Sevan Matossian (00:00):
It’s not me. That’s not me. Not. Oh, that’s not you, you confused me with the, the other podcaster guy, uh, podcast podcast that you did with Eddie. If,
Christian Toetzke (00:08):
Oh, sorry.
Sevan Matossian (00:09):
It’s okay.
Christian Toetzke (00:10):
But you also live in Mallu or you stayed in Mallu.
Sevan Matossian (00:12):
No, sir. I am about 300 miles north of him in a small town called Santa Cruz.
Christian Toetzke (00:18):
Oh, Santa Cruz. That’s where Shane and that’s good.
Sevan Matossian (00:23):
Yes, sir. Good morning.
Christian Toetzke (00:24):
Yeah. Good morning.
Sevan Matossian (00:26):
Good to see you.
Christian Toetzke (00:27):
Yeah, same.
Sevan Matossian (00:28):
Well, well you are in Las Vegas right now.
Christian Toetzke (00:31):
I am. Yes. Correct.
Sevan Matossian (00:33):
Uh, Christian.
Christian Toetzke (00:36):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (00:36):
Tuka.
Christian Toetzke (00:37):
Yeah. Tuku is a and Tek. He said, and German, we say,
Sevan Matossian (00:41):
Say
Christian Toetzke (00:42):
It again very hard for you to say it. Say it teki
Sevan Matossian (00:45):
TK.
Christian Toetzke (00:47):
Yeah. Yeah. Very good.
Sevan Matossian (00:48):
Uh, you just gave up on me
Christian Toetzke (00:51):
<laugh> no, I know. I didn’t.
Sevan Matossian (00:53):
Uh, what time did you wake up this morning?
Christian Toetzke (00:58):
I wake woke up like 30 minutes ago.
Sevan Matossian (01:00):
Oh, okay. Good, good, good, good, good, good. Uh, guys, we are so lucky to have Christian on the show today. Basically what’s going on this weekend is the world championships for high rocks. I know most of you know, um, what high rocks is because of the amazing hunter, uh, MacIntyre. Who’s a frequent guest of the show and a great gentleman, a great sportsman and a, just a great role model, uh, for all of Humana humanity, uh, and, and, and the high rocks events in an incredible event. Um, I’ll, I’ll run through it real quick. It’s a, it’s a thousand meter run, a thousand meter skier thousand meter run, 50 meter sled push a, a heavy sled. I might add for the big boys. It is, uh, 175 pounds. Then a thousand meter run, then a sled pool, 50 meters, 125 kilograms then run a thousand meters.
Sevan Matossian (01:50):
Then this one’s brutal, uh, burpee broad jumps, 80 meters, uh, run a thousand meters row. A thousand meters run a thousand meters farmer carry 200 meters, uh, with two heavy kettle bells run a thousand meters lunge, 100 meters with a 45 pounds, uh, sandbag on your shoulders run a thousand meters and then a hundred wall balls. Fastest time in the world is around 55 minutes by the great hunter MacIntyre and then regular human beings like me do it in three hours in the, in the slowest time, maybe in the world is three hours and 35 minutes, which is also, uh, as anyone who does fitness noses and impressive feet just to be on your feet that long when I heard that number, I thought, oh, I’d like to see hunter do it in 3 35. <laugh> like, literally, okay, let’s leave you out there for three hours and 35 minutes. See what happens to you? I mean, it’s crazy, right?
Christian Toetzke (02:39):
Yeah, absolutely. Correct. I mean, it’s impressive what we see because we have every ability of athletes, uh, as you say from 55 minutes, which is unbelievable, and you think it’s impossible for a human being other than a hunter, uh, and up to three hours and something. So that’s, that’s the whole idea of high rocks that everyone can do. It is just a matter of time.
Sevan Matossian (03:02):
Yeah. Infinitely, scalable. Everyone is welcome the largest indoor participatory event in the world. Uh, how, what Christian? What’s the, what’s the minimum, what’s the smallest venue. You’ve done it in smallest amount of square feet.
Christian Toetzke (03:18):
Uh, it was roughly armed a hundred thousand square feet.
