How to Drive with One Arm (AND NO LEGS) - Smarter Every Day 158

Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day! I just learned a lot about a really cool gym here in Dallas. More about that later, but for now I'm going to get a ride from Kenny, right? Oh yeah! And what's magical about you riding me somewhere? I drive with no feet. And one arm.

"That's pretty impressive."

"There's two; just one's plastic."

"So you can operate all the controls?"

"Everything. I've got a different hand I can use when I drive."

"Please say it interfaces with a stick shift or something."

"No, no, no. It doesn't do that."

"Boy, that's pretty crazy right there."

"So you can operate everything on the truck?"

"On that monster truck right there."

"And that's your truck?"

"Yep, and that's my truck."

"Okay, so I've got—this isn't a joke. I have to go an hour away and you're going to drive me an hour away."

"Yup."

"Okay. Cool! Let's get in the truck. Show me how you do it, man; how you get in."

"Good thing is I can put things on the floorboard because I don't step on it. And I just hook my crane up."

"How do you not hit your truck here?"

"Magic."

"Oh! Oh man. I hit it sometimes."

"Do ya?"

"Oh man, I was really concerned. It's such a nice truck."

"That's pretty rad, dude. So it's slow for a reason."

"That's just a linear actuator lifting it up there."

"Yeah."

"And does it just hang onto it now?"

"Yep. This one just raises me up."

"Oh, that's cool. Do my sexy pose."

"It gets sexier as I go up."

"Which is what?"

"Just leaning back as I go up like this."

"Just so people know, 'I still got it.'"

"So the lift isn't just on your truck to make it look like a big truck; it's to hide that compartment."

"Yeah, it's an actual. I put the lift on the truck because I bottomed out on that box and that thing cost like $8000."

"Oh my goodness. So it's not something I want to break regularly."

"Got it! I've got a different hand I use when I drive."

"And so you just clamp it down?"

"Yep. You just rotate this."

"So you got your seatbelt on?"

"And I just wrench it down because when I used to use just the motor... I was in traffic in San Antonio and my hand slipped off. It came off the hand controls and that's not cool when you are in traffic."

"Right. So what does this do?"

"This? I push this in. It's connected to the brake."

"Okay. Whenever I pull it..." [Engine roars]

"Wait, that was two different axes. Do it one more time."

"Push."

"Okay..."

"Brake."

"So you rotate?"

"This setup; I can actually push down and I can power brake if I wanted to."

"Okay, slowly rotate. Go ahead." [Engine Rev Up]

"Got ya! There's a mechanical linkage there."

"Man, I want to take your truck apart so bad! So that rotation movement... I see what's happening. That rotation is going into a translation."

"Yes."

"That's pretty cool! That's amazing."

"Alright, let's do this. So you're gravy once you're locked in?"

"Oh yeah! The funny thing is, when I got my license I never learned to use these hand controls. The hand controls I originally had were on my right side, and I steered with my left hand. Well, after getting my license and realizing that if I had a wreck and had my left arm attached to the steering wheel and the airbag went off, I'd be eating a carbon fiber arm...and I'd rather not do that."

"So I went to the type that I have now, which the first time I ever used them was when I went and picked the truck up after they had put them on."

"Really?"

"So I pulled a little too hard on the gas and I did a burn out going backwards."

"What do you want people to know about triple amputees driving?"

"It gives you back your freedom."

"Really? Like this is just a freedom to me. I used to love—when I lived out in California, I'd go drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. This kind of stuff gives you back your independence."

"Okay, so there you go. That's how to drive with one hand."

"Is that I get 25% off—no, I get 75% off this taxi ride!" [laughing]

"Ya see, I've asked for manicures and they won't give me half off. That's not right. Why'd I have to meet you at the gym to come here?"

"Because I wanted you to see the place that brought me out of a funk."

"Yeah? And brought me back the person that I truly am."

"What do you mean you were, 'in a funk'?"

"So what? Did you start feeling sorry for yourself or something?"

"It's not so much that I felt sorry for myself; it's just I knew what my body was capable of and I was never able to find a place where I could go and workout and actually truly get a workout. Because you go to other gyms and it's nice. They mean well, but you got people coming up. 'Oh, you're such an inspiration!'"

