hi everybody welcome to the relentless podcast we’re here today with Nick Mathew not Matthews right this is Nick Mathew Mathew yeah exactly this googling you is difficult and we’re super anxious to hear from him qualified for CrossFit Games for the second time and yeah how’s it going

how’s the training going rookie no more it’s going good training’s going good we got less than two weeks to go of actual hard training and yeah it’s coming down to the wire now yeah are you gonna tape her off like a few a few days before I was the what’s the protocol

um normally I would have tapered off a little bit I mean we will obviously the week of the games like really like dial things back we had kind of a plan going in but um I caught like a little bit of a cold so it kind of delayed a little

bit of my training last week so basically we’re just backing it up a couple extra days I’m gonna train a little bit harder for an extra couple days and then use that to kind of tape her back off afterwards kind of the week of the games so all right how’s the season been going for you so far in total is the training

except for your cold now how’s it going yeah yeah we’re over it now we’re healed and healing better now but overall seasons been really good I mean you started off I mean I mean do you want to go back to the open I mean sure

everything everything went fine throughout the open um can’t remember exactly where I placed but I mean you just gotta get through it I think it’s level exactly yeah it was kind of just get in get in grind it out get it done um I did wanna put emphasis on like just doing it to

just to kind of see where I was at and give my best performance every time that I’m going out there yeah um then we went into quarterfinals got through that pretty pretty good with a scare of a couple penalties and like things like that throughout but with the v up standard

but that was fun got through that I think I finished fourth in the west and then yeah went out to semis and took seventh there and got a nice comfortable spot for the games yeah what was the semis like did you like overall

did it suit you well yeah overall it seemed really well I I don’t know I felt like it was a lot less stressful this year than like the granite games last couple years um I don’t know if that’s just like uh just like a mental change in terms of like more confidence going in um more belief in myself in terms of like the things that I’ve been doing

in the work that I’ve putting in so going in it was like I’m just gonna go out there give it my best and then after the first two days I was already. . . had a pretty high

comfortable uh point standing so yeah it wasn’t really that it wasn’t as stressful going into like the last day of the workouts in the last event where in the last two years I’ve been battling for that cutline that didn’t 6th place so um that was much nicer way to go about it this year no

yeah you feel like since you qualified last year did you feel like okay now I HAVE TO you know qualify this year or did you feel that pressure yeah definitely there was there’s a little bit of pressure um mainly because people I mean the word kind of went around of

like flash in the pan last year where I came in I had a couple good events at the Games I got in on the backfill spot and yeah just felt really good to kind of go in and put a hush to that and I mean I’ve been training for the games for 7 over almost seven years now so I mean it’s been it’s been a long journey anyway

so whether I got in with the backfill spot last year or this year would have been my first year I was still gonna be at the Games yeah of course yeah you know so are you still doing bodybuilding stuff or have you like thrown that out of the window now have you thrown all bodybuilding stuff out of the window

only doing odd objects now or how’s how’s yeah right maybe if Castro was still programmed that’s how it would have been but now with Bosman in there yeah we have a big blend of like a lot of different things yeah I mean I would say this year has been more diversified in the programming

as to years in the past two like hmm what do you expect from the games this year like you expect it to be technical skills for sure adding in like adding in a ton of different jump rope stuff adding in a definite ton of different bar work I mean doing pullovers to muscle ups and like just in in parallel bar traverses there’s just so much more to like

work on and fine tune as of two years in the past I’m not gonna ask you what but have you been working on things that you’re guessing they’re gonna throw in like a monkey wrench for the athletes this year have you been like trying different things and yeah I guess I don’t I haven’t really thought like

looked into like what they could throw in um other than I’ve seen everybody on Instagram like doing muscle ups on a yoke and stuff like that so I pulled out the yoke the other day and I was like okay I’ll just jump up and give it a go and see what happens and but outside of that I think one of my strengths is that I can adapt on the fly to

like a lot of different movements or I can kind of figure things out quick um and I don’t know if that has something to do with like my sports background and my upbringing in terms of a bunch of different sports um but yeah I feel like I can adapt to kind of whatever is kind of coming up so I think that’s kind of one of my strengths yeah so this is like

a personality trait like some people are just better at just well okay do some you know some impulsive just wing it kind of moves while some people just get paralyzed and it doesn’t matter if it’s on the competition floor in in life you know I also think I also think it’s like

if you have been like brought up with gymnastics or martial arts you know you have been practicing your entire childhood doing things in reverse with by having a teacher you know your setup in lines and so what I mean I don’t think there’s a there’s a reason why female gymnast do so well at the CrossFit Games

