Latest / Clydesdale Media Podcast / Max Krieg | The Clydesdale Media Semifinalist Series

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Max Krieg | The Clydesdale Media Semifinalist Series · Clydesdale Media Podcast

• 0:12
  I was born to kill it.
• 0:16
  I was meant to win.
• 0:17
  I am down and willing,
• 0:19
  so I will find a way.
• 0:20
  It took a minute,
• 0:21
  now it didn't happen right away.
• 0:23
  When it get hot in the kitchen,
• 0:24
  you decide to stay.
• 0:25
  That's how it win us, man.
• 0:35
  What is going on, everybody?
• 0:36
  Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast,
• 0:40
  presenting the athletes of
• 0:41
  the semifinals.
• 0:43
  Today,
• 0:43
  we are so privileged to have with us
• 0:45
  Max Krieg.
• 0:46
  Max, what's going on, man?
• 0:48
  Not much.
• 0:48
  Thank you for having me on the show.
• 0:50
  Yeah, excited to have you on.
• 0:53
  It's funny, last year,
• 0:54
  my co-host for my Thursday night show,
• 0:56
  Jamie Latimer,
• 0:58
  had you pegged as her dark
• 1:02
  horse to make the games
• 1:03
  last year out of semifinals.
• 1:04
  Yes.
• 1:06
  Wow.
• 1:07
  And so because of that,
• 1:08
  we watched you very closely
• 1:10
  last year at semis.
• 1:13
  And she actually interviewed
• 1:15
  you after one of the events.
• 1:16
  I don't know if you remember that.
• 1:18
  I do.
• 1:19
  I was,
• 1:19
  I was pretty smoked and I probably
• 1:21
  didn't make much sense of the interview,
• 1:23
  but I remember it.
• 1:24
  Yeah.
• 1:25
  I,
• 1:25
  if I remember you still had your ruck on
• 1:27
  from the ruck muscle up workout, right?
• 1:30
  Yup.
• 1:30
  Yeah.
• 1:31
  Yeah.
• 1:34
  What I find fascinating with you,
• 1:35
  and this has nothing to do with CrossFit,
• 1:37
  is you look completely
• 1:38
  different with the mustache
• 1:40
  than without the mustache.
• 1:43
  Thank you.
• 1:43
  Yeah,
• 1:44
  this is only two weeks strong right now.
• 1:47
  I'm calling it my semifinal stache.
• 1:49
  I had one last year.
• 1:52
  I'll grow it out every once
• 1:53
  in a while just for fun.
• 1:55
  I'm in the military,
• 1:56
  so we can't really grow out
• 1:58
  much facial hair except for a mustache,
• 2:00
  so it's fun to grow it out
• 2:02
  every once in a while.
• 2:03
  I grew it out last year.
• 2:06
  It exceeded my expectations at semifinals,
• 2:09
  so I figured I'd grow it
• 2:10
  out again this year and see what happens.
• 2:14
  Jake Chapman says,
• 2:15
  Max looks like a World War
• 2:16
  II Army captain called John Stanley.
• 2:18
  Yeah.
• 2:21
  Thanks, Jake.
• 2:24
  We also have a guy in the chat.
• 2:25
  I don't know if you know him,
• 2:26
  Corey Leonard.
• 2:26
  Yeah, I just love that guy.
• 2:29
  And we'll probably see him
• 2:31
  this weekend at Franco's.
• 2:33
  Yep.
• 2:35
  I will be there.
• 2:36
  So Corey's been a longtime listener.
• 2:39
  He was actually my roommate
• 2:40
  at the Masters Fitness
• 2:41
  Collective when I got to
• 2:44
  kind of see his first ever
• 2:46
  big competition.
• 2:48
  And we couldn't be more
• 2:48
  stoked that he's actually
• 2:49
  going to get to compete in
• 2:52
  semifinals in the Masters
• 2:54
  Division this weekend.
• 2:55
  Yeah, that's awesome.
• 2:56
  I'm excited to see him throw down.
• 2:58
  Yeah.
• 3:00
  What a funny guy.
• 3:00
  So I don't know if you've heard of...
• 3:06
  The Southland competitors
• 3:07
  camp that Brandon Luckett puts on,
• 3:10
  I met and, uh,
• 3:12
  somehow me and him always
• 3:14
  end up sitting next to each
• 3:15
  other during the seminars.
• 3:16
  And we're just, we're just bust.
• 3:19
  Like we're just having a
• 3:19
  good time the whole time,
• 3:21
  just messed around and he's
• 3:22
  a fun guy to be around.
• 3:24
  So that's truly how Corey
• 3:26
  and I kind of got to know
• 3:27
  each other's through the
• 3:28
  Southland Southland group.
• 3:30
  And the way I know the
• 3:31
  Southland group is I live
• 3:33
  three miles from Rudy burger.
• 3:35
  Okay.
• 3:36
  And so I covered him last
• 3:38
  season through the open and semifinals,
• 3:43
  did little mini documentaries of that.
• 3:46
  And he talked about the
• 3:48
  group down at Southland and
• 3:50
  how him and Lynette go down
• 3:51
  there and hang out with
• 3:53
  Brandon and the crew and
• 3:55
  how much they love it.
• 3:56
  And that's how I got introduced to Corey.
• 3:59
  And then we actually met in
• 4:00
  person for the first time
• 4:02
  at Masters Fitness Collective.
• 4:04
  okay awesome well yeah small
• 4:07
  world and uh funny that you
• 4:09
  say that um the burgers are
• 4:11
  awesome I i met them at
• 4:15
  competitors camp I think
• 4:16
  three three competitors
• 4:17
  camps ago I saw him at
• 4:19
  water palooza briefly and
• 4:20
  then um some of the most
• 4:22
  recent competitors camp and
• 4:25
  when I was doing
• 4:26
  quarterfinals this year um
• 4:29
  A couple people recommended
• 4:30
  that I get a coach,
• 4:31
  and I haven't had a coach up until,
• 4:35
  I mean, very recently.
