Building Inclusive Fitness Spaces with Kris Smith

This week, the Packers are all about Detroit. It's Madison’s hometown and the site that broke the record for US women's hockey attendance on the PWHL Takeover Tour. Anya and Madison recap that Takeover Tour — the highlights, the strategy behind it, and what it might mean for expansion in the league. Then they chat with their good friend Kris Smith: a Detroit local, pro trainer (to the Packers and Madison’s mom!), and founder of Foundry 13. Kris shares how she built a fitness space rooted in community and inclusivity, her at-times grueling journey in the industry, and why Detroit is more than ready for a pro women’s hockey team.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everyone, I'm Madison Packer. I'm a recently retired pro
hockey vet, a founding member of the National Women's Hockey League,
a pillar in the PHL, and an inaugural member of
the PWHL Sirens.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Anypacker, also a former pro hockey player, also
founding member of the National Women's Hockey League. But today
I'm a full Madison Packer.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Stand.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Anya and I met through hockey, then we got married,
and now we're moms to two awesome toddlers, ages two
and four.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
And on our new podcast, These Packs Puck, We're opening
up about the chaos of our daily lives, between the
juggle of being athletes, raising children and all the messiness
in between.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Hey Maddie, Hey Anya, how are we doing good? I
just got back from the gym.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Ooh, do you like my new hoodie? It says women's
hockey is Good.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
I thought that was my hoodie.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
You got yours in the Montreal Victoa colors. Mine is
a very beautiful, neutral brown. I'm so excited about it.
I'm gonna wear it every day. It's gonna be glued
to the bod.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Why don't we get into the hockey hot take? Hockey
Hot take.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
The Hockey hot take this week, which I think we
could all agree on.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Actually is it spicy? Who knows?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
But the Takeover Tour is my favorite thing that's going
on by way of innovation throughout the PWHL.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, I think you look at what they've done the attendance.
I think it's interesting because it's hard, right, Like you
have markets that are really struggling to get fans in seats.
You know, they do the Takeover Tour and you've got sellouts,
records breaking, records breaking again, every game on the Takeover
Tour had eighty five hundred people or more in the building.
You had eighteen two hundred and fifty nine, which was

(01:44):
a sellout in the game in Quebec City. Like, people
are filing in by the tens of thousands to these
games on the Takeover Tour. Canada I think had a
little better turnout across the board, just because they always do.
But it's just been interesting to see how how many
people when you put the right marketing behind it, you
put the right effort right, you create enough hype. People

(02:05):
turned out in troves to come to these games, and
so that's a huge success. They're obviously happy about it.
How do we get that to translate to games in
markets that are recurring?

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Right, if you.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Take all the games and you average them out by
the what is it nine different stops that they made,
it was like thirteen thousand, almost fourteen thousand people per
location to your point.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Four three hundred and seventy eight to be exact.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Excuse me, But if you go through this process and
you look at all these locations, you look at what
they're doing, to your point, it has to happen in market, right, Like,
that's where like this can be parsed out. But if
you remove the in market concept, this informs so much
of what we need by way of data, because women's
hockey doesn't have it. You know, I'm a data brain,
Like you know this like scratches that back part of

(02:53):
my brain. But when you have Detroit breaking the record
with four two hundred and twenty eight butts in seats
in that market, it's a ordable.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
It's a comfortable market.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
I mean, there's a thousand hockey players that we could
name off the rip that are from Detroit.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
It's an absolutely insane market.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Michigan as a.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Whole one deserves D one teams. Let's get into that later,
but more importantly, it informs the future decision making of
the It's the best data set we have. And there's
just people to your point, that are coming out of
every corner of the universe. Vancouver with nineteen thousand people
buts in seats to watch women's hockey, we have never

(03:29):
touched the West coast. These are the data points that
we need to inform good business decisions in women's hockey.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
And that Vancouver number just for the No One watches
women's sports crowd tough day here, because that is more
people than the number that attended a single Vancouver Canucks
game all year this year. Yeah, so they had more
people present for the singular women's game than they've been
able to draw a singular time with what how many
homes home games they play forty or something like that,

(03:58):
So that's huge. Also, in the culmination of this takeover tour,
the PWHL is now the second most attended hockey league
in North America, behind only the NHL, which more teams,
bigger venues. Right, there's a lot of things there, but
the top affiliate, the AHL, averages fifty six hundred fans

(04:19):
per game, the ECCHL, which is a step below the
American Hockey League. They average about forty seven hundred per
game across the league. So you look at those numbers, right,
and you look at some of these numbers that we're
talking about using New York because that's the example that
I use most frequently. New York is not far off
from that forty seven hundred number. So it's looking at
what they're doing, right, and we're getting all these fans

(04:41):
in these places. We need to try and spread them
back out across some of these markets. But also recognizing
that it's growing. People are watching, people are interested, and
what's happening in women's hockey right now is opposite the
effect of what's happening in men's hockey. We are bringing
more people into the building, more people want to watch,
and it's just been really, really fun and good to

(05:01):
see because the players deserve it. Yeah, And from a
from a marketing standpoint, right, it's a pull push. You're
pulling people in in atypical markets and you're pushing them
to teams. You're choosing consistent faces to place in these
atypical markets that we aren't touching yet and saying now
that you're addicted to what we're doing right now that
you're a fan of the PWHL, let me push you

(05:23):
to a franchise, and then you're creating broad band adoption
of your player's nil of all these like, of all
these additional elements within I'm going to keep calling them
atypical markets. But they're hockey markets, right, Like, it's not
like we're going to somewhere like completely out of pocket. Seattle, Vancouver, Denver,
Quebec City, Edmonton, Buffalo, Raleigh, Detroit, Saint Louis.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
These are core hockey markets. But I would say besides
Quebec City, all of them are atypical women's hockey markets.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Buffalo, ha Vancouver, Vancouver.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah, but Vancouver's never had a pro team.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Buffalo teams, they had Olympics, They've got a lot of
female players that come out of Vancouver. Vancouver is just
a a hockey market, even if you have a team
where you don't, I would disagree on that one.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, I mean, either way, they're not teams that currently
have PHL teams. And now we can go back with
with data, like now we can be smart, we can
go to investors, we can go say, hey, this is
where I want to be, or players coming out of
college can make decisions about where they want to be.
And there is maybe one, maybe two more franchises, who knows,
but we heard rumblings and all of this data, this

