The Sevan Podcast - #298 - Sara Sigmundsdóttir & Danielle Brandon

Episode Date: February 13, 2022

Sara Sigmundsdóttir (05:00) is one of the most influential women in the history of the sport of CrossFit. In her first year, she broke onto the scene taking 3rd in 2015 at the CrossFit Games. In the following years she took another 3rd and a 4th. Since then, she has been plagued with injuries, but she is still determined to work hard to accomplish her goal of being crowned Fittest On Earth. Listeners of The Sevan Podcast fell in love with her when she came on the show before because of her display of authenticity and realness. She has a smile and presence that makes people laugh and walk with their head held a little higher after seeing her or listening to her talk. Danielle Brandon (1:01:00) is a friend of the show and has been on several times. She is clearly one of the favorites for listeners, because of her unfiltered genuine approach to life and public appearance. She has been to the CrossFit Games ever since 2019, taking a 10th, 15th, and 11th most recently. She has been training in Las Vegas at Underdogs Athletics under coach Justin Cotler. This past week on the show, Justin said that he believes she has the physical capability to be the fittest on earth. "The Sevan Podcast" T-Shirts https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealseva... Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. What's he pulling? Is he pulling a car? It's just a sled. Bam, we're live. Wow. Where is everybody? What's up,? Is he pulling a car? It's just a sled. Bam, we're live. Wow. Where is everybody?

What's up, Bruce? Good morning. Bruce, what did you say in the last? You read it. You wrote a comment in the last show that I was I was like I wanted to respond to. I never did. It was something good. Something.

Oh, you read that book. Billionaire Boys Club or something. Are Sarah's abs Danielle on together I don't know if their abs are on together no they're gonna be separate they're gonna be separate I don't think you can have both of them on both on the same show it's too it's too it's like it's like

Ghostbusters if the streams cross shit I wonder if either maybe what if none of them show up and just all you guys and all you guys just show up clickbait clickbait where's brian friend i wonder if brian's coming to the show i sent him an invite he knew did i pee shit i forgot my coffee i need to ask my wife to bring my coffee stand by good morning maybe we'll have all sorts of special guests on today's show maybe oh what do you know oh my goodness you're the best did you add water to it oh you're the fucking best thank you for doing that i was just calling you thank you i love you bye you could leave that door open to crack because i have the heat on

in here i like to have the heat on and the cold air coming in from the door mr friend hi brian oh brian froze wow what a place to froze he looks like a religious man right there doesn't he brian i think you might have an ass connection buddy maybe open the curtain and let in more 5g waves or something i can't hear Does that work? Maybe that's one of those special curtains like the liver king has that makes it so like cell phone tower shit doesn't come into his suite.

Probably. But why, Leslie? But why? Why are you so excited? But why? It's just a regular fasting Sunday. That was a good podcast. If you guys missed the one we did this morning with Steve Mowry, a young man. I don't know if young man. 29 years old.

10-0 in Bellator. 6'8", 250 pounds. Well-read, well-spoken. Baby of seven months old. Just a good dude, man. That was fun talking to him. That's going to be a fun career to watch big guys big guys did you see the fights last night caleb um i watched almost all of them

most of the card was pretty good i think did you see derrick lewis go to sleep i just watched it while we were talking to steve uh he winning like the first couple of rounds, the first round, even like even most of the second. Yes. And then Tui Vasa just like cracked him. And then he just kind of like fell like a massive Redwood. Yeah, it was, it was nuts. It reminded me like of a rhino being shot and then it just kind of. Yeah.

Brett, I want to Brett Haley. What a beautiful name. I want to tell you something. So. I'm not really a flexing guy. I think of myself more as like a scientist. Like I really, really enjoyed seeing Daniel Brandon and, um, maybe scientist isn't the right word. I'm like the guy in the, no, yeah, it's definitely not the right word. I'm like the guy, the kid in the cafeteria who would mix his

food and other kids would think it was gross, but I would mix it cause I wanted to taste it. I wanted to see what happened when you mix the ketchup with the milk and then see what it tasted like. And so like when I when we did the show where we had Daniel Brandon's picture right next to Nicky Rod and I saw the two of them talk, they're like kind of like the two sexiest people like I know. So I was just so excited to see those two on a screen together at the same time so um just like it would be fun to have uh trish or elaine whoever is the head of hr and i on the same show talking about what's the definition of diversity equity inclusivity that would be fun that would be crazy i'd love to fucking ask some of those people to pin down some of their definitions and find out find out what racism means, too. Find out if I can steer them into realizing how racist they are. But anyway, I digress. knowing that I'm going to have Sarah

Sigmund's daughter on and then Danielle on and then later on the week have Rich Froning on, it would be a lie to not tell you that I think I'm cooler than I really am. If you know what I mean.

Bye, Caleb. Hello, Sarah. Am I in? Hello, Sarah. Am I in? Hello, guys. You are now. You are now in the metaverse. Okay, good. Georgia, you're in Georgia.

Sarah, meet Mr. Brian Friend. Mr. Brian Friend, meet Sarah. I met him last time. Meet again. You already forgot our great first podcast. I have not. I just know that Brian reinvents himself all the time and you reinvent yourself all the time. So I just wanted to reintroduce yourself.

We have that in common. You're in Georgia. I am. Yeah. I'm just going to come at you hard. You ready? Like I'm always prepared for your questions. Okay. you hard you ready like i'm always prepared for your questions simon okay as an artist i believe that we have to limit our tools and put ourselves in situations where our tools are limited and then

we must work with those tools so you get a piece of paper and you lock yourself in a room and you're given a black pencil and a blue pencil and now you must and you must create okay and if you have too many options you will not create i get concerned not concerned i have questions about this tremendous ability that you fucking have when i see you move from place to place to place that you have too many pencils yeah that we're looking at pablo picasso with who's interested in oil painting and now race cars. And it's like, nah, nah, nah. I just lock Sarah in a fucking room

with a fucking hamster wheel. Do you have too many options? Are you too talented? Are you too popular? Are you too wealthy? Are you too... Like, what the fuck is going on? But I think you've landed in a great place.

God, I would... I'd love to have a threesome with uh travis mayer and max el haj but but but not me well you two you can be a foursome yeah okay good um do anything for travis if it means i have to sleep with you too fuck it whatever i'll take one for the team um i mean i think that i've had a lot of options throughout my career and i think that so i met max 2017 i came here to training think tank for a week yeah i think it was a week and after that i went to cookville and i was just a free bird at that time didn't want any discipline or any seriousness so uh i decided to stay in Cookville versus starting to work with

Max at that time I regretted that decision like a bit after I was like was this the right decision was it not and it was still a little bit in the back of my mind and then the games 2020 I was like okay I really I want to reach out to Max and hopefully he still wants to work with me and believes in me. And that was the case. So I was pretty happy with that. I didn't quite want to commit to Alpharetta or Georgia because I was like, it's going to be nothing there. And I hadn't really given it a chance. So I decided to actually give it a chance after Miami. I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the people.

So hopefully I only have the blue pen now and I'm finally making my ride blueprint. Yeah. I think there was something you said in there that's a good thing to talk about with you because you've had a lot of different coaches and experiences i think that the struggle sometimes between athlete and coaches to find the right balance between discipline and fun so to so to speak do you want can you talk about your experience with that maybe i mean max is a very different coach to what i'm used to he thinks a lot about my uh non-athlete side so he wants me to be a healthy human being first first of all and then he wants the athlete to be in second place because like the belief is that if you are as healthy as you can be as a person it's going to transfer into

your career and you're going to enjoy it more so I don't think that I've ever had a coach that focuses so much on my, like my balance in life. So I think that's one of the best things about him. What's that look like? What do you mean like healthy, healthy life? Can you give us some examples? I mean, when you are very driven and you're very outcome based or you're very like goal based and everything everything is about an outcome

everything is about performing you forget actually who you are and I feel that some of my old hidden talents I wouldn't quite say that but talents that I think I have are coming out now again, like like music is coming up again. And I'm enjoying a lot of other stuff than just training. But training is actually going better just because I am balancing everything else. So he like focuses a lot on that of like bringing or like bringing out the old Sarah mixing with the athlete sarah um and they have to be complimentary you you know this popped in my head i don't know if this is appropriate but it popped in my head um uh car saunders was coming to the games her career has some in my mind the way i think of you two some very similar parallels very very uh very very good athletes who've had some

just crazy hiccups but she she had a coach in australia and she parted ways with them and she found a dude that that firefighter hunk dude and she yeah the husband dude and and part of me is like oh this is horrible this is a fucking distraction like this is what what a mess but but but how wrong could i have been she was so fucking happy i think she took second place she i mean it um did she take second place that year that she showed up with the new dude at the games brian yeah 2017 yeah but it was also just a different Cara because she was just a happy Cara. Like she's been I mean, she experienced something like 2014, like she was dominating and then something happened to I can't remember what it was like. Yeah, I think. Yeah. And it was like it was taken away from her and she wanted it too much that she forgot about everything else in her life and I think she just forgot about like or you can lose yourself sometimes of like you forget what

actually makes you happy and what actually gives you fulfillment because you're so focused on you have to get things done versus how do I get them done in a smart and the best way and I think that uh her husband now just like showed her actually that she's more than just an athlete like she's uh I remember she was telling me sorry Cara if you're listening and I'm not allowed to say it but I remember she was saying to me like uh before events he would be like you're a warrior you're a fucking like you can do what like you can do everything better than everybody else because you're a warrior you're a fucking like you can do what like you can do everything better than everybody else because you've done this you've gone through this and i was just like oh this this is like the right type of person to pepper up do you know what i

mean like yeah you can also have a distraction of a person that brings you down and makes you uh question yourself so i think that that she got extra lucky with Matt. Someone who believes in her. Yeah. And, you know, there's no, like, perfect formula. You know, you listen to someone like, you know, Matt Fraser and how focused he is when it comes to competing and he doesn't want a lot of people around

and he doesn't want distractions. And you contrast that with someone like Pat Vellner, who likes having people around him, likes going home to his wife and kids. People are just so different. What can help them and what can make them lose their focus? Yeah, that's a great example you gave, Brian, because in between, like when he's competing at the games, he would go down to the restaurant and just be eating and jump on a phone call with Brian and I, whereas, um, other athletes are

throwing their phones away. Right. Or like, do not, whatever you do, do not do an interview. Yeah. It's fascinating. Yeah. Um, when you get, when, you know, we would hear about the, I guess the most famous conflict and I'm sure there's been, um, plenty, but the most famous conflict, and I'm sure there's been plenty, but the most famous conflict in our sport was between Matt and Rich. And when I think of that conflict, I don't think of it as anything too intellectual. I just think of it as like, hey, there's two bulls and bulls are made to only be one per corral. That's just how I think of it. It's that simple, right? Yeah.

just how I think of it. It's that simple, right? Yeah. Do you ever have that? Do you know, do you ever have that issue with you show up somewhere? I have this perception of you. I think that you are very kind. I think you're very nice. I think there's a lot of depth to you. You're very open. But I also suspect there is you need a lot of room. That Sarah Sigmund's daughter is a big person. Big person. And do you ever have that conflict? And does this ever, ever happen with males also? Like, can there be cross-sex alphas? Like that me and Travis are like fighting for attention

here in Training Think Tank. It's not even attention. But yeah, when i think of the training thing yeah there's almost you're talking about that yeah like like are women like it's always thought of as men as the alphas but when i think of if i were to think of a woman alpha i think of someone like you or i think of a car saunders i think car saunders for sure like there's not a lot of room for her and other athletes in the same pen. Yeah.

