Barbell Shrugged - The Best of Christmas w/ Christmas Abbott & Barbell Shrugged

Episode Date: December 23, 2015

The Best of Christmas w/ Christmas Abbott & Barbell Shrugged

Hey, this is Rich Froning. You're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com. Welcome to the very best of Christmas here on Barbell Shrugged. That's right, we are counting all the best moments we've hung out with the great Christmas Abbott over the last few holiday seasons, including on this segment, the very first time we met her in Charlotte. You remember that, Mike?

It was a wonderful time. It was a wonderful time. NASCAR, tattoos, why women should be strong. I think you're going to like it. Check it out. And the secret party. Whoa. Welcome to Barbell Shrug.

I'm Mike Bledsoe here with Doug Larson and Chris Moore with our guest, Christmas Abbott. What up? This is the show you've all been waiting for. Merry Christmas. Indeed. Happy holidays. If you're not listening to this on Christmas, this posted on Christmas, look at the date that it posted.

You can tell by the tree in the background. That's right. It's legit. There are subtle hints in the background. And by the intro, I suppose, at this point. That's right. Make sure you head over to barbellshrug.com, sign up for the intro, I suppose, at this point. That's right. Make sure you head over to barbellshrug.com,

sign up for the newsletter, and we will, in return, send you the top eight snatch mistakes. There's probably keeping you from hitting

that big PR that's going to send you to the world championships. You might be overselling. We're going to just lie and say we're going to send them sexy videos at Christmas. It might be an overpromise

on their delivery. They'll get much better. It's only over promise if they have to test it or something. I don't think anyone's going to believe me anyway. If you sell it to them and they sign up for it and they're like, this doesn't work, you'd be like, well, you're doing it wrong. I will say this. I have gotten many, many reports that say that once they viewed that video and they made a few changes, that they hit PRs. Well, then there's your data.

There's your proof. It works. That's all I need is a few people to give me that positive confirmation. In case you didn't believe me. I've gotten so many emails proving it. I got at least three out of the 30,000 people to sign up. That's a good percentage. Yeah.

Okay. Since he forgot what we're doing, why don't you go ahead and tell everyone that doesn't know you a little bit about yourself and kind of how you got into crossfit yes please real name is christmas abbott christmas joy abbott on my birth certificate was not changed after my birth i actually while i was teaching a level one seminar the guy in my squat circle asked me if that was my stage name. No. And we're going to see how you squat today, buddy. How'd you respond? That's what I told him. I said, no. And let's go ahead and check out your air squat. So that I incorporated that into my intro. Whenever I do seminars now, I'm like, Hey, my name is Christmas Abbott. It's not a stage name and don't make fun

because I can torture you. Now you say that every level one certain now I let themott it's not a stage name and don't make fun because I can torture you now you say that every level one certain now I let them know it's not a stage name yeah it's kind of a fun intro I let them know that I'm very tactile I'm very hands-on and a little bossy and that way they're not surprised when I'm like what are you doing and they look at me like I'm the devil you don't seem like you would have got too upset about that you seem like pretty happy-go-lucky like you would have like laughed it off with. You seem like pretty happy-go-lucky, like you would have laughed it off with a smile and not gotten super pissed about it. I did laugh it off, but I think that he was actually serious. Oh, no.

It depends on how he says it, I guess. You could tell if he was being derogatory or just kind of joking around. What's more common to you? People going, hey, is that your real name? Or the fumbling mumble mouth, hey, I just, it was good level one, and I just want a coffee, dinner, food. Are you asking me out? I just, I enjoyed the instruction today.

I question on my real name, to be honest. I don't get hit on often. Hardly ever. It's probably intimidating. Is it the intimidation thing? I was in your class yesterday, and you were, as far as, you know. You were trying to hit on her? It's actually been a while.

It's actually been a while since I've been in a CrossFit class before. Yeah. But I felt like you were being pretty aggressive with the crowd, with the class. And I appreciated it. It was good. Mike's like, should I hold the bar right here? Or maybe move my hands outside? Well, this is the way that I approach teaching my classes is that I have a lot of things to do.

And I love coaching. And I am aggressive with my coaching. It's just a different flip side of me. It's the same time as when I go into a workout or a competition, I turn into a little monster. And that's how I approach with my coaching. I'm a bit more aggressive than a lot of my other coaches but a smile goes a long way so if you're like you're holding the bar wrong then then they're like okay i'm gonna try that next time will it work for me if i smile with a, you know, charm my athletes, you think?

Yeah, I think you may need to woo them a little bit more than I can. And maybe combing your beard would help. Get the squirrels out. Get the squirrels out of your beard. It looks trimmed. I did have it. Did you manscape? I had it.

I think it's gotten better. It has gotten better. I did have my stylist Do my beard before we came A little combing A little trimming You also got called out For the faux hawk Earlier today Yeah I normally just

Swoop it over I think I I just made a mistake In the mirror this morning That's alright I don't care Every word you chose Is awkward

Hair is for fun I think I mean you should have fun With your hair If it's on your face or on your head or, you know, whatever. Wherever it happens to be. Now that I'm looking at you, especially with the headphones on, you know the baby from The Incredibles? The one with the little blonde curl on the top of his head? The really good looking one? Yeah, the little baby.

That can crawl really fast or something. And it has this one golden lock curl right there in the middle. And you kind of look like that baby with the beard. That's all right. Yeah. You like that baby? I look like a baby with a beard. I'll take it.

You just like that baby, but you have no distinguishable talents or skills. But, you know, you have even more similarities because I heard you crying last night. You did. You did hear me cry. What'd you do to him? You want to explain to the audience what you did there what was it that was happening to me she she scrapes so it's kind of like Ralphie scrape Ralphie and so she has this that looks like a stone a flat stone with a circle on it and like grass and yeah that's what it is.

And she went and scraped them and he cried. Rolfing is different. It's called, it's Rolfing actually. Rolfing is different too. Rolfing is what she's talking about. I thought that meant something else. She called it something else. What she was doing is like the ancient Chinese version

of Graston and it's called Gu Baxu. I call it scraping. It does feel like she's scraping you. I went to my pain cave for sure. The shoulder wasn't bad. I've got a messed up shoulder and a hamstring. Shoulder wasn't bad.

Hamstring was a little bit worse, but then she went to the adductor, the inner thigh is still very very sensitive right now right in this area right here right here uh so if you follow our instagram you probably saw me in nothing but my underwear and being uh tortured and i pointed and laughed there is a video of christmas standing right in front of me while in my underwear and pointing and laughing at my crotch, which was very demoralizing for me. I was like, this is not how I envisioned this whole

thing going down. Is that the real reason you were crying? Yeah, it wasn't for the video. She can't stop laughing. Somehow I didn't think this would be what success is like. You traveled all this way to see Christmas and she just points a laugh. I can't help it. There is a little bit of satisfaction that I find when people are slightly tortured.

Maybe that's why I like coaching so much. I think most CrossFit coaches, that is the case for sure. If you deny it, then you're just lying. Well, there is a very distinct, let's get real masochistic sort of fetish quality to CrossFit. These rods are tough. They're torturous. And people can't get enough of it. Yeah.

Like they want more of it. And the more pain they experience, the more neon tights they put on. There's a correlation. I'm a fan behind it, but it seems real. I have a lot of neon. Oh, yeah. Give it to me. Give it to me.

Water. Harder and water and wider and deeper. My domains must go. And you're just getting like basically the equivalent of being slapped on the back as you wear your Lululemon tights. It's a weird saying sometimes. So we asked you about how you got into CrossFit and all the further we got was about your stripper name. So go ahead and tell us about a little more of your background. You know, growing up, I did two years of athletics

in middle school so I really don't really, I don't apply that credit to athletics. Athletics as in what? As in like high school or collegiate. You played a sport

or ran track or something? I cheerleaded for two years and I played baseball for two years in middle school. And then, You played baseball or softball?

Baseball. Nice. With the boys. I like that. I got hit a lot. Wow. I did. I would always go at the bat and the boys would hit me when they were pitching to me.

Wow. So I either walked on base. I actually was... I guess middle school is like that age where you hit girls when you like them, right? Were they hitting you because you had cooties? Maybe they couldn't look past her to the catcher. Is a cootie thing still at that stage? Like, oh, look how gross Christmas is.

I don't think so. I think that you outgrow cooties after fourth grade. And then 10 years later you go, what were we talking about in middle school? Yeah. Yeah.