(06:30):
takeover tour last year's informs decisions as well. It's just
sexy when you can say women's hockey is growing. I
love the Vancouver stat right like you guys like the Canucks.
You're bleeding for the Canucks way till women's hockey comes
in touches your market. Because this is what's happening when
we show up and we put a platform down. Women's
hockey is so good. Women's hockey is good. Back to

(06:54):
my sweatshirt, like it's a good investment. It's an exciting game.
It's all these things. And I think the one thing
that I loved the most out of the PWHPA is
this concept of picking up and dropping women's hockey in markets.
I always thought like the complementing of the two leagues, right,
the NAHL PHF having teams full time in markets and

(07:14):
the PWHPA picking up and dropping is the best way.
And to watch the PBHL take two concepts and merge
them together is very attractive.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
I don't know how sustainable it is right long term.
If you can play this many satellite games, it's a
lot on the players.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah, it's perutal.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
So players either need to start making a lot more
money to justify these long road trips and or you know,
maybe you do a few less, but you make them
a bigger deal. Like, all these numbers are great. It's
a great turnout. I'm a little disappointed. I'm not gonna
lie in the Buffalo number in a little surprise, even
by the Saint Louis number. But I think part of
that is that we've come to expect and have the

(07:52):
expectation of those numbers being ten thousand people or more.
So I think all in all, the PWHL is very
happy with the turnout. They're happy with the effort. Hopefully,
in the coming days, maybe even before this episode comes out,
we'll hear some expansion details. Hopefully soon, because you're seeing
all these players signed to the SDHL and it'd be
great to get some of that European talent infused into

(08:13):
the new league. But hats off to the p BHL
a great job on the tour and the players all
doing a great job. In the communities, just continuing to
grow the game. And you know, round of applause for
them because this was awesome to watch. It was a
great exposure for women's hockey. And I'm excited to see
what they do next season, if they do more games
or what they do, but I'm sure it's going to
be exciting.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
PWHL Tour.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
Do you toot it or do you boot it? Toot it,
tute it.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
We're tooting it all right, everybody get ready for Peter
hll takeover tour game in your market. But while we're
anticipating the next markets, while we're waiting, while we're salivating
for more women's hockey, tell me where you're at. We'll
do a check in one to one hundred.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
How are you feeling.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Let's get ourselves out of hockey mode and get ourselves
into mental mode.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
We're leaving for vacation soon. I say that as we're
technically on vacation in Florida, but we're down here. We
relocate for six to eight weeks, so like not every
day is vacation mode, but we are going no kids
cross country Vaca, the moms to Carlsbad and Palm Springs
and I don't even care that my flights got messed

(09:22):
up and then I got booked to the back of
the plane. I'm just excited to spend five minutes alone
in the airport without the kids.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
For context, this is the fourth time I've heard about
those flight seats changing, So she very much does care.
But that did not Give me a number. Tell me
where you're at, Give me a number.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Score it eighty one. Eighty one's good.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
Eighty one is good.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
I am not with you in Florida. I am in
New York. I had to come back home for some meetings.
I was in London. I had a crazy travel schedule,
and then we go to California. So, like, I haven't
seen the kids in two weeks. It's the longest I've
ever gone without seeing them. I feel like they're go
humongous whaling can now swim without a swimmy and call

(10:04):
me coach. So I'm like, call me coach. Yeah, this
is yeah, coach, this is crazy. I feel like when
you're alone, it's hard because like in a segmented mind.
I've slept, I feel good. I went to the gym,
I blew out my hair, like all things are going well.
But I'm sad, so I'm I'm like lingering at like
a sixty, but everything else is good. I just miss

(10:24):
you and the kids, So for that I give myself
a sixty.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Not bad. We're over one hundred.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
We're over one hundred. Yeah, combined, we kick ass, all right. Well,
the exciting thing is not only are we above one
hundred as a team, that's always great, but we get
to talk to somebody that has gone to a takeover
tour game, who has trained you for a long time,
has become a really close friend of both of us.
We welcome Chris Smith onto the podcast. She owns a
gym in the Detroit metro area called Foundry thirteen. First

(10:52):
of all, we have to get into her.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
About the name.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
I literally love it so much and it always inspires
me when I'm in there. But she is hilarious. She
brings so much levity and fun into the art of
working out and honestly is a huge part of tangentially
my story about fitness.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Well after the break.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Listening a conversation between Madison, myself and Chris Smith.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
Chris, welcome to the pod. These packs Puck. We are
excited to have you and nice to see you again.
Thank you so much for having me. Girls.

Speaker 5 (11:36):
How we doing?

Speaker 4 (11:37):
We are alive and well? Madison is a tomato.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
All right, I'm like a crispy I'm like a crispy cookie.

Speaker 5 (11:43):
I'm not red. I'm like, I'm a crispy Madison. I
do have to say I generally wear a hat. But
I remembered, like the last podcast one that I was
listening to, you were talking about like players and what
they wear, and You're like, take the hat off, just
take the fucking hat off. And I was like, I
can't wear a hat.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
She's a change man.

Speaker 4 (12:01):
Is that Madison Packer?

Speaker 3 (12:04):
I've said?

Speaker 1 (12:04):
All right, well, in that spirit, how do we know
each other? Who is Chris Smith? Chris is a trainer
who I met many years ago, actually when you were
training my mom at Lifetime Fitness. Fast forward through all
the everything you've trained me for several years, through injury,
coming back, through my pro career, trained my mom. You have,

(12:26):
in my opinion, the best gym in all of Michigan,
especially the Determent area.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
Trained too.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Oh yeah, sometimes Annia, just sorry, babe, sometimes Anya comes.
But you are the founder and owner of Foundry thirteen
any and I agree the best gym environment we've ever
walked into. So tell us a little bit about you,
about the gym and what you're working on.

