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 By: Joey Rodrigues If you are dealt a 2 and a 9 off suit and have a full table of players and a short stack of chips, what are you going to do? Well, if you know anything about poker you are going to fold. Who would pay to see the flop with hand like that?
Sadly, some of us get great hands and chose not to play them. However if you are like Jordan Frantz you are going to pay to see the flop, short stacked with bunk cards. Let me explain. Not everyone is so lucky to be born in perfect physical and mental condition. If you have your health you are truly a lucky person. You see, Jordan Frantz was born with Cerebral Palsy, a group of chronic conditions affecting body movement and muscle coordination. For him, throwing in the cards would have been easy - maybe even expected. Nevertheless Jordan decided, with a short stack and bad cards to pay and see the flop, turn and river. As you will see the burning desire to be the best you can be is definitely in Jordan. As easy as it is to impose obstacles and unnecessary conflicts upon oneself, Jordan is doing quite good for him self. Without further ado, I proudly introduce you all to Jordan "The Unlikely Toad" Frantz.
If I want to go shopping for clothes or to the movies I've got to drive into the big city. As much as I complain about it however, its home and there's no other place I could see myself because I'm big on family.
 Jordan And His Dad  Click To Enlarge.
 [ J-Rod ] Can you tell us a little bit about your condition? What exactly is Cerebral Palsy? And what are the main disadvantages you face in regards to day to day activity? Also, do you think you have any advantages as an individual because of your condition?
 Click To Enlarge.Thus, these disorders are not caused by problems in the muscles or nerves. Instead, faulty development or damage to motor areas in the brain disrupts the brain's ability to adequately control movement and posture. "Cerebral" refers to the brain and "palsy" to muscle weakness/poor control. Cerebral palsy itself is not progressive (i.e. brain damage does not get worse); however, secondary conditions, such as muscle spasticity, can develop which may get better over time, get worse, or remain the same. Cerebral palsy is not communicable. It is not a disease and should not be referred to as such. A stroke at birth actually caused my CP which resulted in hemiplegia of my left side. This specifically means that I have lost motor skills/ dexterity in my left hand, as well as impairment in my left leg that causes me to walk with a limp. Because of the disfigurement in my foot and slightly smaller in length leg, balance has always been a major issue. However despite all that, I've been very fortunate in life. Most people with CP from my experience aren't so lucky. Where as I can walk, many are wheelchair bound. Issues with my hand have always been the most frustrating. I'd say I have about 70% use with it. This limits what exercises I can perform. I rely primarily on machines and cannot do standard bench or curls of any sort. One small disadvantage I face every morning is tying my shoes. Point blank -- I can't. I either wear pre-tied sneakers or have someone tie them for me. It's a humbling experience that always reminds me you're only as strong as your weakest link. An advantage would be my ability to sympathize as well as empathize with those of similar disadvantages or less fortunate.
  Jordan During High School & Right Before College Click To Enlarge.I learned quickly how to use this to my advantage and thus at times used people in order to get what I wanted. This was even used against my gym teacher in High School, as I knew I could get out of certain Phys. Ed. activities if I played the part of the 'gimp', most notably the weight-training unit. People told me it was impossible and I believed it, so why even entertain the idea right? This became pivotal to my thinking freshman year. I knew by going away to college, I could have a clean slate and start over. So my goals became a.) To try to be as genuine as I could be without allowing people's opinion to influence me, and b.) To find myself a girlfriend. The girlfriend part always bothered me, since having CP is physical in nature, so growing up I felt like I had two strikes against me from the start. I immediately thought, ok - so I might be damaged goods on the outside, but if I get a six-pack girls might find me more attractive and every little bit helps, right? Of course, it never dawned on me then what my attitude was like but even looking back now, I could tell it was time for a serious overhaul. That overhaul came in November of 2000. That's when my whole life turned upside-down. In a nutshell I owe a lot to my old college roommate Kelby Hunt. Kelby was the first person (other than my parents) to actually believe in me. He actually took the time to find out what I could and couldn't do, even gave me ideas on how to modify exercises. Without him to push me and to take the time and experiment, who knows where I'd be.
  Leg Development Click To Enlarge.I'd like to think that eventually I'd find these things out on my own, and I might have. However, the bigger picture may not have been realized until years later or not at all. It was as if someone had stuck the key into the ignition and turn me on. With the added confidence came a better attitude toward life. For the first time I seriously felt like I had purpose. Over the following years I was consumed by the bodybuilding mentality. I read everything I could. I joined several bodybuilding message boards. An addiction had begun, and well... the rest was history.
It's usually played out in the self-talk of our minds. I was no exception. All in all, high school was a great experience for me but in trying to mold myself as a person I got lost on quite a few occasions. Looking back at it now I feel like I probably let a few close people down I shouldn't have all for the sake of being "cool", while spending time with others that could've probably cared less. But like with everything in life, hindsight is 20/20 and if you're a sound person you learn from those mistakes. No longer do I try to be a follower, I see myself as a leader.
   Click To Enlarge.I wouldn't say I was discriminated against per say, but I think because of my disability, it cut me short of a lot of opportunities as a kid. For example, I'd always get picked last to play sports or never got picked at all. Throughout high school the inability to get dates cut pretty deep. It was always something else though, never because of looks. Yet you knew somewhere in your mind the reasons given were just as 'lame' as they made you out to be. The silver lining came with the reality check of learning who I wanted to be as a person.
