The CrossFit Games: Inclusivity + Steroids

people, crossfit, fitness, crossfit games, nike, games, adaptive, amputee, gym, compete, work, drug, athletes, sport, year, community, put

TTyler 00:01

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the gym owners podcast. I'm your host Tyler stone over there is John Fairbanks How you doing John? Hello. So the CrossFit Games is just wrapped up and we're gonna kind of cover what this means. What it has what the CrossFit Games has meant to the fitness industry as a whole what it meant to CrossFit affiliates some of the things I think they do very right. Some of the things I think they get very wrong some of the things I think the fans who are excited about are wrong some of the things I think the fans are upset about, they're wrong. The UPS downs in outs, the good shit and the bullshit of the CrossFit Games as well as some other big fitness news that's coming across the entire industry this week, so this week's come just to look into a couple big news items, big happenings in the fitness space this week. If you don't give a shit about CrossFit, you'll like this one too. Trust me, so stay tuned. You're gonna dig it make sure before we get started make sure you go to gym owners revolution Facebook group that link is in our description. That's where we run the blog posts and poles. We have a bunch of nice engagements. We have good quality information for gym owners to help other gym owners make their gym ownership life a hell of a lot easier. If you want to get into gear Academy which is our business coaching product that is that gym owners revolution.com You have questions about that you can email John and I at your mom at Hack Your gym.com LET'S GET STARTED flow show a gym owners podcast follow me at Tyler Elphinstone. Taylor EFI N stone and you follow John



John Fairbanks 01:23

at J banks f L. Alright,



Tyler 01:26

Let's get started with CrossFit Games. I don't follow it anymore. Like the ins and outs of the athletes. It's one of the things that as a person who trains as a person who's done fitness as a person who's competed in sport I find that following other athletes is lame and it's a waste of our time. First off, I think it's weird. I think it's much like an adult man wearing another man's jersey to a game. I think it's strange. Like you let your wife see you do that guys, what are you doing? Even worse when these are like five foot five fitness guys who you're fanboying over aside from all of that I talk a lot of shit because I'm trying to and their habits but there's a lot of very, it's it's truly some of some really, really impressive stuff that goes on with there. I think it is not the truest test of not the most ideal test of fitness or whatever you want to use. But it is in a very fucking cool competition with some really incredibly impressive things going on. I didn't even know what's going on because he got all jammed up with COVID stuff. Remember, there was like there almost happened like, one time at the end of year one, you know, I mean, it was offset. And when it was happening, I remember that the opening was shifted. And so now I think this is when it finally fell into like this is normal times, I think now is back on ESPN, which is how I knew it was finally going on aside from some of the people I follow voicing support or complaints for some of the things that we're seeing. But seeing it on ESPN, somebody had posted this on Instagram and they said I don't think people understand how significant it is for CrossFit as a brand to have the games on ESPN again, even though it's long and tedious. And a lot of the stuff the average population doesn't understand. This person is also going to get to an airport or a restaurant and my wife and I were sitting in the sports bar on a Friday night or whatever a Saturday. Just sitting there in the CrossFit Games on TV. And there's a bunch of goddamn jacked Hobbit psychos walking on their hands walking on their head and there was one of the events was like walking on your hands stop while on your hands, do a handstand pushup keep walking another station hands down free space like freestanding space, and then keep going and then go upstairs downstairs and it's just this crazy. It's just nuts. Right? It's just become banal, when I'm watching this as a person who's owned a CrossFit affiliate and tried to teach general fitness. That is fucking crazy. Like, it's just you're at a point where like, this is so specialized, it's almost stupid. But I totally respect the skill set, I get it. But that level of specialization is really incredible. There are feats of strength and fitness that you really don't see. It's hard to describe right really what that is like short of watching watching like in my opinion, the Olympic level gymnastics is crazy. You're like collegiate level gymnastics. Those people are the best athletes you and I will probably ever meet. You know what I mean? It really is crazy, but I see it on ESPN is a big deal. Now, when I hit open my affiliate in 2016 or 17 it was right that big groundswell in other games, it just kind of picked up a lot of steam. There was a lot of social media attention on CrossFit as a whole. And that was why I essentially wanted to open a CrossFit affiliate. I was training in a CrossFit gym. I believed in the methodology as it is written not necessarily as it's performed or as it is selectively completed, but I do believe in the methodology still for the general population. The brand was very visible, the brand was on the rise, and you would see his incredible feats to the point where normal people would inspire normal people to go holy shit that's such a very far away standard of fitness. Right? But it sure as shit looks like fitness, right? It does it just it is now as a CrossFit affiliate owner at the time, the CrossFit Games and the CrossFit H cues, the overall branding of the games, athletes and things like this, their marketability, their social media presence was great free advertising, it was also the number one thing I had to defuse when I was selling new new members. It was the best and worst thing there's so many people like I could never do that. I don't want to do that. I don't know and it's like so many people would have benefited from the way that we go about it because what we did was constantly varied functional movement at a high intensity with fucking reasonable perspective on risk versus reward. Jesus Christ guys, but a lot of that gets lost in the mix and the overall reputation is that's what it is.



05:59

Popular it was



Tyler 06:00

yes, but that tells you how popular it was. So like if you got to diffuse some of that. Here in the Midwest Suzie Q homemaker who's got 20 pounds to lose knows not anybody's name but knows what CrossFit is a no is that what it is is one of the terms that they use forging elite fitness and I think that's fantastic. But I would also like to forge something pretty like average fitness for some people that have really elite fatness. That's what I mean as well. I wanted to forge fitness and fatness around here. And that's very tough. So when only a lot of the brand new was elite, elite, elite, elite Elite initial, what they're showing is elite and what they're showing is enviable, in my opinion, very enviable.



