Barbell Shrugged - 174- Rich Froning Takes Over Barbell Shrugged

Episode Date: April 22, 2015

Rich Froning and James Hobart talk training, fatherhood, and poop.

This week on Barbell Shrugged, I'm Rich Froning, hosting for Mike Bledsoe, and we talk about poop. 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 Rich Froning, and here for Mike Bledsoe, We have Chris Moore, James Hobart, and Mike McGoldrick. Dude, you nailed it. He did. I was pretty good.

I feel like I've done this before. Mike's fired. In a time or two. That was so fast. You hear that, Mike? You're done. Stay improved, beard. Change it to Rich Froning shrugged.

All of the shrugged. We're going with a bold remarketing campaign for the show. All Rich Froning's abs. We're going to put your abs on the iTunes artwork and everything. All right. We are here in Cookville, man. How's it going? It's good.

It's been a while since we've been up here. It's been, what, a year? When was the last time we were here? It was a year for me. A year for you? Yeah. A lot has changed in that time. Last time in the podcast, I think it's been about two years since I've been here.

Team USA. Team USA? I was up here from 14-1. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so I guess it's been a year. And a few things have happened since then. A few things.

You want to know the title? What's been going on last year, man? I have a child. A child. A child. A child. A child. I was messing with Rich.

Not messing. Now Rich and I have a special connection because now we know what it is. We know what it is to try to keep everything else together while you've got a young'un in the house. That's what I've been so far. Awesome. Nothing like it. The sleep schedule isn't the greatest, but that's, you know, you can deal with that.

A lot of athletes out there struggle with that. What have you done to try to get some sense of organization around your sleep schedule? I mean, mostly it's just suffering through, right? Yeah, yeah, really. To be honest, my wife does a great job of the, she takes the night shift. I usually take the morning shift, so usually getting up a little bit earlier than I'm used to. And then it's just cramming a lot of stuff in in the morning, working out, and then cramming stuff in in the evening.

You know, still doing relatively close to the same volume, but trying to get home sometime in the middle of the day and then sometime again in the evening just to hang out with the girls. So it's been good. How has your recovery been, though? I mean, because it's way more demands on you. Yeah, recovery for sure. That's the biggest thing that I can tell the difference in is is i don't feel as as chipper as i used to

first thing in the morning so it's uh not many of us do feel yeah especially after the age thing 3 45 a.m uh double double one with the milk yeah yeah shake it out yeah you know like i said hillary does a lot of the the middle of the night stuff, but I'm still waking up once or twice, and she's still crying in my ear too. You'd be honest to tell me right now for the second on the show, you're not feeling at all like you're just going to withdraw? Because you put up on Instagram like you're not officially going to be in the CrossFit Games this year.

I'm in the CrossFit Games on a team. On a team. On a team. As far as individual. I'm done. Are you still feeling the itch right now to jump back in and prove what you can do? I mean, your fitness is still right up at the top. I can say with 100% certainty there's no part of me that wants to do individual.

You're not feeling it. Not feeling it. I'm having a lot of fun doing what we're doing right now. So, it's a lot more fun suffering with people than by yourself. That's for sure. Mike, you've come this crossroad too, right? Because it's been a bunch of years. When did you start competing?

Was it 2008, 2009? You were pushing it hard. We competed the first year together. Actually, our first sectional was the 30 South, or what do they call it? The Deep South sectional. It was in Alabama. Yep. Huntsman, Alabama.

When was that, 2008 or so? 2009. Russell Berger, 2010. Russell Berger built a rig, and he's demoing how to do a pull-up on it. And he jumps on the bar, and the bar breaks off, and he falls flat on his back. And everybody's like, we're not using that one. So they had to condense the heat to wait there until like 11 o'clock at night. The sun's going down.

People are running in the dark. It's cold. This is the Wild West days of the CrossFit scene. This was it. There was no money, no sponsors, nothing. You were just out there doing work. Was that a lot like the strongman scene? Obviously, when you go to a competition,

there's no expectation of what will be there, what kind of equipment. It's going to be a random assortment of trials and tests. It really was, yeah. It's primitive for sure. Well, because at that time, all the sectionals programmed their own workouts. Sectionals and regionals were the same.

It was all just whoever was the head of the so I guess it was usually somebody that had made it to the games so they were pre-qualified for regionals so they were kind of

the sectional director and they would just make up the workouts. Yeah, in that case it was Russell. Yeah, it was Russell so we did a burpee power clean

little shuttle sprint was the first workout. Yeah. Deadlift wall ball to this like it was basically a two by six on a

It was a board that's moving. It was a board that was was basically a two by six on a board. It was a board that was moving. A two by six on a like a soccer goal. I think people were like throwing the wall ball over there to go get it. It was crazy. And then when you're deadlifting by the time you got done deadlifting, you were picking it off your shoelaces because it was in the grass. Yeah.

If you were smart, you would just set it down. Yeah. And then the next one was like five rounds of 400-meter run and 25 pull-ups, but you had to break the vertical plane of the bar, not the horizontal plane. Were the standards much harder? Some dudes swore they were doing butterflies, and I'm like, I got to see that.

