Barbell Shrugged - What it Takes to be a CrossFit Games Athlete w/ 8 Time CrossFit Games Athlete Alessandra Pichelli, Anders Varner, and Doug Larson- Barbell Shrugged — Barbell Shrugged #410

Episode Date: July 24, 2019

Alessandra Pichelli was born in Montreal, Quebec. At age 2, her family moved to Bahrain in the Middle East and spent a few years there. Her family then moved to Yokohama, Japan where Alessandra attended St Maur International School. By age 8, Alessandra returned to Canada and grew up in Welland, Ontario. She remained in Canada through her highschool rowing career, which led her to a full scholarship to Saint Mary's College of California. It was during her final year of collegiate rowing that her coach, Nicole Young, introduced her to the sport of CrossFit.    Since then Alessandra has consecutively competed in the Reebok CrossFit Games for eight years; her best finish was during her rookie year in 2013 when she finished 4th.    In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, the crew breaks down what it takes to be an 8 time CrossFit Games Athlete, the training, nutrition, lifestyle, and how she has maintained her competitiveness with the competition getting harder and harder every year.   Minute Breakdown:   0-10 – Learning from your mistakes every year to compete at the highest level  11-20 – How do you peak with so many events in a CrossFit season 21-30 – Questioning your why each year and finding motivation to push forward 31-40 - Is the spectrum of talent going to be lower at the Games than in years past 41 -50 - Training vs. working out 51 -60 - Sealfit to build mental and emotional capacity in games training   Alessandra Pichelli on Instagram   Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram --------------------------------------- Please Support Our Sponsors   Savage Barbell Apparel - Save 25% on your first order using the code “Shrugged”   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   WHOOP - Save $30 off a 12 or 18 month subscription using code: “Shrugged” at whoop.com ----------------------------------------- One Ton Challenge Weekend   August 1st - 4th   Find your 1rm in the snatch, clean, jerk, squat, dead, bench.    Add them up to find your One Ton Total.    The goal is 2,000 pounds for men and 1,200 for women.    4 days. 6 lifts. 1 goal. 1 Ton.    http://live.onetonchallenge.com   “What is the One Ton Challenge”   “How Strong is Strong Enough”   “How do I Start the One Ton Challenge” ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Show notes at: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/bbs-pichelli -----------------------------------------------------------------------   ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged's Channel Here ► 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

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Yeah, another foreigner, Achim Christner is the German pronunciation. Specifically what he said. You know what's super cool about doing this? You've been in this game a long time. I like to think I've been in this game a long time. I remember hanging out with you at the OC Throwdown way back in the day. Oh, my God. Right?

A lifetime ago. It was. That's how I know I'm old. When I talk about old things like this. Must be old too. Do you remember when we were cool way back? You were actually cool though. I was just like mediocre cool. Yeah. Because there weren't many people playing. How have you stayed in this game this long to still be going to the games?

I think I've just learned what it takes in terms of recovery and motivation and just having a good support team to keep me in it and I think I've just learned, like, what it takes in terms of recovery and motivation and, you know, just having a good support team to keep me in it. And I think that's what's important. Like, yeah, just having my husband and coach. Backstreet Boys showed up. Jesus. Dang.

Yo, Lorelei, can we turn it down just a little? Sorry. Sorry, Nick Lachey or whoever that is. AJ. Backstreet Boys, who are they? They're all the same to me. They're all the same. Sorry, Nick Lachey or whoever that is AJ Backstreet Boys, who are they? They're all the same to me Go ahead, sorry We didn't know that was going to happen

I think the main thing for me is staying in the game, staying smart about what you're doing and just each year learning from your mistakes and learning what you can do better and I think it just comes from wanting to work hard and see how you can improve as an individual so I think I've always had that fire and that drive to want to be the best that I can be so is that what the

motivation is I think so like sure there's there's times in training where I'm like oh am I doing this but uh you know the more I do it and every time I compete, that reminds me how much I love competing and how much I feel like I'm meant to do this. So I think that's what kind of keeps me going and then obviously the little motivators here and there. Are you naturally a very focused person? Like to go to the Games eight years in a row, that requires an immense amount of focus, I would imagine.

Focus. I think when I want to focus on something, I can, but I definitely wouldn't describe myself as a focused person in general. By the way, you could jump in at any time and be like, yo. I have the real answer. AC, you are husband and coach? Correct. How do you do all that?

How do you manage that? It's a balance. Sometimes I'll tell her, this is my coach's hat now. I'm just telling you this now. But I'm not mad at you as a husband. But as a coach, I got to tell you this. But, yeah, we try to, you know, combine it. And it's been working pretty good, I think.

Was there a learning curve there? Or it just kind of always worked? Or at first you weren't sure about it and then got better over time? Were you coach or husband first um well boyfriend yeah i mean we started crossfit together in 2010 so she convinced me to go to the gym and we started working out together um and then i started doing a little bit too and was on a team in 2012. But then, like, clearly she was accelerating a lot faster than I was. And I have a regular job.

So, yeah, I just was there to help her out. And we've worked with a lot of, like, specialty coaches, like, you know, in lifting, for example, like with Max Aida in Oakland and and stuff so we're getting a lot of help but i've always been pretty organized so i'm just helping her kind of facilitate things and we get we like we're very open to outside help you know from specialists and stuff and uh take all that in and like not a closed system because i like i don't need to be a successful coach like i don't care putting my name out of stuff like that so like we're just always been open to any feedback from the outside and and get those specialists in and then I think yeah one of the secrets for her is just I don't know about focus but like she's very uh determined so like she'll always get everything done and like if she'll skip like one part of the session like like, she'll, like, pretty much, like, feel bad about it.

And, like, say, like, I'm sorry, but I really couldn't get this last one in, which I think is pretty special because at the volume that we throw at the athletes, like, it's very easy to, you know, A, take off or at least go a little less hard, right? Yeah. So I see that a lot with other athletes that maybe don't stay at that level or don't even make it at that level. It's just they maybe do all the work, but they don't do it at that level. Yeah. I imagine the margin at which you're gaining each year just kind of gets smaller and smaller eight years into this.

