Episode 21: BLCF Adaptive Athlete Markus Rossmeisl

I am so sore. Oh my gosh. I am so sore. (rock music) Yeah. What do we even do yesterday? I am so sore today. Oh my goodness. You know it. Oh man, that worked out on Friday. Had me a sore all weekend long. All right. How does your body feel on a scale of 0 to 10? Zero being. You feel awesome. 10 being. You got hit by a bus. Where are you at? Six. All right. Not bad. Maybe today's day you take it easy. Definitely the dead lips. Heavy dead lips. (rock music) All right. Welcome to the RU SOAR podcast. This is Paul McCallister. And we are recording as always from Bridge Leach CrossFit here in Cyprus, Texas. We can all take a big deep breath now because the open is behind us. We're kind of in this waiting period between the open ending and those of us who qualified for the quarter finals to get started. That's going to get started next week. Years truly somehow elbowed his way into that. So it's kind of been looming over me thinking about what that's going to look like. I keep saying it's going to, I feel like it's going to be like if you ever showed up at a party that you weren't invited to and everybody's kind of looking at it and saying, "Hey, do you know here?" I'm like, "Ah, they told me I could come." I don't know. So we're going to find out. But congratulations again to everybody who made it, especially to all the 40 and overs from Bridge Leach's that got in there. We had a strong showing from our master's athletes. I told PJ yesterday, this place is going to get a reputation that maybe she doesn't want, that it's like the old people's gym. But anyway, that's not there here nor there. So open's behind us, quarters are ahead. But today's podcast, I wanted to get in before then because this is something that I've been wanting to do for a while ever since he kind of approached me with the idea. Because I just thought it was perfect and we have a really unique athlete here that we're fortunate to all get to know. And I want to hear his story. I don't want to bring it to you guys. So Marcus is here. I'm too scared to even try the last name again. You just toured me on it not 30 seconds ago and I've already lost all confidence in this. So give it to me. It's Ross Meisel. Ross Meisel. That's the American version. He gave me the actual version and I wouldn't try that in a million years. So Marcus, welcome to the podcast. We're glad to have you. Thanks for having me, Paul. You bet. So here's kind of my vision for this podcast. Kind of my vision for us today. Okay. Obviously we want to talk about adaptive athletes, what makes you an adaptive athlete. So we're going to kind of start there. But then I want to hop around a little bit. Kind of go back to the beginning and get us up to present day Marcus and talk a little bit about what's ahead for you. So if that works for you, I'm going to just kind of try to steer the ship here. I might get distracted, get. Start to steer off on exits a little bit early, but at least that's the road map I came up with. It's a complicated topic. It is a complicated topic and one that I knew nothing about until I started to get to know you. So Marcus. Marcus has a condition called CIDP. What is that stand for? That stands for chronic inflammatory, demilinating, pauling, or apathy. So that's obviously handful. So basically the gist of it, my body decides to attack the outer layer of my peripheral nerves and eat some alive basically. Causes all kinds of issues with function, strength, mainly obviously. I mean it's obviously in peripheral nervous system which means arms and legs mainly affected for most people. In my case, I have something that affects my autonomous system too. And so then you deal with blood pressure issues, heart rate issues, gastro issues, all kinds of stuff. So just all the stuff that you don't think about that your body runs gets a little out of whack on top of it. Okay, and how long ago did you get diagnosed with this? You got diagnosed in 2013. It's been 11 years. 11 years? Okay, had you ever heard of it before? I've never heard of it before. I had no idea. Initially it was diagnosed with the ombarase syndrome which is the acute version, not the chronic. And then since I didn't get better over time, I would change it chronic, but it's very similar. And maybe some people have heard of gionbarate. Most people have never heard of CIDP unless they know someone that has it. It's very rare to see these effects of about 2 to 3 out of 100,000 every year. Most people come down in their after their 40s with it. And they don't really know what actually triggers it. I mean, the only correlation to have a lot of people come down with it after preceding sickness. But why? You know, I could have a virus and come down with CIDP, you have to say Mars. Yeah. And nothing happens to you, right? They don't know why. Okay, so there's nothing that causes this. I mean, genetic. No genetic relations. No genetic relations to it now. Okay, all right. So I'm going to ask you one question to kind of set the table for again, where I want to hopefully kind of build up to. And so I guess kind of in the most concise term or the concise way for you to sum up. What is the biggest challenge you face today with this condition? The biggest challenge is I'm in constant pains. I have no apathy pain. That's everywhere in my body. Functionally unlimited. And my strength is probably at 60, 70% of a normal person. And just about all my limbs. And then on top of it, I have two numb legs from the knees down. So I can't feel anything if you were to kick me in the shins. It wouldn't matter. Wow. Wow. Okay. All right. So let's rewind. Let's get back to young Marcus. Obviously you're not from Cypress, Texas. No, I'm not. Where are you born? Where are you from originally? I was born in Germany, a small town called Ashaffenburg. It's about 30 miles east of Frankfurt. And I know it was tip of Poveria. I grew up there. Did Jim competitive gymnastics. Okay. All the way up to 14. I blew my ACL out. Kind of retired for a little bit after that. After that, I had touched a bunch of other stuff from TechWondo to play