Barbell Shrugged - 87- CrossFit Invitational Team USA Men: Rich Froning, Jason Khalpia, Ben Smith, and Matt Chan

Episode Date: October 22, 2013

Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa, Ben Smith and Matt Chan join the podcast to talk about the CrossFit Invitational: Team USA vs Team World.

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we interview Team USA, Coach Matt Chan, Jason Kalipa, Ben Smith, and of course, Rich Froning. Hey, this is Rich Froning. You're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. Mike Bletzer here with Doug Larson. We have traveled to Cookville, Tennessee to hang out with the men's Team USA for the CrossFit. What's the name of the competition we're doing, Matt? It's the CrossFit Invitational. CrossFit Invitational, which will be in Berlin in a couple weeks. And Matt Chan is here as the coach.

Hi. Coach Matt. And we have Rich Froning here and Ben Smith. And we've got Hollywood there in the back. Yeah, he'll come eventually. Jason Kalipa getting worked on. Hi, Coach Matt. do for the last six months and uh no man we're just getting together and we're really just trying to work together as a team uh iron out some details and see what we're good and bad at so so today we were watching and you're doing a lot of team building type uh programming a lot of the wads were you know hold i really like the holding the holds while the other partner you know does thrusters or yep or actual actual team event you An actual team event, you mean? An actual team event, yeah. Yeah, you know, I think I know that these guys are good at individual events. I don't really need to test them at that.

There's a reason why they were 1, 2, and 3 in the CrossFit Games. They're plenty good. But, you know, it's interesting how, you know, you take a bunch of individuals, you put them on a team, and then all of a sudden maybe things clash a little bit. Things start falling apart. But not today. I thought these guys worked pretty well together. Is there going to be individual and team events for these guys,

or are they doing only team? Well, the way that it works is everything's designated as a, you know, we're Team USA versus Team World. Oh, so I thought it was just USA versus Europe. No, it's World now. So the U.S. is battling everybody. That's right. That's right.

And they just can't step it up enough. We're going to have to make it's world now. So the U.S. is battling everybody. That's right. That's right. And they just can't bring, they can't step it up enough. We're going to have to make it versus the universe. Wait, one world team against the U.S.A. or multiple different world teams? That's what I'm saying. They should have multiple different, like, you know, world teams. I mean, but right now they only have the one and then that's it. Okay. U.S.A. versus the world.

That's it. That's what I like to hear. They pick the world, the best from outside the U.S. and put them up against our guys and girls and we'll see what happens. Gotcha. Who's on the world team? Chad McKay, Frederick Agidius, Dominic LaRouche, fancy names,

Albert Carraweb, oh yeah, Albert, I'm sorry, Carraweb, Sam Briggs, and Camille. Cool. All right, I guess that's it, guys. I'll see you next time.

All right, bye. Oh, that's pretty funny. You guys are so good. We gave you the golden microphone because you're so special. Look at that. It's the Hollywood microphone. Don't touch it. Now you're messing it up.

No. Yeah, you really said that. How do I look? You're looking good. Yeah, looking good. It's a radio show, though, so that doesn't really matter. Well, we're about half the people out there. Do you guys have your own training?

One of the things, we went and podcasted with Jason a couple weeks ago in San Jose, and we had a really good time talking about his training philosophy. So, Rich, can you give people, like, just kind of how you approach training overall? Very similar to what Jay does. We just kind of, in the mornings, very similar to what they do. We've got kind of a crew that we work out with. We just show up and throw stuff on the board like we did yesterday with Matt. Matt jumped in on that yesterday.

And then middle of the day, I'm doing some just pure Olympic lifting. And then afternoon is very similar to the morning. A lot like Jason. It's pretty funny. All about having fun. All about having fun. Working hard and having fun. We've had you on the show a couple times now,

so we've kind of got your take on things. And we had you the other day. But actually, I'm pretty new to meeting Ben. I really don't know anything about your background so since you never been on the show before can you tell everyone kind of your background how you got into CrossFit and then kind of what your training philosophy is as well yeah so I got into CrossFit when I was in high school actually a while ago I'm 23 now to use it just to play get better playing baseball wanted to play college

ball wanted to play pro ball, all that stuff. Ended up transferring schools and stopped playing baseball and really got into competing in CrossFit. So ever since then I've been going. My first competition was the regionals in 2009. Ended up going to the games and doing terrible. And then trying to come back and do better each year. Well, you kind of stood out because you were so young. A lot of the guys were older that were at the games at that point.

I was 18 in my first games, so it's been five games since then. Yeah, and you've gone every year. So you're going, what is it? Jason's got the quote, coming long for a long time. I want to come hard for a long time. That's right. I come hard and I come for a long time. That's right. I come hard and I come for a long time. That's what it was.

