Barbell Shrugged - Real Chalk  — Questions & Answers w/ Ryan Fischer  — 40

Episode Date: September 11, 2018

This podcast is compilation of questions that were asked via my social media and email platforms. Some are personal opinions, some are valuable business questions, and some are just down right random hilarity. Regardless of the questions asked, I promised to answer as many of them as I could in a 1 hour window.   This podcast is something I have always wanted to do for my following as it feel it brings us closer together. It shines light on my unique sense of humor, work ethic, and opinions that I’ve put together over the past 10 years or so in the fitness industry.   If you’ve been a fan of me for a while and you want to hang out with and have great time... Learn a few things... And laugh a whole bunch... This is the best podcast you’ll listen to all week ;)   To all my fans and supporters, this one's for you! Love you guys/gals :) - Ryan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc_qa ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ► 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

Chalk Nation, your boy, Ryan Fish, on the mic right now, all alone, ready to answer all the ridiculous questions. I've wanted to do this for a really long time. I love health and fitness, but I love being a goofball as well, and I love just having a good time and living my damn life. So let's go ahead and answer some ridiculous questions. Let's answer some serious questions. And let's not answer them in order whatsoever because I recorded them down through my Instagram and my DMs just in a random order. And some of them are so ridiculous that it's kind of hard to follow which category I should put them in.

So let's just go ahead and kick this bad boy off. The first question is, what is your daily meal plan? Sorry, that's not rated X, but we will get there, I promise. My daily meal plan. So my plan for the day is usually to earn my carbohydrates. So I wake up, I eat a high fat,otein breakfast, something like four or five eggs. I'll have a little bit of salmon or some other meat that I have left over from the night before. It could be ground beef or something like that. But I'm usually always trying to get high-fat and high-protein in most of the time. And then after I'm done working out, I cram in like

100 grams of carbs, sometimes more. And I really, really think in my opinion that that is what works best for me. It is not what works best for everyone. Definitely not for everybody. But for me, it works really, really, really well. And I think that everybody should be messing around with their diet and not necessarily trying to chase after something that might work for one person and doesn't work for another person. Just because you admire somebody on Instagram or a friend of yours and they do this doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work for you. And I think it's really, really hard to believe that because you want to believe that it's going to work for you, but it doesn't always work that way. So that's my plan for the day. Number two, how big is your left

testicle, Ryan Fisher? So I tried to measure this fucking thing for a little bit. It's kind of hard because you have to get around it, but also have a good even transition between the other ball. So what I've come up with, and it's like mediocrely warm out. It's not cold. It's not too hot where I'm hanging too low. And I didn't take a shower or anything. So it's like a good, nice descend of ball sack right now. And you're looking at six and a half inches for the left side. So for whoever answered that question, ask that question. There you go, bro. Six and a half inches on the left sack. What are your thoughts for the closing of a gym for a sports event like football?

This guy's asking me if it's okay to close his gym for football. Oh, man. If you're a business owner, you have to stay open as long as you can. I'm open on Sundays, and people like going to church, all that stuff. The weekends, people like to live their life, but you've got to stay open to have that little bit of an edge on the competition. I think the more you can stay open, the better your gym is going to do. Maybe if you live in Texas somewhere where football is a religion, that might work. But in all honesty, if you're thinking about closing your gym down just for a football event, I don't know if you should be a gym owner anymore, my friend. Not to upset you there, but that is not the greatest question of all time.

Definitely, definitely do not close your gym for the football game. Next question. Do I like Mexican women? Wow. I like all women. I have been with just about every color, I would say. Asian, black, white. I guess you can say yellow if it's Asian, right?

Is that appropriate? I think so. I don't have anyone to say it is or it isn't back to me right now I think that's appropriate. Is that appropriate? I think so. I don't have anyone to say it is or it isn't back to me right now. So I'm just going to go ahead and say it is. I would for sure date a Mexican woman if I was attracted to her and we had a lot of the same things in common. I think that's enough for that question. Moving on. Size of the boat or motion in the ocean?

Hmm. That's a question everybody always likes to ask. Honestly, I feel like it's got to be the motion in the ocean because I've had a lot of friends who are well endowed and it didn't always work out very well for them. And I've heard from multiple ladies that the motion in the ocean is definitely more important. And then I think a lot of people don't really bring up the one like x

factor which is probably the connection factor so i don't really care how hot the chick is if i don't actually have a connection with her it's really hard to have a good time hence the one night stand if you guys ever had a one night stand with someone who's really attractive and just like it just wasn't it just wasn't happening you just doesn't happen. There's just something there. It just doesn't work, you know? Like, the stars just don't align. So I think there's an X factor there that people need to keep in mind. Instead of just asking the motion in the ocean or the size of the boat,

there's got to be some other question you can mix in there, right? Well, I think that's enough for that question, but I think that there needs to be a better question for that in the future that combines all three of those with the X factor. Recommendations for people who drink beer and want to look better. Hmm. I have had a separate podcast on this talking about beer and the effects of it on your body and working out and all those things. Once the alcohol hits your system, it becomes priority in your body to get the alcohol out. It is a foreign substance and your body can no longer digest food properly.

It can no longer digest vitamins and minerals properly. And your body is just constantly trying to get rid of the number one most important thing, which is AKA alcohol um the best thing that you can do if you are going to drink alcohol is to limit your carb consumption as much as possible as that is like one of the fastest absorbing micronutrients that you're going to put into your body or macronutrients that you're going to put into your body um there has been some good documentation on that where if you are going to drink lowering your carbs is going to help you more than anything else. So as you go out, you're going to have to pick, do I want to eat pizza or do I want to drink some more alcohol? In all honesty, my friend, if you want to look better though, I just don't think it's going to happen. I have a lot of friends who drink a lot.

They work out like badasses in the gym and they just don't look all that great. I've made comments before about some of your favorite CrossFitters out there who drink quite a bit, work out really hard, been to the CrossFit Games multiple times. They just don't look all that great. Case in point, Con Porter. You can look him up. He's always got photos of himself drinking and this and that. I don't know. He doesn't look that great to me. There's just one example for you. And there's more on there. I promise you'll find them. But in my opinion, my friend, just try to limit the drinking. Just get it, you know,

just limit it. And if you're going to do it, because this guy likes craft beer, apparently, I would rather just go with the shots. Just get it done. Tequila done. And it's not as gnarly on your body. If I did not do CrossFit, would I be an Oli lifter or a power lifter or something of that caliber? If I didn't do CrossFit, I think I'd just straight up do bodybuilding, honestly. I mean, for a while, I think that I really wanted to get into Oli lifting, and I did actually. In college, I was a competitive Oli lifter for, I don't know, four years. And I just personally have never liked doing a clean and jerk ever. Even to this day, I hate it. My best snatch ever is 290 pounds. And my best clean and jerk ever is 315. You can go ahead and just feel the tension on that. I've never liked to clean and jerk so much that it's only like 15, 25 pounds off my max snatch. So there is that factor with the ollie lifting.