I think it was Drew Shamblin. He crushed that workout. This is a guy I ran with pants on the whole time. Khaki pants, it looked like. Yeah, it was weird. It's like he just got off work And he was like Gotta go

It's an amazing display Of just 2009 10 11 12 Now 2015 The pace of change

And evolution In this young sport Has been extraordinary Now we're looking at 2015 A new champion Being crowned In the men's division

It's gonna be An extraordinary opportunity For now a new class Of people to rise up I mean what's your best advice To people going for it This year You know It's Your to be an extraordinary opportunity for now a new class of people to rise up. I mean, what's your best advice to people going for it this year, Rich? You know, it's – You're as seasoned as anybody now at this game.

I mean, it takes sacrifice. Everybody knows that. It's not something you can just be like, I'm going to work out once a day now. You've got to put some time into it. You've got to make some sacrifices. There's going to be days where you don't want to work out. You've got to work out. You're going to miss out on some things.

And I guess that's kind of the big thing that i'm over is missing out on those things and um one thing that always uh makes me smile and also go man you haven't been around enough is when people look at something like your experience go i could do that at the hell of this time really the what sets you apart and the athletes and the games is the the daily habits of like it's it's not necessarily it's everything you're doing here. I've seen you – this is the second time I've been able to watch you train. Your approach to staring out zen-like at the leg 15 minutes before you do the run, then patiently dealing with the Reebok.

Folks are here to do a little video capture. Then another one. Consistency and then everything you do. The attention to detail is really what has accumulated for you in the last couple years. Appreciate that. Well, I wanted to ask James, too um talk about a little bit of the history of it you know you've come back from when was your first time going to the games 2009 2009 and then you went again was it next year 2010 and then uh 11 12 13 with team with team so um taking time off you know individual two years three years as team, you've always kind of been in it still. But then you came back 2014, qualified again.

So three times and then three with the team. So the last six years you have been at the CrossFit Games. But going from individual to team and then coming back, was it more difficult than usual? Or did you actually feel like, hmm, I took some time off? Not time off with team, but different training for sure individually i would think yeah the training was definitely different i think um i don't want to say you had to be more well-rounded to do individual again because i think i you had to be a well-rounded athlete to do team i i want to say that the intensity and volume of the individual athlete changed. Um, I think sometimes just

the nature of team events, the, uh, you had to be, you know, well-rounded, you had to be able to, you know, perform at intensity, but it was just shorter time periods. You had to do that. And, um, and I think as an individual, you had to pay a little bit more attention to what other people were doing, not in the sense of being like, they're better than me. I'm depressed about it now, but into like more accurately assess what you were good at, what you were bad at. And you just couldn't have weaknesses at all. So did you ever feel like, um, you know, you went team for three years and then you're like, I want to give this individual run and go again. Did you ever stop, sit back and be like, Oh, do I need to kind of check myself? See, like, do I still have the

limit? You know, can I do what these guys are doing now that are at that high level? Or were you always kind of, you know, still continuously competing against them? No, I think it's a good question. I don't think when I was doing team, I was far less focused on individual competition. And going back to individual competition, I just, my mindset was, you know, come July, whatever happens or after the open, whatever happens after regionals, I don't care if my program wasn't right. I don't care if, you know, Jeanette, you know, I'm just not fit enough. It was just my mentality was I'm just going to work as hard as I possibly can every day.

You know, if there was something I could be doing that would make me better, if I had more left in the tank, I was going to go do it. Because I just felt that's what – That's the only way you can keep sanity, right? The things that you have control over, making sure you have your mind around those things. Yeah, and you look at like – you watch anything on social media, and I like when athletes post

when they fail, when they screw up, because all you see is like, you know, somebody overhead squats 400 pounds for 10 reps, you know, Paul Trombley power cleans 300 for, you know, six. That's a classic thing, man. Yeah, you think they're doing it every day. You only see other people's highlights, right?

You never see the loop reel of all their failures and frustrations, you know? And you see all of your failures every day. That's part of it. If you're a beginner athlete, that's the number one thing, man. Like you are there suffering with yourself. You got everybody deals with the same things you're dealing with as an emerging new athlete,

trying to learn all these skills at once at a very, very high pace. It's intense. Oh, I'm guilty of it. I can hit three PRs in a row in one week, and then I'll have one bad training day, and I'm like, I'm in terrible shape right now. I suck. I'm doing awful. It's just, you're guilty of it.

You're your own worst critic for sure. What have you learned though? Because you pushed McGoldrick how many years in a row? Three or four or five at the training as much as you could piling up as much volume as possible. But this last year you've taken a big step back and you found some new insights into your training from taking this time off from not having the the gas pedal down all the way

right yeah for sure um you know i took the year off of the open and it was nice to have my own agenda i i got married in october and congratulations again man i felt like for the last thank you um it's been great the last four or five years you know the goal was just get to the crossfit games get to the crossfit games and it ended pretty CrossFit Games. And it was pretty consuming. And I didn't really grow anywhere else as a person. And last year, I started seeing some injuries and getting a little hurt. And then – And I'll say that.

You were committed 100%. Like, you did put everything into it. Yeah, absolutely. Like, a voucher. Everything. And then when you kind of get hurt or, you know, when you can't be the athlete that you want to be, you sit back and you're like, well, what else can I do? What else do I do? And that's kind of hard to swallow.

