Barbell Shrugged - 125- Why Andrea Ager Smiles So Much

Episode Date: June 25, 2014

This week on the Barbell Shrugged podcast we are joined by Andrea Ager, former collegiate track & field athlete turned high-level Crossfit competitor. If that name rings a bell it’s for a very good reason. Andrea is one of the most well-known and recognizable athletes on the scene, which is actually a very interesting topic of discussion all in itself.    “You may know Andrea from her Instagram feed, where she can’t stop smiling.” I figured this topic would come up at some point during the podcast, I just didn’t realize it would be the very first thing out of Mike’s mouth. “In fact, Chris Moore has described you as, ‘Smiling too much.’”    The obvious downside of being well-known is that there will always be haters and trolls, that’s for sure. They are going to comment about you, your style, your choices, your beliefs, your mistakes and short-comings, and yes, even your smile. I was ready to take all that on at the start, I just didn’t expect being called one myself!    Mike was smiling just as wide as Andrea ever has, so it was obvious he had this move planned. I was left squirming with nothing to slide underneath or behind, so I tried to back away slowly to higher ground, without much success I might add. “Now, hold on, I was simply saying that, Wow, Andrea smiles a lot. Let me say, having met you, I get it. I think I’m smiling more often now myself.” Even a bit of kind editing leaves me sounding guilty. Mike easily blocked the shot. “That’s not how I remember the conversation.”    He was right to pin me down. I had done a bit of hating, at least in his view. In truth I think I was just envious, maybe a little aggravated. I might have even been more motivated by Andrea than I would have liked to admit. That’s because, if nothing else, she is a reminder that the clock is ticking. If there’s something you really love in this life, like training and sharing your fitness story for example, then you should probably spend more of your precious time doing it. Sure, why not smile more often and just as wildly?    After chatting with Andrea it became clear that she was more than just a really happy Crossfit chick with a popular social media feed. She’s an experienced, high level regional competitor who has been part of some really tough competitions. She’s learned some valuable lessons the hard way, like the importance of setting better, more intrinsically focused goals and spending far less time comparing yourself to others.    That last bit might be the most important lesson of the show. You just cannot make the most out of your training, your situation, and your uniqueness if you’re worried about what others are doing, what they are capable of.    Andrea’s also surprisingly open minded and receptive to new training ideas and styles, which is something aspiring athletes should really pay close attention to. She waste’s no time, surrounding herself with the very best training partners and coaches she can find. That might mean flying into San Francisco to drill weightlifting with the magnificent Diane Fu, or maybe it’s committing to a wild and novel three-month training sabbatical with THE powerlifting master, Louie Simmons.    It’s clear to us now why Andrea is so well known. It’s not luck. It’s not the smile and looks alone, although this certainly does help, who are we kidding. But no, the bulk of Andrea’s success still comes from where you would expect. She has devoted her life to becoming a better athlete and coach. She works incredibly hard, takes on the risks, makes all the necessary sacrifices, and delay’s gratification today in exchange for better performancetomorrow. Let me say, I’m glad I got the change to know her better. She’s the real deal.    To learn more about Andrea, or to book her for a seminar, make sure to visit TheAndreaAger.com. You can also check out her YouTube page for some cool training videos. Who know’s, you too might find yourself looking past the smile.    Cheers,    Chris Moore     P.S. Make sure you to check out this weeks TechniqueWOD during the break. Doug will teach you all you need to know about the front squat. Who know’s, maybe you’ll learn how to grow a killer pair of Ager Bomb style quadriceps! 

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we interview Andrea Ager and we find out why I smile so much. Hey, this is Rich Froning. You're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com. No plan. That's always, yeah, that's always my motto. No plan. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Mike Bledsoe. Here with Chris Moore. We have traveled to Las Vegas. We have CTP behind the camera, of course.

We left Doug at home. He's got, supposedly, he's got more important things to do. He's off somewhere learning something. Yeah, he's learning something. He's getting educated. Don't worry about it, folks. He'll pass the knowledge down to you at some point. We're here with Andrea Ager.

We've been trying to catch up with her for a long time. And it's finally happened here in Sin City. You may know Andrea from her Instagram where she can't stop smiling. Chris Moore has described youhtag smile bombs Chris Moore has described Chris Moore has described you As smiling too much No Hold on Qualify that

I'll just simply say Oh really Like wow Oh really Andrew smiles a lot Like intensely happy And now having met you I go

I'm smiling more often myself I mean it's just a happier situation That's not how I remember The conversation Yeah I'm sure It wasn't like that at all Man Seriously we see your teeth All this freaking time I just want to see your situation. That's not how I remember the conversation. Yeah, I'm sure it wasn't like that at all. Seriously, we see your teeth all this freaking time.

I just want to see your frown. That's probably what it was like. Get a little closer. Right up next to it. Oh, gosh, that's so close. So you got the poof going on. I heard a rumor that... That I wear a bump-it? No, I do not.

No, no. I know what a bump-it is, by the way. The rumor is you're actually hiding horns. Oh, my gosh. Where did you hear that? It must have been on the haters page. Maybe it was Dave Castro that said that because he doesn't like me. No?

Why doesn't Dave like you? No, the real one does, but the one that has the Facebook page that makes fun of people doesn't. I don't know about any of that. I hear about the trolls out there, but I'm not that familiar. Dude, I love my trolls. I love my trolls. Seriously, they say funny stuff all the time. I'm easy to make fun of.

This is a lesson that people need to learn. If you get famous on the internet, people are going to talk shit about you. You can be the most pleasant person in the world, fit, useful, happy things to say that can help people. You can be a good role model that doesn't matter at all does it no no what's you know like the worst what's the worst like comment you've gotten the last that you can remember oh i get them all the time but my favorite was someone just tweeted me the other day and they were like this is my impression of andrea's tweet and it was like all these emoticons with like 10 explanation points and then like and it was a

picture of their face that was smiling up really, really close. And I was like, dude, that's exactly like my tweet. I'm so glad you're getting the message. That's what I want to send people. I was excited when I got it. I want them to feel that way too. Is that your message?

Is your message simple? Look, I'm having a good time. I'm happy. What's so wrong with that? And with pictures and emoticons. And now you can see how happy I am. Yeah. Giving you a hard time

because you're training and being happy about it. You said this morning you woke up, what was it, over lunch, that you woke up just smiling and happy, arms in the air, fists. Is that because it's exciting to have the opportunity to do what you're doing, right? Yeah. What is it? We're here at the NPFL.

Yeah. We're professionally competing in the sport of fitness. This is a very interesting scene. How's your experience been so far? Oh, it's been awesome. It's pretty novel, right? Yeah, it's been really cool to work on a team because I haven't done that seriously

since 2011 at the CrossFit Games. And that was a really cool time in my life. I still tell people all the time that it was one of the most special memories I've ever had. And so here, it kind of reminds me of it. I mean, we talked about it this morning. It's different.

It's different than CrossFit. Very different. They're opposite sports, kind of, because instead of finding your most well-rounded athlete, you almost don't want a well-rounded athlete. You almost want the person that's been hoping for an entire competition of gymnastics things. You know, that's what you want. Those people that are really good at... Shorter domain.

Yeah. Shorter, more powerful. And we just saw the most awesome event I've seen in a long time, which is that deadlift ladder. The deadlift ladder was fun. Where'd that weight start, Mike? 185? I think it was maybe 135. Yeah, it was kind of a zigzag pattern.

