The Sevan Podcast - #638 - CrossFit 209, CrossFit Affiliate Series

Episode Date: October 23, 2022

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Email up. Bam, we're live. Something weird is happening. I can't get into Instagram on... Using Chrome anymore. I get an error. I even erased all my cookies, which set all my other shit back. I was having trouble with Facebook on there.
Starting point is 00:00:21 On Chrome? Yeah. When you switched to Safari or did it get better um i actually haven't tried so far so i don't know okay instagram i wonder if they're gonna make me log in again guys good morning gabe subri oh my goodness i can't get into instagram from safari too many redirects trying to open. What is going on? It's so trippy. What's going on with my Instagram now? Can you get to Instagram? Yeah, it's my personal.
Starting point is 00:00:58 Google recommends using Chrome. Not right now, buddy. Not right now. Let me try one more thing here. Instagram. Oh, and now I can get in on Chrome and I can't get in on Safari. Amazing. I probably have to do the double authentication. Oh, no, I didn't even have to do the double authentication. Shit, I'm set.
Starting point is 00:01:25 I'm set. I'm set. Uh, Gabe, say that again. So they just stole your password. I guess. I don't know. I don't know what's going on,
Starting point is 00:01:33 but I'm just happy that I have access to Instagram in case I need it. I'm glad you're here today. Like you're here. Yeah. Oh, all the words hit a little more heavy when you're not in the good old usa there's gabe just chilling what's up guys hey what's up how we doing good uh gabe do you uh sorry sorry caleb do you see a, do you – sorry, sorry. Caleb, do you see a picture? Do you see a link to a picture?
Starting point is 00:02:09 It says, when I first met Gabe. It's at the very top of the notes. I think it is. I'm going to open my notes right now. The last time I saw Gabe? No, not the last time. We'll get to that one too. Not that one. That, though – so real quick this is well oh never mind this is at the 10-year uh reunion gabe's
Starting point is 00:02:31 gym uh crossfit 209 the 10-year reunion uh in 2019 so you're 13 years now right gabe yes sir crazy right yeah it's it's gone by fast. That's for sure. If you weren't running a CrossFit gym, what do you think you'd be doing? Man, I don't know. I think about that all the time. The only job that seemed somewhat intriguing to me was a firefighting. But the biggest thing for me being a business owner in general is I just don't
Starting point is 00:03:07 like being on anyone else's clock. So even that doesn't sound that great to me, you know, but I don't know. I, I got a little bit of farming I've been doing. That's been enjoyable. You're outside, you kind of, you know, are getting in tune with, with the seasons and, and all that kind of stuff. That's definitely fun. I could see myself doing that, but you know, I don't know. For those of you who don't know, uh, you're, are you, is your gym in Stockton? It's in Stockton. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:03:35 So Stockton, California is what? 90 miles east of San Francisco. Yeah. More or less for people? So it's on the west coast of the United States, but it is a completely different scene than the rest of California. There's a highway that runs down California. I mean, you could say it's even,
Starting point is 00:03:57 I was going to say the five, but you could say it's even the 101. There's a swath of land all along the coast of the United States, along that edge in California, that as soon as you cross that highway, everything's different. Weather, the people, what people do for a living, it's kind of an agricultural, not kind of, it's an agricultural empire. Is Stockton like that too? Do you guys have just, is it just a crazy agricultural area?
Starting point is 00:04:21 Tons of ag. Yeah, tons of ag. That's a major thing i mean all all of the all of the outskirts of towns are just grapes walnuts a lot of cherries everything really and who lives there who are the people who live there is it a lot of mexicans in stockton i mean it's it's pretty it's pretty diverse you know, I mean, there's a lot of everything. Are you born there? Not born, but pretty much raised.
Starting point is 00:04:52 And where were you born? In Fortuna. Is that Southern California? That's the Northern, like by Eureka, Humboldt, that kind of area. Wow. Way up north, yeah. Eureka, Humboldt, that kind of area. Wow.
Starting point is 00:05:04 Way up north. So even though Stockton is not a major metropolis, you're a small-town guy who kind of moved to – shit, it's weird to call Stockton a big town. But you're a small-town kid. I mean, I didn't grow up there. I was probably – I don't know how old I was, but I was a baby when we moved here, so I don't remember any of it. But I actually grew up in Lodi, which is just north of Stockton.
Starting point is 00:05:32 Home of Justin Medeiros. Home of the Medeiros. Yeah, yeah. Crazy. He put Lodi on the map. That's right. Do you know him? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:46 Yeah, he didn't train at our gym. He trained there for about a month or so when he was in high school. Do you remember him? Oh, yeah. He was a monster. He came in. I mean, I was still competing. This was after my games days.
Starting point is 00:06:03 I was still at regionals, so I was still competing this is after my games days so this is I was still at regionals so I was still training competitively um and he was you know on the up and coming so he was trying to just mix it up and get in with some people that were that were throwing down so he would come in but I remember we did uh we did one set max rep back squat at 315 and uh i remember getting like i'm getting fucking 20 i'm doing this shit like belting up and just going for it i got 20 and was like folded by it i mean i was like pumped that i did it and uh he came in i mean no knee sleeves no belt just pretty much raw unracked it did like 24 looked comfortable it looked like he had 20 more in him and racked it i think he was 16 at that time.
Starting point is 00:06:45 And I remember being like, Holy shit, this dude's, this dude's on one for sure. And you knew. Yeah. I mean, you could just see,
Starting point is 00:06:53 I mean, especially when you've been training people a long time, that's what you do. You can just, you can just tell there's something different, you know? You've been a trainer for over 20 years. What's that?
Starting point is 00:07:04 You've been a trainer for over 20 years what's that you've been a trainer for over 20 years uh yeah about that i'm 41 now i started training when i was in in college a little bit um and then when i got out of college started doing it full-time crazy there was something there was something different about you um than the other games athletes. And correct me if I'm wrong. You were definitely cooler than all of them. They all seemed like jocks. You were more like a really buff surfer or.
Starting point is 00:07:48 I was a skateboarder growing up. That was my, that was my whole life surfer and skater. But yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, I, I, I would agree. All the guys were cool, but it seemed like that that was, that was what they did. That was it. That was the only thing that they did, which nothing wrong with that. But for me, it was like I did a lot of other shit and then started doing CrossFit. And I just liked doing it.
Starting point is 00:08:12 And it was just like everything I do, I pretty much just go all in on it, try to be as good as I can at it. And then I didn't realize I was good until I qualified for that games that first year. I had like, no, I had no idea I was going to qualify. It wasn't necessarily the goal. It was just like went and watched the 2009 games and was like, that's bad-ass. I got to get out there. So, you know, back then there was no social media, there was no programming, there was CrossFit.com and that was it.
Starting point is 00:08:40 So you had no idea what other people were doing. You had no idea how they were training or how, how fast they were doing workouts or what, what was even a good time. You know, you were just like, it was just then, the day before the last day or the second day, after the second day. And they were like, hey, you're in fourth place right now, man. You're about to qualify. It was top five. I was like, holy shit. And the next day went in and did it. And then from there, it was like, okay, I guess I'm not bad at this.
Starting point is 00:09:24 Did you ever give it well here's one of the things about the bodies that were different too most of these guys have just crazy trunks you know like you think of someone like like like noah olsen right thick yeah and you just kept your body you just you always look you had more and i was going to say more of a Ricky Garrard body, but even he's getting really thick in his trunk now too. You, you always kept more of that like a beach body. Yeah. I mean, it definitely wasn't any kind of intentional thing. It was just, it was just kind of, you just let, let whatever happens happens.
Starting point is 00:10:00 I think now it's so fine tuned that you have to look at your build a little bit because you have to be able to take the beat down and the weight and all that kind of stuff. Back then it was like I'm eating paleo and we're running like crazy. And hindsight now it's probably under-eating for sure. So I was definitely lean. I mean, I think I was 185 that first year. And, I mean, I'm 205 now and feel feel you know leanish and comfortable and i
Starting point is 00:10:29 feel way better overall but i can't run and move and bounce around and just i know i just felt like i just had unlimited endurance back then um and uh so at that leaner that leaner body especially back then because the weights weren't that heavy the I feel like being a little bit leaner was beneficial. How tall are you? 5'9". Yeah. It's right in that wheelhouse. It's funny. I always thought of you as taller.
Starting point is 00:10:56 Yeah. You get in the group of a bunch of guys that are 5'4", 5'5", and you're a handful of them at least, and all of a sudden, 5'9", you're standing out a little bit, I guess. Caleb, I put a bunch of links to games. I put three links to games.
Starting point is 00:11:14 It says three times games competitor. Oh, there's four links. Can we look at those? What was your max back squat of all time, Gabe? 4'10". 4'10". Okay, and the other day you". 4'10". Okay. And the other day you did 4'05".
Starting point is 00:11:27 Yep. So you're still strong. There you are with Matt Chan, Rich Froning, and Kyle Kasperauer. Yep. 2012. Those were some good days. Yeah. Yeah, look at Matt Chan looking thick right there.
Starting point is 00:11:40 Thick. He was one of the first guys to really get like that, right? I mean, he kind of showed up like that but he his trunk was crazy yeah he had that kind of not quite kalipa build but definitely just that that big body for sure and you and rich and and kyle i mean kyle was a fucking uh cannonball yeah uh but you guys were more still more broader on the shoulders and then kind of had that that that V-shape to you still. Sure. Rich never got crazy thick in the core.
Starting point is 00:12:08 He still isn't crazy thick in the core. He's pretty much looked the same since the gets as far as I can see. I mean, I haven't seen him in person in a long time, but, you know, you see him on social media. It pretty much looks the same. And here's a shot. One of my favorite pictures. I took this a shot one of my favorite pictures i took this actually one of my favorite pictures of all time yeah there you are over there um getting at it god that's crazy what's that guy's name from australia who's really tall in the back
Starting point is 00:12:38 what was his chad mckay yeah okay you, I think he was going to win the games that year. He got injured. I really do. Yeah. He was, he was on a good tear there for a little while, especially with that being taller. You know,
Starting point is 00:12:54 a lot of that stuff works, works against you. But I mean, you look at like the Kowski and some of these other guys are definitely getting it done. So, and, and then the guy that's behind you and kenny leverage is that
Starting point is 00:13:06 the guy on the pendleton run who had um some sort of heat stroke and mental breakdown and he thought like there were ghosts chasing him and shit do you remember that and the ambulance had to take him away i don't remember who that is god i wish i could remember who that is yeah that's the only guy and there's miko uh aranpa uh fantastic athlete but what maybe one of the worst movers ever i ever saw in the games do you remember him yeah yeah i recognize all those guys's faces that one guy like you said behind me that's the only guy i don't remember his name and then you got scott pancheck who who still getting it yep and. And Ben Smith? Ben Smith's still a beast.
Starting point is 00:13:47 Can he leverage? I don't know. I don't think he's doing much competitively. I don't really, I haven't seen him in a long time either, but yeah, I mean, it seems like a lot of guys from that era are still getting after it,
Starting point is 00:14:00 whether they're competing or not. But yeah, that's what's crazy to me about rich is that he's competed this long and hasn't had any injuries or anything like that well i i think he did have i could be totally misspeaking here but i think he had a shoulder surgery and a knee surgery oh really yeah okay but he keeps that shit on the down low you know mean, he's not hiding it, but he's not out there. He's not promoting it. No. Yeah. No.
