Barbell Shrugged - Real Chalk  — Crushing Addiction with Carleen Mathews — 29

Episode Date: June 26, 2018

► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/ barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

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 up for training programs to switch to a different program when they got to the end of their current program or they just happen to be in a new phase of training they hit their 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 three of them are long-term very comprehensive programs where there's you know a warm-up and there's mobility and there's nutrition added in there all the 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 aerobic capacity, or maybe you just want to work on your squatting strength or your pull-up strength or 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 you from someone who's more like beginner intermediate at weightlifting and

builds you up to be a more technical professional style-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. 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 with the muscle gain challenge on gaining muscle so that means you got to eat a lot of food so there's a lot of emphasis, of course, 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.

You know, maybe 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 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 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 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, 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, we add in two leg exercises three days a week. 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 on to 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 then do it again. But you're doing it all 100% 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 retraction, rhomboid lower trap work, extra bicep work, etc. 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, 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 Aerobic 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. It 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. 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 Strug 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 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 strugcollective.com backslash vault for all the information. Again, that is shruggedcollective.com backslash B-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. Welcome to Real Chalk, a Shrugged Collective production. Mike Bledsoe here. Stoked to be launching this network so that we can introduce you to amazing content providers like Ryan Fisher. We'll be posting new shows every weekday, so be on the lookout. As a thank you for listening, Thrive Market has a special offer for you. You get $60 of free organic groceries, plus free shipping and a 30-day trial. Go to thrivemarket.com slash real chalk.

This is how it works. Users will get 20 bucks off their first three orders of $49 or more plus free shipping. No code is necessary because the discount will be applied at checkout. Many of you will be going to the store this week. So just hit up Thrive Market today. Go to thrivemarket.com slash realchalk to get set up. Enjoy the show. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

This is Yaya here. You guys are tuned in to the Shrug Collective and we're coming at you with a brand new episode of the Real Chalk Podcast. This time we tried something new. We did a Skype interview. We went all the way to Oregon virtually to Skype with Carlene Matthews. Most of you guys probably know Carlene from the competition floor. She's been a great competitor in the CrossFit world and has been able to really solidify her name in competing, but also as an affiliate owner. She was a former college softball player

and then made it to her first regionals in 2012, made the games in 2015 after finishing second place at Western Regionals, and then won the regionals in 2016-2017, but had to withdraw after day one of the games in 2017 this year she made it back to regionals unfortunately not back to the games but she said afterwards that this was her favorite year and then she feels better than ever so we're already stoked to watch her next year but she does have a lot of other things going on all around the year not just as far as competing goes she's part of fnx, which is a brand new supplement company

that her and a few other athletes are running. But the main reason why we had her on the show was because of her past. After losing her dad and getting out of college, she was plagued with an eating disorder and also started abusing drugs and alcohol. So we talked to her about what helped her change that mindset, how did CrossFit come in, where does fitness and all that tie together to be able to overcome a disorder, overcome addiction, overcome anything that people may deal with. Her relationship to food now, her relationship to drinking, drugs, working out, how she structures her life and how she was able to turn everything around and turn herself into such a competitive athlete. As far as working out goes for the average Joes, the rest of us the people that well maybe you guys

want to make it to regionals maybe you guys want to make it to the games you guys can do all that with the chalk programming and you guys can now follow me and ryan online and do exactly what we do every single day what everybody here over at crossfit chalk in orange county does every single day simply head over to crossfitchalk.com, sign up for our online programming, and use the code REALCHALK to get your first month completely free. You guys get to check out our CrossFit programming, our sweat programming, which is more of a conditioning body weight-based type of training, but will definitely kick your ass whether you are a beginner or an intermediate.

Other than that, that's enough from me. Again, I i'm yaya i'll let you guys dive into the episode start this thing all right so have you guys haven't met right i don't think i've ever met you before so so i'm ryan yeah i i mean i've mean, I've listened to you guys' podcasts, so, you know, I know a little bit about you guys. Cool. So, yeah. Awesome. You know the drill, then. Like, you can just say whatever you want, curse, whatever, super rated R, so there's no limits as far as that goes.

Awesome. Yeah, so, obviously, we're going to talk a little bit about your story. Then go more into training, where you're at now. I know Fish has a bunch of questions for you too. What was the article you were going to show me earlier too? I saw this one that I thought was really cool. We do a little research and creep on you a little bit before we start to talk to you as we should

um I can't remember where it was now and then if you want to we can plug Phoenix at the end too. Yeah. So if you guys want to set up like a code or something like that for the listeners as well, totally up to you. It's probably, this episode probably isn't going to air for like another six, seven weeks, somewhere around there. Okay.

So I'll definitely let you know if something comes out. And then maybe we can set up like a code shrugged or 10% off or free delivery or whatever you guys want to do cool for all the listeners I thought this was rad the letter to my younger self yeah I want to do something like that I thought that was really cool okay

so you should actually connect with Justin and do one. He would love to have more people do them. Yeah, I could probably do one of those for sure too. Yeah. Yeah.

I found something about your – the Power Clean program that you run. Is that still a thing? Because I couldn't – i saw it mentioned on your um crossfit games page but then i couldn't find anything else online about it yeah so um we uh we don't have like a website for it yet um that would be that's probably our next like progression for it but um yeah we're still doing it and we're trying to now get it out more and like be available for you know more people to be able to do something like that okay cool yeah yeah just making sure that's still around in case i want to bring it up

yep absolutely all right cool you good yeah let's do it. All right. All righty, kids. What's going on? I got a special episode. We're back on Fish's Couch. Got back from Austin a couple days ago. First time, actually, that we're going out of state. Got a special guest on the Skype this time.

Got Carleen joining us from Oregon. Say hi. Hello. So, Carleen, two-time, three time three time games athlete what is it now three times three times games athlete um affiliate owner up in oregon as well so a lot of you guys probably know her team carlene on instagram uh really cool story that we want to jump into but i'll let you take it first introduce yourself tell people whatever you want and then we'll go from there yeah cool um i suck at talking about myself so uh this will be real awkward everybody always starts and says that yes but then it starts to flow and everyone's good to go everyone loves talking about themselves at the end of the day

right um so uh yeah i'm carly matthews Like you said, I've been to the games three times. I grew up playing college sports. I played college softball and got into CrossFit from after there. From after there. From after there. From after there. So after college, just kind of struggled to find the competitive, you know, drive that I really wanted and, uh, fell into CrossFit. Um, when, when I started CrossFit, I had no idea what I was doing. Uh, I, I just thought I was doing some sort of like bootcamp, like this just cross training. Um, and, uh, it kind of clicked with me so something clicked and um I ended up progressing uh really well so like

first year at regionals I was like 18th second year I was ninth third year um I think I was fourth and then my fifth year I was second sixth first seventh first, seventh, first. Okay. So, yeah, the progression was really, really cool to see for me. And I, after, now we've now been open at CrossFit St. Helens for about three years. Okay, awesome. Awesome. I just had my four-year anniversary on May 1st.

