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June 21, 2024

Coach Profile: Blake Schaub, Part 3

Coach Profile: Blake Schaub, Part 3

What does it take to become an extraordinary CrossFit athlete? Join us as Blake Schaub and I share nearly 40 years of CrossFit wisdom, reminiscing about the rich histories of CrossFit Pittsburgh and CrossFit Iron City. Blake recounts an inspiring journey of an athlete who, despite struggling with overhead squats, showcased unparalleled determination and coachability. Our discussion delves into the essence of an ideal CrossFit athlete and coach, underscoring the significance of dedication and the willingness to evolve.

Experience the challenge of iconic CrossFit workouts like "Fran," "Grace," and "Isabel" as we highlight the importance of maintaining the intended stimulus and adjusting weights as necessary. Learn about the grueling "Fight Gone Bad" workout, designed to mimic an MMA fight’s intensity, and explore the balance coaches must strike between motivating seasoned athletes and guiding newcomers. Reflecting on our programming philosophies, we share insights on effective training, proper warm-ups, and the art of scaling workouts to match individual capabilities.

Discover the entrepreneurial spirit within the CrossFit community and our unique approach to nurturing coaching talent. We touch on the evolution of CrossFit affiliations, the dynamics of affiliate fees, and the organic growth of coaching staff. Finally, enjoy a sprinkle of lighthearted banter about fast food and upcoming plans, emphasizing the camaraderie and energy that make CrossFit more than just a fitness regime. Whether you're a seasoned CrossFitter or a newcomer, this episode promises a mix of valuable insights and personal stories to inspire your fitness journey.

Support the show

Chapters

00:01 - CrossFit Experience and Coaching Insights

12:32 - Striving for Improvement in CrossFit

17:45 - Programming Philosophy and Intended Stimulus

22:49 - Scaling and Achieving CrossFit Goals

33:43 - Respect for CrossFit Affiliation and Programming

37:59 - CrossFit Business Model and Market Analysis

51:27 - Casual CrossFit Banter and Plans

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:01.762 --> 00:00:08.615
And we are back with Blake Schaub and the CrossFit kids about to go live downstairs.

00:00:08.615 --> 00:00:12.930
So if you hear any clanging and banging, it's them.

00:00:12.930 --> 00:00:16.565
So this has been a lot of fun with.

00:00:16.565 --> 00:00:45.813
You know, blake's son, logan, is downstairs getting after it, but this gave us an opportunity to really to really talk about, you know, not just the crossfit, pittsburgh, crossfit, iron city history, right, but crossfit itself, because I think, you know, between the two of us we got like 30 plus years of crossfit experience, a long time, and, and you know, what's neat too, I think, is um, and that's what we want to start to get into a little bit more today.

00:00:46.299 --> 00:00:55.515
Blake brought up, right before we started to record, you know, was thinking about what makes a good CrossFit athlete, what makes a good, you know, crossfit coach.

00:00:55.515 --> 00:01:00.067
As a coach, what kind of athlete do you?

00:01:00.067 --> 00:01:03.854
You know what's your ideal athlete to train, you know this type of thing.

00:01:03.854 --> 00:01:06.748
So I think that's some really, really good topic for conversation.

00:01:06.748 --> 00:01:10.016
You know what's your ideal athlete to train, you know this type of thing, so I think that's some really really good, uh, topic for conversation.

00:01:10.055 --> 00:01:11.019
You know, yeah, I agree, I think that you know.

00:01:11.019 --> 00:01:19.304
It's funny because, like you said, I mean really, if you put numbers to it, it's probably, it's probably close to 40 years of combined crossfit experience, right?

00:01:19.304 --> 00:01:25.912
Um, and you know even more than that in terms of coaching in.

00:01:25.912 --> 00:01:45.640
You know some aspects or another, you know, and in the almost seven years that we were open in Iron City and the however many years before that that I was three or four years that I was coaching here before that, and everybody since, like I've coached every different type of person, right.

00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:45.780
And.

00:01:45.819 --> 00:01:58.173
I'm sure you've coached every different type of person as well, and, um you know, my favorite people to coach are not the people that get it right away.

00:01:58.332 --> 00:01:59.314
Yeah, you know like yeah.

00:01:59.802 --> 00:02:01.269
I can remember there's a uh.

00:02:01.269 --> 00:02:08.681
There was a guy that came in uh across the country.

00:02:08.681 --> 00:02:09.525
Yeah, maybe remember there's a uh.

00:02:09.525 --> 00:02:10.889
There was a guy that came in uh to cross the iron city.

00:02:10.889 --> 00:02:22.527
Maybe within the first year that we were open and you know I remember we were doing, did fundamentals with him right and going through like things like the overhead squat and there was just like, first off he was tall, he was like six, three, six, four, so normal length pvc.

00:02:23.087 --> 00:02:34.961
There's zero chance that him you know, like his arms just wouldn't do it right right uh, couldn't, couldn't keep that bar, you know uh, anywhere but in front of his, in front of his head, it was impossible.

00:02:34.961 --> 00:02:43.725
And you know we, uh, you know we always modify, okay, we're gonna, you're gonna front squat, right, you just it's.

00:02:43.725 --> 00:02:54.500
It's a waste of time for you to overhead squat today because you know it's just not gonna get the stimulus, it's gonna be too difficult you're gonna do you know you're gonna be able to do whatever, so we always substitute.

00:02:55.762 --> 00:03:03.644
But every day he would come in and he would work on it his warm-up and that was his thing, like he was just doing it and do and do it.

00:03:03.663 --> 00:03:12.631
Even if it was, you know, he didn't care you can see him in the corner, kind of like struggling through it as he, as he kind of did his own thing before we warmed up or whatever.

00:03:12.631 --> 00:03:30.602
Um, and then you know, I can remember, uh, very vividly, the day that he that we had overhead squats in the warm-up or in the workout, and and there he was, he was, you know, I'm gonna try it and he picked it up and it was an empty bar and and his hands were, you know again, six foot three, six foot four guy.

00:03:30.681 --> 00:03:37.847
Like his hands were all the way to the sleeves right, and maybe even one or two fingers on the sleeve but like, but he overhead squatted.

00:03:37.847 --> 00:03:42.903
You know, and you know that kind of person that and you know kind of what we talked about.

00:03:42.903 --> 00:03:49.354
That kind of person that is driven enough to want to do something right and, and you know, it's very coachable.

00:03:49.354 --> 00:03:55.752
Coachability is is something that I think sometimes we take for granted, but it's great.

00:03:55.979 --> 00:04:07.031
You know, honest to God, and it's funny too, because at the I don't know, I guess I am one of those people that should just have a fucking disclaimer at all times.

00:04:07.031 --> 00:04:12.671
It certainly don't mean any offense to anyone, it's not the point.

00:04:12.671 --> 00:04:19.565
But you hit it right on the head and you and I have been together for a lot of it and then separate and it's still the.

00:04:19.565 --> 00:04:25.223
That piece does not change, it's a variable.

00:04:25.223 --> 00:04:33.988
Who's walking through your door at any given time and there are times that you look and again, this is kind of a little bit of a tangent, but not really.

00:04:33.988 --> 00:04:43.632
Scotty Pape we talked about him the other night is one of our original members and a good guy, fun guy, like fun to train with.

00:04:43.632 --> 00:04:47.663
He's always in there to give it his best and and all that.

00:04:47.663 --> 00:04:49.927
And I'll never forget I was.

00:04:49.927 --> 00:04:58.088
I was still at the agency, but for about six months I was running operations stateside.

00:04:58.088 --> 00:05:12.608
So largely I would, you know, telecommute from home to Northern Virginia maybe three days a week down there in the balance, but again, it was a 24-7 operation.

00:05:12.608 --> 00:05:20.148
So really, like you know, I had guys in Iraq and Afghanistan and I'm, you know, juggling I've got my board who's where, this and this.

00:05:20.148 --> 00:05:27.062
So this particular day I was like, all right, I'm leaving, I'm coming home, it's a Thursday and I timed it right.

00:05:27.062 --> 00:05:36.261
So I'm like I'll get home in time, a little relax and then get to the gym for a good workout, because otherwise, you know you make, do you work out where you, where you can, you know, where you have.

00:05:36.261 --> 00:05:42.690
So, just for no reason whatsoever, just happened to be Jen didn't know what time I was coming home.

00:05:42.690 --> 00:05:45.776
The kids were having burgers and I was like that sounds great.

00:05:45.776 --> 00:05:50.824
You know, after a three and a half four hour drive I'm like burgers sound great and I had time before class.

00:05:50.824 --> 00:05:57.622
So I throw down two, you know, big, like not quarter pounders, right, but two like big.

00:05:57.622 --> 00:05:59.122
You know what do you get?