• 4:37
  And so I'm a very analytical person,
• 4:39
  and I appreciate people who
• 4:42
  are very analytical at
• 4:43
  sport and kind of a student of the sport.
• 4:45
  And so when I was thinking
• 4:47
  about getting a coach,
• 4:48
  the first person I thought
• 4:49
  of was Lynette.
• 4:50
  And I'm sure, like, as you've, like,
• 4:52
  interviewed and talked to
• 4:54
  Rudy and kind of, like,
• 4:56
  um seeing their their
• 4:57
  process their their coach
• 4:59
  athlete relationship
• 5:00
  obviously they're married
• 5:02
  um but like the way that
• 5:04
  Lynette approaches the
• 5:05
  coaching process and the
• 5:07
  way she analyzes everything
• 5:09
  that Rudy does um she was
• 5:11
  the first person that that
• 5:13
  came in my mind so very
• 5:15
  recently I reached out to
• 5:17
  her I think like a week
• 5:18
  week and a half ago
• 5:20
  And so she's actually going
• 5:22
  to be coming out to
• 5:22
  semifinals with me to be my coach.
• 5:26
  I'm super excited to work with her.
• 5:27
  And so far,
• 5:28
  we've just been talking back and forth,
• 5:30
  texting, and she's awesome.
• 5:35
  Wow.
• 5:38
  That's awesome.
• 5:39
  She is.
• 5:39
  She's one of the most
• 5:40
  analytical people I've ever met.
• 5:44
  She always says when I talk to her,
• 5:46
  you know how we're data driven.
• 5:48
  Like I think she prefaces
• 5:51
  every statement with that.
• 5:52
  And I'm actually going to be
• 5:54
  over there with them this weekend.
• 5:56
  While you're hanging out with Corey,
• 5:57
  I'll be hanging out with them.
• 6:00
  just I look when we because
• 6:03
  we do like new shows I need
• 6:05
  to see the workouts to be
• 6:06
  able to talk about them and
• 6:08
  who better to watch do the
• 6:09
  work the age group workouts
• 6:12
  than two-time champ rudy
• 6:13
  burger could agree more
• 6:16
  yeah so I'm gonna hang out
• 6:17
  with them this weekend and
• 6:19
  that's super cool um so
• 6:22
  yeah she's she's the best
• 6:25
  and she leaves no stone
• 6:26
  unturned for sure yeah
• 6:30
  Um, so,
• 6:31
  and didn't she program the last
• 6:34
  competitors camp?
• 6:38
  Um,
• 6:39
  I don't know if it was her or Brandon
• 6:40
  or a mix between the two.
• 6:41
  Yeah.
• 6:47
  So just, uh, so follow up stuff.
• 6:48
  Corey said,
• 6:49
  it's great when you guys hang
• 6:50
  out cause we don't pay
• 6:51
  attention to shit and that
• 6:53
  gets to the shit that gets said,
• 6:55
  but we have fun.
• 6:57
  Yeah.
• 6:58
  Sounds like Corey.
• 7:00
  yeah um and he also echoes
• 7:04
  lynette is the best cannot
• 7:05
  express how awesome she is
• 7:09
  there was a group that came
• 7:10
  up to mfc with corey and
• 7:13
  lynette took them all under
• 7:14
  her wing and made sure they
• 7:16
  were all fed that they were
• 7:17
  all eating right that they
• 7:19
  were all getting taken care
• 7:20
  of even though they didn't
• 7:21
  have any coaches with them
• 7:22
  that weekend um that's just who she is so
• 7:30
  How did you find that
• 7:33
  competitor's camp down there?
• 7:34
  How did you get pulled in?
• 7:37
  And why is it such a good thing for you?
• 7:40
  So I got pulled in from one
• 7:44
  of my buddies that I work
• 7:46
  out at Panama City CrossFit with,
• 7:49
  Tyler Hill.
• 7:51
  Um, and he's,
• 7:53
  he's a photographer in the
• 7:54
  CrossFit space.
• 7:56
  Um, he's very tapped in, um,
• 7:58
  to everything that's going on.
• 8:01
  Um, as you can tell from my Instagram, I'm,
• 8:03
  I'm pretty bad at social media.
• 8:04
  And, uh, so I often rely on others to,
• 8:08
  to kind of like keep me up
• 8:10
  to speed with what's going on.
• 8:12
  Um, he knew that I was someone who, um,
• 8:16
  had high aspirations for CrossFit.
• 8:20
  And he kind of saw how,
• 8:23
  like I was analytical about
• 8:24
  things and I was pretty
• 8:27
  deliberate with the process.
• 8:29
  When he saw this competitor's camp pop up,
• 8:31
  he brought it up to me.
• 8:32
  He said like, hey,
• 8:33
  this is something I think
• 8:34
  you'd really like.
• 8:36
  So me,
• 8:37
  him and his wife went to the first
• 8:39
  competitor's camp or our
• 8:41
  first competitor's camp.
• 8:42
  I think it was the second
• 8:43
  one that they hosted.
• 8:43
  And
• 8:47
  um met met brandon met the
• 8:49
  whole team there met met
• 8:51
  roy the owner of the of
• 8:53
  crossfit francos and um met
• 8:56
  a lot of great athletes um
• 8:58
  like scott tella was there
• 9:01
  um who else was there uh
• 9:04
  bill lahey was there alexis
• 9:06
  johnson was one of the
• 9:08
  coaches helping out and so
• 9:09
  this was really
• 9:11
  the,
• 9:11
  my first exposure to high level
• 9:14
  CrossFit athletes and being
• 9:15
  able to like pick their brain, um,
• 9:19
  for an extended period of time, um,
• 9:21
  and really like tap into
• 9:22
  some of that knowledge.
