Sevan Matossian (00:00):
Very very close. Bam. We’re live now. We’re live well. Good to have you back, buddy.
Will Branstetter (00:05):
Good to see you.
Sevan Matossian (00:07):
Oh my goodness. Brian Fran. Good to see you, buddy.
Brian Friend (00:11):
Good morning.
Sevan Matossian (00:14):
Holy cow. How exciting Christmas came early again, right? Is that, is that the, is that the term?
Brian Friend (00:20):
I don’t know. I woke up at 2:30 AM with, uh, half dozen messages telling me that the quarter final workouts were, uh, uh, available.
Sevan Matossian (00:29):
Um, they, they, they did this on purpose, right? To build H come on, come on. They had to have to build hype.
Brian Friend (00:37):
Are they still available on YouTube?
Sevan Matossian (00:39):
Uh, I heard they were down don’t know, uh, will shaking his head. Let’s see. Let’s check in with will, will, what do you think still available?
Will Branstetter (00:46):
No, they took him down.
Sevan Matossian (00:47):
Okay. But
Brian Friend (00:48):
That doesn’t mean that they didn’t do it on purpose.
Sevan Matossian (00:50):
I know what a, what a, um, uh, what, what a great like SIOP stunt that would be just release them on purpose. Like, okay. Fuck it. We do, we do what we wanna do you agree, Angelo? They released it. They leaked it on purpose to build height. No. Put all this free media. No, come on. I
Angelo DiCicco (01:08):
Don’t think so.
Sevan Matossian (01:10):
What do you think, Brian, do you think I’m, I’m trying to be serious about it? No,
Brian Friend (01:13):
I don’t think there. I don’t think so.
Sevan Matossian (01:17):
Who is in charge of that? Do we know Who they, they got a, a CMO there. Chief mark. You
Brian Friend (01:25):
Tell me
Sevan Matossian (01:27):
Aaron’s someone there’s an Erin over there. I just saw her name on some release. I wonder if she’s in charge it’s either her or Haynes or Haynes or, or Haynes’s girlfriend. Emily, I think Haynes, I think, I think Haynes, um, was I, when I was there, um, we put him his head of games, media, and then he hired a girl and then I think they started going out or they were going out beforehand and they’re like a dynamic duo. Now, if they didn’t do it on purpose it’s I, I don’t know. I feel like the sec. I mean, I do know, I, I, the secrecy of the, the event is really important. I mean, it it’s sort of, it it’s, it’s part of the character of the CrossFit games.
Angelo DiCicco (02:09):
So one of the guys from our media team said that now I can’t follow all this because it doesn’t really make much sense to me, but they posted the, um, the, they posted the video of Boz going over the quarter finals, like the overview or whatever.
Sevan Matossian (02:24):
Yeah.
Angelo DiCicco (02:25):
And that was in a playlist with the workouts and the workouts were unlisted. But since they were in that playlist, if you watched that video, it would come up and it would pop up with the other videos. I don’t really understand it exactly, but that’s kind of basically, they’ve tried to release one video and they released all of them at once on XTON
Sevan Matossian (02:44):
Do you? We were, we were, we used to be so advanced at YouTube. We were like the YouTube golden child. That’s
Angelo DiCicco (02:51):
What, and that’s what he said. He is like someone over there just doesn’t understand YouTube,
Sevan Matossian (02:55):
A fucking nuts, dude, this, Hey, so there, there was this thing. I’ll tell you guys a story here, Brian, you might be familiar with this working with the games, but when we worked at HQ, there was one year where there was a leak. I think it was the year that Froning and Fraser went against each other at the, um, at the, uh, at the ranch. And they had a big, uh, studio truck there. And right before the event went live, they had pieced together who the leak was. And it was some guy who worked, I think on graphics for CrossFit HQ. I mean, he was a contractor and he worked in the big studio truck. And right before they went live, it was either Dave or Justin or someone went in there into the truck and said, Hey, pack up your shit and get the fuck outta here. We have these text messages that show that you were leaking the workouts ahead of time. Then after that, and that I just got fired right there on the spot. Then after that moment, they made everyone at CrossFit HQ sign, a piece of paper saying that you would be fine, $300,000 in damages. If you released these workouts in advance.
