The Athletes Podcast
The Athletes Podcast is a leading source of information, inspiration, and education for anyone interested in optimizing physical performance, maintaining good health, and living an active lifestyle. Join David Stark as he interviews some of the world's biggest athletes and fitness professionals, The Athletes Podcast provides practical advice, expert insights, and real-world strategies to help listeners achieve their health and fitness goals.The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire the next generation of athletes!
The Athletes Podcast
From Addiction to Advocacy: April Hutchinson's Journey - Episode #260
April Hutchinson, a three-time Team Canada record-holding powerlifter, shares her journey from childhood athlete to women's sports advocate after being suspended for speaking biological truths about male competitors in female categories.
• Sports served as therapy through difficult times including childhood abuse and later struggles with alcoholism
• Found sobriety six years ago and channeled energy into powerlifting, making Team Canada
• Received a two-year suspension for referring to a biological male competitor as male on Pierce Morgan's show
• Worked with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to implement legislation creating male-only, female-only, and co-ed sports categories
• Advocacy work has helped change policies at national and international competition levels for powerlifting
• Transitioned to pickleball after suspension, embracing the sport's accessibility and community
• Discusses the physical advantages males retain even with hormone therapy in women's sports
• Shares nutrition insights including benefits of eliminating processed foods and alcohol
• Experienced with carnivore and modified paleo approaches to eating for performance
• Emphasizes the importance of taking action despite fear when making life changes
If you want to speak up about something important, don't be afraid. Your integrity means more than any medal or achievement.
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When I spoke up and I got my suspension, I basically got worldwide attention. I was on I don't know how many TV interviews, every paper was writing about it and I got nothing but support.
Speaker 2:Hey folks, welcome back to the 260th episode of the Athletes Podcast today, featuring April Hutchinson, a women's sports advocate, someone who I've been working on getting on the show for practically years now, and we finally were able to do it. Next time we'll do it in person in a month's time, when she's on the island talking with Jordan Peterson, but in the meantime we're bringing you this episode virtually. I'm recording this intro from our Jeep, thanks to Pioneer Auto Group Aldergrove. If you head on over there, talk to Cody, tell him I sent you. He will hook you up with an amazing deal on a vehicle. But you guys also know we're powered by Perfect Sports Supplements and their Diesel Coffee Crunch Protein Bar is now launched thanks to Marvel Studios Thunderbolts, and you folks need to try it. I'm telling you these bars are insanely good. Talk about protein, talk about a little bit of caffeine crunch into your system. Only perfect sports supplements, diesel bars, are what I put in my body personally. You guys know I use the collagen, the creatine and the diesel protein, but when you're on the go you need a bar, sometimes 18 grams of protein, one gram of sugar. Who can complain about that? I know, know I can't Use the code AP15 at checkout to save 15%.
Speaker 2:Now let's get to the 260th episode of the Athletes Podcast featuring April Hutchinson. I was a little nervous. You folks get to enjoy that. Here we go. You're the most decorated racquetball player in US history, world's strongest man, from childhood passion to professional athlete, eight-time Ironman champion. So what was it like making your debut in the NHL? What is your biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes, from underdogs to national champions?
Speaker 2:This is the Athletes Podcast, where high-performance individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes. Here we go, we get to learn from April Hutchinson here today. This will be the 260th episode of the Athletes Podcast, which is absolutely bonkers. You're a three-time Team Canada record-holding powerlifter. You are banned for biological facts and you're an advocate for fairness in sports. I'm very excited to have you on the show here today. Have you explain a bit more about what you've been doing the past few years, which in reality is almost probably decades in the grand scheme of things, with your work, april, welcome to the show. Thank you for coming on. I'm going to let you introduce yourself because you've got an amazing story and I'm fortunate enough to be able to share it here on the athletes podcast today.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you so much for having me today. Um, yeah, like you said, I'm a. I'm a three time team Canada powerlifter. Um, I'm actually still the current uh, north American dev left record holder and, um, I actually started um sports like a. Very well, I'll tell you a little bit about why I'm here today. But I actually, when I was playing on Team Canada, I actually discovered a male also competing in the women's category. So I actually got banned for basically speaking the truth and fighting for fairness. So that's kind of like what I'm doing now is being an advocate for fitness and women's sports.
Speaker 1:But my journey into sports actually started at a very, very young age. I basically played every kind of sport imaginable. My dad would drag me to the hockey rink when I was five years old to do power skating lessons. You know, when I wanted to kind of sit at home and watch the Smurfs on a Saturday morning, my dad was like nope, you're going to the rink. So that was kind of my first steps into sports and, um, you know whether it was hockey ringettes? Um, track and field. I remember bringing home all the blue ribbons for the track and field meets and, uh, always very competitive in nature, even from a small age. So, um, and honestly I and I thank my father, I mean, even to this day I thank him because I mean sports really kind of helped save my life, basically, and we can get more into that, um, as people kind of hear my story so, um, at the age of five and I do talk about this when I tour around Canada and talk about my advocacy I actually suffered some sexual abuse from my neighbor, and at that time it happened.
Speaker 1:I actually, you know, I wanted to become a little boy after, because, you know, here was this man it was my neighbor at the time who had abused me, and I thought, well, you know, if I could be a little boy, then men won't touch me ever again. So I kind of went through a little bit of an identity crisis at that young age. So, unfortunately, though, when I was 12 years old, going through puberty and still going through that awkward identity crisis stage, I actually found alcohol, which helped me kind of get through puberty basically and helped me kind of just feel comfortable in my own skin. Now, during all this time, I was still playing sports and thank God I was, because it was almost like a therapy for me, but unfortunately, by the time I was 18, I was probably considered a full-blown alcoholic. Now, keep in mind, I was always playing sports, but sometimes I'd go play a sport and I'd bring like a six-pack of beer with me, so it was always my medicine. I needed that to survive, but I'd still kick ass in sports.
Speaker 2:When I hear some of the stories when I was doing the research for this episode, I found a lot of similarities, just in the competitive nature reading the stories of your dad bringing you to the hockey rink at a young age and I can relate to having to go through those kinds of experiences. I can't relate to being abused at a young age, so I'm sorry to hear that that happened to you and I think it's important for people to realize where you're coming from and your understanding and what you've experienced over the past few decades, because this is something that's not just recent. You know we see it in the Olympics over the past year or two. That's still happening to this day and it's a sensitive subject.
