Barbell Shrugged - The Military Mindset: Balancing Work And Fitness W/ Chandler Smith — Real Chalk #61

Episode Date: February 5, 2019

Chandler Smith (@blacksmifff) is making a name for himself in the fitness world while holding it down in the Army—except for one time he got his finger chopped off. (You bet that story is included in this episode!) But he's fine, and crushing it on the Misfit team at Wodapalooza.   What does it take to be an athlete with a brand? We talk about the way the game has changed, being competitive while working a day job, and how sometimes you just need to fail until something works. Chandler gives us a glimpse into the influence Army training has had on his fitness career, and tells us what's next for him.   It may not always love us back (injuries, bad judges, the new Games qualification format) but we've got a lot of appreciation for this sport and all the crazy people we get to do it with. Whether you're a failed athlete in another sport, or you peaked and needed a new outlet, or you're just a savage addicted to the pain cave, there's room for you.   Now get out there and kill it! -Ryan   1:00 How the game has changed since Fisch's day (failed athletes and real jobs) 5:15 Chandler's training/school balance, transitioning from wrestling to CrossFit 8:00 Adapting to limitations (Tarzan and Jane) 9:30 Fisch's military aspirations and some backstory 14:30 How military training influences CrossFit, but also the toll on your body 20:00 Injury repair and maintenance 27:00 If you can't win the Games, build a brand 36:00 You may not be able to imagine your life trajectory yet, so just go do stuff 37:00 The things Ryan does to get a workout in 40:30 Chandler chopped his finger off, but it just stoked the fire 45:30 What's next? Don't hold your breath for a Army x CrossFit collaboration 47:00 We're all weirdos here. Some of us are born with it, some of us have worked really hard. 54:30 Where to find Chandler ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc-smith ------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/ barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Tuesday. I hope that you missed me more than a little bit. That last episode with Armin Hammer was fire. A lot of you guys have been messaging me throughout the past week telling me how ridiculously funny some parts of that episode were. And as you know, I get a little bit out of hand sometimes. I'm sorry if I offended you. No, I'm not. I'm really not. Anyway, it's always good to get to learn all the good things and have a great time while doing it. That's the whole reason the Real

Chalk podcast exists. Real talk, real chalk, your boy. All right. Anyway, I'm getting excited. We get to sit down today with Chandler Smith. If you guys don't know who Chandler Smith is, he's one of like, I don't know, five badass black athletes in the CrossFit community. So you had to have seen him at some point. He was just at Guadalupalooza on the Misfits team, which is where we did this episode. We came into the back of the Fit A tent and sat down and hashed out some things. I think what's really cool about this man is that he was competing while he was in the West Point Army Academy, which is pretty awesome. I think anybody who can go through training like that and compete at the

same time at anything at all is a-okay in my book. Not only that, but he's been just killing it in general, and I think the best thing that is most memorable on his behalf, well, there's two things, but the first one is that he went to regionals and was just throwing down with ben smith one day which is funny because his name is blacksmith so it's like the black ben smith which i thought was hilarious but anyway he just came out like blazing and did really really really well and almost made it to the games just out of nowhere which was amazing so i thought that was really really cool and then as soon as he got all this limelight, everybody was following him. He cut his freaking finger off in an accident at work. So his, I don't know if it's the finger next to his middle

finger, I think it is. And he cut the entire first knuckle up is gone. So imagine doing your hang cleans now and kettlebell swings and all that stuff that requires grip and not having that piece of your finger now, which is pretty insane. So he's doing extremely well now and doesn't seem like anything is really a problem for him. Great to overcome. And I think that this kid's going to have a bright, bright, super bright future. Just a complete side note. I was walking in Miami and happened to see him coming down the sidewalk. And that's when I asked him to be on the show. And I was like, Jesus, this guy is fucking massive. And then come to find out like between the height difference and the weight difference between the two of us, I'm probably pretty close to like the same stature of him. So I always feel like I'm not really that big,

but I see someone equivalent size and I'm like, holy shit, that guy's huge. But he is super big and super jacked. So you guys can check him out on Instagram. You'll hear all his outlets as we go through the show. Anyway, the sponsors for this show, we just have one right now that I'm excited to talk about, and it is our 7 Points CBD company. You guys see me tag them on Instagram all the time. I'm super stoked because the guy who owns the company actually works out in my gym. I see him all the time.

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it doesn't happen. So you don't have to stress too much about it, even though some people do. What I like about the CBD for me personally is I have my bad knees and I really do feel like it does make a difference as far as the knee pain goes for me. I went from wearing knee sleeves my whole life to not wearing them at all, which is a pretty big deal. A lot of people who follow me for years, you've always seen me wearing my knee sleeves and I just don't wear them anymore. So, and I definitely dedicate that to CBD. So if anything, it's a great anti-inflammatory. We all take fish oil. We all take this. We all take that. I think it's a great thing to add to the repertoire and it's just a little bit different. It's plant-based. It's

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I mean, it's not that I'm blown away by how good they're doing because it's insane, but it's more of like, I just never really fathomed that so many would be sold like every single month it's crazy i'm selling thousands and thousands of books i mean i literally can't be any happier than that i mean it's like i made this really cool thing and it's just been taken off and just like how freaking cool is that i'm so stoked but uh the high intensity interval bodybuilding is super popping off. We got volumes one and two. They're both different. The dumbbell book is just exploding. People are using that in hotel gyms

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All right? So I hope you guys are real stoked on the sponsors. I hope you're real stoked for this episode. And we are going to be in the back of a tent called FitAid in the middle of Miami. Imagine yourself there on the couch. It's beautiful weather. It's me and Chandler. Here we go. It's beautiful weather. It's me and Chandler.

Here we go. Alright, everybody. It's your boy, Ryan Fish. I'm out here still at the Wadapalooza Fitness Festival sitting down with Chandler Blacksmith. On a team currently right now. Yes, not good enough to go individual. Also still in the Army, which is cool.

I have some words about that as well. I'm ready to hear it. We're out here just basically kicking it. There's a lot of people here. Absolutely. This is insane. The fans are coming out, mostly me, because I've been a Ryan Fisher fan for a long time. So this is pretty surreal.

We've talked a little bit on social media. And I'm always like, oh, it would be so cool to meet him. And I see you hanging out with pretty much everybody at some social media and i'm always like oh it'd be so cool to meet him and i see you like hanging out with like pretty much everybody at some point and i'm like oh that's cool he like went to go out there and train went to go out there and train i remember when i was up and coming that was like all i wanted to do was go train with anybody who was good absolutely and back in the day it was different because when i was getting good and like the sport was growing it was super fun to do that and like everybody wanted to do the same thing now it's almost like hey who are you like why are you here first off yeah the

the barriers to entry are crazy high and that's one thing i don't like about the sanctional system too like i think it's gotten even higher it's like harder to break in because like it's not cheap to come out here to waterpalooza no if you want to get like to go individual against these this level of dudes like it's gonna be really tough so you probably need to go team but to have the people you need to go team like you to go individual against this level of dudes, like, it's going to be really tough. So you probably need to go team. But to have the people you need to go team, like, you got to have some connections. So it's tough to get in there. And then everybody's like, I think when I did my first CrossFit workout in 2010.

So I've kind of seen the sport evolve. But maybe I haven't followed it, like, crazy, crazy intense the whole time. But, like, people. That's when I started in 2010. Oh, wow. Dang. Well, like, my first regional was 2011. I think I either started in, like, late 10 or early 11. That's how you know you've been around for a long time. Yeah. Well, my first regional was 2011. I think I either started in late 10 or early 11.

That's how you know you've been around for a long time. I'm not quite sure. But I remember my first event. First event I ever did was a max thruster. Wow. And what did you hit? So in practice, I did 295. Oh, my God, dude.

