The Sevan Podcast - #246 - James Sprague
Episode Date: December 31, 2021James is a 19-year-old CrossFit athlete from Washington, but about to make the move to Naples, Florida to join a training camp with other teens under Brute Strength coach Matt Torres. He will be compe...ting at Wodaplaooza Jan. 13-16.Follow James - https://www.instagram.com/spraguerrrr/The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.comFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/Watch this episode https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC59b5GwfJN9HY7uhhCW-ACw/videos?view=2&live_view=503 Support the showPartners:https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATIONhttps://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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This episode is brought to you by PC Optimum.
If you like a curated playlist, why not try a curated grocery list?
With Swap and Save, the new feature in the PC Optimum app,
you'll get PC Optimum's best price for your grocery items.
Simply add products to your shopping list in the app,
and it'll show you similar items at a lower cost.
Add coffee to your list, then swap it for one that's cheaper.
Craving chips? The app will suggest some on sale.
To get started, just open the app. It's
as easy as that. See the PC Optimum app for details. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer
studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning, which beats even the 27th best feeling,
saying I do. Who wants this last parachute? I do. Enjoy the number one feeling, winning,
in an exciting live dealer studio,
exclusively on FanDuel Casino, where winning is undefeated.
19-plus and physically located in Ontario.
Gambling problem?
Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca.
Please play responsibly.
I'm thinking, bam, we're live.
You have to get.
Go ahead.
I was just going to say, I was running around trying to get everything together.
It's a good thing I wasn't running around here like, thank you, or something.
James would have got a nice show before we started.
Technical difficulties don't stop nobody.
We're here. We're ready to rock.
Thanks for having me on.
Hi, Brian.
Seven, you're going to have to explain the first comment that came up today.
Yes, daddy, show us the fun.
I really hope that's me and not you they're talking about.
But, dude, is that a man or a woman saying that?
If it's a woman, I'll take either.
Disclaimer, there's going to be a lot of my friends on here that are going to troll.
It's going to be awesome.
I guarantee you're going to get some more comments like that.
Good.
Subscribe and like and fucking boost the algorithm.
Yes, sir. If you don't subscribe and like, fucking boost the algorithm yes sir if you don't
subscribe and like we're gonna do we're gonna do this to uh james look at bam gone oh not again
guys if you are not you guys the other other guys listening if if someone's running towards the edge of a cliff do you think it's better to say hey stop or to say hey don't worry if you can't stop it's a two
minute fall to the bottom so you got two minutes of life left in you i'm an optimist don't worry
just run off the edge if you can't stop it's no big deal which one do you guys prefer how much do you love the person infinitely
infinitely oh you stop them all day yeah you stop them all day so those of you out there who are
saying dumb shit like i'm um insensitive or lack compassion by the way there's only like three of
you in the world or that i hate fat people you couldn't be further from, from the truth. You're crazy. You're crazy. As
you sit there and tell people it's okay to eat a little bit of sugar. I understand you're 400
pounds overweight and you're in a cart and you drive around Disneyland and it, but you have a
thyroid issue. That's not me. I love those people. You, you feign compassion by telling them and
arguing their limitations for them. I understand.
Uncle Buck got you when you're sick.
It's okay.
No, it's not okay.
Stop doing that to them.
Stop doing that to them.
I wish one of my friends, when I was a pudgy, fat little high school kid, and I would show off to get attention and eat a 44-pack of soft tacos from Taco Bell,
one of my friends would have pulled me off to the side and said hey dude you're a beautiful young man don't do that i just wish
one of you pussies would have said that and instead we got people out there who are like
feigning to be nice to fat people hey and let me tell you something no one think no one finds human
beings more attractive on this planet than me none None. I would bone a fat chick in a second.
I get naked in bed with the Smith brothers.
Tell me I fucking think I hate fat people.
Welcome to the show, James.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Great way to start the morning, man.
So wound up sometimes.
Siobhan, who got in your head, bro?
I just – this one chick on the Fittest Docs Instagram, and then she says stuff, but I like it because then it gives me something to think about in the shower besides my big dong.
Because when you're a giant dong like me, you can't be left alone with it.
So I'm just – she's sitting there talking about being compassionate towards obese people, but then arguing their limitations for them.
Don't do that.
We have a serious problem.
We have a serious problem.
We need, like, honest talk.
Sivan, were you one of them?
Yeah.
Were you overweight at any time?
Yeah.
Hell yeah.
I'm still overweight.
I still can't stand my fucking – you will not find a picture of me with my shirt off.
Dude, I was the same in sixth
and seventh grade man i have to drink 12 fucking beers when i land in hawaii to take my shirt off
hi katie
700 friends thank you for giving me something to look forward to
every day while i'm deployed uh oh thank you for your deployment uh by the way friends is
capitalized apostrophe s friend you're talking about brian right thank you Oh, man. Coming in hot. How old are you, James?
I'm 19, my man.
That's awesome.
James, when did you turn 20?
Turned 20 in May.
Excellent.
I know I have a page of notes here somewhere that James Sprague.
And will you pronounce your last name for me?
Yeah, Sprague.
You got it right, man.
Some people say Spragu.
Some people say Sprague. You know, I just man. Some, some people say Sprague. Some people say Sprague,
you know, I just, I just go with it. And how old's your dad? He is 56. Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, dude. Who just turned 57. I saw Keanu Reeves. Really? Yeah. Your dad's younger than
John Wick. He still looks in his thirties, bro. This guy's in his prime still.
And are your parents still together? They're not. They divorced about 10 years back.
Oh shit. So you were like, uh, that's like traumatizing age.
Dude, it was traumatizing for about a year and then it became cool. Cause you get double of everything. Um, Oh, you sound like my kids. Are you still, you're still.
I'm still, I'm still together with my wife,
but my wife was at work last night and my,
and my two youngest kids were at my mom's house and my oldest son's like,
Hey, where are my brothers? And I go, Oh, me and your mom split up.
And he goes, what? And I'm like, yeah, they don't live here anymore.
And his first thing was, can I go live with them? Like, not like, Oh,
this is cool to be with dad.
Yeah, my wife doesn't like me doing those jokes to the kids.
Are those a common joke in the house?
No, that was actually the first time I tried that.
He's seven.
I thought he was mature enough for it.
Nah, seven's not a good time to start making the divorce jokes with your kids.
Dude, they still hit different to me sometimes at 19 bro
yeah yeah um i was three when my parents divorced so i didn't i don't think i took the brunt of it
but my sister she's like she's like 72 and she's still pissed about it like she's still like she
don't like it she's like yeah there he is so so your dad, how long have you been doing CrossFit?
I've been in it for about six years now.
And like I was saying earlier, like in sixth and seventh grade,
I was like super overweight and just unhappy with my quality of life.
And I went to the gym with my dad one day.
I was like, hey, this thing sounds pretty cool, this CrossFit thing.
Like my dad had been to the games twice before the first time I even stepped in the gym.
And I was always super supportive of his dream.
And then when I stepped in the gym, I was like,
that was when I felt like I was in the epitome of downfall of my life.
It was just like this time where I had no passion.
I felt like I didn't have purpose.
And then when I stepped in the CrossFit gym, it all changed from there for the first time. It was just like this time where I had no passion. I felt like I didn't have purpose.
And then when I stepped in the CrossFit gym, like all changed from there for the first time.
At 13?
Yeah.
What did you do?
Like what were your passions at 13?
Just like did you watch TV or go out with friends or sports? You know, everything the average 13-year-old would do, you know, go cause ruckus, um, go make trouble somewhere. Um, let's
see, getting a lot of trouble at school. Me and my friends in eighth grade would have competitions,
see who could get more yellow slips, which were like, not like the worst punishment, but like,
just like screwing around type of thing. And they were, it was like no harm, no foul kind of
punishment. Um, and yeah, I played baseball for eight years i did swim team
for six or seven years um played soccer for eight i was the fat goalie who didn't move so
it was kind of nice so you were on swim team as a chubby kid i was and that's which is like it's
so funny because seven do you know what he looks like now? Yeah, yeah. Skinny. Yeah.
Tall and – I don't know about skinny.
You're putting on some muscle for sure.
Thanks, brother.
Not the short, fat kid that used to swim in the pool.
How tall are you?
I'm 6'2", and even if I grow more, I don't think I'm going to say that I'm 6'3", because I don't want to keep growing.
I want to stay at this height.
Right.
Because I want to fall out of the Ben Berger on CrossFit Games height window right right for sure is that a thing well we had him on the
show and and i said hey if i my first thing out of my mouth is to tell people don't ever try to
go to the crossfit games it's just too hard like set your goals a little lower like going to mars
or something like going to the games is just and winning the
games is nuts and so he gave us like these 10 checkpoints of like someone should if you don't
fall into these like kind of criteria you should you you shouldn't even try going to the games and
it was tongue-in-cheek he's not saying it like i don't know if tongue-in-cheek's the right phrase
he wasn't saying it like to be an asshole he was just saying but like hey if you're if you're five foot four cold mertens like you shouldn't you should shouldn't bank on it he does have the one uh
starting weightlifting at 15 under his belt though so do that one plus column for yourself there
james hey let's go you know savon and he's got some pathologies he's got some and he's got some
access to grind he got the divorced. He got the fat kid syndrome.
He's kind of got a little bit like, fuck you, I'll show you guys.
Do you think that a short person or a tall person is going to do better at the games?
Like outlier short, outlier tall.
Oh, that's a good question. What did you say?
I said short person.
I think it depends on the year.
Oh, geez.
I hate it when someone says that.
Oh, well, the programming will pick the winner.
But what sucks is Brian's probably right.
Brian's always right here.
Yeah.
Who do you think, Brian?
Or who do you think, James?
I have no idea.
You know, statistically, I think we've seen the bigger tall dudes do well.
I mean, if you look at Fikowski, he's always up there.
And me and Fikowski have the same build.
Yeah, me and Fikowski.
I would love to say that me and Fikowski have the same build.
He's definitely more filled out than I am.
What a great thing to say.
I don't have any current photos for my Tinder, but I look like this guy.
And you just posted a picture of Fikowski.
My camera on my phone is broken, but I look like this guy and you just post a picture of fikowski my camera on my phone is broken but i look like this guy um can you pull up caleb can you pull up that picture of that um of that from his instagram
that i think i sent it in an email this morning if you can't i can i want to know who this guy is
that um that's that's my dad all state insurance who jane who's that guy in the middle that's, that's my dad, all state insurance. Who's that guy in the middle?
That's the guy who commented the comment in the very beginning. He'd go, is that, is that a chick?
Oh, okay. His name's Sam. He's, he's one of my best boys. How tall is he? Sam is, you know,
if I, if I short him here, he's gonna be mad at at me. So I'm going to say I'm going to go 5'6".
