The Sevan Podcast - Helen Taylor | Core City CrossFit Kids #1037

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

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Good. Good morning. Morning. Good morning to you, Helen. I'm going to copy and paste this, the Instagram account just below your name. Are you cool with that? Of course. Yeah, for sure. That way anyone who wants to jump on board can. Great. We're off to the races. We're live. Good good to see you thanks for doing that this morning are you kidding thank you for having me i i am uh i'm grateful it's uh it's not every day someone

wants to hear about a kids program so it's uh i'm grateful thank you are you um are you three hours ahead is it uh 10 a.m there yep? Yep. Okay, cool. Fantastic. That makes me feel better. You're in Detroit, Michigan. Yes. Are you local there? Are you born and raised there? Are you native there? I am. Yep. How did you end up there? Are your parents immigrants? The reason why I ask, my grandparents were immigrants and my mom ended up in Detroit.

Yes, my parents are immigrants from Greece. So they ended up in this area of this outskirt area outside of Detroit called River Rouge. And I was born and raised here, but my parents did move back to Greece with me. So we lived back in Greece for a few years. Then we came back, came back to the exact same area. A big, big Greek community in Detroit? It is a big Greek community where we were at is very multicultural, very diverse, big Polish community, Hispanic, Black community.

So it was great. Good upbringing there. Yep. I'm Armenian. Both my parents are yes i recognized my husband's half armenian catch it oh ah okay very armenian name all right and uh cleveland detroit dearborn all places where tons loads and loads of armenians landed yeah for sure yeah it's crazy it's crazy that i have my roots there. And so you've been in Detroit how many years? I've been here for probably what the last 35, 40 years. Yeah.

Since we got back from Greece, I've been here. Detroit was booming at one time, right? When you were a kid, was it booming? It was. And then it was a huge downturn. Everybody left the city. It was a lot of crime, a lot of businesses closed, left. So it was pretty bad there for a while. And now we're on a comeback. So now things are definitely changing. Detroit is a great city. I love it. And you got to come visit us. There's a lot to do here. There's a lot of good stuff. Cities that get revitalized have so much potential. Portland had, I don't know if you've ever been to Portland. It's sad. It's sad what ended up happening,

but it had so much potential because it went through sort of a reawakening, a kind of a rebirth and, you know, in Cincinnati kind of is going through that. Yeah. Columbus, there's these towns that were big towns. They got small and now they're growing again. And there's a lot of, you know, I was just looking yesterday on Trulia at homes in Detroit. Wow.

There's crazy opportunities. I know, right? I know. Crazy, beautiful homes there that are relative to California standards are so affordable. Yeah, it is. It's a it's a great city and it's it's exciting to be a part of it. It's exciting to see how everything's changing. People are coming back. Businesses are coming back. Downtown is, you know, filling up with, you know, we've got like a Gucci store now, which is huge for us. And, you know, Lululemon and all kinds of other, you know, nice businesses that are coming in that are going to be huge and

very helpful. What happened? Is it just as simple as like we hear from the outside, the automotive industry just left? Yeah. No, I think that, I mean, there's just a lot going on. There's a lot of new businesses coming in. Things are just getting, things are just, money's coming in, which is what we need. But I mean, when it took the downturn, what happened? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The automotive for sure. Yeah, that was a big part of it. Huge. And why did they move? Is it just the basic cliche story? They packed up and went to Mexico and China and places where labor was cheaper and then just left the United States? Yeah, that's a lot of it. You know, it's there's a lot of stuff like that, that that happened,

unfortunately, you know, but a lot of a lot of businesses do that right i mean they look yeah yeah yeah interest yeah yeah yeah and they don't really see the effect that it has on everyone else in the community in general so yeah but the important thing is we're getting you know things are getting better so that's that's the good thing yeah and i don't mean it to be pointing fingers or blaming anyone. Yeah. Everyone wants to run a financially successful business. Everyone's looking for opportunity to save money. I mean, everybody. And so you're there as you're born and you're raised there. Right. And and then you go back to Greece and then you come back there and you've been there.

Did you meet your husband in Detroit? No, actually, we I we met in high school. So, yeah, my husband and I went to high school together. I did not go to high school in Detroit. My parents didn't want me to go to the school there. So we went we were saying that at the time we didn't have school of choice. We were saying that at the time we didn't have school of choice. So my parents, well, there's a lot there, but my parents wanted me to go to a different school. So they said that I lived with one of my uncles in a suburb outside of Detroit, outside of River Rouge. And that's how we met. We went in high school. We didn't date in high school, but that's where we met. And you're still together. Yeah, 33 three years of marriage. And I still like him. Wow. Congratulations. Yeah. Thanks.

A long term, long term relationships are I think are like crowning achievements. I always think of my relationship with my wife is kind of my crowning achievement in life. Yeah, for sure. Nowadays, it is rare to hear this, especially because, you know, like I said, I still, I like him, you know, it's like, we're not together just for, you know, financial sake or kids sake. It's, you know, we're together because we love each other and we get along and we have a lot of common interest and he's a great guy. He's easygoing, which helps a lot because I'm like high strong.strong. It's good. It's a good thing. Does he train? He doesn't. He's a cyclist.

Oh, so he does train. That's what I meant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We cycle together. We used to compete together in cycling. I mean, not professionally or anything, just local competitions. So we, um, we did that together for a long time. And then, uh, I took a break to focus on CrossFit. Um, and now I'm back to training, you know, working out with him, like cycling again and doing CrossFit, but trying to be a little bit more balanced nowadays. Helen, um, in another podcast I was listening to, um, I'm trying to remember the name of it. Um, it was on the Clydesdale channel. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What was that gentleman's name? Oh geez. I'm so sorry. I don't remember. That's okay. Oh, I'm so sorry.

He's going to listen to this. I forget his name. No, no, he, he, that guy's tough. I see him in the comments he can handle it anyway great great great podcast i listened to it last night and in there you guys were you guys were talking about i always just call him craig howard because he wears this flat rimmed hat that i would you know craig howard yeah no well craig howard owns diablo crossfit and they always kind of i've heard of diablo crossfit but i. Anyway, you talked about being a martial artist for 23 years. That's wild. How did you get into the martial arts?

Was it Taekwondo specifically? Yeah, Taekwondo. I'm a fourth-degree black belt in Taekwondo. I've done some Krav Maga also, but the majority of my training has been in Taekwondo. I got into Taekwondo because I was cycling with my husband, and he went ahead of me. I stayed back. We were mountain biking, actually. And I got off my bike. It was in May and got off my bike. There was no one in the woods that I sought and got off my bike to stretch, get some water. And I had a man come out of the woods and try to sexually assault me. And I just freaked out. I didn't know what I was going to do. I started screaming and yelling, and he's just staring at me. He came up from behind me and grabbed me sexually. And then like I froze, I didn't know what to do. And then I kind of went crazy, started screaming. And

then another cyclist said, Hey, I'm coming. I hear you. I'm coming. And as he was coming, another cyclist was coming, he ran into the woods. And that just, that scared me so much. And I didn't know what would have happened if someone didn't come. So I decided at that point, I was going to start looking for somewhere to train for self-defense, to be able to defend myself if anything like that happened again. So I started martial arts for that reason, and then just fell in love with it, fell in love with the discipline of it, the structure, love with the discipline of it, the structure, the self-control, the empowerment that I felt and just kept with it. Got my fourth degree black belt, coached, took over running a studio, a martial arts studio for many years. So yeah, that was how I got into martial arts.

You know, I hear, I don't know if this is true, but I hear there's like 7 or 8 billion people on the planet. Well, that sounds about right. And I don't know how many there's been in totality. I'm going to say, I'm just going to make this shit up, 15 billion.

Since Evolution Starter, since God put Adam and Eve, or whatever the origin story you want to go with. I bet you a woman's never come out of the woods and grabbed a man sexually. No. In the entire fucking history of time. I bet you it's never happened the other way around. I completely agree with you there.

And I don't want to dog on men, but I want to point out to you that we are different creatures. Yeah. And that right there is kind of the foundation of our difference, unfortunately. Well, or fortunately. I'm not sure how to – in this particular circumstance, it's unfortunate. Oh, $117 billion? Really? Oh. Oh, I thought we were just really top heavy on that end that's amazing yeah you really think that there's been that wow okay fine good

um i know this is not the point of the podcast can you tell me how did you get so you got away yeah yeah i mean i thankfully like the other cyclist came and he ran into the woods and I just, I thought about it. Like, what would I, what would have happened? Would he have pursued more? Would we have, you know, fought? What would I have done? And I mean, all I, at first I just froze and that was the scariest thing ever. Just not doing anything. And then I just started screaming, you know, I mean, I'm Greek. So I just started screaming and yelling and I was like, someone help me, you know? And, and that's how my martial arts career started. How soon after that?

Oh, I went home immediately. You know, we went, you know, we went with the park ranger, you made a sketch, you know, all that stuff, you know, they weren't going to find anyone. There's homes all around the trail. It's, you know, how would, you know, how would you find anybody back then? And so nothing came out of it. But when I came home and I started looking for martial arts schools and what I was going to, you know, what, what, what was I looking for in a school? Then I went and talked to some places and checked

them out. Um, how did, how did you, how, yeah, it's cool that you say you looked at schools because I've heard these stories that are kind of tragic stories where someone takes martial arts for five years and they really didn't learn anything. Like they went there thinking they were going to learn self-defense and they did like after five years, they're no, they learned some movements, but they're, but they're not martial artists. How did you know which one? I mean, because you went there for a reason. You wanted to be able to apply a skill in a situation. Right. Um, well for me, I, when I talked to, uh, the, the guy that I ended up going with, um, he was a neuropsychologist from Rutgers. Okay.

And he had extensive training in martial arts. And when I researched him, he had a good background with like an original grandmaster who had been, you know, training with, you know, General Choi from, you know, back in North Korea or South Korea. And then also, you know, his wife was like a community, like a big teacher in the community. So I felt like they were, you know, people that he had a good background and, and talking to him, he was very, very knowledgeable, very into martial arts, but very much into, you know, the psychology of humans and incorporated that a lot into his training. I'll never forget him. He has taught, he taught me so much. In fact, that I use the methodology that I learned from him. His name was Dr. Matthew Gonzalez. He actually now works for the government in Washington, D.C. As like when people came back from Afghanistan, he was

like, you know, like did brain studies on them and stuff. So he's in Washington now working for them. But he had such a great methodology of training. And I use that in my CrossFit kids program now. I mean, I pretty much run this program very similar to how we ran our martial arts program and how I was taught to interact with people and empower people and help people much deeper than just a physical level. How to interact and empower. I'm going to come back to that. I just want to ask you one more question about the martial arts. How did that change your personality? You think 23 years of Taekwondo? I feel it definitely has. I'm so much, I'm very disciplined. Say, Vaughn, if you knew me, like if you knew me

personally of the people that know me around here will tell you I'm very disciplined. I know you know how to take pain. You understand how to welcome pain and bring it along with you on a journey if you have to. And it becomes part of you versus us wanting to get rid of the pain so quickly. You know, when something becomes difficult, our first response is we got to get rid of it, got to get rid of it. Martial arts teaches you to learn from that, to bring it along with you as a partner on this journey that you're on. And, you know, you experience different, you bring it along with you as a partner on this journey that you're on. And, you know, you, you experienced different, you know, what can you learn from it? How can you use it to benefit you versus rejecting it right away and wanting to get free from the pain or free from suffering. So it's, it's a lot, it's a lot, but I'm very disciplined. I think

that's one thing that I've learned. I think I was raised. What's interesting is I was, not only was I not taught to, I liked what you said, take pain on the journey, but I was raised to avoid pain discomfort. The discomfort was actually something like, Hey, you should avoid that. Yeah. That doesn't feel good. Avoid that. Yeah. Avoid discomfort. We're taught that all the time. If it's uncomfortable, get rid of it. But, you know, pain, discomfort, fear, all of those negative emotions that we experience are can be used in a positive way, in a good way. And sometimes we do need to bring them with us, you know, and allow them to be part of our journey for at least some part of the time, not all the time, but part of it, you know,

If that would have happened to you and you would have had 15 years of martial arts training, would it have gone down different? I think so. I would like to think it would have, I think I would have liked to, I think I would have, I would, I would believe that I would like to have taught him a different lesson of, you know, he of what he did and what he thought he could do, something that would give him thought to never do it again. So I would like to think that, you had a real life attack happen to them. And they completely froze.