Thanks for hitting me then, guys. So you didn't have like a super athletic background then. I didn't. So after, when I was about 12 or 13, I started kind of wandering into the other side

and I really started to just kind of start smoking, drinking, and people were like, you started drinking at 13? Well, yeah. It's kind of like the creepy uncle story. Like you had your first drink at 13 or you started drinking at 13? No, I started partying.

I started partying. Creepy uncle story. Not your creepy uncle story. I don't have a creepy uncle. I remember the first two times I got drunk, the first time was involved at least a six pack of Zima purchased by somebody's creepy uncle. I'm not proud of it. It's just, hey.

At the time Christmas, okay, that seemed like a really cool thing. You know? Oh, wow. I always heard this stuff is pretty fun and I get to drink it. I got started earlier. It's deviant. You just sit in the back of his pickup truck at the lake in the dark you know life is hard sometimes young chris sometimes you just need a drink here have a cold one like thanks sometimes the answer sometimes you start smoking too yeah 13 yes regularly like smoking like chain smoking early yeah i started experimenting with cigarettes

when i was around nine wow wow so i started smoking um you know my family i love my parents they're they did a really great job with me instilling that work ethic but they were both smokers we as little kids and growing up we kind of grew up in that biker lifestyle yeah and you know my dad was a biker my mom was kind of like the biker hippie and you know there was there was a you know we're just we're kind of hard times yeah and you are a product of your environment a little bit and so you weren't athletic growing up you started smoking and drinking when you were like what nine or nine to thirteen something like that? 13, yeah, 13 I really started. And when did you start CrossFit then?

I started CrossFit when I was, I think, 24. And so when you started CrossFit, was it a disaster at first, like smoking for 10 years? It was. So the series of events is I accepted a job overseas with my mother. She told me about this job, and I was like, harass this company until they hired me. Went over as a laundry attendant so I was basically taking people's dirty laundry

and giving them their clean laundry just to be able to. Exotic career opportunity. You know, I have to say that no matter where I am in life, I'm going to be able

to figure out how to make it. Yeah. Was overseas and just realized that I had a very unhealthy lifestyle. And that was an opportunity for me to make things that make better decisions for myself.

I had no intention on being a health freak or even healthy. I just wanted better things for myself. So I quit smoking. Yeah. Raging B for a couple of weeks. Like I warned everybody and I ate candy the whole time. Yeah. A year later I started

working out and then shortly after that I discovered CrossFit because a guy in the gym showed me this video of these three girls doing the you know the infamous nasty girls video and I was like I want to do that it was so fast because these girls were my size, Nicole Carroll, Annie Sakamoto, Annie T people do your CrossFit homework, understand your CrossFit history. If you're going to come into the game and not understand who the original CrossFit girls are, then you need to, you need to go and research it right now. Um, and the founder and people, sometimes I'm just kind of blown away. Um, so I saw this and and I was like they're my size and they're doing amazing things and that was when I

started kind of doing my own CrossFit style and because I couldn't get on the internet very often 2004 you said mm-hmm 24 I was 24 I gotta do the math 24 roundabout way trying to figure out how old she actually is. So your birthday is tomorrow. My birthday's tomorrow. How old are you gonna be? I'll be 32 years strong. Oh shit.

Oh. Congrats. I have to say it like that for now on. Yeah. You're strong. Wait, so was the realization to get healthy like a gradual thing while you're over there? You're just like, man, like I'm going down the wrong path?

Or did you just like sit up in bed one day and you were just like, shit, something's wrong. I wrong I gotta make a change cumulative or like all of a sudden like it wasn't even get healthy it was just making better decisions for my life when I was in Iraq because you're you you sit there and you're in a enclosed camp with people so you you only thing to do is work yeah sleep, drink, or work out. And eventually one of those drinking got taken away. So you're like, well, what else do I do? You go to the gym.

And it's not like real life in America or anywhere else in the world where you have options to go do other things. You just work and sleep. So I decided to fill some time. So you were in the middle of a war zone at the time? Yeah, I was not in the service. I was a civilian contractor. But I went over to Iraq in January 2004. That's when it was still pretty heavy. And we were just getting settled in with the rebuild Operation Iraqi Freedom.

And that was when we were sleeping in tents and mortars were still coming in. And depending on the sound, there's certain sounds that you heard so you knew whether one how close it was and whether it was a mortar rocket or car bomb we even had a drive by shooting one time don't worry laughing about it it makes coming back

home so much better you can always laugh about it afterwards yeah so obviously what's interesting to me is that you had this very you're born and yet you're going through life and have these parents and these things you assume you should do and all sudden things start accelerating I guess that had to be a really formative experience being in that environment which had to be like scary shit of course initially and then radically changed you into something

else like wow you're so close to this outcome, this danger. I'm going to do something awesome while I'm still kicking. Was that sort of what came over you? It was more, yeah, pretty much you're in this environment that's so extreme. And I had more of a, I just had such a wake up call when I went over there and I was like, holy crap, I was such a spoiled brat in the sense that I just didn't take, I didn't appreciate a lot before I went over. Unaware, maybe not spoiled. Yeah, definitely unaware. And so when I went over there, I was like, holy crap,

I really did have it good in the United States, even though I didn't have any money, didn't have an education, was like, you know, just barely getting by and causing a lot of trouble and whatever I could get into. But still, I had the opportunity to make those decisions. And instead of being a liability over there I wanted to be a contribution and from there I just kind of it wasn't like I'm gonna get healthy I'm gonna change my life um it was more of okay I need to stop smoking so I'm no longer a hazard for

everybody else in case something goes down I can run and get myself out of this situation versus have to be carried or left. Because they would leave you. Nice people you're hanging with over there. So you were in Iraq for, was it four years? Yeah, just about four years. Doing your time, man. Doing my time. So when you started CrossFit though, it was still relatively early

in the evolution of CrossFit. You watched the Nasty Girls video, but you probably couldn't just walk down the street, especially in Iraq, and just find a CrossFit gym. How did you get started then? It was non-existent. I was the annoying person in the middle of the air-based gym doing CrossFit, or at least my version of it,

until I found a couple guys that also did CrossFit. And then when I came home, that was when it was the fight club of fitness. And you had to, there was one, at best, CrossFit in major cities. Major cities. So when you come home, you drove 30, 40 minutes to go to a CrossFit gym. And there wasn't probably the best box. It was probably like, because the one we started out in was, man, no code enforcer in the world would allow that to continue for one more second.

Is that building falling down yet? Probably not. The back wall leaves like that. It was a shed? A shed, right? Yeah. Our first box was pretty terrible. With a concrete wall structure

sort of just shoved onto the side of it to make one room. Did you guys have porta-potties? No. I went to one one time with porta-potties. Nice. No, ours bathroom was not impressive, but it was better than porta-potties. Yeah, it bathroom was not impressive, but it was better than porta potties.

Yeah, it didn't matter how clean that bathroom was. It looked dirty. Yeah. People were like, you need to clean your bathroom. I was like, I did an hour ago. Some things just can't be cleaned. Okay? Some things can't wash away.

Some hurts run too deep. Can't polish a turd. As I say. And you can't put lipstick on a pig. No. Well, you can, but unless it's still a fucking pig. You know. I miss those boxes,

to be honest. You know, like my my facility invoke we try and I have a little bit of old school mixed in with a lot of new school.

And it's because people are expecting their expectations. They expect more and more out of CrossFit facilities, which is great. But at the same time, man, I didn't even know

that they had a woman's bar until four years ago. And I was like, a woman's bar? Why do I want to use a woman's bar? What do I look like, a weakling to you? And they were like, no, Christmas is smaller for your hands. And I was like, I don't get it. So even after I discovered a woman's bar,

I still used a guy's bar for all of my hoodies. Do you train at all with a man's bar now? I do, yeah. When you go to a women's bar to meet or something like the American Open, do you find it helps you? Does it feel like a toy in your hands? It does, but I get mad that they're not 45 pounds. I don't like to have to add that extra weight.

Why is this shit so light? You haven't acclimated to 35 pound bars yet. It's only been four years. Don't worry about it. And then I have to recalculate all my weights instead of just throwing 25s on it and being 95 and 85. I'm like,

I don't want to lift 85. Tell your coach, treat everything like I'm normally training. Let me go out there and think that it's a little heavier than it is and crush the weights anyway. I like training with a guy's bar because it helps my grip,

especially with deadlifts and stuff. It helps grip strength. And I think it's just another variable point. Fat bars are awesome. And then suddenly when they program it into a competition, people are like, oh my gosh, the strength.

