Finding Strength Through Struggles: Coach Blu on Team Addict II Athlete

Finding Strength Through Struggles: Coach Blu on Team Addict II Athlete

How do individuals turn their lives around after addiction? This conversation follows Coach Blu Robinson as he shares how chaos, trauma and early substance use led him towards a very different kind of future: founding Team Addict II Athlete. You’ll hear him talk frankly about growing up in poverty, constant house moves, violent stepfathers and discovering alcohol at 14.

A pivotal classroom exercise mapping his family tree leaves his peers in shock and his tutor telling him, “You really should talk about this more,” planting the seed that his history might have a purpose. Blu explains how working in youth treatment centres and driving teens to 12-step meetings sparked the idea that movement could be medicine.

Running marathons with his father-in-law showed him that, as he puts it, “movement equals healing”, and that physical effort can unlock emotions people can’t access in a chair across from a therapist. From there, he talks through the origin story of Team Addict II Athlete: a handful of clients who hated traditional meetings, training for a 5k, and ending up explaining recovery to the mayor after beating him in a race.

The idea grew into a community where people “erase the addiction and replace it with recreation, service, team, support” and call themselves champions rather than addicts. The tone stays raw but often funny, especially as Blu admits he once only ran from the police and had to learn what a marathon actually was. Yet it also goes straight into grief, including athletes lost to overdose and the temptation to quit after the death of a team member. His answer?

Lean into the resistance, accept that “we are the troops”, and keep showing up. If you’re in recovery, love someone who is, or you’re just tired of feeling defined by a single label, this story might help you ask: what else could you be besides your worst moment?