So you never know how one will respond. My kids have been doing martial arts for yeah i see that just every almost every day they do there's first of all there's three brothers so they they wrestle and fight every day but they have formal training almost every day for an hour many days two hours and even just this weekend a kid started uh hitting a we had a big birthday party at the house and one of the boys started hitting one of the girls and one of my sons jumped in to protect the girl. But as soon as the boys started hitting my kid, my kid ran away screaming. I'm like, dude, you could be set up. And he goes, I just didn't want to. I'm like, all right, I hear you. And those are lessons we learned.

Yeah, totally. It's like, why? And we learned, we have to think about why did I react that way? What was it? What was it? It's something to reflect upon and, and, and go over. Yeah. You know what? I'm going to, that's good. I'm glad you're saying that when the show's over, I'm going to sit down with them later today or go for a walk and then make space for them and just ask them. Yeah. Like no judgment. Hey, what, yeah. How did you make, why did you want to avoid this? You know, what was it inside of you you was it a fear that you might lose control fear that you didn't want to cause a scene i mean there could be so many various reasons you know right um but what kind of uh martial arts do they take uh jujitsu jujitsu and then uh and then in striking and kicking so kind of a mixed martial art they do formal you know jiu-jitsu muchado or uh um i don't i don't know what the uh if it has a some sort of

uh name like that yeah or gracie jiu-jitsu it's usually like two forms like youtube jiu-jitsu youtube jiu-jitsu um well oh yeah there's a lot that comes out you know what i um what i think YouTube Jiu Jitsu. they break off. So Gracie and Muchado are typically the two in jujitsu that go off. Both are very good. In fact, I think jujitsu is probably one of the most practical martial arts out there because most fights will end up on the ground and you need to know what to do when you're down there. You need to know what to do when you're down there. You need to know what to do when someone's on top of you or someone's trying to jump on you. That is probably one of the most practical things. Krav Maga, do you know much about Krav Maga? A little bit. Yeah, a little bit. A little bit.

You got to look into that crazy stuff, Israeli military military fighting i mean this stuff can you can train to kill people it's it's pretty pretty intense um good stuff i mean good stuff in a positive way i'm not right right i'm gonna tell you go out there and learn how to you know right people but just good practical empowering forms of martial arts right they do they do a lot of gi they do a lot of no gi they do a bunch of tournaments and then of course They do a lot of gi. They do a lot of no-gi. They do a bunch of tournaments. And then, of course, they do a lot of striking and kicking. Yeah, I watch their videos. Private classes. Yeah, they're fun. That's great. That's great. Yeah, they're good. Sorry, I don't want to take,

we're getting off on a tangent here. Sorry. No, it's important. Get me talking about martial arts brings up all the old days. I love it. did you used to compete in tournaments i did yeah yeah how'd you do i did all right yeah i uh i uh broke a well i fractured my shin so yeah um kicking almost broke my nose just all kinds of fun stuff through the years, you know, blocking a kick or, um, or, or, or applying a kick blocking, um, blocking, uh, the, the, well, obviously I got punched in the nose because I didn't block. I missed it. I, it came out of nowhere, man. I was seeing stars. You know, when they tell you, you see stars, I was seeing stars. I thought I was going to go down.

But that was probably the worst one. And then the shin was colliding with someone blocking me. So that was, that was brutal too. Did you have success? Did you, did you win tournaments? Yeah, I've won some tournaments. Yeah. Yeah.

Good on you. That feels good. Yeah, it does feel good. Yeah. I think I, I feel like I was a good, you know feels good yeah it does feel good yeah i think i i i i feel like i was a good you know pretty decent martial artist nothing you know uh nothing world no world champion out there but i think i was just decent and local competitions and stuff like that your husband support you yeah he's great he supports me out of all my crazy ventures. And why stop? Why not keep doing, is it a time thing? Why, why?

Cause you did, I heard you say you retired and that I twitched. Yeah. Yeah. I retired back in 2018. Cause I was running, helping run a martial arts studio. My instructor that owned the studio that I was telling you about, Dr. Gonzalez, when he went to Washington, he still owned the studio here. And I was helping run it, me and another instructor while he was in Washington, DC. And then eventually he sold it. We continue, I continued on with the new owners for several years. They were great. Very supportive.

They're super supportive of me and all the stuff I'm doing with the kids right now. But I just can't do it. I wanted to try my, you know, like everyone else in CrossFit, you want to see how well you do competing in CrossFit. see how well you do competing in CrossFit. So I wanted to focus all my time on competing, doing CrossFit and seeing how things would go for me. So I couldn't do both. I just couldn't. I tried for a little while, but it was just impossible. You were biking though and doing martial arts. That was kind of same time biking. Yeah. And I did marathon running. I done it all i've i've competed with cycling and marathon i've done six marathons um i've i go through these like little cycles where

i just think you know i want to run a marathon all right i've never done this before let me do it i want to run six i have like this like this obsessive personality that i i love a challenge like this obsessive personality that I love a challenge. I love, I love to try to do something that I've never done before, something that's very difficult for me to do. The good thing about it is that I just learned so many different things. The bad thing about it is sometimes I, once I do something, I just want to go to the next thing. I'm like, okay, I've checked. Let's see what else I, you know, I want to try to see if I could climb my Everest next, you know, that kind of stuff. So I'm always like looking for stuff. I don't know. I'm probably sick in the head or something, but.

It sounds healthy. It sounds like you're making the most of life. Well, I, I, I like to think that, you know, so, but. And then, so tell me about how your path intersects with CrossFit. How does that pop on your radar? So how that happened was I was cycling and then I decided my mom was going through some health issues. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and dementia. And my mom and I were very close. I was having a hard time dealing with her diagnosis. My dad was gone. He had passed away. So a friend of mine said, okay, you need to have something new to focus on.

So let's run a marathon. And that's how that came about. So he said, Hey, I know this guy, um, who's a CrossFit coach and let's hire him to help train us during, you know, the off season of, you know, the beginning start, you know, starting over this marathon training. So I'm like, cool, let's do it. So, uh, Did you know what CrossFit was at that time? Had you heard of it? I had heard of it, but didn't have much of an interest in it. And I thought, yeah, let's get this guy. What year was this? This is 2017?

Yeah, this was, no, I think it was before that. I think it was 15. Okay. So we hire this coach and we go to the CrossFit gym where he works. And it was a pretty big box. We go to the CrossFit gym where he works and it was a pretty big box. So there's classes going on on one side and we're doing like private training with him on the other side. And while he's training us into doing all this stuff, I keep watching the classes. And I'm watching people doing handstand pushups and climbing ropes and walking on their hands.

And I was so intrigued by that. I thought, oh, I wonder if I could do that. So to make a long story short, you know, I continued training with him for a while, ran the marathon. When it was over, I thought, you know, I think I'm going to keep training with this guy. So we just continued for a while. And then he kept encouraging me to try a class, try a class. I eventually did. And then it was like game over. Then I found something new I fell in love with and wanted to pursue. And the thing about CrossFit that I love is that there's so much of it that I'm bad at that it just keeps me wanting to come back for more. It's like, it just keep, I keep wanting to chase that carrot. Cause I'm, you know, there's

just so much you're not good at. There's so much to try to pursue and get better at that. It just, you just never lose interest. It's just a great methodology of training. I loved it. Was this at core city? No, no, this was at CrossFit down river. This was a gym, uh, near my home, which is about 15 minutes South of Detroit. And then did your friend stay with CrossFit too? Uh, yes, he did. Oh, wow. Okay. We both did. And we both started the classes together. And yeah, we would train together. And he was much older than me. He was about, Kevin was what, probably about eight years older than me. And he was an avid marathon runner.

And I lost him. I lost him about a year and a half ago. He died. From what? From cancer. Oh, what kind? He had a bone cancer. Oh my goodness. Yeah. It was pretty rough. We've had a long journey together, but he was, I mean, he was the one that I credit to kind of, you know to bringing me into CrossFit.

You're not supposed to die if you do CrossFit. I know. I know, unfortunately. It doesn't always work right. Someone's going to be like, dude, that's stupid. Everyone does. Yeah, I know. No, I know.

That wasn't serious. Take your fingers off the keyboard. Step back. Relax. Take a deep breath. Aw. So you know these cultures. take your fingers off the keyboard step back relax take a deep breath oh um uh so so you you you know these cultures this biking culture yeah uh with dudes in the woods you know the martial arts culture and um and you know the the running culture and you know the crossfit culture as you

got into crossfit did that pop on your radar right okay do you are you in tune to that okay this has a different culture. This is very similar to mine. What'd you think about that? As you take that first class and you start to sense the culture? Clicky, friendly? No, the culture was something that I found very intriguing. I found the culture to be very friendly. At least my experience was very, very friendly, not at all clicky, very supportive. And what I found so intriguing about it that you would have just a mix, like in martial arts, we were all segregated. Black belts, we were in our own class. Beginners had their own class. Intermediates had their own class. Same with cycling. You're going to cycle

with people that are your speed. Hey, we're 20 miles an hour group. You're the 25 mile an hour group. CrossFit, what I found so intriguing is that we were all together. You had people in class that could do amazing stuff. They're doing legless rope climbs and they're walking on their hands. And then you had people in the same class who were using bands to try to do a banded pull-up or they were using dumbbells and not a barbell. But we were all together. And advanced people, new people, the intermediate people, we were just all hanging out in the same class. And I felt, you know, we were all inclusive. We were all the same. We were all suffering together. It wasn't, you know, this person's a competitor and they're in their own little group. Yeah. We were all together. And I love that. And I found that I just wanted to be, I just wanted to be around that because you can learn from an advanced person.

You can learn from a beginner. You can learn from anybody if you're open to it. You know, anybody just, you know, all the ages, all the sexes, all the diversity of whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember the first time I went to my mom. My mom joined a CrossFit gym. And in the first time I went and visited her there, she was the oldest person there. And I don't remember seeing any other white people there. It was just, it was like 50 Filipino people. Wow. That's amazing. with the 50 and they loved her to death. But of course there were boys there, girls there, but yeah, no one, what a great, I never even thought of it like that relative to other sports, the fact that we scale and then we all jump in together and get out. Yeah. And we're all part of the same group. And that's what, I mean, that's what I fell in love about the sport. And that's what I feel so passionate about it is because that's very different. That community is very different than anything I've experienced and all of the stuff I've done. You know, I went to this, um,

uh, seminar the other day that Athena Perez puts on and it's a large bodied seminar. It's basically how to work with people who are like really, really overweight. Right. Like it's turned into like, um, everything's different for them. And one of the things that they did was, is you went out on a run. And, you know, if you're if you're supposed to be 150 and you're 400 pounds, you might barely be able to walk. And so what you do is you would go one of the ways they scaled it is you go out. And when the first person's coming back, you turn around and start coming back with them. So that way you get to stay with the class.

