Latest / Hybrid Fitness Report / Yancy Culp interview; Spartan DEKA Co-founder & Senior Director (Ep14)

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Yancy Culp interview; Spartan DEKA Co-founder & Senior Director (Ep14) · Hybrid Fitness Report

• 0:15
  Hello and welcome to episode 14 of Hybrid Fitness Report.
• 0:21
  My name is Paul Reynolds.
• 0:22
  Jude is in the pod, just not in this introduction, we were gonna be talking
• 0:27
  about the next stage in our series, looking in depth at stations from
• 0:31
  the various hybrid fitness races.
• 0:33
  But instead, we had the great pleasure this week of talking to Yancy Culp,
• 0:38
  who's the co-creator and senior director
• 0:41
  at Spartan DEKA.
• 0:42
  We had a great conversation with him looking at how DEKA started; tales
• 0:45
  from the old abandoned K-Mart in a freezing Denver five years ago, as
• 0:51
  they trialed and tested and changed and altered and refined, and came up
• 0:55
  with the DEKA events that we enjoy today.
• 0:58
  We talked to him about DEKA's plans for global expansion in 2026 and beyond.
• 1:03
  What makes DEKA different and special?
• 1:06
  Jude forces Yancy to pick his ideal DEKA Fit two person team.
• 1:11
  Hope you enjoy this conversation with Yancy Culp.
• 1:14
  Uh, and just before we do so, thank you so much to our sponsors for this episode.
• 1:19
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• 1:24
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• 1:29
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• 1:33
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• 1:38
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• 1:45
  on all UK orders over 50 pounds.
• 1:48
  So thank you again to WoDLETE for your support.
• 1:52
  Now, enjoy the interview.
• 1:53
  Rock and roll boys.
• 1:54
  Let's go.
• 1:56
  So, Yancy Culp from DEKA, welcome to Hybrid Fitness Report.
• 2:00
  Thank you boys for having me on, man.
• 2:02
  I'm excited for this little, little journey we're gonna have here.
• 2:05
  Talking all things fitness, hybrid fitness, doing life
• 2:09
  together, all the fun stuff, man.
• 2:11
  Especially off listeners when they heard him speak, would
• 2:13
  just be like, what is going on?
• 2:17
  Well, also a lot of the UK people would've, uh, seen the
• 2:20
  announcement yesterday about the big Manchester event next year.
• 2:24
  Let's go.
• 2:25
  Yes.
• 2:27
  You know, my wild, crazy a ADD brain's always got 90 million things going on and
• 2:31
  pushing forward and we were very blessed to get Emily on the team and, and she's
• 2:36
  just doing a, a bang up job freaking helping us push forward with a, with a
• 2:40
  full head of steam, her and Grant and.
• 2:43
  Fran and, and, and team.
• 2:44
  So we're, we got a lot of stuff going globally, man.
• 2:48
  Do you wanna take us back to, to how DEKA started?
• 2:51
  Well, you can kind of see off my, my shoulder here.
• 2:54
  There's a, there's a death race bib.
• 2:57
  I'm about 30 hours into what turned out to be a 72 hour Spartan
• 3:01
  death race on Joe De Sena's farm in beautiful Pittsville, Vermont.
• 3:05
  And he's complete, there's about 300 of us started, and he's turning us inside out,
• 3:10
  along with his crew and we start talking business on the side of his mountain.
• 3:14
  And we've been collaborating and doing business together and, you
• 3:18
  know, working on things ever since.
• 3:20
  And I found myself at his farm in December, 2019.
• 3:25
  We were shooting some podcasts, uh, out there.
• 3:29
  And, , we started talking
• 3:30
  I said, it's crazy, when you hear this stat, but about 70, 75% of
• 3:34
  the people walking the planet have never had a gym membership.
• 3:38
  They're overweight, they're unfit, they didn't play sports growing up.
• 3:42
  Um, they're not participating in any of the common participatory sports
• 3:45
  that are available to us out there.
• 3:46
  Marathons, half marathons, triathlon Spartans, tough Mudders.
• 3:50
  Uh, I could go on and on all the things and I would even put Hyrox in that.
• 3:55
  I've done all that stuff.
• 3:56
  I love every bit of it.
• 3:57
  If you're pulling somebody off the couch, getting somebody fit, I love it.
• 4:00
  But most people are, are kinda scared to death of that kind of stuff.
• 4:03
  I said, what if we created this super low barrier of entry designed for all
• 4:08
  levels of fitness event, where if you can freaking walk and breathe, there's a damn
• 4:13
  good chance you'll cross the finish line.
• 4:14
  It'll be for those, we'll design it for those 80 percenters that have
• 4:18
  never really, 70, 80% has never really had fitness in their life.
• 4:21
  And I was kind of fingers crossed in my head, and luckily Joe being
• 4:24
  Joe, sometimes almost to a fault, he said, let's fricking do it.
• 4:28
  Let's go.
• 4:30
  And I was like, oh shit, we gotta do this thing.
• 4:32
  So next thing I know, I'm on the phone with my good friend, Jared Cogswell.
• 4:36
  He's flying up to Boston.
• 4:38
  We're in Joe's office the next day on Joe's dry erase board in, in Boston.
• 4:43
  And then a, a week or two after that we find ourselves in Denver, Colorado, where
• 4:48
  we rented an old abandoned Kmart for three plus months and we murdered the plan man.
• 4:52
  We were flying in professional CrossFit athletes and hundreds
• 4:56
  of people, a hundred pounds overweight and everybody in between.
• 4:58
  And we said, we're not leaving here until everybody's crossing the same finish
• 5:02
  line in the same arena on the same day.
• 5:05
  Using the exact same standards.
• 5:06
  Everybody can come together and celebrate the power fitness, celebrate fitness.
• 5:09
  That's something we say all the time.
• 5:11
  Um, but that's kind of the, and lemme back up one more, one more notch here.
• 5:16
  So we had our first big event happening in, in the Denver Broncos indoor training
• 5:20
  facility, pat Bowen Fieldhouse, that was gonna take place March 21st, I believe.
• 5:24
  And that was what year?
• 5:25
  That was 2020.
• 5:27
  And about a week and a half before that event.
• 5:30
  Right.
• 5:30
  COVID ripped the rug right out from under us.
• 5:33
  Yep.
• 5:33
  So we had to kind of recalibrate and we knew we wanted to
• 5:36
  do the affiliate program.
• 5:38
  Some may take this the wrong way, but we shifted and moved
• 5:41
  operations down to Florida.
• 5:43
  Florida said, we're not really participating in this COVID game.
• 5:46
  We're, we're keeping everything open.
• 5:48
  So we're in 2020 mode for three or four months, putting on events inside gyms,
• 5:53
  all up in, all up and down Florida.
• 5:55
  COVID kind of got into the rear view mirror a little bit, uh,
• 5:58
  and other gyms across the country started bolting on the affiliate
• 6:01
  program and then other countries.
• 6:03
  And fast forward to today, we've got, you know, our gyms have held
• 6:06
  about 4,500 small scale DEKA events.
• 6:09
  DEKA Strongs, DEKA Miles, DEKA Atlas, you know, the team events.
• 6:12
  That's, that's 99% of our focus, you know, to when we're talking to a gym
• 6:16
  owner, that's our true convention center.
• 6:19
  That gym that's got 50 to a hundred, 150 people coming to Celebrate Fitness.
• 6:24
  That's the true celebration for us.
• 6:26
  We, we love the big events, of course.
• 6:28
  Uh, and that's a big focus of ours.
• 6:30
  But man, anywhere from 10 to 50 events happen every weekend.
• 6:33
  And that, that's a dream come true for me.
• 6:35
  An an old guy that's been coaching fitness and, you know, for 30 plus years.
• 6:39
  Backing up to the, to the design of it, when you were coming up with it in 20
• 6:42
  19, 20 20, were you aware of this tiny little European thing called Hyrox?
• 6:47
  And if so, were you consciously differentiating yourself from it, or
• 6:51
  was it just a there's a similar thing and we are just doing our own thing?
• 6:55
  Absolutely, and I, and I, to be perfectly honest, I, I thought what
• 6:58
  they were doing was, was genius.
• 7:00
  Um, y you know, I have actually had a, a relationship with Christian and team
• 7:05
  went to the very first, uh, U US event.
• 7:08
  We had a lot of great conversations.
• 7:10
  Um, and, and they moved, they moved into a partnership with, uh.
• 7:15
  I think with Ironman.
• 7:16
  I had this wild, crazy focus.
• 7:18
  Some may think I'm a nut job, but I, I, I wanted this to be about like, you,
• 7:21
  you know, as a coach for 25, 30 years, you, you're always trying to crack the
• 7:25
  code of why such a high percentage of people in every community, mine and yours
• 7:30
  they're not taking care of themselves.
• 7:31
  It's like we, what do we do to reach that group?
• 7:34
  What do we do to crack that code?
• 7:36
  , But while also having an event that caters to the high levels where if you
• 7:40
  look at a Ryan Kent, a Rich Ryan, or a Lauren Weeks, and I could go a Tara
• 7:44
  Jackson, I could go on and on, where if they step up to a Hyrox or a DEKA start
• 7:49
  line, they're both gonna kick their ass.
• 7:51
  They're gonna get themselves turned completely inside out.
• 7:53
  But.
• 7:54
  If we pull in a thousand random people off the street and they walk into any
• 7:59
  DEKA strong DEKA mile or DEKA fit event or team events, 99% of them as they are,
• 8:05
  they're gonna cross the finish line.
• 8:06
  They're just gonna be slower, but they're all gonna earn the
• 8:09
  same medal, the same t-shirt.
• 8:10
  So that was a, so it was a very careful process of trying to pick
• 8:15
  just, you know, 10, in our case, 10 zones and the weight standards where
• 8:21
  if you can walk and breathe, there's a damn good chance you're gonna be
• 8:23
  able to cross that, that finish line.
• 8:25
  Uh, and then every now and then, you know, world championships, we'll celebrate the
• 8:28
  cyborgs DEKA cyborgs we like to call it.
• 8:29
  But it was really kind of changing the game, man.
• 8:32
  We, we wanted that sport, that globally recognized sport, truly designed for
• 8:36
  all the people that have never had their, the power of sport and fitness
• 8:39
  and testing their fitness before.
• 8:41
  So the, the cyborg in the room had a question following up from that as well.
• 8:45
  I was, I was thinking when you were talking about the why it came around, you
• 8:50
  wanted to include a whole bunch of people.
• 8:52
  Was therefore your first and primary target audience, the general population
• 8:57
  and then the elite athletes were a bonus, or was it the priority to merge the two?
• 9:02
  Or was there a preference either way and you just happened to attract elite or
• 9:06
  No, it's, it's a great question.
• 9:08
  Jude and, and, and honestly 99% of the focus was on the people that have, you
• 9:14
  know, okay, the three of us own a gym and we've got our 200 members and all
• 9:20
  of them have friends out there that tho and they've never been able to talk
• 9:23
  to those friends coming into the gym.
• 9:25
  They've just never been able to get 'em.
• 9:26
  And, and they, you know, people peer into the windows and they're scared
• 9:28
  to death of what happens in there.
• 9:29
  They see a fitness class and they're scared to death.
• 9:32
  Uh, and I understand that.
• 9:33
  I've been coaching fit.
• 9:34
  I've coached probably five, 6,000 group exercise classes.
• 9:38
  I could go to a new class tomorrow at a gym that I've never been
• 9:40
  into, and I'm gonna be nervous.
• 9:42
  We all are gonna be a little nervous, right?
• 9:44
  Mm-hmm.
• 9:44
  So there's very real, there's a very real reason.
• 9:49
  And, and so all the focus was about we gotta design it for them.
