Aquil Abdullah, Olympian, First African American Male Team USA Rowing and Hydrow

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Rick is joined by former Olympic rower, Aquil Abdullah this week.

He was appearing at CES 2022 at the Hydrow booth.

Hydrow, the leading and only at-home connected rower that streams the live on-water experience of rowing live to users home had a great area at CES this year.

The booth was equipped with the brands’ category-leading rowers built on patented electromagnetic tech that auto adjusts 240 times per second to mimic the feeling of being on the water. It’s here where I had the opportunity to talk with Abdullah. We talked his career, the Olympics, Hydrow and what he is up to now!

With 3,000+ live and on-demand workouts, you will travel to breathtaking waterways around the world in cities like London, Miami, Boston, Lucerne and more. See firsthand what workouts can look like outside of studio walls.

It’s good for the body and mind. There’s no pounding or jerking. No whirling, bouncing, or spinning furiously… It’s smooth, rhythmic, poetic. The fluid movement of rowing pushes the body and releases the mind. This is a machine that moves with you. You adapt, change, grow… and it grows along with you.

A great talk with Aquil, truly an inspiration all!

 

DJ Mitchell, Former Major League Pitcher, RockBox Fitness

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Rick is joined by former Major League pitcher and owner of the latest RockBox Fitness, DJ Mitchell.

Fitness in Marietta, Ga. will never be the same.

A former college, Minor League and Major League pitcher, DJ has many great stories to share and his unique philosophy when it comes to fitness. DJ worked his way up through the Yankee organization and hold the rare distinction of being traded for a future Hall of Famer when he was part of a trade for Ichiro Suzuki to the Mariners.

When Mitchell moved to Atlanta he wanted to be involved in a business that utilized his athletic background and gave him the chance to make an impact beyond the field of play.

As co-owner of RockBox Fitness with his wife Beth, opened Jan. 10 in the Parkaire Landing Shopping Center in East Cobb, DJ and his staff are teaching boxing-based workouts, in a state of the art fight club meets nightclub environment.

The studios are equipped with high-end sound systems to rock the tunes that keep members pumped and pushing hard. Color-adaptive lighting is also used to cue another level of psychological motivation. When the lights change, so does the intensity.

The RockBox full body workout includes a 50-minute HIIT combination of boxing, kickboxing and functional strength training with kettle bells, battle ropes and sleds. The workouts change every day and circulate through two different boxing stations and 10 iPad kiosks, each with a different functional exercise. Each kiosk is loaded with over 900 different exercises, ensuring variety with every class. During any given workout, you can expect to punch, kick, push, pull, and more and burn up to 1,000 calories.

“RockBox changes lives, and brings together people from all over our city into this community of fitness and fun,” says DJ, “We are on a first name basis here, and on your team to help you achieve your personal goals.”

Listen and hear more from DJ and Rick!

Eric Fouchard, Aeronest from New Pad Maker

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One of my favorite things at CES in 2022 was a little fan ventilation system for facemasks.

Joined by Eric Fouchard this week on ‘Tech of Sports’ to talk about the groundbreaking Aeronest.

Attach Aeronest to your mask, push the button : « et voilà » , you are now breathing effortlessly !! Thanks to its magnetic attach system (patent pending) Aeronest adapt at a glance on your everyday mask (N95, surgical, fabric…)

Without altering the mask or its filtration capacities, install the fan that draws air for you. By renewing the air for 8 to 12 hours (3 speeds) inside the mask you forget about tiredness, pimples, mist on glasses… Aeronest : clip it and breathe.

Great for athletes, travelers and anyone who has to wear a mask for an extended period of time.

Aeronest will soon have a campaign up on Indiegogo.

Aeronest is a mask attachment that can be put on any mask thanks to its patented magnetic attachment system without altering both its structure and its filtration capacity. Its built-in fan draws fresh air to the inside of the mask, making it easier for you to breathe and preventing perspiration, glasses fogging up, etc.

 

Jeff Morin, CEO and Co-Founder of Liteboxer

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Rick is joined by Jeff Morin this week on ‘Tech of Sports.’

Jeff us the CEO and Co-Founder of Liteboxer.

Liteboxer uses technology to bring about positive and lasting change through fitness. Punch into a new routine. Punch past your limitations.

Jeff Morin is a MIT-educated engineer and certified personal trainer with an eye for both physical and technological performance. Jeff led manufacturing at DEKA and Formlabs prior to co-founding Liteboxer.

At CES, Liteboxer announced its virtual reality offering called Liteboxer VR available on Quest 2.

The fully immersive fitness experience will feature new workouts daily, making Liteboxer VR the first VR workout experience created by fitness experts. Here are the highlights:

Trainer-led Workouts: Unlike current VR fitness offerings, Liteboxer VR immerses users in real trainer-led workouts with actual coaching and interaction (rather than just exergaming).

Controllerless Experiences: Using precise hand-tracking software–a first for fitness virtual reality–Liteboxer VR offers a controllerless workout, providing all the same intensity without the need to grip hardware.

No Music Packs Required: Liteboxer’s exclusive partnership with Universal Music Group keeps their extensive music library accessible to all Liteboxer VR subscribers, enabling users to curate playlists to make personalized soundtracks.

Go Head to Head: Liteboxers can participate in direct challenges with family, friends, and fellow Quest 2 users while tracking their own performance with in-app leaderboards and personal stats.

Liteboxer’s VR fitness experience will be available to consumers on Quest 2 starting March 3rd, 2022.

Liteboxer has an assembled footprint of 37.6” x 55.5” (~95.5cm x ~141cm).

Great to talk with Jeff!

 

Philippe Etienne, French Ambassador to US on French Tech at CES 2022, 2024 Paris Olympics and more

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Rick talks with the Ambassador of France to the US, Philippe Etienne this week on ‘Tech of Sports.’

Étienne served as chief diplomatic adviser to the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, from 2017 to 2019. He was nominated as ambassador of France in the United States effective September 2019.

He was in Las Vegas last week leading the French Tech delegation, which was huge. Lots of innovation and potential from France and putting #greentech front and center.

France is the leading European country in terms of number of green start-ups as well as legal and tax reforms that support ecological goals and sustainable business models. This exclusive breakfast session will include key policy makers along with successful companies implementing innovative sustainability businesses. 

A great talk with the Ambassador and thanks for a few moments of his time.

Gabby Thomas, Olympian, Lenovo’s ‘Just Watch Us’ Campaign

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Rick is joined by Gabby Thomas this week. Thomas won both a silver and bronze in Tokyo and is the third fastest woman all-time in the 200 meters.

A graduate of Harvard University, she studied neurobiology and global health as an undergraduate. While at Harvard, Thomas won 22 conference titles across her three years of athletics in six different events, setting the school and Ivy League records in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and the indoor 60 meters. She is now doing postgraduate work at the University of Texas.

Gabby is partnering with Lenovo for a new campaign.

Lenovo’s “Just Watch Us” Campaign for ThinkPad Z.

Just Watch Us will position the new ThinkPad Z as the technology that has arrived at the most opportune time in history to help create change: a tool that will not only allow Gen Z +Y to excel in the new world of work, but to power their ideas that will imagine, create and define the future. This campaign will activate a call for the trailblazers to rethink and reimagine what’s next; they will be the face, the voice, and inspiration of the campaign.

Gabby is a Lenovo user and her passion for health and technology, including how she is using smarter technology to drive health equity outcomes and reform the healthcare industry to better serve historically disadvantaged communities.

Have a listen and best of luck to Gabby.