Starting point is 00:14:29 Yeah, he's still definitely a freak. Is there one more photo? It's like a post with like three photos. Oh, yeah. Wow. Oh, I remember that workout right there with the deadlifts and that thing that thing was that was one of the first workouts where they're like uh-oh is this over program was it raining that day yeah it was raining remember wrapping the towels over the pull-up
Starting point is 00:14:56 bars that was the 2009 um i guess it was regionals but that was the first i probably was three or four months into CrossFit and my first overhead squat ever at the top of that hill. No shit. Yeah. And, and those were those weights. Those were, I loved those weights. I don't know who made those, but they bounced amazingly.
Starting point is 00:15:18 Do you remember those? Yeah. Yeah. Super bouncy. I'd never even seen bumper plates at that point. So just that was, super bouncy. I'd never even seen bumper plates at that point. So just that was crazy. Even before I got into CrossFit, I was more or less doing bodybuilding, but we always deadlifted and backsquatted.
Starting point is 00:15:34 So that type of stuff was at least something I was a little bit comfortable with. I'd like to see a deadlift event on dirt like this coming in the future. That was just raw. That's what made it fun. I'd like to see a deadlift event on dirt like this coming in the future. That was just raw. That's what made it fun. You were just in the mud. Right. Doing thrusters on that hill. It's crazy.
Starting point is 00:15:55 That was fun. Did you have kids then? No, hell no. My kids are four and two, so they're pretty young right now. Did you want to have kids, Gabe, or were they an accident? No, I wanted to have kids. Yeah. Did you know you always want to have kids, Gabe, or were they an accident? No, I wanted to have kids. Yeah. Did you know you always wanted to have kids?
Starting point is 00:16:09 Oh, yeah. Your mom and dad stoked? Oh, for sure. For sure. My sister doesn't have kids. She's older than me, and then I didn't have kids until 40 or 38. So I knew I wanted to have kids, but I just like there's just a lot of shit that I wanted to do
Starting point is 00:16:28 and travel wise and things like that. So I was just trying to stretch it out to the last second and try to stay kidless as long as possible. But I love them. They're great. It's super fun. We have two right now.
Starting point is 00:16:44 I'm not necessarily planning on having more. I mean, I could have four or five kids. I love them. But I got to have some balance of getting back to just things that I want to do myself personally and traveling and just stuff along those lines. And with two kids, it's tough to get two kids watched for a week. But to get three or four kids watched for a week, there's just no way. And there it is. When I think of Stockton, that's kind of the scene I think of.
Starting point is 00:17:15 Just fences, and there's obviously some crop growing back there. Yeah. So we live in what's called Acamp it's called a campo which is uh north of lodi so you got stockton and then lodi and then the next it's just basically the country area of uh of of of lodi you know so we we live on a walnut orchard and uh yeah it's it's great for the kids because i mean we just i mean if you're yeah, my Instagram, they're just out playing in the mud and just having fun running around the orchard and catching snakes and lizards. And it's primal and it's away from a lot of the bullshit and away from the squares and the boxes and the concrete. And it's just more natural, you know.
Starting point is 00:18:03 Is that walnut orchard yours? Yeah. Oh, shit. Yeah. Wow. and the concrete and it's just more natural you know is that walnut orchard yours yeah oh shit yeah wow um yeah i mean i'm i'm like a rookie farmer i'm just kind of learning but i have a partner one of my good buddies has been farming his whole life so he kind of handled all the management stuff um and i really don't do that much on it i do the irrigating and i might get out there and prune a little bit if I won't, if I want to, but for the most part, um, it's just like an investment more. Are you going to stick with walnuts?
Starting point is 00:18:33 The price is shit right now on them. But, um, I mean, the trees are five years old, so they're just barely getting into their production. You know, they're, they're the eighth leaf is when they're in full production and you're planning for a 25 year uh yield you know so hopefully the prices will turn around i mean it's it's like all time like my buddy's 52 years old and he's been farming his whole life and he's like never ever seen the prices this this this low you know it's like um you need about 50 bucks 70 a pound now it's 60 cents a pound you need the dirt twirlers uh the college kids to get into like um a walnut milk right i've never seen walnut milk but you need something like that right you need like the
Starting point is 00:19:18 world economic forum to say like hey instead of nuts or the uh future we're going to fuel cars with it and feed all of humanity on it yeah it's gotta be it's gotta be possible right that'd be possible i i wonder i'm trying to think um uh i have uh some family who lives in fresno and whenever they visit they bring me shit loads of walnuts and i eat i'm the only one in my family who eats them my kids like cracking them open but i'm the only one who eats them. No one else in my family likes them. They think like they're too bitter.
Starting point is 00:19:47 But I wonder if there's some innovation there. I wonder what, what other shit can be done with walnuts. Cause I mean, that's what happened to almonds, right? Almond milk took off and those guys, and now they're just, everything in California is being torn out and almonds put in for the last, you know, five or 10 years. Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, yeah. I mean, you never know. I think it'd be possible, right? You wouldn't think you're getting milk from a,
Starting point is 00:20:11 from an almond in any way, but somehow it's, it's happening. Right. So, yeah, I think basically they just soaked the almonds in water and that water is the almond milk. I think it's pretty, yeah, it's kind of sloppy. Yeah. I mean, but I feel like almond milk's think it's pretty yeah it's kind of sloppy yeah i mean but i feel like almond milk's kind of sweet they gotta be sweetening that and putting putting something in it right i mean they definitely do something to it yeah um my mom was uh my mom had purchased some oat milk and it said no sugar added and then it was really sweet i'm like this is crazy there's no way that that oat milk could be this sweet and then she looked it up and the label was misleading and i i don't know i don't know the the chemistry of it but they had put some enzyme in there that turned something in the oats into sugar
Starting point is 00:20:57 really and it was basically it made it bad for you yeah it made it so you know basically it's it's just sure yeah it's just sugar it's just drinking soda Yeah. It made it. So, you know, basically it's, it's just sure. Yeah. It's just sugar. It's just drinking soda pop, but they call it oat milk and natural. But there's a lot of stuff that just has crazy sweetness to it. You're like, where is this sweetness is coming from something,
Starting point is 00:21:14 you know, how big is the gym? Uh, 53,000, a little over 53. I'm looking at Caleb's face. Caleb, did you hear that?
Starting point is 00:21:34 5,300, 5 5300 square feet you have a 5300 square feet thousand 53 000 yeah oh shit it's big that's massive it's a bigger than most people's houses it is so huge um what's the when you run the parade you can you can tell you can do laps inside right on a rainy day you could run the the inside the perimeter on the inside right the 200 meter track 200 meter track and then there's like 70 ish yards of turf and then just i mean tons of tons of open space um which is which is awesome i mean it's good especially when the when the gym is really going off and the the sport specific programs got a lot of kids in there and the crossfit classes are big and it's it it's really firing on all cylinders and it's it's pretty cool when i visited say that again how did you find the space that uh my it's it's a cannery so my father-in-law owns this cannery yeah and uh there's there's i think the whole
Starting point is 00:22:34 warehouse is like 360 000 square feet it's got a couple 80 000 square foot sections and a couple 50 000 give or take sections and you know there was like it was mostly empty now not now most of it's full um but at the time most of it was empty and he was like man you should we think about you know renting this space and putting putting your gym in here you know our gym was 4,200 square feet at the time um so, so, which was, you know, it was good size, but we were outgrowing it and it was just like, this is just overwhelmingly huge and the cost of the flooring and the equipment and then, and all that. But, um, you know, after a while it was just like, it was like filled the dreams. It was like, all right, if you build it, they're going to come,
Starting point is 00:23:21 right? So it's just sack up, borrow a shitload of money build that shit and and just go all in and make you know put yourself in a situation where where you have to make it happen when i visited in 2019 with greg for your 10-year anniversary um it was packed yeah it was fucking crazy there's one section even though there was a party going on in there there was still shit loads of people working out in there i mean it was it was just everything was going on in there and organized as shit too yeah that's that's uh like our first gym would get so messy that was a big concern because it was like man people leave a band out it's like where you get you'll lose that shit you know you not going to – it just gets sloppy.
Starting point is 00:24:07 But, I mean, it's a team effort, and it's kind of just – it's all about what you demand of the members, right? If you demand them to clean their shit and put it back and organize it and that just becomes kind of the culture, then you feel bad if you're leaving stuff out. And, you know, I i mean the members we have are great and they they're you know as diverse and different as everyone is as individuals like the support and just the way they take care of the gym for the most part is uh is is definitely cool
Starting point is 00:24:37 uh 53 000 square feet um do Do other things happen in there besides your classes? Like, will the local PD be like, hey, Gabe, will you do a competition for us? Or, hey, we need a big venue to do – I mean, the high school football team will come visit. What type of just shit happens in there when you have that much space? What opportunities open up? We've had some stuff. We've done a – I don't remember exactly what it was it was like this karate um what one of our clients is like a is like uh um she was actually in the olympics for uh for karate i
Starting point is 00:25:16 think she's still doing it she's a freaking badass but she set this thing up um and it was like i don't know exactly what it was it was a tournament or whatever but they brought in all the mats and they had i mean they covered a huge section with all these mats they brought in and they did like this karate tournament which was pretty cool and then you know we do my my uh uh we we have a it's called an elevate program which is basically our sports specific program so that's part of the classes that we run but they'll come in and uh and and uh do like seven on seven training and do like these lineman camps and yeah and do all that kind of stuff in there um so that's probably the biggest thing and uh you know we've we've had a lot of inquiries to a few that wanted to rent it out for whatever reason but it's not it's not really what
Starting point is 00:26:07 what i want to do with it you know the thing is like you get people in there that don't train there and they don't they don't really respect it that much you know so you're getting gum on the turf and you're getting people tearing shit up and you're getting people oh you know i mean you've seen that you've seen gum on the turf? Oh, yeah. It's like the worst. I mean, it's not – we try our best to do it, but you get gum on that thing, and it's in there. It's in there for good. Is that part of the on-ramp?
Starting point is 00:26:38 Is that part of the on-ramp when someone comes new? You look them in the eyes, and you're like, if you're going to come here, you have to treat this like your home? Would you spit gum in the eyes and you're like, this is your, if you're going to come here, you have to treat this like your home. Would you spit gum on the floor? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's definitely, I mean, we, we don't do a technical on ramp, but yeah, I mean with, I mean, yeah, it's not like some, we don't, we don't sit them down, but definitely, especially with the elevate program, which is the youth program, they're on the turf the most, you know? So those guys are on them because it's, especially cause it's, it's, the turf the most, you know, so those guys are on them
Starting point is 00:27:05 because it's, especially because it's, it's, it's younger kids, you know, so you're talking four or five year olds up to, you know, high school, college age. So, you know, I mean, at that age, you're a little bit less respectful for things. You don't really look at something and being like, damn, this turf's probably really expensive and if i spit gum on it it's not coming out you know so them they they stay on them pretty hard but i mean there's there's a little bit of damage to it but it's it's not bad it would keep it pretty good if you if you're leaving the gym and then you look as you're locking the door you look back in and like you realize you left your keys in the office or that there was like one light still on it's like a trek it's like oh shit oh you're you're walking since i moved in there
Starting point is 00:27:49 my steps are i never really tracked my steps but my wife like showed me on my phone how to do it and uh yeah the steps are crazy because just from coaching a class you know you got to walk from one side to the other and, you know, it's whatever. And you just, but you're doing it all day. So you're just walking all over the place. But yeah, if you're, you know, especially if we're doing a workout that's on the turf. So, you know, you walk to the turf, which is the backside of the gym. Then you're walking back to the front for the next class to do, you know, whatever the first portion is. And so, but pretty much used to it now.