Speaker 5 (12:48):
Well, first of all, thank you for not only having me,
but all the gas. You guys are absolutely incredible athletes.
It's been a pleasure to know you, Mattie, since when
you thought you were retiring all the way through the
rest of your career. Thank you for saying that. It's
it's been quite a hall. I've had the gym for
six years now. When I met Maddie, I was only
like a couple of years into training. I was a
collegiate rugby player and transitioned into like a strength and

(13:11):
conditioning internship. I got a degree in biomedical science and
was like, I definitely thought that graduate school was going
to be the next step. And then I got an
internship at a sports performance training CET and like Plymouth
kind of right around ann Arbor, and I thought it
was pretty cool because I knew i'd be training athletes
like you. Walked in. It was off season hockey, so
the first people I saw was like the entire Michigan

(13:32):
State hockey team. I was like, Fuck, this is really cool.
So you got to watch the athletes do athlete things.
Next hour was pro hour. So you've got Olympic bobsledters,
you've got off season football players, you've got Pavel Datzuk
is like tripping over a garbage can. Mike, the owner
of the place is like yelling at him, and I
was just like so humbled, and like the interns were
told that don't look at the pros, just keep wiping

(13:53):
the squad racks. But we're all kind of glancing and
like that. I think when trainers like first get into
it is what they expect. But to work with athletes
is a really small niche, and you kind of have
to do ten twelve years of grunt work of working
for basically nothing and working long days, really shitty hours, holidays, weekends,
which I know a lot of people do, but for

(14:15):
next to no pay. And you aren't a freshman trying
to get a varsity spot. You're in middle school trying
to get a varsity spot. So as exciting and rewarding
as it can be to train the athletes. In the afternoon,
we saw a pair and quadriplegics and I didn't actually
know the story when I first came in, but I
was walking with the owner of the facility, and he
had one of his one on one clients. I was
like a newbie, so I don't know how I got

(14:36):
this like one on one opportunity. But we're walking with
his client. His client's like the six foot two dude.
He's got eighty pound kettlebells in both hands. We're walking
this like eighty meter turf that he's got in the building.
And I remember he's telling me how he got into
working with pear and quadriplegics. And he was the former
strength and conditioning coach at Michigan and one of his
offensive linemen had an accident and he was paralyzed, and

(14:58):
numerous neurosurgeons said that he would never walk again. He
had no innervation, and he called Mike. He's like, if
anybody can figure this out, it's Mike. And he's telling
me this long story. This dude's dream was just to
walk across the field one more time. He was getting
married that year. He wants to walk his wife down
the aisle and we're walking halfway down the turf and
Mike goes look, and I look, and there's the guy.
And it's like this zoomed out picture at the big house,
one hundred thousand fans and the dude standing with his

(15:20):
hand up in the middle of the field and We're
almost to the end of the turf now, and I'm like,
holy shit, Like, tell me this dude walked again. Well,
a client that I'm walking with puts down the kettlebells,
shakes my hand and introduces himself.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
Oh my god, he was the guy.

Speaker 5 (15:33):
He was the guy of goosebumps. This is eleven to
twelve years ago.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
I still have goosebumps, Oh my god.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
And I remember just being opened to like, training isn't
just for athletes to really truly have success and reward
in this business. You take people out of pain. So
I ended up getting just such a different view of
training and I was hooked hook line sinker immediately. So
I started training at the Lifetime that I met you at,
did four years, tried a couple of different leadership routes,

(15:59):
and I just kind of wanted to do more. I
got really good opportunities. I met a bunch of the
Red Wings, which was cool. I trained like Piston's GM.
I got some really good exposure there. The club was
brand new. I had like twenty twenty five of the
brightest coaches in the area, and I was just a sponge.
So I'm like, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna
do it all the way. And I just studied, learned,
tried a couple different leadership routes they weren't really for me,

(16:21):
ended up opening foundry. That was six years ago now
and it's grown to kind of the animal that you
guys know it as. So I'm pretty proud of that.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
Well you should be, first of all.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
And second of all, you've made me cry within the
first five minutes of the interview, So now you're hard
trouble the hard.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
It's not hard.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
There's two things that come to me from that.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
We just recently went to a US sled hockey event
and we've talked about it on the pod, and we've
talked about what, you know, some of the formative things
in the world of disability care and kind of like
the next step forward. And something that has been just
like truly playing on my mind is that it's less
about accessibility and like all that is so important, but
it's a dignity thing. It's looking at somebody who is

(17:02):
disabled in any way, shape or form and giving them
the same dignity as an able bodied person, giving them
the ability to get into the building, giving the ability
to go to the correct floor where they're supposed to
be taking a class, like whatever the thing is, but
it's just a mark of dignity. And so telling that
story and kind of reshaping the mind from like, yes,
I want to take athletes from good to great and
great to excellent, right, I want to get them from

(17:23):
D one to Olympics, And then going back to that
concept of like it's just about helping people with pain,
and it's about helping gen Pop and I love like
every time we talk to a trainer, someone says gen
Pop and I'm like, that's me. But like it's generally
how people are and like their bodies and movement, and
like what a blessing it is to be able to
move and feel good. So all of that concept brings

(17:47):
me to why Foundry. I've heard you explain the name before,
but it always makes me want to get my ass
in the gym hearing you say it again.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
So tell us why Foundry.

Speaker 5 (17:55):
I would say that my brand is gritty, it's raw,
it's an industrial but there's bold edge to it. So
it's a little bit masculine, but it's very clean, and
for me, I really like that industrial contemporary kind of feel.
Do you guys know what a foundry is.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
Go ahead, give it to them.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
It's a metal.

Speaker 5 (18:11):
Casting facility, so you send raw metal in and it
comes out shaped. So Foundry obviously is in use by
a few other different companies. And we were located on
thirteen Mile, so I did Foundry thirteen, which is kind
of doubled up over the years because the number thirteen
is supposed to be unlucky and we are six years
in and bigger, badder than ever. So that's where Foundry
came from. I love it so much. I always feel

(18:32):
like I'm like shaped when I come out, So I'm
in on Foundry thirteen.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Thank you for the people who haven't been to your gym,
I want to give a little visual for these people.
It's just like a massive open space with a big
garage door that slides up so you guys have tons
of people running out back in the summer and it's
like it's just a massive open space. But like it's
all very intentionally designed right, Like there's a little like
booty section, there's the rats, there's the cardio section and

(18:58):
maybe even more. I don't think I've been in there
when there's been more than like fifty people in a class.
But that's a ton of people in the gym, and
you never feel like there's that many people in the gym.
There's always good music going. Normally I'll go in and
train with Chris one on one, but like last time
I went in for a class, I was training with
a woman who I think was like fifty five. I
don't know, she might kill me for saying, however, was

