The Sevan Podcast - #19 - Zack Ruhl
Episode Date: March 12, 2021@sevanmatossian @brianfriendcrossfit @pitbullruhl The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: htt...ps://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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It's a pleasure finally talking to you, bub.
Yeah, absolutely.
That's up in the corner there.
I don't know if he's in your corner.
That's Brian Friend.
We used to do a podcast together with the CrossFit Games.
Yeah, me and Brian have been friends for a while.
Oh, okay. Good. Good. Like 10 minutes? Three minutes? Two Games? Yeah, me and Brian have been friends for a while. Oh, okay. Good.
Like 10 minutes? 3 minutes? 2 minutes?
No, no. Actually, when y'all used to work on the
Games podcast, we were in touch.
Serious? No, dude.
Oh, man.
So, how's the mask
life in California?
Oh, God.
It is
bad. I don't know who
won.
I better have no legs
and have a mask mandate at this point.
Zach, say your
last name for me. Rule.
Like, obey the rule.
Zach Rule.
And that's your dad's name?
That is my father. Yep.
I haven't seen your dad in your Instagram.
He is not there, man.
No. Have you not seen him in a long time?
No, I've actually never met the guy. Uh, uh, I was born,
I was born with deformity. I mean,
and it led to my amputation when I was like two,
but my dad was in prison at the time and he actually had never met him.
He got it out a couple of times, but he always went back in and he died.
I think he passed when I was like 10. Yeah, I think, yeah, 10,
but I'm happy.
So I didn't have any like videos or pictures of them,
like growing up and shit, to be honest with you.
And I always,
I only had one picture and he was like kind of like shooting a gun like shooting a gun so you really
couldn't see his face and i wanted to see what he looked like so i went to the funeral and i'm glad
i did because i actually met my my grandpa which is his dad and we got to spend some some cool
years together before he passed as well oh that is that is cool. Yeah. When you say you're born with a deformity, what does that mean?
That means my legs were fucked.
Like they look like hockey sticks when I first came out.
To be honest, there wasn't, I don't know what all the issues were.
I just know I came out like there wasn't enough of a bionic fluid.
My mom, all types of other shit was going wrong.
I had an umbilical cord wrapped around my waist, all sorts of stuff.
And then I'm actually born, if you can grasp this, I'm actually born with the tibia, the shin bone, attached to my hip.
And my right leg is just a regular femur without a knee or a shin so i actually share
one leg and if you would put them together and put a foot at the end of it then i'd have a full leg
oh interesting okay so if you look at my legs this one's really skinny like a wiener
that's a that's a shin bone i actually had a healthy a healthyiener. I got a dick tattooed on it when I was like 14.
Okay, so before I ask you how you got a tattoo when you were 14,
I had noticed in your pictures that your legs were different sizes.
And I was like, oh, shit, that seems kind of fucked up to amputate them different sizes but but you didn't have a choice
that's just the way it is yeah yeah man i wish i wish to god tell you the truth like i wish to god
my left leg was like my right leg because it's pretty much just like a pair it's pretty much
like a paralyzed left leg i mean it does a little bit but it doesn't really give me any um any like compensation
when it comes to like helping me out with anything and uh i wish to god dude that'd be awesome because
like i know i'd be a lot better at uh like deadlifts and stuff like that if i had my other
leg too so how do you get a tattoo at 14 who does it you're living in texas yeah um man i started
getting them pretty young uh i started getting them pretty young uh
i started getting them well that one in particular we were just i mean honest god we just had a tattoo
shop called tattoo and they had this dude there who was tattooing and i was underage but
i mean he didn't i mean my honest god like i mean he didn't care i didn't care. I didn't care. And I was like, man, when I get old enough, I want to get out.
When I get old enough, I want to turn my leg into a dick.
And he was like, what do you mean?
And I was like, well, I was like, dude, it's a perfect shape of a cock.
Right?
I was like, perfect. And I was like, and to be honest with you, if my Johnson ain't pleasing,
I can just pull out the leg and I can have a threesome at one time and everybody be happy, right?
Or two and a half, whatever.
And his exact words, he looked at me, he looked up and tattooed my brother.
He says, I'll do it for free right now if you're going to put my portfolio.
Imagine this.
You're already compromising your profession by tattooing a 14 year old and then
on top of that you tattoo a dick on his leg and dude okay so i had no boundaries oh my god dude
let me tell you about this okay so my mom had no idea my mom had zero idea growing like that you
have to say that you have to say that right my
mom had no idea i had a dick leg for the longest dude for the longest right and i want to say we
were i was in the process of getting prosthetics made but i didn't i didn't go about it all the
way but i was in the process of getting them made well she went with me they were like okay let's
have you let's have you get in your uhers where we can, where we can plaster you.
And I was like, Oh shit.
I pulled it out. I got my boxers and she was like, what's that?
She was like, Oh my, she was so embarrassed, bro. Like,
I embarrassed the hell out of my mom.
So you're, you're, you're born, your legs are jacked, and then at two years old,
they decide they're just going to get rid of them, right?
There you go.
Yeah.
And before then, how did you move around before then?
Basically, you just crawled?
Yeah.
Well, I didn't have a wheelchair until i was 24 24 years old um
when i got my legs amputated at two i actually left the hospital on a skateboard and um i stayed
on the skateboard man all the way until about 24 years old whose idea was the skateboard that's
some epic this is like the white version of um boys in the hood
i actually kind of picture you being in movies but you'd be totally stereotyped you'd be the
dude who got shot in the back and lost his legs but you'd just be yoked with your shirt off just
sitting on the porch in a wheelchair have you seen that movie boys in the hood yes dude i've i've
i've had i've had like commercial, they've wanted me to do,
but they always wanted me to play the part of a veteran and I'm not down with
that. You know, like, I'm just like, ah, dude,
I just don't sit with me well, bro. I can't, you know,
like the whole stolen dollar thing.
Well that, but not necessarily like that.
They'll be having a commercial about like benefits and the VA and all this
stuff. And they're wanting to use me as a, as a picture of them, you know?
And that's okay. I agree. I agree. I've had it offered, but like, I just,
I just can't get past that to be honest with you.
You want to keep it real. You, I mean, if it's a fiction movie,
you'll play a fictional character, but you're not going to absolutely right.
Like being a VA commercialist. Yeah. Yeah.
So you literally wrote a skateboard from two to 24.
I guess that's why you're so good at skateboarding.
Cause I saw the skateboarding videos too. And I'm like, how the hell?
Man, I did. Well, I grew up on a skateboard. Like I said, I got one.
Well, I was in the hospital for Christmas that year and for Christmas
until then I just crawled around. Like I just crawled around the ground. My mom would always, you know,
make me do shit. She'd always like, you know,
she wouldn't never put like cups down on the bottom and stuff like that.
She always made me do stuff.
So my uncle got me a skateboard for Christmas and he brought it to the
hospital. And then, then I, so I want to say the, the following,
the following week was my release date. So, you know,
it came down to them getting my, my wheelchair to push out. And I was like,
nah, I'm getting on this skateboard, you know, like this is,
this is way cooler. And then I lied a little bit though.
So I had prosthetics, I had prosthetics for a little bit in,
until the sixth grade.
And then I lost a piece of my prosthetics that,
that had that held, um, it held suction to my leg where the,
where the leg would stay on me. And when I lost that piece,
I went to school that day on my skateboard. And sure enough, dude,
we ended up playing duck, duck goose that day.
And I ended up just dominate duck, duck goose. And I just didn't want process.
I just didn't want legs after that, man. Like I just, you know, I just,
I was, it was just, I felt like they slowed me down so much compared to what i was
already doing you know i i lost my retainer once you know like it fell behind the bed and i just
stopped wearing it but you lost a piece of your leg and stop wearing it being in the sixth grade
is just being in the sixth grade right like you're not thinking about
nothing but being fast having fun you don't care about anybody else who who looks at you weird or
what you're just trying to have fun do you wear gloves i do sometimes when i work out the my hands
are pretty bad so like uh they're like nasty i mean it's just i mean because you're always on your hands they're your feet
and yeah man it gets expensive when i wear gloves and they tear up super fast i used to like you
know just around every day but i would run through gloves like in like two days and i figured my skin
is just tougher than those damn gloves are you should have a glove sponsor that i mean you should
be littered with sponsors do you have any sponsors i do not
i have some but um man i just i feel like i'm kind of i'm kind of hard to get down with the
sponsors to be honest with you but what do you mean by that well i'm outspoken i have that dumb
ass street fight video um i smoke pot yeah but you're still a role model.
It's a really well...
So I went back to your Instagram account all the way to 2014.
Whoa, really?
Yeah, your first post was June 3rd, 2014.
And it's pretty...
