Latest / Misfit Podcast / CrossFit Games Programming Breakdown '26 - E.410

Transcript

CrossFit Games Programming Breakdown '26 - E.410 · Misfit Podcast

• @misfitcoach: Good morning, Misfits. You are tuning in to another episode of the Misfit Podcast. On today's episode, we are doing one of my favorite episodes, the 2000s two, the 2026 CrossFit Games programming breakdown episode. I @paige_semenza: Thank @misfitcoach: find the programming and the progression of the programming and the changes and the progression of the sport and all of that endlessly fascinating. and it's made me wonder. Like, am I even the right person to comment on whether an event should be an event? Because I really think I'm just so far removed from how a spectator would feel about the CrossFit games. Like I'm looking at this and like, is the grass track race boring? Is the run hang squat clean boring? I say hell no. but maybe maybe that perspective is something that somebody else would have to deliver. or are we just that niche sport that like you get less people super passionate about, like that kind of thing. So a lot of different angles to to go over in the episode today. I'm gonna try to blast through housekeeping because this is one of the ones that has the potential to be a little long. So we will save shout out of the week and coaches are people too for the end and it might make it and it might not make it. So quick housekeeping, then we'll jump right into everything. August 17th, two weeks from now, Misfit affiliate phase one starts. And it's kind of a line in the sand for multiple reasons. One, it's phase one. We're getting a little bit more sports specific, but we've also added something that we've been working on for a long time now. we've added leveling and class plans to the program. So every time you see a workout, you're gonna see. a more expanded view of how we think about scaling at the affiliate level. So you'll see the workout and then level two version, level three version. And then Kyle is essentially, you know, Kyle is the head coach at Misfid in Portland. He's a he's a level four trainer and he is really good about doing his class plans. So now he's doing those in advance and you guys are going to be able to see his class plans, which is pretty cool. I'm going to email you guys directly @paige_semenza: So that's cool. @misfitcoach: But if you have been a Misfit affiliate in the past and you wanna see what this looks like, I will extend the two week free trial to an entire month if you have been a Misfit affiliate in the past. so email me directly, coach at misfitathletics.com or keep your eye out for an email. As long as you have an unsubscribed from our email list, you will you will receive something like that. So next week's podcast is gonna be all about that and we'll dedicate a significant amount of time. on the podcast to talk through the leveling and the class plans as well as the actual phase itself. Misfit Athletics, we are in the throes of phase zero right now, five weeks of baseline testing. If there was ever a phase that you could join just whenever you wanted to, phase zero would be it because we aren't doing the standard progressions. We're, you know, working on finding those one rep maxes, monostructural benchmarks, Misfit, CrossFit style workout benchmarks. All that good stuff. And you can find that in the link in bio through Strivey or Fitter on our Instagram. This episode of the podcast, along with all of them, are brought to you by Gorilla Mind. Now, the Gorilla Mind comment product of the week, it's sad for some and happy for others. I went to get my Gorilla Mind energy drink, which I drink before every podcast, and my wife drank all of them. Now she's @paige_semenza: Alright, Maya. @misfitcoach: she's got the she's got the fancy pants job in tech and she drinks one every single day, but it's just so funny the funny thing about that is I don't think she drank an energy drink prior to. She's not an @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: energy drink type person, but I basically told her like you can have caffeine and nootropics in one thing. so I was not aware that she had I had like four or five cases. I usually order in bulk and I hadn't I didn't realize she drank all of it. So, you know, if I fumble over my words more than usual today, well, I'm drinking @paige_semenza: She gets locked in. @misfitcoach: a competitor's energy drink, which just isn't as good. So if you want to try those out, gorilla mine.com forward slash misfit or use the code word misfit at checkout, you save and support the podcast at the same time. That's it. Let's get into it. the @paige_semenza: Go it. @misfitcoach: one the one thing that I want to say before this that I I think is is cool as part of a progression of my career is somewhere in the middle of all of this, I can't really put my finger on the years, maybe like twenty fourteen to twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, somewhere in that range. I wasn't really a fan of the sport anymore in the same way that I was at the beginning. I just I think going to every regional and sometimes having to no offense to the teams sit through some of that when when you don't have someone when I have someone to watch, I'm all in obviously. @paige_semenza: Invested. Yeah. @misfitcoach: I I so I just some part of my fandom went away and it's back. and it's really cool. Like I was at the games on Friday with Roy and Kenzie Riley. We went and watched. and you know, there we were there for 3D throw. We were there where you gotta wait minutes between people chucking a sandbag, kettlebell sandbag. and I was just into it the whole time. All of it, all the heats. The whole deal. Part of that's also probably the progression as well. So like at the very beginning, I was so into it because it was new and crazy and I didn't have context or perspective. And in the middle there, I saw like I bring it up all the time, but I saw like a six minute fran once at the games and the team competition. I was just like, I don't know what's going on here. Every single person in my affiliate would do this faster. so I think that's part of it. It's just progressed so far and I have enough context and perspective to realize How insanely fit the athletes that are there that people will go onto a show on the internet and talk shit about. And it's like, no, that that really is the 22nd, 23rd, 24th fittest person in the entire world, which is crazy. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: It's like, it's like, you know, the Cheeto guy watching, like, I can't believe that guy missed that tackle or whatever. And it's like, @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: yeah, I dare you to try to tackle one of those people. Good luck with that. So I just, I'm glad that I have that back. I don't know when it went away and I don't exactly know why, but I just really enjoy the sport at that level and thought it was really cool to watch. @paige_semenza: Yeah, I mean I have to think about all of the travel that goes into it, right? Like you're going to California, you're coming back to the East Coast, you're going over to Europe. Like there's a lot that's involved that you don't necessarily enjoy that can @misfitcoach: Sure. @paige_semenza: also kind of suck away some of that passion. So I mean it makes sense. @misfitcoach: Right. @paige_semenza: And I also like you were there in the masters division this year. only so it's like you kinda get that like refuel @misfitcoach: Right. @paige_semenza: of like let's get athletes back in into the field, you know? So I mean it makes @misfitcoach: Sure. Yeah, for sure. @paige_semenza: sense. @misfitcoach: Alright, so I have a lot of tabs in my spreadsheet and a lot of notes here. and I joked before the podcast, I finally have someone to talk to about all of this. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: his name is Claude. and that is one cool thing. One of the reasons why the data is more robust this year and things that we can kind of pluck out is Claude can basically take over my Chrome tab and pull a lot of the data that I would do manually before, which is super helpful. It's also incredibly flawed and thinks that every movement is a new movement and a lot of things. It's not quite where it needs to be. but that definitely made it a little bit more helpful. Before I'm gonna put you on the spot, before I jump into this page, I wanna know when you were looking through all of this and looking at the programming, if there were any like major things that stuck out to you. @paige_semenza: I mean definitely a lot of new like I I'd say this year more than I can think of in the past. A lot of like maybe new implements or new movements. we haven't @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: done like hang squat cleans, vested legless rope climbs. So definitely the, you know, forwards to back and backwards rolls. There's definitely a lot of new stuff that I would @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: say like really brought in a twist for this year. some of it could be, you know, athletes could, you know, that have gymnastics backgrounds could have some like a lot more familiarity with some than others. but yeah, that's definitely like the thing that stuck out the most for me. @misfitcoach: Cool thing with that too is it's always people assume like, okay, this event's coming up, Victor Hoffer's gonna win this event, or @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: we were at Mayhem, and everyone thought Hannah was gonna win the heavy Isabelle, and then you see the CrossFit of it all kind of take over. And that @paige_semenza: For sure. @misfitcoach: that part is just always so fascinating to me. And of course, his handstand walk was like the dumbest thing I've ever seen. but that's a little bit more niche. so @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: it was just cool to see the like crossfitters, and then like I understand, I don't think I don't think other people understand. The connection that can be made between something like Ariel Loewen, for instance. Like, when was she a gymnast? How long was she a gymnast for? Like, they used to do this to Matt Chan. Like, he was a firefighter. So anytime there was an odd implement, they're well, he's a firefighter. And it's like, that couldn't have anything less to do with this workout. Like, that @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: stop saying that. Like, it doesn't make any sense. So I always laugh at like. This person has this background or that background. I think it can teach you to learn and you have that from a young age of like, I'm gonna figure this out. But they had the narrative and then Ariel was like, no, I've never done any of this before, basically. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: And and I just crushed it. And it's like maybe there's a connection again to like body awareness from a young age, but at the same time, like she was figuring it out just like everybody else was. @paige_semenza: Yeah. And you have to remember like women's gymnastics, they're not on rings. Like that's not an event in gymnastics. So when it did get announced and she has to practice it, like, yeah, maybe she does have the body awareness for it. But like we talked about like your GPP, your fitness being like, you know, a really good indicator of how well you'll do. Like I think that was a pretty good test and like person to watch for that. specific example that we're talking about. so yeah, @misfitcoach: Yeah, for sure. @paige_semenza: pretty cool to see. Obviously the excitement from her too. Like I can't imagine what that was like in front of the crowd. Even if they didn't give her @misfitcoach: Yeah. And she's @paige_semenza: the rep. @misfitcoach: such a gamer. Like you @paige_semenza: So good. Yeah. @misfitcoach: just you s you can see it. And and that's one of the things that we can get into at some point that makes all of this fascinating is is @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: the the body language that you see athletes carry and how it can really affect you know, some of them and and others not at all. okay, so I'm gonna start with kind of the fun factoids, more of the micro stuff, and then Paige and I are gonna go event by event and try to deliver perspectives from different angles. Like, okay, what's it like to program something like this versus coach it? maybe we'll talk about how you could develop it and get better at it. And then Paige obviously has the perspective of having to do these actual workouts, but having to do these workouts in some of the context that we have here, which changes things, right? Like a workout in and of itself is just it just is what it is. But when you've already done 10 or 12 events and it's being new and announced and all of that stuff, it it completely changes things. So When the first thing we'll look at here is just the classic CrossFit MGW stuff. and we'll talk a little bit about the frequency. So monostructural doesn't have as many things to choose from. So it's not a surprise