I think because they and they because they adapt so well I think and it’s I think it’s because of their background not well the hen and egg obviously they got good at gymnastics for a reason probably you got good shoulders yeah but it’s but but but I think people having issues adapting

probably haven’t practiced at adapting yeah for sure yeah and I mean I was a wrestler for seven years yeah that’s adopted that’s what I’m saying I’m 100% adapting yeah it’s just like I mean every movement every position

you have to adapt and know what to do next and know how to move and yeah I think there’s definitely an element to that for sure what’s your goal for this year’s games goals for this year’s games I wanna I wanna achieve I mean gonna win try not to go it’s hard I’m trying not to um put like a limiter on

because last year like if I would have put a limiter on I would have been way behind what I actually ended up doing so I guess kind of the start was top 10 at the games um I would be ecstatic with top 5 at the games and then I mean if everything goes 100% perfect like hitting that podium and it’s fun

I’m aware I’m realistic I know I know there’s things I still need to work on and stuff like that too um and holes that I have that I mean could potentially come up so um yeah I would say top 10 top five if I’m if I’m really feeling good all weekend and then podium if is just a perfect performance all around

is there some specific weakness you’ve been working on since last year that you want to share swimming swimming was a big one last year compared to the games but I don’t think like the actual performances swimming was bad as bad but it was my headspace going into the swim um so over this last year I think a lot of head space stuff like the the mental side of things

has been something I’ve worked on um and then more specifically in terms of movements yeah like just being faster in the water or high volume gymnastics in a row and I just kind of I kind of broke down the events last year and went back with okay like what are like a few weaknesses and things I need to work on and what is a lot of it just mental

going into the workout yeah do you think it was like execution last year that would have stopped you from going even higher or was it physical stuff or skill skills that sort of held you back definitely I definitely both like I said I was able to adapt to a lot of like the newer things that came out

but when it came to like just standard CrossFit workout that’s where um some of the holes that start to pop in like um but I mean I also like like the workout that had front rack lunges ring muscle ups ghds basically my midline was so shot that the made

the front rack lunges at the end were just insanely hard so something like that where that is like a fitness thing where I can get better at doing that combo of muscle ups and GHDs and then having a little bit left in the tank for the lunges yeah um yeah but then I also during that event

like part of the things that a lot of people like don’t think about that athletes do when they’re training is I didn’t eat the best before that workout cause it was in between the capital and that workout last year yeah so I was kind of drained and I didn’t really fuel myself properly going back into that event and so that’s another thing

that is gonna be emphasized this year too yeah so yeah have you sorted out with did you have a coach nutrition coach prior to the last games I don’t have a nutrition coach I mean the wife she cooks basically all my meals and make sure that I’m eating all my stuff properly

and um so you have a nutrition coach what was that so you have a nutrition coach yeah yeah and then I’ve been a nutrition coach and personal trainer for over 10 years now too so like I know what I need to be doing is just a matter of I needed to do it and not be lazy and actually get the food in last year

yeah but yeah well well you you know you know the saying it doesn’t matter how coach needs a coach yeah yeah right exactly yeah yeah so and I mean someone needs to you know carry your gear

and tell you when to eat to piss and everything I guess you know it’s yep tell me when to relax tell me when to lay down yep where am I gonna be when let’s go so yeah right sorry so what kind of mental preparation did you you mentioned that you worked on your mental game

what kind of stuff did you do for medical you said no mental uh you have yeah mental mental stuff yeah yeah I thought you said I’m medical opposed dealing with pains and pains to every day so that means that’s that’s a buzz um no it’s just a matter of um

and this is I think it’s it’s hard to go about it day to day uh the day to day looks kind of like just not comparing myself to others kind of like staying in my lane making sure that the effort that I give is the effort that I can give each day like that’s not 100% nobody’s percent training every single day throughout the week

you never like always motivated encouraged to do like my monostructural sessions at 8:00 9:00 at night um so it’s a matter of just doing that and giving the best effort that I can put forward and then with that compound over the entire year that’s giving me the confidence in my training to be like okay

like going into the event I’ve trained for this I’ve prepared myself and I’m ready so and that just kind of led over to just the confidence when I get into the workouts confidence when I’m um approaching the workouts or when they get me released and not second guessing myself or what’s to come

yeah no yeah that’s it I mean sorry I mean the difference is all about I mean at your level I mean 5 to 15% I think it’s like how you perceive things and and obviously the things not not only during the competition but also you know affecting your training during the year

