The Sevan Podcast - #28 - Cody Anderson

Episode Date: May 6, 2021

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Yeah. I really, I really, I was trimming my beard and took a big gouge out of it. There was no turning back at that point. It was gone. Cody, can you grow hair on the rest of your face?

Uh, kind of not very well though. If I could grow a beard like you, I definitely would. Cause, uh, Josh Bridges would. Cause, uh, Josh Bridges is always like, he,

he acts like he feels bad for himself, but I know he's really proud of it that he hasn't shaved once his cheeks. And that pretty much his, his look is his look. That's just the way he rolls. Really? Wow. I'm a little bit like that.

Not, not to that degree. They, I'm always afraid of that. Brian, like messing up and I'm trimming my mustache and then having to get rid of the whole thing. Wait a sec. Do you know who Brian is?

Yeah, I watch your podcast. Oh, but have you ever met him? I was just looking at his Instagram, seeing all of his quarterfinal workouts and stuff. And you were thinking, I beat him there, I beat him there, I beat him there. Turns out Cody did extremely well on four of the five tests in the quarter finals. So tell me, tell me,

I want to hear four out of five, man. Yeah, this is actually a, I'm pretty fascinated by this topic in general. I'm, I'm happy we have you on at this time of the season, Cody,

because this question for you, but I also want to see if you have any thoughts about it as applies to athletes in general, because that rowing wall ball workout was a very similar test in 19.1. And if you look at your results in 19.1, I think that year you were like top worldwide in all the other four workouts and you're like 4,000 in 19.1. And that was true for several athletes. I mean, Noah Olson from qualifying through the open that season there was a lot of talk about it and sure enough we get another test that's similar

and you did really well 240th or better in the other four workouts and then that that one workout basically keeps you out of the semi-finals it's like you know one like why haven't you got better at that movement combination but more broadly speaking, why, why does it often there's an athlete that has a certain either combination of movements or a specific movement that no matter how much they train and try to improve, they just can't, or don't seem to be able to relative to the field. Yeah, that's a good question. Um, you know, I think my wall balls, since I started CrossFit have gotten a lot better. Um, you know, cause I, I did my ball balls unbroken on that workout.

It just came down to rowing, I think. So it's just a matter of one, you know, kind of glaring weakness for me. I think, you know, I'm at a little bit of a disadvantage with, you know, my size and everything. But if I'm, I'll totally own the fact that I didn't work on rowing enough this year. But if I'm all totally on the fact that I didn't work on rowing enough this year, like, you know, I, you know, tried to focus on strength and narrow that, you know, gap between myself and the rest of the field. I think I have a little bit, but rowing is just one of those things. It's still always been kind of a challenge for me. But how much do you weigh? How much do you weigh, Cody?

I'm like 170 right now. And how tall are you? Like 5'7", 5'8". And the first year you went to the CrossFit Games, how much did you weigh? I was like 150 or something, probably. And what year was that? 2014. No, no, no. That wasn't for you. That was for Brian.

You don't know those kind of things. Well, everyone will remember that it was 2014. No, no, no. That wasn't for you. That was for Brian. You don't know those kind of things. Well, everyone will remember that it was 2014 because he happened to have one of the performances ever in one of the events. Savan, do you know what we're talking about? I'm sure it's something with muscle-ups in it.

Because I remember just every time that Cody would come out onto the floor and there was a muscle up workout, there was energy in the crowd and people would get excited and want to see him try to push the limit. And that's I mean, that was one of the coolest things. But by no means am I suggesting you're a specialist, Cody, by the way. But we all know who's good at relative to the field. We always know who's better at certain things than other things. And so it would always be fun to see someone like you, who we knew was really good at muscle ups relative to the field.

Well, and it's still only by a little bit, but that little bit equals a lot at the CrossFit games. It's like beating someone in a 400 meter race by one second, right? It's a huge victory in a 400-meter race by one second, right? It's a huge victory. But we would love to see you push these athletes who everyone held on a pedestal and then beat them, and the crowd loved that. I think that's what they really liked about you and Josh Bridges because there were these workouts that you would show. There were people at the games who would show up and, you know,

always take just 20th place in every event. But everyone knew at some point during the week there was going to be a workout and Cody or Josh was going to stick it it to someone and so the crowd got electrified those are fun moments man i bet how old are you now i'm 28 and when you went first started crossfit how old were you i started I started CrossFit, I was 18. So 10 years now. So since you've asked these questions, it actually fits into one of the other main topics I wanted to kind of ask Cody about.

You don't have to justify to speak. Just interrupt and go. I have noticed data analytics perspective that in the last couple years it seems that at the top end of the sport especially for the men there's been a shift in the size and weight of the athletes that are like and I'm talking about like the top 10 at the games and it's actually

shifting towards your favorite by an inch or two and it's dropped by 8 to 10 pounds over the last couple seasons have you noticed that? I'm trying to figure out why that is. I just wonder if you have any thoughts about it. That's really interesting.

Actually, I don't, I thought it was the opposite. Cause you look at like 2014, you look at like Noah Olson and like all of us really. And we're so much smaller than we are now but um i don't know i'm kind of how many years like what do you say is how long has that been turning that way well in in uh the i think it was 2015 through eight four years running basically the top 10 men at the games were all were averaged one uh 195, nine and a half. And there was very little deviance over those four, that four year time period. And in 2019, it dropped by, um, by eight pounds and two inches, two full inches, which is

like a crazy statistic. And that was the top 10 of the games in 2019. And then last season was kind of in between those two. 2019. And then last season was kind of in between those two. You think it's the programming or the, um, the, the way you get to the game is the programming has changed, or do you think it's just the kind of athlete has changed? Yeah. Well, I think in, in 2019, and I've done some studies on this, that in particular,

because of the way that events for all the scoring adjustments that it was favorable for the smaller athletes mary was one of those workouts and then just the straight sprint workout um it just lighter athletes just dominated those workouts and they were heavily system but then when it was the next year i mean they had again you know an online test, a smaller field. There's only seven workouts to get down to that top five. And again, there was, you know, just a little bit more of a leaning. Then I started to like, maybe, maybe there's something else going.

Cody, is the sound coming through your earphones or out of your computer? It's out of my headphones. Do you guys hear stuff in the background no no no it's fine i just want we've had some issues with echoes in past shows and i just and it's it takes hours to clean up and post-production and i just felt my butthole pucker up like oh god oh god are we gonna have an echo in the show when when you join when you started the CrossFit Games, 18 years old was young. And that was sort of one of the, you know, special qualities about you. That's what made you stand out because you were so young. And now, now that it's like, Brian's telling me that there's two teenage girls that might qualify for the games. What do you think?

What do you think about that? About your age versus young people doing CrossFit now? Do you have an opinion on that? I love watching kids do CrossFit. I think it's awesome. So my first time at the games was 22, but I started CrossFit when I was 18. But yeah, like I think about how I was as an athlete

when I was 18 compared to the growth, you know, that I went through and the fitness that I gained over those years. Like for a kid to be able to get into the CrossFit games at that age is awesome. Like I'm a huge fan of like Haley and even Justin's pretty young. So I think, I mean,

they're not even close to peaking yet. So it'll be awesome to see what those guys do. Yeah. This is the other shift that I'm really kind of tracking right now and especially actually on the women's side because and um since they opened up the 35 to 39 master's division there's been i think about a dozen women who've called who've been able to qualify for the games despite being over 35 and i think maybe one only one man has done it i think jason smith was 35 when qualified one year um but it's a pretty distinct difference.

And now we're starting to see that on the other end of the spectrum, there's actually teenage eligible competitors who have a chance, a real chance to qualify this year for the games. But it's not happening on the men's side. So there's like this huge gap. The women can be like, you know, and actually have a chance to make it to the games where the window on the men's side seems to be much more narrow like probably 21 to 31 like a 10-year gap yeah yeah it is really interesting i mean i know men kind of like you know peak it when is it like 29 to 30 ish or something i don't know maybe that window is just kind of like a little more forgiving if you're a lady, but yeah, it's interesting. It's compelling evidence, you know, in, in, in other sports, it's all,

there's always been a wide range of ages, right? You know, we see quarterbacks go into their forties. We see basketball players have these long careers, but it is really compelling evidence just based on the qualities of what CrossFit is, is when humans reach peak potential. I think it's probably one of the most valid tests. Obviously, I'm biased, but it's fascinating. What is your primary focus in life?