As a parent of three kids,
I'd be so proud if you were my son, I'd be like, Holy shit. I mean,
it's an amazing evolution. It's clear. Your creative is all get out. I mean,
you're super duper creative. I mean, hence the penis on the, on the leg,
turning your leg into a dick, but, but you're,
you're obviously super creative. You definitely want to express that creativity.
You're a,
but there's also a balance of giving alcohol accolades to your peers.
You're humble. Um, it's, it's a solid,
it's a solid evolution of, of, uh, of a person on there. And, uh,
and it's, and it's reputable. I mean, like anyone to miss look at,
I mean, I mean, you're the kind of guy I would leave my kids with you.
I'd let you date my sister. I mean, you're just a good dude. You know what I mean?
Thank you, man. That actually means a lot to me. Thank you. I try to, I just try to be a good man.
You know what I'm saying? Like my best abilities that I possibly could be.
I just try to be a good dude. And I know I got an attitude problem along the way, but, and I,
and it's really hard for me to hold my tongue sometimes when I feel like
something's unfair, but I know that's bad sometimes, but man, I just, yeah,
I try to be the best role model and influence I could be.
I feel like I always, I wasn't always that good dude.
So I kind of want to give back and show everybody you can make a difference.
You know, you can, you can have one life and totally change it.
It seems like you're a lot,
a lot of that was kind of instilled in you by your mom when you were really
young. I went back and found a couple articles where she had some quotes
talking about the stuff you alluded to and seven used to be, you know,
proud to be as his, uh, his dad or something like that.
But I think you do a lot of that stuff with your kids too,
is just like not overbearing on them, but give them the opportunity to learn things for themselves.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, man. She's a, she's a,
I don't know how to explain it. My mom's a hard ass man. Uh, she really is. She's a bad ass
woman, man. She's worked two jobs. She still works two jobs this day since I was, I mean,
I can't remember when she hasn't worked. So she's a workhorse. She, she,
she never, like I said, she never took it easy.
She had me pump her gas when like when she brought me to school,
if her truck needed gas, I would get out and pump it. I would, you know,
I did chores. I washed it. I cleaned the dishes.
And she would always make sure that stuff was,
wasn't necessarily harder for me,
but she knew I had to work a little bit harder to, uh, to, um, you know,
like sustain a independent life.
How tall are you?
Three foot three.
Yeah. I don't know. No, somewhere around there.
No, just like, just like when you, when you, when you're, yeah,
just like there from there, from where your, your feet are, your legs are,
your nubs are to the top of your head.
I don't know, man. I'm going to say like three foot seven.
And do your hands and your hands clear the ground when you're standing
straight up?
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I'm laying them on the floor.
I'm laying my knuckles on the ground.
And how, what's your wingspan?
Six, six.
Holy shit.
That's crazy.
It is a, do you ever wake up,
do you wake up every morning and look in the mirror and trip on yourself?
No, no, not at all, not at all.
Like you're just used to it.
Like how buff you are.
You're not like, holy shit, this is my body.
I mean, you're not like holy shit this is my body i'm this i mean you're
a massive man without legs no um man i never no i never thought like take truth i'll be dead
i didn't i didn't i didn't view myself as different until way later on in life if that
makes any sense to you or if you can even no no get it. I didn't realize I was short till I went to college.
I'm not saying you look at yourself like you're different. I'm saying like,
one time I got a brand new car. Like, well,
I got a brand new minivan when I had three kids like four years ago. Right.
And still to this day, when I walk in the driveway, I'm like, fuck yeah.
Holy shit. I can't believe I have a brand new minivan,
even though it's like four years old. I can't believe it's mine. You know what I mean? So I'm just like,
do you just wake up and you're like, holy shit, this is me. Like, look at these arms and like,
look at this physique. I mean, you can't go anywhere without it being a scene, right?
Nowhere. Not at all. Zero. I mean, especially dressed like that.
Is this bad? No, no. I mean, you just are yoked as shit you look like you just fell off the
set of a prison movie oh man i should have answered it in a wife beater that would have been awesome
yeah uh yeah well well it's either it it's either, uh, yeah, yeah.
More than likely if I, if I roll into a room,
everybody's eyes cut my way eventually kind of like, Holy shit,
this dude's like, what the hell? Right. And growing up,
but you gotta understand that I was so used to it growing up because I was a
legless kid on a skateboard. So I really don't see it anymore. Right.
Right. Yeah. So like,
I've kind of molded myself't see it anymore right you know right yeah so like i've
kind of molded myself into being that dude you know has your personality always been um there
was a post you made which was pretty amazing i wish i could remember the exact words but basically
someone was asking you like hey how should i get girls and you're like hey just let your
personality shine just turn that personality on did you how did you learn that? Or does that come naturally to you?
No, no, it's definitely something I learned. It's definitely, yeah.
I was super shy growing up. Cause I mean, dude,
okay. So kids are like, kids are ruthless, dude. When they're,
when they're like me, they're fucking mean. Right. Like, so growing up,
like you can imagine,
you can imagine the girls don't really want to talk to the Legos guy.
You know what I'm saying? Like, it's not, it's not, you know,
it ain't cool yet. It doesn't, it doesn't,
their mind doesn't start opening up until like high school level.
I feel like, you know, until like, Oh, he's a normal dude. You know,
he just doesn't miss a shit. So I kind of was real shy.
And then I guess puberty hit man,
my sophomore junior year in high school.
Like I kind of just like gave up on, on,
on trying to talk to girls and just started having fun and came out my shell,
started skating a lot more and just being open. Actually, uh,
I got, um, homecoming and shit. Like I just like turned it up A notch and then
Man they started kind of coming to
Me a little bit so that's why I tell everybody
You just got to get out your shell and be
You the sexiest thing you could be is
You you know like and
People are going to people are going to see that fake shit
A mile away so you might as well
Just go ahead and be yourself
I mean as a kid the white I mean
If you're,
if me and you were in the second grade and we're sitting next to each other in
class,
the only reason why I wouldn't talk to you is because I'm afraid what's going
to come out of my mouth. Right. Cause I'm going to want to be like, Hey,
what happened to you? So, because everyone who sees you,
especially as a kid, the white elephant in the room that no one can hide is,
is like, Hey, he doesn't have legs. And so people just aren't used to that.
Their brain can't even like, so would you, brain can't even like so would you they can't even
like process it and then on top of that look at your upper body now and your face and i mean you
look like a model i mean i mean i used to have three great danes and i used to just stress the
fuck out when i went out with them because everyone wants to like stare and ask you questions and talk to you well you're like going out with 12 great danes okay let me ask you something yeah so you have
boys right yeah if you didn't know me you didn't and you and your boys see me roll by and let's
just say it wasn't oh dad his legs would you let your son ask me about my legs or would you?
When, so I, we were at the,
we were at the beach the other day up on top of the stairs. This is,
I don't know, like a year or two ago. And there was a guy there.
I can't remember where he had something missing. And one of my kids said, Hey,
that, that guy's missing a leg or an arm. I can't remember. And I go, Oh,
go over there and ask him what happened. You know? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Just go like, you're a kid. You're staring.
You can do whatever you want. Go over there and ask him what happened. Yeah.
That's my biggest pet peeve, bro.
And he said to me, he goes, what happened? My kid actually asked me what happened.
I go, I don't know. Go ask him.
Yeah. Yeah. Man, I hate,
that's my biggest pet peeve is when people are like when the kids like
oh he has a leg and they're like or shut up shut up or like what happened to his legs and they're
like and they're pretty much like treating me like i'm a monster right like leave him alone leave him
alone leave him alone i'm like no ask him because he's gonna keep on he's that mindset is gonna be
the same unless he hears it from me you know like i want them to like be cool about it but
man i get that a lot i get that a lot. That was the one that bugs me the most.
People are naturally curious,
but a lot of things in our society have developed in a way that it's sometimes
people are afraid to ask.
Oh yeah. I mean, I imagine it would be scary too.
Like I look like I would be the pissed off, bitter, crippled guy.
That's like, man, the world I would feel like. Right.
So I imagine it would be a Tim Benning
asking me anything in the first place.
No, you don't look like that. Shut up.
You don't look like that at all.
I got a smile on my face, but a lot of people think I'm mean.
There's a video you make
where you're getting off a plane.
Okay.
And you pretend to follow, and there's these
women around you. Two of
them aren't, aren't, are barely capable of holding up themselves. They're probably like 30 or 40
years old, but you, and they're the ladies who pushed the wheelchairs. And then there's a
stewardess who's in the plane and you, and you fall out of your chair on purpose. Like they,
they all turn their heads for a second and don't look at you and you jump out of your chair and
land on the ground and pretend like you're hurt for a second um how did you come up with that who's filming that like how do you
how do you do a trick like that and and your shirts on you're wearing a sweater so you can
see like every muscle in your body i mean it's clear that you're like a freak of nature but
they still like panic they're like oh shit what do we do? Okay. Like, dude, okay, I hate it.
I hate riding planes just for one reason.
