Barbell Shrugged - The Evolution Of A Games Athlete W/ Wes Piatt

Episode Date: June 7, 2017

So you want to compete in CrossFit and perhaps make it to the Games one day? Getting to the CrossFit Games is no joke. It never was, and now it's a full time job to even get to Regionals. Competition in the sport of CrossFit is more intense than ever, and there's no doubt that the bar is set higher every year. This week, we meet up with Games athlete, Wes Piatt, who just wrapped up competing at the California Regionals. Wes has been competing for 7 years and in this episode, he shares his journey and we get to look into the life of a competitive athlete to hear what it is really like to train for the Games.  You'll learn about the training, supplementation, and mindset an individual CrossFitter needs to compete at the highest level plus get Wes's insight on the evolution of the competition over the last decade. In addition. Wes dives into what it is like to coach aspiring CrossFit Games athletes.  If you have aspirations to get to the Games or you're curious how it's done you'll want to tune in for this one. Enjoy the show, Mike

I'm not going to do it because I'm going to listen to my body. I think that's, honestly, like to answer your original question, that's the thing that's probably changed the most over these seven years is I listen to myself more now than I did in the beginning. In the beginning, it was like, it's there, I got to do it. If I don't do it because it's on paper, then, you know, I was a failure today. And so, but now I'll be like, oh, you know what? Actually, I'm kind of beat up. I'm going to go home. I'm good.

And then some days I'm like, you know what? That wasn't enough. Actually, I'm going to add a little bit to it. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Mike Bledsoe here with Doug Larson and Andy Galpin. And we're hanging out at Dynamis CrossFit here in Carlsbad. We have Wes Pyatt. You've been a CrossFit Games competitor. You've been competing. You just wrapped up regionals.

Yep. And you're alive. Yeah, I'm alive, yeah. I made it through the weekend not injured, which seems like it was a task. Yeah. I think almost every athlete after regionals I get talking to them, half of them are beat up in some way. Every athlete that has their pecs still is just really happy about that yeah for sure yeah that was

definitely a big one this year yeah i was laughing actually we were saying that i used my mom used to make fun of me when i was a kid growing up and she because i had my dad was really big he was like six seven like 280 he was a big you're a dude yeah yeah right big dude and Yeah, right? Big dude. And just like, man, mustache. Like, you know, yeah, big ass guy. And she would always be like, you need to eat more. And she would always poke my chest and be like, look how small you are. You need to eat more. And I'd poke my chest.

Is this your mom? Yes, my mom. Holy shit. You little wuss. Most people's moms are like, will you please stop eating? No, no. My mom, she was Irish-Polish like crazy. And so she would always make fun of me because I was really a skinny kid growing up.

She's like, you can't go to the gym. Work out more. Eat more. Get bigger. Like your dad and stuff. And then I laugh this weekend. I'm like, every dude that had huge pecs blew them out this weekend. So what's up now?

Yeah, mom. I think that's the reason why it didn't blow out of pecs. They just don't have any pecs. There's no pecs to blow out. That's a strategy? Yeah, mom. I think that's the reason why it didn't blow out of pecs. They just don't have any pecs. There's no pecs to blow out. That's a strategy. Yeah, exactly. It's not like you're a small human being. How big are you?

5'11", like 200 pounds. Yeah, you're not like a super small kid. Yeah, but it took seven years for that to happen, of working out six hours a day. So all this working out is just to finally have your mom love you. Yeah, basically. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that's it. All right. Were you working out before you found CrossFit? Actually, I mean, a little bit. I grew up surfing and snowboarding, rock climbing, that kind of stuff. I did play baseball and football growing up, but I hated the gym. I hated working out. i didn't like going in and doing back squats with everybody even during um football like practice when we go into

the weight room i would find ways to like skip out and go watch film instead you know that's that's how i would get out of working out because i didn't like being in there and i think it was more just like i didn't i wasn't benching as much as everybody else was my age and i wasn't back squatting as much and so i found it that I got away with my athleticism more than anything. I think, like, surfing and snowboarding and stuff like that helped me out a lot. And so I would ask my coach if I could go watch film instead of working out, and that's how I got out of it. And then I even joined the military after high school,

and I still didn't like working out and going to the gym. You were doing, like, all the things that ask you to work out. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but I just – Crazy just i think i just got through with my own athleticism like i've always been like picked up on things pretty quick um i don't want to say like super quick but like surfing like i i loved it it was a challenge and so i stuck with it and it was something that not a lot of people were good at so i wanted to do it and then when i i found crossfit it was like that feeling again of like hey not many people are doing this and this is really fucking cool and

it hurts really bad but it doesn't feel like i'm working out it feels like i'm playing a sport again and so i think that's why i kind of fell in love with it yeah yeah so when did you start crossfitting uh 2009 yeah what got you into that um i was on, actually, a deployment. It was my last deployment in Kuwait, and we showed up, and there were a couple guys there doing it, and they had, like, the What is CrossFit posted up that Greg Glassman had put up and stuff. And usually you go on a deployment, and that's when everybody buys their supplements

and tries to get super jacked because you can't drink when you're there. Supplements. Yeah. It was basically every like no explode product you could possibly get right and stuff and you would just uh you go to the gym all day long that's all you do on deployment so i've been on deployment i know what that's like yeah exactly and just work out that's it that's all you do yeah right and so we showed up and there were a couple guys doing that and uh i tried filthy 50 was my first workout i

tried and i couldn't get through the double unders because i didn't know how to do double unders and i remember just throwing the jump rope across the room and like and that moment falling in love with it at the same time being like it's a new challenge this is new something that i'm not good at and i want to be good at and then that was it stuck with it from then on yeah first year you competed was 2011 yeah 2011 um on the team with crossfit inferno that was like my first crossfit gym that i joined yeah and you run which gym are you running now uh coast range crossfit in gilroy california gotcha yeah so how does you've been competing since 2011 and it's 2017 now how does that how's that changed over the years and the competition's

gotten different too because you've competed on teams as an individual. Yeah, oh my God, the competition now is insane. Just making it through the Open now is like what it used to feel like trying to go through regionals and get to the games, I feel like, you know. Yeah, it's definitely changed a lot. Obviously, when we first started doing this stuff, if you worked out more than once a day, you did like extra stuff on the side beside the class, you were considered like, whoa, this guy's an athlete.