00:05:59.122 --> 00:06:00.903
Like 93.7 or 90.10,.

00:06:00.903 --> 00:06:02.725
You know lean, lean burgers, right.

00:06:02.725 --> 00:06:05.887
Throw down two of them and I crack open.

00:06:05.887 --> 00:06:10.771
I look at the refrigerator, I open it up and I'm like well, there's cold water and then there's some Corona.

00:06:10.771 --> 00:06:15.213
I pop open a Corona and I drink that after my burgers, right.

00:06:15.213 --> 00:06:17.735
A couple hours later we go.

00:06:17.776 --> 00:06:20.658
I don't remember what the workout was, but it was one of my best.

00:06:20.658 --> 00:06:23.302
I mean, it was just a great workout.

00:06:23.302 --> 00:06:33.906
It's a great workout and I said something to scotty and I was like now the way he repeated it was hey, you know, mike says the best thing about crossfit is you can eat whatever you want.

00:06:33.906 --> 00:06:38.062
He had two cheeseburgers and a beer before his workout and he crushed it.

00:06:38.062 --> 00:06:54.829
Well, he said it to jen, jen's, my wife and you know our, our best coach, and you know she's like what the hell are you telling people you can eat cheeseburgers and drink beer before your workout?

00:06:54.829 --> 00:07:00.692
And I'm like all right, that's, that's was, that was the point.

00:07:00.692 --> 00:07:01.562
But it wasn't.

00:07:01.562 --> 00:07:03.468
It's not how I meant it, you know.

00:07:03.468 --> 00:07:05.367
So that went sideways real quick.

00:07:05.447 --> 00:07:20.747
But but I, I think you know, interestingly enough, we've seen everything, every size shape we had, uh, one morning early, early on, in our original box, which you know, you remember, like you said, you know, we remember it so well, we get like the heebie-jeebies talking about it.

00:07:20.747 --> 00:07:24.976
But, um, and I love you, you're like yep, that's why I never went in.

00:07:24.976 --> 00:07:27.411
Once it became a brewery and then another brewery.

00:07:27.411 --> 00:07:32.732
Never had the need anything, any food product, to drink product beverage that would come out of that place.

00:07:32.732 --> 00:07:38.956
No, no, you're gonna get some kind of botulism and mad cow does it.

00:07:38.956 --> 00:07:40.942
Whatever you get it all, you'll get it all.

00:07:41.423 --> 00:07:50.108
But I remember one morning, bright and early, I'm opening up and this young man shows up like right behind me.

00:07:50.108 --> 00:07:53.583
I'm like, just unlocking the door, there he's standing right beside hey.

00:07:53.583 --> 00:07:55.648
And I'm like, hey, he goes.

00:07:55.648 --> 00:07:57.091
Hey, yeah, this is crossfit, right.

00:07:57.091 --> 00:07:59.401
And I said, yeah, he goes.

00:07:59.401 --> 00:08:00.702
Well, I'm here to work out.

00:08:00.702 --> 00:08:06.572
And I kid you, you not, this was right when Reebok came on board, like the Reebok CrossFit.

00:08:06.572 --> 00:08:09.036
You know, merge, not Merge, what do you call it?

00:08:09.036 --> 00:08:11.588
Like the brand deal, or whatever they had.

00:08:11.648 --> 00:08:20.093
Yes, and you know, again, I've only had one coffee and I'm opening the door and I'm ready to get in there, get the board ready.

00:08:20.093 --> 00:08:21.725
And he's early, which was great.

00:08:21.725 --> 00:08:26.422
He's like I'm here to work out, and, and he's early, so, which was great.

00:08:26.422 --> 00:08:28.125
He's like I'm here to work out, and I'd like to check him out from head to toe.

00:08:28.125 --> 00:08:35.326
And if reebok made it, he was wearing it shoes, the socks, the shorts, the shirt, the, the, the headband, you know the.

00:08:35.326 --> 00:08:48.543
I'm like, well, you're certainly, and all I can think to say he's like I'm here to work out, I'm like, well, you're certainly dressed for it, you know, and, um, you know again, sometimes the funniest part, and there's, no, no barometer for this.

00:08:48.543 --> 00:08:50.268
I don't think, at least I've not found one.

00:08:50.268 --> 00:09:01.586
You get folks who come in and they are like head to toe, whether it's, you know, reebok or, or noble, whatever the brand is at the time, crossfit, they're head to toe, all in.

00:09:01.586 --> 00:09:05.586
I want the unlimited membership, but I want two of them, because I want to maybe come twice a day.

00:09:05.586 --> 00:09:06.710
Well, it's unlimited.

00:09:06.710 --> 00:09:12.269
So you know, no, no, but I want to keep coming and everything, whatever you have, I want, right, great.

00:09:13.301 --> 00:09:17.903
And you know, just one stands out in my mind this young lady.

00:09:17.903 --> 00:09:24.648
She comes in and she's all in, like, jumps in the deep end, and her attendance was really sporadic, and that is something that you know.

00:09:24.648 --> 00:09:32.772
Each box has its own op tempo, I suppose, but there have been times when you just get a feeling you know and hey, everything all right.

00:09:32.772 --> 00:09:35.568
Like reach out, you know, you see the attendance, like, hey, everything okay.

00:09:35.568 --> 00:09:46.558
You know, because I'm sure you did the same, like as an affiliate owner, one of the things that I love being able to do is, you know, hey, is something wrong, is everything okay?

00:09:46.558 --> 00:09:47.562
I haven't seen you in a little while.

00:09:47.562 --> 00:09:50.909
Oh well, you know I did this and it's going to be a while.

00:09:50.909 --> 00:09:51.591
Now.

00:09:51.591 --> 00:09:54.929
They haven't asked to stop their membership, pause their membership, anything like that.

00:09:54.929 --> 00:09:59.625
So you reach out and you go well, look, you know you haven't been here, so let's just place this on hold.

00:09:59.625 --> 00:10:01.126
You know, come on back when you're feeling better.

00:10:01.187 --> 00:10:06.374
If you tweaked your back, twisted an ankle, did something like that, this young lady is the exact opposite.

00:10:06.374 --> 00:10:11.808
She sends us a message and she was like, yeah, I'd like to cancel my membership.

00:10:11.808 --> 00:10:12.792
This just isn't for me.

00:10:12.792 --> 00:10:15.150
I don't feel like I'm getting enough cardio.

00:10:15.150 --> 00:10:17.139
So I'm going back to fitness boxing.

00:10:17.139 --> 00:10:21.167
That's a simple answer.

00:10:21.167 --> 00:10:27.164
Okay, like you, you're not getting enough cardio, I can assure you.

00:10:27.164 --> 00:10:30.947
This is why we brief the workouts the way we do in the.

00:10:30.947 --> 00:10:34.268
You know, the pre-workout, the warm-up, is tailored to the work.

00:10:34.268 --> 00:10:48.307
I mean, this is your intended stimulus, right, right, if it's supposed to be a sprint and you turn it into a stroll, if it's supposed to be a heavy day and it's relative to the athlete, you know.

00:10:48.307 --> 00:10:49.350
But I mean, I think those are the things.

00:10:49.350 --> 00:10:55.206
I'm not even sure that type of uh, individual, I'm not even sure that that's coachable or uncoachable.

00:10:55.206 --> 00:10:57.211
I just don't believe it's the right fit.

00:10:57.211 --> 00:11:03.168
I think they thought it was going to be something else, right, and and what that is, I you know, I don't know.

00:11:03.229 --> 00:11:06.214
Maybe you know I mean to that point.

00:11:06.214 --> 00:11:06.815
There's.

00:11:06.815 --> 00:11:19.793
The great thing about CrossFit in my mind is that, like you know, the workout for the day might be 10 minutes long.

00:11:19.793 --> 00:11:25.480
It might be Murph and it might be pushing 45 minutes, or it might be Chad, where you're doing a thousand step ups for an hour, or whatever.

00:11:25.471 --> 00:11:50.361
It might be Murph and it might be, you know, pushing 45 minutes, or it might be Chad, where you're you're doing a thousand step ups for an hour, or whatever it might be right and you know, like all those things are intended to, to hit a certain stimulus right and do a certain thing, and it, and it's a way for, you know, for coaches and programmers, to make sure that and it's a way for coaches and programmers to make sure that you're not doing too much, right?

00:11:50.361 --> 00:12:00.486
Because, as you know, like that person you just talked about and you know I can I know that we had lost athletes that said, hey, we're going to go to a different gym because we don't feel like we're getting enough.

00:12:00.506 --> 00:12:14.475
You know and it's just like if you do everything that you're asked in a given class, right, you do a warm-up that's, let's say, 10 to 15 minutes long, right, and you're sweating and you're.

