The Sevan Podcast - #154 - Craig Howard

Episode Date: September 28, 2021

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The Sevan Podcast with all six listeners. You know why we do it live? I don You know why we do it live? I don't know why we do it live. I know one reason. I know two reasons. Cause someone told me I was a sissy for not going live. And the second reason is because we get better audio, I think.

And the third reason is, is it leaves less for me to do in post-production, which brings me to my first rant of the morning before we have Craig Howard onard on from diablo crossfit you guys ready i need help with this show and i need it for someone who gives a shit like who really gives a shit not someone who just does lip service good morning craig hey good morning and there's no one what say it again Can you hear me? You sound great. Oh, excellent. Jerry rigged situation here. You look like, are you comfortable? I'm in my garage in my house because my wife sleeps in on Monday mornings.

What a great morning to sleep in on. I know, right? what a great my daughter what a great morning to sleep in on i know right she works uh in the afternoon from at the gym from one until probably about nine o'clock at night so this is her morning i did a podcast with craig howard uh i'm gonna guess in 2018 on the crossfit podcast if you want to know about craig in any of these subjects that we might just glance over today, you should listen to that podcast. It's fascinating. He's one of the first affiliates. He's probably now in 2021, got to be one of the oldest affiliates. I would guess. Um, he lived, uh, we, we live close to each other. We used to live even closer to each other when i say close less than 100 miles and so when i worked for crossfit in 2007 and 8 his was the gym that we would go to to harvest content to show on dot com a lot and so that's how craig and i met and his story is a

pretty the pretty typical story uh start working out find just a shithole i mean literally he his first gym was in a shithole, and then he stuck it out, and he's got a massive gym in one of the nicest areas in the world, except for the people. And I mean that. I don't throw that around loosely. That location, he's in a climate where literally you can grow anything, and you're close to the snow,

and you're close to some of the greatest beaches in the world. So true. Thank you. Yeah. Lucky benefits. Where to start? Uh, Craig is a father.

He's an affiliate owner. He's a former games, not only games, athlete games winner. What, what, what did you win? You won.

Which master's class did you win? It was, uh, the master's, uh, 52, five, uh, games winner. What did you win? Which master's class did you win? It was the master's 50 to 54 age group in 2013 when the pool was a little smaller than it is today. But I'm still home. How old are you now? I'm 58 years old now. Holy shit, you look good, dude. Hey, thank you. There you are sitting in a garage at 58 looking 48. Incredible.

Yeah, thank you. I owe that to eating right and CrossFit and having an awesome wife that does most of my cooking. awesome wife that does most of my cooking and craig no has either knows or has known everybody from the um he he's he's seen it all and he's been everywhere he knows greg he knows rosa he knows he's he's interacted with everyone in between the lowest men on the totem pole the highest man on the totem pole he knows the photographers at crossfit he knows the secretaries he knows the ceos i mean he has been around and he is active he's not just um in his he's not just crossfit diablo he is a uh crossfitter through and through trying to forward the um the the methodology the lifestyle he sees it as a good thing for the planet. And he didn't have to do this.

He was a successful guy who makes money turn into other money. He used to breed money in a previous lifetime. I worked in the investment industry for almost 30 years. And starting Diablo while I was in that industry is almost a, well, primarily because we, um, my old partner and I found a CrossFit, fell in love with it and wanted to share with other people. And, and we wanted a place where we could do it without, you know, having to try and search for, we wanted, wanted a place where we could drop weights, where we could climb 15 foot ropes, those kinds of things. And it was, you know,

so it was just one of those things we started, you know, help ourselves and then share with other people. Um, which is cool. We also, we put it, we put it on the old CrossFit message boards. We put it on the old CrossFit message boards. And then my partner at the time started a blog, and we posted, hey, come work out with us. And we had a karma jar where people could help throw in some cash for expenses. And it really just primarily because the methodology worked so well. I had done powerless, done bodybuilding stuff. I had even done a number of marathons and triathlons. And this one was like, wow, man, it could do so quick and so easily and you're never bored.

It's hard as shit. You had a karma jar in that first gym that I visited you in, the one that was just that steel box? Yes. The plastic – I forget what – oh, you know what it was? It was – the jar was for those Italian cookies that you get at Costco. Yeah, yeah. That was what that plastic was from, one of those big plastic bottles. And people would just throw money in, and they they give us checks and that kind of stuff.

Wow. And so it was just like, it was just on the honor system. How long did you guys do that? We did that for about, I want to say about before. That's incredible. Before it became unworthy, meaning we just, you know, some people were putting a lot of people in a little bit. It was, we were getting too many people coming in. So we decided to set up a membership system and a software system.

The way I remember it, and it's probably different, is it was made out of corrugated, rusted steel. It looked like it should have been torn down. It had really high ceilings zero insulation the walls were probably less than a quarter of an inch thick ceilings that were probably 20 or 30 feet high it was all it was like brown because the whole thing was rusted so you're telling me that that was basically your a giant garage gym you rented out and then people could just come and work out and then just like put like a vending machine, throw some money in this plastic jar with a hole in it. Yeah, we would. And we had scheduled.

We kind of, we kind of coordinate to get together. And the best was we actually have some video footage of this, of all coordinate to get together. That's, that's what classes used to be called. Yeah. Okay. And we would come together. It great because we have we have a couple videos of showing this we literally would sit around with a whiteboard on the floor and write you know okay would you would you would you do yesterday would you do yesterday okay we won't

do that we won't do pull-ups we won't do that okay here's the workout we'd come up with stuff that we didn't do everybody hadn't done the day before um and just kind of throw random stuff together um you know random but the crossfit you know the heart and soul of crossfit the methodology constantly varied you know you're getting old when you're when your crossfit's the opposite of that my crossfit's the opposite of that it's like okay what did i do yesterday push-ups pull-ups assault bike air Okay, I'll do that for the next 30 days. Right, short-term. I feel okay. Yes. And so when did you first affiliate? We affiliated in 2006. We launched in 2005, but our affiliation date in 2006.

We launched in 2005, but our affiliation date is 2006. And when you launched in 2005, did you just call yourself CrossFit? Yeah, we called ourselves, we applied and called ourselves Diablo CrossFit. And I think the affiliation came through. Actually, you know what? I take that back. I wasn't affiliated until 2000 i wasn't certified l1 into 2006 we affiliated in november 2005 that's what it was and i when i i didn't find crossfit until 2006 and when i started there at the end of 2006 there were i think less than

300 gyms in the world which would mean that you are currently got it i would guess maybe one of the top 10 gyms oldest gyms i think we are now gyms that are gyms that are around at the time we signed up i think we were like 52 number 52 um and uh most many of those are no longer affiliated or closed or and I heard Curtis Bowler's the oldest gym now but I wonder if that's really a gym or if he's just

holding on to the name and he's just a garage at his house I mean because he's CrossFit through and through I mean you cut him open and he bleeds CrossFit for sure yeah there's a it's that, uh, that literally have kind of shut down their major operations, but want to hang on to their affiliation, which is a neat thing. I mean,

it's 15 years doing this is a long time. And do you still pay that original affiliate fee? Um, I do pay the affiliate fee. I don't brag about it. Um, because it's one of those things where I feel like, and it's a $500 fee for those who want to know. But I get a hell of a lot more value out of it. And I've even had conversations with CrossFit to talk about paying them more. I want to say this is true about every affiliate, but I don't know. But in the years that I worked there, you brought – maybe CrossFit should have paid you to be an affiliate.

You're an exemplary affiliate who brings so much value to the name. I mean you guys keep it real. It's health first. Um, you can be a games athlete there, but you also have the, um, you also, you also, yeah, you're, you're a leader, you're a leader in the community and you there's, you have people there who couldn't lay down and couldn't stand up on their own. And now they're, you've given them their life back. So, I mean, you've done it all. I want to start with a story. I want to tell a story.

You can totally change it when I'm done because I don't know if it's true. It's just how I remember it. I was working at CrossFit. And the CEO at the time and Bruce Edwards, the operations officer, I found out that they were going to visit you. This is around 2017 or 18. They were going to visit you. And this is around 2017 or 18. They were going to visit you in Pleasanton, California, where your gym was at the time. And they were going to drive up Pleasant Hill, California at the time. And they were driving up there. And basically, before they went up there, they thought that you were going to tell them you had some

investment opportunities, that it was some business idea, you were going to tell them you had some investment opportunities, that it was some business idea you were going to present to them, something really big. And they were excited to go up there. And this was right at the exact same time that Greg had changed the – and this is prior to me doing the CrossFit podcast. Greg had started change – or maybe I was doing the podcast. But anyway, either way, Greg had basically told us, hey, we're no longer just going to focus on tip of the spear.

Before then, Greg, CrossFit had only, only wanted to focus on tip of the spear. And for those of you who don't know what that means, Greg's plan was, hey, let's sell a program. He would never use that word sell. Let's share a program for free to the world that makes people the healthiest, fittest and makes their lives the longest. And if their job, if their life depends in their job if their life depends on their fitness this fitness program will save their lives and he said but this program is

for like people who are um non-ambulatory not mobile they can it can be scaled infinitely but we won't talk about that until you first get your foot in the door because it's always easy to back fill we sell to navy seals olympians and pro athletes and then we backfill because if you're like richard simmons even though you might have a good program and those of you don't know who richard simmons is look them up um if you're if you're if you're on the front end you're showing the world that you you take 100 pounds off of obese housewives you're not going to get navy seals to do it so his plan was is to focus on the tip of the spear and then once you if, if you scratch the surface of CrossFit, you'll see that that's not just what it's about. It's actually for everyone. But basically, we'll shoot a cannon. But if you come into our,

if you scratch the surface, you'll see we also have little pea shooters and we have everything. We have every kind of gun. So at that point, 2017, 18, Greg said, hey, I want you guys to start focusing on the other end of the spear. And we're like, what's that? He goes, I want you to really start catering on the front end to obese people and super unhealthy people. And there was enormous pushback at CrossFit HQ. I mean everybody, everybody, the dipshit CEO we had, the great Dave Castro, Nicole Carroll, myself, everyone, all the way down, all the executives were pushing back. This is crazy. We're going to destroy the brand.