a lot of soccer. So obviously it's Germany. You can't get around not playing soccer. You can go up in Germany. And just been generally active all my life for the most part. Always doing something. I'm kind of jack of all trades for see some more try it. Yeah. Something always active. Then came to the S in 1998. No, brought you here. My wife brought me here. That's kind of interesting stories. She's American. Or. She is and her mom is technically German. But she was adopted by Americans when she was six. So my kids technically are 75% German because of that. It's obviously half German. So yeah, so we met actually in an AOL chat room way back then with our friends. Oh my gosh. And she got coincidences. Yeah. Just started talking and it just went from there. That's old school. That's pretty. Yeah. Yeah. All the dating sites and everything that's out was done originally in the early internet days. So Jim asks you did that for all. You're a big guy. Like you're when you think about male gymnasts or at least the one that I see there. They're not as tall as you. You probably were a lot. You know what the interesting fact is up until a finished high school. I was a second shortest in my class. Oh my gosh. Are you serious? Okay. So you know, at 17, 18, I don't know when I stopped growing but then rewrite. But when I was doing gymnastics I was small enough waiting to affect me. Yeah. And then all of a sudden I just boomed up. All right. So born, raised in Germany moved over to the US when? 1998. 1998. Okay. You've been here for a while. So have you always been in Texas? Yes. I've used a little over used and versatile to use and then pay a land for a long time. And then back to Cyprus. Are you an engineer? No, I'm not actually an IT guy. Okay. All right. Well, technically I trade on my bankers. It was a banker in Germany when I came to the US kind of switched over to IT. Yeah. And while I still work in IT now I'm going to fall more into governance risk compliance and financial reporting stuff. Okay. Got you. All right. So you have this knee injury when you're a young gymnast. You mentioned you kind of moved over into other sports, soccer. When you got out of high school, out of college, how did you stay active? What were you doing to stay in shape? Yeah. Besides work, obviously work I did a lot of doing the summer. There was a lot of pool swim, jumpboard diving. You know, that kept me active there swimming and that during the winter, ice skating and then bridge between pool time and ice skating season was like in line skating. Wow. Wow. Wow. - I get a lot of hard things. - No, it's not that hard. Ice candy can wear you out. - I can, and it's a pretty injury prone sport too. A lot of people that blew out a bunch of stuff, thankfully I got lucky. - So when did you get into weight training? And more things kind of like what we do around here. - I did a little bit of weight training in Germany, in mid-20s, with a friend of mine, just to, for the lack of having other stuff to do, you know, kind of mixed it up between weight training and playing squash. - Right. - I don't know, most people know what squash is basically European version of frackered ball kind. So that's obviously very intensive on the knees too. So kind of didn't want to do that the whole time, just mix it up with the way lifting. But never really see it was just, at that point in time was very skinny and had no muscles whatsoever. So just tried to gain some weight. - Billed sack, yeah. - And never really worked back then. Now we should go back to that weight. But yeah. - Yeah. - So it was more on the side, it was never anything serious. - Have you gotten into American sports for where you're, he's wearing a football jersey today for FIFA team? And there is a, there is a strong with mighty contingency of fans. And then this trivia team, I'll talk about on the podcast sometimes with Scott Basinger, Nicole Zunker, and then Dane Birchett, who's Kelly Birchett's husband and his friend Corey, all of them, just these rabbit soccer fans. They know everything about all the leagues and they talk about it and they're always talking about going to the games that come around here in Houston. And one day I just had to tell them, I was like, guys, I'm just, I'm never gonna be interested in that. So we just, I think get, need to get that right out here in the open. They just, they don't understand it. But so I'm always curious as people who come from parts of the world who where that dominates, if you're able to kind of gain appreciation for some of the sports here in the US that are more popular. - I'll watch some of it and it's mainly, when it gets to the end of the season playoffs or whatever I get a little bit into it, but other than that, I really don't, you know, baseball, I've been to a few live baseball games that just, you know, I'm going to just say it, that just point to it. - Yeah. I took my nine year old Tanner to a high school game around here the other day. It was just, we were looking for something to do and they were playing and we made about four innings. And it wasn't that exciting. There weren't a lot of runs being scored, nor very many hits, but he was dead. That was so boring. I was like, I don't know. I don't know, but, you know, you kind of have to pretend to like it when you live in this country. (laughing) And then, you know, American football, I watch it, but I just don't understand all the rules like, you know. - Well, they're constantly changing. - Yeah, and then there's a yellow flag and I have no idea what's going on. - Yeah. - It's like, yeah, I don't know. I can watch it, but it's just too much stopage for me. - Right. - And then basketball, basketball is exciting. I can watch that. - Well, the basketball's big in Europe. - Yeah. - And so, yeah, that's probably the one that kind of brings the world together. I would think more than baseball. Yeah. - All right, well, let's kind of get caught up to closer to where we are presently. So, when, what was going on around the time that you started experiencing symptoms for the first time, kind of leading to your diagnosis? - The symptoms