• 9:53
  And if we're very, very careful, we can have it to where the, the best
• 9:59
  of the best, the Judes of the world will still get their ass kicked.
• 10:02
  They're gonna, they're gonna be challenged and they're gonna be like, that was one
• 10:05
  of the most painful things I've ever done.
• 10:07
  But guess what?
• 10:08
  Everybody finished and all the males did exactly what Jude did.
• 10:12
  All the females did exactly what Lauren Weeks did.
• 10:15
  That was something that was, that was not an easy code to crack.
• 10:20
  It was like those three to four months in that old abandoned Kmart.
• 10:23
  We, we just, we made so many fricking changes.
• 10:27
  It's like, can you tell us, can you tell us any, the stuff
• 10:29
  that you started with, that you ended up leaving out in the end?
• 10:32
  Oh, some of it was weights, different weights.
• 10:34
  We moved around.
• 10:35
  Um, we, we wanted it to there to be some, some differentiators.
• 10:42
  You know, you could go, uh, you could go with just super simple
• 10:47
  equipment, but we wanted it to feel like you were walking into a cool gym.
• 10:51
  You know, you got the basic, the rower, the ski, the air bike, like the, the
• 10:54
  magnetic sleds for example, allowed us.
• 10:57
  I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere, Texas, where you just,
• 11:01
  you know, push, pull is just basic fitness, but you can't gamify, push pull
• 11:05
  mm-hmm with traditional sleds on 10 different surfaces, with 50 events
• 11:10
  every weekend globally, you can't.
• 11:12
  So the magnetic sleds allowed us to have this really cool,
• 11:15
  unique piece of equipment.
• 11:16
  The most gyms don't have.
• 11:18
  And allowed us to, you know, within one second, we can change
• 11:21
  resistance if in a group exercise class, the Rams, for example.
• 11:25
  You have things like the med ball situp throw and the dead
• 11:28
  ball yoker, or wall over.
• 11:30
  Okay.
• 11:30
  Those are, those are optically more appealing than just a sit
• 11:33
  up or a shoulder over, right?
• 11:35
  We're like, okay, but for the gym events, we don't wanna force, you
• 11:37
  know, Jude and Paul own a gym.
• 11:39
  We don't wanna force them to have to have a, a rebounder or a yoke or a wall.
• 11:43
  So we'll do shoulder overs and, and, and sit ups.
• 11:46
  That's why we
• 11:47
  started out with, uh, squats, um, weighted squats for zone one.
• 11:53
  Uh, and then just, you know, for, for years of coaching and teaching
• 11:56
  and doing research, the alternating reverse lunge is, you know, when
• 12:02
  you look at DEKA, here's what we do.
• 12:04
  Super basic lift carry, push, pull, kneel down, stand back up, get all
• 12:09
  the way down on the ground, stand back up, press a weight above your head.
• 12:12
  Get over a really basic obstacle in life.
• 12:14
  24 inch box by design people.
• 12:16
  I get so much grief, why is the male box the same as the female box?
• 12:20
  Why are the kids boxes ...? 'cause sometimes we gotta get over the
• 12:23
  same fricking obstacle in life.
• 12:24
  It wasn't all about, I know that sounds a little crazy, but it wasn't
• 12:27
  all about perfect scaling, right?
• 12:31
  It was like we're out in the woods and there's an obstacle.
• 12:33
  The whole damn family has to get over the obstacle y. You know what I mean?
• 12:37
  Mm-hmm.
• 12:37
  Um, so getting over a basic obstacle in life.
• 12:40
  Uh, and three rudimentary forms of transportation has been around for
• 12:43
  thousands or hundreds of years.
• 12:45
  Row ski and bike.
• 12:46
  In this case, the airbike not a single zone where you have to
• 12:50
  be taught how to do anything.
• 12:51
  It meets you where you're at right now and it's low risk of injury.
• 12:55
  But yeah, we, we went with squat for a while.
• 12:57
  We changed that to lunge 'cause what's something we do
• 12:59
  every single day of our life?
• 13:01
  You see something on the ground you gotta pick up.
• 13:03
  Naturally, one leg goes backwards, you kneel down and you stand back
• 13:07
  up from that knelt down position.
• 13:10
  Well, let's add some weight to that.
• 13:11
  It's a beautiful full body functional fitness works in balance, mobility and
• 13:15
  coordination, adds some weight to it.
• 13:18
  And, uh, so I absolutely love, it's a pain in the butt, kinda like Hyrox.
• 13:22
  You know, you look at some of our zones like lunges and wall balls and whatnot.
• 13:26
  Some of those, and Jason at Deadly would tell you the same.
• 13:28
  Some of 'em are a pain in the butt to have judging, but really and truly, and
• 13:33
  gosh, this may be taken the wrong way, but the sport aspect is so important.
• 13:39
  But ultimately, more important than that is, is it
• 13:44
  a beautiful, well-rounded functional fitness test designed
• 13:47
  for the whole damn world.
• 13:49
  If we have 3000 gyms hosting 10,000 events a year where 99% of the population is
• 13:53
  within a short drive walk or Uber ride to a gym event, and they can test their
• 13:58
  fitness and it's for everybody and it's super functional and you don't need, like,
• 14:03
  I can walk in, I could be at a gym event.
• 14:06
  I could be a hundred pounds overweight in a pair of dress slacks and business
• 14:09
  shoes and watching my wife compete at this event, and I could say I
• 14:13
  could get inspired and walk my ass over to the front counter, sign up
• 14:16
  and do it with no fitness education.
• 14:19
  That, that, that's, that was very key for us.
• 14:22
  Exactly, and that's what I noticed, especially with DEKA because of how
• 14:26
  many variations of, if you wanna call it variation DEKA, that you have nothing
• 14:30
  like, there's no, so like with DEKA and these hybrid sports, what's like, what
• 14:34
  you're mentioning is so good about them is like you don't have it with football,
• 14:37
  you don't have baseball, you don't have with any other sport other than hybrid
• 14:40
  fitness where like you said, you can take someone that hasn't exercised a day
• 14:43
  in their life and get 'em to compete.
• 14:45
  At something, people like this have never had an experience of competing.
• 14:49
  But hybrid sports creates that environment where you can compete
• 14:53
  by definition and complete a race, whereas you can't complete, you know,
• 14:57
  a set of 20 against a tennis player if you're a hundred pounds overweight
• 14:59
  and never exercised before because just the sport doesn't work like that.
• 15:03
  Whereas with hybrid fitness, when you create a race that works like yours does
• 15:07
  with the bike, the row, the ski, you're stationary and then you're running.
• 15:10
  Everyone can run or walk.
• 15:12
  People who have never competed or done something like that can find
• 15:14
  motivation through a sport like that, which I think is so cool.
• 15:17
  Yeah, you, you nailed it, man.
• 15:18
  And any good fitness coach, they're either saying this or they should be
• 15:21
  saying this, and I've said it a thousand times, is no matter who walks into the
• 15:27
  arena or to your group exercise class.
• 15:30
  We're all athletes.
• 15:31
  At a minimum, we're training for the sport of life.
• 15:34
  When you train for DEKA, you are ultimately training for the sport of life.
• 15:37
  What does that mean, Yancy?
• 15:38
  Well, I want you to wake up.
• 15:41
  Our whole DEKA team wants you to wake up when you're 40, 50, 60, 70 plus.
• 15:46
  And are you able to say yes to everything that's beautiful the rock of
• 15:49
  ours called Planet Earth provides us.
• 15:51
  If the kids say, I wanna go on an active vacation, let's say snow skiing
• 15:55
  or hiking the the canyon, are you able to say yes or do you have to say
• 15:58
  no because you're a, you're a mess.
• 16:00
  You've disrespected yourself maybe one day your grandkids.
• 16:03
  Do you, are you able to do the type of work you wanna do and
• 16:07
  could you protect yourself?
• 16:08
  Ski,
• 16:08
  stroke, again, protect.
• 16:10
  Could you fricking protect yourself and your family or
• 16:12
  your friends if you needed to?
• 16:14
  That's the sport of life.
• 16:16
  Ultimately, man, that's a non-debatable and a much larger percentage of our
• 16:22
  nation is saying no to those kind of things and, and global, probably globally
• 16:27
  than are able to say yes to those things.
• 16:28
  And that's a sad state of affairs.
• 16:31
  And you know, I say all the time, a hundred years ago, gyms weren't needed.
• 16:35
  Fitness clubs and and fitness spaces were not needed.
• 16:38
  But now they are the beacon of light and service of the world's most powerful drug
• 16:43
  fitness movement exercise that our, our communities need, man, what the, the,
• 16:47
  the work that gym owners and coaches are doing that motivate and inspire
• 16:51
  people and, and plant that drug and that, that, that addiction in the body.
• 16:55
  It's like, I gotta come to class tomorrow.
• 16:56
  Man, that just felt good, dude.
• 16:58
  That's like, that's the ultimate service industry if you ask me.
• 17:01
  Hmm.
• 17:02
  I think, yeah, just to sort of close up on that thing on on this point you know,
• 17:06
  this whole era of hybrid fitness that we're in, you know, maybe I'm in a bubble
• 17:09
  and it's not as big as I think it is, but you know, for me, every single thing on
• 17:12
  my feed 24 hours a day is hybrid fitness.
• 17:15
  It has become bigger since 2017, 2019, something like that.
• 17:18
  CrossFit was around but only since the sort of 2019 when
• 17:21
  Hyrox started getting bigger.
• 17:22
  DEKA, you know, 2019, 2020, has there been something like this
• 17:26
  where you can get everyone involved?
• 17:27
  And I don't know how it took this long, 'cause there was, I know Dad,
• 17:31
  you obviously know more about history than I do, but all it took now was
• 17:34
  this whole hybrid explosion for now kids and even adults now to really
• 17:39
  want to get into fitness because it's so accessible and it's just such a
• 17:42
  good idea to have basic functional movements paired with each other.
• 17:45
  It's, it's a thing, I think there's a trend over the last 50 years.
• 17:48
  'cause the first London marathon, for example, was only like 81,
• 17:51
  82 or 83 or something like that.
• 17:53
  And then, and you know, you've got, there's a famous picture in the
• 17:56
  Boston Marathon, uh, of, of the woman being someone tried to hoik
• 18:00
  the, a woman off the course because it was supposed be men competing.
• 18:03
  And that's, that's just a few DEKAdes ago.
• 18:05
  And then you, you start to have the rise of marathons in eighties
• 18:08
  and nineties, the advance in shoe technology, which helps massively.
• 18:11
  So, so people like me can run without crushing our joints.
• 18:15
  And then you've got half marathons and that takes you through the nineties.
• 18:18
  And then 2000 as you say, Jude, you then got CrossFit
• 18:20
  at the turn of the millennium.
• 18:22
  And it's just bringing more and more people.
• 18:24
  So the more sedentary society becomes, the more there's a, a minority that
• 18:28
  going, hang on a second, I need to do something to, to Yancy's point
• 18:31
  again of, of just trying to drag in as many people as possible.
• 18:34
  And the fact that we, as you're saying, Yancy, we, we need this kind
• 18:37
  of thing more than ever because as society, our cultures naturally don't
• 18:41
  lend itself to physical activity the way it did 50 years ago or more.
• 18:46
  Well, you hit on something that, um, we are unbelievably proud of.
• 18:50
  You.
• 18:51
  You talked about, um, God, I feel like we should do it justice
• 18:53
  and look up her name again.
• 18:54
  I can't believe, I can't remember the name, the lady that was pulled off
• 18:57
  the course, but, um, in, in the, in the US um, participatory sport ticket
• 19:05
  sales are about 65% males, 35% females.
• 19:08
  Since we launched DEKA, we are 50 to 51% females on the, on the individual
• 19:13
  side and about 60 on the teams side.
