WHOOP Podcast - CrossFit media personality Rory McKernan talks about the evolution of the sport and what the future holds

Episode Date: September 16, 2020

Rory McKernan, the face and voice of the CrossFit Games and the CrossFit Open for the past decade, sits down with WHOOP Performance Manager and resident CrossFit expert Mike Lombardi to talk about the evolution of the sport over the years. Rory discusses what the future of the sport might look like (5:05), his experiences covering elite CrossFitters (10:55), writing a book with Katrin Davidsdottir (12:16), growing into his job as a writer and broadcaster (13:02), the role of data in CrossFit (16:14), learning about strain (18:10), how to define fitness gains (20:28), the next stars of CrossFit (21:55), why focusing on one sport isn't a good idea (26:17), winning a football state championship with a young Drew Brees (26:39), and overcoming injuries sustained during pickup games at CrossFit HQ (28:47).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

Hello, folks. Welcome to the WOOP podcast. I'm your host, Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of WOOP, and we are still on a mission to unlock human performance. We build technology across hardware and software and analytics that's designed to continuously monitor and improve the human body. You can check all that out at WOOP.com. And you can get 15% off a WOOP membership if you use the code, Will Ahmed, W-I-L-L-A-H-M-E-D. That's Will Ahmed. We just kicked off a whole new brand campaign with the theme of know-yourself. It's based on this notion that there's a lot of things that you know intuitively about your life or about sports,

but how much do you really know about your body? So if you find that intriguing, check that out at whoop.com or on our different social media accounts at WOOP. Okay, we are celebrating the start of the CrossFit Games by sharing another one of our amazing discussions from Wadapalooza. Our performance manager and resident CrossFit expert, Mike Lombardi is back, back in the host's chair as he sits down with Rory McCurnan. Rory spent the last decade is the face and voice of the CrossFit games and open. He was instrumental in bringing the sport to a wider audience through broadcasts on ESPN and CBS Sports. He is also the voice of many brands in the CrossFit space, including our friends at Noble. And I'd encourage you to check out episodes 25 and 74 of the podcast with Marcus and Michael, the founders of Noble.

Mike and Rory discussed the evolution of CrossFit over the years. What the future competition season could look like as the sport continues to grow, the critical role data is playing in CrossFit and how Wooop plays a role, why young athletes shouldn't focus on just one sport, and which up-and-coming athletes in CrossFit could one day become the faces of the sport? Without further ado, here is Rory. Welcome to the Wooop Podcast Live at Wadabluza.

I'm Mike Lombardium here with Rory McCurnan, the man of myth of legend. What I view as the face of CrossFit for the last decade, How are you doing, man? I'm good. Man, I'm good. I'd be lying to you if I said that I slept a lot last night, but it was all out of pleasure and getting some videos done, actually with whoop and having a good time.

So I'm underslept, overfund, got some workouts in yesterday, and actually having a blast. I've never been here before. Really? Yeah, I've been to a million events, and I've never been to Waterpaloosa, which is a tragedy. Is that largely because of the closer tie to the CrossFit HQ and, you know, I guess only the rise of sanctionals now? Exactly. It's funny. It's, you know, like when, when regionals were a thing, it was, my year was very compartmentalized. And it was, I was going to be gone for the open for five weeks traveling.

The regionals were, you know, four or three weeks, depending on which year we're talking about. And there wasn't, there was often conflict when it came to other big events, you know. And they always had to play second fiddle because obviously they had duties with, with HQ. So, yeah, in that regard, it's been a cool reality getting to see, like last year, I went to Shanghai, went to Iceland, made like basically circumnavigated the globe right going to new events you're doing like a million projects now um with you know everything that's happened with hQ and the media staff yes what are all the projects you're doing because now it seems like you keep adding more and more and more i do man i do um it's funny because when it rains it pours and that comes with um that comes

with opportunity as well and so uh to answer the question obviously i have a fantastic partnership with Noble, and we're continuing to kind of grow their insane, successful brand. And then doing the freelance stuff on my own, which I found, it was funny, I didn't take pleasure in it initially, and I think just because it was kind of begrudging and had a lot of, there was emotions attached to it, but I'm loving it this year. So even like, I was up all night because I could hire an editor, but I want to learn it, you know, so like I'm trying to kind of do it myself. Yeah, you're adding more tools to the tool belt. and eventually you'll look back in a couple years and go like oh that's crazy that did that but