actually started. I had just switched jobs and we were traveling to Calgary for business trip, which is needed. Let's go about an office for the IT infrastructure and stuff. And we just got off a plane in Calgary, checked out bags, dropped the bags at the hotel, and we're walking to the office, stop for lunch, a little sandwich, and all of a sudden I just got dizzy, like we were all. And then not the spinning kind of dizzy, more like a lightheaded, kind of weird feeling, hard to describe really. And then, painfully, I must have gotten real pale with it and my boss looking at me like, what's wrong? - And this is all happening in like, - How should I pay it? - Yeah, real short period, like, I mean, just came out and nowhere. Yeah, and I'm thinking, I had, before when I'm trip two weeks prior, I had like any infections. I'm thinking, well, maybe the prior infection and the plane ride just gave me some sort of weird vertigo or something. Anyways, my boss, seeing me all pale, just sending me the hotel, like, I'd just go back and get rest. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Okay, that all sounding good. So I'll go to the hotel room and then things just got really worse. So I don't only got dizzyed and I started to dry heav, pretty much dry heaved all night. Got back pain all the sudden, I don't know where everywhere. And then some extreme fatigue kicked in. And it was really hard, it was kind of almost felt like I've been up for three days straight without any sleep. - So it's kind of fatigue? - We're still in like the same 24 hour period. - Yeah, this is like all within like, five, six hours. - Oh gosh. - I mean, I could barely move. I mean, literally just dragged myself from the bed to a totally dry heav. And I never threw up, which was weird too, I just dry heaving and dry heaving and dry heaving, pretty much all night and just back and forth trying to get rest. And of course, no idea. So in the morning, boss takes me to the yard and they basically clue us, let's say this way, that I noticed what's called benign positional way to go. For like, you're just based on really history that you really have anything else to go on. Didn't really have anything to give me, but made the recommendation of probably should fly back home if I can, that the earliest convenience, some of the job pulled the field strings, kept me off-line back out that afternoon and went back. And then the nightmare began of getting a diagnosis. - Yeah. So. - So who do you see first? - So I went to the ENT first. I could obviously thought I was a vertical. She had, she, pretty much immediately said, well, I don't think it's benign positional way to go because they're not showing the typical symptoms. So she didn't really know. I went to a regular doctor, you had no idea, all the blood work came back, normal, nothing. And at this point, I'm still just dealing with basically dezeners and the fatigue mainly, right? And then some stomach obviously issues. And then eventually about two weeks in, I'm getting some more neurological symptoms. Now I got tingling in my fingers, tingling in my legs, legs feel real heavy. And like almost couldn't move them type of thing. So now I'm thinking, well, maybe I should see a neurologist. So, you know, most people know, getting in with an neurologist kind of. - What are you thinking, I guess maybe privately, like are you just diagnosing yourself at this point or are you kind of, are you getting pretty scared? 'Cause. - Not quite yet. I mean, obviously, go out being a gym, you have a pretty good body awareness. You know when something's wrong. I just couldn't put my finger on it. I knew someone was seriously wrong. I just didn't know what. And they, one of the regular doctors kind of tried to put it down and it's, okay, you just stressed out anxiety type of thing. And you know, that goes. And you know, I'm thinking to myself, there's no way I'm stressed out. Lily had just changed job from really high stress and more to more malo things. Like, yeah, it was nothing stressful about any of this. - Yeah. - Yeah. Yeah, I don't try to sell me the stress out. - Right. - Excuse me. So I'm chasing basic diagnosis by myself. I'm just trying to figure out which doctor to hit first. So then I noticed some hard rate issues from high to low. I don't know where palpitations really extreme low hard rate. I mean, I always run low, but there was lower than low. So then I saw cardiologists, he couldn't find anything. And then eventually ended up with an neurologist and he just basically said, "Oh, you've just got post-viral symptom." Okay, yeah. What does that mean? - Yeah. - I just put you on some steroids and you should be good to go. - So are you, are you pretty much, during all this, are you able to at least try to stay active or are you just kind of? - No, at that point it was just-- - Couldn't really function the way you-- - Pretty much suffering to work. - Okay. - For lack of having an actual diagnosis, someone actually sent me home six, like, okay, nothing's wrong with you, you gotta work. So basically suffering to eight hours of work, coming home and pretty much just passing out on the couch. But I couldn't, in between doing the work, just to not fall apart, it took some small walks that tried to stay, and it made me feel better, which was very interesting. So every time I felt like my legs were about to just not move, function just went on a walk and immediately felt better. I could never put a finger on that eat it. - I'm looking at your son over here. He's looking about, like, he's around 11 years old, if I had to guess, I'll hold. - He's 13, okay, so he was very, very young when all this was going on. - He was very young, yeah, and we just had another, he's got a 17-month-young-aged sister, so she was a toddler at that time. - Okay, grief. - So yeah, so we basically had toddler, then a three-year-old, yeah, and then that's some other issues with some teenage kids too. And so yeah, it was a lot-- - A lot of you on your plate, yeah. - And then you just tried around to these doctors and you're not getting any answers. - Yeah, okay, so when did you get some