Barbell Shrugged - How CrossFit Has Evolved Since We Started - 222

Episode Date: August 17, 2016

The last few weeks have been pretty intense. Let’s back off on the seriousness a little bit and bring it back to to old school Shrugged. This week we thought it was due time for a throwback episode.  So brew up some coffee Chris Moore style, with delicate treatment via french press. Remember, don’t scorch it and ruin your fresh grind like an amateur. We share our stories and experiences about how much the CrossFit world has changed over the past 10 years.   We go into a little background of how we found it . We also share some of our competition experiences as well as how much the CrossFit Games have changed from year to year.   Have you noticed how fast nutrition and training volume in this community are evolving?   It’s cool to think back and see what parts of this fitness community are trends and which ones of those have stood the test of time.   There are some funny ass stories in here so make sure you cover your keyboard so when you spit out the black gold your sipping it doesn’t fry your Macbook, Del, or E-machines (…after all, it is a throwback).   It’s all changing and growing so fast. Towards the end we talk about where we think CrossFit as a sport is heading and what we think the future CrossFit Games Athletes will look like.   Where do you think it is heading? What do you think things will look like in 5 or 10 years?   It’s a blast to think about it. And I’m super grateful to be along for the ride.   And we’re super grateful to have you with us.   As always, thanks for listening.   Enjoy! McG

This week on Barbell Shrug, we talk about the past, present, and future of CrossFit, and the history of training and competition, and we bring up old, dirty stories. Hey, this is Rich Froning. You're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com. 2007 CrossFit Games. The workout. The fight. One training session.

Wait a minute, what? That's like a single training session now. Is that for real? Yeah, it was the three events. 2007 CrossFit Games. That's seriously? Are you real? Yeah, it was the three events. That was the 2007 CrossFit Games. That's seriously? Are you serious? Yeah, man.

It went from 2008 to having three events, and then 2009, all the competitors had it dumb taken on them. Nico Salo winning everything. Yeah. This looks like some shit that would be published on a Saturday workout at the door. I know. I know. Even the general pop

now, it's a lot of stuff. What? That's funny. Yeah. What's up, guys? Welcome to Barbell Strug. I'm your host, Mike McGoldrick, here with Mike McElroy. What's happening? He's holding the phone. We got Kurt Mulliken. Hey. Down boy. And Alex Macklin. Yo. Yep. Today, we're going to talk a little bit about, you know what? it's a little bit different format. I'm pretty excited about this. We had this idea earlier as we were reminiscing. I pulled out my old red nanos. I don't really know.

I'm a scoop bit. You drip. You wind up. Pulled out my old red Innovates. And I thought, man, like, what a cool idea. We should talk about how much the community, the sport, and the fitness world of CrossFit has actually changed from when it all started and when we all came into it. So we're going to talk a little bit about our individual experiences through starting it and finding out about it,

as well as competition and how it's changed to where it's at today and then where we see it going in the future. So starting back with that, some of the funny stories I like to think of are like some of the old things that we almost forgot about, like Vibrams when they came on the scene big time. Like people still wear Vibrams and they're cool, but, like, everyone wanted them, you know? It was, like, Vibrams and Innovates were, like, the nanos now. The less shoe, the better. Yeah, for sure.

Well, yeah, everything was barefoot. If you weren't, because that wasn't paleo. Right. You know, if you didn't snatch barefoot, well, you're not using your feet muscles. You're not improving your ankle mobility. So, let's start with, like when when everybody started when and how i found out in 2000 2008 i think yeah 2008 i was in college still and i actually heard about crossfit crossfit crossfit uh through um my buddy he was a trainer and we were doing the jim jones the 300 workout and that came

out and i remember thinking like man it's like all these like movements that we do but it's like really fast and intense and like at the time i was starting to kind of discover that i was getting a little out of shape i was like getting stronger but i wasn't running or doing anything else wasn't doing any cardio with it and we discovered this and once a week we're like we'll do this once a week and we'll see how far we can get until we throw up. And it literally was like that. I would get probably, you know, if you don't know the Jim Jones workout, was it 30 of everything? 50 of everything.

30 or 50, I can't remember. But it was like 10 movements. It was almost like a filthy 50. Anyways, like 10 movements. He did like 30 of all of them. It was like a long chipper. And I remember getting like seven movements in, and I'd have to go to the bathroom.

The next week, I would get like halfway through the seven the seven movements and it was like a little bit further each week but it was like I was scared to do it but at the same time I was like man I love it like I can't wait to do it yeah your nickname back in the day I remember was puke and mike I don't know why I don't know if it was like oh man I it took forever for a year straight every intense workout I did I was thrown up yeah all my boys back in crossfit murphysboro they remember they gave me that nickname puke and mike i would come in and it was just bat shit crazy i would hit every workout literally as hard as i absolutely could you pull up the workout 25 pull-ups 50 deadlifts at 135 50 push-ups 50 box jumps 50

floor wipers 50 kettlebell clean and press and 25 pull-ups oh yeah so i think 300 reps i think my first time i remember trying to do the box jumps man i was cheating them and the 50 floor wipers uh yeah i remember that the dude would hold 135 and you would let you would let your legs fall to the left and right it was just like i was like flop flop that's about where i started getting sick yeah so that that led me into, I guess, functional fitness training where I was like, man, you can lift and sweat and breathe hard. And I discovered CrossFit through that. Yeah.

