In this episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, I had the pleasure of sitting down with two members of Team USA at the CrossFit Games. We talk about their training, how they prepare for the Games, and what it's like to be a part of a team that competes at the Games every single day. We also talk about the challenges they face and how they approach training for the games. I think you're going to love this episode and I hope you do too! -Joe Rogan Podcast -The Joe Rogans Experience -Training by Day -By Night -All Day All Day Thanks for listening and Happy Training! -Podcasting by Night, Joe RogAN Experience Check it out! -Training By Day, Training By Night, All Day! -PODCASTING by Night -Training Day, Train By Day -By Evening, Training by Night! -I hope you guys enjoy this episode, and don't forget to check out the rest of the episodes on my YouTube channel, Train by Day, by Night. If you like what you hear, tweet me or text Me! and let me know what you thought of it! I'll be checking out the next episode! Timestamps: 5:00 - 6:30 - 8:15 - 9:00 -10:00 | 11:30 -16:15 -17:30 | 18:00 // 19:00 / 22:00 +23:30 / 24:00/25:00 ~ 27:30 +28:00 = 30:00 ? 35:00? 36:00+37:00 & 39:00 @ 40:00?? 39:40 40:40 +40:00 Or 45:00 or 45:40 / 45:30 ? 45:20 46:00 , 47:40 ? ? 47:00???? 48:00 Is that a good day? , 46:40 & 47:10 51:40/46:00 # , 45 + 47:50 56:00 . 52:55 ? ? , 47 :00 , 48:40? ? , 55 & 45 + +56 58 47 + , , 56 57 54 )
00:00:49.000So, like, the games are, like, the big competition, and it's, like...
00:00:53.000It's a wild show because sometimes it's five days, sometimes it's three days, and we'll have usually between 12 and 15 events over those days.
00:01:03.000Do they let you know in advance what you're going to have to do?
00:01:06.000We might find out an event, sometimes a week or two ahead, but then we'll have others where we're literally finding out the event as we go, as we're competing.
00:01:17.000So we don't even know what we're doing on the competition floor.
00:04:20.000Like, my goal was to go to the Olympics for weightlifting.
00:04:24.000And then that didn't pan out and, like, started focusing on school.
00:04:29.000And then I just kind of, I guess, just gained the freshman 15. So I was like, alright, I either need to start working out again or change my diet.
00:04:37.000So I was like, oh, I'll start working out.
00:04:41.000And, you know, trying to find an Olympic weightlifting gym is like a needle in a haystack.
00:05:49.000This would be back in 2012. So anyways, I won the competition, got a couple hundred bucks, and was like, Yo, this is kind of cool, like, just pocket money for a college kid.
00:06:01.000Like, are there more competitions like this?
00:06:02.000And so they showed me where to find these competitions, and I just kind of started driving around the Northeast, like, all of New England.
00:06:08.000And if there was prize money at a competition, I was signing up.
00:06:12.000And so I basically looked at it like a part-time job of, like, while I'm in school full-time and broke...
00:06:21.000I was like, alright, if I want to keep winning these competitions, I need to work on my weaknesses, get better, and then just kind of fell in love with it.
00:06:27.000And it just ratcheted up Bit by bit until I'm at the World Championships and I'm like, oh shit, how did I get here?
00:06:35.000And then you won over and over and over again, which is crazy.
00:06:40.000It's a weird start, man, to something that you not just excelled at.
00:06:44.000I mean, I think you're the winningest guy ever, right?
00:06:46.000Yeah, I've been on the podium seven times and I've won it the last five years.
00:08:09.000Have you ever seen those heat packs that have the little clicky thing in them?
00:08:12.000It was that's what it felt like when it like clicked and then it's just like the inflammation just spreading and and so you know go to my room lay down for a couple days and then you know it was it was oh I knew something was wrong like I've never had an injury like that you know I couldn't move Did you get an x-ray?
00:08:34.000Did you get an MRI? No, because it was like...
00:08:36.000I was leaving for the competition in like two weeks, so it was like too late to call the alternate to replace me.
00:08:43.000So do they know that you're this injured?
00:10:18.000So he had this outside pressure to produce an athlete, whether it was the right way or wrong way.
00:10:25.000Isn't that fucked up, that statement that you just said, but I know it to be true, when you said the USA is one of the few countries that competes clean?
00:12:36.000Yeah, I was reading this thing about Bruce Jenner where they were talking about all the shit that they gave him when he was winning the decathlon and they gave shit to...
00:12:44.000Apparently post when it was post the Eastern Europeans winning a lot of weightlifting competitions and then it was clear that they were experimenting with different kinds of steroids.
00:13:06.000I remember reading these journal entries from the lifters and some...
00:13:12.000They were bolting the bars to the ground or to squat racks, and they would take the drugs and then just push on the bars as hard as they can.
00:13:22.000Because their theory was like, the heaviest bar you can lift is the one you cannot.
00:15:49.000And, like, if you're leaving for the airport at, like, 4.50, you'll see someone sitting outside the dorm room just, like, looking at their watch, waiting for 5 a.m.
