you can say it i was gonna say it i was gonna say it you were in the good surprise you were in the good surprise we are live for the first time in uh we'll call it 600 we'll just call it an even 600 that is now an accurate statement hey you know what There's been many things in my life that have taken longer than 600 times to master. Some are still ongoing if you ask my wife. I was going to say yes. Well, everybody, welcome to Best Hour of Their Day. We are live and we are breaking down the Level 1 Manual.
Super excited to do this because it's one of the best... books out there when it comes to becoming a better coach a better trainer and i think a lot of people either a never read it or b check it out when they're getting ready for their first seminar and um sorry the comments are already the comments are already loading and um don't bring that one on the screen whatever you do oh jesus god i specifically asked you not to do that use headphones this morning Christian said my hair looks like troll hair. I don't know if that's accurate. No, troll hair is cool.
But most people that maybe they read this take their level one and then never look back on it. And what's been really fun for me is knowing we were doing this, I've been rereading it and there's like just gold. It's gold, Jerry. What was the first time you read the level one manual?
Oh, dear God. It had to have been something in around the 2007 timeframe. Yeah.
And by the way, Nicky Sharp, these are legit. Nicky Sharp is a self-proclaimed guru gadget. However, on our Philly University professional development call yesterday, I believe she was using an iPhone 5 when she was recording herself.
It had a home button on it, huh? Got it. It had, yeah. Like my mom.
I feel like my mom. So you read it in 2007. And, you know, one of the things I think we're going to talk about over these episodes is, you know, where CrossFit was back when a lot of this was written and where we are today, 15, 16 years later. And we hope that all of you, you know, there's 30 plus people watching live currently.
We hope that you have read this because we want to hear from you as we go through this. If you're not sure where to find it, simply type into your Google machine, L1 CrossFit Manual, and voila, it will present itself. So pretty cool that, let's just talk about this, it's out there for free. Anyone can check it out, whether or not you've signed up for the L1 certificate course.
Yeah, I think, Cody, can you drop that link? Can you put that link in the chat or in the show notes? How fancy are we? Can Cody do this?
For the record, this is our first time using a new platform. platform we are there we go let's see it there you go can you put that on that everybody can you pull that comment up there cody um you can do it cody you're doing it right there yeah i don't think you can click on that but i'm sure on you can't but it'll give you a pretty good idea and level one trainer guide so here's what i here's what i am uh i'm genuinely excited about this because this is i was on the i was on one of the calls that jay actually never attends which is the uh hq staff development calls which is why This morning? Were you on that one tonight?
Which is why you continue to be a sub-bar trainer. I'm no Flowmaster Fern. Yeah, you are not. I want to change my screen name to Flowmaster Fern. Okay, while you're doing that, do you have a shirt with your face on and out?
Yeah. Do you have this shirt? Yeah, I have my face chiseled into the side of a mountain. All the crew from Tijuana.
Tijuana. So- What's cool about this is I was we were talking about this and we did some breakout sessions in there talking about weaknesses and where you struggle. And one of the places where I kind of admitted I struggle is I've been doing this a long time, as have you. And sometimes I will not prepare to the extent that I need to prepare.
So there's a difference between I can show up to a class cold and not write a lesson plan and still run a good class or show up to a seminar and not do a ton of prep for the lecture and still give a good lecture. That doesn't mean that's what we should do. And one of the things I said I've committed to is kind of like revisiting the level one manual, and we're just going to do that. with everybody right so we just get to go back to the basics and and literally read the level one manual um because i think you know the number of people that haven't done this is probably a wild number you know and you should like there's some pretty profound information in here and also there's some clarifying information in here on like what crossfit is and what it is not and we're going to dive into that and we're going to deep dive in here and maybe highlight some things that people are not aware of.
If you're reading the manual and you're going to your level one or you're prepping for your level three, this is something you should be doing. Or level four, which is coming back out next year. Yeah. I mean, this will, I mean, at this point, the level four, you should know this information.
That's a little bit different. That's a little bit more practical. I don't know that how much revisiting this is going to help you go out into the floor and like crush it in a class, but.
You should have that by now. Something you said that I think the listeners need to hear again. I mean, whether myself or Fern, you know, we've been doing this 15 plus years. And yeah, Fern can show up to any given class any day at CrossFit Rife and provide an excellent experience. Just like he can show up at any seminar and give the what is CrossFit or what is fitness lecture, coach a breakout group, but you can't rest on your laurels.
If you want to be. a level four or you want to make it on seminar staff or you simply want to be the best coach you can be you gotta revisit the basics you gotta go back and do things like read the manual again prepare study etc it doesn't just it's a perishable skill coaching uh let's see how many questions pull that question over here real quick they uh from christian there um yeah how many questions do coaches ask that could have been found in level one um all of them all of the questions can be found in the level one manual uh that is pretty much insurance we've got that's not inaccurate i'm saying that tongue-in-cheek but it's it's not entirely inaccurate yeah and what i like about it is you know there is still quite a bit of gray when you're going through the level one like some of it obviously faults and points of performance etc but when we're looking at the methodology and the theory lectures uh you can really interpret it differently and i think that's Some of the things we might find on today's episode, you know, we've got a point that I think is gray. And it's one of the points that some people use as a criticism of CrossFit. It's one of the things that we might use as a positive when we get there.
So, you know, we're going to break this down chapter by chapter. For those of you watching, make sure you're following the best hour of their day Instagram, because we will always put up there in advance where we are in there, as well as potentially. some homework and some other things for you to cover before watching.
Because we want to hear from you throughout this. Yeah, Candy, excited for the, we all aspire to be on that. Look, Candy, I need you to relax.
Even if you earn your level four, it doesn't mean you're on my level. It does not mean that you're on my level. What's your answer to that, Ferb? How many hours should... someone coach before taking the level one?
I mean, if you're like the vast majority of us, the answer is none. And then you just go take the level one. I mean, I don't know that it necessarily matters, right?
It's just like, hey, when do I start my journey? The answer is yesterday. So, you know, I think a lot of people, it's just a weird question. It's just how you start. The answer was yesterday, but how you start, do you start underneath somebody?
Do you not have the opportunity to start underneath somebody? Just start, just, just go start coaching classes. And that's how you get good at this stuff.
When's the best time to take your level one yesterday? When's the next best time? This weekend.
Okay. So Hey, honorary, whatever, call whatever you want, Christian. So you want to dive into this? You want to get going?
Yeah, let's go. What's a, so for those of you, really, we got to have some spam comments where we got a new fan. Jay's in need of a hot girl.
So thanks, sex69-fun. They know where to find me. So for those of you following along, we're just going to break down the first couple of pages, understanding CrossFit, because that's what it's all about.
Let's dig into this. So Fern, you read the first few pages? Yeah.
So can you pull that up real quick, Cody? And we just start, it's basically, I mean, it's-By the way, before we even go any further, is that DT up there? You know- It could be, it could be, but I have, I have thoughts about it. I don't know. No, no, it could be a lot of people.
