Clint Russell | The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games

We meet Clint Russell Physical Therapist and OG CrossFitter.  this 3X Regional Athlete is headed to the CrossFit Games for Masters.  What are his goals and aspirations for this year and beyond.

What is Clydesdale Media Podcast?

We cover the sport of CrossFit from all angles. We talk with athletes, coaches and celebrities that compete and surround in the sport of CrossFit at all levels. We also bring you Breaking News, Human Interest Stories and report on the Methodology of CrossFit. We also use the methodology to make ourselves the fittest we can be.

I was born to kill it.

I was meant to win.

I am down and willing,

so I will find a way.

It took a minute,

now it didn't have to ride away.

When it get hot in the kitchen,

you decide to stay.

That's how it winners me.

Stick a fork in the hater on my dinner.

What's going on, everybody?

Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast.

My name is Scott Switzer.

I'm the Clydesdale.

We are here highlighting the

athletes of the 2024

Legends Masters CrossFit Games.

And I have with me Clint Russell,

Masters athlete,

40 to 44-year-old division,

giving us a glimpse into

the real life of a Masters athlete.

What's going on, Clint?

Hey, how we doing, Scott?

Good.

Good.

Yeah, thank you for having me on.

Really appreciate what

you're doing with the Masters athletes.

It's super cool to get to feature us.

I'm at a birthday party,

one of my daughter's friends,

and I've got my

four-year-old son with me.

So like I said,

I apologize for any interruptions.

It's just kind of how it had to work out.

I didn't want my wife is

going to work out with one

of the other ladies in the gym,

as well as got our other two kids.

So this is real life.

Yeah,

so what's cool about these profiles are,

as a Masters athlete,

you have to live a real life.

You're the father of four kids.

Yes, sir.

You're married.

You own two different businesses,

at least.

Yeah, so.

You're living life trying to

get everybody to get fit.

Yeah.

So, like,

I'll tell you the thing that is

the hardest thing for me.

So I have two businesses,

CrossFit Coronado and One

Life Physical Therapy.

Wife's a nurse.

She's also a nurse in the Navy Reserve,

which she joined last September.

And she was gone for five

weeks during semifinals.

The thing that I struggle

with the most is not necessarily training,

but

feeling like I'm maybe not

spending as much time on

ultimately things that are

a higher priority than fitness.

Uh, and so, so sometimes I gotta, you know,

I have an awesome team around me though,

that tells me to knock that

off and just do my thing,

which is really awesome.

Yeah,

I've talked to a lot of athletes who

feel like they have a lot

of buckets that they have

to take care of.

And they feel like it's a

hard time being great at any one of them.

They're just kind of average at all.

And that's a feeling and a

guilt that they have being

a Masters athlete.

You know, what usually...

Like for me,

it's like so I can set my own

schedule with business with

my business and I could

back off and train more.

But for most of the year,

I don't so that I could do that now.

Yeah,

that's kind of how I like the way

that I'm training.

I could not do that year round.

There's no way like my

business just life would fall apart.

But I kind of don't do that

year round so that now when I need to,

I can't.

So you're, you're CrossFit OG.

Like you started back when

there were very few

affiliates in the world, 2008.

We were, uh, I think pre rogue,

if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah.

You actually went to three

regionals in what?

10, 11 and 12.

Uh, yes, sir.

It was, uh, it was a long time ago.

Um, it's very different now.

Um,

But yeah, that was just,

it's amazing to see how

training has improved as

well as just how much better everyone is.

Like the Masters now,

probably in the 45 to 49 division,

at least would smoke those regionals.

I mean, people are just so much fitter.

It's insane.

Um, and it really, it really like,

it's exciting to see like

what the possibilities are going forward.

Um,

and then this is kind of getting a little,

you just made me think like

with the master's division, um,

I think something that the

master's division does is there's a,

there's a,

there's a lot of people that

that kind of gives them

something to be excited about, you know,

and there's, uh,

Maybe it's not as big as the individuals,

but I know for me, training for this,

I don't drink alcohol,

at least not when I'm training for this.