We're going to destroy the brand value. Greg wanted us to put people who are 100 pounds overweight, overhead squatting on the front end. Nuts. Crazy. He wanted us to really, really start pushing scaling. He wanted us to show us old people working on it. It was nuts. But after about a year, we started doing it.

And it basically came down to I was in a meeting with all the executives, and Greg looked at me and goes, I've been telling you to do this for a fucking year, and you haven't, and I better see it today, and I fucking went into Leif Edmondson's office, who was the head publisher for CrossFit Inc., and I said, hey, we got to start changing shit, and we started doing transformative stories every single week, 10 to 20-minute videos of people whose lives had been profoundly changed by crossfit by weight loss so there was this huge change okay so so that was happening and we saw a skyrocket in every single metric at dot com journal sales skyrocketed l1 sales skyrocketed and we re we re

we started talking about the l1 as the cure for chronic disease and the uh operating manual for the human human genome and we started talking about it being the cure for type 2 diabetes. We really just started, and Greg was really frustrated, and he blamed himself, that we had 100,000 trainers out there to make the fittest people in the world, but they also didn't all, they weren't all acutely aware that they also had the cure for chronic disease. So we wanted to let them all know that that's what they had. Hey, that's not only a chair you're sitting on, but you can pick it up and break it over someone's head. Get what I'm saying? That chair is also a weapon. This L1 is not only to make Craig

Howard's win the games in 2013, but it can also save your grandma from getting Alzheimer's. Okay. So they go up there to visit Craig Howard in Pleasant Hill, California at this beautiful, fantastic, uber successful Jimmy has. And Craig sits them down and he says to them, this is the story I hear. and he says to them this is the story i hear and he says to them hey i was planning on de-affiliating because i just wasn't didn't think i was getting the value out of crossfit that i wanted and then something really strange happened the other day and they said what and they greg said someone came into my gym and they were over 100 pounds overweight and um i had them lie down in the prone position and they were over 100 pounds overweight. And I had them lie down in the prone position

and they couldn't stand up. And in my 15 years of whatever, owning a CrossFit gym or doing CrossFit, I had never had to coach someone to stand up. And I believe that it was the media that you guys are making that made this person feel comfortable to come to my gym.

And I really appreciate that and the new look on clientele and basically the new purpose in life you're giving us by letting us now I really appreciate that. And the new look on clientele and the, and basically the new purpose in life you're giving us by letting us now help really sick people. So, so the CEO and, and, and, and, and Bruce came back and I don't know if they were disappointed that, that Craig didn't, wasn't sharing them a half billion dollar idea that they thought he was going to share. And he was just saying he wasn't going to de-affiliate. But I was profoundly touched by that. Is that story true?

Yes. Most of the elements of that story are true. There's just some minor details related to it that differ. We had considered, along with our affiliates, de-affiliating the reason being that we weren't, that the brand had become Diablo, Diablo had become, um, so well known in our area that we didn't necessarily need to have our line with the CrossFit brand. Um, and that's what-

Say that again. Say that one more time. Say that one more time. And that's what say that again. Say that one more time. Say that one more time. So we had established ourselves so well in our area, our geographic area that we didn't need to rely on or or be associated necessarily with the CrossFit brand represents an entity that we couldn't necessarily control that could affect our brand or our day-to-day business with, you know, at any moment, negatively or positively. And we had the opportunity to, you know, and we considered, how do we manage that? Do we remove ourselves from the CrossFit brand? You know, that we don't have to worry about that variable or do we continue to align with it? And especially with the change in the marketing direction

that CrossFit was taking. But we, in the other part of, we were doing these transformations. They became very popular in terms of helping people are helping affiliates go to business transformation. And a lot of affiliates were doing it. As a matter of fact, Tommy Hackenbrook was the one who reached out to me. We had a, I had.

So you're saying when we started doing it at CrossFit, you had already started doing that. So it was more like we were finally aligning with some of the leading affiliates as opposed to, okay, that's good for me to hear. Cause this whole time I thought it was just all us were finally aligning with some of the leading affiliates as opposed to okay that's good for me to hear because this whole time i thought it was just all us leading the way that's awesome so so basically we had we had watched what you guys were doing and saw the value of it and jumped on board is another way to say it yeah yeah is another way to say it um i think that we just kind of mutually arrived at the same conclusion yeah i'm okay i'm okay with either way

i'm i'm i'm a very very humble arrogant man what tommy and his team found out is that you can market the transformation methodology and and drive a lot of people to your business um and and what was amazing was the the life stories and it was it was 80 women was the life stories and it was 80% women that were coming. And we had to interview them and then... Which is weird

because it's usually 80% men who are coming and it's the women who are complaining. And that's what was cool. That was a great joke, you guys. Even though Craig's pretending he didn't get it,

that was a great joke. They came in, they'd sit out in these interviews to see if they qualified and they try to sell you on why they wanted it why they did this program and that was almost uncomfortable for us at first but the stories that we would hear i personally said i personally did i literally probably 300 400 of those interviews over a two-year period of time, was that they felt uncomfortable in gyms. They didn't have the time because they were taking care of others,

their children, spouses. They didn't come because their friends and their spouses and their family made them feel uncomfortable or for being selfish for going to the gym. These stories that you heard, I cried in several of these meetings. And it was amazing to have them and then be a part of other people, be a part of a group of similar people in a similar situation. So that woman that, um, that you were referring to that Jeff Kane talked about, um, weighed probably 400 pounds and she was Samoan descent. I'm super kind woman. And she, um, we would, the part of the introductory processes, we all have, we have them

all sit on the floor and we sit with them and we talk about the program that this is the first this is the first class talk about the program that we're going to do and how we're going to um um work out you know what we think about nutrition all of those those things when we went to sit down she leaned in uh i can't sit down because if i sit on the floor i won't be up and i to me, I was like, no, no, no, don't worry. You know, my coach is here. You know, everything will be fine. And I go, if you want to sit in a chair, it's fine. She goes, no, I'll try.

So she sat out on the floor. We talked. And then I said, okay, let's get up. We're going to move into the other room. And she looked, and she had this panic look. And I literally started sweating. I'm like, okay, oh, crap. And so I said, here, let me give you a hand.

And I put my hand out to grab her and I went to pull. And if anybody's pulled dead weight, 400 pounds, not like a deadlift, but I literally felt like I might damage her arm or her hand. And I went to pull and I couldn't lift. And then I really got nervous. I'm like, oh crap. I had never been in a situation where I couldn't get someone off the floor. Someone's very, very heavy. My coach, thank goodness. Kyle's Isaiah, um, at the time, um, stepped in and said,

Hey, can you, can you turn over on your side? And he goes, yeah, I turn on her side and he goes, can you get on all fours? Yeah. She got on all fours. And then she pushed herself up onto her knees and then she stood up and the women, the other women that were there, it was like eight or 10 other women there. Cause I think it was class of 12 started cheering and she had got this big old smile on her face. And I was just, I was completely relieved, literally completely relieved. And it was, she got her first WOD in. Yeah. She got her first workout in. She, she ended up moving really well by the end of it she was great um and and so that to me was just a kind of a uh uh revolutionary moment in my thinking that man we've got work to do and and it and you know how functional

is getting up off off the floor can i ask you a question that's off topic a little bit sure i really like the rock Can I ask you a question that's off topic a little bit? Sure. I really like The Rock. Dwayne Johnson. Sure. He's cool. His Instagram is sweet. He talks to his phone.

He's half black and half Samoan. Yeah. He's really fit. He's got an Armenian wife. He's a father. And during this last two years, I don't know what to call these last two years. He released a tequila, an energy drink, and an ice cream. Yeah. And I really don't care what race or ethnicity someone is.

I mean, I like the fact that I got, you know, the half Jew, half Armenian kids. I think that's just cool as shit. Just like Great Danes are cool, you know? Like, I just think, I just am happy. Do you think that that's, I mean, I don't know the rock's position, but are you okay with someone like that who's like so – how do you – you had a client who is Samoan. You have those people who are trapped on an island who are basically being – I mean not that your client, but allow me to kind of swerve around a little bit. You have these people who are trapped on these islands out in the middle of the ocean.

They probably love their lives, and they're being influenced hugely by western culture and what they eat and their lifestyle and and that you have the biggest guy the the most famous kindest coolest guy in the world selling them tequila um ice cream and energy drinks like is that okay i mean i know it's a free market you were you were you're an investment guy like like how do you how does someone like that i mean we know those people if you look at and if you look at um deaths from this current situation those islands are all at the top i'm not i'm not exaggerating go look they're all those islands are all at the top and then go look at their obesity rates those like there's 20 islands you've never heard of that are countries that are all at the top they're his people right uh he's an opportunist

and and it's you know having very little in a difficult family situation as i understand it to to rise to popularity and influence and he's obviously leveraging that window of time in Hollywood where he's capturing the attention of so many people to gain as much, I think, reap as much reward as he can. And I understand that mentality. Understand that mentality. I'm sure he's what I eat and display that I eat. I don't send a mixed message. Not that you're being fake, but you're aware of your influence. That's correct. And you also appreciate sort of

the peer pressure you're comfortable with the peer pressure yes and i so i the answer to you no i don't and uh you don't what i don't agree with his choices yeah, his choices and the promotion of those, the beverages, the tequila, I mean, alcoholism in this country and alcohol has in general has contributed, you know, the massive, you know, increase in obesity in this country over the last, especially over the last two years where it's accelerated and people are forced to endure. I wonder what else he could sell that. I mean, I want him to be rich as fuck. I want him to be happy. I really enjoy that he promotes his workouts and the intensity in the gym and how

essential to his success. I love that. I'm certain that he probably consciously thinks that that's the balance. His tequila has become the number one selling tequila in the country. And he's a powerful marketing machine. And he's cool.