I would not hit 295 right now. And I trained a lot. So I did 295. And then in the actual competition, I didn't know. They didn't really announce how things were going to go down at the time. They were like, we're going to do a max thruster. But then we got there, and it was like every minute on the minute. And I wasn't used to it.

And I didn't know how to do a squat clean at the time, so I was power cleaning everything and then doing a thruster. And every minute on the minute, it was getting tiring. So I think I stopped at like 245. And I was super bummed on it. I would never touch 295 in my whole life. Some days I'll front squat that. It's a good day.

But that's crazy that you're doing that back in 2010, back when dudes were posting 135 front squat. Oh, dude, when I first started CrossFit, I was snatching 265. And Ben Smith, Froning, everybody was snatching like 225. That's wild i came on the scene and they were like this guy's insane dude because you're like a real like you have like a real athletic pedigree which is like it's becoming less rare but like most of us are failed athletes in other sport myself included like if i was actually good at wrestling i'd be at colorado springs wrestling instead of here doing crossfit like well i train with the olympic team for bobsled yeah that, that's what I'm saying.

So, like, you have, like, your baseline athletic abilities are way, way higher than your average D2 washout who sucked at their sport, so switch to CrossFit. I would say that the Army is definitely not D2. No, I mean, like, yeah, we would do – I've wrestled D1. You know what I'm saying? Like, in general, like, that's what most of us – and it's not like I played. I've wrestled.

Like, that's not like – the most competitive I've wrestled. That's not like... The most competitive athletes aren't wrestling. They're playing football and getting the sports with the money. The general athlete over here, though, just is here because we're not good at the thing that we actually want to be good at. It is really interesting to see... There's two different people that are out there. There's one who is an insane athlete, and like legitimately has the ability to go to the games. Like he's probably like someone like Patrick Vellner.

Yes. Or even like Noah Olsen. Like they're – I shouldn't say go to the games. Like win the games, right? Yeah. So these people are like really, really close. And then they're not winning the games and not making the money that they technically deserve, in my opinion. I think the top 10 guys should probably all make the same amount of money, in my opinion.

And then I think Frazier should make more, obviously, because he's not just the winner. He's devastatingly the winner. So, okay, give him extra dough. But I think the top 10 guys, and potentially the top 20 guys, It's so much of their life that for them to be making like 60, 70 grand in sponsorships and other crap throughout the year, like it's just really, really sad. So it's really, really hard to get these people to come in here and make this a professional sport.

Like they almost have to be a failed athlete for another. They're not incentivized. Yeah. It's like even Vellner is like an architect or an engineer or something. And Ben Smith. Yeah. Everybody has like their first jobs. That's actually my big theory on Rich is, like, why Rich was so good off the rip

was because he was the first guy to win, like, the big prize. So he got to go professional before everybody else did. And then, like, the level of training, you know, someone who's trained, like. But he was a fireman at the time. That's what I'm saying. But once he got in and then, like, those resources, like, the snowball effect, those resources compared to Joe CrossFit, who's, like, coaching class after he works his job and then doing extra while on the side trying to make it to the games in 2013,

like, they're playing completely different ballgames. So he got in at the right time, got out at the right time, and obviously he's a crazy good athlete, but I think that's... What is your training schedule like being in the Army? So, well, actually, we'll backtrack a little bit so like let's say when you first started crossfit you're probably like are you still in west point like as a student no dude i graduated in 2015 that's what i thought right so okay um when you were a student how hard was it for you to train so i like didn't do i was you guys have a lot of pt well mostly for wrestling like wrestling

would just break me i've there's nothing that i will ever do in crossfit that'll break me like army wrestling did like i think suffering is a word that's like pretty overused in the sport and not i don't want to like make it sound like i'm harder than everybody else because there's i'm just a random like army officer i'm not i don't do anything like special operations or anything but like the amount of me getting broken in that room that went on like can't ever be matched by anything else so that like helped prepare me a lot for for this stuff i didn't do any crossfit outside the summer um like there's not clubs of grown men who wrestle uh and i learned it's because you get hurt all the time now that i'm older and get hurt all the time how old are you now

25 20 jesus it's an old 25, man. I've got army miles on me. But, like, so I'd go home in the summer and I'd, like, train some MMA and I'd do CrossFit and I'd done CrossFit to train to get ready for West Point. And so I'd compete a little bit in the summers and then, like, as I just got older, I got, like, a little bit better and better and then I was like, all right, like, I think I can transition whenever I'm done with wrestling. And as I got better at CrossFit, I was just an okay wrestler.

So as I got better at CrossFit, it seemed like, oh, this gives me a chance to not be a failure at something like I am for wrestling. What weight did you wrestle at? 165. 165, okay. So I was like as low as, I made 149 once in college. I came into college like 154. Because now you weigh like 190?

Yeah, on a good day in between 90s like my ideal weight yeah if i'm heavier than that then i'm a little slow and if i'm lighter than i'm not i'm like 180 182 but you're like you're shorter than me so like that's you carry that way better than i do it was interesting because i was watching you today was the first time i ever seen you in person and you're walking down the sidewalk, and I was like, damn, this dude is fucking huge. And then I told someone that, and they're like, dude, you look exactly like him. You're just white. This is true.

And because you're white, you don't look as jacked. It does help with the contrast and everything, but that's the whole reason. I remember seeing the picture. I was like, man, these quads are unreal. I squat all the time. I've done single-leg exercises. The sport's advanced. Ostensibly, I should be able to look like that.

I look nowhere near like how you did in 2013. That's still pretty wild. I've actually been the same weight for ever. 180 always. Really? I wasn't bigger then. Because your training has changed? I think my upper body is bigger now because my knee is messed up.

So I don't squat anymore, but I can lunge. Single leg stuff is fine. I just can't get below parallel and do it evenly. It just hurts too much. There's really no need to. I think a lot of movements that we do in CrossFit we only do because CrossFit tells us to, but you are still obviously super fit. Oh, dude, when I work out, that's the hard part for me.

There's some things that I'm still top in the world at. If there's anything with toes to bar, pull-ups, muscle-ups, anything hanging on a bar. Dude, so it's funny you said that on Tuesday, and this is another – it's weird to always talk with people who, like, I've been following forever. You had this workout. You did this 10-minute EMOM with 10 strict pull-ups. And given that, like, there's a bunch of times where I'm in the field

and I don't have a lot of resources, it's been my goal forever to go through that workout. I'm broken. I did not do it again. I got 94 total reps. I missed a few. But, like, that's a workout of times where I'm in the field. I don't have a lot of resources. It's been my goal forever to go through that workout. I'm broken. I did not do it again. I got 94 total reps. I missed a few. But, like, that's a workout I always shoot for. And I remember, like, you did it after you posted, like,

ah, finished this session today, did my EMOM 10 strict pull-ups. And it's like, man, like, I'm good at strict. I think I'm good at strict pull-ups. We do a lot of them for the Army, like, did a lot of them for wrestling. And then you're not competing, and you're still way above what I could do there. So, again, it's wild that there always always something to chase in the sport there's no room to be like satisfied anything because there's dudes who are hosting podcasts who would wrap roll you up at a workout you're supposed to be it is crazy when you walk around here you're just like so many jack

dudes and like the most jack ridiculous looking dudes probably don't even compete at all yeah and you're just like that's definitely true, that's definitely true. Yeah, for sure. Look like these dudes. Look like Tarzan. Fitness like Jane. Play like Jane, yeah. So when I was growing up, I just loved structure. And I loved, like, I just, the thought of being in the military to me was, like, the greatest thing in the world. And, like, you may disagree. But, like, I grew up in a family where, like, my immediate family didn't really have all that much. Okay. But my grandparents were super wealthy.

