Deaf health and fitness influencer and online coach, India Morse is breaking down barriers in the fitness industry. India discusses growing up in London as someone with an invisible disability, how she got into the health community, and how the industry needs to be changed to be accessible to everyone no matter the disability.

Connect with India on Social:

-Website: YouLeanMeUp.fit

-Instagram: @IndieSophie | @YouLeanMeUp

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A LOOK INSIDE THE EPISODE:

TM: One of the things that a gym or a class in the gym may lack is no bright lighting. How does that affect you as a deaf person?

I: It is a dark environment. If there’s a fitness class, if you think about it, if someone’s leading a class, I really do rely on watching the instructor, and trying to lip read them. However, if it’s dark, it’s absolutely impossible to lip read them, especially if they’re running on the spot or doing various exercises and moving around all the time. I’m relying on seeing their lip pattern, I need to see that visual, and I need to see that visual indicator. Sometimes classes go so quickly, or it’s such a quick pace, whether the instructor might be saying run to the dumbbells, do a press up, etc., it’s just impossible to keep up, especially if it’s dark.

TM: How does no writing on the board affect you?

I: If an instructor is showing a workout to people, sometimes they might shout out the name of the workout, the name of the exercise. Sometimes I don’t even know what the specific names of workouts are, I might recognise them visually, but I don’t know the name of it. I can look at it and know what I’m meant to do, I’ve done that before, like a squat, for example. I also like to know the names of each of these exercises, so I know how to differentiate between them as well. I’ve recently done a PT course and I thought, hold on a minute, I recognise all of these workouts but don’t know the actual terms that you call them. Obviously that is really important for me, just to know, and just to ensure that I’m doing a good workout. 

TM: What about when there is too much talking and not enough action?

I: Sometimes there is a lot of talking about what they’re doing and explaining about what’s going to come next. Deaf people really need a demonstration so we actually know what they’re referring to, a visual to follow. We need to see exactly what we’re doing, so demos are very important for us.

TM: Talk about not maintaining eye contact to communicate.

I: It’s essential because that’s how we lip read. We need to see and maintain that eye contact. If you’re looking here, there, and everywhere, we’re looking at another person, it’s actually quite rude for us, really, because we’ll struggle. So as a deaf person, I’m trying to read your lips to understand what you’re saying. So that’s why it’s so very important to keep that eye contact there.

TM: What about loud music?

I: Every deaf person can hear to varying degrees. Some people are profoundly deaf, like myself and use sign language, some might be able to hear a little bit, some might be able to speak more so than others. But, if there’s loud music in a fitness class, it really can affect the ear, if you have some hearing, or maybe you feel as if you can’t fully focus on the class that you’re at. It’s just distracting, you know. But also, it’s sometimes quite nice, because even as a deaf person, I can feel the vibrations in the room, so I can feel the music is. So sometimes it’s nice to a degree.

In this episode, Sean Corvelle sits down with Sergeant Noah Galloway, who is an adaptive athlete and a huge part of the Tough Mudder community. Noah is a veteran who lost his arm and leg in Iraq and has since become an inspiration. Noah opens up about his depression, his military story, fitness, being outside your comfort zone, and more.

Check out Noah’s book, Living with No Excuses- A Remarkable Rebirth of an American Soldier here.

Donate to his No Excuses Charitable Fund here.

Connect with Noah on Social:

-Website: NoahGalloway.com

-Instagram: @noahgallowayathlete

-Facebook: Noah Galloway

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A LOOK INSIDE THE EPISODE:

TM: How does it feel to be inspiring and talking with people about your story?

N: I love it. I started getting attention and when I got into Tough Mudder early on after I was injured and lost my arm and my leg and had some other injuries. I went through some depression and I really struggled. I have three kids and they were really young at the time and I realized that I needed just to change who I was to be a better example for them. Which led me into getting back into fitness, taking care of myself, and then I was introduced to Tough Mudder and it just became an obsession. The first one I did was in Georgia then just suddenly I wanted to do them everywhere. I wanted to experience them all and that evolved into different things. Corporations reach out to me and I get to travel all over the country and all over the world giving speeches and I absolutely love it even though we just went through where everything kind of stopped for a little while and trying to survive this pandemic. I think that this is a great turning point for a lot of people that were stuck at home, stuck sitting around. Hey, if you put on some weight, that’s okay, let’s all get back into shape together and come out and do these races. I’m so excited that Tough Mudder is getting up and going and nothing’s affected it and to get out there and support one another. What really makes me happy, you asked me how it feels. I constantly either meet people or have people reach out to me on social media. They say that I inspired them or took their excuses away to get into shape, to do a Tough Mudder and that means a lot to me because running those races, getting back in shape led me down a better path on being a better father, a better person, and I’m very thankful for it. I owe a lot of that to Tough Mudder. And to you, Sean, motivating everybody.

