[CFMS SERIES] CrossFit Behind Bars: Freedom, Sobriety, and Leadership (EP. 043)
The CrossFit Podcast
CrossFit LLC
4.3 • 757 Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2025
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This marks the fourth episode of a special CrossFit Podcast collaboration with the CrossFit Medical Society.
Redemption Road CrossFit started inside Colorado’s prison system, where a small group of men turned CrossFit workouts into the first affiliate behind bars. Today, it’s a nonprofit changing prison culture through mentorship, accountability, and community — cutting recidivism to just 1.6% compared to the national average of 80%.
This week, we welcome Redemption Road CrossFit’s founder Nick Wells and founding member Gino Aviles to the show. Nick and Gino share their journey, from addiction and life sentences to freedom, sobriety, and leadership, and show how CrossFit’s methodology can transform not just fitness, but lives.
Topics Covered
- Personal journeys from addiction, incarceration, and transformation
- The origins of CrossFit in Colorado prisons
- Building Redemption Road: the first affiliate inside a correctional facility
- Overcoming stigma, violence, and systemic barriers through community fitness
- Partnerships with CrossFit HQ and the broader community
- Redemption Road’s measurable impact on recidivism and prison culture
Resources Mentioned
- Redemption Road CrossFit – RF2.org
- CrossFit Journal coverage of Redemption Road: Community Behind Bars and CrossFit in Prison
- Morning Chalk Up articles on Redemption Road: Nick Wells and Mat Fraser
- Books used in coach candidate curriculum: Overcoming Gravity,” “Becoming a Supple Leopard, “100 Days of Technique
Community Highlight
Troy Peterson founded ValorFit to connect veterans with CrossFit affiliates across the U.S.
For him, it’s personal. After serving in Iraq and earning a Purple Heart, Troy came home battling addiction, depression, and suicidal thoughts. At 300+ pounds and dependent on pills and alcohol, his wife gave him an ultimatum. That’s when he walked into a CrossFit gym and asked for help.
“I didn’t want to take the substances anymore because I wanted to go work out.” That shift changed everything.
Today, ValorFit covers six months of affiliate memberships for veterans — over 4,000 so far. The only requirement? Show up three days a week.
“Free breakfast on Veterans Day has never changed anyone’s life,” Troy said. “But showing up to the gym three days a week can.”
Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.
Share Your Thoughts: Email us [podcasts@crossfit.com] or complete our survey here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I was sentenced to life in prison. I was 21. I got my case back into court. |
| 0:05.0 | And last November, I gave back my life sentence. They changed it to 48 years. |
| 0:12.0 | I'd been in prison for 28, so I was parole eligible. And I got out. |
| 0:26.6 | The game is rigged and not in your favor. You've been sold the idea that health insurance has your back, |
| 0:29.6 | but you're not a person to them. |
| 0:31.6 | You're a number, a stat. |
| 0:34.6 | It was never about your health. |
| 0:35.6 | It's about their profit margins. But there's another way. |
| 0:39.3 | It's community care. A health care system powered by the same values that may crossfit more than just a workout. |
| 0:45.3 | A community that helps each other, covers each other, and rises together through sickness and life's most unexpected challenges. |
| 0:52.3 | It's time to rethink health care to stop relying on the system that's failed us. |
| 0:56.5 | They sell sick care. |
| 0:57.7 | We power health. |
| 0:59.2 | Community care. |
| 1:00.4 | For more information, visit crossfitmedicalsociety.com. |
| 1:04.1 | All right, Nick, we were just talking before we got rolling out. |
| 1:07.0 | Give me some of your story, your background. |
| 1:09.6 | Well, you know, I grew up in California, Southern California, |
| 1:12.8 | to a really, really wonderful family. |
| 1:16.2 | I moved to Colorado when I was 14 and everything kind of just changed. |
| 1:19.5 | I didn't fit in. |
| 1:20.6 | I talked different, looked different. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CrossFit LLC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of CrossFit LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.