The Sevan Podcast - #546 - Casey Acree

Episode Date: August 11, 2022

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. For me to tell you how great my life is. It would be rude. Yeah.

Yeah, it's so fucking good. Same. Good. Not tell anyone. Just make them feel bad about themselves. Good. Not tell anyone. Just make them feel bad about themselves. Yeah. Some people, Coach Casey, Acree, their lives are so fucked up that it could be raining titties

and they still catch a dick. One of the greatest quotes ever. Coffee. Oh, you know what, Calebaleb i did try to send you the notes how about that bam okay uh guys i really wanted to have justin madaris on but the dei council the seven podcast said i had to have one dude from the adaptive and uh one black dude and one jewish dude before i start having superstars on so i gotta get casey acre out of the way i'm so fucking sorry this guy's only won the games twice uh fuck him oh shit we're live oh i didn't even see you were there casey hi sorry i didn mean to say and we're live dude look at your look at your shirt

branding so dope that's called branding hey you don't you you you made this crazy video that said like you have four things that are more important than training it really it really concerned me and I'm like you you remind me of this UFC fighter, James Krause. Do you know who that is? No, I don't. I don't follow UFC very closely, unfortunately. He, one of his fighters just became world champion. I forget who became world champion last week or did really good. Do you remember Caleb?

Anyway, he's a fighter. He like had six fights in a row without losing. He's in the 171-pound class. He said it would be cooler for him to have one of his fighters win a championship than for him. It's like, oh no, has Casey fallen into that trap of being a good dude? No, I don't think it's a trap. It's just true. true it's just true and why is that why why not why not just focus on yourself win like you know another three in a row uh the four in a row tie to you and then and then be like okay who wants to be the protege well um first off i can't make enough money being an athlete for it to be the

number one priority in my life so it can't be my full-time job. So something else has to take priority there. Um, and you know, I, I get just as much value out of those other things. Um, just kind of, as far as just fulfilling what I like to do and, and, um, you know, what I value in my day to day of being a dad and a husband and a coach and getting to be creative and some of my, some of the things that I do, um, as being an athlete. So that's why it, it kind of falls a little bit lower on the pecking order, I guess. Um, sorry, I think it was brandon moreno uh caleb it was brandon moreno i wonder if you would have been like that before you had kids i bet you you have a son right yeah i have a son i have a three-year-old son and a three-month-old daughter holy cow wow congratulations

is um do you think that that probably changed everything? If you didn't have a kid and you didn't have two kids, it'd be more about the Casey Agree Show? Yeah, probably a little bit. I mean, definitely, I think having kids changes everything. um but i i mean still even then from a practical standpoint i would still have to worry and focus more on on running my business and and being a coach and doing the things that that make a living because i you know like i said there's just not enough money in adaptive crossfit for it to be a full-time job like it is for Tia or Justin or some of those people. What's the name of your business? So I am the part owner called Summit Systems. So we have a gym. We do individualized coaching as well as remote coaching.

individualized coaching as well as remote coaching. Are you pulling that up, Caleb? Hey, um, what, why? So, um, what screamed at me right there was you're saying that do you strictly do adaptive athletes? Why not just do everything? Everyone? No, I don't strictly do adaptive athletes. We do. We do. I have more clients that are, uh, more clients that are able-bodied or just kind of normal general population, uh, clients than I do adaptive athletes.

And every time you win the games, it must be, uh, whether it should be or not, it's gotta be a feather in your, in your cap, right? I mean, to win the CrossFit games twice is pretty fucking nutty yeah yeah i mean i would say yes it does help me as a coach and uh and that

kind of thing as far as just having legitimacy with with adaptive athletes and with with all athletes really yeah for sure who are these dudes dudes? Cameron and who is the other guy? Cameron and Kyler. Those are my best friends and business partners. I think there's a guy in the comments, a gentry, a Travis. Is Travis related to them? I don't think so. But maybe.

Not that I know of. And where are you based out of? Our gym is in decatur illinois oh you came here once i did you came no is that the one that i don't think i did i think greg did did i come with them yeah greg did so that i work at that gym that's where i i was the manager and head coach of that hospital gym oh shit wow what a small world yeah okay explain that gym to me for people re-explain it to me refresh my memory and so the people at at a home know this is a great story yeah so decatur illinois is home to the first ever i believe believe, hospital CrossFit affiliate.

It's called CrossFit Enhance. It was originally opened by Decatur Memorial Hospital by the president at the time of the hospital was Ken Smithmeyer. And so it opened in 2008 or 2009. And so, yeah, it was owned by the hospital. It wasn't owned by any one individual. It really initially started as a wellness program for employees only. It wasn't even open to the public. It was basically a free wellness offering for employees.

Eventually opened up to the public. Grew to be pretty large of whenever I was, I was the head coach and manager there from February of 2017 until January of 2020. And we had threats for stretches there over 300 members in our gym. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And unfortunately that, that gym has since closed permanently. No shit. Was that one of the responses to COVID?

It was kind of a result of COVID. They were being affiliated with the hospital. They were much stricter about being open. So the state mandated that gyms were closed from March 13th until June 2nd or something like that of 2020. And then even when even when gyms were allowed to reopen, the hospital wasn't really allowing for it for CrossFit Enhanced to have classes. And that eventually led to, you know, they just decided that they were they were paying for something that wasn't really providing value anymore. So they closed it in February of 2021. Can you imagine closing a CrossFit gym because you think it's not providing value?

Yeah. I mean, without getting much without getting too much into it at some some point, actually, even before I started working there, the administration changed. The people that were in charge, it was no longer Ken Smithmeyer who was originally opened it. The administration changed and the value that they felt it held wasn't't very high i'd love to see pictures of those people who decided that and i'd love to judge the fuck out of them based on what they look like yeah you it would probably it would probably make you go crazy yeah i can see them already in my eyes in my in my third eye or fourth eye or whatever that thing is called. Yeah. It's fucking nuts. Hey, and is that why you opened yours? You're like, you opened your own training program?

You're like, okay, now this is. No, I actually, well, yeah, I mean, yes. Eventually it was many things as the head coaching owner, feeling like you didn't really have, or head coaching manager, didn't really have a lot of support from the administration and you're I was very uh no no pun intended I was very handcuffed on what we could do there um and hey even what you could say what's that even you were even handcuffed on what you could do but also what you could say yeah yeah I mean really honestly you

couldn't be like hey don't worry about what they told you about type 2 diabetes i got you do this uh you couldn't say that yeah like there was it was very you had to be very careful about what type of authority we tried to hold as as uh you know uh i don't know what you want to you it. People that were trying to help people be healthy. Yeah. And so, and yeah, I mean that on top of being the only, the only full-time employee in a gym with 300 members and all of our other staff was, was per diem basically like part-time. And, um, we ran, we ran 13 or 14 classes a day that were 45 minutes long. And so there was there was definitely some coaching burnout, not a lot of resources.

I as a coach, as someone who I, you know, I came into the profession of wanting to be a professional coach. I just felt limited on what I could do there. coach. Um, I just felt limited on what I could do there. So, um, in January of 2020, I had the opportunity to, um, open up just like a small, small kind of private deal. Um, and I, and I took it, I was able to get into a place that was, um, pretty cheap and just kind of started, you know, building, building up our clientele uh from the from the ground up basically are you affiliated not no and what's the name of the gym again summit yep sorry say that again for some reason i can't talk over you and that's like one of my favorite things to do every time we used to talk at the same time, it goes silent. Tell me the name again. Sorry. Summit Systems. S-U-M-M-I-T-S-Y-S-M-S. Why do you call it that?

It actually has to do with the town that me and my friends grew up in. It's called Hairstown, Illinois, just outside of Decatur, about a thousand people. Before it became officially Hairstown long, long ago. That's a really good, my business partner made that meme. That's really, it's really funny. I like it. Our town was called Summit. That was like a temporary name for it back in like the 1800s before it became an affiliated town.