Do you think he's cool? Yeah, I do. Absolutely. I love his movies. He has nice skin. He smiles a lot. But islanders in particular, you're're right are an at-risk population in hawaii in general as a per capita obesity crisis oh dude if you if you type in a fattest countries in the world

it's it's all those it's all those countries all the the the uh what's that Disney movie? Maui? Oh, yeah. It's all those countries. It's crazy. And I don't want to hear anything about it being genetics and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Shut the fuck up. I know what it is. It's McDonald's and Frappuccinos. I know exactly what it is because I see those people in my local Starbucks.

For breakfast, they get a venti caramel Frappuccino. Sorry, Trenta, Trenta. And it's the, that's education information. Um, it's, you know, it, it, it, it's a repetitive, repetitive, a positive messaging that's necessary to influence change. Um, what's, what's the part that's sad is the, is the kid. And you, you know, you set them up on a course if, they're obese as children, it is, I think, five to 10 times more difficult for someone that has been obese as a child. It's a harder struggle.

They don't have anything mentally to relate to. They don't have a place that they've been where they understand what it feels like, looks like, and all of those things. And two, physiologically. More fat cells are earned before age 11 than any time in human development. And so now you've got more fat cells that are able to gather and store more fat.

It's just a terrible recipe for disaster. And the influence on children is significant. You know, you can say tequila, you can say the ZOA drink is, you know, targeted for adults. It's sugar-free. It's sugar-free. But, man, reality is is much different um what do you think about this what do you think about this thing and for those of you who don't know uh you should check out um diablo crossfit's instagram you should check out craig's instagram

and you should scroll back if you don't follow him i'm sure i'm guessing most of you guys do already follow him he's basically been at the forefront of four affiliates for keeping his gym open and continuing to spread health during a time when policies are spreading sickness. And that's not hyperbole. That's not my opinion. The facts are out. Well, 40 percent of Americans have gained more than 30 pounds. Childhood obesity is running rampant. And you can, this is the worst thing that can happen to a society is fat children. It's worse than the spread of AIDS. It's worse than the

spread of black flu. It's worse than like when you have obesity spreading in children, you have, this is, this is worse than any virus. This is really, really, really bad, people, for two reasons. Because one, it becomes a huge – we need people to be contributing to society. But – and I know so many people are going to hate me for this, but it's the truth. Obese people, it also affects your brain and the way you think. If your brain is swimming in insulin, you are not thinking clearly. You are not a fucking sane person. Sorry.

Go ahead, Craig. Well, those things with a – in the last two years, a culture of tolerance and acceptance and inclusion, it becomes more difficult to get people to change. Wow. God. It's funny. I've never heard it worded just like that. I like you just you just like. So, oh, man, it's a gasoline. It's a gasoline fire and pouring gasoline on it to put it out. becomes offensive to challenge people to, or to, to encourage people to, to change to that would affect their health or, or at first it's affect their appearance because telling me to be thin, but even, you know, and if you tell people, Hey, no, I want you to be healthy. They say, yeah,

but what you're really saying is you want me to be thin for you. And, and man, that's, And, man, that's – it makes you want to give up. I do a lot of posts basically saying that things along this line where the average life expectancy is 13.7 months. And there's 1.4 million of those people in nursing homes. And we've been doing this for 24 months. So figure it out, people. All those people are going to die. The number is going to go over a million.

I say stuff like, hey, show me one person who's not obese who's died. And occasionally someone will send me one. occasionally someone will send me one but but then i i find out that they were either uh abuser of steroids or they were a professional triathlete who lived off of goo packs and had a uh um a1c of 12 you know basically they lived off of sugar which was um making it impossible for their immune system to work and and and i say this over and over and then finally someone will say so what you're saying is is that fat old people don't have a once that once i've got them cornered that it's just fat old people who are dying they get me cornered and they say they think they have me cornered and they say oh so what you're saying is this fat old people don't have a right to live and i say okay you you want to if you use that

logic and you think that's what i'm saying which which it's not what I'm saying, then what you're saying is, is that fat old people have the right to live at the cost of creating fat kids. But let's talk about what else it does, because it's a scale. You want me to take certain actions to save these people who are 80 years old and obese so that they can live another year in their nursing home. We're talking about the 40% of people who've died. Okay. What are those actions and what are the implications? You know, some kids have died. You know, some kids have been molested. You know, some kids have been abused. Don't deny it. I want to tell you something. I suspect that the iPhone that I use every day uses child labor and that there's people who are forced to work in these iPhone factories and that there's bad situations.

Yet I still buy the iPhone. I don't lie to myself. I urge you to stop lying to yourself to think that the policies put in place to save this planet from this virus have done more good than bad. They have not. Stop. You have to look at the other side of the scale. If you want to tell me about all the good it's done, you have to tell me at what cost. It's the same people who believe that when the government tells them, hey, city college is going to be free. No, it's not. There's no such thing. Someone has to pay those teachers.

It's so crazy to me how easily people are being duped and our poor doctors. Our doctors are racing to support – to get in line to support the government policy instead of to support what they learned in school. Oh, the doctors. It's so sad. They're going to be the new teachers. They're going to start getting paid nothing. It's going to be bad. Anyone who's listening to this, the reason why you have to be healthy – these aren't my words these are great glassman's from 10 years ago is because

you do not want to need a doctor it's going to get it's going to get bad that that's interesting and it's probably i'm i'm and i'm the anecdotal evidence i I hate going to the hospital. I hate, I don't like going to see a doctor and it's, you know, maybe that's the, you know, it's never ending. It's like the prison system. Yeah. I go, I get uncomfortable when I walk into a hospital. So I'm, annoy is one of the motivators for me, the fear of pain, right. That, that motivates me to stay healthy and fit. I, I, you know, I don't eat certain things because I'm, uh, I don't want to be in the doctor's office. I don't want to have to take medication. I, incidentally, I was one, I was one of those triathletes that

had triglycerides, um, off the charts back in, uh, probably 1999, 2000. And my doctor wanted to put me on medication to lower my triglycerides. And I was essentially glucose dependent, right? To fuel the workouts that I was doing, the tremendous amount of workouts I was doing, but it was driving my, you know, and I was probably had suffering from,

we didn't talk about that at the time. And so I read, I went home. I was freaked out. And he told me that triglycerides are the leading indicator, one of the leading indicators for heart disease and potential heart disease. And it didn't matter how fit I was, you know, that if I didn't get this under control, I was going to be in trouble. So I did a bunch of reading Atkins' book. And I said, you know what? This makes a hell of a lot of sense because I was so sugar-dependent and carb-dependent.

That's why I love doing triathlon. What was your – oh, wow. I never thought of it like that. Yeah. Oh, that's like people who like The Grateful Dead. It's because they really like mushrooms and ecstasy. Holy shit. Wow.

Is that – wow. I never thought of it like that you like the triathlon because i always thought you ate the goo packs so that you could fuel that but what you're saying is is you do that so that you can eat the goo packs wow yeah i see it i totally see it wow we had we had it's like i thought i was an alcoholic but i wasn't an alcoholic i was a sugar addict because i don't drink anymore and it's so easy not to drink and like I had a drink this weekend and it was disgusting we had a weekly triathlon on Saturday mornings and often we'd run and we'd go swim in Barton Springs and then we'd go over to the I can't remember the name at the moment of the restaurant we go to to have breakfast and it

would be it was buttermilk pancakes and maple syrup like a big stack of buttermilk pancakes and maple syrup and that was the you know replacing essentially the the glycogen in our liver which but the you know it was a massive amount of glucose and the rest of it would probably it was you know spiking our insulin you know go home then i'd go home and take a nap it was the fourth part yes fourth fourth leg of that trap for those of you out there who are addicted to beer every night, like you have to have one beer, two beers, three beers, four beers, five years more. If you want to try to get off of that beer, what I recommend to you is when you want to have your beer, eat a piece of fruit. And, uh, and if you really want to spoil yourself, you can do it the

way I do it. I have frozen berries in the freezer and i put a little heavy cream on there and it freezes on there like magic shell heavy cream and frozen fruit is amazing but um and you will see that all of a sudden you don't want to drink it i think that if some of you who are like me i drank for the sugar and i thought i was drinking for the alcohol but i'm not it's the same thing when i meet people who have to like put like sugar in their coffee or they need fancy fuf-foo drinks. I'm like, all you really want is the caffeine. Just chase the caffeine. Stop chasing the sugar.

Every time you do something bad, you want to eat something bad, just start with a piece of fruit. Make it the least damaging kind of sugar. And you'll see you can wean yourself. Don't be a sugar addict and an alcohol addict like get rid of the alcohol and just give yourself a little sugar sorry go ahead people people need to come to terms with um the fact that your body has automatic responses to things um that your mind cannot control the need for um sweet things um is usually a you know you're craving for the dopamine response right so you're you're in your body is going to crave it your mind will

rationalize it and as soon as you and you have that's which makes i'm sure the addiction i love they had known addicts several addict several addicts, including my family. It makes it so difficult because your body, you assume it's a, well, one beer is not bad or two beers are not bad or whatever it is, or, you know, the big bowl of ice cream, you know, at night, those things are, you know, not bad. Your body is driving that decision it's it's it's created this automated system now where it's going to get this stimulation it's going to make your you know your brain's going to send signals wow that was that's awesome that's good you feel much better and and your and your mentality rationalized so your your your ego raps is it to make it okay and then you have to you have to crush that you gotta you gotta you gotta you gotta put your ego aside and say no you know your your physical

self is not in control um automated response it's a big problem we have in society it it it absolutely is enormous and then what automated response leads to is the whole the acceptance this is the way i am it's what you've created you've created these these pathways that you know the providing your body the sugar to give you that dopamine response that makes you feel better. I understand. I'm going to throw in something out there. It's a hard truth, I think, for a lot of people to follow, and I know that's pretty self-serving to start a statement like that. But when people talk about free will, the only free will you have as a human being is to do nothing.

