The School of Greatness - 808 Rich Froning: Becoming The World’s Greatest

Episode Date: June 10, 2019

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO WIN? We can have our eyes on the prize. We can work every day to accomplish our goal. We can sacrifice and suffer to be the best. But at the end of the day, you can’t define yourself by whether or not you get “first place.” If your identity depends on one thing, you’re bound to fail. You have to free yourself from tying your worth to winning. When you do, you just might see some amazing results. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I talk about faith, family and CrossFit with the “Fittest Man On Earth:” Rich Froning. Rich Froning is a CrossFit athlete known for his achievements participating in the CrossFit Games. He became the first person to win the title of "Fittest Man on Earth" four times and has led team CrossFit Mayhem Freedom to the first-place finish three times. Froning owns and operates the affiliate gym CrossFit Mayhem, located in Cookeville, Tennessee, and is a member of the CrossFit Level 1 Seminar Staff. Rich fell off the rope the first time he competed in the CrossFit Games and got second place. He felt like a very public failure. But when he released his need to win, he became unstoppable. So get ready to learn what it takes to be an outstanding competitor, husband and father on Episode 808. Some Questions I Ask: Who did you have a deeper relationship with- mom or dad? (7:18) How did you get into CrossFit? (10:00) Did you get injured a lot when training? (20:00) How did you train your mind to prepare yourself for the whole world to take you down? (33:00) How did you handle fear throughout your career? (38:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: How Rich trained for the CrossFit Games (18:00) About the changes happening in the CrossFit Games (26:00) How Rich’s faith helped him compete (35:00) The importance of pain in daily life (41:00) About Rich’s infertility and adoption journey (48:00) The three lessons Rich has learned from his years in CrossFit (58:00) If you enjoyed this episode check out the video and show notes at http://lewishowes.com/808 and follow at instagram.com/lewishowes

This is episode number 808 with four-time fittest man on earth, Rich Froning. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. T. Allen Armstrong said,

champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months, and years they spend preparing for it. but in the hours, weeks, months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character. I'm pumped about this one because we've got Rich Froning, who is one of the greatest of all time in CrossFit. He is a four-time fitness man on earth, meaning he won first place at the CrossFit Games in 2011 through 2014. Didn't lose during that time. He also won the Worldwide Open for three consecutive years.

And when he retired from the individual competition, he captained his team, CrossFit Mayhem Freedom, in back-to-back affiliate cup championships. His story was documented in a movie in 2015 called Froning, The Fittest Man in History, produced by CrossFit. He currently owns and operates the gym CrossFit Mayhem in Cookville, Tennessee, and has a podcast that he shares with his friends called Froning and Friends. In this interview, we dive in

about a lot of different things. We talk about the mindset behind his unprecedented wins, how actually losing his first CrossFit Games, getting second place, was the changing moment and defining moment that allowed him to win the next four years as an individual. The reason he stopped competing as an individual, how he's handled fear throughout his career, stop competing as an individual, how he's handled fear throughout his career, the journey of adoption, and the greatest lessons he's learned from his wife and adopting his children, and so much more. I'm very excited about this. If you're a fan, make sure to share this out with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 808. Tag myself, at lewishouse, and at Rich Froning over on Instagram.

Let them know that you're listening to this while you're going through the process and the interview. And text a friend or two. Let them know about this interview to send some inspiration and spread the message of greatness today. All right, guys, I'm super excited about this one. Without further ado, let me introduce to you the world champ, Mr. Rich Froning. world champ, Mr. Rich Froning. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got the iconic and legendary Rich Froning in the house. That's right.

Good to see you, brother. Yeah, thanks for having me. The greatest of all time in the CrossFit world, unless the new guy. Yeah, unless Frazier. Frazier's got a couple more to get there. He might be able to get there in the next few years. Yeah, probably. I wonder what it would have been like if he was the same age as you and he would have started in 2008, 9, 10.

Yeah, it's just different. It's different eras. It's like comparing Jordan and LeBron, that type of thing, where it's like when we started, it was like we were trying to figure stuff out and nobody really knew what we were doing, and we were just kind of crushing ourselves all the time. Now there's a model. Yeah, and he's an incredible athlete.

But it's different. It's just comparing different eras is hard. But yeah, he's super fit, man. He's a good athlete, good dude. He's a machine. Now I met you, I think, in 2011 or 12, briefly at the Games with Graham. It was like in the athletes. I got like a coach's pass, so I came back there. With the games with Graham. It was like in the athletes.

I got like a coach's pass, so I came back there. With the enemy, yeah. Yeah, the enemy. And I think you'd won twice at that point, so it didn't matter. And I remember you just having this reputation. And I'm also friends with Webb. I think Webb was working for a while. Yeah, Webb Smith, yep.

And I remember you just always had this great reputation of being like the nicest guy, solid guy, Christian guy, just like cared about family and the hardest worker in the room. Well, my parents. That's all from them, really. Anytime anybody asked me about my parents and how I was raised, it was like my parents were the hardest working people in the room wherever we went. Really? Yeah, it was understood when I was a kid. That's what you're going to do. And if you weren't going to find yourself something to do, they were going to find you something to do. Really? Yeah. They

were going to put you in something. Oh, yeah. Yeah. If we weren't outside, you were going to, and weather was weather permitting, but if we weren't outside doing something, they were going to find us something to do. So we were always trying to play a game or do whatever. But even on the days we found stuff to do, they were still finding us something to do. Who did you have a deeper relationship with, mom or dad? Both, really. You know, I was a mama's boy when I was real little and really close with my mom still. But yeah, they were both have equal parts responsibility in my upbringing. I'm still really close with my dad, too. So I couldn't say one way or the other.

They both have different things. I got certain things from my mom, maybe a little bit more nurturing. I got the hard line and some of the stuff that I use now from my dad. But they were both the hardest workers ever. What was the biggest lesson both of them taught you? They weren't super, there weren't a lot of speeches or a lot of pep talks or anything like that. It was more lead by example. They weren't going to ask us to do anything

that they weren't going to do. If we were outside doing chores or doing work, they were right there with us doing it. And so I think that's probably one of the biggest things I learned from them is I'm not gonna get on the team stuff, I'm not gonna get in anybody's face and I'm not a real rah-rah, get you fired up person, but they all know that I'm gonna be right there next to them

and I'm not gonna ask them to do anything that I wouldn't do or I'm not gonna work just as hard as they're gonna be there. So that's probably, somebody asked me about that a while back and I was like, I don't really, I don, like, particular speech I can go back to from either one of them. But they were always just there. They were always there. You know, they were always present.

You know, that was one thing when I think about now with my kids is, like, I want to make sure that I'm there. You know, it doesn't have to be, you know, there doesn't have to be a big speech or anything like that. But it's, you know, when I needed something, they were both there. And so it was pretty awesome. Is there anything you missed from your parents growing up that you wish they would have given you, whether it be a mindset, a skill set, a nurturing energy? Yeah, you know, my dad is incredible, like, building stuff, working with his hands. I was actually just talking about this. We, you know, build anything, can fix anything, do any of that stuff. I wish I had that. I can fix enough stuff, but I'm not,

it's not my, you know, like I'm not going to go do that. But I think, you know, I was there helping him and doing that stuff, but I was more concentrated. Like I wanted to play sports. I wanted to do that type of stuff. So I don't, it can't blame him for me not, you know, wanting to do that type of stuff growing up. But yeah, I mean, I wish I could look at the house. And my dad is just like, oh yeah, you know, like that's broken. Let me fix this two seconds. It's knocked out. And I'm like, dang it. You know, I wish I could do that. You know, like I would, I could YouTube a video and I know, I know enough that I've helped him a bunch growing up, but it just wasn't my, my, uh, my thing that I wanted to do growing up. I wanted to be outside. I wanted to like,

you know, play baseball or play football in the yard where he was like, oh, I'm going to go over here and work on this. And I'm like, oh yeah, I'll help you clean up when you're done or whatever. Would you trade that for being the greatest of all time? I don't think so. I don't think that, you know, yeah, yeah. I think, I think it worked out all right, you know? And so, you know, you can't really look back and be like, oh, I would change this. I would change that. I'm happy where I'm at. I learned from things that I, that I moved on from, but my parents were awesome but yeah you know I they did the best they could with you know sure with what they had so I'm super appreciative of them from that now what got you into crossfit in the first place I never

talked about some before but how did you first discover it because you were a star in baseball and baseball is the main sport yeah so I yeah I went to college to play baseball and he won d D2? It was JUCO. JUCO. And so it was Walter State. A lot of the guys had either been drafted and didn't go the round they wanted to, so they went JUCO ball, or they went to an SEC school, or got an offer from an SEC school, and they didn't wait three years to get drafted,

so they went to Walter State. And I was neither of those things. 5'9", white guy, good glove, decent speed, leadoff guy, a dime a dozen. And so I got there, had a girlfriend back home, and that's really the reason I was like, you know, I need to head back home. The girlfriend made you come back. Yeah, she didn't really make me come back. Why do girls always ruin everything? It's always, you know, it is what it is.