So I took some time off and want to, you know, build up other areas of my life for a little while. And it's funny, after doing that and not worrying so much about needing to be in the gym or feeling like I needed to be, things have gotten better. Training is way more fun now and much better purpose. Yeah. You guys are emerging as, well, especially you this year as a team competitor. How have you now approached how you interact with other people differently now that the explicit aim of what you're doing is different?

I mean, you're in a team setting versus now. I mean, your mindset to each workout, how you're approaching competition, is it at all different, or are you the same athlete, just in a different context now? I think are you the same athlete, just in a different context now? I think it's the same athlete, just different context. I mean, there's definitely areas that I'm lacking as an individual, and, you know, running is one of those things that I've worked on less. Yeah, where are you lacking?

I guess everybody wants to get off the notepad. Running, so we've been doing a lot of running this year. You know, me and James, we both kind of, you know, do the programming for the team, and, you know, everybody else has some input too, but we were, you know, we're sitting there and we're like, are we really going the right way? People throw out ideas and we shoot them down. What's the method for you shooting ideas? You're not sitting down, you're not sitting down with spreadsheets and maybe all these notes and putting down a, maybe a step-by-step smooth

SOP of training. some of this is sort of take shape on the go right like you said you're shooting some ideas down you're mixing things up you're mixing ideas you never quite know session to session do you have a long-ranging plan for your training i there are like little things i think i think it'll become a little more specific when regional workouts get released i think we'll be more focused on practicing those versions of those uh right now method to the madness i don't know. We run two days a week. We swim two days a week. We've been following CrossFit weightlifting.

Coach Bergner's programming there. And then from there, I think we're probably both a little guilty of this. When we identify weaknesses, I don't say we over-attack them. We hammer them. Like last year with handstand push-ups, I feel like we both wanted to work on strict handstand push-ups, deficit handstand push-ups, and I feel like there was just three-week periods where that's all we did. But, you know, it got better.

And, you know, we were sitting there talking the one day, and we're like, do we need to, you know, have everybody else, you know, everybody have a different program? Because, you know, the girls have different needs than the guys and blah, blah, blah. And we're sitting there, and, you know, we're talking. And I guess the main thing that kept coming up was just need to do CrossFit. That's what they need to get better at. Practice, basically. Yeah, just do CrossFit.

Keep playing. And that's what we kind of came to the assumption of is we do CrossFit, they do CrossFit, everybody gets better. And maybe there's some things that you can bias, but you don't want to go too far one way. You don't take the throttle off the things that you're already good at. No, right. Because that's two competing things.

Like, one, do you make sure that the things you are a master of and your strengths, you really floor them, maximize them, or do you take the pedal off to sort of bring other – You still sprinkle them in there, I think, but I don't think you bias them like I was saying. I think you just kind of – they're there. Like the overhead squat is just kind of something that for me is not, you know, it just comes naturally.

So it's just one of those things that I hit every once in a while, but I need to work on running, obviously. Keep it sharp. Yeah. Yeah, you know if you push that, you'd just be sucking resource and time from something that needs to be improved. Needs to be improved. Like you can hammer something really hard

if you're not putting undue resource on something that's not necessary. Right. Do you enjoy knowing the workouts hard if you're not putting undue resource on something that's not necessary. Right. Do you enjoy knowing the workouts before regionals when they come out? I might this year a little bit more than years past in that, you know, we can kind of practice them as a team and, you know, have some of the other girls and the guys know what's going on, what they need to work on. So that'll be nice, but I don't like other people being able to practice them too.

Right. I was going to ask you the same thing. Yeah, I think with team, knowing the workouts, there are a couple other like knowns that you can take care of like before competition by knowing the workouts and just like transition stuff, where to be at the right time because that matters a little bit more. Team, there's more moving parts to it. So for that, yeah, I like it.

But again, yeah, I don't. It's more rehearsal at that it. So for that, yeah, I like it. Gotcha. But again, yeah, I don't. It's more rehearsal at that point. Yeah, yeah. Making sure you guys have transitions down and who's going to move where and when.

Let's take a little break. When we come back, we'll tell you the story about how James Hobart pooped his pants. That's so gross. And then PR'd his front squat. Yeah.

This is Tim Ferriss and you were listening to Barbell Shrugged. 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.

Welcome back to Barbell Shrugged. Sorry for that brief, awkward silence. We're back, and we kind of regrouped there. I think you inserted a commercial or something. Oh, yeah. I think the next discussion. We don't need to tell that story. No, I think we should. I mean, it's. Yeah, tell there. I think you inserted a commercial or something. Oh, yeah. I think the next discussion. We don't need to tell that story. No, I think we should.

I think, I mean, it's. Yeah, tell it. I'm a professional. Only fitness. Everybody poops, man. Come on. The moral is just never trust a fart. There's even a book about it.

Okay, so we got done swimming. We, what, we swam about 2,000 meters. James, don't cover your face, man. Forever. Let it shine. Forever. Don't worry. We swam a lot.

And we get back in the truck and one of the guys was hanging out after the level one seminar. He's like, man, I your face, man. Let it shine. We swam a lot. And we get back in the truck, and one of the guys was hanging out after the level one seminar. He's like, man, I got to have coffee. We don't drink coffee around here, so we're going to get some coffee. And James is like, dude, pull over right here. He's like, no. He's like, dude, freak out. You were flippin' and blobbed?