That dude came hard and he came for a long time. Jason's training philosophy. That's right. It looks like you guys are right on board with that. Now, I have a question. Ben, so, you know, Rich. Jason's running the show now. He's taking over.

Fine by me. Well, I think on the show it's important because, like, you know, Rich... Jason's running the show now. No, he's taking over. Fine by me. Well, I think on the show it's important because, like, Rich and I, we kind of just make stuff up and just have some fun with it. Make stuff up. Make stuff up and have fun with it. And, you know, just trying to enjoy the environment and just not take things too seriously and just hit it hard. Do you have set programming or how does yours look? No, it's the exact same thing that you guys do. It's not like... So there's not some special... No, we work it's the exact same thing you guys do. It's not like...

So there's not some special... No, we work out. The exact same thing, and then you don't do anything. Yeah, we work out at 10 a.m., and we work out at 5.30 p.m., and we just make stuff up, whatever we feel like doing. How many days a week are you training? Six. Six days a week?

And seven is like something easy. What would something easy be? Rowing or running. Okay. Long, slow distance. I don't know. I find that sometimes when Rich is doing something that's easy, I find it to be pretty difficult.

That's why I'm asking. Easy is definitely relative. I find with most people, they're doing some type of structured strength programming, and then the Metcons are the random part. Is that kind of what it's like for you? We actually had that conversation yesterday. I think that's the best way to approach a strength program.

You have to have some structure. You can just throw stuff together. In fact, Rich's program is interesting. You want to fill them in? On what? Just the rep sequences. Right now? Yeah.

The one I'm following? There's a lot of heavy singles. Yeah, that's it. Right now. There you go. Every day, pretty much. So you work to a heavy single every single day. If it works for you, it works, right?

It's hitting PRs right now. As you get closer to the CrossFit Games, will you kind of get away from the 1RMs and move more towards reps? Yeah. And some of the warm-up sets, we'll still do some moderate or higher reps just to get some volume in. Is that a different movement every day, though? You're doing snaps one day, cleans the next day, or are you just squatting every day?

The squats are every day. It's back and doing snatches one day, cleans the next day, or you're just squatting every day? The squats are every day. It's back and front squat, heavy single, Monday through Thursday, and then Saturday. And then you'll heavy single on snatch on Monday, heavy single on clean and jerk on Wednesday, and then Saturday's both. And once you hit that heavy single, are you done? You don't do a lot of volume after that? No, you do well. The second squat, you'll do a little bit, like a few sets of three or two.

It drops that. Or maybe, yeah, some pause squats or something like that. I feel like you gotta try out a little bit of everything, though. Like, you can't.

I just enjoy Olympic lifting, so I was like, yeah, I'll try it out. I think just getting underneath some weight, lifting, fives, sevens, threes, ones.

I'm with Jason on that one. Fifteens. Fifteens, 22s. I was about to ask about the strength volume, you know, because if you're doing a lot of conditioning, do you try to keep the strength stuff

really high intensity, low volume, or it sounds like you might be just all over the place on that. I'm particularly all over the place, but I'm going to start getting a little bit more structured for the top end, but for right now, I've been very all over the place.

Wherever I travel to, whatever they want to do, I'll just do it. So what do you do with the glycolytic pathway? I try and hit the... What should a 10 energy system get you working at? As I'm squatting, I'm working at...

Sorry, though. Gotta work your lactic battery. Just hitting it hard. That's all it is. You know, we talked about this last time. It's like everybody's trying to come up with that programming, but it's just getting in the gym and hitting it, you know? It's no secret. I think people hear the different things that you guys do, and they only see the differences.

They're like, well, he does a single every day. He does doubles and triples only three times a week. And they only see, like, those little differences, and they don't picture it in their head like, okay, they squat heavy, and they squat consistently over, you know, days, weeks, months, and years. For five years in a row, if you squat consistently, whether it's two days a week or one day a week or six days a week, you're going to get stronger.

There's more similarities there than there are differences. I think what you're going to see is what I find most common with the most successful athletes is first is training frequency and then intensity after that. And if you can keep that up, that's kind of where the best guys are at. That's the things that are the same. And having the fun with it too. Oh, here goes Matt. That's tough.

I don't know if I agree with that. I see his face. I don't know if I agree with that. He's going to say intensity first. Well, I would say the two are even because I do think you can make it to the games and compete at the highest level without having the highest volume. Right. If you're built for that.

But I think this year we saw the people with the highest volume and the most intensity were the ones doing the best in the games. I would say a couple years ago you definitely saw guys doing some pretty low-volume training and making it. Sometimes I think you're just seeing fewer people get through that regional weekend if they're consistently not doing high volume. I think a lot of people may have just done a lot of high volume training before they got into CrossFit and they can get away with only high intensity for a while. Right. Yeah, I agree with that. Well, a lot of people get burnt out, I feel like. I feel like they try and do more volume just for the sake of doing more volume without understanding why they're doing more volume.