And I hate it because they won the national championship the year that I left. Oh, no. And so, but, you know, I wouldn't be where I am now. So it is what it is. And so I actually. Was your wife or no? No, not my wife. Oh.

So she knows the story. So it's all right. I went back and they had this program at Tennessee Tech where I went where you'd work as a full-time firefighter and they'd pay your tuition. And it was actually the city of Cookville would do it. And so I worked as a full-time firefighter for four years, three and a half years while I was getting my undergrad. And I was taking a class in exercise science. And one of the professors was the head strength and conditioning coach who also did CrossFit, owned CrossFit Cookville at the time. And so he was like, man, you're into working out. You're

a firefighter. A lot of military police fired, do CrossFit. You should check it out. So- It was 2008, 2009? 2009. I still have the textbook, and I just wrote CrossFit.com on the inside of the book. And so I started reading the book, or went to the website, and I was like, oh, this is pretty cool.

So I'd add some of the workouts in, and then I ended up getting my level one in June of 2009. And then in July of 2009, my cousin moved down, who's my coach, but glorified training partner. Right. Been with me since the beginning. And we started doing CrossFit, only CrossFit on July 1st that year. And so it's been, we'll be going on 10 years in a month. And so, yeah. And so kind of haven't really looked back from then. And then I didn't even know you could compete at the time. So we just kind of trained people.

We couldn't afford the affiliation fee. And we would, you know, we'd say we use CrossFit methods, do it the legal way. And so we didn't know you could compete. And then we saw these videos and we're like, oh, this is cool. So we tried some of the workouts from the 2000, I guess it was the 2009 games where they did, Savon did these videos and we tried the workouts. I was like, oh, my times are pretty comparable. And so were his. So we're like, and we tried the workouts. I was like, oh, my times are pretty comparable. And so were his.

So we're like, maybe we should try this. And so I guess it was the beginning of that year they announced that they were doing sectionals. And so sectionals was in Huntsville, Alabama. I played arena football there. There you go. Nice. All right. I never want to go back.

No, no, me either. It was on the way to spring break. And we were like, oh, on the way to spring break, we'll stop and see, see what it, you know, give it a shot. And so that year you had to be like 22, 23 at the time. Yeah. 20, it would have been 22. And so, um, I was like, if I'm in the top, cause you had to be in the top 15, if you're in the top 15 sectionals. Yep. So we go to regional. So I was like, if I'm in the top 20, you know, we'll hang out. But if I'm, you know, there were 70 something guys, if I'm in the bottom 25, I was like, we'll get an early jump on spring break. Well, I was in first after the day and I was like, all right, we'll hang out. But if I'm, you know, there's 70-something guys. If I'm in the bottom 25, I was like, we'll get an early jump on spring break. Well, I was in first after the day, and I was like,

all right, we'll hang out a little bit and see how it goes. And so went to regionals, same type of deal. Didn't want to get last. Ended up winning the region. Wow. Went to the games, and we talked about it earlier. Got second. Fell off the rope.

Oh, man. And that's been kind of the. That was probably the greatest lesson you ever learned. Yeah. That year. For sure. As much as you wanted to win, it probably made you so much more disciplined over the last nine years. For sure. I go back and say, if I would have won that first year, I don't think I would have won the next four. Because I'd kind of narrowed my focus so much that I'd let CrossFit kind of define who I was, and it'd become my focus. I'd put so much into that that when those type of things are taken away from me, and you say taken away from me, you've got second place. But for me, it was awful.

I was miserable for months. And so it really helped me. And I grew up a Christian, and my faith has always been a huge part of it. I grew up a Christian, and my faith has always been a huge part of it. But that really made me refocus and realize that's why I do what I do. Those were my talents, and they've been given to me, and I'm going to bless him or glorify him with all that I have. It really made me focus on, all right, it's not about who I am and my identity is not in CrossFit. It was very freeing, and I didn't have have to worry and it took a lot of pressure off. I don't necessarily think that God willed me to win, but it was the fact that I didn't put so

much of my identity in that, that it kind of loosened me up for that. It's funny because I remember I was training with Graham for two years before that because I was playing professional football, arena football. He was training me in the off-seasons. Right. And this was about the time where he learned about CrossFit. Okay. And he was a trainer at, I think, Bill's Gym. Bill's Gym, yeah.

He was a trainer there, and they were doing just kind of like sports-specific training stuff. Right. Kind of like Accelerate Ohio type, all those training facilities. But he was doing more and more crossfit type stuff i don't even know what it was and he was he said at one point he was like i'm gonna go and there's like this you know world championship thing i'm gonna go check it out try it out my goal is to get like top five i did it last year and i think he was like yeah 20 or something he's like yeah i'm hoping to get like top five and then i remember like cool have fun i had no clue what it was

right and i was like good luck and i'll talk I had no clue what it was. Right. And I was like, good luck, and I'll talk to you later or whatever. And then it was like a month afterwards, I saw him. I go, oh, yeah, how did that thing go? Yeah. He's like, I won. I was like, what? What? Yeah.

And then I really dove into CrossFit and learned about it. And I was like, wow, this is powerful. And that's when I heard about your name. Because you were like leading. Yeah, and then I ruined it. Yeah. Which is probably the greatest lesson in your life. For sure, man.

Like, it was, like I said, it was awful. But it's probably the greatest lesson in your life. For sure, man. Like it's, uh, it was, like I said, it was awful. I'm in that backing up, especially as a 23 year old where your whole life is sports. You've got to win a championship. And you know, everybody asks, you know, how, why are you so competitive? I was one of 32 first cousins, 25 of us are boys. Wow. So, I mean, it was this, and even the girls would beat us on a lot of stuff, you know, cause I mean, all athletes. And so, man, I hate losing in anything. And so for that to happen and be so public. It could be just me and you and nobody else know and I get embarrassed. It still drives me nuts to lose.

And so to be that public and just a failure. It felt like a failure getting second. Everybody's like, oh, you got second. That's awesome. I was not. And no part of me was happy about that. And so, yeah, for sure it was like, all right, going to, it lit a fire for the next couple years for sure. What did you think about the next 12 months or however long until the next games?

What was the mindset every morning? Yeah, I mean, every day. Did you have a photograph of Graham up on your wing mirror? No, no, it wasn't really, you know, you can't, in CrossFit, you can't really concentrate on just one person, you know. It's like there's so many people that could. It's every person's skill set. in CrossFit, you can't really concentrate on just one person. You know, it's like, there's so many people that could, especially those years, you know, there was five or six guys that were always, you know, mixing it up for events and, you know, it was a tight field for a while. And so, yeah, I mean, every day, you know, that's one of the things I talk about is

why people get, are so upset that I don't compete as an individual now. It's like, when I woke up every single day, my goal was to win the CrossFit Games every single day. Like whatever I had to do that day was, it was the CrossFit Games. That was my goal. And there was a lot of relationships and a lot of six years, five, six years. Yeah. There was a lot of relationships. There was a lot of missed, you know, family time, stuff like that. And that was my goal. That's what I wanted to do. And that's, I was going to do whatever it took. Like I would, you know, nine to 10 o'clock at night, I would, part of me now is like, it was so probably counterproductive, you know, now knowing the stuff that I know and I've trained for as long as I have, I'm like, man, if I would have just been smarter, you know, it would have been better. And now,

but you had to learn those things, you know, like, like I said earlier, we were kind of the guys that were figuring it all out. And so we had Lakeland, my first daughter. I was like, I can't do that. My goal needs to be being a dad and a husband first. And I just don't have that. Now I do want to be super fit and I want to win the games for my team. But now I've got three kids, a wife, business that I run first.

