[Doug]: Welcome to episode 24 of Feeling Through Live. I am honored to be joined by Cody Colchado today, who is a strongman. He was the 2015 World's Strongest Disabled Man, has 33 world championships, and that's just a small part of his story of which we'll be getting into many other elements of it. So, Cody, thank you so much for joining us today.
[Cody]: Hey, it's awesome to be here. I'm really excited. Um, it's an honor to be here.
[Doug]: Well, Cody, you know, again, there's, there's so much awesome stuff to get into today. But why don't we start in the, why don't we start in the beginning? Why don't you kind of walk us through, you know, your adolescence and kind of some seminal moments, you know, that happened for you in high school, that kind of really determined a lot of your life's journey.
[Cody]: Okay. Very good. Well, before we start, you know, I want to let you know, I'm five foot eight, I weigh 250 pounds and that's full of muscle. And I have a flat top with salt and pepper hair, looks like more in the snow, you know, on the rooftop. And I have a goatee, I got brown hair, brown eyes. And so that's how we start with the deafblind. And let me tell you the story. I grew up, I was born hard of hearing, 75 to 85% hearing loss. So I thought what everybody was talking about it is what I could hear and, Oh, okay, that's what it is. Well, I was not diagnosed until I was in second grade with my hearing loss. And so, um, it was very challenging to read lips and to compete in classroom. I had a hard time understanding and hearing all my teachera, so I would get frustrated and recess was my outlet. I mean, I enjoyed having recess and I really loved sport. And when I was in elementary and junior high, my whole goal in life, what to be a professional football player or baseball player. Well, in 1972, during the Olympic games, I saw all those flags. And I saw all those athletes and I saw Alexia, the big Russian strongman and a weightlifter. And I said, wow, it took five men to carry off the weightlifting bar. And I said that's what I want to be, I want to be one of the big guys. So I'm going through my life and I loved sports and I, my mom and dad, there in Bakersville, California, said, don't put all your eggs in one basket. You got to really try other things. So that's what I did. I've tried all sorts of sports, I tried music and I tried singing and I tried different sports and, one thing that kept coming back was football and baseball and lifting weights. Well, when I had a project, a freak accident, when I was 17 years old, my junior year of high school, I hit one of those sprinklers with my back of my helmet. And I went down to less than a three to five degree, I instantaneously, I went legally blind, like looking through a roll of paper towel, and now I'm like, Oh my God, wait, what happens now? I'm legally deaf. I'm legally blind. And what do I do with the rest of my life? So I was a little frustrated and, my parents kept encouraging me, so I went to a gym and I walked into Franklin Hills Barbell Club. And I said, who's the biggest and the baddest guy here? So I walked into the gym and they said that guy over there. So I went over there and I started working out with him. I said, my name is Cody Colchado, I'm going to lift whatever you can lift, and I'll do it. Now, you have to understand I'm a little snotty-nosed 17 year old. And this man, eventually became Mr. California in bodybuilding. So here he is, he's working out and I'm working out. And I had so much pain through my whole body for a whole week. I threw up almost every day through the workout. Well, the owner in the gym kind of like looked at me and he goes, you know, young man, come on over here. I'm the owner of the gym, Glenn Halfplet. Are you on drugs or something? Why are you so angry? Why are you so upset? And I said, sir, I'm legally deaf and I'm legally blind and I'm frustrated. I'm angry. Um, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life. You know, that's interesting. I have a niece that's blind and she belongs to the United States Association of Blind Athletes. Well, this was before the internet, okay. So we wrote a letter to you in Colorado Springs to the United States Association of blind athletes to inquire more about it. So in 1985, they wrote a letter back saying, yes you have the nationals and we have track and field and goal ball. And, powerlifting, I said, I told coach what is that? He goes that consists of three events, flying bench press and deadlifting. So there I am in the gym, he started teaching me about lifting the weights and starting with the bar. And I was really bad. I was so pathetic. It was like, oh my god, I couldn't balance myself. I couldn't squat right. I kept messing up. But you know, there's a big difference between quitting, bailing, and just don't do it no more. Well, my coach said, and you know, there's no quitting in this gym. You can fail and you can mess up, but you've got to keep trying the next day. Well, Doug, I have failed so many times and I know what failing is all about, but there is no quitting. You know what they say, quitters never win and winners never quit. So I went to my first nationals and guess what? I won it. And won that first national for the blind and I won numerous records, and I got numerous world championships. I've won 33 world championships for powerlifting, for the able-bodied and the disabled. I was the first American to win the World's Strongest Man in 2015 in the standing division. But everybody said, wait a minute, wait, you're blind and you're deaf and how did you win the World's Strongest Man? Well, there are two categories, there's a wheelchair division, and then theres a standing division. And what I love about the strongman guys is, well, when you go to one of the other competition for the Paralympics and the blind and well, you know, there are so many rules and there are so many restrictions. And when we went into strongman, and I always wanted to compete in strongman, but they always say, well, people with disabilities, well we don't know if we can do this for you. And it was just another barrier. So I continue with my power lifting and then we got a phone call and my workout partner said, Hey, they are having a national championship for disabled and strongman. And, you got two months to train for it. So we train for it. I was 52 years old after all my world championships, I would ready retire, Doug, and well, I found another sport and I won the nationals, qualified to go to a Hefiner Iceland, got to meet the world famous Magnis Ver Magnusson, and Innard and competed for team USA. And I was the first American to win the World's Strongest Man for the disabled. And it was an awesome experience. And my wife and I had a great, great time. We learned so many neat things. And one of the neat things about this World's Strongest Man in Iceland, it was in the middle of the one week long Viking festival. And there in Iceland there's 23 hours of daylight. Well, everybody had a hard time going to sleep. And I said, what the problem? I don't have a problem. I just turn off my hearing aid and then went to bed, but everybody else kept hearing all the music and all of the commotion. So it was a really neat experience. People of Iceland were awesome.
