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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.
What is going on, everybody?
Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast.
where tonight we have none
other than the EMOM man,
the Southland man, Brandon Luckett.
What's going on, brother?
Not too much, man.
Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah.
Excited to have you on here.
Heard so much about you.
Um,
the circle of people I hang out with
seem to hang out with you,
but this is the first time
we've ever got to talk.
Yeah.
I've seen all your stuff and
I'm wondering whenever
you're going to have me on.
So thank you so much for
finally inviting me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, um,
Corey Leonard's already in the chat.
I'm interviewing the burgers
again tomorrow evening.
Oh, gosh.
My favorite family.
So, yeah,
we're going all Southland today
and tomorrow.
Love it.
Love it.
So let's talk about that first,
the Southland group.
How did that come about?
Just a bunch of fit dudes
wanting to get together and hang out?
So, um, like,
I don't know if you're too
familiar with like my, my past, but, um,
I grew up in Louisiana.
I grew up in Baton Rouge, uh,
went to high school there,
went to LSU through undergrad,
but I moved away and went
to Houston for two years
for graduate school.
And then went to Oklahoma
for two years to get, um,
to do my residency.
And then in 2021,
I moved back home and that
was after my last CrossFit
games as an individual.
And kind of decided to kind
of back away from competing
and just kind of focus on, you know,
learning to run the
business with my father
that he and I run together now.
And it was just it was a lot on my plate.
And so I kind of backed away
from competing.
But while I was here in the
first few months,
two separate gym owners had
reached out to me and they
didn't like they hadn't
talked to each other about
anything about me,
like putting on some kind
of camp at their gym.
And so I was like, well,
y'all both reached out to me separately.
I think it'd be really cool
if we put on like a three
day continuous camp where, you know,
we got like some high level
competitors to come in and
help coach and run it.
But we just invite anyone to
come and learn and be in
the environment of like,
you know the community like
we all love the competitive
community and the
competitive community of
crossfit is kind of special
in that like I think a lot
of us are pretty open to
giving advice like what
works for us and what
didn't what not and so we
kind of like just kind of
put plans together and like
did our first one and
in the winter of 21 or 22
and then we've kind of done
like a summer or fall like
kind of in august and then
another in december january
february um every year
since then and it's it's
grown and we've gotten a
little bit better at it
we've got a little bit more
value added into it uh and
it's just cool to do you
know um we try to provide
a lot for the the campers in
terms of you know like you
know things that they can
keep you know apparel gifts
and things like that and
then we try to provide a
ton of value you know we
have nutritionists and
mindset coaches come in we
have you know shelby neal
and alexis johnson scott
tetler like as many
athletes as we can get in
there like come on like
just come and just share as
much as you can with us and
like let's all throw that
down together for for three days
So where I first heard of it
was I documented Rudy
burgers open in 2023.
They got back from the winter one.
Yes, sir.
And they were telling me
like what an amazing group
of people it was and,
and how cool it was to hang
out with everybody.
And that if I ever had the opportunity,
I needed to come down and
document like what goes on
at one of those camps.
absolutely absolutely yeah
actually Lynette she
started helping us run them
like the last winter one we
did uh in 2024 so like you
know probably in February
or January this year she
came and helped run the
whole thing with me um and
so we have like a little
small team of people who
like organize it you know
do orders and whatnot like
order the stuff and like the food the
you know make the schedule
and everything and she was
a big part of that this
year and uh her her her two
kids and and rudy are just
the best love them yeah the
story they brought back
this year was um leah got
her first muscle up yeah
because of the southland
camp and the and the girl
is helping her shelby and
alexis helping her out with
the muscle up yes sir
So yeah, super cool.
I want to rewind because you
went through a lot of the
beginning of your story like really fast.
Yeah.
So you grew up in Louisiana.
What made you want to be a
medical physicist?
And what is that?
Yeah,
so I'll start off with like kind of
defining it in pretty simple terms.
It's not that complicated.
We simply work with radiation in medicine.
The physics side of it is like the atomic,
you know,
nuclear physics the
radiation side of it the
medical is how it's used in
you know in medical
practice and there's three
different kind of divisions
that you can kind of like
Broad classify them as and
they're like that's
radiation therapy where
you're treating illness
with radiation there is
nuclear medicine where
there's treatment and
diagnosis using uh like
radioactive traced um
metabolic agents like maybe
like glucose or something
like that that is taken up
in the muscles and you can
image you know muscular
function with with that um
but then there's also
diagnostic imaging which is
the I would say like the
the simplest of the three
fields which is you know
x-rays ultrasound mri
mammography mri uh um cts
So we work in diagnostic
imaging and nuclear medicine.
We wear several different
hats from QA in terms of
quality assurance,
making sure that the
systems are running as
they're meant to run within
regulations of the state
and federal government.
we work as like a liaison
between the hospital and
the governing bodies uh we
we do a little bit of
construction in terms of
like calculating how much
lead is needed in walls to
block radiation from you
know passing through the
walls to the adjacent rooms
we are radiation safety
officers in terms of like
you know making sure
employees are safe we do
calculations for fetal doses
like we wear a bunch of
different hats but it's all
centered around radiation
and medicine and and you do
this with your your father
yes sir so that's how I got
into it so with the so is
he a medical physicist as
well and you just followed
in the footsteps
exactly wow yep so he got
into it like real early got
a master's in nuclear
science um I i had to go a
little bit more of a formal
route as they kind of uh
standardized the field you
know a couple decades later
so I had to get a degree in
physics I had to get a
master's in medical physics
and then had to get a
residency a two-year
residency after my master's
that I'd be eligible for
board certification so that
I could go and practice
Um, but yeah,
the only reason I did it was
because my dad did it, loved his job and,
uh, just wanted to be like him, you know?
