The Sevan Podcast - #647 - Rich Froning

Episode Date: October 25, 2022

Rich Froning Jr. is done with the team CrossFit Games competition. He has been the poster child of CrossFit since his rise to dominance in his individual days. He also talks plans to compete in masters and how he and the Mayhem crew are supporting their star individual athlete Haley Adams. Support the showPartners:https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATIONhttps://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK!https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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More details at air Canada.com. And, uh, basically just, you know, at the games, just grinding that thing into oblivion. Bam.

We're live. They would never start a show without me in 600 shows. And now rich is here and it's like, fuck it. Everyone's in here hanging out. And it's mine. Yeah. Could have just let them hang.

Could have just let them hang. Absurd. I had to chat with him. Just anarchy around here. Well, what did you tear? You tore your taint? Yeah, my taint's gone. Just ripped it off the bone.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Rich, have you ever met Caleb before? Maybe not in person. That's the dude in the yellow long time ago though yellow sweatshirt sorry i'm the worst uh jr howell fellow uh crossfit affiliate owner um fellow event or event organizer like yourself it's a former games athlete like luke won your uh won your competition didn't he he did he did third time back and uh it's awesome

yeah it wasn't really wasn't really close. He was, after day one, could kind of tell he was the fittest. He's made some leaps and bounds over the last probably... He's always been pretty fit, had the motor of it, but getting the skill stuff down and at volume as well.

Is he going individual this year? That's the rumor. Well, Savon, you need your sixth booster. You got that yet? I was just reading that only 7% of the population in Los Angeles has their fifth booster. It really strikes a nerve with me.

Hurts you, huh? Hurts the heart. I just want everyone to be working for the same goal. The plan is Luke says he's going individual. So we'll support him and hope he makes it. Angelo's pretty perturbed. Angelo wanted to make a team, and Luke was like, nah, peace, dude. I'm out on to bigger and better things, you know?

Is that your middle name, Lyle? Lyle, yep. I don't know why I put that whole thing on there, but it sounded right. I think I've had a different name every time i've been on the show um where where is angelo i know that um we really wanted him to come on we bugged him he didn't he wouldn't even reply in the thread what's going on do me and him have a beef do i need to fuck him up or what no he's at his real job he's the only one that has a real job in the in our group around here and that's putting out fires

yeah putting out fires awesome okay he's over he's actually probably like 800 yards that way but can't get out where are you i'm at the gym upstairs in the uh the room that we host level ones and the firehouse is that close to you yeah. There's station four is just at the end of the road here. There's four stations in Cookville. So there's, I mean, really, no station is technically that far from us, but that's the closest one. Have they ever had to come to your gym for any services?

We, not at this location. At our previous location, we had one of our members during one of the open workouts had a heart attack and died, but brought him back to life. No shit. That's Bob. You know that you see us swimming at his place and has that amazing spot on the lake. Yeah, he sat down. Man, what year was it?

I think it was 13, maybe. He finished the workout. It was the, for individuals or for elite or whatever you want to call it at that time, it was the power clean and handstand pushup that ascended in reps. And then the master's version was a push press and a clean, and he finished the workout, sat down and luckily sat down to one next to a nurse and a PA and he sat down and leaned over on her and she thought he was just kind of messing around so she moved he fell flat on his face broke his nose but went into cardiac arrest and we had probably 200 150 people in the gym at the time we had to usher everybody out and then the the fire guys were coming in because they'll dispatch fire and uh ems at the same time and fire here can do everything

but transport and so if they can get there first obviously why not send them so they get there and you know we're kind of they're trying to like hey how's it going i'm like seriously you guys need to get in there it's real this time and so i went and grabbed the bags how many selfies did you take with the fire uh with the before they fucking tended to bob i was pretty fresh off of working there so they didn't give a shit about me and uh luckily uh don and and tim uh had cpr going and actually hooked up the aed to him and man, they had, uh, I think he flatlined twice, but he came back and has lived ever since. So pretty cool. And, and two, two, uh, good things about CrossFit. The doctor said, had he not been doing CrossFit, he would have died. And had he not been at the gym, he would have died. So crazy. Wow. Uh, and you were there. I was there. Yeah. Yep. Scared. No,

you know, as bad as it sounds like're kind of not numb to that stuff, but I did it for so long that it's just kind of just do what you're supposed to do. But Rich, it was Bob. It was Bob. It was Bob. I guess that was the scary part, yeah, but he was in good hands. Crazy. And is he a member at your gym still?

Still comes, I'd say, four days a week. He was here this morning. And did he have to have a bypass or something? What was his deal? Why did he have the heart attack? I can't remember. He was heavier years before that and had lost a ton of weight, so I think the damage had been done.

But I want to say they may have put a stint or two in or a bypass. But he's cranking and still like i said working out four or five days a week caleb any thoughts as a medical professional yeah as you can see my anatomy posters denote me as such um it's pretty impressive they flatlined twice and they still were able to bring them back yeah it doesn't really happen very often no it was it was crazy it was i mean yeah obviously a little numb to it at the time hadn't hadn't been in that uh situation in a long time so you kind of like forget uh some of the more important things like stay calm but um i think everybody luckily like i said he was next to two of the probably the best people he could have been next to. I think Tim was a, uh, he was in the military and was a paramedic. So, um, before he went to PA

school. So, and that's physician's assistant, right? That's like basically you're a doctor. You're basically a doctor. You're just writing underneath somebody. You just get paid less. Let's do all the work. Do everything else. Yeah. Crazy. Um, what, what's the deal with you? Have you, or do you know what you're doing with your, um, CrossFit? My career? Athletic career? Um, I haven't. Let's talk it out if you don't. Let's talk it out. Yep. Let's make it a five minute piece of this. I don't want to commit to anything or decommit to anything. Um, we, before you hopped on, we were talking about,

I've got a shoulder issue that has been a long time coming i mean it's just you know 14 years of abusing my body and probably not taking care of it in the last couple years like i should have um with kids and you know the stuff that the mobility or the extra accessory kind of gets pushed to the side at times when you're like the kids are you know trying to get you out and and you know you're trying to fit in different things you'd rather be out with the kids than go to the doctor yes there's no fucking way doctors appointment go out to kids you're going with the kids i'm gonna hang out yep yep or even doing mobility or anything like that so luckily i've gotten by as long as i have with pretty decent movement and and uh genetic mobility so i've got a little

shoulder issue that's been probably two years nagging and then two weeks before the games got real, I wouldn't say serious, but got very unpleasant to compete on, that's for sure. And so I'm going to take about six to eight weeks and make sure it's rehabbed right other than Rogue this weekend doing the Legends competition. Other than. weeks and make sure it's rehabbed right other than rogue this weekend doing the legends competition and if it feels like um if it feels like i can bypass doing surgery which i would like to do by you know if you talk to a pt oh yeah we can rehab that if you talk to a surgeon they're like oh nope

only way we're going to fix that is if we cut on it so um i would like to do my due diligence for once and actually try to rehab it i've i've been pretty successful with that and it's improving. So if I can get that back to good and feel like I can still compete at a level I want to, I'll definitely do the open, do the age group online qualifiers, mouthful, and then whatever, I guess, semifinals for masters. And then if I feel like it's not going to take away from the summer with the kids and doing some fun stuff, then year to year, I'll decide if I'm going to compete or not. And so, I mean, I'm going to be working out. I enjoy working out, enjoy competing. I'm going to be

around all these guys, girls crushing themselves and I'm going to have a FOMO. So I might as well, um, participate. But that being said, if it's taken away from something family wise kids wise um i won't be there that year but i'll i'll try to do as much as i can i mean i was looking at the schedule next year and basically for masters it's february to end of march beginning of april and then you have may july may july may june july before you have to compete. So we'll see. Okay, so a couple things to unpack here. I was thinking of my next question and wasn't listening 100%. I got it.