So I was a golfer. I worked out, but I was like your typical only do upper body and said I ran for my legs, but I didn't run for my legs either. So I started back in 2005. Oh, OG. You're OG. Here, OG. So I would, like, come into the gym at the school and, like, throw my rings over the pull-up rig

and just, like, look at everybody like, I'm better than you. Got it. Do handstand push-ups on the wall and, like, people would get, trainers would be like, oh, you can't do that in here. Got dirt on my wall, bro.

But, yeah, the first time I maxed out on bench, or on back squat and deadlift, my benched out on bench or on back squat and deadlift my bench press max was 280 my back squat and deadlift for 225 that's how balanced oh man yeah back then everybody yeah yeah back then everybody who did uh crossfit it was like yeah i am better than you i'm sitting there doing gymnastics oh yeah and i'm lifting yeah you are not such an elitist yeah it was very elitist back. I feel like way more so than it is now. Yeah.

I didn't really lift. I remember when I first started CrossFit, this was early 2009. I hadn't heard about it in 2008. And then we got so into the whole like Metcon thing. I was training in a Globo gym, super small weight room or whatever. And I remember looking at this guy I kind of knew from the gym. He was doing bar muscle-ups one day. And I was like, what a douche. And I'm over here doing curls.

Oh, yeah. Man, I remember the first time I ever saw someone do a bar muscle-up. Yeah. Sorry, go ahead. I was like, what the hell is this guy doing? And you know, it's funny. That's who I train with still today, years later. But this is my buddy Brian. He's a special douche. Yeah. I finally asked him what the hell he was doing. And so we ended up getting together, and then we tried this workout.

And it was wall balls and push-ups. It was 50-40, 30-20, 10. Of course, I was, like, benching and stuff at the time. And I was like, yeah, dude, it's only 20 pounds, man. And so I took my grape inno explode and i did like 20 wabbles and then just fucking yacked in a little paper wastebasket in this in front of all these people oh my gosh oh it was awful wait so when when did you start uh early 2009 2009 when did you start alex 2010 so i guess guess I'm the least, the newest.

Still got a few more years in you. Well, McElroy's OG, man. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, 2010. I actually just got started at Mike and Doug's place, CrossFit Memphis. This is the shithole. I was your coach. Oh, yeah, you were.

That's right. Yeah, yeah. Man, that place was a dump. That's the thing. That was the second gym that I ever went to because there wasn't one in Mississippi yet. And so when I heard about CrossFit Memphis, I went in there and I did. Mike was in there. I met him.

Well, funny story. Okay, so I have to tell this story because I don't think a lot of people know this story. But the way I got started was I partiedied a lot so i was hanging out at the bar and doug was trying to get on this girl so sorry marcy marcy's doug's wife um he was trying to get on this girl and uh we were at the bar and i think i was talking a bunch of shit about crossfit because i kind of looked into it because these two girls that i know that one of them doug was trying to get on like they were all about it and i looked it up and i was talking all shit and then um doug was like yeah you should come out, you know,

the next morning. So I come out the next day, and I walk in this place, all right, and it's all this heavy metal, death metal rock music. And you got Bledsoe. I don't know if Bledsoe was there, but somebody else was like, had the shaved head. I'm black, okay? So I walked in here.

I'm like. Wait, you're black? Yeah, I am black. I'm black. Okay. So I walked in here. I'm like, but straight up, I thought, uh, this might, is this like a, like a skinhead? Am I going to get fucking killed in here? Uh, because that's what I thought. But, and then I, and then Doug shows up and he has me do this workout and I'm like, yeah, I can do some pull-ups. And, uh, I sit there and do like a round of Cindy. What I didn't know at the time, but it cindy uh i was like all right so that's it right and then he's like no that's just the warm-up and then the rest of that it was just yeah i did this one chip or wad and it took me

about 45 minutes and it took everybody else like 10 and then i couldn't walk for like a week and but then i was like all right right, I'll do this. It sounds all right. I thought you were going to tell me something funny. You're at the bar with Doug. I'm like, there's two options with that conversation. He either talked to you very intelligently or he kicked you in the face. Oh, no.

No, he was very intelligent. And, you know, he was like, yeah, come on, man. He was very nice and professional. Because when I walked in, I was glad I saw Doug because everybody else, I was like about to walk out the door. Yeah, well, back then, nothing was nice and professional because when I walked in, I was glad I saw Doug because everybody else, I was like about to walk out the door. Yeah, well, back then, nothing was nice and professional. Chris Moore was in the back squatting 600 chains. Well, I was thinking about like when you brought friends in at that point,

like now we're a little bit nicer to them. But back then, it was like, come on, come try this out. We'll do 50-50. Yeah. And like that's where you start everybody with. I'm going to completely destroy you. Yeah. See how cool it is.

