If you don’t know who I am, I’m Lorenzo Hernandez, owner and operator of Undisputed Fitness. I’ve owned Undisputed Fitness for the past seven years and couldn’t have done it without the incredible support and backing of people like you. Support comes in many forms, and for me, the most important thing is to believe in someone regardless of their past.
I wasn’t sure about that last part when I was released from prison in 2013. However, I knew that I was on this path for a reason, and if others didn’t accept me for who I was, I knew that wasn’t the right fit for me. No part of my story happened by mistake or by luck. It happened because I believed in what I could do and have had the support of others who believed, and still believe, that I am always capable of achieving more.. Finding this motivation took a lot of self-reflection when I was in the clink. I did extensive work through therapy at my last location, considering why I chose to live a lifestyle that had put me there and why I should never return to it. I couldn’t have done the work to get myself to where I am now without these avenues of support. Many of my friends didn’t have this kind of support coming out and still don’t.
Many do, however. After you read this, I hope you will understand the immense need for support from these fellows, ladies, and kids for people coming out of the system.
Let me begin with a short story. I met this guy, Logan Gelbrich, through a great friend and former owner of Undisputed Fitness, Tait. . I was on Tait’s podcast many moons ago after I was released, so Logan knew my back story from Tait. Logan owns Deuce Gyma gym in Venice, CA, and used to write for BOX magazine, a Crossfit-type mag for readers. Somehow, this magazine got into the hands of an inmate serving a life sentence. James and I corresponded for months after Logan connected us, talking about workouts in the context of being locked up. James and I eventually lost touch, but the impact of our correspondence started something more significant than Logan and I ever imagined. Logan, since then, has become one of my most important mentors in coaching, business, and leadership. Without Logan, my coaching wouldn’t be what it is today. The coaches that have come after me at Undisputed Fitness have benefited greatly from training under the leadership I learn daily with Logan’s guidance in this craft.
Later, Logan Gelbrich and Campbell Lillard connected through Logan’s educational seminars on leadership and chasing your dreams. Campbell, who served a 10-year sentence, had an itch to be the best of something and to learn the best from Logan. He couldn’t have seen what would come from this effort. Over time, Campbell grew into his new skin and was relentlessly curious about improving his place. He began coaching in TX, and mentoring/coaching for a sober, active community called The Phoenix (our Sunday yoga). Once he began seeing how he could improve other people’s lives through health and wellness, he leaped and applied for a position at Logan’s gym.
Campbell embraced his journey into a new state with Logan’s high-performing team. He kept grinding, learning, and connecting with people who needed help- the kind of help he required when no one was there to support him. Once he began connecting the dots, he started to share the story with Logan and many of us about how to get to the people who are often forgotten or don’t have the community resources to get to a better place in life. This was when Campbell and Logan began Deuce Community, where there is always a seat at the table if you’re hungry.
As Campbell and Logan started creating the board for the non-profit, Campbell and I built a relationship of trust and willingness, understanding we had both always strived to do the best we could with what we had. He asked if I would sit on the board since I had experience being inside and had found success after prison. He said when he was inside, he wished he had known success like this was possible on the outside because, at times, there is ZERO hope that things will be better on the outside.
Deuce Community is creating a space where anyone affected by the system, substance, or housing can come to Deuce Community and seek a new way. The commitment requires a letter of intent from each person describing why they want to change to become something they’ve always wanted to be. After they are approved, they go through the Deuce Education of Coaches Prep and Business 101, a course that offers training in skills that will help them achieve their goals in life, whether as a coach in the gym, as a business owner, or even just to gain an understanding of how to become more, with the support of the mentors we had always needed growing up.
Over the course of nearly 2 years, in addition to providing mentorship and leadership training, we have acquired a housing unit for individuals who meet the requirements to stay at this house. One of the biggest hurdles we encountered in running this program was that at the end of each session or day, participants would go back home to the neighborhood or housing they started in and be tempted by the old life, or with drugs and alcohol, which would bring them right back to the place they were trying to get away from. Deuce Community’s ability to offer housing exponentially increases the possibility of a new path forward for participants. As these last two years have passed, we’ve seen massive success in people’s recovery and have been blown away by the steps they have taken toward becoming more than they had ever thought possible. Many people like Joseph and David (stories linked below) have found success through this program.
Now, my story about my connection to this non-profit comes full circle. Deuce Community’s mission speaks to me in volumes. Having been locked up myself, I understand the river you must swim up to succeed in not making it back in. I know the only way to make change is to help others who struggle like Campbell and I did. So many of us fail because we don’t have the right mentors to keep us safe and out of the way of our own destruction. So to have access to a program, especially when you’re on the way out of a bad situation, searching for higher ground, is crucial to the person’s sense of self-worth and ultimate success. In the end, our country’s system isn’t designed to correct or change us for the better; it’s made to create more criminals and more prisons. We need programs like Deuce Community, run by people with lived experience, to create a new reality for our system-impacted population. Together, we are on the path toward this change.
If you would like to read more about Deuce Community, please check out the PDFs I’ve included and the videos of success stories. You can also visit the website at https://deucecommunity.org/.
Thank you for reading, and please consider donating to support this incredible program!
From the founders of Deuce Community – Logan and Campbell
Josephs Success Story
Deuce Community Housing Success