answers? - Eight months later. - Eight months. - And that was basically just by accident, because with all the back pain, it's on auto, and he-- He saw some stuff in my neck where he wanted to do surgery and so almost had neck surgery for nothing. But his last step was okay get an EMG done by a neurologist and give me a list but at that point it went into kind of narrowed a little bit down what it maybe could be. So found me specialist in the Guillain-Barré, CIDP area to duty EMG. So is CIDP anywhere on the radar at this point had you even heard it yet? Now Guillain-Barré was on the radar but kind of like I'm not sure. Because it wasn't maybe I should preempt it. Most people that come down with Guillain-Barré hit them so bad they're actually paralyzed. Temporarily. The neurologist shut down and he can't even move people on the ventilator for a month at a time before they recover. So since I never got there and then also people said well most people lose their reflexes I never did. Which is not normal to do. Which probably didn't help my case for most doctors either. So then eventually I end up with this neurologist and she knows that EMG and she looks at it and then EMG and she did a nerve conduction study as well. Which basically just shows how long it takes from point A on a nerve to go to point B that's longer long than nerve long and then compares it with average and then she just looks at it like yeah. I think it is wrong in that he have some mouth going on. Didn't want to spit out diagnosed as he had until she ran a few other tests. After a few more tests including his spinal tab and which is finally landed on Guillain-Barré at the time. Obviously it was changed later to the CIDP. So yeah eight months. And then at that point I was already kind of on the upswing so it was kind of too late to really do any treatments. No, it was just a matter of time, sitting out and waiting until I get mostly better. Okay. So I'm wondering how scared you are at this point because I would think, here's what I asked this question. Like before I got to know you but I was seeing you and hear all the time seeing you working with the PT's, my instincts were that you were either suffering from MS or maybe ALS and thank goodness you're not. But did those things ever cross your mind? No, they definitely did. And basically CIDP is pretty much the peripheral brother of MS. Okay. Two certain degrees. Cross my mind, ALS, I mean there's all kinds of worst things that cross my mind too. And I have one point another, probably three, four months in, there's a lot of stuff I put in order just in case something happens. Right? I mean you don't know what's going on. I'm thinking this is not getting any better. Okay. Make sure if something does happen to me and my wife knows what to find of it. Right. And sad to say but it was scary time. Yeah. That's dark. So many unknowns, I mean I can only imagine how frustrating them must have been, not just for you but also your wife. So okay so you've got a diagnosis. How did you internalize that? What was kind of your natural response? I mean, it was relief because at that point it was Guillain-Barré which in the perfect world is okay you take a big hit and then you would cover and you just keep getting better. Right? At that point in time I looked that way so I was like okay, once I'm done dealing I'm on the uprising getting better and nothing to worry about anymore. Well I was wrong. That was a mode of operative at the time. So after that visit I started to finally do more things again. Okay. I started to walk, work my way up to finally be able to run a mile maybe by the symbol. So I got diagnosed, I mean I came down with the first symptoms in January of 2013. So then by December of 2013 I was able to run a mile. Okay. Obviously not where I wanted to be but at least I could run a mile. Yeah. And then just worked off on there then decided was a good idea to encourage other people that can download sickness that you can come back from it and decided well I always wanted to do triathlon so I kind of worked my way into trying to do a triathlon. I eventually did in 2015 but it took me that long to get to that level. Yeah. So two and a half years basically to get somewhat good enough and shape and that wasn't the great triathlon either which was winging in basically. So but I got it done and kept that up for another year and then at the end of 2016 I had a real bad relapse. Okay. And then spawned the CRDP diagnosis and ever since it's been more of a frequent flare up cycle and continues worsening of symptoms. Since 2016 it has been. Yeah. Okay. So what do these flare ups look like? They come with extreme fatigue, pain, you know and before about two years ago the pain cycles, the pain came and eventually went away. Since about two years ago the pain has been non-stop 24/7 and the only thing and we've tried playing in medications obviously. Yeah. And tried 13 so far and none of them have even touched it. But you know in the price I think one thing that does work is working out. And you know the work really long and it works during the workout in my last another hour but it does work. Right. So that obviously gives me a little extra motivation to actually do stuff because that helps for the pain. Now I mean look it's amazing. I mean I don't want to trivialize your condition and try to blur it into an injury that I had and overcame for the most part but it was really bad and it was really painful for a long time but when I couldn't do anything else you know what I hear you saying sounds very familiar like I would come up here and I would get on the bike for 30 minutes and I could do that and it would make all the pain go away while I was on the bike and then for a little while afterwards. And I just wanted to do that as much as I possibly could because it took me out of kind of that dark painful state that I knew was waiting on me and then I was kind of was able to get back to where I was running. So I ran as much as I could for the same reasons and you know it seems so simple but I tell my wife, my kids, anybody who will listen you know when they're