Bear Grease - Ep. 288: Render - Deer Camp with Rich Froning, the World's Fittest Man

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

In this episode of the Bear Grease Render, Crossfit legend Rich Froning and Mayhem Hunt Media Director, Scott Vander Sloot, join host Clay Newcomb, Bear Newcomb, and Josh "Landbridge" Spielmaker, around the fire at deer camp. Rich discusses his journey from being a firefighter to competing in his first Crossfit games and ultimately claiming the title of "World's Fittest Man." Also, he shares what is really important in his life. If you have comments on the show, send us a note to [e-mail] Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days in real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware Gear at firstlight.com. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is a production of the Bear Grease podcast called the Bear Grease Render, where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes of the actual Bear Grease podcast. Presented by FHF Gear, American Made, Purpose Built, Hunting and Fishing Gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. So you were a firefighter for four years?

Yep, I was a firefighter for four years. City of Cookville did this program, I guess, basically a scholarship where you worked as a full-time firefighter and they paid your tuition. And so I did that after I came home from, I went to play college baseball, got up there, didn't like college baseball, had a, you know, a reason to come back home. So I came back home and my dad was like, oh, it's too late to transfer. you're going to work in a factory assembling airbags for six months. And that was miserable. So I decided to go to school and the city of Cookville was doing that student firefighter program. And I had a couple uncles.

I had an uncle that was a Detroit firefighter for 20 years. That's a job. Right? If you watch that documentary? No. Burn about the city of Detroit. This was back in early 2000s, I guess, where there was this big, you know, they light these houses on fire in town and guys were getting hurt where nobody, there was no. real loss of value and real loss of life.

There's no lives in there. But guys were getting hurt, and it was, they basically had stand down orders. It's crazy because their equipment was, you know, trash and it run down. And so, yeah, it's called Burn. Burn. What did you get your degree in? Hold on. Let me introduce, let me introduce our guests.

This is Rich Froning from Cookville, Tennessee. Second appearance, right? First time, you were second time? No. Yeah, you were on the Berry Surrender when we were in Tennessee at the Meteor. your tailgate tour, which that film came out. Yep. Which that film came out, which is a unique media to film.

And your cameraman here. Camerman. Scott. And friend. And friend. You know, like he gets attached to his. He's a friend too. Friend too.

Yep. I guess you can see it. As long as I don't screw up the hunt. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what I was, that's what I was thinking. It's a very, you know, it's dependent on his actions. Honig and Offig.

Yeah. Yeah. I would like to, I would like to pull the bear gree. audience of how many people know who rich fronin is just raise your hand and if you're in your car if you knew who rich fronie was i see that hand apparently rich is a big deal i'm told used to be i'm told you know formally he's a retired no uh scott how tell tell everybody everybody knows who rich is but if you were describing who you worked for who is rich give him give like the the elevator the g version four time fittest man on earth six time

fittest team on earth, multiple business owner, father, Christian, husband. You read in my Instagram. I think I hit everything. I think it's a servant of Christ, husband to at Hillary Froning and father of three. Yep.

Yeah, something like that. Yep. That's pretty good. That's about all I got. That's good, man. Well, so we're in Oklahoma right now. You might be, you might have noticed that we're not at the Bear Greece world.

headquarters. We're in Oklahoma with it's it's early January and we're deer hunting. We're deer hunting. That's what we would call it I guess. Over your shoulder there. Yeah, I'd say we're deer hunting. Yeah. And we've had a pretty, we've had a good hunt so far, a lot of action. A lot of action. It's yet to be determined on the full outcome of everybody, but bear's been hunting, Rich has been hunting. I've been hunting. I killed this buck yesterday. Is it right there? Other side. No, no, you're right. You're right. You're right.

Yep, you're good. Over there. Yeah. This way to the weight. Yeah, we're bow hunting. The Oklahoma season last until January 15th. And, man, I like Oklahoma. That's cool.

Man, I've really enjoyed Oklahoma. Yeah. It's been fun. Oklahoma raised their non-resident tags, like, exponentially this year. I noticed. Like doubled. As they should, right? Yeah, I'm okay with it.

Keep the foreigners out. Keep us out. Keep the trash out. Yeah. I saw you can do a lifetime non-resident license, though. So I have a non-resident Tennessee license. And I don't know if that's just because you have to buy a hunting, like a qualifying license, then you buy your deer tags or deer license separate.

But I noticed on there that there was an Oklahoma non-resident lifetime license. Well, I don't know what that is. I don't think you can buy those anymore. Oh, okay. I thought I saw it on there when I was going through it. Well, as I understand it, they used to sell those. Okay. But they don't sell them anymore.

But I don't know. I don't know what you would have seen, though. I saw it when I was doing. Because in the regulation, like there's some group of people that have a non-resident lifetime license. Because when I was a kid, we could have bought that. We lived close to Oklahoma. And my dad, I remember my dad telling me, like, when I was like 10, he was like, they

thought about getting us a non-resident Oklahoma license. Yeah. Just because we could. You could. You might as well. I mean, I've got one in Tennessee and all my kids have them. And theirs was exponentially cheap. doing it when they were, you know, sub five years old versus me at whatever I was, 30 years old.

Yeah. 25, 26. Yeah. Yeah. So we're bow hunting and then bears doing a little trapping. Yep. How many traps you got out right now? I think I've got six out right now.

Yodi traps. We've got like a gang set in a cluster of persimmon trees. We put like a camera up expecting to see deer and hogs. Right. But we ended up getting a group of Yodys coming in there more than anything. So we set up four or five in there. That was just a couple on the roads. I just had to ditch my contact.

Yeah, the smoke's pretty harsh. Well, I just, I think it just like went bad just like that. You know how they do? Yeah. Try up. So we found this patch of persimmons probably like 25 trees and, you know, like a 10 square yard area, like trees like this big. And a month ago, it was loaded with. I mean, just loaded with persimmons.

Thousands. 100,000, I don't know. Big ones, too. The limbs were just, like, leaning off these trees. And big persimmons, I thought, and there was hog tracks and deer tracks under all this. And so we put up a camera and left it there. And to our surprise, more than deer and more than hogs, the coyotes were coming in there. That's crazy.

Which actually explains a lot, because, like, you know, sometimes you're walking in the woods and you see, like, a pile of scats. That's, like, too big to be a coon. but too small to be a bear, but it's got persimmons in it. Yeah. Yotis. Yeah, yeah. Who did you think it? I mean, so he's, we're setting some traps in there.

And it was, so last night I was able to check my phone because we put a camera up watching the persimmon thicket with our traps out. And I know for sure two coyotes came in there and spooked. But we were beating around so much. Left a lot of scent, like tonight will be better. because we're not, he's going to check it, but he's not going to go in there and set traps, you know? Yeah. Yeah. But so a lot of, a lot of hogs over here, too. A ton of hogs. Mystery hogs.

Mystery hogs, yeah. What's interesting, if you were just to walk around this place, I mean, there's hog tracks everywhere. Is that right, Rich? Everywhere. Every time we're walking around. I mean, if you just get out of your truck at a random spot. And you can just tell where they're nosing through and just ruining the ground. A lot of rooting. A lot of rooting. You would think that hunting over here for three days that you'd see hogs every time you sat.

Nope. But we have had cameras up for two months over here, and I've got daylight pictures of hogs probably less than five times. That's crazy. But they're in front of my cameras every day. I don't know where they go. You know, when Europeans first came to North America, they thought that the bear. Some people did, thought that bears migrated because they were just gone. Yeah.

Like in the wintertime, like there are bears all over the place. And then, you know, about November, they were just gone. And they thought they were like mallard ducks. Like, well, they must have went somewhere. I'm pretty sure that these, these hogs migrate out of here during the day. Like a daily migration. Yeah, like over that mountain. I mean, I don't know.

Maybe the guys over on that side of they're like, dude, we got hogs during. in the daylight, but we can't get a night time hog picture. You know, isn't there a gap out here somewhere? There's a gap. There's a gap right here. Probably a major hog migration corridor. Hog migration gap right there. That's what we'll call that. Hogs gap.