I just never really liked to clean and jerk, but I did love snatching. Powerlifting, I've always loved squatting and deadlifting for sure, but I've never really liked the bodies that were going hand in hand-hand with those people. A lot of those guys are trying to get as many calories in as possible, and they're big and fluffy.

You can for sure have a good body type and be a powerlifter, but I think pound for pound, the style of the training, all that stuff, I feel like bodybuilding would be super fun if you had some good buddies to work out with and you kind of traveled a lot, which I'm getting into now. You can go from gym to gym and link up with some other people who are pretty popular and probably have a really good time doing bodybuilding these days. Even though it's not nearly as fun as CrossFit, I still like what I do, especially the interval style of the bodybuilding that I've been kind of creating recently has been super fun for me. And that's just something that I've been doing because of my knee, which is going to be another question later. But there is the answer to that question, my friend. Thoughts on consuming sugar during your

workouts. So when you consume sugar during your workouts, you are taking away from your ability, your body's ability to burn more fat. I mean, that's just a fact just is the way it is. It's better to have that after you work out so that you're getting more of the recovery factor from it and you're getting the muscle mass recovery factor of it as well. So I mean, consuming sugar during your workout is definitely gonna increase your performance. I can guarantee that, especially if you're doing an endurance event. That's why those people have those goo packets every 20, or no, it's like maybe 30 to 60 minutes or something like that. Probably saw a lot of people in the CrossFit Games having those during the marathon row. Case in point, or the end of the point here, my thoughts on consuming sugar. For me personally, I just want to look better and, you know, look good naked, all that.

Probably not going to do it during my workouts. If I was looking for a competitive edge, 100%, I would definitely be doing it. Here's a question that comes up a lot. Not only does it come up a lot, but everybody who follows me, I would say there's a good portion of them, are gay. And they always want to know, Ryan, are you ever going to be gay? Do you want to come to the dark side? Have you ever been with a man? This and that, blah, blah, blah, blah. So the answer to that question is no, I will probably never be gay. I do realize if I was that there would be plenty of people out there that I could pick from and that's great to know.

And I still love all you guys and I will still give you all the naked kettlebell photos in the world, naked handstand walks, whatever the hell you guys want to get off on yourselves and keep following me and appreciate my story and what I do. And I appreciate you guys, but unfortunately, I'm straight for the greater good. And that is probably going to be the way the rest of my life is going to go. All right. Moving on to the next question. Do you enjoy any form of cannabis? What a great question. For a long time, I was actually taking edibles like, I can't say every night, but I would

take them a few days a week just for the sleep factor. Like once that sucker kicks in, you just can't really function anymore. It definitely helps put you to sleep. Unfortunately for me, it doesn't necessarily keep me asleep as much as I'd like it to. Like I would love something that kept me asleep. Like you fall asleep and you stay asleep for eight hours. It'd be awesome. But unfortunately I get up like two times a night to pee and that doesn't work. Another thing that I think sucks about it is if you take cannabis and go to bed, all of a sudden you wake up and you feel really groggy and it's hard to get your day

going. And I don't love that as soon as I wake up, I'm usually in the gym and I need to be social and get my life together. So there is that. I do like CBD, the cannabinoids oil, and I have done the liquid pills. I've done just the liquid in general, and I've actually done the smoke version of that. And I do think that I get a better pain relief when using those products for sure. However, after a little while, I didn't really feel any additional benefit and I stopped taking it and I don't actually feel a difference after stop taking it. But when I did take it, I definitely felt a difference. And I'm wondering if maybe I now I have like a permanent, um, result from it, which could be great. Um, it means that you don't have

to spend so much money on it. However, However, it is not something I've currently been taking very recently. I had a free hookup for a while from the Crafted guys when I had him on my podcast. I had tons of it, and then I just never really purchased any after that. But I was on it for a solid year. It is something that I probably will look back into. As far as cannabis, just for fun consumption, I get more paranoid than anything else. So I don't like to do it and like go do anything. It's just more of a sleep aid, if anything, if I ever want to give it a go. However, one time I did go to Dave and Buster's,

which is a really fun arcade place for adults. And I went really high and it was super, super fun. I played one of those like shooting games like Tomb Raider and I felt like I was inside the game. Incredible experience. How do you keep a good mental state while in the pain cave? This is a great question. I've actually had an Instagram post about this. Honestly, when I'm in the pain cave, what I like about it most is one,

I've been working out all day to get to this place. Like I know when I'm in the pain cave, what I like about it most is one, I've been working out all day to get to this place. Like I know when I get here, that this is where all the results are made. Whether you're a bodybuilder looking to get the extra rep, or you're a CrossFitter just looking to get a little deeper into the pain cave to get you a faster time on a workout, it is always going to be in your best interest to push yourself as hard as you can in that moment. And there's nothing worse than feeling regret of not getting an extra rep or not going a couple seconds faster. So I keep that in mind. I'm like, man, if I don't just push through this right now, even though it sucks, I'm going to feel like I need to come back later and work out again. And I know a lot of you guys can feel for me on

that. You get like a workout in that you feel like was 80% effort, 80% still pretty hard. And you're like, fuck, I have to go back later. It wasn't enough. You know, I'm just gonna go back and just do a little something, you know, and I don't want to feel that way. So I get to that point. I know that it sucks. And I try to push through it because I know that when I'm done, I'm going to be fucking done. And I just want that feeling. That's why I do it. That's why I'm in this world of the style of working out that I do. And I'm going to be fucking done. And I just want that feeling. That's why I do it. That's why I'm in this world of the style of working out that I do. And I'm not a power lifter. I'm not an oil lifter.

You know, I'm an on the floor type of guy. I like to work out and be on the floor. I know it's not necessarily the healthiest thing for everyone, but it's the feeling that I like. And I like working out and having that feeling. That's what I like, right? So if that's going to keep me motivated, then I'm going to do it. I don't necessarily condone it for everybody, but yeah, that's what I think about when I'm in that mental state. I just want to get my workout done, and I know that that is the best

place for me to get to where I want to be. Yeah. All right. Let's get back to the offensive questions. Most awkward sex story. Jesus. I'm trying to think of how to explain this, actually. I can't say it's like, oh, yeah. Fuck.

How am I allowed to say this? I guess there was this one time that I was having, you know, sex in my office at the gym, which is super bad publicity right now. And somebody was knocking on the door while I was like behind the door but my room is glass so you can't see inside and then someone's about to open the door so then i locked the door and there's like class i mean it's like the whole situation is just so bad and i am embarrassed but it it had been a long time and I just really wanted it um so I came out of the office and the person who knocked on the door was definitely like okay what was happening in there we're all scruffled and frazzled and all those things and it was just an awkward moment and I just think that it was not okay. And I'm embarrassed

for even answering that question. But I told you I would. So there's that. If you could just picture my office, all glass, the whole gym could see in if they wanted to. And the only part that you can't see is behind the door. And that's where I was. And someone was trying to get in, and it was not okay. Moving on, now that I'm uncomfortable. All right. How much does it cost to assemble a training box? That's a very broad question. It kind of depends where you are geographically. If you're in a more poor country, it's probably not as much.