It's because you've seen the aisle chair?
No.
Okay, well, if you can't walk or you're disabled or whatever,
they put you in a little bitty skinny chair and they will you to your,
everybody in there is a plane. So, like, or you're the first ones or you're the last ones. they put you in a little bitty skinny chair and they will you to your app.
Everybody enters a plane. So like, or you're the first ones or your last one.
So like they're willing you to your chair and then you're kind of doing like
the role of shame between all the, the, the, you know,
attendees and the put in the plane. And one thing I, I will rep for,
I will rep for handicap people and I'll, and I will rep for people,
but I don't like being that crippled. You know what I'm saying?
Like, I don't like you putting me in that box.
So I just did some shit to get a laugh out of it.
Like anytime they'd try to put me in the aisle chair, I would just fall.
And I started doing it like on a, on a, on a,
like every time I flew bases and sure enough,
like that's the one I just sold the most and was kicking the leg up in the
air and it went nuts and it went nuts. And it was so cool how she reacted.
She got up, she gave me a hug or whatever. Like it was really cool.
It was great when she hugged you.
Oh my God, dude, that made the video to me. Cause like, to tell you the truth,
eight times out of 10, we're going to get pissed off.
That ain't funny at all. Is she just like, you stinker?
Maybe some people want to see them get pissed off. That ain't funny at all. Is she just like, you stinker? Maybe some people want to see them get pissed off though. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
It's funny when they do. I've had one dude and he didn't react at all.
He just like sat there and looked at me. Didn't know what to do.
Who filmed it? Um, it was my buddy. He was, he was flying with me.
He was right behind me. I just told him i hate him this real quick he hates doing that by the way i was gonna say yeah yeah he did a great job
he did such a good job oh my god it's so funny dude because like right before then i was begging
him i said tommy come on man they're expecting it the people are expecting it dude he's like bro i
hate doing this man they. They see me filming.
And I was like, no, no, dude, I got your text, dude.
Tell Tommy the same thing I tell my kids. I'm like, hey, we got to go in the garage
and work out. They're like, what for? I'm like, the Instagram
account's not going to feed itself.
We need content.
Get out there
and do some shit, kid.
I know. I think that's something
I'm like, I guess i'll just put
the wheelchair on me give everybody what they want tell me about your coaching career and and
only a small sliver of the account do i see you coaching it's apparent you're a coach maybe you
used to own a gym what's the deal tell me tell me the whole fitness i did i own the box man um i own the box for three years crossfit
uncontested baby and uh i coached uh yeah i did the whole the whole gym thing i had three years
uh i you know i coached adaptive athletes for free i let them have free memberships and that
kind of like uh got pretty big in houston man got to the point where it was kind of overwhelming. And I had a business partner at the time, and he didn't do CrossFit.
He kind of hated it in a way.
And we bumped heads a lot, man.
And we just had different visions of where we wanted to go with it
and stuff like that.
So, you know, I sold my shares of it.
And it ended up closing down like three months later, like after I left or whatever,
because the member base went down drastically.
Like it went from like 100 and something members to 12 in a matter of a couple weeks.
But people that are on the outside looking in, they don't understand that the coach
and you see him every day or her every day, and it's a big part of the community.
So when you take away that factor, man, it's a big part of the community so when you when you do
when you take away that factor man it's almost like taking away like a sibling or something
for those people you know like so what do you expect i never saw any men in your classes i
only saw women was that your specialty i train nothing but women now either that's true. Is that true? I don't... I mean, I see these classes
full of women. I don't see any dudes.
Zero. I have zero
guy clients right now, Bubba.
You're...
How much do you weigh?
I weigh 149 pounds
this morning. Holy shit.
Do you know Kyle Maynard?
I do know Kyle Maynard.
Triplet or quadruplet T t yeah i i think he might
weigh 140 pounds oh wow yeah yeah i think i don't want but at least i haven't talked to him in years
but when he told me that i was like holy shit i had to take a step back and look at him like oh
yeah you are just one giant piece of muscle yeah Yeah. This is definitely not my heaviest. This is me getting ready.
I mean, as much as I can for the open, I guess, you know,
since I got the whole adaptive part, whatever.
Are you doing the open?
I'm doing the open.
I was going to ask you about it.
I saw you were signed up and it's the first time that you've signed up in
five years, I think.
It's the first time that you've signed up in five years, I think.
Not why is it the first time in five years, but why now?
Like I'm not signed up. Are you signed up Brian?
Because of COVID and I'm pretty sure we won't have, I didn't like, I didn't like doing the open cause there really wasn't no point for cripples to
do the open, you know, let's just face it.
Like there really wasn't nothing to win or gain or anything like,
and there wasn't any workouts. So we'd have to adapt them to like our,
so like I did them, but I just kind of, I would, I would do them.
I just wouldn't plug in the scores or sign up for it. You know,
I would do it like that. But I felt like i got too wrapped up in competing and and not why like not the love of
what was happening like you know like crossfit is way more than that dumbass competition stuff to me
and i just felt like i got caught up in trying to compete compete compete instead of like trying to
pay it forward to the next person and show everybody
what this has done for me. You know,
My perspective is that the competition aspect of CrossFit is,
is exactly where it's meant to be in the a hundred words of fitness is that
it's the last piece of the puzzle.
It's the regularly play and learn new sports and that the sport of fitness
actually was a natural evolution out of the methodology. That's why I participate in the, in the open.
Well, it's like, I don't know if the new,
the new CrossFit goes hand in hand with the old methodology at all.
That's a, that's a good, we're about to find out, right?
I don't know if it does either. That's a great point.
I'm not, I'm not saying anything. I'm not trying to throw anything out there,
but like it looks, it is, it's just so weird now, man. Like, I don't know.
It just ain't the same.
It doesn't mean that we can't, you know,
that we can't hold to some of the tenants, you know,
just whatever the HQ is doing and the direction they're going is one thing.
But those of us that are in the community, which is, is the, you know, just whatever the HQ is doing and the direction they're going is one thing. But those of us that are in the community, which is, is the, you know, the, the bread and
butter of, of what the sport, the methodology, anything you like about it is us people that do
it. People that eat a little healthier, that exercise regularly, that vary their movements
that are making themselves better people. It has helped helped me dude 100 like it is it has helped me
it has helped me transfer from my chair to my truck a lot easier it has helped me learn how
to get around on my hands it's more so significant like just just being better all around like and
moving my body dude like i was such a meathead at first that like i really was like i had you know i just
didn't have no flexibility and i just was like terrible man so like it's changed my life and
it's also like it also kind of like gave me like the new um the new spark to like the fitness game
when i needed it you know what's your what's your bench press zach the most i've ever done yeah
501 pounds and what's the world record for,
and what was your body weight at that? 153 pounds. 153 pounds. And what's the world record for
someone bench pressing 501 pounds at that weight? Um, there's one other dude who has more than me.
I got the world record for that federation,
but to be the all time world record holder, I'd have to do five 27.
Oh, at that same weight.
Well, I can go up a little bit. Actually. I could,
I could weigh up about eight more pounds and eight more pounds on me.
It looks like 20 pounds on me because it goes all here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Holy shit.
Are you healthy when you bench press 501 or is there a compromise there?
No.
Not at all, dude.
Like I was, I mean, I was, I guess I was, I was, I just wasn't in shape.
Like I was, I was losing a lot of flexibility and I was eating every second of the day,
man, just God bless. I was eating every second of the day. I just,
I was getting to the point where I, and I, and it wasn't good stuff either.
I mean, I do,
I would literally have chocolate milk two or three times a day just to get the calories in me to be, you know, strong, pick up that weight.
So to say I was healthy, definite, no,
I feel way healthier now and my strength hasn't deteriorated that much from it, you know, and I,
and I do a lot more cardio.
You did four Oh five for three this morning, or at least in the video.
I like it. How you look up at the board. Let me see.
Oh, no, I look, I still on that.
Zach,
how old did you say you were?
I am 31, my man.
Oh, okay. So you're still, you're like
right in the middle of your prime.
I'm prime time.
Yeah. And do you have a
day job?
I train people and I work a
night job at a filter company, a chemical plant
filter company. And plant filter company did you
get to sleep at that job very rarely oh damn very rarely i tear down you know like uh big like
filters like big chemical plant filters i just tear those down i sew them back up and i reap in
the wire sounds like something you do in texas baby. Do you have fitness goals, Zach?
Like, like, like obviously 501 was a goal, right?
Do you have a new goal?
I do.
And I hit up Dave Castro and his dickhead didn't get back to me yet.
That's a, that's a theme with all my podcasts.
Dave Castro is a dickhead.
Go on.
I do have a goal in mind.
a dickhead go on i do have a goal in mind and i've actually talked to uh kevin ogar stouty about this because uh i don't think dave would really even know but you know is uh you know that
dude who um or that two guys now i think two maybe three i don't know um that that um did a 500 pound
back squat and they ran the sub five-minute mile.