Gotcha. And basically, like, we lived in a nice house and drove, like, my mom drove a nice car because my grandma would help. That was my mom's mom. Gotcha. So my mom would hook her up. I mean, my grandma would hook her up. And then I don't know what it was like i had all these brothers and sisters there's a ton of us i grew up in a house with five brothers and

sisters i actually have eight brothers and sisters total if i count my brothers and sisters on my dad's side okay so there's a whole bunch of us and like it was just like mayhem and like they're all into different things and i'm all into different things and then i just was like i started as i got older just like getting into this like regimented And then I just was like, I started as I got older, just like getting into this regimented way. I just was always really, really into it. And people would ask me, what do you want to do when you grow up? I was like, I want to be a drill instructor. That was what I wanted to be.

It was insane. You've been a good drill instructor. I got so obsessed with it that my grandma, her neighbor was the brigadier general of West Point. Oh, wow. Okay. And I got him to write me a recommendation letter. Dude. Because I wanted to go.

I literally was like, it is my dream to go to military school. So I wanted to go to military school as a high school student. And I almost went. And then my grandma kind of talked me out of it. She's like, I promise you, you don't want to go. Grandma's a smart lady. And the guy who was the general of West Point was like, you don't want to go grandma smart lady and the the guy who was the general of west point was like you don't want to go either like when you're ready to go to

west point i'll write you a letter and you'll get to go to west point okay and i'm like all right cool so then i got to that point and then i was like oh man like the naval academy looks almost even cooler because it's like out by the water oh gosh and then i'm glad that you avoided that but then i just like didn't wind up going to either one because a whole bunch of things happened i actually wind up going to become a helicopter pilot. I got my pilot's license. You didn't know that? No, your life is wild.

That's insane. So I moved to Hawaii. Good gracious. I moved to Hawaii, got my helicopter license. And then from there, Verizon, the phone company, was going around to every state in America, all 50 states, and trying to recruit people for bobsled and skeleton. And I did this random test and did really well, moved to Utah, trained for the Olympics for five years.

After that was over, I got injured. I went to my first CrossFit gym ever, and it was Tommy Hackenbrook's gym. Wow. Ute CrossFit. Picked a good one to go to. And he literally was like, dude, I need you, and I want you to train with me. And I was like, how much is it? And he's like, $175 a month.

And I was like, oh, my Lord. And he's like, $175 a month. And I was like, oh, my Lord. And he's like, well, if you train with me, you won't have to pay. And you can just train with me, like, from 1 to 4, blah, blah, blah. And then, like, immediately, I was, like, blown up all over the medias, like, that I was going to go to the games. And I was, like, this new person that was crazy. Like, I was beating Rich Froning's times on workouts and submitting them. And it was insane. Like, it was such an amazing time.

And then, yeah. Like, everything got put on hold. I just said no to, like, everything for a while. And I still wanted to go in the military and, like, become a pilot. But then after I started doing CrossFit, I was like, oh, this is, like, this is so cool, you know. I think the opportunities, like, for, like, if you want to be a drill instructor, I'd imagine, like, part of it would have to do with, like, you wanted to be a drill instructor i'd imagine like part of it would have to do with like you wanted to be so all my goals started changing i went from like wanting to be a drill instructor to like wanting to be like special forces okay because i was such

a good athlete that i was like oh i shouldn't even waste these abilities like i shouldn't even go be a pilot forget that but i mean honestly it would be wasting your abilities even if you haven't got not not to say anything disparaging some of my best friends are green berets and they crush it but like i think you you ended up in the right spot, looking at the thing you built. We were talking about it earlier. Being an athlete is something special, but there's a lot of people here who are really good athletes.

Having people here have the capability to build a brand or make people feel like a part of something, like what you guys have done at Chalk, and even expanding past the four walls is like something that, I don't know, like not a lot of gyms are capable of, not a lot of gym owners are capable of. So like your talents have made you uniquely, it would have made you uniquely successful probably anywhere, but like in this space, it's like there's not too many people doing what you're doing. Dude, it's amazing.

Especially from 2013, me like saying I'm going to kill a judge, and then CrossFit saying that I failed a drug test when I didn't. All I did was I just wasn't there for it. Wasn't there, yeah. And it was such a ridiculous thing. I had to post the text messages on Instagram just so people believed me. Because the guy was like, hey, I'm here. And I was like, hey, I'm not there.

I was at the OC Throwdown. Yeah. Like literally a mile away. I remember seeing it. Yeah. And I was like, screw this. I'm putting this on social media. I don't care. So I put it up up i even put his phone number on there and people

did you really people threatened to like that is reckless man yeah it was pretty ridiculous they're bolder bolder than i am but good but dude after all that and then for me to become like one of the most famous crosser gyms in the world and build all these things like i can't even tell you like there's like at least once a month where i'll like literally just sit there and think about it and i'll get like tears in my eyes and i'm like, this is so fucking wild, man. It's crazy. Couldn't be happier that it worked out. For you, I think what's very interesting is I think a lot of the people in the military background,

people like Josh Bridges, he's creating a mindset course, I noticed. Ben Bergeron is all about mindset. I think he has a mindset seminar Is there anything that gets taught to you In the military Since I didn't get to actually go Is there like a mindset class Is it just kind of instilled in you

From the beginning What is it about What you guys do That potentially gave you an edge Was there any of that That got pushed on you while you're doing wrestling i'd say most of it got pushed on me while i was wrestling um so you don't think the regular general population i think it's i think it's two two different things so the part that got pushed to me during wrestling was like the physical abilities part of like just doing

doing stuff that sucks and like being able to continue to keep going. I'm going to be honest with you, man. I don't think your average soldier, people think that soldiers have a certain level of fitness, and we have the fitness test, and we're moving towards a system that's going to make your average soldier more fit. But as of now, the average soldier is not probably that much fitter than your average CrossFit gym goer. It probably underwhelms some folks, which is a little disappointing. But there's so much technology coming out now where it's almost better to be a military tech nerd almost than it is to be an actual soldier. There's definitely some better opportunities to make the military work for you in that regard. The physicality isn't as necessary as it was when Roman legions were marching.

We're not shooting each other face-to-face anymore. It's like you got shot from a mile away now. Exactly. The technology has definitely reduced the human element a little bit it's never going to go away but it's reduced a little bit but i would say that the regular army like you there the the discipline that comes from knowing that you can't say no to something uh is like second none you were talking a lot about structure like i don't think i'm an inherently like super structured person but when i went to west point i had to make my bed a certain way and

you know i mean like there was four inch fold yeah exactly there's no option for the structure when you get into the regular army like when someone ahead of you tells you like to jump and you have to say how high there's no like oh well i mean like there's i guess there's some room to to move around but like you are you're following orders and that like not saying no and just doing things that you don't want to do i I don't want to wake up every morning and do PT. Like, that's when I could be doing CrossFit or sleeping. You know what I mean? Like, there's other things that I'd rather do.

But I know that this is what, like, it's my job to do this. And I think that has a high degree of carryover because, like, I don't know how much you love doing WODs where you, like, everybody, like, we all like it to some degree. But it hurts, man. It's not fun. Like you got to stare that in the face every day and be like, I know I'm about to put myself in a really tough place here. But when you do that a lot, like you get better at it. Like from the time you did your first wad, you got better at it.

And then I think the fact that our lives outside of CrossFit, like as members of the military includes a lot of like, all right, like I didn't want to go to the field and not be able to train or didn't want to deploy and not be able to see my family, but this is what I signed up to do. And I'm going to suck it up and do it. Like that translates into being able to have a little more mental toughness. And then for the guys who are in the special operations community, like a Josh Bridges type, like all that's jacked up to 10 because they're doing their, the marches that we don't want to do. They're going farther that when we wake up early,

they're waking up earlier. Like when we deploy often, they're deploying more often. So like, that's all that builds like a level of toughness that really is tough to match because like, there's no other, there's no other job that can make you do.