you're going to be way happier that you did totally and i found anything like like like you got to have sleepless nights to try and to learn something like that you know like you don't uh i'm not making this up somebody recently was like they were a new videographer and they said hey um how do i make the cross of a game's documentary and i was like 10 years of sleepless nights and hard work and relationships and and breaking your back you know like there's there's no short answer to that Hell no. It kind of seems what it's like now that, not that CrossFit's completely decentralized, but with all these opportunities, and who's putting on great events, you know, loud and live with the ability to step in and really put on a lot of the premiere events and seemingly drive the course of the future here? Yeah. Do you see CrossFit trending the way more like the golf where there are, let's say, four main tournaments? You know, do you see CrossFit trending the way more like golf where there are, let's say, four main tournaments? You know, do you see? see it as potentially getting to be like Waza, Rogue, insert other sanctional, and the games.

Yeah, I guess it depends on exactly like how we're defining the conversation. Look, there's a lot of interested parties. Some are the fans that are walking around. Some are, clearly there's brands that want to be involved with this space because it's a great group of people to have, uh, interact with. So do I see it going? I see like a number of realities where that could happen. And I don't think it was Pat, but it was someone, uh,

like astute like him last year who said, but maybe he's even Con Porter actually at the games. He was like, you know, the new reality is? Like, yeah, the games might not be my end-all-be-all. In fact, I've always wanted to visit Shanghai or I've always wanted to, you know, go to this place and by the way, I can also compete, and my sponsors will help me get there,

and I can bundle other things into it. And so I've heard a million different takes on kind of riffs like that. But if we're talking about, like, where's the actual structure of it going? I think that that's way, way, way to be. determined. But it does seem like there's all those kind of part and parcel of, well, you've got a Loudoun Live who has multiple tournaments. They have multiple tournaments. Yes, exactly. You could do like a multiple stop thing with points for each one and make it into a viable season for an

athlete who wouldn't win the CrossFit games. Exactly. I think that's one of the core parts about the Sanctionals is the ability to be a pro athlete now. It doesn't just have to be the, I'm aspiring to be a regionals athlete. I can pick and choose here and maybe actually go win some money. get some sponsorship, make a run out of this. I think that's probably been one of the cooler things. Obviously, I missed the schedule. I'm sure you probably do too. You're like, well, I know, like you said, I got this

these five weeks blocked off, regional's and then the games. Well, I miss it as a fan too. Yeah. It's hard to get invested. You know what I mean? It's like... Well, especially with something every weekend. It's hard. And where's it's streaming and... With something every weekend or like my bias on it is also storytelling.

And it's like, so take the women's race, for example. first and second place are already locked for the CrossFit games and to tell like a passive bystander like I always think about how would I explain it to my mom or my grandmother and to be like oh super exciting and you know

the Tia 1 and she did this and whatever and they're like oh great so she's the one that's going to the CrossFit games it's like no she already went and actually she went too and the third place did but she might get a backfill from the open you know like it becomes harder and harder to become a sports fan versus yeah it seems like you just got to do well enough

hey, it's probably going to backfill at some point. Or it's just confusing to wrap your head around, right? Do you feel like you have a pretty good grip on it? It's just this weird math, you know? And again, I think that's because when changes happen, it takes a bit to settle into them and this group of people will make it work. It's just, it's for now, it's a little bit confusing.

You were mostly in front of the camera for a long time. So how long have we got crossFit? But, man, if we count my time as a seminar trainer. So you were seminar staff as well. Yeah, so I worked in an affiliate for two years, made seminar staff, and then I soon moved up to Northern California to be part of HQ, but still kind of was working seminars. So if you count all that, I mean, it was about 13 years-ish. Wow.

Yeah. And then how quickly once you actually moved to HQ, were you the on-camera guy? Not for years. So I was hired as the, I was the second employee of CrossFit Inc. I'm sorry, of CrossFit Inc. Media. Okay. And that's when they were getting real big, you know. They're like, hey, we need the second person.