Yeah. Yeah, so my husband and I took over CrossFit St. Helens from my coach. And so I've been an affiliate owner for three years now. It's been awesome. It's been absolutely, uh, a struggle, um, to be an athlete and affiliate owner. Um, which is the opposite of what everybody thinks. Yeah, exactly. But it's, um, you know, it's opened up so many different doors for me, um, within, you know, like I'm able to do the Power Clean program. And so, yeah, it's just it's really been it's really been a blessing at the same time.

Like, so I'm super grateful for it. At the same time, it's, you know, a struggle. And every day is a challenge to be both affiliate owner and athlete. But it's where my heart is once I'm done being an athlete. Right. Especially being an athlete at such a high level as you play. Yeah. One thing that I think is really cool that you pointed out, because I always bring this up too, I played college football, and then once I was done playing football, I kind of had this gap in my life,

where now just going to the gym and doing 5x5 bench press kind of wasn't really scratching the itch that I had, right from being so competitive my entire life and then just going to the weight room and then CrossFit stepped in the same way for me as well so I think it's really cool that you brought that up yeah it definitely like it's funny because uh like two years ago my coach was like hey we need to start like we need to start building some some more strength and so he had me at a point doing like some like let's do some more like bodybuilding type stuff yeah and i was i i couldn't do it i could not do it i was like this is so boring you've got to get me out of here i cannot do this and so we changed it up a little bit i know now thinking back to

when i even when i was playing football the way i was going to the gym was like a lot of people, I think, go to the gym. Monday is legs. Tuesday is chest. Wednesday is back. And then we had an arm day, which now is like the most ridiculous thing to think about. I was literally in the gym for 90 minutes doing bicep and tricep and then thinking it's cool that i was in the shower and literally couldn't even wash my own hair because i couldn't because i couldn't lift my arms but yeah now thinking about that i could never go back to that either yeah but um i think the biggest thing that i was looking forward

to with this show as opposed to many others like different the different the differentiality between this show and other shows that we've done is I really want to talk about the like started from the bottom now we're here type of style of the whole thing so I don't know how much you know about me but I was like homeless and stole my food and was like a piece of garbage for a while until I have everything that I have now and it was just a really long struggle that I look back on now and it was it's just more of an inspiring story just for myself to look back on and for other people to see that you can make all these other things happen with not very much. And I think for you, you have a really cool story where

yours was on a different level. It was a little bit of an addiction style. And then you became a CrossFit Games athlete which is awesome and now you own your own gym and now you have a supplement company and all these things and i want everyone to know the version of yourself that was not so marketable and not something that you want to advertise and i want to hear optimal i want to hear like the gnarliest stories you can get into like whatever you're comfortable with let's just start as low as we can go as low as you got and then we'll start to build up to where you're at now because i think that's what

people really want to hear and they really want to get inspired and i want you to i want you to inspire them let's do it so start from the beginning um yeah uh like you said i you know i come from a history of um eating disorder and drug and alcohol addiction. I always link it together, like drug and alcohol, but for the most part, I consider myself an alcoholic. But when I was drinking, I was using, you know, all kinds of different, like, party drugs and stuff like that. But, you know, it kind of started for me in high school.

And, you know, I would drink with friends and it wasn't like a huge deal in high school. It's amazing how much more you want to drink when you're not 21 than when you become 21. Right. Right. Um, and, and it was, you know, it's funny cause I like, I remember, um, a night in, and I was, went to a friend, a friend and I went out and for some, okay, for some reason, this just came up in my like memory um today so it's kind of funny uh but I was a friend and I went up we went up to uh some party and um I had we were drinking and we were drunk and I called my sister for a ride home and my sister for some reason brought my mom along with her oh I just like kind of recall and so I'm just for some reason I started thinking

about it and I was like what a bitch yeah why the hell did you bring mom like I thought that we were cool I thought that like this was a thing that we Like, I would get to call you and then you would come pick me up and everything would be cool. But, you know, like, it's funny because I just, I was just thinking about it today and it's such a weird thing to just think about, like, oh my gosh, remember that time that you got really drunk and called your sister for a ride home and you had to sit in the backseat. And she totally stabbed you in the back. Yeah. And you just sit in the back seat and like, we're trying to like cover it up. We're like, oh, we're okay. We're okay. But everyone knows that we're drunk. Yeah.

But I, and I think that that's like a, a lot of my stories that like the whole time, like even throughout, you know, all the, every time I would drink or my parents would express concern and I would be like, no, no, no, it's not a problem. It's not a problem. Like everyone around me knew that it was a problem, except for me. And I thought that I was like playing it off so cool. But I it was everyone. everyone could see it I actually wanted to ask you that too because I mean in high school and college especially there's a lot of kids that are drinking obviously and where do you think at what point

could you have maybe turned around and been okay and at what point did you kind of take it that step too far where it then became an addiction and it was harder to turn back? Good question. I think that it came after I realized that I had an eating disorder. And because once I got rid of the eating disorder little bit more was when I really started drinking heavily. Because that was my only coping skill that I really had. And how old are you at this time? Sorry, what?

How old are you at this time sorry what how old are you at this time um i was 22 two okay ish um so i was out of college and um and you know like i thought that i was just i was doing what i was supposed to be doing. And, um, I happened to be like working at treatment center and for teens and, uh, being an alcoholic, working at treatment center. Um, you know, and like, and a lot of times, like when I tell my story, uh, I always mentioned that. And, you know, you talk about like one of the low lows and it's like, fuck, that was a low, like that was a really big low for me is that like I was working at this treatment center and I was going out after work and, uh, coming back into work the next day so hungover, like, ultimate walk of shame, you know, like,

ultimate walk of shame, like, I had the clothes from the night before on, and I was walking back into work the next day at, like, 6 a.m., and one day, my, one of my co-workers was like you've got to like go freshen up like you smell like a distillery like you smell so bad and I'm like oh no no no I'm fine like I'm fine okay and like it was a big joke it was a joke it was funny um and I look back on it and I'm like damn like that was low though like the kids knew. The 17-year-olds knew. They're like, you look like you're hungover, Carleen. I'm like, oh, you know, I just – I'm really tired.

