Barbell Shrugged - 133- CrossFit & NPGL Athletes Sam Dancer and Danny Nichols

Episode Date: July 27, 2014

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we interview the two most diesel dudes in the NPFL, Danny Nichols and Sam Dancer. Hey, this is Rich Froning, you're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged, I'm Mike Bledsoe here with Chris Moore and CTP behind the camera. We're in Las Vegas at the NPFL Combine. We are joined by two of the strongest men in the NPFL and probably CrossFit as well. We have Danny Nichols. Say what's up. What's up, guys?

We have Sammy D, as you call him. Yeah, Sammy D. Sam Dancer. Also, both these guys, if you follow them on Instagram or follow them on YouTube or wherever, I've been seeing these guys

lift big weights and do things like crush King Kong for a long time. I haven't done King Kong in a while. You haven't done it? Oh, we gotta go ahead

It's been a while since you've done it. But I saw, that was like one of the first videos I ever saw of you. You did King Kong. I was like,

I can't like fucking crush King Kong. Is that a competition videos I ever saw of you. You did King Kong. I was like, I can't like fucking crush King Kong. Is that a competition? I think it's 150. It was fast. But I go sub 130. Damn. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, before we go any further, make sure to go to barbellshrug.com for the newsletter. All right. That was all of our commercials. Oh, yeah. That was it. All right. All right.

Now we can move on to the meat and potatoes. All right. So, Danny, you're out of the OPT camp. Yes, sir. Yes, OPT. You've been following OPT for years. You're signed with the Phoenix Rise. Yes.

Out of Phoenix. Phoenix, baby. Go Phoenix. And Scott's still out of Phoenix, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And Sam, do I know this right? Go for it. You're conjugate? You're conjugate.

You do like conjugate method. That's how you got so fucking strong. But on, especially on team. Or are you just like super fucking strong and then that's kind of how you train now. I played collegiate football. Uh huh. Um, I was, I was pretty stupid strong in college, but, um, like had, I didn't really know it as being really unproportionate at the time.

You didn't realize how strong you were compared to other people? You just thought you were normal? I knew I had, I knew I had strengths. And then I got to, I got to conjugate and realized like I didn't have an ass or hamstrings. Oh. Was it the typical, you bench a lot, you fucking do a little bit leg pressing or whatever, but that was your extended training? I had a great anterior just with, with sprinting and football. Um, so just being on my toes, that was something that was really, really easy for me. And I built up a lot of volume in the past, what, 12 years of playing,

playing ball. So, uh, just basically getting the conjugate working on my back working on my glutes my hamstrings and like when i got there i glued ham rays almost fell on my face or like reverse hyper i think i was shot for like two weeks yeah it's like you were you were ripe for that kind of training because one you needed some things to be brought up so weakness targeting was fucking perfect for you but also had this huge background of training You did put a lot of reps in a lot of work. So you weren't just jumping into that style of training right off the bat. No. And I had a conjugate style system, uh, in college, um, never really took the time to understand it for what it really was. Um, so I had a good background, um, and I had a lot, uh, a good foundation to build on top of that allowed me to kind of jump.

Because I've only been doing CrossFit for about a year and a half, two years almost. Jesus. You've got a lot more monstrous things to accomplish. I had a real good foundation, like jumping into it, just trying to continue to, I don't know, just become a more skilled athlete. And it's going to be interesting to see what happens with this balance of, like, the MPFL and CrossFit. Like, do I start to specialize so I can just, like, we can just slay in the MPFL?

Just be powerful motherfuckers. I would like to see you. I want to see you slay more. I want to see you. Great for the fans. You know, we were talking about this with another guest earlier. You know, I see, like like 10% of the people competing in NPFL also having

the domains necessary to compete at the CrossFit Games level and probably vice versa. But I think you're going to start seeing a bigger spread as time goes on and guys like you are going to flourish in the NPFL just because you're so powerful. It looks to me like you're

both very powerful and when it gets down to like captain obvious 60 60 minute wads you probably don't fare as well as a smaller well keep in mind too though like we've we've still we we come from a crossfit background so we've still been we've been doing this inclusive training so like don't you've been training long but i wouldn't i wouldn't sell me or danny out really to say that like we couldn't be great crossfitters like i think we we would have that potential to be great crossfitters but i definitely think that uh this mpfl thing is going to suit us right really really well yeah yeah not that you couldn't be good crossfitters but like this is much easier for you to be great at yeah it's too it's too hard to be good at crossfit

there's too much volume be good at CrossFit. There's too much volume. Like this, we can specialize. Play to your strengths, man. Fuck that shit. It's more fun, you know, the volume's lower. It's going to be better on the body. And I feel like we're going to be better at where we're good at. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. So I mentioned that you were Phoenix Rise, Danny. And Sam, you're with San Francisco Fire. But you've been living in Ohio. Is that right? Yep, that's correct. So are you going to move to San Francisco?

Totally. Okay. Fuck yeah. So have you moved there yet or what's the status there? Me and my wife, we're on a games team together. And you guys fucking crushed it, by the way. Yeah, thanks, dude. Oh yeah, we were there.

I don't think it was a competition. It wasn't much of a competition, really, was it? Dude, it was a lot of fun. It was really exciting. But we're going to head out to the games, and then we're fairly recently wed. Our one year was about a week ago. Oh, congrats, man. Thanks, dog.

Yeah. So after the games, we're going to spend about seven days to ourselves, and then that will land us on, like, August 4th, which is when, like, we all report for, like, our physicals and such. So then it's going to be game time. It's so legit. It's like the start of football season or something. And the first of its kind.

It's going to be fantastic. I can't fucking wait for it to kick off. Dude, the more and more, like, it really starts to get real when you hear Tony talk about it. But, like, just my wife called me last night and she's like, dude, I was watching it live stream. She's like, this is, it's going to be real. This is a real deal.

Like it's going to be huge. It's real and different in a very positive way. We got to talking about how this compares to CrossFit or whatever. It's like, it's very distinct. It's going to be very new. It's going to trigger a lot of different approaches to training. You've got cool little radically different things that aren't the same at all,

like a coach screaming at your ass on the sideline. I saw that yesterday. That was the most cool moment I saw was a coach got up in somebody's face like, fuck, man, come on. I said do this. It's just like football. Not only that, the camera caught that action.