So he's 5'5".
That's not my words.
I mean, if you push this hair down, he fits nicely under your chin.
Right?
It's amazing, dude.
Yep, yep, yep.
Because for a second, I thought that was Colton Mertens.
I was like, wow, does he train with Colton Mertens?
But that was probably just wishful thinking dude they they look alike and i think
that uh a lot of people compare him to colton mertens and he he doesn't like it he says his
mullet's better than colton mertens his mullet hit well he that isn't a really nice mullet
is he the same age as you he's almost a year older and i said goodbye to him about a month
ago because he ditched me to go basically live with his girlfriend wisconsin oh wow oh he's almost a year older. And I said goodbye to him about a month ago
because he ditched me to go basically live with his girlfriend in Wisconsin.
Oh, wow.
Oh, he's nearby here.
I respect it, though.
He's actually a pretty fit, Savan.
He made the quarterfinals last year.
He whipped up on me, that's for sure.
What? Tell me his name again.
Sam Schoen.
Is it Schoen?
Yeah.
Does he have games aspirations, James? He does he does yeah he wants to be big one day and how about the other dude over there um the guy looks like ron howard
his name is cole cole cole harrenan he's a coach for my company and he's one of my good buddies
as well how do you have all these guys that are so fit
you know that's a great question i guess the pacific northwest supplies great fit dudes
that's where you are you're in the pacific north you're where are you i'm in i'm right near seattle
and so i'm so sorry dude i'm so sorry oh my goodness it's been a great place to live but
that's why i'm moving to Florida in two weeks, man.
When you go down for Guadalupe, you're not coming back.
I'm not coming back.
Whoa.
But you made the most of your last couple weeks in Washington.
Last week, you hung out with Cole Sager, trained with him the whole week, I think.
Yeah, so I got the privilege to train with Sager twice.
Once was the day before Christmas, So it was like a Christmas gift.
And then two days after I was supposed to go home
and I asked my brother, I was like,
can we stay a little bit longer?
I want to go train with this dude
and got to go to his garage and we threw down.
The guy's just such a giver.
He just wants to help other people grow.
And so it was really cool to experience training alone
with him just
because he's, he is so, so,
so serious about his training and also like has so much fun with it.
So it's like a really fun mix to be around.
When you say it was a Christmas gift, did like, did you like just,
you're just, no, no.
I was thinking like maybe your dad called him and was like, Hey,
cause people have done, I'm sure people have done that with Cole.
I know people have done that with Josh bridges.
Like they call Josh bridges.
They're like, I give you a thousand bucks.
If my son can come over to your house and then they just,
and then they dropped Josh bridges off at the drop,
their kid off at Josh bridges house and work out.
You said you weren't going to say anything about that.
That's beautiful.
No, I think that the stigma of like looking at these guys,
like as a young competitor,
a couple of years ago, all these guys were like, whoa, they're all big shots, like huge
dudes.
Like I'd be so nervous to meet them.
And now it's like, I want to beat them in the competition floor.
So it's like, I don't look at them that way anymore.
Still have all the utmost respect for them, but it's like, I want to go out there and
put the hammer down.
These are my guys.
I got to beat.
Cole's kind of reminds me of like the amanda barnhart of uh
of the dudes like just with the shaved head and that clean look like if you put him and amanda
next to each other and had him stand perfectly still they would look like statues you know what
i mean like they would just be like is cole still working with ben he is yeah he they still have all
the athletes i think i think katherine's the only one that has left um but then
the whole hair coach harry thing leaving like i think ben's a a sole coach now for com train
who's harry harry paley or pally we talked we've talked about him he was he used to be like the
you know ben bergeron was the guy in the front of the camera harry was kind of his right hand
man behind the camera doing a lot of the programming coaching some of the top athletes
but there are a lot of coaches in the crossfit or in the comp train hierarchy that have been
there for a while so i wouldn't be surprised if someone like dan has been there for a long time
might like have elevated a little bit into a role or replace some of the stuff that harry used to do
tell me some other like Batman and Robin pairs.
So there's Ben and Harry, there's Matt and Matt and Jake, right?
Yeah, sure.
Isn't that, isn't that what?
No, that's not a good parallel.
Jake, Matt Fraser and Jake Marconi.
That's not it.
I mean, they've just, they've been around for like four months or maybe eight months.
And you're talking about guys who've been around for four months or maybe eight months. You're talking about guys who've been around for eight years.
James, if you're Batman, who's your Robin?
Is it Emma Carey?
I'd say it's Down Pepper.
You had him on the show.
Yes.
He is my right-hand training boy.
Lately, it's been the baseball dudes who have been throwing down with me every day in the gym i got two baseball dudes who come and do my whole workout
with me every day and i guess they're my robins right now i have two robins nice um you stole
dallin pepper's personality i think you have like two personalities and he has he has uh zero dude
he's still salty about how the podcast went. Cause his,
his thing cut out.
I'm pretty sure his wifi connection.
I'm like,
dude,
you'll get a second chance.
That was a common thing with the Riverside platform we used before.
So should I make an,
an admission here?
Savant?
Yeah,
please.
When you asked me of athletes that,
you know,
who are competing at water flues that we should get on the podcast,
I considered down, but then I was like, like now let's get someone with some personality the thing is
and it's it's a it's a it is a misnomer it is a misnomer to say he doesn't have personality the
thing is is he's so squeaky clean that's right like you lift up you look at you lift up the mat
and you just want to find like some crumbs under. There's nothing. Dude, I've tried.
I've tried for years.
First time I went over there was to Utah, his hometown,
was for the team series after our first CrossFit games together.
And he's just such a good human being.
It's like you can't be mad at the dude.
He oozes that.
You picture him like a cartoon character in a white suit, and you throw him in a mud puddle and then he steps out and
all the mud just drops drips off him you know what i mean like and he's a uh i can't tell
he's a he's a grower not a shower huh i mean not only is he a big dude but this guy when he works
out he turns into the hulk have you noticed that? Pat Barber was
like that.
But like
five or six inches shorter.
Than Dallin?
Yeah, Dallin. He's also around
6'1", isn't he? Yeah, he's
big as well. He's been growing, but he's
trying to cut down because I think
his only weakness is running.
So as long as he's lighter
and can run i think he's gonna do well yeah i mean it wasn't fitness that really kept him out
of the games last year it was just a lack of experience with the d ball he was definitely
fit enough to be there for sure is he um sam quant 2.0 you think down yeah go ahead james we went to uh sam's garage less than a year ago i brought
cole griesheber um dallin uh my buddy ethan tutor and i we went to sam kwan's garage which is funny
you say that and we all threw down basically the same workout and uh you know it's it's funny to
see them side by side because like dallin's just so much bigger than all these dudes you see on TV on the cross
of games. And it's like, dude, it's, it's not even a comparison.
Well, but I mean, you Cole and Dallin are all over six feet tall and filling
into your bodies. I mean,
you guys are a wave of a new generation coming.
That's going to be intimidating on the floor, but also just physically.
Hey, let's go. That's the goal.
Quant was special when he showed up man he was young and and and nasty i think he won he won an event his first games right like some bar he's some cycling barbell event yeah i can't remember
if it was double dt or heavy dt i think it might have been heavy dt i think he won double in 2015 and then 2016 the the heavy one who won I think it was BK Goodmanson
oh hey uh Sousa get keep James's number in case when Brian gets recruited to actually do real
events we'll have James be the new with John Young the new commentator he'll be he can be
our third strength look at him he knows his shit dude I'm I had so much fun that there was this
competition called the pit teensens Throwdown in September.
Brian was supposed to be there.
I never know why he ditched us.
I was sad about that.
Hold on.
Let me write that down.
Why did Brian ditch teens?
Okay, we'll come back to that.
So, yeah, he was supposed to be there with us,
but I was the commentator all weekend,
and I can surely say that commentating for
a little teenage comp uh it wasn't so little it was awesome competition but i was so exhausted
after like 10 to 12 hours just oh whoa whoa whoa just like announcing everything you see um dude
it's tiring like nicky got a hard job we We'll give him a 50-50 on his remembering statistics.
It was double DT that Quant won, but it was Ben Smith who won heavy DT.
Oh, dang it.
Next time, quiz me again.
Savan, just scratch your name off the list.
That's all it takes, really.
Send me a text.
Forget his number.
No, we're desperate.
We're desperate.
And the way people recruit people off this show,
we're going to go through people like it's gonna be a lot of uh you were 180 pounds in the seventh grade i was
and and what what do you have is that how tall were you then i was let's see probably five four
to five six and now you're six two yeah not gonna ever get any taller and how much do you weigh now 205 so you almost you gained eight inches and only 25 pounds yep yep i i went i went through a
period in eighth to ninth grade where i was like what during my first crossfit games in 2017 i was
145 to 150 and i was six foot two so i so I was so skinny. Oh, no, dude.
Oh, no.
Yeah, yeah.
I think this is his very first post on Instagram.
I think it's the second one.
I think the split trick was the very first post.
Dude.
Or 95 split trick.
There's me and little Tudor going down.
Tudor was my first training buddy ever,
and this is our little bat cave we were training.
Do you know what Tudor Magda is, Sevan?
I don't, but I'd like to.
He's a former champion of CrossFit Games in the teenage division.
And these guys were trained to, you know, that's what I'm saying.
Like, it's just random that they're all up there in the same area.
What happened to Tudor?
Is he still in the game?
Yeah, he was at West Coast Classic with James and Dallin this past season.
And he's younger than them.
He's like a full year younger than you guys maybe two years behind me oh two months younger than me
and then almost a year behind now what years did you compete in the crossfit games i was there 2017
and 2019 but as a teen what happened in 2018 you just didn't make it dude i screwed my knee up so
bad and tried to push it and push it and push
it and i was like i'm invincible i'm 16 and yeah just broke my knee down more and basically like
you have a patella the bone and mine had a crack down the middle of it and i kept training on it
and i basically then threw in the towel and got bone cement in my knee and took a long time to
recover and i came back 2019 and i
was told i wouldn't compete again i was like screw that like let's go out let's go try it like and
i'm good i just had to rehab a lot there's that there's another one seven more in the pathology
the injury like overcome that set it to the list divorced fat, injured, won't ever compete again. How many
guys have we talked to who said
you'll never compete again or you won't be able to
come back for this many years or you can't do this
competition and they just use that to
leverage it. Yeah, and surgery
has that same thing. In the hood
they called him broken back, broke back
Fraser. Broke back Fraser.
Did Fraser break his back? It has two
meanings, by the way.
Caleb, can I see what a cracked patella looks like?
Is that the thing I just see on top that I call a kneecap?
