#logan being close to his trainer is very important to me

[hollywoodsargeant]

Hello to my favourite Logan worship president, I have a question about Ben and how long has he been with Logan and you favourite pics for them together.

and my second question is who are Logan friends like I know Oscar and Callum but who else? And you favourite picture with his friends too please?

BENNY LORE. he's known logan since 2016 i believe... like he's the only trainer logan has really ever had. ik not all of the drivers have trainers that they're like legit bonded with and end up with whoever their team hires for them but logan was with benny up through all the ranks. he met benny bc he would go to ben's wife's pilates studio as a teenager which does amuse me... and ben has been on record to say his (very young) son calls logan his older brother :( like. my heart. i'm wounded

+ logan's friends' there is the oliver guy who is also around usually when he's with callum. i will be real i do not really know much about either of them outside of their appearances in logan's orbit... then on the grid he continues to mention how close he is to alex on track because teammates and i think? he's said before that he's friendly with zhou. but maybe that's just oscar. either way i think they've raced together before

and of course my beloved indycar driver kyle kirkwood <3 i know there are some pictures of the two of them as legit children kicking around somewhere but i was too lazy to dig them up rn. MAYBE ANOTHER TIME... but i will include all photos under the break bc i did compile some. as per

can't put together pics of logan and benny without this one. now famously called romantic by alexander albon... like okay. sir. sirs. Both Of You.

here are some older ones. logan looks very teenaged (probably because he was teenaged). + proof of pilates

obligatory wimbledon picture. i know i've posted this one before and i know i've said it before that it continues to amuse me logan went to wimbledon with his trainer of all people. to follow everybody and their mother going with their girlfriends. Of Course. nice matching suits

some miami stuff. this compilation would not be complete without miami stuff... shoutout to ben wearing logan's merch hat. + bonus dalton

and this is my fav of Miami Stuff. not sure why but here it is... obv from logan's helmet shoot but without the helmet. just on the beach

THIS IS MY FAVORITE ONE. OF EVER. not really a picture but instead a poorly rendered screenshot from a video I KNOW I'VE POSTED THE CLIP ON HERE BEFORE but this is from. the abu dhabi off grid right after the f2 feature race when it's Confirmed logan got the f1 seat for 23 and ben promptly drops everything and picks him up off the ground. very special tome like i cried

and of course. thee moment of all time. when ben and logan played (and defeated) oscar and his trainer in padel. still yet to recover from this one. this post is nawt about loscar but can you get your damn elbow out of his bicep dude

and here r some random pictures of logan with friends. idk who everyone in the middle picture is but logan looks like he's having fun (and it was callum's 21st birthday. hence him holding up the 1 and 2. if reversed)

[f1byjessie]

HE LIKES MY AMERICAN SMILE ━━ OP81.

love is a wild ride, and logan sargeant's sister is about to find this out the hard way.

( oscar piastri x sargeant!reader )

━━ part four.

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yourusername here’s a sneak peek of the photos from a shoot me and my beloved did for hermès! i’m so honored to get to work with so many skilled and talented people! none of this would’ve been possible without them

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user these are stunning!! 😍❤️

user I MISSED THE RIDING CONTENT

user genuinely had no idea y/n was a rider

↳ user no fr cuz the sargeants are all athletes in some way it’s crazy!!

↳ user i think she just rides casually now 🤔 but she used to compete when they were in europe

logansargeant do i get to brag and say my sister modeled for hermes now?

↳ yourusername there’s plenty of other brands i’ve modeled for that you could brag about 💀 and it was technically my horse that modeled

landonorris ok so are you gonna take me for a ride sometime?

↳ yourusername only if you promise to do the same

↳ user WAIT HOLD ON WE'VE MISSED SOME CHAPTERS

↳ user is y/n not with oscar???

↳ user this bitch is homie hopping the mclaren boys 😒😒

You have barely enough time to respond to the knocking— or rather pounding— on your door before it's being flung open and Logan, looking very much the part of an angry brother, barges in.

“Is it true?” He asks in lieu of a greeting.

“‘Hi, Y/N,’” you begin sarcastically, rolling your eyes. “‘So good to see you, Y/N. Sorry for barging in, Y/N. Can I have a moment of your time, Y/N?’ Why of course, dearest brother of mine. What can I do for you?”

Logan doesn’t seem amused by your antics, though. His eyebrows are furrowed, his mouth is pinched into a frustrated frown, and his hands are clenched into fists at his sides. He’s in his running clothes, and there’s still sweat keeping his hair plastered to his forehead, which gives you the impression that whatever he’s asking about had been deemed important enough that he couldn’t even be bothered to shower and change before confronting you about it.

You wonder, briefly, if his new trainer is downstairs in the living room or if he’s gone home already. You almost ask about it just to piss him off even more, but he looks genuinely serious and you’ve— mostly— grown past the years of purposefully picking on him to get a reaction.

Instead, you sit up further in bed and look at him expectantly, prompting him with a wave of your hand to elaborate.

“Are you dating Lando Norris?”

The question, and the sincerity with which it’s asked, startles a laugh out of you. The flash of hurt in your brother’s eyes, however, forces you to bite back the immediate retort. Logan isn’t asking to be a dick, you remind yourself.

Before you answer, you pull your legs up to your body and pat at the now free space in front of you.

He purses his lips, but eventually, he closes the door— softer than how he’d opened it— and moves to sit on the edge of your mattress. For a moment, as he looks at you, he doesn’t look like the nearly 23-year-old that he is. When you were younger, he’d come into your room and talk about his races, what all he did wrong, and what new things he was going to try next time, and the young man that sits before you now reminds you a lot of that little boy.

“No,” you answer him simply. “I’m not dating Lando. He and I are just friends.”

He doesn’t look convinced. “But do you want to date him?”

You shake your head and sigh, before grabbing your phone off the bedside table and pulling up the brief text conversation you had with Lando last night after he’d tipsily called you. There’s a frankly obscene amount of typos and more emojis interspersed throughout than you thought a guy like him would use, but the majority of it is all the details of his supposedly foolproof plan.

You take a deep breath, weigh the consequences of your actions for a split moment before throwing caution to the wind, and turning the screen to face Logan.

“I don’t want to date Lando,” you admit. “I want to date Oscar, and he’s helping me.”

Logan’s silent, and you pray that it’s just because he’s too busy reading through the messages to focus on reacting to what you’ve said. But the silence stretches on, and on, and on, and suddenly you regret saying anything. Maybe you should’ve just agreed and said it was Lando all along—

“I know Oscar better than Lando,” Logan suddenly says. “I don’t know why you wouldn’t just ask for my help.”

It’s your turn to be silent now. You open your mouth, close it, open it again, and close it again. You probably look like a fish, but you’re so taken aback by what he’s said that it doesn’t even matter.

“You’re not, like, mad?” You pull your phone back and let the screen fall dark, eyes focused on Logan.

He looks at you like you’re dumb, or like you’ve actually turned into the fish you were momentarily mimicking. He shakes his head— “Why would I be mad? Oscar is, like, the only driver I’d want you to date.”

You raise an eyebrow.

“I mean, the others are all nice, don’t get me wrong,” he clarifies. “I’m sure they’re all very good partners, and I bet Lando would be an amazing boyfriend. Probably. But I know Oscar. I trust him more than I trust the others because I know for a fact that he’s a genuinely good guy. That first year that we met him, he asked me what your favorite color was to make sure his mom knit you a hat that you would like.”

“That was years ago, Logan…” you trail off.

He shrugs. “So? It’s not like he’s changed that much. When we were still at Prema, and you went through that vegetarian phase, I caught him once looking up restaurants that have vegetarian options so that you could eat with us when we went out to celebrate.”

You glance down, avoiding Logan’s eyes. Picking at a loose thread at the bottom of your shirt, you say, “That was still years ago.”

“What about all the flirting in the comments,” he asks.

You shrug. You’re not even sure yourself. The way Sophia and Lando had explained things to you, it had certainly seemed like flirting, but the lack of his presence on your posts as of late has made you reconsider your initial beliefs and now you’re not sure what to think.

Realistically, all of this could probably be solved if you just texted him and asked— womaned up, as Sophia would say, and confronted him about your feelings. But there’s still that underlying fear of rejection, and you would never be able to live down the mortification if you did something so bold and had your confidence thrown back in your face.

“So you’re just gonna play pretend with Lando and hope Oscar gets jealous and does something about it?” He sounds genuinely confused. “Isn’t that… mean?”

“That’s what I said!” You exclaim, burying your head in your hands with an exasperated groan. “But Lando and Sophia are so adamant that it’ll work, and they have more relationship experience than I do. I don’t wanna manipulate him at all, but I don’t know what else to do to get his attention again other than talking with him, and I think I might actually throw myself into the ocean if I have to do that.”

Logan’s face scrunches up, “‘Again?’”

You purse your lips and awkwardly shrug as if that’s a good enough answer, but his silent stare persists, so you heave a sigh and fall backward against your pillows, glaring miserably up at your ceiling. “We kissed. Once. In Bahrain.”

He stands from your bed suddenly, pulling your gaze back onto him. His hands are on his hips, his brows are still furrowed and his mouth is still turned downward ever so slightly, but he looks less upset and more determined than anything.

“I’m gonna go get cleaned up. Be ready in thirty minutes,” he says. “We’re going out.”

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logansargeant sometimes it’s just you and your sister against the world, and sometimes that means last-minute trips to the beach to remind yourself that it isn’t all that bad

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yourusername you didn’t really give me much choice tbh 🙄

↳ logansargeant yea ok well someone in this family has to have a sense of spontaneity 🙄

user wholesome sibling content is what’s keeping me going fr

user i’m so happy we’ll be getting more of y/n in the paddock in 2024!! 💙💙💙

landonorris is twin telepathy real?

↳ logansargeant totally

↳ landonorris you’re messing with me no it’s not

↳ yourusername it absolutely is that’s why me and logan are always on the same page

↳ landonorris fuck that’s so cool

user i’m ugly crying the fact that they’re twins makes them built-in best friends i can’t do this rn 😭😭

user the sargeant twins are keeping us fed this winter break

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yourusername sometimes self-care is sunsets and petty gossiping with your brother 

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logansargeant emphasis on the petty

↳ yourusername obviously

user girl idk how you can stand how cold the water is rn

↳ user i mean they kinda grew up in europe so maybe they’re used to it

user i wish i had a brother to gossip with 😫😫

user i NEED to know who they talk shit about PLS

alex_albon hopefully the east coast is having better weather than the west coast 🥲

↳ yourusername sunny skies as far as the eye can see 😌

user I’M REALLY WATCHING THESE TWO LIVE MY DREAM RN

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oscarpiastri ☀️.

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━━ tags: @f1-is-lovely-33 @chasing-liberosis @405rry @aquangxl

━━ a/n: we're going places! i'm very excited for what's in store with the next part! beyond that, though, i am seriously so thankful for how nice everyone has been with this. the reception was so much nicer than i ever could've anticipated, and i'm very excited to keep writing more!

[the-blind-assassin-12]

Core Drive - Clean: 1.03

A/N: Um... I really don’t know what happened. This is the single longest chapter that I have ever written. and I even cut some things for later use so it was supposed to be even longer but that’s crazy (And it took me forever and a day to get through because writing Logan in any amount of distress or pain is very difficult for me.) ANYWAY. There’s A LOT in here, but I think it’s all important so I hope you agree. Every few steps forward comes with a little bit of a backwards glance, right? 

Warning: this series will deal with drug use, depression, addiction, violence and other such topics. *please read responsibly*

Word Count: 9,030 (H O W?) 

“Shiiiiit.” 

Logan hissed the word, grimacing as sweat beaded on his forehead to run down his temples. The rest of the air in his lungs rushed out in a burst through his teeth, narrowed eyes focused as his shaking arms extended to a locked position. He could feel blisters peeling at the first few layers of his palms, lactic acid building up in his biceps. Shit. 

“C’mon man, you got two more, I know you got ‘em let’s go.” Miguel’s fingers hovered just beneath the bar, ready to catch it and keep it from crushing Logan’s chest should he slip and drop it. 

I’m not gonna drop it. Three months and four days in recovery had brought change and progress in spades. Medically, his body had snapped back like a rubber band, heart rate returning to a more normal pace with no signs of long term damage. He’d gained almost twenty pounds thanks to the return of his appetite, and he’d been sleeping better ever since he’d started opening up more in both group and private sessions. Mentally, he still had a long way to go, but he was resolved to get there. So don’t drop it.    

 “Two more, c’mon.” The younger man’s face came into view, upside down from Logan’s position on the cushioned black bench, his light brown eyes full of encouragement. As much as the constant support of the staff of counselors, nutritionists, trainers, therapists and techs had been instrumental in the growth Logan had been able to achieve, he knew that he wouldn’t have done so well so quickly without Miguel’s influence. From the very first night, all he’d done was offer a hand to help Logan pull himself up. Two more reps and he’d have a new personal best. That’s Miguel’s doing, too. Logan nodded. Two more. No problem.

Swallowing, Logan regripped the bar in his hands with a tight squeeze. He took in a breath and slowly bent his elbows, controlling the motion of the weights until the angle of his arms reached 90 degrees. The burn that spread through his muscles was an entirely different kind of pain from what he’d experienced in the desert- determined, not destructive- and he welcomed it. Pushing hard, he brought the bar back up, letting out another hiss of breath followed by a grunting growl as he locked his arms out again. 

“One last one man, you got this, you got to dig, c’mon now.”  

Dig. That’s what it was all about. Digging just that fraction deeper, pushing just further than the previous day. Logan had been excavating the surface layers, exploring and sharing and exposing more of himself than he ever had. It hadn’t been easy, but it hadn’t been nearly as raw or impossible as he thought it might be. It was time to dig a little deeper, he knew, time to get closer to the roots. He had a one-on-one with Zeke later that afternoon, and he’d been thinking more and more about the question he’d still been unable to answer: What was his goal for recovery? What did he want? It’s gotta be… I’ve gotta be close. Just gotta dig. 

He fought through the last press, gritting his teeth as he hit the climax of the lift. Miguel swiftly relieved him of the bar, setting it noisily into the rack above the bench as Logan carefully sat up. “Nice fuckin’ work, man, you crushed it.” Arms aching, chest and shoulders heaving with labored breaths, Logan let a tired smile curve up his cheeks, allowing himself a moment of triumph. I did. A burst of sound, almost a laugh, came from his mouth then as a light feeling filled his heart and head. I didn’t drop it. “You really been killin it, man,” Miguel waited for Logan to stand before smacking him lightly with the back of one hand. “This stuff, yeah,” he waved at the weights and equipment that surrounded them, “but I mean with everything. Shit, what you talked about today?” Logan’s eyebrows flew up as Miguel nodded. “You’re gettin’ there, man.”   