Sevan Matossian (03:22):
Oh, that’s the smallest. Yeah,
Christian Toetzke (03:23):
That’s roughly the smallest one we have. <laugh> It’s really, really big. So usually we do it at hundred 50,000 to 200,000 feet. So a square feet.
Sevan Matossian (03:35):
Uh, let’s go. I wanna go back a little bit. Um, you you’re born in Germany.
Christian Toetzke (03:40):
I am. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (03:41):
Okay. So sorry. One more thing before I go back to your childhood, this event is this event, um, officially starts today, right? The whole, the, the, the world championships kind of weekend.
Christian Toetzke (03:51):
Absolutely. Uh, well today we have the opening ceremony. We have amazingly 1,200 athletes from 22 countries, uh, that travel to Las Vegas. Like literally everyone is not from Las Vegas. Mm-hmm <affirmative> uh, um, of course we have the,
Sevan Matossian (04:07):
Do you have any Armenians, any Armenians?
Christian Toetzke (04:10):
Uh, unfortunately not because would actually open the op the war ceremony, but, uh, we have Australia and Austria, so,
Sevan Matossian (04:18):
Oh. It starts with an a, I like that. Okay, good, good.
Christian Toetzke (04:20):
Yeah. Next year, next year. But yeah, that’s, uh, today’s the opening ceremony then tomorrow is race day at, from eight 30 onwards. We have in every age group. Uh, and as you know, everyone is doing exactly the same. We have, uh, all the world championship divisions and then the big, the final highlight of the season of the day is 6:00 PM. What we call the elite 15, these are the best 15 male and female athletes across the season. So this is when hunter McIntyre, uh, is racing it all head to head with the other 14 best guys. Uh, and the women do the same. Uh, it’s almost like at the same time. So, uh, it’s the stadium concept set up. It’s a little bit different for this event now than the other, uh, edge group events. Uh, it’s really great to watch it’s it’s up one hour, as you said. Uh, so everyone is welcome to come out. If you are coincidentally, you are in Las Vegas, which can happen, uh, and you wanna see some amazing fitness, uh, yeah. Everyone is invited and everyone can spectate.
Sevan Matossian (05:23):
Uh, is this, uh, is this correct? Is this good morning? And, um, German gut Morgan. Yeah.
Christian Toetzke (05:29):
That’s very correct.
Sevan Matossian (05:30):
Actually it is. Wow. Wow. I thought they were just making fun of you. Okay. Well good. Oh, uh, my, um, that’s what my, uh, audience does. They just make fun of me and the guest the entire time was
Christian Toetzke (05:40):
I like it.
Sevan Matossian (05:41):
<laugh> um, so 6:00 PM May 14th. That’s tomorrow in Las Vegas. How much are the tickets? If I want to come watch
Christian Toetzke (05:50):
It’s, uh, 20 bucks for, to come, but that’s for the whole day, of course. And there’s also beer and wine. If you wanna have some entertainment next to the racing, but I think people will be thrilled. It’s really, it’s one, apparently it’s one race, right from, uh, which kicks off, starts at six and then finishes one hour later. It’s it’s very exciting. It’s very close head to head racing. Great to watch. Uh, yeah, everyone is invited to come out
Sevan Matossian (06:18):
And, and, and the way I’m told the way this event is set up and from what the little bit I’ve gleamed from the internet is you can follow it. It’s kind of, there’s a little bit of a golf component. Um, meaning I, we can you at the start, you can be there with your beer. And when hunter takes off, you watch him take off on the thousand and then you can switch positions and get closer to the sled push. Then he runs the thousand and then the audience can move closer to the sled pole. You can get different vantage points to see, um, where they do the movements other than the running.
Christian Toetzke (06:46):
Absolutely correct. Actually, that is a great expression. So on before I never, I never have used that before, but it’s exactly what it works like this when you watch your, your family or friends or whoever is racing, you go from workout to workout with them because this is how we have designed the whole setup. So you are always very close to the next workout. Uh, and of course you see them on the run as well, but, uh, that’s why you are, it’s very intense and other than any other mass participation event, where usually you see them at the start and then whatever one hour later, when they finish for a few seconds, you really, really, uh, see the whole race and can follow everyone
Sevan Matossian (07:27):
Are, um, are there any characters? We know hunter, McIntyre’s a character and, and I’m guessing, I, I don’t mean to put words in your mouth, but I’m guessing he’s brought a lot of attention just because of his personality and his efforts to get out there. Do you have any other characters forming? Um, like whether they’re PE employ, like, you know, like CrossFit has, uh, Dave Castro, right. And they have Nicole car, and then they have rich, they have these different people, or like football football kind of has some people too, but their faces are covered. So you just kind of get the quarterbacks, you know? Um, do, are there, are there other people who are characters forming within your community so that there’s sort of a narrative?