They're like, no, you're like – Yeah, you're fucked up. You got fucked up last night. And it's like they knew because they had been there. Oh, totally. So, yeah. I don't know. I mean, stories of, you know, of the low, low, I think that, um, you know, I was the typical, um, party girl. So I was, um, anyone that wanted to party with me, anyone that wanted to go out and party, I was their best friend. And I wanted them around all the time.

And I just wanted to go out on the weekends and have fun. And what turned from you know uh weekends of partying or like just a friday or like a saturday sorry friday and saturday night turned into like friday saturday sunday night and then you know it was always sunday fun day totally and so uh so i was trying to cure the hangover by drinking again on Sunday, which then made Monday suck. And yeah, I mean, I guess I just like I look back at it and like think about, you know, just kind of like some of the just kind of like the dangerous stuff that I i did like i was driving all the time i was drinking and driving all the time right like i'll be the i'll admit you know like that that on a regular occasion i was drinking and driving um sadly i think we've all done that. Yeah. It scares me now to, like, think about how much, like, I used to drink and drive. And I think that now when I, like, see my friends go out and, like, they can party and have fun drinking. But it scares me because I know that, like, people are going to be doing the same things that I did like

drinking and driving and like I don't know maybe I'm just getting old but it's really scary um but we didn't we didn't have like when we were kids like I don't know how old are you uh 34 so I'm 31 but like when I was a kid and I was drinking and stuff like we didn't even have uber or lyft or any of that shit right Right. So, like, at least now that exists. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the crazy thing is, in Germany, drinking and driving is not a thing at all.

And you can start drinking beer and wine when you're 16 years old. So, you would think that, like, kids are even dumber, like, they're younger, so that would be a bigger problem. But just because public transportation is so great everywhere in Germany,

drinking and driving just simply isn't a thing. Like no one even thinks about it here. It's more like the biggest thing. You see it on TV and there's ads and this and that. And in Germany, it's not no one like it's not even a thing. No one even thinks about it. If you're drinking, then you're not going to take your car. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. That's kind of cool. That's crazy. Yeah. So when does the switch start to come for you where you're like, OK you're 22 at least at this point that we're talking like when does the switch come where you're gonna start to change things and then let's go from there and kind of transfer into like when you start to discover crossfit yeah so um so like right before i went into treatment for because i

went into treatment for an eating disorder and just like an outpatient. But because it was outpatient, I just started drinking all the time. And so right before I went into that treatment, I went on a cruise. And it was like my last hurrah. And it was like one of those things that it's not a it's not a good idea like it's not a good idea to have one last big shebang um because i went hard um there's a lot of nights that i don't remember um i probably deserve to still be in Mexico right now. I like that. Because, like, I, um, yeah, we, like, I, like, I don't remember getting back onto the boat.

Um, I, I got my nipple pierced in Mexico. Wow. That's a story right there. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. If nothing else happens on this podcast, we got your nipple pierced. That's absolutely.

I have another good story. I was out drinking one night and I had, this was right after Mexico. And so I was out drinking and I sent one of my friends a message and I was like, hey, can you give me one word to describe me? Oh gosh. She was untameable. And I was like, that's perfect. And I proceeded to go get it tattooed on my body.

On my body. That means it's in a very interesting place. Well, it's like I was smart enough. I was smart enough to get it on a spot that's like covered up so it's like right on where like my bra would go on this on like my side so nobody ever sees it but it's like you know i was i was drinking so it didn't heal right you know and so it's like it just looks like a really shitty tattoo and it says untameable and i'm like fuck i remember one time when i was really drunk in college one of my friends was gonna pay me 250 to get a tattoo of a squirrel my inner thigh

reaching for my nuts oh my god and i got so drunk one night where i was like i'm fucking doing it you know and then and then my buddy we're like we like actually went to the tattoo shop and like really thought about it and then everybody was supposed to put money in and we didn't have enough money to get it done but i almost got it dude oh my gosh we're actually we're actually planning um one of my really good friends here is about to get married and we're going to Vegas for his bachelor party, Nick, and he sells meat for a living. So we basically already made this pact. So it happened in a sober state of mind, but the tattoo is going to happen when we're drunk, that everybody that's at the bachelor party, we're going to get like a tomahawk steak somewhere

on our body, like small, big, whatever whatever it is but we're all gonna leave vegas with the tattoo so that's awesome that's awesome uh all right so now you're untamable yes yeah my husband really appreciates it oh i bet Uh, so yeah, so, um, I, uh, you know, went to Mexico, um, was, uh, there's a lot of blackie now. Um, I think that, uh, you know, a, a turning point for me was probably like once I started feeling like I was getting, uh, the eating disorder stuff under control, they, control, they put me on meds. So I was on antidepressant meds. Oh, shit.

And that was like for me like the big thing. Like I was drinking on antidepressant meds. And so I would find that like I was one or two drinks and I was like straight blacking out. Um, and so I, I started this trend of like a lot of blacking out. Um, and, and in the, like after my, um, after I graduated the treatments or the, yeah, the treatment, um, for treatments for the eating disorder, I don't have a lot of recollection of my drinking because I was blacked out all the time. Right, totally.