CrossFit gyms back then, they did not – it was not like a business like it is now. No. Where CrossFit gyms are very – I feel like very professional and, you know, you go in and sign a waiver. I don't remember signing shit. We were in – my gym started in my parents' garage for the first six months. And that was like normal. Like it was – that was what you expected. Either starting a garage or starting a park or just do whatever.

I feel like that's how it was back then. It was like the dirtier and crappier your gym was, the worse your facilities. You don't want to do bathrooms? Great. I like it here. It was authentic. Yeah. It's like, how much do I pay here?

$150? It's too cheap. I want to pay $300 for this. It's like the worse it was, the better. I mean, now not that there's anything wrong with that. It's definitely developed. You've got competition now and standards have raised. But for sure, back then, every gym I went to, it was like a warehouse,

car garage, it was something. Let's talk about you brought up competition. So the first ever CrossFit competition, which is what we had pulled up here, the workouts were the first one they did, they repeat of it, when you were at the Games in 2000. When was that? 2013. So the whole CrossFit Games, first one, 2007, was first event,

1,000-meter row, then five rounds of 25 pull-ups, seven push jerks, then a trail run, which is approximately a 5K, and then that was day one. And then day two was back squat. Yeah, the CrossFit total, back squat, press, and deadlift one rep. That was it? That was it. So three events over two days?

Yep. Oh, man. Wow. So the top time for event one for that 1,000-meter row, which they pulled out of the hopper, if you remember. They had that hopper machine. They just had movements in there, and they twisted the hopper and pulled out movement.

So they didn't know what they were going to do. And the top time was like 13.07. I think we just looked it up. And then the top time three years ago was like eight yeah something five minutes faster i think i think you're right and you said i think every single competitor beat the top time of that year it's pretty close at least yeah that's insane um yeah the volume for sure and back at aromas it went from like and even the next year 2008 it was still only three workouts right no it was four they had

three on one day and then one on the last day but they did the uh the long chip no the grace oh yeah yeah yeah that was 2009 long chipper yeah with a squat clean yeah um but still so four events over two days and then and then when it got real was from 2008 to 2009 shit got real and everyone was blown away that's like the the year they talk about the death years. That and this past year. The two times they're talking about drastically changing.

In 2009, I think they had I want to say five events on the first day and there were three on the second. People were destroyed.

That last chipper was tough. Yeah. It was crazy, the volume. Was that the row and we had to drive the stake in the ground? Yeah, that was cool.

That was cool. And then they did, like, a long run and a one-run max deadlift. You know, just, like, really simple, but it was just, like, lots of stuff. They did this. You hear, I didn't compete that year, but you'll hear Brandon Phillips talks about it all the time. One of the events, anyone that did it that year will say, like, the sandbag hill sprint they did. It was the worst. If you haven't seen it, go back and check out that footage.

It's pretty cool because it's like one of the only times. Yeah, it's in every second count. No, it's not. That was the year before that. Yeah. 2008? It's 2009. Oh.

Where they got the sandbag and they had to sprint up the hill, and it was like two minutes. It was like maybe a minute and a half, two minute long. Yeah. And everyone to this day will say that that was one of the hardest events they've ever done. Mainly because it was like a true all out

just completely get whites test. Like you got a sandbag and you just ran up the hill as hard as you could and people at the end of it were like, ugh. You know,

there was like no limiter or anything like that. So they all say it was like the worst one. Is that the one that, what, Miko Salo, he won that one?

Yeah, that's the year Miko won. Yeah. So our first, that's kind of where we, it wasn't your first competition, but it was my first competition is where we first met, and that's where we ran into somebody kind of familiar now, Rich Froning, he was there.

And just the, that was back when they didn't have the Open, they had sectionals, so that was our first qualifier for regionals. And you had, what? No, go ahead. So you had the sectionals, so everybody just paid to go to this first event and everybody everybody's sectionals were different so crossfit didn't standardize the qualifying process so everybody's workouts were different uh and i remember ours was just like outside in the soccer field in the last event we're snatching doing 95 pound snatches

and the bar's like this far off the ground because the plates are so far deep into the ground well it's interesting you said that you said you had you paid to go there you didn't have to do you have to qualify you just paid you just paid like hey i'm gonna do this uh do this workout i still regret not paying to go to the games in 2007 because i could have always said i've been to the crossfit games yeah yeah and now only in 08 it was open entry too 2009 is when they had the first regional yeah and that was before section. 2009 is when they had the first regional and that was before sectional. So in 2009 they had the first regional.

You just basically picked where you lived and you went to it. And I remember I went to Ohio and it was actually at Rogue's headquarters and they had the events there. And I remember Graham Holmberg was there. What year was that? 2009.

It was the first year they had qualifying. 2010 is the year was sectionals cool cool go ahead with your story i was just thinking my competition experience with that was absolutely terrible it was first time i ever competed i only been crossfitting for like four or five months before that i just graduated college and this was like i was like done and i was like cool i'm gonna go do this crossfit thing now i'm gonna go to the games i'm going i couldn't do double unders yet but i'm going luckily they couldn't do double-unders yet, but I'm going. Luckily, they didn't have double-unders.