It's probably, what, 10, 12 years of total crossfit yeah um what kind of what are the goals that you set out for yourself at the beginning of a year like are you you are you still going to win the crossfit games one day i mean that's always uh been the plan and um i think every year after the games we kind of go back and look like okay what could i have done better i did you know what are my still my glaring weaknesses and like each year it's something different because it actually depends more on kind of how you stack up compared to the other top girls because uh you know their strengths and weaknesses are always changing too so it's like you're always after each competition a competition you're reass reassessing and looking at that again. But I think the cool part is after all this time, like I feel like I keep getting better.

But yeah, the difference is the field keeps getting better. And I think that, yeah, the key is staying healthy. And that kind of allows you to keep going from there. I think it's incredible. The athlete that made the CrossFit Games when you started making the games eight years ago to what they are able to accomplish now is not the same person. They're freaks now. How do you stay up with that?

How does your training continue to evolve to the point where you, in a way, are ahead of the curve still each year in making it to the Games? I think it's just always pushing the limits. So you see one top girl like, oh, they did that or they lifted that. You're like, well, then I could probably do that. And then you kind of go for it and you believe that you can do it. And I think it's just, yeah, that level just keeps going up. And that's what keeps me motivated.

Do you train with a lot of the competitors? It's kind of difficult because it's like, obviously, we're all scattered all over the place. But that's why it's cool when you go to like a local comp or something like that or something like the Granite Games. And that kind of allows you to compete with those girls. So, yeah, other than that. How are you drawing up a training year for her? Yeah, I mean, this year obviously has been a kind of wild card because we didn't even know yeah the season was fully going to be structured but uh we kind of approached the same as like the

previous years where uh after the games took it easy for a little bit um recover make sure you're healthy for the season and then have dubai like mid-december as the first um you know big event and that's one of the events where you can go against all the top girls and see where you're at, see where your weaknesses are, and how you compare to them in all the events, like anything from the swimming events to the long running events in the desert or whatever. But, yeah, you kind of find out where you're at at that point. And then we've naturally kind of taken a little break after that over Christmas

where we both go home to our families and then go back end of December, early January, hit it hard. And then in the past, we kind of like trained through the Open with just a focus on regionals. Obviously, this year was different because we decided to go to South Africa as well. We just wanted to go for the ticket as early as possible because we figured it would be really helpful to lock the spot in as early as you can and start games training as early as possible. It was unclear how the rules were going to work for the ticket,

but we felt pretty good about our finishes in Dubai and in South Africa, that that was going to be enough for either one of them. But we still wanted to hit the open hard, because still there's talk about it being a ranking for the games and seeding. And of course, wanted to qualify that avenue as well, just to make sure. And so this year we focused more on January and February, And of course, wanted to qualify that avenue as well just to make sure. And so this year we focused more in January and February, try and get ready for the Open, do a little more of the basic stuff like burpees, toes above, focus more on that.

Versus preparing for regional, that's not the most important movements, but in the Open a lot of times they do matter a lot. So a little more focus on the Open this year, and then we were going to wait and see if she's qualified for sure at that point, which she did, so that's why we decided to come here to the Granite Games, which were kind of like in the middle between the Open and the Games, get that training in, almost like Games training right after the Open, and then come here to the Granite Games. Obviously, she wanted to come here and win and show how prepared she is.

And, yeah, of course, we had a little bump here in the road, but, I mean, the one positive thing we take away is her big focus after the Open has been endurance, making sure they're running. Because in Dubai, really, aside from day one, the swimming and running, she did really well. And was right up there with the other top girls. But it was kind of in a hole after that first day. So we really focused on the endurance, as it has been pretty much the last two, three years.

And she got fourth here on the long run. And then, unfortunately, the foot didn't allow her to keep going. It allowed you to get on barbell shrug. That's the real goal of everyone's weekend. Exactly. With this new structure, how do you feel like, how many times do you feel like you're actually able to peak throughout a season now? Because the schedule is really spread out. It's a little chaotic. You don't know where you're going to be. Going to three, Dubai, South Africa, here, here the open and then the games peaking five times in a year is probably not a reality yeah i think it's just going to be tricky because if your ultimate goal is to qualify like you're just going to have to plan on staying close to

your top level as long as possible or until you qualify because it could be for some athletes they do maybe three or four sanctionals and if that's what it takes to get to the games that's what they got to do but you know if they qualify early then sure that's a huge advantage that they can just start focusing on their normal game training do you feel like at this time you can just go be good at fitness like you don't really have to spend a ton of time leading up take a couple days off and then you can just go perform and then maybe for the games there there's an actual structured training block leading up to peaking, or do you actually think about each event and have a structure to peaking for it?

I mean, in the past, we've had a structure, but yeah, maybe a little bit more. You don't know. You just show up. I'm just the fit one. He's got the answers. Yeah, I don't think she was at 100% at either Dubai or South Africa. So you train hard, but you don't really peak for it yet, I would say. And same with the Open, honestly. I think we're, aside obviously from the foot, I think she's closer to it now. And the main goal is still the games. And that's what the full season leads up to.

These are more like good events, like you mentioned. You want to go up against the best, so you want to test yourself. But it's still like a path to the games. The games are where you want to be peaking we've mentioned your foot a couple times what actually happened oh so yeah two weeks ago i uh i was trying out new running shoes and i had tied my shoe too tight and i was just uh doing some hill runs so i guess that uh combination the laces rubbing against my uh extensor tendons caught caused the inflammation and it uh wasn't too, which I took two weeks off of running,

and it felt pretty close to fully recovered before this event. And then going into it, of course, the trail run was all hills. Yeah. So that uphill probably just re-aggravated it, so it just caused the tendons to swell even more. So I think, yeah, I decided to withdraw just so that I could allow that to recover sooner so I could get ready for games training, and who knows, I didn't want to further aggravate it and cause a more serious injury.

Yeah, because we're like nine weeks away from the games right now. Yeah, so that's always been the main priority. So, you know, being that I'm qualified already, I think for me it was a better decision to do that. And obviously if I was not qualified, then I may have pushed through the weekend to try to qualify. But I think it would have been difficult because, I mean, even on the clean ladder, like,

she couldn't walk fast enough between the bars to get through it. And then the event on the second day was. That would have been an event you probably would have come very close to winning if not it probably would have been a better event for me a lot of these that's why it's a kind of disappointing for me this weekend because most of these events i feel like would be very you would have been smashing kids you can say it get out of here children i'm taking the granite games it's hard to watch watch when you're like, oh, I was getting ready for that. You see that girl out there? I would crush her.