I have found that like the fat bar effect you just described, like you go to a regular bar and it feels like a toy and you feel strong and your elbows recover a little bit too because you're always squeezing all the time. Yeah.

But it's kind of like when you add bands to a bar. There's nothing special about it other than it's different enough to make it a little tougher and a little funner. And're always squeezing all the time. But it's kind of like when you add bands to it. There's nothing special about it other than it's different enough to make it a little tougher and a little funner and that's what makes it good. I love it. It's like a spice.

You sprinkle it around. You train with bands much? Do I train with bands much? With bands, yeah. They make me dance. No? I was like, oh, maybe she didn't

understand the question but I don't care. Bands are cool. I like where she's going with this. She's like, oh, maybe she didn't understand the question, but I don't care. Bands are cool. I like where she's going with this. She's like, what are bands? I actually, I don't train with bands much. If I program for myself, I over-train, so I've been getting on my coach a little bit more

to make sure that I stay in line. Who's programming for you right now? I have Jason Davidson, Doc. He went with me to the American Open recently, and I've been training with him for the last four, basically since I moved to Raleigh. And how did with me to the American Open recently. And I've been training with him for the last four years, basically since I moved to Raleigh. Yeah. And how did that go? The American Open? I didn't see how you placed or how your lifts were. I think overall, my weight class, 53 kilo, I placed 17th. And that was coming off basically three months of no training. And that's right. You had a back injury, right? Gnarly back injury. There was multiple back

injuries. I did a competition and. There was multiple back injuries. I did a competition and then I just worked through it because I was like really in my groove for a while. And, you know, just doing clean pools at 245 or fives. And I was just like, yeah, crushing it. Accumulate a little too much. And then, yeah, I did a competition, kind of allowed my form to falter a little bit, which happens in competition. And then just didn't play smart on recovery and I kept pushing myself and then I did a Spartan race and wasn't able to finish it because my back was just like, you've had enough

and we're going to shut you down Christmas. I did one of those once. A Spartan race? No, I watched it. I watched it. I watched it from a distance. All right, guys. You watched them leap through the fire.

No, okay. Damn, shut down by CTP. Mike was like, let's take a break. And CTP was like, no! No, he was telling me, he was telling me we needed a break and now he's saying we don't. So, all right, I guess we're taking a break. Next up, we have Christmas Abbott's Five Keys to Success.

Beauty's not the only one, is it? No. No, I don't think so. You need habits and stuff, don't you? Habits. You sure do. We recognize that Christmas has these awesome habits, and we've seen it shake up in your life.

And I guess the first one is like... Now I have awesome habits. I didn't have awesome habits before. Well, you had to learn. I mean, no one's born with awesome habits. By the have awesome habits before you had to learn i mean no one's born with awesome by the way don't go drinking and doing drugs it doesn't make you awesome well this goes back to the whole 10 year thing is you didn't like you didn't wake up 10 years ago and go oh these are the five habits i need to start right now you just it's like these

are habits that you refined over this 10 year period i didn't even know i was implementing these and it's funny to look back even even when I started to make those major changes, I was implementing all of these. And it's cool to see that I was practicing it before I knew I was supposed to be practicing it. But I had to practice it in order to make positive changes in my life. Yeah.

And it just was a natural progression and then an awareness. I think the number one thing people can, the first point, is the first one to break it down. The first habit is set big goals, then break them down. I think that a lot of people forget that they have to have smaller goals to get to that larger goal. They're like, oh, I just want to do 10 million things.

And they don't know how to connect the dots. And if you work backwards, it helps you connect the dots a lot easier. And don't you think, like, let's say back 10 years ago, if you would have said, I have a dream of becoming this person who's a NASCAR pit crew, like one of the first females to do that, maybe the first. Were you the first NASCAR female? On the cup level.

On the cup level. On the cup level. To be on a pick team, yeah. The competitions you've done and writing a book. If you would have laid out a big goal and held yourself like, I'm going to be this person now, like forcing it, trying to make it happen, all the lessons wouldn't have fell into place. They have to come one after another in small chunks to lead you to where you need to go. The experience of the

the journey is what really gives you the the lesson shapes you yeah and and i think that it it helps you retain integrity uh and gratitude for life and it's you know when i say gratitude for life i mean like being thankful right here we are in sweden this is our our you know like this is our thing now and and we have to give thanks for where we are in Sweden. This is our thing now. And we have to give thanks for where we are in our life. And not take it for granted. And get into that mindset of, I'm a motherfucking Christmas abbot. You can say that.

You like that. I'm a motherfucking Christmas abbot. But that's appropriate for certain times. And not walking around. Just being one thing for all the fans. Definitely appropriate for the Christmas special. Just want to point that out. So I think the experience helps shape the goals and appreciation when they happen.

So you have any examples about how you've done that? Like set a big goal and then you broke it down and kind of built the whole process with the end in mind and then how you actually made it to that goal? You know, one of the smaller goals was initially the nutrition seminar. And I get eight out of 10 emails that I get are always asking me about my, my diet and my nutrition and what do I do and how do I train? Um, but mostly instead of the performance aspect, it's the nutrition aspect so i was like i'm just sitting on the couch one day um me and josh were kicking it and i was like you know gosh i'm i'm you know no offense but i'm tired of responding to like these very detailed emails right and same question over and over and over again to convey this number one if you want to ask a good question, break it up into paragraphs at least.

We've been having this conversation. The worst email is when it's all text, very little punctuation, no breaks. It'll come through on Facebook. That's usually how it comes through Facebook. It's just text, text, text, text, text, and it is literally very fatiguing. I feel really bad. You're like, is this person seven years old? You get like three lines and you're like, please.

I feel really bad because as soon as I start reading those, I just have an internal anxiety attack, and I'm like, nope, I can't read it. So if you start the email. It's not that we don't want to read them or we don't want to respond. It is literally too hard to read. It's hard.

There are grammatical rules in this world for a reason. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be sectioned. Let's give a pro tip to the audience. That's a very basic level rule. If you're writing an email and the first sentence you write is, sorry if this comes off really long and rambling, but dot, dot, dot, rambling.

You know that it was rambling. Cut it down 80%. We'll answer it. We swear we'll answer it. Yeah, you got to find something in the middle. Either get long, multiple pages of text on your whole life story, and there's almost no question in it, and I get to the end and I wonder what they want.

Do you feel better about what you've said to me? Or the opposite. I get emails, and there's not even their name included. It doesn't say, hey, Doug, enjoy the show. I have all these specific questions. I would love some help, which I'm happy to help people that ask me questions like that,

but it'll just say, what should I eat? That's it. For what? Meat, veggies, some whatever. I don't know. Who are you? How do I get strong, Doug? Question mark.

Oh, shit. Lots of questions like that. They're super general. Just quick clarifying point. so whatever I don't know who are you how do I get strong Doug question mark oh shit lots of questions like that they're super general just quick quick clarifying point if you want answers questions answered is

quick context little bit about your background no more than one paragraph and that paragraph should not be more than four sentences this is very specific

and then your questions should be bullet points and I like them numbered because I can go one this is the answer to that two that's the answer to that sentences. This is very specific. And then your questions should be bullet points. And I like them numbered because I can go one, this is the answer to that. Two, that's the answer to that. If you do that, 10 times more likely to get your question answered. And highlighted, probably on the show.

Hey, we really enjoyed this question. Most definitely. Yeah. All right, so back to you. So I kept getting emails and I'm sitting there and I was like, you know, I wonder if somebody would, you know, we were just talking, and it just formulated of having this seminar. And I was like, who's going to come to my fucking seminar? I keep saying the F-bomb. That's okay.

Okay. It's fully expected on the Barbell Strut Show. Merry fucking Christmas, everybody. Here's a little bit of a, anyway, so it was like, that's kind of crazy. It blew my mind. I was like, no, no, no. And then from thinking about this is the ultimate goal. Um, I started thinking about, well, in order to do that, I need to know if it's one day, two days, I started structuring it and I started structuring it on what information do I want to give out there? Like what, what am I, what's the core concept and then working backwards and that's really how i already had it all in my brain so i just started putting it on paper and then rearranging it and refining it you broke it down i broke it down and you know it wasn't like i decided to do this all one day i'd go in and lock myself in a coffee shop and i'd say okay i'm gonna give myself two hours

this is like today i'm only going to work on these categories. I'm not going to work on anything else. Focus. Yeah. Set big goals. It's awesome. Blocking. And then you set smaller goals to get there.