Anyways, I think my first night before the – or the night before the competition, I didn't sleep. I slept like – all right, maybe I slept 12 minutes. In the hotel, I couldn't fall asleep. There was like a basketball team having like a party next to me. So what do you do when you can't sleep? You drink half a bottle of NyQuil. Just trying to get to sleep. When the NyQuil doesn't work you're

screwed next morning i do the first workout and i got so sick they had to like ask me sir we have to bring the next heat out you have to move and i was just like i was like you can walk you can start without me i'm not moving like i could i was just destroyed it was a terrible experience but you know it was almost necessary well let's let's talk about the the training differences from back then i feel like uh now or at least back then training was not as sophisticated as it is as is now now uh you've got all these people in the field that they have uh come up everybody's got good techniques yeah yeah technique is something that's way better now than when i when i first started CrossFit.

I mean, just bringing up that competition, that was when Drew Shamblin came in second at that sectionals. Yeah. Or second or third. And literally he was trying to figure out how to squat snatch 95 pounds right before the event. Teach him to warm up. And he still couldn't do it.

He just got it overhead and then would overhead squat it. And he still came in second on that workout. Well, I think there was somebody had said, I can't remember somebody recently, but the days of where CrossFitters lifted shitty weightlifting are over. It's over. Do you have CrossFitters? You can't even be mediocre and do that.

No, you have CrossFitters that are lifting as good. You're talking about competitors. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, just as good as regular Olympic weightlifters. And I can't remember somebody, I can't remember who it was, but they just went on like a tirade on YouTube and they were talking about this. And it was before this even, this transition happened.

But he was saying that this is how it's going to be. It's going to get progressed to where weightlifting is going, people are going to get better and you're going to get called out and people are going to call you out on your shit if you're teaching bad technique and not keep it on top of keeping on top of good practices. I think Mike Bergener spearheaded that. He's the one that stuck with the CrossFit community and teaching that discipline and bringing that to life.

I love how much exposure is brought to the sport. The sport of weightlifting? I don't know numbers or anything, but I know now that more people do that. Look at the American Open this last year, how packed it was. Yeah, there was 1,000 people there. It was crazy. There was over 1,000 people. I'm trying to bump all the totals.

Yeah, mostly people from CrossFit were at the American Open, and, yeah, there was almost over 1,000. Well, USAW's membership tripled in the past few years, legitimately. But even before the whole weightlifting thing, like the snatch clean and jerk, when I started, I mean, nobody gave much of a shit about either one of those. It was, like, powerlifting everything. Yeah. But the funny thing is, man, I was so into the whole, like, Metcon stuff.

I remember the CrossFit Journal published this thing called CrossFit with a Strength Bias, pretty much. Yeah. People were like, oh. Yeah. Well, no. Strength work. I looked at it and was like, meh. There you go.

Thank you. Refill. That's pretty funny. No, I looked at it and I was like, meh. There you go. Thank you. Refill. That's pretty funny. Yeah, you want to talk about the evolution of training. Remember when it started where it was just like, if you go back and you want to do something cool, go back and look at the original main site workouts. It's like really simple, you know, like most gyms now kind of follow the same format. So like from what I've seen, whereas back then it was like it was like metcon next day a lift yep next day a metcon next day a metcon it just depends it was like one or the

other now it's like yeah or maybe some intervals but now it's like it's always strength work and a metcon and that's like the difference you see there now so well mike rutherford talking about an og name out there mike rutherford is the guy that came out with the black box method, which was the strength work and the conditioning. He was another one of those guys that was at the black box summit that year. Very cool. And then, you know, as well as, like, how people would test back then too. So back then it was all about the benchmarks.

Every gym you went into, and I love when I go into gyms now that still have the board up with all the girls listed and all the benchmarks, and you got all the clients' names. Man, that was so fun. But I don't see a whole lot of places doing them. I feel like a lot of, at least in fashion, I rarely see benchmarks. It was one of those things where they started, yeah, we'll do Benchmark Fridays. But I don't see a whole lot of testing. I know.

You don't see it as much anymore. It's more focused on the open now. So that kind of is the new benchmark, I guess. That's true. But I used to love that. You'd walk in. You'd see the names. I'd be like, I beat that team.

The hype is still around those workouts, though. If you do throw those out in the class, it makes your gym out so much better. People take them more serious for some reason. If it's got a name. You remember the first time somebody went sub three on a friend? I don't remember who it was, but I remember hearing about it. I just remember, yeah, it was like a big deal. Like, oh, my gosh. It's possible somebody went sub three on a friend? I don't remember who it was, but I remember who it was. I just remember, yeah, it was like a big deal.

Like, oh, my gosh, it's possible to go sub three. Now it's like, uh-huh. Every day. Now there's multiple guys going sub two. It's insane. And now, I mean, now, like you said, the benchmarks are the open wide. So you got, oh, man, I wonder if they're going to pull. Do you remember when the butterfly kip was invented because of a friend?