Yeah. And so you still get to compete with them. Yeah. Scale to the level with the whole class. And it's scaled on the fly. And I just you still get to compete with them yeah scale to the level with the whole class and it's scaled on the fly and i just i you're right all that shit is cool all that stuff is so cool about about crossfit so so you start taking it and how quickly do you become proficient and um with martial arts you obviously keep wanting to dig in and like you're saying like hey you wanted to go to other studios. You were researching instructors.

Where does your journey take you and how quickly with CrossFit you're like, okay, I did private instruction. Now I'm doing classes. I want to set my goals on another thing. Was it competition? Was it the level one? Was it to teach? What was it? No, it was the open. I remember, yeah, I remember being at this gym at CrossFit down river. And I remember, you know, them making a big deal about this competition that was online and everybody was just making such a big deal about it. Everybody's all excited about it. And back then it was, I think, what, five weeks long back then? Six weeks? I hope they do it five weeks long again. I like five weeks. Yeah, it was longer than it is now. And it was just so exciting, the buildup for every week, and everybody kept talking about it. There was a buzz. And the gym there had like a Friday night

lights. So we would all gather together. Those who couldn't do it at night, we did it in the morning. So it was like the same thing. They had it in the morning for people, and then they had it in the evening for those who couldn't come. And I, you know, I just jumped in and did all this stuff. I had a great cardiovascular endurance background from cycling and running, but just couldn't do the other, like I couldn't do all the gymnastic stuff at the, at the time. So I was, you know, scaling everything, but I think I ended up like, you know, being in my age group, like the number one scaled person in my area, you know, it was like, to me, it was like such a huge deal. I'm like, I'm number one and I'm skilled. Now I think about it and laugh and I go, oh my goodness,

I was so proud of myself, you know? And then of course, you know, you just pursue, you know, you just try to pursue the next stuff you know what year was that you did the open oh geez was it 2015 i don't know i think i've done the open how many years it doesn't it say like when you go on your little uh yeah on your profile yeah it's been a while i know how to do that it's i've've got the thing. So what is it? Eight years now? It's been. It's type in Helen Taylor CrossFit Games.

Oh, look, it's taking me to your athlete profile. Oh, we're the same age. Oh, it's got a taekwondo picture. I'm 51. You're 52. I'm 56. Oh, you are? Yeah.

Dang, you take good care of yourself. Yeah, I'm 56. Good job. You do CrossFit? Yeah. I do CrossFit. take good care of yourself yeah i'm 56 good job you do crossfit yeah yeah i do crossfit 2016 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 holy yeah this year this year i got booted out of the open uh second week i suffered an eye injury that um took me out took me has taken me out for six months so that was kind of a bummer.

Like the liver kink, did a rubber band hit you in the eye? No, I, it was a Pandora's box. I started with me tearing the top 80% of the top layer of my cornea off and ended up healing from that, but ended up having to have like two eye surgeries later. So it ended up being like a whole. How did you do that? The cornea thing? I don't even want to tell you. It's embarrassing. I actually had long nails and I was trying to get a contact lens out of my eye and I couldn't do it. And I'm like, and I just grabbed and then I just actually just tore. I mean, they were so impressed. I went to the University of Michigan.

Had you been drinking? Had you been drinking? No, I don't even drink. Oh, you don't look like you drink. So I and they were. Maybe you should start. I should have. I'm telling you.

Maybe you should start. I should have. I'm telling you. So then it just ended up being like that I had suffered trauma in my eye that they had discovered from an injury I had partially from, you know, the martial arts didn't help. But when I lived in Greece, I had fallen off of a balcony and suffered a broken jaw. Was there drinking involved in that? No, I was too young. But anyways, they had discovered that I had, like my eye had weakened and there was trauma and I required surgery. And it was just a big, so it's just been this big last six months thing.

But you fell off a balcony in in greece two-story balcony fell into a pile of dirt if i didn't fall into the pile of dirt i would have been dead i broke how old were you i had about 10 i think 10 11 oh your poor parents they must have been oh flipping out my parents they were used to me doing this crazy stuff. I'm assuming you took your level one, Helen. Yes, in 2017, I took my level one. And why? Because that's what I do.

I coach. I spent so many years coaching martial arts. And I have a strength and conditioning background, primarily geared towards kids and middle school kids. I trained a lot of kids off, you know, off season, you know, football players, basketball players, volleyball players. I would do a lot of off season training with them. So I just.

In CrossFit or just. No, no, this was fire yeah and so what kind of stuff boot camp stuff so you were already proficient in that stuff yeah I mean no just like strength and conditioning like if I I would I like middle age middle age school like middle age school kids are teaching calisthenics how did you know how to do a back squat before crossfit how are you teaching that oh i mean yeah you did you from my training from my educational training it's not you know it's nothing different i mean obviously i didn't do clean and jerks olympic lifting but yeah back squats deadlifts bench press overhead pressing i mean i knew that prior like from like maybe uh

like from like planet fitness days or golden gym days from my from from maybe like from like Planet Fitness days or Golden Gym days? No, no, from school, like, you know, exercise, you know, sports. Is that what you did? You went to college for that? Yeah, yeah. Well, I went to online college for it. Okay. Okay. Okay.

I didn't realize that. Man, you really have. So you've been in fitness. Yeah, I'm sorry. We're like all over the place. That's okay. That's okay. So have you ever had a job outside of this industry? Uh, yes. I used to be an insurance agent

and I was a, I was a good insurance agent. I was a good sales person, but I hated it. I hated it. Absolutely hated it. It was dreadful. The only, I love physical fitness and I love working, um, with people, but kids mostly, I just love kids. Okay. So you take your L1, are you nervous to take your L1? What city do you take it in? I think I was in Grand Rapids, Grand Haven, somewhere in Michigan. It was, yeah, I think it was CrossFit 801 or 210. I don't know what it was, but it was in Michigan 2017. And then last year in 2022, I got my L2. Wow. Congratulations. Yeah. Thanks.

Who are the teachers at your L3? I would love to get my L3. That's the test, right? Yeah. I'm an L2 now, but I don't know what you do for your L3. Is it like a verbal test with, I think, no, I think you do like coaching and people watch you or something. Maybe. I don't know. Dave was just on the show and he was saying that it's just a test. Oh, just a written test. Yeah. Anyone can take it. You don't even have to be an L1 or an L2. You have to have some,

not anyone. You have to show you have to, if you don't have your L1 or L2. You have fully credit hours of coaching. Yeah. Which I have. I coach every day. When you took your L1, do you remember who the instructors were? Any of them? I think Joe Degain, I think. Wow. Yeah. He was my L2 coach too. He is really good. He was great. He's in Michigan. That says something that's not talked about, about this community and these programs that everyone remembers at least one

or two people who taught their L1. That's how impactful it is, right? He was very impactful. I remember him being very encouraging and patient. And especially this second time around, he seemed to show a great interest in the program that I was, you know, I was sharing with him about the kids program. And he's actually was very helpful with me and CrossFit HQ trying just to get the word out to them about what was happening in Detroit with Core City CrossFit Kids. So I owe a lot to him for, you know, just even opening the door for me with, you know, withq and being like hey you know look at what

is going on in detroit and what this lady's doing so um you know it was that was great and that goes back to what you said you liked about your instructor your taekwondo instructor and your training there it was to um how to interact with people and empower people yeah and you like the way he interacted with you and empowered. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I felt, I felt, um, I felt very, um, I felt very confident around him, you know, and that's a great feeling to have. It's great when someone can make you feel that way instead of the opposite. And we should, you know, we, we want to be the type of people that, um, bring out the best in others and bring, bring others to be confident and, and, and, you know, just bring out the best in them instead of making them feel intimidated or small or scaring them or, you know,

making them feel dumb. You know, that's, uh, you know, we don't want to be those type of people. At least I don't, you know, my wife makes me feel't want to be those type of people at least i don't you know my wife makes me feel that way like empowered and like strong and she believes in me yeah there you go yeah i feel i feel it's a good way that's a good way yeah yeah i feel strong around her yeah she believes it's true it's like it's awesome i'm lucky um and and when you take the l1 you must be at some part being like hey like, like I've done everything already. I've been a coach. I've been a cyclist.

I've been a martial artist. Like this is you. You must have just thought, hey, this is just going to be going through the. What's the word? Emotions or just like just going through it just to get a piece of paper and check it off. You probably were you not expecting much? No, I actually. And then did you like it?

Yeah, I actually thought it was great. I thought it was probably the weekend, because you spend a whole weekend there, like a whole Saturday and Sunday. I thought it was a great time. I thought it was very well. Even for someone like you who's seen it already. Oh, absolutely. a great time. I thought it was very well. Even for someone like you who's seen it already. Absolutely. But, but again, my martial arts training always, I feel like it's always there because we always have to approach things empty and allow to be filled. So I try not to go into an event or anything thinking that I know it all you come you know

open to what others can give you so I that's the way I approach it I don't approach it like well I already know it all I know I'm so good I you know no it's like hey I'm empty I this is something that is new to me CrossFitFit, even though I know how to back squat and bench press and overhead squat, this is new. I'm empty. Fill me, you know, teach me. What can I, how could I be better? That's martial arts. That's my life in martial arts coming back constantly. You know, I mean, I, I took the L one and it completely changed my life, but, but I mean, I was also the kid that got picked after girls in PE. Like they would pick the teams.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then some girls would get picked. Almost all the girls. And then I'd get picked. Yep, yep. Yeah. There'd be like some kid with a cast that got picked before me. Aw.

Ridiculous. Becky Harsh was at my L1. Audrey likes Becky Harsh. Yeah, people know their L1. Lisa Rae and Curtis Bowler were at my L1. Just took my old brain a few minutes. Yeah, people know they're L1. Lisa Ray and Curtis Bowler were at my L1. Just took my old brain a few minutes. Yeah, great. Amazing staff.

Lisa Ray, Curtis Bowler. Crazy good staff. Allegra R. Good morning, Sevi. Hi. What's up? Helen's enthusiasm, passion, positivity is contagious. Can feel it by just listening to her.

Aw, thank you. That makes me feel good. Thank you. So you take your L1 and before you take your L1, have you had a discussion with the owners of CrossFit down river at the time? Yes. That maybe you would be taking it and you wanted to come back and coach? Or was it just? Oh, no, that was like, that was already set before.

I was like, yeah, I'm going to go take my L1 so I can coach. Yeah, I was not like prior to that. Okay, so you knew you were taking it to coach? Yes, for sure. Okay. And then you come back and you just, what happens next? You just jump in and start teaching classes at Downriver? Yeah, yeah.