The camera caught that interaction. And watching it on the Jumbotron or or in one of the rooms back here it looks like yeah not only is it actually happening on on the grid here but you know the the person at home is experiencing the intensity as well and that person at home might not know shit about cross even as popular as that is they're gonna be totally isolated from all this and they're gonna see a big big awesome rig, color, awesome fast-paced action and go, maybe I should go to my local box and fucking do some wings. You don't have to know

much about anything to be attracted to this. It's going to be good for everybody. That's what I think. Yeah, and it's intense and it moves fast. If you blink, you might miss something. Yeah, it is fast. It's really exciting. Yeah, but even if you blink and do miss something, you look up on the screen and they've got the numbers counting

and you can tell who's ahead and who might not be ahead and things like that. It's crazy how on top of it they are. Dude, it was so much fun. I was watching yesterday during one of the exhibition matches and they were going and I was watching them and I'm like, and I got a little confused about who might be ahead and all I did was look over to the screen. Oh.

And I was like, oh, okay, I got it now. It was like, you know know it only took a moment to be caught up with what was going on you know just from that uh that visual representation yeah definitely you get you get caught up in an exciting moment on one side and then you forget where you're at but looking back up at the screen definitely put you back on track Danny what's your background I mean we talked to Sam Sam's got football and and uh kind of gravitated towards CrossFit after that. How about you?

Yeah, I did some football growing up. I played football in college, and I always did Olympic weightlifting. Wow. My friend Yash Faye was my coach. Oh, wow. And he trained me with that, and I always wanted to be better at football, so I wanted to be more explosive with Olympic weightlifting, and I did that. Went to college, played football, tried out for the NFL, and it didn't work out.

And came back, did a bodybuilding competition. I saw that photo. Yeah, it's a good photo. Yeah, it's a good photo, but it just wasn't for me. You know, the diet, the lifestyle, I was like, this isn't for me, I can't do it. Was that a benefit to you, though, that background, that experience? Yeah, definitely.

Muscle mass is helping you now. Definitely, definitely. Definitely is an experience, you know, in dieting hard and just. And most CrossFitters don't know what it's like to actually diet hard. Oh, no. Me and Danny got to talking, and we both had, like, really similar stories. Like, we did the football thing. We're like, oh, shit.

This is not working. What are we going to do? We're so competitive. It's like, what's next? What can we do next? And then we both did. He did bodybuilding. I did like a physique show.

And then so you could. Did you wear the board shorts? Yeah, he did the out trunks. The skinny mini, right? The skinny mini. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what, though? I'm not one to make fun of physique athletes, you know,

because I have a lot of respect for bodybuilders. But if you're wearing board shorts. Yeah. I wore the. I don't know they did that. But if you're wearing board shorts. Yeah. I wore the. I don't know they did that. But it was a big challenge. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And I lost like 70 pounds. So I played football like, you were like 270, weren't you? I got up to 270 when I took time off. What do you weigh now? I'm 245. Jesus. To use some perspective, Chris Moore is 270. Yeah, about.

Right now. Yeah. At my heaviest, I was probably not as well built as you at 270, but I got to 370. I know how it is. Oh, 370. Yeah, like my powerlifting days. I know all the guys in Ohio.

I competed and trained with the guys at Westside for a long time and did that whole thing. It was a great experience. Yeah, man. So you probably thought when you got through with your run at football, like took a shot at the NFL, well, maybe my shot at being a competitive athlete or professional athlete is gone. Yeah, you know, I was like, this is done.

And then I was lost. You know, all my friends that I went to school with were in a trade or had a great job. And all I did was I had a good body. And I was like, well, what am I going to do with this body now? Nope, no brains. No. No brains, just brawn.

Yeah. What am I going to do? All body. I was like, okay. Well, I have to do do with this body now? Nope. No brains. No. No brains. Just wrong. What am I going to do? All body. I was like, I was like, okay, well, I have to do something with his body.

So I did that bodybuilding thing. And I was like, you've been a great, like in a fucking Roman Legion or something. Crush heads. I know. I was like, what am I going to do?

I got to figure this out, you know? And then I moved home and I went, went back. Where was home? I'm from San Rafael, California. Okay.

The Bay area. Yeah. So I moved back home. I was in LA at the time when I did the bodybuilding thing. Moved back to the Bay Area and I was like alright, now what? I tried the I tried some football. Semi-pro football.

And you had to pay to play and people were getting injured out there and I was like you know, it's not fun. What league was that? It's fun. What league were you trying to pay to play, and people were getting injured out there. And I was like, you know, it's not fun. What league was that? It's fun. What league were you trying to go? Was it a local thing? Yeah, it was a local thing.

I mean, and it was not put together. I was like, this isn't for me. And then I got back into Olympic weightlifting with my friend Yasha. And he was training at a TJ's gym in San Rafael. And that's where I started doing some CrossFit. Yeah, man. Yeah. And then it just know I went to uh met Marcus Philly there you know and he was he's been doing it for a while and we we had a team went to the games and had some fun and then I was like I want to I want to try to go individual and James Fitzgerald invited me out to OPT in

Scottsdale and I was like yeah didn't think twice. I moved out. Were you the biggest athlete he had up to that point for CrossFit? I think I'm the biggest athlete. Size-wise. I think I'm just the biggest. He must look at you like, if I'm not the biggest, I'm going to get bigger. I am the biggest. I heard you guys were up

until 8 a.m. He tried to reel me in. We were up. It was, so yeah, you didn't have anything to do today. You guys,

you guys did an exhibition match yesterday. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then you didn't have anything to do today, but the combine, you guys don't,

you guys don't participate in the combine. Y'all were here just to put on a show and you guys did a fantastic job yesterday. Yeah. Could you guys like

take off your shirts like you did yesterday during the exhibition match? You know, did you like how he took mine off. Yeah. Could you guys like take off your shirts like you did yesterday during the exhibition match? You know, did you like how he took mine off? Yeah. The jump start? There's a special technique. First, you got to wring the sweat out so it doesn't stick and then just peel it off.

Pop it off. Oh, yeah. So we got a special technique for sure. I'm not your first? I mean, yeah. Bro, I thought that was our moment, man. I thought of it on the spot, to be honest with you. That could be your move, like your WWE style move. Oh, I thought that was our moment, man. I thought of it on the spot, to be honest with you. That could be your move, like your WWE-style move.

