WHOOP Podcast - CrossFit legend Rich Froning details his drive to win and why failure fuels him

Episode Date: January 12, 2022

CrossFit great Rich Froning talks about the mindset that has propelled him to greatness, and explains why his drive to win and his disdain of losing has fueled him for the last decade. He joins Mike Lombardi to detail how he found CrossFit (5:29), dealing with failure and disappointment (9:21), how he hates to lose (11:01), addressing weaknesses as an athlete (16:09), why having training partners is critical (21:00), performing with red recoveries (22:24), why he values team success over individual success (29:47), and what he's learned over the last 10 years about training (34:10). Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

What's up, folks? Welcome back to the WOOP podcast, where we sit down with top performing athletes, scientists, experts, and more to learn what the best in the world are doing to perform at their peak. I'm your host, Will Amid, founder and CEO of Woop, and we're on a mission to unlock human performance. All right, big week in the world of CrossFit with the return of Wadapalooza, and we are excited to welcome CrossFit legend, Rich Froning, to the Woop Podcast. Rich is one four individual championships and five titles in the team competition, making him one of the most decorated athletes in the history of the sport. He talks about the mindset that has propelled him to greatness and explains why his drive to win and his disdain of losing has fueled him

for the last decade. Rich sits down with our resident CrossFit expert Mike Lombardi to talk about his journey to the top of the sport and they discuss the importance of addressing your weaknesses as an athlete, why finding good training partners might be more important than finding a good coach, how you should think about red recoveries and why reaching performance heights while in the red isn't out of the question. Team building and why Rich is prouder of his team accomplishments than his individual championships, and the role who plays in Rich's success. A reminder, you can get 15% off a W-W-M membership, you use the code will. That's W-I-L-L. Without further ado, here are and Mike.

Hi everybody, welcome to the Wooop podcast. I'm Mike Lombardi. Today I'm joined by fittest man of all time, Rich Froning. Rich, thanks for being here with us. Yeah, yeah, thanks for having me. Phil, you know, just watching you get that intro, it's like, yeah, maybe I am, maybe I'm not. That's the CrossFit title, so I'm sure there were definitely some people that were way fitter

than us back when you actually had to do to work to stay alive. So that's a little different. By today's definitions, at least, as we're measuring it. So long before CrossFit, you were multi-sport athlete, right? Yep, yep. What kind of led you here? So CrossFit didn't really exist. Yeah. That's when we were younger. You know, grew up playing sports. My parents, too, you know, we were outside all the time. If we weren't busy outside, they were going to find us something to be busy with, you know, there was no sitting inside hanging out, especially if it was super nice outside. So we were outside, playing in the woods, making up sports, playing sports, playing sports, played baseball and football growing up, mostly baseball, tore my labor,

my junior year of high school, so playing football. So baseball kind of, you know, took the, I guess, the front seat and played a little bit of college baseball. Decided college baseball wasn't really where I wanted to be at. And then was a firefighter for a couple of years, and in that process, getting my exercise science degree. I had a professor at the time that said, hey, a lot of military police fire are doing CrossFit. You should check it out. And, you know, I was trying to scratch that itch playing sports.

I was playing a lot of intramural sports at the time. But that's kind of when I found. I knew that was coming to an end. And so I found CrossFit. And I guess, as they say, here we are. It's interesting that, obviously, you know, you found your way to CrossFit. Did you have a background in weightlifting or any of these things? Or did you kind of teach yourself the movements because you got into CrossFit,

not in its infancy, but still as it was becoming, kind of what it's become now? Right. I mean, I would say my only real lifting background was football, summer workouts. We did a lot of working out in baseball, but a lot of your normal just like fives and tries, bench, that type of stuff running. Football, we did cleans and squats and stuff like that. But until I, you know, got into CrossFit and just started watching a ton of videos, a lot of Coach B stuff in the beginning and was kind of self-taught, you know,

it was a little bit different back in those days. It was just you kind of, you did it. And there weren't all these specialty coaches. We were joking about it the other day, you know, now we've got rowers, we've got bikers, we've got skiergs, we've got assault or echo bikes, you've got whatever. Well, back in my day, we had the rower. and a barbell and a pull-up bar and that's how you did more cardio was just to do more reps of different things which is probably good you know you're learning technique and but you know it's a lot

