City of Champions

At 49 professional fights, Jelena finds herself in a precarious position poised to potentially lose her championship title due to a decision by the City of Edmonton to temporarily ban all professional comabtive sports. With the fate of her career resting in the hands of politicians, Jelena is in the midst of an ambitious new business venture that will bring Edmonton its first Boxing Fitness Studio. Backed into a corner, but never one to fold, Jelena forges forward with pure intensity in all that she does.

Podcasts collide! Today I was joined by two of Edmonton's most successful personal trainers, who also happen to run the city's favourite fitness-focused podcast, The Fitness Devil. Andrew and Dean got a chance to break free from their show's normal routine and they certainly relished the opportunity. In addition to providing their typically outstanding fitness advice, we get into some seriously spiritted rants debunking common fitness and nutrition myths. The boys were firing on all cylinders, and the censors took the night off, so this episode is definitely NSFW!

 

My guest this week is professional boxer, Adam Braidwood. Most of you will recall Adam from his fight in Edmonton this past June that sadly ended Tim Hague’s life. What you may not know is that Adam is a former Edmonton Eskimo first overall pick and does tremendous work with at-risk youth. He also spent two years in jail for various drug and violence charges, kicked a severe opioid addiction cold-turkey, and won the WBU heavyweight title while still living in a halfway-house. Adam is a man who has gone through hell and back on more than a few occasions and lived to tell the tale. His story is one of excruciating lows, but of even greater redemption.

Keltie O'Connor lives one of those lives where she accomplishes so much that it really makes you question whether you should be doing more in your life. To that question she would reply with an emphatic "YES!". Through her hours of video content on fitness, adventure, and fashion Keltie hopes to inform, entertain, and inspire. Her clear message, and it's one that fits perfectly in line with this podcast, is to not be afraid to try new things; and certainly don't be afraid to look foolish doing it. We may try and fail at many things on our journey but, at the end of the day, nobody judges us on what we can't do...it's what we can do that makes us who we are.

Fresh out of the corporate fitness training machine and ready to take on the world, best buds Jordan Pariseau and Tony Nguyen parter up with friend, Cole Robinson, to start their own company. They're experienced, energetic, and eager to crush it with their new business when Cole says the last thing anybody would expect, "what if we trained people for free?". Sounds great...but bills aren't paid with smiles and hugs, right? Wrong. Nearly three years later with several tweaks, countless doubters, and even more success stories, the team at F.R.E.E. Fitness is changing the fitness industry by providing an extreme value arbitrage and building a culture of overdelivering to their clients and friends every step of the way.

In more ancient parts of the world curling is often referred to as "the roaring game" for the sound the stones make while travelling over the surface of the ice. The roots of the sport run deep in history, and they run deep in Kalynn. A third generation curler, you might think she was destined to compete. But to say that would be to take away from the incredible dedication and overwhelming time commitment which has gotten Kalynn get to where she is today. Now, at 29, with several championships under her belt, she sets her sights on qualifying for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games in North Korea.

Once an Oiler, always an Oiler. It was an absolute delight to chat with former Oilers defenceman, Sean Brown. Known for his tough, hard-nosed style on the ice, his off-ice demeanour is anything but that, as his humility and graciousness take over. Sean walks us through the expanse of his hockey career. We talk about getting drafted, and subsequently traded by his favourite childhood team. He reminisces about being slightly star-struck attending training camp with his idols, and how he had a strange request of his teammates. Of course, we get to his life after pro-hockey and discuss shifting priorities and what becomes truly important.

Jamie is one of Canada's most accomplished figure skaters and she shares with us some incredible insight into the world of a professional athlete. What I found most interesting was the attention to detail in the psychogical aspect of her training that really helped her overcome adversity. We also get to relive the infamous 2002 Salt Lake City Gold Medal controversy from Jamie's perspective, and get a behind the scenes look at what else seemed to be working against her and David but would, ultimately, not hold them back.

I was lucky to catch Mitch in the middle of all the hype for his newly launched Kickstarter campaign and music video release. Mitch is brimming with charisma and it shines through in everthing he does from rapping to acting to just merely chatting someone up. His message: amazing things can be accomplished if we simply shift our perspective to one of positivity and love!

Jordan is the charismatic Entertainment Host and Traffic Specialist of CTV Morning Live. We flipped the script and put her at the end of questioning for a change. After an impromptu tangent on politics we talked about her daily adventures injecting fun into the mornings of Edmontonians and what strategies she uses to bring the stories to life. Her traffic advice: always wave when somebody lets you in...or else!