Sevan Matossian (03:54):
And, and, and that’s like, that’s how serious it is. I, you know, you can’t run someone over in the middle of the street. I’m and I’m not comparing this to running someone over in the middle of the street. I’m just using it as a, uh, a metaphor, but you can’t run someone over in the middle of the street and then say, oops, I, it was in an accident. You still do time. So there’s, this is the site. This is two in a row guys.
Brian Friend (04:19):
Yeah. And it’s, uh,
Sevan Matossian (04:21):
In a row, you are fucking, there’s not, there’s, it’s hard to package this one. It’s hard to package this one, but maybe you should charge the affiliates more $7,000 a year to hire better people. Oh man. At this, at this point, it’s just ego because you have access to the right people at this point, it’s just ego. Uh, and, and just so you know, the, from the brand perspective, you are slowly whittling away at the brand because these are the things, these small things are what makes the brand so cool. The secrecy sort of that, that militancy, you’ve not, you’re just, you’re just, wishy-washy now just wishy-washy anyway. Okay. We’ll move. We’ll move on. Uh, are they exciting? Do we like the workouts? I haven’t seen them. Well,
Brian Friend (04:59):
Lemme just say, say this before we get workouts.
Sevan Matossian (05:02):
Yeah. Yeah. Please. Brian, please.
Brian Friend (05:04):
Um, and I, I posted a little bit about this. Like they’re out there now, so probably, you know, everyone screenshotted them and has seen them. And it’s not that relevant that they took the videos down from that perspective. However, we don’t have all the information. Okay. You know, so a good example would be that in one of the workouts that had said that there are walking lunges, but in the floor layout plan for that workout, there was no distance to traverse. The dumbs were in a fixed location. So are they walking lunges or are they lunges in place? Okay. So I wouldn’t that’s, you know, so we basically, that’s an example to say, we don’t know the movement standards for all the workouts yet are the movements within the workouts. Additionally, sometimes for online competitions that CrossFit runs, there are passwords associated with workouts. So you might have to say, hi, I’m Brian friend.
Brian Friend (05:50):
The password for this workout is barbell. And here’s my weights, et cetera. And I’m about to do it. And lastly is, um, that CrossFit did mention in the video that they meant to release it. Angel referenced, although it was kind of weird phrasing, they said, we recommend showing some kind of timestamp in your video. So you might have your camera that you’re recording with and you say, here’s my phone. And it’s, uh, Thursday, uh, 3:00 PM in Chicago. And I’m doing the workup. They recommend end this. They don’t say they don’t mandate it, which is strange that they would recommend it and not just say, do this. You know, it’s kind of a gray area, but either way, those are three reasons why you should still not do the workouts ahead of time. You should wait until they’re announced at whatever the local time is that they’re gonna be announced that it equates to noon Pacific time. So you have all that information so that, you know, you don’t have to redo the work for any one of those reasons, because even if you do it exactly right. But forget the password. If you, they find out that you’re edited your video in any way to include something else, additionally, or take something out, then it will be an invalid video. If they request.
Sevan Matossian (06:48):
Is that new today? When you say noon, you mean it, it we’re talking in, uh, three hours, three hours and eight minutes.
Brian Friend (06:54):
Uh, two, two. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes.
Sevan Matossian (06:56):
Okay. Okay. Wow. Okay.
Brian Friend (07:00):
So I wanna recommend doing the workouts early, even if you have them, however, it does give people a certain advantage in terms of strategy and game plan and whatever. They can see what they are and say, okay, I think I wanna do ’em in disorder. I might do these now and these later, plus, depending on where you are, if you release the workouts at, at noon and it’s 8:00 PM, where you get them, you might need 30 minutes to an hour to evaluate what was released, warm ’em up, decide what you’re gonna do. So you can’t really do any workouts that evening, or maybe you don’t want to cuz it gets to be too late, but now you have an opportunity to plan for potentially all day and be ready to do those workouts as soon as you can say, okay, here’s the scorecard. Yep. Everything we fell was there. Oh, this is different. Okay. No problem. I’m already warmed up and I can get the, you know, so you have a little bit of extra time potentially.
Sevan Matossian (07:45):
Brian, what’s your response to this? If you watched the videos before they hid them, I think it said do 10 lunges in one direction and turn around and do 10 back.