John Fairbanks 06:42

If you have that personality, yes, right. Or it's cripplingly so far away, they're just like, Oh, my God, like I remember, because I was when I was, I was when I was playing college football. CrossFit was being talked about briefly. So this is 2010. Like 2008 2009 2010. And it's, I remember just the attitude was like, Who the fuck are these people think they are like, these aren't, this isn't a sport. This is working out like it was an element that came from sports, it was like, we lift weights to do the sport. Like the idea that it was a sport was so an afterthought. But I remember when I was at college or die, not remember that, like it was like a comedy sketch thing that is either college or a Funny or Die shooter . I mix the two. But I remember like, I think one of them did like a CrossFit parody, where someone was dying to like, oh, it's CrossFit. And then they're like being douchebags, but then like throwing up and then like their fucking intestines are coming out of their mouths or whatever. But that's how much it was in the ethos of like, oh, that's what it is. So for fitness purposes. It was like, oh, no, you just push yourself till you die. And people go, Oh, God, I don't want to do that.



Tyler 07:52

But the brand is becoming more visible again. And I think it's great. I think I think that is great for the general population, I think they need to see that I would love to see equal parts marketing, I don't know how much money they make off the games. I think their big target is to make money off of the open and then whatever partnerships and brand partnerships they have. I don't know what CrossFit just pulls in for throwing an event that takes a week and all the bullshit that has to go with managing it. I'm sure they're leveraging a lot of volunteers for the execution of a lot of that stuff. But I think it's really good. I think it's great for the industry. I think it's great for the industry as a whole for people to be inspired by fitness because sometimes when you are seeing everything in the context of sport, it's a bit daunting, right? Just watching football doesn't inspire somebody to get in shape. But watching somebody do physical things with their shirt off, you know, shot in a way with a good pump, you know, I mean, like that it works and they do ESPN, they do a great job. Cross's media team has always done a really good job. I thought of making these look cool and making them look professional. Now it's a multi day event so it's nearly unwatchable short of just what you get if you're watching it like if you're following it you're crazy right but if you just get into something's on I'll check it out. I always love tuning in to deals when I works out great for me I end up tuning in at the last day the last couple mins last couple of women's heats so it all matters usually and you like go cool down to the wire and you get a lot of time but we were we were sitting at there's other people watching it around it was on amongst nothing else they did a great job putting it at a time of year when there's nothing going on John yeah this is one of the timing things that I think if I gotta give them credit there's no football yet. No NBA is over. The NBA is so over that they're showing preseason basketball games on TV. What



John Fairbanks 09:42

training, have you given me shit about the summer league?



Tyler 09:44

I care about some really just never gonna do and so I think that I think that's a pocket that they've fallen into that boy they better stay in this time slot. Just stay in that fucking rules. They are pulling out of Madison this year. I don't know where they said they were gonna go but this is the last year Wisconsin. Sounds like they won't be going back which I get it, right. I mean, there's just a lot fewer opportunities. And it's probably very complicated for a lot of people to get there. Like, yeah, put it hosted and put it in five California, where the weather's nice. Yeah, put it where the weather's always nice and where there's people, please fit people too. Because you're gonna go there you go there in Wisconsin, and it's just gonna be a bunch of people like Kerberos. All the people with ABS are in town now. Now, but I want to talk about some of the things that I think here's what I've seen. Lately, one of the topics that come up, and it's a sore subject, and I don't know, my defensive CrossFit in this department, probably going to go farther than CrossFit would even defend themselves here. And I'm going to offend a lot of people that are well, meaning, maybe if you take this as a fence here, this is just my opinion. On the issue, there's been a lot of stink being raised about how CrossFit is handling the adaptive side of the CrossFit Games. CrossFit runs the CrossFit Games, they also have team, they also have Masters, I think they fucking masters teams. I think there's submasters, and it turns into this convoluted mess with standard competition's already that makes it dumber than even powerlifting. From a dilution standpoint, like nobody gives a fuck if you won submasters bench only in the WPF. Fuck, like, it sucks. Nobody cares. Nobody can, it's too diluted. We're being too specific, like I am the fittest guy at my exact height and body weight and age right now in the world, probably hands down. And if not, I can gain or lose a quarter pounder. And then I won that title again. Or like I just don't. Yeah, and so. But, I don't follow all of this. I know some very well meaning people that I correspond with regularly that have a lot of vested interest in and they care a lot about it. And I think they do mean well, but talking to you, Tyler, and your fiance. But what I see is no, but they're well meaning and they're like, you know that I think they're handling this wrong. And there's some of the issues and I don't follow them thoroughly. Because fundamentally, my break comes before this, and I'll explain. But basically, it was like all the categorizations that categorizations it's not enough like if you're single amputee lower half above or below the knee, they each one of those as a separate category, one arm versus two arm above or below the elbow, whatever. Like there's just there ends up being now that may be diluting. I may be diluting it a bit further than it needs to be, but you understand what I'm saying? The logistics that it takes, and the amount of inclusion plus word of the day, the amount of inclusion, that that you're that you're seeking, in my opinion, is not the CrossFit Games his fucking job to do. Because nobody gets fucking mad at the NBA, that they're not completely operating a shadow league obsessed partner league for I mean, they do one for women, right? It's just Here you go, we'll pay for it, whatever. But now they have to do one for wheelchair basketball. And there has to be an NBA for wheelchair basketball. And there needs to be an NBA for one legged basketball, and they all need their chance. And they all need to be in and everybody needs to be in. And then if your are we doing and I don't know this, but like, I know, there's a big scandal that have come up or somebody was told that, at that point for from year one to year two that essentially like with their disability, they weren't disabled enough to qualify or something, whatever. And that's a big thing. Yeah. And I'm like, why don't fucking know, man, you know what I mean? Like, these are all decisions. This should not need to be made. Frankly, when you're trying to figure out the one two and three fittest men and fitness women in the world. That's the whole point of the conversation. Now I've had to create this entire subcategory for you and I'm with you should be able to compete. But does the fucking NFL need to make you a league to? I don't think that that's fair, to put that on a company that has the money about it, they got the fucking money, it's not about the money. It's just that you you're now creating this untenable, completely divergent set of competitive standards and execution models and programming and equipment setups, like for the people that rep and I and I will say this, I do believe that regular people below the competitor are the ones that keep the CrossFit brand alive. And they are so you do want to appeal to regular people. So I have the open and it's why you want to have adaptive divisions in the open and I'm with it but do all roads need to lead to the CrossFit Games? Fuck no. Yeah, so if that's me I haven't heard him say this either. And that's what sucks is I just don't think like because CrossFit is not saying like, I don't even think we should be doing this. And that's what I think I see is like, I don't think you should do this. I don't I don't know man. Like, I don't think about those people. Are you as fit as the people that are on the podium? Are you in the conversation? will probably not because you have some limitations. Great. I think that there should be something I would prefer, here's when I talk about solutions, I wish somebody from and within that community can solicit CrossFit for partnerships for funding the same thing. You can use those same inroads that they're using right now like for us, rogue and all these other stuff, like you can get partnerships and money and put in adaptive games. And it doesn't need to be CrossFit branded, and it doesn't need to be run by CrossFit, or Christ. If you run it, run it at a different timer and have it really be and you handle the headaches, handle all the logistics of it, handle all the subcategories of it. See how that looks? Is it going to catch your eye? Is it gonna be worth the money to sponsor? In my opinion, it probably just won't be because it's really specialized. It'll be very great for the families and the people competing. I think you can inspire lots of people there Jason communities, are you gonna get these giant public eyes on it? No, probably not. Maybe you showcase some of these athletes at the games when you do you have to recognize their wins after or after the game? I don't know. I don't know the solution to this, necessarily. But I do not believe that having to run all these concurrent tiers based on ability is nuts. I don't believe they should have a teens division. I don't believe they should have masters. I kind of think team, the team CrossFit Games is the fucking most boring shit in the world to watch. And I don't even think that should be there. Because I think it sucks dude. It's just a way for people who are a little washed out. And like, can't quite compete on their own. And like, we'll just get a team together and all stay fit. And they all kind of partner up from God knows where they put it together and they go in whatever piddly little amount of money they get from it. And I just don't get that part of it that it's cool for those competitors. But again, I've said this about strongmen. If your sport is for the competitors, and not the spectators, your fucking sucks. Okay, and that's a thing that powerlifting has always gotten wrong. It's the thing that strongmen have tended to get right. That it's like, yeah, man, I don't know, go break your shit. They didn't get Sears. Yeah, we're, yeah, Bill Kazmaier. We're flipping over cars today. And we haven't thought about putting the parking brake on them. Or what happens if they don't get all the way over. And some people are going to get crushed by cars today. That's like what's happened at the worldstrides. But I remember that, and I'm watching that shit. And it's awesome. It's really awesome.