There it is. Hogs gap. There it is it. That's it. This is a fun place to hunt. Oh, it's awesome. It's been really cool. And even, you know, we're out, what did you say, about three miles-ish?

Yeah. And even that's just cool to drive through. And it's been, you know, mine and Scott's commute every morning and afternoon is, I mean, We saw deer when we were driving in back in last night, crossing in front of us. Yeah. And then four free range wild steers. Yeah.

One with a bum leg. Yeah. So this is a working cattle ranch, and so they've got some stragglers out here. We're cursed with cattle when we're hunting. It's true. When we would go out west the first couple of times of Colorado, we'd be out in the middle of the national forest. And you'd, oh, here comes something walking through the woods.

and all of a sudden just a beef cow, you know, because farmers can lease the property. But I'm like, we're 10,000 feet. It's like not a cliff, but it's steep. Sure enough, just a moot cow out there. You're not in a good place for a beef cow to be. No. No. So.

I hunt in some spots where you can't lease, like, you know, there's no free-range cattle, but you'll still see cows. Like every now and then there will be just like a herd of cows out on the road or something that got loose. Maybe they're like wild horses. Yeah. I'd shoot one though, you know. National Forest Cow. National Forest Cow.

Rich, tell me about, so you got into hunting. I mean, you grew up doing some hunting, but you kind of like got into hunting big like seven or eight years ago. Yeah. So I grew up in a hunting family from Michigan originally, moved to Tennessee when I was four, so Tennessee's home. Oh. We actually have more of Michiganers on this podcast.

Well, technically. So right before the podcast, we brought up a very interesting point. So Rich moved for Michigan when he was four years old. And I told him, I said, Rich, if you move to the South before you're five, like you're not technically a Yankee. You get a pass. You kind of acclimate. But if you move to the South when you're like nine or ten. Scott's. Yeah, I mean, like this guy.

He'll never get it out of his system. It's gone. You know, there's not much left. I moved to the South when I was four, too. Okay. Yep. So we're good. What year? How do you?

I'm getting ready. I'll be 49. I was born in 76. How old are you? 37. 37. Just kids. babies. So, not really. So you're good. I'm good. All right. But we've got three Michiganders here. For me, Tennessee is home, right? So, like, it's, that's home for me. All my family, like I've got some extended family, cousins and aunts and uncles that live in Michigan, but Tennessee's home. But both places are, you know, they're whitetail country, really. You know, our houses, when rifle season opens, there's orange in the woods everywhere.

So I had uncles that hunted. And so I was around it and did some of it, but I was super impatient. And I didn't like getting up early. So I didn't hunt a ton and sports and all that. And so I would say around 2014 or 15 had a good friend of mine. His dad was like, man, white tail hunting sucks. Come hunt turkeys. And I was like, all right, I'll give it a shot.

and fell in love. And, you know, because I was always outside. Like, my parents, if we were inside and we couldn't find something to do outside, they were going to find us something to do outside. So, you know, hey, go get lost in the woods. So we were out in the woods with BB guns and, you know, doing dumb stuff that boys do in the woods, but I wasn't ever really hunting, but I grew up in the woods. And so to me, it really just feels like doing that again, being a kid again. And so started with turkeys. And then through that, I had a friend that was like, hey, if you like turkey hunting, you should try elk hunting. So I went on an elk hunt in 2018, I think was my first one. Okay.

And didn't see an elk on a guided rifle hunt, but fell in love. Didn't see a single elk? Did not see one single elk. Heard a bugle as soon as we stepped out of the truck on the first morning and then never saw one again. And so, but fell in love. I mean, my guide was awesome. He taught me a ton and we went after him. And you could just tell by the end of the week he was, he was a little bit distraught.

He was like, man, this is the hardest I've ever hunted with somebody because I was willing to go any and everywhere. We actually put my other friend Matt in basically, he got to the point where he thought he needed to go to the hospital that we'd walk that. Like seriously, he didn't hunt the next morning one day because he thought he had rabdo, which is like where your muscle tissue. breaks down and like he was messed. Rabdo. It's called rabdomylicis. Yeah. So basically you, if you, it happens a lot in, like, car accident victims, but also if you work

out with too much intensity, and some people are genetically predisposed to it, but your muscle tissue will actually break down and go into your bloodstream and go to your kidneys. And so people, it's a big thing early on in CrossFit. People had, you know, they saw that happening. But it's kind of like people have kind of figured. that out that, hey, maybe we shouldn't push people so hard right off the couch, you know. Wow. So y'all hunted that hard that somebody was thinking that that was going to happen to them.

Thought he was dead. And then, you know, for the next three years, we did over-the-counter public land elk hunting, man. And it was, we ground. We hit the ground hard and then we finally killed one. How did you be in the fitness like you were? When you hit the mountains, were you, I mean, I know you were, like, you were, like, you were, like fully capable, but did you, I mean, was it hard? Oh, I mean, yeah, I mean, I think it's as hard as you want to make it, right? You know, like, we, I mean, when we go, like, that's just the

style, too, that we were doing it. And we were so new to it. I didn't know what, you know, we're like, oh, we just got a cover ground to find them, right? So you're on public land. We were huffing it, man. And we, I was, I'm beyond prepared, I feel like. And so, yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't think there was any, I don't think we ever had really. learning curve other than like you know were you with him when he was first out cutting scott yeah so i didn't go on the first time but all the public land stuff i did oh scott well for context too about you being prepared the you were still compete he was still competing in crossfit so the season would end in august so he was at his fittest he will be the entire year in august and then a couple weeks later

we're on the mountain so he was ready to go yeah but he he can only be as fast and go as far as his camera that's true if you're filming that's true that's true And with Scott, I've never once questioned, oh, should we do this? Like, me and him just, we talked about it. We've talked about it. We've both kind of, I guess, grown in hunting as a team almost, as weird as that sounds. And like, as much as, you know, I'm the one taking the shot, he's getting a shot with the camera. So it's like we bounce ideas off of each other.

And we've both kind of, we've messed it up together. And we've succeeded together. So it's kind of cool that we kind of joke with our wives. like we'll send a picture of us actually hunting that we're not just like disappearing off, you know? Bro and out? Yeah, right, just hanging out. So, but yeah, it's been really cool.

Because for me, you know, like when I think of hunting, you know, like when people do these like long, individual, like solo hunts, like no part of me does that sound like fun. Like I like hanging. Even if it's, you know, even if we're just here at camp and we go one way, you go another way and we all come back to you. There's just something about that camaraderie, that like team. aspect to it, me growing up playing team sports.

Man, I just really enjoy it, right? It really is. It just feels right, right? That connection. Yeah. I like it. Yeah. Well, luckily you're bunched up with one good hunter. Yeah, that's right. Too soon. Too soon. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we can talk about it. Yeah, I, last night, me and Scott had one come in, come in the way that we wouldn't think he would come in. You don't necessarily have to tell the story.

It's a good learning. You know, like, I'm early on my whitetail experience, and, you know, I've, and I think we talked about it. You're like, hey, you know, the farther that shot gets, the less, you know, I feel super comfortable taking a far shot because we do a lot of those tacks and stuff like that. You shoot a lot. And I shoot every day. Yeah, pretty much every day starting, well, now that I've shot pretty much every day for a year.

But anyway, it, like, I'm super comfortable in those situations. Deer comes behind us. Scott's like, oh, here comes some doze. Oh, and a little buck, he's not a shooter. Scott. And so I only saw his basis. And so I'm faced this way. Yeah, we're in saddles.

Super heavy, was he? We're in saddles. And I turn, and I'm like, that's definitely a shooter. So I just slowly grab my bow. So I've got my hand of my bow and I get it off the little hook I've got. and I just turn. And so he's kind of still coming and he stops. And our wind is kind of going, not to him, but in front of him.

And so I'm like, I've got to make a decision pretty quick. But he starts doing the stomp and just looking. He does not like the situation. And I'm trying to turn. And as I'm turning, my heart's like pounding out of my chest, right? And so as I'm turning, I'm putting so much pressure, somehow on an artery somewhere that I'm starting to get lightheaded because I'm in the saddle, right? Your neck is about to twist off.

