The Sevan Podcast - #73 - Justin Medeiros

Episode Date: July 13, 2021

The Sevan Podcast EP 73 - JUSTIN MEDEIROS & BRIAN FRIEND @JUSTINMEDEIROS34 @SEVANMATOSSIAN @BRIANFRIENDCROSSFIT The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://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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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Well, I just took a preemptive pee. Justin came on and I hadn't taken the preemptive pee. And then I got this thing right here.

What's that? That's a freaking mug right there. Good dude's coffee with ice. Justin, do you know Brian? No, I do not. I mean, I talked to him just recently, but never met him before, I don't think. Where did you talk to him? Wasn't that who I was texting or no?

Oh, okay. On that thread. Okay. It was all of us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. All right. I don't.

The only time we've been at a competition together was Filthy 150, which I'm wearing the shirt today. Oh, dang, man. Dude, you're even rocking the shirt right now. That's right. Was that in Ireland? It was. I just want to say something real quick. It has nothing to do with the show, not directed at Justin or Brian, but someone today said to me, hey, um, why haven't you had anyone on from the

disabled class? And I want you to realize that when you ask me questions like that, you, you are trapped in your head because you think like I give a fuck about a disabled class or a youth class or an old class. And I don't care about, I only have people on the show that I want to talk to. So if someone's on the show, it's because I wanted to talk to them. I'm not obligated like the other organizations like the Brian panders to. I am my own free dude out here. I'm, I worked at CrossFit for 15 years, so I'm just addicted to this shit. And I'm doing the podcast because Matt Souza from CrossFit Livermore twisted my arm to do it. And I, and I enjoy doing it, but I'd rather be spending time with my kids. And so I only interview people that I want to interview. And it could be for people that I want to interview.

And it could be for whatever reasons. I mean, I had the guy on with no legs, Pitbull, because I was interested in a dude who's yoked out of his mind who has no legs. And I wanted to ask him what it's like not having legs. I had Logan Aldridge on, and he's missing an arm or he's missing something. And the reason why I had him on is because I gave a shit of what it was like to be live i wanted to ask a dude questions about like hey you clean more than me with one arm like and if he and if he had two arms he cleaned more than you yeah uh print prince maderos and and and and maybe i have jason hopper on because i want to stare at him with his shirt off and maybe i have justin maderos on because i think he's going to win the crossfit games that i'm investing in

the future of my podcast but whatever my reasons, I'm not out there checking boxes. We had Emma Tall on because I was a little nervous interviewing a woman from a foreign country. We're going to have Roman on. I'm scared shitless because we're going to need a translator. So like, and I approach and I want to do it because I'm scared, but they're my reasons. And so when you ask me, how come you haven't had anyone on from the class, please, in the nicest way possible, I want to yell at you. But don't be passive-aggressive towards me.

Just say, hey, look, here's a dude with one leg who's strong as shit. You should have him on the podcast. And then I'll go to his Instagram account and I'll decide if it looks good. But don't put me in some sort of box. I don't give a fuck about that stuff, any of that stuff, unless it interests me. If someone had – I'll stop there before I get crap. So it's great to have you on Justin. Um, you, there are clearly crazy bit buzz going about you because of your own accolades.

And then King Fraser embraced, uh, Justin Medeiros and basically, um, amplified you even more. I was actually surprised that you only had 162,000 followers. That's like not even double me. So for a dude's name who said so much and who works out so much and has such a good physique and is so wholesome, you'd think that you'd have 500,000. But we'll see after this year, right? Yeah, man.

It's moving in the right direction. A year ago, I only had like 3,000. So to me, 160,000, but we'll see after this year, right? Yeah, man. It's moving in the right direction. A year ago, I only had like 3,000. So to me, 160,000 is plenty. How tall are you, Justin? 5'9". And how much do you weigh? About 195. Wow.

Do I fit in Dave Castro's view of a CrossFit Games athlete or what? Forget his view. Does he fit in your view, Brian? That is thick. No, that's perfect. A little bit. It is perfect, right? Yeah, 5'9", 5'10", 195 to 200.

That's a sweet spot, I think. I mean, you can do well outside of it, but historically speaking, that's a great place to be. And some of it, you can't control the height, but the weight, I think it's perfect. speaking, that's a great place to be. And some of it, you can't control the height, but the weight, I think it's perfect. I went to Justin's YouTube channel, and his first video is published on October 2015. And I really appreciate the fact that he hasn't erased it. And it's him doing a workout for some event. And the video opens at wait, how old did

you say you are? Did you say? Right now? I was 15. You're 15. So it's a 15-year-old Justin Medeiros. He already looks a little bit like a man-child, although. So the video starts, and the first thing you notice is it's a typical 15-year-old. He has some pimples. Eight seconds into the video, he adjusts his balls. And you don't actually see him adjust his balls but if you're a guy you know that movement like he went down there and gave it gave it yeah and froning was like notorious for that do you

remember that shit back in the day richard just be out there in the field he'd be on espn and he's fucking i don't know if he was moving his dick from the right to the left or peeling his balls off his leg but he would always do something uh then um he was in the teen division um in his first lift he he fails. And there's no collars and the weights are bouncing around and off. It's like some janky shit. And then about 30 seconds into the video, the camera person turns the iPhone sideways. So the whole rest of the video, you're looking like this.

And I'm like, this is – and then if you go to his most recent video, it looks like the buttery bros made it. I mean, it's, it's polished and sexy and lighting and slow-mos. And I just thought how cool that Justin didn't erase that video. Like you can see the evolution. Hey, got to show where it started. Were you tempted ever to erase it or did you know like, oh, this is so cool having this contrast?

No, man. I think I love it. I think that's one of the cool things about like Instagram too. Like I have like so many old videos of me like training back from 2015 and stuff. And I think it's so cool to like scroll back and like see it because you keep all that stuff on your camera roll, but then you get a new phone and like you might back it up to your computer, but you're never going to look at it again. And when you kind of have it on there, you can always see it.

And it's always a cool reminder on like those training days that get hard. You look back and you see something like that. It's just like a good laugh and it makes you appreciate a little bit more where you're at now. Where were you born? Lodi, California. Okay. And but you also have a home. You also travel to Idaho?

Yeah. So that's where I, uh, go to school, uh, Boise state. You're in school now. Yeah. Yeah. I have one more semester. I'm at summer break right now. So I'm, uh, not in school right at the moment, but yeah, one more semester. Next semester is my last one. Do you have a J O B also? No, no, just, uh, just training, which has been awesome. My family's been like, my parents are awesome. They just, as long as I'm dedicated, I wrestled in high school and stuff,

and I was planning on wrestling at Boise State. And they said as long as I was focused on doing that, they'll help support me. But they ended up canceling the wrestling program at Boise State the year I got there. So I just kind of moved into CrossFit, and they still honored what they said. And it's kind of been doing that since. I told myself I'll kind of do this until I'm done with college. And if it doesn't work out, I'll then go get a J-O-B. And what are you studying?

Kinesiology. Oh, wow. And do you like it? Yeah, man. It's awesome. Yeah, it's really enjoyable. It's kind of, I mean, I can relate to what I'm doing now. So that's the cool part about it.

Yeah, it's crazy applicable. What is the definition of kinesiology? Man, it's pretty much like the study of the body. I mean, that's what I, basic form of it. And how it moves, right? Yeah. Don't worry, we don't need to know. Someone will tell us in the YouTube comments.

Yeah, yeah. That's true. That's the only good thing about YouTube comments. Be nice, people. Be nice. So you've been in college for three years, and you have one semester left? I've been in four years, and I have one more semester. I took a semester off.

I had some family stuff going on. So I took a semester off, and I'll finish up next semester. And so now it's summer, and you're living at home with your mom and your dad. I'm living with my coach. Oh, wow. And where is that? Vancouver, Washington. Okay, and that's Adam Neifer?

Yeah, Neifer. Neifer. Sorry, Adam. It's funny. Adam's one of those faces you can never forget. I'm guessing I've met him in 2008. I mean, I definitely remember seeing his smiley, happy face. He's been there from 2008 all the way to 2018.

So, I mean, he's been around the sport for a while. Did he go to the games in 2008? I don't think he went. He was going to, but he was fighting fire. And then he went every year from 2009 to 2018, and they won it in 2010. Always on a team, Sevan. Yeah. Okay.

And tell me about why you moved in with him. How did that happen? Is this the first time you've lived with him, or is this something normal that you do as you approach the games in the past? Uh, I mean, this is the second year. The first time was last, uh, last summer, but, um, yeah, just, uh, long story short, I went to Boise. I had a, um, a personal coach when I traveled there back home from California. Um, I joined a gym, got really close with the owner, and he thought that my current coach wasn't doing a good job. He knew Adam from competing at the games with him. And they host like a like it's called the championship. Adam puts it on. It's kind of like a

Northwest partner comp, but it's pretty big. And he's done that. So he knew him and he got us connected. And Adam kind of said, the only way I'll work with you is if you can spend time up comp but it's pretty big and he's done that so we knew him and uh he got us connected and adam kind of said the only way i'll work with you is if you can spend time up here he doesn't like that kind of remote pro like coaching he feels like he can't help you that much unless he gets eyes on you and can actually work with you so uh that was in like march of 2019 like during the the when the open used to be in march then they switched it to October. And I got to school in May and just kind of drove up here and stayed for the summer. And that's Vancouver, Washington, right across the river from Portland?

Yep. Do you know Miranda and Julian? Mm-mm. The world headquarters for street parking is up there. Yeah, yeah. So my video guy, they said that my YouTube looks all fancy now, and he's the video guy for street parking is up there yeah yeah so uh the um my video guy they said that my youtube looks all fancy now he's uh the video guy for street parking oh wow you should connect with them they're good people yeah i've heard great things about them yeah they're great people

um and it's and it's a small and it's a it's not a big town is it or is it exploding with everyone fleeing california no it's growing a little bit, but it's still nothing like crazy. I mean, Portland's kind of like the big city type, and Vancouver's nice. It kind of gives you a good separation from Portland, so it's pretty nice. I like it a lot. How many miles is Lodi from San Francisco?