But here we go. First of all, for my mom who's listening, can you tell her what FOMO stands for? Fear of missing out. Okay, there you go, mom. So am I hearing that I didn't hear you mention teams at all. So teams is done. Yeah, I've I've I've exhausted that point in my career doing teams. You know, I enjoyed it, loved it every minute of it.

But it was, you know, you know how I am. I'm about six years in on doing something that I quit. If so, let's say this is your life, this pen right here. We'll take the cap off so it's not confusing and then and then your life was consumed by the games as individual and then you move the needle this way let's say to um make room for family and kids and then and then would you say that not doing teams is to move the needle more this way oh yeah. Because Masters is even, you think will be even less all-encompassing than Teams?

No, I feel like I can work on my own schedule. Instead of having four people that you have to work around their schedule, and I can kind of go back to doing, if it's, I get here a little bit earlier

because I'm dropping off Lakeland or the kids at school, I can hop right into something instead of waiting for three or four people, their schedule. You know, it's just different. It's a different point, new challenge, I guess, different challenge. I don't know. Yeah, I probably still train. I will probably train similar amount, you know, just depends on time of the year. and like i said i'm trying to right now um take care of some of those things that i probably let um go to the wayside as far as body stuff goes um 10 years ago would you not have talked about this shoulder injury as an

individual would you have kept that close to the hip um i don't know um i think it's important to for for people to i guess hear that hey we go through a lot of the same stuff that you guys go through and while i i definitely think i just feel like you would have kept it a secret 10 years ago you wouldn't say you wouldn't let it out i wouldn't have before the games for sure i don't want any type of crutch or anybody to be like oh that's that's, that's why it was, that's why they did so bad. Or that's why he performed so bad. Maybe, you know, down the road, we would, uh, cross that bridge if we came to it. But, um, you know, I just, I think it's important to kind of talk, talk about some of that stuff as an athlete, you know, I think CrossFit for health and, and for actual fitness, um, members go that it's that it's incredibly safe and it's good.

But anytime you do anything as a profession to the degree that we do, stuff happens. But I would also argue 14 years or however many years I've been training, the only major things I've had is a meniscus tear, slight meniscus tear, and then shoulders just kind of aggravated. Yeah, that girl who was playing collegiate-level volleyball the other day, did you see that footage? No, she broke something? Well, just at that high level, someone spiked the ball and hit her in the face from the opposing team and it fucked her neck up and her head up you didn't you didn't see that that's it it happened to be a man playing on the other

woman's team but oh but i thought they were equal and that was fair small details but you're absolutely right everything at the highest level there becomes a component a serious component of danger whether it's hockey, whether it's tennis, they're asking these big body, it's basically formula one, right? Um, these cars are not made to hit. These might be the fastest, most technologically advanced cars in the world. If they hit one pothole on my street, they're done. They have a very narrow lane that they have to, uh, do their tricks in. Absolutely. It's like, you know, we talk about it at level where people talk about at level one seminars, you know, um, when you start pushing the limits, you're going to have

to touch the wall every once in a while. And if you keep nicking that wall and keep hitting it and keep hitting it, even if you're barely touching it, eventually you're going to rub a tire and something's going to go flat and just is what it is. It's the nature of what we do. And, uh, I think we take that risk or assume that risk when we decide this is what we're going to do. I think we take that risk or assume that risk when we decide this is what we're going to do. J.R. Howell, what happens to the Masters competition when Rich Froning enters it? Is that going to be the – you know how when the old people play golf, people still give a shit? It's like one of those weird sports.

Are you asking me if I'm going to go for it again next year? Next, that's the follow-up question. Is Rich going to supercharge that? Is even CrossFit media going to make a shift when Rich goes to Masters, if he goes to Masters? Well, I mean, as bad as it sounds, I think a lot of it might have to do with the scheduling. I mean, what does that do to the schedule of the whole week? I mean, I could see them changing the schedule, to be honest. Exactly.

To make it more accessible so where people can watch Rich compete and still watch teams and individuals. And, I mean, I think just the sign-ups alone in the 35 to 39 would triple, quadruple. Because people want to take their shot at them. For sure. Always. Always. quadruple because people want to take their shot at them for sure always ah so will the trt supplementation so will the trt supplementation tue therapeutic usage

exemption i think that's what it is let me tell you something about these guys in the the masters they do not i i don't know enough to talk shit but these guys have old man strength they are fucking more vascular they um if there's anywhere like you like it seems like it's almost better to stay an individual like those guys for some reason those guys have figured something they get stronger somehow where i'm somehow getting weaker you know like maybe it's the less emphasis on strength but still i'm like dang my body can't handle that well you heard from hanging out with from hanging out with hill go ahead jr you heard hillar say this week on your review show he said he was talking to a games athlete that shan't be named and they were all looking over at the 40 to 44 and said, is that how we're going to look in four years?

Like you get you get more vascular and more jacked as you get older. Is that how it works? Man, I wish I keep I can't keep weight on and I'm losing weight. I don't know. Just from hanging out with Hiller so much, he basically told me you can do human growth hormone. And if you stop, they don't test for it. You're good to go. You just stop for a few days, and you're good to go.

Good to go, huh? Good to go. Is that not what the blood test does? I've not ever looked into the testing that much. I don't think so. No? I don't think so. I guarantee somebody in the comments who's a professional and knows exactly about all this stuff will tell us how wrong we are or how right you are. Will Branstetter.

I heard California Hormones is the official sponsor of the Masters Division. Use code SEVON to get the free gifts. I think they're testing some of that at Vanderbilt down the road, right? What? Hormone stuff. Have you not checked the news lately no what happened over there that's the whole giving kids uh puberty blockers stuff going on in vanderbilt well you know what is interesting i thought you'd get that one come on sorry sorry i'm preparing for a few podcasts and I'm a little behind. The the so if you go if you go Masters, then. In Rich Froning style, you will be there to win the Masters.

And don't they do half as many events? Do they do half as many events? I feel like they did two or three a day for three days this year. I feel like the workload for Masters this year was pretty decent. I feel like they most of the time are kind of swept under the rug as kind of secondary, but I feel like this year they got a little bit more emphasis, got to be in the big stage on a couple of the events instead of back in the old ag barn. So that was pretty cool to see. There was a,

at the end of the games last year, excuse me, Sean Woodland, from my understanding was told by some of the people on Tia's team that she was retiring. He double checked, triple check. They said,

yes, he announced she was retiring. Then they asked her in the post fight interview, are you retiring and she goes that's the big question and there became a little bit of like a controversy there right about about that um do you have an opinion on that of how she handled that you do you you know um i mean what tom brady was retired for 40 days, and so now he's back. Hillary was very angered by the fact that I didn't want any type of announcement or anything like that because I didn't want to commit to that or really know.

There's a ton of emotions leading up to the games, and you say things or think things and have an idea. It's God's intention. Yeah, I mean, things happen. and have an idea. Scott, tension. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, things happen.

And so, you know, I'm not that type that needs the, I don't want some big announcement or some big, you know, I don't need any of that. So she was very angry. She was like, you deserve that. You do deserve it. I don't want it. You know, I just kind of ride off into the sunset and do my thing.

