The Sevan Podcast - #215 - Rob Orlando

Episode Date: November 24, 2021

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When I knew Rob, he had my hair and i had his hair and for oh we traded wigs yeah i know you stole my hair and you used to have this hair look at this thing short and tight and but it's got it's nice and salt and pepper though it looks good yeah thank you thank you that pay you'd pay extra for that for that kind of work super cut work yeah it looks good looks good. It looks good, pal. So before we start with Rob Orlando, I just want to tell you guys that most of you will not and can run a successful podcast like me that makes $25 a day on YouTube, which is enough to keep my family afloat. Thank you. Rob, what's up, dude?

How are you doing, Simon? Good. That was a great intro. Thank you. You got to take care of the sponsors. You got to treat them right. Rob, what's your Instagram, even though you don't use that shit? Yeah, I don't.

That's actually CrossFitRobbo is my Instagram. And then I also have Hybrid Athletics. So those are the two. Does that look right? That's the one. It's great having me on the show. You don't have to worry about doing any of this before the show. No one can yell at you for being sloppy or just… wouldn't yell at you anyway oh thank you but i mean like

if like if you were my boss you would like dude can't get that shit figured out before the show starts yeah uh what i do take seriously though is the fact that you're giving your time it's uh 10 a.m on the eastern side of the united States. That's where you're at, right? Yes, sir. How is the eastern side of the United States? Are you in Massachusetts? No, we're in Connecticut, which is like New York City and Boston's Grundle. Okay.

It's Connecticut. There's a sign when you're driving down 95 coming from Rhode Island into Connecticut. There's a sign on the highway that says attractions, and there's nothing underneath it. Oh, that's perfect. Is that on purpose so people won't stop? There's nothing here. There's nothing here except lots of trees, and there's not much going on here. I think most of you know who Rob is or have some idea.

You don't know who he is, but like in your brain, you have him compartmentalized in this identity. I met Rob, I think I was at Tonya Wagner's house. I know Rob has heard the story a thousand times. I was at Tonya Wagner's house. I know Rob has heard the story a thousand times. I was at Tonya Wagner's house, and this was 2008 or 2009, and we were looking at the profiles of some of the CrossFit Games athletes. What year was that? What year was your first year in the Games?

2009? 2009, yeah. Yeah. So it must have been 2008 or early 2009 before the CrossFit Games, and we were looking at profiles. And I think I had Dave Castro on the phone. And I think Kerry and Josh Wagner and Tonya Wagner and Dave and I, Dave was on speakerphone, and Kerry Peterson and I,

were looking at Rob's profile. And we were in Pennsylvania at the time, just outside of Philly at Tonya's house. And we were looking at Rob's profile, and we were all laughing that there could actually be a profile like this, like this guy doesn't think we're going to come up and check his shit. Cause it just, all the numbers look like lies. Well, yeah. So yeah. And then you, you actually cold called me and said,

Hey, we're, we're close by. Can we swing by it and you know, hang out for a day? Yeah, sure. So you and Carrie came up, you filmed a class at the original hybrid athletics uh you know hang out for a day yeah sure um so you and carrie came up you filmed a class at the original hybrid athletics and uh you know then we spent some time we did a workout went out to lunch um and i think the whole thing was was just you trying to figure out if i was bullshit or not correct and it was awesome because none of the numbers were lies, and Rob put on a crazy show. And over the years on.com, we saw crazy things. I think one time Rob – did you front squat or back squat 200 pounds for 100 reps or something? Or body weight?

That was body weight back squat, so it was 205 for 102 consecutive reps. Yeah, and he would do all sorts of um things like that that um he would probably tell you now don't do yeah no like i there's there was a some of them that were you know they were just fun circus tricks like one arm fran that was another one uh i did the thrusters with my left hand i think in the pull-ups with my right hand. You know, they don't leave a mark, but 100 consecutive back squats at your body weight, I would never tell or encourage anyone to do that. What year did you do that?

That was probably in 2010, I would say, because it was right before, yeah, it was probably 2010. Are you recovered? It's been 11 years. Just yesterday, I would say, because it was right before. Yeah, it was probably 2010. Are you recovered? It's been 11 years. Just yesterday. What do you think about all the protein guys right now? Have you seen this guy, Liver King? Since you're not on social media, you might see it. Have you seen this guy, Liver King, pop up on the scene? I have. There's a couple of guys in my gym that, you know, as kind of a goof,

they send me stuff of his. Um, and you know, I, I it's, I'm not on social media. I really don't pay attention much at all. I kind of put out the content that I need to, uh, for business purposes, but I'm not, I try to stay off of it because I just think it's mostly poison. But that guy, Liver King is, I mean, he's got a thing going, I guess. It's a, I mean, from the outside looking in, he's fully embraced it. I knew about him years ago before I had ever seen him. I had started the carnivore diet because of Paul Saladino, the carnivore MD. And I basically used the carnivore diet to get completely off of sugar. I had heard that if I went into ketosis, that my body would – that I would stop craving sugar.

And I had to figure out how to do it. So I just tricked myself by saying, okay, I can eat as much meat and hard cheese as I want. And after two weeks, I went into ketosis, and it was crazy. At night, all my cravings for carbs just like vanished. It was nuts. And it just switched to a fat. It was like so liberating. I wish I would have done it in my thirties, but it, but it was hard. It was a tough two weeks. And then, um, and then after a few months, something wasn't right. Uh, my hands didn't feel right. My feet didn't feel right my feet didn't feel right my heart wasn't functioning right i could tell something wasn't right and um i had paul on the podcast paul saladino i think and he started telling me about his supplements the heart and

soil and the ancestral supplements and it's basically i'm going to say the word wrong it's basically dried organ meat there's's a word for it. Is it desecrated? The fuck does desecrate mean? Desecrate, it's a derogatory word. So I hope it's not desecrated. Desecrated to treat with violent disrespect. Nah, it's not desecrated meat. Come on, someone in the comments,

tell me what this is. What is this? Not dehyd is what is this not dehydrated no not dehydrated thank you will i appreciate it 7 0 7 a.m you're coming in strong for me anyway and and right away within hours i was feeling better and basically as i studied more that there's basically shit that you need and you can get it from oregon meat and um desiccated thank you thank you renata nova is that really your name that's not is that one that's one of And you can get it from Oregon Meat. And desiccated. Thank you. Thank you, Renata Novantana. Is that really your name? That's Renata.

That's one of my members. Oh, really? Awesome. Renata Novantana. She's awesome. Is she Indian? No. She's from Europe.

Wow. That's a perfect name. She should be like a tennis player. She's one of the strongest females in our gym. That's awesome. Well, thank you. And, and, and her brain functions better than mine desiccated. What did I say? Desecrated. Oh my God. I hope my mom isn't listening. I'm letting her down anyway. And now this guy's just eating balls on, on Instagram. Have you, did you,

did someone send you that where he's just got the fresh set of cow balls and he's eating them? No. I mean, I've seen him take bites into stuff before and it's not for me. It's not for me. You're not tempted at all? No. The big bowl of raw liver with some salt and maple syrup. You could probably get the maple syrup from the trees at your house. Just poke it. probably make you could probably get the maple syrup from the trees at your house just poke it just put a little tap in yeah um yeah no i i i gotta tell you like the way i eat the way i kind of uh i live these days it's really it's so simple and it's doable and and it's not um i'm i'm just every bit of a regular person there's no there's nothing special about anything that I do anymore. It's, you know, there's no eating to perform. There's no, it's just try to be balanced.

Try to, try to do, try to eat a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a decent amount of protein with every meal. But there's no, I haven't counted or done macros or, or, or looked at calories in, in years at this point. Which is kind of hopeful for some people because you used to be fat. or looked at calories in years at this point. Which is kind of hopeful for some people because you used to be fat. I was pretty heavy, yeah. You were fat. You were pretty fat.

Well, I had that, you know, gorilla body. Strong as shit, but fat. Just like a truck with tires that are too big for it, but the guy still thinks it's cool. I look like a TV with hair. What's a TD? A TV with hair. Oh, yeah. Yes. Um, but yeah, no. So I, I, I was five foot eight, 230 pounds, uh, for a long, long time. And, um, you know, I, I lost a bunch of weight when I started doing CrossFit because I just needed to be healthier. And, um, you know, fast forward in my, since I started CrossFit

in 2007, I've gone up and down in the weight range, but it's usually between 185 and 200. But now I've been at 193, maybe for four years or so. And it doesn't fluctuate. I can go completely off the rails for weeks at a time. Although it never lasts that long and I can rein it in and it fluctuates two pounds. It just doesn't move anymore. Are those, are those habits, did that all happen just because over the years you were disciplined, you did fight off cravings, you did build discipline and habit. Is that why it's like that now? It's a weird thing. Like I don't really have cravings. Like I hear people talk about that and it's, it's not, and maybe it's a weird thing like i don't really have cravings like i hear people talk about that and it's it's not and maybe it's because i was disciplined for so long but um i don't have

cravings because i don't live without anything there's nothing that i'm like oh i want that and i'm gonna deny myself that like i eat a bagel every day i have rice i I drink beer. I drink way too much vodka. I'm literally a normal person. I am not dialed into any constraint at all. There's no real craving there. I don't crave candy. I'm not a sweets guy. I much more into like, if you give me a loaf of bread with butter, like that's, that's my go-to. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but for the most part, like I don't, I just don't, I don't really have cravings. I don't, it doesn't make a connection with me. Are you, are you training hard still? Very. Yeah. What is it? Is that from a mental health issues or? Yeah. What is it? Is that from a mental health issues or? It's just, that's what I like to do. Um, you know, I, I, I like to, um, I still lift heavy most of the time. Um, I, I, I breathe heavy a lot. I do a lot of burpees. Um, you know, so I,

I still, I still train really hard, but the, it's's interesting, the further I get away from the competition side of things, the less I compete with anybody at the gym. I'm just not interested. I just want to go and beat myself down a little bit and be a fraction of a percent better than I was yesterday. Yeah, me too. I like to do burpees too. I like to beat myself down with burpees too. I like to beat myself down with burpees too. Yeah. I really liked them. What, do you know why you liked them? Um, I, you know, I, I don't know other than like, it's, it's a simple movement that everybody

should be doing through old age, right? Get down, get up, um, and, and do it over and over and over. And, and I think there's probably some interesting metaphors in there, but, um, you know, the, I just think that it's, it's an easy thing to, to plunk into any workout and, and you can change the, the intensity of the workout pretty quickly. Um, what time do you work out at all over the place ever early in the morning yeah yep how old are you 46 almost 47 you can do that you can get up like it at six have a cup of coffee and work out yeah damn i can't do that um something will break like when i whenever i do that i, I like injure myself. So on Thursday, just a couple of days ago, I had to coach the 630 class and 630 a.m. class. So I got up at 530. I had a cup of coffee, got to the gym, and the workout was devil's press and 200 meter runs with a little devil's presses burpees with dumbbells.

