JR Howell (00:00):
Baz is reminding us of some things.
Sevan Matossian (00:03):
Bam. We’re live.
JR Howell (00:03):
Son of a
Sevan Matossian (00:05):
<laugh> <laugh>. Uh, hi guys. Uh, sorry to, sorry to interrupt. Where were you? Jr you wanna tell me how we’re gonna do the show? <laugh>,
JR Howell (00:16):
Let’s just go,
Sevan Matossian (00:17):
Let’s just go. Welcome everyone. I wanted to do, I wanna do like, um, a nighttime show every night like this where we, we talk about the games and the events and the news, but fuck, there’s just too many athletes to interview. We’re luck, we’re lucky we plug this in. Like we plugged this in like a month ago, right? I,
JR Howell (00:36):
Yeah. At least
Sevan Matossian (00:37):
Ha have
JR Howell (00:38):
You And I, and I, and I probably waited a week too long since we’ve got some, some stuff that’s already been trickled out.
Sevan Matossian (00:44):
Oh. Meaning you would’ve liked to have said your piece before, uh, gymnastics Helen and the total came out.
JR Howell (00:52):
Right? Right. Yeah. I think it just would’ve been more cool, but it would’ve possibly and definitely set me up to be more incorrect. But that’s cool. I’m, I’m gonna, I’m gonna run through this stuff as if that stuff wouldn’t have hasn’t been released.
Sevan Matossian (01:05):
Can I ask you now, um, uh, is it appropriate to ask you now if you thought that there was gonna be a total, uh, an Olympic total? Um,
JR Howell (01:14):
Yeah, I would’ve bet money that for the second year in a row, a non-traditional lift would’ve been used as a strength test.
Sevan Matossian (01:20):
And, and, and the, and the, the tradi and, and explain that to me. The traditional total is, uh, back squat, deadlift, shoulder overhead.
JR Howell (01:29):
Uh, so yeah, the total is back squat, deadlift press. They, they’ve said they’re gonna do the Olympic total, which is snatch clean jerk.
Sevan Matossian (01:39):
And you throw that in the bucket. You give yourself a point for that. Non-traditional
JR Howell (01:43):
No, that, that’s traditional. Oh, I would’ve said, um, like last year, Bo even came on the show and was like, oh, yeah, did you guys see that post Saturday night? Big lifts, return to the CrossFit games? Do you guys like that? Yeah, it was a great post knowing that it was actually gonna be a sandbag and not a barbell. So they posted all these highlights of people snatching and clean and jerking. And then he flipped the script and did bar and, and did a sandbag. And I kind of thought, well, what if they just say, Hey, Olympic total cool, but you’re gonna use dumbbells instead, but you’re gonna do, so that, that, I do think something like that still could happen.
Sevan Matossian (02:20):
Okay, good. Because we were in our thread and people were suggesting that, oh, the gymnastics day is gonna be, uh, the two movements they showed. What did they show? Um, handstand and what was the other ones? Parallel? Bars. Bars. Oh, yeah, bars. Parallel bars. And, and, and I’m thinking to myself, that doesn’t mean shit. So you’re, you’re on the same page as me. That doesn’t mean shit.
JR Howell (02:41):
Well, yeah. And what’s, what’s really important before we get too into the weeds, is that they said five, they said Cross country, five K. Okay, cool. That’s pretty straightforward. They said Olympic total. So everyone’s thinking, okay, cool. I need to know what I can snatch and clean and jerk for load with a barbell. But they just say skills. So they’re, they’re not giving the specialists in the skills category as much of a opportunity to know kind of what skills might that be. Or maybe people that are bottom 10 in that, well, which ones do I need to brush up on? Yet, the other two single modalities, they’re seemingly giving all the details to already to prepare. So does that mean that they really haven’t given any details <laugh> and everyone thinks that they have? I think it’s more likely that maybe there’s a lot of details that haven’t been released about the total or about the five K run that everyone just assumes it’s gonna be as straightforward as it is.
Sevan Matossian (03:45):
Um, hey, so you’re saying that in that run there may be 25, 15 foot walls that they have to climb over that no one’s fucking that’s in a cross country run.