dealing with something like look I know it seems counterintuitive but you gotta get up and start moving around and you'll be amazed at how your body responds to that. Not totally agree with that. I see it with a lot of people that have what I have that don't move. Right. And it's a night and day difference. I'm not saying I'm all that great or whatever but once I start shutting down it's downhill for me. That's I think a sedentary lifestyle is the most deadly thing you can invite into your world you know and I've seen it with family members but I've also just kind of heard it through that through medical professionals just talking about the dangers of just not moving. And so we're designed to move and be active and our bodies need that. Alright so when did you discover CrossFit along the way? It was kind of kind of stumbling to me so I was I forgot to mention it earlier when I came to the US I kind of picked up gymnastics again and I'd also been did that a little bit in my throat is kind of dropped when the kids came along and got too busy. I picked it back up on 18, 19 for a little bit and obviously 20 came around and everything shut down. I kind of got to the right side but I did pick up skating again during that time. And then 21 still doing gymnastics and then when I lost my legs or my left leg went out there was about Thanksgiving of 22 and then I needed obviously if you can't feel your leg anything gymnastics comes a little more convoluted and you can do floor every gymnastics apparatus has a dismount. You can't feel your leg at dismount is not a good option. So I was like okay what I can do you know for a crossfit kind of tapered around a bit even tried and opened before just to see what I you know what can a gym that's do found out will bad that really yeah gym is so strong but they're not crossfit strong. So I was like okay what I can do was I looked at the crossfit and saw that they have an adapter so this is perfect. Yeah. Yeah I got the least foundation here and try to see that and then while trying to get the classification done for the adaptive divisions that you had to do this physical exam or whatever and trying to find a doctor to do that for me was kind of pain. So someone pointed out that Sarah might be able to do that for me. Okay. Sarah and then after talking at and kind of all went from there like and she agreed that functional fitness is great for me especially overcoming a numb leg which then eventually turned into two numb legs and it's been a godsend basically. I mean the sheer progress I made would sell within a few weeks was ridiculously good. I mean I remember you coming in here with braces on your arms. Yeah I had two crutches to get around. Yeah because I don't have to do that. Trust my leg I mean it was wiping out at home left and right because it was constantly falling. Mm-hmm. Interest my leg at all. I mean it was working but if you can't feel it you just don't trust it. Yeah. Felt down to stay up twice so obviously confidence level was really low. And just say I got me a spot. Okay. You just need to work with it and get it and she had me going real quick. So what was her, was she familiar with CIDP at all? I don't think she knew about it but she wasn't super familiar but she obviously has a way of okay. Well know your legs working we just need to get the body to acknowledge that it's still there. Yeah. It works so she started me off with real small little things just to make my brain trust my leg without feeling my leg. Mm-hmm. Now obviously I can feel a buffer leg so there's other points of contact and help over it. Yeah. I just wasn't trusting any of that. And so she just got me real quick too. Okay. Yeah you can do things still. Yeah. You can squat, you can walk. You know, drop the crutch. Yeah. What must that have felt like when you started to. It was great news guys. And you know I mean still using on sometimes you know some bad days I use it. Yeah. If I go in big crowds I use it just because I just don't. It's too risky to get knocked over without knowing that you get knocked over. Yeah. But I mean it was liberating. Tell me a little bit about the adaptive athlete kind of community. And you said you kind of came upon it throughout looking at CrossFit. But you know I think for the most part the people here in this CrossFit community probably don't know much about it. Not in Hollywood. Yeah. So it's the adaptive and last year CrossFit arena I went adaptive and after last year I got rid of it and handed over to real world which has been doing this for I think at least 10 years no longer. And I got a better hand-loan and I also got better classifications what the categories are. Like last year CrossFit they had a casual what they called multi-extremity category which I fell into. Yeah. Where we want has more specific neuromuscular division and they even subcategorize that in a minor moderate and major and I fall in a moderate category. But it's more aimed towards the MS people, the IDP, CP people, more in every God versus just okay limb deficiencies. You know I have categories for that and not just all lumped together in the one category which was a little challenging the last year. So I think we watered this point has total of 15 categories per gender is a total of 30. Aving from one point in contact, two point intellectual, short stature, vision, can't remember what all. So it's very extensive. Okay. And they do a bit of a good job classifying the people in a ride category and if they see after a competition season where maybe a moderate is way too high performing but we're going to put them in minor next year or something. You know they're just along the way to make it fair for the most part. Yeah. I think it's always going to be totally fair because obviously in a neuromuscular myseidp is totally different than someone else's CIDP and someone MS and all that stuff so it's not always the exact same but you know try to make it as fair as possible. Right. So how many you just came out of the open and for adaptive athletes? I remember being up here a couple of times when you were doing your workouts. How many people