A hundred? I don't know, but probably like an hour and a half drive, an hour and 15 minutes, so it's not too bad unless you get traffic obviously but so you're let's say you're 100 miles uh inland from san francisco to describe lodi growing up in lodi what that was like lodi is a real small town i think everyone that's in lodi wants to get out of lodi it's uh it's just like a big farm town it's a bunch of wine grapes vineyards um small town i live like uh 20 minutes outside of town it's kind of like on five acres and um yeah it's a real hometown like every time i go back home i'm going out to a coffee shop or some place to get lunch

like you always run into someone you know it's just kind of like a good small town but dude it's grown a bunch in the past four or five years and in cows and horses and donkeys and all that stuff oh yeah all that good stuff and is there a drug problem in Lodi I know Stockton's a little rough no no that's uh that's a big Stockton thing uh we're right next door to it so I mean we had like the Diaz brothers and stuff like that but um yeah no that's uh it's a big Stockton thing Lodi is a lot more low key than, uh, how Stockton was,

but, um, it's a good little town. Have you ever seen or met the Diaz brothers? Uh, I went to one of their, uh, wrestling camps in high school.

Just, I really wanted to get good at wrestling, kind of got as much exposure as I can, but, um, not really nothing that they would remember me from. Did you ever smoke weed with them? Nope. Did you ever roll with them? Yeah, you did. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't really like rolling, but like, just kind of like getting like,

they showed me something kind of thing. I never actually sparred with them. I'd get my ass kicked. And do you, do you remember what they showed you? No, it's just like a simple, like, uh, just like shooting takedowns, uh, kind of just like body control and stuff like that. Wow, cool. And I saw on your Instagram you've met Daniel Cormier. Yeah, yeah. That was a while ago. I was like eighth grade, man.

Yeah, I did a wrestling camp. Or no, sorry, I did a wrestling tournament and he was just there. And I met him and then they did like his one of his wrestling coaches she owns like a program it was a girl a female and she uh had a wrestling camp called wrestling prep and it was super big so when she held like kind of big camps she knew a lot of those fighters and he would come down and uh help all of us out did you get a chance to interact with him much how what was he like dude he was awesome, man. He's just kind of one of those guys that loves the sport. I mean, it was like an eighth-grade wrestling tournament,

kind of local tournament, and he's just there kind of going around helping people out, taking pictures and stuff like that. So, yeah, just a super down-to-earth guy. Yeah, that's cool. And you have a sister. Two sisters. Okay. Older? Yeah, both of them. I think like 31 and 29,. Two sisters. Okay. Older? Yeah, both of them.

I think like 31 and 29, somewhere around there. Okay. So you were born in Lodi on five acres, two sisters. Are your parents together? Yep. Wow, this is so weird. This is the second person in a row whose parents are together. This is bizarre.

I think he's got one of the best support systems in CrossFit in terms of volume of people that travel the greatest distance. 100%. Second to none. I saw you had a picture on your Instagram of your parents at the ranch, and that was last year, right? Yep. Yeah, and that was awesome, dude. That was a cool story. I mean, just going from the last – like, obviously, every event at the ranch, we couldn't bring our coaches or anybody, so it was just, dude. That was a cool story. I mean, just going from the last, like obviously every event at the ranch, we couldn't bring

our coaches or anybody. So it was just the athletes. And then going to the last event, they said we could bring our coach and then one other person. And I'm sitting there like, frick, like, who do I pick? Like my mom or my dad? Like this is a, like this is impossible choice. And dude, Noah Olson was like, hey man like i i don't got anybody else here like

i'll tell him that your dad's with me and uh he can come down to the ranch so dude noah did that for me both my parents got to come there for the final event and uh obviously experienced that like hopping on the podium my rookie year like that was uh yeah something i'll never forget wait wow that is really cool of noah and that's he did that you know that story brian no and he did that for the guy that kept him off the podium ultimately that's that's pretty cool yeah dude he's yeah that's wrong with this sport what the fuck is wrong with this sport when connor lost he called poirier's wife a hoe and this guy's letting you hey bring your dad over he can be my coach uh yeah what was he he yelling at Noah the whole time?

You're fat. Slow down. You suck. That's really cool. Man, Noah's cool as shit. Yeah. Because I was wondering, I knew that they weren't letting people on the ranch. And when I saw that, I'm like, oh, shit, that's some home cooking.

Like, you probably did. You had to sweet talk Dave. But now it all makes sense. Dude, there was nothing that was going to keep my parents out of there anyways it was just nice that dave gave me okay because my parents would have found a way to make it on scene why did they even come down knowing that they couldn't get on like it was a four or five day event how many days was it event why did they even come down yeah i know it's just like it's just it's hard to explain if you don't know my family i mean they're going to be there no matter what know it's just like it's just it's hard to explain if you don't know my

family i mean they're gonna be there no matter what like they're just like the biggest support crew fans that like you could ever do like i get text messages every day from my mom be like hey like i wish i was there i'd help you cook you food i feel so helpless right now like let me know is there anything i can do for you and just uh she's just she she's willing to do everything like to make my situation the best i can be i mean she got there early she was like cooking me food and bringing it to the hotel um just trying to do everything she can to help me out like it's uh it's amazing uh having them there and they were able to watch some of the events because at the north or whatever that place was called people were able to line the fences yeah no they didn't think they're gonna

be able to go down there so i have some family that lives in the area too so they were just like they brought camping trailers and stuff and kind of posted up at the house and we're just kind of having a watch party there even they like drove all the way there to have the watch party there i don't know why but, but it was pretty cool. And then they could see from the live stream that people were watching through the fence. So then they booked it down there and kind of hang out and watch as much as they could through the fences. The guy with the mullet says his family came down with camping trailers. The picture is becoming more and more clear.

Of course they did. Coolers on wheels. Is your mom overprotective? I don't have to say overprotective, but definitely just super supportive. She'd literally do anything for me. So she's not up in your business when you don't want her to be. It's a healthy relationship. No, she's pretty good about that. She's pretty good about doing that. I know I had an interaction. I know this is the first time I've interacted with you,

but I know I've interacted with your mom before. And I said something about you somewhere that was a jab. Not like mean, but just fucking fuckery. And your mom and I had an an interaction and she was exceedingly polite like she could have taken it really uh poorly and she just wrote something like oh justin's a great boy or he's a hard worker or something like it must have been on instagram in the comments somewhere i'm pretty sure it was when i think i remember it because you like you like uh what'd you say it was something about me having numbers in my instagram name oh yeah yeah i was

making fun he was like what the fuck is going on more numbers yeah josh got numbers in his name too that's right and she could have been she could have been rude and instead she explained it to me like it was your football number or something yeah yeah pretty much and a lot of people told me that since i didn't play sports since i was was, you know, the, the, the fat kid who like during the presidential fitness exam hid in the bushes. I don't know any of that stuff, that number stuff. So, so you're raised by two older sisters and, um, you're on five acres. So basically you played outside a lot, right? Yep. And you were always in the dirt, climbing trees, chasing dogs. You could have as many friends over as you wanted. Oh, yeah.

And how old were you when you started getting, like, your parents started putting you, like, in sports and stuff, organized sports? Like, pretty much from the youngest age possible. I mean, I started out with just soccer, like, the youngest age possible. I think I did, like, t-ball and played like dodgeball like some basketball stuff like that when i was really young uh i took soccer like competitively when i was that age and then um i played soccer up until sixth grade and then i just like always wanted to play football my parents never let me and then finally let me try out in seventh grade i was starting to get like some size so i did. And then I started wrestling in fourth grade.

And then I switched to just football and wrestling starting my seventh grade year. By the way, I don't think they have dodgeball anymore. I think it's in vain. Yeah. I'm not joking. I think that's one of the things that the cancel culture got. Are you serious? Dodgeball?

Yeah. Dodgeball. Yeah. It's like it's racist or something. It's something. I know. that's one of the things that the cancel culture got are you serious dodgeball yeah dodgeball yeah it's like it's a it's racist or something it's something i know i read the articles and stuff like that yeah it's pretty um so tell me about wrestling fourth grade wrestling that's a city program uh yeah pretty much uh like it's like uh we have like two schools um one's called the lodi flames and one's like's the Tigers for high school. Then they both had a feeder program called the Fire Cats. This is like a wrestling program that feeded into the high school.

That's what I was pretty much wrestling with. Do you remember when you first started? Were you scared at all? Intimidated? Did you not want to touch the kids? My lawn's frozen. Can you hear me, though? That's strange.

He usually doesn't have any issues. I can see you guys. Slacking, man. My iPhone's freaking crushing me. How about better now? Do you hear me now? Oh, yeah. You're back.

Okay, yeah. I saw everyone froze up for a second. So in the fourth grade when you start wrestling, are you nervous? Are you scared? Do you cry your first match? Do you remember any of that stuff? It was terrible, man. If I met myself when I was a little kid, I would not like myself too much.

I was always super competitive and fairly athletic, I felt like. But I didn't know how to lose. And when I lose, I would quit a board game halfway through if I felt like I was going to lose. Just kind of like when I started wrestling, I think my first year I won like one match or something like that. And I cried after every match. It's super devastating that I was losing. I mean, it's a there's a lot different of a sport. I was in team sports and you got there and wrestle and it's like you versus this dude.

And when you lose, it's like like it's you lost. Like you can't blame it on anybody else like it's you out there plus you just got like physically beat by someone else like it wasn't like a mental game or anything like that so i had a hard time with that uh the first couple years but like to see like that progress like get better as years to come like you put in the work and then you see it like directly like happen on the mat and you start winning matches and like this physically dominating people was just like it was awesome to see that progression i think it was uh it was definitely helpful and i kind of shaped kind of who i like have become now well maybe you got it

all out of your system unlike half of your colleagues who makes it their favorite pastime to complain about judges programming and then they have the media pander to their oh i just find that funny man i've had i haven't been in the sport for too long but i've had some uh funny experiences with that uh with uh people blaming the judges or blaming the the programming and things like that yeah man at ireland it was terrible dude and all the athletes had a lot of uh comments to make about some of the programmed workouts. And me and Adam were just sitting there just like, dude, like, you really think you're going to talk them out of changing this whole workout? Like, that's what it is.