And so we would jokingly, when we were growing up, we would jokingly call our hometown Summit. And so since we were all from the same place when we were creating our business, we wanted that to be a part of it because we're all kind kind of proud of like our small town you know roots or whatever it's funny when i when i typed in summit uh illinois into google the first thing that popped up was a place called portillo's hot dogs that that is that makes more sense anything that has to do with illinois is is hot dogs or fast food or something along those lines okay you're you're uh you're just outside of chicago no so that what you're seeing there is is not what is you need to look up harristown illinois okay okay okay so okay i see decatur down there yeah i see decatur down there middle of nowhere

when you say middle of nowhere when you go to like every day do you see farm animals like if you drive to the store do you see farm animals somewhere like do you live like that yes i now actually i now live in illiopolis illinois which is directly in between decatur and springfield basically so there's kind of like the two bigger towns and yeah eleopolis has 1100 people i think and so the first thing yeah i i to get to get to work every day i'm just driving through past the cornfields basically yeah is that town springfield is that the simpsons town? No, it's not. Is that where Carl Eagleman lives? Do you know who that is?

The guy, he does the drawings on Instagram of like positions, overhead squat. He's like a big old dude, like 6'7", 6'8". I don't think so. It doesn't sound familiar. Springfield. so it doesn't sound familiar springfield a lot of people think it's chicago but springfield is the capital oh okay okay are you tell where were you born uh casey i was born in decatur so i'm i'm i've been here pretty much my whole life and and you were born with your arm exactly the way it is today? Yes, yes. Do your parents know that before you come out?

Yes, they could tell in the sonograms or whatever that at some point, some stage along the way, my arm just basically stopped developing. I think there's a way to find out exactly why. We're not, I don't really know why. It could have been something physical obstructed the growth of it while I was in the womb or something like that. But not really sure why. Could I see it? Yeah. The end?

And then where, could you point, oh, so your elbow's on, okay, so your elbow's still there. So I have a little bit of my forearm. Uh-huh. So I have an elbow joint where I can, you know,

hold on to stuff right in there. Yeah. When you had your kids, did that go through your brain? Like, oh, I wonder if this is going to be passed on um a little bit but i knew that it's not something that's genetic so i mean i kind of think i thought about that but there's no evidence would suggest that it's like a inherited trait it's more it's something more uh physical or mechanical in the developmental process than it is something that's a genetic connection or something. And they have no theory, like the umbilical cord was wrapped around the arm there or like they have no…

I mean that could have been it. That's I think something that happens commonly. That happens commonly. Yeah, there's plenty of theories, but at least back then, as far as I know, there wasn't any way to pinpoint exactly what the mechanism was. And then when you're born, are your parents concerned that other things would be missing too, like your frontal lobe or something that's like important? No, because I guess as far as the doctors were able to tell them, everything else was normal as far as, you know, growth and head shape and organs and everything else was normal. It was just that my arm just stopped growing at some point. Is that, do you know Kyle Maynard?

Kyle Maynard, i don't think so he um he owned a crossfit gym and he had no arms and no legs and i yes yes yes yes and he was born like that yeah yeah i think that like in some of those cases, I know like certain medications, like if the mom is taking certain medications, sometimes that can be an issue with developmental growth or growth. So, yeah, I don't know. Honestly, I don't really know or have never really dug deeper into why these things happen i've never really been too concerned or cared too much because i've always had the mindset of like it is what it is he um uh greg went to a um greg glassman and k Kyle went to a oh it's slipping my mind right now but it's one of those organizations that looks after vets who have been injured

okay it's the famous one the big one anyway and Greg and Kyle walk into the room and it's a room full of you know 300 dudes and all the dudes are missing something. Right. Yeah. And Kyle gets up in front of the whole room and he says to the room, God, and this dude's got no arms and no legs. And he says, God, I feel sorry for you.

Greg tells me this. Kyle goes, God, I feel sorry for you guys. Sucks. And he goes, he goes, and Greg said, like, no one else could have said that right and he goes i was born like this yeah i can't imagine what it was like to fucking lose yeah having that and i was just like holy shit that and this guy's a professional speaker too he knows what he's doing but oh yeah yeah wounded warrior project thank you thank you caleb yeah i say that all the time I say that all the time.

I say that all the time. I compete with and against guys that are – that's their situation. They had an injury. They had their entire lives knowing having two arms, and then they have an injury. Like Logan Aldridge is a good example of that. Lost his arm in an accident when he was 13 years old or whatever and had to had to relearn everything um so i tell people all the time i'm i'm one of the lucky ones that i've this is all i've ever known so i've just been able to learn how to do life and how to do everything with just having one hand so um are are you right-handed or left-handed right-handed. Do you know that for certain?

Uh, well, no, I don't even, and it begs the question, like how anyone knows. Right. Yeah. I don't know. I'm left footed, but so I, there, there was some time that I thought maybe I was supposed to be left-handed. Um, but I think that handedness is a little bit more like ingrained and genetic, whereas your foot dominance is something that's learned a little bit more. So what my mom tells me is that when I was like a kid or like a toddler, when you're like, you know, you just sit and play with stuff. She said I would use my left foot a lot basically like in place of my left hand

the toy sitting down on the floor and I'm using my right hand and then I'm using my like my left foot and I have really good like pedal dexterity in my left foot as well I can like move my toes really well and grab stuff and so she always said that's why she thinks that I eventually became left foot is because I was so used to using my my left foot for things growing up and that that's something that's a little bit more environmental than it is inherited or whatever do you skateboard I used to do are you are you goofy are you regular I am goofy right and but are you comfortable regular no no you No, you're not. Okay. Wow. Okay. I can hardly keep myself on a skateboard if I try to go regular. But I'm fairly proficient if I go goofy.

I'm goofy. I'm goofy Mongo. I don't know if you know what that term is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, I do. I spend way too much time at the skate park. I don't even skate. I'm like the 0.1% of skateboarders.

I'm Goofy Mongo. Wow. Hey, no one tried to break you of the Mongo habit? No, I just taught myself how to. I just, yeah, that's what I do. Yeah, what a trip. I just learned it, and that's what felt right. I put my left foot on the back quarter of the board.

I kick with my right foot. And then whenever I go to ride, I put my right foot on and then I move my left foot to the tail. Damn, that's hardcore. It's just, yeah. And then I, eventually I realized that I was doing something weird. I just took, I just had to see some other people doing stuff where they were actually starting with their, their front foot on the board, kicking with their back foot. And I could never, I could like never relearn how to do it. My kids, uh, one of my kids is, he doesn't know what he is. He's been skating for a year and he, he switches between regular and goofy. And my seven-year-old is now just learning. He's goofy, but he's learning regular. Yeah. And it's a trip. I mean, kudos to any,

it's like trying to learn how to write with your other hand. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. I, my son is kind of figuring out, he's got a little bit of like ambidextrousness. Yep. And when he swings a bat or swings a golf club, he swings it lefty. Yeah. Which I actually, I probably should also, but I always learned how to swing righty because I just did what her brother did. Uh-huh. And so I, I can't swing lefty.

So I'm like trying to learn how to like help him do these swings in the direction that i'm not used to doing it's interesting i um it's i i try to have my kids do everything with both hands yeah so every day even if it's just for five minutes i just take a bag of balls yeah and i just say hey throw right and left handed to me every day yeah or you know stick kick these kick these balls with your left foot and right foot i think it's such a um i think it alters your perspective on the world the more ability you have to in a good way the more ability you have to interact with it yeah for sure when um as is um there's there's some point in your life i guess i'm assuming it happens to everyone but someone finds something about themselves that that they don't like and i'm guessing that most of the times it's because they're different you

know and it could be like the girl whose boobs get so big it makes her self-conscious or it could be the dude whose nose gets so big um i like i never even knew i was short until i went to college believe it or not but like my see my kids one of my kids has already like recognized that he's short yeah um and it i guess it's well well i guess I never thought of it until I heard you – I heard Max Elhage ask you about it when you became aware that, wait, something on me is different. Yeah. But it's kind of weird. It's a huge moment for all human beings because then all – it's like I guess one of the first times you reflect on yourself. Because then it's like I guess one of the first times you reflect on yourself. You don't reflect on yourself when something's good. I think all of our memories are we reflect on ourselves when something's bad, right?