are entered kind of in that little segment that. Depends on how many neuromuscular are roughly about 30 to 35 people for each category. Where I think see some of the wheelchair categories a lot heavier. Maybe 60 to 70 people I think. So yeah but my category was 33 people we started off with 33 people for. Just in the US. No that's not like that. Worldwide okay got it. And I think four dropped out along the way as they were in number 29 on the school board. They're still finalizing our school board won't be final until Monday. Okay. They did pretty deep clean up this week so I think they're almost done based on a leaderboard right now I mean 17th. Oh nice. And top 20 make it the same ice. So we skipped quarters we go straight to same ice. Oh nice. Congrats. Good job. Thank you so hopefully yeah it's not officially yet but it looks good so far. So what was the worst part for you during the opening? The first workout with the burpees. Yeah. But if you can't feel your legs burpees it's just a nightmare. Yeah. Just getting up out of that position is just horrible. Yeah. And then you know not saying that thrusters were much better but it wasn't as many of them. Yeah the burpees just absolutely kill me. So does some of the gymnastics stuff we do in here? I mean do you respond to that pretty well just based on your background? I do. Yeah. I mean obviously keeping pull ups and that kind of stuff come either I was like could lose somewhere and make it easier but the movements are there. If I were actually getting hands down walks that would be really nice. Uh huh. The sad thing is we'll probably never get them. Yeah. Because newer musklers there's a lot of newer musklers that can go upside down at all. Uh. So that probably will never program any of the competitions. Right. Well I like to do handstands I'll probably never see it in a competition. Yeah well I can. I got nothing keeping me from doing handstands and I just can't do them. Actually I tried the other day we had a handstand walk in the workout and I just decided to just to work on them. Uh kind of throw the whole like uh stemming us out the window and see how I could do and um I actually did a lot better than I thought but I was. I was so so it was like a new kind of sore that I haven't experienced in here yet from doing all those handstand walks the next day and it lasted for nan at least three days so uh. It works out different musklers than it does. It sure does. I think a lot of CrossFit has gone like the basics of the actual handstand. Uh huh. And yeah what I see a lot is people just throw in kind of it's more like a controlled fall. Uh huh. Instead of actually working on your handstand form first and then try to walk. Yeah that's probably I would fall into that category. Just I'm still on that Wagner. He was the coach of that day kind of helping me out and um I said uh most of the times I just get upside down and I'm just gonna think all right now what do I do because I feel like if I move my hands one inch I'm falling down. Uh I think the the best thing for me to do is not think about it and just get up and just start moving as fast as I can and that's when I usually saw it work in the best. Actually good trick on that is to open your shoulders more. Oh yeah. Yeah because then it actually gives you more lean in the ride to actually kind of like walking. Yeah. If you walk your lean a little bit forward to move faster. Your open your shoulders get a more of a lean. Makes sense. I'll try it. Yeah. I don't know. I can use all the help I can get. So what is the the adaptive athlete community like I mean it's such a specifically like in where you fall 33 people around the world seems like that would be pretty easy for you guys to connect or being some level of community is that is that where it is or is it? It is through a certain degree. So last year after the CrossFit Open and it was obviously still a regular view art competition and when we went through the semi-finals we kind of created this Instagram group chat for everyone that was competing last year. So we have this people of I think at 9 or 10 now. Yeah. A little small chat group which is all encouraging to other shared stuff. And so we just chit chat in the long end it's like real great and encouraging. It's like there's no really putting anyone down it's all encouraging. For the most part I'm not saying there are some black sheep out there but for the for the most part it's very we're encouraging and supportive of each other. Oh yeah well I mean I know that that's that's going to be I don't know that would that would bring me a lot of comfort people out there that understand what you're dealing with. Yeah. And I can only imagine like during that period where it was just doctor after doctor test after test medicine after medication and nothing's turning up it's got to be kind of a lonely feeling at that point because it is for sure and then you know and then when you come out of it not knowing anybody that's in a similar position trying to push through the stuff there's very few people out there that go to the extremes of keep pushing. Yeah. And I found some of those people is we're encouraging to see and you all got all got down our lows or all got our highs. But frankly I'm going to have to say this most people do not understand what it means to deal with the chronic disease. Yeah. And training with the chronic disease is just a whole different level quite frankly those days I just can't I just can't do anything. Yeah. And then some you got to count for in your training. right now you have a training plan okay I should be doing this today and I can't yeah then when you do it what is the goal what do you try to what kind of schedule do you try to stay on as best you can I do right now I got a programming for three and I got myself last year was kind of just winging it based on a being real-world standard programming that's where everybody but I found myself neglecting the stuff I should be working on yeah who doesn't right right yeah so a bit to bowl at the latest year and got me an actual real coach so and then she focuses on my weaknesses