Rob Davis | The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games

We meet Rob Davis as he heads back to the CrossFit Games.  What are his expectations? What does he want to do different this time? what are his thoughts going to Birmingham.

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 happen right away.

When it get hot in the kitchen,

you decide to stay.

That's how a winner's made.

Stick a fork in the hater on my dick.

What's going on everybody.

Welcome to the class.

No media podcast.

We're highlighting the

athletes of the 2024

legends masters CrossFit games.

And I am honored to have with me today,

Rob Davis, Rob, how are you doing?

I'm doing great.

How are you doing?

Good.

Good.

So this is your second time

going to the games.

Yes.

Yes.

Uh, last year was quite an experience.

I spent years trying to get there.

So, uh,

So, yeah,

I was real impressed with the

whole show last year with

them changing things this year.

I'm curious to see how this comes out.

Yeah.

So you're in the 55 to

59-year-old division?

Yes.

Yeah.

And you were last year as well?

Yes.

And finished sixth?

Yes.

Yes.

So when you got to Madison,

what was the coolest part

about being a CrossFit Games athlete?

It was all cool.

I mean, the whole nine yards.

They go in and, you know,

they took us back in a

locker room and it's like, you know,

this is yours.

And, man, we walked out of there with,

you wouldn't have believed this stuff.

Shoot, you know.

four or five pairs of shoes,

all kinds of outfits, backpacks, you know,

gym bags.

They laid out the red carpet last year.

And then, you know, where we're training,

the younger pros are in

there training also.

So just, you know,

I'm doing snatches next to

Brent Fikowski.

You know, that was pretty cool.

Did you lift more than him?

No, no, I did not.

No.

And actually, it's funny.

We had they had a standard

on the kettlebells where

you had to keep your arms

straight last year.

And so I'm watching him over there.

He's trying every way you

can think of to shorten the move,

to change the move,

to give himself an advantage.

And, man, they put a lot into it.

Yeah, yeah.

That's why they call him the professor,

right?

Yes, yes.

He's trying to figure out all the angles.

And, you know,

it was funny seeing some of these,

you know, elite athletes in there.

You know,

last year they had to spin around the bar,

the bar overs.

And there were a couple of

athletes that just could not get it.

And you could see the stress

in their faces as they

headed out to the WOD.

uh,

they must not have had much warning

that that was coming.

And so, yeah,

the whole experience last year was,

was good.

Did you enjoy the warmup

area more than the,

than the competition floor

or probably the competition floor was,

was the best part.

Uh, you know, I, I,

I liked competing in the Coliseum.

That was, that was very cool.

Uh, out on the field, uh,

That was not my best workout.

So, of course,

the workouts I did the best

on were my favorite.

Right, of course.

And I think Amanda, I won Amanda,

and that was out on the field.

So that was a good one for me.

But it was 100 degrees out there.

It was tough.

It was.

I was out there filming,

and that jerrycan workout where –

you did wasn't it burpees

around the the pig and then

you had to go like the

jerry cans around the cones

yes that was that one was

crazy it was it was and uh

you know we had to work out

with the deadlifts and uh

sled pull and I can't even

remember what all was in it

now but but I uh I tore ham

I already had a hamstring

that was bothering me and

uh I tore hamstring on that one and that

that, uh, that,

that cost me one or two

places on the weekend.

So that, that sucked.

Yeah.

So what kind of athlete do

you consider yourself to be?

Uh, I've been doing this a long time, so,

uh, I'm one that doesn't quit.

Uh, you know, I, I, uh,

I trained on my own for a couple of years,

and I got stuck in the top 100,

like in around 84th spot,

and just couldn't seem to get past it.

And talked to the guy that

owned CrossFit 9 Degrees, and he's like,

you know,

I think we can do something with this.

And he's made me a better athlete.

He got me in here, and

And, you know,

we made the top 10 last year

and qualified 16th this year.

So it's going coming here to

train has been a huge plus for me.

I am a year older this year.

I'm curious to see.

I see there's a lot of young guys,

younger guys coming in and

several of them I have competed with.

And there's going to be some

tough guys out there this year.

As there was.

Yeah.

Jeffrey Birchfield asks, how old is Rob?

I'm 56.

56.

Yes.