I mean our initial ones. Yeah, probably. You're never like, my parents are so great. They took me to Disneyland. It's always like, oh, fuck. I only got one arm. Well, I mean, yeah, maybe until you kind of work through those things. And then you – Right. You know, mean, yeah, maybe until you kind of work through those things and then you, you know, like, yeah, I mean, like a hundred percent, because I, obviously what you're referring to is like at some point in my life when I was a kid, I was like, wait, I'm different.

Yeah. And something must be wrong with me. I can remember times of being angry and like wanting to be just like everybody else. But then now I can also reflect on the age that I eventually kind of, I don't know, transcended that or realized that my differences could actually be a strength or, you know, what did I get out of those things? So I don't know, maybe, maybe, yes, you kind of have both ends of it. If you eventually get to that point of being able to work through whatever those, those self-perceived issues are, that then maybe you can also reflect on the quote, good, good things, I guess. Did some other kid point it out to you or did you realize it? Like, like when you have a big nose, someone else got to point it out to you. You know what I mean? I mean, it was obviously I knew, but I think I had some self-awareness at a pretty young age. Um, I was hyper competitive, probably too competitive in some things. So like what age at what age like at three already uh yeah four or five years old like i guess maybe it was from having an older brother that was

already like active and played sports and stuff like that that you know i just was trying to do the things that he was doing and i couldn't sometimes and so there were definitely some times of frustration there um and yeah, like in school, there would be, you know, kids would make fun of me or, you know, call me. I remember one kid in my neighborhood, he started calling me stumpy and it made me mad. That's really original. Yeah, I know. I'm like, what does that even, how did I let that, I should have I should have been wiser as a five-year-old but I'm like how did I let that kid get me frustrated calling me something so stupid as stumpy but yeah I mean there were there were times of frustration and self-doubt and like wanting for

things to be different and being a little bit angry and all those things, which I think everyone can go through for different reasons. Like you said, everyone kind of eventually has something that they look back at. Something about the human brain that struggles with the – and I'm sure there's studies on it – that has trouble processing a limb missing, like from the outsider. you're you're so so so i i i uh a guy i rolled up to a car accident one time a dude a dude purposely drove his car into a crowd and he killed five people yeah and i was in the and i walked up to it and i was going around checking on the people and people didn't look human to me anymore like their bodies were fucking mangled yeah and i remember my brain doing some weird shit that i can't even explain like i couldn't i couldn't process the way they were twisted up right and so you know like me and you were walking past each other in the grocery store

and i have it's like the same like a three-legged dog right yeah like you have to take a double take yes or it's your instant reaction because something it's like I used to take pictures of bugs and you would look at a bush and no one would see the bugs. But I would sit there and I would take like 20 deep breaths. And then all of a sudden the bugs are what don't fit in the pattern. Plants have like crazy patterns to them. And then all of a sudden, once you realize, oh, fuck, there's a thousand bugs in here that I never saw at first, but they don't work in the pattern. They're trying to fit in, but they don't. You're like, you motherfucker, I see you now. You know what I mean? They have their own fucked up pattern that's different than the plan.

And it must be like that everywhere you go. Like everyone who sees you has to reprocess that that was a dude with one arm, right? Yeah. I mean, do you do that to people when you see someone like with one leg do you feel your brain do that like yes absolutely and that's what I tell people is like I've had people like ask me or you know parents parents get worried that their kids are gonna offend you or something like that by looking or by being curious and I'm like I am around people that are missing limbs all the time. And still, whenever I see it in a, in a environment that I don't, I'm not expecting it. Yeah, absolutely. Like I'll double take. It's like, like you mentioned, it's just your natural human instinct when you see something that feels like it doesn't fit to what you are used to seeing. And so, yeah, absolutely. Every, everywhere that I go in public, you can, you can feel it, you can see it. And I, I think

at some point, if you, for, for people that are different or have some obvious physical difference that you can see, you eventually just kind of have to get used to it and and i i if i'm not thinking about looking for people looking at me then i don't even i don't even notice it but uh yeah i mean all the time um greg glassman the founder of crossfit as a kid he had polio and like i hung out with him for like fucking 10 years and i never heard like a peep of it you know and like hung out with him every day he never he never talked about it and then finally one day we were sitting there talking

and and i don't know if you know much about polio but but back in the day like people thought like you could touch me and get it like it was like aids of the day but a thousand times scarier even a thousand times scarier than the fucking idiots who's about covid like this shit was like like fucking people up right who had like perfectly healthy people and um and so and so everyone um basically it was tough crazy psychological shit like like like something was really wrong with you anyway and then obviously and then and he had it for a year and um and they didn't know he had it and and of course i don't want to get too much into it but of course he was vaccinated from it and um uh so as he got older

he gets into gymnastics right and he becomes a really fucking strong gymnast and uh he told me that he he hated it he hated it that people would say pretty good for a dude with polio yeah he fucking hated it and i when he would say that to me like i couldn't really get my head wrapped around that but but i feel it right because right away they're putting you on the outside like something's different than you and you're like fuck you yeah it is does that is that something you i mean part of me would think like if I only had one arm, I would just get used to that. But maybe not. Like just – does it get old when people say that?

And then if it does get old, then why do the adaptive division? Like I hear you wanting – do you see there's kind of like a weird paradox there? You're promoting adaptive division, and yet there's another part. He's like, fuck you. I can do everything that anyone can do. Like why do I have to be the guy with one arm? Yeah, yeah. So yes, I, I do get that a lot. Like I grew up, I grew up playing sports. I was a football player, basketball player.

And so and like, you know, had some success there. And so people would say all the time, you started on a high school basketball team. Yes. Yeah, that's dope yeah basketball football three three years of football um one one year starter in basketball wow um yeah and so i would get all that one was like hey dude you're a soccer player i hate soccer like five way too boring for me um no yeah i mean i i love the basketball and i love football so that's that's what i wanted to try to go play my school's so small we didn't even have a soccer team anyways so um hey dude you're tracking field you're tracking field i did i did track

all in field also you know okay yeah yeah that was probably as an individual that was probably like my best sport, like obviously. But people would be like, man, think about how good of a football player you'd be if you had two arms. Think about how good of a basketball player you'd be if you had two arms. And I'm like, who said that? Who said that? Oh, I mean, I've had people say that. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. And I get that. Like, I'm, I see what people's point is there. I mean, it's obvious. But what I always try to do is I give them the perspective that there was a certain point. And so this kind of goes back to one of your last questions about when, you know, when you can eventually, you know, transcend or get past whatever those self-perceived weaknesses are

to find what your strengths can be for me I realized at a certain point that like yes skill wise I was not going to be as good as a lot of the players I played with or played against but I could do I could work harder than anybody else. And if you ask anybody that I played with, anybody that coached me, there's not, there wasn't a person on the basketball court that was working or playing as hard as I was at any given point. And so I, because of my differences, because of the, the clear, the obvious that I'm not going to be as good of a ball handler as people with two hands, I learned what I got to what my strengths could be. scrappy and being a hustler and you know playing great defense and being a great teammate and being a great leader and anything I could do to keep myself to basically like my my mindset was always give the coach no other option but then to put me in the game right mitigate what my limitations were

by building up everything else that had nothing to do with my limitations. And so I tell people all the time, yeah, maybe I could have been a better basketball player, a better football player if I had two hands, or maybe I could have just been a piece of shit that didn't really care and never had that work ethic. And I wouldn't, and maybe I never even did anything, but I kind of like went into those challenges because I enjoyed those things. And I wanted to push myself and put myself on that gold standard of, I'm not just going to try to be the best one-handed basketball player. I just want to be the best basketball player. I'm not going to just be the best

one-handed football player. I just want to try to be the best football player regardless of of whatever i have um so yes i i get those questions a lot but i i try to always give you know give back i think it's a dipshit thing to say it is because like if i saw you smoking cigarettes i could say to you dude imagine how much better you'd be if you didn't smoke right because it's a choice yeah and there's and it's it's it's it's um grounded in reality uh-huh there is no fucking reality there is no reality in you having a second hand yes yeah i see what you're saying and i it doesn't i don't get mad about it because i can yeah yeah good getting good on you because i've also thought about it i've also right

right i played wide receiver in football which seems like shit the least obvious position for for someone with one hand to play but that they're kind of based on like my size and not being super fast uh that's that's where i kind of had to play um and there were times that i'm like man would i get would i catch more footballs if i did have my other hand or would i uh when you dropped the ball would you blame the fact that you didn't have a second hand sometimes but but not really. Because again, then I can always come back to you. Maybe I wouldn't even be on the field right now if I hadn't worked so hard those personal growth experiences, you know, maybe by, like I said, maybe I'd just be, you know, someone's just sitting at home, you know, not, not even trying. So, um, I think you have a chip on your shoulder, maybe like in a good way.