[Doug]: Well, Cody that's, you know, that you just went through so many really interesting things. And I wanna, I want to take a step back and kind of walk through some of them some more. So to go back to high school there. So, or even before that, so you were, you were born legally deaf and grew up hard of hearing. And, but you hadn't experienced any eyesight loss prior to that injury, is that correct?
[Cody]: That's correct. I had perfect 20/20 Vision, 180 degrees. I would, it would just beautiful eyesight.
[Doug]: And then it was this, like you were describing this kind of like free accident on the field that, where your helmet hit a sprinkler. And it was that the impact that immediately caused that first vision loss.
[Cody]: That's correct. And, um, we were doing, what's called the Oklahoma drill. And what that is when two football players are on their back and the coaches blow the whistle and you take on the lineman and get him out of the way and you tackled the running back. Well, it had been raining prior to that. And I was the one who was being the defensive man getting ready to tackle the running back. Was hitting weight, my weight, and all that weight landed on the sprinkler system and what we have in our eyes, in back of our eyes, we have what's called the cones and rods and there's crystals. Well, when I hit the sprinkler so hard that it's in an impulse where they stopped producing the crystals, which reflects the light image in your eye to your brain. And we went to, from there, we went to UCLA Medical Center, the Jules Stein Eye Institute, and we did a battery of tests for a whole week and they come back and the doctor asked my parents, you know, Mr. and Ms. Colchado, um, I have some bad news about your son. Um, do you guys have, uh, you're both working, right? And they go, yes. And we got the job. You're comfortable? Yes. Well take care of your son for the rest of his life. That's what the doctor told my parents. And then they found out through all the blood tests and all that battery tests that I have retinitis pigmentosa, Usher syndrome two do to the hearing loss. And they said, well, you're going to go totally blind when you're 50 years old, anyway. So, you know, 17 year old that's okay. You know, just deal with your tunnel vision and your blindness.
[Doug]: So just to recap this, so again, you were, you were born with 20/20 vision, but hard of hearing, you had this injury that caused immediate significant sight loss, and then, after going to the doctor to get evaluated, it wasn't until then, post injury, as a teenager that you get diagnosed with RP and realize that in addition to the sight loss that the injury caused, you're actually predisposed to lose the rest of your vision over time. Is that correct?
[Cody]: That's correct. That's correct.
[Doug]: So what your...sorry, go ahead.
[Cody]: You know, and when you know, and you get angry, and you get frustrated and you know, you blame God. Why me? Why am I going to go blind? I wanted to be a professional football player, baseball player. I wanted to go to the Olympics. Why are you picking on me, God? What did I do wrong? So I was cynical, I was angry, I was frustrated and I didn't know how to cope with life. And, uh, you know, I, my dad encouraged me to finish high school, go to college, you know, we'll work with it. Well, Doug I've been kicked out of college four times throughout my lifetime and, you know, and through a wonderful support system, my wife, we've been married for 30 short years. She's been awesome. She encouraged me to go back, learn the fundamentals. And through all this, I now have a bachelor's and a master's degree.
[Doug]: Well, that's, that's amazing. And I certainly want to get to all of that in a moment, but, you know, again, you were talking about, you know, just connecting the dots here of some stuff you'd already talked about, but you were saying as a young man, getting this diagnoses, realizing that you're going to lose the rest of your vision, and obviously learning all of this at a really young age, you were angry. Can you talk about, a little bit more about how you, how that anger has kind of been channeled into your weightlifting and like the relationship between anger and being in a weight room and what that's like?