Oh, yeah. You score a touchdown here on the grid, and you rip that shit off, and the crowd goes wild. Yeah, and then I was going to throw it into the crowd, but I was like, man, if this is his only shirt, then what? Because he's not going to be able to get it back. Yeah. I mean, who knows who'd get that thing? Frame that. You guys have a little bit of a bromance going on.

That's Sammy D over there, yeah. It was immediate. Yeah. You guys just a little bit of a bromance going on. That's Sammy D over there. Yeah. It was immediate. Yeah. It was like. You guys just connected. Yeah. And it was dangerous. Sam said,

he's like, man, he's like, I could see this being dangerous. We should probably only hang out on the grid. I was like, eh, I mean,

let's, let's, let's see how the grid goes. And then we'll talk about that after, you know? Yeah. It sounds like y'all just went on like the first date. Oh yeah.

Yeah. It's, it's been good. It was so funny out on the grid. It's good that you're not on the same team. That might be the real danger if you're on the same team. Oh yeah, yeah. That'd be bad. We'd probably fight a little bit because we were out there during the front squats and he got to go first. And y'all were on the same team yesterday. And I was like

jumping around. He could tell I was looking at him and I was like, give me the Bible, Danny. I was doing the squats. I'm strong too. I want to lift. I was doing the squats and Sam was over there. I was like, oh yeah. It's like the dog wanted the bone. You know, I was like, all right, give the dog the bone. He's like, coach, what do I do? What do I do? Give the dog the bone, right? He's getting antsy. As soon as someone goes, man, that Sam guy, he's strong. Give me the bar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got shows. Yeah.

It was good. So you guys, since you only had that to do. By the way, the exhibition match yesterday was East Coast versus West Coast. Yeah. West Coast lost. Yeah, yeah. Why did that happen? Hang on.

Hang on. I'm going to loosen up your tongues first, okay? Our friends at FitAid brought us a treat at your request, actually. You had requested something a couple hours ago. Yeah. And so we made it happen. Yes. Okay.

Oh, we have it. Oh. Oh, Sammy D. Oh, snap. Sammy D, baby. Thank you, FitAid. Yes, thank you, FitAid. Old Jack Diesel.

Since you guys had a late night last night, this party aid will help you recover. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Drink a little bit off the top, right? And then here's your bottle of Jack. So you guys can just finish that off. Oh, yeah. While we podcast.

We definitely have to share. I'll load it up for you. I'm going to try this here. Bartender Chris is going to get the party started. Here, drink each down a little bit, and I'll pour you some. We're going to take a break real quick while we get this bottle open. And then we'll come back with the results and why you think you guys got your asses kicked. Oh, yeah, for sure.

Because we were having too much fun. That's why. This is Andrea Ager, and you're listening to Barbell Shrug. For the video version, go to barbellshrug.com. Barbell Shrug 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. Oh, man.

All right. CTP missed a good shot. I'm going to have to ask you guys to repeat. Oh, yeah, for sure. Here we go. Ready? Party AIDS. Oh, and down.

Oh, yeah. This is delicious. It is good. Party aid, baby. Yeah. It says that? Yeah, it's... It says party aid.

Party aid is popular... I had the baby. It's popular amongst the people who like to throw down hard... Yeah. ...and need to recover the next day. That's you guys. You can also make mixed drinks with it. I prefer vodka with my party aid.

I actually like to do a party aid with some vodka, like half and half, and then a splash of Fit Aid. Now, if you drink it with your vodka, do you need it the next day? Or are you supplementing there? I think you're supplementing there. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I don't have all the scientific evidence to back any of this up. Yeah, for sure. We could probably... You want a drink of this here?

We could probably find out. Yeah. That's got booze in it. Alright, so, you guys... What were we talking about? We could probably find out Yeah That's got booze in it Alright so You guys What were we talking about? We were talking You were going to say How we got our asses kicked Oh yeah

We were going to explain It's an exhibition match And yeah East Coast beat West Coast And I'll be honest I love the West Coast I like spending a lot of time there I identify with the West Coast a lot

When I feel like I'm at home When I'm out there But I identify with the West Coast a lot. I feel like I'm at home when I'm out there. But I was still kind of rooting for East Coast, and I was happy to see that they won. So why did East Coast? And not only that, they won pretty big. What happened? There's a multitude of things, man.

Yeah, there are. I think the most obvious would be just the amount of mistakes that we made, both male and female. Yeah. You know, I did notice during one of the races, so there's 11 races in a match. One of the races, you guys suffered an injury even, and then you still, like, tied at the end of the race. So there was two injuries. Yeah, one of them was you guys were even strong enough to come back and tie.

We're like, what do we do? Someone fall out. Like, what do we do? Can we out. Like, what do we do? Can we sub? We don't know how the rules work yet. It was an on-the-fly move, and there was a little bit of confusion for about probably five, ten seconds. I mean, seconds is going to make a huge difference. And the NPFL match, like, yeah, five seconds is a lifetime.

It's a lot more like other sports, like in football or basketball. If you make a mistake, you're going to pay a really big price for it. Like in football, you fumble two or three times a game, you're probably going to fucking lose that game, man. It's a big switch in momentum. Out here, there's so much motion, so much fast-paced action. You make a wrong turn, you don't touch the line, dude, you're going to pay for that big time.

They're going to work twice as hard to make up the gap. Yeah. Definitely we want to give a shout-out to Jamie Higia and let her know we love her and wish her speedy recovery And after that happened, you know, we we have so much love for her and we're we're such good friends and so close It was hard to come back after that. I was like, oh man I saw I was so shaken up and I was like, oh, you know, we're in this moment We have to compete but then there's a good friend, you know

That's out and you know, and you you hear about injury and you're like, oh, man. You're like, shit, this was supposed to be for fun. Yeah, yeah. And then this got really, really real, you know. And, I mean, people were having tears in their eyes. And it's like, you know, it's like, what do you do? And you got to keep moving. But it's hard to move past something like that, you know, something that big. I think that says a lot for the the beginning of

this sport already and the people involved with it that we have the type of people that are willing to put their bodies on the line for their teammates and and these are teammates that i had for what six hours yeah leading up to that like some of these cats i just met and i was willing to go out there and and we were willing to go out there, and we were willing to put our bodies on the line for points for our teammates. There's definitely a bond. That says a lot for what the true team dynamic is going to look like once the real season hits and the type of characters that we have involved in this new sport.