Christian Toetzke (08:04):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (08:04):
It’s hard finding stuff about you. It’s hard stuff in fi stuff about you Christian, really Tutu,
Christian Toetzke (08:13):
Tutu. Um, no, we have, we have a large number of characters. You find every kind of people it’s, we are already a very international sport. So it’s, it’s very interesting to see how different the people are. Uh, it was very funny. I, so unfortunately, our reigning world champion, who’s a German guy to be his loud one.
Sevan Matossian (08:34):
Oh, yes. To be his lots. One to be its lots one. Yeah.
Christian Toetzke (08:38):
He’s good guy. He’s he’s injured. So he is not able to raise unfortunately, but he was just a video message and he’s exactly a hundred percent the opposite of hunter McIntyre. So he’s like very German, very like very, very focused. I don’t wanna say dry or dry humor, but uh, no, but we have the app it’s we are working on faces. Of course. Uh, we have, uh, Sarah coy is a very interesting figure from Germany at the, in the woman’s race. Uh, she has quite interesting stories to tell. Um, we have, well, my partner is a very char charismatic guy. Uh movez ster he’s. He created the whole, uh, high concept together with me. And he’s a two time Olympic gold medalist and uh,
Sevan Matossian (09:27):
Wow.
Christian Toetzke (09:28):
Kind of a little, how do you say sports celebrity in Germany? You dunno, you dunno. You don’t know him in the us, but uh,
Sevan Matossian (09:37):
What were his events? What were his events? Christian.
Christian Toetzke (09:39):
Yeah. I, I don’t wanna say it because you probably, you don’t know what kind of a sport is this actually, he won
Sevan Matossian (09:45):
<laugh>
Christian Toetzke (09:46):
He was a best few hockey player in the world.
Sevan Matossian (09:49):
Ah, yeah. I know Phil hockey. I know. Feel hockey. Hockey. Yes, yes, yes. We
Christian Toetzke (09:53):
Had a couple of in us. We had a couple of discussions. These people there, what is this? I’m hockey, ice hockey. No, no, it’s not ice hockey. It’s actually the same, but not on, not on ice. They right. Never heard sport. However, uh, maybe Armenians play it. I don’t, I’m not so sure
Sevan Matossian (10:12):
If it, if it’s inexpensive, the Armenians play it. Um,
Christian Toetzke (10:16):
It can be very inexpensive. It depends.
Sevan Matossian (10:18):
<laugh> oh, okay. Well then they don’t play it. Um, a Christian also, um, for those of you who don’t know is a an and I’m sure a bunch of you don’t know, isn’t it extremely accomplished to Catholic? Uh, he tried to make the 1988 Olympics, uh, at the time he was like sixth or, uh, seventh best in Germany at the decathlon. Um, and, and then, and then you, and then you stayed in that world and you pivoted to, to, to starting your own events, right? Your, your first event was a cycling event. Is that correct? Uh, oh, did I lose you? Is your internet bad Christian?
Christian Toetzke (10:53):
No, I’m here. Yeah, there was. Oh, did
Sevan Matossian (10:56):
Second. Did, did you, did you hear any of that? So, so your first of, so in 1988, you, you had aspirations of going to the Olympics yourself.
Christian Toetzke (11:05):
I have, uh, I had, yeah, yeah, indeed. Uh, I did the cath, but unfortunately at that time, Germany was the strongest NA nation in the world with regards to the Catholics. So I think we had, uh, like the top three next to daily Thompson. So the older people in the room might know the name. He’s a, was a famous UK. I can, uh, two times go medal winner in decathlon at the games. And it was very hard to qualify. You only have three positions, right? Uh, uh, every country can maximum send three athletes to the games. And it’s a very hard work. It’s a lot of training. There’s no money involved when you’re not really on the world’s top. And so I, I had to gave up relatively young because I had the feeling, I would probably not make it and I have to make some money. So unfortunately this dream never came, came true, but I then joined Olympics later because of my job, uh, multiple times. So I had a little bit of Olympic of Olympic feeling.