[Cody]: Sure. Um, you know, when I went to the weight room in the gym, what is great about it is that, you know, you challenge yourself to lift weights and you bump into so many things. And so you have to, my coach and I started coming up with, he would write things on my palm and tell me where everything was at at the gym. And I started noticing where all the apparatuses were, all the tree stands and where all the dumbbells and barbells, and he said, you know, you're so good. And not only that you started lifting weight, he even offered me a job. So I was the assistant manager for the gym there for almost four years. And so it gave me that confidence to go in the weight room to lift weight. And it built up little by little, it built up my self esteem. It builds up, you know, they got what the, God gave you a built in, uh, endorphin, to make you feel good. And the only way you can get this endorphin is by working out and having fitness. So once I realized, wow, I can go to gym, I can stop feeling sorry for myself. And I started having confidence with my abilities. But it wasn't easy first. I mean, it was very frustrating. Um, people, you know, you can sense that somebody's looking at you, you can sense somebody's pointing at you or look at that poor guy over there, look at that, you know, um, that individual over there. And, um, it was hard for me at first because, and it was hard on my mom and dad and my dad, you know, when I first got the cane and my dad would say, oh my God, put that cane away you're embarrassing me. And it was really frustrating. And I know it's hard for my parents, to have a son that had a disability and deafblind. But he, you know, they encouraged me and Frank encouraged me. And Doug, you have to surround yourself with a good support system. And my coach and my parents and my wife, you know, that was a great support system and going into the gym, it's it, it was an obstacle because people will look at, uh, you know, get out of my way, you're, you're a weakling, well, I started getting a little angry and a little frustrating, and I had to earn the respect of other lifters. And when you start going to competition, you know, you're very nervous. You're like, gee, I only can bench 250 pounds. I only can squat 300, 400 pound. I only can deadlift 300 pounds. People are going to look at me, you know, I'm only 175 pounds and you get all those tough, tough doubts and those, uh, emotions. And when I went to my first competition, I still have my trophy. I got third place. And it was, it felt so good to win something. I finally got something that I've lost. And my next competition, three months later, my coach said, we're going to get a state championship. And I got fourth. I said, coach, we're going the wrong way. I went from third place to fourth place. But he goes, son, you don't understand, this is the state championship of California. You got fourth place. You know, and then that's when we got the letter about the United States Association of Blind Athletes, and we went to the nationals and I won that nationals. And, you know, it's so, powerlifting built my self esteem, built my character. If, you know, there's another phrase that I go by, adversity, builds character. But, you know, John Wooden, a famous UCLA basketball coach made that, that quote adversity builds character, but I added another line to it. No, it reveals it. It, you know, you're going to have adversity throughout your life, whether you're an able-bodied person or a person with a disability, or even any disability, mentally, physically, emotionally, whatever it is, you're going to have adversity. You know, there's many, many people are out there right now, and they're thinking, gee, I can't even get out the front door. I'm scared. And you know what, take that first step out, get out there, tell them who you are. Be proud of who you are, you know, whether you're African American, whether you're Latino, whether you're Anglo or white person or Jewish or black, it doesn't matter. Be proud of who you are. Be proud that you're a disabled person, a person with a disability and pick up your chin and be happy, be strong. And you have to fight that. I had to fight that for many, many years. I would be very self conscious by what, as a disabled person and person that's deafblind, and a Latino.
[Doug]: And, you know, just to kind of talk about part of what you were just mentioning there, you talking about, it was hard for your family initially to have a son who is, who had a disability. You know, I understand that you have two children of your own who you'd mentioned to me recently have disabilities. How do you think being someone with a disability yourself and having gone through what is, the challenge of having parents that struggle to understanding, accept that, how has that translated into you being a father of two children with disabilities?
[Cody]: Um, I wanna say I have a better understanding. I'm hoping, and I know the struggle that they're going to have in their life. Beause I've dealt with that. I've done, gone through those barrier. So I, I try to encourage both of my kids and they're both different. Um, Tabitha, our daughter, she has...Jolee, do you want to jump in? This is my beautiful wife and she's gonna help me out.
[Jolee]: My daughter has a seizure disorder. Um, when she was two, she, she fell and she hit the back of her head. Uh, actually a puppy, German shepherd puppy jumped on top of her. And, um, she got a contusion and that seemed to bring on seizures that lasted 40 minutes straight to start off with. Yeah. And, um, that since then she's continued to have seizures. Um, she's got she's on medication. Um, she also has a dysgraphia and she has learning disability. Um, my son, when he was born six years later, he was a surprise, he was born was something called Moebius syndrome. He has a, um, no facial expression. Um, his muscles are not, uh, sending, um, his nerves are not sending messages to his muscles so that he can smile or frown. And he has some learning disabilities as well. Um, you know, as being a, you know, when first I had to deal and accept Cody's disability, when we got married and I knew there was a possibility, and even we still know that he can go completely deaf and of course he's totally blind. So we knew that we would have to make some changes as life went on because, um, he would continue to lose sight some sight every time. And every time he did that, we went through the stages of loss, angry, get frustrated, and then to a certain time we would accept it. So when he went totally blind, it was like, okay, the cycle's already kind of over with. It doesn't stop when you have a child with a disability, when you're, when you have a child that is born and you know that they're going to have a disability, you go through those stages again, um, stages of loss. And, and it's just that, we need to see things we, we have, uh, in our mind's eye, we see things a certain way and those stages of loss, or when we realize the reality is not what we're seeing. And it's an ongoing process, uh, even as a, um, uh, based all their challenges. And we tried to adapt to everything that was going around. Um, we, now that all the kids are older, it's, it's like, um, things are calming down with all those emotions, but now as we're all aging a little bit, there are going to be other, there are other things that are starting to creep up and I can kind of, it's like, you're looking at the thunderstorm coming and you know it's there and you know you're going to have to deal with it. And, uh, you know, at that point I'm seeing it come in and I'm going to have to go through some of these stages again, and we're going to have to go through it. Because if I don't, if we don't support each other, then we become against each other and that doesn't help anything.