You know what I mean? This guy's going to the games because he's back squatting in the corner after he did his workout, you know? And now it's like, you know, the 40-year-old dad in the gym does that. And if he doesn't, it's like, what are you doing? You should be doing something else, you know? So it's obviously changed a lot as far as I think volume goes. But I think the cool thing I'm seeing now is that it's actually starting to come back, I think,

to that intensity is really what drives results. And I think we're seeing a shift. Even like look at regionals this year. Six events, one dumbbell, no barbells, and people are leaving that thing wrecked. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it's not like there was, you know, leaving that thing wrecked. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it's not like there was, you know, normally there's seven events every year.

There's some pretty heavy-ass barbells usually. And the workload, you look at it, you'd be like, wow, this is a lot of work, right? And this weekend you look at it on paper and you're like, it seems like six workouts I would do at my normal gym and, you know, everything would be cool. Not a big deal. It wouldn't be that sore. But the intensity of the people that are around you and the surrounding that you're in and then you leave that weekend, like, just beat up, you know.

And so I think that that was a big wake-up call for a lot of people to be like, hey, yeah, great, you're doing five workouts a day, but are you putting in what you should be putting into them, you know, to get actual results out of it. So I think we're going to kind of see a comeback around here of people, like, dropping the volume down a little bit, focusing more on intensity. At least I hope. That's what I'm going to try to get people to do.

Yeah, the volume in the past has been really high. It is nice to see it dialed back a little bit. Yeah, I just don't think it's sustainable, right? I think from a health perspective, it's good to actually pull the barbells out from so much of the Metcon type of environment. It was cool to see that. And at the same time, as a spectator, it's not as much fun. As a spectator, I'm going to see barbells.

See people lift heavy ass shit. Yeah, I'm watching someone snatch a dumbbell. I'm just like, oh, cool. Just keep going. Yeah, I mean, you take a lesson from Instagram. Everyone that gets a ton of likes on Instagram, they're doing heavyes heavy cleaning jerks heavy deadlifts like that stuff just gets a lot of likes like no one's doing like kettlebell walks or overhead one-arm overhead squats with a dumbbell and getting a lot of likes on instagram it's just not a spectator friendly so yeah i understand why they did it they're it's

very cool they did it caught everyone off guard and that's that's totally awesome But as far as the spectators go, it's probably not quite as entertaining. Yeah, for sure. But I think that's the cool thing about what Dave does, right, is he doesn't give a shit. Yeah. He's the perfect guy for it. You know what I mean? Like, he really – he's like, no, I don't really care.

Like, he cares. Obviously, the way that Dave sets up regionals in the game stuff, it's got to be spectator-friendly, right? You look at it. You can see who's ahead. You can see who's behind and stuff like that. He really thinks about that stuff but at the same time he he sticks to true to what crossfit is you know it's you know workload across broad time and

little domains like how much work can you do in a short amount of time and so hey if we bring down the weight right and make that not an issue for somebody not to be able to move faster then you know what is your excuse and so yeah it may not be as spectator friendly but it's cool to see that they're sticking true to what crossfit is yeah yeah it's a good test of fitness when when it's not something that you've practiced a million times yeah now now it's just who can adapt and do something that's a little bit novel and the fittest person still is going to come out on top yeah for sure and i actually enjoy that stuff more to be honest with you i i mean 100 honest like i don't enjoy crossfit i don't enjoy doing like workouts and suffering and

you know that's not fun you know what I mean but the fun part is like when you finish and you're like oh wow I did that that was cool right like I accomplished that and I did it with you and you and cool awesome now we're closer together like that's what makes CrossFit cool right and the fact that you can adapt to things so So I've always enjoyed, like, stones and sandbags and dumbbells and things like that because it got me away from, like, well, if I just practice this barbell movement over and over and over again, like, I'll get good at this barbell movement. It's like surfing. You have to adapt to the wave.

When the wave comes out, you have to be able to move with it and flow with it. And I think that that's how you should be as an athlete, too, as well. And I think that tested a lot of people this weekend. Yeah, I feel like similar to what you just said like cross is not necessarily fun but it's very satisfying yeah like you get an enormous sense of accomplishment when you when you finish something it's like doing airdyne sprints i've never enjoyed doing airdyne sprints but i'm always like really proud of myself for like for like digging myself into a hole where i have to go lay down for like 45 minutes to recover from like you know one minute of work like it's very satisfying but

it's not necessarily fun during it's like like the old expression that doesn't have to be fun to be fun yeah no totally 100 yeah it's like like this weekend like you know going through like half those events you get halfway through an event and you're like man screw this i just want to stop you know but you obviously keep going and you push yourself through and then when you finish you're like man all right cool glad i didn't stop yeah kept stop so having gone to regionals like what six times now something like that like since 2011 you have this this this pattern this yearly cycle you know where where you know the open's coming up you're training for that and then you know you're going to go to regionals and then you know you've gone to the games before it so what what does your year look like like you you finish regionals if

you go to the games then of course you train for that but then after the games like you know okay like games are over and now I have to wait. Not wait, but I have so many months until the Open comes again. Like, how do you structure a whole year knowing that you're competing to go back to regionals again? Yeah, so every year when I finish regionals or whatever, I always tell my wife, I'm like, that's it. I'm taking, like, a month off. I'm like, shit, I'm not going to do anything. And then, like, three days later, I'm back in the gym and I'm doing what I normally do.

And every year I sit down and go, okay, well, this is how I'm going to plan it out. You know, August through whatever, I'm going to make sure that I'm just getting strong. And then this through this, I'm going to make sure I'm doing this. And every year it just turns into that. I just do CrossFit. You know what I mean? I just go in and I work out and I lift heavy after before. And I, you know, do some things that I haven't done in a while. And I just practice stuff, you know what I mean? I just go in and I work out and I, I lift heavy after before. And I,

you know, do some things that I haven't done in a while. And I just practice stuff, you know? And I think to be honest with you, I do a lot better. I need to have, I'm a very like structured person. So I really enjoy a lot of, you know, sitting down and trying to plan things out. But at the same time, like I'll do that and it'll make me feel good. And then I'll start doing it. And I'm like, I don't like this and I'll change it and I'll do something else and i'll move with it and i'll keep going and so but it ends up turning into every year when i sit down and come up with this huge plan of what i'm going to do all year long and then i start doing it and i start changing it and then i look back on it after regional's over i'm like oh i just did a bunch of crossfit all year didn't follow that at all yeah i didn't follow that plan at all but i mean mentally it's good for me it keeps me

structured and keeps me moving. And it makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I'm planning things out and I have a goal and a task and a way to get there. But I'm cool with changing that as it goes. And so as far as, like, answering your actual question, you know, what does my year look like, it's almost the same all year long, to be honest with you. Volume doesn't change very much. You know with you. Volume doesn't change very much. You know, like intensity doesn't change very much. I always do, no matter what, like so we do our class workout at Coast Range. I try to do that with the class as much as possible.