a lot on the body when you're lifting a barbell all the time so it's it's come a long way now that we have all these just different forms of ways to build volume I guess without beating you up too much so like I said we rode a ton we I think I remember having an airdine before assault you're eventually echo bike and you know we were talking about the other day i would every morning 10 minutes uh as many calories as i could get on the air dine you know start with maybe 30 seconds on 30 seconds easy or a minute on minute easy and kind of go between that but did that for probably a year and then started watching the miko videos where he rode 5k every day and that's what i did you know maybe not 5k straight but a bunch of intervals of 5k rowing every day and so just different

different time back then you said your background was an exercise science right or it was It's physiology. Yeah, exercise science. So were you following crossfit.com or you're just getting ideas and then also writing your own sort of programming along the way? In the very beginning, so we started CrossFit, solely CrossFit, July 2009, July 1st, 2009, me and my cousin, Darren, who has been with me since day one and still coaches for us and does some online stuff for us, does our affiliate programming.

But we just started following CrossFit.com. and literally followed CrossFit.com to a T for a couple months. And one day we were sitting there. We got done working out early. And I worked at a corporate fitness center. And we finished working out. We were kind of bored that afternoon. And we were like, hey, should we try working out again?

You think we'll die? And we didn't die. So that was when the two a days started. And now it's still two a days-ish, but you're doing a lot more than back then it was like, oh, you do one wad. I hate that term, but one watt a day, and that's all you need. And then for the general population, yes. But if you want to be competitive, it's a little bit different.

You know, it's a professional sport. It's, you know, comparing flag football to the NFL, but really. So you're always doing more volume. Personally, you know, I followed the mayhem stuff too. Oh, nice. Yeah, no. My legs are crushed, but, you know. Yeah, mine too.

You know, it's very clear to see why so many athletes come out of the program. And this is obviously like an accumulation of volume over time, but from the very very jump, you're kind of doing more volume than other people. At what point did you switch from, okay, this is fun to do, and how far can I push myself to? I think I can be pretty good at this. Let me go all in on it. Yeah, I think, you know, when I kind of that aha moment, I guess, was in 2009, we were watching, they put out a docu series kind of of each event from the CrossFit games in 2009, and it was really cool. We were kind of watching the videos and we would do the workouts and you know not nearly you know everybody kind of

talks about that 2009 year at the ranch how crazy it was and uh just going back and uh we were doing the workouts and our times were comparable i was like hey maybe next year we should try this and so i mean i remember and we all we were joking about making a commercial about this but uh daring going back home and uh the the sign up came up for the next year's competition and so i signed up and Darren was supposed to sign up when he got home and he never did. So the joke was, you know, don't miss your opportunity. And we were, well, there may be a commercial eventually about it. So you have to stay tuned for that.

But we have some pretty funny thoughts on that. Like, basically we switched lives in the fact that if he would have signed up. But, yeah, I think it would be, you know, just go back and you're like, man, you know, if you just don't make that decision, you know, what does life look and how much different is it? So, you know, pretty blessed to be in the situation that I'm in for sure. When you finally got to the games and... Got second, yeah, rope climb. Is that where you're going?

Yeah. What kind of just goes through your head? One, that you're doing so well. Were you surprised that you were doing so well in general? And then when you got to this rope climb, you're like, what the hell? Yeah. Yeah, no, it was kind of like, you know, I showed up to sectionals. Didn't think I had a chance.

The goal was to, you know, make it to regionals. And then I end up being in first place after the first event. And then being in first place, the whole competition from there. Kind of shocked myself. And so at regionals, the, you know, the game plan was, all right, you know, if I can get top 15 again, they take the top five, you know, get a bunch of good experience for next year. I mean, the thought process and anything, though, is I always want to try to win it. There's no, like, I'm not just showing up to show up, but you kind of, I think you guard yourself with those expectations of, hey, you know, you're new to this, whatever. But the plan is always to try to try to win.

