This week I’m joined by coach Andrew Reimon. Andrew is the owner of Kratos Performance in Lyndhurst New Jersey. From the brink of walking away from CrossFit Al together 2017 to the thrill of opening his own gym, his tale is a testament to the power of persistence, and the strategic cultivation of a thriving fitness hub.
This week I’m joined by coach Andrew Reimon. Andrew is the owner of Kratos Performance in Lyndhurst New Jersey. From the brink of walking away from CrossFit Al together 2017 to the thrill of opening his own gym, his tale is a testament to the power of persistence, and the strategic cultivation of a thriving fitness hub.
Andrew, how you feeling today? Dude, good man, a little bit cold. It's a little cold outside. I think it's like 30 degrees right now, which is much better than last week. Yeah, I'm feeling good. Yeah, nothing hurts, so far.
Speaker 2:Were you ever that gym, bro and that athlete that was like anti-crossfit.
Speaker 1:Maybe for like four months. That's when I had like a huge mental breakdown. I had a lot going on that year and I was like you know what, screwed crossfit screwed this, screwed that. I was like I'm done. And then I ended up gaining weight. I got up to like, I think, 193, which at the time I was like oh wait, hold on, hold on, hold on when were you in life at this point?
Speaker 2:Were you college athlete? Were you like young adult, like? Were you working out? Were you just starting crossfit? Where were you?
Speaker 1:I was 2017. Yeah, right after the open to 2017, because I did that open year. Right after the open, I was like, screw this, because I thought I was in really good shape, cause I started with like a new team and everything like that. I was at 215 at that point. That's where I met Travis and, yeah, travis Patton, all them and I was like I got demolished by this one girl, michelle Quack back she was a high school friend of mine and I did the open here across at Steam at that year and this other guy, john Mancini. That's actually where Nick Paladino was also.
Speaker 1:So I was like, how are they doing this? Like how did they finish three minutes in front of me? Like this is ridiculous, this isn't worth it, what the hell. So then I was like you know what I'm doing? To take a break four months anti-crossfit, like no, I'm not doing this ever again. Blah, blah, blah. And then I was like you know what, whatever it is, what it is, I had like a mental shift. I'm like you know what, let's just get back into it, we'll see what happens. Find a gym to coach. And yeah, from there I was good. After that, did you move to another gym at that time. Yeah, so that's the same year. That's the whole time period was when I moved back up north. So then, you know, I officially like started my training at CrossFit Steam. Eventually I became a coach and then, yeah, after that I'd open up my own thing and that's it, man.
Speaker 2:When you like came back to do it right. When you went back to train and started to coach, it, was it like I want this to lead somewhere else, or were you just like I'm just gonna go back and give it another chance?
Speaker 1:No, it was. I mean, in the back of my mind. I always, always dreamed about having my own CrossFit gym. It just wasn't the right time, right. So like that wasn't where my focus was on. I was like you know what, If God decides now, this time, then now's the time. If not, then whatever happens, happens, it's all good. So I was like you know what? I'm just gonna train, polish my skills as a coach, do what I gotta do and, you know, be of use in the community.
Speaker 1:So what I did was I would see people that had potential of being like really good athletes or whatever, or even people that just wanted extra programming. I'd be like hey, dude, like I see you doing some extra work. Do you need any help with programming? Do you want some tips on this? Gymnastics Like hey, like your snatch looks like this. Maybe we can fix it with these positions.
Speaker 1:So I would offer like not program, but I would offer like free workouts. Like hey, look, man, if you want, I'll program for you for like a month, see how you like it, give me some feedback and then, if you wanna keep going, don't worry about it, I'm not gonna charge you, it's not a big deal. I'm a firm believer in giving not working for free, but like giving things to people, because if they like it, they'll speak highly of you and your product, and it's not so much for the return, right. So you know, if you're a genuine human being and you really care about helping people, then it will come back to you tenfold you know, Whether it's gonna come immediately or not.
Speaker 1:That's not up to you. It's up to you, you know, whatever you believe in, but that's how I lead everything. So even now, like with people that are not 100% sold on their free trial, like if they're like hey, man, I love the class, this is awesome. I just don't know if I wanna commit myself to this. I'm like dude, no problem, you know, no hard feelings. Come back, hey, let me give you this free week. Come back tomorrow, see how you feel. If you're too sore tomorrow, come back Wednesday, see how you feel, talk to other people, maybe take another class.