There was probably like 20 attempts. Really rapid fire. All the way up to 585 in the deadlift for men. What was the top weight for women? It was all the same. Oh, women go through the whole thing. They would go through the whole thing. But when they hit failure,

they have to sprint to the end. And then, so they would alternate men and women. Uh, it was pretty awesome. Or in my case, um, after I had a rounded back deadlift and I just,

uh, I just decided to run cause I didn't want to get embarrassed myself even more. I was like, two 85 was good. All right. So wait, wait, is the,

wait, is the thing that's important. Also the time in which you finish. So there's a strategy. If you, you don't want to dig around trying to get more. No, it5 was good. All right, running through. So weight is a thing that's important. Also, the time in which you finish. Those are strategies. You don't want to dick around trying to get more. No, no. It's all timed. And your teammates are waiting on you so that they can go.

And if you have someone strong behind you, you don't want to take their time. Yeah, why do a rep that costs, like, three reps for somebody else? Yes. Just move on and let the next person go. The ego has to drop. And I think if you participate in CrossFit as an individual, you're used to having to push that extra rep. But here, it could actually be a bad thing. Yes.

And they don't want to get to the point where you're failing or tearing or making it look like this is really unpleasant. They want to make it look like we're all robots. You're jumping in and you're able to do what you're supposed to do. And you're doing it as fast as you can. It's very short. It's very punchy. You're hearing a lot of unique cues. Like wherever we stepped on the floor down here, you're hearing,

like to my memory, I have a background in football and your typical American sports. And this feels a lot more specific to that, where you're hearing like calls being played. Like you can see down here, they have hash marks. Oh, yeah. It's like zones of the court where we need to get you there and here.

There's a different strategy. I know my answer. Would you say this is actually really quite different than CrossFit? It's as opposite as it could be. We're doing the same movements, which is great, but the way it's set up is completely different. I was listening to my coach and trusting him more than I've ever trusted a coach before because

if I'm competing in CrossFit and I'm on my own, my training has to be my confidence. But like today and yesterday, I was listening to my coach tell me about the clean ladder. And he was counting down. All right, you have 15 seconds. I want you to go in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I mean, I was listening for him. And then there was one girl that had to skip a few bars and then to lift because we only had a certain amount of time. And he wanted to get the most weight possible.

For the girls, it's interesting because if there's a tie, the tiebreaker is the girl's weight in the ladder. So that's important. And so he, I mean, we're listening like, okay, skip this bar, go here, go now. I mean, there is very specific cues, and you have to listen. It's a lot of rapid strategy. A lot of strategy. I guess the question that gets begged in my mind, Michael, you might have some interesting

insights in this, is a lot different than CrossFit. And a lot of people are kind of trying to make comparisons between the two. And it's sort of maybe a little heat between them, a little friendly competition, whatever. I think they are really, really complimentary. Do you see that same thing? And you have to know that people that come to the MPFL

and they're training for this, maybe they were nobodies. What does that mean? Maybe their name wasn't known. When they show up at regionals next year, they will have been professional athletes for a year. They've got confidence. They've got speed. They've got the strength that they needed to compete here.

They're going to be great regional competitors. So it's good for CrossFit. Michael, do you think this takes away from anything else? Or is this its own unique thing that will stir the pot and move everything forward? I think this is kind of the comparison I've been making is between weightlifting and powerlifting. To the novice, they may look...

People get confused. Even at CrossFit, they still call a snatch a powerlift. There's a barbell between them. The common thread is the equipment is the same. The movements look a lot alike. But the athletes that perform in each one of them couldn't be more different. That's true. We talked about that. There's probably going to be a 10% crossover.

10% of the athletes that do well here will do well in the games and vice versa. But, you know, if you're cut out for this time domain, then you're probably not going to be the best games athlete. Like, I'm not. I already kind of told. Don't tell people that. I kind of want to say it.

No, go for it. I kind of want to say it. Just because I'm a natural endurance athlete and that's not a secret. I win the 20 minute events. Oh my gosh. No one noticed that. So this kind of stuff is things I need to work on. Like go, go, go. You have 10 seconds to do something as fast as you can, as many reps as possible. That's not usually my domain. Um, I remember the dumbbell snatches at regionals two years ago. Like I couldn't, I couldn't have been had a harder times and more like three minute workouts ever. My short game needs work. So that's

why this will make me a better CrossFit athlete to make me stronger, put some pressure on. I'm constantly seeing these girls here move weight. And that makes me think I should be able to do that. Yeah. Not just strength, speed. No.

Yeah. Yeah. Just Atlanta combine. And, uh, it was like the first time I've seen like people having, you know, working in less than 30 seconds sprints.

And there was a sense of urgency that, that I could tell these athletes haven't had in a long time because they were like stuttering on the box and get on the box. And they're like, uh, if you're listening, I was shaking the whole platform that we're standing on. Oh Jesus, Andrea. He's just shaking the media perch we're on the whole damn thing. It's very heavy. Gravity is not my friend. You're freaking me out. He's not good with heights, no. No, no.

But one thing I'm really curious to see, I'm calling it right now, Mike. Let it be known on record that I'm calling it, that what we're going to see out of this sport, this sort of like mutation of fitness that's competitive. I want to use CrossFit. I mean, they're both experiments, but I think this shorter, more intense, specialized thing that is including novel coaching angles and maybe a little bit of substitution and

specialization, this is going to be another experiment that pushes everything forward. We've seen CrossFit evolve to the point where now you have people who are really, really strong, like can go to a weightlifting meet and snatch with anybody basically. National level. Yeah.

Qualify for nationals. And they're also able to do triathlon or marathon or row long distances, swim, which, of course, I'm a powerlifter. I know weightlifters. We're not going to do that shit. We're already sort of out of our game a little bit. But when these guys can now return to a little bit of specialization,

like the good crossfit, Evolving and trying this. Getting punchier and more concise. I think you're going to see some freaky performances. I'm really excited to see how this changes everything. I think you're going to see some bigger athletes too. Like the monsters will come out. Danny Nichols is one of those guys. I hope we get him soon.

Is he the strongest? Is that what McGordy said? He was basically the strongest crossfitter? Probably. Oh no, bro. Dude, you see my crossfitter? Probably. Before I started shit. Before I started, oh, no, bro. Dude, you see my snatch, bro? You know who I see out here? He's in 300 at regionals, at our regionals in Southwest. I think the guy, Delos.

My dad talked about him all day. He's pretty cool. Yeah, Sam dancing. Delos, well over 600 pounds. Sam. Yeah, so, you know. On team. Yeah, he's been on teams.

But, you know, he's probably cut out for this big time. Yeah. Yeah. He was in regionals and snatched 295 or whatever and yeah dad left over 600 the strong guys yeah and talking about you know sometimes people aren't meant to be doing this and they're not meant to you know and maybe they weren't meant and or built or naturally uh defined to do something like crossfit and this is going to fit them better. And we were talking earlier about how you were struggling for the longest time to get on CrossFit level one seminar staff.

We don't know where this is going to go. We can take it anywhere. We don't. We don't know. The common Michael curveball Bledsoe. We were talking about that earlier and you were talking about, you ended up, you tried to get on staff and it ended up not working out, but it ended up being like the best thing. Yeah. I mean,

I want to bring this up because I think people, first off, people don't know about the, uh, the process of trying to go through, you know, that process is not easy. And then, uh, I think a lot of times people, uh, they fail at something and then all they, and they focus on that failure and then don't move beyond it. And for you, I think it maybe ended up, sounds like it ended up being a blessing in disguise. Yeah. A lot of people don't know what that is like to go through the HQ level one, to teach the

level one seminars. And it was like about a year process for my life. And it was something where I thought I wanted it so much. Like that was all, that's all I wanted to do was like be a good coach and be recognized in the sport as someone that really, really understood movement and was really able to spark that interest in people that were attending level one.