Angelo DiCicco (07:52):
That’s true. I, I heard that. That’s true. That as far know, but yeah, I wouldn’t do ’em. I would do off what Brian said. I would wait for this whole list of stuff.
Sevan Matossian (08:02):
Brian, how are you woken at 2:00 AM? I, I didn’t think you slept with your phone next, your bed.
Brian Friend (08:07):
I don’t have any, um, clocks. I don’t like having any extra, extra light there. So I do have my phone in my room and I do not disturb mode. I woke, I went to bed early at 8:30 PM. I woke up at two 30 to pee. Usually I can only sleep about six hours before I have to wake up to pee. And I use my phone as a little just light. So I don’t have to turn on any bright lights. And uh, I saw that there was quite a, quite a few messages. Um, so I checked him.
Sevan Matossian (08:33):
You guys see what I was doing there? I was trying to manipulate Brian to see if he was the source of the leak. I was just didn’t wanna take his word for that. Someone sent it to him. So from what I understand from what Angela said is that there was one video that was supposed to be up there, but somehow on the back end, that video was attached to other videos in a playlist and it fucking UN it released the whole fucking thing. Yeah. At that point, I wonder why they even pull it down,
Brian Friend (08:58):
Make sure that, um, Graham as knows, I don’t use the whoop to evaluate my sleep. I’m pretty in tune with my own body. And I can understand when I’m tired or not.
Sevan Matossian (09:06):
I use the whoop to tell me when I have to pee or else I pee the bed. I have one whoop from my wrist and one roof I put right, right around where my, uh, cock meets my balls. And, and uh, and then it tells me if I have to pee, it’s just me. I’m not as in touch with my body as, um,
Brian Friend (09:21):
And don’t you use your extra whoop straps as toe spacers?
Sevan Matossian (09:24):
I I, I totally, yes, yes, yes, yes. The Whoopie I’m telling you the greatest use of the Whoopie was, uh, on that Froning video where it shows his heart rate going down while he is working out. I swear to you whoopy, you guys should pay me. I don’t know, a thousand bucks in episodes, probably half million dollars a year and I’ll wear that shit and people can always watch my heart rate on the show as I suck down paper street coffee. Oh my gosh. If you wanna win a free rogue bar, you should go to paper, street, coffee, and buy coffee. You step on as the code, you get percent off, but more importantly, um, not only do you get beans delivered to your house, but you get, uh, entered in contest to win a bar. So you can be as fit as Angelo and Brian. And thirdly, me Big. Uh, so, so
Brian Friend (10:08):
Big drop offs on each of those.
Sevan Matossian (10:10):
Right? Huge. He’s his levels to this shit there’s levels to this shit. Um, tell, but, um, so, so tell me about the workouts. Other than that, do we, so I wanna just review the open workouts for me in a nutshell, YouTube, gimme a couple sentences about how you were, they didn’t what you guys thought about them and how they, whether they were heavy enough or they were, were comprehensive enough or, or not. You go ahead first, Angela. All
Angelo DiCicco (10:34):
Right. Um, they put all of the movements from my last year into a hopper and they pulled him out, but they added, she runs
Sevan Matossian (10:42):
And that’ss
Brian Friend (10:42):
Basically what we’re doing. No, no, wait, you were talking about the open or the quarter final seven.
Sevan Matossian (10:46):
I’m talking about, I’m talking about the open. Oh,
Angelo DiCicco (10:48):
You’re talking about the open. Oh
Sevan Matossian (10:49):
Yeah. Yeah. Tell me, tell me how we got to this quarter finals part. And then we’ll talk about the quarter finals, because that way we can put it in context. So tell me in a couple sentences, what did you think about the open this year in terms of, of movements and then we’ll circle and then we’ll get to the quarter finals.
Angelo DiCicco (11:00):
I think the open wasn’t a broad enough test.
Sevan Matossian (11:03):
Okay. And, and in what way, what pieces were missing? Strength,
Angelo DiCicco (11:07):
Strength, uh, a long workout. And, um, I dunno, I guess those two are the ones missing the most, I would say
Brian Friend (11:18):
Enough test.