It's like everyone's got the same rules. Like, it's still fair. Like, just do the work. It was with the sandbag. We had the, I don't know if you were watching that event, it was a instead of sandbag toss it was sandbag like for distance so you like picked it up and threw it backwards but they like said once you picked up the bag off the ground you couldn't like regroup your feet if that makes sense so you can like lap it on your knees and people thought that was like the dumbest standard. Like we're

going to blow out our knees because our knees will be pinched in and all this stuff. And it was like a big ordeal there. And obviously the rope climb stuff too, but it was just like, that is a, that is a pretty crazy standard, but I want to focus more on your coach about how your coach didn't buy into it. I had this friend, I've had many friends like this who they're fighters and like you go to a bar or something and they get drunk and they bump into someone in a fighting buy into it. I had this friend, I've had many friends like this, who they're fighters. And like you go to a bar or something and they get drunk and they bump into someone in a fight ensues. And their girlfriends will like instigate the fight. Or if someone disrespects their girlfriend, they'll try to get their boyfriend fight. Let me tell you people, if you have someone like that,

or a coach like that, who instead of like trying to like, just breathe through the situation, but they're exacerbating it and feeding into your negativity that's not a good person you don't want a wife who's trying to like get you to fight at a bar you want a wife that's like hey let's just go home and watch netflix instead like um that's awesome to hear adam was like that yeah i mean he's uh yeah he doesn't really take any excuses or anything like that and he's always i don't know if you ever had a conversation with him but he's like one of the most positive people that like you've ever met. So kind of when you're around them,

like it's just like, like you are who you spend, like you're the sum of the five people you spend your most time with. And like being around him like 24 seven, I mean, I live at his house. I'm with him at the gym and everything like that. Like it's a,

he's like feed off that energy. Maybe that's why Colton Mertens is so good he hangs out with 15 000 pigs all day who fucking are on the edge of their death at any second right and so he's just in complete fucking survival mode and that's what makes him such a fucking animal and maybe that's why you're always smiling because you're on adam by the way i've never seen a picture of adam i've never been around him when he isn't smiling i mean you nailed it yeah what's his uh training still like is he still pretty good does he throw down with you ever dude man he's an animal man he's kind of like uh turned his like focus but

like he's been doing like these like have you ever heard of adventure races dude it's like it's like 400 miles like long like five day time cap and it's like four time and there's like three modalities it's like running biking and like a water aspect and like dude it's nuts like he goes on like these ultra runs and then like his training for it still crossfit like he does he does like he programs obviously for the gym he does the workout every day and then kind of on the weekends he'll go on like longer runs and stuff like that man the dude's nuts he can't sit still he's always uh he's always working towards something do you ever go with him brian brian i made this oh sorry go ahead oh dude i he does all my running workouts with me that's the only time he hops in if it's like running and he thinks he can beat me

in it so uh it's always a good push and stuff like that. I could just see the scenario. He thinks he can beat me. I like that he thinks. I could just see the scenario where he's like, hey, man, I'm doing a 20 miler on Saturday. And you're like, all right, I'll do the first two and then I'll see you later. Yeah, I'll meet you at the end. I made this movie many years ago.

It's called Desert Runners. I made this movie many years ago. It's called Desert Runners, and it was about people who ran across the four hardest climate conditions in the world. It was in the Sahara, Antarctica, somewhere in China. God, the name of the desert. And then whatever that crazy desert. The Gobi. Is it the go and then and then the crazy one in uh chile where it hasn't ever they claim it's never rained ever there in the history of the earth whatever

desert that is but it was fucking nuts they had to carry everything it was a five-day race and they were only allowed to run with all they could have all their food everything they had to run with in their backpack hey yeah it was nuts but they didn't do the swimming or biking it wasn't like it was just basically just running there were hills obviously a mountain still not like just going like that long is like crazy like when he did it he's like his plan because he's never done one before and he like signed up for the hardest one like it was already called like the hardest race in america like the one he the first one he signs up for because there's like intermediate ones that are like two day time caps and stuff it It's not just five day one.

And his goal going in was to like, yeah, we're just going to do this without sleeping for like five days. And I'm like, what? But like, he made it through the five days with like, like three and a half hours of sleep in five days.

Like you're just moving. Remember the name of it? Uh, it's like, let's say it's like exhibition. They did it in Bend, uh, bend uh organ okay someone will put it in the youtube comments yeah it's always good to leave some blank spots so that the audience can participate so what did you what would your parents say to you when you would cry when you

would like be on a mat and lose a match and throw a temper tantrum what would your what would they say to you they're just like like i just kind kind of like try to calm me down and just like, like one of like the things that's kind of like transferred. And now it's just like, you can't like look at it as like a winner loss. You got to like kind of reflect on your own, like, like how did you perform in that match? Like that like guy might've been wrestling for four or five years and like, he's just more skilled than you. And like you lost,

you might've wrestled to the best of your ability like had the best performance possible but that guy just like outright beat you and like like there's nothing you can do about that when you did like everything you're supposed to do did it right but that guy just beat you like it's a hard pill to swallow but like like you did everything right and then just kind of like focusing on that like okay like i gotta go out there and like do my match like run my race and like do what i can and like acquire those skills so when the time comes like i'm that guy that's out there and like it turned into like the only times i got really frustrated is when like i had the mess up like i did something i knew i wasn't supposed to do or i knew i could have beat that guy and i had some type of mess up or whatever it was like

didn't have a smart decision and uh just kind of like really like focusing it back on myself and not like you can't really control like what that guy's gonna do just focus on what you can have the best game plan be the best prepared like like i can control how fit i am like like how conditioned i am and how well i know my moves i can't control what moves this guy's gonna do and when i can just like control how prepared i'm gonna be and and they talk to you like this even in the fourth grade yeah i mean obviously it wasn't like so like in depth about that he's like you can't be mad about like a loss that you just like like you're still learning you're getting better like

you like you did this well like it's kind of put on things i did well and like things i can like work on but yeah i mean they're the biggest support group i mean they went to every wrestling match i mean weigh-ins sometimes like at five in the morning we got to wake up at three in the morning drive two hours this tournament like both my parents were there like every single time i mean it was uh yeah it was awesome like knowing that like they're behind me 100 like win or lose and they were there for each match like it just made it like super fun and that much easier to go um it's interesting you said you were how old were you did you say 25 me right now yeah 22 22 so it's interesting how much you appreciate this now at 22, which I don't think a lot of 22 year olds would appreciate. But man, dude, when you're 42, you're going to even appreciate it even more.

It's going to like as you like as you have kids, it's going to blow your mind how good your parents were. You're going to be. Yeah. Holy shit. Yeah. That's literally like just like yeah that's that's literally like just like what it's been like just even i mean obviously i got a long ways to like grow and learn but like just some of the things i like looking back on my mom and my dad did for me

when i was little i was just like man like i was freaking lucky to have that i don't think most people appreciate that at 22 that's awesome um the reason why i was asking is my son's six and he's going to his first jiu-jitsu tournament next week or in two weeks and when i told him we were going i could see just tears well up in his eyes i was like okay this is uh we're two weeks out and i told him and my heart broke for him because i'm scared for him too. Yeah. Like, like I'm nervous too. Like, uh, I'm a creature of habit and like, and, but, um, basically what happened was, is one of the other parents took, um, uh, my son Avi has this kid, Kieran in his class and they're kind of like nemesises.

They kind of go back and forth. They're the two, they're like at the same level. Right. Yeah. And this kid, um, and it's cool. And the, the, the Kieran's mom and dad are amazing and we always joke around and yell moves for the kids to do in the class even though i don't know what i'm talking about and uh job this this kid and we'll tell each other the the other dad josh and i will be like

hey shut your mouth no you shut your mouth and then eventually even the jiu-jitsu instructor garth taylor the guy who owns the place like hey you two quiet and uh but he took his son Kieran to a jiu-jitsu tournament a few months ago and his in his son came back at just a different creature yeah man it's one event yeah I mean you just like it like it puts you in a situation where you got to learn on your own like when you're out in the match like no one's gonna come out there and like save you so you got to kind of like find that like willpower to like kind of grow uh like while you're out there i mean it was uh i was a completely different person like after like going through wrestling and kind of having that whole experience i think it was one

of the most valuable things i think i've done this kid probably doubled his speed in his transitions from move to move to move like normally when he would spar with avi he was so slow in his transitions and it would just open up holes for Avi to then execute his moves. And then he went to the tournament and he's not like that anymore. He went from like a turtle to a grasshopper. I mean, it was just crazy.

Is it like that in CrossFit? If you go to a, like I noticed you've been going to competitions since you've been so young. Do you get that growth at competitions also? It's funny. I haven't thought of this now. I always hear Brian talk about the importance of experience you get in competitions,

and it doesn't resonate with me. When he says it, it sounds like a talking point. But now that I'm sitting here talking about the jiu-jitsu tournament, is it like that for CrossFit comps? Do you get better just by going along? Oh, yeah. Yeah yeah yeah no for sure i mean it's like it's just hard to replicate like uh like the competition setting like uh there's just so many like the the adrenaline that you're feeling and like going into the match like you

have like so many different emotions like you're scared like you're super excited like you're nervous like just like all these rush of emotions that are going through. And then to kind of have to go out there and execute on everything you've been doing is a whole different experience. Plus going against someone. You can do it as much as you want in training. You can say that you're going hard and replicating this as much as you want. But it's just not the same. You can do the same workouts on your own at the gym, but then you do it in competition. Like no matter what you say, like you just go faster.

Like you hear that from everybody. Like, oh yeah, I tested this workout. I went out there and I went a minute and a half faster or whatever it was. Like, it's just like, it's crazy. And you learn so much. Like, that's why like you want to compete. And that's what sucked about COVID the last year.

Like I had some competitions like spread out where I want to go and test myself and see where I'm at against everybody and uh and that's like what's awesome about competitions that you get pointed out weaknesses that you never even knew you had so it's it's just like such a big learning experience like if you can walk away from a competition being like oh wow like that's something I got to work on it's like good like heck, you have a direction to go now, like in your programming. If you went to a competition, everything went well. And it's like, well, you didn't really learn anything.

Like, what are you going to do now? So yeah, dude, like this competing is super helpful. So you're doing sports. Were you good in school? Were you a good student? Yeah, I mean, I wasn't like at the top of my class or anything, but I always had good grades. I mean uh it wasn't anything special but like uh i got like a like this movie scholarship going to um like going into college and it pretty much makes you pay

in-state tuition and it kind of just comes from having like an sat score that's pretty good and having a good gpa throughout um high school and then you have to keep a certain gpa throughout college to let it roll over every year so i mean my parents didn't let me do anything unless my grades were up so and in high school how did you wrestle all the way through to your senior year i'm assuming yeah and how good did you get um i it's it's different between every state um like making it to the state tournament in california is like a pretty big deal like if you uh are at like a tournament during like the regular season like they'll announce you as like hey this is a current like state qualifier even if you went to state and you lost like it's still like a big deal in california like other states like

kind of everyone goes to state and there's like four state tournaments but california just has one but um my school is never the best at wrestling i think we when we have like two guys like in the history of our school go to state um and i made it my junior and senior year i almost made it to the podium round i lost the round before um i was never a great wrestler i think i was just very well conditioned and And like my matches were super simple. I had a couple moves that I was really good at. And like my matches were always like three, four, two, three, like just kind of like outworked people in kind of the third period. And that's just kind of how I went about it.