And then, you know, winning regionals, you know, I looked up to a bunch of these guys that I've looked up to a bunch of these guys that I, I was going to compete with. I'd seen their videos and knew how fit they were. I mean, it's the first time ever being out there. And then being in first, going into the final day and, you know, really not thinking anything about not being able to climb a rope. And just the failure of that, that was tough. You know, I've talked a lot about it, how you put so much into who you are in something

or, you know, find your identity in that, put me in a bad place after that, getting second. And, you know, that's kind of where it got me closer in my faith and made me, me realize why, you know, what my purpose in life is versus, you know, it's not just about something that I'm doing. And so it was good, you know, it was a good wake-up call. And I've said it multiple times. If I had won that first year, I don't think I would have won, you know, where we're at today. Would you say similarly about the one team second place? Yeah, the one team second place. It was just a different, you know, Walsach was just really good. You know, I hate getting second. I hate not winning anything. They beat us outright. It is what it is. And I don't think it was we didn't

train hard enough. I don't think it was any of that. I think it was just we didn't have the right pieces and they had a really solid team and they beat us fair and square. So yeah, but I would be lying if I didn't say I use that as motivation, you know, hanging a second place medal up next to the board for the next year in the barn motivated me. I probably pissed everybody else off at me. You know, it is what it is. The bounce back from those, You know, you call them disappointments. Other people would maybe look at them as, you know, super achievement is the differential the next year is astronomical.

It's, you know, don't let it happen to anybody. You don't want to be competing against you the year after. No. Well, yeah, we don't like to, you know, I think it, you know, you always see watching the last dance documentary or watching, was it man in the arena with Brady now? It's, you see, you know, when it comes to that, it becomes almost an obsession. And, you know, those guys hated to lose too. So I connected a lot with just watching those documentaries and those guys and how they were about it, you know.

Would you say that you have a similar obsession? Oh, yeah, for sure. I've come to the realization in the last couple of years. I have an addictive personality and some, I guess, genetic, some hereditary probably could have some substance abuse stuff. And that's over the last couple of years I've realized this, this is my substance abuse. Luckily, you know, I've been able to channel that and use it for what I would say good. But yeah, there's definitely some, there's definitely some psychological stuff going on there for sure. As an individual competitor, were you also doing some mindset work along with your condition?

No. No, I would say figuring out that, you know, my faith, I was going to be okay. Because, you know, whatever happened to me in CrossFit or happened on the competition floor didn't define me as a human being allowed me to compete from a place. of offense but as a caveat I hate losing I'm one of 32 first cousins 25 of us are boys every single thing that we did growing up and you know the seven girls that are in my family my one cousin who's the same age as us beat us and stuff all growing up so you know I look back and I'm like like my aunts and uncles at first you know like when we were kids I'm thinking all right they're trying to figure out which one of us is the greatest cousin, you know,

like who's the best, who's the fastest, who can swim the farthest, who can, you know, we had played king of the dock where you push people off this dock that they'd built. And now, as a parent, I realize none of that mattered. They were trying to wear us out, you know. But, you know, inadvertently, they created this kind of monster of just, we got some pretty good athletes in the family and fierce competitors. And it's pretty funny to, as a parent, step back now and you're like, dang, you know, what am I creating when I'm doing these little things between, you know, hey, kids, let's see you just run the fastest, just because I'm literally just trying to tire my kids out. And then you look down the road, 33, 34 years down the road, and you're like, what kind of a monster am I going to, you know, what kind of obsession am I going to create my kids?

So it's fun, but it's also you don't realize those things. And so going back, that has a lot to do with it. And then I think just, you know, people are born competitive. It is what it is. Some people are competitive and some aren't. So that was honestly outside of CrossFit. You know, I knew who I was. And I knew that Faith was a huge part of who I was.

And so it allowed me to compete within CrossFit and just try to win. And that was it. You've been doing this for over a decade at an incredibly high level. Is it truly as simple as you want to win so badly? that each day that's what kind of keeps you coming back yeah you know especially the first probably 10 or 11 years and now it's getting to be you know I know that father time is undefeated and now it's you know I'm I still enjoy competing I still you know want to push myself and do those things but now it's more for Haley being around and gee being around and some of the other

athletes that are coming in and you know how can I be a mentor and train with them and show them and kind of cross over that we had a little talk yesterday you know, Haley asks the key, she's like, what's your plan this year? And he was like, well, I want to win. And so I'm like, damn right. That's, that should be your goal. You don't can't, I hate when people are like, well, you know, I'm just trying to get some experience. And then by 2023, I'd like to win. Hell no, like, you want to win now. If you're doing this, I mean, I guess that's just my school of thought. Some people want to, are just happy to be there. And that's fine. And that's your decision. But if I'm doing it, I want to, I want to, I want to, try to win. How has this shift been from you decided you wanted not do an individual after the four in a row? At any point, have you ever said, man, I could have gone another year or two? I think physically, yes, but mentally. I just, you know, when you get to that point of, it's, one, it's not fun, or you just don't have that extra kind of want to do it, that's what separates, you know, first from second, really. You know, I think physically,

