Jonathan Edel | The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games

We meet Jonathan Edel, hear about the journey to the CrossFit Games.  What are his expectations, how has he prepared, what does this mean to him.

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.

What's going on, everybody?

Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast.

My name is Scott Switzer.

I'm the Clydesdale,

and we are highlighting the

athletes of the 2024

Legends Masters CrossFit Games.

And I have with me Jonathan Edel.

Jonathan, how are you doing?

I'm doing well, sir.

Thank you very much, Scott,

for doing this.

This is a lot of fun.

Yeah, yeah.

It's been fun for me.

Like, the backstories are so good.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

So you're in the 40 to

44-year-old division.

This is your first year in that division.

Do you have that mindset

like this is my baby year in,

so I got to go?

No,

because I've been going hard at this to

try to get into 35 to 39.

I just turned 40 in May,

so I'm pretty excited that

I get the opportunity to

kind of step right in onto

the big stage at 40 to 44.

Yeah, yeah.

it's amazing that the,

the amount of athletes in,

in the masters divisions.

Oh yeah.

Like you think it's going to

be a break when you go up

to that next age group, but man,

there's just as many good

athletes in that one is

there was in the one you just left.

Oh yeah.

They're still breathing fire.

They're still lifting heavy.

It's great.

It's a challenge.

A lot of fun.

Yeah.

We've,

we've interviewed a lot of the 40 to

44 year olds this week.

Um, and they're, they're,

they're ready to come, man.

Yeah.

I listened to a few so I can,

kind of get a bearing on how

my hopefully how my

interview would go my first

one so thanks a lot yeah

yeah yeah and this is like

I said it's been much fun

for me um the interview

part is that is so much fun

uh if I didn't if I had

someone to schedule like I

would I would do this all

day every day yeah um but

so how what is your

athletic background how did

you come up as a as an athlete

I guess for me it started in soccer.

I mean elementary school, middle school,

high school.

By the time I got 18 I

needed to get bigger so I

could play football.

So the football coach came

and told me to join the

powerlifting team to get bigger.

So I started in the gym when

I was 18 to get bigger for football.

Granted,

I got bigger relative to the school,

which was a small Christian school,

Calvary Christian Academy.

But I got to be the big guy

on the field there, and I played soccer.

So I got to be the punter

and got to play line at the school.

Yeah,

and then I just continued into college,

went to Williamson Trade School,

became a machinist,

and then I continued on the

soccer team there while I was in school.

So it just kind of all kept going.

That's what, 21, 22 years old?

Just kept staying in the gym,

wanted to get strong, wanted to get big.

So, man,

so many questions from just that

little bit.

So I did some powerlifting

before I got into CrossFit.

I found that it gives you a strength base,

but man,

it's hard when you first switch

over to CrossFit because

it's more technique based

on those Olympic lifts than

it is about your strength.

Did you find the same transition?

No,

because it all just kind of went to the

wayside.

What it gave me was like a dedication,

was like a training way.

It made me know what it

takes to be committed and

be dedicated to something

in order that...

to get stronger.

So it just kind of really

got me into a routine of I

really I'm trying to chase that.

So if I want to do that,

I have to not have so many

other distractions in my life.

So it really helped settle

me in when I was 18 years old, you know,

you just want to go hang

out with friends and be

everywhere all at once.

But I got to be in the gym and get strong.

I want to do that.

So I got to eat this and do

do this instead.

So

It's funny how, like,

when I started powerlifting,

it was just a bunch of guys.

That's where we went to hang out.

Yeah.

You know?

Take four hours in the gym to do 20 lifts.

A few lifts here and there.

Yeah.

So soccer's a great base, though, too,

because you're running, like, nonstop.

Pardon?

And so did that give you a

good engine coming into CrossFit?

So I found CrossFit in 2015.

So I graduated from college in 2005.

So I didn't find CrossFit

for another 10 years.

That journey took me through

motorcycle racing where I

was riding two-hour

endurance races on a dirt bike.

So I was training like three hours a day,

running three miles and

doing the old P90X on the TV.

I would do an hour of that

and then go run for an hour.

Like I was trying to get

myself as good in shape for that.

And if I would have had CrossFit, man,

I would have been able to

keep up with the 17,

16 year olds that were kicking my butt.

Cause I was already in my

late twenties and I had a

family and I have something

that I have to show up to

on Monday and not be broken.