[Doug]: Yeah. That's, that's really beautifully put. You know, Cody, as your wife was just talking about, you know, something that we've certainly talked about on this platform before is battling, is battling depression and loss. And you know, that was obviously something she was just talking about as far as, you know, your collective journey as husband and wife and your personal journey. Do you want to comment on that personally, as far as anything you'd like to add to that topic?
[Cody]: When you first start out, you don't understand, and when you go get your college education and you take different courses in college and you begin to understand, oh, this is more normal and this is, this is the problem, the reason I'm going, went through that. And when you take sociology and psychology and anatomy and physiology, and you read more about it and people and going to college, I had to depend on, trying to not get off track. But I had to depend on a lot of individual to help me at the university and the university had a student with a disability office, but the technology wasn't like we have it now where we have a lot of text on, on books on audio descript, or we have a lot of things on our, on our smartphone and computer. There wasn't that many technology available to us other than a CCTV and a cassette recorder. So I depended on a whole lot of things, individuals, and I had to, uh, communicate with them and I was 35 years old and I would like, well, I can't, I can't communicate with you 17, 18, 19 year old, young adults, but they were very patient with me. And I had to learn to be more grateful. And I had to learn to be more patient and be more accepting of individuals because when you are an athlete, you set the tone, you set the page. You set all the the criteria and the bar. And I always had high goals for myself. And I set my goal at a hundred percent every time in everything I did. Well, sometimes there are other individuals out there and said, well, you know, we have to order the book and that takes two weeks. And then we got to get the cassette recorder and then we have to get different people to read the book. Well, hello. I got a term paper due tomorrow, you know, so it took different individuals and many different trials and errors to get what I needed to be successful in college or, and, but, it's very, challenging and it can be done, uh, going back to my disability and, when you learn about your growth, um, it was extremely frustrating and extremely, uh, I would very bitter at society. I would very, uh, frustrated. I try not to let that negative Nancy, so to speak, get into my, uh, train of thought, because you want to be a positive person, a positive individual. So it took a while to accept that, okay, I do have limitations and I just need to curb my frustration and limit that time in frustration. Um, what I do, I give myself when I would learn I lost my eyesight, I kept calling, Jolee, where's this? Jolee, find this. Jolee, where did I leave? And she goes, no, no, no, no, no, you got 15 minutes and you must look for it for yourself. So she made that challenge to me to go find what I misplaced to find where my books and my backpack. And she goes, you know, you're making it really hard for yourself. You know, sweetheart, you lose your wallet, your phone, your backpack, every time. Because when I came home from school, I used to throw everything all over the house. And she as a special ed teacher, she realized I have to teach him to be more independent and through trial and error, she helped me become more independent. I know where my wallet is. I know where my keys are. I know where my phone is. And, and, and so you, it's a give and take.. And I know parents are out there right now, or spouses, they're probably shaking their head. Oh yeah. I know what Mr. Cody is going through, because we're going through that. Sometimes you just got to give that person, it's okay to fall down. Uh it's okay that they bumped themselves and the door. It's okay to trip over a step. We have to get up. We have to find the things and we have to learn to be independent. And it's tough. Um, my parents wanted me to do everything for me. And that was very, that was their way of knowing how to, they wanted to do everything. With my children we've given that little leash so to speak. And no, you'll have to try it yourself. We could teach you, but you have to be independent and you have to learn. It's okay. And I know they're going to fall. And I know that my son's got to bang his head on something. And you just, you know, it's like, uh, like a cartoon and Mr. Magoo, you know, somethings gonna happen and you close your eyes. Well, that's the same thing with our kids. Because I experience it, And Jolee experienced it. Jolee, you want to?
[Doug]: I'm going to just, before you get to that only because I wanna hear, I'm going to do a quick interpreter switch. Okay. Alrighty. Jamie, could you step just a little bit to your right there? Perfect. Great, great. We're good to go. Um, so yeah. Sorry, Jolee continuing.