If you're in California, it's going to be a lot more. Here's what I would say, though. No matter where you are, I would say you're going to need at least 100 grand worth of equipment to be competitive. So there's just the equipment, right? Like, I'm not really sure how much your rent's going to be or if you're going to build a building or how much you're going to pay yourself salary-wise or your trainers or how much supplies cost like you know toilet paper lights um plumbing all that stuff there's a lot of like little things that you don't really realize i really i don't i

don't know if it matters where you are in the world i still wouldn't do it without a couple hundred thousand dollars and i mean that just at this point because there's so many gyms and there's so many options for people to pick one gym over another. I mean there's nothing worse than walking into a gym that costs just as much as all the other gyms in the area. But they're not blown away by either one, the customer service, or the look of the gym. And I think, I mean, you can be customer service all day long, but in reality, they need to walk in and see, you know, what they're paying for. Like, if you're going to have an expensive meal, you want to walk in and see a really nice restaurant. If you're going to buy an expensive car, you want to walk in to a car and be like, damn, this thing is super nice. Like, you're not going to just go spend a hundred grand on a Honda Civic

after you get in it. You're going to get in and be like no way you know what i mean like there's just no way that starting at the lower end these days is going to be in your you know best interest i'm not saying it's it can't be done i just don't think it's in your best interest and if you're going to make a life-changing decision like opening a gym that's going to require a lot of work a ton of work by the way for the rest of your life or debatably for a big chunk of it you better make sure you're coming out with some guns blazing my friend better make sure you're ready to go you better be so confident that you're not even asking me a question on this fucking podcast that's how confident you need to be that's how ready you need to. And I don't know if I feel that good for you, my friend. So I'm gonna move on from that question right now. And I do have more on stuff like that on another podcast I did

earlier with Dave Driscoll. My favorite movie, my favorite movie is called Without Limits. It is a movie about Steve Prefontaine, the best distance runner of all time, in American history at least, and it is a story about his life and how hard he worked, and then he eventually passes away at the end of the movie, which is very sad, but it is such an inspiring movie. It really, really gives me some motivation, and again, it is called Without Limits. I forget the name of the guy who stars in the movie, but great movie. DMX or Eminem? DMX, bro? You kidding me?

I mean, Eminem's legit, but DMX just gets it popping. Can I add a daily high-intensity interval bodybuilding workout to my online programming? Oh, like a daily HIB training. If you guys have never heard of my online programming, I have the chalk workouts online that everybody can follow every day. And I also have made like a high intensity interval bodybuilding ebook that you can do. It's kind of like HIIT training, but more of a bodybuilding emphasis as the goal. And he's basically asked me if I could add that to a daily program. I would love to if I had enough interest in that.

So if you guys really, really, really want that, just go ahead and shoot me an email at ryan at crossfitchalk.com, and I'll get back to you on that. Best prescription for big, blocky abs. Everyone always likes to comment on my abs, and they're always a little bit, I don't know, what would you say, like impressed by my abs and they're always, you know, a little bit, um, I don't know, what would you say, like impressed by my abs because they're so big and blocky. I think the biggest thing that I can do for prescription on that is you're going to need to lift some super heavy weights on deadlifts and squats and get your kettlebell swings in.

I think that makes a huge difference. Like doing ab sit-ups and all that stuff, GHDs, they're not actually going to give you any abs really. I mean, you're definitely working the ab region and you're increasing your heart rate to burn fat, which is, you know, the number one when it comes to seeing your abs. But to actually build that muscle there, it's more of a core workout than it is just like an ab workout. So like having a humongous load on your body, like a squat or a deadlift is going to actually grow you thickness wise. I think a lot of people kind of don't understand that. And when you swing a super heavy kettlebell, you're not just working your abs, you're working your core. And like that is really what gives you like those big abs. So like even

bodybuilders have that really tiny waist and they have those small abs. In my opinion, they're kind of a pussy. Like they just haven't worked hard enough to squat 500 pounds or deadlift 500 pounds. They just took a bunch of fucking gear and worked out, you know, just enough to look the way they do. I just pissed off a lot of people, fuck. But that's my opinion. How do I write my programming and the theory behind it? So the chalk programming, in my opinion, I call it on the floor programming slash, um, the, you know, the people's choice programming. It's, um, it's entertainment programming. You

know what I mean? It's motivation programming. It's a fuck ton of hours of me staring at the screen, creating something fun that when you look at it, you're like, I want to do that. Because as you get older and as you've been doing fitness for longer and longer and longer, it doesn't really necessarily matter the theory behind everything. I keep the theory behind everything. I keep the theory behind everything. Number one, still, I still have very thought out and linear out, you know, strength cycles and this and that. But the Metcons themselves that take me so much time to make are like an entertainment factor. Like I, I, when you see my workouts, you can just tell that I put a lot of time into it. It's not like everybody else's. It's definitely not. Um, and because I do that, it does attract so many people. That's why there's so many people following the chalk program because

your morale level and your motivation is very high because all the workouts are so fucking rad. And that is what I really, really focus on. I don't focus on what's necessarily popular out there and, or, yeah, I mean, I mean, I guess popular is really the really, really focus on. I don't focus on what's necessarily popular out there. I guess popular is really the only thing I could say. People like to follow the trend or this or that. I like to look at the workout and be like, yeah, it looks rad. Because if you're not excited to do it, you're just not going to do it that hard. And if you're not going to do it that hard, you're going to spend more time in the gym.

And that's not my plan either. You guys know me. I like to get out. I like to have a good hard, you're going to spend more time in the gym. And that's not my plan either. You guys know me. I like to get out. I like to have a good time, get out into the adventure world and stuff. And I want to be in and out of the gym in like an hour, hour and a half, and I'm done. So I put a lot of time on the chalk program, making it as cool as I can entertainment-wise. And then I have very basic strength programming. A lot of the strength programs that I use are like four-week programs

because I'm not a huge fan of people who do like a 12-week squat cycle for a gym. And by the like eighth week, you've had like 20 new members and they have no idea like what's going on. They don't even know what their one rep max is or this or that. Like you're just really fucking up

the community vibe for those people. Like they don't understand like what's going on if you have somebody who wants to follow like hatch program that's 12 weeks long just that's probably a competitor and you just give it to him and he can do it on the side but i think like the wendler 531 every four weeks doing something new uh getting new maxes you're not really bothering anybody and you're creating a good vibe in the gym and people can follow along very, very easily. All right. I went off on that one of all the programming that I create. What do I do personally on a daily basis? Okay. So for me, a lot of you guys may or may not know this. Like my, my left knee is bone on bone. I don't have any cartilage left in it. I don't have any meniscus left in it. It hurts all the

time. Um, you can see me in photos. Like if you look at my hips, I'm just kind of like crooked a little bit in the hips and just crooked all the way up because one leg is just kind of getting super fucked up. So because of that, I don't really do that much Olympic lifting. Like I don't really snatch and clean anymore because it's jumping and it's got a lot of impact. I don't run anymore. I don't do box jumps anymore. So if those things are not in the chalk program, I do the chalk program. And even if snatch is in the chalk program,