JR Howell (03:57):
Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (03:57):
Maybe like an unprecedented amount of crazy walls or a cargo net that’s car. It could be all sorts of shit in there. Sure,
JR Howell (04:04):
Sure. Could be anything. Could be wearing a ruck. I mean, you know, could be anything like that. But I just do find it odd that they released three single modality workouts that all of them that everyone are, is not gonna get to do also. ’cause some of ’em are gonna happen after cuts, maybe all three. And then they release all the details for two and they release no details for the other. Hmm.
Sevan Matossian (04:29):
Okay. Did, did, uh, you told me how you wanted to start to show and I already fucked it up. Oh, but let’s collect some money first here really quick. I like this part. Uh, extra sloppy $5, five bucks for every live show I catch between now and the games behind the scenes funds. Thank you. God. I was playing with my cameras for hours today. Susie came over, we did a long, uh, walk up and down hills with my 16 pound vest with the boys, walked down to the beach and back getting ready. Um, okay, uh, tell me, uh, what are we doing here tonight? What are we doing? Mr. Uh, Jr Howell from Cross CrossFit Crash.
JR Howell (05:04):
So I think the, the best thing to do is to probably go back to world class fitness in a hundred words and, and really focus on the exercise portion of that. Because if we learned anything last year from Boz, we learned that those words still hold really true. Those things still should be what you look at in your training as an affiliate goer, as an affiliate owner, as a competitive athlete, right? So if we just go through this and we look, ’cause we’ve got a full year of programming to look at, practice all the major lifts. Cool. Everyone already does that similarly. So just like you lift all the time, master the basics, pull-ups what they do last year at the games, dips on parallel bars, rope climbs, everyone’s been training them, jumping, doing ’em legless. And now he reminds everyone, hey, remember on.com, when they were only programmed from a seated position.
(05:55):
Okay, well, you guys need to be able do that now. And it was supposed to happen at the alpaca. Now what’s everyone been doing? What’d they do at Semifinals? Seated cool pushups. We’ll get to Situps, we’ll get to Pressed the handstand. Brought that out last year in the low start, pirouettes brought that out, the games, and then they did it at semifinals Flip splits. And then I think similarly to Pushups holds are really gonna be focused on this year. So that just kind of starts the ball rolling on some predictions. And I, I think now is probably a good time to remind everyone that last year Boz gave us a lot. He gave us a lot of words. He had tons and tons of interviews, podcasts, um, he went on Chase’s show on the CrossFit podcast a few times and said things really profound things like, Hey, I know where the CrossFitter is strong and I know where they’re, uh, less diligent in their training.
(06:51):
So some egos are gonna be bruised and we’re gonna figure some things out. And like that is, oh my gosh, he’s talking about probably higher level gymnastics skills and single under, you know, stuff, stuff that people really don’t train. We don’t really have any of that this year. <laugh> he hasn’t been as, uh, as much, um, in the public eye as far as like some interviews go, but a lot of things on YouTube, like some of the Open Over series that they’ve done, which have been awesome videos. Um, him kind of like doing a, a debrief after the fact saying, yeah, so I wrote this workout and this is kind of what I thought about it going into it. That kind of stuff is still there, but there isn’t as many kind of clues you would say, as I could find last year.
Sevan Matossian (07:34):
Oh,
JR Howell (07:34):
Basically I’m setting myself up to be really wrong.
Sevan Matossian (07:37):
Uh, um, do you think that’s intentional or you think he hasn’t been invited on shows? I can tell you I invited him on this show.
JR Howell (07:43):
Uh, probably a little of both. Probably just more, more responsibilities. Um, maybe just already going through it once and knowing that there were things maybe he wanted to do and didn’t wanna say that maybe he thought that he let the cat outta the bag too early for some things.
Sevan Matossian (08:01):
Um, uh, and, and, and he was very polite. He said, not now, uh, it’s not, it’s not in the cards right now or something. He said something very polite. Uh, Candice, uh, Dick fit, uh, say get to the chipper or tell us what chipper style workout there will be. Get to the chipper. That’s pretty good. Um, the show I’ve been waiting for. Thank you. Lucky camera straps. So, um, that’s why you’re starting the show with Glassman’s a hundred Words Fitness in a hundred words.