But I mean, me and Cara, we get along very well. I think it just depends on the person. I mean, I, I think about like some females and some guys also just get threatened by another athletes and it can affect their self-esteem or something like that. Well,

other people just like, take it as, Oh, I need to work on this like i need to like you know what i mean like you respect each other like if i would train with cara and i would see the weight she's lifting it doesn't break me i'm just like wow if she can do it then i can do it too like you you almost look up to the person but you're also like if i'm running with somebody that runs a thousand times faster than me of course it breaks me down but i respect it always while some people maybe take it as a threat of like oh they're constantly reminding me of that

i'm not good enough and i can't get this every day because that's just going to break me down so i think it really like depends on the person is that interesting go ahead just no it's interesting how she interpreted that of a of a training environment when you asked the question i was thinking of a competition environment and in particular i had this thought because you know strength and depth is coming back this year as a semi-final yeah and the first sanctional year you competed at strength and depth and you know there was ever there were a lot of good athletes there but there was really only one alpha at that competition that was getting the full roar of the full crowd every time that they took the floor and

it was you yeah and then the next year you didn't compete there but Fraser decided to come that year and it was like the same thing yes Laura was there and Gabby was there and Haley and even Froning's team was there but when he took the floor it was different he took the air out of the room so i just kind of had thought of it in the competition setting yeah i i just thought about training we're not that competition yet no i mean which is good yeah i don't i i'm still in shock of the love that I get from fans. I feel that maybe it's bad to say this in an interview, but I've failed a lot since 2016 and 2017. I've made a lot of wrong decisions and I've had injuries.

And there are so many things that have happened that should make people just like Sarah's out of the picture but still people are like supporting me and they believe in me and that makes me see like okay maybe there is something in me but I'm like you say with strength and depth it was just like hearing the crowd and seeing everybody supporting me it just gives you this extra energy. But I've never looked at myself as like I can only be the only alpha. Like I think it's just, yeah, it's hard to actually, I've never thought about it like that. Well, and from my perspective is, you know,

I always want to see all the athletes get raised up and elevated. And it's always like, it's always a little heartbreaking for me when they're announcing the final heat and there'll be a big cheer for lane three and a big cheer for lane four and then they announce lane two and there's no cheer i like i want all the athletes to get the love you know everybody should exactly i agree with you 100 there are these characters in the sport um different levels of course but we've seen it you know josh bridges is another one um you know not to say he's not great i mean fuck he's so good right he's amazing amazing yeah

and and quite nice to look at and everything's great and he has the background as being a seal yeah but what do you think it is i mean you obviously have to be good enough to get the camera on you you have to be good enough to get the camera on you. You have to be good enough just so people at least know who you are. What do you think it is? Do you have any idea what it is that this attraction to you? You haven't won the games, and yet you have the fan base of someone who's won the games five times. Do you have any idea what this attraction is from people to you

I think it's just that um like I started training pretty late and I think that people can relate to that of like they used to maybe give up a lot and the one time I didn't decide to give up I made it to the CrossFit Games and I placed third and it was just like the hard work that I put in actually paid off and I hope that I can bring the message to people of like if you want something bad enough you can actually get it and I'm just that kind of person now after I started seeing results in my athletic career and just in my mental health with my athletic career, it's just like, all of a sudden, I started seeing myself differently.

I started respecting myself differently. And I think that maybe people see a video of me and they're like, oh, she didn't have a sports background, but she can still do handstand walks. Maybe if I start doing hands and holds against the wall I can do it too like I think that people maybe relate to me in in that kind of way instead of like I was in gymnastics for 16 years and then I also played soccer and I did this and this and this and like people are like oh I don't have that background so I'm not going to start because there's no hope for me but But then they see me of like, hey, she was 20 pounds overweight, and now she's at the CrossFit Games.

And she's actually pushing the girls that have an amazing athletic background. You could have made a wrong choice early on. If I recall, while maybe Annie was out pool vaulting, you were hanging out with a bag of chips. I was. I was the one in a bag of chips i was i was i was pizza every day and you avoided discomfort right you didn't even like this you didn't want you you you avoided discomfort as a child i i like training or pushing myself i would never do it i would be like oh this is just not for me i don't i don't feel good when i get red in my face and i was i hated sweating did you ever hate sweating i hated i didn't sweat until i was 18 for the first time do you remember do you remember the first time do you remember the transition from when you didn't like sweating to when you did like sweating

yeah so like i think it was i remember my first like class that i actually enjoyed like i tried doing spinning classes with my dad and i would be like mid-class i'd be like okay i'm only allowed to go to the restroom two times in the class like that was my goal and if allowed to go to the restroom two times in the class. Like that was my goal. And if I would go to the restroom, I would just take a seat and be like, oh, I'm almost napping. Like I would be so lazy and I would just go to spinning because my dad was like, come with me. And he bought me a membership and I was like, okay, I have to go. But then I tried the bootcamp thing and that was like,

I was actually strong and I was actually better than some of the girls and that's a little bit what just like I don't know like started firing the torts I don't know if that's the right saying but it's just like I was like I want I want more of this and uh I think it was I pushed very hard and like there was a test in the beginning of a seminar a boot camp seminar and I pushed super hard and I actually enjoyed surprising myself when I thought I had to give up but I didn't give up and then I got a compliment afterwards that I was actually pretty good and And that was like, I want more of this. Like next time I do the test, I want to be able to do this. Oh, you're like a little kid.

Yeah. It was like the little rewards that I was just like, this is working. And then you're just surprising yourself of like, you saw, I saw people doing something like a strict pull-up and I was like, I wish I could do that. And then I tried it and I could. And I was like, oh, I can do it. Because you have this belief of yourself that you aren't as good. Or I was at least like that. I wasn't good at anything.

I looked up to other people and I was like, why don't I have this talent? But I never actually tried. And I was like, why don't I have this talent? But I never actually tried. And like, I used to watch a lot of Biggest Loser. And there was a quote there that said, like, hard work beats talent. And that was my motivation when I started. I was like, I don't have talent, but I can put hard work in.

So Biggest Loser helped me also with my career. Isn't it amazing you it's like having a um a ferrari but every time you're in it you think it's a vw bug sorry bad bad bad example bad example volkswagens are great sorry let me let me it's like thinking you have i mean you didn't know what you were driving no i had no idea you didn't know what you were driving. No, I had no idea. You didn't know what you were driving. I was driving like a Nissan Micra. Or I thought I was driving a Nissan Micra when I was on my Volkswagen Touareg. Yes. Do you have a Volkswagen with you in Georgia?

I'm waiting for it. So I'm very excited. Very patient. Yeah. I'm waiting very patiently. And when you get it, will it be new? Will it smell new and be all yummy? It would be customized for me.

That's awesome. Please don't put some pancakes on the side, please. I like custom cars, but don't do the pancakes on the side. That's one just for Heber and Mars, the pancake one. Yeah, I won't do that. I promise that. But I might eat pancakes in the car, though. Yes.

Yeah, I won't do that. I promise that. But I might eat pancakes in the car though. Yes. You go to Dubai. I think if I remember correctly, you let us know that you are a competition athlete, meaning you like to go to competitions because that's where you like to work on yourself and you like to refine things. Yeah. And so as a fan of sarah we we want to trust that we want to trust that you're going to these events to work on yourself and not make any mistakes so that we

can't see you at the games right yeah so you go to dubai and then and then you freak us out a little bit by showing up at wadapalooza we're like oh what is she doing it's too many um but but but but we know that she's she's mature athlete and she's smart and she knows she's coming here just to work on things this isn't the place to like and then uh we see you leave the event early yeah and um you know and we all fucking freak the fuck out um the only one you freaked out a little bit A little bit. I think I didn't sleep for like three days. I was so freaked out. Can you walk us through even before Wadapalooza starts?

I know you women have dreams and shit and you guys know stuff before it happens. As you're showing up to Wadapalooza, is there any sign of this that you shouldn't be doing it that you didn't listen to? So the preparation for Guadalupalooza maybe wasn't the best. But I had in mind that I wanted to start the season of going to Guadalupalooza, competing at Guadalupalooza. So my dad actually got diagnosed with cancer in october and couldn't they had to cancel their trip to watch me in dubai they were so excited my parents so uh i wanted to give them a little bit of a show at water polo and i wanted to get more experience because i felt that dubai like the last day was my best day because I was like, like I was all of a sudden like starting to be the competitor again instead of like fearing that I wasn't good enough.

So I was like, I need more of this. My parents could come and they can come watch me because my dad has or is almost fully recovered. What kind of cancer? Colon cancer. Okay. And was that in Dubai? Was that the first CrossFit competition that they hadn't been there for you? What kind of cancer? Cologne cancer. Okay. And was that in Dubai? Was that the first CrossFit competition that they hadn't been there for you?

Not that, but they've been with me through this injury and everything, and they're my biggest supporters. And it was kind of hard for them. He got diagnosed the 21st of October October and we had already planned the trip and and it was just like a small shocker and he had to have surgery what was it the 24th of November so he was going through everything while I was trying to prepare and it was just like it was so hard to prepare and be focused on training when you know that your dad is going through the hardest time of his life. And he was just like, Sarah, the only thing I want to do is watch you compete. So you have to stay in Dubai and you have to do your thing.

And so Waterpalooza was like a little bit of part of that, that I wanted them to come out. I wanted him to get a new environment after going through all of this bullshit. And just like- Let me just say something about your parents because a lot of people complain at Guadalupalooza that it's hard to get into the stadium or it's hard to get whatever seats. I don't know how they did it,

but they were in the front row every time. Yeah, my mom, she wakes up at 4 a.m. and is waiting in line to get the first seat because she's like, I want Sarah to see me and hear me as soon as she walks out. And she has this thing that as soon as they count down of like, stand by, then I hear her say, Sarah. And she's like the only voice. And I'm like, OK, my mom's there. It gives you like extra strength. And yeah, so Waterpalooza was a little bit a part of that of like i wanted

them to come and watch me i wanted like i wanted my mojo back and then from waterpalooza the season would start and i would be based in america and i would be like so waterpalooza was just uh an extra bonus and uh and then i came home from dubai i rested after dubai i got uh the vaccination i got sick for about 10 days like when you say you came home and got the vaccination you mean in iceland yeah in iceland yeah okay and was that your first shot no it's my third so i have three vaccinations to come to the States. Okay. Yeah. Because of the new, um,

new variation or whatever it's called. So I got pretty sick after that. Uh, what does that mean? You got sick. What does that look like? What was your sickness? Like it,

it was like, you know, when you have fever and you have these aches in all your body. Yeah. I felt for like a week it was how was your heart how was your heart rate heart rate was actually not that bad it was a bit high but it was just the aches that was killing me and like trying to lift then everything when you have aches it was just like i was i had man flu that's how i felt man flu flu? Yeah. I haven't heard of this man flu. What is this man flu?