I I've for many years thought it is DT, but I've also don't think it is DT. Who do you think it is if you don't think it's DT? K-Bo?
Does it look like K-Bo a little bit? It could be K-Bo. It could be...
Dude, it could be a lot of people. It's just literally... When I do this... It looks like the back of a woman's head.
How big is my nose when I'm coming this close? Is it really... It verifies that you are, in fact, Jason. Are you censoring yourself because we're live today? I think you're just censoring yourself.
I don't know that live matters. Yeah, saying words is saying words. Yeah, so we're basically starting on page two of that manual, and it starts with understanding CrossFit. And again, like I think, so go down a little bit more, Cody. Yeah, so past the table of contents should be the first page.
So not two on there. That's the two number of pages. Work off the actual, yeah, right there. So understanding CrossFit.
It says the AIMS prescription methodology implementation and adaptations of CrossFit are collectively and individually unique, defining of CrossFit and instrumental. and our program's successes in, oh, you highlighted, in diverse applications, right? And it says, and then it goes into aims. I think everybody should read this.
From the beginning, the aim of CrossFit has been to forge a broad, general, and inclusive fitness. We sought to build a program that would best prepare trainees for any physical contingency, prepare them not only for the unknown, but for the unknowable, looking at all sport and physical tasks collectively we asked what physical skills and adaptations would most universally lend themselves to performance advantage capacity cold uh sorry my eyes are getting weird uh cold uh from the intersection of all sports demands would quite logically lend itself well to all sport in some our specialty is not specializing right and which i think is important because the number one criticism of crossfit is clearly outlined in the goal of crossfit just like hey you guys aren't good at certain things and i'm like it's quite literally in the design and in the and the desired outcome of crossfit is not to specialize in anything so it's done intentionally it's not this is not a this is not a a misapplication of variance right it was quite literally the intent well i think who's that author who did uh starship troopers i want to say it's i'm Heimlich, Heimlich. He says specialization is for insects. And you can find that. But I agree with you, Fern.
But here's what I would say about that. What's interesting is back in 2007, when this was written, it was very true. If you did CrossFit, you weren't going to be good at anything. Meaning.
on the extremes right but to today the best crossfitters are better than a lot of people in their specific sport well it's funny i was talking to pat barber uh on that call that you failed to show up to for personal development and he was talking about i don't know how it came up we were just talking about he knew he's like hey remember when back in the day we were doing crossfit and for those you've been around for a while like it was very common for people like hey you're never gonna oh we were talking about kevin ogar because he just he just benched uh 200 kilos i believe so it's like 450 pounds it's like 440 yeah it's like 440 it's it's uh he said that his legs were stronger than my arms and i was like you're probably not wrong that is funny coming from kevin no but and then because like kevin's really really strong upper body and obviously he's he's very uh focused training uh torso up but the but pat barber was saying he's like remember when everybody was like hey you're never gonna get strong being crossfit and then everybody gets stronger and she's like all crossfitters are on steroids and they're like or or the shit works and he's like are there people on steroids undoubtedly right who they are i don't care that's not my job and not and not what i'm worried about but the point is is like you start chasing making you start chasing not being a specialist and not only do you get gains in certain places you get significant gains in places in significant capacity in areas that otherwise were considered to not be achievable as with and to be well-rounded i mean to the point that there are crossfitters making olympic teams yeah i think so Like he, like Ogre was on the, uh, he was on the Paralympic power team. Right. Tia, obviously also, uh, a couple of, uh, a couple of the ladies outside of the, um, uh, in the, in South America as well. Um, But yeah, specialization is for insects. Got it.
I think when Glassman, one of the things he said is like one day we're going to see a 400 pound back squat with the same person that can run a five minute mile. And I would argue just about every games athlete, not just about, I would assume all games athletes can do that mistake, but well beyond the forming at the rogue invitational last week, there was four or five, 15 reps of it within a workout. Adam Clink, who is still part of the Ben Smith blueprint, but was a head coach at CrossFit Krypton.
You guys can check out that episode and are dropping in when we went there recently. But Adam Klink back-squatted 500 and ran a five-minute mile in the same day. Austin Maliolo deadlifted 600 and ran a marathon in the same day.
Yeah, and all of that to just show that, hey, you can have broad, you can have... extremely high capacity in a broad range of modalities which again going back to the aim of the program was the goal right we're talking about unknown and unknowable um and to use these terms exactly where they're looking at lending themselves to performance advantage right capacity called from the intersection of all sport demand sports demands would like would quite logically lend itself well to all sport right and i think that's the beauty of that whole thing is I think what's interesting about this whole thing is like, as you go back and read this, you realize that like he backed his way into the program instead of trying to create a program that went somewhere. He was like, what, what would I want to be able to do?
And then it was just like, oh, well, here's what I want to be. I would want to be able to do all those things. And then what would that look like?
And then, and then which leads into the prescription, which is kind of the next part, which is the definition of CrossFit. And so if a lot of this stuff sounds familiar, the verbiage, cause like this work we're round about ways. working through some of the lecture material.
So when we're talking about CrossFit, this is the parts and pieces of this are pulled out of this manual to create the level one lecture series. The first one being, what is CrossFit? What do you think came first?
Obviously, this is dated 2007, but I'm sure much of this was written. And then along the way, you know, around 2005, 2006, they started going out there and putting out seminars. do you think glassman was just kind of giving these lectures and was like write that down or do you think he was writing a lot of this first then pulled it into the lectures itself well he's writing it first because remember he wrote the what is he wrote the what is fitness lecture in 2000 and 2000 yeah early on yeah um or it might have been 2004 but it was like early early before there was any before there was like a uh seminar series before there was any lectures and even in for the first several years there was no definitive outline for the seminars like he would just go talk And then over time, the other people that were showed up every weekend, you know, that ended up being like the Dave Castro's, the Pat Sherwood's, the Nicole Carroll's, the Annie Sakamoto's, like that group were able to extract that information and then put it into, you know, a more, I don't want to say coherent, but a more concisely designed document, which then led to the development of the actual lectures in their capacity that you see today when you sit for the level one or the level two.
Yeah, I think we'll talk about this a little later on, but when I took my level one, he gave all of the lectures. He was up there from what is CrossFit, you know, through programming. And people chimed in here and there.
And I think it was like they clearly had a plan for the weekend, but it wasn't what it is today, where 15, 20 seminars around the world are doing the same exact thing in the same exact moment. Of course, with you being Flowmaster, the timeline in Virginia will be a little thrown off. but most of the other seminars will be running efficiently. Ours will be tight, baby.
Yeah, right. Mine only run a little late if I'm working with Chuck. Yeah, well, yeah.
Chuck Church. Chuck can pull it off because people are just happy to be around Chuck. So let's dig in. Constantly varied functional movements at high intensity. That's the definition.
Yeah, do you remember hearing that for the first time? You know, I wish I'd. I wish I did remember the first time I hear it.
