Jon Levell | Affiliate Series | CrossFit Overload

Sevan Matossian (00:01):

Is he? Bam. We’re live. Is he going to publish that?

Mattew Souza (00:04):

I don’t think so.

Sevan Matossian (00:06):

I think he is. Hey, did I send John ll a link? I thought I did. Okay.

Mattew Souza (00:15):

You did? Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (00:16):

Okay, good. It’s on him.

Mattew Souza (00:18):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (00:18):

Oh, okay. Good. All right. Hey, good morning.

Mattew Souza (00:22):

Good morning.

Sevan Matossian (00:24):

Hey. So today’s the last day. If I ordered Christmas presents for my kids and they don’t show up today, they don’t get ’em.

Mattew Souza (00:32):

They might deliver tomorrow too.

Sevan Matossian (00:33):

Damn. Your camera looks good.

Mattew Souza (00:35):

Thanks.

Sevan Matossian (00:36):

What is that?

Mattew Souza (00:37):

It’s the one you told me to get Sony a six, 700.

Sevan Matossian (00:42):

Oh, you did get one?

Mattew Souza (00:43):

Yeah, I set this up last night or yesterday ish. So it looks probably crappy, but

Sevan Matossian (00:49):

Dude, is it just over your computer?

Mattew Souza (00:52):

Yeah. Same way you have yours. So I just bought the little stand for, and it’s right above where my other spot is with the little FaceTime video.

Sevan Matossian (01:01):

And then that’s just the lens that comes with it. It’s like a 16 to 50.

Mattew Souza (01:06):

16 to 50. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (01:07):

Is it set at 3.5? The F-Stop

Mattew Souza (01:10):

That. I don’t know. I haven’t, no, I haven’t gone that deep. I literally scooted onto here, plugged into the USB and then turned. It was like, Hey, when I leaned forward, I don’t get too blurry.

Sevan Matossian (01:19):

Hey, so that’s literally just a camera plugged into your USB and then you just chose it.

Mattew Souza (01:25):

Yep.

Sevan Matossian (01:26):

And then what powers it?

Mattew Souza (01:29):

I don’t know. This is the first time

Sevan Matossian (01:31):

Using it. Is it plugged into the wall?

Mattew Souza (01:33):

No, it just plugged in USBC to the camera USBC to the computer.

Sevan Matossian (01:43):

There’s no way that should work. So maybe just powering off the battery,

Mattew Souza (01:48):

I think. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (01:50):

Okay. So it should stop working at some point during the show. We’ll

Mattew Souza (01:52):

Find out. This is experiment number

Sevan Matossian (01:54):

One. I Dude, I cannot. It looks incredible, dude. It’s so soft. The lighting and nice. And you’re so crisp. And

Mattew Souza (02:02):

Now when we go into this mode, I’m not like I could lean back. I’m not on top of the camera anymore.

Sevan Matossian (02:07):

God. Yeah, that looks good. I guess my shit doesn’t get buried. I fixed mine a couple of days ago. USB is the power. Are you sure that’s how that works on the 6,700? I don’t think that there’s enough power coming from the bus of a computer to power a camera. I know, right? Vindicate crazy.

Mattew Souza (02:32):

And I think too, it said that this is the wrong USBC. I’m supposed to get a more high powered one.

Sevan Matossian (02:41):

When you plugged it in, it said this’ll work, but it’s not the right one.

Mattew Souza (02:43):

It says it’s shooting seven 20. Yeah, it won’t go 10 80 until I get the more beefed up cord.

Sevan Matossian (02:49):

Did it come with it?

Mattew Souza (02:51):

No.

Sevan Matossian (02:52):

You just had it laying around. It’s

Mattew Souza (02:53):

Just an old USBC. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (02:56):

Oh, it’s USBC.

Mattew Souza (02:57):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (02:59):

Is it USBC? Oh yeah. I guess the cameras too. Dang. Dude, you did good. Oh shit. Hiller’s sending us all sorts of crazy shit now.

Mattew Souza (03:06):

Well, thank you. This is just from your set. This is what you told me.

Sevan Matossian (03:10):

Well, dude, it looks amazing. You killed it.

Mattew Souza (03:12):

I can’t wait to play with it out on the street like I told you and start doing something.

Sevan Matossian (03:18):

Hiller. Are you putting that clip up? Dude, he got a had ai. He has me rapping an entire song.