Or, hey, I might be back next year. I might not. I might do one Masters competition every five years in each category just to say I did it more personally, selfishly than for anybody else. It gives me something to shoot for. It gives me something to do, but you know, I'm, I'm enjoying doing what I'm doing and, um, you know, maybe try some different things, mountain biking stuff, really enjoy mountain biking. So doing some events like that, got super into hunting, uh, the last couple of years and finally got an elk. So I'm now all consumed with that actually going out for another hunt in a couple of weeks. Um, so there's just new challenges. And, and as long as I can do those new challenges and kind of push my limits in different areas um i'll still still be

around and compete and stay fit yeah and you know if you do that thing where you compete every time you age up so you're always the youngest one that youngest one that's right that's the game you age up you compete you wait three or four years does coaching of any kind come into play there and you know if so before you answer you know they asked jordan when he retired they said you know would you ever coach and his his response was i have no patience for coaching and then he and then he went on to say for me to ask an individual to focus on the game the way that i did would be unfair to that person right how do you feel about that? And is, is coaching aside from like being at Mac? I mean, I could see how jacked up you were watching, you know, the team's

going everything outside of that, like coaching someone one-on-one, is that something you're interested in at all? Or do you just cannot see yourself doing? Oh man. You know, I learned early on in CrossFit, Darren, my cousin, um, is incredible at meeting people kind of where they're at in, you know, their fitness, you know, movement, that type of stuff. I'm more of like, Hey, let's go work out. And maybe in the middle of the workout, I might tell you something or see if I see something. Um, that's more where I'm at. I was never the, you know, I wasn't the greatest coach like he was like I would put Darren up as with any, um, CrossFit coach that I've ever seen.

Just with knowing how to handle people, how to motivate different types of people. Some people need to be loved on. Some need to be pushed. He's incredible with that. I'm more of a mentor. I'll answer questions. I'm not going to probably tell you how you should do anything. If you ask me a question, I'll try to help.

I'm kind of a glorified training partner, but just the one-on-one coach sitting there with a clipboard, you know, Matt's done an incredible job Fraser, um, with these athletes and, and does a really good job with that. I just, that's not where my passion is. I like, like I said, I'd, Hey, you want to do a workout? I'll jump in. If I see something, I might help out. But, uh, to sit there with a clipboard and do all those types of things, it's hard for me. Hey, how do I mentally get more competitive? I'm like, just be competitive. It's hard for me to do that.

What about your kids? Working on it. I'm sure your kids are already getting into sports are you do you want to coach them like in like ball sports are you the guy that is either like behind the uh you know behind left field like standing there like you trying to be invisible or are you the guy like yelling at the ump to like i'll probably be a mix of that my dad was the kind of stand behind first base dugout and and just quiet. But, you know, if you get motivated enough, I'll say something. And at home, you know, if they want to like me and Trice the last, I don't know, week or so, he's gotten super into playing baseball.

So for about 45 minutes to an hour, I'll go out there and just throw him balls. And I'm trying to help. My main thing right now is, um, I make him, uh, hit left-handed every three swings. He gets three swings, right-handed and hitting three swings left-handed. He's actually come a long way left-handed. It's pretty impressive. I mean, he's five. Um, but I don't think I'll ever, like if they want to do something, I want them to do something. I don't want to push them in a certain area. Lakeland's super into, um, tumbling. Uh, she wants to do competitive cheer. And I said, absolutely not, not till you get to high school. I'll support you. You can go, I'll pay for you to go to these tumbling lessons. So you're ready when you get to high school, if that's something you want to do or college, but,

um, I can't do competition cheer. I'm just not, I'm I'll go with her and watch her and help her and do all that stuff and support her. Same with Trice. I don't think I could be the head coach making the decisions. I don't ever want my kids or other people to think, oh, he's just playing because he's the coach's son, that type of deal so um i love playing sports that's kind of kind of my deal outside of crossfit so anytime trice is like hey let's go play baseball or lakeland's like hey come throw me the football she's super into throwing the football and catching the football so um it's pretty awesome to be a part of that i will always be there and and help push them but i don't think i can be, you know, the head coach ever. JR, what do you think is, I don't like the answer. I want someone, I want someone to come into the gym and be like you know in five years or whenever and be like, Rich, I want to, I want to win the games.

Yeah. But like Rich, and Rich walks out and like picks up Buffalo shit with the shovel and ignores him and the guy follows him around and then Rich shuts the front door you know like in the movies and the kid sleeps on the on the wraparound deck and then Rich wakes up in the morning they're still there that's where Fikowski's at right

that's exactly where he's at he's still waiting for your coaching can he be pushed into this, JR? It seems like he's a hard drive, and if he doesn't coach, he's throwing it away. or I would even say more so a teacher. You kind of know that's just how you are. You look for situations to help people out, and you've probably been doing that since you were a little kid. It's not something you can decide to do.

And sometimes when you have naturals, I'd probably put Rich in that category, where the first time someone showed him how to snatch, he did it, and it probably looked right. Or the first time someone showed him a pair of rings, he probably got on top of them and did a bustle up. A lot of times those are the worst coaches because they can't explain to you what they're doing. They just do it. And you say, how do you, how do you,

how do you rest less? Like going from toes to bar to thrusters is like, what do you mean? You just, you just do the 20 and then you take two breaths or you jump back up and do 15. Like, I don't know what else to tell you. Like, why, why can't you understand? Yeah. Yeah. It's almost like you, you just get frustrated because you know, that's not, that's not your thing. So no, I think it's a legit answer. I think it's something over the years, you know, like years ago, I wouldn't have seen myself in the position I'm in with kind of having these young perfect time to, sorry. Um, you know i i wouldn't have seen myself where i'm at now so it might be something that i can grow into and as it it life slows down or you know my i guess training slows down where i i might be in that position and so um you know having hayley back and and some of these younger athletes it um, they want a little bit of that.

And so I'm trying to give that where I can, but they also know the under have the understanding of like, um, you know, Jake, who, who runs our mayhem athlete, he, he helps out with a lot of that type of stuff. I'm not really good with emotion. Um, we joke that it's, it's been basically programmed out of me. So, um, when people get upset about something, it's, it's hard for me to, um, you know, like on any team that I was on, luckily we had guys that could with the girls when they would cry, I just walk away. I can't handle it. It's not that I'm mad. I just get super awkward and walk away. So emotions are,

are hard for me to process at times. Um, and so that's, that's the, the key piece, I guess, that I'm missing. How do they approach you? These, these athletes around you that want more from you? How do they, how do they express that to you? Just asking questions. Um, you know, Haley's been a little bit more vocal about, Hey, I want somebody that is going to be, You know, Haley's been a little bit more vocal about, hey, I want somebody that is going to be, you know, in my corner, which we're always in her corner, but she wants to be, you know, coached myself and Jake kind of a little three headed monster. And then she's working with, um, uh, Chad Vaughn, I think in his group with some strength stuff. So, you know, there's going to be a little committee and, and I hope she doesn't mind me telling that, but yeah, we're going to, um, help her out that way. So that's kind of the plan moving forward is, um,

more of like a team team effort instead of just one person, um, there all the time. Are you excited about that? Do you like that? Are you like, Oh, this is going to be new. This is going to be fun. Yeah, absolutely. I think, uh, it's always good to get a different perspective. Um, you know, Chad's super knowledgeable on strength and that type of stuff and, and having some of these other guys that are, um, you know, AJ is an incredible ATC and, you know, seeing things and, and fixing imbalances Jake's the same way. And, um, you know, AJ is an incredible ATC and, you know, seeing things and fixing imbalances, Jake's the same way. And, you know, I get so caught up in, you know, what I think works as fitness and programming. And it's good to have somebody else kind of checking that and making sure we're all hitting the necessary things we need to do.