I reached out to Dave and I wanted to know what the equivalent would be
to a wheelchair athlete pushing the mile and doing a bench press
in the same hour or whatever day.
Was it an hour or day?
I think there were two different versions.
Brian, do you know?
There was a back squat and a deadlift or something?
Originally, it was to do it in one day,
but then there was a guy who did it in five minutes.
But he, but when he did it, he deadlifted it, right?
The five minute guy deadlifted.
And the guy who did it in the day did the back squat. Adam.
The dude did a back squat. Wow. Well, anyways,
Dave never reached back at me, but I eventually asked ogar and me i was hey man
what do you think like the you know like equivalent would be to a adaptive athlete
and we came up with a six a 630 a sub 630 minute mile and a 425 pound uh bench press so i'm going
for that as soon as i get my new sports chair i I want to try that. And if I don't get it,
there gives me something to work towards anyways, you know,
I saw on your Instagram that there was a workout and it said sub six minute
mile. Did you,
you can push a wheelchair a mile in six minutes?
Close to it.
Is that what do you crash doing that like all the time around the turns
um mainly in the trails because uh they got like little like dips and stuff and then so i'll get
going to where you know i'll just i'll have like i have a ratchet strap and i'll have my dog leash
like attached to a strap so i can get down and push on my wheels. So he kind of helps me and we're flying, dude.
We look like Santa Claus and some damn reindeer.
We're flying through the trails and every now and again, you know,
he'll have like,
he'll be pulling me and I'll hit a dip and I'll just fly out my chair.
Everybody will come to my rescue and shit, but that's embarrassing.
Has anyone ever thrown you out of your chair?
I've gotten punched out of my chair.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a fight.
Let's hear that one.
How do you get punched out of your chair?
How did I get punched out of my chair?
Well,
did you,
was it a,
was it a face shot?
Did you see that?
Did you see that fight video?
I have not seen it.
No.
Oh,
thank God,
dude.
You probably,
I had to cancel the podcast. Fuck this dude. No, no, no. I. Oh, thank God, dude. You probably I had to cancel the podcast. Fuck this dude.
No, no, no. I was actually, I mean, dude, like it was the worst at the time. Okay.
I'm coming out this bar. You can do it after this or I'll send it to you on Instagram.
Whatever. I'll send it to you. It's only like a 20 second clip, but I kicked this guy's ass.
I'm on a date actually, dude.
And I'm coming out this bar
and this is on Veterans
Day of all things, dude. So, you know
they think I'm a wound at bed in the first
place. And I'm coming out and this dude,
I get in my wheelchair.
We got to go down steps. So, I had my wheelchair on
my back and I was kind of jumping down the steps.
And I get down to the end of the steps and I
put my wheelchair down and when I get in it,
this son of a bitch sits in my lap and he starts twerking his ass and then in front of his friends
trying to be cute in front of his buddies and uh I got real pissed off and I slapped his ass and
when I slapped him he kind of fell off my lap and he turned around he like punched me and he punched
me I fell and then after I fell is right when that video starts that you'll see shortly.
And, um, yeah, all hell broke loose.
It's bad news. If, if those arms grab someone, huh?
Those hands and arms that you got.
It was, it was, it was, it was a good, it was a good little fight, man. Uh,
I hit him, uh, he got knocked out pretty quick, but, uh, we both got handcuffed and we were sitting there and the cop was like,
you did this?
And I was just like, yes, sir.
And he was like, damn.
And then that dude was kind of drunk or something. So he kept on trying to like get the handcuffs like, like, you know, from out of his legs
or whatever.
And I'll never forget.
The cop says, if you don't quit doing that shit, I'm gonna put them in the back seat with you.
Was your girlfriend pissed? Like, like she's upset. Cause you scared her.
And is that the last date you went on?
That was the last dude. That was, uh, we broke up shortly after that, man.
But yeah, I mean,
but she didn't want cause the girlfriend I had at the time been knowing me since high school.
So she's seen me in a lot of little scruffles and stuff.
So when that happened, she was like, you know,
you're just going to hurt people. And that was it.
It's amazing. It's amazing. All the stupid shit that,
and now you obviously are, um, have fun with it,
but the twerking on your lap is a little too far.
But it's amazing some of the stupid shit people say to you.
I like the post where the lady said to you, oh, I know exactly what you're going through.
I was in a wheelchair for three months.
I broke my ankle.
You're like, yo, bitch, if I had a hammer, I'd backslap you with it.
I've had an old woman come up to me she says she said i forget but i made a post about this one too she said something oh she said uh
you military and i said no ma'am i was actually born like this she says horrible way to live huh
and she walked off.
Straight savage, bro. Like, I just like, was like, oh my God.
Wow. Do you, do you, do you mostly keep your mouth shut when people say that? Or do you say something back? Like, Hey, you want to sit on this dick?
Or yo fat bitch, come back here. Like anything like that?
I said something one day when i was super young
dude and uh and then i just like from from then on i was kind of like i just let it slide off dude
i mean i fuck with people bad like like if i'm getting on a bus or something somebody says hey
man you need a hand i'm like no i need a leg dude like you know oh yeah yeah yeah i'll mess with
people like that's good but if somebody just says savage, like I just kind of like let it go,
you know,
cause obviously I don't know what they're saying sometimes.
Right.
Like,
I don't feel like they don't,
they don't understand how rude it comes off sometimes.
Um,
I used to hang with,
uh,
Greg Glassman a lot,
like every day for 15 years.
And he had polio as a kid.
Right.
He never got post polio. He never got what? Post polio as a kid, right?
He never got what?
Post comes back.
Uh, no, he hasn't. No. Um, but so he had polio and he never talked, you know, he hardly ever talked about it. Like I,
since I was around him all the time and we were really good friends,
occasionally I would hear some stories about it,
but we, he would never talk about it.
And basically it's a horrible thing for a couple of reasons. ravages your body but that's not the horrible part the horrible part
is the way people treat you right yeah and um one time he told me one of his like the reason why he
never talks about it because the thing that bugged him the most is like he'd be at a swim meet or a
gymnastic meet or he'd be at some event and someone would be like oh that's really good for a kid with polio and that he said that was the part that was like that was the part like he just
he just wanted to hear i guess he didn't say this to me but my takeaways is he just wanted to hear
damn glassman kid's a beast what yes dude i hear it all the time man for no leg for no leg dude
strong as shit like i'm like why can't I just be strong as shit?
Like,
regardless of legs, not weight, whatever,
I'm just a strong, like, why can't I just be a strong-ass dude?
You don't even know any other no-legged
people. Shut the fuck up. You know what I mean?
That's what you should say to them. How would you
know if I'm strong? I know a strong-legged dude
that no-legged dude to bench is 2,000 pounds.
And then you get
that and you get the the ones
oh i would do that i could do that too if i if i could focus on the arms all day long i'm like
okay yeah that's
okay dude it's funny it's like people saying like um if you if women who say um i don't want to do crossfit
i'll get too buff and my response to them was you don't have the work ethic to get too buff
that's the last fucking thing you should worry about i say it straight up to them like
and and i might be wrong but here's what i've noticed is people will hate on whatever i do
or they're gonna they'll say is to why it's easier because they themselves can't do what I
can do. Now they're trying to justify why they can't do what I can do.
And I'm just a cripple boy.
Well, I go to your Instagram account and I see you doing muscle ups.
And in the six posts I've seen where you do muscle ups,
you've only done three, the max set I've seen you do is three.
And I just did five. So that's what I tell myself. I don't tell myself i don't i just say oh shit i'm stronger than that dude are we going for max
effort muscle ups next well i just know that every week i'm adding one and this week i did five
strict and uh next week i'll do six strict from the seated position. I might tell you.
So next week I do six. You can play catch up if you want. Anytime you're at three.
I'm going to put the terror on me and do six today.
Strict baby.
Oh, that's pretty good. No lie. Like I've seen you do most of your forms.
Pretty good. You got a good turnover.
So it's my, it's my bread and butter one trick pony oh boy he likes to tell people he has the best muscle up in northern california yes yeah zach what do people what do you know about
wheelchairs that that people who don't use wheelchairs not know like it could be anything like you got to replace the
seat every six months or they smell like ass from you sitting in them or they're actually they cost
thirty eight hundred dollars and they're pieces of shit or like what's the deal with the wheelchair
tell us something they're expensive as shit and insurance doesn't cover it all that's what i will
say it's like i want that to be out there at the most
is because people think, oh, you just, you know,
you end up in one that you just get the shit for free.
No, man, they're really expensive.
They're talking about like car expensive sometimes.
What's a super high-end wheelchair?
Can you buy a $20,000 wheelchair?
I've never seen one that high.
My wheelchair is 4,500.