And then you am wrapped your work. I am wrapped my work. And then within the first few, you know, and it's funny because once you start working, you realize what else you need. And so I would just make a list of other items that I needed. I wouldn't go and start working on that. So I made a list. That's a key point. If,

if someone was not listening just now, can you say that again? I, during my work and I realized I needed something else done, like an additional piece, I would write it down and list it versus go and start on it and because I'll go back and forth and then I get no work done so I was like no this is my focus my focus is this specific category within this category I need a list of foods and I would just write down list

of foods for um maintainer category that's the number one mistake people make and it just it was really it helped bring it all together. And I literally, within that seminar, I actually wrote the book that I got picked up on. And so it's so cool because big goal, little goals that actually came to back around to even a larger goal. And I didn't even know it. So you didn't wait on that seminar. You already had like the outline. Had the outline. So you just had like, oh, this will be the chapter of this book.

Yeah, exactly. That's such a great way to write a book, just to get constant feedback from people in the real world from your seminar and then just build it all into a book. It's the questions that you're getting in your seminar that people want answered in the book anyway, and it helps you make a book that people actually will read because it's actually the content that they want

because they've been asking for it during your seminars. It's this nice little system that builds a book that is easy to consume because it's very practical so how does how can you apply this to training to training oh man i love it so you you know what's your what's your big fat goal right is they're like i want to go compete at regionals maybe that's their big fat goal cool i find that people don't want to do a competition until they're ready there's no time you're ever going to be ready the first time you're ready is after you if you're ever ready then i'm not sure what competition you're doing especially with

weightlifting as well they say i tell people i'm like whether you're ready or not you need to go have the experience because you may have the physical ability to it, but the mental capacity is very different. And, you know, it takes a lot out of you emotionally and mentally during a competition. You don't know how your body's going to respond. It's different than training in the gym. You grow out of it. You do. Rapidly.

And it's experience. So you may not have your muscle ups. You may not have your bar muscle ups or pistols, but you need to go do a competition and stop doing scaled. I don't care if you aren't able to do it. I mean, I get it. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. But always, you know, deferring to scale, be like,

oh, since I can't do one thing, I'm going to do scaled. I'm like, bitch, you clean and jerk 185 pounds. You are not scaled division. Should people be scared of what they look like in those situations? Not at all. They should be scaling training but not competition. Exactly. Just to clarify.

Because they're scared that they'll try the muscle up. And they'll have that moment like in grade school, the dream where you wake up in school and everybody's laughing at you. They'll think that they'll be on the platform and everybody will go, look at this jerk who can't do 10 muscle ups in a row. But that never happens. People understand that there's weaknesses. In fact, if you struggle and fight through it in a competition people will love you more for it and i would say 19 out of 20 people doing the competition are having

some sort of frustration they're not hiding from that one element that they're they have you right you have frustrations and competitions i got forced into it i literally got forced into it and there was things that i couldn't do and I was certain that I would be the last to finish. And I ended up placing fifth. You don't always have that success story, but the experience of the competition builds your confidence. Even if you're not able to do all of the elements, all of the movements in the competition, somebody has to be last. Why can't it be you? Go get them, Tiger. Well, you're not going in it to win it. You're going in it to

the experience in order to be able to at a later date go into it and win it. I like to tell people, you need to practice competing as much as practice anything else. And you have to be a good loser. Give yourself permission. Don't suck at

losing. I find people aren't ready to compete for their first time until they're competing for the third time. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. Until you're on your third round of something, you're not comfortable with it. You're not used to the setting. You're not used to the pressure. You're not used to people looking at you.

And then, once you've done it two or three times poorly, you can be ready by the third time to do it for the first time. And then set expectations for how the meat goes, you know, like maybe then three or four times and say, I have no idea how to approach anything until you've done it many times. I think it was, I started competing in weightlifting maybe 2006. And it wasn't until I think it was 2012, where I felt like it wasn't until 2012 that I hit, like, a legit PR on the platform. Yeah, I've yet to have that. I hit a lot of PRs, you know, in training, obviously, but then it wasn't until I was on the platform, I was like, oh, I feel more comfortable on stage, and I can actually use that to my advantage, but it took six years of competing before that could happen.

Yeah, I've been weightlifting for a couple years. And, you know, you go. It's different. Even at the smaller meets. And you go up to nationals. I walked into the bar, first snatch. And I looked down and my hands were shaking. I didn't even know my hands were shaking.

And you've been competing for years. I love a stage. You'd been competing. Yeah. And you competing for years. I love a stage. You'd been competing. Yeah. And you were still nervous. I was still nervous. That's a big stage. It's a big stage.

And I got done and there was so much momentum because of the adrenaline. And I was like, I could have totally bailed on that. You know, it could have crushed me. And a lot of people find that they either do better in competition or they crumble in competition. And just because you crumble the first time doesn't mean that you should stop competing. It's just that... It means you need to build skill.

Yeah. Build the skill. And competing is a skill. So if you expect to be able to get everything you want physically out of your performance and then say, now I'm going to go win the regionals or now I'm going to go win this competitionals or now I'm going to go win this competition. You are sadly mistaken because you have taken a skill component out.

And just to give like a little bit of like, so people can kind of like understand how it might be different for me when I'm weightlifting in the gym, I can remember every snatch. I can remember how it felt. I can like break it down, you know, fractional second by fractional second.

But to this day, when I compete on a platform I don't remember anything yeah it's like everything is just gone we have to go into a flow it's like a whole nother it's a whole nother experience and if you're not used to that like just not not being in like just kind of going out then yeah that's just to give you a little bit of context of like how different it really is. It's a completely different animal. I love the fact you said how you get shaking hands up there. I think people need to embrace the situations that cause them to be scared and uncomfortable.

If you feel yourself being put in an awkward position, and you feel yourself having to rise up to tackle something like that, you're probably in a good space. Push forward. Something good will come out of this. Yeah. It's the whole you know fight or flight concept and fighting in this

situation is just keep going forward you have to fight to not retreat and you know that's

that's how you progress in a lot of my life if you do that in competition you're gonna be able to do that in other aspects of your life

because there's not many things scarier than competition from what I've experienced yeah cause you think that everybody's looking at you and you're messing up.

Nobody really is looking at you for the most part. And if you mess up, nobody cares either. All us primates feel the same. We get put in uncomfortable situations. Like Christmas feels fear. She feels worried that, can I really pull off the book? Are people really going to pay to hear what I have to say about nutrition? It's a common element between us, isn't it?

You just got to push through that. And I still have freak outs. I'm like, what am I getting into? Oh, yeah. Can I do this? Is this fucking crazy? I don't know. Yeah, I know that one.

We already actually went right through point number two. That's right. We just flowed. That's how natural it is. That's how good you are at writing. It's like this is a natural progression of thought stream so point number two was always try new things and we just kind of rolled right into that i love it yeah so we'll skip right over to point number three was do good without expectation well i want to go back to point number two just for one

second when i say try new things i'm going and I've said this many many times before the things that I have loved the most have been the things that I absolutely did not want to try they were terrifying I I was angry angry about having to try you know the pull or plunge uh changing tires you know I was terrified about weight lifting I was terrified about trying crossfit but it intrigued me enough to want to try it um one of my favorite pastimes is snowshoeing I was terrified about trying crossfit, but it intrigued me enough to want to try it. One of my favorite pastimes is snowshoeing. What? I didn't know that.

We need to go snowshoeing. It's so fun. I love it. Go to the top, have a little fire, a little lunch, check back down. You've got me convinced. I'm not. I'm not convinced. Still doesn't being told. I'm not convinced. Still doesn't sound cool.

She had me at lunch. It didn't sound cool, but I'm like going up to the top of the mountain, you know, just angry about it. And I'm like, this is going to be the worst day of my life. As soon as we started going, you know, like within two minutes of snowshoeing,

once we got on the snow, I was like, this is amazing. And I was angry at myself for not giving myself an opportunity to try something new and ultimately amaze myself. And now I have this favorite pastime. And so ultimately, just try new things. Even if you don't want to, even if he has no interest whatsoever, you'll be surprised at what you're interested in. And next week is New Year's Day. What better time to say, okay, I'm going to try new things.

