STEP BY STEP SV grad learning to walk again
CRANBERRY TWP — Jordan Majcan didn't used to be a morning person.
These days, however, he regularly starts his day with a 6 a.m. workout at Mac Gym in Wexford, with his trainer from Adventures in Training with a Purpose.
It's what Majcan must do to learn to walk again. Majcan has come a long way since he sustained a spinal cord injury in a November 2015 car accident that temporarily paralyzed him from the waist down.
During his Wednesday morning session, trainer Matt Costa put a thick, fabric gait belt around Majcan's abdomen and helped him rise from a wheelchair to stand behind a walker. Costa stood behind Majcan, using a belt for support as Majcan took some shaky but determined steps forward using the walker.
Majcan started to tire, but Costa urged him on.
“Six more steps,” Costa said, counting down as Majcan dug deep to continue on. He reached the end of the gym and collapsed into his wheelchair to take a break before the next set.
“It's intensive and vigorous,” Majcan said of the workouts. “It's making me have to think and really work mentally and physically to get my legs moving.”
Majcan, a Cranberry Township resident, trains several times a week for two hours each with Adventures in Training with a Purpose, or ATP, a Mars-based nonprofit that helps people improve their quality of life through purposeful physical training.
On Nov. 22, 2015, Majcan was a passenger in a car that ran a stop sign and collided with a pickup truck in Slippery Rock Township, Lawrence County. Of the three people in the car, Majcan's injuries were the most serious.
He had a T4 vertebra incomplete spinal cord injury and a concussion, broken ribs, a broken jaw and collar bone, and torn muscles in his shoulder.
Once he recovered enough the next spring, Majcan began physical therapy but wasn't making the progress he wanted toward walking again.
His mother heard about ATP after its founder, Jon Kolb, a former left tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers and kinesiology instructor at Youngstown State University and Penn State, spoke at Victory Church in Cranberry Township last fall.
The timing was fortuitous, as Majcan said he was looking for a change in his routine.
ATP offers functional physical training to help people get back to activities they need to do for their daily life.
Because health insurance often dictates how much physical therapy or other treatment a person can have, ATP has filled the gap for those who have exhausted their insurance or want to try a different approach.
Clients pay for training out-of-pocket or are covered by sponsorships from ATP. The group fundraises to cover training for clients in need.
Majcan started working with ATP in October, starting with simple strength-training exercises to build up his muscles. Then the team at ATP began figuring out the best way to train Majcan to walk again, Kolb said — a process that is different for everyone.
“You retrain that skill. You don't think of walking as a skill. But if you're paralyzed, walking is a skill,” Kolb said.
Kolb said someone with a spinal cord injury like Majca's has no problem with their legs. Instead, there is a bridge out between the nerves from the brain to the legs.
And just like when a person drives to work and there is a bridge out on the road, “you take another route,” Kolb said.They're trying to create new pathways around the injury, Majcan said, and make different connections between the brain and the body.What worked for Majcan was putting him in a rock climbing harness and suspending him from a squat rack in the gym with elastic bands, Kolb said. That allowed him to put his feet on the ground and feel his legs beneath him. The ATP trainers had Majcan start with the basics, hopping and crawling while supported by the harness and bands.The breakthrough came when they suspended rings from the squat rack and had Majcan take steps using the rings to support his upper body, Kolb said.He took his first independent steps in March. From the rings, Majcan moved to using a walker or walking sticks.The recent Seneca Valley High School graduate took his first public steps June 7, when he walked across the stage at the school's commencement ceremony in NexTier Stadium to receive his high school diploma.“That was incredible,” Majcan said. “It was an overwhelming night.”Majcan's next goal is to be walking for at least half of every day, with his walker or other assistance, by the end of the year.“Just building to the point that I don't need anything and I can walk freely,” is Majcan's goal, he said.He also has another goal: to become a motivational speaker and inspire others to learn from his story. Majcan will be speaking during the opening ceremonies of the Cranberry CUP weekend Aug. 4 at Cranberry Community Park.“I wasn't the best of kids. I hung out with the wrong crowd. I should've learned back then. But it came to this,” Majcan said. “Without me going through this car accident, I wouldn't have learned half the stuff I have today.“I am trying to help others and just make a positive difference in this world.”For more information on ATP or how to help sponsor clients in need, visit www.adventurestraining.org.