There were some years that I, you know, depending on injury or just the little things, could have been competitive, could have been top three, but mentally, I just, there was no point. You know, I wouldn't want to do that to myself, to the people that supported me. I wouldn't have been proud of the effort that I put on. I just did not want to do it anymore. And so being on a team allows me to scratch that edge of being competitive, and then I can push for other people and want to do well for them. How much better of an athlete do you think you are now than you were six years ago?

I think I'm way more well-rounded. Swimming is more of a strength than a weakness now. Running is at least up to par. It's still not my favorite of things to do, but I definitely wouldn't walk on triple-3s this time. So, you know, I think all around, you know, my strength may not be as good as it was overall, like one-rep stuff. but I feel like as an athlete overall well-rounded, I'm better than I have been, you know, in years, I think, since I competed as individual, for sure.

How much do you think that has to do with the training and volume accumulation versus maybe tightening the screws in other areas like nutrition, sleep, recovery modalities, you know, seems like you guys do a lot of, like you have all the toys available. Yeah, yeah, I think that's a huge part of it. And I think just being cognizant, of those, hey, I have to work on those things that are holes regularly, or they just don't improve. And if I lay off of them for a while, they become holes again. So running is something

that I have to do, two, sometimes three times a week, or it just does not, it's not something I can maintain strength. I can relatively attain to 90% probably of what my PRs or all-time one-ret maxes are as long as I touch a barbell every once in a little. while. But if I don't concentrate on running or, you know, worry about my paces and do things like that, that stuff goes away, way faster. I just get way more uncomfortable with it and I don't, I don't enjoy those things. So I have to work on those things for sure. How do you bounce back from tough training weeks and getting your body right? I think sleep is my number one, nutrition probably number two. I'm going to make sure

eating enough and then three we have a plunge right now I've got to get it inside we have this back part that we're building of the barn it's going to be a studio slash kind of a little bit of a training area but it'll be heated in there if I get a plunge in there I'll use it a lot more again but this time of year I can't sit in 50 degrees when it's 30 degrees outside I can't make myself do it but you know when it gets warm and summer and the games training season starts cold plunge is a huge part of it. I'd really, really enjoy that. But yeah, I would go sleep first, nutrition, second, and then all that other stuff, plunge, theragon, whatever. Stretching is something that I've had to make sure to do. I've noticed I had kind of a back issue been about two years ago. And if I get

my adductors and keep them pretty loose, I have no back issue whatsoever. And obviously it seems to help my knee as well where I've had that just meniscus issue since 17. So it sucks getting old, but, you know, those things that I've got to stay on top of or else, you know, makes for a poor training week, which is hard with three kids. You know, you don't want to take that extra time to do those things when I could be playing hide-and-seek with the kids or hanging out with them doing whatever. So I try to sneak that in depending on what's going on around here. Do you find it challenging to maintain a regular sort of bed and wake time or rhythm with the three kids? Yes. Yes and no.

Um, they're getting to the age where, you know, seven, four and three or, uh, Violet will be four in February and Trice will be five in April, Lakeland will be eight in July. So they're, they're getting to where it's pretty regular, um, sleeping and waking times, you know, Lakeland this year, um, went to public school. She and has done great and thriving, but, um, I take her every morning. So six 45, you know, no matter what time we go to bed, we're up at six 45, which kind of sucks, you know, um, but it is what it is. You know, that was, when I was an individual, I didn't set an alarm clock, I'd wake up. And when training happened, training happened. And now it's like I've got to be on a little bit more of a schedule and, you know, be cognizant of time and time management, which has never been a strong point of mind. So I'm working on that. Is it a necessity for you to have a training group around you?