So it sounds like there's a
lot of calculations and like formulas.
So is, is it,
you do have a deep math background?
Yeah, I was pretty,
I probably could have
gotten a math major in
undergrad and physics is
inherently math oriented.
Math is, I mean,
you can go theoretical with math,
but in terms of physics,
most of it's very much
applied to how things actually function.
And a lot of those can be
kind of mapped through
mathematical equations.
And so like, you know,
if you've ever interviewed
like Alexis Johnson, she's the math PhD.
I'm a physics masters.
They're kind of the same thing,
just applied differently.
Yeah, that was my next question.
You guys were teammates last year.
Does any of that come into
play in strategy or is
competition a completely
different animal?
So I would argue that Alexis
Johnson's brain works much
more on the mathematical
side than mine does.
I wouldn't say I'm exactly
gifted and my brain doesn't
work quite just naturally in that realm.
I'm more of a broad scope individual.
I'm not very detail-oriented.
so when it comes to
strategizing I kind of play
by by feel and uh
experience and not so much
by like you know looking at
the details of the numbers
and the paces and like this
is what I need to do to
attain this you know I kind
of I kind of have learned
over the years just based
off of feel and heart you
know yeah and then
So we're going to bounce all
over the place just because
that's how my brain works, right?
Same.
So last year at semis,
I was there in Pasadena.
You were with your Franco's team.
And that was one of the most
epic team battles I've ever
witnessed in person.
Yeah, it's pretty exciting.
It was pretty much a
three-way tie for that weekend.
You guys ended up winning that overall.
Yes, sir.
What...
Being a part of something
that tight and that epic,
do you feel that on the weekend?
And when it's done,
is there a different
feeling than just like a normal comp?
yeah absolutely and
especially with team um
there there are two
completely different
feelings after success as a
team like with a team
versus as an individual and
I've been on like both
sides of that um and
winning on a team
especially when like the
race is that tight and like
you know kind of that that
you feel like all that
pressure as an individual on your team
like when the team succeeds
like it's it's very
exciting and like you're
stoked for your team and
like you you I would say
like so like the way I
explain it with team versus
individual is I like on an
individual basis when you
win and you have success
you have a lot of pride in
what you've done but like
the excitement is very minimal actually
on the team side of things
whenever you have success
your your excitement is
almost tenfold but like
your individual proudness
is is kind of uh minimized
because like there's three
other people that had to do
their job as well and so
you're more proud of like
your teammates and you're
excited with your team and
so like that's it's
completely different
dynamic in terms of like
how you feel post
competition because like
the excitement with team is is magnified
The way you guys jumped on
each other at the end of that competition,
knowing you pulled off the win,
the euphoria was palpable
in that arena at that time.
And one of my favorite
memories from competition last year.
Yeah, it was definitely memorable.
Like I remember running to that,
that worm and then crossing
the finish line.
Like, dude,
those other teams were on our tails.
And like, I think we,
I think we were actually
like not winning that event
and going into that last
set of squats or burpees.
And so when you just see
your teammates pull through and like,
you know, exceed all expectations,
like it's, it's amazing.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
So your other teammates, Logan and Shaylin,
are they different?
You and Alexis have this analytical brain.
Shaylin's a law enforcement officer,
FBI agent, would run through a wall.
Oh, 100%.
Right.
And then you have Logan.
What are their personalities
in comparison to you guys?
Yeah.
Man,
Alexis and Shaylin were like this duo
of just energy, right?
like joking all the time
like laughing all the time
loud um almost like almost
to the point of like
obnoxious just like their
energy was so high and then
logan is like so quiet and
chill and then I'm just
like somewhere in the
middle of of those two um
groups but it was I think
it was like a great balance
because like we just we
worked really well together um
i think as a whole shaylen
and logan and myself I
think we were like a gritty
team as a whole alexis by
far had the most analytical
brain but like I think we
were all just so willing to
suffer for each other and
that made the the season
really fun the perception of logan is
And I have a best friend
that is like this when we compete.
Tell me where to be, and I'll be there,
and I got you.
100%.
Yeah, that's the perception he gives off.
Yeah.
And he's an insane competitor as well.
He's just been in the sport for so long,
and I think his experience is so high.
His depth of talent is massive.
He shows up on game day,
and he's just ready to go.
so the big question is what
the hell happened at the
games I I don't think we
ever told anybody what what
happened at the games um
Alexis either had flu or
covid uh was extremely sick
and I mean we didn't tell
anybody because it didn't
really matter like we had
to go compete but um like
she was on Dayquil she was
on Nyquil she was on a
z-pack like trying to get
through this um like I
walked into their room and
she's in a sweater and
sweatpants and the heater is on
like yeah she was she was
bad off and like her
attitude through the whole
weekend was just amazing
and on top of that in one
of our events she like she
had like I mean she tweaked
with like her shoulder and
was struggling on like
muscle ups and like every
event after that
And so, I mean,
it was probably from the
fatigue of being sick where she was just,
you know,
fighting for dear life the whole weekend.
But I remember on the first event,
which was the ski legless
rope climb and overhead squat event.
she and I were partners on
the synchronized overhead
squats and dude I remember
on the first set of
overhead squash it's like
looking into her eyes and
they were like they were
big her her face was pale
like her lips were like
like blue and white and I
was like oh no like this is
gonna be such a long
weekend for her but dude
like she had so much heart
and just fought the whole
weekend that like I mean I
couldn't have been more proud
So let me ask this question.