I usually just muscle snatch. So I'm not really getting that jump off the floor. So whenever those things are not in there, I hop into that first and foremost because I would rather do class than anything else because it it's just motivation wise, it's the best. And then if one of those things are in the program, I'll probably work on one of my high intensity interval bodybuilding workouts so I can record it and start, you know, making my second book, which is what I've been trying to do for a while now. But just lack of creativity. I don't want to put anything

out unless it's like absolutely super, super rad. You guys know how I am. I'm very, very particular on that stuff. And then some days if I'm just not feeling the heavy weights and I like the way the sweat workout looks, I have the sweat workout as part of my online programming as well. I love to do the sweat workout. And it's crazy like how much the sweat workouts are just taking over my gym at Chalk. Like people love the sweat program. If you guys don't know what the sweat program is, it's basically a cardio class that I created. It's very CrossFit-esque,

but we don't really do any only lifting. Like we don't do snatches or cleans. We do like, and the only thing we'll do with a barbell is like a sumo deadlift high pull or a front squat or a lunge or something like that. Very basic things that you can teach someone on their first day, but there is nothing with high skill. Even a handstand pushup is out. But the workouts are really, really hard, and they're always 40 minutes long, so you're always going to get a good sweat in, a.k.a. the name sweat.

All right, Ryan. If you had to pick between kettlebells or dumbbells, which one would you pick? That is a very, very good question. I have to say it's a hard tie. I mean, as much as there's so many things you can do with a dumbbell that I think are more comfortable than with a kettlebell, like even thrusters, for instance, even though they're awkward with both, I still feel like the dumbbell thruster is probably a little bit better on that. And like bent over rows and benching and stuff, it's just so much more comfortable with dumbbells. But I would hate to swing a dumbbell, you know, like I would like with a kettlebell. And I would

hate to do like squats with dumbbells versus with a kettlebell. Like kettlebell is just better on certain things like that. I think it's a solid tie. It's really, really hard. I've actually been thinking pretty extensively about making a program that is just kettlebells and dumbbells, but I can't think of a catchy name. If you guys can help me out with that, go ahead and email me, ryan, R-Y-A-N, at crossfitchalk.com, and I'd love to make something like that because I love both of those pieces of equipment. How do you order coffee and keep it on the healthy side? That's really not that hard of a question, and a lot of people mess this up all the time. Personally, I eat, I mean, I drink a lot of lattes. That's like my number one go-to drink. Huge fan of it, and I always get whole milk.

It's just espresso and a bunch of milk. There is sugar in milk. And a lot of people can't really, you know, take milk very well. I understand that. I'm not necessarily saying it's a healthy option. But for me, that's what I drink a lot. But if I actually had to condone something and say this is the healthiest way to get great coffee and make it taste great and you know keep you on your game and you know get this question question answered i would say just get black coffee from a really good place like you don't go to like you know a convenience store and get some coffee get some good cold brew coffee and just put the tiniest splash of like grass-fed heavy cream in there like the tiniest one it's all you need and it's going to do like zero to your insulin insulin

sensitivity i mean it'll do a little something but it's like so minor that's like really nothing's going on um and you'll start to appreciate the taste of like really good beans and which i've been doing a lot more recently. And I still like lattes are kind of a treat for me now. But I think that's a really, really good way to attack those coffees. And a lot of people, they get a latte, but they get like a vanilla latte or something like that. And there's a ton of sugar in there and you're just ruining it. And a lot of people who can't understand why they're not getting these certain gains. I realized that they're drinking, you know, some sort of crazy

drink from Starbucks that has 100 grams of carbs and sugar in it, and it just blows my mind. I can't. All right, there's that question. What is your favorite training split for an IWT? So an IWT is an interval weight training program. I do these a lot as well. They're actually the basis of my high-int intensity interval bodybuilding stuff. My favorite split is probably something of a high rep. It's like eight to 10 rep. It could be like a jerk or a bench. I actually did some today. I did a 10 rep muscle snatch from the hang. And then I hopped into 20 calories for time on the skier. So the 20 calories is like, you know, it's a little bit under a minute. And that's probably my favorite combo. I like eight to 10 reps into a minute of super hard cardio and a two minute rest. And I do four rounds and then I do something very, very similar on the

next one. I've done other ones where you have a high rep as well and you go into like a four minute cardio bout and I'm like completely toast after those. And I really like to do those as well. You just got to be in a different frame of mind for those. You got to be like ready to be in some serious pain that day because you don't want to just do four minutes with like, you know, not that much effort. Otherwise it's not that great. So my favorite, definitely for sure, high rep into a minute of hard intensity that's by far my favorite for sure ryan i follow your online programming and i have a hard time scaling things like rope climbs what do you do for your following to scale a rope climb

that's a very basic question i get that actually a lot though if you think about a rope climb, you're pulling. So you could actually hang a rope in a very low ceiling area and just lay on your back and pull yourself up to your feet and lower yourself back down. I think if you do that two or three times, that equals one rope climb. For most people, they're getting up in about two to three poles. If you don't have the means to hang anything at all or you just don't want to, um, you can get a sled and put a rope on it and pull it towards you, uh, for the length of your driveway or wherever you are in the gym, somewhere on turf or this or that. And that pulling motion is going to be pretty similar. If you have rings or, um, like even like a bench press type of setup,

you can do ring rows and pull your chest to the bar or the rings and get a very similar experience as well as with that pulling motion. People ask me that one all the time. That's a pretty popular one. Next question. I just listened to your last podcast with Dave Driscoll. How did you find your investor for your gym? I've answered this a lot, and it's not about

how I found him. It is the way that I lived my life to find him. So I genuinely believe that you should be the best version of yourself at all times, and it's super cheesy to say, but if you're a trainer, for instance, or you're just working at a gym as a coach, no one is really going to be going out of their way for you unless you are going out of your way for them. It's very, very important that people see how passionate you are about what you do. If you're just there and you're going through the motions and you're getting your job done, you can't wait until that clock hits and you're out. No one is ever going to give you any opportunities. They're just not. I mean, fuck, like, I can't say that enough. Like, it's so important to just love what you're doing and make sure that everybody else knows that you love it.