Wow. Have you heard of CrossFit? It sounds like it's for you. Yeah. And where did CrossFit come into your life, and how did it come into your life? It came in in seventh grade. So I was pretty young, same when I started football and stuff like that. But my mom and my sister found it just through one of their friends started it, dragged them into it. And my mom was doing it, and she loved it.

She's like, like oh you should come try it out like you're like you'll have so much fun like she knew i'm super competitive and like she thought i'd really like like the atmosphere at the gym and i was she was telling me yeah it's like you go there it's an hour class you warm up we did a workout and like it was like seven minutes or something like that cooled down and left and i'm like you went and worked out in seven minutes like that's not a thing. I'm training with the high school team right now for wrestling. And we're hitting the gym for an hour and a half, two hours, lifting weights and all these things.

I'm like, seven minutes? It's ridiculous. And I didn't go for a couple months. And she finally dragged me in there and just kind of fell in love with it. I didn't do it year-round. But over the summer, I did it. Saturday classes, just kind of went in and in love with it. I didn't like do it year round, but like over the summer, I did it Saturday classes, just kind of went in and had fun with it and kind of, uh, yeah, it was always awesome. Which by the way, is the prescription that, uh, Ben Bergeron talked about

several years ago for someone who's a middle school high schooler that wants to be good at CrossFit when they're in their twenties or a little late 20s even is uh supplement your sports with some crossfit training as you can yeah yeah i think uh being in sports is like super important like like i pride myself in being like athletic so there's something i can't do like i want to learn like just like learn how to juggle ride a unicycle just like want to do all these things like i hate when someone points something out and i can't do it like this really frustrates me and like to have that like coordination i think is a super help like i think there's some crossfit athletes out there that like can't throw a football kind of thing and it's uh it's pretty comical that they're like some of the fittest

people in the world but like they can't throw or catch a football or kick a ball or something like that so are you ambidextrous i think having that coordination super are you are you ambidextrous can you use your right and left hand can you throw with both uh i've been trying to uh i have a ball that me and my friend used to play like left-handed catch just uh try to get better i mean nothing compared to my right hand but uh it's super weird like the mental coordination that that like takes like you sit there like okay that's my right hand you sit there like, okay, that's my right hand. You sit there like point the shoulder, then throw with your left hand.

It's like, it's a, it's super fun to do. Do you, do you know how to ride a unicycle? Yeah. And do you know how to juggle? Yeah,

dude, it's honestly a class project. We had to learn how to juggle. And I was like, heck yes. Like I am learning from this. Uh, it was like,

uh, you only get 30 tries a day, like 30 attempts a day and have to document it. And you do it for five days in a row. But then I learned how to juggle. What class was that? It was one of my kinesiology classes, just like an elective. It was like a one or two credit class.

But it was like it was so much fun. Just kind of like it was like about like learning how people learn kind of stuff like that. So I forgot what the name of the class was. But like it's super fun kind kind of stuff like that so i forgot what the name of the class was but like it's super fun kind of doing stuff like that like yeah it was really cool we like uh we did stuff like one person would like listen to someone telling them how to draw something and one person would like watch a video with no sound and then try to draw it it was just like a bunch of different ways about visual learning audio learning and stuff like that. But yeah, definitely had some fun classes. Yeah, that sounds cool. And I didn't even, I would hear terms like that visual audio learning,

the difference, blah, blah, blah, all through, you know, growing up. And I just thought it was just nonsense. And then I had, I have kids and I have one kid who's a visual learner and it's crazy. In some settings, he looks like he's slow and then in the visual settings with flash cards he destroys everybody i'm like oh shit i guess this shit's real yeah yeah it's nuts um so you so you went to state and um were your your sisters did you did you fight with them a lot growing up did they beat you up and did you wrestle a lot at home with them and no i actually didn't which was like the they were a lot older than me so like i felt like by the time i got into like fifth or sixth grade they were like moved out of the house kind of thing so luckily i got like a i got really close with one of my

best friends in like first grade and he had two older brothers and i'd go over there and like uh dude they just pick on me all the time like it was it was like some of the best things that happened for me like now but like i'd call my mom like 10 at night when i went to spend the night like can you come pick me up they're being mean to me and stuff like that and uh it just kind of like gave me a hard time uh he was the one that got me into wrestling and his older brothers wrestled so like they just pick on me when they're playing dodgeball they just like team up against me and like freaking yeah it was just like it was it was such good stuff and uh like when like we like would get like arguments and stuff his mom would send us outside with like boxing gloves but we only had like one pair

so like you'd be like four rounds i have my left you have the right and then like switch and yeah like so just like a bunch of fun stuff like that. And, uh, I'll never forget the day. It was like, he like graduated left and he like came back and then like, I finally like got some size on me and started to get better at wrestling and stuff like that. And, uh, kicked his ass. So I was pretty pumped up about that. But we're good friends now. Can you turn to the side for a second? I see your profile. Do you have a big nose? Big nose? I don't, I don't think so. No one says you have a big nose big nose yeah i don't i don't think so no one says i have a big nose no it's the glasses whenever i like if i wear style glasses like that people will make fun of me like being like oh look he's wearing the glasses with the nose on it but i'm like does this motherfucker got a big nose what made me think of that is i was actually just thinking yesterday like of all the stuff people used to make fun of me about growing up and like, and not just me, everyone got made fun of, right? It was just, you're too short, seven 11, your nose is big. And it, and I was like, man, it's crazy. I wouldn't trade any of that in for the world. Like it was like, it's all good for you. Yeah. It's like what it's like. And you nailed it. Like going over to his house, you call your mom. Yeah, that's okay.

It's like, and you nailed it. Like going over to his house, you call your mom. Yeah, that's okay. But now that shit is, I always hear this stuff about no bullying. And don't get me wrong. We had some bullies at the school and it sucked. Like the guy who doesn't want to go home because his dad's going to beat him. So he hangs out just like where all the kids walk by after school and he's just whooping everyone's ass.

That shit sucked a little bit. Yeah. It was a little terrifying. But yeah, those things when you go to your friend's house and you have to wrestle the older brother and like those are important for sure there's been a lot there's been a lot of times where i felt like i almost got the short end of the stick by being the oldest brother because all my friends that are the middle or younger brother always they got just got tougher naturally by dealing with the bullshit from the older one and And I was the one that was doing that to my younger brother. So now he's way tougher than me. When you get picked on enough, eventually you have to stand up for yourself.

It's not a bad thing. Yeah. Are you good at saying, are you, do you, have you gone through the lesson in life where you, you have to say no, you have to learn to say no to people.

Do you know how to say no to people? I did. You do. Oh yeah. Do you remember when you learned that? I mean, I think like, I mean, I don't know what kind of situation you're talking about, but like, you have to learn to say no to people do you know how to say no to people i did you do oh yeah do you remember when i mean i think like uh i mean i don't know what kind of situation you're talking about but like uh in college like drinking and partying is like such a big thing and like having to like say no all the time like i'm living with three college guy roommates that's want to like

party and they're having people over there i'm like dropping them off and like just going straight home and uh just like say no every time to like dropping them off and like just going straight home and, uh, just like say no every time to like go out and drink. Like I got training the next day, like, or whatever it is. But it's just like a, it's a skill. I think like you learn it, then you get good at it. And then it's like, it's nothing anymore. So, uh, yeah, I think that's just kind of where I'm not afraid to say no to anybody.

Just kind of do what I want. That's amazing. I don't think I had that skill until I was late in my 30s. I just wanted to just please everyone, just do whatever. But it ends up being bad for everyone. Yeah. It's not good for anyone. So when do you realize you're good at CrossFit?

How old are you? If you start in the seventh grade, when do you realize you're good? By the way, we interviewed Zach Watts yesterday. He qualified from the Mid-Atlantic also, and he took fifth. And his mom introduced him to CrossFit. Oh, that's awesome. Or it was his mother-in-law, something like that. But it was basically a very similar story.

It's cool to hear that. Yeah, dude. He was a really cool dude. He seemed cool. But maybe doesn to hear that. Yeah, dude. He was a really cool dude. He seemed cool. Yeah. But maybe doesn't have the eye of the tiger. Too nice. Maybe too nice.

What do you think, Brian? Too nice? Zach Watts? I don't know. He's a strong guy, though. The verdict is out for Zach Watts still. We haven't had enough chance to see him compete. We need one more interview to see if we can find that dark side.

Plus, we just need to watch him. We need to watch him at the end of the month. Right. When did you get good, Justin? When were you like, okay, I'm actually pretty good at this CrossFit stuff? When did it kind of start taking over your life where you were in the gym every day, the CrossFit gym? The thing was, I didn't really realize that i was good at it until after ireland like to like be honest like i was just kind of like i like everything i did like i just i do it

with like 100 effort like i'm not gonna half-ass anything that i do so like when i was playing football like i'm always training football on the weekends like outside of practice getting friends together running routes like doing all that stuff same thing with wrestling going to wrestling camps do that and i'm doing crossfit like i've got a wrestling practice and then after i would go to the gym uh and then like i had also a gym at my house where i would do some more stuff like i was just i always was very dedicated to like being like getting better and i wouldn't really have like an end goal like competing or anything like that but uh when a competition came up i would do it and uh just kind of going into ireland that was like my fun competition of the year i was like

dude it'd be awesome go to ireland never been i'm gonna bring my whole family it was like right before thanksgiving break so i had like a week off of school i was like i'm just gonna hang out in ireland have a good time and actually like ended up winning it, which was like not on my radar at all. And my coach said things like, dude, have you ever like thought about like just competing in a CrossFit, like just doing that? And I was like, never crossed my mind. Like I just kind of viewed it as something I'm going to train for,

like as a sport until I was done with college and then just move on, get a job do whatever and uh he told me that he introduced me to like loud and live uh like all those awesome people just kind of started making connections and this past year and a half it's like full go seven before we go he says that he didn't realize he was good until um until until ireland but he'd already done some other competitions prior to then that he actually did pretty well at. I mean, he went to regionals twice before that,

and is still maybe even as a high schooler, or just finishing high school. But then you did complete at Wadapalooza and Granite Games the previous year, and you basically were like one implement away from winning Granite Games potentially. What do you mean by that one implement,rian sorry one second justin hold on one second i gotta decode some brian so what do you mean one implement like there was something there he wasn't good at like handstand push-ups or something ask him yeah was that it was the last event right yeah man it was uh it was rough i mean

it was this so i started working with Adam in 2019, right after the Open. So that was in March. Started training with him in April. And then Granite Games was in May. So I only had like two months with him. And I just did Guadalupe a month before that. I got like 18th place, like nothing special. And I was going into Granite Games like, dude, I just want to be better than 18th.

