I can't wallow in the fact that I don't have arms and legs, because
there's nothing that I could ever do to change the outcome.
I like to have a challenge
and be able to kind of overcome that challenge.
It's not weird that I go to the gym.
Anybody can work out if they want to.
If you just try something new, you never know what could happen.
My parents found out that I was going to be missing all of my limbs
once I was born.
I can remember being a young kid
and, you know, you get, like, stares
or a lot of questions
or that sort of thing.
I'm sure it maybe looked unique to people, but for me it was normal
and it was the way I always did things.
I have two older siblings,
and I can remember playing outside in the back yard, or...
We have a cottage in Chester and we swam there and we boated,
we did all sorts of stuff.
When I was really young, I wore prosthetic arms and prosthetic legs.
I no longer wear prosthetic arms for everyday use,
because I had a pair once that just kept, like, breaking.
I started doing stuff without them and realised that I could do
a lot of things faster or easier, so I just kind of got used to it.
From a very young age, I was swimming and learned to ski,
and I also started playing rugby in high school.
That was the only one that I continued on with
and I still play today.
So we're going to do some cleans, some squats.
'Lindsay was really great and really easy to work with
'because she'd just show up'
with some chains or some hooks
or some straps and say, like, "Let's try this."
I've taken just regular equipment and adapted it for myself.
So they make lifting hooks that just help out with your grip strength.
I have, like, a whole bunch of things that have to take place
in order for me to do cleans,
but I like doing cleans so it doesn't seem like a chore.
My deadlift, one rep max, is 170.
My squat is about 155.
And my clean is 100lbs, which is almost my body weight.
I'm definitely a competitive person
and that's why CrossFit appeals to me more than, you know,
maybe some traditional gyms, is because there's local competitions
and there's competitions all over the world and all over the state,
so you can always be kind of competing.
Even if you're just competing with yourself, there's, like,
a clock on it, you're trying to do something as fast as possible.
I did a competition not too long ago and it was great.
I contacted the gym ahead of time to say, "Listen,
"I'm going to need a few adaptations.
"Like, I won't be able to do all of the workouts
"exactly as they're laid out."
And they also talked to the coaches at my gym to say, "Is it fair?"
You know, you don't want to have an advantage over somebody else
because I'm scaling the workouts down too much.
But that was very well received.
I didn't come first. Maybe if I had come first,
maybe they'd have more things to say!
But it was my first formal competition,
so to come not last was great.
It's a very encouraging atmosphere.
Even though it's a very competitive atmosphere,
there's always people cheering for each other.
Lindsay's achievements have been really, really great so far.
Over the last year, she's gone from not even having
a way to do pull-ups to now busting out pull-ups one after the other.
Handstands, cleans, Olympic weightlifting.
In terms of her attitude, same as any other athlete -
she comes in and whines and complains about
whatever the workout is up on the board,
mopes around a little bit, doesn't want to get into the warm-up.
Right now, I'm really trying to get to the gym
at least five times a week and really focus on my nutrition.
So, I am trying to step up my game.
A video of me doing a workout kind of went viral, I'll say.
It's got, like, 7 million views or something like that,
which was crazy. I did get a lot of positive responses from that.
I do post videos of me doing things, because it's, like,
"I'm going to try this,
"and maybe that will motivate somebody
"in a similar situation to try something."
It seems like now I know not to think that
she's not going to be able to do something.
She always sort of thought skipping was something she would never do,
so she'd be disappointed, and then she learned how to skip.
So she's going to find a way to do whatever she wants to do.
If I had been scared or thought,
"Oh, it's not for me, there's no way I can do this,"
honestly, my life would be so different.
I think it's just kind of taking it one day at a time,
trying to be proficient in as many movements as I can and then
just kind of do competitions as I want to.
As long as I'm still having fun competing,
then I'm going to continue to compete.
I think it's really easy once you get to know Lindsay
to completely forget there's any adaptations at all,
because she just goes after it like anyone else.
She is an athlete and she pushes it and she works hard every time,
and we're all super proud of her here.
I guess my main message that I'm trying to kind of share
with people is to just try.
You shouldn't let the fear of the unknown hold you back.
I always say, "Just try, just try."
Good job.