• 9:23
  And, um, yeah, I, I try to take it, um,
• 9:26
  as much advantage as I could.
• 9:29
  And so I would say to answer
• 9:30
  your second question, like how it, like,
• 9:32
  what did that competitors
• 9:33
  can't mean to me?
• 9:35
  Um, it, I mean,
• 9:38
  I wouldn't be where I am
• 9:39
  right now without the competitors camp.
• 9:42
  And I would say mostly like
• 9:45
  without Brandon Luckett.
• 9:47
  I'm someone who does better
• 9:50
  if I have people to the
• 9:51
  left and the right of me pushing me.
• 9:53
  And I knew that.
• 9:56
  with the upcoming quarterfinals.
• 9:58
  So this was in quarterfinals
• 10:00
  in 2023 last year.
• 10:02
  I asked for that reason,
• 10:04
  I asked Brandon if I could
• 10:06
  do the quarterfinals with him.
• 10:07
  He said, absolutely,
• 10:09
  you can stay in my house.
• 10:11
  And this is like, I had met him for,
• 10:13
  I had known him for like three hours.
• 10:15
  He's like, yeah,
• 10:16
  I'd do the quarterfinals with me,
• 10:17
  stay at my house, which was awesome.
• 10:21
  And so
• 10:23
  Yeah,
• 10:23
  I just got to got to know Brandon
• 10:25
  better and the community
• 10:28
  around that competitors camp.
• 10:31
  And since then,
• 10:31
  like it's just been a
• 10:32
  really good family and just
• 10:36
  group of people with a lot
• 10:38
  of knowledge in the space
• 10:39
  that I've been able to tap
• 10:41
  into and learn from.
• 10:44
  so the more I'm learning
• 10:46
  about this group and I've
• 10:47
  met a lot of them,
• 10:49
  it's almost like CrossFit for nerds.
• 10:52
  Like, I think I'd fit right in.
• 10:53
  Like,
• 10:54
  like Alexis Johnson is like
• 10:56
  supercomputer math whiz, right?
• 10:59
  Brandon is super analytical.
• 11:01
  The burgers, we've talked about them.
• 11:02
  Um, even Scott Tetlow is very,
• 11:05
  like he is so regimented
• 11:07
  because he has so little time.
• 11:09
  His efficiency is like through the roof.
• 11:12
  Um,
• 11:15
  Is it a bunch of like-minded
• 11:16
  people like that?
• 11:18
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 11:20
  Then how the hell does Corey fit in?
• 11:22
  No, I'm just kidding.
• 11:23
  I don't know who gave him an
• 11:25
  invite to that camp.
• 11:29
  Well, that's super cool.
• 11:30
  And people like Brandon
• 11:33
  don't come around every day
• 11:35
  to have just dudes that are that good.
• 11:40
  How cool is it to see how
• 11:41
  well he's doing this season?
• 11:44
  I thought he was supposed to be retired.
• 11:47
  I think he's retired like
• 11:49
  three or four times now.
• 11:51
  But then he just realizes
• 11:52
  how much he loves it.
• 11:53
  I mean,
• 11:54
  he's more of a competitor than
• 11:56
  anyone I know.
• 11:57
  So he just – he loves getting after it.
• 12:01
  And I think every time he
• 12:03
  thinks he's at the end of
• 12:04
  the road and he wants to retire,
• 12:06
  then he just is reminded
• 12:07
  like how much he likes
• 12:08
  competing and then –
• 12:09
  He's back in it.
• 12:10
  And so it's really cool to
• 12:12
  see him at the top of
• 12:13
  leaderboard for both the
• 12:14
  open and the quarterfinals.
• 12:16
  And these these semifinals
• 12:18
  workouts are get the workouts.
• 12:21
  This whole CrossFit season
• 12:22
  so far have been like
• 12:24
  pretty basic and gritty.
• 12:25
  And that's where Brandon thrives.
• 12:29
  And I don't think it's any
• 12:31
  different with the
• 12:32
  semifinals workouts for the most part.
• 12:35
  And so, I mean,
• 12:36
  I think he's going to
• 12:36
  thrive at semifinals as well.
• 12:39
  Yeah.
• 12:39
  With this year's semifinals,
• 12:41
  it's so old school CrossFit.
• 12:45
  Like there's no pulling
• 12:47
  weights on a napkin.
• 12:48
  There's no, um, weird rock muscle ups.
• 12:52
  There's, there's no like new movements.
• 12:55
  It is just good old fashioned triplets,
• 12:58
  couplets and get after it.
• 13:00
  Go dark.
• 13:02
  Yep.
• 13:04
  Do you think that plays to your favor?
• 13:06
  I do for the most part.
• 13:08
  Um,
• 13:09
  It's I think I do.
• 13:12
  I think I do best in the workouts that, um,
• 13:16
  where like you really have
• 13:17
  to hurt for the most part.
• 13:19
  Um, like historically I've done good with,
• 13:22
  uh, just like basic movements,
• 13:24
  especially like on machines.
• 13:27
  Um,
• 13:27
  maybe being a bigger athlete helps as
• 13:29
  well.
• 13:30
  Uh,
• 13:32
  So yeah,
• 13:33
  I think that part of my game will
• 13:38
  be beneficial with like the
• 13:39
  workouts that we see at semifinals.
• 13:41
  I will also say that I enjoy
• 13:45
  like brand new things that
• 13:47
  come out because I think I,
• 13:50
  like relative to the field,
• 13:51
  I adapt pretty well to like
• 13:53
  brand new things that come out.
• 13:56
  So like in quarterfinals,
• 13:59
  I liked it when they did the
• 14:00
  crossovers for the first time.