Like, what are you doing, Cody? Does going to the games even interest you? Is it just something you're super fit and And so you just do it every year, but what's going on with you these days? Yeah, it just kind of happened accidentally. I wish. Yeah. 2018 season was definitely like when I was the most, like, I didn't have anything else going on in my life. So I, you know, I stepped away from coaching and, and all that just to be a full-time athlete. Um, but now, uh, you know, we opened a gym, uh, November, 2018. And, um, so attention is just split a little bit more. I was still training

for it this year. And like I said, you know, like totally will own the fact that I didn't grow enough. I think it's my own fault. Um, but yeah, it's been a good opportunity for like, um, just evaluating whether I want to keep training the way I am or if it's time to move on, you know? So I think I'm kind of in that in-betweener kind of moment. Like I could maybe try it for one more year, but kind of figuring out if the passion's there or, you know, seeing what else there is to do. How do you make that decision? Do you make it on your own?

No. Yeah, I mean, I have a lot, you know, some close friends and obviously my wife that I, uh, bounce ideas off of and everything. But I think at the end of the day, it's like, I remember Matt, you know, said this, he's like, when it stops being fun, I'm not going to compete anymore. Um, and that was one thing I was kind of thinking about, you know, I picture myself at the games like this year, 2021, and it doesn't have the same level of excitement um you know that it did in the years previous so it uh it might be time or it might just be kind of a weird period in life you know covid's made everyone's life way different and with people so i don't

know that might change but um what's still kind of an evaluation process what city do i live in yeah uh called redmond if you know where like bend oregon is it's a lot more popular we're right next um, what's still kind of an evaluation process. What city do I live in? Yeah. Uh, called Redmond. If you know where like Bend, Oregon is, it's a lot more popular. We're right next to that. Okay.

And are the lockdowns pretty strict there? Um, not as bad as like, definitely not as bad as like California or Portland or something. Um, I would say Bend is a little more, uh, a little bit more like, I wouldn't say Hick town, but a lot more kind of red voting people. So, um, you can get away with a little bit more

here, but, uh, but yeah, we still had to like, you know, we closed the gym. Um, and a lot of stuff was closed down for a pretty long time. There's a gym outside. It's in the Mount Shasta area in California. I don't know this for a fact. I haven't looked at the demographics, but I'm guessing it votes more red too. They sent me a direct message that said that they never closed their gym once and that their clientele doubled during the corona um during the covid response i don't call it the covid pandemic the reason why i don't call it

the covid pandemic is because if i didn't watch tv i would never know it was here so i call it the covid response epidemic i the only damage i've seen is from the response i haven't or effects i haven't seen anything from covid not to disregard doctors and people who have seen it, but I just personally haven't. And I'm outside of my house 10 hours a day, and I take no precautions, and I still have not seen. No, you take the most important precautions, Evan. You don't eat sugar. Right. Well, yeah, yeah.

I don't eat sugar. I stopped eating sugar, though though because I lost my job. I thought it was because you wanted to be strong and prepared for anything that comes your way. I knew it was the right thing to do. And when shit hits the fan in my life, I go, I start taking control of my life and start just like, and that's what I did. Shit was hitting the fan, so I start taking control. I think there's probably some classic textbook psychology around that tell me about your coach amy is amy's last name everett uh anaya everett yeah and i ever tell me about your relationship with her how you met her and um

why you've kept the same coach for all these years she's still your coach right uh kind I mean she um for this season I was kind of I mean we're business partners too so we're still like you know friends and everything uh yeah and I would still consider her my coach but um yeah she was more of like kind of a sounding board this year just with like um I just wanted to see how programming for myself went metcon wise and everything but yeah uh phenomenal coach our relationship kind of happened organically um they moved to uh they moved one town over from redmond where i live uh really close by and their daughter wanted to do crossfit um i think she was just getting out of gymnastics at the time. So started personally training her. Uh, and then she kind of pushed that of like, you should let my mom

train you. And so I went over to their, they have like an awesome like gym and their, their whole garage is basically one big gym. They basically set it up so that they could run camps out of there for a month. Um, so yes, I started working with her, uh, just with like my weightlifting stuff. And then it just made sense to me after a while to, uh, you know, from getting my weightlifting programming done by this person, I should probably just have everything done. Cause then everything kind of fits together a little bit better. Um, yeah, Amy's awesome. She coaches with every part of her being you know it doesn't hold anything back so she's she was a large part of my success in 2018 and uh and yeah i'm super grateful for

her and greg both um a lot of opportunities come from those relationships cody that that you said about wanting to have like uh the same coach for a lot of different things is actually kind of the opposite approach that many athletes take where they'll have a weightlifting specialist they'll have an aerobic coach they'll have a nutritionist have you ever tried that out or do you have any thoughts about why some athletes might prefer it that way Brian Brian's referencing something on Cody's Instagram right where he said is that what you're referencing the comment he made on his Instagram? Oh, he just said it.

Okay. He just said it. Okay. But he did say something on his Instagram about he would only take a coach if he believed that they knew what they were doing. So I apologize. Sorry, I missed that, Cody. Go on. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I can see the benefit in both. I can see the benefit in both, you know, like people working with, you know, Chris Hinshaw for aerobic capacity or, you know, a specific weightlifting person. And then, you know, you have like a swimming coach, whatever. For me, it just made sense. Like, I don't I didn't want my programming to overlap. And I thought it'd be the easiest just to have one, you know, it coming from one person. And then it's just easier. But I totally see the benefits like i just reached out to the guy who did a rowing seminar at our gym

about a year ago to give me like a little rowing template to work on um so you know i do take advantage of that i want to you know respect the people that are experts in their field um but i think it does make it easier like i have a lot of people message me, like, you know, asking if I have like a weightlifting program or something. And I don't right now. But, you know, my advice is always like, you know, I'll point them to like Catalyst Athletics or something. But then, you know, also reminding them that's important. Like, if you're just going to do a weightlifting program, you need to really be conscious of the programming that you're doing at your gym met conwell has made sure you're not clean and jerking like three days in a row or you know squatting every day of the week or something so i think that was the main thing reason that i uh just you know wanted amy to do everything for me cody you and i are pretty similar size i'm a couple inches taller but the same weight what do you think the main reason is that you can snatch over a hundred pounds more than me? Great question. Great question. Selfish, but still a great question. Do you take creatine?

Oh, shit. What's your, what's your steroid supplementation, Brian? Yeah, no, I can't say that on here. Um, I don't know. I think background in gymnastics helps a lot. You know, I, I had pretty good mobility from the get go. Um, you know, overhead squats were never like a struggle for me starting CrossFit. Uh, and then I've just put a ton of work into it, man. Like I, um, I went through a period of time where I didn't pr my snatch for two and a half years and i was like as a competitive athlete but you know working with amy and greg and kind of rebuilding my form and having a better understanding of the way even just um what's the

word i'm thinking of i was gonna say physiology but i don't think that's the right word the way olympic lifting works and what you actually need to do to like elevate a bar and stuff. I think it's a lot of reps and a lot of practice. I brought up Amy because I feel like she's one of the unsung heroes in the coaching world. Like I watch a lot of UFC and there are some UFC coaches out there who I just know are from looking at their athletes, the, the, the small stable they have, they're just amazing. And I always wonder why more people, and maybe more people do. I don't really know. I don't know her business and I don't know her that well, but I respect the shit out of her. Every time I see her,

I think you described it perfectly when you said she coaches with her entire being. Every time I would see her at a regional or a games, man, she was like dead lock focused on you. Yeah. And she had an extreme amount of passion. And there's probably some healthy pressure there that she put on you. She's the kind of coach definitely you want to please. And you want to make proud of you, right? And, yeah.

And that's why I brought her up. It's, I'm surprised that more athletes don't go to her. Are there any other games athletes she trains? Um, and of course she has her husband is that amazing resource also. Yeah. Yeah. They're both super knowledgeable. Greg is an incredibly smart guy. Um, I don't know if she, I think she's, she's helped a couple of different games athletes with weightlifting stuff. Uh, she worked with, you guys know, uh, Carly Fuhrer. She, I mean, no, we can't hear you, Brian, or I can't. I can't hear me. Oh, I can't hear him either. But Brian does know who she is. He knows who everyone is. If she, if she did CrossFit on planet Earth, Brian knows who she is. and weightlifting for a little bit longer, I think. So yeah, she's worked with, she's worked with other CrossFit athletes, but I think I was probably her primary CrossFit athlete.

And she's obviously primarily a weightlifting coach. You know, she's coaching Maddie Rogers going to the Olympics this year and everything. So, um, that's probably more her main focus at the moment, but she does, she does, uh, she does still do CrossFit for quite a few people. Were you, are you more distressed? You said that in 2018 you quit everything to do CrossFit to focus on getting to the games. And it sounds like you're in a little bit of a limbo now. When you make the decision to move forward, is the only way to move forward to revisit that type of lifestyle that you had in 2018?