00:12:14.475 --> 00:12:20.498
You know, the old mantra of our warm-up is your workout type thing right, even that original CrossFit warm-up right.

00:12:20.498 --> 00:12:32.097
Three rounds, 400-meter run, 10 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 10 squats, 10, 10 samson stretch right, you do three rounds that and and tell me that you're not properly warmed up.

00:12:32.158 --> 00:12:48.001
Then I'll tell you that you're not doing it hard enough right and you're not pushing yourself enough and you know you do all those other things and, yeah, sometimes you, sometimes you look at it and you're like wow, fran or Grace or Isabel, right, like I know.

00:12:48.001 --> 00:12:54.514
You know, when I coach Grace, I tell people I'm like you really should be no more than six minutes.

00:12:54.673 --> 00:12:54.914
Right.

00:12:55.080 --> 00:12:57.815
Like six minutes is you've missed the point.

00:12:58.197 --> 00:12:58.679
Right, right.

00:12:59.642 --> 00:13:18.249
And really even at that six-minute, maybe next time, you know, if you push, you know you beat six minutes and you get like four minutes, okay, well, if you didn't do at the prescribed weight, you know, then increase the weight next time right because you will ultimately get better.

00:13:18.865 --> 00:13:27.804
And it's not really always that exciting that like, oh well, because people want to compete, like, oh, but I, I was, you know, I was the last one to finish.

00:13:27.804 --> 00:13:35.990
Okay, well, maybe if you were the last one to finish and you, or like you, missed that, that stimulus, you missed six minutes right and it took you seven to finish.

00:13:36.822 --> 00:13:44.943
Well then, next time, lower the weight and go fast and if you think your weight is too low, the easiest way to look at it is say like, okay, well, who's the?

00:13:44.943 --> 00:13:46.967
Who's the person in this room that?

00:13:46.967 --> 00:13:47.549
Or?

00:13:47.549 --> 00:13:52.648
Or the person in the gym that has posted their score that's the fastest prescribed, or the?

00:13:52.648 --> 00:14:05.272
Or the person that you normally you know kind of work, work with, or whatever, and if you're crushing the times that they're doing, then it's too easy.

00:14:05.292 --> 00:14:11.764
You know what's fun for me talking with you every example we're bringing up.

00:14:11.764 --> 00:14:16.990
All of a sudden I'm just like ting ting, ting ting, I'm firing off time place person.

00:14:16.990 --> 00:14:20.544
We talked about this on Monday.

00:14:20.544 --> 00:14:25.373
You and I Fight Gone Bad.

00:14:25.373 --> 00:14:29.769
Okay, and Fight Gone Bad was a.

00:14:29.769 --> 00:14:32.442
It was, it is.

00:14:32.442 --> 00:14:38.863
Arguably it's a hard workout and I love the origin story BJ Penn.

00:14:38.863 --> 00:14:40.327
It was his time in the UFC.

00:14:40.327 --> 00:14:48.464
He was, I mean, he had already arrived and I just don't recall had he already won his championship belt his first one.

00:14:48.464 --> 00:14:54.182
But he was at the original CrossFit HQ with Greg and hey, you know what?

00:14:54.182 --> 00:14:55.990
Let's put something together that you could use.

00:14:55.990 --> 00:14:58.981
You know like that would simulate an MMA fight.

00:14:58.981 --> 00:15:07.582
So they modeled it like three rounds, three five minute rounds or the five minute version, and a minute break in between, and then it's.

00:15:07.582 --> 00:15:12.166
You know calories on the rower and, if I'm not mistaken, I know box jumps.

00:15:12.166 --> 00:15:16.340
But was that not one of the first ones we ever saw when it was like step-ups are allowed?

00:15:16.541 --> 00:15:21.566
Yeah, because, like in the middle of a fight, you can't stop and be like well, I can't, I can't do this right now.

00:15:21.620 --> 00:15:22.321
Well, you can keep moving.

00:15:22.321 --> 00:15:27.571
So it's like well, step-ups are allowed, push press empty bar, push press right 45 pounds.

00:15:27.571 --> 00:15:28.712
No, no, no, 75.

00:15:28.712 --> 00:15:31.407
75 pounds yeah, that's part of the story.

00:15:31.407 --> 00:15:39.168
And sumo deadlift high pull right With the same weight, same weight and wall balls right.

00:15:39.168 --> 00:15:47.725
So I was like, oh my God, like, like, oh my god, like that's again, you know that that's crossfit.

00:15:47.725 --> 00:15:48.166
I mean seemingly like.

00:15:48.166 --> 00:15:54.123
You know, you got five movements that any one of them by themselves not too bad, but in context, that's evil, that that's just evil.

00:15:54.123 --> 00:15:56.006
You know you're like, oh god.

00:15:56.006 --> 00:15:57.169
So, okay, super.

00:15:57.169 --> 00:15:58.673
And I think, let me.

00:15:58.692 --> 00:16:00.703
The first time we did it, it was like a punch in the face.

00:16:00.703 --> 00:16:06.086
It really was, but it would come around every so often, or we would, we would program it deliberately every so often.

00:16:06.086 --> 00:16:12.663
And there was a guy in our gym good dude, I mean, I can't say anything bad about him, good guy.

00:16:12.663 --> 00:16:25.153
However, he was one of those not uncoachable but just sort of and polite, like that was the thing, like you couldn't even really be pissed off because he was courteous and polite.

00:16:25.153 --> 00:16:29.171
But at the same time, I'm like OK, here's the news.

00:16:29.171 --> 00:16:31.524
You don't know more than our coaches.

00:16:31.524 --> 00:16:34.272
You certainly don't know more than Jen and Blake.

00:16:34.272 --> 00:16:42.783
You know, I'd throw my name in there too as, like I was probably the least disciplined coach we had as far as like and you know what.

00:16:42.783 --> 00:16:47.105
It sounds very, very ignorant to say it now, and I was in a different, uh, headspace back then.

00:16:47.105 --> 00:17:07.299
But you know, between deployments my thing was I'm like look, I don't work with guys that I need to motivate, you know, and when they train, it's like you just get out of the way, you know, and and as you said, training training guys who want to get better, who to to push as hard as they can, that's you get spoiled.

00:17:07.299 --> 00:17:09.227
You really do get spoiled.

00:17:09.227 --> 00:17:11.917
But then I think that challenges you more as a coach.

00:17:11.917 --> 00:17:31.474
When you come away from that and you do come back to hey, I've never tried this before, but I've heard good things about it, super, now you have that like that old, like hey, man, it's like it's, it's clay and I could shape this, and I have the ability here or the, to shape this into something that's going to impact this person's life or turn them against it.

00:17:31.474 --> 00:17:37.465
So be careful, because you've got something there pretty important, and it was 300.

00:17:37.465 --> 00:17:41.990
I'll never forget it, and this guy was not a bad guy but always knew better.

00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:48.626
This was a guy and when I say this, I know, you know you're gonna know who it was show up for class, always late for the warm-up.

00:17:48.626 --> 00:17:57.510
But then his argument would be like a day like today, hot, 90 degrees, sweltering, humidity, oh, I'm already warmed up.

00:17:57.510 --> 00:17:59.421
I had the heater on in my car on the drive over.

00:17:59.421 --> 00:18:12.050
I'm like and, and he was a professional, like academically smart enough to know that, like you know, there's a difference between, like I am feeling warm and I am warmed up.

00:18:12.050 --> 00:18:14.986
You know I'm like, oh, dude, I don't even understand.

00:18:14.986 --> 00:18:19.442
And then the bad side of me back then was like, okay, like, fuck around and find out.

00:18:19.442 --> 00:18:22.107
It's gonna be like, all right, well, go ahead then, super chief.

00:18:22.107 --> 00:18:23.972
Like you're ready, stop.

00:18:23.972 --> 00:18:25.857
No, you know, fix it.

00:18:26.338 --> 00:18:29.769
But we did partners, we partnered up, we scored each other.

00:18:29.769 --> 00:18:35.403
Um, and I believe this particular day I want to say it was dangerous dave.

00:18:35.403 --> 00:18:46.132
I was paired up with him again and it would be like, okay, you know, they'd call out like you were in that heat, heat, jen would be putting the scores on the board.

00:18:46.132 --> 00:18:49.942
Remember, we did everything on the dry erase board back then and she'd be like Blake.

00:18:49.942 --> 00:18:53.792
Well, then your partner would call out your score because he's got the score sheet right.

00:18:54.660 --> 00:19:02.673
So, whoever it was, you know, mike, and this was when you and I were probably both like in the I'm not sure if any of us had yet broken 300.

00:19:02.673 --> 00:19:10.990
Right, you know, in the I'm not sure if any of us had yet broken 300, you know, and it was that, like I referred the other day, it was in the high twos, enough so that you'd look at your score sheet and go.

