Stroke Survivor Now Clean Pulls 205 and Counting

So many athletes, especially strength athletes, never think about the “what if.” They spend years grinding, getting stronger, hitting new PRs, and building a body and mind that feel unstoppable. They don't slow down to consider how they'd keep going if the body they worked so hard to build ever failed them. And that can happen to anyone—no matter how strong you are, things can change in an instant. That’s exactly what Logan Barber experienced in September 2024 when he suffered what his neurosurgeon called one of the biggest hemorrhagic strokes they'd ever seen.

Around 2:30 a.m. on the day of his incident, Logan got up for work, read a message from his wife, Stacie, who was in Australia at the time, caught his foot in the bedsheets, and tripped. He crashed to the floor, his head hitting hard. A piercing ring filled his ears, and a blinding headache followed almost instantly. 

His legs gave out, so he dragged himself across the floor, calling for his mother, who was helping to care for their 10-month-old daughter. Moments later, everything went dark. For the next several weeks, he floated in what he describes as a dream state, unaware of how close he was to losing everything.

Before his stroke, Logan and Stacie lived an active, driven life. Logan worked a physically demanding manual labor job four days a week, while Stacie balanced her roles as a strength coach and physical therapist. Outside of work, they were your typical gym couple, competing in powerlifting and Olympic lifting meets, grinding through workouts.

After the stroke, everything changed. Logan spent more than three weeks in a coma, over five weeks on a ventilator, and two months confined to a hospital bed. Through it all, Stacie stood unwaveringly by his side—his rock and fiercest advocate. They both agree that her relentless support and hands-on approach played a huge role in his remarkable recovery.

"When we were in the first hospital, after he had a stroke, they weren't treating him from a rehab standpoint," Stacie recalls. "They said that their protocol was to not work with any patients until they were off their vent. Well, he was on it for three weeks...that's three weeks of delayed recovery. So I started working with him from the very beginning...doing sensory stimulation, tapping, and getting the electrical stimulation. Any of the things that I could bring to the hospital to expedite his recovery."

But getting Logan the care he needed, and the care she knew he’d want, wasn’t easy. Drawing on her physical therapy background, Stacie fought relentlessly to have him transferred to a facility that prioritized rehabilitation from day one. Her persistence paid off. Just two days after arriving at the new hospital, Logan was off the ventilator, off the heavy medication, and beginning physical therapy. Stacie says the change in environment and early start to rehab were turning points in his recovery.

The stroke didn’t just devastate Logan physically—it took a heavy mental toll. For weeks, he drifted in and out of consciousness, unable to separate reality from dreams. Understanding his limits was just as hard. His brain and body often felt out of sync, convincing him he could do more than he actually could. 

At one point, he didn’t even recognize Stacie, believing she was an impostor. In one episode, he called “code blue,” thinking it would summon the police to take her away. They can laugh about it now, but in the moment, it showed just how much the stroke had upended his world.

His rehabilitation focused on both body and mind, beginning with the work Stacie started in the hospital. Over the past year, Logan has tackled speech therapy, physical therapy, and vision therapy to regain the sight he completely lost after the stroke. Regaining his vision became a major turning point. Passing his field vision test meant he could drive again, a huge step toward reclaiming the independence the stroke had stolen from him.

"They said it was unheard of at the time frame that he was able to get his license back because they thought it was going to take 20 to 30 sessions of vision therapy, and he was able to get his license back in 12 visits," Stacie says. 

Much of his early physical therapy was relearning the basics: walking properly, strengthening the left side of his body that lost function, retraining his grip, and rebuilding his balance, which strokes often compromise. All the while, Stacie guided him through weight and band exercises to rebuild strength and keep him moving forward.

Now, Logan’s back in the gym chasing his old numbers. His body isn’t where it used to be (he was pulling 745 pounds on the deadlift before), but he refuses to quit. The road’s been brutal, and figuring out who he is now hasn’t come without pain.

"There were points where I was really depressed," he recalls. "I mean, having that left-sided weakness and not getting back to my normal routine really sucked. But no matter what, I'm not going to get better unless I keep doing stuff. So I can either just sit and let it get worse and fester or just keep going."

But now his focus is on hitting new PRs. He’s back in the gym, training hard, but there’s a deeper reason driving him—to be there for his daughter, to live a normal life with her and Stacie, and to handle everyday moments with them.

“I hope my story at least serves as some motivation and actually gives people hope in the end, that I’ve made this recovery. Yeah, I’ve had the weightlifting background, powerlifting background, but my progress, while it may vary person to person, is possible. It can happen, and that’s what I want to let people know.”