when I did my hip surgery in was it in March February I was down in Belgium uh I was happy to share uh the room beside me um the world champion in wrestling a guy from Sweden was was there so we spent four days you know chit chatting eating dinners that I will you know

became good friends they had he shared a story on how he became a world champion he analyzed the entire field of athletes and how much training they did and then he calculated if he did you know after each session they did 50 to 8 reps of strength exercises so he calculated if he did 60 reps uh he would do X percent more than anybody else and he and they also did 10 minutes of training

more than anybody else and they kept doing that for 3 years without telling anyone you know he kept he kept that to himself and after 3 years no one no one could keep up you know that kind of that’s grit you know it’s crazy

do that day in day out and you know and not the I mean after like six months I would start bragging about it wouldn’t you you know but he has kept it to himself right right right it’s it’s it’s an amazing guy

and I think you mean I just thought about that uh people at that level you know Karelin and all these guys they probably obviously they were physical monsters but it goes so much into it how we attack the game I mean mentally uh if you go out on the floor and if you like

embrace the audience instead of you know looking down your lane and you know drawing energy from your buddies and everyone rooting from you you know I’m feeling that you like you belong there I think it’s so much into that so how do you feel do you think there will be a difference walking out in your lane this year versus last year

definitely yeah I mean you just that was exactly it like I think about it all the time like everybody at the games are like a majority of people of the games have 300 snatch now you know I mean like everybody can run sub five minute 30 second miles everybody can do 15 to 20 unbroken

and like it the the physical aspect that like everybody’s within inches of each other with so it’s a matter of like okay like how do you put it together when it’s competition day when you’re in that lane when you’re when the buzzer says 3 2 1 go

uh and yeah this year’s gonna be a lot different I mean even after the games and after rogue and after wodapalooza last year like all of it was like still like and it took a lot of repetition of that too to convince myself that I’m like okay I do belong like this is yeah

the mental side of things so yeah this year’s gonna be entirely different than last year was I’m attack every workout as if I mean it’s just just what we do is just fun yeah that’s cool I I have to tap into that little bit I think we are onto something I think that most of the top 30 in the world

Crossfit are getting quite equal physically now like the sport is maturing more and more and more there are some outfliers in certain fields but yes more and more about execution and the mental game than than just how much can you lift and how fast basically yeah being being a rookie is gonna be I mean some people just have it but being there for the second time

having all that experience is gonna do tremendous for sure yeah I think that’s what I think there’s something with that with like just kind of momentum carrying that for yeah other athletes in this space too that have been there for 5 6 years and continue to requalify year after year after year

and have been in the sport forever like they know who they belong they know what they have to do to get there they know how fit they need to be yeah um they know what they what things they need to be fit at and then once they get there they know they belong they and they have that mental edge on people coming into yeah so yeah I think

I think that’s a way underrated part like when people are I mean even in the last like four five six years that I’ve been training or like when I started out the first four five six years was that part like sure I might have been fit enough to qualify for the games

maybe a few years like three years ago when I took sixth the Granite Games but it was kind of a headspace going from workout to workout or when the workout gets released are you dreading it are you like

immediately counting yourself out and then just not gonna help you very well when you’re doubting yourself so yeah I mean and and everything I mean the atmosphere of the environment etc now it’s known for you I mean last year probably you got I mean I would guess that you get a

I wouldn’t say overwhelmed but it’s a lot of impressions you know you see all your you know you have probably your idols you have friends you have you know that coach that coach you know everywhere all these things are impressions and I think

you know that impacts when you’re new at new at the scenery I guess and if you’ve been there for like four years I mean you know where the bathrooms are right no so yeah right yeah yeah I think that’s that’s probably if you would guess speaking of this

do you think like at what point do you think that you’re having enough experience in a how many appearances would you guess would be like optimal to you know to be able to like executed that mean if you’ve been there for like eight years you’re probably

you know you’re probably also like almost retiring would you say like one two three times where do you think like the sweet spot is I mean maintain maintain about hungriness and you know but still have the required experience

like I when you actually get to the games not me or just in general yeah in general if you guess in general if I can yeah um yeah I would say obviously being a rookie or like going into a first competition for those that relate to that too like yeah

it is nerve wracking when you first do it and that’s one of the things they say to when you’re kind of coming up is yeah get into competitions get a feel of it um you can’t just train in your comfortable gym every single day and expect to perform on the floor with different barbells different scenery different viewpoints

like when you’re doing your Olympic lifting and just different scenarios in general um sweet spot I don’t know maybe yeah I’d say like year 2 year 3 cause you’re still fired up to be there you’re still hungry you’re comfortable you don’t really have like a limit on yourself in terms of like

all this is as good as I’m gonna get kind of thing um yeah I think that I think that create a little set in your way that creeps people’s heads I think sometimes too nobody’s perfect and I think sometimes if you have like a performance where you’re like up one year down the next year

up the next year like you can kind of get in your head and be like oh this is is good as I’m gonna get and you know I’ve gone through those two with a granite games like is 5th and sixth place all that I’m gonna get or is sixth place all that I’m gonna get and never end up qualifying am I just gonna be a bubble athlete forever so yeah yeah yeah