Speaker 2:People don't like to necessarily talk about these things. It can be uncomfortable, but these conversations need to be had and you're having them on a daily basis and I'd love for you to maybe peel back some layers of the onion to what you've experienced recently. When it comes to, you know most people will be aware of you being on Fox News Tucker Carlson show, seeing some of the publicity that's been around it. It's gained momentum for obvious reasons, but from your point of view, right now I'm located in British Columbia. As you know, there's men that are holding records here in the women's category. Again, I sit here as a male. I am not here to discriminate. I'm simply hoping to have a conversation around this, to learn more, to understand better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, actually you're in British Columbia as we speak. Today. Actually a male competitor is actually competing in the women's category in the in the powerlifting Federation, the CPU. Actually he performed today and I don't know if he took gold medal, but it's an ongoing problem, especially in British Columbia, and actually there is a male that holds all three out of five records in Alberta as well and the women's powerlifting. So so this is why I spoke up. It's because you know I was on team Canada If I kind of backtrack a little bit when I stopped that my whole alcoholism thing. Um, I'm sober today, um six years sober, and congratulations yeah, thanks.
Speaker 1:And guess what? I got into sports. After I came into rehab, I got right back into sports, I got right into powerlifting, I trained five times a week and I made team Canada. So it was um, at that point, when I first started competing, that I found this male competing in my category and I was like whoa like, and this person was taking gold medals. And the person also actually admitted to having an advantage over women.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, went through full blown puberty, was a 40 year old male just waltzed right into the women's category and I said, hey, like you know what, I was friends with this person online as well. I said that's completely unfair to women. Like, how far do you expect to go? And he's like, well, I want to go to the nationals, I want to go to worlds. And I said, if you do, I'm going to speak up, I'm going to tell the federation what's going on. So unfortunately, there was a long process, but I did write the Federation. They ignored me and then I actually ended up getting a two-year suspension because I referred to this individual as a male when I was talking about it on the Pierce Morgan show against their pronoun usage of the code of conduct within the Powerlifting Federation. People think I got silenced because I was just speaking up about fairness. It was actually the fact that I went against their code of conduct and to me, that was compelled speech, because even to this day, I will not call a man a woman or vice versa, because it's just hugely impossible to transition and that's lying. It actually goes against our religious beliefs. It goes against you know a lot of things. But specifically in sports, it's always been separated by sex. Sports have always been separated and when you're talking about sports, you need to talk about men and women, because it's bodies that are competing. It's all about biology and bodies. So you really have to call a spade a spade, right when you're referring to it. So, um, but unfortunately, like this is what I do, I go around canada, I I talk about my experience.
Speaker 1:I've actually, since I have spoken up, I have been a part of the legislation that was passed in Alberta with Daniel Smith. She actually reached out to me and said what do you want to see in the sports act before it gets implemented at the legislature? I was there as an honorary guest. She went ahead and actually made a male only category, a female only category and a co-ed category in Alberta, so that way the female athletes are protected, which is great. So we have Alberta doing the right thing. I was at the British Columbia helping John Rustad. He was a conservative leader. He also tried to pass the same exact bill, but it got shot down by the NDP party. So NDPs were not interested in protecting little girls and women's safety and fairness in sports. So I'm basically just traveling around, a working with politicians, but B spreading my message so that people can understand just how you know unsafe it is, first of all, and just the unfairness of having to compete against a someone that's, you know, bigger, faster, stronger. You know so someone.
Speaker 2:That's just, you know, bigger, faster, stronger, you know. So, yeah, it's, it's a from. It seems pretty clear cut when you look back. We've always separated sports by sex. Um, but I, you know, in preparing for this conversation, I'm like what are the alternatives? Like, do we have a mixed group? Do we have a co-ed to a group, like we've done in alberta? Do we break it up based on height? Do we do it based on eye color, on skin color, on hair color? Like there's so many ways that you could break these things up, and I'm always trying to figure out ways to optimize the situation because, frankly, I could swim against Michael Phelps and I'm gonna lose 10 out of 10 times, even though we're both males, because his body's built for swimming better than mine is right now. That comes to like a physiological level within males too. So I'm always curious, like, how are you going in and making sure that again we're talking about advocacy making sure that little girls, for instance, are taken care of and protected, so that men aren't in and around their proximity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when it comes to this is like this is a bigger problem. Yeah, so I mean, with Iman Khalif, he had ample chances to divulge his medical records and he never did so. A that looks very suspicious, because if he said he was female all along, then he would just let everyone know the medical tests, because there was conclusive test results that showed that he did have XY chromosomes, that the DNA came back, that he was. There was trainers that trained with him that said he's a male. So I mean, there was this overwhelming amount of evidence that showed that he was a male.
Speaker 1:And then obviously people started going on about oh well, he has a DSD disorder, he's like I go, it doesn't matter, stop bringing the intersex argument into this, because even if someone is intersex, you're still either born male or female. So a lot of times people will bring the intersex conversation up as a way to distract right, um and so, but at the end of the day, you're you either people. I don't know if they understand what makes you like. Some people think that your outer extremities like if you have a peanut right or, say, a micro peanuts or in a large clitoris or what have you?
Speaker 1:But your, your chromosomes are xy, you're a male. It's not based on the external, it's based on your gametes, right? So, um, and I think it would be nice if some people could just go back to Green 10, biology, you know, like. But but no, they just came out recently that now the world boxing, they are actually going to be implementing sex tests for all the competitors. So you, probably a cheek swab test will be done. So looks like a man. Kalief will not be competing with probably the uh, the women again.
Speaker 2:So this is great now, yeah, because he was dominating them during the olympics. It was gross. It was gross to watch. You couldn't even watch it. Right is again a man competing against women, and that's not fair. Um, now, I say that in the same breath where, like eleni, the co-founder of cook stark management, where we represent 75 female athletes in the pwhl ncaa olympians um, she plays with some trans women, for instance, and even though they're five inches taller, have grown up as men and transitioned, she can light them up and play incredibly well. She's better than them. It's and like I've heard that it's very difficult, if not almost impossible, to be building muscle when you're taking estrogen, the. The caveat there is that, hey, you've been on the juice for the past 20 years before you switched over, right am I? Is that making sense?