Sandra's too nice to say that. There's still some legit girls here. Aside from running in double unders and things where you're just bouncing on your feet, has the rest of your training been fairly normal for the last two weeks? Yeah, so I feel like I can literally do anything, just not, like, walk and run right now and, yeah, bounce. Yeah, I was able to, yeah, to squat and do everything upper body, no problem. It's just, yeah.

Yeah, the only thing we were skipping was running double unders, box jumps. But other than that, she was training. Like, she was lifting. She snatched 210, like, 10 days ago. Dang. Me too. Me too. that she was trained like she was lifting she snatched 210 like 10 days ago dang so still me too me too so like it seemed like the ankle was almost ready yeah pressed it out though press it out i didn't it wasn't it wasn't clean um how what's what is the plan for the next nine weeks then i mean we got foot injury but yeah we gotta see how long this is going to take, obviously. Bench press. Make sure it's 100%. Lots of bench.

Exactly. Pro sessions. Yeah. Yeah, no. I mean, I think she can still train a lot of things, like we mentioned. I mean, it's a little aggravated now, so we're going to be even more careful and take care of it. But hopefully that will be only a couple to three, four weeks at most, and then be able to get, I mean, we want to get into, like, running training,

obviously, again, before the games. Yeah. But, I mean, she'll do a lot of endurance otherwise. I think she can train, like, almost everything else, and I think the most important part for her is that she's at her, you know, perfect weight by the games, and everything else is good, and she's at her, you know, perfect weight by the games and everything else is good and she's healthy and she has the experience and she's been putting in the running miles. It's not like she needs to relearn it. Yeah, right.

Like, emotionally, psychologically, when you get little setbacks like this, like, where does your head go? Like, do you have ups and downs? Are you, like, you're pretty cool? Do you have a lot of experience at this point? Like, what's that self-talk like? I think there always are the ups and downs. And, yeah, in my mind, I'm definitely disappointed.

And you always think, like, oh, is this going to set me back? But I think I've had a lot of experience with that, that it's more if you focus on being proactive, like what can I do now, what's in my control to be better? And sometimes in the long run, you end up improving things that you may have never focused on before because you were just focused on that. So it's like just thinking like, okay, there's still a lot I can do. And now it's almost more motivation to be like, I'm going to be on top of my nutrition, on top of my mobility.

I'm going to just like be so good about that. And it's like, yeah. Strict muscle-ups forever. Yeah. So sometimes when you have to focus on something else, you end up getting good about that and it's like yeah like strict muscle ups forever yeah so sometimes when you have to focus on something else you end up getting good at that when you yeah you may not have focused on it so i think it's just yeah having that positive uh uh mindset to just you know keep moving forward and not looking back and yeah it's easy to keep thinking like oh this sucks like i wish i would

have you know but it's like no you can't think like that and yeah it's all good and i i think like i yeah yeah how many athletes are you coaching just her ah look at that lots of time um when did you when did you guys actually like make this a real coaching relationship it's always been like that has it yeah for the for her full career i've always been like the main coach how come no one knows you i just met you today yeah well go on keep it under the radar right you're the secret sauce yeah we've only helped some i've helped a couple other athletes at the at diablo like last year uh kyle kleinschmidt was a master 35-39, so he decided to join her training for most of the season, I think, yeah. Started in December and then worked through the game season.

So, yeah, I was helping him out, and he was training with Sandra throughout the last season. So that was pretty cool, but he realized how much work it is, and I think he's a firefighter, so he wanted to get a little more balance, so he's not competing this year. You can't be balanced. You cannot be balanced. Everyone's looking for the thing that you can't have if you want to be good.

Do you do nutrition as well or is that a separate coach? I try to outsource that. That's like one subject I don't really want to talk to her about it because it's sensitive so I don't like going there. I don't really want to talk to her about it because it's sensitive. So I don't like going there. Yeah. I don't like nutrition either.

Anytime someone's like, I don't know, find a coach. Do you coach your wife on nutrition? Do I coach my wife? No, because she cooks and it's delicious. You just eat. You just keep doing your thing. I'm like, you just keep being happy and cooking the food and it tastes delicious. As long as there's a veggie in there, I'm good.

Some meat, some veggie, whatever else you put on that plate, I'll eat too. What can you do? We were talking to Jessica Griffith the other day, and she was saying that she barely eats any vegetables because she just can't eat vegetables. She just can't get enough calories if she's eating vegetables. They're just not calorically dense enough. Is that similar for you? How do you structure your meals for the most part?

I think for me, i really enjoy veggies so i think for every meal i always make sure i have something green and i don't know if that's just how yeah my parents were always uh a big fan of uh yeah everything what does your food look like like throughout a day uh throughout a day like breakfast i'll just have uh usually just like oatmeal with some fruit and some protein powder in there and then uh for lunch i'll just have probably like chicken breast sweet potato and like solid or broccoli or something like that and then dinner is most of the time like a little bit of rice or cauliflower gnocchi or something like that. And then whatever meat, salmon, bison, I work with trifecta. So it's just like always changing up.

Shipped right to your door. Delicious. Right in the microwave. For me, it's like the last decisions I have to make. Like, sure, when I'm done competing, I'd love to make like these amazing recipes and stuff. But it's like right now it's just I got to keep it simple so that, you know, I come home and just like pull out the trifecta and like add some veggies, like right now it's just, I gotta keep it simple so that I come home and just pull out the

trifecta and add some veggies, some carbs. What's your code? Tell the people how to save the money. Oh, yeah. She doesn't remember. I imagine it's your name. It's my name. Yeah, the link on Instagram. Yeah, it's my link

on Instagram. Find the link in the bio. You sound like you were longing for some ridiculous meal that you haven't been able to have in so long. What were you referring to? I love to eat. I love Italian food. Pizza, my known as ravioli, just anything like that. I go home to visit my family every time after the that and it's always um i go home to visit uh my family every time

after the games and that's always when i like really indulge and i get like this amazing home-cooked meal and that yeah so i always kind of look forward to that and yeah i'm sure everyone you doesn't like pizza yeah you you said when you're done competing do you mean for this year or have you been thinking about when the end of this run is? For this year. Yeah. Yes. Do you ever think about when the end of the run is? I think, sure, but I kind of take it year by year, and I always, you know, see how I feel.