I have I have a I have a friend that you know he came eighth you know for like five years at regionals it’s like it’s 8 it’s not my you know is that my spot it’s not yeah the curse yeah

so many factors playing in so you’re basically unlucky to get eight and not higher is more is like unreasonably like you have to just be unlucky because if you can get to eight you gotta have a year where you bounce up because the programming or the competitors have an off day or whatever

is there so many factors yeah well yeah there’s just so many factors yeah so many factors so many factors what’s your favorite what’s your favorite type of test favorite type of test um I like tests where there’s not a lot of preparation that people get beforehand

you wanna use your advantage of I wanna use my advantage my adaptation I want them to like release the workout three hours before and then we go and do it yeah and then we go warm up eat fuel for it and then just go out and do it and I think that’s

what kind of happened the skill medley last year was they released that the same day that we did it and people didn’t get four five six months to strategically narrow their windows on transitions and all that stuff it was just like okay just go out and do it and see who can do it in this sense yeah I was gonna say

semis or like bad for you in that sense yeah yeah in a yeah in a sense that would have not been I would have almost preferred the east because it was like we didn’t get much any time to work on it

would just kind of go out there and see what you can do um yeah I struggle with like the the strategic part of it and like sitting there and I’m not one that’s gonna a workout’s gonna come out and I’m gonna repeat it 1,000 times to try to like the edge my score out by one second boring yeah right we repeat open workouts like to get your best score like yeah

I’ve had my time of kind of when I was like at the beginning of CrossFit and I’m still trying to like even get to regionals so I’d like repeat the workout three times throughout the open to try to make the top 40 or whatever but no yeah now I’m I’m a one and done

I like to just do it once get a feel for it and it’s off no yeah so I did in 2012 talking about repeating private regionals I was at regionals in 2012 and we had the workouts released six weeks prior and it was crazy long time to practice so it was this this particular work out was you know

sort of like a hundreds work out hundred pull ups hundreds and you know all these things uh big chipper uh I’d have done this so so many times doing exactly this like you’re talking about etching out seconds um you know

and I had my strategy clear but standing on the on the starting mat a finnish buddy of mine next to me I was like what’s up you know how gonna play how gonna play it it was like. ‘Unbroken’. and I was like

yeah me too haha so I changed I changed my strategy right there yeah right like you know I practiced my strategy for six weeks and I still threw yep threw it out of it all throws out the window right there yeah that that workout didn’t go well it was like no that was yeah

I gotta go so I can look at the footage now yeah right I want to go watch now well it’s it was I I can I can tell you was I was like I was in the final heat uh with you know with all the good guys back then back then back then but you know and it was me

the head judge and the judge standing there I was I was cramping everywhere you know because I did I started out with 50 back squats unbroken you know I did that so you know so I would like I just went straight into the red line zone what is that

I was so so hammered I couldn’t even I couldn’t get 30 kg off the floor it was it’s not I have enough enough enough enough nothing nothing to watch oh yeah and then essentially that last six weeks that you were practicing

what’s the time yeah I get trying to get every edge like stressing out about it a lot and then exactly exactly so I think I had like you know my goal was to get like 16 minutes 30 seconds I mean I work out I think I finished in like 27 minutes or something you know yeah right

little bit off practice times a tiny bit yeah yeah but anyways I’ve been probably stress wise is would have been much better having your approach I think yeah sorry sorry for sidetracking that was a good sidetracking keeping it it’s a real right there yeah well when when

when you get this like they they they they release the event really late and it is some kind of curveball in there how do you feel do you feel like would you feel this year like oh no this is now they gonna talk about me

now they gonna say this is Nick Mathew he’s gonna he’s gonna Mathews he’s gonna you know he’s gonna get this because this is this is not Mathews and you know exactly yeah all right

what’s wrong with you okay many things wrong with me but anyway like do you feel that now like when it comes to those event that oh no now they’re talking about me now I have to perform or is that not a thing not really I kind of I’m pretty good at eliminating things that like

just in my life in general that if it gives me stress I’m pretty good at like just kind of dispersing that or if somebody puts like in terms of fitness like the pressure on like people could have said that I had pressure pressure on to at the games last year but I honestly the games