Yeah, the bigger picture of the NPFL and everybody that's involved from top down, just everything good that's happening, you know, it's trickling down to everybody. Profound, man. I think maybe what makes it even more special is that it's so new. It's like a blooming, totally new thing. You come together at the last, like I said, six hours and bond as a team almost instantly. I'm really curious to see just how this develops

come August, come a year into it. Come when there's like 2016 where there's maybe 20, 30 teams or whatever the hell they're going to do. The real effect on that, on you guys' training, on the way you, on the way the country views fitness, on its impact on local boxes and expands reach.

It's going to be just an extraordinary thing. Could be more fucking excited for this. It's going to change a lot of lives, dude. It's really, really cool that I think it was Tony just telling a story a couple days ago. He's like, some guy just walked in here, some sort of sponsorship role hasn't really had any uh um any experience with fitness crossfit whatever you want to kind of call it right now um and saw this really briefly

just for like 30 40 seconds and you know that which can sometimes be a match um it came up and it was like dude that got me fired up like i want to go work out. This guy that has never had really anything to do with what we're doing right now and now all of a sudden he's motivated to go try something new and different that may change his life. That's pretty exciting. He's going to go home and look up the closest CrossFit box.

He kind of learned there's a snatch thing. I've never seen that in my life. What's up with that? It's inspiring. I think we get, we were actually talking about this the other day, is we get desensitized to transformations. Those of us who have been in the industry for a long time, you know, I've been in CrossFit since 2007.

And you guys have been in sports and fitness for a while. I mean, you guys may be experiencing the same thing. I'm used to people having dramatic transformations. Someone like getting to the point where they had type 2 diabetes, and now they're a healthy same thing is I'm used to people having dramatic transformations, like someone, someone like, uh, getting to the point where they had type two diabetes and now they're a healthy individual on no drugs and competing in CrossFit and doing CrossFit and doing like smaller competitions

and stuff like that. Uh, they go from like sick and dying to like one of the most functional human beings on earth. And it's like, and, and I. And I take that for granted now. I'm like, oh yeah, good job. And then the problem is I've seen it so many times in my small world, in my little small bubble, that I think that's normal.

And then it's cool to see something like this where you do have that outsider that comes in and goes, you can tell they are being inspired to train and stuff like that. Well, it's a lot cooler that that's normal to you than what normal is for a lot of other people. Oh, absolutely. Which is a complete. Just existing. Slow degradation.

Just getting by is normal for some people. You know, and it's just fitness in general. Just people getting up and moving. Yeah. And putting some fun with it, you know, like something like the NPFL. Like, wow,

that was exciting. Like, working out can be fun. Like, we can race and have fun, do whatever. You don't have to go to the gym and just do some curls and some bench and stay on the same routine.

And not talk to anybody. Exactly. You go out there and have fun and race and, you know, and find new skills. Yeah, I was a little kid. And just be the same routine. And not talk to anybody. Exactly. You go out there and have fun and race and find new skills. Yeah, when I was a little kid. You're stuck in routine. I was a little fat kid in Memphis growing up. I would see Michael Jordan, still my hero.

If Michael Jordan walks in right now, I'd fall to my knees. Like, oh, fuck. Oh, fuck Michael Jordan. But little fat kid grabbing a basketball. I had no idea what he was doing. Get my dad to get a goal, go out and shoot hoops. I think kids are going to start seeing this kind of shit on TV more and more. Kids who otherwise,

no one in their family lives, there's no gyms, there's nothing. Nothing otherwise would trigger them to feel this way. They're going to watch a guy, see a guy's bra, rip his shirts off and go at it in this awesome way. They're going to go, I need to be a part of this. Not even understanding anything other than it's cool, it's flashy. Maybe I could have a future

in that. I could be my football i'm glad you said that because um so much of what kind of makes this professional is unfortunately the money um and a lot of people like our interview questions this morning asking us like hey oh you can do this you know in two years from now like what are you gonna do with all this money what are you are you going to do with all this money? What are you going to be able to do with all this? And like, honestly, like the fact that we're going to be able to inspire, even potentially inspire. I don't care what age, whether it's the young little fat kid or if it's the 60 year old man who's never done anything. But the potential for us to be able to inspire people to do something greater than themselves with a group of other people, it's really, really exciting that we're going to get the opportunity to give back to other people in some fashion.

How big of a deal do you think it is that, now this is a sport, and obviously there's a lot different about it, one of the most interesting ways it's different is that on your team, on your team, there's a master's component and an opposite gender component. We're all working together on the same field at the same time. I think this is the first co-ed pro sport. I could be wrong. And that's one of the questions they asked us in the interview too. How do you feel about the first professional

co-ed sport out there? It's fucking groundbreaking. It's exciting. We have some amazing women in this sport. Amazing on fitness levels and personalities. Not only as athletes, but coaches. Yeah. We have female coaches as well.

Definitely. Maybe, because that's still a rub with any sport like you watch NBA go. I don't think it is here, though. You go, yeah, you go NBA, cool. Ladies basketball, yeah. It's built to be segregated and off the side and compared against the standard same with there's baseball

and there's softball yeah that's okay but it's not fucking major league baseball there's a natural sort of gradient but here it's like yeah

here's the standard you guys are badass and strong these girls are right beside you equally badass and strong they're lifting

almost I guess some events they're on the same barbell. Yeah. I can see this potentially changing things, like the average woman's perception of what being fit means. Because if a woman's been exposed to CrossFit or something like that, they understand that being strong is a big benefit. You can be lean and you can be smaller and still be strong.

You know, the fear of getting bulky and all this. And I think that, I think this is going to help transform like people's idea about what being fit is for a woman

and being able to see, we're talking to two giant dudes about how, what this is going to mean to women. I guess. This is blowing

my mind right now. We love our women. This is what's blowing my mind is we actually care. Yeah. I guess. This is blowing my mind right now. We love our women. This is what's blowing my mind is we actually care. Yeah. And I think it's going to help change the perception of people all over the United States

and women are going to start looking at themselves in a different light and I think that could be awesome. You dudes are making it happen. Cheers to you. Yeah. You know,

I think the world in general is going to be inspired by some of these incredible women. You know, I think the world in general is going to be inspired by some of these incredible women. You know, seeing them out there competing, like, wow, like some of these things are possible for women. You know, we get out there and it's like, wow. Like, I never, never thought that, you know, someone could do that. And these women are beautiful. They have great bodies.