• 14:02
  I liked the fact that there
• 14:03
  was a rock for the muscle ups.
• 14:07
  So yeah, I guess it's kind of,
• 14:10
  that's kind of a gray answer.
• 14:12
  I do.
• 14:12
  And I don't,
• 14:15
  this is going to be a weird question.
• 14:17
  Do you think you'd be a
• 14:18
  better games athlete than a
• 14:19
  semifinal athlete?
• 14:24
  Maybe I think, I mean, like,
• 14:28
  Looking at my background,
• 14:29
  I played field sports growing up.
• 14:34
  I don't have any fitness in my background.
• 14:39
  I wasn't a gymnast.
• 14:40
  I wasn't an Olympic lifter.
• 14:43
  So I think those types of things,
• 14:46
  if people have a background
• 14:49
  with fitness-related things,
• 14:53
  they do better.
• 14:55
  um, in the gym.
• 14:56
  And then I would say with my background,
• 14:58
  I do better when we like
• 14:59
  start to get outside of the gym.
• 15:01
  Um, especially like the past few years,
• 15:04
  like if they have the
• 15:05
  amount of running that they
• 15:06
  have at the games, like I, I like to run.
• 15:09
  Um, so like that, I like to swim.
• 15:12
  Like if they were to do some,
• 15:14
  some like stuff like, uh,
• 15:17
  like paddle boarding or kayaking,
• 15:18
  I think I would do pretty well at that.
• 15:21
  Um, so I think so.
• 15:25
  And I think the
• 15:26
  underestimated part of the
• 15:28
  games are it's a long weekend.
• 15:31
  It's a longer weekend than
• 15:32
  any other competition
• 15:33
  you're going to go to.
• 15:34
  And you're going to have ups
• 15:35
  and downs throughout that weekend.
• 15:37
  And if you've played team sports,
• 15:40
  that's generally something
• 15:41
  you've had to endure at
• 15:43
  some point in your life.
• 15:45
  Yeah,
• 15:46
  definitely had my fair shares of ups
• 15:48
  and downs.
• 15:49
  Yeah.
• 15:50
  And so I just, I think people,
• 15:52
  I don't know,
• 15:53
  I've listened to a lot of
• 15:53
  Rich Froning in the past 24 hours, and,
• 15:56
  like, he's a big team sports guy,
• 15:58
  and it seems like that
• 16:02
  helped him a tremendous
• 16:03
  amount when he was competing.
• 16:06
  Yeah.
• 16:09
  I think Corey just wants to
• 16:10
  take over the interview,
• 16:11
  but he said the Taylor
• 16:12
  Swift shirts he works out
• 16:13
  in also help him a bunch.
• 16:16
  Yeah, they give me special powers.
• 16:19
  you a swifty absolutely not
• 16:22
  and not a recent swifty I
• 16:25
  was old school um yeah
• 16:27
  sophomore year of high
• 16:27
  school is when I really got
• 16:30
  to taylor swift we'd always
• 16:31
  listen to her during art
• 16:32
  class and then uh that's
• 16:34
  when my my love for taylor
• 16:37
  grew I was part of the t
• 16:39
  swift appreciation society
• 16:40
  in high school i
• 16:42
  No, no big deal.
• 16:44
  And then when I met my wife, Meg, she like,
• 16:49
  I think I'm a pretty big Swifty,
• 16:50
  but she's much more than I am.
• 16:53
  She's always at the top of
• 16:54
  the Spotify charts,
• 16:56
  like 0.5% of the listeners every year.
• 17:00
  And so I think that's
• 17:03
  something that like we connected with.
• 17:04
  And then,
• 17:06
  so we just listened to Taylor
• 17:07
  Swift all the time.
• 17:09
  Are you a Chiefs fan now?
• 17:12
  um I'm a I appreciate
• 17:15
  greatness so out nothing to
• 17:19
  do with t swift but I like
• 17:22
  I like greatness and I i
• 17:24
  really appreciate people
• 17:26
  that can repeatedly win at
• 17:29
  a high level um more so
• 17:31
  than like an underdog um so
• 17:34
  for that reason I like the chiefs
• 17:38
  they might have NFL might
• 17:39
  have overdid the whole like
• 17:41
  media with T Swift and
• 17:44
  Travis so yeah I must be
• 17:47
  opposite of you because I'm
• 17:48
  a Chicago Bears fan and I
• 17:50
  haven't seen greatness in
• 17:51
  30 years stay strong I'm
• 17:57
  hoping this could be the
• 17:59
  year I've said that in
• 18:00
  other years but it is
• 18:03
  actually looking good for a change
• 18:06
  Um, so back to you, um,
• 18:10
  I don't even know where we were.
• 18:12
  So you're active military.
• 18:14
  You were part of the army
• 18:15
  warrior fitness group.
• 18:16
  Are you still a part of that?
• 18:20
  What does that mean?
• 18:21
  It it's become so popular and I mean,
• 18:25
  I've seen them at, um,
• 18:27
  I live here in Columbus, Ohio.
• 18:29
  I've seen them at the Army
• 18:30
  or the Arnold Fitness Expo
• 18:32
  come do competitions here.
• 18:34
  What's it like to travel
• 18:35
  just doing fitness?
• 18:38
  It's pretty cool.
• 18:39
  So...
• 18:40
  The team has two components to it.
• 18:43
  They have in-person athletes.
• 18:46
  So those are athletes
• 18:47
  stationed at Fort Knox that
• 18:48
  fall under recruiting command.
• 18:50
  And then they have at-large athletes.
• 18:52
  I'm currently an at-large athlete.
• 18:54
  With that,
• 18:55
  you continue to do whatever job
• 18:58
  you have in the military.
• 19:00
  Um, but you can go on, uh,
• 19:03
  on trips that the military
• 19:04
  will fund that the army will fund, um,
• 19:06
  to support the warrior fitness team.