I've never seen him freak out like that. He goes, dude, I just shit my pants. I was like, no, you didn't. He's like, yes. You pull over right now at this gas station. Pull over at this gas station or I'm going to shit in the sidewalk. Oh man. It happens to the

best of us, James. Don't worry about that. I pull over. He goes in and I'm thinking he's just got a poop. Nope. He showed me a picture and he has a nice little skin mark in his underwear. He documented it. White compression

shorts. Well, I was in there and I was like, that's like a huge existential dilemma and I was like, you know, I could walk out and be like,

no, it was just a false, you know, the false of the ghost, the ghost fire is a false alarm, nothing happened. Or I could show

all my friends so they could have something to ridicule me with for the rest of my life. We talked earlier about, you know, posting your

weaknesses and sometimes failing online. It's the same thing. That's exactly what it is. You need to let people know you do it. I went in there prepared, and it didn't go like I planned. It didn't.

Do you still have the compression shorts? You threw those out, right? I'm not going to answer that question. I'm not going to dignify that with a response. He's got them. He's got them. Actually. They're like Reebok prototype compression shorts.

Yeah, they have Kevlar on them. Yeah. Yeah, so Thomas Cox. You cannot clean Kevlar. Reebok depends Reebok prototype compression shorts. Yeah, they have Kevlar on them. Yeah. So Thomas Cox. You cannot clean Kevlar. Reebok depends. You know, Thomas trains with us. So he used to run a lot and he's always have to go to the bathroom in the middle of his run.

And so he would always take a crap in his neighbor's bushes and wiped his butt with his t-shirt, kept the t-shirt, took it home, threw it in the washing machine. Oh, Thomas, man. That's different than what I did. That's much different.

His was a choice. Mine was an accident. I forgot he was a distance runner for a while. Your neighbor pokes out the window and says, oh, hey, good morning, Thomas. What are you doing? Shitting my daisies there? Fertilizing?

Fertilizing. Fertilizing. It's the winter. You've got to be able to overcome obstacles. What's that bag for, your dog? No, it's for me. It's for me. Well, this is a perfect time. We were talking about during the break, actually, the importance of keeping it light. We're keeping it light now, but actually,

Rich, you were talking about how... The fact that you could segue off of what we just discussed. Keeping it light. Sometimes you're like, I think I can play this to get over there what we talked about talking about. Now, we were talking about how important it is for play, and you were talking about how you have the epic, was it the hockey matches? Yeah, we play hockey Tuesday nights, a little pickup hockey in Sparta, Tennessee. It's at a skating rink.

Just down the way here. Just down the way, about 15 minutes south, maybe 20. Depends on how fast you're going. But it's Tuesday nights. Usually we play for about two hours, and then usually a first to five after that, and usually get milkshakes at McDonald's and some triple cheeseburgers, you know, Tuesday nights usually we play for about two hours and then usually a first to five after that and usually get milkshakes at McDonald's and some triple cheeseburgers, you know. You know how it goes. This is not the most like – you don't have anybody calculating all the reps

and sets and volume and the macro nutrients and all that like this. This is for having fun. This is having fun, man. You know, people get – I think everybody gets caught up in being in the gym too much. And, you know, that's the only way to get fit. But I think, you know, what's the point in being fit if you're not going to get out and use it? And I think there's a different mindset between games athletes and the general public. You know, I actually got benched last year by my wife from playing hockey because I caught a high stick.

And possibly, you know, depends on who you're talking to. Should have had some stitches. I fixed him. Yeah, James. You laid hands on him. Were you driving the whole way home? We're going to be okay, Rich. It's going to be okay.

So one night she decided to come watch. Oh, no way. You're like, she's like, is it like this every time? Within 10 minutes, too, just smashing the head. I caught a high stick, blood gushing everywhere, and so we just tape it up. We're arguing the whole way home about having to go to the hospital, and then we stopped by McDonald's to get shakes, of course, cause that's just a ritual we have to do. And then I had an allergic reaction to ibuprofen.

Oh, and I thought milkshake, the green McDonald's milkshake, strawberry, strawberry. And so I'm sitting in the back seat, James is driving Hills in the front. And I'm like having this dilemma. Like, did I, do I have something got in the cut and like, I'm going to die. Maybe this gluten thing is for real. My hands. I got gluten in the incision. My hands feel like they're going to just explode. My head, like every hair follicle on my head feels like it's on fire.

The bottoms of my feet, my face starts getting flushed. We stopped by. It sounds like a good time to me. This wasn't Beta-A't beta alanine or anything no we stopped by walgreens and uh hillary goes in to get some butterfly uh bandages and i'm like james this isn't good like we might need to go to the hospital i was like but i'm not going to the hospital he's like what's wrong i was like i'm having some type of allergic reaction to get home i'm like hillary i gotta go to the shower it was beta alanine wasn't't it? It was beta alanine. No.

And so I hopped in the shower, chugged a half a bottle of baby Benadryl because that's all we had at the house. Turned out fine. Whoa. Turned out fine.

The baby Benadryl, usually I measure that out carefully because the last thing I want to do is with a little syringe you just rip the top off and drown it. Just drink it.