Like, I mean, think about how fucking annoying Gary Vee is, right? He's so awesome to listen to because sometimes you just need that boost. But he's so passionate about it that even though he's annoying and he says the same thing every fucking day, people still love him. Or people want to ask him questions. I mean, you just want people to think of, you know, when they think of fitness or they think of who they want to train them or they think of some, maybe they want to open a gym and they want a face for their company or it's a product and they want a face for their company. Like, who are they going to think of? They're going to think of the person that's in their face all the time who is so passionate that they don't even have the ability to think of another person. I mean, that is the person that I'd be looking for for the face of anything that I was going to have. So I think that it's very important for you right

now to crush your life as much as possible so that you are that person who gets asked if you'd like to be the face of the gym that they'd like to open. Can someone in their late 30s hop into CrossFit? Absolutely. I'll be 32 by the time this podcast comes out, which is in two weeks. I mean, I'm not late 30s, but I think really it all comes down to when you start out, how fast you progress. So I think you only go as fast as you can progress, like not as fast as you'd like to progress, but how fast you can progress. Because if you start doing things with bad habits, it tends to increase that ability for an injury. It's just the inevitable. And everyone sees everybody lifting

heavy and they want to go heavy and they want to do this. They want to do that. They want to learn how to do a muscle up and you know, they hurt their shoulder or this or that happens. It's very, very possible. I have people come in my gym all the time. They start CrossFit at 40. They start CrossFit at 50. I've even had people start CrossFit at 60. It really just depends on what you did in your previous life. Sometimes whatever you did in your previous life gave you the ability to have absolutely no flexibility whatsoever. And it might just not be up your alley, honestly, with all the overhead stuff that we do and this and that. I'm not saying that you'll never be able to do it, but you have a lot of homework to get

flexible before you can start doing certain things like overhead squats and feeling, you know, super part of the class. Like you can do anything in the class that is definitely hard. But if you have good mobility, you don't have a lot of injuries. Even if you have injuries, it's still totally doable. Look at me. I'm all fucked up. And I mean, just my knee really, but you know, people have a back or this or that. Oh my God, the back people. I have such a thing to tell you guys. But for another podcast. So can you start in your late 30s? Absolutely.

And I suggest that you do. I think it'll change your way that you look at fitness for the rest of your life. Next question. My gym is an area where health and fitness is not exactly a priority. Business is good, but it could definitely be better. Is your opinion for me to stay and try to keep grinding or move somewhere else that I believe will be better financially? That's a good question. Some places, you know, like Italy, for instance, when I was there, there's not a lot of gyms around and it's not a priority in people's lives. They live a

healthy lifestyle, but the actual gym popularity is pretty low. So this guy said he's in an area somewhere in Chicago. Here's my thing, especially if you're in Chicago. I understand that you're in an area where they're not ready to spend a lot of money and this and that. potentially change your business plan from, you know, maybe like a $200 a month membership to like a hundred dollar a month membership where maybe that's, you know, something that they're ready to look, look into versus $200. Like let's say you lowered it down to a lower price point and it did catch their attention and they could get in the gym and you could start to create a vibe that everybody would be like really excited about. And you got a good social media going and

people saw it and were like, fuck, I really wanna be part of this. I think it's totally possible, especially in a place like Chicago that gets so cold in the winter. Like what are people doing? I mean, places like that, I think should be crushing. I think that maybe your social game there

is probably not that great. Maybe I need to get some better coaches. I need to be in the gym a little bit more and start getting that vibe up. You could potentially move to another area if you think that's going to help, but I honestly think that it's doable kind of no matter where you are if you just put the right effort into it. I think you might need to also get some marketing going in that area as well and start maybe reaching out to some other places and kind of see what your what your um your competition is sometimes if you find out who your competition is and what's going well for them you can kind of implement some of those

things into your own into your own classes like sweat for instance for me at my gym i'm attracting a huge crowd just because of sweat maybe Maybe because you don't have that, maybe you're not attracting a certain amount of clientele. So maybe you might just have to move your classes around a little bit. Or maybe they're all gangsters and they just want to fucking lift some heavy ass weight. Maybe you incorporate an Oli class. That is my answer for that. Ryan, what is your height and weight?

I feel like a lot of people already know this. I'm not a tall guy. I'm 5'5", I weigh 180 pounds. 180 is pretty big though, I feel like. So'm not a tall guy. I'm 5'5", I weigh 180 pounds. 180 is pretty big, though, I feel like. So that's it on that. What I consider, oh, would I consider to be an underwear model on the side? Absolutely. I'd be like Justin Bieber sitting on the top of a Calvin Klein underwear ad. That'd be great. And I'd probably have a million dollar paycheck. Calvin Klein, if you're listening to this, hit me up.

Thoughts on failure training. In addition, what are your thoughts on expanding your pain threshold? So thoughts on expanding my pain threshold, I think I answered earlier. How do you expand the pain cave? And what do you do when you're there? But thoughts on failure training. So that would be like doing reps to failure. Reps to failure are always going to increase the ability for you to, you know, recruit more muscles and

I mean, recruit more muscle fibers, which is going to give you more hypertrophy, which is going to make you bigger and which is going to make you better looking and give you, you know, more full muscles and all the great things that we're looking for. In fact, it's very hard to have a particular look, especially the look that most people are looking for without failure training. That's why CrossFit actually works so well because they have these obscure rep schemes that they know are going to fuck you like right on those last like five reps, aka like a workout that's 21-15-9. I think that's where they came up with it. It's probably some guy went until he like failed pretty much. Um, and that's how they came up with the rep scheme. If, if I'm wrong, then fuck. But I think that's something pretty similar to that. So in my opinion,

failure training is Holy grail, my friend, it's like, it's what you're looking for. And it's, uh, it's also the reason why so many people look the way they do. And so many people don't cause they just don't have the ability to go to that place. All right, next question. What is the best breakfast and the best dinner? So for me personally, because we're asking my opinion on it, I'm going to go ahead and say best breakfast, best dinner is not going to have any carbohydrates in it. It's going to be high fat, high protein. When you're sleeping, you're not really burning any carbohydrates. You're using low intensity brain waves and you're thinking and you're dreaming and a lot of that stuff goes off of fat. And in your breakfast,

you haven't really done anything yet. Using those carbohydrates is not going to be the best thing for you at the moment and you're not going to burn as much fat if you start consuming those carbs, unless you're going to go work out right away. But in my opinion, best breakfast and dinner is not going to really have any carbohydrates in it and I'm going to crush all my carbs in the middle of the day when I work out. That's my answer on that. How do I work around my knee injury and what is exactly wrong with it? All right, I think I told you that is that. I'm bone on bone on my left knee. I basically need a knee replacement. And how do I work around it?

I try to stick to the chalk program. And if I can't, I change things up and do sweat or one of the other programs that I am currently making as an e-book. Is it necessary to have a full rest day to grow? How often do you have a rest day? And how often do you have a cheat day? Those are good questions. Is it necessary to have a full rest day and how often do you have a cheat day? Those are good questions. Is it necessary to have a full rest day to grow? Absolutely. If you think about it this way, think about doing a bicep curl and you do your bicep curl so much, you get this big pump,

you know, blood's flowing, your muscle is damaged and a lot of those muscle fibers are torn. So when they grow back, think of it as like a calcification process where it actually grows back a little bit more than before. And for that to happen, you need rest. So like if you just keep hammering away at the muscle, even though it's been torn and everything. You've done a whole bunch of curls and you're all pumped up and whatever. And you keep doing it and you keep doing it and you keep doing it. You never have the ability to rest. You never get that calcification. You don't really actually get the bigger muscle. I'm not saying that you can't become a better athlete because you might build an adaptation that makes you have more endurance now on your biceps you can do hundreds of reps but you're not necessarily going to look better and have bigger muscles

so in my opinion for you to grow absolutely not and actually it's been documented in like every study since the beginning of time so you can go ahead and check that out type in google do you need a rest to grow muscles and it's just going to be yes everywhere how often do i need to rest to grow muscles? And it's just going to be yes everywhere. How often do I rest? I rest two days a week. Every fucking week. I don't care what anybody says. They're lying. Everyone thinks I work out so much. I really don't. I take off every Thursday and every Sunday. Sometimes I ride my bike at a low intensity, but that's really it. Or I ride my skateboard or something like that. How often do I have a cheat day? I have a solid cheat day once a week where I eat some donuts from my favorite place down the street. But I might cheat a little bit here and there if I'm going on like a date with a girl or something like that, just because I don't want to be weird.