Sounds like something from a jungle book. Yeah. It's like imagination, like guys that think that they're sick and feel sorry about themselves. You know, I think I think. That was there. Oh, you're speaking my man flu is a more painful. Oh, this is awesome. Man flu is more painful than childbirth. This is the irrefutable scientific fact.

Man flu is not just a cold. It's a condition so severe that germs from a single man flu sneeze could wipe out entire tribes of people living in rainforests. Women do not contract man flu. They suffer from what is medically recognized as mild girly. This is great. I got it. Okay. I understand man flu. Okay. So it's as bad as man flu. What you had, you think?

Yeah, it was as bad as man flu. Wow. And, uh, and then I packed my stuff. I came to Florida. I trained for like about 10 days before water balloons.

And then I would, uh, like ease up before the competition. Where did you train in Florida for those 10 days? Where did you train? Cross it downtown Miami. Okay. And is any part of that like training or preparation leading into Guadalupalooza? Are you still doing checks with your knee? Any kind of like agility drills or stuff like that? I'm doing rehab about probably an hour every day or at least four times

a week like i'm still like my right side isn't still 100 like the left side but we'll get there but leading into water palooza you were checking you're still checking the boxes you were feeling good i was feeling great before Waterpalooza. I was finally training again. This is after Waterpalooza. You see that hair flip? Very nice. Very nice.

Practice that in the mirror, huh? Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I felt great before Waterpalooza. I did the first event. I died in the first event because my jumping threshold wasn't quite there yet but it is what it is and that's why i did the competition to get like these um these results and and that's actually you know that's that's notable like the you know the buying

of the double unders is there and it's real but if if you hadn't had this setback for the last 18 months that would be kind of an afterthought but because you did that was something you were thinking about probably more than any of the other girls yeah and it's just like i was always failing the freaking double unders because my right leg was so fatigued it didn't want to lift off the ground and i was like i'll just do singles then and inside my head i was like what was the buy-in what was the buy-in? What was the buy-in? 75, five heavy double under. Oh, that's right. Okay. And then the pig flip, like the pig flip was my jam.

And I was like, I'm being freaking strong. It was a sneaky workout because the double owners, you know, they were heavy. The weighted, the GHGs were weighted. So even though those were the buy-ins and a lot of people observing were like, okay, this event is made or lost on the sled. You still had to like get there. Yeah, you had to get there. Exactly.

But yeah, so I felt great the first day. I mean, I'm still, I wasn't still quite where I wanted to be in the thruster workout. I was like, why do I always die? Like, why can't I, I like why don't I have the threshold yet it's like you haven't actually trained properly for two years Sarah I was like good point but still but uh and then I just started the warm-up before uh the the lifting event and I felt a little bit in the warm-up and I was like I think my head is messing with me that's what I said to Max and he's like what do you mean and I was like yeah I feel a little bit

in my knee but I think it's just my head protecting me because I'm afraid of uh of the stubby bar and I'm afraid of the barbell and like like I had done that workout in training in one minute and 20 seconds uh against Taylor Howie I think that she won the workout or was in second i can't remember she ended up winning it in a minute 28 or 29 yeah and uh and i actually like yeah i beat her by like three seconds or something in training but uh like i so that that was a pretty shocker like i think i wanted to do so well in that workout and I was like my head is messing with me because I want to do so well so it's like telling me that my knee isn't fine and then I was just like okay you can't think about it you just have to go and then what

what was so weird on the floor was just like I got like this it's hard to say, but like an outer body experience. It was just like my head was just completely somewhere else. My knee was locking up. I couldn't, I was committing to the bar, but my body wasn't allowing me to lift the bar. And I was like trying to talk to myself. And it was just like, it was such a weird experience. And I was just like, what such a weird experience and I was just like what is happening here and then after I finished the workout I was just like my knee was getting swollen I felt it was like I was afraid that I had re-tore and I was like but I didn't hear a click so because I remember when

I tore my ACL the first time it was just like yeah i heard the click and like the judge would would hear the click and yeah i think what weight is that what weight is that right there that you just failed i'm i can't even remember what it was but i was like what is going on why can't i lift this but it's not a weight you're concerned about ahead of time no not even for a second oh no if she's if she finished that workout regardless of the stubby bar, not in a minute, 20 seconds in training. And this is the second bar. Yeah. And then that's just like the emotion.

Like you can see it there. It was like, yeah, the fear just overtook. And my body just went into protective mode. And then it was like, breathe. Come on. Let's go. And then I fucked something up again, I think. But it was just then it was like, breathe, come on, let's go. And then I fucked something up again, I think, but it was just like, it was a very, uh, yeah, it was a weird experience

and I've never experienced anything like that before. Hey, so, um, is this a, how are you going to nip this in the bud? Is this going to be a compounding problem by that? I I mean, you know how like OCD works, how like, like every day you check to see if your front door is locked before you go to bed and it's always locked. And then one day you go and it's not locked. So now you have to check it. Yeah. And you have to now check it three times. Yeah.

How are you going to, this thing has to be nipped in the bud, right? This thing, this, whatever. this thing has to be nipped in the bud, right? This thing, this, whatever. The reasons why I moved to Georgia, like being by myself and not getting pressured and like training by myself. Like I wasn't able to go into that fear state of failing because if I would fail, it doesn't really matter. But here in Georgia, I have all this crowd around me. I have a physio on site. I have Max that teased me how I move and everything.

But like what happened at Waterpalooza was just like some cartilage and meniscus problem. Like after I did the workout, I was just like, I need to get this scanned as soon as possible because I think I retoured my ACL. I feel my knees loose. But like I had all these things and I was like, I'm going through all this process again. I have to take a year off again. I have to go through surgery.

My mind just went straight to worst case scenario. I was lucky enough that I could get an MRI on the Saturday. This happened on Friday. So the next day, and I felt like in breaking bad like the where i was yeah it was like this uh little like um cupin powder or something in uh in in florida but i got a scan i called my doctor i was like hi i have a so the doctor that did the surgery i was like hi i think I, that something happened to my knees. Can I, can I show you some photos? And he's like, yeah, do you have the photos with

you? I was like, yeah, I have them on a CD. He's like, okay, you have to get them somehow to me. I was like, okay. So I tried to find a computer with the CD and I was like what computer now has a CD drive like I had the result for me of like do I am I out for the season or am I not out for the season and it was just yeah I didn't sleep for three days and I felt like James Bond trying to figure this out but I managed to figure it out went to a FedEx place and was able to take the files from a CD to put them on an SD card. From the SD card, I downloaded the app to open up the photos because they need a special app and moved the photos into the app, moved it all into Dropbox with the app, and that's how I got it started.

During that time that you you know the stress of this time you actually had as good of a support system there in miami with you as you could really ask for oh i like the guy that owns cross it downtown miami he helped me so much. He helped me contact a doctor to get an MRI appointment. And it was just the love that I got around everything. It was just like, it was amazing. Like my manager there, my friends were there, they were supporting me the whole time. They never wanted to leave me alone. And I was like, it was so good because like, I expected water Palooza to be like a fun event and just like enjoying it with the people, like with my family, with my friends until the seriousness would start and me moving away from

them. But it ended up being like a traumatic experience. Sarah, when I talked to Travis about what life is like in the training camp, um, at think tank, there is a, and this is from him. This is a guy who has four kids, right? Does he have four or five? Four. Yeah. So this is a guy who has four kids, but his life is very compartmentalized. Like I don't get the impression that he's having deep or heavy or intimate talks with people at training. It's go there, train um keep things uh this with no negative connotation pretty superficial get to work in and get home like these these are my

this is my um life um and and he does that by choice i guess i i think it's it's a form of his being disciplined yeah is it like that for you how like are you two questions here is your relationship with max intimate and what what about what did you remember from him in 2017 um that made you want to come back to him a couple things that were like okay this is where i belong like we did a lot of evaluation in 2017 and he said a lot of things that I didn't want to hear that I knew were right. He was just like, you have this relationship with your body that needs to be changed. You have this like he had all these extra things that makes or like that fits in the puzzle. Do you know what I mean?

But at the time overwhelmed you like, fuck that. I'm not doing all that. Yeah. At that time, I was like, hey, I'm just trying to enjoy the sport again from uh leaving another place like I can't handle this now like but in my like in my gut I was like this is the right thing to do uh for you but I just wasn't ready to commit to it I don't know what it was but all the things that he said and everything was still like it made so much sense and I just didn't quite know how to approach it and yeah it was just something about him and the way that we like we have a very good relationship we were both very

similar people how we think like I'm such an overthinker he is an overthinker he understands when I get very anxious before a competition or when I stop sleeping or when I do this then he's never judging versus just like hey Sarah a professional athlete should be in this box he understands me for for how I am as a person And he wants to approach me in that way versus trying to change me. You know what I mean? So it is intimate. It is, you're close to him.

Like there's a lot of trust. There's a lot of trust. And that's one of the things, or like we're building the trust now. I mean, I've been here in Georgia for about three weeks now. And we hadn't spent any time before that unless it was a competition. Like I met him for the first time since 2017.

Or like I've seen him in competitions, but just high and by. But met him like officially the first time was now in Dubai before DFC. So we hadn't spent a lot of time together. And then at Vodapalooza. And together and then at Vodapalooza and then this happens at Vodapalooza and he's like I think the best thing you can do now is like we work on our coaching and athlete relationship I learn how to approach you in these stressful situations instead of you just trying to do everything yourself uh and like breaking the habit of actually having a team versus I can do it best myself. Wow.

I really, I think that the, you know, I do think that that conversation or experience you had with him in 2017, like that groundwork is kind of irreplaceable though. And this could be true for, know a friendship a lover type relationship anything and it was also just like having a person that you only met for a week and he could see so many things in me that like i barely saw in myself but he had and i was like am i that talented like i'm just lucky like that's how i looked at it and and having him still in 2020 believe in me and wanting to work with me also was like okay i'm like this he just wants to ride in your torag your torag maybe maybe he wants that but he was he was confident enough upon first meeting you to tell you what you needed to hear, even if you didn't want to hear it.