And, no, my, actually my try, it wasn't my first job, but it was my trial, was Tony Budding, who was the media director at the time. Great human. He's kind of moved on to. He invented Grid League, and then he went on now. He's the media director for the drone racing league. I don't know if you ever seen that. The year involved with that now. Yeah.

Yeah, I've seen that you post about that. It's a freelance gig, but it's really cool. But anyway, so Tony, Tony was like, hey, man, we had mutual acquaintances. You know, it was very good old boy system back then. And so I got connected with Tony, and he said, why don't you start by rewriting the abstract to every CrossFit Journal that exists? So, like, they had used, like, an algorithm that was, it was just pulling random pull quotes. And so, like, if I was scrolling through the CrossFit Journal back then, and I was looking for, like, I don't know, Mark Ripettow, it might just get some random pulled quote that doesn't make any sense.

And so I literally had to go through every CrossFit journal and write an abstract. Wow. Yeah. And so that was my first one for like, you know, whatever. That's kind of not that different than what you're doing now, though. In terms of, you know, if you learn it from the ground up, then one, you appreciate it that much more. And it helps you then guide people underneath you and kind of backfill an organization.

That's right, man. That's right. And yeah. And honestly, to circle all the way back the on camera still that would have been 2009 there were no there was no real there was no such thing as a full

time on camera role with CrossFit into 2013 maybe right so we were experimenting with stuff and it was always the first ESPN year ESPN year yeah it was and now we did the 2012 regional for them kind of on spec and in 2012 we actually did post production

shows but I get well actually I guess live wasn't until 16 like live live live live yeah but yeah we were working with them as early as like 2013 so through this process it seems like you've become obviously incredibly close with all athletes but you know some more than others seems like you have pretty special relationships with the daughters you help captain with her book right yeah yeah i did so how did that kind of relationship uh build you know how is it that that's great question i know you're not you're not a coach it's but you know you're in the space and you know, sometimes you just connect.

Yes. So, yeah. Well, and also you're, you're, um, I am blessed to be around for like pretty, pretty harrowing, intimate, um, you know, uh, stressful situations. Like, um, it's in, in other ways, people that I've worked with at the CrossFit games for years, like you become fast friends because you go through these, it's, um, I will never use the analogy of like going to war, but you, you know, you, you go into the, you know, you, you go into this we're going to get this done together kind of mentality um and also to be fair like our

media efforts um have always were always as crossfit like um we were objective but it was always supportive of the athletes right like there was there was never going to be and i think i got to earn trust that way and i was lucky in that sense but you're right yeah so some friendships develop better than others and um well i mean annie literally the annie was you know on the scene the year after I saw my first Crosby game, so she came to 2009 games. I was with 2008 ones. And, yeah, that's just over time. Like, you're in the same space at the same time,

doing the same things all over the place. And, yeah, and Kat, I really gravitated towards each other. But the book thing, it's funny. Like, well, we've done these book signings. And when that question comes up, it's like, well, why did you guys, why did you choose to go with each other on this one? It's like, I don't really know, you know? It was thrown out there.

and uh cat on that like on on who she works with and in particular she's like she's very particular which is i i really respect it i think some people would just like jump in on a relationship with a sponsor because it seems to make sense financially whatever like she's very particular about who she works with and so it was it was really a big honor whenever like o'keef actually was the one who reached out was like hey dude like we think about writing a book and i was like just definitely on my bucket list and yeah yeah if if the opportunity presents itself let's do this so I didn't know this originally, but now it seems like you have this background in writing based off your abstracts and then the book.

What did you, did you actually have any, like, is your college basis in writing? No, dude, I'm a polysive beer and recreational sports major. But, yeah, no, literally international relations. But the same thing for broadcast, like for a decade, I got to. to take lots and lots of reps. So, like, forgive, again, another long-winded answer, but with the on-camera stuff, people are like, oh, you're really naturally talented.

And I'm like, no, dude. If you went back and you looked at the update shows that we did in 2010 and 11, you would just laugh us out of the room. They were, like, 45 minutes in the weeds, wearing a shirt that looked like my dad's, like, just sucking. But that's also kind of how CrossFit cultures changed, too, right? Yeah.