You call that a patella?
You got it.
You crack that thing, huh?
Yeah, dude.
It did not feel good.
And I didn't know it for so long.
And then I just kept training on it.
Cause like, like I said, like you think you're invincible at 16,
you can recover from anything.
And,
um,
and it eventually just stopped me in my tracks when I like,
couldn't bend my knee at all.
It was just,
and why put bone cement in there?
Why not just let it just,
it won't feel itself.
You know,
I,
I don't exactly know.
They said there was other stuff they had to clean up too,
that I wasn't like aware of. It was a bunch of like cartilage and whatever too it was gross man i was bad to myself and so that's something i'm always extra careful about my training but um you know
like i still got a little tendonitis going on but nothing nearly like that was like it's like
like it's it doesn't hurt in training it's like you know when
you just train a lot your tendons get a little sore and little things come up but i'm good now
what was the recovery on that like how long before you were underneath weight again they said it was
supposed to be 10 months and by the five month mark i was it was just like sarah sigma's daughter
with her acl like she spit it up um I was underweight at about the five month mark after three months,
I was walking great with no brace. Um, but I was,
I was trying not to be in a rush for once to heal.
Yeah.
That's also the common pattern amongst our, uh,
injured athletes is that they come back in about half the time.
That's always recommended. Yep.
I like Mike m's comment
you need to be fit to survive the rioting i miss the rioting season up here in seattle for uh
do you how crazy is that that they let people take like blocks and blocks of the city dude
they let people take over a police station there yeah how you can't
let people take over the police station you can't it's you can't let people do that yeah it's a
bummer there has to be some rules like um like you can't let people storm the capitol building i think
under any circumstance even if they're like benign protesters like just old lady protesters doesn't
matter you can't like you can't do that you can't let people you can't let people do 700 million dollars damage to a city
like ferguson you just cannot can't you can't let people start a police station on fire like
our public officials even if you hate them from from aoc to trump you got to protect them i mean
physically i mean we already destroy them on the internet i want people to not seattle is bizarre um
do you have a lord is looking better and better yeah it is looking real good
what was that savon do you have a girlfriend i'll answer this with no words
oh yeah oh meaning like that those are her hair hair ties. These are scrunchies.
This is what the cool kids do.
It's like a guy gives his girlfriend their sweatshirts.
The girl gives the guy the scrunchies.
Yeah, her name is Danica.
Okay, not Danica Patrick.
No, that gets commonly confused.
Because she probably doesn't even come up to your waist.
Is she a shorty?
So short.
Yeah, she's like surprisingly short in person.
Oh, my gosh.
Have you met her?
I've just seen her.
She goes to the CrossFit Games almost every year.
I think she was hanging out with Annie Sakamoto one year.
Oh, wow.
Sitting right next to us, and they stood up,
and she wasn't very much taller than Annie.
Gotcha.
When she's with Dave at the Games, she looks like Dave's daughter.
No shit. She is tiny.
And she'll cruise around with
the WWE wrestler guy, and he's
a giant. What's that guy's
name?
I was going to say, you know who you'd be a good couple
with? Your girlfriend should tune out
now. Oh my gosh.
Is Sydney
Mickalation.
Do you know who that is? She might be a little old for you she might be like 22 or something do you know who that is i don't know
who that is she did i say her name right uh yeah it's pretty good it's way better than
oh my gosh you guys get some tough names on here cindy michael eight cindy michaelation she's
awesome and i think she might
be tall too how tall is she was tall right he's like five seven five yeah probably five seven
yeah she's a giant she made she's like she's from canada james she made the games this past
year for the first time she actually won the wadapalooza rx division the last time they had
it which is not the top division that's the step down and gui mayeros won that division for the
men and both of them ended up making the games this past year so i'm sure we'll talk about wadapalooza here in a minute
but it's important i think people should recognize that um being even if you're not in the top
division at wadapalooza it's not it's not a slate on you like that rx division is stacked and it's
a lot of really good people coming up in this but you won't but you won't get on this show
just so you that's the distinction you won't get on this show. That's the distinction. You won't get on this show.
Well, if you're almost that good
and you happen to be very good at something else
that piques Savant's interest, maybe.
Yeah, likewise. Give me an example.
You know, bullfighting.
Right, right, right, right.
I see what you're saying.
You're the world's greatest bullfighter
and you're in the RX division.
You can come on the show.
We love you. But if you're in the RX division. You can come on the show. We love you.
But if you're just like,
just a,
just like someone with dreams and you haven't made the,
like,
I think we have a guy in the RX division.
Who's going to help us like hold a camera.
Things in the scale division.
Oh,
is that,
is that different?
Isn't RX scaled?
Negative.
No,
there's five divisions.
There's a,
at a water blues,
elite RX,
intermediate beginner and scale them. Maybe it's scaled them beginner. Yeah. And then they work out with their shirts on. No, there's five divisions at Wadapalooza. Elite, RX, Intermediate, Beginner, and Scale.
Maybe it's Scale, then Beginner.
Yeah, Scale is where they work out with their shirts on.
And then there's a gauntlet, yeah.
Wait, there were some good comments made.
You go first, James.
What did you say?
I said there's like a gauntlet as well.
They literally do everything there at Wadapalooza.
And what did you say?
There's this division with shirts on and shirts off?
Is that what you said? Yeah. Scale with shirts on and shirts off is that what you said yeah yeah that's awesome scale the shirts on everything else is uh skins
i've never heard that that's amazing okay so you're so you're in so you go into that tell
me about the first time you go to the crossfit games this build up you're this you're how long
how long had you been doing crossfit you were 14 when you went so you'd only been doing it a year yeah i think less than a year before i actually went to the crossfit games and
then you know it was one of those things where i i didn't know what to expect at all um kind of
just went in and was like hey let's go have some fun and then out of this it's called like the
online qualifier whatever how you qualify for the games as a teen or a master and i came out of it in second in 20 2017
and then i like expected such high things of myself going to the games like for my first time
like oh i'm i'm gonna go win this thing like this is i'm only coming out with a gold medal blah blah
blah um like which is the champion's mindset but was so disappointed when i didn't come out with
like even a podium finish. I was just short.
I got fourth. Um, and I thought it was everything at the time. Like I was like, this is, this is my
life revolves around this. Like, like this is all that matters. Um, I'm just so angry about it. And
for about three weeks after the games, I was like, dang, like this just stings. Um, and I, and then
like, I shortly came to realize like,
there's so much more to life than CrossFit. Like even for the most like professionals out there,
like they make their whole life CrossFit, but there's still other things out there.
And I was like, you know what? You're just a kid. You're learning, like, like give yourself a break.
Um, and I was like, I'll be back for years to come. So there's plenty of time for redemption,
plenty of time to make that up. Um, but you know, it was so much fun learning out there and like following in my dad's footsteps,
he competed the year before and then kind of flip flopped. He came to watch me the next year.
Um, and I competed and it was just so fun making all those friends, man.
Is that, um, what's wrong with, um, just being really hard on yourself and just being like,
like, okay, I'm either going to get on the assault bike or put a gun in my mouth. Like,
like what's wrong with having that dedication? What's wrong with like being that hard on yourself?
I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Uh, a certain point, like you can,
you should feel what you're feeling and always like, like be in tune with your emotions and,
and what you're feeling. but when you beat yourself up about
something for too long it's like is it really helping anything like right so like i i allowed
myself to be like oh this hurts like this sucks um but like for multiple weeks at a time and letting
it affect how i treat family friends everything i was like that's that's when it becomes too much
and you need to step back and really reevaluate like like what are you doing
yeah i i that was that hit home when you said when you start treating family and friends
differently right yeah you still yeah did you and did you do that it was kind of like you were just
like walking around moping just kicking plates like get up later watch more tv like it was it was more of a uh like a constantly replaying that
last event in my head about like i couldn't do a handstand push-up so like everyone saw me at
west coast this year not be able to do strict handstand push-up that was not the first time
it was like like it was 2017 was the first time it was like diane for the last workout dude i was i
was doing singles and failing singles in the round of 21 which is the first round of was like diane for the last workout dude i was i was doing singles and failing
singles in the round of 21 which is the first round of diane if you're not familiar with it
um and now that's like everyone at the games can do that unbroken easily like it's not even a
challenge um so i think that so you start to feel sorry for yourself it's the void the voice is like
i'll net i can never do this because i'll never be able to do 21 unbroken that kind of shit yeah exactly like not understanding the long-term growth and
thinking i'm always going to stay this way but obviously like for any teens listening like
everyone thinks that everyone thinks like i'm never going to get bigger i'm never going to
be like this guys um but it comes so quick that too yeah Dude. There are no adults in the CrossFit games, by the way.
There are no adults.
Not even in the 65 division.
No one with a mature mindset would participate in the CrossFit games.
Past the open.
I was looking back at that year, James.
Dallin won that year. Did you ever keep in touch with any of the other guys you competed against i mean i know
tutor was in that division that year as well let's see you know it just seems like a small like a
small community like you guys go there and the teenage divisions have historically been pretty
international too so you know i wouldn't surprise me if not you know yeah um you know i would say that about
half of them i still have their contact information like there's 20 that year um there was a lot of
just really funny characters we had this kid named simon was he where was he from he was
some somewhere i think it was austria or something he's from austria i don't quote me on that austria
where you must get your vaccine by february 2nd or we're gonna take you to a cage and burn you to death
oh my god have a nice day austria come visit us soon all right maybe it's a good thing he was
from poland so he's fine he's good he's good so we me and dalin were like oh i feel like shit this
morning and uh and he goes,
I shit three times this morning. And he didn't understand, he didn't understand like what we
were saying. So we were just like, this is so funny. Like there's so many, so many characters
there, man. We had this, uh, Islamic model named Ron Zur in our division too. Like he came there
in 2019 as well. Wait, hold on, hold on hold on uh caleb please put that search term
in there i don't you'll be the only person who's ever googled that islamic model please i want to
see what what images okay go on sorry james dude it was awesome like great people just learned a
lot about uh everyone there like i became friends with literally everyone there and um and i looked
at those because i was in the 14 15 division
i looked at the 16 17 year old guys as like monsters and also was like how am i ever going
to be that strong blah blah blah and things add up just in case you're wondering the podium in the
16 17 from the the men that year was angela de chico guillermo mayeros and cole gray shaver
so they were actually all monsters wow wow
i didn't know gee was in the teen division he snatched like 292 or something at the games
that year wow what a great 91 oh he's awesome for all you guys to see you're like oh man this guy
just because it must be kind of i guess we could talk about this now the transition must be crazy
the women have tons of examples, man.
They got just people popping up out of the teen division just wrecking shop, right?