I do some sort of a heavy lift afterwards. I try to get in some sort of a gymnastics piece. Like I know I suck at handstand pushups, and I've been focusing on those for seven years, and they haven't gotten better, I feel like. You know, and it's like, so, and then I, yeah, and then I go home, and I just do that over and over and over again and hope things get better. And so far, I feel like they've gotten better

because the competition's gotten better, and I've been able to stay with that at least, you know. Haven't made it back to the game since 2013, but I've been able to stay with that at least. Haven't made it back to the game since 2013, but I've been able to stay with everybody, so I think that it's working. Chris Moore wrote a really cool article for the website. I believe it was called Chaos in the Weight Room. So it's been up for a couple of years, but he outlined what we see scientifically all the time,

which is that having a plan is far better than no plan at all, but why you train is probably more important in the long run than exactly how you train. So your method is probably the most realistic combination of ideal and actually going to do in terms of if you go in there and wing it every single day with no plan at all, you're probably going to be in a very, very bad spot. So that act, like you said, of just going through the – single day with no plan at all you're probably going to be in a very very bad spot but so that act like you said of just going through the putting the pen on the paper a little bit having

some sort of plan even though you abandon it for the most part very quickly it's still very very important to do that yeah so it's it's really i think uh something that's underappreciated of going through the plan even though if you're like, well, I know I'm going to just adjust it or leave it. So why even start in the first place? That's a bad approach, right? You have to have some target in place. So even though you are adjusting it, what are some of the central pieces of the plan for yourself that you generally start with at least? And we know you change it, but. Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, like, like you said, I'm not, I know I made it sound like it is just, you know, I read this plan and I say, fuck it. And I don't do any of it. Right. But I definitely like, obviously like I mean, like you said, like I'm not – I know I made it sound like it is just, you know, oh, I read this plan and then I say, fuck it, and I don't do any of it, right? But I definitely like – obviously, like I'll pull up some sort of a strength program

and I'll focus on like, hey, my deadlift needs to go up. So I'm going to spend the next, you know, six to eight weeks focusing on my deadlift. Or, you know, my handstand pushups need to get better. So I'm going to search out some sort of a program that's going to help me with my handstand pushups or maybe adopt one or change it a little bit that I think would help me out better out better and i do stick to those things but it's just that day-to-day of like you know hey i don't feel like doing that i'm not going to do it because i'm going to listen to my body i think that's honestly like to answer your original question that's the things probably changed the most over these seven years is i listen to myself more now than i did in the beginning

yeah the beginning was like it's there i it's there. I got to do it. If I don't do it because it's on paper, then, you know, I was a failure today. But now I'll be like, you know what? Actually, I'm kind of beat up. I'm going to go home. I'm good. And then some days I'm like, you know what? That wasn't enough. Actually, I'm going to add a little bit to it and do that too as well.

So, yeah, I will put down like some sort of strength program or I will put down some sort of gymnastics program and stuff. But the CrossFit stuff is just whatever we're doing in the gym every single day that stays the same yeah you're talking about uh i guess uh listening to yourself i think a lot of times that's um like a foreign idea to a lot of people yeah like just being able to to hear that voice um and i what i've come to realize it's more about trust like that voice is always in there like telling people like hey maybe you need to back off or maybe you need to add some more but trusting it is the hard part yeah for sure i think that's why a lot of people seek out a coach

right yeah it's because they don't trust themselves to do the things they should do so like i have a couple individual athletes that i train and that's my job as a coach is yeah we have this standard plan I know where the weaknesses are and I understand we need to get x and x and whatever better but my real job is to every week when I talk to them and look back at the week of the training that they did is to be able to adjust that start first mentally how are they feeling mentally about everything do they look because I have one athlete in seattle and um i do a face time with her every single week right and she's like well can we just call each other and i'm like no i want

to see you yeah like i want to see what you physically look like you get on there and you can see bags under people's eyes or something like that or they're just you can see that they don't have that glow about them that they normally do and it's just taking what they say or not even what they say but how they say it yeah you know you could be like hey be like, hey, how did those handstand pushups go this week? And they're like, oh, it went pretty good. You know, or they're like, oh, it went really good. Yeah, yeah. Like those are two completely different ways of saying that something went good.

And you could tell if you can read people, which I think most hopefully CrossFit gym owners can. You know, that's what we do every single day is we see hundreds of people come through our doors. And all we do is read them. And in the middle of a workout, we read them. You know, know how are they doing like should i yell at this person right now do they look like they need it or should i leave them alone because they don't need it you know and so um being able to look at somebody every single week and then and adjust things for them based off of not what they say but what you hear is what a coach is for and like you were saying a lot of people won't trust themselves to do that. So that's why they reach out to other people and have coaches to help them do that. So, um, I don't have a coach. And so I don't know if I've been screwing that up or not,

you know, probably have been. So what are some of the signs or self-talk in your own training that you listen to or look for when you decide to take a day off right so um yeah i listen to my wife okay yeah she uh she's pretty good telling me like you know hey you're being an asshole now or you know or like hey maybe she has really good ways of saying like hey maybe she took a day off you know or like hey you want to go over to santa cruz and like hang out you know it's like she had these little ways and like i'm one of those guys like no i gotta train i gotta do blah but she's like i think it'd be a good day for you to go to you know it's like she had these little ways and like I'm one of those guys like no I gotta train I gotta do a lot but she's like I think it'd be a good day for you to go to the beach it's like the same way like your wife is telling you that it's

the same way as like are you on your period yeah totally right like you're acting like a dick you know and like I will get I'll get super cranky you know if I'm over trained and not feeling good and you know and I like I just don't have that stoke for life when those type of things happen and we actually like i went through like a pretty bad state i would say about the last two months leading up to this regionals where i was really like i i got through the open this year and you know qualified for regionals and stuff but during the open i was like really questioning myself like man should, should I be doing this? Is this worth it?

We just had a baby six months ago. I had surgery on my shoulder last year. I'm like, I'm all beat up. I have a brand new kid. Like should I be spending six hours in the gym every single day and doing this stuff? Like is this what's going to fulfill my life? You know, does this really matter to me?