Logan cleared his throat as the two men headed for the showers. He hadn’t wanted to work out after the morning’s group session had left him emotionally exhausted but Miguel had talked him into it, promising that he’d feel better afterwards. He was right. It was a heavy morning, and with what he had in mind to bring up to Zeke, it would be a heavy afternoon, too. But at least I know I’m stronger now. “Hey, Ortiz,” Logan jutted his chin out just as they were about to split up into separate stalls. He knocked on the wall twice with his knuckles. “Thanks. For spotting today.” He was thanking Miguel for more than his help in the gym, and Miguel knew it. 

He grinned, looking even younger than his 24 years. “You got it, brother.”

As Logan let the steam and warm water soothe his sore muscles, he thought back to the morning’s session and what he’d shared. Combing his wet hair back with his long fingers, he let the full memory surrounding Juliet’s wedding come back to him.

..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..      

Bright afternoon sunlight poured through the tinted panes of the towering stained glass window, painting the floor, the pews, and the faces of the people sitting in them in swaths of green and yellow and red. Thick lead piping cut through the glass to depict various saints and Biblical scenes throughout the church. Logan stared at the image of a snake, it’s scales a bright emerald in contrast to the ruby toned apple that it was curled around. It’s never just an apple. One garnet eye gleamed maliciously as the creature’s forked tongue flicked from between it’s fangs, suspended in a tempting dance to lure its prey. He tore his eyes from the glass, blinking before returning them to the front of the room. 

He sat in the fourth pew from the front. The first three had been adorned with elegant white ribbons, designating special seating for family members and those who would take part in the ceremony. The entire third row on their side was empty. Delos may have become a titanic name, but it was a small family. No room for me though. He recognized the back of his father’s head, visible between the necks of his cousins that were seated in the second row. Logan was more familiar with the palette of yellowish whites and peppery grays that ran through the sparse wisps of hair beneath and around the balding dome than he was with the man’s eyes. Easier to walk away when you don’t look back.  

As though you could feel the acidic sting in his chest through your joined palms, you squeezed his hand where it rested in his lap, your fingers woven through his in a show of support. He doesn’t matter though, not why I’m here. He returned your squeeze and tilted his chin down to look at you. You were facing straight ahead, focused on the couple seated up near the altar, but you turned to face him as he let out the stale breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Your eyes locked onto his immediately, full of compassion and strength and all of the things that he was missing but couldn’t muster up for himself. I don’t need him. I have her. 

Punctuating that point, you leaned into his side. You didn’t ask if he was alright because you knew that he wasn’t. “I’m right here, Logan,” You whispered low, only for him to hear. 

I know. He inhaled through his nose, eyes slipping closed as he nodded. I know you are. Pulling his hand free from yours, he wound his arm around your waist to grip your hip, turning to press a quick kiss to the crown of your head. There was no way that he would be there, sitting on that hard wooden bench if it weren’t for you being right there. Not after last night, not after what Jules said… what Willi- Logan swallowed, wincing. What he made her think. A friend of Juliet’s was reading a passage listing the attributes of love- patient, kind, without envy. He opened his eyes again, lips still buried in your hair. He knew that you loved him; you’d made it abundantly clear without ever speaking the word. I have nothing for her but she… The readings faded away, the previous night filling his mind instead…

“I’ll see you after the dinner.” Your voice in his ear and the promise of being able to crush your chest close to his sooner rather than later made him feel sturdier, more solid. “Just let me know when to head over, okay?” 

He licked his dry lips, pressing the phone to his ear. I wish you could come with me. You’d be there at the wedding tomorrow as his allotted plus one, but the non-existence of your relationship excluded you from an invitation to the rehearsal dinner. “Yeah.” As soon as I leave. “You remember the code? ‘Case I’m...in case you get there before me?” He’d never given anyone a key or a code, never trusted anyone to be inside his walls with or without him. I hope you get there before me. 

“I remember,” you assured him. Good. You paused before saying anything else, and when you did you couldn’t keep the concern from tinting your tone. “Logan?” Waiting another beat, his silence ensuring his attention, you continued. “It’s going to be… no matter what happens tonight, it’s going to be alright. You know that, right?” No. He cleared his throat but couldn’t form words. Is it? I don’t know. “Logan?” This time he hummed a response. “You’re doing the right thing. You’re trying to protect your sister. If she can’t… if your father can’t see that… I just,” You sighed. “You’re doing the right thing. And no matter what happens, I’ll… you have me. I need you to know that.”   

Your name came out with a breath as he combed the fingers of his free hand through his hair. I know… “I-” 

“Logan! Come on, we’re starting soon!” 

His sister’s call from the hallway cut him off and he swore under his breath. “Look, I have to go… get this shit over with, right?” He tried for sarcasm and fell about a mile short as you muttered a ‘right’ half-heartedly. “I’ll see you soon.” Not soon enough. 

He’d ended the call and gone out to appease Juliet, though he was uncertain as to why he needed to be there; after the desert some adjustments had been made to the wedding party and assigned readings, removing Logan from both. We just don’t want to make things too stressful for you. It’s only been two months and we don’t want to overwhelm you, Juliet had told him. Sure, we. Logan knew exactly who we was. 

The rehearsal was relatively quick, the wedding planner that had been hired buzzing diligently around, making sure that everything ran according to her strict schedule. Logan eyed his father from across the room as the woman took Juliet by the elbow, whisking her away to inspect some small detail. Jim took a sip of his beverage, leaning back casually in his chair as Logan stood to confront him. Last chance. He hadn’t had anything to drink, wanting to hold on to as much credibility as he could. It’s not even about me, it’s about Jules. I need him to believe me. She can’t... His eyes swept the room and found William, his whole body stiffening. She can’t marry that fucking monster. He’d waited until things had died down, until most of the guests had already left, before approaching his father to implore him one more time to hear what he was saying about the man he was so eager to welcome into their family. The man who tried to kill me. Logan had tried with Juliet, but his relationship with her was already on thin ice and each time he brought up his objections to her fiance that ice threatened to break. She won’t listen to me. But maybe she’ll listen to him.

He’d gone over what he wanted to say to his father, repeating it over and over until it was ingrained in his memory like a monologue. But he never got to deliver it. Halfway across the room he was stopped in his tracks, William’s blue eyes suddenly appearing as he stepped into Logan’s path. Get out of my way, asshole. 

“Logan.” 

He bristled at the malice that the other man covered with a sick grin, the same one he’d given him when he’d sent him off to die like a beast. Top lip curling, Logan ignored him, looking over William’s shoulder to keep his father in his sights. He was still in the same place, though now he was speaking with some staff member. Just need to talk to him before- 

“Aren’t you going to say hello, Logan?” 

He snapped his attention back to the man in front of him, sneering. Is he fucking serious? “Fuck off, I need to talk to my-” 

“Your father’s a little busy right now.” He tilted his head, shifting his weight and widening his smile. “Lots to do with the wedding tomorrow.” 

We’ll see about that, you son of a bitch. “You are not marrying my sister.” He growled low, nostrils flared and eyes wild as desperate anger spiked his bloodstream with gasoline, ready to ignite. He can fuck me over. He can fuck Jim over. But he’s not taking Juliet. He’s not taking Delos. “You get nothing, you piece of shit.” Not if I can help it.

William’s eyes narrowed. “But I already have everything, Logan.” He gave a slight shake to his head, sandy blond hair falling out of place. Why does he look so fuckin’ cocksure? Before he could say anything else, something cracked through William’s cold blue eyes like a fissure through an iceberg. He changed the tilt of his head by an almost imperceptible degree as he stepped closer. What the fuck is he- “Juliet is happy with me, Logan.” William smirked as he raised one hand to place it on Logan’s shoulder. “Don’t you care about your sister’s happiness?” 

Red hot disgust erupted into flames in Logan’s stomach the second William’s palm made contact. He reached across his body to shove the other man’s hand away as he gave a harsh shrug, top lip curled and eyes wild with hatred. “I don’t give a fuck if she’s happy, you crazy prick. All I fucking care about is getting her away from you, and I-” 

“If you don’t give a fuck,” His sister’s voice cut through the air to hit him like a dart from behind. Oh, shit. He could hear the way that she was trying to hide the hurt. He spun around to see her stepping through the open patio door, wiping at her eyes to stem the flow of mascara tinted tears.

“Jules, you know what I-” Logan sighed and reached for her as she walked past, but she drew her arm back in the exact motion that he’d used to escape William’s grasp, her top lip curling in the same way he knew that his own had. 

She dodged his hand, instead taking William’s as she came to stand by his side. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder as she continued. “If you don’t give a fuck, Logan, then don’t come tomorrow.” Juliet’s eyes, just a half shade lighter than Logan’s and almost identical in shape, were focused on his lapel instead of his face. She won’t even look at me, she- He looked up and was met with William’s smug grin. Motherfucker. That frigid flash from before suddenly made sense as Logan realized that William had baited him to say something that would hurt Juliet, knowing that he was unaware that she’d been standing in the doorway.   

That was that. Juliet’s tears caught Jim’s attention, and Logan’s last chance to get his father to see the truth about his new son was gone. He’d been told to leave and had been given a stern warning about his behavior at the wedding, assuring him that tossing him from the event wasn’t off the table, that he should consider himself lucky to still be welcome. I’m not though. It hurt to know that he was only still on the guest list so as not to raise questions about why the bride’s brother was absent. But I have to...for Jules. He knew there wasn’t much of a relationship left to salvage there, but he wouldn’t just walk away from it, wouldn’t quit until he’d exhausted all of his options. 

Before he’d even set foot outside of his father’s house, his phone was in his hand, letting you know that he was on his way back to his place. You responded quickly, saying that you’d be there as soon as you could. Still numb from the way that his plan had backfired, the drive home seemed to fly by in a matter of seconds and before Logan realized it, he found himself walking into the cool water of the infinity pool. His palms cut through the calm surface as the floor sloped lower until he reached the clear acrylic barrier that separated him from plunging onto the beach dozens of stories below. He’d found himself out there more and more, the moonlight on the ocean and the breeze off the shore cooling the pool water enough to soothe the phantom burns that still tingled all over his body. The encounter with William had thrown a lit match into his mind, and he let out a shaky breath as he leaned his elbows on the pool’s edge. Burning and dousing, lighting and stomping out- there wasn’t much left but ash. Soon even that’ll be gone. 

The sound of rollers sliding along a track joined the crush and crash of waves as the patio door opened. She’s here. Logan turned his head, chin parallel to his shoulder as you slid the glass closed. From that angle all he could see were your ankles and calves, bare in the fading lavender light, but it was enough to make his breath catch. He watched as you rose on one foot, then the other, your muscles contracting as you elevated to your toes in order to remove your shoes. You bent to move them to the side, your hair falling down your back, one hand coming to sweep it up, gathering the long strands to pile them atop your head as you stood. Your shins replaced your calves in his view as you twisted and took a step towards the edge of the pool. Wordlessly, you crossed the white stone slab, shedding the loose-fitting coverup you had over your swimsuit before lowering yourself down to slip into the water in one smooth motion. 

Logan turned his eyes back to the breakers, frothy white over the slate blue sea, cresting and spilling over to beat against the hard packed sand, but they slid closed as the rippled surface licked at his back. The water, displaced by your movement, spread out in circles to extinguish the fires that still tore through him. Releasing a slow breath through his nose he allowed the relief to flood his system. You still hadn’t said anything when he felt your touch, palms cool and fingertips dripping as one pressed to his spine, the other starting near his left shoulder to travel down his bicep and into the bend in his elbow where it rested along the ledge. He sighed and swallowed as you inched closer, hips and chest and lips making contact, right hand sliding around his body to wrap him completely in your arms. You left another delicate kiss along the plane of his back before turning to lay your cheek there, flexing your arms as you did. 

“What happened?” Your voice was quiet, consistent with the gentle breeze that ruffled the palms, soft but unwavering. Logan looked down to see the fingers of your left hand curled around his wrist. 

She’s here, I have her. He brought his right hand through the water to cover yours, sandwiching your arm between his and his body as he squeezed lightly. “I tried to talk to my…” he winced, “to my father again but he...William, he,” Fuck. The smouldering coals of the fire cracked back to life, stoked by the utterance of the man’s name. Logan blew out a shaky breath, the cold, cruel look William had given him flashing through his mind. Your thumbs moving over his skin and your whispered assurances drew the rest of the words out of him. “He stopped me, he knew what I was doin’. Used Jules against me, he-” a sick feeling swam through his chest, encircling his heart like the tentacles of some creature hell bent on dragging him to the bottom of the sea.  Anger and frustration, hatred and hopelessness bubbled up to drown him. “He tricked me...” Again. The tide was changing, churning now as the moon climbed in the sky and pulled the waves up higher and harder to swallow the shoreline. I underestimated him… and now he’s taking everything. 

He thought at first it was just about proving a point for William; proving that he could play the game the way Logan wanted him to, that he wasn’t the sniveling little beige toned coward that Logan had him pegged as. But it quickly became apparent that it was about much more than that. William didn’t care what Logan thought of him. In fact, the character that he had created for himself had been designed to suit multiple purposes: presenting as a cautious, capable set of hands for James to pass Delos and its fortunes to, appealing to Juliet as a charming, reliable albeit quiet and passive gentleman, and combining both of those traits to ignite some of Logan’s more volatile and less desirable behaviors. There were no points to be made other than that Logan, like the rest of his family, had been fooled by this con man. Divide and conquer, start with the weakest link. 

“It’ll be my word against yours, Logan.” He sneered down from his saddle, the thick rope twisted twice around his fist. “When all of this is over, if you make it out-” 

Logan seethed silently up at him. Even his voice sounds different now. He never imagined that all of this was what William was keeping so tightly wrapped when he told the man that he wanted to see who he really was. They’d gone roughly eight miles in the sweltering heat without stopping and Logan was exhausted. It was the second day of this, hands bound, trailing behind the horse, stumbling every so often either over the terrain or due to an impatient tug from his captor. 

