Sam Fischer (00:00.41)
Welcome to Cowboys, Not Eggheads. Home of the brave, not home of the fearful. The world needs more cowboys and fewer eggheads. We're everywhere podcasts are found. So tell your fellow cowboys and let's keep the conversation alive on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Remember to subscribe, rate, review, and share. And now, Cowboys, Not Eggheads with Sam Fischer.
Sam Fischer (00:33.006)
last couple of weeks have been pretty heavy on this podcast. I have good news. The next three weeks will be pretty light. And today I am pleased to welcome my, my friend, my compadre, my buddy who, uh, we've partnered up for six or seven years now in the CrossFit Open as judge and partners, Jeff Nemecek, AKA Nunchucks. And you have been mentioned on the podcast, so everybody knows who Nunchucks is. Welcome brother.
Hello. So to explain to the listeners, Jeff, I've got to set this up so people understand and you can chime in. The CrossFit Open is kind of like the Christmas time for CrossFitters, would you say? It's kind of like the big time of the year. Um, numb chucks is quiet today. Yeah, I apologize. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it's like the big annual event for CrossFitters where everybody in the world does the same workout and there's big drama, which I'll get to in a minute, with the big announcement and everybody analyzes it and misses sleep over it and I'll go into the stupid things that I do for it. It's a big, big, big deal for the CrossFit community in the world. And so...
I think the reason that Jeff and I are partners is because neither one of us takes each other very, we don't take ourselves very seriously. Not at all. And there are some people that get, you know, there are people in our gym that train the entire year for these three weeks. And so it is a big deal. It is a big deal because if the top one fourth of the CrossFit Open will go on to the next step and then the next step after that.
And then the step up for that would be the CrossFit Games. And we have had people in our gym that go all the way to CrossFit Games. But today we're going to talk to a couple of dudes that are just very normal. I am the absolute bottom of the gym. I looked at the, I think I was the lowest in the gym on this particular workout. So I'm going to tell listeners what it was. They understand what the hell we were doing. CrossFit 24 .1 was.
Sam Fischer (02:57.358)
four time, 21 dumbbell snatches on one arm, and then you do 21 lateral burpees over a dumbbell, which means you do a burpee, and then you have to hop laterally over the dumbbell, and then you do 21 dumbbell snatches with your other arm, and then you do another 21 lateral burpees over the dumbbell, and then you do the same thing, 15 dumbbell snatches one arm, 15 lateral burpees.
Over dumbbell 15 dumbbell snatches with the other arm, 15 burpees over the dumbbell. And then you do nine, nine, nine. Basically what we're talking about is 180 reps with a 15 minute cap. Um, now going into this thing, what did you, and I'm going to, I might as this be the appropriate time to talk about the big lead up for this thing is the day before on Thursday, Dave Castro, who is like most people, they, they love to hate him.
or they love him because they hate him. I just think he's a douchebag. And I tweeted as much. And if that gets me thrown out of the gym, so be it. He's a douchebag. The way he presents it is very smug. He's very arrogant. And it's all for entertainment value. I get that. And maybe this podcast is for entertainment value too. So there you go.
but it's just, it's like, just give me the damn workout and I will do the damn workout. There's not one damn workout that me and Numb Chucks are frightened to do. Is that right? Absolutely not. And so for God's sakes, just give us the damn workout. We don't need the fricking, I mean, it's ridiculous. He posts a picture three days, Numb Chucks doesn't know this cause he's not in the social media world, but four days before, before the announcement, he'll, he'll, he'll post an obscure picture. And this year it was a picture of a mushroom.
And everybody's sitting there like, well, I know where it is. You don't know anything. Shut up. You don't know shit. I mean, my God, he could show a picture of his. Listen, he could post a dick pic and people like, well, I wonder, I think I know what that is. Exactly. Oh, he's just, get off yourself. I mean, stop it. This podcast is my therapy, numb chucks. And I am, I'm going to go off today. I'll be your beanbag. Just give us a damn workout. He may get lively, but it's never personal. Okay. So that was the workout. So.
Sam Fischer (05:10.254)
traditionally, I'm back normal now. Traditionally, what num chucks and I've been doing is that he will go first and I judge him. And which means that I make sure he has proper movement. And I'm basically counting the reps, which is important in this one, because I don't know about you, but I lost count of reps. And so he goes first and then I go, but let's back up a little bit. What did, when you first saw this workout, when you first heard about it, what, what were you thinking?
What I initially thought was, damn, my back is gonna take an abusive relationship here. It is gonna be beat up. Burpees, I'm gonna lose my lung power. Basically, I'm gonna be nothing. Yeah, and so when you think about it, it was, you're hinging at the hips 180 times. You're hinging at the hips. Now, I have an L5S1 herniation. I'm not using an excuse, but I'm just telling you how I came into this.
The way I looked at it was, I always look at it like, okay, that's 180 reps in 15 minutes. That means that I have to, in order to finish in a time cap, I've got to do 12 reps per minute. Now I knew with burpees, it ain't going to happen. It's not going to happen. I'm a big dude. It ain't happening. And so I mean, I remember when I was in the best of shape, 30 pounds ago, best of shape I did, we did a hundred burpees for time and I did it in nine minutes, I believe.
And so, okay, then that's just a burpee. That's not a burpee with a lateral over the hopper over the bar. So I'm thinking there's no freaking way that I'm gonna get this under the time -pap. So I mean, 15 reps per freaking minute. That means you're doing a rep every four, what's the math, four seconds? I don't know. Four or five seconds, yeah. Yeah, yeah. mean. Yeah. And so, yeah.