Man, that's insane. People are like, what is that flailing thing? doesn't matter it's cool yeah faster it works yeah and you know like even more talking about education with like uh technique of weightlifting you saw like the introduction of other training principles that became more mainstream like mobility yeah you know more people doing yoga now in the game you know yeah exactly like kelly star brought a lot to the community and it's great because it just made it seems like everyone just became more open-minded it went from like no bro sesh to yes bro sesh like all that everything's kind of okay now again whereas for a while it was like you know that'll leave this fit in this box like we're kind of like

you know but uh everyone's embracing that stuff now they're just being more open-minded and especially about nutrition man uh like when i when i first started crossfit it was all paleo if you ate bread you went out with a bunch of crossfit friends they would shame you yeah they would shame you to putting that piece of like yeah like game of thrones shame fucking shame your ass put that bread down you were drinking what was that norcal margaritas because you didn't yeah that's that's legit you didn't want to drink beer because it had grains i'm talking before that i started uh my first diet was the zone diet and so a lot of people still use that but that was like basically

what taught me like like macro nutrients and people now like you know it is it's funny seeing like zone and went from paleo and and now it's, like, donuts. Yeah. Donuts and Pop-Tarts are where it's at now. I feel like we've regressed a little bit. Yeah, like, we went from, like, kind of strict to, like, Zone's, like, not strict on food quality. Paleo, it's, like, I'm only eating, like, twigs.

And now it's, like, I don't care. I'm fueling my performance. Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of that still, I mean, because, okay, think about this. People want to be competitive. Back then, you weren weren't doing you didn't have to do three met cons a day to get to the next level games was right three workouts so now people are if you're getting to that higher next level you've got to eat like an athlete which means you know you're gonna have to the paleo model isn't probably not gonna be the best thing for you. I remember,

I always looked up to like Pat Sherwood. He was really good about that, like showing what he ate and so like, we don't copy that. Yeah, The Zone Chronicles.

Oh yeah. I learned a lot from those, Or Secrets of the Tupperware Man was an old school journal article. Pat Sherwood's the OG. We got to get him on the show. I love that guy. He was always like

the dude you could relate to, kind of. Yeah. And he was always eating deli turkey, strawberries, and like a little mayonnaise for fat. And I would use canola mayo and like, yeah,. And he was always eating deli turkey, strawberries, and like a little mayonnaise for fat. And I would use canola mayo.

Yeah, yeah. I was always eating the deli turkey. I remember that. When I started a zone diet in college, I'd go to Kroger and be like, actually, when you cut the deli meat for me, could you put it in four ounce bags? And she would be like,

I'd be like, please? Yeah, I mean, you made it, and I'd count my almonds too. Oh, yeah. And you were such a, you were three. that, and I'd count my almonds, too. Oh, yeah. And you were such a – You had three. You were such a paleo Nazi about that, too. Because you had to tell all your friends that you were eating paleo.

They always make that joke, like, you know when a CrossFitter or somebody that does paleo comes in the room because they tell you about it, right, like instantly. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's an aura. It's like you're pregnant. Yeah. You got to spread that gospel.

You got to drink the Kool-Aid. I remember one time some of my friends, like, now it's like you're pregnant. Yeah. You got to spread that gospel. You got to drink the Kool-Aid. I remember one time some of my friends, like now it's more mainstream. People, you know, oh, okay. Like some of my friends who were talking shit back in the day for me doing CrossFit and now doing CrossFit, and I remember they were talking so much shit, I put this little picture on Facebook of the Kool-Aid man, and it was like CrossFit, oh, yeah. So funny.

Drinking that Kool-Aid. Yeah, I think talking about kind of getting away from the benchmarks Kool-Aid, man. And it's like CrossFit. Oh, yeah. So funny. Drinking that Kool-Aid. Yeah. I think talking about kind of getting away from the benchmarks and getting away from, you know, what CrossFit was and being a little bit more open-minded. And maybe this is just me, but I feel like there's going to be a little bit of a movement back to those basics. I think Pat Sherwood is doing a little bit of a push towards this, too, to bring him up again.

But, like, I've been reading through the old CrossFit Journal articles from, like, 2001. Yeah. And, like, the What Is Fitness article, the what is CrossFit article. And those things are solid. They got really good principles in there, some really good just basic training principles. Like I said, I was looking through the other day and it was talking about a muscle-up. And it was saying you should have 15 strict pull-ups and strict ring dips before you even try a muscle-up. Yeah.

Like who does that anymore? I know, yeah. And I love too how – Mastering the basics yeah i love too how crossfit has garnered like ushered in this like strength revolution like it's it it's it's you got to be strong you won't be strong you know being strong is cool and especially for you know we talked about this earlier but especially for women now yeah you know women that's what women want to do strong be strong now yeah it made it it okay for a woman to have muscles and be strong

and, like, want to be athletes. I mean, there was a woman who wanted to be athletes, but definitely more mainstream and accepted. Yeah. And that's a really positive thing. That was a huge thing. For women just to be strong instead of just – I mean, women, they can do whatever they want, but not being, oh, well, you just look like a man.