I tend to eat a lot better.

I tend to sleep more.

It tends to get people doing

a lot of things we want

them to do in the gym that

are ultimately going to

make them better at life.

And all those things set an

example for your clients, your kids,

your friends,

Do you ever think about that,

that all these things

you're doing are setting a

major example for the people around you?

Yeah.

I was just talking to my

daughter about swimming.

My 8-year-old wants to start swimming,

and she does gymnastics.

And I was just talking to

her how what you're really

learning when you do those things is,

like, you have to get – like,

you've probably seen that

Instagram post from Tom

Brady where he's like,

everybody should play

football because getting up

early and training is hard.

Like the ability to just like wake up,

set your mind to something

and get it done.

That's such a valuable skill, you know,

that translates to

everything else you do in your life.

To be accountable to

yourself and to your

teammates and whatever your

responsibility is just to

go out there and make it happen.

And that's sports does such

a good job of teaching that.

When you started CrossFit in 2008,

first of all, how did you find it?

I'd gotten out of the Navy,

or actually I was on my way

out of the Navy,

and there was a guy that I

knew from the Navy, Andy and Steve,

Andy Stump and Steve Mitchell,

they owned CrossFit Coronado,

so I just went there and

started working out, and that was kind of

Something I noticed about it

is at the time, I'm not anymore,

but at the time I was a

pretty good runner.

But there were these hills

kind of where my wife now,

we were dating at the time,

and it would take me, I don't know,

20 plus minutes to get up to him.

I don't know how far it was,

but I had to walk.

I couldn't run the whole time.

And then I started doing

CrossFit only twice a week.

And it went from taking like

20 minutes to like 14 minutes.

because I was able to run

the whole time and I was like, Whoa.

And I like, I hadn't been running and I,

and that's that, that sold me on this.

And it wasn't that you were

falling more in love with your wife.

And so you just got fatter.

Hey, she, she hates running.

So I'm on my own in that, but no.

So it only took you a year

of doing CrossFit to then coach CrossFit.

Yeah.

So, uh,

Andy soul,

like Steve took over the gym in 20, 2009.

So they needed another coach.

Uh, I got certified.

Um, I started coaching.

Um,

and then this was obviously a very long

time ago when I would say

nobody really had that much experience.

There wasn't that much experience.

Um, and then I, uh, I took over the gym.

in August of 2010 is when I bought it.

And kind of the rest.

Yeah, it's like,

it's such an amazing community.

So you've been an affiliate

owner for almost 15 years now.

Yeah.

Yeah, we it's a long time.

You're also a physical therapist,

you hold a doctorate in physical therapy.

Yes.

how do you balance running

two businesses and do you

do any of that physical

therapy out of the gym?

So we do all of it out of the gym.

Okay.

Um,

in 2014 I went back to school and I got

my doctorate in physical therapy.

Um, and then I kind of,

Let's see, started like it was,

I also had to work.

So it was online, took four years.

So it was done in 2018.

I kind of started my

practice like November, 2019, but like,

I didn't really,

I mostly just worked at the gym.

I'd see a patient every now and then.

My wife worked full time as a nurse.

We were good.

You know, we were happy with that.

And then COVID happened, gyms closed.

You know, that was pretty rough.

Uh,

so I got where I had the idea that if I

could accept TRICARE,

which is the military healthcare,

being that we're in Coronado,

most of the people at our

gym were in the military, uh,

as well as there's a lot of

people in the island,

it would remove the

financial barrier to entry

and it would basically save

us from COVID.

And I was hoping that I

could like do that and

maybe see like 10 people a week.

And that would allow us to survive, uh,

during COVID.

Um, but fast forward to now, uh,

we have myself three other

therapists as well as the scheduler.

Um, all of us are military spouses and, uh,

it's, it's something I'm really proud of.

Like the people working for

me are able to set their

own schedule and also make

more than they would, uh,

at the surrounding places.

That's awesome.