And so it's kind of interesting. But yeah, I went out one night and it was actually like a Friday, Saturday, yeah, I went out one night, and it was actually, like, a Friday, Saturday, Sunday followed. I think it was a Monday that I decided to stop drinking. But it was, like, a Friday, Saturday, Sunday kind of thing. that Sunday night or no that Saturday night I was out and we went out to some party club I don't know what it was and then we went over to a friend's house and one of my friends was there and her boyfriend was there and I started putting her on blast and talking about how she wasn't loyal to her boyfriend oh shit and and she didn't

appreciate that oh I bet so I woke up the next morning feeling like shit because my friend, who I thought was, like, a really good friend, was really mad at me. And then, so that Sunday, I, of course, had Sunday fun day and drank all Sunday, woke up the next Monday realizing, like like I cannot fucking do this anymore um and feeling so shitty I uh I had a therapist appointment because I was doing therapy once a week and I just I went into therapy and I like I can visualize right now, like exactly pulling up to, um, her like therapy spot, uh, her office, office. Um, and, uh, and walking in there and being like, yeah, I, I made like this stupid decision. And, um, it seems like I keep making these stupid decisions um i think that maybe i should like not drink for a little bit and like i want to prove to like my friend that that i cannot drink because you know for some reason all my friends are telling me i'm a

fucking bitch when i drink or i'm you know like nobody likes me when i drink for some reason, all my friends are telling me I'm a fucking bitch when I drink, or I'm, you know, like nobody likes me when I drink for some reason. And I don't know why it is. And I'm just going to prove to people that it's not the drinking. And, um, and so that was, that was, uh, my turning point. And that was the day I got sober. Um, and it, what turned it, what started out as just like, okay, I'm just going to prove to this person. Um, 30 days turned into 90 turned into, you know, a year turned into two years. Um, and I started to realize like that I didn't like the person who I was when I drank and that I was a different person and, um, and that I made fucking horrible choices when I was drinking and, uh, I didn't care about anyone.

Um, all I cared about was myself and, um, and that was, you know, I continued to do therapy. I continued to, um, I stopped hanging out with everyone that like I, I lost all my friends. Yeah. Cause they're just party friends. They're not real friends. Exactly. That's exactly. And that's why I'm not friends with them today.

Is because I don't have anything in common with those people. Except for partying. Yeah. Cause all we did was party and that's all I wanted them around for. So that would be all they would want me around for. Do some of them still reach out to you now that like things are going well and they're like, Oh, Hey, like how's everything going or anything like that? Um, I have had, I have had a few people. I had, like, the friend that I, like, stopped drinking for, I actually, like, we didn't talk for a time.

And then I actually, like, made some amends to her and apologized and told her that like i'm you know like sober now and stuff um but and then and we kind of like connected again a little bit and then uh then just kind of like disconnected again just like don't really have anything in common i have a bunch of friends from college that like i'm just i'm always blown away that they're just still doing the same thing like it just blows me away that you can get so many years later in life and you still haven't figured out that what you're doing is not really that cool and you're not really bettering yourself on any level. It's amazing to get to a place where you're starting to do well for yourself

and you want to surround yourself with other people who are doing well and you look back and you're just like, how is that person not getting it yet? It's just crazy to me. I always am blown away when someone hits me up and you're like oh dude you're doing so good i'm just like oh my god like like it's nice to talk to you but wow i can't believe it's crazy though because um after like i i got really into drinking like maybe like the last half year or something like that um i got out of like a bad relationship i kind of got away from crossfit a little bit and was partying more and more and more and at first i think there was nothing wrong with it i was still working out i was getting my work done i was just you know partying just kind of like being single and then almost felt like, and tell me if this was kind of what happened to you too.

It became part of my routine and I was drinking whether I wanted it or not. Right. That was always an excuse to drink. It was freaking wine Wednesday or taco Tuesday or whatever it is. Like you just, you find a reason to drink and you just keep on going, keep on going. And I think the biggest problem kind of sets in and this is where I kind of stopped and came to a pause where I wasn't even enjoying it anymore there was no reason for me to go out there was no reason for me to go to the bars it wasn't like oh it's this person's birthday or I got a raise

or whatever it is that you're like okay let's go celebrate it was just well it's Tuesday so let's go drink right yeah and I think that um I mean I think that that's like how it like everything becomes for us you know like it's that's how drinking becomes that's how um food can become like well it's so-and-so's birthday, so we have to have cake. Right. Like, we have to have cake. We have to have, we have to go out to dinner because it's Friday, and it's the weekend, and date night has to be going out and overindulging in food. That's a good point.

Yeah, really good point. Or the same thing with drinking. It's the weekend, so I have to go out and drink. For me, a lot of it was social anxiety. I didn't know how to interact with people, and I didn't feel comfortable enough interacting with people without my alter ego, which was me drinking, and it did become that, like, well, you know, like, for me, it was like, oh, it's the weekend, so what are we going to do? We're going to go out, or it's my birthday, and so we're going to go out, and we're gonna go out or it's it's my birthday and so we're gonna go out and we're gonna get trashed um you know and so and it and it kind of and it did there there was an extent that it was

like that and it's sunday so it's sunday fun day so we have to go to the bar and because that's all we know how to do right um but yeah i mean i think that there's a lot of things that turn into that. I get so upset with just, like, the general notion that you have to go out and drink to have a good time. Because, like, Yaya has no problem, like, drinking a beer here and there or, like, or this or that or going out and partying. And, like, I literally like to party to the point where I get drunk, like, maybe, like, twice a year. It's, like like so little and it just like turns my stomach to even listen to someone talk who's drunk because they're just repeating themselves and saying the same shit and like and I I'm like very like anal about the way that I look like I know that like you know like part of who I am is like oh Ryan has a fucking eight pack

when he takes his shirt off or whatever you know what I mean so it's like I'm always thinking about that I'm like taking a drink and I'm like I'm losing my eight pack or like yeah or like I'm I work out so hard and I'm just like I'm putting this poison in my body and like it really really bothers me and sometimes I'll just give in and like all right guys like I'll go out and hang out with you but I'm not gonna drink and then they're like well just fucking have one just have one and like you know the whole reason for that is to have 10 so i just really bothers me because like people will get to the point where they don't even want to ask me to go out because they know that i'm not gonna drink and it's like is that is it really that big of a deal to you for me to drink like do you need to take me down with you like i don't understand

what it is and i don't understand why like people aren't fine with just going out and like going to dave and buster's and playing some fucking games or and just fooling around or like going to a movie or going to play miniature golf or go play bumper cars like why does it have to be drinking and no matter how old i get it's the same shit everybody still wants to do that and i'm like keep looking at my watch like where like what fucking where are we like i don't understand how this is still it's almost like looking at a pack of cigarettes and it says you're gonna fucking die when you look at when you smoke these and everyone's like cool like let's fucking do it and i'm just like we're all in the health

and fitness industry all of my friends it's like why are we out drinking i don't understand like you're all you're doing is stepping backwards when we can be stepping forward i think i mean and i and i think it's interesting too because um i get it a lot like you know there's a lot of times people don't invite me out because they're afraid to offend me because there's drinking involved and um or which you know it's like it i appreciate like somebody like being uh like curious in fact they don't want you to be around drinking they're being concerned or they're they're trying to be respectful but um respectful. But, um, but yeah, you know, you go out and, um, I can only last so long being around drunk people and then I'm over it. And I, uh, I think that you see it a lot that, um, if somebody wants you to drink that bad, that's about them and not about you.