And they are out there crushing it. With men. Yes. With men. Side by side. With men. Because. With men. Side by side. Because you do that in football. If a girl ever tried to play football in high school, it was like, you can't do that. And here is a new professional league where it starts off women being right equal.

Look, we still live in a kind of a fucked up place where women still are fighting for equality. Let's not bullshit. You're still going to get paid less for the same fucking job. You're still going to get a hard time from guys in the office going, well, if you insert yourself in a meeting, dude, Sam comes in and says, here's what I think. Sam's going to get her. Girl walks in the office and says, here's what I think we should do. Well, that shit's

a bitch. That kind of shit is still happening, and this is a good way of saying, there's no difference. Not in our subculture, though. No, not in this. That's on display here. Yeah, we read about that in newspapers, but we don't experience it in the culture that we live in. We live in a completely different world. And there's just so much respect out here.

And that's the difference. So much respect for the ladies that are out here doing their thing. Yeah, in all different tiers. So we have this male category. We have this female category. And then we have this master's category so um where where you know we can be um we can be discriminated discriminated just as much for our gender you know people are discriminated for their age as well you know yes one of the strongest guys

out here is a master's athlete yeah play tech yeah. Yeah. I think he deadlifted 585. Yes. Oh, yeah. Not only is he like one of the strongest guys out here, period, he's one of the

oldest. Salt and pepper here. Oh, yeah. By the way, what is your favorite event out here? Because mine has to be that fucking deadlift ladder.

I wish Powerlifting Whale would do more of that. It's the most exciting thing I've seen in a long time. Rapid fire attempts up to max. My favorite things are ladders.

I feel like there's the most excitement there. The crowd is there with you. There's one person there going for one lift. Your back's round and everything's shaking and everyone's like, yeah, get it! Every ladder that you've seen everywhere is going to be the most exciting because the fans are right there riding with you.

Everybody knows race. Everybody knows escalation and difficulty. It's just getting harder and harder. Everybody gets time. These guys are racing. It's a perfect event, man. It is. It's very easy to interpret what's happening, even if you have no clue what they're doing.

What's your least favorite event? My least favorite event is the deadlift ladder. And my favorite. This guy, you know, we're talking deadlifts. I'm pretty good at the Olympic lifts. I've been doing them for a bit. My clean's pretty good, but then I compare my clean to my deadlift, and I'm like, man, that

deadlift, what's going on back there? But they're not the same thing. You're probably not as fast up and around as you'd like to be. That's what we talked about yesterday. It's just that they're two completely different style lifts. People say you train the same way. Like, oh, yeah, it's two cleans to train your deadlift. Why do you speed the lifts? You don't know what you're

talking about. You've never trained the deadlift. Yeah, when someone says that, I'm like, oh, yeah, it's too clean. It's a train in your deadlift. Why do you speed the lifts? You don't know what you're talking about. You haven't ever trained the deadlift. Yeah, when someone says that, I'm like, oh, okay, then let's teach you how to deadlift then. Have you hung out with powders and trained with them? And have you ever gone the way of them? It's not the same thing. No, no, no. They're totally different.

So deadlifting, you know, compared to the other ladders, would be my least favorite because people would expect me to excel because I happen to be good at the Olympic lifts, and then I get to that deadlift thing. And you know, there's, there's, there's a guy, there's a guy that's, you know, you know, 50 pounds less, that's able to do the same. And it's, it's just like, wow, you know, you mean you've got to give it to the other athletes, but then I'm sitting there scratching my head. Like what's, what's going on on my backside here. I got to get on Sam's things.

Some of those reverse hypers and things. I was kind of picking his brain that we were talking about maybe coaching each other. Yeah, yeah. Because I'm a little loose in the overhead pressing department. Sam, I saw you deadlift yesterday. You had the power lifter deadlift going on. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was kind of teaching.

You don't see that very much in CrossFit. And sometimes when people do it, they get criticized. Unfortunately, you don't see it very much in CrossFit, and sometimes when people do it, they get criticized. Unfortunately, you don't see it because I think. I personally can't even do it. Well, I think it takes a really good coach to be able to break it down because it's a pretty dynamic setup. Yeah, I do the same. I grip and rip really fucking fast with the ground.

I think it's a lot easier in my mind to teach someone how to Olympic lift than it is in either of them or both of them. We'll say I think it's a lot easier in my mind to teach someone how to Olympic lift than it is in either of them or both of them will say. I think it's a lot easier for me to coach someone how to snatch and to clean than it is to teach someone how to deadlift properly because CrossFit, we go to our L1, they just teach it. I call it the CrossFit deadlift. It's the same position. The same way you deadlift is the same way you would set up for

a snatch or a clean, which in the world of powerlifting, both sides of the fence, weightlifting and powerlifting, it's not right. Alright, nothing's wrong. Nothing's right. It's just different. But the majority of weightlifting coaches would disagree with that setup, and the majority of powerlifting

coaches would disagree with that as well. It's like the worst of both worlds. It's like a melted together sort of average. It's average. It is a hybrid. That's why I call it the CrossFit Deadlift. It's great. It may make you strong as shit, but if you want to peak either one,

you've got to specialize either way. You're going to have to move your butt up or down. To my competitors that I talk to, I still bring it up and I talk about it because I think it's important to know how to transfer the area of the body that you're using. So if my ass and my hamstrings start to blow up, I want to know how I can get this sucker maybe into my lower back and my quads. So I can hit a different area of my body. That's actually going to respond to my brain right now. Yeah. Um,

so I think it's still important to have this Olympic style deadlift, to have this power lift and to have this hybrid CrossFit deadlift in your arsenal. So I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna write it off and say it's worthless or stupid. Uh, it has, it has its place. It absolutely, off and say it's worthless or stupid. It has its place. Absolutely.

It's a tool that we can use to help develop our skill of getting through something in a more efficient manner. And for training the average person, the person coming in and being introduced to CrossFit for the first time, that's a good place to start. It is. You know what? That's the place to start. You don't need to start worrying about special powerlifting lifting or special weightlifting techniques. I agree with that.