Yes. OK. Devil's press. And what was the rest? Sorry, I interrupted you. press and um 200 meter runs with a little devil's presses burpees with dumbbells yes okay devil's press and and uh and what was the rest sorry i interrupted you devil's pressing what and 200 meter shuttle runs um and you had to so it was it was a one minute amrap devil's press right into a minute rest and then a 200 meter shuttle run followed by a minute of rest. And you had to repeat that until you got to 65 reps on the Devil's Press. And the run, just because I think it was 200 meters, it wasn't all that long, strapped on a vest for the run just to make it a little bit more burden. And I actually improved on my – because I've done this before. So I improved on my time from last time by quite a bit.

So, and that's at six 30 in the morning. And then I jumped on my dirt bike and rode my dirt bike for hours. And I think we did 60 miles that day. Holy cow. Yeah. So like, and I try to, I've been getting more and more into the dirt bike thing. And, um, you know, it's, it's's it's it's pretty physical which is it's good for me to get out of the gym and do something physical are you retired from crossfit no like

are you uh are you independently wealthy uh negative uh i still work i still get up really early and i still um i'm creating a bunch of things and i've got some products in the hopper and i've got some things that i've launched and um there's there's always something going on yeah but but but maybe i'm not asking right but something is right if you're able to get up in the morning work out and ride your your motorcycle 60 miles something's right yeah, this is by far and away the best position that I've ever been in my life on all fronts. Okay. Like, like you're still married. I'm still married to the girl that I was in high school with that we dated in high school. Right. So we're 23 years. Congrats. Thank you. I've got two kids that are, my son is almost 16.

My daughter's 12 and a half. Um, both of my kids are really, really smart, straight A students. They're, they work out hard. They're focused. Um, and most importantly, I think they're, they're polite. Like both of them are really polite, nice kids. You can take them out. They're not dogs that bite or pee on people's shit at

the beach yeah no they're they're just nice people um and by the way if you have nice kids then you've made it to the 99 yard line the whole thing you want to be able to do is take your kids out it's the exact same with the dog like you know that surfer dude who has the collie that can just run around with no leash and he just listens and jumps in the convertible if you have good kids it's that and you always wanted that dog that's what good kids is like yeah like people a lot of people will leave their kids home when they go to the grocery store if you have good kids you're like hey let's go because you everything is about hanging out with them if you don't have good kids and by the way i think that's your fault i believe oh my mom just typed in desiccate damn

she is listening anyway congratulations on having good kids that is it's huge it's huge and and to have good kids on you you can't be their friend but by that i mean you have to be their their leader and and maybe when you get older like my mom and i are probably like brother and sister now a little bit like i mean she's still my mom i adore her and uh but but we're starting to the relationship can deepen as you get older. But in the beginning, don't get it confused. You're – same like if you have a dog. You're their leader. Yeah, and my wife and I are – we're the pack leaders, like my wife. And that's – it's important that we have that. But both of my – here's the interesting thing.

both of my, here's the interesting thing. Like, because our kids are, they're, they're turning out to be good, well-adjusted, smart kids. It makes it really easy to be super nice to them. Like, it's not hard to like, I don't ever have this inner struggle. Like, oh man, should I, should I buy my son this dirt bike? I'm like, yeah, he's a straight A student. He works his ass off. He, he goes to study hall. He goes to extra help. I have no problem doing that because the kids earned it. If he was a dick and he was getting in trouble and I had to ride him all the time, then the situation might be different, but it's not. So I have no problem just being nice to my kids because they're good kids. you know just being nice to my kids because they're they're good kids yeah not not a dirt bike but similar with skateboard um my boy rides a skateboard every single day he teaches his brothers he's easy to get in the car he's easy to get to the skate park when i say it's time to leave he leaves and then if we're on the way home and he's like hey my skateboard um you know my wheels are done or my my deck is done can we go get a new one? It's easy. Yeah, it's a no-brainer. It's so easy.

Yeah. It's not, it's cool. Cruise by the store. Yeah. So to get back to the point of like, are you in a position in your life where you can ride your dirt bike on a Thursday? So, you know, COVID was interesting.

I had a location that- Did you get it? No, I haven't. At least that I know of, I haven't. You've been running from it and hiding from it, quadruple masking? I only go out if I wear five masks. Okay, good. I'm really concerned about you. Um, COVID was, it shut our business down and rather than just roll it up and close it, um, I ended up moving out of that location and moving into a bigger location with one of my friends. So we actually merged our two CrossFit gyms because this is George George. Yeah. Um,

so George, I've known him for, for a long, long time. He's in the CrossFit space and he owned CrossFit Tritown. Um, and we, he had bigger space than we did. He was in a better area than we were. Um, so we migrated our membership into his gym. Um, and for the first time in my life, I had a business partner, um, because I'd never, I've always been working solo. business partner because I'd never, I've always been working solo. And what I realized is like, George is so easygoing and he's just, it's so easy to get along with that. I finally had somebody that I could 100% trust and that was shouldering a chunk of the business with me. And all that did was give me access to the creativity to do things differently,

right? Because I had somebody else that could carry the gym. I had somebody else that was worrying about paying the rent and he pays all the bills. And I don't even know what the bank account is. Like it's just that part of the business just happens. And I handed it over to somebody that I trust. And that gives me access to, to do other things. So that's where we started launching products and you start looking at things differently. You know, so we're in a position now where we've got a great staff at the gym, the classes are covered, the members are happy,

but the business is actually growing in the last two or three weeks. We've had a dozen people that have come in to just try CrossFit out for the first time. Some are coming from other gyms and some are, they've just had it with the gym that they're working out at where they have to wear a mask still. So the business is evolving and growing, but that's given me tons of freedom to develop other parts of businesses that i'm into how long has this been going on you and george this george you and george thing yeah we opened up july of 2020 have you guys had any fights yet no no i i mean i just i love george you know he's a good dude he's a good dude. He's a good dude. I don't know.

I don't know. But I hate this. I, I, I, I, I hate the partnership. He's going to be a fight. There's going to be a falling out. There's going to be, it's going to start. He's going to move the dumbbell rack over to a place. You don't like it.

And then, and then, and then he's, you're going to be like, Hey, I saw you closed early the other day. And then he's going to be like, well, I saw that you took some of the equipment home. And then next thing you know, you guys are fucking hate each other okay well i i here's the argument against that okay um is that george has a second business george regrets dming me now and me having you on the show no so george has a separate business where he does a lot of engraving uh for groomsmen gifts and stuff like that. And, and that business has exploded in the last 24 months. Like when, when I was doing tombstones for COVID

deaths. Yeah. So during, during the last two years, that business has exploded and he's had to put more and more focus on that part of the business. The, the thing that's the, the reason why I say, I don't think there's going to be a split up or a fight is because neither one of us actually relies on the income from the gym for our, our personal lives. So the gym is just, it's almost like a project and it's just, it functions on its own and everything is growing, which is great. If it makes $1, awesome. If it makes more money, even better. But because we don't need it financially, it lowers the stress level to a point that's way below boiling point. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Now I just see if the gym becomes super successful. It'll come, it'll reach to a boiling point. Shit. I, um, I just got a text from Brian friend saying, what the fuck? You didn't send me a link. Do you know who Brian friend is?

I don't. He's the, he's, I don't know. I know who he is. I don't know what he is. I can't tell if he's the co-host of this show or not. He's kind of the co-host of this show. We clearly don't have a good working relationship. Look at me. I'm looking for holes in yours and George's relationships, and I just got a text from Brian saying, what the fuck? because I never know what shows he wants to come on and what she doesn't. I guess I should just default sending him links. I text him this morning because we have Sarah Sigmund's daughter on tomorrow.

Yep. And I text him this morning saying, are you coming on the show? Let's see. Oh, shit. He's pissed. No. Well, maybe he's pissed. But Sarah just texted me and said she's not coming on tomorrow. Oh, boy.

How's Tuesday the 30th at 7 a.m.? Ah, okay. That was easy. Ay, ay, ay. Okay. Okay. How do your members feel? Did they freak out?

So when we left our location and moved in with George, I think we probably had somewhere around 70 members, 75 members all in. And this is interesting. This gives you an idea of my outlook on things at the time. So when I sat down and I put together the actual roster of our membership and I put down, I gave everybody a yes or a no on whether I thought that they would come with us or not. They would make the move because it was a 15 mile difference. Just you guessing, just you guessing, like spitballing saying, all right, let me, let me, of the 75, how many people do I think will make the transition? Um, and I had 17 was my number out of the 75 and And we ended up moving over 50.

Oh, wow. So, but, you know, the position that I was in, kind of the mindset that I was in was, you know, it's all over. Well, that's good because then it's only up from there, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was, I was just shocked. Now, when, once we moved, there was some attrition, you know, just because people realize this is a little bit too far, but we still hung on to quite a few of our members that are, you know, they've, they're as loyal as they ever have been.

So I, I go to the place, well, in the fourth grade, my school shut down and I had to go to a different school and it was weird going to to a different school all the kids migrated up to that school because it was their school yeah and um and in the same if if uh the jiu-jitsu studio that my kids go to um you know minimum three days a week it's not just a it's not like if whole foods closed down and i just go to a different one it's not like that at all it's it's um i feel like i own it yeah well you know i mean like if i walked in there and there was trash on the ground i would pick it up yeah it's much more personal the connection is way more personal yeah and so then now all of a sudden there it's kind of like um you those are your kids in a way and you moved um those are your kids and you got a divorce and you took your kids and moved in with with a new wife and now they're just like our new husband and they're like what the fuck yeah what are we doing here yeah we got to get a new bedroom we got their

stairs in this house but i guess you're saying they transitioned good they did and i think part of that is because at the time, everybody. Did a bunch of your staff start boning a bunch of his staff? No. I mean, clients. Anyone get married yet from your team to their team? Get anyone pregnant? No, not yet.

No, not yet. But that might happen. Good. You have to keep the narrative going unless that shit happens. Good. You have to keep the narrative going unless that shit happens. So I think when they closed us down in mid-March, they closed all gyms down. So we were full remote and we just- 2020? Yeah. Yeah. So they closed us down and for months we were on Instagram, just doing Instagram Live, where I would lead the warm-up. I would basically teach a virtual class. And at the same time, I was renting out all of our equipment. So I would drive around from place to place all day long. And this guy wants an assault bike. This guy wants some dumbbells. And so I was like an ice cream man, literally just delivering things all day long, trying to keep things afloat.