• 19:16
  And why is that?
• 19:17
  Is that for
• 19:17
  sport in general?
• 19:19
  That's for, that's for DEKA ticket sale, DEKA ticket sales,
• 19:22
  DEKA.
• 19:23
  Right.
• 19:23
  You know,
• 19:23
  so it's a dramatic shift.
• 19:24
  And I, you know, why is that?
• 19:25
  Well, as a, as a fitness business owner myself, over the years.
• 19:30
  If you're not catering to females in the fitness space, in the gym space,
• 19:33
  you're crazy because, you know, any, the average group exercise class
• 19:37
  is gonna be about 65, 70% females.
• 19:39
  Well, these, most of our events take place inside the comfort of the second home
• 19:43
  where people train, and females are really good about shouting it from the rooftops.
• 19:51
  What's happening in here is good for me, and I want you to be a part of it.
• 19:55
  They're way better than us dudes at doing that.
• 19:57
  So shout out to the females.
• 19:59
  Um, they, they'll, they'll drag their friends in for the team competitions.
• 20:03
  And on the team competition side.
• 20:05
  What what makes that great is, you know, you're able to, now somebody that's
• 20:10
  nervous about doing it by themselves can come in and you can say, well, I'll,
• 20:14
  I'll take zone six or zone whatever zone, zone three for you, and we'll
• 20:18
  divide the other nine zones together.
• 20:20
  So the teams has really been a, a, a unique, um, piece of this, but we're
• 20:24
  really, really proud of, of how.
• 20:27
  Um, we're kinda of shaking things up in that p participatory sport ticket sales.
• 20:31
  Um, and it's pretty similar at our large scale.
• 20:34
  Um, DEKA Fit events as well.
• 20:37
  That's been really apparent.
• 20:38
  Um, I think watching, watching Hyrox as well, the where a guy will try and
• 20:42
  find someone who's basically the same and goes, as long as you're basically
• 20:45
  the same as me, we will go together.
• 20:46
  Whereas a woman will say, here's my, here's my less fit friend.
• 20:49
  Hey, come with me.
• 20:49
  I'll make you feel better about yourself and we'll go do this thing together.
• 20:52
  It was, it was Katherine Switzer, 1967, uh, her boyfriend, basically, when the
• 20:57
  guy tried to pull her off the course, her boyfriend intervened and she, she was the
• 21:00
  first, she, she wrote her own bib number and she was the first official finisher
• 21:03
  the Boston Marathon, yeah.
• 21:05
  58 ago, which isn't that long.
• 21:06
  So you, for people
• 21:06
  like Paul and I, that doesn't seem too long ago, but for Jude, that probably
• 21:12
  seems like several centuries ago
• 21:18
  were 20 something when that happened.
• 21:19
  Dad.
• 21:20
  Oh, stop.
• 21:21
  Good stuff, man.
• 21:22
  Um,
• 21:23
  yeah.
• 21:23
  So I was thinking evolution of DEKA.
• 21:25
  Um, you've had it in the UK before, but the biggest event we've had in the uk more
• 21:30
  of a breakthrough than it's been before.
• 21:31
  Where do you see DEKA say in five, 10 years, say anywhere else in the world?
• 21:35
  Or are you staying where it is now?
• 21:37
  Yeah, you know, let, let's look at the, at the UK as a microcosm right now.
• 21:41
  How cool is it that Chris and team at Clitheroe had a little small scale DEKA
• 21:46
  fit at the castle, and then we have a, a large scale DEKA Fit at East Midlands
• 21:51
  at a really unique, beautiful location.
• 21:54
  And then that was cool this coming year.
• 21:56
  There's gonna be three of them.
• 21:58
  I mean, that's, that's the type of progression you want to, uh,
• 22:02
  maybe I just broke some news that you guys hadn't heard yet.
• 22:04
  I think you did.
• 22:05
  I think you just broke some news there.
• 22:06
  There's gonna be, there's, there's gonna be more than just that one you saw in, in,
• 22:10
  there's, there's the clip in Manchester.
• 22:11
  So, but I, I'll, I'll, I'll zip it at that.
• 22:13
  I get myself in trouble all the time.
• 22:15
  Um, I can hear Fran and Emily and Grant like, oh my gosh, shut him up.
• 22:21
  No, but it's, we're, but there, there's, that's, that's natural development.
• 22:25
  You, you've seen how amazing it's been in Spain.
• 22:29
  Um, Angel and team.
• 22:30
  We had, uh, you know, DEKA Fits in Australia this year.
• 22:34
  We'll have more next year.
• 22:36
  You're gonna see, I, I love our growth in Ireland with the, the stables,
• 22:41
  uh, um, team down South Dublin.
• 22:43
  Mm-hmm.
• 22:43
  And that we're starting to get more, um, affiliates in, in, in Ireland.
• 22:48
  We've got probably 15 affiliates in Spain.
• 22:51
  Now you're gonna see five to six additional countries, uh, in
• 22:55
  2026 adopt the affiliate program.
• 22:57
  Look what happened in Italy this year with, with the trifectas and,
• 23:01
  um, there's some really neat stuff happened in, in, in, in Italy.
• 23:05
  You, you've got Italian flags all over the map.
• 23:07
  I think that's a big thing.
• 23:09
  If you go to the world Championships 22, 23, 24, and now 25, you go from having
• 23:15
  just pretty much US flags and a couple others sprinkled to more and more.
• 23:18
  And now this year it just littered with probably 20 plus different flags.
• 23:21
  And we love that.
• 23:23
  That doesn't happen if you don't have gyms hosting events
• 23:27
  at
• 23:27
  the affiliate gyms and, and, and DEKA fit events.
• 23:30
  Um.
• 23:31
  Jack and I were working on some fun stats, YY you know, uh, and, and Emily
• 23:36
  and I were working behind the scenes to create some really fun gamified
• 23:39
  scoring things where you're able to pit countries and continents against
• 23:43
  each other in a really fun way.
• 23:44
  And then we all meet up and celebrate fitness together at world champs.
• 23:48
  But, but to answer your questions, Jude, really, uh, in a more precise
• 23:51
  manner, um, ultimately the goal you'll hear us talk a lot about: 3000 plus
• 23:58
  affiliates worldwide hosting over 10,000 plus DEKA Strongs, DEKA Miles,
• 24:04
  DEKA Atlas, uh, the team competitions,
• 24:07
  the Ruck competitions.
• 24:09
  Wow.
• 24:09
  Where, you know, where, thousands or tens of thousands of people are
• 24:13
  within a very short drive or even a walk to that gym event on a Saturday.
• 24:17
  And then what happens in between those of, you know, most of our gyms will
• 24:21
  host three to four events a year.
• 24:22
  So now you got three to four months of training in between those events.
• 24:25
  Well, now that training, which was ultimately one of our goals,
• 24:27
  has so much more purpose to it.
• 24:29
  You know, we're not, you'll never hear me say, let's go exercise or workout.
• 24:33
  We're gonna go train.
• 24:35
  'cause I, I've always gonna have something bolted on an event bolted
• 24:38
  onto my life that I, I know it's coming up, spend a little money and, and
• 24:42
  that's, most of those happen inside the gym and they're for all levels.
• 24:46
  So you, you, you've
• 24:46
  hinted at what, you've hinted at what you mean there, Yancy, but could you just
• 24:49
  kind of, kind of double down on that, what you mean by the, the distinction
• 24:52
  between working out and training?
• 24:54
  I think that's an important one.
• 24:56
  Yeah.
• 24:56
  So we talked about, you know, the ultimate sport of life.
• 24:58
  So one.
• 24:59
  That's kind of the, the, if anybody says I'm not an athlete, that's the one thing
• 25:03
  that allows us coaches to say, no, no, no training timeout, waving the BS flag.
• 25:07
  You are an athlete because at a minimum we need to be training for the sport of life.
• 25:11
  But when you have an actual gamified sport, DEKA and you, the gym that you
• 25:17
  go to, or, you know, I go to this gym and I bring a, a friend in and they
• 25:22
  compete in it and it's got a leaderboard.
• 25:24
  I'm getting a medal hung around my neck.
• 25:25
  I'm getting the T-shirt.
• 25:27
  Um, I, I, I can repeat the exact same thing and see my score improve my three
• 25:32
  to four months of training in between being selfish with my time, three to
• 25:35
  four days of the week I go to the class.
• 25:39
  Okay?
• 25:39
  And then I get that box checked.
• 25:41
  My coach told me when I became a member, when I first walked in here,
• 25:44
  if you'll gimme three to four days a week, gimme some of your time.
• 25:47
  Be a little selfish with your time, you're gonna get better.
• 25:50
  My first DEKA strong was 42 minutes.
• 25:52
  Two years later, I've done it four times and I'm now doing it in 19 minutes.
• 25:56
  I am an athlete.
• 25:57
  Look at my improvement going from a 42 to a 19.
• 26:01
  I use those numbers because we've seen stuff like that happen.
• 26:03
  And now you got people, they were doing it five years ago, now
• 26:05
  they're gonna be competing at world championships and they could fricking
• 26:09
  they were a hot mess back in 2021.
• 26:12
  Now they're world.
• 26:13
  It's like mm-hmm.
• 26:13
  That's
• 26:14
  a beautiful transition of, of slowly becoming a better version
• 26:18
  of yourself and, and just checking that box of, look at my time.
• 26:21
  Look how it's improved.
• 26:23
  This is a test where 35 other gyms on the same weekend did the exact
• 26:27
  same test and all these, there was a live leaderboard at my gym.
• 26:31
  And then a week later, those 35 events populated the global leaderboard.
• 26:35
  And, and in my 50 to 54 age group, did I climb?
• 26:38
  Did I drop?
• 26:39
  How much time did I improve?
• 26:41
  It's really, where do I stand globally?
• 26:43
  It's a sport.
• 26:45
  Um.
• 26:46
  So, yeah, that's, hopefully that answered your question.
• 26:49
  So are you saying that the difference between, working out
• 26:52
  and training would be intention?
• 26:55
  So then if you have the intention to improve Yeah.
• 26:58
  At an objective sport, say for example, instead of just, you know, losing 10
• 27:03
  pounds, which is a good goal in itself, you don't have to train to do that.
• 27:06
  You can just exercise.
• 27:08
  So are you saying that in order to train that the, the differentiation
• 27:11
  is the intention behind it?
• 27:13
  Yep, absolutely.
• 27:14
  So if, if we're going to a DEKA class today, one of our gyms in the uk, our
• 27:19
  great White down in Ca Cayman, um, you know, any DEKA affiliate gym and as the
• 27:26
  coach coaching the class, if we've got box step overs, the row and the air bike
• 27:31
  in there, it, this is not about looking better in a bathing suit, losing a few
• 27:36
  pounds or inches, breaking a sweat.
• 27:38
  This is about training.
• 27:39
  I tested, you know, it took me two minutes and 30 seconds to do my 25 cals.
• 27:44
  What am I gonna be able to do it this time?
• 27:47
  Okay.
• 27:47
  I pulled 27 seconds off.
• 27:49
  That stuff starts to resonate.
• 27:51
  People start to pay attention to the numbers and the stats.
• 27:53
  The people that used to not give.
• 27:55
  They could care less about the stats.
• 27:57
  The coach can able to mesh that stuff in just gradually without forcing it on 'em.
• 28:02
  And the light bulb moments come on.
• 28:04
  And so it doesn't matter if we're going to a DEKA class, a Deadly class,
• 28:07
  a Hyrox class, we're able to put some structure, or I'm seeing hell Jason's
• 28:13
  building a gym that's gonna be meshing Deadly, DEKA and Hyrox together.
• 28:17
  How cool is that?
• 28:18
  Um, all kind of similar concepts.