It's like they're just doing it to do it and not like with a purpose or with intensity. They're just kind of like, oh, well, I got to do 10 workouts a day because that's what Rich Ferroni does. And they just kind of go in the gym and just dilly-dally. And it just breaks them down mentally. They're just broken. If you're not having fun, it's hard to train. Yeah, totally.

And you see that when you get to regionals, when you get to games, and people just look flat. You just watch them. You're just like, that guy's overtraining, or that guy's not having fun, you know? And you can just tell by looking at them how they're walking around, if they're having a good time or not. If they're checked out or not.

Yeah, it's easy to tell. I think it's interesting. I mean, these guys who are coming in pretty fast, you know, they're accumulating skills faster with volume. I think that's the big difference, right? If you're only doing one workout a day, you can't accumulate the skills and drills like you can if you're doing multiple workouts.

Getting more practice reps. That's right. But if it means a decreased intensity, is that worth it or not? I don't know. So I guess where the coaching can come in and good programming can come in is appropriate volume for the skills.

And the person. If you're doing a lot of volume but your skills are shitty you're probably you know maybe stepping backwards instead of forwards yeah you see that a lot you probably see that a lot with endurance athletes or he's gonna end up hurt yeah exactly yeah a lot of injuries will pop up we should make that we should make that clear though too it's like we're talking to guys who have been doing this a long time we've all been training for a long time. When I first started CrossFit, I followed CrossFit.com religiously.

And that was a good place for me to start because it gave me that variance I needed. But now that we've been doing it for so long, we kind of know what our bodies need. And so we're at a different place. Like people who are listening to this and they're brand new to CrossFit, they should just find a program and just stick with it. CrossFit.com and be consistent with it. CrossFit.com. Not cherry pick. Oh, I like that workout.

I like that workout. You don't know. The more experience you get, the more you can go by feel. Exactly. These guys will tell you every day I probably get 10 emails. Hey, I want to get to the games. What program should I follow? CrossFit.com.

Have fun. You know, that's it. And then eventually you can kind of develop your own thing. So I think that's something we should talk about. I mean mean or at least state yeah how many years ago is that that you were following that though six years ago yeah so you've been training for a long time and then how long did you follow for about a year and a half every day and that's that sounds extremely typical extremely difficult like a year and a half and then kind of that's when people start like coming in their own stride.

Well, I mean, think about it. If you aren't able to do every single workout on CrossFit.com as prescribed... You can't do the CrossFit games. Yeah, you're not going to go to the CrossFit games. Obviously. You've got obviously obvious gaps in your programming and your training that you need to address before

worrying about these specialized programs. Going into a specialized program might not be a good idea if you can't get through all the wads and do them as prescribed. They're totally tearing you apart. That's right. You don't need the more volume. Nope. Right.

So how long have you been programming for these guys? 48 hours. They'll send us some workouts to try every once in a while. Yeah, the six-month thing is a joke. And Matt, you've been competing for a long time. Can you give us some workouts to try every once in a while. The six month thing is a joke. Matt, you've been competing for a long time. Can you give us a little background on you? I've been competing in the CrossFit Games since 2008.

With this guy, I think we're the only two men left that have done since 2008. I'm going on year seven. Going on year seven. I've been Crossfitting since 2007. I started because of firefighting. I was actually a pretty poor athlete once I got a little weight on me.

So as a firefighter, you know, you obviously load yourself up with gear and stuff like that and crawl around and drag a hose, drag a dummy. And I just got my butt handed to me by all the other guys. And I was like, man, I need to figure something out. I'm weight training. I don't get it. Somebody introduced me to crossfit. I was like man I need to figure something out I'm weight training I don't get it somebody introduced me to CrossFit I was like boom I love this and slowly CrossFit's just kind of quickly become my life um you know retired from the fire department uh opened a gym did the gym thing for a long time and now pretty much just

training myself and then on the headquarter staff on the weekends. Doing the level one certs? Level ones. Seminars? Oh, you're doing the... Coaches prep and the... Oh, the level one would be a cert. It's a seminar. Oh, it's a seminar. You get certified if you pass the test.

Nope. There's no certification. You get a certificate to get a certificate. It's a certificate course. It's a certificate course. Yeah. But anyway. All right.

Accreditation. Accreditation. So we do... So I do the CPCs level ones and then what, uh, Chris Beeler, Eric O'Connor and I came up with, which is the competitor course. And, uh, that really is, I mean, it's, it's a good, not even intro. It's a good beginning and intermediate level, uh, course for basically coaches or somebody who's training themselves on how to approach training for a competition you find a lot of people that are attending

those or people who are doing more regional competitions even lower than regional yeah I'd say when we because we asked that question you know how many of you guys are you know regional level competitors and usually like two hands go up out of 20 something. This is people who want to make it to regionals. A lot of people are interested in competing. That's a big discussion a lot of times inside the gym, inside our facility too.