(19:20):
she somewhere in there? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, So she's somewhere
in there, and it's like we were doing the same workout,
we were partnered. Like, it's just an awesome, empowering community
that you have built in that gym, and I think
that that's so important and honestly, like I've been through
so many trainers over time, but the piece that your
gym has that I feel like so many others don't
is the inclusive element. Right, whether you're there to get stronger,

(19:42):
or you're just there to move or you just need
to see people like you bring that in you and
you created that in your staff. So I want to
talk a little bit about that because I think it's
so important and it's so lacking, right, So many people
are intimidated to go to the gym because they haven't
worked out in a while, or they don't know how
to do it right, or what. Whatever the excuse might be,
they're not motivated to go. So how did you create

(20:04):
that space within your facility and why is that so
important for other people who are doing things in the
world of fitness to make sure that they provide that
as well in their space.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
Yeah, let me give you the cheesy quick answer first,
My parents have always been really inclusive. I grew up
on the South side of Florida in a not predominantly
white area, and I didn't really know any different. So
different cultures, different religions, different skin color. Like, I truly
didn't know any different. And that's just kind of always
been how we've been growing up. Like, we moved a lot,

(20:34):
so to be honest with you, I was kind of
in different schools. I've got a lot of friends that
have had the same friends for twenty five thirty years. Like,
I went to multiple different kindergartens, elementary schools, middle school,
into a different high school, moved across the state, went
to college. So I've been kind of thrown into like
different environments my whole life, and it's not very fun
for anybody to feel isolated. I've always been an athlete,

(20:57):
I've always been in sport, and I was gifted with
kind of a natural leadership ability thanks to my parents,
and that's always been my mission. I don't ever want
anybody to feel like they don't belong anywhere. I don't
want anyone to ever stand on the outside of the circle.
We're all in the circle. I don't care who you are,
I don't care where you're from. I don't care what
you're looking for. If we're all here, we've got some
common belief So I mean, even at Lifetime we had

(21:19):
four or five thousand members. I shit you not. I
left there six years ago. People still come to the
gym and are like, dude, I know you from lifetime.
I will say them by name. A guy came in
last week and I call them by name. He's like,
I cannot believe you remember my name.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Like.

Speaker 5 (21:31):
One of my rules for the coaching staff is when
somebody knew is coming in. We're on an email thread.
Pretty much everybody knows when somebody new is coming in.
We make it a point to make sure that they
get introduced to all of the coaching staff right away,
and then, like if they're doing a class, I always
try to get them with one or two people that
are going to be probably similar, vibe, like similar paces
them so that they never ever feel lost, even in

(21:52):
a group of like twelve to fifteen. I don't know.
I think maybe it's just being part of sport. Like
I've always been part of team sports, and I've experienced
being kind of left out, and I've experienced intimate conversations
as a captain with other people feeling left out. And
nobody wants to feel like that. So when you walk in,
my gym is black, it's sleek, there's air bikes roaring,
there's barbells being thrown over here. And to your point, Maddie,

(22:15):
like you're in a class. I might be barbell lunging
one hundred and eighty five pounds in a class, but
the seven year old woman next to me is using
t r X straps. And you look across the room
and we might all be doing something a little bit different,
but the intensity is the same for everybody. I truly
say that we're a gym for everybody, and that goes
for personality skill set, it doesn't matter. Like last story,

(22:36):
I was traveling for Rugby, like a little over a
year ago, and I remember going into a global gym,
like I can navigate any global gym right, And I
walked into a Golds gym in Austin and this place
was sick. It was like partially underground. The vibe was
really sick. I remember being super intimidated, like I'd been
a gym owner for five years, a scared shitless to
go into this place. I'm like, where do I hang
my jacket?

Speaker 4 (22:56):
Like?

Speaker 5 (22:56):
Can I leave my keys here?

Speaker 4 (22:58):
Should I grab that?

Speaker 5 (22:59):
Is he using that? And the final moment was like
I reached across to like grab a wipe, and I
remember being right in front of the mirror and this
dude who was doing curls. I'm like, fuck, I'm writing
this dude's way and I remember kind of like hurrying.
I knocked the whole thing over. I got all this
attention I didn't want, and I remember how uncomfortable I
felt with everybody in that area working out with headphones in,

(23:19):
and I just I guess some people can throw headphones
on and like go to the gym and get a
good workout. But ninety percent of people, they're not as motivated.
They need other motivations other than just like getting up
and okay, check the box, go to the gym today.
Like our people will sign up for a class not
show up. I don't even have to text them. Two
people from class are like now I already texted. I'm like,
I think they slept in. So like there's just multiple

(23:42):
ways to be accountable in our place. So my perspective
is always kind of unique. I've done the d one athlete,
I've done the pro athlete. Then I had two babies,
and I tried to like get back into the gym
after falling out of love with it after you know
it being like my job. And then I didn't want
to do that job anymore. And I went to work
and I went with Maddie. And it actually was after

(24:02):
I had Harlan, so it was recently, and I get
really bad diastasis w RECTI like my abs separate for
anyone that's had a baby, Like it's the dreaded like
middle hump of your abs, like later in life. And
I remember we were doing this exercise and I put
my butt down to like grab the band and do it,
and you go, no, it's gonna look like this for you,

(24:22):
and that's good, Like it's good.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
You just go this way like it's totally good. Maddie's
gonna do it like this. You're gonna do it like that.
Here's how you're gonna tighten your abs, wrap this core
and you'll feel better. It's the anticipation of what your
client needs before you say it. And sometimes as a
former athlete, I don't want to say I can't do
that thing because I'm looking at my wife and I'm like,
I can do everything she can do. I can do

(24:44):
it just as well. I'm just as good. I may
not throw the bars high, I may not be able
to put up a bucks seventy five in a bench press,
like calm down.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Whoa one's seventy five? Who am I.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
That's a big way.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
What's sixty?