• 28:22
  Um, we just kind of have a little different model.
• 28:24
  Um, but yeah.
• 28:25
  Sorry
• 28:26
  that, that, that was, that was super key.
• 28:28
  What, what did you just say?
• 28:29
  Jason's building like an institute.
• 28:31
  It's amazing, man.
• 28:32
  I love that guy.
• 28:33
  Yeah.
• 28:33
  Shout outs to Jason.
• 28:34
  We have so much in common.
• 28:35
  He's building an institute that where you're gonna be able to go
• 28:38
  do DEKA classes, deadly classes, Hyrox classes, um, a mashup.
• 28:43
  Wow.
• 28:43
  Uh, and plus the guy is just a, like an exercise physiology genius up here.
• 28:47
  He can just, I, I've, as we're saying in, in the preview of the
• 28:51
  podcast, I just finished his book.
• 28:53
  I'm writing the Foreword for his book.
• 28:54
  It's amazing.
• 28:55
  Fricking stop what you're doing right now.
• 28:57
  The, the moment that book comes out, you buy it and you fricking read it.
• 29:02
  If you're a PE teacher, a health coach, um, a mom or a dad that wants to
• 29:07
  graciously push fitness on your kiddos.
• 29:10
  Anybody.
• 29:11
  Uh, a gym owner, any coach, anybody
• 29:14
  inter 1% interested in fitness.
• 29:16
  It, it's the book that you need to read over all books.
• 29:18
  So trust me in that.
• 29:19
  So shout out to to Jason, but yeah, he, he's doing a, building a, it's
• 29:23
  gonna be a brick and mortar like institute where you can go, uh, just
• 29:26
  participate in all things, uh, functional fitness, you know, hybrid fitness.
• 29:29
  Awesome.
• 29:30
  Up
• 29:30
  in
• 29:30
  Macclesfield.
• 29:32
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:33
  The home of hybrid fitness.
• 29:35
  Exactly.
• 29:35
  Wow.
• 29:35
  According, according to,
• 29:37
  according to my interview with him before.
• 29:38
  Yep.
• 29:38
  Yep.
• 29:39
  Yeah.
• 29:39
  We're working on some fun, fun stuff together.
• 29:41
  At the end of the day when you're on a, a similar mission, you could, I,
• 29:45
  I, I tell, I tell gym owners this all the time, you know, it would be real
• 29:49
  easy for like Jason and I to be butting heads or, you know, it's ultimately
• 29:54
  we're all in the same business, uh, dealing the world's most powerful
• 29:57
  drug fitness movement and exercise.
• 29:58
  We've seen it change and say even save lives.
• 30:00
  That's why we love what we do so much.
• 30:02
  , We're, we're gonna partner together in various ways and serve.
• 30:05
  You know, we, we have the opportunity to get our messaging
• 30:07
  out there and serve more.
• 30:09
  Um, and, and same with gyms.
• 30:10
  There are so many people within your three to five kilometer
• 30:13
  radius in the fitness space.
• 30:15
  You're like, you need to own that three to five kilomet, three
• 30:17
  miles to five kilometer radius.
• 30:19
  That's always gonna be where 90 plus percent of your money,
• 30:21
  your revenue comes from.
• 30:22
  So own that space.
• 30:24
  So don't look at the competitor gyms.
• 30:26
  Find a way to partner with 'em.
• 30:28
  I know that sounds crazy, but don't forget, 70 to 80% of people
• 30:32
  in every community, globally, I, I shouldn't say globally.
• 30:35
  I know in the US and several other countries, that's the stats.
• 30:37
  They've never even freaking had a gym membership that needs,
• 30:41
  that's who our focus needs to be.
• 30:43
  What do we do to get them in here to enjoy some of this fitness?
• 30:46
  Mm-hmm.
• 30:50
  Jason spoke about that, um, quite a bit when he was talking about you
• 30:53
  and also about Hyrox and saying on the one hand, yeah, of course in
• 30:56
  this one sense we are competing.
• 30:57
  But on the other hand that the greater business opportunity, as Jason was
• 31:01
  describing, and as you are describing it, and for, for Mo and Hyrox
• 31:06
  isn't other people's fitness races.
• 31:08
  It's the vast majority of people who'd be up for it but aren't doing anything yet.
• 31:12
  Yeah,
• 31:13
  yeah.
• 31:13
  They're crushing it.
• 31:14
  I mean, you know, damn good and well, at some of their locations, the high,
• 31:17
  you talk about Hyrox, there's probably seven, several thousand people that bought
• 31:21
  a ticket that are nail-biting nervous.
• 31:23
  A friend talked 'em into going, and that's a beautiful thing.
• 31:26
  And that that's, yeah, that's 1% kind of hard for me to say.
• 31:29
  But dude, fist bumps, I know firsthand.
• 31:33
  It doesn't matter how much support you have, how much money you have, we
• 31:37
  kept ours going with baling wire and duct tape, as we say, as an old Texas
• 31:41
  farmer, the budget had just a few pennies in it and we held it together.
• 31:46
  Anybody doing this?
• 31:48
  Anybody in the event space?
• 31:49
  It's hard fricking work.
• 31:51
  It is hard.
• 31:52
  It's seven days a week.
• 31:53
  It's eight days a week, 25 hours a day.
• 31:55
  It's, it's really tough.
• 31:57
  So, so props to, to all of our competition, um, it, it's
• 32:01
  a fun movement right now.
• 32:02
  It, it's, it's on us.
• 32:04
  It's on all of us.
• 32:06
  We need to do it in a way where 10 years from now, it's like,
• 32:09
  oh, that was a cool thing.
• 32:11
  No, 10 years from now, it needs to be bigger and stronger and millions
• 32:15
  of people have been touched.
• 32:16
  Mm-hmm.
• 32:17
  That's why you have to keep, you have to get up.
• 32:19
  You gotta strap on your fricking boots and you gotta go.
• 32:22
  You gotta push forward full steam ahead because if you, if you don't,
• 32:26
  shout out to our team in Europe, man.
• 32:28
  Shout out to our team in Australia.
• 32:29
  Shout out to the team in Spain.
• 32:30
  Shout out to Italy, you know, Canada, Mexico, our very first DEKA Fit is,
• 32:34
  is this in a couple weeks in Mexico?
• 32:36
  Um, shout out to everybody.
• 32:39
  Back in 2020.
• 32:41
  2019 and 20 when nobody would, oh, Joe was the only one that believed in us.
• 32:45
  Joe Joe was like, and even when COVID smacked us, you know what
• 32:49
  out of us.
• 32:50
  And we didn't have two pennies to rub together.
• 32:53
  Joe's like, I believe what you guys are doing.
• 32:55
  We're gonna find a way to keep the lights on through some
• 32:58
  really fricking rough times.
• 32:59
  And, you know, you just gotta keep putting that best foot forward and
• 33:03
  you eventually get to a place where you can take a breath, like, oh,
• 33:05
  we're making a few dollars now.
• 33:08
  And, um, you know, we can start to, we can relax a little bit and start to
• 33:12
  have a little more, more fun with this.
• 33:13
  But yeah, for if it's Hyrox or Deadly or us or anybody else in
• 33:16
  the business, just, just keep putting your best foot forward, man.
• 33:19
  And, and don't, you can't ever, you're always gonna have the naysayers
• 33:23
  and the 10 percenters slapping you around on social media and
• 33:26
  hammering on you, and you just can't.
• 33:29
  What does Joe Rogan say?
• 33:30
  You gotta 'post n ghost.' Post n ghost.
• 33:33
  Don't look at the comments.
• 33:34
  Just post and ghost,
• 33:36
  first of all.
• 33:37
  Yeah, I was gonna say, first of all, shout out to whoever this Joe Guy is.
• 33:40
  Sounds pretty awesome, but what I wanted to go a little bit into were,
• 33:45
  um, sort of the, the stations in DEKA.
• 33:48
  What was the thought process be behind sort of each one of them?
• 33:51
  And for example, why is Lunges first?
• 33:53
  Why is Devil's Press last?
• 33:54
  Stuff like that.
• 33:54
  Yes.
• 33:55
  Oh man, this was so much fun.
• 33:57
  And we, you know, I wish Jared was on the call with me.
• 33:59
  My, my, my, my brother Jared Cogswell, who I met, uh, coaching
• 34:03
  the US Army together for the US Army Boss Strong Program in 2018.
• 34:08
  Just an amazing fitness pro, uh, general manager and startup manager for
• 34:13
  Lifetime Fitness, you know, Lifetime
• 34:14
  they're, they're the industry standard in the club space.
• 34:16
  Mm-hmm.
• 34:17
  Um, he was the first person that joined the team with me.
• 34:19
  Um, and in that old abandoned Kmart multiple times, we talked about.
• 34:26
  Five, 10 years from now, if a bunch of exercise physiologists and strength
• 34:30
  coaches and just people that love fitness and they're like passionate
• 34:33
  about the science of it, we did, we wanted them to say, you know, what
• 34:37
  they did a good job with, with how if the event flows, it makes sense.
• 34:44
  It has a lot of purpose.
• 34:45
  It wasn't just spit balling.
• 34:47
  So yeah, we played with, with, with jockeying around until
• 34:50
  we felt like it made sense.
• 34:51
  For example, you look at zones one through five versus six through 10.
• 34:56
  Six through 10 are all full body.
• 35:00
  Everything's getting hit, man.
• 35:01
  Everything, you know, farmers carry looked at one of the most
• 35:05
  full body functional fitness.
• 35:06
  I mean everything is getting taxed.
• 35:08
  Seven, slapping the crap out of you.
• 35:10
  Chest, tris, back, thighs, legs, core.. Um, there.
• 35:14
  Anaerobic, aerobic system, everything, depending on how you attack it.
• 35:17
  So zone six is the farmer's carry a hundred meters zone 7: 25 cals
• 35:22
  on the, on the you know, aka the murder bike, Satan's chair.
• 35:25
  It's got all the crazy names.
• 35:28
  It would've been very easy for me to put that zone one, right.
• 35:32
  That would not have made any sense.
• 35:34
  It wouldn't have made any sense.
• 35:35
  I wanted it to be like a warmup, you know,
• 35:39
  the dark alley beat down is coming.
• 35:41
  I'm about to go into the dark alley and I see some eyes in there and
• 35:44
  they're about ready to, I gotta fight through that dark alley.
• 35:46
  There's a faint light at the end of the tunnel.
• 35:49
  6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 is that dark alley beat down, you know, zone eight.
• 35:53
  The dead ball shoulder overs or the yoker wall over it.
• 35:56
  You're lifting up a heavy weight by, and by this time it's, and you
• 35:59
  look at anything like zone eight, for example, put it zone one or two.
• 36:02
  It's not that hard, but you've had your ass kicked, man, and now you're
• 36:07
  on zone eight and you're lifting up a heavy, it's a good functional lift.
• 36:10
  You have to have good mobility, not a crazy heavyweight.
• 36:13
  You gotta get it up over that shoulder.
• 36:15
  It's like going to the old, going to the farm where Yancy grew up on.
• 36:18
  We're gonna just do some farm work again.
• 36:20
  If I brought a friend in from the city in, and he goes to the work on
• 36:24
  the farm with me, I'm not gonna have to teach him how to do anything.
• 36:27
  I might be a little more efficient at these lifts and work than
• 36:31
  him, but he's gonna get more efficient as the day goes on.
• 36:35
  So, and then we move on to the 100 meters of push pull with
• 36:38
  the magnetic sled, you know?
• 36:41
  Um, true full body.
• 36:43
  True full body.
• 36:45
  I love how the push and the pulls incorporate into the same zone.
• 36:49
  And then burpees, there's a special story to burpees.