How many people are interested in just general fitness and who's interested in being competitive? That's probably going to vary from place to place. It's usually like 10% want to be competitive and the rest just want to look good naked, right? Yeah. I just want to look good naked, personally. Hell yeah.

Ben, did you have an Olympic weightlifting background before you came to CrossFit? No. No? No, I just didn't have any muscle mass on me, so I was always flexible. Okay, I was going to say. When I was younger, it was like, you know,

the flexibility kind of came easy. Yeah. And then I just worked my way up from when I was younger. You played baseball, so you guys just stretch all the time. Yeah, right? We didn't do any overhead work. You're saying that because he moves well, right? He does, man.

I'd never really seen you do any Olympic stuff before. I guess I just never paid attention. But seeing you train today, no offense to any of y'all, but you fucking move really, really well. Everyone else moves good, too, but I'd seen these guys train a bunch of times. So I was about how good how fast he is too fast fast and fluid it looks great it's like you're an athlete or something i know yeah i always just enjoyed i always enjoyed the lifting part so you know it's always fun so i always watch videos learn online that kind of thing

because when i started crossfit there were no affiliates there were like two affiliates right so it wasn't like a common thing to be like oh oh, hey, just go check out a local box. You know, it's. So who did you end up training with? Did you end up finding an Olympic coach specifically? No, no. It was just myself. I didn't have a coach.

You learned all that through videos and just practicing on your own? Yep. Practice and watching and over and over. Restitutions. That's unique, man. How many of you guys had weightlifting coaches at one point? Just curious. I have.

You had a weightlifter? You still work with somebody? Yeah, he's one of our staff at NorCal, and he trained at the Olympic Training Center, and he works with us. Cool. Not like daily, but we work with him. And then I, yeah,

you just find a specialist to help with those things, but it's still a work in progress, man. Rich, you bounce around a bit? i have no you i have no yeah i've known you since the beginning so i'm kind of aware yeah but i'm trying to ask for the audience right no there's no set that same same as ben you never spent time with a weightlifting coach mostly youtube videos mostly youtube videos or cross the channel or a lot of on the minute. And just your body just kind of figures it out after that point. What about you, Matt? I solicit people's help.

I used to drive down to Colorado Springs because Casey Bergner and Natalie Bergner both trained at a box CrossFit gym down in Colorado Springs once a week. And I'd go down there, hour and a half half drive and there was literally four people in the class every single time and I was like okay I'm going to be trained by an Olympian well worth it yeah right exactly I'll pay the $20 drop in fee to get personal trained by two Olympic athletes yeah no problem yeah

I feel like you like found the secret you're like I found it you feel like lucky that you found it and nobody knows about it it's mine not telling anyone so what's the schedule for the weekend you guys are taking off here pretty soon to fly I'm lucky that you found it and nobody knows about it. It's mine. That's right. Not telling anyone. So what's the schedule for the weekend? You guys are taking off here pretty soon to fly to Berlin right now, right? And then you guys are getting there with like a week's spare?

A week from now. Tuesday. Oh, you're just flying home right now. I think we leave Tuesday, right? Yeah, we fly home right now and then we fly out again on Monday. So today's Tuesday right now? Yeah. So we fly out in less than a week and then we arrive on tuesday and then normally what they did last year is uh you know we got our uniforms and stuff

and we did some like press conference type stuff and then we do a lot of dry runs through the workouts because it's a live event so they want to look pretty smooth and pretty you know polished polished you guys do know what the wads are then? Well, we'll find out on Thursday, and we'll run through them on Friday multiple times, or maybe even Thursday, Friday, to make sure they look good. Because for the TV crew and stuff, they want to know how the cameras will be angled and whatnot.

Oh, okay. So not really for you guys, more for the crew? Right. We won't do the whole workout. We won't use the prescribed weight, but we will perform the sequences so that they can kind of see how it's going to look. Okay. And last year, it was pretty neat the way they let us program the workouts.

No way, really? Yeah. So it was basically- Like after you knew who was on the team? Like you could play to their strengths? Right. So we're sitting at the little press conference and it's Team USA versus Team Europe. We're sitting across from each other and we're like how about Amanda heavy Amanda and

they were and they were like nope I don't like the the heavy part but we'll do Amanda and it's like good we'll do it and then that was just we're gonna have to work out that's how we did it how many was you do last year six seven one two three just one day or two day event? One day. It's two hours. Hour and a half, yeah, two hours. So the way it was last year,

it was a guy and girl combo against a guy and girl. So first event was a thruster box jump. Second event was like an Amanda, or it was Amanda. Team Amanda, yeah. Team Amanda. So one person goes,

next person goes, nine, nine, or 12. Snatch, snatch. Muscle up, muscle up,, 9, 9, 12. Snatch, snatch, muscle up, muscle up, muscle up, and then down. And then it was a burpee box jump and a shoulder overhead workout. And then after that, we did some heavy lifting. So the girls went, and they did a one-rep max snatch, clean and jerk. And then they did a little tripper-type workout.