[Jolee]: I'm sorry. Um, one of the things that you mentioned was about the depression. Um, one of the things I remember is, um, when we were in California, he was, um, basically denying, uh, a lot of the things about his vision and he would, he felt like he was hitting his head up against a wall, started to go back to college. His frustration was, he was losing, he lost that independence. He had, he couldn't just drive anywhere anymore. Um, so this guy would help take him to college there and he was learning to use the bus system and everything. Well, my dad had passed away. Um, and I asked him if we could move back home with my mother at that time as my dad and my mother were very close and I was very concerned. When we moved, and he said, yeah, let's go ahead and move. So we moved over here and that added to the frustration that he had. Um, we rarely talk about this, but he became so, um, angry at first and, and I, and we discussed it, you know, I made sure that he, it was something he wanted to do as well. Not, I didn't want to pull him somewhere. And, um, he became very depressed, um, because we, we don't live in the city and, um, it, it began to take over and I remember going to work and he would be in bed and I'd come home and sometimes he'd be in bed. And I said, no, I'm not raising, you know, my daughter myself. You are going to get up, you're going to do something. And it was difficult. It was very hard. Um, he, he, he went through a very, very dark time. It's, I'm not sure what exactly turned him around other than the fact that, you know, I had to, uh, make sure I didn't feed into that and try to pull him out. Um, he wanted to talk about taking his own life and I understood that, but I made sure he knew that he was part, I mean, we were together in this and we had a daughter to take care of and, you know, we were, we're living with my mom and it's like, that's not an option. Like, I don't even know why you think that's an option here. So, uh, I, I'm not exactly sure, like I said, what, what it was, but, um, I mean, you know, it, it was just, it was extremely difficult. I think it was like three or four months, or maybe longer that time.
[Cody]: It was six months or more.
[Jolee]: Yeah, it was a long period of time. I think, I think everyone goes through those times and you get some to the point where you realize, hey, something needs to change. And that's me, that's us, you know, I'm thinking.
[Cody]: Um, one of the things, Doug, that, you know, I was going back to, uh, university of Texas Pan-American, one of my professors, and it was just like, okay, um, one of your assignments is to write a small brief story about yourself. So I, I said, wow, there's nothing to say about myself. And so I started writing a little, okay. So I like power lifting. Yeah. At one time I won the national championship. And I won a world championship in power lifting for the blind, and it didn't mean anything no more because it would very frustrating. I could tell I was losing more of my eyesight. And, and, um, when I finally, you know, the professor, when I got the paperwork, I'm really proud of the paperwork and my term paper. So I turned it in and a week later to professor pass it back and he read all the people, who's a paper and, and gave them really high marks. He goes, Mr. Colchado, meet me after class in my office. And I said, Oh, no, I'm a lot of trouble here. So I looked for my professor's office and sat down. And, he just said, you know, you wrote a beautiful story, but you had a lot of grammatical errors. And, you know, you had a lot of subject verb agreement and you've got a lot of, you misplaced commas and periods and quotations. And I'm looking at like, I'm sorry, sir. I don't know what you're talking about. You know? And, and you know, when he explained what I was doing, oh, okay, subject-verb agreement. Okay. I understand about the fanboy and, Oh, okay. Uh, so on all these grammar and we correct him, but what I appreciate, professor Derek Panam, he was helpful. And he understood because he was an athlete and I was so grateful for him and, and he just said, you know, I work out too and I'm going, Oh, okay. And I thought maybe a couple of dumbbells, but no. Um, he said, well, meet me in the faculty weight room when I'm like, uh, I'm only a student. That's okay, we'll get you in. So we walked out, we worked out, we met and, and, uh, professor Roberto Contrares and he was my teacher. And professor. And he started, I started teaching him everything I knew about lifting weight and he got stronger. And, he was teaching me everything about life and about family, and, what does it take to become a good college student and what did it to become a good individual. And we became great friends. And, um, uh, we went to a lot of competitions together and he drove of course. And then, and yes, I got all the accolades and I got all the atta boy, and you're amazing. You're inspirational. But a lot of it, also, a lot of people went up to Roberto Contrares and said, you know, that's amazing that you took him under your wing. And we kind of helped each other through it because he helped me through a lot through life and dealt through Jolee and getting my self esteem and my confidence and Mr. Roberto Contreras. And there's many other, other professors. I have to tell you about this one professor, I was try to do a fundraiser to go to Europe, to Holland, to a world championship for the blind. And this one professor, I walked in there and I said, you know, sir, I have a hundred dollar bill. If you can lie to being a blind person for one whole day, that hundred dollar bill is yours. If not, you're going to help with my fundraising. And he goes, okay, I'll take that challenge. And so I said, thank you, Dr. Gilpen. So he gets a phone call and he tells his wife, Oh, yes, I'll meet you over there. I'll I'll. Then I said, Oh, you better call your wife back. Remember, you took the challenge. You are blind now. And he goes, what? I thought we were starting tomorrow. I said, no, we're starting right now, Dr. Gilpen, you are now blind. So I had an extra cane and we walked through the university with, I blindfolded him, and he ran into the road bushes. He ran into shrubs. He ran into a bench and I said, Dr. Gilpin, where are you going? Goes, I'm going to the men's restroom. And he goes, no, sir, you're going into the women's restroom. Coach Cody, how do you know all this? I'm a blind individual. I have to learn everything. The landmark of the whole university. And he goes, what? We blind people who don't have people walking us around. We have to learn everything about this university. So he goes, and we finally get to the student union and his wife finally meets us there. And he is sweating bullets. And he's just like soaked with sweat. And he goes, okay, Mr. Colchado, how much money do we need to raise to go to, for you to get you to Europe? I said, well, we need $2,000. And he goes, well, I'll start getting emails. And the university helped me out and all is because I did a little bit of self advocacy. And, so we eventually turn the perception around having blind people and people with disabilities there at university. And it just takes one individual, one person at a time to do all that.