Like it's a similar competition. I just want to improve. And I was going in the last workout and a qualifying spot to go to the games i'll sit in second behind travis mayor oh travis mayor the name that needs to be said in every podcast thank you yeah and brent fikowski brent fikowski was in third and uh yeah i went in and dude i just remember like the buttery bros came up to me and they're like hey man like you're in a qualifying spot to go to the games. Like, how do you feel about all this stuff? And, like, dude, nerves hit, started puking, like, all this stuff.

And went into the last event. And it was rope climbs and sandbag cleans. And just got buried on the sandbag cleans, man. And it was an experience that, like, I get, like, chills thinking about it. I remember Brent standing there. Like, he was just yelling at me. He's like, dude, it's going to be I get chills thinking about it. I remember Brent standing there. He was just yelling at me. He's like, dude, it's going to be worth it. Go.

Because he finished, blew through the workout and just yelling at me, telling me to go harder, go faster. And I was giving it everything I had. And I missed it by like four points. Two things that stand out to me. That's really cool to hear Brent did that. What a great thing. That's a great line. It's going to be worth it. And tell me about this puking. Yeah, I get real nervous, uh, before events and stuff like that. I mean, just like

you train like so hard all the time and you come to this moment where it's like every, all your training is going to be reflected on this moment right here and just like you start thinking about all that stuff and i'm trying to stay calm and just get like those butterflies in your stomach that uh make me a little bit nervous does anything actually come up oh yeah wow and where do you do that what if like you're in the what if you're at the games and you're in the corral like where do you do that you just lean over find some bushes or yeah did it regionals that's a really good sign you know who else does that right no mr frazier pukes i don't know if that's a good thing to have in common but i don't know there's a great

there's a great clip somewhere in one of the behind the scenes where um i'm talking to uh scott and josh and and matt's there too and they're getting ready to go down onto the floor somewhere in one of the behind the scenes where, um, I'm talking to, uh, Scott and Josh and, and Matt's there too. And they're getting ready to go down onto the floor in Madison. And you see kind of Matt peel away and go into the bushes. And I ask, and I go, Hey, what do you think Matt's doing over there? And Josh says he's crying because he just, he realized he's the only one here who still, still lives at home with his parents or something like that. Josh says something funny like that, but really that became became that became you haven't noticed that before every event matt'll start doing these yawning things and bringing his hand to his mouth and then if you ask him about it he's

like dude i'm about to fucking lose my shit everything's about to come up yeah i go when does that go away he goes the second we start i was like yeah Yeah. Does it go away for you the second you start too? Yeah, man. I think, yeah, dude, it was, I remember the first time I went to regionals and like Joss Bridges is there and it was a version of Murph. It was like a 1200 meter run

and then it was like three rounds of handstand pushups, pull-ups and pistols or something like that. And like fricking running next to joss bridges i was losing it i'm like i've never met anybody before i'm like doing a workout next to freaking joss bridges i'm like this is insane but like now i puked before that got out there like face was pale white but uh just like just kind of like i think that's something you just got to learn something that you kind of like got to handle embrace and like stay calm in that moment like you know that's going to be there so it's like stay calm with it but uh this is so did that happen in wrestling well go you can answer that you can answer

brian says you can answer that justin um did you used to puke in wrestling no i i never really puked uh too much in wrestling definitely got nervous it was it was a lot different of like a buildup. You know what I mean? No, I don't. It's different. There's like, I don't know. It's hard to explain.

Like you go in like, yeah, it's just different. It's hard to explain. I mean, there's not like a huge crowd. There's like tons of other mats going on. Like you kind of do your own warmup. You can stay warm. You're just like doing shadow, like shadow wrestling and stuff like that. And you kind of do your own warm-up you can stay warm you're just like like doing shadow like shadow wrestling stuff like that and you kind of get out and go and like you have like this time to kind of like it's a long build-up before you go so you can like kind of stay calm

move around and then but then like with CrossFit walking out into a competition for like I feel like everything's just like magnifying glass on you and it's so so focused. And plus it was something I've never done before. Like I've always competed in wrestling. It was something I was comfortable with. And now I'm going out to like, I mean, I don't know if you've ever seen like what the West Coast Regional was. Like that venue. Like it was like, it was just something I've never been in before. It was nuts.

You were at the West Coast, the one in Del Norte. Yeah, two years. I went when it was the California Regional in 2017, and then I went in 2018. So that's another one. All three of us were actually at that one. When they combined the two. Yeah, I was at both of those. Yeah, I think I met Brian there for the first time, right?

Is that where we met the first time, Brian? We were at Albany the week before, so the second time. But these types of stories that he's telling are exactly the things that i'm referring to when i say that competition experience is valuable and so even in this case we see he said i didn't realize i was good until ireland but already he had these experience at granite games already he had these experiences at regionals and at guadalupalooza where the the results and performances are whatever they are, but all these other things, the being next to a guy that you looked up to, that you respect, that you're like, damn,

I never thought I'd do a workout next to Josh Bridges. You have to get over that. If that's something that's in your psyche when you're doing it, then there's some amount of your performance that's going to not be optimal because you're thinking about other things. So you have to learn those lessons. Everyone's got a different experience, but it's really rare to show up the first time and get over all those things so quickly

that you can then execute. Yeah. Did Josh talk any shit to you? He's kind of a world-class shit talker. No, dude, but he was awesome. I remember going into the triple threes. I think this was 2018. It was the 3,000 meter road, 300 double unders

and a three mile run or something like that. And we're sitting there in the shoot and he's like, dude, are you wearing Metcons? And I was like, yeah. He's like, has like his nice Nike running shoes on. And he's like, you're really going to run in those? And I'm like, dude, the only shoe that I got that doesn't give me blisters. Like this is what I'm wearing. He's I'm sponsored by Nike I would not run in those oh damn just like this kid giving me heck I mean he was awesome though I started talking to him he's talking about his kids and wrestling and uh talked about how I wrestled he was super nice and uh he went out on that event and me and him were the first two guys on the runner and uh like my family's like oh you got him and it's like i like sprinted the first 400 meters of a three mile run thinking that like like it was so jacked i'm like dude i'm in first place right now against josh bridges like let's go i died out and stuff like that but it was uh yeah it's just like he was super cool like, later on that, I didn't make the final heat. And, like, they do, like, male, male, then female, female, then the final heat of female, final heat of male.

And I was, like, went and got, like, my sign and stuff after. And I was, like, standing just, like, by myself trying to watch the final heat to see, like, who made it. And this lady walks up to me, like, oh, my gosh, like like you did so well this weekend it was so much fun watching you like my son's out there competing like it was just he's like don't tell him but like i was secretly rooting for you a little bit and i was like oh that's awesome like i was like who's your son she's like oh josh bridges and i'm like i like lost it it was uh it was super cool like his whole family is super nice. His mom sounded amazing.

But yeah, it was a really cool experience. That was a stacked field. Are you in a relation? Yeah, that was a good one. Are you in a relationship with anyone, Justin? Yeah. And is that the girl that's on your Instagram? Yeah.

Because she hasn't made an appearance in like 95 weeks or something. On what? She hasn't made an appearance on your Instagram in a long time, so I thought maybe you guys broke up or something. No, dude, she just made this past one. She did? Yeah, like two posts ago. God, I must have not done my homework so good.

It was a video. Oh, okay. Maybe that's why I didn't see it. Okay. Okay, that's fair. Oh, yeah, with the toes. That little toe thing. Oh, okay. Maybe that's why I didn't see it. Okay. Okay. That's fair. Oh, yeah, with the toes. Yeah, a little toe thing. That's right. That's right. That's right.

Okay, that's fair. That could have been a good cover picture of her toes instead of you in the tie-down. I didn't want all these guys getting too excited, man, looking at her feet and stuff. The toe guys? Yeah, the foot fetish is like the number one fetish. the toe guys and he'd foot fetish is like the number one fetish what's the what's the key to um a successful relationship when someone is as dedicated as you are i think you said it in a post when you were very very young which is when you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe then you will be successful that cannot be um i don't want to say easy, but that's not normal

being in a relationship with someone that's like a unique experience to be with someone who's in that situation. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I know for sure. It's definitely something that like definitely had some like hard times like doing that. But, uh, it's kind of like being like blatantly clear. Like I was like, Hey, like this is my number one priority. And every decision I make is going to be, is this going to help me or not? Because my motivation behind that is I don't want to step on the starting mat at the CrossFit Games and look back and be like, fuck, I shouldn't have done that. Or I just want to step on that starting mat and just have no question and be like, hey, I am the most prepared for this moment as I possibly can be. And whatever happens happens happens now. Like I just had to go out there and execute, but you don't want to be sitting there thinking about, fuck, I shouldn't have stayed up till midnight that night.

Should have watched all those movies with you. Shouldn't have drove and see you this day. Like, uh, whatever it is. And just kind of like be blatantly clear, like, Hey, like when it's, it's competition time, like this is, uh, this is my number one focus. And just kind of being like honest with that, like, uh, like that's how I'm going to make my decisions. And I'm sorry if that kind of affects us in a certain way, but like, like that's going to be my decision. What, when I remember being a boy and like, before I would go to sleep, let's say I got in trouble with my mom or before I went to school in the morning, let's say I was fucking around and I wasn't getting ready. My mom would yell at me or whatever. I remember always that when like, I would have all this anxiety about falling asleep while my mom was angry at me or

all this anxiety about going to school, like, like with just some bad blood in the house. But my mom was so good at it. Like if she'd drive me to school, I'd be just in trouble the whole way there. And then I'd get out of the car and she'd go, I want you to know, I love you. You have a good day. Don't worry about it. And i would be like oh she just like took this emotional and psychological leash off of me and i just fucking loved her so much for that like she didn't keep me on the hook and that's hard in a in a young relationship at 22 years old to be like to you have to be extremely extremely humble to to be to be with someone who's, who's to go out with someone like Justin Medeiros, but the rewards are enormous.

You have a front row seat to someone who is giving something their all. I mean, it's, I don't mean to make it sound shallow or so transactional cause it's not, but we only have one life and it's as much as she gives you is as much as she'll get in return. Yeah. It's just different. It's like apples and oranges. But man, having a front row seat to someone's life like what you're doing will have a tremendous impact to everyone who gets a front row seat.