I think everyone throughout the year, when it gets, you know, things get tough, they start to question, like, oh, can I keep going? And then, like, I swear, after the games or something like that, you take, like, two days off, and then you're like, okay, let's do it again. Got to get back to normal. It's your happy place. Yeah, just before the games, you're like, I don't know if I can do this. That's how I run hill sprints. I get to the top, and I'm like, whew, okay.

That's my last one. Then I walk down the hill, and by the time I get to the bottom, I'm like, okay, I'll just do one more. Yeah, exactly. One more. Okay, I'll do one more. And then the cycle just repeats itself. That's exactly how it works. Are there other aspects of, I guess, kind one more. Yeah, exactly. I'll do one more. And then the cycle just repeats itself. That's exactly how it works.

Are there other aspects of, I guess, kind of this entire thing from the business side to coaching to being outside of being an athlete that you find interesting? Not yet. Yeah, I haven't really thought about it yet, but I think I will. Good job, coach. Don't let her think about anything else. Podiums only. Exactly. don't let her think about anything else podiums only exactly um what uh do you have a nutrition coach someone that comes in or is it just kind of however you put it together um in the past i

did work with working against gravity and now i definitely i learned a lot from them and yeah right now i kind of just uh through trifecta you know kind of just yeah i feel like after all these years i kind of learned, like, what works for me and what I like. So it's just I just keep doing that same thing. Adi crushes it. She kills me. She's got so many people on the biggest stage eating her macros.

It's so good. And a ton of people that aren't on the big stage. Yeah. She coaches that whole spectrum and does a great job. It's really wild. I feel like everyone we talk to, we talked to Danny Spiegel last night too. She eats two and a half pounds of meat every day. 250 grams of protein.

I just looked at her like, you have got to be, that's double what I eat. That's insane. It's like a whole job. She says she runs out every day. She's like, I just eat all the meat until it's gone every day. Yeah, it's insane. Over the last eight years of competing at the highest level in this thing, how do you feel like you still need to get better?

I think, like I said before, each year, because the whole field is getting better and better, we continually push those limits. So I think when I think in 2013, I wasn't even close to the level that I am now. we continually push those limits. So I think, like, when I think in 2013, like, I wasn't even close to the level that I am now. But back then I was like, there's no way I could get better at this or, you know, snatch any more weight or, you know. And then it's like by the next year,

the whole field is snatching, like, 20 pounds more. And then it keeps increasing. And the same thing for, like're pushing the endurance level the levels like for that first year you've uh cross it seemed to be more or the elite uh athletes weren't per se at that level of endurance and then now you look at it now and a lot of those top endurance athletes are pushing like you know real endurance athletes so it's like it's just crazy each year so i think that's it's like every time the field gets better, then it makes me want to get better, and then it just like continues.

Do you remember a time where you kind of realized like you were going to have to become like a very professional athlete? Like I feel like the Granite Games, there was one year where just everyone could snatch 275 on the guy's side. And I was like, we've reached the tipping point like these people are different now i'm gonna just be a coach and not worry about being an athlete though is there a year where you're just like holy crap girls are snatching 200 pounds now this is madness yeah i think just you probably did it first right lindsey was the one that's yeah that's right

exactly that was i yeah i still remember when we were like, oh, my God, like 200. Yeah, I do remember that. Or even like deadlifting or even, okay, I was a collegiate rower in college. Where at? St. Mary's in Northern California. Sweet. And, yeah, before that I rode in East Coast Canada. And, you know, our standard was the 2000 meter uh on the

ergometer yeah and I remember even my senior year thinking like there's no way like that I could ever get better on this and that's just like as fast as I could go and I was I'm short for a rower so um I just thought like that that's the limit that it. And now since I've been doing CrossFit and I don't really spend a lot of time on it other than like in Metcons and stuff. And I think just by improving my strength and just through CrossFit training, how many seconds faster it is. Yeah, I think, I mean, she never wants to test 2K. Like this is like, it's't put it on the program, but I think the last time you rode like a 7.12, and that's like 12 seconds faster at least, I think, than your time in college. Best college time, which is like unreal.

And I'm also convinced that she could go faster. Nice. Yeah, I rode 7.11, so you'll get there. Keep it close. That's just like one example where you think, like, okay, I think I've reached my limit in my lifetime. And then, like, you're, like, shocked to see, like, oh, no. Is there a big sense of pride?

I mean, we talk about Lindsey, and she's a total savage. She had a kid, and she's getting back out and doing this stuff still. It's crazy. But, like, a big sense of pride of, like, the longevity that you've actually been in the game? I think so. I feel like in my mind it hasn't been that long. But now I'm like, wow, I guess I'm a veteran.

And this is going to be my eighth time at the games consecutively. So I'm like, wow, time just flies. So when I think of it that way, I'm like, I've stayed in the game all this time. Do you still get stoked when you go to the games? Like you walk out on the floor and you're like, whoa, we're about to work out in front of all these people. And I think that's when I,

I'm the most excited. And that's what motivates me each year is just, yeah, being on the floor and competing. Do you see the new people showing up and they're like all nervous and you're like, just follow, follow along,

do what I do. Exactly. I try to tell them like, just soak it in, enjoy it. You should go the other route and be like, you should. Follow along. Do what I do. Exactly. I try to tell them, like, just soak it in, enjoy it. You should go the other route and be like, you should be very nervous. Yeah, exactly. Like, this is going to suck. There's 20 people on the floor right now, but they're all staring at you.

Yeah. Exactly. You should play those mind games. What goes on in the tunnel before we kind of walk out on the floor? Because it's probably pretty intense. There's people going from their very first games to you. I imagine you're just high-fiving. Yeah, I think old hat at this point. It's different for everyone. So there's like, there's kind of like a group of

different people. There's some people who are like in their zone, got their earphones on, just like staring into like scary people, scary. And then there's some some who like like to talk and are more they're like more laid back and that that makes them less anxious yeah and then there's yeah somewhere you could clearly say like see that they're like freaking out so i think it just depends on the on the person and there's not no like better way or right way it's just like yeah so it's like kind of interesting to see those like different people but that's kind of what it is have you gotten better at it over the years? I think.

Were you ever freaking out? Oh yeah. I remember my first year before the last event, I was freaking out. Friday night, like walking out into the tennis stadium. It's a little intimidating, right?