[Doug]: You know, I want to get a little bit more into the specifics of the weightlifting and strongman competitions. You know, as, as a young man, I grew up watching a world's strongest man competitions on ESPN 2. And I remember, you know, looking up to Magnus Ver Magnuson and all those, weight, huge, massive, strongmen of that time. And just, you know what I thought, what I find so interesting about particularly the strongman competitions is you're not just lifting so much weight, but they're lifting such awkward things. Like that's like, they're not lifting like barbells and weights. They're lifting boulders and cars. Can you, can you walk us through a little bit of like what a strongman competition looks like and what kind of events you're partaking in?
[Cody]: Oh yeah. I'm strongman. There's five different events and usually one of the events is always pulling a car with a rope. And the other event you're using your shoulders and usually doing Viking press or dumbell presses with different obstacles. Um, it might be a log, a wooden log. It might be a fire hydrant that you got to do shoulder presses with. You might be, you might be holding one of those heavy, heavy, Excalibur swords in front of you or a mariner Thor hammer. Another event is that you got to lift a boulder and usually the stones, they're called stones, thats the last event. And another event that we might be doing is you'd be walking with something on your shoulders and that's called a yoke. Well, you know, and another one is using, your lifting a back end or front end of a car. You're, deadlifting it. And, one of the, I love deadlifting and I have to share this story. I was at the national championship. And the deadlift is when you have the apparatus at your knee and you grab the bar or the apparatus and you stand straight up, and usually it goes, you have to be back straight, knees locke, and usually the weight ends up at your, at your top of your thigh. And, uh, so if you have long arms it's great. If you have short arms, well, you know, you'll be a good bencher. Well, one event we were deadlifting a car and they give you five minutes because the people with different, different disabilities, they give us an opportunity to feel the apparatus, like myself being blind and feel the whole car that we're going to lift and get yourself situated. And I got myself psyched up and I tried to budge this car and it wouldn't move. And I'm like, I went to my coach and my coach said, what's wrong, Cody? I said, uh, it's heavy. I can't move it. Cody, it's a car. It's supposed to be heavy. I said, okay, you know what? I've been drinking too many Gatorades. I'm really nervous. I need to go to the men's restroom. So I grabbed his elbow, we go to the men's restroom. I get in a stall and I go, I said, oh, dear Lord, give me the strength to do this. Oh, I don't even think I can do this. So I, I did my business. I washed my hand. I go back out there in the hallway and my coach said, are you ready? And I said, I think so. And he goes, what? And so, and a young lady come out and she goes, woohoo, alright! I lift the car six times. And I'm like, Oh no, a girl lift the car six times. So I'm like, okay, did you hear that? Yeah. You're going to let a girl beat you. No. So there I am. I'm getting all psyched up and I grab the handle and I go, Cody, don't stop until you get to the lockout. So I'm lifting the car and my knees are shaking. My body is shaking. I said, don't stop. So I stand up with it and the judge says, down, and now it's one. I said, oh, okay. I got one. And I kept going. Two, down. I kept going. Three, down. And I said, okay. I got it. I'm in the groove. And I kept lifting, I kept lifting. Well, the problem is I stopped breathing. And I was getting a little lightheaded. And I'm going, uh oh, I better stop. So I stopped and I caught my breath and the guys in the wheelchairs were coming up to me and tackling with my legs. And the other guys are hugging me and I'm trying to catch my hearing aids because they're falling out. And I go, well, how many did I do? And they all screamed 13. Well, how many did I need to do? One. Nobody could lift the car. So I did 13 reps and all I needed to do to win that event was just do one rep. Well, a year later, oh, now I won the competition. And a year later we're at another, we're at the same competition but the year later, and she goes, she, her name was April. And her husband is the meet director. And she goes, you know, we have to tell him, and we're having dinner after the whole competition. And he goes, we need to tell coach. And he goes, well, we need to tell coach Cody that it was me in the hallway, trying to tell him that, uh, I was the girl that lifted six, six times. And she goes, you know, nobody was able to lift the car. And I go, how come nobody could lift the car, and then later somebody, before I lifted? And April goes, it was me that told your coach, and my husband told me to go tell you that I lift the car six times. So I guess the moral of the story is that the joke was on me, but the last of the joke was on them because I won the championship and I get, you know, sometimes we put limitations on our ourselves and other people believe in you. So you have your, you know, once you start believing in yourself, you can lift anything and do anything. So that's one of the stories that I wanted share and, uh, it was an amazing feat. And, and it would pretty awesome feeling to know that I can lift a car up.