So I asked this of all physical therapists,

when you're being the athlete,

when you have your physical

therapist on you, you,

your physical therapy hat

on one side and you,

the athlete on the other side,

while you're working out,

which one do you listen to more?

You know, I kind of like, you know,

I was a strength and

control coach first and coaching was,

like I I'm a physical therapist,

but I think like a coach.

And so what I like to think about, like,

so if we're doing say bar muscle ups,

I'm thinking about the

technique of the movement,

but like a physical therapist,

if that makes sense.

Okay.

So I'm like, no,

I have to make sure I keep

my like scapula engaged and

push down the bar here

because that's going to

give me the greatest transfer of force.

So it's almost like I'm a, yeah,

like I'm a,

coach who happens to be a

physical therapist so now

say you have a twinge in

your shoulder who do you

listen to um I'm gonna

think about what that

twinge is why do I have

that twinge are we missing

internal like what can I

like is this like a rotator

cuff problem or like you

know is maybe my collarbone

not grinding right I'll

more try to think about why

is this happening

Yeah, so in that part,

the physical therapist

takes over because he wants

to solve the problem.

Yeah.

Okay.

I will tell you, I don't know.

I think probably being a

physical therapist would be

an advantage if you were

one of the younger athletes.

But to be brutally honest,

it's a massive advantage as

a master's athlete.

Understanding what you can

push through and what you can't.

And then being able to ask

other physical therapists

what they think about it.

You know, and yeah,

being able to kind of fix

yourself is a pretty big,

that's a huge advantage.

I know some of the younger

ones have always said

during the off season,

they listen to the physical

therapist part of their brain.

In a competition,

they tell that person to shut up.

Yeah.

I mean, that's kind of,

I think I'm thinking like a

physical therapist during

the warmups and stuff,

but definitely not during

the actual event.

I like to think we're using

physical therapy to maximize performance,

not necessarily just to treat injuries.

So you've been at this since 2008.

What?

That's a long time.

Yeah.

And you are going to your

first CrossFit games.

Yes, that's correct.

So almost 20 years you've been at this,

and you're heading to your

first CrossFit Games.

What is the excitement for

you heading there this year?

You know, I am really excited.

It's kind of hard to put

into words because it's

taken a lot of work over a long time.

But I think I'm mostly right now.

Honestly,

I don't know if you've ever heard

the term like porthole mentality.

Like I'm thinking about the

training piece that I'm

going to do tomorrow and

just kind of focusing on

doing the best that I can

one day at a time at the

things that I get there.

And then once that gets into my circle,

then we're going to focus

on that first workout and

then the second workout.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

I try not to get either too

excited or too down on myself.

Either way, instead,

focus on what do I need to

do right now in order to

set myself up for success.

Would it be safe to say that, you know,

as an affiliate owner for 15 years,

are the people around you

that have been along this

journey with you more

excited than you are at this point?

I'm definitely excited.

I think I'm just too

distracted by the amount of

stuff that I have to do.

Right.

You know, that's, you know, uh, but yes,

the people around me are

extremely excited and, and very, you know,

uh, yeah, they're,

they're incredibly support supportive.

What, what is their support meant to you?

Oh my gosh.

Like, you know, like, uh,

Like, one of my, like,

a couple of therapists,

all three of them actually, Alyssa,

Melissa,

and Krisha have all helped me

with my shoulder.

You know,

both Desiree and Margaret have

helped cover classes so I

can get workouts in or, like, you know,

like, it's the world.

It's not,

it wouldn't be possible without them.

It just simply wouldn't happen.

It means the world.

So I saw a post you made

where you get up every

morning at 4.30 a.m.

to start.

Basically,

you've created a habit where you do a set,

a number of exercises every

morning to get ready for your day.

Yeah,

so I will get up now based on the

time I get up changes a

little bit based on where I

got to get the kids to camp

and what training I have to

do and schedule, but yes.

I wake up I Walk into the I

mean my basically exact I

was wake up I go to the

bathroom Walk to the

kitchen toss my coffee in

the microwave my coffee is microwaving.