And at the same time, I still have another perspective. Um, something that kind of drives me nuts is, is PVC pipes. Yeah. Like I'm not quite heavy enough to teach you how to do anything. Just give me, just get a barbell. Like you need to learn how to have a barbell in your hands. Like, if I'm teaching someone how to throw a football, I don't give them a banana just because it fits better. All right, if you want to learn how to throw a football, I'm going to give you a damn football. All right, and if you want to learn how to hold a barbell,

I'm going to give you a barbell and not some, I don't know, 12-ounce piece of plastic pipe that's. I think the pipe can... It depends on how you teach the movement. It also depends on which movement, too. Yeah, different styles of teaching a movement require a lot of reps with something light, something like a PVC pipe.

But there's other ways to teach it. There's not just one way to teach the lifts. Yeah, that's the hard ass in me. And some of them can be the barbell right off the bat. We all got to get away from one way. To your point about the deadlifts, dude, like I got experience always being around great weightlifters, like in grad school

training with them, and CrossFit, and weightlifting being a part of them, doing the lifts, kind of as an old beat-up piloter and former football player, learning the right way, kind of getting okay at doing a snatch, improving my flexibility of that piloting. Really didn't do a good job at getting better overhead. What else is good for that?

But learning how to get my butt down and deadlift in a clean style was great because I got a history from powerlifting, not from powerlifting, but from football, blowing out lower back discs. Yeah. So in powerlifting, I can speed pull all day, every day. It's great. That'll make you strong as shit. Heavy attempts will irritate that if my hips are high. But I can use that clean style deadlift to train the deadlift more often butt down drive with the legs and that still has a transfer so this idea that you even have to pick

one like use them both with a strategy and you know sort of play to one in a competition when something blows up or if you have a weakness like for me if i get my butt down and train my legs my deadlift with a powerlifting style will go up i'll get better especially if i'm coupling that with high hip like i don't i don't know if you guys saw uh or i i always kind of hope sometimes that people will notice a particular style that i'll adopt in a in a workout like yesterday for instance in the uh the cluster workout where it was a a squat clean to a thruster. I was watching that. Did you watch mine?

You stood out. Because the way you did it, I was like, I wonder if he's doing that for efficiency or if he just fucked up. So back to attacking different areas of my body. With that front squat, I'm going to be hitting a lot of quad. Yeah. All right. There's really not much around that.

Like it's going to be kind of a more anterior demanding movement. And then with that pull, I'm trying to hit like a powerlifting style gluten hamstring. All right. So I don't want to be all quad, all quad, all quad. Yeah. Which is how a lot of people are if they're doing that crossfit style or olympic style pull um and then just blowing up there because i still got i got these sprints left i got these jerks left i got those box jump overs

yeah so i think it's important to to know uh how to be dynamic like that and how to kind of switch back and forth and and and play around with your entire body and not just one single, you got to figure out a bunch of ways to be strong, right? And that's going to be, you can't just go to your strengths. You can't just go one proven path. You got to figure out all kinds of ways.

That's what's been great about being with the West side guys, the conjugate guys, the sweatshop people. Sweatshop's great. It is. Yeah. Shane and Laura, they,

they've been awesome. And it's taught me how to use, because in CrossFit, we talk about, oh, we're not going to isolate today. We're going to do compound movements. All right, great. Okay, awesome. But there's something really, really special about isolating a muscle and what that does. Fuck yes, there is.

And what that does between- I mean, look at this guy's pecs. Of course there is. And what that does, like, neurologically, though, like, the relationship between your brain and a muscle, it's going to allow you, all right, to understand how to activate that area of your body. So it's funny sometimes, like, when I'm coaching a new person

and I'm like, squeeze your ass. And they don't even know where their ass is. I tell ladies, squeeze your ass or I'll squeeze it for you. They're like, oh my God, I got to get this thing squeezed. I'm a good coach. With this conjugate method and being at the sweatshop and at conjugate, it's allowed me to be really in tune with, really from head to toe, like know how to isolate damn near every area of my body, which really has a lot of transfer to.

So not just for bodybuilding? No. Yeah. Not at all. I mean, people say, oh, it's bodybuilding shit that's not functional. Yeah. Name for me, in weightlifting or powerlifting, I'm sure you can find a few, but out of the vast pool of great lifters you know and see, who doesn't do small exercises? Your Klokovs, your Chinese weightlifters, your Ed Coens,

anybody you can name who deadlifts and cleans and snatches big-time fucking weight, among them, who would scoff at side raises, hamstring curls, knee extensions? Crossfitters. Sometimes that's the only group. And those are the ones who maybe don't get what could help them the most. Because it hasn't been preached to us like that, unfortunately. And what that could, I mean, look at all the damn shoulder injuries we see. Yeah, we think they need those movements before doing these compound movements. But everyone gets so jazzed up about, oh, yeah, I want to do my friend.

Hey, because how often do you hear this? Like, oh, I'm not good at squatting. What do I need to do? Squat more. Oh, bullshit. Well, if you take the average new person in and they just don't know how to move and they've just never done squats, sometimes doing more squats can be better. Yeah, we're going to need to create movement patterns.

Now, if they're not getting good glute med activation, yeah, maybe you need to do some X-band walks and you need to do maybe some single leg work. And there's some things that you can do to help activate that. A lot of times just doing more, sometimes more squats is the answer and sometimes it's not. And so I think you just got to like, a good coach recognizes which one is which. Which scenario we're in.

You know, and a lot of times that new person, they shouldn't be squatting anyway in the first place. You know, they can't get in those right positions. Sometimes their ankles. Or be in that position to squat. So they need to work on some single leg stuff to build that strength and flexibility before they're in that position. But unfortunately, they get forced in these classes. All right, guys, we're back squatting.

And they're on their toes, not going down. Just like you. Back's rounding, yeah. The chest is between the knees. You know, know they got the good morning at the bottom yeah yeah oh yeah yeah you're getting stronger you're getting stronger but you know and that's people get lost in the mix sometimes verbal cues are not enough no and that's where coaching comes into play i was saying the majority of the time that uh verbal cues't the answer. It's choosing another exercise. You know, and like Sam said, people don't even know their own body.