So if you're doing something and you think that it is your free will, you are lying to yourself. I know that's so hard to get your head wrapped around, but I'm going to give you an example. It's in that movie Terminator 1. There's a point where the robot, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a list of ideas, someone says something to him and a list of responses pops up. Like punch the guy, say hello, and then one of them says, fuck you, asshole. And he chooses it and says, fuck you, asshole.

That is the reality of life. Your free will is to do nothing. And what do I mean by nothing? I mean lay perfectly still and die. That's it. That is your free will. Anything else is you basically reacting to something and choosing a choice. And so what meditation is, listen carefully people, is when you see those list of choices but in humans

they don't come up like a list like that that's just in the movie in humans it comes up one by one so i'll give you an example you're driving down the road and someone cuts you off your automated response will be fuck you if you're meditating you see that fuck you pop up and you see it pass you've done nothing that was your free will to do nothing now another option you pop up and you see it pass. You've done nothing. That was your free will to do nothing. Now another option will pop up and this one pops up in a lot of us and it's cool. It's to roll down your window and wave and say, sorry, that's the one I choose. I always let that first one go. It's stupid. I cut him off even if I didn't cut him off. Well, why am I saying fuck you to the guy? Because that was my automated automated response and then I can let that one go too and each one that you let go

that's you imposing your free will on yourself doing nothing but don't act like you have choices don't act like you're in control of your choices your choices are fed to you I don't know where they come from but you don't have free will sorry that was my high horse.

No, I like that. But that helps with that daily battle. I want to eat sugar, but just watch that thought and let it go by. I have great genetics, but I have my head. You really do have great genetics. Life is not fair. Life is not fair. Life is not fair. But I battle in my head all the time, and I fight it.

Did you hear that, people? We all fight it. It's not easy for anyone. It's not easy for Rich Froning. It's not easy for me. It's not easy for Craig Howard. It's not easy for, like, and I'm saying I'm on the other end of Rich Froning and Craig Howard. Everyone is fighting to be a better person.

It comes easy for nobody. If you feel sorry for yourself, just accept it. Feel sorry for yourself and move on. All of us are doing that. No one is special. Nobody. When people walk – when new people walk into our gym and and they're deconditioned they walk into our gym um and i i caution them i've done i we do tours

where we do a 15 minute tour um and we walk into the gym and we and we show them class we show them where the open gym area is we show them where the weightlifting area is and i caution before i go and i look i look you're gonna walk in here and you're gonna see really fit people because i know it and they're and it doesn't matter who it is what the body type is and if you see someone moving really well with a barbell or a kettlebell or a box you're gonna look at that person go shit they shit, their fit is off. And so when they, I can just literally see their facial expression change. And I tell them, everybody in here has a backstory. There's a backstory. There's the guy that lost a hundred pounds.

There's the guy that, you know, type, type one diabetes. There's the girl that, you know, has, you know, an amputation. There's everybody's got a backstory. There's the recovering alcoholic that you know has you know an amputation there's everybody's got a backstory there's the recovering alcoholic all of those things there's a lot of those there's a lot of those and you start and you start there are and you start to tell but you know you spend a few minutes talking to people and they'll tell you their backstory yeah but but they can't they come here and they turn into this because one it works and two it's like they it's fun as hell so they want to come back and three they there is people that motivate them to come back they want to be around it well i've never seen in the more in our entire you know 16 year life of existence in these last two years uh people

my members saying to me they're coming to diablo crossfit because they want to people that um are what they're into and think like they do. These last two years has been just monumental for that. And so I caution people, this is going to be you. And then I tell them, now, a year from now, you're going to be that person. Someone else is going to walk through and they're going to see you and they're going to be like, oh, I could never be as fit as that person. And they look at me like, ah. But usually it gets them and it happens over and over and over again, one person at a time, unfortunately.

But it happens. It's like a bar, right? You go there to drink because you want to drink, but you stay and keep going to the bar because it's the same people that you like. You end up liking the bartender. I'm not going to – I haven't talked about it on a website anymore, but I'm not afraid to tell people. I'm not motivational coaches for the apathetic. I'm not going to call you and go, hey, you need to come into the gym. Hey, haven't seen you.

We have automated emails that'll say, hey, you know, I haven't seen you in a couple weeks. But the reason why people are coming is not because of messages that I might send. Because they're getting a text message from like two or three other people in the class. Tomorrow's an awesome workout. You're going to kill this one. Or are you coming tomorrow? We're all going to get together afterwards and go somewhere. And you set that culture on the on-ramp? Yes, absolutely. Do you ever have to police that culture?

I heard a story the other day. Go ahead. Community is a double the other day. Go ahead. Community is a double. Yeah. And what the, the part of it we have to manage is. Hey, could you hold on one second? Sorry. This is, this is, this is my, this is my neighbor.

I wonder if my dog ran over to his house. Oh boy. Let's see. Let's see. Hey Jim, what's up? Uh, yeah, I'm just in the middle of a podcast and normally I don't answer my phone in the middle of a podcast but when the neighbor calls, I think, oh shit,

is the neighborhood on fire? Okay, bye. Oh, that's good. He said he'll call me later. That's good. That's a good sign. That means there's nothing bad. Because sometimes it'll be like, dude, your dog's over at my house. Yeah. Shit like that. And he's got like five dogs and 20 chickens and i love having good neighbors uh so it's the difference maker when

you're in a house you live in so it's a double it's a double-edged sword i would tell you a quick story so there was a um i there's a jujitsu um studio that my kids go to and i heard recently one of the guys there made he was um uh rolling with one of the women and he made a comment that made her feel uncomfortable after they were done rolling i forget what it was but something was something like i need i need a pretty girl like you at home or something something that and you know jujitsu is like so fucking intimate like you gotta like it's so crazy intimate and uh and so i heard that like the owner went over and talked to him like hey dude you can't do that shit like you can't like don't make anyone feel uncomfortable. Do you have to police that at your gym?

Yeah, you have to set clear boundaries and stand. You're the normal, you know, human resources stuff that helps keep your coaches in line and, you know, within the lines. But I mean, within the lines. But I mean even the clients. What you have to be vigilant about is, and Tony Budding, you know, the old media director of lacrosse, but the best is the no asshole rule is you've got to, you've got to cut cancer out before it permeates the community. I don't like that coach because at this gym is not good because I'm doing

other programming at so-and-so because it's better. So you hear that and you just go right over to the member of your gym and you're like, hey dude, either shut the fuck up or beat it? By the way um i've somehow shit rolls uphill because i'm that guy that has to have those difficult conversations

and it you need to wear deodorant like oh like so like your staff will tell you that yeah well yeah so hey that that member you know that member you know it everybody knows that guy stinks anything about it right so i'm the guy that has i'm the, that member, you know, everybody knows that guy stinks anything about it. Right. So I'm the guy that has, I'm the one that has the conversation with him. Oh, I like my interpretation of what you said better that people have to actually tell you stuff like, Hey, Craig, you got to start wearing deodorant. Okay. Craig, you can't take two parking spaces in the parking lot. You jackass. I thought it was like that. You know, what's interesting is I'm, I make, I also make myself approachable and i've told this i tell my coaches and staff this but you know i'm not above reproach and i i had a

coach tell me you need to smile more you're walking in here you walk in here and you're you know you look like you're pissed you got a lot on your mind and you're not smiling members and i've had a couple members send me like what's with craig or is he upset oh like walking in holding a coke in your hand. Yeah. You better put that Coke down and put a fucking smile on your face. Fake that shit. And again, it's that double-edged sword, right?

Because as a business owner, I walk in and I see, you know, people parked in, you know, coaches parked up front in the front parking spot or trash in the parking lot. Or I see boxes put back in the wrong spot, or I see, you know, bumper plates, you know, not stacked the right way. And, you know, those little things that annoy a business owner, like you start to build and you're like, fuck. Like, I can't believe I'm, you know,

I got to do this again today. And that messaging people get, you know, they want to see my smiling face welcoming me into that gym. And it's part of a welcoming community. Are the lead or the head pastor in a church. And if the pastor's not there and passionately involved in the community, what the hell. Anytime we've had multiple locations, it was the most difficult thing to manage. How many locations do you have now?

We have one location, one big beautiful location. And what's the most you've had? We've had as many as four locations at the same time. Either a partnership or an ownership. What's the slowest – do you have someone at your gym who their Fran time is 38 minutes? Yeah, I do. Sure. And do you have someone with a Fran time who's three minutes? Yes, I do. A couple people there do have that.

And they train side by side? Yeah, they do. You know what's great? And a woman, she came in to check out the gym, and I happened to be the guy she saw first. So I said, you know what? Screw it. I'll take him on. I'm going to show you around.

And as I walked in, the class was doing a workout,, the class was doing a workout and there was someone there that was smashed. Uh, it was toes to bar and we had doing actual toes to bar. We had someone doing knee hangs and we had someone doing sit-ups like right in the same class where I could see it. Once you know, I go, those three people right now in that portion of class are doing the same workout. And, and she looked at me and i said the workout is toes where you see one girl doing toes bar and i go that's a complex gymnastics movement it takes a lot of skill and takes a lot of fitness and i said you see the girl next door she's progressing she's doing knee raises instead and the other girl you see she's just getting started with us you know literally i was so cool um Um, yeah, that is awesome. It is. That is awesome.

And one isn't better than the other. Yeah. And I, we have an RX plus group. That's essentially the athletes that want, and I, you know, I, they'll tell you my messaging to them and I come down hard on them as I need to see you in class at least twice a week. And they enjoy it. And our members enjoy it because they want to aspire to that. They want to see you in class at least twice a week. And they enjoy it. And our members enjoy it because they want to aspire to that. They want to see them on the leaderboard. They want to, they, they, they're drawn up. Greg Glassman's philosophy of the tip of the spear was right. Look at Instagram. They did. People aren't motivated. Who gets the most followers? The person that gets the most followers is the beautifully, awesomely fit.