Your team suffers through a
weekend like that, right?
For someone who's willing to
fight through all of that,
does that make you closer as a team?
100%.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think it's less so about
the result at the end of
the weekend and more so
about what you see your
friends lay out on the floor, dude.
like I mean we could have
taken a top five and if any
of our teammates hadn't put
their heart and soul out on
the field like you would
have been a little bit
disappointed but we took it
like a 12th or 11th or
something and the the team
fought so damn hard it's
like dude you couldn't be more proud
Yeah,
because after seeing you guys at West
Coast or whatever it was called that year,
like, man,
I thought you guys were poised
to fight for the podium.
yeah I think we would have
had a shot but you know the
team the events are are
structured in a way that
like weaknesses are showed
and you know take one
teammate who's fighting you
know vomiting and you know
fevers and everything and
just aches and chills and
you should do your best man
I don't know what other sports you watch,
but I've been watching the
Olympic trials.
Those people fight for one
shot every four years.
To trip in an 800 meter and
to lose your shot at the
Olympics because of a trip,
it's so brutal.
Sports are brutal.
Yeah.
You learn a lot about your
character as an individual
if you pay attention to it through sports,
for sure.
Yeah.
So speaking of sports,
we're going to go back again.
Any sports growing up?
Yeah.
The biggest sport that I
played was or participated
in rather was wrestling for
eight years from fifth
grade all the way through high school.
And that was like once I got
into high school and got
pretty serious with it,
like that was everything I thought about.
Um, I did run cross country as a freshman,
quit that to just focus on wrestling.
My senior year,
I got pulled into the swim
team like midway through the season.
So I swam for half a season.
But other than that, dude, I just,
I just wanted to be on the mat.
It's funny.
Cause one of the first
interviews I ever did was Chris Spieler.
And he said that,
that wrestling puts you in
positions where you have to suffer and
and get out or find a way
out or just live in that pain.
And that helped him so much
in his CrossFit career.
Yeah, 100%.
I think wrestling is a
unique sport when you look
at it as a whole.
You don't have to look at
just a single wrestling match,
which is extremely humbling.
You can't blame anybody, right?
And it's such like a...
So it's like a gritty sport
because you're legitimately
hand-on-hand combat, more or less.
You're not throwing kicks
and punches or anything,
but you're hand-on-hand
combat with another individual.
Just you two.
And the mental battles you
play with yourself of when
the going gets tough,
do you want to quit or do
you want to fight or...
When you're down on points,
are you going to fight
through the last round?
Are you going to give up and
just let the guy take it?
Are you going to let him embarrass you?
Are you going to pick yourself up?
Take that out of it,
which is a huge part of it, but
the discipline you go
through in terms of like
cutting weight um which is
massive like to go to bed
hungry is really hard um to
to cut water weight for you
know 24 hours before a
weigh-in and like your
mouth's dry and you're in a
sauna and you're barely
sweating anymore because
your body's just kind of
got nothing left you can't
sleep at night because your
body's the hormones are so
out of whack um
And you gotta go, you know,
you go weigh in, it's like, and you're,
you're watching what you're eating for,
for six months,
like that kind of mental
discipline translates over
into everything after it massively.
Um,
and so like the mental side of it is just,
if you like dive into it
and like you're mentally tough human,
like it just,
it translates over all over.
Um,
and I think that's really cool about
Ruffling.
I don't think there's any
kind of mistake that some
of the best CrossFitters
are wrestlers and gymnasts.
Because both are forced to cut weight.
Both are forced to suffer through things.
And it just proves that
you're capable of doing
hard things on any given day.
I think that you can
extrapolate that to sports
where you don't have to be
a talented human to succeed.
So there is a level of
talent and athleticism in
sports such as baseball, basketball,
even football,
where I wouldn't succeed at
those sports because I'm
not an extremely athletic
or coordinated human.
But take wrestling and you
emphasize your strengths as
an athlete and minimize
your weaknesses as an athlete,
just like we do in CrossFit.
so like in wrestling I
wasn't the fastest or the
most powerful or the
strongest guy but I had
flexibility I had an engine
and I had like a grittiness
about me where like I just
kind of never gave up and I
made myself successful on
the mat and uh like I think
sports like that where you
can take like an not
necessarily most talented
human and create like an
insane athlete I think I
think those are super cool sports
Yeah,
and those are the athletes I
appreciate the most.
That's the athlete I was.
You know, I was that guy that,
like I was a swimmer.
I did other sports growing up,
but swimming was my main sport.
And, you know, I would get private lessons,
and the coach would be like, man,
you have all the heart and
all the work ethic.
If you just had the talent of X,
you'd be awesome.
You'd be an Olympian.
I always got that, like, told to me.
But you don't, and so you're probably not.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There, there,
there is a level in all
sports of gift and talent for sure.
Um, but I,
I love the athletes who just
work their asses off.
I don't care how talented you are, dude.
I want to see you just suffer through it,
you know, put the work in.
I love that.
Yeah.
I think that's why I like
Colton Mertens is so popular, right?
Yeah.
I love him.
I love his mindset.
I love his vibe.
Like what do you like kind of stands for?
I think he's one of the most
incredible athletes, dude.
And another wrestler.
Yep.
Yep.
So there is a really big
correlation there.
So was it always LSU for you
growing up in Louisiana?
In terms of like loyalty to sports?
Or going to school there?
No.
Um, honestly,
I wasn't the best student in high school.
Uh,
like I wasn't going to get a
scholarship anywhere on academics.
