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Community Spotlight

Community Spotlight: Earl Hooks

Community Spotlight: Earl Hooks (Hooked on Fitness)

Earl is the founder of Hook’d on Fitness, Boyz N The Woods, and was a participant on American Ninja Warrior. I trained with Earl and Bertrand Newsom previously in preparation for the Silicon Valley Half Marathon.
In our talk, Earl shares his powerful story of his battle with alcoholism, his recovery and fitness journey, his current addiction – a 1,150+ day run streak of 5K or more, training for TAJI 100 and the Ventura Marathon, recovery methods, his commitment to the youth and community, his Hook’d on Fitness Bootcamp and Boyz N The Woods trail running group (and their partnership with Pacific Coast Trail Runs), his experience with American Ninja Warrior, and what he’s up to now.

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Chris Gaines (PerformanceGaines)

Community Spotlight: Chris Gaines (PerformanceGaines)

Chris Gaines is the founder/owner of PerformanceGaines. PerformanceGaines is a functional fitness and wellness gym in Palo Alto, CA. In this interview, we talk about Chris’ background in Football, Rugby, and Bodybuilding, his training philosophies, him being part of the crew for John Tarlton a cyclist who biked in RAAM (Race Across America) to raise funds for the Stanford Cancer Center (as featured in the Netflix documentary), his thoughts in minimalist shoes, and various podcasts and books (Muscles and Meridians, Atomic Habit, Art of Possibility, Consilience, etc.) that he’s reading today.

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Community Spotlight: Bertrand Newson (Too Legit Fitness)

Bertrand Newson is the founder of Too Legit Fitness (established 2011). Too Legit Fitness is a well-known training program in the Bay Area with over 700 members and hosts the official training program for the Silicon Valley Half Marathon and has coached several athletes (including me!) in long distance running and pursuing many different fitness goals of all ability levels.

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Community Spotlight: Ali Ahmed (Dreamland Boxing)

This week’s Community Spotlight feature is on Ali Ahmed, a professional boxer at Dreamland Boxing. Ali is the most disciplined athlete I’ve ever met – he stays in shape year round and never fluctuates in weight. In this interview, we discuss his amateur career, winning the Golden Gloves, the Olympic Trials, his diet, training during Ramadan, and adapting to the current shelter-in-place.

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Community Spotlight: Alex Rodriguez (Dreamland Boxing)

Today’s Community Spotlight feature is on Dreamland’s own Alex Rodriguez. Alex has been boxing for since he was a teenager and previously fought for Dreamland in 2016-2017. In this interview, we talk about his time in boxing and placing at the Golden Gloves, fighting undefeated pro Tony Munoz, the mental side of boxing, the books “Top Dog” and “Born to Run”, his journey into trail racing, the Big SURreal Virtual Marathon, and more!

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Coach Ian Cruz, Luis Rodriguez and Sara Koshfam

Community Spotlight: Sara Koshfam (Dreamland Boxing)

Today’s Community Spotlight feature is on Dreamland’s own Sara Koshfam. Sara has been boxing for around 7 years and been training and coaching at Dreamland for the past 2. In this interview, Sara takes us through her journey walking into a boxing ring, having her first fight (overseas!), training at Dreamland, coaching, sparring world class fighters such as nationally ranked Alexis Gomez, and how she’s keeping herself busy today.

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