That's all we had. Went away. We were good. And we were talking about it a while. Always, I guess, is how people get so consumed with the numbers and expectations in the gym and pretty soon you forget what the hell it

is you're even training for like you get you get consumed with going for the wad and this that and the other than the outcome you forget what is that the real world application of what i do in here like how does this relate to what i want to get better at what i want to pursue in my everyday life yeah what else do you do besides hockey firing guns i imagine yeah we uh we shoot some guns of course. This is Tennessee. I think you have to do that to live here.

By the way, can we shoot a gun? I still have never in my life shot a gun. Really? I know. I'm willing to admit it because it's something

I need to remedy, but never in my life I shot a gun. I'm born and raised in Tennessee. As soon as we're done, we'll make that happen. Oh, man. I'm excited now.

Yeah. Can you coach me on it? I don't want to take anybody's head off. Just hold it and just trigger. Hold it and pull the trigger. Sideways. I'm excited now. Yeah. Can you coach me on it? I don't want to take anybody's... Just hold it and... Hold it and just trigger. Hold it and blow a trigger. Sideways.

I'm excited. Sideways. Like a gangster? Yeah. You know, I tested it on Mythbusters one time, Rich. Did you see that episode? Well, they get up...

A scientific analysis of whether the gangster-style holding of a handgun is more accurate or not. It turns out it's obviously terribly inaccurate. Yeah. That even from me to McGoldrick,

if I was shooting, I wouldn't hit him. That's how bad that is to hold a gun like that. That's because I'm pretty fast, too. Yeah, you're lightning fast. So fast. Hockey and guns, what else are you programming this week

besides just the typical gym stuff? It is turkey hunting season. Handball, man. Handball. We do do. We do do. I'm talking about your poop story. James' poop story.

I was trying not to laugh at that, to be honest. I heard it, and I was like, God, maybe everybody didn't miss it. No, I laughed. Wednesday, we made up this game. It's kind of like, we call it handball, but it's basically we have two buckets at either end of the gym. We put a gymnastics mat behind it,

and we use the dodgeballs we use in CrossFit kids' class, and it's basically like... Ultimate Frisbee kind of. Ultimate Frisbee. When you catch it, you've got to stop, and you're shooting it into that bucket, but then there's like a no-go zone that you can't shoot inside.

The no-go zone is, and then whenever one team scores, the other team has to go row 100 meters or ski or 100 meters. So there's a little bit of fitness involved, but it's fun. So Wednesday is usually game day. Rich makes up a lot of the rules on the fly, though. Did you find he makes them up to favor his outcome? The no-go zone is for everybody else. I'm just saying. You're a liar.

I don't write the news. I just report it. But it's an awesome game, nonetheless. Yeah, I think the important thing in games, man, is you can't perform at your best if you're so worried about how you're going to do. The best line I know of is from the wise sage Bill Murray. He's like worried about how you're going to do. The best line I know of is from the wise sage Bill Murray. He's like, the best you're going to do in anything is when you're having a good time.

For sure. Very simple. You tell yourself no so many times, you run out of free will. You know, but knowing when to back off and go play and have milkshakes or whatever is obviously very important as being, you know, a high-level athlete. You need to know when it's okay to kind of let loose. You know, you're working hard all the time, so it's probably hard to turn off like,

I should be doing this, I could be doing this, I should be doing more. Do you know a specific time? That's the balance. You know, you learn that. You learn that over time. Sometimes when you don't let off, you start seeing some things fall apart a little bit. Yeah, I think you can always say there are general rules. People get hung up on the rules like, okay, I'm feeling pretty beat up.

What are the rules around resting? Well, what do you need to do? I guess the challenge everybody faces is finding a mixture of the methods that allows you not everybody else in the room not the average but allows you to perform at your best you know a method a mindset a motor allows you to push as hard as you can in a way that makes you as fulfilled as you can be at gym yeah everybody's different i think i think that's something you've got to figure out. It takes experience. It's not, you know, what works

for Mike doesn't work for me, doesn't work for James. You know, it's just kind of a, you know, it's something we've had to figure out, and it's not something that you figure out overnight. You can't be miserable, you know. I see so many athletes who are like, and there's a difference between like hard and you know, determined, devoted, but then just being

miserable, you know. Like you're in the gym and you're just like everything you're doing, you're hating. Like if you're hating the product, yeah, workouts are hard and determined, devoted, but then just being miserable. You're in the gym and everything you're doing, you're hating. If you're hating the product, yeah, workouts are hard and they hurt and they suck. But when you start hating the process, it's like, okay, go have one donut. It's not going to ruin everything. Everything in moderation. Go play hockey. Yeah, everything in moderation. You need moderation.

That's a really good idea. Go have one dozen donuts. Eat a pizza. Smoke a cigarette. Just whatever you need to do to unwind. You can't afford to be in the gym working against yourself. Yeah, I think it's like insane. And playing sports has been like,

playing hockey has been like the best thing for my training in the last two years because it just made me take it less seriously. It's something to look forward to. Man, yeah. It's like I wanted to take, I wanted to do less workouts on the hockey day because I didn't want to be tired for hockey. And like that just gets you energized.

It's so much better. Get out there and play. And you get a pretty good workout playing hockey. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. What are some of the biggest mistakes you see people make? So we're,

we're on that topic of people taking it a little too serious and not knowing when to back off, you know, inside of training as well, you know, attacking weaknesses or, or whatever balance you would say, what are some of the biggest mistakes you see?