Speaker 1:I'm on the right vein yeah, but at the end of the day, um, like so, for example, um, if you take 12, there's actually um studies that 14 year old boys actually practice with team canada's women's soccer team. So here we have 14 year old boys practicing with 20 something year old women on the team canada thing. For the reason why there's male and female birth charts, males have an advantage at the get-go. They always will. And if you take me and you or me and a male at age whatever, it doesn't matter what age is it, 10 or 12, or even take me now if I have no training, and put me right up to a, next to a guy, they're just naturally going to lift more. They're going to be bigger, faster, stronger. It's just the way it is. But then you have athletes who have, like, if you want not to be blockers, but if these athletes like, for example, the one that was in my powerlifting federation, you still maintain the, you still have the bone structure of a male, you still have that hand grip.
Speaker 2:You're going to have bigger hands, you're going to have have.
Speaker 1:It doesn't affect your vo2 max. You're gonna have bigger lung capacity. Um, your pelvis is different, like everything's built differently, so it doesn't matter about the hormones. It doesn't surprise as much as you think. You're still gonna have an advantage over a female, and it doesn't matter how long you've been taking those hormones for.
Speaker 2:So thank you for clarifying that. It's uh again.
Speaker 2:I I'm coming at this from, I know nothing and I want to yeah yeah, honestly, like I am not naive to say, like I've done 260 episodes here, I bring on experts, I bring on professionals, I bring on the individuals to enlighten me because, hey, frankly, it's not possible for me to know everything and to be able to advocate for everyone, but there's people out there that need this work to be done and you're doing it. So I appreciate that. And I do want to touch on this suspension from the Canadian Powerlifting Union. How did that impact you, both personally and professionally? Because this is what you were participating in. This is your transition becoming sober, you put that effort into weight training, becoming the best power lifter that you can be, and then to have that stripped away, I can't imagine.
Speaker 1:Well, so, yeah, so I used power lifting as a way to get healthy and stay sober when I came out of rehab. It was really a blessing to me, and so when I spoke up about the unfairness, um, I I got, I basically would say stuff like at first, I wrote them a two-page letter just outlining all the physical and mental um, basically, um, things that would affect women if we had to compete against a man. So, and one of them was um, people think about the physical right and the unsafety part, but also think about the physical right and the safety part, but also think about the females like myself who train so hard and put so much money into this for it too. Right, I'm also in a tested federation, so I can't take anything banned. I can't take banned substances.
Speaker 1:Even if I wanted to take hormones, say, help me with something medically, like, say, if I was going through menopause, I actually have to go to the doctor and get an exemption. I have to get permission. Meanwhile, they let a full grown man, full of testosterone, walk in and compete. So think about that, like, think about that, no questions asked. Like my fiance could basically identify as a female tomorrow and go into my powerlifting federation and crush records and compete as a female. And I mean it happened with a Team Canada coach. He watched him pretend he was a woman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember seeing that. That was awesome. That was, I guess, awesome to highlight how broken the system was.
Speaker 1:Yes, how ridiculous the system was, yes, how ridiculous the policy is because, but because I did use my voice, I did have the policy change. So I want people to really understand this and this is why I really emphasize this on all my speeches is that people need to speak up, like, don't be afraid to speak up, because, again, like I got suspended from a little code of conduct policy that the, the CPU, made Right. Right, I really didn't get suspended for just speaking up for women, so it was funny. I met riley gains and she helped me.
Speaker 1:She's like you know I just keep speaking up april, like we're really good friends. Now riley gains and I and I started saying stuff like save women's sports and my federation came back and said, oh, you can't say save women's sports, that's hate speech, that's horrible. And I was like, wow, are you kidding me? So I kept on speaking up and then, when the powerlifter broke all the records in alberta, I was on the pierce morgan show and I referred to um the powerlifter as a man, which he is a man.
Speaker 1:He's a biological man, not that there's different types of men, and those are the words that got me suspended, because I spoke truth, I spoke biological truths and I correctly sexed this person, and I literally got punished for that. Now, this was three years ago. Would that happen today? I don't know, but this was back. When things happen today. I don't know, but this was back when things were like people didn't know what trans was at the very top of everything you.
Speaker 1:You hit it when it was hot it was hot, it came right out of, it was right out of covid, and people like I mean I think I forget what, is it now 30 or% or something identify Like I have actually a friend who is transgender and I mean he admits, he goes. I'm just a gay man that dresses like a woman. I have a mental disorder. I loved him for being honest. I'm like thank you, he said. But unfortunately there's people that go around saying that they're trans with, you know, no operations, no hormones giving. They just wake up and they feel uncomfortable in their own skin. So they go. I'm trans today. They said that's bad for his community, like he's. Like this is getting ridiculous, right.
Speaker 2:Well, because then you're also impacting everyone who you go to that female or male washroom, because you identify there and now you're putting them at risk unnecessarily.
Speaker 1:Well, unfortunately, a lot of predators take advantage, and this is why I'm speaking out is because there is a lot of people that suffer from autogynephilia, who have fetishes. There's predators, and we have to be careful not to let them in to the spaces with, you know, my little nieces or little girls we have. This is why we have to bring awareness and attention to the subject, and I mean there's men that go into women's sports just to dominate. They take prize money. It's happening all the time in the States with the cycling and all these different events where they just self-idea the woman. They go in and they take the prize money just because they can.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, one of the things I was curious, like what your experience was like with LGBT athletes, with trans athletes, like obviously someone who's advocating. You've probably had some pushback or opposition from the sports community, like what's that been like?
Speaker 1:Oh, sorry. Yeah, Kind of back to your original question. Uh, so when I spoke up and I got my suspension, um, I basically got worldwide attention. I was on I don't know how many TV interviews, every paper was writing about it and I got nothing but support. I actually didn't get any hate mail whatsoever, because I think people understand that again, sports are about fairness and it's about safety and it's about sex. I mean, it's females against females, men against men, unless you're playing like what I did today. I played mixed doubles in pickleball.