John Fairbanks 17:19

So there's also an element of inclusion, to eventually you're up on your own. Like, you ended up becoming the villain. Now we see this even like in the woke culture too, right. Essentially, you're so woke to now you're racist?



Tyler 17:33

Yes, yeah. And so I think that there is a and I think that's what's happened here. It's like, we want to be one of the things that I've there's a guy, Trevor by Ty's guy out of San Antonio. I traveled to interview with him, massive apps doing plays amputees, he had done tons of fitness stuff. And he was really inspired by Aldrich Logan, who was another amputee who had competed in fitness. And anyway, so I, we renewed with mass genomics, I had free airline tickets. So I flew down and spent a weekend with him trying to find the stuff and a nice conversation about his injury and what happened and, and at that time, I said, you know, you do this, you just ribbon this shit in your garage, and you're like, really pushing yourself for the heart. And for what I said, you know, you could really for the same inspiration you have from him, you could go out and compete. And he did, he went out and started doing some competitions, partner competitions, adaptive competitions. And I think he felt the same way that his the benefit that he had from having done that was he got to share the gifts of that inspiration with other people, but he was competing in adaptive competitions. They chose to do this and part of me feels like CrossFit has been forced with this and I could be wrong. Their PR people will argue with me and they're gonna say, Oh, absolutely not. We do this willingly in Ottawa, and we don't think it's convoluted or a bit patronizing or just unnecessary, or dilutes a lot of our efforts that go into putting into the games, to make sure that anybody and everybody gets to compete is what it kind of feels like and I was like, I just don't think that that's the standard you want when you're trying to build a professional sport. What was interesting is what you're talking about like that pressure is like even a peloton has an adaptive division now. Yeah. So like their instructors have an adaptive like that. It's so in the ethos of again, having these things that are there in front of everyone. Do you know the first adaptive fitness inspiration I ever got? This is really funny. Then, I think it is the Horton guy that was insane?



John Fairbanks 19:40

Right, was that Tony Horton p90x or whatever?



Tyler 19:43

It actually was p90x, right? Yeah. In the background of p90x There was a guy. That guy had one leg. He was doing it on like a peg or a blade or something. And I was like, That guy looks really familiar. And I was like, that's the guy from Super true. verse it's rabbit from Super Troopers the rookie Yeah, and I looked into it, and it is and he is an amputee and he was in fucking p90x.



John Fairbanks 20:11

Eric is still Hemsky Yeah. Yeah. It's I gotta



Tyler 20:15

I gotta watch the seminar. Okay, sounds like Eric from p90x, his rabbit from Super Troopers. There



John Fairbanks 20:19

you go. What was it? Like doing p90x with a prosthetic leg?