Speaker 2 (24:57):
I'm so sorry, so far off, But I'm just saying,
like it's we're in different perspectives, right, and I feel
comfortable in your gym to do that, and then yes,
am I gonna get up? Am I gonna work a
little bit? Am I gonna like climb up? On a
road or do some chaos. Yes, this is the gym, like,
and that is the thing. It means so much from
somebody who kind of goes from this like code switch

(25:18):
of like athlete to Gen Pop and like I feel
more Gen Pop now at thirty three than I ever
have before. But I love your gym and I love
your anticipation. So how much work does that take to
have all members in the back of the mind prepared
to service them knowing what they need having it? I mean,
like I mean, postpartum women in general just probably take

(25:39):
up a whole corner of your brain.

Speaker 5 (25:41):
I think we're all good at what we're meant to
be good at and what we spend time on. And
for me, that's extremely important to me, longevity of a member.
I don't just want people to come in and try
us out. I want people to come in and truly
have a great experience and find their forever home. Because like,
we had a new girl in like two weeks ago,
and it was it was one of those rare like
warm days where you have the grind open in March,
February whatever it was. She like wasn't even sweating. She's like,

(26:04):
can I take my shirt off. I was like, you better,
you can, And she whipped her shirt off the first
day of my gym. Do you know what that tells me?
Though she felt comfortable comfort, she felt comfortable around twenty
five strangers to whip her shirt off. Was she jacked, no?
Was she super out of shape? No, she just looked
like an average girl, like maybe lifted weights, maybe didn't,
but like she felt comfortable. And I always share those

(26:27):
types of stories with my staff so that they know
the impact that they have on these people, because I
know that if I can get that girl to feel
comfortable and confident there, she's gonna be comfortable and confident
in every other aspect of her life.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Well, I've been training with you for eight years and
I've never taken my shirt off.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
We would like you too, she'd take your shirt off more.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
I vote that I agree it's a personal problem.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, well I have a question actually that we've talked
a lot, like in the past about nutrition, diet, et cetera.
And I am transitioning now from athlete life to a
member of gen pop, which is just the general population.
Like it's a joke amongst athletes, like are you an
athlete or are you not, and we just refer to
people who are not as general population people, right, But

(27:10):
a humongous part of fitness and your like overall health
is nutrition. And I feel like when I was in
hyper training mode and like knew my schedules was super
regiment and I knew what I needed to eat when
I needed to eat it, and like what I needed
to take in you know, what I needed from supplements,
et cetera, et cetera. It was very easy when I
was playing hockey in my life was very predictable. Now

(27:32):
it's not, which is probably the experience that most people have. Obviously,
meal prepping is huge, but I think a lot of people, right,
We've talked about this before, Like a lot of people
will train and then say to themselves, Okay, well I
did x y z. I went for a run or
I went to the gym, so I can now drink
X y Z. And it doesn't really work like that, right,

(27:53):
Like it's you've just undone all of what you did.
So break that down for us and why that's important,
because the kitchen is more important than the cattleboll.

Speaker 5 (28:02):
Right, most people are trying to move the needle forward
if they're going to the gym. That's the intent. I
don't like to play catch up. Like most people that
I see, at least, they're not super happy with how
they look and how they feel. So no, we're not
just gonna go to the gym, go lift a little bit,
have some fun with our friends, and then like go
out to the sushi place and have three margarita's and

(28:23):
as much fried shit as you can put back. Because like,
are you like working out so you can eat like that?
Or are you eating like that and then have to
work out?

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Are you asking me?

Speaker 5 (28:32):
Make answer it right?

Speaker 3 (28:33):
I feel attagging you.

Speaker 4 (28:36):
Guys.

Speaker 5 (28:37):
No, but I think that that's something that people miss
a lot. Like if you're listen, if you're happy with
the way you look, and everything that you're doing is
maintenance and that's the goal. That's fine, Like rock it out.
You should absolutely learn moderation and like how to enjoy
your life, because like we don't. I'm not super regimented
so that I can't enjoy my life. Like sometimes I'll
go out with clients and they're like, you're gonna eat
that mac and cheese. I'm like, well yeah, yeah, dude,

(29:00):
Like I worked out six days this week. I've got
eight hours in sleep for the last three years, and
I haven't you know, I haven't missed my water, workouts
or food for like four years. If anybody at this
table's eating the mac and cheese, it's going me me.
But like also in the same breath, like I've earned that,
so to speak, and I do know where to stop
that I do have. I'm very rewards based. Like I'm
not going to have one of those little miniature bags

(29:22):
of Doritos that I took off the fridge so you
guys couldn't see it. I'm not going to have that
if I didn't work out that day, if I didn't
hit my protein, if I didn't sleep well that night,
and if it's after eight pm. Like those are my
self imposed rules, and I think if you don't have
self imposed rules, anything goes right. But that's true for anything.
So Maddie, to your point, when you're an athlete, like
everything is routine, everything is planned out, and you know

(29:44):
that you're fueling for performance. There's a very big difference
between fueling for performance and fueling just everyday life. Right,
So if you want to get a six pack now,
you could do it like I could work with your food.
We could design your workouts. Yes, we're going to get
you a six pack. We could get you a six pack.
But to be honest with you, like, apart from some

(30:05):
really good genetics, most pro athletes they've got great bodies,
don't get me wrong, but they don't have the same
bodies as like professional bodybuilders, because when you for performance
and you eat for performance, being that lean is not feasible.
Especially when you're skating. You go skate for a couple hours, Dude,
you're burning You are as a female, are burning eight
hundred to one thousand calories. You just got to eat

(30:27):
just so that you can skate again tomorrow and put
your body shit again. Right, most people are eating too
much of the wrong stuff and not enough of the
right stuff because at the end of the day, the
right stuff is not going to taste as good. And
when people don't really like prep their stuff, they don't
plan this stuff ahead. They get to the end of
the day they're starving and it's like headfirst in the
snack cupboard. They're not even worried about the protein. They're

(30:48):
just like whatever sitting there is fair game.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Well, it's also like perspective on the myths that health
society puts out there, and like healthy people will put
out there versus what's real. Right, Like the carb fear
in America is insane to me. But if you need carbs,
you should eat carbs. And this is where people like

(31:12):
lose the reality, like we're only going to eat meats
and veggies. Okay, Well, if you're choosing a high fat
content meat like a steak every night and vegetables, you're
missing a whole massive part of what creates the composite
of your body, definitely, and then you're just killing yourself
and nothing makes any sense, like to idealize cows in

(31:34):
cows out as the only answer is a dangerous headspace.
If you want to simplify weight loss, sure, yeah, that
is the bottom line, Like you have to technically burn
more calories than you take in, right, But when I
do that with a client, it's six to eight weeks
and then we're back to maintenance.