Speaker 2:But that's my choice right. Yeah, and that's all four parties agreeing to that choice.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So and this is again something I try to emphasize is that you know I got a lot of support. I haven't gotten gotten like any hate mail. Yes, I lost my sports, but you know what? It was more important to me to speak up about this, because my integrity means more to me than any gold medal. I could have gone back to competing next last year, but I decided not to because they were still letting males compete at a local level. But because I used my voice, I actually had the policy changed at the national and international level. So they actually said well, we don't want men getting through. So thank you so much for alerting us about the situation. And they had no idea. And so they actually changed the policy to testosterone monitoring and that anyone going through would have to supply medical records. So no one's getting through because these males are not giving them the documentation, they're not submitting their medical records and they're not abiding by the testosterone monitoring. Oh, I wonder why. You know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know you get featured on all the shows. Uh, recognition globally. That's why you're here on the athletes podcast today and then in a month's time you'll be with jordan peterson in victoria um. I love being able to highlight canadians. I think it's important to make sure we represent our nation and make sure that people know that we are a proud nation and that we've got people doing important things up here north of the 49th parallel. What was that like? Getting global exposure?
Speaker 1:I can't imagine. Well, I mean it's a good feeling. I mean I still walk around. Um, I also, because of this whole ordeal, I made my own apparel line so it's the female for its female hoodies and t-shirts and stuff like that. And I mean I love it when people buy one of my shirts or my hoodies because they just walk around with the message you know, save women's sports, and stuff like that. So that's really cool. But I get recognized here, like in my city Mostly. Rebel News has done a lot of stories on me as well, but I have been interviewed from Global News, cbc and they've actually written some really great articles about me, considering they're very more left right.
Speaker 1:They've actually been very non-biased and actually, um, have been very um, you know good to me as far as the articles are concerned, but I mean it's, it's been great the support. Um, I actually got picked up by three sponsors, um, since I basically have been not powerlifting and I was like, okay, I didn't get any sponsors. But now I have great sponsors behind me and they didn't choose me because I was an athlete. They chose me because of what I'm speaking right up, what I stand for. And the one company, um pbl supplements, said you know what you have integrity. We love that.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so it's been a good road, but I missed my sport. But I said you know what? I can sit here and be miserable, um, and go and just be depressed about it, or I can keep going and I can do something positive. And that's why I'm an advocate and I tour around and I do my speeches, and you know what? Now I found pickleball. I found a different sport. I also box a couple times a week. So I, you know, I'm always competitive.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that competitive nature never leaves and, if anything, I think it's probably a superpower in the sense that you can go into any situation and lock in and, you know, take on anything, whether it's pickleball, racquetball, boxing, weightlifting, like that's a. That's a superpower that a lot of people don't possess.
Speaker 1:Well, it's true you have to be um. You know it takes a lot of willpower, but it takes a lot of like. I mean just to be a high um. You know it takes a lot of willpower, but it takes a lot of like. I mean just to be a high level athlete. It takes a lot of like. I use the word obsession, right, like uh, I think joe brogan even talked about it.
Speaker 1:You know, to be number one in your sport, you have to be obsessed, and I definitely have ocd. Like I'm even just pickleball. I'm like I'm playing it every day and I have a coach already and I'm like I'm like, okay, so like when can I go into the us open?
Speaker 2:what? Uh, what level are you guys playing? Is it l1 or how do they do that?
Speaker 1:l1, l4 or something like that I do it by my duper scores, so it's like yeah your duper rating and stuff like that. So yeah I did a tournament yesterday and we won five out of seven games. It it was intermediate, so it was like a 3.5 level, but I mean no big deal.
Speaker 2:No big deal, 3.5. It's all good. So the two of you are competing now locally in London, and then you're going to go take on the national stage next, I'm assuming. Is that the plan?
Speaker 1:That's what my friend said. He was like oh God thing. My friend said he was oh god, april, you're gonna be like trying to go for the olympics in 2036 in india. But I do like a challenge, like even though I'm in my late 40s now, I still play. I, I play in the open, so yeah and uh. And actually with pickleball I actually don't mind playing against men, like training against man, because it makes me a better player.
Speaker 2:So I'm like I love pickleball for that reason. Like I can go out onto the court against a seven year old and he can smoke the heck out of me right Like there's no actual understanding of level. Like you really can be the most unassuming individual and come in and clean someone's clock right Like it's. It's great in that sense and I think you know I could go play with my grandmother, my mother and my dad or my brother. Like there's no you know difficulty. When you know, even from golf, when you think about everyone's still hitting golf balls. But like ladies are at the Reds tees, men's are at the Whites or the Blues. Like it's just everyone's disconnected Pickleball. Everyone's nice tight quarters, everyone's playing together Same speed. Like it's great. And to your point, if you're playing with better people, you're going to get better and you can compete men versus women and there is no ultimately real difference advantage, because stronger doesn't necessarily mean better in this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like right now. Yeah, like the stronger I mean it would help with their shots and stuff like that, but like, obviously people are a bit harder. I mean I I just yeah, I love it and that's that's why I think I got rated one of the top sports, like for longevity is because football is not just only fun but actually such a sense of community like I've met so many people and why I got into it.
Speaker 1:Because the first tournament I did, like a month ago, my fiance and I we lost to like two 70 year old women and I was like oh my God, we got smoked by these ladies Right and I was like that's it, I'm going to get lessons. And I'm like hardcore now. I'm like I can't lose to 70 year old. But it's like they didn't even move, they were just like dinking it around. I was like running everywhere for it.
Speaker 2:I. I was like running everywhere for it. I was like this is amazing, like so, yeah, hey, folks, just in case you are feeling a little lethargic throughout your day, one of the supplements that I also take is the can I wellness boost supplement. It's just a little bit of vitamin B12 and your ability to get going on, the go with a little spritz of can I wellness. This is supported by athletes like matt duchesne, who was just playing in the western conference finals. You guys have the ability to get the sleep, the refresh, the boost and the mend supplement for those who like to get after it. So check out can I wellness. Use the code ap20 at checkout to save 20. Let me know what you think.
Speaker 2:Back to the episode. Yeah, so racket sports are insane when it comes to their longevity results, like. There's the copenhagen city heart study. A 25-year study involved over 8 500 adults found that playing tennis was associated with an increase of life expectancy of 9.7 years, while badminton added 6.2 and those games like surpassed other activities like cycling. That was 3.7 years, swimming 3.4. British journal of sports medicine study analyzed over 80,000 participants and that study found that racket sports were linked to a 47% reduction in all-course mortality and a 56% reduction in cardiovascular-related deaths.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:And again, those figures were way higher compared to swimming at 28% and 41%, and aerobics at 27% and 36%. So racket sports, everyone should be playing them.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and that's funny, that's kind of how I got into, because you know, the winter we had was pretty harsh and I was just like, oh my god, I was actually usually I don't get like the seasonal affective disorder, but I found it to be a really hard, uh winter. So I said to my fiance, we started with like recreational pickleball, just for fun, but now that we're really into it, now we've joined actually a pickleball club and I'm on part of a women's league now yeah, I remember I remember reading an article and it said after if you want to like, live longer um and to keep your brain active, to learn a second language, learn a racket sport.