100%. It's the same thing as when people give me a hard time because I might bring my own food to somewhere or I might not eat what they've supplied out of potluck because I have a nutrition plan that I'm going to follow. And it's not about, it's not like, it's not offending me. I'm not offended. I'm okay with bringing my own food. I'm okay with not drinking.

But they aren't okay with the fact that they are drinking and they aren't okay with the choices they are making and they don't, um, they feel guilty about that. And so it's, it's them. It's not, it's not like it's, I know that it's them and it's not me. Um, majority of time, like people don't think that they can drink around me or whatever I'm like go ahead like you can drink it's not it's not making me want to drink more it's actually making me want to drink less to watch you make act a fool um so uh so yeah I mean it's it's funny though because there it is though because it happens a lot. Like you go out and people will come up to me like, are you okay with me drinking?

Am I okay? You're fine. You're fine. Especially when they're drunk and they keep asking you, is it okay? It's like it's actually okay if you leave me the fuck alone. I'll tell you one thing though and then i think we can we can move on from the whole alcohol topic if you ever have a chance to be around during those one or two times where fish gets drunk during the year it's definitely

like incredibly entertaining you know it's really funny because uh my husband is not an alcoholic, but he is kind of the same way. He drinks maybe once or twice a year before we ever got married or got together. He would drink maybe one or two times a year. And now that we've been married, he like only really drinks when he's away from me. Um, and it's still like once or twice a year, he just has no desire to drink. Um, but I'm always like, man, like I want to see, like, I've never seen my husband drunk. Like I want to see him drunk. I wonder. And then I, then I think to myself like, oh my God, I would probably be so annoyed like yeah don't see him

drunk like don't drink because that may just ruin it for me so it's funny it's actually a fair point you never know what you're gonna see my dad's the same way my dad like never ever I mean he will have like a beer here or there but he never actually gets drunk and then new year's eve every year is like his night where he just cuts loose and i think it's really awesome because um i agree with everything that we said as far as like binge drinking goes but i still think that there's a social aspect to drinking and if you have something to celebrate and you want to go out with friends and you know how to control yourself and like everything in moderation type of thing absolutely i don't think there's a there's a problem with it and the older i get

it's kind of like quality over quantity too. I went to Nobu yesterday with some friends because we got invited by their chefs and did like a whiskey tasting. And that was amazing. Like we, no one really got hammered. It was just 40 experience. So I think there's a lot to say to that. But yeah, so he has that one night, New Year's Eve, where he just cuts loose. And it's the most amazing thing to watch in the whole entire world there's a picture of him standing on a box wearing a pink trench coat doing the YMCA

and pouring beer over his head and it's just fucking amazing and the best part is that he says it never happened and we're like dude there's like footage of it like he's convinced that it never ever happened I think anybody who has high stress levels like your dad owns a big company yeah i have a bunch of different things going on like all of a sudden that just goes away when you're drunk and you're you're just the happiest version of yourself but um moving on from that let's talk about your first experience walking to a crossfit gym i definitely remember mine the 50 000 people that will listen to this episode in the first week will all remember theirs.

Y'all already remember his first day. Let's talk about your first day in the gym. Let's talk about what that first workout you did was. Who was your coach? Where was it? Give me all the details. Let's hear it. All right.

So I was, this is actually a pretty good story. So I was online dating is actually a pretty good story. So I was online dating. Online dating? Nice. Tinder? No. It was before Tinder. Plenty of fish.

Oh, yeah, nice. Did you know Stacey from the gym got married off of it? Shut up, Noah. The physical therapist in my gym got married off of plenty of fish.'s awesome yep see there you go it happens um but yeah so i i you know connected with this guy and uh he was like i you know my perfect first date would be doing crossfit and i'm like okay cool i got this crossfit, yep, I can ride the elliptical. Like, I will cross train the shit. Like, all right, I got this.

I'll cross train the shit out of you. And so we kind of, like, started chatting. And he was like, hey, you know. And I was working at the treatment center at the time. And so he was like, Hey, I have a friend who just opened a gym or is just started working at a gym and you should go, uh, I'm going to connect you with him and you should go do a workout, like bring the, some of the kids from the treatment center in and he'll put them through you and him through them through a workout and i was like okay cool um so i connected with this uh i showed up to this crossfit box that

were you sober already at this point when when crossfit entered your life um yes yes i was i was four months sober. Okay. Four months sober. And so I showed up at CrossFit X Factor, and I think it was on a Sunday. No one was really there. James Massa um running us through this class at this crossfit thing i didn't know what it was um but we did like a whole bunch of like it was very boot camp style um because we had like all these kids from the treatment center so um so it's like tabata sit-ups bear crawls burpee box or burpee broad jumps um what what is that workout that it is burpee broad jumps and bear crawls because that's what we did. It's a hero walk. Oh, is it really?

Oh wow. It's like four rounds or something. Um, and it's like burpee, broad jump, a hundred feet and burpee and bear crawls like a hundred feet. Huh? Okay.

Yeah. Um, so we did that and then we did like Tabata sit ups. It's an interesting first day. Yeah, yeah yeah it was like it's very boot camp boot camp style yeah so um so I loved it I was like this is great I love taking the 24-hour fitness boot camp and this is just like it. And so I left there, and I was Christmas shopping or something, and the guy that I had been talking to on the online dating thing was like,

so my friend is willing to give you a deal. You can go train with him for three times a week for $100 and $100 a month three times a week and he's expecting you to call him I was like okay well I don't even know if I want to do this training thing this thing and and so I was like, man, like, what the hell? Like, this guy's pushy. Like, oh, he's expecting you to call. Like, what am I supposed to do here? Um, and finally I was like, all right, whatever. I'll just bite the bullet and do it for a month. Um, and so I contacted him and was like, all right, I'll, you know, sign up, pay you a hundred bucks.

And, uh, I showed up the next week and I haven't stopped. So I started out with him, like my first, um, two, my first probably three years I worked with him, uh, one-on-one and, um, went to my first regional, my first and second regionals with him. And, uh, it was probably like a good four or five months before I even realized like what I was actually doing. Like before I realized that like, I wasn't just doing a bootcamp, um, because I was, I wasn't in an actual CrossFit class. I was just doing like small group training with him. And, um, and a lot of times it was just me.