And really went through like a straight depressed state of 100 and what pulled me out of it was my wife going like hey you know what you need to do she's like you need to go and have like six or seven beers and chill out and you know like an athlete they're like no like i i don't drink you know i can't drink i'm training i'm trying to go across the games if you drink oh my god, you're never going to make it. And I literally, like, yeah, I probably had, like, 15 or 20 beers. Solid. Got completely, you know, shit-faced with some friends.

Six? I can do better than that. Yeah. You're saying I can't? Watch this. Yeah, we went over to a friend's house and hung out on the beach with all of our kids and stuff. And, no, I wasn't, like, the only one there with a kid, you know, when I was there and stuff. But we just hung out with friends and I just had a great time.

And then I took like three days off of working out and I had this new energy again, you know. And I was like, okay, I'm ready to do this. Yeah. I do want to go. Never feeling down, just get wasted. Yeah. I don't know. Alcohol is so effective for depression.

I feel so good afterward. It's the worst advice ever for anybody, right? Nobody's going to want to come to me as a coach and be like, this guy's a fucking Or you're going to get a lot of people. Or you're going to have like a ton of people come. Oh, yeah. This guy knows what I need. Yeah.

This guy knows me. When I was 25, I would have been lining up. I'd be like, a coach is going to tell me to get wasted? Yeah. Sign me up. I do not tell people to do that. You and Jackie do as I say, not as I do. Yeah, no.

Actually, like, that's one of the things I ask people when they ask if, you know, hey, will you coach me? And I go, well, do you drink? And they're like, oh, fuck, yeah. And I'm like, I don't really know if I want to coach you. But they're like, yeah, sometimes. You know what I mean? And I'm like, oh, okay, cool. Then that's great.

You have balance in your life. But I didn't have balance. You know? And that's how you know balance in your life but interesting um i didn't have balance you know i was i'm and that's how i've always been i've been very like i'm if i'm doing something i'm doing it 100 there is nothing else to it and so um i needed that extreme in one way to pull me back to balance in my life altogether i call it extreme balance oh okay you just live at either side of the spectrum that's and then you know that it's teeter-tottering the whole time. It's like, oh, I'm a little too fun. I'm going to go over there.

That's totally actually how I am, like 100%. We should hang out. I'm either like I'm in party mode, you know what I mean? And that's the way it is. We're getting down. Or I'm like, no, I'm working and leave me alone. I can't talk to anybody. My friends are dead to me.

My friends are dead to me. One of the main criticisms from people, especially those outside of the CrossFit world, about CrossFit is it's not sustainable. You're not going to do it for that long. You're going to burn out, injury, mentally, whatever. After seven years of competing, are you getting tired of it? Are you still enjoying it? Are you enjoying it less, more?

Is it sustainable for you? I think we should take a break and come back to that question. Let's do it. Can I be there when you use it? Yeah. Oh, my God. So it's like a wristwatch, but you put it on and it's a little pack. And so the idea is as you're working out, when you sweat,

when you start sweating, the caffeine will seep into your bloodstream. Make you super dehydrated. And, yeah, I don't know what will happen. I feel like caffeine is one of many, many things we could do with technology like that. Oh, shit. It's a gateway. Caffeine is the gateway. Yeah, caffeine is the gateway for sure.

It's the proof of concept. Yeah. Caffeine is the gateway. Yeah, caffeine is the gateway for sure. It's the proof of concept. Yeah. If Andy's going, oh, shit, the second you start saying that, it makes me not want to use it. Well, part of it is the product itself, and part of it is the person who I heard was describing it. So double those things, I'm like, oh, boy. Well, my buddy wants to do, his whole thing is he infuses different products with cbd and so he

wants i don't know if that'll work but i don't know we're just we're just seeing what substances we can get to get into the body in as many different ways yeah of course why not yeah yeah it can't go bad no hey it's an experiment you You need people like that, right? Science, bitch. Science. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a guinea pig for sure. Have you done a coffee enema? No. It's the best. I haven't done any enema of any kind ever.

And you just don't know yourself yet. No, that's not. Maybe that's what I'll do in my retirement. Remember earlier how we were saying it doesn't have to be fun to be fun? Yeah. This counts. This counts. You'd be really proud of yourself.

Very fulfilling to do the coffee on a mug. That's right. You've never done it? You want to push the limits? No, no, no. What am I? Am I stupid? No, no, no. I haven't done it yet.

But actually, I'd be willing to try just for the fucking crazy experience of it. Yeah. We'll do it after the show. We'll do it together. Dude, partner. Partner enema. I'll watch. Just don't look each other in the eye.

No eye contact. You contact you gotta brew it you gotta let it get to room temperature and you just sit over here too every time and you're just like not doing it you gotta brew it

you gotta let it get to room temperature and then you're supposed to hold it for like 15 minutes this is a serious thing you're being serious

yeah I thought you were just fucking around no an entire quart so I brewed up an entire quart of coffee.

Organic, of course. Yes, that's the important part. You don't let it cool down. Nope. Fair trade. Don't let it cool down. No, no, no, no. As hot as possible.

You must let it cool down. Oh, yeah, that's probably good. He likes it with a hint of nutmeg. Put it in a bucket. Lay it in the tub. I can't believe this shit's real. Put the hose in my ass and just release the clamp. Now, you can't soak up a whole quart at once.

So it's like you get like a cup or two in there and you got to like close it off, breathe, let a little more in there. And then, of course, you can't push it back out. You got to be in a very receiving state. So regular coffee to you is just like, this is shit. Child's play. You're like, why did you give me this? It's like, yeah, can you put it in there? Yeah.

I'm not interested. You go to Starbucks and you ask for like 15 straws. Put them all together. That guy's been in the bathroom for like 30 minutes yeah so uh yeah so yeah i got a whole cord in there and i've only done it once you were up for like six days it was awesome yeah high energy for sure you went to bernie man right after yeah yeah i didn't need anything else. That was it. Awesome. So, worth trying out. I mean, like the Barbra Strug post-workout protein shake enema recovery pack.

We'll sell, like, three of them. Yeah. Probably more than that. Michael Paltal. Getting high on my own supply. There you go. All right. What was the, now that we've talked about MMS enough,

what was the brilliant question you had asked earlier? I was asking Wes about the sustainability of it, especially competing. You've competed so many years, and you made it to the regionals all seven, well, all years you competed, right? Yes. You made it, and then the games once. Yes. So are you getting burnt out?

Are you tired of it? Are you bored? Are you going to move Games once. Yes. So are you getting burnt out? Are you tired of it? Are you bored? Are you going to move on to something else? Or are you more invigorated than ever? What's that like for you? I'm more invigorated than ever on CrossFit, for sure. But I'm definitely done competing. Oh.