00:18:35.000Like those IV bars that like they just jam-pack it full of vitamins and whatever like these super doses and it's like started it's like a hangover cure right?
00:18:44.000And I remember that was getting pitched like other people around me were doing them and they're like you should do this and I'm like all right my livelihood depends on not breaking the rules so I'm like And I'm contacting people at CrossFit like, hey, is this allowed?
00:18:58.000And it's like right there in the rulebook of like no IVs over 50 milliliters or something.
00:19:05.000It's equivalent to like a tablespoon or two tablespoons.
00:19:07.000So I was like, okay, that's not allowed.
00:19:52.000And you're like, uh-oh, that ain't good.
00:19:55.000But it's like, yeah, if you don't train for a long time and then you do a workout super high intensity and it's like one repetitive motion just over and over.
00:20:30.000It's interesting that that's a real thing that happens pretty often amongst people that do CrossFit.
00:20:36.000Yeah, I think it's probably more towards the beginners.
00:20:40.000Because now when I train, I don't even get sore.
00:20:43.000So it's just people that are out of shape that try to do something that you would do.
00:20:47.000Yeah, and if it's not a well-programmed workout, where it's just like, all right, we're doing a thousand thrusters for time, and it's going to tear your quads.
00:20:55.000It's like, no, no one should be doing that type of workout.
00:20:57.000But I'm sure it's the same as if I just jumped in on Cam Haynes' running routine when I've done no building up to...
00:21:05.000I have no business running a marathon every day.
00:21:08.000So yeah, if I'm just jumping in a workout that I'm not prepared for...
00:21:11.000Well, yeah, it's going to fuck you up.
00:21:14.000When someone says that it takes you six months to recover from a marathon, there should be an asterisk if you're not conditioned to run marathons.
00:21:38.000And in CrossFit, when you talk about someone doing a thousand thrusters, is a workout, are they scheduled by the people that run, they call them boxes, right?
00:21:59.000We used to watch CrossFit fail videos from weightlifting.
00:22:03.000When I started CrossFit, I didn't tell any of my weightlifting buddies until they saw me on ESPN. And I was getting texts or phone calls and they're like, hey, so I was watching TV today and you do CrossFit now?
00:22:34.000So if they go to those CrossFit gyms, are the workouts, like when they have the workout of the day, is that workout scheduled by the person who runs the gym?
00:22:55.000So there's no regulations on the equipment, programming, coaching, nothing.
00:23:01.000So I came from a gym in Vermont, Champlain Valley, that I thought that was my first experience with the CrossFit gym.
00:23:09.000And it was this huge gym, amazing coaches that cared about the fundamentals, had amazing programming.
00:23:17.000They put thought into every aspect of it.
00:23:21.000And then I remember visiting other gyms that it's like, I mean, it's like the size of this room, half the plates are broken, the coach is just a cheerleader, and I remember being like, wait, this is the same thing?
00:23:35.000So do you just have to pay a fee to be a CrossFit gym, or do you...
00:23:38.000I'm not 100% sure how it works, because I've never...
00:24:12.000I'm not just going to show up to your dusty garage.
00:24:14.000But what I would hope is that there's some sort of accreditation.
00:24:18.000If it's accredited and then you have workouts that have been thoughtfully put together so that you know that you're going to get a really good workout, a balanced workout and be safe.
00:24:46.000They want to give the customer the best experience they can.
00:24:50.000I was lucky enough that just by random chance, the first one I showed up to, if they have a class over whatever number of people, they have multiple coaches working.
00:25:00.000During the workout, the coaches aren't just cheerleading and telling people to go harder or go faster.
00:25:05.000It's like they're critiquing technique.
00:25:09.000I mean, that's where I hit the ground running coming into the sport was I have this background in Olympic weightlifting, so I know how to move my body correctly.
00:25:18.000So it's like I came in like leaps and bounds ahead of so many people because I didn't have to work For years and years to build this foundation.
00:27:40.000Like, I've done everything in the space that I wanted to do.
00:27:43.000Now I want to pursue some of these other things that I've put on hold.
00:27:47.000And you know, like, my whole life has revolved around this for seven, eight years now of, you know, not traveling, not going out to meals, not hanging out with friends.
00:27:58.000It's like, no, like, from eyes open to eyes closed revolves around this.
00:28:03.000So when we talked about meals, you said you don't like eating breakfast, but what would a breakfast be for you when you were in peak form?
00:28:09.000I mean, the typical, like, probably four eggs, four or five strips of bacon, bagel, cream cheese, bowl of oatmeal, bowl of fruit, big jug of water.
00:28:41.000Yeah, I can't believe more people don't take it.
00:28:44.000Like, I found where I could buy it just on its own, like, not mixed in a pre-workout, and just kept it in my gym bag, just like a scoop before every training session.
00:28:53.000What do you think beta-alanine does for you?
00:28:56.000It makes me feel like I have a third lung.
00:29:47.000So much of CrossFit is just like, alright, A, who can spike their heart rate and keep it there the longest, and then who can hold off the lactic acid the longest.
00:29:55.000And when you would take beta-alanine, what dose, like, what's the...