Polar bear plunge. Yes. That was new. I used to follow this little mantra of do it anyway. I was at a nutrition seminar like 15 years ago. One of the first nutrition seminars

I ever, ever went to. And this woman was saying that when she was brought up, her father had this little thing that he would say to her all the time, no matter what it was, was just do it anyway. And as stupid as that sounds

and as basic and easy as that sounds, it actually did really, really well for me. I was like, well, there's no reason to do this thing. There's no reason to go snowshoeing. There's no reason to try a CrossFit competition or whatever, but fuck it, just do it anyway. Just try something new just to try something new with no expectation.

And it doesn't have to be anything huge. You know, it could be trying the hot yoga class versus flow or a flow and restore class. It doesn't have to be anything major. It can be something much, much smaller, but you're still expanding your toolbox. Yeah, do it just because you've never done it. Yeah. That's why you should do it. That's the reason. it just because you've never done it. Yeah.

That's why you should do it. That's the reason. Boom. If you've never done it before. Not delivered. I like that. You know what that does? If you start doing that shit, you get this sense of like,

there's other things I think I could do that used to seem crazy as shit, and now I think maybe I could do them. Still scary. Still overwhelmingly scary. But what if I just do that anyway? And pretty soon you're like, you just get this habit of like, what's the next thing I could do that. Still scary. Still overwhelmingly scary. But what if I just do that anyway? And pretty soon you're like, you just get this habit of like, what's the next thing I could do that's awesome?

What about that? And you're kind of jumping and leapfrogging up. And before you know it, you're writing a book and you're on a podcast with the most handsome man you've ever seen in your life. I'd like to point out some people are more apt to try new things constantly and other people aren't. And so if you're one of those people who are like, never want to try try new things constantly and other people aren't and so like

if you're one of those people who are like never want to try something new recruit a buddy doing exactly pair up with someone is that what you're about to say no i wasn't gonna say that but go ahead oh that's that's that's how i've done a whole lot of really fun things in my life is i pair up a bunch of people who are super proactive and like to try new shit like mike and chris and chris and they kind of just pull me along for the ride. Yeah, he said it many times. He's like, hey, thanks for making me do that. Yeah. He's like, I don't think this is a good idea. Sounds dangerous.

To be fair, nine out of ten times I go, I told you that was a bad idea. We do a lot of... Which isn't true, I'm just joking. We're still alive. We got all of our fingers and toes. Although, Doug, I almost did get hit by a tram out there. I almost got hit by a tram yesterday, too.

That's right. We all did. We all almost died. I just wanted to make sure that people understood. I was following you yesterday, and I wasn't too sure about it, and then I almost got hit by a train. It's a metaphor for a lot of things in my life. But you didn't get hit by a train.

But I didn't. That's true. I almost dropped an 800-pound I-beam on him once, too. But he still has his foot't that's true I almost dropped an 800 pound I-beam on him once too but he still has his foot that's true as well number three do good without expectation what does that mean dude this is so cool

my friend Greg Lucas the CrossFit Traveler he he has these shirts that just say be awesome

and I was talking to him one day and you know I've always been in the I have a really life motto that it's like,

don't be a D. Don't be a dick. Hey bro. What's a D mean? Whatever you want it to be. You're filling a lot of words there. I like it. I like it a lot.

You also say don't be a D. I like to say D just because it's filling whatever blank you want. I like it. Give me douche, don't be a douche. Give me dick,

give me anything. And now the fans are going to write all the D words. Do it. Perfect. Let's see how creative the fans can get. Tweet a bunch of D words at Christmas. Send her a picture of your D.

Whatever your D happens to be. What is your D? A really motivational Instagram pic. We are going to bring it to the internet. She loves D pics. Make sure to tag her fiance. Yeah. Josh will love it.

Everybody's like, no. Josh is going to get enraged really quick. But I was sitting, you know, we were sitting there talking and he's just like,

just be good. He's like, don't do good with the intention that it's going to come back to you. Oh yeah, that happens a lot.

People are like, well, why would I do that? Well, people can tell. Right. Just immediately. Right. Or just like the whole concept of paying it forward. He's like, don't pay it forward. Just pay it.

And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, just do good without ever thinking that life is going to give good back to you. Because it most likely won't. You're going to have to carve that out for yourself. But if you are good to people without expectation, they're going to hopefully be good to other people and just creating this, this higher level of just being good people. I know it sounds so obscure and left field, but it's, it really is kind of cool to, to just put good out there and be like, nope, I'm just going to let it go and let it run its course. And it's pretty cool.

I say reciprocation is a very powerful governing. Well, I'd expect reciprocation, though. Huh? I mean, things will reciprocate whether you expect it or not. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you put all your focus on the giving, what can you contribute? But if you don't expect it, you're never like, when is this going to come back to me people will ask you like christmas like what what do i here's all the things i love and here's what i want to do i don't know what to do like what how can i like move forward

whatever the the question may be wouldn't you just start with this by saying what are you uniquely qualified to give like what is the thing that you could give like what what what about your background what skill sets what things are you interested in right now that could help somebody if you just pour yourself into that man you'd be fucking amazed at what comes out the other end right i think people who love fitness too they they love health and fitness they go i want i want to do something in that like and they're like but i don't know much about this this or this yeah that's like well are you good at web design are you good at like there's like all these things like what do you do for work that you love doing that's not exactly health and fitness and you could probably get involved with somebody else who does know something like you could

probably use people on your team that would you know having a good web designer would be fantastic right and you may already have that but like that i'm just using that as an example a lot of times people get caught up and you know they can't do exactly what they see other people doing. So they're like, oh, I can't do it. I think you guys hit it on the nail on the head is that they don't recognize their own strengths because they don't, they don't look and reflect upon what they are good at and what they, you know, what you love may not be what you're good at, but you're going to

eventually be good at it if you keep at it. But I think that it's people don't reflect on their strengths versus their weaknesses that is exceptional to them. And that usually is the gift that they can give other people. I think a lot of time, with respect to what you were just saying, people ask the wrong question. If someone wants to come into the fitness industry and be a coach for example they might ask am i an expert am i the best right you know it's kind of like the competition thing am i am i already the best and if i'm not already the best and i don't want to compete it's the same thing with becoming a coach a lot of people think well i don't i couldn't be a coach because i'm not the best already as if anyone that started coaching was the best when they started. I was terrible in the beginning.

We all were. We all cringe, man. We all cringe. What people should be asking instead isn't, am I the best? Am I the best nutritionist? Am I the best coach? Am I the best weightlifting or weightlifter?

That's not what they should ask. If they want to become a coach, they should ask, do I have the ability to help people who are a level below me? Right. That's what they should be asking. If you have the ability to help somebody, then you should below me? Right. That's what they should be asking. If you have the ability to help somebody, then you should be a coach and you'll get

better over time. Even then, how do I get that ability? Because ultimately, right now, we're talking about that higher goal and then working backwards, right? They want to be a coach, but now they're just an athlete that maybe isn't a very good athlete, right? You don't have to be a really good athlete to be a good coach. So how do they just kind of start taking...

By the way, high-level athletes a lot of times don't make the best decisions. No, they're like, just do it, overhead squad pistol. Just do it. Why can't you just do it? Just do it. I can't tell you how many times I've heard,

I'm like, what do you mean just do it? Usually awkward movers are better coaches because they have to break it down. They had to break it down. They had to learn how to do it at some point. Right. And very practical application. But ultimately, you want to be a coach?

Well, what do you do? You try and teach a class and you realize, oh, gosh, this is difficult. How do I start developing this skill? Going to weekend seminars or online education. Those things will help develop those skills and in like what you said then you start teaching somebody that's below you or less experienced or even better experienced and get feedback if you want to be shadowing other coaches and getting their feedback when they watch you coach their class but they're there as a mentor is one of

the best ways to get good very quickly that's another thing that's shocking to me is people go they're like how do i get started you know and they just want to like start their own thing and start coaching i'm like well when i started with crossfit like there were no other crossfitters in town and that's why we opened up a box and we kind of had to like fumble through everything but uh that's usually not the case now. There's like 10 boxes. Like, I don't like those guys or something like that. It's like, go intern for those guys.