obviously so goal is to work out a week if I have extra time I throw in some extra supportive stuff or just some cardio just to supplement but three full workouts a week so how do you feel right now relative to the last 11 years it's kind of I'm better than I was when I first had the first symptoms obviously something's worse the pains obviously worse right now but I kind of learned how to deal with it functionally I'm definitely better than I was for sure stronger so I think I'm a good spot you know I've learned how to deal with mentally and one thing I forgot to mention early in 2017 when I had my second relapse I was dealing with some real bad anxiety and turn out in a summary that was due to okay well now chronic obviously dealing with that and what the other thing is that apparently the brain misinterprets the bad signals it gets from a nose and turns into anxiety because I know what to do with it yeah so that took me while to figure that out and deal with that got ethics with newer feedback which is an amazing tool by the way interesting so yeah kind of e-programs your brain yeah and work wonders but yeah that was a challenge too because I was basically I couldn't get myself anyway was that my wife had taken me everywhere because I was so bad with anxiety I just didn't want to go anywhere well so that's obviously gone so coping very well on my I mean pretty much independent right now even besides the legs I can drive I can do anything I'm still working every I mean yeah thankfully I'm remote I don't know how would the event actually had to go the office every day yeah but that was obviously godsend and it's working great that's great so what is what is kind of the quality of life outlook from here moving forward I mean are they able to the doctors are they able to set any kind of expectation for you we don't know because it's I don't fall into the typical category that was most the other people they get on what's called IVIG treatments which basically just a bunch of blood plasma from donors combined kind of medication that keeps them at bay that doesn't work for me so we've tried a different option last year with an infusion October the meantime for that one to kick in is six month can take up to 12 months so it hasn't done anything so we don't know yeah change them might not do anything so we're kind of just managing day by day and see how bad it gets or not or just stay steady yeah interesting I kick myself a couple of times into a mission by myself without medication which is unusual to yeah so we'll open that might kick back in don't know yeah I think the exercise for the most part is what keeps it right now I can probably guarantee you if I were to stop doing everything I'm doing right now I'll probably go down it will go yeah any research out there going on right now that gives you any kind of hope or optimism as far as cure just management of it beyond I think there's one medication on the radar that might show some hope that something could be released later this year that came out with a new variant of the IVIG which we don't think is an option because it's still the same category just how it's administered is a little different so that other medication I mean it's a it's not a new medication just a medic it's an older medication just show an effects for CIDP too so gonna one sets a proof we're probably gonna try that after we pass the rating period to see if this loss infusion didn't anything well you know this is a this is an amazing story and you know a lot of people myself included around here we deal with a lot of nagging stuff and especially kind of when you get up in your 40s and 50s like a lot of a star that come here and I can I can privately on the bad day start to wonder if this is something that I need to keep doing and here and you talk about it really kind of turns that on its head so you know one thing when when you first came out with all you saw yeah my immediate thought is I'm actually happy when I am sore and you know the reason is when I'm sore I don't feel my other pain as bad that's awesome so it's a different pain yeah and it just gives me relief from the other so yeah I actually prefer to be sore just to get some sort of distraction man that makes a lot of sense yeah we should rejoice in the sort as for sure now that's great uh yeah Marcus has always been an encouragement to the podcast you I know your loyal listener you've even mentioned the fact that you like some of them music that I play yeah there's not many people that say that around here so I'm a music enthusiast I collect a lot of records but we too many from our lives to this but yeah here you listen to now my main band is the Peshmo yeah always been so yeah I mean they've been around for over 40 years now and still kicking it that's great well Sarah Brown she sounds like she's been a real blessing to you and she certainly has to me and to my family um just I can't say enough about her um she's um she was on the second already sore podcast I remember bringing up a story about my older brother who's double out of surgeries a lot of orthopedic injuries from his football days I kind of took her down the laundry list of surgeries and everything that he's had and and asked her to like is is this someone that has cut out for CrossFit and I remember she said CrossFit is for everyone and when she said that back then I kind of sort of believed her you know but I wasn't completely sold and now you know obviously talking to you seeing you and you and you and seeing the work that she's done with you and how you've made it not told you I mean it's totally true and at no point in time did I ever feel like I wasn't able I mean Sarah always pretty much knew I was gonna be able to do this yeah whatever she's going through every she knew was gonna be able to do it which is great yeah she never yeah she never waivers and what she thinks you're capable of you know and that's I think one of the the great things about her you know is she just she delivers that confidence in you that she believes that that what she's saying and what she's telling you to do and by her doing