00:30:03.000People that are so meticulous about their supplements and their training are probably screaming right now.
00:30:08.000Even at the games, every year, everyone has their prepackaged food.
00:30:14.000They're weighing out their chicken, their white rice, their broccoli, and I'm just scarfing down Snickers bars.
00:30:20.000As soon as I come off the floor, I worked with experts in each of these divisions of this guy who trains triathletes.
00:30:28.000He's a scientist that shows these guys how to be optimal.
00:30:33.000And he's the one telling me, he's like, yo, if you're doing a 60-minute workout, like Coca-Cola and a Snickers bar, as soon as you're done, Isn't that crazy?
00:32:58.000I mean, not only am I coming into the sport with lifts that are like I'm already messing with the top guys, but now I know how to move my body efficiently.
00:33:09.000So a lot of times if you see these guys in longer workouts where it has 30 snatches at the end of it or just this high-volume Olympic lifting, by the end of the workout, they're moving differently.
00:33:24.000They're not catching the bar as efficiently, so it's crashing on them.
00:33:28.000For me, it doesn't matter if it's the start of the workout, end of the workout.
00:33:32.000I may catch the bar lower, I may have less pull, but the movement's identical.
00:33:38.000I just have this huge advantage coming in that whether I'm fresh, tired, sore, I only know how to snatch a bar one way.
00:33:48.000Would you advise a young person, if you ran into someone and they said, I want to be a CrossFit champion, would you say get into Olympic lifting first?
00:33:56.000I don't think it's necessary to do pure dedicated Olympic weightlifting first.
00:34:02.000I think it's a necessity to do pure dedicated Olympic weightlifting and doing it properly.
00:34:10.000Because so many times you'll see people like, oh, what's your workout today?
00:34:22.000Because a lot of people are like, what the fuck is he talking about?
00:34:24.000Yeah, I mean, like, a lot of people just like...
00:34:27.000If you're trying to bench 315, you don't just go into the gym every single day and take a whack at benching 315. It's like you start at a lower number and doing a shitload of reps, and then you're tapering, you're cutting down the volume, you're increasing the weight, you're working off percentages to build up to that heavy single.
00:34:46.000So, I mean, like, when I did weightlifting, I mean, you're working most of the time between 70-80% of your max lifts, just dialing in that technique and, like, making sure you know how to move with weight.
00:34:59.000And I remember coming into CrossFit with my background, I'm like...
00:35:04.000Wait, you guys are just going heavy every day?
00:35:10.000You're not learning how to move this weight properly.
00:35:12.000It was a huge advantage coming in with my background.
00:35:15.000Not only knowing how to move the weights in those specific lifts, but then even with the kipping movements for pull-up bars or muscle-ups, I know how to move my body by using...
00:35:29.000I'm using my hips like I'm getting that pop out of my hips to get up over the bar and so I just knew how to move a little bit more efficiently and so it was a huge advantage coming in.
00:35:40.000Do you think it's better because it seems to me that if you came in with a strong cardio base like as a triathlete or something like that that it would be harder to put the strength on Versus someone like you comes in with a strong muscle base,
00:37:22.000And it was just like I showed up, one of the first competitions I did, or like anytime it showed up in like the class workout in the gym, I just got my doors blown off by everyone on the rower.
00:37:33.000And so I was like, okay, like if I want to get better, I need to figure...
00:37:59.000I mean it was just like I was throwing my shoulders back first movement pushing like so like dominant I'm pulling with my arms early and it's like you want to extend your legs first then your back and then follow through with your arms so it sounds so simple but like when you're in the movement it's just that you're thinking of a hundred different things at once and and so that sequence is just to be more efficient so you can go longer and further Yeah,
00:38:24.000I think, you know, it's a very unnatural feeling.
00:38:27.000Because, you know, like, for me, it's like my quads are my most dominant muscle.
00:38:30.000So I want to use that the most for the pull.
00:38:33.000And it's like, no, like, you want to hinge, just like a clean, like you extend your legs first, and then your back, you know, like you want to stay over the bar.
00:40:19.000Like, I mean, it was a big thing with, I wanted to end my CrossFit career without a limp or like some injury that dictated, like, I wanted to choose my retirement.
00:40:28.000I didn't want to be told like, oh yeah, you're retired, you know, your knees are blowing out, you're whatever.
00:40:35.000But no, I've always tried to train smart.
00:41:39.000But then, like, by the end of a mile run, it's like, sometimes I'm taking a breath every other step, sometimes every third, whatever it was.
00:41:46.000So the foot position when I land, where my foot's striking in relevance to my body, my cadence.
00:41:54.000I think my cadence was super slow when we sped it up.
00:41:58.000Actually using the ball on my foot because weightlifting is just all heel, heel, heel.
00:42:03.000And then changing my breathing cadence.
00:42:06.000And then finding, all right, where's the bottleneck in my running?
00:42:10.000Are my lungs not strong enough to expand to take in more air?
00:47:56.000I remember, like, there was a sports bar in Colorado that, like, the owner contacted the wrestling team and said, anytime you guys want to watch the UFC fights, like, you got a table here.