I think I did. If I remember. Yeah. I don't think it was anything that took me a long time. Um, yeah, I think I did pretty much get right into it. And then, so you're cruising along there and then how does your path cross with a core city CrossFit? How do you, how do they get it? It's like a little bit further down the road. Okay. And I don't want to take up too much time. No, no, no. Helen, take your time. Take your time from there. So, all right. I, if there's violence or nudity, you know, you have it in your mind. I'm like, okay. So I was at CrossFit down river. I loved it. Everything was great. It was a good place. Uh, then I start wanting to get more competitive. I'm like, okay. Um, it. Everything was great. It was a good place. Then I start wanting to get more competitive. I'm like, okay. It wasn't, you know, the box wasn't like super competitive, you know,

and I wanted a little bit more. I was like, okay, what's out there? So I had, you know, Alexis Raftis, you had her on the show not too long ago. Well, she's great. Well, the original gym that she was from here in Michigan, CrossFit Novi, there was a group of masters, like her mom, Susan, was an amazing CrossFit athlete, just a great, you know where Alexis gets it from. Susan was a great athlete. So CrossFit Nova was known for having a lot more competitive CrossFit athletes, young and masters. So there was a group of masters there that I had competed against on the open and all that stuff. And then Sophie Shaft was over there training as well. And she's a games athlete for the teens. So they had a big group over there. And I thought, you know, I'm going to go over there. It's like a 35 minute

drive from my house. So I ended up like talking to the owner, asking him if, you know, he needed a coach because I'll coach over there. If I can train over there for free and be in that competitors class with everyone there. So that worked out. I ended up, you know, I would drive 35 minutes every day, five days a week to train over there with these people. We had like a three hour competitors class. And then I would coach, I would rearrange my whole schedule. So I would be there like the whole afternoon, you know, train and then coach. And then I'd come back. And so I was there. What's your husband do, Helen? He retired from Ford Motor Company. He's a mechanical engineer supervisor. He retired from Ford Motor Company. He's a mechanical engineer supervisor.

He retired from Ford, got his 30 years in from Ford Motor Company, and now is working for a startup company. Wow. So, yeah, I tell you, he supports my craziness. Yeah, I love him. All right. Okay, go on. Okay, go on. So I was there at CrossFit Novi until COVID hit. And they shut down during COVID.

And we all came back to our homes and worked out there. I mean, sometimes we would, like Sophie and I, would sneak over there and work out when we weren't supposed to. Roll the dice. Play with your life. Sorry. I shouldn't say that on your part on your podcast, but we would go over there and everyone can tell you that kind of person. Don't worry. In secret. So, but you know, he ended up selling the gym after COVID.

Did it stay open? Is it still open today? It's still open today, but under a different owner. So we all left, we all split and went our separate ways. Of course, Alexis was gone way before that. She was in Atlanta before. Do you know about her? Do you know that she was a gymnast, right? Yeah. And when she was on that show, you know that wackadoodle gymnast,

U.S. Olympic doctor? Yeah. She had a run-in with him. As I recall in the interview, he didn't do anything weird to her. But what a small world. And once again, second second time in the story. Some dude doing weird shit. Yeah. But I think the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. With others, too. I had two girls on this show back to back. Who are elite CrossFit athletes. I think the other one was Paige Powers. I wasn't I was just like, just, Oh, I just threw it out there. Did you happen to know that, that weirdo? And they both knew him.

They were both their doctors. Yep. Yep. Isn't that crazy? Take martial arts and stay close to your kids. I know. I know. So I left, we left there, you know, came home and, you know, worked in our garages for the next, you know, however long COVID was. And it was during that time. Did you buy a ton of equipment from Rogue? No, actually the owner let me take a bunch of equipment. He was so great. So I have a lot of equipment in my garage till day from, from them. So they were, they were, he was great. He was, he was a great guy,

great coach, great, uh, gym owner. Um, but anyways, so it was during COVID when I was here at home, working out, um, that the kids in Detroit, uh, were under quarantine, like lockdown the longest, um, you know, people were going back to school. Detroit was still under lockdown, still taking the longest to get back. Kids were losing fitness. We were dealing with mental health issues. technology or information and how to use technology. So kids would basically lose, you know, they lost a lot of time in education and in fitness. It was really tough to watch and witness. So I had thought. I want to throw this out there, Helen. I saw this study that compared like the richest neighborhoods in the country to the poorest neighborhoods in the country and the education of the kids. And if you took a test at the beginning of the school year and at the end of the school year, the kids were the same. So like they took it like in kindergarten,

beginning and end. Right. And then over the summer, the wealthier kids would continue to do better on the test when they came back than the poor kids because those parents were sending their kids to martial arts camp, to Europe, to summer camps. Well, those other kids were in situations where they weren't growing. So it wasn't even so much that their school was asked. It was what was happening when they weren't in school, which I thought was kind of a phenomenal study. I mean, I know it's an oversimplification. No, but it's so true. But yeah. And my experience. But it's an oversimplification. No, but it's so true. But yeah.

But also, those kids also are very independent. You see six-year-old kids who already can walk the streets. Then you see 20-year-old adults who can't handle themselves on the streets at all. So, I mean, there's – Right, I get it. I get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay, detroit was fucked they had their those kids were destroyed by not the

pandemic let's be clear but by the response to the pandemic absolutely the response to the pandemic was rough covid didn't hurt them none of those kids died from covid but their lives were turned upside down by the adults but we did have i. But there were people that I knew that died. I mean, they really were like, like grandparents and, and yeah. I mean, it was crazy. Grandparents and who else, who else? Like grandparents, teachers. I mean, crazy stuff.

But anyways, um, they were. Did you get hospitalized? Me? No, I had, I did get COVID, but I was fine. I kept working out in my garage during the whole thing. But hey, you know, but then on the other hand, my, my husband got COVID and he was sick for like weeks, but it's just. CrossFit, CrossFit.

People's response are different, but anyways, we, I felt like I wanted to do something and use something that I felt I was good at. I felt like I was a good coach. I'm good with working with kids. And I thought, well, I want to do something for these kids. So I started thinking in my mind, I'm going to start this kids program. I want to see if I could do it in Detroit. How is this going to go?

if I could do it in Detroit, how is this going to go? So I had some acquaintances that I had heard that had started this new gym in Detroit, in Core City, Detroit, which is a little borough, kind of like New York City. You have the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side, Harlem, that kind of stuff. So Core City is just a little borough in Detroit. So they were opening up a CrossFit gym there and they were looking for a coach. So I reached out to them and said, hey, I'd love to come up, you know, coach for you guys. Would you be interested in me? You know, I want to start this kids program. I have experience doing this. You know, what do you guys think about it? They were totally supportive. So here I am, so enthusiastic getting in there. And let me tell you, it was like hitting a brick wall. I had nobody in my kids' program. I couldn't get anybody to come. Nobody knew. I know this is hard for us CrossFitters to understand,

but nobody knew in Detroit what CrossFit was. I mean, I talked, I went to schools. I talked to teachers, administrators, coaches, athletic directors. Do you know what CrossFit is? Nope. I'm like, how can they not know what CrossFit is? Some people did know, like some people were like, yeah, I heard about it, but it's something that, you know, I can't afford. I did have others tell me that's a white person's sport. I did have a few people say that to me. That's not, no, they didn't say, they just said it's a white person's sport. I, you know, I think probably meaning more economically, you know, and that's kind of my experience. Isn't it interesting too, though?

It's kind of a misnomer. The reason why CrossFit is the cheapest and most inclusive sport is because you don't need a gym. You don't need a CrossFit gym. Everything's free on the internet and then you could do it at the park. That's the way I used to do it. I used to just watch it on the internet and then I would go do it for free at the park. I would go to the elementary school.

Right, right, right. We don't have in my, where I'm at core city, we don't even have a park. But you don't need to go to a gold or you, I didn't weights or i didn't need i could do it without sure as far as far as thing as far as sports and athletic things go it's like you can you can dig in i'm not saying it can't be i'm not saying it can't everything can't be more helpful but i'm just saying like right right like those guys that when i worked at crossfit hq the number one place that um google search for crossfit was in afghanistan and iraq during the war yeah those dudes didn't have shit right right but anyway anyway go on so you're doing a tour you're doing so yeah so you cold i want to

go back a second you cold called cold uh core city crossfit you're like hi i'm helen i'm a trainer can i know i knew i had known like you know your little crossfit okay community you had seen these people at competitions you know local competitions they're like oh hey i know these people you know from the competitions that we do locally i heard that these guys were starting a gym and then it's like hey they um they needed a coach so i'm like, I'd love to coach for you. So that's how that started. But I couldn't get anybody to come to my classes.

I couldn't get anybody to do anything. I went to schools. I went to schools and they're like, what is CrossFit? And why should we bring our kids over there? And I had flyers that I made up and I have a school like directly across the street from the gym and I would pass out flyers to the kids getting picked up for parents. And then the school stopped me and took all my flyers. I'm like, oh, you can't pass these out. You need permission. We need to, you know, look them over. So they took them and, you know, never heard back from them till about three months later, some teacher from the school walks over with a stack of my flyers

and says, hey, what is this about? You know, explain it to me. So I'm, you know, she's in the gym and I'm showing her, you know, this is what an adult, you know, the adult class was going on. I'm like, this is what CrossFit is. And, you know, this is what I want to do for the kids. And so the teacher talked to the principal and, and see if we can get like this trial going, like a little testing thing. So they signed up 12 kids and had them come for six weeks at the gym. The teachers all paid for the kids because how did they get there? Oh, they walk across the street, but that was a whole other, that was like a whole other legal thing. That's cool. Okay. Well, crossing kids over a street is not so easy as it sounds. Sign all kinds of papers. If someone gets, you know, crosses the street, they've got it.

We've got to have permission, you know, walking them over, walking them back. Nobody gets lost. Nobody gets hit. Nobody runs away. I mean, there's just all kinds of stuff. Right. So that's how that started. And the teachers paid for six weeks. The kids loved it. The teachers loved it. And that's how CrossFit began in my community, CrossFit kids. And now it's crazy. Now my kids are competing and, you know, we're changing, we're pioneering something very special, you know, with the police department. So let me go back a second. So you have these kids come in and people start talking. Wow, this is cool.

Wow. I'm getting strong. Wow. I'm seeing the parents and the teachers like I see a little bright light in these kids. Oh, these kids are actually anxious to get out of here. Oh, they can't stop talking about CrossFit. Oh, I see them on the playground now at break doing pull ups. Like it was what kind of feedback were you getting? Right. Well, there was very not a playground where we could do pull ups, but but close. Yes, the kids were the kids were showing a lot of good, positive signs, and the teachers were recognizing that. And this one particular teacher that I had was a great advocate, really pushing to be like,

look, we need to look at these kids. We need to do more for them. We need to accept everything that's being offered, uh, to these kids. Let's, let's try it out, you know? Um, so that was, that was great. You know, and that's how old are these kids right here that I'm looking at right here? Um, fifth grade through ninth grade. That's my, uh, target, uh, kids. That's what I do have three that are younger, but they're kind of exceptional. So we keep, I keep them even though they're younger and they're not, you know, they can

keep up with the class. These kids are amazing. I can't tell you how hungry they are to learn, how good they are. They work hard. They don't complain. They come over my house. They hang out with me. They're amazing. I can't tell you. Are all these kids that I'm seeing here from that one school across the street? Not all of them, but my program is free for any kid that lives in Detroit. Wow. Wow. Oh, wow. Wow. Up and over. Wow. These kids are amazing. I'm telling you, they can clean and jerk. They can snatch. They can handstand walk. They can bar muscle up. They can butterfly. I mean, I have a couple of kids who, don't be surprised if you see them at the games in two years. That's the goal. Tell me about the copper.