Tyler 20:23

Yes. It's just you've never said anything about it ever in anything. I mean, never, I would never have known he was an amputee ever. And he's like an actor, and a damn funny one, too. And then he's just anonymously in the background of this workout DVD. And it was really, really funny. But anyway, that's all things assessment. But I've wanted this subject out. I just think that the worst thing that's gonna happen is I think people when they hear this, they're gonna go, What are you saying these people shouldn't get to compete? No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that. They don't need to build the biggest platform in the world when there isn't really the demand to watch. And I think it's patronizing to do so. I also think that they should be given a platform to inspire other people as well, because there's plenty of people in their situation. And I know people in those situations who have a hard time getting motivated, I had a hard time realizing that they can do these things. And one of the things that I used to do, when I was younger, we work for this camp for kids that would do up to two different two week blocks every summer. And so I work with them, even in my adulthood. But what we would do is these camps, we set excursion events every day for these kids who are very different, with different abilities, different situations, from physical to mental limitations all across the board. But what we did with that thing was made sure that they had, they could do it, whatever it was. And so when you're a guy like me, like I'm a big, huge, strong guy, my job very often is to like, Okay, well, you want you want to swim, you never thought to swim, because you're paralyzed from the neck down, right? Sure. Fortunately, we got big guys and got in the water, to make sure you didn't drown. Right? That's awesome. So you're just there kind of doing the stuff? Same thing with riding horses, therapeutic horseback riding in that community is fantastic. But a lot of it is, well, how are they going to get home? Get off? Yeah, you need some people to make it work for him. But horseback riding to boat riding to going to the ship playing basketball, it's just tons of little things to make them feel like they can do these other things and to give them those moments, right. And I think that that is very important. And I know that that's the function that this part of the games is serving. I know that that's the bigger picture. But the fucking argue about it, when we dilute it down to this, we diluted down this far. I just think it sucks. And I don't know, I don't know what to say about it. Like, this isn't a great PR move for me to come out and be like, I don't think I don't think these adaptive people should be bothered bothering the CrossFit Games about competing in the CrossFit Games. You know, I just I don't know, I just I think I think they should be able to compete. I think somebody needs to take up the realm and build that adaptive division up. I think the CrossFit Games will certainly fund it. I think if you guys think you can manage it better, definitely do it and then take it off of this platform and do it yourself. So that it's you and it's you doing it because then by the way, it's guided by you not just CrossFit doing it because if they don't, there's going to be a bunch of people mad at them. And like



John Fairbanks 23:16

that's, that's that's the point you're making the issue is not the fact that they have it. The issue is that a bunch of fucking people that aren't neurodiverse are bitching and complaining about it. So yeah, exactly. Whatever that those different diversities and then breaking it apart. That's not the complaint, the complaint is shut the fuck up. We have a complaint, we'll fix it, or just shut the fuck up has nothing to do with you shut your goddamn open stay out of it.



Tyler 23:39

I just think it doesn't belong there. It doesn't belong on this stage for the same reason that we don't gotta worry about the end of the NBA Finals going on. Okay, well now. Now we've got the one arm finals. It's like, Well, okay, but what are we letting people amputated below the elbow compete in this division? Geez, they don't get their own division, what the fuck. And that's the issue is every request being made is to like, make an entirely new special tier of competition. And I just don't, I don't think that that's necessary. But I do think that what CrossFit offers is because you have coaching, and you have movement that is truly functional, and it's in its origin, not again, not in the execution. But when you're talking, pushing, pulling, hinging standing, pressing, throwing these things, functional movements, those movement patterns can be baked in, and are extremely useful for people who maybe don't understand that go into a gym as a amputee, or as you know, in a wheelchair is like, what am I going to do? What a coach then can teach you and a coach knows and there's they've done a great job. I do think CrossFit and educating people, and there's plenty of people within the community, educating people on how to coach and how to teach. I had two or three adaptive athletes in my CrossFit gym. One was essentially from you know, ribcage down wheelchair, had another on one leg and another was just kind of a dead dead arm. I don't know how to describe it right now. And but like in those situations, I need to lean on other people for experience and like how to coach this and what can I do? What can't I do? And I do believe that those varying special degrees of specialization that exist within there. I think that that is valuable to have a bunch of people in a centralized committee where you can go, Yeah, I do need to know what someone who is a above the knee or what the difference is between above the knee or below knee amputee is and what they can and can't do in this situation, or what is going to be better for a quadriplegic versus paraplegic was better with right arm versus left leg. Like what can I do? What issues are there with the prosthetics specifically, this I think people don't understand is like the prosthetics very often like are a big issue in the training, that's a primary cause of, of pain and friction, and a lot of that stuff that's so fit perfect and kick ass, and knowing that that's a whole new world. And that's an entire new world for a coach to know and coach to understand, and to expect, like a competitive organization to put this together. I don't know, I just don't think I just don't think it belongs at the games.



John Fairbanks 26:05

But I do like it on the local level. And not to help you have a transition to another topic. But it's like the idea of like, what differentiates right your gyms locally, where you are from larger box entities or big organizations that are going to come in and start gobbling up the market share is your ability to



Tyler 26:25

specialize. We have big, big news in that department coming. I got one more subject to cover here on CrossFit. the CrossFit Games, drugs, y'all. You're my test is not wrong. Almost never. I'll tell you this, I have my test. I don't know what to say. There's so it takes one to know one aspect to it. There's also it's been long enough in the game long enough in the industry to see that your eye test is probably not right all the time. Not you, John, but you if you're listening, if you're the type of person, it's everyone that's more jacked than me is on steroids or everyone as strong as me that on steroids. You're, that's just you, alright. But I can tell you I got a pretty good eye for it. And there's some criteria I do use, it's not just the eye test. But if I'm being honest, my eye test has me right 90 95% of the time, and then usually other data just tends to support it. A lot of these athletes use drugs guys, so Hate to break it to you know, and they're not just using big man drugs. They're not just using testosterone, and he takes shitloads of fucking growth hormone and like stuff for pure size. Because while a lot of these people look jacked, most of them are small. So you're seeing hobbits amongst hobbits, who are simply lean and carry a lot of muscle. A lot of these guys while some do look very frequently big on camera. A lot of them when you see them in person, they look like they probably are in shape when they're wearing a t- shirt, they do not look like that. So take that with a grain of salt. But there are a lot of other substances out there that are used for performance and endurance. The types of drugs that these guys don't take are much more likely going to be seen in say, endurance sports since I was gonna get popular and thorough ball or some shit, you know, endurance sports. MMA fighters are probably very, very similar. If I'd like to draft what I would give a competitive CrossFit Games athlete. For drugs it would be if it was an untested situation. It'd be the same as if I were to dope up a untested MMA fighter nearly now.