And then after that, the guys went, same thing, clean, jerk, snatch. And then we did a different type of a... Hand clean, shoulder... It was DT, similar to DC. Yeah, with a little sprint action in it. And then after that, we did a team workout all together. A full, all six. And I think... Is that it?

I think there was two team workouts after that. We did two team workouts together. Oh, one was the conga line, and then one was the synchronized. Right, exactly. Yeah. So, four? Four workouts. Who was the conga line then? Did the girls only was the conga line and one was the synchronized? Right, exactly. So, four? Four workouts. Who was the conga line? Did the girls only do the conga line?

I don't think we did that. It was all one. It was like, you all did pull-ups then we all did... That was the synchronized one. It was all kind of... So roughly four events. Yeah. All that to say, yeah. That took a while. So it ended up being pretty lopsided in the end.

Was it pretty close or was it pretty lopsided? Lopsided. Yeah, we took the most name in the competition. Like the dream team. There was a few events that should have been won that weren't won. To their defense, so we won the first event. They won the second event. We won the third event.

They won the fourth event. We won the fifth event. So at that time, before the guys went, we were pretty even, and then we won the next three events. The guys won all of our events, and then our team won the events. But at one point, I mean, it looked like

it was kind of like, might be close there for a second. So that's kind of how you figure it'll go this year. It'll be like, maybe close, but you but probably take it still. I'm going to make sure that the workouts get programmed in our favor. That's for sure. I like your style. We've been playing with stuff.

I'm not going to tell you what the stuff is. And if you guys caught some of those on pictures today, you've got to delete that stuff. But we've been playing with some movements and some sequences that look very aesthetic that I know that the camera people will really like, but also play to our favor as far as weights, movements, intensity, stuff like that. Giving away the secrets. Yeah, it'll be really good.

And I'm hanging out with Rich and Jason now, and both of them are very busy traveling a lot, and I don't know about you guys, too. I mean, if you're doing the level ones, I'm sure you're traveling. I don't know about you guys too. I mean, if you're doing, if you're doing the level ones, I'm sure you're traveling on about you, Ben. Yeah. So I just have a new box now, so I'm trying to, you know, it's tough with just one other coach is me and one other coach running all the classes. Um, I've been traveling a lot lately and then we're going to Berlin all next week. So we've been out a lot, but, uh, uh, hopefully it'll slow down a little bit and I can focus on the box a little bit more. Aren't you doing something else too? Something else you got going on, right? After the more. Aren't you doing something else too? Something else you got going on, right?

After the games? After what? Aren't you doing something after the games? When? Is this a secret? Is this a leading question? In August? Next year.

Yeah, what are you doing? Getting married. There you go. That's what I was trying to get you. That's next year. No, that's something you got going on though. Like you're planning a wedding. That will get more and more time consuming

as it gets closer. Right, right. You got a little time. Or you may be in more and more trouble that's right maybe not time so with uh how much you guys travel i i get a lot from uh people saying hey you know i travel a lot i do sales you know i'm busy i can't train you know that's the excuse i can't train or eat right how is it you guys are able to stay on top of your training when you travel? How do you make it a priority? I live in an Airstream travel trailer. I travel all

the time. Here's the deal. Are you being serious? I'm dead serious for the last year. Last year I've been trailer trash, but you know what? I mean, you've got to prioritize your fitness. That's all there is to it. You can make all the excuses in the world. I eat bad because I don't have time, because of my work schedule.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. Where does the majority of your training happen? Does it happen in other boxes as you're traveling? Yeah. And at home, you're just in your own gym? So, like, I don't have a home. Literally, I don't own a home.

So you guys, you had an affiliate at one point. I still do. You still have the affiliate. You've got somebody running it. You don't train there the majority of the time. At all. Wow. That's pretty cool. Yeah. He's got a bunch of equipment in the back of his truck that he works out with. You just pull it out. That's right. That's awesome

man. Yep. Making it happen. Since December 18th of last year. So when someone comes to you with an excuse like, I don't have time, you're like, don't talk to me. Eat it. It's not necessarily a time thing when you travel. It's just a convenience So when someone comes to you with an excuse, like, I don't have time, you're like, don't talk to me. Eat it. Eat it. It's not necessarily a time thing when you travel. It's just a convenience thing.

And if you want to work out, it's probably going to be inconvenient, but you just got to do it. This guy's the king of hotel workouts. Yeah. I mean, if you're going to be traveling, just do something. Is that when you sneak in the bicep curls? Hell yeah. He's right. I mean, he gets up at gets up at 6am. I've seen him do it multiple times when I've stayed in a hotel with him and I slept in and he's like, Hey, I'm getting

up tomorrow at 6am to, to go work out. You know, these guys did the same thing during our trainer summit and there's out there smashing it at 6am. I mean, dude, what it always is with the workouts and this goes for everybody. My, the biggest thing I always hear is like, Oh, I'm busy. It's like, really dude, are you really that busy? you don't have an hour to work out? Because if you are, then you need to look at your lifestyle and determine if that's something you want to do. Because everybody has an hour to do something. They just need to get motivated to do it.

You want to lay on the bed and watch TV or go do something. It's all about how your priorities are set. Everybody has an hour. And anybody who says they don't, it's full of shit. Anyone can wake up and AMRAP 10 minutes of burpees and then get in the shower. You're right. It's not even an hour. That's what I do when I'm in a hotel room by myself. I just do 10 minutes of burpees and then get in the shower you're right you're right that's what I do 10 minutes of burpees get the shower all my day hey you do an AMRAP of 10 minutes and burpees and the

next day you did an AMRAP of air squats the next day pushes whatever I guarantee you can be fitter than a lot of people in the United States yeah anytime I don't have time to train I always just do an AMRAP that I know it's only going to take me 10 minutes or 15 minutes or whatever I have, and then I'm gone. Yep. No warm-up. Just do bodyweight movements.

They're warm movements anyway. Air squats, push-ups, burpees, like you're talking about. Start to finish. 10 minutes, you're out. Yep. What about you, Ben? What's your advice from people?

When I'm traveling, I love hotel workouts. I like making stuff up, so it's always fun to get out there and I have a hard time coming up with stuff. What would be a good example? You got a treadmill. You can run. You can go outside and run all the time. Any type of bodyweight movement.

I always resort to burpees. It's usually dumbbells. Occasionally, there's dumbbells. Occasionally. Have you ever gotten on one of those ellipticals? Like gazelle things? No.

You do sprint intervals on the treadmill? Remember last year, we were in London. We went down there. All they had was cardio stuff, so me and Jason did the fitness tests on all the machines. On all the machines. The bikes. How did you do?

The machines were all smoking. We got on the elliptical for like 10 seconds and we were like, this is terrible. How'd you do? Did you beat? I don't remember. The machines were all smoking. Sparks were flying. We got on the elliptical for like 10 seconds. We're like, this is terrible. I'm not getting on this thing. My knees hurt. The ellipticals. But I mean, it just goes back to that mentality, right?

Like you can get a workout anywhere, anytime. It just depends on how hard you want to push yourself, you know? You have dumbbells. You have nothing. Just start squatting really fast and push-upping really fast and sprinting down the hallway, running up the stairs. I've done a lot of that before. Stairs, there you go.

Tabata. So if you're like, let's just say you're in Vegas and you're on like a 50-story building, go up two stories, do 10 push-ups, all the way to the top, all the way back down. Throw up the booze from the night before. Make yourself dizzy. You know what I'm saying?

Especially in Vegas. Well, that's what's going to happen in Vegas. That's what happens to you in Vegas. Well, never mind. I'm not going to talk about that. No Vegas stories on the fire, guys? We'll save that for another day. We'll let these guys talk.

So we were hanging out with Jason a couple weeks ago, and he had never fired a gun, but we're now here in Tennessee. Well, I fired a gun. Oh, I thought you said you didn't. No, I never killed anything. Oh, that's what it was. Have you killed anything since you've been here? We tried this morning.

We did a little team building this morning. Yeah, we did. We tried to kill some turkeys. Didn't happen. They were up behind us, and we just couldn't get them to come down. Think Team World's out hunting somewhere? I don't know. Probably not.

No. It's probably illegal wherever they're at. They're all in different countries, too. Yeah, that's true. We could have had Some turkeys this morning If that farmer Wouldn't have come out In his field

Y'all get kicked out No But he was driving Around his field Right where the turkeys were And scared them off I felt hella legit This morning though

Oh yeah Camoed out I had face paint on Camoed out I wore boots You know what I'm saying Step on some cow shawty Yeah you didn't care

Because they were my boots That's right If they were your boots It would have been a different story Probably Yeah You get some minimal boots No these are

These are not minimalist boots Whatsoever No these are The real deal Moccasins So who was armed And who was who was just watching me and I think legally we can only say I was armed yeah yeah enough

said that was bow hunting bow hunting the turkeys are you bow hunt well okay so technically you can bow hunt if you you have a bow, you can hunt turkey or deer at this time. But you cannot take a gun and a bow because it's, I don't know. That's a weird rule. Yeah. There's some weird hunting rules out there. Yeah. For sure.

So we had some bows and some guns, but they were separate from people. Like, everybody was separate. Yeah. So you weren't together. Sure. No, it's actually true. It's actually true. It is true.

It's true. The guns were up on the hill, and we were kind of down the hill. So Ben said he doesn't hunt. Jason doesn't hunt. He carried the quiver. He just got the arrow boy. He had the arrows. I just hung out.

I spotted the turkeys in the trees. Turkey, arrow. Yep. Matt, do you find yourself hunting? You know, I just, within the last year, I've done a little bit of bow hunting. That's about it. Yeah.

Unsuccessfully so far. Yeah. Turkey hunt twice now. Went boar hunting once. How'd that go? Was that fun? It was a lot of fun. The boar hunting is just kind of like deer hunting

where it kind of seems like you need to stay more stationary. Whereas the turkey, it seems like you can kind of like, you know, stalk them a little bit, which is cool. But man, with the arrows, you know, archery, it's I think significantly more difficult than a shotgun. Yeah, I imagine so. I've never been turkey hunting. I want to go one day. Yeah. But the stalking thing seems a lot more fun to me. I remember when I was a kid, I haven't been hunting since I imagine so. I've never been turkey hunting. I want to go one day. But the stalking thing seems a lot more fun to me.

I remember when I was a kid. I haven't been hunting since I was 17. I think Doug has the same experiences. Hunting is sitting in the cold and doing nothing. Yeah, duck hunting is sitting in the cold. Duck hunting is fun, though. Duck hunting is fun. You just hang out, and then you just shoot.

You hang out, and then you shoot. Whereas turkey in the spring is a little bit better because you can get them to call back and forth. Yeah. In the fall, it's a little bit more tough because it's hard to bust them up. But, yeah. And we're kind of social creatures, so we're all sitting there, you know, trying to be quiet. But at the same time, we're sitting there bullshit and laughing. Yeah, man.

If you guys don't always see each other every once in a while and you get together, yeah, that's got to be tough for sure. Yeah, can't be quiet. Yeah. Actually, you do a little rock climbing in the Progenice commercial yeah is that is that like one of your like recovery things passion yeah i love rock climbing it is just for the advertisement no honestly that's that's one of my passions that's one of the reasons why we moved into the airstream is to kind of get around and climb at different areas it's a dream that my wife and i had for a long time so She climbs with you? Yep.

Very cool. I don't know shit about rock climbing, but I'd love to go sometime. If you guys are ever in Colorado, I'd love to take you. It's a blast. Literally, it's one of those things that we've got all this fitness, and it would just come naturally to most of us. We just got all this fitness. We're just saving it up and not even using any of it.

Although, I mean, that is something that happens a lot with CrossFit. People, you know, they build up all this fitness, and then the only time they use it is in the gym. That's right. I think it's unfortunate. You know, at least go play some Ultimate Frisbee or something. Get on a stand-up paddle board.

Go hunting. We play football every Saturday. We were talking about this yesterday, and Thomas was in here complaining because the first day we went out there, it was raining, and we didn't get the flags in in time. And so I get out there, and we're playing two-hand touch. I was like, two-hand touch is lame. Let's play tackle.

And Thomas is like, somebody's going to die. And so, like, the whole time we played tackle. Nobody got hurt, but it was pretty fun. But we've been playing flag football every Saturday. So you guys played full contact? Yeah, like. Oh, wow. I did that when I was a kid, and I remember the adults out there going,

man, you guys are stupid. I remember now. Now I know why they were saying that, you know. the adults out there going, man, you guys are stupid. Now I know why they were saying that. It took a couple days, but it was still fun. It's a good idea until the first time you go head-to-head, and you're like, that was a bad idea. That was a bad idea. That's why we wear helmets.

I remember McGoldrick talking about how he used to play hockey, and they had crossed it heavy for three or four years, and they went back and played ice hockey for the first time after four years of CrossFit, and he was like it was incredible yeah like i never got tired i felt so explosive like he like he didn't think it was going to be that different he thought it was going to be like ah like i'm rusty didn't happen at all he was way better he said it's awesome who's this mike mcgoldrick yeah mike mcgoldrick you know mike mcgoldrick uh he went to the games this year right yeah yeah that's right that's right yeah first time for him. He got really close two years ago. And then last year, me and him were in Africa.

And so he had to go on team because he only got to do like one or two of the open workouts and they went out of town. Got it. Yeah. That's great for the team. True story. You want to give these guys their guns? Oh, yeah.

We did. We brought gifts for everyone. That's right. Oh, you did it. Yeah, we did. Brought you a gun. So everyone's in Tennessee and we're big on shooting here. So we brought a...