00:48:05.000And, uh, so all the wrestlers would get together and I would just, and, like, you show up and it's all, like, the tap-out gear and affliction, like, everyone, they all got invisible lat syndrome in the bar.
00:48:14.000And then I would just ride the coattails of all of Team USA and as they're coming in like Team USA wrestling gear and they all have cauliflower ear and it's like the crowd just fucking moved.
00:51:22.000I remember seeing him, and even when he fought, you see him, you're like, alright, he's a big dude, but he weighed in at 205. He can't be that astronomically big.
00:54:20.000Yeah, I think you have the combination of like the genetic freaks and then if you have a paycheck big enough at the finish line for anyone.
00:55:58.000I know very little on the topic, but it was people saying that he took the one hard, hard hit for the Steelers, and then his personality just...
00:56:39.000Yeah, Marcos Tomata, his nickname's Parampa, is the jiu-jitsu coach, one of the coaches for American Top Team, and he's yelling out, just punches, just punches.
00:56:48.000And then someone else in the coach is yelling Russian.
00:56:52.000In Russian, they're yelling to Piotr, yelling to hit him.
00:56:56.000And, you know, because he's thinking that the guy's...
00:56:59.000It's confusing to some fighters when is a downed opponent.
00:59:39.000Yeah, I think it says to be considered grounded.
00:59:42.000It says a more technical piece of the new rules pertains to that of a grounded opponent which states a fighter must have both of their hands down on the ground whether it be palms or fists for them to be considered grounded unless a knee or anything other than the soles kicks or knee strikes to the head of a grounded striker or a fighter rather Okay,
01:00:51.000And I'm sure they're going to have a rematch, and the rematch will be super hyped up.
01:00:55.000But he had dropped Al Jermaine, and he had taken him down and tripped him, slammed him to the ground a few times, and it looked like he was in control of the exchanges.
01:02:45.000Yeah, who's this really super technical striker and he fought this destroyer, this Jan Blachowicz, who's the light heavyweight champion.
01:02:52.000So you got to see this really fast guy who's really good at fainting, setting traps for you against this fucking, just one of the most brutal knockout artists in the sport.
01:03:03.000Well, I remember seeing them face-to-face and being like, What the fuck are these two guys doing fighting each other?
01:03:08.000Like, this guy looks, like, hot his size.
01:04:57.000Bohovic is so thick, and his power is ridiculous.
01:05:02.000To put it into perspective, Jon Jones, who's the greatest of all time, he fought this guy Dominic Reyes.
01:05:08.000Dominic Reyes went five rounds with Jon Jones, and it was a really close fight to the point where some people thought that Reyes should get the decision.
01:05:16.000Bohovic blew Dominic Reyes out in two rounds.
01:07:46.000They caught him and captured him seven times and finally...
01:07:49.000He made it all the way across to Spain where they put him in jail for two years.
01:07:53.000So he's in jail in Spain for two months rather, not two years, because the whole thing took 14 months.
01:08:01.000So it took him a year to get to Morocco, a year to finally get into Spain, then in Spain he was in jail for two months and then finally leaves Spain and makes his way to France.
01:08:10.000And lived in France as a homeless guy, literally sleeping in a parking lot and working out at a gym, and then finally starts fighting, and then makes his way to the United States.
01:08:19.000Now he's the number one UFC heavyweight contender.
01:08:22.000Yeah, I feel like after you do that, life's easy.
01:08:26.000It's like, yo, this whole thing ain't shit.
01:09:46.000He's another guy that puts people into...
01:09:48.000I mean, it's so easy to hear that someone weighs 265, because we all know a fat person that weighs 265, and you're like, oh, okay, it's not that.
01:10:11.000Yeah, and so John is now in the range of 250-plus pounds, and he's weightlifting.
01:10:19.000He's doing a lot of deadlifts and squats and just packing on the pounds as he gets ready to fight the winner of Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou.
01:10:28.000Yeah, I follow John, and I've actually chatted with him a bit.
01:10:33.000Like, I think it was like he hit me up and was like, hey, any pointers on this one thing?
01:12:37.000I just, like, I trained out of resentment coming back because so many people wrote me off of like, ah, you know, he broke his back, he's done.
01:12:44.000And so I basically just trained with, like, the fuck you mentality for, I mean, it was a year before I came back.
01:13:16.000I think it was like I came into CrossFit with enough of a knowledge base of how to train properly and not just like...
01:13:23.000Go hard, start flopping my body around.
01:13:25.000And I changed how I trained over the years because early on, I was still young and I could get away without doing a warm-up or a cool-down or kind of cutting those corners.
01:13:36.000And then it started catching up with me.
01:13:38.000So I was like, okay, if I want to make this a career, I need to take it more seriously.
01:13:44.000I mean, I tore my LCL. Warming up for an event, but I was just doing, like, the pigeon stretch, like, where you put your foot up on a table, and you're, like, kind of pulling...
01:18:27.000Bodybuilding products that contain selective androgen receptor modulators, or SARMs, have not been approved by the FDA and are associated with serious safety concerns.