John Fairbanks 28:23

Our crozon Episode will have the exact ingredients that Tyler



Tyler 28:27

our peloton episodes. That sorry about drug use within the peloton. Now, I don't. I'm not saying everybody's on some or Definitely not. But I'm gonna say there is a large percentage of that field. I don't want to throw numbers out there. I'm conservatively going to say one in five men and women in my opinion are taking something throughout the year. Now the issue is they're not doing like, like, like the UFC is doing which is doing a testing for these people having to get tested year round. They're gonna get tested essentially during the regional situation. So like, these guys can dope. They can get a few things even if it's simply to heal up in an offseason to mend a little bit so you can run some growth hormone you can start to build your engine you can maybe add a little bit of size but then you have to come off. But if these this Listen, people finish and test out every year at the games it happens there's a handful every single year for something those people are fucking idiots because they know when the games are they've known for a year so those people are just dumb shits who didn't get cleared enough or something right. The rest of the year they're on their own waters not showing up seven eight times a year randomly these guys don't have to report to a testing pool. And for the one of the same reasons they don't do that is because logistically it would be a nightmare. Much like having to host 25 different subcategories of adaptive games, right? That is logistically just not really viable when we're trying to determine the Fittest Man More than on Earth, that we have to determine the fittest man and woman on earth with one, right? I don't believe that you can test all of these people year round, it just doesn't work. Unless you can basically have a pool of who is professional, your top tier people that all have to go into a pool just like they do in UFC once you're under contract, but then you're under contract. So then you have to start building what I would describe what they tried to do back when, which is like a competitive season, right? launches or competitions, and then maybe those contests, tests, but you don't have to attend all those. And so I think drug use is much more prevalent than you're seeing when in regards to the testing. I also don't believe that they report all of the results to all the tests, I believe they choose who they report to. I don't say anything, anyone specific necessarily that hasn't been caught already, because I won't. But some that have what was there was that gal a few years ago, this is one of the funniest ones about it. This gal tested positive for mk 677, which is what I would describe as a growth hormone secreted agog which is essentially an oral it's under the category of songs and it's not truly a SARM. It's one of the few songs that you don't have to inject because sometimes, if you take them orally, your stomach acid destroys them, so they have to be ejected. This isn't technically a SARM, but mk 677 ramps up your body's ability to produce growth hormone, and then doesn't completely crash you after the fact. So it's like taking a little bit of growth hormone. It's pretty affordable. I've taken it in the past and I just got super water retention from it . I was just so bloated, like it sucked and maybe that had to do with, you know, also the Dianabol or whatever else was going on. But like once that was introduced, it was like unbearable, I'd wake up sweaty, and my hands were so fucking puffy. Like I can't, I cannot deal with this shit. But mk 677 The thing about that stuff is that it is the most fucking intensely disgusting tasting thing on earth. Like, I can't imagine eating any dropper and I would have to drop it in like, like juice and I couldn't put it in like a whole tall glass of juice to dilute it enough because it would make a whole tall glass of juice. really fucked up and then hard to drink because it'd be like 1215 ounces and we're struggling. Oh god, it's all gross. So I'd take like a coffee mug, right up full and then put the droplets you know the dropper bio, whatever in there, and then take it and even then it was nasty. I would have to chug that. Then fill it again with juice. It's not this flavor, but that doesn't have any end. And then chug that swish it around in my mouth to get it out. Right? I mean, just fucked up. Dude, hang with you, then you'd have to brush your teeth like, gross shit to have to do a couple times a day. Right? And this girl I don't remember. Habit. No. Emily Abbott. She was the one who was the one who got it. Did you just look that up? Yeah. And she's a redhead. And she's nice to see her in interviews and shit. She got caught for it. And five years ago or so? Surely denial, like denied tonight? And hey, I don't know her. Maybe in her heart. She thinks it's true. Her story was that her boyfriend or husband was taking it and she also got it from kissing him once Yeah. And first off it takes like a fair amount of that to like really get in your system one and two



John Fairbanks 33:18

getting pregnant off the toilet seat. I don't know what happened. Mom I want to



Tyler 33:24

I can tell you there's no fuck if if you kissed your significant other and that was taste was in their mouth and in any way. You take them to the hospital. You think there's something wrong? Like for real? Like there's kind of you're dying? And I don't know how much I don't know what you guys do in the bedroom. Maybe straight up just spitting in your mouth. I don't fucking know what you're into lady. But that is I Hate to break it to you. But when they say that, it's like, yeah, okay. We're saying what you need to say. But I don't believe that. And so there's a lot of SF tonight. There was another girl who got caught with CrossFit for I want to say it was pretty intense. I think it might have been even like, I'm tempted to say trend. And this one might have been around the same error maybe a year or two before. And she said it was like swallowing semen of her husband, who was taking it. And I was like, Yeah, I don't think that's how that works either. Like, so That's mad.



John Fairbanks 34:14

That's bad props, though. Like, just go for you.



