Dec 9, 2019
Show Notes:
Speaker 1: (00:00)
What's going on, everybody, Dr. Chad Woolner here, and Dr. Buddy
Allen. And this is episode 41 of the health fundamentals podcast.
And on today's episode, we're going to be talking about CrossFit.
Is it bad for your health? So let's get started.
Speaker 2: (00:13)
You're listening to the health fundamentals podcast. I'm dr Chad
Woolner and I'm dr buddy Allen. And this show is about giving you
the simple but powerful and cutting edge tools you need to change
your health and your life. So sit back and enjoy the show as we
show you the path to your best life down to a science.
Speaker 1: (00:32)
So, Hey everybody, hope you guys are having an awesome day. We are
here with our good friends, Brandon and Ashley. They are the proud
owners of power seekers CrossFit here in Meridian. And uh, so we
thought we would bring them on for this highly controversial
episode. Not really, but uh, but anyhow, we're, we're going to be
talking about CrossFit, uh, all things CrossFit. So thanks for
being with us guys. Absolutely. Thanks for having to be here. Yeah.
So, um, so let's first start with kind of a quick introduction of
who you guys are, what got you guys into CrossFit in the first
place, and then ultimately what got you guys to take the plunge of,
of owning a CrossFit gym? Sure, go ahead. Go first. All right. So
Brandon and I've been doing CrossFit for about four to five years.
Um, got into it kind of by accident and got a Groupon and did it,
loved it.
Speaker 1: (01:24)
Uh, found out I was pretty good at it and you know, fast forward a
couple of years we went to power seeker or I went to power seeker,
uh, my first year and a half. And, um, Brent owned it then and
then, uh, we kind of left, went to different gyms and heard through
the grapevine that there wasn't good things happening. And so we
took the opportunity and reached out to Brenton, uh, talk to him
about maybe taking it over and man, we just, we fell into a good
thing at a good time. Good. It's really what happened. So fast
forward two years, another opportunity came up and bam, we're
loving life, man. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Brandon and
nationally both torture me on a regular basis. That's right. When I
get my rear end to the gym, um, they do a fine job. Yeah. That's a
lot of fun. I learned this week that if buddy is rolling around,
just leave him alone. Yeah. We, it was a about a million and a half
toes, you know, reaching your legs up and touching the bar or so it
felt like that. And then like I didn't want to waste any extra
energy, so instead of sitting up to go do my next activity, I would
roll to my stomach like a dead man and then get up and Ashley came
over. She was like, are you okay? Do I need to call someone?
Yeah.
Speaker 1: (02:47)
All right. That's a, that's just called economy of motion. Yes.
That's exactly it. We're going on a different process of how to get
up. There you go. So, uh, and, and Ashley, your story with the
CrossFit. So for me, I was a collegiate soccer player and then I
transferred to Boise state. And I, long story short, I thought I
wanted to go to law school and that didn't end up happening because
I spent all my time at the gym instead of in glass. Okay. So I was
a drop in and power seeker and Mike my first day there, Brent was
like, Hey, do you want to coach for me? So that ended up happening
and Brandon and I actually met at power seekers. So it was a great
outlet for me to go from being a collegiate athlete, still needing
like that competitive atmosphere. So needing something to keep
myself active.
Speaker 1: (03:35)
Um, Lee's were seeking other opportunities, other like communities
within the treasure Valley. And then we ended up back at power
seekers. So, Oh, you forgot though. We started dating there as
well. Yeah. That's where we met. I kind of figured as much. Yeah, I
kind of figured that's kind of how things evolved. So it's been a,
it's been a very, uh, interesting circle. Yeah. You know, it's
crazy. Yeah. I, I, you know, CrossFits uh, an interesting culture
to say the least. Um, you know, you said you kind of jumped into it
by mistake. Uh, I first started doing CrossFit, uh, about four,
four. You probably about the same time as you. A friend of mine,
like literally begged me, just come try it. He's like, just try it
for 30 days. And in my head I had like this image of like, uh,
people in a garage like throwing rocks and jumping over garbage
cans and stuff like that. Just like this very like we're trying to
be as primitive as possible, you know? And, and when I got there, I
was pleasantly surprised. Like my experience with CrossFit, at
least with, with him wasn't anything like that. It was like, what I
loved about it was that it took a lot of the thinking out of the
equation for me. You know, I would, I would find myself prior to
going to CrossFit, going to the gym and like walking around
aimlessly. Like, Oh, that machine looks good. I'll try that.