You'll probably end up liking them. Yeah, if you want to do it, you'll find a way to be able to just insert yourself into the community at some capacity. My friend Megan, she had no coaching experience. She was not a good athlete. And she was like, I just, I don't know what I want to do. I just want to learn and take in some information. And from there she started developing

her skill. And she actually, um, she works for HQ now. She worked at, she was working for Reebok and that was within two years of, um, coming to me and just being like, I don't know what, what do I do? I'm like, the first thing you do is you just come tag along with boot camp. And she just drank the water, and she was very self-initiative to learn that. What did you put in the water? Anything fun? Oh, yeah. Always.

Here. Literally just drink this water. No, not that water. This water. But the most important thing you do is just start. It doesn't matter how small it is. It doesn't matter. This is not going to be your destiny forever.

You won't always be this little small thing. Just start and see what happens. All right, let's move on to point number four. Actually, the last two are my favorites. Yeah. Number four is learn to put yourself first sometimes. You put it sometimes, but usually you've got to put yourself first sometimes. Put sometimes, but usually you gotta put yourself most times.

I was like, man, somebody's gonna take that really literally and just be like, everybody, they're gonna be like, I'm always first. Screw everybody, screw you, screw you, screw you. I'm you, I'm first. I'm out. Christmas did. Sometimes.

Yeah, I love this because, and it's funny, we were talking about this earlier, and it's funny, we were talking about this earlier and you were like, especially women, especially women need to say, hey, this is my time. Guys tend to have a really easy time putting themselves first.

Yeah, yeah. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. And honestly, I think- Guys are much more individual focused. Girls are much more community focused. Yeah, they, you know, and I'm probably going to get some backlash,

but I think naturally we just want to take care of or please. And you guys are like, please me, take care of me. I like it. I like when women please me. Yeah, but Doug is right. Like guys tend to be, you know, somebody with a masculine nature tend to be more individualized and people with, and this isn't gender specific, but most of the time it is.

So I want to kind of put that out there too so that we don't get smashed by it. Right. I can only hear the typing now. I'd say there's about 10%. 10% of women are a little more masculine and 10% of men are a little more feminine. I identify much more with the masculine. I would say you're a little more masculine. And Chris here,

people don't know this, but he's a little more feminine. You know what? And I will not for one second be embarrassed by that. I am proud of the fact that I have a lot of female tendencies in terms of like wanting. Feminine tendencies, that's right. Yeah, feminine. Female too. People are like, what in the shit is Chris talking about?

What I'm saying is I am personally fueled by that engagement and community and the sense that I want to do this because I want people to see what we're doing and enjoy it and join us for the ride. I don't really have – maybe sometimes it would be fun to have more of the individual ego, but I love the fact that that's my perspective. I'm okay with that. You have more of a we collective mentality than someone who's very individual, agentic focus where it's all about ego and me and what do i get out of this yeah that's a good thing yeah it tends to be a feminine quality but it doesn't mean it's

necessarily a good thing or bad thing it's just a thing and that for you is is your style and it works very well yeah i'd say whatever the key thing is i've had to learn that whatever you are that whatever your natural tendency is you have have to just embrace that. If it's feminine, own it and use it to do good. And find, and it doesn't matter really what you are, but the key thing I think is when you find somebody who is counter and complimentary to you, do more with them too. So that first action is so important. And then find somebody who can take that action with you, who's complimentary to you. And now you can start to see how you can start sort of raising exponentially the power you can have and the good you can do. You that's what we've got here we're all different personalities

we come together was to do some awesome shit right and we're watching the sunrise over our sweet over goldenberg so how do you put yourself first sometimes you know you have you have to to the point seriously you really have to carve the time out. Or, you know, a lot of the times, and this is just kind of a general statement, but like in my nutrition seminars, women are like, well, I have to cook a dinner for my husband and I have to cook a separate meal for all three of my kids. And I'm like, why? She's like, well, they don't eat the same things.

And then they're there because they want to better themselves. They want to find a way to eat for their life. And I'm like, first, you have to have your community on board. You have to talk to your family and have them support you in this endeavor. So you're bringing them together. And that even is selfish. Saying, hey, look, I'm going to do this for me. And I need you guys to support me and that may

mean that you guys eat some meals that you don't want to and then i kind of play for i'm like look if you are cooking the meals they're gonna eat what you cook so be selfish of like this is my food you can eat it either eat it with me or you can cook your own thing this is this is leadership this is leading your family your kids shouldn't lead the family when it comes to something as important as fucking nutrition. And I tell them, I'm like, look, I don't have kids, but I've seen, you know, a lot of my friends, a lot of my family, and I've seen them work this aspect. Don't bring it in the house if you don't want to eat it. But, you know, otherwise, it's you being selfish for something that you need in your life or changes.

It's usually better for everybody else. This is something I've noticed is anytime my wife is trying to get lean, guess who else gets lean? This guy. I'm not going to go. First off, I'm not going to tell her not to get lean. And then second off, when it starts happening, I'm like I'm just going to eat whatever's around. I might get a little hungry here and there,

but I get like extra snacks or something. And then if she's eating for performance I usually put on weight even beyond food and so like that's I'm letting her have that but that's because we have that communication the communication is yeah very important great examples like mothers who are in CrossFit one of the big struggles is you have let's say you get it going to get in shape and you have a family start like the I think the first thing you will struggle with is like feeling like it's not right for you to take time for yourself to get back in shape or to go to the gym before you come home to kids people will give themselves too much to their kids that's what you should do right question mark but then you realize that you can't be

an optimized ass-kicking mother if you don't do the things you need to do for yourself first so you can give more to your kids. And you're setting a better example for your children. And this even transitions into relationships. You know, Josh and I are very good at like, hey, you go off with the boys and hang out because I'm going to go off with the girls and hang out. And if you get pouty about it, then you have to deal because I need my time. And we're, we're very big on making sure that we have our own time to, to when we do come back to the relationship, we have more to contribute to it. And it's, it's important because, you know, you know, I'm very independent.

I'm very driven. And he is too. I wouldn't guess. But if I went into like this very codependent relationship and I wasn't selfish with my time, then I would be, I would be making like hurting the relationship and the overall being for what we're striving to do. So we are very big on like having our own time. You know, we come back together and have a good time. But if I'm like feeling a little bit grumpy or whatever I'm like you can go over there I'm gonna like have my corner I need to work I want to have me time or I'm gonna go off and shop

and spend my money and it's okay because ultimately it's it's making me feel better and he's gonna go off and do something that makes him feel better and then we're gonna come back and be able to be excited about seeing each other again you You can share what you've been doing. You guys can talk about it. You'll bring something back that you'll both enjoy. Alright, point number five. My favorite. Purge the negativity from your life. Purge the negativity

from your life. I was like, this is going to go. I'm not going to fitness festivals. T and A everywhere. What's in the coffee? Freud. Freud was right. is gonna go i'm not gonna finish festival tna everywhere i got coffee freud was right uh purge the negativity from your life oh my gosh just stop saying i can't um yes you can maybe not today but eventually they're like i can't do that well of course you can't do that because you believe that you can't. Just say, I'm working on it. I'm a work in progress.

You have to put it into a context that you are in the process of and that you will eventually. And stop taking that no, I mean, stop putting that no or that not into it. And that always like, you always like, like, um, undercut yourself. You know, I, I hear this all the time, especially with people in the gym or, um, with, with nutrition or just in life, they're like, Oh, I can't do that. I'm like, look, if I was able to pull myself out of a ditch and, and get myself to ground zero and then build from there and be able to be where I am today, everybody can do something that is good for themselves. And it's, it's just so frustrating to hear such a, a blanket of negativity, um, around people that they just don't even know

it's there. And they're just restricting themselves all the time in every single part of their life. Yeah. I get mad about it. I know some high performance communities, say like a group of Navy SEALs or something like that. And I'm not sure if they actually do this in Navy SEALs or not, but high performance groups like that, in some settings, they won't tell you that instead of saying, I can't, you have to say, I can. Because in some sense, that is unrealistic because not everything is possible today, even if you can get to it eventually.

So instead, you'll be corrected and it's almost against the rules to say, I can't, you'll be corrected to say, I won't instead of I can't because you can do it. You're just choosing not to. So you have to say, I won't. That way it really sinks in that you are making a choice right now to not do something, not because it's not possible, not possible, but because you are actively choosing not to and that's your own psychology that's your own decision internally that you're not going to do something and it's not because the world's holding you back because you are holding you back right you gotta be careful what you say and what you pretend to be and how you and the friends you surround yourself with because these are the conditions that

make you exactly what you are like Whatever you pretend to be is what you are. That mindset will limit you or allow you to push forward. That's the truth, man. I like what Doug was saying, too. As a coach, I like to say people go, oh, I can't do that. I go, oh, you're right. And then they go, what? You're supposed to say, no, come on, get it together.