00:19:10.990 --> 00:19:11.612
You know what.

00:19:11.612 --> 00:19:14.509
All I had to do was one more here, one more here, one more here for every round.

00:19:14.509 --> 00:19:17.920
So calls out the score, like, let's say, it was like 287.

00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:20.608
It was like close enough to piss you off.

00:19:20.608 --> 00:19:30.583
You know, it wasn't like hey, I'm almost there, it was like you gotta be kidding me.

00:19:30.583 --> 00:19:32.185
Or like a 297, where you're like really, really.

00:19:32.205 --> 00:19:42.340
And then it goes around and she calls this individual's name and he's so excited he doesn't let his partner call it out, he calls it out himself 4-17.

00:19:42.340 --> 00:19:47.760
I swear to God, I think I just like stop, you know.

00:19:47.760 --> 00:19:51.255
And again, childish, yeah for sure.

00:19:51.255 --> 00:19:55.641
But at the same time I'm like brother, you've been doing this too long.

00:19:55.641 --> 00:20:13.101
And then, of course, I did double check, you know, double take, looked at his workstation and I'm like my god, I mean he's using an empty barbell for the push press he's using, and this guy was big and strong and fit and I'm like, okay.

00:20:13.101 --> 00:20:15.003
So again right back to coaching.

00:20:15.003 --> 00:20:19.940
One oversight on our part as coaches should have never.

00:20:19.940 --> 00:20:21.142
What's the point?

00:20:21.142 --> 00:20:22.050
There is no point.

00:20:22.050 --> 00:20:38.255
You know, if you can score that high and scale that severely, you totally violated the, the intended stimulus of this workout and you did yourself a disservice you never get to that muscle failure, right portion of it, right I mean?

00:20:38.275 --> 00:20:38.536
right.

00:20:39.498 --> 00:20:42.303
I'm sure eventually you would, but not in three rounds most likely.

00:20:42.423 --> 00:20:42.763
Absolutely.

00:20:43.750 --> 00:20:44.815
And that's you know.

00:20:44.815 --> 00:21:00.655
I think, while you were saying that, it made me think, like one of the things that I have, my philosophy has changed slightly over the years is that like when I write programming for people now I don't put weights?

00:21:01.356 --> 00:21:15.025
in like I tell them like hey, this is what I want you to be able to do, or this is a number that I want you to be able to do, like you know, let's say it's it's grace or whatever, but like here's the rep scheme that I want you to be able to hit.

00:21:15.025 --> 00:21:25.442
So, in order to be able to hit that, like obviously you know, for me, when I do grace now, I always do seven, six, five, four, three, two and then three singles at the end right.

00:21:25.481 --> 00:21:31.212
So it's like you get those big sets out of the way quick yeah and you just set it down just long enough to you know, take a breath and do it again.

00:21:31.212 --> 00:21:39.759
Um, and I'm like I you need to be able to do seven unbroken and be and to be able to like, do a touch and go pretty quickly.

00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:55.993
And because I think that gets that, eliminates those things, because the people that I have found to be sometimes the most difficult to coach look at quote, unquote prescribed weights and they're like well, that's the weight that I have to use.

00:21:56.778 --> 00:21:59.238
Right, and then like all that intended stimulus talk.

00:22:00.212 --> 00:22:03.618
Right out the window like in one ear and out the other ear and and you're?

00:22:03.618 --> 00:22:06.695
You're then fighting a battle that you're never going to win, right.

00:22:06.695 --> 00:22:30.443
But instead, if you said, hey, you know, this is the, this is the intended stimulus, you know, fill in the blank for the weight, I've found that people ultimately will push themselves more than they would or allow themselves to kind of scale down more than they would if there's a number on the board.

00:22:31.088 --> 00:22:31.250
Right.

00:22:31.671 --> 00:22:33.919
And I even think that with the CAP programming, right.

00:22:33.919 --> 00:22:45.221
I think they do a nice job with that now because still prescribed weight but it's like look, we have a prescribed weight and then you know, for the RX, and then we have intermediate and then we have beginner.

00:22:45.241 --> 00:22:47.993
So now you have, you know, those three things built in already.

00:22:49.196 --> 00:22:56.474
And you know same thing with movements, like, okay, well, I can't do chest of our pull-ups, or I can't do muscle-ups, okay, let's look at the next scale of it.

00:22:56.474 --> 00:23:07.423
Right, and it doesn't make you any less of a person, it just means that, like you know, like if I said to you, hey, we're going to do nasty girls, you know, and you're like, oh, cool, what's that?

00:23:07.423 --> 00:23:17.478
And I tell you, okay, well, you've got to do 50 air squats, 10 hang power cleans at 135 pounds and 7 muscle-ups for three rounds.

00:23:17.478 --> 00:23:21.867
And you're like, cool, I can air squat, I can't hang power clean 135, and I can't do a muscle-up.

00:23:21.867 --> 00:23:32.116
Okay, and I said to you, okay, well, what I want you to do is I'm going to give you a 20-minute cap and I want you to get through as much of that as possible, but I'm not going to let you scale any of it.

00:23:32.116 --> 00:23:44.084
And then, like you know, 15 minutes later they're laying on the ground with the bar on top of them because they tried to hip, thrust it and reverse, curl it or whatever.

00:23:45.005 --> 00:23:46.546
Exactly right, and it hit them in the face.

00:23:46.546 --> 00:23:52.241
You give me a 20 day cap If I can't move the 135, I can't move it.

00:23:53.692 --> 00:24:01.893
Or you said to somebody you're like, okay, well, fine, what we're going to do is okay, okay, well, you're, you can one rep, max 95 pounds.

00:24:01.893 --> 00:24:05.599
Well, let's, let's make it 65 pound hanging power and you can do.

00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:09.576
You know, you can't do a muscle up, you can't do chest bar pull-up.

00:24:09.675 --> 00:24:31.905
Okay, well, we're going to do, you can do pull-ups, you can do seven pull-ups, cool do seven pull-ups and as long as you know the goal, the intended stimulus there, like I really want you to be able to do, like, if you can do two at a time, cool, Because if you're looking at that you know now I know it's a little bit different than whenever we started CrossFit, but seven muscle-ups Like not everybody's going to be able to string them all together.

00:24:32.229 --> 00:24:32.349
Right.

00:24:32.549 --> 00:25:04.680
So if I'm doing one or two muscle-ups and you're doing one or two pull-ups, stimulus is, is, is the same yeah, like you're still getting your pulling work in right, or even if you said like, okay, we're gonna do one pull-up in one day yeah or whatever like, and you, you do those things and you realize that at the end of the day, like okay, maybe I really want to do a muscle-up, but I'm not going to get a muscle-up in the middle of a workout where intensity is the goal.

00:25:04.680 --> 00:25:11.205
I'm going to get a muscle-up by practicing it whenever I have time.

00:25:11.446 --> 00:25:12.631
Yeah, exactly, you know.

00:25:12.651 --> 00:25:24.396
I'm going to you know, because something like a muscle-up more so than a pull-up maybe is yeah, you need the skill to be able to pull and the strength to be able to pull.

00:25:24.396 --> 00:25:44.361
But like, if you know the technique, whether you know whether you did it today or you haven't done it in a year like you know the technique, you can probably still do it you know, as opposed to like, um, you know, and all those other things as well, like you can't, I, I really want to be able to do a kipping pull-up, but I, I can't move when I'm on the bar.

00:25:44.361 --> 00:25:48.721
Okay, so let's start with the ring row right and let's build that pulling strength.

00:25:48.760 --> 00:26:12.373
And then, once you get there, then then let's, let's throw a band on and you're going to do uh, you know you're going to do a strict banded pull-up, right, and then you're going to work on, you know you're going to work on learning how to effectively kip and you're going to build all these things together and then you know what, maybe it's three, four, five, six months down the road, but you learn how to do it and in the whole way along.

00:26:12.413 --> 00:26:15.320
You've built, you know, you've learned to kip, so you've built.

00:26:15.320 --> 00:26:17.152
Uh, you know coordination.

00:26:17.152 --> 00:26:19.136
You've built core strength.

00:26:19.136 --> 00:26:22.795
You know you, you've been working on your pulling, so now it's not.

00:26:22.795 --> 00:26:26.817
You know, and we've seen this before, it's not like that running kip right.

00:26:27.058 --> 00:26:27.219
Yeah.

00:26:28.151 --> 00:26:37.000
I'm forcing myself up in order to you know, with my legs and you're learning how to effectively do those things and you build those kind of things.

00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:43.556
And when you're not ego-driven, you're not worried about like well that person's watching me Right.

00:26:43.556 --> 00:26:44.680
Most likely they're not.

00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:47.777
Most likely they're on their own suck fest themselves.