Tyler 34:18

Now, the thing about this, aside from just bringing up these these stories, most people who get caught for drugs that aren't like, sometimes you'll get out there and it's like, oh, it's something I was taking certainly a submit all your supplements that you've been taking, submit them and they'll test them and they can they will determine if that's even possible, right? They can do that so you can get out of that's what that whole appeals process is. And these don't even come up until after the appeals process. So all things have been exhausted in that regard. But at that point, as far as I know, everybody. There's another every single person that I know who's ever been on probation or parole who has had to tell the story when they fail a drug test or even for their employer, right who failed the drug test for marijuana for their employer. Do you know what they all have in common when they tell their boss that it's because they were in a car with somebody who was smoking or near someone who was smoking? Every single person I know has said that, without exception. 100% of them are lying. Everyone who I've ever known who has had his attitude was lying. No, you pissed hot for weed because you were smoking pot. And that's fun. But this is and this is with some of these games, athletes, whatever the excuse, I'm just like, Yeah, okay. Yeah, you were in a car with a bunch of people who were doing steroids, I guess. And that's how this happened. But it's just one of those things that in regards to the games at that level of competition, people are going to cheat, they're going to cheat every way that they can, as long as it's banned, and they're taking it. I'm not on board with it. If it's allowed. You give me an untested fitness league dude, fucking why? That'd really be wild. Like, I'm kind of about that, like, just pull the testing off? And let's just go no, no, they don't want to do that. Because the foundation of the business is general people, and normal people. And I don't think you need somebody looking like, well, I know that. But that's part of the issue with this. Right? Right. So I think it's in the game's best interest to keep it clean. Because making things more impressive on the top and on elite fitness doesn't push the needle forward for the average person, that someone that's a female snatched, you know, 285 26 pounds, you know, in the games in a competition after three days, or whatever, that doesn't. The difference between that. And if she hits 340 Just doesn't, I guess we give a shit, right? Nobody cares.



John Fairbanks 36:36

That strong man in bodybuilding? Yeah, like,



Tyler 36:38

it'll be. Yeah, nobody knows, like, you go to strongman competition, the general population doesn't know the difference, they just see a car get lifted up, they just see a stone get lift, it's entertainment value. So nobody cares. These people are a second faster in the general population, it doesn't build the brand much anymore, for only as a benefit to those specific athletes. So I think it's in the best interest of the crossfit games, games, and the CrossFit HQ at CrossFit as a brand and the affiliates for the sport to remain clean. Because every single one of these things that comes up and now it makes it look like all those people are all jacked up and on the juice and whatever. So if you want to make an adaptive, separate CrossFit, go for it. And if you want to make a sauced up CrossFit, like I'm with it to like, oh, wow, I'll donate that. Let's go. Oh, I'm with it. I just want to see what's possible, you know, yeah. Now. So that's kind of what I have to say about that. I guess, I think that the sport is being a bit protective of the stuff by keeping some of this stuff pretty quiet. And very often, I do think that it seems like they go after athletes that they just kind of particularly don't like, I'd be willing to bet if you really were liked a lot. And it is very popular that your results will either get double checked, or your appeals will get drugged out for a long time and nothing sneaks out about it. And that was one of the things about I think the way it was structured before and I don't know this for sure for say this year was that when a positive test was issued, they only reported it back to basically the people in charge of the games. And then they determined where it went. This isn't like third party testing that gets published by a third party.



John Fairbanks 38:14

Do you know how we handle it? In college? Nobody got it. Well got told so that the school so the NCAA would come in and they would drug test a couple times a year. Yeah. And you fuck that up? That was like, very, very hard to save you.



Tyler 38:30

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Cuz you're going over top of anyone who can protect you.



John Fairbanks 38:34

Yeah, just like it's not like the governing body has shown up. They are drug testing. But we got drug tested every month, every two months. Like there was a quota right that they needed to meet, but the school drug tested. So if you were a piece of shit, when you played and you popped positive to the schools, oh, they will happily kick you the fuck off the team. Like you just gave them all they needed. But if you were a baller, you just got to boot this week. You're just injured. You can't play like you're injured you can't play you know, it's what and that so that was how it was handled. And it just was like dude, you've got to tighten up because the whole idea was like you've got to have this under control to not pop positive because when the governing body shows up, stay view and it just was like oh, well it looks like so and so's injured for you know the gimme game that's on Saturday. I ran out here playing LSU and we were probably able to play an LSU there was no boot it just was like you get your shit figured out but we need your one. We need your elbow