Speaker 1:Learn um to play a musical instrument or play cards. And I was like you know what? Let's play some racket sports to keep our brains going right. It's mobility and it's reflexes, it's everything. So that's the thing about pickleball. Like I do my weight training on my days off too, I do it only twice a week with my weight training, but I mean, it's good cardio, but it's really good for your mobility and to me, mobility is number one in my life.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, especially um coming from a strength background, your mobility is something you got to maintain afterwards like I had a lot of muscle but I also had a lot of body fat, like I was just bigger and I could feel my joints like getting sore and I think of all the weight that I was lifting and to me not knocking power lifting, but it's a sport where you don't even use your feet. Like you don't move, like you just don't move there's some.
Speaker 2:Uh, there's some. What is it? Leg drive from your bench press right right like driving.
Speaker 1:So that's about it, and so I was just kind of like. You know, it wasn't like a big loss when I couldn't powerlift, because I'm so happy that I actually am not competing in that and that I lost the weight.
Speaker 1:I went on the carnivore diet for a little bit um but uh, but no, I just I feel like a million dollars now and I just I'm very happy and I think things happen.
Speaker 1:Just how I got into powerlifting, like how I got sober, it led me down this path. I was talking to Tammy Peterson, Jordan Peterson's wife, and I said, Tammy, like this was my destiny to do this, Like I literally fell into finding this male competitor. Then all of a sudden, like you know, getting sober, using powerlifting, and then sticking to my guns and saying, like you know what Men shouldn't be competing, and that scared me to say something. I knew well at that time I didn't know what the reaction would be from the world. But I just thought, you know what, I can't sit there and live a lie almost, and keep this hidden, because that's how I felt. And so I was really happy that I spoke up and you know I didn't cry. I was kind of shocked that they gave me two years, because that's a pretty big sentence for just speaking out about something. Speaking facts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm stating facts, but I think they used me as a deterrent so that other people wouldn't speak up about it. They're like oh, if you do, you're going to get suspended for two years as well.
Speaker 2:Little Ben Johnson back in the old Canadian sprinters days. If those Canadians remember that, yeah, you set an example right and it sucks, because you were that person that they ultimately decided, hey, she's going to be the one that we're going. You set an example right and it sucks because you were that person that they ultimately decided, hey, she's gonna be the one that we're gonna make an example out of and everyone else will follow suit once they don't want to get two years suspended, but then it's, you know, changes your career trajectory. Ultimately, it seems like it's worked out for the best. You're playing pickleball now. That's a low impact activity on your joints that have been maybe a little grumpier previous years. So you're all good now. Right, we're good, um I.
Speaker 2:I am curious, though, like hockey at a young age, ring, at power lifting, now pickleball. Like I am a huge advocate similar to the way it sounds like you are about kids participating in sport from a young age, playing all different kinds of sports you never know how they're going to relate impact you later on down the road Again playing pickleball, golf, some sports you can play down later on in years of your life. I guess from your perspective, were there ones that impacted you the most? Were there, pivotal moments during your career that you really latched on to? You know, a big lift that led you to, you know, being more confident in powerlifting? I'm always curious to hear kind of those tidbits if there were ever those pivotal moments for you?
Speaker 2:Well, I think so when I started off, I always loved being on the ice.
Speaker 1:That was always one of my favorite things to do was skating right. But I think at a young age, like when I started getting into ringette, for example, I knew that because I was always the top scorer. The papers were always writing about me. This is when I was a kid right, when they actually would publish like pictures of the kids playing sports and stuff and and then I would have the track and field meets. I loved running. I love because every track so I would do um high jump, I would do long jump, I did the sprint 100, 200 and I always made it to the Ontario final um. I always won and I just knew. I think at that time even my father saw that I was a little bit maybe, or genetically maybe, above the normal yeah, yeah and so it doesn't matter what sport I went to, like, I actually did a cage fight when I was 40 and MMA.
Speaker 1:I got into MMA. I was like you know what I want to do MMA now. So what I do? I train with a coach. He was an ex UFC fighter and I was doing a cage fight in front of a thousand people, like so how'd that go? Uh, I won't I lost, but like I won't I lost. But it was very close though. It was like 26, 27, 28. It was very close.
Speaker 2:How did that feel?
Speaker 1:To lose.
Speaker 2:No, just the experience. A thousand people watching you inside a cage. I can't imagine the pressure, the nerves. You've got literally someone across from you who wants to kill you and you ultimately want to kind of kill them too, like that's a crazy experience. And then you got a bunch of people, like intoxicated, cheering you on Like it's adrenaline times a million.
Speaker 1:Well, that's why I actually like kind of zone out when you're actually in the ring. So what happened was I was actually a kickboxer and no one could. They couldn couldn't find anyone to fight me because which was funny, because people kind of saw my size I'm like 5'11", 180 pounds they actually had to bring in some men for me to tumble with because I was popping everyone off me right. So we couldn't find a woman to fight me. So they actually found a Jiu Jitsu girl from up north fight me. So they actually found a jiu-jitsu girl from up north, um, and now she was supposed to have zero fights because I had zero fights under my belt. But we found out later she had three fights under her belt and that's probably why I lost.
Speaker 1:But right but she was a small little short study thick girl and the whole fight was her trying to take me down because that was her expertise was jiu-jitsu and then I just wanted to kick her in the head the whole time.
Speaker 1:So I actually heard someone in the audience go kick her in the head. But um, so the fight was a lot of like me sprawling against the fence and her trying to take me down, me just doing head shots or knees to the body. But I didn't realize people were watching me. Like you get so rushed like when you enter that ring.
Speaker 1:You just don't know you don't see anyone around you, you just full-on adrenaline. Um, yeah, so it, I mean I, I enjoyed it, like that's why I'm back into boxing. I love, yeah, the boxing, the stuff, like that. So I mean it's. I remember, uh, theo flurry, the hockey player. Yeah, I did an interview with him and he said don't you find it? Um, because he was sexually abused as a kid too and he's also recovering alcoholic. So we have, we're very, very similar, him and I. And he said don't you notice you go into sports that are more aggressive. And he, he goes, I go, yeah, like the boxing, the MMA, the powerlifting, the lifting heavyweights. And he said it's been proven that people it's like sexual trauma or kind of go into those sports because of, like, he was a fighter, he fought when he played on the NHL.