Rich got what he's got. I can't get on an airplane with a gun. Rob, bust him out. I love that it's in a big black bag. Big guns. A bunch of stolen guns with the serial numbers. We got a real guy. He's like BB guns? We got Rich real guns. We got you guys. Big guns. A bunch of stolen guns with the serial numbers. We got more guys. He's like BB guns?

Yep. We got rich real guns. We got you guys. This one goes to Jason Kalipa. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Jason. We inscribed something on the side for you. I came hard and I came long.

Episode 83. There you go. They got me a 1911 that has Galatians 614 inscribed on one side and barbell shrugged on the other. It's pretty awesome. You didn't want to try to feel like that? He's like, I got this. Let me rub it in your face. I'm a pitcher.

All right. Who's that? Hot dogs and cupcakes. That's me. That's the man right there. Speaking of food, what's that Meal Fit shirt all about? Meal Fit is Thomas' project. Yeah.

Thomas. He's doing meal plans and grocery lists and it's MealFit.co. Yeah, basically, take a look at it on Facebook if you can. Meal Fit. Oh, not.com,.co. We didn't leave you out, Ben.

We got you something, buddy. Is this a water gun? It's a water gun, right? How about a shot and nerf? Those little nerf darts. I'll ask you something buddy. Is this a water gun? Yeah man. It's a water gun right? Yeah. Okay. I thought it like shot Nerf, those little Nerf darts. Oh right, right. Oh it's a water gun all the way.

Yeah you can't come to Tennessee and not get a gun. Get a gun? Yeah. And moonshine. And moonshine. Did you guys get some moonshine? We got some moonshine yesterday. Oh yeah.

What's drawn on Ben's? What is it? That's a refrigerator. Yeah. Oh. Obviously. Obviously. Classic. Classic. Thanks, guys. You bet.

Very thoughtful. Ben, what's the story there for people that don't know you? So I worked out my garage a lot up until this past year, and every video that I had posted had the fridge in the background. Everybody always pointed it out, and I didn't think much of it. I don't know. It's kind of my thing now. I used to work out in front of of it. I don't know. It's kind of my thing now. I used to work out in front of the bridge. I don't know.

That's who you are. He's over at Squatting 365 in front of a bridge. I don't know. Everybody always talked about it. Dude, when you do the open workouts, I'm like, oh, man. One of them you did on a tree. Yeah, muscle-ups. Muscles on a tree, and I was just sitting there. I was like, that's awesome. Because that's what CrossFit is.

It's the heart of CrossFit. It's the heart of CrossFit. It's making it happen. Just like you guys are saying, just getting it done no matter what. Getting it done. Get a barbell,

some steel plates, some rings, boom. Doesn't have to be fancy. Fitness. Fitness. As long as gravity works, you're set. I'm going to put some water

in this thing. Yep. There you go. All right, guys, we're going to wrap this thing up. Hell yeah. For the second time. Jason finally decided to join us.

Let's go around the circle real quick and promote what you want to promote. Maybe tell people to train at certain gyms if they're in certain towns. Thank some people. If you've got sponsors or something like that. That's cool. Start with you. Want to go, Matt? Yeah, I'd love to.

Yeah, check out CrossFit Verve if you're ever in Denver. It's my gym, and it's something I'm really proud of. The competitor course, if you guys have interest in competing, you don't know how to approach competing for a year, come check us out. Register at CrossFit.com. It's a two-day course with me, Chris Spieler, and Eric O'Connor, and I hope you learn a lot. Excellent.

Cool. Yeah, just check out NorCalCrossFit.com and the new thing that we've been working on with Dolomars, this thing called a Go Mat. It's kind of cool. It's an at-home mat. I was tired of working out on my hardwood floor carpet, so we worked with them to create this mat that you

can work out at home on because I thought carpet was kind of disgusting to get sweat on. I thought hardwood floor got slippery, so we made a mat. Excellent. Very cool. Yeah, that's, so we made a mat. Excellent. Very cool. Yeah, that's it. Is there a website they can see that mat on? Yeah, it's gomatusa.com.

Very cool. You're really good at the marketing thing. I was trying that one hard. What do you got, Ben? Yeah, CrossFit Krypton down in Chesapeake, Virginia. So if you're in the Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach area, we just opened up this past December. Cool, I like that name.

Yeah, CrossFit Krypton. We wanted like Garage CrossFit or something, but that was already taken, so we ended up. Imagine that. Yeah, right? A name taken by a CrossFit gym. I still want to have a CrossFit Schmosh Fit. Schmosh Fit.

That might not make it through the application process. If you're in Cookville, Tennessee, CrossFit Mayhem. That's about it. CrossFit Rich's Garage. Yeah. Seems to host everybody here. All right, guys. If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure to head over to iTunes.

Give us five stars. Leave a positive comment. Hell yeah. If you leave a negative comment, we'll get deleted. Unfortunately, we can't delete those on iTunes. Oh well. Alright, see you guys. Peace. Thank you.