I want to say tons of examples, but Hayley Adams, Gabby McGawa,
and obviously there's a couple now that are making that jump
before they're even out of the teenage division.
And what about Mal O'Brien?
See, that's what I'm saying.
She still technically was in the teenage division this year.
So the transition was even less seamless for her and Emma carry same.
And,
and then,
and then I just saw this other girl just,
I think I saw her snatch 200 pounds.
Some 16 year old girl,
Sophie,
Sophie shaft,
Sophie shaft,
Olivia Kerstetter has done it.
She's still only 15 or 16 years old.
I mean,
yeah,
the women that are getting to be insanely strong
and competitive at young ages now.
My son asked me last night while he was watching King Kong.
He said, can you still lift 200 pounds?
I'm like, no problem.
Six inches off the ground like it's my job.
This girl's snatching 200 pounds?
That's crazy.
It's nuts, dude.
Yeah, that's – But we yeah that's we should wow wow did he compete with that um no they don't
have to wear the the headgear when they're young right i don't think so he wasn't in headgear okay
he was from israel by the way israel oh shit no he was in headgear either but so was he was he was he a muslim or a jew
i love it you're from the pacific northwest dude they're gonna come to your house and get you and
you don't know the difference between a muslim and a jew you're a big oh you're going to florida
you're going to florida i'm safe in two weeks is is that transition is that transition scary
um james you know that's a great question it's a it's a monstrous leap we talk about it on the Is that transition scary, James?
You know, that's a great question.
It's a monstrous leap.
We talk about it on the show quite a bit during the games last year.
Yeah, so it's one of those things where I'm just so ready to leave and I feel like this place –
No, no, no, not that transition.
Oh, oh, oh.
I'd like to talk about going to Florida too.
Yes.
But the transition from boy weights to men weights. Oh, oh, oh, oh. I'd like to talk about going to Florida too. Yes. But the transition from boy weights to men weights.
Oh.
I mean, it's nuts.
It was scary when I was weak.
I'm not as weak anymore.
So it's like, oh, they just feel like the average weights now.
But about a year and a half ago when I was just turning 18 like I could barely snatch 225 like that was my
max like it was it was really scary like everything felt so heavy all the time like you just have to
work through it and eventually it becomes lighter do you have do you have certain numbers in mind
that you're like man I know if I want if I really want to compete I got to get to this snatch I got
to get to this clean and jerk not really because if you
look at like jason carroll you remember him from the games yeah he's like his no he has like a 245
snatch and like a 315 clean um and like i'm like above that so it's like it's you can make up
in other areas as long as you go to the right competitions um but it does help i think that
there's sure numbers that i want to be able to hit all the time.
Yeah, when you watch this, it's just like, dang, bro.
She's so fast under the bar.
It's incredible.
Jason Carroll is a good example.
And really what he's a good example of is how the qualification process
is different than the games.
Because he has made the games three times,
but he's never finished better than 28th there.
And that's what I think is like you can get there without those numbers
but if you want to you know excel at the games i think you got to be a little stronger true yeah
so i'd say numbers i i really am looking to hit by end of 22 like i'd love to have a 275 to 280
snatch um i'd love to clean clean 350 to 360 um wow honestly like like it's it's one of those things where my
mind's the only thing stopping me i never thought i would snatch 260 like like and i did it the
other day pretty easily so it's like it just has to keep you just have to keep believing yourself
keep showing up in uh as you know right now i would say like you're in the middle to, to below average
of strength relative to most of the guys are going to compete against.
Yep.
Does that, is that like, would you rather see a strength test at a competition or not
see one knowing that?
Um, I think it's always going to be there.
So I want to see how far I've improved.
I would rather have it there so that I can just know, Hey, are we making improvement?
If not, what can we change in training?
Is your dad mature?
He is.
Yeah, he's really mature.
Immature or mature?
Mature.
He is?
I can't even, like, I don't even make dirty jokes with him.
Wow.
Wow.
So, okay.
And what is he?
Is he like a cop or something?
No, he's an all-state insurance agent.
He basically runs, like, five offices in the greater east side area over here.
He just said talking.
Yeah, so he has to be mature.
He can't just burp.
He can't chew his gum with his mouth open.
I mean, because he deals with a lot of people.
He snores.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That makes sense.
That's at home stuff.
And that's kind of mature too. Snoring,
I think, is part of the maturation process. You snore when you're a baby and you snore when you're
getting close to dying. Those are like the two. Wow. And have you ever lived out of your house?
Do you live at home still? I do. Yeah. I'm at my mom's most of the time just because it's so close
to my gym. And it's just more comfortable here. She
always has good food in the fridge. Do you have a bedroom at both your parents' houses?
I do. And I share it with my brother. My brother and me share a room. We both have our own beds.
And how old's your brother? He's 21. And he's at college most of the time. He's just on break
right now. So he's here. And is he doing this CrossFit stuff?
He is a college runner, so he is really, really fast.
He does cross country and track.
Does he have a poster of Sidney Wells over his bed or on his bedroom wall?
If I said who his favorite CrossFitter is, he would probably be mad,
but I'm going to say it anyway.
It's Daniel Brandon.
He loves her, dude.
Got some competition, Brian.
Got some competition.
Who doesn't?
Same with my girlfriend.
She's all over Daniel Brandon.
I'm like, I don't know if I can introduce you
at Lottapalooza to her.
You're going to get hard eyes.
Dude, everyone, everyone.
She's like, everyone.
Everyone.
You choose Javon?
No, no, no, no.
I'm a family man.
I singularly focused on my wife.
Find Danielle Brandon despicable.
I thought you could appreciate the beauty in every human.
I can't.
Except for her.
Except for her.
Yes.
She's, you know, she, I just, she's totally inappropriate.
I just.
Did you, did you see her post the other day
with the true grit no let's look at it and judge her come on please kayla please pull up daniel
brand let's talk about how the inappropriateness of daniel brandon no it was it was awesome it
was just the soundtrack and back was pretty funny daniel oh i did i i know what you're talking about
yeah i did see that that was pretty funny that was awesome daniel brandon's flaked on us twice
on the show and then we still begged her to come back again yeah but the last time she's been solid and
i know i know i know she's such a good dude my goodness are your lats that big james um
i don't know man that's that's tough to beat she's actually uh she's actually from where i'm from too she lived in
eastern washington for a lot of her life i talked with her at west coast and she uh she's lived over
here for a long time i i hope she i hope she stays as cool as she is and as approachable as she is
she really is i mean that's the thing with her right that's why dudes and chicks dig her she's a dude she's a good dude this is the one oh yeah this is crazy hey did you hear that this uh did you hear the
the driver i guess who who named brandon did you guys hear about this?
He's losing all his sponsorship.
Wait.
Is that true?
It's true.
Why are they coming down on that guy?
That sucks.
He's the enemy.
He probably voted for Joe Biden.
It's not his fault.
Yeah, he had nothing to do with it.
It's the reporter that said it.
Yeah, that sucks.
Someone needs to double down he needs to and give him a super sponsorship after they give us a fat check the sebon podcast
hey james is there a lot of um is it friendly in the team competition when you guys are back there
or is everybody kind of sizing each other up what's that what's that like for you like in the
in the warm-up area yeah and you're one of the taller guys,
so I imagine you might get kind of a lot of side-eye there
as they're sizing you up.
You know, I think at West Coast, I was nervous because I'm like,
oh, wow, these are all the guys I'm competing against.
I don't know how I'm going to do.
Now it's like, oh, a bunch of them are just my homies,
and we're just there to have a good time.
I think Guadalapalooza especially
is like the most community-based competition not that like people don't want to do well but people
are having more fun at that comp just because of the environment um but yeah i think that
the nerves kind of go away after the first event most of the time but before the first event it's
like dang like it's it's
nerve-wracking people are sizing each other up people are just like who's doing what blah blah
so yeah and when you go to uh florida in two weeks if you're looking for a job by the way
feel free to go to barbelljobs.com and uh just just no pressure but just check it out look around
see if there's anything you can do at a local gym.
I feel like that's a sketchy site.
Do I trust it?
I don't know.
It's a good site.
I trust it. Break it up.
Their checks land nicely in the Sevan Media LLC Bank of America account.
Very nicely.
I think it's the greatest site in the world.
So they're a sponsor?
I don't know.
We have a relationship where I run this thing on the bottom, and they're a sponsor i don't know we have a relationship
where i run this thing on the bottom and they throw a coin at me oh oh they're getting close
to 900 postings i'm looking at that wow three more it is actually a pretty cool site it is
that's awesome if you're the working class if you're not just living off of government paychecks
like me but but but if you have integrity and and uh you're not a pile of shit
yeah you go somewhere like this and get a job okay so you go for it so you're going to florida that
i keep hearing about this thing in florida this is who else do we know who's going there brian
we've interviewed we've interviewed not very many that were that are going there we know
quite a few and i actually am kind of curious this year
what the environment's going to be like because, you know.
This is the Matt Torres thing, right?
We haven't had that guy on the show.
Oh, oh, oh.
I got you.
FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio
has your chance at the number one feeling, winning,
which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do.
Who wants this last parachute?
I do. Enjoy the number one feeling winning in an exciting live dealer studio exclusively on
fan duel casino where winning is undefeated 19 plus and physically located in ontario
gambling problem call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly.
Wherever you're going,
you better believe American Express will be right there with you.
Heading for adventure? We'll help you breeze
through security. Meeting friends
a world away? You can use your
travel credit. Squeezing every drop
out of the last day? How about a
4 p.m. late checkout? Just need
a nice place to settle in?
Enjoy a room upgrade. Wherever you late checkout. Just need a nice place to settle in? Enjoy your room upgrade.
Wherever you go, we'll go together.
That's the powerful backing of American Express.
Visit amex.ca slash yamx.
Benefits vary by card.
Terms apply.
Matt Torres, we should have on the show.
Who's going to train in Naples with James?
Is that where you're going, James, Naples?
Yes.
To live.
To live.
It seems like retirement, Bill. Trust me, it's not. If you go there, it? Naples? Yes. To live, to live. It seems like retirement bill.
Trust me. It's not. If you go there, it's like Naples is dope. I've been there. It's amazing.
It's amazing. Uh, but who's there though? Is Emma Carey there? Who's there? Who are all,
I just feel like there's a ton of people going there. Yeah. Go ahead. Brian's taking the day
off. Go ahead. Brian, I'll take your job bro i'm i'm
brian in training so emma emma terry's going um i'm not sure when she's coming because she
she just told me the other day that like uh her she's not going to compete at guadalupalooza most
likely just due to her back which i think is super smart especially being young like she's going
through exactly what i went through with my knee but like not as bad um and then uh my friend ethan tate who's one of matt matt's athletes
he will probably be at semis this year he's he's pretty good um then dallin then you've had phil
toon on the show i'm pretty sure you're having him next week yeah yeah that's a good dude good dude god he's a good dude
yeah he's awesome um and then uh fisha goffy is gonna come out a lot train with us oh she's cool
too yeah dude yeah we got we got all the cool kids in naples um and then let's see who else
i think that that's like heidi's grandma's in Naples. Hey, Heidi.