He eventually was like, you know what? You can just come every day of the week. Like I have, I'll open up a spot for you to come every day. So I started going every single day. And I started bringing in the kids from the treatment center in and he would help, he would work with them. We would do a class with them. So I would go in in the mornings and then go in the he would work with them. We would do a class with them. So I would go in in the mornings and then bring, go in the afternoons with the kids. Um, and you know, he really got me

like, got me started on CrossFit. Basically he taught me like basics of everything um and so I was with him for like three years and uh and then I got to a point where I felt like I needed um more like I felt like I had gotten what I needed from him and um I needed more and so I then changed coaches to my now coach Chris McDonald and have been working for him with him ever since awesome I think it's so cool to fish I talk about this all the time with CrossFit that in order to get good at CrossFit you have to make so many adaptations outside of the gym as well you have to sleep better you have to eat better you have to not drink as much and all that kind of comes just by committing to CrossFit so I know we talk about that all the time and I think

that's the same thing that happened with you I got a question for you though and I the more the older I get the more I see this in my life happening over and over again in all different aspects of my life, that everything is almost like a pendulum. So once I'm super far to one way, so just like I was telling you earlier, really into working out, eating super healthy, going to bed at 7.30 every single night, and then kind of totally got away from that and the pendulum swung super hard to the other side where now all i'm doing is partying i'm not really working out anymore i'm eating like shit and now the pendulum feels like it's kind of coming back the other way again until kind of finding that middle ground you with having dealt with addiction and the eating disorder did you

feel like you almost swung too far the other way where now CrossFit was an addiction and where you almost had an unhealthy relationship to food and where everything had to be so perfectly dialed in? I mean, I remember having arguments with my ex-girlfriend now, but my girlfriend at the time did it all the time because as soon as it was 7.30 and I wasn't able able to go to sleep i would get cranky and i would start yelling at her and there were so many things like i was like stressing out about being so perfect

that once i let go of all that it swung the other way and it got super extreme on the other side did you feel like you have to deal with that at all? Yeah. I mean, I think that there's a fine line. Um, especially when you're, uh, I think that when I first started, um, I was very like mindful of that stuff. So I was like, I, I got into CrossFit, um, and it was, you know, like I was just exercising and everyone was like that was when paleo was really big. And so everyone was like, well, we're doing these paleo challenges and you got to go paleo and stuff. And I was like, nope, nope, not going to do it. Like I have a history of eating disorder. I'm not going to start restricting things. And so I stayed away from paleo or any sort of like nutrition

like restriction for a very long time until I felt like I like had control over it. And then finally I was able to be like, okay, I'm ready. Like I'm going to give up grains. I'm going to see if this changes anything. And when I gave up grains, I noticed a change. And so I was like, oh, okay, okay, this is cool. Like, okay, I see a change in it, so I'm going to continue. And my performance was getting better. And so I liked that. I think that when you're looking at the space or the goal that I have right now,

I think that everything does have to be dialed in and on that pendulum of one side like i have to have everything dialed in to the one percent in order to be the one percent no absolutely i think at the level that you're at that's definitely the case in order to be the best you have to perfect everything but you said like that's the one percent right so the majority of our listeners are just the regular average joe who who loves fitness and loves improving his life but there still is the possibility to just have fun also i'm not saying that you're not having fun but to kind of give yourself a little bit of like wiggle room right but i think it's so awesome what you were saying that you were aware of the restrictions and you didn't want to put the restrictions on

you right away because you have that unhealthy relationship to food and i think that's a big problem with a lot of diets they fail so early because people just start cutting out everything like tomorrow i'm going to stop eating eggs and soy and whey and dairy and grains and i'm going to stop drinking and i'm going to go to the gym five times a week, and then everything needs to happen at once. So what were some rules, if you want to call it that, that you lived by after coming off of your unhealthy diet, transitioning into a healthier diet? For the most part just that, like that I didn't have restrictions on myself. Um, I was, I was tracking what I was eating, um, and just being aware of that. And I really started out like my coach at the time had me start out like, all right, I want you to

have a protein, a fat and a carb at every single meal. Every single time you eat, have a protein, a fat and a carb and write it down. And like, and that was all I was required to do. And then from there, we started like being like, okay, good. You're having, you know, like you're having this, like you're having three eggs for breakfast, like, and then it started, I started questioning, like, well, should I be having, like, a full egg, or do I need to be having egg whites, and, like, we started kind of, like, dialing in stuff like that before I ever started, like, doing any sort of restricting of myself. I just knew that like if i started restricting things that i would have an issue um and and i i agree with

with that 100 of that like if you try and do it all at once like you're gonna you're setting yourself up for failure yeah and uh it's really funny because i was actually just like we're just having that conversation with some of my power clean clients that um you know i told him i said shit if you like the hardest thing is walking in the door of the cross to the gym. Yeah. And if I was to, if you were to walk in and I was to tell you that you had to now give up soda, you had, you couldn't eat grains.

You had to, you know, do this, that, and whatever you would not come back. I would much rather see someone, you know, start coming in consistently. Yeah, like you can't outwork a bad diet.

Right. But just start coming in the gym. Make one commitment. Yeah, I think what a lot of people. From there. Yeah, go ahead. From there, then you can start dialing it because what i think is happening and what i'm seeing with them is that they're now starting to love their body and they're starting to see changes and

they're starting to want to change their diet yeah i was just going to bring that up too and i think what a lot of people don't understand is the whole third stage adaptation thing i mean that's in in working out but that's also with your diet and i think people are't understand is the whole third stage adaptation thing. I mean, that's in, in working out, but that's also with your diet. And I think people are trying to tweak the, the, the last little 1%, the stuff that you have to deal with.

Um, like let's say cutting out super loose, right? Something so minute, but maybe for someone like you, that will give you the ultimate edge at the very end. But people start with that. People want to start with perfecting the little things

and they forget about first and second stage all together i mean at on the ground level it's calories in calories out if you can control that then you can just build up from there then you can start restricting yourself and maybe taking out soda and then once you get all that dialed in then you can start playing with stuff that you now have to deal with. And I think what's really important too is when you say restricting yourself, and correct me if I'm wrong, but for someone like you and I feel the same way, if it has such a big impact on how I feel, how I look, how I perform by cutting something out, then it doesn't even feel like restricting myself. I don't want to eat it anymore, right?