I don't remember that specifically. I do remember vaguely the what is fitness lecture. And, but I really do.
It was so long ago at this point, this is 2000. And I think it's either late 2007 or early 2008. And I believe it was either Pat Sherwood or, or Andrew. What was his last name? He was a Marine blonde hair guy. Super smart dude.
um chuck talks about him a lot but anyway it was it was one of them i believe they gave um they gave that lecture the what is fitness lecture but it is interesting that you know that uh what's interesting about that definition it is it is while precise it is also very broad sure meaning when you think about what is crossfit you say constantly varied function movements executed high intensity like damn those are pretty wide left and right lateral limits to that allow for an immense amount of creative you creativity which is what we see in the CrossFit landscape which has then given us the level of athletes that we now see today yeah and no it was not Stumpf Brandon that Fern's referring to no not Stumpf it was um uh he's a Navy SEAL um no and I and you know again going back to all of this there's so much like you said there's wide margins on all of this like constantly varied the functional movements and even even high intensity um and i think that's one of the reasons i love crossfit so much is i love the gray areas of crossfit yeah and so a lot of people struggle with that definition so admittedly even like when when we kind of redesigned our onboarding process and we were like trying to do that like we would give that we would we would use the phrase because that is in fact the the technical definition of crossfit but very quickly very quickly and i think keith wittenstein you know i've heard him say this very eloquently like he he's always just like let's unpack that because there's a lot there in those six words or i don't know it's high intensity one word with a hyphen in there i don't know but like five maybe but but the point is let's say let's call it six right five five and a half right there's a lot there which which is then unpacked in the, in the lecture. And I think what's, what's cool about that is like, you can dive into each one of those, but like, if we were just do this very succinctly, if I was to kind of put that in what we would describe as maybe more layman's terms, it's just like constantly varied. Hey, we're going to change things very frequently, high intensity, let's call it above 70%.
And then functional movements, things that you're already doing. So let's do things that you're already doing. at 70% or higher and let's change them frequently.
Right. I'm not trying to redefine CrossFit, but for like the lay person, like grandma Jenny, who comes into the gym, that, that might stick a little bit more if you were strict, if you were kind of pressed for time and don't have a 40 minutes to give the, what is CrossFit lecture? You know what I mean? Yeah.
And I think a lot of people do that naturally when their buddy's like, Hey, tell me what this CrossFit thing is. Well, someone new walks into the box and you're kind of like, well, we're about pretty hard. We change it up. every day and their movements you do outside of here and like oh okay that sounds cool i can do that right versus you know i think most of us wrap up the what is crossfit lecture by saying something like so next time someone asks you what crossfit is you pull out your whiteboard right yes if they got an hour right but it's like i think you know and my favorite way it's always what glassman used to say hey you want to know what crossfit is can you show up tomorrow 9 a.m i'll show you exactly what it is right that's the old school way of doing it obviously that's not what most affiliates do these days.
But yeah, we can break it down to these three things. And for those of you that have taken the level one, we certainly break down functional movement into the descriptive characteristics as well as the defining characteristic, which we will get to in these episodes, and then high intensity. And so you said something, let's unpack that a little bit, 70%. Yeah. This is, I, I, Emily, I stole this from Pat Sherwood cause I heard him say this years ago, but the, when we talk about high intensity, like what's the, what'd be the most kind of succinct way to, to talk about that?
Because high intensity, uh, very gets a lot of hate because it's misconstrued. And we've talked about this before in the podcast, misconstrued or misinterpreted or whatever you want to call it for maximal effort. Yeah.
And while high intensity technically by its very nature doesn't include maximal effort, that's, we're not suggesting that it's maximal effort all the time. so if we say there's a high again reasonable to assume there's a medium there's a low mathematically speaking that would make high 66.6 percent or higher right which doesn't sound all that crazy i'm like hey 70 today i'm like still high intensity if we're just talking about like somebody's perceived effort or rpe if you want to use that kind of metric like use that as like a but it does factor in some other things and i think um That's important. But like, if we're going to go by this statement, you know, it says CrossFit is constantly varied function. We want to execute at high intensity.
This is our prescription function. We want our universal motor recruitment patterns. They're performed in a wave of contraction from core to extremity.
There are compound movements, i.e. they're multi joint, they're natural, effective, and efficient locomotors for body and external objects. Right. That, though, that is kind of like very quickly outlining the essentially the descriptors, right?
Like there's a difference. There's two different ways you can talk about or two different ways you can look at functional movements. Like what's the what is the defining characteristic, what legitimately makes it different from its non functional counterparts? And then like, how would I describe it? Right?
So one is like math. The other one is just like, what does it look like? So when you're talking about universal mode of recruitment patterns, we're just talking about like, there's a series of, you know, there's a series of patterns in human movement, natural human movement that would lend themselves to everything else, right?
Meaning like, they're going to be found pretty much anywhere that you go, the battlefield, right? The job site, the playing field, and by running. or sprinting, you would inherently start to get better at deadlifting and vice versa, or squatting or punching or throwing. So we're talking about universal motor recruitment patterns.
Like that's what we're talking about. Universal meaning like, think of it as ubiquitous. They're everywhere.
And they look the same too. You know, one of the examples, you get somebody kipping on a pull-up bar, throw them on the ground. They're doing the hollow.
They're doing an arch, flip them upside down. They're, they're, you know, doing handstand pushups, put a barbell overhead. They're doing a. a push press, right? All these butterfly swimming, throwing a soccer ball, spiking a volleyball, like all those things, you know?
Yeah. And one of my memories from my level one was, and I think he said this in some of the videos out there, he used to say, you know, when he would talk about their essential, their essential to quality life, you know, and we need to be doing these movements. And then, you know, he would get to say, and say, they're safe.
He'd be like, it'd be pretty ludicrous to get up here and say, these movements are essential. You should be doing them. but they're really freaking dangerous, right?
They're, they're safe. They're safe relative to other non-functional movements. Like here I am at a, you know, at a lifetime gym and you go downstairs, people are doing movements where it's like, if I loaded that up real heavy, you're going to tear a peck. You're going to blow your ACL where functional movements, everyone listening to this episode right now has failed a lift and they're fine. Cool.
You know, like the hangover, but did you die? And the answer is no, you're here to talk about it. Yeah.
So just, just to outline those, you know, the, the six descriptors are natural universal motor recruitment patterns, essential safe compound, yet a reducible and quarter extremity. So those are the six descriptors that we would use for that. Essential just meaning like they're, they're essential for quality of your quality of life.
Yeah. You're. yeah you're independent living and quality of life right like i would like to say like when we're talking about essential meaning like these are the use or lose type deals like if you stop squatting you'll have the inability to squat anymore and then but if you start squatting again you can get it back right and you're going to need to do those things to like navigate your daily life well yeah we were on a professional development call uh yesterday i think it was nick actually he was in the comments for coaching two people on the squat and you know squat into a box cool and a lot of pts are like hey you can't squat and like cool If they stop swatting, they never start again. Pull that comment up from Christian there, Cody, about the cat programming.