They don't know that. You're like chest up, and they're like, it's up. It's up, right? No, not so much. You show them a video, and they're like, oh, I thought it was up. I tell you, man, if there's two things I can say I owe my health and anything I achieved in lifting and my strength to it's the less two lessons i learned from louis the crazy old fucking man people love

to get in get on it and say whatever you want he said two things and one you gotta fucking learn to train optimally look at me i didn't do it for a long time yeah i broke myself a lot this is better and people will talk shit about that program so this this is for guys using drugs for this. No, it's one of the most sort of easier ways of trying. If you want to be super strong, you won't be. You won't get beat up, actually. Number two is that you get in. You train optimally. You learn to fucking get in shape for

the right to train. Yeah, like there's a heavy barbell. Great. Can you drag a sled for fucking 100 feet without gasping for air? Maybe I'll be able to do that every day as a warm upup before you think you can then go for a max effort attempt or some shit. And you make a good point. Everybody wants that max effort before

putting in the work and doing the volume to get there. And it's like, what's your PR back squat? And people that have never really done the movement are going for that, and they don't realize that you have to put in the volume to get there. Yeah, if you squat 200 pounds, how are you going to get stronger by just squatting 200 pounds and working out? Exactly.

The mathematics aren't going to work for you. You better fucking drag a sled or glute hammer or single leg squat, leg press, whatever you can do. Everything you've got access to, do it almost every day. Get good for a while. Put in the work. And then you'll start seeing this magical thing happen where you start getting fucking stronger. Surprise, surprise. They see PRs too frequently, like month yeah or every other week you know

they see back squat prs we do a program where we don't uh max out on it for a one rep max on back squat or front squat for like six months it's like it's six months before you realize like i've only back squatted or other rep maxes but you're not gonna see the the result of all that hard work until, you know. And then they get, you know, 50, 100-pound PR or something like that. They need that volume. They don't need the one reps. Like at Conjugate, I think I've been there for about a year now.

I think I've only straight bar back squatted like once. I believe it, yeah. So in St. Louis. You do a lot of specialty bars there. A lot of specialty bars, and then you got it from a then, and then you got it from a box and then you got it wide stance, narrow stance, and then you got it with chains and you got it with bands and you got it with chain and bands. Then you, so you're experienced and you do a lot of variation, play a lot of different things.

Never test these main lists, but I've seen your front squat. It seems to be fucking working. What's your best front squat for the audience? Uh, five, five. I've hit five. Well, the last time I hit was 500, and that was the second time I've hit a front squat in two years. Wait, that was the second time I've hit it in one year at conjugate.

What's your 20 rep max back squat? I want to go for that. I want to hit. I watched one on. The 405 by 22 or something like that. I want to hit. I watched one on. The 405 by 22 or something like that. I want to get that for 30. Fuck. Get a bucket ready.

Oh, man. Man. I won't need a bucket. I'll need a crash pad. A wheelchair. I've got five at 405. That's pretty good. That's about all I can do.

I don't know if I can imagine doing. I think I could grasp maybe 10 reps, but 22 seems like outside of the realm of possibility. Yeah, for me, 30 cleans at 405 might be easier than 30 back squats at 405. That's just the way I'm built, right? I'm just, you know, clean, do one, do one, do one, those back squats, you know, and that's how Sam and I are a bit different. Like, I could hit the cleans, and so could he.

But the back squats for me, he could just pound them out. And it's in the training. People have to realize that it's in the volume. That's the way he trains, and he's good at that. And if people that were just taking classes, let's say, or doing training could look at that and say, okay, that's how you get there. He doesn't hit the one rep max, you know? Yeah.

That same one every time. Yeah. I max out. So you guys know probably, I would assume everyone here knows a little bit or enough about like the west side and conjugate methods to know that like, you know, I'm maxing out, you know, with intensity every week. On something. On something.

Yeah. But not the main lift. You're always staying tuned and able to exert max effort in a myriad of ways. No matter what they throw at you out of here, you're going to be fine if it's heavy. But it's all about this intensity that I'm applying this incredible amounts of intensity to something that it's really, really cool because although it's still a really, really intense lift, there's not much weight involved. Because when you got bands pulling you from the front and you got chains building up from the ground and you're deloading on a box, it doesn't take a ton of weight on your body. That's a good point, man. Like, so you're not compressing your spine as much,

but you're still, you're fighting hard for this rep. So you're still getting this incredible hormetic effect that's allowing you to, it's allowing you to develop at a really high rate because we're getting these new intensities every week because we have a different box height. We have a different specialty bar. We have different bands. We have different chains.

So people may be focusing on this is cool. I need to use that. But that right there is actually the method. It's novel. It's fun. You're going to squat harder. You're going to beat yourself up less. There's always variation.

There's always a new way to get stronger. I think what you see is that that's not unique. You can see guys like, I always say Cloakoff is the best man. But you see him do like pick up 400 pounds and pause it mid-thigh. Everybody goes, oh, what's he going to do with that? And then he snatches it. Holy shit, that's amazing.

But then I talked to Justin Thacker about it, who's an amazing weightlifting coach in St. Louis. Big shout out to Justin Thacker. We were talking about it one day. He's like, you know what? Probably why he does that is he's so fucking strong. If he just snatches, the work goes up a lot. He's going to use a lot more weight. He'll tear himself down a lot quicker.

So he's doing a max and a snatch every time you see him post on Instagram. But that max is a carefully selected max. Novel. It's not going to beat him up that much. Trying to make it more difficult without making it harder on your body. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

That's the whole fucking key, man. Danny, being from the OPT camp, I know there's a lot of tempo work there. Is that something that, I mean, you use to get stronger? Or have you played around with a lot of other stuff, too? You know, for me, I haven't used it as much because of CrossFit, they're trying to dampen me and make me more aerobic so doing the tempo work it's like a way to dampen that fast twitch no no no so i i haven't really like i never go heavy on the squats i never go heavy on the cleans i never really do anything

heavy when you see me do something heavy like i did a 405 power clean um a few months back it was because we were coming into regionals and thought there were cleans. I don't get the opportunity to go heavy because they're trying to dampen me for the sport of CrossFit because I'm too powerful. So that's what's exciting about the NPFL. I actually get to lift weights now. I've been like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. They give me a little tastes of it.