Speaker 1:It's almost like a therapeutic thing, because I said, like I have no interest in just sitting down and doing yoga, Like that does not interest me, but I tend to pick the more aggressive sports where I can get maybe my, you know, just my.
Speaker 2:You want to feel it Whatever.
Speaker 1:I'm not angry, like I'm not angry today, but man, I'd love to smash that pickleball.
Speaker 2:Well, and there's something to be said from having a controlled setting and environment where you are allowed to be aggressive and physical and get those emotions out, because, frankly, in society we don't have that opportunity, right. Like you step outside your door and you've got people watching you, you've got video cameras on you. You can't be aggressive, you can't be emotional, you have to be calm, cool, collected 24, 7, 365, right april. So hey, um, I am a huge advocate for that too. Like you've got to be able to go participate in sport. Like if I don't go to the gym for a couple days in a row, I'm an ugly person, frankly. Like I, I'm not fun to be around and that is again, just hey, I have pent up energy. There's a reason why kids at five, six, seven years old who sit in classes for eight hours a day also are pent up, energetic, difficult to deal with, because they're supposed to be using that energy moving around.
Speaker 1:We're human beings, we're not human sitters, you know exactly, and I wish kids nowadays would you know um?
Speaker 1:I forget what the study was, but the testosterone rates, and just young males have this heads dropped uh dramatically just due to the inactivity, um, and people on their phones the whole time, like either playing video games or on the phone. So I really encourage any kids or anyone out there just to find one sport that you love or one activity and stick to it and do it like a couple times um, a week, um, and this is why I do help a lot of women like my age that are like, hey, april, like how did you lose weight and how did you quit drinking? You know, because there's a lot of women that in their 40s think that well, I can't lose weight now, it's just, or they have the baby weight from having kids and they think I can't do it and I'm like holy, like I did all these major life changes. I got sober in my 40s, I the best years of my life, I've been in my 40s and I'm actually in the best shape ever in my life and now.
Speaker 1:So if there's anyone out there that a wants to quit drinking that wine at night a couple glasses of wine just just drop it and and try pickleball, try something else, because once you get poked on it, the serotonin levels and the dopamine it's going to be so rewarding. And then when you start doing activity, you just start creating better food too, right, like I know. When I work out I don't go think, oh, people have a cheeseburger and fries, I want like a salad and chicken and rice and beef and eggs, and you know, it just kind of goes with the lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Hey, you're fueling for performance at that point, right, and you want to make sure that you can perform your best. You don't want to be jeopardizing that by putting something that's mediocre into your body. You want the best source of fuel, right? You talked about the training for a bit. You're still training a couple days a week. I'm curious. I have, uh, ashley hueta, who we had on the show uh a few months back. Now she's in new zealand. She is the world bench press equipped record holder. I'm curious have you ever used equipped bench pressing? What does that look like? Do you have any thoughts, feelings around that?
Speaker 1:well, I think it's great. Um, I never got into it myself. The only time I ever I did try it once, like, uh, I use like a bench shirt, just like a uh, you know, and there's a lot of stuff I've used in my training like slingshots and stuff like that, but no, I never got into equipped. Um, I don't know, I just, I, I never. It never really struck my fancy. I guess, right, especially with the squats and then having your knees wrapped so tight, it just even looked more painful than what powerlifting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I only bring it up because you asked or you mentioned the fact that you have women that you help with now, especially in your forties, like being able to help them out. What are some actionable tips that they can do today, this next month? Here we're at the 1st of June this episode will come out a couple of days later. What are some of those actionable tips that you provide to women who are in their 40s or 50s, who are struggling to maybe lose that extra couple pounds?
Speaker 1:Well, I think the number one thing't don't put so much pressure on yourself, and I think that's what is that famous expression is progress, not perfection and I always you know, because when I first started I was like, oh, how come I'm not losing weight, uh, how come I'm not?
Speaker 1:like my coach kept saying just give it time, give it three months, so you're gonna see some results. So I I would just say to women that want to make any little tweaks or changes in their life, just to not to put too much pressure on themselves to see automatic results. Just it's almost like my addiction, right, like um with drinking it's you have to look at it as one day at a time. You just have to go one day at a time and those days add up and you're going to see the progress. And so I would just say like, hey, if you want to quit, I mean for anyone that wants to lose weight, I, my number one thing is to get rid of the alcohol, because people don't understand, they think oh, shuts your body down yeah, I'm gonna have a white glass.
Speaker 1:Glass of white wine, oh, it's dry wine, not much sugar. Alcohol is pure sugar. It doesn't matter about the calories. What have you? And if, if women have just one glass of wine, your body is going to be burning that wine off before you burn any food off. So just remember when you're munching at night and having the wine and you're watching the bachelor and then you're starting to have some potato chips, um, go for an herbal tea, go for some water or go for a walk, but little steps, like going for a walk every day, like there's actually studies. You would know that if you like, walking on an incline or just going for a walk every day also helps with your longevity. But it's way better on your joints than going and thinking. You have to go run the miles. You don't like muhammad ali, but that's exercise, it's walking, it's the way you're going to get healthy, right?
Speaker 1:So I would just say take little baby steps Like take the alcohol out, take the sugar, anything processed out of your diet. Like you know, stick to whole foods. That's basically what I do today. I'm not on the carnivore diet anymore, I'm basically just a paleo whole foods person.
Speaker 2:okay, you know how was the carnivore diet? What was that experience like? Because I know peterson.
Speaker 1:His daughter, more specifically michaela is, like you know had her life changed yeah, she has some medical issues and that's why she had to go on it. But the whole family, uh, the petersons, are all on the carnivore diet. They actually got pierre polyev on the diet too, so that's why that's how he lost all his weight. But, um, I liked it at first but then I was like, oh, I just, I can't just do, you know, the beef and that, like I was doing, and I started incorporating. I did eggs, obviously, but I, I need vegetables, like I just love my vegetables. Um, and I, and so I started doing the modified carnivore diet and that worked better for me. So I literally cut out how I lost 50 pounds. I cut out obviously no sugars. The only sugar I would have would be some fruit, uh, some berries, or an apple or a pear other than that.