That's a cool thing. Help people learn. Yeah, we like helping people. And so I put everything towards that and I went and got my coach's prep course. And then I did okay then, and then I got it again just to brush off the dust. Got it again a few months later because they encouraged it. So I got two of those.

And then after that, I interned at many seminars. And it's a cool process because in the beginning, you're just watching, and you're like, okay, I get it. I feel comfortable here. I know what I'm supposed to do. And then like the second, the second internship, they're putting you in the middle of like, okay, you're going to teach this entire 50 minutes. So you have to hit these points and you have this amount of time to hit each one. Hopefully it goes to plan. And super high quality. People don't believe us when we say it's, it's a good seminar, man. Oh, it's a lot of information.

It's comparable to like any other fitness seminar. Absolutely. I mean, people say, oh yeah, you can get certified in just a weekend. Well, first of all, it's not certification. No, no, we're not allowed to say that. We've heard that many times. No people. But there are a lot of things

you can just get done in a weekend to do something. You know, plenty of times. Other than college, I can't think of anything else. By the way, I hold many fitness certifications, and they were all weekend certifications. Yes, they were. That's sort of the model, right? USA Weightlifting, Powerlifting, NSEA. Most of us have been doing CrossFit for a year

before we even took it. NSEA's not even a weekend. It's a test. And you don't do anything physical on that. You don't train in that fucking certification. No demonstration. All you got to do is watch a video and answer the multiple choice correctly. Well, I kind of always had my own coaching style.

And I had been coaching like 35 hours a week. Strike one. I know. Strike one, your own coaching style. And I had been coaching 35 hours a week for two years at that point. And that's all I did. So it was really hard for me to take their criticism. Yeah, you had too much experience.

Well, yeah, doing my own thing. Exactly. How dare you? How dare you explore your own interests and your own abilities? Who do you think you are, Andrea? So when I was having to change my teaching style or change, you know, exactly what I taught into going, oh, okay, I'm going to do it like them. I mean, it was, it was hard for me to accept like, you know, feedback because I would try to put it into my next time I would, my next internship. But that feedback was like, made me feel like I wasn't a good coach. I was like, oh my God, this is all I

care about. And I'm not good enough still. Like, and then every time I kept going back, it was like, I felt like I had really successful weekends and the whole time they'd be like, okay, work on this, work on your voice, work on your transitions, only do this for this amount of time and then transfer over to this by saying this. It was like, okay, I'll do that. I'll do everything you're saying. And then, um, at the very end, they'd be like, okay, we still think that you need another one just for practice. And you know, we're going to extend you to the next one. But I mean, I did that for a whole year. And so it kind of was one of those things where I believe, you know, that if I kept pursuing it, that maybe I would have gotten a chance to be on seminar staff. Was it helpful

to go through all this? Yes. Yes, it was. And, and I, I appreciate it to no end because I know that they don't just let anybody, um, just walking off the streets, do it. They have to kind of, uh, respect you as an athlete and a coach, um, a little bit before they start the internship process. But, um, then, um then regionals came in 2013 and I was training for them. So I took a little bit of break from internships. And then coincidentally, the only way that I ended up teaching my own seminars is after I didn't make it to the games very publicly. All of my failures were very public. Your haters were like, yeah, you didn't make the games.

Blurg. Again. Rabble, rabble, rabble. Yeah. Again. Surprise. So last year when I didn't make the games. Blurg. Again. Rabble, rabble, rabble. Yeah. Again. Nope. Surprise. So last year when I didn't make it.

A lot of people will be like, because you're not the best athlete in the world, you have no right to coach people, Andrew. Who do you think you are? As if that was a prerequisite for being able to coach. It really isn't. It has nothing to do with how I do anything. And make sure we get back on track, but I want to mention that shortly is last year, well, i still coach

shana alverson and i was uh doing programming for her and coaching her last year and she dnf'd the overhead squat uh event at the regionals at the very same weekend you were in socal doing the same exact event what but the rules were explained differently at our region versus your region. And what had happened is Shana had DNF, and they cut her from the rest of the weekend. And it was devastating for her. She didn't even get to do the burpee muscle-ups. Didn't even get to do the burpee muscle-ups. And that was actually really hard for me.

As a coach. To watch her be devastated. But, and then we heard, we had heard at SoCal Regional... Social media? Where did you hear that? The Twitters. We found out that the same thing had happened to a couple. I think it was you and somebody else. There was like seven athletes in SoCal that it happened to.

Yeah, but they didn't explain the rules the same way. There was a lack of standardization. Someone asked the question at ours and said, what is the prerequisite for the overhead squat? And they said there isn't one. There's not a certain weight that you have to get, even your opening weight. They didn't say that you had to get one or else you were like DQ'd. Small little details.

Yeah. And you know, sometimes like, you know, debatably if that would have never happened, no one ever noticed. I'm sure there's other details that get overlooked here and there. I mean, mistakes are made. We're humans. But, you know, we found out that they were going to move on, and then Shayna didn't get to.

And that was even more devastating to her because it was like. Unfair. Yeah, it just didn't feel fair. And then we had heard that you had voluntarily kind of pulled yourself out. And I remember, and that was actually, I actually didn't know much about you at that point. I was like, well, that was pretty noble of her, of doing that.

And I was like, oh, well, now I like Andrea a little more. A little more? My first... She still smiles too much. When I knew about you at the time, I was like, I didn't know much. And so I was like, oh, well, she must be a nice person. A nice person. And then Chris was complaining about your smile so much.

Don't use these harsh words. You make me look like a dick on camera. I had to defend you. CTBs, call me out right in front of her. I had to defend your honor, even though I didn't even know you. Defend her? What are you, fucking Prince Charming? Look at me.

I'm Prince Charming. Come on. You pulled a sword from a stone to defend Andrea's honor and to sail me, the dragon of the situation. Andrea, I was just saying, she seems really happy. I wonder why she's so happy. Now I know. You're a very pleasant individual. I think you painted a good picture with the dragon. Yeah, well, I'm a writer. Do you think Vince Charming

could regularly go and fend off me from all my haters? Could I carry you around or something? You need a strong champion. I'm not that charming. You'd quickly lose interest. Let's get back on track. Sure, back on charming. Yeah. You quickly lose interest. All right, all right. Let's get back on track.

Sure. Back on track. Sure. Whatever. By the way, our haters will call us out for not letting you speak. So there you go. Oh, no. Okay.

Hi, teachers, please. So I was given seven minutes to complete three overhead squats, and I was very confident in doing so. And I tried four different times. What was your starting weight? 175. Yeah. You had to do that if you were going to qualify.

Out of SoCal, come on. I mean, no one's playing as safe, you know? And we're trying to get to the game. We're trying to do big things. So I remember, like, you know, you're given seven minutes to get three reps. And I got two reps in a row and missed the third three times in a row. And it was the point where, like, the very first time, you know, the crowd was getting in my head.

I could see my family. They were, like, starting to get super nervous, like, like whatever. And I remember the intercom, like the announcers were like, you know, SoCal girls are the strongest girls in the world. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, that was getting my head too because I'm like, they are. And so, you know, in seven minutes you should be able to do something that you can do. And I wasn't able to. So, yeah, I went on to the burpee muscle-ups because that was the rule.

