S06E119 BISON 15 - From Football To CrossFit and More - Mike Warren

@botoxandburpeespodcast host Dr. Sam Rhee talks with Mike Warren @mikewarren___ about going from a college football strength mindset to chasing real, repeatable fitness through CrossFit, competition, and triathlon training. We dig into the moment looking shredded stops feeling like enough, and why hard goals, smart fueling, and a strong gym community change how we show up in life. 

• high school lifting basics versus learning movement and speed work 
• the jump in quality from high school to college strength and conditioning 
• completing 75 Hard then realizing aesthetics are not the same as fitness 
• getting humbled in a first CrossFit class and falling in love with the challenge 
• why triathlon training and “hard things” improve mindset, focus, and work

#crossfitcoach #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #gymowner #HealthyLiving #GymLife #CrossFit #FitnessJourney #BotoxAndBurpees #podcast @botoxandburpeespodcast @crossfitbison

CrossFit Bison - https://bisoncrossfit.com/
Stan Efforting Vertical Diet - https://www.stanefforting.com/vertical-diet
Vitruvian Games - https://vitruviangames.com/
ATHX Games - https://athxgames.com/

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Mike Warren

SPEAKER_00 0:04

All right. Hello and welcome to another episode of Botox and Burpees. I'm here with my very special guest, probably one of the younger guests I would imagine I've had on Botox and Burpees. And also maybe one of the fittest guests. This is Mike Warren. He's been at CrossFit Bison for one and a half years now, a beloved member and friend to many at the gym. You've already made quite the impact, I would say, uh in terms of your presence in many positive ways. And I just wanted to bring Mike on. I want you to talk about your experience and um and as you said before we started, like your fitness experience in life. So let's get started, Mike.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Yeah, absolutely. I

Football Roots And Early Lifting

SPEAKER_02 0:51

guess we could start off with where everything kind of stemmed from. And that was playing football at like a super young age, all the way throughout my college career. Um, you know, it started with an easy curl bar, just doing bicep curls and tricep extensions in my bedroom. So it started off very me head-ish. Uh, I was like 11 the first time I picked it up. You picked up a barbell at 11. The easy curl bar. But like like I was saying, it's it was super meat head stuff, it was super rudimentary, it was nothing like how everything has evolved now, where it's I'm doing the triathlons, I'm competing with CrossFit comps. It's evolved so much over the so many years I've been training. Um, but what really kicked off everything was the passion to better myself and always working towards a goal. And that was always because of football. With lifting fitness in general, picking up that barbell made me feel like I was gonna give the best effort that I can on the field. So there was always a basis of why am I doing some type of fitness, whether it be you know lifting, running, speed work, biometrics, agility stuff. There was always a goal towards that. And that goal was to be the best football player I could be. Why did you love football so much? It was something that I kind of started and I just was naturally pretty solid at it. Yeah. And it just felt really great um just being on the field like every day. And it it was also like the camaraderie that you have with the team, the discipline that you build as a young kid, uh, like all these foundational pieces to your life that I think stem not only from sports, but they also address a lot of other things in life. Whether that be, you know, the sense of community, whether that be understanding that challenges actually lead you to the probably the best version of yourself. That's what I really enjoyed about it.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Where did you uh go to high school to play football?

SPEAKER_02 2:57

That was Butler High School. Oh, okay. Yeah, so like up 23.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Okay, so so you went to Butler

High School Training And Real Coaching

SPEAKER_00 3:04

High School, you learned how to do strength, uh, learned a lot of uh work in now. So, what was the strength training like at your high school? Did you have good strength coaches? Did you learn a lot about lifting and and um and fitness?

SPEAKER_02 3:19

Yeah, I mean in the high school it was still we did actually, we did some power cleans, hand cleans. We we actually did some Olympic lifting in high school, which was al always really fun. Um, but it was still, you know, pretty typical bench press, squat, deadlift, throwing some hand cleans, some box squats in there. Um, but what really helped me build ever like my entire foundation was finally going to a real trainer, um, actually doing my agility work, my speed work, and just seeing improvements besides benching, squatting, deadlifting. Like that was it's it's great to see numbers change, but once you start really like understanding your body and seeing how your body can move and understanding what other things that you can do besides just lifting, that's where the pre progress really came from. It was more the personal trainer side than like the high school exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

And then where did you I assume you took that to college? Wait, what position did you play in in football?