01:18:35.000Well, that sounds like it's written by a bitch.
01:19:02.000All SARMs are prohibited at all times, both in and out of competition, for all athletes, from those competing at the highest level of sport to those competing at the recreational level.
01:19:12.000SARMs are listed in the category of other anabolic agents under, what does it say, S1.2 of the WADA prohibited list.
01:19:22.000Yeah, I don't mess around with that shit.
01:19:25.000Even if I go in to the doctor because I'm sick and he'll give me a script and I'm like, hey, you need to write me three scripts and then I call the drug testing.
01:20:08.000Like, you know, people, they get your address and stuff just starts showing up.
01:20:12.000Or even like sponsors that are like, you know, if I'm talking to a new something, a company, they're like, I want to, they want to just send you their products to try.
01:20:21.000And it's like, How do I know you're not sabotaging me?
01:20:25.000How do I know you're not on that dude's team over there?
01:20:35.000Have you ever heard of that happening?
01:20:37.000I've heard of people maybe using it as an excuse of like, you know, the tainted supplements or like, oh, this protein was mixed in a vat that was used for this other thing.
01:21:04.000He's a chemist, apparently, and just brilliant at breaking down what the effects of supplements are, and different steroids, and how they work, and He's just brilliant.
01:22:10.000And he was showing how it's possible for fighters to cheat and how even though they think that the USADA protocol is super sophisticated, it's really not.
01:22:41.000Yeah, and he's, again, his understanding of it is super sophisticated.
01:22:45.000So as he's breaking down this stuff, he's doing it like step-by-step, factual, according to science, according to the levels that they were tested at.
01:22:54.000Like some of the people in CrossFit, the excuses they're coming out with, it's like, where are you coming up with this shit?
01:24:04.000Yeah, and, like, I remember that excuse came out, and it's, like, did some research, and it's, like, tainted meat in Iceland was a thing, apparently.
01:28:02.000I think this last year I went to second place with $105,000.
01:28:06.000So like $300,000 is nothing to scoff at as an annual salary.
01:28:10.000But when you're rolling the dice, training all year at a maybe...
01:28:15.000I can get rough, especially if you twist your ankle on day one and you have to pull out.
01:28:22.000But I mean, coming from weightlifting where there is zero money coming to CrossFit, I remember my first couple contracts, they're like a grand a year, two grand a year type thing.
01:28:32.000I'm laughing all the way to the bank because I'm like, holy shit, you're going to give me $1,000 and free protein?
01:28:42.000Well, that's why it was funny for you to just enter into these competitions, just to pick up a couple hundred bucks here.
01:28:46.000Yeah, the first competition was like 500 bucks, and the next one was like a grand, and then it's like 2 grand, 4 grand, 10 grand, and it's like...
01:28:54.000Next thing you know, you're the world champion.
01:30:30.000Like, I won, like, junior nationals and shit like that.
01:30:34.000But, like, I never made a world team or, like, the senior world team or had any records or anything.
01:30:39.000But, I mean, like, yeah, you know, working out in the dingy basement, you know, you're making this weight set just work because it's what you have.
01:30:46.000You know, it's not, there's no other option.
01:30:47.000So it's like, there's no, like, I wish I could have this better, this better.
01:31:15.000There's a couple projects in the works of as soon as I announced my retirement, a lot of it was because I was like, alright, I've put so much of my life on hold to just Strike while it was hot.
01:31:27.000Alright, I'm ready to do other shit other than just these killer rowing intervals and going to bed at a bedtime, a wake-up time, all this shit.
01:31:38.000You know, so the first thing I did was like started release my programming.
01:31:42.000You know, I've played my cards so close to my chest for so long because I was like, I'm doing shit that I know other people aren't doing in my training.
01:31:52.000So I don't want to tell people about it.
01:31:53.000And it's like every other CrossFit athlete, every time they hit a PR, they do something new.
01:31:58.000They post about it on Instagram to get some likes.
01:32:24.000But it was just like they already did it for powerlifting, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, bodybuilding, like uber successful in that side.
01:32:35.000And then I'm like, I don't want to mess around with a website.
01:32:38.000I don't want to mess around with inputting all this data.
01:32:42.000I'm good at programming, and I know how to do that well.
01:32:45.000So here you go, and then you do your thing.
01:32:50.000Yeah, so doing that with Hybrid down in Miami.
01:32:54.000Partnered up with some buddies that have been in the CrossFit space for a long time for a sports nutrition company.
01:33:00.000Some people from the sports nutrition world, some people that have been in the CrossFit space for a long time.
01:33:06.000It just seemed like a fun project to do.
01:33:08.000We're like, hey, let's see what we can build this thing into.
01:33:12.000So that's getting launched in a couple months.
01:33:14.000Yeah, just kind of like I had all these opportunities and I don't know how to manage my time because I've only done this one thing for so long.
01:33:25.000And so as soon as I announced my retirement, all these opportunities flooded.
01:33:30.000And I was like, I'm going to pick my two favorite, take these.
01:33:33.000Alright, put everything else on the back burner.
01:33:36.000I was like, let me figure out these two things.