Do you think you leveraged like your ego? Like, um, like I get fired from CrossFit and now I'm like, fuck you. Watch me take over media for my fucking little office here a little bit a little bit yeah for sure um i try not to think about it as like a like the negative kind of like what no no not negative but but use it don't let it go to waste yeah and everywhere like okay i'm not gonna drink tonight so tomorrow my podcast can be the best i'm gonna work out now so i look good on my pod like leverage put myself in a situation where i don't want to be exposed and leverage that to like work on my insecurities you know what i mean like leverage my insecurities i'd be i'd be lying if there wasn't a

small part of some of the things that i do i'd be lying if i if i said that there wasn't a small part of me that was like i'm gonna do this to try to prove some people wrong. And maybe – sometimes you almost make up who those people are. Yeah, of course. Maybe no one gives a fuck, but – Right. And maybe I don't have any of those haters that I'm kind of making up in my mind or whatever. Right. Like you said, maybe that's your ego and you're leveraging that, like you said, to keep you motivated or continue pushing into challenges or to make the decisions that aren't the easy decisions.

Like for whatever reason, like you know you need to go from point A to point B and like almost whatever it takes to trick yourself to do it needs to be done. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I mean, I try to make as much of those ideally positive, but yes, positive and based on purpose and based on, you know, a real intrinsic motivation, not, I think you can, too many people can fall into the trap of like, the reason that I'm doing this is to prove the haters wrong. And I think eventually that becomes not enough. If assets, if whatever it is that you're trying to achieve, isn't, if it's hard, and that's your only motivation, that's hard to sustain so i've i've throughout throughout my life whatever it's been it's i've tried to connect things more back to like you know why am i

competing in crossfit is it's it's for me it's not for this public image or to prove anyone wrong or to you know whatever it's the the vast the majority of the reason of why I do something is for, is for myself and the things that I've, you know, connected as being, you know, my purpose, um, which I think has allowed for me to continue doing it as long as I, as I have. I, um, how many, how many one-armed dudes and, chicks are there uh in the united states do you know no i don't if it was a million it would be it would be one in uh every 350 so that's like there's not a million because i see 350 people every day and yeah i don't see how often do you do you think you see how outside of the crossfit um when you compete with other um people with one arm or one hand or whatever uh

how often do you run into someone not that often you even remember the last time like in the grocery store and you're like do you guys nod at each other like two black dudes like in a white area of town you're like what's up i love this uh this is actually probably no shit oh missing limbs no shit there are two million people hey dude i bet you the vast majority of those people yep vast i bet you that's all because dude type 2 diabetes is kind of good for you because that's brought a lot of people into your club do you know that uh um it used to be like 20 years ago the leading people who used prosthetics were like motorcycle accidents now it's people who just eat eat drink too much coca-cola and

imagine drinking so much coke you lose your fucking arm yeah isn't that crazy what the fuck yeah okay sorry so tell me the last time you ran into some cat yeah there's there's a country very close to where i live so there's a lot of fish and mennonites i was in i was in the grocery store probably like seven months ago uh and this amish guy walked up and he was wearing a jean jacket denim jacket and he like folded the sleeve back and he goes he looks at me he goes we have something in common and so i talked to him for a minute he lost his arm on it like a saw he was he was like and he slipped and the saw cut his arm off. Dude, can you imagine?

What? Say that again? That was the last one I can remember, like, in a random place, seeing someone else that had a missing limb. Could you imagine, like, you're doing something and you look down and fucking part of your arm is gone? Yeah. Hey, do you have any rules since you only got one arm or like shit you don't do like okay i'm not gonna be around saw like i'm not gonna be around guillotines saws like the certain like certain machinery you're like either i'm not even going close to

you fuck off i i should like that that logic is sound yeah but i but i don't i was just helping my dad uh cut a tree down just oh not cool not cool just a couple weeks ago and i'd be lying if i didn't say the thought arises of like man for me if i lose if i lose any of these fingers like i the value that i have in the one hand that i have is much higher than someone who has two hands. Like you guys have a 50, 50 shot. This is one and done for me. Dude. Hey, and you got an abnormally large hand too, right? Like your hand. Yeah. And I don't, again, I don't know, maybe that's just God's grace or maybe that's, maybe it was learned or maybe it was adaptation over time of only having one hand to use but yeah my relative to my height and size my hand is is pretty large like I was always able to even at you know I was in high school five foot eight and 130 pounds and I could

I could palm a basketball and catch a football with with hand, like Odell Beckham Jr. away from my body and that kind of thing. So yeah, that's, that's, I consider that a little bit of luck as well, maybe. God, I want to say that it's the body compensating. I think so. I can, I can see that. I think it's, yeah, you probably adapt by just, you know, using everything that I've ever done with my hand. I've only had one hand to do it with. So, yeah, maybe just the extra resistance and strength and that kind of thing has just naturally made it grow, made my hand grow a little bit bigger. Have you ever injured that arm? I have.

That hand? Broken it? my hand grow a little bit bigger have you ever injured that arm I had that hand broken it or I broke my wrist uh in high school football like a week and a half before like two-a-day practices started my sophomore year and so I went through like the first two weeks of football I had a cast on and had to like pat put a big carpet pad and tape it up so i pretty much had like no no hand and i played wide receiver going hey did you lose a lot of weight when you broke your wrist because you ate less no no i was still able to eat like i i could grab stuff i had like my fingertips and my thumb i could grab i still could wipe my butt which was nice i didn't have as a 16 year old i didn't have to have a someone help me you know take care of my own hygiene my seven-year-old still asked me to wipe his ass

and i oblige well i've had three people with one arm on this show have you that's pretty crazy i wonder if i have the record in the podcast game for um most one-armed i had bethany hamilton oh yeah and i had logan aldridge yeah and now i have this two time across the games champion uh casey acre you probably have the record probably like i wonder if i have a fetish if i need to be checked uh big and flexi congrats champ even doing it for you you're smashing stereotypes and being an incredible example of our youth i don't know i'm thinking i think my stereotype uh big and flexi of one-armed dudes is they're all kind of like him i knew this other dude his name was verne martel they called him the one-armed bandit he was from canada and uh

verne with a v martel and he was this amazing arm wrestler and i was pretty good friends with him when i think of one-armed dudes i think of them as kind of like you well maybe like just go-getters maybe that's just because you've had the chance to get exposed to because, you know, the that's it's interesting and it's it's amazing and it's attracting. It's you know, it's attractive to see people that are different being able to do things like that. But I, to that, to that comment, I mean, there are, there are people that they have an accident and like depression and just, you know, zero, zero sense of purpose. And, and, you know, so that, that can kind of go back to your last, a couple of questions ago, you asked why, why do adaptive if I'm, you know, trying to be as competent and as capable and everything as I possibly can.