• 36:52
  Joe has always said that the burpee is the greatest exer exercise on planet Earth.
• 36:59
  I, you know, I, again, I call training.
• 37:00
  Do you
• 37:00
  hate anyone over six foot?
• 37:03
  You hate all of us over six feet tall.
• 37:05
  Well, well, here's the deal, man.
• 37:07
  From an exercise physiology perspective, let's talk about why
• 37:09
  the burpee by itself leaves out
• 37:12
  it's not the greatest, but when we we add the weight.
• 37:15
  Well now we're pulling weight from the ground.
• 37:19
  We're transitioning that weight almost to like a clean, it could be a fluid snatch.
• 37:24
  Okay, so now we're getting some overhead press.
• 37:26
  So we're getting the deltoids overhead press in there.
• 37:29
  So the argument could be, show me why the weighted burpee is
• 37:32
  one of the greatest exercises on planet earth training movements.
• 37:37
  You could say, well, every joint is used, every muscle group is used, and
• 37:42
  it, it takes you on that dark alley beat down and perfect in zone 10 when,
• 37:47
  so it doesn't matter how good of a race you've had, it could all fall apart.
• 37:52
  And, and I've seen it completely fall apart in zone 10, where somebody comes
• 37:56
  in 15 seconds ahead and they lose 30 seconds and lose the race by 15 seconds
• 38:02
  because they haven't trained it.
• 38:04
  And it's like the, it takes your, they suck so bad, it just so terrible.
• 38:10
  So Jude asked a question.
• 38:12
  Can you tell us about the, the reasoning for the order of the stations?
• 38:15
  And, and just to summarize the reasoning for the order of the
• 38:17
  stations is you're a complete sadist.
• 38:19
  Is that, is that fair?
• 38:21
  Well, going back to, and I've kind of sprinkled in a little bit, but
• 38:24
  one through five are a warmup, right?
• 38:26
  We're doing, we're doing a basic, so, so the order, the, let's, let's take yancey's
• 38:30
  ADD brain and really answer your question.
• 38:32
  Zone one, we're gonna do an alternating reverse lunge it.
• 38:38
  Go to take it, you dropped something at the house, or you need to reach down
• 38:42
  and pick up your, your, your 1-year-old toddler, you're gonna kneel down, okay?
• 38:47
  You're gonna, you're gonna have the burden of the weight and you're
• 38:50
  gonna stand up out of that lunge.
• 38:52
  It is something we've been doing our whole freaking life.
• 38:55
  It is the most basic functional movement.
• 38:58
  I need to be able to get that knee down behind me so I can get down low in a
• 39:01
  functional manner and I'm gonna alternate.
• 39:03
  But when, when, when you were one, I didn't bend down.
• 39:05
  I just grabbed your shirt and yoinked you up with my hand.
• 39:08
  So that was, that was different, but yeah.
• 39:09
  Well, sure.
• 39:10
  That's why didn't
• 39:10
  create DEKA station one.
• 39:11
  That's why Yancy did that.
• 39:14
  Well, if Jude was laying on the ground right now and I had to pick his ass
• 39:16
  up, he's a, he's a little bigger now.
• 39:19
  What do you, what are you saying?
• 39:22
  Hey, he's, what, what, what, what'd you run?
• 39:24
  A 33 minute.
• 39:25
  What was your DEKA Fit time Jude 33.
• 39:28
  Uh, just over
• 39:29
  32.
• 39:30
  32. Yeah.
• 39:30
  He's, that's fast.
• 39:32
  You know, you, you do a sub 36 and you're, you're, you're a badass.
• 39:36
  So that's a very fast time.
• 39:39
  We'll see Jude at World Championships this year.
• 39:41
  Um, yeah.
• 39:41
  Way that's definitely not getting over by the 32
• 39:43
  mark.
• 39:44
  Thank you.
• 39:44
  Um, and then rowing, you know, rowing, um, just a good
• 39:48
  traditional movement that's, um.
• 39:52
  Now we're, we're sitting down good functional movement, but
• 39:55
  it's not really full body.
• 39:58
  So you're getting some legs and some pull.
• 40:00
  Um, and it's, it's something you can work on to get more efficient at the box.
• 40:04
  Step overs, we're, we're going back to legs.
• 40:06
  Uh, we're working in some balance and coordination.
• 40:09
  You know, the, one of the things I love the most about three is
• 40:12
  I caught so much fricking grief.
• 40:14
  Oh, for like two years I caught so much grief because people were like, they're
• 40:17
  so used to having cross on the brain.
• 40:19
  And when you jump up and over the box and that's what you do,
• 40:22
  it's like, well, I wanted 99% of the world to be able to do it.
• 40:27
  And ultimately I knew because we were testing a thousand plus
• 40:31
  people, the old abandoned Kmart in 2020, I knew that most people were
• 40:34
  gonna, once step over was allowed.
• 40:37
  It was a more functional movement.
• 40:38
  We weren't gonna have people bleeding all over the place and
• 40:40
  falling and breaking things.
• 40:42
  And it requires amazing hip, hip mobility.
• 40:47
  Balance and coordination.
• 40:48
  You look, you look at times now with people that started doing it in
• 40:51
  20, 21, 22 and how fluid they are.
• 40:55
  Zone three alone has turned people into better athletes.
• 40:59
  They have better athleticism because of that one specific zone.
• 41:03
  You get some nice transverse movement with the rotation of the body as
• 41:07
  you're coming up and outta that box.
• 41:08
  I love that.
• 41:09
  I would say now 99% of people step up and over it.
• 41:12
  It's more efficient, saves more energy, and it just, it's so fun to
• 41:14
  watch people be athletic on that.
• 41:16
  Um, so we, that's the first one we work in balance and
• 41:19
  coordination, the med ball setup
• 41:21
  with, with that one.
• 41:21
  Mm-hmm.
• 41:22
  Sorry.
• 41:22
  With the, with the station three.
• 41:23
  The reason I like that so much is something like a rower.
• 41:27
  You can have a really efficient technique, be the same fitness level
• 41:30
  as someone and only beat them off a 500 meter row by two, two seconds maybe.
• 41:35
  You know, if you have really efficient technique, but if you
• 41:37
  have really efficient technique on a, on a box, step over on the same
• 41:41
  fitness as someone who doesn't.
• 41:42
  Either you smoke them mm-hmm.
• 41:44
  Or you come off at the same time and they've wasted so much
• 41:46
  energy, their next run is awful.
• 41:47
  So true.
• 41:48
  So I think that one, in terms of skill is so key because you can have, you
• 41:52
  can be so much less fit than person A, but if you have better technique, you
• 41:56
  will be so much better on that, more so than almost any other station, I think.
• 41:59
  Yeah, it's a great, it's a great point, man, and it really goes back to
• 42:02
  that story of going back to the farm.
• 42:05
  You know, by the time I, you know, my high school years, I was very
• 42:09
  efficient at working on the farm.
• 42:11
  I got very efficient at using my body to work on the farm.
• 42:14
  People are getting very efficient at getting through those, those zones.
• 42:19
  And that's a beautiful thing to, to watch, uh, seeing people get faster and, and
• 42:24
  come off and, and watching their heart rate and coming off of two and three,
• 42:28
  just like you said, with a really, you know, may, maybe their zone three, two
• 42:32
  time and zone three time is the same.
• 42:34
  It was two years ago, but now their runtime after is 10 seconds faster.
• 42:39
  'cause they got outta that zone with a lower heart rate, zone four.
• 42:42
  I really wanted to tax the core early in the event because you know that
• 42:49
  nothing slaps your running ability around like, you know, a taxed core.
• 42:54
  But so with the situps, you know, DEKA Fit may be slightly more than Strong
• 42:58
  and Mile, but you're using your arms and your core and it was, so one of
• 43:04
  the things I heard often we would interview people after we were, we,
• 43:07
  Jared and I would test them almost every night at the old abandoned Kmart.
• 43:09
  And they're like you.
• 43:10
  The number one question we almost ask is like, what zone?
• 43:14
  Did, did you feel affected on, on the run the most?
• 43:17
  And a lot of people said after zone four, and it made a perfect sense because I
• 43:21
  hit my core and my arms and I just felt lethargic in that when you tax the core
• 43:26
  man, the running form can fall apart.
• 43:27
  So, um, people, you train your core, you get better, it doesn't tax you as much.
• 43:32
  You running gets better after zone four.
• 43:33
  So it's the first one that really hits the core.
• 43:37
  And, and the arms at the same time.
• 43:39
  Zone five, we're getting that big pull.
• 43:43
  And in a sneaky fashion you did that crunch movement in zone four
• 43:48
  and you get that crunch pull.
• 43:50
  So really we hit the core back to back.
• 43:53
  So you hear a lot of people talking on the ski erg.
• 43:55
  Yeah, the ski.
• 43:56
  Uh, and again, another just like the row, another one where you
• 43:59
  get more and more efficient at it.
• 44:01
  But the ski, I would argue as much or more than the row, um, is just such a
• 44:08
  phenomenal movement one, you're getting, you're getting, you're getting up nice
• 44:12
  and high, so you, you, you really activate the lats that, that crunching motion.
• 44:17
  Um, there's so much.
• 44:19
  Ski is one of those where you'll have maybe the best ski you've ever
• 44:23
  had, but you'll never watch a ski and say That was the perfect ski.
• 44:27
  You'd have to manage it and do the best you can.
• 44:30
  Your form falls apart a little bit.
• 44:32
  You have to get refocused, you know, you'll watch people like, kind
• 44:35
  of have a rollercoaster ride of, of, of mechanics on, on the ski.
• 44:40
  It, it's just a fun one to watch.
• 44:42
  Um, really.
• 44:43
  Uh, and then we get into zone six where it's the first one where I would say
• 44:47
  it's truly full body, uh, and then 7, 8, 9, and 10 are all full body.
• 44:51
  So I don't wanna say that five, one through five was designed to
• 44:55
  be a really good functional warmup.
• 44:57
  But, but that's, I do find myself using that a lot for the, over the past six
• 45:01
  years as kind of the, the reasoning.
• 45:04
  I'll tell you a fun story on zone four, you know, the old abandoned Kmart,
• 45:09
  everybody's like, Yancy, Why didn't you just go easy, make everything, 30 reps
• 45:13
  or everything, 20 reps. It's like, well that's not, if you're, if you're really
• 45:16
  trying to make, make it make sense.
• 45:18
  That's not how you design something just perfect numbers.
• 45:23
  You design your rep and your weight count around exactly what's happened internally
• 45:28
  in the body, mentally and physically to the person when they're testing it.
• 45:33
  That's,
• 45:34
  so we rely,
• 45:36
  go ahead.
• 45:36
  That, that's what I'm saying.
• 45:37
  It's, it's whether your priority is to optimize, you know,
• 45:39
  biologically an optimal race or if you want to just make it easy.
• 45:43
  And obviously I think, you know, way more prefer the whole biological preference in
• 45:48
  terms of prioritization instead of just making it easy to, to, to, to think about.
• 45:51
  So I like that.
• 45:52
  So, you know, why it landed at 25 is that's interviewing
• 45:55
  hundreds of people and doing it on doing it multiple times a week.
• 45:59
  Myself and Jared, and we were.
• 46:02
  Gosh.
• 46:02
  And it was like, it's, it's, we're gonna catch grief from
• 46:04
  this, but it needs to be 25.
• 46:06
  It 25 was perfect and 30 felt like, it's like, oh man, 20 just
• 46:10
  didn't feel like quite enough.
• 46:11
  So it's, it's that one weird number because of all those interviews and
• 46:15
  all that testing it, that's why it was 25, because from a physiological
• 46:20
  perspective, it felt right.
• 46:23
  So,
• 46:24
  so a lot of trial and error and a lot of thought went into not only the order, but
• 46:27
  also the reps of each station as well.