Um, my brother went to Tulane.
He was incredibly intelligent human.
Um,
he actually just finished his
fellowship in ocular
plastics as a surgeon.
So he's finally moving home
after 16 years postgraduate.
Like, uh, but, uh,
I wanted to go to Tulane to
be like my brother and I
got waitlisted there.
Probably only waitlisted one
because he went there and
two because I lived in Louisiana.
And so like I ended up going
to LSU on like in-state
tuition just because
honestly I had in high
school I had no ambitions
to be an academic and I
wasn't a great student.
And so it just was LSU.
And then it clicked in
college where academics
became more important.
And then you went to
Oklahoma next or Houston, Houston.
Yeah.
So, uh, yeah.
And in high school,
I wasn't a great student.
I just,
I loved wrestling and focused on that,
which is, you know, I, I, I say like,
I only thought about LSU.
Like there were some
colleges who wanted me to go wrestle and,
but looking past college and
wanting to be a physicist
like whenever I made that
decision I was like there's
no doing wrestling and
getting a degree in physics
like those two aren't gonna
there's those aren't gonna
pan out together um
especially the way that
like I just kind of was
obsessed with wrestling
And so after like,
after wrestling in high school,
after state, like the season was over,
I just went and did a few
out of season tournaments
just to like burn myself
out and like over train for them,
crush myself and like burn myself out.
And so I was okay like
putting that sport away.
And like that summer,
like I had made the
decision like just to
switch the effort that I'd
put in to sports in high school.
to pour all of that effort
into academics and so like
that summer I went to
physics camp at lsu for
like a couple weeks uh like
I had tutors every semester
I studied with all the
smartest kids in class
like I didn't party I didn't
drink I never went to the
bars like I didn't do any
of that I did crossfit
analytical affiliate
started coaching there and
I studied for for four
years and I would say like
in in high school I was
like a low 3.0 student um
and I graduated in physics
at lsu which has an insane
physics program with like a 385.
And then went to MD Anderson in Houston,
which is the top one in two
schools for medical physics in the world.
So I definitely switched my
mental state there of what
I poured myself into.
Yeah.
It's so funny.
I can relate to that.
You did better in high school than I did.
I was like a two, six, two, seven guy.
And then end up graduating three,
six with my undergrad and three,
eight masters, I think.
Yeah.
I mean, it clicked in college.
and it's not that like it's
not that like you just
started retaining
information better so you
just put in more time and
like more effort like oh
like if I can put in the
time like I'll make the
I'll make the changes and I
like the work ends up
paying off most of the time
not always but most of the
time uh your buddy corey
says physical camp what a
nerd he already knows I'm a
nerd dude he talks to me
all the time he knows I'm a nerd
um and then just some a
couple comments uh kipping
at reels in here uh sucking
on an ice cube ptsd uh as a
wrestler yeah dude cutting
weight and sucking on ice
cube just to not have a dry
mouth a cotton mouth uh and
then cory says I do
brandon's programming can
confirm he loves to watch us suffer
When it comes to programming,
I'm almost more on the side
of I like the mental
suffering of difficult training pieces.
And that's not to say you
should beat yourself up every day,
but whenever you can tell
your body to just keep moving,
it translates over into
competition pretty massively, I think.
Yeah.
So we're going to get into
that in a second because I
want to talk about EMOM in more depth.
So you graduate and you said
you found CrossFit at LSU.
Mm-hmm.
Not at LSU,
but while I was going to school.
Okay.
Yeah.
So that's where you started.
Did you ever think you were
going to compete in that?
And when did the competition bug start?
So it's funny.
Well,
I got into CrossFit because of my
brother.
He was doing CrossFit in
college with his roommate, Chad Becknell.
And when I was wrestling,
he would come home to visit
and he would make me do
some Metcons for wrestling.
And I remember they would hurt pretty bad,
doing wall balls and burpees and stuff.
then after wrestling like
there was a couple month
period where I was just
kind of exercising just
aimlessly um I always
exercise on my own like I
love running I love
calisthenics and stuff like
that and uh he brought me
over to do a crossfit class
at red stick crossfit in
baton rouge and it was
kettlebells and double
unders which I couldn't do
double unders of course
And it was like the whole
vibe of like the energy of
a CrossFit class was like, dude,
I was hooked.
Cause it was like, it was,
it was like that competition feel.
And like, after like I was spent,
I was sweaty.
I was like out of breath.
Like I got beat by like
everyone in the class.
And I was like, I was pretty fit.
And I was like, dude, I love this.
I'll never compete, but I want to like,
I'll come do classes.
You'll never compete is what you said.
Yeah.
yeah I mean dude like
whenever I made the
decision to stop wrestling
I was like all right
competition's out like it's
all school and work and
like that's what I'm doing
so like I'm just gonna do
CrossFit to stay fit and
like it fed that
competitive bug that I
needed and uh that next
year I'm pretty sure I went
to to regionals on a team
and so for a few years I
was on regionals as a team
and in 2017 I went to
regionals for the first
time as an individual
And a year later, you made the games.
Yes, sir.
So you make it to the games.
I don't know.
Was it 48 back then?
40?
I can't remember.
It was 40.
Okay.
And you finished 36th.
So not the ideal finish at the games.
No.
No.
did that give you a chip
that you wanted to do better or how did,
how did that feel after that?
Man, it's,
that's a loaded question with
everything that was going
on with me that year.
Okay.
So I would say the immediate
feeling after the games was like, dude,
I was so upset.
And it's so crazy to say
because going into that year, I was like,
all I want to do is qualify
for the games.