Get that shit out of here, you know? I think that's gone now. The original Nasty Girls video is what made that happen. Still good. Girls doing muscle-ups, and guys are like, dang, I can't do that. The music, too, going back. Like, you go listen to those old videos, and it doesn't even make sense. Like, it's like a WOD demo video, and it's just like it's like a strict press one rep yeah it's a strict

press demo video it's just like screaming death metal box jumps yeah tutorial just pure death now you have a bunch of just ratchet music edm and yeah 80 percent screw it's like pretty much you go to ultra music fest like wadapaloozaooza. I mean, I feel that was like an EDM festival. The music has changed. Yeah. I like where it's gone, though, man. It's a lot of fun, and I love that more people are doing it. And, you know, the big picture, you've got a lot of people now exercising

that never used to. Regardless of what methods or who's teaching it or what's right or wrong, like, the big picture is more people are exercising now than they ever have been, and that's freaking awesome. It's brought community to fitness. Yeah, exactly. Whereas that wasn't really there before. Now it's brought this group fitness movement, which is, you know, CrossFit,

whether it's CrossFit or not, it's brought that awareness and that ability to do group training and still get great results and have fun doing it. Yeah. I want to talk about where we think it's heading, though. So, like, we can be creative with this. Like let's say like a couple years from now and then we could also compare like 10 years from now talk about training and then like what competition from 10 years might look like because i mean we've seen some crazy developments over the last couple of

years look at the numbers from the 2009 games the best snatch was like 245 i think yeah something like that's like the average to know if it was that much. What? That's like the average to go to regionals now almost. Oh, that's below average. Yeah, it's crazy. So, like, where is it going to be in 10 years from now? Are you going to have everyone that's at the games going to be a nationally

ranked lifter? Like, probably pretty close. Yeah. I mean, from looking at the trends, I mean, I'm not a, you know, I'm always like kind of a data person. So, looking at the trends, the weights are getting heavier. The weights are getting heavier. Look at the last open, 16.5 – I mean 16.4.

It was a 225-pound deadlift for 55 reps. Yeah. A few years ago, it would have been like what, 185? Yeah. You know, that would have been heavy. Yeah. They had a games workout in 2009-ish that was five deadlifts, ten burpees. It was 275.

And everybody was like, 275? Oh, my gosh. What? We were supposed to pick that up. That'd be 405 now easily. Yeah. So the weights are getting heavier, which I continue – because people are getting stronger.

I think who does the Box Life Mag? They put out an infographic pretty much every year. I love those. Yeah, they're great. They're looking at the increase in strength and even conditioning for the top athletes in regionals. And each year is like 4% increase on their squat and on their snatch clean and jerk.

It's like Froning doing Isabel with 225 snatch. So the competition is always getting stronger. It's always getting better. So they're going to test that limit of fitness and test those limits. It's just going to get harder and heavier. And the crazy thing is, and I don't think there's enough publicity on it, but the teams that are doing it now, you know, have a team division. Some of those kids got boys and girls are just it now, you know, have a team division. Oh, man.

Some of those kids, boys and girls, are already snatching those kind of weights. Oh, yeah. They're 16 years old and they have an engine. What was the team's name that went head-to-head against the Masters athlete, Sean Ramirez? Nick Palomino. Yeah. Man, that dude's a beast.

Holy crap. Huge stud. And so think about it this way, man. Every time our friends have kids or something like that, you see these kids, like these babies babies they're in the gym yeah imagine growing up and like witnessing like legit awesome fitness all and just where they're gonna be yeah i mean like we have a plastic barbell for my two and a half year old son like so cool that's normal and for crossfit people they have those in the gym well like not even talking about the future of crossfit but but you know from the

future of weightlifting i think for from us.S. American weightlifting, I think CrossFit is going to be huge. You have way more kids getting exposed. And CrossFit, especially if they're doing CrossFit, a lot of it's just GPP. So, you know, that's important for a young athlete to just do that. And then they start getting into more specialized stuff. So I think weightlifting is going to be huge in the future. It gives us a bigger pool to choose from, whereas before nobody knew what weightlifting was.

So people with genetics built for it may have not even ever tried it. I wouldn't be surprised if weightlifting in the future becomes a mainstream, like something you see on TV. A high school sport. Yeah TV. A high school sport. Yeah, or a high school sport. It's just something that has grown so big. Or even CrossFit maybe that has grown so big now that it is – CrossFit.

Yeah, people are doing it. CrossFit could be a high school sport. Yeah. Any and all strength sports. I mean, I think that's one of the beauties of CrossFit is you come in and you maybe find this avenue that you love and you chase it, even though your core is a CrossFit. I mean,

but look at grid. I like, yeah, it brought up more fitness sports like grid. I like to the idea that, uh, you know, you're maybe you see start like for me,

like my idea of a future of this would be to see more functional stuff like that. Or when I say function, I mean like more sports, gymnastics, things like that involved in like parks, like recreational areas, like more pull up bars,

more rings, more ropes, more just fun stuff like that. Going back to what it used to be. Yeah, the simple, basic stuff, but making that cool again and really bringing it out. Like in schools, all the kids, I don't know where it's heading. I hope it's not going worse where P.E. is canceled and stuff. Put ropes in schools. My dad was in P.E. They had the pegboards.

They had ropes and all that stuff. And now it's like a lawsuit waiting to happen. I believe there are some private schools and stuff that do teach CrossFit. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Where do you see competition going? Let's say 10 years from now, what's something crazy that you can imagine that you might see?