Speaker 1:It's basically it was meat vegetable um, a lot of eggs, like sometimes I would have 10 eggs a day, and that's enough people. You can have as many eggs as you want yeah, I've told them.
Speaker 2:I uh, I was. I was at a point of like 8 to 12 per day here for the past few months. Like it's there's. Their nature is superfood. They're a multivitamin, yeah, especially if you're active. They've been demonizing cholesterol for uh, far too long now. It's crazy, I, yeah. When, when the food pyramid came out and all that information, I uh, I started questioning a lot more things. Yeah, but you know, I still have a podcast where I bring on the experts to let them uh share their knowledge and then I just ask pointed questions, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and because I wasn't having, so I wasn't having carbohydrates, so because I wasn't having, this was before I started having the fruit. I was more on a keto diet, really.
Speaker 1:I basically was having a lot of meat eggs and I knew I wasn't having carbohydrates, but I knew the fuel that I would have high fat cottage cheese. I would have high fat milk. I'm having the good fats right. Like, obviously I don't eat. I don't eat seed oils either. I just stick to coconut oil or olive oil or avocado or olive oil. So um cause I I do find that really helps with my inflammation of my body is staying away from all the bad oils. Helps with my inflammation of my body is staying away from all the bad oils, like no vegetable oils or canola palm oil stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it's amazing how just eliminating the processed foods can be the biggest game changer for your body, physically and mentally. Frankly, like I have, it's difficult in this day and age to eliminate all processed foods. But if you're diligent, even for a week, and you just say, hey, if this didn't come from an animal or off a tree or somewhere naturally in this world, then I'm not going to eat it. You would be amazed, a at how you feel. B at how much less money you spend and see the benefits that come from your body. Physically, like, you're probably going to put on more muscle because your body's not actually breaking that processed food down. It's actually absorbing the nutrients from the steak or the crown beef or whatever you're consuming. Yeah, I feel like I could talk all day about this, about April. It's a. This is the stuff that gets me going.
Speaker 1:I know I'm the same way and it's just like, um, and a lot of people don't understand too the processed food like has all that salt, right? That's why you're gonna like you're gonna retain so much water too if you start eating the processed stuff too.
Speaker 2:So I mean, I remember when I, when I first started going on the diet, I lost 10 pounds just so quickly because it was like just a lot of water from from the processed food crap like right the sodium and yeah yeah, it's amazing how cholesterol and sodium were super demonized, yet both are essential for us to survive and to perform at our best.
Speaker 2:Like cholesterol directly turns into a hormone, sodium direct performance in the gym. If you take some prior to like and if you eliminate processed foods, then you actually need to incorporate sodium into your diet, like salting your foods a little bit, maybe a little half a teaspoon, before you work out. Try that. Those benefits crazy. But again, it's because of antiquated, whether it's research or people sharing that knowledge or information. Uh, the general pop suffers because there isn't this discourse, there isn't conversations being had around these potentially positive or negative things that we're putting into our body and ultimately, at least we've got you here, april, that we can count on for the integrity, for being able to bring out these and have these tough conversations yeah, well, that's.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was powerlifting I would drink um, I'd have a two-liter thing there to fill it with salt. I I put salt in my water, so I would drink actually salt water while. I was part of the thing. But even today I wake up and I have, before I have anything, before I even have my coffee. I have a warm cup of water with lemon. I put sometimes apple cider vinegar, but I put a teaspoon of sea salt or sea salt or pink Himalayan.
Speaker 2:And that's my drink in the morning so nice, yeah, pink Himalayan, and that's my drink in the morning. So nice, yeah, I've heard Celtic is really good, the Celtic sea salt too. I haven't had that, do you? I'm on the Himalayan pink, but I should get the Celtic too, that's my next.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the best. We have all the different, like flavored ones too, but Celtic, I think, is my favorite for sure okay, okay, that's what I'm going to next.
Speaker 2:I uh, I have my stacks. Like I'm on to 10 grams of creatine now instead of five. Did you see that research? You see, you've jacked that up too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just started to. I so funny you mentioned that. So, and that's another thing. So, obviously, with my PBL sponsorship too, because we sell the creatine, I'm always pumping up like because they have really good creatine. It's all micronized um and it's also like everything there is super clean and super pure like, and I actually used it um during my canadian powerlifting time because, um, it's informed choice, so there's no but, but anyways, I I just recently read that too and I started upping.
Speaker 1:I'll take five grams in the morning, then five grams later, but um I mix it with my collagen and I take a green strength every day, so I kind of just mix it all in later. But, um, I mix it with my collagen and I take a greens drink every day, so I kind of just mix it all in together. But, um, yeah, I really started taking it just for cognitive health like to be honest um, it was.
Speaker 1:It obviously helps with my explosiveness, my power, my muscles, everything like that, but I, I, I was like, hey, I getting older and I read the studies about A. It helps with menopausal with menopause, but it also helps with your brain health. So I love nootropics. I've been studying mushrooms and nootropics like crazy. I'm a nootropics freak, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:Tell me more. I've been getting my mom, adult, older females in my life onto the creatine grain, but what's the nootropics? Tell me more about the mushrooms.
Speaker 1:Well, nootropics, just like the lion's mane it's really good. I mean, that's been in supplements for a while. I take this product called Five Defenders. And it's lion's mane. It's got your maitake shiitake. It's got, I think, five different mushrooms in it. But I mean, there's been so many studies where mushrooms, mushrooms are a food group on its own. It's not even considered like, obviously, a vegetable right. So I actually went last summer I did some foraging myself for my own mushrooms, which is cool.
Speaker 1:Because I'm just. They're just especially when you're carnivore too right, Like I was eating steaks with mushrooms. What a combination.
Speaker 1:It's delicious, but anything for brain health. I mean, at this age, right, you kind of need all the help that you can get. But all these studies are coming out. So I mean lion's mane number one for sure, but mushrooms anyways. If you go to any acupuncture, like any Chinese acupuncture in any major city you would have one in Vancouver the top things that they have are different types of mushrooms. That basically has been their naturopathic way for so long, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there was an old Joe Rogan episode about some guy who was talking about mushrooms. He's like I can't even tell you the details about mushrooms and I can't even remember the episode, but I'm I've. He was like I can't go into the details or else the fbi will be onto us and like it's, apparently there's a lot of background on mushrooms and the benefits, so apparently it's been hidden for decades. But it probably wouldn't surprise me because you know they were it's just no.