JR Howell (08:33):
I think it would be foolish not to keep coming back to that after how true and grassroots bras programming looks to be.
Sevan Matossian (08:41):
Okay. And how he is in general in his character. He’s pretty, he’s he’s og He’s OG material.
JR Howell (08:47):
Oh man. Super og. Yeah. And um, yeah, and you can tell he’s very nostalgic in his program design. Like are things that, you know, Dave always talked about his past experiences and how he used those things to program workouts and Boz is no different, right? We talked last year about, um, him mentioning on a show he did with you and like 20 17, 20 18. Yeah. Dave always used to have me do a press, the handstand on the pirouettes. It was kind of like my circus trick that he would always make me do. And you know, I spent time training, you know, circus training, stuff like that, gymnastics in my background. Hey, I used to get this beat up sled that I made myself, and I used to put random stuff on it and just push it around in a parking lot. And what do we get? We get the alpaca.
(09:33):
Like, I think that there’s um, there’s a level of nostalgia and a level of like life experiences that he puts into his programming. You know, he said a gymnastic coach of his, they were out, I think like outta track and there was just cement steps like bleachers. And he said, Hey, this is how you should be able to do your handstand pushups. And he kicks up onto one of the steps facing the step, goes down with no wall. And that was the inspiration behind the Echo press at the games using that ballistic block. So, I mean, stuff like that is, is is cool. So if there is anything that I could dig up, I tried to, but I, I’m admittedly he’s been a lot, he’s been a lot harder to predict this year.
Sevan Matossian (10:16):
Okay. Okay. Uh, and, and, and, and we do know that they, they ran a test out at Rogue and we do know that some, um, Dave has more than alluded, he has expressed that he fiddled he, he did do something to the workouts, right? Is that fair to say?
JR Howell (10:36):
I, I think all he’s really said is
Sevan Matossian (10:37):
That in his week and review, he,
JR Howell (10:39):
He had some input and maybe we changed some things. I’m, I’m sorry if I’m misquoting, but not, not that I feel
Sevan Matossian (10:46):
Like he was gonna be really gentle and be like, Hey, I looked at it and I had some input and then he kind of finished with the hammer and we made the changes. I felt like it was something like that when I heard it, I was like, oh, oh, oh, ooh,
JR Howell (10:58):
I think I’m in the minority here. And thinking that I, I think Dave has been very, very hands off. I think, I think he, he respects the gig too much to try to put his hand in it and mess with it. I think he’s like, Hey Boz, this is yours now I’m just here to kind of help and that’s it.
Sevan Matossian (11:12):
Okay. Okay. Meaning, meaning that there’s a continuity between the open, the semi-finals and, um, the games and, and, uh, game recognized game. He recognizes the art of programming and he’s gonna be like, okay, Boz has a
JR Howell (11:29):
Yeah. And I think if, if, if there’s a, if there’s a focus from the company and from from the top down of like, Hey, like we need to make sure we’re still connecting with, with the community, with the affiliates, showing them, Hey, this is the games. But like, these guys still do things that you can do. I think these hints that have come out are nothing but reiterating. You guys do Helen. We do Helen too. You guys run a five K and you never want to, when your coach tells you you should do it, Hey, these guys are running a five K. You guys work on your gymnastic skills. So do we, you guys lift heavy, so do we. It’s grassroots, classic CrossFit, that Venn diagram. I, I mean I think it’s been really good owning an affiliate to see that and talk to members about what they think when they see, they’re like, Hey, you know, what do you think they’re gonna do for Helen? I, I don’t think, I don’t think he’s gonna mess with it as much as you guys think. I think he’s gonna preserve the stimulus of the workout. It’s gonna hurt just like you guys hurt when you do it.