Starting point is 00:28:26 Your kids are raised in there. Your kids know the is and so but pretty much used to it now your kids are raised in there your kids know the gym yeah pretty much they love going in there they love it's a huge huge playground for them really yeah are you there now no this is this is my house this is like a little uh like a little gym that i have in my house i'll show you this is pretty cool right here yeah it looks more than than a little gym oh wow wow what's up with the skateboard collection are those have those all been ridden no i mean a couple of them but they're just boards that i liked or that i wrote when i was young and And just, I, I'd started with a couple and then just, and then just started, I started growing. I probably, before we moved out here, I probably had 30 or 40 and then we moved out here and built this,
Starting point is 00:29:16 built this shop. And then just, I just built this wall to just kind of hang all these things down there too. Yeah. There's a ramp there. hang all these things a little quarter pipe down there too yeah there's a ramp there oh my goodness oh my goodness just a little something oh hey if your kids get into skateboarding they're gonna demand a half pipe in there i know i'll get them one in a heartbeat i bought my quarter pipe for myself but i was like they kind of start messing around with it a little bit you know like i'll go they'll weigh on their stomach and i'll put them in there in that little we'll put those two quarter pipes together and just kind of push them back and forth and they
Starting point is 00:29:52 they love it how about that basketball game thing there where'd you get that do you kids i was thinking about get one of those for my kids i don't know where i'm gonna put it but do they use that i guess your kids are a little young you said four and two yeah i mean they'll they'll just kind of throw the balls on it but they're yeah they're not really they're not really shooting on it just yet um it's called a papa shot pretty cool it's definitely fun um gabe how many coaches do you have at the gym yeah i need one of those yeah definitely fun how old are your kids uh five five and eight oh yeah they'd be all over it i just got a basketball hoop in my front yard and they just love it it's like yeah they play with it every single day i'm actually surprised how
Starting point is 00:30:43 much they play with it yeah i definitely get I'm actually surprised how much they play with it. Yeah, definitely. Get them going on something. It's definitely fun. How many coaches do you have at the gym? Myself. Got Vince, who does a couple classes. And then Vince is my partner I've been with since the very beginning.
Starting point is 00:31:06 And then I got pretty much one main coach, Mason. And then a couple of subs, a couple of people that coach maybe one or two classes a week and then just kind of sub in here and there. But for the most part, myself and Mason do the majority of the CrossFit classes. Vince does a few events. Vince runs the Elevate program. Are you are you happy that you have a partner? Is there any part of you that's like, damn, I shouldn't have had a partner? No, no. I mean, so Vince was my partner, like, in the initial gym. We were partners.
Starting point is 00:31:35 We started it together. And then when we started, when we opened this gym, it was kind of like, I'm going to do it on my own. But I want you to come with me and continue to, to just, you know, our fitness journey, you know, together. So he's not, um, you know, my on paper partner, as far as like all the gym stuff goes, but he's my partner. We do our grind together. And, and, you know, so he's, you know, like I said, we, we started, I didn't want to, I didn't want to split ways when, when I was going with this big gym. But at the same time, if you're doing something on your own, then it's on you to make it be successful or to fail. And with the amount of money I was having to borrow for that, I was like, I just want to put it on myself. It might be too stressful. You never know what could happen. I'd rather just put it all on myself and just figure it out from there. But I didn't want to abandon him.
Starting point is 00:32:32 I wanted him to come with me. I wanted him to continue. So he's more like your ride or die. He's more like, and you show him respect by calling him your partner. For sure. I mean, he is my partner. You know, like I said, we started it. But yeah, I mean, like on the paper, on the business side of it, he's not.
Starting point is 00:32:51 If they foreclose on your gym, they come after you, not him. They're coming after me, yeah. But we've been grinding together for so long. And I mean, it's tough to say. We have a unique dynamic. I'm sure every partnership does. And there's been, like, hard parts of it, for sure, and button heads on things, for sure.
Starting point is 00:33:11 But, I mean, for the most part, it just works. It just works. You got to be kind of, you know, laid back in a sense because everyone's got different opinions and different you know ideas of think of ways to run things and stuff like that but it's pretty cool because he does mostly the elevate and i do the crosses so it's like that's kind of his realm and he loves it he does all these seven on seven leagues and he's super into it and he's going to games and he's talking to parents he's getting them to bring their kids in. So and he loves doing that. And like, I personally don't want to go do all that.
Starting point is 00:33:48 So it's great that he is doing that, you know, and then I'm more into the CrossFit side and, you know, weightlifting side and like all that kind of stuff. So it's a good. Hey, is that basketball machine still on? Could you go kick it? Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. After I asked you to turn it on, then I'm like yeah you hear it yeah sorry after i asked you to turn it on then i'm like hey it's making too much noise sounded like there was a party there 53 000 square feet i wonder how big his garage is that's 53 000 square feet you mean just where he's sitting right now yeah his man cave that thing looks like it's as big as a man house yeah gabe why did you why do can you kind of um walk me through um how you found crossfit and then what kind are you still on the seminar and you were on seminar staff
Starting point is 00:34:37 yeah i was i was when i had my son i i stopped doing it crazy so you've done it all you You own an affiliate, you've been on seminar staff and you've been to the games. Yeah. That's a, that's a good little, good little CrossFit trio for sure. And you made it over the 10 year mark. Yeah. Yep. Um, have you, have you, have you always, have you ever thought about not affiliating? Have you ever thought, Oh, I could save this money. I could buy a one new tire tire for one of my trucks right um yeah i mean not i mean i'm sure everyone's thought of it i've never really seriously considered it i mean i'm kind of like i'm the number one whether you de-affiliate or or whatever you're doing crossfit so give credit
Starting point is 00:35:24 where credit's due right it's crossfit like that's that's why youate or whatever, you're doing CrossFit. So give credit where credit's due, right? It's CrossFit. Like that's why you started. That's what you're doing. You know, if you want to save the affiliate fee and call it whatever you're going to call it, it's still CrossFit. So give credit where credit's due. You know, my like only like if there's any downside to being affiliated it's that a lot
Starting point is 00:35:49 of crossfit gyms are just breaking people down they're not coaching people and they're you know so across it gets this this it's going to hurt you you know rap which sometimes you have to you know when you meet someone you're already having to defend yourself that you're not going to hurt them you know um so that's the only negative thing of it but i i think that at the time right now and in the last 13 years it hasn't been anything that's that's going to be major you know like we don't have a problem getting people in but a lot of people especially older people you tell them about crossfit and that's that's's their first, Oh, I got bad knees. I got a bad back. And I'm like, that's exactly why you should be doing this because we've been fixing knees and backs for 13, 13 years, you know, but so, but I think a lot of CrossFit gyms don't coach and, and hold people
Starting point is 00:36:39 accountable to good form, you know, relentlessly hold people accountable to good form at all times. You know, if you do CrossFit with shit form, you probably will get hurt. And so if someone's been going to a CrossFit gym, that's not holding them accountable for good positions and good form and, and letting them, you know, making sure they're training within the realm of what they're capable of and they're getting hurt, then maybe they did get hurt doing CrossFit. To me, I would say that's not necessarily what CrossFit is. It's, you know, and that seems like it's become like a minor difference where to me, it seems like it's a major difference, a major difference. You know, if you're, if you're laying your back round, even slightly, when you're lifting, you know, for your average person or, or especially someone who's getting
Starting point is 00:37:23 older, you know, if you're outside your twenties, that's going to be a, that's going to be a deal breaker at, at, at some point, some point you're going to get hurt. You know, if you keep your position good and you're holding, you know, you're holding your training within the realm, what you can do and lifting what, with what you can do correctly, then it's going to be great. Your knees are going to feel good. Your back's going to feel good. It's going to make you as injury proof as you can be, you know? Are you injury free? Uh, I don't have any major things. I like my biggest thing is probably my, my neck. And, and, uh, I had MRIs and all that. And they said there was no, no bull's disc. I'd imagine there's some kind of bull's disc in there and it's really not it's not an issue but it'll it'll aggravate me sometimes if i'm not smart with
Starting point is 00:38:09 my training but it was just kind of uh it was one of those things you just gotta learn how to listen to your body a little bit you know um how do you think how do you think you did it it's tough to say i didn't like do anything. What really sent it over the edge, I fell asleep. We were coming back from Italy, and I fell asleep on a plane with my head back. When I woke up, it just felt kind of weird. Then I was noticing that if I got in a push-up position, one of my shoulder blades wouldn't engage. It would just kind of sink back. It was like, okay, this is weird.
Starting point is 00:38:42 If I hung from a pull-up bar and did a pull-up like i would go to one side so it was like so i did all these tests and went to the neurologist and got to the mris and yada yada and did the whole thing and uh ultimately the the they were like you have extreme inflammation of the brachial plexus which is like a which is like a nerve system in your neck. So I guess it's pinching that and shutting off the activation to that shoulder blade and that kind of scap area. But it's weird. It's weird. The only things that will really, really aggravate it is running and high rep double unders, any kind of like bouncing stuff, which seems strange.
Starting point is 00:39:24 Interesting. And high rep double unders, any kind of like bouncing stuff, which seems strange. Interesting. I can do handstands and, you know, anything, things that you, you know, heavy overhead lifting and it's fine. But, I mean, even the running and double unders are fine. I can do them. But if I run mileage week after week after week, the tension will just kind of build and build and build. And eventually it'll get to the point where it just feels like it's locked up. But I mean, it's been, it's been years since it's gotten there. Like I said, as you just, you kind of learn what your body can do. And now I feel like I don't have to modify my training really at all.
Starting point is 00:39:56 But when I was trying to compete, I would run a lot because that was my best conditioning. And, and I had to stop the amount of running that I was doing. That's for sure. I went to the beach a couple months ago with a friend of mine, Hunter McIntyre and Andrew Hiller. And we were probably only like in three feet of water, four feet of water. And I had been drinking. I don't know what I was thinking. And they were like, hey, we're going to throw you up in the air as high as we can i'm like okay so they locked their arms
Starting point is 00:40:27 and i sat there and they threw me in the air and then i was so high in the air that i'd like mid-flight you know i just turned into a dive to dive in and fucking landed on my head dude i'm lucky i didn't die just there's a there was a guy that did that recently, and he's paralyzed from the waist down. Where you're at? Where you're deployed? No, back home. Oh, yeah. I'm so lucky. My neck's been fucked up for like two months.
Starting point is 00:40:51 It's finally just getting better. That's great. Don't jump in the shallow end, kids. Don't drink and swim. That drink and drive shit's like, okay, fine, but don't drink and swim. Yeah. It's funny. You do all the shit that you've done and
Starting point is 00:41:05 there's some dumb shit like that that that ends up messing you up you know yeah and those two young guys shouldn't have been throwing a 50 year old dude little dude in the air fuck those guys like we got this it's all all fun and games i at least wish someone would have filmed it so i could So I could have gotten like some social media off of it. Right. So, so, so, so tell me, tell me how your paths crossed with CrossFit and then how you decided to open an affiliate. So I was just personal training at like a private studio. Um, and, uh, I would always look for just different, I'd always go on like YouTube and just look for different, you know, workouts or just different movements. You know, I came from like a bodybuilding background. So, you know, that's what I would, that's what I would do with my clients. But the more I did that.
Starting point is 00:41:59 2008, what, what year is that you're talking? Eight. Yeah. Yeah. Or 2008 2008 so probably the end of 2008 um so yeah we'd go on youtube and just look for different movements you know it was like this lady who's 50 years old trying to lose weight probably doesn't need to be doing bicep curls you know so it's like i need to learn some different stuff to do so i go on there and learn you know or just find different little whatever just stupid little movements or plyometric things or just kind of more just something different just to change it up and uh i don't remember i think it was like a fight gone bad video or something stumbled across
Starting point is 00:42:36 something some crossfit video and started watching it and was like wow look this is really look at these like those like wall balls and kettlebell swings. I've never seen any of this shit. And I was like, wow, this is different. This is cool. And then so at some point, learned that CrossFit was the thing. So then we started YouTubing just the word CrossFit and looking that up. And then it was like, once you did that, there was a whole bunch of videos.