So this is a common misconception is that you cannot have people get stronger over time. We'll get to this in programming, but I did want to bring that up there. When variance is applied appropriately, some sort of linear program or linear periodization isn't necessarily required.
It doesn't mean it's not useful or good. It's just not required. you know, until I get to a certain point and then it probably is required.
But we will talk about more once we get to the programming aspect of the trainer manual. You know, the compound, the compound yet irreducible portion of those descriptors is like, that's just what I've described as like natural human movement or somebody who does something the right way, right? If like, if you were a caveman or or just an animal, like not even a human being, like everything that you would do in order to interact with the world to do it and like continue to live would be done in that fat. Like you would either throw something, you would run, you would jump, you would sprint, you would swim.
It would be done with that pattern intact. And I think the example you give is like, Hey, throw a, throw an object with your non-dominant hand. That whole thing gets violated.
And then it breaks down the outcome you're in for either high velocity or long distance. probably both, is non-existent anymore. And that's what we're talking about, just like natural human movement, which, and all these kind of have a little bleed over, right?
So universal motor recruitment patterns is a ton of bleed over into quarter extremity patterns. And then also listed in there is compound yet irreducible. And that's just simply saying there is a...
The biggest bang for your buck is training movements the way that they're already done in life and not isolating them. Not to be confused with isolation movements have no value. That's not the statement, right? The statement is they have the biggest return on investment if you train your body the way it is actually working in human life, meaning the hamstring curl while it is good for making the hamstring stronger is not actually how the hamstring works biomechanically on the human body.
Not to say that you shouldn't do the hamstring curl, but if all you do is hamstring curls and then you run out onto the field and you want to do some sprints and be a human being, you're probably going to blow a hamstring because you've never trained it. And you do these movements. Right. Yeah.
Doing a pistol. Yeah. Something we say at the level one is right.
And I think this, you go down and you see somebody doing the leg extension, the leg curl, the yes, no machine, the calf raise, et cetera. They may not be able to squat 225, even 135. Where if I get a CrossFitter, you know, and not an extremely strong CrossFitter, even squat 225, like they're going to be fine on any of the leg machines you would have typically done on a leg day. Well, the other thing that's left out of that and for whatever reason, or just not highlighted there necessarily with regard to that whole concept of isolation is like isolation typically does not account for full anatomical or natural end ranges.
Meaning like if I'm going to do, again, nothing wrong with the leg press, but there's a reason people can leg press 1400 pounds and can only back squat 315. Did you see me leg pressing earlier? Did you see me? Because that's exactly what I leg pressed. It looked as bad as I thought it was going to look. So again, I think there's a weird argument about like they're poo-pooing on these other movements.
I'm like, no, do them. I don't care. Just understand that the return on those movements is not as great as the return on doing compound movements or some, I guess some people would call it like free weightlifting, but doing free weightlifting the way they're supposed to be done, full anatomical end range, you know, barring any sort of significant injury or limitation.
at appropriate loads, and then progressing in volume, speed, or weight appropriately. Yeah. And I think just like CrossFit gets its fair share of criticism, CrossFitters, level one trainers, and all the way through affiliate owners can get a little too dogmatic about CrossFit. Like back in the day, if someone was in your... I literally had a shirt at my first affiliate that said...
friends don't let friends do bicep curls. Now we can argue the functionality of a bicep curl, because many people would say it's a functional movement. But point being, I think you're doing a really nice job saying like, hey, don't poo-poo on this stuff.
Just understand the pitfalls or the downfalls or why we think functional movements are better. And I think as a whole, that's a message a lot of CrossFitters need to hear. You know, it's 2022. We recognize at this point, some of the best CrossFit Games athletes out there do some other movements and you should be varying your life and throwing in a yoga class or whatever makes you feel good and happy at the end of the day right so don't get so dogmatic about it because then we're just as guilty as the rest of the world so I guess it's like we can move to the next piece which is like the next sentence says but no aspect of functional movements is more important than their capacity to move large loads long distances and do so quickly collectively these three attributes load distance and speed or you can think time uniquely qualify functional movements for the production of high power intensity is defined exactly as power and intensity is the independent variable most commonly associated with maximizing the rate of return on favorable adaptation right so that's the key part when we're talking about like okay here's how you would describe functional limits when we talk about like what makes them different it's their ability for high power output right large loads long distance quickly key component to that is like relative to their non-functional counterparts right so an example we would give again typically like it uses like let's say you weigh 185 pounds and i just do an air squat and i was like you got 60 seconds to do air squat and we count those reps and then i do a okay we measure the range of motion call it two feet we have you do a hamstring curl roughly two feet from extension to full curl to your butt distance traveled 185 pounds loaded, you're not going to have the same output. Not because your hamstrings are weak, but because relatively speaking, there's more musculature involved in moving your total body weight other than just your hamstring.
right so that's an isolation movement can be very useful but not the same as a as a what we would describe as a functional or natural movement those have the ability to do high power output mathematically speaking right and this is the part where this is where that we move away from the subjective world or like hey what's better or or what produces high power or intensity and the objective nature of that of that you statement. When we talk about intensity, we're not talking about the correlate or the subjective use of intensity. We're talking about the mathematical problem, force times distance over time equals average power, which is exactly equal to intensity.
When we use the term intensity, this is always a point that I think should be delineated when we, when we start to have this debate or discussion is like, we need to make sure that we're using terms correctly and that we've defined them. Cause if somebody is using the term intensity, um, in the sense of RPE and we're using intensity in the, in the form of mathematics, not to say either one of those is right or wrong in the, it would depend on the context of the conversation, but we would just be simply talking past each other. Like, well, you say that an orange is an apple. And I say that an orange is a pair.
And it's just like, can we just call an orange and orange and agree on, on terms? And I think that's always something that just gets, that gets kind of like rushed past for some reason in those discussions understanding when we talk about intensity when we talk about high intensity we're talking about that ability to move large loads long move large loads long distances and do so quickly right this this is why the short kind of um uh hallmark workouts in crossfit hurt so much the frans the dianes it's because like large loads long distances quickly if you think about the load moved in a fran 95 pounds for 45 rep thruster and pull-ups and how fast you're doing those 90 reps. Yeah. Not shocking that there's a high lactate, um, uh, high lactate environment introduced to the human body, at which point it feels like your, your insides are boiling.
Yeah. We can break down all the girls as we go through this. I want you to answer the question down there.
And the reason I want you to answer that Fern is because I've got to take a quick bathroom break. Welcome, welcome to Fern's life, everybody. Right. Would this comparison also apply to lifting contrary to throwing?
Considering that we humans are anatomically made for throwing, which it is in the theoretical hierarchy for the development of an athlete, by the way, everybody forgets that. How much throwing should be programmed then in comparison to lifting? This, I would answer that.