I was like an ice cream man, literally just delivering things all day long, trying to keep things afloat. So when we said, hey, we're going to move in with this other gym, I think people were so thrilled to just get back in a gym and not be working out in their living room that we could have told them we were doing anything. And they would have said, whatever, let's just do it. Let's just do whatever we have to do so that we can work out again um and i i so i think the bar was set pretty low we didn't have to do a whole lot all we had to do was open the doors do you still live in the same house that you lived in when i met you uh no different house different house same town why did you move um we wanted a yard where we were we just didn't have a yard so you upgraded yeah we've got a yard and you know we live in a um we live actually just a couple hundred yards from where i grew up and is it a nice house it's nice house yeah and a good yard and your kids like it we have a great yard that and it goes right down to a golf course and it's a nice spot.

And your kids have their own bedroom? They do. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, you're doing it. Rob, when I met you in 2009, you already had your own gym? Yeah, and we opened. It was kind of like underground.

It was half underground and half above ground right there were like windows were on the ceiling yep yeah it was basically an underground space um and and i sold that i closed that in i think we made it 10 years in 2008 so i opened it in 2008 and i sold it in or closed it in 2018. And why did you open a gym and what did you do before then for a living? Yeah. So personal training. I've always been self-employed. And so I came out of college and I started personal training. I was commuting to the city from Stanford, Connecticut. To New York City? Yeah. So I was hopping on the first train out every morning, going down to the city and training people. And then got lucky enough that right across the street from where I was living at

the time in Stanford, they opened up a New York sports club, which is Giant Globo Gym. And I managed to be there when they opened and I picked up a ton of personal training clients. And I did that exclusively for five years. And at the end of five years, I was like, well, I don't want to do this here anymore. I want a bigger piece of the pie, right? So if my customer is paying a hundred bucks and I'm collecting 20 bucks, I'm like, well, why should the gym get 80? So I went out on my own. And did you just do the math on a napkin? You'm like, well, why should the gym get 80? So I went out on my own. And did you just do the math on a napkin? You're like, okay, I have 30 clients. And if I get $50 from each of them, that's 1500 bucks. And I can do that. You just did that.

Yeah, it was not a complicated decision. And again, you put together your roster of clients and you're like, okay, well, I've got, these are my clients. Who do I think will come with me? And then you have these conversations with people. But what you find in the personal training world is that these people were loyal to me. They weren't loyal to the gym. They could care less about the gym. They were loyal to me. So when I said, hey, I want to break out and let's go on our own, I'll bring gear with me and we can train right at your house. The vast majority said, okay. So huge bump in pay. The only pain in the ass was that I had to drive from location to location, but that still didn't matter to me. So I did that for years and years. And then somewhere in 2007,

In 2007, I was going from place to place and realizing that I want to be on my own schedule. I want my clients to come to me because I would get to somebody's house to do a personal training session. And then their phone would ring or their dog would be barking or they'd have to take a delivery from the UPS guy or their kid would be homesick. And you just had like the gamut of excuses. And I just got so tired of, you know, sitting there in somebody's basement gym while they were doing all of their regular shit and we weren't working out. So I decided, this is a great conversation I had with one of the guys that I was training back then. We were supposed to do a private session and I got to where we're supposed to meet that day. And he just said, look, I just don't feel like doing this. Let's go out to breakfast. because I was working out with him at a gym that I was paying a rent. He's like, you know, you complain about every gym that we go to, like what's stopping you from just opening your own place? And I said, I need 50,000 bucks. And he says, well, I'll give you a half. And then he

volunteered a good friend of his to give us the other half. And these guys just cut a check for $50,000 and told me to go find some space. And the space that I found was when I met you. Oh, wow. That's going to happen to Brian. Brian's going to be like, that's Brian right there too. He's going to be like, Jesus Christ, this guy said I want to do the podcast with, and someone's going to be like, dude, just start your own already. That's already happened a lot. Brian, I'm so sorry. don't i don't i honestly don't know what the fuck is going on that's all that's all uh me and and on this show sarah said

she's not coming on till next tuesday and miranda texted me last night saying she had a doctor's appointment or something she's pregnant or she had some appointment so we're rescheduling so we have no one for tomorrow brian yet you want You want to just do it, you and me? I would love to. We can just work through all the poor communication you've been getting from mine. Brian, Rob, Rob, Brian. How are you, Brian? Hey, Rob. Good to see you.

Likewise. And that's when you opened up your OPEX gym, right, Rob? That's right, OPEX. That's right. I had OPT on the other day it was actually uh i don't think he's opt anymore james fitzgerald and um it was a great conversation and towards the end of the conversation we started talking about comparing crossfit and opex and it just got sideways it just i felt horrible because i didn't want it to be like that and then and then i posted something on Instagram showing James talking about the difference, and it took a bad turn.

Well, so the interesting thing is before I came on this morning, I was actually listening to – I was going through some Instagram stuff, and I found where that starts to go off the rails, but then the interview cuts off there. So I didn't get a chance to hear the rest of it yeah he didn't say anything but he didn't say anything bad but if you're like a hardcore crossfitista yeah um it was basically it was all around individualized training it's all relative right it's individual he he basically says opex is individualized training and i was like well wait a second crossfit's individualized training and he put his hands in his face and he's like, come on, dude. Like, what are you talking about? You know better. And I'm like, what do you mean? I know better. Like it's individualized training. But I think what OPEX does is, I mean, if, if you drive someone home and tuck them in bed after they work out and CrossFit just, um, says

buy them at the front door, then you're just going to, you're going to think you have more individualized training than CrossFit. I get it. I think that's where the difference is. I think OPEX, and Brian even said on the show, and maybe we'll let Brian chime in here, Brian went through the OPEX program and he really liked it. And he's like, holy shit, that level one that they teach is off the hook, fucking amazing. But he couldn't make a living following their protocol. I could have made a living following their protocol, but I would have, I feel like I would have been shortchanging the people I was providing that service to relative to what I would expect to give them based on what I learned through the program. But I think that, I don't

know if I can't remember if we talked about it or not, but I think one of the biggest things is just the expectation of the client. So if you're signing up to have an OPEX coach, you're expecting the word individualized to mean something different than if you're signing up to go to a CrossFit class. If you're signing up to go to a CrossFit class or CrossFit gym, you're still expecting the coach there to know you and work with you to make sure that you have a successful hour every time you show up. But the degree of that is different than someone who's paying specifically for someone who is consulting with them about their nutrition and their sleep and their stress and their workouts. Yeah, I think, you know, I always say that

the way we do personal training, not personal, the way we run CrossFit classes at Hybrid, it feels like a personal training session. And it should be that customized. When somebody comes in this morning, I coach the 5.15 a.m. class. We're doing dumbbell snatches, alternating dumbbell snatches. And I've got a guy that we had to customize the workout for him to work around some things that he's got going on. That to me is like, is that is, that's how this thing works is. And that maybe that's the background that I come from, which is just to, you look at the person on the day and say, what do you have to give? And what can I get out of you? Um, and then you adjust the, the, the workout accordingly. I don't know that that's it. I don't

know that it needs to be more complicated than that. I don't know that it needs to be more involved than that. You can call it whatever the hell you want, but all I'm trying to do is give this person a good hour. And again, like I said to you earlier, Savon, is that, that you are marginally better than you were yesterday. That's all we're looking for. Like just keep coming back because that's to me is the goal is it's longevity. It's not about some spike in performance between here and three weeks from now or here in six months from now. This is a, this is the long game. I always tell people that the product that I sell is it's a really unappealing thing to sell. Okay. Like if you sell Ferraris, that's cool. You sell something beautiful and they function and they're, they're amazing. Right. When somebody comes in

that doesn't know anything about CrossFit, they don't know anything about what we do. I tell them the same thing every time I'm like, this is, this is going to take you 10 times longer than you want it to take. It's going to cost 10 times more than you think it should cost. And it's going to be really, really uncomfortable all the way through. And you tell the women that this is going to make you bulky and look like a man, right? I always, always. Yeah. And then they look around the gym and they're like, well, how come it's not working for anybody here? They don't work hard enough. They don't work hard enough. Don't look at them. So, at them so um you know i but when you when

i'm i'm up front and i'm honest with people right from the beginning it it it thins out you know the the people that just don't want to be there and they're and like that you know those and here's what i always get frustrated with is that's also true of opex like this there's a lot of similarities in the programs and i don't know why everyone chooses to get so caught up in the differences. Both of them are doing positive things for people. Both of them are providing opportunities for exactly what Rob just talked about. It's difficult. It costs money, but it'll make you a healthier person, and hopefully you'll live a more enjoyable life because of it.

Why do people get wrapped around the axle? Because that's the state that we live in these days life because of it. Why do people get wrapped around the axle? Because that's the state that we live in these days. That's why, because everybody's looking for a reason to get wrapped around the axle 24 seven. He wants it to be different too. In the two camps, I mean, probably James wants it to be different. And in CrossFit, this is way hyperbole, but he wants it to be different in CrossFit wants to think that everyone's stealing from them. I mean, that's a gross exaggeration. But somewhere in there, there's a truth that is where the tension lies.

I will say this. James made it very, very clear that OPEX puts a premium on relationships. And that was actually the only thing that he said that really bothered me is because as a person who no, no, as a person who coaches in and across the gym, so do I. And I think Rob would say the same, you know, someone from his gym, a random person commented earlier on the video and he could tell you about her. He knows her. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, Ben Bergeron's talked about this. He goes, you have to be careful how many people you have in your gym. Cause there's only so many people

you can actually have a meaningful relationship with and know their name and know their family and understand the things that are going on in their lives. And it's definitely important because if they're coming there every day and you're putting something on the board and saying, this is what we're going to do, they have to have a reason to trust you and to say, yes, this is a good person that has good intentions for me. And so I'm going to do what he asked me to do. this is a good person that has good intentions for me. And so I'm going to do what he asked me to do. Well, if, if, if you're having, you know, we talked about this at the beginning of the show,

if you're having issues at your gym or with your, the owner of your gym, I encourage you to go to Barbell jobs and get a new job. Okay. So Rob, when I, how's your tattoo game going? Have you, have you added tattoos to your – No, it's been quite a while. You know, same ones that I've had. It's been a long time since I've sat in the chair and gotten any more. It's the same.

Do you regret getting any of those tattoos? No, there's no regret. Do you want to erase any of them? No. It's kind of like it was a thing that I did. And it's like I, you know, I've got my kids flowers and my wife's favorite flower. And, you know, it's it was just a time in my life. And I had I don't regret any of it now. Do you have any crypto?

Negative. No, none. No. Do you have any crypto? Negative? No, none, none. For some reason, I see you as wanting to dabble in that a little bit. A good friend of mine. So another one of my hobbies that I've turned into a business is is driving cars on track and organizing high performance track days. performance track days um a good friend of mine that does this with me is uh he's been trying to push me into crypto not push me but he's just encouraging me to take a look at it seriously i don't know i mean i just started a couple weeks ago i have no fucking idea what i'm looking at but there's an app and i just know that when the shit i bought is dropping like to hopefully then buy some more right yeah but it seems to be working, but I don't know.