You didn't have a prereq to do that workout. So I got to do that workout. And then after feeling horrible all night long, after the scores were changing, oh, my God, I was in sixth, then I was in 13th, then I was in sixth again, then I was in, you know, last place, I was disqualified. I mean, there was tons of drama. And I ended up calling Julie Foucher, Miranda Oldroyd and my coach. And between talking to all three of them, like I totally just

felt so guilty that I was like, this isn't cool. This is not good. This is, um, my weightlifting coach told me that, um, hang on one second. Yeah. Oh, microphone adjustment. adjustment microphone check can you hear the difference yeah I can in my ear in my headphones my coach told me that that this was even though regionals

felt like a big deal to me because it was the only thing I cared about really that it was a big deal to me about that event and it was like

so it was my whole world at that time but that in real life like my legacy was not worth messing up just for one event and so that was like cool to hear that because it was like oh okay like we're talking about my life in crossfit which i plan on being in until i'm like 90 years old so you know i i was like okay this is important to step back and realize the big

picture so how important people don't realize that competition is way more about what you kind of learn about yourself. And they jump into it. They try to crush it the first time out. They don't realize it's a much different thing. You're going to learn a lot about yourself. You got to have fun, but realize also for you, how important was it to feel the hurt of it?

Like the pain of just bombing. I mean, like a whole year you worked so hard. A whole year, gone in seconds. Is it necessary that you went through that? Yes. just bombing. I mean, like a whole year you worked so hard. A whole year, gone in seconds. Is it necessary that you went through that? Yes. For my development as a human, you know,

like not just as an athlete, but I went through a lot of like depression, like six months of depression after not making it to the games in 2012. I was one point behind Lindsay Valenzuela and had been in front of her the whole weekend. Didn't see it coming. Had convinced myself that year that I was like invincible. All year I had been training thinking that I could win the games. I mean, I was, I wish I had that reckless, like, um, innocence of like being really new in the sport where I thought that I was capable of literally anything. And so, you know, like I, I just, I wish I could tap into

that because now I'm a little jaded. Now I'm like, okay, I've lost. There are people that are stronger than me. There are people that can do more burpees in seven minutes than me probably now. But back then I believed in myself so much that that sent me into like six month long depression. So, so last year was a little bit easier for me because I started understanding, okay, you know what? My, my representation in CrossFit and my performance is not who Andrew Ager is. Like my worth, my self-worth as a human does not depend on how much I can overhead squat because I'll tell you guys, my mom does not care

how much I can overhead squat. Yeah. I mean, she actually just thinks it looks really scary but anything I do, she's like, Oh, Andrea,

you're going to hurt yourself. Oh, God. She just kind of puts her hand on her hip and she's like, it just looks really heavy but good job. Yeah, I think people are quick to criticize.

They're quick to say, look at that person. They're doing this. They're on that. If I was in their position, I could be that. Yes, that's a thing. There's a lot of comments sort of thrown over the fence. But you weren't. You weren't in my position.

You weren't the person that had this happen to you. You weren't the person that felt all the emotions of, oh, my God, I just messed up. This is big. I could be kept from the games right now. If I mess this up, then it's going to be an entire year of me knowing that I messed up. Yeah. You know? Yeah, so.

So, like, I kind of started to realize, like, you know, maybe people get this beforehand, but I was not in this mind frame where it's like, okay, I can be a good coach. I'm a good girlfriend or a sister or best friend or daughter. You know? I'm like, all these things, like, I'm not how good or sister or best friend or daughter you know I'm like all these things like I'm not how good I am in CrossFit and I'm not as good as you know whether or not

I make it to the games won't ever have to do with how good I am it won't so like I kind of understood that last year so it wasn't as big of a downfall but it did make me make a lot of changes in my training of course I remember there was this one guy that I didn't even know that sat next to me and was trying to make of a downfall, but it did make me make a lot of changes in my training, of course. I remember there was this one guy that I didn't even know that sat next to me and was trying to make a joke, trying to be super friendly at regionals last year and was like, hey,

how about you get stronger next year, huh? I was like, hashtag too soon. Get out of my face. Hashtag too soon. Get out of my face, dude. Because I didn't work on getting strong all year, dude. Yeah. Hi. Guess what I would think of every single morning when I wake up smiling getting stronger

as you eat your five eggs and choke down all the food like yeah I'm not really oh yeah it didn't occur to me that I should maybe work hard huh these arms are pretty stick skinny still that's too bad a freaking thing we talk about on the show usually is like you gotta learn to sort of get arms distance between what you're doing and what you're trying for.

And the goals you're setting, kind of balancing extrinsic motivation against what you feel like you're getting from it. People will fixate on what you're capable of and judge you by it. Meanwhile, all the lessons you learn in this hard training, all the things you pick up along the way the end result is not even it's not important at all it's what you learn every day it's the habits

it's what the relationships you build it's the little things you pick up it is the fuck ups it's the loss that teaches you all the lessons

that's what makes a good coach right well yeah and it's like you know I don't like to be too cliche because I love

I love quotes and I love inspirational things we all love cliche yeah I mean but I mean it is like it's not it's not how it's not how hard you hit cliche because I love quotes and I love inspirational things. We all love cliche. It's not how hard you hit. It's how hard you can get hit and still get back up. And that's true. If you think about it, it's not

we don't remember the athletes that are just always winning and they've never been through any hardships. You're like, dude, at regionals this year, I'm not trying to use myself as an example. I'm not trying to be like, this was cool. But this year I had an epic failure on the rope climbs. I thought I was going to win that event. I remember sitting there with Pat Burke.

We were talking, he's my training partner. And we trained together every single day for the last six months. And we go, all right, someone has to win every single event at regionals. This is getting deep. Someone has to win. Why can't it be us? And we were like, yeah. So we were like, we both were like, why can't we win the rope climbs?

Like that's going to be us. We're going to cross the finish line first. He did win the road climb. So that's the detail. However, I was on a world record pace with Manny Janowitz, amazing athlete. And, um, on the ninth one, I got in a ref. So I did, I did another one. I did another one at third or 10th. So I did another one. I did another one at third 10. So I did another one. So I did my 10th one. And then I actually ended up failing my 10th, my actual, my actual 10th rep. That wasn't, you know, uh, a redo. I actually ended up missing that one five times in a row. And so all that several times. And sure it happens to everybody. And that's the thing is I never saw it coming. So it was kind of like a sucker punch, you know, it was like, I'm going to win this event

and it's going to be awesome. You had your nose right up against the victory. Oh gosh. And as an endurance athlete, let me tell you, I usually win, like, you know, not I usually win, but I usually have the capacity to win a 20 minute or 15 minute long event, but I do not have the capacity to usually win a four minute event. And so for me to be in second place, that entire workout, I felt this like empowering feeling of like, this is what it feels like

when those power athletes go out there and they're winning. It was so fun. It was so exciting. And everyone was screaming. And I could, I remember looking up and touching and then coming down

and seeing how excited everyone was that I touched on every single rep. And they were saying on the intercom. Andrew, you're gonna do it. We heard things on the intercom. You're so close! They were like, I mean, the announcers, I remember hearing this.

On my third rope climb, we were done in like a minute, a minute and five or something like that. And for our third rope climb, I had already made it back to the thing. And the guy, the announcer was like, Andrea Ager, teaching how to, teaching how to climb up a rope chop

or something like that. Like teaching class on how to I was like yeah this is so easy then I got to like then reality yeah and so it wasn't just like oh I did poorly like it was just like I was just close enough to where I you know maybe I could have made the games who knows but um I was just close enough where I had that in my reach and then and then knowing like as I was failing and I wanted more than anything, I wanted my whole strength and my whole life to just help me touch the top.