There's really no amount of fitnessing and looking good and all of these things that you can do that's going to make up for you being weird and not being able to be happy for the rest of your life, a.k.a. finding a girlfriend or a boyfriend or whatever your goals are on that. Next question. What are my main recommendations to become a better coach, certifications and things like that? This is a great question. And I hope that most of you guys are still tuned in right now and you're still listening to all these ridiculous questions and the good ones. My main recommendation when becoming a better coach is going to be being the best athlete that you can in whatever it is that you're trying to coach other people on. Now, I understand that you might

be into bodybuilding and CrossFit and powerlifting and ollie lifting or whatever, right? So make sure you're good at all of those things. Make sure you know about, you know, what happens when you do like a three second negative on a rep. If you don't know what that means, then you need to be a better coach immediately. Like eccentric and concentric movements. What's happening when you do 10 reps versus five reps? What's happening when you lift heavyweights versus lightweights? How many reps are going to promote this type of response or this or that? You should know everything about everything if it's what you're trying to coach someone else. And to do that, you're going to need to do a lot of reading and you're going to need to do a lot of coaching. Especially being a coach, there's

nothing better than coaching all types of people because everyone is going to need a different response to a question. Like some people on like a toes to bar, for instance, in the gym or a kipping pull-up, I've said just completely different things to different people that worked so well and would never work for somebody else that I might have said the same thing for. It's just crazy. That experience of coaching means so, so much. And then as far as readings and stuff go, I just think articles are the best way to go. You can read books, but a lot of times books get outdated or new stuff comes out. I mean, it's the same with studies as well, but there's so much good literature out there. I'm trying to think

of my favorite. I do think it's just so important to have the hands-on experience in my opinion, more than anything else. Cause you can talk until you're blue in the face, start reciting all these books and this and that. And a lot of people just don't know what you're talking about. And like, what they really need is someone who's fun to fucking hang out with and that they really, really enjoy their passion. And they know what they're talking about to get them to where they want to be. No one's ever asked me where I graduated from college, which I had a great college degree and I've done a ton of stuff in my life and certifications.

No one's ever asked me for one. And when I hire people at my gym, I've actually never asked for one either. That's sad, right? No, it's not. Because these people are great coaches and they fucking crush. And you could have all the book smarts in the world and no one's going to hire you if you suck at being a

human. That's really it. Like if you're really, really so concerned with that, I just wouldn't be. It's just, it's not going to be the selling feature that you need on your resume. I promise you that. A lot of people don't even look at resumes anymore. They just like lightly, lightly breeze over it and they need to meet you and talk to you. And that is going to be like the number one thing, especially if you want to work at a CrossFit gym or another like facility, they're going to come in. They're going to want to talk to you and I want to make sure that you're flowing like everybody else. Um, that's, that's what I feel about that. Honestly. Um, the CrossFit certification, actually, I'll just touch on that real quick it's embarrassing it's just awful uh you're not going to learn anything

um that is going to be benefit to your future you'll learn something but it's not going to be life-changing that's for sure i even have the us uh a weightlifting certification that was great as well but if you lift quite a bit and you've had a coach on that, you'll probably get, you know, equal as much out of that. Yeah, I just, experience for me is everything. When is my second bodybuilding book coming out? I'm trying, my friends. There's a lot going on, probably the next few months. What is my opinion on HGH use? And in a last podcast or way back, I mentioned how I had used it in the past. And do I think a lot of people are using it currently? So when I used it, it was more of like a recovery from an injury. And I didn't really get to use it

while I was healthy to really see like the, you know, the amazing effects of it. It's very expensive. So it's not something that you really are just like easily attainable to just go ahead and get and start using it. And even if you did, like, I don't, I don't think the benefits would be so alarming that you felt compelled to keep spending thousands of dollars a month on it. Do I think a lot of people are on it? Absolutely, because the prize money is getting bigger. Why wouldn't you be? And when people say they don't and this and that, like it just doesn't fucking mean anything.

Like Lance Armstrong, like Marion Jones, like all these people in history who've always been so good at sports, like it always comes out at some point that they did something. And I don't even think it matters anymore like i think everyone's on it anyway so fuck it like just believe that everyone might be on it and you know you have to try to imagine that everyone's kind of on a equal playing field i assume and i just wouldn't put any stock in the fact that even by using it, it's going to

turn you into something that you're already not. Like you're not going to take all these steroids and all of a sudden be somebody that, you know, is the best in the world at something like that person's already got some fucking crazy work ethic, crazy genetics. Like there's so many other things going on that it's not just that that got them there. I promise you that. It's just helping them recover and maybe giving them a little bit of a mental edge because they're like, I'm on something and whatever, right? Like someone can give you a pill tomorrow and tell you that it's going to make you jump higher. And you're going to just honestly believe that you're going to jump higher. And you're just going to try really hard to jump higher. And you might jump higher.

And then all of a sudden it's the pill. So there is that. That's placebo effect that's everybody knows that um so yeah that's my opinion on i think a lot of people are using it would i use it again fuck i don't know like it's hard to say i feel like there's other things that i would definitely want to try before i use that considering it's the most expensive thing on the market, which you could easily Google. And it's going to give you probably the least benefit, like aesthetically, visually speaking, in terms of time and all that.

Like it's going to take a long time to get the results from that. And there was research on that is pretty bad if you have cancer. It increases your cancer cells and makes things grow faster and basically die faster if that's in your cards. All right, moving on. What is your deepest, darkest secret? I was actually thinking about this for a little bit. I just breezed over these questions very, very shortly as I recorded them down.

Deepest, darkest secret, I don't know. There's probably something in there somewhere that I'm not really aware of, but when I first got my license when I was 18, I was driving at night at a Chevy Avalanche, that was my first truck, big fucking truck, and it was raining out, and I'm driving really fast on the highway, and there was a car in front of me, and a car in front of that car, and we're all kind of like tailgating each other. I don't know why. I'm 18 years old. I just got my license.