• 46:30
  Mm-hmm.
• 46:30
  Mm-hmm.
• 46:31
  Oh, and the weights, man.
• 46:32
  The weights, my gosh, we tried so many weights and I, and you look back on
• 46:37
  it, uh, and it's like, I really feel like we, we got very close to just,
• 46:42
  to just nailing it because the three of us could, we could, we could roam
• 46:45
  the streets and find as many a hundred pound overweight people they could find
• 46:48
  that don't have fitness in their life.
• 46:50
  Bring them in and.
• 46:53
  Maybe with a little bit of lifting mechanics work, but no matter what, 99%
• 46:58
  of those 1000 people we're gonna get 'em through every zone with that exact weight.
• 47:03
  Mm. But Jude can run a 33, and that exact weight is gonna feel heavy to
• 47:08
  him because he's, his heart rate's at about 1 60, 1 70, and he, and he's
• 47:12
  taxed and he's, he's hit it really hard.
• 47:14
  So, yeah, that 60 pound weight doesn't ever feel easy on zone eight.
• 47:20
  That weighted burpee doesn't ever feel easy.
• 47:23
  That 20 pound med ball always taxes your core.
• 47:27
  That 60 pound.
• 47:28
  Yeah.
• 47:28
  Jude's running with that 60 pounds in each hand on the farmer's carry, but it
• 47:33
  still feels heavy because he's running with the weight, you know, his heart
• 47:37
  rate's spiking and his grip, so the, the blood is stomping all over the body.
• 47:41
  So the grip feels, it almost feels like he's carrying 90 pounds because
• 47:45
  he's going this real fast pace.
• 47:47
  But most people, most males can deadlift 120 pounds and most
• 47:51
  females can deadlift 80 pounds.
• 47:53
  If you can deadlift that weight, guess what?
• 47:56
  You can do zone six.
• 47:57
  If you can simply do the deadlift, you may have to place
• 48:00
  it down and rest multiple times.
• 48:02
  So that was, you know, it was, oh man, it was, it was like going to the lab and
• 48:07
  I'm, so we could have really half-assed it, but without the lab, there's no way.
• 48:12
  I mean, it was a true three months of, of testing.
• 48:15
  It was in the middle of Denver, Colorado in the wintertime with leaky roofs,
• 48:20
  snow melting during the day and water dripping in, and us mopping up water.
• 48:24
  And people come in as like, this is, you sure this place is safe?
• 48:26
  That was the lab dude.
• 48:28
  That was the lab.
• 48:30
  Does that abandoned Kmart still exist?
• 48:33
  They tore it down.
• 48:34
  I had an old affiliate call me.
• 48:36
  We were on a call, an affiliate call a while back, and he's like,
• 48:38
  Yancy, they tore down the old lab.
• 48:41
  No.
• 48:42
  Yeah.
• 48:42
  Good memories.
• 48:43
  Need to get a, need a special plaque put up there, man.
• 48:46
  I check this out.
• 48:47
  We had, we had probably 10, 15 high level CrossFit games athletes come and
• 48:53
  test it and they were props to them.
• 48:56
  I mean, you look around and it was bad.
• 48:59
  And then the zones were set up, but they came in and tested, um, re uh, fit Aid.
• 49:03
  Fit Aid, brought 'em in, shout out to Fit Aid back in the day.
• 49:05
  They brought 'em in and we had a, we had a amazing couple days of, of testing.
• 49:10
  With, with the CrossFit and that, that's
• 49:11
  what definitely, I think that's what's cool is that, you know, like you said,
• 49:15
  the majority of people in the world can do the weights that are selected in DEKA
• 49:20
  and if your intensity is appropriate, even elite athletes at some point,
• 49:24
  despite their top end strength being way heavier than the actual weight, if their
• 49:28
  intensity, if their fatigue is at a point in which they're pushing themselves,
• 49:31
  it can feel heavy for them too.
• 49:33
  Like they're lifting 120 pounds, like for the majority of the elite athletes mm-hmm.
• 49:37
  Is not difficult.
• 49:38
  But, you know, in station six, after, you know, already 15 minutes of being in zone
• 49:43
  five with your heart rate, um, it's gonna feel heavy or it's gonna feel challenging
• 49:47
  to run with or something like that.
• 49:49
  Yeah.
• 49:49
  How, how cool to, to that, to that point?
• 49:53
  How fricking cool is it that I have seen, we've seen so many, like five,
• 50:00
  10 K, 15 K runners, half marathoners.
• 50:02
  They're amazing runners.
• 50:03
  Well, like what's this whole hybrid thing going on?
• 50:05
  Well, they come in, they get their ass handed to 'em for a while.
• 50:09
  They, their running looks good for the first couple runs and then their, their
• 50:12
  500 meter runs drop off dramatically.
• 50:15
  You know, the hybrid athletes crushing this 1430 5K guy or 16 flat 5K female
• 50:26
  who's getting crushed by the person that's an 18 minute 5K and 19 minute 5K.
• 50:31
  And then that person decides like, wait a second, I like this sport.
• 50:35
  Lemme go to the gym.
• 50:36
  Lemme start training.
• 50:37
  So now they put on 10 pounds of lean mass.
• 50:41
  Well, now we've got people that, I would argue that if all you're doing
• 50:45
  your whole life is running that, okay, you're gonna wake up at, you know, let's
• 50:50
  say you get injured or something, and you're coming in from a, a tough injury,
• 50:53
  and you, you have to stop running.
• 50:55
  What am I gonna do?
• 50:57
  Well, now you wake up and you're 60 and all you've been doing is
• 50:59
  running that, Hey, I'm not shout, I'm not hitting on the runners.
• 51:02
  I, I'm a runner myself, but I would argue that you're gonna have a higher
• 51:07
  quality of life because of that five, 10 year training cycle you did getting
• 51:12
  ready for the hybrid space, and you fell in love with it, and you kept the
• 51:15
  hybrid, you kept that hybrid engine going, and you like, I kinda like the
• 51:19
  way I look in the, in, I'll see myself in the mirror and I'm, I'm strong.
• 51:24
  Anaerobically aerobically.
• 51:25
  I have good strength.
• 51:27
  I'm well-rounded.
• 51:28
  There's a, I think it's a non debatable.
• 51:30
  If, if you're, if you're really, if you're really a really good Deadly,
• 51:33
  DEKA or Hyrox athlete are, are all three, you are a better, well-rounded
• 51:38
  athlete than just a runner, you know, or even just a track athlete.
• 51:42
  Again, no shade to the runners and the triathletes, but do all of it.
• 51:45
  But I'm telling you right now, which one is which sport, what new sport
• 51:50
  is training you to really enjoy the second half of your life and
• 51:53
  be ready to say yes to everything.
• 51:55
  This beautiful rock of ours is called Planet Earth.
• 51:56
  Like I said, be ready to say yes.
• 51:58
  The hybrid space man, the hybrid training athlete is, is, is, is gonna,
• 52:03
  is gonna really just, it's a good, well-rounded body of fitness, man.
• 52:09
  And that's the thing to all the runners out there like, like an said, we're
• 52:11
  not trying to make you hybrid athletes.
• 52:13
  You run, you run.
• 52:15
  But at the same time, if you asked Kipchoge, or you asked Noah Lyles.
• 52:19
  Is the only thing you do run?
• 52:20
  No.
• 52:20
  You see clips of Kipchoge, you see clips of Lyles in the gym.
• 52:23
  Deadlifting, Bulgarian, split squatting, unilateral strength.
• 52:26
  Working one side of the body at a time is so important.
• 52:30
  Not just that you're, you know, life quality like as
• 52:33
  you said, improves later on.
• 52:34
  But also just because it makes you better at running, makes you better
• 52:37
  at sport, makes you less liable to get, less likely to get injured.
• 52:41
  Strength training has so many benefits.
• 52:43
  You don't have to convert from being a runner to a hybrid athlete,
• 52:45
  you know, do what you wanna do.
• 52:47
  But to get better at that, you need to do, you know, a bit of strength
• 52:49
  training, get yourself a little bit stronger as well to that point.
• 52:52
  That's good.
• 52:53
  Set me straight.
• 52:53
  That
• 52:53
  was a great point.
• 52:54
  Dude.
• 52:54
  Go ahead.
• 52:56
  You know, you, you, you nailed it.
• 52:58
  I mean, and when you look at our team's competition, let's say you are, that I, I
• 53:02
  mean, I would love to see like a kipchoge come in and partner with like a crush the
• 53:08
  way we designed our team competitions.
• 53:11
  Mm-hmm.
• 53:11
  You know, I wanted it to be insanely fast.
• 53:13
  If you look at our two person teams and our four person teams.
• 53:17
  Jude could partner with the best runner in the uk, male or female, and
• 53:22
  she could do, he or she could do most of the running, and Jude could do
• 53:25
  all the zone, most of the zone work.
• 53:27
  Or you could have, you could partner with Ryan Kent and you guys would
• 53:30
  have, like, you divide it all up.
• 53:32
  But we, I love the fact that you can have an Olympic, like literally
• 53:35
  Olympic level runner come in.
• 53:37
  So the first and the last runs have to be done together, but that the middle eight
• 53:40
  runs that Olympic level runner or that local badass that can drop a 15 minute 5K.
• 53:46
  He or she can do the entire, those entire eight, five hundreds by themselves.
• 53:50
  And when you see that happen, dude, it's insane to watch in the arena.
• 53:54
  They're dropping like three 20 mile pace at 500 meter repeats and
• 53:59
  it's electric to, to, to watch.
• 54:02
  So, uh, full person.
• 54:03
  So if we, if we could,
• 54:04
  if we could fix up a Kipchoge and Roman Khrennikov duo.
• 54:08
  That
• 54:09
  would
• 54:09
  be pretty special
• 54:10
  then.
• 54:10
  I was, I was gonna say you related to that.
• 54:12
  Related to that, sorry, Yancy.
• 54:14
  Yep.
• 54:14
  If you could make your DEKA Fit Dream Team, Ryan Kent, Eliud Kipchoge, Noah
• 54:20
  Lyles, two people to do a DEKA team event.
• 54:23
  Who in the world would be the best male in female duo, do you think?
• 54:27
  Oh, man.
• 54:28
  Um, well, obviously there, there all the stats show us that it is so close.
• 54:35
  We've seen the, you know, the, the, the Rich Ryans and the Ryan Kents partner
• 54:40
  together, you know, the Rich Ryans and the Bridget Browns and the Lauren
• 54:44
  Weeks with the, where they're like just the, the, the perfect balance of
• 54:48
  running and, and strength in zone work.
• 54:51
  Um, and then you, we've seen Olympic level athletes partner with that badass
• 54:56
  zone person, like a Kevin Gregory.
• 54:59
  Think of a Kevin Gregory type that can just, you know, DEKA Strong
• 55:02
  world champion to his resume.
• 55:04
  Um, it's so close.
• 55:06
  You literally don't know.
• 55:08
  I mean, it's gonna be within seconds.
• 55:11
  So let, let, let's create the perfect, team on a female side.
• 55:15
  You, you'd have like a, a, let's say a Lauren Weeks and a Lauren
• 55:18
  Griffiths, something like that.
• 55:20
  On the male side, you'd have like a, you know, a, a Hunter and a
• 55:24
  Ryan or a, or any of the top 10 DEKA and Hyrox athletes out there.
• 55:29
  You put them together.
• 55:30
  Rich Ryan, um, Dylan, Dylan Scott, who can do it all.
• 55:34
  But then on the other side, you take that Olympic, I would take an Olympic
• 55:39
  1500 meter champion, male or female, and for the male or female, and then you
• 55:44
  put 'em with a true CrossFit athlete.