William took a long pull from his canteen before wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “If you make it out, who do you think they’re going to believe?” He cocked his head to the side, watching the way that Logan was eyeing the canteen. Lips curling into a devious grin, he handed it over, taking pleasure in the desperate way that Logan fumbled to relieve his thirst from the empty container. “You know, you really made this easy for me.” A slow spreading realization trickled through his tired, dehydrated brain. Shit. “You live so close to the edge that all you need is a little push,” he sighed and tilted his head in the other direction. “After a few days out here?” He gestured vaguely at the sweeping landscape with the hand that he’d wrapped the rope around, jerking Logan by the wrists and causing him to drop the canteen. “No one will believe a word you say.”

He was right, Logan knew it was true. He was the boy who cried wolf with risky investments and drug dependencies, crude, attention seeking behavior and seemingly unwarranted judgements against the kind, moral man that William had convinced everyone that he was. He’d fucked up ten too many times in their eyes. It didn’t matter that he’d more than made up for what he’d lost the company monetarily, or that he hadn’t used in almost a decade. His father had told him that he was hardwired to fail, but it seemed just as likely that it was a flaw on James’ end- that the man could only look at his son and see wasted potential, a junkie, scrutinizing him through a filtered lens that blocked out anything worth celebrating. He won’t listen. Juliet won’t either, not after... 

William tugged the rope again and clicked his tongue, giving the horse a kick. Logan’s arms were yanked sharply, straining at his shoulder joints as his feet hurried to catch up with the horse’s momentum. Sweat ran in dirty trails down the bridge of his nose, cheeks and forehead already starting to redden along with the back of his neck over the top of his collar. It was the most physical agony he’d ever been in, and he knew it was only going to get worse with every step he took. What the fuck did I do to deserve this? As though his body could spare the water, reluctant tears sprang from the corners of his dry eyes, rolling down his cheeks and into his beard. 

The second the first tear fell, your face filled his mind. “No one will believe a word you say”, William had told him through a pompous grin. Not no one… she will. He focused on the way you looked waking up tucked against his side as bright, clean light pushed through the cracks in the curtains, remembered the way you smiled against his lips as he kissed you. She will.  

It had been nearly two months to the day that he’d had that thought- that he’d have your support and yours alone- when he found himself standing at the edge of the pool, wrapped in your arms, telling you how again William had sabotaged him. I was right. But it was a bittersweet comfort because he knew that he had nothing right now to give you in return. You had never once asked for anything, and maybe that was why he wanted to give you things, wanted to give you more of himself than he’d ever given anyone. He was almost ready, before his trip, almost ready to give you all of his trust, all of his secrets, his dreams, all the parts of himself that no one cared to see. He was almost ready to let you love him, to tell you what he already knew that he felt. But now? He couldn’t tell you now. He wouldn’t heft that obligation on you now, not when he was already depending on you as a life raft. 

Before he could get too lost in what he couldn’t do, he felt your cheek and chin move against his back as you spoke. “We’ll do whatever you want to do, Logan.” You straightened up and laid your lips to his shoulder blade before maneuvering your body around him, fitting yourself between his chest and the ledge of the pool. He looked down at you through his lashes, his hands falling to your waist, yours landing on his chest and the side of his neck. “If you want to go, we’ll go. If you don’t, we won’t.” What? He hadn’t even considered not going. You pressed your hand against his heart and shook your head. “Whatever you want to do, Logan, I’ll be there with you. There’s no wrong answer, you just do what you need to do, what you feel is right for you, and it’ll be okay, I promise. Maybe not tomorrow, or right away but… ” He gripped you more tightly as you slid the hand on his neck around to toy with the longer strands of hair there. His eyes fell shut at your touch, but he opened them again as a sigh left his lungs.  “But you have me, Logan. So if that means you want to stand up and object tomorrow, I’ll stand up with you.” You would. You tilted your head to the side and in the silver light of the moon he watched your eyes gleam, watched a small smile brighten your features. His heart thudded hard and even as it beat against his ribs, your smile took some of the pain from it. “And if you end up getting pushed into a pool,” you rose on your toes to drag your lips from his cheek to his ear. “I’ll jump right in with you.” You will. 

A jolt of warmth spread through him as he ran both of his hands up your back, wet palms sliding over your smooth skin to get you as close as he could. He knew it was temporary, that feeling. It was real, and it was strong, and it amplified as you wove the arm that was trapped between your bodies under his to hold him more tightly, but he knew that it wasn’t enough to keep everything else at bay. But it’s enough for tonight. Logan brought one hand up to cradle the back of your head, fingers threading through your hair as he recalled the night he’d met you, wishing he could go back instead of forward into tomorrow. The tide swept even higher up the sand, foam reaching for the dunes, and he let the sound of the waves and the rise of your chest against his carry him into the memory.

..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..

“You’ll like Dana, Logan.” Doubtful, Jules. “And I think she’ll be good for you.” So, boring. Great. Juliet assured him that the friend of hers that she’d set him up with for a co-worker’s wedding was a “nice girl” that she could “see him with.” He sighed, fixing his hair in the mirror as she sat on the bench at the end of the bed to put her shoes on. He’d been working hard over the last few years to repair the shaky relationship he had with his sister, and he’d go out with as many of her painfully dull single friends as he needed to to make her happy. Just don’t expect any of ‘em to stick. 

Within minutes of meeting Dana he knew that he’d been right about her. She was attractive and friendly, had a kind smile and said all the right things. Boring as fuck. Not even halfway through the ceremony, Dana had her arm looped through Logan’s as he scanned the crowd looking for anything or anyone to distract him. That was when he saw you, your profile bathed in a purplish blue light from the stained glass that you sat beneath, a quirk to the set of your lips that told him that you wanted to be there just as much as he did. You must have felt the weight of his gaze because you turned your head and caught him looking, sending a smirk through the air before turning back to face the front, your hair bouncing in a soft bologna curl as it fell over your shoulder. Bingo. 

Logan’s attention snapped back up to the officiant as they asked those gathered if there was any reason that the couple should not engage in matrimony. Maybe because I fucked the bride last night? He snorted to himself, clearing his throat as Dana threw her eyes sidelong at him. The woman in white stood in front of the room clutching the hands of her intended, makeup professionally painted on to hide the hangover and regret. He couldn’t help but wonder how many guests at this wedding knew what she looked like under all that tulle and lace. His eyes flicked to the man she was pledging her undying love and loyalty to, nearly choking to keep another snort from interrupting the moment. And the groom two weeks ago. All around him hands dabbed at teary eyes and heads tilted at angles emoting warmth and adoration for the lovestruck pair. Eat it up, assholes. He smirked silently, enjoying the fact that he knew Mr. & Mrs. Whateverthefuck better than, better than she knows him, that’s for sure. He pulled his sleeve up to check his watch as they shared a screen worthy kiss to join their souls. Less than an hour until the open bar. Glancing around he noticed that everyone else had stood to applaud the newlyweds, and that he and the disturbingly geriatric grandfather of the bride were the only two who remained in their seats. He sighed and stood, smacking his palms together apathetically, Dana gripping his arm and grinning up at him in a way that sent up red flags.Thank fuck.  

Two drinks into the cocktail hour Logan caught your eye again as you picked up a drink at the bar. You smiled, swirling the straw in your glass before bringing it to your deep purple lips and taking a sip, eyes never leaving his until you turned back to the bar. Why doesn’t Jules have any friends like that? He sighed. He’d tried to care about literally anything that Dana had said, hoping that he’d be able to figure out why Juliet thought that the woman might be someone that he’d be interested in, but he realized that “she might be good for you” was just code for “she’ll keep you out of trouble.” At what cost though? He finished his drink and turned to Dana who was still talking about… something.. Sorry Jules, I can’t do another minute of this. 

“Dana?” She turned her face up hopefully. Shit. He preferred honesty and didn’t mind bluntness, but he hated when they didn’t see it coming.  “I uh,” he cleared his throat. Just rip the bandaid off. “Listen, you’re really nice, but I am bored as fuck. I’m gonna go get another drink, talk to people and…” he gestured with his hand, twirling his wrist as he watched you walk out through the billowing curtains of the french doors and onto the patio. And follow her. “You have fun, Dana, I’ll see you later.” He strode away before she could respond, but she didn’t seem the type to make a scene, surely another reason why Juliet was trying so hard to pawn her off on him. 

He’d grabbed another drink and headed in the direction that he’d seen you go, and after assuring you that Dana was just the result of a failed blind date and that she and he had gone their separate ways for the evening, you assured him that you could tell that was what was going on from a mile away. Smirking, you asked him if he wanted to take a walk, “to get away from all  the stiffs.” He couldn’t remember agreeing to anything more quickly, feeling a magnetic pull towards you that had been absolutely absent with Dana. Before he knew it, the two of you had walked the entirety of the grounds, just talking. Logan hadn’t even noticed when you’d reached the patio again, blinking at you when you stopped walking. 

“So,” you pushed a piece of hair back behind your ear, Logan’s eyes following your fingers before flitting to your face. You smiled and he felt his own lips quirk upwards. “Do we go back inside, or do we stay out here?” You looked out over the patio, the shimmering water of the swimming pool illuminated by candles and lanterns, too cold to swim but too scenic to cover up. 

Well we definitely don’t go back inside. “Back in there? You mean with all the stiffs?” He stepped closer to you, setting his empty glass down on a lounge table and you nodded. Your confident smirk fell only for a second, your breath catching as he placed his palms on your waist, closing the distance even more. You don’t want to go back in there. “Nah, I think we stay out here and-” 

And she is nothing like Dana.

At least that was the first thought he had after you’d taken him by surprise, capturing his lips in a kiss that tasted like whiskey and champagne. He’d wasted no time in kissing you back, biting loosely down on your berry toned bottom lip before pulling back with a low rumbling breath in his throat. “Yeah, I think so too, Logan.” You sat down on one of the lounges as nonchalantly as you’d kissed him, crossing your long legs and waiting for him to make a move. 

Removing his jacket, he straddled the end of the lounge, picking up your legs and setting them back down on his thigh, thumb running along the underside of your calf to pull a breathy sigh from your lips. He groaned to himself, imagining what other kinds of sounds he could get you to make, and what hearing them would do to him. The wedding went on inside, but you and Logan saw none of it, missing the toasts, the dances, the cake- all of it- in favor of sharing that cushion, some more conversation, and another kiss, this one more heated than the last, hands and hips getting involved in a way that was difficult to stop once it had started. 

Until Dana had made her way outside to find her date with his hands on your body and your tongue in his mouth. Apparently, Logan hadn’t been as explicit as he thought he was being when he’d told Dana that he was bored. “I thought you were just going to talk to some people you know, not, not…” her face scrunched up as she gestured at the two of you, cheeks going red with embarrassment and anger. “Not this!” He bristled at the implication that he’d done anything wrong by spending his time with you. 

“I told you I was bored, Dana.” She still seemed confused. Guess I have to make it simpler. “I get bored, I don’t stay bored.”

While it seemed that he finally got his point across, perhaps he’d gotten it across too well. Shocking Logan with the amount of expression on her plain, quiet little face, she launched herself at him, hands out in front of her, giving him only enough time to realize what was coming, not enough time to stop it. Oh, shit.  “Logan Delos, you are deplorable!”  

“Oh, shit!” He heard you exclaim through a laugh as you jumped aside, Dana’s palms contacting his shoulders and giving him a backwards shove to send him tumbling into the pool before spinning and practically running back inside. 

Logan sputtered as he popped up from the water, a string of choked curses coming from his lips as he coughed and found his footing to stand. Squinting his eyes, he wiped his face to dry it as much as possible, dragging his palm down over his dripping beard. He wanted to be mad, but as soon as he opened his eyes and saw you still standing there, laughing from behind the hand that you’d clamped over your mouth, the anger vanished. “I’m glad you think this is so funny,” he stepped closer to the edge of the pool and scooped a handful of water up to splash you with. It is kind of funny. 

You smirked at him, the golden glow of the lanterns and candles dancing on the rippling surface and reflecting in your eyes. He watched you bite your bottom lip and groaned to himself knowing exactly how it felt to sink his own teeth lightly into that soft, berry stained flesh. Drenched strands of hair were plastered to his forehead and he brought one hand up to push them back, water dripping from the elbow of his soaked sleeve. The small group of partygoers that had followed a disgruntled Dana out to the patio dissipated, heading back inside for cocktails and gossip, leaving just the two of you. You took a step closer to the edge of the pool, your heels clicking against the wet pavers as music spilled from the open French doors. What is she doing? 

You bent one knee, slowly bringing your leg up behind yourself, and whatever questions Logan had died on his tongue. It flicked out to lick at his lips as the curve of your calf kissed your thigh, exposed below the hem of your skin tight dress. Reaching back, you curled your fingers around the heel of your stiletto. Logan’s eyes narrowed as he watched each digit bend, thinking about how it would feel to have those fingers wrapped around him instead. You seemed to read the intent in his expression, your smirk shifting to something more self-satisfied as you peeled your shoe from your foot. He hadn’t realized that his mouth had fallen open until it snapped shut, your shoe clattering to the ground. You removed the other more quickly, kicking it to the side to join it’s mate. Despite his situation, excitement quickened his heartbeat and he felt himself grow hard. Is she really gonna… He didn’t have to wait long, his hands coming up to receive your hips as you slid into the water, bracing yourself on his shoulders.  

You sucked in a breath that was as much a laugh as it was a gasp, clearly unprepared for how cold the water was. The sound drew his lips into a grin. Bold move. You gripped his shirt and pulled yourself closer, water sloshing between you until your hips met his. Logan let out a laugh of his own, fingers digging into the material of your dress beneath the water. When you looked back up at him, the shock from the cold and the shine from the lights were gone. It was replaced with a cocktail of mischief and desire that had him feeling more intoxicated than the champagne. Oh, shit.  “What are you doin’, huh?” He asked, voice low as his palms traveled to the small of your back, spreading wide so that his pinky and ring fingers followed your curves. A breathy sound came from your lips even as you kept your eyes trained on his, raising one eyebrow as though challenging him to get you to crack completely. Gladly. “Didn’t you hear?” He leaned in to drag the tip of his nose along the side of yours, wet beard brushing your cheek and pulling another little hum from your throat. “I’m deplorable.” He dragged the word out, hands squeezing the flesh beneath them. “Disgraceful.” Speaking low as his mouth hovered over your skin, Logan walked you backwards until you were up against the ledge of the pool. 