I think there'll be – I mean, i think everybody who competes on any kind of level as far as the actual crossfit games i think anybody will be a full sponsored athlete yeah meaning they don't do anything else other than yeah which is only a handful of people right now yeah it's getting there it's getting there quickly it's getting tough to have a job a full-time job and still go to regionals yeah but now it's to the point where like you got to make it there and then you'll get sponsored.

Whereas I think there will be ways to funnel people into that and say this is your job and now we're going to get you there. What about performance? Are we going to see someone clean 400 pounds and run a sub 5-minute mile? It's on the way. I think we'll see somebody fly. I want to see, I say 10 years, I'm going to call it and say I think we'll see a lot of people doing that, especially games athletes.

For sure. Do you think CrossFit will ever become maybe an Olympic sport? Like where to take the next level? I don't think so because that's kind of not what CrossFit is. You know, it's about unknown variables. You would have to standardize it, I feel like. Yeah, yeah. Unless, if we're talking maybe unrealistic,

but unless we got to the point where CrossFit was so big that they were like, no, y'all can come into the Olympic sport and y'all can still run it how you want to run it. Like it can still be unknown and unknowable. That'd be badass. Man, think about this, though. Like from where we all came from, it was none of us like came from a gym. You couldn't find a gym. There was not a gym in Mississippi.

Everybody worked out in some of their garage or something. To now, you have the choice to pick a gym almost anywhere you live. Like that's so big, man. It's just grown so much. Yeah. What about, yeah, so away from competition, where do you see like CrossFit training, general fitness going in 10 years? Where do you think we'll be as a gym owner?

Oh, man. I don't know. I think that that that's going to be like we talked about earlier being more around it i think yeah uh it'll be this funnel and this hub for you know getting people in the door with this crossfit movement and then it has avenues right there in the door whether you want to do weightlifting whether you want to do ironman training whether you want to do strongman training it's one big you know facility that has all this stuff also i think a unique thing that's that's brought into uh which is kind of going that different route though is is trainers raising the level of trainers and partnering with pts and chiros and doctors and things like that with that wasn't common before yeah so now we have this one big facility which is kind of my dream vision of this one huge facility

that trains all these different sports, including CrossFit, and we have a chiro on staff, and we have a PT on staff and a doctor on staff and all these things that just raises the level of health all around. One thing I think that's going to be interesting to see, and you remember that, what is that? We would go into that thing in Auburn where you kind of went back and forth. I got into an argument. Yeah, yeah. You went back and forth.

It was an argument. We can't bring that up. So with McElroy, he was, I can't remember exactly, but basically they were teaching what's in the textbook right now. What is the accepted theories when it comes to energy system training? And I think in 10 years, a lot of that will possibly be rewritten because research always lags behind what's actually being put into place and what people are seeing now.

There's just not a whole lot of research going on with what the CrossFit-style training, energy system training that is being implemented right now by experts whose opinion matters, but it's not backed up by a large pool of data and sample sizes. So I think in 10 years, we're going to have a whole new perspective on how to train and uh energy systems and that you can train an aerobic energy system maybe and get really fucking strong the same time i think that's one of the biggest things that crossfit brought into it is this different way of training energy systems and not only is it still relatively new as far as scientific studies and stuff but it's really hard to test too because

if you're testing somebody with a EKG or something on a bike, you're hooked up to a bunch of stuff. It's hard to do that with box jumps. It's very controlled, right? Yeah, it's hard to do that. And you've got random thrusters. I mean, random thrusters. Random movement.

So one test with thrusters and box jumps may be different than burpees and pull-ups. So it's just hard to test. So I think over the next 10 years we'll get better at testing those things. Yeah, because there's so much creativity that goes on with CrossFit programming. Yeah, it can be hard. But I think that people will start paying more attention and it will start getting studied.

And I think the strength and conditioning community will learn. When you start winning American Opens, you have to start paying attention. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, when you have CrossFitters who are winning and going to international competitions. You've got to start paying attention. Interesting. Cool.

Good points, guys. Anything else you want to add? We talked about where we came from with the sport. So when we were competing in that first sectionals, Drew Shamblin, I mentioned him earlier, this is how it didn't matter what you were doing. His shoe fell off in the first event. Oh, yeah, he was wearing pants, too.

He was wearing pants, and his pants ripped doing wall balls. It was just so old school that it didn't matter. Drew is still good. Oh, he's incredible. He's really good. Yeah, he's incredible. He won an open workout when you were, I think, second or something. No, he's really good, but that's like people just didn't care.

Like he was just that guy that like just got out there and just did it and beat everybody. And like it didn't look like you didn't do this big, long, elaborate warm-up. You didn't have all this equipment. You didn't have all this stuff. Oh, he got off work. You weren't covered in rock tape. Yeah, you just went and did it.