Speaker 1: (04:58)
You know, I'm sure there's some video footage of me floating around
out there somewhere of like that guy who's doing the machine
completely wrong or he's like doing, you know, like the, the head,
the head twister or whatever. And it's like not meant for that at
all. And so, uh, anyways, but, but, uh, my experience with CrossFit
was really positive and it changed a lot of my perceptions from
what I had heard. Cause there's a lot of, a lot of, uh, you know,
misconceptions and stigmas associated with CrossFit. And so I guess
we can kind of dive right into the question. Is CrossFit bad for
your health? Yes. No, maybe so. I think a hundred percent. No, I
mean, I agreed. Yeah. So, so then the other question then, if it's
not bad for your health, where do we hear like all these or where
and, or why do we hear a lot of these classic misconceptions about
it that it, that it's going to hurt you, that you're going to get
injured if you do CrossFit?
Speaker 1: (05:51)
Uh, there are some doctors that we've had experiences with that,
that, uh, dissuade or even tell their patients don't do CrossFit.
You know, some chiropractors even say that to their patient,
friends of ours don't do CrossFit. It's, it's bad for you. You
know, you're just asking to get injured. I've had doctors say, Oh,
CrossFit CrossFits great for business, ya know, they keep sending
me, right, right. Like, come on. Couches are great for business
one. I think a lot of that, you know, uh, depending on where you go
and how often you go and the coaches that are there, you know,
everybody can have an awful experience. Go into Chevron. You know,
everybody can have a great experience going to Sheva I think. I
think the mentality that you get from places is, you know, I can
do, I can do a setup. Cool. Okay, well if somebody teaches you how
to do a proper setup, then that's what it is.
Speaker 1: (06:37)
But if they teach you how to do an incorrect set up, of course
you're going to get hurt. You're going to strike something. And
then there's where CrossFit is not the issue. The coaching is the
issue, right. We are all in. And the interesting thing, I saw an
interview with Greg Glassman for those who don't know who Greg
Glassman is, he's the founder of CrossFit and he's a very kind of
outspoken, fairly polarizing individual, uh, you know, no, yeah,
yeah. He's, he just, he, he's, he's definitely a very charismatic
individual, but I thought it was really cool, his response because
to that end of the coaching that a lot of people criticize, uh, in
the interview anyways, they were kind of saying, people are kind of
critical that you could get certified to be a CrossFit coach in a
weekend. And they were like, that's kind of, and he's like, yeah,
isn't that great?
Speaker 1: (07:21)
And they're like, what do you mean? He's like, well, at least we
have standards. Oh no. He's like, he's like, there are some
standards that are there that you have to abide by, you know, that
the, you know, it's like, at least that's the case, you know? And
uh, and so it was just that, that, that perspective he had on it
was, was really good. And I would, I would wholeheartedly echo what
you just said there in the sense that my experience has been, it's
not CrossFit as a whole, it's the coaching and or the, the, the,
the gym that you go to in terms of what happens there is really
going to determine the, the experience that you have. I think the
benefit of, of having that weekend to get potentially get
certified, cause you have to take an exam and if you fail the exam
and you don't get to be a coach, right.