Jeremy World, Rich, did you do the legends masters championship programming yet has jr said a word yet what is the what is the legends masters champ is that the thing in november december december yeah it's a competition we're hosting it um working with those guys with uh with legends yeah um we had a heavy hand in programming. Um, they have like a number of athletes they want in the space, a number of events that they wanted and timelines were the big thing that we kind of had to adjust. You know, if I was to have complete control over programming, um, it might look just a touch different. I think we've done a pretty good job of, of compromising on a couple of things and trying to make sure that movements are hit,

time domains are hit. It's a lot of volume, I think, but just my opinion. It's funny that you say if you had complete control, because at one time, three years ago, you did. And one of the things I always have wondered in 2019 when they kind of gave it to everyone to do with sanctionals and you guys decide who makes it to the games. And Mayhem Classic was arguably the most well-ran, the best programmed, you know, et cetera, competition out there. You know, as someone who does them their self, after you did that, was there any part of you or can you see yourself moving forward

resurrecting the mayhem classic and maybe trying to be another one of the majors like hey i know i can do this just as good or better than whoever's out there and now it's going to be now it's going to be rogue dubai wadapalooooza, and Mayhem Classic. And now those are the four. You know what I mean? Let me throw this out there too, just so you guys know. When I was at CrossFit Inc., the number one place in the entire planet, planet Earth, 15,000 gyms, 162 countries, seven continents. Do you know where the number one place CrossFit sold level ones? This small podunk town called Cookville.

I don't even know what state that is. Is that Tennessee? Yeah, somewhere down south. And so he doesn't have the excuse that the people won't come. The people will come. The stories are legendary of people who drive hours out of the way just to swing by the expertise on what we've done, they're running a good event. I just, like I said, if I had complete control, like we had at the Mayhem Classic, yeah, absolutely. There's some things that I would do a little bit different, not a ton different. Honestly, in a perfect world, you know, if real estate wasn't so crazy, I'd try to find a couple hundred acres,

build some type of, you know, multi-purpose venue that we could for part of the year, put some Airbnbs or some tiny homes or something on it where people could show up, hang out, work out. And then part of the year, it's a, you know, a multi-use kind of fitness venue, I guess. And so perfect world. Yeah. But real estate right now is a little high. We've kind of floated the idea, but never made a super big commitment, but I think it'd be a pretty cool thing to have, um, down the road. Yeah. Yeah. They'd be really cool. One of the things that I think it's come up in some of the shows that we've done that looking at there being someone new at the helm, taking over programming, announcing that they're going to do standardized regionals again, and all that kind of stuff. The way the game's planned out, kind of letting people know maybe what they should be focusing on

versus what they used to focus on. One of the things I thought was really cool and what I wish other event programmers would do is something you did for the Mayhem Classic, which is whether you hate the workouts or not, at least we knew why you programmed what you did. You did those little workout releases and you kind of said hey like this legless um zeus dubs workout is kind of similar to the 2014 repeat that had shuttle but it's a little different and then this is why we did the ruck and you know this is why there

was only one barbell and it was at the very end with squat cleans and parallel handstand push-ups like i thought that was really good and adrian has been super accessible this year to talking a lot which kind of helped me out doing some of the predictions and i was like oh he's saying a lot like usually we don't usually we don't get much so maybe he's gonna do press the handstand or maybe he's gonna do all this stuff but do you think that's something that people should embrace as event programmers to put it out there and say hey listen, listen, in seven events, we're not trying to find the fittest. It's really hard to do that. Right.

This is what we want it to be. We want it to be spectacle. We want to showcase the strength athletes. We want to showcase body weight movements, whatever. Yeah, I think that's one thing that they do with Rogue. I think that's one thing that they do it with rogue, you know, Bill last year, when I helped program a little bit, um, the rogue invitational, he was like, yeah, we want to have somebody who's really fit when, but we want it to look really cool. You know, we don't want people just sitting out here, you know, kind of bored watching people do a half marathon row or a marathon row. Like,

yeah, we care about the actual test, but we almost care more about the spectacle, which I think is cool. And if you know that going into it as an athlete, then absolutely. Heck yeah. But I'm all for being more transparent as an event programmer of like, hey, you know. And one thing I would go back to the classic was probably make one shorter workout. I think that was the one piece we were missing, um, as far as like an overall test, because at that time we were trying to send the fittest representative from our event to the CrossFit games. And so, um, that's the one piece that I look back and I'm like, ah, we missed that. You know, there was supposed to be there with that sandbag and lunch thing. I

probably made the dumbbells a little too heavy at the last minute, um, and, and missed that a little bit, but live and learn is the difference between masters programming and um programming for rogue or or the mayhem classic just just scaling or is there is there another uh element to it you have to think about something else when you think of old people i think volume is probably the key thing i wouldn't necessarily even look at scaling you know a lot of these guys and girls, depending on the age range, are still pretty freaking strong and can do a lot of the skills. I think it's just, you've got to look at what the wear and tear is over the weekend. That's something that I've learned myself. You know, I can't handle at 35 what I could at 25.

And so, I think it's just being smart and trying not like, you know, I hate sometimes where you look at an event, you're like, oh, they're just trying to beat them down. I think there's a skill piece to it. There's just different, hey, let's test for this event, which I feel like is kind of a celebration of Masters and trying to make sure that we're finding the fittest is, you know, to make sure that we're hitting the 10 general physical skills and testing those different, different things that we're supposed to be testing in CrossFit. If you look at the definition of CrossFit, uh, rich made team, uh, Michael C rich made teams relevant.

He could change the earning potential, come in and win the first year in each age group. he could change the earning potential come in and win the first year in each age group i think that your relevancy in masters will be significantly more profound than team because team i just feel like is is um diluted crossfit i feel like just from from the viewers experience yeah no i feel i feel that i feel it's a good celebration of CrossFit and, and, you know, CrossFit is supposed to be about the community. And so what better way to do that than have four people on a team working together. So I think that's one good expression of CrossFit. Um, another one is, Hey,

the longevity of CrossFit and how long you can be fit is up to 60 plus. So I think, you know, there's different, these different divisions and, you know, individual, obviously you're showing the the fittest on the planet is the idea and then the team you're kind of showcasing the community side of it but also some really fit people and then now with masters you're really fit and you can be fit for a long time and be super capable um i am happy that they from what it looks like the rule is extremely vague and they haven't really dove into it yet.

But allowing super teams, essentially, again, I think that's a good move. Nobody wants to watch poor, the last place couple teams just kind of getting time-capped every event. And they're not really, I mean, is it the same as the super teams before? You still have to be there. I mean, really, I mean, is it the same as the super teams before? You still have to be there.

I mean, really, it says, from what I've read of the rules, it says you have to do the open together and all the qualifiers together in one place. So as long as you can afford a plane ticket and have some place to stay, why not? There's really no barrier to entry. There's no 100-mile rule, which was whatever, and then train there more often than not, which is an extremely vague cop-out of an answer.

And so I'm glad. I think it's more hands-off the better, really. But it's still affiliate-related. You still have to do it. Yeah, you have to do the events in the affiliate. Would I, in a perfect world, I thought it would be really cool. Allow the super teams in the CrossFit game season, and then somehow do some off season event. Um, similar to like, I guess what golf, um, event is it with the masters? I think it might be the masters where

amateurs can play with the pros, but you do affiliate true affiliate teams that if somebody's made it to a semifinal or regional or whatever the heck you want to call it now, but you do affiliate, true affiliate teams that if somebody's made it to a semifinal or regional or whatever the heck you want to call it now, um, they can, they're disqualified from being on the team. So it's true kind of, um, affiliate people. And it would be fun to, to a community, more of a community celebration than anything, but that was an idea. Um, if you put together like a perfect team, let say right let's say um you put you picked uh um basically our team last year right your team last year if you took your team last year and you didn't let them practice at all together and you just had them could you've won the games

if you had just walked on the field for the first time with those two ladies and Mr. Cornwall? Not having known each other previous to that? Yeah, not knowing each other previously to that and just walked on. It's tough, you know. Well, Sam speaks French, so there's that. No, I think it's tough. I think you need miles with people. You need to learn habits.