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Uh so in high school, I was offensive guard, defensive end, defensive tackle, rush end, and then in college, I just strictly played rush end.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Okay. And what were your measurements like then, and what are they like now?

SPEAKER_02 4:37

So I guess I think at college I was two my heaviest was my junior senior year. I was coming in at 248, 245. Okay. Yeah, now I am like 215.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Okay. Wow. So you had to put on a lot of weight to be able to play in collegiate on the collegiate level.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Yeah. I came out of high school, I think I was 220, and then I put on like another 25 pounds in college.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Oh my god. Okay. All right. So

College Strength Culture And Big Gains

SPEAKER_00 5:05

keep taking all right, so take me through college then. So what was that like? That was a completely different ball game.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Like, you come from like I came from high school where it was a like big, like uh when I once I got to college, my they kept on calling me Jersey Mike, like GTL. That's that was my thing. Because the I was so good at bench press, but everything else was lacking. Like I could bench press 375 for reps, but my squat was near my bench. Like it was horrible. So they were like, we need to fix that. Um, and they did. Uh, you know, it was so much, it was so different. It it was a lot of more highly skilled work. And because our strength and conditioning coach over at Mammoth actually came from Mississippi State. So he was really, really good. He actually decreased our entire team's like injury pro uh portfolio by like half. Like every no one got injured. It was crazy. Um, and that like helped us really tune up things. You know, we won the Big South there, it was awesome. Just because I think personally, a lot because of the training regimen that he incorporated. Um, it it was a huge foundational piece. And I think that just the change from high school to college is night and day.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

So, what was your other non say training regimen like? Like, did they track what you were eating or like any of the other metrics that usually are associated with health and fitness?

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah, I mean at Mammoth, it was pretty a little bit more simpler than I'm like if you go to Florida State or Florida or Bama or something, right? Yeah. So they would have food options for us in the mornings, lunch, evenings, and it would be like green is good, yellow is bad or decent, and then red is don't do it. But of course, all the offensive linemen are just going right for the red stuff. But what's the red stuff? Like what? It was like cookies, cupcakes, like like because you have like the dessert bar in college, yeah, and then everything else where it's like chicken broccoli at the dining hall, but everybody was just like, all right, like all the offensive linemen were like, we're gonna skip the chicken and broccoli and go right to the cookies. Which was whatever, but it was funny.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

So you played for four years at Monmouth then?

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Yeah, I actually got cut short because of COVID, which really stunk because my it was my senior year was supposed to be the year that we were playing against Ruckers to open the season. Wow. Yeah, and then COVID happened and it took everything away. It it was crazy. It that was such like that's where I went from I was I think I was benching like 350 at the time, and then I was like, all right, Ruckers is we're I'm going to Ruckers, like big time dream, big stadium, gotta get this done. Then I really trained hard and like bench got up to like 405 in like four months, and that's when I was like squatting 550, like the entire I just revamped everything, and that was a lot of it was by myself because we couldn't go to campus to train because of COVID. So we weren't we were still in limbo of like what exactly was gonna happen. So over all the years of training and stuff, I kind of just built my own regimen on how to train, how to gain strength, you know. Honestly, not too much speed or agility work in there. It was it was mostly like bench press, squat, deadlift, stuff like that. But all my numbers grew. I gained like 20 pounds, and then they let us know that you know it got canceled, which stunned.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

So, um, how many years are you now out of college?

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Now we are well, I graduated 21, 26.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

So five wow. So okay, so then what happened after

Life After College And 75 Hard

SPEAKER_00 9:03

college? So you graduated, and then what was the next step of your journey, your fitness journey in life?

SPEAKER_02 9:10

I would say I was I did 75 hard, like a year after college, and that was where I that was really fun to me. I like challenging myself into new things, but 75 Hard.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

So that's the program where you do what again?