You inhaled shakily as he tilted his head to nip and suck at your throat, your pulse racing against his tongue one hand twisting even more tightly in the wrinkled material of his shirt, the other climbing up the back of his neck to clutch a fistful of his hair. Turning the tables, you tugged lightly to pull his head back and he groaned. Fuck that’s… He looked down through his lashes at you as you kept him in your grasp. “I don’t think you’re so bad, Logan,” you released his hair, letting him straighten up as your fingertips slipped through the one wet curl behind his ear. Shrugging, you let go of his shirt and pressed that palm flat against his chest. He swallowed, unprepared for the rush of warmth from your simple touch. Huh. “Besides. I don’t stay bored either, and-” your smile climbed one side of your face, lips following to quirk into a  perfect little bow. “And I was having fun with you.”

Two hours ago you were a stranger across the room. Now here you were, standing in 50 degree pool water, ruining your dress and shivering under the moon just to be with him. “Were you?” He asked, bringing one hand up to rest along the slope of your shoulder, thumb pressing gently into the skin beneath your collar bone. He grinned at your reaction, at the way your eyes snapped shut, a wrinkle in your eyelid and a rush of air from your lungs. You nodded as your eyes opened again, bringing a smile with them. “So was I.” A lot more fun than I thought I’d have at this damn thing. Logan let his hand slither slowly up the side of your neck until your earlobe was between his fingers. He stared at your lips as his thumb swiped over the bottom one to leave beads of water behind. “And we’re just gettin’ started.” He crashed his lips to yours then, leaving his thumb where it was, slipping it into your mouth as you whimpered. Your body went slack for a second as he caught you off guard, and you melted against his chest. Got you. He smirked to himself as you recovered, pulling at his hair again and winding your other arm around his body to bring yourself impossibly closer. Letting himself get lost in it, he replaced his thumb with his tongue, deepening the kiss as your hips rolled into his. He sighed into your mouth at the sensation, enjoying the way you were both trading who had the upper hand. My turn. 

He pulled back suddenly and you fell forward, chest heaving as you steadied yourself against him, a dizzy haze clouding your eyes that wasn’t there before the kiss. If possible, it made you even more enticing. He inhaled through his nose, shoulders lifting as he took a breath, and fingers trailing back down your neck to your shoulder again. “We should get outta this pool.” And outta these clothes. You nodded, pressing your lips together as you tried to regain your composure. “You stayin’ at the hotel?” He pointed his chin towards the illuminated building behind you and you nodded again. He smiled and flexed his fingers around your shoulder and hip. “Good. C’mon.” The hand he had on your hip dropped away from your body and he used it to grab yours, reaching for the palm you had pressed over his shirt pocket and pulling you away from the ledge, your lower body cutting through the water so that he could switch places with you. Without letting go of your hand, he planted his free one on the concrete and hopped up to sit on the rounded edge. Water splashed and dripped, running down his wet clothes and back into the pool. He tugged you towards him and bent down to place both hands on your waist. “Ready?” You placed your hands on his forearms and looked up at him, nodding for a third time. “Hang on.” 

You sprang off your toes and he lifted you from the water, a laugh slipping from your lips as he helped you up onto the ledge with him. It changed the shape of your mouth, pulling it open into a wide smile that made your eyes brighten and gave Logan a little rush. He realized he couldn’t remember the last time that he’d felt that, the last time he’d really had fun with someone. Your thigh bumped into his as your hands fell from his arms to yank your dress down, the material suctioned even more tightly to your body now. He watched your fingers bunching in the deep purple fabric and imagined his own, pulling the hem in the opposite direction, over your head and onto the floor in a saturated heap. When your eyes lifted back to his, that spark was back, and depending on how he tilted his head it was as innocent as it was intentional. How the hell is she doin’ that? 

You cast your eyes down through your lashes as he let out a heavy breath, hands moving down from your hips to the smooth skin of your legs, wet beneath his palms. Can’t wait to… he groaned, swinging his head downward. With a smirk, you blinked and smiled sweetly, leaning in slowly to capture his lips in a kiss that rattled his thoughts, shifting again from lustful to playful. He gave you the reins, and as soon as he did you broke apart and stood, laughing as you wrapped your arms around yourself, your whole body shuddering in a sudden shiver. “Holy shit it’s cold!” ‘Course it is. You bent your knees and let out another burst of laughter, as though that could fend off the chill.

Logan stood, pulling one leg and then the other up as water sloshed out of his shoes. He took a step towards the lounge chair you’d been sharing when Dana had stalked outside in a fit of rage, to retrieve his jacket, glad he’d removed it long before taking an unexpected plunge. It wasn’t cold before, but now it’s freezing. “You regret gettin’ in that water with me now?” He looked over his shoulder at you while you picked up your discarded shoes, one eyebrow raised as he grabbed the garment and turned back to you. 

Lips trembling slightly and cheeks rosy red, you locked your eyes with his and shook your head from side to side. Droplets of water flew from the tips of your hair as you moved closer to him. “No.” You said it simply. “Not even a little bit.” 

That rush hit him again. She means it. He narrowed his eyes and stepped closer, draping his jacket around your shoulders and pulling you into him by the lapels. “Good.” Dipping his head down, he sought out your lips for one more brief kiss, waiting until he could feel you lose your breath to pull back. “Let’s get inside, huh?” You nodded, slipping your arms into the sleeves of his jacket which fell just below the hem of your dress, a sight he instantly knew he’d have a hard time forgetting. I like that. You weren’t the first woman to wear one of his jackets. But he liked how it looked on you more than he thought possible.  

You reached for his hand, fingers notching through his as he spread them to accommodate your hold, and pulled him toward the building, not another word spoken until much later that night.     

..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  

Logan gripped the tap and twisted it, the shower pipes shuddering in the wall as the water stopped abruptly. Drying off, he felt the grit of the morning session and his workout fall away, and he took a deep breath of the warm, steamy air as he prepared to do more digging. He wrapped the towel low around his waist and pulled open the stall door, more steam billowing out with him as he crossed to the sink. Wiping the meat of his palm against the mirror, he cleared the fogged glass enough to see himself. 

You don’t really think all of this, his reflection rolled his eyes around the seafoam and white tiled room, and gestured with his glass in a wide arch, is going to do anything, do you? 

Logan gripped the sides of the sink and shook his head. Shut the fuck up. 

I mean, sure, you’re clean now, but so what? He narrowed his bottomless eyes and pushed off from the wall he was leaning against to move closer, until Logan flicked his eyes up to see them staring back, full of contempt. His top lip twitched in a sneer as a precursor to his next words. You have nothing left, Delos. You lost it. All of it. You have nothing. No one. He shook his head then, giving a frustrated huff through flared nostrils. 

You have me, Logan. 

Your words came back to him as his eyes slipped closed, and he could feel your hand resting on his chest, solid and sure as if you were right there with him. Do I? Do I have you still? But the second that he questioned it, he knew it was true. He had you in every breath and beat of his hard-worked heart. He had you in every happy memory, in every moment of triumph no matter how small. He still had you, even if he’d let you go. I have her. He opened his eyes, releasing the grip he had on the sink to stand at his full height.  

I told you to just give up in the desert. I gave you two more chances after that. The man in his reflection clicked his tongue. The longer you draw this out, the messier it is. Gotta know when to leave the party, and you’ve worn out your welcome on this one. Just do yourself a favor and-

“No.”  

Logan turned sharply and stepped away from the mirror, shutting out his demon. Later that afternoon, he met with Zeke on the deck that overlooked the Atlantic. His first answer to Zeke’s question had been simply that he wanted to get better. Inspired by his recent progress, and introspection, he thought that he was ready to edit that statement. 

“I want to get out of my own way,” he said proudly at the end of the meeting. “That’s my goal.” 

Ezekiel nodded, leaning back in his chair. He reached up to remove his glasses, fixing his greenish brown eyes on Logan as he cleaned his lenses with the hem of his shirt. “To do what?” 

Logan blinked, stunned. He was sure that his new answer would have satisfied Zeke’s assignment, certain that he’d reached the conclusion that his counselor had hoped he’d come to. He wants more? 

“Logan,” He let out a breath as he perched his glasses back on his nose and brought his elbows to the table between them. “You’re getting another chance at life. It’s true, you can’t get anywhere if you don’t let yourself, but it’s not enough to have a clear path to walk down. You have to have somewhere to go, something to do. You deserve more.” He stood. “So think about that; now that you’re out of your way, what are you gonna do?”

.

.

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sappy "i've loved my spesh for a year now" post

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one year ago today, i got into twrp.

that's not to say i wasnt familiar with them before june 3rd, 2019. my big love was nsp, so i very much knew and appreciated them! i remember when nsp played on conan i was so happy for all of them and hoped twrp was getting just as much credit as nsp because they totally deserve it! i remember listening to guardians of the zone a couple years back in david's car and latching onto rock n roll best friends (my first favorite twrp song and still one of my faves!) and listening to that a lot. i remember the third starbomb album coming out last april and thinking, wow, this is definitely their best album musically because of twrp's instrumentation! and of course, like everyone else, i was obsessed with starlight brigade when the video came out, and recognized it was twrp's song featuring dan, not just a dan project. but i didn't have their names memorized, and for whatever reason, i thought they were all silent performers? like, i thought none of them talked and sung only talked/performed with talkbox. (i mean, i was like 60% right? at least at the time.)

on this day last year, i was showing my best friend arin and suzy's (gg) hot pepper gaming videos and then i noticed twrp's in the related videos. i was like oh my gosh! i didn't know twrp did one of these! and you can imagine my surprise when sung and meouch started talking fhfhdjdlfj i was literally like WAIT THEY TALK??? I REALLY THOUGHT NONE OF THEM TALKED. it's always really funny to look back on. and even though they spent most of that video suffering i thought they were so funny and likeable that i was like. maybe i should finally actually get into twrp.

and holy shit.

there's so much to twrp that i know i didn't do it all in a day. it's hard for me to get used to a band by listening to all their music once, so i took it album by album. i started with guardians of the zone, because i was already very familiar with it. listened to that on loop for a while, then moved onto together through time since it was their most recent album at the time. then, i went backwards from there.

i searched for all the lore i could. i read wiki pages, spent literal hours reading reddit AMAs, watched every video on their youtube channel and the hour long compilation of their instagram videos. this all took place over the span of like? a few days? a week? it's hard to say really. i fell so fast.

from that point on, i have so many stories, we would be here all day. i remember listening to believe in your dreams on repeat the day i became a d*sney trainer, and the literal day after that, they released hidden potential. then of course, the release of return to wherever, which i listened to nonstop for ages. the album is my jam because i love albums with a cohesive theme and songs that blend into each other. it's hard to beat together through time, but rtw comes really close.

i saw them for the first time live on july 30th, 2019. unfortunately, something happened that night that changed my life for the worse. but that wasn't twrp's fault at all. the show itself was incredible. i'd never been to a general admission concert of one of my faves, it was absolutely surreal that they were all right in front of me. and of course, they put on a hell of a show. they always do. god, i love them.

on august 9th 2019, i went to my first sung stream. it was a party stream and i'm on the east coast, so i stayed up until 3 AM to hear sung give me my first talkbox shoutout. i recorded it and still have the video. it made me smile in the early part of a very dark time in my life.

i made a lot of friends in that stream, we all shared twitters and i'm still friends/mutuals with all of them! and i've only made more friends since, especially at nsp10. nsp10 was incredible for many reasons, but a big one was that the three hours my fiancé and i were waiting outside the venue to be let in, we were just walking around saying hi to my twrp friends, meeting a bunch of them for the first time. and i made new friends! i remember standing in a group, shivering in my heart boner cosplay, and one of the guys saying "you're artie, right? i follow you on twitter, i love your cosplay!" he seemed like he was really gathering the courage to say it to me, he had no idea how happy it would make me! (shoutout to logan! you're awesome!)

really, if any of my twrp friends are reading this, i love you to pieces. meeting you has definitely been a high point of the last 365 days.

again, i have so many stories. but since this is already so long i'm just gonna cut to march 5th, 2020. that was the night i met them. now, i'm not a shy person at all, and over the past few years i haven't really been very socially anxious. i'm able to carry myself in conversation, even with strangers. but i've never met a fave before. let alone four faves at once. so, naturally, everything i had planned on saying completely left my brain. but they're literally the best, so it was still an absolute dream. the first thing sung said when he saw me was "hey you look great!" (my outfit was clearly inspired by his own, fancy orange hat and all, so he probs wanted to Respect The Drip but he was right regardless and also HOLY SHIT) and i had my baby porg gary with me (the sunshine of my life) and they all interacted with him and it was super wholesome.

they played two nights in orlando, and i went to both shows because of course i did. first night was great, second night was even better even though that was my GA show. they played life party on night 2, which might as well be my favorite song of all time. it has carried me through every bad moment since i first heard it. big and small. i have a lyric from it tattoo'd on my arm as a constant reminder that i'm alive, and that is something to be ecstatic about. i also had more room to dance and move around on night 2, and dance and move around i did. then, when the show was over and scatman played, i got out everything else i had. august-november 2019 was actual hell for me, and i was still dealing with the aftermath of it all. but that concert high made me realize, holy shit! all of it is over! it doesn't matter anymore! twrp carried me through one of the roughest periods of my life, and met me at the finish line with a fucking gold medal. i fucking did it. now i have none of the bad, and all of the good. it was one of the best feelings i've ever had, and one of the happiest nights of my life.

since then, twrp continues to keep me going. of course the world has been a total shitshow, but everyone's streams (especially the twrp show) have been the highlight of my week every week.

i've always considered myself a very positive person, but last year was a very bad year for my depression, as well as traumatic at times. and i've always had problems feeling understood. i still do. but twrp said hey! literally nobody understands us. not even ourselves! but that's okay! we want you to be happy and feel loved and supported no matter what. and i really can't thank them enough for it.

this part is mostly for another longer post, but i wanted to mention it since it's also really important. i fully came to terms with being a mlm last year after years of compulsory heterosexuality, and twrp played a big part in me exploring and accepting that about myself. and i was already very secure in my gender identity when i found them, but hearing "this song goes out to all the ladies, fellas, and everyone in between" shook me to my very core. i've never loved a band that literally said "shoutout to trans/nb people" at every concert. god. i love them so fucking much.

so this was even longer than i expected (and i expected it to be long bc yknow. spesh.) but i just have so much love and gratitude for this band. every day of my life i'm so thankful that doctor sung, commander meouch, lord phobos, and havve hogan exist and are spreading all this love and positivity to their fans every day. i've never loved a band like this, and i probably never will. they are truly special.

and it's only been a year!!!!

[stanjaaones]

Her hats all fell to pieces in her hands.