Mattew Souza (03:32):

Yeah, it’s incredible.

Sevan Matossian (03:36):

I haven’t listened to that Glassman one yet. I’m a nervous to listen to it.

Mattew Souza (03:40):

I don’t like them at all. The other one he made, the video one he made.

Sevan Matossian (03:45):

Oh, talking about Brian. Yeah. It’s scary, right?

Mattew Souza (03:50):

Yeah. It has nuances to your voice. I don’t like it. Hey, weren’t you just talking about a safe word with your family not that long ago? Yeah. So if I get one of those and it’s like, Hey, Stevon, it’s me, it’s Matt. Dude, I need you to wire me a thousand dollars. I’m in a pinch.

Sevan Matossian (04:11):

Jesus. It’s coming. I mean, it’s already happening. Oh, John Lavelle says loading.

Mattew Souza (04:18):

Oh, must have.

Sevan Matossian (04:20):

Oh, you need to be on Chrome. You need to be on Chrome. The guy who’s coming on the show today is the owner of CrossFit Overload. There’s stories from CrossFit overload that I can’t even tell you. So shit. So it’s got to be an exciting show, right? That gym has been around forever. I think I met, I took a Rob Orlando seminar there, a strongman seminar there that was kind of co-taught, believe it or not, I think between Greg and Rob Orlando back in the day. It was a massive seminar. Over a hundred people there and the gym’s been around forever.

(04:59):

The fucking someone who should be in the hall of fame for CrossFit, Paula Grava used to own it with her husband, Jordan Gravatt, who himself could be in the Hall of Fame. He was a video producer, editor, director for CrossFit for, and she was on the affiliate team, and I put her in the top. I mean, she could fucking CEO of the company, man, that lady knows some shit. And she’s extremely powerful as a human being, as a soul. And everyone respected her at CrossFit HQ was second in command on the affiliate team next to Kathy Glassman actually, if I remember correctly, the day, that fucking absolute piece of shit, Eric Rosa and Andrew Weinstein, those complete fucking dirt bag garbage buckets of human beings that lying, manipulative sex is shit. The day that they fired me and my wife. I also believe they fired Paula Grava. So there, but now Paula has her own fucking crazy successful business anyway. I think her and her husband may have sold the business to John, who was always a member there and a beloved friend of HQ too. I remember seeing John around. I mean, I know he is friends with Dave and Greg, and I’ve seen him around forever. He’s friends with the salt bite guy, a great gym, big awesome gym, all sorts of fancy programs in there. Hey,

(06:34):

What’s up, dude? You’re in like Flynn

Jon Levell (06:39):

In like Flynn, just the guy. Get Chrome updated.

Sevan Matossian (06:41):

Oh, thanks for doing this.

Jon Levell (06:43):

Yeah. What? You guys hear me? Okay?

Sevan Matossian (06:45):

Awesome. Perfect

Jon Levell (06:46):

Sound. Great.

Sevan Matossian (06:48):

John, have you ever met Matt? He’s the owner of CrossFit Livermore.

Jon Levell (06:51):

I’ve never met him. Hey, good to meet you, man. I’ve learned about him through the podcast, and I’m sure we’ve been in the same room at some point in the past.

Sevan Matossian (07:03):

And John, you were even on, you worked, you were on the affiliate team even from a brief minute.

Jon Levell (07:10):

Yes.

Sevan Matossian (07:12):

You were the only dude on the team

Jon Levell (07:13):

For very short time. I think 2015 to 2016 was about the time I worked for Kathy and the affiliate girls.

Sevan Matossian (07:24):

I remember that was weird. I was like, how did Guy get on that team?

Jon Levell (07:29):

And then it was me. And then there was a few others that were kind of,

Sevan Matossian (07:33):

There were other guys on the team, like dude, people with penises. There were men on the team.

Jon Levell (07:39):

Not when I was there. I was the only guy. And then after I think the second or third layoff from my regime, they had brought some more guys in and then those kind of dispersed and

Sevan Matossian (07:50):

Extremely discriminatory times under Greg Glassman, the entire legal team and the entire affiliate team were women. They hated men over there. It sucked. It was a tough go for us. I always tucked, I always tucked. I always tucked my penis, tried to fit in the fuck man. A lot of powerful women around hq, that CrossFit shit’s a magnet for powerful women.