• 55:48
  But even more important, like Lauren Weeks, who's a, a lot of people don't
• 55:51
  realize she was a very high level CrossFit games bubble athlete who Yeah
• 55:57
  decided to get into the, the high, the, the, the Spartan space, the
• 56:00
  hybrid space, the TMX space and, and is still a great CrossFit athlete.
• 56:04
  She's gonna move better and DEKA zones and Hyrox zones and still has that CrossFit
• 56:09
  engine and, and strength capacity.
• 56:12
  So you put Lauren Weeks with that insane, uh, runner and, and I don't know
• 56:18
  man, I, I, I, what we've seen is that when that runner, that Olympic level
• 56:24
  runner has to do the, the entire 500, they're about the same pace as like
• 56:30
  a Rich Ryan and a Ryan Kent dividing it up and also dividing the work.
• 56:35
  So Rich Ryan and Ryan Kent dividing the work or a Lauren
• 56:39
  and a Lauren dividing the work.
• 56:40
  It's gonna end up being as fast, maybe faster than that CrossFit athlete
• 56:44
  that's doing a hundred percent of the row, or a hundred percent of
• 56:46
  the ski, or a hundred percent of the sled push or the shoulder over.
• 56:50
  So it's such a balance, man.
• 56:52
  I mean, I, we've, uh, it naturally happens a lot.
• 56:56
  You know, you'll see the world championships, the different
• 56:57
  type of teams, and now with four person teams in three different
• 57:01
  ways to divide up the running.
• 57:03
  You know, we've had a lot of fun testing that out.
• 57:05
  Two years from now when that's really taking over as like
• 57:08
  a, a neat piece of DEKA.
• 57:09
  We're gonna have all of our US events, uh, in 26.
• 57:13
  It's just, I love the concept so, so much.
• 57:15
  It was so fun to work on that and, and plan and scheme and, and, and test.
• 57:19
  So really excited about, uh, you guys running some four person teams
• 57:22
  Jude in 26.
• 57:25
  That'll be sick.
• 57:26
  I'm looking forward to that.
• 57:27
  So then if I was, if I was to then put you on the spot, like you said,
• 57:30
  so you have team A, you have Rich Ryan, and let's say Ryan Kent k that's
• 57:35
  team A, and then you have Team B, which let's say coming off the back
• 57:39
  of the Lifetime Games is Noah Olsen.
• 57:41
  And let's say Yared Nuguse or Cole Hocker Team A or team B
• 57:45
  who are you taking to win DEKA
• 57:46
  team?
• 57:46
  Oh my gosh.
• 57:48
  You said Roman.
• 57:49
  Roman and Cole Hocker.
• 57:52
  Uh, Noah Olsen or Roman and Hocker.
• 57:54
  Noah.
• 57:55
  Yeah,
• 57:55
  Noah.
• 57:56
  Noah would be a good one.
• 57:57
  'cause Noah does move well.
• 57:59
  Um,
• 57:59
  he does,
• 58:00
  Cole Hocker would freaking.
• 58:02
  Watching him.
• 58:03
  Oh, and, and who was my, mm-hmm.
• 58:05
  Who was my, who was on the other.
• 58:06
  But you're
• 58:06
  also bearing in mind Rich, rich Ryan and Ryan Kent, obviously
• 58:11
  they've got the experience.
• 58:12
  They're more efficient at DEKA than both obviously I don't know,
• 58:15
  y Yared Nagoose, and Roman or Noah Olsen, I'm telling versus them.
• 58:19
  Hopefully we can create some controversy here.
• 58:21
  If I'm going to Vegas, and I have to bet on this, I'm putting my money on Rich
• 58:25
  and, and Kent Rich Ryan and Ryan Kent.
• 58:27
  There you go.
• 58:28
  I'm gonna put my money on 'em every time.
• 58:31
  Um, just because I, because of the way they've been training Now, if I had a
• 58:37
  chance to train Cole and Noah for like a three month meso cycle of training
• 58:43
  Yeah.
• 58:43
  You get three months.
• 58:44
  If I could have three months with that team, and Rich and, and Ryan are
• 58:49
  over doing whatever they want, I might shift the way I bet in Vegas because
• 58:53
  I'm gonna, we're gonna be able to plan and scheme and there's, it is so funny
• 58:57
  watching people at the start line.
• 58:59
  They've got their sharpie notes on their forearm of how we're dividing stuff up.
• 59:04
  They've got their quarterback sleeves You ever seen like a
• 59:06
  Tom Brady quarterback sleeve?
• 59:07
  So he is how he's got his,
• 59:08
  yeah.
• 59:08
  Yeah.
• 59:08
  They've got those on their arms and it's like.
• 59:11
  Sometimes, like Mike Tyson says, you get punched right in the face and our
• 59:14
  plan goes right out the damn door.
• 59:16
  And, but sometimes you stick with it.
• 59:18
  Nick Riker and I ran a 26 together, still a real, one of the probably
• 59:22
  top 20 fastest times ever.
• 59:24
  We had a great plan.
• 59:25
  Wow.
• 59:25
  Put together a great plan and, and we stuck with the plan.
• 59:28
  Um, so there's a lot, a lot of factors.
• 59:31
  But I would love, man, I would love to have three months with Cole
• 59:33
  Hocker and Noah Olsen training 'em for a DEKA Fit, two person teams.
• 59:37
  Man, that would be fun.
• 59:38
  I'll
• 59:38
  let him know.
• 59:39
  I'll let him know.
• 59:40
  Do
• 59:40
  that.
• 59:41
  That is a great Tyson quote though, EV everyone has a great plan until
• 59:44
  they get punched in the face.
• 59:45
  So it was, it was a caveated answer then to, to Jude's
• 59:49
  ultimate controversial question.
• 59:50
  So it's, it's, it's, you're Rich and Ryan now, but given three months under the,
• 59:54
  under the Culp tutelage, uh, and your CrossFit and your runner guy are winning,
• 59:59
  shout
• 59:59
  out RMR Yancy's got faith in you.
• 1:00:02
  Wow.
• 1:00:02
  Rich and Rich and Ryan, right now.
• 1:00:05
  You know, their improvements and, and I think they would both agree with it.
• 1:00:09
  Their improvements are very tiny.
• 1:00:11
  You're buying mini like microseconds here and there.
• 1:00:16
  You could see some dramatic improvement from, from Cole and Noah.
• 1:00:20
  But if the races happened Saturday, I think Noah and Cole are gonna
• 1:00:24
  get their ass handed to him.
• 1:00:26
  But I mean also,
• 1:00:27
  would you, would you say that Cole has a huge room for improvement because
• 1:00:31
  his, his part in the DEKA teams event would be exactly what he does now?
• 1:00:37
  Yes.
• 1:00:37
  And that's what we hope to see as Hyrox and DEKA continue to grow and
• 1:00:41
  deadly and they continue to grow.
• 1:00:43
  There are naturally going to be, it might not be a Nagoose or Cole Hocker level.
• 1:00:49
  But imagine the D1 athlete that was like 1% behind them.
• 1:00:53
  That's now just the lawyer, you know, their corporate employee and they're
• 1:00:57
  like, I get a second lease on life.
• 1:00:59
  Yeah.
• 1:00:59
  I I used to run a 1328 5K, or, you know, or a 3 40, 1500 meter.
• 1:01:09
  Okay.
• 1:01:09
  3 35, 1500 meter.
• 1:01:11
  And now I decided to train for a couple years for hybrid and he's, he or she is
• 1:01:16
  10 pounds bigger than they used to be.
• 1:01:19
  That's gonna be a very dangerous athlete.
• 1:01:21
  Very, very, because they're gonna get really good and efficient.
• 1:01:25
  Yeah.
• 1:01:25
  They may never be pulling, you know, a 1 35 in a row, but with
• 1:01:30
  a good coach, they're gonna get really efficient on all the things.
• 1:01:34
  And boy that, that fricking 3 35 and 1330 running engine, that's, that you
• 1:01:40
  don't, that's, that's some, you just don't wake up and make that happen.
• 1:01:43
  That's some genetic amazing genetic ability.
• 1:01:46
  You've seen a lot of former college level runners that just
• 1:01:49
  get a second lease on life.
• 1:01:50
  And now they're, they, they get a new sport in their thirties and forties.
• 1:01:53
  I love these conversations, man.
• 1:01:54
  It's fun stuff.
• 1:01:56
  Fun stuff.
• 1:01:57
  As,
• 1:01:57
  as we close it up, uh, something I asked Jason that I'll try and ask
• 1:02:01
  everyone, everyone that we get on that, that represents or, or runs
• 1:02:04
  a a different sport is what do you think separates DEKA from the rest?
• 1:02:08
  So, so on the one hand, you and Jason and Mo and, and everyone else are going,
• 1:02:12
  Hey guys, just, just do all of these things and you're better off trying
• 1:02:16
  multiple hybrid races rather than just doing one all your life anyway.
• 1:02:19
  Yeah.
• 1:02:20
  Um, but if someone's to say, okay, I'm actually quite content, content
• 1:02:23
  doing these things over here, uh, what would you say Yancy is the, is the
• 1:02:26
  differentiator that, that makes DEKA the greatest hybrid fitness sport?
• 1:02:31
  And I appreciate that question 'cause it means a lot to me.
• 1:02:34
  Um, the, the, the best answer I can give you is our true vision and
• 1:02:39
  passion and reason for doing what we, what we started back in late
• 1:02:42
  2019 and, and it's still true today.
• 1:02:47
  99 plus percent of our focus is and always will be on that gym owner that
• 1:02:55
  decided to pinch their pennies and save some money and get their brick
• 1:02:59
  and mortar started, they fell in love with fitness for some reason.
• 1:03:03
  Maybe they, they went to a class and then they, they've always loved anatomy,
• 1:03:06
  physiology, and they exercise physiology and they just, they love coaching.
• 1:03:10
  They, they're motivational and like, I, I need to be able to do this as a career.
• 1:03:14
  So they put pinch their pennies together.
• 1:03:15
  They get that brick and mortar started.
• 1:03:17
  They get their clients, their members.
• 1:03:19
  They hire a couple coaches, and they're dealing in the world's most powerful drug.
• 1:03:24
  The work they are doing in their communities, like I said, is, is, is one
• 1:03:28
  of the greatest acts of service that's happening in communities today, globally.
• 1:03:32
  And to be able to serve them with a fitness competition that really checks the
• 1:03:37
  box and allows them to test their people.
• 1:03:40
  Okay.
• 1:03:41
  And every so often show and just have those emotional moments, like
• 1:03:44
  I told you so you just gimme those three to four days, come to class.
• 1:03:48
  I told you your life, it's gonna be a life changer for you and I. And
• 1:03:52
  even in some cases it was a life saver for some of those people.
• 1:03:57
  I'm speaking for every gym owner on Planet Earth and every coach, they know
• 1:04:00
  exactly what I'm talking about when I say this and I'm passionate about it.
• 1:04:05
  That will always be our foundation.
• 1:04:07
  That will always be the strong foundation.
• 1:04:09
  It's got a lot of rebar in it, man.
• 1:04:11
  A lot of classes have been taught, you know, it's like that home foundation
• 1:04:14
  that it cures in three to four days.
• 1:04:16
  Well, a coach's foundation is this beautiful life of coaching and like
• 1:04:20
  we're, every class we teach is like a piece of rebar going in that foundation.
• 1:04:24
  And we learn more about humans and what makes 'em tick and the power of the
• 1:04:28
  world's most powerful drug and the power fitness and that foundation cures and
• 1:04:33
  you wake up when you're 70, 80 years old and you're so damn happy that, in that
• 1:04:37
  you're standing on that strong foundation of coaching fitness and, and, and being
• 1:04:42
  a, just the, the passion that you get every single day when you walk into a gym
• 1:04:46
  and you turn the lights on and you know, people are gonna come in there and test.