Sevan Matossian (12:25):
Did you like Hiller’s? Uh, um,
JR Howell (12:27):
His stuff has been awesome lately. Yeah, he’s, he’s, he’s found some stuff I, I haven’t, which is, which is awesome. So, um, yeah, I think some overarching ideas though that Boz has that he continuously reminds us of is this idea of stop pigeonholing. Things that you think are used only in competition. Stop looking at rings and thinking, oh yeah, this is just for muscle ups and maybe some dips every now and then stop looking at your jump rope and thinking, oh yeah, that’s just the thing I do double enters with. But if I’m not doing double enters, I don’t do anything else with it. Stop looking at the plyo box and think, yeah, all I really do is, I mean that’s what I used to jump. That’s it. Just jump on this box or jump over this box or do a burpee and then jump and that’s it. He’s been very vocal about that aspect of training broad, not pigeonholing certain implements to one or two things in training that you think will come up in competition. If you’re not exploring new things, if you’re not going back and looking at the past, if you’re not trying to think of what could be tested, you’re doing it wrong.
Sevan Matossian (13:35):
Uh, Caleb, I’m trying to scan the QR code to order some of those awesome shorts indicate has now I think. Oh, okay, fine. Oh shit, he moved himself. Well that was nice of you. Uh, okay. Uh, run the test seven up and over 22 CrossFit games.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
That’s a lot about, and these are
JR Howell (13:53):
One of the, one of these, these videos are like gold. I mean they’re really good.
Sevan Matossian (13:57):
These are a year old.
JR Howell (13:59):
Um, yeah. Coming up on it.
Sevan Matossian (14:01):
And these are on the CrossFit games, um, account,
JR Howell (14:04):
YouTube account. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (14:05):
Okay. I
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Don’t think it’s appropriate for people to take a certain skill, like a muscle per handstand pushup and only train it in one way ’cause they think it’s gonna show up in competition. In a similar vein, I don’t think it’s appropriate for affiliates, coaches regular everyday athletes or competitive athletes to view fitness as just a test of my engine. And therefore by extension, how I choose to navigate things has no significance whatsoever. So I can just kind of flop myself over and as long as I’m moving and getting from A to B, it counts. It’s like, okay, sometimes that is the test, it’s just a straight engine test and it doesn’t matter. Comma, there are other times where that’s not appropriate. And we do wanna highlight agility,
Sevan Matossian (15:00):
Peace,
JR Howell (15:02):
Coordinations, balance,
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Affiliates, coaches, everyday athletes. You know, fitness is more than just engine and having the skill developing those technique,
Sevan Matossian (15:14):
You can let it play in 14 second increments. Caleb, let’s try something crazy.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
And that is something that again, if you don’t do it, it’s only gonna go one direction. Like anything else, like any other attribute, you don’t strength train, you’re not gonna get stronger just by thinking about it.
JR Howell (15:30):
Yeah. So what you, I mean that he said a lot right there and the thing.
Sevan Matossian (15:35):
Do you think he said too much?
JR Howell (15:36):
No, not at all. No, I think, I think
Sevan Matossian (15:38):
This is perfect. Me neither. Me
JR Howell (15:39):
Neither. He says before that talking about jumping and how like, yeah. It’s like, well you see this pile box and you just jump on it. Well, and up and over they use their hands to get over a log and then they jump up on a really high box and they cleared a pig. So they jumped in three different ways in the same workout. And he’s trying to like drive home the point that sometimes it’s like test six at semifinals, when some people were able to move through it almost at a really low heart rate because they were so skilled. They were so good at the pirouettes, they were so good on the rope that they didn’t have to hurt to do well. That it wasn’t an engine test. It was a, it was a, it was an agility, it was a balance, it was coordination type test.
(16:25):
And then a lot of times those workouts don’t seem to get programmed at the competitive level, programmed in affiliates. Sometimes those bottom four, right? Agility, balance, coordination, accuracy, those are left behind. And if, if you look back at his programming, that’s what he’s making sure gets tested now. And it’s not just every workout’s a suck fest, right? So it’s make sure that sure you can hurt and you can just get the work done. But sometimes how you get from A to B matters. What movement do you think of when you hear that? The V up? Sometimes you can just lay on the floor and sometimes you can just flop around on the bar and as long as your chin gets over it, it’s fine. Or as long as your toes hit the bar, it still counts. But sometimes it does matter how it looks. Sometimes if your knees come up before your toes, it doesn’t count.