Angelo DiCicco (11:19):
Yeah. I would say that it’s not missing more. It’s more of that. It tested the same stuff more than once. So yes, it was missing things, but the bigger problem was that it more than the same thing was tested literally two weeks in a
Sevan Matossian (11:32):
Row. Okay. So strength too much redundancy in movements and uh, maybe a longer time domain. Would’ve been things you’d like to see. Yeah. And then after these tests, um, 10% of the people who of the 280,000 or however, 300,000 that entered, then they move on to this quarter finals in a nutshell, right? Yes. Uh, do you agree with what, um, Angela, do you like Angela’s summation of the open for a quick Brian?
Brian Friend (11:56):
Well, I, I just think that in general, and now that we also see the quarter finals programming this year, we can understand that the open and quarter finals, we can kind of see what direction it’s taking going forward. And it’s a different than what we’re used to looking backwards. So I’m not gonna say that that’s necessarily good or bad, but we have to reframe our expectations for these two parts of the season. And I think this year’s a far more telling in that regard than last year.
Sevan Matossian (12:22):
Okay. And what is that reframing? What, what, when you see the quarter finals workouts, what
Brian Friend (12:26):
Do you see? We’ll start with the open. So first of all, I think that going forward, people should expect a three week three test open with very minimum, um, like barriers to entry. So it’s gonna be like the highest skill things you’ll see will be a bar muscle up that will be like earn the bar muscle up a heavy Barb bell could potentially show up in the future, but you’ll earn the heavy Barb bell, maybe something like handstand walking, double unders those types of skills, nothing that’s like, uh, really beyond that most likely. And capacity’s gonna be the BA like the basic thing that’s being tested there at a relatively low entry level.
Sevan Matossian (13:00):
So as a representative from the DEI council, I would like to say that the open will have, um, uh, less diversity, but more equity and more inclusivity.
Brian Friend (13:11):
It’s not, it’s, it’s not surprising at all that you’re on that council
Sevan Matossian (13:15):
More because that is what it is, is what you’re saying. They’ve basically they’ve lightened the loads and made everything, um, more accessible in the open.
Brian Friend (13:24):
Yeah. This year I would say I would be surprised if there wasn’t something heavier next year. Um, but still it’s probably gonna be three tests and probably gonna be, you know, in general testing, low skill, high capacity stuff.
Sevan Matossian (13:38):
Okay. Unless Dave were to come back. Well, even if Dave came, even
Brian Friend (13:43):
If he his work,
Sevan Matossian (13:44):
Even
Brian Friend (13:44):
If he did come back, it could be. And, and part of the, I think we can see by looking at the quarter finals this year, which is, uh, we should talk about, especially what Angela said with the hopper and in the same movements. What’s I think what is going on here?
Sevan Matossian (13:59):
I use my open money to buy a CEO shirt. Um, okay. So, so, so, so let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about then the quarter final workouts. What are we seeing? And do we like it
Angelo DiCicco (14:11):
It’s the same, it’s the same thing. It’s it’s I mean, I don’t think it’s, I don’t think that test is bad. I just think that it’s not original.
Brian Friend (14:20):
And I think there is both truth and more to be uncovered than that, uh, to what Angela said.
Sevan Matossian (14:25):
So why does it need to be original though? Doesn’t it just need to be valid in order to make sure that we get the good guys.
Angelo DiCicco (14:32):
Yeah. But it it’s just, it’s boring for, I’d say for the athletes willing to continue to do the same test, but yeah. I mean, it worked last year, so I, I see they’re probably with that mindset that you just said that I don’t think it’s, I think it works so why even change it, which is kind of lazy though.
Sevan Matossian (14:48):
Um, can we see the workouts will, do you, are
Brian Friend (14:50):
They, oh, wait, waits. Do you wanna see this year’s workouts or last year’s workouts? Cause now we’re talking about them in comparison to each other.
Sevan Matossian (14:56):
Okay. Uh, which, which one? I, I guess it would be good to see last year’s workouts really quick. Right?