So there is that unspoken rule built in. If you, no matter how good you are, if you guys don't practice together, it's not, it's not just like, Hey, pick the, the forfeitest people and go win it. I mean, you know, if you had some just outliers of, of people, then maybe, but it's, there's some, there's some stuff that is one communication is huge verbal communication, but also just watching people and making sure, you know, what people aren't saying is also being relayed and communicated and being able to react to that, how to motivate people, how to not get offended when somebody freaks out on you. When you're dropping the rope on their heels while they're

running and, and punches you after the event, you know, like, and not take that personal kind of take it as, Hey, yep, I messed up. And, and just, you know, being able to handle personality. So yeah, there's a huge component to training together and, um, you know, really being friends and, and, um, having the common goal and understanding when shit goes wrong or something happens that's, you know, not necessarily what you wanted to happen. It's going to be okay. And everybody kind of and not blow up on each other. You've seen teams that just kind of implode on each other and start blaming each other. And, you know, one of the cool things that I've learned over the years of teams is watching everybody put in all year and suffer all year.

And you know that, hey, they're giving it their all. And, you know, sometimes just things don't happen the way they're supposed to or the way you think they should happen. And so it's it's fun. It's a good time. It's a good challenge. So did you have a hey, oh shit big earthquake big earthquake big earthquake big earthquake big earthquake scary earthquake oh i didn't like that at all you're right that's how many podcasts i do you need to go to the bathroom holy shit i

fucking started sweating can you change your pants wow let me see what's going on here uh oh my phone says there's been a shake alert yeah no shit geez man that thing that thing sounded quickly huh could you guys see could you guys see i was giving a little jiggle i could see a little jiggle see my breasts under here moving around whoo whoo ah he doesn't like seeing himself so if you can't tell wow jr i never see you smile you seem to get the shit scared out of me hey that shit will scar you an earthquake like i'll be scarred i'll be scarred now for like six months like i won't want to drive under underpasses and shit it's the last night we were in the bed it was probably nine o'clock and oh i like a story that starts goes from earthquakes to the bed so all the kids are in bed and then all of a sudden we hear

a collection of maybe five or six howls all like in unison but at different times and me and becca looked at each other and said are the dogs inside because we knew we probably had coyotes on our property but it was the first time we've been being in this house that we actually heard them and it was like just kind of eerie at first i'm sure i had that same look on my face yeah and those things they don't even have at least the coyotes by my house they they they do this thing where they all start yapping they don't even howl it's scary yeah it gets scary when they all jump in on that yeah we had that tornado a couple years ago that it messed me up for a little while

going out there and trying to clean up and and help some stuff it it uh that was that was crazy just to see the damage and just sheer power of it you know there was a house completely wiped out frame everything off the the foundation and then one house next door not touched whatsoever and then one next door looked like an ikea where the walls were peeled off and everything in the house was still just standing not even touched it was mind-blowing crazy crazy it makes you like just now that just happened it makes me just realize i just have no control no control no control none none i was just waiting for something to fall off the wall or something and then i was going to run in the house and get the kids anyone was wondering that was my plan i i built my head

and we would not have blamed you for it you guys would have kept going he would caleb would have just removed remove me like this he go he go um He gone. He gone. How's your relationship with Bill and Katie? Great. Bill and Katie are awesome. Man, super supportive, but no BS. You don't really negotiate with Bill and Katie, but we have an incredible relationship. But we have an incredible relationship and just kind of, it's, I guess, a mutual respect, but also just good friends, but also know that it's business. Some aspects, you almost compartmentalize two different relationships. You got business and then you've got friendship.

And, man, I just really appreciative of what they've done and from a business standpoint. And it just kind of stayed true to who they are, which is awesome. Do you remember the first time you met them? I want to say the Rogue Again Faster throwdown we did at Tahoe. It was probably the first time I ever met him. And, you know, we know how that went. Yeah. And you were on the Again Faster team.

I was on the Again Faster team. I'm trying to remember. Bill's a man of few words, right? Yeah, until you get him opened up and find something that we both want to talk about. Then he's a cool dude. Have you been out to their—careful, I'm leading you somewhere, Rich. Have you been out to their ranch in um texas i've been invited a couple times and just haven't you know with family with work with all the training haven't had a chance to make it out there um hopefully soon i will and how close is that to

the venue i'm actually not 100 sure do you think it's uh within an hour's drive i i don't know is it i don't know i'm just trying to figure out where this where the off-site event's gonna happen yeah if it's happening there i have no insider information sorry i wish i did actually because i want to know what the hell i'm going to do for legends uh um this is uh this guy this is one of our more aggressive listeners in the chat. Does Rich Froning have any non-Christian friends or does he rebuke such people? I don't even know what rebuke means. Be gone. No, I'm just kidding. Absolutely. I've got a ton of friends that I would not consider as professed or even non-professed Christians. Yeah, that would be ridiculous to not involve myself with other people. I think that's kind of what we're supposed to do.

Rebuke. Express sharp disapproval or criticism of someone because of their behavior or actions. And not to their face, he doesn't do that. No, not even to their back. All right. I've never known you to do anything like that. What are you going to do with the – will there be more free time since you're not doing teams?

And what are you going to do? Double down on Mayhem interests? Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, be more involved. I think over the last probably year or 18 months, really when COVID kind of hit, I've become way more involved here. I'm here a lot more. It's a whole lot easier.

Lakeland, like I said, school is just right up the road where I drop her off. And then the little two love coming here. So, you know, three or four days a week, they come with me every morning and just basically run around this place like it's their own. They're pretty frustrated that uh i let josh who runs the gym tell us tell them what to do like lakeland a couple times i don't know if i've shared this story but we're driving home and lakeland's like hey uh we own this place right and i'm like yeah where's this going and she said uh and how come you let josh tell us what to do and i said i said lakelandland, just because you have the power

doesn't mean you should use it. You get that? And she was like, no. So I tried to have a teaching moment, but it didn't work right there. I like it. I try to be here a lot more. I've been the last ever since the games trying to jump into a class or two once or twice a week having fun

with that coach's choice on friday so the coaches kind of make up a workout depending on the number of people there and a lot of the time it's a team workout so i actually jumped into two classes back to back on friday so wow uh it was a ton of fun you know and we had a couple drop-ins that probably would never see me other than that and so i'm just trying to have a lot of fun working out not make it so much of a chore and it doesn't have to be so structured. You know, it's like, you can still get pretty dang fit by just doing CrossFit. I know a JR wants to ask, ask this. So I'll ask it. Um, the two workouts you worked, uh, did back to back. Was it the same workout twice? No, no, it was two different workouts. It was, uh, it was kind of a fun, like you had four machines

all four people working and then you went to four boxes did box jumps then it had three movement or three stations two stations and then a sprint and it was it was kind of fun different take on a workout and then you had to rotate machines each time for four rounds and so um it was pretty fun and creative and then the other one was like cleaning jerks and handstand walking, some burpee blocks to get over. So it was a good time. Do you ever look around your gym, gyms, training facilities, and just be like just in shock that this has happened because you started working out? Yeah, it is.

