The Sevan Podcast - #663 - Matt Dlugos & Alex Gazan

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

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Hey, thanks for doing this. It's early as shit, right? It's a little early, but it's all good. We're here. What time do you normally get up? I feel like on Sundays I like to sleep until like eight oh i'm sorry no dude you're fine okay i love it and i forgot that it was daylight savings time i thought we lost i always get confused i thought we lost an hour we gained an hour

so we're good we got all the hours over here okay i don't even um it's weird back in the day um when you were still in your dad's sack, we actually had to change our clocks. But now it's just your phone. Just I don't even know. I don't I just my phone just tells me I'm just a tool of the man. I just what time is it? It's like when the microwave is like it will probably stay an hour ahead for the rest of time. Oh, OK. Right.

There are things like that. Yeah. Same with me. I have There are things like that. Yeah. Same with me. I have like a bunch of clocks in my garage and they'll, and they never, I just like, oh, they'll be right again in six months. Exactly. Aren't they trying to do away with that? Like, isn't it kind of, it's not that it's silly now, but it was, it was like agricultural

based, right? Like it was for the farmers and. I think so. I think so. I heard that, um, uh, time change causes myocarditis i saw an article yesterday i don't know what that means i mean it's bad for your heart everything everything's bad for your heart these days that's the new um that's the new thing yes yes uh dude the stash is fire thank you man i just shaved everything up the other day um we're just rocking the stash is fire. Thank you, man.

I just shaved everything up the other day. We're just rocking the stash for November. Microwave, oven, car. I think Arizona has never observed daylight savings. I think you're right. I think Arizona is just like, fuck you. Yeah, there's a weird vortex. They call it the vortex.

They don't do it. So for six months, I think, though, their clocks will be right and that we all fall back. I don't know. Seven. My son says, what's up, dude? Hey, what's up, dude? What's up, son? What's up, Mr. Young Sedone Jr.

And I already said the F word. If I would have known, I would have tried. I would have tried to hold it in. Seriously, I would have. Tell your son, do as I say, not as I do. So are you chomping at the bit to get out there and compete? Yeah, I'm pretty excited. I got two like two competitions over the next three weeks or two weeks really i guess now um and i'm very very fired up for both of them are you going to australia yeah oh no shit who are you competing with what team um

compete with con and ricky oh my goodness, dude. Yeah. Yeah, so that'll be super fun. That kind of came about like super organically, but like everything fell into place really well. But yeah, I get to go down and throw down with them. Zalos games the weekend before. I fly out like the night of the last day of the Zalos games. So it should be a fun couple weeks i'm gonna pull up the calendar here so you where's oh it's over here uh so um the zealous game start on friday

or saturday i believe it's saturday saturday they start on the 12th and then you're saying on the night of the 13th you you cruise over to that little airport. What is it, McKellen? Yeah, McCarran. McCarran. And then I go to LA, and then I go to Sydney. Wow. Speaking of time changes, like you either lose a day or gain a day.

Yeah, I leave Sunday night. I get there Tuesday morning. And then that – So I lose an entire day. You lose an entire morning. And then that entire day. You lose an entire day. And then that down under thing starts on the 18th. Yes. So you have the 16th,

a Wednesday and the 17th to unravel your, your, your sleep disorder. Yeah. It should be enough time, right? No, I know it's going to be rough, but i wanted to make them both work i wanted to

do the zealous games because i heard like there's so many good athletes coming and like a couple friends coming out and yeah it's just gonna be a good time plus it's at our home gym it's in las vegas i so i really appreciate you i didn't know this until I'm sitting here looking at you, but I really appreciate you doing it. And here's the, I think it's a, um, innovative event. I think it's different. It's the, the qualifiers before the, the broadcasted event is to hype it up. Not the climax. I like, I like the thought of that. I like the fact that it's just Jaredared just one guy just trying to pull this thing to get well obviously as a team of guys but he's trying to pull this together it's all um and it feels very communal in that sense sort of like this podcast everyone who helps me on the podcast is just communal everyone's just diving and i feel that way about the zello games and i'm glad he included us in it i'm excited to see how we're gonna fuck it up i mean enhance it yeah i think it's super cool that you guys are part of it part of the broadcast um yeah dude it's just and i get to see him like working his butt off and like how much time he

puts into it and because he's your housemate he is my housemate he's my flatmate but did you feel obligated to do it because of that no no no um hopefully he didn't feel obligated to ask me because of that. Oh shit. I didn't even think about that. He didn't. They got a pity. He's like, hell yeah. I've been talking about it a lot. Hey Matt, you want to do this?

Um, but yeah, man, it should be fun. Um, yeah, I think, I think if you're talking about the season of CrossFit as well, like this is a very good, uh, step in the right direction for a fully competitive season, a fully competitive year, giving athletes opportunities. If you're not a top dog and you can't do Rogue or you can't travel to Dubai, it's like we have other competitions in the States. Yeah, I think it should be good and to be honest it gives all the people in sort of my um little quadrant um opportunities also because all my numbers will skyrocket all everyone who makes content all of their numbers will skyrocket too we'll cover this morning chalk up myself i don't know if nate edwardson or craig ritchie or the buttery bros i don't know what they're

covering or talking elite fitness but all anyone who covers it will get a boost in our numbers. So it opens up opportunities for us if we want them, just like it opens up opportunities for you. Vendors, all that shit. Yeah, because I feel like up until now, you really have the same kind of like three or four competitions that are bookmarked throughout the year, right? It's like Waterpalooza, semifinals, games, Rogue.

They're just certain bookmarks and so it's nice to kind of add some of those in throughout the year and you know it you know he's he's he's he's paying and he's doing all the right things and making sure that this is gonna be like we'll see if he's gonna pay i don't trust nobody no dude all that stuff that is so so for all the athletes man i didn't know if you wanted to talk about that i saw something on it this morning and i was like wait wait you saw something just about whether the they're going to get paid or not it was something talking about the year one of the european ones and like a uh spectator like like basically like based on capacity based on how many people they bring in

that determines the prize pool so if there's 60% capacity at an event there's essentially no prize money and if there's 100% you know like it varies based on that but I think that's super interesting way to like force it back

on the athletes is like oh if you don't promote it right if you don, Oh, if you don't promote it, right. If you don't promote this, if you don't do your job to entertain or like create a spectacle, create a, create an event that people would want to come see, then you're not going to get paid. And it's like, is that on the athlete or is that on the venue or not on the, like, or is that on the person hosting? I probably fall.? I probably fall on a different side on both of those topics than you. Obviously, I had Jack Farlow on, right? And it was really easy for me to say, hey, I have sympathy for the event organizers. And then I find out Jack won the event and didn't get his five grand.

And I'm like, ooh. And it was different looking into his eyes and being so – as opposed to me being cavalier being like yeah just just have compassion they couldn't afford it but when when the dude's sitting here right in front of me it's like dude i went out there and i fucking won that yeah right um but i thought what's the point of the athlete coming there right if he's not if he's not competing for a prize and he's also not being compensated for providing entertainment, then what is the athlete's role in all of this? Is it just to be kind of a pawn and be like, hey, go out there, go compete? You're going to have to pay thousands of dollars to come out here to – whether it's Western Canada or wherever you're flying to. Put up all this money to stay there and compete compete and then you just get a pat on the

back or a little swag bag at the end hey especially promising something funny that's the other thing that's crazy you could what if you went to a competition like with um colton somewhere let's say he was going to be at zellos games and you wanted to um pump up the hype you could be like hey when i see that fucktard who who stole my spot at the games because of the pull-up bar, I'm going to shit all over him. He better not even, if he's in the lane next to me, I'm going to fucking punch him. And you're like, and then afterwards, like,

I'm just trying to sell tickets, guys. I'm just trying to, I'm just like, I love Colton. I'm just trying to, or like, before you go to Down Under, you're like, fuck Khan. He's fucking so 1980. I'm the new fucking tall, good-looking guy. I'm the new Khan. You're going to go con he's fucking so 1980 i'm the new fucking tall good looking guy i'm the new con you're gonna go he's gonna go third or you just started saying that there's there's problems between you and ricky and con just you know justin doesn't want con on our team

he's not yes hey well i'll tell you what you look at like i'm a big ufc guy yeah and you look at some of these ufc fighters and after the fights dude they're like loving each other but beforehand i mean michael chandler talks so much shit like conor mcgregor was the was the start of it all but like man now it's now it's left and right you got sugar sean o'malley doing the same thing like whether he loves or hates peter yawn he still has to do that. He still has to sell those tickets and sell those pay-per-views and boost his likeness and hype around the fight. So I think that the sport of CrossFit or the community of CrossFit isn't maybe the most keen to that because there is so much camaraderie and there is so much brotherhood. And we're in this together.

We died on this workout but if you're looking at it from an entertainment standpoint i mean there's a lot of entertaining things that happen in crossfit but i think there could be a little bit more on the side of that and there could be a little bit more around like some of the drama or yeah like having a bad guy just having someone talking shit i i it made me it makes me uncomfortable i like al jermaine sterling he's been on the show a bunch of times but all the shit he talked to tj dillashaw about being on drugs yeah made me uncomfortable why um i don't know because in my mind i i want to say forgive him, right? I get that. Or like I really like Conor McGregor, but when he's sitting down with a broken ankle calling Dustin Poirier's wife a whore, I get uncomfortable. It's like – you know what I mean?

It starts to get a little – Yeah. Where do you draw that line? I get that. I mean – Those guys also – those guys share a pretty intimate even after they they talk all that shit fighting with the guy for five rounds in a ring is pretty intimate yeah you're wearing each other's blood you know you have each other's just bodies all over each

other and you got the two of you now have an experience that um that only the two of you now have an experience that only the two of you share. Yeah. If you were going to – because you probably know a little bit more about the sport of MMA. If you were going to suggest someone to get into mixed martial arts, what's the step? Do you know where you would start? Would it be jiu-jitsu? Would it be just wrestling? Grappling, jiu-jitsu, it be just wrestling like grappling jujitsu and striking

just right away yeah grappling jujitsu and striking are you thinking about doing it really what's the lightest you can go what's the lightest you get can get can you make 205 i can make 205 i'd get fucked up at 205 yeah but i can make 205? I can make 205. I'd get fucked up at 205. Yeah. But I can make 205. But there's, like, because I've thought about that before. There's no way I can make it down to, what, 185? Yeah. I'd be, like, killing myself to try to make weight. But if I was a stocky 205 and I learned how to use my length, I think I could be pretty tough.

and I learned how to use my length, I think I could be pretty tough. When we see next week Israel Adesanya get in the ring with this fucking Michael Pereira guy, people are going to trip. Michael Pereira is not... I would love to have his DNA checked and his chromosomes. Yeah. He's not...

I mean, his jaw is... He's not a normal man. Yeah. I don't know... I think he's not a normal man. Yeah. I don't know. He's going to – I think he's going to kill Israel. I think – I hope I'm wrong. I mean, Israel is so good, but I'm scared for him. I think he's – that guy is tough.