Yeah, and I appreciate that. But I love what you said. I have vivid memories, but like the opposite, like I've had like arguments with my mom or my dad and I'm all mad and I go sit in my bed and I'm all pissed off. And then he's got those like terrible thoughts. Like you never want like the last conversation you had with someone to be a bad one. So like, we just made a thing, like no matter what, every night, like I love you. you good night like to my parents to like my sisters every time i call yeah like any family member like when i hang up the phone it's like hey

i love you have a great day bye or whatever have a good night and like just that's just how it is when i call like my grandma my grandpa like my sisters parents like girlfriend anything it's just like i just want them to know that like i love them i appreciate them and like this every time you never know and you don't want to think that way but uh you just you never know when the last time's gonna be so just uh kind of like really appreciate all those moments um was your household a peaceful household yeah yeah that was awesome i mean my grandparents i lived on five acres and my grandparents lived on five acres behind me like just, just kind of grew up on like both those houses. My parents at work, I just like walk over to my grandparents, like make jello, like just kind of have a good time and hang out and cook some oatmeal and grandpa put me to work and all that stuff. So it was always a good time. It's amazing. There's so many, um, great successful stories of people who have, and the one commonality is that they have their parents around them. So

basically you grew up on 10 acres and is your grandpa still alive? No, he, he, he passed away just, uh, like six months ago. And, um, I noticed he makes some, he made several appearances on your Instagram. Was that hard for you? Yeah, man. It was definitely really hard. That semester I took off of school, my dad had a really bad accident. And I really think not everything happens for a reason. But when bad shit happens, you can find the good part of it. And COVID happened.

School got put online. And my dad had a really bad fall where we didn't know if he was gonna make it or not so i dropped everything uh i was here training with adam i uh left drove home uh dropped out of school for that semester and like stayed home but like like to help my dad out and uh but huge bent my grandpa was super sick at the time too but like since i was home taking care of my dad i got to spend an extra the last six months benefit my grandpa was super sick at the time too but like since i was home taking care of my dad i got to spend an extra the last six months of my grandpa's life like with him every day so uh like just like kind of find like the light in the situation like having

covid i could i like got to go home got to spend time with my dad my grandpa and all that stuff so So it was, yeah. Was it your dad's dad? Yeah. And how old was he? I want to say like in his 70s. Did he smoke? No, he had a, like he had a liver problem. He had a liver transplant like eight years ago. So he couldn't really like drink anymore. He used to drink a lot before I was born.

And then he had a bad liver. So I never knew that side of him. But because he had to be sober so he got the liver transplant it says it'll last another four years then he ended up making it eight more years and then he got this uh i forgot what type of cancer it was it was nothing super serious but since he had a liver they couldn't give him the right treatment for him because then it would kill his liver so uh he did like some experimental stuff and gave him an extra couple of years and he ended up like kind of just passing away. It was peaceful and it was nice, but it's never hard. It's always hard to like lose someone like that.

Was he the first person that you've known to pass away? I had a really close friend pass away in like sixth grade. And that's kind of the two big ones, I think. Wow. In the sixth grade. Yeah. It was like my sister's best friend. He was kind of like an older brother.

And he had terminal cancer. He like dropped out of high school like when he was a freshman. And just kind of like he knew he was going to go. And it's kind of like a long time. He had like the Make-A-Wish Foundation and it's kind of like a long time. Yeah. Like to make a wish foundation and all that stuff. And that was really, really hard too. I was a lot younger obviously at the time. And then, uh, yeah, I met grandpa. Yeah. That's some intense shit to process. My grandpa died when I was in the seventh grade. I saw him a lot, but he did,

seventh grade i i saw him a lot but he did but we didn't speak a lot but i remember it being like really traumatic yeah like i couldn't get my head wrapped around the fact that he was gone but i guess you were in your 20s it's a little more this is crazy i mean you had i mean i don't know i'll hold you in seventh grade but like i said 21 years of my life when my grandpa was there every day and like yeah when he was and you don't want to see your dad and you don't want to see your dad hurt right you're like i lost my grandpa my dad lost his dad this is a double whammy yeah yeah it was uh it was not good yeah my dad had like uh he felt he was cleaning the gutters off our shop and fell off and like landed on his head and had to get like brain surgery uh to like re like relieve like a like clot that he had it was like a it was like 20 feet

yeah it was not good is he okay yeah man he it was it was nuts i mean i we got a phone call i got a phone call from my family like they didn't know if he was gonna make it through the night and i'm like it was terrible i was like i'm hopping in the car and driving home now and it's like a 12-hour drive or I could just wait till the morning and then like fly but I was like and I'll get there at the same time but I just like felt hopeless and then just kind of like driving back there and he's in the hospital for about a month that dude he came out and made a full recovery it was it was insane it was yeah he yeah, he's awesome. He's strong, dude. Holy shit. It's crazy how often you hear that story, right? Someone falling off a roof. Yeah, dude, it was, it was crazy. And the thing that it's, he's like, uh, he's a very hardworking guy too. But like thing that sucks is like, he lost his memory for like two weeks and he can't

for the life and remember how he fell. Cause he like, I'm usually there helping him clean the gutters like it's a very we live like we don't have a 20 foot ladder so we had the truck we had the truck with the ladder in the back of the truck it's a little oaky an oaky rig uh low die is shit yeah we do that every year normally i'm there with him and yeah he can't figure out the life of him how he fell he still tries to figure it out but he's like but you can't figure out the ladder broke or if the ladder broke well on impact or if he slipped it was raining like it was a terrible situation oh it's always that shit yeah yeah like dad what are you doing on the roof when it's yeah yeah i was not um will you hold on one second

while i talk to brian brian do you see how that worked out in the beginning of the podcast you can't hear me right justin justin mentioned how he took six months off from school because he had some shit at home and you know that shit was just itching at my heart just fucking like ocd i was just swirling around that what happened what happened how can i find out without what happened without asking him directly and now we're an hour and seven minutes in we finally fucking dug out the gem you got it fuck i'll sleep so much better tonight you see that do you know the whole time, Brian, when someone says something like that, my OCD just fires up. I just can't stop thinking about it.

Dude, it's like that thing. It's like my biggest pet peeve. When someone tells you something, but you didn't hear them, you're like, oh, what did you say? I'm like, oh, never mind. Yeah, you're like, well. Especially your girlfriend. Especially your girlfriend.

Yeah. Never mind. No, you have to tell me now. Like, I don't care what it was. Like, I just got to know. Okay, Brian, do your game shit. Do your game shit. What do you got?

How good is this guy? Does this guy win this year, next year? Does he? I don't know. What's the deal? I call him on my podcast Prince Medeiros. Is he really the prince? I thought that was just, you also said King Fraser, so I thought

that was just a podium. Yes. Whatever. It's because it was King Fraser and we're seeing this guy's getting... He's got Fraser's arm around him. Every time I picture Medeiros, Fraser's standing by him with his arm around him.

I do think that there's... There's only a couple people that I really think can win the CrossFit games this year, and Justin's in that group. But when I'm thinking about that, there's some things that I want to know. And in particular, I'm looking at his open scores, and I have a feeling about something here, but I will ask him about it. He plays sixth and third in two of the workouts. He had a 79th in the workout that he did as a live announcement and i do want to ask about

the live announcement in general like what that was like how soon before that do you get asked to do that do you even give it a second thought if you're gonna do it etc and then i'll let you talk about both of them i guess and then the last workout he placed 1,068th, and that's a lifting event. But I do know from talking to some other athletes that at that point, they had tried, like he hit 277 pounds, for example. Maybe he had 305 on the bar at the end of that workout, and he just barely missed the jerk, and he's like, well, it doesn't really matter.

I'm going to make the quarterfinals anyway. Why would I do this workout again? So I guess I just want to know about the live announcement experience and then that lifting because if you're that far off on the lifting numbers that's concerning when you're talking about someone to make the games but there might be something else going on i mean to win the games yeah man so like talk about the open announcement it was uh awesome i think i i found it like pretty like quick i think it was like no more than two weeks or something like that that I found out that I was going to go.

But obviously, I talked to my coach and maybe said, hey, do you think this is a good time to do it or not? It's going to be traveling during the Open. Obviously, you don't want to be traveling a bunch when you're competing. But both of us kind of thing. I mean, I'm still a fan of the sport. A freaking Open announcement, I'm like, this is nuts. I grew up, I started watching CrossFit in 2013,

so I could see all these open announcements with Frazier and Froning and just all the greats doing them. And to be a part of it, I was like, heck yeah, let's go. That's going to be an experience I'm never going to have again. Don't forget my mom, Justin. My mom's done open announcements twice in the Masters's category. Oh shit. She's the poster child. You've only done one. You've only done one. All right. She got me there. So you were excited. You wanted to do it. Yeah, dude, I was super pumped up. I mean, that's an experience

that like I just wanted to have. Uh, I think it'd be super mad if I'd never did it. Um, I mean, obviously like if you think about it, it's not like the most optimal competition environment. Like there's no preparation. I mean, you didn't get to see the workout and then you get to hit it. Like you just don't know. So, uh, like I was super pumped up. It's like, it's a learning experience too.

Like, I mean, you never know, like just kind of sit there, you hear the workout, like, okay, let's get a game plan quick and like execute it. So, um, and then plus my whole family got to go because the CrossFit HQ is only like an hour and a half away from my hometown so like it was just it was so awesome it was a super cool experience um I don't know if that answers your question or if you want to know some other stuff but I mean that's that's perfect then your time was great I mean I think it would have been second place or third place in 2017 because that was the repeat workout.