Starting point is 00:42:59 And then that kind of turned us on to CrossFit.com, which they had tons of videos on there. I mean, and I literally watched every single video that was on there. I was just like obsessed with it. It was just so, so cool. And the more I learned, the more it made sense. You know, everything that I had been doing was kind of like, okay, workouts, let's make them hard. Let's make them hard.
Starting point is 00:43:21 Let's make people sweat. Let's make people work, work you know which was a part of it but it was like well what's the point it has to be you know there has to be it has to make sense on on on all levels and cross it was the first thing that made sense right it's function it's it's the balance of function it's building up all these different uh uh aspects of fitness and and and anyone can do it it's tailorable to anyone's ability. So I'm like, man, this, this is the only one that makes sense where anyone could ask you, why are you doing that? And you could have a, you could have a, an answer for it, you know? So,
Starting point is 00:43:54 so that was 2008 and then started incorporating it more with, with the members. And then by 2009, I guess it was like, we were was like we were doing CrossFit. We were like, we're going to do CrossFit with everyone now. And then we opened our affiliate in late 2009. Was that a hard decision? Or by then you were just fully in love with it? I was fully in love with it. And honestly, it was like, this is it.
Starting point is 00:44:26 Like, this is going somewhere. This is about to be big. It's kind of like what I was, in my mindset, I was like, you know, I know it's already been around for a while, but it was, you know, there was no across it. I think the closest one was in Sacramento. And it was just like, man, this is going to be something. Like, this is going to be a big thing pretty soon, I bet.
Starting point is 00:44:47 You know, like, we should open it right now. We'll be the first one around here, you know, and even if it doesn't become something big, whatever. People are loving it. People are getting great results from it. You know, no one else is doing it. Did you see your body composition change? Yeah, I mean, not drastically. I mean, I was doing – I started training, you know, bodybuilding style training when I was probably 13, and I was pretty consistent about it.
Starting point is 00:45:22 I was super into that for a long time, you know, from 18 to – I think I was 28 when I got into CrossFit. I mean, I was hardcore into it. I ate very healthy, and I trained super hard, and I learned it, when I got into CrossFit. I mean, I was hardcore into it. I ate very healthy and I trained super hard and I learned it and I was good at it. So I was already fit. I was already muscular and I was playing, I played a lot of soccer, so I was running a lot. So I kind of had a little bit of a balance already going there. So yeah, my physique didn't change drastically by any means. It was more just like the fitness, the capabilities, you know, learn how to do, I mean, kicking up and do a handstand, right? Trying to teach myself how to snatch and Olympic lift and really do it all.
Starting point is 00:45:58 I mean, I never got coached. The first CrossFit gym I ever went to was my level one. And then the next one that I ever went to was the one that'd be open so never really got the the being coached and going to a crossfit gym and like that and that side of it pretty much just watched youtube videos and tried to try to figure it all out so this you never belonged to an affiliate never that's awesome yeah for those of you who don't know, Gabe is talking about an era when all the CrossFitters, and correct me if I'm wrong, Gabe, at 4.50 every day, we were prepping. Right. Because in 10 minutes, there was going to be a new post. And there wouldn't always be a video, but you would hope there was a video. And you were just dying to see what the workout of the day was.
Starting point is 00:46:44 I'm guessing you were part of that that's that era oh yeah i mean i would just i i watched every video and article and every anything that was on crossfit.com if they posted a new video and there was a video link and i want to say there was hundreds of videos in there but i i would be like oh this was a new one here it's whatever it is you know it's be like oh this was a new one here it's whatever it is you know it's a video of this person doing a you know it's opt doing a sub six minute helen or whatever you know it's all these videos of pat barber and boz and all this shit you know so um yeah it was definitely different and like i said there was no i mean i think there was like i don't know if it was myspace or facebook but there was definitely different. And like I said, there was no I mean, I think there was like I don't know if it was MySpace or Facebook, but there was like some level of social media, but not not like there is now.
Starting point is 00:47:30 So, you know, other people were doing really dot com was the place. Yeah, no, definitely. And it was such basic website. It was it was awesome. I like the old website i mean the new one i realized they gotta go to it but i don't think they have to i like the old website too i think we should have we should have stuck with it i bet you greg would agree with you yeah no for sure just super basic and simple but it's like that was kind of the that was like the that was like what cross it was it was just raw it was like you give a fuck what you think and whatever, and here's the data, and here it is. This is what's going to make you fit. And if you want to argue it, let's argue it.
Starting point is 00:48:10 There's not really much debate on it. So you opened the gym, and at what point do you think, oh, I'm going to apply for seminar staff? And can you tell us about that journey? Yeah, so I opened the gym 2009 i think i got on similar staff i guess that would be 2013 ish somewhere around there so um david had reached out dave castro reached out to me and and uh it like invited me to to to um to interview or to try out for the level one staff. And at the time, I was like, I don't know. It sounds cool.
Starting point is 00:48:51 But I don't know if I want to spend my weekends doing that. And so I can't remember exactly how it went. But I didn't take it right away. And he was like, if you change your mind, just reach out. So I don't think it was too long. Maybe it was probably within a year. It was just something i wanted to do i didn't need the money um it just it was just seemed cool and it just seemed like something that would be fun and and to get in there with all these other people that you know like boz and pat and all these other
Starting point is 00:49:21 people um that had been like these OGs that were on staff. And I was like, man, this would be a really cool thing to be a part of. So, yeah, I called him up and told him I was interested and went through the interview process or the intern process, did that, got on staff. And then it was great. I loved it. It was awesome. Um, it was great. I loved it.
Starting point is 00:49:42 It was awesome. It was just like, as someone who coaches Monday through Friday, and then to leave Friday, get on a plane, go, go teach all, all weekend. And then, uh, get on a plane Sunday, come home and go right back to coaching. It was just a lot. And like, it was cool when I was, you know, when I was single or at least before we were married. And then once, even once we got married, it was like not that bad. Cause I wasn't doing that many. I'd probably do at the most one to two a month, but it was, I was probably like a, like a once a month or, and then that would
Starting point is 00:50:13 probably became like once every month and a half or two months. And then, um, and then once I got, once I had my son, I was like, I just can't justify being away on the weekend. Cause I'm gone. That's the, really the main time that I, that, that I see him, you know? Um, but it was super fun. I mean, I still miss it to this day and it was really cool to be a part of that. And, uh, like the travel sucked, but once you were there and everyone's all fired up with the level one and they're, they're learning this stuff for the first time. It was definitely fun. And you see people that you haven't seen for a while,
Starting point is 00:50:50 and it was like you do the annual summit and see all the other trainers from all over the world that you either hadn't met or you just hadn't seen for years. So that was always fun to be a part of it. It's a special team, huh? Yeah, definitely. Did you ever think you weren't worthy i mean it's i would think that everyone who's part of that team is like holy shit everywhere you look these are all world-class trainers and you listen like you
Starting point is 00:51:17 know i mean you listen to especially when you're new and you're sitting down and listening to boz lecture or or i mean really any of these guys that have been on the staff for for a while you're sitting down and listening to Boz lecture or, I mean, really any of these guys that have been on the staff for a while, you're listening to Zach Pine. He's drawing all these badass little drawings. And then, you know, you work with Chuck Carswell for a few times and you're like, fuck, I thought I was knowledgeable. I don't know shit. You know, so it kind of like, I mean, every single level one that i taught i learned a lot just by listening to the lectures you know i thought that was i really enjoyed just just that part of it you know but um as i got more comfortable with the lectures and like and uh and just you
Starting point is 00:52:00 know delivering the content the way they want it to be delivered. It was like, especially once I was getting into it for a little bit, then I was, then I was feeling more, more confident with what I was doing, you know, or I'd give a lecture and be like, I fucking killed that lecture right there. Hell yeah. That was good. That was like, got all the info in, got people laughing. And, and, uh, so yeah, I mean, but it's all relative. Then you start talking to some people that just have this wealth of knowledge and know all the science-y stuff behind it. I never really was that knowledgeable on that type of stuff. But it was always just fascinating to learn and listen to other people's versions of the same lecture that you're giving.
Starting point is 00:52:43 of the same lecture that you're giving, you know? The, in around 2016, Greg gave this mandate to switch the, make sure that, not switch, but to emphasize that anyone should take the L1, that you don't need to be a CrossFitter. You don't need to have ever done CrossFit. You don't need to be fit. You have to get in there and that that's the operating manual for the human genome. And we worked hard to – and basically it's the inoculation for chronic disease, right? You take this two-day course and now you have the tools knowing what to eat, how to move, and you can share it to keep you out of the hospital. We all know the number.
Starting point is 00:53:21 It's everywhere these days. Eighty-six percent of all healthcare expenditure in the United States is spent on people who've made bad lifestyle decisions. And by that, I mean what they put in their mouth. Yeah. Right. And. Do you agree with that? Yeah, I mean, I don't see why not. I think that I mean, it's a perfectly written perfectly written seminar for everything that you just described it's the manual right like hey if you don't you really don't need to learn any more than just this if you really learn it to you know even if you just learn it enough to pass the test even if you just learn it a little bit but i mean obviously people need to learn how to take care of their
Starting point is 00:54:05 themselves right like that should be something it's it should be important so whether it's the crossfit level one which is already there it's already written it's already been done um or or something or if it's just another class that you take you got history and then your next class is how to take care of yourself or how to eat properly. I mean, it seems like it would be I mean, you know, it seems like it would just be a part of of of upbringing of just learning. OK, what's the point of school and what's the point of all this? You're trying to educate yourself on where we've been, where we're going and all this, how to interact with people and how to become successful. But, you know, part of being successful is learning how to take care of yourself, right? Like you see these like rich guys that have very successful in business or whatever they're doing, but they got a belly
Starting point is 00:54:58 and they're just out of shape and they feel like shit and they can't have sex. Their dick doesn't work. And like, I mean, I'm like, well, that sucks. You got a lot of money, but your quality of life doesn't sound like it's that great. And it's like, if you just work out and eat even remotely healthy, you can fix a lot of that. This is harsh to say,
Starting point is 00:55:24 but I mean, I guess I've said it a bunch of times, so it doesn't matter if I say it again, especially if you have kids, if you have kids and you haven't taken your L1, there's basically, there's so much in there that you can use to raise your kids. So for example, you learn how to feed them, you learn how to move, but there's, we learn in the L1 that through struggle, you get adaptation. Sure. And so many parents want to protect their kids and all they're doing is stealing adaptation from them. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think the hump is to get past, you know, if you don't do CrossFit, that's going to be a hard sale, right. To get someone to go and do their level one, like as much as it's going to benefit them to actually get someone to go and do their level one like as much as it's going to
Starting point is 00:56:05 benefit them to actually get someone to go and do it because they're i mean it's it's you know i know they're intimidated they think it's a thousand bucks all this stuff but sure it's a myth it's a myth it's it's just um say that again the intimidation well just it's okay to be intimidated but anyone can go there and after those two days like 99 of the people you will leave there even if you've never done crossfit and you still don't want to do that you'll be like holy shit these may have been the two best days of my entire educational fucking life, and it will change your life forever. There will be stuff you'll learn in there, and you'll share it.