And I keep asking myself why, why could I make it 13 and a half feet but not 14? Every single time, why is that? And I just saw that glimpse of my future just slipping away and then after that event, it was interesting because it was a fun event, even though it was really awful, but it was fun. You know what I mean? It was like, wow, that was the

funnest thing I've freaking ever done for a while until it was the worst thing ever. Apart from the crippling heartbreak was less fun, but mostly fun. But I mean, you know, it's like you have to afterwards just be, I remember looking at the camera and being like, I'll get you next time, Rope Climbs. You know, just mad about it, but still like, that was ironic.

Wasn't it, everyone? Never saw that. But anyways, then the next morning we had the 50s and I had been suffering through that workout and training just like everyone had. It's like a really hard workout. I had done it four times. I feel like that's one to do once. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Once, unless you're the fifth or, you know, the fourth week to go and you've had five weeks to know the workouts. Now you need to know how bad it's going to hurt. And then you need to do it once a week. Yeah. Oh yeah. Once, unless you're the fifth or the fourth week to go and you've had five weeks to know the workouts. Now you need to know how bad it's going to hurt. And then you need to do it once a week. Now you're just conditioning yourself to like hate it. Hate it. Yeah. So embrace the suck kind of thing. And yeah, I came back and I won that workout. And it was one of those things where like I knew, I knew when I won that I couldn't make it to the games anymore. Like that was gone. I wasn't happy because I, no one was happy for me because I made it to the games. They didn't care about

that. They were like, oh my gosh, she just went through this epic struggle that we all watched with like pain. I mean, let me tell you, the social media aspect of my phone is this loud. I always am like reading, getting notified, whatever. It's just a loud atmosphere. And that night I like no one tweeted. mean no one tagged me anything no one texted me I mean it was very silent like the world was quiet they were like oh dang

this sucks you know yeah so it was like kind of deep kind of quiet and so it was just me and my thoughts for like a whole night

and then the next morning it was almost like everyone felt like oh she won she defeated it she even though she's not

made it to the games who cares she's on top now who cares about anything else and it felt like it was like it wasn't about CrossFit anymore It was about like it wasn't about deadlifts and power cleans and wobbles like it wasn't about what we were doing It was about that like the mind frame and like how they became victorious You know you go through an epic struggle in front of everybody and then the next day you you you take that defeat and you

Use it for a win and it was like almost like a story, much less numbers on paper. Just sort of less than a chance at enlightenment to realize, well, maybe winning comes in all kinds of forms. Like this is just one way to win. And I maybe got a little something more valuable for me. I mean, maybe in five years' time. It's always hard to tell what the real significance is. But in five years' time, maybe you're like, I'm sure glad I got my heart broken a few times.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That teaches you. Teaches you. Yeah, those lessons are irreplaceable for sure. Let's take a break real quick. When we come back,

we're going to get to see Andrea's bedtime ritual. Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. I know. So stick around. This is Andrea Ager, and you're listening to Barbell Shrug.

For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com. Barbell Shrugged is brought to you by you. To learn more about how you can support the show, go to barbellshrugged.com and sign up for the newsletter. And we're back. My hair looks good? Oh, God. Okay, we totally got off track.

You lost some volume on the poof. I hate when that happens. But it's all right. It's like handstand push-ups. They do that, too. Yeah, we can got off track. You lost some volume on the poof. I hate when that happens. But it's all right. It's like handstand push-ups. They do that too. Yeah, we can fix that later. What are we talking about? Oh, yeah, we got totally off track earlier.

Where's the track? Look at this. We were on the track. You tried to do the level one stuff. It didn't really work out. So what ended up happening instead? Well, actually, it was kind of comical because right after, you know, we're going through this big depression like, oh, did he make it again? Everyone knows.

And then instead, it's like all these gyms started calling me and my manager and emailing us and saying, hey, Andrea should come teach at our gym because we know she's not busy. Get it, Andrea? Yeah, get it. You don't have anything to do or train for. Right? And so, yeah, I mean, it was, we went along with it and we started doing it, but we didn't call them seminars right away. It was just kind of like a visit at their gym where I would teach like an hour and a half or whatever.

And then it just started getting so long. Like, I'm just, I like talking. As you guys can tell, I've been probably talking too much on the show already. No, you're doing good. I do like getting it out there. I would prefer that our guests talk more and we talk less. Okay, okay. But that doesn't always work out.

But in general, it started being like question and answer. What was it like when you got to meet Rich Froning? What was it like when you got to meet these cool people that I'm like, let me tell you, it was awesome. Did you just make shit up at that point? No, but I always tell embarrassing stories in front of people that are really cool because those are way funner. You're like, I got my thumb knuckle deep in his abridge. It was great.

This is weird. So weird. Oh, my gosh. I left Andrew speechless. Yes. A little bit. But, yeah, and asked like, of course, about diet and training and stuff like that.

And so it used to be just that. And then I would teach for a few hours, but then it got like really organized and I started sneaking in a little bit of my testimony. And then every one I went to, it got longer on accident. And then eventually my testimony is like 90 minutes long. So I talk about me and my, like my relationship with CrossFit and how much it means to me. And also like my relationship with God and how much that means to

me too. And so, um, so 90 minutes of that, and then we do like three hours of CrossFit. So we just teach usually the snatch, um, usually the snatch, sometimes a clean jerk, we'll switch it out. And, uh, but then we do gymnastics and there's a short wad at the end, like an eight minute wad. So the whole thing is a blast. And I go, I go, I teach these and I get on a high, like so excited about like talking about God and like spreading, spreading love and telling them stories. And like, I always cry at all my seminars. I've never taught one where I didn't cry at.

And my favorite is that when the crowd enables me to do so by crying too. I'm like, thank you. Thank you. You're making me want to talk longer. No, like they do. They do. And they like tear up.

I'm like, yes, this is intense. If you can make me cry, I'll give you a hundred dollars. I won't be able to. I can already tell. You're like too tough to cry. I can already tell. His beard's on too tight to allow tears to flow. Well, I mean, that's a good point.

Anybody can do a really good, not anybody, but it's common. Let's say it's common to be able to teach the lifts in a really good way. There's lots of great minds out there. Oh, yeah. But I think what people need to focus more on is how a unique story. Everything else about you that makes you strong in the face of adversity, your personal story, your foundation, what allows you, what fuels you to train hard, people need to see that side too

to understand it's not just like how many times you snatch a bar. No. People do it once a week, 10 times a week. People eat this, they eat that. And they're all good and get stronger. What else is going on? The spiritual side of things is incredibly important. The way you face adversity is incredibly important.

Yeah, and I moved for CrossFit to go to Los Angeles when I was 22. I moved after college and I found CrossFit for like probably three months. And then right when I got there, I found a team and I made it to the games. I mean, that part of my story is like, is so exciting. I like, I'm like just like yelling at them like, we wouldn't believe how cool it was. Because they, and they've never heard anybody. Most of the seminars I go to, they've never met anybody that's ever made it to the games. So they're like, oh my God, what would that be like?

People in CrossFit Lyrica were like, we can't understand her because she's talking so fast, but it's exciting. Your story got so intense. The music in the room picked up. It did. Oh, no, the story ended, so it went off. Yeah. But so with the seminars, it's been really cool. And I talk about that, but then I also talk about how I changed my training.

You got to change. You got to wipe off the whiteboard all the time and go, okay, that didn't work. Now let's do this. I mean, I was training with Olympic lifting coach Waxman's in LA for three years and I've gotten really good technically for Olympic lifting. And then I had, um, I, I switched it up and tried a powerlifting to train with Louis for like a month or three and a half months. I lived there. I lived there from September 1st until the end of December. And so, yeah, I was working with Louie Simmons and trying to get stronger, like powerlifting. And it was good because I still keep all that stuff in my training.