So you're still kind of in

that like baby end of the 55.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

But I'll tell you what,

every year makes a difference.

Once you get up, you know,

I'm going to say over 50.

You know, when I was in the 50 to 54,

I was struggling with those

guys when I was 54.

And then I came into the 55 to 60,

55 to 59.

And I had a good year last year.

And hopefully we're going to

have a good year this year.

And I don't know.

We'll see what happens next year.

Yeah.

I think one of the weird

things is I think online

competitions are tough to

know whether those,

those rankings are valid, right?

Oh yes.

Especially on a blind leaderboard.

Right.

It's not till you get to

like a live competition

where you have people

beside you that you find

out truly what kind of an

athlete you are.

Yes.

Totally agree with you.

Uh, and, and, and there's some, uh,

there were some tough guys

there last year that, uh,

You know,

I think we all earn each other's respect.

You know, by the end of the weekend,

you know, you're all pretty much friends.

You know who's good at what

and who's not good at what.

And, you know, John Kim and I,

we have became pretty good

friends after the games last year.

It's got to be weird because

there were only 10 that

went to the games last year.

Yes.

And you're always corralled together.

You spend the entire weekend

just the 10 of you.

Yes.

And you see who is stressed,

who handles stress well, and who doesn't.

Yeah.

You think you handle it well?

No.

I can handle stress in short spurts.

I can't handle heavy stress

day in and day out.

Yeah.

I think that's a pretty good

assessment of how I feel too.

Yeah.

So I watched a video you did,

I think with Nine Degree,

and you talked about it

took till you were 40 to

get your shit together.

Yes.

Yes, it did.

So in what respect?

Uh, you know, I, uh, I, I, I,

I didn't do any training for years.

Uh, I was self-employed, uh, you know,

married and divorced, lost my business,

uh, you know, drinking, partying,

carrying on, uh,

And then, I don't know,

I decided to get my shit

together and and close my business,

which was doing badly anyway.

You know,

it kind of started going downhill

as as my marriage dissolved.

And then, you know,

I went and got a job and

started going to the gym

and started powerlifting.

I was.

I'd done powerlifting for

three or four years before

I started doing CrossFit.

And, you know,

I just got my shit together.

You know, I got up, I had a plan,

and every day I went and

tried to do better and be better.

And I still do the same thing.

You know, I get up every day,

I spend two to four hours training,

and then I go to work.

CrossFit has a way of doing that,

doesn't it?

It does.

It does.

And you know, it, it,

it didn't only help the

aspect of my physical fitness.

It helped me be a better

person to be honest with you.

It's that community you

surround yourself with, right?

Yeah.

Even when you're trained

alone for a while.

Birds of a feather.

Yep.

And when you're,

when the birds of a feather

are doing the right thing

helps you do the right thing.

Yes.

Yes.

I think a lot of people in

the CrossFit world are,

uh have addictive

personalities uh and you

know whatever they're doing

be good or bad they're

gonna they're gonna do it

you know best they can yeah

so you're you're a you're a

husband again and you and

you're a dad and a

grandfather yes I'm a

grandfather twice now yeah

yes uh who all you take into alabama

It would probably be my wife.

And then I have a cousin in

Florida that texts last

night and wanted to know

what days her and her

daughter should come up.

So I will have a couple of fans there.

Yeah.

What do you – are you

excited for your

grandchildren to see out

there on the floor?

They're still very young.

The oldest one is not three yet, you know.

Yeah, hopefully eventually he does,

but I don't think they're

going to show up to Alabama

and spend three days in that atmosphere.

Yeah.

Jeffrey Birchfield said, that's cool.

I have five grandkids.

Wow.

Yes.

So you're also a machinist.

Yes, yes.

Have been.

You know, I told you I was self-employed.

Automotive machine shops,

what I grew up doing,

boring blocks and

reconditioned cylinder heads.

And now I work at a place

called Major Tool and

Machine where I run a gantry mill.

In the 80s,

it was the largest gantry mill

in the world.

So I make some pretty big stuff.

That's cool.

That's what my dad did.

My dad did that 45 years.

You know, it's funny.

Used to,

you made a living being a machinist,

but in today's world and

the way it's became,

people that can work with their hands,

we make a pretty good living now.

Yeah.