Speaker 1:And that's very interesting that you say that because again, I I tell people, go, go to your local acupuncture, like I'm talking, like the chinese medicine, their top things are. I remember when my mother had um, not breast cancer, she had brain cancer. This was back in 2001. So think, think about it 24 years ago and I went to see doctors and I studied what can I give my mother to help shrink her tumor? And I had stage four.
Speaker 1:I guess what the number one thing was. It was shiitake mushrooms, mataki mushrooms they all have a study. To help with breast cancer, definitely an immune system booster, but yeah, definitely help with breast cancer. Or to definitely get an immune system booster, but yeah, definitely, um, have you seen callie and casey means?
Speaker 2:have you seen them? What they've been doing? Uh, down in the us? It's uh, they were on, uh, my first million, I believe. A couple other episodes anyway. He, she was just appointed as the I don't know health and safety food someone for the US. I can't remember I'm butchering it, I'll put it into the intro, but essentially they were looking at again the food pyramid and how, basically, since Rockefeller changed medicine and basically started pushing Western medicine onto us instead of natural homeopathic remedies to cure, whether it's diseases, infections, whatever, like we've, we've been on a path where western medicine is great at putting a band-aid on things but ultimately not identifying the source of the problem and fixing it from its core. Ie like food, what you're putting in your body, right?
Speaker 1:so it's amazing we can get into a whole new talk about this. The government I swear the government, I mean it's there's. I mean the government just wants to kill off society like we had. Yeah, we have the covid vaccines, first of all. Uh, we have the upside down food pyramid. Um, I mean, doctors aren't even educated to give you a nutritional device, so don't even ask them. But then you, you know, even now we have MAID, which is assisted suicide that they're giving to teenagers, to mentally ill people.
Speaker 1:So where's the love from the government? Where is the psychological treatment and where is the? Even just they don't push the psychological help, or it's just like they seem to go okay, well, here's this drug, here's that drug, push the drug, but not psychological help. In my city, all those hospitals have basically been torn down, but no, it's like they're educating you backwards the wrong way. And now actually everything's come to light now, with obviously Robert Kennedy Jr in the face. I mean we need that here in Canada, wrong way. And now actually everything's come to light now, with obviously robert kennedy jr like in the face.
Speaker 2:I mean we need that here it's hey, we're trying, we're trying here with the athletes podcast, with april hutchinson, hey, we're doing our, we're picking away bit by bit, but it ultimately it's proven that you have to take it into your own hands, like you need to make your own decisions, you need to do your own research. You need to know what works best for your body at that moment, what you're going through. Whether you're trying to, you know, deadlift 500 pounds, whether you're trying to run a marathon, whether you're trying to be the best pickleball player in the world, you know, whatever your goals are, you should be fueling or, you know, putting whatever into your body to make you successful, and ideally that's probably not processed foods. But, um, I again could talk about this all day april. I'm getting jazzed up. Now I feel like we're at the end of this combo and I'm just getting started.
Speaker 2:Maybe we'll we'll do a part two when you're in victoria. Um, we'll drive over there. Get you into the jeep, because pioneer auto groups gives us this amazing jeep. We should get you in there at least once. Show you off, drive around victoria. It's beautiful over there. And, as someone who's listened to the athletes podcast, before you know, we wrap up by asking our guests their biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes, as our goal is to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation. So, april, after what has been an enthralling 54 minutes and 57 seconds so far, I'd love to have you take the last few minutes with the floor to share your biggest piece of advice for the next gen.
Speaker 1:I think my biggest piece of advice, especially at my age, now that I'm in my 40s, is like if you're 20, 30, 40, whatever the age is and you want to make changes to your life or get into a sport, don't let fear run your life. You can do it and you can do it, and you can do it at any age. Um, I mean, we all get social anxiety or anxiety, like I was actually anxious joining the pickleball club, but I was like, once I did it, I freaking loved it and I'm addicted to it, right. So just find something you have always wanted to do or love, whether that's go walking five times a week with a partner or both, you know, just take that plunge, because I tell you, you're just going to love it and your, your body's just going to benefit from it. So, and like I said, everything's a one day at a time thing. Whether you want to lose weight, drop an addiction, quit sugar, what have you just remember, you can do it.
Speaker 1:I mean, look at me, I literally survived like I was, like I was at the. I almost died from my addiction, right, and I turned my life around. It was hard and I mean that was a pretty horrible time. So I'm just saying there's people out there that don't even have to go through that addiction part. You can just literally just call up a friend and say hey, let's go to yoga together tonight. But just take that plunge, don't let fear run your life. And that plunge Don't let fear run your life. And you know what? You have one life to live. Live it.
Speaker 2:Be the best version of yourself. Amazing April Hutchinson. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I can't thank you enough, sincerely appreciate what you've been doing, your advocacy work. I can't wait to continue following along supporting you. We'll see you in Victoria in just over a month and we'll keep in touch when we're in Toronto. You got Richie Bulbrook in your backyard too, in London, canada's number one skateboarder. We just had him on the show a few weeks ago too. Well, yeah, hey, we're getting the London crew in town. Hey, it's great, um April. Thank you again so much.
Speaker 1:Can't thank you enough you're welcome to come to London anytime well, we'll swing there.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I'm'm going to be as good on the skateboard as Richie would be, but maybe we'll go to the weight room and that'll be like our level playing field for all three of us. Just want to say thank you, folks, for tuning into the 260th episode of the athletes podcast today featuring april hutchinson. Big shout out goes to her for coming on the show sharing her story, being an advocate for women in sport, making sure that there is equality when it comes to competition, especially out here in BC, where I am currently Also. A shout out to our sponsor, perfect Sports Supplements. The code AP15 will save you 15%. More importantly, it will get you the best nutrients protein, creatine, collagen, glutamine, any supplement that you need. Perfect Sports is where you should be getting it from. Again, use the code AP15 at checkout and share with me on social media what you're taking.
Speaker 2:If you're trying a coffee crunch bar while you're watching marvel studios thunderbolts, maybe you're making it happen. Let me know down below in the comments and maybe I'll send you a free box of these coffee crunch bars. Thank you, folks for tuning in again. I sincerely appreciate it. Shout out to our producer, ryan lott, for putting this together. Hope you have a great rest of your day. I.