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Um, it is it's two workouts per day. One workout has to be outside, it's like a gallon of water, I think 10 pages of a book, no alcohol, um, and then following a diet. Wow. Basically.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Yeah, for 75 days. Wow. And you completed it? Yeah. And I went from 205 to like 185. Yeah. And seeing me now, like it it was such it was insane because I'm I mean, my body fat was near none, but I felt like garbage. Like I couldn't run three miles if I wanted to at that weight. Like I was just gassed. Like I had no actual fitness behind me, and that's where a lot of things start clicking in my brain of why am I doing this? What like, yeah, it's great to look good, um, in my opinion, but I think that there's other things like intangibles that you get from whether it's like besides just working out as a whole, the sense of community that you have in a gym, everything else, there's so many other intangibles besides just how you look that made me feel a little bit empty. Um, you know, after doing it, because what I truly like to do is always working towards a goal. I think that's what makes me be the best person I can be and allows me to be the best person to others as I can be. Um and realistically, after that challenge, I kind of just went back into the routine of like just normal bodybuilding stuff. Like I gained like all the way back, like probably in two weeks. Like it was crazy. Um, so there was no really sell like sense of like drive there. Besides once I completed that, I'm like, all right, it's done. What's like there was nothing next.

First CrossFit Class Reality Check

SPEAKER_02 11:15

And then that's where I kind of stumbled around with CrossFit and I saw the guys, you know, they were power clean 275 or something. I forget what comp I watched. It was like they were clean 275. I was like, I could do that, and then I saw them like front squat, it was like 315. I'm like, I could do that. And so I was like, why not? Let's give it a try, right? But then like the first class workout, I get blown up by everybody. I'm like, what? I thought I'd be good at this.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Where was this? It was at bison. Wait, it was at bison. Do you remember that workout? What was that workout?

SPEAKER_02 11:56

I I think it it I think it was like hang clean and like there was some type of running involved, and I was getting passed by everybody, and I was like, I you know what, you know what's hilarious actually? What I was running in my my lifters. So Liz comes and she's like, what are you doing? Like, she's like, I'm just gonna let this kid ride it out. So like the first couple workouts I did, I was running in like lifters because we were there was like power cleans in it. So I'm like, I have to wear my my lifters for power cleans, but then there was also running. I was just like, screw it, I'm gonna run in them.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Horrible. I will say, in in my in full disclosure, I have run in lifters when I you know early in my CrossFit career, and then I realized the stability I got from the lifters was not worth destroying my my feet on the uh on the run. No, and they're like 10 pounds. Yes. So that so you did that and you realized this is like harder than it looked, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

Well yeah, for sure. Um it it was it was a lot harder than it looked coming in, you know. I feel like everyone probably thinks more highly of themselves than once they actually get their first workout in. It's pretty humbling. Um but it really drew in so much passion that I built up from a young age, whether that be the sense of community, the sense of discipline, the sense of just every aspect from sports that I learned. And really the biggest foundational piece is understanding that through the hardest efforts, I think you build the most character, whether that be challenges mentally or physically. But every day when you step into the gym, this is what I really love about it, is that you're pushing yourself, or at least I try to, to the best of my ability. And by doing that hard thing, I clock in my brain that's like, all right, I did that challenge, I got through it, what's next now?

SPEAKER_00 13:58

So

Strengths Weaknesses And Pacing

SPEAKER_00 13:59

now that you've been CrossFitting for a year and a half or so, what is what are your strengths in CrossFit? What are and what is it that you find most challenging still in CrossFit? Either movement-wise or time domain-wise or whatever it is like.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Yeah, I would say pride barbell cycling. Anything with a barbell, I love. I I really do. It's like give me a barbell, I'll do the workout. It could last for 30 minutes. I love it. Um, but then on right now, what I've really noticed is I'm my burpees are lacking. Um, that's like a big flaw of mine that I have to get right. Uh, a lot of gymnastics stuff, still can't do handstand walks, which is I need to get that down. I actually just started doing crossovers, which was good. Okay. Happy about that. Um, but I think like the necessary skills would probably be the handstand walking, better getting better at gymnastics. Um, because you know, I can butterfly pretty well now with the chest bars, the bar muscle ups are still they're there, but you know, they're not at the level that I'd like them to be at. And then stuff on the rings, right? Because there's not I haven't practiced too much on the rings yet. So getting the rings down more, uh handstand walking, and probably some quad endurance at some point.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

How's your um the time domain? So, like say a five versus a 10 versus a 30 minute wad, you know, I would assume most ex-football players are pretty good at machine work, but maybe like you said, the running might still be a challenge a little bit. Um, how do you find all of those different pieces uh within CrossFit?