If, if, if anybody, if any other job put you through with the military made you do, you would, you would just quit. Like I would, you would just quit. Like I would be like, I'm not having a good time and life is short and I want to enjoy it.

And I'm not enjoying being told what to do and not having any autonomy. But like when you sign up, you got your time and service. And you know that if you don't do that, there's like rules that will be applied. And you'll have to follow the uniform code of military justice. So you just got to shut your mouth and get it done yeah so is it seven years after you it's five years it's five years after you graduate yes sir so you're two years two three years in um yeah three and a half i'm almost four i'm right now i'm at fort benning georgia for the maneuver captain's career course i'll make captain here in may and uh if i chose

to get out i could get out in may of 2020 the army's doing army crossword thing i'd like to be part of i'd also like to do a real deployment because Bulgaria was not a real deployment. Sorry, Donald Trump or whoever is listening. Like, I don't know, feel like I did what I intended to do when I joined the military and then reevaluate my options from there. Cool. I mean, I always feel like there's a certain point. Do you get credit towards the years that you were in school?

No. So, like, if you had to do 20 years, you still have to do, like, 17 like there's a certain point. Do you get credit towards the years that you were in school? No. So, like, if you had to do 20 years, you still have to do, like, 17 more years? Yeah. Okay. That's a long time. Yeah, it is a long time. But then you get hooked up forever. Yeah, that's true.

So, I guess the way – right now, like, being a single dude who doesn't – like, I think I'm maybe a little less incentivized than other folks to uh to stay in but um like as I'm learning at this this is going to sound really like indoctrinated but the being a commander is like basically the pinnacle of officership um and a lot of ways like it's the it gives you the ability to exert your influence over a group in a way that you can't as like a platoon leader which is what I was previously so there's definitely a big part of me that's intrigued and wants to do that. But I also, like, my body is – it's not falling apart like yours, but, I mean, you know how the sport is, man.

Yeah, I mean, I know how, like, the military is. Like, a lot of my friends who are special forces, like – They're wrecked, I'm sure. They're only, like – yeah, they're, like, my age, like 32 to 35, and they're super messed up. Yeah, man. Jumping out of helicopters and, like, landing real hard on their knees. And I don't even do that stuff, man, and my body hurts.

So, like, I would like to – I don't want to have regrets about this. I wonder if it's, like, the boots that, like, they're not giving you, like, upgraded soles like they should be or, like, it's just too much mileage. It's the mileage, man. So that's what we're trying to change with this new program we're putting in called the Army Combat Fitness Test. Like, right now we've got the push-up sit-up two-mile run. So because of that, if you know it's on the test,

you're going to train to the test. So that leads to dudes doing a lot of push-up, sit-ups, and then a lot of two-mile runs. So this new system, there's like six different tests, and there's a deadlift in there and some other things that hopefully, because people will still train to the test because we're lazy and that's what we want to do, because the test is wider and a little less mileage isn't going to be a third of the test because we're lazy and you know that's what we want to do like it'll because the test is wider and a little less uh like mileage isn't going to be a third of the test i think

it'll hopefully do some better training but like when i was platoon leader on the line man like we were putting some weeks probably it's definitely like five miler on monday some sort of running intervals or something on wednesday ruck on thursday another run on Friday, probably close to, like, 20 miles total a week. And that's not counting, like, when we were in Bulgaria, if you do, like, it's like a land nav day or something, like, you're walking all day. Like, that, especially when you're loaded down with the gear that you got and stuff,

like, that can accelerate the aging on your joints. For sure. Probably a fair amount. I know a lot of the Special Forces now, though, they have, the boots that they have are actually Nike Freeze on the sole. Have you seen those? I've seen some.

Man, they've got some. Those guys, like, I think they do a good job of taking care of them. But for the normal folks, maybe not as much. Yeah, they need to change that because that is really sad to see these guys who put out, like, so much. And now they're just, like, all broken. It's really, really sad. Hopefully I don't end up in that camp here. Or just like literally like medical technology should get better soon

because then once they do, I can go compete again because my knee will be good. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure that you know if anything's like in the works to help. Not really. Joint replacements? Okay. I mean, I could get a knee replacement, but then you get one like every 20 years. And the way that I would do it would probably be like every 10.

Yeah. And then like, you know how it is. You ever had a surgery before? No. It's awful. Not like a major one, so. It's not the surgery that messes you up. It's like the muscle atrophy that you get and then how long it takes you to get it back.

Yeah. So you're just like starting from square one. So I actually haven't told anybody this. I think nobody like in the community knows because I don't like to make excuses with everybody. I tore my meniscus in October and I've been weighing the idea of a surgery a bunch. Like I didn't want to get it. I tried to get it, actually. I was trying to back out of Dubai, and they said that you couldn't switch teammates.

So I was like, all right, well, I guess I've got to figure it out. Sucked at the run in Dubai. Like couldn't move on it too much, but was able to do some things. It's kind of gotten better, but like the surgery scares me a lot, especially with the new season, right? I wouldn't get a surgery for meniscus ever. But it's not, like, getting better either. So, like, we put on so much mileage that, like, the running is really, I don't know.

Does it click? No. Oh, well, that's good. It's improved, but it's not improving as fast as I want it to. Like, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because you're not giving it any rest, though. Exactly, because I've got to be here. Because I've tore my meniscus three times.

Really? And every time I just let it heal on its own and I would have been fine. Mine all started with a little bit of a click. And then the click eventually grinded down. Because a click is like a little hook. And then as you keep moving it just eventually smooths away. Is that what I'm doing right now?

Potentially, right? Cool. But if you just stop squatting for a couple weeks. I squat. I squat. I just recently introduced it in 2019, but I didn't squat. So I introduced it at the end of September, September like 29th. I was doing jiu-jitsu and heard it pop. Like it locked out. I was like, oh, crap.

I didn't squat for the rest of 2018. I ran twice before Dubai over the course of those few months. And then I started squatting. I'm doing one five rep max every Friday, part of the misfit cycle that we've been doing. But I think, I don't know, I'm not as strong as you squat pattern-wise, but I'm still strong there. I'm not going to lose any competitions off of squatting.

So that's something that since I've turned 25, which is not old, but it feels old for me, I've got to start warming up. Sometimes I won't do pieces now because I realize, like, now that things are starting to hurt, I've got to start thinking about longevity. Because, I mean, no offense, but I don't want to be 32. I want to still be competing when I'm 32. Yeah, that'd be great. I've got to start paying attention to what I'm doing to make sure I get there. I think my biggest thing was I had a really bad snowboard accident.

That's kind of where my whole, I tore my ACL, tore a meniscus, everything. Oof. And I got a full reconstruction. Okay. And then from then it just it's never been like great ever again gotcha that's where mine came from actually so my right knee is totally fine i remember you said yeah it was uneven yeah so i think if i if i had never had that accident i'd still be competing i'd still be fine dang i think so so i don't really think

crossfit ever ever messed me up yeah i was saying the same thing too man i think it's the other stuff but would you still knowing that now then would you still go back and do that snowboarding stuff or would you turn yourself into a robot because I think

I get a lot of pleasure out of doing the grappling has always been something I've enjoyed even though I'm not crazy good at it but if I'm getting hurt

doing it I don't know what do you think? So this is like really it's a really interesting question and if I was your age that would be an amazing this would be an amazing time for me to learn something

that I wish that we were in flip-flop positions. Because when I did bobsled, I told myself when it was over, I was like, I will never do something like that ever again because I literally wasted five years of my life being a robot. I didn't waste five years of my life training for that,

but I said no to all of my friends on going out at night i never drank i never ate bad food i always went to bed on time like i mean i gave myself the most structured regimen of all time yeah and then when it was over it was like man like i really should have had more fun getting to where i got versus like just being a robot and then getting there and then it wasn't exactly what I wanted to be and then I was just sad about the whole thing. And I was like, man, I wasted like years like actually just being like a douche.