And then I still compete and still have fun and get to do that. But it's not my number one goal. And I don't feel like if I was to go back as an individual, I get to do that. But it's not my number one goal. And I don't feel like if I was to go back as an individual, I don't have that. Like I'm not going to sacrifice those things. What were you doing those first two years afterwards? Were you just training 10 hours a day?

Oh, yeah, for sure. Every day, all day. You know, it was like a get up and, you know, everybody talks about you got to get up at 5 a.m. to be successful. No, I would sleep. Sleep was a huge part and is a huge part of recovery. And so I'd sleep until I would get up. And then I would literally from, you know, I might get up 8, 30, 9 o'clock, but literally from 9 o'clock until I went to bed at 9 or 10 o'clock again that next night or that night I was training, doing something. Obsessing. Obsessing. Obsessing. Yeah. It was unhealthy. What would it be like? Was it just two hours in the gym doing lifting? Yeah. I i mean it was literally anything i could think of you know it was machines it was

real actual like strict crossfit workouts there was lifting there was you know anything that i was like oh yeah i should do that or you know i'd have a group of guys that would come in the morning i'd have a group of guys that would come midday and then i have a group of guys that come in the afternoon and i might do the same stuff in those same states. It was just like- You're trying to beat them all. If you're fresh, I'm going to beat you. Every time. It didn't matter. Yeah, exactly.

And so, and I had, it was a great, a great group of people that, you know, they would beat me in or like push, like I'd have a guy that would push me in something super heavy. And then I have a guy that pushed me in something, you know, all body weight. And then I have somebody that pushed me

in the cardio type stuff. So it was a team effort even then. But man, it was, yeah, if you look back at those years, you're like, man, I, you know, we worked hard, but it was maybe not the smartest at the time. Part of me just feels like I miss those days. Right. Yeah. All you do is train. That was it. You know, that was all I wanted to do. And that was, I was going to do it. And now looking back, I'm like, man, that was, it was a lot of fun, but man, it was, it was, some of it was stupid. You're like, why was I, you know, I would clean in the morning and then I

would do, you know, cleaning again at that night, you know, it's like, what am I doing? But I was like, oh yeah, it'll, it'll help somehow. Right. Did you get injured a lot through those? Honestly, no, I, you know, I, you know, you have some overuse type stuff, but never nothing. The only, the only things that I have major injuries that I've had in 10 years. And you know, you're talking top 1%, you know, so it's a profession now. It's not just CrossFit. So I'm not going to link these back to CrossFit, but I came down off of a rope, twisted my ankle and broke my ankle. That was in 12 or 13, November of 12 or 13. Stupid. We had like a Thanksgiving party at the gym

and Hillary left. And I was like, I'm gonna sneak something in real fast. And sure enough, I come down on the rope, break my ankle. And I'm like, oh man. So I like, it's the only workout that I've ever quit. I was like, I was the first rope climb too. So I'm like, I can finish. I went to do another one. You know, like you walk off an ankle sprain and you're like, I'm all right. This wasn't a walk off ankle sprain. And so i actually had to like drive with my left foot that's the hardest thing to do it was so bad my right foot's up on the dash so i'm like stop the swelling and i get home and hillary's like what's wrong i'm like i'm twisting my ankle a little bit what were you doing uh i was trying to show henry how to climb a rope and blah blah she's like oh okay well she's like

should you go to the hospital i'm like no i'm, I'm fine. Well, so about middle of the night, I get up to pee and I go to stand and just immediately hit the floor. So I scoot on my butt to the bathroom. So I get back to the bed and Hillary's like, we're going to the hospital in the morning. I'm like, yeah, you're right. Wow. So I get an x-ray. Sure enough, it's broken. So that was an injury I had. And then honestly, I've had little overuse type things and shoulder stuff, but nothing major. That's pretty amazing. I tore my meniscus in 17. And that has been the most frustrating thing is because it was like, oh yeah. So tore it the week before regionals, doing a workout in the basement, was going to

do three rounds. It was just like ski, double under, burpee over the parallette, and then rest. It was like an interval type thing. I was going to do three rounds it was just like ski double under burpee over the parallette and then rest it was like an interval type thing I was going to do three rounds well I did three rounds I was like I might as well do four on the fourth round on the 90th double under I just feel something it just doesn't feel right doesn't really like pop or anything but doesn't feel right I'm like okay it starts to swell up can't put any pressure on it like all right so I go the next day see some PTs at the gym. They're like, I think you just maybe sprained your MCL. I was like, take it easy for a couple of days. So I did a bunch of upper body stuff.

And it's a week before regional. So I'm like, I can't completely take time off. I probably could have been and been fine. Yeah. So the next day, the next morning, we're doing a workout, swimming in my dad's pond. We're doing dumbbell snatches. I go to dive into the pond and I just feel something. Oh, no.

And let go. And you're like, oh, no. you're like, leg kind of goes like, oh no, man. And you're like, you're like, oh, that's not good. So I finish, finish the workout. Oh, you're crazy, man. I'm an idiot. And I'm like, tell the team, I'm like, hey, we need to talk to John Lindy. He was on our team. It was our alternate. I was like, you need to get him, get his mind right. Cause I don't know what's going to happen. So I text one of our, he's a PA at the gym. It's like, meet me at the office. So he does these tests. He's like, you tore your meniscus. I'm like, what do I do? And he's like, good news is you can't really make

it worse. He's like, if you can handle the pain, like if we can get some of the swelling down, you can probably still compete. Shut up. And so he gives me a cortisone shot. Oh my gosh, man. And so I go see a surgeon and he's an ex NFL surgeon. He's like, yeah, you'd be fine. He's like, as long as you can handle the pain. He's like, you can get through regionals. He's like, we'll look at it after regionals. See how the cortisone shot does.

He's like, we can do the surgery. You got about six to eight weeks before the games. We'll do the surgery. No way. He's like, or you can wait till after the games. So I did the cortisone shot and felt fine. Like it was good. So I was like, you know what?

I'll be, I think I'll wait till after. I might even do the surgery. After the games? Yeah, I might even do the games. So I did the cortisone shot and felt fine, like was good. So I was like, you know what, I'll be, I think I'll wait till after. I might even do the surgery. After the games? Yeah, I might even do the surgery. About halfway between training from regionals and the games, that cortisone shot wears off. And I'm like, I need another cortisone shot. So I got another cortisone shot, which had to do it. Not wish, kind of wish now I wouldn't have. But then I had surgery the week after the games in 17. So you did the games? Did the games. With a torn meniscus? With a torn meniscus. We got second that year.

Oh, man. It was frustrating. But then I had surgery, man, and it never got better. And I was frustrated. So I did a stem cell. I did the hyaluronic acid. I did a bunch of stuff. And for like a year and a half, the hyaluronic acid in the stem cell kind of helped, but I still was like, some days it would be great, and other days it would be like depending on what I did the day before it would be awful and so I was like that was going up until December of this year and then met this doctor in Cookville and he does it's called strain counter strain therapy and then he did some acupuncture and I'm back to about 95 percent pretty crazy like those were the the meniscus was the hard one. Because it was like, you know, you just.

You can't load anything. You can't do anything. You can't do anything. No squatting, jumping. No squatting. It would get so swollen. I couldn't run, couldn't squat, couldn't. Jump rope maybe.

No. And it was just frustrating. And so, but man, I found this guy in town. Everybody's like, did you go to Nashville? And I'm like, no, it was Cookville, Tennessee. This guy's a genius. And it's basically all but fixed it. You know, like, still, like, there's it was Cookville, Tennessee. This guy's a genius. And it's basically all but fixed it. You know, like still like there's days I need to be smart.

Like yesterday we walked around at Disney for eight hours. And it's a little like tender today. But, man, he's a magician. Wow, man. Pretty cool. Wow. Okay. So very minimal injuries.

Very minimal, yep. And after you got second the first year, you went four years back to back? Yep. Four years? Four years. Did you ever feel challenged at all? Oh, yeah. Every year.

You know, I'd always, and we were talking about, you know, when people dig their holes at the beginning of the weekend. I had a couple years where I would do that. Like, I got 27th in 11 on the first event. I got 27th on the first event, I think, in 13. And then 14, I had another event that was terrible. And so I always decide to like dig a hole and then have to climb out of it, but just make it interesting. Right. Make it come back. But yeah, no, heck no. I mean, back then, you know, there was a lot of guys that were, you know, right in, right in the mix all the time.