I felt no pressure all last year going through it um yeah I got the back to a spot and people were like oh what’s he gonna do and whatever but I was able to just move through it and then same thing when it came to semi finals is like oh again is what’s the pressure like gonna be for me like trying to requalify my second year and again

the pressure was nowhere near it’s been in the years past so even if the event came up where it was the wheelhouse blah blah blah blah like I mean it depends on I mean there’s so many factors in it that you can’t just narrow it down to yeah like oh am I just gonna perform good it’s like okay

did I fuel properly like did my my legs gonna cramp halfway through the workout right like you just gotta kind of take it just one moment at a time and one movement at a time just go from there yeah so wheelhouse or not I’m just gonna that’s kind of like the same way I would approach every workout

you get into a bubble like a media social media bubble like trying to stay away from what what others say during the competition like get away from social media you mean like it up um not I mean it just I don’t I don’t actively even I don’t even really actively think

I think about that stuff I just kinda I’m pretty well I just kind of just do me and yeah I’ll listen to social media listen to podcasts I’ll listen to what people say and literally none of it I mean I don’t think any of it affects me at all in terms of like oh like

getting super nervous or anything like that or stressed out about it I don’t think young rookie would have this attitude like this is something this is something that comes with some experience I think even though this is just second time at the games you talk like a very experienced athlete well I appreciate that yeah I don’t know I was

I got a good coach for that too it keeps me in a good space as well yeah uh huh he’s he’s he’s my he’s my mental coach for sure in terms of that stuff but yeah I don’t know I’ve I’ve had my years of like being stressed out for things and like it’s just yeah

it’s just a different outlook and yeah yeah this is where it’s a lot less a lot less stressful in general if you don’t think about it all the time so what what part of this sport is most similar to wrestling what do you think I’m I think essentially the whole thing

in terms of I mean I actually like I think that’s the whole reason I did CrossFit in the first place I wasn’t a team sports guy I like I played football and I played baseball and I did things like that but I just really disliked them um but when I came to wrestling

it was all about who’s gonna work harder is who’s gonna win or who’s willing to die who’s willing to go harder is gonna win yeah so I think I kind of picked that up with CrossFit right away because it’s the same thing like whatever we’re doing in the offseason like when we’re outside of the gym when we’re I mean when we’re in the

outside of competition like when we’re in the gym like all that stuff plays a role and I mean the hardest workers the ones who can stay disciplined the ones who can stay focused are the ones that are gonna come out on top uh huh uh huh and more importantly those are the ones that are gonna make

significant progress each year too I would say yeah cause just staying in the gym you can be your same fitness next year that you step on the floor too yeah but like yeah are you gonna push to become fitter yeah that’s the thing with the athletes that have been staying current for like 10 years

that you realize I looked recently I looked at you know the CrossFit Games 2013 something like that and I saw the evolution of the sport is crazy and I see faces there that are still going I mean it’s it is crazy that they’ve been able to adapt and adapt

and adapt for years yep absolutely keep getting fitter and fitter and fitter the one that I told the one that I don’t or the one that don’t make it anymore yeah so did you stay injure free during your wrestling or did you you know

did you transfer any of you know do you have an old bruises that you’re still struggling with um I don’t know if I’m still struggling with it wrestling I didn’t have any injuries I mean other than maybe like a rolled ankle or like a jammed finger or a nasty crossface or something every now and again like yeah you know what I’m talking about

sounds like a wonderful sports hey gold bone of your forearm and just putting it right across the face yeah that doesn’t feel very good but um no in football I tore my MCL PCL amaniscus in my left knee grade 3 tear um so I blew all of those out senior year so I didn’t actually get to rest for my senior year

all right cause there’s just there would have been too much torque and movement on it that soon that I mean just next season like two months later that I probably hurted even more but um yeah that was really the only injury other than I fractured my skull when I was in school to

back in the day but just having fun huh just having fun yeah that was cool that one was skateboarding yeah don’t touch those yeah or wear a helmet yeah exactly so have you been you’ve had to manage your meniscus for the entire CrossFit career

um I started yeah um yeah but I don’t think it really gives me much injury or anything like that much pain um I do have some obviously like yeah my left knee there’s like some pains in it there’s some like

there’s just things that go wrong with it like sometimes it just likes to turn off but I don’t know if that’s directly related to my meniscus and MCL and PCL and all that stuff yeah or if that’s just something that’s muscular that’s just not engaging right way or activating right way oh yeah yeah there’s always some aches and pains and bruises and yeah yeah things that are going on