And this is just my opinion. I don't know that there's a right answer to that, but I do appreciate the question. This would be something where. Or I would kind of refer back to world-class fitness in a hundred words when he talks about, you know, um, regularly learn and play new sports.
So with regard to that, should a human being be able to throw? Yeah, absolutely think they should be able to throw to what degree should they be able to throw? I think that depends on what is this person trying to accomplish? We would probably agree that inability to throw would manifest itself in other deficiencies, a competent ability to throw.
would also manifest itself positively in a lot of places. But to what degree would I need to train? That would depend on what this person's goals were.
Are they a sports specific athlete? Obviously a baseball player, a softball pitcher, a football quarterback, a lacrosse player, a lot of throwing. We should probably spend more time throwing.
But if you're not, I would just be like, I would want the baseline level of athletic capacity to throw using quarter extremity principles appropriately to have that power output. And then I would move on because spending any more time there. there would be little to no return on that, if that makes sense.
So I hope that kind of answers the question. Well, this was really spotlighted. What year was that, 2009 when they did the softball throw? I want to say nine. It was a long time.
No, no, it wasn't 2009. No, because it was in Aromas. And 2009 was or sorry, yeah, 2009 was in Aromas, and that was done in Carson. Cool.
So maybe it was 10. It was early on, but you know, we saw plenty of games athletes that couldn't throw very well and they were still plenty fit. But yeah, I like what you said there. It's probably a strong correlate and you, you should be able to do it.
So thinking back on this, I would tell you this, like having, having playing a lot of sport, this is actually a great discussion, you know, like I've. obviously spent a lot of time around a whole plethora of athletes growing up i played uh a lot of sports growing up but no here's my point which is like the athletes that had solid capacity to throw which regardless of which sport they specialized in were were generally speaking the most athletic right so like whether they were a baseball player or not by trade the ones that were really athletic could throw a baseball right but counter argument was not the the same meaning like um i love wrestlers you're wrestlers but wrestlers are notorious for for like not being real great out of any say anything outside of wrestling like you put them i will throw a football over that fence over there which happens to be four feet from you but the um And again, not a shot at wrestlers, but like, I would just, I have a lot of wrestler friends I'd like to pick on them, but they, but that would be an example where like high capacity, but, but that, that active throwing was not there and they would have a tough, a really tough time translating their skillset of wrestling to another sport where typically what I saw was like somebody who could throw. And it's an, it's a really interesting question.
Somebody who can throw is typically really good across multiple sports. That's very interesting. I would pay a lot.
A little nerf one, maybe. I can throw a baseball well. I can throw a ball well.
And I could, I'm going to say something outlandish, which I rarely do. I can throw both sides. Both sides.
Lefty, this is lefty. Right. That's why I played a lot of handball. And you have to play both ways.
Not the handball that you guys are thinking of, but the handball. And I do want to say, we've got some new listeners, new fans. Do you want to tell them all about your Division I career? Do you want to get into that on the first episode? I don't.
That's your job. Your job is to talk about my accolades, yeah. Yep.
Division I. But no, that was, I think, and if anybody, I mean, I'm sure you knew people that were like that, but that tends to be true. Like, if they're good throwers, they're usually pretty athletic. Yeah. And I think you're pretty spot on about wrestlers too.
And I think partly because we get into wrestling, because we are in fact athletic, which is like, like you said, it's like, cause you could get so good at wrestling. Like I'm not athletic just by being stubborn. Right.
And like fitness, right. Like if you can go hard for that five to six minutes, like you can bypass so much athletic. Now, if you happen to be athletic as well, that's when you elevate. Right.
yeah and this is not to say that wrestlers are not athletic the the peak end of almost any sport you're talking about every person there is athletic in nature so um anyway so here's here's i think the next part which is like recognizing that uh breadth and depth of a program stimulus will determine the breadth and depth of the adaptation it elicits our prescription of functionality intensity is constantly varied we believe that preparation for random physical challenges i.e the unknown and unknowable events is at odds with fixed, predictable, and routine regimens. And there's another statement in the lecture where he says, any routine, no matter how complete, contains within its omissions the parameters for which there will be no adaptation. That's a great classism. What I'm loving about this as we go through it together again also is seeing how much of this is a part of the level one.
And some of the things that we still say on a weekly basis. Give that last line again, because I want to make an analogy. The one that I read or the...
No, the one you just said at the end. Oh, no. What he says is like any...
Oh, yeah. So I can read that one again. So it says... Within any... No, within any program...
Oh, sorry. Okay. Yeah.
So within any... Sorry. With any program...
Sorry, I'm blanking again. I just had a brain fart. You got it.
Oh, any program, no matter how complete... contains within its omissions the parameters for which there will be no adaptation yeah and that's here's my analogy you know i'm gonna give it for christian because he's listening uh star wars analogy anyone watch the star wars like you have that death star episode four new hope and it was like indestructible however there's one little spot where if you shoot a you know laser in there like luke did the thing explodes And that's kind of always what this reminds me of. Like no matter how robust, no matter how awesome your, your programming, your training, all that, there's, there's a spot in there and we can destroy you.
Well, this is, so this is we can, we can talk about this on a practical level. So this is, let me know how that was. So it was not bad. I don't know if you're up on Andor, but I doubt. I have not watched Andor yet.
So the, that statement. is a direct... How would I describe this?
It calls out fixed programming of things like strength plus Metcon, right? And again, not to say that those things are bad, but understand that by doing it that way, you are creating weaknesses inside the programming. Meaning if that's all I ever do, we know a handful of things about the degree with which you're strength training, meaning like the volume, the loading is probably not optimal. We won't say good or bad, just optimal.
And then we know that the length of the Metcons, it probably falls under the very finite window, probably something in the 7 to 12, maybe 15 on the long end, which means immediately I know that you are very likely deficient in longer Metcons, 20, 30 minutes. Okay. But if you're not trying to do that, that's fine. That's cool.
And CrossFit is not actually poo-pooing that either. They're just saying simply that you need to recognize that there is a deficiency being designed there by the nature of the design of the program. I like that. You know, too many people just get upset, like strength Metcon is dumb.
Not necessarily, right? Depends on what your goals are. But like you just said, here's the issue.
If you do strength and Metcon five days a week, We have a really good idea of what your strength training looks like, as well as what your conditioning looks like, and we know where you're weak. So I think that's the bigger issue, right? It's not strength and Metcon are inherently wrong. It's that when done exclusively, you're, you know, and we'll get to this throughout the manual as well, like you'll fail at the margins of your experiences. Because like you said, it's very hard in a 60-minute class to...
brief somebody, warm them up, throw in a cool down at the end, and then plug in strength and Metcon and go longer than 15 minutes. It's damn near impossible unless you're doing a, hey, work up to a one-hour max in six minutes, which is not what they're doing. Yeah. Cody, let's go to the next page, talk methodology. So just on these first two pages, there is a broad coverage of numerous theory lectures.
in these first two pages for the record right so once we get here's what i'm thinking if you if you show up and you've read this you're gonna be i would guess for we've reached probably 200 plus seminars how many people show up every weekend have they actually read this a handful i know a couple people that are like uber nerds like i read the whole thing start to finish i'm like all right well you probably be just fine the issue is you have to keep there's so much there's so much here and that's what i was saying like just the first two we haven't got past the we haven't got the pages for yet Right. And we've covered three pages. We've covered, and we've covered, we've covered like three separate lectures here. Right. So in this next one, it says the methodology that drives CrossFit is entirely empirical.