And I always wonder, it seems like it's like 50-50 if people do the open announcement, if they choose to redo it or not. And if they do redo it, they almost always improve. But maybe this is something I'll just kind of tell you up front because maybe we'll talk about the rest of the season. I think of you as an athlete at this point that is not peaking for the open or quarterfinals and maybe not even for semifinals so i wasn't surprised you didn't redo that one yeah i mean this the end goal is the games and we're trying to do everything we possibly can to to get there first and foremost

but like that's when we want to peak that's when you want to be the best of the best and obviously i go into every competition every workout like i'm going to win this shit like that that's the effort and mentality i have going into it and uh but the end goal and the plan is to be ready for the crossfit games isn't there a psychological piece though too brian like if he repeats the workout and does better like it's kind of like you know like hey look i have a 12 inch dick like like to all the other competitors like you're you're well it's don't it's strange doing the open announcement with the mentality he just described because if you're doing the open and your mentality is i'm gonna win then you're

competing against everyone in the world but if you're doing the open announcement and your mentality is i'm gonna win it's i'm gonna beat that guy which he did yeah and then that was the thing i mean dude like the whole world's who are you going against who are you going against huh who are you going against okay yeah so it was uh it was just like going out there and like you know everyone's watching and like even when there's like a field of 10 people like you know people are probably watching different athletes but the open announcement, like it's just YouTube. I'm like, dude,

I am not losing this fricking thing on live television. I'm like, that is, that is just not an option. Like, like I am going to go hard. And, uh,

well, we came out, I think, I think if I did it again, I would have paced it a little bit different, tried some new things, but I was like, dude,

I'm coming out hot. Like, well, what do you want to do? Come out slow and then try to play catch up at the end. Like might as well come out guns a blazing and see what the fuck happens uh kind of thing and and it was a lot easier mentally too knowing that you got like it's the top like 7 000 people go and i'm pretty confident in my fitness i'm not going to be in the bottom 7 000 so uh it was pretty good and then yeah it was super awesome event it was it was super cool to

be a part of before you answer brian's next question i have a question you didn't know that you were good when like you were the best dude in your gym like when there was like a 35 year old buff dude there and all of a sudden you were lifting more than him you weren't like oh shit i'm good that wasn't enough for you yeah it's just it's no it wasn't i mean it's just like you just like look the people do another workout and you're like dude there's a whole another level like there's always someone better than you and like even every day when i'm training it's not like i'm freaking hitting my home runs you know what i mean like oh yeah let's just do all do all the shit i'm good at like yeah i'm gonna beat everybody but like i'm trying to pair myself up

with people that are better than me and lift more than me or better at handstand push-ups or whatever it is so like you're getting beat a lot or you're at least in your train like dude i'm so fucking unfit like you're doing all the stuff you're bad at like it's uh it's not always uh super fun or good it's uh it's always good to kind of keep working on those things you're bad at so you don't always feel like you're at the top of your games you're not hitting these workouts freaking out of the park so then obviously he brings us to the last open score but we could kind of i think we can kind of group it in with the even the four rep max front squad and potentially the one rep max snatch at semifinals and just kind of where is your strength at because that that snatch event at semifinals to me i mean everyone's like oh my

god six six five six guys in the last hit hit 300 pounds, seven guys over 300 pounds in this competition. But I was watching, and I felt like 285 for you at that moment was a big victory. Dude, I was so pumped about that. Like, just talking about the snatch event at the MAC, like, I PR'd, dude. I mean, obviously obviously I want to finish that weekend on top of the podium I take that each workout at the time and then the end result at the end of the weekend is what it is and I walked away from every workout like dude that was the best execution I could have had at that time like I went into every workout with the right

strategy and I executed that strategy to the best of my ability obviously if I looked back and could change some things I would but like I walked away from every event like, hell yeah, man, like that was awesome. That 285 pound snatch, that's a PR, like lifetime PR for me. I've never hit that before. The only other time I've hit 280 was in Ireland a year and a half ago. So to come out and PR in that environment was like, it was awesome, dude. I was pumped. I could care less to everyone else. I was like it was awesome dude i was pumped i could care less everyone else hit i was like fuck yeah like things are on track and tracking nicely and that's what that's what that competition that's what that heat was so fun to watch too it's like even though you guys are all competing at that point it just like once that first guy hit it it was like okay the momentum's

here and it was just like successful lift after successful lift and regardless of the number everyone just hit a lift that they were like celebrating. And I'm like, I couldn't imagine being one of the last couple of guys in that heat and just the, the adrenaline that must be pumping at that point. Like, let's,

let's go. Yeah, dude. I mean, I don't know if you walked out of that, but like I missed two 85 and then hit it within the 22nd window. Dude, it was just like pure adrenaline,

man. I was like, so far. Like, I was like, the thing that sucked is like, I like, like pure adrenaline, man. I was like so fired up. Like I was like, the thing that sucked is like, like walking up to 285, I was like, I'm hitting this. Like there ain't no way I'm missing it. Like I was like, this bar is going up.

I can do it. I smoked 275 and then I hit 285 and I just lost it behind me. And I was like, oh no, like I know I can hit this bar. And it's like that moment where like, you know, you can do it, but you didn't do it. Like those are the moments I'd be mad about and, uh, just kind of gripped it and ripped it again and ended up making it. God, this should have been a live show with Ryan pulling up that clip. God damn it. Um, Hey, you know, what's crazy about that, Brian, please unfuck me if I'm totally off here. It isn't uncommon for someone to miss a lift and then get it in the 20 seconds it is

extremely uncommon for someone to miss a pr and get it within the 20 i'm not i'm actually not sure he's even the only guy who did that in that competition um it was crazy man people were hitting lifts and just you know i don't you can check on the game site and see their listed prs but it's usually not that accurate. Athletes just don't think to update it there that often. And so if someone's trying to prep stuff for all these athletes, you might think they've PR when you know they PR is, is how they react to actually hitting it. And there were a couple other guys that missed one and then hit one.

And I was like, that probably was a PR matched it or something like that. Brian, do you have another question that's burning? Because I'm going to ask him a little bit about this natural. Go for it. So how do you decide – what was your lift before 285? 275. Okay. So why not go to – would 280 have been a PR?

Matched it. Okay. Why go to two and would 280 have been a pr uh matched it okay why go to 285 uh i think like uh the way that we the way we looked at it like was we know my training like we know how it's been going and i know what i'm capable of doing even though i haven't done it and we felt like that was a lift i was capable of hitting and uh 275 was kind of that weight that we decided, like, this is a weight that, like, we have to hit no matter what. Like, this is, like, if you don't hit this lift, like, you're just fucked for the weekend.

You know what I mean? Like, you just dug yourself in a huge hole. So we hit, like, a warm-up weight, a weight that we'll be satisfied with but not, like, happy with and make sure we get that. And then we're going to go for it on the third one. And that was our strategy. That was, like, our go-for-it weight. Obviously, it wouldn't be going to go for it on the third one. And, uh, that was our strategy. That was like our go for it way. Obviously it wouldn't be smart to go to 90, 10 pound PR. Like that's a lot, but, uh, like, okay, like we're going to go for it. I mean,

obviously we're competing and trying to learn and, uh, see what's capable. So that, that was a jump that like we decided to make and felt good in the warmups and stuck with it. And, you know, it's interesting interesting i'm looking here uh hunter holyfield got 290 so it would have really only moved you up one place yeah yeah and i think like i mean obviously there's times like you go into that event like oh yeah 315 snatch is going to win that event well it's not like i'm going to throw on 315 like that's just stupid like i know what you can do to win it but you got to like run your own race and be smart and do like the best you can be and like that's our strategy like going into it, but you got to like run your own race and be smart and do like the best you can be.

And like, that's our strategy, like going into it. Like, yeah, dude, we know like there's some strong guys up there, Scott Pancheck,

Ben Smith, Travis Mayer, like, like all these guys. And obviously there's gonna be a couple other guys I don't know of that are going to be stronger than me, but I got to go out there and hit the numbers that I think are the best for me. And that's what we focused on and hit it.

And I was like, I can care less to everyone else hit, but like, I am fired up right now. It was, it was the first event, like back with like, that's what we focused on and hit it. And I was like, I can care less to everyone else hit, but like, I am fired up right now. It was, uh, it was the first event, like back with like,

that's live got a crowd. Like everyone was just going nuts. It was, it was a crazy environment. Um, Justin, what's the, uh,

competition you've done that's had the most scored events in it. Do you know? Like seven events in the games last year games last year yeah yeah um yeah there were a lot there and besides that have you ever done one that's had 10 events or more because i think you know i go ahead just so you know justin real quick so my whole thing it took me an hour to figure out what happened to you um with why you took six months off of school and what problems you had at home brian only has 20 minutes to pick your brain because he's he's only interested in one thing he's interested in where he's going to rank you in the games like first through first first through fifth and so basically

all of his questions he's just trying to analyze does he have a championship mentality does he have more in the gas tank how is the swimming like he's just trying to analyze, does he have a championship mentality? Does he have more in the gas tank? How is his swimming? Like he's using this to investigate where he's going to put you in the rankings. You're singularly focused on winning the games. I'm trying to figure out your deep, dark secrets. And Brian wants to present, wants to make sure he gets his rankings right so he can peacock around all the other pundits in the bullpen. Okay, sorry, Brian.

Go on. I like that that's a sub on things. So we'll let him think that. Earlier you mentioned that you attack every workout with the mentality to win. And then we look at the snatch workout, and obviously, based on what you just said, you're not trying to win that. You're trying to maximize your potential in that workout. The reason I ask about a workout or a competition that has 10 to 15 events or whatever the game's going to have this year is that it's different. I think it's different approaching a 15 event competition.

If you come into the swimming event and you're like, I'm going to, I'm going to win this event. You're probably not because some of these guys were like national level swimmers and it's just not worth it for you to. Well, that's what you think, man. Why not the CrossFit games, dude? There's a lot of reasons why I'm not at the games. worth it for you to... Well, that's what you think, man. Okay. Why are you not at the CrossFit games, dude? There's a lot of reasons why I'm not at the games. But if you get in the pool and you... Let's say you do have the confidence

to win that event and you get in the lake and whatever and you get halfway through the swimming distance, you're like, damn, bro, if I try to hang with Koski on this one, maybe I get him, maybe I don't, but what's it going to do to me in the long run of the week do you would like would you ever consider that thought in that moment or would you say no i want i want to go for it no one thinks i can beat this guy but i think i but i know i i know i have a

chance to yeah i mean like i think uh like talking about like i want to win every event like that's a mentality like if you go into event like yeah i'm gonna lose this it event. Like that's a mentality. Like if you go into an event, like, yeah, I'm going to lose this. It's whatever. Like that's just not the right mentality to have. Like it's just a mentality of walking every event. Like I'm going to fucking crush this event and I'm going to win it. Like that's just like that mindset you got to go. I mean, obviously you sit back and be realistic with yourself. I mean, you're not going to win every event. Like I think that's just like how it is.

Like no one's ever going to go to the games. It's a clean slate all the way through. I mean, Matt Frazier got close, but he never did it. But like, I think, uh,

you gotta have that mindset. Like I'm going to fucking crush this event, like kind of thing and go out there. And to me, that's like that mindset. Like I, like I'm going to win that event. And,

uh, but obviously if you get put into a position, like where you can beat another competitor, like you got to go for it at the end of the weekend. Like every point matters. Like I said, like I just, I missed my spot going to the games of 2019 by four points.