Jon Levell (08:18):

That whole team back when I was around, they were a great group of girls. And I’m friends with I think all of them to this day. I mean, they still

Sevan Matossian (08:26):

Great with the entire team. You still know all of them.

Jon Levell (08:29):

Yeah, I mean even I text Kathy probably even once a year, say, what’s up?

Sevan Matossian (08:37):

I had, obviously I know you, I’ve seen you around forever. We have mutual friends and Dave Castro. You’ve come up here a few times to the Bay Area and I’ve seen you at the ranch or whatever. And then obviously I’ve been to your gym probably a dozen times. I don’t know if I’ve been there since you’ve owned it. And then recently I had the motocross guy, so sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself where I go,

Jon Levell (08:59):

A lot of pathways for this conversation. I hear

Sevan Matossian (09:02):

The name of the gym is CrossFit overload. And how long has that place been an affiliate?

Jon Levell (09:07):

2008. So we are coming up on our 16th year

Sevan Matossian (09:11):

And the original owners,

Jon Levell (09:14):

Jordan and Paula Grava, they started,

Sevan Matossian (09:15):

They are, wow.

Jon Levell (09:16):

They started in their garage in Marietta, which is the city we’re in, I mean in the house Jordan lived in until he moved the way to Santa Cruz.

Sevan Matossian (09:29):

And then are you the second owner?

Jon Levell (09:32):

I am technically the third owner. So it went from Jordan and Paula and then Jordan and Paula when they moved to Santa Cruz to work for Greg and the team up there, they sold to Bob Zing and Wayne Kim. So as you know, you’ve had Devin on the show. Devin basically grew up in this gym. And at the time, let’s see, I think it was Bob and Wayne owned it as 50 50 partners for about two or three years. And then they brought on kind of two silent or smaller partners, Dustin Marshman and Tweety Boyd. And then that lasted for a couple years, and then those two kind of dispersed and we’re still around, just kind of gave it back to Wayne and Bob. And then Bob ended up selling a hundred percent to Wayne. And that’s 2016 or 17 is when Kira and I purchased it from Wayne.

Sevan Matossian (10:31):

So for a lot of people, maybe you don’t know those names, but if you worked at hq, there’s probably anywhere from, I don’t know, a hundred of us to a thousand of us who all know all those people. He named pretty much intimately, meaning we’ve broken bread with them, we’ve eaten with them, we’ve hung out with them, we’ve worked out with them, we’ve drank with them. The guy’s name he mentioned Bob Zing has been around forever, was working for hq, making signage, an amazing guy, father, husband, the whole shebang.

Jon Levell (11:03):

Super talented.

Sevan Matossian (11:04):

Yeah, crazy talented. And then of course Wayne, if you’re affiliated with the games at all behind the scenes, you have a hundred percent come across paths with Wayne. He’s a workhorse. And then of course his insane daughter, I mean that in a positive way, his insanely talented and a gifted athletic daughter, Devin, who’s been on the show a couple of times, man, what a crazy small world over there. Just out of one gym.

Jon Levell (11:30):

I started coaching here, or actually we’ve been in this spot since 2010, and Jordan had a small, probably 1500, 2000 square foot place about a mile down the road when I started coaching here. And in oh nine, I met a ton of those people we just talked about. They were all just members and kind of getting into CrossFit. And then shortly after we moved to this place is when I met Devin and she was, I think seven years old when she was little gym rat running around and skin and bones. And now she’s incredibly capable athlete as you know.

Sevan Matossian (12:09):

I remember her thinking she was demoing workouts in Del Mar for Adrian Bosman in front of all the athletes, like the Josh Bridges and Dan Bailey’s, and she was up there. She was all by herself in front of 50 of the fittest people in the world. And she’s demoing the movements. And I remember someone whispering in my ear like, Hey, that girl. I was like, dang. I’m like, who’s that girl? I can’t believe she’s out there doing this in front of all these people. And they’re like, dude, she’s 15. And she was already doing full blown woman shit. Yeah, she’s cool.

Jon Levell (12:41):

That was the year the first year I judged at judged at regionals. It was a really cool time. I mean, as you guys know, Delmar regionals was, in my opinion, I liked it more than actually the games.