And he was patient enough to wait for the right time for you to receive that message, knowing that it might never come. Exactly. Yeah. And I was also just like, I wasn't ready at that time for that discipline. So if I would have jumped on board with him, then I might have maybe been like this CrossFit thing isn't for me anymore. I might have maybe been like this CrossFit thing isn't for me anymore. I think I have had to experience everything that I have had to be able to wanting to be this committed now. If you don't work on your breathing and on meditating, this isn't for you, Sarah. This is for everyone in the world. If you don't work on your breathing and your meditating while you're in a good state of mind,

you sure as fuck won't be able to utilize that tool when fucking shit hits the fan. And when I see, I'm so impressed that Max would do that. Come out here and let's start running fire drills for the next time you have some sort of fucking like challenge in live competition. Let's start, things are good here. It's safe. We're in Georgia, but let's fucking like role play and work through and like, and prepare for it. I mean mean i really like what brian said it's actually what lovers should

do it's like what people should do who are in really healthy relationships that's when you practice okay like how are we going to stay together through the hard times it's fucking awesome i'm impressed yeah i mean i was i was like, am I actually going to commit to this or should I just start doing it myself again? Why not just say what I feel like I asked you this last time, but why not just hang up your gloves? That's exactly what I did. Yeah. Surrendered. And I was like, okay, I think that. Okay. So you quit and you landed right where you're supposed to be back in the back of my mind, it's this fear of like, what if I actually go all in, commit 100%, do everything as I should do it, like sleep nine hours, have this routine, have training buddies, but I won't be

good enough what what then what do I do then and I think that was the fear inside of me of like maybe I'll just get it in black and white that I'll never be as good as I was or I'll never reach my goal or anything and then I was like are you gonna think when you're 80 years old that you should have done something but you didn't do it and that's just like slapped my face took my gloves off hung them up and max you are my sensei now and have you have you think you've gotten to that point now where you're like yep i'm gonna go all in for this and whatever the result is i'm happy that i that i committed to this thing yeah i mean i can't do anything more than i'm doing now like i've moved from my baby simpa i've moved

from my family i'm going to bed at 9 30 in the evening i'm running four times a week i'm doing running drills i'm doing rehab i'm doing all the boring shit but it's actually fun because I see improvement and I actually see again that there is something still there that like that I thought had left me like the belief in me like when you when you experience like a let's say a traumatizing injury you're always afraid of re-tearing going through the process again, blah, blah, blah. It's like coming here, getting the security and something just clicked like the focus and everything. It was just like I needed this. I there's no doubt in my mind that trying to do this, what you're doing and winning or trying to do this and losing, it will not matter when you look back when you're 80, all you will care is that you did it. We just had it. Yeah. We just had a fighter on this morning and he said, the only reason why

I'm fighting is I don't want to look, he's 29. He's all, I don't want to look back when I'm 35 and be like, fuck, I should have fought. Yeah. And even if if you even if you don't make your goal at least you can be like well i had this experience of giving it my all i don't even think most people can say that a tiny bit exactly like i was almost in that spot of finding excuses about everything which is not like me that's like the old sarah was so like too afraid of failure so you just make up excuses and it's and you fail and you're like oh i knew it would happen instead of going freaking all in and be like i'm fighting for this and if it doesn't work i just need to change the work next year like stopping that fear of the outcome is a little bit

what i'm dealing with now and like you say like if you don't meditate and breathe in the calmness how how the hell are you going to do it when you're under pressure and everything? And this is what I'm learning now. It is not a good look. I don't like my kids with their fingers in their mouth. Sevan, are we not asking her opinion on the firing of Dave Castro? Does she think CF fucked up? What about the Monster Coca-Cola sponsorship? Ask the tough. I don't think those are tough questions.

Just so you know, I appreciate how you would think that those are tough questions, by the way. I don't think they're tough. So if you would like to address any of those, you can. But I think a lot of people, people are curious, curious. Do you have any opinions on Dave being fired? I mean, I don't have a strong opinion. But, I mean, like Dave, I think he's an amazing programmer. I think that he is one of the reasons why Cross, or I think he is one of the reasons why Cross is how it is. And I think it's just going to be a very interesting year without him.

Like, I don't have a stronger opinion about that. Like, maybe they have a plan. Maybe they don't. This is just way out of my control. And if I start fussing about it, what do I benefit from it? Amen. Amen. Yeah, let someone like me who can just fucking kick back at

seven in the morning in my own office yes you have shit to do with max and travis and then the second question is do you have do you have any um thoughts about the uh um a drink like coca-cola being a sponsor for the crossfit game no like i have some very strong feelings about it i hope they dump in as much fucking money as they fucking possibly can and i hope that people speak honestly about it and i hope marlboro and tobacco and nicotine and cocaine and heroin and fentanyl and pfizer all jump on board and sponsor the crossfit games now that being said if you you think Coca-Cola is ass, you should also say that too. But you should have no issue taking their money as long as you don't have to lie. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I agree with you there. I don't have a stronger opinion about it than that. Take the fucking money. Yeah. But don't lie. Don't lie. Like, don't drink.

I don't think you should drink a Monster Energy drink if you don't drink. I don't think you should do. I don't think you should, at the expense of your integrity, sell a product. Yeah, you could get money. Yeah, I agree with you there. I think it's a little short-sighted. Yeah. And it will rot your soul.

Thank you, Nick, by the way. I appreciate it. And the thing with the finger, let's work on that, keeping your finger on the mouth. Thank you. Sarah, what was the first year you did the open when was the first year yeah so i did the open 2012 but so there's a story around that um i didn't know what CrossFit was until like a week before the Open. I competed. Love you, too. Love you, too, Nick. Yeah, so I competed accidentally in CrossFit,

placed second after Katrin, and then there was this guy that came up to me. He's like, you should do the Open to try to qualify for European Regionals. And I was like, what is that? And he's like like just show up on wednesday put your score in there and i was like okay because i i only trained at a hotel gym at that time and uh so i used to work in like yeah i used to work in reception in a gym hotel did Did it even have a pull-up bar, or did you just do the lat pull-down? Lat pull-down, yeah. Yeah, yeah, hotel shit, yeah.

I tried to do toes-to-bar in like a, what's it called, like a drag cable thing. Yes. I did a whole thing to that rig and tried to do toes-to-bar. Please don't put your, when I put my arms up, let there be at least a few minutes before you put your arms up, Sarah. I don't want people having, like, being able to compare us that closely together. Thank you. I'll wear a sweatshirt next time, Simone. Thank you.

Thank you. But, yeah, so I signed up for the Open 2012. I did the first workout, which was, like, seven minutes of burpees. And then the second workout came out, and that was snatching. And I was like, what is this snatch? So I just did the workout. of burpees and then the second workout came out and that was snatching and i was like what is this so i just worked out and i was like oh it's a barbell from the floor to overhead anyhow so i was like 60 kilo is the last weight i'm gonna get it up before uh i try to do this on on the day that we were doing it and uh i go to the hotel gym this great morning just put occasionally 40 kilos on a bar it's light put 50 kilos I was like okay 60 kilos I do a snatch a narrow grip snatch sorry Simon

don't lift your arms up narrow grip and I don't know how to put the bar back down so I fall with the bar and I break my wrist. Oh! Yeah, so I had to wait a little bit to start again. So my first Open was actually 2013. Well, I didn't know that story actually. That's not a great story because it ended bad, but it is kind of a good insight to like that you know that's how some people get started and it gave me so much hunger to actually like qualify the next year i was like 2013 is going to be my year i qualify for regionals and i get disqualified in the second event from not being able to do three overhead squats in a row and the same problem the overhead yeah and i was like are you joking so i had to

wait a whole year and then it was a gymnastic year and i was like what the hell is like this rope climbs and these strict hands then push-ups so after 2014 i was like i think i need a coach or a program to follow get out of this hotel gym yeah uh yeah we're still stuck there but well you know obviously the open's coming up and i wanted to just ask you two things one is what's your approach or perspective for the open this year and two is in case there's anyone listening who's thinking about doing it for the first time what would you say to them i think everybody should do the open because i've i've experienced so many times when I'm coaching and like I used to manage a box in Iceland and people would be so afraid of like,

yeah, but I'm not fit enough and I don't want to put a score in. And I'm like, it doesn't really matter, but it's always fun for the next year. So let's say that you just started training and you sign up for the Open and it's a test. Like you get your weaknesses exposed. There's double unders, there's hands and push-ups. And you actually sometimes get it for the first time because you're under pressure. So you experience that you can do more

than you actually thought. That's what I think about the Open. And I think also people that can't do specific things. And then after a year, they see like something is repeated or something and they're like oh I can actually do it now and they see the improvement that they made in a whole year and that's what I love about the open and especially now the new way it is it's like the uh the two two weeks in the start or three weeks and then break and then quarterfinals so it's like everybody that does crossfit should do the first three weeks.

It's just fun. It's just getting you out of your comfort zone, getting the community hyped up, and just having fun with it. This is what CrossFit is about, everybody cheering each other, everybody pushing each other. And it's almost a guarantee that if this will be your first Open, that it will end better than Sarah's first first open did for her yeah exactly youtube snaps have a coat and actually do crossfit before you do the open and um and when right after you sign up for the open i want you to uh everyone to run over

and pick up a sebon podcast ce Podcast CEO shirt while you have your credit card out of your wallet. I want that shirt. Caleb, can you show us the shirt? And run over that you'll have your credit card out and like I've said before, I will keep all of that, the profits from that, and I will spend it on

my family and while we're out at the beach buying samples and shit with the money I made off of you, I will think about you and appreciate you greatly and I will. I will for sure send you one. There's a girls tee too. I didn't even know girls and boys wore

different shirts. I thought we just all wore the same shit. I can wear both. The other day, I put on a pair of boxers and my boy started laughing. What'd you say? Isn't there a rainbow version of it too? There is.

Oh, that's the girl's version. That's the version I need. I need a version. Why does the girls get one that makes their body look nice and I have to wear the one that makes it look like a fucking spudge, spudge ball? Yeah, like a square. The men's fit is a square sarah in in two minutes um we're gonna have danielle brandon on is there any advice you would give a new athlete like her who's coming because she's in a very similar situation it's

funny i didn't think about this there's someone like you there's someone like josh bridges there are these athletes who are she she is on the ascent to being a superstar but she is in a fucking she right sorry she is a superstar but she's in a shark tank and let's face it for her to be climbed to the top of the heap is going to be nuts is there any advice you would give to someone like her who um is is experiencing massive amounts of attention, but still has this goal of getting to the top. And has this, not but, and has this. I would say just keeping the main thing the main thing. Like, what's your main focus? And prioritizing that.

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And maybe things that didn't quite help me reach where I want to go. Like, so, like, knowing when to say yes and to know is like the key thing and i i hope that she she knows that and i think that she does meaning meaning um this boy dating this boy is not going to get me to where i want eating this meal is not going to get me to where i want um yeah i'm staying out this late is not good yeah is this gonna help me make it to the top or is this gonna uh make me go like below getting or like am i going even further away from the top by doing this and what what are the steps for me to make it to the top god is there almost there like there should be an app and you point your camera at it and you're like uh will this help me get to the top yeah but you

can also have like the witch ball like should i do this and then it like says yes or no yes or you could just get max el haj yep but he has justin he's he's as good yeah sarah thank you for an hour on your sunday morning you are most welcome thank you for having me hold your Sunday morning. You are most welcome. Thank you for having me, Sean. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Sarah, are you going to watch the Super Bowl tonight? I am.

It's my first Super Bowl. Do you have a rooting interest or are you just… I'm going to set up a… Can you see this? This is for my room. It's like a fire hydrant. What is that? It's not a fire hydrant.

It's like a fire hydrant. What is that? It's not a fire hydrant. It's like a shelf. Okay. I'm going to build that while watching the Super Bowl tonight, guys. Awesome. You have faith in me. I know you'll do it. Don't hit your finger with the hammer. I can't.

Well, enjoy the Super Bowl. And yeah, thanks for coming on. This was a lot of fun yeah thank you sir you're the best you made my day thank you you are the best and say hi to danielle for me okay okay bye hello oh damn someone goes hi danielle Oh, damn. Someone goes, hi, Danielle. DB, Danielle, Brandon.