Normal. You want to be normal and get you in the adaptive class. Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, first off, I just like to compete and I like to train. And I mean, I tried to do quarterfinals in the open division and they wouldn't let me. No shit. I saw that that you made quarterfinals. You open division and they wouldn't let me no shit i saw that that you made quarterfinals you were top 1200 yeah what do you mean they wouldn't let you they i be they uh i don't know kind of a long explanation first off they were mad because i created two crossfit games accounts to be like it because you can't you can't sign up for two divisions under one account dude brilliant brilliant I just created two accounts uh and

they didn't like that which I'm like why wouldn't you like that I paid two registration fees yeah um and there there was the assumption that I was going to have to modify movements from their actual standards, which is the case at times. Like I did like the open workout that has alternating dumbbell snatches. I didn't alternate. I did them all in one arm, which technically is not within the standards of the movement. So there's, so there's, those are some of the reasons of like, yes, there are some things that I don't do correctly by standards. It's not that it's an advantage, I don't think. But it's true. might have some issues entering the individual class but yet a dude can enter the woman's class

i'm having trouble i'm having trouble but meshing i'm having trouble meshing those together me and you you and i both you and i both i'm having trouble yeah I mean, I'm pretty go with the flow. So whenever I was told that I was not going to be allowed to donate my $50 to CrossFit so that I didn't take one spot away from the guy who took 5,887th in North. There was some frustration there. I mean, even that wording is fucked up, by the way. I don't mean to hate on CrossFit. I don't know how it exactly works over there but take away like you like your take you have one arm and so you're taking something away from that dude yeah because it's like it's not even your fault it's not if you chopped off your arm on purpose i was i could see at least like

going to court over it but you're fucking born like that it was like and also fuck i beat that guy in the open that was the other like he should be embarrassed that i beat him don't be a dick casey he's probably 50 in armenian and only five five don't be a dick maybe maybe if that's the case i mean that's fine and so i mean look i wasn't gonna make the next stage and i was still planning on doing the adaptive divisions and it's the adaptive divisions give me a chance to compete that's you know that's that's one thing is like i know that there's going to be a set of standards that are as fair as possible that oh shit he can identify as a two-armed cisgender man oh no what is cisgender that's like um you you have a penis and you like vagina is that

it means yes you're straight we're born okay okayify as a male is what cisgender is, I believe, right? Oh, man. Or you were born a female and you identify as a female. Wow. Hey, you don't have – so how was that resolved? Did they – how was that? They just said – they just slapped you around a little bit and took away your fucking, your individual account and cost you an adaptive. I just didn't get, I didn't get the official quarterfinals registration invite.

I got the initial one. Unreal. I slipped through that first crack. I got the first one that was like, Hey, you're top 10% in North America. And in the coming days expect to get your official registration link or whatever and then someone saw that i had gotten you know qualified for quarterfinals and they were like curious how i had done both divisions and then it kind of worked its way up to i don't know i don't know how far up it had to go for someone to say no we're

not gonna allow for someone who's gonna have to modify movements to take a spot away from someone else that qualified i would love to see you do that sandbag event yeah i'd get just get really drunk and watch you do it. And with one arm, Casey Acree, Ricky move. Casey's turn. Get off. Stop celebrating Ricky. Yeah.

Speaking of Ricky, do you, you train in underdogs athletics? I, I'm, I work with them. So I coach for underdogs. I ride an adaptive competitors program for them, um well as coach, remote coach individuals through underdogs. So, yeah, I'm part of that part of that underdogs camp. And how did that how did that. Sorry. No, I was just saying I'm not I don't train in person with them or anything, but just through the interwebs, I'm part of that underdogs camp.

How did that happen? How are you and are you friends with kotler um honestly it just happened i mean i so like i mentioned with my with my business um i do a lot of remote coaching like vast vast majority of my clientele is is remote um because i i live and my gym is in a county in a town that's very very unhealthy and doesn't value exercise very much um which is both good and bad uh so it definitely inhibits the market so um being able to i started coaching remotely years ago um and that's that's one of like the biggest parts of my profession is remote coaching. Um, last, last fall, September, October underdogs basically just put out like that.

They were, they were looking for remote coaches to start, um, working with some athletes. So I, I basically just, I didn't know any of them personally. Um, I just submitted my application and, and all that business and a little cover letter and, um, had a, had a couple of phone conversations with Justin and, and, uh, yeah, they, they hired me as a coach and started writing the adaptive program in January. Um, and so, yeah. Um, you're, you, when I, I saw that you're an OPEX guy. Yeah. Um, when I think of OPEX people, I think of like smarty pants. Like I think of them as being like a little more like complicated and

smarter than the rest of us. Average like CrossFitters, like they, like they fall into the weeds. Like it's a good and bad thing. Yeah. Maybe, maybe.

I mean, for me, and I might be totally wrong. If I got the stereotype wrong, you slap me around. I'm open. I can see where you get that. I can see based on some of their media and maybe some of the coaches that come from that realm. Like I would think of Fikowski as being an OPEX guy. Yeah, because he's just like very analytical and and planned and stuff like that yeah and maybe even maybe even velner or like that guy lucas parker up in canada just like yeah i mean i

maybe maybe it is a stereotype that you're developing there yeah i do not stereotype um yeah i mean i i took opex's coaching course and that was for me when I was in the process of, of deciding when, when I knew that eventually I wasn't going to stay at, at CrossFit, enhance the hospital, uh, CrossFit for forever. Um, and I, at that time I had, I had started doing some remote coaching just kind of on the side. Um, I, I, I felt like that was a good program for me to take. Cause I, I thought that, you know, coaching remotely, coaching individuals remotely would be something that I would be good at and that I would enjoy. And so that was kind of like a good framework for me to transition from being like a group coach to a one-on-one coach, which, yeah,

I think OPEX has a lot of great content. And as far as the coaching certificate program, like that's as thorough as it gets. It's a full year. I mean, I have a master's degree in exercise science and i got more from that one year that one year coaching program than than i did from my five years of of studies remarkable you would think or did or i don't know does this make sense to you that they would offer all of the games champions free affiliation maybe i don't know i don't know that that would be something that i would take advantage as we've we've been able to kind of broaden our market a little bit i'll tell you this i'll just yeah tell me uh straight up in later illinois it's my opinion that the cross

crossfit's a little bit watered down. Um, there was because of CrossFit enhance being so big and for many years, um, and, and the hospital was basically able to make memberships like dirt cheap. Uh, the, the, the market is just kind of at its limit on CrossFit here in a town that the population goes down every single year. And it's Macon County, Decatur's in Macon County. It's literally other than Cook County. It's the most, it's the unhealthiest county in all of Illinois. No shit.

Yeah. So like I said, you'd think owner, that would be a good thing but the people there also have to value doing fitness and it's just a very like blue collar industrial town this is where we the one of the largest soy processor processors is here in decatur and um so it's just not the honestly it's not the greatest market for fitness um so by being a one-on-one coach, like I said, I've just been able to broaden my market and work remotely, which is beneficial being where I'm at. How tall are you? Five, nine and three quarters. And you graduated high school, like between 135 and 150 i was i was one

probably 140 when i graduated high school yeah and what's the most you've ever weighed in your life have you ever hit 200 oh yeah i was too i was shit i was 205 just like four or five months ago before i started kind of cutting down for the competition season. Fuck dude. That's huge. Yeah. I had no upper body strength whatsoever because I just, when I was in high school, I didn't know, I hadn't developed like the adaptations and modifications for movements. And I, I didn't know I could press a barbell overhead. And so I really just like in high school, I squatted and I conditioned.

So I just had no upper body strength. So I was very, I was very just thin and lean. I was a little like a track star. I was a middle distance runner. I ran a mile, 802 mile a little bit. So did a lot of long, long running throughout the year as well. So yeah, I've put on, I've put on some size and some weight since since high school for sure and and how old did you say you are i will be 30 this year

and you're the only person to have ever won your division showed up two years ago and now you've won it two years in a row the uh what's it called upper extremity yes um this is sorry for the leading question um uh what did you think about the award ceremony for the adaptive class um i don't i don't think about it i guess okay i hated it same thing for all it's the same thing for the age groups and it's the same money essentially so i don't know i don't really i don't really care the the here's the thing it was um when they march all you guys out like that it the adaptive class there's first of all there's not a lot of you it's not like the age class where there's it just goes on forever there's not a lot of adaptive classes yeah um i would rather they just if they have they have a time issue just introduce the champs

yeah don't introduce second and third place i'm okay but when they marched all of you out there is a um circus freak component to it that i fucking did not like yeah do you know what i mean it's like look there's the bearded woman look there's the guy who uh with two heads i just and maybe it's just me but i'm like what the fuck like like just just bring out the champs and then and then bring out and then maybe for the masters too just introduce the champs sorry we don't got time but to mesh them all out there's an in i would rather be more elitist than inclusive and be more sincere the love for them because i i i'm just being a uh you know i have to fill the hour and 15 minutes we're going to talk but but i but i do but i did feel that but i did feel that when they came out yeah um

i mean you got to remember that crossfit's really pushing for this inclusivity and all that stuff. So maybe for them, that's something that they— Bring them all out. Yeah. I don't even need the individual second and third place, to be honest with you. And when they show the event on YouTube, I'm trying to think where it was. They do just focus on the winners, and think that that's fine yeah there's a lot of people there's a lot of people they got time constraints yeah i mean i can i can get both i can see both

sides because i think it's better for the brand too if they're like this is casey acree he's two times champion good fucking luck beating him. Instead of just like, hey, here's all the people who are missing body parts. It's like, I think it's better for the brand. I can see it both ways. Yeah, I'm with you. You're with me or you can see it both ways? I think that that's the same thing.