Brian Friend (15:01):
Well, we can, we can look at this year’s workouts and we can talk about last year’s workouts at the same time. So what Angela’s is referring to is that last year, the first workout of the quarter panels had strict handstand pushups, keeping handstand, pushups, uh, dumbbell movement, and double unders. And this year in the first workout, we have a dumbbell movement with three different variations of handstand pushups. So it’s similar in essence, there are, I think some significant differences as to, uh, these two workouts. I mean, do you wanna talk, stick with this workout for
Sevan Matossian (15:32):
Now? No, let’s go through, let’s go through them. Let’s go. Cuz I think we have a shortage of time, right? We just have about 45 minutes or an hour today. And then Angela, feel free to jump in. Like if Brian’s like, go ahead.
Angelo DiCicco (15:44):
One of you guys at mayhem said, uh, uh, Scott, you you’ve talked to Scott Ute. Um, he said,
Sevan Matossian (15:51):
I it’s Vander slept by the way someone said it, if you, if you wanna use the Dutch pronunciation, is that true?
Angelo DiCicco (15:57):
I don’t know. It’s someone they call him that, but I don’t think that’s obvious how you really say it. Okay. Um, Scott said it’s like one of those memes that says, uh, Hey, can, you can copy my homework, but change it a little bit. So no one knows it’s exactly what’s going on here from last.
Sevan Matossian (16:12):
Hey, I love it. When you jump in and say, I heard at mayhem, will you just do that? After every workout, you just make shit up. It’s so fucking good. Now we’ll make this show unbeatable. If you say that every time
Brian Friend (16:22):
That is a good analogy side note, there are some amazing memes going out about this. I like, um, I don’t know all the memes channels that people have been sending me to them. And they’re, they’re very good. So if we wanna pull those upfront entertainment at any point will, but the major difference I would say in this workout is cuz keep in mind that the quarter finals is a test for thousands of people to find hundreds of people. And, and this workout compared to last year’s workout. One starts with 50 dumbbell walking lunges, which everyone can do last year’s workout started with 10 strict handstand pushups. You don’t have to do a single strict handstand pushup until the very end of this workout this year. So this is far more friendly for the bottom half of the quarter final qualifiers. And last year there were close to half of the men in north America alone.
Brian Friend (17:07):
I, that didn’t sign up for quarter finals probably because there were a couple workouts at the very first thing, like a strict handstand, a ship or 185 pound snatch with something they couldn’t do at all. So if I can get a zero, two workouts, why am I gonna give you 50 bucks? But at least in this version of the workout, you can, you can progress through it. I’m assuming there’ll be some time caps after, you know, uh tiebreakers after certain movements. And so you can establish, you know, you can at least put a score on the leaderboard. So that one, that’s a
Sevan Matossian (17:34):
Great observation, by the way. That’s a great observation.
Brian Friend (17:39):
Thank you
Sevan Matossian (17:40):
From a, from a business perspective too, on their part. Right? Get, get more people, get more and I’m and
Brian Friend (17:44):
If we go to workout and if we go to workout five, it’s exactly the same concept. So last year’s workout. Five had burpy box jump overs and snatches at a hundred eighty five hundred thirty five. This year’s workout. Five has burpy box jump overs and snatches at 180 5, 1 35 with some rowing. However, last year, the very first movement was a snatch at 185 pounds. I tried for however long the workout was and missed it a bunch of times. So I got a zero this year. I can do 50 reps log at tiebreak time, presumably, and then attempt to PR my snatch, for example, you know, that would be an example if I, if I was competing.
Sevan Matossian (18:18):
So it’s an, it still is what Angelo said. It’s a it’s they’ve copied someone’s homework and changed it a little bit. I mean, man, that’s a really, but, but they’ve, but they’ve improved on, that’s an improvement. Wouldn’t you say, Angelo? Yeah,
Angelo DiCicco (18:31):
I think
Sevan Matossian (18:31):
Give weak like Brian a chance.
Angelo DiCicco (18:33):
I think definitely that, uh, that I think that first workout for sure. I do think it’s better. Um, I like the way it’s written the last workout is I think it’s gonna be for, especially for the people who are gonna qualify for semifinals. I think it’s gonna have the exact same feel as like a, like a 95% sprint. Like it’s not a hundred percent sprint because when you get the snatches, you need to hold a little bit back. Um, but it’s the same kind of sprint style. I think both of those events are very similar, but I think, yeah, I would say they’re improved upon
Brian Friend (19:04):
And that, and those final workouts are, they have a very similar feel for the elite athletes to a final event at a regionals from yeah. Previous time periods where they have, you know, most people are gonna finish them in a three to five minute window. It’s gonna be really small margins, tens of seconds and whatever to separate people, but it hurts.