[Doug]: Yeah, certainly, so I guess at the end of the day, she was just trying to fire you up right. To get you going.
[Cody]: Exactly.
[Doug]: Yeah. Apparently it works pretty well. I think you need her at all of your meets to, you know, to fire you up. But, you know, I'm curious, what, how can you tell me specifically how, like world's strongest disabled man competition works. Is it, you'd started to get to this, but like, tell me a bit more of like the, how many different, how many different people with disabilities are competing or who have different disabilities and kind of how it's, how the event is organized. And also the second part to that question is, you know, what's the vibe like there, as far as the competition versus supporting one another.
[Cody]: Okay. Um, the different disabilities in the sitting division, of course, there's people that have spinal cord injuries, people that have cerebral palsy, there's people that, or, spina bifida, some of them have nerve damage in their, in their, legs or knees and or their back. So they're in the wheelchair division and there is no restriction. Once you, and you might have an amputation, both of your legs might be amputated, or one leg might be amputated, but those guys, they have a choice. Once thing make a decision that they're an amputee, with one leg, they have a choice to be in the standing division or being in the wheelchair. But once you make, you declare that, you have to stay in that division. You can't just switch after three events and say, oh, I'm going to be in a wheelchair to start with and then, I can beat these guys in the standing. No, you have to stay all five events in that division. And the standing division, once again, you're going to have an amputee. You're going to have a one arm amputee. We have a gentleman that served in the US Marine Corps and he had an improvised explosive device blow off his arm. And for many years he started, started doing weight lifting. And then he got into the strongman. And it's incredible what the standing division can lift these stones with just one arm. And how he does he gets down on one knee and he rolls up the stone on his leg, and he was able to grab it on his thigh and then lift it up to his chest and get it to his shoulder and throw it over his head. We had another individual who played in the National Football League, his name is Chad out of California, Fresno, California. And he played for the Oakland Raiders and for the, I believe it's the Washington Redskins or Seattle Seahawks. He's six foot five, he weighs 315 pounds. And Chad's brother saw me in a video lifting weights. And I like to encourage other people with disabilities that they can go and compete. Well, it his brother saw the video and he went to the national championship and one year we got into the apparatus and I was really fired up. And I was really doing really well. And one year I did the particular Viking press for, pointing, oh, 17 reps. And that was my first year. Well, the following year I did 31 reps. I'm going, wow. I doubled my reps. I'm really good. I'm doing fantastic. I think I'm in first place. And all of a sudden this gentleman named Chad, he does 51 reps. And I go what? There's an individual here that did 51 reps? And they go, yeah. So my daughter, Tabitha, was with me and Tabitha said, dad, this guy is huge. And I said, oh, Tabitha's just exaggerating. Well, when Chad came up and after the competition, and we did the competition and I noticed his voice was really high and I'm like, wow. I'm like, I must be listening wrong. I might be hearing wrong. Well, he's six foot five. And he goes, um, Mr. Cody, can I talk to you? And I said sure. And I was like, I stand up and I was talking to him and, you know, um, Cody, my name is Chad. And, um, and, uh, I have to tell you, um, you inspired me. And I said, well, God, Chad, you know, I didn't realize. And then, you know, I didn't realize that he was so tall. So I said, Chad, can I see how tall you are? So I put my arm on his chest and went all the way up to his shoulder and I just kept going up, kept going up and I'm going, holy cow, this man is massive. He's huge. So I said, Tabitha, give me a chair, a folding, uh, a chair that I could stand up. So I stood on top of the chair and I was finally looking eye to eye with Chad. And he goes, I have to give you a hug. And I said, sure. So when he gave me a hug he goes, um, Cody, I saw your video. I had one leg in the grave and I was not gonna make it. And I said, hey, Chad, you only have one leg. You have, the other leg is amputated, remember? And he goes, you know, that's funny, you know. So, you know, Chad and I are good friends and he became the World's Strongest Man. So he was the third American to win the World's Strongest Man. And, you know, it's really neat to see people with different disabilities and different meet directors and different sponsors coming out and supporting people with disabilities. You know, it's more readily available now. And it's more accepting now, you know, for the belonging and for the, for people who are blind and doing sports strong event, you know, they look at it like, oh, you guys are freaks. You guys are different. You know, that's not what a blind person is supposed to be. They're supposed to be frail, and thin, and so when you see an individual that's big and strong, it don't fit that image, that box that, that society wants to see. And, you know, we want to just be healthy. We want to live healthy. We want a healthy lifestyle. And that's why we do power lifting and strongman. Because to me, it gives the strength and the courage and I hit a lot of obstacles. So when you're strong and muscular, the obstacle don't hurt as bad.