I know. I just heard the end of that, how Sarah said, say hi to Danielle for me. Someone in the comments, I can't remember what they said, but they said something about having you and Sarah on. And I was like, I cannot lie. Cause later on this week I have rich on, I cannot lie. Like I walk a little bit taller knowing I had you, Sarah and rich on all in the same week. I'm like, yeah, I'm the shit. I'm the shit. And you, Brian and you, Brian. No, you don't have, you don't have to lie. Remember we talked about that?

Okay, not you. The Coca-Cola thing? Take the money, but don't lie. Oh, my God. Danielle, where are you? No, hold on. Brian, where the fuck are you? I've been talking for an hour, and I'm like, where is he?

I'm at my brother's house. We got a Super Bowl party a little later tonight. Oh, it's nice. The wooden blinds. I tried to do it from the guest bedroom got a Super Bowl party a little later tonight. Oh, it's nice. The wooden blinds. I tried to do it from the guest bedroom where the internet was not sufficient in there. I'm in my room. Danielle, where are you? In my room.

In Vegas? Yeah. We had Kotler on the other day. Yeah, you did. Dude, that guy is something else. I know. Man, he did. Dude, that guy is something else. I know. Man, he's a huge Danielle Brandon fan. Say that again? He has had so many

lives. Lived so many lives. He's a huge fan. He believes in you like crazy. Is that just intense pressure? No. No? No. No. It's good. It's good to have somebody like that Is that like just intense pressure? No, no, no, no, no. It's good.

It's good to have somebody like that in my life that is like right there and believes in me that much, you know, because like I can have friends, family who are like, oh my God, like you're so good, you know, but they don't really see me every day and see what I do. So it's good to have somebody who like is there and gets to see that and has that belief still, you know? Um, and you didn't have that, like growing up. Um, I, I had that, but growing up, you didn't, you had to believe in yourself. You didn't really have anyone who believed in you, huh? Yeah, exactly. I mean, I had, um, I had my best friend, uh, I had a couple of really good friends,

but you know, it always sucked like not having family, like, you know, blood related family that had that belief in you when everyone around you did, you know? So it was like, okay, like, yeah, you're my best friend. I love you. But, you know, are you really reliable kind of thing? Yeah, you told us on that first interview that you didn't trust anyone. And what's fascinating is that kind of came up unprovoked with Kotler. He basically said that the diamond in the rough about the games last year was the development of his relationship with you, meaning because of what happened to Bethany and Carrie and you and him were forced into kind of a pressure cooker situation. You guys were able to take leaps and bounds in your relationship. I'm paraphrasing.

Yeah. And you guys took advantage of that. Would you say that you – do you agree with that or is Justin full of shit? You still don't trust him. Fuck him're going to you know mayhem next week i think no it was it was like a good opportunity for that because it forced me to like be with justin right like during the whole days of competition it forced me to be right there with him. And it forced us to figure out, and like, it was not perfect. Like it was not like I had my moments and I, you know, like it was exhausting and I had my moments of lack of communication, um, not listening. Um, good, but it forced me to try to communicate as much as possible on what worked best for me.

I think we found out some things that weekend of like the, the style of coaching that he has with me, um, and how different it probably is compared to like Bethany or Carrie. Um, so it forced us to like, figure out a lot of those things and not to say we did it perfectly or it was like the smoothest weekend but we made progress yeah hey when you jump up on stage and you flip off the crowd with a smile and the crowd cheers or is that kind I know I asked you about this before I forget what you did but is that kind of like are you even kind of like at that moment have an out-of-body experience are you kind of like wow who's this girl flipping off the crowd why is she doing that or like i don't think it was like out of body but you know like you're definitely i was almost like hi but i don't think yeah i told

the story of like behind like this and the crowd loves it yeah flip us off danielle yeah yeah they love you flipping them off like yeah we're getting flipped off i mean that's a special person like that was to me like, people loved it. They're like, yeah, she was flipping me off. Like not everybody. Oh, these people are so selfish. They think it was for them. Look at the little girl in the front row.

She's like, there's my hero, Danielle. Oh, you know, all the little kids right there. Hey, they still say that again. Sorry. they still ask for it say that again sorry they still ask for an autograph the kids listen people we are all not created equal you have to understand that that is a special gift that god gave danielle to express he danielle is what god's own expression and and you are your own expression and you are not to judge her or judge yourself. Find how God wants to use you and let let that being he she it spirit use you. And it works like we see it. We're not not everyone. Not Rich Froning, as special as he is, he cannot go up and win and flip the crowd off.

That's not it's not his. That's not him. I agree. But we all felt your love when you did that. It was like, oh, Danielle loves us. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Kayla, can you pull up her Instagram? This is going to get scary, Danielle.

Oh, really really maybe a little for me for me because it's been just fucking just in my brain just fucking rattling my brain i don't know how i'm gonna approach this subject here um so so you talked about how before when you um i think you started at underdogs athletics you You were, you weren't eating enough and you were, you were doing like 1200 calories a day. And that basically someone came up to you. The nutritionist is like, Hey,

this enough of this nonsense. And you basically, you crashed on an assault bike once. Oh yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I just died.

I literally died. And I, I was like, I, my body, I was like, my body could not do it anymore. And then Justin was like, what the fuck? We need to figure this shit out. And he's like, I'm calling Cooper today. And called Coop. And he's like, we need to find something.

We need to fix this. And then, sure enough, Mike from M2, he works with Haley. He works with now, I. He works with it now. I think he works with Kyra now at our gym. He works and has worked with a lot of athletes. A ton of athletes. I can't even like name them all. But and now I think Kiefer works for him.

But Kiefer is at our gym right now. That's what made me think of him. But Kiefer, when you say Kiefer works with him, he's actually working on Kiefer's diet too? Actually, I don't know. Kiefer is related – directly related somehow. I don't know. So he has – so you have this insane body that just – like everyone wants to cuddle, like dudes and girls. Like I cannot believe how many girls want to fucking cuddle you. do people would be like my wife has a crush on danielle too it's like what like

all that you're bringing couples together it's weird shit like that the dms are like my wife like wants to know this like can you like do this for my wife like it's great yeah you've somehow made it safe for men uh for men to have a crush on on you with their wives having a crush on you. But when you're eating these 1,200 calories, I'm assuming you're doing it because you want to have a body that looks a certain way. No. I mean, no, I struggled with like, you know, went through my like eating disorder phase kind of in like high school college um but it was never like oh i'm gonna intent like i don't know i didn't intentionally eat less to like make my body look a certain way because it still looked it didn't look how i wanted it

eating less right ah that's a strong point yeah like i had my best friend and i was always so envious of her she had like amazing abs and i was like what the fuck like i work out so much harder than you and it was because she she always ate so much like she ate what was right for her body and i was like what the fuck i i will never look like her eating so little and so i don't i mean it's not that i intentionally ate less to like look like that i just i just didn't know you know i thought i could get away with it because my story's all fucked up now thank you um can you can you um can you pull pull up her instagram can you post that picture of the white shorts with her back to us? So you see this picture.

And let's go back a second here if I can get my story back on track because I'm too scared to just flat out ask you what I want to ask. I want to know. Ask. We'll get there. I'm building up some confidence. First of all, who took this picture? we'll get there. I'm building up some confidence when you, first of all, who took this picture?

Matt, I want to say Matt. True. The true. Photo shoot. Well, man, he fucking,

he, that's an incredible fucking photo of you. Yeah. And do you have to ask special permission to post that? Or does he give that to you no he just gave it to me yeah that's an incredible photo um so is that the body you wanted let's say 10 years ago i never had like an ideal body. Like I never like looked at, like I never like looked at a body and was like, I want that body. Okay.

So you know, Oh, you, so you were always happy with the way your body looked. No. Like, I mean, I would look in the mirror and it was always like,

Oh, like I wish my, like, I wish I had better abs, but I think it was always just like my stomach like I've always just been like self-conscious of that and like oh that's why we have to that's why there's so many ass photos of you because you're hiding I didn't really care like it's funny like in high school I like had a butt and boobs but nobody like I and every girl was just always like, oh, my gosh, like, how are you so skinny?

And like, you have an ass and boobs like and I was just like, I don't know. Like, I, you know, I never tried to get that. Like, you know, and so but I also didn't take it as like, yeah, I have like an ass of boobs and I'm like skinny. You know what I mean? I still just like my stomach or whatever like oh my legs are like kind of so it's just yeah i mean just this is the you're just a normal person you're not you're like the rest of us you're not focusing on the nice shit you have you're just like fuck you're focusing on the bad shit you have well bad shit in your own mind not like bad really shit, really bad shit. Right.

Yeah. Everyone's trying to make them – well, I guess in the most optimistic sense, everyone's just trying to make themselves better. Yeah. Or reach some sort of ideal. Okay. Can I see your Instagram again, Caleb? Seven. Are we going to ask your question?

Yeah, here it comes. Here it comes. Here it comes. So click in this picture. What the – should i say something nice or mean first let's go with me what the where'd you get those jeans at and you still own them i think you should pull them up higher you think yes yes you think i should pull them up higher way higher like just like right under your boobs so we've seen no stomach oh no i'm joking i'm joking where'd you get those pants at

there was a phase those are mom pants are you are you gonna like are you getting married or something they are mom pants yeah they are mom pants and you know i mean you rock the shit out of them don't get me wrong you rock the shit out of them but they are mom pants coming from because when i put them on i actually had um a couple other girls with me kaira and sabrina and they were like no and they were like no and i was like yeah i was like i don't know and but they were just so freaking comfy you know it was it was comfort over style when i feel like i feel like it comfort trump style nine out of ten for me it did especially jeans like if you know how hard it is to find jeans

because your butt because your butt yeah and my legs yeah like i want jeans that fit over my legs but then aren't usually they're wider waist so then i just have no ass and jeans so you either look like you took a shit in your pants or they don't fit on your thighs yep yeah and these like fit on my butt and my thighs but they give that mom look you know i don't want to hear anyone say by the way in the comments you can go fuck yourself he would never talk to a guy like this i will fucking yeah undress a fucking i will get the delugos what's that guy's name that god that you work out with matt delugos oh yeah oh i will bring him on here and fucking yeah and well let's talk about his body and his dress i'd love to spend an hour okay now now this top here um so i said something to justin kotler we were talking about your career and we were talking

about the career of like some women who like after their crossfit career they you know they get some fake boobs and oh yeah and and then a couple days later this photo popped up and my dm started popping in that you got fake boobs i know i even got the dms they but the funny thing is nobody could ask me straight up. They say like – Well, I still haven't asked you. I'm scared. I know. No, I do not have fake boobs.

Okay. I want you to know I fell on that side too. I said those boobs are not fake, and some people were like, no, they are. And here's what I thought. Here's my whole theory. Now I'll just tell the whole thing. I know it's a lot of beating around the bush. I thought it's the off season. I think probably you have big boob you have pretty big

boobs anyway i think it's the off season you've put on probably like three or four pounds and you're blessed that that three or four pounds landed on your titties that's what i was thinking and and and another thing i thought is can scroll over? There's a picture you posted with your eyes closed. Oh, yeah. My theory is that this picture, you knew how good, like no one posts a picture with their eyes closed. But you're like, damn, my tits look so good in this that I'll fucking just take it with my eyes closed. I'll post it. I have photos with my eyes open. Oh, all right.

