This Rehab Has a Secret Weapon: CrossFit (EP. 023)
The CrossFit Podcast
CrossFit LLC
4.3 • 757 Ratings
🗓️ 15 July 2025
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode Description Angie Manson is the CEO of Elevate Addiction Services, a residential rehab program that integrates CrossFit into daily life. In this conversation with Denise Thomas, Angie opens up about her own recovery, what CrossFit gave her, and why every coach needs to understand addiction.
Angie explains how EAS operates — from an on-site CrossFit affiliate to community classes to post-rehab support — and what she’s learned after helping thousands of people rebuild their lives. This episode is about fitness, but it’s also about humanity, hope, and second chances.
Topics Included
- Angie’s story of addiction, recovery, and finding CrossFit
- How Elevate Addiction Services integrates CrossFit
- Why structure, challenge, and community matter in rehab
- The coach’s role in supporting people in recovery
- Building trust, habits, and a new identity
- How affiliates and coaches can get involved
Resources Mentioned
- Elevate Addiction Services (Santa Cruz + Tahoe)
- CrossFit EAS (on-site affiliate)
- The Phoenix
- Narcotics Anonymous (NA)
- Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
RESOURCES FOR ADDICTION
Elevate Addiction Services – https://elevaterehab.org/
Immediate Help
- SAMHSA National Helpline (U.S.): 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
Free, confidential, 24/7 treatment referral and information.
https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline
Treatment & Recovery Resources
- Substance Abuse Treatment Locator (SAMHSA):
Find nearby treatment facilities for substance use and mental health issues.
https://findtreatment.gov - Shatterproof:
A nonprofit focused on science-based addiction resources and stigma reduction.
https://www.shatterproof.org - Partnership to End Addiction:
Offers support for families navigating a loved one’s substance use.
https://drugfree.org
Peer Support Communities
- Alcoholics Anonymous (AA):
https://www.aa.org/find-aa - Narcotics Anonymous (NA):
https://www.na.org - SMART Recovery:
A secular, science-based alternative to 12-step programs.
https://www.smartrecovery.org
Community Highlight
Tammi Saunders is the head coach at The Barbell Saves Project — a nonprofit CrossFit affiliate in Phoenix, Arizona, offering free classes to anyone in recovery.
The only requirements: 48 hours sober and a commitment to keep showing up.⠀Every coach on staff, including Tammi, is in recovery. They run five community classes a day, plus sessions for sober-living homes and treatment centers. But fitness is just the beginning.
What they’re building is trust, discipline, and integrity – under stress, in community.Tammi has helped develop seven Level 1 trainers through the program, many straight out of prison or early sobriety. She’s built a trauma-informed culture rooted in empathy and consent.
She still remembers walking into a gym for the first time: smoking two packs a day, struggling with disordered eating, unsure what came next. Now she’s a Certified CrossFit Level 3 Trainer, trauma-informed, and a Masters Games athlete.“If I can become this version of myself,” she says, “anyone can.”
This is what it looks like to hold the door open for the next person.Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I started drinking and smoking at 11 years old. |
| 0:02.0 | I would have been dead probably 10 times over if it was the environment that kids are confronted with these days. |
| 0:08.0 | You got really lucky. |
| 0:09.0 | I went to rehab 31 years ago and I never left. |
| 0:12.0 | And that's actually true. |
| 0:13.0 | I knew in my heart like I'm putting CrossFit into the Elevate program |
| 0:17.0 | because it 100% aligns with everything that I know we want to do to help a person overcome |
| 0:23.0 | their addiction. |
| 0:25.3 | This is an episode about addiction and recovery. |
| 0:32.3 | If you are someone you know is struggling with addiction, you're not alone. |
| 0:36.7 | Help is out there. We've linked a few resources |
| 0:39.2 | in the show notes, so please use them. And consider sharing this episode with anyone who might |
| 0:44.0 | benefit from hearing it. Although it's hard, conversations like this one can be very powerful |
| 0:49.1 | and a huge starting point in taking control of your life. Hello everybody and welcome |
| 0:54.1 | back to the CrossFit |
| 0:55.3 | podcast where we welcome guests who are making the world a fitter, healthier and more awesome place |
| 1:01.4 | and today's guest is a living proof that transformation is possible from inside out. Angie Manson |
| 1:08.5 | is a force in the CrossFit world but but a real strength, it comes from something |
| 1:12.8 | that's rooted much, much deeper. It's the courage to face her demons, confront addiction, |
| 1:18.7 | and turn real pain into purpose. And through her personal struggles, she's found a way to not |
| 1:24.3 | only heal and rise, but now she's making it a mission to help others do the |
| 1:29.6 | same. So whether it's in the gym, through a business or in life, Angie believes that vulnerability |
... |
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