And what's special about is it carbon is it fast
is it fully well mine had a well i'm actually sponsored by a wheelchair company but uh we had
a tantrum with mine because i i have a real hard time keeping wheelchairs intact so we went with
like a i think a whole inch thicker tubes um everything's welded on if it's not welded on
then i don't have brakes on my chair because brakes are for pussies and they break easy
and uh and yeah just like the little bells and whistles everybody wants all all it's just going
to do is it's going to break down on you in the first place so finally get you a good
fixed chair and and that doesn't fold up that doesn't fold up them are
the best like doesn't don't get you a fold-up chair get you a nice fixed chair that's meant for
you and it's a game changer i want i mean i never wore shoes but i feel like it would be going from
sketchers to nikes or something okay and why is your chair having trouble staying together is it
because of all the all the takes it requires to do those um chair coming out of the back of the truck videos
my last chair broke because i was doing a handstand on my truck and my buddy's
on the brakes and i did a front flip off of it so i've seen the video saying and you wrote on
the bottom i know you wanted to do a brake check you're telling me he really did do a break check he didn't mean to but he tapped on it and when he
did dude i went flying luckily i landed on my wheels but my chair was real bent after that
i had to get a new one when you do that stunt are you like oh shit if i land on my wrong or
land wrong like like i mean do you consider that that shit going bad and losing an arm or doing some serious damage?
What else I got to lose, man?
You only got two arms, dude.
No, I'm playing with you.
No, I just, I like doing stuff that you wouldn't see in somebody in a wheelchair do, right?
Like that was like my overall goal at first.
I just want to do cool shit
that I haven't...
The escalator thing, stuff like that.
It just kind of evolved.
I don't know. I just started putting it out there more.
I have to take a pee break.
Go ahead, dude. Take a pee break.
I'm going to talk to Brian Frank.
Zach.
Yes, sir.
There's like less than 50 people in your adaptive division on the team site right now.
Do you know a lot of those guys?
I probably know all of them.
And there's a massive age range.
I think the youngest guy signed up is 15 and the oldest is 76.
Yeah.
My God.
Yeah, man. six yeah oh my god um yeah man it's kind of like um you know it's it's really you know CrossFit's really I mean it's fairly new to the adaptive world too and there's so many
disabilities there's you gotta think there's so many different disabilities that it would almost
be it's like it would be really hard to make the playing fields even, you know, like,
so you would have to have a lot of divisions, I feel like,
to actually have like a real, a real like classified, like, like, you know,
sanctioned event or something like that. And I feel like that'd be hard.
But that being said, it's like with so many disabilities, you got, you got,
you had when CrossFit first started up, or not first started,
when we first got in first CrossFit, every, every, every handicap was for itself, so we would be
competing, like, I would be competing right next to the girl who has cerebral palsy, and against a
guy without an arm, that dude's going against me, there wasn't, like, a chair division, a one-arm
division, you know, a standing division, like there are now, and a standing division like there are now.
That was the funniest thing to me, though, dude.
It was like every cripple for themselves.
Are you the
strongest? Do you know
anyone stronger than you with no legs?
With no legs?
Yeah.
Stronger than me with no legs. Yeah. Uh, strong than me
with no legs.
Uh,
I know somebody
around the same
strength as me
with no legs.
Is it the guy
I saw on your,
um,
you plugged him
on your Instagram.
He benched 405
for two or three.
No,
no,
no,
no,
no,
no,
no,
not him.
Um,
no,
there's a,
there's a dude,
uh,
no,
there's,
there's paralyzed
people that are
stronger than me or there's paralyzed people that are stronger than me
or there's like people that are uh like around the world that are like beasts
and when you say paralyzed meaning they have their legs but they just drag them around
yeah yeah i say it like y'all know but yeah so there's parents there's amputees
amputees just you know missing legs like still moving and stuff a pair of paralyzed somebody
paralyzed is usually going to be missing feeling from either the
waist down or even higher, depending on the spinal cord injury.
And the reason I plug that.
You really are lucky. You know that.
Oh, I really am. I'm fortunate to be handicapped. Like my handicap.
Yeah. Like I'm really, really blessed to have less.
Yeah. And you got, and blessed to have less. Yeah.
And you got to keep your dick
and you didn't have to deal with
being paralyzed.
And I feel my dick.
Well, I mean, it's only, yeah.
It's not shaped like a hockey stick, is it?
No, no.
You've been around a lot of
tripods in your life, yeah?
Yeah.
Yeah. you've been around a lot of tripods in your life yeah well yeah yeah
yeah a lot of tripods so so you're saying that there's guys out there who are most of the guys
out there who are super strong they have their legs but they're just paralyzed
or you can think of i shouldn't say
most but but those are a few that come to mind i can think of a few paras yeah that are absolutely
animals but yeah um i didn't know greg abbott is it greg who's your governor greg abbott
yeah is that his name i didn't know he was in a wheelchair until i was on your instagram account
ain't no point he's dragging his toes in the snow.
Oh, he's pissing you off?
He don't have a foot plate. Why?
What the fuck? That don't make no damn sense.
You have feet and you drag your toes around. Why don't I get a foot plate?
Oh, I see what you're saying. I thought you were talking about his politics.
You're talking about his chair design.
No, I trolled Greg Abbott to the fullest, dude.
I'm talking about to the fullest.
You mean on his account?
You damn right.
Has he ever responded to you?
He's seen it.
Oh, awesome.
Dude, he should call you up.
Dude, I have said out loud that he's seen it.
I said, all I want is a response and i will stop but i've had i got a lot
of pull in the crippled community and i got every handicap in the world calling out on that footplay
right now you you have quite you probably have quite an interesting following on your instagram
account it's like part fitness part crippled part kind of thug life, part motivational.
Yeah, yeah.
You don't feel like the thug life crew in there?
I've been hearing that a lot more.
I didn't think of my own life as a thug life.
No, not your life.
But you attract that sort of, you're kind of like a 14-year-old white boy's wet dream
of like who like listens to rap music.
You're all buff. You have the tattoos. You got a good twang.
You drive a big truck. I mean, you're, you're, you know,
no one would fuck with you. You know what I mean? You're kind of,
you got a little bit of that. It's part, you got a little rapper in you.
You know what I mean? Like a little, yeah, you got a little hood. Yeah.
That's what I meant. Thank you.
Some, you know what? I've heard this a lot, especially the question.
You also have some, you also have some Tony Robbins and you have some,
I mean, you got all this weird shit, like all meshed together.
A little country ghetto.
A little country ghetto is what you're trying to say, huh?
I don't know. I don't know the term, but, but it's, it's quite,
your comments are quite the scene.
I cannot get away from the ratchet
women man i just can't do it dude i don't like them goody two-shoes i like them girls that
they're shaking their ass and they will pick that dollar bill up off the floor without their hands
that's a great segue into um god in one of the posts, someone asked if you're Christian and you said you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior.
But why did you do that?
Because I believe I'm a Christian.
But did you have something that happened?
And then you also have a post on there about hitting rock bottom that more
heroes come out.
Is that you,
did you have that post more heroes come out of the bottom then?
Oh,
no,
I just,
I just,
I looked at my life.
I kind of looked at my life like that.
You know,
I've seen,
um,
um,
like,
um, okay. I could say this without calling anybody out. It's like, you know, um, um, like, um, okay.
I can say this without calling anybody out. It's like, you know, my,
my parents party day, day, you know, like, so with my deformity drugs might, it might've been a cause to my deformity, but I'm not saying,
I don't want anybody to like, you know,
point a finger or bash my mom because my mom is my best friend now.
She's my biggest supporter and I would not be the fucking man I am today
without her. So whatever, whatever mistakes she made in the past,
I feel like she has made it up 10 times, 20 times more,
just being the mom she is. So that needs to be said first. But, um,
I felt like, you know, like I'm a crack baby from Sheldon, Texas, dude.
And now like, I mean, I got a little bit of following behind me. Like I made it out the gutter.
You know, like, I feel like I should not be in a situation.
I should not be in a position I'm in. I feel like I was blessed.
I am blessed. I feel like the only way. And to be honest with you,
I've seen addiction and what it can do to people. And the only,
the only, the only way possible,
I feel like my family and my mom pulled out of addiction like that is through
like the love of God, man. I just don't see how, how, how like, man,
she was bad. And then now she's good. Like she's a total one 80.
Like she preaches every day. She goes to church every day.
Like she's an awesome person now. And that's why I believe in God, man. I feel like, I feel like nobody could,
even I couldn't change my mom, like even my love,
I feel like I couldn't change it, but like the Lord did.
And that's why I'm a believer too. You know,
I've seen the Lord's work in people, man.
How old were you when she went through the transformation,
the positive transformation?
19 years old.
Oh shit. Okay.
So you dealt with 19 years. So your, your, your child, your,
your home life was, was wild.
Wow. And you didn't get caught up in any of that.
No, I definitely did my high school dropout, bro. I sold drugs. I've done it.