Or sell the gym, kill the dog. Burn all the bridges. Yeah. I mean, if I wanted to maximize my potential, maybe. I don't think I would need to get divorced. But, you know, like there are other focuses. And so, yeah, I don't think that's to get divorced but um you know it like there are other focuses and so yeah i don't think that's realistic for where i'm at now there are things that i could do um you know we could you know for example hiring another coach take the load off myself for classes

and stuff like that or hire somebody else to program, um, things like that. Um, but yeah, it's kind of like, you have like a hundred percent of like your abilities and you have to decide like what percentage you want to put everything into. Um, you know, we're finite people, so, uh, it's hard to know what to do. I think Americans probably try to act like they have 150% all the time, but, um, um but yeah so i think it's a struggle to figure out so there's definitely like if i wanted to there's changes i could make but yeah in terms of maximizing your potential you know like we saw it with matt like he lived breathed and ate training all the time he had his meals made for him and he didn't have any other focus

other than winning the games that's part of the reason why he was so amazing at it You didn't have any other focus other than winning the games. That's part of the reason why he was so amazing at it. Tell me what happened in that schoolhouse 10 years ago that you mentioned on your Instagram. Tell me about your crossing paths with God. Yeah. Yeah, so I grew up Christian. Just kind of, I mean, probably a lot of people can relate.

You go to a church on Christmas and Easter and kind of put the label on yourself. But I didn't really have any grid for, you know, I didn't know what the Bible said or I didn't really read it or try to pray very much or anything like that. And then, yeah, we just got invited to a small conference this guy um that lived nearby met some lady that had been a missionary in columbia or something uh for a number of years and had her come over and yeah they rented out a middle school classroom after hours and um she was just kind of sharing stories of things that, you know, she'd seen and experienced while in Columbia and just in general. And there's an opportunity to have people pray for you afterwards. And I don't really have like a, you know, burning bush didn't come in front of me and God spoke from the heavens or anything. But I just had a moment where I was like, to me, it was like,

okay, this is real. And if it's real, then I want more of it. Um, and I think that's probably one of the most important parts of my life, you know, like, um, you know, I, I credit God for, you know, giving me all the opportunities, the CrossFit and all that kind of stuff. Um, it kind of shaped my worldview and my values and, um, you know, I'm still, I'm still growing all that kind of stuff, it kind of shaped my worldview and my values. I'm still growing as a result of it, but I don't believe that anything really in my life where I'm at now would have happened if it wasn't for that moment. I don't know if that describes it very well. People use that term, believe, and I get hung up on it because they say, I believe in God.

Yeah. And I would – because I would think the term is, I know God. Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah, and that using the word believe is like, I believe in Santa Claus. Using the word believe is like, I believe in Santa Claus. I believe my wife loves me. Because I can't know because I can't get into her head. Does that distinction resonate with you at all?

Totally. Yeah, I think that's a really good way of putting it, because there's like there's a difference between like believing that God exists and actually like adjusting your life who he says he is, then we can allow him to try to prove that. And it's not just, yeah, it's not enough to just believe. I can believe that the sky is blue. I can believe that the earth is round, but it doesn't really do anything for my life. Seven, I love the way that you brought that question up. I don't know if either of you will know this, but I actually majored in theology in college.

And prior to going to the school that I ended up graduating from, I had very little religious presence in my life and had actually never opened a Bible or a Quran or a Talmud or any of those books, but I eventually did read parts of all of them. And one of the things that was the most off-putting to me, and also from what I understand or how I understand a lot of the New Testament, was also off-putting to Jesus when he was on earth, is people who felt like they knew God and felt the need to tell you that they know God and you should know him the same way.

And that's a delicate thing. And I think it's great for people to feel confident in their knowingness of God. But a challenge for most people is how do they project that into the world so that it doesn't turn people away from something that they want so desperately, especially if it's someone they care about, for them to understand. What's your approach with something like that, Cody? Yeah, that's a really good point. I think that's, you know, honestly why a lot of people have a bad taste in their mouths

about church and stuff is they've seen Christians or, you know, whoever like preach one thing and then live a completely different way. And like, okay, these people are hypocrites. Why would I align myself with what they're doing? Um, but I don't know any kind of effective thing where I've been able to share my faith with somebody has come up organically, you know, where I already have a relationship with them and there's respect gained and, um, you know, where I already have a relationship with them and there's respect gained and, um, yeah. And then just kind of an opportunity comes to talk about it. I'm not trying to sell Jesus to them or anything, but it's like, Hey man, if you're interested, this is my story. Um, and then it's kind of up to every person, you know, if they want to believe it. Cause like,

you know, I shared that story. It's my subjective experience. You can, um, you know, I can share other stories about things that I've experienced and that I would, you know, a credit towards, you know, God working in my life. But at the end of the day, you have to decide if what I'm telling you is the truth or, you know, whether you believe it or not. Um, yeah. There's this thing that people call flow state. I've heard the term, you know. I'm sure we've all heard the term, right? And for me, and I've said many times that I don't believe in God, and that really, the DMs pile up and people start sending me scripture. It's always nice stuff.

It's always nice stuff. But I don't think that they realize what I'm really saying, right? Because they have a mind of duality and they automatically think. It's like if I said, I don't like Cody Anderson, then people would jump to the conclusion that I dislike you. But they wouldn't think, oh, that's because he loves Cody. He doesn't like Cody. And so when you say – I don't know if you're able to follow that. But some languages work like that.

They don't work with duality. You wouldn't say in Armenian that you don't like someone and someone would jump to the conclusion that you dislike them. They would only just focus on that. And it would leave open the option that I love you. But so it's an interesting thing when I say I don't believe in God and I see all these people jump to the conclusion. They jump off like I have no relationship with God, but that flow state to me is when you have given up yourself and you're sort of the witness and God is just working through you. And of course, it's an incredible, as you pass in and out of that flow state throughout your day and you become more and more aware of it. You learn how to cultivate it.

You learn how you got there. You learn what you had to think, how you had to breathe to get to that state. And that's when you've sort of become selfless and you've given your life to. And I hate even to say the word God because for me, God is no thing. And when we use words, we make something something. But to me, God is no thing. So I have trouble even saying the word because I don't want to pin this no thing down. But I think it's a great, great, great state to believe in.

Sorry, not to believe in, to be in, and that even people who don't believe, I think that that's a fantastic first step because then not believing is sort of leaving yourself open to it. Because I think a lot of the reason why people miss God is because they have a preconceived notion of what God is, but God is no thing. So anyway, and I think that you come across like you walk the walk, and it's impressive. Like anyone around you feels, walk, and it's impressive. Like anyone around you feels, okay, this guy's different, you know? There's something about you. Yeah. You're either a really, really weird duck or, yes, you have cross paths.

Yeah. Or you're a really good dude. That's deep. Tell me about the $6 thousand dollars that you lost there was a mention on instagram of six thousand dollars that went sideways and tell me that story because that's that story really resonated with me yeah dude that was such a growing experience actually like now that i can like kind of look back and the you know we've kind of worked through forgiving and all that stuff um it's you know I think it actually maybe to you know go back be biblical one more times verse in the bible it says God works all things out for good for those who love him um I totally feel like that's what happened. But yeah, so this guy, I had done some seminars for him in Norway in like 2015 and worked out fine and got paid and everything. seemed like a good dude um and so then he reached out with an opportunity to uh

to kind of do a similar thing you know we were going to go to spain and um just kind of host a camp for maybe like seven or eight days i can't remember exactly how long um and uh actually i did a camp for him in Chicago before that too. And I didn't get paid for that one either. We were going to just be like, I just pay me for everything afterwards. So he booked these, booked these flights to Spain for us. My wife and I just got married like the week before. So you're kind of going to use it as like a honeymoon ish kind of thing, which if you're not married or you're engaged or something,

it's maybe not a good idea to combine a work trip with your honeymoon in hindsight. So it wasn't really a honeymoon. My wife was awesome. She was dealing with a torn meniscus at the time. So we were like pushing her around in a wheelchair through the airport and stuff. So it was a little bit of an adventure.