You know, everybody went to college and,

you know, they're book smart,

but it just doesn't seem to

make it to their hands anymore.

And the old guys that grew up, you know,

working with their hands,

I never dreamed would be valuable.

Right.

Try to hire a plumber or an electrician.

Yes, I know.

Same thing.

Well,

even your air conditioning guys make

a great living now.

Yeah.

You know,

anything you do with your hands there,

you know, most people can't do it.

And used to everybody worked

on their own stuff.

Yeah.

I actually worked for the

state of Ohio and one of

our big programs is apprenticeships, uh,

trying to get people into

the trades because it's so hard.

Yes.

They're going into the high

schools and recruiting showing, Hey,

you don't need college debt.

As are we, we are too, from where I work,

we have a big machinist

thing every year and they

go around to the high schools and, uh,

trying to get people into

machinist and welding.

You need, you need them both.

And then on the other end of it, you know,

the, the, uh, the technical stuff, the,

the it stuff, they're,

they're getting to where

they want to run machines without people,

you know, they, they want to,

they want to run things lights out.

You still have to have a guy there do it.

Yeah.

They tried to do that where

my dad worked and it always failed.

Yes, so far.

I think there will always be

a market for one-of-a-kind parts.

If you're making a million

of something or thousands of something,

you might be able to find a

way to run that with lights out.

If you're making one-of-a-kind parts,

especially big parts,

we're making a lot of stuff

for NASA that goes to outer space,

and that's big.

You might make 10 or 12 of them,

and that's it.

Yeah, that's funny.

My dad made miners, the parts for miners,

so coal or salt that were remote control,

and they would go into a

mine and dig without any

man having to go into that

dangerous... Yes.

Well, we did.

We're not right now.

We did a lot of, like,

ground turbine generators, you know, big,

great big generators for...

companies like that.

Yeah.

So do the guys in the shop

know what you do for a hobby?

Yes.

Yes.

Most, most, most of them do.

I mean, we have,

we have approximately 500

people that work there,

so I don't know everyone, but,

but I work second shift and

pretty much everybody on

second shift sees me, you know,

I go in to eat and they're like, you know,

look at that spread, you know, every day.

Cause I, you know, I count my macros and,

And, you know,

I try to get just like the

guy you had on the other day.

I try to eat right.

I try to sleep right.

I try to train right.

I try to live right.

But, yes, everyone there knows.

Some people are fans.

Some people aren't.

I've had guys go, you know, well,

you don't do that CrossFit, do you?

Are they going to watch you on the stream?

uh you know I i would assume

that they will they tried

last year and you know how

the stream was for the

masters last year yeah that

was bad and uh so I had a

got a lot last year like

man we we tried to you know

we tried to watch we

couldn't couldn't find it

and uh zach at crossfit

nine degrees he he he uh

live streamed all the workouts

which was a big help for me

and the people at work.

But I'm sure somebody will

try to tune in and let

everybody know what's going on.

Well,

this year you got the A-team calling it.

Yes.

And I'm pretty excited about that,

to be honest with you.

So I hope I can go out there and do well.

I'd hate for my wife and my

cousin to see me do badly.

And then Sean Woodward, is that it?

Woodland.

Woodland.

And then him have to say bad

things about me.

That would just be a nightmare.

Yeah.

Yeah, well,

hopefully you have a good

weekend and you get the good stuff, man.

Yes, yes, let's hope.

There's no feeling like an

event win at the CrossFit Games.

But I am curious to see what

the feel is when we get there.

I hope it feels like the

games and doesn't feel like

just another competition.

Yeah,

I've heard that the venue is awesome.

Great.

I haven't seen it yet.

Are you going to be there?

I am.

Cool.

Yeah,

we're going to be there filming a

behind the scenes.

Nice.

And we'll release it after it's all over.

But Ellie Hiller and myself

will be back in the warm-up area,

just chatting with you guys,

getting the vibe of the day.

And then we'll have a couple

videographers out front

catching some of the action on the floor.

Nice.

Well, that sounds good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Trying to do something just

like the elite athletes get, um,

when they do their stuff.

So what are your expectations this year?

You,

you hoping to finish up around the

podium or do you not know?

Well, you know,

my coach has been on me

like all year about, Hey,

you need to train like

you're going to win.