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[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

EDDIE REDMAYNE, THE MOST GIFTED OF THE NERDS

“Being an artist is not about talent, but the striving for perfection in the knowledge that you will ever reach it “

Eddie Redmayne wearing a blue total look and has an extraordinary face eyes and smile when he talks comes almost completely squeeze, you understand that he loves to quote this sentence of Red theatrical work by John Logan, in which he played a Ken White lotus worker and artist, in turn, a role which earned him numerous awards.” Those who  think that having a great talent does not involve effort they’re wrong. it’s impossible distinguish the great talents from hard work. For me they are inseparable.”

We are in London, near Borough Market, where Redmayne lives with his wife Hannah and Iris, their daughter 10 months old, and says that when he got the role of Stephen Hawking, then earned an Oscar for The Theory of Everything, there were other 5 actors to compete for that role. “  I never thought, ‘ I can do it’ but I am very interested to do” so with some modesty, when you consider the  transformation in Lily for The  Danish Girl has touched a second statuette, shifts the focus from himself and asks me If I followed the advice he gave me  the last time we met, when he suggested to go to  see a series of portraits in the National Portrait Gallery. Redmayne  often finds inspiration for his characters remaining for hours observing painting’ details  a legacy that carries the art studies at Trinity College, Cambridge, and after years of  Eton college. I need to know everything about the physicality of a character as he walks  as he eats even in bed wher he  sleeps. In a TV miniseries Elizabeth I, 10 years ago was the Earl of Southampton. To the National Portrait Gallery has exhibited a painting commissioned by himself who explain more of thousend words, how much he loved  wealth. He  had very long hair, wore rings of various shapes and was surrounded by precious objects carpets. If I had not seen that picture my acting would be much poorer, in the true sense of the  word.

Also for Fantastic Beasts  he spent whole days to observe the rhinos” I did tell the animal trainer all their idiosyncrasies” says with a tone of amazement still in his voice, he needed to immerse themselves in the shoes of  Newton scamander a magician totally dedicated to his Fantastic Beasts that studies and saves.

Eddie what comes from this extraordinary meticulousness preparation?

I have a bad imagination so I try to immerse myself in things in a more visual can. I watch different movies  more than those of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton on, I look at the paintings  to try  to pull out something interesting about how to dial a code of references that inspire me. The truth is that we specialize  to compense in our defects a lot, and we are working on eventually they become our strengths.

In this way, however, you  became the first paraplegic and then a man in search of his own female identity?

And seems that i choose these roles... they were  the result of coincidences. When you play someone who lives or has lived, and then people know you have to work a lot on the effect of actually looking for details everywhere,   I have followed the same method even when interpreted a fictitious character in Fantastic Beasts asking  J.K. Rowling  all references possible about the time, the  period in which she set the story, how   the people looked  in the New York of the time. We are literally immersed in those imaginary thing.

What’s  for you  physical transformation, skill that was the main key to the success ?

The physicality is a massive  part of than we are, but it’s just one of the aspects of my job. My  work  would be a very bad if one only looked viewer the appearance. Even if you stay in a character for 8 months, and I end up becoming a bit ’ also what I play, I like to lead a life  a  normal as possible.

Your last role, and maybe the most difficult, to be father you’re in is turning even there?

it’s too early to say that I am becoming a father, and I’m trying to keep my head above water this so. I do not sleep a lot and even my wife also in this, Also in this if I think how to act both I and Hannah trust instinct do not analyze things too much, and the way to do.

There are colleagues inspired you ?

For each role I find one other than. Maybe you don’t believe it  to become Stephen Hawking had in mind James Dean who was a revelation watching almost all his films, I knew it about icon but not his work, and has a lot to me hit even when I play with famous actors are more intrigues.

First, you talk about  Rothko assistant’s sentence  that to be an artist and to aspire to perfection, knowing that you will ever rich out.

This’s a good answer  for those who ask me “Why  you recite a play for nine months, every night, doing the same thing?” If I think the movie, one of the most frustrating aspects of my work is that although the leap of spectators we have available hundreds of “action!” for one scene actually,not much better it happens that you have in brilliant idea when filming ended’ll see you in film 9 months later and maybe you will not like it.

After the Oscar, and the last nomination, it was thought that it would have made dozens of movies, instead not. Why ?

I was  dreaming to become an actoor  since I was a child, then someone, maybe to dissuade, told me that i it would be difficult to make it a true profession. Now I can say it’s true.  Since I started doing auditions for many parts every time they called me I was going to try it. Despite having become my job, and I have had so many awards, fear of not working after never leaving me. For the last four years, while I was running The Danish girl I was going to promote The Theory of Everything and  while on the set of Fantastic Beasts every Weekend I flew to Los Angeles to promote the Danish girl. In short, for four years I didn’t have a life here so well.When I’m done Fantastic Beasts I decided to take a little ‘time for  the family and  my friends.

In the Pop Culture you are considered “a kind of modern British Avatar Style ” what’ s for you style?

Instinct, more than an calculating.Someone’s associate personality style and elegance which for me is effortlessness

Your kindness and your courtesy are disarming. It seems that embodies, where does this attitude are from ?

In the profession there is a lot of competition, you through different emotions, constantly frustration and anger, jealousy, and I think I’ve made some important experiences regarding this.  My older brother James,unlike mine, is a sports talented man from there we challenge often tennis but he did it without a real passionand and in summer we played a match after he had not touched a racket for months, leaves me coming the fifth set and just when I thought I would win  it pulled out the best of himself and beat me. I remember that my anger was mounted to the point of becoming fierce.

And what got you inside?

I noticed that emotions like rage and competitiveness, were so unpleasant that it was best to remove it. In the world is full noise coming from all directions that you should still try to offer the best of yourselves.

Soon you’ll  back on set for the sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them directed by David Yate. What fascinates you the world of JK Rowling?

 Her imagination, her genius of creating worlds.

Newton Scamander’s suitcase,  the magician expelled from Hogwarts that calls himself magizoologo, contains real worlds. Instead,  what’s in your ?

Books, watercolors, to make the tremendous paintings,script, a camera, a very few  blue clothes, usually. I’m color blind and that’s the only color that stands out well. Sometimes I dress colorfully and by reaction  those who are close to me, I understand that are too showy.

[johnclapperne]

What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke?

Personal trainers are supposed to be gladiators. They glide into our early morning sessions sporting intensity, enthusiasm, some tough love to get us in shape and a physique that makes us say, “Man, I’d love to look like that.”

Rick Logan is that guy. As a trainer in Baltimore, the 27-year-old has put dozens of clients through brutal sessions to help them toughen up. And he practices what what he preaches, working out incessantly to the point of exhaustion.

“He is an animal,” says colleague Kimberly Hanson. “He has this huge personality. When he walks into a room, you know he’s there.”

But that’s where the narrative starts to fall apart. It happened a year ago; Logan never could’ve guess he suffered from a rare medical condition that would leave him unable to walk at all. That he would have to summon every ounce of his will, strength and determination to get his physical prowess back. Or that he would have to buy in fully to the simple acts of using MyFitnessPal and UA Record — which he never fully understood — to help get him back on his feet.

A FIT REVELATION

Logan made a career shift into fitness in his early 20s. Not that he was inspired to become a gym rat, but because he went through a fitness journey with his father, Rick Sr., who suffered a stroke in his 30s. Growing up, young Rick had no idea how to help his dad, who lost feeling on his left side and struggled through a grueling rehab.

What he did know is the experience of working out alongside his dad, who eventually got back on his feet, wasn’t just physically fulfilling, it was spiritual as well.

“We were in fitness together,” Logan explains. “My father and I started training programs together, and it was a bonding thing because we were never close when I was growing up.”

Quickly, Logan decided personal training was for him. He soon began working at FX Studios, a trio of Baltimore-area health clubs that sport the UA Connected Fitness brand and philosophy. At his peak, he had a regular roster of 30–40 individual clients in addition to multiple group sessions per week.

Work grind

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Jul 8, 2013 at 11:23am PDT

He had no idea what was coming. After an evening of socializing in April 2016, Logan woke up with a searing headache at 3 a.m. He got out of bed to use the bathroom and immediately fell over, but didn’t think much of it. “I thought it was the beer,” he laughs. “I had only had like three and my first thought was, ‘I’m such a lightweight.’”

He went back to bed and got up at 5 to see a client. But things got progressively worse. He couldn’t drive his car in a straight line on his way to work. Twenty minutes into working with his client, he couldn’t even stand. He finished the session, but went home and got back in bed, thinking he had fallen ill with a flu.

By 11 a.m., he realized in horror he couldn’t move the left side of his body. He had a friend rush him to a local outpatient clinic, and struggled even to use his phone, which he kept dropping.

“That’s when it dawned on me,” he recalls. “I was having a stroke. I was going through exactly what happened to my dad.”

Subsequent doctor visits gave Logan a diagnosis he had never expected: a rare blood disorder called antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, which causes rapid blood clots. In Logan’s case, doctors believed he had an arterial tear somewhere in his neck. Medication could get his condition in check; what he would have to do on his own was regain the ability to move and walk properly. Returning to his old life was no guarantee.

“I had prided myself on keeping a certain aesthetic,” he explains. “I like to look a certain way and be healthy. Doing elaborate workouts was just something I did. I don’t think I truly appreciated that after seeing what my father went through. But at the time, I remember having this realization: ‘Am I ever going to be able to do this again?’”

READ MORE > DANIEL’S WEIGHT-LOSS SECRET? 2 POUNDS PER WEEK

Logan’s doctors prescribed him heavy physical therapy sessions, and he was fortunate: The staff at FX Studios Physical Therapy committed immediately to giving him the treatment he needed. Within days, he was working two hours or more with therapists. But being the proud man he was, Logan was frustrated with his inability to do simple things like raise his left arm.

“My muscles went away pretty quick,” he says. “It was almost unbearable, to be honest.”

That’s when he figured he’d set a series of small goals. That started with logging his food on MyFitnessPal and his physical activity — limited though it was — with UA Record.

“I figured if that’s what I could do, I’ll do it,” he recalls. “I’m not going to sit on the couch and feel sorry for myself. Each week I tracked and saw a snapshot of what I’d done. That first week, I couldn’t even do a pushup. But with each week that passed, I could go back to that first week and see what I couldn’t do. It helped motivate me.”

It also marked the time when Logan became a Connected Fitness convert, which he admits he “had never bought into” previously, despite the logo on the door of his workplace.

BACK ON HIS FEET

One of my favorite people and best physical therapist around @drkimbo09 . Someone who gave up hours and hours of her time to get me to walk again. Can’t ever thank someone enough for that kind of support but if you need some pt you better call @_fxstudios bc the whole team is on that level.

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Oct 14, 2016 at 8:45am PDT

Logan’s rehab was slow, but steady. He worked with Hanson — a physical therapist and clinic director at FX — regularly. She started with the basics of strengthening his core. It was a fine line, she explains, between pushing him to where he felt like he was making progress and adjusting when he simply couldn’t physically accomplish basic exercises.

“You could tell he was still positive for sure,” Hanson remembers. “But you could also tell he was sort of scared and unsure how it would all go. It was clear he had a stroke. The left side of his body was extremely weak.”

But Logan’s “animal” nature helped him more than most people. Because he was in such good shape, his body was able to rediscover the pathways that reactivated his neuromuscular system quicker. And because he was logging his diet on MyFitnessPal and his activity, exercise and sleep in UA Record, he and the FX staff were better able to contour his rehab program to meet his body’s progress.

Within an amazing three weeks after suffering the episodes, he was walking without the cane he had relied on. Not long after, he was doing regular exercises like glute bridges. Next came the row machine or stationary bike. Eventually, he was lifting weights again. Today, he’s even running a little bit.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going” -Winston Churchill #workout #nevergiveup #grind #teamrick #fitness #underarmour #fx

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on May 5, 2017 at 4:56am PDT

He’s not all the way back — and in fact, like his father, he probably never will be. But “to look at him now, you’d never know” he had a stroke, according to Hanson. And most important, he’s back to doing what he loves most: working with clients. Logan is now the fitness manager at the FX Studios 10 Light Street location in downtown Baltimore, just across the Inner Harbor from Under Armour’s global headquarters, and still works with 20–25 clients per week.

He’s been humbled, he admits, and takes nothing for granted anymore. But he also admits he’s been educated: Ironically, without this experience, he may never have fully understood what Connected Fitness could do for his understanding of his own body.

“I’ve learned through this process that it’s not just one thing that goes into your fitness,” he says. “There’s sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress, your energy levels — there are so many things that go into it that if you ignore one of them, you’re just not going to get to where you want to be.”

Logan is indeed back to where he wants to be: in the gym, pushing people to be their very best.

The post What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke? appeared first on Under Armour.

http://ift.tt/2qYbaeh

[almajonesnjna]

What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke?

Personal trainers are supposed to be gladiators. They glide into our early morning sessions sporting intensity, enthusiasm, some tough love to get us in shape and a physique that makes us say, “Man, I’d love to look like that.”

Rick Logan is that guy. As a trainer in Baltimore, the 27-year-old has put dozens of clients through brutal sessions to help them toughen up. And he practices what what he preaches, working out incessantly to the point of exhaustion.

“He is an animal,” says colleague Kimberly Hanson. “He has this huge personality. When he walks into a room, you know he’s there.”

But that’s where the narrative starts to fall apart. It happened a year ago; Logan never could’ve guess he suffered from a rare medical condition that would leave him unable to walk at all. That he would have to summon every ounce of his will, strength and determination to get his physical prowess back. Or that he would have to buy in fully to the simple acts of using MyFitnessPal and UA Record — which he never fully understood — to help get him back on his feet.

A FIT REVELATION

Logan made a career shift into fitness in his early 20s. Not that he was inspired to become a gym rat, but because he went through a fitness journey with his father, Rick Sr., who suffered a stroke in his 30s. Growing up, young Rick had no idea how to help his dad, who lost feeling on his left side and struggled through a grueling rehab.

What he did know is the experience of working out alongside his dad, who eventually got back on his feet, wasn’t just physically fulfilling, it was spiritual as well.

“We were in fitness together,” Logan explains. “My father and I started training programs together, and it was a bonding thing because we were never close when I was growing up.”

Quickly, Logan decided personal training was for him. He soon began working at FX Studios, a trio of Baltimore-area health clubs that sport the UA Connected Fitness brand and philosophy. At his peak, he had a regular roster of 30–40 individual clients in addition to multiple group sessions per week.