Speaker 5 (31:51):
Because your maintenance number of calories is what your body
needs based on age, height, weight, gender, you know, activity level,
style of workout, your and s is what your body
needs every single data function. So I think where most
people go wrong is they're just chronically dieting and you're
looking at their food and they're definitely like, listen, if
you're gonna do a cut like that matter you want
your six pack, Sure we'll do fifteen to twenty percent

(32:14):
deficit for six to eight weeks, but then we got
to hit your maintenance again, right and at that point,
like if you're trying to lean out and you're doing
a cut, protein is absolutely mandatory. And my favorite is
that thing now that it's like, oh, you can't absorb
more than like thirty forty grams of protein in a sitting.
I've been doing fifty grams of protein for my at
least three meals a day for five years, and I've

(32:36):
got a pretty solid six pack, to be honest with you.
But obviously a bunch of stuff goes into that, but
it is consistency. And to your point, Anya, like, we've
got a registered dietitian on staff and a month ago
she did a presentation to our staff.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
She did like a little pop quiz.

Speaker 5 (32:48):
She's like, okay, guys, bare minimum, what does your brain
need in terms of grams per carbs per day to function?
And we just started throwing numbers out there and she
was one hundred and thirty on average a lot, it's
one hundred and thirty grams of carbs, which, if you
do the math, is six bananas, right.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
How many beers, how many beers, how.

Speaker 5 (33:07):
Many blood heavies depends on the beer, depends on the beer.
So like that's the bare minimum. But like Maddie, you're
gonna go skate, you guys, go do really intense Like
you're you're sprinting for thirty seconds, you're chilling for a minute.
You're doing that twenty thirty forty times over. Your predominant
energy source is gonna be carbs. For an athlete to
not have carbs is insane. But like gen pop, just

(33:28):
I always tell my clients make sure that you're prioritizing
your carbs, like around your workout period, especially if you're
doing it workouts, you're doing a ton of lifting, that's
when you want to get majority of your carbs in. Well.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
The other thing too, in all of in all of
it as well is like and at least this is
my perspective, losing weight after a baby is like postpartum
trauma and healing, and a lot of it like eventually
goes back to a similar space. I think like your
body naturally will drop weight, like you know, you lose
your water weight, you lose your like big pregnant belly
like is full of like a bunch of things that

(33:58):
then leave your body like a like like a placenta,
like amniotic sack.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Like there's a thousand things, right, But.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
It's also that concept of like, I don't want to
lose weight every day. I don't want to constantly be
in diet culture. It sucks the life out of you.
And where you can kind of like see that difference
between women and men is always that argument, right, Like
I am married to a woman, so like it's similar
in this house, but when you look at somebody else,
it's like, yeah, we're both trying to lose weight. My

(34:26):
husband dropped forty five pounds and I've lost five. Like
a woman's body is just so different. So in your gym,
do you feel like you have to give that extra
care concern, Like do you have to undo a lot
of those myths for the females that are in your
gym that are fighting this horrible body standard in this
horrible diet culture constantly?

Speaker 5 (34:44):
And let me just say something really uh off kilter
here the amount of like hot skinny chicks that I
see with dudes that you couldn't pay me to see
them with their shirt off absolutely out wages. So I
don't know if it's just the standard that we place
on women or just that like dudes don't care as much.
And like majority of our female clients, they've been dieting

(35:05):
their whole life, so their hormones, they're not happy. Their
sleep is not great, like their routine, their habits are
quite shit, to be honest with you, And it's not
even just the physical stuff. You got to unwind the
entire mental part of it. You have to start over.
That's like our trainers will joke with you, like psychology
has seventy five percent of what we do. It's like

(35:25):
meeting the client exactly where they're at and knowing, like I,
it is my job to push you a little bit,
but I also have to figure out what does that
point look like? Like can I get you right to
that line and then nudge that line just a little
bit more. It is a constant game, and I think
that where most people fail is just a lack of patience.
You have to stay with it a lot longer, especially
if you're undoing, if you've got a lot of weight

(35:46):
to lose, if you've got injuries to work around, if
you've got really bad habits, work, kids, stress, it's going
to take you a while to routinize like the gym
in the kitchen and make that a centerpiece of your life,
because if you're at a place like my gym, that
is probably the center point.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah, I mean listen, at the end of the day,
I think the hardest part for all of us is
the way that we looking like ourselves. And I think
that's where Maddie and I always feel so comfortable in
your gym is like everyone in your gym, whether they
do or do not like the fake it till you
make it might be real. But people in your gym
are having fun. The barriers are broken down. We come
to a humongous class of you know, man, women, children, dogs,

(36:23):
everybody's in this class. And then we do you know,
a battle of like tugle war, tug of war. Ye gosh,
then we do a battle.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
I'm still mad about that.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
Madison's fuming she gets in a fight. Are shocked. Nobody
should be shocked.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Because the men, it was the guys, I'm like, shut up.
You don't know what you're doing. We're gonna get beat.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
It was the men. It was the men. I was the.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Anchor in the front. There you saw it, Chris. I
was not moving guys adjust their stepped on he did
step on my foot. I was mad. So the story
for everyone. We went to Chris's gym over Christmas. It
was a big class, but we ended with a game
of tug war and there was like three or four
guys on each team, or two or three whatever doesn't matter.
But all the guys immediately started telling all the women

(37:05):
how to stand and what to do in like strategy,
and I'm like, I don't I don't think that that's best.
Like I wanted to be in the front. So then
they put one of their big guys in front. We
start tug of warring and we beat the other team
like we were there because my feet didn't cross the
line and this mother effort stepped on my toes and
then I obviously like fell off balance and then we lost.

(37:25):
And then I literally was so mad. I just stormed
out of the gym.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
Maddie was huming.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Didn't even say thanks, didn't even say marry Christmas or.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
By its like, let's go, we're leaving.

Speaker 4 (37:34):
Yep, she did not even say bye to anybody. Is
she a good sport?