Starting point is 00:56:48 And if you have kids and you don't do that, I just – it's mind-boggling. It's mind-boggling to me once you know that. If you have kids, you don't go out of your way to do that just so that you can impart that information onto them. Yeah, I mean I think – yeah, I mean – It's like teaching your kids how to swim you teach your kids how to wash their hands and how to wipe their ass sure i mean but but that but if you but if you eat like shit that doesn't matter yeah it's it's just i mean it's the craziest it's the craziest thing that's for sure that's the eating and and i mean everyone's free
Starting point is 00:57:22 to make their own decisions right right? But, but it's to, to, to take care of yourself and do things that are going to make you last long and live and have a good quality life so that you can do all the other shit that that's, that's, that is important, right? That, that should be at the top of your, of your importance. And then obviously, like you said, just like washing your hands and, and, you know, having good manners and saying, saying please and thank you. You're trying to teach your kids how to be respectable and how to be good citizens and how to take care of themselves. And that it should be all part of it, you know. I mean, when I was young, my parents never told me how to eat, but they were relatively healthy.
Starting point is 00:58:02 And we didn't have soda. And we didn't like if we went we didn't like, if we went and got fast food, that was like a major treat. You know, we didn't really have shitty cereal or any like, any like majorly crappy food. So that was, and I hated it, but that's just how I was raised. So it didn't seem that hard, but it's like when you wait, when you drink soda your whole life as a kid, and then you're, you're 40 and you're like, Hey, I need to start drinking some water because I'm having some health problems. It's probably pretty hard at that point, you know?
Starting point is 00:58:30 So it's like, it's worth the effort to do it. And I work with people every day and that's what they're trying to do. And it's like, and in my head, it's like, man, this, this is crazy that you're having this part of a time as something as simple as just drinking water or or whatever it is but it's like you got to start you got to start from when they're young and it just has to be the norm it should be the norm it's weird that it's not hey how about half the country i hate to beat a dead horse but half the country doesn't even know so so my parents tried to raise me healthy too but there
Starting point is 00:59:05 were still like but people didn't know what healthy was a lot of people just didn't know what healthy was like so as long as it said non-fat on it my mom would buy it you know what i mean um thank god i was raised in armenian household so we had a lot of like the original ethnic foods that were healthy for you but like i would get like non-fat ritz crackers i didn't wasn't allowed to drink coca-cola or we would eat cereal if it said healthy on it you know what i mean um so at least they were on the right track but there's half the country they made fun of uh um that cnn host uh uh chris cuomo even though he's a complete d-bag um they made fun of him for working out during COVID that lady,
Starting point is 00:59:45 Marjorie Taylor green half the half the country who owned the CrossFit gym. Who's who's the right wing lady. They made fun of her when she said CrossFit secure, you know, the hedge against COVID. They actually made fun of the people who had the best solution. And so it's like half the country still doesn't know. Yeah, this guy. They were making fun of him because he would post –
Starting point is 01:00:08 I mean he was one of the main anchors on CNN. He got fired for, I think, touching girls or something. But it's like why are we making fun of – it's bizarre to make fun of healthy people who are actually helping you prolong and increase the quality of your life. Yeah, that's, that's, it's a mystery. I mean, I think, you know, Well, it's a defense mechanism, right? Sure. I mean, it seems like the, you know, I mean, fit people are by majority, the minority,
Starting point is 01:00:43 right? Like there's a lot more people out of shape and unfit and i think what crossfit and and the the diet prescription and the exercise prescription that we're promoting as the solution feels like such an attack on their personal lifestyle that and they're yeah yeah have to deflect it or or just try to you know degrade it or or just pretend like it's not even there and it's like it's very strange it's very weird and yeah it'd be great to get to a place where it's like hey if you decide to eat like shit and be overweight and be obese and die from that and that's your decision that's great but you can't pretend like that's not exactly what you're doing you know and don't try to don't try to promote it like like it's the norm that's not it shouldn't be the norm that should be like
Starting point is 01:01:35 it's it's weird because i mean it's it's a world thing right but you go to other countries and you don't see obese people like you do here and and you definitely don't see it just as a normal thing. Especially the poor countries, ironically, right? They're not filled with McDonald's and Starbucks. You ever go to Starbucks? I mean, yeah, I've been there. I pretty much make coffee at home, but yeah. I've been there. I'd pretty much make coffee at home, but yeah.
Starting point is 01:02:04 And then, and then you're waiting for your, your coffee to come out and there's just fucking 40 drinks there that are 2200 calories a pop ventis and they got the lid on them that holds the whipped cream and you're just seeing a parade of fucking people pick them up and you're like, yeah. And you just look at them and you're like, uh-huh. Yeah. Like one eyes look in the wrong way. Their kids, a hundred pounds overweight. Like you just see, Oh my God, these people are just on a suicide mission sure yeah i mean it's people are just oblivious i don't i don't think people i don't think people want to learn i mean some do i guess maybe and that's where they go seeking i think they do i think they're drug addicts um gabe i think they're
Starting point is 01:02:42 refined carbohydrate addicts i mean it's definitely an addiction it's just i used to drink that shit that shit was hard to break you get in a habit of drinking a sweet drink i used to put sugar in my coffee i can't even believe it like a lot but they were the little brown bags so they were healthy right remember those raw sugar yeah yeah yeah i just i mean people at point, I think are just kind of, they're just going to follow the mainstream and, and it'd be great to see, it'd be great to see just, just, just, just, just be real, just right. Like just put it out there and let people know. And it should be something that, like I was saying earlier, should be taught at a young age.
Starting point is 01:03:25 And it should be, you know, a course in school and you should be talking about nutrition or at least at least the very basics of it, at least the very basics to understand how horrible drinking soda is for you. If that's what, if that's what your main go-to drink is, right. Or, or any of that stuff, really, it's like, you should at least on build to understand that you know it's like i don't think anyone who's done heroin had any i had any misconception that this is not unhealthy for me right they're probably like who knows to me it's like mind-blowing like when do you how do you try heroin for the first time but people are doing it all the time but i don't think they're you know it's like you've been told your whole life like these are bad drugs this is you know look this is what you're going to become you're
Starting point is 01:04:06 going to be this bum on the side of the road you're it's all sucked up and you know it's just laying there it looks like he's dead i'm like all right everyone's seen that everyone's been told that their whole lives so whether you know and they still might people obviously still wow that's a great point yeah i would have tried it when i was 16 and i or maybe not 16 probably in my 20 early 20s i would have tried it and you're right there couldn't be any more messaging saying that that there's anything worse than you and yet people still do it yeah but i mean at least there's attempts there at least you're aware of what it is right it's like you know it's not just like oh what's this it gets you high like
Starting point is 01:04:45 i like getting high let's try it like you're like no it's heroin everyone who does heroin is fucked right like there's no like right right you're not just casually doing heroin on the weekends with your buddies like you're if you know everyone i know who's done it they're pretty much that's what they do they're they're in it right they're professional while you're coaching they're looking for their fix yeah yeah and hey there's a professor at harvard who who says it's okay to be a casual heroin user it's fucking nuts by the way that's the same misconception that people think it's okay to give your one and a half year old baby a lick of your ice cream it is not wait till their fucking fifth birthday why why are why are you letting them eat ice cream at one and a half and get that first crazy taste have you seen these reaction
Starting point is 01:05:31 videos of babies who eat ice cream it's nuts yeah their eyes fucking pop out of their head yeah yeah i mean it's like just hold off man why are you they're they're so young and impressionable hold off yeah yeah i mean i think it's it's crazy i mean my my kids don't really get they don't really get much of that shit anyways but and it's kind of like the ipad thing too when they do get a taste of it their reaction to it is so crazy that it's like this this is something different like it's it's literally literally like like a drug you start giving them the like the ipad we don't give our kids ipads that that much when we we do here and
Starting point is 01:06:10 there but man when you do they're like freaking glued to it like crazy you know look at this guy carl hart uh uh neuroscience at columbia field uh go to the top i want to read the uh i want to read the headline listen Listen to this guy. This heroin-using professor wants to change how we think about drugs. We have miseducated the public. I bet you a thousand bucks he believes in critical race theory. Holy shit, look at this. This guy, John Clark, said,
Starting point is 01:06:43 He said, why would you waste your substance on an interview? You have to concentrate. Fuck this guy. I'm sorry I brought him up. Savon, that was my childhood. I was 366 pounds by the time I was 18. This guy, John Clark. Wow.
Starting point is 01:07:01 Yeah. That's crazy. People will say. That's huge who i mean who knows right everyone who knows maybe you can do heroin once a week and be fine but i wouldn't suggest that as like a you can lie to yourself about it that's for sure yeah i don't i don't know i don't know it seems that seems strange i know they're starting to use it for like treatment on PTSD and stuff like that. And just like microdosing shrooms and stuff,
Starting point is 01:07:29 but I don't know the addictive properties of that stuff either. I think, and I've, I think that, that some of the psychedelics have a lot of like definitely more so than heroin, but a positive, I mean,
Starting point is 01:07:44 definitely more so than heroin, but a positive, I mean, especially as a alternative to some pharmaceutical, you know, and I had no copious or massive problem. Yeah, I know. And it's not addictive. Right. And, and, and you know, I've had a lot of people at the gym that have gone and done these like ayahuasca things and, and 100% of them have had a positive experience they don't want to go do it again it's not not something they need to do on a regular basis but the but the you know the the breakthrough that they're having mentally from that and where your mind can go
Starting point is 01:08:18 and be a little more raw a little more real with what's going on deep down inside of you they've all had positive stuff to say about it do you watch the ufc yeah do you know this guy who popped on the scene um he uh yuri prochaska he beat glover to share a remember the light heavyweight fight a couple weeks ago glover to share was winning and then in the fifth round he lost with like 15 seconds left he's the guy with the ponytail on the top he looks like a samurai gotcha j-i-r-i yuri prochaska no no no um anyway the other day gabe he he he released a a video where he talks about how he went into a dark room and just sat there for fucking three days and didn't eat anything only had water and for all the people who do ayahuasca part of me wants to say why don't you try that first you know like it's it's still the um i still feel and i'm not hating on them but it still feels like the quick fix.