I've done the works. I've done it all, man. Um, I dropped out of high school. Um,
I dropped out of high school for a little bit and I was, um, I would,
I remember I was, my mom moved off for a little bit.
So I was paying the house note on money at works because I dropped out of
school, but I was paying the house note to make it look like her still selling
drugs. So I did that. And I had a friend named greg tuck living with me
and uh just you know to have company here and i would i pretty much like buy his uh his full
clothes and shit every year like and he would help me around the house like he would help me
clean up and he would you know help me with the roof and shit like that so like i did that until
i was about 18 and then she got real good real clean came back and and then um yeah
man she just got good man after that what were you selling weed or coke or everything everything
i was selling coke and ecstasy oh yeah ecstasy was great i had a little stint with ecstasy not
a long one but man did you sell the mdma and did you sell the mdma and the powder
farm i did that's good i had it but yeah whatever you want seven pill
it got like that for a little bit but uh yeah man like i said like and then um
to be honest with you she was like you know like i i you know i want to get better at this and that
and then she said uh she was like you know i want you to move i want you to move away from houston
for a little bit because she knew i was going down the wrong path myself and you know she wanted to
get right and she wanted me to be right and i moved to san antonio for about a year and then
when i came back that's when the whole 180 change was like,
she was a completely different person.
Holy shit. And you got your mom back.
Oh yeah. I mean, dude, even as, even as like, uh, even as, you know,
throughout like partying years or whatever, my mom was always a good mom.
You know what I'm saying? She was never like a, she never liked that.
You know what I'm saying? So there wasn't nothing I can really say or do.
she'll never like that you know like so there wasn't nothing i can really say or do and um do you see her every day now almost every day close to it how close does she live to you
four miles does she ask you for grandkids all the time
and what do you say you got the dog All the time.
And what do you say?
You got the dog.
Awesome. Do you want kids?
I do. I do. Um, I, I've noticed, I've, I've, I don't got baby fever or anything, but I've noticed, uh,
the want for kids more now than definitely in the past, you know,
I didn't want kids, but I ended up with three of them.
And I didn't have my first one until I was 42.
Yeah, dude, you are. Oh, dude.
I know tons of cripple with a flu pill. If you ever need it. Gotcha.
I, someone, someone asked you in one of the questions,
this is another brilliant question. I, it's almost like you make these, uh, someone, someone asked you in one of the questions, this is another brilliant question. I, it's almost like you make these up. Um,
if you had a kid, would you want him to have legs?
Right. But I think what they meant to ask you is,
is if you had kids, would you want them to have your penis?
Because I got three,
I got three boys and one of them got my penis and God bless him.
He's a lucky one. And the other two didn't,
they got someone else in the gene pool.
I got two nephews, dude. Like one of them was blessed.
The other one was just like,
the other one will hate on them for having a little dick too.
You won't recover
from that. Never, never.
You won't recover from that kind of
name, Colin.
What was weird
is I noticed, like, this is probably TMI,
whatever, this is a podcast, right?
Yeah.
Growing
up, I was, okay, so I was really out there really like you know i was out there with
my boys and shit like that but i was always kind of insecure about my legs still because what i
noticed what i noticed is when i would have sex with girls directly after i would come i would
get the covers and hide my legs real quick wouldn't give a fuck about my dick i would just
hide my legs real quick and leaves your dick like up over the top of the plank.
In my mind, I thought like, okay, so for instance,
for instance, like you've been, you've been down, down, lonely,
horny one night and you thought about calling old faithful, right?
Right.
Jacked off one night. Now, what was I thinking? Oh my God. Right.
Like, what was I thinking? I'll right like what was i thinking i'll never
i'll never try to call her right i should have never done that well i always thought
girls were gonna feel that way about me like oh i just fucked the language guy
i don't know if girls are like that because i'm a guy but if you're a girl and you're listening
to this podcast that story that Zach just told look
at every single man you know
from the fucking Pope to the
Dalai Lama and they've done that
God I should call this girl and then you jerk
off and you're like what was I thinking
oh my god dude times were
desperate
so you thought that you
thought that the reverse of that you thought
oh shit this chick was so horny that she just fucked me and then afterwards when we're done she's like
i fucked the legless guy right because like man the shit feelings change right after you come
sometimes um and and you're you said you're 32 31 31 yeah so that's another cool thing about
getting old and having especially if you have kids all that shit goes away because you don't have time to tend to your own
insecurities anymore. You're just too busy changing diapers.
Just like as long as you have clothes on, you're happy to go outside.
Yeah. No, I'm dude. I don't, I don't chase it no more, dude.
I went through my, I went through my little host fail. I'm just,
I've been kind of chilling, you know, I, I got like, I got one girl I've been talking to, but nothing serious yet.
But we'll see where it goes.
Yeah, don't rush the kids.
That's all I got to say.
Don't rush the kids.
If I do, make sure he doesn't have legs.
If that son of a bitch comes with legs, I'm like, nah, that ain't mine.
I don't know what's attached to his hips, but that ain't my baby.
Why did you switch at 24 from a skateboard to a wheelchair?
What was the, what finally clicked for you?
I got in wheelchair sports.
Okay.
Yeah, I got, I got in wheelchair sports and then to be a weird, I mean, all of us, all
of us would go out to, uh, it of us would go about to uh it was the first
time i ever it was the first time i ever really hung out with anybody disabled other than myself
to be honest with you you know like and we would all go out in public events clubs parties whatever
and then uh you know there would be 13 wheelchairs on a skateboard and i got it i'm looking up trying
to hear everybody what they're saying my hands hands are getting dirty and, you know,
just time to grow up eventually. And I wanted to be like everybody else.
So I just ended up getting in the wheelchair. And then I kind of like,
it was like, Oh man, it's a game changer, dude. I was just so high.
Like I just felt like I was so tall, you know,
Were you, was part of that kind of like a fuck you like, Hey,
I'm not going to do the wheelchair. That's what all the other dudes do.
Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred 100 100 like when everybody when i when i was growing up man when i was growing up i knew
about wheelchair sports because somebody told me but like i played high school football growing up
on my hands so when people come to me about wheelchair sports about dude i ain't playing
that sport like i play real sports, right?
That was like my mentality at the time.
I didn't know how competitive it was.
I would have never said that if I had known how actually.
I just thought I was going to come to the mix and just dominate everybody.
You know, like, I'm a fucking man, right?
It's not like that at all.
These people are athletes.
It's just they're the same boat as me, you know?
And I just kind of took off with that, dude.
And then stayed on
stayed on escape let me start you stay on the wheelchair and then um now i just could not see
myself going back to the skateboard to be honest like man my back could not take that i don't think
as you get older are you feeling the um are you feeling more protective over your joints and your
body at all and you've changed things up, like less, less stuff with kipping,
more controlled movement,
not considering breaking the five 25 record on the bench press.
Like is it has age and like your own personal longevity.
Does that enter your brain?
Well, you're scaring me. I didn't, I didn't until you just fucking said,
I actually thought I'm like, maybe I shouldn't ask that.
No, I do. I'll be honest. I do. Um, after my car wreck two years ago,
I mean, I was fine.
I felt like I could have done this another a hundred years until that.
Then I started to experience a little bit more, uh, aches and pains and,
you know, like the old check engine lights on, you know,
Is there, do you follow parkour at all or any people on Instagram who do and pains and you know like the old check engine lights on you know is there
do you follow parkour at all or
any people on Instagram who do parkour
I know of it I don't
follow anybody no because I was
thinking like the next evolution of you
like someone who's following you now
who's like an eight year old kid
it should be like you who's into parkour
oh I'm definitely getting a parkour
it's a fresh you're too old you're too old It should be like you who's into parkour. Oh, I'm definitely getting a parkour.
It's a French martial art.
You're too old.
You're too old.
You're too old.
Parkour, French martial arts to get over and around stuff.
Right?
Yeah, it's funny.
I never thought of it like that, but yeah.
Yeah.
No, it is.
That's the definition of it.
French martial arts to get over and around things.
Yeah, it's cool.
Well, you know more about it than I do.
Yeah. I want to know more about it than I do. Yeah.
Because I want to know the definition of parkour.
So maybe you already do parkour everywhere you go.
Hey, Michael Scott.
We all do.
Who's that?
You don't watch The Office?
No.
Oh, man.
What a loser.
Brian got it, though.
Brian got the joke. Everyone listening will get it, too. So don't worry. Oh man. What a loser. Brian got it though. Brian got the joke.
Everyone listening.
We'll get it too.
So don't worry.
Yeah.
How do you not watch the office?
Dude.
I don't,
I I'm too busy doing podcasts to watch TV.
Too busy.
Stuck up.
Greg Glassman's ass.
Yes.
Those days are over.
Those days are over.
I have my,
my whole body back now.
What happens? What happens when your dog gets in a fight?
He's only been in two.