It's just those things. It's one of those autonomous responses in our brains. We see that, and we're drawn to that. And if those people are doing CrossFit and doing it, then something must be right. By the way, if you're one of those people who's an influencer who has shitloads of followers and is beautiful, please do not, please do not. Even if you are a fucking piece of shit victim mentality, please do not preach that. You know, that's not how you got to where you are. LeBron, you know, you didn't get there with the victim mindset. Please stop preaching it. Serena Williams, you know, you didn't get there with the victim mindset please stop preaching it please do everyone a favor and stop spreading that disease in the mind that's not what you

did to get where you are that's not where you are jeff bezos you you weren't a bitch when you climbed to the top why are you supporting black lives matters why aren't you supporting black lives we fucking tool we sorry by the way congratulations on going to space jeff i do think that's cool shit good job pushing the envelope i mean i i i do but i just hate this this these people who you know excelled and yet they share the victim mindset no no no one got to the top with the victim mindset except politicians that's the only job in the world where you can get to the top by preaching victim mindset no other job it's pandering pandering to the conventional uh thinking yeah you want to be popular don't want to be popular and help people and the fear of the fear

of getting canceled is is real yeah once again was just saying today, earlier today on my live Instagram, if you are independently wealthy, you owe it to the world to not be afraid to get canceled. That is your only obligation. And I understand it. So many people yesterday, this guy from Homeland Security was like, dude, I'm tripping. I go, why? go why he goes i'm at the border it's fucking pure fucking chaos here and and we're short-staffed and it's fucking nuts and he's sending me videos and then he says and i have three kids and i said okay be safe you know don't do anything stupid he goes that's not what i'm worried about i'm gonna lose my job if i don't get the injection by november and like we have a right we have to stand up for those people those of us who like who have already been canceled or who don't care or like people like me who can scrape by and i can still put food on my table no matter what i say we have to stand up for those people we have members in our in our gym

that are in police department and in the hospitals nurses and doctors that are in the same situation and it's a terrible struggle. These are people that want to serve, help other people. I would stand up for anyone who wants to get vaccinated too. Don't get me wrong. I'll stand up for anyone who wants to do what they want to do. Yeah, it's a choice. I want to stand up for all of you.

Yeah. Don't let anyone push you around. Craig, would you be willing to walk me through? I know it's been just crazy, but if we go back and just start about when you first heard about policies that were going to start affecting you based on this virus and like where you are today. I know it's going to be hard to remember every because there's been so many ups and downs. But what year was it? When did when did the government start interfering with your business in regards to this virus? And how did you hear about it?

By the way, he's in Northern California. Are you in Contra Costa County just outside of San Francisco? Yeah. Okay. So we're – what impacts us most is the state regulations and the county regulations. City regulations, city just – they've defaulted to the county. That was early on. they defaulted to the county um that was early on um but for us the the first mandate the first shutdown was in uh march of 2020 and we understood it and and because nobody knew what this virus was

all we were seeing was video clips from china so march 2020 yeah march 2020 is when the first shutdown started okay and uh that was supposed to go a couple of weeks. It ended up going about six weeks. And how do you find out about that as a business owner? How many square feet is your lot? Not just your gym, but your entire lot where you're at? Yeah, where we're at. Gym space, the combined space is 12,000 square feet.

I probably got another 12,000 square feet. I probably got another 12,000 of available space and parking area. And you're in a high-foot traffic area? Where are you? Are you still in Pleasant Hill? Yeah, we're in Pleasant Hill, and we're in the light industrial area of Pleasant Hill, which is super convenient. We've benefited tremendously from our location. It's very close to retail.

Where are you? What street are you on? I want to see if I can remember. I grew up there as a kid. Yeah. So we're off of, uh, we're off of a monument bus Kirk, but my, yep. And, uh, by that old Capri theater by that old theater in Montgomery wards, you're back. Yeah. That is literally 800 from our doorstep.

Is, um, is Caesar Gracie there, jiu-jitsu? Gracie is in the area, but he's not there. Because I saw, I know this is totally off subject, I saw Nick Diaz was training there for his fight this weekend. Oh, interesting. Because that was his original teacher. That's who he got his black belt from. I couldn't believe it was in Pleasant Hill, California. Crazy.

Yeah, the Gracies are Walnut Creek, Ple creek pleasant hill yeah okay smart smart guys nice area okay so so the march 2020 and how do you find out that you have to close for two weeks um we um i was on a email list from the county from our county supervisor that's how i I found out. Dear Diablo CrossFit, for two weeks, we want you to shut your business down. Yeah, well, it was dear businesses in the county. We were asking you to close down for two weeks

until we flattened the curve, essentially. And did you guys do that? Yeah, we did. We closed for six weeks. And during that time, the first week, we weren't sure what the hell to do. And then what we did is, like many classes on Zoom, and we loaned out equipment to our members.

That was the big issue. A lot of members wanted to do workouts, but they didn't have the equipment. And so we loaned out 600 pieces of equipment from dumbbells, kettlebells, bumper plates. And then Coach Jamie, he designed workouts around those things. And I literally pulsed the entire time of the pandemic because he was having to just write new workouts you know and then scale scale right workouts and then scale those workouts like literally on the fly week to week to week to week and he delivered uh which was awesome um what was his name jake he's been around he's a former crossfit affiliate owner and uh we came... Is he a black guy?

No. My best friend in the seventh and eighth grade was named James Lee. And I went to Sequoia, and he was a black dude. We went to Sequoia Elementary, which is right down the street from your gym. Ah, okay. So Coach Jamie Lee is from this area.

Okay. Been in CrossFit, I think it's almost as long as I have. And now because of – Was he my best friend in the seventh and eighth grade? I'm struggling with this. And maybe he just bleached his skin white or something. Not so sure about that.

But he's been in there. But now he is. We took his programming business, and we call it progressive programming or PRs all day. It's a little bit of a commercial. But he runs that and that's his business and i'm a partner in it with him which is kind of cool so coach grew from being a coach to to head coach at diablo to now he has his own programming business and he still coaches but just so he took so he was your programmer diablo crossfit and then during the pandemic you he had to fucking get his PhD in programming.

Just take it to the next level. And then he parlayed that into an online business program called – what's it called? Yeah, I figure what. It's called the Progressive Programming. Wow, that is really cool. I love shit like that. It is very cool. Oh, yeah.

And why would someone do that instead of Diablo's programming? Oh, yeah. And why would someone do that instead of Diablo's programming? Because it's automatically downloaded. It is essentially our programming. That's what we do now. So you're getting our programming, but it's under another different brand. Excuse me.

By the way, you guys are doing great on SugarWad, huh? Yeah, we're doing well on SugarWad. Yeah, I go there and you guys – We're at the program. Yeah. Say that program. Yeah. Say that again? It's cool. But there is some Diablo branding in it, isn't there? Because when I go on there –

I do have – we do – it's Progressive Programming by Diablo CrossFit. We're leveraging the recognition of Diablo to help give us some credibility. Yeah, that's cool because I see when you go there and you like look for programming it's like you and Mayhem you guys are like the premier and there's a couple other ones Sugarwad you should be pushing three plane brothers programming

instead of this Diablo Mayhem nonsense I love three plane brothers programming and your Instagram do you know I got a call from Sugarwad saying that you threatened – we got a report saying you threatened to rape someone. Is that true? Really? Yes.

Good lord. So I'll tell you the story real quick. This lady on instagram started fucking trolling me and attacking me and i thought it was a dude i did not know it was a lady my mom's this this is the kind of shit that really disappoints my mom and my and my wife because they they want me to my mom wants me to be a nice man a gentleman and i am a gentleman but but i i can get pushed far i thought it was a man and he was trolling me and he said to me he cute i thought he he not i thought he accused me

of being homophobic and and i said hey if you think i said a couple things i said hey if you think i'm if you think i'm gay or homophobic why don't you come over to my house and we'll get drunk and you won't even have to put down your beer. I'll hold your dick while you take a piss. And I'll prove to you that I'm not homophobic. Like I'm a fucking Bay area kid. I attend the gay pride and they wouldn't drop it. So then I said, Hey, why don't you give me your address and I'll come wash your mouth out with my dick. And I know that's really harsh. That is the comment. And then, and then later on, someone told me, Hey, you know that's a woman. And so then that person accused me of saying I was going to rape them.

They were trolling me, right? Right. Anyway. But it was crazy that they would report me to SugarWad for that. Can you imagine picking a fight with someone on Instagram? And then I fucked her up. And then she reports me. It's like you threw a rock at me, and as you drive away, I pick it up and throw it back and hit your car, and you call the cops on me that I broke out your window. Fuck you.

Okay, sorry. I have to tell stories like that to keep the podcast interesting. I apologize. You're far too classy of a man to have to hear stuff like that. Sorry. No, that's all right. Okay, so six weeks shut down. Yes.

Yes. Six weeks shut down. And you opened back up and you've lived happily ever after since. Well, we were told that we could do outdoor classes. And so we started doing outdoor classes. The strange twist there is that,

you know, it took a while to commit. My landlord got along with it. we opened up and put classes outside that hilarious part of that is one one day after opening up outside the inner parking lot in our parking spaces the city of pleasant hill visited us and told us that we needed to shut down because we didn't have a permit to have our structures equipment outside to work out outside. How does that happen? Who comes? What are they dressed up in?