(17:21):
Sometimes if your feet aren’t above your head, it doesn’t count. So I think like that sets a a a, a precedence for things that I think we could see like just a good old fashioned pushup this year. I think that kind of lays the foundation well, hey, your your, your hips dropped. Well what do you mean they dropped? Well, you lost a tight midline. What do you mean you lost a tight midline? We’re telling you that how you get down and get back up matters. You can’t just get the work done. It’s more subjective than that.
Sevan Matossian (17:52):
Wow. Hey, the has is it is, has the pushup traditionally been one of those things that we’ve assumed CrossFit games don’t program because they’re scared of the judging?
JR Howell (18:02):
Yeah. Well, it’s something that I think has been programmed three times. I’m sure someone in the comments is, is gonna correct me, but
Sevan Matossian (18:09):
When are the times Murf and
JR Howell (18:11):
Murf twice. And then, uh, the final one year when Dave announced that on the floor, the first workout was hand release, pushups get open over the wall. And then overhead squat, I believe
Sevan Matossian (18:22):
Was the murf hand release pushups.
JR Howell (18:24):
Um, no. So not, not hand, hand release was only that year. These were just chest to deck or vest to deck pushups. So yeah, this is it. Like it said that, that that quote kind of paves the way for something like this. Now, since we’re already here, we can just say like, in the last 50 weeks of main site programming, how many times do you think pushups have popped up?
Sevan Matossian (18:48):
Uh, I, uh, what do you think? I have no idea.
JR Howell (18:51):
There you go. I knew I was missing a year.
Sevan Matossian (18:53):
Four years. Pushups have been in four years.
JR Howell (18:55):
Pushups came up 25 times in the past 50 weeks. So at least every other week pushups were on main site. Hmm. To put that in a context, handstand pushups was 12 or 13. Hmm.
Sevan Matossian (19:06):
To
JR Howell (19:06):
Put that in context, kettlebell swings was 12. Right? So it’s like pushups, pushups, pushups. L look at what we’ve done in, in the competitive programming, right? We’ve done strict handstand pushups in the open. We’ve done wall facing strict handstand pushups at quarters in semis. They also did wall facing strict. They also did dips. So think about like 180 degree press. You press in this plane of motion up and down upside down, you press straight up and down, but you press in this down plane. Mm-hmm. What’s the other plane of press? Just a good old fashioned pushup during quarter
Sevan Matossian (19:44):
Fire. Where, where was the dip that was in the complex and workout six or something like that?
JR Howell (19:48):
Workout two in the ring complex.
Sevan Matossian (19:49):
Ring complex. Okay. Okay.
JR Howell (19:50):
So you think, well how is everything gonna get harder? It’s the games. It’s the games. No, no, no. Don’t think how’s it gonna get harder? Think, think just what is something basic? Look at the a hundred words, right? Master pushups. Like what is something that maybe you’re not training that you should be training and just doing pushups, real honest what they call it in this article, pushups, whether they’re on rings, whether it’s on a set of parallettes, whether it’s on the floor, like this still holds up, this movement still holds up and it’s still devastating. Just like a ring row or something like that where if they come up with a good standard for it right? Could cripple people and there’s nothing that sounds more BS to me than something like that. Then something simple that says, ah, you guys aren’t, you guys don’t train these, you think you’re too good for ’em. Why?
Sevan Matossian (20:44):
Uh, Jay Gaza. Um, I wanna see one rep max bench press, uh, at the games. I’m sure you do. I’m sure you do. Hey, it, traditionally when you say that, um, they might, I know you’re tongue in cheek, um, when you say they think they’re too good for ’em, um, ’cause it’s like the single under Yeah, some
JR Howell (21:02):
People do train ’em a lot,
Sevan Matossian (21:03):
Right? And it’s like the single under, they don’t think they’re too good for ’em. They just had a lapse in fucking judgment. Um, but um, in Cindy, just for example, traditionally is the pushup, the week link for everyone.
JR Howell (21:16):
I, I think if you ask anyone who’s been doing CrossFit, maybe for at least a year, they would all say Cindy is a pushup workout. Okay. They would say Murph is a pushup workout.