One was at the park, which was kind of like his fault. And I apologize.
And it was actually a great day and dude, big old dog. And, you know,
I apologize. And I was like, sorry. And the lady was being like a little asshole. She's like,
that's why you should get your dog neutered. And I was like,
I swear your dog shouldn't be a pussy.
But anyways, um, yeah, he got in that one. And then the second one,
I was, did you have any issues breaking it up?
Do you have any issues breaking it up or are you just getting mixed?
No, no, no, no. I'm not scared of any dog no uh no i just grabbed them i grabbed
them both by our collars and started pulling on them um but anyways um the second one was in my
neighborhood and we were just walking around the block and some dog came out of nowhere and we kind
of jumped him we uh we jumped that dog because my dog was fighting him and i jumped in i helped my
dog out what was the dog the other dog was a pit bull I jumped in and I helped my dog out. What was the dog?
The other dog was a pit bull as well, but he like came inside,
swiped my dog and I had to,
and then I had to vest on him with the leash attached to my wheelchair.
So it kind of pulled me and then I seen him like rumbling.
So I just started hitting the other dog too. So we were jumping at somebody.
Did the owner come out?
Not at all. No.
How does that end?
I just eventually beat the hell out of him
and he ran off.
Damn.
I know. I'm only saying
damn that it's not on video.
I know. It would have been good. Yeah, it would
have been real good. I
slung that dog at least four
feet over the ditch when I finally got
a hold of his collar.
It would have been like some
Fox News or CNN story. A poor man in over the ditch when I finally got I got a hold of his collar it would have been like some channel
some Fox News or CNN story
a poor man in a wheelchair
was a dog
attacked him and his dog and they were able to
send it off
they would totally turn
that narrative around right
um
I got four pages of questions i'm just like holy shit which one
should i do which one should i do um what does your mom think about your instagram what does
your mom think about your fame your popularity what do you think about your fame and popularity
i mean the account has doubled in the last couple of years, right?
The count has? You think so?
Yeah. I remember when you were like at 70,000 and I was like, fuck,
I got more than this dude. And then like, I looked again recently.
I'm like, Oh shit. He's 60,000 past me.
Dude, you know what? Like no matter what the accomplishment is,
no matter like, I mean, my mom don't get it, you know? So she just, she just,
I'm just her son, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm like, Hey mom,
I benched for this 500 pounds. She's like, dang, that's a lot. You know,
she don't know how like the extent of like, that's bad-ass, you know?
So she don't really, she don't really get it too much, but the Instagram,
she do, she don't, she don't even, I don't even think she has Instagram.
Like she don't know nothing. Everybody tells her like, Hey man,
your son's like, you know, your son's kind of like known.
And she'll just like rub it off.
And, but, and you, and does your mom know, well,
you don't have a computer, right?
And so obviously then I guess your mom, how old is your mom?
60. Okay. So she's still young and who does your editing for you on your social media i do it on my phone really yeah damn it's good
really yeah yeah it's really good like the music choices and the funny things you do
and the cuts and the edits what do you use Do you just use the iMovie and.
Yeah. Yeah. Just iMovie.
Damn. And, and how many hours a day do you spend on your phone?
You think three, four hours?
Probably four hours.
And most of it talk answering people's questions.
DMs.
DM. Yeah. Yeah.
I try to answer a lot of DMs, especially from like other people in wheelchairs or whatever, saying that like I influenced him somehow.
Like I want to be the guy that didn't just, you know, see it and ignore it.
Like I want to reach out.
Like certain governors?
I wish to God that's so bad.
You didn't see my post of him in his wheelchair? He was doing the Michael Jackson?
I may. God, dude, there's.
Hey, so you post like three or four times a day. He was doing the Michael Jackson. I may, I God, dude, there's, Hey,
so you post like three or four times a day. You break all the Instagram rules.
How many times are you supposed to do it?
You're only allowed one a day, but you don't give a fuck. I don't know.
It's just the rule. It's like, just it's in the Bible.
Really? Yeah.
When I first started my Instagram account,
I looked up how to be Instagram famous.
They said post one to three times daily.
Oh,
well shit.
Oh,
what do I know?
I was just the media director of CrossFit for 15 years and I got fired.
So just don't ignore anything.
I know you fucking,
I know you've heard this a ton,
but the behind the scenes was bad ass dude.
Like seriously.
Thank you.
Like dude,
like I, I lived for those months like
straight up like i i would i would not be a fan and i i would not be a fan of crossfit or like
without those problems not like seriously those things were badass that's cool thanks i had a
blast making them i'm kind of curious about that.
And a lot of people often say that Greg like missed the mark with that because
people found CrossFit through the videos and the media that you guys were
producing. Is that, was that really his perspective?
Or is that a misunderstood perspective of his?
And tell me what that perspective is. Sorry.
That Greg didn't think that the media side of the company attracted people to
the methodology.
I felt like he was just trying to market to the,
the sick more than, than the competitive, you know,
I think that I would have to sit down. I mean,
obviously I know the answer to that.
I just want to be careful how I speak on it, but in a nutshell,
I think what had happened was, is Greg had a
philosophy that first of all, let me start off second. CrossFit was an experiment. A lot of
people think that it was a business. It was this, it was that. No, it was an experiment that a guy
was running to make the program, a protocol that would make people healthier, live longer and
stronger than any other human protocol in the world. And people volunteered on all seven continents and like 200 countries to be a
part or 190 countries to be a part of this experiment.
They eventually started paying him to be a part of the experiment,
even though he told them everything is free on the internet and this,
and this company built called CrossFit Inc,
but it was really just an experiment.
He was just running an experiment and that's, what's so amazing about it.
That's why it was the most inclusive thing.
Maybe we've seen ever on the planet for sure in our lifetime.
That's why it's ridiculous for anyone to say it's not inclusive.
Just the fact that it's spread so much in 15 years is, is evident of its inclusivity.
It works for your body, Zach.
It works for my body.
It works for everyone on the planet, man,
woman, child, dog, whatever.
So I think what happened was, is he had the saying that, Hey,
we're caretakers of a national forest.
We're not architects of a city and he should have left that alone.
He should have run with that. But instead towards the end,
he didn't think that the media was presenting CrossFit as smart as he wanted
it to be presented. And so he started making changes and, and he,
and he acted to tell you the truth. He really got out at a great time.
I mean, he sold the company,
he's rich as fuck now and the whole fucking thing is collapsing on itself.
And now we don't even know what it is. Is it an experiment? Is it a business?
We don't know what the vision is. I mean, it's like,
Even adaptive, they, they put it in the open. Then they said like, okay,
they just said they're going to put adaptive in the games.
And then they backtrack and said, no, we're just doing the open for the crits.
And I'm thinking like, dude, you already,
you already hyped up thousands of handicapped
motherfuckers like that's the wrong thing to do dog you should make sure we had something you know
like if you're going to say something you need to act on it and then uh they rattled the beehive
and now all the bees are like where's the target I was uh Zach I was talking to a friend of mine
today who is uh he actually qualified for the adaptive divisions, but he's also found ways to be like competitive just in his age group.
He's I think 44 to 49. He's made the cut to under the last two years.
And I was talking to him today. I was like,
I'm pretty sure there's nothing beyond the open for you guys this year.
So you should just continue to compete with other guys, your age.
Did y'all see me? Yeah. Sorry. And you said, so he made it,
he made the age gap. Then what?
Oh, he was excited, you you know for the adaptive divisions but when he found out that there's not anything beyond the open he's like well i'm just going to continue to compete with everyone
else like i have them yeah yeah and then dude like us like us handicaps we've been doing that
for you know we've always had water palooza right like that was like our super bowl for a little bit
that was like our games for a little bit was like the waterpalooza comp and i've done that for a lot of years i've
skipped the last two years but um that was like the big one and like to show like to show like
what your fitness level was or is and then we didn't really have no other nothing other than
that right like we had a couple competitions that people made but it wasn't any like really like anything out there and then all we all we've been doing kind of was just like i mean if you
follow wheelwod you obviously do like the wheelwod workouts and you'll you'll you'll match your scores
compared to everybody else's but there's not like i want something that just like see who the best
is right like i want i want something just something just to try before I get super old.
Hey, you should just enter the RX division
and just modify
and just enter your scores and just
modify everything as you go along.
Like, fuck you.
You know? I don't think it would
be that hard. Like, okay, like, I've
done RX competitions before
like in regular, you know, like communities
or whatever, and I just did stuff different. Like, like,
okay. When they, they had,
they had a fireman squad where you had to put their partner on their back and
do the squats or whatever. Right. I just put my partner,
I let my partner sit in my hand and I pressed his dumb ass.
Did he fart on you?
