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By Kim Constantinesco

For the last year, we’ve published numerous pieces on the Adaptive Training Foundation (ATF), a gym and a safe haven for adaptive athletes, started by former NFL linebacker David Vobora. With its contagious energy, it has truly become one of our favorite places to visit.

For military veterans who have lost limbs in combat or for civilians who have suffered life-altering injuries, ATF is the ideal place to land. It transcends rehabilitation, targeting strengthening what remains rather than focusing on what was lost, and doing it with a purpose. Oh, and they have a blast doing it.

It’s almost impossible to describe the energy level. Think rock concert, World Series and presidential inauguration combined, and you might come close. I can tell you this–there’s not a solitary soul inside of the gym who wants to be anywhere else. – Patti Putnicki (P2P)

Those who train at ATF are in it to win skeleton races, weightlifting competitions, CrossFit contests, and sled hockey games. They take group trips to ski the slopes of Lake Tahoe. They gather to rock climb. They heckle one another while doing sled pulls, and in between sets on the bench press. And as they’ve been rebuilt their bodies, they’ve constructed a tribe in the process.

This is ATF: