Barbell Shrugged - Feed Me Fuel Me — Sharpen The Axe w/ Seth Page - 90

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey there ladies and gentlemen, this is Doug from Barbell Shrugged. I just want to let you know that we now offer 11 of our top training programs as a part of a single membership site that we're calling the Program Vault. We used to launch training programs every few months and people were always bummed that they couldn't sign up at any time. You had to be around for the launch. The launch was only 4 or 5 days. If you missed it, then you had to wait 6 months or a year depending on what training program we were offering next. And it was kind of a hassle, even when people signed up for training programs, to switch to a different program when they got to the end of their current program or they just happened to be in a new phase of training.

Starting point is 00:00:32 They hit their past goal and now they have new goals, and new goals require different training programs. So inevitably it was a pain in the ass for people to switch programs. So we took all that feedback and we decided to just put all of our programs together on this thing we now call the Program Vault. That way all Shrugged athletes can have access to all the workouts that we have and move from program to program as they saw fit for themselves. Makes sense. So there's 11 programs.

Starting point is 00:00:58 Three of them are long-term, very comprehensive programs where there's a warm-up and there's mobility and there's nutrition added in there. All the workouts are there. There's a cool down. There's stuff to do on your off days. They're super, super comprehensive. And those programs last for over 18 months if you want to stick around for that long. And there's also eight short-term programs. These programs are three months long and these are basically add-on programs. So if you are already doing classes at a gym and you don't want to stop doing your classes but you want to work on one particular thing maybe you want to like work on your shoulder health or you want to work on your conditioning like your your aerobic capacity or maybe you just want to work on your squatting strength or your pull-up strength or

Starting point is 00:01:36 something like that then we have these short-term add-on programs that are super low volume but they're just like an extra you know two or three exercises at the end of your workout to help work on whatever those very specific goals are that you have so the three long-term programs are flight weightlifting that's a very weightlifting specific training program it builds it builds you from someone who's more like beginner intermediate at weightlifting and builds you up to be a more technical professional professional-style weightlifter over the course of 12 or 18 months. We also have Muscle Gain Challenge. If you just want to put on muscle mass and you want a higher volume training program, this, in my opinion, is more of an intermediate program.

Starting point is 00:02:16 If you don't have good technique on the Olympic lifts yet, you're going to kind of be thrown right to the wolves, so to speak. It doesn't ramp you up like flight does. Flight has very specific progressions for weightlifting to let you learn all the technique over time. Muscle gain challenge kind of just throws you right into it. So ideally, you already have some experience with Olympic weightlifting before you start the muscle gain challenge. And there's a very high emphasis, of course,

Starting point is 00:02:42 with the muscle gain challenge on gaining muscle. So that means you've got to eat a lot of food. So there's a lot of emphasis on how much to eat, what to eat, and your recovery as a part of that program. So that way you can get bigger and stronger. Also, we have Strug Strength Challenge, which is more of a traditional kind of CrossFit program. If you do CrossFit classes at a CrossFit gym, you probably do some strength movements at the very beginning of class. Maybe you do front squats for five sets of five, and then you do a Metcon that's, you know, 20 or 25 minutes or whatever it happens to be. That's more typical of the shrugged strength

Starting point is 00:03:13 challenge where strength is the goal, but certainly conditioning is a key part of that as well. It has more of a strength bias than kind of a regular generalized CrossFit-y type program. So the eight short-term training programs, again, these are about three months long, and they're kind of an add-on program. So the first one is Boulders for Shoulders. That's a shoulder health and stability program, health, mobility, and stability program. That doesn't mean you're going to be doing a whole lot of jerks and overhead presses necessarily. This is, again, an add-on program, So you're going to be doing a lot of assistance work

Starting point is 00:03:46 for your shoulders, your thoracic spine, etc. That way you can have the healthiest shoulders possible. There's the Aerobic Monster program, which is adding in a bunch of extra mostly aerobic conditioning. You're going to be on the airdyne a lot. You're going to be on the rower a lot. You're going to be doing a lot of monostructural stuff. So, you know, if you already have your regular workout, you do strength, you do your Metcon, and then, you know, as a very overly simplistic example, you do, you know, 20 minutes of rowing, or you do 30 on 30 off for 10 rounds, or you're doing a hard 30 and an easy 30, or whatever it is, just a little bit extra aerobic work. There's the squat the house program where, you know where we add in two leg exercises three days a week.

Starting point is 00:04:26 So you might squat and then do some lunges or something like that. Depending on what your regular classes are like, you might already be doing a lot of squatting. But if you're not currently able to do a lot of squatting and you want to do some more squatting and you just want to add that onto your current training, then Squat the House is a great program. Anaerobic Assault, that is a high intensity interval style program where you're doing very fast Metcons, so you might be doing airdyne sprints, you know, 30 seconds on, 100% full speed, and then take a three minute break and do it again, or even, you know, five touch and go deadlifts, followed by, you know, 10 burpees, rest two minutes, and

Starting point is 00:05:01 then do it again, but you're doing it all 100% full speed, really teaching you how to kick it into high gear, and move very, very quickly but you're doing it all 100 full speed really teaching how to kick it into high gear and move very very quickly when you're doing your metcons there's my first pull-up which is not going to give you a whole lot of actually doing pull-ups these are this is a program for people that can't do a pull-up yet so there's a lot of assistance work for pull-ups and there's a lot of extra assistance work for just all the muscle groups involved in doing pull-ups everything from just doing extra lat work, extra scapular attraction, rhomboid lower trap work, extra bicep work, et cetera, to help get you to the point where you can do your first pull-up. There's a strongman accessory program where you can be doing yoke walks,

Starting point is 00:05:39 picking up stones, pulling heavy sleds, and things like that. And then there's two more programs that are kind of a little bit higher volume you could do them on your own if you wanted to and you also can combine these you could do aerobic monster and anaerobic assault and my first pull-up all together if you wanted to if you just wanted to add extra volume but the last two open prep is exactly what it sounds like just gets you ready for the CrossFit Open or other similar competitions. You'll be doing a lot of Metcons. And the last one is Barbell Beginner to Meet. It's prepping you for your first Olympic weightlifting competition.

Starting point is 00:06:15 Each program is scheduled between three and five days per week. There's videos explaining all the programming. There's demos. There's technique explanations for everything. And then also you have access to the private Shrugged Collective Facebook group. That way you can get advice from ourselves. We'll be in there hanging out. Our guests from our shows, we also have a bunch of athletes, coaches, and strength experts

Starting point is 00:06:36 that are friends of ours that are in there too to help you out. If you're interested, since I've been talking long enough, you can go to shruggedcollective.com backslash vault for all the information. Again, that is shruggedcollective.com backslash V-A-U-L-T. That spells vault. Go there, check it out. If you have any questions, email help at barbellshrugged.com and enjoy the show. Mike Bledsoe here, CEO of the Shrugged Collective.

Starting point is 00:07:01 Today, we bring to you a new show, Feed Me, Fuel Me, hosted by Jeff Thornton and Michael Anders. As we're expanding what we offer, traveling to great guests, and introducing you to the best content, we have partnered with amazing companies that we believe in. We talk and hang out with the founders and owners of these businesses. Not all products are created equal, even if it looks like it on the surface. We've done the research and have been in the industry long enough to see what really works and what will make the biggest difference for you long term.

Starting point is 00:07:32 With that being said, one of my favorite companies, Thrive Market, has a special offer for you. You get $60 of free organic groceries plus free shipping and a 30-day trial. ThriveMarket.com slash feedme. This is how 90 of the Feed Me Podcast. so hit up Thrive Market today. Go to thrivemarket.com slash feedme. Enjoy the show. This is episode 90 of the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast with our special guest, co-owner of Misfit Athletics, Seth Page. Welcome to the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast. My name is Jeff Thornton alongside my co-host Michael Anders. Each week we bring you an inspiring person or message related to our three pillars of success, manifestation, business, fitness, and nutrition. Our intent is to enrich, educate, and empower our audience to take action,

Starting point is 00:08:41 control, and accountability for their decisions. Thank you for allowing us to join you on your journey. Now let's get started. Hey, what's good, fam? Welcome to another episode of the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast. There is Jeff coming at you from beautiful Salt Lake City, and we are sitting in the affiliate lounge at the South Regional for the CrossFit Games with Seth Page of Misfit Athletics. Thanks for taking the time, man.

Starting point is 00:09:09 What's up, guys? Glad to be here. Man, nice to have you, bro. Cheers. Thanks. For somebody who's got close to 50 athletes and 18 teams across all the regions, man, we really appreciate you taking the time to kick it with us. I'm happy to do it. Yeah, man.

Starting point is 00:09:20 That's a huge accomplishment. Thanks. To have that many athletes representing your brand, your programming, your philosophy at this level. I feel sort of honored that that's what they're choosing to do. Because one of the big things I always say is that I'm never, and I should say we as the company, we'll never take credit for what an athlete does. So yes, we have about 50 athletes that are representing our brand, follow our programming, listen to our advice, things like that. But they're the ones that have

Starting point is 00:09:50 earned this position, right? They do the work, they sacrifice in their lives. They do all that stuff to make sure they get to this level. And then they're the ones dying out there while I'm the one just sick to my stomach watching them. They do well, but I'm really not suffering like them. So I'm more honored to be a part of what they but i'm really not suffering like them so i'm like more honored to be a part of what they're doing as opposed to like acting like i did something special because i i didn't i that that humility is awesome man yeah real talk thanks for everybody who doesn't know who you are may not know where misfit came from give us the the cliff note version of your your journey to to this to this point man uh so back in about 2008

Starting point is 00:10:26 i was actually in law enforcement so i got out of the fitness field because i was not into the traditional bodybuilding planet fitness global gym type thing i tried it got some certifications and just it bored me to death so i had actually a degree in like in criminology decided to go on law enforcement and it's kind of funny the way fate works out because I got sent to the police academy Maine has a very difficult police academy because you work alone a lot So they give you extra training than they would maybe in a city because you're responding to things all by yourself in the woods So like it's 18 weeks you live up there. It's like looks like a boot camp I was fortunate enough that when I got up there

Starting point is 00:11:04 They adopted CrossFit as their training methodology for the first class ever and they had gotten all the cadre or like drill sergeants you'd say as a level one cert they all had their level one cert so they were learning how to teach CrossFit while we were learning what cross it was first day up there they make us do fight gone bad like I'm just puking my guts out. I get to go home that weekend, the first week, and I'm like, guys, you'll never guess what I found. This is fucking crazy. This is CrossFit. Check out the main site. I got my friends into it. Fast forward a year, I'm far out of the academy. I'm a full-time police officer working overnights,

Starting point is 00:11:41 and I get my friends to work out with me. I'm just trying to train during the my schedule's all fucked up miserable i hated the job i did it for a while i'm not in law enforcement anymore i couldn't couldn't hack it um and but the whole time i was really focused on like this newfound passion like my fitness passion had been re like reignited right away so my now business partner uh drew crandall, me and him will work out together. Basement in the police department, at his house, outside, whatever we could do. This is like 2009. His dad lets us gut a whole bay of one of his three-car garage things. We turn it into a little gym.

Starting point is 00:12:16 We start inviting our friends and family over. We go get our certifications at CrossFit. Like, it just starts snowballing out of control. And one of the things that really drove us and kept us interested in CrossFit is this was when Jason Kalipa had just won the games, Mikko Salo was coming up, and we're like, this sport is incredible. Drew played high school sports like his whole life.

Starting point is 00:12:34 I played some sports, but I wasn't as active as him, but I really was drawn to the competitiveness of the old school down and dirty CrossFit. Like, super cool. It's still cool. I still find it sometimes cooler than what I'm watching on the regionals floor today. Fitness isn't the same, but damn, was the grit real back then, right? The grittiest athletes were winning.

Starting point is 00:12:53 Not the fittest, not the prettiest. The grittiest athletes were winning. Super drawn to that. And then we just kind of like bit the bullet. Drew decided to buy a house. We got to his garage, paid CrossFit two grand, and became an affiliate in like 2009, 2010 in his house. So we listed on the affiliate map in Portland, Maine. There's no other affiliates around.

Starting point is 00:13:14 And people are showing up, parking in his neighborhood, coming in 6 a.m. in his garage, deadlifting, like waking up in the neighborhood. So soon we realized this ain't going to work. Like, okay, it's a good idea. And so we're just like, we'll find a cheap warehouse space in Portland. Real estate was cheap at the time. Affiliated in another bigger space. Knocked down a wall in that space. Grew over, like, five years.

Starting point is 00:13:36 And so that's kind of how our CrossFit journey started, is just, like, traditional affiliate owners, like, that route. But early on, like I said, our attraction to the competitive side of the sport was still something new. Regionals, it wasn't a thing back then. It was like sectionals, like actually this was even before sectionals and before the Open. So sectionals was like a thing our first year,

Starting point is 00:13:57 and then they moved to the Open and started doing regionals. And we were like, hey, any athletes that want help, we think we have some answers for you. Like we're studying this hard. Like we'll help you some answers for you. Like, we're studying this hard. Like, we'll help you prepare for these events. We think we know what to expect. We didn't back then. We're all gung-ho about it.

Starting point is 00:14:12 Like, if you want help, like, free, we'll help you. Like, we're super excited to help people do this. And so it's been almost nine years of studying, you know, what goes into a good training methodology for a competitive CrossFitter, what the evolution of the sport is going to look like, what it should look like, what we expect. And we've just spent more time with our nose deep into the sport than anybody else. I mean, I don't have a master's degree or a doctorate in anything that relates to this, but you don't need it if you're paying attention to something that's, like, super new,

Starting point is 00:14:45 like CrossFit was at the time, and it's still extremely new when it comes to when you talk about how you break down a sport, right? So the sport itself, 10 years old, realistically more, like, matured into, you know, five years of real, like, competing. And, I mean, if you just pay attention to, like, the differences in what these athletes do compared to more traditional sports, you look at a football player, you take a wide receiver, they have to sprint, jump, catch, right? And that's about their taking hits, their not really giving hits.

Starting point is 00:15:15 And the need of a wide receiver is different than the need of a center in the NBA. It's different than the need of a forward in hockey. And they're all very sport specific in CrossFit. Yeah. You can train specifically for competition, but you always want to introduce people to something new, like constantly. And you figure out how to build that in and you figure out how is that going to affect somebody's, uh, you know, aerobic capacity? How's that going to affect somebody's gymnastic skills? Is there any carry over in this new skill to weightlifting, whatever? And we continue to mix things up, keep things simple. And I mean, our training methodology, I could talk about that for hours, but yeah, I mean, we just, we just have spent, I dare say we've spent more time studying

Starting point is 00:15:55 the sport and not studying all the science that people think, you know, runners science from the past lifter science, like all the things they've done studies on runners, lifters, Olympians, whatever. I'm interested in someone do a fucking study on a CrossFitter. Their bodies don't work Runner science from the past lifters science like all the things they've done studies on runners lifters Olympians, whatever I'm interested in someone do a fucking study on a crossfitter. Yeah, their bodies don't work the same sure They just don't yeah, like traditional, you know traditional models of energy Even though they teach it in the l1 and everything else a crossfitter doesn't respond that way How do you go 20 minutes into a chest of our like snatch workout and then PR your snatch? Technically that energy

Starting point is 00:16:25 system should be shut off about then doesn't apply to crossfitters so like until someone starts doing real studies on that i can kind of ignore a lot of other things going on when i build my program and just focus on what i'm seeing and how i want to manipulate it yeah that's beautiful man because that's just looking and hearing your mindset. That's incredible because you just dove face first into something and sort of just built, I don't know. I don't know what to say. Like became experts in something that people really aren't studying.

Starting point is 00:16:52 That's what's incredible to me. And by doing that, you can tell by what we were talking about earlier, earlier, the grit, the tenacity, and just understanding how people work as a whole, not putting them all in one category is incredible to me, man.

Starting point is 00:17:05 Where's that mindset come from for you guys? I mean, like, where did you develop that is, I guess, my question. I think it's just a passion that I have in the sport. Like, I had to funnel my competitiveness into something. And I was never a great athlete. I'm still not a great athlete. I like to dabble in different things. But my outlet becomes like manipulating real

Starting point is 00:17:26 hungry athletes and seeing what we can do. And when someone's really open to letting me like manipulate what they're going to do, how they're going to train and what, you know, to meet their goals or the goals of, you know, what we expect at regionals, that's really cool to me. Like someone's opening up to me and letting me play scientists with them, even though I'm just kind of, I'm just tweaking things and I'm seeing what happens. If, how do you respond when I put you in this situation? How do you respond when I put you in this situation? Did you get better from this six weeks of working on this? If you ran and lifted at the same time, like did this program interfere with this or did they help each other out? Like I get to continue to play and manipulate

Starting point is 00:18:02 things. And, um, I'm not afraid to say that i don't have the answers because i really don't i'm trying to figure them out and i'm still trying to figure them out if i had the answer is my job would be super fucking easy i'd write it down once and each year you just do it over and over again right yeah but i can't do that i have to continue to look at like the evolution of the sport the evolution of of athletes around. And when the numbers go up, like people's 5K times go down and their snatch numbers go up and it continues to happen. And it has not even come close to plateauing yet. What the hell is this sport going to look like five, 10 years from now? And what do I have to demand from high level athletes? Especially because the majority of my program is, it is a template. It's one program that fits all to a certain extent, right?

Starting point is 00:18:46 I write it for the needs of what is expected in the sport, not what the specific athlete needs because I couldn't write for 40,000 people. I can only write one, unless you're a remote client of mine, then I can change it. So I have to write based on the need of the sport, not on the need of the athlete.

Starting point is 00:19:02 And when people start to take that mindset, like, well, I'm good at this. Well, can you be better at this? Well, I'm bad at this. Well, then you need to do this. And if you just follow through, we'll give you a dose of every single thing you expect to see on that floor, and we'll explain how to improve on it. And it is really that simple.

Starting point is 00:19:17 Like, people who want to go ahead, like I said, studies from the past, they want to look at runners and say, this is the way you increase your 5K time. Like, it's been proven, you know, again, science. Well, okay, great. You can improve your 5K time there. But if you do that, how does that affect your one rep max after? If you're going to run and lift after, which they've done in the past in the games, Pyramid Hell and do a one rep max overhead, like, you know, do those play into each other?

Starting point is 00:19:41 Should you run intervals and lift after each interval? Should you start to create programs that marry two things together? Or should you train each thing separately in different days? It's a pretty big debate in our community. I'm more in the mindset of just marrying everything and seeing what comes out the other side. Yeah. Well, I find it extremely interesting because I played with your subscription program for about six months. Okay.

Starting point is 00:20:07 And the thing I loved about it compared to other subscription programs I've tried is that it's built out to be the most efficient use of your time. Yes. I think you've done a really good job in nailing that down. And, you know, one thing that I've noticed in the community, especially when people are trying to level up, is that they under-recover and overwork simultaneously. Totally. 100%. And you guys have found what I would consider, in my professional professional opinion a really awesome balance of workload and you spread load enough of that work by marrying so much together that you're able to

Starting point is 00:20:55 recover and stay consistent with the training. So kudos to you for that. Well, thank you very much. It's easy to figure out what's working when you have the sample size that I have. Sure. So I'm very fortunate in the way that Misfit Athletics started. I kind of talked about how our gym started and our love for CrossFit started. Misfit Athletics started just because, like I said, we were putting our hand in the air. Anyone who wants to be good, like, let's work together and see if we can figure it out. Once a lot of people were heeding that call and like, yes, please help me.

Starting point is 00:21:25 That would be great. We like buried ourselves in a hole essentially with work. Like, oh fuck, we both have full-time jobs. We're trying to run an affiliate. And now we have people texting us like all hours of the day, emailing. Okay, we need to figure this out. Drew had the idea of putting it on a blog and that's kind of where that started. And a little bit, well, a lot of bit right place right

Starting point is 00:21:45 time blog went up caught fire no thanks to anything we did and people just took to it and told each other about it and organically the thing exploded like we didn't have to do any like we did no advertising no Facebook promotion nothing we just we put the content out there with the program and started to talk about how to attack the program not just just like, here are your workouts. Good luck. It's like, here are your workouts. Think about this when you do this.

Starting point is 00:22:10 Think about moving like this. Prioritize this part of the workout, and this is secondary. We started giving that information out there. And we had a media guy who you guys met earlier, Ted, the guy with the beard. He started building all our social channels. He started, you know, doing back-end website stuff with a development company and started to grow our brand. Like, you know, we kept putting the content out. He continued to, you know, make videos.

Starting point is 00:22:34 He built a YouTube channel that has, I don't even know, maybe 15,000 subscribers, which isn't crazy, but, like, in the CrossFit world, it's pretty good. Yeah, sure. On YouTube and, you know, Instagram, Facebook, you name it. And the more he put out of us, the more people took to it, and the more people were like, you guys do make it simple. So it does work for me. Sure.

Starting point is 00:22:53 And yeah, so we just continue to try to build on our momentum. Do you believe that as performance is improving, like snatches are going up, 5Ks are coming down, do you believe that the the avatar is changing as well like in terms of the uh the prototypical athlete that plays at this level do you a do you believe that it actually exists and more importantly uh do you see that evolving with performance? Really interesting question. I do find that they have already discovered the avatar in a specific window. So you're probably looking, if we're talking about a male,

Starting point is 00:23:35 we're looking at a guy who is between 5'7 and 5'10 and weighs 195 pounds, right? You're looking at a female that's between 5'3 and 5'5, and she weighs 135 pounds or something like that. And as the sport evolves and the athletes get better, that mean of athlete is not changing. In fact, it's becoming more rock solid. You always have your outliers. You have your Brent Fikowskis, nice and tall.

Starting point is 00:24:00 Spencer Hendel was the man back in the day, super strong, tall guy. And Matt Fraser, on the other hand, is a little bit shorter, but the average seems to keep coming around over and over again. And I don't know if that's correlated with the ideal size of an athlete to be able to perform a vast array of tasks, or if it just happens to be the average of an athletic male and female build across the entire world. That just might be what the average population size turns out when you have a large scale.

Starting point is 00:24:26 I don't know the answer to that. What I do know is that there are certain mechanical advantages that athletes possess of all sizes that they should be taking advantage of. Like if you look at a taller athlete with longer femurs, they're going to be a real poor squatter, but they should be a great puller if they learn how to use their leverage. And a lot of people don't think about this stuff. Whereas if you're shorter and your tibia and femur are about the same length, you should be a tremendous squatter. And if you're not, you've got to take a real hard look at either what you're doing to improve that, how you're moving as a squatter or whatever.

Starting point is 00:24:57 And if you can identify the things you should be strong at as an athlete, you can build those things much more easily and then spend more time on the things you're not as strong as to develop. People just assume that they don't necessarily fall in any mechanical group and they just say, oh, I got to improve on everything, which is true. But if you know how to use your own advantages to your advantage, that's the only part of being gifted that counts in CrossFit is what you're actually built as. That's it. There's no other talent. Like, the people who walk on their hands, like, amazing, like we saw today, they weren't born with that. They were gymnasts for 10 years,

Starting point is 00:25:29 15 years. That's all developed. That's not anything they were given. The only thing that we're given is the size and shape of our bone structure, essentially. That's crazy. I like your attention to detail on everything, man. But I think one thing that really separates you and Misfits is not only are you guys knowledgeable about the information information you're able to teach and coach the information in a digestible way because there's and i talk about it all the time there's there's programs out there where these guys are fantastic athletes but then people jump on their program and they just completely shit the bed because it's like they don't break it down and say this is how you can do the movements correctly it's just like go out there go attack it where how'd you learn how to teach people so well?

Starting point is 00:26:05 Is that like an innate trait to you or did you continue to develop it through reading or being around the right people? I've always liked to teach and obviously experience of finding ways to spread what I think I've discovered to others has just kind of allowed me to do that more. But I think I actually have a strange advantage, I think,

Starting point is 00:26:21 of not ever being a competitive athlete because all the people that have even some experience, even if it's older, back in the day, old school CrossFit versus now, they all have a certain perception of what it should be like to compete. How you should attack something based on their bias in their experience, right? I don't have that bias or experience. I literally am looking at the whole picture from a distance. I am an outsider compared to competitors. And so when I talk to competitors about the way they should approach things,

Starting point is 00:26:48 they say, no, that's not, you know, I see it like this, I see it like this. I know you do, and your experience is totally valid, and it totally means something to me, but I can actually see what's going on, and your perception of the best way of doing something is not necessarily the way to go. So, like, if a accomplished athlete puts out a program, they have all these biases of what they liked or what they were good at or what they were not good at. And it is reflected whether they know it or not, because we can't help it. We're

Starting point is 00:27:14 simple human beings with a subconscious and it's reflected in their program, right? I can look at things from afar without any experiential bias and build something that should work for the vast majority of people. And I think that's an advantage. Yes. Like I said, their experiences are totally valid and totally useful, but tell me about them and I'll couple them with the information I'm seeing and we'll put something out there for everybody. So I think that is what has allowed me to see things differently and teach things differently because I don't have any sort of, well, I would have done it like this if I was on the floor. I wouldn't have done shit on the floor. This is how I think you should do it based on what I know about you. Yeah. Well, I think that's an awesome perspective. And, you know, coming from my experience in NCAA

Starting point is 00:27:59 football, I can attest to that because the best coaches I ever had never played past high school. Right. Right. You know, so it's interesting that you even find that phenomenon to be true in this sport. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, would Peyton Manning be a good quarterback coach? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:28:20 Who knows? I don't know. But you know he's coming to the table with you know some conscious and subconscious biases yes and some expectations that may or may not be realistic based on his experience correct at that level so it's awesome that you you acknowledge a lot of i mean a lot of athletes and i bet peyton manning would be similar like you go try to teach a quarterback or another athlete something and they're not doing it and they're just kind of they're stuck i can do it why can't you do it like i just told and and a lot of times if they haven't broken it down and looked at it from the outside world it's really hard to gain that perspective

Starting point is 00:28:53 of like when you've accomplished something and it feels second nature to you you can't understand why it's not second nature to somebody else but i'm well aware that snatching is not second nature and so i'm going to find a way to dissect these things. I'm going to make sure that people have an efficient way to attack these movements, learn how to progress these movements, and learn how they're going to affect each other in a workout with just a bunch of stuff mixed in.

Starting point is 00:29:18 It's not always just the movement. I always tell my athletes, muscle-ups don't mean shit if you can't sprint on the bike and then jump up and do them. Because if you never test muscle-ups fresh't mean shit if you can't sprint on the bike and then jump up and do them, because if you never test muscle-ups fresh, it's totally different. When you're gasping for air and your arms are pumped out, can you still get up over the rings?

Starting point is 00:29:31 Who cares how many you can do fresh? It doesn't matter in competition. It's irrelevant. How do you feel, that's a good point, the whole gasping for air concept, how do you feel about Utah as a site for regionals? I think it's cool. There was a lot of, obviously, a lot of hype about the elevation playing a factor.

Starting point is 00:29:47 And I buy into it, and I believe that it is a factor, and I actually came out over a week early and met with a bunch of my athletes to start getting them, try to get them acclimated. I don't know, I'm not sure if anyone knows what the actual real science is, like the hard science behind

Starting point is 00:30:03 different levels of elevation. There's been conflicting studies that have studied with a bunch of soccer players that say there is no effect at this level. You have to be 8,000 plus or something. But I'm seeing other regions' scores and there's no lack of talent in this region and we are so fucking far behind the other regions. You're going to tell me that, okay,

Starting point is 00:30:20 maybe it's not elevation, but if it's not that, point out another factor that could have them a good 5- 10% of the rest of the field. I don't know. There's something to be said about it, but it's a level playing field here, so I'm cool with it. And I obviously love when CrossFitters face extra adversity, and they're facing it now. And so you test it. You know, a lot of guys came and tested at sea level, and they came up here, and they're like, holy shit, what's going on?

Starting point is 00:30:51 I don't think it's affecting these studs as much as people may have thought or built up in their head that it would. I mean, I know the first couple days, they more felt sluggish than out of breath. It wasn't like they were necessarily gasping for air, like they couldn't get their breath. It's like their legs were just, like, heavier. Like they weren't delivering the oxygen as efficiently as maybe they would in something longer elsewhere. That's true. How do you deal with the psychology of like a high-level athlete, especially when they run against adversity? Yes. Oh, my God.

Starting point is 00:31:16 This is such a deep topic. Yeah. So the psychology part of it, and again, I don't have a degree in psychology by any means, but I work with a lot of high-level athletes, and I see a lot of patterns, and I see a lot of behaviors that are not healthy for these guys. And I think that actually is like a coach or a remote coach. That's the majority of my job is literally figuring out each athlete, what they respond to mentally, what they're going to shut down to mentally, and how to give them helpful feedback. Because there are a lot of athletes who crave, let's see, what would you call it? Ego stroking?

Starting point is 00:31:54 Yeah, that's a great way to put it. Yes, that's it. It's like they don't even want feedback on how the workout went. They want to say, tell me I'm good. Like, tell me I'm good. And I refuse to do that for people because I don't want to feed that. I want people to be very self-sufficient. And if you're always seeking that attention from somebody, it's, to me, it's a negative thing. I want somebody, my goal for an athlete, a high level athlete that I work with that I'm very

Starting point is 00:32:17 confident in their physical attributes and I'm very confident in their ability to compete. I want them to be able to like ignore me the whole weekend. If they have a question, ask me. If you're relying on me, then you're missing a part of being a high-level athlete. Like, you need to be so self-sufficient that you go out on the floor, you're doing it for yourself, you're not doing it for someone else. You're excited to do it, and you're so, like, not overly confident, but you're so prepared that there's nothing left to ask, there's nothing left to worry about.

Starting point is 00:32:44 You're at the moment of the showcase. Can you step up and perform or not? If you can't, you're not prepared, period. You didn't do the work. You didn't spend enough time suffering so that you know what the worst-case scenario feels like out there on the floor. As a coach, I want to be not needed, if that makes sense. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:33:02 I'm trying to build their character and their their own resolve versus like you need me around make sure you keep me there I'm super important again I'm not important I'm just like lighting the pathway and trying to push people down the path like this is all you got to do it's actually simpler than you might think you just just work hard and sacrifice your whole life to be good. That's it. That's it. That's literally all there is to it. Dude, so what is a weekend like this? What is a regional weekend like for you? What are the demands of you as a coach for when you have multiple athletes

Starting point is 00:33:39 who, even though you make it a point not to ego stroke, but still need a little bit of that. How do you manage? In competition, I will do a little more ego stroking. It's training that I don't. In competition, if someone does a good job, I can't wait to tell them and congratulate them on their accomplishment. You're not doing shit in training. You're just literally, it's practice.

Starting point is 00:34:01 So you don't get a high five for making a three-pointer. That's what you're practicing. Like, keep going, keep going. Yes, okay, good job. You did another day. Keep going. But in competition, like, this is what I'm going to, I want to support them the most here. Like, you know, I'll talk game day strategy with them before, and then on the day of, we'll, like, go back over it.

Starting point is 00:34:24 They'll visualize what they need to do um i typically know enough about the individuals i work with year-round that i can make a pretty custom strategy for and most of my most successful athletes do listen to my like advice for for strategy like today for example with the snatches and the burpees a lot of them immediately think oh i gotta go touch and go with 175 with the first set it's like i can tell you that's the worst idea that you've had all weekend. You're going to blow up. Your heart rate's going to be out of control. Your grip's going to be pumped for the 115 bar.

Starting point is 00:34:55 Your legs are going to be smoked. It's a terrible idea. Let's just back this down. We'll go singles. This is how we're going to pace this. Or the handstand walk thing. Brandon Luckett was one of my athletes, won that event today, and he was one of the only ones to kick down after each ramp right it's two ramps in a row yeah other people are trying to go on broken through the whole series i said every single

Starting point is 00:35:13 ramp you get past that line you kick down you shake your arms up you kick back up you're going for the second ramp he won by like 40 seconds just real simple tips and strategies because i know what time and attention does to athletes i know how they're going to affect, how that's going to affect other movements. And so when you can start to like give them the, again, the path that they should follow based on what they're good at, they're real successful. And that's all I want to do when I'm here is just talk it out with them, give them a plan that they feel confident with. Usually when they're like, yeah, that's a great plan. I'm doing that. Then I know like, oh, my job's done. I'm going to go hide now. So you don't have to stare at great plan I'm doing that then I know like my job's done I'm gonna go hide now so you don't

Starting point is 00:35:46 have to stare at me while I'm in the crowd you just go perform right right it's all I want to do is just make sure that their expectations of me are met and their expectations of themselves are met so I just want to do what I can without actually doing any reps for it's minimal it is minimal but sometimes they just want some support there when things are getting tough, especially. Sure, sure. Without, I don't know, naming names, I guess, but has there ever

Starting point is 00:36:13 been an instance where you had the game plan, 3-2-1 go, and everything just comes crumbling down? It's the name of the game. I'll name names right now. One of my, he is one of my best friends now, even though he's crazy. Travis Williams.

Starting point is 00:36:31 Everyone knows Travis. I've worked with him since back before he ever qualified for the games, and he is hard-headed in a good way, sometimes in a harmful way, but it usually serves him well. It serves him well, especially in training. He's hard-headed in a good way, sometimes in a harmful way, but it usually serves him well. It serves him well, especially in training. He's just relentless. But, yeah, I mean, we've had, like, literally blow-up arguments before a regional event years past just about,

Starting point is 00:36:55 don't approach it like this. It's a bad idea. Oh, no, I'm positive. I did it in training like this. Now it's going to work. It's not going to work like that, Travis. Oh, I'm sure it is. But we go back and forth.

Starting point is 00:37:04 Everybody in the back is just staring at us yelling at each other and i say all right go do your thing half the time he listens things go well i mean once in a while i'm freaking wrong and he goes out and delivers and i'm like you called it i just didn't see it that way like good move dude right but a lot of times he goes out and he's known even at the games regionals known for going out hot and crashing and burning. So fit, though, that usually even when people catch him during the crash and burn, he's still so freaking far ahead that he gets plenty of points. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:37:33 And he's just a fit dude. But he's like an example. He's a prototypical, like, I wouldn't even say it's ego. It's just it's overconfidence, and he's so, like, self-assured. He doesn't need a coach he just wants someone to again tell him like uh you know write the program for him and leave him alone he'll do it and like when this when this comes around we'll talk strategy but again his his words gonna always trump mine and uh and that's fine i i fully understand that and now that he's on a team this year. It's been crazy. So like He's not

Starting point is 00:38:09 He's a decent leader But he is stuck in a little bit of an individual mindset something goes wrong and he feels he did something right But the team failed You can point the finger So the biggest thing that he could do is grow and understand that now You can't do that Like if something goes wrong on the team you point the finger back at yourself and say, what could I have done to make this team more successful? And that's, that's really tough to teach someone

Starting point is 00:38:33 like that. And there are other athletes I'm picking on him because I know I can talk about him. We're very close and I have, I do have a lot of respect for him and he's a very accomplished CrossFitter. Um, but it's's it's a good example of like you know our my relationship with other athletes we're very in sync we have a very simple conversation we agree with each other they execute my relationship with him couldn't be more opposite right we don't agree with each other we'll grab each other's shirt and yell each other's face about things and he'll still execute most of the time. It's just that's the difference between, like, you know, different personalities. When you coach, you know, just like one program doesn't necessarily fit all,

Starting point is 00:39:12 one style of coaching definitely does not fit all. Sure, sure. Yeah, it's just a, I don't know. My life experience is now, I didn't mean to put myself in the situation necessarily. It just kind of happened over years, but, like, handle people now yeah that's all yeah that's crazy and as you built like as you guys have built your affiliate misfits have you been able to maintain that balance of you know helping competitors and maintaining the general population of crossfitters to help them no no you haven't no not that well i'm not afraid to say it no uh i mean our affiliates

Starting point is 00:39:46 are doing fine don't get me wrong they're not about to close by any means uh but the business side of things we've run ourselves so thin and we focus so much on the sport side of crossfit that our affiliates have taken like they haven't taken a hit they haven't grown at the rate that we would hope they'd grow so um while we have have some members who don't give a shit about the sport of CrossFit, but still appreciate the fact that some of their coaches are very successful, like competitors. I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about we have good athletes up there.

Starting point is 00:40:17 They appreciate that, but at the end of the day, it is for them. It's their own workout. They could care less about what placement the athlete gets at CrossFit. But they understand that myself and Drew, the other owner, have really put Misfit as a big priority. It is our passion, and we love our affiliates too, but I can't help it. It's my passion. And my business, my affiliate business, has suffered a bit because of it. Again, we're not going broke, but it's not as great as a lot of other affiliates.

Starting point is 00:40:46 A lot of other gym owners do a much better job than I do, for sure. I'm not afraid to say that. I love the transparency because the reason we ask is we spoke to Anders Varner, who owned a gym, and he was talking about how he built his competitor side of the gym out, how they made that their main focus, build competitor. And then once they tried to make that transition into a gin pop population, it was was the same thing they had sort of like

Starting point is 00:41:08 the downfall that's always just interesting how it goes across the board because when you're making that decision do you just go straight competitor do you go well yeah if there was enough people in Portland Maine yeah we may try to cater more to competitors but there isn't that population up there to be honest and one of the things that hurts us is as we became more and more misfit, became more and more popular in the CrossFit community, it's hard not to know who we are. And I'm not saying that as like an ego stroke. It's just that if you pay attention to the CrossFit games, you're going to run into a misfitter. It's just the way it is these days, which is great for me.

Starting point is 00:41:40 But locally, all the other gyms are well aware of this, and they all are happy to say, you can't fucking go to that gym. Are you kidding me? Those guys are crazy over there. So some other gyms are doing pretty well as far as membership compared to us because there's a stigma that comes with having the knowledge we have and training the athletes we have. You walk in my gym, it's a giant fucking wall with framed shirts of athletes that have been to the games. And do you think that's not intimidating for a new athlete to walk in and be like, that's for me, SPN? Yup.

Starting point is 00:42:08 I think I'm in the wrong gym. And that's sort of spread around locally. And it's my fault, right? And we can tell people, hey, if I can coach a professional athlete to, you know, making the top 30 in the world, I can certainly coach grandma to an air squat, right? And that's true. I can do that. But that's not how it's reflected you know i mean that's they're thinking i'm gonna take them from squatting to jumping on a box to you know

Starting point is 00:42:33 suicide sprints you know what i mean like it's just not what i would do but the perception isn't not you know it doesn't match right so sure yeah so when you when you're building uh your your community uh you know going back to the andrews varner conversation uh you know way back when you could do the competitor drive right and just everybody's a fucking fire breather in here if you don't like it get the fuck out it is how it started and even friends and family That was our mindset like we watched the grittiness of it like that was our mindset Yeah, I mean I fucked myself up on all kinds of workouts for I knew what I was doing I Understand what an appropriate dose is now I understand, you know, obviously how to scale for all. I'm very good at that stuff

Starting point is 00:43:26 now. It's my whole career. It's programming and scaling and all that stuff. That's my career. I'm very good at that. But boy, when you start, you're right. I have that mindset. I'm starting to have that luxury to say, we're in a garage. Come join us, but prepare to be puking after. That's where

Starting point is 00:43:42 we're at. The old school pukey logo. The old school videos are crazy. those guys are rough riders out there and and and that's that's the culture we we built early we have since made it i mean our new gym we just opened a new spot in in january you walk in it's got like a full bar now with the service shakes and coffee and we have a retailer it's freaking nice now like yeah not three really nice bathroom shower in each like a locker area it's it's nice but again it's it's we doesn't matter how many amenities we put in there the perception of what we're doing in that building is not matching up with what the majority of crossfit affiliate athletes would expect to get so yeah i don't know i don't know what to do. It's not tough because every time I see you guys, you guys are on the road or you're running a

Starting point is 00:44:31 seminar or doing, how do you manage your time with everything that you have going on, especially with everything like that Misfits is and where it's grown to now? I don't know. I work a lot, man. I don't know. It's definitely one of the issues in the forefront of my mind is how to treat myself with respect and give myself time off and give myself some stress relief, but also scaling the company appropriately. The company is growing and we need to be able to scale up. And we're at that point now that a lot of businesses face where it's like, okay, are we going to hire like three people we don't know

Starting point is 00:45:09 and hopefully they work out and pay them a good salary in the fitness field, which is not cheap to do for people. This is skilled labor. You know what I mean? Are we going to do that and sacrifice income for ourselves and try to build that way? How do we find someone that we can trust? We're a very tight-knit group.

Starting point is 00:45:26 The three main owners of Misfit, we went to high school together. Oh, wow. The media guy, Ted, who you guys met, and my business partner, Drew, the three of us went to high school together. So we've known each other forever. We've grown this since we're in our team, basically. We used to work out at Planet Fitness together every day. You guys are tight-knit.

Starting point is 00:45:42 Yeah, we're tight. And the two other owners that are also coaches, Matt Sherbert and Gabe Garcia, we met them early on in CrossFit, and we just meshed really well, and we could share ideals and things. Our methodology is just tight. So now we're at the point where, damn, we need more coaches. We need more people behind the camera. We need more everything.

Starting point is 00:46:03 Who the hell could I trust to come in now that is not trying to make a move on us or something else? And do I have to spend the next year teaching you everything that we have developed and built since 2010? Like that's a lot to invest in somebody to find out they don't work out for you later on. And I'm already don't have time. So like, this is one of the biggest problems of my company, which again, it's a good problem to be growing. But, damn, is it stressful. Oh, for sure. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:46:29 For sure. Because we talk about that all the time with Derbyshire. He has their internship program. You can dive into it more. At BHX, all of my coaches go through a six- to nine-month apprenticeship process. You know, A, so that, you know, we can spend time, you know, holding their hand, making sure that they understand scalability and how to coach and interact with different personalities and levels of athleticism and whatnot. But, you know, through that process, we also find out if our community responds to them as coaches. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:46:56 And that's huge. That's the biggest intangible. Yeah, that's huge. I can teach a monkey how to analyze an air squat. You know what I mean? But teaching you how to explain one thing 17 different ways, not everybody has that skill. You can't teach personality. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:47:14 And, geez, I wish I could. But, boy, even if someone says they're changing, they're never going to really change. I mean, people are who they are. So do you run that internship program yourself? And so do you find that that takes away from other things that you want to be working on though? It does. But you know, over the last five years that we've been open, I've, I've been able to supervise my coaches who supervise the apprentices, you know, I need to get more info from you on that. Oh, sounds like something I need by all means, man, for sure. Ask away.

Starting point is 00:47:45 When we get offline, we'll make it happen. Cool. But, yeah, that's been the most critical element of my success and scaling myself system is, you know, even though you're growing exponentially, it's inhibiting your ability to grow. It is. You know what I mean? Directly. And like I said, my worry is that it would be either myself or my business partner

Starting point is 00:48:16 who is in charge of, like, supervising because we're so not set in our ways, but we just expect things to be done right in a certain way. Just like I'm sure you do. And so I would worry so much about that taking me away from like writing the program, coaching my athletes, like doing the administrative stuff for my gym, like being a gym owner is a bunch of freaking paperwork you got to do all the time.

Starting point is 00:48:37 We got to pay taxes and shit. I just learned that. I'm just kidding. So, I mean, there's all, it's never ending phone calls and emails to answer. Like, so yeah, I like, I need a streamlined way's never ending phone calls and emails to answer. Like,

Starting point is 00:48:45 so yeah, I like, I need a streamlined way to do exactly what you're saying. Yeah. And, and yeah, that, I mean,

Starting point is 00:48:51 that's to me, it's the best way to vet people, you know, totally. It's like, cause I've even had, you know, higher level athletes in my community approach me about coaching.

Starting point is 00:49:01 And I'm like, you still have to go through the process, but I, but I've been here forever. You still, but everybody likes me. You still gotta go through the process, but I know I have my own one. You have to go through the process but I did but I've been here forever you said but everybody likes me you still gotta go through the process but I know I have my own one you still gotta go through the process yeah and like once we get past that if we get past that right I'm like cool show up at 5 a.m. that's the test oh yeah yeah like you if you can show up at 5 a.m. whether that's where you end up on the schedule or not right cares but

Starting point is 00:49:24 if you're willing to show up at 5 a.m. for this shit and just shut the fuck up and watch, now we're working with something. I love that. You know what I mean? I agree totally. But like you said, my time is very valuable. Of course. And if you want me to commit to you, you've got to commit to me. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:49:40 You know what I mean? This shit doesn't work in reverse. You know what I mean? I'm not just going to give you handouts and then expect you to be some great coach. You know what I mean? Like, this shit doesn't work in reverse. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not just going to give you handouts and then, like, expect you to be some great coach. You know what I mean? Totally. I need to know, like, all the things that everybody else isn't paying attention to before I even attempt to throw you out on the floor. Yep.

Starting point is 00:49:54 Like, super important, man. It is. Yeah. And the other thing that I worry about being in freaking Maine. I love Maine, but I'm in freaking Maine, man. There's no one up there. A lot of the people that reach out for internships or they want coaching jobs, we get people all the time

Starting point is 00:50:10 that say, I'd love to coach for you. I would love for that to happen, but you live in black. Anywhere but Maine. It's really hard to be able to say, come move up here for eight weeks. Let's see if this works out. And if not, you've got to relocate again on the other side of the country.

Starting point is 00:50:26 Have you looked at, you know, talking about scalability, have you looked at like where some of these other gyms are going such as NorCal and stuff like that and started looking at like really casting a wide net

Starting point is 00:50:36 and having like misfits everywhere? I have. And we have... That's got to have crossed your mind. It has. We've had a couple people who plan on opening affiliates and who have opened affiliates ask if that's something that we want to do, if they could be like a misfit gym and they could use the programming and they could be a part of it.