Do you think it's like a grass is greener situation? Because I'm pretty sure like if you hadn't done those things, then you wouldn't have – you would have had like some regrets like, oh, man, like what if I would have done that? So that's what – I think that's where I'm afraid of. So that's where the CrossFit comes in because that was that and then crossfit started and i kind of did the same thing again on like on accident okay that's fair but then but i did have fun though like i had a lot of fun and there was a lot of me that i was like 50 50 so i went robot route like probably most of the time 70 yeah and then the other times i was like i let loose a

little bit here and there and then even after that i was like man i put a lot into this and then because i was an idiot and freaked out and made myself look bad it kind of ruined it for the rest of my years like i kept going to the regionals and different things and i just wasn't getting treated fairly yeah i mean it wasn't even it wasn't even like I was making this up. People were watching it and videoing it and being like, this is really bad. So here's a tough question I have for you then. I know you finished fourth two years in a row, right? Yeah.

Like one spot out. And then fifth again. Dude, so do you think – I think I finished sixth when it was top five too. If you stayed full robot mode, do you think any of those ever flip, and does that ever get in your head? Because that would drive me bananas. Every time I got fourth was definitely my fault.

So, like, in 2014, no, 2012, I got fourth. And I got top five in every single event. Like, I was crushing. Okay. And then I got 22nd place in this workout that had, it was 30 hang cleans at 225, 2,000 meter row, and 50 pistols. Okay. It was actually in backwards order. It was 2,000 meter row, 50 pistols, 30 hang cleans at 225.

Nasty Girls V2, right? What's that? Wasn't it like V2? Nasty Girls V2 or something they called it? No, that was like two or three years later. Ah, okay. All right. I'll take a lap.

This is an old one. Okay. But the hang cleans at 225, like no one had done hang cleans ever like yeah we were all doing power cleans and hang cleans came out and it was 225 it was so heavy absolutely like everybody was doing like singles or like maybe doubles now people go out and do that for like 10 yeah and then like put it down maybe do another 10 and like would be crazy. I could for sure do that now. I could do like 20 in a row now. Thanks for making me feel like a son. So anyway, I got 22nd in that event, and I got 4th at the end,

and I was like, man, that was definitely the reason why. And then even the year that I freaked out, I still got 4th. And I got dead last in the deadlift because I freaked out in the whole scene. And that should have been a wheelhouse we worked it out to like even if i got like 24th place or something i still would have went to the games i probably would have won regionals that year i was killing it and that was my best year ever and i was really feeling i was like dude this is it like i'm going to the games and i'm not going there. I'm going up to podium. I'm going to do well. I was in the best shape of my whole life. But now that I have the gym and this whole brand and all these different things, it's amazing.

It's just amazing what I have access to, the people I have access to, the amount of revenue I'm able to acquire if I I have access to, like the amount of like revenue I'm able to acquire if I just like focus on one thing or this or that. Like I remember just like losing my mind like when someone would say yes to like $100 an hour personal training session. I'd be like, oh my God, it's going to like change my life, you know? Yeah. And like now I'm like, oh, I could like, I could do something that will make me thousands of dollars instead of hundreds of dollars or even tens of thousands of dollars.

And I don't even have to do anything. I could just set it all up and then go do something else. And that's already set. But that brain, that whole network that's going on in my brain to make that happen, like just wasn't even available when I was 25, 26. Like none of that even made sense to me. Like the business people, I was just was like,

damn, like they're killing it. Like, wow, I'm gonna go back and do my, my three 15 power clean and jerk or whatever and just try to win these games right now. But then like now it's so clear to me,

like I even see people who are like really great athletes that people look up to. They have like a certain body type or like whatever. And I'm like, that person should be doing this. person should be doing this this person should be doing this and like what facility that titted that change of thought i mean like because if i'm you know i'm 25 right now for sure myself in a position and you have one of the best physiques out here for sure in my opinion so like i would i would start a training blog and make it free for

like a year i mean obviously you're doing misfits but like what if it what if you changed a few things and made it your own and then after a while people start following it and they like it and then after a year all of a sudden you make them pay for it because they're already on for a year they do like it they already know it's going to be good yeah here's the thing for me so like i was embarrassed right i was like all right well i didn't go to the games i got really really close but i didn't so like why would i want to put a product out there and charge for it when someone else is more qualified maybe right but like are they really more qualified or like did

they just have a better year that year dude so it's funny that you say that right because i have a lot of it's like a there's a big element of double-thinking how I approach these competitions because according to resumes, I'm the worst guy out here. I've been to regionals once. The year after, chopped off the finger, which was not cool. I want to get to that. I was deployed last year, so that probably hurt my chances. Actually, that was a goofy year last year.

We're going to touch on that because that's important. I'm not qualified either, but, like, I also, so I acknowledge that, and then, like, I keep that as a chip on my shoulder, but I'm also, like, I am plenty qualified. Like, you know what I mean? So I get that a lot. I think I empathize with that. Like, you got to, there's a lot of humility in how I approach the sport

and respect people there, but I also have no doubts that I can hang with any of these dudes on just about anything. So, like, at regionals, the one time you went to regionals. Yeah. And then you did really, really well. I mean, I think that anybody can have an extraordinary performance on any given day. Absolutely. Especially being part of the Olympics like when I was.

I mean, you'd have people that won world championships three years in a row. The Olympics are every four years. I mean, these people were superstars for three years in a row. And they go, nobody saw it. Nobody knew. No one watches the world cup of bobsled yeah when's last time you watched the world cup bobsled um yeah never so yeah never so like it comes on the olympics and all of a sudden these guys are superstars right and it's a lonely sport because for three years you live it like very lonely and there's no one watching no one cares nothing and then the fourth year on that

one particular day maybe you were 20 when you started and you won world championships now you're 24 or maybe you were 26 now you're 30 that's a huge difference and unless you win on that particular day no one remembers you as the best right so i kind of feel the same about CrossFit events is, like, you could have that one special day and make it. You know what I mean? Somebody like me could have threatened to kill and murder the judge, and all of a sudden you were going to get fourth that year, and now you got third. Like, there's a bunch of things that come into play. For sure. And I didn't realize that until I got older and I looked back.

Because, you know, like, your elders always say, like, don't worry about what people think. Like, don't worry about this. Don't worry about that. And you're say, like, don't worry about people think like don't worry about this. Don't worry about that. And you're like, oh, like, no, I kind of have to worry about it. But in reality, like I'll never forget when I just decided one day I was like, you know what? Like I know that I make better workouts than anybody out there. I have such an interesting way of thinking when it comes to like different types of emails and different like workout formats. And I was like, I'm putting this online.

I don't care. And if people buy it, great. If they don't, great. I don't care. And within six months, the entire internet was tagging me in their workouts. And it was a huge thing. I remember hopping on and doing them. And so many people follow it and love it. And it and i'm like wow this is really great and when i asked them like why

they do it they're like i just i've always loved you as an athlete like i've always loved this about you or that about you and that's really what people are buying is people are buying chandler right people aren't buying that much chandler people buying no but i'm saying like for you i think you could come out with something whatever it is even the guy who's the youtuber guy he's got the hustle made shirts i don't know man i don't even know car richie richie car oh yeah he's a he's a youtube guy and he's like he has the shirts and the company's doing really well for him and it's like he's not a big time crossfitter or anything but he he gives people laughs and they follow his life and whatever and they they his life and whatever.

