do bad things happen to good people"

* Dealing with a diagnosis and learning how to not let it become you

* How to become an adaptive coach

* Putting yourself out there after trauma

* Weeding out people that don't really matter

Listen to the Podcast On

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iTunes

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LINKS:

1. Learn More About Dr. T, her adventures, and get access to information from her early in her newsletter: https://www.drtheresalarson.com/newsletter/ (https://www.drtheresalarson.com/newsletter/)

2. Learn more about her online course Functional Training for the Adaptive Athlete (NSCA CEUs available):  https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course/ (https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course/)

3. Learn more about Dr. T's company, Movement Rx (http://www.movement-rx.com/)

4. Learn more about Dr. T's well researched and tested Prehab Programs: The Shoulder Fix:, (https://shoulderfix.movement-rx.com/shoulder-fix-homefs90gnb4?affiliate_id=1387778&aff_sub=&aff_sub2=&nopopup=false&noautoplay=false&cookiepreview=false)The

When it comes to wheel chair and spinal injuries there is always a what's next despite what your doctor says. Often times people dealing with spinal cord injuries or family members helping a loved one who has a spinal cord injury can feel hopeless. On Episode 1 of the My New Normal Podcast I sit down to educate on conditions that most commonly put people into wheelchairs. On this episode I get into the nitty gritty of the diagnosis and then spend some time talking about why your diagnosis is not your new normal, because it does NOT determine your function.Topics Covered On The Podcast-The 4 most common reasons people get put into wheelchairs-The basic anatomy of the spinal cord and what happens in spinal cord injury--Bodily systems that can be effected by a spinal cord injury (Integumentary, Cardiovascular...etc)-AIS/ASIA scale of spinal cord injuries and ABCDE classifications-My levels classification system for adaptive athletes with a spinal cord injury and how to adapt movements based on this screenSuper Nerdy Description of Spinal Cordhttps://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Hope-Through-Research/Spinal-Cord-Injury-Hope-Through-Research (https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Hope-Through-Research/Spinal-Cord-Injury-Hope-Through-Research)Types Of Spinal Cord Injurieshttps://www.spinalcord.com/types-of-spinal-cord-injuries (https://www.spinalcord.com/types-of-spinal-cord-injuries)Levels of Spinal Cord Injurieshttp://www.spinalinjury101.org/details/levels-of-injury (http://www.spinalinjury101.org/details/levels-of-injury)If you are a coach or adaptive athlete and want to learn how to maximize function after suffering a spinal cord injury check out my program Functional Training For Adaptive Athletes https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course (https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course)

Episode X Show Notes:

Welcome to the first ever episode of the My New Normal Podcast. On this episode I sit down with my husband, Per, to give you the back story on why I am doing this podcast and what you can expect from it.

The episode initially starts out with a discussion about the adaptive population how it inspired this podcast. From there we get into why we are launching this on Movement Rx. Then we take on a big discussion of my personal new normal and the road that has got me to where I am now. We finish up the episode by previewing season 1 of the podcast and what you can expect.

If you enjoy this episode please do us a solid and leave a review or ask a question in the reviews. It makes a big difference in how many people are exposed to this podcast.

LINKS:

1. Learn More About Dr. T, her adventures, and get access to information from her early in her newsletter: https://www.drtheresalarson.com/newsletter/

2. Learn more about her home study Functional Training for the Adaptive Athlete Course visit here: https://www.drtheresalarson.com/adaptive-trainers-course/

3. Learn more about Dr. T's company, visit www.movement-rx.com

4. Learn more about Dr. T's well researched and tested Prehab Programs:

The Shoulder Fix:

The Knee Fix (https://kneefix.movement-rx.com/knee-fix-homeuu2f6mtx?affiliate_id=1387778&aff_sub=https%3A%2F%2Fshoulderfix.movement-rx.com%2Fshoulder-fix-homefs90gnb4%3Faffiliate_id%3D1387778%26aff_sub%3D%26aff_sub2%3D%26nopopup%3Dfalse%26noautoplay%3Dfalse%26cookiepreview%3Dfalse&aff_sub2=&nopopup=false&noautoplay=false&cookiepreview=false)

The Low Back Fix (https://lowbackfix.movement-rx.com/homemo73xjab?affiliate_id=1387778&aff_sub=https%3A%2F%2Fkneefix.movement-rx.com%2Fknee-fix-homeuu2f6mtx%3Faffiliate_id%3D1387778%26aff_sub%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fshoulderfix.movement-rx.com%252Fshoulder-fix-homefs90gnb4%253Faffiliate_id%253D1387778%2526aff_sub%253D%2526aff_sub2%253D%2526nopopup%253Dfalse%2526noautoplay%253Dfalse%2526cookiepreview%253Dfalse%26aff_sub2%3D%26nopopup%3Dfalse%26noautoplay%3Dfalse%26cookiepreview%3Dfalse&aff_sub2=&nopopup=false&noautoplay=false&cookiepreview=false)

Start crushing your NEW NORMAL today!

Just a quick overview of what you can expect from season 1 of the podcast.