With a long list of experience in the football industry both on the collegiate and professional levels, Cristi Bartlett shows us that you can do anything you put your mind to, even when society says otherwise. Going from an Intern with the Tennessee Titans to the current Director of Strength and Conditioning AD at NC State University proves just that. 

In this episode, Cristi recalls her upbringing and journey to where she is today, and how she advocates for Black women.

Check out Cristi working with the Nike x NFL Girls Flag Football Partnership here.

Connect with Cristi on social:

-Instagram: @bartlettc42

-Facebook: Cristi Bartlett

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A LOOK INSIDE THE EPISODE:

TM: You know, you’re out there, you’re blazing these trails for women, you’re blazing these trails for African American women? What runs through your mind when you hear that?

C: Initially, I think I’m just doing my job. But I think there’s a lot of women out there who are blazing trails and doing a hell of a lot more than I’m doing out here as far as being advocates for young women and getting women in professional sports and all that kind of thing. I think it’s great. To see more women on the sideline, especially professional football, professional sports, they’re very capable women of coaching doing things. So I think it’s good, but I don’t really think about it too much. It’s kind of like my pre-existing condition. I’m black and female. I don’t want to hang on to that all the time. It’s just what it is. And I go to work and I do the best I can and then that’s it.

TM: Let’s go back to your time with the Tennessee Titans. Tell me about that experience.

C: It was good. I rolled in and I had obviously never been in the NFL. I was the internship coordinator at a few different schools that I was at as a strength conditioning coach in the collegiate sector. So I’ve had interns come in, and they come in way hot, they know everything and it’s like, I’m gonna tell you how to do your job. I’m like, wait a minute, you’ve never been in this setting here, so you can’t tell me too much about anything right now until you’ve been in my shoes for X amount of time. So when I approached the hole, when I came in, I was cool, hanging in the background, making sure I was just following suit with what everybody else was doing. And then one day, Frank came,it’s probably like a week and a half-two weeks, Frank came to me, he was like, “We ready to roll yet?” And I was like, “Yeah, man, let’s go.” And then I just started coaching, I’m getting a little a hell of a lot more involved in the whole strength conditioning thing. I was doing a lot of setup and breaking down the weight room and, and starting to build relationships with the guys and the staff. And then once I had the go ahead, and I didn’t want to rub anybody the wrong way, I had 12-13 years of experience, I didn’t want anybody to think that I was trying to step on anybody’s toes. So I laid low for a little bit and then Frank was like, “You’ve been coaching for forever, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.” And I’m like, now we’re in it. So I was happy to have that support from him. Everybody there was just great to work with, the guys were great, Vrabel was great. You would walk in and you would see him and he’d be like, “Hey, Christy, what’s going on?” He talked to you so it wasn’t like we put my head down and not talk to the head guy or anything like that. Everybody was so down to earth and easy to get along with, easy to talk to, very supportive. It was great. Completely different from the collegiate sector because the program is essentially an in-season program where certain players you’re looking to at minimum maintain. Whereas in the offseason you’re looking to get better. So it’s an in-season program for the most part for six months and in-season programs are kind of boring, it’s autopilot. And it’s like you come in, you do your thing, and you’re out. It’s like an in and out program, keep them strong, doesn’t take much, see you later. And you don’t necessarily have that developmental piece there that you do with athletes, because the guys are so transient, they may be there one week, they’re out the next day, on a practice squad one week, they’re not on the practice squad the next and it’s like, you don’t actually get to see them develop physically in the weight room as what you would in four years with your athletes at whatever college you’re at. So just completely different in that aspect. But it was fine. You know, working with those high level athletes, they are there at that level for a reason. They come in and they do stuff and you’re like, What? You see him out of practice, and they’re just pulling them off some crazy stuff. And it’s like, man, you make that look easy. And they’re like, that shit ain’t easy. I was like, but it looks effortless. Those guys work their asses off, they’re in the building all day. It’s all day football. And they work their asses off. They are studying film, getting treatments, lifting weights, eating, that’s their job. It’s wild.