But it was a super fun time. Like the people that came are awesome. Like they still reach out to me on WhatsApp and stuff sometimes. Like we still have our little group chat going and just a huge melting pot of different people from Europe. And, um, yeah, it was really fun to hang out with them. And I think actually one of the ways that's worked out for good is like, we kind of want to use that as a template for, um, you know, the way we want to run seminars in the future and just camps and stuff. Um, so that was good, but yeah, so this guy, he's, he's acting like kind of just like disappearing all the time during, and people were really annoyed with him. And, uh, just kind of looking back, it was really shady, you know, it was supposed to be an all

inclusive trip. And so he was having people pay to rent cars and they just keep the receipt and I'll reimburse you and then all this stuff. And, uh, it turns out during that time that we were there, he was actually getting sued, um, in his country, I think, um, which is it explained why he's like on his phone and disappearing all the time. And, uh, so he just, he basically didn't have the money to, to do anything. I think the reason he was getting sued before is a camp got canceled and he didn't have the money to reimburse people before. So it was just kind of like this Ponzi thing of like, you know, paying off the last thing from the camp you're currently doing this really bad way to do business. Um, and so when we got home, I like sent him invoices

and everything. And, um, and he just, uh, you know, kept making excuses and give me a little more time. And then, you know, eventually came out that, you know, I'd kind of real, some other people reached out to me and said, Hey, this is what's going on in Norway. And he's in pretty big trouble and haven't heard from him since really kind of deleted his Instagram, deleted his Facebook, like everything. And just, I don't know where he's at in life, but if he's listening to this, he, he knows who he is and I forgiven him. Um, yeah, it's a good opportunity to kind of like let that go. And, you know, they say holding on to, to unforgiveness is like drinking poison and

expecting the other person to die. So it wasn't benefiting us at all. You know, we did everything we could. And at the end of the day, it's kind of have to wash your hands of it and, um, know that you acted with integrity. So yeah, it's kind of a weird way to start marriage. The reason why it resonated with me is life is full of those things. I was many, many, many, many years ago, I was growing weed and I would take it to this guy about 300 miles south of my house and he would sell the weed. And then on my next trip down to when I would bring more weed down, he would give me the cash he made, right? And one time, I think I was just done. I was over that phase in my life, and I had left $4,000 with him.

And so like four months later, I went down there to get the money, and he's like, oh, man, I don't have the money. I used it to first last and deposit on this house I'm in. And as time went on and time went on, I lost the money, right? He never gave me the money. Then I had another friend who needed $3,000 to finish her master's degree in China. Um, and I lent it to her and, um, good friend, both of these were good friends, never paid me back. And then, you know, that I feel like I have endless stories like that. But for some reason, I was never mad at these people. It's kind of like it's different than being stolen from. Stolen from is a little harder to swallow. But I found it fascinating that you wrote about that, that like you didn't I don't even think you use the word that you forgave him.

You were just like you just wished him well. And I don't know, I'm not even sure I know what forgiveness is, but, uh, but man, it's not worth burning. To me, it was never worth burning the bridges. It's on them. It really is on them. I never, I never, you know, I might be like, Oh shit, I really needed that money. But in the end, it's all on them. It takes up their – it shouldn't take up my mental space. It should only take up their mental space.

The burden is on them. And I just thought that that was really cool because I don't think a lot of people realize that. And I think a lot of people – when you lend someone something, that's why I would never lend anyone a book. If someone comes to my house and they're like, can borrow that book i'm like no absolutely not you can have it or no buy your own like i'm just very comfortable saying no i don't lend things i don't want i don't want the burden i don't want i don't anytime lending someone's almost like a lie you gave it to them hopefully they pay you back or hopefully it comes back to you in some other way but lending stuff is always my mom bought me a new truck.

It's the only new car that I had except for the minivan I bought once I had kids. But my mom bought me a new truck when I graduated from high school. And that's how I had to learn how to say no. Because people would always want to borrow the truck for stuff, like my friends to move or do this. And I'd always think to myself, if they fuck my truck up, I'm going to hate them. And I don't want to lose this friend. So no.

It's true. Yeah. I like that, actually. I might start doing that, not lending stuff to people. And it's good. Saying no is a great practice. Saying no is such a great practice. So many people don't know how to say no.

Because saying no is so hard, a lot of people will lie. You know what I mean? Like they'll be like, hey, can you come to my birthday party this weekend? You'll be like, oh, no, I have a dentist appointment. But you don't have a dentist appointment. You just don't want to go to their birthday party. Just tell the truth. Everyone will – you think the people will be mad, but the good people will be like, man, Cody has integrity.

I actually learned that from Dave Castro. Just say, just say what you mean. Yeah, I like that. It's such a healthy thing to do, you know, not have to make excuses for yourself. And I think it shows there's like shame attached to the decision you're making or something if you're not able to own it like that. So, yeah, my wife and I both try to do that. But it's still so tempting because you think it's being nicer, you know? Nice and helping people are two really misunderstood words. A lot of people think that they know what helping is or what being nice is. They have no idea. They have, they have no idea. Tell me about this 10,000.work.

I saw it on your Instagram, and I want to know what it is because the first thing actually I thought was, holy shit, why doesn't – I'm surprised Matt Fraser is not over there just collecting a monthly paycheck. Yeah. I think it's still early on. They've only done five of them, so it's in the early stages of it. Sorry, Cody. One second. Do you know what that is, Brian? I do not.

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um yeah so it's kind of still in the early stages he's only been to five of them but it's kind of like an open style like just thing to do once a month um you know they put some money behind it every month i think first place wins like twelve hundred dollars and they pay out through the top 10. So it's like a $5,000 purse. Um, and I think they, uh, I think I first got exposed to it. They had just invited me and just asked like, Hey, do you want to do this? There's money involved. I'm like, sure. You're one couple hundred dollars. And so I've done it every month since. Um, but yeah, I think it's kind of like, we're seeing kind of more of those things, you know, with the COVID stuff, like giving people a thing to do, you know, especially virtually. I think it's just kind of encouraging and something to look forward to for people.

So it's very new? It's 10,000. It's really new? Yeah, that's been maybe five months or so that they've been doing it now, I think, maybe six. But how do they pay for that? What's the plan? What's the model? Who is this? Is this just some rich guy who wants to see really, you know, give fit people a chance to win some money? Cause I went to their Instagram and it's, it's barren.

Yeah. So yeah, 10,000 work there. They don't keep up on their Instagram very much, but 10,000 is a clothing brand um it's like an apparel uh company so um yeah they're the ones sponsoring and so i mean that's kind of the incentive for them is you know get their name out there and everything but um yeah so there's a couple of a couple of us they they sponsored um i know tim paulson's on our team, Sean Sweeney, Brandon Luckett, Scott Tetlow. I think it might be us five. Um, and so, uh, yeah, but it's just been a cool thing to do. Like I programmed the workouts for my jam.

It's just one workout, you know, and you kind of film it same way you wouldn't open and everything. But, um, it's just been fun to have something once a month to kind of competitively to throw down in, but it's not super high stakes or anything um so yeah and it's cool you can do it every month so basically they give 1200 out to whoever wins this workout every single month and where do people go to enter that um i'll put a link in my bio uh for you guys if you want to on Instagram. And yeah, we're doing a thing this month where you can like sign up like on people's teams or whatever. So I need to come up with a team name. And then the biggest team gets some kind of something.

I don't know. We'll do a giveaway or something like that. What do you mean team? Like the most people from a gym that join or? Yeah. So I think, you know, I don't know if you guys have done any competitions like in competition corner, but you can like choose your affiliate or whatever. So I'll make something Cody's Courageous CrossFit Team or something. I don't know.

Yeah, and so then they can kind of see like how many people are under which affiliate or which team. Are there any other events like this that you guys know of? I don't know. Once a month, one workout. Um, I think that, oh, Wadproof used to do a challenge like that. Don't forget $1,200. Yeah. I know Wadproof used to do like a challenge once a week or once a month or something,

but I don't think it ever got enough legs to be sustainable. I don't know. It sounds relatively new to me. I mean, what if there were 10 of those and you could make a living just whooping ass online? That'd be cool. To me, it's a big question in terms of even this season, the CrossFit season, because half of the next stage is already an online competition. And I haven't done an extensive study of this to see the data, but I think that the writing is pretty much on the wall, that there's definitely a group of athletes who thrive in online setting, who struggle in live competition, and the inverse is also true. online setting who struggle in live competition and the inverse is also true. Um, so if you know,

in one of the conversations going around the space right now on a more macro level is how do we make fitness as a sport more sustainable for more athletes? And obviously you have to have opportunity to make money. And if there is a certain demographic of athlete who thrives in an online setting and stuff like this starts popping up, then that could be their ticket to do it more regularly and more competitively. And maybe that's how they transition to being, you know, a better, um, live competitor as they make more money on the online stuff, then they can have, uh, you know, focus more of their training because they don't have to have other burdens in their life that distract them from the training they want to do or the body work that they need, et cetera. So it's, I think it's a cool platform that's begun and

would be interesting to see if other companies climb on board, especially because it seems like parts of the world are going to continue to be pretty limited for foreseeable future. Yeah. Cody, why do you train with shoes on? Why do I train with shoes on? Yeah. Is this like a random kind of question?