Yeah. There's that picture with my eyes open. I don't believe you until I see it. Okay. Go look at their profile god i made it through okay this podcast is over the boobs are not fake yeah you know what's so funny though i have to i have to bring it up uh you know you say oh maybe it's off season like you know gain a couple pounds i don't know you don't look like you've

gained a couple pounds by the way i'm not suggesting that in the slightest. It's funny, though, because right now I'm probably like, I'm feeling the most fit that I have been. So it's like, it's not the off season, you know? Interesting. Why is that? Is that a fuck up on your part? Why is that? I have a theory, but we'll let her answer first.

Why are you the most fit right now? Just because of where you are in your career? Or is it a fuck up? You're peaking too soon? Or you're just healthier? What's going on? I just think I've finally just started hammering the things I suck at, which was just conditioning and being more fit. And I just found a way.

I found something that works for me to like get better are you gonna share what is that no not sharing oh wow yeah i like that you you aren't gonna share yeah i like this um when's the last time you try how how are will you stay in vegas until brian and i want to hear your theory too um why why you think she's doing so well but um will you stay in vegas between now and semi-finals like are you are is the season started for you and you're rooted yeah and is your is your routine fucking a routine now yeah i'm in like a much better routine right now um which is good and i and justin and i have like noticed that and i just like feel better yeah and i don't i don't want

to leave right now what about you don't you have a dude like in oklahoma or something yeah is that hard does so you won't even go out there i don't want to yeah yeah make them to me yeah i mean it's smart he will hey i'm bet is he gonna i think he will what do you think brian you think he'll come to her i think he probably will yes yes i would think because uh oh yeah tell me why. Because, Brian, why? He wants to be supportive of the of the focus that she's going to have the next six months. I think it's because he wants to get into her drawers and throw away those mama jeans. He wants to come over there and throw away the mom jeans.

Oh, man. That's the kind of drawers that he wants to get into. I think he likes to cover up more. I think he likes to cover up more. Okay. Brian, why do you think her fitness is, what do you think is happening in her life that's making her feel so good about her training right now? I think it's just two things. I think one is more general,

and this is my experience, is that most people who are really pursuing the highest pursuit of this sport, I guess, and that's, I would say like, you know, thousands of people, even though we only see dozens of them at the highest level, there's thousands that are pursuing that level, don't give their body enough rest when they really need it over the course of a 12-month period of time. And I think that Danielle was kind of forced to do that by a few limitations physically in the last three or four months that she, her probably body probably needed and that she has a good enough system around her support system in terms

of coaches, friends, training partners, et cetera, to say like, this is okay right now. And you know, this was the right decision not to compete at Wadapalooza, not to squat for this period of time, whatever it was, her body's healed and ready to go and is still very strong. She has a big foundation and base of training in the space. And that in the meantime, she was able to bring some of those other things along, whether they were not necessarily just perceived weaknesses and competition, but even just balance in her life. So I think it was maybe even not something she planned, but kind of all of those things led together to create a really good period of time for her right now. Miss Brandon.

Wow. Yeah. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Ask it. What what is he talking about? Like like he pointed he's pointing out a lot. What what what did you have some injuries?

What obstacles did you have? What caused you to like can you objectify some of the things he said yeah um so i think it started last season i think i peaked really early at um quarterfinals like i felt my strongest my most fit and then i mean right after that i got injured uh i had a shoulder. I tore my supraspinatus. Had to get like a cortisone shot just to get through West Coast Classic. And then Wright made it to the games. All good. At the games was like battling with then, you know, after one side starts to hurt.

Of course, the other side starts to hurt because you're compensating. So my other shoulder and then randomly my back I think my back had started to hurt right before the games or at the games I don't remember exactly and then right after the games right I got through it right after the games my back just got I don't know like something happened and I ended up, I think just more, more injury to my L4, L5, and then a new herniated disc and a whole bunch of other stuff. Right. Um, so it was forced to not do any strength and was basically forced to just do conditioning and what I just like easy stuff on my body. Is that what you're talking about brian

she had injuries that forced her to slow down and take inventory yeah did did you ever look in the mirror and you were crooked did you ever have you ever had that yeah like where it's scary like oh shit my torso is not sitting and you start doing this move, you're like, damn. Maybe if I just do this, I'll be straight again. It's bad. Yeah. And I would see it in pictures, and I was like, oh, that's weird. I was kind of self-conscious of it. I was like, why am I – I look crooked.

But then when I went and saw this new – my new PT guy that I work with, he was like, yeah, you're literally crooked. Your pubic bone is like not sitting right. Your tailbone's crooked. And then like after seeing him, I could see like physically, I was less crooked. What would he do? Um, we're doing a lot of, I mean, he'll do like a lot of manual deep tissue, you know, aggressive, like stretching ultrasound. Um, and then a lot of corrective exercises. So like, he like sent me home with exercises. He's like, you have to do these every day during your training session. Every like, I think it was like three times a week, no matter what, if you're squatting, you have to do them before this. He didn't even want me

squatting. So that's why when Wadapalooza came up and there was squatting i was like my pt saying not to squat like i probably i probably shouldn't do this probably shouldn't do these things um do you do you do them religiously i'm assuming it's really boring i do them almost every day and is it really boring shit where you're like okay i need to like yeah i mean it's like laying down with like a hip circle band and doing like exercises you you think you'd see it like a globo gym girl doing for her booty you know right but they i mean they help so and how and how is your back it's a lot. I think I've been squatting for like two or three weeks now. And I saw you put – it's your lower back? Mm-hmm.

And didn't I see – did I see put 250 overhead? Yeah. And what's crazier – I guess people don't know this who don't do CrossFit, but I guess most of us knew. The lowering of it's nuts. Yeah, and that, I mean, my overhead, I don't know. It's just like people think you lose strength so fast, but you don't. Because this, I mean, was maybe a couple weeks into just push jerking again. God, you're fucking strong that's nuts dude and then even snatching is there a snatch video in here too um uh no it was on my story but i

hit like one night i've hit 190 the past like two or three weeks what's your what's the most you've ever deadlifted snatch again huh what's the most you've ever deadlifted again huh what's the most you've ever deadlifted in your life not good maybe maybe 340 350 maybe if if i wake you up in at three in the morning and i drag you out to the garage and i ask you to pick up 190 pounds is it heavy for you if i ask you to deadlift it no not dead no no okay because i just think it's fucking crazy like i think it's crazy that you snatch 190 so it doesn't even feel heavy to you it doesn't feel heavy to you that's deadlifted now yeah that's nuts i think that's what 185 180 um what's it what's it like over at underdogs um athletics right now when you walk so you go there every seven days a week uh five times a week okay like i won't go there

and you walk in there and what do you see who's in there what is it is it busy are there classes in there is it also an affiliate? Is Bethany always in there? Do you see Ricky Garrard? Like what? Tell me. Give me, give me, give me a Ricky. I know he's in Australia, but I just wanted to say, I just want to say his name because I like him.

Such a, such a nice guy. I'm like sad. He's gone. I'm really sad that he's gone because I mean like the first day that we got to do a Metcon together, it was so fun. Like we, it was like a two part workout. He barely beat me on the first, like not even a rep. He beat me. And then like the second part, I like beat him barely. Like it was so fun. Hey, that's a good test. That, that, that boy might have one of the biggest engines in the history of the sport huh it was so fun and so i'm really sad he's gone but um and he's even killed this shit i don't think that's even a whatever because it's really hard to find someone that's a like a good comparable training partner to you and if you can find someone that's the opposite sex that's almost as good as you that's a pretty big advantage because it's hard to find and you don't have that kind of like yeah but i still want

to beat her when it comes to game day exactly i yeah i i am really sad about that especially because yeah there's a whole bunch a whole bunch of factors as to why i wish i had that male that male training partner but but i wanted to dwell on it i mean it's hard to find and not very many people have it yeah yeah i won't ask say it again i want to find it though i want yeah he had an ass experience in vegas it sounds like and that's why he went home well and his home life sounds like it's amazing yeah and i know i'm just glad that he had his cute little girlfriend with him but so at least he didn't have to go through it alone but yeah he was super sick and then everybody who comes to vegas and starts training the first two weeks you're fucked because it's it's miserable like the dry heat is not like

you feel sick for two weeks and he's like man will i get over this and i'm like yeah in a couple weeks but you don't have a couple weeks and bloody nose do you have bloody nose a lot i don't i didn't some people probably do i don't yeah i went to scottsdale for um a week a couple months ago and it was so damn dry within like 24 hours of being there. My whole family was like blowing out like blood. Yeah. You just feel like sick. Congested. I think it's amplified by the size of your nose though, Sevan.

That is true. It's a lot. It's a serious amount of O2. It's a serious amount of O2. Yes. Yes. Oh, I need to get Danielle one of these. uh uh one of these shirts a ceo shirt i need to get and pre-order your not a giant nose a ceo shirt yes thank you yes i'm gonna send you

do you have a do you have a big nose no i have a tiny nose i feel like yeah it doesn't look i can't tell from here. I don't even have eyes that work anymore. Oh, no. No. Okay. But we actually moved gyms. Tell me. So we were at CrossFit Culmination and now we're at Camp Rhino.

Do you know Alex Gazan? Brian, you do. I'm sure. Sounds familiar. You know? She was on Allison Scud's team at Wadapalooza yeah okay she's like 19 or 20 years old she's very young right yeah does she train in florida with matt torres's group no no she's there with oh okay i thought you said it was a her gym and then this other girl sab coached there. And it's a huge gym.

And they're just super welcoming and accommodating. So now we're just training over there. We have the gym from a set time. And it works for all of us. And it's called Camp Rhino. That's the name of the gym? Yeah. Let's just say it's 11 to 2 p.m.