Speaker 1:You took 430 today, try 630pm or try 745pm. Different communities, different classes, all under the same family, which is what I consider my Gemma family, and you know that has worked pretty well. We haven't done any paid ads until like this new year. I just wanted to see what that looks like and how that would turn out. Didn't do anything. But you know, I think that that's truly the best way to go about our specific business in CrossFit, because, you know, word of mouth is the best form of marketing in my opinion, people are not going to recommend you.
Speaker 1:Like why do you go to a specific doctor or specific eye project Because other people went there? It's the same thing Like why would I go to this barbershop if this dude has busted hair all the time? This other guy is telling me like five other people told me hey, you should go to this guy because this guy is awesome. I'm going to go with the guy that's recommended and support local business and things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, big community recommendations. It's something we're trying to push at KOP right now too. Like, do you know anyone who needs to work out? Like, bring them in here, and if the give them a free class, just like you said, it resonated with so much. We are telling people hey, you could come to more than one free Saturday. It's not like you just get only that one. If you need another time to kind of feel it out, keep going, keep doing that and eventually hoping that that locks them in. But in the very beginning, when you were just helping people, giving them tips and stuff like that, were you coaching already at that point?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I was coaching. I was coaching, I think, like two classes a week, two or three classes a week. It was the nighttime because I was working in the city full time too. I was working at an architecture firm and then I would rush to the train, get in trouble for leaving 10 minutes early because God forbid, you leave 10 minutes early at a nine to five and then I would catch the train, get on there, go to the gym. I spent like two, three hours there, do my workout after I was done coaching. So, yeah, people saw me how I would lead a class and then I think that just led naturally into people being able to like trust me with their personal fitness.
Speaker 2:I think you told me that you did personal training on the battle at this episode. Am I making that up before you were across the coach?
Speaker 1:No, that was John.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, john did so when people were approaching you for extra things, even if it's free, just like giving you tips outside of class. Did you feel confident at the very beginning? Where you like, I can give these people like things that would help them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I was highly confident because at that time I already had like three years of coaching under my belt. So I was like it's not that hard, you know, to not really put people on a strength program. I was very clear that I'm not a weightlifting coach. I am not like a strength based coach. I know how to program endurance and crossfit and I was like, look, I can get you better at crossfit, but I'm not going to say that I can get you to a 335 pound clean. That's not going to happen. I mean, could it happen? Yeah, 100%. But it's not going to be because I have you on some specific strength cycle. It's going to be a byproduct of us just getting fitter.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, exactly, just based on, like us just doing it every day. You know, like there are people at my gym now that are PR. Like for today, we did a three rep max hand clean at the end of a workout. People did five pounds more on their three rep max than they did on their one rep max. Hang power clean. Yeah, hang power clean two months ago, you know. So I'm like guys, this clearly work If you look at the data. Like Glassman says, it's all database If you see your results and look at the data, it's very clear that everything is going upwards Right. It's not because I'm sort of genius, it's just because, like, there's a methodology that we follow and it works Right. Functional fitness, that's what it is.
Speaker 2:Fitness is the base of the period. I mean, nutrition is the base, but that's what leads to fitness and just doing things constantly varied there. So you talked about, you're going to know what it's time. When did you know when it was time to open a gym? Is there something that happened? Is there an event? What made you realize that it was time?
Speaker 1:So I won't go into details in the podcast, but it was just time. I got very tired of coaching for someone. You know not that specific gym, it's just. I just got tired in general of coaching for someone. I wanted to own my own business and at that time, jason Kallipa I don't know if he started that year or what, but I stumbled upon his podcast about eight months before I opened my gym and I was like interesting business of fitness, this is pretty cool, let me see what this is about. So I started listening to it and I'm like man, I really like his content and he's a very good speaker too. So Andy loves coffee, so what else? This is perfect.
Speaker 2:You see the power clean, squat, snatch, that's kind of all you need. Coffee business of fitness, you know Exactly.
Speaker 1:So I was listening to that very diligently. I'm pretty sure I listened to every single episode that he put out, just because it was such great content. Man, he really just put everything into perspective on what you need to look for in a gym business and what he did that was incorrect or like a mistake that he made and how he would have done it differently. So, like listening to all that stuff got me super motivated to start looking for spaces not so longly because I wasn't going to rush it Looking at different avenues on how I could like finance this project. You know I had really great friends shout out to stand in pepper who, you know, believed in me from the start and really helped me take off, and other people as well. You know who you are if you're listening. But you know all of that combined, at some point I was like you know what it's here to now or never.