that it's kind of down the middle here. Row, run, swim, burpee variation, echo bike, ski, basically every year. we're gonna do something like that. The bike, you know, mountain bike, road bike, any of the different bikes where you're actually like. riding a bicycle and not on a stationary machine. there's been like a decent amount of it. So I have it categorized as like often, but not every @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: year. and then our two new movements, triple unders and the shuttle box jumps. so those were our two two new movements there. We go over to the gymnastics and we have handstand walk plus obstacles. I know that's a bit of a catch all. toast to bar and bar muscle ups. Those are our basically every year. I find the bar muscle up one to be interesting. That is like it's like ten years in a row or something. It's like a lot of bar muscle ups. I wonder @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: why. I would I like I don't know if it's just it's like a favorite movement or there's a connection to the early days. I find that to be @paige_semenza: I feel like it's I feel like it's something that most athletes are really, really efficient in and like can maintain stimulus of whatever said workout is when it comes to that movement. I don't know, it's just obviously it's different than rig muscle ups, but yeah, I just I feel like athletes are so proficient in it at this point that it's like you can really play around with the rep scheme and stimulus and still get the intended like the intention @misfitcoach: For sure. Yeah. Yep, that's true. @paige_semenza: of the workout. @misfitcoach: Right. there were no yellow movements, like happens pretty often. so we go down into they've programmed them before, but it's rare. Deficit handstand push-up, chin over bar pull-ups, and vested rope climbs. they did vested rope climbs in twenty eighteen in the battleground event. new movements. I am 100% positive that three of these are new movements. forward rolls, backward rolls, and vested legless rope climbs. I don't believe that they have done vested toes to bar in the past. Tried to find some, but like you have to not only read every event, which I've done, you have to also click the drop down for like the the details on that. @paige_semenza: Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember Vesta toast bar either. @misfitcoach: so let's talk about the weightlifting movements. This was something where since I do this every year, not just for the podcast, but also to program. For athletes, I was surprised at how many weighted implements there were. And we'll talk about that here in a second. But our staples basically every year, deadlift, power snatch, sort of we can lump together just snatch variations, thrusters, and the yoke. The yoke has become a staple at the CrossFit Games. And you wonder, it's like like is Rogue like, hey, I want echo bike ski this. Does it work that way? @paige_semenza: That's a good point. @misfitcoach: Or I wouldn't be surprised in either direction. I @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: wouldn't be surprised if Castro was like, no one tells me, you know, no one makes me bleed my own blood. @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: or Rogue being like, Hey, we've we've kind of helped you carry this thing, so let's get this implement in there. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: pig flips are more often than I thought. I was I was a little bit surprised by that. There's the pig has been in there quite a few times. so that is our like fairly often kind of a thing, but not every year. @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: the programmed but not super often, push jerk, back squat, shoulder press, snail push, squat snatch. That is mandated squat snatch. That's the first time I think since like twenty nineteen where they like mandated that it had to be, you know, caught below parallel sort of a thing. Double kettlebell deadlifts, double kettlebell overhead walking lunge, lunge, and the seated sled pull. our new movements, sandbag throw, hang squat cleans, hang snatch, and G HD wall balls. @paige_semenza: It's nearly double the amount of weighted movements than gymnastics and mono. Although you can do @misfitcoach: Yeah. Yeah. And @paige_semenza: the mono stuff multiple times too. @misfitcoach: Right, yes. Yep. So what I did was I broke down the percentage split of monostructural to gymnastics to weightlifting from two thousand and twenty one to two thousand and twenty six. And I only did that because I wanted to know if my hunch was correct. Forty eight percent of the movements in twenty twenty six were weighted. and that is up from thirty seven percent the year before, which is kind of fascinating. So we had twenty two percent monost Structural, 30% gymnastics, 48% weightlifting. so gymnastics were way down 37 to 30 percent, and then monostructural 26 down to 22 percent. Now, @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: what's interesting about this, you can look at it from a few different angles. Last year was the year where it was like these are the machine games that you know, everyone was kind of talking about that. And It was the percentages were 26, 37, and 37. So fairly even, especially if you look at the other years. This year going to 22%, 30%, and 48% makes that interesting. But the other angle here is if we're doing 30 seconds of this weighted movement and monostructural was down, but we ran for 45 minutes on the trail, @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: that completely changes what that what that is like. so the the the piece of this that would probably just take too long would be like how long did they spend doing these movements or like what was the total workload? and something that someone out there can probably pull off. but until until Claude can watch videos, I I think we're kind of left with this. So just something that's a little bit interesting. The movements that didn't show up that normally do show up, the list was Honestly fairly short and has a ton of asterisks. So there was no sled push or pull. There was the seated obviously, but not your sort of traditional moving it through space with the lower body a little bit more. But there was a snail and there was the seated sled pull. There was no burpee box jumpovers, which is a very common movement, but there were box jumpovers and there were burpees. There was no double unders, but there were triple unders. Honestly, the biggest one is Chestabar. Chesta bar is @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: in almost every single CrossFit games and there were no Chestabar pull ups this year. There were no G H D sit ups, but they did a weighted G H D sit up and then hucked the ball. There were no muscle ups, but they had to muscle up into they had to, you know, catch in the bottom before @paige_semenza: Forward. @misfitcoach: doing their forward roll. no pegboard. Pegboard has it would be in the yellow category. It's fairly often. No like full on squat cleans, but we had a ton of volume with the hang squat cleans. No sandbags in back-to-back years was a little bit surprising to me. There was a run there where like sandbag carry was in basically @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: every game, it's a sandbag run or a sandbag carry. Claude tried to tell me that the th 3D throw was a sandbag, but that was like a I think rogue trying to sell kettlebells that you can put sand in. I'm pretty sure. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: Like that's that's where that comes into play. No front squats. A lot obviously we've got the hang squat clean. We've got the back squat. @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: No pistols, no clean and jerk. those are not yearly programmed movements, but fairly often. no wall balls, but you got to do a wall ball sit up. no in wad deadlifts is one that was a little bit surprising. I know that @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: they probably didn't want a ton of like redundancy there, but at the same time they snatched like six hundred times and Did toasted bar twice and ran a lot, a lot, a lot. So I don't think it would have been a big deal to get the deadlift in there. And then man, I really would have guessed that they would be doing overhead squats based on how much they loved them in the past. really intrigued by by not having the overhead squat. 19 2019 @paige_semenza: nineteen. @misfitcoach: and 2020 are the last times that they did overhead squat. And I know it was kind of a glassman staple and it was a CrossFit Games staple. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: So that would be one where I would be like, okay, why so many bar muscle ups? Why no overhead squats? And I wonder if there is an actual answer. Like, like if it's, you know, it's a slow movement, it's tough to judge, people don't go bl I'd be I'd be interested to know why they don't do the overhead squats. @paige_semenza: I think it's a pretty iconic like wonder at Max Lyft to watch. @misfitcoach: Yeah, it is. Yeah. I totally agree. all right. Time domains. So this one, not that much different. 50% of the workouts of the CrossFit games this year were less than 10 minutes long. 25% were less than five minutes, and 25% were between five and ten minutes. normally we're looking at actually more than that. So if you think that's overdone, that's actually a little bit lower. than in the past for the timed events. Normally that's closer to like 60%. and we had two between 10 and 15 minutes, two between 15 and 20 minutes. That's gonna make up 20% there. That's actually normally closer to like 30%. and then having we essentially had two two workouts. so 10% of the workouts we're 10% of the workouts were between 20 and 60 minutes. So kind of that long domain what CrossFitters would consider long. And then we had four lifts kind of like one of the things about doing an episode like this and me putting together the data is in the past it didn't matter if there were semantics type arguments on certain things because I was just using it for programming. But like now if I put out a graphic that says there were this many lifts when there you could consider the the snatch event to be a lift and you could consider it @paige_semenza: The ladder. @misfitcoach: to be 'Cause they're, you know, they're they're running around and snatching for thirty seconds in around, that sort of thing. is the three D throw a lift, that sort of deal. So kind of put that out there. And then obviously the fact that they split up CrossFit Total into three events makes that @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: makes that a little bit different there. the other thing that I noticed, that honestly pretty straightforward to notice would be how long I wanted to know how long people worked out for. So I added up the average times that athletes worked out in, you know, timed events or amraps, that sort of thing, from 2021 to 2026. And I think, yeah, the so the we went from 115 minutes to 178 minutes in 2025 and 2026. On the women's side from 124 to 190. and that is obvious obviously a massive difference. And you know, how much of the programming and who wins is based on the programming and how much of it is based on what the programming creates when you look at it from that macro view. because so we went, so James Sprague. won the CrossFit Games with essentially three hours of working time. He did not win when there were only two hours, but he did win when there were two and a half hours. so I'm @paige_semenza: That is pretty interesting. @misfitcoach: just kind of throwing that out there a little bit. And when you like we can get into this a little bit, but him going from Echo Thruster to those 36 inch box jumpovers where he was jumping off the box all the way over the shuttle line. instead of coming down and getting over it and then jumping back over, like first and foremost, his level of fitness. But like I met him the year he aged up and we'll just say his zest for life, like that kid has something different deep down inside of him. He is just full of piss and vinegar. Like Like really just is @paige_semenza: It's wild. @misfitcoach: able to continue to go there and go there and go there. And I do believe a significant amount of that has to do with his personal disposition and not just his fitness level, because his fitness level is very clearly insane. Like for someone his size to do the things that he does, is just absolutely bonkers. So I don't want to discount that at all. But I do think on the mental side, just seeing him like I I believe the mental edge is how he beat Dallin. Like that's what I saw at the games, which is just a a cool thing to see for sure. @paige_semenza: Yeah, definitely. I mean and it's intr it's kinda cool to see because they both came from the teen division. Like they're @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: they're one they're the only two really that have multi years in the individual division coming from the teen division. so