00:26:47.836 --> 00:26:48.459
Exactly right.

00:26:48.930 --> 00:26:59.058
You know, if the intended stimulus is, hey, we're going to do this workout in sub-six minutes, you better have your head down and do work, or else you're not going to finish sub six minutes or whatever it might be.

00:26:59.058 --> 00:27:03.549
So I give two shits what that person over there is doing.

00:27:03.549 --> 00:27:12.080
And if you do have that kind of time and wherewithal, there's probably something about your workout that's lacking.

00:27:12.080 --> 00:27:14.996
It might be too heavy exactly right.

00:27:16.635 --> 00:27:23.574
And I think, too, the wildest part about it is, I think, crossfit itself.

00:27:23.574 --> 00:27:27.403
I certainly know CrossFit, like our CrossFit Pittsburgh journey.

00:27:27.403 --> 00:27:39.162
It wasn't like linear growth, it was like exponential, and I'm pretty sure that's how it hit at headquarters and then at all of the original affiliates as well.

00:27:39.162 --> 00:27:44.105
I think we were so I don't want to say it in the past tense.

00:27:44.105 --> 00:27:45.771
I mean, we're still excited If we weren't.

00:27:45.771 --> 00:27:50.242
You don't do something for 19 years if you're not excited about it every day.

00:27:52.411 --> 00:28:06.938
And there's a group now, crossfitters, coaches, like threes and fours that set up a business to groom and coach other affiliates Right, and it's called the best hour of their day.

00:28:06.938 --> 00:28:08.854
And I love that.

00:28:08.854 --> 00:28:15.617
I love that because that is something that I've been like, and I don't mean this like oh, I should have come up.

00:28:15.617 --> 00:28:16.621
I don't mean it like that.

00:28:16.621 --> 00:28:28.721
But you know, I wake up in the morning and I'm like well, you know what, my workout is the best hour of my day, and I'm hopeful that every class that comes through our doors is like hey guys, you know when I coach the 530 AM.

00:28:28.721 --> 00:28:52.550
So I'm like listen, no matter what happens for the rest of your day, you already hit this thing hard and now you go out and take on, take on whatever challenges you know like this, and I love that, I love that as a community, that, um, it should be the best hour of your, your members day, your athletes day you'll call them members, clients, athletes, what have you but should be the best hour of their day.

00:28:52.550 --> 00:29:01.963
Uh, you know, unless you know, incredibly they have, like a you know the birth of a child, or like they propose to the love of their life, or you know something like that, but should be the best hour of their day.

00:29:01.963 --> 00:29:04.633
If it's not, then there's something's amiss, you know.

00:29:04.633 --> 00:29:12.653
But, like you said, I think too it's easy to say, hey, leave your ego at the door, hey, put aside all preconceived notions.

00:29:12.653 --> 00:29:15.616
Uh, easier said than done.

00:29:15.616 --> 00:29:27.500
But I also believe largely a lot of that behavior is self-correcting, Even if it means well, you can't change that person.

00:29:27.500 --> 00:29:31.820
They just don't do this anymore, like they've gone on.

00:29:32.510 --> 00:29:41.308
There was another acquaintance of ours who worked at a beautiful, beautiful gym, gym right down the street.

00:29:41.308 --> 00:29:42.652
It's not there anymore, it's leveled.

00:29:42.652 --> 00:29:46.321
But uh, club one was a pittsburgh like institution.

00:29:46.321 --> 00:29:54.701
For decades, decades, I worked there as an undergrad at pitt back in like the early 80s.

00:29:54.701 --> 00:30:00.675
Um, I left the navy, I went back there as a member and trained there.

00:30:00.675 --> 00:30:01.558
That's where I met Jennifer.

00:30:01.558 --> 00:30:09.098
She was working there at the time when she was an undergrad, you know years after me and it was just a great place to train.

00:30:09.750 --> 00:30:20.298
Well, you know, they would always keep up I don't want to say keep up with the times, I think they were ahead of the times but at one point they put in like a little functional fitness corner, a little functional fitness area.

00:30:20.298 --> 00:30:33.998
You know, and I'm still adamantly like, if there's one thing that will piss me off, it's people that fucking do crossfit without being crossfit, and I don't mean the guy that does it on his patio, or you know.

00:30:33.998 --> 00:30:35.304
You know what I'm talking about.

00:30:35.304 --> 00:30:37.250
You know, you call it whatever you want.

00:30:37.250 --> 00:30:51.616
There's an old, old story in the community that, um, uh, I want to say it was in dallas, texas, and this non-affiliate starts putting it out, and this was way back in the early 2000s.

00:30:51.616 --> 00:30:55.263
You know, dallas cross fitness.

00:30:55.263 --> 00:30:58.311
I mean, come on, man, you know what.

00:30:58.311 --> 00:31:01.496
There are things that you should just be punched in the face for and that is so.

00:31:01.496 --> 00:31:02.981
There's a play on words.

00:31:02.981 --> 00:31:04.105
It's you know, it's not.

00:31:04.105 --> 00:31:05.270
It's you know what that is.

00:31:05.270 --> 00:31:11.314
That's thievery, it's misrepresentation and you did it on purpose because crossfit was already a thing, right, you know?

00:31:12.134 --> 00:31:15.790
it's much easier than coming up with your own marketing right or whatever.

00:31:15.790 --> 00:31:18.861
Like you know, yeah, it's, it's tough.

00:31:18.861 --> 00:31:42.265
Whenever you're doing that, you're like I'm, you know, I believe and you believe, I believed in it enough and you believe in it enough that, like, we opened gyms and affiliated with crossfit because we thought that that was what was, you know, truly going to to make a difference, difference in the health and wellness of people in our communities.

00:31:42.265 --> 00:32:18.638
And if you, as an owner, as an entrepreneur, whatever, don't believe that CrossFit is important or you don't think that it's the thing that we think it is, then that's fine, but don't try that it's it's the thing that we think it is, then that's fine, but don't try to pull it from its popularity right especially whenever it was at its, you know like, whenever it was the most mainstream right, whenever, whenever, like uh, reebok was branding, branding stuff with it and everything, and and you know, uh, that point in time, like, just figure out how to mark yourself.

00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:20.161
Yeah, right, yeah.

00:32:20.201 --> 00:32:21.864
Like learn, learn how to do that.

00:32:21.864 --> 00:32:27.398
You know, and you know you might have a great problem but, it doesn't have to be, you know where.

00:32:27.419 --> 00:32:32.056
You're just like listen man in the surfing community there's a big, big no-no.

00:32:32.056 --> 00:32:37.259
You wave, you know we're sitting out there all day.

00:32:37.259 --> 00:32:37.799
You know it's.

00:32:37.799 --> 00:32:41.102
It's an unspoken like, or maybe it is hey, man, you're next, you're up, you're up, you're up.

00:32:41.643 --> 00:32:59.726
Then, all of a sudden, here comes some jabroni and he's just like you know, hey, and, and it's funny because it's the world we live in and I want to say and I don't want to get like, hit with any kind of fucking lawsuit because it's you should all be shut down too for killing our youth uh, fast food restaurants, the story goes, and I, and I want to say it might be burger king.

00:32:59.726 --> 00:33:04.951
Don't know if that's a fact or not, so I'm not going to fact check this, because I don't really give a fuck.

00:33:04.951 --> 00:33:18.238
But, um, like, let's say, mcdonald's does their due diligence and their neighborhood demographic research and all that, and they pick a spot for a new location, and I'm just using these as word names now.

00:33:18.238 --> 00:33:27.736
I do believe that's the case, though, because it's like okay, you know, mcdonald's does their homework, they pick a spot and market research and all of that, and they open a location.

00:33:27.736 --> 00:33:32.116
I do believe it's another heavy hitter in the fast food world.

00:33:32.116 --> 00:33:33.875
They don't do any of that.

00:33:33.875 --> 00:33:43.663
What they do is anytime McDonald's opens up, they'll find a space within a two block radius and they'll open up a location, and that's their philosophy.

00:33:43.990 --> 00:33:50.271
Now I have more respect for that because you know, fast food is funny, man, and I'm not listen.

00:33:50.271 --> 00:33:51.576
I'm not going to name names.

00:33:51.576 --> 00:33:53.260
I'm looking right at you.

00:33:53.260 --> 00:34:04.102
I'm not going to name names, I'm not going to drag anybody through the mud, but there may be people that we know who have a certain attraction to, let's say, long John Silvers.

00:34:04.102 --> 00:34:05.943
All right, so that's your jam.

00:34:05.943 --> 00:34:12.838
Have at it, right, as long as you train hard before and after, but not after.

00:34:12.838 --> 00:34:13.420
That would be.

00:34:14.010 --> 00:34:14.934
Train twice before.

00:34:15.972 --> 00:34:16.836
That would end badly.