Oh yeah. So, but that since then, I'm like, oh, it's, yeah, it's normal to feel like kind of,

you have that nervous energy or something, but I've definitely learned to embrace it. Yeah. You got to go up to all the newbies like don't worry just you're just gonna throw up it's cool yeah no big deal it's normal yeah is it always like a big relief like once it's three two one go and you're actually in in the event doing your thing like all the nervousness kind of goes away yeah you're just in it for me the the most uh yeah anxious part for me is all the anticipation leading up to it the week before but like once i start competing yeah three two one go yeah like you said everything goes away and i think that's like it's kind of like studying for an exam like studying sucks and

you're just like so stressed but like once you start writing it you're like okay all right like did all i can and now it's just time to perform. So that's the easy part, I think. Not easy, but. Count down the days. Okay, two more days. I've got a pizza coming in. Two more days. Yeah, exactly.

Has the sanctionals set up, helped, I guess, prepare a little bit better instead of just having the open where you're not really around competitors and then regionals is only one competition, and then you go to the the games now you've got four or five that you've been a part of to kind of feel all that out before you actually get to the big show yeah i think it prepares you better and i think overall i actually like it better it's giving me the opportunity to travel to dubai south africa and like for someone aspiring to make the CrossFit games, you have significantly more opportunity to make the CrossFit games. And, you know,

if you go to one sanction, you don't make it, there's go to another one. I have a chance. You can do the qualifiers for multiple sanctionals. So unlike in the past where you had one shot at regionals, one shot, if you screw that up,

you're done. And now it's like, yeah, you can, you can travel all around the world you can go wherever it's like just need a sponsor call trifecta exactly you do like five sectionals yeah and then like it's and also you can qualify through the open or your country so in the past there's 40 spots and now there's on the women's side what like 150 spots? Yeah. I just, like, I don't know. Does it make it less special?

Yeah, I thought about that. In a way, it's a little different because, yeah, before obviously it's more difficult to make top 40 in the world than top 150 plus. You could move to a foreign country. Yeah. Do something weird. Yeah. Open an affiliate.

Yeah, less special. But then at the same time they're giving, I guess, more opportunity to represent their country. They'll get rid of all of them on Tuesday. It'll just look like your normal crew by Friday afternoon. All your people will be around. Do you think that the spectrum of talent at the games because of that is going to be – there's going to be some people that are just like really don't belong there. And then there's like all the people that obviously belong there are kind of

like, what are these people doing here? I mean, I think unfortunately that's bound to happen. It's going to be, and yeah, we don't know yet if there's going to be that mass elimination day one, but there's definitely a bigger gap in the field of talent, which yeah, we don't know where that would come. I think there could be some random girls that could surprise people and do very well, but then at the same time, I think in the end,

the top are going to rise to the top. There's a reason the podiums look similar. Yeah, which unfortunately I hope that, you know, if there's a mass elimination or someone's traveling halfway around the world and they get cut on day one, that would be a little unfortunate, at least if they enjoyed making it and coming. Has it been cool to see, like, where the other girls are at at these events and just kind of test, be able to stand next to them on the floor and really see where your training is in comparison

to theirs at the same time in the year yeah you get a better picture of like where someone's at or you can kind of you know assess yourself and i just i think it's cool you get more opportunity to watch online and yeah you can do all the workouts with them. What is like a training day? How do you periodize a year out? Now that volume is so high, are you taking, I guess, strength cycles? What does that look like as you approach a full year? Yeah, definitely. The volume definitely ramps up towards the games.

So, like, post- post open it's definitely higher um like right after the games it's lower where you kind of take a little time to recover and stuff and then work on a lot of weaknesses in the fall and just trying to maintain some of your strengths but not push the volume that much at least that's what we've been doing and then leading up to the open kind of more specialized towards the open and then after the open The games training is for her like the strengths is pretty natural So like we just try to maintain pretty much and and focus on the endurance and and then yeah We we're gonna really you know crank up the intensity and volume now from from now till the game

What does that day look like? How many hours are you guys? Yeah, usually really crank up the intensity and volume now from now until the game. What does a day look like? How many hours are you guys? Yeah, usually Sandra goes in in the morning, like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, Saturday, double days. And, yeah, so she goes in in the morning, like 9 a.m. until about noon or something like that, 12, 13. Three hours in the morning is 9 a.m till about noon or something like that so 12 30 three hours in the morning it's pretty good yeah and then come home and then uh go from like three to six again uh for the second session typically uh sometimes like uh like usually on that's monday wednesday friday and then on

on tuesday and saturday it's like a normal CrossFit session in the morning and then conditioning in the afternoon or the other way around. And then Thursdays is usually just swimming. And then Sunday, we sometimes do some endurance or like biking or sometimes the run. If she feels too tired on Saturday, we sometimes push it to Sunday morning. How do you guys structure strength work because i imagine it's not if you're the goal is kind of maintaining and then slowly progressing it's a little bit different than we need to get this person to a 200 pound snatch when you're already there and you feel very confident in those numbers it's a different training approach yeah um i think like during games training, the main thing is, like, I try to limit her, like, squatting days.

Like, I feel like if she squats a lot, it takes a lot out of her. And also, like, she's adding, you know, muscle mass, which we don't want to do at this time of the year. So we usually keep a pretty similar structure. Just reduce, like, take out a couple sessions of of lifting and especially some of the squatting sessions. So like when she's building strength, we usually squat heavy like three times a week and that goes down to like once a week like now in the final season. Yeah. You said a second ago you're not trying to build muscle mass on the way to the games for like these last weeks.

Have you found that there's like a body weight that is the perfect balance between being strong enough or being light enough for the endurance conditioning? Have you played with that over the years? Yes, definitely. And I think I can't speak for anyone else because I think everyone's different and everyone has a different body type.

But I know for me, I'm naturally very muscular and strong. And so, yeah, for me, the strength side hasn't been a problem. But then trying to keep up on the endurance side and making sure that I, you know, obviously if I'm a little bit on the heavy side, then it's going to make the running a little bit more difficult. So it's just, yeah, I think I've found like what body weight works for me. And yeah. So are you typically trying to get like a little bit leaner and lose a little bit of weight? For the games. Yeah for me, that's probably a good idea right now But yeah, I know it's always difficult to find that and find that balance and yeah, everyone's different

So maybe what works for me may not work for another athlete You mentioned that you kind of find subject matter experts. You guys are working with Max. What are you guys learning with him? Squatting every day? Are you doing that? Max out every single day? Four times a day?