01:33:38.000And once the ball's rolling on them, I'll pick up the next two things.
01:33:43.000Did you know before you entered into the last world championship that that was going to be your last one?
01:41:47.000Living in Tennessee for the last couple years, coming from Vermont, Tennessee, if they were expecting frost the next morning, they would cancel school.
01:41:57.000And coming from Vermont, I'm like, what are you talking about?
01:41:59.000I remember being at the bus stop with snow drifts taller than me and you just shiver and you're miserable.
01:42:05.000And then it's like, once you realize, oh, they don't have plows, they don't have roads, none of the houses are equipped for this, nothing.
01:46:36.000I mean, I don't know if it's an education thing, if they're more intelligent, or if they're just, you know, kids that did sports and stuff.
01:46:41.000I think it probably just has a lot to do with the natural landscape, too.
01:47:43.000There was an epidemic of hookworm in the South where people would walk around barefoot, they'd get these parasites that would get into their body, and they would radically affect cognitive function.
01:47:56.000And it legitimately made them exhausted and stupid.
01:49:27.000And an impenetrable haziness of the mind that some called stupidity.
01:49:31.000Adults neglected their fields and children grew pale and listless.
01:49:36.000Victims developed grossly distended bellies and angel wings, emaciated shoulder blades accentuated by hunching, all gazed out dully from sunken sockets with a telltale fish-eyed stare.
01:49:51.000I mean, think about any movie that's making fun of deep South Southerners.
01:50:01.000Yeah, and the culprit behind the germ of laziness, as the South's affliction was sometimes called, was, how do you say that, Nicator Americanis, the American murderer, better known today as Hookworm.
01:50:14.000Millions of those blood-sucking parasites lived, fed, multiplied, and died within the guts of up to 40% of the population, stretching from southeastern Texas to West Virginia.
01:50:25.000Hookworms stymied development throughout the region and bred stereotypes about lazy, moronic southerners.
01:51:26.000And he's actually a specialist in infectious diseases.
01:51:29.000He's another one who told me that people that live in jungle climates, like in southern, really hot climates, almost all of them are infected by parasites.
01:51:41.000Because they just live with parasites.
01:52:20.000Yeah, well, that's the type of person, you're the type of person that doesn't get hit with it, you know, because you're fit.
01:52:26.000But, you know, we've had some problems with UFC fighters, because these fucking guys trained so goddamn hard, and they were training with COVID, and they kept getting deeper and deeper into their system, because their immune system was breaking down.
01:52:39.000Because there's a difference between just working out and training for a fight.
01:52:43.000And when these guys are training for a fight, they're like, you know, they're literally breaking their body down to almost nothing and then trying to build it back up.
01:52:50.000Yeah, and I have to assume, like, if there's a virus in the air, it's like the amount of volume that is moving from their lungs.
01:52:57.000When you're breathing heavy like that, and it's like...
01:53:00.000People try to compare of like, oh yeah, I go to the gym and I'll do cardio.
01:53:34.000But the thing about it is in these gyms, the vast majority of the people that are smart and know that they have it, it doesn't become a big deal at all.
01:54:33.000And it's like, you just scared the shit out of so many people.
01:54:37.000Well, so many people needed the shit scared out of them, but what drives me crazy is they didn't do anything other than wait for a vaccine.
01:54:42.000So many people stayed fat, stayed lazy, keep eating shit.
01:54:46.000And I've talked to people like that, and I sat across from them, and they're like, can't wait for the vaccine.
01:54:51.000I'm like, well, you know, you could be out there fucking drinking water.
01:57:05.000And now, recently, he's telling people to wear two masks.
01:57:09.000And not only that, the cases are dropping, the deaths are dropping, the people that die from COVID, because they do have much better treatments and much better understanding of what to do.
01:57:19.000One of the things they used to do initially was put people on ventilators immediately.
01:57:22.000And then they realized in New York City that 80% of the people they put on ventilators died.
01:57:28.000Ventilators, in that particular situation, ventilators are not good.
01:57:32.000Because ventilators, apparently, they blow people's lungs out.
01:57:35.000People were having a problem with their lungs getting fucked up from the ventilators.
01:57:40.000And then also, my friend Michael Yeo, who got it, his doctor was smart and didn't put him on a ventilator, but he said to him, Hey, if I put you on this ventilator, you're going to die.
01:57:48.000Because your lungs are going to stop working.
01:57:50.000Your lungs are going to want this machine to work for you.
01:57:54.000Yeah, like, I know nothing about any of the medical backside of this shit.
01:58:00.000All I knew was, like, when it first happened, for the World Championships at CrossFit, like, we couldn't compete at the Games unless we had a negative COVID test.
02:00:59.000Yeah, and on top of that I'm going into the fucking sauna every day at 185 degrees for 25 minutes and then on top of that I'm doing cold showers.
02:01:26.000But what frustrates me is the concept that a lot of people who don't take care of themselves were pushing, which is that you can't do anything.
02:03:29.000And I feel terrible for someone who has neglected their health, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you're forcing a situation like, hey, I know you didn't plan for this, but now here's something that's going to radically test your immune system, and if you're not ready, you could die.