• 1:04:50
  And for us to be able to partner with them, we have no.
• 1:04:55
  Competitors in the gym space, they're all partners of ours, or we hope
• 1:04:59
  they're a partner of ours one day.
• 1:05:02
  Every type of gym club, studio box on Planet Earth, we have 'em all.
• 1:05:05
  We have chain, large chains, small chains, franchises, the smallest mom
• 1:05:10
  and pops, large clubs, small clubs, chain clubs, mom and pop clubs.
• 1:05:14
  We got 'em all man that are affiliated with us.
• 1:05:17
  They walk in, they turn the lights on, they train their people, and they,
• 1:05:21
  they, they, they, they empower their members to put their coaching hat on
• 1:05:25
  and invite friends, family or coworkers and neighbors to come in, come to class.
• 1:05:29
  I promise you it can improve your life, maybe save your life.
• 1:05:33
  And then we get to test.
• 1:05:35
  This is a brand that we've probably spent over a hundred million
• 1:05:38
  dollars marketing this damn helmet.
• 1:05:40
  And if, and if you own a gym, you own this brand, you are the CEO
• 1:05:45
  of Spartan DEKA in your community.
• 1:05:46
  When you bolt us on, there's gyms, Jude in the UK right now.
• 1:05:50
  There's gyms all over the UK that own this brand.
• 1:05:52
  They're the CEOI told Joe to center the other day.
• 1:05:54
  It's like we got, we got 381 CEOs on our team.
• 1:05:58
  You, Joe and the other 380 gym owners that are hosting 1500 plus
• 1:06:02
  events a year, hopefully 10,000 plus events, long term a year.
• 1:06:07
  That's why we exist.
• 1:06:09
  That is who we are.
• 1:06:11
  Yes, we will always host big events.
• 1:06:13
  We will celebrate fitness.
• 1:06:14
  We 200 gyms come together and thousands of people.
• 1:06:16
  We love that it'll be a strong piece of our brand, but we will never, ever
• 1:06:21
  step away from the number one reason we exist is that Saturday morning
• 1:06:26
  where people walk into that gym, nailbiting nervous, some of 'em for the
• 1:06:28
  very first time walking into the very first gym, or it's been a long time.
• 1:06:32
  Maybe they played sport back in middle school and now they're 50 years old.
• 1:06:36
  And that wild, crazy friend of them talked 'em into coming into that event
• 1:06:40
  and they finish and that gym owner sees the tears in their eyes and the gym owner
• 1:06:45
  and the coach, the judge are all crying.
• 1:06:46
  They hang a medal around their neck and they just started their a
• 1:06:48
  hundred pound weight loss journey.
• 1:06:50
  That's who we are at our core.
• 1:06:53
  That's who we will always be.
• 1:06:55
  So that when we who, when do we get the most excited is when we get a new gym in
• 1:07:00
  Spain, in the uk, in Ireland, in Italy, in Australia, in Canada, Mexico, USA.
• 1:07:05
  We get a new gym and that gym is nervous about their first event.
• 1:07:08
  And we get 'em all coached up and they open up that box of medals in
• 1:07:11
  shirts and they got 'em folded up.
• 1:07:12
  And people walk in, they get 'em checked in on the kiosk and they get a scorecard.
• 1:07:16
  30 minutes later they're out on the course and then a short time
• 1:07:20
  after that, they see their name on a leaderboard on a 70 inch screen.
• 1:07:24
  And then they're being told they're an athlete.
• 1:07:26
  At a minimum, you're training up with a sport of life and
• 1:07:28
  all that comes together, man.
• 1:07:30
  And I think the coolest part of the last five minutes of me answering your
• 1:07:34
  question is I am given the biggest fist bump on planet Earth and hug to every
• 1:07:39
  gym owner, every single coach that is dealing that world's most powerful
• 1:07:44
  drug because they know exactly what I'm saying and how they feel the same
• 1:07:48
  passion I feel about why we do what we do.
• 1:07:51
  And um, and that's why they're having a good time with, with, with DEKA and
• 1:07:54
  just, yeah, so big shout out to all of the, the gyms and the owners out there
• 1:07:58
  that have believed in us and the coaches that, that, that speak our language.
• 1:08:01
  That's truly the, I think the best answer I could kind of off the cuff
• 1:08:04
  improv answer I could give you brother.
• 1:08:06
  That's it, man.
• 1:08:08
  I really do drugs, start fitness.
• 1:08:11
  What's that?
• 1:08:11
  Jude, that's it.
• 1:08:12
  Do drugs, start fitness.
• 1:08:15
  Hey, it's kind of a, a controversial, I've been saying that a long time
• 1:08:19
  and it rubs the people the wrong way.
• 1:08:20
  But dealing the world's most powerful drug man, that's a, I could have that
• 1:08:23
  argument and there's a lot of people like the Peter Attias and out there that
• 1:08:27
  would, I think they would agree with me.
• 1:08:30
  What's, you know, it's, it's more powerful than the, you get people off
• 1:08:33
  the pills and the, all the injections and the drugs and all the stuff and.
• 1:08:37
  You see people, you see people, you see commercials now about go in and
• 1:08:42
  get your GLP one shot and, and lose that, lose those 30 pounds quickly.
• 1:08:49
  I'm just not a fan of that.
• 1:08:51
  You know, I, I, I've seen the power of, of grinding in that class and
• 1:08:57
  stacking a good day on top of a good day, and you wake up just like that.
• 1:09:00
  And I'm six months into this, I'm like, I look better.
• 1:09:04
  I feel better.
• 1:09:05
  I feel mentally stronger and more resilient.
• 1:09:08
  My wife, my kids, my cul-de-sac, my city, my state, my country, my co, my
• 1:09:15
  planet is benefiting from the fact that I've been taking better care of myself.
• 1:09:19
  It is the world's most powerful drug man.
• 1:09:21
  Yeah, there's, drugs have their place, actual drugs have their place, of course,
• 1:09:25
  but the one drug that we all need.
• 1:09:28
  We need to sweat, we need to feel that pump in our muscles.
• 1:09:31
  Okay?
• 1:09:31
  It is, it's addicting.
• 1:09:34
  And you two guys know exactly what I'm talking about it.
• 1:09:37
  That gym pulls you in that signing up for that race every
• 1:09:41
  now and then pulls your ass in.
• 1:09:43
  A lot of people have never experienced it.
• 1:09:44
  So everybody that's out there in the hybrid space that's doing
• 1:09:47
  what you're doing, all of our competitors, man, we love you all.
• 1:09:50
  You're doing great work.
• 1:09:51
  We gotta all keep doing it.
• 1:09:53
  So we keep, uh, we keep providing that, that test.
• 1:09:56
  It's important to test your fitness a couple times a year.
• 1:09:58
  'cause it, man, it, it feels really good when you improve.
• 1:10:01
  So yeah, man, let's go fired up boys.
• 1:10:05
  And, and that's the thing, if you think like you're too, you
• 1:10:09
  know, inexperienced, overweight.
• 1:10:12
  High on drugs, like some of some of the best current elite athletes
• 1:10:16
  in the world were high on drugs two years ago, three years ago.
• 1:10:19
  Oh geez.
• 1:10:20
  Hunter McIntyre, three time world champion Cole Learn probably in
• 1:10:23
  the Elite 15 this or the next year.
• 1:10:25
  I mean, you got people that were high close to death on drugs three
• 1:10:29
  years ago that are now current.
• 1:10:30
  Mm-hmm.
• 1:10:30
  You know, if not world champions close to it, you're not too far gone.
• 1:10:34
  You know, if you're ex, you know, 200 pounds overweight, lose some, and you,
• 1:10:38
  there's always someone bigger than you or older than you, or more inexperienced
• 1:10:41
  than you that has started and is now Yeah.
• 1:10:43
  In this hybrid fitness space.
• 1:10:45
  Even if they're not competing to be the best in the world, the way
• 1:10:47
  better off than when they started.
• 1:10:49
  So
• 1:10:49
  yeah.
• 1:10:50
  Jesse Bruce is one of my favorite stories up in Canada.
• 1:10:53
  Um, you know, we've all, I think we all have somewhat of an addictive personality
• 1:10:58
  and if we just feed that addiction, you know, my wife knows if I, I could
• 1:11:03
  have like a 30, I was like, I got 37 minutes before this before we leave.
• 1:11:08
  She think it's, it's like she gets it.
• 1:11:10
  My kids get it, but not everybody gets it.
• 1:11:11
  It's like, okay, it's gonna take me two minutes to drive
• 1:11:14
  to the gym two minutes back.
• 1:11:15
  So I got 33 minutes.
• 1:11:16
  I'm gonna go get a 30 minute session in.
• 1:11:19
  And it just feels normal to me.
• 1:11:21
  That's kind of, I'm slightly addicted to that, you know, I gotta get my
• 1:11:25
  four to five days in every single week, or I just don't feel right.
• 1:11:30
  And yeah.
• 1:11:31
  So, yeah.
• 1:11:33
  Would a psychologist say, yeah, Yancy, you're a little addicted to that?
• 1:11:35
  I was like, probably, but gosh dang man.
• 1:11:37
  It's, um, that's a, that's a, that's a, I I'm okay with that addiction.
• 1:11:42
  Yeah.
• 1:11:43
  And it gets, it gets worse.
• 1:11:44
  The more you, the more you do it, the more you have to do it.
• 1:11:45
  Guys, I wanna give a big shout out to our, to our team, um, our team here in the US
• 1:11:50
  uh, our, our core team that just, um, man.
• 1:11:55
  Brian Nelson, oh gosh.
• 1:11:58
  Arlene, Cynthia, Robin, um, our Arlene, um, our, our, our European team, Emily
• 1:12:05
  Grant, Fran, um, Sergio and team.
• 1:12:10
  And we continue to grow our, our teams that are starting to getting
• 1:12:14
  startup across countries globally.
• 1:12:17
  Um, it's such a fricking hard grind.
• 1:12:21
  It is such hard work.
• 1:12:22
  It never shuts off.
• 1:12:24
  And it's so amazing having, you know, I was just off, got off call with
• 1:12:28
  Ricardo, one of our, and our, and our, some of our, uh, road show managers.
• 1:12:32
  Ricardo's, our affiliate sales guy here in the us.
• 1:12:35
  Um, just amazing people pouring into to what we do and, and
• 1:12:40
  to Joe for believing in us.
• 1:12:42
  None of this takes place.
• 1:12:43
  None of this is go going.
• 1:12:44
  We got through, we went through hell and back with Joe, who was the o
• 1:12:47
  when I say he was the only one that believed in us, he was the only one.
• 1:12:50
  Love.
• 1:12:51
  It was a couple of people and it was Joe believing in us.
• 1:12:54
  So just shout out to, to everybody on, on our team, man.
• 1:12:59
  I, I, I love each and every one of, and I appreciate you getting up every day
• 1:13:01
  and dealing with some of the hardships we have to deal with and the obstacles
• 1:13:04
  we have to get over every day to make sure we keep the, keep the lights on.
• 1:13:06
  So fist bump, fist bump to the team.
• 1:13:09
  Awesome.
• 1:13:10
  Awesome.
• 1:13:10
  I hope I didn't forget anybody was.
• 1:13:11
  Thank you very much.
• 1:13:15
  You got a lot of CEOs to list through.
• 1:13:20
  Thank for having me, man.
• 1:13:20
  Appreciate that.
• 1:13:21
  Thank you.
• 1:13:22
  Thank you so much.
• 1:13:22
  No, thank you for your time.
• 1:13:23
  Your time.
• 1:13:24
  You got it boys.
• 1:13:26
  Thank you very much.