Because you've been on teams for so long and you grew up in this massive family where it's competitive. Would you say that that's been part of your sense? success has always just had at least a training buddy whether it's james hobart or who all of you have now yeah 100 percent i you know there's obviously days where you don't want to have a training partner so you can just kind of go in and and do your thing um but that's once and you know like some days you don't want to push and some days you can't push and so for me over the years i've learned that hey you're let that ego go some days i you know i'm not going to be pushing the same pace that somebody else is doing but you know overwhelmingly yes i think training partners are

almost more important than a coach. As long as I've been doing it, your movement's pretty clean. You know how to program for yourself or you're following a program. I think training partners are huge. You know, that push, that kind of camaraderie, it doesn't make everything this kind of dull and boring.

I think training partners are a huge part. And I 100% think that's a huge part of my success, even when I was an individual, having good training partners. And people to push me in different areas, You know, not necessarily overall, but having people that are good at different things to push you at certain things. You mentioned, you know, not every day you're going to push. How much are you using the combination of body feel, data, you know, kind of where you are in the week to make the adjustments to your sort of program along the way? I know we are at the WOOP podcast, so I do use WOOP quite a bit.

If I am in the red, I know that that's a day that I'm not going to be able to push quite as much. or really on those days I watch volume per se and try to make sure that I'm not pushing way beyond where it says I should. That's actually been a huge part of off season. During the season, come probably January 1, I don't really look at it. I keep it on, but I don't, I look at it every single day, but I look at it more for strain than I do actual recovery. Just because I know, hey, some days you're going to have to compete when your body is in the red. And so I need to get used to that as long as I'm not trending and staying in the red for multiple days. Honestly, that's the main thing.

You know, if I have a red day and I train relatively normal and the next day it comes up, then I'll keep at it. But if I have probably two days in the red, I might take it a little bit more easy or if I'm sick or something like that. Yeah, for sure. And that's the right way to kind of understand the data. And, you know, one day is one day. And if you said if there's a competition, you're going out there. Yeah, exactly. What do you think your sort of next step in CrossFit is going to be?

You say maybe you'll eventually retire, maybe, maybe, maybe not. Maybe, maybe, we'll see. Probably sooner than later. Do you think you'll get more involved, hands-on with CrossFit, you'll still be that sort of training partner for the athletes that train out of the barn and mayhem? Will you shift more to a coach role? What do you kind of think is next? Yeah, I think, you know, as a.

myself in the future, I think, mentor slash coach slash training partner. I'm more of a lead by example type. That's my, just kind of the way I've always been. Like, I'm going to put the work in as well, and I'm not going to ask you to do anything that I wouldn't do. So, you know, I think it would be hard for me to just stand there with a stop watching a clipboard. I don't think I'll ever be that type of coach. But, you know, I feel like I through my experience competing, through my experience training. I feel like I have, you know, can relay some things to future generations. And I'm starting to enjoy that a little bit more.

You know, I was joking. You know, in the mornings I'll be training normal with everybody else. And in the afternoons, I'll probably be out somewhere on the tractor and the farm. That's where I'm getting to the point. And I kind of know I'm nearing the end is where I really enjoy kind of our first session and training hard and doing those things. And then in the afternoon, I'm like, you know what? I don't really want to go back out to the barn.

I'd rather go mess around on it like a, I messed around the tractor, knock some trees over, do some stuff like that, ride the horse, whatever. So I know that, you know, it's getting to that point when, like I said, that afternoon session doesn't sound as much fun. That's when I know it's time. That's fair. Do you have any really memorable event wins where you're like, man, I really wanted to win that, so I went out and got that one? Yeah, I think this year at the Wall Walk thruster one was a lot of fun. the crowd getting into that and you know us getting to five reps and you know before that thinking all

seven then you get to five and you're like oh no and then the crowd starts cheering and you're like well now i have to do it um it was super memorable uh that one was a ton of fun i think back to in 17 actually um as much as i try to forget that year the the hay bale sprint finish thing where um basically they just said hey whoever has the chip can go and watsatch kind of held back thinking that the person who had the chip had to be last and we just lindy was like hey go so i took off um there's some pretty cool video of that one so i think that's why i remember that um but yeah i think every year there's some some fun stuff like that i think you look back at thick and quick or uh double gray since it was my final event um was a ton of fun but each i think each kind

of little event we've done always has some type of special moment um when you look back I'm starting to forget them all, no. I've been doing it for so many. Yeah, you've been in so many. You know, you've got the year coming up. You're competing at Waterpaloza. Yeah, me, Angelo, and Luke are going to be Mayhem in Paradise. A little make fun of Luke there.