All I see is, is that means you're going to inherit a shitload of money.
That's, that's how I read that.
You're great.
You're Heidi's going to be rich.
Except for life.
Three claps for Heidi.
I love that.
Yeah.
Let's go.
That's awesome.
Heidi, I'll be hanging out in Naples a couple of days after Wadapalooza ends.
Oh, Brian, a little meet and greet going down oh yeah uh i'm super excited heidi actually is going
to be uh we met her through the show and through instagram and she's going to help us in um
miami at guadalupalooza which is awesome okay sorry go back go back to uh
um go back to uh who's going to be there and what is the camp called is it is it
the matt torres camp what does it have a name not yet it's we just called the brute squad because
we're all part of brute strength and you know one of one of the things is is like it's it's
gonna be a learning opportunity for all of us it's it's it's all of our first times there in
florida like we're all we're all there to learn um i think just having each other around and like learning from each other is going to be the biggest part. Like
we're not going to be competing every day. Like it's going to be, we're still doing our own
programs and like addressing our personal weaknesses, but like there will be times where
we throw down and go super hard against each other. And, and, um, but most of the time it's
just like having each other around for training, not going against each other the whole time.
But most of the time, it's just like having each other around for training, not going against each other the whole time.
Tell me about what is brute strength again?
Brute strength is like think of Comp Train, Mayhem.
It's a training company.
It's a team of coaches who it's different than most because they have a specialty coach for each individual section.
They have a gymnastic specialist. They have a swim specialist. They have a running specialist. They have a gymnastic specialist. They have a swim specialist.
They have a running specialist. They have a weightlifting specialist. They have, uh,
kind of everything. So they, they have a coach who's professional in one area, um, or, or a
certain niche. And they're able to kind of just put that niche forward and help people in that
specific area. So you're getting individual attention in each sector.
And all,
all of these guys that he's scrolling through their profiles here are,
they've been around for a while and they are at the top,
like right up at the top of the game in each of their,
you know,
separate specialties.
Yep.
So go,
go.
Is that guy,
Nick Fowler?
Is that the founder?
I think it's Mike Cashew, isn't it?
Yeah. I thought it was Cashew also.
Yeah.
I think it's Mike Cashew because then him and his wife, like a D,
like also founded, um, working against gravity.
It was kind of at the same time.
That's the, the ED.
Yeah. But Nick Fowler, you know, Nick Fowler,
because he was like coaching Cara Saunders for a few years. Um,
and he's coached some other big name athletes at the games.
Whereas Mike Cashew,
you know,
he used to compete on a team at the games with,
I think maybe Tommy Hackenbrook's team.
And I don't think he's,
he,
he like was kind of like the mastermind behind it,
but I don't know that he necessarily coached the top athletes ever.
And I think I recognize both.
I think Nick go back to Nick Fowler.
I think I'm supposed to like hate him or something.
I think like he was a CrossFit hater or something.
I have to check how I'm programmed in my previous life.
Was he Brooke Entz's coach?
Yes.
Yep.
I don't remember where the conflict was between him and CrossFit.
But anyway, I absolve you of your sins, Nick.
We are now friends.
I absolve myself of my sins too we are now friends i absolve myself
of my sins too i think he's actually worked with roman krennikoff for a while too oh i love nick
fowler he's a good dude and then and then it's mike cashew guy he he had a podcast right he used
to host the brute strength podcast but he's since turned that over to someone else who did he turn
it over to uh michael okay i actually on their podcast a couple months ago
i mean these dudes all wait one more time look at these dudes names
matt bruce michael cashew nick sorrell these are all like
nick fowler these are all great you know sean? I don't, but that's only, so sorry, Sean,
you got the shit name in the pile.
Derek Scholes.
Actually, he's like a, you should probably know who he is.
He's incredibly intelligent and I think pretty important in the space,
actually.
Yeah, and I think everyone remembers him from, yeah,
that's what I say, active life.
He's the one who fixed my knee.
I worked with one of his coaches for a year and a
half who happened to be my actual coach's sister matt torres sister named nicole and uh so active
life i credit a lot of my my health and my success to them oh that's awesome and that's your dude
right there matt my dude yeah his birthday was yesterday, someone say that guy's name below Matt Torres.
He just goes by Coach E.
He's actually John Young's coach.
Oh, no shit.
It's your coach, John Young.
Hey, you're... Small world.
No, no, no.
It's just you're not familiar with brute strength,
but they're...
Because they're not as...
I feel like...
I don't know the best way to say it,
but they're just not as much in the public.
They don't worry about that.
They do their work a little bit more quietly,
but it's really good work.
It's awesome.
Oh, look, they got girls too.
They got girls.
You should also have Dex on the podcast.
Scroll down.
Dex right there.
Dex is a man.
You would love Dex.
He's such a troll.
Is that the guy who's making,
he calls himself the gallbladder?
What?
Gallbladder. You know what I'm talking about? He's making fun. There himself the gallbladder? What? Gallbladder.
No.
You know what I'm talking about?
He's making fun – there's someone making fun of the liver king now, and he calls himself the gallbladder god.
Is it that guy?
No, it's not him.
Oh, Dex.
Okay.
It's a guy with blonde hair like that and a huge beard, and he's buff, and he calls himself the gallbladder god.
Dex is incredibly generous also.
He often reaches out to me with either
some information or compliments of the some of the stuff we do stuff on so good guy and you love
him because he's opex look at that like you just a bunch of these guys are so basically bruce if
you're if you're serious about your shit you go to brute i mean they're not the only option but
they're one of the top options yes and and they'll and they do it all like obviously they they'll train. Like, obviously they, they'll train you, they'll fix your knee. They'll tell you what to eat.
They got the whole, it's all the dudes.
Yeah. They, that's what mindset they, they literally have everything.
Like you're going to get the whole package.
And is that expensive?
Depends on what you're going for. It's like, how ambitious are your goals?
Are you, are you, you're really looking to be a cost of games athlete?
Like you're going to put an investment in.
Yeah. I, um, some, some lady, uh, yesterday at the, we, we jumped, we were going to the tennis
club we go to and we're not members there. And so we always, we use the back fence and we jumped
the fence and some ladies like, uh, uh, says you guys clearly aren't members here and i'm like oh yeah we're not we're not
members actually i spend six hundred dollars a month here so my kids can take private lessons
here i actually subsidize your membership ma'am dumb bitch seriously when we first started going
to this tennis club there were all these people like how do you go to a tennis club the people
are horrible there i'm like what are you talking about that's just like what is that some like
flat shit like you just watch too
many movies like chevy chase movies and you think tennis clubs suck the old people at tennis the old
people suck i hope i don't turn into one of them i worked at a golf club for three years like a
really rich fancy golf club and yeah i was i was a busser and i worked weddings and like big events
and man i would just get like people were so rude and just so inconsiderate. And I was like, dude,
I can't do this. I have to work for myself. That's one of the main reasons I started my own,
my own company. It was like, I don't want to work for anyone ever again.
Like if you see a seven-year-old boy scale and jump a fence and your first thing is just like
to talk shit to him and his dad or him and his mom, like you got a problem. You should be like,
first thing is it's like to talk shit to him and his dad or him and his mom like you got a problem you should be like dang your kid got skills or or open the gate for them so the seven-year-old
doesn't have to do it not talk shit i mean what's wrong with you people dude i i drove a golf cart
as a kid around my neighborhood that sounds fun that's so fun and i was reckless with it i thought
you said your dad was mature a mature dad would never let his son drive a golf cart around the neighborhood my dad's mature but cool like he trusted all right
and um oh that's nice to hear dude he's yeah he's awesome as long as i got good grades and
you know didn't go to jail like i'm good um like so i uh i drove a golf cart around and
there's i live on snoqualmie ridge and the ridge is known to have moms who just
want to cause trouble that sounds weird but like they uh basically i was like brian
i wanted to make some sort of milf joke there thank you suza for getting that in there
so basically there's a suza back in the green room oh my gosh there's a there's a facebook page
uh called ridge moms or ridge daily whatever and and i would always come up on the page saying
teenage reckless golf cart boy needs to be stopped and finally i got pulled over by the cops and um
and i was like yes like like i'm gonna be okay like they they'll probably support me and and
they let me go and then i got pulled over again. They're like, we're going to have to
confiscate your golf cart, man. Like, like you, you can't pull this out. So we sold the golf cart,
but I had some great memories on it, but the moms did not like it. I was, I was that bad kid
for driving a golf cart. Have you ever been arrested? No, no, never. No, your windows,
your windows probably closing. Like, you know, I say pretty low key, your window on it. Your window is probably closing.
Like, you know, I say pretty low key. You'd be surprised once you hit 25. It's like
the chances of you getting arrested. Just like, she's just, yeah.
They took your golf cart from you. No, no, they were going to, if I got caught one more time. So
we sold it to some dude in Eastern Washington.
Bill Gates.
Okay, sorry.
Go ahead, Brian.
They sold their golf cart to Bill Gates.
Dude, Bill Gates lives a mile from my house in Kirkland.
Wow.
Yeah.
I go by his house on a boat sometimes. It's all underground.
And do you ever scream at him?
Nice titties, Bill.
No, he has bodyguards out there.
He literally has like 50 guards on his property thatguards out there he literally has like 50 50 guards on his property like that are
just out there if you get too close to his property they'll they'll wave you off yeah my
uncle lives close to him too and they were saying that the backing it up to lake washington was a
security nightmare oh yeah you can't control the water like that's where that's going to get
breached so that he has tons of security in fact when you drive into that neighborhood your license
plate gets a photo there's a big bar that you drive under with just tons of security cameras
on it so the moment you drive in you're being tracked and they have their own private uh police
there it's nuts dude yeah it's nuts brian hold that thought i want to go off on a little uh rant
here please please oh no when george bush senior was president of the united states the head of the
the kids physical fitness uh like you know or the physical fitness for the country, the guy he put in charge of was Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And I remember being a kid and thinking they got this juiced up fucking monkey as the fucking head of our fucking physical fitness.
He's a complete piece of shit.
He's no one that anyone should want to be like.
Be careful what you wish for, people.