We believe meaningful statements about safety, efficacy, and efficiency, the three most important and interdependent facets to evaluate any fitness program can be supported only by measurable, observable, and repeatable data. Right. So this statement right here, which is on page two under methodology. of the trainer manual is expressly stating the opposite of all internet trolls and crossfit is all we care about is going fast and lifting heavy weights right they're talking about like one of those three components is safety the first one by the way you know um and i think crossfit ruined me for most other you Not sport is the right word, but training, because I love the measurable, observable and repeatable aspect of CrossFit. And I think that's what we all, you know, to the point that sometimes I'll see a workout that has something like flutter kicks or even up downs.
Right. And it's like, cool. What's what's measurable, observable and repeatable about this?
Because I can move my legs this far this time. I can jump back this time. And now I don't know what I'm comparing it to. And by the way, this. you know goes against a lot of people's you know beliefs it's like well you're competing with people in your class i'm like no i want to know because i want to do better myself next time and i don't know what i did this time if it's a movement that's not measurable well this this again the brilliance of the definition of crossfit is what makes it so intriguing in my mind right when you're talking about variable when we're talking about constantly varied constantly you can constantly vary everything meaning like we shouldn't always measure the things that we train.
The point is that we can. And the point is that the ones that have higher high power output distinctly are different and have different adaptation and stimulus than the ones that do not. Similarly, And I think it was Max from Training Think Tank, which who I think is uber smart, posed a question to Dave Castro not too long ago about like, hey, if I didn't time, is it still CrossFit?
It's like, absolutely. That's what he did, that swimming deadlift workout, right? And it's like, absolutely, it still is. And Dave, I think he answered that too there.
But like variance would also entail not timing it or not measuring it, just doing it for quality, right? It's very everything. And we say that in the lectures, like, Hey, you should vary every conceivable aspect of your program, which sometimes means not doing it for intensity.
And sometimes it means not measuring it or timing it. It also means sometimes listening to Dave Matthews band when you're working out or Britney Spears, which you like to do. Yeah. And you know, and you tie that back to the intensity piece we talked about earlier and you said like 70%, like hey maybe one way you kind of ratchet down intensity at times is don't throw that cloth on and you know and just move and it's okay so i i hear you on that i think i think but going back to what i'm being dogmatic well but this i think the dogmatic aspect in a lot of scenarios is due to lack of understanding i don't think it's actually dogmatic i think it's ignorance so i'm ignorant uh well that was a foregone conclusion but i'm talking about the listeners right and what i mean by that is Our listeners are ignorant. Yes.
Well, listen, Hey, if you're ignorant, that just means we can educate you and we can help you. If you don't care, that's a different story. Right. But the, but the point of Bernie, you quote Bernie, Bernie, aren't you?
Go ahead. Do you drop your dad's famous quote? Yeah. Either stupid or don't give a shit and I can only help you with one.
Right. So, but the point of that is when we're talking about the, the measuring aspect of that or the intensity side of it, it's like well if i didn't do 100 is it really crossfit and it's just like it's still high intensity by definition right it's just not maximal right and to think that you're only going to get some positive adaptation or the intended stimulus that you're looking for at maximal training effort is ignorant going back to where i started so understanding like hey sometimes what we would describe as like a moving day is still going to have tremendous value Probably most of the time, right? And I think understanding that it's just like, hey, just because you didn't hit max effort in PR doesn't mean that it wasn't high intensity, right? Because that's a very objective statement. High intensity relative to what?
Like what was the power output on that effort? It was probably very high if we're talking about like absolute horsepower. It wasn't low. Yeah, you'd have to snap even at 45 pounds. Like that's still high.
right that's still a high power up like you move that barbell four feet five feet six feet in a second like that's pretty freaking high power you know and i also think going back to the intensity piece and we'll get into this and you know in technique later on there's also relative intensity and relative intensity is not if you take the level one we talk about relative intensity from the perspective of me compared to grandma or fern or you the listener right you Everyone's relative intensity is different across people. However, relative intensity is unique to any given human being on any given day. If you come into the box today and you've had a big fight with your significant other or didn't sleep well or feel great, I know I'm going to ratchet up or down your intensity depending on those factors.
And then this is probably where the last piece, we're talking about implementation, right? not the last piece but the next piece was in implementation crossfit is quite simply a sport the sport of fitness which is one of the things that separated crossfit um but this was something i kind of foreshadowed earlier a lot of people will critique crossfit because of that state right it is a sport like not everyone should be doing this because it is a sport but not everybody should be doing it as a sport but it is a sport it could be And also that sport can be a casual sport. And it also could be a sport in which you're simply trying to improve yourself. Not necessarily. I don't care what Cody did.
I don't care what you did. I don't care what this person did. I want to know, is my friend time better than it was two years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago. And also just because it's considered a sport doesn't mean it shouldn't be done by other people.
Right. That's like saying that like, I could never go to the gym and play pickup basketball because I'm not like trying to go to the NBA. I could never play flag football in the backyard with my son because neither one of us are going to the NFL, at least.
Do you have to disclose that you're a division one basketball player? Like if you were to go to the gym. to play some pickup ball like are you like all right guys i may not look at right now but just so you know i realize that i'm 5 11 and white however i'm about to break somebody's ankles you're like woody harrelson you're just draining threes out there like you're like hey dude um i know you don't think too but you're gonna want to lace those shoes up otherwise you're gonna otherwise i'm gonna tear i'm gonna tear you out of those shoes um and i love it brandon dropped a great comment if you want to pull that up our needs differ by degree not kind yes One of the classic Glassman quotes.
So, and I think this is, so if we go, in implementation, CrossFit is quite simply the sport, a sport, the sport of fitness. We have learned that harnessing the natural camaraderie competition in the fun of sport or game yields an intensity that cannot be matched by any other means. The late Colonel Jeff Cooper observed that the fear of sporting failure is worse than the fear of death. It is our observation that men will die for points.
Using the whiteboards of scoreboards, keeping accurate scores and records, running a clock, and precisely defining the rules and standards of performance. We not only motivate unprecedented output, but derive both relative and absolute metrics at every workout. This data has important value well beyond motivation. And I think that's also something that just gets overlooked or misinterpreted or just forgotten in the whole thing, which is like the sport nature of it. allowed it to drive the singular variable that would get the outcome that people were wanting right so when we talk about hey what do you want any training modality i want a result how do you get results add intensity how do you ramp up intensity line yourself up next to somebody else and do it that way right and i think that was that was the piece that was missing in a lot of scenarios if in fact people were trying to drive so like same thing for like olympic weightlifting If we didn't measure it and we didn't make it a sport, would anybody give a shit about weightlifting?