Seriously. And so, like, everything's closing in. So I'm like, all right, I can't do that. So I'm waiting here. So then he turns, and I'd ranged a bunch of trees. And luckily having, you know, we've shot a bunch, not cold, but like guessing at distances just to see. And he was right at 38 yards, 37 yards. Yeah.

And I draw, drew, because he turned perfect broadside and was about to leave. And I let one go at 40. And we used my 40 pin. And, man, it looked great. And then that last second, the white tail do it. they do and when he went to turn to go he just dipped just enough and we found blood immediately we found good blood um and then yeah gone and so we went back and watched the video and it looks like there's there's a perfect uh like evergreen branch right where it would have hit but we think it got either brisket

or i mean a brisket uh backstrap or something so yeah yeah look man when you showed me your arrow when you got back it's got meat on it it passed through but it's just so weird or me Maybe it glanced. I don't know, but... Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I feel pretty confident. That deer is totally fine. He's just laughing at us, like merely a flesh wound.

Yeah, that's a bummer. It was a good deer. That's the hard part. I hear a lot of guys... I mean, you know, there's a lot of emphasis on long-range shooting and all this. And that's good. It's good. And there's a place for it.

But, man, a deer... I don't care how good you are. a deer passed 30 yards, a white-tailed deer. It's just a lot. It's just a lot can happen. You guys get good at watching a deer and kind of calculating what he's going to do and how he's going to drop. But, I mean, you really want to shoot white tails inside of 30 yards.

For sure. Yeah, I've learned that. I mean, and I know everybody's like, well, what about such and such? He's a great shot. He is. And then there's also a lot of guys that document a lot of long shots. And I know there's probably a lot of stuff they don't show, too, of deer getting away. And not to their discredit. No, no, no.

I mean, I haven't shown every deer that I've probably not made a great shot on. I mean, it happens sometimes. But my point is, it's tough. I try to that if I'm going to miss, I just completely wish. Well, that's a blessing, really. And it's also a blessing that, like, you guys had this on video, and so we were able to watch it. And, you know, pretty conclusively were like, yeah, that deer was shot through the back straps. And we looked for, what, two hour and a half last night and then two hours this morning.

Yeah. We went far. We went far in every direction. He is not there. Yeah. Well, and like if you had hit the deer back, you know, that would be one direction that you could hit a deer and it would be a bad shot. That's a mortally wounded animal if it's passing through and it's hit anywhere in the punch or anywhere in the diaphragm, obviously.

And I mean, that's an animal that we're still looking for right now, or, you know, we would be if you had done that. But, man, when you get any kind of peripheral shot, if it's low brisket or high up in the backstrapes, I mean. So you found your arrow. Found my arrow covered in meat, not necessarily blood, but then we see blood immediately tracked it for probably, you know, 50 yards, and then you start seeing big puddles. We're like, sweet. Well, then drip again. And then big puddles.

And then drip again. Then he walked through some, like, kind of oak growth and just blood everywhere. And then drip, drip, drip, gone. And we, I mean, we. How far out did you? What's the blood? Where are you shot? 150-ish?

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, about 150 yards, tops. So, yeah, man, it was, you know, bad night sleeping. and then we're sitting there this morning. I'm like, all right, let's go look. And then you're still a little bit of optimism there, you know? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sure enough. You know, it looked good blood, but just was not there. We tried, man. But. Yeah, well, we still got, we still got tonight and tomorrow morning. Yeah.

Yeah, at least two more hunts. Yeah. A lot could happen between now and then. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls in building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen.

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And you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. There's some people who probably don't really even know what CrossFit is. I would have been, I mean, I would have known that it was like a way to work out. But you described it to me. You've heard somebody talking about CrossFit. That's kind of the joke. is like, you know, you know somebody does CrossFit

because they're going to tell you about CrossFit, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, yeah. I mean, you kind of gave me a, you said, like, it's taking the best of all working out. Yeah, basically, you know, a guy named Greg Glassman started a thing where he took running, biking, rowing, swimming, power lifting, which would be, you know,

the deadlift bench squat, and Olympic lifting with some of the accessory lifts there, plus body weight movements, and kind of just mixed them all into one thing. And then defined, I guess, what you would say fitness, because, you know, like if you were to say, what makes somebody fit, you know, is it, is it cardio-restratory endurance? Is it the person that can lift the most? Is it the person that can bike the farthest? Or is it the person that can do all of those things? Maybe not necessarily the best in each specialty. It's more, you always said a jack of all trades and a master of none. And so basically, you take all those things and then high intensity, functional movements, and we constantly vary it. So you're ready for it. That's why it would be said that you were the fittest man in the world. By CrossFit's definition, and I'm sure that they copyrighted, I think them are rebought cross-copyrighted that.

What's that? The fittest on earth tagline. If the person that wins the CrossFit games, by their definition, you would be the fittest on Earth. Do you think that's true? I don't know. You know, it's probably somebody out in that wouldn't even, never even heard of the CrossFit. That's right.

We've never wrestled, you know. So, like, we've never been a deadless competition. Bear, if I were to like wrestle and beat him, would that make me the fittest man? I think so. Let's do it right here. I promise you, in my family, I would be. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, yeah.

I like the, hey, he won the CrossFit games four times and he won it six times. Like, I don't know, you know, by the definition. And nobody's ever done anything like that? Not the done the individual and team. There's a woman right now that she's won seven. times. Really? And then a guy after me, Matt, that won five times.

And so now it's kind of like ping pong and other than the female. But Rich, you were the, you were like the original OG. Yes. So like when CrossFit like really came onto the scene and they had the CrossFit games, you were the first guy to like win a bunch. What I would say is when it's kind of like started getting to that point, I was like holding on to like what the old Garland. was and bringing in the new. And so I'm like this bridge kind of gap, trying to hold the two

together at times, you know, because it's turned into when I started and even when I was doing it, you know, like I was working, most guys and girls were working other jobs. And now it's like turned into a professional sport. And towards the end, my last probably two or three, two years as an individual, I still owned to the gym and coached, but I wasn't working, you know, know, like I wasn't working at the fire department or working, you know, for the intermereal department at Tennessee. So as it grew, it became. It's become more professionalized.

People can make money. So the people at the top are doing it like full time. Correct. And, you know, they're training full time. Yeah, I mean, we've got a facility in Cookville. We have the actual normal CrossFit mayhem for the average, you know, Cookbillion. And then it's also, you know, people, we do what's called drop-in. So it's basically like Disneyland.

People come and work out at CrossFit Mayhem. And so you didn't actually get to see it when you were in town. We actually just went to the house, and I've got that barn that I trained in a bunch, too. But then we also have the athlete facility. And so we've got a Brazilian, we've got a Russian, we've got Australians that visit regularly. We've got all kind of from everywhere. So Cookville, Tennessee, your gym, the Mayhem, what's it called? CrossFit Mayhem, yeah.

CrossFit Maham. It's like the mecca of the world for CrossFit. Is that right, Scott? You were telling me. Yeah, I would say so. I mean, in terms of people that want to go, if you could, anyone around the world could pick one gym, they want to go visit. So people move to Cookville, Tennessee? People will move, actually.

That want to be pro. And there's regular people that. They're like, hey, I have a remote job and I really like, I want to be a part of this community. They'll move to Cookville. That's incredible. Stevie Goldie, they moved their entire business from California. Granted, it was peak COVID. They wanted to move somewhere Tennessee or Texas,

decided Cookville, partly because of mayhem, moved their entire pizza business, and they live in Cookville now. So what's it like you walking in there, Rich? Nothing. Nobody cares. I mean, I'm just rich, you know.

Scott, is he telling the truth? Yeah. Unless there's a drop-ins. If there's drop-ins, then that's different. Like, yeah, I'm going to take a bunch of pictures. But if it's normal every day, so, you know, well, there's not many days where there's not drop-ins. Like, I might take a picture,

or two with the people that are traveling from out of town. But everybody else, I'm just Janice's son or Rich's son, honestly. Like, that's just my mom worked in, like, in the restaurant kind of business for 30 years. And, of course, she's super proud. So you grew up in Cookville. I grew up in Cookville's home. Yeah. 34 years now.