• 19:09
  Um,
• 19:09
  so I'm not like in an in-person athlete
• 19:12
  yet.
• 19:12
  That'll be my next assignment, um,
• 19:14
  in August.
• 19:15
  Um, but yeah, it's,
• 19:17
  it's a really cool
• 19:18
  experience to be a part of
• 19:19
  the warrior fitness team.
• 19:21
  uh like I said we fall under
• 19:23
  recruiting command and
• 19:24
  really like the whole the
• 19:26
  whole point of it um is to
• 19:27
  show people that are
• 19:29
  interested in joining the military that
• 19:32
  it's a lot more than just
• 19:35
  suiting up and going on the
• 19:36
  front lines and shooting.
• 19:39
  The people in the military
• 19:40
  are normal people just like me and you.
• 19:43
  They have hobbies just like me and you.
• 19:45
  And there's a lot of
• 19:46
  opportunities other than
• 19:49
  that small tunnel that
• 19:54
  vision that people get when
• 19:55
  they think this is the only
• 19:57
  thing in the Army.
• 19:59
  What is your current occupation?
• 20:02
  I'm a diver.
• 20:04
  Nice.
• 20:06
  And are you in the panhandle?
• 20:09
  Yeah,
• 20:10
  right now I'm stationed at NSA Panama
• 20:13
  City at the Navy dive school here.
• 20:16
  Okay.
• 20:18
  So are you Army or Navy?
• 20:21
  I'm Army.
• 20:22
  Okay.
• 20:23
  But stationed at a Navy base.
• 20:26
  Yeah.
• 20:26
  So pretty much every
• 20:29
  military diver goes through the,
• 20:32
  it's called NDSTC,
• 20:33
  Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center.
• 20:36
  here in Panama City.
• 20:37
  The only exceptions to that
• 20:39
  are Navy SEALs who go
• 20:40
  through their training in San Diego,
• 20:42
  and then Army Combat Divers
• 20:44
  that go through a separate
• 20:47
  school in Key West.
• 20:48
  But everyone else,
• 20:49
  so that includes Army Engineer Divers,
• 20:52
  which is what I do, Navy Divers,
• 20:55
  Navy EOD Divers, Marine Combatant Divers.
• 21:00
  uh,
• 21:00
  air force combat divers and coast guard
• 21:03
  divers.
• 21:03
  They all come through NDSTC.
• 21:06
  And so it's a really cool
• 21:07
  melting pot of a bunch of
• 21:08
  different branches,
• 21:09
  a bunch of different types of jobs.
• 21:11
  Um, because at the end of the day,
• 21:13
  military diving is military diving.
• 21:16
  Um,
• 21:17
  so mostly everyone goes through the
• 21:20
  same basic curriculum to
• 21:21
  start out and then we'll
• 21:23
  branch off and do our, um, specific, uh,
• 21:26
  specialties.
• 21:29
  Are you still in training or
• 21:30
  have you actually done it
• 21:32
  as part of your job already?
• 21:34
  I've done it.
• 21:34
  So,
• 21:35
  so I went through dive school back in
• 21:38
  2018.
• 21:38
  Um, and then I've, I've been a diver since,
• 21:42
  um, and right now I'm back here, um,
• 21:45
  as an instructor.
• 21:48
  That's really cool.
• 21:48
  I was a collegiate swimmer,
• 21:51
  and I always wanted to do
• 21:54
  some diving and just never
• 21:56
  was in a location where it made sense.
• 22:00
  I've taken some classes and
• 22:02
  done it in a pool,
• 22:03
  but never in the ocean.
• 22:05
  You got to go.
• 22:06
  That's awesome.
• 22:09
  My cousin, who's like a brother to me,
• 22:12
  is in the Navy stationed in Pensacola.
• 22:14
  Okay.
• 22:16
  So what, an hour from you guys?
• 22:18
  Yeah, two hours or so, two and a half.
• 22:24
  But he ended up getting sick
• 22:27
  on a dive and had to stop.
• 22:30
  Oh, really?
• 22:30
  Like he got the bends,
• 22:32
  decompression sickness?
• 22:35
  Yeah,
• 22:35
  and he ended up working for the Naval
• 22:38
  Hospital in Pensacola.
• 22:41
  Okay.
• 22:44
  So, yeah.
• 22:45
  So we get into this season.
• 22:47
  You're coming off last year where, again,
• 22:49
  I think I told you maybe
• 22:52
  before we got online that my co-host,
• 22:53
  Jamie,
• 22:54
  picked you as a dark horse to come
• 22:57
  out of the West.
• 22:58
  And so we were watching you very closely.
• 23:00
  Yeah.
• 23:01
  And you were close to getting that shot.
• 23:04
  There wasn't a huge point
• 23:05
  difference away from you qualifying.
• 23:08
  What have you changed in the
• 23:09
  offseason to give you that
• 23:11
  better shot at making the games?
• 23:17
  I analyzed my performances
• 23:20
  throughout the year and
• 23:22
  kind of saw the things that
• 23:25
  I – like major weaknesses –
• 23:29
  And these are things that
• 23:31
  that I kind of already knew,
• 23:32
  but just like competing on
• 23:34
  a big stage like semifinals
• 23:36
  and then and then seeing
• 23:37
  where you where you fall
• 23:40
  compared to some of the big
• 23:41
  boys out there kind of just
• 23:44
  like reemphasis
• 23:45
  reemphasizes the things you
• 23:46
  need to work on.