In suits or cops? How does that happen? No, they're in an attire with a badge, an inspector badge. In the case of Pleasant Hill, he's a building inspector. He had a body cam as well. Is he fit? Very uplifting when you're a small business owner just trying to operate and survive yes um is he is he fit is the guy fit who comes like

does he look like he works out does he have empathy for you no and no he's not none of that none of them did either the county inspectors that came or the city inspectors that came and visited us. So you have people who appear to be carbohydrate or sugar addicts coming to tell you to shut down your business that helps alleviate people or to help cure people and give people an outlet and a place to go to get away from these addictions that are ravaging society. I know that's biased. That's right. That's in it and it's not and this is an important distinction is that you know being fit um and looking like you're in shape is is ostracized today because it apparently speaks to your political beliefs. It's apparently an assumption. They assume my politics. They assume my position on things just because I'm fit and I own a gym. And I get that primarily because of what's displayed on Instagram and other social media.

And they think you're good and bad, too. They have that bias, too. That's the downside. And they think you're good in bed, too. They have that they have that bias, too. That's side. But it but it's it's unfortunate because then they also think that, you know, you have a. A Jim Bro mentality and and you're just going to you just want to work out and sweat and get and get, um, ripped as someone put to me in an Instagram, um, just as recently as yesterday, you know, you're, you guys are there just getting ripped. Meanwhile, people are dying. Well, no, that's not where we're in. It's people. It what's, what's happening at gyms is, and especially across the gyms,

it's lost upon, um, our culture and it's unfortunate, but, uh, but, but that is the mentality too, that the, the city and the county and the inspectors wouldn't even listen, wouldn't talk intellectual conversation with me about what was happening in our facility. And, uh, it was simply enforced the mandates, um, which caused us to get, and, and so from there we stayed open outside. I was able to forget the permit. But then they, you know, after about. Do you think other businesses in your areas complained? Oh, absolutely. Maybe businesses, but certainly there were they were getting anonymous complaints.

Most of the cities, most of the cities and counties said. For people to go or get access to complain, and the keyboard warriors took advantage of that. I actually had an email telling us that. We're a team of people, and we will shut you down. And I know other CrossFit affiliates have gotten these kind of attacks. They send emails to the county enforcement agencies, to the city enforcement agencies, and then they also hit Google and Yelp for reviews. For those of you who are attacking people, who are trying to help other people, from the bottom of my heart, I hope the fleas of a thousand camels attack your armpits. Fucking assholes. That was was a really really troubling time you know my buddy tim dimmel at the cross of palo alto got one drove into the parking lot of his gym

they were exercising outdoors and then you know gave everybody the um it was it was kind of an erratic situation and then sent any follow-up email you know telling him that she hoped he got coveted and died wait why would she why this is just someone driving by who's just pissed that people are working out yeah just the people are working out oh man and at crossfit sweatshop in walnut creek, Nabil and his wife, just, they run a great facility. Came down during the pandemic, opened up the doors to get equipment out,

work out. And the cops came down, literally came down. He goes with the lights on, like within about 30 minutes of them opening up and saying, Hey, it was reported to us that you guys are open and working out. And you can't be doing this during the pandemic because look we're outside and we went inside because it's my business to go get my equipment and bring it

outside so what people were doing is that he's along the iron horse trail which is you know one of those trails the tracks to trails programs and people would film them with their camera and he and he couldn't open up at all he was you, you know, I felt bad for him because, you know, he said any time he opened up or any activity, he would see people out there with their phone cameras filming him. I can't believe cops enforce that. I really, I really, I struggle. A lot did not. Right, right. Yeah, all the cops I know I feel like would not enforce that shit.

I find it so hard to believe cops would enforce that. Or what they do is they they you know like uh sometimes like clevinson they tell them let's just stay low profile you know keep it under the radar i was in sunnyvale the other morning at their skate park it's massive i was there with my with my three sons two of my sons were riding scooters there's a policy in the park no scooters there were probably five people in the park that's nothing for a massive park and fucking the authority showed up and said hey we got a call there's boys in here with scooters i go yeah those are mine because it's no scooter rule i go okay

he goes but don't worry there's no we're not enforcing it proceed and they left i was like thank you that's awesome fuck here here's the biggest issue. This is one of the things. My kids are four. The park was empty. One of the things that troubles me about this, the pandemic and gyms, is that there's this stigmatization of, if that word's being used correctly, of gyms as being a place where the virus is spread, where germs are spread. It's not even just the, but it's, they're being thought of as a place where, where people get sick and, and where germs are spread. And, and I don't care what gym you go to. I mean, this is 2020. Gyms are far better off than they were back in the sevents and 80s people are gym averse and usually and i i think it you you would probably agree with this about 80 to 90 percent of the people in my gym

are are are there because they're paranoid about their health and germs it's like kind of the opposite you got all these healthy people this is where they come to work out they're not there spreading germs we you know we we we've a seven-foot barbell that keeps us separated. Beginning of, you know, since 2005, we've been socially distant. But this whole shutdown of gyms and gyms specifically having to close or wear masks or vaccine check is sending a message to the public that gyms are not a safe place to be in general. Now, when we're the culture of America to focus on eating healthy and exercising, that's a really fucking hard job. We're an unsafe place to be. And let me tell you where is an unsafe place to be people.

Hospitals. Right. Hospitals. Right. Hospitals. Go on. Sorry. A food restaurant. Yeah. Right.

And this is one of the things that I've tried to really communicate with people. It's like we're being negative. Like, you know, I work for a place. I work for a dangerous germ spreading place. I own a dangerous germ spreading place now. The New York Times has reported it. The CDC has reported it. The FDA has reported it. They've all gone out of their ways to attack gyms to say that they're dangerous places all within the last two years. And it's, I guess I can kind of understand how that happens because it's human nature to

kind of just, you know, the correlation versus cause. Hang out and they're breathing hard, so that must be where it's spreading. Yeah, that makes sense. I get that. But the data doesn't. Right. Right. And this is what's so frustrating is they have tons of contact tracing data in New York and other states have published that data. And you have it in your own gym and you have it from your own gym, your own clients. Right. 70,000 visits. None of my staff.

70,000 visits. I was there 24-7 for almost a year and three months. Every single day. I didn't get COVID at my gym. I actually didn't get COVID. You haven't had it yet? No. 70,000 visits. So maybe you did have it and you were one of the

80 that's asymptomatic how could you not have had it yeah that's that's that's entirely possible i mean you're in one of the epicenters in the on the planet yeah and you're in those gyms with all those filthy heathens. Yeah. Wow, crazy that you haven't had it yet. Crazy. I just got it a couple weeks ago. And my wife and my mom – I don't know if my wife, but my mom says I should stop telling people that I got it because I tested negative. But my wife tested positive, and everyone in my house was sick. But I just kept working out.

I've never avoided any sickness. My kids go everywhere barefoot. If you told me you had strep throat, you could still come to my house. I'm just one of those people. I've never, ever, ever My kids go everywhere barefoot. If you told me you had stripped throat, you could still come to my house. I'm just one of those people. I've never, ever, ever, ever, ever been afraid. My kids collect germs professionally and shove them in their nose. I have two four-year-olds and a six-year-old. They wipe their hands everywhere, and they always have their hands in their nose and their mouth.

My kids were born vaginally. They breastfeed. We're good. And they have a robust immune system. Crazy. Crazy. Okay, so then they shut you down for um so so okay two weeks turns to six weeks yeah and then six weeks and then in may they let us work out outdoors as i was out driving driving around looking for fields to to work out and the local high schools had shut down all facilities and access to it parks this was unbelievably absurd

parks and gen and and schools set down all their facilities access their facilities and i finally said fuck it like if if we don't have a place to go and the county and city was closing all their facilities for places to go i'm gonna open up myself and And when was that? May of 2020? Yeah. Yeah. That was, we closed again briefly because the district attorney was really aggressive with me. And,

uh, and I actually called him on the phone and we had a nice conversation. I said, all right, I'll shut down. And he goes, it won't be long. Like you just need to show compliance here.

And we, you know, we read a time and, uh, it's so gross. It's so gross. You just need to show compliance here. It's know we free the time and uh it's so gross it's so gross you just need to show compliance here it's so gross sorry go on and then in september they went to close us down again and i said no and that's when we started getting fines that's in november you said yeah it's september that was september yeah and we started getting uh that's when we got

you know took fines up to um total a total of like eight thousand dollars in fines crazy did you pay those yeah i did i you know met with my attorney and we talked about the process so that was again the challenging process does that hurt to write a check for $8,000 for just helping people? Yeah, it was. It was made easier by one of my members, Unflicited, started to go fund me because they knew I was getting these fines. And that raised a total of like $23,000. Wow. So we took that money to pay those fines. The rest of the money,

um, I took and put it into a fund, another five. So I started to go fund me for other affiliates that were in worse situation than I was that were behind on their affiliate fees that were, you know, behind on their debt, the land that, and we started another GoFundMe, The Balance. I'd like to point out in that – We were able to help a bunch of us. Correct me if I'm wrong here. I'd like to point out that Miranda and Julian Alvarez of Street Parking – Oh, yeah.

Oh, my God. Yeah. Donated $5,000. Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah. She gave $5,000. Unsolicited. It's out of the blue street parking. And she goes, look, I understand that Jim's people,

Jim's is being competitive to me. She goes, but I want, I want Jim's and specifically CrossFit affiliates just. And, uh, and it was, it was a magnanimous gesture. It was like, for me, that was like really emotional moment to get that yeah i'm telling you guys i'm i i i cannot emphasize enough how amazing that is that she did that and i know i know her a little bit i chat with her um superficially at least once a week um through or through DMs, and we share ideas. But the fact that she did that and that she knows that her heritage comes from CrossFit and being on the L1 team and all the knowledge she got from Greg Glassman. And for her to give back like that, there's not a lot of people who would do that.