Have you watched his fights? I have. I have. He's gnarly. I feel this way in CrossFit, right? You see these athletes. Not that they're – they're just on another level, right? You see these athletes that they're not that they're, they're just on another level, right?

Like they're just a step ahead of everybody else, you know, like all those vets. And I feel the same. Oh, sorry. Not him. It's maybe I said his name wrong. I think it's Alex, Alex. Oh, sorry. Alex Pereira. Thank you. How nice you not to correct me in front of all my, I wasn't a hundred percent sure. so I didn't want to correct. That guy's great, too, though. That guy, Michael Pereira, is a freak, too.

That guy fights at 171, and he looks like a 205-pounder. That guy's a freak. Sorry, go ahead. That's another thing. When they walk around on fight day, holy... Yes, this guy. 6'4 and he's gonna go down to

185 yeah I mean I guess that would be what I would have to do I'm 6'4 so I would have to be I would have to lose 40 pounds 35 pounds I bet you your ass weighs 10 more pounds than this dude's

ass that's the problem with you crossfitters you guys all have these enormous fucking asses. Hey, thank you. But yeah, I'd probably have to lose them. I doubt that they would hit that many weights. I feel like I've seen them train before. I mean, Jon Jones is doing it right because he's trying to get up and weight. So he's squatting.

He's putting some weight on those glutes. Yeah. Yeah. He's a big fella now. wait. So he's squatting. He's putting some weight on those glutes. Yeah. Yeah. He's a big fella now. You see pictures of him walking around. He's 260, 265. He's a man among boys when he comes back. Speaking of the hype around stuff when there's confrontation and conflict

in your camp, there was a lot of that. So, or just being around big powered people. So you had Beth, Bethany Shadburn, Carrie Pierce, and Danielle Brandon, you got these three people. There's tons of fucking noise around them always, whether it be Carrie launching a new business, Bethany and Carrie getting COVID Danielle saying something that offends someone or leaving your camp. And if you can manage that – and Kerry being the greatest American CrossFitter, I didn't mean to just – I know there's a lot of stuff I forgot about, accolades that these people have that I forgot. But Kerry Pierce being the greatest female american crossfitter who ever lived um if you can manage that that's all good for you right oh and let's even throw this in here you had um and i don't i don't mean this as an insult but

the biggest thing that's happened around your name is the pull-up debacle is your is is you and colton's you know when you do the math oh shit like we're talking seconds if his feet wouldn't have scraped the ground and give matt delugos a half a second for everything he goes to the games and colton doesn't so you have these stories that aren't the stories that you hear let's say the story around rich froning is his his record his four wins or the story around tia is you know her wins. But you have these other athletes where there's noise around them that's not necessarily about their accolades, but just drama. But if you can manage that, that's got to be good, right? Yeah, I think so. Do you manage it well, you think? Do you manage it well, you think?

I think it depends on how you look at whatever you want to perceive as drama, right? Like everything goes through the lens that you look at the world. And so, you know, if I'm looking at like, I don't look at the pull up the bar, like I don't look at Granite Games as a loss and like having this huge drama, even though it was very upsetting at the time. And it was something that, you know know sucked and you're mad at somebody anybody whatever it's really um i look at i look at that and then i even look at you know like looking within the camp whenever they're if there ever would be drama that would flare up or if tensions were ever high or there's just like you said a lot of a lot of talk a lot of energy a lot we spent five hours talking about you and Colton over 10 shows on my show. Matt DeLugos, Matt DeLugos.

So your name's just constantly being said. Yeah, no, for me, it's, it's a, I'm like, okay, that's cool. Like that tells me that I, I do, you know, belong there. Like that, that validates myself and my thoughts and what I'm doing every single day and makes it a little bit easier to come back in and train for it. And so, you know, you got to just, if I'm worried about that, or like if I looked at this year as only being, ah shit, I could like if the pull up bar was a little bit higher, I could have had my dreams come true. it i could like if the pull-up bar was a little bit higher i could have had my dreams come true then i'll probably never be happy because i'm always looking at the outcome which i know is a little bit different than talking about all the drama and talking about all that stuff but i think the drama is good for you as long as the drama is good for you because attention

is good for everyone right because it generates you know eyeballs are good for sure. Yeah. But if you can't manage it, then it's then it's bad. Yeah. It's like that pressure. If you about you know having those high level athletes in the gym every single day is it is it it is almost like a high pressure situation right like i'm always racing somebody i always have somebody to push off of um so then whenever you get out there on the floor to compete you look around and you're like okay these guys that i once put up on a pedestal are like fucking up how to tie their shoes in the back corner right like they're asking for a scoop of carbs it's like they're normal dudes it's fine go compete against them go kick their ass like it's all good um are you you go places like if i take my kids to disneyland the the i've only done that once

what a fucking trip that was but uh we didn't get to see mickey mouse and i really wanted them to see mickey mouse because i know as a kid like you go there you know how like they had the characters like will come out and just like mosey around and disneyland and you kind of want them to to see mickey mouse or i would have like in second grade my best friend was jeff holman and i remember the days like if he wasn't there like he stayed home sick i it's i was bummed like i would look around the classroom for him to make eye contact with him be like oh today's gonna be good we're gonna fuck around but when when you lose um danielle bethany and carrie three of the highest profile athletes in the sport does it does it make going to the gym less

interesting for you or is there kind of almost a relief how does that affect the the dynamic of the of the gym or or like when even someone like ricky comes in you know like when he shows up does it do the opposite where you're like oh fuck ricky's gonna be here this week this is gonna be dope um i will tell you i i get excited whenever ricky comes in because i like ricky a lot um he's just a good dude and a good person to train with and that's kind of the attitude anytime that we have somebody come in is that we're always just like most of the time people know, you know, somebody else and there's always good words about them. So you're excited to have, you know, drop ins. You're excited to have this athlete come in or this guy come stop by for a week or whatever.

You know, as far as like a day to day, you know, day to day difference with with the superstars being gone. Well, I mean, recently, you know, Carrie was training for Legends at Rogue, so she had been back. So that's been kind of fun to have her back in the gym. And honestly, like, we do have such a good group down here, and it's so easy to walk into the gym on, like, any given Wednesday and the energy to just be crazy. So I can see maybe from an outsider standpoint,

right? If you're dropping into Las Vegas, you want to see the girls, you wanted to go to the gym that they trained at all that, you know, but for us doing it day after day, like we still have such a great energy. We still have like such good camaraderie. Everybody loves each other. Everybody's still cheering each other on watching each other do cool shit. So know for us i don't really i don't i don't really feel like much skip the beat you know i feel like things kind of uh continued on because it's one of those deals right where like i can't you can't control it you know i can't say oh this person should stay oh this person shouldn't have left like you know water under the bridge all that stuff happened

um so it's like hey let's make the best of this situation we don't have the dogs we don't have the top you know people that we once had but we can still we still push we still get better uh mike thanks brother i appreciate it a lot mike sadoneone. Um, my, my, my kids in a, my kid plays tennis and, um, he, and there's him and another boy are the two best kids in his class. And then you, you grad in tennis, kids, tennis, you graduate based on the speed of the balls. So they have balls filled with the yellow balls, like the balls you see the pros play with. And then there's like three or four balls that you, that don't bounce as much, but get

more and more bounce as it goes on. So what it does is it allows the kids to get all over the court faster. Because if you're five years old, you have to play on a smaller court with a ball that doesn't bounce as much so you can get it right. So there's two kids, my kid and this other kid, and they're the two best kids in the class. And my kid's a little bit older than the other kid, six months older. And my kid just graduated. And the teacher said, hey, I'm graduating your kid first, because he's a little more mature than the other kid six months older and my kid just graduated and the teacher said hey i'm letting i'm graduating your kid first and then because he's a little more mature than the other kid and then i'm going to graduate him but i'm going to give this kid six months to be the leader so

he can see what it's like to dominate but also he can show his leadership to the team when when those when someone like carrie leaves who i'm who's the most i'm guessing the most senior person in the gym and then bethany um is there does there become like a vacuum that you as is probably the best or one of the best male athletes there has to kind of step up into where you're like okay i have to i have to change a little bit i have to kind of yeah more motherly i think that i think that whenever you look at how leadership is displayed it is different based on the person right there we have vocal leaders and we have leaders by example and um whenever i came into this situation i was i, I was the baby. I had zero comp. I had a little bit of competitive experience, but not to the level of Bethany, Tola, uh, Danielle or Carrie. So I was, I was like, let me go stand in the back and be as far away from everything else as I can.

And I'm just going to watch and like, watch what they do and watch how they act and all that kind of stuff. And the one thing that I realized about you know about carrie and bethany is that they are professionals when it comes to this like they are like rhythmic machines they would come in put their bags down start stretching start foam rolling start mobilizing get on a bike like they were they start their warm-up they would start their working sets they would like move from one piece to the next and there was was never like a, Hey, okay guys, like, are we ready to start back squatting? Let's go. You know? So that's not the type of leadership that I've seen, right? Like Justin has more of a vocal leadership role for us.

You know, he's, he's firing us up. He's setting intentions for the day he's he's making sure that we know what we're doing um but i think like where i want to be a leader is like i want i want the guys at the gym or the girls at the gym people at the gym to be like i want to work like he does like i want to like look at him he's he came in he got straight to work or he's you know look at him getting after his accessory work or look he's dying on this skill piece. Like he's really pushing it. That's what I need to do to get there because that's what I've seen Carrie do. And that's what I've seen Bethany do. And that's kind of a healthy kind of pressure, right? Leverage, leverage kind of your ego a little bit or who you want to present yourself to be.

That also makes you a better athlete yeah because i think you're constantly saying like well is somebody watching you know like you can't take you don't take reps off you don't take sets off because you're like well there i have 15 other people in this gym that whether i think they notice me or not maybe they do right maybe they see me not doing accessory and just leaving after the gym or leaving after the metcon right and then they're gonna think that's okay and then that's the bar that i'm now set for any athlete that's coming into the gym you know because like it's it's also a weird spot for me too right like i was telling i was talking about all those athletes that are no longer here so you know as far as like the original, the original gang, like I'm kind of the last one that is still out here.

Has Tola been there longer than you? No, Tola is, I haven't seen Tola for a little while. I'll be honest. Okay. Okay. How about Scuds? Does she train in house? She does. She got out here in about August. So she's been out here for a little over a year i'm coming up on two years of being out here um and it's cool because we have a lot of god man that must what a crazy two years you've had it's been wild you were you were thrown into the fire everything that could have happened happened to you like all the, except go to the games. Yeah. That's coming though.