Sevan Matossian (12:08):
Tell me about your job, that, that, that had you, um, cross paths with the Olympics again.
Christian Toetzke (12:13):
Well, I, my careers, my whole career is in creating sport events and, and creating sport products and, and, and sell them. So I, that’s a funny story. I’d never had to plan to be in the sports industry. So I, like, I studied macroeconomics and I worked at an advertising agency, which I thought was quite boring. Uh, but we had a client and the client said it wasn’t an energy company in Germany. And they said, we made a research and it came out at cycling can be, uh, a very interesting sport for us. And can you not do something with cycling and advertising agency say, yeah, what if they want an event, but we, what, how stupid is that idea? We, we are producing commercials and I thought this is actually quite interesting. And I wrote down a concept for a cycling event that was brand new and was a new approach, though.
Christian Toetzke (13:10):
It was as you know, a very traditional sport. It’s really big in Europe. I think meanwhile also in the us, but through the France and everything. And I called it marathon on wheels. Uh, so I, which was funny at that time, it was a first event ever, who said we combined pro racing and, and everybody like a mass participation sighting event. And we closing the streets of Hamburg. And the funny story was, so I present this in the, at the agency. And, uh, the everyone said, what is never, never, what is stupid ideas is? And so I gave it a little bit, uh, off the record, I presented this concept to the chief marketing officer and he liked it so much that he only, he caught me if I can organize it. And suddenly I had to do an event with and had no idea I was doing,
Sevan Matossian (13:58):
What year was this? Christian, what year was this?
Christian Toetzke (14:01):
90, 90, 95.
Sevan Matossian (14:02):
Okay. So
Christian Toetzke (14:03):
I was young. I had absolutely no idea. So I had to create a company and I, I organized this event, which then became one of the biggest cycling events in the world. Uh, and now today you have master patient cycling events everywhere.
Sevan Matossian (14:17):
Uh, did that energy company end up selling that event?
Christian Toetzke (14:21):
No. Uh, I, I owned, uh, I used to own the IP and, and the race and everything. Oh.
Sevan Matossian (14:27):
They just
Christian Toetzke (14:28):
Was a founding partner headline sponsor.
Sevan Matossian (14:31):
Who was, they gave me that the energy company was,
Christian Toetzke (14:34):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (14:34):
Okay.
Christian Toetzke (14:35):
But they trusted me and they gave me, like, I think it was 400,000 DEU mark at that time. <affirmative> was Deutschmark at that time. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and I had, yeah, that’s how I started suddenly being in this game of creating sport events. And I always, from the start, I, I, what we call mass patient events. So where you bring pro athletes and thousands of everybody, every average shows to the start line, which of course the marathon marathon events were already getting very popular at that time, but it was still very beginning of all of that. There was no UPC racing. There was nothing right. Cycling had no mass participation element at that time. And then, yeah, so I got into this, then I started my own company and we were doing producing a lot of cycling events and I got into triathlon.
Sevan Matossian (15:23):
Tell me the name of that comp sorry, tell me the name of that company.