But everyone should have done it. But everyone should have done it. And, yeah, it's uh that was awesome and we were able to give that money share that money with affiliates um yeah good job doing that and you were shit on and you were shit on for it i mean this is a guy who started a gofundme account to help jim stay open during this and when he says help jim open, you have to think of what exactly that means. That means help gyms where there's a mom and a dad with three kids who need to put food on the table, who need to pay their rent, who need to pay their electricity, who need to buy clothes for their children, and who are getting fined by the city because they're sharing with the world how to eat right and how to move right and no one's helping them and so craig howard of diablo crossfit sees that people helped him so he starts in another account to help other people and what happens to him i don't know if it's half the community but people start throwing rocks at him

and coming being mean to him and calling him names because he's not being compliant it is not being compliant and it is ferocious morning talk up shared the story and you know the you don't need the comments but you know in the comment section we were accused of being privileged um of having this privilege to be able to to do this that other gyms didn't have this same privilege and that we were violating mandates and getting unfair privilege as a result of our position on um on the mandates and i want to tell you and you have an obligation as being privileged to do what you did and so he did do it everyone whose privilege should take advantage of their privilege if you're walking down the street and you see trash on the

ground and you have eyes and hands and you don't pick it up you're walking down the street and you see trash on the ground and you have eyes and hands and you don't pick it up you're not using your privilege and you're a bitch people should use their privilege use your privilege use your privilege you that's a great um because i did i recently did that with my daughter and we got off our bikes and went and picked up all the trash in the middle of this that someone had dropped a garbage bag full of trash and picked it all up. I go to the skate park. The first thing I do is I walk around and look for trash and pick it all up.

Why? Because I'm privileged to have arms and legs and eyes. And you know what? Black Lives Matter has privilege. You guys can now – you guys have now made it so you can – I know police officers who won't pull black people over. They're scared. Great. Use that privilege.

Speed around all you want. Do it. I know all the homeless people in the Bay Area can drink on the street and not get tickets. You use your privilege. Yeah. We know that... Oh, man.

Fuck. Privileged. Privileged. Hey, how tall are you, Craig? 6'2". Yeah, you're privileged to get the cups up from the high shelf. You're privileged to get the cups from the high shelf.

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm privileged to get the pots and pans out of the lower shelf. So what? You're not saying anything by calling anyone privileged. You're an idiot. You're a pussy. You're a victim.

I'm actually discriminated against, Siobhan, because I'm discriminated against being asked to get those things off the shelf. I know you are. I know you are discriminated against. Can you imagine hating on someone? Can you imagine hating on Jeff Bezos because he went to fucking outer space? It's nuts. I feel like I have a responsibility to make stand the value of exercise, the value of healthy eating, and the value across it. It is just absolutely transformational. And that's your privilege to do that, and you should continue to do it.

You owe it to us. We care about people. It does not benefit me in any way whatsoever to break in my gym. I'm going to go above and beyond to make sure that, especially now that I've become somewhat public, is that I'm going to take extra steps to make sure that doesn't happen. But I'm also going to protect the entity of fitness, the entity of working out, and the methodology of. Full understanding.

And anytime there's a mandate or, and this is what, this does piss me off with other affiliates that roll over on this. And give in and, and quietly either open up or don't, you know, or, or adhere to the manage and make the manage very public. We're adhering to these mandates. I get that, but you have basically accepted the brand of being a place where the fucking virus spreads and where unhealthy things happen just so you can make a small group of your members happy. And someone's going to cut this snippet and put that out. And they're lying. They're lying. They're lying. Oh, just put I'm glad. And they're lying. They're lying.

They're lying. Oh, just put the yellow star on. It's okay. They're lying. They're lying in order to stay open. It doesn't pay off. They will suffer in the end. It will all suffer because of their cowardice.

Are you allowed to be open right now? Yes. And right now, but right now, required, according to county, to have masks on and to check for either a vaccine, check our members for having a vaccine or having a negative COVID test, one of those two. So you – and so the rules are right now that if someone wants to work out in your gym, not your rules, the county rules, that they either have to have an injection? Yes. That you or me. That's someone trying to call into the show. It says, Matt's iPhone 11 from Louisville, Kentucky.

Sorry, this isn't a calling show, but I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Make your case in the comments, Matt, why i should pick up um oh max matt's matt's it's so weird uh so on sundays i have a live call-in show so i have a phone number so people know the phone number so they can just call in that's the first time that's happened though it's kind of cool it makes me feel popular so that means uh i said something that upset the shit out of someone or it's a local feel i it's funny i went the other out of someone. Or it's a local affiliate. It's funny. I went to the other place for it. I figured it was an affiliate saying how much they appreciate everything you've done.

So basically you have to have an injection or you have to have proof. And do you have to wear a mask no matter what? And you should be. And yes, masks are required indoors. And so let's say someone's – do you get in trouble if someone's not wearing a mask? Let's say like I'm in your gym and I refuse to wear a mask. Whose obligation is it to make me wear a mask? Yeah, that's supposed to be the business owner's obligation to require the mask and then enforce it if they don't wear a mask. And how would you enforce it? You're supposed to physically

remove me? Yes. Or ask, yeah, ask you to leave. Yeah. Which would, that would be, you know, Yeah, or ask you to leave. That would be – or refuse to serve you. So in my area, there's signs up – I'm in Santa Cruz, and in some places you go, everyone's wearing a mask. In some places you go, like when you get really close to the water, like you're on the water, no one has a mask. But I never wear one, and no one ever enforces it, not whole foods not at new leaf not at the gas station i mean everyone else is wearing them just not me but no one ever says anything to me or they'll say to me hey do you want a mask and i say no thank you and they go okay it's so weird it's so weird that why is everyone complying it's so weird to me it is the the the local governments have put out mandates that are unenforceable they don't

have the staff and the resources to to to enforce it and they're putting the onus on the business with the expectation that the business will be ostracized for not enforcing it oh really because that's that's that's that's that's the only um incentive i that there is. How do you manage your clients who do agree that everyone should be masked? Do you try to talk to them, or are those just lost causes? I've gotten messages from, well, really only two or three members that have indicated concern, and I have a rational discussion with them to explain it. I have a rational discussion with them to explain it. You know, the choice is, you know, you cannot come. That's fine.

Or you can come. And it's that easy. And I know that there's, I have members that, you know, didn't return after we opened up indoors. And that's okay. And, you know, they can do their stuff at home and work out in their garage or work out in their house um i've lost some members um we've lost part of our community because of it not a lot but a few and then i've you know recently had one or two members that have contacted indicating that they wanted to show me their bags cards they want and they think that we should be doing that for everybody. No one has said, I want to wear a mask, though.

Interestingly enough, no one is volunteering to put a mask on, which is good. So I've made a little bit of progress. Has anyone apologized to you? Has anyone been like, holy shit, I was totally on board for six months and then I finally had my eyes opened. I'm so sorry. Thank you for staying true. No, but I've had, had you know even as recent as yesterday um i had a firefighter um pull me aside to me that he and his wife was a nurse or in the thick

of things in covid um she she works in the hospital with covid he's a firefighter i see it a lot you know i'm in his department where people get COVID or, you know, when he's out on calls and he was out on a multiple calls that evening and was in the gym at 10 38. And he said, I just want to let you know, like having this available with the freedom to do it without like thinking about, you know, mass or vaccines or any of that is just, he says, it's, it's so good for him mentally. And he's so grateful that we're open and doing, and doing what we're doing.

Um, and I was, you know, those, I get that probably once, once or twice a week from our members in our community. I've gotten, I've gotten a handful and it's increasing, um, of people who say, Hey, I used to follow you and I thought you were crazy. And thank you for not like swerving off the path. Thank you for even with all the pressure staying. Now I see it. Finally, I see what's going on.

And it's like, I don't know if I see what's going on, but like, I know when, if you're pointing at a giraffe and calling it an elephant, I know something's wrong. And I just know that, like, I don't know why you're doing that, but I know that that's a giraffe. I know it's not an elephant or whatever I said. So it's – and I know it's hard. Does it ever get hard for you? Yeah, there's times when it gets hard. When you're on vacation and you get a text in the middle of the night,

you know, from an angry member or someone the middle of the night, you know, from an angry, um, an angry member, someone that doesn't agree with, uh, you know, what you're doing, um, and takes issue with it. Yeah, it's hard. Um, and it makes you question what you're doing and why you're doing it. Um, one of those things that, you know, I had an exchange with a small business owner that disagrees with our policies and thinks that Jim should be dead, shut down and anybody can do it in their house. And I, you know, and one of the ways I've resolved it is come take a tour, come walk around, come meet me, come meet me and talk to me personally.

And you know, that people talk face to face. They don't say what, you know, they, they get, they get to know them and understand where they're coming from. I had an inspector come, one of the investigators, special investigators, and they give you the fines. And he came up and he walked up and he goes, you know why I'm here? I said, yeah, I do. I said, but before you give me the fine. And he had the sheet in his hand. He was just going to give me the fine for being open.

I said, can you come take a walk around the gym? And let me tell you what we're doing. And he was the only one that did this out of all the visits I got. And he said, yeah. And I was like, shit, he is. He's going to come in. Okay. And I walked him in the main roll-up garage door. I said, we have 20-foot garage doors. You'll see we have 20-foot ceilings. I have 60,000 cubic square feet of air for 14 people that are working out separated by 10 feet. And he's looking around. I said, you see the ceiling vents up top?

I get a pressure ventilation bringing air up. And I said, I have fans throughout the gym. And we walked into the middle of the gym. It was during open gym, so it was open. And I said, do you feel the breeze in here? And he said, yeah. I said, that's intentional. I said, our inside air is like outside air. And I said, yeah. I said, that's intentional. I said, our inside error is like

outside error. And I said, and it's worked beautifully. And he looks at Craig, I wasn't here. And he walked and he literally turned to walk. He didn't know goodbye. And he just walked. And I thought, yes. Leader. Yeah. That's a dude with integrity. Yeah. Hey, and it's not easy for that guy. Cause he has to do a job to pay, put food on his kid's plate too. It's not easy for that guy. No,

no, he got it. And what, you know, look, I'm intentional. No, no.