Shorts were longer, more sleeves. impression, you know, now it's but I guess I also mean the skill level, you know. It was like, yeah, but things get refined over, you know, over time. Right. Yeah. The update show became super legit, probably not that long after

because you were able to, you know, get reps in, get some feedback, be someone was critical, maybe you guys were most critical yourself. Yeah, and we had, we had a leg up, like, if you would have taken, I'm very convinced still to this day that the CrossFit seminar training staff is the best public speakers that I've ever

in my life. I think that might, that's definitely up there. They're incredibly well polished and it's because they hold themselves like they, uh, iron sharpens iron and they're all, you know, they're all generally people who are like, want to impress, want to do well, um, high performers. And there's, and that lays over a really good training protocol, um, and a good structure in, uh, Dave Castro and Nicole Carroll. Yeah, I was just talking to, uh, Austin, Maliolo and Hobart about this. Perfect examples of this, you know, like, When did you realize your coaching voice? How critical are you kind of within this process who helped you?

And, you know, the amount of times it comes back to seminar staff and the learnings seemingly changed everybody, which is... I agree. Yeah. And again, like, I plugged out of seminars by 2011, I wasn't doing anymore. But I missed it every day. You know, it was just a really cool... In terms of the whole CrossFit landscape, like wearing a red shirt is a cool-ass thing, and it's a really radical group of people.

So going back to the format of sanctionals and just this need to, let's say, peak multiple times. Sure. One, you have to get there. If you're not getting through the open, then it gets more and more kind of dire. Look at that tie whoop in here, though. You've just recently started, how long have you been on the month? About a month in, yeah. Yeah.

So you can see at something like this, you're just working really hard. Yes. and, you know, you're smashed. Your recovery smashed. How do you think that is for the athletes that have to travel, do multiple sanctions? I mean, I think Wadip Blues is probably one of the hardest just because it's really hot, and the really long days.

But where do you kind of see data fitting into the future of where this space is going? It's, okay, so here's what's interesting. Two years ago, I would have been like, it doesn't matter at all. It's bullshit, you know what I mean? Yeah. Because a lot of times we're like,

how useful are metrics when at the end of the day you just need to step up and perform like T's not going to look at a whoop this morning and be like oh wow I'm not recovered I better not take the competition floor that's one side of it

but I think I think that what it'll allow them to do is because I get obsessed with it now and it helps me on not these weekends right in my own little version of this world I mean when I say I didn't sleep last night it's literal like I didn't sleep a wink

last night and that's not a sustainable lifestyle, right? But these weekends, when you're coming in you, there's like high input, there's things you need to do, there's opportunities similar for the athletes. They're going to come and they're going to crush it. So I think, I guess, a long way to say that I think that the role of data won't factor in as much here, except for us as fans. I think that it's fascinating. And I could be totally wrong. Like, we should ask an athlete about it, right? I think that's partially true. I think part of it is, on all the other times when you are training you know the things that are going to impact you possibly or negatively so it's going to

help you almost build these sort of dry runs of let's say a comp and you could be like hey this actually matters what am i going to do for hydration when do i eat my food what actually goes well so that they can replicate it when they come to something like this and it's going to help them i mean consistency is key right yeah so so and i actually this is great because i would love to um i got all sorts of questions with with um like how you would accomplish that because i because i I know, and I'm only a month in, but I'm just using the rudimentary functions right now, right? So, like, how would I have to ask the questions? Well, just, let's turn that one around and be like, okay, so if I was going to look at my hydration, nutrition,

strategies, whatever, what am I looking at in the app? Is it just my strain score? And then, and if so, how can I tweak that or fine-tune it? Or, like, really, how could I document that day? Like, boom, nailed it? How do I replicate that? Is it looking at my food log and looking at my sleep and all that kind of stuff? Right, right, right.