• 23:48
  um yeah so so I did that I
• 23:51
  reached out to several
• 23:53
  people that again I thought
• 23:57
  do a very good job of being
• 23:58
  students of the game that
• 24:01
  was brent fukowski patrick
• 24:04
  velner and then josh who's
• 24:07
  one of the coaches at hwpo
• 24:10
  um I can't remember his last
• 24:11
  name right now um and and
• 24:13
  just like show them like my
• 24:15
  performances and and these
• 24:17
  these are my strengths and
• 24:18
  weaknesses what I think I
• 24:19
  need to work on and then
• 24:20
  just and brandon luckett um
• 24:22
  obviously reach out to him
• 24:24
  uh just kind of get some
• 24:26
  insight on um some of the
• 24:28
  the strategies that they've
• 24:30
  used to tackle their
• 24:31
  weaknesses and and see what
• 24:32
  their recommendations were um
• 24:35
  and specifically if you look
• 24:38
  at my performances at
• 24:40
  semi-finals the snatch
• 24:41
  event was my worst event
• 24:44
  and then followed by the uh
• 24:47
  the event that had overhead
• 24:49
  squats rowing um pirouettes
• 24:52
  um handstand push-ups rope
• 24:54
  climbs um so overhead
• 24:56
  endurance has always been
• 24:57
  something that I've struggled with
• 25:00
  And so I tackled that by
• 25:03
  taking a break from CrossFit.
• 25:07
  I did Olympic lifting pretty
• 25:10
  much like I didn't touch a
• 25:11
  Metcon from the end of
• 25:13
  semifinals until December.
• 25:17
  I did a few Olympic lifting cycles.
• 25:20
  I reached out to a local
• 25:21
  weightlifting coach here, Aaron Paley.
• 25:25
  Shout out to him.
• 25:25
  He's awesome.
• 25:27
  And I, I worked with him, um, and then,
• 25:30
  so I would do that in the
• 25:33
  morning and in the afternoon,
• 25:34
  I would do different like
• 25:35
  gymnastics progressions on
• 25:37
  things that I need to work on.
• 25:38
  So, like I said,
• 25:39
  overhead endurance is
• 25:40
  something that I've
• 25:40
  struggled with in the past.
• 25:42
  Um,
• 25:42
  so anything from like handstand walking
• 25:44
  to handstand pushups, um,
• 25:47
  ring muscle ups or
• 25:48
  something I've struggled in the past.
• 25:49
  So I did a lot of work with those, um,
• 25:51
  and try to like break that
• 25:52
  down and strengthen
• 25:53
  different aspects of that movement.
• 25:55
  Um,
• 25:57
  Something that Brent
• 25:58
  Fikowski brought up is that
• 26:02
  my mobility is not the best.
• 26:05
  So if you think about it,
• 26:07
  like if I'm doing a handstand walk,
• 26:09
  because I'm not completely stacked,
• 26:13
  my movement is a lot less
• 26:14
  efficient than someone like
• 26:15
  Danielle Brandon,
• 26:16
  who's like perfectly stacked.
• 26:21
  And so I worked a lot on
• 26:22
  overhead mobility this off season.
• 26:24
  Um, and just like mobility all around.
• 26:26
  Like if you look at my snatch,
• 26:28
  like my ability to get down into the hole,
• 26:30
  isn't, isn't as good as a lot of athletes,
• 26:32
  which means that I have to
• 26:33
  pull the bar an extra couple inches.
• 26:36
  Um,
• 26:36
  so just like the little things like that.
• 26:39
  Um,
• 26:39
  so really try to hammer those
• 26:40
  weaknesses and then come December.
• 26:43
  Um,
• 26:43
  I started incorporating more CrossFit
• 26:45
  style training and Metcons, um,
• 26:48
  hop back on to, I followed, um,
• 26:51
  I followed my hand programming.
• 26:53
  Um, so followed back on, uh,
• 26:55
  onto Mayhem programming and
• 26:56
  started doing that in
• 26:58
  preparation for the season.
• 27:02
  And then the other thing was
• 27:05
  just my lack of experience
• 27:06
  with CrossFit competitions.
• 27:08
  So something that I think Brent,
• 27:10
  I think all of them, so Brent,
• 27:12
  Pat and Josh,
• 27:15
  and Brandon said that I
• 27:17
  needed to do was gain more
• 27:18
  experience because the,
• 27:22
  like part of my performance
• 27:24
  at semifinals this past year, like I,
• 27:28
  went down towards the end of
• 27:29
  the weekend um because I
• 27:32
  think I was just like like
• 27:34
  I'm not that nervous of a
• 27:35
  person typically like I
• 27:37
  don't get that anxious
• 27:37
  about things but I think my
• 27:39
  central nervous system was
• 27:40
  just so taxed by the end of
• 27:41
  the weekend because I was
• 27:43
  just nervous about
• 27:44
  everything um which like
• 27:46
  I'm sure there's a lot of
• 27:47
  factors that go into it but
• 27:48
  a lot of that has to do
• 27:49
  with lack of experience um
• 27:50
  and so one of the things
• 27:51
  that they hammered
• 27:53
  was that I need more
• 27:54
  experience with CrossFit
• 27:55
  competitions and competing
• 27:57
  at a high level with good athletes.
• 28:04
  Sorry.
• 28:04
  So this last off season,
• 28:06
  I did Crash Crucible.
• 28:08
  I did Waterpalooza.
• 28:11
  Um,
• 28:11
  and those were kind of like my two
• 28:13
  competitions that I did.
• 28:14
  And I knew like a crack crash crucible.
• 28:18
  Um, like I said,
• 28:19
  I wasn't really doing CrossFit at all.
• 28:20
  I was pretty much like Olympic lifting.
• 28:23
  Um, and then I, I tried each of the,
• 28:25
  the events, um,
• 28:27
  once before I went to crash crucible,
• 28:29
  but like I was not in good
• 28:31
  CrossFit CrossFit shape at
• 28:33
  all and definitely felt it.