Yeah. No, no, that's too much with all the other training. And we've learned that with Max. Like, he's giving us guidance. And he's like, this is what I do with the purely weightlifter guys or girls for um so but obviously sandra can put in the same volume as you know alissa ritchie or someone like that who's just doing that really focus on that so we like we take away the like what i would call like less important lifts and and just reduce the volume.

And we've kind of found a balance where, you know, Max gives me guidance, and then I kind of, like, put it into the rest of her training. And, yeah, sometimes parts of the year it's pretty high importance, but, like, other times of the year it's pretty low on the focus list, and it's going to be for the next couple months. Who else is part of your, I guess, that circle of coaches that you reach out to? Yeah, we've had a few gymnastics coaches that's helped us, but we have a good gymnast at our gym, Travis.

Travis who? Travis used to be a Cirque du Soleil performer. Travis Newman. Circus freak. Yeah. So he's helped her with some technique. And, yeah, otherwise a lot of the, I think Sandra has the skills down pretty good, like the advanced handstand walking and things like that, even like legless, all that stuff.

So at that point of her career, a lot of it is just getting in the volume and doing it versus like really learning the technique still so you need i think less like day-to-day coaching and more just you know getting the work across it's a really hard sport because it's such a high impact thing like if you play basketball you can go shoot free throws and it doesn't kill you you can just go have a shoot around and it doesn't kill you you can just go have a shoot around and it won't hurt you you can't just casually go snatch 95 pounds for 150 because you're going to be so jacked up so how do we get that or how do you get that volume in without kind of going over that threshold all the time yeah i think i look at her like week to week and just make sure like things that are overlapping

like aren't, you know, getting hit like the same day or even the next day depending on how hard it is and just make sure. Like I kind of have an idea of what volume I want to hit and, you know, sometimes the muscle up is like the goal is to do a lot of volume and so spread it out and then make sure like you're not doing, you know, leg lows the same day. And so I think planning out the week is really important and managing all the aspects. Like, so you do your gymnastic skills,

but then make sure you don't, you know, overlap it with the Metcon and stuff. So I think that's key on that. But, yeah, it's definitely crazy because they keep being able to handle more volume, right? Like when we talk about 2013, like 30 muscle-ups was like a volume day, right? Yeah. And now it's, you know, it's like, okay. They're doing it unbroken. Yeah, do two sets of 15.

You know, it's like pretty short. Two sets of 15? With rest. Yeah, just a little break. Unless your sand breaks. Yeah. Her lungs are different. With a decade of doing this, I'd imagine at some point it kind of turns into Groundhog's Day

where it's just like you're just doing the same thing every day. And even if you really love it, it's the same thing every day. Do you do things to intentionally switch it up that are kind of nontraditional just to keep it fun and fresh and where you're not just doing the exact same thing over and over and over again? Oh, for sure like I try to find something I enjoy to do and when I feel a little bit burnt out then I kind of go to that I think yeah it's just the important thing is as long as you get all your work in and sometimes is it you just can't get around that groundhog day and you just got to tell yourself like it's gonna be worth it when you compete and yeah the

grind is the grind and just like as with any other job you got to put in the work and it's not just like it's yeah it's not easy i know a lot of people some people are like you're so lucky to work out every day like you must love it and i was like that's like i love fitness and i love working out but it's like in the end it's like it's it's a grind and i'm not I don't come in every day and be like, I love working out. You're not working out. You're not working out. You're trying to be the best.

Yeah. So it's like training. There's a gigantic gap between those two. The difference, too, is like training versus just working out. Yeah. I'm working out. Like I go in and do something. I'm with you, bro.

I'm with you. But she's training, right? There's always a goal. And she's always working towards one goal and trying to get better at that. There's always a goal and she's always working towards one someone goal and you know trying to get better at that there's always purpose to every session and uh yeah i think the one thing that she's lucky is that she's met uh her weaknesses she actually enjoys working on them like her like she's naturally super strong but she actually doesn't enjoy the lifting as much and like she like she's naturally like that her endurance is more and gymnastic is more what she needs to work on and if i let her just do whatever she'd be doing

like a lot of endurance do you do a bunch of mindset training i mean going in and attacking your weaknesses and enjoying it is not normal you have to really convince yourself that it's fun to suck at things um do you go out and find people? Are you reading books? Like what is it? What is the mindset training come from or where are you learning about that? Self-taught. I've definitely been trying to keep up on some,

some reading and some podcasts and online audio books. But I think in the past being a, being a rower, I was already mind torture. Staring at that number going up. In 2014, I did Steel Fit, a 50-hour. Nice. Did you go to Kokoro, the whole thing?

Yeah. Cool. That was meant to be mind-chilling. I would actually love to hear more about that. What was that like? Oh, my gosh. That was pretty tough. I that was meant to be my training. Dude, I would actually love to hear more about that. What was that like? Oh, my gosh. That was pretty tough. I'm not going to lie.

I think that was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done because I think I went into it thinking that I'm just doing this for CrossFit training. So I didn't know, like, how SEAL training worked. And, you know, a lot of people, they were doing the full hell week, and they're, you know, going in and learning how to like work as a team and I just kind of thought it was like just all on me and so yeah yeah they were cutting they were cutting people hard I think your class was like 40 ish and I think 15 quit within the first couple hours they were getting really getting hard on it yeah we're spending a lot of time in the cold water oh yeah well you guys are used to the cold water aren't you you're a norcal

yeah but this this was cold yeah but you weren't just laying in it the waves that uh like why did you do kokoro just to go for training or were you going like no i i was just doing it for crossfit training yeah yeah no intention of uh seal training or anything like that. But I think I just didn't really know what I was signed up for. But, no, I'm happy I did it. I think it just made me realize how far you can really push your body. That was probably the closest to death I've ever felt. Yeah, because there's no sleep for two days. It's like a 48-hour Metcon.