You know, Kalipa was on the podium several years in a row. You had Graham, super fit. Bailey, you had Matt Chan, kind of all the originals, all the guys I competed with in the legend event last weekend. But yeah, it was just a different time. It was a little bit different than it is now. Where is CrossFit now compared to 10 years ago? It's like a global sport business. It is, yeah. Well, and all these changes we've talked about this year, it'll be interesting to see what happens. It's grown exponentially, and the games last year

were, I think, one of the best games we've had. Really? Especially being in Madison, they moved it from California. It kind of, the first year in Madison, it almost felt like a glorified regional. It didn't feel like the games, but last year it felt awesome. It felt like the games. It felt like, you know, back. They should do it on Ohio State.

There you go. It would be cool. I mean, who knows with this new system what's going to happen. And so, yeah, it's kind of frustrating just to see all these, you know, we felt like we got to this really good point and then everything completely changed. Why did they change it? You know, Greg, you know, Greg's the owner of CrossFit and he's the, he wanted to see these changes and it's his, his deal and he can do whatever he wants. And so, you know, it, that's, that's what he wanted to do. And so now we have all these sanctionals, which I think are a cool idea. You know, what's that mean? So, you know, we used to have regionals, used to go to the open regionals and then games. And so basically you built on each other. The top three from regionals go. Yeah. Whatever it is. And so now it's like you have the open. And so basically you built on each other. The top three from regionals go or whatever it is. Yeah, whatever it is.

And so now it's like you have the Open. And so this year what they did with the Open was the top 20 individuals, men and females, got an invite to the CrossFit Games. Automatic. Automatic. Top 20 in the Open. So you don't have to go to regionals anymore. Nope. Wow, really?

Also, if you won your country. Wow. As long as there's an affiliate in your country you can go to the crossfit games if you win your country so that means anyone could go to some country but it has to be your passport country so like wherever your passport is issued citizenship you can like apply for anything so whatever country then you can go to the games it's like olympic stuff now now they have these sanctional events so any not any but you have to go through CrossFit. You pay whatever fee to call yourself a sanctional event.

So this year there were 14 or 15. So if you won one of those sanctionals, you got to go to the CrossFit Games. Man, it sounds like you can go so much easier to go now. Yes. And so as individuals, well, then teams, the only way you can go to the games is if you win a sanctional. No open, no nothing. So there's only like 15 teams or 14 teams going to go to the games this year. However, there's going to be 100 and I think 160 something men and

160 something women. Huge. Where there used to only be 40. 40 men, 40 women. So now the deal is allegedly the first day of the games, they're going to have one or a couple events and they're going to cut the field in like huge and so basically if you think that's cool if you won uh i think your open rank somehow they're like however you qualified has precedent over how somebody else qualified i don't remember how exactly because if you have the worst event first and you're the best in the world exactly there needs to be some type of net, safety net. So it'll be interesting.

It's just going to be different. You know, it's kind of frustrating. CrossFit cut all of the games media. There's no games media anymore. What does that mean? So like any of the videos that they would produce, CrossFit would produce, they're gone for the games. So now they're relying on- Like marketing videos or like-

Yes, everything. So now- Why'd they do that uh money i guess he was like it's expensive he's wanting to greg's trying to concentrate more on the health side of things instead of the game side where i feel like it's a good idea like i think for a while we got too caught up in you know the crossfit games the top one percent i think there's value to that and i think we don't need to completely abandon it uh But he's concentrating on the health side of things and getting people moving and trying to reach an older type of crowd. And I feel like maybe he got a little scared that people got intimidated seeing the games

and they think injury and all that stuff. But you've got to look at it as two completely separate entities. The games is literally a showcase of what CrossFit can do. But it's not CrossFit. You know, CrossFit is the community. It's the gyms. It's the affiliates. It's the people that do CrossFit. It's not the CrossFit games.

And so we've kind of swung completely another direction where it's kind of like, I would like to see almost like middle direction. But like I said, it's Greg's to do and he runs the show. And it is what it is. So back to it. There's no actual games media anymore he's kind of relying on these other you know there's a called morning chalk up there's some other publications that are doing the media type stuff for it um so i mean it's actually opened up an avenue for us like we know we we have our own youtube channel and we produce our own videos we have in-house media so

it is good and um you know it's it's kind of the whole market that he does with the affiliates where it's like the cream rises to the top type of deal. So we'll see. It's just a lot of change in such a short amount of time. There hasn't been a ton of communication about it. Like they cut the Instagram, like there's no, now no CrossFit. Instagram? No CrossFit HQ, Instagram or Facebook. What? Something about privacy issues with Facebook. So last two weeks ago, just all of a sudden it was gone. All the content is gone. There's Twitter still because it's not Facebook owned.

Completely got rid of Instagram and Facebook. Games, CrossFit HQ, all of it gone. The website's still up. The website's still up. That seems kind of crazy. Kind of crazy. But hey, it's his. Like I said, it's his. Maybe there's something else. The website's still up. That seems kind of crazy to me. Kind of crazy. But hey, it's his, like I said, it's his.

Maybe there's something else happening behind the scenes. Who knows? Who knows? But everyone is on Facebook and Instagram. Everyone. To promote and tag and share. You think. And so it was just like, all right, we're done.

And it was just like gone. So CrossFit HQ or the CrossFit Instagram was gone first. At CrossFit Games it's still gone? Was for a day and then it was gone the next day. And so you're kind of like, all right, see you. Peace. Wow. So yeah, there's been a lot of changes in the last couple weeks,

and a lot of people are frustrated and fired up. You know, you talk to people in the gym, and they're like, what's going on? And it's just like, the problem is there's just lack of communication. And, you know, he's going on these podcasts, and there's a couple like CrossFit, traditional CrossFit podcasts. And he's kind of talking about why he's doing this stuff. But there's no media anymore to kind of tell you why it's going on. Yeah, yeah.

It is what it is, you know. And so then I'd also heard that he turned down the viewer, like Facebook actually offered to broadcast the games and turn that down. And so you're just kind of like, so right now apparently there's nobody to broadcast the games and turn that down. And so you're just kind of like, so right now, apparently there's nobody to broadcast the games. ESPN or no? CBS Sports was, and I'd heard, hearsay, you know, you kind of hear different things. And CBS Sports was turned down as well.

So we'll see if the games is even broadcast. Maybe CrossFit.com, maybe. I don't know. You know, that's what they did for years, but there's no media. So what are you going to do? It's kind of. Interesting, man. It's kind of did for years, but there's no media. So what are you going to do? It's kind of – Interesting, man. It's kind of gotten – it's Wild West right now.

I feel like it's always been that. It is. Every year something changes, right? When you have one person that runs a show and they can do what they want to do, that's what it is. Wild West. How do you think your mindset is different than the rest when you are competing at the highest level as an individual?

How do you feel like... Because everyone can work the same amount of workload. Right. Right? I feel like there's probably guys that did just as much, maybe a little more. Probably fitter. Yeah, I think there's probably people that are physically fitter. Yeah. How did you train the mind to prepare yourself for the whole world to try to take you down?

Yeah, so I think it was kind of a mix of everything. My entire growing up, I talk about my parents. I talk about the hard work and the leading by example, and there was always something to do. There was that. There was me being one of 32 first cousins. Everything was competitive. Everything was a competition.

Now I realize it was my parents trying to tire us out. Hey, run around the pond. Let's see who can run around the pond the fastest. He has kids. We're like, yeah, let's do it. That type of stuff. There was that. Then high school baseball, I had an incredible high school baseball coach that would push us. We would always joke that we ran more than the track and cross country team. He was huge into mental toughness. He said he did CrossFit before CrossFit was a thing. That's his joke now. And, you know, we would do these workouts. And now I look back having an exercise science degree and I was like, what the heck were we doing? It was stupid, but it was hard and it

was mentally tough. And, you know, that was his deal and mental toughness. And there was that. And then I had, you know, being in the fire department and those lessons that I learned from that. I think it's just a mix of all of it. I don't think there was one thing that I can pinpoint down or think about the mentality of, you know, what one thing it was. I think it was just a mix of all of it, you know, and like wanting to win the games. Having the atmosphere where I could do that. Like having those guys that would train with me in the mornings, in the midday, in the afternoon. Those to push me and, you me and my cousin the same way.