And basically this is what I think it is for anyone out there. And I'm totally open to being wrong. Basically it's made up money and they're in one and they're just hoping that someone picks up their coin to be one that's not made up anymore. So we all know that the dollar is made up, right? We've all, we've all agreed that this green stuff we'll use it we'll agree to the delusion that it has value equal to human energy and we'll trade it for services right so like i'll give you 50 bucks you'll rub my back um uh you

give me 50 bucks i'll cut your lawn for the week right and then for some reason we've agreed that this green shit this this shit exists it's new money that's out there but no one's accepting it yet right so they're all vying to be the next currency but the whole thing might be bullshit too but i think that's i finally all money is made up yeah correct tyler um uh that's what kind of like the pandemic um that that is what um but it's okay that it's made up as long as we're all on the same field i mean shit has to be made up red has to mean stop i've said this a thousand times so that we don't crash into each other it doesn't really mean stop but we agree on making that shit up so i think that's what crypto is and so they're just and now there's this like there's this thing

forming called the metaverse i guess they're saying it's basically virtual reality online and one of those coins will probably get chosen or some variety of those coins to be used inside of that metaverse and so if that happens and you have some of those coins i think that's what's going on does that make sense yeah i mean i i think that definitely that that describes it as well as i've ever heard it described before i mean this my buddy thank you i just did that for you one more thing One more thing. One more thing, too. And this is what's amazing about Amazon.

Amazon is because they sell every product. They're almost ubiquitous with money, with the dollar. And that's what makes Amazon gift cards so valuable to cartels and illegal money laundering and shit operations. I mean, that's how you buy illegal drugs online you buy them with amazon gift cards because to those people it's ubiquitous to money because they sell everything right if you can get everything at this store then it's the same as money what their their their token it's fucked up this is fucking bezos it's fucking do you remember reading about bezos like 10 or 15 years ago? He wants his,

he wants his bookstore to sell everything. You're like, what? Okay. Oh my God. He's going to open a store on the moon. And there'll be sold out. Um,

would you go to space? Um, like to live? Would you leave Earth? No, it's pretty good here. It is. As backward as the time is we're living in right now where up is down and left is right and we can't seem to agree on a goddamn thing, it's pretty good here. Yeah, you're living a good life.

I like what happened. I like the path you chose. Are you glad you opened that first gym? Are you glad that when that client said to you, did you have to pay that guy back the 50 grand? No, I mean, I tried to for years. I tried to come up with a payment plan to pay him back. But, you know, another line that he had that, um, it's one of these things that I've said so many times to different people who've asked over the years. But, um, when I tried to

come up with a payment plan and I put it down in front of him, he just said to me, listen, no matter what you pay me back, it's not going to be enough to move the needle for me. So don't worry about it. You know, he was, he was a guy that had extraordinary means um and i know if i had paid him back 5x it's still that's weekend money for him and his wife you know so it wasn't it wouldn't have been a thing it would have just been a gesture um are you still friends with him? No, not that we're not friends. We just, he went on his path. He started philanthropy, opened up a school. So we just separated ways. But I don't remember the last time I talked to him.

It's been a while. Maybe you'll text him after this and just say, hey, thinking about you. I might, I might. Better to do it now than when you need him for another 50k so then just a decent human being and um you know at a time when i just i needed i needed a push and he was there to help out if you're if you're not a nice person now as a poor person you won't be a nice person when you're a rich person so So those of you people who are like, oh my god, he just did that because he's rich or he did that just because he could do that, you're confused. Like you're – like when you're a nice person and you're poor and you have a sandwich and the guy next to you and you're at work with someone and you cut it in half and give it to him, even though you want to eat the whole sandwich, that's just because that's just just who you are and you'll do it when you're poor and you'll do it when you're rich

and you'll just always do it and if not you won't do it you'll just be an asshole your whole life yeah this guy was just a nice human being you know and and and um like i said he one of the most philanthropic guys i know opened up a school that bled him dry for years and years and years and he just kept dumping into it um until it was something that he was proud of. And just a good person. Rob, you're going to Miami this year? No, I was, I was hoping to run Waza Strong. This would be our third year,

but they decided that they're not going to run itaza Strong. This would be our third year, but they decided that they're not going to run it this year. So maybe next year, if they bring it back, you know, I'd love to go back and run it again. Wait, what is that? What's Waza Strong and why would Rob go to Miami? That is sad news for me. I love that event. Thank you. Yeah, I think that was the consensus. So Waza Strong, a couple of years ago, and now it's a bunch of years ago, I had conversations with Guido Trinidad about potentially doing some kind of a hybrid athletics competition at Waterpalooza. And then when did we do our first one? Was it 2019? I think it was our first, Waza Strong. And they gave us a stage where we ran a four-event competition on Thursday leading up until the main competition.

We had men and women compete in novice and advanced groups. And it was basically my style of workout. So if I was going to program for myself or really, really challenging events that had a strongman flair or a really heavy flair, that's what we threw as a competition. And so we did it in 19 19 and then we threw it again in 2020. Um, and, um, this year they said that they were going to pass on it. And I have, I had, uh, worked with Rob at those and wrote a couple articles about him and featured a couple of the athletes who even used to be, um, like regional level CrossFit athletes that were competing in it. But I think, I thought it it was amazing and it was kind of you know he had uh stones and really

heavy yokes but the guys also had to be able to do high volume of double unders and ring muscle-ups yep and some of them could do you know the strongman stuff but struggle struggled on the body weight stuff and others um the other way around but there were a couple guys that were like really good at both i actually saw mike sabato at uh i think at granite games this year had a great conversation with him this guy seven comes from like new jersey or something like that he wears sambas like those old soccer shoes what's his name mike sabato s-a-b-a-t-o and he was just like his most unassuming guy but once he got in the stage of competition it was incredible how strong he was just like his most unassuming guy. But once he got in the stage of competition, it was incredible how strong he was.

And there was a handful of guys like that and women. I really liked it. I'm bummed to hear that they're not doing it this year. Is Guido out? He's not Guadalupalooza anymore, right? He still is involved kind of like tangentially, but they consult him for things. He's going to be a little bit more involved this year, I think, since it's their 10th anniversary. And they want to highlight some of the evolutions of the sport or the competition from its origins to now over a decade.

But it's mostly Matt O'Keefe, Dylan Malitzky, and Kristen Chandler who are running it now. Were you invited to the rogue invitational rob no as a legend no does that chafe you no that's it's a great question um because it's not mine it's matt smith's it's someone on because we're live so someone just said it yeah no i i'm more into kissing your ass and loving on you but if someone someone wants to hurl some – peel off some Band-Aids, fuck it. No, it's funny actually. So as they were announcing it, the roster of competitors that were going to go, my wife said to me like, I wonder where yours is. Oh, damn.

So she ain't fucking around with you. No, no. You got like a spoonful of cereal in your mouth and she throws that at you in the morning yeah she just she has no mercy which is why the relationship works but it we just kind of both laughed at it it's like i just um the fact that i was mentioned and that's a handful of people tagged me on some of those posts uh right you know that feels good i and and truthfully like don't – I'd love to go and hang out with those guys and throw down again. Like, me and Miko, every time we traveled, we kind of partnered up and worked out.

And it'd be good to see him. It'd be good to work out with him at any venue, at any competition or otherwise. So it'd be a nice thing to do to get together with people. You know what they should have done? It would have been funny. They should have figured out some way to make fun of you. They should have invited you out there.

Although we didn't let him come on the floor, we wanted to introduce you to Rob Orlando. Then you come out in a golf cart waving. You get out of the golf cart with a cane or some shit. I'll tell you. I'm serious. They should have brought you there and fucked with you first of all i think it was i think they should have invited you rob and i'll tell you a quick story seven but uh also i thought that the way that they did it this year was like probably more enjoyable for those athletes and they're not really looking to do like five individual events head-to-head and whatever so the format they had this year i thought was probably better for them and then you know the

fans still obviously loved seeing all those people but uh rob i'm sure you have no memory of this but i you know i started watching and learning about the games in 2014-15 and watched all the old stuff and i you know similar you know to me you were kind of like the antithesis to Chris Spieler, right? And both of you guys had a, had a legendary status from those early days in your own regards. And then in 2016, I went to the games out in, um, in Carson. It was the first, my first time going, I brought my dad there and a friend of mine, and we watched all the masters competition because it was early in the week and we could watch it without – it didn't interfere with the elite individual events. And you were competing that year in the Masters division.

I can't remember which age in 2016. I was in the 35s. And it was great. I think it was 40 to 44. I don't think they had the 35 yet. I was probably way too big time in 2016 to talk to you, Rob. I don't even remember you being there. You gave me the brush by.

So I swear it's true. I'm sure I did. But you had short hair then and you were pretty fit like you've always been. And I just, there was like this one moment, it was kind of a weird moment for me, but I was walking over to the bathroom and it was kind of empty. There wasn't a lot of people there or whatever. were rocking it walking out and i took the chance to say hi to you and and acknowledge that to me you had been kind of uh one of the inspirations from the early days of the space and that was the first time that i that i met you actually did he wipe his hand on you yeah i dried my hand on his back yeah and my dad came back to me so why is your back so wet no the the 2016 games i've said this before that the 2016 games was by far and away the most fun

um as from any competition that i had ever done because it was so relaxed at the atmosphere the volume of events um that i just felt no pressure it was just like let's just go out and here i have fun and um you know there was only one heat for every event because there's just 20 guys lined up um so it just the the whole thing just seemed to work and then i had a blast doing it was that the year there were the hand cleans with 155 on that super thick bar and dudes were blowing out biceps that is the final event yeah so it was um it was axle cleans and it was a bunch of pull-ups and a ton i want to say like half a dozen popped their bicep on those axle cleans because they were trying to do continental cleans

so they would do a mixed grip to clean it up and on that mixed grip they'd pop the underhand bicep are all those dudes juicers is that like the like you popped bicep juicer that's a great question i don't you know i i don't know i i think it's poor technique and it's something that they never do and they're trying to do it under stress how about just shitty programming not how about shitty programming bad technique and juiced up motherfuckers how about all three well so like i would have loved that workout right but i just right well you you because you have seasoned hands around weird brown yeah because it's that bar is thinner than your penis

and so you're just you just slightly yeah yeah you have years of handling thick thick daily daily multiple times a day, actually. Yes. Yeah. Rob, do you remember the very first time you picked up something heavy? FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning. Which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do. Who wants this last parachute?