Probably not. Same thing for powerlifting, right? If there was no sport where you went and did bench squat dead, nobody would care about powerlifting.
They just wouldn't. And it's okay. I think what needs to be understood there is that it allows for that to be introduced, which allows people to move the needle to get the adaptation they're looking for.
But like in every sport, it needs to be treated appropriately. There's a time and a place to make something competitive. But just because it is competitive and it can be used as a sport and we can measure it, doesn't mean that we need to bludgeon ourselves or other people with it.
I think also, if you pull that back up, Cody, that sentence or two that you read is the reason most people listening fell in love with CrossFit. Of course. Myself included.
I've heard Greg Amundsen say this. By the way, if you don't know who Greg Amundsen is, OG, fire breather. Always on.com back when Fern and I found CrossFit, just crushing workouts.
And he said he remembers the time Coach Glassman had someone else show up to class. And he was like, you're going to go against him in this workout. And he's like, I never heard that. It was always like you're working out.
But we're actually competing. competing against each other. And I don't care who's in class with you.
I tell the story about the time I was dying in a workout and I looked across the room and there was 70 year old Donna with PVC. And I believe the workout ended with 10 thrusters. And I picked up 115. I was like, I'm going on broken because I want to beat Donna. And I didn't give a shit how old she was, what her gender was, how much weight she was moving.
But it made me pick up a bar and do 10 reps unbroken, which I would not have done by myself. Human beings are just like mildly better, more intelligent animals. If I put two horses next to each other, they're going to race. Whether they know that they're where they're going or not, they're going to race. Right?
Like that's just the way it works. And yes, I beat Donna Cody. I beat her. She broke up that BBC.
I went unbroken. He actually killed Donna. No, Donna actually just turned 80. She was one of my very first one-on-one clients.
She's 80 years old, still doing, you know, just. completely showing people like you're so wrong about CrossFit because Donna's 80 she's traveling the world like living her best life and I think most of that is because she does CrossFit well what's interesting about that whole thing about just the introduction of the sport and competing and stuff is like is like you don't have to do anything else other than put people in a room together you don't have to put more gasoline on the fire you don't have to do any of that you don't even have to talk about it It simply exists and it will happen whether you like it or not. It's just the nature of human beings. Right. That's exactly what I'm talking about.
Working out with others helps you work out harder. Right. And that's the beauty of it. Right. It's just like it's baked into the cake.
The safety, it's baked into the cake because they're functional movements. The intensity, it's baked into the cake because I put a series of human beings in the room who are all doing the same thing. It's baked into the cake, which is what makes it so effective. We just need to make sure that we execute it appropriately from a coaching standpoint.
And, you know, and I can tell you this in real life. Right now, in between homes, I'm bouncing around, just trying to squeeze workouts in. And then we go to when you were in town a couple weeks ago, we filmed some dropping in episodes. And it's like, oh, this is so much more fun.
I naturally just go a little harder than I would by myself. And the endorphins, the dopamine, like, yes, just exercise and going for a walk, you will release some, but I'm positive there's on a scientific level. it's so much different working out with other people, right?
The best programming in the world, like we talked about with Ryan Fisher, right? On the podcast has to have an X factor and that X factor is you're enjoying it. And the truth is in CrossFit, the workouts are somewhat insignificant, right? At the end of the day, it's like, I'm showing up, there's seven, 12, 15 other people here and we're gonna exercise. And because of that, I'm gonna get fitter and I'm gonna have a better day, a better, you know, the best hour of my day.
And- it's going to lead to a better life. And I think that is what cannot be understated when it comes to CrossFit. Which kind of goes to where this last piece about adaptation, and then we can kind of wrap up the show, but like our commitment to evidence-based fitness, which he's referring to measurable, observable, repeatable, or the quantification of whatever you did that day, time, reps, distance, publicly posting performance data, co-developing our program in collaboration with other coaches and our open source charter.
in general, have well positioned us to garner important lessons from our program to learn precisely and accurately, that is, about the adaptations elicited by CrossFit programming. That's the beauty of the whole thing, right? It's just like that pair of two sentences or whatever that is, is like the adaptation comes by introducing broad spectrum of movements or modalities. by ramping up the intensity, by putting human beings in another room, and then by using movements that have high power output, right?
And it drives whatever adaptation you would be looking for, quite frankly, it doesn't even matter. Like if you were doing those things, you would largely start to have some degree of improvement in those things. Like if you couldn't throw, you would be stronger and be able to throw.
You would, you would fundamentally understand quarter extremity movement patterns. And we would, it would just be a little bit different coaching, a little bit different cues. Put your feet here instead of here.
And now I want you to To rotate at the hips and then throw like that, it would all it would all bleed over. What we have discovered is that CrossFit increases work capacity across broad time and modal domains. This is part of the definition of fitness. This is a discovery of great of great importance.
And I think I think it's supposed to say importance and has come to motivate our programming and refocus our efforts this far reaching. Increase in work capacity supports our initially stated aims of building broad, general, and inclusive fitness program. It also explains the wide variety of sport demands met by CrossFit. As evidenced by our deep penetration among diverse sports and endeavors, we've come to see increased work capacity as the holy grail of performance improvement in all our common metrics like VO2, max lactate threshold, body composition, and even strength and flexibility as being correlates, derivatives even.
we would not trade improvements in any other fitness metric for a decrease in work capacity and i think that's important right so it's important about like those and that's also not to state that those other things have no value right vo2 max lactate threshold flexibility they do have value but now we're talking about to what aim do they have value and for who and what are they trying to achieve obviously somebody who is needs more flexibility because you're specializing that's different the desired outcome is different right We're talking about the human being absent of any sort of specialty or sport. How would I create the most well-rounded human being, right? That's what we're talking about. You talk about how we've ran through multiple lectures here.
I mean, this goes to the fitness lecture. And by the way, if you're still here and you have questions for me and Fern, before we wrap up, please drop them in the comments. in the fitness lecture we're like well how much do i need of x or y meaning flexibility or strength or speed and it's hey enough to increase work capacity across broad time and modal domains and this goes to the point of so many people in the crossfit world immediately default to well i need to get stronger well do you because you can't touch your toes and i'm pretty sure if you were able to touch your toes you'd be able to snatch more or do your back and your back wouldn't hurt which would improve your sleep Yeah, so like Christian said, we want to know what you can actually do.
And really those things are, it's how much do you need? It's you need enough to improve your fitness. And too many people focus on what they enjoy, myself included, for the record.
I love squatting heavy. I do it once a week. I don't need to be squatting heavier. I need to be working on my muscle ups. I need to be working on running.