Starting point is 00:50:53 And there's been very few people that, I don't know if I trust issues or what, saying all this stuff. There's very few people that I believe would represent our brand that I'm very particular about well enough that I would let them do that. You have to protect that, though. You have to protect it. I'm not against that school of thought and your apprehension there at all. I think that's, you know, if you were just like, sounds like an awesome idea. Let's fucking do it. You know, you'd water down your product really, really fast.

Starting point is 00:51:22 Which is why we're picky about who we add as coaches, too. Because I know what I give for feedback for coaches. I know what the other guys I work with typically give for feedback. I should say to athletes, not to coaches. I know what they give for feedback to athletes. Um, and I would just hate for somebody to be either unsure of themselves teaching the wrong fucking thing, which I see happening all the time. Like just, man, I've been to enough gyms that just things are taught a certain way. And I go, I'll show you 10 ways why that's not the way to do that. But like, I'm not going to step on your toes, but the people that work for me have to deliver the

Starting point is 00:51:54 message consistently that we're putting out there. And there's just no wiggle room with me about that because people, people literally, and I'm honored again that this happens, but people literally dedicate a whole year of their lives to following the program we put out there. And it's their own goals. It's for their own accomplishments. But to commit to somebody or a company or a coach or whatever that says, I'm going to steer your whole life for this year and show you how to train. Like, holy shit. Thanks, man. I'm glad you trust me like that.

Starting point is 00:52:25 Like, that's thanks man like i'm glad you trust me like that like that's cool and and i think we've built that reputation that we're getting people we're getting a dozen people to games every year or more you know teams and and people are understanding that you know obviously what we're doing works but the second that a coach you know fucks up bad or put something out there bad or does something that's just unprofessional or just gives bad info like yeah it only takes one mistake for people to jump on social media and blast the shit out of you. Like I'm just not willing to put myself in that situation. Right.

Starting point is 00:52:51 That's what leads me to the question. Like what's the legacy that you want to leave? Because you've touched a lot of people, man. And you're not only like just a coach, you're mentoring these guys and girls and they're coming as you're developing them and you're just molding their mind into something. Like what's the legacy you look to leave,

Starting point is 00:53:07 man? I like, i don't know and i don't know how long i can write a program for to be perfectly honest i'm on like my sixth season of writing five six pieces a day for five days a week 365 like i've probably written more i've probably written more across the work i say in the fucking world i'm not afraid to say that i guarantee that i have this is no one else has been put in my situation. But as far as the legacy, like, I just like going, I think my favorite part of the year is going back

Starting point is 00:53:34 like now, back behind the scenes at regionals and just like that camaraderie with everybody back there. Guys and girls, even people that don't follow our program. I'm super tight with a bunch of people that do completely different training, have nothing to do with my coaching, my training. Awesome dudes, awesome ladies.

Starting point is 00:53:50 Like, I love being back there and just, like, celebrating their victory with them and, like, you know, helping them pick their head up when they had a rough event. I just want to be part of the community in the long run. I like being somewhat of a leader now, but, like, I just, I don't know. It's really comfortable just being in the community and shooting the shit. And if they ask for my opinion, I love to give it. I don't want to be, like, etched in stone as some, like, I don't know. I just don't care for the glory myself.

Starting point is 00:54:21 I just don't care. I don't know. And that's the interesting part is like you don't want it but that's what's you know attracting it to you because that's because you don't care about people you're not outwardly seeking it as i guess you can say no not at all and that's what the authenticity is what's bringing people into it you know i hope that's true because that's really how i feel and like i'm never going to be the type that goes on social media and makes real corny shit just to, like, beg for attention. I don't want it.

Starting point is 00:54:46 I just don't want it. I want to put my product out there, and I want – and, like, one of my, like, hard and fast rules, and it's become pretty much a rule in our company, never, ever do we fucking recruit athletes. Never. You don't send a DM to somebody and say we can do it better. You don't fucking schmooze with them here and say next season. It's disgusting. It's fucking disgusting. I get so angry about other people that are doing that stuff.

Starting point is 00:55:12 And about like one thing we also don't do is if somebody like joins us for the first year and they've been successful in the past, we don't go, oh, look at us. We made China Cho a games athlete. Kidding me? She played the games like six times before i ever met her like she asked for some work on some details and i'm happy to assist her continuing to grow but never take credit for people don't recruit people that are already successful and say that you know you're you're an ex-athlete like it's ridiculous like focus on building your product and building you know what you're contributing to these athletes and not on your own social media like i don't care how many followers your program has.

Starting point is 00:55:47 It's so interesting that you say that because I've had people in my gym multiple times, you know, we should recruit more girls, you know, because that's like the holy grail across it, right? It's good girls. You got to have girls. You know what I mean? We should recruit more athletes. You should recruit more athletes. You should recruit more athletes. And I'm like, you want to see a gym die real quick?

Starting point is 00:56:09 Put competitors over the community. Yeah, you're 100% right. You're 100% right. And even in my online community with Misfit where it does help the community when you have another strong female games athlete. The women do look up to them. Yeah, for sure. And a lot of them are super positive people, like great to be around.

Starting point is 00:56:34 I don't really have anything bad to say about 99% of the games athletes I've met. But still, it's just so damn tacky to try to, yeah, I just don't know. If you come ask me, I'll help you with anything you want. But I'm never going to come beg you to work with me. Never. Right. Never. It's not because I don't want to work with you.

Starting point is 00:56:50 It's because it's just not the right thing to do. Right. Right. You know, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Not the other way around. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? Yeah. Where do you stand with the professionalism of the professional development of coaches in the CrossFit community now.

Starting point is 00:57:05 You know, back when you guys got started and it was like, you know, more grit than strategy. And now it's like you have all these beautiful minds and savants and like these expert areas of specificity within the confines of CrossFit. Like, where are you at with all that? So let me make sure I know what you're asking. So you said coaching development. Are you talking about like a competitor's coach, like at a high level? You're talking about like a coach and affiliate being developed? I think the coaches in the community supersede the coaches of competitors from the standpoint that they're already gifted and willing to take mental leaps that you can't take a housewife to so like having not having to do that doesn't really

Starting point is 00:57:54 define you as a coach to me right if you can get somebody to commit to a totally different lifestyle change and improve their mobility and have them willing to show up every day and go through that process, which fucking sucks, you're winning as a coach. So that comes from getting good people in general, right? It doesn't matter how much they know. It doesn't matter where they went to school. It doesn't matter how many degrees they have. If you're a fucking stick in the mud, you're not getting anyone to come to your 6 a.m class period right so if i'm looking for a new coach and we did need a coach a while back and uh we had a few people that were interested in the community and there was others that had their level one like oh i'll come coach i was like

Starting point is 00:58:34 not interested in you coaching at my gym no offense but like it's not gonna work we reached out to a couple people that just you know had the time and super good people. And I'm like, look, I can teach you how to teach a squat. I can teach you how to teach a deadlift. And you have to bring that personality that's attractive to everybody else every day. You can't decide to be grumpy because you're coaching mornings now. You've got to bring the personality. And people have to have their wits about them, and they have to be a genuine person. Those type of people, they're super easy to develop into the best coaches

Starting point is 00:59:06 because we're talking about in the community of like an affiliate community, the need of the average affiliate member is pretty small. You're trying to keep them safe and you're trying to just kind of improve in their abilities really in a minute way each day. You're not blowing their minds with a new movement each day. It's slow progressions over years and years of good habits and things like that. Like that's what we're building. I mean, if I'm talking about competitors, hopefully they already have that base.

Starting point is 00:59:35 They've already been through that years and years of building the base. And now I can start to add to it. But as far as like, you know, a good coach has to be like a good, hardworking, self-motivated um attractive personality type of person like that that's that's what makes a good coach because again there's plenty of people i know that have way more knowledge than me way more maybe not more experience in my particular area but way more knowledge about athletics like uh you know injury prevention like all that stuff i'm not a PT.

Starting point is 01:00:05 I'm not anything like that. I can tell people how to move. I can adjust small things. And I certainly understand what goes into the sport of CrossFit. I certainly understand that part. So on that note, that's kind of where I stand is you don't look for a knowledgeable, experienced coach necessarily. You look for the best person that is going to be attractive to your community. And I think you can build around that if that works um yeah that's the recipe yeah i think it

Starting point is 01:00:30 is it's about surrounding yourself with good people like yeah what do they call them like uh a players now you want a players in your team you don't want a bunch of b's and c's even if you can get more of them you'd rather have fewer a's and right that's you know that's the leadership you know it's really interesting that you say that because now that everybody's bouncing around regions trying to put themselves in the best situation to make it to the games, even I get emails now

Starting point is 01:00:55 from some pretty solid fucking athletes. Hey, I'm coming out to train, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm looking for a place to coach. I'm like, still not going through the process. blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm looking for a place to coach. I'm like, still got to go through the process. I love that. And they're like, never.