I don't know if it's random. You wear shoes, don't you? I do wear shoes, yeah. Okay. Most of the time. You could say, Sevan, you're wrong. I do train without shoes. Sevan, actually, this will probably be interesting to you, Sevan,

and Cody, for sure, I have an opinion too. Someone compared masks and shoes to me this week. Oh, God. an opinion too someone compared masks and shoes to me this week oh god as as a as a reason why you should wear a mask they they turned it around on me i asked them why they wear a mask they asked me why i wear shoes because i'm programmed to wear shoes that's why the same reason why people wear masks is their program the planet is a very hospitable place i know people want to think it's uh dangerous but it's not um it has dangers what did you say brian and then we'll get to cody you're not getting off the hook i want to know why you're right what did you say i stopped talking to her

i would walk away to you hey most most people don't know why they wear shoes to because we're programmed at such an early age most people don't know why we wear shoes they have some automated response their autopilot goes on and they say you know oh because i don't want to step because it's cold outside or blah blah blah or my feet are tender shut the i won't swear because cody's here but come on, man. Come on, man. It's okay. It's okay to be like, I don't really know why. Okay. Go on Cody. So why do you wear shoes? I noticed you wear shoes in your workout. You're in your gym. You're in this beautiful, clean space. This is how I thought I was watching you do a workout. It was like

cleaning jerks and something else. And it was all around the bar, whatever you were doing. And I'm like, oh, this guy. And you had beautiful shoes on. I don't know what they were. They were like some tan shoes, just one solid color. And I'm like, wait, why is this guy wearing shoes? He's in his space. Why doesn't he just work out barefoot?

I always work out barefoot. Unless I'm doing rope climbs. Yeah. Yeah. I've honestly just not considered ever working out barefoot all right ever i'm being honest i mean i could make a case for why to wear shoes if we want to get like that you mean like in case you drop a weight on them or something or yeah or like because that's going to be in competition set yourself up set yourself up better for you know barbell lift with having a little more of a solid platform and everything.

Maybe I don't think I would clean and jerk very well in bare feet. I mean, theoretically the energy would transfer better, right? You're just right on the, has anyone ever, does, do you have to wear shoes at the CrossFit games?

Could you, could you do an event barefoot? Are there rules on that? No, actually, they're very – when they're, like, briefing athletes, I remember especially at regionals because there would always be really fun questions that people would ask. You know, they'd want to, like – what was it, like, 2015? We had, like, the handstand walk and then, like, the one-rep max snatch

afterwards or whatever. Like, you can't bring out lifter – can't like handstand walk barefoot to like save some weight on your feet or something and then put on lifting shoes for the snatch like you need to pick one pair of shoes and keep them on your feet the whole time in one of the olympics there was a south african woman and someone can correct me in the comments if they want i think her her name was Zola Bud, and she ran the 10,000-meter race barefoot. I think she also got knocked down somewhere in the middle of the race. She had a collision. But that's pretty impressive, right?

Go to the Olympics and run it barefoot? You say a 10K? 10K. Well, yeah. That was like a trend when I started CrossFit. It was like the whole barefoot shoes thing or just running barefoot i had like the five finger shoes for a while i can see wearing those i stopped wearing them after i got a blister like this big on the bottom of my foot i ran like 800

meters i was like i don't think these are gonna work seven you might you might find this interesting after i finished playing collegiate soccer i was like lost in terms of what I was going to do with my athletic pursuit. And the natural thing for me was like, oh, I'll just start running because I run in soccer all the time. But I started studying running. That's when I read the Born to Run book, learned about the Tarahumara tribe and all these different philosophies that were out there. And I went to a running specialist and he evaluated my running form and he asked me if I'd ever considered minimalist style shoes for running. So I was like, no, but tell me about it. So I bought like a mid-tier shoe.

It was like less, not those thick, cushiony, salchony, whatever. It was like a thin middle, whatever. And I started training. I ran half a mile in them, and the bottom third of my calves, like where the Achilles and around there was just on fire. So I trained in this shoe until I could run 10 miles without having that pain. And I got the, you know, I created the, whatever, I adapted to it. And then I bought a smaller shoe. And then I did the same thing. I started a half a mile, ran to 10 miles. And then I bought a third shoe, which was a five finger shoe. And I started at half a mile and I got up to about five miles

before I stopped. And I figured I was, I was pretty good at this point. And during the course of this about five, six-month period of time, my shoe size dropped from 10 to 9. As my arches got stronger, my shoe size got smaller. And in America, at least, I think people really like to brag about how the size of their foot being big. But I was happy that mine got smaller and I thought more functional. got smaller and I thought more functional. I didn't wear a pair of shoes for two years once and my foot size went down a whole size from a size eight to a size seven.

It's pretty crazy. Yeah. It's really interesting. Yeah. And I, that's probably the only muscle I ever had on my body was more buff than Cody's somewhere on the bottom of my foot. So you got married. I want to tell you that caught me off guard because I know you as such a young man. I don't, I, I, when I, when I think of you, I think of you, you know, as the 22 year old

version of Cody, but then like you said, you're 28 and you're married. How did, how did you, did you always know you wanted to get married? What are your thoughts on marriage, and how did you end up getting married? Sorry. These headphones died. Can you guys still hear me? Oh, yeah. We can. Oh, shoot.

We can hear you. Oh, you can't hear us. All right. This one still works. Did you plug those? Oh, you know what? You can plug those. Cody, you can plug those into your computer, and I'll show you how to change it in the settings. On the bottom, there's a little speaker icon.

I think I got it now. Okay. Can you say something again? You there? Testing. Yeah, okay, we're good. Marriage. I just have a million options to choose from there.

Okay. How did I get married? Yeah. Did you always know you wanted to get married as a young man? Was it something you were looking for a mate mate and then how did you know it was the right time? Yeah. I'm asking for Brian.

I already know all this shit. Are you single, Brian? Yes. All right. Marriage is awesome. Um, yeah, I think I, I, I did kind of always think I'd get married. Um, but it wasn't really a focus until I was like maybe 25. And then I started, uh, well, maybe that's not true. I think ever since that moment where, you know, I identified as like a Christian, my

intention with dating was to be married. So I didn't, I never really did a whole lot of, uh, like just dating just to hang out with a person, you know, it was like, I feel like I'm in a place in my life where I could get married and I see potential in this person. And obviously you have to like, get to know them to really see if that's true or not. But, um, but yeah, so it was always something that I thought I wanted to do. And when I met my wife, uh, she actually came, we met at the gym and she came during the first week we opened, you ran like a free trial, like come for a week and see if CrossFit's for you kind of thing. Um, and I, uh,

I think like deep down I knew like instantly when we first met and she did too, um, she went, uh, I don't know if she went to work or to her parents or something. And she was like, I met my husband today. Um, that's kind of our story. Like we kind of knew, but I was really, uh, I over-spiritualized everything at the time. So I was like, let me pray about it for like two months. Um, thing at the time. So I was like, let me pray about it for like two months. Um, and so I did that and she thought I was an idiot, uh, for waiting that long. Um, but yeah, it's a fun story. She had like a, she had a ring that she got, like she put it on when she was baptized or something. And so I thought she was married. And so then I had this whole like existential

thing about like, I'm, uh, I'm crushing on a married woman or somebody else's wife or something. And so then I had to figure that out that turns out she wasn't married. You're just testing to see if she was patient enough. She was willing to wait two months for me to pray about it. That's all I need to know. Totally. Yeah. And she's the kind of person who's like jumps into it without even considering the implications. So she's a good balance to me. Um, and yeah, marriage has been super cool. I've, I've never grown more in my life than the last year and a half that I've been married as a person. Um, yeah, I love it. Who made the, who made the first move? Did she ask you out? did you ask her out

i would have been upset if she asked me out first that's emasculated hashtag masculine seven seven loves it my mom actually had to ask my dad out say that again i said my mom actually had to ask my dad out because he was super shy um so i'm not trying to throw dad under the bus. I know he'll be listening to this. Sorry. Um, I would have just like once in my life for a girl to ask me out. It would maybe be a little flattering. Yeah. So, so you meet, so you meet her at the gym.

You think she's married. There's a, there's, there's, you guys are basically courting each other at the gym. She gets, she never misses a class that you're coaching. You're always excited to see her. You guys play all those typical, like, I don't, I don't mean games in a bad way, but those, you know, you're pursuing each other. And then one day you're like, Hey, do you want to go out on a date? Kind of. Yeah. It was like, I was just like, Hey, let's get married. I'm Christian. And you're over the head with a club and drug her into a cave that's how you do it in church yeah um yeah no i was like trying to ride the line between like being professional and uh and

everything so you know we have like a 5 p.m class and then a 6 p.m class so if i finish class early i have like a five minute window where i can talk to her and then I have to be a professional again and, uh, and coach the next class. So I think that's kind of why it took so long to you. And I wanted to do it in a way that was like very, um, respectable. Cause I wouldn't recommend dating a member of your gym. Um, it worked out for me, but was it weird for your other gym members? Is your wife now like I'm with Cody and she spits on the floor and the other gym members hate her because she totally takes advantage of the fact she's totally alpha over everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Um, she was, uh, people

were afraid of that. Uh, it actually, it did like cause a wave of drama to kind of go through the gym that had to shut down. And, um, yeah, that was, that was really interesting. And people have known me since like you know like I said I started CrossFit when I was 18 and I've been kind of what did you say? they thought you were a hoe? that's what she said

getting all my CrossFit gym money I totally lost my track of that but basically the drama in the gym, like how it changes people's perceptions. They knew you for a long time. Yeah. So they kind of, you know, a lot of the ladies were protective over me.