He didn't realize we were making fun of him when we said that name until like three weeks ago. We've had that name planned for a while. And so he finally realized he was like, oh, you guys making fun of me? so pretty funny so for context Luke was on the bachelor bachelor yeah bachelor in paradise me him in paradise he trains yeah he he trains down with with rich yeah no good dude salt to the that guy I you know he he caught a bad rap on the show and even my wife showed me some of the clips after and I was like that's not Luke like Luke is literally the nicest human being you've ever met and so a good dude good to have around so speaking of that team

And just any team, each athlete has their own sort of strengths and weaknesses. When you're programming for the team, are you thinking about how to build each person individually? Are you looking at it as this is what I know we have to do to win? So even if you fail, we're going to know that we're going to fail here and get better in this area? Or are you starting to tweak programs for? Yeah, and I use me, Luke, and Angelo, that's kind of more for fun. but when I think of like a team of four, you know, we want to, you know, everybody is going to have a strength and a weakness that's different from somebody else or one of the three or four, I mean, is going to have some type of weakness within any given workout. So we want to, I want to try to push us to see where that weakness is and, hey, can we, you know, pick up for that person or are we going to have to wait on that person or, you know, it's going to put a little stress on them in training that they are falling behind a little bit.

not going to put any added stress. Luckily, with everybody that we have on the team, they put enough stress on themselves and are competitive enough that I don't need to add any stress. The stress of them feeling like we're waiting is a stress enough. But you learn a lot about people in training and how they handle that adversity and what they do in those moments.

So, you know, we're just trying to touch as many of those different things and different stimuluses or stimuli, I guess, as we go so we know one what's going to happen like what our weaknesses are in that competition and two what's going to happen when it hits the fan and hey you know how can we fix this or how can we work through this or you know like what do we need to do um to pick you up or or help you out so that's the one beauty of all the teams that we've been on over the years is everybody is super fit one good people too and everybody kind of is a it has been a team point player in the fact that, you know, they're going to pick up when they have to pick it up for

somebody and they're going to let you know when they need a pickup. So that communication is a huge part, but a lot of that comes through the training that we do and how much we push and volume that we do just to find those things. What would you say you're most proud of in all of your time of CrossFit? Oh, man, just speaking to CrossFit. It could be just in the last, you can give me any of them. You could, you could, you Over the last 11, 12 years. It could be athletic, could be team, could be life-related. If we go life-related, I mean, being a father, husband,

you know, where we're at kind of as a family right now, really proud of that. That's not just me. That's, you know, my wife. It's everybody that helps us out there. Really proud of the community that we've created at Mayhem through employees, through coaches, through members. It's been awesome.

And then athletically, I think five-team is, I think, cooler for me than my individual time. You know, it feels like such a different time and a different lifetime ago. Winning with different personalities and trying to figure out how to motivate different people and be a part of a team is way more difficult than doing it than it was for me to do it by myself. Who's been your most challenging training partner in terms of, has pushed you the most? oh man um all of them if i really if i go back to you know the beginning it had been darren my cousin um i think and you know what we all and you ask actually anybody that's been around

darren is the most talented person to never compete as an individual or we always say waste of talent but he's not a waste there's not a waste uh waste of physical talent um you know back when we first started CrossFit. If it was over 10 minutes, he'd beat me. If it was sub 10 minutes or heavier, I would beat him. I feel like if he would have actually concentrated on those things that he needed to concentrate on, you know, like I did with my weaknesses, I think Darren could have been one of the greats in the sport. But that's not what Darren wanted to do, and there's nothing wrong with that. Darren's an incredible coach. One of the best coaches that I've ever seen just in relating with people, knows how to motivate different people differently. And, you know, he's

He's, I would say, comparable to me in CrossFit as an athlete. He's comparable to me in the same regard as a coach. He's incredible and good at programming and stuff like that. So I don't want to say that he's a waste whatsoever because Darren has been awesome and I'm super proud of him. But as an athlete, we always say that Darren as an athletic talent was wasted. But it's not what he wanted to do, you know, so I can't put that on him. Your first one was your toughest one.