• 28:34
  Um, and even at water Palooza, um,
• 28:37
  Like I was getting back into training,
• 28:39
  but still like not feeling
• 28:41
  like I was in the best CrossFit shape,
• 28:42
  but like,
• 28:44
  I kind of had to swallow my
• 28:45
  pride a little bit, um,
• 28:46
  and know that that was
• 28:48
  going to be a reality that
• 28:50
  my performance wouldn't be the best,
• 28:51
  but I could still get, um,
• 28:54
  that experience of competing with people.
• 28:56
  Um, yeah,
• 28:58
  so that was kind of my approach
• 28:59
  to the off season.
• 29:03
  So Jay Birch asks, was it Josh Godness?
• 29:08
  Probably.
• 29:10
  Okay.
• 29:11
  A wad zombie with a joke.
• 29:12
  If you want to learn how to dive,
• 29:14
  watch soccer.
• 29:17
  All right.
• 29:19
  You just play soccer.
• 29:21
  So when you look at the
• 29:23
  events that have come out already...
• 29:26
  Does the snatch ladder make
• 29:28
  you nervous or does the
• 29:30
  snatch ladder make you
• 29:31
  excited because you get to
• 29:32
  show what you've learned in
• 29:33
  the offseason?
• 29:37
  Both.
• 29:42
  I mean, being realistic,
• 29:43
  that will not be my best
• 29:44
  event at semifinals.
• 29:47
  Um, so like, I don't like that.
• 29:50
  Like,
• 29:51
  I'd rather have a bunch of home run
• 29:53
  events.
• 29:54
  Um, but to your point, like,
• 29:55
  I am excited to,
• 29:56
  to see like really where
• 29:58
  I'm at and like the hard
• 30:00
  work that I put into the off season.
• 30:02
  Um, see, see how much it paid off.
• 30:04
  Cause like you can hit
• 30:06
  certain numbers in training.
• 30:08
  Um, and like.
• 30:10
  get a good gauge of where you're at,
• 30:11
  but it's not really until
• 30:14
  like you put yourself to
• 30:15
  the test in a real
• 30:17
  competition until you
• 30:18
  really see like where
• 30:20
  you're at and where that
• 30:21
  hard work has landed you.
• 30:24
  Is a ladder like that better
• 30:26
  for you or would you rather
• 30:28
  just line up and do a one rep?
• 30:30
  It's definitely better for me.
• 30:32
  And I think, I think the fact that
• 30:36
  It's on the last day is also
• 30:40
  better for me because I
• 30:41
  think that everybody's
• 30:42
  going to be sore and tired.
• 30:44
  So it, and I think I recover pretty well.
• 30:48
  So I have that going for me.
• 30:50
  And then the fact that it's the last day,
• 30:51
  I think that levels the
• 30:53
  playing field a little bit
• 30:55
  as opposed to if it was day
• 30:57
  one and everyone was fresh
• 30:58
  and everyone's going for a
• 31:00
  one round max snatch
• 31:02
  probably wouldn't bode as well for me.
• 31:05
  yeah I i was at the west
• 31:07
  coast classic in 21 when
• 31:09
  that first came out and or
• 31:13
  when it the second time
• 31:14
  they did it and it was like
• 31:16
  event one or two and people
• 31:18
  were flying like flying on
• 31:21
  that snatch ladder it's
• 31:22
  going to be interesting to
• 31:23
  see this year how it's
• 31:25
  going to be on day three
• 31:27
  yeah especially when you're
• 31:30
  running two and a half
• 31:31
  miles doing 50 clay and jerks
• 31:33
  50 front squats at 225, um,
• 31:35
  people are going to,
• 31:38
  the legs are going to be sore.
• 31:40
  Yeah.
• 31:41
  Yeah.
• 31:42
  And, and even if fresh, it,
• 31:45
  so many races came out of that event,
• 31:48
  like people racing over that last bar to,
• 31:52
  to beat each other out.
• 31:54
  I love the event as a spectator.
• 31:56
  It's so fun to watch.
• 31:58
  Um, yeah.
• 32:00
  So I'm, I'm anxious for it.
• 32:02
  Yeah.
• 32:02
  Yeah.
• 32:03
  is there,
• 32:04
  is there any home run workout
• 32:06
  that you can't wait to get ahold of?
• 32:09
  Um, I, like I like,
• 32:11
  I usually do pretty good in
• 32:13
  running events.
• 32:14
  So I think the first one
• 32:15
  will be pretty good for me.
• 32:17
  Um,
• 32:18
  I like legless rope climbs and machines.
• 32:21
  So the echo bike, uh,
• 32:22
  legless rope climb box jump over, um,
• 32:25
  workout will be pretty good for me.
• 32:27
  Um,
• 32:29
  I'm excited to see how the
• 32:31
  rowing handstand walk,
• 32:33
  like what that event
• 32:34
  actually consists of.
• 32:35
  I know a lot of people are
• 32:36
  speculating that there's
• 32:37
  going to be some obstacles as part of it.
• 32:41
  So, depending on how that looks,
• 32:43
  I think the ratio of rowing
• 32:46
  to handstand walk isn't
• 32:50
  is like pretty good on the rowing side,
• 32:52
  which helps me out as
• 32:55
  opposed to if it was just
• 32:56
  like a handstand walk gymnastics workout.
• 33:00
  So that could potentially be
• 33:01
  a good event for me as well.
• 33:05
  You're going to be outside this year.
• 33:09
  Does that make it better or worse for you?
• 33:14
  I'm never opposed to getting
• 33:15
  some vitamin D.
• 33:18
  uh I'd have to look I
• 33:19
  haven't even looked at the
• 33:20
  weather in carson right now
• 33:23
  um I would assume this time
• 33:25
  this time of year it's not
• 33:27
  that bad so yeah I i
• 33:35
  assuming always gets me in trouble yeah
• 33:39
  Yeah, I don't know.
• 33:40
  I haven't looked myself.