Tell me about this guy. What's this guy doing here? He is probably the highlight of my program. This is Officer Lamar Harris from the third precinct in Detroit. He is a tactical officer, came by the gym one day. He got transferred over to this area, to the third precinct. He's very big on fitness. He came by to introduce himself. Tell me, I want to hear the details of that you're in there and this cop walks in he's like hey what's up i'm lamar and you're like hey dude

i'm helen and you guys yeah and that's and so and so what happened i want to hear it i tell i tell him hey i'm running uh a kids program i would love for you to come uh talk to the kids how did you wait oh oh after he came in you, he's like, Hey, I just, I'm in the neighborhood. I just want to see what's going on here. Yeah. He said, I want to introduce myself. I'm you're going to see me a lot in the neighborhood. I want to let you know who I am. If you need anything, my car, you know, we're patrolling this area quite frequently. And I said, Hey, I'd love for you to talk to my kids. Can you come in hey, I'd love for you to talk to my kids. Can you come in and be a guest speaker? And he came that very day. He came back at three o'clock and all my kids are sitting there and I was so excited.

I'm like, oh, this is going to be great. They see him and they were so upset. Coach, why is he here? What did he do? Are we in trouble? Why is he here? I don't like this. Then they're asking me, are we in trouble? They're giving him the stink eye. Yeah, of course. So we sit the kids down and we're like, okay, we're not going to train right now. We're going to talk about this. Why do you feel this way about him? So we were able to talk about, hey, you know, we've heard really bad things on media about police officers doing bad things to people. We've heard about that. We're scared about it. And was Lamar there for that conversation? Yeah, we talked about it with him.

So he was able to talk to them about, hey, I'm your advocate. If you're not doing anything wrong, I'm here to help you. If you're doing wrong, then there's, you know, there's proper fear that needs to be there. But if we're not doing anything wrong, we're not here to, you know, I'm not here to hurt you. You know, I'm your advocate. I'm your, I'm your friend. I'm, I'm here to, you know, to, to show you that, that we can have a good relationship. And that was the start of something beautiful, not only with my kids, but with the Detroit police department in general. How often does he come in? How often do they come in?

Every time I have class, he comes in every time. Wow. And it's approved by the chief of police. Wow. The chief of police is a huge supporter of the program. Officer Harris gets paid for coming into my program and hanging out with the kids, working out with them for two hours. Oh, he hangs out for that long? He doesn't just come in? Unless there's an emergency, he gets called out, but he is there. Since then, we've had the sergeant of the police academy is also a volunteer. That right there that you're looking at was a zoo trip planned by the police department for all my kids. That's the third precinct, the captain.

by the police department for all my kids. That's the third precinct, the captain. All the police officers brought vans over from the police department and took my kids to the zoo. Hey, has that helped cut through red tape, having those guys on the team too, the coppers? It was, you know what? The chief has approved it. It was hard.

But now it's like a well, it's a known thing. They've done local news stuff on the program from the local news media. Channel seven came on, has done two stories on us with the police department. They're huge advocates of the program. They helped us with my backpack drive. They're great. I mean, like I said, this whole trip was theirs. They planned it all. They paid for it. It's been incredible. It's been incredible to see my kids love the police officers in our community. They know them by name. There's officer Darcy. There's, you know, um, Sergeant Burkowski, there's officer Harris that, and they hug them. They, you know, they, we go to lions games together and, you know, Detroit tigers games together. It's been incredible. He works out with them like you see here how long how long has this been going on the relationship with the uh detroit pd it's been

one year exactly this month congratulations hey do you know who matt schindeldecker is i do not i'm sorry no no no no no no no no, Helen. Not at all. So this guy's been on the show. Oh, yes. Wait. I think I do know. It was Matt Sick, right? No, no, no, no. He wasn't sick.

Matt owns a CrossFit gym in... No, I'm thinking of someone else. In Ohio. I can't believe I remembered that. And I can't remember the name of it. He'll tell me in one second. And basically, he has a program that has spread now to 14 different states. And basically, the way the program is, is that kids who are going to be a judge, instead of sending kids to juvenile hall, they can choose to instead of being in prison, the kid can choose to be like, hey, I'm going to sign up for this CrossFit program for nine, months or something and if you fuck off they send you juvenile hall but you have three months in the the success that they're having with this program and it's spreading like wildfire across the state

is crazy that's what we want yes they get these kids who are like really you know uptight and don't want to do anything but they're with this community and they're with other kids who came in like that who've now and so basically he's been running this program super successful making gyms who are partaking in it also a lot of money right because the state is amazing yeah the most interesting part that sticks with me about this program is that the probation officers have to take the classes with the kids yeah i love that yes and so they get that shared suffering and it makes the probation officers see the kids yes with new eyes and it makes the kids see the probation officer with new eyes it's two with both ways right absolutely and there's kind of this they're forging this love

i did read about that i think morning chalk up had something about them i i remember he reading that story that is pretty incredible yeah and this dude's journey when you hear his story you know why he's the guy yeah you know what i mean like you can oh you're like oh yeah your whole life brought you to this yeah anyway i'm sure your paths will cross he was telling he was asking me recently um he reached out to me and goes, Hey, we do you have any leads on someone we could get to help provide when these kids first come out of the court system, we'd like to present them with a new pair of shoes on their first day. Is there anything, any leads? And so then I saw Reebok was working with you. I'm like, look, look what Helen's got. It was like perfect timing. Yeah. And he should reach out to Jordan. I think it was Jordan Albert from Reebok. I can send you his email. He was great. I have gotten nowhere with, I've emailed Noble and Nike and

Noble and Nike and Tear and all kinds of places. And I mean, I don't get a response. You know, I mean, they don't know me. You know, I get it. Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, it's not a dig at them. But Reebok. No, they don't know me. They're not going to just send me a pair of shoes.

But I send them, you know, like, hey, this is my program. Check it out. I've got, you know, I've got IRS papers to back me up. I can give you receipts for anything. But Reebok actually responded and asked me how many kids I have, if I can send them some sizes. And then I did not expect all of this. That was crazy. And then I had a couple of the kids come over and we opened up the boxes. We sorted them all out, got the clothes and the shoes put out and, uh, they're going to get their, they're going to get their nanos.

Not everybody's getting lifters. That's only going to the, my competitors, my competitive kids. I have a group of kids that compete, so they'll get the lifters. You tell them that I said, lifters are lame. Anyway, They make people. You know what? They know all about all the CrossFit people. They know. I like talk to them about, you know, all of the CrossFitters. They know all the names. Do you know there's going to be a documentary done on the program?

On your program? Yeah, yeah. Chandler is going to be Chandler Smith smith and jesse are going to be part of it there's the uh if you go up there's chandler um there but if you go up the one above it is the little trailer there's a little this right here yeah that's a teaser of the um of the documentary we had a group of filmmakers from texas come out um and want to do a story on, you know, us, the, you know, just how we're bringing diversity with kids into CrossFit and the police department with CrossFit and just things like that. I don't know. I don't think it's. Can I play i play if you want i think it's long though i think

it's like a minute does that okay yeah but it has me working out in the beginning it's kind of like good i want to play i want to i've been wanting to judge you you're moving yeah so yeah But this is Latinser. That was funny. That's our gym. Just believe in yourself and you can do anything you want. It's possible. You can do what you want to do if you put your mind to it.

Keep trying. Don't fall down when somebody says, you should not be this or be that, but you should be anything you want to be. Follow your own dreams. Follow your own passion. Stay strong and don't let nobody peer pressure you. Anything you believe you can do it.

Even when life gets hard, just keep going I get teary-eyed watching it oh it's so the smiles it's it's all just it's like someone said it's all just contagious just seeing people you You know what it is? It's like if you knew the stories behind the kids, when I watch that and I get so teary eyed because I think, you know, they're the struggles that they face, the stress that they've gone through isn't stuff that I've ever had to deal with as a kid. stuff that I've ever had to deal with as a kid. It's just, it's, it's really, it's sad. There's a lot of heartache. And then to see them being able to go to a competition, like here they're with Adrian Bosman. This is crazy. He came to core city.

I took my kids to the compete at the pit teen throwdown. Oh, he was there and I introduced him to the kids, and we talked. He watched them, you know, do some stuff on the bars. He took pictures with them. The kids know who he is. They know who, you know, Dave Castro is. We talk about they know all the athletes, you know, that you could talk.

Here's some of the pictures of them competing um above if you go back down a little bit they're at the pit team throw down the ones above yeah like here oh my god how old is that boy ron's 11 oh he's so cute look at him he's such a little boy still and and and he can so much. I mean, he's he's incredible. I have three little boys. I have two six year olds and one that just turned nine. I just love this. He this was such a great experience for them. You know, I took him for four days, you know, to, to the pit teen throwdown and, um, they invited us and, and it was just incredible for them to be competing with the top teen athletes in the world.

They were able to meet, you know, um, games athletes, you know, uh, Caden. When your celebration of life is prepaid in advance, it becomes a gift from you to your Oh. Let us help you plan every detail with professionalism and compassion. We're your local Dignity Memorial provider. Find us at DignityMemorial.ca. This episode is brought to you by PC Optimum. If you like a curated playlist, why not try a curated grocery list? With Swap and Save, the new feature in the PC Optimum app, you'll get PC Optimum's best price for your grocery items. Simply add products to your shopping list in the app and it'll show you

similar items at a lower cost. Add coffee to your list, then swap it for one that's cheaper. Craving chips? The app will suggest some on sale. To get started, just open the app. It's as easy as that. See the PC Optimum app for details. So it was just incredible. They roomed with them. They roomed with the game athlete boys. Here, if you go back down, you'll see Caden and Rahim working out together. Nope, keep going. They have their shirts off. Keep going down the other way, the other way. Nope. Am I going the wrong way? Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, keep going. Right there right there right you see them oh yeah that's kate and i think he was like number he was the you know yeah yeah i remember seeing him at

the games i remember seeing the games yeah and so he's rooming with my kids and they're out there playing all day long when they weren't competing. They're doing, you know, turnovers and walking on their hands. And he was crazy. He was playing tag with them in the middle of the night. Basketball. They're running all over the facility, you know, swimming together. All of the kids were just amazing. They took all of my kids and were just, you know.

Hey, the kids that don't make it in your program, why do you think that is? Do you like the kids like maybe who show up Hey, the kids that don't make it in your program. Why do you think that is? Do you like the kids? Like maybe who show up for a week and then don't continue? Why, why do you, what's the main cause? I usually they don't want to work and my program is not fun. I mean, we don't do a typical CrossFit kids program where we play a bunch of games. They're there to work. I do this for free. I don't pay myself i'm not going to sit there and

play games with the kids we make it fun because of who we are in our environment um but i'm not there to play games you're going to be there you're going to work if you don't work you're not going to be there i have a waiting list of kids i saw them jumping over the um plates plates yeah you don't have to be good you just have to work do you have kids who just like are just horrible movers and just like are just horrible athletes who come to the program and you just and you still if they're you know what I don't I have one girl um and I think she's on our Instagram program um she's probably know, she's a bigger girl, but she works hard. She might struggle and not being able to keep up with the rest of them.