Yeah. That's pretty wild. Haley's up there too, though. Haley's a psycho. In the most respectful way possible, Haley's a psycho. Yeah, it seems like she really takes after you in terms of going hard and pushing the limits of what the body can do. Haley was on and it seems like you guys bash heads a couple times. Yeah, yeah, in a good way.

Man, it's preparing me for my daughter being a teenager, really is what it's doing. I feel like I'm going to be ready to go when Lakeland hits, you know, hits 13. Granted, she's already, I feel like she's seven going on 16 anyway. But, yeah, no, Haley's, we've developed a relationship that, you know, she can, I feel like she, she knows now that she can talk to me, like she feels like she needs to talk to me. And at times I get super frustrated, but, you know, that is with any type of relationship like that. And so she gets frustrated with me and, you know, we figure it out and I think we'll be better for it. And I see it from what I feel like 10 years down the road where she's at and she sees it right now.

And I'm trying to get her to say, hey, you know, in December we don't need to be doing, we already do a ton of volume as it is. You don't need to add more volume on top of that in December. You know, we can start talking about that in, say, April or May. or June, but, you know, stay fit. Let's get, you know, we know her fitness, overall fitness outside of strength is not her problem. So let's work on the strength. And if you keep running yourself into the ground, you're not going to get stronger. And so we're working on it. It's a give to take. I'm like, all right, yeah, you can do some extra volume, but it's got to be accessory volume. You can't just go sit on a machine and hammer yourself. So, so it's not good now that

she has her own garage gym because I think she's going and doing some other stuff. But, you know, every once in a while, I think she takes a whoop off as well. So I don't see that she does anything extra. So, uh, but hey, that's her decision as an athlete and as a person. And, you know, I'm not going to be one of those that's going to stand over and tell her, hey, I'm going to tell you, but, uh, do as I say, not as I did. You think that you would give your younger self the same advice you're giving Haley now? Yeah, for sure. I, you know, it was a little bit different back then because we didn't know you didn't know but i looked back and i'm like no it was kind of done that extra whatever um it did get me to where i am but could i done it

smarter could i have done it smarter could i have you know been better i guess with my time instead of just you know always running myself into the ground and i but i think like i said i had to learn those things and somebody had to learn those things and um it was kind of what we did back then was we were nobody knew there was no book i feel like i wouldn't say there's a book now or everybody's doing a similar thing and there's so many specialty coaches now that yeah you're working on your specialties you're doing this you're doing that um but somebody had to do it to try to figure out what not to do something i noticed about you at the games that doesn't seem like a ton of other athletes at the top too is you seem very accessible to fans you camp out in the parking

lot where other people park and you're just kind of working out and people want to come up and they want to chat and you make time for them. We had a little whiffle ball game last year in the park a lot. It was pretty fun. Has that always been your sort of personality is like very open, you know, like ingratiated with the community. Like you really are part of the community and don't see yourself as anything outside of it. Well, I mean, you know, we wouldn't get to do what we do without the community, without everybody supporting what we do. I'd be lying if I said I really love that and enjoy that.

I do feed off that eventually, but it exhausts me. I'm never been an outgoing person. I've never been much for public speaking. I've gotten way more comfortable with that over the last 10 years. I mean, you go back and look at interviews and stuff like that from 10 years ago. It's a pretty bad day watching those. but, you know, it's, I've realized that, hey, without everybody, without the community, I would, I would not be able to provide for my family and do the things that I get to do.

And it is awesome meeting people and hearing their stories and just learning. And learning what we do is not just about the competitive side of, you know, winning and doing those things, but motivating people, yeah, I think it's an awesome thing, but I would be 100% lying if I didn't say when I get done. I'm more exhausted doing some type of public meet and greed or whatever than I am competing at the games or a hard training session. It completely exhaust me because it's not who I get. It's who I am, but it's not who I am. I read an article, I guess it was called the introverted extrovert. And so I'm an introvert probably by nature, but I know that I have to put on this kind of extrovert and talk to people and do those types of things.