Christian Toetzke (15:26):
It’s still the same name, absolute sports. Yeah. It sports with, with up at the beginning little world game. Uh,
Sevan Matossian (15:36):
So it’s, it’s kind of an IMG
Christian Toetzke (15:38):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (15:39):
Correct. A European version. Yeah. Correct. Okay. And, and, and were, and were your events focused primarily in Europe
Christian Toetzke (15:46):
At that time? Yes. And then I sold that company to a French media giant, uh, called Laga there. Uh, people would not know it, but they use, they own our magazine stuff like this, and the, the owner wanted to get it to sport and he wanted to compete with IMG. So he
Christian Toetzke (16:04):
Massive amount of money to buy a lot of companies, put them together and wanted to create one of the leading sports marketing companies in the world. Yeah. Competing with IMG on the same level. And then, so he also acquired my company and then, uh, I had to stay and I became the CEO of what we called lag day events. So we acquired a lot of sport events from tennis, golf, PGA, ATP, wow. Friendly and a lot. And we created a large amount of mass participation events then everywhere in the world. So that’s when I started to work in global responsibility, which was very interesting because you learn about how different the countries are and how similar they are. Uh, and I did this for some years and then I said, but I always wasn’t more an entrepreneur. So not really the typical corporate guy. So I saw, I stepped out of that 2016 because I had this idea of creating something in fitness and that was the first hour or whatever, however, wanna call it of high rocks. Uh, so I had this idea for a while and I started to develop it further. And then I said, I wanna do that. So I left to corporate world and started absolute sports again. Uh, same name, different company,
Sevan Matossian (17:24):
No shit, same name.
Christian Toetzke (17:26):
And, uh, but we only do hi rocks. So it’s, we can also call the company. Hi rocks. It’s we have only one idea, one product, one determination. And that’s to changed the world or fitness a little bit with, with our product.
Sevan Matossian (17:39):
Has anyone tried to buy it from you already?
Christian Toetzke (17:42):
Uh, yes.
Sevan Matossian (17:44):
Yes. Good congratulations. And, and, and, and you’re not ready to sell it.
Christian Toetzke (17:48):
Well, we have a, we have an investor on board mm-hmm <affirmative>, uh, because what we do requires, especially in the beginning funding, uh, because we want to, like, we wanna create a global movement, a global sport. So we wanna be in the next, we already are in eight markets, uh, in the us and in Europe, but we wanna be in every relevant country in the world in the next four years. And
Sevan Matossian (18:14):
So what does that mean? Eight markets? What does a market mean?
Christian Toetzke (18:18):
Oh, that’s a country or region. So we, uh, when, I mean eight markets at Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the UK, uh, the Netherlands, um, Scandinavia next season, uh, the United States of America. So, but that’s what we call what we call markets.
Sevan Matossian (18:35):
Uh, uh, um, anyone who this is, this is, um, one of the interesting things. So I, I worked over at CrossFit Inc for 15 years. I was in charge of the media over there from the beginning to, to, till I got fired till Greg Greg’s old company. And the new team fired me. I was part of the toxic culture. And, um, one of the greatest things about, um, things that pop up on that started popping up, um, in the fitness ecosystem is you have all these people going to these affiliates and they have nowhere to express their fitness. So something like high rocks comes up and it’s like, yeah, I have to assume. I mean, it seems like the thing that all my friends would, would wanna do, because they need a place to express their fitness. Right. You do all of this training and there’s nowhere to express it and to do CrossFit for the sake of CrossFit. I mean, sure, fine. Uh, uh, but what, what a, what a nice thing to have is that, is the, the, is there any separation in the communities or is it just one, is it, is this whole thing there’s like, it seems like everything’s just kind of blending together now. I mean, you see a ton of, CrossFiters also doing, oh, thank you. You see tons of CrossFiters like also doing marathons half marathons, right? You see them entering weightlifting competitions, high rocks almost seems like the perfect place for a CrossFitter to test themselves. Well,
Christian Toetzke (19:52):
No, a hundred percent. It’s definitely blending in a way that I think what we see now, which is getting bigger is the sport of fitness. Mm-hmm, <affirmative> in way that everyone find a competition that suit you. Uh, that’s the difference. Uh, and we love CrossFit. It’s amazing product. Uh, but I, when we, when I created hi rocks, the approach was always to create something, which is a competition that is really open for everyone. It doesn’t matter.
Sevan Matossian (20:19):
Right, right, right.
Christian Toetzke (20:20):
How fit and strong you are right with. And this is a different approach. We, we started high rocks from the beginning, purely as an event company that is producing these competitions or these races mm-hmm <affirmative>, uh, with CrossFit in the beginning was a form of training. Right. So
Sevan Matossian (20:37):
They had to right, right.
Christian Toetzke (20:39):
Resume this crossed box concept. It was more like a franchise licensing concept in beginning. And then,
Sevan Matossian (20:46):
Ah, but no, no, not, not really. Yeah, no, no, sir.