Sevan Matossian (12:52):

Oh dude, it’s amazing. Hey, are you pretty excited about Dylan Water Palooza bringing back events to Southern California? First of all, we’re going to be at the StubHub, but then also, I shouldn’t say we, it’s going to be at StubHub and then also they’re doing something in Southern California next year. They’re having a Waap Palooza, Southern California

Jon Levell (13:16):

At Del Mar, right?

Sevan Matossian (13:18):

Oh, is it at Del Mar? That’s a hundred percent I

Jon Levell (13:20):

Believe so, yeah. That was the best part about that announcement. I thought it was they’re bringing it back because they realized how special that place was. I mean, you couldn’t ask for a nicer place in California to do that. I think,

Sevan Matossian (13:31):

God, I hope they do something to bring the affiliates there. That was the coolest thing about that event is that the affiliates came out and just droves with all their shirts and all their people and moms and dads and kids. It was nuts.

Jon Levell (13:42):

All the colors, all the colors of shirts, you Invictus, the whole freaking west side of the panel was green.

Sevan Matossian (13:49):

A sea of green. Yep, I remember that. Hey John, how old are you?

Jon Levell (13:55):

41.

Sevan Matossian (13:56):

I remember you being big. You’re big, right?

Jon Levell (14:00):

Six, six. 1 2 20.

Sevan Matossian (14:02):

And did you play football or something?

Jon Levell (14:04):

No, no. I played basketball actually.

Sevan Matossian (14:06):

Okay. Yeah. Okay. And how did you find CrossFit?

Jon Levell (14:11):

I moved out here for grad school and I was living in Marietta because my dad had a house here while I was going to school. He was in Iraq doing something. And then Kira, my wife, we were working out with one of Jordan’s first coaches and he was one of those guys that were like, he was a gym rat. We’d be at Jordan’s place, they’d overload and then he’d go to Fitness 19. And Kira knew him from working at LA Fitness years ago actually. And

Sevan Matossian (14:38):

He was Fitness 19, like your typical global gym.

Jon Levell (14:42):

It’s like a cheaper version of a nice LA fitness, I guess.

Sevan Matossian (14:47):

Okay.

Jon Levell (14:48):

They’re everywhere down here. And so his name was Chris. He had his L one. He basically got, I think he got it from when Dave even did the L ones back then. So he started introducing us to the concept of CrossFit at fitness 19, just kind of like us three. And then shortly after, I was coaching gymnastics while in grad school, and that’s how I met Kira, coaching gymnastics down the street. This guy Jordan at the time, he came up to me after I was coaching his five-year-old daughter and Livy. And he had a Mohawk at the time and he was like, Hey, you’re a gymnastics coach and I have a CrossFit gym. Have you heard of that? Would you like to coach CrossFit? I mean, would you like to coach gymnastics for adults? And I looked at him, that sounds like a horrible, dangerous, terrible idea because we’re in the gymnastics world where it’s like, no, it was serious the place, especially the place we were at.

(15:46):

But he is like, no, no, no, trust me. It’s not what you think. Just come over and at least do a workout with me. And I was like, oh yeah, whatever. And so I had had what I’d known from CrossFit through Chris and Kira was nine months pregnant at the time. Literally gave birth at the gym bait and went over there and we did, me and Jordan and this guy named Doc, he was a corpsman from the Navy at the time. And Casey Jones, one of our old coaches, and Casey Parlet, which you probably know Savon. He’s married to Natalie.

Sevan Matossian (16:17):

Is he up here now? Is Natalie a swimmer?

Jon Levell (16:20):

No. Natalie Parlet used to work for Dave and some capacity.

Sevan Matossian (16:24):

Was she a swimmer?

Jon Levell (16:26):

I mean, she looks like a swimmer. I don’t know that she has that background, but she’s hall.

Sevan Matossian (16:31):

Where does she live now?

Jon Levell (16:32):

Carlsbad.

Sevan Matossian (16:33):

Oh, okay, okay. Because there’s a Natalie up here that used to work for Dave also that lives just ironically, that just lives right up the street from you. It’s really weird. Just up in the

Jon Levell (16:40):

Country. I don’t think they moved to there. And Casey used to work for seminar staff for a while. He doesn’t anymore. And then, anyway, so we did Elizabeth Ring Dip.

Sevan Matossian (16:54):

Yeah. Wow.