yeah, to see that kind of separation and to see that, you know, they follow similar training, right? They're both brute. So @misfitcoach: Yeah. The the thing that's like fascinating about what's changed in CrossFit is we used to have we used to have these like subjective arguments over okay, so what is the most ideal situation and kind of upbringing for an athlete? And it was like, okay. Froning's probably a little bit more of a power athlete than an endurance athlete. So if he had grown up like running cross-country or something, he would have been a monster. And then Fraser clearly had plenty of aerobic capacity deep down in there, but like claimed that he was wheezing going upstairs during his weightlifting career. you know, have the Vermont accent @paige_semenza: Sass. @misfitcoach: cur curdeo. and he grew up doing a power sport and it's interesting to wonder like, hey, maybe he was actually more of an endurance athlete, you know, at like a, you know, genetic level and then built up to this. Obviously he's a freak, so maybe he was just born with all of it. that kind of deal. But I just that was always the conversation because the context could never be grow up doing CrossFit. So it doesn't really @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: you're gonna work all of the energy systems and all of the skills. And that's the only reason why I think it's possible for these larger athletes to have the cycle rate and some of the movements that they do. Because again, we talked about it a little bit with the like, why didn't Victor Hoffer just annihilate everybody in the in the ring event? there are so many events where you would just assume that this person can and this person can't and it doesn't show up that way. Like @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: at all. Like there are plenty of events that you would consider like, this is a smaller athletes event. Not really. Like it's not really working that way now. @paige_semenza: Yeah. And I mean, you have to like people always make the assumption like, you like you get to eat whatever you want. Like an event like this, twenty events, you h probably hate eating by the end of the weekend. Like that is that's a bigger job than competing. Right. @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. That's why they all look so jacked at the end. @paige_semenza: So like you know, some of them could have very much been under fueled because they cannot recover like they cannot get it in between events based on time or you know, whatever it is, you know, I d there's a lot like, you know, they talk about tight turnarounds there, like, yeah, you're doing five events in one day and they're all like all out effort. So you are eating not just a house but like a building when it comes to food on these weekends. @misfitcoach: And supposedly they didn't like really eat that much day one, 'cause they didn't go back. You know what I mean? They @paige_semenza: It Yeah, right. @misfitcoach: kept getting like, Okay, I'm in the cold tub and then I'm back on a bus and @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: even if they had the right people around them to be running around and making sure that they had things, they might not that handoff might not have even been possible for them to have, which is crazy. @paige_semenza: Right. Or like yeah, like if you're, you know, after the the trail event, like your stomach like you need time to come down from that before your stomach can actually like even ingest and handle something. So yeah, I mean @misfitcoach: Yep, for sure. @paige_semenza: there's a lot that goes into it. @misfitcoach: So one thing that I didn't do this year because I think it's a disservice in apples and oranges is I did not do normally I do how many cardio workouts, how many muscle endurance, how many gas, and then kind of skill and strength. And luckily, we're gonna go event by event now. Luckily, the first one is the perfect example of that. So two 2007 hopper, one K row, then five rounds of twenty-five pull-ups, seven push jerks. Fraser, Tia, probably cardio, right? Like, @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: most of the athletes @paige_semenza: For sure. @misfitcoach: this year, gas. Some of the athletes this year, muscle endurance, right? So like you have to get through those barriers is 125 pull-ups after the one K row, so closely jammed together because those push jerks were They weren't interference. They were interference @paige_semenza: Minnescal. @misfitcoach: because they because they weren't. Right? @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: Like like, okay, it's done and I'm gonna run back and do this. so what is the exact correct strategy in a workout like this, that sort of thing? But you had to be able to get over the fact that there were A hundred and twenty-five pull-ups. That's that's kind of that first barrier. The better you can get at that sort of thing, then okay, like how much gas do you have? And then if you're just an absolute freak, you row, you do 25 pull-ups, you do seven push jerks, you do it four more times, and you're done. That sort of thing. I loved I personally loved the historical context here. the top time on the women's side was twice as fast. as 2007. and the @paige_semenza: That is cool. @misfitcoach: men's time was close. The men's time was pretty close. It was like seven to thirteen in change. was the difference on that. So being able to go, okay, this is the very first workout that the CrossFit games ever did to like let's see what these athletes can do now. Like just the idea of like someone coming, you know, you Marty McFly gets gets in the gets in the car and goes back to 2007 and shows them this is what they're gonna be doing in 20 years. Like @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: that would be so mind blowing to see that. @paige_semenza: That is wild, yeah. @misfitcoach: Yeah, pretty crazy. so yeah, that workout I thought was cool. and anyone who thought it was a throwaway just needed to watch it. Just needed to see it. Like there were athletes that definitely overshot what they should have rode at first and then probably did too many pull-ups to go into it. and 'cause like hundred and twenty-five pull-ups is that's no joke, especially when they're forced to be broken up. You don't get to do @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: that huge chunk to start and then kind of start breaking them down from there. @paige_semenza: Yeah. It's kinda like the you know, you can think of it in the sense of like when we do our gear one pieces and it's fifteen minutes on, one minute off, like those seven push jerks just to go right back to twenty five more pull ups, like that and to like @misfitcoach: Uh-huh. @paige_semenza: try to stay on pace and consistent there, that catches up very quickly. @misfitcoach: Yeah, for sure. So average men's time on that was eight minutes and five seconds. Average women's time on that was eight minutes and fifty-eight seconds. All right, the ranch seventy-two hundred. There was one camera angle. Someone who was a full lap behind a camera person followed them up the hill for their last time. And it showed somewhat of a perspective of what they were doing. And it was crazy. It was @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: crazy. And we were with Kelly Clark and she's been there a bunch of times and her whole crew has been there. and they're like, you can't understand how steep that is without being there. Like the camera's just never gonna show. But a CrossFit Games athlete having to push. down on their legs in event two of the CrossFit Games should give you a little bit of an idea. Like people watch and they see these people running and it's like, that's the one part of it @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: that always gets me is people don't have the context for @paige_semenza: Mm-mm. @misfitcoach: how fast these people are going. @paige_semenza: I think Emma Lawson posted her heart rate on that and it was zone five the entire time, but like maxed out zone five. Like that's insane. I don't think people @misfitcoach: Yeah, it's huh. @paige_semenza: like if you don't understand like what it feels like to be in zone five for even two minutes, let alone forty plus. @misfitcoach: It's bad. @paige_semenza: Yeah, I'd be wheezing by ten minutes in. @misfitcoach: And my other favorite part was Ricky hurling himself back down. my god, that guy. He like @paige_semenza: He's wild. @misfitcoach: he is wild. And like seeing his seeing his feet kick out to the side like that, it looked like his legs were broken in some of the pictures. my god, it @paige_semenza: Like a clumsy cat. @misfitcoach: was crazy. It's just like, hey, this is this is free energy. I'm just gonna go fly @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: down this hill. And I mean, it worked, right? He got way, way ahead of other people. So yeah, the @paige_semenza: You could catch yourself. @misfitcoach: yeah. The average time's there, 44 minutes to 33 seconds, 47 minutes and 16 seconds. The number one thing that you can do to take an absolute dump on your central nervous system is spend time in zone five. And 40 minutes in zone five is crazy. and you saw it. @paige_semenza: So wild. @misfitcoach: You saw it by the end of the day for sure. CrossFit Total, there were a decent amount of complaints about this workout. I personally enjoy the historical context. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: I don't know. Like I I I thought it was really cool that the men's well, thanks to thanks to a couple people for bringing the average up. The men's 222 pounds. Like no one's even sniffing that back in the day. No one no one's hitting more than 205, 210. back in the day. So that was @paige_semenza: Wild. @misfitcoach: that was pretty cool to see. but at the same time, like, could we do like an other total? Could that be shoulder to @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: overhead instead? Or is that or could it be bench press, that sort of thing. So like there's a little bit of nitpicking going on there. Should it have been a hundred and fifty points for the three? That kind of thing. not really not really my job. but I think in telling the story of the whole day, it does fit in that spot. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: Like go go do go ride your bike in zone five for I won't even tell you to run. Go ride your bike in zone five for forty five minutes and then try to deadlift. Yeah. @paige_semenza: I I mean this this day one very much reminds me of twenty eighteen with the marathon row. Like just the @misfitcoach: Yeah. Yeah. @paige_semenza: the cumulative fatigue and volume and the rest day @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: after, like I think it @misfitcoach: Yep. @paige_semenza: I think it's right. @misfitcoach: grass track race. This is another one that people talked about, like how boring it was. And again, I just I wish people had more context for this stuff. Like being on grass and on a bike that's, you know, kind of just a you know, it's a slower bike. It's not made for speed. And riding at that wattage for that long. After the total and after the run is insane. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: It's so crazy how fast they were going and like how well they were able to do in that. And I think it's cool that there was the you know, the like little like drafting groups and all of that stuff @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: and like you have the element like you do in other sports of like you could crash. That sequence of Daniel Brandon's arm getting run over was crazy though. that did not look @paige_semenza: How how it did o yeah, like how she came out of that fine. Like, okay, but wow. @misfitcoach: Yeah. Yep. so that one was that one was pretty cool. average times there, nineteen four, twenty minutes and fifty-one seconds. I just I I enjoy the athletes being able to show that it's not just thrusters and pull ups and that kind of thing. it reminds me of when people talk about how good of athletes race car drivers are. They're like, Everyone's like, yeah, it's like, you know, some hick is just turning left on an oval track. And they're like, Yeah, no, guys a scratch golfer, crush you in pool, all state baseball. You know what I mean? Like there are levels to this thing that we do @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: that I don't think people fully grasp. And when you let the athletes go out there and show the breadth of what they're capable of, like obviously so many of them came from traditional sports background. but like that part of it to me is really cool. I think that helps tell the story of of what kind of level these people are at. @paige_semenza: Yeah. I mean it also like you can think back to like watching Road to the Games in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. It's like everybody was on a road bike getting their exposure out there. It's like, @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. @paige_semenza: you know, like we do test wide range of of modalities, so it's like it should show up at some point. I don't know how else like how @misfitcoach: Would any of these go ahead. @paige_semenza: I don't know how else you would make a bike event exciting because it's like there needs to be distance involved in some way. So it's like, yeah, you're not gonna catch the whole @misfitcoach: Of course. Yeah. Yeah. @paige_semenza: track. I mean we did the crit race in twenty eighteen as well, which is I guess fairly similar on a different terrain, but and like @misfitcoach: Right. Yep. @paige_semenza: it was cool to do. Like it just, you know, @misfitcoach: Yeah, hell yeah. @paige_semenza: like it's so fun to be part of these different tests that they do and to be introduced to different things like this. @misfitcoach: Do you see anything? I'm gonna actually no, I'm gonna save this question for later. okay, swim standard 200, 150, 150 meter swim with 40, 30, 20, 10 burpees in it. I thought it was a really cool event. I had absolutely positively no issue with not letting the swimmers get like all the way across the pool without doing anything because they're good at diving. they were able to show off their swim capacity in ig in @paige_semenza: There's right. Agreed. @misfitcoach: a like a massive way. so I don't think that that was there was any issue there. super cool to see Lucy Campbell beat all the men, crush all @paige_semenza: Wild. @misfitcoach: of the men in that workout. And then also another one where you guys do have context, all of you, every single person listening to this podcast, how amazing were their burpees. And again, this that's probably not that cool for you, Paige, but like for me, I'm just w you know, wheezing doing burpees in the gym. And there's no total, there's no laps on track, there's no trail run, there's no the hopper, there's no swimming. @paige_semenza: Ha ha ha @misfitcoach: There's probably just like a like a C2 bike or something, and I'm dying. And it was just those hundred burpees were just such an afterthought. Like every @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: athlete moving at a like a very similar pace, even the ones who were sucking wind in the pool. so just you know, casual hundred burpees, not a big deal. And and not a big deal to, I don't know, a few thousand people that compete in the sport, but then there's the rest @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: of us. There's everybody else where it's just like, my God. Like, look at that. Burpees can be that easy. @paige_semenza: Well, I mean yeah. I mean and also like if if you haven't swam before, like haven't combined movements like this, like the shoulder fatigue that adds in from that movement combination is @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. @paige_semenza: is really spicy. @misfitcoach: Yep. You learn to use your hips real quick and those kind of burpees. @paige_semenza: Yeah, exactly. I did like that they made them the line facing burpees. I thought that brought like a @misfitcoach: Yeah, same. @paige_semenza: a fun touch to it. They had the the contrast colors to to jump on. @misfitcoach: Yep. Yeah, that was that was a super cool event. And that event @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: showed I didn't know this. I don't have a a ton of personal swimming background. I've researched it a ton for my athletes, but The cramping thing was really interesting. I didn't realize that people cramp that much in the pool. the announcers, you know, Chase was a swimmer and he's like, it's very common to get like the calf cramp and get those things while @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: you're swimming outside of this crazy context. @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: so watching Like Nick Matthew couldn't get out of the pool because he was cramping so bad. So he's trying to do that muscle @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: up, like kind of guy who can probably do 30 unbroken bar muscle ups, couldn't get out of the pool, and then all his whole body was cramping, and he was trying to do his burpees, and it was crazy looking. And then James Sprague, like, was I think like screaming in pain with how bad he was cramped there. @paige_semenza: So crazy. @misfitcoach: And One of the things that I don't think a lot of people know is when we think of cramping, we think of hydration and we think of electrolytes. But part of the nervous system response is Is just relative to how many muscle contractions you've had over a given period of time. So it could be the whole weekend, it could be the whole day, it could be just within that workout. But one of the reasons why volume matters and aerobic capacity matters is if you go into something and have Either because of how many muscle contractions you're having or how intense they are, if you go way above and beyond what you've done in the past, you're at extremely high risk for this like crazy cramping. And there's not anything a bunch of salt can do for you in those moments, which is why @paige_semenza: Yeah. That's crazy. @misfitcoach: if you were to do a lower volume comp prep and then go into a super intense or super high volume competition. it wouldn't really matter what you could do like in a vacuum within a single workout. @paige_semenza: That's that's interesting. I guess I never thought of it that way. Get your zone two in, basically. Get your volume in. @misfitcoach: Yeah. Yeah n get your zone two in and you need to get volume at intensity in and comp prep. Like you @paige_semenza: Yeah. Yep. @misfitcoach: really gotta go there. That's why we start in comp preps with lower volume to set the tone and everything's an interval for the first few weeks to really get the intensity up and then we add the volume and then we try to come back down and maintain that because getting back into really cranking the intensity up on every single piece is something that you do lose a little bit in your kind of standard phase one, phase two, phase three. You know, I'm getting better, I'm getting better at all these things. I've got my lifts, I've got my monostructural, but like getting back into really intense game speed CrossFit is a very @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: different animal. @paige_semenza: Yeah. I was actually just talking to McKenna about this. We were texting last night. just asking how she's feeling getting back into like phase zero stuff. And @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: we had this exact conversation of like she's like, I'm pretty wrecked from what I'm doing. I'm like, You're you're re @misfitcoach: Base zero's hard and the volume's really low. @paige_semenza: Yeah, exactly. Like you're reintroducing that intensity again and honestly, probably well, definitely at a a different baseline. Like you know how hard you can push. So now that you're getting back into it post injury, it's like Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna it's gonna humble you a little bit. So but I mean, you know, feedback with you and and talking with you is like it's how you guys can balance it out. @misfitcoach: All right. Day two. So we had a lovely rest day in there, July twenty-third was a rest day. And then we jump into the climbing snail for time. Snail push, three slash two le legless rope climbs, thirty toes to bar, five slash four rope climbs, snail push. All of this was done in a vest. The other thing that people don't realize for how rough these rope climbs are is you can't jump, can you, Paige, at the CrossFit games off those mats. @paige_semenza: The worst. We'll talk about that too with the forwards and and backwards roll to support. @misfitcoach: Yeah. But like what is that how much different is that where if you are trying to rely on any semblance of momentum or taking off a part of the rope, like you it's really not worth it, is it? @paige_semenza: No, it's not. It's it's honestly it's more defeating because you go to jump and you expect to jump a specific height on the rope and you go nowhere. Yeah. So like you have to @misfitcoach: The pad absorbs all of the pre the force. Yeah. @paige_semenza: mentally be be prepared to like essentially you're s you're doing no jump rope climbs, which is partly why we also do like get exposure in them throughout the year in our own training. @misfitcoach: Right. Yeah. @paige_semenza: I'm as I'm I I can't remember. They had they were going that's seventeen feet the rig, right? But then you have the pad. @misfitcoach: The women had a mark. The women had a tape @paige_semenza: Okay. @misfitcoach: line. The men had to hit the rig. So the men had to go a little bit higher. @paige_semenza: Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. @misfitcoach: but yeah, that is that is honestly about one and a half for for people to give them context. That @paige_semenza: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. @misfitcoach: that's what that feels like. and the snail is awesome because That mental side of figuring something out in the moment, thinking you have it figured out and then doing it under fatigue or having to push it further really changes things. Like @paige_semenza: Does. @misfitcoach: and me being a nerd, I'm like, why don't these people know basic physics? Like if y you can't push the top of the thing. Like you're not gonna it's not gonna go anywhere. It's not gonna roll. It's not that it's not even physics, that's just math. Like w where is the thing supposed to go if you just try to roll it from the top instead of getting a full quarter rotation @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: when you do it? so that part of it was like, you wanna you wanna r you wanna run down and be like, Come on, please put your hands here, get behind it. @paige_semenza: Your brain doesn't want to work that much then. I saw some girls some girls' video went viral and it was like, I'd be going faster. I don't know, like @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: to be honest. And like they're literally like barely moving the snail. It's just funny context. @misfitcoach: Uh-huh. Yep. one thing that Bothered me about the approach from some of the athletes is some of them waited a really long time to do their first legless. And I don't @paige_semenza: Scared. @misfitcoach: understand that. Woody what would he like you've got to transition from the snail up the rope and then all bets are off. It's about your capacity. But like the time that was taken from a lot of these athletes, one of the reasons why a bunch of athletes were so far ahead is because that there was no transition there. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: They went up and they did it. And then now they've erased this 30 second chunk that like if we go to the climbing snail here, seven minutes and ten seconds for the men and six minutes and sixteen s seconds for the women. Thirty second, like that transition is a really big deal. And I @paige_semenza: Yeah, for sure. @misfitcoach: I'm not telling any of my athletes if I'm there coaching, like, okay, go get those two or three done as fast as you possibly can. Of course not. But like jog over. @paige_semenza: Can yeah. Yeah. @misfitcoach: Have your chalk ready and go. Like get up the rope. It's not g it's not gonna get easier. Like it might even get harder. @paige_semenza: Yeah. Right. Like you're mentally like you're anticipating it, right? So like it's almost like the suspense builds. And I think that's part of the hesitation too, is right, that's two @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. @paige_semenza: new implements right off the bat in that workout. So they got the snail, which not many people have I haven't even done the snail. I've never had it programmed out of games. yeah, right. Yeah. @misfitcoach: Ten year gap, I think. I guess twenty sixteen was the last time. Yeah. @paige_semenza: Yep. And then the vested legless. Like that's a a pretty unpredictable movement for a lot of people. I don't I don't feel like people would even @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. @paige_semenza: train that in their training for the their prep for the games regardless. I'm sure some do, but definitely not everybody. Yeah. @misfitcoach: And the distance too. So those so you take they can't jump, they're vested, and it's higher. And you @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: I saw a lot of athletes that are really good traditional jump and pull body weight legless climbers struggle on the second and third rep like a lot. People I think that probably didn't assume that @paige_semenza: Yeah, some of it's like that timing component. @misfitcoach: they were yeah, people didn't assume that they were gonna do that. So you saw some of the athletes who were a little bit bigger, I think just having a little bit more kind of distance in their pull and being able to have that leverage seemed to help a lot. Where some of the smaller @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: athletes who are normally