00:34:16.836 --> 00:34:28.612
But I think, in a way, there's more respect for that because it's like, well, you know, my kids, like at an early age, like no, I don't like that, I like this.

00:34:28.612 --> 00:34:29.715
Like you know they'll.

00:34:29.715 --> 00:34:32.853
Wendy's is their thing, not, yeah, I don't know that they ever had burger.

00:34:32.853 --> 00:34:35.710
You know, it's like what's close, what's close, what's on your route, or whatever.

00:34:35.710 --> 00:34:38.775
But I I think there's more regard for that because they are different.

00:34:38.775 --> 00:34:43.291
You know, it's like, well, burger king has their thing, mcdonald's has their thing, and you know so forth.

00:34:43.291 --> 00:34:54.713
But I, I disagree completely when it comes to fitness, because what you're essentially doing, you're throwing it out there like you're inviting yourself to the community when you're not.

00:34:54.713 --> 00:35:00.583
And, as you said, you know, uh, the affiliate fee exists to maintain your affiliation.

00:35:00.583 --> 00:35:08.563
And I will say that I know it's a sensitive topic right now among some of the affiliates where there's an increase in affiliate fees.

00:35:09.610 --> 00:35:28.909
Well, we were one of those affiliates that got in in the beginning and we paid $500 a year for 18 years right, 18 years at $500 a year, for 18 years, 18 years at $500 a year and thankful to have done it, as I remember.

00:35:28.909 --> 00:35:34.559
It was like I don't remember what it jumped to, from when it went from $500 to whatever it went to.

00:35:34.559 --> 00:35:36.630
I don't know that it went to $1000.

00:35:36.630 --> 00:35:40.070
I think it might have went from $500 to like now it's 2000.

00:35:40.070 --> 00:35:41.893
Now it's 2,500.

00:35:41.893 --> 00:35:43.295
Now it's 3000.

00:35:43.295 --> 00:35:46.300
As they stair stepped it up as new affiliates joined.

00:35:46.300 --> 00:35:55.637
But I do recall that when those new affiliates joined, greg's philosophy was always like what you buy in at is what you stay at, period.

00:35:55.637 --> 00:35:57.983
Um well, things change, you know, things change.

00:35:57.983 --> 00:35:59.507
You know, things change.

00:35:59.507 --> 00:36:01.271
It no longer belongs to one person.

00:36:01.271 --> 00:36:02.896
You know, now it's a.

00:36:02.896 --> 00:36:14.108
Who owns us right now, I don't know, like some kind of yeah, yeah, exactly exactly, which is fine.

00:36:14.128 --> 00:36:26.211
I mean, that's how they make money and and I will say this straight up, so far, everything that I see that HQ is doing I'm pretty impressed with.

00:36:26.211 --> 00:36:41.231
I really am, and I'm beyond the ability to, because right now, and it's an entrepreneurial spirit and I salute them but a lot of big-name CrossFit athletes are all selling programming monthly subscription fee for programming, and that's great.

00:36:41.231 --> 00:36:44.320
More power to you, but no disrespect to anyone.

00:36:44.320 --> 00:36:47.907
But 19 years ago we affiliated with CrossFit.

00:36:47.907 --> 00:36:53.141
We didn't affiliate with this guy, that guy you know, mike Fit Blake.

00:36:53.141 --> 00:36:55.385
Fit, right, you know, doesn't mean we won't.

00:36:55.385 --> 00:37:00.943
You know, listen until somebody gives me a really good reason to stop.

00:37:00.943 --> 00:37:08.242
We're not going to right, but I, I think, I think you know well, what are you going to do for the affiliate?

00:37:08.242 --> 00:37:09.447
What are you going to do for the affiliate?

00:37:09.447 --> 00:37:13.324
So far, what I've seen, I'm pretty impressed with, I really am.

00:37:13.324 --> 00:37:21.206
I think the affiliate programming is well, just like we've already discussed, if you're missing something, it's your fault.

00:37:21.206 --> 00:37:33.000
Yeah, as a coach, as an owner, if you subscribe to CAP and you feel like it's lacking, then the marketplace is ripe with other opportunities, but there's not a whole.

00:37:33.000 --> 00:37:35.786
And no, no disrespect to any of our coaches.

00:37:35.786 --> 00:37:37.961
I think we've done a really, and I'm pretty proud of that too.

00:37:38.483 --> 00:37:42.056
We have never once hired a coach, never, never.

00:37:42.056 --> 00:37:42.416
You know.

00:37:42.416 --> 00:37:43.824
I mean, people have dropped resumes off and hey, are you hiring?

00:37:43.824 --> 00:37:44.202
And I've told them with open arms I never, you know.

00:37:44.202 --> 00:37:45.353
For I mean, people have dropped resumes off and and hey, are you hiring?

00:37:45.353 --> 00:37:48.637
And I've told them with open arms, I'm like you know we don't.

00:37:48.637 --> 00:37:49.340
But I'll tell you what.

00:37:49.340 --> 00:37:51.025
Why don't you come train with us for a while?

00:37:51.025 --> 00:37:57.983
On me, you don't have to buy a membership, just train with us and let's see if it's a fit and um.

00:37:57.983 --> 00:38:03.688
You know that we fluctuate from 12 to 13, 14 coaches at any given time.

00:38:04.648 --> 00:38:24.027
Every one of them, you were the model for it, every one of them was a member who showed the desire to coach, showed the aptitude to coach, and you know, we would just kind of bring them along, have them shadow, have them co-coach.

00:38:24.027 --> 00:38:25.309
You know, get them their L1, get them their L2.

00:38:25.309 --> 00:38:26.313
And you know pretty proud of that.

00:38:26.313 --> 00:38:27.556
You know, get them their L1, get them their L2.

00:38:27.556 --> 00:38:28.840
And you know pretty proud of that, you know.

00:38:28.840 --> 00:38:35.282
But I think too, nothing I would change there's.

00:38:35.282 --> 00:38:37.230
There's just so much, so many resources out there that are available to the affiliates.

00:38:37.251 --> 00:38:43.166
Now if, if you think there's something lacking, maybe you ought to like, take a, take a closer look and go with them.

00:38:43.166 --> 00:38:48.335
Maybe I didn't know about that, or I'm not fully aware, or invested, I don't know.

00:38:48.335 --> 00:38:53.512
And then, too, I think I still love the fact that you can make it whatever you want.

00:38:53.512 --> 00:38:58.891
If you want to keep it organic, keep it grassroots, you can do it.

00:38:58.891 --> 00:39:05.306
If you want to boutique it a little bit and there was one call that we got on right.

00:39:05.766 --> 00:39:25.931
It like during either might have been right when covid started and we weren't sure, like, what was going to happen and how long it was going to go, but it was uh, it was hosted by uh I want to say wadify because we had used we had used wadify for uh membership management before we switched over to StreamFit.

00:39:25.931 --> 00:39:31.608
That's right, streamfit, for all your credit, it's not an advertisement, but we use StreamFit, we love it.

00:39:31.608 --> 00:39:52.661
So it was a Wattify call because they would have these, like from time to time you could sit in and you know, listen, I don't remember who the guy was, don't care, this is not a shot at him, but it was one of those things, that I was glad it was a dial-in and not a zoom, because jen and I are sitting there and it didn't take long.

00:39:52.661 --> 00:40:05.365
Well, you know, I mean, if you feel like you're struggling and you're not making as much, as there's no reason you shouldn't be making you know big money, maybe you need to rethink your model and, um, maybe you should have fewer members and charge them more.

00:40:05.365 --> 00:40:17.552
And at that point, honest to God, I was like and I can die, you know I'll go watch grass grow, or maybe you know weed and feed the lawn.

00:40:17.552 --> 00:40:20.585
That's, that's not, you know.

00:40:20.824 --> 00:40:39.487
And I I don't argue the logic, right, fuck man, when Michael was a little boy, I'll never forget that he was little and we were talking about business development and growth and this and this, and I was getting ready to go back on deployment, and he could have been more than five and he was like Dad, why do you have to go away again?

00:40:39.487 --> 00:40:41.403
And I'm like well, buddy.

00:40:41.403 --> 00:40:42.829
I said you know it's my job.

00:40:42.829 --> 00:40:45.505
And I'm like well, buddy, I said you know it's my job.

00:40:45.505 --> 00:40:46.168
And I said no, he didn't know.

00:40:46.168 --> 00:40:50.061
That's one of the things I was most pleased with was the kids never really fully grasped what I was doing Right.

00:40:50.061 --> 00:40:51.284
Yeah, oh, daddy works far away.

00:40:51.284 --> 00:40:53.208
You know awesome.

00:40:53.208 --> 00:40:55.420
But uh, dad, why do you have to go away?