Like that's one spot somewhere in the weekend. And when you sit back at the end of the weekend, you don't want to be like, oh shit, like I could have beat that guy, but I let off because I knew I had eight more events and I wanted to save myself or whatever. I mean,

I think that's one of the things me and my coach talk about. Like you got to be willing to die for points. And I've had some experiences in the past where like, I did not do that. And so you just don't want that feeling at the end of the event, just knowing that like there was more left. A Greg Glassman quote, quote,

men will die for old ones. That's like 2008. Yeah. very old. So to follow up on Brian's question, it's a fucking awesome question. Yesterday we spoke to Zach Watts in event six, Gretel. He basically was determined to win that event. He ended up taking six. And I'm sorry if I'm mischaracterizing this, but in the spirit of it's right and he basically said he pushed himself so hard in gretel that basically the wheels came off the bus that he had to lay there on the cold concrete for

30 minutes have you had ever had any issues in a competition with recovering he basically and then the next event he took 26th and got capped um have you ever done that to yourself in an event pushed so hard that you were like oh fuck maybe i should have taken my foot off there's five there's nine more events at the crossfit games and i just did 157 fran you know it's like yeah man i think uh that's something that you like you train for like in your training like obviously you're training to go fast but like just as much like when i'm training i'm training to recover when i'm doing like a mock games or a mock competition like yeah i'm trying to run through the workouts and simulate like how

it's going to feel but like i also gotta like figure out and like test like okay like i did a heavy leg workout ice bath and all that didn't work like my legs still felt like shit like you know what i mean like so you're just trying to trying to figure out um how your body recovers and what to do and you never know how you're gonna feel like in the middle of a workout i mean i can say that like i want to finish every workout with that kind of feeling. Like, dude, I, that was everything I had, you know what I mean? And there's obviously times where you got to do that and times where you can't like Gretel, like, dude, I'm sorry, but like you had to do that. Like if you go five seconds slower in a workout, like Gretel, like you're 10 points back, like 10 spots back. Like it's a,

it's crazy. I mean, you look at some of those longer workouts that are 28 minute time cap okay like you're not going to sprint to the finish when like you know you're like 10 15 reps in front of the guy like you're not going to sell out because it doesn't really matter like you're going to beat this guy no matter what like uh you're not just going to run through to have the best time possible you're gonna um you're trying you're trying to beat everyone you can and if you're in first by a mile why are you gonna freaking sell out and be in first by two miles kind of thing so i've had a thought recently because you know uh dave's slowly announcing some of the workouts for the games this year and he announces the first one

long swim longer paddle and all of a sudden every games athlete is posting long swim, long paddle on Instagram. And I'm over here thinking, why are you guys doing this now? Especially if you're in the top 10, 15 in the world and you're planning to get to the games, you should have been doing long swim, long paddle in your programming all the time because you know how many times does it come up. Is that you? Have you been practicing those things? You don't need Dave to tell you that you might swim and paddle at the games. You're already preparing for that, right? Yeah, man. I mean, like you look at like the games,

like, you know, there's going to be a swimming aspect that's, that's every year, you know, there's probably going to be a long run. Like you just like, there's going to be a running aspect and there, you know, there's going to be a lift. Like there's a certain things that you got to train for and be ready for. And swimming is kind of one of them. I mean, obviously, it could be a paddle, could not be. But you're just trying to like simulate that as much as you can. But you got, you know, if you have a year of training, you have however many active recovery days, why not throw in a paddle every once in a while? And again, do a little three-mile paddle or whatever.

Like if you're one of the top in the sport, I'm just thinking, man, you shouldn't need to alter your training all of a sudden based on dave's clue you should already be prepared for that oh a pig's showing up for the first time since 2015 well i'm sorry if you haven't been flipping tires you're not ready for the games right yeah that's what that's what's it's crazy about the games dude like anything under the sun's ready and you're training all year you're just like you're just trying to be the fittest you possibly can like there's no like tell us all something this is gonna be at the games or this is not so you could train freaking tires all year round and it might not show up you know what i mean so uh i think that's uh some of like the hardest thing about training is you feel like you're so prepared for this year and then sometimes you get hit with the curveball you never know what

it's going to be and i think that's what what Dave tries to do when he's programming. He wants to hit all the athletes with the curveball. Like, fuck, I did not see that coming. Sure. And I mean, there's no, there's, there's obviously no, he's going to have something that you haven't seen. There's always a new implement or a new combination or something like that. But if you're that good and you haven't touched a tire in the last nine months, I'm not saying you need to do it every week, but all of a sudden, if you you think i'm just gonna flip this tire every day for the next three weeks i'm gonna crush that event it's like probably should have been preparing more for that earlier on yeah yeah i mean it's hard i mean like look at last year's games like i could have been swimming and paddling been the best swimmer out there and the swim event had nothing to do with swimming like that wasn't

that was not a swim event it was a bike event you know what i mean like you look at stuff like that could have been paddling all year and paddleboard didn't show up so uh it's really hard i mean obviously you try to try to like disperse like you have a year of training try to get like dosage of everything and obviously i'm not going to be swimming or like paddling leading up to the open like that's not going to be there you know what i mean like you got to train for what's going to be there. You got to be prepared. And obviously, when you get into games training, you know you're going to get into crazy events, obstacle courses, possibly, like, ruck runs,

like, all this, like, swimming, like that. You know that is sanctionable. And obviously, the open can't do. Did you have a relationship with Dave when you were at the ranch? Did you talk to him? Did you guys become friends? Did he give give you any not really his brother did though yeah oh kenny yeah kenny was awesome like hey dave how about kenny gave me his number and said i'm welcome at the ranch anytime so i'll probably just be popping in throughout the year

and what did they don't fucking listen to him. Did he introduce himself to your parents? I don't think so. He might have said hi, but nothing that's significant that I remember. You were listening to G-Eazy in one of your music videos. Do you like G-Eazy? I listen to a little bit of everything. Yeah, Dave likes G-Eazy.

Maybe you guys could bond on that. He turned me on to G-Eazy. Have you met Gabe Subri at CrossFit 209? Yeah. Have you ever trained with him? Yeah, I actually tried to be on their team in 2017. It didn't work out, but I made it individual that year,

so it worked out good. Oh, cool. Awesome. And how far is that from your house? I mean, it's in, it's,

I mean, it's like 30 minutes, but like, it's only like 10 minutes away from my gym that I go to anyways. Gotcha. Cause it's gotta be like a, it's probably 20,000, 30,000 in there and a track. Yeah.

Like, yeah, maybe it's bigger than that. Yeah, it's massive, right? So, Evan, I got to go in a minute. I got just one more thing I'd like to ask him before I do. So, you finished up the semifinal. Well, I guess two things.

One, did you want to go to that semifinal? Was that your first choice? Yeah. And did the timing of it relative to the games have anything to do with it? Like if I make it, I'll have more time between now and the games yeah so i was like to me that if you're if you think you're your game's caliber no matter where you fall i would have had the same approach i would 100 why are you gonna do west coast and then you're probably gonna take a week deload and then you just have like two weeks of training and then another like it's like it's so smashed you do it the like the original one you have two months so what's deload when i

think of deload it has nothing to do with fitness uh i mean everyone deloads differently so yeah it's just a later training week general what is that you just yeah oh okay yeah that's not what i was thinking i like the term though i'd like to check the urban dictionary to see what so justin after that weekend i'm just i'm curious where you were at kind of mentally because you took third you finished behind basically a legend of the sport and scott scott panchuk by a few points who's six or seven times placed in the top six at the games against a field and test that's probably similar to what we'll see this year. And then there's this other guy who's very young but actually older than you

who kind of just shows up and does extremely well. And then the top four of you guys are well clear of the rest of the field. So coming out of that weekend, are you in a good space? Are you like, hmm, man, I got to get a little better? Are you surprised by Hopper? Or like what are you thinking about? He's a little better are you surprised by hopper or like where what are you thinking about he's asking you if you're scared of jason hopper like if you you're like god no dude it was it was an awesome weekend i mean obviously you could look at it so many

different ways and uh i man looked at it like every event that i did like i felt like i competed the best i could and i was super pumped like with the outcome but there's also a lot of things that I saw where I got to improve on and and train for like leading up to the games I mean it was a it was a great semi-final wanting to come out on top and uh obviously dude like Jason Hopper freaking crushed it like good for him but like the game's a different beast we only had like six seven events whatever it was and the game is going to be 15 and going to test a lot a lot more different modalities and uh everything like that so it's going to be it's going to be really good i'm i'm super fired up for the games i think uh i think if you look at most of my competition experiences i i

build as the weekend goes on and i'm looking forward to 15 events when the uh do you have them on the podium brian when the uh when the competition ended their seven events or whatever it was did you feel like man if they said let's go again two more days that like let's do it would you have been ready for that oh yeah oh yeah dude i mean i think uh one of the things that fires me up most about the games like you get to do all those crazy events that like you never get to do anywhere else i mean you have like the pig and the snail just like some of those events you just gotta like go out there and like execute like use your fitness the best of your ability and like figure it out like that event like chaos where you didn't even know what

you were doing going out there like just okay man ski until we tell you not to like uh i think this like stuff like that despires you up doing obstacles running swimming uh just all that stuff so that's definitely an aspect of fitness. I think it helps, like, being an athlete. So it's going to be good. I'm looking forward to climbing that leaderboard throughout the whole weekend. Has Adam ever given you – well, you might be on top if you win the swim to start, so you might have to stay up there instead of climb.

Heck yeah, man. Has Adam ever given you a workout in training like Chaos where he's like, Hey, man, we got a workout coming up. As you you go through the movements i'm just going to tell you what the next one is uh i mean i've done one exactly like chaos but like uh i think every like event or like every training session has like a purpose like okay it's like is the purpose of this training session to get better at like skier and burpees wherever it was or the purpose is to like kind of throw you curveballs and not be ready for what's coming next uh so it's making sure that um you're training all those different aspects um of what you're going to be like looking forward to and that's

and that's definitely one of them you don't always know what you're going to do that kind of like show up to the gym that day and be like okay hey in 15 minutes we're hitting this workout kind of thing so you don't get to like sit at it look at it the night before get ready for it or whatever it is you just kind of got be ready like lighten your toes warm up and uh hit event with intensity yeah that's cool because i think you know it's in the way that you're excited about training for the games and all the athletes are because it's a different beast than anything else the coaches too i think they have a certain freedom when they get to work with an athlete like you to program stuff that they couldn't program for their gym or they couldn't program for someone like me because it just doesn't make any sense. But then you know that Dave, who's programming the games, is always thinking of these little nuances and whatever.

And so therefore, Adam and whoever, all these other coaches have that opportunity. Yeah. Obviously makes it fun for you guys, too. For sure. All right, so I got to go. You guys can stay on if you want, of course, but thank you,

Justin. And, um, good luck with the training. Can't wait to see you out there, man. Dude. Thanks,

man. Appreciate having me on before, before we get off. I'd like to recommend everyone to go to Justin's Instagram account and find the video of him dancing in a pool in Mexico. It is his best post. You're going to have to dig around kind of deep in there. It's March. When is that?

It's March 29th, 2017. It's just spring break. Picture of rich Froney. You, you have to see that video. It really shows. I'll make a note of it now.

Thanks.