SPEAKER_02 15:43

I mean, I always start out hot. So I mean, I don't mind the five minute stuff. I do, I like it because it's quick and it's done. Uh I kind of I guess I would struggle more with the middle stuff, um, where that is like that 10-15 minute mark. I find myself struggling a little bit more because I try like the first, let's say it's like something, four rounds, those first two rounds, they're feeling great. The next two, I'm like, oh god. The first I went way too hard the first time. Um so I would say, but on the longer end stuff now, since I'm I'm running like my long runs every single week now are like 10 miles. So the the the longer end stuff, whether that be the running, it I I love it. Anything running right now, I I'm really loving. Um, but I think it's the middle aspect because the I could start off hot, so those first five minutes I'll be golden. Longer stuff, I know how to pace myself and my heart rate, I guess. And then but that middle tier area is where I would struggle with.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Did you do uh Friday's workout uh with the 27-21 uh I did. Yeah, and how'd you do on that uh that second? That's an open workout. That that's probably one of the worst open workouts ever. The 27, 21, 15, 9.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Yeah, my quads were on fire. I did it with 813. Oh, solid.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Okay, all right, nice.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Uh it was decent, especially after like the first part with the thrusters. I never tried to do a really heavy thruster before in my life, so that was interesting.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Wait, wait, what weight did you do? 235? Before that, yeah. So, okay, nice. That's that's all right.

Competition Lessons And Daily Tracking

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Uh so you did patru uh let's see, you compete in the Vitruvian Games, which was your first CrossFit comp. So, what did you learn? Uh obviously, competing is a very different sort of mindset and experience than say an everyday WAD. So, what did you take away from that?

SPEAKER_02 17:42

I loved it, I really did. Um, like stepping like and the Vitruvian Games, honestly, I will say, was such a cool uh read like venue. It it was awesome. It felt like almost like a in-person semis type of deal. Um, so uh what I really kind of learned from it was just understanding like fueling for it, like understanding how much carbs you need to take in in between sessions and in between workouts um to actually uh perform the best that you can. Um also just really understanding that you have to gauge your strengths and you have to gauge your weaknesses, and let's say you understand the one workout might not be the best for you. That means you really, really have to kill it on everything else if you want a podium or if you want to place highly in that. Uh besides that, it was just so fun back getting back to competing against other people again. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

What do you do outside the gym now in terms of like tracking your nutrition? You know, like what metrics are you like measuring or keeping track of now outside the gym?

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Yeah, I would say every night I'm looking at my sleep score, whether that be good or bad, you know, that's the best I can do with sleep is you know, looking at my garment, seeing how many how I always try to aim for eight, get like six okay realistically. Um, but besides that, I do the Stan Efforting vertical diet, which is just basically whole foods. It's a lot of red meat. Um and I love it. I think it's super simple. You hit got a lot of micronutrients in there, uh, and you know, I count my macros. So right now, I think with training with comp stuff, I'm around like 3,000 calories, and that's like 240 grams of protein, and I think 70 grams of fat, and the remaining is carbs.

Triathlon Goals And Mental Growth

SPEAKER_00 19:38

So now you have already competed in one triathlon, is that right? And so what made you decide to do a triathlon?

SPEAKER_02 19:47

I would say it was kind of just what my body and my brain likes to do is just find new challenges and try new try new things. Yeah. And I was just like gung ho on trying something new besides lifting. And I was like, let's try the most grueling thing I can think of, which was a triathlon. Because I can't I couldn't even imagine coming out of college. I like in my brain, I was like, running three miles is crazy to me. And it completely changed up once I started doing CrossFit. It changed, and this is what I was saying before, right? It's it's more than the physical, it's the mental side. It changed how I thought about myself. And by doing the hardest thing I could do, it made me grow in a lot of other ways besides the physical aspects. So once I realize that I become the best person or I realize that personal growth is through the hardest things, I just keep on trying to challenge myself in some different type of way, whether that be physically or whatever comes up.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

So can you give me an example of how all of this effort in on your fitness side and getting over or you know, facing these challenges has helped you say in the rest of your life? Like Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

I think like I said before, the the harder things you do in life, the more personal growth you'll experience out of it. And I've become better to my friends, my family, you know, I've grown closer to God because of becoming the best version of myself that I could be. Um, and it honestly the fitness itself, it clears a lot of white noise out of your head. All that a lot of anxiety goes away. It's you know, just you and the next 40 minutes of what you're doing that matter. It's everything else is outside noise and nothing else matters, and you can just tunnel vision on one thing, and I think everybody needs that in some aspect. And it really just helped me, besides you know, what I help like try to help other people, it's like I said, the mental aspect and also just how it's it's It's honestly helped with work too because it's made me be a little bit more, you know. If I wake up early, I go on a run, I come back to my desk, I feel a lot more fresh, and I could hop on a call and do something more like effortlessly than I thought before.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

So,

Next Events And Long-Term Ambitions

SPEAKER_00 22:15

what is your next challenge that you have coming up for yourself? What are you what are you training for next? What are you looking forward to?