Angelo DiCicco (19:24):
Yeah. But I mean, that is almost, it’s closer to the regionals finisher from 20, 20 16, 20 17
Brian Friend (19:33):
With the Broy boxing boards and then the sandbag cleans.
Angelo DiCicco (19:35):
Yeah. The bike it’s like, it’s like that exact same workout.
Sevan Matossian (19:39):
Hey, uh, things don’t make sense in the world, right? Like, like let’s say you put your dog outside and it’s, and it starts barking really loud. And instead of letting them in, you’re like, okay, fuck it. I’ll put another dog outside that I, that I wish I could think of a better example. That’s what they did over at CrossFit HQ. They fired Dave. They realized it was a mistake. And instead of bringing him back, they fired the guy who fired him. I mean, it’s just the whole fucking thing. Doesn’t make sense. I wish I could explain it to you, but I cannot answer that. Person’s question the, I mean, they’re gonna put someone else should get fired now. Let’s just keep firing people. If there was no one left, It might still be better in Spartan race. Okay. Um, uh, sorry, Joe. I’m just joking. Can we go back to workout number two, Brian, is that what we wanna do? And, and Phil, Phil, we, we sit with these two are very,
Brian Friend (20:26):
Yeah. I thought that, yeah, I thought that one in five were good to talk about together there, just because of that. They’re different in similar ways this year.
Sevan Matossian (20:32):
Yeah. And they are very similar, especially five is, is the same workout. Just different order. Right.
Brian Friend (20:38):
Uh, they added rowing
Angelo DiCicco (20:39):
Yeah. Added
Sevan Matossian (20:40):
Rowing. Okay. All right. Let’s can we work? Look at workout number two. Sure. Did you like these, Brian? Do you like the workouts as, as a test?
Brian Friend (20:51):
Yes. So I wrote an article earlier this week that said based on what we know from the floor plans, there are certain things that cross, it needs to include here to make sure that this test is balanced. And so they need to have something that’s demanding on the legs that was not apparent in the original floor plans. That amount of volume of lunging is a significant, uh, taxing that’s that workout’s pretty tough. It’s gonna be tiring on the legs, but also extremely demanding on the shoulder fatigue. I think that the last couple parts of that workout the deficit handstand pushups into the overhead lunges into the strict handstand pushups is gonna be really challenging for everyone, but the very, very best, um, and definitely some leg fatigue there. Uh, here we have another example. We didn’t know that pistols were gonna be in there. They said there was this eight feet of space and I speculated that they probably would include either double unders or pistols in there. So they put the pistols to add another, another leg movement. However, the weird thing is that they’ve chosen to do double single leg modality movements, which I didn’t think they necessarily needed to do. That’s probably the biggest critique I have of the programming upon first seeing it,
Sevan Matossian (21:52):
You mean lunging and pistols and pistols,
Brian Friend (21:55):
Whereas yeah, whereas I had proposed a different, a different, like I think if they had just put double under here instead of pistols, that, that, you know, you, you eliminate that and you add another mono structure element and it might be a little bit more balance, but I’m not like I’m not upset about it. I just noticed that there were two sing, you know, unilateral leg movements in the first two workouts.
Sevan Matossian (22:15):
Why, why do they call it single leg squats? Have you seen, is that normal?
Brian Friend (22:20):
Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (22:20):
They don’t, they don’t call ’em pistols. They call ’em single leg squats.
Brian Friend (22:23):
Why have they called the Washington, uh, wizards? They don’t see the
Sevan Matossian (22:27):
Bullets. Well, I was going somewhere. I’m wondering if they did it because they didn’t want to use the word pistol. I think that’s
Brian Friend (22:32):
Very, that’s exactly what I was saying.
Sevan Matossian (22:34):
Oh, that would be crazy if that’s it. That would be fucking bat shit crazy.
Brian Friend (22:39):
I think they’ve called the famous single egg squats before.
Angelo DiCicco (22:41):
Yeah. I think they usually put it in as that it’s I think it clears it up for more, uh, for most people.