Sevan Matossian (21:24):
Okay. And that’s even for, I’m just getting some clarity for myself, even for the elite workouts, even for the elite fitness people. Because I, it wasn’t until recently that I realized that for the elite athletes that burpees, it was the, uh, it was, uh, muscle fatigue came before, um, cardiovascular fatigue. I couldn’t even, I can’t even fucking believe it took me fucking 14 years of doing CrossFit to learn that. Right? Um, but, but, but, but it is still, it is true in Cindy that the pushup is the weak link for everyone. I mean, MAOS not ironically, not for me, but for most people,
JR Howell (21:56):
I think so, yeah. And, and your point about maybe they do train them and maybe they don’t think they’re too good for them, but they’re almost think that they’re like they were a, they were a prerequisite. Right? And it’s funny you say that because during quarterfinals, um, I CrossFit training or the CrossFit games posted the pushup a gateway movement. And there was this blurb about like, if you’re, until you can master a pushup, basically you shouldn’t move forward into other types of pressing Well that was taken down for some reason. It was like a, hey, here’s a reminder and now it’s gone. And that’s not the first time something like that’s happened, right? Where a post is made and someone’s like, Hey, you guys should, you guys should pay attention to this. And we, you know, we take it down. But I think Chris Hinshaw said it best one time before the single unders came out at the games, he said, you know what?
(22:43):
He, he makes elite level athletes do plate hops and single unders at his seminars. And he said at one time, that single under was really important to you before you could do double unders. That single under was everything and you wanted to be really good at it and you cared about it. And now you don’t practice that skill anymore and it’s probably gone for a lot of you. And so I think there’s just something too, you know, Greg said it before, right? Like when you, when you think you’ve done it all, when you think you’re, when you think you’re good, when you think you’ve mastered it all, go back to the beginning and start again. Only this time paying more attention. So even I think just as an overarching theme, right, back to basics and don’t train the movement that you think is going to come up in competition, right?
(23:34):
A big prediction of mine this year is that the yolk is gonna be used not for just putting on your back and walking with it. I think the yolk will be used as a zercher carry or a front rack carry, or even an overhead carry, right? Because even like an empty yoke is 180 5, 200 pounds, which all those females can do, unloaded, exert carry with no weight on it is devastating. But that’s, that’s strong man influence. But that’s also, well you can do so many cool things with this yoke. Why do you just put it on your back and walk with it all the time?
Sevan Matossian (24:07):
That’s it. And Adrian loves it and Adrian loves, uh, strongman stuff. And it goes to that other theme that you were saying. Don’t think of the jump rope as just for jumping rope. Uh, or just for double unders. Hey, I I Oh,
JR Howell (24:19):
Oh, you’re not supposed to show that Caleb. What? What is that? <laugh>? I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. Put it up there. Put it up there. Put it up there.
Sevan Matossian (24:26):
Uh,
JR Howell (24:26):
I’m not kidding. I really am kidding.
Sevan Matossian (24:28):
Where is that from?
JR Howell (24:30):
Um,
Sevan Matossian (24:31):
That was good JR You got me scared too for a second.
JR Howell (24:33):
This is, this is from, this is from, uh, maybe a past home gym from, uh, Adrian’s house. Um, there was a picture of a whiteboard and doing some research and I, I saw a video and I was like, Hey, this is pretty cool. And it was two lists, right? It was a list of like lower body and it was a list of upper body and it said something along the lines of daily above it with a huge underlined Oh. So like, maybe, maybe he picks something from that list. Like, no matter what I’m gonna get on the reverse hyper or on the G h T every day, every day I’m gonna do some kind of jumping every day I’m gonna do some kind of carry, right? And it’s just like when you, when you see something like that for someone like me who just likes to dive way too deeply, you don’t ignore it. And if, if Zercher is on there, then I take note of it and do I think like a zercher squad is possible that could be kind of clunky. You get take it off the ground and get it and you rease
Sevan Matossian (25:36):
Your elbow. What’s a zercher show? You’re hold, that’s when you hold the bar here.
JR Howell (25:39):
Yeah. It’s where you hold it out front and they’re, they’re amazing. And the
Sevan Matossian (25:42):
Reasses, okay. Yeah, sure.