That's coming. Everything else, man. I don't know that I would be, it's been such a, such a growth period for me as a human being that I'm like, this is probably, even though it's been crazy and there've been times where I've been like at

my fucking last, you know, straw, it's been like super just a super i don't even know how else you would explain it except for growing i'm a different and motivating you want your life to be like that right i think so you want you want there to be things that you remember right well and everything that you go through is not it's not it doesn't just happen right it affects the rest of your it can affect the rest of your decision making and how you view other people events things that happen and for me that's been the biggest thing is like i've

gone through you know i've just gone through tough stuff or just gone through whatever and like now that impacts how I treat people. That impacts how I view, you know, the rest of my life going forward. Yeah, I don't want I don't want a boring life. Like I don't want to sit in a cubicle and type on a computer for eight hours a day, 40 hours a week. Like there are plenty of my friends back home, all the love to them. But that's the life that they chose. You know, like they married

their high school sweetheart they had a kid they're working their desk job when their kid grows up they're gonna work that desk job and it's just that cycle and uh for me once like feeling like i broke out of that now i can look at that and say okay that's a lot of situation i want to really ever put myself in so if i ever find myself trending towards that like there might be priority shifting or i might need to change some things up but i know i'm also young so it's easy to do this you know it's easy to be like free spirited or be like oh yeah i'll kind of go with the wind but um hopefully that it helps the rest of how i live no no one ever wants to um have their uh girlfriend break up with them or boyfriend break up with them or get fired from a job or but but in hindsight you you don't take

any of those things back like once you're like a year away from it you're like yeah that was dope like i like i like you know what i mean i tussled with the alligator like no one wants to get fucking bit by a rattlesnake but if you get bit by a rattlesnake, finish the race and everything's great. I mean, fuck, how much better of a story is that than not getting bit? 100%. And I kind of like test who you are. You know, you, you learn about how to deal with all these situations and you learn about, you know, how to, how to handle things. But until you go through it,

you don't have any idea. So once you go through it, you say, how to, how to handle things. But until you go through it, you don't have any idea. So once you go through it, you say, Oh, I've kind of been in a situation like this, or I've felt this way before. What do I do about it? Going back to the MMA thing, if you can do it without, without getting hurt, I don't know if there's any, I don't know if there's a better conditioning tool than rolling around with another man that's what i've heard i get so scared about my knees that's the literally like the only thing that's like held me back from really get like i want to learn the basics of it but i've seen i've seen videos of guys that just roll the wrong way or somebody

does something that they shouldn't while you're rolling and and it's an acl or an mcl or a meniscus and i'm like if i did that and like i mean i sacrificed a lot coming out here so if i came out here and like walked away with an injury that's gonna because i was choosing to do something not stupid, but just not the greatest. I think that if I get to ask Justin this, but I think if you asked Rich Froning, can you beat up all the athletes out here? He would say yes. And I think if. Yeah. And I think if you ask. I feel like Tommy. Well, yeah, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy looks like you could hit him with a sledgehammer and he would smile at you and take it from you, like pat you on the head and take it from you. I think that Justin Medeiros thinks that. I think that Matt Fraser thinks that.

I think – and I haven't asked these guys that. I think that Ricky would have no problem fucking wrestling any three guys on the team. Go ahead. Line up over there. I'll get to you guys. And it doesn't matter whether it's true i wonder you know what i mean like at the end of the day that's got to be some sort of added confidence to know like hey I could just come over to your lane and push you over, dickhead. Like, just a little mental.

Do you think you need to have, like, fighting experience to have that? No, no. I don't think Matt has any fighting experience, but I don't think Matt has any fear like that. Yeah. Or he embraces the fear. I mean, when I would hear him and Josh talk and I would see when I was on the podcast with him and i'd see their alpha start to collide like yeah matt has no hesitant there's no there's no there's no back down no i think that that is 100 the way to be why would you get why like why would you walk into a competition and be like oh yeah all these guys could fuck me up

right all these guys could beat me oh yeah look at this guy oh i'm scared like ricky looks like he wouldn't hesitate i i don't know if pull knife but he looks like he would headbutt someone there's aussies yeah i don't know if they use knives but i'm sure that he would tussle with anybody he's another one i wonder like i like i said i love ricky but if you were trying to make this an entertaining sport and you were somebody like Pat Vellner, wouldn't you talk all the shit in the world to Ricky coming in? Oh, and you know Pat's probably so good at talking shit. He's so witty. Dude, think about their trash talk Thursdays. Oh my gosh.

I love watching those, keeping up with them. But that was like like hey like just on camera they're lined up together and and you mean just pat just walk over to him and everyone everyone in the fans like what's he doing and he whispers something in ricky's ear and he just whispers i'm sorry and then everyone's like i wonder what he said i wonder what he said yeah and then afterwards or like you know gordon ryan was like folding do you know gordon ryan is yeah he was writing down on a piece of paper the movie was going to submit a guy in, put an envelope, and give it to the judges. And it would say open after the event.

It's like, oh, God. That's baller. Yeah. So what if – I mean, that would be – I mean, it's not a dick move if Felner were to do that, walk over to him with an envelope, like second place. And it just says second place. Or give him like a second place medal. Imagine. Hands him the third place trophy and be like, you took this from me, bitch.

And everyone would be talking about it. Oh, that would be amazing if he did that, Matt. That would be amazing. Hey, this was yours. Bro, I mean, like, not the best nothing missed but man and it's not dickish it's just head fucking yeah and that's what it is because some guys can't some guys can't handle that you know like that pressure they're already feeling that pressure and you you come in and you're all cavalier and you're like yeah talking talking your shit guys weaker men will fall easily

going back to the um thing with like people who take sort of that role that leadership role um uh ariel lowen for instance said that uh danny spiegel took her under her wing like basically like she showed up late and danny was like hey dude ride with me or in to go along with that thing with danny spiegel, Danny Spiegel, Alex Kazan said that would say, Hey, Danny Spiegel took her under her wing. And I think I saw a post interview interview with Olivia Kerstetter. Danny Spiegel kind of took me under her wing, you know? And whenever I see her out there on the floor, she's doing something like after the event i see her doing touching the other athletes or hugging them or smiling to them or going over to them i'm assuming it's kind of like

that in the gym too that those are also moments that i mean you can clearly show that she's showing her it's very kind it's cool that i like watching it as a fan it makes me think that that you know you like to see at the end of the fight that that the athletes come together but in the gym in the gym it can be like that too right yeah it can be after a workout or yeah very frequently i feel like there's a lot of times i like to try to have a touch point with everybody um whether that's just to come up and be like, oh, so-and-so's back was bothering them. Hey, how did these movements feel on your back? How did it hold up today during this workout?

Making them feel like they can talk about their workout experience and share whatever they want to share, whether they're frustrated or sad. I know how that is you know i carry workouts with me or a little bit you know i'll let it i'll have feelings about a workout and be like oh fuck that felt really good oh i wish i could have pushed this more blah blah blah so to like talk about that is super cool um and you know to give other people the opportunity to talk about it especially with like some of the younger athletes you know we have a lot of younger people in our gym and so talking to them about oh hey how did this go for you oh how'd you break these up you know like letting them feel heard and also you know giving whatever

input i can i know i'm not a games athlete but giving whatever input that we can to help these younger people go and uh but, I think like the one, the one thing that comes to my mind, whenever you talk about that is my relationship with Alex, because I do feel like it's very much like that from both sides, right? Like she does that for me and I do that for her. And it kind of like keeps this little, it keeps this really good balance of neither one of us get our head too high. Like neither one of us get the head too low. Um, if there are, you know, like I can tell when she's frustrated, I can tell when she's mad and just the simplest, like walking over, giving a little high five, like, Hey, you got

this or Hey, you okay. You want to go talk? Like just that little bit of communication can go a long way. Right. Cause they don't need to talk to you right away. They don't need to trust you immediately. But when they feel safe enough to be able to, I say that I take a step back. I think our sport is, you know, it's kind of vulnerable what we do, right? Like you put yourself on the line every day. You're pushing yourself to get better with no guarantee of anything in return. Like there's all this sacrifice and there's nothing guaranteed. And so when you're going through that alone alone it can feel very scary and it can feel you know isolating and and um you can get into your own head a lot if you are inexperienced with that so especially whenever i see these younger athletes going through it and you know they're real beat up

after a workout and they're carrying it with them for the rest of the day. It's like, we got to go have a talk because this is like kind of all you're going to be doing is just workouts and workouts and workouts. Like you're going to be beating yourself up. So there's no time for negative talk. There's no time for like feeling sorry for yourself and you know, feeling like the world's against you, all that kind of crap.

Like there's, we are all amazing human beings, especially when the world's against you, all that kind of crap. Like there's, we are, are all amazing human beings, especially when we come in the gym, that's not dictated by the results on a workout. So sooner that you know that easier that it becomes to, you know, feel better and feel like you can, you can push. It's also a trip. I never thought of of this you just kind of inspired this in this sport the loser can win so you can take all second places or all third places and come out crossfit games champion and so you can't be mad at yourself you there's victories even when you lose no one else sees it but you you individually have to keep that in mind right you finish third in an event and it's like fuck i won it was a victory no one else sees that way but you have to keep that in mind, right? You finish third in an event, and it's like, fuck, I won.

It was a victory. No one else sees it that way, but you have to remind yourself of that, right? Whereas in MMA or soccer or baseball or football, if you lost, you lost. Yeah. I think I like golf a lot because the similarities are there. Yes. Oh. The sport is tough.

Like if you look at each hole like if you look at each hole as a game yeah yeah like if if we're playing a golf hole like let's say you let's say i par the hole but i like hit one way right into the rough under a tree and i knock another one out and then like it does i guess maybe maybe more of what i'm saying though is it doesn't matter what you do on a golf hole or what i do on a golf hole my golf swing is not affected by your golf swing you could drive one straight down the middle put it on the green and regulation two putt walk out with a par i could go all over the course uh and you know lip in a 30 footer for par and we're still even we're still did the same thing um and what i'm trying to say with that is that you could go out on a workout and you could

do your best and you could be a 25th place it's all your race it's all you versus you and that's another tough thing for people to see right because every other sport is not like that it's always well i have to beat this person this person is really good at this so i have to be better than them here or i have to do my wall balls faster. That's not the case, in my opinion at least. Spieler said that the reason – he said that the reason why he likes – he came from a wrestling background. He liked CrossFit because no one was trying to stop him from doing what he needed to do. And then he also said that that's why he preferred bodyweight movements because he saw the weights as trying to stop him from what he was trying to do and i thought that was fascinating i wonder if that's why so many people think that see crossfit is not a sport like they can't get their head wrapped around it although for some reason they

accept you know the javelin and the marathon i mean if the marathon's a sport fuck crossfit's a super sport um but but i wonder if that why, because there's no one directly like you guys don't push each other down. You don't try to hold each other back. Could you imagine if that if it was just like everyone started it like a little point and then it was just whoever gets the lane one first gets to use that shit and people would just like throw in so many elbows. It's not even funny. Like throwing so many elbows. It's not even funny. As you were saying that I was picturing an event where you needed to grab an implement and the implements were a hundred yards away,

110 yards away, 120 yards away, 130. So it rewarded the guy who was ever faster and punish the guy who is the slowest. Yeah. But you could just do that but put put the implement in the middle and put all 30 or 40 guys in a circle and it's like someone would get hurt whoever gets to the dumbbell first gets to use it they do well in this workout

no i i get that though that that does make sense but i think that that's the coolest like you look at some of the cool sports that you have, and you see these people who are pushing the physical bounds of what is capable of a human. And yeah, all the track and field, all the biking. Man, watching the Tour de France, and you watch these guys just sell their souls on some of these like Hills or some of these like long courses, you're like, they're not really getting in the way of each other. There's, there's some strategy. The tour is kind of cool though, that they do have teams that fuck with each other. That shit's cool. That part is cool.