Have you seen the current health director of the united states
it's the same thing i heard uh you know like like like three or four years ago they were like
donald trump wants to do a military parade what a fucking scumbag he's like kim jong-un i'm like
yeah donald trump's a fucking scumbag why does he fucking want a military parade? Now we're fucking – be careful, people.
Now it's okay to take over blocks and see – yeah, this is our –
please bring Arnold back.
I'll take the juiced-up monkey.
Please.
Wait, this is the health director?
This is Rachel or – I forget what his name used to be,
but this is Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary of Health for the United States of America.
Sorry, dude.
Does she do CrossFit?
He used to, but now that she's a she, she doesn't know.
I don't fucking know.
She doesn't do anything.
She triple masks.
It's not appropriate.
It's not.
What do I mean by appropriate?
Sorry, I don't mean to sound like one of those old people that works at the,
or is mean to James at the country club, but it's not appropriate it's not i would much rather have the juiced up monkey i would much rather have
the military parade than let fucking seattle be fucking taken over and police stations burning
down it's nuts be careful what you wish for man man oh man he does cross something that's correct yes that crosses something it
crossed that our health our health director had its penis removed and turned into a vagina
wait do you know that for a fact is it was it i don't i don't okay
my dad my dad loves this he he would you should have my dad on a
podcast he would love to vibe with you on this and and i don't care if you want to remove your penis
i just don't want you as the like our true north i just don't want you as our true north
i mean what you're wrong you're wrong we actually should all have our penis removed fine i'm wrong
i still don't want it better Better just send them to the Northwest.
You know, I was explaining this to my brother last night. He can move in James's empty bedroom.
Oh, shit.
And don't anyone say that I'm against homosexuals.
Don't start conflating issues.
There's nothing. Like I've told you guys a million times.
If someone, if someone doesn't want to put their beer down,
they have to take a piss. I'd hold their dick for them.
I have no problem with any of that stuff, but, but, but you just, you just,
you gotta be careful what you have is your true North. You can't have like, like we still need a true North.
Like I don't want my president to have fucking huge holes in his ears,
like trying to get a 70 gauge in there. Sorry's just not what i wanted the front of the line
i was more concerned with her weight than i was her uh sexuality all that all that yeah the whole
thing but but but there's obviously a pathology there some sort of mental pathology like in the
end do you have any tattoos james i don't yet i. I encourage you to put them off as long as possible.
I think that's awesome too.
I want to tell you two things.
I don't have any tattoos and I don't do anal sex.
And I tell myself that if I – because I want to keep some things for my future, like when I'm 75.
Like you really want a tattoo?
Get one when you're 75.
So you're saying you're going to do the other thing when you're 75 so you're saying you're gonna do the other
thing when you're 75 too probably not but like i'm pushing it down like i don't want to like
everything on the fucking menu and there'll be nothing left in life he's not ruling it out
not ruling it out you know what greg glassman told me the other day i was talking to him he goes
you ask someone like like people you ask someone what is the meaning of life or what does life
mean to me or what mean to you or what are your true goals and ambitions for your time on planet Earth?
And they can't answer that question, but they can point to a picture on themselves that's like defines them.
It's like, what?
What?
You haven't even tried to find God yet and you're getting shit written on your body and under your arm.
Like, stop.
That's what I was going to say.
If I did get a tat say if i did get a tackle
heads if i did get a tat it would be something something god related it just hasn't i i need
to find my bible verse that that really sticks to me or something like that because it's i don't
want to put random ink on my body it'd be something intentional yeah it like i i get it if you're a
seal and you want to put the trident on you you're're an Olympian, even though I think the Olympics are a joke.
I get it.
You're a UFC champion.
You lost a child.
You got something that just crazy rocked your shit.
But just because you want this thing, this Celtic thing that dudes get around their arms.
Tupac's thug life totally aren't your arms looking nice today seven thank you good man
sleeves up thug jeez louise i'm on creatine right now oh you got a filter on that glenn's
no no just creating creating i found some old creattin and arginine and i've been taking
you gotta get on the ashwagandha bro you got to get on the rad 140 yes sir
have you uh do you have any temptation to uh to in the off season to you know
what can you explain what that means get the backs
the thing is is like why would i want to take away from what i can do naturally like i want to see what my body's capable of naturally like i feel like steroids in this sport are just like
i'm too weak to do it on my own like that's that, that's, I don't, I don't like it. I think it's stupid. I kind of get that, but I really want, like I, I, I, I did put the rad one 40 in my
shopping cart and I wanted to buy it. And then as I was checking out, it said something about
enlarged prostate. And at 49, I was just like, Nope. And I, and I left the site, but man,
doesn't it sound fun? Just just used out of your mind?
Wait, so Rad 140, is that like –
That's the stuff Ricky said he took.
That's the stuff Ricky said he took.
And you could just buy it.
It's proven.
Yeah, it's proven, right.
Yeah, and you know that shit works.
I mean, well, I don't know.
I mean, he looks great now too, but if I could look like –
I don't even need to perform like Ricky.
I just need to look like him.
Seven, let's leverage this into a question I wanted to ask a little while ago.
All right.
All right.
Go ahead.
Thank you, Brian, for saying that.
James, what's your – how much do you like competing compared to training?
I like them both in different ways.
I think that if I train too much without competing, I get sick of training.
If I compete too much without training, I get sick of training. If I compete too much without training,
I get sick of competing. I have to find the fine line of both. Like I found that like,
I've been ready the last month and a half since West coast, but like, like four months after I
was like, okay, like, like I need some time to reconfigure, go train some more, get better.
I think as my margin closes, like as I get better and better, like
I'll be wanting to compete more and more. Um, just because I know that like, it's, it's more
of a money making opportunity. It's like becomes a job. Like once I can start making income off
of competitions, it'll be like, I want to get out to as many as I can, um, while being smart about it. But I personally love competing just because I get to go see all these people
from all around the world and like experience something new every time.
Like even if it's the same competition year after year,
they always do something different.
And so, yeah, I love competing.
I love it.
And so would you consider the West coast classic kind of like your first big
competition against the you know games contenders in the male individual side yeah i would say so i
i was supposed to go to the west coast classic in 2020 right after wadapalooza for my first
individual comp i got an invite um which i'm glad kind of didn't happen because i couldn't even
snatch 225
then and they were gonna do a snatch ladder that started basically at that weight and i was like
man that would have been a crap show um but you know here's the thing it's like well to be fair
you know uh there's been games athletes on the female side that have had a similar experience
at the games and still placed well yeah exactly so it's like not all about the weightlifting um it is about
sometimes like just being smart like in the west coast i the second one so the one that actually
happened this year in june um there was the thruster rope climb event and the second one
of day one and i i got this no rep that i was so like, what the heck? Like I touched the top of the pole and he said I came down too fast or I didn't touch the top of the pole.
I didn't even hear him.
But I was coming down at the same speed I came down for every other rep.
So it was just like sometimes you get screwed by a judge too.
And you just have to look at that as like, hey, like I can't control that.
I'm going to move on.
I'm going to keep giving my best.
This got off topic, but that was a wrap.
No, no, no.
It's perfect.
Because if anyone hasn't seen or doesn't know what happened to you in that workout,
that's a workout that you were really excited for.
Legless rope climbs to that height are very good for you.
You're so tall.
You can jump really high.
You have enough couple pulls.
You hit the top.
You're back down.
You could actually have potentially won that event.
And there were top 10 games athletes at that field and you could have won the workout and but this happens all the time every athlete who's competed in the sport has had
an experience like this and i think you're better off having it when you're young oh for sure i'm
grateful it happened because it allowed me to experience adversity and show how how can i
respond to that and And now I know like
I can handle that when it happens. If it, it's probably gonna happen again in my career. I plan
on being the sport, like for 15 more years going at it. Like that's my goal. Um, but I do think
that if you're able to like handle that stuff and able to look past it and move on pretty quickly,
you're going to do better. You're going to be, you're going to have a better competition. You're
going to have more fun. You're going to have gonna have have longevity do you train for that now that
that happened like in training will you purposely be right at the end and then go for another rep
as if you got no rep you know what i i don't specifically train for that but like i'll do
rucks a lot now um and i'll have my buddies i buddy, say, Hey, I want you to turn it on in
the end and sprint at the end. So I have to pass you. Uh, did you tell Cole that I did tell Cole
that I say, Hey dude, you make, you make my training a little different now. So I did a
hundred pound ruck for two and a half miles up a Hill the other day. Wow. It was disgusting. Wow.
Really gross. And at the end, uh told my buddy i was like he had like
30 pounds on i said hey i need you to sprint at the end and um like it's just i've tried to mimic
that because that's the thing that haunted me most at west coast to that if if uh caleb if you can
find the footage of the finish of the ruck at west coast classic between him and cole this is like i mean you can't replicate this experience this is too good oh wow but james you can tell
us what this is like i mean yeah oh dude yeah so what you're feeling you don't i wasn't seeing
anything like this is a half hour of running with increasing amount of weights on your back
and i was stupid and held the lead the whole time and um basically now i know hold second and be the be be the chaser not
the chase stay with this till they finish this is this is great this is great that's what i was
making the joke about cole cole's upon who passed him here at the end of this event and look sean
sweeney's right behind him and i mean look it's got it's it's cool that you're even in the mix
with these guys but i think a little bit more experience than you you win this workout yeah yep and it it was more of the fact that i had such a bad day the day
before like as in just things didn't go right i got two bad finishes um and so i really wanted
that to be like hey i'm here to do things and i still did that but i think that like it stung
knowing like man i paced that wrong i just, everyone felt like crap after it.
There was no recovering after that ruck.
What was your mouth doing in that?
Can I see that again?
Dude, that's some whack stuff, man.
You should see some lifts.
I go like, it's crazy.
I'm not in control.
Are you making noise?
No.
Oh, I mean like.
It was the ultimate.
I was like, dude, I i was seeing stars i didn't know
what i was doing this is i mean watching him finishing this race was like i've it's i don't
know if i've ever experienced this but it was it was almost painful because i'm like man this guy's
leaving everything out there he wants to win this so badly but his body's got nothing left
and that was selling i mean you look good you don't look like you're falling apart except for
your mouth when you look back there what are you doing you're like oh shit cole's gonna pass me
who else is gonna pass me i didn't know he was that close um my coaches said you should have
body checked him man like got in front of him i was like i couldn't even think about that if i
would have gotten in his head i don't think that would have gone well i don't think so either he's
a football player like no i like that is that the brute strength guys tell you to do that?
Yeah, it was Coach Dex, the one with the beard.
Respect.
Respect.
I agree.
Dex had some times, man.
At the briefing, I was –
Look, you could have pinched him into that.
You could have – what's that called in basketball?
A screen.
You could have screened him into that chick right there.
Yep, yep.
Dude, there was plenty of things.