So we scale things. So working hard is what's required. They just have to work hard and keep up, complain, not complain, get good grades, stay out of trouble, and they can stay in the program as long as they want. Mary Monsoor from Toe Spacers. Helen, as a Detroit native, I just wanted to say thank you. I believe that what you're doing has the potential to change the city. Has changed the city, right, Mary? Has already changed the city. It has. I really, I mean, we've already with the police department and the kids now know CrossFit. Our community, the parents of my kids know what CrossFit is. They're telling their family about CrossFit. We had our own CrossFit competition. You'd see that on our Instagram. We had it back in June. We had our own competition where an adult

from the CrossFit community could partner up with one of my kids and compete. We had prizes that they, I mean, it was like a legit competition. And we invited the parents to come. And this is the first time their parents were seeing their kids compete. First time they ever heard of what, time their parents were seeing their kids compete. First time they ever heard of what they saw, what we were about. And there, it was the response from the parents were incredible. Tell me, tell me, I want to hear that. You mean this? I want to hear the response from the parents. Tell me about that. They were incredible. They couldn't believe, you know, what their kids were doing because typically they never come watch their kids. Right. Right. So I encourage-

So mom's walking in there seeing her 11-year-old boy front squat 75 pounds. Yeah, we're doing a bar muscle up and she's like, oh my goodness. And the crowds going nuts when this kid, Jamal, this kid did his first bar muscle up at the competition. His mom, grandma, aunt, uncle were all there. They all witnessed what we love about the CrossFit community.

Everybody's around this kid, and he gets his first bar muscle-up up there, and the kids were just going, I mean, the audience was going berserk. It's kind of further down on the Instagram. I post so much how old this kid how old's ron that's that's ron that's 11 he was the one competing that you saw at the oh what a little stud dude look at you should see rahim this guy here the one with the do-rag on him yeah yeah he is two years from now say von he's gonna be at the games yeah this kid is incredible you could just tell by his demeanor raheem's demeanor he's a good dude look at him yeah they're just good kids they love uh

they just love being there they can't wait to come to class it's like it's like bam elbows up they're texting me uh can we do overhead squats today coach i mean when do you hear that out of kids yeah and look at this kid's feet they don't even move his heels he got no wiggle on his heels i mean they're they're good yeah it's crazy it's all uh and they're so skinny too it's like oh my goodness all that weight and you're still just a little man. Yeah. Look at this. He's really good too. Davin. He's a good kid. How are they to the new kids? How are the kids to the new kids? How often do new kids come in and rotate? I have a waiting list right now. So I'm maxed out. We have one new kid that's from another school and they're great. I mean, we don't, I mean, we, we just don't have issues with that. My biggest issues are with the kids at school fighting with each other.

When they come to class, we typically don't have problems there. You mean there'll be kids in your class who have a beef with each other, but they, but when they come in there, they kind of let it go. Yeah. Yeah. It's not, yeah. In class, they're good. In school, they're getting in trouble trying to fight each other and you know we've had some you would think that they've you would think that they've been they would bond pretty good um because they're they're doing crossfit together yeah just it's it's a whole it's a it's a different mentality different lifestyle that sometimes we're not used to. And what about boys? What about boys and girls? It looks like it's a pretty good mix. Yeah, we have a good group of girls to

more boys and girls. But everybody, like I said, we all everybody during class gets along pretty well. I mean, I typically don't have an issue with that. You know, we, our issue is basically, like I said, during school hours, once they come into class, they're pretty good. They're pretty excitable, lots of energy. You know, once we warm them up and get things structured, then they tend to calm down and settle down a little bit um i feed them so um that helps we eat you know we have yeah food before the class helen how's the program changed um from what's it capped out at how many people and how's the program changed from a year ago oh my goodness it has changed so much because these kids now, no CrossFit. They're becoming good athletes and they're excited to show others what they're doing. Have you increased the number of classes? Is it still just one class? classes that's my biggest problem right now is that i just don't have space i rent space from

the gym um so i have mondays and wednesdays and it's about a um an hour and 45 minutes it's only two days a week yeah it's an hour and 45 minutes both days and that's all the time i have um has anyone like um so so let me just want to show the class real quick there's this picture so has anyone from the city has the mayor come down there and been like hey uh hey girl uh we're gonna throw you uh 10 grand a month oh my goodness i would love that are you kidding you know how hard this is? I don't, if you know, we just want you to do four classes. Yeah. We want you to do four classes a day instead of two. We're going to throw you 10 grand a month. I love it because right now I pay a monthly fee to rent two, two classes a day. Um, and that's, and I don't have space. The gym that I am renting.

Does the school pay you? No, no. I, my, I get paid from, uh, companies that I go after to donate money. Like any local businesses. I try to, you're paying for these classes. So you know, I, I have a nonprofit. So I, I try to get money donated from people. What's the name of your nonprofit? Core City CrossFit Kids. That's my nonprofit. So you have this company.

I'm just going to say it's you, but okay. Yep, it is. I'm a 501c3, so I have my pay. You panhandle to get money so that you can rent the space from this gym. So kids from across the street can train because for some reason that it brings fulfillment to your life. Yes. I want to make a difference. I mean, you want to do something good with your life. Make I'm good at coaching. I'm good with kids. I want to use that gift. coaching. I'm good with kids. I want to use that gift. You know, I don't want to, you know, I just don't want to keep it to myself, you know, or I want to be able to, to make a difference in their lives. But it is hard. I can't get, you know, I don't qualify for a lot of grants because I don't

have a payroll. Like I don't have, I don't pay myself and I don't have employees. So it's hard to have people say, okay, what are you going to use your money for? I'm like, well, rent. I have a part-time coach that I pay. I need money. That's that girl. I've seen a girl in a few years. Yeah, that's Sophie Schaaf.

She's a games athlete. She's a teenage games athlete. She's amazing. She drives a long way. She's a teenage games athlete. Um, she's amazing. She drives, um, a long way to come, uh, partner with me. She'll be down at the other way. I heard she has a Bentley. Is that true? Yeah. I wish she wishes she had a Bentley. I heard she's skimming money. She got a Bentley. She is. I wish she had a Bentley for her. So, yeah, she's the other way around going up the other way because she just started with me back in back when she turned 18. She got her L1. That's Sophie. Yeah, she got her L1. She was number three at the Games last year, a teenager. So she's competed at the Games several years and now she's going to be just Olympic

lifting. So she is taking a break from competitive CrossFit and doing just Olympic lifting. So she's my part-time employee. And basically what I use money for is food, um, to pay her part-time pay for the rent space, um, competitions that the kids, you know, uh, want to do. And I would love for them to do obviously clothes and shoes. I was using, uh, you know, that money would be used for that. I want to expand. So that would take more money. I could definitely use a van to buy because I pick up a lot of the kids and take them home myself. So some of my families don't have transportation. i know what i like about you helen you're nice more than i hope it's a lot i hope you're nice well i there's something i sense from you that's um you're tough you're not nice let me rephrase that you're not nice you are um

i i often feel like nice is a um uh people are nice who don't have integrity. And so they hide their lack of integrity with being nice. And you have integrity and you're tough and you have commitment and you get outcomes, you get outcome and you present nice and pleasant. But I can tell like the second I'm like, so what about these kids? And you're like, hey, man, if you're not really into work, you can get out. You know what I mean? Like I bumped into a wall.

And I just love it that I bumped into a wall. There's so many people that need help. Right. But right now I'm just doing tip of the spear shit. You're right. Maybe they need a psychiatrist or this. But I'm not doing that. We have a line for kids

who want to at least make the first step and that's what i'm dealing with and those are my parameters and like get in where you fit in that's pretty good i think that if people who know me who are listening or who will be listening um i think they're gonna say oh my goodness he got you yeah i mean i used to be nice and and i just didn't get a lot of outcome. No, you don't. You don't get a lot of outcome because you're, you're, it slows you down. It slows you down. People really respect integrity and genuineness over kindness. Yeah.

And it brings in a certain kind of people. Eaton Beaver, breaker off a piece of the 90 G Seve. Here's 10 towards the cause. I found $90,000 in my YouTube account. Did you really? Yeah. Send it over. Oh, my God.

No, sorry. No, no, no. Send it over. No, no, no. But that did give me an interesting idea. You can do something on YouTube now where you can, the way your, your IG is pretty good. So if you commit to making a YouTube short every single day,

you can do it from your phone, like Instagram. You can just film from your phone, push a button, and it'll go straight to your YouTube channel. So start a YouTube channel that's core city CrossFit kids and publish a short there every day. And then, and then, and then I know you have a million things to do already maybe sophie can help with this but start start doing that now every day for a year and keep doing that once you once you get to 1 000 subscribers and 4 000 hours watched youtube

allows you to turn on this feature it's called monetization so you have to start building this library now but before you know it, you'll reach it. And then you can flip the switch for monetization. And now you'll have another revenue stream. Really? Wow. Okay. So do I have to like, is it, can I just go on YouTube? It's just the same video. Like I do. Yes. Yes. You could do. Yes. You can just upload it to uh youtube it's so easy to do it's just time consuming it would take like five minutes it takes five minutes which i know because i started one called uh for uh parent consulting like to show parents like hey this is how you raise kids yeah yeah because i'm the best at it in the world and and and i stopped because five

minutes a day was too much for me. But it is doable. And you really do need a YouTube station and it'll be good. All right. I'm going to try that. Yeah. And no one else. It's interesting. Are you networking with anyone else?

Has anyone else reached out to you? Like, hey, I want to start this same program in Cleveland or the other side of Detroit. Oh, my goodness. People all over. I think that this is something very special we're pioneering. I really do. I think that I would love to see something like your friends program, how that's spreading. I would love to see something like this spreading all over the country. People starting up, you know, nonprofits in their own boxes, in their own, you know, CrossFit gyms to be able to reach underprivileged communities for CrossFit. I would love to see that, reaching out to the local law enforcement

and including them. I have had a ton of people reach out to me asking for help, how to go about it. I'm, you know, I'm open to helping and talking to people. I mean, it doesn't, it doesn't take any, you know, it doesn't hurt me to do it at all. I mean, I'd love to, I love to see other people doing this. So, you know, you know what else I like about your program? I'm not a big fan of charity. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't like charity. Um,. I hate asking for stuff. I don't view your program as charity. I don't view it like that. I passed a hot dog vendor, and I passed the guy playing the violin, and then I passed the guy. This is a true story.

There was a guy panhandling, and then there was a violinist, and then there was a hot dog vendor, and they were all within one block of each other, and I was walking by them. And I thought, the violinist is providing something to the public i gave him a dollar the hot dog vendor is providing food i bought a hot dog the panhandler is providing something for the public that i don't need he's allowing people who feel guilty for what they have to help him yeah and i really think that's psychological mechanism you're not doing that. This isn't charity. This is a civil duty to participate in something that's for kids, which are our future, right? I don't view this as charity in the slightest because they're doing all the work. The hot dog vendor and the violinist are doing all the work.

The kids are doing all the work yeah the hot dog vendor and the violinist are doing all the work the kids are doing all the work like it's about we it's an easy investment and for our we love crossfit yeah you and i love crossfit we love the community i want to see um crossfit spread to communities that are underprivileged that that um't, you know, they don't have that easy accessibility to it. I want them to participate in something that we love. And I want them to know what it is. And this is how CrossFit grows and keeps growing and reaches more people and reaches more people is through something like this, you know? and you know why i think the youtube station you just convinced me even more why the youtube station is so important i think some people think that like you have to do something in order to make a change you have to show them so basically what's going to happen is is there's

going to be other kids who look like these kids or other teachers who look like you, who are going to see this and be like, I can do this. It's going to be enough. All they need to do is see it. So there's going to be some kids who see this and they're going to be like, I can do this. I can do, look at, they can do it. I can do it. They can do it. I mean, you know, I'm no one special. It's like, I don't, you know, I, I yeah you know i'm no one special it's like i don't you know i i you know this just has you know happened you know even other police officers who see this maybe some police officers are going to see this and they're going to think hey you know what by the way this these cops didn't go to a kid's class they visited a local crossfit gym yeah if you're

a cop just go visit a local CrossFit gym. And now he knows about CrossFit. What I love is he had no clue about CrossFit. And now he knows, he's like, he'll send me a message and he'll be like, hey, did you see that Tia? Did you see her work out while she was pregnant? Here he's telling me about Tia. I'm like cracking up. He sends me a message over the weekend. He drank the Kool-Aid. He goes, I'm sitting here watching the CrossFit games. And I'm like, this is awesome. This is great.