I still try to keep conjugate in what I'm doing now, and it helps. But, you know, like I don't like taking CrossFit completely out. But I tried it, and it was good for me. It made me suck wind in the open this year a little bit, but it was good for me. And so you change all the time depending on what experiences you go through. And that's basically what my seminar is about is like everyone goes through hardships and it might not be CrossFit. And the story is not about me and my CrossFit story. It's about you wanting this job or this relationship or this thing that's intangible that you can't put your hand on that you want so bad.

You want it more than anything and you can get it. And if you try your hardest and you don't get it, it's going to be okay. Like you're going to be fine. Like your family's still going to love you. Your people that you hang out with all the time

are still going to like you. Like you're going to try to do something else and we're going to change things all the time. Like I don't even know what I'm going to do next month or in six months.

Or people say, what's your five-year plan? I'm like, yeah, right. That's not realistic for me. I don't even know where I'm going to live next month. You don't even have a 90 day plan. No, no, no.

I lived in a one bedroom apartment with Maddie Curley in LA. Her one bedroom apartment shared a bed with her for three and a half years. You think that was my plan? I was like, hey, I'm here and then I never left, okay?

These are things that just happen and you're like, wow. But a plan is necessary that allows you to assess what do I want and I start heading in the direction. I think the only thing a plan really does is that it allows you to think, here's the first best step I can take towards that. I hit it hard and passionately. But then from there, who knows what you're going to discover. But each step has to be a passionate, forceful, intentional thing. Yes.

And if you don't think about it that way, then you're going to be too hard on yourself. Like, oh, I tried to get this plan and it didn't work out. Now what? Like, that's not how I see things at all. Like you said earlier, you go through and you have a big chunk. And you go, okay, now I'm moving to Ohio for this powerlifting thing. I'm going to do it as awesomely as I can. Then when that's done, I'm going to do the next thing as awesomely as I can.

Now I'm doing the NPFL. Dude, do you think I want to start changing my training so I can be the best NPFL athlete I could possibly be? Yeah. Shameless plug. Any coaches that want to get me on your team? I'll do anything. The greatest thing we learn at a powerlifting, guys like

Louie, who's so epic, we learn the same lesson. Mark Bell will share it. AJ will share it. The Paladin crew, I think we learned the best lesson is you got to find as many ways to get strong as you can. Experiment and tinker. For you, who knows what might work? You can't make the mistake of going, well, here's my preconceived notion about what it takes to get strong because I'm coming from this background. Weightlifting, CrossFit, whatever.

And nothing works perfectly. Come on. I mean, that's like saying I didn't get strong because I did all these things. And now what can I do to actually get me strong? I am so much better of an athlete. Every year I've competed at regionals. But guess what? Everyone else gets better too.

Isn't that unfortunate? Yeah. And I'm like, dude, I'm such a better athlete. I'm so much stronger than I was last year. Right now I am. And there are still girls that are always going to be stronger than me. It's fine. I see people get beat up. They beat themselves up because like, well, last year I placed

this at regionals. Oh, whatever. And this year I thought I was going to crush it. And I did better. I PR'd my snatch and I ran faster and I swam better and I climbed the rope more times. But I got eighth and I feel like shit about it. No, you did so much better. That's why you got to detach yourself from where you finished.

You are better. You are not the same person. You're better. That's where, like, intrinsic motivation is really important, and that's something that's developed with experience, I think. A lot of people that get into the sport in the beginning, everything's extrinsic. They're measuring themselves against other people all the time.

And I think, you know, and the athletes that can stick around, I mean, if all you ever have is extrinsic motivation, you won't stick around very long because you're going to fail. Even if you get really good. Even if you are. I got something epic for you guys. Do it. So I've always wanted to like really sit down with Spiegel and talk to him before.

Chris Spiegel. Legend. And I've met him plenty of times, but like he's always busy doing Spiegel stuff. You know what I mean? Like I don't want to like bother him. Spiegel stuff. Hashtag Spiegel stuff. busy doing spieler stuff you know what i mean like i don't want to like bother him and um he's uh i got to go on an airport like to an airplane with him and like um we both were transferring in uh park city um utah where he lives and i was stopping there to go to la or sorry lv like las vegas and so we were both coming from colorado to do this like faith rx camp and i

got to know him there really really well well, but like not by myself, you know, creepy stuff. I want to be by myself. And so then like, we were like waiting for the airport and we were talking about stuff. And I just was like, so what'd you think about this at regionals?

You know, cause I got to watch him, but like, I didn't get to talk to that much. And like, that is so cool. Like I got so much, I feel like I experienced so much just by hearing him talk about the way he

looks at things and the way that CrossFit HQ looks at things, you know? I mean, he's positive about so many things that were like, Oh, I wonder what their stand is like, dude, he's, he loves fitness. Of course, you know, but something he did say is the best advice his dad ever gave him was to never compare yourself to anyone else because then you'll only be as good as they are.

And he said, I don't want to be as good as Rich Froning. Like I don't, because I'll never be better than him, you know? And he's like, I'm not going to go, oh no, I'm this far behind him. Everyone's behind him. You know what I mean? Like, it just, it's kind of a cool thing.

If you try to emulate what somebody else has done, that's their path. Yeah, it is. That won't work for you. The best quote I've ever heard is Oscar Wilde says, paraphrasing,

why would you try to be anybody else? Those jobs are taken. You have your role. A different role, yeah. Like, the only thing anybody has, well, two things. You have your role. The only thing anybody has well two things. You've got what you are what you're capable of, what you love

which is completely unique and people don't value that enough. You are the only person who can be you and all you've got is right now. Your history is whatever it was. You're not guaranteed tomorrow. You've got now. What will you do? You should do the first, next best thing

you think you can do that makes you happy, that fulfills what you think is important and you've got to do it hard. And you can't worry so much about what you're going to get out of it or where you're going to go with it. That doesn't matter. What matters now is this step I take. It's got to be my best step. I think that's when magical shit happens, man.

Amen. Amen. Preach on. We'll get our dance magical shit happens, man. Amen. Amen. Preach on. We'll get our dance on. Oh, man. And this might be, this is just for me, I guess. I'm going to put this out there. This is something I was reading recently by Mark Gaffney. He wrote a good book.

You got to check out the author if you want to nerd out on some enlightenment type stuff. We do. Yes, indeed. Yeah, he was talking about a lot of times ego gets caught up in what other people are doing. Yeah, social media. Ego is the thing that wants to attach to other people. I want to be as good as Rich Froning. I want to be as good as this.

Measures. And then you got to get to know your true self. And a lot of people never get past ego and find their true self. And their true self is the one that can exist by itself. You know, kind of by that Oscar Wilde quote, you know, be yourself, you know, everyone else is taken type of thing. So, you know, it's, it's, if you feel like you're always comparing yourself to other people, you know everyone else is taken type of thing uh so you know it's it's if you feel like you're always comparing yourself to other people you know maybe take a step back maybe do some meditation there's all sorts of there's all forms of spirituality that you can maybe look into to like think about how your ego might need to step aside or at least try to step away and recognize

that your ego may be hijacking you a little bit. Yeah. And then let your true self kind of play out. That might have gotten a little deep. No, no. Just deep enough. The hardest thing to do is to let go of expectations and to be kind to yourself, especially when you're in a hyper-competitive environment with heavyweights and eyes on you and people making comparisons. Oh, look at your worth.