I think it’s just uh I’m just amazed by uh so uh we talked to Scott uh a few weeks back when we’re Cleveland I didn’t realize that he got you know he was dragged off the field uh you know doing football you know he blew both his knees so he actually went into the sport

we know with 50% cartilage left etc I thought he got damaged doing doing CrossFit but he’s been damaged goods the entire you know the entire time and still managed managing to get to the top that’s one of the absolute absolute strongest in the field

you know known as known as a strong squatter but I also like realize that he has been really good at you know at managing his knees during his career you know but you know it took 40 minutes for him to do you know do a 10 minutes work you know 40 minutes prep yeah to do a 10 minute workout but it’s

that’s what it is what it is that was what what I was asking for if you had been needing to do that kind of stuff yeah there’s definitely some like I mean excessive warm ups and like definitely a lot of like accessory and isometric work on my knees and um yeah basically

basically just doing a bunch of that stuff to make sure that we’re ready to go like in the morning like it’s hard for me to get up and do an air squat in the morning but well I can squat 500 pounds after I get warmed up and mobilized it’s all good yeah yeah so the hard the hardest part is to squat and play with your kids

I guess yeah no no sorry dad needs to warm up sorry I didn’t put my knee sleeves on I’m at that age now I’m getting old yeah yeah yeah so I had a brand new baby while having a herniated disc I can tell you that wasn’t

it’s like come back at no some pressure right here just yeah lying down with him and just like oh it’s gonna move yeah that wasn’t don’t recommend don’t recommend at all yeah how did you

I mean I was I was watching the capital last year from a spectator view that was like that was one of my absolute favorite tests of all time standing there watching people totally break down it was like it was it was so intense it was like oh my God you know what

yeah Haley and everyone you know and great and even you know even even Khrennikov the top guys you know I mean you could like feel how tough it was so how did you experience that yeah the capital

the capital was a great workout yeah I mean then you kind of always look back at it and you’re like oh I could have gone harder or whatever but in the moment it’s like no I could not have gone harder no I think last year something like odd objects like and moving loads like

that was kind of a weakness for me so that sandbag beat me up pretty good at the end there like I was able to have it on my back and just sitting on top I could run forever with it but as soon as you put it in the position itching yeah it was a different level going up those stairs and some people took like 10 minutes to get up there

so literally like yeah three times as long as it took to get the first hundred meters it took you to get up yeah for sure wow yeah it was it was that was just I was a super fun workout to be a part of last year just in general I think the Games in general

last year was just a fun year to be a part of just good the twitch and programming, the different moves that came up the different the demands that in a sense you could say the sport just changed over this last year yeah sure adding in jump ropes and adding in the high complexity gymnastic things now speculation going to like oh

what else can he throw at us yeah um I think there I think in terms of like what’s to be expected definitely had a definitely had a switch this last year yeah it’s more of a spectacle no even though it was a switch from Castro who is a showman it went even more

like into the spectacle kind of for sure I loved it it was great yeah what do you think am I gonna even finish the workout kind of yeah yeah yeah so what do you think this year’s capital will be yeah cause that’s what he said he was like

everybody’s finishing the workout or whatever with the capital you know yeah and then do you think they’re gonna he’s gonna try to one up that like he’s gonna make an even more grand kind of long events like that um I mean I’m fine with that I like that just adds to the

adds to the experience to as an athlete like when I can come back and like in the years like like I’ve been telling people I’m like even if I like never won the CrossFit Games like the journey to try to get there is has been great I’ve been able to go to Ireland for competitions

and do a bike ride in the morning through the hills of Ireland you know what I mean yeah I’ve been able to go to Miami and do a Sunrise Beach workout ocean um so I mean I think the more the better the spectacles definitely are more enjoyable for the athletes and I guess people to watch

too and be a part of but um I don’t know if he’s going to add as much new as he did last year hmm but build off that and now make everybody okay like here’s the new stuff now let’s put it in workouts let’s put it in different variations and let’s go after it like I’m sure there’s gonna be some new stuff too

but I think he’s gonna build off the old stuff as well yeah that’s very interesting I’ve always thought he would get more confidence and just go crazy like or go more towards crazy but maybe maybe he wants to sit tight and and and see the sport and develop slowly who knows for sure for sure I mean yeah he’s got