I think that was the hardest part is just not sleeping. And sometimes I feel like I have narcolepsy. I think I sleep more than, like, anyone I've ever known. So just doing that, that was so hard. I think the main thing for CrossFitters or any athlete to take out of that is to realize how much you have left when you think you're done, right? You see that, and it's going to transfer over. Like, it was pretty funny watching, you know, the guys on the bike,

and, you know, they think they're done, you know, but maybe deep down they did have a little bit left, right? So I think that's what you've got to learn, and that definitely pushed you to your edge. And then there's this kind of funny story about that is that she like how tough she actually is so like she had contacts and they obviously were kind of they obviously were kind of picking on her as the games athlete you know to show them that you know steel straining is something different than a little crossfit and so uh yeah her eye kept hurting her but she didn't want to say anything during the

whole thing I think I actually got sand abrasion on my eye from like under the contact when we were in the waves they said that we had to let the waves hit our face and keep our eyes open so I think I got like a lot of sand in there and then as I like closed my eyes it like gave me like rubbing them trying to open it up yeah so yeah then after once it was done i picked her up and she's like oh yeah my contacts are like it feels horrible i'm like well yeah you had your contacts in for 50 hours straight and in the water it probably hurts but salt water yeah they did tell us and we we ended up uh staying down there and had to go to the uh urgent care and get it checked out and she had had, like, an abrasion on her eye.

I guess when it's anything with your eye, it turned into, like, a serious infection. So we had to stay there overnight. And I actually couldn't open my eye. Like, it was, like, stuck closed. Yeah. What does that weekend look like? I mean, you're awake for 48 straight hours. It's a 50-hour competition, or not competition, but a training session.

What... How many things do that, like, evolutions do they have you go through in the 48 hours? I forgot how many evolutions, but it's basically, like, one workout in torture after the next. Yeah. Probably started with them, like, squirting water in our faces while we're doing,

like, push-ups and planks and everything like that early on oh yeah then at some point we did murph and so it's always like it's more the mental side like what they say to you and how they like decorate how you feel because kind of by the end you're feeling like so down on yourself and almost you start to believe everything that they say like usually i'm not like really like affected by that. I think I'm like an emotional person and I definitely like feed off my emotions, but like they kind of almost in a way like get in your head,

like the names that they call you. I heard they're very good at finding the thing that's your thing. I think that's it. Like if you hate running, they notice. Exactly. They're like, okay, this guy's going to run. If you like are in the cold water, you're just like, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick. Exactly. They're like, exactly okay this guy's gonna run i feel if if you like you're in the cold water you're just like exactly okay this guy's cold water is his thing and they're gonna find the one thing that's gonna get under your skin and really fuck

you up exactly and i think that's what i think because i'm such a like reserve nice person and i don't like i would never ever say anything like me to anyone else and then that's what they do they find something and they dig under your skin and they like name call you and make you feel so bad that like you start to like believe in you're like well they're really mean yeah i've heard that too like they find the people that like don't like to get like peer pressure like like they don't like to yell that yeah and it'll just be on you in your face the whole time i think that was me like i'm very yeah i don't like that and so i think they oh either that or they like did research on everybody and they yeah they know exactly yeah physically were you at the top of

like you could do all the physical stuff better than I would imagine most of the people that are there though right I mean some were I could keep up on most of this like crossfit ish stuff and they did a lot of like sand running which i yeah i've not really done a lot of you gotta learn how to do that and i think uh going into it i don't know what year or after the game i i think i had like a minor back strain so that was like kind of giving me problems so with all the like planks and push-ups like i couldn't like really like keep my mid section of and i yelled it so bad for that and like in your mind you're like oh it's because i have like a backstreet but like they don't care yeah they're

trying to kill you yeah they're like just they don't want to hear like there's a lot of laying in the ocean too with the ocean behind you which basically means you're kind of waterboarding yourself while doing sit-ups right yeah basically yeah It's not really that comfortable. Yeah, I know. When you're in those groups, though, does that help? I mean, you come out of there, I imagine you take some time off to recover and get healthy, but how does your training, I guess, when you start back up, do you feel like you're untouchable? Like you just have this extra gear since you've been put through such hell for a week? think so i think i almost just think back like things could be worse like i've definitely when i was at my lowest that was

probably when i was at least no one's yelling at me right now if i do yeah if i survive that i can survive anything yeah i feel like i do my first two-hour session after that and be like oh we're done yeah we just started how long does it take when you you're at Kokoro just before it starts to really suck? Like, instantly. Like, eight minutes? Yeah. Push-up number four. Yeah, they start calling you names, and you're like, uh-oh.

Was it actually harder in the first couple hours because it was, like, so just, like, new and intense? I think so. And then you kind of got used to it after a while? Exactly. Like, an actual hero, like, I don't think they get many people that quit, like, on Thursday and Friday. No. Because they're just used to it at that point. They're like, okay, this is just, I got it. Exactly. I think it're just used to it at that point they're like okay this is just i got exactly i think it was like worst at first when you're like oh god it just started and like i have to like 50 more hours of this like

i don't know because i was after like the the next day is when i was like okay like i survived the night then we're i'm good from now yeah yeah did you do a good job of not thinking about what was potentially coming in the future? Like, I've heard that about people that make it through Hell Week. Like, they're the guys that don't think about, like, I've got four days left. This is the next evolution. It's going to be really hard. Like, they're just one foot in front of the other just, like, staying in the moment

and just handling whatever's right in front of them. And if they get lost in thought about the future, it just builds up and builds up, and then they're out of there. Right. I mean, I'd like to say I was, but i didn't really know what was to come yeah i think it was more yeah at the end of each evolution they'd ask like oh it's the same everyone want to quit and it's always like so tempting and then i was like i could just hear like yeah am i allowed to say kind of yeah i do it's kind of an answer i'm not gonna lie the one motivated i could I can hear my coach's voice in my head being like,

I paid like $1,000 for that, and you quit. I want to quit, but they'll be mad at me. And he's so frugal. He does not want to waste money. So I was like, oh, my God, I can't waste this money. I always felt like some of the tougher times, like I've heard, they'll do surf torture with you where you're just laying in the cold waves or just crashing over you like linked arm with all your friends.

They're like, okay, you guys are just staying in the cold waters. Somebody quits. Just waiting. Someone. Anybody. Anybody. And you're just like, fuck. I am here until someone quits.