I'll hit a bent knee soleus

stretch Kind of make my

coffee while I'm doing that

and I'll do that for about

two minutes go to the

in the hallway,

world's greatest on each side,

couch stretch on each side.

Then I'll sit with my,

in a squat with my back on

the wall and kind of turn and reach up.

And I'll hold that for a

couple of minutes on each side.

And I do that seven days a week.

Um, you know, and then there's,

there's quite a bit of

other stuff that I'll do, um,

throughout the day, but that,

that's kind of the, the, um, the,

the minimum, um, that I'll do every day.

Um,

And I do that first thing when I wake up.

When did you create that habit?

I mean,

I've been doing that for not

necessarily those stretches.

The stretches that I've done

has kind of changed just

based on my body and what I

feel like the needs are.

But the waking up and

hitting kind of some mobility, oh, man,

it's been a long time.

And now it's just what you do.

You don't even think about it.

Yeah,

I'm kind of like it's almost like I

like have to do that before

I can do anything else.

You know, I it's yeah,

that's just it's just kind of autopilot.

But like one thing that I

wish I could impart on

people is like like when we

do those exercises.

Right.

People think that.

You know,

we're kind of doing them to

prepare for whatever it is

we're about to do, which that's true.

Yes.

I want to be kind of

loosened up and have good

range of motion for the

stuff that we're going to do,

but that's not the main reason.

The main reason is that

we're trying to remodel

tissue over the long term.

Like a cell lives 90 to 120 days.

And if you think of a cell, like a block,

you know,

your body's always replacing

these blocks from the day

you're born till the day you die.

And so how it arranges the blocks though,

is according to stress.

If you sit around and don't do anything,

like for example,

your foot's in a cast and it's stuck,

the body remodels the tissue,

but it's what's called

dense irregular connective

tissue where the blocks are

not lined up any particular way.

Just think of like a bird's

nest when you go fishing.

It's just all everywhere.

And so it's not designed to

resist stress in any one direction.

But if we're constantly

doing things to maintain

that range of motion,

it's not going to go away.

And it works very akin to

compound interest.

you know, we, we gotta, you gotta,

you gotta put enough effort

in to get that matching on your 401k.

And that's kind of how this works.

I like the way that it is

setting yourself up for retirement.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The older we get, the more we need those,

everything put in the right place.

Exactly.

And if you,

if you kind of start at a certain point,

you don't ever stop doing it.

You'll continuously get better.

Uh,

I don't know what the ceiling is,

but it's so important to

just do a little bit every day.

There's so much value that

can be gained from that.

Is your plan to try to

compete for as long as you can?

You know, I'll always sign up and do it.

What's going to change, though,

is how much time I can put into it, like

there's a lot of changes

happening with my business

this year and I'm going to

have to really focus on that after this.

Um,

it doesn't mean I won't compete next

year.

I'll always sign up and do it, but I don't,

I just don't know how much time, you know,

with four kids,

my schedule is not getting, uh,

not getting freer, but like I will,

I will always compete and

do the best that I can, you know, uh,

even cause I want,

I want to make sure this,

I want to support it

financially cause I want to

make sure it goes.

Because, like I said,

I guarantee you there are a

lot of people that eat better,

don't drink alcohol, do more mobility,

blah, blah, blah.

A lot of things.

And we all have to support

this for that to continue.

How old are your kids?

We got a 12, 9, 8, and 4.

Okay.

So you're just getting into

the busy season.

Yeah, I feel like we've kind of...

Yeah.

We've, we've been busy for a long time.

You know, when my daughter hit high school,

like we went into overdrive

for like busyness.

It was crazy.

And I only had one.

You know, it's okay.

I mean, it's good though.

You know, we want them to,

we want them to get to do

all kinds of stuff.

Yeah, of course.

She's 23 now and doing great.

And now I have all the time

in the world and wish I had

more time with her.

yeah, it's, uh, that's,

there's going to come a

time when they don't want

to hang out with us anymore, but yeah,

hopefully not for a long time.