All of that into one perfect storm, I guess. There's not one thing that I can be like, oh yeah, that was it. How did you feel like you handled the pressure though during those first few years where it seemed like a lot of pressure? So many people there, it's on the line. Each event matters or you lose. What did you think about before every event would start or in the middle when you're like, gosh, I'm exhausted? Yeah. Like, this person's crushing me right now.

How did you stay focused? Yeah, I think a huge part of that, like I said, was my faith and not having such a, you know, not having that pressure. There was still pressure. Like, I'm not going to say that, you know, I didn't have pressure on me. But it was very, it took some of that pressure off. What would you think about in that moment when you felt like, oh, this pressure is on me? What would you say to yourself? Well, the good thing was I'd had that rope fall, and I'd embarrassed myself greatly, way more than I was going to embarrass myself again.

So it was kind of like I've already done the worst that could happen. In my mind, it was the worst thing that could happen. And so it was like, it's going to be all right. And then the more and more I competed and the more and more the years went on, I noticed that, hey, it's not about one event. As long as there's damage control, there's certain events you're not going to do great at if you can damage control in those events. And I think that was one thing that I kind of figured out a lot earlier than people was, you know, everybody was like, well,

when I go out there, I compete against myself and I just do the best that I can and blah, blah, blah, and all this stuff that people want to tell themselves when they don't want to either don't want to push hard or don't want to take credit for their, you know, something happening. So what I learned was you can watch people and watch, you know, hey, I need to stay ahead of so-and-so. You know, there's times that where it bit me in the ass, but it was like, you know, luckily for us, you kind of knew what lane you were in is what place you were in. And so you could figure out, all right, so-and-so is maybe better at this, but if I'm within either a rep or two or a person or two of them, I can make up points or not lose too many points,

and then I can get ahead of them in another event. And so I kind of learned that, you know, you would kind of call audibles in the middle of it. You're like, oh, I got to push here. I need to, like, do whatever. And so I think that was something that I, one of the things that I figured out a lot earlier than people was it is a sport. Like, as much as, you know, it's just working out, there is some strategy to it. There is, you're trying to game things and you're trying to like, all right, I know this movement

is kind of a rest for me so I can kind of push here or, you know, this movement's going to be a little bit harder so I need to slow down and gaming workouts. And that was something I think training so much and doing so many different things that I did in the volume that I did, that I learned, you know, I had done certain combinations of movements. They may not have done the exact workout, but I knew how they kind of played off of each other. And so that was something that I'd learned pretty early on and helped a ton.

That's great. How did you handle fear throughout the career? Um, yeah, I mean there were times where, especially I remember specifically one time in 2013, so I'd gotten 27th on a pool event. I got second on a rowing event that was, it was the half marathon, but you started out with a 2k sprint, which was the worst thing ever. So I went 27th, second, seventh, I think on the marathon. And then I went seventh, I think on the burden run. Well, Kalipa went first, first, first, first. So he had like a huge lead and I'm

just in pissed off and I'm in a horrible mood. And my wife comes up and we're kind of sitting in the athlete area between events. And she's like, you don't look like you're having fun. I was like, I'm not having fun. I mean, like I was probably in like third or fourth at the time. This is awful. Like whatever. And she's like, go get your stuff. What do you mean get my stuff? She's like, well, if you're not having fun, we need to go home. And I was like, what are you talking about? Like, I'm going to go get my stuff, leave this. Like, I trained all year for this.

She's like, you do the best when you have fun. And I'm like, she's never played any type of sports, like anything like that. She did when she was really young. Like, she played basketball and stuff like that. But she's the least competitive, could care less about anything CrossFit related. But she was like, go get your stuff. We're leaving. Go tell Dave we're leaving. And I was like, what are you talking about? Then she's like, well, then start having fun. And I was like, all right, well then it, and you know, I didn't like start having fun immediately, but it turned around. So she always takes credit for, you know, that year

that she was, she was, but yeah, I mean, it it's like uh you know you try to have as much fun as you can and over the years you learned that when i first started competing like a month out like my nerves would start getting me and you're like man you know butterflies and all that well then you know after a year or two it was like two weeks out then it would start and then it was like a week out now it's like before yeah now it's like the event the event of then i start getting a little nervous still you know everybody's like you still. Then I start getting a little nervous still. Everybody's like, you still get nervous? I'm like, heck yeah, I still get nervous. I think when you stop getting nervous, it's not fun anymore. That's true. But yeah, I think it's just the nerves and being a

competitor. You have that before it. You have all this buildup. But then literally, as soon as 3, 2, 1, go happens, it's just like everything goes away go. It's just like, everything goes away. You know, you talk about flow or whatever it is, but it literally, like, I can't tell you any music that's played during events. You can't hear any of the cheers. You can't hear any of that stuff. You're just kind of in it and you just kind of go through it. And it's, it's kind of, it's hard to explain, you know, it's just like a competitive nature. You know, it's hard to, people are like, well, what makes you so competitive? I'm like, I don't know. It's just something that you just get into, and you don't really think about those things. Yeah, the workout sucks, and it's going to hurt. And for a long time, like I said, I have those certain things that go through my head.

I'd write Bible verses on my shoes and think about the crucifixion of Christ, and those were the things early that really got me. But then it's just like after you've done it for so long, it's just what you do. It's like you just get into that space, and you get in that zone, then it's just like after you've done it for so long, it's just what you do. Yeah. You know, it's like you just get into that space and you get in that zone and it's just, it's go. We've already experienced the pain so much. You're like, I know it's going to suck. Yeah, it's going to hurt.

You know, it's just like, when is it going to hurt? You know, like most of the time you're like, all right, this workout's going to take 10, 15 minutes, but you know the pain's really going to set in about minute nine, minutes, you know, depending on whatever the workout is. But yeah, it's just, it's like you you've almost become not numb to the pain because it still hurts, but you've almost like embraced that pain. And you just, you just know, it's almost like a

sick twisted thing where you're just like, this is what it is, you know? And it's, I was talking, I've got kind of an addictive personality and there's, you know, some substance abuse in my family history, but I've never had any substance abuse. But I think working out is probably my substance abuse. Yeah, really it is. How important is pain for everyone in the world to experience on a daily or weekly basis? It's when you grow, man. You know, it's, you never grow and you never move forward when you're comfortable.

You know, like you've got to, as bad as it sounds, you've got to go out and you've got to seek that stuff. You have to. That's when you get better and that's when you grow, I think. It's the same as physically. You know, like when it hurts, that's when you know something good is happening. So you almost embrace that where it's like, this is going to hurt. But I know on the other side I'm going to come out better. And it's the same way mentally.

It's like if you're not pushing, you're not, you're not growing. Why do so many people resist pain when they know it's either their upbringing or it's, it's, they've never had that or they just, they just don't enjoy it. You're not going to enjoy pain. Like, let's be honest. You know, we talk about like some of the most miserable experiences when you're done with it. You're like, that was awesome. You know, like you go out and seek these like challenges. I never want to do this again. In the middle of it, you're like, you know, I went on this elk hunting trip for six days and for the first three days, it was awesome. The fourth day, downhill. We didn't see any, any elk. I hiked 60 miles in six days, like sunup to sundown going through the woods. And I'm like,

this is miserable. Like, I hate this. And then I got done. I'm like, I can't wait to do that again. You know, like, you're just like, it's sick and it's twisted, but you know, like, you're growing in that, you know, as long as it's productive pain, like there's different, like there's certain things that aren't productive, but as long as it's something good,

you know, you're on the other side, you're going to come out better. And I think, I don't know, I don't know if it's hard for me sometimes to relate to other people that are like, how do you get there that you want to, you want to compete or you want to go to that pain? I'm like, how do you not want to? How do you not see the benefit of it?

It's hard sometimes for me to like talk to people that don't get that. You know, like you get it. You know, we're just talking about it. But it's hard for me. You know, it's just hard to like relate to that because I don't know. I don't know what makes me want to do that. But my wife, she's similar. She's like, I don't want to do that.

I don't want to do anything that's painful. Like I just, for me, this is how I do it. Why do you think you're wired that way to want it? I don't know. I think it's that like that perfect mix of everything that we talked earlier. It's just. Because you want to win that bad. I want to win that bad.'s just. Because you want to win that bad. I want to win that bad.