Exactly. Yep, exactly. out that it doesn't even feel like restricting myself i don't want to eat it anymore right exactly yep exactly and what people don't understand either is that the small changes can have such a big difference i mean if you just cut out soda and keep everything else the same a lot of stuff is going to start happening to your body over longer periods of time right the whole like 30 days 60 day thing people trying to get as lean as they can, as fast as they can. But the little things really pay off over time. I just had a really good friend of mine. She cut out alcohol just for a month. That's all she did.

She just stopped drinking for a month because she had stagecoach last weekend. So she wanted to look good for that and be in shape and everything. And she kept everything else completely the same. She worked out the same. She ate the same. Just no alcohol. And the way her body transformed over that month was insane. I mean, absolutely incredible.

Chelsea? Yeah. And people just don't understand that sometimes it's all it takes. Sometimes it's just a little change, but over longer periods of time. Yeah. Yep, exactly. So another thing that we talk about on the show a lot is just like training volume and just programming and stuff in general. I know women are much different than men in my opinion.

They can handle a much bigger load than the men can. But what does your training week look like? Tell me when your rest days are and then how many hours a day are we putting in? Yeah, so rest days are Thursdays how many hours a day are we putting in yeah so uh rest days are thursdays that's it and what and sundays okay sunday but with that being said with that being said I can't not move. So I, on Thursdays, I do a light run in the morning, and then I swim. And on Sundays, I do an easy, like, steady state row, run, bike, something for about 60 minutes. Okay. And then on the hard training days what are we looking at

like two hours of training three hours of training uh do you break it up yeah so i usually do two to three hours in the morning um and that's typically just like my strength or my olympic lifting through my Olympic lifting followed, I've been trying to follow it with a really short, fast, like, burner Metcon that's maybe, like, a heavy Olympic lift with Toast Bar or something, you know? Yeah. And so, where it seems like, you know,, like two hours, that's a long time. But like when you're looking at your training, your Olympic lifts, like there's a lot of resting in there.

Um, so it's not like just like Metcon, Metcon, Metcon. Uh, and then my second session. In itself is like two hours. Yeah, definitely. Just because of the rest in between sets as well. Yeah, it's crazy. Exactly. Yeah. Because of the rest in between sets as well. Yeah, it's crazy. Exactly, yeah. And then my second session is usually three to four hours.

And that one's more like I'll hit Metcon and then rest for a little bit and then maybe some gymnastics. I might finish up some strength that I have, some accessory, and maybe some conditioning. But that's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Thursday is rest or active recovery. Friday, Saturday, longer training days. And then Sunday, active recovery.

And I know you qualified for regionals again this year. First in Oregon, if i got that right so how is your yay how is your training shifting now that regionals are getting closer um the goal right now is to be more regionals uh focused, um, intensity in Metcons and, um, heavier loads in Metcons as opposed to just, like, a lot of strength work. Like, I'm not going to be doing, like, a lot of one rep maxes on, like, my back squat. Um, I'm going to be hitting, like, heavier back squats in workouts. Okay, I got you. And yeah, I mean, for me, the biggest focus is capitalizing my strengths and, you know, making sure that I don't have a huge gaping weakness.

But intensity has been like the biggest thing is hitting when i hit a metcon like i have to hit it hard which makes it hard right because um it makes it hard to get motivated because you know that you have to suffer and it's going to fucking suck um so so yeah it's going to fucking suck. So, yeah, it's been challenging. And then speaking of the whole, like, third stage adaptation as far as food go, I think with people like you who are so dialed in to and so well connected to their goal, there's always some, like, really interesting habits that are going on outside of the gym, maybe inside of the gym. Little tiny tweaks that maybe is your secret to success so i'll give you a little example um i drink water with lemon and salt in it every morning or i do like a shot of apple cider vinegar and bee juice so little tiny stuff like this like weird things that you do throughout the day do you have any habits like that um i probably do i just probably don't yeah it seemed normal to you now

some like other everyone else would probably be able to tell me what it is right we'll ask your husband yeah but uh um i or maybe even any special routines do you have like a morning routine a nighttime routine anything like that yeah so I I do get up like an extra hour to 45 minutes early um so that I can get in like some movement um and so whether that is literally like me sitting on my Concept2 bike for 15 minutes to then scroll Instagram, that's what it is. Or maybe it's like getting up. Like this morning I got up early and got in my run before I coached the 6 a.m. class. I feel better if I move early in the morning um and then i've been i started a new

thing i started uh i coached the 6 a.m and then i come back upstairs and take a nap oh nice napping is to me definitely a key to success that's my that's my one secret ingredient so do you feel like you wake up and your body's pretty crunchy in the morning so you gotta start moving so you feel good or do you feel good and you just do it just because you get to move it my body is such a terrible word to describe a body i sound like milk going in rice crispy yes exactly and it's funny because literally like from 33 to 34 is where I'm starting to like feel it and I'm like damn I'm getting old yeah as soon as I hit 30 I was like fuck yeah so so yeah I uh I absolutely have to move in order to feel good in the days that I don't like days I'm like, I'm just going to sleep an extra 30 minutes. I feel like shit.

Like I, I don't feel good. I am not happy when I'm coaching. It's funny because I'll, uh, if I get to like do some movement before I, you know, go into the 6am and I'm like on fire and I'm like, here we go, you guys. And these are the endorphins that you're going to go to get. Yeah. You've got to be a spark plug that early in the morning, too, for sure. Yeah.

So my next question would be, like, I want to do a little spin-off of, for those of you guys who didn't hear us in the beginning of the show, we talked about the morning chalk up, right up where you wrote the letter to my younger self. Yeah. What about a letter to your younger self, not younger self, but like your starting CrossFit self? Like what would you have done in the beginning to get you to where you're at now at a faster pace? So let's say someone's getting into CrossFit, they feel that bug, like they want to go to the games. And obviously there's a lot of stuff to do. There's a lot of skills to get down. I mean, I've been there myself.

But there's things you're doing now that you probably wish you did then. Or there's probably a style of training that you wish you did then. Like maybe you wish you did a morning session then and an evening session then. Maybe you wish you did more Olympic lifting right off the bat so you were strong as fuck. You didn't have to worry about it later. Like what would be the letter to that self? self so i mean a couple things like i i think that uh i don't think that there is any fast track you know like i think that everyone wants that fast track and there's not and um you know where i was at is absolutely like i needed I would have spent more time on the Olympic lifts and getting stronger from the get-go.