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Please play responsibly. At Air Miles, we help you collect more moments. So instead of scrolling through photos of friends on social media, you can spend more Please play responsibly. Ooh, must be mating season. And hiking with them. Is that a squirrel? Bear! Run! Collect more moments with more ways to earn. Air Mile. Like, do you remember being a little kid and, like, having to move a 20-pound bag or a 40-pound bag of cement and being, like, six and being like, what the fuck?

I don't like this. Not quite that far back, but I do think back to – Your dad hands you a shovel and weighs six pounds and you're four and you're like, oh, God, really? You don't remember that? No. days of high school um and hand mixing concrete in a wheelbarrow and having to lug 94 pound bags of portland concrete on your shoulder and lug them around construction sites and um and you just you kind of get used to moving 100 pounds at a time like you know it's just it's a thing that you do um i haven't worked with concrete a lot but my dad always had concrete around so i worked with It's just a thing that you do.

I haven't worked with concrete a lot, but my dad always had concrete around, so I worked with it a little bit. And I did the 40- and 60-pound bags, unloading them out of trucks. And it is a weird thing, especially if you're not used to hard work and you're kind of a little bitch like I was. And it hurts, like holding the bag hurt. My fingers hurt. I didn't like it touching my skin. I didn't enjoy i was just a man i was a bitch i hated like just but eventually once you accept it it's the same with like moving like four by eight pieces of plywood right or sheet rock like at some point you just it's like a fight it's like fighting with the object you just have

to just take fucking control of it okay it's like every bag i'm just attacking yeah it's it's not it doesn't have to be pretty and you don't get style points you just have to do the work but but but also you have to be present it's not easy it's not like taking a cup out of the fridge and filling up a glass of water while you make a phone call i mean you you're in a fight this thing that nothing's fun about a cement bag a little bit's leaking on you there's a rough edge um there's a guy behind you who's getting ready to hand you a next one you're trying to stack them evenly it's just fucking like geez what yeah it's business there was um you're fighting with with the bags you can't drop it no you can't drop it because it'll pop open yeah you get yelled concrete for a stone mason um lenny lee was the guy's name old really old

salty um just a grouch and he wore this fishing hat with a million different lures on it um and he was probably in his early 80s can you believe that's a look is that a mating strategy damn i'll get myself a lot of bitches i'll'm going to put this hat on. It's going to rain pussy on me with these lures. I mean isn't that like – what the fuck? How is that a – okay, sorry. Go on. Lenny Lee. Lenny Lee, yeah. So Lenny Lee was – he had vice grips for hands. He had the skin of a leather bag because he was the first guy up the scaffolding all day, every day. So he was the one up there in the sun all day. And so he would climb up the ladder, up the scaffolding, and he was at seven o'clock, seven sharp. He would fire a brick down at me and say, where's my mortar? And he'd scream and yell at me, where's my mortar? So I'd be mixing concrete.

And I had to do it in a wheelbarrow with a hoe because he said that mixers they made laborers lazy so i wasn't allowed to use a mixer on any job site a mixer is like a drill bit with like a drill a mixer is like the giant tub that's spinning around and you just pour the shit into it and it makes the concrete you spray the water it's automated yeah i had to do it where it's by hand like with pushing and pulling it back and forth getting it all mixed up and then um and then pull it up to him in a five gallon bucket on a pulley and then lower it back down and and this would go on all fucking day all summer from monday through saturday with, with cement dripping on you and just there's nowhere safe. No,

but it was, those were some of the, the most enjoyable work days that I ever had is it's just grunt work. And at the end of one particular stint, it was like three days in a row we were doing this work at a college and it was hot as balls. You know, some of those August days where it's a hundred degrees, a hundred percent humidity. And, um, I, I was, I want to say I was 17 then maybe 18. Um, at the end of the day, Lenny, you know, he's quiet, sits in the truck,

piece of shit Chevy that, I mean, you could look through, you could look at the ground because there was no floorboards in it. So rusted out just completely rusted out it was running on one horsepower it was a piece of shit right so we pull into this convenience store on the way home and he doesn't talk to me at all he just pulls in and he comes back out and he's got a Budweiser tall boy and he sits in the truck and he hands me one. And you're 17, 17. And the two of us sat there drinking a Budweiser tall boy.

And he did, he said to me, you know, something to the effect that you are in that one today. You know, and it's just one of the only thing you drink all day. So good. But it's just one of those.

I went home and told my mom and she was like, good. You're like, you busted your ass all day so good but it's just one of those i went home and told my mom and she was like good you're like you busted your ass all day she had no problem with that whatsoever it's like um and i think uh there's i hope that my kids um will will have that same type of experience where they get to work that hard physically just get to work that hard where you put your head on the pillow at night and you are exhausted you know and to me i think there's there's value in that man i had this guy uh nick rodriguez on either yesterday the day before i can't remember now and he's a 25 year old brazilian jiu-jitsu guy who stormed on the scene and he was just telling me he's like i, I just, I just want to work.

Basically. I just, I just want to fucking grind. Yeah. And so I just, and I kind of, I, it's kind of weird as you get older. Like I, I get that. I still want to, like, I, I sometimes go in the garage. I'm like, Oh, I'm just going to fucking get at it. And after 40 minutes, I'm like, all right, that's good.

You know what I mean? I'm like, I'm good. Yeah. I'm good. Like, I think I'm gonna do a 30 minute warmup and then, and then, and then just get out of crazy work. I'm good. Yeah. It's, it's one of those things that as, as I'm, as my kids are getting older, I think it's important for them to see me suffer. Right. So a workout that I did, uh, last year on father's day, and I'm going to do it again this year too. I did it with my son was, um, 20 down to one of burpees with a 500 meter skier in between every set. Oh, that's good. Wow. And it's, it's, that's a father's day special. And it's, um, you know, I do it with my son and, and I want him to see me

grinding for an hour straight. There's just, there's nowhere to go. There's, it's not complicated. Everyone can do it. And sometimes it's important just to put it in gear and keep going. If I, my kids see me work out every day in the garage and if they come in and I don't ever really know what they think of it until recently. And if, if working out, let's say I do I do a typical workout I do on the regulars. I do 10 deadlifts with 135, 10 burpees and I do 10 rounds. And it's it's pretty horrible. And it never gets better. I'm never making like progress on it.

And and and so I find that hard to believe. And so if they come in there and they say something to me while i'm working out like hey can i have a sandwich or can you open the garage door i'll fucking snap at them can't you see i'm working out like like don't fuck around like like or i just ignore them like like they're fucking not even there or if like they walk by me while i'm doing a burpee i just kick them down to the ground like what the fuck like this is like my time right like you can get it you can come in here and work out with me you can but but don't don't fuck around like i would never fuck with you when you were working out and um and so the other day someone someone goes i think we were jiu-jitsu or tennis and one of the other parents

goes um so do you play tennis or do you just do i can't remember and i go nah i just i just drive my kids around in a van all day and my son who who's seven, Avi goes, oh, but he works out every day so hard. I was like, yeah, it was like, that'll probably get me until I'm 90. Like, you know what I mean? That's enough. Just that little acknowledgement from my boy. I'm like, yeah, he sees it. And it's, he knows that's important. It's important. He knows. And any other time I'll stop anything I'm doing to help my kids. But when I'm working out, like – No. And same with my podcast.

If they knocked at the door, I'd be like, get the fuck out of here. You know what I mean? Just sit down and be quiet. But there's like some things that there's just bound – it's kind of like what we were talking about in the beginning of the podcast. There's just the rule. Just be good. I'll be good to you you'd be good to me we just be good and we can hang yeah this is it's not complicated rob does did your um

did you does your wound ever heal uh good question um rob has a uh when i met rob he has a a giant um tree tattooed on his back it is probably the best tattoo i've ever seen in my life and it's a dead tree with a couple healthy leaves on it and um and i asked rob hey, what does this tattoo stand for? Yeah. And I didn't have kids at the time, just so you know. So like I have fucking no idea what the fuck I was asking. I was a fucking complete idiot. And now I go through the mental gymnastics of what Rob actually went through every single day.

It's something that no one tells you about when you have kids that you're going to have to do. Yeah, it's, you know, it's one of those things that I don't know that it that a deep wound ever heals. Right. I think you you will you explain what the tattoo is for. Sorry for the listeners. Yeah. So there's a tattoo on my back of a tree and it's you know, there's there's initials carved into the tree. And it's, you know, it just, the family members, it's my family members that are carved into this thing. And they're, without giving away too much, because it's not something that I talk about publicly, but it's one of those things that there was a significant loss. publicly, but it's one of those things that there was a significant loss. And, and, you know, one of those things where you're like, what if you woke up tomorrow and your right leg was missing? You know, like, could you wake up? Yeah. Is everything that you do for the rest of your life going to be different? Yes. But can you find a way to enjoy and have a great fulfilling life without that leg? And the answer is yes. And it takes effort, especially

in the beginning. It takes a Herculean effort every single day, every single minute to be making the choice because that's what it is. It's a choice to continue to push forward and to try to enjoy and to re-engage. But eventually, you make the accommodations that you need to live without that leg. And it's not, it's not this hardened, you know, sad thing anymore. It's more of a, you know, it's like a warm breeze that you feel on your face one day and just kind of, it washes over you and you feel good about it. And, you know, kind of, you, it's not it's not this cold piece of coal anymore um and and it's gotten to a point where it it's just a part of my every day you say that you don't talk about it publicly why is that um you know it's it's it's a tough thing right right? Because very few people know about what you're talking about. Most don't. Most, I hope, never do.

experienced this loss was this, um, people would inevitably not know what to say. And, you know, then they, it gets this really strange, uncomfortable, um, relationship changing moment. Right. And so the people who are closest, um, they know, and, and it's not the kind of thing that I'm going to run around with a bullhorn and tell people, um, you know, because it just, it has the tendency to turn a lot of things strange. To use the guy with the missing leg, wakes up with no leg. So I'll go places with my kids, and there'll be someone without a hand, right? Like we'll be sitting at the beach, and there'll be a guy sitting next to us without a hand, and my kids will be like, hey, what happened to that guy's hand? And I'll be like, I don't know. Go over there and ask him. Because kids can do that.

And that's the fucking problem with adults. The thing is that what some people go through, you just can't sympathize or empathize with, and faking it's worse. Well, so here's the other part of it. So just go – so don't. Just be yourself. Don't – like if you're uncomfortable around someone because they went through something that you can't even imagine, just you fucking embrace that uncomfortability. Don't project it back onto them. Yeah, and I'm telling you, shit gets weird yeah i bet but here's the it's like when my good friends told me they were scientologists i have these really really good friends and after like a year they told me they were scientologists and i could tell that they

expected me to freak out yeah but like i don't care. It did get weird when they told me all my friends were Scientologists and I didn't know it. But that's the story. You know, I think the difference is in the story about a person who loses their limb, right, is that there is a visible loss. There's a visible scar that it's apparent to everybody, right? are that it's apparent to everybody right um there's when when there's a personal loss um it's not a nobody's aware of it they don't unless you bring it up unless you talk about it and not so it's um it's not an obvious sign and and nobody nobody knows my perspective on things they don't know where i'm coming from because they just don't know. And they can't know, right?