Uh, so, you know,

he wants me to go with the attitude.

I'm going to win.

Uh,

You know,

last year I was just happy to be there,

and I'm not going to lie.

I'm happy to be here just to

be there this year.

Yeah, I'd like to be up front,

but we'll just have to wait

and see how it works out.

I've fought some injuries this year,

and I can't say I'm 100%,

but I'm as tough as I was last year.

I like it.

Do you have to train

different as you get older?

Yes.

Yes.

You know,

you do what you can because some

days your body doesn't,

doesn't do what it used to.

And I'm guilty of really

pushing myself hard and

then paying for it for a couple of days.

And, you know, as you get older,

you learn not to do that,

but you still end up doing it,

especially right now,

getting close to the games.

You know, I,

I worked my butt off all weekend.

We were

we were out, uh,

paddle boarding and then kayaking.

And then I was in gym, you know,

six hours each day.

Uh,

so I trained my butt off all weekend and,

uh, and paid for it yesterday.

My,

my list showed that I trained too hard

this weekend yesterday.

And, uh, but today was a good day.

We, we done a couple of good wads and, uh,

we had one that was, uh,

18-minute, 25 double-unders,

five wall-facing handstand push-ups,

300-meter run.

So for any of my age group watching,

I was right at nine rounds.

Nice.

That's where I'm at right now.

So, Mike,

I guess if you had to have like

one home run workout, what would it be?

It would have handstand walks, uh,

handstand pushups, uh,

probably some running in it.

Uh, okay.

Yeah.

Maybe some muscle ups.

I'm not great at the ring muscle ups.

I'm pretty good on the bar muscle ups.

Uh,

Skills,

usually the skills are my better things.

I am not a great Olympic lifter.

I weigh 165 pounds.

I struggle on the heavy cleans.

225, 230 is about my max.

That's not where I would like to be.

In reality, that's where I am.

So you said on the weekend

you did six hours in the

gym plus a bunch of stuff outside.

Do you try to get more in on

the weekends because you

have to work during the week?

What I do is each day I have

a competitor workout and my

class workouts every day.

And depending on what life

throws at me through the week,

what I don't get done

during the week I do on the weekends.

And and last week was a very busy week.

And and then we threw in the

paddle boarding and the

kayaking on sat on Sunday.

We threw that in for Sunday.

So I was in here doing

barbell because I have a

workout on Saturday, too.

So Saturday I done barbell

and then I started doing the stuff,

my competitor workouts that

I didn't finish through the week.

And then Sunday I was out on

the lake and then in the

gym doing the rest of the

competitor workouts.

So I got everything in, but it's,

it's a lot.

Does anybody else in your family CrossFit?

No, no, no, no.

I wish I, I wish some of them would had,

um,

You know, my dad worked his butt off,

and then my brother,

he has no desire to train.

He lives his life,

but it doesn't have any

training involved in it.

Yeah.

Wife doesn't CrossFit?

No, my wife does, yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

She makes it to class a

couple of times a week.

And then we moved out here

to this area during COVID.

And, you know, they closed the gyms down.

So so I bought I moved,

got five acres and a house

and a barn and put a rig in

my barn and trained there

for a couple of years.

And so if she doesn't come here,

she trained to own.

We have a pretty nice setup there.

At least you guys get to

spend a little bit of time

together doing a class one.

Uh, sometimes, sometimes, uh, we, uh, we,

we don't look at it the same way.

You know, my wife is like,

just eat the cake, Rob.

Yeah.

I, uh,

my wife and I can never be partners

in a workout because we

just look at things differently.

Yes, same here.

Same here.

We look at it.

She doesn't have a

competitive bone in her body.

Exact same.

I want to win,

and she just wants to get through it.

Yep, exactly.

Well, I can't wait to meet you in person,

Rob, down there in Birmingham.

I look forward to meeting you, too.

We'll be hanging out there and, again,

doing that behind the scenes.

So something to look back on

after the weekend's over.

Yes, and let's hope it's a good one.

Yeah.

With that, guys,

thank you so much for being here.

Thank you to Rob for being here,

and we'll see everybody

next time on Clydesdale Media Podcast.

Bye, guys.

Hey, thanks for having me.