Sevan Matossian (22:47):
Right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Sorry. I, I I’m guilty of, of, of looking for woke I’m guilty, guilty of charge, guilty, guilty. Uh, okay. Let’s let’s go to the, uh, third workout Or not,
Brian Friend (23:05):
Which one is the third one? Is it the rope climbs? Yeah, so we, we knew that there’d be rope climbs and wall balls. Most people seem to assume that this would be handstand walking. I thought it was pretty, obviously not gonna be handstand walking since they already had handstand pushups in at least two varieties based on the floor plans and suggested that they might use a shuttle run here because we knew that there was a, there was supposed to be used in the open. Maybe they wanted to move it into the quarter finals, um, which they have done. And for anyone who’s like shuttle runs, what the hell is that doing in a workout? Don’t underestimate those until you’ve done Metcons with them in them. It’s, uh, surprisingly if fatigues you in a little bit different way than normal running would with all the stopping and starting and the explosive movement to get, you know, off the starting line every time, uh, it’s a little bit harder to settle into a rhythm.
Brian Friend (23:50):
If you haven’t practiced it, legs would be a little bit fatigue. The heart rates, you know, especially in those rounds of 12, 16, 12, like that’s a lot of running back and forth. Um, I mean it like seems kind of silly, but like some people might even get dizzy doing that many times if they haven’t practiced it before. So there’s a little bit of nuance to this that I like. And that up and down ladder of is, uh, is always kind of challenging to navigate. As we saw with, uh, open work at 22.2, where you get into that middle round and you have to make sure you have enough left to get through that. Well, and then hopefully be able to push in the last half.
Sevan Matossian (24:25):
I wanna go back a little bit. I should have set the stage
Brian Friend (24:27):
One note here. One note here, if you zoom in, you can see that the women have a 10 foot target for this workout, which is something that recent guests on the show, bill Goler and chase Ingram have been a advocating for, for a long time. But I doubt that a lot of competitive, I bet you that competitive crossword athletes practice this, but a lot of kind of recreational or AFR don’t on the women’s side.
Sevan Matossian (24:46):
Okay. Before I say what I’m gonna say, why, why, what did it used to be before? It was 10 feet? And why 10 feet? You’re saying, are you suggesting that 14 and 20 is, is enough of a difference? Use the same height?
Brian Friend (24:57):
I’m saying it’s usually been 14 pound ball to a nine foot target, 20 pound ball to a 10 foot target. And here they have it listed where both men and women can see that I’m not gonna use the word sex or gender ever again on this show.
Sevan Matossian (25:09):
Thank you.
Brian Friend (25:10):
I have to throw to a 10 foot target,
Sevan Matossian (25:12):
But you like this too, right? You’re bill and chase are suggesting like, Hey, J the weight is different. That’s enough of a difference. Just keep everything else standard. You don’t have to change both
Brian Friend (25:21):
Change one or the other? Not both. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (25:23):
Okay. Oh, wow. What, what, what, what would you think about you guys? If, if everyone used a 20 pound ball, but the women just went to a lighter tar, uh, shorter target,
Brian Friend (25:30):
Or if everyone used a nine foot target put a different pound ball.
Sevan Matossian (25:34):
Yeah. Wow. Wow. How, how do, um, you get to see a lot of strong women, Angela do do, can women toss a 20 pound? Do you see women doing 20 pound ball? Uh, wall balls at your gym?
Angelo DiCicco (25:44):
Yeah. Yeah. Uh I’d I think the girls always through to a 10 foot target, even with a 14 now. And then, um, if they use a, if they use a 20, I think if they use a 20, they might throw it to a nine. It just depends on the workout. I guess how much volume is in the workout, but they almost always, if we do 14 pound balls, they’re throwing to a 10 foot target. It’s just kind of just, cuz timing wise it’s makes their rounds quicker. If they do it to a nine foot target, then it’s like, you’re going, if they’re your partner and they’re going when you’re resting and you know, whatever, then you’re getting less rest because their wall balls take, uh, are a lot quicker cuz it’s not going as high and it’s coming down quicker. So timing,
Sevan Matossian (26:24):
You see 30 pound ball used a lot over at mayhem too.