I have a brand new truck. I don't know why I'm tailgating them. It's fucking raining. Like I had, you know, for my driving test, I learned all about hydroplaning and all that, right? So two cars in front of me, they actually hydroplane and they start sliding all over the place. And then the car in front of me smashes into that car. I smash into that car. That person goes flying through the windshield of the car, and I was so fucking scared because I was like, oh my god, I just hit this car

with my brand new car, and I don't want my parents to know, I don't want anybody to know, I gotta get the fuck out of here, so I just ditched, and it was raining out, and it was dark, and I was like, confident that nobody was gonna know, I went like, two blocks down the road, made a left, parked my car, got out, ran over to the scene of the accident, because the front emblem of my truck, like the Chevy symbol, fell off, I picked it up in the road. And when I picked it up, I saw the guy went through his windshield. I'm pretty sure he's not dead, but he's definitely not dead. No, there's no way. Um, but he was for sure hurting, you know, it wasn't like a good day for him. And I was like, I gotta get the fuck out of here. I don't want to be part of this. I don't want my mom to know about it. And this just sucks, you know?

So I need to get the fuck out of here. So I grabbed my little Chevy emblem. I go back to my truck two blocks down. I just punch that thing back on. I go home and act as if nothing ever happened. And I told my mom about it like two years later. And she was like, you have some serious issues, Ryan. That's fucked up.

But I did what I had to do. I was a young kid. I didn't wanna get in trouble. That's fucked up. But I did what I had to do. I was a young kid. I didn't want to get in trouble. That's a pretty dark secret. I feel like that was a good answer, I feel like, for you guys and a good little story. Moving on. 90% of the people who follow you just want to know what you do every day. You document everything pretty well in your stories.

But we want to know, are you working out more somewhere else? Are you eating more somewhere else? Is there anything going on that we don't know about? Guys, I wish I could tell you that there was something else going on, but there's really not. I literally work out an hour to an hour and a half a day. I promise you that. You can ask anybody in my gym. Go ahead and send them a random DM and ask them how much Ryan works out. Everybody knows I work out an hour, hour and a half a day. I work a ton. I have this podcast. I have my online program. Those have groups of people that I have to message all the time. I personal train people every morning and sometimes in the afternoon. I run the gym still. I coach classes still. There's a lot going on. I don't personally compete anymore, so there's no need for that either. Yeah, I mean,

I'm looking at 3,000 calories a day. 3,000 to 3,500 calories a day is my daily food intake. I work out between an hour, hour and a half a day, depending on what I'm trying to do that day. Um, and I try to sleep seven hours a night is usually about pretty much all I get. So sorry to tell you that there's no extra crazy secrets in there. Um, I don't do extra ab workouts or anything like that. That's just the day. I think a lot of the reason that people aren't really getting the bodies that they want, this and that, is because they just – they don't have – it's usually – honestly, it's usually just like they're doing something really, really dumb in their diet. Like the coffee thing with fucking a bunch of sugar in it, and they do that like several times a day and there's a bunch of like random sugary things in their diet that they don't even realize which i highly recommend using my fitness pal just to kind of see where you're at so you can actually see it and be like wow i actually do that um and the second thing is they don't go hard enough especially when they're in the pain cave which you guys have asked questions about twice already on this podcast so when you guys guys get there, you got to go fucking hard. Let's go. All right. Next question. If I can do everything over again, would I choose a different career

path? And if so, what would it be? Fuck. I would for sure do what I've already done. I fucking love it. I love this podcast. I love my gym. I love my online people. Everything is great. I probably, oh man, I guess I probably wouldn't have told the judge I was going to kill him like way back in the day. I probably would have had a little bit more love with CrossFit HQ. That's about it. But for all the lows that I've had, it's made all the highs that I've had that much better so I'm cool I like my career too it's not exactly work every day it feels great I fucking I I really love what I do guys I am so happy that you guys support me and I am so happy to do everything that I do each day I definitely have bad days just like everybody else. But in hindsight, I have such a good life and I'm so, so thankful for it. All right, next.

Best practice to increase membership at my gym. Best practice, best practice, best practice. The best practice to increase membership at your gym is honestly going to be to figure out what they want. So if you see people staying after class all the time, like very, very frequently, doing extra work, it's because you're not giving them enough in the workout. If you see people doing other people's programming off to the side, it's because they don't respect your workout. If you are all males and no females, there's probably something going on, like maybe you do too much strength work. If you have all females and you don't have

enough men, maybe you're not doing enough strength work. Maybe you need a sweat class like I have at my gym. Or maybe you are only sweat and you don't have a CrossFit class or something like that. Figuring out what everybody wants is going to make them talk about what they have. They're going to tell everybody, oh my God, like I just love my gym. I do this. I do that. And when you do events, they're gonna wanna go. And it's just gonna create the coolest vibe for them.

And they're just gonna wanna tell everybody about it. It's like you have a great girlfriend and you just wanna tell everyone like, man, this girl is so awesome and this and that. And you spend all your time with her and you start neglecting your friends, which hopefully you don't do, because that's really sad and I hate when that happens.

But it's inevitable because you love that person or you love your gym, and people want that in their lives. People want love in their life, whether it's a person or a thing. They just want that. They want to feel loved as well. So if they feel loved, they feel like you're really giving them what they need, fuck, this makes me want to go to my gym right now and just give people what they need. Yeah, I just answered the fuck out of that question. Moving on. I see you shop at Whole Foods a lot, but what about people who do not have Whole Foods and just have basic grocery stores where they live? What's your recommendations for us? Oh my God, people out there, you don't

have Whole Foods? What's going on? I'm so sad. Honestly, you can get pretty much the same stuff pretty much everywhere. You just have to be a little bit more creative. So we have a food store here called Vons, V-O-N-S. And it is a shitty little grocery store. But I have found in the prepared food section, they have very cheap salmon fillets that are wild caught and they're like $4 or something cheap for this small little piece. I feel like it's not actually wild caught and they're just putting that on the label, but I feel good about it mentally because they wrote it on there. So I'll take it. So there's things like that there. You can get a can of tuna and maybe online, buy some Primal Kitchen mayo and mix it together and have a great little meal there. You can still get rotisserie chickens pretty much everywhere, any grocery store.