he’s got years ahead to of continuing to adapt it and change it and yeah I think there’s still gonna be a lot of stuff that is new and a lot of things that like last year we had the buy in with the row if you didn’t complete the row in a specific time now you’re done your workouts done you can’t even do the rest of it no

so I think something like that can be built off of like okay what if there’s now a skierg and you have to do a certain amount on the skierg before you go into the next thing it could be consecutive like that yeah you have to do this before this otherwise it’s less like an elimination basically exactly so yeah there’s a lot of things yeah I think you mentioned

you mentioned like offseason comps are you gonna like do you actively try to participate in as many as possible those used to like you know see the world see new places you don’t think that like

messes with your off you know offseason training or whatever do you make any distinction there um throughout the time I’ve never really had kind of an off season I mean I just made the games for the last two last year and this year right so like all the other years leading up to that while everybody

that kind of thought about taking an off season in September October November and then like start ramping things back up December January going into the open yeah like my season would be over right after semi finals so I would be basically two weeks after that all the way through everybody else’s preparation and Deload and all that

and I think that kind of gave me a leg up in terms of like developing my fitness and getting essentially getting ahead yeah whether whether that is actual physical or that’s just the mental side of things so I do like to so going on that then yes I do just participate in that stuff in the off season too just because I would be working out normally

like I’m still doing classes at my affiliate and like I can’t just take three weeks off and feel fine like I just I mean working out is just something I’ve done every single day since I was in sixth grade so it’s just just a part of it yeah to the degree in the intensity is different obviously yeah

but how do you prepare for a for a competition like wodapalooza or something like that like do you start changing things just to cut because competition comes up and how soon like before the competition do you do you start implementing preparations for like going into competition to win

um so yeah so I mean like like for example like the games to rogue last year hmm going from the CrossFit Games at the beginning of August and then rogue was in October or end of October I took probably a week off right after the games and then went back into just kind of doing a Metcon and maybe an OLY piece a day for 2

3 weeks out of that after after a little bit of rest and then bless you thank you and then adding in I think the the biggest thing after that was adding in the second met con of day or adding in the monostructural um conditioning

and I feel like when it comes to cardio you can you can build your cardio and you can prime your cardio up so much faster than you can strength yeah um so I think with having the like my biggest strength is my strength so that is kind of my my um having that as my strength I don’t have to tune that up as much because it’s kind of

I can take a few I can take 3 4 weeks off of doing back squats and I can still do 455, no problem you don’t lose that much I don’t I don’t lose anything in terms of my strength stop so basically it’s just ran back up and forth that’s I feel like is an easier process and yeah so you just you don’t you just take

take it take a take a break for a while and then slowly start ramping up yeah it’s just maybe a week a week totally off I think this year might look a little bit different cause I wanna have a little bit of a life in the off season and do some fun things with some friends that we are planning um instead of just be in the gym

grinding and dying every single weekend haha always tell him always tell him no I can’t go do this cause I gotta go train or no cause I gotta train so I wanna take a couple weeks just stuff like that I think this will be like the first year that I’m really

actually actively doing so yeah yeah my spouse took two months off she was in age group last year and she did really well but she’s a she for the first time in her life she like took you know took time off you know it was her coach

she said you should take time off at least a month or actually I’m not gonna give you a program out until like October 8th I think it was something like that so she was like you know show like the first week she was not comfortable at all but

but then she did a box workout and then by nah I’m not gonna train so she didn’t train it at all you know for two months yeah that was that was crazy that was crazy um but she’s she’s

she’s back now she’s fitter than she was last year so it’s um I would never have been comfortable resting that much at all I would it’s I’m good with it it’s not it’s not my nature at all it’s like I enjoy so much you know being in the grind it’s like you know

I wouldn’t like that you know also training all my life it’s but it comes with age a little bit you have to start resting more and be smart about it like when you’re 20 25 you can go nuts yeah but then like 35

but I think the biggest issue for me would be to trust that this is like that this is this really smart you know because I’m a I’m a you know I’m in it I’m an engineer you know it’s like hmm two months hmm ma it doesn’t seem smart

and then I don’t think it is smart but I don’t know but it’s if the issue is your ability to push throughout the you know throughout the winter if you are limited by without knowing it you know going into training and only doing like 90 or to 95% then probably you need to like it

then probably need to back off to be able to push mentally but if that’s not any I I don’t know it’s I’ve always in overtraining like there’ve been no in overtraining for 10 years some people are just absolutely wrecked and they don’t know it yeah I know