Yeah, that's for sure. Okay. Yeah, just my priorities have definitely changed. We have a new baby baby and i want to watch her grow up and start walking and crawling and you know saying her first words and stuff like that so you're quitting good oh yeah this guy's a quitter yeah for sure yep i am quitting uh and i'm totally cool with that yeah um yeah i've actually never felt like in the last seven years like more relieved in my life than after that last workout was over, to be honest with you.

But you knew before going in. Yeah. This was your last year. Yeah, I made the decision about, like, probably a month ago after I had those 20 beers that we talked about. I was so clear on what I wanted for my life after those 20 beers. 20 beer enlightenment program. Yeah, really fast. I want to say it wasn't actually 20 beers.

It's just an exaggeration. I think you'd probably die. No. No. Yeah. But it wasn't that many. Anyways. Well, that kind of attitude you have.

But, yeah, it was right after that where I realized, like, wow, if I'm having to do this in order to make myself feel, you know, normal and happy again, what am I doing? You know, and so, so yeah i'm excited to take it a new way i was just talking to my wife on the way over here i'm like i'm so excited to be able to have one of those days where you're like oh man i only have like 20 minutes i'm gonna go in the backyard do some double unders and thrusters with some dumbbells and be done and be totally okay with that and be like yeah cool i got it in today and let's let's do the

stuff that we want to do instead of being like oh my my God, I didn't do this or this and this and this. And I'm going to, you know, that took away from me making it to the games and regionals. And that's how my life has been for the last seven years, where it's like, I feel if I, if I'm not in the gym and I'm not doing stuff every hour that I possibly can, that I'm a failure or I'm not doing enough. I'm not, you know, I don't want to say a failure, but then I'm that I'm just not doing what I should be doing to get to where I want to go, you know. So I'm really excited to be able to just work out with the class and high five afterwards and, you know, go about my day. It's going to be cool.

So even though you're not competing, you're not trying to, like, make it back to the CrossFit Games and, like, go to the big show, that whole thing doesn't mean that you more than likely don't have any goals that you're still trying to accomplish as far as your physicality or or fitness like um you know you still might be trying to you know deadlift 600 pounds or do a handstand walk for 300 feet or something like that do you have any skills that you're or goals that you're still trying to hit even though you're not competing against other people per se like what are the things you want to hit for you yeah no um right now i don't have anything you know um i'm just excited to be super healthy again. When I say healthy, I mean like Doug was just saying,

what's your relationship with the floor or whatever you're talking about? Now I drop stuff and I'm like, okay, here we go. I'm going to pick this up for a sec. You go to get up and you're like, all right, there you go. Let's move on. I'm excited to be able to be like, oh, let me grab that and get back up. Everything feels good because I'm working out once a day and those types of things.

So I think it's just going to be getting back into touch with, you know, feeling really good again and not kind of beat up all the time. And then after that, I'll probably make some goals. I always do that. You know, that's never going to stop until the day I die. You know, I want to be able to have this many pull-ups or deadlift this much or whatever. But right now, nothing.

My goal is actually to focus more on other people, I think, this year. I guess my big goal is to put others as much as I can before myself. So do you have athletes that are younger and they're trying to make a name for themselves and compete and you're doing their programming, you're coaching them on a day-to-day basis, that type of thing? Yeah. I have two athletes that I think have a really good shot

of actually making regionals next year. They've been pretty close the last couple years. One of them is a coach at our gym. And, yeah, I'm going to put my effort into them this year for sure. How has your philosophy of programming changed in the last seven years since you first started programming for the CrossFit Games and now versus, I guess, how are you going to program for him? What are the lessons you've learned?

Yeah, I think it's gotten simpler the longer I've done it. I used to, I want to say, like gather too much information. You know, I was trying to look at everything, like every little thing. What is their back squat compared to their deadlift? And what is this? And I think all that stuff is really great. But I think when you get to the caliber of athletes that we have now that are even making it through the open and getting close to regionals

and stuff like that, they're pretty good athletes like they've got that stuff pretty dialed in you know and if they didn't they probably wouldn't make it that far are there little things that can be tweaked and there are anomalies of people that are you know really far off in one direction and just happen to sneak through like yeah um but not the ones that i have they're pretty well-rounded athletes and um I just try to do I focus the most honestly on people's like I think mental side of things and really making sure that like yeah I have a structured program for them we're hitting their weaknesses we're making things are getting make sure things are getting better we're constantly checking to see if you know they are getting

better if they're not how do we adjust that but I think like where I come in as a coach and what makes me feel the best with them is what is those check-ins every week that we talked about, you know, where I'm looking at them face-to-face. I'm seeing how they're doing. And I just don't want them to get to the point where I was at like a couple months ago where they're just so, I got to do this in order to get to this goal that I want. But I fucking hate my life right now. You know, and like I will consider success for my athletes at the end of the day that they do this and they're loving it and they're always having a good time. Yeah, you're going to have to struggle, of course.

Everybody's got to – at some point you may not want to work out, but oh, well, suck it up and go do it. There has to be a little bit of that, but at the same time my job and what I look at when programming for them is making sure that when I check in with them every week that they look happy. If they look happy and everything's getting better and their benchmarks are getting better and the things that were weaknesses that we're working on trying to get better are getting better, then I'm doing my job.

Yeah, that's probably indicative of potential for injury and just the longevity piece. So if someone's not having fun, you know, they're going to compete for one year and then check out. Yep. And this is one of those, it's gotten, the sport's gotten to a point where you have to prepare for years before you go to regionals for the first time. Yep. Yep.

Absolutely. Yeah. So how do you balance the, you know, what the athlete wants and what they need? Because depending on who you get, they're going to be like, you know what, like, just tell me what to do. Like, I don't, I don't give a shit how I feel about all the movements I'm doing and the type of programming. Just if you think it's the right thing, I will do it 100% and never break.

And some athletes, they want to show up and they want to have a good time and they want to be a little more intuitive depending on how they're feeling that day. But as a coach, how do you balance the wants versus the needs of your athletes? I don't know. I don't really think I listen to their wants, to be honest with you. Nice. Okay. I don't know. I don't really think I listen to their wants, to be honest with you. Nice. Okay. I don't know.