Christian Toetzke (20:49):
They created tonight. Just wanna say, like I said, it’s amazing, but they created the events and the events are more based around elite events, so,
Sevan Matossian (20:57):
Right, right.
Christian Toetzke (20:58):
Best right. Of the best. And they come together and do this, um,
Sevan Matossian (21:03):
Everything it CrossFit was, um, believe it or not, this is maybe gonna sound a little, um, hard to believe everything was on accident.
Christian Toetzke (21:11):
No, I, I, no, a hundred percent, I believe it.
Sevan Matossian (21:13):
Do you know what I mean? Like, it was just like, Hey, let’s work. It was like, it was like, if, um, you had unprotected sex with your wife.
Christian Toetzke (21:19):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (21:19):
I know. Then you had a baby. Oh shit. It was accident. <laugh>
Christian Toetzke (21:24):
I know
Sevan Matossian (21:25):
It was just, it’s just powerful forces coming together. Christian and, and the rest was an accent. Okay. Okay. Okay. No,
Christian Toetzke (21:31):
No, no. I,
Christian Toetzke (21:32):
I know immediately that it was never planned from the beginning. That will end up like this. So the way how the events are structured, et etcetera, I think it was us just coming. I don’t know someone came up with that and then bangs this, something we take. So, uh, we, uh, tried from, this is a different approach from the beginning. And, uh, what I believe is at fitness events, which, and I have to say what this means, because what is fitness? Of course you run Pathon it’s fitness too. And if you do <inaudible> it’s fitness too. Yes. What I mean is gym fitness. If, is that, does it make any sense as an expression? So what people do in a gym, which means you have barbers, you have whatever SLS, you have thumb beds, you
Sevan Matossian (22:14):
Lap pull down machine
Christian Toetzke (22:16):
Where you run. And that’s the point. Of course, uh, the majority of the people that I, a member in the gym are not lifting weights. Uh, this is simply the reality. So they, most of the people run and do function of fitness. Um, but you know, when you go Equinox or whatever, F 45 Paris bootcamp, orange, Sierra fitness, whatever name, it, LA fitness. Um, so we believe, and, and that’s in the first place when we created that, we created it for everyone. Who’s not doing CrossFit. Cross CrossFit is an amazing pro product, great community. And they have this community thing and they have these kind of competition. They have, we have the workout of the day. You can do the open. And if you are really, really good, you can go to the regions or to one of the top events. But, uh, we believe that there are millions and millions of people below or outside of CrossFit that also love fitness and go to the gym every, whatever, four or five times a week. And now that was our first target group. And now we, they have an event. So we say, it’s, they have a purpose to train for. But funny Lee, of course, we see a lot of CrossFit members coming to our events because they love it too. Of course
Sevan Matossian (23:32):
Try something. Of course,
Christian Toetzke (23:34):
Why something different. And when I talk to also like professional crossroad athletes, I think it’s a great thing to, to add to your training. Cause it’s more cardio based. It gives, yeah. You know, it’s, it’s definitely increasing your, your capacity, your cardio capacity and everything, which perhaps you also in, in, in shorter, more across workouts that are dramatically shorter, uh, more and like super intense. But, uh, so it it’s, it’s blending for sure. And we see, we, we bring this a little bit together with coming people coming from the, from the OCR community, from triathlon, from math on running. But a lot of people are really new because they, where just going to the gym and they never had a competition where they exactly do what they train in the gym and the event is based around that. And I think that’s a new thing and why it it’s really, really it’s picking up so well. Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (24:31):
It it’s, um, it’s infinitely scalable also, which is, um, brilliant, right? Like let’s say I, I could do 10% of everything. I could reduce the run to a hundred meters. I could cut the reps down, um, by, by 90%. And I could just make it just a quick workout. I do at my house.
Christian Toetzke (24:49):
Yeah. So we had a lot of, I had a lot of print on narratives or principles when I put this together, which took a long time. There’s actually quite a lot of science behind it. So it’s not actually this random, as you said at CrossFit, it was just accident. It was not an accident it’s not created by accident. Uh, so we, I also wanted to create what I call some of the healthiest sports in the world. You can do because when you talk to, to experts and everything, it’s important that you a healthy sport somewhere, you don’t do certain movements like in a very, very large amount of the time. So only one always the same movement, nothing else that is, is always good in the beginning and then becomes a problem. After a while. You need to mix different stuff in your training. If you can be really good and you can be competitive without the absolute need to, to do something with max weights, it helps you to avoid injuries.