And they're buying that brand because of him. And then I came out with my books now. I have those high-intensity interval bodybuilding books. I call it HIB. I said it hit training. Kettlebell, online programs. Yeah, I have all these different things. And everybody buys them.

It does insanely well. And I'm sure that somebody, like if Frazier came out tomorrow and made a kettlebell program, I'm sure he would crush me. Yeah. In sales. But, like, it's not really what he's about. It's not what he really wants to do. And you need people to market different things. And it's just, it's just crazy. Like, I just feel like if you just do something and you believe in it, people are going to follow it. And it's nothing that I would have never have ever believed that back in the day. Like, like the magnitude of love that I get on certain things literally blows me away. That's awesome that you still let it affect you.

You haven't gotten to the point where it doesn't. Just come to expect it. You still have some gratitude for it. And when people say to just do something, just do it and just go fail. Like Gary Vee or somebody will say, go fail and learn from it. And it's like that really is amazingly true. You could do anything and be incredibly surprised by it. Like your performance that you had that one year, like it's totally repeatable.

You could have the same performance in life. You could have the same performance in business. In all sorts of different areas. You could just hit it like that. I mean, look at the guy that owns Romwod. Schultz? He has 100,000 members at $10 a pop. That guy makes a million dollars a month.

Yeah, that's unreal. Right? You think about something like that. Just hit it on the... Just hit it. Hit the lottery that day. Maybe I'll get there. On that thought.

But I'm sure there's something unique about you that you do, or there's something that is marketable about you. I didn't even really know you all that much and I think you're super cool. If you had something I liked, I'd be like, I'll buy it. I'll support him. There's a lot of people who buy my stuff and they're like, dude, I just do it to support you. I love you. And I'm like, right on.

Although I did have intentions of doing the kettlebell prayer when I bought it and I didn't do it. But I don't know, man. This is not – I'm not like a big seller. I think I've just – like I said, there's an element of double think, but I definitely swing more to like the humble side. I don't see myself as anybody special. I see myself as someone who likes to suffer and got to be around – gets to be around a bunch of people who like to suffer as well, which has made me good at the sport.

Maybe I can find a way to transfer it to something else, but I haven't done that yet. At some point, I think that there will be something for you in the sport to maybe become a master one day and you're like the best master ever. Maybe. And then you document your training and that winds up being your thing. It's amazing. Like I never, ever would have thought that my thing would be what I do right now. There's no way.

True. I always thought of like – I always wanted to just be a professional athlete in some shape or form or a pilot for a good amount of time there. But those are the two things really it. Even, like, being a special forces military guy, I was like, pro athlete. This is cool. This is for sure super cool. Pro athlete with guns.

It's even cooler than being a pro. And then I always wanted to travel all over the place. And I'm like, all right. Like, this is not that cool, actually. Like, it messes up my workout schedule. Like, I don't get to eat all the same food. But it is fun when you get to travel. It messes up the structure.. I don't get to eat all the same food, but it is fun when you get to travel. It messes up the structure.

I feel you there, dude. But I do think when people are like, I want to travel all over the place. I'm like, yeah, that's cool. It kind of depends on if you're a professional blogger, then yeah. But if you're like, for me, when selling my things has to do with me actually looking good with my shirt off, it's a little hard. Yeah. You can't maintain the same body composition.

I feel you there. I remember hiking in Norway. I'm real big into hiking all over the place and i remember i walked up to a gym at like 10 o'clock at night in norway and i i found out that when i got there it was a 24-hour gym with no one that worked in it is it not a 24-hour fitness but it's like it's open 24 hours a day yeah and you like just scan your card. And I just stood out there and waited for someone to come and someone actually came and I was like, Hey, like I'm from America and I really need to work out. I haven't worked out in like three days.

And if you could just let me in, I would just, I'll give you 20 bucks. Like, and he's like, you look really desperate. You can just come in. And he's like, don't tell anybody I let you in. I'm like, all right, no problem. And I'm like, those are the things i had to do like i've i've gone to hotel rooms and like stood outside the door like sad as hell and i'm like i've gotten hotels that i wasn't um i wasn't staying at that hotel and i was like i forgot my key in my room and i really want to work out right now like

hearing that is why i like the sport because like sometimes i do stuff like that i remember trying to cut weight and lancaster pennsylvania before the f and m opened one year we didn't have the right type of treadmill so i went i did the exact same thing i've done the exact same thing like waiting outside for a gym like let me in and like you think you're crazy in some ways you know like like oh man but like i'm surrounded by people who i thought i thought when i left like wrestling like i wouldn't be able to match that find people who like love to just you know suffer and get after it in that same way but like the army it's hit or miss there but within this like that I get so much energy from being around people like you attack you you attack it in a way that like

challenges me to attack in the same way and like I don't know I think that that's a really healthy thing to be around because you can never be comfortable at the level you're at like I'm going hard but am I i saw what you know you see what ryan posted the other day or i see what travis posted on the misfit blog or something like am i going hard enough like am i am i really doing everything i can and like when you do up that level there's something that someone else is still better than you at like i've gotten better but i still can't do that 10 strict pull-ups wide so like it's just you're being challenged to grow all the time and it's awesome i love hearing stories like that to know that i'm not the only one who thinks like this and then like

that there's still i can still take it further like i'm good maybe i'm good at fitness but like am i good at business like do i want to how much how much success do i want to have and like it's it's possible like there's people out here doing it you're doing it like but that's the challenge is like can you make that next jump for whatever it is i love it but the other thing that's the challenge is like can you make that next jump for whatever it is. I love it. But the other thing that's really interesting too is that whole phrase that like if you just keep doing what you love, like the money will come. I genuinely believe in that. Like the right thing will come at the right time. And my whole life I actually like if you know my story, like I never really get in a cramp.

Yeah, what the heck. Sidesh is weird. Oh, man. Okay, I never really get in a cramp. Yeah, what the heck? Oh. Sides is weird. Oh, man. Okay, I'm listening. Pop the headphones off for a second. That bad, huh? Side cramp over here. Yeah, you're good. Sorry for interrupting, man.

Where are we at? I got real distracted there. Are you feeling better now? It's quieted down. I'll stand up for a little bit, though. Yeah, we'll stand I got real distracted there. Are you feeling better now? It's quieted down. I'll stand up for a little bit, though. Yeah, we'll stand up for a little bit. So with everything that's going on right now sport-wise, getting better? Yeah.

Let's talk about when you chopped your finger off. I was good training. I do want to get after that. So that was military base? Yes. I was a tank platoon leader at after that. So that was military base? Yes. I was a tank platoon leader at the time. So let's tell everybody exactly what happened. You were training more than ever, right?

Yes. So the year before, you did really well at regionals. Yep. We became the Rock Palooza 2017. Yep. Won it. Went to the fittest games. I lost to Travis, but it was close. Travis didn't gain as much.

I beat your anchor. I was like, all right, I'm good to go. And then I do the open Thursday night. I see the anchor. I was like, all right, I'm good to go. And then I do the open Thursday night. I see the announcement. I do the workout. Execution's bad. Put up a bad score that haunted me for the next six months. Not a big deal.

But I was really upset about that. And then the next day, we're cleaning up our tanks because we just finished a field exercise. And my boss gives me a call. Captain LaPlante gives me a call. He's an awesome dude. He's like hey uh you're one of your tanks just knocked off a side skirt one of my guys was trying to rush through and he knocked it off and we still had like some vehicles in the rear uh that could have

helped us load it up so we tried to load it up by hand like the piece that was knocked off but this piece is like probably like easily over a thousand pounds so we had a bunch of guys trying to lift it um i tried to lift too much of it by myself, and then it came down on it. And at first, dude, like it was cold outside, so I thought it was just like a stinger. I remember just like shaking my head. I was like, ah. Oh, my God. You thought it was a stinger?