02:03:46.000It's not fair for them because they were operating under this assumption that, hey, I can eat fucking cheeseburgers and drink shakes and not exercise ever and not take vitamins ever and I'll be okay.
02:03:57.000Because for the most part, you could be okay.
02:03:59.000And then all of a sudden something comes along that tests you.
02:04:02.000I mean, like, what's your definition of okay?
02:05:13.000So it's the same as like after competition, after the big one, I take a month off minimum.
02:05:21.000And it's like I eat junk food, and for the first couple days it's like, oh, this is a treat, this is nice.
02:05:27.000Dude, after like six days, seven days, when you start getting a bit of a jiggle, and you feel slow, you're tired, and you're like, dude, fuck this.
02:05:38.000Do you exercise at all during that time off?
02:06:56.000Every year I'm like next time when I take my month off it's like every other day I'll go for like a 10 minute jog or like do some squats with like 135 pounds something super easy but like just to not let myself backpedal this much so I have to dig myself out of this hole but on the other side it's like I enjoy doing that because if you're just operating up here all the time By the end of my career,
02:07:57.000Yeah, like usually, like, so the competition season starts with the open, like the online competition, and it's one workout per week.
02:08:05.000I'll usually start doing cardio, like hammering cardio stuff, like a week or two ahead, but I won't do a CrossFit workout until, like, usually the first workout that's announced.
02:08:16.000And then over that five weeks, like the first week is usually my lowest score.
02:08:21.000The second week is my second lowest score.
02:08:23.000And then usually by week four or five, I can grab a worldwide win.
02:11:42.000In the middle of a training week, I'll always end on hot.
02:11:47.000So I'll do the ice bath and finish on the hot.
02:11:49.000If I'm going into a rest day, I just full-fledged, right up to the neck, end on cold.
02:11:54.000I feel amazing, but I'm always afraid that my muscles are tense.
02:11:58.000So I'll end on cold if I'm going into a rest day.
02:12:01.000So you're worried that, like, climbing out, you could pull something or something?
02:12:05.000I mean, just, like, if the next day I'm going into training, like, if things are still tight, like, I want to have some time to, like, loosen back up before I get into another training session.
02:12:14.000So do you do, like, 15, 3, 15, 3, back and forth?
02:12:20.000Like, if I'm doing, like, three sauna sits, I'll do, like, I mean...
02:12:25.000Once you're coming out of the ice bath, it's amazing because you can have that sauna up at 200 plus and you don't feel shit.
02:12:31.000You're just getting the nice tinglys from all the blood starting to flow again.
02:12:35.000But yeah, I'll usually do minimum 30 minutes of intervals in the sauna.
02:12:40.000It really is amazing how effective that is to do those things.
02:12:43.000I remember reading the stats of you sleep better after a sauna if you do it at night, and then it boosts your natural HGH. And I was like, I'm sold.
02:12:54.000Well, they did a study out of Norway that Dr. Rhonda Patrick told me about.
02:12:58.000They did this study where they showed that four times a day, I think the protocol was 170 degrees for 20 minutes, and They got a 40% decrease of all-cause mortality, meaning 40% decrease in heart attacks, strokes,
02:13:14.000cancer, because of the amount of heat shock proteins your body generates.
02:13:34.000But, you know, for a lot of folks that don't have one in their house or can't have one in their house, it sucks during COVID because, you know, you can't even go to the gym and use one.
02:15:36.000And I know, like, the one that I'm really close with, Katrin, like, every time I see her, give her a big hug, and, like, she goes both hands over.
02:15:44.000She's just, like, got these broad shoulders on her, and it's like, how are we the same thing, you know?
02:15:51.000Like, you're just this different breed of a human.
02:15:55.000How about the Mountain from Game of Thrones?
02:21:43.000If you can look up the body transformation he went through when he deadlifted 500 kilos, it looks like someone filled him up with an air hose.
02:21:51.000But it doesn't look like a real human.
02:21:54.000Especially when you know what he looked like before.
02:21:57.000But what I think is scary about Eddie is he's done these other things in the past where he was like, look at that.
02:22:14.000So now he's 360. I just want to see him hit the pads, though.
02:22:19.000Like, I'm seeing him sparring, and he doesn't look very mobile, and he's doing everything, like where he's dropping his hands real low, and his body looks...
02:22:29.000But the thing about sparring is, it's like you're anticipating getting hit back, so you're tense, and if he's not efficient and fluid, like if he doesn't have good mechanics, then you don't get a total sense of what he can do.
02:25:00.000And that's what I would tell that guy.
02:25:02.000If you brought that guy to any world-class boxing trainer, you bring him to Virgil Hill or something like that, what they're going to do, the first thing they're going to do is teach the guy how to punch with mechanics.
02:25:15.000I'm just excited to watch what he does.
02:25:18.000When he got into World's Strongest Man, he said his claim.
02:29:35.000And so I remember winning the first time, I was like, okay, that weight's lifted off.
02:29:40.000You know, there's not this like, I'm going to leave this career with nothing.