that it kind of it makes you believe that you can do it too my totally agree and then the other thing she does too which is great which some people may or may not like is and I was talking to someone the other day how we sometimes can take our sickness illness is to come up with excuses not to do something yeah but yeah I had this limitation I can't really do this Sarah be the first one is like well don't be talking nonsense like okay she'll kick you in gear right from the get like okay don't use your sickness as an excuse not to do stuff or which is great which you love yeah I might not want to hear it at the time but it's still probably what you need yeah so you know told the person I'm talking to is like yeah my PT is not gonna let me get away with it no she's not that's awesome well Marcus kind of as we think about wrapping up like what's what goals do you have yourself I mean you've you've really probably if I had to guess exceeded the expectations of your physicians and then most of the people out there that are knowledgeable about this condition just because of how you've taken this hat on but I know that there's probably more that you want to do and why you still can so anything in particular that you kind of want to achieve yeah obviously staying competitive and maybe eventually making it to finals I don't see that's happening this year looking at the field and you know the other problem on dealing with right now is you mentioned age group earlier I am up against people are by average 20 years young yeah you don't have the luxury of about to turn 54 and I'm dealing with you know a lot of 20 some things and the average age is 34 yes and you showed me that video the other day and yeah I'm not trying to I don't know this guy I don't know what he's dealing with but when you showed it to me you said he is supposed to be doing pull ups and getting his chin over the bar and this is - His gap was not getting any workloads to that and he had a judge standing there that was counting to everyone. So that-- - There's someone that's big pet peeve of my, obviously coming from gymnastics by ground. And most people know that gymnastics judging is pretty tough for those parts. So I try not to take shortcuts of my move and obviously say, oh, won't let me get away with it anyway. I'm just gonna try to use some of my workouts. I just think people should treat it as such as a real competition and not just submit. This guy did get his score adjusted though I don't think they adjusted it as they should but he did get downgraded. And rightfully so. And now if you can't read the rule book and we've seen other people and everyone knows if you read it or you're supposed to be in the full frame and then they're not in the frame constant. Okay, check your video before it's a minute. It's just small stuff. - Sure. - So, but yeah, I mean, there's someone at and then last year during the CrossFit Open I know there was one guy that ended up in 10th place and did everything scaled and never adjusted any of his scores. So like, you know, this has frustrating, right? But you just gotta deal with it. Its competition is gonna be some stuff. We just have to suck up and go through. So we'll see how it turns out. I mean, top 10 make it to finals. People have to accept the invitation. There's a lot of international people and I know if everyone once comes in and tell me maybe there's a small chance. But yeah, I'm not counting on it. I'm gonna do my best, obviously. - Yeah. - But. - Are you ready? - Yeah. - Well Mark, this is great. You've been in an encouragement to me and everybody out there who doesn't know him. Maybe season around. I recommend you come introduce yourself and get to know him more because this is an amazing story and should give us all a little kick in the pants at the very least. So I appreciate you coming up to me and having this idea because this is really good content. We mess around a lot in here, but I do also want to find ways to deliver kind of important messages and do that through really, really interesting people and you're certainly one of them. - No, I appreciate it. I kind of wanted to get the word out because I do realize that most people just, probably, they're just not exposed to the doubt 'cause they have no idea what it's really about. And probably heard about it, but it really don't know what does it really mean. - Yeah. - And quite frankly, I think there could be a lot of people that could get into the doubt of it and just never heard of it and therefore never try it. - Yeah, well I hope that somehow this interview can reach those people. We're gonna do this. We can't get it out there and how it encourage you guys to share with anybody that might be dealing with some kind of limiting condition and in any capacity because you never know. But what we do know is that stay inactive and just trusting your body to be resilient. It works and it's gonna make you feel better and it can do things that you don't think you can do anymore. So movement is medicine. - Movement is medicine. Motion is lotion. - Yeah. - This is another Sarah Brown. Might put that on my grave stone one of these days. (laughing) All right Marcus, thanks again. - Thanks a lot. - Enjoy having you. Have a good one. - You too. (upbeat music) - Marcus, man, what a story. So glad to get him in here and learn more about that. I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did and that you are at least as encouraged as I am because it just held nothing back and I really appreciate just how authentic he was during that conversation. And I really hope that this word gets out to a lot of people out there that maybe aren't sure what. They're capable of anymore because I think that they'll they'll draw a lot from Marcus and his story. So really enjoyed that one. We have got the future birds. They were the soundtrack to my week at the Masters earlier this week. They're gonna take it out today. You guys have a great rest of the week. Give it your best and a little bit more. We'll see you next time. (upbeat music) ♪ I can feel your love in my heart ♪ ♪ It seems possible to me ♪ ♪ My love ♪