Yeah, man. I was like, ouch. And I like looked at my glove. Whoa. Hunter McIntyre making a little appearance real quick. Because I whooped his ass in a workout. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I will have to ask about that.

We will talk about the story after. Hunter is out of his mind. But he's got – so, like, I'm, like, I'm shaking my hand. I look down at my glove. And I notice, like, my glove is missing the piece where, like, my finger's supposed to be. I was, like, oh, that's, like, that's wild, man. Because, like, my finger normally goes. And I was, like, oh, dude, no, no, no, no, no.

Finger's gone. And I, like, pull off the glove. And it, like, it kind of sealed off. And I pulled off the glove real fast. And, like, no, no. Finger's gone. And I, like, pull off the glove, and it, like, it kind of sealed off. And I pulled off the glove real fast, and, like, blood just started shooting everywhere. And then I didn't stop saying unprintable words for the next couple hours. And then the whole season was done. Did the pain kick in at that point then? Not too much, but it was bad afterwards.

I broke, so, like, the concussive force of it broke the bones in here, too. So, like, it was just real jacked up. And I was just really sad, man. The only reason I even know about it is because I follow you on Instagram. Yeah. And I saw the photo that you posted, and it just said, I'm sorry, guys, basically. I knew it was done for that year. That put me in a pretty bad spot mentally, I think.

I mean, it was pretty traumatic, I think. But it doesn't seem like it's a problem now. No. And honestly, I think it helped me, I don't know, take things more seriously. Like, I see it as an opportunity for traumatic growth. I remember people telling me that would happen. I was like, you're crazy, dude. Like, there's no good that can come out of this.

But I will never have the chip on my shoulder. I think in 2017, I think I was good enough to make the games. Like, I'm pretty sure I would have made it. But, like, the chip on my shoulder I have from not making it that year and then i missed regionals again last year because we're out in the field the whole time we're deployed i got a video submit all the stuff's coming together and end up like not being good enough like that makes me so much hungrier than these other dudes who've like been there and if i don't know if it's something that i'll continue if i ever do make it to the games but like i know the amount of time and energy i put in is largely based on

like that feeling like that I don't belong and I've got to prove that I belong every single time. So I see it as a good thing. So does anything actually bother you right now when you do training? It doesn't bother me. The grip will go out in this hand a little bit faster than doing barbell cycling or something. Yeah, kettlebells. The last time it happened, I was doing kettlebell snatches with Hepner and Travis,

and I'm winning the workout. I can see that being hard. And the last one, like, it starts to go, and I just look at it. I'm like, dude, like, we got to do this right now, like right here. Does everything else on there move? Yeah, everything else moves. I do a lot more accessory grip work now, and God gave me big hands, so that helps out with stuff too.

But, like, it's still – you come with the full set, and it helps to have them all. But I've tried to – I think it's not too bad. I PR'd everything since it, so. Oh, wow. Yeah. oh wow yeah oh right on big deal so kettlebell snatches pretty much nothing nothing hanging from the bar like toes bar toes bar awesome i think we just we we won the toes bar workout today mostly because china cho is as you know being out there is an absolute animal but like uh i kept up with her because toes the bar like it forces it forced me to like be a little bit more honest with stuff that I wasn't good at and didn't want to be good at.

And I don't know. That's how we were talking earlier, doing that stuff that you don't like. I didn't like doing grip training and that accessory-specific stuff, and now all of a sudden I had to do it. So I forced myself to do something I didn't want to do repeatedly, and then that made me a little bit tougher, a little bit sharper. Yeah, that's cool. It's a good thing.

I've actually been thinking about getting into strongman training because i feel like i'd be something i'm good at absolutely because now i mean they don't really squat very often it's just like a bunch of grip work and just grunt work and some of that i think i've given your athletic career to this point it's pretty much whatever you decide yeah i feel like it could be fun coming so it'd be fun um so what's uh what are you excited about right now are you are you excited to like do you want to go to the games on a team? Or is individual still in your heart? I think individual is still in my heart, but I don't think it's feasible while I'm in the Army.

If I'm being honest with you, I just can't match that level of training. I try to be honest with myself. I train super hard, but these guys are better than me to start with, and they train more. So I don't see myself catching up in the moment. But is the military going to have a WCAPS type of program for CrossFit? So we are, but because the Army is a goofy organization sometimes, I am not certain that I will be allowed to join it. So that's all I'm going to say on that. Because of your

job description? Yes. You're too high up on that? Not too high up, but just within my branch armor. So some folks are not too keen on making it happen, so we'll see. I would like it to. I helped develop a lot of it.

So I'm a little – that's the part. Like I invested some time and, like, I helped determine the equipment list, like what we were going to use as a rubric for the soldiers. I think I would help determine the training. And a lot of these things were set in place with the assumption that – I don't think it's a stretch to say I'm the best crossfitter in the Army, in the military, whatever. So it was all going well. And then it's like, all right, maybe you can't do this. And now that we're at that point, it's slowed down a little bit.

But if that happened, I'd be pretty grateful for it. I just am still enjoying the opportunity to travel and just get heart. This sounds weird. Like get sharpened by being around people who like to suffer. CrossFit has given me a really unique opportunity to be around people who, like, I don't know. We're weirdos, man. Dude, I still love it. I'll never get over it.

It'll never be something I'll get over. I'll always want to be around people who are of the same mindset. Absolutely. I get to be around all the time. I know people in all 50 states, and I'm just like, whenever I'm every weekend, I'm like, okay, where am I going to go? I'm going to go find somebody. This person's good at this, and they're going to make me better at that. So I'm going to go to them.

We'll get that much better. I still wake up at 4 in the morning sometimes to train. That's structure. You know what I mean? It's not normal. If I know that I have to – like for this trip, for instance, I had to leave at like 8 in the morning, and the airport was an hour away, and I was like, you know what? I'm getting up at 4.

I don't care. I woke up at 4. Yep. I came here. That is awesome. I love it. i got it in all day i got some podcasts in i i did the gauntlet yesterday and at the end of the night i went back to the gym worked out for like no like 30 40 minutes you're not even training man and so like that's that's what people who aren't competing are doing like you know i mean like you cannot you can't sleep and you just you just have to stay so sharp sometimes i'll work work a 15, 16-hour day and at 10, 10.30 at night, I'll get it in at my jam. Do you feel like that gives you a mental edge and the people you compete against with what you do with talk?

Because I know that I feel like I get some sort of enjoyment from the struggle of it all. It doesn't come as easy for you because you have all these other considerations versus, like, if I, again, if I'm Johnny Games athlete or whatever who's, like, I work at the gym and then I train all day and I go home. Like, you know what I mean? Like, there's not the struggle there. And I feel like it gives me a mental edge. I don't know if you see it that way, too.

Like, even right now, just thinking about me working out at night or really early, like, telling you that story, it gives me kind of, like, jitters a little bit because i'm like i love knowing that i can do something that someone else is not willing to do yeah you know what i mean like i i like getting this time on this workout because i know that you're not willing to do it it's not that you might not be better than me there's a point in which you just stop you know what i mean it's too painful for you like i used to train with kenny leverage awesome guy and uh him and i used to train all

the time he was all about doing singles i was all about doing unbroken reps. We would finish workouts at the same time all the time. Yeah. And like, it was just like, we always had just like a different style. And then there would always be like, there would always be a point where he would make fun of me for like these faces I was making or somebody else who making funny, funny for these faces. I mean, like you make everything look so hard. I'm like, because it is like, these faces I was making or somebody else making fun of me for these faces I'm making. Like, you make everything look so hard. I'm like, because it is. Like, I was not born this way. Like, I have eight brothers and sisters that literally are all different humans than me.