Angelo DiCicco (26:27):
Yeah. Yeah. We was a 30 pretty good amount.
Sevan Matossian (26:30):
How about a 40 pound ball?
Angelo DiCicco (26:31):
No, uh, I do think, I think there was one guy who did Karen with a 50 more just like you do three or four walk away, you know, just got through it. But no, no 40 or fifties
Brian Friend (26:44):
Usually. Was it, was it the guy, the guy who was in first placed on the mam leaderboard after two weeks of open?
Angelo DiCicco (26:48):
No was not him.
Sevan Matossian (26:50):
You saw a guy do um, Karen with a, uh, 50 pound.
Angelo DiCicco (26:55):
I don’t think I saw it. I just I’ve heard the rumors, but I, and I don’t think it was a very impressed, I think it’s like I’m like 30 or 40 minutes. I’m like forever.
Sevan Matossian (27:03):
Um,
Brian Friend (27:04):
Mayhem.
Sevan Matossian (27:04):
How dare you? Colton? Mertons used a 300 pound ball, not a 30 pound ball Jackass. Just joking Brandon. Um, so, so I wanna go back, uh, really quick. Um, so we’ve talked about workout, number one and workout. Number five, we’ve talked about workout number two and workout number three. The one last one’s remaining workout four, but based the, the stage here is that the quarter finals start today at noon, they will officially be announced and that’s when people can start doing them and they have to have their scores submitted by
Brian Friend (27:34):
Monday at the same time. Yeah. Well, no, no, no Sunday at the same time.
Sevan Matossian (27:39):
Okay. So I’m looking at,
Brian Friend (27:40):
But that’s the final work you actually have to submit them 24 hours from when they were least two, the first 2, 24 hours later, the second two and 24 hours later, the final one.
Sevan Matossian (27:50):
Oh, so this really is a cluster. Fuck.
Brian Friend (27:54):
Well,
Angelo DiCicco (27:54):
No, this is how it was last year. Like they,
Sevan Matossian (27:56):
No, but what I mean is is that now that they’ve all been released and makes it even more confusing, like you’re saying that normally at noon today, they would’ve only released two of the workouts. No,
Brian Friend (28:03):
They release saw five, but you have to do the first two with and submit them within the first 24 hour window. Okay. But you don’t have to do ’em in order. No. This gives people a little bit of a heads up to decide what order maybe they wanna do them in.
Sevan Matossian (28:17):
Well, do you have to do one or two the first day, but you can switch ’em two or one or could you do,
Brian Friend (28:22):
You can do number well when we get to number four, I think there’s a lot of people that will do not workout number four first.
Sevan Matossian (28:29):
Wow.
Brian Friend (28:30):
Which is what happened last year also.
Sevan Matossian (28:32):
Yep. So it doesn’t matter. They’re gonna give us five workouts at noon today. It doesn’t matter which two you do, but you have to have two done by tomorrow at noon.
Angelo DiCicco (28:42):
Yeah. So you could do ’em all or you could do just the two or you could kind of mix and match like what Brian said. Most people do this one first, probably one tonight and then one tomorrow morning. Um, so they’ll do four as soon as possible. They’ll do either one or two very soon. And then in the morning they’ll do one or two and then submit those. And then they’ll only have two left at that point.
Sevan Matossian (29:05):
So Sunday, the, the, uh, the 27th at noon, we will know who’s going to the semifinals.
Brian Friend (29:12):
No, we’ll have a good idea, but we won’t know for sure. There’s still have to be a review process and cross it. Hasn’t I think they’ve advertised that the leaderboard for semifinals would be finalized by April 1st, but they’ve also advertised that we, that they will announce when that when the leaderboard will be finalized and it’s still open to interpretation of if that’s actually gonna happen by April 1st or not.
Sevan Matossian (29:35):
Okay. And, um, but, but that was kind of the same with the open. They, it wasn’t finalized, but they let the numbers go up in real time. Will they let the numbers go up in real time here too? Yeah.
Brian Friend (29:46):
Yeah. So the leaderboard will remain hidden until 24 hours pass from the announcement at that mark, all the scores have to have been submitted. Any score submitted after 24 hours will not be accepted. And Adrian was extremely explicit in saying that direct.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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