That is my dream.
I want to qualify once and
just say I made it.
And I don't care if I come in last.
I just want to be there.
then you go and qualify and
you come in like you know
second to last because I
think only 38 people
finished the games that
year and so really I was
like third to last um and
like you're comparing
yourself all those people like wow I was
i did terribly when you're
the top 40 in the world you
compare yourself to the top
40 and you like do that
like I was so upset I was
like I'm gonna be back like
I'm gonna I'm gonna make
this different um I want to
come like actually have some success
And then a week later,
I take boards for medical physics.
A week after that,
I take my finals for my summer classes.
Failed my boards.
Had stomach ulcers for a
couple months just from stress.
Tried training.
I felt terrible in the gym.
And I was like, F this.
I'm so done with competing.
Because I told myself I would never let...
crossfit get in the way of
of my work of my school and
here it is like I failed
boards so I was like screw
it like I'm not doing this
anymore took the year off
passed my boards again like
took them again like a few
months later which was
totally luck because there
was some issue with the the
testing system and usually
I would have had to wait a
whole year but I got to
take them in december that
year instead of waiting
until august again
passed them got into
residency and moved to
oklahoma and I was I was
like okay like everything
panned out and it's okay um
but I still had no idea of
like competing again until
alexis johnson pulled me
back in you know it's funny
you say that because I was
listening to a podcast
today with missy franklin
and katie hoff who are olympic swimmers
and how they both feel like
they never met their expectations.
Missy Franklin,
who won five Olympic gold medals,
doesn't feel like she met
the expectations she was meant for.
We are stupid human beings.
Five Olympic gold medals and
it didn't meet your expectations,
so you feel like your
career is a failure.
Yeah.
I think that's the danger of
setting expectations on results.
Yeah, I think that's a great statement.
um I don't think the goal
should be the result I
think the goal should be to
pour everything you have
into the task that you are
doing and everything you
have may not be 12 hours of
dedicated time per day
maybe four hours a day
maybe an hour maybe 30
minutes um and if you have
expectations of winning you
know or qualifying for the crossfit games
with the ability to train
one hour a day your
expectations are results
based however the best you
can do with an hour a day
may not be qualifying for
the crossfit games and so
like yeah results based
expectations are a
dangerous game in my opinion
Yeah.
It just coincided with your story.
But Alexis brings you back
in after this tumultuous
time from the games, the ulcers.
Did the ulcers go away?
Did you need any extra help with that?
Did they just...
yeah I had to take some some
like medication to kind of
deal with that like I
started graying in my hair
like the stress I had from
that was was pretty unreal
I dealt with pretty bad
stress and anxiety for
quite a long time um and
like it manifested itself
physically in a lot of
different ways from stomach
ulcers to I mean graying
hair which I mean 29 I got
quite a lot of gray um
to high blood pressure like
all these different
physical manifestations of
stress and anxiety but uh
that's crazy because you're
one of the fittest people
in the world with high
blood pressure I took
medication for for a year
yeah stress is an evil evil
monster yeah but um I think
that that's also mitigated
by like a lot of internal work
you can get through that for sure.
So if anyone out there is
dealing with stress and anxiety,
you can do a lot of work internally,
get through that and like
the physical manifestations
kind of start fading away,
which is pretty dope.
yeah um back to alexis she
she back in sorry yeah so
she texted me in september
of 2020 2020 no 2019 said
hey we're going team um
start training and that
year like the open was in october
And I was like, I got time.
Why not?
You know,
like teams a little different off
the train quite as much.
The pressure is not as crazy.
So I started training again, did the open,
had my best ever open finish,
which I think is partially
because a lot of the high
level competitors had just
competed at the games and
were not in like getting
back into training yet.
So I finished in like 13th
or something in the world.
And then we went to put,
put a team together,
went and competed in
Argentina at the South land,
South fit challenge or
something in Buenos Aires.
We won.
So we qualified for the
games and then COVID happened.
So no teams went to go compete,
but they pulled the top 20
from the open to go individual.
Bless you.
Thank you.
So I got to compete as an
individual that year based
off of my open score.
Okay.
Yeah,
and they eliminated teams altogether.
Yep.
Was there any hope like when
Rich was going to run the
comp at Mayhem or were you
guys holding out hope that
that would still happen?
Yeah.
And then as everything kind of went away,
then you just had to fall
back into the individual at your own gym?
Yep.
Yep.
So now you're back in individual.
You finished 23rd in 2020.
And what made you sign up again for 2021?
Hmm.
I had fun with it I think I
had a little bit more fun
with it this year that year
obviously a better
performance I was like okay
like 23rd was better than
36th um it was a good time
to do it because I was
still just in residency so
like my schedule was super
fixed um so like I knew
that like outside of my
responsibilities I could
make training happen and uh
yeah I just gave it another
rip for another year before moving home
because I kind of figured
you know moving home I'd
have to like kind of put
the shoes away and and
focus on work and so yeah I
just stuck with it for
another year so that 21
year you make the games
again you get to go in
person you finish 27th any
any anxiety or anything from that
yeah so that was a I was
actually pretty happy with
that performance based off
of uh the injury that I
went into it with um so
2021 semis we had the
snatch ladder at the West
Coast Classic in in uh Las Vegas
The first rep at 265,
I tore my UCL in my right arm.
So, like,
that little tendon just came
straight off the bone.
I didn't finish the event.
Like, I went off the floor.
And I was like, dude,
I don't know what I did.
I can't remember that now
that you say that.
Yeah.
Couldn't, like, every event.
That was the first event of the weekend.
Yeah.