It's not even I want to win that bad. I don't want to lose. I don't want to make an idiot of myself. Like I said, it could be just us two and nobody else could be watching, but it still just drives me crazy. And it's ridiculous. You know, like if you really look back and like,

yes, you know, like we're saying, you want to grow through pain, but like some of the stuff it's like, why does that cause, like, why am I so caught up in that? But it's just the way I am. It's just the way I'm wired. It's the way I've always been wired. How did you meet your wife? Met my wife getting my haircut. I was a firefighter getting off, getting off shift. And we had a mutual friend that she cut my hair and she colored Hillary's hair. And so while Hillary was getting her hair colored, I was getting mine cut. And we'd actually both gotten out of like four year,

four or five year long relationships. We were both miserable in those relationships and finally got out of them. And I was a perfect gentleman to every woman that I ever dated. My mom was always like open every door, do whatever. And I was a jerk to Hillary. And she kept coming.

I was like, I'm not ready to get in a relationship. You know, like have some fun. I'm going to have some fun. I got to go on a spring break trip. Exactly. And so I'm like, was a complete just jerk to her. Really? And she just kept coming

and was like, I don't know. And she doesn't take any crap either and would just like, there was one time, this is awful and I'm such a jerk for doing it, but she came to visit me

at the fire station, kind of met her, introduced, this was like a little bit later on when we were like we'd kind of hung out and talked and text and all that stuff for probably three or four months and I was just like you know I'm not ready I'm not ready and all this stuff so we she comes to the fire station I introduced her all the guys and she's going to leave and you know take her out to her car open door let her in and she's like so what are we we talking are we You know, what's our deal?

Are we, yeah. And I'm like, I don't like titles. The stupidest thing I could have ever said, ever. And she goes, don't ever talk to me again. Wow. I was like, okay, that's not good. So the next day. So you text her the next day?

I didn't text her the next day. Because I was like, all right, I'm gonna see what happens. The next night she goes, why the hell have you texted me all day? I was like, you told me not to. And so I was like, all right, this girl, you know, so she, you know, she can dish it out and she's perfect. Like she's completely the, the statement opposites attract are literally me and my wife, but we work really well together and she supports me and everything. And I support her and her things. And, you know, she could care less about anything CrossFit related. You know, we, uh, we, she really, even this is your whole life?

Whole life, man. She doesn't care about it. Listen to this. So she's. She supports you and shows up. Yeah, heck yeah. She's there. She's my biggest fan, but she could care less.

Like as long as, you know, whatever. And so we have three kids, our oldest, Lakeland. She bought all the most expensive, expensive dolly clothes for her. And Lakeland hates them now. But at the time, Lakeland maybe wore this stuff once, twice, whatever. So I'm doing some laundry one night with her. And so full laundry. I take it up to Lakeland's room.

I open this closet. And it's just like the amount of money hits me that we spent on these clothes. And it's just like the light. And I'm like, oh. And so I'm like, whatever. And we had some infertility issues and all that stuff and Lakeland's adopted all three of our kids are adopted so I you know it wasn't didn't really like I would give her crap about spending money but I'm like hey you know we've waited long enough for this kid like yeah

yeah you know I want her I want her to and so this is years later and so I walk back downstairs and I'm like I have to be a dick like I'm just I just want to know how so this is years later. And so I walk back downstairs and I'm like, I have to be a dick. Like, I'm just, I just want to know, how much money do you think is in that closet up there? And she's like, it's a hobby. And I was like, it's an expensive hobby. And she goes, well, if you weren't so good at CrossFit, that would be an expensive hobby. And I was like, that doesn't make sense at all. Like, that pays for this stuff.

Like, yeah, this is what I do. And she's like, well, you know what I mean. And I'm like, no, actually, I don't know what you mean. So that's, in a nutshell, that's it pays for this stuff like yeah this is what i do and she's like well you know what i mean and i'm like no actually i don't know what you mean so that's that's in a nutshell that's our relationship is she could care less but that's hilarious she's super supportive what's the biggest lesson that you've learned from her over the last eight years oh man through her journey yeah supporting you too many probably to list i mean she's the most with the stuff that we went through with, with, you know, infertility, with adoptions, with failed adoptions and all that stuff.

She's the most just resilient woman I've ever met, but also the most caring and loving, you know, like now she'll go, like if somebody's had any type of any, you know, like she had a friend that had a failed IUI or like whatever, it's a fertility treatment. And, you know, it's devastating, like watching Hillary go through that, you know, for me, it was a little bit like until I knew we were having a kid or something was until we had the kid in our hands, I was okay. But for her, anytime anything failed or any adoption failed, just watching her, it was like she had gotten so, like, that's our kid, and then it wouldn't happen. And it was just awful.

Oh, man. You get your hopes up. Hopes up. But watching her do that, it was almost like two, we had the disappointment of not having that, but then watching her was like double because she would just get so distraught. But she's now so supportive for these women or anybody who is going through that and so it's

it's just she's the most caring person on that side and it's it's pretty cool so you guys know you wanted to have kids pretty yeah yeah yeah when we talked um you know when we first you know got serious and we kind of talked about family because you know you're 20 20 years old you're like hey you know it's it's coming and we our plan was to have three biological and adopt one that was our plan and so we're like yeah let's do that and so when we finally decided to start having kids we're like it's not working and we went got all these tests done and they're like no you're you're both completely healthy there's no reason why this can't happen and so we tried for a couple years well then Hillary went on like hormone therapy and that was a nightmare.

And then, you know, like even having those, like, she's like, I'm pregnant. I think I'm pregnant. And I'm like, do you have a test? No, no. But I think, and I'm like, let's hold back here. And well, you know, she'd get so caught up and then, you know, it wouldn't happen. So she gets, and it was just watching that those, those things happen. And then, so she came to me and she's like, well, what if, and we were talking about doing IVF and I was like, I don't want to pay for IVF for a chance and it not happen. And so she's like, well, what about adoption? I'm like, I just don't know if I could, looking back, this is the stupidest thing ever. But I was like, you know what? I don't think I could adopt my first kid. Like, I just don't feel like, she's like, well, just think about it and pray about it. And I was like, I just don't think I can. Well, then

she was like, finally, I was like, let's look into it. Well, she found Lakeland's birth mom. She had a family back out. That was the day that Hillary actually talked to her through an agency. The lady, the family had backed out the day that Hillary talked to her. And she was like, this is kind of weird. This is kind of a godsend. Let me process this and I'll get back to you. So she talked to Hillary a couple of days later and she's like, I'd like to meet you and have lunch and kind of figure it out. And so this girl is eight months pregnant at the time. This is my last year as an individual at the CrossFit Games. And I'm like, okay. And so she's like, she meets Hillary, loves Hillary.

She's like, I'd like to meet your husband. Well, met her. She's like, yep, let's do this. And so that was a month before the Games. Lakeland was born two weeks before the CrossFit Games. Oh, my gosh. We were both in the room. I cut the cord.

So then, yeah, we had to like, it was finalized actually on my birthday because in Tennessee there's a 14, it was a 14-day waiting period. So, like, at any time during those 14 days, she could have came back and said, I want to keep the game. And so you're just like. Waiting. Waiting. It was awful. And the game started that day.

Yeah. 14 days later. And so it finalized my birthday the next day we started the CrossFit game. So it was kind of a whirlwind. Lakeland came out here with us. She was two weeks old on a plane, all that type of stuff. Man, it was chaos. And you won.

And I won. And so I was like, all right. That's amazing. We're good. Yeah, it was hard. It was a tough, tough game. It was your last one. Everyone was talking about it.

Yep. And so it was rough, but it was awesome. Wow. Yeah, it's kind of funny. So we had Lakeland during the games. We had Trice, my son, during regional, like a couple weeks before regionals. And then Violet, our youngest, we got the first week of the Open in 18. So it's like we always games regionals Open.

So you've adopted three children now. Adopted three, yep. What's it like being a father of adopted children versus how do you feel not having a biological child? Never once does it cross my mind that those aren't my kids. They're my kids. I don't know the feeling of having biological children, but I could not love these kids anymore. There are kids, you know, like. They were yours in the first day?