Speaker 1:So the gym that I was at, I was like you know, these are my two weeks. Realistically, I was actually just like really burnt out from coaching there. I just didn't want to coach anymore and I didn't want to have a repeat of 2017. So I was like look guys, I have some personal issues. I would much rather just not coach right now. And then at that point I didn't have anything set up Like there wasn't. There wasn't a physical gym, there wasn't anything.
Speaker 1:I actually didn't do CrossFit for a month because I didn't want to work out at that gym anymore and and no offense to them, it was just, you know, I just needed a break from people there and just like CrossFit in general, again, it was more of a personal thing when I left and then I started dropping into different gyms here and there in the local area. I talked to John Babakwa from CrossFit Hoboken, who I have to give a lot of credit to for helping me as well, because he gave me a lot of mentorship on how he thought that it would be good to open up a gym and what he thinks would be able would help me to be able to get more members from the start. So after about two months I found a spot. I was like you know what, let's do it, screw it. I put in the deposit and then from there, the space was a shit show. I had to like, install a toilet. Man, I learned a lot, bro, I had to.
Speaker 2:Hold on, hold on, hold on. I want to go to all that stuff. I have a specific question about, like the space too. Before we go into that, do you have any like big takeaways? Let's say like this Do you have like one or two big takeaways from the Business of Fitness podcast that you learned from Kalipa, like over that time period? I know it was a few years ago, but do you remember any like big takeaways that you took into your business ownership career?
Speaker 1:Yeah, two of them. Be a genuine human being and don't bullshit people. Hell, yeah, you know like he's. He's very straightforward on I mean. He comes from a sales like a gym sales background.
Speaker 1:That's what he did when he was in I think it was UC Santa Clara and you know his gym was very straightforward. He did everything manually, bro, like all of the transactions he did manually and he's like you. Just got to be genuine. People will react well to genuine conversation, genuine people. So if you have good intentions, just make sure that you know, you tell, you, show people that and it will come back to you. They will eventually join, whether you learn that at that point.
Speaker 1:that's fine, but it was like you need it's expensive sport. You know it's not. It's not your planet fitness, where you pay $10 a month and you show up like once a year and you're like, oh, I don't know why didn't you know, lose 20 pounds Like I wanted to January 1st? You're like, well, you went there once a year, here we're doing. Um, we have like accountability. You have different people in your class that'll hold you accountable. Yeah, why it's important to lead from a genuine standpoint is then you attract genuine people and then that attraction of genuine people will result in genuine results and everyone's like yeah, naked.
Speaker 1:That's what we want, right.
Speaker 2:You get that investment from people, like not just monetarily but also about their accountability, being accountable to themselves and others and then that provides like these results that we are are able to see in so many people. You know that's awesome. Those are two great takeaways, then. And then back to the space, like at that time period, what were you looking for in a space, if you can remember, like, what was it that? You were like oh, this is, this is what it was outside of just monetary, because I'm sure that was a big, you know uh factor behind it.
Speaker 1:That was a huge factor. That was very limiting, uh, but you know, it was humble beginnings, man, I still to this day have zero idea how we made it past covid, but, um, you know, we're here now, so it doesn't matter. But, uh, when I first looked for a space, I was like, okay, I just need something to get up on my feet. Right, I just need, you know, a studio space of maybe a thousand square feet, and you know a thousand square feet is not a lot for a crossfit gym.
Speaker 1:So, um, I ended up finding this place in Pasek New Jersey. If you guys don't know Pasek New Jersey, it's uh uh interesting. Um, it's kind of I would say. I would say it's like, uh, northern liberties in like 2015. That's Everybody if you're listening.
Speaker 2:come, come visit Northern liberties, you can figure out what that means.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So, um, we got this little studio. It was very nice. We had, uh, a plexiglass company that was next to us, which I didn't know they were there until I started smelling fumes and I was like, oh no. And then we took that, because the wall didn't go all the way up, it was like one of those partition walls, so, um, and the best part about it was that it was wood floors. So I was like, oh, it's all right, we'll make it work Whatever, we'll just put mats down. It's all good. You know, I signed a lease, whatever did all that?
Speaker 1:Um, the other thing that I needed to make sure that the space had was high ceilings, because I wanted to be able to program everything that I needed to, except for road climbs. Road climbs I wasn't too concerned about, because you don't really see that too often in the open, unless you're doing quarterfinals. At that point in time they didn't have quarterfinals, they just had the open, so I wasn't too concerned.