So, I had four more events after that.
It was kind of...
pretty scary like I mean I
couldn't front rack a 95 I
couldn't front rack a empty
barbell much less 95 pounds
for thrusters because
bending my elbow was pretty painful
couldn't do any rope climbs
in in a warm-up because it
hurt to hang on the rope um
but then usually you're
like all right I'll go see
what I can do on this event
you know if I have to come
off the floor again it's
fine but at least give it a
go did well in that event
um next day we started with
a ruck so it didn't not too
much there to be worried about
But, you know,
the chipper with 117 degrees
was something to worry about.
It may have taken your mind
off the UCL for a moment.
yeah but it's just you know
it's like each event is
like all right we're gonna
take this event and see
what happens um ended up
qualifying um but training
after that you know you're
not gonna like train with
the same kind of you know
effort attitude that you
had in competition so like
I didn't snatch I didn't I
couldn't front squat I
couldn't really back squat
not not heavy because
holding the barbell on my
back like getting my arm
into that position hurt too
bad couldn't overhead like
so many things were just
out of the question um and
so like going into the
games it was just like I
hadn't touched so many
things and so long that you
know to finish 27th I was
pretty actually happy with
it's funny how the memories
are flooding back now of
you going through that
moment because I was there
and I remember you,
you like getting helped off the floor.
Yeah.
And,
and I had forgot all of that until you
just rekindled that story and bam,
there it is.
Yes, sir.
Wow.
So, so you make it to the game.
Yeah.
27th is great.
You survived.
Yeah.
Um, and is that after that games,
is that when you started to
become washed up?
Yep.
Yeah.
Back home.
Uh,
moved back home, wasn't competing.
My dad had gotten really sick.
He got COVID at the games, was on oxygen.
I had to move home from Oklahoma earlier,
or earlier than I was supposed to,
to start covering work that
was getting pushed off
because he couldn't do anything.
um and so like I was done
training done competing um
kind of lost didn't want to
do any kind of training
where like I might see
someone else's scores and
feel bad about myself which
is you know pretty you know
not a great mindset to have
like I was just comparing
myself to everybody else
all the time which is a
terrible mindset to live in uh
but yeah like it was it's
pretty like not a I was
pretty sad like losing that
side of my life um and
didn't really know how to
channel that that energy or
you know that mindset um
until I started the mom company really
So there's that and the
Southland group all
happened kind of at the same time.
Yeah.
And gave you a community again.
It did.
So let's talk EMOM before we
get to this year.
So you start this company
and it's designed for
people who don't have like
all day to train.
Yeah,
that's what we founded it off of
because that's where I was.
I started training again.
I would just go on like a
two-mile run in the morning
before I went to work.
or I'd try to do a Metcon in
the afternoon and I was
just like comparing myself
to people all the time.
And then I just started
doing as weird as it is,
30 minute emoms where like
I didn't have to compare
myself to anybody else.
I just compared myself against the clock.
Like did I finish the workout or not?
and they were insanely
effective like I mean you
could do pretty low output
work for 30 minutes and
within 30 minutes like
you've done a ton of work
it's just a longer time
domain than we're used to
um and I actually started
feeling like I was getting
in shape again and like my
mental state was better um
just because like I was
doing something for myself
again and like not
comparing myself to
everybody else and uh yeah
it was just it clicked for me
And so I started the
Instagram account and was
just putting up workouts
for other people to follow.
I was like, if this was working for me,
maybe it'll work for other people.
So we just started throwing
out workouts on Instagram
and it grew slowly at first.
I never intended to sell it.
I didn't want to sell it.
I just wanted to give people
some value that I found for myself.
And I didn't want to be
responsible for having to
write us any kind of program for people.
I didn't feel like I had the
time or the bandwidth and
just didn't want to.
But it got to the point
where we had enough people
asking for daily workouts
instead of just the one or
two or three a week that I was posting.
And I was like, okay, well,
maybe we can try it out and see if we get,
you know, 25 members or something.
And so my brother-in-law and
I kind of put the plan
together and started
putting it on Train Heroic.
And we started with just
like the 30-minute workout, you know,
in the garage and out in under an hour.
And that was,
that was our mainstay program.
We still have that as like our,
and that is our most popular program,
but it branched out, you know,
into a 90 minute program,
a competitive program,
endurance and stuff.
So we offer a lot more now, but our,
our mainstay is still the
30 minute session.
Well,
I know a lot of people who are doing
it now.
My nutrition coach is doing it.
Corey talks about it all the time.
One of my other co-hosts is
dabbling with it a little bit.
It's funny because the gym I go to
It's not exclusively this,
but they do a lot of interval work,
which is essentially like EMOM.
It's just EMOM 4 or EMOM 3 or whatever.
And it brought a lot of fun
back to working out for me.
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah.
And my gym's owned by
Christy Aramo-O'Connell.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's what they do there.
And I think it translates
for the competitive athlete as well.
You see Ariel,
that's what she's doing now
almost exclusively because you,
you have to suffer to beat
the time clock.
Right.
And so it translates to competition.
Yes.
And I love it because it's
also like almost
internalized competition.
Yeah.
You're like,
it's like you against the clock, man,
you and get your, like your head.
And like, I love that so much.
So if people are interested,
they can just find you on Instagram.
I know that.
Mm-hmm.
Emom Company.
Yes, sir.
Emom Co., right?
The Emom Company.
Emom Company.
Yes, sir.
And you're easy to find as
well on Instagram.
Yes, sir.
You can reach out that way.
And you have a website as well.
Yes, sir.
So there's that.