Yeah. I think almost I felt like that I could deal with better than all the planks and stuff because I think from college rowing and rowing in Canada, a lot of times we'd be sitting up at the start and it'd be pouring rain like really really cold or snowing sometimes so like i feel like in a sense i was used to being in cold water that long or like yeah they should have used heat on sandra yeah exactly i'm like a polar bear cold water freaks people out i think like that doesn't that doesn't bug me but like it was everything else yeah how did you ever have to like roll around in the get all wet and then roll

around in the the dry sand you're like sugar cookie and then you're just like getting chafed just like crazy everywhere oh yeah that was yeah that was after the ocean the in the next day and uh yeah it's just yeah you're still like, pulling sand out of places years later? Oh, you feel disgusting. Sand was coming out of my ears for a week after. I'm not kidding. Like, it's the weirdest thing. You'd be like, oh, my God.

Like, that's still in there? Like, it was just gross. But, yeah, that was the most disgusting part. That and just eating their, like, MRE. That's what you had to eat. Oh, yeah. And, like, I was used to, like, eating clean food. And then you eat that. And that's, you had to eat oh yeah and like i was used to like eating clean food and then you eat that and that's who knows what the heck is in there but at that point you're

just like i don't care just give me anything oh yeah working out for like the last 15 hours straight oh yeah in a sense but it was still it was really gross but yeah no i ate them and like people definitely remember like digestion problems it was disgusting yeah i remember reading a book about hell week and like the greatest thing that can happen is when like an instructor walks over and hands you like a Snickers bar. Like that is like the greatest thing in the world because you get sugar. It feels amazing. It tastes delicious because people are just eating shit for the whole week. Oh, no.

It was gross. I think like one guy had something was like like, so bad that he, like, kept shitting his face. I'm not kidding. You're like, come on, bro. We're on the same team here. We're in the middle of a run. Yeah.

No, like, we were standing there, and he walked by, and he was like, oh, fuck, again? Like, the instructor was like, did you shit your pants again? I was like, I felt so bad. At that time, you're all on the same team. Yeah. Yeah. Not to me. I didn't shit. At that time, you're all on the same team. Yeah. Yeah. Not to me.

I didn't. For the record. Yeah, for the record. I was not as bad off as that guy. Yeah. Leading up to the games, we've heard from a bunch of people, actually, that I guess there's a lot of people that go and do, like, training camps and getting out of their own element,

going to places that they're able to really get rid of all the distractions. Do you guys have any of that in place that you put into the training schedule leading up to the games? In the past, we've scheduled, let's say, a triathlon or something like that. Or we're lucky that we have a lot of good athletes at our gym, so sometimes we'll arrange a beach day or an open water swim or something like that. So that's kind of been like our preparation,

and there's just so many athletes from our gym that's like, yeah, organize that day and then barbecue after. You're at Diablo? Yeah, Diablo. Yeah, they've been in the games and team, and there's a massive history in that gym of being at the high end. Exactly, so that's what started me competing as an individual. In 2012, I competed on them at the games on a team,

and we had gotten third place. Yeah, and then the next year I started as an individual. Nice. Yeah. Dude, where can people find you? Just find her. Just find her. Alessandro Pacelli needs he needs more clients he is you're hidden you're hidden it's so great like the stuff he says

sometimes it's just like he doesn't know how to say like good job i'll be like how was that like i'm really excited i think i did really good he's like it was okay like he just can't that's the swabian translation the region where i'm from it's it's like if someone asks you how the food was and you're not complaining it means it was really good i pr'd that's okay yeah he's just brutally honest and you're like how does the how does the like marriage and coaching does that I could imagine coaching my wife, might not go as well as it sounds like you guys have figured this out. I think it just works with our personalities.

Sure, he's very blunt and open, but I think for me, I want to hear an honest opinion about, you know, like he thinks I'm bad at something. He's like, that was shit. I'm like, okay like you're right like I agree with you I think it'd be difficult if I thought that I was good at everything but I think I see I know what I need to improve and what I don't so like I appreciate that honest opinion and for me I don't want him to be like oh you didn't get on that I'm like no I didn't yeah

you know he's lying yeah I know he's lying so i think i appreciate that and then you know like not to say that he just doesn't mean things because he's definitely you know very encouraging too so i think it's just it's always worked well for us says like good yeah good yeah is there a good good what yeah the one time you see him excited you're like oh my god that must have been like really good like yeah i feel amazing um where can people find you oh it's on instagram yeah alessandra pichelli killer facebook yeah alessandra pichelli yeah i know my name's really long but yeah just type the first three letters she's got instagram knows where you're at. Yeah. Doug Larson.

Right on. Follow me on Instagram at Douglas C. Larson. The One Ton Challenge. Snatch, clean, jerk, squat, dead, bench. We're going to get you to 2,000 pounds. 1,200 for you ladies.

What's your numbers? Hold on, let's do this with you. So we run a program called the One Ton Challenge and we take squat, dead, bench, snatch, clean, jerk, total them all up. For most people,

we want them to get to 1,200 for ladies. Okay. For guys, 2,000. Okay. Do you think you're closer to 1,200 or to 2,000? I'm not going to lie. He knows my numbers better than I do.

Where are we at, coach? I should know. We don't really have to do all the math. Are we closer to 2,000? Snatch, 210, clean and jerk, 250. So that's 500 plus. What do we got, deadlift? Clean and jerk are two separate.

Deadlifts, yeah. Deadlift is like four or five. Damn, four wheels, load them up. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then Ben, she doesn't like maxing out. She had the partial tech and partial pec issue in 2014, so we don't max that out. Probably like 200, I'm guessing. Yeah. Um, and then back squat, like 325 at the games, right? Yeah. Uh, yeah. Strong. It's awesome.

So yeah, we teach six lifts. It's pretty sweet. We call it the one ton challenge. It's pretty fantastic. Nice. Um, get over to the one ton challenge.com. Upload your PRs. Get on the leaderboard. Download your sweet little player card. Find out how strong you are. Stacked up against all the people, the one-ton challenge.com. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner. We are the Shrug Collective at Shrug Collective. We'll see you guys next week.

FitAid. FitAid is just crushing it with us. Friday, August 2nd from 5 to 8 p.m. Come hang out with us at the FitAid Lounge at the games. Also, Organifi, Organifi.com, forward slash shrug, save 20%. Whoop.com, you're going to save $30 on a 12- or 18-month membership using the coupon code shrugged at checkout. And our friends over at savage barbell

savagebarbell.com forward slash shrug save 25 on your first order friends next week we got one more show and then we are going to be killing it at the games and the wanton challenge event talk to you then