So you're like the hometown. You're the proud of Cookville. There's signs. If you drive in, it says home of Rich Froning. Does it really? Junior. Oh, that home of Rich Jr. Yeah, we got to emphasize that.

Dad tries to take too much credit. He calls himself the original Rich Froneman. So your dad's name is Rich? Yeah, my dad's name's rich. My son's name's Rich too. Oh, nice. Trice is what we call him. But yeah.

The gym is on Rich Froning Way. Yeah, that was not my doing. So that must be named after your dad's since there's no junior. I know, right? They're actually in a meeting right now. They're probably turning it to Froningville. Where's the sculpture? Yeah, there isn't one.

It's like in the center of the town square. Rocky, like a rocky. Most sculptures, they would be like really favorable to the guy like if he had his like shirt off yeah exactly you'd be like there's no way that guy looked like that but with Rich if they made his statue they'd be like he pretty much looks like that's what it was

yeah no man and Cookville hey let me tell you why this is relevant to all you out there like is that I met I met you like two or three months ago and man I hate it when people like say man I didn't even know who you were before I met you like people say I mean I've heard people say that to like Steve Ronella or something, and it's like, what planet are you on?

Yeah, where are you from? But this is going to actually be, this is going to be endearing to our cause here by me saying that. Yeah. I wouldn't have known, yeah. I just not in a CrossFit world. I mean, you might think I was. I see it. You know, but you are now.

And Rich, I would have never even picked you out other than your buff. Right, right. I wouldn't, like your demeanor is just incredibly humble. I've got really good parents and a good wife. You didn't care that I didn't really know anything about your story. And some people would have. Well, here's the deal is all I do is work out. You know, like anybody that's like, oh, you know, says stuff like that, I'm like, man, I just found something that people enjoyed watching.

And I got to make a living out of it, you know. Like it's, it's, I'm not any better. I've met people that are better than me and other things. And so I'm just like, hey, it's, you know, and part of that probably goes back to the faith aspect. And like I said, my parents, both of my parents are, you know, that's just what you do. do, right? You just do what you're supposed to do. My whole family's like that. And then, you know, my wife does not think that I'm that cool.

Well, you... Especially when I don't take out the trash. Especially from the outside, not being in it, like you would feel like, well, the sports world, I mean, you don't have to be in the sports world to know that it's full of ego. Oh, yeah. I mean, anything's full of ego. Honeyworlds can be full of ego. But, I mean, that's what stood out to me after I met you. I was like,

man, this guy's not anything like what you would, might think. And that wasn't a surprise to anybody. that I talked to, they were like, oh, yeah, Rich is an incredible guy. Well, I hope that. But one of the cool things about CrossFit is. But I'm like, he's not as tough as they think he is. I wrestled him. One of the cool things about CrossFit and winning the games is you may win overall,

but you lost a bunch of events in there. You know, like, you know, there could be. So somebody beat you and they're telling their grandkids about it. Hey, I beat him on one workout, right? And I get it all the time. Like, oh, you know, first round, I beat you on that workout. I'm like, yeah, the workout was five rounds, you know, or whatever. local people even, but...

That would totally be me. Yeah, exactly me, too. And so, you know, it's, it's, it's, I just work out for living and got to do something really cool. And, you know, I get to provide for my family for doing something that I love. And I've met a lot of really cool people, you know, I kind of had this epiphany the other day where, you know, I've got a good friend. He's, uh, how old's, Jay Webb, like 50 or 45? Mid 40s, mid 40s. And he's like a school teacher and just started kind of showing up to my garage through a friend of a friend. And now he's competing in the master's,

division and he's getting pretty good. And it's just cool to see those like friendships and, you know, relationships you've made along the way, which I'm sure you've done the same with hunting. Like there's just cool. I've been in the last couple years, I've been able to be as part of this really cool CrossFit community. And, you know, it gets a bad name at times because you have turds in every punch bowl. And then I've been a part of the mountain biking community because I've done the Leadville 100 mountain bike the last couple years. And then now we're part of the hunting space. And there's really positive and uplifting people in all of them. And then there's, know there's some jerks in all of them so it's just cool yeah man that's that's really cool uh

to go back a little bit to the training stuff Scott said this earlier to me he said that you you you said people were training like 15 years ago they were doing like one crossfit workout a day like I'll be at a really intense workout right training for games and like these were the best guys in the world and they would do like one one big training session a day to train. And they were like hardcore. And then Rich came along and he started doing two sessions a day. And it was almost like this exploration of like, wait a minute.

Can a human even do that? Well, so it started off, Rich and Darren did two workouts and they didn't die from it. Yeah. So people really thought you might die? I specifically remember a CrossFit documentary. I believe it was called Every Second Counts. Every second counts. And Tony Budding, one of the guys that kind of started the media side of the CrossFit games,

looks at the camera and was like, if, you know, if people work out multiple times a day, they could die. And you're just like, wow. You know, because the idea was that the intensity piece of CrossFit is what, you know, draws people or what people, I guess, the suffering part of it, right? Which sounds weird and kind of crazy. But, you know, so you hit this really hard workout. And me and Darren, my.

cousin who I started CrossFit with. We both, while we were trying to run a gym, we also had a second job at another, like, kind of fitness, like a corporate fitness place. And so we're sitting there. We did a workout that morning, and we're watching some CrossFit YouTube video, and we're like, oh, that's a cool workout. Want to go try it and see if we die? You know, like, we knew we weren't going to die, but you're like, could we get

rabdo from that, you know, because that was the big big thing is like. Is that like a buzzword in the? Yeah, well, that's going to be. that's a big part of this podcast, the Rabdo. Uncle Rat, there was a big, like, push back in, you know, probably eight to ten years ago that, like, the anti-crossfit people were like, oh, you know, they're giving people rabdo and they're going to die. You know, like, you know, they're hurting people and putting people in the hospital. And, I mean, it happens, but it happens in a bunch of different areas. The rival other kind of worker.

Yeah, the power lifters. Yeah, the power lifters, the weightlifters, the bodybuilders, that type of stuff. The Pilates folks are really the ones you've got to watch out for. The yogis, you know. And so, yeah, we did two workouts and we were like, oh, okay. So we can, why not, you know, try to get. You woke up the next day and it was okay. I'm sore, but I'm all right, you know, and so.

But from there, the envelope was pushed to the point of what it is now where people have to work out five, six, seven hours a day. Like it's a full-time job. Yeah, to be a CrossFit Games athlete. I ruined it for everybody, basically. Well, I think, like, the most famous phrase and, like, the way to sum it up, what you did was Jason when he said, what's Rich doing? Yeah, he wrote it on. One of the guys that I competed with is a good friend of mine. He wrote on his wall in his garage, what's Rich doing?

So he would do more. All the competitors knew, like, he'd go out and do rowing intervals at 10 o'clock at night in the garage because he was sitting there stressed out that someone might beat him. So that was kind of how I think the sport evolved as quickly as it did was his. being like actually I can just keep doing more workouts all day long. It'll be fun. So Rich, what years did you win? So I started in 2009, like July of 2009, went to my first CrossFit competition in would have been February or March of 2010.

I ended up getting second in 2010, won 2011, 12, 13, 14. On a team, we won 15, 16. We got second again on 17. Don't talk about that. Then 18, 19, COVID year, 21, 22, all team. Okay. So that was on the team, you go, it's same time as the CrossFit games as the individuals. And it started out as three men and three women on a team, and they would just, and so the whole idea behind CrossFit is you don't know what you're showing up for.

So you don't know what you're training for. You might find out a week before you might find out as you walk on the floor. But it's too late to do much. It's too late to do much. By the time you do know. And so, you know, they did the same thing with the teams where, you know, but they cut it back from three men and three women to two men and two women in 2018, I think. I think so.

I think, whatever it was, 18. And so it's way better, I think, that way. But, you know, it was. So are you still competing? No, yes. I still work out way too much just because I enjoy working out. I, you know, I have this goal of, I got to let all the athletes know that, hey, every once in a while, the old man still got it.