02:29:46.000But then, I mean, it's just hearing other people, like, other people talking shit of like, oh, last year was a fluke, you can't do it again, or like...
02:29:56.000Wait a minute, how can anybody say it's a fluke to win the CrossFit Games?
02:30:01.000That is literally the dumbest fucking thing.
02:30:03.000When you look at the volume of work you guys have to do...
02:30:06.000Dude, I had the director of the CrossFit Games, after I had won four times...
02:30:11.000Three of these wins, I broke the record for margin of victory.
02:30:15.000The best win of games history, I've set and broken that record three times.
02:30:21.000And after my fourth win, going into my fifth, he put out an article saying Matt Fraser's slipping, his performance is slipping, and I'm like...
02:34:21.000How do you not, like, when someone says something like that guy said, where he said it doesn't look good for Matt, and then you win it again, how do you not, like, rub it in his face?
02:34:28.000Like, hey, fuckface, what's up with that article?
02:37:57.000As soon as the whole thing came out after George Floyd, he's under fire because people are like, oh wow, you're a shitty person.
02:38:11.000And then it's kind of like when allegations come out against one person and someone goes public with it and then everyone else steps forward.
02:38:30.000the shit he was doing was disgusting of just like racist and like womanized it like all this stuff started coming out and it's like holy fuck like how did it go this long without ever without this stuff ever coming out so anyways he he sold the company it's in someone else's hands now and we'll see what happens Now,
02:38:53.000CrossFit as a company, when someone starts a gym, they start a CrossFit gym, do they have to, do they buy a franchise?
02:40:27.000And it's like, the cream rise to the top, you know, the good ones flourish, and they keep expanding, they open up more locations, all this stuff.
02:40:35.000And then it's like, if you're not putting the effort in to program well, and your members aren't seeing results, well, they're only going to stick around for so long, and you're only going to stay in business for so long.
02:42:19.000Yeah, I mean, I definitely see that side.
02:42:22.000For me personally, I'm like, okay, if these weren't good, I shouldn't be walking.
02:42:27.000Yeah, but see, I think you're a perfect example of how to do it the right way, and I think it's really interesting, you coming from that weightlifting background, that you did have all this excellent form and incredible strength.
02:43:04.000When I see those injuries, man, when I see people dropping weights on their heads and shit, when they get exhausted and their muscles fail, I'm sure you've seen some of those videos.
02:46:02.000You look at any sport, if someone walked into a powerlifting gym and was like, I want to back squat 600 and just loaded up 600 and went for a rep, it's like, yeah, of course you're going to get There's an issue that happens sometimes in MMA gyms where guys dive on a guillotine.
02:46:21.000They dive for a takedown, and then as they're diving for a takedown, their opponent gets them in a guillotine, and so as they go down, their head hits the ground first, and their head hits the ground with both of their body weights.
02:48:38.000And so I went from losing by like a handful of points to breaking the record for the most points and then breaking it again, breaking it again.
02:48:49.000So in some ways it's like, I hate that season, like the disappointment that came with it.
02:48:54.000But then I'm like, well, I wouldn't have had these next five seasons without that disappointment.
02:48:59.000That's the one that kicked me when I was down.
02:49:02.000And just changed everything about what I do.
02:49:05.000So it's like, do I want to change that mistake?
02:49:07.000Like, no, it was a failure, but I learned from it.
02:49:10.000So it's like, thank God that happened.
02:49:12.000Because if I had won in that 15 season, if I had won, well, I would have thought I could keep out training a bad diet.
02:49:18.000I could train inconsistently and be good enough.
02:49:21.000I could stay up late and not give a fuck.
02:49:50.000I just kept getting better at the cardio, cardio, cardio to the point that I didn't realize that my weightlifting was now turning into a weakness.
02:50:05.000I took a semester part-time at college.
02:50:09.000And so, you know, just staying up until 3, 4 in the morning, sleeping until noon, and then, like, I would finish up my training at, like, 10 p.m.
02:50:17.000And I was like, oh, it doesn't matter what time of day.
02:51:45.000I mean, I look at, for the last, like, five years, it's like, everything you do during the day, it's like, it's going to bring you closer to your goal, it's going to move you away from your goal.
02:51:56.000And so, I remember that first year, I was like, one year of your life, that ain't shit.
02:52:01.000Like, to dedicate that towards your goal, and then it doesn't pan out, you lost one year.
02:53:48.000Got one of those, and it's like when you bring your body temperature down, you're able to get into a deeper sleep, hit that, like, whatever, REM cycles and all that jazz.
02:53:58.000It was an absolute game changer because I was waking up in the middle of every night, 2 a.m.
02:54:03.000Always wake up, have to kick off the blankets, like whatever.
02:54:07.000Had that and it was like, that was the first time I ever slept through the night.
02:54:10.000It was just one of those cooling pads, like completely blacking out the windows, having a white noise machine, you know, all that type of stuff.
02:54:18.000But I don't think people realize how beneficial sleep is.
02:54:21.000It's like if sleep and hydration came in pill form and cost $100, you couldn't keep that shit on the shelves.