I know but it’s yeah yeah it’s I think it could be a debate around this for a long while I mean buzzword now to is like burnout right like you see athletes getting burnt out because they don’t have the life outside of CrossFit maybe that’s not only the only it but also

just beating yourself into the ground every day is it’s not the most fun thing yeah yeah it takes a certain someone to deal with it for over over time for sure it does not and you don’t know and with this kind of stuff until it’s too late but like oh no I’m broken like yeah but I mean how

how many so so for workouts do this athletes do or are all workouts high top you know high and so on five yeah you have no clue how hard a train so it’s um we don’t know anything yeah we know nothing about it zone 4 – zone 5

twice a day okay exactly exactly for every 40 minutes so yeah that’s a lot of but then on top of that then we got the oly and the strength stuff where you I mean the amount of squats that I do in a week you know you know

getting below parallel week yeah that I mean is just it all that yep yeah and then like you’re coming from some new things friend like yeah yeah no you’re fine like it comes from the new things that you need to do that just keeps adding all like oh

I need to do my only oh I need to do my swimming oh my new my biking I need to do my hiking if you just keep scrolling you run out of time yeah but I mean it’s like it’s also I mean it’s a philosophical thing I think if you would like

have you know 5,000 athletes put into this system you know you put them through the meat grinder and out comes 10 that survives it you know that was you know that that was basically the Bulgarian method you know they you know well they did max out three times a day

you know they did the snatch, the clean clean jerk and then they did a front squat every day six days a week and the back off the back off they were Sundays and they did only snatch so they were on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain weren’t they yeah sure yeah sure they had supplements as well but it’s like but that system produced the absolute top

but it’s also like wasted the most amount of athletes as well so right there’s there’s proof that overtraining is the way to create the absolute top athletes but it’s also proof that overtraining you know that amount wastes athletes you know but so it’s I think it’s yeah it’s a long debate I think

no it’s pretty short you shouldn’t do that you shouldn’t kill people so well it depends if you want you know if you if you you know if you have a government funded program and you want to win the Olympics definitely the ethics are low or non existent than them yeah

yeah yeah sure no yeah yeah I know I know I mean that’s where you get what Frasier and Froning right and Tia yeah and there’s been three that have stuck out years and years and years and years and years and then been the other 5,000 or whatever that I mean yeah

I think it’s very interesting with Fraser there’s some there’s some truth to both of it yeah I think it’s interesting with Fraser because he had two years was it two years yeah two years when he was visibly in the public eye figuring it out and then obviously he found what to do whatever it was

and then he just stuck to it you know and but how much of that how much of that those two second places were his head though you know how it yeah how much was that mindset yeah I mean you see all these like Tia Froning Frasier right

they all took second their first year as a rookie yeah and the other right yeah how much of that is mental or do they are they already had the fitness yeah I mean and so and there is quite a few that just didn’t get back from that second place is that that messed him up if you curious watch

I think it was supposed to t a 15 when when did Tia came second was it 15 14 and no 15 and 14 and 15 right no well I think anyway I think it was in the Games interviews during 15 there was such a difference between 15 and 16

when they did you know during the Games behind the scenes interview thing you know 15 you could smell that she was losing you know you could smell that you know even after the first interview they did like the first she was a small dog she was you know it’s

but it was all about how she spoke about everything about it and the and the second year was like a completely different person no wonder she want so I figure spot on about the mental thing uh thinks about it um for sure so yeah but physically she was probably a winner already year one.

all right really really good yeah yeah or yeah or just still exceptionally good yep yeah yeah wonder if she’s gonna come back you know she is she is she is she is she is yeah she’s doing burpees like

the day after so you know she’s gonna do it I think she’s gonna I don’t think she counts that I will stay away he’s one of those yeah I was just I was just down there training with them too I think she’s

I think she’s coming back she’s getting good yeah yeah she looks good I mean everything that you know she moves so well during her pregnancy was like is she even pregnant I’m like an eight and a half months pregnant so you could win when you’re eight and a half yeah sort of

alright guys good talk we’re approaching our clock time here and I have to say was a very nice very nice discussion and super cool to check in with you and we’re gonna see you in Madison we’re traveling next yeah we’re traveling next Saturday yeah awesome that’ll be great

yeah we’re gonna bother you a lot so yeah that’s fine with me I got my coach so he’s the he’s the strict one he’s he’s the strict one on times we’ll pay him off right there we go yeah all right man you take care and you have a you have a lovely day and we’re gonna go to bed

okay sounds good yeah cool see you bye have a nice one bye bye