• 33:42
  Wad Zombie actually lives there.
• 33:43
  So if he wants to give us a
• 33:46
  forecast for now in the next three weeks,
• 33:50
  that'd be cool.
• 33:52
  Yeah.
• 33:56
  So what is a realistic goal
• 33:58
  for this season?
• 34:01
  The goal is to make the games.
• 34:03
  And I think...
• 34:05
  I think that that's realistic.
• 34:07
  My,
• 34:07
  my goal last year was just to make
• 34:10
  semi-finals and I,
• 34:12
  I definitely exceeded my
• 34:14
  expectations by coming in fifth 15th.
• 34:17
  Um, so looking at last year's performance,
• 34:21
  seeing that I was six spots
• 34:23
  out from qualifying, I, I think it's,
• 34:26
  I think it's a realistic goal and, uh,
• 34:30
  yeah, we'll, we'll see how it goes.
• 34:33
  Corey just checked currently 67 and sunny.
• 34:37
  So not bad.
• 34:37
  And, and you got the dry heat.
• 34:40
  So it's not too humid.
• 34:42
  And I'm originally from California.
• 34:43
  So maybe, maybe like some,
• 34:47
  somewhere in the back of me
• 34:48
  and my body is used to
• 34:50
  being outside of California.
• 34:52
  Well, he says it's beautiful today.
• 34:53
  Sunny 75 to 80 degrees
• 34:55
  should be the same at the
• 34:57
  end of the month.
• 34:58
  Last year was cloudy though.
• 35:02
  Excellent.
• 35:03
  So is that why you compete in the West?
• 35:05
  Because you're from California?
• 35:08
  No, just because I...
• 35:11
  I really wanted to do the
• 35:15
  season at Franco's so I can
• 35:17
  be with guys like Brandon
• 35:18
  Luckett and people who
• 35:21
  compete at such a high level.
• 35:23
  And like I said,
• 35:24
  I do better when I train
• 35:26
  and like compete with
• 35:29
  people who are better than me.
• 35:31
  So that's why I feel at
• 35:33
  Franco's and why I work out
• 35:36
  there and train there so much.
• 35:38
  Okay.
• 35:40
  Yeah.
• 35:41
  I wish they would just, I don't know.
• 35:44
  I wish they'd come up with a
• 35:45
  way to just split the
• 35:48
  country in half and each
• 35:50
  side get the same number of
• 35:52
  invites and you just split
• 35:55
  them up so it's even.
• 35:58
  Because it's hard to figure
• 36:00
  out who's where until I see
• 36:02
  the leaderboard.
• 36:03
  And they'll change it.
• 36:04
  They'll change it again next year.
• 36:07
  Yeah, I'm sure they will.
• 36:09
  Nothing ever stays the same in CrossFit.
• 36:11
  Yeah.
• 36:13
  So how long have you been doing this?
• 36:14
  Like, when did you start CrossFit?
• 36:17
  I started in 2018 when I was
• 36:20
  coming through dive school here.
• 36:21
  I did it for half a year,
• 36:27
  then tore my meniscus
• 36:30
  snatching because I didn't
• 36:32
  have the mobility or the
• 36:34
  technique to do it.
• 36:35
  And I was just doing a lot
• 36:38
  more weight than I had any
• 36:39
  business doing.
• 36:41
  That was a pretty bad injury.
• 36:43
  It put me out for probably a
• 36:45
  year and a half to two
• 36:46
  years where I was still
• 36:48
  doing some CrossFit-type stuff,
• 36:49
  but there was a lot I couldn't do.
• 36:51
  I did the Open in 2018,
• 36:52
  and then I didn't do a
• 36:53
  season again until...
• 36:54
  21 um did the the opening
• 37:04
  quarterfinals 21 22 and
• 37:07
  then last year um was the
• 37:09
  first time I uh qualified
• 37:11
  for semis so a few years so
• 37:14
  you haven't been like full
• 37:15
  on crossfitting for very
• 37:16
  long at all really yeah
• 37:23
  Well, that's awesome.
• 37:24
  Um, you've, you've come pretty far,
• 37:26
  pretty fast and you're
• 37:27
  surrounded by a good group of people.
• 37:30
  Um, this has been a lot of fun, Max.
• 37:33
  Yeah.
• 37:33
  Thank you.
• 37:34
  Really appreciate it.
• 37:35
  Yeah.
• 37:35
  Thank you for coming on.
• 37:36
  Thank you to everybody in
• 37:37
  the chat for being here.
• 37:39
  Um, good luck at semis and, uh, we'll,
• 37:43
  we'll be watching them rooting, man.
• 37:45
  Sounds good.
• 37:46
  Thanks so much.
• 37:46
  And, uh, I love,
• 37:48
  I should say that I love
• 37:49
  that the podcast is
• 37:50
  presented by thick boy and,
• 37:52
  I met him at beach ballers
• 37:56
  last year and I love his shirts.
• 37:59
  So shout out to thick boy.
• 38:00
  He's got some funny shirts
• 38:02
  and I got one myself,
• 38:03
  but it's a little inappropriate.
• 38:04
  So I won't, I won't tell you what it is.
• 38:08
  Yeah, he has some good, fun shirts.
• 38:11
  And he sponsors this podcast.
• 38:13
  He just started.
• 38:14
  This is our first month with him.
• 38:17
  And go to thickboy.fit.
• 38:20
  You can pick out your own
• 38:22
  inappropriate T-shirt and
• 38:23
  get that ordered and sent
• 38:24
  right to your house.
• 38:27
  Awesome.
• 38:28
  Thanks a bunch, Max.
• 38:29
  And we'll see everybody next
• 38:30
  time on Clydesdale Media
• 38:32
  Podcast featuring the
• 38:34
  athletes of the semifinals.
• 38:35
  Bye, guys.