Yeah, no voodoo bands, nothing. It's just sophistication. Back then it was underground. It's just sophistication. Yeah. Back then, it was underground. It was raw. It was dirty. Like, the dirty you can get and the more hardcore you can be, that was badass. But now, because it's becoming more mainstream

and now athletic performance and, I mean, you get paid. What was the purse on the CrossFit Games this past year? What would the winner get? I don't know what the purse was, but the first prize is $250,000. Yeah, $250,000. What was the first? 2010, it was like what? 2010 was $25,000.

2007. Sorry, 2011. 2007, it was a $100 bill. It was $508. Yeah. Cash money. So now it's becoming a professional, almost a professional sport. So now you have to be professional.

Your methods have to be. Everything matters. Everything matters. You have to get that little edge. I once broke my toe doing toes to bar on a Smith machine. What's up? No way. Yeah, I put it on the tallest one because there was only one pull-up bar where I started.

And then there was a Smith machine. I put it on the top hook. I'm I'm five four screw it my second toes like oh and it's because I was wearing five fingers oh oh gee yeah competitions just yeah I feel the competitions have gotten a lot more uh. Everything just got more sophisticated. Oh, yeah. I came in third. I'm not telling that story. You've got to tell it now. All right, so the first workout, it was –

He might hear this. We were sitting on the ground. We had to start sitting on the ground in the grass field. I got video of that. On a soccer field. What year? 2010. 2010 in Huntsville, Alabama.

Russell Berger. That's a good story. All right. I just thought of another one uh so I'll do that the first event um we're sitting on the ground to start and they said three to one go it's a three rounds for time it's a like 25 yards down and back yeah so you run down and back 25 yards seven power cleans with 155 which was heavy yeah and then 10 burpees yep three rounds for rounds for time. It was short. It was like two and a half minutes. It hurt. Yeah, it was fast.

I threw up. So they tied. I think Mike claims that he won. Man, who's they? Who's they? Rich Froning. This guy. This guy.

He won the event, but I don't remember him beating me in it. I tried to dispute. They didn't know what I was talking about. I came in third on that event so i was behind both of them but uh and then later on we're about to do five rounds for time run 400 meters 25 pull-ups oh man yeah the russell burger the the guy who was running the competition he jumps up to demo a pull-up is like 145 pounds yeah he's a little dude um freak athlete he was like back then he was i mean he was like games at yeah yeah um he. Yeah, he's a little dude. Freak athlete. He was like, back then, he was a games athlete.

Yeah. Yeah. He got a bypass sectionals. Yeah. Yeah, we'll get to that, too. So, anyways, he jumps out to demo a pull-up on the bar, and the bar, the welds break, and the bar just falls off. It wasn't welds.

It was 4x4s. Well, it was like metal. Yeah. Anyways, yeah. Screwed in. He jumps. He, like, full commitment jumps. He's like, you're going to start like this.

Whoa, boom. And everybody's like, I ain't doing pull-ups. So we were all in this like six by six square. They had two rigs. They didn't use that one. So we had to use the other one. It's completely dark out. Everybody's like running in circles.

We don't know where the track is and doing pull-ups at night. It was crazy. But back then it was was like that was accepted. Now if that happened at regionals, people would be going, tape shit. Back then, it was normal. We didn't think twice about it. Yeah, so what I was saying was back then, if you went to the games, you were automatically qualified the next year to go to regionals.

And if you won the games, I don't know how many people know this or not, if you're pretty new to CrossFit, like the sport, if you won the games a couple of years ago, you had a free pass to go back to the games. Originally, if you won the games, you had a lifetime pass. Yeah. And they'd strip that, and then they did a, yeah, the next year you were bypassed to the games, and then they took that away.

Yeah, that'd be crazy. I can't imagine. I can't imagine, like, going, like, in 2007 or something to the games, and then they took that away. That would be crazy. I can't imagine. I can't imagine, like, going, like, in 2007 or something or 2008 and being like, oh. I want to redeem my lifetime pass now. I'm going to go back this year. Actually, you know what? I took a few years off. I think I'm good now.

And you've got to keep up. I want to redeem my pass, my golden ticket. Yeah, that's funny. It's crazy how much this changed, and it's been fun, and it's been a cool ride. I can't wait to see where it goes. Still, going back and looking at that Every Second Counts video and watching how they did that game, that was one of the coolest endings still, I think, because of how they did it where every event was timed.

So the last event was Gray's Squat Cleans with 155, so 30 cleaning jerks with 155. And everybody started in a partitioned start so that whoever won the last event won because every event was timed so the times were accumulated right so the first person a guy who was in first started however many seconds ahead of the second place he was and so forth so that whoever finished first in that event won and like everybody's focused on spieler versus josh everett oh yeah those two going back and forth and then all of a sudden kalipa finishes in the corner and nobody catches it on camera. There's this big hairy bear in the corner.

Yeah! Who's that? No one even watching him. He just won. I remember in that video Dave Castro said he was back there in the warm-up area and he's like, are you lost? He was in the wrong area. That's funny.

That's funny. Now Kalipa is like. That's cool. That's cool, you know, because he's impressive because he won so many years ago and he's continued to stay at the top almost every year since. That's impressive. Very cool. Anything else you guys want to add?

Go watch that video. It was a fun trip down memory lane, for sure. Cool. All right. Well, thanks for coming along. Thanks for listening, guys.