Speaker 1: (08:04)
So, but I think the benefit of that weekend is you're going in
there and you're actually applying what you're learning. So it's
very hands on. Yeah. You're not just taking the test online or
reading a bunch of books. It's very hands on. And then you're
actually learning how to apply it in class where yeah, if you maybe
take like the ACE test or if you take a personal training class
online, it's not giving a tool as of like this is how you apply it
and this is how you see and correct a flaw. This is what, this is
the criteria. Now you figure out how to apply it. That's not what
CrossFit is about. And I think that's the benefit of those two days
of being with the best coaches in the world. And there they're
giving you their tools, they're giving you their secrets. Yeah.
Speaker 1: (08:47)
You know the, the other interesting thing that I think we were, Dr.
Allen and I were talking about this just a couple of days ago in
preparation for today's interview is the thing that I think that's
really interesting about CrossFit is that it's a sport, right? You,
you have the, the fitness side of it, but then you also have the
competition side of it. Um, and the thing that I find funny is, is
that in the competition side, injuries are, we'll just say a common
occurrence. People at that, at that level of, of competition and
people like they, they like almost thumb their thumb. Their nose is
to the right. Like they, they, they look down on it like, Oh,
that's so stupid. Why would you do that and get yourself injured?
And the thing I find interesting is no one says that about football
or any other, any other sport where injuries are just an inevitable
part of the game.
Speaker 1: (09:36)
You know, soccer, football, you know, baseball, any of these
places, injuries are just an inevitable fact of competition that
anytime you push yourself to a higher level, there's always
running. You're always running some level of risk. Like you said,
motor cross motorcross how many motorcross uh, patients have you
seen over the years? I've seen tons of them busted. One of the very
first I ever saw it was a 22 year old kid. And I'm like, how many
bones have you broken? And my first question, how many bones have
you broken? Cause he competed, right? And he's like, Oh, probably
20. At least. Here's a 20 year old, 22 year old kid that's broken.
20 bones. Don't kid yourself, you know, so, so I mean, yeah. What
were you gonna say? I mean, CrossFit really has been around 10, 15,
20 years, right? The idea that, or it actually getting out for just
your general public to see it is pretty new.
Speaker 1: (10:29)
Um, football, soccer, all of these big sports have been around for
ever. And so I mean it's more common to just see that football
injury and then be like, Hey, they're just going to go back in the
chair and they're going to get a shot and then they come back out
on the field. Right. That doesn't really happen in the CrossFit
world. And I mean those competitive athletes who are showing at the
CrossFit games, that's less than 1% of our community, right? So
it's not a matter of if they're going to get to hurt, it's a matter
of when they go into that profession, like they make CrossFit a
career, knowing that that's part of the game. Any competitive level
athlete of any kind, you're going to have those types of injuries
right here. And that's what I would say too, is for your guys'
experience.
Speaker 1: (11:11)
You know, the average CrossFit goer, which would be like me, which
even then, I don't even think I'm to that level yet, but what's my
risk of injury? High, low, low. I think for us, I mean, and I would
like to hope that every CrossFit gym is like this, but
unfortunately it's not for us. We're not trying to make you come
into the gym to be a CrossFit games athlete, right? Trying to make
you functional to apply it to your life outside of the gym. Right?
We're trying to make sure you're picking up the dog food the right
way. Right. I think everyday life movements mimic everything that
you do inside the gym. It's just can we teach you a better way to
do it? Right. That's, yeah, that's a great point that you bring up
there too, because I heard, uh, I can't remember who it was.
Speaker 1: (11:58)
It meant it might even been that same Greg Glassman interview that
I saw, where they talked about, well, you're having old ladies do
dead lifts, which for those who aren't familiar with dead lifts,
it's lifting the bar belt, obviously using proper mechanics, uh,
straight from the floor, you know, and, and when people see that,
that image of an older woman or an older man like doing that, like
very like, uh, you know, uh, you know, heavy lift for the, and, and
we, and we shouldn't even say heavy because you're obviously gonna
modify the weight accordingly. Um, but his response to that was,
well, yeah, is that old lady ever gonna pick something up off the
ground? Grandkids, you know, groceries. Right, right. And so that's
the thing is these are very practical and very functional things
that you guys are doing with people. So, so yeah, very, very
practical from a day to day standpoint, even for people that
wouldn't consider themselves like athletes or competitors or
anything like that.