Starting point is 01:09:25 And I like the feedback you gave on it. Yeah, the people who've done it have done it once and they had great results. And I know shitloads of people who think they've had great results from it too. But man, it's just spending some alone time. Walk out in the walnut orchard. Yeah, I mean, I think the bigger picture there is, I mean, hey, if it helps, it helps, right? And if it doesn't create anything that's unhealthy for you right and if it doesn't create a anything that's unhealthy for you and if it doesn't create any kind of addiction then you don't lose your job
Starting point is 01:09:50 you still take care of your kids to each their own right but i mean i think you know prior to all that and really the bigger picture stuff is yeah you got to have you got to have some some balance in life and i think people are are so like like this and in this like you got to have you got to have some some balance in life and i think people are are so like like this in this like you have to work and you have to they have to do all this shit and it's like just just live like a natural human being yeah like you said get get out in nature and and do do more primal shit you know do do more things that scare you get outside your comfort zone and and uh and have some internal growth there you know and uh and there's a lot of benefit there i think you know i mean a lot of
Starting point is 01:10:30 people like it's just like the fitness thing they want to stay in their bubble and there's no growth there and i think that's where people start to go crazy and they're getting anxiety in there you don't know where to look and they don't know what to do so they're looking for these other solutions and all that kind of stuff but um you know my guys uh this guy out says uh or this girl i'm a high-strung individual that likes a little weed and then some weight lifting is that bad for me the part that's bad for you is the part where you say i'm a high-strung individual just drop that part of the story and then you're good to go just let that part go yeah stop telling yourself that story gabe i had a guy on here the other day ricard long um which was funny because we had a typo in his name and we had uh rock hard long
Starting point is 01:11:17 and i was really wishing that that was his name but it was actually the because the i and the o on the keyboard are right next to each other. Yeah. So when we announced him as Rock Hard Long and I was so excited to make fun of him, but his name is Ricard. But he's an affiliate owner in Berlin and he was. I don't want to mischaracterize him, but he's basically saying that his gym is not a games gym. For games athletes and if anyone goes through your Instagram, um, they can see that you, you celebrate a lot of, uh, clients who are clearly not games athletes, people who are, have just embarked on the journey to change their life. And when you talked about being on seminar staff, uh, one of the highlights you said was seeing people learn that you love seeing like the light bulb go off and people and people like learn new shit um
Starting point is 01:12:09 but but you also have had games athletes come out you know garrett fisher lauren fisher yourself is do you do pigeon yourself god that gym is huge look at that rack um i've never used that before that way look at that rack that was weird to say it like that uh do you ever are you are you a games gym or are you a health gym yeah i mean i've or is it yes at the tenure affiliate thing in whistler uh i was talking to a couple affiliate or one guy specifically that was saying that that they like kicked out all their competitive athletes cause they didn't want to whatever. I don't know if it was intimidate, you know,
Starting point is 01:12:50 your average person or the older people. And to me, that just seemed insane. And it seemed, uh, it seems insane to me too. It seems insane to me too. It seems, it seems like it's, it's, it'd be, it'd be almost the same as kicking out the older people or kicking out the bigger people. Like, what are you talking about? Like, why not? You know, like that's what this whole thing is about.
Starting point is 01:13:12 We can take someone who's 500 pounds that's never worked out a day in their life and they can work out with a person right next to them doing the exact same workout that's going to make a run at the games this year. And it's going to be tailored to their ability. But the way they're going to feel will be similar they're both going to work hard they're both going to breathe hard it's going to be the same time domain they're doing you know they might be doing minor modifications and or in movements um but the function of the movement we're pulling or we're squatting or we're pushing or whatever all that's going to be the same and like that to me is what CrossFit really is and when I look at a class of people of 10-15 people
Starting point is 01:13:51 or whatever it is and you see everything from the guy doing the muscle-ups to the lady doing you know seated ring rows and I'm like okay well they're basically they're doing the same workout you know it's just tailored to what their ability is, and that's what this whole thing is. That's what I try hard to promote on the page. It's like, look, it doesn't matter. If you want to get better, it doesn't matter who you are. If you're already a games competitor and you want to get better, we'll make you better. If you've never lifted a thing in your life, you've never exercised, you have tons of weight to lose, we're going to make you better.
Starting point is 01:14:24 And that's what it's all about. what that's what it is for the individual it doesn't matter who you are it's no less or more important to the games competitor getting better as it is to the overweight person that's trying to get better you want to improve everyone wants to improve they want to see improvement so this is the program it's it's a one-size-fits-all program we're going to customize it to your ability but. So this is the program. It's a one-size-fits-all program. We're going to customize it to your ability, but you're still doing the program. You're still doing the same workout.
Starting point is 01:14:53 What's the key to retention? How do you keep – how have you been – how have you stuck around so long? How do you keep clients? I think it's just you got to go maybe mean one take care of them right like if they just come in and high five and kick ass and leave like that's fine for some people but you know you gotta talk to people a little bit hey what's what is your goal specifically you know like what is it that you specifically want to accomplish and as you talk to people it's mostly the same goal right i want to lose weight i want to look good naked i want to
Starting point is 01:15:30 be stronger i want to you know whatever right like so okay we don't need to modify anything you're doing but maybe we do need to modify something maybe someone's frustrated because they don't feel like they're progressing they don't feel like they're ever going to get a ring muscle up or they don't feel like they're losing weight or they don't feel like they're progressing. They don't feel like they're ever going to get a ring muscle up or they don't feel like they're losing weight or they don't feel like, you know, whatever it may be. So it's, I think it's kind of just talking to people a little bit and seeing what, what it is they want. And, and, you know, before I taught 20 person CrossFit classes, I taught people one-on-one, you know, and it was like, it's just you and I, we're going to focus on just you. And I'm going to talk to you about your diet and you're going to bring me your dialogue. And it was like old school. Right. So
Starting point is 01:16:07 I try to kind of maintain that, that, that personal touch, I guess, like with, with, with everyone, you know, and it's like, if they're progressing and they're seeing, if they're not progressing, there's a good chance that they're, they're not going to keep coming, you know? So you want to make sure they're progressing. Well, what is the thing that's holding them back from progressing? It's usually their diet. So talk to them a little bit about their diet. Ask them how that's going. Some people don't want to talk about it, and that's fine too.
Starting point is 01:16:34 Hey, we don't want to have to talk about your diet. If you don't want to lose weight, that's on you. Just come. Let's make you healthy. Let's make you get strong. Let's make you, you know, build your endurance. And if at some point you want to focus on losing weight we need to focus on your diet and we'll help you with that
Starting point is 01:16:48 when it gets to that point but i think that's a big part of it and and just like i was saying earlier just making sure you're not hurting people and crushing people and tailoring it to their ability and all that kind of ties in with the making sure that that that they're progressing if you're beating the shit out of them and they can't move and their backs hurt all the time like that's not good you're doing something wrong like that so you need to change the approach a little bit um i i maybe more specifically there's the saying that people don't quit jobs they quit people right so when someone quits a job it's not the job they didn't like. It's the people they didn't like. And even Don Fall, the new CEO of CrossFit, when I asked him why he left the Marine Corps, he said it was because the guy that he reported to was an asshole, just a fucking piece of shit.
Starting point is 01:17:38 And I used to like going to – what I would do when I was in college is I would go to class and I would find someone that I wanted to meet. It was always a girl and I didn't care if I ever met them. I use that to, um, make sure that I would attend class so that I didn't cut class, especially early classes, right?
Starting point is 01:17:59 Okay. I'm gonna pick a pretty girl in the class. I'm just going to kind of fix it on her and make her like part of my world. Right. I would think the same is like that for the gym um it's the same thing i used to or you know when you have a job and you get there and your homeboy like like you're like your homeboy vince right like don't you like you come to the gym and you see him there and you're like yeah it's like there's a culture
Starting point is 01:18:21 there oh sure you kind of see i'm saying like you give yourself little rewards you know what i'm saying like or when you drive home and it's a long drive you Sure. Do you kind of see what I'm saying? Like you give yourself little rewards, you know what I'm saying? Like, or when you drive home and it's a long drive, you purposely drive by, I'll purposely drive by the beach so that it's a reward. I get to stare out at the ocean. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:18:34 Do you do that? Do you make sure that it's a place? Do you have like rules about the culture or anything? Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Like all the other stuff that I was saying, like,
Starting point is 01:18:43 obviously if you have the greatest form and you coach people, perfect, but you come in and you're a total dick, people don't want to stick around. Even if you are great, like you are coaching, you're making them move perfectly, and you're getting their diet dialed in. But if you're a dick, then – I mean you got to be a dick to a certain extent because you got to keep it real with people. But when you're really – when people don't like you, that's obviously going to be a problem, you know. So but I think, yeah, creating the create you have to create a community. That's a big part of it. People come to the gym because they like the community. And, you know, that's that's a big reason why a lot of people come. You know, they showed up for the
Starting point is 01:19:25 fitness but they stayed because of the community because they like it they like the other people that come there you know they like to they like the coaches they like the the vibe in there and the music and the you know whatever and the diversity and you know whatever it is but yeah it's like you said earlier you can't uh it's easy to quit a trainer. It's hard to commit to, to quit a relationship. So if you have a relationship with, with, with people, that's, that's a little bit different. You know, we try to do like, we do a couple of parties, you know, annually, a Christmas party and a pool party. And that kind of creates some outside of the gym, uh, camaraderie and some non-fitness related camaraderie, which is,
Starting point is 01:20:05 which is always fun. And people look forward to that, which is cool. But yeah, it's, you gotta, it's gotta be fun. No matter how effective it is, if it's not fun,
Starting point is 01:20:13 you're not gonna, you're not gonna stick with it. Do you do anything to promote outside? Do you do anything? Do you run ads or commercials or? Not really. Not really. I mean,
Starting point is 01:20:24 it's all, it's all word of mouth. People bring in their it's all, it's all word of mouth. People bring in their homies in it's all word of mouth. Yeah. And how, and how often do you get a new client? Well, there's new people in there almost every day. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. It's just, I mean, fitness is hard. I mean, we, good. Will you just, sorry, sorry to interrupt. Will you just, if you see someone new, will you just walk over to them and say hi to them? Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Starting point is 01:20:51 I mean, we have like a little protocol. Like you're going to come in. We have a front desk girl. She's going to set you up. She'll come out and introduce you to whoever's coaching. But, you know. Oh, she does. So that's like nice.
Starting point is 01:21:02 So she doesn't just say, okay, go get in that class. She walks you over there. She'll walk you up and say, hey, this is so-and So, so that's like nice. So she doesn't just say, okay, go get in that class. She walks you over there. She'll walk you up and say, Hey, this is so-and-so this is the coach. So, I mean, people are really intimidated to get into a gym and,
Starting point is 01:21:12 and, you know, it seems, you know, I mean, just, and I tell everyone this cause a lot of, especially,
Starting point is 01:21:18 especially like, you know, trainers or, or a front, like the front desk people, it's like you, you're fit and you're comfortable here. And this is, this is your shit. But sometimes when these people come in
Starting point is 01:21:28 and they're asking stupid questions at the front desk, like they might've been thinking about coming in here for months, for years. And today was the day that they finally built the courage up to actually come in and, and inquire about it. So it's like, you got to get them while they're here. Like you can't be like, okay, well, you know, just, you know, come back on Monday. It's like, no, no, you're here. Let's let, we're going to schedule an appointment. We you got to get them while they're here. You can't be like, okay, well, just come back on Monday. It's like, no, no, you're here. We're going to schedule an appointment. We're going to get you nailed down. We're going to get to cook them while the oven's hot.
Starting point is 01:21:53 You're here now. Let's make it happen. So that initial entry – And no one gives a fuck if you're at the front desk and your boyfriend cheated on you. No one gives a fuck. Bury that shit until you're done with work. Oh, yeah. You're changing lives here yeah and that's and that's that's our goal is to change lives you know but but to get to get someone even past that yeah it's bring them in and
Starting point is 01:22:15 introduce them and let them know who the coaches are and if i'm not coaching that class i'll try to personally go up and i mean i want to know everyone's name that trains in my gym you know and i don't coach the early early morning classes or the late afternoon classes so there's definitely people that that you know i'll see and be like hey how long you been coming like i've been coming for a year and i'm like fuck you know but it is what it is but i that's awesome i'm walking over and i want to make sure they know who I am and I'm going to give them my cell phone number. Hey, you reach out any time you got any questions or just make them feel like, you know, I mean. Dude, your gym is so big that you could look across the gym and not know if someone's a boy or a girl or they're black and white. And I'm not even joking.
Starting point is 01:23:01 That fucking gym is huge. Half the people in there are fucking silhouettes with my eyes right yeah uh there's a comment here from chase ingram hey gabe you remember when you me and dave castro owned rich froning and sand football at the l1 trainer summit good times i do i do remember that and then someone took this like epic like sunset beach so we were like coming out of the water, just like photo. It's pretty funny. It's like a- Like a Chippendale moment?