Like, I'll go do some back squats at tempo. 2-0-X-1, which is two seconds on the eccentric. Zero at the bottom, explode up one at the top. It's normal tempo for most people. I would love to see what they do targeting this now. Like, oh, let's take what we've learned from this amazing experiment at CrossFit. I mean, James had a hell of a successful streak. Well-respected coach.

Amazing. We love him. I want to see what he would do if he could focus on this a little bit. Just play with this idea. We're about to see. Let me tell you. I'm fucking curious, man. I've been doing some snatch pulls, and I haven't done snatch pulls in about three years.

So I'm excited. I've been sore from some snatch pulls. Just I'm really excited about where this is going to go for me because it's what I love. It's my essence. You know, it's who I am. I'm not built to be long and, you know. Do it again.

Look at this guy's little bicep. Oh, yeah. Nice. Do you think? I'm about to be a robot. Do you think you have bigger biceps? Jesus. Compare.

I think Danny wins. I'm actually worried because this wristband is so tight. If I go for the full flex, it's going to pop off and I might not be able to get back in. Yeah. It's a real concern. When I saw Danny, I was like, good God, he's huge. I thought we were going to be about the same size. Yeah.

He tells me his weight and he's like, yeah, I'm 240. And I'm like, that's quite a bit bigger than me. How big are you? I'm like two. I bounce around between 215 and 220. Oh, wow. But then we took a picture yesterday, and I think the only difference is I'm tanner. Yeah.

Yeah, it's like I got big guts. You know, being tan adds muscle mass and removes fat visually. So we're going to go out to the pool after this so he can. Tan fat is better than white fat. I'm getting my tan on. I need to get some more vitamin D. I've been taking it via the pill. I'm going to go out and get that sun on.

Well done, dude. I think you're going to get some tan on you and then you'll look bigger probably. Or burn, whatever. Whatever you want to call it. Or melanoma whatever but you know like like sam was saying like when i look at sam like oh yeah we're about the same size you know and i've made that that comment to other people like oh man that guy's big and and then friends are like no you're huge like i'm like oh yeah you know people it's like oh that guy's about my size they're like

no no no no you you haven't seen yourself on the live stream. Like, you're huge. And they, you know, the announcers at the regionals actually made a comment. Like, this guy's out here. And I don't realize it because it's me, you know. Right, right. And I mean, I see myself all the time. And I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm 245 and this is kind of where it's at.

I'm like, I think I got big abs. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I got the big abs, you know. And I'm like, I think I got big abs. I got the big abs. I got big guts though. I think I got big insides. That's what makes me bigger. My mom always thought I was the biggest guy in the world until I brought some of my football buddies home.

So you're not that big. No. Between being around strongman mates and college football, I realized big doesn't mean anything. I played football with a guy. The whole starting off his line was at least the shortest guy was 6'3". The biggest guy was 6'8", like 370. What ran his conditioning drills with the linebackers.

You see something like that, you're like, well, fuck. Everything I knew is different now. To your guys' knowledge, is there anyone bigger than Danny that qualified for regionals? This year? Yeah. No. I'd say the biggest CrossFitter I've shaken hands with was John Wellborn.

Oh, yeah. John's just a monster, man. Yeah. And so that guy's just a giant. So I might have the record as biggest CrossFitter. Regionally qualified. John may be a guy who. Can we get someone on that?

Yeah. Can we check that out? There's somebody out there that, trust me, there are people out there that follow all the stats all the time. We're going to need an official weigh-in, though, for sure. So you weigh what? About 245. 245.

So that stat exists. They can download that off the game site or something like that. In all fairness to John, I would say he was a professional football boy who retired, got involved in CrossFit, had fun doing it. I don't know if I would have called him a CrossFit-er. He did compete in the CrossFit Games early on, back when it was a little bit easier to get in. 2008 or so, and he did pretty good.

Astonishingly well, considering that was not his wheelhouse. It was a 2007 and 2000. That's why, in my coach, you definitely have to give it to James Fitzgerald who competed in the first, and now he's back. He's back, and he's made it as a Masters athlete. I'm really excited to watch him compete.

First-year Games athlete champion, and now he's going to come to NPFL. Maybe you guys will win the first whatever we'll call it. I don't think we've named the championship yet. What would you like to see the trophy be at the end of the championship thing? What should they hand out? What should it look like? Should it be like a chrome bottle of Jack Daniels? I'll tell you what.

One of the coolest prizes I've ever gotten for a competition was a demon kettlebell. They painted it gold. Oh, the demon kettlebell. And a bottle of Jameson. Oh wow. And you wonder why we're dangerous together outside the grid. And that was the first competition I did with my wife too so that was pretty cool.

Oh cool man. Alright guys we're going to wrap this up. If people want to learn more about you Danny we'll let you go first. Is there a website they should check out? Do you have a Twitter handle? You know I probably got a Twitter that I set up a long time ago. I don't even.

You should do it now, man. People are starting to pay attention to you. I don't even know it. It's maybe the Danny Nichols. I think. I don't even know. I got to get. And that's, you know, something that Sam's going to help me with, I think.

Yeah, dude. You got to shoot us, tweet at us when you finally figure it out, and we'll retweet you. Yeah. You know, I think my Instagram is danandnichols33, but it's something I don't even know. Nick has got a catchy nickname. Yeah, yeah.

You do have a catchy nickname. Tiny D. Yeah, yeah. Tiny, that's Sammy D. Yeah, Sam. Where can we find you, Sam? Just Sam Dancer on the Facebook and at Sam Dancing on Instagram. And that's kind of where I hang out at is the Instagram.

I think it's a great way to just kind of. Instagram is the shit. I'll be honest. Just a great way to kind of keep in touch with all the friends, family, and fans. I think it's a super good way to share like training videos and coaching advice too. I'm surprisingly good at that. Yeah, and I think Sam and I are going to have to get our Instagram, our shared Instagram together.

I want to see Instagram shit talking back. What the fuck I did today, homie? What are we going to call that? I don't know. Just probably Tiny Dan. Tiny D. Tiny D. It's Instagram bro down.

It should be 2Ds. 2Ds, double Ds. Tiny double Ds. Oh, shit. Well, thanks for having us, guys. It's been a pleasure. Yeah, thank you so much, guys. Thanks, dude.

Definitely. Make sure to go to barbellstrug.com, sign up for the newsletter, and we'll send you only amazing emails. Cheers. Yeah.