Whereas they just don't

really need to worry about it.

That was tough.

Do you follow the sport,

like the elite athletes?

I do.

Do you follow Travis Mayer?

Travis Mayer, yeah.

I'm a fan.

Well,

he was a motorcycle racer as well

before he got into CrossFit.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I took that,

and when I saw 2015 that

Rich Froning and Matt

Fraser were out there

deadlifting and toes-to-bar,

and you can compete in exercising, I went,

really?

I like exercising.

I'm going to try to compete in exercising.

I like this.

So it kind of lit a fire

under me to get into the gym.

I mean,

I couldn't even squat 135 coming

off of not squatting.

Wow.

Yeah, it was terrible.

I was running so much that I

guess I just lost my

technique that I had in high school.

I was squatting 365 when I was 18.

Why can't I hit 135 for deep

enough squats?

You're telling me it's not

deep enough now.

But yeah, it took a lot.

to get back up to where we are now,

but it's been a journey.

It's been fun.

I think one of the best

things CrossFit does is to

give us that standard, right?

It's not just about making the lift.

It's about doing it the right way.

Yeah.

And if we all do it the same way,

then we all know we're on, on the plane.

That's the whole point.

So you, you went to,

you went to machinist

school or trade school and,

What machine do you operate?

I guess now I work for SEPTA,

which is the public

transportation in Philadelphia,

and I operate a wheel machine.

So anytime you see a train

that stops too hard or it's

raining outside and the

rails are wet and the car goes...

Well, it makes that big flat spot,

and then you hear it going flip-flop,

flip-flop, flip-flop down the track.

Well,

I use the machine that recuts the

wheel so that it's nice and smooth again.

I get to do that fun job.

So I grew up in Pennsylvania,

just on the western side

instead of the eastern side.

And my dad was a machinist.

I am.

Yeah.

So he was a lathe operator,

but he could also do

millwork and stuff like that.

But his main thing was a lathe operator,

and he did that for 48 years.

Oh, yeah.

Once they get a machine shop,

guys don't leave.

That's right.

I run a lathe now,

and I did run a mill when I

worked as a machine in that shop.

And then you educated

yourself on motorcycle mechanics as well.

I went to the motorcycle

mechanic Institute actually in Phoenix,

Arizona.

And did you do that because

you were racing them or

because you wanted to work

on them yourselves or what?

Yeah.

I had an itch when I was 21.

I wanted to, I wanted to fix them.

I wanted to ride them.

I, I loved every,

I love everything about bikes.

So I figured why not go take the,

do this technical side and

go to school so I can fix them.

Um,

found out that working in

the shop you really can't

make any money doing that

to have a family so I went

back to machine shop where

they could pay me money and

then this that became the

hobby yeah so do you still

ride today I don't you

don't not yet I have to get

a bike again I had two kids

so yeah the bike went five

by when I needed a minivan

yeah yeah yeah I uh um that

was my main mode of transportation from

16 to 20.

Yeah, what did you have?

It was a Kawasaki Ninja-esque bike.

I don't think they even made

the Ninja at that point when I bought it.

Okay.

Like a 550 maybe.

I should spend 30 years.

But yeah, that's what I rode around.

I just got it on the cheap

and that was my mode of transportation.

It took, what,

a gallon of gas lasted me a week.

And gas is $1.50.

Yeah.

$3.

I don't even know if it

might not have been over a

buck at that point.

Yeah.

So I could go a long way on a dollar.

That's the way to go.

Absolutely.

So, yeah, that was a blast.

I would even ride it in the rain.

I was so dumb.

But, yeah.

And then I haven't ridden a

bike in probably 20 years.

Yeah.

That's all right.

You get back.

yeah we do we do the uh

see-do thing occasionally

um my wife finds that much

safer than a bike yeah so

so you find this crossfit

thing you jump into it how

long did it take you to

want to compete um I really

wanted to compete immediately honestly

I found a local competition

and I went to see where I

stacked up because I've

been exercising for forever.

So I'll just try to exercise racing.

I think I came in second at

that first competition and I was hooked.

I was hooked from there.

But it took about four years

and I eventually made it to

Guadalupe in 2019.

I was the 34 year old

turning 35 that year in the

intermediate division.

I just couldn't make it to

the Masters 35 plus.

But yeah,

finished middle of the pack there.

And that kind of was the

downside was I had pushed

so hard to make it there.