I'm the opposite of what the coach is supposed to say. I go, you're right. And then they're almost like, why? I was like, well, the fact is supposed to say. I go, you're right. And they're like, and then they're like, almost like, why? I was like, well, the fact that you believe that you can't means you can't. Yeah. And they go. So story's over. And it turns into this conversation and then they hate me.

But actually, I rolled out, I don't do this. I roll out of bed and 10 minutes later, I check out my Instagram every morning. And then my friend, So Wrong Fitness, you should follow him follow him on Instagram by the way because he posts some funny stuff he posted a quote by Henry Ford this morning uh how fitting it says whether you think you can or you think you can't you're right yeah and so uh that's very good came up with that and I tell people a lot of my athletes you know they come in they're like well I don't know I don't know or i can't whatever and i'm like why why can't you like just give yourself the opportunity to amaze yourself because a lot of times you'll be surprised you're so much more capable of doing things that you didn't know you were doing if you just give yourself a chance try it try new things give yourself a chance but i i

always say i'm like give yourself an opportunity to amaze yourself and most of the time it happens it comes back to as well like in an instance like that as a coach they say i can't do that and you go okay well maybe you can't do that but what piece of that can you do and how many pieces of that can you do you might find it's only like this little piece that's scaring them that's providing some amount of fear that's making them say that i can't do it but really they can do like 80 of what you're talking about they might say i can't i can't do a snatch correctly and you go okay well well can you do any part of it well and they say well i can do this part this part and this part but i can't seem to um have it hit my hips correctly or hip pockets or whatever and you go okay well let's work on that little piece it's usually like

the teeniest piece now you have a solution now you break the fear right the fear loop is broken now you can you can get past it last thing negative people too get those people out of your life i think that's the hardest thing to do funny story and i and i tell this in my nutrition seminar about having scheduled cheat days and making sure that you do it guilt-free you know if you're if you do well and somebody was like don't reward yourself with food you're not a dog um get out of my face okay you don't know what the fuck you're talking about i don't either i don't either they might not be right but that's funny um shit where was i what was I saying

I don't know negative people oh yeah cheat day negative people look if you're gonna go have a cheat meal or a cheat item

I say cheat item and you're hanging out with friends and they're like so I have my cupcake you have your cupcake and the girl beside me or the guy beside me

is like I really shouldn't have this oh my god this is gonna make me fat oh my gosh oh I shouldn't eat this I feel so God, this is going to make me fat. Oh my gosh. Oh, I shouldn't eat this. I feel so guilty. Shut your face.

Get out of my zone because I'm going to enjoy my meal and you being a negative Nelly over here is really pissing me off because I've worked hard for this and I'm going to enjoy it. So you need to pack your little cupcake up and go home. Pack your little cupcake up and fuck off. Pack your cupcake. Yeah, like, just don't do it.

If you don't want it or shouldn't have it, then don't put it in your mouth. Like, just don't do it. I get mad about it. Don't ruin my cheat item. Don't ruin it. What tips would you have

for people who, the person who's holding them back in training and stuff is one of the most closest people to them, though. That also happens, right? You can have a you know hey look if we're gonna hang out during this time it's my time be selfish and i need you not to be negative and it's it's just having a conversation and making people one aware that they're negative

a lot of people don't you don't have to be like hey man you're real people don't and you don't have to be like, hey man, you're a real dick. You can't, you don't have to do that unless you have that real mutation with them. But there's nothing wrong being honest. Say, hey look, I feel like it would be helpful

if you would get over these things. You can communicate openly and honestly. They don't have to get over it. It's not your job to make them get over it. It's your job to make them aware that they are affecting you

and then how they want to deal with that is their responsibility. Yeah, I like it. But hey, look, when we're in our time, from this time to this time, we're having coffee or we're having our cake, I need you to hang up the negative words. And then maybe they might be like, well, man, I really am negative.

It's just an awareness issue most of the time. And if they don't, you tell them, I'm sorry, but I'll step away. Right, we don't get to spend much time together. Because you're toxic. I want to say thanks to him. He's like, shut up! I want to say thanks to that. Heaven 23 restaurant here at Gothia Towers in Gothenburg.

Gothenburg. Where's Gothenburg? Gothenburg. Gothenburg, Sweden. And yeah, we're here and they let us set up a shop and drink all their coffee. Christmas has to go to a workshop, a nutrition workshop at the Swedish Fitness Festival. No, actually, I'm throwing some barbells around. Oh.

Boom. We're going to go lift some weights. Swim some bars. All right. All right. In this last segment, we have one of the coolest things we ever shot on the show. The Technique WOD in Sweden at Aleko's strength and conditioning facility where coach Anders shows Christmas that there's really no such thing as good enough in the sport of Olympic

weightlifting. Is there Mike? No. Domination baby! Woo! Welcome back to Technique WOD. Today we are in Halmstad, Sweden at the Aleko Sports Center and the head of education for Aleko,

his name's Anders something Swedish. I can never remember his name, but his name's Anders. Super cool dude, very knowledgeable. He was on the Swedish Olympic team and the world team for about 10 years. So a very decorated Olympian and really knowledgeable coach. And so today's episode he's going to be coaching national competitor in weightlifting from America, Christmas Abbott. And it's gonna be a little bit unlike some of the technique we've done in the

past where it's not necessarily just going to be sharing the basics of technique, you know, heels down, neutral spine, things like that. It'll be more you sitting like a fly on the wall observing his style of coaching. So it's really going to be him coaching Christmas specifically. And if you're a coach, this will be super valuable because you get to see how someone else coaches, specifically someone else who is at a high level and is a very knowledgeable coach. You get to see his style. If you're an athlete, it could be valuable as well. But if you're a total beginner, it might be tough to really pick up the cues that you need to learn the basics of the lifts. But if you already have some experience and you're a coach, then you're really gonna get a lot out of this video because it just shows you how some other people

around the world do some coaching and it shows you a different perspective, a perspective that I really have not shown with my style on the show. So I figure the more perspectives you can get on a topic, the more comprehensive view you can get of that topic and the more of an expert you become.

So Anders is awesome. Hope you enjoyed the episode. And actually we'd love to get some feedback as well. If you enjoyed this episode and you want to see more things like this, please let us know. Email help at barboswag.com and we can have a conversation about it. Thank you. Okay, we're going to do some snatch today. And I want to see you, I'm using like a GPS system, so I want you to see where you can

start and where you can catch the weight. So I want you to just take the bar above your head. And then go to the lowest position. Are you feeling comfortable in this position? Is it good for you? So now we have your your end position okay then you can just take it up again and go down. Then we're going down to the start position. So take a strong start position. Are you feeling good? So this is your start position today. Okay then I

want you to lift from the start position to the end position in one lift. Okay? Så det här är din startposition idag? Ja. Okej, då vill jag att du flyttar från startpositionen till slutet i en flytt. Okej? Gärna. Kan du göra en annan? Bra, och en annan. Du ska göra fyra repetitioner. Och den sista. Bra. Hur känns det?

Bra. Bra. Grymt? Smutigt. Smutigt? Okej. Jag vill att du gör det lite smutigare. Okej? Så jag vill inte att du touchar på barret. Jag vill inte att du touchar på barret med din kropp.

Bara ha en fin känsla. Och gör de samma fyra repetitionerna igen. –Nej, ingen kropp. –Håll tid. Vi försöker förbättra din tid. Tid är kvällen om du vill lyfta mycket väggar. Sen kommer vi att lägga in all den här kraften. Så nummer ett är tid. Håll det bra. En bra lyft. En lift, smooth lift, please. Four repetitions. That's one. Good. And rest. How does it feel?

Smoother. Smoother. Good. Because the key is timing. Because timing is when you're adding all the stuff together and then you're having a good feeling into it. And weightlifting is about feeling. So this is the way you should lift. So now I want you to lift a little bit closer to the body. Du måste ha en god känsla av det. Och vägöver är om känsla. Så det här är hur du ska lyfta. Nu vill jag att du lyfter lite nägre till kroppen. Jag tror på tre principer. Det är nära, snabbt och djupt.

Jag vill att du lyfter nära kroppen, väldigt snabbt och väldigt djupt. Att du hänger djupt. Då kan du lyfta mycket väg. Vi måste börja med en. Vi måste lyfta upp lite närmare. Men du får inte lyfta upp hela kroppen, men närmare. I samma tid igen.