Starting point is 01:23:29 Like a Chippendale moment. Yeah, like everyone's walking out of the ocean, like sunsets behind everyone. And like, it's pretty epic. But yeah, I remember that. I remember that. That was a great afternoon. What was that at?
Starting point is 01:23:41 That was across at level one, he was saying? I can't remember. great afternoon what what was that at that was across the level one he was saying um uh yeah l1 trader summit probably san diego right was that san diego then san diego yeah yeah i couldn't remember if it was that or if it was like a it was like before after the games year or something like that but yeah that's right that was the first year i was on did was um was the um were the restrictions from 2020 to 2022 that were put on planet earth were those tough on you i mean they're tough on everyone right but probably less on me it seemed than most people i don't know to me i just kind of looked at i – I just evaluated what I felt about it,
Starting point is 01:24:28 and I didn't seem that scared or worried. It was just like, well, it sucks. It's just now there's another reason, another way that you can die is really all it is. But we closed for the initial six weeks, and then after that— Was that scary? Was that scary, that closure, six weeks? For sure. Like financially scary?
Starting point is 01:24:51 Yeah, I mean, it wasn't—I mean, obviously we took a hit, but a lot of the members kept their memberships. We were kind of like, look, obviously we're closed. If you need to cancel your membership, it's all good. But if you can keep your membership, and then later down the road when we reopen, we'll credit you back this month. That way we're not taking a huge hit all at once. That'd be easier. It'd be better for us. And most people were like, dude, it's all good.
Starting point is 01:25:16 Like, don't even, don't worry about it, you know. But, you know, after that month and a half, it was just kind of like, this is ridiculous. So we opened and it was like, look, if we open and people start getting sick, then we'll close. But we opened, and everyone was fine. And people got COVID, and people were fine. So obviously, it was crazy. And in the world, a lot of people were not fine. So who knows?
Starting point is 01:25:45 But in our bubble and what we were doing and the people that were coming in, and, you know, it's funny because in that whole time, a lot of new people came in, a lot of big people. And I started this. I don't know if you looked on the Instagram. It's called the Redirect Program. I started that in 2020, like right before COVID. But I was like, fuck it. We started, we're, we're doing this, you know? So, and it was basically like,
Starting point is 01:26:12 uh, Hey, I'm going to give three people a free one year membership to lose a hundred pounds. And if they lose it, I'll give them a lifetime membership, um, for free, you know, just to, just to, just, just to do something different really do something you know it's really gratifying to help watch people lose weight and change their lives when through fitness you know and sometimes weight loss sometimes people are like man i was suicidal before i came in here and then i never even knew it but now they're five years later like i should i was suicidal before i came in and crazy shit like that right so it's pretty gratifying when someone tells you that you had some play in
Starting point is 01:26:51 their in their life pivoting for the better so but it was like but i'm these people are paying me to do it you know so i was like i want to do something where it's just like it's just just because it's the right thing to do but obviously you got to run a business you got to get paid so it can't be a free show for everyone but it was like i want to do. But obviously, you got to run a business. You got to get paid. So it can't be a free show for everyone. But it was like, I want to find three people, one-year membership for free. If you quit, you have to pay for the months that you use. If you make it and you lose 100 pounds, you get a lifetime membership. So we were right in the middle of that.
Starting point is 01:27:17 So it was like, fuck it. We're doing this. And they came and they all did it. And it was pretty cool. All three of them lost 100 pounds all three yeah all holy shit dude yeah it was cool and it's it was kind of it was bittersweet because two of them at this point have probably gained it all back that's fine that's fine you got hey man it took me 50 times to quit smoking cigarettes yeah quit for a day quit for a week quit for a month it's all 50 times to quit smoking cigarettes. Quit for a day. Quit for a week. Quit for a month. It's all – you got to make shots at it.
Starting point is 01:27:48 Yeah, they still did it. But the one kid – the one of the kids was 13 when he started, 14 when he finished. And he is a fucking beast, and he's a whole new man. And I caught him early enough in his life to where this is going to – I mean it's totally changed the direction of his life like he's you know he's in the gym every day just basketball at 225 the other day you know and uh you know he's it's it's crazy i mean and like this his demeanor his kind of insecurity you know i mean i i could barely get him to even talk to me for the first six months. It was very one-word responses. And yeah, there's Wes right there. Is this him?
Starting point is 01:28:30 Yep. Oh, my goodness. Dude, he's a whole new kid. Oh, my goodness. And it's crazy because he lost 100 pounds. Obviously, he's just way more confident, and he's got a community, and he's got a whole gym behind him, and everyone loves him, and everyone knows his story and his hard work,
Starting point is 01:28:53 and everyone saw his struggle. And his mom started, too. She lost, I think, 50 pounds, and she's a fucking beast now, too. Hey, if you did that for my kid i would like i would start crying like i would feel like i i feel like i owe my the train the good trainers my kids have my life already dude i want to cry right now yeah it's definitely cool it's definitely cool to see him in there and it's how did you get him in there how do you get how how does an find, let's say other affiliates want to do that. How do you find three people who are 100 pounds overweight who are willing to go on the journey?
Starting point is 01:29:29 Just poach them out of Starbucks? I mean, like the first one, no, it was like, you got to come to me. I'm not going to, because this is going to be hard, right? You got to lose two pounds a week for a year. Like that's aggressive, okay? So you got to find someone who's probably got more like 150 pounds to lose and also really wants to do it.
Starting point is 01:29:50 The first girl just came to the gym and was ready to sign up right when I was about to pitch this program. She was like, hey. I pitched it to her. She was like, I'm in. Let's do it. What if she would have been like this, Gabe? I don't got 100 pounds to lose. What are you talking about, asshole?
Starting point is 01:30:12 I would have been like this gabe i don't got 100 pounds to lose what are you talking about asshole well i would say that oh so i try to like i try to just keep it real with people without being a total that's where that yeah well this is dick because you just got to be blunt with people sometimes right like hey yeah no you you do up you're a professional trainer you can say anything you want about people's weight i mean that is the truth you should feel comfortable i would see greg do that all the time. Walk up to some dude who's 400 pounds and be like, hey, dude, I need to get you into my gym. It's like, hey. come in tell me your story and like i was getting people but they just weren't like i'm like i mean you're 240 pounds like you maybe have 100 pounds to lose like getting you down to 140 which is your high school weight that's gonna be tough you know and there's like i mean everyone deserves a shot you know but then his mom i don't know how i don't know who put her onto it, but she called me or text me and we talked. And that was like, this is exactly what I want. This kid's young.
Starting point is 01:31:11 He's insecure. He's having troubles. He's, you know, he's probably, probably having a tough time at school. He's big. But the biggest thing is he's young, you know? So I want to do it again. I want to do it again. young you know so um i i i want to do it again i want to do it again and and i think if i do do it again i'm gonna try to do only high school kids or youth you know because they're they haven't been
Starting point is 01:31:35 you know the other two i think we're in their 20s and it's like it's you know everyone deserves a shot and you're never too late but you've you've darted you've you're grown you're like an adult now like this is your lifestyle you know so it's a lot tougher to change that lifestyle whereas at 13 you're barely you're barely a young person like you're you're you know you're barely out of your kid stage so if you change it now then by the time you're 20 you've spent just as much time eating healthy as you have eating like shit as far as far as you can remember so right right your lifestyle change you know i can't believe you did that for a 13 year old boy um how many so he would come to the gym five days a week yeah and his mom and his mom
Starting point is 01:32:18 would bring him yes i think his grandparents would bring him his mom would start to come and she came at the 5 a.m class and then west would Wes would come to the 3 or 4 p.m. class. Wow. She's a badass, too, for joining her son. Yeah. And she like, I mean, she I mean, she's the one that made it happen. Right. Like she was doing they together.
Starting point is 01:32:40 So she's the one she's obviously feeding him. So she's the one that's that's that made it happen. So so I was giving them the prescription of what to do and how to eat. But she did it. There was no hiccups. He was just on fire right out of the gate and just never missed a beat and just, just cruised right in the other two. There was a lot of like ups and downs and plateaus and gain a little bit and have a
Starting point is 01:33:02 huge loss. And then, you know, it was all over the place, which was more typical of what I thought it would be. But they both did it. They both did it. So, you know, and so, which is still like, regardless of any weight they've gained back the lead, like you say, at least they know they can do it. They have the recipe. They know what it feels like. And they both still have the lifetime membership. So we're, we we're we're here to help them the whole time you know the the mom and the son had they ever done crossfit before i mean the son definitely not i don't think the mom had either there
Starting point is 01:33:34 imagine what a what a fucking good mom that is so she brings him in and he starts his journey and in the first six months he basically doesn't say a word. And then now he's a chatty Cathy. Yeah, I mean, he's still like he's a reserved type of guy. But I mean, I don't think I ever saw him smile in the first six months. Like you could just tell it was like he felt out of place. You know, he's a big guy and a lot of stuff was hard for him to move. And he was always last on the run. And, you know, it's like, but as he started to get a little better and lose some weight, started to open up.
Starting point is 01:34:08 And now it's like he knows everyone there and everybody knows him. So, you know, he comes in, he knows everyone. It's like it's his spot, you know. Yeah, he has ownership of the gym now. Yeah. I can't believe that's a 13-year-old kid there. Hey, there was this kid in my, in my son's tennis program. And he's a, he's a big kid. He's 10 years old and he was really big. And when they would,
Starting point is 01:34:30 if anyone got in trouble, which they get in trouble, you know, you don't bring your pencil to tennis or you don't listen or you show up late. The whole team runs line sprints. And this kid, um, uh, he would always come last in line sprints. And then after about a year, he started beating a bunch of the kids, including my kid, and he started leaning out. And I asked his parents, I go, hey, what's up with your kid? He's killing it and he looks so much better.
Starting point is 01:34:54 And they just put him in water polo. And I was like, yeah, of course. I mean, he's treading water fucking two hours every day. Yeah. Yep. I mean, you just gotta move right yeah that i mean there's there's it should be more than that right you should squat you should learn and you know balance of fitness and all that's important but ultimately you need to just move and eat a little bit less and if that's you know but if you do put your kid into a fucking aggressive program,
Starting point is 01:35:26 like a good CrossFit program, a water polo program, a wrestling program, you're going to see change. Yeah. Oh, most definitely. Most definitely.
Starting point is 01:35:36 Yeah. I mean, I think, yeah, I think everyone should have to play. It should be like, you got to pick what sport you're going to play. Like in high school,
Starting point is 01:35:44 right? Right. Like suck at it. It's okay. but get out there and and do something right it's okay it's not gonna not be good at not everyone athletic right but it's like gotta at least try that's his mom right there's his mom lost mom lost 50 pounds too which was really cool and she's a freaking freaking beast now yeah she looks great holy cow yeah um uh nate nate diaz um i saw a picture of him in your gym from i don't know six seven eight years ago did you ever see him around town yeah he was actually just in the gym uh like a month ago he started coming like the probably the most frequently that i've seen him in there they came him and his crew came for um yeah so that was a while back there's one if you go on our instagram on the gym one we just posted he just came in but so that was right after he fought mcgregor the first time and then uh
Starting point is 01:36:37 and then he just started coming in him and his buddy started coming in just like training crew um like a month ago they have, one of his buddies has a boxing match. He's fighting on the undercard in the Silva. Yeah, so the guy that Nate's left in the maroon shirt, Chris
Starting point is 01:36:56 Avila, on the Jake Paul Anderson Silva card. Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah, so he wanted to come in good when excuse me when he comes in there do you train do you train them yeah yeah i mean usually i'll work out with them if they can come to the time that i work out at because it's just more fun i've known nate since we were since we were really really young since like the high school days um so you know we would hang out back then
Starting point is 01:37:30 kind of here and there and then obviously him and nate and nick just took off and and blew up in the in the ufc and then nate especially since he got that mcgregor fight obviously but um so but yeah they've been they've been coming in a little bit and they like it it's just hard to get them to do something consistent i don't know that they have much routine you know it's just like they're just they they're going by their own by their own routine you know what i'm saying so to get them to commit to like hey you're gonna come monday wednesday friday or something like that it just ain't gonna happen if they. If they're going to come, they're going to come. But they like it. They enjoy it.