There's a balance of I enjoy this shit, so I do it. but also what's your end goal and the end goal of this program. We talk about the dose, constantly very functional movements and high intensity.
The response or the adaptation is fitness, work capacity across broad time and global means. And I think you could have a couple of things that would be at odds here, right? So just kind of real quick devil's advocate, because the short and sweet of that is, hey, we don't actually care what kind of training you do. as long as it elicits the response of me getting better at all of these things. So kind of like the black box theory, I'm going to, I'm going to keep putting things in.
And all I really care about is the outcome to some degree. I don't actually care what happens inside the box. And you have to be able to marry that with like this idea because we're human beings who we have this need or desire to quantify everything, right?
Money, social media, likes the weight on the bar, you know, anything and everything. And going into like these other common metrics if i if i get hyper focused on driving a particular metric in many instances i would do it at the expense of overall output whatever the output might might be whether it's business output a car you know human being whatever so you have to be able to kind of hold two thoughts at once which is like hey this quantification is important and i need to be able to measure to measure it Because that's actually what will allow me to focus on the right areas. And simultaneously, I don't want to focus too much on the inputs at a micro level.
I really just want to see what is the output. I know generally speaking what the inputs need to be, but if I focus too much in there, the output will not be what I was shooting for. And you see these people with these super elaborate programs and they're not getting the outcome that they want.
They're not getting the outcome they want. It's like, well, you're hyper-focused on, you're zoomed too far in. You're trying to drive a singular metric instead of just being like, what are you deficient at? Let's start there. And let's change that.
And then let's reassess and let's put some other inputs in there and just see what the output was. But our desire to understand what happens inside the box can be blinding sometimes. And that can be... If you're programming for your box, just be wary of that.
Like you're not always going to figure out what happens inside the box. Right. And to some degree, it doesn't matter. Just know what are the things that move the needle and then measure what happens when it comes out the other side.
Yeah. And we talked about that. Like, really, we don't care what's happening inside. Do we? No, it doesn't matter about the results.
No. So. As Cody just said in the comments there, remember this is our first show breaking down the level one manual. It's all gymnastics, Brandon.
Make sure you're following our Instagram best hour of their day. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel here. And we're going to continue to, I mean, we went through two pages and it took an hour. So this is, we're going to finish this by 2030. This is going to take us 14 years, everybody. Yeah.
But, but you're going to know this inside and out. Anything else we want to touch upon for these first few pages? No, if you guys have questions, you can send them to us during the show. You can send them to us before the show.
Cody can kind of categorize or catalog all of those to make sure we get them addressed. But this is going to be fun. And for everybody that's like, you're like, hey, man, I've been needing to deep dive into the manual. You don't need to do that anymore.
Just listen to the damn podcast. Subscribe, you turds. That's it. Subscribe and you're going to get learned.
I simply, by listening to this real quick question for you, Fern, I don't know that we've talked about this too often. How did you find CrossFit back before you took your level one? My wife, she's like, Hey, we're going to go, I'm going to go try this thing out at Sherwood's box. Right.
Yep. And we rolled in there and that was it. Love it. And by the way, guys, speaking of Sherwood, we are going to have some guests on these live episodes.
breaking down some of these chapters with us. For example, you mentioned Pat Barber earlier of warm-up and workout. He's going to be helping us break down what is fitness, parts one and two when we get to it, as well as some of the other OGs and legends. of the CrossFit EDU department. And if you have any that you would love to see on the show, please let us know.
Because Fern's Rolodex, now that he's a Flowmaster, runs deep. And he actually has a Rolodex. I was going to say, were you the one that brought me up about that?
Be like, hey, stop using the term. And I'm like, it's a figure of speech. Nobody actually has a Rolodex.
And even when I was young, Rolodexes were not a thing. I remember my aunt had a Rolodex on her desk. Bring this question up, Cody.
What is it? Studying for my L3 is what CrossFit gives us to study enough, or should I also definitely jump in your program? Thank you for all the knowledge. Well, you should definitely learn from, I mean, you studied with us.
It's basically cheating. Would you say, Fern? It's cheating. You show up to YouTube on Wednesdays, you're cheating. You're going to get all the information you need right here.
Think of it like steroids. This would be performance enhancing drugs for your level three prep. That is right. That is right. No, but we're going to, we're going to call this the PEDs of CrossFit information.
And I want to say this about the level three DT seven on our show, the people that pass the level three do study, but also are the ones that live in and breathe CrossFit, right? Correct. It's when you, it's when you start getting distracted by shiny objects and other things and you're, you start looking at questions like through that lens versus this manual right here.
Everything we just broke down. If you look at the questions, if you start to look at things through these lenses of CrossFit, you're going to be just fine when it comes to that test. All right, Ferran, I know you got family in town, right?
I do. I got to go see the people that brought me into this world are at home babysitting my children right now. I don't know if you're still allowed to quote Bill Cosby, but I will anyway. at the sake of being canceled yeah i brought you into this world i'll take you out and that was one of my favorite uh cosby isms but uh yeah your dad's definitely told me that yeah and so go spend some time with your with your folks by the way if anybody um was interested it is fern's birthday tomorrow so so technically so technically it's not it's not my birthday it will be my birthday It will be your birthday in about eight hours, nine hours from now.
So if you want to send Fern some love, head over to his social media at jfern3. Shoot him a birthday message tomorrow. And then the next day, follow up with a happy anniversary because it's his anniversary as well. So Fern, like anything in life, he makes life easier.
It consolidates. And he just, you know, make sure he doesn't miss things. Birthday, anniversary. Back to back.
Right on top of each other. Oh, we got Teffy. Teffy's watching, by the way.
Look at that. Yeah. If you want to know how much of an idiot I am, my wife is like, listen, you have to remember one number for our anniversary. And it's just the number one.
Because our anniversary is 11-11-11. 11-11-11. And I'm going to put a little pressure. Tefi, if you're still listening, we're going to have you hop on one of these shows and break down the manual with us.
And we're going to do it in Spanish. Yeah, in Espanol. Exactly. So, Tefi, you heard it here.
She's. Does Taffy, which region? She runs a region, right?
I don't, as a, oh, as a regional rep. I don't know, Taffy, yes. Taffy, you're a regional rep. She's a badass, long time member. It would be Mexico.
It would be Mexico if she does. That's racist, I believe. Anyway, anyway, we're going to wrap up before Ferg gets too racist on this show.
Country manager of Mexico, that's right. Hey, pull her, pull her. comment over there so people know who we're talking about here uh cody yeah yeah right here oh gee spit too yeah i was gonna say she is fitter than us so maybe we'll have her we'll have her talk about one of the movement we'll break those down and um this is great i had a great time fern i feel better prepared i'm actually giving the what is crossfit lecture this weekend which by the way is my favorite lecture to give you know what i'm gonna tell you don't fuck it don't fuck it up Don't fuck it up.
All right, Cody. Thank you all for listening. Thank you all for watching.
We appreciate you guys. See you next Wednesday live here. Best hour of their day.