You do get a bonus of old man strength when you start packing the years on. I'm still trying to find it because it's actually regressed since where I was. I loved it. I worked in the school where Clay's wife worked and all the teenage boys that want to arm wrestle. Oh, yeah. And you just slam them down and I'd just push him away and say, come back when you're a man. Come back when you're man. You're the gatekeeper to manhood.

That's right. I was not a part of any of that. and so you know i i want to be able to just be functional if i need to um i need as lame as it sounds i got to look good with my shirt off because that's what sells programming i want to be able to like that's only been said on bear grease maybe a handful of times right here put it down mark it down uh i want to be able to do hard things and never question like can i do it right and and you know like we'll do a 24 out of We did a 24-hour row a couple weeks ago.

It's a charity. We do a 24-hour mountain bike. I did Leadville the last two years, that 100-mile mountain bike race that's in all above 10,000 feet. So I have to have something to train for some type of target. Was it a relief when you stopped doing that high-level competition, or was it? Did you miss it? Parts of me misses it. Honestly, I hated competing.

The like dread of building up to it, just the like, you know how bad. it's going to hurt, there's the expectation. But then as soon as 3-2-1-go happens, everything else, like as weird as it sounds, as, you know, as cliche is it, like everything else slows down. And, you know, like, there's loud music, there's all this kind of stuff going on, but I couldn't tell you,

I can maybe tell you two songs that have ever been played at the CrossFit games. What are those two songs? I was about to say that. Remember the name. And then... Can you sing it? No, I'm not doing that. You don't want to hear that.

CrossFit doesn't involve the vocal. There's what's, is it gangsters in Paris or something like that? Oh, well, you can't say what it's called. Yeah, it's something else, but the edited version. But it's definitely not edited at a CrossFit competition. But those two songs, for some reason, I can remember the exact event. The one with the second song I said was that it's called the down-and-back chipper. We were in Carson, California. It's in the tennis stadium. It's at night. It's like a Friday night light football feel to it. And then the last one was my last year's an individual, kind of, of the event that kicked off kind of the comeback is called Midline March and it was in the stadium that was remember the name. I don't know why those two memories with those songs are the only songs that I ever remember being played. You know, we probably heard hundreds of songs or thousands even. And so I miss pieces and parts of it, but I don't miss the stress of it, if that makes sense. I think the part that was tough for you at the end from my perspective is the expectation that you have to win. Yeah. It would be like coming out here and if you didn't

shoot 180 inch deer they're like well why'd you you know why do you suck this time yeah it was waste your time when we would win it was relief there was no like celebration you know it was just like you were because you were expected to win because you're expected to win and if you know if something was that's tough and so yeah 10 years or 12 years of that you're just like i'm i'm good now so you felt like simon byles yeah basically yeah i mean it's now how does simone feel some of us don't know about Simone. She felt the pressure of having to be the best every time she stepped on the floor. Even though she was, gymnastics. Oh. I'm not in the gymnastics world either, Josh.

Olympic gymnastics. Yeah, she's like the goat. Yeah, she's awesome. She's incredible. But yeah, I mean, it would be like that. But I was also 36 years old and my body was, you know, not that it was failing me, but trying to like push through stuff. You're like, I don't have to do that anymore, you know. Like, and so I'll still do, uh, we do a local competition in, uh, Michigan, in Muskegon, Michigan is called Fresh Coast. Um, and I'll do some charity like partner competitions. I've not individual. I'm like, no part of me ever wants to work out by myself in front of people like a dancing bear ever again. I'll partner with somebody or do whatever. So, you know, I still still work out like I'm, you know,

getting ready for something even though I'm not, but who knows one day I might do something. You know, it's just. Yeah. Yeah. So. Interesting. I like maybe it could be like, I'm doing all this working out because I know Joe's moving next summer and I got to move this. You got to help them. Yeah. I want to help him. Yeah.

I want to see. I want to rich to help me drag my buck out. I would have been done it. I just wanted to see what it would feel like for the fittest man in the world to have the other antler. Just who, boom. Gone. Is that one of the events that they do? I could be.

I mean, I drag a sled. We do that a lot to prep for whatever we're doing, elk or pushing sleds. It's a unique body movement and stressor to drag a buck. It really, it's a weird, you're like, you know what's worse is actually dragging a dough. Because there's nothing to hang on to you. You're holding on to the, you know. You know it's even worse, dragging a bear. Dragging a bear.

That's right. Well, that's why you don't drag bears. I know. But if your knife skills aren't as good and that's kind of the first time you've ever killed something like that by yourself without a friend that knows what they're doing, you drag the bear out, you know. Or if you're in eastern Tennessee. Yeah. I was about to say something like kind of like, yeah, you don't drag bears. But then in East Tennessee, the man that I know that I personally know that has killed more bears than any person I've ever known, they drag every bear out.

They killed a number how far as. We were in there and River killed a bear that was like a three-ne-round bear. We're talking about Roy Clark in East Tennessee. Yeah. And it was like a rough hike down there, like steep. I mean, like we were sliding all the way down. And then it was like a half mile. a creek bed to like a road and they were like we're dragging it that sounds like

colorado doesn't it sounds like exactly what we did in colorado yeah they have a a big cultural thing there to get it out whole like they want to put it on their dog box and they want to be able to weigh it because I was with them the first time I was with them and we killed a bear way back I was like I mean it was like black dark and raining and there were just a few of us that made it back to this tree and shot this bear. I mean, you know, we shot it in the daylight, but like by the time we were dragging it out and messing around, it was dark. And it wasn't that big of a bear.

And I was like, boys, we'll quarter this thing up and each of us will carry a piece. This is no big deal. And they were like, you say, what boy? Where are you from, boy? Put your knife down, young boy. We're going to drag this thing out. Let the adults do. We'll just pretend that.

That's why we did it. Yeah, yeah, that's why we did. It was like, we're from East Tennessee. Well, eastern, middle Tennessee. We're right at the edge, you know. Cumberland Plateau. On Blood Trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker.

I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a pool of blood. Oh, my God. He doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.

Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper, from cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something.

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've got a serious question for you. Okay. That's that I think is really relevant. So if somebody were to use the phrase identity, that would mean a lot of different things to different people. So I'll just like categorize identity as humans on planet Earth are constantly trying to kind of figure out who they are based upon their context.

And we typically, in some ways, like humans are complex things because we do have this like physical life. But we also have this like inner spiritual life that's very real and all humans regardless of like what you think about religion or anything. I mean, like, we're quite different than animals. Yep. And so my question is going to be so you can be preparing for it is how do you excel? But I'm going to give, I'm going to qualify it a little bit more, but I'm going to ask you the question so you'd be ready, Rich. Okay.

This is like a CrossFit game where you get the workout like right when it starts. Okay, here it is. No, but you've been training for this one. The question is, how do you not take on the external identity of the, things that you do and how do you have a more healthy real identity in like a spiritual sense and more of a who am I as a man who am I called to be who am I like inside my family because people typically equate themselves and inside of hunting it's like that like people take a lot of identity inside of hunting.

And the reason that's a problem, like you might be like, well, what's the problem with that? And people would look at me and be like, well, you're a bad guy. You identify as a hunter. I absolutely do. But I would say that the core of my identity really who I am when I close my eyes, if it's based around this external thing that I do, it ultimately is going to fail. Because there's going to come a day when I can't hunt. There's going to come a day when I'm not good at hunting and I don't kill a deer. Like what happens when like this thing like kind of lets me down?

And that's when you got to have like this real identity of who you are. So with you as accomplished as you are externally, I hear you talk a lot about how that did not become your identity. Right. How do you do that? So I'm going to weave back and tell you kind of where this all started. So 2010, I, you know, had just finished being a firefighter, ex-college baseball. ball player, one of 32 first cousins on my mom's side, 25 are boys, everything's a competition, everything's a thump your chest, you know, like, you know, be a man, you know, be, you know,

show what you can do, right? Go to the CrossFit games and really with no expectation of even qualifying. I win one of the qualifiers, go to the next stage, thinking, all right, if I can at least, you know, do a good job here and set myself up for maybe next year making the CrossFit. games end up actually winning that regional is what they called it went sectionals then regionals then i went to the crossfit games and i'm in first place going into the final three events they pull 18 of us six men six women or sorry three or 18 men 18 women three heats of six and six and six um and pull us out put us in a room take your cell phones away take everything away no communication they pull you out six people at a time alternating six men six women and i i think

I don't even remember if it was that. I've tried to block this whole thing out of my head. But I don't even know how many points I'm in the lead at this point. It's not many. It's pretty close. But I'm like, all right, my whole goal here was not to get last. And maybe I'll win this thing. It's $25,000.