Christian Toetzke (25:50):
So, uh, that’s why we created it, that all the workouts, people asking me, why is these workouts? Because we, all these workouts are natural movements. You don’t need certain skills for it though, to do this, like hunter McIntyre. It’s an unbelievable skill set and, and, and requires endless hours of training over years. But everyone can push a sled. I mean, it might take a long time because we have really heavy sleds, but, uh, you can push a sled. You don’t need to, even, you have never pushed the sled. You can do it right when you sign up randomly for the race. Uh, and, but, and the other part is that the hold the distance, why is it eight kilometers of running and eight workouts? It’s exactly at the border line of, of lengths that you still can be really well prepared when you do one hour training shifts, you do, you don’t need to do the three, four hour things, which is socially, sometimes really difficult. <laugh> like, <inaudible>. So I was also involved in Ironman, et cetera. You, I mean, you have to basically leave your social life, right. And you go, oh, now I go for a little ride of six hours and I two hour run. Right. So darling, I, you see me back in eight hours, uh, which is not very typical thing you, which
Sevan Matossian (27:07):
Is that goes from training to mental illness, I think.
Christian Toetzke (27:09):
Yeah. Well also you’re alone forever on the bikes. You, you have too much time to think about everything. So, and you do, you train one hour and you are really well prepared and you mix your training. As you say, you, you can shorten the runs. You, you do always this IVI training of short runs workouts, you and the cardio part can be rowing, can be skier, not only running. Right. So, yeah. Uh, that’s what it is. And that’s, I call it the math on the fitness effect, which is as real.
Sevan Matossian (27:40):
I think that’s perfect. Yeah. That’s a perfect name for it. I just wanna be, I just wanna be clear about one thing, um, just to clarify, and this isn’t for you, this is for, for me out of the respect for CrossFit, the, the methodology was not an accident. The business was an accident. That’s what I meant. Yeah. Yeah, sure. The me,
Christian Toetzke (27:57):
I know what you mean. I don’t mean it. I don’t mean it in a bad
Sevan Matossian (28:01):
Way. Okay. Okay. Good. And I didn’t think you did, um, guys, what’s so FA what, this, this, when he says that they’re in eight markets, these are the cities that, that you can go play in Dallas, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles, Madison, Chicago, New York and Denver. They, I think this year alone, they’ve already done. Did you, have you done 30 events already this year or you have 30 total the whole year?
Christian Toetzke (28:26):
Uh, no, this season. So our, our season is always like roughly from October till may.
Sevan Matossian (28:32):
Okay. We
Christian Toetzke (28:32):
Did 30 events in our eight markets. Yeah. So you, you can go to, as you know, this is a us schedule, but we have every beautiful city in Europe on the list from Amsterdam Madrid, London, Berlin, you can actually make, go to every amazing city and, and do a hierarchy event there.
Sevan Matossian (28:53):
Yeah. This is really cool. And, and what, I’m, what I’m getting from you and what I’m understanding is this, the, I, I don’t know what the percentage is. So bear with me here. I’m, I’m being loose with my tongue, but I’m guessing 95% of the people who do a marathon, do it to check it off the box to complete. And, and this is that type of event. You don’t J you don’t, this is a, for a lot of people, this is a competition, uh, um, against yourself, you see this list of stuff that you have to do, and it looks so daunting. <laugh>, but it’s actually, but it’s actually doable. And not only is it doable, but you have one month, two month and three month training regimens on your website that people could follow. It’s even a great resource for all of the CrossFit affiliates. So like, if you knew that, um, high rocks was coming to, um, Dallas, and you had an affiliate in Dallas, you could be like, okay, guys, for the next three months, we’re gonna have a class that meets every morning at 7:00 AM. And we’re gonna follow this five day a week program that high rocks is provided. And then as a group, we’re gonna go and compete it or not even compete, participate at high rocks, um, do the event and then drink a bunch of beer and may, and, and take a picture and take.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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