When you, because of what you know about imbalance and i've heard you talk about that um yeah you're do you think you're equally qualified well do you think that makes you more qualified um do you think that that helps you as a um like i think one of the things that fucked me up was I was a filmmaker for 20 years and I always held the camera like this. Yeah. And I should have had someone tell me, Hey dude, you got to like 50, 50, that shit. Yeah. And I'm twisted now. I gave myself scoliosis or something. Um, is that something you discovered on your own? It seems so obvious, but like I didn't unfuck myself or did someone tell you that and like how does that play out into your coaching uh no i mean that's something that i i started kind of figuring out on my own um and i mean it's not that i didn't have things

that i could go and and research i mean i i was like deep into the k-star mobility wad stuff for a long time and and um you knowPEX talks a lot about structural balance. And like, there's not that I'm like, you know, reinventing the wheel or anything. But as far as how I'm applying those things to myself and what I'm doing, that was something that just over time and just through experience, I've figured out. And I've always said that, you know, for me, I've figured out and I've always said that, um, you know, for me, I started training like an athlete before there was even anything offered for adaptive athletes. And before I even knew what the fuck an adaptive athlete was. Uh, and so I've always felt like

training for me is kind of what I enjoy the most. And so I was, I've been doing it for a long time. So I eventually just kind of figured it out what was going to work best for me. Oh man, that's a long time ago. Holy cow. Um, but yeah, and then, so then I'm able to use those experiences that, that I've had and, and apply some of that to the people that I coach. Cause I, like I said, I do work with adaptive athletes. I work with people with one arm or one leg or whatever. And it's all just based on principles and kind of understanding the, the body a little bit. And then also seeing what are the, when and why are those imbalances going to arise?

Because we are doing things that aren't where the amount of volume that I do on my right shoulder is going to always be higher than what I do on my left shoulder. So what can I do to mitigate some of those imbalances? Um, so yeah, I mean, I can use those experiences in my coaching. I think that that's probably one of the reasons that I've, I've attracted some of the, some of the adaptive athletes that I have. What are, what are some of your, what's like your all time best back squat? Uh, 440 back squats. What about a 20 rep? Oh, 20 rep back squats is like 295. Crazy. Maybe I, maybe could do, I haven't done a 20 rep back squat in a long time i can maybe go a little heavier than that now and how about deadlift i just i'm not a great hinger i just pr'd my deadlift a couple months

ago at 426 crazy um that was always that was an imbalance because like i mentioned when i was in high school i could back squat but i didn't know i hadn't figured out the straps that i used so i never deadlifted when i was in high school i just i just back squatted and i think i'm a my my anthropometrics are suited a little bit more for squatting i squat like a like a chinese olympic weightlifter kind of. And so it's just, I'm not, I'm not super comfortable in a hinging position. Um, is your, is your deadlift supposed to be more than your back squat? Yeah. I would say probably 99, 98% of the world are going to deadlift more than they can squat. Probably.

Maybe that's why I'm screwed up too i definitely deadlift more than i squat oh but you don't right i got it yeah so i'm not screwed up like you okay correct uh what what about pull-up what's the most weighted pull-up you ever did oh oh – I've done like a 70-pound strict pull-up probably. You put that strap around your forearm. Is that hairball? Does that ever come off, that strap, in an explosive movement like that, and the barbell comes free? in an explosive movement like that and then and the barbell comes free um yeah i mean i've had i've had straps rip like i've been doing like a clean and you know hit the hit the the powerful extension part of the lift and the strap rips and the bar kind of but never never come off the end like just come off the end no can you feel down there if it were slipping would you feel it yeah but i mean if you think about it with it sitting in, I mean, you can imagine like if you just held onto a strap in your elbow pit, that locked position pretty strong, like the leverage

there is, is pretty easy. So, you know, the, the, the grip strength that I have there since the lever arm is not very long is, is really, really strong. Um, so no, it's never been, I, I don't think that I've ever felt like I was going to come flying. If anything, honestly, I lose grip in my hand before I do in my, in my elbow. What's this bone called in here? Uh, the medial side is the ulna and the lateral side is the radius do you have an ulna and a radius and that arm i have a little bit of my old my my ulna and radius yes because and i know that because i have uh elbow flexion which your bicep attaches to your ulna. And that's how you, that's how you bend your forearm. And I have a little bit of little bit of rotation and you can

kind of palpate and feel the, the bones in there. So yeah, they're there. They just, that's, that's where it ends. What a trip. I, um, I, has anyone ever, have you ever had that x-rayed and looked in there and see how it, like it comes to a head at the end? I haven't. I need to, I need to get some radiologist friends or something. Don't I? I don't know how anatomy works, but those two, I'm assuming that those two bones, whatever you said, the ulna and the other radial thing that at some point they go into the, like

they're being both held in the elbow somehow. And then they're both being held in the wrist somehow. And I'm wondering what's at the end of yours or if they're just like, just free balling. I don't know. Like it's, it's very, it's very strong and stable. Like, yeah, I don't know if those two are like kind of fused together or something like that. Um, Yeah, that's interesting. I'm sure it looks pretty goofy. Do you floss your teeth? I do.

I use flosser sticks though. Oh, okay. Yeah, I don't. I used to try to – I used to have to wrap around the floss on each finger and then like go like this. But then the flosser sticks started coming out and it was a game changer for me i i was at the crossfit games uh this one time and um kyle was in the stands and i was uh i chewed a piece of gum and he was like five seats away from me and i think it was at the crossfit games we were somewhere together and he said oh can i have a piece of gum and i purposely like

threw the pack at him like to fuck with them but you could but you couldn't fuck with them the dude had no arms and no legs his whole life he fucking caught it pulled out the stick and did the like like there was no fucking with him that's awesome yeah he he he had a had it figured out um there was a guy uh there's some blind people now that weren't, I don't know if you've seen them. They do this clicking thing and they use sonar. I guess, I guess it's sonar and they can ride bikes and they can be like, I'm passing a bush or they can roller skate and they don't need a stick and they're completely blind and they've been blind by birth. Yeah. roller skate and they don't need a stick and they're completely blind and they've been blind by birth yeah and my understanding is the reason why they can do that is because no one fucked with them and gave them the stick and the um the i can't believe i'm going to use this word but you

know how like there's this word called mansplaining um a normal person didn't try to fix their problem for them yeah they fixed their own problem right have you ever had any of that where it's like the able-bodied people try to give you something like a prosthetic or something and really it's like hey dude like you're actually fucking me up and making me weaker yeah i stopped I stopped getting prosthetics when I was like five years old because I had had a couple. They were so uncomfortable and cumbersome back then that I just I just never wore it. figuring out pretty much everything without it. So then whenever I would put it on to try to you try to practice and try to use it, it was just honestly slowing me down. I had to think about things more with it on than with it off. So yeah, I think I was five years old. And it was like time where I needed to get a new one because I had grown or whatever. And I was I told my parents