Speaker 2:Um, so the open and stuff like that was in your head as you were making these decisions about how you were gonna program and run your facility.
Speaker 1:Yeah, correct.
Speaker 1:I mean I I knew that this cross-agent that I was about to open was, um, something that would consistently do the open at a very high level and that we would have a lot of buy-in from the community, like I want everyone to be able to, you know, do the open and experience what that is, not only just watching it or not only just doing the workout in class because we're doing it anyway on Friday but actually being in it, getting excited to put your score in, like seeing your name on a leaderboard, like that All that stuff is fun. You know, I find a lot of people don't find it fun, which is fine, but it's part of the experience, you know, and it really just get the community like pretty wild and and you know what I think CrossFit is we get people to do uncomfortable things in a comfortable environment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, like you walk in these doors, you are safe, some of the safest and most accepted you're going to be out there in the world when you're at CrossFit gym, so this is the place for you to do hard things. This is the place for you to push yourself. You know? Yeah, I, I agree completely and that's what I tell people all the time, too.
Speaker 1:We have people in this gym that are I don't know, I don't know I forget how old, but we have a bunch of people in this gym that are pushing that 60 mark right and they love it. They come here, yeah, Seven times a week sometimes, sometimes just to hang out, because they love being here. That's what I want you to like experience. I want you to take this free trial, this free week. Experience that and see why people are here for three, four hours sometimes. You know, just like bullshitting with other people, you know, and that's what. That's what it is. If you had to describe year one, in five words or less.
Speaker 2:what would you? What would you say about year one?
Speaker 1:Stressful, straight up right to stressful and stressful, risky. Yeah, stressful and risky, pretty much, there's five words, three words.
Speaker 2:That's, and it was right to it, dude. What did you leave your one year? Like any knowledge or things that you learned?
Speaker 1:Well, I learned that there's a way to solve everything, right. So if you really really genuinely want something to happen, you will find a way. You know Goggin says that all the time, so, and so there's Chad, right. You know, like, crossfit is amazing because you have again saying, talking about the community, you have so many people, like when, that support you.
Speaker 1:When we shut down for COVID, I wasn't going to be one gym owner that was, you know, going to say, hey guys, you know you're still a member of this gym, it's still operating, we need you to pay. I was like, hey, I sent out an email. I was like, hey, look, we're all in this together. You know it's pretty shitty. What's going on right now. We have to close.
Speaker 1:If you guys would like to cancel your memberships, I completely understand. You know you do what you need to do to support your families. You know, I know it's a tough time for everyone right now. So if you need to cancel, don't worry about the gym, we'll figure something out. But if you would like to continue paying, we would be forever grateful. There's no pressure. Just let me know what you need to do by Friday or whatever the day was, and we'll change things accordingly, dude. The amount of text that I got from like the 30 people that we got in support of that was incredible. I mean, I know 30 people is not a lot of people, but it was really amazing to see that like only a few people didn't cancel you know, and then that's when I realized I was like I can't close this place, like that doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1:Why would I close this place when people are? They're not even going to the gym and they're paying. So that just goes to show like how strong of a community crossway can foster and how these gyms that we all work at and own can change people's lives. It's more than the gym and I think I think it's more than a gym.
Speaker 2:Hell, yeah, for sure. I mean so many people. We had the 15 year party back in October and so many people signed the flag Thanks for giving me a second home and messages that are similar to that. You know, people come here and this is where they want to spend most of their time. I mean, if they could have their families with them all the time, then, you know, maybe they would do a little bit more, maybe a little bit less, but it's, like I said, become a second home for so many different people. When you first opened, did you open as an affiliate? Were you a CrossFit affiliated gym?
Speaker 1:Yes, we did open as an affiliate. We were CrossFit KE. I tried doing the open but at that time I was like so strapped between like running the business and doing what I could and all of the other stuff that I had to do that I didn't focus too much on the open, but we did it. That's when the open was in October, man, you remember that? Yeah, oh, my God, that was the worst.
Speaker 2:That was the worst time. So glad they went back to the old way. Yeah, dude, See we did do it.
Speaker 1:We were an affiliate, I think, for a few months and then, you know, things got pretty bad with COVID and that's the point that Glassman made his whole thing with whatever he posted on Instagram and everyone was like, oh, I de-affiliate it.
Speaker 2:I de-affiliate it. And I was like oh, this is the perfect time.