Now I want to get to this
year real quick because –
you were washed up.
You're doing your own thing.
John Young says, there's no way.
What brought,
what brought about the shirt?
Uh, honestly,
whenever John Young called me washed up,
dude,
I had no intentions of competing as
an individual.
Uh, I was maybe going to do team,
try to put a team together,
but the end of the idea of
competing as an individual actually, uh,
legitimately scared me.
Um, uh,
It's sad to say that, again,
I was just comparing myself
to everybody else.
The fear of putting in the
time and the energy and
going to compete and
missing my expectation,
my results-based expectation,
scared the crap out of me.
What would people think about if I failed?
I don't want to feel like a
failure and all this stuff.
all this awful mindset that
I had uh but something like
something along the lines
kind of switched and I was
like I don't really care
you know what the results
end up being I just kind of
want to see like what I'm
capable of this year and so
the the washed up shirt was
more of just like a little
bit of reminder um that like
who who you know where where
I was a year ago didn't
really matter um where I
was going really didn't
matter either because like
it didn't like I didn't
care if anyone called me
washed up like I don't mean
anything to me dude it's
like maybe I am but I'm
gonna go see I'm gonna go
see what I got you know and
if I fail so what like I on
wednesday I go back to work you know
and so I had to put away a
lot of fear and like that
mindset just like constant
comparison game and um for
like for the first time I
did it because I wanted to
see what I was physically
mentally and spiritually
capable of and not just to
you know maybe my dad will
be proud of me if I qualify
for the games or you know
maybe my brother will be proud of me or
People will think that I'm
good at CrossFit if I do well at this.
None of that matters.
And that's where I'll be for a while.
So during the season,
you're killing the Open.
You're killing quarterfinals.
Is that like a slow build?
You want to see what you can do,
but it's almost like hurry up and wait.
yeah it was unexpected the
open performance was
totally unexpected the
quarterfinals performance
was totally unexpected and
it's we've been talking
about results-based
expectations like I had
none and so my only
expectation was like I want
to see how much I can
suffer on this event like I
want to see what I can do I
want to try to optimize it
and so like I took all of
that expectation of whatever out
And, like, you know, as the season went on,
I had more and more questions of, like,
oh, dude, like, you're going to qualify.
Or, like, what do you want to, like,
where do you want to place at semis?
Or, you know,
you're going to go to the
games or all this stuff.
And I was like, dude,
I'm not thinking about that.
I'm thinking about the
training session I have today,
the training session I have tomorrow.
Thinking about, you know,
what I can do today.
And, like,
whenever I get to the competition floor,
I'm not going to think about, like,
what I it's like all I can
do on the competition floor
is absolutely throttle down
on optimizing every event
for myself I cannot control
how fast the people in the
lane next to me move and
there are so many insane
athletes and so many variables that like
yes I am capable of
qualifying but I have zero
expectations of qualifying
because I can't control
that all I can control is
like what's going on right
now inside my body and mind
and so that that's all I
focused on every single
event and um yeah it was
stressful but it worked
So for the first time you go
to semis and you look
across the way and there's
Scott Tetlow and bill Leahy
and max Krieg and all these
dudes that like come hang
out at your camp.
Did that make the experience
different this year?
yeah um it was it was cool
to to see so many people
from our community out
there um like very close friends and
like whenever we first
started the camp it was
like you know I said we
were doing this because a
rising tide lifts all ships
like if Scott Tetlow and
Bill Leahy and Max Creed
get better and we're all
training together odds are
that I'm going to get
better as well and so like
I'm not going to hide the
things that have worked for
me and they're not going to
hide the things that have
worked for them in terms of
training and mindset and
philosophy like we're going
to share all that stuff and
we're going to see what
like see how good we can get
And I think the results of
like our tiny little region
like speak for themselves.
Yeah,
Louisiana is now the hotbed for men's
CrossFitters.
I mean, dude,
we had like over 10% of the
competitors in the field
were from our little town.
Yeah, Pacific Northwest and Louisiana.
Yeah.
Those are like the two hotbeds right now.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
So you get there.
Was there ever a point in
the weekend you felt
comfortable that you were
going to make the games?
Or it went all the way up
right until they announced your name?
Yeah, dude.
It was so stressful.
I had to repeat to myself so
much that the results are
out of my hands.
I've just got to do what I
can and just let go of what might happen.
And I never felt like I was
in a position cause like
going into the last event,
I think I was in eighth
place and I was only 20
something points ahead of, of,
of ninth and 20 something
more points ahead of 10th.
So if you make a mistake on
that last event and.
Which it proved could make
people make mistakes.
Yeah, yeah.
Like Cole Grieshaber was
like a place ahead of me
and then ended up in ninth.
Like that could have been me
ending up in 10th or 11th.
And so like I knew that like
I had to be really smart
and still had to really
perform on this event and
just let the chips kind of
fall where they would.
So you make the games...
Now,
how do you keep the mindset when you
get to Fort Worth, which actually isn't,
isn't a big trip for you now, right?
Is it like six and a half hours?
So we're going to drive up there.
Um, how did, when you get to Fort Worth,
how do you keep that?
Not the, it's not about the results.
Yeah.
So I think in years past with training,
you know, once you qualify for the games,
it's like, oh, like,
I've got to do all this
extra volume and all this
extra lifting and all like all this extra,
extra.
And this year is the first
year I'm kind of like more
listening and like trusting
what I've been doing and
like listening to myself,
like my body and mind.
and letting that tell me where to go.
And yes,
things have changed in terms of
what I'm doing.