that I didn't want another one. So I've never, I've never used a prosthetic or anything like that. Um, I mean, other, other than that, I've been always pretty inventive and independent on most things where, you know, I don't know the teachers or whatever, give a little bit of guidance, but they, I've, I've always just kind of, you know, been able to figure out most things at some point i mean there's things that we take for granted right like i get onto the tram at like an airport and i got my luggage in one hand or my cell phone another hand and then the tram takes off and with my other hand i grab the the pole i guess you i guess you have enough to

grab the pole though too yeah yeah um what how did you meet your how did you meet your wife um we actually grew up in the same town same area we are she grew up in a different town but all one one school district um and so i've i've known her since i was in sixth grade when our schools consolidated um Um, and we, but we didn't start dating until I was in college and she was a senior in high school. Um, and everyone must know who you are. It must be like, Hey, I'm going to Casey's house and they're like, who's that? And other, you know, the dude with one arm. Oh, what are you guys doing? Oh,

we're going to the park to throw the football. Right. It's like, everyone's got to know who you are in, in fucking in a small town in Illinois. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. And and so how did you if you're in college and she's in high school, how did you guys meet church or. No, I mean, we were good friends for a long time. time she was she was all she was about to graduate and um we had both been in other relationships in high school and yada yada had friends that that's that's just how it goes and when you're in a small town we had like she dated one of my friends and i dated one of her kind of friends or whatever

but we were always like good friends and kind of hung out in the same group or whatever and then yeah i mean i don't know how did those things happen. You just decide that you want to start talking to someone a little bit more and you want to take them to go get something to eat. And then here we are about 10 years later. We were married, have two kids. And yeah. Does she train? She exercises. I don't say I wouldn't call what she does training.

She would. I hope she's not offended by that. I don't think she would be. But she she exercises. She likes to be active. But it's hard when you have two kids and she's a teacher, a high school teacher. And oh, shit. She's coached sports and she's coached basketball and volleyball. And so we're we're very busy um so she does what she can yeah that's intense are you um do you homeschool your kids no we do not i you you want to help me i've been trying to talk her into it'll happen it'll happen don't worry only a couple more bad things need to happen and everyone will be homeschooling. She teaches in this at the same high school that we graduated from.

And so we're really we really love our school district. That's good to hear. That's good to hear. About to start pre-K and my wife's sister was going to be his pre-K teacher. And you live in a totally different world than me. I am I'm I'm in in California. I'm like in the in the hive of insanity. Yeah. And you're in a totally different. Yes.

Yes. Like Mike, like your kids are probably left alone. They're just taught adding, subtracting, had a good penmanship and go be on the playground and be a nice kid. It's not like that in these school districts here. Yeah, it's it's pretty chill. It's pretty pretty chill it's pretty standard school as of right now i mean we are in illinois so there is we are we are back to the whims of the chicago world so uh we gave as long as we can kind of basically just ask for them to leave us alone then we should we should be okay most of the time i i heard atlanta just passed i heard this morning that atlanta just passed chicago is

the most dangerous big city in the united states did you hear that oh surprised but i mean at that at that point does it really fucking matter who's one and who's two no good point great point great point um i want um why um when you say when you say that um crossfit is watered down did that mean that there's too many gyms or that there's not a respect for it what did you mean by that exactly uh basically the kind of the two bigger gyms in the area for years instead of i want to i don't want to make i don't want to offend anybody instead of trying to make things better to make themselves more valuable they just undercut each other's prices. Okay. So you want to hear something crazy? Please. In 2017, when I was still at the CrossFit gym, an unlimited membership was $80 per month. Wow. Unlimited family membership was $110 per month. Wow. That's open gym, that's classes. And that was like,

and we were more expensive than some of the other gyms in the area. So when that's, that's kind of like the model. And that's what, when you're in a town that's, we have a finite population, it's not growing. It's, it's, it's going down every year, kind of the people that are going to do CrossFit are doing CrossFit, then that's just what they expect. Like they just, that's what the market expects the value of CrossFit at, unfortunately. And that's, and then, I mean, it's ridiculous that you can go to Springfield that's only, you know, 45 minutes away and the CrossFit memberships are two times that. Right. So I don't know. It's just a weird,

it's just a weird situation with how the gyms here grew and developed. And then eventually that was just kind of like what was expected. And, and yes, there's, there's three or four CrossFit gyms in a, in a relatively small town. It's a big town, but it's a declining population. How are the games? How are the events and the whole experience?

Oh, this year was awesome. The events, that was probably what I was most pleased with. I think like last year with it being the first year of them doing it, they, they kind of had to be very simplistic in our, in our program design. So like we had the, we did like a long run and then we did a deadlift one at max and then we did the swim event. So there's just a lot of like very simple, there wasn't much complexity. This year, it was like they kind of went for it a little bit.

I felt like we got to do, you know, the odd object stuff. And our run wasn't just a run. Like it was the run and rope climb and dumbbell push press event. And you dominated. You took first in every event. I did, yeah. Do you think maybe that's why you liked it so much what's that i said do you think maybe that's why you liked it so much i mean i'm sure i'm sure it helps i still i but like i always still want to go out there and get

to express what i'm capable of and just yes and always do that right, and I also want to be challenged. And like, there were parts of it that even when you're winning, you're still, you're still being challenged in yourself and what you're capable of. And I still always try to have these, like, I, there's a workout that I'm like, okay, I'm confident I can win this. Let's, let's try to do it unbroken or let's try to see if I can push my run pace here or, you know, whatever. I'll try to, you know, find ways to continuously challenge myself. And that's the field that I compete against, even though I won every event as I wasn't a lot of the events, it's not like I was just way out ahead and it was just like, I could stand

there. I'm being pushed on every single one. I've got some pretty freaking fit dudes that I'm competing against. So every event I'm going into it, like, man, I got to really execute this and I got to make sure I do this. And like, I'm, I'm scared of this guy. I'm scared of this guy. These guys aren't going to just go out there and let me win them. That's they want to win. They're're kind of i compete against some crazy dudes and they're they're awesome athletes and they they take it very seriously too so um yeah it was it was fun the whole way yeah do they drug test you they do they do yep so you you took your pants down the guy watched you pee in the in the cup absolutely that was the hardest event of the whole thing of holding a cup

and and pissing into it without getting pee all over the place oh shit how did you do that uh i have long fingers so i hold it oh right right right so like i would hold my penis away but you could also just dangle your penis into the cup and pee and then lower the cup so that your penis doesn't hang in to go into the pee whereas i might piss like i might keep my penis out of the cup yeah yeah like there there's a little more dexterity needed for me doing everything with one hand but hey don't judge me it's hard with two hands too don't you don't know you don't know you don't know you can't judge me. It's hard with two hands too. You don't know. You don't know. You don't know. You can't judge. I can imagine. I don't mean to be ableist, but I can imagine.

You're so close-minded. So they test you guys. You compete. And how many dudes do a lot of guys not get to go to? Do a lot of guys not get to go? What do you mean by that? To the games. There's only five of you, but are there 100 guys who are trying to go? Yeah, there were over 100 in my division in the Open, yeah. And there's no age. It's open.

It's open. What was the youngest guy? Do you know what the youngest guy is out of the whole group? I don't mean at the games, but out of the whole group, like, is there a 17 year old? Oh shit. I don't know. I'm sure there, I'm sure there is. Yeah. And who's, do you know who the oldest is? Like you see any 70 year old dudes? There's some old dudes. Yeah. There's some guys in their fifties. Um, for sure. I don't, some of those guys, I mean, I like personally know some guys that are pretty old that I've, you know,

that have competed in like the, scale divisions at wadapalooza like scaled adaptive division at wadapalooza that i know i don't know and you're the five times winner at wadapalooza uh yes yeah that's crazy yeah are you doing it next year as of right, I'm kind of tentatively planning on it. This past year wasn't a lot of fun, but I'm hoping that it will be a little bit better. Why wasn't it fun? Well, just a lot of things. I think Guadalupalooza is almost trying to become too big. Like they, I mean, they have, they have divisions that are,

they have beginners scaled intermediate RX elite, the age group divisions, the adaptive divisions. It's just like, it was almost too much. And so like we all in a three day competition, we did five events. And I'm just, I don't know. I just felt like I didn't get my money's worth you know we had saturday of the competition we did one event our event was at five o'clock so i'm just like you know sitting around hanging out all day long was that because of the rain though

or were you only going to do five period nope we did we got all of our scheduled events in we got all of our scheduled events in is it is it we is it like i here's something i struggle with so and i don't know how it is with the adaptives but with the age group people like they want so much like the age groups are just they have they have they have they have uh men and women and then they have all those fucking age groups. Yeah. And like with upper extremity or with adaptive, you don't get any of that. It's just like dudes, girls, and like it doesn't matter what age you are. You all go into the same pile. And I get it. And I get it.