Speaker 1 (37:40):
No crossed the line. He's like, oh, no, didn't you
stepped on my foot. I was like, no, you stepped
on my foot on top of my brand new white sneakers.
That's why there's a mark on them.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
Okay, well, we've all missed this competitive side. We've missed
this from you.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Speaking of missing Madison's competitive side, I want to go
kind of a little bit of a left. In the
beginning of the episode, we talked all about the takeover tour.
Not to bury the lead, but Chris, you were at
the Detroit game, which now holds the record for the
most number of butts and seeds for a women's game
in the United States. There was no Madison on the ice,
so no fights, no big blow ups and center ice.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
However, Yeah, that's all I brought.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah you're cute too, But talk us through it like
you were there. The vibes were incredibly high. We couldn't
make it actually, which was a humongous bomber. But like,
talk us through the takeover in Detroit.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
No, that was sick.

Speaker 5 (38:42):
I mean, I've been to a few Red Wings games,
which they're exciting, don't get me wrong. Like Little Caesars
is a great venue. They did an awesome job with it.
My girlfriend's a hockey player, so naturally we do a
lot of hockey stuff these days. It was awesome. I
mean the place was full that they had. This DJ
is absolutely crushing the music, dude. So there weren't like

(39:03):
really fights, but Phillyer by the way, like total bruiser,
was definitely starting some shit a few days.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
She's so hard.

Speaker 5 (39:11):
I knew right away too, just by how she was
like standing at center ice. I was like, this is
the one. So she got into a couple and then
like the DJ would cue like the perfect song and
like everybody would go crazy. They did a really great
job with like cameras and just keeping it super interactive.
There was this girl four rows behind us that she
had a huge sign that said Detroit needs a team,

(39:33):
and they zoomed in on it. The place erupted. I've
never seen anything like it, and they they did it
probably three or four times throughout the game. But being
a female athlete myself when I grew up, there was
no help in the weight room, you know, like we
might get a handful of fans. The dude's games were
always completely full. It was always a different level of energy,

(39:54):
and I shoot, you know you guys like to us,
it was way more exciting than even like a Red
Wings game. I thought that turnout was great. I thought
that you should have seen it. There must have been
twelve teams there, like all the age groups that you
can imagine. They kept zooming in and highlighting all these
young women and just I'm telling you, guys, the excitement
was there, absolutely packed house. I would love for us

(40:15):
to get a team. I'm like willing to travel to it.
Like now I'm dying to come to New York and
go to a game with you guys.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
You've got to me the millionth person went to that
Detroit game, like they crossed the one million mark on attendance.
No way, it was probably Chris, Yes, it was probably Chris.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
It's probably you.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Excuse me because you Chris was the one millionth person
that watched a game. But Sirens win for to one
games an absolute showstopper, so much fun. And I love
the way that you know you're in your tech like
live texting.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
I was like, this is insane.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Like what is happening here is insane, and Detroit is
such a sexy market, Like I will always fight for
Detroit to get a team, mostly not because Madison would
then try to move us to Detroit to then be
a part of that somehow.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
So like I vote no on that pleaz.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
But downtown Detroit sexy as hell. That rink is sexy
as hell. The people of Detroit love and want a team,
and people want to be connected in the community. This
is again back to like like call back to the
beginning point of like Foundry as a straight up community
like the POAHO creates a real community based feel whenever
you're in the build, like everyone in that joint is

(41:21):
cheering for the same thing.

Speaker 5 (41:23):
It was really awesome. But to your point, Ony, I
think Detroit is super slept on. There's really like nothing
else to do here besides music and sports. So when
there's sports here, like we get every major concert, Like
you said, that venue is out of this world. And
I think that women's sports are really really big here too.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Well. You used to have the WNBA there, yeah, when
I was in when I was in middle school. Yeah,
the Detroit Shock right yep, Like they used to have
the WNBA team there, and like Michigan as a whole.
I mean, like it's offensive that the University of Michigan
does not have a women's hockey team. Oh I've said
that before. Like I'll stay with my chest and as
soon as they get a team and like decide to
man up and put a team in place, they're gonna

(42:01):
win a national championship in the first two or three years. Well,
especially because without.

Speaker 5 (42:04):
A program is already insane.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
Yeah, you've got the transfer portal. It's a phenomenal school,
Like Wisconsin just won its eighth national championship and Ohio
State is unreal, Like that's two schools in the Big
Ten that would be competing theoretically with Michigan.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
Right.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
But now, like I was just talking to with someone
who's trying to help bring a team to the University
of Michigan, I'm like, you're perfectly positioned. You're closer to
Canada than Ohio State or Wisconsin, so you're gonna pull
all these kids from Sarnia and Toronto. Like think about
how many scholarships in women's hockey go to Canadians. And
my point just is that as soon as they put
a team there, it's gonna be successful. And I think

(42:40):
right now the biggest hang up for having a team
in Detroit is that the Illaches want to own the team.
They own the Red Wings, they own the Tigers, they
own Little Caesars. But the PWHL is not selling teams yet.

Speaker 4 (42:54):
No, they're just expanding, they're not selling.

Speaker 5 (42:57):
I was already thinking, I'm like, if they bring a
PWHL team, like I'm getting season tickets tickets to any
of the Wings, that's like you're killing any of that.
But like you bring some hockey here, Hell yeah, I'm
there every day.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
That's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
And that's it's honestly a huge marker, like when you
have a community, especially when you cater to the right communities.
And I think the p TOHL knows who their fans are,
right like, they know what they're doing. I've said this before,
Like I think the WNBA and Unrivaled specifically knows who
their fans are, right Like they're doing the first traps,
like they're putting their athletes out there. The walkins are
like stunning, These gorgeous women are walking and then they're

(43:31):
balling up, which is completely like, I'm your core demographic right,
like you're doing the marketing properly. For me, we're starting
to get there in the p Tohl where we're getting
the marketing right. And I think Detroit is such a
great community, having that satellite two years in a row,
having a satellite game there, having a takeover game there,
Like what was the vibe? Because I know what it's
like to leave Little Caesars and everyone's just jazzed after

(43:52):
a Detroit Red Wings game, Like, what's the vibe leaving
a p TOBHL game?