Best example, but I get that. Yeah. I think it's, I think CrossFit is really cool as as a sport i just don't know if maybe like the understanding is there from the public you know it's like if you're watching somebody throw a javelin you're watching i don't mean to like simplify it but you're watching somebody throw you know throw the spear right right right you can see it you can be like oh they threw it further they did better right but in crossfit you're like man all these people are just jumping around and flailing around it's like who's doing well is this person good or not like that's why events like the capital event are so cool that they had the

crossfit games you know yeah the run then carry different shit then up the stairs yeah and that was cool seeing people how fascinating was that when you saw people got to get stuck on the stairs yeah and that was cool seeing people how fascinating was that when you saw people got get stuck on the stairs that was a trip right that was that looked cool that event i heard was awesome like that would have been yeah i yeah i don't know what about what about someone um you see these people you saw it happened to hayley adams uh at the games where she just gets stuck in front of her bar or you saw the great laura horvat you see her just sitting there saw it happen to Haley Adams, uh, at the games where she just gets stuck in front of her bar, or you saw the great Laura Horvath. You see her just sitting there at the handstand pushups or this year,

uh, Dan, uh, rogue Danielle just has to sit there and look at her fucking back squat bar. Um, that is, that's a super dope picture.

It is right. She's a super dope gal too. She's cool as shit. shit good i see her instagram posts all the time and i'm like you look funny as hell so funny um that must be like do you have any holes like that matt do you have anything where you're like oh shit if this comes up i'm gonna be sitting there with my thumb in my ass i hope not anymore because you have yeah i mean handstand push-ups are always something that i've struggled with and they've came a long long way but yeah i remember there were competitions that i would do in the past whenever i was young

i'd be doing deficit handstand push-ups and i'm failing doing one rep and so i just sit there and be like sorry can't do anything about it i i i always feel for those guys like i'm not like i always feel for those guys especially laura hers is such a trip because she's so fucking good yeah well so talk to me a little bit about that. Because if you were an MMA fighter and you had a hole in your grappling game, what would you spend all fucking year fighting? What would you spend all of your time training? So are you telling me you're perplexed that she hasn't fixed it yet? I'm not commenting on any specific athlete. I do just wonder sometimes, though, when you see – I get that there are anatomical things that it will always be difficult to perform, but it will always be hard to perform handstand push-ups as a taller guy, right? We'll be at a mechanical disadvantage.

But I look at Brent Fikowski, and he still hangs whenever it comes to handstand push-ups. He went from failing on his strict deficit handstand push-ups he went from you know failing on his depth strict deficit handstand push-ups at the uh whatever that was 2016 2017 regional to like now he yeah he's not gonna win it but he's at least hanging how about fat how about obese mma fighters that trips me out you're going you're going in some you're going into a situation that you know someone's going to try to kill you. Yeah. And you're – everybody wants to get better at handstand pushups, but ain't nobody want to do a couple hundred pressing reps. Ain't nobody want to lift this heavy ass weight.

That's what I'm saying. He's done it. Like he's gone through what he needed to. And I don don't i'm not saying that there's a reason or like that like somebody like laura hasn't worked on it it just perplexes me a little bit um those guys go into the ring and they know another man is going to try to kill them and they know that the worst thing that can happen to them isn't their lack of skill but running out of gas. If you run out of gas in there, it's turned into full nightmare mode. And I mean nightmare in like fucking Freddy Krueger.

There's now a man in there killing – it's like one of those dreams where you try to punch someone and you're punching through water. Yeah. Did you watch the last Paulo Costa fight versus Luke Rockhold? Yeah, yeah. Those guys were done at the three-minute mark of the first round. But they both look good. Paulo Costa, he's a good-looking fella. Same with Luke Rockhold.

Rockhold had never seen a fighter put his hands on his knees like that in the middle of a fight. They were taking breaks in the middle of a fight. Hanging up against the side of the ring like hold on i need a break bro yeah that they do this for a living they want to have championship fights they want to fight for five rounds he he's also he's also old oh yeah yeah another great one how about when fucking poor tj tj dillashaw was fighting with fucking only one arm because his arm had pulled out of the socket yeah that was brutal i didn't i don't and you know that's one of the things i don't like about that sport i just stop it i don't i don't need to see that i get that you say let it go

i don't know i think about where these guys have probably came from like fighting is just what they know like fighting is all they know they have probably came from. Fighting is just what they know. Fighting is all they know. They're probably fighting for their lives. At least that's maybe what they feel like when they're out there. They have nothing else but to fight. So they're like, fuck, if I die, I die. This is all I know.

I'm going to throw everything. Yeah, that's the worst, Jason. Matt, I'm 44 and 6'6". Just did my first competition. Whole kipping my feet were dragging on the ground. Whole kipping? just did my first competition whole kipping my feet were dragging on the ground whole kipping what's that mean whole kipping my wow while kipping my feet oh he's saying on the pull-up bar yeah that's tough six foot six is impressive so good for you but yeah i've watched it i've watched a little i've watched a bunch of the bare knuckle boxing that's another trip right because you can't you got to be careful where you punch the but I've watched it. I've watched a little, I've watched a bunch of the bare knuckle boxing.

That's another trip, right? Cause you can't, you gotta be careful where you punch the dude in the head. Yeah. You can't just fucking throw it. That one's very scary to me. I don't know why I feel better with MMA,

but I'm like, fair enough. James Ellis, Daniel Cormier was big and had a great engine, insane engine. It's, it's a it's a great point but yes crazy crazy wrestling pedigree right so there's his um oh you said this earlier I wanted to say I think

just as grappling would be a really great conditioning tool for anything else i think crossfit would be an awesome training tool for mma i mean obviously skills whether they admit it or not all those guys do crossfit yeah yeah i said i yeah but i think that i feel like if i made that transition i would already have that engine i'd already have that like power and explosiveness because that's what I've been training. Like I've taken the training tools that they use, but just done that for my, you know, what I compete in. The two stories that stick out in my mind are Garth Taylor was the first American heavyweight to go to Brazil and win a heavyweight Brazilian jujitsu title. And I think he did it in three belts.

And he always took second place when he'd go down there. And then in 2000 or 1999, he met Greg Glassman. And Greg had him do CrossFit for a year, and he won fucking three titles. That's crazy. And there's a – you know St. Jude Hospital? Many years ago, I met their general counsel there, and he was a black belt in karate, and he couldn't win a fucking tournament. And he started CrossFit and started winning every single tournament. So, for sure.

Easily. I think CrossFit, yeah. I think we both think CrossFit's amazing. I don't think – I don't think – I think that there are problems in the delivery sometimes but i think as a methodology hands down you mean people go you mean people go to the gym and get the wrong experience is that what you mean by in delivery yeah yeah it's the same same with everything right and so it's it's hard not to let that happen but unfortunately it doesn't unfortunately it leaves people with like a taste in their mouth of oh i'm not going to do this

again i'm not going to go back to crossfit but right but yeah i've been thinking about that a lot also um about people i see people say negative stuff about CrossFit and it's always these really like superficial fringe things, but they get so many views on the internet. Whereas I did an interview the other day with a blind lady and at 26 years old, she was still embarrassed that she was blind. Never wanted to tell anyone she was blind in her first day going into the crossfit gym the way the community treated her made her never be embarrassed to be blind again and now she's a fucking games athlete adaptive games

athlete yeah beautiful and her body's insane and yeah she was she was i think she was like dying of autoimmune disease and all this shit this chick yeah yeah yeah yep and and it's like dude this these are the stories this is the normal story or or i had another affiliate owner on michael schindeldecker and they you know they have these programs for juvenile delinquents like kids who get into crime they have running programs weightlifting programs and they never worked and no one could figure out why this guy started the program in a CrossFit gym. It's fucking now spread to 14 states. He's had over like 200 success stories. Why?

Not because of the fitness program, but because of the community. Everyone in the gym treats the kids like, Hey, just like I saw you post about this one. I wanted to go back and watch it. Dude, this guy's such a stud. And if you're an affiliate owner and you, and you want it, this guy has cracked the code on giving you purpose to live and how to make money. But he never talks about either of those. But when you watch it, you'll be like, oh, shit. I actually was kind of a little envious of him.

I'm like, wow, he has a lot of purpose in his life. That's really cool to see. And so there's all these other people. You're right. So these people have these bad experiences, and then that window might close for them, right? Because they put their hand up to it. I have conversations with people that are like, oh, I tried CrossFit. It just wasn't for me.

I'm like, what part? What part wasn't for you? Was it getting better wasn't for you? Right, right, right. Having friends? I don't know. right right having friends like well i don't know but i i have also though i've seen those stories of people that come in and you know it's it's their foundations class and their coach is 10 minutes late and then they're just like oh yep right oh yep that looks good okay have fun go

go after this workout right and they're there for a week and then it's not a good not a good story right which is so bad it's it's kind of like picking an apple off your tree when it's little and not ripe and then telling the rest of the world that apples taste horrible right it's like dude that thing wasn't ready that thing wasn't right you That thing wasn't right. You're not telling the truth. And then everyone who never eats apples the rest of their life misses out. And you don't always, it can feel clicky whenever you come in across it, right? Like you can see the community from the outside standing in and you're like,

Oh, like they didn't want to accept me or, Oh, like look at what they're doing. They didn't talk to me. It's like, no, you just't want to accept me or, oh, look at what they're doing. They didn't talk to me. It's like, no, you just maybe give it an honest chance. Go introduce yourself to somebody. I know that you're new, but that's the cool thing, right?

It's like we were all those people once. So that's always anytime I see somebody new in the gym, I try to go say hi, or I try to go say, oh, cool. Like what, what brought you here? Like, what are you, you know, why are you doing CrossFit? How'd you hear about this? Like, oh, that's awesome. You know, it's really, really cool. We can share, continue to share this experience. And I think that's even important for competitors to do the same thing, because we're talking about leadership. When you have a group of elite athletes that are young adults and they have these really buff and muscular bodies and you walk around doing really cool shit like walking up a handstand obstacle, when you have a normal mom or somebody who just got done working their professional job come in and they see that, they're like, oh, shoot, I can't talk to that person. come in and they see that they're like, Oh shoot, I can't talk to that person like that. Or that person. So there's so much better than me or they're there, they stay off in the corner. They don't come talk to us. Um, and then you get this bad rap and then you get people that

don't like the competitors at their gym because they have a bad experience. And to me, we wouldn't have a sport if it weren't for those people that are coming in day after day. I don't know if I've talked about this before, but we wouldn't have a sport if it weren't for those guys. A hundred percent, a hundred percent. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. No. And so when, when you're above talking to a class member or you're too cool to say, Hey, or say anything to the people that are coaching the classes. No, that's not it. That's not what we are.