It's not much because you didn't reach my expectations or you didn't win this thing i pat myself on the back all the time i'm like dude that was great today like dusty wanted me to do six tower cleans unbroken at 145 it's not that heavy it's like doable right people can do that i've never done it before so then afterwards i'm like so that's he's like hey great job on the dumbbells and the power cleans he's not my coach he doesn't even work with me but But today he was. And I'm like, that was the most I've ever done. Thanks, guys.

I was so pumped. That's probably why you're so happy. You're living in your true self. Your ego's not hijacking you. And that's why your smile is on all the time. Hashtag match my ball. That's my theory. That's my theory.

It's quite pointless to say, oh, look at her. Instead of the way I do, she only did that in that event. But dude, you realize, like, let's say in the snatch, there's a 12-year-old Chinese girl who's doing triples with your best ever lifetime PR in the snatch. The scale, the relativity thing, it's there. There's somebody always

who's just going to crush your ass. Even CrossFit, like, you know, there's a girl that snatched on, or, okay, there's a woman named, I think, I forget her name, but she was in, she's from Russia, and she was in European regionals, and we were having this conversation with Katrin Davizadar and Marcus Andrew yesterday, and she snatched like 200

at her regionals, and then was like, okay, now I want to get the world record, so she put 2.5s on, got 205, and then she looked around and saw that no one else was going a little heavier, and so she just sat down and chilled it out for the third rep. Didn't even take it. And her best is like 295.

Her best snatch is almost 100 pounds. And it's like one of those things where it puts it into perspective. And it's like, okay, now she's trying to be a CrossFitter. She's not trying to be a crazy weightlifter girl. But she could do that. And humans can do that. Our CrossFit guys are still snatching less than the world-class girl athletes. And that's cool. That's like humans can do that. Like our CrossFit guys are still snatching less than, you know, the world-class girl athletes. And that's cool.

Like that's sick. You know, so you can't ever just be like I'm the best in this tiny little group. What if you're in a region that's not that good? What if you're in a gym that's not that good? What if you're in a, you know, world spectrum of a sport that's only been open for seven years? Who knows? You know, I mean, there's just like so many things that you can compare yourself to. Are you in a small pond or a big pond?

It doesn't matter. You're doing your best. This is going to keep radically changing. This is going to keep changing month to month, year to year. Like what Tony made the point, like look at the Fran time. That was world class in 2002, 2003. And look at it now. Like just expectations.

Andrew's taking a close off. Get the camera. Teasing the audience a little bit. But like the way standards change so rapidly, as soon as somebody achieves something, the way things can accelerate and move forward, that's why I'm really pumped to see how this changes things, this event here. But things were going to change so much. You've got to let go of what you think is good or bad.

It doesn't even matter, man. It doesn't matter. This is a wild journey we're on. Oh, yeah. Look at the details and sort of take notes of how wild this all is. There's plenty just to learn from. The analogy he used last night, or not analogy, but the story he told was sort of CrossFit.com posted

in 2003 that if you could beat Greg Edmondson Greg Edmondson Edmondson Edmondson We all know. Yeah, whatever. We know what we're talking about. Was it a world record Fran time of 3.58?

3.58 and everybody in the room laughed. Everybody was like, oh, I did that when I was a baby. I wasn't laughing like, man, my best time is of 3.58? 3.58. And everybody in the room laughed. Everybody was like, oh, I did that when I was a baby. I wasn't laughing. I'm like, man, my best time is like 12.15 or some shit. But they got a t-shirt. Yeah, if you can beat it and film it or whatever, you got a t-shirt. Which filming, they're like, how do I do that? Where's my video tape recorder?

I don't know if they said film it, but whatever. Yeah, they're like, if you can beat it, we'll send you a shirt. I was like, it's like 3.58, man. I do remember when like breaking four minutes was a big deal. Like for me, I was like, if you can beat it, we'll send you a shirt. I was like, it's like 358, man. I do remember when like breaking four minutes was a big deal. Yeah. Like for me,

I was like, I was like, oh, I broke four minutes. Now I want to break 330 and I want to break, break three. But then I saw Chris Spieler

do it in like, you know, a minute 58 or something like that. And I was like, ah, what's the point? I'm,

I'm, I'm happy with my, you know, my 315. I'll just keep it there. That's when you go back to drinking goat milk and going back to weightlifting. Yeah, that's why I like, I haven't done Fran in years. I just happy with my 315. I'll just keep it there. That's when you go back to drinking goat milk and going back to weightlifting. Yeah, that's why I haven't done Fran in years.

I just want to squat. Actually, Fran, for me, I tell people, it's the easiest thing in the world for me. You know why, Andrea? It's so easy. Because pull-ups are so easy for you? Yeah. Well, no. It's because between each rep of the pull-up, I... She snorted. I took offense at your snort. Into the microphone. I'm sorry.

Okay, well, let me continue. Hey, by the way, somebody please make that a ringtone. Yeah. Oh, gross. Andrew Eggersnort. Gross. The Eggersnort ringtone. There you go.

Yeah, again. You've got another one. You've got three snorts that you can make a ringtone. Let me say, let me get a third one. The reason why Fran is so easy is because by the time I can get in those pull-ups, I'm so completely recovered because I do one, I wait around for like five minutes,

I do another one or two, and the thrusters go bang, bang, bang, thrusters done. Okay, another 15 pull-ups. Let me suffer through this. Gravity, thank you very much. Gravity.

Gravity can be a real bitch sometimes. Watching Chris do Fran, you know what, when I first met Chris, he thought weightlifting was stupid. He didn't think it was stupid you were less accepting of it

I was a powerlifter so that was the time when powerlifting we were talking about earlier this competition there's a barbell here between MPFL and CrossFit and everybody tries to compare them directly even though they're not quite apples to apples weightlifting I was a powerlifter of course I thought it was the better thing and you're a weightlifter I think well this guy

he'll figure it out eventually what'll come over to the right side what i like is that you're saying that there's not still like a feud between weightlifting powerlifters and that is wrong um because that's like saying that like catholics aren't still feuding with protestants and they are i would say it's got a little i think it's gotten still an epic like well andrea to be fair i think now one thing i give look a lot of what we want to do here is say, look, CrossFit still has so much awesome stuff to offer. One of them is bringing disparate groups together. Like a Diane Phu can come in with a Mark Bell. Mark Bell is a power lifter.

Does not snatch, cannot snatch. We'll tell you right now, this is dumb. I'm not doing this. In the old world, Mark Bell and Jesse Burdick would not have been hanging out with Diane Phu. No. In the old world. And now they are. Yeah, that's true.

Because of CrossFit. Yeah. And now we can experiment and tinker with, like, what can powerlifting add? What can weightlifting teach? Because now you see guys, like, in Mark's gym, people are doing a lot more front squats than they used to. They're working on position. They're working on deep squats.

They're wearing weightlifting shoes. It's mixing and changing. So that is changing for the better. And this will change for the better. CrossFit and MPFL will benefit from each other and learn and grow. And they'll both will succeed if both sides remain willing to let it happen. And I'm doing nationals next week

or next month in the American Nationals. I'm pretty excited for that. See you there. High five you there. But we're doing that and that's like crossfit has allowed me to like do that i mean it's kind of blows my mind sometimes when i see people that are obviously haven't worked out for like 30 years and like they come to my seminar maybe they've been doing

crossfit for a few months or something and i'm like wow like they're really you know like inflexible or maybe just not used to it yet so they're not used to squatting below parallel they're not used to snatching things above their head and i'm like man like we're teaching the olympic lifts to normal people like that kind of like their head. And I'm like, man, we're teaching the Olympic lifts to normal people. That kind of always blows our mind. I'm like, that person walking on the street, we encourage them to learn how to snatch and clean and jerk. That was never going to happen before.