They can't know. We can't know. It's much easier to project what it might be like if I didn't have my right hand or my right leg than it is to understand how a person who's lost their spouse or lost a child or lost a parent early, you can't empathize with that. You don't know enough about that relationship and everything that went into it or is missing because of it. You can try to, but it's way more difficult to really, really comprehend. It's just not a physical thing that you can see.

So it's much more – it flies lower under the radar. Don't tell me about black people unless you've lived in Africa for five years. You don't know shit. I don't care if you're fucking black. You don't know shit. Tell me after you've lived in Africa for black years if you're going to categorize people by their skin color, you racist piece of shit. Don't tell me about white people unless you've lived in fucking Finland for five years nico salo is not the white same white person i am it's the same thing these people think they just know shit so fucking lame the way people categorize shit uh thank you for sharing that uh it's a it's a testament to you and your wife that you guys are still together.

And it's probably, I'm guessing, the crowning achievement of your life is to be with the same woman for 23 years. I mean, how do you feel about your relationship with your wife? It's a 10 out of 10. It's like in the pantheon of decisions that you make over the course of your lifetime, right? There are two that I think are arguably the most important. And one is picking your spouse. And the other one is deciding whether or not you want to have children. Like those are the two, like I think, and I've hit home runs on both, you know, so I'm batting a thousand and it's like my wife is, she's my best friend, and we've been – we were lucky enough to grow up together and to be together for the better part of 30-plus years right now. So we're – I'm as lucky as they get in that regard.

When I went a couple of years ago when I got fired from CrossFit, you know, my brain immediately went to this fucked up spot. And I'm like, it's like a couple weeks. Like I had this like out of body experience right away. And then and then and then after a couple weeks as the't no matter what happens like i want to give like i want to have houses in california to give our kids like when we die like house is plural and like so no matter what i don't want to fucking sell sell any of our property and uh so if shit gets really weird we can we just move into a like a van um with the kids and my wife's like oh for sure and i was like oh i picked a fucking you know what i mean like that's what i'm saying like i just needed that i just needed like like i like my brain was going to like the worst possible place and then i was like okay yeah yeah we're good we just get a big van and live on the beach and we get to keep all our houses and just yeah like my wife don't give a shit.

Like, yeah, she met me when I was fucking homeless. Yeah. And it'll be fine. Totally fine. Yeah. My partner's got my back. Yep. I wonder if she I wonder if she has any stories like that about me.

I think she's I think she's probably. Yeah, I think I got the better deal maybe a little bit. In hindsight, Rob, if you were to do it all over again, would you still open a gym, that first gym? Yeah, I think that was the logical progression for me was to open my own space and to kind of – to do the things that I wanted to do. Again, I've been self-employed forever. I've never really worked for a company. So it was the next logical step. Other than Lenny, of course.

Other than who? Right. Lenny. Lenny Lee. Hey, I love the last name Lee because as you told the story, he started off as a black guy in my head and then he started off as a white guy. And then by the end, he was an Asian guy.

I just, but I, but I don't know, but I just. You were spelling Lee L-I by the end? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes. It was just changing. I love the last name Lee. That's, that's cool that you never worked for anyone. Did your parents or anyone ever, like, did you have any of that pressure on you? Like get a fucking job at Starbucks so you can get health insurance. What are you doing, Rob?

Were the in-laws ever writing you? My mother has said to me as recently as like a month ago that I should be a teacher and that I should be going back to school to get my teaching degree. God, I love moms. It's just – that's not going to happen. It's not on the cards. Tell you our teaching. It's just not the way that she envisioned. I say I'm a gym teacher.

I just teach adults. That's all. And my mom asked me yesterday if I was going to get a job. I'm fucking not shitting you. It's like, you know, I, so my parents um have you thought about getting a job maybe you should get a job maybe i should get a job what kind of fucking job mom what about that thing that i do every day that pays the bills yeah that too yes oh yeah um no i i think i get it though they're a different generation there's some people that that still think Harvard is a good school.

Yeah, well. It's fucking – it's not people. There are some people who still read the New York Times. You might as well just – you might as well be a Scientologist. The crossword puzzle is still good. Maybe. Maybe. Okay. Sorry, aye, aye. Okay, sorry, sorry, Rob. So are you going to get a job? You're going to go back and get your teaching credential?

I'm pretty satisfied with where I'm at right now. I'm not looking to step back into school for another year or two so that I can teach at the elementary school level. No, I know that would make my mom happy, but that's not really what I'm aiming for. I'm going to say something so sexist. Men should not be elementary school teachers. I just can't relate to it. I don't think men should be around kids.

Rob was part of the inspiration for a new scoring, so thanks for that. I wish we got to see more guys like him. Do you know what Tyler is referring to, either of you? Inspiration for new scoring. So thanks for that. I wish we got to see more guys like him. Do you know what Tyler's referring to? Either of you? Yeah, I do. Oh, tell me.

Do you know Rob? No, I'm curious. He's just saying when he's gone back and applied the scoring system, this is a guy who wrote an article that was published on Morning Chalk Up and was on the Training Think Tank podcast, and he and I were on the Get With The Programming podcast talking about this and he's very passionate about it. Are you guys polished? Can you come on my podcast now? Because I'm bringing it back to the last one.

He's much better now. The only podcast we haven't aired, Rob, is when I had this guy Jason Watkins on the podcast. I do like him though, but I'm just busting his balls. Go on, sorry. So now you guys have done three podcasts. You're all polished and you go big time on the Sevan podcast do like him though but i'm just busting his balls but go go on sorry so now you guys have done three podcasts you're all polishing you go big time on the seven podcast that's good i wasn't with him for the training think tank one he lives near there so he just

went over to their studio but anyway he's very passionate about the fact that there's a better way to score crossfit competitions if you want to claim that you're testing for fitness. And before coming to the table with that publicly, or even searching for a means to, he wanted to have valid data that he could point back to and say, here's an example of something that happened in the past. This is the way it was scored. This is the way I would have scored it. Here's how the results would have changed. And in the case of Rob, what I'm assuming here is that there was a competition or multiple competitions you participated in that your relative ranking to the field would have been significantly higher or lower, probably higher in his scoring system. And that's because in that scoring system, let's just say that the scoring was a one rep max deadlift and you deadlifted 600

pounds and the next guy deadlifted 520 pounds. In the CrossFit game scoring system, let's just say that the scoring was a, it was a one rep max deadlift and you deadlifted 600 pounds and the next guy deadlifted 520 pounds in the CrossFit game scoring system. You, he would have gotten five points or six points less than you, but in his scoring system, he would have taken all of the results from the entire field of deadlifters and then rank them based on what he calls a Z scoring system. So you may have earned, you still would have earned a hundred points, but the second place guy might have only earned 78 points and then everything would have been scaled from there. So he inspired, Rob inspired Tyler to come up with that? He was one of the athletes, when you look back historically, that probably had significant changes in their overall or relative placement come the end of competitions based on the changes in the scoring system there and there are certainly others better i would keep probably way in here but i would guess better

totally off subject clayton wall more men should be teachers the profession is way too feminized sure i'm fine with that i 40 year old man should not be in a biology classroom with fucking the way with uh 16 17 yearold girls the way they're dressed these days. It's just the whole thing is fucked up. We're causing pressure cooker. We're causing a bad situation. Men are fucking men. Something needs to be addressed.

All these weird things are – you should study it, but we need to look at books. Sorry. Have you ever looked at books on animal behavior with caged animals in a zoo, the shit they do? Caged animals in a zoo do all the weird shit that humans do. And in the wild, they don't do that weird shit. You cage 30 male monkeys together and they start doing some weird shit. Throw one female monkey in there. Shit gets weirder.

I mean, so, yeah. I can't just agree and just say start having more male teachers. I don't know. My friend, I'm not going to ruin this show. Sorry. Does Rob think the CrossFit Games is an accurate test of complete fitness yes let's go to some superficial shit i like this this is fun let's eat some cotton candy this is great um do i think it's uh i i think dave does an amazing job at testing for the fittest um i think that if you look at the scope of the events, if you look at the number of tests

compared to when I competed in 2009, I remember you and I talked about this, Sevan, that at the 2009 games, there were 10 events. There were five on Saturday and five on Sunday. And I want to say that if I remember it right, you said to me, was Dave trying to kill somebody? Probably. It's one of my favorite lines from your, I don't know if it was a documentary or documentary series that you're seven, but you were talking to Kalipa. And I think it was right before, right after the final event, which was at long chipper. And he he goes the difference between last year's games and this year's games is no joke like that was a significant change in terms of programming yeah from from eight to nine was it yeah yeah and then nine was nuts nine was nuts nine was it was it was

hard um but then you but you fast forward um to how many days they compete now, how much is thrown at them over the course of like a four or five day competition now. It is it is it's just evolved and the volume has gone up and the weights have gone up and just everything has, you know, it was in its infancy in 2007, eight and nine. And now it's it's just starting to mature. And so I think the test just keeps getting better and better, bigger and bigger. And the swimming. Oh, and speaking of the swimming, that's what KO'd you, right? Yeah, yeah. Post Jason T. Watkins' most recent comments, Evan.

It starts with better, oh sorry better so rob would have done better he was never awarded correctly for his strength likewise swim would have killed him worse well the swim would have killed me no this one did kill you yeah this one ended your career as an individual. Yours and Nico's. I went back in 16, but that was as a master's. Does that count? No. Okay. So as an individual, that was it.

That was it for me. The fucked up thing is that in 11, I was significantly fitter than I was in 10, and I was in a better space mentally. But that first, the ocean swim ocean swims, uh, you know, it just wasn't meant to be just now when you started talking about Dave, by the way, I sent him a link to the show. I said, Rob's talking about you to try to entice him to come on. He said, I'm in a bad area. He's a good dude. Uh, Dave's, um, Dave's always been super, you know, super supportive of me and, and, um, we've always gotten along really well. But yeah, that ocean swim, that fucked me up.

Tell us what happened, Rob. So give us the juicy details of that. You see it programmed and you're in your bedroom in the fetal position crying. Let's set it up a little. So just in case anyone doesn't know. So Rob in 2009 placed 22nd and he came back in 2010. Not only placed 22nd, but kind of stole the show. I mean, there were a lot of superstars at that podcast, that podcast, that game. I was going to say that about 2010, actually.