You know, we've, we've, we were talking about, I forget who we were talking about last night, but, you know, people that, I mean, you're just basing, or not basing, but you're just doing strength stuff. That's what I feel like a lot of people now are like, well, I'm built to a heavy single every single day. You know, that has value if you're doing Olympic weightlifting or powerlifting. But I think for CrossFit, I think, you know,

if you look at the games the last couple of years, you know, you have one strength, pure strength event that's out of, what, 13 or 14 every year. And I think people are just focusing a little too much on one event that you're letting some other stuff go. But that's not everybody. It's just some. What do you think there?

You coach on the level one seminar staff, right? Yes. So you see a ton of people almost every week. What are some of the main things you see people come in and, you know, obviously they're there to learn from you guys. And what's one of the biggest things? Yeah, well, it's like rejection of being good at fundamentals, I think. Because it is hard.

It's like if I look at the athletes who fill up CrossFit gyms, it's like nine to fivers. It's just people doing five workouts a week. But obviously what people see most of is YouTube where you see the best and you all see the worst. But you see guys like Rich. And I think one of the coolest things when I first started coming down the train with rich, he was doing this warmup at the time and it was five minutes every 30 seconds. It was 10 air squats,

slow, good air squats. And it was like, that hit me like bang, you know, like, holy crap, this is how, you know, rich is warm up. This is very uncomplicated, best athlete in the world. Uh, and he's practicing the air squat, you know, it's like more people need to do stuff like that. I know we say it a lot and it's, you know, it's like more people need to do stuff like that. I know we say it a lot, and it's, you know, that's the hard candy that nobody wants to, like, bite into, but gosh, it pays big dividends. Maybe rushing through the fundamentals or being afraid to revisit them a lot.

Yeah, I think that's even better said is just revisiting fundamentals. In this classic case where people see, like I said, the highlights, and they see where they want to be now, you see a guy like Kendrick Ferris or something lifting, the highlights, and they see where they want to be now. You see a guy like Kendrick Ferris or something lifting. You go, okay, well, I want to be good at whale thing. What are some of the things that he's doing that I can pick up

versus you forget the 15 to 20 years before that where the simplest things for a long time made a gigantic difference. The simplest habits. The habit of chopping wood and carrying water. If it can work for Rich to do some bodyweight squat workout, are you just doing a warm-up? If you're just doing something more complicated just because you can?

That's a harsh question of like, what am I writing up here just because I want to impress myself with how good I can be with nomenclature, scientific symbols, percentages, that and the other. And just forgetting what your actual purpose and primary objective of the training session is. If it's very simple, then it's okay for it to be simple.

Not everything has to be so freaking complicated. Yep. Did you guys see the movie Jiro Dreams of Sushi? It's one of the best documentaries ever. Yeah. For sure. Master. Yeah.

It's arguably the best sushi chef in the world. I think he spent like six years of his life making rice before he ever actually touched fish. And the omelet. The simpler the thing, in the S front, the more it took. Yeah. More attention to detail

and everything it took. That was cool to see. Yeah. You got me distracted with omelets. Are you a puck hog? A puck hog? Yeah.

Like in hockey? Yeah. Or is Rich a puck hog? Yeah. Rich is a puck hog. I'm definitely not. What are you talking about? I can barely hold on

to the puck. I don't skate backwards yet. I don't let it. I pass way more than I shoot We're painting Rich as a successful athlete Because he's so greedy He makes his own rules That's how he wins And he hogs the puck He scores

I win It's a team sport bro It's a team game I'm the fittest okay I still won I'm the fittest hockey player here Go poop your pants James James did hit a tie to PR right the day he pooped his pants?

Yeah, I think so. It's on a front squat, so that's good. I think I'm going to talk about hockey, my skills there. You'd shed all shame that we already commit foolish to sport. Exactly. Thank you. You'd shed all shame in addition to your compression underwear. Stand up, dust yourself off.

That's the other thing. People just not dusting themselves off after they've pooped their pants. So wipe your butt. So wipe your butt or what? You got to get off this topic. You got to dusting themselves off after they've pooped their pants. You know what your brother was. You got to get off this topic. You got to dust it off, man. Rich has braces. Let's talk about something else. Get ready to dust some haters off. Rich, we're here this weekend for the Mustard Seed Classic.

Tell us a little about this event, man. What are you looking to accomplish with it? Raising money for kids, man. Now this is a little more close to home now that you have kids. Yeah, it is. The Mustard Seed Ranch is a non-denominational Christian home for boys and girls. It's been a good

thing. It's been a cool thing that the city has done. Not the city, but local groups. Is it here in Cookville? Yep, here in Cookville. It's actually about two or three minutes from my house now. Great people. great kids. I think last year we raised like $95,000, so hoping to get there again. And last year they were building another house, and so all of it's privately funded.

None of the money comes from the state. Yeah. Are you doing anything to inject a little? Are they having any kind of health, fitness, nutrition interaction? So we allow them to come to CrossFit Mayhem to do the CrossFit kids class for free. Oh, cool. They were doing that for a little while. I know right now it's kind of like they've got some other stuff going on, so I don't think they've been there in the last couple weeks,

but they were doing that for a little while. It raises a good question to me. You've got a kid now. Your training objectives are changing. Are you thinking more? I mean, it's time to put more focus into what you'll leave behind, I guess. I'm not talking about your impending demise. Right, yeah.