A year ago, he never even heard of CrossFit. And now he's watching the games. It's like we're changing things slowly one one kid at a time uh turntable 9.99 and woke bucks i don't get it but sure i'll take your money thank you yeah give me your money um uh uh cave dastro uh seven you wouldn't even give her a grand of that no no i would not give her a grant no i'm not giving anyone my no i'm not giving her my money come on dave castro cave dastro no i'm not giving no cave dastro i see yeah i gave i gave i gave 30k to the government and the other 60k

i'm what if i gave her that what if i gave her that thousand and that broke me and that i couldn't um then do this podcast to promote her anymore i'm gonna charge her to come on. Yeah, there you go. Fuck the asshole. Sorry. I hate, I don't ever ask me for money. Son of a bitch. I do more than any of you are ever going to do in your whole life in the next 20 minutes. I love it. Okay. This has been so much fun.

Oh, good. Thank you. This has been so much fun. All these people trying to get my money. I know. Hey, you're a role model. You're a role model for humans everywhere. Thanks for being you. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. role model for humans everywhere. Thanks for being you. I appreciate that.

Thank you for having me. I was scared and I was surprised. Me too. Because I didn't think that, you know, anybody, you know, really wants to hear much about a kids program. So I wasn't sure, you know, I'm like, wow, why would he want to hear? You know, it's like nothing that, you know, it's not like super exciting. I mean, I think it's exciting, but you know, it's like, you'd rather hear someone else and in CrossFit, like some professional.

Um, so I was very, I was very thankful that you had me on. So thank you. And I was scared because I didn't know what to expect. You know, I. I love the experiment that is humanity, and I really am proud for wherever we came from and wherever we're going before we were born and when we die. And I want to I want to like you, I want to participate in the in the experiment, the civilization experiment or whatever we're doing here on planet earth in a positive way. And so when I see other people doing it, I know it's going to be exciting shit. And I know that you're playing with a fire and water and ice and you got cops and you got the ghetto and you got Detroit and, and, and you got, uh, um, the white bicycle lady. And I just love all that shit. I think it's fucking cool. And,

um, yeah, you're, and I know that happiness comes from service because we're only, we're only struggling when we're thinking about ourselves, when we're trapped in our ego. So I just love, uh, um, they, the kids make it easy. They make it easy, you know, well, most of the time I should, um, they make it easy most of the time, not all the time, but that's all right that's how life is right yeah and i like to hear i like to hear the subtleties of your story the nuances where you're like you pick them up or drive them home because in california that shit's over you can't do those types of lifestyle things are over you're not letting any kid in your car

ever anyhow because you go to jail for something sure So even when I just see that, like, there's this familial, you know, more 1970s, 80s component to your life, it just gives me hope. I love it all. Thank you. I appreciate that. That means a lot. And you're always welcome on. If you got a new program, you expand to another gym,

you can come on for 10 or 15 minutes. We can shoot this shit. Yeah, I'll let you know. Or fundraisers. I'll help you with any fundraisers you want to promote. Yeah. I'll do that. And then I'll let you know when the documentary comes out. Please. Yeah. I'd love to have the filmmakers on.

I'd love to have Chandler on. Great guy. So, yeah. Thank you. That's awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. I don't know. Are we done? I don't know. All right. have a great day thank you you too I appreciate you thank you bye um uh cave dastro uh only struggling when we're thinking about ourselves

savamitosian won't donate one red cent to a good cause god really really all right fine fine all right i won't i won't all right fine fine all right i won't i won't listen it does here's the thing oh interesting picture jeffrey here's the thing it doesn't matter whether i'm ripping something and i appreciate you jeffrey for giving me this platform like the best thing that ever happened to uh on this podcast for rich's doc on this podcast not for rich's doc but on this it's just that I'm talking about it. It doesn't matter whether I'm saying something good or bad.

If I just said something good, probably half you wouldn't have gone and seen it, but because I talked shit about it, you guys went and saw it. So like the whole, the whole premise for any ripping is, um, I don't forget. I ripped on Dale's, uh, podcast too, uh, documentary too. Have you guys seen it yet? I'll tell you exactly what's wrong with it in a second. I know. Thank you. documentary too have you guys seen it yet i'll tell you exactly what's wrong with it in a second i know thank you thank you mr de la don't listen to me you do you there was something if that gym was by my house though i would go to that gym i want to see that

i would stop i would take a few of my precious yeah all press is good press yeah rich already sent me like 20 thank you texts for ripping the the doc thank you thank you thank you he loves it he's like dude you're killing it thank you for all the attention um thank you mason mitchell yes uh seven shits gold uh bull. Yes. Uh, seven on shit's gold, uh, bullion. Uh, the premise is seven interactions always real net positive. Thank you. I'm a fucking alchemist, the highest order. Like I can be ruthless though. I've been told you're, you're right. He did. If you're talking about rich texting me, you're right. He didn't. No, he didn't. You're right. He didn't text me once. Isn't that funny that you know that?

I was like thinking, I wonder how many people are going to believe that. Cave Dastro. I watched the Phil doc. I thought it was the greatest doc I've ever seen. Should have won Sundance. Mary, you knew, huh? Yeah, I'd go to this gym, this city crossfit i want to see this i want to meet these kids and you know you know what the giveaway is that mary's cool is because

it's all small her instagram's all smiles so you can see that that whoever's posting this stuff is like hey they're attracted to smiles and so so they find that something worth showing on the Internet. And so that's what they're doing. They're just rocking smiles. It's just one giant account of kids smiling. It's cool. Okay. Oh, Judy Reed.

I totally believed it. I was like, that's so cool. No, he didn't. He didn't. Rich was nice enough to do me a Judy a really big favor last week. And this week, I'm just ripping on his film. Rich is probably like, God, what a douche nozzle. I'm going to text Rich and ask him to come on.

Holy shit, I got so many text messages. Why? Oh, oh. Don't let me fall into text messages. David, say something to me. Pick a fight with me. Let me fall into my text messages. Yeah, Cave Deseret.

He got at least 100 views of you ripping it. Exactly. Let me see if I have anything else for you who's the guy who's the guy who did the doc with her he listens to the show I like him how come I can't or the podcast with her this guy did a

this guy did a podcast a core city crossfit This guy did a podcast. Core City CrossFit. Oh, Type 1 Lifting. Type 1 Lifting. You know the guy. This guy. I see him in the comments, and he always reminds me of Craig Howard because of his flat bill.

You know who I'm talking about? This guy right here. The type one he interviewed her. I watched that yesterday. And it's not like, you know, and if you don't feel comfortable with the movement,

just scale down. Like Craig Howard anymore once he's on the podcast. Look at, what's that thing he has on his arm of his mic god he has a good mic too everyone has all the good shit how about that dude coming out of the woods and grabbing her what a douche nozzle no you can't watch the mayhem doc on 1.5 speed i wouldn't i no i can't even those people are from the south you could barely understand a word they say you gotta listen to it slow

but you can be scrolling through Instagram when you watch it. Okay, let me see if I have anything else worth. Excuse me. I started taking BCAA's from Swolverine I don't even know what they do but whatever flavor I got it's their best flavor it's crazy good oh god

you want to see something so good. I saw this yesterday. This is so good. Listen to this. How about this? Here we go. Ready? I'm around people all the time who think that for some reason I'm attacking them.

It's crazy. I'm like, well, I'm not even, it's not even about you. What I'm saying. Listen to this. Here's the thing. even about you what I'm saying. Listen to this. Here's the thing. People who can't communicate think that everything is an argument. And people who lack accountability and self-awareness think everything is an attack. Those aren't my words. I came across them as a quote. It's not credited to anybody.

If you know who said them, please pop it in the comments because I want to thank them for that gem today. Does she have eczema on her chest? What is going on with her chest? Is that just dry skin? Here's the thing. People who can't communicate think that everything is an argument. Yeah, you ever been with someone and they think that like it's an argument? You're like, hey, where are the scissors? And they're like, I didn't're like I didn't You think I had them last And like just right there just jumping into some crazy shit Like you just say something to them

Today trash day And they just fucking launch at you It's not my job to take out the trash It's cool And people who lack accountability And self-awareness Think everything is an attack Yeah, that's the one

You're fat Well, you think I'm attacking you Because You lack accountability And self-awareness. So good. As opposed to just leaning into it. Those aren't my words.

I came across them as a quote. It's not credited to anybody. If you know you said them, please pop it in the comments because I want to thank them for that gem today. I'm so offended by this lady. Here's the thing. People who can't communicate think that everything is an argument. People who can't communicate think everything is an argument. I don't know about that one.

There's something there, but there are other people you just say stuff to them and they read into it so quickly they think they're being attacked. It's like, dude, no one's attacking you. It's just a sincere question. Hard doesn't condone an abuse of power. And then they go on screaming rant about it on their podcast. She's she's talking about. No, she's talking about when you tell someone that. So I tell someone cop's job is hard. And then they say that doesn't condone abuse. And then you go on.

The thing is, is that you're speak listen what you said i've never once condoned the abuse i've never once condoned the abuse so see what it is you think you're talking about me but you're talking about yourself i've never once condoned the abuse you get that you mean you had you made that leap because you are lack self-awareness and personal accountability you see it see it you made that leap you thought it was an argument because you lacked get it get it get it and people who lack accountability and self-awareness think everything is an attack those aren't my words i came across them as a quote it's not credited to anybody if you know you said them please when when i say uh if if uh you would never you would

and this is how i know you you would never say this to if a if a lady's like yeah my husband's a firefighter and he died in a fire the first thing out of your mouth you would never say to her uh extra sloppy you would never say to oh, but he signed up for the job. It's like, dude, that's like using God as a backstop because if someone gets hit by a car, you could be like, well, you decided to leave your house today. It just shows incredible intellectual weakness.

You're surrendering uh to some uh higher back you're surrendering to something it's like have you ever seen one of those movies and you're like fuck how are they going to get out of this and then the writer just got lazy and they make some sort of miracle and the guy finds happens to find a gun under his car seat and gets away and lives. It's like that. It's like you can always say what you said. Well, they signed up for it. Well, they woke up today. Well, it's just intellectual laziness.

And then what you did then to turn around and blame me for your inability to see that is, well, that's what this lady is saying. You don't want to take any accountability. You think everything's an argument. If you don't act respectfully to police, you get whatever is coming to you. Your words, bro. And? And? And? And, and, and listen, listen, if you don't respect, uh, uh, uh, uh, if you're not respectful to anyone, you probably that you could get an outcome that would be different if you were respectful to them.