Tyler 39:38

down this week. Yeah, and I think that's you know, it's not this and I think the way across it handles this is a little bit like that as well. I don't think all of it but I think there's an incentive from a PR standpoint. For them to treat this very much like when an employer has in their employment contract with people that like we can drug test you and we can get rid of it was loose Here we can fire you if you test positive, right. And I've worked for companies that instead of laying people off and paying unemployment for the winter, right, what they do is they would go through and they would do random drug tests that week not for all the guys, not for all the guys by the way they would do right by the guys. But you get some dickhead who is late and gives you headaches all the time and no shows once or twice a week all the time for layoffs to come. That guy's catching random drug tests this week so that he gets booted out the door. You know, Yeah, cuz you just know. So at the very least, that's one surefire way for you to cut bait without having any recourse coming your way. So that's kind of the wrap up of what we have from the CrossFit Games and what it means to the people. But I want to cover one more big piece of news here, John, we got time. Yeah. Okay. Nike Nikes making moves into the fitness studio space, a lot of moves. And I'll tell you one thing or two, if you know a thing or two about Nike, they have deep pockets and they can roll. So a lot of you guys if we're, it's they've used they're using the term the buzzword boutique gyms, winning boutique fitness studios, they're gonna start opening them up, they've already established pricing, they've already established what the fulfillment is going to look like these are going to be boutique fitness studios, $99 a month. Flat membership, there will be two separate types, I believe, I don't know if these were, I don't think I don't think it felt like these were two separate types of classes. It seemed like these were two completely separate types of studios and gyms. One was going to be Nike training studio and the other was going to be Nike Running studios. Training is going to focus a little more on lifting weights and things like this, the running is obviously like you do math on that. But first off, these are gonna crush these are going to do very, very well. They're very approachable. I think they're going to work for Nike. Because Nike doesn't need to make a lot of money off the fitness, Nike can get involved whatever they need to on the real estate side of things, whatever that play looks like for them. The other thing is they will be selling Nike apparel. The big thing I like about this is in these locations, it gives the opportunity for Nike branded, locally focused apparel, to be sold apparel, shoes, all this stuff. Now it's not just going to be Nike stuff on the shelf, it's going to be you know, Nike or Nike. You know what I mean? That just apparel as well, the wearable fitness technology is going to be big as well in there. But it's going to be for those of you that are swarming it's classes. And there's nothing about this that I saw there that indicates that this is an open gym, free gym, or anything like this. Everything that I saw said classes, classes, classes, like running classes and cardio classes, and fitness, more of a weight training focus stuff, meaning it's gonna be a bit on the fluffy side. And by fluffy, I mean, like, you know, not for me or John to go do like, we'll get a nice little sizzle and get a lead. I think it's going to be a lot the experience is gonna be fucking crisp. This is my thing, like Nike branding is awesome. The lighting is going to rule. All the equipment is going to be top notch. It's going to be really cool stuff. The music's going to be great. It's supposed to be you know, upbeat uptempo stuff, I think it's going to crush shit. Like your YMCA classes and stuff because it's nearly approachable from a price point stamp pricing standpoint. And it's just so much more premium, like so much. For those of you that didn't run group classes and don't do anything else, I think one of the principles John and I teach quite regularly that will keep you afloat as this type of model. Nike won't be the only one doing this in the long run. By the way, five years from now Mark my words, there will be more people doing more big brands doing the same thing. For CES. They were excited for similar things. Yeah. And because they recognize the need for everyone. There's just so many people that need are hungry for fitness and Nike can make it approachable, I can't I can't do $100 membership, because I don't have the money to open up and float the overhead and to maybe lose money for two or three years while I just occupied market share in an emergent still emerging growing market. If Nike comes out and does this and has success, will you know how close Lululemon will be to having yoga studios? Yeah, like it will be instant. And so I think there is a I wouldn't be afraid of this because I think it's going to let a lot of Pete's gonna let it get a lot of people in and they're going to recognize the limitations of those classes. First off, it is simply going to be exercise. That's what I want you guys to understand. And you can always do what differentiates you. You do real training. We do real lifting weights or you do you do have clubs, you have a more community aspect stuff you are it is a bit more social. You're not Nike, okay? So that's going to feel very good to some people and so you need to lean into it. I wouldn't sweat I think it's a great opportunity for the fitness industry as a whole though, because when you talk investors wanting to move in and money and resources starting to move towards these types of projects, that helps you it really does help you because it grows the whole thing if you can get in your area 2000 people find their way to fitness this year, to working out regularly, no matter where it is, let's say none of them are with you. You know, they don't stay where they stay for the entire duration of their fitness journey. And so then when they find it most people don't know what they need or what they want. So they're going to go to whatever they can, and hopefully it sticks. And then when they find out what they do want or what their next need is, you're there, but you need more people pursuing that lifelong fitness journey. Nike can fucking make them do it. And I'd be happy to have one in town here. Well, not at all.



John Fairbanks 45:35

Yeah, it's gonna raise the tide, right? Like that idea of like the rising tide, because you realize it's going to be a hilarious amount of money. Their marketing and advertising is going to grow this right, it's going to be astronomical. And they're already prepping. So when you take a look at this, you can see Nike has, they're getting more focused, like they're getting rid of their yoga handle, right, but like completely dropping the yoga line concept. They're adapting and changing. We're now everything's Nike wellness. So it's like, it's part of like, their major pillars of just increasing knowledge when it comes to wellness and rest and training. That will get people thinking and talking about it. Because that's all you need. A lot of times this is the hardest thing for you guys in your community where it's like, it's just want people to like, it's like, I just want everyone to start doing more. So if you just like said if they start getting into that world, then they get exposed to it. And eventually people do try it, but then they do want something that's a little bit more hands on.



Tyler 46:36

But you know, where do you know where I would say, well, for sure. 90% of our OG members of mass phenomics gym like the OGC started within the first year Jordan 90% of them were training before Mass phenomics opened. YMCA. Oh, no shit. You've seen the gym, John. But it's not the YMCA people down there. There's no YMCA equipment. But that is where everybody started. Everybody was there directly before matter of fact, we had a thing there when we opened up because like, the YMCA director got kind of shitty. A couple of things we had posted it was like, and there's like a Hitler meet Hitler meme videos. Like when they decide to raise their membership prices out of the blue right? Anyway, out and did some you know, it's like, the fuck are you fuck off? You're the CEO. Right? And so anyway, so now what we have is if you see on the wall, you probably didn't notice there's a cork board where everybody's leaving, slapping their former YMCA memberships? The wildcards are up there. All of these guys when they were small and dorky, and now they're all huge. And Jack like, problem solved here.



John Fairbanks 47:36

This is God. It's so important though. Like that. I want that. Like if you're if you've made it to minute 47 You're still with us. It's you need to take that lesson really to heart where it was the why covered that 80% or whatever it was right? They covered the majority. Which means if you appeal to everyone, it means that IT people just settle like you're the spot that they go to. So the real key is like that niche down which mass nomics would have been CrossFit would have been like these are niche down communities within a larger fitness community. And just like you said, it's like it's from it's there's a lot of fatness. So think about anyone, any of your communities unless you live in, I don't know, San Diego or some shit. It's like the majority of your communities are just an overwhelming amount of just fatness and low participation, participation when it comes to fitness. You just got to get him into that world because then once people get exposed to it, they're like, I really hate this, or I really like this. And then they start to no longer be nerve wracking. I want to start because I'm already in it. And now I



