Max Conserva, 35, can often be found working out or teaching a class for adaptive athletes at San Francisco CrossFit, his muscles well-defined under the strain of a 300-pound squat or a 150-pound deadlift. Alternatively, he might be working with mechanical engineering students at Stanford University who are designing an improved KAFO for him, or he might be presenting his case to yet another team of orthotists in an attempt to challenge them to expand their creative thinking. Or maybe he’s in his home workshop—really a workbench in the hallway—designing, bending metal, sewing straps, or welding.