I remember in Carson one year, a bunch of the athletes had got there, and it wasn't a competition day. And they were all in this area, and there were shitloads of fans around, right? And they were separated by like a gate or something or a chain link fence. I can't remember. And Jason Kalipa went over there and started talking to them. And I remember Travis Bajent was there and he was one of the commentators and he starts yelling at all the athletes, get the fuck over there and talk to the people. What are you guys doing? Stop. And it's not because the athletes are assholes. They're just people too. They're nervous. They're shy. They're overwhelmed, but you, but you're right.

You have to, as the athlete athlete you have to push through those discomforts because they will be perceived from everyone else that you're stuck up douche and that and that's not good for anyone push through it and go over there have the uncomfortable conversation no one likes to talk to strangers but just go over and do it say hi mom comes in with the kid go over and say hi to the kid like yeah it's so easy all you gotta do is say hi yeah yeah like a great job on that workout i don't know sometimes i won't know their name until the third time i see them but i'm just like oh hey what's up like yeah if you forget someone's name just ask them sorry i forget your name it's okay everyone does yeah

if someone gets offensive you can if you already have a bad view of crossfit because you see it on tv and you see these guys doing crazy things, and then you walk into a gym and you see those guys that are doing crazy things, not talking to anybody or only talking to each other, there becomes such a disconnect. And I don't think that that is where our sport needs to be. And truthfully, when you walk out of a Cross gym you know how many other people are getting recognized right like if rich froning was in las vegas and was like walking around the las vegas whole foods do you think a lot of people would stop him and recognize him or do you think he'd probably be able to go in and out maybe the casino no one would recognize him whole foods though it's a fucking little mecca mecca of yeah what do you think do you do you think he gets recognized a lot i don't think there's any famous people in our ecosystem by the way don't get me wrong i don't think there's one famous person in our ecosystem i i i it was really cool hanging out with noah because that would happen

sometimes where there would be people that would know noah through miami like just wherever but it was like places that he would go but but it wasn't to the point where it's like hey and noah's earned that right he's so charming he's so nice he's so not he's so there's there's no selfishness with his time no when you talk about like those guys that are mentors yeah the two guys for me that came to mind were con and noah for sure awesome dudes love both of them so cool that that i'm able to like call them friends now but yeah such great dudes so you'll do zellos games then you you'll do the Down Under, and then what's next? Start looking at the Open?

Wadapalooza. Wadapalooza. Oh, you're busy. Individual or? We have a team. Can you tell me who's on that team? I think I can. I don't know.

Yeah, I think I can. It's me, Ricky, and Tim Paulson. Oh, wow, dude. Yeah, so we're hoping another great guy. We're hoping to break every assault like they have or echo bike. Do you know Tim Paulson? No, no. Oh, how fun.

He's cool as shit. Yeah. The little bit of interacted with them. He seems cool as shit. Yeah. I ran into his dad at like a Dick's Sporting Goods in Minneapolis because we were both buying turf shoes for the last event of our Granite Games. But seems like a super cool guy, and Justin knows him from way back, and Justin has a lot of good things to say about him. I'm like, hell yeah.

This will be a fun team. Awesome. Final question. How much stress with Zealous Games? Can you just chill, or do you feel the mounting stress like just any other competition or can you just be like, Hey, this is kind of more like a, um, exhibition. looking at all the other guys that come out here, like, you know, they're coming to take what I want.

Like I gotta, I can't, can't just rest on my laurels anymore. You know, it's, and especially with these guys, right? Like there's going to be,

you know, 12 guys that are all highly competitive, like that have all either been to the games or have been really, really close to the game. So it's going to be, it's going to be legit for sure. Um, I don't think it's like stress high.

I think it's like, I'm excited. Would you like to say hi to Alex before you leave? Alex Kazan? Yeah, that one. The fascinating, the ever fascinating. Yeah, I want to say hi to Alex. There she is.

Hello. What's up, Bubby? How are you? I'm good. How are you doing i'm tired i got in at like 1 a.m last night how'd you do good good that's good good yeah um you you can't be tired you have to put on you have to superstar performance uh mr delugos just absolutely murdered it by the way matt i want to say say something before I kick you into the ether, into the internet. Last night, I was looking on the internet for stuff about you. And when I type in your name, Matt DeLugos, Sevan Podcast, it took forever to fucking pop up.

And when I type in your name, all sorts of other podcasts pop up but not the one we did together but i want to tell you not only was it the best one but it's the most viewed one so there well i appreciate it that's all i want to say that's why doesn't it come up you appreciate me jerking myself off in front of you all right cool fine telling it telling you how great i am i just appreciate you having me on, even though I saw it was at midnight my time that you were looking at stuff, so what the hell time are you? I was up late.

I was up so late last night. All right, man. I'll be talking to you as the week goes on. I'm sure I'll talk to you Friday, Saturday. We'll be bugging you on the live feed. Are you going to Friendsgiving? Yeah, I'll be downging you on the live feed okay so are you going okay friendsgiving yeah i'll be done okay then i'll see you in a couple hours all right sounds good later brother hey yo how's it going awesome thanks for doing this oh of course anytime

for what's friendsgiving uh the gym that we train out of Camp Rhino is having like a potluck style Friendsgiving with all the members and they invited underdogs to partake. So we're going to go hang out and eat food and play games and all the fun stuff. That's cool. Yeah. Friendsgiving. Thank you, Caleb. Thanksgiving celebration with one's friends, even if they have different political views. Oh, no, I made that up. I made that up. As opposed to one's family.

Zelos games. Yeah. Before we go there, did you watch Rogue? I did watch Rogue. You did? Why did you watch Rogue? I did watch Rogue. You did? Why did you watch it? And was it torture? No, watching it was like, it was kind of fun just to watch it and enjoy the spectating side of the competition.

I definitely had the ebbs and flows of like, oh, I should have done the qualifier. Then like, oh, I'm so glad I didn't do the qualifier. Like all the different feelings do you watch it um like like you're to enjoy to enjoy it as a sporting event or are you just are you in student mode you're studying both both yeah i feel like it's rare you get to just watch and enjoy a competition because usually you're in it. So like, it is fun to just appreciate the sport for what it is and like spectate. But then of course, you're like, okay, like, what are these girls up to? Like, and then you also are learning while watching. What happened? Is there, did you try to qualify? I apologize for not being up to speed. No, no, no. It's okay. No, I had gotten my wisdom teeth out right after the games. And like, it just put me down. Like I was like a chipmunk for like two weeks.

I couldn't open my mouth. It was just a terrible, I was expecting it to not be that big of a deal. Everyone was like, oh, you'll be fine in like two days. And I was like two weeks, like a chipmunk couldn't do anything. And it was like just starting to get better when the qualifier started. And I was like, Oh, like, is it worth it? And then I saw the workouts and I was like, I'm not in shape for these. Like, I don't, yeah, I'll just turn my right to compete one day. And that will be that. Um, it be that. It's a lot of money and it's a high caliber event. It has a lot of eyeballs, good people.

I'm making this part up. Lower stress. In hindsight, are you glad you passed up on it? I don't know if I would have been ready for the qualifiers. I honestly don't know if I would have qualified just the state that I was in after, like, not being able to do anything for a couple weeks and coming off the game. So, like, if I did make it, like, yeah, it would have been a blast. And, like, there was definitely a little bit of FOMO.

But I think it all happened for a reason. So I kind of told myself, like, when I earn the right to compete, like, if I get invited, like like that's when I'll compete um what happens like literally two weeks you didn't do any movement you just were just chilling no no I like moved but like there was no way I was like training or like doing stuff worth like I was doing movement for health, not fitness. What wanes first? What skills do you lose first? I had this guy on who is the director of strength and conditioning from the UFC.

And he was saying that the thing that goes first, I think, was speed and then strength. What goes first for you? Where do you notice it? What makes you say that you wouldn't be ready i mean shit you competed at the games yeah i honestly i think it's more mental than anything like you're you're like the mental side of it like you just don't feel you're not familiar with the pain cave and like you have to re-f familiarize yourself with that. So a break away from that isn't good. Like makes you like, I almost feel like it's the kind of thing you'd want to forget about. Yes and no. I don't know.

Like I think the more that you're used to feeling uncomfortable, the easier it is to feel uncomfortable. Right. Okay. Okay. right okay okay for me for me i don't even never mind i'm not gonna say for me who gives a fuck about me uh so so you'll do this are you doing the zello games why are you doing the zello games um jared sent us out an email like a while back just inviting us to do it um and it's in our home gym so there's like really no reason not to there's good money um and yeah it's a good friend it's close by it's good money it's a learning experience are you ready for it yeah i'd say so uh in in in the in the mouth is all better the wisdom teeth are all better everything's good

yeah after like two weeks like the swelling was all gone but it was like um almost a month where i this was like the width i could open my mouth and that was it like if matt was still on here like we went to lunch a little bit after, and he was like laughing at me. Cause I was like shoving like the food in my mouth. Cause I couldn't, it was terrible. Hey, did you lose a lot of weight during that time? Not, not wanting to eat, not, not, not being able to eat. Not really. I mean, probably like within,

I usually fluctuate within like five pounds. So I probably lost like a little bit, but it came back quickly. How long have you been at underdogs athletics? A little over a year now. I started last September. If, um, if you, if you haven't seen the, uh, original podcast I did with, um, Alex Kazan, that's who you're staring at right now in the blue shirt. It's probably one of the best podcasts guests I've ever had on. She absolutely murdered it. She was so fucking cool.

The comments were off the chart. I highly recommend it's worth getting to know her. Thank you. I was talking to Matt about the fact that, there it is. And there she's in a red shirt. Same, same, but different. Same location. Yep. What is that on top of your cabinet up there?

It's still there. Is that an urn? There's a dead person in there? No, it's a tub of protein. It doesn't fit in the cabinet. Oh, okay. All right. You've been there a year.

I was talking to Matt about this, and a lot of shit happened. When you came there, Bethany was there, right? Mm-hmm. And Carrie was there. Mm-hmm. And Danielle was there. Mm-hmm. Three high-profile athletes.

three high profile athletes now that they're gone um how has it changed the vibe how has it changed has it changed your motivation at all are you less interested in coming in because like maybe your friends aren't there or the excitement's not there are you more interested is has there been any like difference in the energy now that those three are gone and i guess you were lucky to have carrie come back recently matt was saying that you more interested is has there been any like difference in the energy now that those three are gone and i guess you were lucky to have carrie come back recently matt was saying that you guys got to have carrie back which by the way speaks volumes about justin kotler and underdogs athletics that someone as high profile as her who could probably train anywhere would come back to her stomping ground yeah um it's been so awesome having car come in. Like, I would say the absence of those three is just, like,

you don't get to see how high the ceiling can be sometimes. Like, if we're all doing a workout and Carrie beats us by, like, two minutes, you're like, wow, okay, like, I thought I did good, but there's, like, this much better I can be. So that was definitely, like, something to get get used to not having that. Sorry, can you hear me? I feel like I'm echoing. I hear you good. I don't have an echo either. Okay, cool. And then I would say like, since it all happened kind of gradually, like there wasn't this like shock factor of like, oh, training is different. I feel like it just slowly kind of evolved into what it is now.

And I mean, I'm just as excited, if not more to go to the gym every day. I feel like throughout the year, like my relationship with Justin and Ashley has grown and my relationship with Allie and Kyra and Matt and like, just cause Bethany and Danielle aren't there anymore. Like we still have a really good and competitive and like growth focused camp. I don't know. I'm like almost like more excited too, just cause like you start to see the progress and you see the change and

you're like, okay, like if that happened in a year, like what's next? I saw you had a, you, um, sorry I didn't did I didn't put a link for you I saw you had a 400 pound deadlift the other day yeah how crazy is that it was I'll show you on my fridge or I don't know if I can flip my camera mid thing probably not um I'll walk over I have a little like goals thing on my fridge and I wrote that on there like last year. And so it was really cool to cross it off. The first time you did a deadlift, how much did you deadlift the very first time? Do you remember? Oh gosh, I don't know. I couldn't tell you. Was it like 65 pounds or something 95 pounds I mean

I remember like doing uh some workouts at the CrossFit Viento where I started and I'm sure like I lifted like the 155 like I would have done rx for the workout so i don't know i mean i've probably 155 wow okay and how old were you um when i started i was 16 um and i never really maxed out until probably i was like 17 and do you remember what your max was then i think i hit like 315 or 320 oh my goodness oh my goodness that is just nuts do you do you always do deadlifting barefoot yeah uh i mean yes i try to i like it barefoot do you do a lot of your workouts barefoot a lot of my back squat barefoot and i deadlift barefoot um how about how about any actual workouts no because in a competition you have to wear shoes so right makes total sense um whose idea was it to go for a uh yeah this is nuts too

so that's a strict press at 170 pounds do you like that movement i love that movement you do yeah what are you focusing on when you do that are you focusing on a muscle group uh it's kind of counterintuitive but like squeezing my butt okay so that's just a cue for you squeeze your butt and the rest of the shit from there just lines up. Yeah. Cause like my arms are pretty strong. So as long as I like stay in a vertical like plane, then I'm fine. And look how far back you lean back in that too. I wonder if you would have just murdered the log press. I was watching that. I was like, Oh, cause I mean, obviously technique is super important with Olympic lifting and it's something I've been working on for a long time. So the log press looked a lot more just like brute strength focused.

It looks fun. That would have been something cool to try. Hey, is that leaning back farther than most people? How you lean back like that? Is that, is that you're getting into your chest there? Is that why you're doing that? Um, I don't know. I feel like it's just a natural position for me. I mean, my back, you can't really tell because of my T-shirt, but I try not to arch my low back too much. Yeah, I lean a little more probably to engage my pecs. God, that is so crazy that you strict press 170.

Thank you. Absolutely nuts. Um, and, and, uh, this is all hard work. This is all just grinding. How many hours a day are you in the gym? Um, I say this with a grain of salt because I don't want people to take it the wrong way. We're in there from like 11 30 to like 3 30 or 4 for like our main session but like there's a lot of um time in between like you're like eating a snack you're transitioning um when I was younger I'd hear athletes say that or like say like they work out seven eight hours a day and I was like oh my gosh but then you realize a lot of it is just like stretching, eating, talking. Um, so like my training day will take up most of the day from my morning session to the main session,

but like actual working out can like, we have like probably like a morning piece that's anywhere from like 20 minutes to an hour. We have lifting that takes probably like an hour um a metcon that can take anywhere from like four minutes to 20 minutes and then accessory work that takes like anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes like it just depends but um i'm there for most of the day and do you ever cool down? I've been trying to like something we've been doing after workouts is like sitting on a bike for like five minutes, just spinning. Um, after like, No, but I mean like really cool down. Maybe you can't get cooled down at your age. I mean, do you, in that time,

are you ready to go the whole time? Like, do you ever like, or are you warm the whole time like at any moment if someone switched the programming on you could you just pivot and do anything once you get warm after let's say by noon if you get there at 11 from noon until the time you leave are you like you can go i would yes and no like do you ever warm up twice i guess is what i'm asking sorry do you ever have to like warm up cool down and then have to warm up again? Yes. Sometimes like if we have like, say the lifting and the Metcon takes a while, just like depending on what it is, like sometimes like, oh, I want a snack. Like I need to take a break before I do like my skill and accessory. So then I'll like do a mini rewarm up or something.

At Rogue this year, there was a I think it was a seven round event. I can't remember. Someone will tell us in the comments. But Roman didn't have the – I mean he was amazing. I'm not dogging him. But he had a performance that didn't live up to, I guess, what some people thought he was going to do. And when they interviewed him about it, he said it was because he didn't fuel properly right before the event. Is that – and I was calling bullshit on that. But now I'm hearing you talk.

Is that real? Oh, I'm sure. he said he just didn't have enough carbs yeah i'm sure especially like i was telling jake i felt like that event rogue honestly like the programming and the intensity of it like it looked more um physically taxing than the games just because it was so much like so quickly and so heavy. And, um, I, I'm sure lots of athletes, if they weren't like shoving carbs down their throat, we're feeling, I mean, you're going to feel like trash no matter what, but like, I'm sure it was really easy to mess that one up for fuel. Oh, I'm so glad to hear you say that. That's crazy. I think that's something that like someone like me doesn't understand because i never put myself in that situation i mean rarely

like i have to like not eat for like fucking 10 hours before i would notice something like that well like if you think about it their glycogen stores were probably aren't like they were probably gone by day one just because of all the heavy lifting like the back squats like that's so much out of you and um if you're not like on top of your carbohydrates like and you're like I said you're gonna feel like shit no matter what so he might have just been feeling the whole weekend um but food I feel like definitely play a big part in that and that affects your recovery too so not necessarily for that event but if you didn't eat the day before well then you're kind of already setting yourself up for like a bad day like you get into a hole and it can be hard to get out yeah yeah uh travis from vindicate i want to

work out with them just for the snack breaks they're not that exciting i'm paraphrasing but when you talk about your games experience you sort of couch it with there wasn't a lot of pressure on you because it was your first games and you were just excited to be there that was was maybe, maybe enough as you start prepping to get, as you start seeing the open pop up on the calendar. Um, do you feel like this year is going to be different for you that there's going to be new levels of stress that you kind of set the bar for yourself to get to the games? And there's going to be some unexpected, like psychological pieces that roll, roll up. Sure. Like with anything, like I remember my first semifinal, I didn't feel pressure. And then the second, like, last year at Granite Games, I felt a ton of pressure. So I'm sure there will be that shift. But I thoroughly enjoyed my CrossFit experience by being able to, like, not stress about the leaderboard and just, like, look at everything as a learning opportunity.

like look at everything as a learning opportunity. So I would love to take as much of that with me as I can for next year, but there's, there's more pressure. Like I have bigger goals for myself. Like I don't want to go and get 24th again. Like I want to make some moves. And so with that comes more pressure. Are you spending a shitload of time on your weaknesses? Yeah. Well, I mean, yes. Like our programming is pretty like well-rounded and um like i'm doing a lot more high volume chest the bar and toes the bar like things that typically would have hurt me are getting better when you say well-rounded so you don't work on your weaknesses

like specifically or i just feel like we always have like the programming just like they always hit on it. And now it's just a little extra. So like where I used to maybe do chest to bar and toes to bar once a week. And I'm doing it twice a week. But it's not like, oh, let's throw everything else out the window. And you're going to do that four days a week. It's smart. It's like you're still working on the things you're good at while chipping away at the weaknesses. Are you spending all your time in Vegas? Yeah. I mean, I went to Oregon for a few days for my brother's birthday last month, but otherwise I'm here.

Are you liking it? Yeah. I love the sunshine. I like that it stays warm for a lot longer. Since you went to the games, i'm guessing there's been more attention put on you a little bit yeah is it has that have there been any challenges in managing that attention more dms more calls more maybe sponsor obligations any any difficulties with that no no it's actually been really nice like having some sponsorship opportunities come up has been really exciting just because

when you're in that limbo period where like you're still working and training like it's a lot more stressful so hopefully getting to a place where i can uh just train full time without having to coach as often or focus on financial stuff is really, really exciting. As far as attention, not much has changed. I mean, CrossFit's small. You go to the grocery store, no one knows who you are. It's really irrelevant. And is Jake living in – Jake's your husband?

Yes. And is he living in Vegas also with with you oh yeah he's finally home so he was gone for his work season until um pretty much almost the beginning of september and so he's back we're back living together and yeah and and he fits in smoothly he doesn't come home and you're like he doesn't fuck with your routines or he like puts the oatmeal in the wrong drawer or something like that um it takes a couple weeks to like readjust like we miss each other so like the little stuff doesn't really you don't notice it and then a couple weeks later like okay like when i come home from work like i want to go to bed i don't want to like wait for you to eat your dinner like things like that so it takes a little bit to readjust but

he's super supportive and like understands like the importance of routine and like structure with the goals of the crossfit game so he's all in for early bedtime and all that stuff. Is that a dog drinking water? Oh my gosh. Can you hear her? Yeah. It's okay. Yeah. She's drinking water.

That's a thirsty dog. What kind of dog is that? Uh, Luna, we got her from the pound like a month ago. Luna, come here. She's so cute.

I love her. You want it to complicate your life. It was too easy. So you got a dog. No, she's so sweet. Oh you wanted to complicate your life it was too easy so you got a dog no she's so sweet oh she is cute wow and get this so she got adopted from the pound and then brought back so they adopted her and then didn't know they couldn't have like a large dog breed and she got brought back so when we went and saw her she was just like a little i mean not little puppy she was like 10 11 months but like a little sad puppy and she's just so great wow congratulations next year guys you're gonna end up having a kid careful oh i mean baby fever comes

and goes but then i i like sleep too much i'm too selfish oh that dog has some that's the dog i just saw yeah that dog has some great dane in it yeah we think so so that was like the day we got her her coat was missing like she really had a ton of like patches and um yeah wow how big is that dog? I mean, she's tall, but she's pretty light. Like you can lift her up pretty easy. Who was Duke? Duke was my baby. He passed away right after the games. Oh, I'm so sorry.

That's okay. That was like another. Oh, go ahead. You had another dog. Yeah. Duke was my baby. That was another reason I didn't do Rogue like I was so excited for the off season like I'd never had one before because I'd never like trained through the games and I was like oh this is gonna be so cool like Jake and I are gonna like go to classes we'll go on hikes like we'll like hang out and i got home from the games jake went right back to work like he wasn't

able to be off which normally he is i got my wisdom teeth out and my dog passed away i was like oh my gosh this is like the worst idea how old is the dog he was six he was or seven maybe he was it was unexpected. He got heat stroke and yeah. Oh shit. Vegas killed him. Mm-hmm. It was like it was terrible. Oh my goodness.