Fyra repetitioner. Good. Was it closer? Uh-huh. Are you sure? The first one was. But not the second, and not the third, and not the fourth. So you have to do it again. Good. Was it closer? Are you sure? The first one was. But not the second and not the third and not the fourth. So you have to do it again.

Because if you're not doing the same exercise, we are doing some circle training. So this is more like a circle snatch. So I want you to do exactly the same four times closer, but you're not supposed to touch your body, okay? Four repetitions. Men du måste inte toka på kroppen. Fem repeticioner. Jag tog på. Då måste du resta.

Nej, du måste resta. Du kan inte göra fyra repeticioner om du förlorar en. Det är inte tillräckligt med repeticioner. Du måste tänka, reflektera. Så gå runt och kom tillbaka igen. Nu kan du komma tillbaka igen. reflect. Okay? So go around and come back again. Okay? Now you can come back again. Okay. Okay. I want you to do it better. Okay? But you're not supposed to touch. Are you satisfied? No. No, then you need to do it again.

You're not supposed to improve your skill unless you can do it. So number one, you need to do it in a consistent way so we can build your technique on a platform. And right now the platform is like, it's like it's changing and that's not good up in the top. So you need to just do it exactly the same. And we are going closer and closer, but you need to do it better. And number one, you need to be more careful Vi går nästan nästan nästan. Men du måste göra det bättre. Du måste vara mer försiktig med din startposition. Du förändrar din startposition. Ibland är barret framför dig och ibland nästan nästan nästan. Du måste göra det exakt samma sak.

Jag vill att du är mer försiktig med din startposition. Sen är du nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan nästan näst. Sen närmare kroppen. Fem repetitioner. I felt better the last time you hit my shin. You think it's good enough? But it was... I feel like I had intention every time. Yeah, absolutely. Was it good enough? It was good.

It was good. Was it good enough? I want more. No? Was it good enough? No. No, then you need to do it again. I'm sorry. You need to pay attention to each repetition. Otherwise... Of course good enough is good enough. Not the best. Good enough for you. I'm just asking you.

I did not decide. You decide. And you thought it wasn't good enough, so that's the way it is. And I think it wasn't good enough, but... Okay, good. That's good. Then I'm justified. Good. Pay attention to the start position.

Pay attention to close enough, but not touch. We're going to touch laterare, men inte idag. Om du inte gör det. Vara försiktiga med varje repetition. One. Two. It was off. Sorry. Do I start over? Jag har en. Den var av. Förlåt. Ska jag börja över? Jag tror det. Du kan inte göra fyra.

Om du förlorar en så kan du inte göra fyra. Det är olyckligt. Du måste gå runt och tänka. Det här är mentalt krävande. Det är svårt för du bestämmer dig själv. Om du inte tror att det är bra, så är det inte bra. Men om du vill gå till nästa nivå, så måste du fokusera på varje repetition. Det här är mycket bättre, men inte bra.

Reflekera, gå runt. Det är bra. Tänk. Fem repeteticioner. One. Pay attention. Two. Pay attention. Pertensiyon. Oh. Good enough? I liked that one. Is it good enough?

It's good enough. To like something is not the same as good enough. Is it good enough? It's good enough. To like something is not the same as good enough. Is it good enough? It is. For me. Yeah, for you. Compared to today, I feel good on that one. Good.

It's good enough. I feel good on all four. Yeah, I want you to do it closer. And I want you to touch the ball like this. Okay? Here. Just like a touch. Not a hit. Like a touch. ball like this. Okay? Here? Just like a touch, not a hit, like a touch.

Four repetitions. I think you need to rest your head. This is not in the body, it's the head. The head is deciding if you want to lift good or not. The muscle can do contraction, that's what the muscle can do. Det är huvudet som bestämmer om man vill lyfta bra eller inte. Muskeln kan göra kontrakter. Det är det som muskeln kan göra. Huvudet bestämmer vilken och hur mycket. När du tränar teknik måste du vara trött i huvudet.

Om du inte är trött, så är det inte teknik. Det är en styrning av kraft eller muskelstyrning. Att göra teknik-träning är mentalt bevarande. stretching or a muscle stretch. So to do some technique training is mentally demanding and it takes a lot of feedback and you need to be focused on one thing. Yeah, that was the biggest challenge that I've had in a long time. Yeah, you see what happens? You were changing the style. Instead of doing four quick repetitions, you were taking. It was like a competition snatch now. And what are we training for?

Competition. Good. So we need to do competition snatch. So I want you to do with a touch. But not, not the touch. So now we're gonna need four repetitions. That are good enough. Good enough for you. Not for me. So, please.

You can see it in her face. Så, nu. Du ser det i hennes vis. Hon tänker. Hon går ner. Hon är trött nu. Ser du på föreläftsfasen? Vad? Föreläftet är 20 kilo. Föreläftet är för hennes bästa. Hon gör allt när hon lyfter personliga rekord.

Touch. Då behöver du resten. Vill du ha den sista seten? Do you want it or not? Yes. Last set. Okay, the last set. Come on, focus. Pay attention to each repetition. Lägg på dig i varje repetition. Bra lyft. En, en. 25 procent.

Lägg på dig. Touch eller a touch? Touch. Good? Touch set. Two. Last one. come on. Uh-oh. Touch? Touched. Okay. It was a light touch but it touched. I can feel it. So next level.

So I think you're getting a little bit tired in your head now. So you see what happens. You're training at the highest level. This is a competition snatch. You're doing all the stuff when you're lifting heavy loads. You're thinking, so it's good. Now you're not touching at the same spot. Sometimes you're touching low,

and sometimes you touch. So next level is that I want you to touch at the same spot every time. If you can't do that, we can't go to the next level. Nästa nivå är att jag vill att du touchar samma plats varje gång. Om du inte kan göra det så kan vi inte gå till nästa nivå. Så vi gör det inte idag eftersom det är en broadcast och det kommer ta lite tid. Och bara för att... Var ska du ta den? Jag är inte beredd just nu.

Jag vill att du gör exakt samma sak varje gång. Sen kan vi bestämma om vi vill ta den högre eller lägre. I don't care right now. I want you to do exactly the same every time. Then we can decide if we want to take it higher or lower. Got it. Consistency and then adjustment. Then we know, because you need to be in control of the exercise, and right now you're not. Because you're doing the lift, but I want you to decide where to hit. I want you to decide if it's close enough or not. Jag vill att du bestämmer dig för var du ska hitta. Jag vill att du bestämmer dig för om det är nära tillgången eller inte. Jag vill din huvud, för det är din hjärna som bestämmer om du ska lyfta bra eller inte. Inte jag, inte dina muskler, dina huvud.

Så vi måste träna din huvud. Det var den mest mentalt och fysiskt utmanande utmaningen jag har haft. Jag minns inte ens sedan. Vi kallar det motorisk koordination. Det här är motorisk koordination? –Ja. Sen kommer vi att lägga på en lösning en annan dag. Sen kommer det till motorisk kontroll. Vi vill göra samma lift när vi bestämmer om det här är bra. Om det här inte är bra.

Vi måste bestämma om det är rätt plats varje gång. Då kan du se om du gillar det eller inte. Jag tror på ditt känsla. Varje gång. Och då kan du känna att du gillar det eller inte. För jag tror på ditt känsla. För jag kan inte känna vad du känner. För jag är inte upprätthållig. Jag står bara och ger dig bra information. Inget annat.

Så det här är bara en bra snatch-session. Mentalt. Det här är den bästa key jag har haft i väldigt lång tid. session mentally. This is like the best key I've had in a very long time. Good. Good luck with your snatches. Thank you. For me, holidays are all about spending time with my favorite people and sharing in new experiences. It's also a time to reflect on a year's worth of amazing opportunities and lessons learned. I'm leaving Sweden with a new appreciation for the people in my life and for what's possible. Never settle for good enough if better is possible. Be brave and jump headfirst into new opportunities,

even if the water is incredibly cold. Say thanks more often, be kind to others, and most importantly, always surround yourself with amazing, driven people. If you can do that, you will amaze yourself with the results. Together with the entire Barbell Shrugged team, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy, relentless New Year. This is Tim Ferriss, and you are listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com.

Barbell Shrugged is brought to you by you. To learn more about how you can support the show, go to barbellshrugged.com and sign up for the newsletter.