Speaker 1:Okay, let me just take a break and like make some money so I can like find another location, because at that time we had to be out and I'm going to backtrack a little bit. But when I de-affiliated it was simply because I didn't have the funds to actually do the affiliation fee, because we had some people did cancel, which is fine. But you know, I was putting all of my savings, all of my money, all of my paychecks into the business and just paying the bills and credit cards and everything dude, like everything was going to my business so that I can save some sort of money. It sounds weird, but I was paying my current location so I could save some money and be able to put a down payment for the next one, which is our location right now, which was 10 times bigger than what we have.
Speaker 1:Or what we have. So I'm going to go back to the first one, what we have or what we have. Again, I still, to this day, I have zero idea how I came up with that much money, but I think you know, through personal training, working hard and just having faith that things were going to work out. I mean, I've prayed a lot those few months. Things ended up being okay and I met the guy that shares the space with me, carlos Guzman, and we were able to get this deal going and we got this space now, so ever since then it's been great.
Speaker 2:Damn, that's a tough time to be going through that, bro. Like that COVID time, like people think it was just the first wave, but like all throughout 2020, 2021, things were just at a standstill for people that are in an industry like ours, you know, with no answers coming anywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. I mean, I was one of the few gyms that were just like you know, screw this, we're just opening anyway, we're just coming through the back door or whatever. We put a mirror film on the front of the windows just in case you know, because the space that we were in, this newer space that we're in right now, it was 10,000 square feet. So well, our side is 5,000 square feet, so you can have one person here and another person 60 feet away, and that's fine. I cannot call it hard enough to get my germs over to you. So like it was fine and people slowly started coming and felt better and better. So you know, it ended up being okay.
Speaker 2:I'll just say I've been exactly there with the maybe open when you're not supposed to be air quotes and giving people a little bit further apart been exactly there. You know we had to do what we had to do at that time period Before we start talking about the new space, though, dude, when you first affiliated, you open a gym, you I don't know if people know this out there you have to like write in a letter to CrossFit and all these other things. That's the process. As far as their like return to you, did you feel like you were supported? Did you learn anything? Did they give you resources for you to be able to run a successful affiliate?
Speaker 1:Yeah, A lot of people give CrossFit a lot of shit and I will say sometimes I do that as well. But I have to commend them on that time period because they were extremely helpful and gracious towards like what I was going through. At that time I basically emailed I think it was Paul.
Speaker 2:Tremblay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's who I was corresponding with. Shout out to Paul he, he was like hey, because at that time also my love, my L one, was left in fire. And then that's when I met you. So he was like hey man, look, your L one is about to expire. You need to, you need to get this sorted out. I'm like dude. Look, I really seriously. I do not have the funds right now or anything. We just moved to a new location. I want to be a CrossFit affiliate. I just really can't afford the three grand that you guys asked for up front which at that time, and still to this day, I'm like that's a little ridiculous.
Speaker 1:three grand at once, like come on. But then either him or one of his colleagues explained to me no, we're going into this new, new model of uh you know monthly payments, blah, blah, blah. And I was like you know what that actually could work? So I because I was still working in the city so I was like all right, you know what, let's try that. Um, please put me in as an affiliate. And they're like okay, but you still need your L one or L two. And I was like, oh my God. So I asked him. I'm like look, dude, can you at least meet me in the middle? Like I think when I took it it was in November or December, right, love level two yeah, it was right around the winter, like my birthday time, the winter time, yeah.
Speaker 1:So around there.
Speaker 1:So I was like, look man, I'm going to be completely honest, I need a few months so I can get back on my feet. We just opened a new space for starting to get new members into the door. I just need to raise some capital so that I can fund my L two. He's like dude, don't worry about it, we'll extend the signup date a little bit more, but you absolutely need to have your L two by this date or we are not going to allow you to be a cross with affiliate. I'm like, oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:So they didn't end up happening. I ended up meeting you at the L two with uh, with Amy, um and coach Panda, and that was that was a good time. And then you know they were, they were very helpful. They were like just let us know what you need, let us know the new location of the gym, we'll, we'll take care of everything on the back end. So you know they, they were extremely helpful in that sense, um, and I'm happy that they were able to like hear me out as a struggling affiliate owner at the time and, yeah, with me to like be able to be part of this like community and this company. You know so as much things as they don't do correctly. Um no, they do try to help out the affiliates as much as possible, because they are humans as well, so I have to give them a lot of credit for that. That's awesome. I mean, that's great to hear, right.