That's such a beautiful dog. Holy cow. He was such a good boy. You're coaching. Sorry? Sorry sorry sorry no it's okay no more yeah bring the dog up one more time let's see if she cries completely no um uh uh you're you're coaching at the gym uh yes how is that you're digging it yeah i love coaching um sorry uh yeah do you have it do you have a nutritional consultant business you do um do nutritional consulting really like i do it but i'm not i don't like promote it or um it's like one of those things like if i have a person at

the gym that wants nutrition coaching like i'll pick up, but I don't like go seek clients. Okay. So, so back to the coaching, how often are you coaching? Right now, like three nights a week. I do the night classes. And are you, and you do like it? Yeah, I do. I mean, I don't love getting home late, but like, I think there's something really special like being involved with the gym community um like then you get to share experiences like the games or like qualifying to the games I got to come home and like the gym that I coach at like all my members like set up a surprise party for me and And like, you feel, you feel involved and I feel like CrossFit is such a selfish sport that like when you don't have that community,

like you're not able to share those like the wins or the losses with anyone. So I like it. Come on, Savan, know the room. Sheesh. It's okay. It's okay. I love talking about him. He was a good dog. He was a really good dog. What if I do know the room and I wanted her to cry? I had this all planned out. At minute 29, bring up the passed away loved ones. Yeah, that's okay. Okay.

So what happens after – so you do Zelosos games um you win that you collect some loot what's the plan after that are you going to down under also oh no i want to maybe next year i'd love to go to australia just to travel there um i'm gonna do wadapalooza as a team and then honestly just train through for the games like justin and i have had a lot of talks like that's our goal and that's just kind of where we're gonna put our focus and who's on your team at wadapalooza i don't i think i can spill the beans uh carrie and ariel lowen wow wow you know when i when i talk to you i think of you as kind of ariel lowen 2.0 have you guys hung out together you and ariel i love ariel her and danny spiegel were like my i called them my moms at the games like they kind of like took me under

their wings and i love them both so much it was fun. And they're just like really wholesome people. You heard the story about how Danny did kind of like, I guess Ariel showed up late one day to athlete briefing at the games. And Danny's like, hey, I'm going to drive you every day now to the games. Danny took Ariel. Do you know that story? I don't know that story in particular, but that sounds like Danny.

Like she texted me one night. She's like, hey, I'm having an ice bath at 8. Come over. And so I went over. I was like, okay, I'm going to go in for two minutes. And she's like, no, you're going to do three. She's such a mom. It was great.

Why do you think she does that? Why do you think she shares? It's the CrossFit Games. Why is she sharing her ice bath with you? I don't know. I mean, I think you can be competitive and still like care about other people and i think from all the interactions i've had with danny like she does at least from this is me um just what would be the word i'm just putting thoughts into

my head um i feel like she does it for the love of the sport and like the love of the community like i know she wants to do well but i don't think her ultimate goal is to win the games like I think she's like I want to be at the games and like do my best and also enjoy life and like meet people and have these experiences and I don't know I really appreciated it like she was very real like she wasn't like playing any head games like oh yeah like I feel great like if she was sore she like was like yeah I feel like trash like and, and that was, that was cool. I really appreciated it, especially as a rookie. Like you don't know anything. Yeah. That's crazy. What a great story that she did that. Oh,

do you think you would do that? Yeah, actually. Like I feel like I've been so lucky to have people like Carrie and Bethany and Danielle and all those guys like share stuff with me and there's room for everyone there's enough room for a lot of people to be successful and there if you have like a abundance mindset then like it doesn't matter I love it I I have a feeling not a lot of athletes would do that be like hey come over to my room and ice bath with me I mean I don't know.

If you win and you're not a nice person, no one really cares. Good point. At least, I mean, I wouldn't care. So that's so cool that you're going to be doing that with Ariel Loewen and Carrie Pierce. And I guess this is, Justin Kotler has, you know, hinted several times and it's been, you know, various places that Carrie is going to come back and try to go team at the games. Are you going to go team at the games? I'm open-minded to it, but that is not for sure because she's still deciding.

She wants to have kids, and she's been competing so long that her hormones are a little off balance just because she's been so lean and so fit forever. So that's kind of a big factor about her maybe coming back or not is just if she's healthy and it wouldn't affect her future with kids and stuff. Dick Butter, I'll ice bath with you anytime sebi oh that's cool that's sweet that's sweet but i'm not really i'm not a competitive games athlete but i appreciate it um and then so so carrie pierce um ariel lowen wadapalooza it does that have that's before the open correct yeah that's jan. And when you train for this, is there peaking or it's not like that at all? It's just always be ready for everything?

I mean, I think, kind of like I said, I'm just training with the games in mind. And so we'll just kind of keep training. And then we'll probably have like a little deload or something before Guadalupe to like gear up for it. But I think team of three, two-day comp, like it's not like Rogue or an individual like Dubai where it's like three days and you need to be like primed. I feel like if you're not at your peak, it's okay. I mean, you want to like be fit, but i don't think it's end all be all and why not dubai does it even pop on your radar as a possibility like how much attention do you even give that uh it did justin said no it's just it's too much travel um and it's like if you want

to do wadapuliza you definitely can't do dubai and um i personally would rather do water police as a team than do dubai this year at least uh don't make her cry i cried last time she was on the podcast she cried yeah crying's weird it's contagious as shit right yeah i feel like i cry i cry a lot do you think that's because you train so hard probably i thought i uh yeah i think that's a thing oh because it's it's emotionally um i don't want to use the word exhausting because it's it sounds like it's pejorative or negative but but it is it's it's it's it's heavy on the emotion right yeah i think it's funny because you'll just have like, say there's like a hard workout and like, you're fine with it. Like, you're totally fine with like, being in the pain cave and like doing the work, but your body like sometimes I'll just literally start crying. I'm like, Justin, I promise I'm fine. I'm just like, this is just happening. It's not me. i never thought of this before but it's almost like you know you know after the games are over and like so this year there was there was this programming that was unique to the games this

year and we had adrian there and some athletes would post stuff and it's almost like i don't think people realize how taxing the games are emotionally on athletes and maybe they shouldn't post for like three or four days what their thoughts are about the games because there's such a there's such a vulnerable and emotionally volatile spot that it's like they probably are going to post things that they don't even really mean yeah you know what i mean because i was in a more like learning mindset and just like i'm here to experience it i didn't i feel like I was able to stay pretty even keel throughout the week um but I would reflect back on like granite games where I was

very like my emotions were up down up down and yeah it's a lot do you have a good cry after the games like just go up to your room like before the did you go to the party that night we like went and said hi but i was so tired right i think right yeah we went and said hi and then went to bed but um do you ever just sit there like did you did you have a good cry after the games like not because it's sad or anything but just like a release i didn't cry after the games but i cried after granite games a bit um did you make it, did you have to go through the last chance qualifier?

No, I made it through granite games. That's why it was like probably a lot more emotional. What, what place did you take? Fourth. And who took fifth? Emily Rolf.

Oh, wow. And who took third? I don't remember the order. I know Mal got first and then i think amanda and then danny oh shit so you even come from the same region as uh as danny yeah that's where i kind of like met her well i had met her before but like that's when i first like actually interacted with her more so then the games was like okay like i know danny oh what what about the what about the way it's working this year do you like the format changes

honestly okay you'll have to refresh me it's two semi-finals now i have no fucking idea i was hoping you'd carry the show yes yes yes two semi-finals no no no no it's my fault kayla don't laugh don't laugh. Don't laugh. Yeah, two semifinals. Two North American semifinals. Kayla, do you know? Someone tell us. So you don't care. So I guess... Go ahead.

Two North American semifinals and then whatever else the rest of the world does. Okay. So I guess the answer is you don't give a shit. You know what you have to do. You're just... Right. Yeah. I mean, which is fair is you don't give a shit you know what you have to do you're just right yeah i mean that's which is fair why would you give a shit it's completely out of your control right yeah and i feel like i mean since i've done crossfit because i started in 2017 they've changed it so many times since i've started that like at the end of the day you just have to be fit like it doesn't don't know. I think the logistics,

like they can matter, but not to the point of trumping your fitness. I think the eyeballs on it this year may be bigger than ever. And it's going to be more grandiose than ever. And the reason why is because so many fucking people are going to be qualifying out of these regions. And there's so many pipe hitters there. And I think the coverage is probably going to be the best. And I think it's going to be just absolutely nuts. And I, and I think people's feelings are also going to get hurt.

I think it's going to be, it's going to be a fist fight down there. I think something hard that I didn't have to do last year that we all have to do this year is luckily all the girls at our camp got split up for the four semi-finals last year but this year we'll all be together because we're all on the west coast so that will be a little interesting i mean i don't expect anything bad we're all very cordial and want the best for each other but that will definitely be an interesting change. How many,

how many aspiring games athletes are in the underdogs athletics corral? Do you know, do you have any idea? Is it five, 10, 20, like just in house in house, like people,

people that you see, let's say, let's say people you see at least once a quarter like people that roll through there even people like ricky okay um i mean so in the gym like at camp rhino there's myself kyra um ally uh there's like carson Wolf just moved here. My friend Sabrina. So there's like five of us that are all like our, all of our goals,

like individual. There's a couple of teen athletes, obviously, but as far as like individual, like there's five of us that are all, that's our main goal. I want to make sure I'm not forgetting anybody. Oh,

and Elena Buds just moved here. She's awesome. So she lives here now. So that's another one. And then as far as like people that just rotate through, I'm not quite sure. I'll put a West Coast. So it's a pretty active camp.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then the same with the guys? Are there about the same amount of guys? No. Matty is kind of, he's a little lone wolf. I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. There's more. So there's Matt, Allie's boyfriend, Raph. Oh, that's good company. That's a cool dude. Yeah, he's boyfriend, Raph. Uh, Carrie's boyfriend. That's good company. That's a cool dude. Yeah. He's great. And then Carrie's boyfriend, Mitch.

Um, those three, uh, there's a couple like other guys that like compete, not full, full time, but, um,

I don't want to like forget anyone. Cause then I'll be like, I don't want to get yelled at. I can't believe you forgot me. I train by you every single day. I know. Hey, are the teen athletes, are the teen athletes, boys or girls? Girls. There's Kendall. She's really good. She's going to be great. Kendall. There's a girl named Maya.

And then Marley. They're all girls. Actually. I don't think we have any teen guys. Camp Rhino's named the gym, and that's where the Zillow games are going to be. Yeah. Will Jake be there with you during that whole thing? Yeah, he will. He'll be here, which would be nice.

Will he go to Wadapalooza with you uh that he might not do just because it's an expensive trip and if i'm doing team like i'll probably be with the girls most of the time um but he might like i have i love his presence in competition now like we finally kind of found our groove and um but so there was a point you didn't there was a point where it's like no yeah so the truth be told is you guys didn't find your groove he found his groove as snoop dog would say uh get in where you fit in no no i i had to grow too um you did okay i would say like west coast was was a good wake-up call.