pretty good at them struggled quite a bit. And then it was just like the the the four the the five slash four rope climbs to finish like efficiency was just on full display. Like @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: that in in and the other piece of context there is like all athletes know what your upper body does when it's trashed. It tries to work more. Like it tries to take over a movement that has it just has no business even trying @paige_semenza: Yep. @misfitcoach: to do, let alone taking over. So you just saw a lot of that. you saw a lot of issues with the efficiency there. Athletes flying up the rope a couple of times and then kind of stopped dead in their tracks. and then Ghee was resting his arms on the rope climb, which I guess he's got a pretty good footlock, but like he did really well in that workout and he was having to do like hook his elbow onto the rope before he did @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: one more and grabbed. that's kind of a savvy move to be able to @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: to be able to do that. And then snail is really good for a finish. Like that was a really good movement @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: for a finish. Visually, it's fantastic from the stands. A lot of grit involved there, but also like okay, only twenty feet left, but your body probably would do better with ten and ten, but you do fifteen @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: and five, so then you're torched and you get passed by two people. So I think @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: the snail is an awesome Like they've gotten too good with the sleds, right? And they've got a little too good with the yokes. Like the yoke becomes it's not a throwaway. at the highest level it is, maybe. So the snail I think is weird enough and programmed infrequently enough that @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: it's like I would love to see a snail finish at the CrossFit Games. I think that would be super cool. @paige_semenza: Yeah, like what what implement can you use to really replicate it if you don't have a snail? You know, like there's really not much you can do. Yeah, right. @misfitcoach: Yeah. Yeah. No, you go find a hay bill and it's nothing like that and you at least tried. that makes me wonder if they had a snail in the back and if people were like trying to be a snail. Like, coach, ball up. I'm gonna roll you across the floor. Paige and I have seen some shit over the years. @paige_semenza: Yes, we have. it's funny. @misfitcoach: And then I'm like, hey Paige, you know when you get out there, that heavy thing, lift it or push it or do what you gotta do and go faster than the other people. Check. @paige_semenza: Ha ha ha. @misfitcoach: How about that? How about we just actually warm up? all right. Three D throw. You know, it was fine. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: I don't have any issue with it being in there. some of the some of the ways that it was done by certain athletes was @paige_semenza: Athleticism. @misfitcoach: Ooh. really something to watch, I'd say. I don't I don't know. I feel agnostic about the three D throw. I don't have a whole lot to say about it. It was fine. I don't think it was a problem that it was in there. but it wasn't really that cool to watch and probably not very cool for the athletes to do. @paige_semenza: Yeah, I feel like more of like a you know, kinda like combine events would probably be a little bit more fun to watch, like a @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: a five ten five, a sh you know, like lateral stuff we haven't done a ton. I have seen some people kind of bring up comments like that too. and I agree, like it you do wanna express athleticism in a lot of different ways and I think there are some that are missed and some that could have maybe been a little bit better. @misfitcoach: Yeah, for sure. all right. Run, hang, squat, clean. Just just gorgeous. Just absolutely beautiful workout. I think this one was probably @paige_semenza: So bad. @misfitcoach: tested in this one just felt dialed in. and @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: seeing the the different strategies in terms of how hard people were running. who broke up the cleans, who could bounce clean was huge. @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: You know, there was there was @paige_semenza: Especially on a short bar. @misfitcoach: a specific rookie on the on the women's side that I was watching that was doing like low hang every time and it was clear that the grip was the thing. Whereas a lot of the other @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: athletes it was more metabolic or the squat, that kind of deal. So being able to to bounce clean there is a pretty big deal. If not, putting it in your hip and then throwing the bar out and around a little bit is kind of another strategy that you could have there. But That was the shorty barbell, which definitely changes things, feels different, probably @paige_semenza: Very stiff. @misfitcoach: feels like, you know, 10 to 15 pounds heavier. And then that's one where we need the Cheeto guy out there. is yeah, they're gonna be on the handstand walk course and his barbells exactly. @paige_semenza: Run faster. Pick the bar up. @misfitcoach: Ricky, doing the 10 unbroken hang squat cleans. Probably one of the biggest mistakes he made the entire weekend. @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: He went unbroken in round one and right back out. but yeah, I just love you know, six hundred and sixty-meter run is just a gnarly distance. @paige_semenza: So bad. @misfitcoach: the duration of a workout like that, that workout was on average sixteen minutes and eighteen seconds for the men, sixteen fifty-five for the women. That is a gross duration when you're that fit. Like that's @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: that's really nasty. That's that's the equivalent of like a normal person doing like a 12 minute version of that at crazy high intensity because they can hold that output for longer. But I I just I really liked that workout. it was fun to see the athletes kind of have that push pull. It was fun to see the athletes who were so good at running that they could that they could make up the time or get the lead @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: and kind of hold it. That sort of thing. and then because the field is so tight now, everybody's like jammed together. There were a lot of really good races, even just round to round races where you know someone would have to drop the barbell here. So then you'd see them head out. And then we got the whole thing where you look like you're in the lead, but you gotta run all the way back down the floor again. so that @paige_semenza: Yeah. Yep. @misfitcoach: kind of changes things a little bit. So that was that was one of my favorite workouts of the entire weekend. And that's one where I'm like, Am I the right person? Am I the right the right ambassador for this sport? Because do people wanna watch athletes do that? Because I sure as hell do. @paige_semenza: I mean it when you look at it on paper compared to everything else, it looks like probably the most boring one, which I think is what makes it actually like I would think it's a fun spectator event. You get into the fourth round and you have athletes walking up @misfitcoach: Right. Yeah. @paige_semenza: to the barbell at the same time or, you know, close to each other, who can hang on, who can't, who saved enough in the tank. So I would think it's @misfitcoach: Yeah, @paige_semenza: a fun event. @misfitcoach: for sure. handstand walk sprint. So we had over the ramp, freestanding, pirouette, pirouette on a platform, and then press to to handstand across and down. The progression there was cool to see how many athletes @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: have figured out many pieces of that that weren't really figured out in the past. It felt like It felt to me like a history of the handstand walking and the sport on display all across one thing. the ramp was a big deal for a while, right? Like can you get up and @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: down the ramp? And with CrossFit, you just have that phenomenon of like, well, one person can do it, so someone else is gonna figure out how to do it. And then there's just it hits this like critical mass of like a ton of people being able to do it. But then it's okay, the freestanding handstand push-ups when @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: you have to be able to do a certain amount of site like yeah, okay, I could maybe get one. but you're not working on them in your gym trying to get one. You're trying to make it all the way across, and and do that part unbroken. And then pirouettes, like, okay, we can do but can you do them inside of this square without like doing the thing where you go way out and around the whole @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: time, basically walk in a circle? Like that's not really a pirouette. And then okay, you can do that now, but get up. Yeah, get up on the get up on the mat. @paige_semenza: And the instability. Yeah, that too. @misfitcoach: that that part is even more unstable and your little window is smaller. @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: you're fatigued, super fatigued at that point. And then just to see how many athletes were able to finish and get through that part that in the past was basically nobody could do that. @paige_semenza: Yeah, I think we did that it was twenty twenty two, right? When they first introduced yeah, the @misfitcoach: Yeah, it was twenty-two. Yep. @paige_semenza: the jump rope event. @misfitcoach: Yep. so yeah, I thought that was a cool event. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: I some of these things would love to see a wrinkle, you know? Why don't we do that as part of like just a workout? Like @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: why you know what I mean? Like I I would I would I would enjoy seeing more elements like that in a workout. I think I saw someone say like why weren't there a hundred dumbbell snatches in between the two and two laps on the ranch run? Like does it have to be just that thing, right? when @paige_semenza: J Yeah, right. Yep. @misfitcoach: it becomes repeated over and over and over, that sort of deal. @paige_semenza: Which yeah, I mean could also be another way that they evolve something like the handstand walk skill work, right? @misfitcoach: Right. @paige_semenza: It's not too often that it's done. Yeah. @misfitcoach: Like you got a hundred cal echo bike in the middle, and then you gotta go and do your pirouettes. Like what's that like? So @paige_semenza: Right. Yeah. @misfitcoach: I would I I would definitely like to see more of that. And it's not like we haven't seen it ever. We've seen the freestanding handstand, we've seen the ramp in workouts, especially at the regionals level, seen the pirouettes at the you know, regional semifinals level, that kind of thing. So it's been there, but some of the some of the things at the games that are like that feel a little like overdone, like just kind of repeated over and over. @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. Yeah. @misfitcoach: so funny that an athlete was the one to bring unbroken requirements to the CrossFit games, especially after Dave @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: said he didn't want to do it after mayhem this year. that that is just beautiful. This was a really good workout. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: the Hopper 2026. So three yeah, @paige_semenza: So grippy. @misfitcoach: three rounds, 21 toe to bar, seven unbroken power snatches, seven unbroken hang snatches, seven unbroken squat snatches at 9565. funny to see them do the same movement twice, but obviously 30 toes to bar earlier in the day, like not not crazy. They're clearly given the parameters @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: of how long they could go in a workout like this. but it's just another it's another way that you see the progression in the sport and how fit people have gotten and how crazy their grip is. when you're forced to like like I I would be interested @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: to see what the times would be in that workout without that requirement. Cause like people were not resting in that workout. Like people were @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: really going hard there. so I thought it was a I thought it was a super cool workout and I love that an athlete was able to take that from Dave. That made it made me happy. Yeah. @paige_semenza: Yeah. Well and y I it was it was it was Tia, right, that programmed it. and like you talked about earlier, like she did have spectating in mind when it came to programming her workout, which I thought was pretty cool. @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. @paige_semenza: it wasn't just what's a good test for the athletes, it's also what's fun to watch. And something @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: like that where that kind of strategy is involved is really fun to watch. @misfitcoach: Greatest athlete IQ that I've ever seen of any athlete by far. And to the point where it feels like it's like baked into her. It doesn't look like she's like got decision making going on. Just feels like she knows what she should do in the moment. She adapts @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: in the moment. and there are athletes with theoretical athlete IQ that don't know what to do when shit hits the fan. @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: and that's why we encompass kind of the mental aspect into athlete IQ. So that just I had a I had a a little bit of a smirk and a chuckle that he doesn't like that as a requirement and it was in the CrossFit Games. Kind of perfect. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: five minutes and 31 seconds on average for the men, 528 for the women. So there's another one right there. Put that workout in the 2007 CrossFit games. How long would that take? Like a 15-minute workout. Yeah. @paige_semenza: Poof. Double the time. Plus, yeah. @misfitcoach: 500 meter sprint. It's cool. They've done it before. Did you do that? @paige_semenza: fast. no, I did not. And also it was it's @misfitcoach: Okay. @paige_semenza: still different this year, right? Having to go around the pylons. Like @misfitcoach: Way different. Yeah. @paige_semenza: to have th those times and have to like slow down to accelerate again. It's pretty wild. @misfitcoach: Yeah, very impressive. men averaged a minute eighteen, women averaged a minute twenty-seven. I think there's probably some outliers there. There were some people hobbling @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: down the road. that I think we can understand why at that point why they would be hobbling. love the gamesmanship on stuff like that. That always makes me happy. @paige_semenza: Yeah. So fun. @misfitcoach: especially just from Ricky. Like Ricky is Ricky is the right person to win the community back. Right. Like I feel like he does I feel @paige_semenza: Yeah. Agreed. I yeah. @misfitcoach: like he d I feel like he deserves it. Like that @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: kinda like it is it's like a matured reckless. Like reckless @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: intentionally, whereas before maybe not so mature with that. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: but just putting that on display and he's got kind of like a prototypical Aussie kind of vibe to him. @paige_semenza: Like there's no there's no ill intent about him, right? Like he is literally @misfitcoach: No. No. @paige_semenza: loving what he does. Like even even the toss the the rag at James is James and perfectly land on his head. Right. @misfitcoach: Talk about an athlete. He catches it behind himself. He knows it's gonna fall. He knows exactly where it's gonna be like this. He's one of those guys like Fraser's doing the backflips on his skis and Ricky's doing it on his bike. Like, once again, there are levels, and he's like @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: a true, true athlete. And a true athlete that can also go that fast in a 7200 meter trail run is just fascinating. @paige_semenza: So crazy. @misfitcoach: Yeah, absolutely crazy. So I loved the I loved the gamesmanship there. I thought that was I thought that was really cool. triple pig. Okay, so this this one was odd for all three different reasons. no, I'm thinking of I'm thinking of two different so this one was odd. No, yeah, no, I'm right, for three different reasons. The bar muscle ups are whatever the hell. They're there. They're there for their tenth year, unless you were Racing one of the other few people, just kind of whatever. G H D wall ball shots. I got no issue with it. Like, it's fine. You know, thinking of n @paige_semenza: Silly but @misfitcoach: new ways to do it. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: If it's gonna be something like that, it's gotta be challenging. And seeing the athletes realize that you needed momentum to throw that up there. Like the athletes who tried to like tried to like strict press. @paige_semenza: Yeah, yep. Stop. Yeah. Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: throw the ball up. so I thought that part of it was was cool. The only issue is what it led into. I don't know how fatiguing that was. Like maybe the pike was a little bit harder, but the triple under just felt like kind of stuck in its own little spot there. And then the pig flips had nothing to do with this workout. That was another part @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: that was kind of when you're gonna do a movement like that that can be a massive separator, I like it to be a massive separator. So I don't know what the solution is. That would be, I think, figured out through testing. They obviously went ascending rep scheme to keep people together a little bit more. And then if some of them were gonna be off to the races, you know, great, go for it. but were there too like were there too many kind of segmented pieces to this workout. I don't know. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: In ten years this could be a really good workout? Three years? Two years? Five years? @paige_semenza: I I yeah, like I feel like the pig flip was just there to be there based on the other new movements. Yeah. So @misfitcoach: Right. Great media for rogue in the CrossFit games. You get some cool shots. @paige_semenza: yeah, I definitely could have used the pig better, for sure. @misfitcoach: Yeah. Yeah. So this one was I would put that right down the middle, you know, kind of a C tier sort of situation. Triple pig, average times are honestly don't even really matter because they were all over the place. A lot of people getting capped. Twelve thirty seven for the men, thirteen ten for the women. surprisingly enough, have not talked at all about the absolute domination by Amy Kringle in this CrossFit Games. And this that was her moment. You're when when you have someone that's got that kind of lead, and their name's not Matt Ortia, you're waiting for the shoe to drop. You you're waiting @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: for, okay, you can't snatch in the speed ladder, or you know, your the seated sled pole's gonna fuck you up, or you can't do triple unders, or you're you there's an issue with the pig, or you can't go long on the machine. So those deficit handstand push ups, those are really gonna mess you up. Spoiler. never happened, but this was this to me was the moment of like we are seeing another cyborg come to life. Long, medium, short, strong, skilled, the whole deal. It's put on display. @paige_semenza: Yeah, adaptable. @misfitcoach: and I also love that, you know, there's the whole thing, usually kind of generic life advice, and I'm sure there's good quotes about it, but just when you get that opportunity, you gotta go grab it. You gotta go @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: seize it. our very first individual CrossFit Games qualification, Jordan Cook, 2013. He we knew about the down and back 50s chipper going into it and in testing, he was getting his ass handed to him. Like really struggled with the workout. And he was, I think, in first place going into that event. And I asked him if he had a CrossFit Games gear. Like, do you have that in you? Is that a thing that you have? And he fucking marched down and he came back and he was like, I hey, coach, I have a CrossFit Games gear. Like I have that in me. Like it's i when you know that it's possible, I can go @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: there. I can go do that thing. So that is again just another one of these elements, another one of these pieces that could get overlooked in talking about this stuff. that like yeah, she maybe fell off in certain moments in years past. I mean, this is only her third year at the games, but like she was in a different place and a different position here and rose to the occasion, which is @paige_semenza: Yeah. Yeah. @misfitcoach: just kind of a a totally different thing and was really cool to see. It's like the camera's zoomed back out and she's just out there like it's like, you that @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: that that's it's like this is the moment where we all knew we're fucked. Like right there on display. @paige_semenza: Yeah, like you can yeah, you can see that she's in her element. Like it wasn't about media, it wasn't about this, it wasn't about that. It was just like that girl went to work and I think just @misfitcoach: Yep. Yeah. @paige_semenza: the start of that day in general, like being able to win the five hundred meter sprint as well, is and also, @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: you know, going back to day one and win winning the ranch, like the trail run, like you're talking a wide spectrum of fitness right there, and then to be able to go and smash a high skill event. So @misfitcoach: Yeah. Yep. We're so used @paige_semenza: It's pretty cool to see. @misfitcoach: to in the sport in the past, other than a couple of athletes, like you get one or the other. You get one or the other. Like @paige_semenza: The fumble, yeah. Right. Yep. @misfitcoach: you can't you can't win the trail run and the five hundred meter sprint. And then this year @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: I think but the athletes that took first took first in both, right? Yep. @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. Yeah, Ricky and and Amy. @misfitcoach: Madness. All right. speed snatch. Could be updated in my opinion. I don't like you remember when everyone was trying to figure out how to slam the barbell to the ground and jump over it without falling on their face? That was like a like a you had to practice that all the time back in the day. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: I don't want to practice that anymore. I don't care. Like Ghee is like @paige_semenza: Yeah, it could be @misfitcoach: Ghee is so fun to watch and Hannah was so fun to watch in that, @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: but like The only real thing here is just the callback to like if you go watch like the difference between then and now is super cool. But I that was @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: just kinda for me. I think that could have been updated. I think you can compare things @paige_semenza: I @misfitcoach: by changing similar enough, but like, wow, look, they can do it just as fast now at this weight or there's this many reps, that kind of thing. @paige_semenza: Yeah. I still like the clean and jerk ladder better than any of them. Just the @misfitcoach: Same. I love clean and jerk. @paige_semenza: yeah, I don't know why. It just feels more exciting. @misfitcoach: It's just so gritty to be like d you just did a one right max, do another one right now. Can't breathe, @paige_semenza: Yeah. Right. @misfitcoach: can't see, getting choked. Do it. Put it over your head. @paige_semenza: Yeah, like I don't know, there's just I think there's there is more potential for like athletes that maybe are at a a higher percentage of their one rep max or hitting a new one rep max. Like there's more excitement, @misfitcoach: Right. Yeah. @paige_semenza: there's more potential for them to actually hit it in like at in a in the game setting. @misfitcoach: Like that clean ladder that you guys did in twenty twenty four, to me put more on display than this, for sure. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: All right. Sixteen and seventeen were separated just by a few minutes. Twenty one, eighteen, fifteen, echo bike calories, thrusters in increasing @paige_semenza: Nasty. @misfitcoach: load. another one that's probably not the right workout for non-enthusiasts, but all you need is just enough history with those two stupid movements to see the difference. Like @paige_semenza: So bad. Was it the same weight as twenty twenty four? This was actually one that I did not have a chance to watch. Yeah, okay. Yep. Yeah. @misfitcoach: Yeah, but there was no there's no lunge to finish. There's a lunge to finish in twenty-four, right? Yeah. so that part of it is just great to see. And then the other thing that sticks out is going straight into the next. Like I think those being paired together while I'm I'm pretty sure they were both a hundred points. correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know if it tells you on the on the game's leaderboard page, but Those being put together changes the workout, like that kind of thing. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: so event 17, let's actually let's @paige_semenza: They were a hundred. @misfitcoach: look at 16 five minutes and 51 seconds on average for the men, seven minutes and four seconds on average for the women. so honestly the inverse of Fibonacci, overprogrammed for women because of the bite calories, and then @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: we'll get to Fibonacci, but severely underprogrammed. programmed on one side. so we have the 20 shuttle box jumps. did you watch those page? What did you think of those? @paige_semenza: This is this one I did see them. This is one event that I didn't have a chance to watch. I mean athleticism. You find the right like rhythm to @misfitcoach: Sure. Yeah. Yeah, it was fine. @paige_semenza: do it. Yeah. did it seem necessary? No. I feel like you can still get a good stimulus from just a regular box jump over, but @misfitcoach: Yeah, I don't know how much different they would have been @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: with it being thirty-six slash thirty inches. Like you kind of @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: have to go take your momentum off and then jump back over and come to that other side. So I @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: don't know if that's just forcing everybody to do that. but that was interesting, I guess. the seated sled pole. I liked seeing that different styles. worked depending on different athletes. @paige_semenza: Mm. Yeah. @misfitcoach: A few of the athletes that did really well did not lay back at all. They just increased their stroke rate. You know, kind of that like like that seemed to be kind of a differentiator there. and then other athletes went for kind of went for length. so it's cool to see different strategies work out related to that. And the yoke was It was it was fine. Like it felt more like how fast can like how smart are you about how you're gonna put your weights on it going down the lane. Like some athletes @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: were like tossing two plates over here, others were grabbing one and running to each post. It was like all that and I've never been a huge fan of like how good are you at clips. Like that was one thing @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: with the masters games, watching like like, my god, like how's this person gonna do? And and luckily our athletes did well at changing their weights. But when you see someone fumbling @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: around with a clip, you're like, is this fitness? Is this like a supposed to be accuracy or what's going on here? @paige_semenza: Right. Accuracy under pressure. @misfitcoach: Yeah. so I would say both of those workouts were kind of just okay, but jammed together, it was cool to see the capacity. It was cool to see athletes that could do really well on Echo Bike and Thruster and then go to those shuttle box jumps and then some who had a problem. that did well on one, or just the honestly the totality of both of them was just a huge issue. What were the time domains on that? So 417 @paige_semenza: Yeah, it's beefy. @misfitcoach: and 423 @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: were the average times there. All right, the machine 7200. If you listen to this podcast, you know how I feel about the old machines, you know how I feel about seeing the progression there. yeah. Necessary. not even slightly entertaining. Even I clicked right through, you know. I wasn't @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: w I was back home. I had been gone for a week and it was my wife's birthday. So being a little sneaky sneaky on when I was watching. and I was glad that I didn't have to sit through twenty five minutes of rowing and that. but one of those things where the Like how good of an athlete you are and how good you are on a machine in your gym after a rest day, probably not the same thing. Like what like what are the what are the sta what are the standings in that workout if it's done fresh versus @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: that? and I don't know that Jay Crouch isn't great on the machines, but you wouldn't assume that he would be up there with some of the, you know, kind of larger athletes and @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: he was he was right there, with a lot of the top athletes in a workout like that. And that has a lot to do with putting in the volume and, you know, doing your zone I have no clue what his training's like, but doing your zone to work and being ready to like actually finish on a weekend like this, 'cause @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: like you some people start to drop off on these days. And that's why some of these averages @paige_semenza: For sure. @misfitcoach: are pulled in the wrong direction. @paige_semenza: Yeah, I mean I I do like too that like if you're gonna test seventy two hundred meters of running, you're gonna test it in another capacity. So @misfitcoach: Sure. Yep. @paige_semenza: I do I do like to see that. I would I haven't done like the comparison of like how did people do on the trail run versus that, like back @misfitcoach: That's true. @paige_semenza: to back. I'd be interested to know that. @misfitcoach: I'm gonna ask the robot to figure that out. Whoa. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: Average times on the machine 7200, 25 minutes and 42 seconds, 29 minutes and three seconds. event number 19, roll to support amrap. Amrap five minutes, four forward rolls, three backward rolls. I think stuff like this at the games is incredibly important for the progression. It's also funny to think of the way that they tease things like triple unders and backwards rolls. Like we thought we were gonna get way back @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: and our whole crew learned how to do Let's take it over my computer. learned how to do them and I've actually done one. and @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: in the video, I wish I could find it because you could pause and I was head here, feet here, like fully supermanned, because everything @paige_semenza: Ha ha ha. @misfitcoach: we know about the rings is hip extension, and it's actually hip flexion to do a @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: correct backwards roll, as we've learned through all of the gymnastics influencers here in the last few weeks. and so I just like that part of it was was funny to watch because like there were some athletes that were still doing that, just like launching their feet way up back and behind @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: to come through. And that's why when you see people practice them, like they go flying through the rings so many different times. @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: because like you're supposed to stay tight and that shouldn't happen. But you know, if you throw your feet. twenty seven feet up in the air, you're liable to have some momentum coming back down. @paige_semenza: I thought it was also kind of fun to watch someone like Pat, who is a you know, a former gymnast has done rings and like he's like overreaching to a point where he is failing. But like he also knows the movement. So I don't know, it was just kind of cool to see that like someone like him can push and try to get reps and reps. @misfitcoach: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And he's it's funny, I don't remember him being I don't remember him really overdoing a lot of things strategy wise. And I saw a lot of that from him at NorCal and at the games. There was like a fuck it like mentality just going for it in a lot of @paige_semenza: Last year. Yep. @misfitcoach: moments where I don't think if he was still trying to podium, he would do that same thing. So that was kind of fun to watch. He was @paige_semenza: For sure. Yeah. @misfitcoach: finding threshold regularly, like mid @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: workout. Like, okay, I'm just why don't I just do the rest of these? It'll be totally fine. So yeah, I thought that was a cool event. It's intriguing to have it placed there. I think you like the idea of it being fatigued, you know? Like, can these athletes still do this after this? @paige_semenza: Yeah, I was kinda surprised it was. @misfitcoach: Yeah, same. surprised it wasn't one of those one of those first two days. but at the same time, that's cool. It's also just unique, like the final day was machine, like long machine monostructural into that. Like not as much like excitement on the final day until the final. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: so that was that was kind of interesting. What were the the average reps were 13 on the men's side and ten on the women's side in terms of totals there. I don't I think everybody got at least two the backwards rolls. I don't think anybody failed getting getting through those that I saw. @paige_semenza: Correct. Yeah. @misfitcoach: Alright, let's take a look. Let's see what Claude has to say. Jason Hopper was 18th on the trail run and second on the machine. Moritz Fiebig went from 21st to 7th. Tudor Magda, 29th to 16th. Dylan Hamming, 17th to 5th. Those are all big guys. So the big guy on the run. and then The opposite direction. Ricky first to eleventh. Jay Crouch third to tenth. Jeff Adler fourteenth to thirteenth. Jeff definitely looked like the volume of the weekend was @paige_semenza: Yeah, he commented on that too. @misfitcoach: A bit of an issue there. yo, Olivia Kersetter, twenty-fifth to first. There you go. @paige_semenza: Ha ha ha. @misfitcoach: Damn. Paige Rogers, twenty-eighth to @paige_semenza: Love some machines. @misfitcoach: fourteenth, but Paige, I believe, rolled her ankle before the games. Ariel Lowen, 21st to 8th. Ariel Lowen got eighth on that. That is incredible. Little beast. Little @paige_semenza: She's sneaky fit though. Like she's sneaky fit on thing yeah, right. @misfitcoach: beast. That's just physics, though. You'd be sneaky fit, but those damn machines, if you're small, can get in your way. @paige_semenza: True. She's got the capacity. @misfitcoach: Alexis Raptus, 30th to 17th. So 13 place, 13th place improvement there. @paige_semenza: She struggled on the run. @misfitcoach: There's probably an air conditioning joke in there that I will not, absolutely will not touch. best on the trail and the machine, Amy Kringle, first and third, Haley Adams, second and sixth, Ella Wilkinson, third and ninth. So those are the athletes that that were able to to kind of do both there. all right, the final Fibonacci final for the third go-around 5'8 13 deficit handstand push-ups, ridiculously heavy double kettlebell deadlifts. in the 89 foot kettlebell overhead walking lunge. one of the stories here is average men's time, seven minutes and nineteen seconds, average women's time. five minutes and thirty seconds. that has to do with mostly with the deficit on the handstand push-up itself, @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: but then also the weight of the the kettlebell deadlift. the progression on the women's side has I mean across the board has been remarkable, but on the women's side, the women have definitely increased at a faster rate than the men. which happens when there's essentially more room for that to take place. So I don't know. Like, do you think we need the historical context of doing this workout exactly the same again? Or do you update it or you leave it alone and just write a new workout that's similar? Like, I don't know. I @paige_semenza: I mean I guess for like the sake of this being the twentieth year and they did the two thousand seven Hopper as written, like I understand keeping it the same, but yeah, like the that's a it was a six inch deficit difference for men and women. And like the women are just like the you hear Tia say, I I train the way the men's the men train. Like a lot @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. @paige_semenza: of women start doing that kind of stuff and their skills are gonna improve because they have that c like that ceiling is higher for us to to progress, like you said. So @misfitcoach: And that's not really the kind of movement that gets scaled in that way, right? Like normally it's your weighted implement, it's your machine distances, things @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: of that nature. So I mean it's still it's still a great workout. It's it's a muscle endurance on the handstand push-ups. it is such a good final when you watch them do those kettlebelt deadlifts. You can see their nervous system hanging on by a thread. you see you know what happens to that midline stability in that overhead lunge. Like it's definitely a good workout and the lunge to finish is iconic with the CrossFit games. But @paige_semenza: Always. Yeah. @misfitcoach: I don't know. Another one that I would kind of log into. It's fine. It got it was over programmed originally. Fraser came back and said, you know, kind of hold my beer sort of a thing. Like I got I @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: I'll show you guys how to do this. also don't think anybody beat his time. I'd @paige_semenza: No. @misfitcoach: have