Speaker 1: (12:55)
And that was the thing for me that I noticed when I was doing
CrossFit regularly. So my quick story real quick, cause I did it
for, like I said, it was about four years ago, but I haven't been
doing it for four years. I did it for about two or three years
pretty consistently. And then I started, uh, converting my garage
into my own little personal kind of CrossFit ESC setup, which yeah,
tight time-saver for sure. And I know I'm not getting nearly the
same level of workouts that I would be getting. Uh, if I had like
professionals like you guys actually preparing those workouts for
me because it's a lot easier to, uh, to, to make the workouts
easier on yourself than to have them, uh, designed by you guys. But
uh, but that's the, anyways, th th th the point being is when I was
doing those workouts in CrossFit, I noticed that they were very
practical in terms of, you know, strengthening your core and
strengthening your, just your overall frame and making sure that
you could do a lot of that.
Speaker 1: (13:47)
Just regular things that you do on a date it day in, day out basis.
So any help. So what do you guys love most about being CrossFit
coaches? Oh man, go ahead. I got too much to say about that. For me
it's the people like yeah, I could really care less about the
business side of it. I just, I love coming in and getting to know
every single person and knowing them, like knowing them outside of
the gym. Yeah. So I don't want to, I obviously need to know and I
want to know your injuries and your limitations and all of that
stuff inside of the gym. But I want to know was work crap today
cause that's going to affect your workout inside of the gym. But I
also want to know how are your kids, how's your wife? Yeah. What
are you eating outside of the gym?
Speaker 1: (14:34)
Like I, I love the relationship side of CrossFit. Perfect. That's
awesome. I would say I would totally coming from someone from the
outside, you know, attending your gym before CrossFit. I was just
like Chad, I mean I and I worked out pretty regularly at the gym
and um, I remember yeah, it was w for at least four days a week
consistent. I thought I worked out hard. I remember my first week
of CrossFit workouts and I was like, Holy crap, have I ever worked
out a day in my life? You know, like it was a different kind of
training and then it was, it really was the, um, like if, if it's
left up to me, I'm never going to push myself as hard as, um, as I,
as I should or as I actually even think I could the workouts and
CrossFit, I would never, you know, there are certain workouts that
I'm like, I would have, first of all, whoever thought this up cause
they're insane.
Speaker 1: (15:23)
But what's crazier is when you actually do them and you're like, I
finished it, you know, like it's, that's awesome. So that, that
community part of working out for me is, uh, is just massive. So
being held accountable and like not cutting that squat short and
going just low enough to feel that burn. Like are you still getting
below parallel? You still hitting that target with that wall ball
every time or you go on a few, are you cheating yourself? Yeah.
Yeah. [inaudible] box at the top. Yeah. I think for me like what,
what I enjoy the most is, is seeing that expression on somebody's
face after you convinced them that putting those two and a halves
on each side are going up five pounds heavier. The expression on
their face after they do it and they're just, I mean, just amazed
and the happiness that you see in them.
Speaker 1: (16:16)
Sure. I mean it just, I mean I could just float away. I mean it
made sure so good seeing people break through either physical and
or mental barriers that they will, 90% of it is mental. Like
nobody's ever convinced me to do that or nobody's ever told me that
I should turn the box over to a 24 instead of a 20 or you know,
like that Oh shit factor. So yeah, but you're good. That is, that's
it's a huge show and and no, and the critical thing is knowing just
how much to push that person to where they can do it and not hurt
themselves, not hurt themselves. Right? That is, that is such a
fine line of am I doing it correctly, am I doing it properly? And
then that expression in that gratitude that person has is man,
right? It's believing in our members when they can't believe in
themselves.