Jon Levell (16:55):

And power cleans and sets us five to seven minute workout. Then how you slice, I couldn’t believe

Sevan Matossian (17:01):

How you knew Elizabeth is the power cleans right. With 1 35. Yep. You knew how to do power cleans already.

Jon Levell (17:06):

I mean, watching me do power cleans would be, at the time, probably abysmal, just

Sevan Matossian (17:14):

Deadlifting in reverse curling where you just deadlift.

Jon Levell (17:16):

Yeah, basically. Yeah. Crazy.

Sevan Matossian (17:17):

What a dickhead Jordan was for doing that too. Jesus

Jon Levell (17:20):

Crazy. Well, the funny thing about that is with 1 35, when you weigh two 20, even if you reverse curl, there’s not much damage you’re going to do unless you have a really compromised back or injury situation. And so it was a workout that he knew I could get through and the weight was pretty irrelevant.

Sevan Matossian (17:38):

Okay, and so you did it and you were hooked?

Jon Levell (17:42):

Yeah, it was my first, like I said, we had done CrossFit through the lens of Chris through Fitness 19, which as you know, the affiliate offering of CrossFit, the pureness of it, you can’t touch it until you actually do it inside of an affiliate. I mean, I’ve heard it called the Magic of CrossFit and it’s certainly true. And that’s what hooked me having Paula was there. There was a dog running around the gym. Other people watched me finish last, and it was humbling and revealing for how much that environment facilitated the great feel of working out with someone and for the right reasons.

Sevan Matossian (18:24):

And so you were probably to 2008? What is that?

Jon Levell (18:29):

I mean that’s 15 years ago. That’s probably 25, 35. No, no.

Sevan Matossian (18:33):

Oh yeah, 25. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. 25, 26. Okay. Hey, why did you have a coach at Fitness 19? Why didn’t you and your wife just work out there by yourself? Why did you have a personal coach? Do you always have a personal coach?

Jon Levell (18:48):

We never had a personal coach. In fact, because we both were in gymnastics, a lot of what Greg had brought to CrossFit was rooted in gymnastics. So a lot of stuff was familiar. Even when we got introduced to it through Jeff Tucker in the seminar, when we went to a few of those, I didn’t pay this personal trainer. He was literally a friend of ours who was like, when we worked out together, he was like, guys, I’ve been doing this thing called CrossFit. It looks and feels like this and here’s what a power clean is kind of. And before Chris playing basketball in high school, it was typical like bench press, deadlift, never any cleans. I mean, my high school didn’t even have a coach that could teach that movement Olympic lifting at all. The snatches were cleans.

Sevan Matossian (19:38):

And did Jordan’s sister work out of that gym too? Because she was this crazy high level athlete too, right?

Jon Levell (19:44):

Yeah. So she was around when we first got here. She was kind of just, what was her

Sevan Matossian (19:48):

Name?

Jon Levell (19:49):

Lauren.

Sevan Matossian (19:50):

Lauren. Lauren, yeah.

Jon Levell (19:51):

She was amazing at, I dunno what she’s doing now, but she was at Deuce CrossFit in, I think it’s around Venice, and then she was at another CrossFit in Venice, I forget the name of it now with, remember Logan? He was a strong man guy with

Sevan Matossian (20:05):

Rob.

Jon Levell (20:06):

She was at his gym for a while and even up until a couple of years ago, she would drop in here randomly and say hi. But yeah, she was really cool.

Sevan Matossian (20:17):

So you’re there. So you’re there. And tell me about your wife. Did she really have birth at the gym?

Jon Levell (20:23):

I mean, there’s a picture I have of her, actually, I’ll show you. She was literally not much pregnant doing the gymnastics seminar for a gymnast. Doing a handstand is a CrossFitter doing a burpee. It’s not even a thing. So Jeff Tucker was the gymnastics guy back then and she was like, Hey, can I do a handstand? And she did this. So she was literally,

Sevan Matossian (20:47):

Wow. She

Jon Levell (20:48):

Gave birth the next week. So that’s Jeff Tucker in the old box.

Sevan Matossian (20:51):

Shit. Wow.

Jon Levell (20:54):

The funny thing is, her ob, GYN is still in this area and he has that picture behind his desk and every time a mom will come in, Hey, I can’t do this, I can’t do that. And he is like, you can do anything you want up until the moment that baby comes out with a few exclusions obviously. But he uses that picture an example as a guiding light for new moms.