At seventeen I really didn't buy into it, but none-the-less I went with it. The real story, however, came while living at my parent's old house. We lived in the woods and toads were all over the place. I never thought much of them until one day I saw one without a leg. It was trying to climb up an embankment. For some reason I was fascinated by this and wasn't quite sure how to feel.
   Click To Enlarge.I didn't know if I should help it or to just sit back and watch. I figured there would really be no point in helping it since it probably wouldn't be the last time it would have to overcome such obstacles. Then, in an instant, I realized just how much it paralleled my life and knew this metaphor was something I wanted to model my life after.
I view Social Work like anything else, as another extension of my life -- focusing on helping people and giving back to those who've helped me along the way. That's really what I'm all about, making things happen. Through my experiences, things always have a way of working things out so long as you have a proactive approach and an open mind.
 Click To Enlarge.I've never been able to duplicate the feelings of acceptance anywhere else on Earth as I do there. Campers see what I've done with myself; realize that I don't settle for less and that nothing stops me from achieving my goal. This in turn makes them want to succeed even more in life because they have someone to relate to -- a role model... and the realization of that in my opinion is the best high the world has to offer.
Jordan uses his short comings to his advantage as he is always reminded to slow down and lives in the moment. He is of sound mind and body, an all around genuine person. I represent a limitation as nothing more than an obstacle to be overcome. But not only my obstacle, as if a person should say, "That guy has cerebral palsy, and still lifts." Rather, I want to present the obstacle as something we all have dealt with - an obstacle in general, only mine being of a specific kind.
 Click To Enlarge.
So I looked to the future and made a larger goal of 175-180 at 10-12% bodyfat. As time wore on I realized that this would be my holding point where I'd be comfortable maintaining while rationalizing my limits. Outside of fitness, my main goal has always been to maintain these four traits/ideals:
Honest Dependable Christian ... All while I motivate, inspire, challenge, and self-empower people -- to overcome.
Part of what scares me the most is that the body which I built might fall apart and there literally would be nothing I could do while I sit on my behind for 2 months. It's like the Beast in Beauty and the Beast... you know, the scene after he fights off the pack of wolves for Belle where he snorts. As if to take one last breathe before he collapses because he doesn't know if that was it or not, yet he's too tired to fight. I go to that place in my mind and realize I don't wanna lose what I've become. Sure, I guess I'm a little too vain but am I wrong to be proud of what I accomplished? I view my body as a trophy for all that I've overcome. Yet, it's the experience itself that has traumatized me. I went through 4 surgeries as a kid and it was a living hell. I can't even face the doctor who did the original surgeries. He actually strikes enough fear in me that I can't talk, I cry. Those memories are forever present, you just don't forget them. They are tattoos of the mind. So just imagine going through something like that again. Only this time you're not guaranteed it will work 100% because there is nothing guaranteed in life. You just go through the motions, and all of this why? Because I am gaining weight and putting too much stress on my foot and big toe. Now not fat weight mind you, but muscle... yes muscle. The very same thing I desire to have... could also be my undoing. That's why I don't want to put on much more weight than I stated previously. This is due to having a clubbed foot with a severe bunion. My big toe is lodged up under my index toe. Because I bare a lot of weight on that toe, I continually stress the joint out and my gait suffers a bit.
 Click To Enlarge.Sometime in my life I'm pretty sure I'll have to go under the knife yet again or else that toe and joint might break and who knows how I'm gonna be able to walk. I guess my point with all of this is that worrying does nobody good. If I sat around and thought about this 24/7 I would literally go nuts. I would hate myself so much that I would never accomplish anything and all I would do is use this disability as a crutch. I would forever be a woulda, shoulda, coulda man and that's just not me. I broke those chains that bound me long ago and buried them with all those who never believed in themselves. Like you've always said Joey, you got to dig deep if you want to make things happen. Well, guess what? I've arrived.
So you get dealt a bad hand. It's your job to make the best of what you have. If not, you might as well fold. But let me tell you something, if that's your attitude don't even bother with me-- seriously. From my experience those are the same people that are going to drag you down in life, and I don't have time for that crap. That's not to say we all can't have bad days because obviously I have had my share. In the end though, it's those moments of self talk that I realize negativity doesn't facilitate growth as a person. So take life lightly, live in the moment, and remember life is too short to sweat the small stuff.
All in all it looks similar to this:
To truly bulk, we know that you have to be in a caloric surplus on a week by week basis. So it wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination to say that I practically eat everything in sight on the days that I lift. My only rule is that I try to have the majority of the foods low glycemic and something of nutritional value, but I'm only human and bodybuilding is a lifestyle. In other words, if I'm going to cheat and eat something like ice cream it better be a day that I went to the gym. To keep my metabolism humming along I also try and cut back on the days I don't lift. In bodybuilding terms this means calories just below maintenance.
Over the past year I've noticed that the combination of oils and ALA really help me to stay leaner while achieving my bodybuilding goals. That way I don't have to be so strict with my diet. Occasionally, if I have extra money to spare and when I'm cutting I'll up the Omega-3's, add in some creatine and buy a good next-generation fat burner such as MAN SCORCH, or Avant Labs H.E.A.T. The reasoning behind why I don't use creatine on a bulk is because I'm a typical non-responder, yet for some reason the effects can be felt during periods of low caloric intake.
 Click To Enlarge.For all my close friends who stuck with me through the years and last but not least my family. They could have given up on me a long time ago and it's their love and patience that has helped mold me into the person I am today.
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Unfortunately life is like an off suit 2 and 9 in the pocket for many people born into this world. Not everyone gets dealt pocket aces, or pulls a royal flush. Some of us get hands that are good enough to play, and we play them.
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