So the thing that people get really caught up in is strain. right? Strain is effectively a byproduct of how recovered you are. So if you're under recovered, that strain's going to skyrocket at a, you know, more of an exponential rate, whereas if you're more recovered, it's going to kind of like gradually go, right? Yeah. So HRV is probably, and resting heart rate are two of the most important things to look at. And also, do you ever click on your quality of sleep? Oh, yeah. You actually go in and say, how much slow wave did I get? How much REM did I get? My favorite function, like, like, even back when they didn't work, but you could get like a, you know, whatever the

wearables were back then. but they didn't have any level of detail. I was like, I still look at it and be like, oh, great, you know. So if you kind of, if you wake up in the morning and you look at, how's my heart rate variability compared to how it's been the last 30 days, how's my wrist and heart rate, and then looking at the quality and quantity of both total sleep and then REM and slow wave,

you can really then go back to the day before and say, okay, what did I do that may have caused this? I'm sure that you guys do, but there's, being, what a, the amount of fantastic athletes who are also, very smarter into training, uh, that I see wearing bands. And again, I, I, I, I can't wait for that, like, as a, as a fan of the sport. I can't wait until the day that that integrates with a live broadcast. Yeah. So where some of the stuff's just for fun, right? Like, I don't really care what, to, you know, what Sarah's heart rate was. I'm interested, but it doesn't matter because

she still won, right? Like, she could go on it. It'd be nice to see how that heart rate spikes on when she I think she's going to blow apart that bike. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Maybe it's, maybe, maybe she's or how low it is, right? Yeah. That's the other The cool part is if she can spike it and then immediately the heart rate comes back down, she throws that weight up overhead and she just pulls the cucumber. Like that's really the thing. And I think you'd see that on a lot of the, let's say, more methodical athletes, where they are really in control of being able to get that heart rate back down to do either a complex or a highly loaded movement.

That's a skill. And that's, you know. It is. And actually, like, I affirm. And for people to see that, let's say, hypothetical whoop data, yeah they'd see how much better like people how again they're going to get back to the how much strain have I accumulated I look at success in fitness of how how fast did I go and how little did that actually affect my body god it makes me feel so much better that's the that's the sign of improvement of

fitness right Tommy last night was like well I got to 19 I'm like dude I have never touched like 15 yeah and but again I'm a class guy you know I'm not going there but it's all good though yeah But I understand what you're saying. Actually, I think what will be interesting, too, is when you do get that additional layer of information, the people who are, who are, have the most amazing numbers in those senses, the ones that we haven't seen yet, will be your Matt Fraser's, probably you, Rich Fronings. Like, I don't think that those guys get enough credit for how smart they are. Like, they're fantastic of programming, they understand anatomy and physiology, like the physiological ways that they train, it's not an accident. They're super smart dudes. And they're factoring that kind of stuff in.

They just don't have the data. They don't have the hard data probably because it's not been provided. Yeah. You know, and you guys are closing that gap. It's really cool to see the adoption, just kind of across the board, people trying to get a little bit more. And because I think the people that have it fine-tuned, like Tia or Matt or Rich, they've got it. I don't know that they're going to give the secret sauce out there. Well, yeah.

But everyone else has got to do whatever they can to try and close that gap. Yeah, yeah, good luck. Yeah, exactly. The gap's too big. The gap's pretty big. I mean, competitive last year. Yeah. With a new format.

So who do you think that it's weird because it feels like there's an old guard now? Yeah, yeah. And maybe like Frasier's even kind of going into the, let's call him like, I don't want to say what we're on, but he's older, comparative to the field. Yes. And still not losing a step.

Who do you see is kind of up and coming? Ooh. Both sides. I mean, well, listen, Noah had a moment. Noah had many moments last year. that Noah had yet to have. And again, he's been in the game for a minute. He's not an up-and-comer.

He's been around and getting better. But I think he's, man, I think that those were some mental hurdles that he had to overcome. Like, I'm going to stand next to you and not implode and beat you in an event to where he's a real threat. Anyhow. Pat Vellner, every single year, has a legitimate, I mean, he's the dude, you know, in my opinion. And, but still, you could call them kind of old hat. And the difficulty now is, in the past, I would have gone, I would have answered your questions by being like,

well, this got a fantastic open finish. And although he doesn't have a resume in regionals, like, blah, blah, blah. But now I'm like, shit, I don't know. Data points are all different. Data points are all different. Unfortunately, it's harder to pass a sniff test in some ways with, like, the dude from Greece who pop for PEDs or a lot of people now in the open who post a fantastic performance.