Yeah, so Lakeland was there the first. We got her immediately. Like I said, I was there to cut the cord. Trice was nine days old. He was in the N day? Yeah, so Lakeland was there the first. We got her immediately. Like I said, I was there to cut the cord. Trice was nine days old. He was in the NICU. When we got him, that was kind of a crazy story too. We had a couple failed adoptions. I was tired of watching Hillary go through that.

And so I was like, you know what? I'm perfectly content with Lakeland. Like, let's pump the brakes with this. She was like, I feel like we have another kid out there. And I'm like, I'm not watching you go through this. Let's take a little break. And she's like, fill out this paperwork. And I'm like, I can't fill out this paperwork because I can't watch.

Like, I'm not doing this. So she comes up to me. She's like, you're going to fill out this paperwork. I'm like, all right, I'll fill out the paperwork. But this is the last time. This is it. I'm not doing it. If it doesn't work, I'm not going through it anymore.

So it was a lawyer in Florida. And so she overnights the paperwork because it was due the next day. We get an email that night and they're like, hey, you're one of 20 families. This girl wants this baby to go to somebody. He's already been born. He's nine years, nine days old. He's four pounds, three ounces. He's in the NICU. She wants him to go to a family that doesn't have any kids. We're just like, crap. But in the 20, you know, there's two or three that don't have kids, and they don't list the names. They just list ages, names of, or not names, but number of kids, ages of the kids, and whatever, and where they live. And so we get an email that night.

It's like, you're one of the top five. And so Hillary's all excited. I'm like, just calm down. I don't have to break you. And so the lawyer calls a couple hours later. He's like, how soon can you get to Jacksonville, Florida? I'm like, well, I mean, we can be there the next morning. Mind you, this is a month before regionals. I'm like, okay, here we go. And so we drove to Jacksonville, Florida and we met Trice and Richard III is his name, but we call him we go. And so we drove to Jacksonville, Florida, and we met Trice. And Richard III is his name, but we call him Trice. And so we've had Trice since he was nine days old. And then Violet is actually our youngest.

She's Lakeland's biological half-sister. Hillary stays in touch with the birth mom. It's not an open adoption, but she'll give her updates. And so she reached out to her on Facebook and was like, hey, I had another baby and can't keep her. Would you guys keep her? Or would you guys take her? And we're like, of course. And Trice was 10 months old at the time. That was tough. 10 months and Violet was super colicky and it was hard, really hard. Now she's an angel. She's our sweetest kid. Trice is a disaster. He's literally like 100% boy, all go all the time. But it's awesome to see, you know, like they're not biological, but they, like if you look at Lakeland and the way she acts, it's Hillary and myself like combined

and then Trice the same way. And like, you don't think about the things that the kids pick up on, but now the older two go to me, go with me to the barn or to the gym a ton. And so like, I've never once told them, hey, let's work out. But Lakeland loves to work out. Like when I say workout, she swings around on the pull-up bar, she'll make like obstacle courses. She'll run around. She has a little barbell, picks up dumbbells, trices the same way. He tries to follow her around all the time. He's two, but yeah, it's the things that's, it's kind of cool to everything comes full circle. Like I'm never once, like I said, I'm not going to be a, like get in their face, rah, rah type of parent, but the things that they pick up on, you don't realize. And so that for me is

another motivator now is like, hey, I need to, these kids are watching. Like that's, they're the most important thing to me. And the things that they pick up on, like I've got to like, you know, when you get a little emotional, you're like, all right, I need to rein it in a little bit because, you know, that's what they feed off of it. And you don't think about it because you're like, oh, they're two years old or four years old or one year old. They're not going to pick up on some of this stuff. But they do, man. It's insane what they pick up on.

They pick up on everything. Where do you think you'd be if you weren't married during those five years in the games? Do you think you'd have won? No, I don't think so. Without being married? I don't think so. Really? I don't think so.

Yeah. I mean, there's some type of focus there that you know you can't replace and like I said Hillary kept me super grounded during those years and still does you know she could literally care less about like I'm like hey I snatched 300 pounds right take out the garbage or like when in in one of the events, the overhead squat event, I tried to put 400 pounds over my head, and she's like, why did you do that? I'm like, I was trying to win the event.

She's like, I just don't think it's necessary that you put that much weight over your head. Why do you ever need to do that? I'm like, thanks. She could literally care less. But like I said, it's good. Because I know that my worth to her is not in, based on that's powerful based on track record. Like I don't, I don't have,

that's something, a piece of, of the equation I can take out is like, Oh, I have to do this for my wife to stay with me. My wife's like, no, you have to like watch the kids. That's how you're, you know, she's going to stay around. But, um, so it's, it's been a very, she's been awesome for, for, you know she's going to stay around but um so it's it's been a very she's been awesome for for you know getting me to where i am she's a huge part of it that's amazing man yeah and transitioning into the team you guys won once or we won three times three times three times what's that like winning with the team it's so much better honestly uh you get to do more fun

you get to share it with people you know like growing up i was a team sport guy you know obviously there's a ton of individual sides of baseball. And I did play some football too. But being able to share it with other people and to see the sacrifice that they put in and, you know, they're right there with you going through it. And to be able to, when you reach something like that, a goal like that together is pretty awesome. That's pretty cool. Yeah.

Do you guys win money on the team or no? Yeah. Yeah, not nearly as much as an individual. 50 grand total or something?'s pretty cool. Yeah. Do you guys win money on the team or no? Yeah. Yeah, not nearly as much as an individual. 50 grand total or something? Yeah, probably, yeah. I think last year we, I think last year it was like 75 or something like that. How many?

14? 20, 25, yeah. So yeah, now it's four. It used to be six. So yeah, but it's fun. It's a lot of fun. You know, I still get to compete, still get to do the sponsorship stuff

because I'm still competing. But I get to share it with other people and it's a whole lot more fun. You get to suffer together and it's, you know, suffering by yourself all the time. It's not a lonely stuff. No, not lonely suffering, but it's, it's good. It's, you know, and, you know, made some of my best friends now through, through competing on a team. So it's, it's cool. Now that you're literally probably the time this comes out, it'll be 10 years since you started CrossFit. What would you say are the three biggest lessons you learned in 10 years of training, competing, and being in CrossFit?

One of the main things, and this is something I always tell people, is if you're not doing it for a profession, use fitness as like a release of stress. Some people get so caught up in, I've got to do this. And there is value in not stressing about it, but putting some value in it. But getting so caught up where it affects your day or affects your home life. It's like, hey, be stressed out about it while you're doing it in that hour. But go home. have some fun. Don't get so caught up in it that you're ruining your day. Another pet peeve that I actually have is kids and sports and giving up sports for playing CrossFit or playing CrossFit for doing CrossFit. It drives me nuts when kids are like,

yeah, I quit playing football. I quit playing baseball to pursue a career in CrossFit. I'm like, man, you have the rest of your life to do CrossFit. I was like, some of the memories, best memories that I have are sports. Some of the best lessons that I learned are playing sports. And I probably, you know, playing more sports would have been better. Like I concentrated on baseball, but I did play football. And, you know, like maybe not organized football, but I was playing football in the yard and doing that type of stuff where you're going to learn a whole lot more. And you're going to have a whole lot better base of athleticism and fitness.

And it's going to serve you well. That's one of the things, too, is you see a lot of the guys that are gym rats, when certain events come up, they're not as good. But the guys, Graham, who played sports, you can adapt on the fly. Graham was one of the best guys that would adapt to stuff on the fly because he played sports, played a lot of sports. Ben Smith, the same way. Because he played as many sports as he could. They're the best athletes. And so there's a big part of that.

Number three, I don't really know if I have a third one. I think just enjoy the community side of it. Have some friends. Like I just enjoy the community side of it. You know, like, you know, have some friends, like share. Like I said, the shared suffering, you know, don't work out by yourself if you don't have to. You know, like if you can get with some people, have some fun. And that's what the beauty of CrossFit is, is that community side of it. You know, people see the games and see what we do, but that's not really CrossFit. It's the, you know, going to the gym. Like I got to go hang out at CrossFit Glendora a little bit while I was here and just seeing you know

it's the same community no matter no matter where you go like we were in China competing and it's the same speak a different language but it's the same people do the same workouts same workouts and and everybody's super supportive and it's it's it's pretty awesome to see that that's cool man yeah it's awesome uh this is called the three truths. It's a question I ask everyone at the end. Three truths. So imagine it's your last day on earth. Okay.