Starting point is 01:01:10 Crickets. Right. Yeah, that's one thing I actually don't like. When you get to a certain level, like as an athlete in the CrossFit world, which is a very small world in the athletic sphere, right? Extremely small. And they start to expect that everything's going to be given to them and stuff. It's like,

Starting point is 01:01:25 that's great that you grew 20 unbroken muscle ups, but I really don't give a shit about that. My business is like super important because, I mean, I would do the same thing as you. If I had some games athlete that even I respected knew well, I said, I'm going to come work for you. I'm going to say, well, you can try. Like, show up and

Starting point is 01:01:41 we'll start talking about it like in person and show me that you're serious by relocating to freaking Portland, Maine. And we'll have this conversation, but like, I'm not promising you anything. You might be, you know, you might not be able to teach anything and you're, you might be a pretty face in front of the camera, but that has very limited use. Yeah. So, so shame. Here's an opportunity for your shameless plug, man. Oh, boy. What goes into a Misfit Seminar? So we call them training camps, and we just basically do like two and a half days, I should say, or three days, whatever. We do these like mini segments where we will pick certain movements that are overrepresented in the open regionals games, things that are very common for, I mean, you'd find them in affiliate wads too, but you'd definitely find them in the open.

Starting point is 01:02:35 Chest-to-bar, power snatch, burpees, handstand push-ups, you know, things like that. Things that you're going to see staples of the sport. And we break them down, and we show you the difference between, you know, what it takes to lift a heavy one-rep max snatch versus how to cycle a 75 pound bar efficiently. Cause they're not the same. Right. So we'll, we'll break the two down there. They're very much not the same. Right. And people don't understand that. And, uh, so we take, we take all those things like gymnastics stuff. Um, one of the things I'm constantly battling and it's not because I have bad blood with anybody, but, uh, there's a lot of, um, specialty gymnastics coach in the field,

Starting point is 01:03:05 and they have a lot of really great information. However, the gymnastics you learned to be beautiful up on the rings or on the uneven bars or on the floor or whatever don't necessarily mean you're going to get a bunch of reps in CrossFit doing it that way. So we're always taking the best info we can, and we're adapting it for the sport because a muscle-up is getting up on top of the ring so you can then perform your ring routine, right? That's all a muscle-up is. In our sport, we're counting them as reps, right? It's a huge pull-up that you have to get through the center of the ring or on top of a bar and complete a dip, and we're testing capacity. We're not testing how beautiful it is.

Starting point is 01:03:44 I'm not giving you a score of 10 or 9.9, you know what I mean? Did you do 20 reps or not? And the movements have to be adapted. Movements from weightlifting have to be adapted when you're cycling a bunch of reps. Even endurance stuff has to be adapted. The way that you teach a collegiate rower on a C2 or in a boat may not be the same as you teach a crossfitter because when you're rowing, just rowing,

Starting point is 01:04:04 you want to use as much of your leg as possible, right? You're just trying to spread out the load across your entire leg. Well, guess what? If I have thrusters to do after I get off the rower, I'm going to focus the majority of my tension on my posterior chain, keep my quads fresh. So now I'm going to keep my heels down the whole time I'm rowing this interval. It's just not the same.

Starting point is 01:04:21 And there's all these nuances that, yes, they apply in your affiliate, but they definitely apply to the sport. And we've just picked apart these details for years and years and years. And we put them out there to everyone that comes. So a couple lectures, a lot of hands-on, and then a workout. So as soon as you've learned the skill that we think is appropriate for the given workout we've written, we announce the workout. And we say, look, this is your opportunity, right? You just learn this, put it to work. And what inevitably happens is that people do it really well for a minute and then they fall apart and they go back to their old habits or things

Starting point is 01:04:53 look like shit or whatever. And we end typically and we say, we know that's going to happen because you're learning this and now you need to practice it 10,000 times to get it down. It has to be second nature. And, um, you know, you don't just learn something like this and then you need to practice it 10,000 times to get it down. It has to be second nature. And, um, you know, you don't just learn something like this and then you can't do it right away. So, um, yeah, that's what we do. We, we break things down for people. We explain them in ways that people go, I never thought of that. And we say, yep, we know that's why we thought of it. And that's why we're showing you because we just don't see it enough. Yeah. So even though you guys are, you know, across the CrossFit community, you know, becoming, if not already known, as savants of the sport, do you find it that within your community you're too close to give that kind of in-depth guidance where so like for example if we host a clinic at CrossFit PHX amongst us coach us coaches You know We get a good chunk of our members, but if we have somebody who's not us

Starting point is 01:05:55 Come in, you know Packed room right, you know, does that say does that same thing happen to you oh yeah i mean locally people couldn't give a less about what i say anymore like they do listen and we give you know obviously our affiliate coaches are pretty damn good right you know but yeah of course when if like we bring games athletes to maine all the time right and to train you know for a weekend a week whatever and you better believe if you know i use china show as the example china's in the gym extra people show up to the gym that day you know like is she doing a class or like what's going on you know what i mean they're peeking their head in the door and and that would be the same thing

Starting point is 01:06:34 like if we brought in uh if i said uh so and so weightlifting coach is coming into a seminar they would come in i would probably you know sell a ton of tickets. And then they teach a bunch of stuff. And they would go, wow, I learned so much. And I'd be like, I told you. I told you. I told you. I told you. I told you.

Starting point is 01:06:51 I told you. I told you. I told you. I told you. I told you. I told you. I told you. I told you.

Starting point is 01:06:54 I told you. I told you. I told in and I'm like, okay, I don't own this place. It's not my home. I have to be like, I always feel not uncomfortable, but just I'm aware that it's not my space. And then I'm dealing with people that have other coaches that work with them regularly because I get that same thing. Like I'll be teaching, you know, cycling a barbell and they'll be like, oh, that makes so much sense. And that one of the coaches will be in there and be like, i'll be like you know so-and-so already showed you this but i'm going to show you the way that i teach it and they're like oh yeah that's true like i'm always trying to like tie what they're doing

Starting point is 01:07:34 there because i'm going to leave in two days and they're going to go back to these coaches again so i'm like trying to at the same time be like hey he is telling you the right thing you're just tired of seeing his face every morning he is guiding you sometimes they're not guiding the right way and we change things and we explain but a lot of times i've been to plenty of gyms where the affiliate owners are very or coaches and owners are very very capable like very capable yeah i've been to some gyms where uh if i could have put the chain on the door myself and locked it i think i would have done a service to the community but um yeah, far fewer of those than good. But I've seen some places where I'm just like, oh, how, how, how?

Starting point is 01:08:13 On that note, do you guys also provide training camps specifically for coaching? I would love to. Are you there yet? We have not done it yet. It wouldn't be too hard for us to make a curriculum and teach that. Uh, it comes back to time. Like we just, there's a lot more athletes that want to come to the camps than, you know, hosting a big coaches retreat. So we just have prioritized athletes for years and years. I would absolutely love to work with coaches because not only do I

Starting point is 01:08:41 like to teach the stuff I've learned, I get all kinds of good tips from other coaches. Like, oh, wow, what a great way to explain that. Like, sometimes, you know, I explain things a certain way that I've developed over time. And sometimes it's just not clicking. And some coach says something else. And I'm just like, damn it. Why didn't I think of that? It's so obvious.

Starting point is 01:08:58 It's such a good cue. And so, I mean, I'm not afraid to steal other people's shit all the time. I'm all about it. No point in reinvent time. Right. I'm all about it. No point in reinventing the wheel. I'm all about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything I know, I've learned from watching others, whether it be athletes, coaches, you know, old Glassman videos, whatever. I mean, I didn't invent anything.

Starting point is 01:09:18 Right. I didn't invent writing a CrossFit program. I just watched and took the best things I could find and the most appropriate things I could find and tried to build something out of it. That's all I've done. That's it. Simple. Do you see yourself in this capacity right now doing this forever as far as the traveling, the

Starting point is 01:09:35 one-on-one coaching? I don't know. I don't know. I'm so short-sighted. I really don't know. I'm just thinking tomorrow. What do I have tomorrow? That's good. And, I mean, it is helpful. It helps, like, I won't say keep me grounded, but, like, if I started worrying about what my schedule looks like

Starting point is 01:09:53 for the next six months, holy shit, would I be overwhelmed. Yeah. I just can't think like that. Yeah. And, yeah, so do I imagine being 32 now, do I think I'm going to be 50 writing CrossFit programs on a blog? Probably not. Hopefully I've met somebody that just knocks my socks off with talent that I can pass what I've learned to

Starting point is 01:10:13 and they can develop it a little more than I ever have. Start delegating a little bit. Yeah. And, you know, I love my brand. I'd be happy if my brand and CrossFit as a sport survives until, you know, forever as far as I'm concerned. But I'm sure my role would change, and maybe I would become more of a mentor and more of just a hang around with everybody, you know, almost a personality with a couple tricks up his sleeve versus the daily, you know, grind guy.

Starting point is 01:10:39 Right, yeah. I don't know. I don't know what it turns into. Sure. But it's going to be exciting. Yeah, I'm here. I'm here. Whatever happens, happens, and I don't have that I don't know what it turns into. It's going to be exciting. I'm here. I'm here. Whatever happens, happens.

Starting point is 01:10:47 And I don't have that many skills in life. I highly doubt that seeing everything you guys do. I hope. I am confident, though, that if I crash and burn my company into the ground, I could get a coaching job somewhere else. I'll go through the process. I will go through the process. Scottsdale is a lot warmer than Portland. You're not kidding.