I'll be able to, me and my wife are getting married. I'm getting at that point, I was engaged. It was going to get married next year. And I'm like, all right, you know, like, hey, this is a good start, right? And so we're in this room and don't really know anybody. I'm new to kind of the whole deal. And people just keep disappearing. and you're hearing the crowd noise because we're in the stadium base.

It really feels like what I felt like the gladiators felt like without the lions and tigers. But at this point, you don't know if there are lions and tigers out there. Exactly. So you walk out on the floor. The traditional thing with CrossFit, here's the deal is I sweat a lot. So I take my shirt off so I don't waste a shirt. Well, I'm taking my shirt off.

Everybody's doing it as we're walking on the floor. The guy who started the CrossFit games, Dave Castro, ex-Navy SEAL, not known for his bedside. manner looks at us and says put your effort shirt back on it's pretty hot out there okay what are we doing you know like something on fire you know so we walk out on the floor they lead us six out and he goes all right workout is i think it was 30 push-ups climb this 12-foot wall with you know there's a rope open over 21 overhead squats three rounds three two one go everybody's like what somebody drops down starts doing push-up so that's the first workout he had seven minutes to finish and like a lamb led to

slaughter. I go as hard as I can. Only person that finished that first workout. Didn't know on the other side of that wall, there's another workout. And then after that workout, there's another workout. And so there's three workouts and three separate scores. And so I win that first one. I'm basically drunk at this point. I'm like, it's going on. They're like, oh, the next workout's here. And so you go to do that one. No idea what even that workout still is to this day. It was with toes to bar and ground to overhead. The next workout, you do burpees where you go on and touch your chest, go up over the wall, and then you climb a rope. growing up climbed a rope a thousand times but always no hands right or no feet sorry no feet no legs

because my dad says that was for cissies and so you done all these workouts and then i'm watching these guys go up and down these ropes and they're using their feet and i'm so just messed up it's a i think they did tested the floor it's like 120 or 130 degrees or something like that on the floor you know it's probably ambient 100 and so you're just like what's going on i'm trying to climb this rope can't get up it can't get up it There's people taking their shoelaces off of their shoes trying to show me how to wrap my feet from the crowd. You know, because it's pretty like grassroots-ish at this point. Yeah. And so I'm just like, whatever.

And so I get enough, muster enough courage, get up without my feet, touch the cross beam at 20 feet, and then, boom, straight down, fall. And so I end up getting up two more times, finish. They pull us off the floor. We know nothing. Pull us off the floor. We have to go drug down. test for an hour. You don't have to pee because you're...

The drug test you after you've done it. As soon as you finish. They'll, at this point, they only did it after. Now they do it intermittent. I've been blood tested. I've been blood tested. I've been blood tested. You could slip into the bathroom and like take something.

Who knows? And so we go into drug test and probably 45 minutes later, they do the award ceremony. Still told nothing. Like, I don't know what's happened, right? So we come out and I see on the big check, my name's not on the big check. So that's how I find out that I'd got in second place. tell you all that, you know, everybody's like, oh, that's awesome. You got second place the first time.

You're not supposed to win. For me, it was like the rug pulled out, right? Because I'd built up, you know, and I'd failed. And so, you know, not in any way. Was it like, I wasn't like super depressed, but I was like, man, what am I doing my life? Like, you know, we kind of owned this gym. But, you know, what am I trying to do? And so the head strength and conditioning coach at Tennessee Tech offered me a graduate assistant spot.

And I was like, sure, yeah. I mean, maybe that's what I want to do, right? You know, like, I just finished the fire department. Plan was to get a master's and then come back to the fire department and do that. But I'm like, what? There was just, there was a hole, right? And so my whole life, my, I always joke that my grandma Violet has a direct line to God. Like, she, the woman is incredible.

Both my grandmas, my grandpa's, my whole family is just faith-driven. But it was more, for me, it was like something I had to do. And out of like necessity of, um, like, hey, God, how can you help me? You know, like, never, like, what can I do for you? And so I had a really cool, the chip, who was the head strength and conditioning coach, invited me to a Bible study. And so we started reading Romans, and then I had another buddy that, he asked me a question.

He's like, if you were to die today, would you go to heaven? And I was like, yeah, absolutely. I believe in God, you know, and I believe Jesus died for it. But I was just not living that life. And went back, started reading Matthew in the Gospels. And they went Matthew, Mark Luke, you know, kept reading. Romans and I'm like, man, you know, Jesus got baptized when he was 30. I'm 24, I think at the time I was baptized in the Catholic Church, but we kind of like, when we moved to Tennessee, Catholic Church isn't

big in the South. And so we Baptist, Presbyterian, but it was never, never an identity for me, right? It was like, if I went to my Bible, it was like, all right, what can you give me God that I need today? Or, you know, like, you know, there's something there, but it was never that relationship. And I'm like, oh man there's like there's so much more to this and i say all that to like you know my whole life was whatever i was doing i was trying to succeed in that because i thought you know like i could make people proud of me and that was my identity and that's who rich was like he's a competitor he's all these things but like what i've found was that my life you know in christ and so my identity is in Christ. So whatever he's done, like all the gifts that I've been given, I feel like my way to give

back is to glorify God. So I got the tattoo Galatian 614, and that's may I never boast in anything except for the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, which has been crucified to me and I of the world. And so for me, it's, I could compete from there. So I always joke that like, you know, the next year at the CrossFit Games, you know, I'd won, I think I got second in the open, which is this big, you know like they switched the whole season but then you went to regional's won my regional i was good to go to the crossfit games and i'm going to the bus to the first event and it was like a swim a run in the sand and something else and i'm like read jeremiah 29 11 you know for i know the plans i have for you declares the lord plans to prosper and keep you and give you hope in a future and

i'm like all right we're good right and then i get 27th on that event and i'm like all right god maybe you're trying to show me I'm a humble loser but it was like it was a cool that I could actually disconnect from it and I was okay right and I knew that my whoever I was in CrossFit or whoever I was in life it it means something but it doesn't mean as much as what what Christ did and what he's done and I could compete from this place that hey I'm going to be okay like I'm still a competitor I hate losing like talk to anybody like I'm not a pleasant person to be around when I lose but I could still in that moment compete from a good spot. And then when it was all over a couple weeks later and it wears off, I'm okay, right? You know, I don't think I hate the whole like, well, Christians are

soft. You know, they're not competitors or, you know, like, the Bible tells you to, you know, like love your neighbor. I still love my neighbor, but I want to beat you, you know, like. And so, you know, and then. Rich Froning. Yeah, there you go. I love my neighbor, but I want to beat you. I'll beat you in a pushup contest any day. Whatever you want to do. And so, yeah, so that long, long-winded answer to say my identity is in Christ. And then now it's like with my kids, that's what I want them to know that, you know, what you're going to do is cool. But those things in the world are going to fail you, right?

Like, those things can be taken away in an instant, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's the beauty of, of, I mean, really the crux of the Christian faith is belief in Christ, but it's belief in something, something bigger. greater than us. Like we're part of something so much bigger. And that decentralizes, it's designed to decentralize us.