I ran on the treadmill all day, every day before CrossFit, so I had an engine. I didn't need to work that didn't need to work that. Um, I needed to work my strength. And, um, that was when we saw, uh, a big difference is when I started following a conjugate the biggest things is getting stronger in, like, the powerlifting lifts, which then translated for me over to the Olympic lifts. But I would also say that I wish I would have worked with, like, an Olympic lifting coach earlier to dial in some technique because now I feel like it's harder for me to get that technique back. No, I think that's a really good point because everyone starts crossfitting doing high intensity training

and their body starts changing and they look really good with their shirt off so they never want to let that go but they'll bitch about the fact that they're not strong all day long, and if they were strong, they would go to regionals, or they'd make it to the games or whatever, and it's like, you really need to put that time into the strength program,

or it's just never going to happen for you, because everyone is, I mean, for the girls now, you have to be pretty close to snatching 200 pounds now, like on the regular. The girls are so strong. So much stronger for guys it's 300 pound snatches now for guys um so yeah like i mean that that's a lot of training to get those lifts you're not going to just magically snatch 200 pounds as a girl right and i think that that is like a big thing that um you know that I'm even like been having a conversation with to some of my

athletes is that like man like you can't expect like your strength to just come overnight like it years and years and years of working on it and you can get it up there and then you know like you're gonna bias your program but then once you go away from the strength it's going to go down a little bit you can't expect it to always be there but we hope to build it high enough that when it does go down it's it's okay you know like when we're not only focused on strength it's okay that it's not your you know your all-time one rep but it's high enough that it's going to hold you through i like that approach a lot actually yeah that's a really good idea it's the same kind of thing when people say that you want your technique to be absolutely

flawless so then when you get into the middle of a metcon and you're starting to get tired then you're still above average as far as efficiency goes but if you're just slightly above average in a completely rested state then then in the middle of a Metcon, you're just going to fall apart. Yes, yes. And then I want to shift gears one more time too. I know you run a pretty cool initiative or program out of your own gym

and affiliate in Oregon as well. The Power Clean program, if I'm saying that right? Yes. So if you want to tell us about that. Power Clean. It is a program for people who are in recovery from drugs and alcohol um it's we offer free crossfit um and uh we do it every

friday night at 6 30 and for anyone who has 48 hours or more clean and sober, um, and it's expanded now to being, um, part of like the, um, outpatient drug court, um, treatment program, uh, here. So anyone who's in drug court has the option to come into crossfit as part of their program and that's free and that's daily we offer one class oh that's really cool awesome cool yeah and then on top of that you also just started your own company um with well or with a couple of other people as well not started my working with phoenix fnx yeah exactly what is the uh what's the significance of of the word phoenix because there's a there's a recovery place around here called phoenix uh like it's a crossfit gym called phoenix and then your

supplement's called phoenix i was wondering is there some sort of sobriety uh you guys spell it FNX right yeah well it goes yeah it goes FNX and it's the gym that so Phoenix multi-sport is also a recovery program and that's about like

Phoenix is like rising above the ashes and stuff and I'm not exactly sure on the fnx part oh why why you just spell it fnx yeah well i mean it looks cool so we'll just go with that it does and it's easier it's easy like i prefer calling it fnx yeah okay and then so as far as that supplement company goes um you are pretty involved with them at the moment, correct? Yeah. So what, what makes them, what, first of all, they have a cricket protein, and so, which is something that I use, that I've found that, like, the sometimes whey, like, upsets my stomach and doesn't sit well for me, so I've been using the cricket protein and then they also do a like program so some of their the

proceeds that they make go to helping people with water so people that have clean water is going to like from some of the proceeds that every time you purchase. So I think that, you know, just giving back to the community like that or not necessarily even our community, like other communities in the world, I think is, like, a big thing and really, like, for me, like, means a lot, you know? Like, there's all, you know, yeah, like you said, there's all kinds of different supplement companies. And they all, you know, like, they're all going to do basically the same thing for us. But a company that is committed to giving back is, for me, like really cool.

Yeah. No, 100%. I'm with that. Yeah. Anything else? You got anything else, Fisher? Is there anything else that you'd like to add about anything? I can't think of anything.

I think we summed up a lot of good things. Yeah, I think we crushed that. So you guys are welcome. I mean, we started off with being drunk, working at a sober living place, so that's cool. Now we're all the way to cricket protein, so I think we covered a lot. I think we covered everything. Anything else you got going on? All right, you guys know me, Ryan Fish, owner of CrossFit Chalk.

If you guys ever want to follow our online programming, which we have over 1,000 people right now, you guys can look us up, CrossFitChalk.com. Sign up for the online programming. I do examples of workouts all the time on my Instagram, at Ryan Fish. All of our marketing, really sexy drawings and all that comes from your boy, Yaya, here. Drawings, yeah, exactly. You're a graphic design guru for all you need. So for all you guys out there that follow Fish or me

or the collective on Instagram, all the stuff you see that goes up, videos, graphics, all that stuff comes from me. So if anybody ever needs help with any of that stuff, Yaya at CrossFitChalk.com or at Yaya's View on Instagram. Carleen, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day, especially right now before regionals. Thanks for having me.

We had a blast and wish you best of luck out there. Yeah. Good luck in a few weeks. Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a good day. And that will do it. We'll wrap it up right there.

I hope you guys enjoyed it. Sorry for the audio quality, but like I said, this was a Skype call. First time we tried something like this. Make sure you leave us a comment letting us know what you guys thought about the entire podcast. You guys can always find us on

Instagram. I am Yaya at Yaya's View. You can find Ryan at Ryan Fish or just simply the Shrug Collective at Shrug Collective. Make sure you guys always hit us up. We love hearing from you guys, love hearing your thoughts, what you liked, what you didn't like, guests you might want to see on the show,

maybe some topics you want discussed. We're here for you. This is your world. We're just living in it. As I said before the show, make sure you guys check out that brand new deal we got going on right now. We just hit 1,000 members on the online programming for crossfit chalk so you guys get to enjoy this for free go ahead and head over to crossfitchalk.com sign up for chalk

online use code real chalk trying to remember all that and you guys get a full month for free if you are able to remember all that so you guys get crossfit you guys get sweat you guys get everything that we do over here in orange county at crossfit chalk completely free for a full month check it out we'll see you guys here next week mahalo