Like, we are all so, so different. Yeah. You made yourself into that. And I know that, like, I was not meant to get this time on this workout. And I know that my body was not meant to look like this. Like, I worked really, really, really hard at it. Yeah. For Kenny, I was like, this dude was literally meant for this,

and he gets to that little pain cave, and he would just shut it off. And I remember just thinking, I was like, man, if he ever, like, one day just decides that, fuck it, he's going to be insane. Because you could see, like like stuff starts to get hard for him and he would just break down okay and when i would see him break down oh my god it would give me like a 300 boost like i would go from like wherever i was at to like 20 faster because i'd be like oh my god like i'm so excited that i'm actually not only am i gonna beat him right now but like i'm about to crush him right now because i i know that he's dying and it would it would get

me so pumped up no i know the feeling for sure like you right now, but I'm about to crush him right now because I know that he's dying. It would get me so pumped up. I know the feeling for sure. Like you right now with Chyna Cho on the Toast Bar, if she dropped down when you were doing Unbroken Reps, if she dropped down for a second all of a sudden you're just like, you don't think to yourself, I'm going to drop down real quick because she dropped down. You're like, oh my god, I'm going to crush her right now. You know what I mean?

There's not a lot of people that are ready to go to that place. Definitely not. I'd even say I'm not the best at it, but by forcing myself to get there every day, I get a little bit better at it. I don't think I'm natural. I'm not like a Travis. Travis Williams or, honestly, Heppner.

Heppner's an example I use all the time because I've never met somebody who can, he stares that pancake in the face every day for multiple sessions. Ten times a day. Dude, it's unreal. Every time I go there, my mind is blown. He just crashes head into it. But, like, I can't match the energy, but I get closer every time I get surrounded by somebody like that.

Like, when I hear a story about you doing something like that, next time I have, like, we're going to the field at 06, and it's like, do I want to wake up at 4 and get the workout in? I'll think back to this. Like, I don't know, I just keep saying it, but, like, the people in this sport are sick in the best possible ways that leave me feeling that I can't ever slow down or, I don't know, stop getting after it. It definitely is an amazing group of people. Just walking around right now and not even competing for me is just like, I'm home right now.

I love it. It feels so, so, so good. Guadalupalooza is definitely where it's at in that regard. Speaking of Jacob Heppner, though like that is one thing that if i was back in your shoes i would never train the way that he trains i don't know between you and i don't know if it's actually worth it i think that there was a point where it was worth it for me to train an ungodly amount so that i figured out how to handstand walk so i figured out how to do kipping uh toes to bar butterfly pull-ups like i figured out all

the efficiencies on a muscle-up you know what i mean like it wasn't that i needed to do more muscle-up workouts to get better at muscle-ups it was i needed to figure out that when i was pulling myself in the rings to pull to my hips and look up at the sky and then throw my head forward it was like little tiny little things that by doing it so much made me better yeah and there was really no way of getting that good without training just a crazy, crazy, crazy amount. So many movements. But then you get to a point where you're really good at everything, and then you should figure out how to tailor it down

and be training like an hour and a half to two hours a day, I think is totally feasible. I know you've maintained your fitness by doing that. You don't think you do? I think I do. I definitely train a lot less than most of the competitors. But, like, for him specifically, he's just a maniac. But I'm saying. He continues to kick everybody's butt.

Because how old is he? 27, I think. Oh, okay, 27. Wait until he hits 30. We'll see. Yeah, father time's undefeated. I know he comes for everybody. There is that 30-year mark.

It's interesting. The 25-year mark, man. I used to come in the gym and just like, right like what are we doing there we're cleaning all right first like 135 225 you know i mean like i didn't feel anything until i was 26 25 for me yeah sorry to tell you that i don't want you i don't want you to think about ryan fisher when you turn 26 and be like damn he was too late i already lost i'm old now man i'm washed up andrews is over here on the couch what age was it for you that you decided that this is painful? 32?

32. My age right now. Comes for us all, man. Fuck it. Anders Varner from Barbell Shrug, ladies and gentlemen. 32 was the age for him where he started to hit the fan. He hated me when I was 26 probably equally as much. What's that?

I said you hated me when I was 26 probably equally as much as you hate yourself at 32. Yeah. Just watching me work out, he used to get mad. He'd be like, this kid needs to just stop working out. I'm embarrassing everybody. That's what Jen would tell me too. Good old Jen Rando. Even if you're the best you'll ever be, you won't be that good. Probably for me. That's what Jen would tell me, too. Good old Jen Rando.

Probably for me. Like he said, he thrusted 295. I've been training in CrossFit on and off for eight years, and I have not thrusted 295 and probably never will. So, like, that's just how it goes. Did you know I did the gauntlet yesterday and I thrusted 275 or three? Did you really? Yeah, I wouldn't hit that. No way.

Yesterday he told me 265. So, the number's climbing up, huh? So, it was 275. It. Did you really? Yeah, I wouldn't hit that. No way. Yesterday you told me 265. The number's climbing up, huh? So it was 275. It's going to be 285 tomorrow. It was 275, but it wasn't even three. I only got two and a half. That's the truth. That rounds out 265.

I just rounded it up. I got three quarters of it. It's fine. We have to round up. If it was.7, you have to go up. So where can everybody find you right now on Instagram? Where can people find Chandler? It's Blacksmith with three Fs.

I should have a Facebook or YouTube or something, but I just don't have time. It's something I'll get to later. That would be actually really cool, documenting your life in the military and all that stuff. If I did anything else right now, like you said with structure, I work, work i train and then i get ready to do the same thing the next day i have a terrible social life and not really you know i mean like you just gotta that's with with the commitments i already have with the military and stuff like there's not room for much else so it's tough enough to please people post enough on instagram i try my best but so can you spell blacksmith for us real quick i really want people to follow you on Instagram. Dude, I'm not that cool, but I guess it's B-L-A-C-K-S-M-I-F-F-F.

And it's a running joke from when I was in school. I'll explain it. No, it's all good. Oh, okay. All right, cool. Yeah, leave it alone. Leave it alone. Let them experience it.

Maybe you get some DMs on that. If you want to hear some quality, the only thing that I think I'm good at is self-deprecation. So I practice a lot of that. I fitness occasionally. And I like a lot of Ryan Fisher's posts because he's the most aesthetic human being on the planet. I'm an awesome fan. And then is there anything out there that you would give to the other 25-year-olds or 23-year-olds that are getting into the sport right now that you think would benefit them?

Yes. If you're serious about getting good about it like be prepared to just sacrifice a lot um the quality i look for the most than people that like i want to train with is like their ability to sacrifice i keep saying this word suffer man no sacrifice in general suffer is good but sacrifice is a huge one that people don't understand yeah if you like if you really want to be good at it you're going to do the stuff you're going to do the boring stretching and the the long like monostructural pieces the stuff that you don't want to do uh that's what really separates you and like i finding people's willingness to do that stuff is what either makes you want to be around them because i know that they're going to make me

me do the things that i don't want to do as well or uh if they're just like they're just interested in the uh the end result which you know like you have in a certain amount of instagram followers or being able to get some free clothes or something like i'm not interested in that i'm interested in people who like want to make themselves better and tougher human beings so that way we can teach that to whoever we're around and ultimately raise the toughness level of society in the world a little bit more. Yeah, harder to kill all the time. Absolutely, for everybody.

Except for the terrorists. Thank you so much for being on the show. Thanks for having me, man. I'm stoked. Literally like a dream come true. I've never even got to talk to you before, so now our first conversation was via the whole world to listen to. So I'm really excited.

I hope you guys follow him on Instagram. I'll be posting up our story and everything that we did up on my IG real soon. From Ryan Fisher and Chandler Blacksmith over here at Waterpalooza. Thank you so much for listening. And I will see you guys next Tuesday. See you later. See you later.