I didn't take the time to accrue the

time of mobility and flexibility.

And I was pushing so hard to

want to compete.

And if it's anything that I

could say to somebody like, Hey,

take your time.

Like when we do lat stretches with bands,

like it, it means something being 40.

Now it's, it's two,

two to five minutes on a bike,

warm up the knees and the

hips and make sure things

are moving along and see

how the overhead feels today.

Well, I know when I was, you know,

first off going at it,

I could just pick up a bar

and just overhead squat.

And this is great.

can't do that when you're

over 40 yeah and do you

think if you would have

done more mobility younger

it would pay off more now

or have you had have you

been able to catch up um

I've been able to uh get

more mobile with by taking

the time to do it I think

that if you just start with

it would you just take a

take a minute take five

minutes and like and and work that

a little bit of position

that you might feel is uncomfortable,

well,

that position might come back to

haunt you and not just

being uncomfortable,

but could actually become a problem.

Did you end up suffering

from an injury or something

at that point?

I just think my joints,

my shoulders were tired.

Everything was just...

kind of, I was worn out, worn down.

So I took two,

I took like two years back

and went to bodybuilding

with Dave Lipson and Muscle

Anarchy and he had just came out in 2020.

That was the fun year of 2020.

So I got to train in my gym

at home and get strong and

did bodybuilding just for

just to get that strength base.

Uh, we were,

we were in the year where the

CrossFitters,

they were hitting 365 in a clean.

And I was out there like I'm

pulling 225 and it's pretty heavy.

So I took it upon just to get strong.

I just want to get strong.

I want to get 400 pounds with back squat.

I want to get,

you know, four 55 deadlift.

I want to put these strength

numbers where they,

where they belong and try

to start stacking myself up, um,

against some, some really fit guys.

And then once that I took

that strength timeout,

then I went back blackout

CrossFit actually just opened then, um,

in 2021, they're going to correct me.

They're going to tell me I'm crazy.

Um, cause I went back to the gym and I was,

they just opened up and I went, Hey,

I like this CrossFit thing.

I jumped into the open.

And I was way behind.

Cardio was not my thing.

I was not a fan.

I said, I could suffer.

I'll be fine.

And now, man, I was beat in the open.

I was strong as could be, though.

Yeah,

Dave Lipson isn't known for his cardio.

Yeah, we didn't do well enough at all.

No, no.

Have you been able to reach

those goals of like a 440 deadlift,

400 back squat?

yeah I did I did I actually

got up to a 500 back squat

uh 565 deadlift I could

clean 365 I snatched 280.

like eventually I was able

to put the time I put the

time and the money and the

effort into it to to get

strong and it worked it's

really paid off it's if I

tried to do a 565 deadlift

my spine would be laying on

the ground yeah it's

it's it's taken a lot it's

taking a lot of work to get

there so I was able to get

a thruster in the open at

like 3 22 I think I came in

like fifth in the world wow

I've had some like some

really good accomplishments

that that it's been a lot

of fun it's been a good

journey it's been a lot of

fun yeah I was always that

guy who squatted way more

than he could deadlift yeah

oh yeah that's usually not

the case a lot of people

can pick a lot of things up

off the ground squatting

more than deadlift yeah

Um, so what is, uh,

you're going into this year.

What, what is your goal?

Um, honestly,

I am surprised I'm even in this game.

I did not have the CrossFit

games on my radar.

I chose the first four

monster games this year as to be my,

my thing, my ticket, my,

like my big event.

Um, so that, well,

then of course their

qualifier was before the open.

So I qualified for that,

and then we went into the Open,

and here I'm sitting in my

– I made semifinals,

and my whole team behind me

at Blackout is going,

you made semifinals.

You're going to the Games.

I don't think you know this.

You're going to the Games.

This is great.

And I said, I don't know.

There's some really fit guys

around the world, and, you know,

that's just – Not only did

you make semifinals,

you finished third in the

world after quarters.

Yeah,

that's kind of where everybody was

kind of losing their heads.

Wow, that's crazy.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, it's been a whirlwind, man.

It's been surreal.

I can't even,

I think I'm going to go get

on the stage with the

fittest 40-year-olds in the world.

It's going to be fun.

So you do semis.

You end up finishing 15th.

Yep.

So a little slide back,

but still well inside the top 40.

Yeah, well,

we had a little snafu there on

workout number three that

we kind of slid a little back,

but we're going to get that fixed.