and then either don't show up for an event or if they show up for an event and they suck. You're like, okay, you probably aren't as legit as you thought you were or you said you were. But it's really tough, man, like, you know, to kind of choose a dark horse. Laura Horvath, if she, I mean, she's got some really strange gaps in the past in her fitness, primarily handstand pushups. Like, like, really weird. She came in second in the CrossFit games, and then the next year, like, DNF to work out of the Rogue Invitational for Handstand Pushups. right um and i who knows like young lady chalk it up to inexperience or or whatever you want but uh Tommy again my encyclopedia made a really good point that um at strength and depth you

had haley adams amazing athlete rookie to your at last year you had uh gabriella magala who is a national champion from uh finland i believe poland one of the two amazing athletes she won strength in depth and there's one other young lady and they're all like under the age of 20, or like, they're all like 20, 21, 22. Right. And so from the female side of things, like, oh, and it was, sorry, it was Horvath. Horvath is young, dude. Yeah, she's a baby.

And so you look at that for the female feel, like, there's, there's part of the future anyways. Those girls will be making big moves because they're going to be multiple games, that multiple year games veterans by the time they're 24 years old, which is really kind of, you know, probably peak, like maturity meets physical capabilities. Who are yours? No, I think Haley Adams is going to be really good. She's so legit.

I think she continues to prove that, well, she's young. Yeah. But you can't, you can't teach Engine. You can't teach, well. Well, you can't a little bit, but there's a certain point. In the dock, when he's like, she runs a 520 mile. Yes. And it's like, I mean, that's fast.

But the only reason I push back is because she goes to Tennessee Tech and she lives with the pinch us. Yeah, it is. So if anybody can teach engine, like, he could teach your engine. He could teach your engine. Yeah, right. Because if you're waking up, breathing it. And it's like the year that people said Matt couldn't do cardio and then he went and won the run, right? That's right.

So, like, you can definitely get it. I also think, you know, hearing Matt's story last night about, you know, having a burger and a cigarette after a way of PCCs was like one of the funniest and most amazing. And really telling stories of how amazing an athlete he is. Yes. But not everyone. Like, clearly he had, he has ability and he has capacity. But at a certain point, some people, like, running's really hard. And it's never going to be that easy for them or that fast.

Yeah. So I think there's that. But then there is the strength component. So, like, now the mix is, you know, how do you create this super well-rounded person that could still lift pretty heavy? Yeah. And I guess Tia is like, is the, if Tia and Matt are the prototype, then. Well, and Rich prior to that. You know what?

To take the young person thing to another level, too, is like, you, do now have kids who like even in their in their high school sporting careers and i don't i don't actually support this to be honest with you but they're they're foregoing any kind of regular sports like traditional sports to do crossfit to focus on crossb and some of were even like homeschooling to do it um and whatever my opinion aside like that's going to bode well most like as long as their bodies hold up like that's going to vote well for them in the long term uh did you do multiple sports going out i did yeah yeah yeah um yeah i grew up in texas and and if you were my size You played football.

Oh, Westlake. Yep, yep. Yeah, Drew Brise was my quarterback. Really? When I was a freshman, he won the state championship. His little brother was my age. And... No overlap with Nick Foles?

Nick was way younger than me. Okay. Yeah, so I was kind of in between those two. In between the two. Yeah. I forget that Breeze is like 40. Yeah, yeah, dude. Yeah, he was, yeah, 1996 Texas State Champions.

So you were just football? So I played football, basketball, basketball, football and soccer um and then soccer or spring sport there um how's that work yeah actually we played spring in texas we played spring and fall and um but but when i got to like junior year when i got to talk more year actually i was like it was pretty much focused on football football but then you know we were way into mountain sports and and uh getting outdoors and stuff like that so yeah always pretty diversified and i'm trying to do the same thing with my kids i'm like they're like i want to try that I'm like, do it, you know?

Definitely do it. I tried lacrosse last year. He plays baseball every once in a while. And, yeah, I think there's really no need to specialize down that path, and especially in something like CrossFit, because you're going to be doing, you can do CrossFit for all those other things versus focusing on it as, like, a job early on. You just develop, I think, not that you can't be competitive, you do CrossFit only, but there's something about being within the team sport, having confines of, you know, competing.