How many people come to this set time? Fuck, what? Sabrina what Sabrina Alex Kyra me Allie Bethany Raph Matt oh I hope I'm not forgetting anyone Mitch pushing pushing towards 10 or 12 people yeah are all of them coached by someone in the underdogs group? Um, yeah, I mean, we're all there. Like Justin's watching us every day. I think we're trying to get like another coach to be there. Yeah. I mean, that's if he's the only one keeping an eye on that that many high level athletes like that's pretty tough yeah but i mean like i would say he does he's like doing a better job at just

um like selfishly focusing on like bethany and i and you know he's doing a better job at that but we still would like somebody else and if that's you know, two to three hours a day that you guys are there for a majority of that time, are each of you doing different things? Is there some overlap? Oh yeah. Um, usually like we try to do strength together. Like, you know, people will share a bar. I usually do stuff on my own, but that's just me. But, um But people will share bars or do like, if we have like a snatch EMOM, try to do snatch EMOM together. The skill work,

we'll usually try to do one big group or like two, we'll have like two groups doing skill work. And then the Metcon, we always do together. Interesting. So I was, I was curious specifically about that because like, is there ever a time where he might say, all right, you know,

obviously we have this Metcon coming up, but I want you guys to watch as these three athletes do this Metcon. Sometimes we'll just do different. Yeah. We'll do like different heats. Cause I think, you know, this is something that sometimes I implement with some groups of the, the higher level athletes at our gym is if we're all there training together, I still might say, let's go in two heats because I think that there's a good opportunity for us to learn something from each other here. by a significant amount but the strategy that i employ in the workout to do however well i did

could end up being potentially helpful for you down the line yeah we try to talk about it is that is that like something that he builds in there maybe like post-metcon we're doing some mobility stretching rolling out and have a conversation um usually it's just like amongst us, like we do it. And I think, and I don't know if that's like natural. I, I mean, like, I don't know. I just, I just feel like at our gym, we're not like, we're willing to share those things with each other. You know, I think it is. I mean, I think that that's pretty normal so that the metcon ends and then people just kind of like hang out and what are you going to talk about well what just happened for the last 10 minutes exactly um and then before usually we have like our people or like

you know our other person that we're like hey what are you going to do on them you know is there any element of or how how big of a element is the conversation between you and Justin before attacking a Metcon? Does he like to ask you what your plan is or give you a plan to try to follow? Yeah, like me and Justin, especially if it's a Metcon, like, you know, that needs that. you know that needs that and i i try bethany hasn't you know she's been kind of doing her own thing right now because of injuries and whatnot but um usually i try to i used to rely on like carrie and bethany a lot with that because i'm like terrible strategy like i am we would you know we have a lot of the like, um, hundred wall balls, 80 GHDs, whatever. And it's like, pick your own like adventure, like break it up however you want.

And my strategy was always, but I was like, I'm going to do this. And like, if Justin wasn't there, I'm like, I'm doing my strategy and it would like be terrible. Um, so I think we try to talk more to strategize more. And I, I'm trying to like, take that off of me, you know, because like that's why he's there. So what do you mean? What do you mean? Strategy?

Give me an example of what if the workout. Give me an example of a workout and then what a strategy would look like. Specifically a trash strategy. Like an example, like like really objectify it for me because i don't know any of that shit we had this workout where opened up with like i think it was like 40 or 50 chest of our 30 or 40 chest of our i forget so a big you know like a big number it was it was more than 30 um and then we had some stuff in between and then like more chest to bar right and then some stuff to end and i was like more focused on like the strategy of the chest to bar um and i was like i'm just gonna open up and go

unbroken and like stuff like that or like in the middle so i'm like i don't really know what i'm gonna do i'm just gonna go full send and not even have a strategy. But I think you have to, like, you have to try that sometimes. Cause you gotta know, like there's some people that it's, you know,

and there might be even some workouts where it's like, yeah, I'll do these 40 chest to bar. I know I'm going to have three to four minutes to do this other stuff. And if I come back and have another 40 chest to bar, that's enough time. I can knock it out in two sets. Right.

But if I only have two minutes to come back and do more more 40 more chest to bar, then the wheels might fall off. Right. But I remember I, the other day I was like, I'm going to just go on broken or no. Okay. This is it. Okay. We had. Here we go.

What was the workout it was 30 clusters 30 burpee box or 30 burpee box and bovers sorry 30 clusters 30 burpee box and bovers and at 135 95 cluster right squat clean thruster thank you i was like okay burpee box and bovers i'm gonna like go hard but then for the clusters, I was like, I was like, I'm going to open up with the touch and go set. And everyone's like, oh, like maybe like five. And I was like, no, like I want to do like over 10. And Justin was like, I think you should go for it.

Because like, why not now? You know what I mean? Exactly. He was like, well, why well why not like let's try it and i i opened up with like 12 and i crushed it i crushed every and everyone else did like singles maybe opened up with a set of three five i don't even think anyone did touch it and that look that's a set of 12 might not work for everyone but there's only one way to find out yeah but we talked about it that's the training score yeah he's like let's go for it let me ask you i wish i would have done

more touch and go but whatever let me ask you about this phenomenon i don't even know if this if this is just stupid talk for a athlete of your level just tell me and we'll move on there's going to be a workout and it's going to open up and let's say it's open up with 30, 30 pull-ups, right? And I, first of all, I don't do any kipping pull-ups. I do all my pull-ups trick, but, but so, so I open up and I do, let's say I open up with 20 pull-ups and then I come down off the bar and then the next time I do five and I'm really tired. And then I do onesies for the last and I get to 30, right? Let's, let's say it doesn't seem to matter to me whether I'd go for me, whether I, if I, if I do those first 20

and then five and then one, one, one, if I open up with 10, my second set, I'll still only be able to do five. There's something that happens after your first set that when I get back on that, everything's fucked up. So I'm always like, well, fuck it. Might as well just pretty much almost go to failure on the first set. Cause it doesn't, cause even if I do 10, you know what I'm saying? And I get up and do five, it feels, I still, I'm stuck at five. So do you ever, do you experience that? Yeah, for sure. No, I know exactly what you're talking about. And what is that? There must be some lactic acid explanation for that shit. It's the mindset. It's your your mindset i used to think that too i'd be like oh chest to bar it doesn't matter what i'm doing i'm going down to sets of five and that's

when i had to like think i'm like okay why is this happening and for me i had to like literally like physically just break it down like especially chest to bar i that was like a weakness movement of mine and i was like okay i'm just from the beginning, do small sets with the shortest breaks ever. Like, I'm not going to open up with a big set. I'm going to force myself, if it's 30, I'm going to force myself to do three sets of 10. Even though I know, I know I can do open up with like a big set. But then I'm like, am I going to die after or like, you know, I'm going to have to do two sets of five and waste a whole bunch of time. And so how did you overcome that?

You just said, fuck it. Like, what, where's the discipline to do smaller sets or just to force yourself to do bigger sets even afterwards? No, it was just like forcing myself to like break it down into smaller sets slow down it took it to build that capacity because then you're doing 20 and then you're resting forever just to do a set of five and then you're resting forever to do five singles whereas like easily i feel like you could just break it down three quick sets of 10 or whatever it is, you know? Yeah. Go ahead. But for me, if I just finished the workout, I'm happy, but it's good. I'm glad to hear you say that, that, that, that, that resonates with you, that you can

understand that. Cause it's a weird phenomenon. It's a weird phenomenon. Yeah. The last thing I wanted to ask along this kind of line was, is there ever a day where he'll say, yeah, we're going to do a Metcon today, but I'll just tell it to you two minutes before we start. You'll just what? The coach. He says, yeah, I'll just tell you the Metcon, and then we're going to start two minutes later.

No. Would that freak you out? That would not stress me out. Because do you know how hard it is to get 10 people ready for a metcon yeah but i'm just like you know i want to do this with most athletes but you know there might there could come a moment at the games in the next couple years where all of a sudden it's like boom here it is go like that so if justin is ever gonna listen to this he should do that because i mean all the time he'll be like 10 minutes till the met client i'm like all right like make it five

like we're ready we can be ready in five people like yeah i think yeah and it's and it's a really like you know this is one of the things i think is most critical about live competition compared to any other kind of an online format is sometimes it's as simple as this. Yeah, we're starting in two minutes. You're like, wait, wait, but I have to take a shit. You're like, too bad. It's two minutes to go. Take one in your pants, bitch. But if it's online, you know, you can take as long as you want to take that shit and come back when you're ready.

And if you're not ready, we'll spend 21 minutes warming up. Yeah. I'd like to interrupt the show for just an emergency news announcement from Ben Cole has just announced. I wish that if you go to the CrossFit wiki page, you'll notice over here. Oh, shoot. Can I do it? page you'll notice um over here oh shoot can i do you'll notice i don't know if you can see but um the uh c keeps i'm the ceo now of crossfit according to the uh wiki page it's quite quite quite amazing i i wanted i wanted to wait a few days before i told everyone um but but thank you

ben for fucking up my surprise but you know whatever we're yeah i forgive you for it you're good dude great oh my goodness oh my gosh i'm so glad you interrupted us for that oh my goodness you guys you guys better get your uh crossfit ceo shirts uh before either i get taken away to jail or uh we sell out of shirts oh Oh, my gosh. Fucking nuts. I love you guys. There we go. There's the shirt. That is hilarious.

There we are. And will you show the female one? Daniel, do you wear girl shirts or boy shirts? I wear guys' ones because the girls' ones always go like that. Yeah, like that right there? Yeah. I think, you know, a lot of the women I talk to, they like the fit up top on the shoulders. But then they like almost the crop top where it cuts off around the belly button so it doesn't have that flare at the bottom.

Yeah. I need mine to flare way out. Because the guys' ones have a snugger neck. The girls' ones will be looser in the neck. Oh, yeah. Loose neck. God, I cannot stand a loose neck. No, it's terrible.

I cannot stand a loose neck no it's terrible i cannot stand when we when we just had we we had sarah on and i said something to her about hey um we were talking about basically people like her who have not won the crossfit games but have but have reached a level of superstardom in the sport um her, her, we use Josh bridges as an example also who, who, I mean, clearly amazing athletes, um, super charismatic fun. Um, and I said to her, I said, Hey, um, and you have Daniel Brandon, who's a rising star. And Sarah corrected me and said, not a rising star. And I said, okay, Stan corrected a superstar already. And, um, I said, do you have any advice for her like on this path um to to because to show that you can make you can still be a great role model you can still climb to the top you can be a superstar

not necessarily win the games but but but really still command uh um and contribute to the world as a whole and the thing she said it very simple and cleanly was make sure that the choices she chooses lead to her goal. Oh, wow. And I said, well, what do you mean? Like don't go out with this guy if it doesn't work to that goal. Don't eat this meal if it doesn't go out to that goal. And she basically – I don't think – she laughed and then she said, I know Danielle will make the right choices. Oh.

I know Danielle will make the right choices. Oh, um, what does that resonate with you? Making the right choices in order to make sure you're going down the right path versus making the wrong choices. Of course. Yeah. But I,

I that's with anyone. Right. Right. And, and I think, but your path is narrower. Well, yeah.

And it's pretty narrow. Like with where I am at and all the choices that I had after the games, that totally makes sense. Especially just with even sponsors I signed with. There are bad, not bad sponsors, but not sponsors out there that support what you want to do and are necessarily going to help you know, help you let you completely focus on training or the people that I surround myself with, you know, there's a ton of, there's

a ton of choices that could lead me down the wrong path. I mean, give me an example. Like, like if let's say, um, uh, let's toe spacers is one of your sponsors, right? So they can come to your gym and take a picture of you wearing the toe spacers. They don your sponsors right so they can come to your gym and take a picture of you wearing the toe spacers they don't need you to fly to the fucking swiss alps and take three weeks off your training to get that fucking photo yeah yeah but i'm sure but but i know there are sponsors out there that i'm sure like no like they need they need to come they need to fly out here we need her to do this know, they're constantly on your ass. And it's like, dang, like, let me focus on training. You know,

it reminds, I like to use this analogy a lot. People like someone that, and I'll use, use an example. Someone may think, oh my God, I want to date Danielle Brandon. She's so beautiful. She's so strong. And then they realize that she was wearing those jeans the other night. Yeah. Then they see those. Thank you, Brian. Brian, that's so unlike you to fucking be mean like me. I can't believe you're jumping on board with the picking on Daniel thing. But but then you get to see Danielle and you see that she's an eagle and she flies at 60,000 feet and you want to put her in a cage. And the second you put her in a cage, all the attributes that you liked about her, you no longer like she she doesn't have them. I think a lot of people

will do that. They, they find a major. And so sponsors can do the same things, right? They can be like, Hey, we like you because you're a winner, but instead of contributing to your winning, they inhibit it. They put too many responsibilities on you requirements and, and mates are like that ma'am the the the greater the mate i don't i don't know i don't know what's on the other side of the equation but the greater the greater the mate the less of something else that you think you're going to have is going to be there well i mean the terms like the old ball and chain don't just happen accidentally right yeah yeah you can't have any ball and chain right you have to be able to run full speed 400 meters around the track you can't have any fucking like head trip well we had we had steve we had a we

had a bellator fighter on is this is this guy does this guy that you're dating now know that stuff we had this bellator fighter on this morning he was a heavyweight he's six eight ten and oh and i asked him about that it's like are there rules like three weeks before you get in a ring to fight to the death with someone your wife cannot bring up like any shit like like does your mate know is your mate um understand that let's say you're let's say you're a car that goes 200 miles an hour and you pick him up at his house. He knows he can't bring a bag of groceries in there. That's just not something you do in a fucking Formula One race car.