SPEAKER_02 22:21

So next week, um, me and Jess Torch, we have Thieves and Beggars. So that's the comp they're doing at Cedar Grove High School Field. Um, and then after that, I would love to do the uh it's Athlete X or ATH X games over in yep, Houston, Texas. That's October 17th. And along the ways uh between now and the ATHX games, I would try to probably throw in a triathlon in between there. I think the Jersey State triathlon, the or the one that I did last year is July 19th again. So I'll probably end up doing that at some point as well.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

So what is the Thieves and Beggars? Is that a straight-up CrossFit uh competition?

SPEAKER_02 23:04

So it is cross, it's cross to E. Like we have like rope climbs, chest to bar, uh, but we also have like a yoke carry in there, sandbag cleans. Um it reminds me a little bit kind of like Rogue Invitational-esque, where they're doing like odd movements in there. It's not just strictly like what we did at 908, where that was a lot of you know uh rig work, rope climbs, barbell uh cycling. This is there's no barbells in this, and it's just like odd movements what with the yoke carries, uh sandbags over the yoke, sandbag cleans, that type of stuff. Uh, but you also have the CrossFit stuff with the rig and you know, rope climbs.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

What is your ultimate goal in the future, like long term? Is there anything that you see as like some sort of like far off goal in terms of anything here or in your life?

SPEAKER_02 23:58

I think I would love to go to an in-person semis, like that would be awesome. Like that would that is what I would love to do. Um, I think that's a good goal to set out after a year and a half. Um, I I don't want to be like, I'm going to the games.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

I thought you were gonna say that actually. That's why I cut I was setting you up to say that, no. I would love to, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:24

But you you have to you have to also take a step back uh sometimes to because your goals could be so high, and I always like to have the highest goals, right? I would love to go to the games. That's an internal goal. That's like I keep that to myself, right? But realistically, I think you gotta take it steps at a time, understand how you're progressing in the sport itself, and that's another thing that really I think people like how I view CrossFit, I view it as a sport. I don't view it as a workout, right? And that's two different types of individuals, I feel. Um, but yeah, I think my biggest goal would be right now. Obviously, I would love to go to the games, but going to an in-person semi would be awesome.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

Well, your secret save with me. I won't tell anyone. Just

Gratitude And Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 25:15

kidding. So um I really appreciate it, Mike. I think um seeing you over this year and a half, I think has inspired a lot of people. I think your presence at the gym has brought um not just inspiration, but a lot of joy and fun and entertainment as well. You you are a very happy person at the gym. Uh and also your drive and and fitnessing. I mean, there's no doubt, like you bring like a huge amount of you know, try hard to everything that you do. Like, and you know, fearlessness, to be honest. Like you, you will go for any, you'll, you know, you'll shoot the shoot for the moon pretty much every time. Um, and I think that that you know, for a lot of us that see that, we love that. I mean, whether it's in a competition, whether it's training for, you know, um triatriath uh triathlon or something else, like I think um it just shows, I think all of us, hey, maybe if Mike is doing these things, like why shouldn't I also, you know, shoot for these things or or have a little more freedom and joy in what it is? Like I I think you bring a lot of joy when you work out. And um, and I think that that is a huge plus for any gym. And I I really appreciate you being there. And and I know a lot of people give you crap for, you know, because you're such a you know, great person and easygoing. And you know, whether people called you Jersey Mike back in the day, I I don't I don't see it. Just kidding. You look exactly like someone from the Sopranos, honestly, to me. But um, but uh like you uh I really appreciate that. Like you're a pretty special athlete in person. So good luck on the Thieves and Beggars, good luck on your next triathlon, and um, I hope you make the uh ATH uh ATHX games. That's uh what's sponsored by Adidas, that's a big one. Um and uh look forward to seeing more of you in the at the gym. Yeah, absolutely, Sam. Thank you so much.