Speaker 1: (17:08)
Truly believe in. If you can just, if you can have that confidence
for them through that and then just help them, help them reach that
goal, you believed in them and then at the end of the day they
believe in themselves. So awesome. I think what you guys are saying
are all elements are at the heart of, of what good coaching is all
about. It's really finding what you said, that kind of fine line of
of stretching somebody to the point where you know they're going to
break through some of those barriers. But then also knowing where
that, where that limit is in terms of, you know, cause you can run
that risk of injury and or whatever. But but knowing that is again,
that's going to come from years of experience of knowing that those
kinds of, and just like any other profession, I mean you guys, you
guys go to school and you get your certificate or your degree, it's
not like you just stopped there.
Speaker 1: (17:57)
Right. You continue to learn, you continue to drive and you
continue to make yourself better. It's the same for us. It's not
like we go to that one week and then we get our level one and then
we just go, okay well now we can own a gym at the top. Yeah. I mean
how often do you guys, that being said, how often do you guys do
continuing education? I mean, I mean it will say we'll say a formal
continuing education cause obviously every day in the gym, like
just like everyday in practice, you know you're learning. But in
terms of like how, how often do you guys go to conferences and
things like that. So I don't, I don't go to any conferences. I have
another business that I go to 100% of the time too. And so my
learning, my learning is more visual and physical, like being on on
spot.
Speaker 1: (18:40)
Like I learned from people every day. Okay, that cue worked for
this guy, but it doesn't work for that guy. So how am I going to
make up something that I can say the same thing but in different
ways? Sure, sure. I think for me, for me having, um, a dictionary
of cues that mean the same thing, you know, is, is a huge learning
experience for me. And I think I get a lot of that every single
day, every class. And even when I'm on the other side of coaching
as an athlete. Sure. Hearing people talk to one another, sharing
their personal cues. And then I just absorb that because it was
awesome. Sure. And so I learned a different way. I learned from the
athletes themselves and yeah, no, that makes sense to me. And how
about you saying no. For me, I think you could have all the
credentials in the world and I honestly don't think that they mean
anything if you're not providing results.
Speaker 1: (19:34)
Right. Yeah. I have my level one and I have my level two and I
would potentially love to get to level four. I think being seminar
staff would be an incredible, incredible opportunity. But, um,
every day, like I'm watching videos, I'm trying to read books, I'm
listening to podcasts. Last week she just bought some a anatomy
book for my favorite anatomy books. There you go. You've got her.
Netters there we go. I mean, there are tons of opportunities. Um,
they don't all come to the treasure Valley area. So if you want to
get that CrossFit oper offers a ton of online certifications that
you can get. But if you want the hands on one, a lot of times
you're going to have to travel for them, which is fine. We traveled
for my level two and that was awesome. Um, I mean we have a lot of
certifications and stuff, but like she said, you know, if you
don't, if you don't practice that are in the trenches doing it.
Speaker 1: (20:30)
Yeah. It doesn't make sense. Yeah. Cool. I got 900 certifications.
Cool. Yeah. But I haven't taught anybody anything. Right. Yeah.
Right. That's for me. I don't, I don't want somebody to come into
the gym be like, Hey, um, today's my first day. Like what can you
guys offer? I got my level two you're going to be, you're in great
hands cause I got my level two, no, I'm going to make sure that I
provide a result for you and then I don't care about any of the
certificate and all that. Makes sense. Um, so for those who are
listening who are local, uh, what would be the best way for people
to get in touch with you guys? Go ahead. Okay. So we just updated
our website. If you had ever been on our old website, it was, boy,
I mean when we took over a power secret, there was no website.
Speaker 1: (21:18)
It was literally you typed in power to your crossfit.com and it was
like, do you want to buy this bill? So we had a, um, one of our
coaches, her husband put our website together and all we said was
like, we need a phone number, our address and our class times.
That's all we need on it. But then now with this new transition, I
was like, okay, okay, we got to get a website, legitimate website.
We have to have something. And so you can go to our website power.