Right. You know, where the world and everything, even biologically, on this planet, in a way, kind of tries to isolate you. Yeah, me, me, me, you know. And I'm not saying I don't fight that. Oh, yeah. It's a daily battle, you know. Like it's, you know, we have faith, family fitness service.

that mayhem. And so for me, that's like our core values. And so for me, Faith Family Fitness are the, like every day, you know, like service is a huge part of who we are, but every day it's Faith Family Fitness. And like, I try to have a short memory when I do good and I try to have a short memory when I do bad, but I try to be as objective as possible every day and kind of like, how did you do? Right. And just try to piece those together, right? Yeah. That's powerful, man. That's great. You know, there's when it comes to, I mean, there's when it comes to faith, it's as real as you as a person makes it, you know? I mean, like in terms of, and I know for me, man, I mean, my biblically based faith is like,

it's like powerful stuff to me. Like, absolutely the pinnacle of everything that I do, not some, like, religious external. And if you're not, like if you've never, I don't know, if that doesn't vibe with you, it can, when you hear people talk about religion, it can be like, ah, you know, it's just not for me. It's not, man. No, I mean, it's, it's very real. And that's what I sense inside of you is that this is like a real thing. Like this is not just like an external checkbox of like I want to.

It's like any other relationship, right? So, you know, you get more into a relationship the more you put into it. And it's the same thing with that relationship with Christ, I think. You know, like if I'm in the word every day, you try to be in every day. You know, like there's days where it, you know, I get busy, right, having three kids, young kids, but I try to or listen to worship music or whatever, there's something that's usually being told somehow, right, to you. And so I just, I, there's days I know are noticeably better than days where I'm not doing what I should be doing, right? so yeah and you know people it does you get people turned off you know like i you know you'll see comments

like oh there you go talking about the bible again i'm like man this i've just seen what it's done for me and i've seen what's done for a lot of other people and you know religion and faith technically aren't the same different things but they are to me you know like religion is laws and rules and what we've kind of like what people have attached to the bible right you know and so um man it's just it's it's it's done amazing things for me and my family and my life. And so I just tried to tell as many people as I can about how awesome it is. Yeah, good.

Bear, I asked you earlier if you had any questions for Rich, anything. Well, I'll swing back around to the first question I asked, which is what did you get your degree in? That was all the way back at the beginning. You got swept on the rug. Bear's been sitting at this all time, yeah, rolling eyes and his dad.

It's like, thanks, dad. This is what it's like having a podcaster for a dad. When you ask a question, be like, I got this. I got this. We'll come back, Bear. Exercise science. Yeah, my degree was in exercise science. Imagine that.

Imagine that. Yeah, I'm actually like, I think I'm six or six or six. No wonder he's the fittest man in the world. He has an exercise science degree. Learned it from a book. Okay, and then my second question, and probably most important questions, how many push-ups can you do? Oh, real push-ups or like push-ups you see on the internet?

I'm saying, I don't know. Tell us the difference. What would be a real push-ups? You see guys in the NFL or whatever when they're like get down and do pushups when they miss a tackle or something, but they're just like, you know, just bend your arms. With us, it's chest touches the ground and then full lock out at the top. But you also push up is a hard movement to judge. I don't think it's a good judgment movement because, you know, you've seen all seen the people where like a pushup to me is like straight line from your heels to the back of your head. But everybody's seeing people that like their butt kind of stays the same.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's just like, there's such a weird, I like personally, and I probably get a ton of, like, hate from the crossfitters. I think a strict pull-up competition is actually better than, better test. Better test, because grip strength is actually the one thing that they say is a direct strength. I don't know, honestly, is a direct correlate to longevity in life. I don't know. Really. Yeah.

So what do you think about the, like, I always see people making fun of crossfitters for? Yeah, kipping pull-ups, man. I think there's a place for it because you're going to see the note. You don't get on the CrossFit interwebs. But one of the main knocks about CrossFit is Kipping Pull-ups. Everybody hates CrossFit. They tear me up. I mean, to watch.

I mean, what do they do? It's crazy. So basically, the idea is you're supposed to increase your work capacity across time. So, like, be able to do more reps faster. So if we are to say a pull-up is arms locked out at the bottom, and your chin over the bar. As long as you do that, the movement standard is met,

people have figured out how to initiate some hip from gymnasts, from, you know, like, so you initiate some hip drive into it. So you get like some momentum. Yeah,

some momentum. But as long as you're doing the, so I, there's a place for it, kipping, there's a place for kipping in competition. I think for everyday people, for people in the gym,

even for myself, I don't kip a ton. If I'm doing a, a competition event, I'll throw in some kipping. Or if I'm getting ready for a competition, I'll throw in some kipping pull-ups only to prepare for that competition because it is, and that's where you see a lot of injuries.

It looks violent. It is and it isn't. It looks, like, depending on if you do it the correct way, like, there is a lot of, like, fall off at the bottom. But, I mean, you look at Olympic lifting, so what some people would say, like a shoulder press. So you've got a bar on your shoulder and you just press it up, right? So why is it okay for them

like in a jerk to dip and press if that's allowed? Why is that not allowed in the pull-up. I see the, like, general population should not be doing that. But in a competition, I, yeah. So how many pull-ups, Rich? The most kipping pull-ups I've ever done, I think was 84 in a row.

But that's using the hips. What about straight? Just straight-up pull-ups? 32 or 31, I think, is the most I've ever done. Are you familiar with Truitt Haynes? Cam Haynes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yep. What's the deal? He can do a lot of pull-ups, man. I mean, he's...

Like, he did, I think, like, at least 8,000 push-ups per pull-ups in a, like, maybe a 24-hour period. He was, like, the Guinness Book of World Records older. Him and Goggins went back and forth. Well, then as soon as he got it, someone else broke. True. As I understood it, he was, like, the world, he held the record for, like, a day. Yeah. And somebody heard about it, and they were like, oh, shoot, I can take the...

8,000. What's that? It's crazy. That's a lot. But that's something you've got to train for, you know, like you body, if you just walk off the street. How many weeks would it take me to get up to 8,000 pull-ups on a 20-hour? Probably a couple. You may have missed your time, Josh.

No. My window has passed. Mm. So. Well, the answer is I don't know on push-ups. Ballpark it. 50-ish, maybe? I don't know.

40-50s. Real push-ups. Yeah, I've got a. If you can do 50s. We're doing a competition. But then we're going to judge them to the standard, you know. To the fronning standard. And so, man, I've got all kind of, you know,

and that's one of the knocks on CrossFit is it's dangerous, you know, like getting off the couch is dangerous, right? So if you're doing it in a local affiliate or a gym where, you know, good coaching, it's pretty safe. You know, like if you've got somebody watching you, you can drop your ego at the door. What's so good about it is the movement's changed so much. much that you're doing different things versus just running.

You know, like running has one of the highest injury rates because it's so repetitive and it's the same thing over and over. But what I did for years was I put my body through the ringer, right? So anything you do in excess, anything you do at a high level takes a toll. So like my rotator cuff, I shoot left-handed, but I'm not left-handed because my rotator cuff is trash on my left side. So it's, you know, push-ups. Really?

You know, like I can still, for the most part, I just got to warm them up good and make sure that I'm, you know, doing some stuff. But, you know, what I did for years and I wouldn't change a thing, you know, like I did all that knowing and expecting that down the road, you know, we'll see what happens. So I'm just hoping that knee replacements get better in the next, you know, 10 or 15 years or last longer, you know, because you're going to need one. Really, honestly, yeah, honestly, the only major thing that I have is this left knee just some days it's really good. And other days it's not just because it's basically just there's no cartilage left, you know, like, and there's no rhyme or reason why one day it'll feel or look, you know, normal. And then the next day it's

swallowed up like a, you know. So what will the life of 70-year-old rich frowning look like? Hopefully by then there's, you know, titanium is good. Honestly, I think I think I'll still be all right. Because as long as I keep moving every day, I feel good. It's the days when I'm like, I'm not, you know, honestly, there's not a day where I'm like, I'm not going to do anything. but the less that I do and less that I put my body. Me and Clay were talking about this yesterday. One of the things that I hate, not hate, but when people are like,

I'd have to get in shape before I did CrossFit. I'm like, no, that's not the point. The point is CrossFit is what should get you in shape. If you wanted to do the CrossFit games, yeah, you'd have to get in shape to do that. But like me and Clay were talking, like, I hate the whole like, oh, you know, bodybuilders are stupid, weightlifters are stupid, power lifters.

It's like, do what you want to do. what you want to do as long as you're moving through some, I said, be able to move your body weight through space, get your heart rate up a little bit every day, carry things, pick things up, like, whatever's going to enhance your life and make your life better, and you enjoy, that's physical activity, do it. That's all I care about. I also asked Rich, I said, is there any, well, let's not have a huge conversation about supplements, but I said to him, what supplement would you take if you could just take one? Magic supplement?

