Ben Garves Podcast: Fitness, Nutrition, and Activism - Diversity in the Gym

Diversity in the Gym

08/14/20 • 3 min

Ben Garves Podcast: Fitness, Nutrition, and Activism

I talk a lot about the importance of our efforts to diversify the communities we serve with our health and fitness work. Today I’m going to read you an op-ed piece from Jason Burns, the owner of Meddle Fitness (a CrossFit affiliate on the south side of Chicago), which seeks to serve a more diverse community than is usually seen in a CrossFit gym.

I thought he made some great points, so away we go. These are the words of Jason Burns. He writes:

“In Chicago, Black families lost between $3 billion and $4 billion in wealth because they were denied mortgages in the 1950s and 1960s. My journey in health and wellness begins here. I operate Mettle Fitness—home of Bronzeville CrossFit, the only 100 percent Black-owned CrossFit gym in the city. I wanted to contribute to the economic development of a community that has been plundered and bring functional fitness to it in my own way. As an entrepreneur, I’m now building a safe community for others, a place where people transcend even their wildest expectations

In a historic Black neighborhood, I’ve created jobs, enhanced quality of life, and started a fitness revolution. I saw the benefit of CrossFit as a methodology, but I also saw where the movement was lacking. I knew the power of the culture I grew up in could elevate it. For eight years, Mettle has done just that. But none of this would’ve been possible if I had spent my time looking for acceptance where it wasn’t gladly extended.

Today, CrossFit is wrestling with questions of inclusion, but that doesn’t bother me much. It was never about acceptance when I opened a CrossFit facility on the South Side of Chicago. The point wasn’t to assimilate Black people into the traditional, mostly white culture of CrossFit. I grew up with fitness all around me. My father was heavily involved in youth sports, and the camaraderie of being a part of a team has been a way of life for me for as long as I can remember. Bonds formed in college and NFL locker rooms gave me an appreciation for belonging.

Community-based fitness has the power to create those same feelings. Because of Chicago’s segregation, Black communities have lacked basic options and access. Individuals seeking these services often ended up in spaces where they didn’t feel readily accepted. These individuals simply wanted to get fit in an environment they felt comfortable in. As a proprietor, I felt obligated to provide my community with a space where they were welcome to be themselves while also providing a fitness experience that exceeded any other.

Mettle Fitness cannot restore the billions my neighborhood was robbed of in the years immediately before my birth. Still, Mettle’s existence is a powerful statement of defiance. In a city and nation that devalues Black life, it stands. In a sport that was headed by an individual who is (at best) apathetic to Black concerns, Mettle Fitness is undeterred. (Eric Roza has since purchased Cross-Fit.) The same spirit my parents instilled in me, the drive that carried me to the NFL and to master the sport of CrossFit, I’m bringing to my community. My journey never required acceptance or even fairness, although it would have been far easier with them.”

Thanks for listening this morning. Please be sure like, rate, review, and subscribe. It’s free to you and means the world to me. I’m Ben Garves, and we’ll chat tomorrow.

I thought he made some great points, so away we go. These are the words of Jason Burns. He writes:

Thanks for listening this morning. Please be sure like, rate, review, and subscribe. It’s free to you and means the world to me. I’m Ben Garves, and we’ll chat tomorrow.

Previous Episode

Should We Prepare for a Market Crash?

One of the cool things about branching out from the old WODDITY Podcast is that I get to help you with things that go above and beyond our old CrossFit focus. One of those topics is financial security. In March we watched one of the biggest market roller coasters in the history of our modern financial infrastructure, followed by an almost immediate surge to a 30 percent national unemployment rate. Swings like that affect real people and real jobs.
https://www.bengarves.com/should-we-prepare-for-a-market-crash/

But despite a third of Americans being out of work, the complete halt of tourism with the closure of hotels, resorts, and restaurants, and the near-total grounding of global air travel, the stock markets have recovered and a number of stocks are knocking on record high values.

So wait...is the economy bad? Or is the economy good?

Well, let's start by saying the stock market isn’t necessarily a direct indicator of how good the economy is. It represents the demand for ownership, or stock, of some of the largest companies in the world. Those companies can have business models or products which are quarantine-proof.

Take Amazon, Walmart, Target, UPS, and FexEd, for example. Quarantine has only increased demand for online shopping and product delivery services. On the other hand, a company like Disney lost over $5 billion in projected revenue because their income depends significantly on their network of theme parks and on box office turnout for their films. Both being activities people have taken a step back from.

Then you have a company like Tesla, which has seen its stock jump from $300 per share to over $1,400. All the while, nobody is buying cars. You could argue Tesla was undervalued at $300, or that it’s such a new and exciting business prospect that investors are spending money on it despite a lack of demand for their products.
Either way, we know that with 30 percent unemployment, we’re likely to see a 30 percent decrease in goods made and services rendered, and therefore a potential 30 percent drop in the total value of business conducted in the United States. Which companies are impacted, where, and how deeply, then becomes an educated guessing game. We know the healthcare industry is in high-demand right now. We know fast food and eat-in restaurants are struggling, while meal delivery services are booming.

But, what we cannot see directly represented in the stock market is the struggle of the estimated 30 million small businesses operating in the United States today. Those businesses don’t get the same visibility, but drive a significant chunk of our economy.

Any personal finance guru will tell you that you should be saving money for a rainy day. This is the time to start, if you haven’t started preparing.

Thanks for listening this morning. Please be sure like, rate, review, and subscribe. It’s free to you and means the world to me. I’m Ben Garves, and we’ll chat tomorrow.

Next Episode

Kids and Coronavirus

Those of you who are parents know that your kids can be great at so many things. Chiefly among those skills, like saying the darndest things and sometimes being cute, is a unique ability to carry diseases home from school. Colds, flus, mono, and lice never discriminate, though how we handle them does.

NPR wrote a piece about kids and coronavirus. Because, yes, kids do catch COVID-19. They also experience milder symptoms unless they smoke, vape, have asthma, or other cardiopulmonary issues. But they are not immune and they do have the likelihood to carry it home with them.

The gist of the article was that we just don’t have enough data to know how significantly kids spread COVID-19. There just wasn’t significant testing done when they were in school and we don’t have enough cases to draw a full picture of how their spread of the disease varies from adults.

The big takeaway here is that we just don’t know how safe a return to in-person classes will be. NPR wrote that the schools which do opt to open and the students who do opt to return will be the unwitting test subjects as the world watches with bated breath.

Thanks for listening this morning. Please be sure like, rate, review, and subscribe. It’s free to you and means the world to me. I’m Ben Garves, and we’ll chat tomorrow.