OK, sorry. Go ahead. Because in 2010, he placed 15th. But when you start looking at the people that were ahead of that, it's people that are very recognizable. It was a it was a really good competition. And just behind him that year were Jason Kalipipa spencer henville james hobart so he was right there like in in the mix very and he was kind of the first iteration of like the dan bailey and the josh bridges someone who wasn't winning it but like everyone knew who he was like it probably pissed the 10 guys who were ahead of him because rob had more fame than them okay sorry go ahead so then we come to

2011 and the first event is in the ocean yeah so the first event was an ocean swim and it's los angeles california people north american continent on the west side everybody's asking me no everybody has asked me since then and and these questions stopped like 10 years ago after the competition ended. But it's like, were you nervous? I'm like, no, because I can swim. I've never done an ocean swim before. And it was just me being naive.

I didn't realize that it was going to be that different. So I jump in the water and, you know, it just didn't go all that well. And I ended up leaning on somebody. One of the lifeguards was there, and I put my hand on the surfboard just so that I can catch my breath and get my shit together. And I said, let me just hang out here for a second, and then I'm going to keep going. He goes, oh, no, no, if you touch the board, you're out. What do you mean?

He's like, you're not allowed to get any assistance. You're out. You're done. So they brought me back into shore. And Dave brought me over and put his arm around me and said, look, sorry, you're out. And that was it. That was the end of my competition. That was the first of my competition um that was that was the first

event first event were you fucking just like holy shit i prepped for this for a year and now this yeah that's that's actually exactly what happened and and and you just you're like i just heartbroken you know and it's like um It's just heartbroken, you know, and it's like, but you came over to me. I don't know if you remember this or not, but you came over to me underneath the stadium. Actually, this is a different circumstance. This is in 2010. There's another story.

We're going to go back to that. Okay. story. We're going to go back to that. Okay. But in, in 2011, after the swim event, I get disqualified. I went over to Dave and I said, listen, I don't, I don't care at all if my points count. I just don't care. But can I, can I go out on the floor and just compete? Right. I'll just give me zeros for everything, but just let me go down. I worked hard enough to get here. Can I just go out and throw down? And he said, absolutely. So I was allowed to. Oh, they would never allow that now.

Damn, you got a soft Dave. So I just said, Dave, let me go out and compete until the first cut. And then I was taken out of the competition. cut and then I was I was taken out of the competition but you know as as from the the crazy low of being disqualified the exact opposite emotion was like you know I forget that the event was an a clean and jerk an increasing clean and jerk ladder with rope climbs yeah this. This is the rope clean event. It was actually, it was kind of like rich running's redemption event. Yeah. Most people remember it.

Well, the, the barbells started at, I want to say one 55 and went up to two 25 and, and the workout ended with I think it was one jerk overhead with two 25. Um, I think it was one jerk overhead with two 25. Um, and because I was disqualified and because my points didn't mean anything and I could go out there and do whatever the hell I wanted. Um, I told one of the guys from rogue, uh, that I was close to one of the videographers. I said, Hey, um, while you're filming this, like, as I get to that last barbell, just make sure you kind of get tight on me. He said, okay. And I went out, and I did my first jerk at 225,

and then I did a second and a third and a fourth, and I think I did seven total just because. So, you know, you ride this, like, really shitty low, and then you go out there and you pound out some extra reps because the pressure is totally off. And, you know, I had that high. And people still come up to me when I go to different competitions. People will say, I was there in the stadium where you were doing those extra reps. And it's one of those highlight reels for me personally.

Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. And Miko got taken out of that workout too, that ocean swim. And he's basically a professional swimmer. I mean, he's a fire rescue guy in horrible, freezing, cold water conditions. But the water slapped him in the ear and broke his eardrum. That's right. Yeah, he was throwing up while he was swimming.

Yeah. Well, this is just honestly, it's just sickening for me to hear because I remember watching that, and I remember the years after when the same little thing would happen to Orlando Trejo. And I remember other years where certain athletes would win the CrossFit Games despite not being able to do one rep of a single workout later in the weekend. And the inconsistency of that, I don't really agree with. One year, Neil Maddox got stuck. Sorry, Brian, later in the weekend. And the inconsistency of that, I don't really agree with. One year, Neil Maddox got stung.

Sorry, Brian, to change the subject. Neil Maddox got stung by jellyfish. And I actually filmed the whole fucking thing, like when he came out and everything, and then my audio was fucked up, so I couldn't use it in the behind the scenes. But he got worked by a jellyfish. It was during the rehearsal, the night before, when they took all the athletes out to the ocean.

And I think while he was out there, he got worked by a jellyfish. I need to have him on the podcast. He'd be a good interview. Yeah. He's awesome. Hey, do you remember in 2010,

there was a workout, um, in the stadium that was, uh, power cleans and ring handstand push-ups. Yeah. And at the time, I want to say it was 185-pound power cleans. 205.

Oh, 205. Okay. And handstand push-ups, ring handstands, power cleans, that was wheelhouse for me. I was looking at that just saying, Chris Spieler was standing next to me during the announcement at that just saying like chris spieler was standing next to me during the announcement he was like wow this is it's pretty good for you um so i i get my my hopes up i go out there on the floor and um the way i've always done

ring handstand push-ups is that the rings are at belly button height and you kick up into the rings and then you come all the way down so your hands are down by your shoulders and then press all the way out. So it would be a deficit ring handstand pushup. The way they had the ring set up at the games was that they were set up about an inch off the floor. So it, it, there was nowhere to go.

You just kind of like came down, bang. It just wasn't the way I practiced it. Never done it before. Um, have never done it since but i ended up getting a dnf on that workout i do remember okay now do you remember coming up to me underneath the stadium i mean after i had a fucking meltdown like an epic meltdown where i just i didn't even know what to do um you came over do you remember what you said

to me no okay you sat down behind is it in the behind the scenes i don't know i don't know such this is it's very powerful okay you sit down right across from me and you just said rob here's what you got to do now you have to mentally unfuck yourself oh yes i do remember this and i'm like that was it it actually worked i just you gotta remove okay instant amnesia that's just gone it's over there somewhere and i'm just going to move forward and in 2010 i was able to the the goal for me going into that weekend and that competition was to be in the last heat on the last day still competing um and i was in the final heat on the final day right next to kalipa doing rope climbs and all this shit over the walls and with the dnf yeah with the dnf on

a workout that he probably could have taken top five, if not one. I mean, it's one of those things like, obviously, if you can do the deficit ring handstand pushups, you can do the other one, but you never practiced it. It's in a weird way. It's almost like froning. It's like, yeah, he climbed the rope. He just never practiced it. He didn't know he should be practicing that. And even fast forward to this year at the games sure most of the people competing

at the games is you're probably have practiced freestanding handstand push-ups they probably haven't practiced it walking forward and then showing control coming back down into the bottom of the tripod position but if you have that same event next year at the games people are going to blitz through it yeah well go ahead well i was going to say in 2010, I had never climbed rope. I never – we didn't have one to climb. And Tommy Hackenbrook showed me how to climb rope underneath the stadium before we went out. Wait, didn't it show Rich? That handstand, that handstand, ring handstand was like the – I haven't seen anything like that since then when we saw the women try to climb the pegboards that one year.

I mean people were flailing. Yeah, it was weird. They found a way around it though, right, where they would arch their back like a – That's right. They turned it into a bench press. Right, and then they would do like an incline bench press and then straighten their legs out at the top. Yeah. They found a workaround. Has that ever been in the games again since then brian yeah 2016 the separator workout and they had the women low by the mats like six inches off the mats but the men had to do a muscle up first get into the top position and then flip

their legs upside down about i don't know 10 feet off the mats yep it was pretty crazy wow but rob would have been better in that one yeah i've actually done that i practiced that actually rob tell me um i what are the origins of the pig i saw on your instagram that you you that's your thing yeah um i didn't know that so uh you going back to the pig, for anybody that doesn't know what that is, it's been in the games a bunch of times at this point. But the original one, Brian, do you remember what year that was? The bird and run? The pig. But was the bird and run the first time that they did it?

Yeah, that sounds right. Bird and run should have been 2013. Okay. So the pig, I wanted something that would mimic a tire flip, but it was scalable, measurable, and repeatable. So the problem with, let's look at barbells, right? If I'm in New York or California or Asia or Australia, right? I can say, put 225 pounds in your bar and do 10 power cleans, right? And it's scalable, measurable, and repeatable. We know that we can replicate that across all, wherever you are. The problem with a tire flip is that nobody has access to my tire except the people in my gym. So it's a real problem, right?

Like I can say flip a 500-pound tire, but yours might be 520. Mine might be 540. Mine has good grip. Yours has shitty grip, right? So it's not scalable, measurable, and repeatable. So I wanted to make a device that would mimic flipping a tire that was scalable, measurable, and repeatable. So I had a – I drew it up on a piece of paper. Yeah, there it is.

I drew it up on a piece of paper. I mean that's crazy. That's the original pig? Sorry to interrupt you. That's the original. That was one of the first test days, yeah. And someone – you tested it with all that shit on there i wanted to see if it would break their ability are there are there callers on that

no that's why they cut the video off as soon as he dumps it down the plates just all explode how many those are 45s on there no i think those we went up 25 pounds at a clip just seeing like loading them in different places to see if it would feel weird if it was more on this side or that side and you know so i think we just kept adding and adding and adding as we were going and someone made that by hand that's hand welded yeah so there's a company in milford connecticut and i gave this guy the drawings. My brother is a structural engineer. And he introduced me to this guy that said, hey, this company, you know, that we work with all the time, they can weld whatever you want. So if you have something, go ahead and give it to him. So I

gave him some drawings, and he welded up the first little iteration. And then as soon as I saw it in person, I was like, okay, well, the dimensions are right. It actually feels good, but we needed to give room for somebody to put their fingers underneath it. So we had to put these rails on it and we had to make a couple of little changes. And then I posted up a video and I sent it to Bill at Rogue. And I said, hey, what do you think of this? Is this something that we could make modular and then sell? And he said – he passed on it, and I was over in – Because of shipping? Is it a shipping issue?

I don't know. I mean he just passed. But I was over in Germany. Oh oh let's revisit the legends event i want to say something else about that okay so you're in germany so i'm in germany and my phone rings and it's dave castro uh and dave says hey um i saw that that that flipper thing that you made i said yeah um he goes that's the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen. And we're going to use that at the games. Is that okay? I was like, yeah. Um, so they, he went to, to bill and contracted to have the green ones built. Wow. And they've never been sold on that, huh?