You can get some yogurt and mix some protein powder in pretty much anywhere. You can get some fruits and vegetables pretty much anywhere. And yeah, I mean you can even get smoked salmon pretty much anywhere. Like my go-to when I travel, if I don't know where to eat, like if I don't have any recommendations where to eat, I always grab a packet of smoked salmon. That is like my go-to thing. And they have that pretty much everywhere, like any grocery store. I've even seen them in

like random like convenience stores. So that is my recommendation for you. That is absolutely doable anywhere in any grocery store. But I am sad for you that you don't have Whole Foods. All right, moving on. I get scared doing snatches. Is there any way to get rid of this fear? Yeah, dude, stop fucking snatching. If you're not having fun snatching, then stop doing it. If you really, really, really, really, really, really want to do it, then I suggest you just fucking suck it up and say that I'm not scared of this. I really want to do it. And there's that. Honestly, I don't think it's necessary for anyone to force themselves to do something if it's not making them happy and not giving them you know positive reinforcement so dude get it together next question did i eat a lot of carbs when i was younger to build my physique before

i switched to low carb do you think it's possible to build a large physique without eating a lot of carbs in my younger days for sure i ate a lot of carbs. In my younger days, for sure, I ate a lot of carbs. I think all of us did. I ate fucking gushers and fruit snacks. Like, that shit was going out of style. Pasta. My mom made pasta, like, every day. Every day. Mom, I'm sorry. I know you're listening to this, but you made a lot of pasta. What the fuck? All right. So here's the deal. Like once I started like really building a big physique, like a bigger physique than what I was, because I was a small kid, I definitely had a lot more carbs. Low carb at the time wasn't even a thing. It's like hard to say, you know what I mean? Like I don't know if I know anybody who was younger who had a low carb at the time wasn't even a thing. It's like hard to say, you know what I mean? Like, I don't, I don't know if I know anybody who was younger, who did who had a low carb diet,

it just like wasn't a thing. But in this day and age, there's people like, you know, they're really into all this stuff. And they have kids and they're, you know, they're giving them like lower carb diets for sure. And not like super low, but like they're eating sweet potatoes instead of macaroni and cheese or something like that. And it's just overall lower carb consumption, but you're still seeing athletes probably bigger than ever, um, stronger than ever breaking records more than ever. Um, yeah, they're still pretty fucking jacked. And I think it's, it's definitely doable a hundred percent, but I think what's most important is going to be your food timing. Like when you do get those carbs in,

like when are you getting them in and, um, what are you choosing to, to put in at that time? I think that's a very, very important. So I think it's definitely possible. And yes, when I was younger, I had a fuck ton of carbs. Next question. What do I think of the new crossfit format and do i think people can compete without training four to five hours a day i think the new crossfit format honestly is rad um you're gonna get people more people at competitions so that you're getting like better judging because the open is embarrassing for judging. Even for myself, like I know that some of my members like just don't want to no rep me, but it has to happen. Like, cause if you're going to, I've sent in two videos in my lifetime that

were number one in the world and CrossFit didn't accept them both times. And I've seen videos of other people handing videos that were not even, I mean, they were much worse than mine. And it got accepted. And it's just ridiculous. And I think the open fucking is so lame in that aspect. And now that people have to go to competitions, I think that's awesome. And I think the person who wins the Open, like if you're going to put that score in and you're going to win that motherfucker, I think you probably deserve it. You're probably one bad motherfucker. And even if you're not, you're probably really, really close to being a bad motherfucker, which means you probably still deserve it anyway. So yeah, that's what I think about that. I think that's great.

The only thing I don't really like about it is when there's one person in another country who's not all that great and they get to go anyway. But the Olympics is like that too. And I think the Olympics is just such a great tradition. So in terms of that, I think tradition-wise, it's kind of cool. I like it. I like it. I like it.

Next question on that is, do I think people can compete four to five hours a day? Or can they compete without training four to five hours a day? Um, I don't think it's possible anymore. Too many people are professional athletes now in the sport. It's going to be really, really hard. I think you could, if you put in all those hours in the beginning and now you're kind of tailoring it down. Um, but there has to be a time where you did put in a shit ton of work, and then now you've just kind of lowered the volume. But there are people like Bram Fikowski and Pat Vellner who have full-time jobs and do a very great job. Did I test positive a few years back for a drug test?

No, I did not. I was at a competition, and the drug tester came to my gym, texted me and said, hey, I'm here. I'd like to test you. And I said, hey, I'm at this competition. It's actually only like three miles down the street. You should come check me out. And he said, no, because your paperwork said you're going to be here. However, I did actually write that I was going to be at the competition, which is kind of weird. So the next day he said, I'll be back tomorrow. And I said, well, I'll be at the competition again tomorrow. So he comes back the next day. He's back at the gym again, texted me and he says, I'm here. And I said, dude, I told you I'm already here at the competition. You're welcome to come. And he said, I can no longer meet you today. And I posted the exact text message that he texted me on social media. And I still have it on my phone to this day to prove that I'm not talking shit, and that's an actual real scenario. Does CrossFit hate me? I think yes. And yeah, whatever.

It is what it is. What am I going to do? I didn't fail though. Sorry to – maybe if you wanted me to fail i'm sorry i didn't do i ever drink whole milk in my diet yes all the time in my lattes oh this is a great question wendy's chocolate frosty yes or no the wendy's chocolate frosty when i was in high school in new jersey there's not a lot to do out, and a lot of people are always smoking weed and stuff like that. That would be like the go-to thing.

You'd be like a junior or a senior in high school, and like people would go out and get high, or you'd try to go get drunk with your friends or something. And you'd always end up at Wendy's getting a chocolate Wendy's Frosty, and it was the greatest thing in the entire world. Right now, do I condone it? No. But in my younger days, fuck yeah. And I love that question because it's just such an awesome question. And it brings back all the memes. My favorite training shorts, what are the brand and the style? I cannot believe how many people are interested in this question. It's crazy to me. I literally have 25 pairs of

Lululemon shorts. They are all seven inch inseam. I don't tailor them that way. I only buy the ones that are seven inch inseam because I've had other ones and they're too short or they're too long. Again, I'm 5'5", 180 pounds, and they fit me fucking beautifully. And they fit beautifully enough for you to want to ask me what I'm wearing. So anything from Lululemon that's seven inches long, that is going to be my preferred short. I have two more questions left here, and they're more of acknowledgments of just hilarity. So someone asked me to describe my favorite gay experience. Well, since I'm not gay, I couldn't actually explain anything. But what I'd like to mention is the fact that my mom on Instagram messaged him back and said he's never had one. So you guys can go to my Instagram post

and see that my mom's Instagram is Kimmy73158. And the guy writes back and he says, I didn't mean gay like that. I meant gay as in happy. And then my mom writes back, oh, okay. He's very happy guy. I'm sure you'll hear lots of his great fun experiences that he's had in his life. That is just the funniest thing ever. Another funny thing that I saw on my questions is this guy, Jay Gizzle. He writes, do you remember bumping into my shoulder at a competition a few years back? It didn't hurt me physically, but my feelings were hurt pretty bad. Take care. Wow.

I don't even know what that means. But I bumped into someone and apparently hurt their feelings in some level, but it didn't hurt them physically. Oh, my God. That is just hilarious. All right, guys. Well, I hope you guys loved this podcast because it is something I've wanted to do for such a long time. I think some of those questions were super fun.

Um, and I hope that you stuck through for the entire thing. If you have more questions and you'd like me to answer them, you can go ahead and email me, ryan at crossfitchalk.com or send me a DM and I will try to get to them. However, maybe like once a month or once every few months, I can do another one of these podcasts. If you really dug it and you really liked it, please just send me a message

and just let me know how much you loved it or how much you didn't like it. And yeah, just being solo on here just feels great it or how much you didn't like it. And yeah, I've just, just being solo on here just feels great. And I really, really liked it a lot. And I hope you guys have a great rest of your day. And thank you for listening to the Real Chalk Podcast.