Tyler 48:44

wear them to try new things. And this is one thing back to even like the CrossFit methodology that I always like to just try new sports. Yeah, that being baked into the kind of the pitch of what it really means to be fully fit. Their definition of fitness is regularly trying new sports. And I think that that is what is going to happen in this Nike space here is it's going to be these people who are going to like lift in some way. They're kind of like to just not have it be with loud music and some shit 20 year old, saying, Oh, here we go with a headset. And that's that'll work for some people until it doesn't until they don't want to do it anymore. And they're gonna want to go somewhere else, but it's gonna give them ideas. And at that price point and $99 a month everyone can afford it. And everyone you're talking to 40 $50 a month for a standalone 24 hour membership for most places here anyways, they said at least where I'm at that is just normal run of the mill stuff. Double that but it's in a super clean premium environment that will I promise you while you walk in, I believe it will be super clean. It will I mean it will it will it will deliver on every detail it is if they're if they're going to do this right it's gonna work for Nike and it's gonna work for you and your community. That's what I think it's gonna work for everybody. But it should raise the bar for some of these little details and it should give you some ideas but There's a thing that they do in a business like that, that can afford all that attention to detail. And to throw a lot of money out and to operate at a loss for a very long time until it just works because they've got 200 locations, right? Is when you go to like Disneyland, man, everything's fucking clean, like everything. I mean, everything looks like it was painted two days ago, everything was glossy and polished. And every, that's what I do. When I go to Disney, I look at all the trim, I look at where everything is clean, so meticulously clean. And I think that like that type of experience you settle in and as much as I'm not a Disney fan, like you go to Disney and you're just like, this really is a high level operation just as it is, it is premium. And some of the things nowadays I hear they, you know, fall short on the delivery, you know, food and all that other stuff. But what that experience is that what you need to take away from that as a fitness owner or a gym owner is like, Man, those little details if you're places like Nike clean all the time and like is your floor not kind of dusty a little bit. And maybe that's not your vibe, but that's why I was like this Apple Store, Nike store. Yeah, Equinox level stuff. And some of that is just attention to detail and not a ton of money. So what can you get, what things can you cover to increase your vibe, that's not a tremendous investment. And now you can really be like, you know, these guys, it's, it's really clean, it's nice, that next door there, whatever down the street, and these actually actually teach strength classes. And they helped me with my nutrition. And I still go to the Nike fuzzy fitness stuff, you know, once or twice a week, but I like getting into being able to lift heavy or I like going in and getting to sit around with this group of people afterwards, because the Nike folks just kick us out. And whatever that is, you know, because you'll have an opportunity to be more locally based community focused than Nike is going to have their studios be most likely, but they're still going to crush it. Know this. And there's going to be a lot of hype, when they come to town, don't get mad, I'll tell you this, don't get mad, do what you do. Differentiate it, but don't shit on what they do. Because a lot of people are going to like this, that's going to be one thing, if you don't get shit on just be different. Just be different. And know that some of the things you do that are the same are things we're talking about to, you know, hey, we got group classes, we do this, we also can help you with this and this and charge twice as much as Nike does, that people won't, but then you got to deliver.



John Fairbanks 52:30

Yeah, and that is it. Yeah, that's a whole nother area of continuing to make sure that I think I've seen somebody talking about this the other day where it was this every anytime you get plugged in any type of consultancy, or you start talking to anyone that's a mentor, whatever it is, they'll they'll push this idea of how much marketing we talked about a lot of marketing. That's like, so you end up spending a ton of time chasing leads, trying to get leads doing all this kind of shit. But those people that are pushing you, they're not talking to you about fulfillment. And this is why you and I spend a great deal of time saying, it's, you have to be good at what you do. Like you have to give a shit about your clients. Like there has to be that element. Because the fact is, your attrition rate may be dogshit, for how long you can keep people because you're just not any fucking good at keeping people. So like giving them a free gift, when they're normally canceling, is not going to make up for the fact that you've sucked dick for three months. And they just want to get the fuck out of the relationship. But yeah, but like, what about this shaker cup? Dude, no, no, no, no. Like, there's so much more to solve. There's one thing on the Nike thing that's gonna happen. And I think as long as you don't live in California, New York, you are going to capitalize on this. They are a major brand, which means they are going to go with whatever is popular is going to be what their marketing is going to be. Yeah. So however you feel about the most woke topics that exists right now, as you're listening to this, understand that the Nike brand is going to do Yeah, and if they have members, that if you happen to live where I live, which is a rural spot, where you're going to see a little bit more Trump signs than anything else. It's understood that they will, as a brand, alienate people that live in your community.



Tyler 54:27

And they're going to be far away. It's going to be a while before they get to you too. So you're also going to have a title for their career and you're like, Listen where I'm at and on their list and on their list of that but also I'll tell you this is not to say it wouldn't work here. This is what I'm saying is if they could rack rapidly scale, and they parked when here right now they would fucking kill it. Fucking kill it. And I don't think it would be to the detriment of a bunch of the other locations in town. I don't think you get a ton of people moving in. You get a ton of new people. Tons of new people get fired up about also people just going Double . Having people with disposable income would just do both. So, listen to me and I'd love to compete with one. That's why I look at it and so well that's what we got for news: who covered Nike who covered the CrossFit Games? We'll save some of the other stuff for later. Yeah, let us know what you think about this episode. So we just kind of covered some current events, if you hate some of our opinions in the beginning, and I do respect your opinion, as long as you're not Kunti about it, I'd love to hear it. Especially you, Tyler. So I'm going to shoot. I'm gonna send him a message because they're actually very involved in some other stuff. And there they are. They are good people, but I've seen it from them. And I haven't I don't want to be like, message him like, Oh, I think you're wrong. I was just gonna tell him to check this episode out. Because they are. They are good people. So yeah, if you think I'm off base, let me know or let me know what you think could be done. Could be done with that situation, specifically on the adaptive side of things, and as well as on the drug testing side for the CrossFit Games because I think there's some holes to be filled there. So yeah. So thanks a lot for listening. Everybody, make sure you go to gym owners revolution.com join the gym owners revolution Facebook group. If you have any questions for John and I, you can follow me on Instagram at Tyler Elphinstone. Tyler eff ironstone followed the show at the gym owners podcast. And you can find John at Jay banks, FL. Thanks a lot for listening to everybody and we'll see you next week.