Sevan Matossian (21:16):

And how many kids do you have now?

Jon Levell (21:17):

Two. I have a 16-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old daughter.

Sevan Matossian (21:21):

Oh, you’re awesome. That is so awesome. And so you’re there. So you start crossing and after you do that workout with Jordan, you’re hooked. That’s it. You get a membership and you’re there and your wife, you guys are both bought in?

Jon Levell (21:36):

Yeah, Kira was, we were both just have, because my first daughter’s not from Kira, and so we were, Keira and I had just gotten, we were about a year and a half married at that time. Kira was again about to give birth to Jaden, my youngest daughter, and she was just along for the ride and I was like, yeah, we’re doing this. This is what I really, looking back, I think it was Jordan and Paula’s friendliness and their warm welcoming as they were just amazing people at the time and everyone else at the gym. Again, I compare a lot to a really, really good church. I mean, people get hooked in churches when the community welcomes them. It’s warm, it’s nurturing, and as soft as that sounds, that’s really what would bring awesome people together, I think.

Sevan Matossian (22:32):

Yeah, it’s kind of the exact opposite of the vibe that you get at a big global gym. Not that people are assholes there, but people are like, Hey, don’t touch my shit between these two machines. Don’t look at me, don’t talk to me.

Jon Levell (22:43):

They’re not there to help you, to guide you or to bring you in the fold, right? They’re there to do their own thing and leave you behind. There’s no reason they would talk to you. Anyone would talk to you at a global gym.

Sevan Matossian (22:55):

And when do you start getting the idea? And then when do you get a desire like, Hey, I’m going to coach this too. I’m going to take my L one. I’m assuming you took your L one and you fully embraced. So

Jon Levell (23:05):

Back then Jordan had hired me as almost like an SME coach. And so I started coaching gymnastics classes for CrossFit or for overload immediately. I mean that really wasn’t really need an orientation really just kind of what is the goal of the CrossFit athlete? What are you trying to accomplish by implementing gymnastics elements? And as soon as I understood the pyramid and everything, Greg had talked about quarter extremity movements and what the overall goal was. I was able to back into the equation of providing what I thought would be beneficial for an adult male to be doing or adult anybody to be doing gymnastics movements and we’re talking muscle up, handstands, handstand walks, anything progressing towards those skills, which were in 2009. Those were tip of the spear paramount. Everybody wanted to get a muscle up, everybody wanted to do handstand walks, party tricks and stuff like that. It was much different than it is now.

Sevan Matossian (24:02):

So right away you started doing that, you started coaching right away?

Jon Levell (24:05):

Oh yeah, day one. In fact, I think my third class, Rory and Angela came down.

Sevan Matossian (24:10):

Wow. Oh, because

Jon Levell (24:13):

Yeah, Paula’s sister. Is Angie

Sevan Matossian (24:15):

Married to Rory McKernan? Yep. Okay. More small world show.

Jon Levell (24:19):

So they were visiting for something and then I had no clue. I believe Rory even was a notable competitor at the games in oh eight or oh nine, probably oh seven. I mean he was there. I don’t think he was just the media guy at the time. And so Rory came in and six foot two looks like a 10 Ken doll. I was like, this guy wants to learn gymnastics skills. I never see anything like it.

Sevan Matossian (24:47):

Tom Selleck comes in and he wants to learn gymnastics does not look like a gymnast. That’s,

Jon Levell (24:53):

And so Jordan was like, no, no, we’re going to have this gymnastics class. And so I had Rory and Jordan and Casey and Sarah Lucas and there was

Sevan Matossian (25:03):

Wow, Jake

Jon Levell (25:04):

Worth. They were all,

Sevan Matossian (25:05):

Is Sarah Lucas still in your area? Does she go to your gym?

Jon Levell (25:08):

No, she moved to San Diego and so her and husband and her girls still live down there and they’re doing, she does CrossFit in her garage still. Obviously we were friends on Facebook and things like that.

Sevan Matossian (25:22):

Okay, so you’re teaching that class. You got all these fucking giant men in there.