So your crossfit.com, it's our seeker, crossfit.com. We'll make
sure in the show notes we have the link there. Powerless on
Facebook or Facebook, Instagram. Um, we have emails, phone numbers.
I don't know if we want to put all of that stuff in there. Yeah, we
can put, we can put whatever. Yeah. And we'll put links to
everything.
Speaker 1: (22:02)
So, um, for those who, yeah, for those who are here locally, um,
that's how you get ahold of them. Uh, what would somebody locally,
so let's say we've got people who are like, I want to check this
out. What can we expect, uh, coming in for the first visit at power
seeker CrossFit? So, um, we don't offer an OnRamp class. We just,
we invite all new people to just jump into class. Okay. Um, if, if
you're super intimidated or you haven't worked out for a really
long time, I would say don't come to the five or 6:00 AM cause
those really big classes. Sure. Okay. But Oscar levels all
abilities, it doesn't matter. Sure. Size, age. And I guess for
those people who are maybe intimidated, is it an intimidating
experience coming? So I, I love, I love the fact when somebody
comes in and they're, you know, have their arms crossed and they're
kind of standing by the front door and you go up and you're like,
Hey, how's it going?
Speaker 1: (22:58)
You know, what can I do for you? And they're like, well, I've heard
about this and I want to try it. And then you're just pumped and
you're excited and you tell them about it and they're like, Oh, so
it's not that bad. Right. Getting in the car, driving to the gym,
that's the hardest part. Driving down, knowing that you're scared
out of your mind and then you get there and then you see everybody,
all walks of life in, they're working out, sweating and cheering
everybody on. You know, I think, I think that helps out a lot too
because everybody from a to Z in our gym, you know, and it, they
all love it. Yeah. That was the thing, I think that really did
actually surprise me quite a bit when I came into CrossFit for the
first time, was seeing a very diverse, uh, you know, clientele in
terms of that, you know, that there was people from, like you said,
a to Z in of levels of ability.
Speaker 1: (23:46)
And so that made it far less intimidating to me, you know, in terms
of getting started where I'm like, these other people are doing it
so you know, you, and we naturally think some sometimes identify
where we fit in the line. You know, like, I'm like, that guy's
probably a little bit stronger than I am and a little bit more fit
than me. But I definitely know I'm probably better than him. So,
and in my case I had to like, look at the women. I'm like, I'm, I'm
better, I've gotta be better than her. She's like 80 and then I
wasn't in a classic statement as well. I need to get in shape to go
into CrossFit. Right? No you don't. You just need, yeah, I need to
get, you know, I need to go run or get some workouts in and then
I'll come to CrossFit.
Speaker 1: (24:25)
Yeah. And it's not like if we program a handstand pushup or a
muscle up, if you can't do that, you can't show up today. Right.
Show up and we're going to give you something and modify it for
you. That's still gonna well, if you came in, if you came in ranger
motion, yeah. If you came in to any class, anytime we're open 11
hours a day and if you came into any one of the classes, I
guarantee you half of those people are doing a different movement.
Excuse me. The same movement, but in a different way. Yes.
Modification are doing the same. Weighted motion. Different
poundage, right? Yeah. So everybody's doing the same workout so
they don't feel isolated or you know, Oh, well why is that person
doing that when I'm doing this? Yeah. You know, everybody has the
same workout. It's just modified to their ability and everybody
finishes roughly in the same timeframe and it's awesome.
Speaker 1: (25:14)
That is awesome. Yeah, we'll, uh, we appreciate you guys taking
time out of your schedule. Again, I'm sure you guys probably have
classes today and tomorrow going on, so thanks for, uh, thanks for
being here with us and taking time to share this with us. Uh, for
those who are interested, uh, power seekers CrossFit, um, hope this
has been valuable for you guys. If you know other people that could
benefit from what we've shared, uh, share this with them. Uh, be
sure to subscribe to the podcast and we'll share more with you guys
on the next episode. Awesome. Thanks. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: (25:42)
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