Yeah. I mean, there's something about it. There's definitely something about team sports that build you in a way that training by yourself kind of... Dude, and not to mention the athletic component as well. We, you know, Rich encourages all of his members to do, like, things in the community. And so he's always, he's played a flag football for a long time. And so he had an A, Rich's team is like the A team, but we formed a B team. And, dude, I have not been as sore as I was from my first game of flag football since.

I don't even know when. I mean, when's the last time he made this sort of like lateral movements. Exactly. I mean, well, I can't tell you.

Yeah, don't think. I, uh, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, uh, Santa Cruz playing on an HQ basketball team. Oh, no. We, we had a bunch of dudes from HQ,

super athletic, super aggressive, and like, within three weeks, we had, like, two torn ACLs, two broken noses. Like,

it was just, it was just, it was bad juju, but, uh, hey, It was fun as hell. Pumped Dragons. That's good stuff.

We made a splash. We also had like at least two people foul out every single game. Oh, you could actually foul out in the league you're playing in? Oh, dude. I mean, there was like fights and stuff, usually. We weren't getting in fights, but it was like, it was a, yeah, it was a bunch of old dudes who, no, I feel that. When I lived in L.A. for a little bit, there were some very competitive leagues

with guys who were, like, in the NFL or had played at UCLA. those were no joke so it was yeah you look at you made for basketball yeah basketball i did soccer basketball and rowing oh yeah yeah yeah so a little bit but i agree i'm definitely in the camp of do as many things as you can and then when it's time like i did i got it across it because it was hard for me yes and the you always can get a little bit better at something and you had like you had at least you had the rowing like everybody comes in like i got one thing dude i got rowing that is it Yep, you're like, you watch the whole, hold my beer, watch me row. Yeah, like, wait, pull-ups, what?

Yeah, pumped for today. I was like, Matt, put me out, I'll do, I'll do someone's individual. Yeah, you got you guys. Don't worry, that paste one, I got you. That's awesome. So, let me take it from highbrow to, like, super lowbrow. Yeah. With the actual product, do you have and interchange multiple bands?

Yes. My only thing is, like, I take it off for the shower and, like, I don't know, I feel guilty. I'm like, I'm cheating on my whoop. Like, I should be keeping it off. I take mine off. How did you take off? To shower. To shower.

Just a shower. Okay. I think that's probably about it. But you switch out the bands frequently? I switch arms too. Okay. I switched your right. I was worried about that.

It's fine. Is my HR be different? Am I right than my left? Shouldn't be. Yeah. Some people have a really thin wrists. You know, they have to go a little bit further up the arm or bicep. Okay.

So bicep is great too. You know, closer that actually gets your heart at movement. You know, when you're moving around, it can actually be a little better. Oh, interesting. So you could almost make it a chest drop, huh? Hypothetically. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. But yeah. So, yeah, there's interchangeable bands. So you got your fancy bands. Yeah. We've got the, the leather. I saw those. Foot leather.

We've got, you know, you've got the pronate on. But, yeah, lots of colors, lots more coming. Yeah. We found that it's almost like a sneaker drop. Oh, for sure. Are you a sneaker guy at all? I absolutely. I mean, dude, they've got, like, probably 17 pairs of nobles in my closet.

My wife's about to kill me. She's like, no more shoes and then four more boxes. show up and she's like what is happening and t-shirts too yeah it was great is like noble just started making like uh well they're not unbranded but they're they're very discreet branding and so it's like a v-neck and it's got a little noble down here oh nice babe it's not a t-shirt it's a it's a dress shirt she's like it's a t-shirt dude can't not no no not anymore brand across this is a thing now we can have that conversation you feel me you call my wife for me give me he needs more shoes and more shirts there can never be enough we haven't met yet but

Just like, you know, it's okay. He needs another closet. Well, thanks for all this time today. Especially on no sleep and it's probably going to be another long one. Oh, dude, but it's so fun. It's like, there's times when that kind of thing is a drag and there's times like this where it's like it's almost a foam mode that keeps you going, you know? Yeah, a little bit.

There's always something going on. Yeah. So thanks again, Rory. Thanks to Rory for coming on the podcast. Great job, Mike. A reminder. You can use the code Will Amid, W-I-L-L-A-H-M-E. to get 15% off a WOOP membership.

Check us out on social at Woop at Will Ahmed. Stay healthy. Stay in the green and keep that respiratory rate flat.