We're going to get that figured out.

Okay, okay.

Remind me, workout three?

It was, I think it was like three, six,

nine front squats and ring muscle-ups.

Three, six, nine, twelve.

Okay.

And front squats at 185, so

bring muscle up so we can

all see they're not my jam.

I'm a big guy, not really a gymnastic guy.

Since then,

you've had a little extra time

going into the games

because CrossFit decided to

give you six years between

semis and the games.

Did that give you time to

work on the muscle up a little more?

Oh, yeah.

We've been putting in time

since last year to

to try to figure out where I'm catching,

what I'm doing,

why I'm not getting there.

But, yeah,

we've put in a lot of time to

try to get a few extra reps

in the tank for muscle-ups.

Isn't that the coolest thing

about CrossFit, though?

You've been doing this since 2016,

and there's always a hole to fill.

Yeah, you get strong.

You got gymnastics?

Okay, good.

Oh, you got gymnastics.

Can you run?

Okay.

And as you get better at this,

then something else becomes

your deficiency and what's

holding you back from the next step.

Now you can run.

Well, what can you clean?

Oh, come on.

Yeah.

I think that's like with CrossFit,

you can't ever get bored.

Oh, yeah.

You don't.

It keeps evolving.

So from your Instagram,

it appears you're a girl dad.

sir uh I'm I'm one as well

it's one of the best things

in my life is uh being the

father to a little girl um

how how do they look at you

as an athlete um she's

looking at me right now I

but my young ladies are 11 and 13 so uh

I think they look up to me.

They see what dad puts in

the work that he's out there trying hard.

Uh, they're both swimmers.

As I heard that you're a swim,

you're a swimming background as well.

Um, so yeah, they,

they know that they have to

go out and put in the work

and put in the effort and

they give it everything

they got when it comes to, to game time,

to getting on the blocks

and getting started.

So as long as we put in, uh,

we build a hay and we can

shut the barn doors and light the fire.

It's, it's on.

It's,

Yeah,

the one thing that swimmers learn is

that CrossFitters don't get

the – don't is that – and

Caitlin Johnson told me this.

You can't quit in the middle of a lane,

like, or you drown, right?

So when she first went from

swimming to CrossFit,

she didn't put the bar down

because her mentality was

always you have to finish.

Stop.

Right.

What's the point of stop?

You can't stop.

You're going to grab a lane line.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

So, um,

that's cool that they're in swimming.

It's and man,

Eastern Pennsylvania is

strong in swimming.

These girls are good.

Yeah.

And she went, uh, my daughter is 13.

She went out for track and

here you can swim and run track.

You can not run track and try to swim.

I'll tell you that she went

out and she dusted the

people out in the 800 meter run.

So right on for her.

Yeah.

When I was swimming, I could run forever.

Yeah.

Yeah, you get that capacity.

You can just keep going.

And the fact that you can

just keep breathing now

without having to turn.

Yeah.

When you have all the air in the world,

everything's easy.

It just keeps, you just keep going.

What are their,

what are their swimming strokes?

I have, she's my 11 year old.

She's really good at breaststroke.

My 13 year old, we would say freestyle.

She's getting really good at butterfly.

Yeah,

that was my butterfly freestyle or my

jam.

Breaststroke was, I was atrocious.

yeah man it's what a

technical what a technical

swim people think it's just

bobbing up and down and

just swing your arms around

like man it's so technical

just to watch them do it

and go fast yeah it's

creating your own wake

which is just a concept

that's that people just

don't understand yeah I

love watching it they're

amazing the individual

medley the IM they do that

with the best of them so

Yeah, that was my favorite of all.

So you're married as well.

And how did you meet your wife?

We met at Calvary Chapel, Philadelphia.

We met back when we were in

youth group together.

So I read your Instagram.

Faith is the first thing you have listed.

Faith is important in your life?

Yes.

Faith is very important.

It comes first.

Like I said, we go to Calvary Chapel,

Philadelphia.

We have a strong Christian family base.

I grew up in a Christian home,

my wife as well,

and we just try to instill

that in our kids,

and that's how we want to be good people,

show them that Jesus Christ,

our Lord and Savior,

that's where our faith lies,

and the good news.

Amen to that.

With you being a Mayhem athlete,

was that one of the reasons

you went with Mayhem?

Because faith is first in their mission.

I enjoy the fact that faith

is first in their mission.