Does he know he can't bring a bag of groceries into the Daniel Brandon mindset? Does he know? I think it is – Or she knows. Sorry, I don't mean to make an assumption. Yeah, okay. Work in progress. Or she knows. Sorry, I don't mean to make an assumption.

Work in progress. I think people who date CrossFitters think they know what they're getting into, but not really. Or dating athletes. Yeah, yeah. People or anyone who just wants to. I mean, you're constantly pushing into the unknown, right? Like, you have to be better than you are now. You have to be get that. That's what you're doing. You're pushing. Yeah. And I think it's just hard, like, you know, stuff like this, social media, stuff outside the gym.

You know, I'm constantly like networking and talking to new people, hanging out with new people. It's like a lot for someone who doesn't live that life to understand fully, I think. Yeah, yesterday my wife did not receive 400 DMs asking her about her new fake titties. And my wife said, no, they're not new fake titties. That is something that your dude has to deal with. Right, yeah. Yeah, I get it.

But something that I want to- And that's even superficial and not even really a big deal. Right. I mean, there's other really heavy shit, yeah. Yeah, I get it. But something that I see is superficial and not even really a big deal. Right. I mean, there's other really heavy shit. Yeah. Yeah. But it's like, you know, I'm willing to do that stuff. I'm like, you know, I'm willing to like be open on Instagram and talk about my life or answer a question. And if someone asks me if I have fake tits, like, no, I don't have fake tits. Like, I'm willing to answer that, you know, whereas like some people would be like, why? Like, you don't have to answer that or like, why would you don't have fake tits like i'm willing to answer that you know whereas like some people would be like why like you don't have to answer that or like why would you don't have to answer and i don't have to and i know you know but i'm like i choose to i don't like or you could lie

you could have been like of course they're fake look at them right like i don't care you know or you could have given the favorite answer if only you knew seven if only yes yes or how about you'll never know oh yeah i switch it up all of a sudden you want to know hey that's a great um what a great april fool's uh joke to play on the world oh yeah i knew i knew it was coming but you did when you posted the picture you knew you're like oh this is gonna fucking stir the body like i could see that yeah i'm gonna take a picture of me in these tight jeans with a zucchini in my pants right after this and post it he already owns the jeans we know this I'm sure you'd fit into them

what supplements are you taking what supplements do female athletes take I just take like a protein and a carb fish oil extreme endurance I'm with X endurance but nothing crazy

do you take creatine yeah every day yeah if you um do you ever forget yeah and then and do you notice a difference i when i'm like consistently on it it's like that's the thing with supplements i feel like people will be consistently on it and they're like i don't notice anything until you stop but you have to be right you have to be consistent with them and then when you stop that's when you notice and you're like oh shit like this actually was doing something you know is there anything you eat i probably shouldn't say this but um i i'm fit aids sometimes. I get into those fit aids. But but I always even if I drink one little can of those, let's say I haven't eaten like in 12 hours and I drink one can of those, I feel bloated.

It's so weird. Like I'm like I get inflamed right away by it. Is there anything that you just have to stay away from that you just can't eat, that you don't eat? You're like, nah, fuck that. I mean, I want to, but. No. No, it's all good. It's all good. Yeah.

That's all I can think of. But I don't like food that, like, makes me feel like shit. Like, I just, I don't find it worth it. Like, greasy ass food. I'm just like, no. Like, it's not worth it. It doesn't taste that taste that good yeah leave that stuff for jason hopper to eat yeah so so you don't do foo-foo drinks either if you're gonna drink you'll just do a shot of tequila you won't drink like a margarita because those make you feel like shit too right just shots yeah yeah just the sugar seriously

you're a shot girl if you're gonna drink yeah fucking look at that discipline i don't even care you know people are like oh you look so awkward like get have a drink and i'm like i don't need to like carrying something yeah anyone who ever said you look awkward needs to fucking have their head hit with a bat i mean to help them you there you've never you've never looked awkward and um the rumors i can tell you parties is you've never looked awkward also i did i was at one party with her actually and she looked totally comfortable and Oh, my goodness. The goal in the open, to win, to no, to not win, to – No, just make it through. Do them once each and know that you're going to go to the quarterfinals

and it doesn't matter? Yep. Is there any seeding? Is there any benefit to doing better in the open in terms of where you get seeded? No. Nope. TBD, no one actually knows exactly how CrossFit's going to do that seeding process. And I think they did give some inclination that they made a favor to the top seeds last year, but it's hard to say.

That was from quarterfinals. Correct. Correct. Not. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Quarter quarterfinals so what you're saying there's not necessarily any goals during quarterfinals like you know i'm not like oh if i don't get top five i'm gonna be upset but there's like a slight goal to do okay because you do want that good seating because last year i think i got eighth in quarterfinals which benefited to me getting to choose what

semi-final i wanted to go to i think they did uh say that they gave the top 10 from the quarterfinals the it's been top 20 even was it Unless you're a Canadian, then you're out of luck, no matter how hard you tried to make it happen. It would have been top 20, because didn't Bethany knock it top 10? Yeah, well, the thing is, it's not transparent how they're doing that, and it's probably

not going to be this year either, but I think for someone of your caliber, open, you're exactly right. Unless you're trying to win it because you want the prize money, just get through in the top 10%. And from that point, yeah, I do think there is probably – I don't even know about probably. I say potentially some benefit to being in the top 10 or 20. Yeah. You know what we were talking about the other day on the show, Danielle, is that this year they shouldn shouldn't even have testing for covid like who cares if you have covid or not like like if if carrie

wanted to compete or bethany wanted to compete who gives a fuck like just go compete quit being a fucking yeah it's your fucking business exactly if they want to compete sick who cares are you still people all day like Like, yeah, it's crazy. You know, I had Nikki Rodriguez on. And I want to tell you the crowning achievement of my podcast up to this point, I think we're almost 300 episodes in, was when I had the two of you on at the screen at the same this i and i wanted to do that like a scientist i want you're the two sexiest people i know so i wanted to see both of you on my screen at the same time i felt like a mad scientist but i no one ever argues whether you're the sexiest person but some people don't think nikki's that sexy but i like i think he just oozes some sort of uh

really yeah you don't. Did you get. Did you like him? Oh, I really liked him. He was so nice. So kind. And I was like, yeah, he turned into a person. He was kind of a robot.

And then you came on and he turned into a person. He's kind of the opposite of most dudes. Most dudes turn into robots around girls. He kind of like chilled out around you. What? Jason. Oh. Oh, man. chilled out around you what jason oh oh man have you guys had him on in a minute no we can't have jason can we like there's like jason just sits there and answers each question with like i love

the guy don't get me wrong i love him i love him like i would have him on every day but it's like he's he demands me like if i if it gets quiet he's like so what's the next question how about you say something motherfucker you ask me something oh yeah it's like do you know what i mean he's just so he doesn't he doesn't he i don't know like he kills me seven seven i'll spend five minutes setting up his big question jason be like yeah i think you're pretty much right about that. Yeah. Got anything else for me?

Are you a virgin? That's exactly right. Oh, my God. He's nice. He's kind. He is. But I wouldn't be like, were, he's nice. He's kind. He is, but I wouldn't be like, Oh,

he's so, he's so sexy. He's like, Oh, who, who Nikki Rodriguez? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, that's where you and I differ. Um, thank you for coming on. I'm so, I'm super excited for you. Um, I,

it's, it's always, I like the way, um, we never know for sure if you're going to come on. Um, I had to text you like five times in a row and then you text me back. I just, um i it's it's always i like the way um we never know for sure if you're gonna come on um i had to text you like five times in a row and then you text me back i just and then when you text me back i'm like yes

like an hour out 30 minutes hey i'm prepared by the way so if you ever don't show like i know you you you had you're the one you and a couple ufc fighters have taught me like hey you got to be prepared who's your people like maybe you shouldn't go live with them no fuck that i'm gonna go live with me not like a backup person but like a backup show like i'm ready to say a bunch of bad shit about crossfit headquarters if you don't show up so like you save crossfit headquarters today just you and brian though no i would let brian get off i don't want to ruin brian reputation for being on one of my

shows where I'm fucking losing my shit. I actually asked Danielle. I didn't know if I was invited on this Girls Talk Sunday or not, so I asked Danielle if I should jump on. Like always. Oh, you didn't reply at all. Yes!

Yes! Welcome to my world. Everyone's world around me yeah i think it's probably one of the first times she hasn't replied but i was like oh you know it's hard see it was just a off day hey and you know what the truth is this seriously like and it's hard for me because being as insecure as me but um but really fuck your phone is for you. Your phone is not so that I can contact you. It's you decide whether you want to contact me. You don't know anyone's shit. And,

uh, you know, so I, like, I like literally I text rich and he texts a week later and I'm like, well, that's better than his normal 10 day gap. And like,

I feel like he must like me. Like, so like, I get it. Like people are busy. Yeah. You, I bet you get 500 texts a day minimum do you maybe a thousand because you probably get there's some people you get like 50 texts from a day right oh yeah yeah i mean it's just yeah i i need to start setting up like blocks, you know, of appropriate times to text me. Do you sleep next to your phone?

Huh? Do you sleep next to your phone? On like a table. I do not disturb. Oh, yeah, yeah, smart. I'll do not disturb during the day too. Say that you will turn that on during the day. Oh, yeah, I will.

Now people can see that my buddy texted me the other day he's like this this this this i know you're on do not disturb mode right now i guess it says it uh something yeah i like it but you can it you don't have to you can change that though i think there are a lot of settings that i don't have no idea how to change yeah i think it's like individually but yeah i'll put do not disturb i don't care i should do that too since i'm the ceo of cross i'm gonna work on that yeah yeah and you'll just have that pink jacket that you're wearing at wadapalooza hell yeah that thing that was a great jacket. It's so cool. And super comfy. So comfy and poofy. I love it.

Well, I like this show. We started off being critical of her apparel. Yeah. And then we finished with the compliment. Thanks for coming on on this fine Sunday. I know you have to run away to church, the two of you. No. I'll do the dog part.