Work grind

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Jul 8, 2013 at 11:23am PDT

He had no idea what was coming. After an evening of socializing in April 2016, Logan woke up with a searing headache at 3 a.m. He got out of bed to use the bathroom and immediately fell over, but didn’t think much of it. “I thought it was the beer,” he laughs. “I had only had like three and my first thought was, ‘I’m such a lightweight.’”

He went back to bed and got up at 5 to see a client. But things got progressively worse. He couldn’t drive his car in a straight line on his way to work. Twenty minutes into working with his client, he couldn’t even stand. He finished the session, but went home and got back in bed, thinking he had fallen ill with a flu.

By 11 a.m., he realized in horror he couldn’t move the left side of his body. He had a friend rush him to a local outpatient clinic, and struggled even to use his phone, which he kept dropping.

“That’s when it dawned on me,” he recalls. “I was having a stroke. I was going through exactly what happened to my dad.”

Subsequent doctor visits gave Logan a diagnosis he had never expected: a rare blood disorder called antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, which causes rapid blood clots. In Logan’s case, doctors believed he had an arterial tear somewhere in his neck. Medication could get his condition in check; what he would have to do on his own was regain the ability to move and walk properly. Returning to his old life was no guarantee.

“I had prided myself on keeping a certain aesthetic,” he explains. “I like to look a certain way and be healthy. Doing elaborate workouts was just something I did. I don’t think I truly appreciated that after seeing what my father went through. But at the time, I remember having this realization: ‘Am I ever going to be able to do this again?’”

READ MORE > DANIEL’S WEIGHT-LOSS SECRET? 2 POUNDS PER WEEK

Logan’s doctors prescribed him heavy physical therapy sessions, and he was fortunate: The staff at FX Studios Physical Therapy committed immediately to giving him the treatment he needed. Within days, he was working two hours or more with therapists. But being the proud man he was, Logan was frustrated with his inability to do simple things like raise his left arm.

“My muscles went away pretty quick,” he says. “It was almost unbearable, to be honest.”

That’s when he figured he’d set a series of small goals. That started with logging his food on MyFitnessPal and his physical activity — limited though it was — with UA Record.

“I figured if that’s what I could do, I’ll do it,” he recalls. “I’m not going to sit on the couch and feel sorry for myself. Each week I tracked and saw a snapshot of what I’d done. That first week, I couldn’t even do a pushup. But with each week that passed, I could go back to that first week and see what I couldn’t do. It helped motivate me.”

It also marked the time when Logan became a Connected Fitness convert, which he admits he “had never bought into” previously, despite the logo on the door of his workplace.

BACK ON HIS FEET

One of my favorite people and best physical therapist around @drkimbo09 . Someone who gave up hours and hours of her time to get me to walk again. Can’t ever thank someone enough for that kind of support but if you need some pt you better call @_fxstudios bc the whole team is on that level.

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Oct 14, 2016 at 8:45am PDT

Logan’s rehab was slow, but steady. He worked with Hanson — a physical therapist and clinic director at FX — regularly. She started with the basics of strengthening his core. It was a fine line, she explains, between pushing him to where he felt like he was making progress and adjusting when he simply couldn’t physically accomplish basic exercises.

“You could tell he was still positive for sure,” Hanson remembers. “But you could also tell he was sort of scared and unsure how it would all go. It was clear he had a stroke. The left side of his body was extremely weak.”

But Logan’s “animal” nature helped him more than most people. Because he was in such good shape, his body was able to rediscover the pathways that reactivated his neuromuscular system quicker. And because he was logging his diet on MyFitnessPal and his activity, exercise and sleep in UA Record, he and the FX staff were better able to contour his rehab program to meet his body’s progress.

Within an amazing three weeks after suffering the episodes, he was walking without the cane he had relied on. Not long after, he was doing regular exercises like glute bridges. Next came the row machine or stationary bike. Eventually, he was lifting weights again. Today, he’s even running a little bit.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going” -Winston Churchill #workout #nevergiveup #grind #teamrick #fitness #underarmour #fx

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on May 5, 2017 at 4:56am PDT

He’s not all the way back — and in fact, like his father, he probably never will be. But “to look at him now, you’d never know” he had a stroke, according to Hanson. And most important, he’s back to doing what he loves most: working with clients. Logan is now the fitness manager at the FX Studios 10 Light Street location in downtown Baltimore, just across the Inner Harbor from Under Armour’s global headquarters, and still works with 20–25 clients per week.

He’s been humbled, he admits, and takes nothing for granted anymore. But he also admits he’s been educated: Ironically, without this experience, he may never have fully understood what Connected Fitness could do for his understanding of his own body.

“I’ve learned through this process that it’s not just one thing that goes into your fitness,” he says. “There’s sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress, your energy levels — there are so many things that go into it that if you ignore one of them, you’re just not going to get to where you want to be.”

Logan is indeed back to where he wants to be: in the gym, pushing people to be their very best.

The post What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke? appeared first on Under Armour.

http://ift.tt/2qYbaeh

[ruthellisneda]

What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke?

Personal trainers are supposed to be gladiators. They glide into our early morning sessions sporting intensity, enthusiasm, some tough love to get us in shape and a physique that makes us say, “Man, I’d love to look like that.”

Rick Logan is that guy. As a trainer in Baltimore, the 27-year-old has put dozens of clients through brutal sessions to help them toughen up. And he practices what what he preaches, working out incessantly to the point of exhaustion.

“He is an animal,” says colleague Kimberly Hanson. “He has this huge personality. When he walks into a room, you know he’s there.”

But that’s where the narrative starts to fall apart. It happened a year ago; Logan never could’ve guess he suffered from a rare medical condition that would leave him unable to walk at all. That he would have to summon every ounce of his will, strength and determination to get his physical prowess back. Or that he would have to buy in fully to the simple acts of using MyFitnessPal and UA Record — which he never fully understood — to help get him back on his feet.

A FIT REVELATION

Logan made a career shift into fitness in his early 20s. Not that he was inspired to become a gym rat, but because he went through a fitness journey with his father, Rick Sr., who suffered a stroke in his 30s. Growing up, young Rick had no idea how to help his dad, who lost feeling on his left side and struggled through a grueling rehab.

What he did know is the experience of working out alongside his dad, who eventually got back on his feet, wasn’t just physically fulfilling, it was spiritual as well.

“We were in fitness together,” Logan explains. “My father and I started training programs together, and it was a bonding thing because we were never close when I was growing up.”

Quickly, Logan decided personal training was for him. He soon began working at FX Studios, a trio of Baltimore-area health clubs that sport the UA Connected Fitness brand and philosophy. At his peak, he had a regular roster of 30–40 individual clients in addition to multiple group sessions per week.

Work grind

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Jul 8, 2013 at 11:23am PDT

He had no idea what was coming. After an evening of socializing in April 2016, Logan woke up with a searing headache at 3 a.m. He got out of bed to use the bathroom and immediately fell over, but didn’t think much of it. “I thought it was the beer,” he laughs. “I had only had like three and my first thought was, ‘I’m such a lightweight.’”

He went back to bed and got up at 5 to see a client. But things got progressively worse. He couldn’t drive his car in a straight line on his way to work. Twenty minutes into working with his client, he couldn’t even stand. He finished the session, but went home and got back in bed, thinking he had fallen ill with a flu.

By 11 a.m., he realized in horror he couldn’t move the left side of his body. He had a friend rush him to a local outpatient clinic, and struggled even to use his phone, which he kept dropping.

“That’s when it dawned on me,” he recalls. “I was having a stroke. I was going through exactly what happened to my dad.”

Subsequent doctor visits gave Logan a diagnosis he had never expected: a rare blood disorder called antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, which causes rapid blood clots. In Logan’s case, doctors believed he had an arterial tear somewhere in his neck. Medication could get his condition in check; what he would have to do on his own was regain the ability to move and walk properly. Returning to his old life was no guarantee.

“I had prided myself on keeping a certain aesthetic,” he explains. “I like to look a certain way and be healthy. Doing elaborate workouts was just something I did. I don’t think I truly appreciated that after seeing what my father went through. But at the time, I remember having this realization: ‘Am I ever going to be able to do this again?’”

READ MORE > DANIEL’S WEIGHT-LOSS SECRET? 2 POUNDS PER WEEK

Logan’s doctors prescribed him heavy physical therapy sessions, and he was fortunate: The staff at FX Studios Physical Therapy committed immediately to giving him the treatment he needed. Within days, he was working two hours or more with therapists. But being the proud man he was, Logan was frustrated with his inability to do simple things like raise his left arm.

“My muscles went away pretty quick,” he says. “It was almost unbearable, to be honest.”

That’s when he figured he’d set a series of small goals. That started with logging his food on MyFitnessPal and his physical activity — limited though it was — with UA Record.

“I figured if that’s what I could do, I’ll do it,” he recalls. “I’m not going to sit on the couch and feel sorry for myself. Each week I tracked and saw a snapshot of what I’d done. That first week, I couldn’t even do a pushup. But with each week that passed, I could go back to that first week and see what I couldn’t do. It helped motivate me.”

It also marked the time when Logan became a Connected Fitness convert, which he admits he “had never bought into” previously, despite the logo on the door of his workplace.

BACK ON HIS FEET

One of my favorite people and best physical therapist around @drkimbo09 . Someone who gave up hours and hours of her time to get me to walk again. Can’t ever thank someone enough for that kind of support but if you need some pt you better call @_fxstudios bc the whole team is on that level.

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Oct 14, 2016 at 8:45am PDT

Logan’s rehab was slow, but steady. He worked with Hanson — a physical therapist and clinic director at FX — regularly. She started with the basics of strengthening his core. It was a fine line, she explains, between pushing him to where he felt like he was making progress and adjusting when he simply couldn’t physically accomplish basic exercises.

“You could tell he was still positive for sure,” Hanson remembers. “But you could also tell he was sort of scared and unsure how it would all go. It was clear he had a stroke. The left side of his body was extremely weak.”

But Logan’s “animal” nature helped him more than most people. Because he was in such good shape, his body was able to rediscover the pathways that reactivated his neuromuscular system quicker. And because he was logging his diet on MyFitnessPal and his activity, exercise and sleep in UA Record, he and the FX staff were better able to contour his rehab program to meet his body’s progress.

Within an amazing three weeks after suffering the episodes, he was walking without the cane he had relied on. Not long after, he was doing regular exercises like glute bridges. Next came the row machine or stationary bike. Eventually, he was lifting weights again. Today, he’s even running a little bit.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going” -Winston Churchill #workout #nevergiveup #grind #teamrick #fitness #underarmour #fx

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on May 5, 2017 at 4:56am PDT

He’s not all the way back — and in fact, like his father, he probably never will be. But “to look at him now, you’d never know” he had a stroke, according to Hanson. And most important, he’s back to doing what he loves most: working with clients. Logan is now the fitness manager at the FX Studios 10 Light Street location in downtown Baltimore, just across the Inner Harbor from Under Armour’s global headquarters, and still works with 20–25 clients per week.

He’s been humbled, he admits, and takes nothing for granted anymore. But he also admits he’s been educated: Ironically, without this experience, he may never have fully understood what Connected Fitness could do for his understanding of his own body.

“I’ve learned through this process that it’s not just one thing that goes into your fitness,” he says. “There’s sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress, your energy levels — there are so many things that go into it that if you ignore one of them, you’re just not going to get to where you want to be.”

Logan is indeed back to where he wants to be: in the gym, pushing people to be their very best.

The post What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke? appeared first on Under Armour.

http://ift.tt/2qYbaeh

[joshuabradleyn]

What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke?

Personal trainers are supposed to be gladiators. They glide into our early morning sessions sporting intensity, enthusiasm, some tough love to get us in shape and a physique that makes us say, “Man, I’d love to look like that.”

Rick Logan is that guy. As a trainer in Baltimore, the 27-year-old has put dozens of clients through brutal sessions to help them toughen up. And he practices what what he preaches, working out incessantly to the point of exhaustion.

“He is an animal,” says colleague Kimberly Hanson. “He has this huge personality. When he walks into a room, you know he’s there.”

But that’s where the narrative starts to fall apart. It happened a year ago; Logan never could’ve guess he suffered from a rare medical condition that would leave him unable to walk at all. That he would have to summon every ounce of his will, strength and determination to get his physical prowess back. Or that he would have to buy in fully to the simple acts of using MyFitnessPal and UA Record — which he never fully understood — to help get him back on his feet.

A FIT REVELATION

Logan made a career shift into fitness in his early 20s. Not that he was inspired to become a gym rat, but because he went through a fitness journey with his father, Rick Sr., who suffered a stroke in his 30s. Growing up, young Rick had no idea how to help his dad, who lost feeling on his left side and struggled through a grueling rehab.

What he did know is the experience of working out alongside his dad, who eventually got back on his feet, wasn’t just physically fulfilling, it was spiritual as well.

“We were in fitness together,” Logan explains. “My father and I started training programs together, and it was a bonding thing because we were never close when I was growing up.”

Quickly, Logan decided personal training was for him. He soon began working at FX Studios, a trio of Baltimore-area health clubs that sport the UA Connected Fitness brand and philosophy. At his peak, he had a regular roster of 30–40 individual clients in addition to multiple group sessions per week.

Work grind

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Jul 8, 2013 at 11:23am PDT

He had no idea what was coming. After an evening of socializing in April 2016, Logan woke up with a searing headache at 3 a.m. He got out of bed to use the bathroom and immediately fell over, but didn’t think much of it. “I thought it was the beer,” he laughs. “I had only had like three and my first thought was, ‘I’m such a lightweight.’”

He went back to bed and got up at 5 to see a client. But things got progressively worse. He couldn’t drive his car in a straight line on his way to work. Twenty minutes into working with his client, he couldn’t even stand. He finished the session, but went home and got back in bed, thinking he had fallen ill with a flu.

By 11 a.m., he realized in horror he couldn’t move the left side of his body. He had a friend rush him to a local outpatient clinic, and struggled even to use his phone, which he kept dropping.

“That’s when it dawned on me,” he recalls. “I was having a stroke. I was going through exactly what happened to my dad.”

Subsequent doctor visits gave Logan a diagnosis he had never expected: a rare blood disorder called antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, which causes rapid blood clots. In Logan’s case, doctors believed he had an arterial tear somewhere in his neck. Medication could get his condition in check; what he would have to do on his own was regain the ability to move and walk properly. Returning to his old life was no guarantee.