And, and, and very look, there's, there's, there's, my old man told me that he was an attorney,

but he said, Hey, look, there's, there's great ditch diggers. There's average ditch diggers and they're shitty ditch diggers in every profession, but it's up to you, the consumer to decide which one you want to work with. And, and that's just life thing we do. And, and so, you know, I'd like to think of ourselves as one of the, the good ditch diggers, one of the good gym owners. And there's a lot of them out there and CrossFit like comparison to other gyms or are, you know, all gyms in general, I think CrossFit gyms are probably

they're, you know, husbands, wives, families that are, you know, starting something they're passionate about. No interest in making people sick. They have no interest in germ spray. They have no interest in COVID being in there. They're going to take steps to manage and take care of it. They're reading. Like me, I'm passionate.

I look at the statistics every day. I'm researching articles. I'm going through this stuff. And we figured it out. And all I want is people to talk to me and, and come see, come meet me. What do you think – and I apologize if this puts you in an awkward situation.

Well, I apologize, but I still want to do it. I come from a lineage of the previous regime from CrossFit HQ where I believe that if Greg were in charge, he would be speaking out wildly about it. And it might even be hurting the affiliates. That's not lost on me. He would be speaking out wildly against defending the freedom, people's freedoms and defending the, the safety and efficacy, efficacy of CrossFit. And basically, you know, you've heard it, the lifeboat, we have the cure for the world's most vexing problem. And he'd be doubled down on it, and we would be just charging full steam ahead. As opposed to HQ puts out a video the other day with Julie Foucher holding a roundtable discussion about injuries in CrossFit. And it's – I'm not going to lie. It's very,

and I know I have a bias, but it's very sad for me to watch that. Um, we go from someone like Tim Noakes and Zoe Harcombe talking about, talking about, about the, the being at the front of CrossFit health to now Julie Foucher talking about injury. I mean, it seems like a – to me, a monumental step backwards. And it's just nuts. Why – I would like to see someone from CrossFit be taught – and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this isn't the way to get the best outcome because it's really the outcome that we want. But I'd like someone at HQ to be saying, hey, CrossFit is the cure for all chronic disease. And we've only had one person die who's an affiliate member, and it was out of Dublin – or Dublin – no, not Dublin.

What's that country over there? Belgium. One person died, an Italian guy, an obese Italian guy who worked out in Belgium died. And I would just like to, like, this is it. Follow our eating protocol and our movement protocol. Like, I'd like someone just to say it. And instead, they're talking about injuries. And I want to, I don't know what the end game is. I don't have contacts there like that.

But it seems like complete, and people are eating this shit up. I don't think the smart people are. But it scares me that maybe affiliate owners are. They're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Your mothership is talking about injury? Like, what the fuck is going on? My background in investment and finance, it's simple. Greg Glassman was 100% ownership and was willing to, in order to make his point, he was willing to take that risk.

He wasn't thinking about the money. He was thinking about the message and the methodology. The new ownership has made some amazing progress in terms of service to the affiliates, products for the affiliates, the improvement of affiliate health. But they're doing so, but the actions that they take areterm probability of the organization to provide a return for the investors. Right. So it's a much more conservative approach. However, I will tell you that messaging that that they're starting with now it's almost like they're relearning what we already knew yeah a little bit of this and cross it in general like i feel like we've dropped back to like 2009 and 10 and some messages the other day the other day words of fitness you know made its

way around the internet people were publishing like it's the first time it's ever been been this is amazing this is awesome god damn it that's been out for you know 15 16 years and uh and so it's like a it's like we're going back the you know relearning the process and one of them is well right and so you know i saw that when i saw that gathering of six seven people i'm like oh my god they're rehashing this but there's a whole of of people that are doing CrossFit that have never seen it, never knew. And they also start thinking CrossFit's dangerous. At our gym, with a four to five population rate in a CrossFit affiliate gym, you're going to turn over an entire client base within a two-year period of time, maybe two and a half year period of time. We've got a lot of new people that are coming in and have never been exposed to any of this.

It's almost like we've got to start the learning curve again. This is what CrossFit is. It's dangerous. again, okay, this is what CrossFit is. This is why we're curing people's health and curing chronic disease and making people healthier. It's a natural cycle. We can't continue where we left off.

I think Greg addressed it very, very strongly, poignantly, and accurately. With the goal of increasing your cardiovascular health you have to take some risk for orthopedic calamity that's almost verbatim to what he said and it's like and if you can't fucking see that any any sport and getting off the couch last night in the middle of the night, so every night when I go, my kids' bedrooms are on one side of the house and my bedroom is completely on the other side of the house. And every night when I, the last thing I do before I go to bed is I clear the pathway between my bedroom and their bedroom. No stools in the kitchen, no plastic tiles out that they've played with, no like whole character figures.

I make sure that that path is clear. The last thing i do in 99 of the time it's already clear last night i did it and i thought it was clear well last night at 4 30 in the morning i hear someone crying and it was my one of my sons was coming to my bedroom for his fucking 4 30 in the morning walk to see mama and he fucking stubbed his toe on a stool there is risk people when you get out of bed and you walk there's risk and like how much risk are you willing to take and you know what you can just

go to your CrossFit gym and you can tell your fucking coach I'm super duper risk averse make everything super is that the word risk averse I'm a pussy and make everything super easy and safe for me double down on and your coach will do it

they're brilliant people the double down on and your coach will do it yep they're they're brilliant people the gyms and if your coach won't do it just go to the gym down the street that's right go to a different crossfit gym go to a different crossfit gym they're going to do it for you there's no there's no there's no risk that's not worth taking at a crossfit gym and and and and a lot of it's on you too you just just have to be – it's okay to say no. It's okay just to tell your – to be like, hey, I don't want to do jumping jacks. I hurt myself in the third grade doing jumping jacks. What else can I do?

It's okay. Just say it. Stand up for yourself. It is one of the troubling things I see in society is the assumption that if I start working out or I start doing a certain exercise, I'm going to get injured. And it's the fear of injury. or I start doing a certain exercise, I'm going to get injured. And it's the fear of injury. But two years ago, my neighbor came over to my house, knocked on my door to have me come help him lift his wife off the toilet.

She was having a dementia episode and was stuck, and he couldn't lift her off the toilet. I never want that to be me, it's any other day but i also don't want to be in a position where i can't help lift my off the floor it just would be in and and i just to think about that like you know that's a great story how to lift it's literally just you know how you stand and how you hold someone. You will learn those things. Not only will you be stronger, but we'll show you how to do that lift effectively so that you don't end up lifting that person off the floor or helping them up or picking one of your kids up.

Could you imagine not being able to pick up all of your kids? I guarantee you, I bet you could pick up all of your kids and carry them you know i can i can uh i'll take so my mom my mom's a crossfitter and she works out at um annie sakamoto's gym crossfit west crossfit west right yeah something like that yeah for she was at hollis malloy's gym she was at crossfit Malloy's gym. She was at CrossFit Aptos, I think, for a while, and she's been at Annie's gym. My mom likes going to all the gyms. But right now she's at Annie's gym. And so, I don't know, a year – my mom's 77.

And I'd say about a year ago she had – what's that called when everything starts spinning for you? Vertigo. She had vertigo i guess you have these little tiny things these little like sand pebbles that float around in your ear that makes make it so you know up from down and left from right and yeah they're equilibrium okay equilibrium okay yeah it's a common thing yeah and so her one of her sand pebbles got pushed out of the it was in the wrong canal in her ear and so she was basically spinning for three days and so i had to go to her. I basically went back and forth to her house every six hours, helped her to the bathroom, helped her to the shower.

You just got to wait until it goes away. But if I didn't CrossFit and my mom didn't CrossFit, that would have been a son of a bitch. I probably would have had to call like an ambulance. Like if my mom – or if my mom was – instead of weighing 100 pounds, my mom's 4'11 or 5 feet tall. If my mom would have been 100 pounds overweight, it wouldn't have mattered if I did CrossFit. I couldn't have done it. And so because my mom does CrossFit and because I do CrossFit after three days of this shit, it just, you know, it, it goes away and, and she's back in the gym, you know, you go back

to the gym and you live your life. But I mean, you, you, you're basically built like, you know, we all know you're building a hedge against those days. And you've unburdened the healthcare system. Yes. Otherwise taxpayers would have paid for it to have someone come out, take them, carry them, nurse them, all of those things. And the first time it happened, my mom did call an ambulance. She panicked 10 years ago or whenever the first time it happened.

And now it doesn't because she's in shape. Yeah, you're right. But you can't say that. I'm getting people upset. All the people around you who are healthy and who are taking care of themselves, we should thank them all. Yeah. We should thank them all. Yeah. We should thank them all because what they're doing, you know, they say, oh, shit. It goes back to this whole thing.

They're saying that the people who aren't taking the injections are selfish. Let me tell you who the really selfish ones. The selfish ones are the ones who want us to take the injection so that you can keep eating a loaf of bread, 20 Twinkies, and a 12-pack of Coke every day. Right. And you want us to take an injection so you can continue that lifestyle. That's called codependency, by the way. As a parent, you can't do that.

You can't be a codependent. Right. Craig, thank you. Yeah. I know we had you called you last minute. What an amazing job you're doing. Congrats on your gym. Your Instagram's awesome. Your motivation to all the affiliates if i get enough viewers for you on this but uh yeah i

enjoy it now i'm passionate about it and i enjoy the fight and uh and look it's for the branding and the image of fitness in general and crossfit uh most of all so um a guy named ton gearan gave ten dollars and says can't tell you how pumped I am for this keep fighting the good fight and Olsen dudes gave $10 that's $20 so you just said you hope you get enough viewers from me that $20 will pay for my kids jiu jitsu class tomorrow so you've done your part

you once again have done your charity work for the day seriously what you're doing is crazy it takes balls likewise sir thank you and i love you man thank you look love you too yeah are you gonna have you are you going to work now um right now no i got i just got a note from my wife to the dogs have to go to groomers