S1E2 I Chase Gentilhomme & Keith Concar AKA An Officer and a Gentleman

 

I’m so stoked about this episode of My New Normal! I’m joined by Chase Gentilhomme, a Service Warfare Naval Officer, CrossFit Coach, Adaptive Coach, and soon to be Physical Therapist. And Keith Concar, an Adaptive Athlete, a giver, an empath, and a total badass who would do anything for anyone.

 

Keith fractured his spinal cord in a motor vehicle accident and has a T12 “incomplete spinal cord injury”. Which means he can still feel and has some access to levels below that injury.

This episode of MNN is about having a serious episode or injury in your life and either maladapting or adapting. Can you be resilient and change?

There’s a point after the injury or serious episode where you have to make the choice to search for the optimal instead of settling for your current situation. And that’s what it means to ADAPT instead of maladapting.

Keith’s injury occurred when he was down in New Orleans helping people during hurricane Katrina. He was hit while riding a motorcycle and was hospitalized for a month.

Instead of falling into depression with his new diagnosis of being paralyzed, Keith shifted his focus to the nurses and doctors he was surrounded with who had lost everything. He bonded with the people he had met while working in the city. He consoled and talked to the woman who hit him in the accident.

Keith adapted instead of maladapting.

While Chase doesn’t have an injury like Keith’s, his history is comprised of several injuries and surgeries. His story is one of constant adaption to find his passion which is working with people and adaptive athletes.

He started out as a college athlete and engineering major, then graduated with a major in Sociology. After working with athletes and doing some bodybuilding, he decided he wanted to serve his country and defend our freedoms, so he joined the Navy.

Upon joining the Navy, he found CrossFit and furthered in understanding of movement and functional movement. He went from wanting to be the strongest and fastest, to understanding that mobility and recovery is such an important part of maintenance and good movement.

When Chase arrived in San Diego he began to look towards what he’d do when he got out of the Navy and came full circle to Physical Therapy and met Dr. T.

Chase never settled and kept adapting.