00:40:55.460 --> 00:40:56.740
again, I, was like, well, buddy, it's my job.

00:40:56.740 --> 00:41:00.884
And I said, and you know everybody, when you grow up, you go to work.

00:41:00.884 --> 00:41:04.507
I said it's just that my work is farther away, so I have to stay there.

00:41:04.507 --> 00:41:05.947
And he goes.

00:41:05.947 --> 00:41:08.150
Well, I mean, I thought the gym was your work.

00:41:08.150 --> 00:41:11.072
And I was like, well, it is bud.

00:41:11.072 --> 00:41:26.726
And I said, but you know, until that gets to a point where it can and how do you explain economics to a five-year-old Well, you reach a price point and then, until it can sustain, you know.

00:41:26.726 --> 00:41:34.184
And I said, well, buddy, I said you know, um, we just need to, you know, get, build our business bigger and get more members, and then I'll stay home and I'll have to help mom run it.

00:41:34.204 --> 00:41:38.632
Real matter of fact, he goes, oh, so get more members.

00:41:38.632 --> 00:41:42.461
And I'm like it's a good idea.

00:41:42.461 --> 00:41:45.661
Yeah, you know that's a good idea and you know what the truth of it is.

00:41:45.661 --> 00:41:46.585
It is that simple.

00:41:46.585 --> 00:41:47.889
It really is.

00:41:47.889 --> 00:41:48.762
It is that simple.

00:41:48.762 --> 00:41:50.329
But I think let's face it.

00:41:50.329 --> 00:41:58.188
It's a competitive market and I don't think I'd criticize any.

00:41:58.188 --> 00:42:02.074
Well, I guess in what circles?

00:42:02.074 --> 00:42:04.646
Not as a criticism.

00:42:04.646 --> 00:42:06.722
This is a hoot for me.

00:42:06.722 --> 00:42:07.804
They're having so much fun.

00:42:07.804 --> 00:42:09.686
You know, that's right there, right there.

00:42:09.686 --> 00:42:10.768
That's what this is all about.

00:42:10.768 --> 00:42:14.875
Crossfit for kids, burpee challenge, uh-oh.

00:42:14.914 --> 00:42:15.155
Burpee.

00:42:15.239 --> 00:42:21.152
Somebody knocked their pizza out of her hand, wouldn't it be awesome?

00:42:21.152 --> 00:42:22.563
Because that's the key right there.

00:42:22.563 --> 00:42:23.585
That is like the secret.

00:42:23.585 --> 00:42:24.449
Who is it?

00:42:24.449 --> 00:42:26.865
Ponce de Leon, right, looking for the fountain of youth?

00:42:26.865 --> 00:42:37.139
When you can find something like this to stimulate adults up here the way these kids are having fun right now, that's awesome.

00:42:37.320 --> 00:42:50.130
I think that's, you know, like you're talking about more members or whatever and you're talking about people, that that, uh, you know kind of the correlation of fast food, right, I think what.

00:42:50.130 --> 00:43:14.998
What sometimes people think is that, like, if you go to a crossfit gym, it's really no different than if you go to this, to this gym down the street and it's just like so they kind of equate it as like well, wait a second, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna pay yeah $19 a month at uh crunch, or you want me to pay, you know, up to whatever, some.

00:43:15.018 --> 00:43:24.389
You know some of those crossfits in places where it's expensive, right, we're talking, like you know, $300 a month, or whatever like well, that's insane.

00:43:24.389 --> 00:43:31.789
Okay, cool, but you're also now comparing apples to a rock.

00:43:32.882 --> 00:43:34.501
It's not even apples, and oranges at that point?

00:43:34.541 --> 00:43:34.762
Yes.

00:43:34.762 --> 00:43:37.465
Are they both providing fitness?

00:43:37.465 --> 00:43:47.773
Sure, but at the end of the day, you go and you pay your $9 a month, and that business model works.

00:43:47.880 --> 00:43:50.128
If it didn't work, you wouldn't stop doing it right.

00:43:50.460 --> 00:43:54.550
But the whole purpose is like when's the worst time to go to those kind of places?

00:43:54.550 --> 00:43:57.206
First two months of the year, right.

00:43:57.206 --> 00:44:02.621
Right Whenever they're inundated with people that are like I want to do this, and then they go and they work out.

00:44:02.742 --> 00:44:04.143
That you will probably never see again.

00:44:04.164 --> 00:44:08.831
You do it for like a week or something after not working out and you're like, holy shit, my body hurts so much.

00:44:08.831 --> 00:44:12.275
I'll just wait until it's not sore and I'll go back.

00:44:12.456 --> 00:44:12.657
Right.

00:44:13.358 --> 00:44:14.480
Well then you never come back.

00:44:14.500 --> 00:44:14.579
Yeah.

00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:29.367
Right, but then, like you know, and that's why, at least in my experience with Iron City and I don't remember it happening here really but like you know you don't see a huge influx of people at the beginning of the year, because, you know, for one reason.

00:44:29.367 --> 00:44:33.807
Well, one reason is that people are always like I need to get in shape before I do CrossFit, right?

00:44:33.827 --> 00:44:35.632
You're about to be ambushed, I know.

00:44:37.922 --> 00:44:42.307
And I'll tell you like I thought I was fit when I started CrossFit.

00:44:43.170 --> 00:44:44.751
Hello, how was class when I started CrossFit.

00:44:44.751 --> 00:44:46.253
Hello, how was class I?

00:44:46.313 --> 00:44:47.775
have a ride.

00:44:47.775 --> 00:44:50.358
Yeah, class was good yeah class was good Awesome.

00:44:50.900 --> 00:44:51.219
Awesome.

00:44:51.219 --> 00:44:52.965
You know you run into that problem.

00:44:52.965 --> 00:44:53.907
This is our producer.

00:44:54.148 --> 00:45:01.105
Yeah, I think, you know, I think I'm good or like I'm fit, and then you start doing this.

00:45:01.105 --> 00:45:07.512
You're like oh man, but nothing I could have ever done would have prepared me for no, and you know what I swear you were.

00:45:07.592 --> 00:45:20.807
You were the first person I, as I recall, who actually ever did like a no kidding breakdown of, okay, you know when people say, well, it's too expensive, and I swear you did like a line by line.

00:45:20.807 --> 00:45:30.603
You're like all right, so this is a gym cost at like an average, you know, la fitness or something like that, and um, and if you want to add personal training to it, it's this much per hour.

00:45:30.603 --> 00:45:34.940
And if you wanted to go like three sessions a week, now you you've got to be a member there.

00:45:34.940 --> 00:45:39.061
So you're going to pay your membership whatever if you get a special, you know, if you don't, whatever.

00:45:39.061 --> 00:45:40.563
And boom, boom, boom.

00:45:40.563 --> 00:45:46.155
As opposed to this is what I pay at CrossFit and I get all that Right, right.

00:45:46.155 --> 00:45:52.565
So you know, I mean again, just round and round it goes, and I think, to the market here.

00:45:52.905 --> 00:46:00.500
When we first opened our doors, I'll never forget I was like this is kind of insane, because I didn't know.

00:46:00.500 --> 00:46:24.900
We had no frame of reference, no-transcript.

00:46:24.900 --> 00:46:33.969
All the amenities, literally a full service cafe with a liquor license, a pro shop, tanning beds, I mean things that I don't use, but but they had it, people do?

00:46:33.969 --> 00:46:37.367
Yeah, they had it and it was justifies why they would be over there, right?

00:46:37.367 --> 00:46:46.427
I mean, you know showers and and and that was another thing too that we wrestled with over the years, particularly anytime we were looking for a new location hey, you know, will showers make it more marketable?

00:46:46.427 --> 00:47:01.675
You know, maybe, but here's my thing on that I'm like I believe it also adds a layer of headache that the average box, gym, box gym being like us, like the model of CrossFit, that we don't need.

00:47:01.675 --> 00:47:09.782
You know Then too, do you have the space for it?

00:47:09.782 --> 00:47:10.987
Do you have the space?

00:47:11.007 --> 00:47:13.253
for it to do it properly or does that?

00:47:13.273 --> 00:47:20.929
you got to get that on camera, otherwise, over this way, yeah, make sure, there we go and we're back.

00:47:20.929 --> 00:47:22.873
That's awesome.

00:47:22.873 --> 00:47:24.114
That is awesome.

00:47:24.114 --> 00:47:26.128
Hey, your episode from yesterday is live.

00:47:26.128 --> 00:47:27.827
It's on YouTube if you wanted to see it.

00:47:27.827 --> 00:47:29.684
And now this will be live tomorrow.

00:47:30.608 --> 00:47:31.309
CrossFit Pittsburgh.

00:47:31.519 --> 00:47:32.864
CrossFit Pittsburgh podcast.