to go back and look, but I don't believe anybody beat his time. not not shocking. so my question that I had for you early on, because there's so many events, you can probably identify ones where you are the type of athlete that reacts fairly well to like announced on the spot, this is new, I'm gonna go after it. but there's so many things here and so many different things. Can you identify one where you would have been like, All right, let's go and another one where you would have been like, God, like how what are we gonna do here? @paige_semenza: I think there's pieces. Like honestly, the the triple under event, I would be pretty excited for that. I am pretty @misfitcoach: Yeah, I assume so. @paige_semenza: Yeah, like that one and also to get like my own redemption on pig flip when I got smashed in the head for trying the first time. Yeah, instead of learning to clean and jerk it. Yeah, right. @misfitcoach: Yeah, trying to push it instead of fall under it. Yeah. @paige_semenza: but yeah, I think that one would be pretty fun. I like the back half I like event seventeen, like the back half of the Echo Thruster, the jump pull yoke, like there's just the ones @misfitcoach: Yep. Yeah, right. @paige_semenza: that, you know, do test that athleticism. but I I think that I really do like the like the the amount of like having to figure it out in this year's games. I I @misfitcoach: Yeah. Yep. @paige_semenza: really do like that. I I think that people don't understand how much adaptability has to come from like from this itself. @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: Like you can you can train the movements that are all in there, but like in the rep schemes and the formats that they put them in, like there's a lot. There's so much here and like you are It's such a like everything is so stuffed together. You got twenty events in in four different days. So like the amount of work involved in in how much recovery and eating and all that, you know, behind the scenes stuff that you're doing makes so much of a difference. @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. @paige_semenza: and you you know, I think you see it on the leaderboard too. Like you know the athletes that have a ton of experience with high volume, high intensity, and then you have a lot of You look at the newer athletes and you see the back half the leaderboard, you know. So there's a lot that comes with experience, I think, this year. @misfitcoach: And when you have the wrong mentality, the downstream effects of it can take it to a point where you would never expect being in the wrong headspace to knock you like ten spots down a leaderboard. But what can happen is if you had a better attitude, you might have come in twentieth instead of thirtieth. And You might not have been knocked down into the heat that you are, which puts you in even a worse headspace. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: and, you know, there's less people in the stands in those heats. There's less people cheering. and when you don't get that pull and that excitement that you rely on. you can just continue to like make your way down a leaderboard being in the wrong headspace. Whereas another athlete could just have a good attitude and instead of finishing in twentieth, they finish in tenth and they get @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: moved up. And then maybe the stars align in that next one's wheelhouse. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: and there is this crazy story arc to a weekend that happens for all these different reasons. Like one of my biggest narratives with athletes is we do not choose the order of the workouts. Like like damn you paige, but you've qualified in the last second before. a little stressful. And @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: but it wouldn't like it it just you can't let the hardest workout for you of the weekend being first or your hardest day being first like end up being the thing that like derails your entire weekend when you might have @paige_semenza: Yeah, it almost defines your weekend. @misfitcoach: Yeah, you might have this like huge backloaded like strength. Like @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: day three and day four are like all wheelhouse, like that sort of thing. So it's always cool to see the athletes who like what's his name? Dylan Hamming. He was really fun to watch. He just felt like I finally got this opportunity. I've been trying to, you know. And @paige_semenza: Yeah. Just happy to be here. @misfitcoach: His story was interesting because like it's like, it's his first qualification and he's in his he's in his early thirties, but you go back and look and it's like it didn't really seem like he was trying. He seemed like he was team, team, team, like that sort @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: of thing. So, and then the whatever his you know, decathlon background or something like that, like if you can run when you go to the CrossFit games, that's obviously, you know, super helpful. Like he you could just tell that he was a runner in that, like run, hang, squat, clean workout, that sort of deal. @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: So you see somebody like that and you see what can happen with the right attitude. And then you see other athletes that you know are capable of X, Y, and Z, but a narrative develops over the course of the weekend and then it's Everything just becomes downhill even though it shouldn't be, even though it's, you know, @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: mixed really well and you know, there's there's a good mix of programming, that sort of thing. @paige_semenza: Yeah, like I in just kind of a name off the top of my head, I I haven't seen any like recap from him or anything like that, I don't follow. But like Austin Hatfield, like you have someone like him who, you know, has been up and coming the last what two or three years and it's like there's a lot @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. @paige_semenza: of eyes on him and he ends up in fifteenth. So it's like you wonder what his mindset was at the beginning of the weekend when, you know, he on like he finished the first day with a twentieth and a twenty sixth place. So @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: it's like you you have that the start of the weekend and and then, you know, it could @misfitcoach: Is the regression after that moment or is it really the whole test? Yeah, like it could be a momentum @paige_semenza: Right. Just the totality, yeah, right. So it's interesting. @misfitcoach: momentum kind of athlete. Yeah, @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: there's probably a lot. And I I think it would be fun to do a little bit more of the athlete and kind of narrative driven stuff, but there's @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: conflict of interest and then also just nobody understands. what they're going through to the level that you do and then how I sort of, you know, feel that through the athletes that I've coached over the years. and then there's like the whole man slash woman in the arena thing. Like, you can go ahead and shut the fuck up if you don't actually know, right? Like to a certain extent, like, @paige_semenza: Yeah. Yeah. @misfitcoach: I don't really want to fucking hear it from this person. Because a lot of the people that talk of talk about this sport, not only have never done it, but they've never coached it, they've never programmed it, and they're like a glorified spectator in a way. @paige_semenza: The coaching side of a weekend like this, you have 20 events. Like you're not just coaching the athlete to physically be ready for an event, but you have to be ready for like the emotional toll that it's gonna take on the athlete @misfitcoach: yeah. @paige_semenza: too. Like there's so much more to a coach's hat when it comes to the games. Or, you know, you could say about s you know, semi-finals or or whatever, but like twenty events, having to bring your best to every single event. And then like having to, you know, be the thermostat for the athlete is @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: incredibly challenging. Like, I don't know, just @misfitcoach: And you also there's there's no handbook there either because what athletes @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: need from you, every single athlete is different and then you think you have them figured out and you put them in an entirely different situation and you have to figure that portion of it out. And @paige_semenza: Yep. Yeah. @misfitcoach: athletes not only respond different athletes respond to different forms of communication, they respond to different forms of communication in different moments. @paige_semenza: Yeah, for sure. @misfitcoach: And as a coach, just like as an athlete, like, you know, something that'll be a a part of our educational platform, like the coach's athlete IQ, or the coaches IQ side. Like, like @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: how do all of your experiences color the way that you do things? Or do you just have it set in stone and this is who I am and the athlete needs to adapt to me? And I'll give you a little bit of a spoiler, that's not gonna work all that well. Yes, they are. @paige_semenza: They're gonna say, see you later. @misfitcoach: I liked it. I liked that, you know, one of the things that we didn't talk about was on the men's side. 27 point victory over 20 events. That's tight. @paige_semenza: Close. Yeah. @misfitcoach: That's very tight. And I enjoy when that happens. I enjoy when there's like hey, if you if you overshoot this and you get stuck on these deficit handstand push ups, you're gonna lose the CrossFit games. we @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. Yeah. @misfitcoach: love the, you know, the Michael Jordan thing, the like, watch this, I'm just gonna like go dominate. And that's kind of in in and of itself, and you start being like, okay, you know, is Emma gonna hold on to second place? That sort of deal. So you get the multiple narratives, which is nice. but yeah, I As a total test, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the way that they kind of went all in on the 20th year kind of thing. @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: And I'm grateful that I could watch it and enjoy it from the point of view that I was in. because again, I kind of lost that a little bit in the middle of my career. just with how often I was at events coaching, with you know, being obsessed with how many subscribers and followers and all of that do we have. And get a little bit lost in the sauce. So to be able to come back around and be a fan of all of it has been enjoyable the last couple years. @paige_semenza: Yeah, I think it's like it's kind of ironic 'cause they kinda went back to their roots. So you're kind of feeling back to your roots, right? @misfitcoach: Sure, yeah. @paige_semenza: yeah, I thought I mean I thought it was satisfying. It it felt complete. I feel like the athletes had to manage every aspect of what the CrossFit games asks for. Your fitness, @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. @paige_semenza: your adaptability, your emotional reset side of it, like the coaching, the @misfitcoach: Seriously. @paige_semenza: support team. Like I I just felt like the the fueling, you know, staying staying fed and like all of that and and staying on top of like your recovery protocols. I thought it asked for like every aspect of it. so, you know, obviously I'm sure the athletes do have things that the the the tight turnarounds, the I'm sure I you know, I've seen some things about judging and lack @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: of warm up stuff implements, things like that. But but still, I mean the test itself I thought was was yeah, satisfying for sure. @misfitcoach: Truth. All right. we are gonna save the rest of any of the things that we have @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: for the next episode. if you made it this far, congratulations on being as much of a nerd as I am and and maybe Paige is Paige is forced to stay for this period of time. So you'd have to ask her afterwards. But yeah, @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: I we're starting a new one. We're turning over, we're going for year twenty one. @paige_semenza: Go. @misfitcoach: So yep, let's do it. All right. Do we do it? @paige_semenza: I've s we did it. @misfitcoach: Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Misfit Podcast and thank you to our show sponsor, GorillaMind, GorillaMind.com forward slash Misfit. Use the code word misfit at checkout. You save on the best supplements in the game. and we get a kickback to support the show and make sure that it stays free forever. reverse shout out to my wife for drinking all of my energy drinks. I @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: will remind myself to check the stock a week ahead of my next podcast. See you guys next week.