REAL Blog
The Grind Begins: A Year of Adaptive Training
- By: Bryan Berman — Adaptive Athlete, Ultra-Endurance Specialist, Survivor, and Team B*Real Athlete
I am thrilled to introduce a new voice to the Team B*Real blog: Bryan Berman, one of our incredible adaptive athletes and an ultra-endurance specialist. Bryan is launching a year-long project he calls Adaptive Training 365 (AT365), a dedicated blueprint for how challenged athletes can move, heal, and rebuild their lives. While Bryan’s journey is focused on the adaptive community, the truth is that all athletes are constantly adapting to injury, age, and changing circumstances, so we can all benefit from the AT365 philosophy. His story is one of unwavering resilience, and he’ll be sharing his journey—the highs, the lows, and the science—in a series of guest posts throughout the year. Prepare for an intense dose of motivation. As Bryan often reminds us: “You get 1,440 minutes every day. What you do with them becomes your life.”
The Real Work
3:00 AM.
The world is asleep.
The streets are empty.
The house is dark.
And it’s just me — alone with the parts of myself I’ve had to rebuild a hundred times.
The hour where athletes are made or broken isn’t at a finish line or under bright lights. The real work happens here, in the cold, in the silence, where it’s just you and the voice in your head deciding whether you rise or stay down.
This is why I chose Adaptive Training 365 — a full year of training, movement, healing, rebuilding, and documenting the journey of what it means to be an adaptive, challenged, mentally and physically disabled athlete.
It’s not a stunt.
It’s not an ego project.
It’s not a race for medals.
It’s my life.
It’s my recovery.
It’s my purpose.
And maybe, it becomes a pathway for someone else to reclaim theirs too.
Why a Daily, Year-Long Project?
I’ve spent my entire life adapting: adapting to trauma, injuries, PTSD, OCD, chronic pain, nerve damage—and the kind of losses most people don’t come back from.
Two devastating car accidents 16 years apart — same date, same time, same circumstances — nearly ended my ability to walk. Doctors didn’t understand how I healed without surgery. They called me “an anomaly.”
But I knew the truth: I wasn’t an anomaly. I was adapting.
Brick by brick.
Wave by wave.
Stroke by stroke.
I taught my body how to support the parts that broke. And I learned something life-changing: The body will find a way — if you train the parts that still work. Adaptive Training 365 is the blueprint for living that truth, one day at a time.
What “Daily” Really Means
Let me be clear: I’m not doing a full triathlon every day. That isn’t the point. The point is this: Every day, I am an athlete. Every day, I adapt. Every day, I move toward healing — no matter the distance.
Some days I will swim two miles.
Some days I walk.
Some days I ride.
Some days I stretch, breathe, or focus on recovery.
Some days, pain wins — and that’s part of it too.
The year isn’t about perfection. It’s about presence.
Why Now? Why This Year?
Because for the first time in my life, everything aligns:
• I have Team B*Real, a truly inclusive community where trauma survivors, LGBTQ+ athletes, beginners, elites, disabled athletes, and everyone in between have a place at the table.
• I have Adina O’Neill, a coach who didn’t just accept me — she believed in me. She saw something in me worth amplifying.
• I have Achilles International, supporting adaptive athletes worldwide.
• I have the Boston Sports Institute and Charles River Aquatics, who gave me space to train, film, create, and grow.
• And I have a mission now — something bigger than my pain, bigger than my story, bigger than the injuries that tried to take everything from me.
This isn’t a comeback.
This is a beginning.
The Heart of the Project: Training Is The Event
Most people think training is preparation for the real thing.
But when you’re disabled? When you’re traumatized? When you’re rebuilding from the ground up?
Training is the real thing.
Training is the event.
Training is the lifestyle.
That’s the philosophy behind Adaptive Training 365.
Your marathon might be from the couch to the bathroom. Your triathlon might be 10 minutes in the pool, 5 minutes on the bike, and a slow walk to the mailbox.
It all counts, it all matters, and it all rewires your brain and body
Every rep is rehabilitation.
Every lap is recovery.
Every step is resistance against the things that tried to break you.
Why Share This Journey?
Because I’m not doing this alone — and I don’t want others to feel alone either.
I’m writing this blog for:
• the people who think they’re too broken
• the people who think it’s too late
• the people who haven’t moved in years
• the people who are afraid of gyms, locker rooms, teams, or being judged
• the people who have pain that doctors can’t fix
• the people who think they could never be athletes
I’m here to say:
**Yes you can. You already are. You just need a blueprint.**
And that’s what this year is about.
What To Expect
Every quarter, I’ll share the highs, the lows, the physical pain, the emotional breakthroughs, the setbacks, the triumphs, the lessons, the science, the philosophy, the blueprint.
This is going to be raw.
Honest.
Transparent.
Nothing hidden.
Because this project isn’t about looking strong.
It’s about becoming whole.
My Message to You
You don’t need to believe in yourself yet.
Just believe in one thing:
You’re capable of more than your trauma taught you.
If you show up — imperfectly, inconsistently, awkwardly, painfully — you will change.
Maybe not fast.
Maybe not dramatically at first.
But steadily.
Quietly.
Day after day.
Just like the ocean shapes the rocks.
Brick by brick.
Wave by wave.
Stroke by stroke.
This Is The Year I Rise
I’m grateful to be writing this for Team B*Real.
Grateful to have a coach who believes in me.
Grateful to have survived long enough to do something meaningful with the pain that nearly destroyed me.
This is the beginning of something bigger than me.
And if you’re reading this?
Your beginning starts now too.
Welcome to Adaptive Training 365.
Let’s rise — together.
About the Author
Bryan Berman is a para-triathlete and adaptive ultra-endurance athlete living with complex spinal injuries, nerve damage, chronic pain, PTSD, OCD, anxiety, and depression. After surviving multiple near-fatal car crashes and decades of trauma, he rebuilt his life through movement, open-water swimming, and daily adaptive training. Bryan trains with Team B*Real, Achilles International, and the Challenged Athletes Foundation, and is the creator of Adaptive Training 365 (AT365) — a trauma-informed blueprint that helps challenged athletes rebuild their bodies, minds, and identities one day at a time. Follow Bryan’s daily journey on Instagram @bryan.berman or YouTube @adaptivetraining365.
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