Speaker 5 (43:57):
I mean, like when I leave any sporting event in Detroit,
but even more particularly this one, it's just happy. It's
just light, like people are chanting, people are singing. Like
Detroit is music city, right, so everything is music and
how you dress and kind of how you present yourself
and it's all very like streetwear, which I think works
really well with sports. But no, man, we left and

(44:17):
people are just pouring out. Everybody stayed until the end.
Who is the fan favorite? You had Michigan kids on
both sides, right, Oh, the place went nuts when they
introduced like where the girls were from? One girls from
like Mcomb County, which is fifteen minutes. Like yeah, it
was just everybody went nuts.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
I think when you have like an athlete from Macomb,
all the fans are there, everyone knows that person, like,
and then you touch that market. So this is what
we talked about in our Hockey hot take in the
kind of beginning here is like, yes, informed decisions. The
data says that Detroit would be a dope ass market.
Everything about it says Detroit would work. But like, how
crazy is it that we have the ability to test

(44:54):
the theory, that we have the ability to bring athletes
in throw these games. The bars are crazy, Like I'm
sure the city stop buzz too, right, Like, oh yeah,
because you leave that game, you're on a high. There's
a bunch of people all around you with a similar concept,
and you're just gonna like pack up and go to
the bar.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
That's what everyone does in Detroit.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
They finish the game and they go to the closest
bar and it's a it's a nightmare.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
For Well, it's interesting because they did They did Detroit twice, right,
so they obviously believe in the market and the turnout
and it's just interesting. We'll see the speculation.

Speaker 5 (45:26):
Yeah, like we went to dinner before and like you
couldn't get a reservation, like everything downtown was booked.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Where'd you go?

Speaker 5 (45:32):
We went to Bakersfield.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
I've never been there. I heard Lafayete. Coney Island got
shut down again. Yeah, some about rats, cockroaches, real bummer.

Speaker 4 (45:40):
Madison makes me eat there every time we come to Detroit.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Madison's like, we'll go in so so paint the scene
for any one doesn't know.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
Everybody loves it.

Speaker 4 (45:46):
The guy remembered me Lafe Coney Island is like coney dogs.
It's like chili cheese dogs chili cheese.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
It's not light. It is the best cony dog you'll
ever have in your life.

Speaker 4 (45:55):
That's all you're getting there.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
There's nothing green, there's nothing with any kind of like like,
anything that you might want is not there. It's only
those three things. So Madison always brings me and she
makes me go before and before and after. By the way,
anything we do in Detroit, we go there.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
I've never made you go before and after for a
chili dog. Come on, that's Jeffrey Dahmer behavior.

Speaker 4 (46:17):
I love, to be honest. That's happened multiple times. So
I go, babe, is it like? Are we good eating here?

Speaker 1 (46:22):
And She's like, yeah, these guys are all on the
up and up.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
Whatever.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
It's great.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
What she sends me an article a week after we
had eaten four days later rat infestation.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
Like I was like, it's like it was like, rat
infestation shuts down Lafayette Coldey Island, third time in as
many months.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
Yeah, never going there again.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
Why did we hear about the first two? That's crazy?

Speaker 5 (46:44):
All right, Well, maybe the illach is o rat too
and they don't want anyone to know.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Yeah, there you go, the hush media.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
It's crazy, the rat hush media.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Well, we end every episode interview with a question about
parenting advice or some version thereof. So we want to
ask you not necessarily parenting advice, although I feel like
a coach client relationship is similar to like parenting a
little bit. But we want to know what advice you
have for someone who is looking to get back into

(47:13):
the gym, get their body moving, or just find a
routine but can't find the confidence or motivation to do
so what would you say to them to get them
back into things.

Speaker 5 (47:21):
There's a phrase that I kind of live by. If
I have success, it's because of me, and if I
have failure, it's because of me. Accountability is the biggest thing.
Finding a community and finding a place that excites you
and not a place where you feel like you're just
going and checking a box.

Speaker 4 (47:35):
We have enough boxes to check.

Speaker 5 (47:37):
If you can find a place that I don't care
if it's Matt Pilate's, I don't care, if it's yoga,
I don't care if it's floating in the pool. You
have to start somewhere, because spooning leads to forking. Right,
So even if you start with just low barrier, I
love that thank you simple that excites you, that gets
you out of bed, that is easy to create a
routine around, that always kind of leads into the next step.

(47:58):
And again a gym like mine, a lot of people
feel like they kind of have to unlock that level
by doing yoga, doing pilates and then doing Orange Theory
and F forty five and okay, now I'm ready for foundry.
The truth is we can work with anybody and everybody
small is not insignificant, and people forget that. So just
starting with that one step, making that one decision, every

(48:18):
decision that you have is either going to move you
forward or back. There's really no standing still. I don't
believe in that. So every decision that you make is
either going to push you forward or it's going to
hold you back, and it is something that no one's
going to do for you. You have to make that
conscious decision every single move that you make every single day.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
It's so true, though, and I love that you say
that because I feel, like, you know the Snoop Dogg
quote Worri, He's like, I want to thank me for
believing in me. Like, yes, but it's true. Like that's
how we all have to take these things. And at
the end of the day, what you're doing at Foundry,
what you're doing to get us all to a place
where we want and love the gym is so important.
I every time I come touch my feet down in

(48:56):
the city of Detroit, I land in DTW, I'm like,
what are we going to Foundry?

Speaker 5 (49:00):
Thank you Anya?

Speaker 1 (49:00):
For real, Chris, thank you. This has been awesome. I'm
learning the further I get from hockey and the older
I get that the only thing of significance that we
can do in life is make an impact on other people.
And you have wholly and fully done that for me
and my family, my wife, my mom my kids, even
just by making me a better person. You've made all

(49:21):
of our lives better. So thank you for the difference
you've made for me. Thank you for the difference that
you make in a community that I care a lot about.
And thank you for coming on the show. We're super grateful.
This has been fun and you're definitely a guest. We'll
have to have it back. So thanks Chris, Thank you guys.

Speaker 5 (49:35):
I feel like we could talk for hours. I'm ready
whenever you are.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
I appreciate you having me. And that's all we have today.
Thank you for listening. I'm Anya Packer.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
And I'm Madison Packer and this is These Packs Puck.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
These Packs Puck is a production of Iheartwomen's Sports and
Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
It's hosted by us Madison and Anya Packer. Emily Meronoff
is our Awesome senior producer and story editor. We were
mixed and mastered by Mary do Our executive producers are
Jennifer Bassett, Jesse Katz, and Ali Perry.