Starting point is 01:11:09 I could live with that. We'll have you down for a training camp. No doubt. That'd be awesome. I've never been to Arizona. Never? I've been literally everywhere. You come from the cold country. Get ready for some heat.

Starting point is 01:11:25 I literally should be in the south. I've never been to Arizona, bro. Okay. You come from the cold country. Get ready for some heat. I love you. Brain trunks. Okay. I literally should be in the south. I hate the winter. Yeah. Every time it comes around, I'm like, maybe this is the year I move. Never happens. Never even take a step in that direction.

Starting point is 01:11:37 And then summer comes around, and summer in Maine is unbelievable. Yeah. It's beautiful. I never get tired of that. But damn, when fall starts to get cold, I'm like, anywhere else. Anywhere else. Yeah, anywhere else. So even though you can't see the 50-year plan just yet, let's talk about the here and now before we let you get out of here so you can get back to your athletes and doing what you do as a coach.

Starting point is 01:12:02 You can answer these questions on any level, mental, physical, spiritual, whatever is good for you. What's something that you do each and every day to feed yourself, kickstart the motivation, and keep you in the groove that you're in now? And then the follow-on to that is what do you do each and every day to fuel yourself so that it's sustainable over the long term? Man, those are freaking great questions. Boom.

Starting point is 01:12:24 Wow. You're digging into my soul. I might say something now that I regret. It's a good show. I'm trying to like sum up a daily routine. So I'm not the best when it comes to routine. I kind of get up and fly by the seat of my pants typically in the past. However, this is going to sound real generic and boring. of get up and fly by the seat of my pants typically in the past however this

Starting point is 01:12:45 is gonna sound real generic and boring but like one thing that has actually really changed my day to day over the last six months has been forcing myself to get up earlier and I go into my own gym and I take affiliate class with my members pretty much five days a week at 9 a.m. and that has been like my kickstart to my day. I really, for the last couple years before that, we had a different gym location. It was not conducive to the amount of work we were doing.

Starting point is 01:13:13 We built this crappy little storage office that six or seven of us were in working in all day. No one could focus on what they had to do. I really got burned out trying to work at my own gym. So I was working from home a lot. So I was sleeping in and being lazy on my couch. And I really got all out of whack. Like my work was, I was being very unproductive, uh, really had a lull in, in my development as a coach and program and all that forcing myself to get up, get started, um, has been really huge for me i have developed other like uh habits too i don't drink

Starting point is 01:13:47 caffeine until uh around actually usually after lunch i was super reliant on that for years and years i'd get up for literally first thing coffee like in bed i'd get a cup of coffee come back to bed drink coffee go downstairs get another cup of coffee as i'm getting ready and i got super reliant on that cut out caffeine i only have it after lunch as like a pick me up for work. And I think that has kind of helped my mental clarity a little bit. So I guess just developing a routine basically has been my daily like Kickstarter to keep me focused, keep me healthy, keep me happy. What was the second part? What's the next thing you do above and beyond that to create that sustainable motivation um one of the things i have been doing and i think i need to continue to improve on to keep that uh sustainable is uh more more interaction and more communication with

Starting point is 01:14:40 the people around me that i work with uh Super isolated for, I isolated myself because when I write programming or an article or whatever, I mean I do need to spend some time alone to be focused, but we've all in our company kind of turned off what each other was doing and focused on our own projects and it really kind of set us back a little bit. And so sustainability as far as my life is right now surrounded by work. Like that's i do i work all the time i don't make i really i love to golf and i really go golfing even though i'm right across my golf course now like i'm just so feel guilty about leaving work the communicating um that we've been improving on as a company has really opened up um i guess time because we just kind of are aware of what each other is doing more often. It's made our workflow easier.

Starting point is 01:15:25 It's starting to free up time for me to do other things. I'm more efficient. I don't know if these are the answers you're looking for. No, that's great. You are. My life is kind of boring. People, I get messages all the time online like, wow, your life must be so interesting.

Starting point is 01:15:38 It's like I spend most of my day, six or seven days of the week, in my gym, in my small office. It's a comfy office, but when I travel, yeah, I have a lot of fun. I meet a lot of people. I get to do a lot of things that people don't have the opportunities to do. But I get to do that because of all the freaking time I spend on my computer by myself grinding it out, which is not that fun. It used to be really exciting to write a program, but guess what? My passion became work, and everyone knows how that goes like oh yeah I'm not

Starting point is 01:16:08 hating on it I'm not trying to give it up but it is a job now and so being you know doing something that's sustainable or more sustainable is important and I definitely have a lot more growing to do like a shitload more we all do man yeah i know but when you ask those questions i start thinking about my life i'm like oh wow i guess uh i guess i have a lot like still to be desired and like how i treat myself and uh yeah so i don't know that's you're gonna do it man and where can everybody follow you and your brand everything that you guys are building both personally and professionally yeah missfitathletics.com is the blog. I mean, you can get into what we've been talking about there.

Starting point is 01:16:48 It's free to sign up with an email address or Facebook. And then if you want more, you can subscribe to one of the tiers, YouTube, Misfit Athletics, Instagram, Facebook, Misfit Athletics. You can follow me on Instagram at Seth, U-M-F-er, Seth, Y-O-U-M-F-E-R. I've been called worse. Facebook, my name is Seth Spencer. My full name is Seth Spencer Page. That's about it.

Starting point is 01:17:13 That's where they can do the training seminars and all that, connect with you on MisfitsAthletics.com. Yeah, whenever we have MisfitsAthletics.com as a full list of training camps, we always announce them frequently on Instagram, on Facebook. Like I said, Ted, our media guy, he's like all over shit. He's really good. I don't know. Like my job is pretty simple what I do.

Starting point is 01:17:33 His job is like so all over the place, filming, editing, social media, like posting. It's crazy. I don't know how he keeps track of all the shit we have to do. It's in so many directions. Oh, you do? Holy shit. That's this relationship. How? How? I'm like, oh, I have to do. It's in so many directions. Oh, you did? Yeah. Holy shit. That's this relationship. How?

Starting point is 01:17:45 How? I'm like, oh, I have to write a, you know, I have to, like, fix this program for an athlete. I have one thing to do today. And I'm like, I'll do it later. I'll do it later. You should have seen us trying to set this up. He's like, no, Ders, it goes in three.

Starting point is 01:17:59 You have it down. It's a science to you, right? Everybody, man. We all have our own. It's a science to you. You could do a whole podcast with my media guy talking the same language. I don't know what's going on. Dude, this is awesome, bro.

Starting point is 01:18:12 This is really fun. Definitely, man. Really appreciate you taking the time. I know that you have a lot of obligations this weekend, but really appreciate you sitting down with us and chopping it up. Of course. I'm just happy I get to go to bed early tonight because day three at regionals, stress, man. I believe it, bro get to go to bed early tonight because day three at regionals, stress, man.

Starting point is 01:18:25 Yeah. I believe it, bro. Like, just knots in my stomach all day. Okay. Making sure that people get through. We work all year, all year. Like, I don't even, I don't care if one of my athletes wins the game someday. Like, getting to the games, that's the win, right?

Starting point is 01:18:38 Right. So now I'm at the pinnacle, day three tomorrow, and I have two more weekends of this to do right after this. Like, so I need some sleep. Dude, we're going weekends of this to do right after this. So I need some sleep. Dude, we're going to wish you the best of all this this weekend, the upcoming weeks, brother. Seriously.

Starting point is 01:18:50 Thank you very much. I appreciate it. For everybody out there in the Feed Me, Fuel Me community, get up and check out everything that Seth and the Misfits have going on. Every region, every weekend, the next couple of weeks. Check out. You'll see them represented on the floor in both team and individual events. So, you know, make sure you check them out, man. Follow that program.

Starting point is 01:19:15 Subscribe. Try it for a little bit. It's legit. I love it, man. I loved it. Thank you. Thank you very much. You got a good thing going on, man.

Starting point is 01:19:22 We support everything that you do. Appreciate it. We'll definitely have that athlete camp in Scottsdale. We'll be the first in Arizona. That sounds great. I can't wait for that. Thanks, guys. Until next time, guys. Feed me, fuel me. And that'll do it for this episode with our special guest,

Starting point is 01:19:38 Seth Page. If you want to check out everything that Seth and the Misfits have going, check out the full show notes on shrugcollective.com. Also, be sure to connect with us on social media, including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter at Feed Me, Fuel Me. We would love to hear from you. If you found this episode inspiring in any way, please leave a rating and a comment in iTunes so we can continue on this journey together. Be sure to share it with your friends and family on social media, including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, or any other social platforms that you use. We really appreciate you spending your time with us today and allowing us to join you on your journey.

Starting point is 01:20:19 We would love to hear your feedback on this episode, as well as guests and topics for future episodes. To end this episode, we would love to leave you with a quote by Abraham Lincoln. If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first four hours sharpening the ax. Thank you again for joining us and we'll catch you on the next episode. Way to make it to the end of the show. As always, go to Shrug Collect over at iTunes, give us a five-star review, positive comment, and hit thrivemarket.com slash feedme to get that great deal on awesome groceries. See you next time.

Barbell Shrugged - Feed Me Fuel Me — Sharpen The Axe w/ Seth Page - 90

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