There's not. It's nutrition, man. You got to take nutrition. I mean, I like caffeine. You got to take what? Nutrition. Nutrition. I mean, he basically said, sleep and nutrition, activity, physical activity.

I thought he might be like, man, I'm doing this and doing this and doing this and doing this and this. And I mean, you didn't. I mean, I've gone through times where, you know, I took creatine and I've noticed some positive. You know, we work with Mountain Ops. I like caffeine. I like the beta kind of itch makes me feel like, you know, pre-workout just because. And there's, it's scientifically proven that it does help buffer lactic acid. And you can get into those things, but, man, you know, taking.

Nothing substitutes good nutrition and just getting out there and driving. Getting after it and doing something, being outside, you know. What about testosterone? I will take it when I get to that point. Like, I mean, when my numbers are good, they've, you know, they've ebbed in flow over the years and you know that's testosterone is one of the things that's hard to like so many things

mess with it you know environmental factors sleep, stress those types of things so you almost need like a couple weeks between taking things or taking blood tests to do it but yeah when mine gets to the point where it's you know 3, 400 on a regular basis

then you better believe. I've seen your dad it's never getting there. Yeah my dad well dad takes it now oh I don't know if I'm supposed to say that but yeah I mean I'm sorry sorry dad Everything, you know, like if a doctor's, I guess you can't really use doctors because they're not always accurate. But, I mean, you know, like, I think, I think it's an individual, you know, what you've got to figure out as an individual. Well, I mean, you talked to, I've heard some people be like, every man over 35 ought to be on testosterone. I mean, you know, that's an exaggeration, but it's not.

I was on it for a while and then I got off. Yeah. Did you start making my cholesterol go out pretty bad? I need to have some better nutrition, but... Is this the time on the podcast, and we're going to tell the world why you were untested? I had testicular cancer. Oh.

And so... One of our buddies... Part of my testosterone-making production system is gone. It's gone, yeah. And that's affected my testosterone. And I can tell when it ebbs and flows. You know what I mean? It does ebb and flow, but...

Yeah, man, I've done a... You know, like, I did intermittent fasting for a while, because mine was kind of tanking a little bit, and I did it for three or four years, intermittent fasting, and my testosterone jumped. It went up. It went up. See, I was told that that makes it go down. See, mine went up.

It was like... But isn't it supposed to make it go down? So I'd heard that it was the opposite, that it would go up because your body has more, you know, like in that window. The idea is that, you know, your digestion takes so much energy from the rest of your body from your endocrine system, all that stuff, that if you isolate the time when you're digestive system is working. Your body's focused on.

So I don't know. I guess that was kind of a big thing a couple years ago, and I loved it, but then I got to the point where when I was working out and training a bunch that, like, I couldn't take in enough calories in that eight-hour window. And I was like, I went from walking around at 195, which I have for 15 years, probably, down to 184 or something like that. So I quit doing intermittent fasting. And now, you know what they called him back?

then. Rich Scron. He did it when we elk hunted. When he was intermittent fasting, it was at the first two years. Yeah. And then, so he wouldn't eat until noon. I mean, we're intermittent fasting out here right now, you know. Yeah.

But he wouldn't, we'd be hiked around the mountains, and I'm, you know, taking snacks in as we get up these hills and mountains, and he wouldn't eat until noon or whatever. But then the second time we're flying back, the second year, you ate breakfast. And it was the first time I'd ever seen him eat breakfast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because when I moved down to Tennessee, he's kind of the middle of the intermittent fasting. So it was the first time ever saw me eat breakfast

and he never looked back. Never looked back. Interesting. Yeah, so I don't know. I don't know the answer to either. Cool. You know, like. But I hardcore, and Bear can attest Josh can too.

For three years, I was very diligent to six days a week. Very stringent intermittent fasting. Like not eating until like four o'clock in the afternoon. Dang, four. And one of the big influencers on Instagram, you'd know his name. He was on the Meteor podcast. He's the guy that big into meat. He's a medical doctor.

Anyway, I'm embarrassed. I can't remember his name. But I'd been intermittent fasting hardcore for three years. And it helped keep me trim. Yeah. Yeah, you... But, man, I just noticed, like, I just... I don't know, I just felt like I was like...

How long were you... Was your window? Were you doing, like, a four-hour window? I'd like, see, I would eat till, like, 10 o'clock or something, you know... Yeah, I would do an 8. I'd do 16-8, so I'd start at noon, eat till 8. Well, this guy told me... Forgot his name.

Sorry, bro. That he's like, hey, intermittent fasting, extreme intermittent fasting, can mess with your testosterone. And I think it did. Yeah. I actually didn't get, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get tested. Yeah, mine went from like four or five-ish to like seven, eight. Wow. So it went up.

It went up. Wow. That's a pretty good jump. Could have been, I had a good sleep off-season. Could have been, you know, a number of things. You know, and honestly when probably the one time when I got it early on had the blood panel, I think both of my kids, like I have three kids, 10, 7 and 6, and the 7- and 6-year-old were probably like three and four

so they were not sleeping, you know? So it's like sleep has such a huge. That's what I tell people when people are always like, what's the number one recovery thing? I'm like, sleep. If you can sleep seven to eight hours a night, you'll see, like you will recover way better.

I notice when I, you know, multiple days of sub seven hours, starts to wear it on me quick. Yeah. If I'm training and working out a lot. Yeah, yeah. Any more questions? Finale question?

You don't have to have one. Josh, Scott. How many pounds is your bow? How many pounds? 82. Oh, wow. You are pulling the heavy bow. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. It's smoking. Yeah, it's fast. It's a elite ethos, and it shoots pretty good. I'd really like it.

I have a, I have three pin, the slider, but my pins are 25, 40, and 50. But that 25, I can shoot at 20 and 30 within pretty, I mean, it's shooting quick. Yeah. Yep, yep. So I think it was like stock was like 75 and I was shooting a Hoyt before that and it was like an 82 and so I'm like, hey guys, I need like I just need to feel that. Good. Comes with the territory, you know, like expectations. Fittest on earth you have to, you know, like. Yeah, I figured you're going to be like, I'm pulling 50 pounds. See, come on, Rick.

Come on, man. With a bum rotator cuff. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, honestly, it's the draw is fine on this left shoulder. it's the pushing out that was bugging my shoulder. Every fall when I would start shooting a bunch, this left shoulder would start to kill me. And then when I got done, I never got an MRI while I was competing

because I didn't want to know. Like you don't want to know. And so I went in and two of the four rotated. They call that out of sight, out of mind. Exactly. It's a great policy. It really is. And so after I competed,

I was like, let me just see if I need to do something. And, you know, two of the four rotator cuff muscles were torn or had near full things. thickness tears and one was like extreme tendinosis and so you talk to a doctor and they're like yeah yeah yeah we got a cut on that and then you talk to a PT and they're like no we can PT that so I went the PT route and it's I'd say 95% better but I just switched to left-handed I'm left-eyed dominant I had a buddy um his dad when we were shooting rifles as a kid I would shoulder it to my right shoulder and I'd try to look down with my left eye and he's like no no just slapped tape over my eye and made me walk

around like that for the rest of the day. And so I can close this right eye, but I'm way more, or I can look with that right eye, but I'm way more comfortable with this left eye, so I feel way better. I'm the same way. I really wish, I need to start practicing rifle left eye because I think I'd be better too. I shoot a rifle left hand. Do you? I shoot a rifle right hand.

I shoot a bow right hand and then a bow left-handed. But I don't shoot a rifle a ton. You shot bow left-handed. It was when you killed the first bowl. Yeah. Yep. Mm. Well, guys, really appreciate it.

Appreciate it. It's fun. Yeah. we've got another basically day of hunting. We can do it. We're going to knock it. It's going to happen.

All right. Well, keep the wild place is wild because that's where the bears live. Appreciate you having us. Yeah, man. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls in building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms

called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey call. contests. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to.

I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelps gamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Rinella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.