But now it's time we're spread about what you're about and what you've learned from this experience and how you can impact people. What are some of the big, where do you see things going next year? So what you'd like to share in terms of do you want to do more outreach with kids? Do you want to try a different kind of challenge? Because, I mean, for better or worse, this particular challenge is going to fade a little bit. You've been here, you've done this. Maybe come back to it in the future, and that's just fine. But right now, you don't strike me as a guy who's going to sit around

and kind of just kick it and do some workouts still and not challenge yourself because you need to be challenged. Trying to figure that out, to be honest. There's the last, you know, my next objective is to win a CrossFit Games on the team event or on the team side. So it may not be this year. Maybe, you know, that's the goal this year, but we'll see. But I think right now that's our – overall that's my goal.

After that, I don't know. I don't know what the plan for Rich Froning is, but we'll see. And I'll be around. I'll be around somewhere. Will you push until you get it? I mean, will it be no stopping you until you get the team title in your hands? I mean – Because in many ways, maybe that means more to you maybe than an individual in some respects.

Yeah, I think it's – you know, there's part of being able to share that with other people instead of just yourself. You know, you finish the CrossFit Games and you win and it's great and you get to, you know, share it with the people that have helped you get there. But it's just kind of like Christmas, you know, the day after Christmas where you're like, well, what do I want next year? Typically, like if you're watching ESPN or whatever, like the day after the trophies get handed out,

like the Patriots win or whatever, and the day after it's like, okay. Next year. Let's pretend it never happened. Exactly. I mean, that's really what it is. It's like the day after it's, well, what's next year? I think maybe that's what will get you in the end because you push, you dump so much into it.

And by the end of it, you've got almost nothing left to give. If you're doing it the right way, that's in football, that's in straw man, weightlifting, cross or anything. You cannot half commit. No. But you've got to realize maybe there's a sweet spot where you can pull off these levels of commitment. Yeah.

And you've really got to make the most of it right now or else you're not going to get this chance to repeat. No. You can't keep up that energy forever, man. The clock is ticking for everybody. I agree. I'm curious to see what a lot of top or successful athletes do,

CrossFit athletes do after the games. You know, whether they open affiliate or how do they give back or I don't want to say maintain a persona in the community.

Once they're done. Yeah, but take, you know, their athletic prowess and how does that transfer to other parts of their life? What do they do with that? I'm really curious to see how athletes handle that differently. You know, whether it's like, you know, athletic prowess and how does that transfer to other parts of their life? What do they do with that? I'm like really curious to see how athletes handle that differently. You know, whether it's like, you know, the rich running barbell camp or, uh, charity work, or

I don't know, just how does that contribute to the rest of their life? I'm, I'm. Yeah. It's, it's, it's very difficult. I see some struggle with it. Um, when, if you built your identity on that and then it's taken, then what? So you struggle, hang, who am I really? What am I going to do? What am I good at? Yeah, got to work on something else. What teams do you think will give you guys the biggest challenge? Who do you have in your crosshairs?

I mean, NorCal's been chirping, Miranda especially. Oh, I think I saw the picture. The funniest thing is, though, she'll text me and James before she posts anything, and she's like, is this okay that I put this? All bark, no bite. Yeah, she's like, is this going to offend anybody? We're like, Miranda, no, just go ahead and put it up. Does she ask permission before she?

Yeah, that's the funny part is everybody's like, oh, they're going at it. And she'll text us before and make sure it's okay, which is cool. It's what it's about. It's about getting a little hype, making it fun. Yeah, it's kind of like wrestling. Yeah. Yeah. Completely.

No, I mean, I think NorCal, teams like NorCal, Invictus won it last year. You know, there's a lot of good teams out there. And you never know who's going to pop up out of nowhere. Yeah. I mean, I'm surprised more and more every year with how the quality of competition is, I won't call it rising, it's escalating

at a furious, exponential pace. Yeah. And to think about how many athletes have been able to stay with, like you guys have been in it from 2008,

9, 10 even, still to 2015 to be competitive in the mix is wild to even comprehend as fast as things have been out of control.

Because better or worse, the evolution, the open this event is extraordinary fascinating to watch somebody put out a little uh a matrix about like how many people had you know competed in the games this year that made regionals and it was like more than one time i think it was like one percent or something like it's crazy there's not many and that's that's really i've always found that really impressive yeah the guys that have been here since the games have really been around and they're continuously there that's really impressive it's basically like not even the same sport yeah yeah kind of adapted with it yeah yeah i think commitment level is really different than it was in 2009 2010 jason i mean i think that's pretty cool that, you know,

Kalipa, that in 2008 won the games, and then he's still around in 2014. I find it incredible. That's cool. That's pretty impressive. I also find it incredible that he decided, I don't know what's going on, but he's out too this year. He's not going to do individual competitions.

He's on his richest. He's doing team. Did he feel like to himself, like, if I can't beat Rich, I don't care. Oh, is Rich going team? I don't care about pitching. I don't care about beating anybody. Rich, we talked about your plans maybe for after the team.