Speaker 2:Like you. You talk about like I give crap to them. I give crap to CrossFit too, like we all do. We all are cause we care about it, are like online critics, you know. So for the people that could give it up and recognize when they're doing something amazing like that, you know that's. That's really dope. So what about? What was the catalyst for you to go to the bigger space? What told you that it was time for that?
Speaker 1:It was. So part of it was when people, um, didn't stop paying. You know, uh, we had, I think, 22 people that didn't stop paying, which was enough for me to be able to still save money. And, you know, figure out whatever I needed to do for, for the rent, for the old space. So, um, so, yeah, I took that as a sign and I was like you know what? I can't in good faith, I can't give up on these people and I can't give up on myself, on my dream of being a business owner and owning across the gym and just doing what I genuinely love to do, uh, as a job, Right. So I was like, look, I don't, like I don't got kids, I don't have.
Speaker 1:At that time I didn't have a girlfriend. I'm like you know what, whatever, let's just do this, We'll see what happens If it fails. It fails, it's not a big deal. So we signed a two year lease and I'm like, all right, cool, Two years, not bad. So if it doesn't work whatever, it's two years I'll just go back to being miserable at nine to five. So, uh, that was the deciding factor for me, and then I put in my two weeks at work.
Speaker 1:I was like you know what, let's do it, man, we're going to rock this ship, Uh, and we're going to do it well, so so far so good. Man, Hell yeah.
Speaker 2:Man like are you a person that is always like have you ever been scared to go all?
Speaker 1:in before that, it's right. At that time, covid was still like up and down and people were like, you know, wear a mask or don't wear a mask and do this, do that. So, um, it was very scary, but I had this weird feeling, uh in my gut and no, I just like all the signs were just pointing to do it, man. So I was like I can't ignore this, something that's telling me to do this and, uh, I just need to follow that and, and you know, it will all work out eventually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they say, when you ask God for something right, he puts the, the obstacles in front of you to like, test your resolve and test your dedication to it, instead of just making the path for it. You know, yeah, correct. Sounds like that's what you were going through at the time.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, dudes, I mean, the big man spoke to me in many different ways and, um, instead of ignoring it, I just, you know, trusted that the plan is already written. Right, I just had to go and fulfill that plan. So that's um, not to get all religious, but that's that's what I did and that's why I still do. So, yeah, so far, so far has been working to my advantage.
Speaker 2:It's awesome bro, and then, um, I hope it keeps going, you know, hope it keeps going for all of us, dude. So let's talk about a little bit of the fun stuff here. At the end of the episode, crossfit open. We're in that season right now here. What are you guys doing over at your gym for it? Like, are you guys breaking up into teams? How do you guys tackle that?
Speaker 1:Uh, this year we're going to do teams. Yeah, We've. We've had a few people ask me to um, push, push, the, uh, the teams thing. Last year I was going to do it and then I just forgot about it. Um, but this year we're going to do it for big.
Speaker 1:Um, we're going to do Friday night lights. Uh, I think those athletes that want to go to the next level, um, like myself and a few other individuals, uh, we'll probably going to do it on Saturday, just cause I really like being there and they're just like being in it, like I like judging people, I love getting the floor set up and it's just stressful for me to like an exhausting going from setting all that up for like 40, 50 people to doing my workout and trying to do like do it at a high level.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So, um, we're going to have we're going to break it up a little bit differently this year, but main thing is, set is Friday night lights with with teams, and we're going to do like a nice little prize at the end of the open. Um, hopefully, we got a lot of quarter finals. Uh, people, now that it's 25%, I think we'll get a good amount.
Speaker 2:So is that cheap it the value of going on a quarter finals?
Speaker 1:Um, I don't think so. I think it still gives people. It gives a lot, a lot more people um, the drive to do the open and, like, have a goal to shoot for. Uh, I do think they're going to have to get extremely creative with uh programming because, like I think it was in either in your podcast or someone else that I forget who it was I listened to your last one with on the coach from an owner from raid and yeah, it was Justin.
Speaker 1:We talked about this a lot. Yeah, he was saying like uh, last year, for example, we had pistols and bar muscle ups and rope climbs and all these GSDs. Like dude, the one GSC workout three years ago, I couldn't work out for three weeks after that because so many GHDs. So take, take me that I compete fairly often. And uh, take like a person that doesn't compete very often but is a quarter final athlete, let's say top 15%, they're not used to doing 200 GHDs.