And that's where we kind of realized we needed to figure out how we were going to interact for competitions. Right. There has to be some sort of rule. We're not at home. There has to be communication rules. Yeah. It's just more like I think we both had expectations of each other that we didn't express. And so he felt like, I'm just gonna say this, and like, it's a very overdramatic statement, but like, he probably felt like I was being selfish, and like, just in my own world and like, not aware of like, anything he was doing for me. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, like, you're needing so much stuff from me. I'm busy. Like you're not my coach. Like just, that's like a very like dramatic version of it. But, um, yeah. It kind of is that way though. Right? Like, so if I, if like, like after the show's over,

I could just walk into like, um, uh, my house and be like, Oh, Hey, my mom just texted us. She wants us to come over but like all that shit like what like maybe the week before you compete and the week you compete like you can't you have to just stop saying that shit right like my wife knows not to talk to me 30 minutes before a show goes on unless it's do you need coffee can i give you a kiss because 30 minutes before the show goes on i start doing the show in my head and so if someone talks to me during that time i feel like they're interrupting the show oh it's really weird and yeah and i'll fucking snap and so i'm guessing like the week before the game the games come you're you're already at the games you're trying to visualize the events

you don't give a shit if fucking the dog's sick or you're low on dog food or fucking someone accidentally bleached your clothes like hey don't like i'm at the games yeah yes and no i think for me like the biggest thing is like um i tend to be like a people pleaser so like if people call me or text me like i feel obligated to like interact with them um and so, I'll give an example with my manager, Benji, like he's awesome and he's super helpful. And like, like, what can I do? How can I help you? And like, he'll call and be like, Hey, like how'd the event go? And I'm like, Benji, if I need you, like, I'll call you, but like, don't like, you're fine. I don't need you. That's a great relationship. That sounds like a great relationship, by the way,

that you can talk to him like that. Yeah. like yeah we're good friends so with like jake like i think where we struggled was like i'm just going to use west coast as an example like he is very like he was an aggressive cheerleader at that competition and like it sounded a lot more to me especially on the floor that he was like telling me to do stuff and telling me to go faster and like do this and I was like you get your ass out here and do it like stop and so now like I've learned that I'll just come from a place of him being excited and like he's learned what I respond to and what I don't like I've learned how to make sure he feels appreciated and loved like that i do care about his presence and like i want him there just not yelling at me you know when i was cheering um

we did a show and andrew hiller just broke out and did heavy grace in the middle of the show that's awesome and and and i was cheering him on and taylor self was on the show too and he said basically like if i would like if you were cheering me on like that i'd tell you shut the fuck up and yeah different strokes for different so so basically he's figuring out yeah he's figuring out what you need to to help your performance hey that people pleaser thing is fucking god i wonder how you're gonna manage that because i've gotten better i've gotten a lot better like i'm like even dms right

that i mean to use something superficial like do you feel like you have to respond to everyone who dms you no i mean like if someone like if i met someone like at a competition and they're like hey like so nice to meet you like i'll try to respond to stuff like that um but if it's like some random stranger that's like hey I'm like like that's I don't need to respond to that um but yeah I've gotten a lot better like I used to say yes to everything even if it was inconvenient and like now I'm learning to say no to hanging out with a friend like even if I want to but like if it's not the right choice like it's okay to say no as as someone who um interacts with a lot of athletes i want to tell you it's perfectly okay to ghost people because if anyone doesn't understand how busy you are or how text messaging works

like fuck them like you don't need high maintenance people like i think i think a lot of people like i'd say 90 of the people i ghost it's on accident yeah it's absolutely on accident it is like i and i and i so it's kind of like i just give everyone carte blanche like fuck it yeah i mean i don't know i don't i guess at that point it's not even ghosting it's just like hey i got overwhelmed and you got you got pushed down into fucking like 400 texts down below and now i i can't find you yeah i think like texts are like an exception because sometimes you miss one or you're busy but like i don't think i would ever want someone to feel like i just was like oh i'm i'm too busy for you like i don't like that yeah fuck them because that's not how you feel no i know so if they feel if they feel that

because like i mean i have that shit with my fucking parents so my so check this out my my wife would always facetime my dad in armenia when i'm in the podcast because they're 12 hours difference so then my dad tells my mom that i'm avoiding him and i never come on the facetime calls and he's pissed at me and it's like dude like i would love to see you you're my dad i would love to see you so if people like like it's just i just hate that shit i think if people really know you then they know that that's not true. Are you saying my dad doesn't really know me? Maybe he doesn't.

He doesn't. It's okay. He still loves me. I still love him. Okay, Zello's Games, you start competing on Saturday the 12th. And you'll compete Sunday. You'll put on a show for us we'll get our money's worth wait it's free oh yeah you're coming down huh no but i'll be watching from here and commentating

oh my god i can't believe alex choked on that hey that's nice i can't believe alex killed that oh my god jake's run out onto the court he's helping her that'd be funny uh i'm really excited to see it i'm glad you and matt are doing it because i know both of you from the show and it excites me and i think it supercharges the event and i think you're both really both endearing people and uh and i'm really happy with what uh jared's doing it's gonna be cool yeah i'm excited it'll be fun I'm excited to see it all like come to life because we've seen like layouts on like the computer

and we'll just see how he transforms the gym. Awesome. Well, thanks for coming on. I know you said you were tired and I know it's, I know it's early as shit. I appreciate it.

No, I forgot about daylight savings. It feels good. It's like only, I mean, normally it's like 10 by now, but it's only nine. Caleb, were you saying bye? Like you're leaving? Oh no. I was talking to my wife. Sorry. Oh, I thought you were waving to Alex. Goodbye. Sorry.

All right. Well, thank you. I'm glad daylight savings worked out good for you. Tell Jake, I said hi and I look forward to the day of meeting him. Yeah, I will. Thank you for having me. Thanks, Alex. Bye. Do you kick me out, or do I leave? Bye. Hope that was self-explanatory. Okay, I need dating advice like ASAP.

Go ahead, shoot. Let's hear it. Let's get into it, Heidi. Yeah, let's get into it, Heidi. Yeah, let's get into it. Uh, the zealous games, um, myself and the,

the, basically the same team from row will be covering it. Uh, Hiller will be the head judge. It's going to be, it's going to be funny. This thing is going to be so funny. This thing is,

this thing is going to be, yes. Hiller's the head judge. Yeah. And, uh, Brian's the head judge? Yes, Hiller's the head judge of the Zealous Games. Yeah. And Brian will be involved there, and I've talked to JR about coming on, and Caleb and Sousa will be here, and it is going to be a party. I'm sure we'll hear from John Young and others, Mr. Spin, Mr. Brian Spin.

It's too much to text. All right. Is Brian's name actually Brian Spin it's too much to text alright is Brian's name actually Brian Spin I don't think so I have no idea that's a good question I have no idea that would be great if it was I think spin is like when you spin a story right so he called it barbell spin like you spin up a story

gotcha okay be cool though right okay spin up a story. Gotcha. Okay. Be cool though. Right. Um, okay. Thanks for checking in. It's a cool show. That was nice seeing DeLugos and Alex,

uh, Gazan again. Very sorry for making Alex cry. Hey, the truth is, the truth is, I really wanted to know how the dog died of heat stroke but i was so

scared of where it could go i was so scared of where it could go yeah i felt pretty shitty so i was like my imagination did not go to good places yeah mine either i've never heard any i've never heard that before wish it was longer weird all the time that's first first time i've heard that um okay okay so allison's on it heidi allison will help you with uh your uh um dating advice that well that's yeah don't let dudes help you with dating advice it doesn It doesn't work. Alright, guys. I just looked to see who we had on tomorrow. I didn't even mention it. I don't know where I am. I'm in the outer space right now. Oh, tomorrow we have an affiliate show.

Cody Bradburn. We just had another show scheduled for next week. Tuesday, Devin Kim. Wednesday, we have two shows, Christine Coleman, Brander and Aaron Cairo.

If you don't know who Aaron Cairo is, it's at 7. P.M. On Wednesday, it's a, a R O N K Y R O. He owns skateboarding on YouTube. He has a company called Braille and they are the biggest thing.

I think that's probably happened to skateboarding ever uh on thursday we have uh jason grubb and aaron's a cool dude uh jason is a he's either adaptive or masters masters masters athlete four-time champ been on the show before super nice guy i think he's there to promote him oh yeah he is you You're right. Good memory. He just seems like a very nice guy. I'm trying to date dudes. So that's why their perspective is helpful. Maybe we should have a Heidi dating show instead of a Daniel Brander. Guys are guys are torn between wanting to be nice to you and what they want from you and what they want to do to you. It's, it's a, it's a,

they're a disaster they're like a porcupine that wants to hug you uh number uh i'm actually having this fascinating conversation with this lady we just moved it over from uh instagram to text and i'm really excited oh things are getting serious. Yeah. And she's that's how you do it. You move from Instagram DMs to somebody texting you. And that's a progression in the relationship. You should try it sometime. Um, this, this lady's so cool. So she's a lesbian who is raising a boy. That's all I know. And she, every once in a while, she, she sends me a text telling me like some stories. And she told me a while, she sends me a text telling me some stories.

And she told me a story the other day about going into the men's room with her son. And it was so fucking funny. I started laughing so loud. But the fact that she's sharing these mother-son moments with me, it warms my heart. And I just fucking love it.

But basically, I think it's okay to say, to tell the story because no one knows who she is, but she went to the bathroom with her son in the men's room. And I didn't, I haven't asked her this yet. I'll ask her, but I'm assuming she went in there just because she wanted her, the boy doesn't have a father, but she wants her son to use the men's restroom. So she cruises in there by the way, which is totally fine. I have a complete double standard that I'm completely open with women. You are more than welcome in the men's bathroom. It's the men. I don't want

going into the women's bathroom. That's that. If you have a penis, do you cannot go into the women's bathroom because of some issues that we have across the board? There's no exception. Can we, we can't be in there. And so she goes into the men's bathroom with her son and her son's using the urinal and and this is such a typical boy thing she sees her son looking over at a guy's dick in the urinal next to him and that's the thing when you when you're do you remember being a little boy and going to the urinal and you're just like you're torn between what's going on in the other ones and not look and she said she caught her son checking out the dude's dick at the aeronautical and she's like hey and she said she used her deepest butch voice that was her words to me and i just fucking when she told me that i just wanted to fucking hug

this shit out of her what a great story like she'll have that story with her son now for the rest of her life they'll be laughing about it when she's gonna hang that over his head for the rest of his life he'll be embarrassed until he's 30 yeah i mean it's such a those are the things that make being a parent so good so so yeah okay so i finally i'll be texting with her and that's gonna add i think value to my life all right um that's it a lot of nice things said about Danny Spiegel on the show today it's balance in the universe

right all right I got nothing else we'll see you guys tomorrow 7 a.m. All right. I got nothing else. We'll see you guys tomorrow, 7 a.m. Going to the tennis courts now. Bye-bye.