Once again, you're saying nothing, but you, you want me to read into it so bad. I didn't see any racist jokes about kids i wish i would have seen those i didn't see any racist jokes about kids cave dastro seve if cops kill one person per hundred thousand on accident without justification but get the other 99 000 right do you excuse that death i don't know i don't know what that means excuse that death and i and and and you know that um what does that mean by accident if cops kill one person per hundred thousand here's the thing here's the thing. Here's the thing. Let me if you if you want to play that game, if you don't have cops and 10 people for by 100,000 are killed without cops presence. Do you excuse that death? Let me ask you that. let's say we find out that 10% of all cops are racist towards people with melanated skin.

And we act on that and punish all cops for that. And then deaths of melanated people increase 34%. What you're saying, what you're implying, you're not saying, but you're implying by asking me that leading question is that you're okay with that. I am not. I would like to find another route. You're also implying that you think it's okay to to it could extrapolate from that that it's okay to shut down the country and hurt children for two years put masks on adult and children in order to save uh people

who have a 13 month life expectancy in old homes. I mean it could go on forever. How intellectually weak is that question. Stop. No one else ask me any more dumb shit. Not here to explain to you that you're a retard. Oh that sucks. Really the worst part of World War 3. Is going to be no daily savvy. Why what happened.

I'm fine. Nothing's going to happen here i'm in the country all right you're welcome uh excuse should be replaced with forgive because i would forgive the police of that death oh you would well i read into it and i thought you were trying to corner me. I apologize. I was being very defensive. Great show. I liked her. I wonder if I should save that clip. 167. BC AAA suck? Why? What are they? I don't even should save that clip. 167. B-C-A-A-A suck?

Why? What are they? I don't even know what they are. Oh, okay. Thought you were trying to beat up on me. I apologize. I'm so sensitive and insecure this morning. Sorry, Sevan Cavedaster. Says, I wasn't trying to corner you. I backed the apologize. I'm so sensitive and insecure this morning. Sorry, Savon Cave Dastard says, I wasn't trying to corner you.

I backed the police and know they are human and bound to make mistakes. I took a, I guess, joking that it's a jungle gym or laughing about a zoo trip. I took, I made a short I guess joking that it's a jungle gym or laughing about a zoo trip. I took, um, I made a short documentary called the zoo. I took,

um, um, ranch chain amino acids. Oh, I like that. Okay. I liked ranch chain amino acids. They don't suck.

Um, I took a, I mean, I wonder if I should put that movie on YouTube. I took, uh, the, um, mentally disabled as adults that I worked with to the zoo and made a little short documentary on it. It was wild. It's wild.

Oh, let's see what, what, uh. Oh, let's see what, uh, would you, even though she doesn't own the gym, would you consider this episode part of the, um, affiliate series? I meant to ask Sousa that. See the, the, the, the, the silly details that I get caught up with in my life. Cause I put affiliate series and I wasn't sure. Let me see if I can find Sousa's number well he's he's 925 or can you believe this oh here it is Livermore here we go let's see what Joe Neils is doing too while we're here. Oh, yeah, yeah. I watched this one. Absolute goldmine.

Yeah, Joe's killing it. Here we go. Joe Neils. Subscribe and follow. Like. Subscribe. Oh, this one. Absolute goldmine.

These episodes are so tight and nice everyone should see this there's one you got his dog in it he reached matt there's a message on your back here i think i can still call it part of the affiliate series affiliate series where are they the now coming soon no i mean like that lady that i had on today helen taylor like i titled the show affiliate series and i'm wondering if you guys are okay with that since she's not the owner of the affiliate. All the other people I had for the Affiliate Series were of the Affiliate Series were owners of the affiliate. So.

Can we prank someone? Like what? What do you mean? What do you call someone? Who should we call all right there could be um if if dave monday's dave is supposed to The Week in Review. Oh, here we go. I want to fight with... Nah. That show was great.

No beef with the title. When is the behind the scenes coming out? Fair enough. Thought we were going to fight a little more. I don't know when the behind the scenes are coming out that's a good question you know what's crazy is I filmed that seminar

for Athena Perez that Scaled Nation seminar and I was like so proud of myself because I got a hard drive I copied all the footage to it and before she left town I gave it to her right and it took that took a long time to do and especially with all the other shit I'm trying to her. Right? That took a long time to do. And especially with all the other shit I'm trying to juggle.

And then she gets home and the hard drive doesn't work. And I'm so freaking lucky I didn't erase all the cards and all the footage. So today, oh, we were bickering. Okay. Bickering. Not fighting. I really don't like anyone asking me for my money. Cave hit a soft spot.

Soft spot. Don't ask me for anything. Let me give you something. Don't ask me for shit. Let me give. Let me give. something Don't ask me for shit Let me give This friend of mine I'm exaggerating a little bit But this friend of mine I traveled with this guy to 40 countries

This one particular organization It was called Vitamin Angels And when I was traveling with them he told me this story about this other lady that he used to travel with and he said every time they pulled up to the airport she would say hey can you get my luggage out of the trunk and he every time he would try to race around to the trunk to get the luggage for her before she could ask for it She would always be like I have a bad back can you help me with my luggage and He finally told her he's like hey yo

Let let me do it let me let me feel good like like I'm doing it out of the goodness of my heart instead of you asking me. And that really, when he told me that, that really resonated with me. I'm like, yeah, I need to make sure that you give people around you an opportunity to do good. All right. I'm headed over to FedEx this morning to pick up a package that they said

they won't deliver to my house because I have a house with a known dog. And I said, oh, well, it hasn't been a problem before. And they said, well, we had a dog bite. I'm like, did my dog bite someone? And they're like, no, another dog. So now because some dog in the neighborhood bit someone

I guess I guess I guess I have to go to FedEx now to pick up my shit we ran a video test yesterday for a crash crucible whoo footage looks amazing Brian and I are gonna kill it me Brian Hiller Sousa Jr. Howell it's gonna

be dope anyway if if Dave releases a week in review today I will immediately return back to the Three Plain Brothers empire, get in my podcast cave, the finest podcast studio on the west coast of the United States, and I will watch it with you guys live. I'll watch it with you guys live Hiller calling out Don Fall I don't know Is that what you saw? You know what someone told me their interpretation Of what Hiller posted was Is that they're showing that Don stood up

To the jackasses Is that what you're saying? This post right here It's interesting right so some hillar has posted this andrew posted this um i'll be so curious what you guys think i didn't still look at renee k you don't see this calling out isn't it interesting i thought this is so cool i'm glad i and i'm not i'm not tripping on you bear Bear, or you, Renee, but I just really like – like I'm not tripping in a bad way. So Andrew posted this letter that Don wrote to CrossFit HQ about a week before the CrossFit Games.

And basically what happened is – let me take you back a little bit there was a post somewhere i can't remember where where sporty beth attacked someone for being rich or something or a cop or something she she tried to do do some shit like that you know some woke shit and i and someone said hey it has nothing to do with whether they're rich or not and i wrote in there hey sporty beth you have to come to terms with the fact that um with reality for example my nose is big you're fat and i gave some other examples she took that and ran to hq with it and started saying her i think it was her actually and woolly but i don't know i i'm pretty sure it was from what woolly posted and what people have told me a bunch of these knuckleheads got together and sent this to hq

and were like look savon's calling people fat right so then they said i was like a misogynist and i was fat shaming and i was like whatever i was just made up a bunch of shit that like you could that anyone who even knows me a tiny bit or follows my work knows isn't true okay so i guess some fucking woke people and there's fucking a ton of them at HQ. And by woke, I mean, just people who are trapped in their own head and making up their delusional wackadoodles, right? Just complete delusional people. And they just take offense to everything. Thank you, Mason. She's not, uh, she's just big bone, not fat. Okay, fine. I stand corrected. I apologize for mislabeling her, but either way, no reason to take offense. And so there were some people there who are just the whole racist, homophobic,

all that stuff team. By the way, that was interesting that Helen, when I said that thing about being racist, she said it wasn't racist, but it is racist. But I was right. If you believe in definition of words, you're judging people by the color of their skin like that. And it's not for discernment or prejudice but it's to uh hold them down that it's racism

but anyway i i go on a tangent here um so then don was there's two ways to look at this letter that don either kowtowed to the to the wokarazzi at hq and was like oh my god don't worry don't worry he's not actually gonna work for hq and we don't condone his shit or you could see it as he was like hey fuck you we do what we want to do and we do what's best for the community and he's coming to film so it depends on how you want to spin it but either way i just like it that don wrote a letter about me to hq i'm like yeah fuck yeah got a big old d i got a big old dick that's how i took it so but um yeah most toxic man in crossfit you needed a full letter to the uh staff oh here tyler watkins i love that

email because it boils down to we are working with seven sorry you are mad i can't imagine being the focus of that email oh yeah yeah i i don't know how to take it but i but i like it that it's funny people are taking it Um, so, uh, Daniel makes sense if she had a big jump of followers. I'm not sure what that means, but I saw that she posted somewhere that she's thankful for all, all the stuff people have been saying about her recently. Cause she got a big jump in followers, but I, I'm guessing that the people who follow her are following her just, just to see the train wreck right the kind of train wreck effect um

uh leon j did you ever see the video woolly made after the game saying he was glad you were back doing behind the scenes i did but you know how i took it leon i took it as um i took where the fuck are you are you like mount everest or something where are you what's that is that where are you oh i remember seeing this picture before you got sticks in the back i can't remember does that mean you're good at walking or you suck at walking I always take it as those are like people who are good at walking um I took it as he was like hey we have to forgive them for what they've done and move forward and I'm glad they're there and it's like fuck you don't forgive me I didn't do shit I didn't do shit wrong I mean

nothing I mean I've done shit wrong like I don't want to tell you but not to CrossFit or not to anyone at CrossFit I've done shit wrong I parked in the handicapped spot a lot I've done shit like that I'm not proud of I'm also not down on myself for it either I'll do it again

Tyler Watkins I also love the Bruttery Bros Craig Ritchie and Sevan Like no last name necessary You all know who it is Well yeah And they're not worried about Craig Ritchie Or the Bruttery Bros either

They're the good dudes Like here's the thing These are the things that I'm not saying any of these are true But these are the things we're worried about If it's the thing these are the things that i'm not saying any of these are true but these are the things we're if it's the buttery bros uh you're worried about that they're going to go out on the floor when they're not supposed to if it's craig richie you're worried that he's not actually going to do any work and he's just going to be schmoozing with people back there and jerking himself off because his content's all about him and if it's me you're worried that i'm

going to walk by someone and it's going to trigger them and they're going to have a fucking heart attack like like sporty beth's gonna see me and take too many valium here's the thing how could anyone take anyone seriously when she made a video prior to going there that she's concerned that she's gonna get stopped at tsa for her bag of valium she had a bag of valium that she needs to go everywhere and it's like dude can you imagine if i was like champion crossfit but also celebrating that i'm a drug addict it would be it would be weird that which would be fine i'm i'm totally okay with drug addicts doing crossfit i got my own problems but um then my opinion about other people triggering me shouldn't like matter like i got my own shit i got like some real shit I'm dealing with.

I didn't mean that as a dig towards Richie or the buttery bros. I just mean that's, that's, that's their stick. Like he remarshan will fucking run out onto the floor. Me too. I would do that shit too. In a second when you're not supposed to be like,

well, this is the last event. I don't care if I get kicked out. I'm running out on the floor. Got to get the content content it's weird that it's weird that there could be people who don't like me and that could stop me from coming to an event and that that would be even a consideration and not like me because why plus I'm old and little

I'm harmless alright keep thinking Andrew's gonna come on and surprise me again I'll see you guys later let's hope Dave does a weekend review and we can jump on and steal his views love you guys

buh-bye