We don't quite know what you want to accomplish. But I do know one thing you did. You just bought a bunch of land around here. Yeah, we just bought 70 acres just down the road. So, yep. What's the big plan? I know there's probably some kind of futuristic compound in the mix. Building a house. Going to have a barnet. That's the, you know, my there's probably some kind of futuristic compound in the mix. Building a house. What kind of garage jam are you going to have?

We're going to have a barn. My wife's doing most of the house stuff. Mine's the barn, so we'll see how that goes. Can you say what kind of tiles go into the bathroom? No, not really. I'll tell you what. Building a house or designing a house is one of the biggest challenges to our marriage. It's been fun.

There's a lot of yes to you in there. It requires a whole other layer of fitness. You're like, this There's a lot of yes to you in there. It requires a whole other layer of fitness. You're like, this is where the rock climbing wall is going to go. She's like,

that's the kitchen. You're like, yeah. I don't care how fit you are, you can't put stall bars in the living room. Nothing. Speaking of which,

this guy's built handmade stall bars for his suite garage. Nice. Oh yeah, it's one of my hobbies. Anything I can build with my hands

and then work out with it is even better. It's like a bonus. Anything else you guys got to add, man? I have a question. Put 70 acres in perspective for me. How big is this land here? How many acres is this? I think what Dad has is right at 12.

That's a lot of land. Yeah. That's a lot. Wow. So you'll tentatively have four gyms to work out at in Coatville? Three. Is that enough, Rich? I'll sell my house, yeah.

Okay. Is it enough gyms? Can you do a few more? You want plenty of options every single place you go. Everywhere I go. Everywhere I go. You need a place where you buy groceries, a place to get a quick walk. You made Go Mats, now he makes Go Gyms.

Go Gyms. So you found time to be a little more lazy, Rich? Like, no, well, I mean, this is what I do. What else would I do? Yeah, like I told you, I'm not good at anything else. I've got to work out. Do you spend any time playing Dungeons & Dragons? Any poetry?

We have dusted off the Nintendo 64 and played some NASCAR 99 lately. So that's been pretty fun. Again, the play counts, right? Even any mental break from the usual routine is probably going to be beneficial. Yeah, yeah. It involves tossing some turtle shells at your friends.

My thumb gets, you know, a little wore out from the toggle stick, whatever it is. That's the most mentally stressful thing we do. Oh, yeah. My wife talks major trash.

That's the only thing she'll be competitive at. We lost the season. I thought we were going to drive off a bridge. Literally. Yeah, we were leading into the last three races

and just fell apart. Dale Jarrett. Dale Jarrett. Terry Labonte, too. Oh, yeah. It's a far more intense world than the world of CrossFit. That's for sure. The reader boards in the world of digital gaming.

That is somewhere where you never want to take a break. You don't ever want to take it easy in that. You want to continuously push. Yeah, because you lose your spot real quick. Yeah. Anything else to add, guys? We have the Mustard Seed Ranch tomorrow Tonight is

Vice Friday We're going to shoot guns We could eat more donuts I gotta go to Ralph's Can you tell a story? I'll tell a story You tell a story You're a great storyteller

You tell a story It's a quick story First time I ever came up to train with you Mike had a I think you went in a diabetic coma didn't you? I fell asleep at like 7.30.

You guys are like, you got to have Ralph's. Ralph's is a donut place here. We ordered two dozen donuts. I went upstairs to take a shower and I came down. I think Mike had half of every single donut there. Yeah. And then I was just like, I'm going to bed. You all right?

I'm like, yeah. I'll be okay. Why is your tongue swelling up? You try to hang with a champ. You know what? I'm going to eat sugar. It didn't work out for you. We worked out like yeah I'll be okay why is your tongue swelling up? you try to hang with a champ or eat sugar it didn't work out for you

we worked out like three times that day and the next day we worked out like three more times and it felt great what people don't know

is glaze and corn syrup are really effective at refueling your body especially after you see those calories carp back loaded yeah

it felt good alright guys had a blast man yeah that was fun thanks for having us yeah until next time this is Barbell Shrugged

oh shit we get what sign up for the newsletter James Hobart Rich Froning Chris Moore Barbell Shrugged

anything you want to talk about the wheels came off the end go to barbellshrugged.com sign up for the newsletter tell them how to support that yeah this is Mayhem for Mustard Seed.

I don't even know if there's a what. There's a Facebook page I know. We'll link to it in the show notes. Yeah, they're Eventbrite or something like that. You can go in there. Yeah, I think you can donate. I'm pretty sure they'll take money anytime they can get it. Absolutely.

Yep. And then Rogue Fitness, Advocare Reebok, all that stuff. Just name it. Like you said, plug whatever.bok, all that stuff. Just name it. You said plug whatever. Just looking at his clothes. Because Bill, the state of Tennessee. Shoes.

Dale Earnhardt. Thank you, Dale Earnhardt. Chevrolet. Polaris. America. 80 degree weather. 80 degree weather. Black Laps.

Black Laps of America. Toshiba. Toshiba speakers. Are they going to do an event next year? Always. Forever. I think so. Well, get plans to sign an event next year? Always. This is a, well, forever. I think so.

Well, get plans to sign up for next year if you didn't sign up this year. 400th annual. Rich died 360 years ago,

but we're still going to keep this thing alive. Oh, man. We're not giving up.