That's cool. That's epic. There's no other path. Those people can maybe make it to nationals someday. You know what I mean? Bench press and leg presses before, and now they're learning snatches. Did you do the American Open this past year? You did?

Yeah. Yeah. 353 registrants at the USAW American Open. That's legit. And that was the largest weightlifting meet in the world to date. Ever. Yeah. It was a world record.

Not an American record. A world record of registrants. I say because of CrossFit. Yeah. No doubt about it. Oh, like half of them were CrossFitters, and there was doubled from last year. And fortunately, there was a big ice storm

that kept like 25% of them out. I think it was fortunate because... Or in. Or in. We were stuck there. Yeah, yeah. Had that not happened. Yeah, CTP missed it.

He was going to come in, we were going to do a mini documentary, and then it didn't pan out because his plane couldn't get in due to ice. Texas ice. It's going to come in. We were going to do a mini documentary and then it didn't pan out because this plane couldn't get in due to ice. Texas ice. It's different than actual ice. Yeah. They're not ready to treat the roads.

That's part of the problem. We had a four-wheel drive, so we were able to go around and eat food and watch Kanye West and all that stuff. What I really love, and no matter what CrossFit might do that anybody might criticize, the fact that it's brought everybody together, it's allowed a sport that I do

love and appreciate immensely, Olympic weightlifting, it's going to be competitive on a world scale, our nation. We're going to have better athletes. This whole community will rise together. The Olympic competitions will get better. Our nationals will get better. Everybody is improving and benefiting from this experiment.

What I really love is that now I can be on Instagram. You're an Instagram queen. Our nationals get better. Everybody is improving and benefiting from this experiment. Yes. What I really love is that now, like even Instagram, you're an Instagram queen. You did quite good on it. But now like- I do like it a little bit. Dimitri Klokov can post stuff, can lift you over his head, can come to the United States tour, share what he knows from behind the Iron Curtain. He can mix and say, hey, here's how I think you guys can get better. And we can all compete, like, as he says.

We can all, in some way, win together and improve together. Dude, he does say win together. And he also says team winner, which me and my dream partner, we love that. We're like, team winner all the time, all day. It's us. Team winner. How else would a Klokoff come over to the United States and do that tour without CrossFit? Like, without something like that?

Let me teach you how to weightlift. Let me show you how strong I am. Yeah. Dude, in the old school, like, Russians would have stayed in Russia weightlifting and living in a dorm or something like that. And now the story's changed. Now the tour manager is teaching us. They're teaching us what, oh, oh, there it goes. I was going to say that, yeah, I did meet him at his seminar, and it was very amazing, like, getting taught by all of them.

I mean, Ilya as well. Ilya's amazing. Oh, yeah. like getting taught by all of them i mean ilia as well ilia is amazing oh yeah and um it's funny because like when he does give me tips on instagram like if i if i posted a video of my three rep max front squat like six months ago and his comment was i had my hands open and the bar was sitting in my hand and then and then he his comment was never never front squat with open hand always close and then there was like six thumbs ups on it. And I'm like, dude, I want to remember that for the rest of my life. Close hand on front squat.

Got it. Close hand on front squat. Always close. Never open. But isn't that pretty awesome? Excuse my French, but a fucking gold medalist, the best weightlifter we've seen in a long time is coaching you because this tool exists.

Through Instagram. Yeah. It's fantastic. It's pretty cool. I'll tell you what else. We say Diane sharing all Through Instagram. Yeah. It's fantastic. That's pretty cool. I'll tell you what else. We say Diane's sharing all that information on Instagram. It's an awesome coaching medium.

No, Diane's. I screenshot almost every single one of her posts. Not the video. That's Diane Phu. But it's what she says. I'm like, okay, I got to remember that

and then I read it sometimes when I'm going to coach. I'm like, all right, I got to, she said it like this. I can remember that. Maybe a fourth of it. All right, I can say that.

I mean, we're learning from other coaches anyway, but this is a new era where we can learn from Instagram coaches. We can learn, okay, this is answering some people's questions. Because people that are following us are not just wanting to know, like, hey, I want to see Andrea smile every day. That's not what they want from me. They also want to know...

Which pictures get the most likes? Come on now. Definitely not the ones in my swimsuit, ever. I want a picture. Can we get a picture of you? Let's put a picture of you in a swimsuit with you holding like three kittens. You know what?

I got a way to blow up the internet. Yeah, you in a swimsuit holding kittens. My biggest Instagram success was a bacon donut. So what we need to do is I'll get in a photo with a bacon donut and you can be in your swims is I'll get in a photo with a bacon donut, and you can be in your swimsuit, and we'll rock the world. We'll take over Instagram for the day. If you are, if you do, I would predict like 100,000 likes,

you in a bathing suit holding a hamburger, Carl's Jr. hamburger, eating it, getting in one hand. Everybody will just go, I can't do it. The computer's wall shut down. I love it when I posted a picture of me and Julie Foucher. Oh, actually, it was you that texted me. Right? And you said, I think that you and Julie just broke the internet with that picture.

I texted her and she was so embarrassed. She was like, oh. She doesn't know. She doesn't know that she's beautiful. Now, if you are wondering what all that noise is in the background, especially if you're just listening, you wouldn't realize that we're at the NPFL Combine. In the Orleans Arena.

This is the first time they're doing live streaming. They're testing it out right now. And the screen they have up, I'm getting distracted a little bit during the podcast, but I'm able to focus. But the screen up here is cool. I mean, it's like what you would see in a professional sport if you're watching, you know, a college football game.

It's a jumbotron. But even if I was at home watching this on the TV, I would feel like I was watching like a team sport. It's edited like kind of like an NFL game. They're doing an exhibition right now. Is it seven already? No, it's not that late. But they're doing an exhibition right now,

and they're testing the live streaming right now. Tomorrow they're going to live stream. This podcast will post and all this is already online. But this is really cool to watch. And, yeah, if you're wondering what all that noise is, that's what it is. If you want to check it out, NPFL.com. And there's probably going to be the videos posted from this combine competition but I'm actually

being distracted a little bit. Could you believe that I would be distracted talking? I'm talking to Andrew Yeager and I'm getting

distracted by a jumbotron. People lifting weights. Oh my gosh. Yeah man, I'm not being that distracted. You need to focus.

You must focus. I'll pull my shit together. All right, yeah, let's close this one up. Where do people find you? What's your Instagram? It is at Ager, A-G-E-R underscore B-O-M-B bomb.

At Ager underscore bomb. Ager bomb. That's me on Twitter, too. I have a fan page on Facebook or just like a regular Facebook. And I have a blog, www.theandreaaiger.com. Oh, I don't know if I've checked out your blog. Oh, I write a lot of good stuff on there. Open and honest and raw and passionate.

It's mostly about who I get to meet and how pumped I am. I'm everyone's fan, so. That's fantastic. Very cool. And if someone wanted you to come to a seminar at their box, how do they make that happen? They can go to my blog. So same thing, www.theandreagra.com

and click on the request a visit and my manager will get back to you because we have a lot so we are trying to plan tours right now. Excellent.

Awesome. planning tours. I like that. All right, make sure you go to barbellstrug.com sign up for the newsletter. You can find out

how to support the show. Later. Cheers. Cool. I really fucking Yeah, you did awesome. That was. Cool. I really fucking did that. Yeah, you did awesome. That was so deep. I was kind of pessimistic,

but you know, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.