I'm still 18 year old Cody, you know, that they've, they grew up doing CrossFit with. So there are a lot of like individual one-on-one conversations to put people's minds at ease and everything. But yeah, it, it worked out. Tell me about your mom. I have memories of your mom as being a very, very strong woman. I hesitate to use the word.

Whoop someone's ass. I hesitate to use the word domineering, but she seemed, I remember meeting her at the Del Mar Regional, and she was just like, and you know, obviously there's a lot of energy there, but is she a really strong mom? Is she really protective? Tell me about your mom and your relationship with her. Yeah, she does. She does care a lot. Um, and you probably got an accurate, uh, representation of her when you met her there. She was probably excited with you. She'll talk to you forever. Um, but yeah, she's just like, she's been one of my biggest champions through the whole thing.

You know, she'll, she'd come to every competition, you know, obviously the games and everything. And, um, yeah, she just loves, she's definitely like an acts of service kind of love language. So whatever she can do to like help and make life easier for you and everything, she wants to do that. So, yeah, she's been a huge support. I love my mom, obviously. Did she have did she have issues with you getting married? Was she like, no, no, no, no. You're my Cody.

No, she's actually when when we were dealing with drama at the gym and I was like, man, is this like, okay. Um, she was like probably Kayla's biggest advocate or one of her biggest advocates. Like, um, and she's one of the people, you know, I'll go to, if I'm, if I'm wrestling with a hard decision, like, you know, being done with competition or whatever, like she's one of the people I'll go to, to be like, Hey, like, what do you feel about this or whatever? And she's like, yeah, there are no red flags for me about her. Um, so yeah, she's, she's loved Kayla since the beginning, which has been really, I think if, if either of my parents had a problem with her, that would have been hard for me.

Yeah, that would be really, really hard. It's funny because, you know, from TV shows from when I was little, there's always talk about the in-laws. But, man, I can't imagine that. That would be devastating. Yeah, it would just be weird to have that kind of – like I would feel really uncomfortable if her parents didn't approve of me or something. That would be a very strange dynamic. I want to ask you both something. How would you feel if you knew that one of your closest friends did not think that that was a good situation for you and told you that? I'll put it in context because I have a couple of friends

who I've known for decades and I care about and I want the best for them. And I've seen them get into relationships that I thought were going to end up not working out for them. And this is a derivative of something that happened to me where I was dating a girl. Everyone told me how great she was. And then she ended up not being that great. And then I remembered that there was actually one friend of mine who told me in the midst of everyone else telling me that they loved her. I don't know, man, something doesn't seem right about this one. And I went back to him and asked him, why'd you tell me that? He's like, cause I care about you. So when I see it happen with my friends now, I'll tell him, I'll say like,

Hey, I know that you are in this situation and it seems great, but from the outside looking in, these are a couple of things that are concerning to me. And I, but I framed this in a way where I'd tell him, I'll say, I'm only going to have this conversation with you once. I'll let you do whatever you want with it. And I'll support you, whatever you decide to do afterwards, but you got to know how I feel now. So that 10 years down the road, I'm not here to say, well, I never liked her anyway, to begin with. Yeah. Yeah. Hang on to those kinds of friends, man. I think those are valuable. I think, yeah, if your world, if your worldview and values and everything are shared with that person, I would definitely give validity to what they're saying,

you know, and listen, obviously you have to be the one to make the decision, but people can see your blind spots, especially when you're blinded by infatuation and everything in any relationship. So,, shit. You said infatuation. I forgot that's what it's like. I've been married for 20 years, but I forgot. That is what it was like in the fifth grade. It was infatuation. I forgot about that.

You'd be the first day of fifth grade, and a girl would sit down next to you in class, and all of a sudden you'd just be infatuated. Well, I just want to – let me just finish that up because this is a – what the end result of that has been is that I feel like I'm the person they can call when they need the truth now, when they need someone to tell them something that's hard for them to hear. The girl or the friend who told you that? women and I've actually gone on to marry those women and I'm supportive of them and doing that. But they reach out to me now because they're like, oh, you know, when it was hard for him to tell me something that I didn't, they know I didn't want to hear, he still did it. So when they need to

hear something or they are unsure if they need to hear something, oftentimes I think I'm the one they call. It's really difficult. I think it's different for your, the layman like you and I, Brian versus someone like Cody. And I want to give you an example. There was a, there's a CrossFit games athlete who is extremely popular. And when I went out to film with that athlete, they had a mate and,

um, this CrossFit games athlete, no one of, when I went to go film the, the 10 or 15 other people in the cohort of this athlete all told me at one point or another, hey, man, this person's mate is crazy and they should not be with him. Well, flash forward a few years and this CrossFit Games athlete has none of those friends but is married to that person. This CrossFit Games athlete has none of those friends but is married to that person. And I tried to do that without revealing the sex of the person.

I really wanted to say that. I have no idea who you're talking about, so you did a good job. So it's interesting. who's a shiny bright, a bright light when you have like, I mean, I think that there's the textbook. I think there's the textbook conversation, you know, or textbook, uh, uh, narrative where there's two girls, their best friends,

and a boy starts liking one of them. And, and, and the other girl doesn't like the boy because he's going to take her friend from him. I think that's, I think that there's a lot of jealousy even amongst same sex, right? So me and Brian are best friends and he starts doing a – or I have a podcast with Brian and then all of a sudden he starts doing a podcast with Cody and now I'm jealous, right?

No, Brian is my friend. I get his most intimate side. He shares his best lines on my show, blah, blah, blah. So I think you – I do think you have to be careful when people are warning you. I think you have to assess it, but you also have to realize that even those most benign people have interests. And I'll just go straight here. It's tough. You see an eagle flying in the sky, and you want to catch it and make it your own. The second you put it in the cage, it's no longer an eagle.

All the characteristics that you like about it are gone. It doesn't soar. It doesn't hunt. It doesn't, you know, it's no longer an eagle. And so you have someone like Cody who's this remarkable person and he has achieved this remarkableness by pushing his body super-duper far, and then he gets a wife. So on one level, his wife wants to support him to have him keep blossoming so that the things she liked about him are still blossoming.

But on the other hand, she wants him to himself. Hey, don't train today. Sit down and watch a movie with me. Cuddle on the couch. I mean, I'm making that up. My word is not yours, Cody. I'm just using you as a complete example. But I think that a lot of people, I think that's the struggle. I think that's the struggle for a lot of, uh, athletes, famous people. They don't have to be out famous, just people who are really successful. Like you

meet someone who's really successful and you want to have a relationship with them. You have to know that time is, um, you think time is your most valuable asset. No, no, it's really this person's most valuable asset. Like, and you have to be willing to just kind of come along for the ride. Yeah. There has to be a lot of understanding. I think that's kind of a, you know, what marriage is supposed to be, you know, you're championing the other person and trying to help push them forward into their goals. There needs to be a lot you're championing the other person and trying to help push them forward into their goals there needs to be a lot of understanding of that was there ever any weird tension between your wife and amy um the intimacy you have with your coach versus your wife

yeah uh there there was there was some drama there for sure. When like that kind of wave went through. Um, I mean, there was just some, yeah. And it's, I mean, our, our gym, that's really the only time it's been kind of a, like a high school. Um, but yeah, it was important to shut that down pretty quickly. But it was kind of, you know, like I heard her say this and then, you know, it gets passed down eight or nine times and then it's blown up into this huge, huge thing. Um, so that's why, yeah, like going back to like my mom and like the people who I really go to for, you know, guidance that share the same worldview that I do. Those were important relationships,

especially at that time for me to be able to go to and be like, Hey, is this valid? Or am I just, you know, being whipped up into an emotional frenzy or whatever. And, you know, I have clouded judgment. So. Do you and your wife go to church every Sunday together? Not every Sunday. We've kind of, we've been checking out a couple of different things. Like I, I, uh, I was a worship leader for seven years. Um, my old church. Um, and then, you know, when around the time that I got married, I was, I was kind of burned out and I was ready to step away for a while. Um, and so we kind of took that time to kind of step away and then COVID happened. And so it was, everything was closed anyway. Um, so we're kind of in a moment now figuring out where, um, home is for us, uh, in a church sense. And so kind of still checking

out places. We kind of hop back and forth between two of them right now, but we're not like plugged in anywhere. Do you listen to worship music when you train? Hmm. Um, maybe like you played at your gym. I've heard some really soft music on some of his Instagram videos. I have to actually have that in my notes.