The reason why I chose them

is because they're the best in the world.

So if they're going to train

to be the best,

then you train with the best.

Did you get any opportunity

to go to any of the camps

in Knoxville this year?

No, I didn't.

No, I don't get a chance to go down there.

Uh,

is that something you would do in the

future?

I mean, I'd really like to,

but my vacation days are

pretty well spoken for when

it comes to my family and stay,

I kind of stay close to home,

work 40 hour a week job.

God, it's only so many vacation days.

Uh, the open I can do on my own.

It'll be fun to see

everybody on the mayhem

team down there in Birmingham.

Yeah,

the only reason I ask is so many of

them that were there for

semis said that it was that

extra push they needed.

But I do understand.

I work for the state of Ohio.

I have very limited days off,

and all of them are almost

exclusively for this show.

Right.

With one week to my family.

Absolutely.

So I totally get that.

With all that, you have your wife,

you have your faith,

you have your training.

How do you balance all that?

Well,

things have kind of tipped the scale

towards training a little bit.

I work a second shift job,

so I get to go in at 2 p.m.

p.m.

and I work till 10 p.m.

so I get home I get in bed

at 11 and we are up at 6 a.m.

every day so we get

breakfast together and then

we go our separate ways

whether it's school season

taking the kids to school

then I usually train from like 9 a.m.

to 11 come home at 11 have

lunch with my wife get

ready to go to work but I

kind of try to see where I

can fit now that we're in summertime

try to get in the gym a little earlier,

7.30, 9.30,

get some more time with the

family at 10 to 12.

So we just kind of try to, like you said,

balance.

It's not balancing too well

coming into the games,

but we'll get back to it.

Do the girls' activities

slow down in the summer to

allow you a little more flexibility?

For the month of August, yes.

Right from school, we're into summer swim.

So we got done spring swim,

right into summer swim, and

Now, August, it kind of stops.

Everybody gets a summer vacation.

Well,

that kind of works out for you as

you're four weeks out from the games.

It gives you a little more

flexibility to get that training in.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're doing our best to balance it.

So who all is heading with

you to Birmingham?

Going to Alabama.

I got a crew behind me at Blackout.

It's going to be great.

My wife is coming.

The girls, my young ladies,

are going to stay with family here.

They actually have the first day of school,

the day that we have to fly

to Birmingham.

So they're going to stay, do school,

and then the wife and I are going to go.

I have my coach coming from the gym.

Blackout's taking us down there.

We have a house staying with

five other people,

plus the dozen other people

that I know said that they're interested.

Now that we've got a horse in the race,

everybody's going to come

down and check it out and

go to Birmingham.

We're going to have a little

cheer section.

that I love hearing that.

I love hearing that.

Um, I, I think that,

that this group of athletes

deserves to be seen.

And the more people we can

fill that arena with,

the better it's going to be for,

for the sport as a whole.

Yeah.

And everybody on the floor

is everybody so cool with each other.

Yeah.

We're up.

We're going to go out here

and try our hardest to beat each other,

but afterwards it's high

fives and hugs and congratulations.

And,

And who's your fans?

Where are your family at?

Let's go say hi and give

high fives and fist bumps.

Do you have a support shirt

out there that everybody's

going to wear and you're

going to know who Jonathan's crowd is?

Yeah, we're working on one.

It's going to be Edel.

This is all going to be my crew.

Nice.

What are the emotions going

to be like when you hit

that floor and you look up

and you see this sea of

people there for you?

Oh, man.

I'm just so thankful.

To see people support me, I mean,

it's just a hobby for me.

I just like exercising.

Yeah.

I'm really thankful that all

these people want to come

out and watch me exercise for time.

It's really uplifting.

It really means a lot.

Well,

we're going to be down there doing a

behind the scenes.

You've probably heard me say

that on other shows.

Ellie Hiller and myself will

be backstage just chatting with you guys,

getting stories,

trying to catch that

camaraderie that is the

Masters community with the high fives,

the hugs, all of that kind of stuff.

Awesome.

Awesome.

We can't wait to see you there, Scott.

Yeah, and good luck.

Good luck with training the

rest of the way,

and we'll see you in a few weeks, man.

I appreciate it.

Thank you so much, Scott.

Thanks for doing it.

Thank you, everybody, for joining us.

We'll see everybody next

time on the Clydesdale Media Podcast.

Bye, guys.