Learn more about LIFEAID Beverage Co.—tucked away in the back of the old Santa Cruz Wrigley Building—where they create the clean recovery fuel of CrossFitters worldwide.
Tips and guidelines for finding the right recovery products for you, as well as a list of the top-ranked products of the year.
Perfect for the whole family, try these quick & easy Paleo-friendly dinners that you can whip up at home.
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Morning Chalk Up | Aug. 11, 2019 | By BRITTNEY KLEYN
Tucked away in the back of the old Santa Cruz Wrigley’s factory is a warehouse manufacturing the recovery fuel for CrossFitters.
Forty thousand free cans of FITAID were handed out at the 2019 CrossFit Games — a far cry from the humble beginnings of LIFEAID Beverage Co ten years ago.
“Orion and I met in a CrossFit gym back in 2009 in Santa Cruz and we had this crazy idea and launched LIFEAID in 2011,” said Aaron Hinde, co-founder of the company.
Aaron invited the Morning Chalk Up to the company’s headquarters which supplies LIFEAID products to around 30 percent of CrossFit boxes in America.
“In this warehouse that we’re in now we used to have a little tiny cage that held two pallets of product and that was it. It took us six months to sell through it, one can at a time slowly,” he said.
The company now employs 75 people full time, it’s growth a byproduct of two key factors according to the co-founder.
“The product but also the people and the relationships that we forged early on and nurtured, we still have those relationships nine years later.”
Aaron describes this as the “OG” – or “original gangster” parts of the community – that continue to propel the company forward.
LIFEAID’s evolving and has just started stocking each of their unique flavours in a monk fruit, stevia blend.
“We’re launching all of our entire line in the zero sugar format with no artificial sweeteners,” Aaron said.
This includes:
Aaron and Orion practice what they preach, concluding the tour with a personalised workout – “The Aussie” – in the team’s office gym set up like a mini, in-house affiliate.
Don’t ask me why a huffy, puffy 15-minute EMOM (5 wallballs, 5 pull-ups, 1 rope climb) reflects my Australian heritage, but let’s just say we earned our ice-cold FITAID which is always on tap at HQ.
“People feel comfortable cutting loose and know that we’re going to take good care of them,” Aaron said.
That’s certainly the case both in the U.S. and abroad. For example in Australia, LIFEAID Beverage Co is now stocked in approximately 70 percent of gyms.
For the company, now a major sponsor of the CrossFit Games, global engagement was the big takeaway from Madison, 2019.
Having naming rights to the ‘FITAID Lounge’ (formerly known as the Beer Garden) the company hosted the ‘One Ton Challenge’ drawing fitness personalities – names like CT Fletcher and Wes Kitts – who’d otherwise be unlikely to attend the Games.
“It was great to get a lot of international exposure it was fun to see all the different cultures there,” Aaron said.
“CrossFit is still alive and well with all the changes there was a little apprehension in the air, we weren’t really sure how it was going to shake out. At the end of the day the best athletes always rise to the top.”
“CrossFit, functional fitness, what we do, how we train, it’s going to be here I think forever, you can’t really go backwards,” Hinde said.
> > > Live well.
Aug. 3, 2019 by JESSICA DANGER | Morning Chalk Up
Hundreds of fans packed into the FITAID Lounge last night to watch about a dozen athletes take on the One Ton Challenge, an attempt at accumulating 2,000 total pounds over six lifts: back squat, deadlift, bench press, clean, jerk and snatch.
FITAID brought in the legendary C.T. Fletcher to emcee the first-of-its-kind event at the CrossFit Games. “It was fun doing something new…I can’t wait to come back to the Games,” Fletcher told the Morning Chalk Up. “Watching Wes Kitts throwing up big weights that powerlifters struggle with. It was amazing.”
“It’s nice to finally see some heavy barbells getting thrown around,” one fan told us during the event in passing.
Athletes like Wes Kitts, EZ Muhammad, Adrian Conway, Kristin Pope, Morghan King, Katie Cork and Logan Aldridge had 20 minutes to hit their max weight on squat, Bench, Deadlift, Snatch, Clean, and Jerk hoping to accumulate a total weight of 2,000 pounds for men and 1,200 pounds for women, earning themselves a spot in the One Ton Club.
Adrian Conway deadlifted 635 pounds for a 30 pound PR, “It was an amazing event and the environment led me to get all six lifts, which really are all PR’s within the last few years. It was absolutely created by the environment and the presence of C.T. Fletcher,” he told the Morning Chalk Up.
Kristin Pope snatched 195 pounds just two weeks after her training was interrupted by a health issue. “I snatched 195lbs in front of literally THOUSANDS of people cheering me on at the CrossFit Games! I’ve never had so much fun throwing around a barbell. Thank you for relighting my fire,” she wrote.
Wes Kitts, who won the men’s division, jerked 425 pounds and squatted 600 pounds while adaptive athlete Logan Aldridge deadlifted 445 pounds and cleaned 255 pounds, a five pound PR for him. Kitts told us in an interview, “I was just having a great time…Just came out to work out with some guys.”
The event was the product of a partnership between Aaron Hinde, Co-Founder and President of FITAID, and Anders Varner, Podcast and Director of Media at the Shrugged Collective.
On being the largest weightlifting event at the CrossFit Games this year, “This event has changed the trajectory of a few careers,” Hinde told Morning Chalk Up.
> > > Live well.
In an article published this past Sunday in San Jose's The Mercury News, LIFEAID co-founder and father of two Aaron Hinde shared the importance of educating our youth about the dangers of high caffeine levels in beverages and energy drinks. Here's the article:
Original article posted Oct. 18, 2018 by MORNING CHALK UP
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In short, Logan lost his left arm in a boating accident when he was 13 years old. But this guy isn’t one to just “survive” but thrive.
He currently holds the World Record for the most one arm/one leg push-ups in 1 minute and for most weight cleaned with one arm in 1 minute. He also boasts a 315 pound front squat and a 455 pound deadlift. He can also climb a rope with one hand, and yes, he has his sights on doing them legless.
You get the point.
So a few weeks back, Logan was competing in a Spartan Race when he approached the side-by-side rings across a moat. These are challenging even for strong athletes with two arms.
Logan has one, but that doesn’t matter to Logan.
“I did not complete this obstacle. I failed. But that was okay. ‘It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you fail by default.’ It is ‘impossible’ for me to complete a Spartan Race without failing at least one obstacle. That does not discourage me or reduce my confidence. It excites me! Failure is inevitable, so fail forward,” Logan wrote on Instagram.
Check out these photos, then be more like Logan.
> > > Live well.