I'm like, what is he doing? Trying to put himself to sleep. Do you, uh, do you play it at your gym ever? Uh, what I'm training alone or with other people who, who like that, but I wouldn't ever, you know, going back to like, how do you share your faith with somebody? I don't think it's

the right way to just like force it on. Mandating that worship music be played in all of our classes or something. Yeah. I think that like the overarching question I have is if you're satisfied with the presence of faith in the fitness world, but talking about actually playing worship music in the gym, I think that Rich does that quite a bit, at least in his barn, but I think he's also just, yeah, I've heard, I've heard, I think maybe at their gym too, but I think he's also just forged a community where it's like, if you want to be here and be a part of this, like this is a part of who we are. And if you're entering into it, you kind of know that. Yeah. His personality kind of strikes me as more like that like if you don't like it then you're welcome

to not come you know his wallet strikes me more is like that you can make different decisions when you're selling 10 000 shirts a month different decisions it's good it's good it's good it it it's sad and maybe i was like this when i was young but like i like i would like if someone's doing something good if someone's planting flowers in their yard who am i to be like hey i think poppies are ugly i don't think poppies are ugly by the way but it's like people forget. Someone might not be doing something you like, but take a step back and climb a little bit higher on the ladder and be like, hey, but is it good?

It doesn't matter whether you like it or not. Is it good? And what do I mean by good? Is it helping making people better? And that music that he plays in the gym, if you went there and you're not Christian or you're Muslim or you're just a fucking hater, like get over it.

Yeah. Just let people do their shit. He's not, it's not vile. It's not like the other way to think about it is it's not doing, it's not doing any harm. The harm it's doing is the story you're telling yourself in the head, but it's not doing anything harm.

His music's not like go out and fuck hoes and kill people, you know, chill. Yeah. There's a music that we celebrate. Yeah, popular culture, I would argue, is a lot more offensive. Tell me about after you're done opening that bag of Oreos. Tell me about, ladies and gentlemen, I've done a lot of slurping, but that, that my slurping is not as bad as that bag of Oreos being open.

Um, tell me about how you ran your gym during this, um, the COVID response. How did you do that? Running the gym during COVID? Yeah. Sorry. I was muting my mic to tell my wife to stop opening her tilapia just throw something at her they like that okay that shit turns them on oh does it i need yeah i got a bunch of pine cones here i can throw at her uh maybe if you could take it in another room that would be awesome

thank you sorry i'm in the kitchen. Um, how we ran the gym during COVID. Uh, yeah. So we shut Oregon did like the whole like mandate thing, uh, shut your business down. And, um, I think we did it for six or eight weeks. Um, and so, yeah, our community, it was really awesome to actually see the community rally around us. I think, you know, a lot of gyms experienced that, but a lot didn't, unfortunately. Um, but we kind of, you know, did the zoom kind of workout still did like, you know, like an at home, like body weight, you don't have any equipment option. And then we rented all of our equipment out to, um, to anybody who wanted to borrow it. So, um, so yeah, it, it worked for us the second time we were told to shut down we did for about a week and then decided that we were just going to quietly keep

doing our thing so I don't really even know what the regulations are at this point but there's there's bigger fish for osha and everybody else to fry right now so luckily we can kind of hide and and everything but yeah that's kind of the way we did it how big is your gym how many square feet it's like 5 000 okay and what's the name of it again cody uh crossfit magnify and so you're just do you guys wear masks when you work out no so you're just just rolling along just keep going yeah go on sorry i was just gonna say i just i i don't want to be the matt like you're totally like i'm not gonna judge you if you want to wear one but to to police that and for i don't know i just my opinion is that I need to see a little bit more logic and reason behind it. You know, if I can actually own it for myself, then I'll enforce it.

But it's a bunch of healthy people. Would you know that there's a virus that's ravaging the planet if you didn't watch TV, if no one had told you? Do you have any evidence around you? No. So you wouldn't know. If you hadn't watched TV in the last year

and nobody wore masks, you wouldn't know? Definitely not to the degree that we feel like we know. Give me one example of how you would have known. year and nobody wore masks you wouldn't know definitely not to the degree that uh well how would you know give me one example of how you would known sorry but you know that there's a pandemic or that there's no just like like i would never know that there's a virus here that's bad for people if i didn't watch tv i would have no clue no one around me has died no one around me has had like some mysterious illness no like i would I would have no, I don't know. Like anyone who I've known who's known someone who died,

I'm sure it would have just been written up as the flu. Like I don't, I don't have any, like, I haven't seen a dead body in the street. Like, I mean, the homeless people are flourishing in my town. I mean, flourishing. Mind you, they are very, very liberal mask policy, like no mask. Would you like would you know? I would guess I would say that you would have no idea. Yeah, I mean, I'm just trying to bully you into saying that. I know. I know people that have gotten it, you know, that and they said they lost their taste and sense of smell and it sucked, know but i think i was exposed to it i'm pretty

sure my wife had it before it was even a thing in the news um so yeah but as far as like the level of uh level of panic and extremeness of of what's being communicated i would agree with you on that you share a toothbrush with your wife? Um, I think I have unknowingly before she is, she's the least germ conscious person. She probably has the strongest immune system out of anybody on the planet. She'll,

she'll drop gum on the gym floor and put it back on her mat. That's a good girl. I mean, she's getting stronger doing that. Cody, and put it back on her map. That's a good girl. She's getting stronger doing that. Cody, how intentional was the name choice for your gym? There was some intention behind it, but dude, it is hard when there's 11,000 affiliates and you're trying to pick a name

that hasn't been picked already. so yeah our llc is revive strength and conditioning i wanted to be cross at revive um and there isn't one but there's like a reviver and a revival and maybe like one other kind of word like that um so yeah we couldn't go with that one and then we just sent like um we probably tried like 20 different different words and we started literally just like opening a dictionary and like what sounds cool and maybe has like some kind of significant meaning behind it um so yeah it took a while i kind of like the name the name choice because i feel like people can define that word for themselves and it could like apply to so many different things yeah i feel like it's pretty broad and open and i'm happy with it now

um but yeah it was hard to hard to find one this this this church leadership thing you did what did you say call it you did for seven years what was that called uh i led worship so i was the guy on the stage singing and playing guitar yeah how has have we seen any of that cody in this podcast or did you have a different persona for that were you louder were you more boisterous or were you just like were you just chilling and like hi kids sit up straight we're gonna sing some. Um, you guys probably got the authentic me. I don't really think I change in, in any environment too much. I'm pretty level. Um, but I would definitely like hide behind my guitar and my microphone. Like speaking

is way more intimidating to me than, you know, just trying to play music for some reason. I don't know. But, uh, yeah, whenever I had to like, you know, depending on where you go to church, they have different styles where they open service or something, but you know, have, I'd always feel the pressure to like share, share something super profound or, or something beforehand. And usually I just ended up making a joke. Uh, so that's more of my personality, I think, and then jumping into it. But, um, what a great experience to play music in front of people for seven years. It's cool to be a part of. Cody, do you see any parallels, especially with music and church?

I feel like there's some people that go to church for the music. And I feel like in the CrossFit space that they're sometimes the same. It's like, I want to be good. I want to look good. So I go to CrossFit gym. And then they're getting all these other benefits, but they don't really care what their blood pressure level is or whatever. They're saying, I want to look good in my bathing suit. Do you see any parallels between the two?

Yeah, that. For sure, dude. I see, like, I compare church and CrossFit all the time because, you know, they're both very community driven. I feel like a lot of times CrossFit does a better job than the traditional you know institution of church sometimes and making people feel like they're part of a family and and everything um but yeah like i mean i'm being honest like i wasn't thinking about lowering my blood pressure or you know having increased bone density or anything like that and you shouldn shouldn't, you're 28 and you shouldn't. I guess that's true.

But, you know, even like, you know, my parents do CrossFit at the gym now. And it's like, I want to be in better shape. That's like the person who, you know, just starts CrossFit is like, I heard this, you know, for most people, I heard this as a way to get in better shape and get myself moving. And it could potentially be fun. I think, yeah, very few people probably think about that until they're told. to get in better shape and get myself moving and it could potentially be fun. I think, yeah, very few people probably think about that until they're told.