00:47:33.164 --> 00:47:33.746
Coach Zero.

00:47:34.329 --> 00:47:35.150
Coach Zero.

00:47:36.222 --> 00:47:46.340
That makes I was thinking about that the other day when you said that, that it made me feel like you should have kicked me on the back and then turn it around for me, patient zero.

00:47:46.340 --> 00:47:49.690
Like I'm the one that, I'm the one that he caused it all.

00:47:49.880 --> 00:47:52.898
It started with him, but it's funny.

00:47:52.898 --> 00:47:55.923
But yeah, yeah, and I mean like little things like that.

00:47:55.923 --> 00:48:01.110
Like you know, some, some buildings are more conducive to having a shower, some schedules are more conducive, right.

00:48:01.110 --> 00:48:04.875
But you know, for us I look at it like, okay, we have a 5.30 am.

00:48:04.875 --> 00:48:07.146
Class Ends at 6.30 am.

00:48:07.146 --> 00:48:12.289
Normal workday starts at 9, maybe 8, 8.30.

00:48:12.289 --> 00:48:20.025
So theoretically, you're going to have that person that's going to come get ready for work and hang out for an hour and a half.

00:48:20.025 --> 00:48:21.449
Yeah, right, with who?

00:48:21.449 --> 00:48:27.302
Yeah, you know, I mean for an hour and a half.

00:48:27.302 --> 00:48:27.784
Yeah, right with who.

00:48:27.784 --> 00:48:28.405
Yeah, you know, I mean with who.

00:48:28.405 --> 00:48:40.340
And similarly, um, I know a lot of models have gone from like, no, we're crossfit, but we're also, um, some cool name gym, yeah, right, so you can, you can work out or you can crossfit and it's legit, they affiliate whatever.

00:48:40.340 --> 00:48:41.583
That's super.

00:48:41.583 --> 00:48:45.733
But then too, that our model doesn't doesn't work for our model.

00:48:45.733 --> 00:48:47.985
You know, you don't have a staff here.

00:48:48.527 --> 00:48:54.572
And one thing I'm adamantly opposed to, I think just liability and general safety for our coaches and our, our members.

00:48:54.572 --> 00:48:59.206
I don't care what neighborhood you're located in right now.

00:48:59.206 --> 00:49:02.503
Oh well, you just go with a key fob and people can come and go as they please, right?

00:49:02.503 --> 00:49:03.284
Really?

00:49:03.284 --> 00:49:07.146
What are you walking in on and what's there waiting for you?

00:49:07.146 --> 00:49:10.590
You know, I just wouldn't feel comfortable about that.

00:49:10.590 --> 00:49:14.021
You're not having a bourbon, are you Listen?

00:49:14.021 --> 00:49:15.362
Okay, put that on here, show it.

00:49:15.362 --> 00:49:17.625
You can put it on camera.

00:49:17.625 --> 00:49:18.505
Come stand beside me.

00:49:18.505 --> 00:49:23.130
Not a lot of people know this, but I am big time into unicorns.

00:49:23.130 --> 00:49:24.733
Oh yeah, oh yeah.

00:49:24.733 --> 00:49:27.215
Man, deadliest animal in the mythical universe.

00:49:27.215 --> 00:49:30.983
I don't think that's true.

00:49:30.983 --> 00:49:33.465
All right, logan's our fact checker.

00:49:33.465 --> 00:49:36.009
He's going to call me on that.

00:49:36.028 --> 00:49:43.619
Everybody thinks that unicorns spew glitter out of their eyes whenever they cry, but it's not true.

00:49:43.619 --> 00:49:44.119
It's not no.

00:49:44.119 --> 00:49:44.768
How do you know?

00:49:44.768 --> 00:49:45.840
Have you ever seen a unicorn cry?

00:49:45.840 --> 00:49:47.306
Because unicorns are real.

00:49:47.668 --> 00:49:54.829
Woo, we might have to call it right here, because I'm about to cry and I don't want to do it on camera.

00:49:54.829 --> 00:49:58.353
You're not actually real, do you know?

00:49:58.353 --> 00:50:01.460
Unicorn tears heal wounds sustained in battle.

00:50:01.460 --> 00:50:02.686
That's only in Harry Potter.

00:50:04.659 --> 00:50:06.327
Now I'm going to say Harry Potter's not real.

00:50:06.648 --> 00:50:09.507
And you know, your dad and I met at Hogwarts.

00:50:09.867 --> 00:50:13.208
Yeah, mike was a professor.

00:50:13.208 --> 00:50:15.222
He's way older than me.

00:50:16.246 --> 00:50:17.469
I was, that's from.

00:50:17.489 --> 00:50:18.873
Michael, that's right.

00:50:20.001 --> 00:50:21.708
I taught potions, professor, what's your?

00:50:21.728 --> 00:50:22.878
last name Petra.

00:50:22.898 --> 00:50:23.641
Gallo, petra Gallo.

00:50:24.224 --> 00:50:25.068
Okay, p squared.

00:50:26.360 --> 00:50:31.311
I taught potions and then I, for one semester I taught the dark arts.

00:50:31.311 --> 00:50:34.362
Professor Snake Severus was not.

00:50:34.362 --> 00:50:35.664
He was misunderstood.

00:50:38.291 --> 00:50:38.652
Slytherin.

00:50:42.860 --> 00:50:43.623
There's not a wizard.

00:50:43.623 --> 00:50:45.708
There's not a wizard who's ever gone bad.

00:50:45.708 --> 00:50:46.610
That wasn't a Slytherin.

00:50:46.610 --> 00:50:59.166
Could you imagine if they and I bet you, if you crossfitted in the offseason, you'd be a rockin' Quidditch player, especially the, what do they call?

00:50:59.166 --> 00:51:06.483
I was gonna say bashers, but they're not bad the bludgers, the bludgers, yeah, bludger, I think right, yeah, beater, beater.

00:51:06.503 --> 00:51:11.079
The bludgers, the thing the bludgers, the thing, that ball we're gonna have to.

00:51:11.079 --> 00:51:12.724
We're gonna have to have a harry potter expert.

00:51:12.724 --> 00:51:16.295
Alexandra, my daughter, she's a total, have you?

00:51:16.295 --> 00:51:17.719
Yeah, all of them.

00:51:17.719 --> 00:51:20.023
Nice, nice, I've read them.

00:51:20.023 --> 00:51:24.891
Well, we, we started with the kids Way back when we'd read them to the kids and then we'd see the movies.

00:51:24.891 --> 00:51:27.742
Nice, but all right.

00:51:27.742 --> 00:51:29.989
So the 4.30 class is about to get underway.

00:51:29.989 --> 00:51:34.532
They will get loud and we will resume this.

00:51:34.532 --> 00:51:36.503
But yeah, man, I mean, I think this was.

00:51:36.503 --> 00:51:49.983
You know, sometimes we go off tangent a little bit, but yeah, the, the, the basic, the, the, the common denominator of CrossFit.

00:51:49.983 --> 00:51:53.150
What makes it and I knew it, I could feel it by his little hooves.

00:51:53.150 --> 00:51:58.527
Dude, that's awesome, look at that.

00:51:58.527 --> 00:52:04.494
I said, check me on the runway it's going to, oh, and you caught it.

00:52:05.460 --> 00:52:09.367
You know, listen, I'm old man, but certain things still work.

00:52:09.367 --> 00:52:10.605
Reflexes are still quick.

00:52:10.900 --> 00:52:12.264
I don't have as good a balance.

00:52:15.210 --> 00:52:17.126
All right, anyway, thanks for joining us.

00:52:17.126 --> 00:52:23.188
We will be back with more about our journey together Tomorrow.

00:52:23.188 --> 00:52:25.693
Tomorrow, same bat time, maybe not.

00:52:25.693 --> 00:52:26.835
Are you good tomorrow?

00:52:27.400 --> 00:52:29.663
Well, he's got a meet, so I'll be back on.

00:52:30.786 --> 00:52:32.130
Monday what.

00:52:32.130 --> 00:52:34.525
That's right, we're swimming with your cousins, oh okay.

00:52:34.525 --> 00:52:35.246
Well, that's cool too.

00:52:35.246 --> 00:52:44.056
All right, stay tuned, we'll be back and watch for more and more of Logan appearing on the show, all More and more of Logan appearing on the show.

00:52:44.056 --> 00:52:44.539
All right, later, see ya.

00:52:44.539 --> 00:52:46.684
See ya here.

00:52:46.684 --> 00:52:47.989
Throw the thumbs up, watch what happens.

00:52:47.989 --> 00:52:53.210
Sometimes it always works.

00:52:53.210 --> 00:52:54.313
For me Now it's going to be persnickety.

00:52:54.313 --> 00:52:57.282
Yep, there, it is All right, we're out.