Speaker 1:They are going to be in mobile for like a month, you know. So I think that I'm excited to see how this shakes out, programming wise, uh, just because, um, I don't know, I think that I think my doctor about to lose your minds, but I think that, uh, the heavy weights are going to come regardless. I think the gymnastics are going to have to be very, um, specific, probably like a chipper style workout, where it'll just get progressively harder and if you don't make it there, you don't make it there. I think that's the right, probably the most. I like making predictions, man, so I'm going to make the prediction that 16 one is going to be the repeat workout for this year.
Speaker 2:What's 16 one? Is that the overhead walking lunges? Yeah, the double others.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm into that. This one was a 20 minute AMRAP overhead walking lunge 25 feet, eight burpees over the bar, 25 overhead walking lunge, eight pull-ups.
Speaker 2:Oh, pull-ups. Was it pull-ups or was it chest to bar? Well, chest to bar is the R-axis. That's what they do with the open. They usually because pull-ups are a little bit harder to standardize. But if you say your chest has to touch the bar, that's an easy standard. I like that. I'm into that. That was the first year I did the open as R-Rex. I did it in 2015. And they had the bar muscle-ups and snatches in that one workout and I could have do them. So I scaled muscle in the workouts. I played 16. I was able to do them all R-Rex. So I'm into that. I'm here for it. Think T is back on the podium.
Speaker 1:I think it's going to be very hard for her to get back on the podium.
Speaker 2:Oh, you think she's got a lot of work to do to go through Laura and Emma.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't even think it's just them, it's just dude. The women's field has gotten so tight knit. Yeah, they're all so good at so many different things that you can have Laura be first in one thing and then Danielle second, and then she'll come fifth in the other one, and then it'll go back and forth. I'm really excited for this year's games. I think it's going to be a dog fight for the women's top spot.
Speaker 2:Ariel Lowe Last year was a monster. Yeah, she's been creeping and showing her how good she is at a whole bunch of different cops, so it'll be exciting year for her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I don't know, man, I think it's actually. I'll make the prediction now she's not going to be on podium. Tia, tia's no podium.
Speaker 2:No podium. Oh yes, I love it. I love when people make the full predictions like that. What about the man who's going to be on top over there?
Speaker 1:I think Roman's going to come first. Yeah, I think he's just training really hard right now and just based on my experience with swimming like midseason meet, we never really rested and I don't think he was rested at all for water blizzard. Yeah, ricky Gerard, I think, has a shot at first as well. He'll probably come in second or third. And Pat Valner oh, I love that.
Speaker 2:Adler the.
Speaker 1:Canadian Adler. We'll see about Adler. Oh, even at that, I don't think he's going to be up there I'm interested to see.
Speaker 2:I think that the men's field is going to be the men's field, I think the women. That's really where you're going to see the fireworks that you were talking about 100%.
Speaker 1:The women's field this year is crazy.
Speaker 2:It's going to be really crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So back to the open a little bit. Before we wrap up here, let's say, let's give this example. You have athlete Sally. Sally is 40 to 45 years old. She RXs 40% of your daily workouts throughout the week and it's mostly body weight, gymnastics and stuff like that. She has a high capacity for work. She can breathe heavy and still keep pushing. She does great at ant wraps but she's not super strong. We know, like open standard deadlifts, cleans, what those weights are going to look like for the most part. I mean 155 for the girls, 225 for the gentlemen, a workout like 20, was that this year? 22.2 comes up, the deadlifts and the burpees over the bar with the 155. Do you tell Sally to RX the workout because she can she can deadlift that barbell or do you tell her to scale it to get a better workout?
Speaker 1:Scale it, yeah, scale it.
Speaker 2:Now Sally.
Speaker 1:Hinging in that workout. So much potential for injury in that workout yeah it was definitely not one of my favorites.
Speaker 2:I thought it was silly for them to tell us to step down from the box but then deadlift and burpee for 12 minutes, 13 minutes, however long that was. I thought that didn't make any sense. I mean, my joints are made to absorb force but my body is not made to hinge in that repetitive motion under load like that. It's just you know. But now, sally, the workouts are a little bit different. The open place are her favorite. Maybe this year they've dumbed it down because the open movements are. They want more people to get through. Now she qualifies for quarterfinals. You know that they're going to come with the heavy weights and the heart level gymnastics and that two or three week gap in between is not enough time for someone to learn these skills. Do you tell her to sign up for quarterfinals or do you tell her to win a year?