I think I listen to – they may tell me, hey, I want this, I want that. But if we look at it on paper, is that really what they need? You know, like you can – shit, I want a Range Rover. Do I need it? No. You know? So if somebody tells me they want a 600-pound deadlift and they have a 550- pound deadlift but they have three

strict handstand push-ups that want doesn't necessarily go in line with their needs you know what i mean so i i'll try to go back with them and be like well hey you know what if we look at your deadlift compared to other games athletes or regional athletes you're pretty damn close but so your strict handstand push-ups versus other regionals athletes or games athletes you're pretty far down so in your opinion what do you think you need to work on most right and then what do they tell you oh well shit probably my handstand push-ups you see you let them figure it out for themselves you know but you as a coach it's your job to get them to realize that that's what they need to work on instead of being like you can say the exact same thing right they go um i want to get 600 pound deadlift and you go no that's not what

you need what you need to do is work on your strict handstand push-ups and they go well but i want a 600 pound deadlift but that's not what you need or you go i want to take some of deadlift like yeah you know that would be awesome if you have 600 pound deadlift how many strict handstand push-ups you have they go two and you're like okay well let's look at that compared to other people i want you to go online i want you to tell me who what's a normal average right and to make them do the research and figure it out and then they come back to you and go, shit, everybody's got like 30 strict handstand push-ups, and I only have two.

And you go, okay, cool, so what do you think we should work on? And they go, oh, okay, my strict handstand push-ups. And now they're in line with what you obviously need to do for them, but they're making that decision in their own head. Yeah. Leaving someone through that process of discovery gets way more buy-in. Yep. Yeah.

So do you have any set numbers that, like, I know CrossFit posts, like, the averages for, like, games athletes, like, on average, they clean this much and snatch this much and back squat this much and, you know, they have this many pull-ups or whatever. Do you have those numbers just kind of, like, ready to, like, say, hey, like, here's, like, the average numbers, you know, where do you fall above and below these numbers that way? Yeah, we can do that for sure with athletes.

Like I can, you know, like a girl, like athlete, I'd like to see her have at least 15 to 20 strict handstand pushups. I'd like to see her have like 20 unbroken muscle ups would be amazing. Right. But what I really honestly look more at, I'm like, OK, well, let's couple that with something else. Let me see how many strict handstand pushups you have after you do 20 unbroken back squats at whatever percentage weight. Then what can you do? You know, because I've seen a lot of athletes that they'll be able to knock out

a ton of strict handstand pushups, but if you couple that with something else that they're not used to, all of a sudden that goes to shit. And it's like, okay, great, you have this, but we need to make sure we train this with everything else because that's CrossFit, right? They're not going to be like, okay, the event one is how many strict handstand pushups can you do? They're going to be like, how many strict handstand pushups can you do when you feel like you're going to throw up and your heart's in your throat?

Yeah. And so I look at it more like that, and my job is to find that weakness in there. So I try to take people's strengths when they tell me like, you know, double unders are really my good thing. And we actually just had this with my athlete up in Seattle. And double unders, handstand push-ups, that stuff, she loves that stuff. Chest to bar pull-ups, right? And the other day we had a workout where she was doing some assault bike intervals,

some back squats, and some double unders. And her double unders just went to shit. And they never do. And I was like, yes, we found it. She's like, what do you mean yes? It was a horrible workout. I was like, yes, we found it. She's like, what do you mean yes? It was a horrible workout. I was like, no, that's my job is to figure out, okay, what is causing that to happen, and now we need to work on that

over and over and over again so that that never happens to you. Because imagine that mentally in the middle of a workout at regionals. We were like, this is my strength, here we go, and it just goes to shit. But this is my strength. I've heard a lot of stories like that. People get into uh they get into a movement that they think they have down and it falls to pieces and what does that do mentally oh yeah destroyed yep exactly so that's my job as a coach is to not necessarily

look at like what you're saying those numbers you know like individually that's great and that's a good thing to have to get people to buy in like we're talking about but also okay well let's take your strength and try to make them a little weakness with other stuff and see if we can do that. What are some of the mistakes that you see other coaches or just people when they're training and they're doing CrossFit, being around for so long, what are some of the things that people aren't doing or doing too much of that you generally?

Yeah, if you could say their names and call them out, that'd be great. Please. I think you hit on it right there, too too much of right at the end of your sentence i think that a lot of people go straight for volume if they're not working out six hours a day and they're not doing enough um and i i challenge people to focus on intensity more so i don't even want to say the word intensity but maybe more focus on what they're doing and putting everything they have into what they're doing and um like they have into what they're doing. And like I said, six events this weekend, a lot of people would do that in a single day.

Now, you know, they'd be like, oh, I'll do six workouts in a day. That's not even a big deal. Rich Froning does it and everybody else does it, you know, so whatever. But they're putting in like 60% effort while they're doing it. And they feel great afterwards. I'm wrecked after this weekend, you know? And so it's like trying to get people to tap into that i think is um what i'm after with my athletes i don't want to say that anybody's doing anything

wrong i mean because i don't know yeah if it's working it's working right and if you have a coach that's that's maybe volume work for somebody and all their numbers as long as they're checking in with their athletes and they're they honestly truly care about them cool do whatever the hell you want i don't care. I'm not your mom. I shouldn't tell you what to do. But I'm going to be over here doing my thing with my athletes. And my biggest thing, honestly, with everybody that I work with is just making sure they're having a good time. If they're having a good time and everything's getting better, then we're doing our jobs.

And I'll let everybody else worry about themselves. So when you're getting ready to compete, what's it like in here, in your own head? Are you a mess the day before? Are you super confident? Are you just glad that the event's finally here and you don't have to wait for it anymore? How do you motivate yourself? What are you thinking about going into a competition? It used to be that I was a mess.

Yeah, like all leading up to it and stuff. Obviously, the more years you do something the less that becomes um and it's funny i actually found find myself more calm now during the workouts and stuff before than i am before the workouts so like when the actual you know beep goes off it's almost like my heart rate comes down right versus the before you're like oh ready to go and stuff i saw one thing that they they hooked up some heart rate monitors to navy seals when they would like enter rooms and do room clearings and stuff like that right before they go in their heart rate monitors to Navy SEALs when they would, like, enter rooms and do room clearings and stuff like that. Right before they go in, their heart rate is just jacked through the roof. And the second they bust open the door, their heart rate will come down because they're just moving through what they normally do.