[Jolee]: Just, just to kind of finish up on that. When, when I'd been to a few of the complications, cause they were seasoned, I had to help him. The thing is that the people, the camaraderie there is very different from other complications. Everyone is cheering for each other because they know how much they've struggled in everyday life. And, just to see someone competing, just to be there is, is such an incredible feat for these athletes. Uh, just for them to continue to lift weights. There's so many obstacles, there's gentlemen with ataxia, with, um, it has, uh, you know, they never know what's going to, you know, what's in their future. So this is basically for the now. And so the athletes encourage each other and different countries. And it becomes more of a comradery that I haven't seen in any of the other types of competitions. You know,
[Doug]: You, you've talked about, you know, you were talking, Cody, about the significance of being a strongman to yourself, of how it's, how it's been a place for you to channel, you know, initially your anger and frustration of, you know, your disability and the challenges that that created. And, also what it's meant to other people in the competition, the way you connected with Chad and how you, how you really helped inspire him to turn his life around and the connections that you all form at these events with each other. And you know, what Jolee was just talking about, of that comradery at the events. What do you think it means to other people when they hear the title World's Strongest Disabled Man? What kind of specifically, you know, adding that disabled part next to world's strongest, two kind of, like, terms that don't feel like people normally associate with each other. What do you, what do you think that means to other people when they hear that title?
[Cody]: Well, it, it depends if the individual has a disability or if they have a family member that has a disability, or they know somebody. They think it's fantastic, they think it's awesome, you know. And then a person that don't know what, what it's like to have a disability or know a family member that has a disability, they think it's neat and it, you know, and then after a while they start realizing, wow, that is awesome. That is neat. You know what I'm saying? And then they go, I didn't even know, you know, I had an image. I saw you at like that book with the cover, you know, I saw you, I put you in a box right away. I didn't realize you were the World's Strongest Disabled Man. And so it changes their perception about us and about me. And, and it's hard. It's hard at first because, you know, when people see people with disabilies they pity you a lot or they don't show that empathy, now. Now it's much different in the 2010, I'm going to say in 2010, and now I think there's more acceptance of people with disabilities. People that win at World's Strongest Disabled Man. When you win the world championship, they say, yeah, you earned it. Yeah. I have a lot more respect for you. At first there were no, it was almost like, the Special Olympics. Well, we'll give a metal to every individual. Now they understand you have to earn that title. So yeah it's kind of ironic that you brought that question up. It's much different now than it was 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago, you know. It's trying to earn the people's respect. And that's all we're trying to do. I want you to respect me as much as I respect you. So, and, people, people are now more, they understand your struggles and they understand, they're, it, it takes people like you. And people like Helen Keller National Training Center, people like Camp Abilities, people like optimist Brown Use Association and, Seabeck and, different blind camps around the United States and deafblind camps and the deafblind projects, different organizations, just getting more and more people to be more aware of people with deafblind and blind individuals. So, and, they're all different.
[Doug]: You know, Cody we're out of time for today. You're, certainly going to have to come back at some, some time. I know we didn't, we didn't get to a lot of things that I know are really interesting as well. But I also want to say that next time I'm in Texas, you're going to have to give me, you're going to have to give me a workout and show me, show me some new things.
[Cody]: That'd be awesome. I'm here to pump you up. I'm wanting to pump and I'll be like big Jake. You'll be like big Jake and Jake, Jay Leno Show. I'll Arnold and I'm here to pump you up. No girly man on this show. No girly man.
[Doug]: You got to take it easy on me though. I can't lift cars yet.
[Cody]: It'd be an honor, and, you know, and we'll make the workout where people can, there, our audience and people on the internet, they can go get a water bottle and do a workout, a simple workout. And it'd be awesome. It'd be, it'd be a neat thing. I would do it.
[Doug]: Okay, cool. You're giving me an idea to a, we'll have to film a workout video for you and put that up there for people. So maybe we'll, we'll get back to that. We'll talk about that, but thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your story. And, you know, certainly, you know, as someone who obviously connects with a lot of people in the deafblind community and someone also in myself who like really loves sports and, you know, really, stories of people pushing themselves to their physical limits, it was really a joy to hear your story and how those aspects of your life work together to create, you know, truly a very unique life that you've lived, and, you know, one that's really, really been a pleasure to chat with you about today.
[Cody]: No, I thank you for helping me share my testimony and my story to everybody. And Jolee, would you like to thank?
[Jolee]: Um, I just, yes, I appreciate you because, um, we didn't have people that we knew who were deafblind. We didn't know what, um, we were putting limitations that we shouldn't have, you know, and that's one of the things it's just opened people's eyes to, um, the fact that there's, the sky's the limit. Truly.
[Doug]: Well, thank you Jolee for also joining us today and sharing that and thank you to all of you who tuned in today. We'll be back again next week as always with another episode of Feeling Through Live, same time, same place, and until then have a great weekend. Bye everyone.