Speaker 1:I would have a serious conversation with her and see what her like three, four, five year goals are for CrossFit. I'm like, look, if you want to be a competitive athlete, I 100% support your decision of doing quarterfinals. I think you should do it. But if there's a weight like if you clean 125, right. And there's a weight on that bar that's supposed to be like a clean ladder, for example I think it was like 15-one or whatever and you go and you approach a 185 barbell no, don't pick it up Like just take that as a learning lesson and then we'll approach that in programming this whole year.
Speaker 1:We'll work on that. I'll push you to that point where I'll be like, look, remember where you were this year 185? You couldn't pick it up. Now we got to work to get to that point where we can pick up the barbell, we can at least try and get under it, and then the following year you'll be able to really nail that 185. I think it's important for people to put themselves in uncomfortable situations like that, Even though the result is definitely not going to be what they want. You need to have that. You need to have losses. You're never going to have wins you don't have losses.
Speaker 1:So I would say, yeah, go for it, and then just don't beat yourself up too much about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think people in today's world, especially in the cross world I used to just get in like everything they want right away. You know, like I can sign up for this. I've got to go sign up for this. This is what's happening, you know. It's like well, did you take any time to actually evaluate what would be the aftermath of it? You know, and they continue it on, Sally now's pissed. She says F, you will leave your gym. What do you do? I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:Well, just don't leave me like a two-star Google review, because I did tell you to just keep a positive mentality.
Speaker 2:Right, like there's some people out there, it's not going to work out with everybody and everything that you do, if you have consumers and stuff, it's just not going to work out with everybody. And I think it goes back to what you said earlier If you are being genuine and honest and really like providing a service to people because you love it, then like you can't fault yourself for the people that are leaving because they're not ready for that. You know, especially if you said they talk about a level two, setting the standard from the beginning, you know, and maintaining that standard. If you do that, then you can't fault yourself and that person is not ready for those things you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, dude, that's the beauty of CrossFit. There's so many CrossFit gyms in the area. You know, this community, I think, is the best community in the area, but it might not be for you and you know, if you tell me what you expect from a gym, I can direct you to different gym. I don't have a problem doing that. Like I'll say, hey, go to this gym, go to that gym, whatever, because I'm friendly with pretty much all the owners around me. We're all here to win, you know. So, like I don't see why there's so much drama in some other places.
Speaker 2:I'm like dude, I give it all to adults.
Speaker 1:you know when one person comes, another person leaves. That's cool, like do your thing and I'll like send people over. It is what it is. Like I said, come back in like 10-fold.
Speaker 2:I mean, community is everything, and if you truly believe in yourself, you don't have to downplay somebody else to big up yourself. You know yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean I recommend KOP to everyone, bro, KOP, Hell yeah. And I'm like yeah, if you're in this area, go to KOP. If you're in this area, go to Conchie.
Speaker 2:Ideally, you're going to be in a season of growth where things are coming together for you. What do you hope for for the gym and the business right now?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So a big goal for me this year is just to pour more into the gym. For me, this year is all about giving back, so that's what I really. That's my theme for the year. I want to give back to the community. I'm in Linnhurst, new Jersey. I would like to give back to the community of members that I have. I want to give them opportunities to grow as athletes and to really have fun with each other.
Speaker 1:We just got a remote admin person to help me not have to stress too much about the day-to-day stuff online. It's awesome. I'm going to be a lot better on social media. Hopefully we'll be able to hire someone pretty soon to run social media for us. And then just getting more equipment like getting the concept two bikes, getting more rowers, getting more ski erics, colored plates, little things like that that people are like. They see me do a lot of work in the gym because I never leave, but I would like to actually give them material objects to show them look, this is where your money is going. This is why we're priced the way we're priced because we have the most equipment, because we have the best equipment. We have amazing programming. We do these events.
Speaker 1:So giving back is a big goal for this year for me, and obviously that's the point.
Speaker 2:Get more members so you can give back to them. Right, exactly yeah. You've got to have people on the doors for you to be able to provide this service for them and solve the world's most vexing problem. As Glassman said, Correct Stop drinking Stop drinking.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, people that don't know about the absolute war between CrossFit, coca-cola and the campaign. They did try to slander it Like go look that stuff up for everyone out there that doesn't know about that. But all right, dogs. It's been another great episode. We got Andrew Raymond back on here talking about all things fitness and running the gym. I think it's been a great one. Man, andrew, have anything last words for the people.
Speaker 1:No, just stay fit, stay. Good looking, stay fit, stay good Stay, good looking.
Speaker 2:I love that there.