But so, uh,

who all's heading to Birmingham

with you right now?

Just my wife.

Um, and then say, I wanted to,

I wanted to make sure when

we're talking about the people,

I mentioned Cragger training, uh,

and Mary Solson,

they've been coaching me

and I've done a really awesome job.

Uh,

I don't know if they're going to,

they're going to make it or not.

Cause it's a ridiculously

long way for them.

But, uh, yeah, I know.

Uh, definitely my,

definitely my wife going,

what's up buddy.

I'll be, I'll be done in a minute.

Okay.

Just go play.

Don't worry.

We got an hour, another hour to play here.

Yeah.

So are you,

are you the only Krieger masters athlete?

I know that they,

they've hit it pretty hard

team and elite.

You're the first masters

athlete I've heard going with Krieger.

There's, they had two more,

but I don't know if they registered.

Okay.

I don't know.

I, it's a long way for them.

Uh,

I was talking with my coach

after semifinals.

I was like,

he was complaining to me about

how it was like really hot in Norway.

I was like, he,

he told me what the

temperature was and it

equates to like 75 degrees.

And I was like, Oh man, uh,

have you been to Alabama?

He's like, no.

I was like, Oh dude.

Yeah.

You're going to a rainforest,

but that's all good.

Um, yeah, I think I, I, I'm not,

I'm not sure if,

if they're going or if the

other two are going or not.

What are your expectations this year?

You know, I don't know.

You know,

it's kind of like you obviously

want to win,

but I can't control what

everybody else does.

Like,

what I want to do is go out there and

execute on each event to

the very best of my ability

and feel like I could not

have done anything different.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It sounds good.

Um, I know you,

you've got a lot going on right now,

so I don't want to keep it too long.

I want to thank you for

taking the time out.

We're going to be in Birmingham.

We're doing a documentary

behind the scenes.

Uh, so we're going to be backstage,

Ellie Hiller,

myself talking to all the athletes, uh,

and trying to capture the

magic of what the master's divisions are.

Yeah.

I hope, um, that's,

that's really nice of you to do that.

Um,

Because I think this has the

potential to be a big thing

because it's all... People

can relate to us.

Don't get me wrong.

We love watching all the

younger dudes snatch 315

and do all this crazy stuff.

But I don't have anything in

common with them.

And I think most people don't either.

But we still think it's super cool.

But with the Masters athletes, you...

people have a lot more in

common with them.

Um, and I would,

for anyone that says that

they don't CrossFit doesn't

make money off the masters athletes, just,

uh, me being a businessman, I would,

I would challenge that

thought process just based

on the open registration.

Cause if you were to lose,

if you were to lose the

masters like games to think

that that's not going to

affect the open registration is,

it's just an unrealistic,

that's just not a realistic.

I agree.

thought process.

Like it might not affect it

that much the first year,

but it would kill it in the longterm.

My,

my stats and info person did research

from 35 to 54.

The masters athletes have a

combined 3 million

followers on Instagram.

Yeah.

Like,

and there's a lot of good we can do

with this.

You know, I mean the, the,

Think of it inspires

somebody to get moving get

off the couch start taking

better care of themselves.

I think your masters athletes Definitely,

especially when we see like the older,

you know,

like the 60 plus year old women

doing bar muscle-ups That's

freaking cool Yeah, that's really cool.

I mean that's really cuz

like then other people see

it and they're like whoa

and you know that motivates

them to hopefully get to

the gym and Take good care of themselves

Yeah,

and we just need to give you guys a

vehicle to be able to show your story.

That's what we're trying to do.

Well, you're doing awesome, man.

Really appreciate it.

Well, Clint, thank you very much.

And nobody can relate to you

more than the world who has

sat at a birthday party

with their kid trying to

get something accomplished.

Yeah.

So with that,

thank you very much for

taking the time out.

Thank you to everybody who's listening.

We'll see everybody next

time on the Clydesdale Media Podcast.