“I had prided myself on keeping a certain aesthetic,” he explains. “I like to look a certain way and be healthy. Doing elaborate workouts was just something I did. I don’t think I truly appreciated that after seeing what my father went through. But at the time, I remember having this realization: ‘Am I ever going to be able to do this again?’”

READ MORE > DANIEL’S WEIGHT-LOSS SECRET? 2 POUNDS PER WEEK

Logan’s doctors prescribed him heavy physical therapy sessions, and he was fortunate: The staff at FX Studios Physical Therapy committed immediately to giving him the treatment he needed. Within days, he was working two hours or more with therapists. But being the proud man he was, Logan was frustrated with his inability to do simple things like raise his left arm.

“My muscles went away pretty quick,” he says. “It was almost unbearable, to be honest.”

That’s when he figured he’d set a series of small goals. That started with logging his food on MyFitnessPal and his physical activity — limited though it was — with UA Record.

“I figured if that’s what I could do, I’ll do it,” he recalls. “I’m not going to sit on the couch and feel sorry for myself. Each week I tracked and saw a snapshot of what I’d done. That first week, I couldn’t even do a pushup. But with each week that passed, I could go back to that first week and see what I couldn’t do. It helped motivate me.”

It also marked the time when Logan became a Connected Fitness convert, which he admits he “had never bought into” previously, despite the logo on the door of his workplace.

BACK ON HIS FEET

One of my favorite people and best physical therapist around @drkimbo09 . Someone who gave up hours and hours of her time to get me to walk again. Can’t ever thank someone enough for that kind of support but if you need some pt you better call @_fxstudios bc the whole team is on that level.

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Oct 14, 2016 at 8:45am PDT

Logan’s rehab was slow, but steady. He worked with Hanson — a physical therapist and clinic director at FX — regularly. She started with the basics of strengthening his core. It was a fine line, she explains, between pushing him to where he felt like he was making progress and adjusting when he simply couldn’t physically accomplish basic exercises.

“You could tell he was still positive for sure,” Hanson remembers. “But you could also tell he was sort of scared and unsure how it would all go. It was clear he had a stroke. The left side of his body was extremely weak.”

But Logan’s “animal” nature helped him more than most people. Because he was in such good shape, his body was able to rediscover the pathways that reactivated his neuromuscular system quicker. And because he was logging his diet on MyFitnessPal and his activity, exercise and sleep in UA Record, he and the FX staff were better able to contour his rehab program to meet his body’s progress.

Within an amazing three weeks after suffering the episodes, he was walking without the cane he had relied on. Not long after, he was doing regular exercises like glute bridges. Next came the row machine or stationary bike. Eventually, he was lifting weights again. Today, he’s even running a little bit.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going” -Winston Churchill #workout #nevergiveup #grind #teamrick #fitness #underarmour #fx

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on May 5, 2017 at 4:56am PDT

He’s not all the way back — and in fact, like his father, he probably never will be. But “to look at him now, you’d never know” he had a stroke, according to Hanson. And most important, he’s back to doing what he loves most: working with clients. Logan is now the fitness manager at the FX Studios 10 Light Street location in downtown Baltimore, just across the Inner Harbor from Under Armour’s global headquarters, and still works with 20–25 clients per week.

He’s been humbled, he admits, and takes nothing for granted anymore. But he also admits he’s been educated: Ironically, without this experience, he may never have fully understood what Connected Fitness could do for his understanding of his own body.

“I’ve learned through this process that it’s not just one thing that goes into your fitness,” he says. “There’s sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress, your energy levels — there are so many things that go into it that if you ignore one of them, you’re just not going to get to where you want to be.”

Logan is indeed back to where he wants to be: in the gym, pushing people to be their very best.

The post What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke? appeared first on Under Armour.

http://ift.tt/2qYbaeh

[albertcaldwellne]

What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke?

Personal trainers are supposed to be gladiators. They glide into our early morning sessions sporting intensity, enthusiasm, some tough love to get us in shape and a physique that makes us say, “Man, I’d love to look like that.”

Rick Logan is that guy. As a trainer in Baltimore, the 27-year-old has put dozens of clients through brutal sessions to help them toughen up. And he practices what what he preaches, working out incessantly to the point of exhaustion.

“He is an animal,” says colleague Kimberly Hanson. “He has this huge personality. When he walks into a room, you know he’s there.”

But that’s where the narrative starts to fall apart. It happened a year ago; Logan never could’ve guess he suffered from a rare medical condition that would leave him unable to walk at all. That he would have to summon every ounce of his will, strength and determination to get his physical prowess back. Or that he would have to buy in fully to the simple acts of using MyFitnessPal and UA Record — which he never fully understood — to help get him back on his feet.

A FIT REVELATION

Logan made a career shift into fitness in his early 20s. Not that he was inspired to become a gym rat, but because he went through a fitness journey with his father, Rick Sr., who suffered a stroke in his 30s. Growing up, young Rick had no idea how to help his dad, who lost feeling on his left side and struggled through a grueling rehab.

What he did know is the experience of working out alongside his dad, who eventually got back on his feet, wasn’t just physically fulfilling, it was spiritual as well.

“We were in fitness together,” Logan explains. “My father and I started training programs together, and it was a bonding thing because we were never close when I was growing up.”

Quickly, Logan decided personal training was for him. He soon began working at FX Studios, a trio of Baltimore-area health clubs that sport the UA Connected Fitness brand and philosophy. At his peak, he had a regular roster of 30–40 individual clients in addition to multiple group sessions per week.

Work grind

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Jul 8, 2013 at 11:23am PDT

He had no idea what was coming. After an evening of socializing in April 2016, Logan woke up with a searing headache at 3 a.m. He got out of bed to use the bathroom and immediately fell over, but didn’t think much of it. “I thought it was the beer,” he laughs. “I had only had like three and my first thought was, ‘I’m such a lightweight.’”

He went back to bed and got up at 5 to see a client. But things got progressively worse. He couldn’t drive his car in a straight line on his way to work. Twenty minutes into working with his client, he couldn’t even stand. He finished the session, but went home and got back in bed, thinking he had fallen ill with a flu.

By 11 a.m., he realized in horror he couldn’t move the left side of his body. He had a friend rush him to a local outpatient clinic, and struggled even to use his phone, which he kept dropping.

“That’s when it dawned on me,” he recalls. “I was having a stroke. I was going through exactly what happened to my dad.”

Subsequent doctor visits gave Logan a diagnosis he had never expected: a rare blood disorder called antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, which causes rapid blood clots. In Logan’s case, doctors believed he had an arterial tear somewhere in his neck. Medication could get his condition in check; what he would have to do on his own was regain the ability to move and walk properly. Returning to his old life was no guarantee.

“I had prided myself on keeping a certain aesthetic,” he explains. “I like to look a certain way and be healthy. Doing elaborate workouts was just something I did. I don’t think I truly appreciated that after seeing what my father went through. But at the time, I remember having this realization: ‘Am I ever going to be able to do this again?’”

READ MORE > DANIEL’S WEIGHT-LOSS SECRET? 2 POUNDS PER WEEK

Logan’s doctors prescribed him heavy physical therapy sessions, and he was fortunate: The staff at FX Studios Physical Therapy committed immediately to giving him the treatment he needed. Within days, he was working two hours or more with therapists. But being the proud man he was, Logan was frustrated with his inability to do simple things like raise his left arm.

“My muscles went away pretty quick,” he says. “It was almost unbearable, to be honest.”

That’s when he figured he’d set a series of small goals. That started with logging his food on MyFitnessPal and his physical activity — limited though it was — with UA Record.

“I figured if that’s what I could do, I’ll do it,” he recalls. “I’m not going to sit on the couch and feel sorry for myself. Each week I tracked and saw a snapshot of what I’d done. That first week, I couldn’t even do a pushup. But with each week that passed, I could go back to that first week and see what I couldn’t do. It helped motivate me.”

It also marked the time when Logan became a Connected Fitness convert, which he admits he “had never bought into” previously, despite the logo on the door of his workplace.

BACK ON HIS FEET

One of my favorite people and best physical therapist around @drkimbo09 . Someone who gave up hours and hours of her time to get me to walk again. Can’t ever thank someone enough for that kind of support but if you need some pt you better call @_fxstudios bc the whole team is on that level.

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Oct 14, 2016 at 8:45am PDT

Logan’s rehab was slow, but steady. He worked with Hanson — a physical therapist and clinic director at FX — regularly. She started with the basics of strengthening his core. It was a fine line, she explains, between pushing him to where he felt like he was making progress and adjusting when he simply couldn’t physically accomplish basic exercises.

“You could tell he was still positive for sure,” Hanson remembers. “But you could also tell he was sort of scared and unsure how it would all go. It was clear he had a stroke. The left side of his body was extremely weak.”

But Logan’s “animal” nature helped him more than most people. Because he was in such good shape, his body was able to rediscover the pathways that reactivated his neuromuscular system quicker. And because he was logging his diet on MyFitnessPal and his activity, exercise and sleep in UA Record, he and the FX staff were better able to contour his rehab program to meet his body’s progress.

Within an amazing three weeks after suffering the episodes, he was walking without the cane he had relied on. Not long after, he was doing regular exercises like glute bridges. Next came the row machine or stationary bike. Eventually, he was lifting weights again. Today, he’s even running a little bit.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going” -Winston Churchill #workout #nevergiveup #grind #teamrick #fitness #underarmour #fx

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on May 5, 2017 at 4:56am PDT

He’s not all the way back — and in fact, like his father, he probably never will be. But “to look at him now, you’d never know” he had a stroke, according to Hanson. And most important, he’s back to doing what he loves most: working with clients. Logan is now the fitness manager at the FX Studios 10 Light Street location in downtown Baltimore, just across the Inner Harbor from Under Armour’s global headquarters, and still works with 20–25 clients per week.

He’s been humbled, he admits, and takes nothing for granted anymore. But he also admits he’s been educated: Ironically, without this experience, he may never have fully understood what Connected Fitness could do for his understanding of his own body.

“I’ve learned through this process that it’s not just one thing that goes into your fitness,” he says. “There’s sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress, your energy levels — there are so many things that go into it that if you ignore one of them, you’re just not going to get to where you want to be.”

Logan is indeed back to where he wants to be: in the gym, pushing people to be their very best.

The post What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke? appeared first on Under Armour.

http://ift.tt/2qYbaeh

[neilmillerne]

What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke?

Personal trainers are supposed to be gladiators. They glide into our early morning sessions sporting intensity, enthusiasm, some tough love to get us in shape and a physique that makes us say, “Man, I’d love to look like that.”

Rick Logan is that guy. As a trainer in Baltimore, the 27-year-old has put dozens of clients through brutal sessions to help them toughen up. And he practices what what he preaches, working out incessantly to the point of exhaustion.

“He is an animal,” says colleague Kimberly Hanson. “He has this huge personality. When he walks into a room, you know he’s there.”

But that’s where the narrative starts to fall apart. It happened a year ago; Logan never could’ve guess he suffered from a rare medical condition that would leave him unable to walk at all. That he would have to summon every ounce of his will, strength and determination to get his physical prowess back. Or that he would have to buy in fully to the simple acts of using MyFitnessPal and UA Record — which he never fully understood — to help get him back on his feet.

A FIT REVELATION

Logan made a career shift into fitness in his early 20s. Not that he was inspired to become a gym rat, but because he went through a fitness journey with his father, Rick Sr., who suffered a stroke in his 30s. Growing up, young Rick had no idea how to help his dad, who lost feeling on his left side and struggled through a grueling rehab.

What he did know is the experience of working out alongside his dad, who eventually got back on his feet, wasn’t just physically fulfilling, it was spiritual as well.

“We were in fitness together,” Logan explains. “My father and I started training programs together, and it was a bonding thing because we were never close when I was growing up.”

Quickly, Logan decided personal training was for him. He soon began working at FX Studios, a trio of Baltimore-area health clubs that sport the UA Connected Fitness brand and philosophy. At his peak, he had a regular roster of 30–40 individual clients in addition to multiple group sessions per week.

Work grind

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Jul 8, 2013 at 11:23am PDT

He had no idea what was coming. After an evening of socializing in April 2016, Logan woke up with a searing headache at 3 a.m. He got out of bed to use the bathroom and immediately fell over, but didn’t think much of it. “I thought it was the beer,” he laughs. “I had only had like three and my first thought was, ‘I’m such a lightweight.’”

He went back to bed and got up at 5 to see a client. But things got progressively worse. He couldn’t drive his car in a straight line on his way to work. Twenty minutes into working with his client, he couldn’t even stand. He finished the session, but went home and got back in bed, thinking he had fallen ill with a flu.

By 11 a.m., he realized in horror he couldn’t move the left side of his body. He had a friend rush him to a local outpatient clinic, and struggled even to use his phone, which he kept dropping.

“That’s when it dawned on me,” he recalls. “I was having a stroke. I was going through exactly what happened to my dad.”

Subsequent doctor visits gave Logan a diagnosis he had never expected: a rare blood disorder called antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, which causes rapid blood clots. In Logan’s case, doctors believed he had an arterial tear somewhere in his neck. Medication could get his condition in check; what he would have to do on his own was regain the ability to move and walk properly. Returning to his old life was no guarantee.

“I had prided myself on keeping a certain aesthetic,” he explains. “I like to look a certain way and be healthy. Doing elaborate workouts was just something I did. I don’t think I truly appreciated that after seeing what my father went through. But at the time, I remember having this realization: ‘Am I ever going to be able to do this again?’”

READ MORE > DANIEL’S WEIGHT-LOSS SECRET? 2 POUNDS PER WEEK

Logan’s doctors prescribed him heavy physical therapy sessions, and he was fortunate: The staff at FX Studios Physical Therapy committed immediately to giving him the treatment he needed. Within days, he was working two hours or more with therapists. But being the proud man he was, Logan was frustrated with his inability to do simple things like raise his left arm.

“My muscles went away pretty quick,” he says. “It was almost unbearable, to be honest.”

That’s when he figured he’d set a series of small goals. That started with logging his food on MyFitnessPal and his physical activity — limited though it was — with UA Record.

“I figured if that’s what I could do, I’ll do it,” he recalls. “I’m not going to sit on the couch and feel sorry for myself. Each week I tracked and saw a snapshot of what I’d done. That first week, I couldn’t even do a pushup. But with each week that passed, I could go back to that first week and see what I couldn’t do. It helped motivate me.”