Yeah. So they've never been sold. And the reason why they were never sold is because there was a company called Milo flipper, ever sold is because there was a company called Milo Flipper, M-I-L-O Flipper, that reached out to Rogue after the games and said, they gave him a cease and desist because they said that we were getting too close to their, they were infringing on their patent. And so Bill says, hey, what do you think of this? And I was like, well, up until right now, I've never seen that thing. And it costs like three or $4,000. I said, how many of these do you think they've sold? Is it like the single digits? I mean, what, who, who the hell is going to go spend three or four grand on that thing when you can go get tires for next to nothing? get tires for next to nothing but they make all sorts of weird shit have you seen this tire flip thing that they make the half tire yeah yeah that's stupid it does look stupid i have to tell you what is this milo flipper i'm looking at it that thing doesn't look like it would last outside

at the ranch that that it's just not the kind of thing that anybody with any sense is going to buy, right? Because it's so absurdly expensive for what it is. Man. But that green flip sled that they used for the burner run, so they've never used it again at the games. Is it because of that? Because they made another evolution of it later on. Right. They gave it some padding. They covered it up. You know, they called it the pig in that first event,

but then it's slowly gotten a little bit softer. The idea is there and the functionality is there. Yeah. I mean. So this is the thing that they said they had a patent for and you were getting too close to it. Yeah. Dude, if this thing got flipped around outside, I think maybe it would take on, I think the ranch would eat this in a week yeah it's just

those techniques stinks and then the the one that they made in um 2015 for uh with the red padding, etc. That one could be purchased? That one, I don't know if that's a competition-only thing. I don't think I've seen it on their site. It might be competition-only. Yeah, I mean, I know that Matt Fraser was able to get one after the games that year in practice. Of course. But I don't know if anyone could just buy one or not.

Yeah, I don't know if it's actually on their site or if it's just a... And now there is actually a company called Flip Sled or something that makes something similar. Yeah, the funny thing is that a couple different companies from around the world, obviously they don't have to worry about our patent and trademark laws, they replicated the Pig the the pig uh the original pig uh they basically just took the design of having that six by six beam down the middle which posts and you know so they it is being sold worldwide but it's not one of those things that it's being sold dude you know this is one of those tools that you

eventually end up regretting buying i hate to say this thing sits at your this is like here's the thing okay unless you unless you the dallas cowboys don't buy one of those it's just not it's not a thing that especially at that price point like at the milo flip array if you're talking three or four thousand dollars as a gym owner that's 10 barbells 10 good barbells right like yeah why in the world would you buy a a piece of equipment that costs that much that only serves one person at a time if you own a gym and if you're and if you're working out on your own why in the world would you invest that kind of money on a on a on a And if you're, and if you're working out on your own, why on the world would you invest that kind of money on a, on a, on a thing where you could go to a junkyard and get a tire for free?

It just doesn't make any sense. Right. I agree about the tire thing for sure. Rob, where can we buy your apparel? Your site doesn't have anything but bucket hats. Your site doesn't have anything but bucket hats. Yeah. We're actually working on some apparel. We've got a new shirt that we're just about to launch. I'm just waiting for the original order to come in from my printer. But it's a pretty simple design.

It's the one that you just – we sent you the design. It's mandate exercise in light of all the different mandates that we're seeing these days wait who oh you say oh i wish that they had exercise rob i keep i always i don't say it too often but i thought it would have been cool if instead of the second stipend check they just sent everyone an assault bike and you had to enter in your social security number and log two hours a week otherwise you got a fine a fine. Yeah. It's one of those things that it seems counterintuitive, counterproductive that with an illness that we know attacks people who are out of shape with comorbidities and obese that we would close down all the gyms. It just doesn't seem all that intuitive. But you know what?

If you close down all the gyms and also send everyone an assault bike that they have to use. How much is an assault bike? I don't know. 900 bucks. Pretty close to the stipend check. I don't care if it's an assault bike,

echo bike, concept tube bike, whatever. Why is that not a priority if we're dealing with this like you say a4 it's crazy but we know we know the answer to that question of course to get back to the the apparel sorry that guy's question um hybridathletics.com um and that's where we're going to start pushing more apparel but that's where you can get the all the other things that we have that the barbell brushes and the stone molds and all that other stuff for a hundred billion dollars you can buy every uh barbell brush that you guys make is incredible

by the way we just got one at the gym like literally last week and we had these little rogue brushes before this thing is like i mean 100 times better well thank you thank you wait why do you say that why do you say it's better why why it's just more effective it's easier to use it gets more it covers more surface area at one time it molds to the barbell because you can like you know cuff it around like that and if you i mean some of our barbells are old and you know whatever but if you use this on a new barbell like you chalk up however much you want you do your olympic lifting whatever it is you take that out afterwards it looks pretty much good as new so brian do you have um did you get the steel or the nylon bristles

nylon okay and you have some old barbells that have rust on them yeah okay i'm gonna let me send you a steel one because you can make those old oxidized barbells. You can actually make them brand new. With the steel? They will look like they're brand new. Damn. Yeah. Well, anyway, this, the, I haven't used the steel one yet, but I would love to try it out. But the nylon one, super effective.

And I would highly recommend it if you're looking to maintain the quality of your barbell over time. Yeah, that was an interesting project for me like you can see me there i'm scrubbing a kettlebell just like taking the surface crap off of it and that's with a steel brush what if you have really bad acne can you use that on your face i think you should back i think you absolutely should on your back um but yeah if you if you've got a bar, if you live in a place like Florida, uh, where it's high humidity and things just rust over the, the steel bristle brush will like, you can see me there. That's a Castro bar. Um, and that thing just sits in my garage. So it's exposed to everything.

Dude, imagine that rust dust you're breathing in right there. I hope you're holding your breath. It's good for you. I'm surprised he's not wearing one of his five masks. No, I had a KN95 in my pocket, but I forgot to put it on. He broke the filter off a cigarette and he's just breathing through the filter right there. So take a look. You just wipe that down and that surface rust is completely gone. And then you put some three in one oil on it and that thing is as good as new. Seven. I actually, I have to get going, but you should post this comment that Bailey just put up. It's a, it's pretty good one. Rob, dude, it was great to see you, man. I'm pretty bummed not to have Wazza strong this year, but hopefully in the future.

Well, thank you so much. It was, it was good talking to you and good catching up. All right. Seven hours to catch up with you later. Okay. Yeah. Um, okay. Bye. Uh, I started crossing in 2010 when I was 15, around that time, I saw Rob do grace at 300 pounds and I thought he was the strongest man in the world. He, he, what would mean you thought he was. Thank you, Bailey.

It was, that was one of those things that, it was at regionals one year, you had to do a three rep max clean and jerk from the ground. You had seven minutes and you had unlimited attempts to get three from, and from when you started, you had 40 seconds to actually complete three lifts. Um, and I went out and I think I took the best score at 285. So I knew that I had taken the top spot, but, um, I really wanted to try 300 to see if I can get 300 for three in, um, in 40 seconds. And, um, there's a good video

of that on YouTube. That is, it's probably in the top two or three for me in terms of my athletic, um, highlight reel. Uh, but I was able to do 300 for three, but that all that did was kind of give me this, uh, put this question in my mind, like, could you do 30 reps at 300 pounds? Is that possible? At a body weight of like 185, 190 at the time, could you continue to do this over and over? So over the course of the next two years, I played around with a bunch of different workouts that kind of led me to it. Um, and then one day I just decided, all right, I'm going to, I'm going to get after this thing. And, um, I did the first five really fast, like the first five in a minute. Um, and then obviously slowed down quite a bit.

Um, and then I think I got to rep 27 and then I missed 28. I missed 28. I missed 28. And I was like, in my head, I'm having a conniption because I'm like, what if I can, I can't finish this. I'm never going to do this again. 29 i finished 30 um and it took me forever it took me uh probably 25 minutes or so i don't i don't know how long it took um and since then there are guys who've done it in you know six minutes seven i don't know what the score really there's someone who's done grace in in seven minutes with 300 pounds yeah i like i know that I, when that video video was originally posted, um, and Jordan Gravatt, shout out to Jordan, like good buddy. Um, he made the video that went along that CrossFit posted up. Um, people came out of the woodworks like, Oh, I can do that. I can do that. You know, it's like, great. You can do that. You've got a 500 pound cleaning jerk and that's terrific. But you know,

like the whole idea behind crossfit is that it's not you're not supposed to be a specialist you're right you're supposed to be a generalist and like yeah i can i did 300 pounds for 30 reps but i at the time i was running a six minute mile and i could i could do 50 consecutive pull-ups like, you know, there's so right. And I'll let whatever people just love hashtag CrossFit. Yeah. So, but I've seen videos of people doing it like more specialist guys. There's a, there's a wall street, wall street Olympic lifter or wall street power lifter.

He's on Instagram. I know he recently did Isabel at three 30, uh, with 330 pounds. Um, that's 30 snatches for time, 30 snatches at 330 pounds. Um, so now it's, you know, what was really impressive 10 years ago is just not that impressive anymore. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. I'm sure probably people were doing that shit also too. It's just also now, everything's just taped. Yeah. Everything's recorded. I mean,

you're recording in 4k with your, I mean the, the iPhones, if you have adequate lighting, the iPhone is nuts. Yeah. It's crazy. Rob, thank you. This was, this the iPhone is nuts. Yeah, it's crazy. Rob, thank you. My pleasure. This was way too long. Originally, when I very first started the CrossFit podcast and I was thinking about doing it and Dave was encouraging me to do it, I remember just rehearsing. I was always thinking I wanted Rob Orlando to be my very first guest on that show. And I can just remember like a thousand times, not a thousand thousand times but dozens of times practicing interviewing you in the shower and then you and then i for some reason i never

invited you or you never came on that show and uh and then the other day george dm me and i was like holy shit i was supposed to be the first guest i ever had and the reason why i picked you because i knew you'd be so fucking easy you're like you're like josh bridges to me it's a fucking slam dunk you're like one of my favorite people in the world. I can just hang with you. Like we could, we could fly to the moon and be in the seats next to each other for three years and just chill. Yeah. Same thing. Like when I, um, um, George grabbed me the other day and said,

Hey, I just reached out to seven. I'm going to send him some stuff. And, um, I was, it just, I told you in our text message, I was like, you know, I heard your name and it just, it kind of made me happy all over again. Um, and I, you know, then getting on the show, it's, it's awesome. And, you know, you and I, I don't know if you remember this, but I flew out to California and I did a podcast with you that never aired. Do you remember that? No, that was on the CrossFit podcast. So you actually came on. I was one of the last guys to come out and do that yeah like our last yeah wow okay well i don't remember that but our that was a really tough time for me there was some brutal shit going down at crossfit that was the first

iteration of brutal shit um and basically we had buddy leon which was an amazing podcast i guess we had you on there were like 10 there that never aired that were so awesome. I'm so sorry that you made the trip. That sucks. You flew all the way out there, and it never happened. We got to spend a couple hours together, and I'm sure we did more stuff than just the podcast. But look, anytime there's an excuse for you and me to get together and shoot the shit, let's always do that. Awesome.

All right, dude, have a great day. You too. Enjoy. I'm going.