I am invested when I do talk to those people, but it takes me down. It knocks me out. Yeah, for sure. You want to give everybody what, you know, they're kind of built up in their mind. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You don't want to let people down. You know, you always, you always hear that, you know, I wish I would have never met my hero or whatever. I don't want to be, you know, I'm sure I've had some of those interactions if I was exhausted or something like that or been a dick to somebody. I'm sorry. But, you know, it's, it's tough. I can only imagine for you. so you've expanded beyond crossfit i think you're ripping about you know half of the brands right now yeah yeah fronting farming buffalo brew and how did you get into raising buffalo yeah so the you know we've got i'm looking out at our our front 40 here uh you know i grew up we didn't have a working farm but we had chores and uh we had a couple horses uh at some random points throughout my childhood like i said

no working for them, but we had chores and we had things we had to do and things to take care of. And I think there's a huge benefit in that, you know, when you have something to take care of as a kid and the kind of chores we can do as a family, that was the idea. And my best friend growing up lives a mile from here and has a cattle background. We were both firefighters as well in college at different points and he raised cattle. So we had land kind of between the two of us. us. And I was like, hey, we'll start a farm. He was like, all right, sweet, let's do it. And in the, in the process, you were going to get some cattle and stick them out there and do whatever. And we were like, well, let's make up some logos. And, you know, maybe we can sell some stuff to buy our herd. And

then, you know, from there, see where it goes. And in the process, I was like, hey, I've been doing a lot of research on bison. I've always thought bison were cool. And then the more and more research I did, I found out how awesome they were and just how resilient they are and just their history. and it's just a really cool animal, but then also the health benefits of it, you know, the more lean meat, but you still get the good taste of beef and, you know, more vitamins

and, well, minerals and stuff like that. So Matt was like, yeah, that's cool and all, but I don't know anything about bison. I'm like, me either. So through that process, you know, like I said, we just designed some shirts and hats and then had another friend in the meat industry, and he was like, hey, we can start making sticks

and Bill Tong and those types of things and we're like, all right, sweet, let's do it. And so that's where we are with Froning Farms now. And, you know, it's pretty cool. You know, it's become, it's come full circle. And I always talk about kind of this aha moment, I guess it was last year. We got home and, you know, with a time change and it was six o'clock and it's pitch black and it's spitting snow and I've got to go put hay out. You know, it is.

We're taking care of some animals. They need food. And I'm about to walk outside in Lakeland, my then five. year old is like, I'm going with you. I'm like, Lakeland, it's nasty. It's going to take me 30, 45 minutes, like open cab tractor. You don't want to go with us. Like, you're not doing this. She's like, no, I'm coming. And so for 45 minutes, she was right there with me, never complained once. We put hay out. We put, you know, got the bison moved to a different field, made sure the water was, you know, busted up because it was cold and icy. And I was like, you know what? This is, this is why we're

doing this. And so we had one of those moments the last couple nights, the kids fight. on who gets to come, you know, because I only take one of them at a time. Now we have a cab tractor, but they want to come. They want to be a part of it, and it's pretty special. And then now my wife has some horses and highlands on the other side, so it's been highland cattle. So it's been cool even to see her get into it and want to do stuff where she wants to, she, you know, used to hate outside, was always her joke.

And now I'm looking out and she's shoveling cow shit out of stalls. And I'm like, all right, this is it, you know, this is the life. So it's been awesome. That's amazing. It's a true family affair now. Yeah, it really is. That's why we did it. It's where we started it.

Well, thank you, Rich, for joining us today. We really appreciate it and find Rich all over the Internet. Rich Froning, Mayhem Athlete, Cross with Mayhem, Mayhem Freedom, Froning Farms, Buffalo Brew. Yep, all of them. And for my kids' college, so appreciate it. Yeah, thanks a lot, Rich. Yeah, thank you, guys. Thanks for having me. If you enjoyed this episode of the WOOP podcast, please drop us a rating or review.

Don't forget to subscribe to the WOOP podcast. You can check us out on social at W-W-W-A-W-A-Mood, and you can get 15% off a W-E-P membership by using the code, Will, W-I-L. Okay, folks, that's it for now. Stay healthy. Stay in the green. Keep an eye on that respiratory rate. Keep it flat. And we'll see you next week. Thank you.