It's crazy. We're definitely lucky, and we have a good time. And we've got a good group of people around and, um, you know, back of house, front of house, just everybody. And, and it's, uh, it's pretty awesome. Um, are, are you involved in the day to day? Like, are you a, like, do you, are you the, um, is mayhem like a company where like you get the whole team together and like, you'll give talks or what the vision is or is it, how does it work there? What's your role? What do you do there? Like do you ever pay, do you ever,

do you have a stack of bills on your table like I do? And like, there's just shit you haven't opened and, and registrations that are like, did I pay for this or didn't I, or. Luckily I have a Josh for that. He's incredible. He kind of handles all that type of stuff. Make sure this place is running to a T. We've got a really good team. I'm not much of a micromanager. I definitely am involved in a little bit more of what a CEO would be, more of the vision and check-in. we have full staff meetings with our

directors once every week or once every other week, kind of depending on the year, where you get five or so minutes to kind of highlight what's going on in your department and, you know, things we need from other departments. That's one of the things we've, you know, we, we've grown over the last two years, I would say, so fast that we're trying to figure out, all right, somebody's getting spread too thin. They're doing too many things. We have a lot of really good jack-of-all-trades. And now it's just trying to get everybody narrowed in on their specific thing.

And so trying to do that, like I said, I will lean on my core group of people, their opinions. I'm not one that thinks my opinion is always going to be best. I trust the guys and girls that work here for their opinions, their expertise. I'm not the smartest one in the room at everything. So I definitely lean on them a lot. And so, yeah, I enjoy it and enjoy the business side. And I'm coming around to that. You know, years ago, I would have just said, hey, you know, let somebody else do it and tell me how it's going.

So I'm enjoying that part. But it is it is a bit of a like I said, getting structure down, which, you know, I don't really I'm not a huge structure guy. So I'm trying to get all that into, you know, the right lanes and doing that, those types of things, uh, over the last, at least six months for sure. Um, we were hearing rumors that, uh, Haley Adams was going to go to HWPO. Is there, was there any truth to that? Um, you know, Haley, the last, probably this last season, you know, she, she's hyper competitive, hyper motivated, wants to just train and train and train. This last season, you know, she's hyper-competitive, hyper-motivated,

wants to just train and train and train. And I think she just got so caught up this last year on thinking she wasn't doing enough and thinking we weren't giving her enough that she just needed a break, you know, and try to figure out what she wanted in life. And she came to me right after the games, and I was like, take a break. Go. Go. if you want to go train with Matt see if you know we fit there like I'm not I don't want you know we've had different people in the past that you know we tried to I guess not control but you you learn

over the time it's like hey life's too short to have one have enemies and to really be caught up in like I just want Haley happy. You know, if it's she's happy with somebody else, then great. If she's happy here, even better. And so I think she, you know, shopped around a little bit and went home and hung out in North Carolina. And, and she came back, she's got an incredible attitude, and she's willing to, to listen and wants to work and she wants to win. And we're going to try to do that best we can. So love Haley, love who she is as a person and glad to have her back around.

Samuel Cornway, I'll never forget that interview I did with him. Just crazy focused on winning the CrossFit Games. Went team with you, kind of kind of blew my mind but i think his justification for it was was pretty wise um will he be going individual this year and and does he still have the same fire yeah sam uh i think he's a little bit even more motivated now um but yeah he's definitely going individual this was a that was a one-year deal um you know we kind of talked about it. And obviously, from my standpoint, I was like,

heck yeah, I'll take somebody that's super fit. And then from his standpoint, I feel like he learned a little bit that you can be hyper-focused, but you still got to relax a little bit. If you get too caught up, that's when people start, man, it's a grind of a season and a grind. That's one of the cool things about being on a team is you've got all these other people to support you and push you. And so I think Sam learned some, some valuable lessons over the years and over this year. And, uh, I'm, I'm looking forward to seeing him compete on the floor, wherever it's going to be.

Do you have, do you have any, um, anxiety about relinquishing the throne to team? And are you going to try to put together a team? Absolutely. I would love to see a Mayhem team out there. I'm not sure if it'll be this year or next. Angelo was trying to find some pieces, but that was before any of the rules came out. So now that the rules are kind of wide open, hopefully it'll be easier for him to find some people to join him. Selfishly, I'd rather keep that trophy here and that title of fittest team.

We've got some really fit individuals, so I'd love to see some on the podium as well. What does Rich think about the games going to Birmingham? I think it's one of the worst decisions they've ever done, but that's just my opinion. 90 degrees, 75% humidity or plus. It's just interesting, that's for sure. Unless most of the venues are going to be inside, which sucks too. So, yeah, I don't love it. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Hopefully, but I don't know if anybody's been in alabama or even south where we're at um in august or july it's outdoors is one of the most miserable experiences ever so you're going to be taking a big hit on intensity because people are going to be so messed up from the heat not only the heat but one i don't think people experience how much you sweat and not having, uh, with that humidity, it just kind of sits on you and sticks on you. So, uh, you think you've had hand tears before it's going to get worse. So I don't love it. Um, you know, it is what it is though. I don't get to make those decisions. Uh, you're notorious, um, for your volume. I mean, especially in your youth but from from what i

hear uh nothing has changed that you're just you're just as fucking wild as ever um if you could go back and then we just had ariel lowen on who basically you know what she does is she just goes to an affiliate have you met her by the way i have not we we've kind of jake has been talking to her a little bit uh about having her come out she funny thing your family would love her hillary would love her one of my one of hillary's good friends is from texas where she's from and she actually used to babysit her daughter and apparently it speaks super highly of her and so um yeah hopefully she can get up here and and we can meet her yeah she's she's great. But basically what she said today,

which I found fascinating is she goes to a gym. It's, it's, it's, it's not a CrossFit gym, but it's, you know, it's a CrossFit gym. Right, right, right. She, she, they, she gets the programming a week in advance and it's the programming that everyone does in the affiliate. And then she, all the pieces that were missing, if she's like, okay, there's no double unders, I need to do my own double unders. Okay. There's no chest of our pull-ups. I need to do chest of our posts. And she fills in all the holes where the pieces aren't. And she does that on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That's incredible. It is right. I couldn't do it. You know, like I, you know, that just is a testament, I guess, to what kind of athlete she was or what kind of base she had coming in. Um,

I, yeah, there's no no way she just looks like a normal mom yeah she crushed it this year it was impressive to see so you are you are blown away she's a head scratcher outlier for sure you know like i don't know there is something to be said about the intensity of a class or working out with like a group of people like i've had a ton of fun of you know working out with the class because you're like, this Joe Blow doesn't want to... I want to not get beat, so I'm going to give him a little bit more. You don't want to get beat by Bob. He had a fucking heart attack.

Bob had a heart attack. Even if he's not doing the same weight or same thing, that's kind of the beauty of what we do. It's all relative to where people are, and we can all work out at the same time, as lame as that sounds from the old crossfit stuff but it's it's cool yeah you know it's interesting too but kind of seeing what some may say is a shift we only have one year to look at of boz programming compared to all the years that dave did but

seemingly there's seems to be a little bit more value maybe now so on intensity execution variance versus recoverability volume um you know pacing maybe yeah like he took away some of those options right you have to row at this pace or if you don't sprint this you're just going to get beat and you're going to get right or if you miss one wall ball it's going to cost you all that stuff what i've seen and what seems to be happening now is okay i mean boz came out and said before the games i know the athletes are strong i know where they're weak i know where they focus too much time on i know where they don't focus enough time on i'm going to show them this year those things and moving forward that should steer your training where

crossfitters are closest to the best in their fields well they're really good at weightlifting they can make olympics in some cases they're really good at weightlifting. They can make Olympics in some cases. They're really good aerobically. Like what, Christy just ran like seven minute miles for a marathon. So it's like, but we can't do what my four and five-year-olds like what they do in their gymnastics classes. So you look at that and you, it's, I mean, it's kudos to Mayhem Athlete Programming and you and Jake, and you can talk about maybe how much you're involved there, but what are you seeing now? You're seeing intervals with med ball GHDs

and freestanding straight handstand pushups. And maybe years past, it was double the amount of reps of strict and GHDs. And you see 12-foot wall balls, and you see, you know, we're, as CrossFitters, we're almost obsessed with making things harder. You know, how do we make it harder and harder?

Well, you either add volume or you can add weight. Correct. So it's like, you know, I look at like a simple workout that's probably really dated now, like 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, regular rope climbs, 50 foot handstand walk. That's not an appropriate workout anymore. No, it's just for a class, maybe. Yeah, sure. It's just who can come down from the rope a little

bit faster who can sprint on their hands a little bit faster and you you look at that and you're like okay well what do you do to it you go five four three two one legless with a 50 foot obstacle in between each sure i mean that's appropriate or like this is kudos to angelo i mean something that he did right before the games five four three two-3-2-1 pegboard with 5-4-3-2-1 press to handstand in between each. Like how, how do you progress the sport when seemingly we already have some of those limits known? Like we know the top five or 10 are probably all going to snatch around 300. They're probably going to clean your 370. They're probably going to run low fives on a mile. They're probably going to do 27 to 30 ring muscle ups. Okay. Well, what do you do as the programmer? I mean, what do you do? Do

you, do you say, okay, well, we're going to see if they can do 50 now, or they're, we're just going to keep making the weight a little bit heavier. Or do you just back up and you say, okay, well, what can we see if they can do now? And then, okay, now they have P bars to train with. What are they going to be able to do in five years? They're probably going to be able to get up on the P bars, press the handstand, handstand, walk across, turn around, pirouette, come back. Like, is that where we're going? And I mean, I think looking at some of your stuff, it seems like people are already starting to see that shift. shift yeah i think you know it's hard to make too much of a a steer you know re-steer the ship or rewrite or you know you know redirect the ship i guess in one year obviously i think definitely rich you think you think it was too much at the games or no no what i'm saying is we don't want to change our programming too much based off of one sample set of events you know obviously we're going to sprinkle in some of those things that we saw because hey they're out there why not you know constantly varied is one of the biggest pieces of crossfit so hey if we can

constantly vary some of these things let's go ahead and do it we've got you kind of got the cheat sheet right here at least from one year but i don't think we need to abandon what we've been doing for so long based on one year. Yeah, I mean, obviously, I think the what we would call high skilled gymnastics, which you were also saying, my daughter's doing all this stuff. And she's seven and eight. So it's like, yeah, what are these things we can add in that are, you know, relatively safe and not too gimmicky? You know, there were times like I, as can add in that are, you know, relatively safe and not too gimmicky? You know, there were times like I, as a spectator watching the games this year, I thought it was, you know, parts of it. I was like, heck yeah.

And then as an athlete, I think I would have hated it. You know, it was almost, it was a lot for one year. Kudos to Boz for trying to make it his own and doing that. to make it his own and doing that um as an athlete like i said and i watched this kind of just at the in the back just watching athletes just not necessarily squirm but you could just see them demoralized and and it was as a spectator and watching some of the events um it was it was very interesting and kind of fun to watch but then some of them you're just kind of like i don't know you know like the crossover double under is what it is um that was probably my only real real one that i didn't love um some of the other things you know like traversing the the p bars was cool it was an added

um i think a positive add to the whole event um 12 foot wall ball was interesting i didn't love it because i'm 5'9 but you know there, like you're saying, this emphasis on execution. Like you just said, we get so caught up in, oh, we got to make it more volume or we got to make it heavier. Why not? You're saying the 5-4-3-2-1 handstand walk thing is kind of the thing of the past. Why not just try to attack that faster? And so that's something that Jake, over the last couple of years,

and to his credit on that, he's done these full send Fridays where, you know, we get so caught up in doing these intervals and building this volume and having this base that sometimes you just got to go as hard as you can. Like workout. I hate the most is Fran because it's so everybody can do it. We call it any old asshole workout. Anybody can do it. And anybody can beat you on that workout, which is sometimes good, you know, cause you gotta be able to push. You gotta be able to go fast. Um, and us as athletes or as games athletes, uh, sometimes we get caught up in, you know, the volume and everything like that instead of, Hey, let's just go for it. Cause you can't, you, that's one of the hardest things to prepare for. Not, not necessarily even physically, but mentally is the grind of the intensity over the weekend. You know, the volume may not be as much, like I didn't think the volume was too crazy this year. Um, but the intensity of each event and

having to go as hard as you can and having the high stress of if I screw up here, it takes a toll on you jeff bako i can't get over how masculine rich is thank you thank you oh my beard it's just the beard you know uh i got one here hold on hold on. When I think of the training camps, and I think of HWPO, and I think of CompTrain, and when I think of Training Think Tank, I think of them as these places that are behind lock and key, that not just anyone can walk in that there are these highly um secretive i don't know if secret is the right word but just guarded like yeah selective when i think of the mayhem camp and maybe just because i spent time in in cookville and i know it's been you know 12 years since i've been there but i don't picture it like that. I picture it as just like anyone can just like come in. You've always like I don't know how many times I've heard you say to someone, oh, you should come over to the house. I mean, I feel like I can hear you in my head saying that.

Is that is that do I mean, I haven't asked these other people, but, you know, like I I don't picture being able to walk in and watch um mal and matt train together that it's like that it's in a room and and or off in a secluded place but i just feel like it's not like that at mayhem that that there's this big barn in your yard and um and not that it's open to every tom dick and Harry, but if you have the balls to come there, you can come there. Yeah, I think, you know, that speaks to the community side of things we have here. Obviously, we have the space for it. It's pretty welcoming and open. Yeah, depending on time of the year.

You know, like this time of year, absolutely. You know, we're all for, you know, anybody coming out, hanging out. We just had some of the guys from 8th Day CrossFit that we competed with this last year come out for a mountain biking trip and hung out and worked out a little bit so yeah i mean i think um you know i guess i'm a little bit biased but i i like it here and i like having a good good group of people and having some fun obviously different times a year um when stress levels are high we want to keep that a little bit more guarded and, and making sure the athletes feel comfortable with, with kind of where they're at and the situation that they're in and they're getting the, um, the time that they need or the equipment that they

need. So, um, yeah, that's the hard part is trying to balance that and make sure, you know, the points of emphasis are where they need to be. I don't understand this comment, but since you paid money, I'll read it. Trevor Gentry, Mayhem YouTube Usuals. Yeah. So when we used to do our live streams every day, when COVID was going on, we kind of started those and then we actually hung on to those for a while, you know, while still other parts of the world were under quarantine. We just would turn on the TV in the corner at the barn and just let people

kind of hang out with us. And so it just got to be such a grind every day doing that. So we haven't done that in a while, but we, we had a group of people in the YouTube usuals, and I think they still have kind of their Instagram group that they all hang out and have come out to mayhem a couple of times. PFAA is a joke. What's PFAA? Are they talking about the Fikowski-Sam thing? Oh, Professional Athlete Association. Yeah, yeah. Oh, what a zombie. Yeah.

Yeah, Fikowski made a comment on Sam's post about not going to Dubai. I got to stick up for my own, you know? Yeah, I thought it was cool. And that was actually me. Somebody was like, Oh, we all know this is Rich's social media manager. That's not actually him. But if you ever find a good one liner or a zinger, a lot of the, Jennifer's pretty good at it, but a lot of the time it's, it's me.

And so yeah, the elk hunting post that I really decided to really piss off the Internet, that was me. We have a Sebon podcast group, but we've not been invited to Seve's yet. The Seve usuals? Any other questions for Mr. Froning, Mr. Howell? Any other questions for Mr. Froning, Mr. Howell? Has the auxiliary athlete competitive space at the main gym thinned out the barn much? Yeah, for sure.

We'll still go up there depending on time of the year. It's really good for specialists. Sorry, before you go on, what is that? So there's CrossFit Mayhem, the affiliate, then there's the barn in your backyard, now there's a third place? Well, so the backside of the gym here, we poured a concrete pad a couple years ago. We had made it for mustard seeds so we could have multiple floors. And then eventually we covered it with just an open air cover and rubbered it so people could work out outside, outside one of the garage doors. And then this past year, um, we decided to close it in, put AC, put, um, a locker room for athletes in a treatment room and kind of a sauna and cold plunge. Um, the actual gym part of it is done. The other part's not ended. It's heat and air. So,

um, the hard part for us, you know, I was speaking to being in Birmingham is the amount of volume we do in different training sessions and just being in that heat all day takes a toll on you. So with that backspace, we can, you know, not crank the air down, but we had it at 78, 80, um, and, and do one piece in the heat and then maybe one piece in the AC just to get some volume in because, uh, it just wears you down. So that was something we did this year, similar size of the barn, a little bit bigger. Um, you know, it depends on time of the year, whether we use the barn as much, um, mornings. Now, a lot of the session is done here at the gym, just because everybody kind of lives a little closer to here and we'll just kind of, Hey, this is where I'm going. Who wants to go here? Who

wants to go there? And so, um, very similar barn ish feel. Um, it'll be, it's not painted yet. That's the one main thing we've got to finish on the interior, but glass doors are in, um, it's, it's nice in there. It's cool. Cool spot. And, you know, it gets us out of the way of members. So like from two o'clock to seven o'clock in the afternoon, this place is a mad house. Cause there's, you know, a dedicated CrossFit class. there's sometimes we have a kind of a seniors it's called life but it's they're doing crossfit that's just less intimate or yeah it's a little little less intimidating but then we have crossfit kids we have pre-teens we have a teens class we have an endurance class so in the gym it's just we couldn't

you know i don't want to take away from the members and what they're going on there so we kind of have this area back we're still here but. Um, but we're, we're kind of back, uh, tucked in a corner. Uh, Mr. Digital Agenda, um, eat a dick. Uh, how, how is the affiliate doing? I mean, Josh runs a tight ship here. Um, it's, it's incredible. You know, I walk out here sometimes and I'm like, how the heck, like I never thought we'd be able to fill this space, um, with how big it is. And we're almost running out of room. Like I said, at one point you could have three different kinds of classes going on. And, uh, man, my favorite is watching the kids and preteens and teens, uh,

just, you know, seeing them get after it. Like my kids are getting to the age where now they love going to. So, um, Wednesdays and Friday nights, we're here at the gym and I'm usually watching them or playing dodgeball at the end of classes, their little treats, smacking them in the face with a dodgeball. So, um, it's cool though. You know, like we've got, um, one of our members is 80 plus and he's got a little bit of dementia and his wife says the best days that he has are days that he starts out here. So, um, it's, it's, it's incredible. It's, uh, you know, everybody thinks, I think coming in the doors that it's going to be just this elite athlete gym that that's, that's all that's allowed, which we've got that, but you know, it's cool to that, you know,

everyday people are in here, uh, grinding away, you know, like our eight 15 class yesterday, I walked in after getting a little coffee and there was 30 plus people in the class. And, you know, it was awesome. It's cool. Cool to see. Rich, do you have any fantasies like sell everything you own, move to Costa Rica, buy a place on the beach, put your money in the stock market, collect the interest just sit there uh and chill or you know leave the gym and just have them send you a check and like do you have any uh you know whatever move to an island out in the pacific like do you have any any i think i think i would

get too bored i told hillary the other day i was joking but i said if i didn't have hill or the kids i think i i seriously this i would move out West for at least four months and rotate States elk hunting. Like I, I enjoyed, uh, or enjoy the week that I go out there, no cell phone service, just, you know, grinding in the woods, you know, hunting and walking and, and just that being unplugged. Um, but you know, I miss my family and hanging out, but I don't think I'll ever be that guy that's, uh, fully retired from anything. You know, it's just not in my DNA. Um, I blame my parents, um, for that. Yeah. There's the murderer picture. Um, but I, there's something, something primal to that, that I, you know, I just, it feels right being out

there. And I came home and I joke, but I had just every night I'd wake up some type of dream that we were still out there. And so, um, I could definitely see myself being somebody that just goes out, you know, for months on end out West, uh, just chasing herds. That's awesome. All right, brother. Thank you so much for coming on. You're the best. It's I really can't thank you enough. It's people like you coming on the show that truly make this show special i'm not saying that lighthearted i don't think i say that to i don't know anyone else i say it too but uh definitely well if you get angelo on send me a private link so i can bust in and bust his balls a little bit absolutely all right and we'll be bugging you are you doing all the events uh this year what events uh at rogue didn't you go home

early yeah yeah uh yeah no i'll be there all weekend this time since uh halloween's on monday so i'll be there all right we'll probably bug you yeah heck yeah do it later brother thank you later boys all right dang transparency 10 articulation 10 generosity with time 10 sense of humor 9.8 no one's perfect cackle or two would have been great what do you think jr yeah beard 11 yeah i need to i need to make sure that i don't trim mine next time because I felt like such a little boy. Can you grow that, JR?

Could you grow that? I'll send you some pictures. All right. Awesome. Great job. There was a great comment in the comments that you strained your vocal cords. Because I was talking for so long? I mean, it wasn't so long, but for you it was long.

I was probably talking fast. I was like, God, I'm rambling. I need to get this. No, you were not rambling. It for so long. I mean, it wasn't so long, but for you it was long. I was probably talking fast. I was like, God, I'm rambling. I need to get this. No, you were not rambling. It was so good. It was great. It was fucking so good. You were painting a beautiful picture for everyone to understand.

All right, guys. In 13 minutes, we will be back with Nick Matthew, the guy who surprised us all at the CrossFit Games. I don't know. Are you going to be able to make that, JR? No, I'll be back at the gym, Coach. All right, cool. And then this evening, we have Ricky Garrard on.

Will you be able to make that, JR? No, not tonight. Okay. And hopefully, we'll have Caleb, although I think Caleb's approaching, probably being up for 24 hours. Hopefully, we'll have Caleb for something. All right. All right, guys uh nice seeing y'all thanks for checking in and as you can tell we're ramping up for rogue we will be doing crazy coverage uh from here on out the next four or five days uh wednesday thursday friday saturday sunday will and probably even

monday will be completely uh off the hook uh so stay. We'll try to do our best to give you all the insights and talk to all the athletes. Oh, tomorrow. Do not forget tomorrow morning show. We're having a gentleman on named Chris. Hi, Sousa. Chris Wark. And Chris Wark is a guy who cured himself of cancer.

He had stage three cancer. He thought he was gonna die he wrote uh he's written a handful of books tomorrow morning show is going to be special it's one of my favorite topics to talk about how people healed themselves and uh i'm pumped to have him on as a guest so don't miss that one either all right bye