Are you okay with that? Because it does make sense to me. At some point, you have to like think logistics, right? Like you could be like, that's not fair. But it's like, yeah, but fuck, dude. There's only 100 of you. And over here, there's 3,000 65 year old women right yes but then what would be the point of having the competition if broken down like that if you had three guys in the whole world

that were in the upper extremity 50 to 54 division right what's is that that's i mean i get the idea of like they're not they're maybe not going to get to compete again they're not going to be able to compete against someone that's 25 and just the cost of it too right just running the lights to keep the fucking place open probably cost 68 and your registration's gone it's like yeah it's so do you ever feel that like hey on both on both sides it's like hey quit complaining so much or like hey you're not doing enough for us like i feel like that there's i mean we always only hear about the complainers yeah i'm in how are the adaptive group as a whole are they pretty chill or uh there's a little bit of both yeah i'm just like i'm in the camp of like you just as as good as good as we can and just yeah there are definitely people that

uh are frustrated or feel like there are things in the, in the adaptive CrossFit world that aren't fair or that, that we don't get enough recognition or that the divisions aren't broken down enough. Or, I mean, that's, there's, yeah.

Like, are there dudes that hate on you because you have your elbow? Uh, and he's like, fuck, like, like, like,

uh, like, uh, Logan doesn't have his elbow. Yeah. I mean, no, I feel like, fuck that. I should, that guy should, uh, Logan doesn't have his elbow. Yeah. I mean, no, I feel like, fuck that. I should, that guy should be in his own class.

Maybe, maybe a little bit. And, and again, like this kind of the conversation we're having one day, those divisions might be broken down where I'm considered, I'm considered an upper extremity, two points of attachment because I have the ability to use straps or devices to hold a barbell with both points or to hold on to a pull-up bar with both points whereas logan for example would be a one point right at the games what they essentially try to do is basically mitigate those differences as much as possible so by by what events they choose yeah so like we do instead of us doing a barbell snatch last year at the games we did a dumbbell snatch for right

and did one last year at the games we did one arm skier instead of two arm skier right yeah the irony is is that you tried to go individual right i mean i knew i'm not i'm i know i'm not going to make it to a semi-final or something but it's still fun to try last year i did quarterfinals i got i signed up submitted my scores the whole thing i how did you do um i don't remember i was like four thousand or three thousand or something in north america i was 135th on one of the workouts in all of North America. Yeah, that's crazy. That's crazy. Amy Tomlinson, what are your thoughts on the fairness of the adaptive division?

Example, Joshua M being able to do butterfly pull-ups bar ring muscle-ups double touches 200 pound plus snatch 300 pound plus clean basically i know he has an adaption but why what is this dude like uh what's josh's deal does he just is he just a regular dude who entered the adaptive class no he has a condition called herbs palsy so it's basically some neurological and physical deformation of his shoulder yeah prevents him from being able to get in a certain ranges of motion and inhibits his strength um to an extent and so he's able to compete in the upper extremity um i mean yes he can do all those things but almost everything that we do at the games is is one arm anyways like he doesn't we didn't do a barbell clean so even though he, he can do all those things, but almost everything that we do at the games is one arm anyways. Like he doesn't, we didn't do a barbell clean.

So even though he can, I can do barbell cleans too with two points of attachment. But we just, we don't do that. We did a front squat as our strength test because that's something that was, you know, level across the variations of disability that are within the division. variations of disability that are within the division. Um, and I mean, there are going to be things like, okay, yeah, he can, he can push off with both of his arms when he does a burpee to what degree is he limited on the one side? How can you really know? Um, I mean, there's going to be things that are unfair and it's so easy to hate on the neurological people. Like there was girl that was on the podcast a couple times during the week and i was like my brain was like she's not she doesn't belong in adaptive but i have no business saying that i mean that's just me just being a complete ignorant asshole but my brain was saying that it's i mean it's so complex

yeah it's it just is it's there's the you're right. The neurological division is tough because so much of it you can't see. And how do you how do you quantify how much their disabilities are actually affecting their ability to express their fitness? And yeah, but like the thing is, there's people in the adaptive world that get frustrated because they think that things are unfair, that they're never going to have a chance or whatever, whatever. because they think that things are unfair, that they're never going to have a chance or whatever, whatever. But the only way the only way to eventually get to, you know, make it grow where we maybe could have more broken down divisions is for everyone to stay involved and to continue signing up and doing the best that we can. And I mean, really, a lot of us got into training when there was no crossfit games for the adaptive division so why are you going to let the you your your perception that things are unfair discourage you from continuing to train or continue to try to challenge yourself um because numbers and getting the best athletes as we possibly can is how it's

going to eventually grow. So people getting frustrated and just saying, you know, fuck it. We're not signing up. That, that doesn't really help anything. At the end of the day, these are all great fucking problems to have. Yeah. I'm glad we're, I'm glad we're, I'm glad we're arguing about who belongs in the neurological class as opposed to, Hey, we need a neurological class. Yeah, I agree. And I think that you have, that's a bit of a rose colored lens. Maybe

people would say, but I think that there's, I think the truth, I think, and that's the same perception that I have. Like, I'm just thankful. I, I tell people all the time. I, I mentioned this in my, my post event interview with, with Derek, that it was like 2013, I was in college. My, my now business partner and good friend had started doing like.com workouts. And I was like, all right, sure. I'll, I'll mess with it a little bit. I had, I'd just been, you know, bodybuilding and just kind of learning some of the, being able to use straps for certain movements and stuff like that. And I just started doing CrossFit and I loved it. It was challenging. And there were things that I couldn't do that I wanted to try to learn how to do. And I started following like what's

rich doing. So it was like a, you know, competitors type program. And I started following it and modifying or adapting to myself. I started basically training like an athlete before there was anything that I could ever, you know, really have a chance of competing in. And I, I said back then I'll train like an athlete because it's enjoyable for me and it's fun for me and I want to do it and I want to challenge myself. And maybe one day down the road, there will be a competition for me. I don't know, but I'll be ready when it comes. And I had that kind of intrinsic, I just wanted to train like that for myself before there was ever a competition that existed. And I challenged some of my clients with that question of like, would you be willing to train this hard and challenge yourself and do these hard things

if the competition didn't exist? And if you't if you wouldn't then maybe you shouldn't even be doing it this dude swept the board and barely got any recognition what are you talking about i got the di council made me bring him on what What are you talking about? Hey, great, great note to end on. Dutch Lowy said it to me in 2008. If you don't know what you want to do, the best thing you could do is be prepared for the unknown and unknowable. And what gets you in that place is CrossFit or OPEX or any of that stuff. Hey, dude, thank you so much for coming on. Of course.

I'm glad we did it. Yeah. Thanks for giving me your phone number. Thanks for letting me text you. Thanks for letting me harass you. You're a great dude. And hopefully, well, I know we'll reconnect again. Yep. Sounds good. I appreciate it. Yep. Have a great day. You too. Bye. I have to go. I don't want to go to go i want to i want to hang out with him

um okay can i can you come on or no you can't come on hi hey hey what time is it what time is it dinner time ish late late all right i'm gonna try to run to the coffee shop i'm meeting uh greg glassman's kids and my kids are doing a skate camp together so i get to go sit with greg for three hours and watch our kids skate so i'm pretty pumped um and his wife so uh i will talk to you uh soon oh this evening we have a crazy show dude the overnight sensations taylor self and jr how holy shit they will be on the show tonight to tell you why they are so great i mean to um talk about the programming at the crossfit games this year i'll talk to all you guys yes