But that's the kind of competition awareness that you you gain as you go like there's a clip of
cole doing that during the what's it called rescue randy event 2018 he did it to brian would probably
know 2018 i can't remember who he did it to but in 2019 in the rock run event he did it to george
sterner too oh this coming down the last stretch he body checks
sterner sterner was another really good team at a teen athlete made its games in 2019 i don't think
he's competing anymore but he's still very fit and so cole actually has this experience that
james is talking about and this is the third time that cole's had an experience like this and it was
you know james just happened to be going to get up against the guy that has been there before yeah i'm afraid to be physical that's for sure yep he's not and he's
he's a teddy bear until you walk out on the competition floor which is like exactly what i
try and do like i think that my my buy like my my motto is do it with a smile like enjoy everything
i do but like going out on the competition floor it's like you're there for blood like you're not
there like it's it's fun but you're there to like beat everyone it's not it's not all happy fun and
games all the time like that's how you see cole on instagram and and in person he's happy fun games
until he steps out on the floor then he becomes this vicious animal you don't want to mess with
i like this uh didn't cole say something man on the beach run the on the beach run that he was
going to run someone over i i don't know if he did that but i i do know that when they go out there
swimming you would hear stories of people swimming over people and i just love that imagery i just
love just like the thought of like someone like josh bridges swimming out there and then just
cole swimming over the top of them and just mash you know that's amazing um so so you so you're gonna go to florida what's that what is
that like like are you going there going there like with like you bought you you're just driving
there it's just a one-way ticket there like that's it you're moving there you're gonna be like
housemates with dylan pepper or like do all of you live in the same house like
this kind of feels like a dream like a a summer camp. And does your girlfriend go with you?
This is the, yeah, no, it does feel like a dream.
It's one of those things where like, it was a random idea like seven months ago.
And we're just like, we're going to make it come to life.
Like we're the creators of our reality.
So we got to make things happen.
And so we basically changed our school arrangements.
I was doing a university of Washington, the dogs,
you probably know them in the PAC 12. I was at their school.
I was going to row crew for the,
is that where Cole Sager also went to school? Yep. Okay.
He was running back there. Yeah. Yes, sir.
And so I was going to row crew for their team, which is actually,
so on great book for you to read boys in the boat. You've never read it.
Okay. Yes. simon great book for you to read boys in the boat if you've never read it uh um okay yes so i i know about the man in the boat i know about the man in the canoe
that's um that's a good one too yeah yeah the man in the canoe okay go on so yeah that the the
rowing thing i ended up getting cut from the team uh they couldn't have as many guys in the
boathouse and so my plan was to take four years off of CrossFit competitively and row for this team. And that didn't end up happening. So, you
know, like this Florida thing was God saying, like, there's something better out there for you.
There's something, there's something greater. There's something beyond rowing. And so I ended
up pursuing this with, with full heart. And basically all of us, like just changed a bunch
of things to make it happen. And I'm living with Ethan just changed a bunch of, a bunch of things to
make it happen. And I'm living with Ethan Tate over there. He's, he actually trains with Dallin
in Utah and he's one of Matt's athletes. So we got a place together, was originally supposed
to get a place with Dallin and then he got married, which I'm so happy for him. But Corinne,
his wife stole my best friend, which is okay. And I love them.
They're awesome.
And yeah, so moving there, trying it out for seven months.
We have a seven-month lease.
And then from there, hoping it works out.
I want to stay there long-term.
I want it to be like home-home.
And so you're saying that you organized it?
This isn't something that matt torres organized and
said hey guys i'm gonna have a camp here i live here anyone who wants to move here can come and
join you're saying that this is like more done by the athletes like hey matt we want to move closer
to you matt so some of us had the idea of moving closer to matt and then matt was the one who said
hey i'm willing to make it happen like let's start playing it out and we were playing it out
originally for like after the 2022 season like that was the first date we had in mind but now
we're like hey we want to begin our 2022 season here like we're ready i'm glad it's now because
i'm more ready than ever to go um like just be on my own and go try something new hey this what
you're about to do in florida is gonna be like the good old days it is do you
know what i mean like you're gonna look back at this in five years and be like oh this is before
so-and-so popped for steroids oh this is before so-and-so got married and had kids oh this is
it's gonna be your good old days oh this is the time when so-and-so was drank a whole bottle of
goldschlager during the workout that day and like like you know what i mean like this is going to be your good old days
like there's going to be this is the like all the nut this is like uh what was that movie do you
know the movie out uh outsiders do you know that movie i feel like i've heard of it let me see if
uh can you pull up that movie outsiders like with pony boy or johnny boy or whatever this is gonna
this is gonna show my age right here way back back when. But it's basically like Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio.
These were the guys.
Oh, shit.
These are them now.
Yeah, look them.
Patrick Swift.
These guys were –
83.
Yeah, so I was 11 years old when this movie came out.
These guys all became just like the guys.
I saw this in school. I think we watched this and had to like write an essay on it yeah i mean it was a it
was a middle school reading book for decades yeah it was a book yeah oh show something that's all i
know from a book i didn't realize it was a movie crazy so but that's gonna be your uh it's nuts
squad baby yeah it is nuts i'm very blessed
i'm very lucky i get this opportunity and you know it's like it's crazy one thing turns into
another like six years ago starting the sport i never thought it would be a career that i'm moving
somewhere for like i just thought it'd be a hobby and then next thing's next and you're you're moving
out all the way like farthest point to farthest point, like Seattle to Naples is one of
the farthest flights in, from, in, uh, America. So it's like, I'm basically getting as far away
from here as I can. Um, what will happen to, um, next gen, next generation performance? Is that
what it's called? Next generation? Yeah. Next gen performance is it's my business. It's mostly
online. Um, so it'll, it's actually going to grow because I'm, I'm basically going to have more time to put into it, doing a little bit less school while I'm over there.
Still going to stay in school.
But yeah, so I have...
Why are you still staying in school to make your dad happy?
No comment.
Okay, fine.
That's what 19 years old, that's what it's about.
You're still making that leap where you're doing what you should be doing
quote unquote by your parents and starting to branch out and doing what you feel you want to do
i'm not against college but um but i'm not either i'm not but i but i do think that like
you should go there and be doing drugs and meeting hot chicks the online thing doesn't
make any sense to me that's what the house in naples is for yes sir right is that you right there on the right there doing that lunge which yes that's
me no yeah yep that's me how about modeling can you do modeling why don't you model that's so
nice of you i appreciate that man i uh i i think that'd be a fun gig never done it though
i have a pretty i have a pretty sus smile sometimes.
I don't know if they'd want to put me in their magazines or anything.
What's that mean?
What's sus mean?
Oh dude,
you have kids,
don't you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're not allowed out of my,
they're not allowed to learn anything that I don't let them learn.
Do they like dab,
do they like dab and like whip and stuff still?
No,
no,
no,
no,
no,
they don't do that.
Oh,
okay.
They don't watch TV.
They play with rocks.
They got a box full of rocks for, for, for. No, they don't do that? Oh, okay. They don't watch TV. They play with rocks. They got a box full of rocks for Christmas.
You sound like, did you put that in their stocking and be like, hey, it's not coal.
It's rocks.
Is it good?
Yes.
What is sus?
Is someone going to tell me?
Sus is suspect.
Like, as in, like, let's see.
How can I put this into terms?
Oh, I went to the Urban Dictionary.
Jeffrey Epstein is very sus.
Oh, wow.
Give an impression if something is questionable or dishonest, suspicious.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Sus. It's shorthand.
Very good.
You got it. Hey, Savan, you learned something new today, dude.
Rachel is director of health for the U.S.
Sus. Yes. Thank you, it. Hey, so on, you learned something new today, dude. Rachel is director of health for the U S sus.
Yes. Thank you, Brian. Oh,
I put it in terms you can relate to.
I have a question for, for both you, both you guys, uh, Brian and Savan and Matt,
you can chime in too. Do you think that an overweight person can be a personal trainer?
Yes. Yes. A hundred percent. Okay. I just, i just just just i think a um uh i um
someone who's smoking cigarettes is is a is a great person to tell you i like some people see
that as a hypocrite i see that as is like yeah you better listen this motherfucker they know
yeah i was gonna say like the guy who's shooting up heroin if he's like don't ever get into this
i'm not gonna be like you hypocrite i'm gonna be like all right got it check yeah they're more more effective because they're you're you're
they're more relatable like if i come to you and i'm overweight and i look at you james i'm like
there's no way this dude's young he's ripped he's a freaking israeli model like there's no you know
what i mean but if you go there and they got a little extra but they're still working on themselves
and they still you know they're still practicing what they preach then they in turn may be a more effective trainer
for certain people i agree with that that being said i do believe that there's no one here except
mirrors i believe that everything is contagious and we're all personally accountable for each
other and we're all role models whether you want to be or not.
And so if you are obese and you are a trainer, you should be making – you owe it to everyone around you, the obligation to work on yourself, be the change you want the uh to see in the world what do you think
do you have an original quote uh yes that was oh my god oh my gandhi cheese and rice um
what do you think james i i do think that it's a possibility but it's also like
like the respect like you you are you gonna listen to uh someone who doesn't know how to fly a plane
um that says fly like that's a bad example that that's trying to teach you how to see that one
too though i see that one too like i think that think that it's hard to um like it's not it's not
out of question but i think that it's it's harder to respect someone while you're trying to get
healthy that doesn't live a healthy lifestyle themselves. Um, I think that could
be difficult, but I do think that it's possible. Um, I do think that being a trainer myself, like
my story and my, my love for training people comes from my own journey of like losing weight and,
and, um, kind of finding myself and that's where my love for like coaching comes from.
Yeah. Um, so I think that,
you know, you can come from anywhere and do anything, but I do think that respect part of it
comes in of like, like, how do you see this person? Do you see them as living out the
lifestyle themselves or just telling you to live it? You know, along that same line, I don't, um,
I, I, I, man, I, I, to, to, I don't have to agree with you but to play devil's advocate on
myself i don't want anyone telling me about um enlightenment who's got fake titties and botox
like very fair like in in tattoos like you can take your face like i know how you i know where
you went to try to find your happiness you fucking cut yourself open had plastic bags stuck in you got a bunch of ink on your face now you have botulism injecting your face to try to find your happiness. You fucking cut yourself open, had plastic bags stuck in you,
got a bunch of ink on your face.
Now you have botulism injecting your face to get rid of your wrinkles.
Like they,
I know that that's not where the happiness I want.
And I don't want my wife to have that or my kids to chase that.
So,
uh,
I see,
I see,
this is a,
this is a topic I've contemplated for a long time,
you know,
and I think it's somewhere.
I personally would take a fat coach.
