5/20/19 | No leg? No problem. Short Stories.
Finding CrossFit After Losing Use of a Leg
This article was found on The Morning Chalk Up, it is not property of nor was written by Caffeine and Kilos. However, this was too a beautiful story that we had to share. If you're not already subscribed to The Morning Chalk Up, you're missing out.
Some background.
In 2013, Amelia Garris was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome after a dog bite left her without the use of her right leg. When she began to lose the use of that leg to nerve damage, she sought physical therapy.
Unable to run at all, let alone walk without crutches, the physical therapists eventually told her they couldn’t help her any longer.
Amelia’s mom looked at her and said, “You’re going to the gym tomorrow.”
It was a CrossFit gym.
“When I went to CrossFit, people didn’t look at me differently, because everyone has to modify things in CrossFit. So I just fit in,” Amelia said.
“I wanted to lift big weights and do everything that everyone else was doing. I just kept going heavier and heavier, and the difference it made both inside and out was quite beautiful.”
Amelia said that CrossFit gave her the confidence to take a job coaching and apply to Graduate school. Amelia also enjoys competing, taking first place in the 4th annual WOD 4 Wheels competition in Houston, TX.
Now Amelia gives motivational speeches on being an adaptive athlete and dealing with chronic pain.
“I picked a road of instead of chasing narcotics, which is what doctors wanted to give me, instead I found CrossFit,” Amelia said.
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A Short History
By Jeff Lund
@alaskalund
Gone are the days of the cotton t-shirt and scratchy, unforgiving pants and shorts.
They might still be out there, but we no longer have to tolerate the awkward fits and the discomfort.
***NOTE: However, modern clothing technology couldn’t have saved Danny from blowing out this pants during a rigorous dance routine, (detailed in Episode 66 of GSC) and sure as hell nothing could have saved this jacket from Tommy Boy. By the way, I have searched high and low for the video of Danny’s squatter ass escaping confinement, but it’s buried somewhere beneath half a decade of internet debris.***
Anyway, finding pants and shorts that fit can be difficult, especially for women. Athletic apparel in general for women has changed drastically. There is some obviousness to this problem because everyone is shaped differently. Even between two individuals of the same height and roughly the same weight can carry that weight differently.
Athletic builds and lifestyles chased many men away from jeans period and only the recent addition of form fits have brought some back for limited use.
What kind of jeans should men buy? Whether it’s the athletic look or for fashion there are plenty of possibilities.
Shorts are another quandary. Stylistically it seems we are closer to the old 1982 Bike Coaching short days than we are the Fab 5 when it comes to the athletic lifestyle. While it might be a surprise that the banners are down at Michigan, it’s pretty easy to find people who can easily recall the lingering impact on the athletic short game. Ironically, the baggy shorts of the Fab 5, ended up being much shorter than the double down (literally) that came in the late 90s and early 2000s. Allen Iverson had some really baggy shorts, and really good words about practice. Then the trend reversed. Mobility, durability and efficiency of movement became king and the shift was to short because, as Jorge Castillo writes, “bigger got too big.”
Shop the Caffeine and Kilos Panther Performance Short Now
So, in the gym, one wanted a good short to lift in, then maybe head into the gym for some basketball. If things went wrong shot-wise, well, you could just blame arm day.