As many years away as we want it to be. Right, right. You get to pick the day, but you got to go. Okay. From the physical body, right? Right, go on. And you've created and achieved every dream that you want to create.

You've got as many kids as you want, the family life, the legacy, everything you want, you've done it. Right. But for whatever reason, you've got to take everything with you, everything you've created, your content, your books, your jam, whatever.

It's all going to go with you when you leave. But you get to leave behind three things you know to be true about your entire life, your experiences, your lessons. And these would be the only three things you could leave behind. Okay. What would you say are your three truths? Three truths. My faith, for sure. That's something, obviously, I want to take that with me, but that's... The lesson you would leave behind. Yeah, yeah. My faith, you know, I wouldn't be where I am without my faith.

I want to say my, whatever my kids take from me. So I don't know if that would be my parenting, my, you know, just the things that they've learned. You know, I want them to, I want to be known as a good dad to them, you know, not to anybody else.

I don't care what anybody else thinks about me. But I want my kids to take known as a good dad to them, you know, not to anybody else. I don't care what anybody else thinks about me. But I want my kids to take that as, like, I don't even know if that would be a truth. What's the lesson you would want to be behind? Yeah, I don't know if there's any one lesson, but I want them to look and say, my dad cared. My dad was there. My dad was present. That's true. Probably the same as a husband honestly like um it's the

relationships and the things that you get with with with family with friends those are the things that i want um people to remember i don't honestly like the crossfit games and the fame and all that stuff was cool it is whatever but um it's it's more or less like i I want to make as much money as I can to where I can spend more time with my family. And not necessarily that we have above and beyond what we need, but enough to take care of the things that we need to do that I can be there and be present. Because that's something that I got from my parents. They were there. And they were always there. So I don't even know if those are three truths,

but yeah, that's kind of what I want to leave behind, I guess. Okay. I want to acknowledge you for a moment, because since I've heard about you over the last 10 years and seen your stuff, you've been so consistent with your, how you show up. Just as in person, as in online, you're just a good, consistent, hardworking guy who doesn't

make a lot of mistakes, who doesn't try to hurt anybody, doesn't say anything stupid. Appreciate it. There's some times where I do some stupid stuff. But you're just constantly a good guy. I appreciate that. And you work very hard. Appreciate that. And you work really, very hard. I appreciate that. And I acknowledge that because you could have easily let the fame or whatever, you know, celebrity in the CrossFit world take over to be more egotistical. But from my experience of you over 10 years, you've always been just a consistent, good dude.

And that's what I would acknowledge about you. It's just like it's hard to be consistently at that level. Like I said, I've had a lot of good people around me that kind of, you know, hold me accountable. And that's one thing. That's another thing is like having people that are going to hold you accountable and being able to take those when people tell you, Hey, this is what I see. And this is what you're not doing right. And granted, you have to have miles, miles of those people. And you've got to trust those people, but you know, having somebody that's going to hold you accountable and tell you, hey, you need to shape up here

and you're like, all right, and have the wherewithal to be like, all right, you're right and actually do it. So I appreciate that. Of course, man. How can we support you? Where can we find you online? You've got an app, you've got a gym.

We've got just Instagram. Twitter is at Rich Froning. I don't do a ton of tweeting but um instagram you're on a lot ton to say yeah instagram i have fun with instagram i'm not a super like uh i'm not really on top of it all the time like if i'm like oh yeah i need to post something i'll post something but yeah we have you know our crossfit mayhem we have mayhem athlete um instagram that has a lot more of that type of stuff. And then our YouTube is just CrossFit Mayhem. Same, the CrossFit Mayhem on Instagram as well.

But we do a lot more on that type of stuff. But my personal is literally it's me, and it's just really who I am. I try not to, you know, we've talked about having somebody run it, but I'm like, I want it to be authentic and be real. So that's where we're at. That's cool, man. You got a book as well. Got a book, yeah, first.

It's been a couple years. We've had a couple people like, hey, you should write another one. I'm like, I didn't think anybody would read the first one. Why would I want to write another one? So we got that. And then Netflix, there's a movie. We don't actually have an app yet. We're working on an app.

But we have CrossFitMayhem.com. The movie is called what? Froning? Froning. Froning. Book is first. Froning is called what? Froning? Froning. Froning. Book is first. Froning is the movie, yep. And this is different than the CrossFit Games documentary, right?

Yeah, so there's the Froning CrossFit Mayhem or CrossFit documentary. I've got to watch that. I don't think I've seen that one. I've seen the CrossFit one, which you're in, I think. Is that the main one? Because there's one that I'm like, there's like the next couple years they did them on a couple different people. But the first one that they did is called Froning and it's on Netflix. But then we put out a bunch of stupid stuff on our YouTube, CrossFit Mayhem. So that's where most of our current content is.

Awesome. And so you've got the CrossFit Games coming up? You got the Games coming up in the end of July. So we're about to go into hibernation with kind of shut out all of every life. It's been a long season with the Sanctionals. So I gave the team, I was like, two weeks. Just go relax. Still train, but don't be super stressed. I said, when I get home from California, it's June 1st. We're on.

So it's exciting, man. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's been a long season, but I'm ready to get there. Exciting, man. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's been a long season, but I'm ready to get there. Exciting, man. Yeah. Very cool. So we'll check you out. Atchewitt Froning, CrossFit Mayhem.

CrossFit Mayhem, yep. Froning, the documentary, get the book, all this stuff. All that stuff. Make sure to support... What's the team called? CrossFit Mayhem Freedom, or just Mayhem Freedom. Mayhem Freedom. At the games, make sure you guys support you guys.

Follow you. Appreciate it. If it's online. If it's online, who knows? And I don't really know to tell you where to get that information. Maybe check out our Instagram or whatever because that's where we'll put that stuff. But if you go to the games in Madison, scream for them. Yep, that's right. Give them a high five.

Heck yeah. Come see us. Heck yeah. I try to, in between events, try to take as many pictures as I can with people when I can. As long as they're not rushing us in and out of places because they're the reason why we get to do what we get to do. That's it. It's fun. Final question, what's your definition of greatness?

Definition of greatness. You know, you can go with who you are when nobody's watching, that type of stuff. But I think it's just being present wherever you are. You know, like it can't be a, that's something that I'm working on is like when I'm a dad, I'm a dad and that's, I'm present there. And it's hard with social media. It's hard with all this stuff. And when I'm working, I'm present there.

And yeah, I think it's, you know, you can't get too caught up in, you know, I just work out for a living and everybody wants to think, oh, you're, you know, you have all this going on, but it's like, there's other people that are, you know, your job may just not be as in the limelight, but you're great at your job. So yeah, be present wherever you are. The legend. Awesome. Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it. There you have it, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Always fun for me to bring on the world's greatest at what they do. And for someone who'd be able to repeat back to back to back to back years of what they do, it's unbelievable. The mindset, the commitment, the discipline, the consistency of showing up and performing

at the highest level. When everyone is trying to take you down, everyone is trying to beat you. Everyone's trying to get better than you to continue to push yourself to be and stay at the top. It just blows me away. And I loved connecting with Rich because he's such a humble, genuine, grateful man as well and really enjoyed his energy and looking forward to doing some type of workouts that's not a CrossFit workout with him in the future.

Maybe we'll play basketball so it's more of an even playing field because I'm a little taller than him, even though he'll probably run circles around me. Make sure you share this out with your friends. lewishouse.com slash 808. Tag me, at Lewis House and at Rich Froning. Let's stay connected over on Instagram, on YouTube, on Twitter. We've got the content up there as well.

So make sure to check that out. We're on Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, anywhere podcasts that you can listen to, you can find us. So make sure to subscribe, leave a review and a rating that helps us continue to spread the message of greatness and share this with a friend. Share it on your social media platforms. Text a couple of friends.

Let someone know you were thinking of them today. Text a couple of friends. Let someone know you were thinking of them today. Be a hero and a champion in someone's life by spreading the message of greatness. Just send them this link and let them listen. It's free and we hope they enjoy it as well. And to bring us back to the beginning, T. Allen Armstrong said, champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character. I love you guys so very much. I hope you enjoyed this interview like we do with every interview.

We give you our best as we want you to give your best. I love you so very much. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music