Starting point is 01:38:08 Is it a scene when he comes in? Yeah, that's kind of why. I mean, everyone wants to get a picture and get his autograph or whatever. So that's why I think he likes to come when I work out because there's no classes during that time. It's just a small handful of people. So it's like it's not a big spectacle. He can just kind of train.
Starting point is 01:38:27 Yeah. I would, I mean, he, he is, he is really blown up. I mean, yeah,
Starting point is 01:38:33 it's, it's almost, it's, it's pretty crazy how he did it. He basically just, he, he created it himself. Oh,
Starting point is 01:38:40 he did for sure. Yeah, he did. I mean, he was fighting a bunch of bullshit fights and then he then he called out mcgregor and then just you know that whole thing unfolded and he got got in on the spot and that was just nuts and then he beat him right and then like people like nate because he's just you know he's just he just keeps it real and people like that cause he's just, you know, he's just, he just keeps it real and people like that. And he's like,
Starting point is 01:39:08 he's a shit talker to a certain extent, but you know, he's not like, you listen to McGregor talk, he's quick and he's got all this shit he's saying and it's kind of entertaining, but Nate's just like a straight up street brawler that got really fucking good. And now that's his profession, you know? really fucking good and and now that's his profession you know and he i wonder if he's done i don't think he's done i think i mean i think he's gonna do the mcgregor three i think is gonna happen and then you know i think at this point he's made a lot of money he's already you know
Starting point is 01:39:41 he could probably give a shit about a title fight but it's like if you put him up he just wants he probably just wants to do a couple more big fights and get a couple more big paydays which at this point you can't blame him no not at all i'm really glad he didn't have to fight um comes out i'm so glad yeah i mean it was cool to see him fight ferguson i mean that yes he's a different animal but it would have been interesting. I mean, Nate's got his style, right? And it's like those first couple rounds, he's just kind of – it's like Rocky IV every time he fights.
Starting point is 01:40:14 He's taking the shots. He's getting busted open, you know. But no one can hang with his endurance, it seems like. And, you know, if he can get that guy into the third, fourth round and he starts gassing out, he's got the tools to beat anybody. You know, he doesn't have that crazy explosive power like a lot of these guys have. But these guys go so explosive in the first couple rounds. That's what happened to McGregor.
Starting point is 01:40:35 That's what happened to McGregor both times he fought him, you know. He goes so explosive in those first rounds. And then they're just shot by the time they get 15, 20 minutes in. But Kamzat, I don't think Comzat's a 171. No, that's small for him. I got to go grab my phone. I'm going to let you go in one second. I just want to show you one picture.
Starting point is 01:40:58 Caleb's going to show you one picture. Yeah. Hey, Star. Unfortunately, it's a little blurry. Are you on using you're you're on using your cellular service not your wi-fi uh yeah wow what a great picture it's crazy that it's that the connection's that good that's your that's your house yeah that's the that's the backyard that was just the shop i was in right there oh my god your kids are living the dream
Starting point is 01:41:24 look you got a little basketball court. You got two hoops. Yeah, I freaking love it. I don't know if you can see my daughter over there. Hey, sweetheart. Caleb, I'd pull it up, but since it's a new computer, it's telling me I can't. It's not like we do it either. Okay.
Starting point is 01:41:41 Gabe, thanks, brother, for coming on. Good to catch up. Yeah, absolutely. Good to hear your affiliate stories. Appreciate it. Until our paths meet again, thanks for everything. Yeah, I appreciate you, man. My pleasure. Easy day.
Starting point is 01:41:57 And the redirect program, fucking fantastic. I'm glad we got to hear about it. Yeah, no, definitely. Appreciate it, man. Keep fighting the good about it. Yeah. No, definitely. Appreciate it, man. Keep fighting the good fight. Of course. Yep. Absolutely.
Starting point is 01:42:09 We'll see you. Okay. Ciao. All right. Take care. Yeah. I forget whenever you get a new computer and you want to share a screenshot, it says you have to reduce your security settings.
Starting point is 01:42:21 And I hadn't done that. Yeah. I haven't done that either, apparently. All right. Man, he's cool as shit super cool that was dope uh the humility the mom had to change to the humility the mom had to have to change how her son was eating man that's huge saved his life there was something in here that spiegel said about marjorie taylor green being batshit crazy and when the uh just on a side note when that information obviously i've uh three jewish sons and um when that story came out that she said that Jews were burning for shooting lasers
Starting point is 01:43:07 out of their eyes in California, I thought, well, that's interesting. Let me look that up. And there's there is I couldn't find any truth to that story. I even went to Newsweek. I used all the liberal publications to hunt down that story. And basically what it was is there were there are some experimental satellites that are up in space. I think that they might be owned by the Rothschild family and they are, um, therefore there's some sort of satellites that can, um,
Starting point is 01:43:39 would be used to push energy around the planet instead of wires or something. I can't remember, but they're experimental satellites. And there were concerns not by her that during one of these experiments, one of these satellites misfired and started a forest fire in California. And that got turned to in the Rothschilds are Jewish. And that got turned to her saying that you shoot lasers out of their eyes and started a forest fire.
Starting point is 01:44:03 So when I, yeah. So when I, it's the same thing when they called Donald Trump racist for saying, saying that jews shoot lasers out of their eyes and started a forest fire so when i yeah so when i it's the same thing when they called donald trump racist for saying um that mexicans were rapists and killers he was not saying that he was saying that the people coming over the border from mexico are probably not their best people and their finest scientists but probably more likely people that they've let out of jail that they want to get out of their country that those that the mexicans are probably sending through and these these twists are um it's a shame it's a shame that people believe them too so um it's just good to just do a little bit of uh no i oh spiegel hi there you. Have you seen her talk about a peach tree dish? No, I don't know what that is, but, but I do, I do like the fact that she was so adamant.
Starting point is 01:44:51 What was interesting is she was so adamant about using fitness to cure COVID or as a hedge against COVID and that, and I think things have changed, but Andrew Weinstein over at CrossFit Inc released basically a press release denouncing her. And this is a guy who didn't do CrossFit, has never done CrossFit, who is a – if I had to choose what kind of animal he is, I would say a malnourished weasel. And he ran PR for CrossFit for a couple years. And it's amazing that while someone is talking about – i don't care if you're a flat earther if you're saying that crossfit builds a hedge let it fly it's honest so um and and i appreciate you saying this dallas because i don't want to like republicans they got they got their issues this whole their whole i don't want to get into it but right now i do want to get into
Starting point is 01:45:48 it but not right now but um um okay obby's so awesome though i bet he can shoot that yeah well some jews can yes that is that is correct but they're not going to start force fires no no no he's he's got the lasers under control uh how about uh nobles l1 knockoffs i yeah somebody said that somebody just found a link for that like they use like the l1 trainers link they didn't actually they're not actually selling them on the noble website uh i think both i think you could i think that it was supposed to be private i think that accidentally it became public, and so that was that. I am no fan of Noble in the slightest. I think that they are a vile group of people who work over there. of people who work over there and i know that they pay the athletes a shitload of money so the athletes are staying quiet and i get that i think that they have from what i've seen they're they're confused bunch of virtue signaling woke people who've just spread hate around the
Starting point is 01:46:55 planet in the name of not spreading hate and they've supported some some other companies by proxy like outwad who who who in my opinion uh by proxy like Outwad who, who, who in my opinion, uh, are doing things to hurt children. That's as gentle as I can say it. Anyway,
Starting point is 01:47:15 that being said, um, CrossFit Inc owns CrossFit. And with that came all of CrossFit's IP. I mean, that, that's all CrossFit is. You have to know that. And so they can put whatever they want on the t-shirts, just like you guys, anyone could be upset if they're not giving attribution, etc. Like, we're all free to think what we want. But at the end of the day, it was sold to CrossFit. I don't think Noble did any of that stuff without CrossFit's approval.
Starting point is 01:47:56 Would it be nice if Noble were to be like, hey, we fucked up and all our policies have just led to more hatred and more violence? And instead of reducing racism, we've insisted that it survive and we've nourished it and fed it, including sexism and homophobia and all that stuff that they could realize that that would be awesome. And that we apologize for being so negative towards Greg Glassman and fueling the fire as some outside corporate juggernaut who only gives a fuck about money. Yeah, that'd be cool if they said all that. I agree. And then if they said, Hey, and in, in response to us making wrong decisions, we're going to sell this shirt and we're going to donate all the profits we make from this shirt. We're going to use to give people free L ones or to start or send people to pay for their affiliate fees. Awesome. That'd be great. That's not what happened, but at the end of the day, and so you guys might all be mad who know the whole story and know the truth i get it but that being said they own that shit like crossfit owns all that stuff and
Starting point is 01:48:51 um they're trying to figure out a way to get the message out to save people's lives and to make money so that's where we're at i i don't really have a um i I haven't formed an opinion on it yet. I haven't fallen into a camp. Yeah, I own Zero Noble gear too. I think everything that they make is horrible. Of course, Rich Froning likes their shirts. He has a fucking impeccable body. But if your body has one tiny flaw, you're fucked.
Starting point is 01:49:20 You look like fucking the Pillsbury Doughboy. And their shoes are completely unwearable. I really don't know how anyone wears their shoes. It is truly remarkable. Whenever I had to wear them for the, like when I worked events, it was fucking horrible. My feet were just destroyed. My back hurt. It was just shitty.
Starting point is 01:49:39 It's almost like that they were prototypes that were like made at a brand new shoe making plant like they hadn't dialed in how to make shoes like okay oh shit all these shoes were made of cardboard okay paint them funny colors and then we'll get them out i mean rich likes any brand shirts because he never wears that's a good point he only wears his own shit but but uh it was pretty funny when rich said they make the worst shoes ever. I have a $50 gift card to Noble and don't know what to use it for. Sell it for $100. Oh, socks.
Starting point is 01:50:13 Yeah, socks are cool. I like their joggers. Go fuck yourself. Shut up. Oh, did we decide on a Hiller Fit review? I'm missing you, buddy. I'm so missing you. All right.
Starting point is 01:50:32 Great show. Crushed it again. I don't know. This is the shirt from every second counts. The movie I made in 2008, the original CrossFit documentary. Can you see my back? Yeah, you got a wide back. Yeah, yeah, there it is.
Starting point is 01:50:51 Nice. Yeah, now we get the full shot. That's good. That's Pat Barber. I wore that just because Gabe was on the show today. He's old school. No, Bruce, I didn't say I miss you. I didn't.
Starting point is 01:51:05 Oh, you're free tonight. I'm having Patrick Vellner on tonight. And we're trying to get someone to come on at 530 before Patrick, too. No one wants to come on. All right. Well, there it is. Spiegel, 1999. Thanks, guys, for everyone for checking in.
Starting point is 01:51:20 Spiegel has ended the show. Spiegel, they are so tight anus crushing wow of course they are of course they are if you want everyone in the world to see your cock and balls and have your anus crushed dress like andrew hiller okay guys i'll see you this evening with pat velner uh i i've invited uh brian friend and jr howell to join me so it should be fun all right bye

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