A little bit more running,
a little bit more cycling,
different skills that we
wouldn't see in semis, quarters,
or the Open.
So just making sure I'm
touched up on those things.
but not trying to worry
about like you know I see
all these other people
doing these crazy workouts
I got to do something crazy
like that because like in
years past I've always I
think every year I've gone
to the games I've just
showed up like adrenally
fatigued and beat up and
and burnt out and uh
because I'm like I got to
do what I got to do more
than everybody else like
that's kind of silly like
what you were doing before
worked pretty well.
And so try not to change that too much.
And then once you get out there,
it's another experience
that I've had is you think
you're superhuman all of a
sudden at the games.
And you kind of throw out
all the things that you
learned through the year.
And like, OK,
everything that I've done
that's worked has got to change.
So now I got to go out hotter, be faster.
It's like, yeah, dude,
the field's a lot faster.
It's a lot different than it was,
but you're not Superman now.
You didn't build some insane
engine you didn't have before.
You're not stronger than you've ever been.
you still have to know yourself.
So you still have to run the
race that you know you should run,
and you can't worry so much
about what people in the
lane next to you are doing.
That still holds true.
So Friday Night Lights has been announced.
Excited about that?
Because that's kind of like
home field advantage for you.
You train in the heat and
the humidity of Louisiana.
It's not that different than Texas.
Mm-hmm.
You ready to go outside?
Yeah,
I'm excited that they're doing some
outdoor stuff.
I was hoping they would put
some stuff outside,
although I figured that if
they did venture out,
it would have to be morning or night.
Otherwise,
there would be a serious safety issue,
putting people throttling down 100%,
redlining in 105-degree weather.
There would be some pretty
serious injuries.
um and I think you would get
pretty bad performance out
of the athletes so I think
it's cool that they're
doing that in the stadium
at night um but yeah I want
to see what they give us I
think the coolest part is
it's a 19 000 seat stadium
it's free to the public
yeah yeah that'd be cool
like if it's packed that is
going to be like one of the
biggest crowds that
crossfit has performed in
front of yeah that'd be dope yeah
So I'm so stoked for that one.
I know it's going to be hot
out there even for the spectator, but man,
that's going to be a good one.
So we're coming up on the hour,
so I want to finish up this afternoon.
You got to participate in
Around the Whiteboard with
Peter White and Bobby Bods and Wads.
Yes, sir.
And spoiler alert,
if you don't know who won,
plug your ears for about
five seconds because this dude won.
Okay.
I've done that show uh I've
been in that seat that
you're in what was it like
being on there it was fun
dude he sent me like the
questions that he was gonna
ask last night I was like
bro I got no idea about any
of this and so I was like
all right like let me kind
of see what's up kind of
learn about it a little bit I mean
I had some ideas of some of
the other questions.
They're a little bit more
intuitive and whatnot.
And I had a decent idea of
what had been happening.
But honestly,
I don't watch a ton of media
with CrossFit.
I don't read a lot.
and so I was a little bit
out of the loop so I had to
jump in the loop real quick
make some phone calls and
like get some in like some
scoop so uh yeah I I was
not expecting to win that
and have to go back in a
few weeks yeah so I
actually I ended up winning
two matches I made it to
the finals of my quarter
and ended up losing to
Colton by a half a point in
the finals but
I guess I'll behind the
curtain when he sends me the questions.
So Carolyn Prevo is my cohost.
I've got another cohost, Jamie.
I send them the questions.
I'm like, guys, any ideas?
And then we kind of like,
and Carolyn was on the show as well.
And then we just kind of
brainstorm together how to
kind of come up with answers.
But at the end of the day,
it has to be kind of like
coming from you.
You have to like feel it in
order to get the points.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But at least they can get
the mind rolling if you're
stuck on something.
Because I had to do it
almost three weeks in a row,
the way my episode.
And the stress of that was,
it didn't go to ulcer level,
but it was rough.
Yeah,
I was a little bit nervous going into
that.
I was like, dude,
I don't know if I'm good at
debating people at all.
So it went well.
I'm glad.
I mean, we debate stuff on our talk shows,
but I was so nervous on
that because you're not in
control and you have 60 seconds.
Yeah,
that's the hard part is making a
point in 60 seconds and
being coherent and getting
your point across.
That was sketchy.
You sounded so laid back and
I looked at the clock and
he has plenty of time.
That's what I should have
done is just taking my time.
60 seconds is longer than you think,
but the 20 goes super fast.
the 20th there and it's gone.
Yeah.
Like I got muted a couple of
times on the 20, but yeah,
that it was fun watching
you and you'll be on in a couple of weeks,
I guess.
Yeah.
We'll see what questions
he's got for me now.
I wonder if he's because the
one week we missed because
he had a kid like his wife
went into labor.
They had to postpone that.
But with the games coming up,
he's going to have a hard
time filling slots.
I'm guessing as they get
closer to the games.
yeah I almost almost didn't
train today because of just
things that I had to like
doctor's appointments and
podcasts so I mean
obviously that one earlier
and this one did like now I
forgot about the doctor's
appointment I was like man
I don't know if I have time
to train today but I hear
it it works great that's
what I did it worked out it was great
Awesome.
Well, Brandon, it's been a blast.
I mean,
I think I could talk to you for
another hour, but we got,
we got the history out of the way now.
So next time you're on,
we can just dive into stuff.
But it has been awesome having you on.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you so much.
We'll be down there.
We'll be rooting you on.
Yes, sir.
Can't wait to meet you in
person this time.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Thank you to everybody in
the chat for being here.
We'll see everybody next
time on Clydesdale media podcast.
Bye guys.