They're in a rhythm, and this is what they do every single day, right? And that's how I kind of feel now about, like, the workouts when I compete. It's before the lead-up, you know, you're in your zone, and heart rate's all jacked up. And the second that beep goes off, it's like almost everything kind of comes down but i think it's just happened over the last seven years of doing it so yeah that's how i feel about mma like waiting to fight yeah it's really nerve-wracking and then once you actually start fighting then it's just normal it's not a big deal anymore i can imagine getting punched in the face i'd be really scared too well yeah it's not getting punched in the face isn't that crazy because that's again like it's just like doing a bunch of like burpee burpee box jumpovers

like you do this shit every day and it quote unquote sucks but it's comfortable but it's what you've been there every day like it's waiting for the competition that that's the nerve-wracking part when you're when you're doing you're not really it's not you can't be nervous while you're doing yeah you suppose you could be but it doesn't seem to happen to me it's almost almost like if you are nervous, then you probably didn't put in the work, right? That could be the case, too. Right? Because you're out there going like, oh, shit, I don't know what to do. Oh, I haven't done this before.

Okay, I'm nervous because now I don't know what to do because I haven't done this before. But if you've done it every single day, gone through the rhythms every single day, it just falls into what you normally do. So, yeah. Yeah. How do you help your athletes kind of manage their their headspace going into a competition? Man, that's the hardest part. Right. I think. I don't know the answer to that. To be honest with you, just because I think everybody's so different and so I can't give like a very just grounded like, oh, I do this to get people ready. I think everybody's so different that I need to be able to do whatever works for them.

Some people might want to listen to music and chill out. Some people might want to get all hyped up. Some people might want to, I don't know, not be talked to or talked to a lot or hang out with people. And so whatever works for them. And that just comes with, you know, caring about them and all year long or however long you've been working with them, figuring those things out. And so whatever works for them is what I'll do i guess yeah i don't know

if that answers your question or not but no it does i mean you're you're saying you just have to have a relationship with that person and and be a be in communication with them about what they feel they need and then help provide it for them yep that's a coach yeah there you go yeah i mean it's i i talked about this uh last week at pale FX, which is there's so many people who want to get better at coaching, and they focus on movement or they focus on program design or they focus on nutrition. And I think where a lot of coaches miss the boat is they're not focusing on the relationship and the communication

and helping set the vision for the athlete and all these things that, like, as a coach, you're also a leader. And it's really cool to hear you talk about, like, as you're describing your coaching style, it's so relationship-oriented. It's 100% relationship-oriented. Yeah, and I think that that's where all coaches are going to have to go as time goes on because all these other things, like, you can get a program, any program, any time, and it's becoming commoditized. And because the information is the average coach, I mean, I can walk into a CrossFit box.

You know, I remember 10 years ago when we opened up, like one of the things that I saw was I was like, wow, the weightlifting technique is so shitty in CrossFit. There's a huge opportunity to make improvements. That's not the case anymore. I walk into a gym and, like, the average CrossFit coach teaches weightlifting really, really well. And so that's become commoditized. Like, if you are a great weightlifting coach in town, it really doesn't, it's not as big of a deal as it used to be.

And so that's just happening with everything. Like, program design is the same way. There's just so much information out there on how to program well for athletes and the nutrition piece and a lot of it's getting automated yeah so it's ten dollars a month yeah so the coaches that are hyper focused on writing the best program but don't know how to create a relationship or create a vision and lead their athlete there it those those coaches are going to be hurt. I think there's a great opportunity to make a lot of money that way. You can get 1,000 people to follow your program for $10 a month.

You're great. You have a great revenue stream. If that's what's going to make you happy in life is more money, then great. But I don't look at money as a way that something is going to make me happy. I look at the relationships that I form with people. I think that is what is going to make me feel whole at the end of the day. You know, when I'm sitting on my deathbed, it's going to be how many people are surrounding me and what are they going to say about me when I leave? And that's richness to me.

Like I think Bob Marley said it, right? Like what's richness? You know, like it's to me, it's how do I make other people feel? And do I, you know, do I really truly honestly care about others? And that's what gives back the most. And so I've tried the, like you were saying, the online programming thing and stuff. Like I've tried that, you know, I was like, Hey, maybe I, this is a way I can reach out to a lot of people and impact them. But you can't, if I'm writing a program and just putting out there for 10 bucks

a month, like I'm not impacting really anybody. I mean, maybe they get a little fitter and they're stoked because it was cheaper for them and they were able to do it. That's great. But like, I, I want the people who are in my gym every single day that I talk to, that I see that we, you know, hug and we go out on the weekends and you know, if they need their grass cut because they're out of town for too long, I go cut their grass, you know, like that's the stuff, that's the coaching that I want to do. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. So as far as one-on-one coaching with clients, because you want to have a very solid relationship with that person, have enough time to give them the best experience possible,

do you have a set number in your head around, I only want to have five athletes or I only want to have ten athletes that you are in very close one-on-one, one-on-one programming, one-on-one training with? No, I'm not that popular, so I haven't gotten there yet. I don't know. I only have right now. Well, you will now popular, so I haven't gotten there yet. I don't know. I only have right now. Well, you will now that you've been on the show.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I definitely think it can't be a lot, though. I think you can really only give your all to probably a few people. But, yeah, I don't know. We'll see. Right now I have three athletes total that I program for. One is a coach at my gym.

The other one I talk to every single week. And the third athlete, he's actually just starting CrossFit. Like, he just opened up his own gym in Belize, and he just loves CrossFit. Like, it's like when you first started doing it, you know, and it's like your whole life is that. Yeah. And he's just so stoked on it. And, yeah, I've been programming for for him but that's like very he's

very basic like we just started this thing you know so just make sure it was a good time and he's not even i would say like maybe two years out from even being anywhere near getting close to regionals or anything like that so um that's a really fun project that i'm stoked on with him what do you like work with more the open level or maybe regional level crossfitter or the general walk-in for state guy um both i think it feel it fills me in in different ways you know what i mean it's like it's the it's the best to be able to coach classes every day at my gym and just have the normal mom or dad that comes in and you know really just make it make sure they have a good time and that this is the best hour of their day but it's also super awesome to be able to get kind of like nerdy on it,

you know, too, as well, and see people really push the abilities that they have too. So I think they're both awesome. Nice. Thanks for joining us today. Do you want to shut down? Or you got another question? No, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

I didn't have anything super important. I was just going to – we hadn't talked about nutrition yet. So I was going to jump on that train just for a second i was gonna say now that you're not competing um how is your nutrition going to shift from like six years of competitive competitive prospector now to just being like a normal dude okay um there'll be a lot of similarities certainly but i'd imagine it'll change a little bit as well yeah a lot more pancakes for sure more pancakes yeah and waffles you know what i mean um no No, I enjoy feeling healthy. Like I enjoy weighing and measuring my food.