"So they feel sorry for you?"

"They felt sorry for me. But they wouldn't say it right?"

"No, they're trying to be nice and I don't mind that happening, but I can never truly get a workout."

"As where I go in there it's all about working out."

"Got it."

"And making myself better."

"Got it! I want to talk to you about this gym that got Kenny out of the funk. Now I know you just watch this video because you want to see how to drive a car with one hand, but I think this is really cool. Former NFL player David Vobora started a gym for elite athletes when he got out and then he realized something when he met a guy named Travis Mills, a quadruple amputee from the wars in Afghanistan. When they started working together, something magical happened."

"Long story short, David created a gym around people that had lost limbs or had some kind of complication with their body so that they can just totally pound through the things that they think they can't do and exceed and excel onto things they can do."

"It's really, really cool and my buddy George told me to visit. So we did!"

"This is where?"

"This is where we punish cripples with the best of intentions."

"Is this true?"

"Yes."

"Is it?"

"Alright, so I am here in Dallas and I'm at David's gym and this is exactly how you want the world to view your gym, right?"

"Where you punish cripples."

"The Adaptive Training Foundation."

"Where we restore hope through movement."

"You're doing a specific thing, right?"

"Yeah, it started with athletes and then I started meeting these warriors—these wounded guys that got hit over there. Lost limbs, spinal cord injuries—and I realized, after rehab, where do they go? Can they go to a normal gym? Well, maybe wheel themselves around, but it's not ideal. They're not able to push it; they're not able to compete."

"People say, 'How did you get into adaptive training?' It's no different, right? If you're a pro athlete and you have knee surgery, we're going to avoid that knee while it heals so that we can still get optimization. We still workout. So a lot of our equipment—for example: Concept Two—we can attach a quadriplegic hand onto this thing. He can now do the motion."

"Self-propelled treadmills because these guys on their prosthetics, you know their gait training; they can't continue to move with a belt that's moving. They need to be able to supply the force."

"This is the High Trainer?"

"This is the High Trainer."

"What does it do?"

"We call this 'The Come to Jesus Machine' because you will whisper the Lord's name after doing an interval system on this."

"Really great for Travis Mills, quadruple amputee."

"Uh huh."

"He can hold on by his prosthetics hooks here and he can whip his legs and get a heart rate that is ridiculous. This has force plates, left and right. It tells me up to the second how hard I'm pushing."

"Woah!" [laughter]

"Bit off more than you can chew."

"Yeah! That wasn't on purpose!"

"I hope you enjoyed this episode of Smarter Every Day. I made it for three reasons; number one, I wanted to know what it was like to drive with one arm. That was really cool. Number two: I wanted you to know more about the Adaptive Training Foundation. It has changed the way I think about people with disabilities. They don't need my pity. Kenny said he just wants to be treated like a normal dude, and so I'm probably going to do that from now on."

"And number three: I want to give them money. These jokers need more weight. So if you want to support Smarter Every Day so I can do that, please consider going to audible.com/smarter where you can get a free trial of any audiobook you want. The one I recommend is written by the quadruple amputee you saw in this video, Travis Mills. It's called, 'Tough as They Come.' And no matter what you're going through, if you listen to this book, it's going to help you suck it up, buttercup, and realize you can power through and get over yourself and just get on with getting on."

"It's really cool. So go to audible.com/smarter, get your free trial of 'Tough as They Come' by Staff Sergeant Travis Mills. In fact, I'm going to let him tell you what the Adaptive Training Foundation means to him. Check this out."

"Thanks to David Vobora starting here at the Adaptive Training Foundation, I was able to come in, workout, get my life back on track, understand I still have purpose and meaning, and try to be as fit as possible. I mean, check this out! What up? But I can't thank you guys enough, what you're doing here is great. Keep up the good work. I can't wait to see how much you guys grow and the success you're going to have in the future."

"There you go. Go get his book. It's 'Tough as They Come' by Staff Sergeant Travis Mills. If you get that book, it will help him, and that will also help Smarter Every Day and Smarter Every Day can help the Adaptive Training Foundation by making this video so people know more about it. It's a real big everybody help everybody thing."

"So please consider going to audible.com/smarter, getting this book. That's it! I'm Destin. You're getting smarter every day. Have a good one."