JR Howell (25:43):
I think maybe getting a barbell to that position would be, would be pretty clunky. But you could do that with a yolk
Sevan Matossian (25:49):
Perfectly. How, how would you do that with a yolk, that bar that sits on your shoulders, you lower it, it it lowers all the way down to that.
JR Howell (25:55):
Yeah. So when the athletes get sized, they just get sized with it lower
Sevan Matossian (26:00):
And then, and then I a no overhead and I know traditional yolk, what was the fourth one you said?
JR Howell (26:04):
I said like a front rack carry put, like just holding it in the front rack and carry. Wow. But yeah, I just think that when, when you start to, when you start to look for implements that have only been used a certain way, a lot of people do that with rings. And we should play that quote from an interview he did with Boz. I think it was like on an Instagram live where he says, again, like, you know, it’s a shame that you only use your rings for muscle ups. There’s so many other things that you could be doing with him and that you probably should be doing with him. So
Sevan Matossian (26:33):
Are you talking about pushups again?
JR Howell (26:35):
Um, pushups. But I, I think that you can do static holds on rings, right? You can do a l set on pettes, but you can do l set on rings. It adds a stability aspect to it. You could lower the rings. Think about the nasty girls video. What if they put the rings just high enough to where you could tuck your feet behind you? But what are all those girls doing in that video? They’re doing strict muscle ups, but there’s not enough room for them to extend their legs and kip So it was like, hey, this is, this is where your ring height’s set at. Just high enough. You get off the ground, you can get in an L and do ’em, or you can kind of get in a strict, now we don’t have to judge your strictness, just get yourself up and over the rings. But if we move in the direction of higher skill back rolls to support have been on main site since like 2003. You told me that one day at the office, Greg got everyone to the gym and just said, I’m gonna teach all you guys how to do a back roll to support today, and that’s all we’re gonna do.
Sevan Matossian (27:34):
Yeah. The rings that were, uh, hanging actually in the office, not even in the gym for a couple days. He did it. He came, he came for several hours every day and tried to teach everyone how to do that back rolled to support.
JR Howell (27:46):
And you know, that, that on the high rings, that that does create a little bit of cause for concern as far as like safety goes, right? Because that is a high fall if someone loses it. Um, it it is, it is a little more <laugh>. It is, it is a lot more technical. Um, but I mean, there have been videos over the past month or so that I’ve seen of athletes on low rings doing front rolls to support doing training the rings in that way. And I think if anything, maybe that comes in the future, right? A lot of people know grid for back rolls to support and how easily people do them because it was one of the movements they kind of opened up with. And I mean, I have to think that if that was Tony budding, it was really Greg Glassman and that’s kind of where some of those things started from.
(28:33):
Um, but yeah, I mean if, if we, if we think back rolls to support, if we think pullovers stuff like that, pullups, were on, uh, pullovers, were on main site this year and what is a bar pullover? It’s just a backwards roll to support on the pull up bar and not the rings. So if we’re thinking about how we progress certain skills, sure, but, but I think there’s a really good chance that we go the opposite direction. That it’s not just how do we make things sexier? How do we make things harder? Um, no, it’s, it’s, you shouldn’t be skipping the basic stuff first.
Sevan Matossian (29:09):
Can I fall into the weeds a second?
JR Howell (29:12):
Sure. I feel like I’m already there.
Sevan Matossian (29:13):
Okay, good. I I wanna go to this pushup thing real quick. Do you, do you approve of um, uh, uh, hand release pushups? Do you like, when you say pushups for some reason, I, I, I don’t know Caleb. Caleb.
JR Howell (29:26):
Caleb, will you put up the US Army fitness test that was programmed for main site? And we can talk about that.
Sevan Matossian (29:32):
I’m, I’m struggling with a hand release pushup being a pushup. Um, do you think they have to be hand release pushups for judging? You think if they do it, do, do you have, let me ask you that. Just I guess straight up, what do you think the pushup’s gonna look like this year at the games?
JR Howell (29:49):
I would say, say, do you think we’re gonna see it? I would say it’s either gonna be on the rings at a set height. So let’s say the bottom of the ring is six inches off the floor. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then they’re, they’re gonna be putting their feet up on a.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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