You get all these other benefits too. When Greg Glassman was doing the CFMDL1, which is the CrossFit level one for doctors, I would meet doctors, the vast majority of them, even though they had been doing CrossFit for five, 10 years, it wasn't until Greg said, hey, this is the cure for the world's most vexing problem that a light bulb went off in their head. They're like, holy shit, you're right. 86% of our clients have chronic disease. And if they did CrossFit, they wouldn't have chronic disease. Chronic disease, by the way, for people who don't know what that is, that means that's fancy talk for you eat too much sugar you eat like shit you eat refined carbohydrates and sugar you think it's okay to put peanut

butter in your gas tank of your car just a little bit of peanut butter in my ferrari's okay no a little bit is not okay i was watching the the episode you guys did with james hobart i really liked what he said is like the problem with the human body is that it can eat a ton of Pop-Tarts for a really long time before something bad happens. One of our members walked into the gym for class eating Pop-Tart yesterday, and I said totally the exact line. I'm like, don't take it from me. This is what James said. Yeah. I was interviewing Paul Saladino, and he basically said every time you do that, you're just borrowing time.

I asked him actually specifically about coffee. I said, what do you think about coffee? He goes, hey, man, every time you do something to put stress or I don't remember his exact words, but he nailed it. He basically said, you want to drink alcohol? You want to eat like shit? You want to do this? You're just borrowing time from your life. It's like, okay life it's like okay i

get it i'm gonna scooch my coffee mug a little bit further away here you're young you're young you're young hey i think i think that um i think that the planet is a giant mating game for the most part and if you're not involved in that you're kind of missing the point if when you're 20 to 30 years old and you're not working out to have a nice body, to attract mates and to have your peers like you, then I think something's wrong with you. I don't think that that should be vilified or be shallow or whatever. We should want to look beautiful for each other. Do I think you should have your chest slit open and implants put in? No, I think that that's, no, I don't, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying you should

take what you have and you should work it to the point where you're happy with it. I don't think you should inject botulism into your lips. Isn't that what Botox is? I don't know. You could ask my, my wife's an esthetician. You could ask her more what it's in there. Yeah, I would agree.

If your wife wouldn't have been Christian, would that have been a huge hiccup? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. That was probably number one on the list of, because I think you run into so many issues. If you don't share those foundational beliefs and values with a person, I mean, I'm sure you can make it.

What would you consider a bigger conflict if she had a, if she had different religious beliefs or if you wanted to have kids and she didn't or the other way around? Oh, uh, different religious beliefs. I think those are generally two of the big three, along with finances that it's like, you should probably have these conversations yeah do it before you get married that would be some good uh good dating advice i don't know if my wife and i did that had the conversations beforehand well we didn't get married until after we had a kid but we were together for i don't know 15 20 years and we told each other we would never have kids and never get married. Like we were on the same page.

So I guess we did talk about it. But then all of a sudden one day she said, hey, I want a kid. And I was like, yeah, whatever. Here, here's one. I can do that. I love watching your kids' page, by the way. Thank you. I love how you guys are raising them with all the gymnastic stuff in there.

It's so cool. It's a blast. Hey, it's all stuff I learned from having proximity to you guys, to having proximity to CrossFit trainers, the CrossFit methodology, and the CrossFit games. It's all – every lesson is in there. You know, you said – you mentioned about just what a great community and affiliate is and what you can learn there. I mean, everything is in there, how to behave, how to treat people, what

to eat, how to move, how often to move the sack sacrifice, why hard work is important adaptation. I mean, it's all in there. It's, it's kind of, um, it wasn't until I had kids that I was like, Oh, that's why people think this is a cult. Because anytime I really have any questions on what I should be doing with my kids, some sort of CrossFitism will pop in my head. Well, do you have anything you want to finish with here, Brian? Why did you not do a single sanctional?

Either of you. Last year? Well, I was going to. We flew to Montreal to do that. I was there with you. It was canceled the day before. Oh, what? Tell me that story.

Why was it canceled? Right when COVID shutdowns were happening. It was March of happening. So it was like March. Yeah, March of 2020. So both of you flew out to a sanctional and it got canceled? Everyone did. The athletes were all there. The rig was being set up.

Vendor Village was ready to go. It was like in a five-hour window. I think that President Trudeau's wife got COVID. And five hours later the entire country was shut down. And they were said like, you cannot have this event

and everything. That was like D-Day for Canada. And they're still in it by the way. Yeah. Is that the president who's married to his

high school teacher? He is, right? He is. I'm pretty sure he is. I think he was dating his high school, did you guys is i think he was dating his high school did you guys know that he was dating his high school teacher are you looking at no i'm not uh his personal life's not that interesting to me oh really trudeau marriage let me look at up real quick. I think he married... Let me see.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I have him confused with someone else. Maybe that was the French Prime Minister. Yeah, I got my doorknobs confused. Well, Cody, thank you very much. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys guys I was stoked when you reached out yeah why did I reach out I thought it was right after I sent you a DM

saying I don't know I respected your you're actually having an opinion on stuff or something like that everyone has an opinion. Not everyone has the courage to express theirs. Exactly.

And yeah, I respect people who, who have one and speak it and stand by it. You, but, but you know, man, I like what you guys are saying,

but I don't really care about people's opinions unless they tell me the logic of how they get there. And that's really what I try to share, you guys are saying, but I don't really care about people's opinions unless they tell me the logic of how they get there. And that's really what I try to share. And there are some hard truths in there when you do start expressing that, right? But if you can't express how you got to that opinion, it's just like, oh, you know, I just felt this way. I don't save that't I don't like save that like I don't care like you're not my you're not my mom you're not my kids like I I want to know I want to know the facts oh someone's cooking breakfast for Cody sorry guys when I stopped it oh go ahead Cody I was just gonna

ask if you consider yourself like a big big devil's advocate kind of person. I've been accused of that before. I think I just like to break things down to their smallest. The truth is so much easier once you settle in on it, right? But so many people are disturbed by the truth. And the example I've been using lately is like, hey, you have a sister. You should call them your sister. But the truth is that that's just a signifier for a girl who came out of your mom's vagina,

the same vagina you came out of. And so it's the same thing with like underlying conditions and chronic disease and comorbidities. These are all just signifiers and we're hiding the truth. And when you tell people what the truth is, actually, no, it's being fat that's caused these problems. And actually, it's not necessarily being fat. It's the fact that you eat too much sugar. And once you start getting down to the truth, and then once we get to the truth, people can take action on it, right? That's like all the cool shit.

Like I said, I'm not a religious guy. That's why Jesus is so cool. He's just dropping truth. You can take his words and use them, and then your life gets better. I understand why it bothers some people. It requires personal accountability. I understand. Yeah, I think a lot of people take offense.

Oh, sorry. No, no, you go. I was going to say, yeah, I think a lot of people take offense when, you know, they're, I call it like your sacred cow or whatever is confronted because it's just something that you believe but you don't actually know why you believe it and so it's easy to get defensive and just be like well it is the way it is yeah i saw you when i asked you why you wear shoes i saw you go for your gun i don't know yeah you got all pissed at me got all sassy yeah those questions are good it makes. It makes you actually have to have a rational reason behind the way you live your life

and your opinions and thoughts and everything. I have a window open behind this window, and every window I open on the Internet has a picture of George Floyd, and I realize I've been doing the entire podcast with the three of you and George Floyd because he's just in every George Floyd because he's everywhere. He's everywhere. He's like, do you remember that guy? Oh, no, you probably don't know.

Oh, this is a good question to finish on, Cody. Do you know who Wood is during the COVID pandemic? There were pictures of this guy, Wood, being passed around everywhere. Do you know who that is? Wood, like W-O-O-D? Yeah. Do you know who I'm talking about? No.

Brian, do you know who I'm talking about? No. Brian, do you know who I'm talking about? No one ever sent you any of those? It's the guy. He's naked, and he has this giant cock dangling between his legs, and there were like a thousand memes made about him. Do you know who he is, Cody? That's probably why I don't know who he is. Awesome.

You're a good dude, Cody. You're a good dude. I had so many threads going. I mean, he was in every meme everywhere. It's not like the Ricardo guy in like the banana hammock, is it? No, no. It's just this really buffed guy. He's an ex-porn star and I think he passed away. And during the COVID thing, it just turned into this giant meme. Like his penis was a helicopter. His penis was like just everything, just everything. He was like, we show him getting the vaccine.

I mean, there's just a thousand memes. Maybe I'll send you a handful of them just to pollute you a little bit. Where did they inject him for the vaccine? I don't know. Unfortunately, he passed away. It was kind of a sad story. And I think someone was telling me like they actually opened up like a GoFundMe page because the memes were becoming so popular amongst the shallower, less intellectual group. Not people like Cody Anderson.

But they started a GoFundMe page so you could pay money to it and then his family could get money for his likeness being used, which I thought was cool. That's one of the good things about the internet. Yeah. All right, Cody. Interesting. Cool. Thanks again for having me on, guys. It's good things about the internet. Yeah. All right, Cody. Cool. Thanks again for having me on, guys. It's good to talk to you.

Yeah.