It also marked the time when Logan became a Connected Fitness convert, which he admits he “had never bought into” previously, despite the logo on the door of his workplace.

BACK ON HIS FEET

One of my favorite people and best physical therapist around @drkimbo09 . Someone who gave up hours and hours of her time to get me to walk again. Can’t ever thank someone enough for that kind of support but if you need some pt you better call @_fxstudios bc the whole team is on that level.

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on Oct 14, 2016 at 8:45am PDT

Logan’s rehab was slow, but steady. He worked with Hanson — a physical therapist and clinic director at FX — regularly. She started with the basics of strengthening his core. It was a fine line, she explains, between pushing him to where he felt like he was making progress and adjusting when he simply couldn’t physically accomplish basic exercises.

“You could tell he was still positive for sure,” Hanson remembers. “But you could also tell he was sort of scared and unsure how it would all go. It was clear he had a stroke. The left side of his body was extremely weak.”

But Logan’s “animal” nature helped him more than most people. Because he was in such good shape, his body was able to rediscover the pathways that reactivated his neuromuscular system quicker. And because he was logging his diet on MyFitnessPal and his activity, exercise and sleep in UA Record, he and the FX staff were better able to contour his rehab program to meet his body’s progress.

Within an amazing three weeks after suffering the episodes, he was walking without the cane he had relied on. Not long after, he was doing regular exercises like glute bridges. Next came the row machine or stationary bike. Eventually, he was lifting weights again. Today, he’s even running a little bit.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going” -Winston Churchill #workout #nevergiveup #grind #teamrick #fitness #underarmour #fx

A post shared by Rick Logan (@rick_logan) on May 5, 2017 at 4:56am PDT

He’s not all the way back — and in fact, like his father, he probably never will be. But “to look at him now, you’d never know” he had a stroke, according to Hanson. And most important, he’s back to doing what he loves most: working with clients. Logan is now the fitness manager at the FX Studios 10 Light Street location in downtown Baltimore, just across the Inner Harbor from Under Armour’s global headquarters, and still works with 20–25 clients per week.

He’s been humbled, he admits, and takes nothing for granted anymore. But he also admits he’s been educated: Ironically, without this experience, he may never have fully understood what Connected Fitness could do for his understanding of his own body.

“I’ve learned through this process that it’s not just one thing that goes into your fitness,” he says. “There’s sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress, your energy levels — there are so many things that go into it that if you ignore one of them, you’re just not going to get to where you want to be.”

Logan is indeed back to where he wants to be: in the gym, pushing people to be their very best.

The post What Happens When a Young Trainer Suffers a Stroke? appeared first on Under Armour.

http://ift.tt/2qYbaeh

[widowswcb]

[  jamie chung, 91 biologically (appears 30), cisfemale, she/her  ]  -  natasha romanoff!  !  you know, the hero that goes by black widow  ?  i heard she can ( get intel from anywhere with her advanced spy techniques and training, is trained in various martial arts and fighting styles, and has decelerated ageing due to the soviet’s serum ), and comes from the marvel universe.  ♡

HI I LOVE NATASHA ROMANOFF WITH MY WHOLE HEART

I will be using mostly comics history with MCU elements later on in her life (aka you can assume most movie things happened.

Natasha has been pulled from just after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Natalia Alianovna Romanova was born in 1928 (none of this 1985 MCU nonsense thanks)

When she was still a baby she was thrown from a burning building to a soldier who was attempting to help. As the building went up in flames and her home was destroyed, the man - Ivan Petrovich - decided to raise the baby as his own, and Natalia was raised by him and his soldiers.

In 1938, WWII hit and Ivan knew he couldn’t take his daughter to war. At this point, Stalin took the girl, only 10 years old, into one of his “Special” military schools to study. Coincidentally, Logan Howlett was working undercover at this school and was one of her trainers. She was only there for two years before Logan killed the headmaster and relocated her somewhere he hoped would be safe, but the nature of his mission meant he couldn’t be sure and eventually Natasha ran away, wanting to find her father.

The skills she’d learned as a child with her father and at the school helped her survive until she found Ivan, and the man decided to take her with him rather than send her back to Moscow, to another one of Stalin’s schools. He finished he training, made her a soldier, and Natalia fought in WWII.

At 16 she fell in love with a fellow soldier, Nikolai, and fell pregnant. Of course, the front lines of WWII are not a great place for a baby - when Natalia gave birth, the baby was stilborn.

In 1956, Ivan was fatally wounded and the two were approached by an operative from Department X (KGB’s project to create living weapons, essentially), offering a deal for Natalia and Ivan to join them and in exchange they would save his life. Wanting to save her father, Natalia accepted and was immediately put into the Red Room for training.

**any background with bucky here has been left out until plotting can be done!**

She continued to serve the KGB for some time but after crossed paths with SHIELD and the Avengers numerous times. Eventually Clint was sent to take her out but instead choose to help her and took her back to SHIELD to give her another chance

It was a long, looong process to join SHIELD. She wasn’t very trusted and there were plenty of Moments where it didn’t seem like she would be allowed in, but in time her defection was approved and she was considered a valuable asset to the United States. It was with this shift that she found a new partner and friend in Clint and to this day they are very close friends.

Insert movie stuff here UP TO THE POINT OF TWS

After the events of TWS, Natasha spent some time working on her “web” - with a manager to help her maintain how to use her finances, she began to work on helping people who had either been effected by the soviets in the past, or who were facing criminals she had dealings with in the past.

She’s been pulled from this point in time - she knows future-Natasha died (don’t ask her why, she doesn’t fucking know) and she’s determined to never allow her to get into that kind of position again

She knows what happened during the Endgame events, she’s read all the reports and done all the research

Important to know:

Despite their relatively different personalities Clint and Natasha got along well and Natasha would easily call him her closest friend

She trusts the Avengers with her life, namely Steve Sam and Tony

She is old as balls but doesn’t look a day over 30. The Red Room gave her a serum that halted her ageing, hence being 90 but appearing 30. The only other affects it has on her is slightly improved healing, but that’s it. Natasha does not have a supersoldier-serum-variant, but she does have 80 years of knowledge and experience and training in a 30 year old’s body

She is highly intelligent and extremely analytical, she knows how to play the angles and more than anything else Natasha is a survivor. There’s not much she won’t do to save herself with a few notable exceptions eg hurting anyone who has stuck around her long enough that she considers them family.

She really is a big dork at heart, she will make silly jokes and poke fun at her friends and family whenever she can

Um i feel like i’ve missed a lot but !! come at me for plotting and things pls i love my girl so much

[comiconverse]

Jason David Frank: Much More Than Mighty!

Power Ranger to Pop Culture Icon

Jason David Frank (JDF) was an undeniable presence at Big Apple Con (BAC) 2017. BAC certainly had their fair share of star power and I had the pleasure to interact with this fan favorite. Mr. Frank is best known for his roles in the Power Ranger universe, most specifically as Green Ranger Tommy Oliver. Recently though, he has been promoting his character Bloodshot for the soon to be released (Bat in the Sun Productions) Ninjak vs the Valiant Universe. It was at the Ninjak vs the Valiant Universe cast signing, during New York Comic Con 2016, where I first met Jason David Frank. I was fortunate to have our paths cross again at Big Apple.

Jason David Frank signs for fans at New York Comic Con. Credit: Linda Marie

Fan Affection

There is no doubt in my mind why Jason David Frank is so well-loved. As I meandered about the convention floor, I heard numerous stories from fans about how Mr. Frank had inspired their lives. He was much more to them than a hero on the TV screen. Mr. Frank doesn’t just show up for his fans, he takes the time to connect with them, all of them. While the line to meet JDF was quite daunting at Big Apple Con, there were never any complaints from those patiently waiting. In fact, the excited crowd started a chant of “JDF, JDF, JDF” at which time Mr. Frank paused to record a video clip to share on his social media. He continuously works hard to show love and appreciation for his fans.

Jason David Frank takes a selfie with his fans at Big Apple Con. Credit: facebook – jdfffn

Loving Life

As I approached Mr. Frank’s autograph area in hopes of obtaining some photos, I was taken aback as he addressed me directly. He immediately welcomed me into his world and was more than happy to have me there observing the kindness and warmth he shares. It was awesome to see such light and positivity emanating from a single individual. There is no way anyone could walk away from speaking with Jason David Frank and not feel better about themselves.

Jason David Frank engages his fans at Big Apple Con. Credit: Linda Marie

As I wrapped things up, I reached out to thank Mr. Frank for allowing me to be there and to wish him well. To my surprise and pleasure, he offered to spend a few moments with me for an interview. I was overjoyed and immediately accepted the invite. We were able to chat the following day after his enlightening Q&A panel. If you ever have an opportunity to hear Jason David Frank speak in person, just go.

Jason David Frank’s Comic Connection

During his panel, JDF not only spoke about his beloved Power Ranger characters and acting in general, he also spoke about his life. What impressed me the most about Mr. Frank was his humbleness, something he indicated is tough to do in Hollywood. He expressed how important it is to stay connected with those that love you and with yourself. It is clear that he recognizes how fortunate he is in life and yet focuses on remaining grounded. At one point, to the amusement of the audience, he stated “I put my spandex on one leg at time.”

Jason David Frank holds a Q&A at Big Apple Con. Credit: Linda Marie

Some other tidbits Jason David Frank shared during his panel were regarding his personal connection to the comic book realm. Growing up, JDF was a big fan of Marvel and his favorite character was Logan (Wolverine). In fact, at 18 yrs old, he sold his extensive Marvel collection for $11,000 to open his own school, Rising Sun Karate. His dismay at parting with the collection was apparent, though he is clearly happy with how his life turned out. Now he can secure all the comics he desires.

Keeping It Real

As I continued listening to Mr. Frank address the audience, I found myself most impressed with him as an individual. It was refreshing to hear his thoughts on money as it relates to the show business industry. JDF’s fan base is ultimately the chief factor in determining his course of action and he finds it offensive to be offered money to do something that is not in line with his beliefs. He feels that when money is offered to do a ‘shout-out’, it is deemed meaningless; there is no truth behind it. Mr. Frank’s high moral standards are forefront when making decisions regarding his career.

Jason David Frank requests a group photo after his panel at Big Apple Con. Credit: facebook – jdfffn

Hanging With A Hero

As JDF’s panel was coming to a close, he gathered everyone together for a big group photo. It was then Mr. Frank kindly took time to sit and chat with me for a few moments…

Linda: You are such an eloquent speaker. Very Inspiring.

JDF: Thank you. I really appreciate it. I probably don’t have the best grammar when I write and stuff but… I try, I do the best I can.

Linda: How did you get into acting? You talk about martial arts. How did that all come together?

JDF: I just ya know, being a little kid acting up the whole time, my mom said I should be an actor. I did some modeling when I was 12 for some TV magazines, and I can’t find those issues but I just liked it. I loved acting, I got into it, I was very passionate about it and honestly like Power Rangers was one of the first auditions that I did. I didn’t go and go and go and try and I’ve done auditions afterwards but yeah when I got Power Rangers at that age [19] it was like one of the first things and it just, I landed the role.

Diversity

Linda: Did you see yourself ever doing any other type of character?

JDF: I’m writing a movie now called Black Dragon. It’s about a coach that’s dealing with a lot of issues like alcoholism and stuff like that and he’s working with a kid that has autism. So it’s a really good acting movie but it’s funny because I like acting but if I would prefer to do movies I would rather do drama and stuff. I’ve done action my whole life so I think drama would be great.

Linda: Where did the martial arts come in?

JDF: When I was 4 years old just walking by a karate school and thinking that was something I wanted to do.

Linda: Do you do a lot of your own stunts? Do people try to prevent you from doing the stunts?

JDF: Yes. Yeah sure [they try to prevent him]. Power Rangers tried to prevent me from doing it but as far as Bloodshot they don’t want a stunt double. It’s too hard to get a guy to get into to character to do a stunt double.

Linda: I’d like to talk a little bit about Bloodshot since you brought it up. How did that come about? How did they approach you?

JDF: Aaron [Schoenke] with Bat in the Sun, I did quite a few shows with him with Bat in the Sun, and he’s the director of it and he told Valiant hey man this would be a good guy… and I had to kind of go through the hoops a little bit with Valiant. Dinesh [Shamdasani] was like he didn’t know in the beginning and he was happy he cast me afterwards but, it was Aaron [that] introduced me and I just didn’t want Aaron just doing a favor for me unless I fit the role and I just fit the role. I saw it, I was like this is perfect.

Linda: Did you have to do anything specific to prepare for it? Bloodshot is a little bit darker in comparison to the Power Rangers.

JDF: My mom was passing away at the time. That character I wouldn’t say is emotionless, he has emotion but it was just like that type of fight and fire in his eyes during that time. Also, I had to gain weight for it. I was about 210, I’m about 195 now so I put on about 15 lbs for it. Because I thought it was just gonna be over ya know so… but now I’m written in the show. I told Aaron and the guys I’ll be about 195 – 200, that’s it, that’s all I got. [With] the trainer at New York Comic Con, the Bloodshot trainer, I was about 190. So I looked fine. We haven’t seen the other stuff with me looking 210, the only difference was, I had to wear a bigger shirt. I couldn’t fit into my wardrobe so I had to get a bigger shirt.

Ninjak vs the Valiant Universe cast at New York comic Con 2016. Credit: Linda Marie

Linda: Can you tell me what’s in the pipeline, anything upcoming?

JDF: Yeah, ya know everything in Hollywood is like non-disclosure but I tell ya we got a lot of good stuff coming out… for my fans, for Valiant fans. It’s gonna be a lot of good stuff.

Linda: I’m excited for the Valiant stuff.

JDF: Yeah, me too. I really am too. It’s gonna be good.

Linda:  Thank You!

I can’t thank Jason David Frank enough for taking the time to speak with me. The chance to sit with him was completely unexpected and thoroughly enjoyed. I wish him well with all his future endeavors and look forward to seeing him on the screen and at future conventions. Any fan of Jason David Frank is a fortunate fan indeed! Follow him on social media… Facebook: @jasondfrank, YouTube: jdfffn, Instagram: @jdfffn, and Twitter: @jdfffn.

Jason David Frank and Linda Marie at Big Apple Con. Credit: Linda Marie

Keeping You Comic Con-nected!

Linda Marie

Twitter: @LindaMW87, Instagram: @comic_con_crazy, Cosmunity: ComicConCrazy

The post Jason David Frank: Much More Than Mighty! appeared first on ComiConverse.