It was super hard, but like, yeah, but like i'll modify it i'll get around it
in your instagram account you pretty much play every single sport like like if it's in there
you're doing it like i see you doing everything the only thing that i was really disappointed to
see you partake in and i'm just going to give you some friendly advice from one friend to another you were playing spike ball and i believe that will lower your t count um too much spike ball
if you play more than two or three times a year that will that game will lower your testosterone
level um so you may want to avoid that but all the other sports you're in there playing i think
are really good man dude i've played them But yeah, I've definitely played them all.
I'm a sports junkie, dude. Like I'm not,
I don't feel like I'm really just that happy until I'm just like playing
something. Then like, Oh, I'm just super happy.
I'm like a little chihuahua on crack.
Were you happy in that photo with Jackie Perez? You look pretty happy.
Man. When was that?
2015, July 25th. Exactly.
Wow, dude. Jackie Perez, Jackie Perez. If you're watching,
we've been talking to each other for the last like four years.
Tell me about meeting Rich Froning. It's it's it.
There's a picture of you with the Mayhem team. Where is that?
Is that in Cookville?
That was one of the clues.
Okay. I didn't know they did that stuff. Okay. Yeah one of the clues and that was cool man uh i mean i wasn't gonna i wasn't gonna be a fan boy because you know i don't i don't i don't like
doing that too much my buddy was my buddies were with me this year that year and they were like
bro isn't isn't that like the the best like the best like the best? Eat that? It's like the best? Like the goat?
And I was like, yeah.
Yeah.
Go get a fucking picture, right?
So I kind of like nutted up and went and asked them for a pic.
I hate doing that.
Did you have a chance to talk to him?
No.
Oh, damn.
And I'll give a plug right here, though.
One of the coolest moments.
He's really cool.
He's really cool.
He gets overwhelmed in crowds, but he's cool as shit.
He seemed like it.
He seemed like a super nice guy.
I mean, he was like, he just got off the competition floor or going on the competition floor.
So he didn't have a lot of time in the first place.
And I wasn't trying to have a conversation.
I knew how it is.
I just wanted to pick, you know, just to say I met him, you know.
And yeah, I mean, there's that, you know, just to say I met him, you know. And yeah, I mean, there's
that, you know. But
it was cool meeting him, dude. Like, it really
was like, I mean, dude's a G,
you know.
The only game, I mean, the one game, I mean,
I don't want to be on his nuts like this
because you're doing your thing with him.
But I have bragged about this
is when I met Josh Bridges for the first time
was at Waterpalooza. And he was the most down to earth like he was like and was crazy dude is he he was like hey
dude i know you he's like you just hit 405 for a triple in front of miranda right miranda old um
whatever her name is now yeah yeah use use what you want it's it's a podcast you could say whatever
you want you can use whatever name you want. I don't know who that's named.
It's Alvarez, but I just like it.
I just love
shit getting all messed up.
Yeah, so
that was like the first thing that came out of his mouth, dude.
And you don't understand,
dude, that meant the world to me.
You've seen my bench press video.
So that was so cool of him to throw
that out there. I thought that meant a lot to me at the time because i was super
young too he um i told him today that i was going on to do a podcast with brian friend
and with zach rule he knew exactly who you were he had no fucking clue who brian was
even though i've done a podcast even though we've done a podcast together before he doesn't oh it's so funny man he's a beast he's
a beast dude when he came back and won regionals that that amped me up for like another year
probably like that's that behind the scenes with old brook and and then um uh josh was was a beast
too that was amazing that he did that. Yeah. And amazing.
She did that.
Okay.
Hi,
I think I've gone through all my questions.
I think,
do you have anything for him,
Brian?
Do you want to bug him about any game stuff?
Who do you think is going to,
do you want to ask him who he thinks is going to win the games?
Do you care what he thinks?
I'm more interested in who he thinks is going to win his division of the
open.
All right.
Let's hear it.
Is there anyone on there that's like, uh,
that you know is going to give you a challenge?
Yes. I lost water.
And he signed up this year.
He signed up this year and he is a fucking monster, dude. Like beast.
He got the loan. He said, I got three loans.
What's his name?
Tommy.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's the only other, other name on this list.
I recognized also.
So you don't even want to say his name,
huh?
Zach,
like you don't,
you're like,
yeah,
he's a beast,
but you don't want to say his name out loud.
I don't mind.
No,
the dude beat me fair and square,
man.
He beat me.
But yeah,
he,
I mean,
he put my ass out here,
man.
And where is he stronger than you? In what areas?
Just that third lung of his?
He's definitely not stronger than me.
He's just got more lungs than me.
This is the clip I'm using on my Instagram.
He's definitely not stronger than me.
Okay.
So the first event was a three mile wheelchair push to the 800 meter
swim.
He's a Paralympian swimmer.
Who do you think is taking that?
Damn. That's why I need a full test.
The open's going to be probably better for you.
So like I knew I was using that one, but like on that event,
I thought that man, maybe you're talking, I went about that event.
I think I may have, I mean,
I don't think I would have won that event no matter what. Right.
But I think I could have did a lot better if I planned it.
I was smarter because my game plan was just,
cause I know I'm better at pushing a wheelchair than him.
Cause I played wheelchair sports. Right. And then he just now,
he just now gotten a wheelchair. So I knew I had my chair,
my chair skills were a little bit better than his. Right.
And I could push one faster than him. So the three mile push,
I stayed on his, I'm talking about like, if he looked behind him,
I was a cut hair away from him. Seriously, I was right there,
right? And
the last,
sorry, I got something here?
Sorry, the last mile,
sorry, the last mile of the,
damn, stop calling me, sorry,
sorry, people are calling me.
I love it.
Alright, so the last
mile of it, I just took off, like I took off, right, which I should have left All right. So the last mile of it, I just took off.
Like I took off, right?
Which I should have left out right when the race started.
I should have took off like a bat out of hell and gave myself some separation to get ready for the swim, right?
My dumb ass did not do that.
So like I got a little bit into the swim and here comes his action.
I'm talking about when he passed me up on a swim, he looked like he was Jesus
walking on water, bro. That son of a bitch is so
fast, I thought it was a seal.
How often
do you practice your swimming?
When I go to Splash Town, once a year.
Oh, shit. That's it?
That's pretty much it, man.
How old were you when you learned how to swim?
Like three or four.
Okay. And was it easy? Did it come easy?
I don't even remember.
Oh, all right.
I don't even remember. Yeah. I mean, I remember like,
I remember them trying to like teach me like little shit, like, you know,
hold your breath, try to float. And I, and I like, I already got that down.
I remember like, this is stupid.
I remember learning how to swim. I think I was like five years old.
My mom held me like this,
like a piece of wood in the pool and then told me to close my eyes and hold my
breath and let me go. And I floated. I was like, all right, I'm good to go.
Yeah.
I didn't learn. I learned from like my folks, I think, but we had a,
a German shepherd at the time and if you jumped
in the water the german shepherd was trained to like pull you out of it or whatever so like
like i guess like i just gave it a run one day and i kind of like broke my fear like i just went
and jumped off the balcony and then the dog came and saved my ass i was like crying i wasn't scared
to swim he was actually he was was used to get packages out of
the water that were dropped from plane overhead.
And then people
like, yeah, I've
done that. I learned how to
swim at a young age,
but I never,
I don't think I've had that many lessons
on it. I don't think I ever did lessons on them.
So you don't train, so you know
that there's going to be swimming in Wadapalooza and you don't just
start hitting the pool two hours a week
or three hours a week? You just are like,
fuck it. No.
I don't give a fuck.
That's awesome.
I mean,
dude, it's like, you know, Rich Froning
walked one event, remember?
But he didn't train to walk it. he didn't train to walk it.
He didn't train to walk it.
I don't train to swim.
He just blew a
gasket or something.
I remember the first year at Waterpool,
it was so bad
that the lifeguards were on jet
skis. They're going around
at all times and shit. I can only imagine
how stressful it is for for them because i feel like it'll be super easy to lose a cripple you
know what i'm saying like we just we get hung up and shit so um like i remember i was drifting off
so bad they were kind of like hey you need to come back to the left and i remember i was backstruck
and i was like leave me alone leave me alone leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Like I was dying, dude.
I held on to the buoy for like 10 minutes the first time.
Good times. Good times, baby.
Zach, we're at 90 minutes.
All right, man. Sounds good. I had a pleasure talking to y'all guys.
Yeah. Um, thank you. You and Josh are my two favorite people.
You may have a Greg Abbott,
but I have you and Josh bridges to troll.
I appreciate you for that.
I do got Greg.
Um,
I I'm,
I'm,
I'm throwing a thousand percent coming up.
You just wait for this.
Yeah.
I got,
so the foot plate on my sports chair I got coming in is Greg Abbott's face.
Serious?
Drop my, yes, I'm serious.
Awesome.
Stand by.
Can't wait, man.
I can't wait.
I mean, if he doesn't respond to that, I don't know what he would respond to.
Well, thank you.
That's a good way to end it.
Brian, thank you.
Talk to you later.