Jon Levell (25:26):

And it was just cool to see grown men. I’m used to 10-year-old boys and 10-year-old girls doing gymnastics and them doing muscle ups and swinging on bars and doing flips and stuff. And that’s normal. That’s really normal to see in the gymnastics world in almost a status quo. But to see a six foot two guy doing strict in 2009, that was unheard of. You did not see that. And my buddy Chris, who brought us in, and even Jordan, he was, for being a bigger guy, Jordan was probably like a buck 70, buck 80 at the time. He could do strict muscle ups and the guy was incredibly talented, his body weight and what he could do. So I looked at that and I was like, I’d never seen a larger guy do this kind of stuff. And it was pretty cool to be part of that.

Sevan Matossian (26:20):

That really puts into perspective why nasty girls was so potent. I don’t think people realize now, maybe they do, maybe it’s just me who’s jaded. But for me, I saw that and I just couldn’t even believe that women or men were doing that movement on the rings and that they were hand cleaning and that when I saw them doing it, and they were little, those were little sakamoto. Nicole were little

Jon Levell (26:47):

Annie, Nicole. And who was the third girl? Was it

Mattew Souza (26:50):

Eva? Eva, yep. Eva

Sevan Matossian (26:52):

T Cordo. Yep, the Olympian. And this really, this for me lit the fire under my ass. This made me, I think probably right after this I immediately bought a pair of rings.

Mattew Souza (27:03):

Look at those muscle ups too. They’re strict.

Jon Levell (27:06):

They’re all strict. Yeah. There’s no hip swing at all.

Mattew Souza (27:09):

My favorite’s, the squats at the beginning,

Jon Levell (27:12):

How fast they’re going. You’re

Mattew Souza (27:13):

Not hard charging off that med ball. It must, it is not. 2009.

Jon Levell (27:19):

Funny thing is, shortly after Keira was back working in gymnastics, so Keira stayed coaching real gymnastics while I was doing this CrossFit thing and working my other job at the time, because this was part-time for me coming into the CrossFit and wanting to be part of what Jordan was doing, Keira started doing ring work off of what we were teaching in the class to her elite level gymnasts we’re talking level nine 10

Sevan Matossian (27:48):

Pre women.

Jon Levell (27:50):

They were, or both? No, they were all younger than 16, but they were phenomenal.

Sevan Matossian (27:55):

But females is what I’m saying. Yeah, females. Yeah.

Jon Levell (27:57):

Okay. And so Kira started implementing the ring training, like ring muscle-ups, ring pullups, just ring supports with the female gymnast and all the other gymnastics coaches. I mean that was something you did not do in, you did not put girls on men’s equipment and it was,

Sevan Matossian (28:18):

Was that controversial? Was that controversial in the gym?

Jon Levell (28:21):

It definitely, I mean, because again, in gymnastics, especially when you have high caliber athletes that are college bound or national level bound, it’s like you do it this way because this way works and you never deviate because you deviate, you get hurt. If you get hurt, you’re done. And to put a girl in a rings is almost like you’re going to get hurt through your rolling the dice. Why would you do that? And the why would you do that was what we saw, what was beneficial for other adult athletes that if that’s going to work for them, obviously it’s going to be beneficial to the gymnast in ways that we probably don’t even know yet.

Sevan Matossian (28:54):

So you saw those things and you were hugely inspired, just like I saw those things and I was hugely inspired when you saw that. I also remember, I can’t remember who was the other gymnastics coach, not Tucker, but it was a guy who was around just for a minute.

Jon Levell (29:08):

Dave Diante.

Sevan Matossian (29:09):

No, not Dave. Tall, blonde-haired guy. This is go back before Durante. This is like 2007, eight

Jon Levell (29:18):

Tall, blonde-haired guy.

Sevan Matossian (29:20):

He had a gym in northern California. Someone sued CrossFit in his gym because they wanted to do that thing where you run at the wall and you do a flip and the dude tried it and landed on his head.

Jon Levell (29:34):

I remember that.

Sevan Matossian (29:35):

Do you remember that guy, that gymnastics? I

Jon Levell (29:36):

Don’t remember his name, but yes, I remember that incident happening. And the guy got hurt, right?

Sevan Matossian (29:41):

Yeah, yeah. Fucked him up. Fucked the guy all up real bad. Damn. No, not Carl Powell. Good guest though. You guys good man. You guys,

Jon Levell (29:51):

Yeah, he was hooked up with, Carl was hooked up with Kelly Star it back in

Sevan Matossian (29:56):

San Francisco. Anyway, if I heard the guy’s name, I remember.

The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.

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