I don't care.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think there's somewhere in the Bible where it says,
if you're choosing to go into ministry,
I'm paraphrasing obviously,
that you need to hold yourself beyond reproach
to a higher standard
because you need to set the example.
But I'm totally in agreement with Susie here.
It's like, if you're Dallin Pepper
who has no skeletons in his closet,
it's not a bad thing,
but it's a hard person to relate to. Whereas if you're someone who's overcome quite a bit to get there has made,
has had to deal with loss, deal with sacrifice, give things up, overcome hardship. And then you
end up in that position. You're much more relatable and you have the greater ability
to empathize with the people that are coming to you. For sure. I think the job of like,
like being a young business owner has like, and just that role
has taught me so much about different people I'm going to deal with in this world. Like,
like I've dealt with so many different clients that like just respond in different ways. And
like, I've had to be like always as business owner, you're trying to tell people yes. Um,
and try and give the customer the benefit of the doubt or the client. But it's like,
it's, it's so interesting when you get challenged with that. How, how can you hold your, your business integrity
high and say like, Hey, how can I make this work when someone's really pushing your buttons?
It's a trip. And that, that is a, that is a, um, that's a trip. I mean, there's someone for
everyone. There's someone for everyone. If you're driving like an ass, you'll affect those around you, fair?
You don't know what's happening inside that car, but it doesn't matter, true?
We're all responsible for each other's safety on the road.
Shit.
Right, right.
You spilled your orange juice on yourself.
We don't give a fuck.
Still drive right.
I got my kids in my car.
Deal with the orange juice when you park.
I get it.
Yep.
That chick's hot, by the way.
Who is that?
Eva. Cat. That's a greek girl it's gonna be helping us out at wada too that girl is i think so yep she'll be holding the
camera for us yeah god the greeks make good girls and good dudes all right what are you
what are you james um i'm i'm english man you are yeah you could you
you got the greek fro i got some people call it the great wall of china they say it's too big
it's kind of the thing though with your generation right my um there's like there's one of the
jiu-jitsu instructors at my kid's school colton he's got this crazy pompadour in the front it's
like one of those cantilever bridges or homes do you do that do you let that thing come way over the front you're like how is that thing not falling in his
eyes dude you know i i don't want to do that i i don't even use gel man i just use that blow dryer
and it sticks up there and then when it gets too long i know i need to cut when it gets in my eyes
and training i feel like if i pull it down and then it's like in my eyeballs i'm like this is
too much you got your dad's hair. Dude, my dad has no hair.
Sevan, you shared my answer yesterday.
I know you're lurking.
Damn.
Quick, pull that comment down.
There's three.
Ban her forever, Caleb.
I think you can block her forever.
you know since misery likes company there's a story of um of uh of dave saying something to uh danielle brandon like what was your name and she goes i know i you know who i am i saw you and matt
fraser lurking in my stories the other day i was like damn that's a – just in front of like 20 people.
Daniel Brandon, no one's lurking in your stories.
Everyone has you blocked.
How about the make WOD great again guy?
He's like showing like that girl doing burpees by the poolside in a thong,
and then like you're watching him, and you can hear her body like slapping against – do you know what I'm talking about, James?
I don't. No, I don't know that one. Can you pull hear her body like slapping against. Do you know what I'm talking about, James? I don't know.
I don't know that one.
Can you pull that up?
It's so crazy.
It's so good.
Not make wads great again.
Brian, imagine if you never inserted.
Like I would have just run down that hallway about how the anal sex talk about not until I'm 80.
You'd be celebrating those last two minutes of life.
Good thing I'm always waiting at the edge of the cliff for you oh okay so look at this you're just like you can't even believe what you're watching
hey what you watching oh my goodness that's amazing dude oh my goodness that is um that girl
is um michelle bassinet right bassinet bassinet there's two syllables yeah bassinet is she cool
is she cool with that like is that? She reposted it.
Oh, well, because that's awesome.
I mean, shoot it.
I mean, it's a –
I think she posted the original one, and then Wadzami just took it and then put the little, hey, what you doing thing at the end.
Yeah.
You know that's supposed to be Jesus, right, Matt, Susan?
Yes.
And you're supposed to feel guilty like he caught you doing –
Is that what that was? Yeah, that's how that one works. Got it. I feel it now. to feel guilty like he caught you like doing like is that is that what
that was that's how yeah that's how that one works god i feel it now i feel guilty now um james um
so you're gonna go to wadapalooza and um is how many how many competitions have you been in where
you're with like the guys this is my second one and what was the first one the west coast classic
okay are you is it as exciting as the
west coast classic are you like holy shit i'm going i'm like all the bulls are gonna i'm gonna
be in that corral with all those fucking way more excited but way more locked in like i have a goal
this time that's actually like i have a tangible goal while west coast didn't have a tangible goal
and way more excited also because um you were a 400 horsepower ferrari and now you're
511 power lamborghini you got it you're growing that's it right there james are you uh putting
that goal out there or is that just personal yeah yeah i want to go out in top 10 at wadapuza
that's a good goal it's gonna it's a it's gonna be an awesome field man there's a lot of guys
there there's a lot of guys you just like uh like aren't even like putting into the count like but are gonna show up like there's a
lot of dudes so guys the reason why you want to get on the james sprague uh you want to start
watching him you want to start following him because he's obviously going to get better and
this is the time when um i mean this is what it's all about about being a fan watching
someone grow and get better at every single competition and what's cool is if you put your
money on james if you get invested in watching him grow you're gonna see him grow i mean unless
his knee breaks again then he'll be out and you'll have to pick a new horse but it's crazy it's crazy
to think that you made it into this corral just making it into that corral is crazy and now you're going to do it again and you're going to be better this time and it's an insane field right i don't
mean to dog on the women i think there are at least 13 games athletes from this past year so to make
the top 10 you've got to beat it you know a handful of guys who are at the games this year
but there are definitely a handful of people who were not at the games who are legitimate top 10 threats and you're definitely in that conversation thank you appreciate that i
think that wadapuza also the events i really like them how they program them like there's
always swimming there's always running there's always long grindy chippers that aren't really
that heavy there's there's always just high volume of, of, of just cardio,
like suck fest type of things. Like they, their qualifier has the worst workout known to man.
It's called death by like, it's, it's literally, it's literally the worst workout there is.
It's like a nightmare. It's just gritty. You've done it, Brian.
Yeah. I didn't get, I got into the second round. I'm sure you got into like the fourth or fifth
run and it's just gets worse and worse every time. It's so bad. It makes you makes you like it's it's one of the only workouts me and down talk about this that's made
both of us cry wow it is because it's like it's not it's not that hard you look at you're like i
can do eight i can do eight i can do eight or whatever it is but it just adds up and it becomes
a nightmare because the better you do the more you have to do the worse it becomes the faster
you have to go it just there's nothing no escape yeah there's no rest there's none it's bad will you beat colton martin's
is he at waza he's going to wapuza i i think that this is a better competition for taller dudes
there are we're talking with colin about this there's also 13 guys in the competition who are
six feet or taller and he's one of actually one of one now
because scott tuttle had to withdraw that's under five seven so he's like going to be a clear
outlier in the field in terms of height what happened to scott tuttle he couldn't get on
the airplane there was a height limit five three or taller yeah they actually use you you're uh
like a model of you as a benchmark and if you're below you're out you're not taller than this guy there's just a picture of me going like this
what happened to him brian do you know he got the covid no just i think uh not not feeling as
healthy as he wants to to compete so better not to risk it so so how about taylor
self will you beat taylor self is i've never is that a dude perfect you couldn't have answered
better anytime you're a guest on the show and i asked you about taylor stuff if you just say who
i'll give i'll send you 50 bucks i'll send you, so congratulations, James, you now make more money than me and Matt on the show.
Let's go.
So I'll be back.
Any day.
Yes.
50 bucks a day.
Who?
So,
so for real,
for real,
I want to,
I want to know now Taylor self.
Uh,
he was at the granite games.
He finished six points out of making the game spot.
Actually,
Colton Merton's got fifth,
three points behind him was Nick Matthew and three points behind that was taylor self and all all of
those guys will be at at wadapalooza um so nick and um taylor will certainly feel like they have
something to prove because they think that they both of them feel like they were just one execution
away from making the games this year gotcha gotcha taylor's more i mean really that's the long-winded explanation that
uh brian gave you just think of him as jason hopper's whooping boy i mean he's just basically
jason hopper's just training partner gotcha jason keeps him around so that he gets someone to beat
up on i like that except taylor beats jason more often Oh, don't ruin my story. Don't ruin my story. It's funny how some dudes can whoop a games athlete in training
but not on the competition floor.
I've yet to prove that I can beat Dallin on a competition floor
in a lot of things.
But in training, I can whoop his butt in most things.
So he's really good at competing and training two different animals
at most times.
And that's exactly
what hopper says too yep that guy taylor though is a savage and he's funny as shit like if shit
gets too heavy you want to hang with him i think you um he crushed one or two of the workouts in
the last chance qualifier but he just didn't have the strength uh yeah he was like second and third on two workouts
sixth on the other and then 28th on the on the lift so it's basically just the heavy lift kept
him out he was like otherwise he would have made it this is the last chance qualifier yeah wow
you know out of 30 guys that were like closest to making it he was second third sixth and then
28th on the lifting event just not strong dude he's really impressive uh
has my respect taylor i take back saying who is he savannah you get your 50 bucks back
no we'll cut it we'll cut that part out it's too late that's insane oh my gosh whatever
james sprague thanks ma'am i'm excited to uh i'm excited to turn the show i'm getting getting
excited to watch you at a water palooza and and also throughout the week um we will be bugging you um don't don't feel any don't feel any pressure but
we'll probably send you links a couple times to try to get you on the show if it doesn't work out
for you don't click the link if it does work out for you click the link um it'll be super low stress
but we'll be bugging you you got it brother james is what james is one of those guys like if he's
if i if i time time it right if i catch him at the right time, he'll, he'll pop on for a conversation for sure.
I'd love to, I'd love to catch me. I think the first day is going to be pretty low key and chill on Thursday. Like we'll have two events at most. And, um, so, um, catch me on that day for sure. That'd be awesome. We'll catch up.
We're going to be going live from the floor and doing interviews live just like this during Wadapalooza.
So you'll be on your back finished and Sousa or Brian will run over to you with an iPhone
and you'll see my ugly face on there and we'll start talking to you.
Oh my gosh.
So you're not going to be there in person, Zivon.
No, no.
Why would I leave this?
Oh my gosh.
You're right.
You got the setup, bro.
What am I saying?
Yeah.
Why?
When he could just send me.
It's all good.
So true.
Well then, Matt, we'll have some good times together.