It's something that makes me feel good about myself. And so I'm not going to stop doing that. I'm going to keep weighing and measuring my food. And I probably will still eat the exact same thing every single day. What do you eat every day? Can you walk us through? Yeah. So in the mornings, eggs, bacon, and potatoes, stuff like that.

It's like 200 grams of potatoes, two eggs, three strips of bacon, a cup and a half of strawberries and blueberries, one cup of coffee, and then as much water as I can get in the morning. And then recently I hooked up with one of my friends, Nick Massey, who owns Ice Age Meals. And so he actually provides me with all the rest of food I eat throughout the day. And that's probably going to be done now that I said I'm retired. So I'm going to have to actually start making my own food again. Lost your sponsorship.

Yeah. But, but yeah, and then I would eat a bunch of those all day and they're really cool. Cause it's he has like a rice option and then he also has like sweet potatoes and stuff like that option too as well. And so it's anywhere. It usually is about like 220 grams of protein every day, between 400 and 500 grams of carbs depending on what I'm doing that day, and then about 130 grams of fat. I try to hit that every day. And how many meals a day roughly? Four or five.

If I'm hungry at night, right before I go to bed, I'll have like a small something. But that's pretty rare. What about supplements? The only supplement I take is the ATP Mechanics, this hat that I have on. It's just amino acid. And that's it. That's pretty basic. I expect you to have a little more on that list.

Are you someone that just doesn't like supplements overall? Try it. Not big, big, big, big into supplements but yeah there's a few that i usually take why only one in your case um i've tried all the other stuff you know like the pre-workouts and you know beta alanine and you know creatine and all that sort of stuff and i just didn't notice a difference and so i felt like i was just throwing my money away and i was like hey i'm just gonna try this i'm gonna eat food i'm gonna drink water and i'm gonna try to laugh as much as i can and get some sunshine and work out and that's what made

me feel the best so that's what i do yeah there you go yeah i think uh i take a lot of supplements but it's not the stuff that everyone else is taking it's like always trying out new stuff and figuring it out that's what you had said earlier when you said supplements and then you kind of laughed right and you're like well, but they're not really supplements, right? Yeah, they're not like the typical supplements. Like there's no pre-workout. There's no, you know, there's not a lot of whey protein making it in and stuff like that. It's more just like, yeah, the stuff that's on, it's a little expensive too,

so the average person is not going to take it. But it's like just special stuff. There's a reason why it's expensive. Yeah, there's a reason why it's like just special stuff there's a reason i'm always expensive yeah there's a reason it's expensive yeah yeah if i'm if i'm taking if i'm not spending very much money on it i start getting curious about what i'm actually putting in my body yeah i get it the price actually makes me feel comfortable sometimes yeah that's funny it's actually like the the at mechanic stuff so that it doesn't the guy who made it um we he asked us when he finished making it like he went through some pretty cool stuff like he would prick our blood before he looked at it under a microscope

we'd do fran or helen or whatever prick our blood afterwards and look at it and he was trying to figure out okay what's the difference between like a normal you know guy goes to the gym and does you know abs on tuesday and thursday and runs on the treadmill versus CrossFit. Like what's causing this such amazing change in people, you know? And he looked at it from that perspective, that science perspective, and came up with these amino acids that he felt would help us. And then he goes, okay, well, so what flavors do you guys want it to be? And we're like, nothing. Yeah.

Well, just give us the shit we need, you know? And I think that that was probably the worst business decision he could have ever made. You know what I mean? Because it's like people want it to taste like lemon lime or some other crap like that. We're like, no, just give us the stuff we need that's going to make us healthy and make us better athletes. And then we'll take that. That's one thing I really appreciate about that company is there's no – it's just what you need. No fillers.

But the person who only wants what they need is rare. Yes. Most people want, like, can we put more caffeine in it so I can feel amazing when I really should be taking a nap? And could you make it lemon-lime or fruit punch? Because I have the taste buds of a child. Yeah. Well, yeah, we've done booths before at events and stuff, right?

And they'll do tastings, and it's so funny to see people try this stuff because it tastes like ground-up aspirin in water. You know what I mean? It's just like everybody's like, oh, my God. And the AdvoCare booth is right next door, and they're like, come on over. Try this and stuff. And he goes like, hey, you know, I can put some Coca-Cola in here if you want. And he's like, but is that what you want?

Or do you want something that's going to work? And so when they started doing that and seeing their vision behind it and the way that they were talking about it, I was like, yeah, this is a pretty badass company. So if you're not on a very extensive supplement list, is there any other thing that you use for recovery you found that's effective? Like stretching. Oh, yeah.

Like any recovery tips? Yeah, I do ROMWOD like every day. I'll do it in the morning a lot now that I'm getting older when I wake up. I just found that's pretty cool. And I think, honestly, if you want to have the best recovery, I think it's like listening to your body, right? Like if you're beat up, it's not working out as much. If you feel good, it's working out want to have the best recovery i think it's like listening to your body right like if you're if you're beat up it's not working out as much if you feel good it's working out a little bit more it's um if you're cranky it's taking a day off or it's you know getting i think sunshine

is huge for people i think not enough people get vitamin d the right way you know like actually sitting outside with your sunglasses off and closing your eyes and staring at the sun you know they call it like you know eye bathing or whatever yeah whatever. I wait until the sun's going down right at the edge, and then I just stare at it. There you go. Then you have that mental image, right? That's right. So you go to sleep.

There's a trick to it. You've got to do this with your tongue. You've got to eat the sun. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I'll try that. You want to do tongue tanning like Mike does?

I don't know. Between that and the enema caffeine thing, I don't know. You don't want a sunburn on your tongue. This is the difference between you and Rich Froning. That right there. That's it in his voice. That's what I'm missing out on. Dedication.

That's why I didn't make it the last six years. Awesome. Thanks for joining us. Where can people find more about you? That's a good question. I don't know. You have to come to Gilroy, California, garlic capital of the world, and hunt down our gym, I guess.

No, you can go to coastrangecrossfit.com. My email address is on there, everything you need to know. But, yeah, that's it. Do you have an Instagram account? Oh, yeah, I guess I do. Yeah, I do. I don't know why you'd want to follow me, though. But, yeah, westpatt2013 on Instagram.

But it's just pictures of JoJo and my dog. Nice. Yeah. You can get DMs over there, too. Drag messages. Yeah. Cool, man. Thanks for joining us.

All right. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Wes. Yeah. Cool.