And so I set a goal for myself of, uh, 12 reps per minute. Right. I think you said eight. Did I say eight? Eight. Yes. I'm sorry to get in the time cap. It's 12 reps per minute, 12 reps per minute. Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. And I said, I said go for eight reps per minute. So I look at it. I look at it just in the fear. Like how many, how fast do I think I can move? How many reps per minute do I think I can do? That's how I look at this thing.
Sam Fischer (07:36.366)
I will tell you that the most elite athletes of our gym, Brie, who's been on this podcast many times, she did it. She did the first 84 reps, which is the 20 round of 21. She did that at a pace, a 28, 28 reps per minute. Ladies and gentlemen, that is one rep every two seconds. That is insanity. That is, that is absolutely machine -like. That is somebody who trains.
She's been with Breeze Train for 10 years. That's her job. And she does, she's damn good at her job. Yes. Then you have Numb Chucks and I who are just, uh, we're slubs. Yes, we're, we're slubs. That's right. And so that's the way we look at this now. So going into it, that's what you thought. You thought back and you thought lungs. Then that is correct. Yes. And, uh, you did an outstanding job. I did not, but thank you. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Um, and so.
Jeff was going with 50 pounds because Jeff is younger than I am and his requirement was 50 pounds on that dumbbell. So tell me how, what was the toughest part of that workout after you were done? What did you think? What, what, what was worse? The snatches or the burpees? I'm going to say the burpees. Why? Because you lit your back up. You're going on one arm for 21 reps and then you go right to the burpees. It's all a hinge movement. Yes. Yeah. And I think you did every.
Did you, I think all the snatches you've done, you did unbroken on snatches, didn't you? I did unbroken on snatches and then I went step ups on the burpees. Yes, step up on burpees. To save my back. Yes. And I was influenced by that because initially I thought, well, I'll just do this regularly. No, no, no, no, no, no. Every single burpee I did was step up, step down burpee. And it just, it absolutely saves your back. Yes. Now when you were done with that workout, what did you...
What did you think? Were you disappointed in yourself or did you think, by God, I left it all on that floor? I thought I did a fantastic job for my age. I am 47 years old. Yes, sir. I thought I was proud of myself. Now you look around the gym and you see some of the other people doing their animals and you look like garbage. Yes. Yes. Period. It's true. It's true. And it's something I struggle with. We need to go to a different gym, I think. Um, uh,
Sam Fischer (09:53.262)
Yes, that's exactly the way I felt. Particularly when I started looking around and seeing other people my age just absolutely crush me. Crush me. It's difficult. It's humbling, right? Yes, very humbling. Yes. Very humbling. But at your age, you're doing the reps, you're doing the movement, you did a fantastic job. I love watching you. You're sexy as ever. I think you're. Sammy.
I was moving well. Yes, you did a fantastic job. I just a great team in the gym. I wouldn't even want to know. I mean, did you did you need me to count on that one? You know, honestly, on the probably the burpees, yes, I screwed you on that. You know, I screwed you right now. I did. No, I did not know that you did five too many burpees on the round of 15. Oh, did I really? Yeah, you can take it. Stop. I'll take it. It's extra work for me, right? Yeah, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You went to like we need to go back to grade school and yeah, I need to learn a few things. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
But I couldn't when I was down there all I could think about I mean, what were you think? What do you think about when you are doing this? What are you? Are you thinking black? Are you thinking heat? Are you thinking anger? Are you thinking rage? Are you thinking like I know what stops or what? What do you think? I'm thinking yeah, let's get this time cap over because I'm done. I can't do it anymore. Yeah, what am I doing? But you think why do I do this? This is a torturous relationship I have with CrossFit. Right? Yeah, toxic. Yes. Yes.
Yes, it's like a bad relationship. You can't get out. Yes. Uh huh. Yep. And we keep coming back. We keep coming back for more and I don't care. Stupid. It is stupid. It's unbelievably stupid. Yeah. So when I'm laying down there, I was, I was thinking the entire time, don't you dare regret that you didn't work hard on this. Exactly. Set a goal for yourself. Every time I wanted to break, we did, we both broke a couple of times, but every time I broke, I'm like, do not.
do not regret this, because I'm not gonna, some of these idiots do this twice, some of them will do it three times, like forget it, I ain't gonna do that again. Yeah, that's dumb. It's dumb. And so I'm like, just don't regret, have no regrets going into this. Just go all out, right? And just go all out to your capacity, and my capacity was met. I mean, I set a goal of 120 reps for that workout, and I got 135, so. And you crushed it by 15. I crushed it, brah. You did. I crushed it. Now, my question for you, Sammy.
Sam Fischer (12:17.398)
is after the workout. What were you thinking? You walked away, you had time to yourself. What were you thinking? Well, I have two rules in CrossFit as you know, one is never put your hands on your hips, which I never did. And the second is don't ever hit the floor after workout. And this one was, this one challenged me a little bit on that regard. So what I did is I, Mike, you are going to,
walk outside and get some air and you're going to walk over the fence and if you have to you can lean over that fence but you're not going to hit the floor. I will never give Dave Castro the satisfaction of that. I will never give Kyle Kaspar the satisfaction of hitting the floor after I'm done. Now I have been criticized in the past by some people like, oh you didn't use all the fuel your tank you would never hit the floor. Bullshit. Bullshit. You still got to conquer the rest of your day. Bullshit. You still got to go. So uh...
I never hit the fight, I bullshit. I just find that to be bullshit. And anybody that doesn't think that I didn't use all the gas in my tank, just look at my fricking whoop strain, okay? Because I look at all yours and mine's higher than yours, all these other people. So if it took Bree an eight strain, it took me 14, you know? So that just means I'm working harder. That's a score based on my capacity to work hard. That's all that is. So that means technically I work harder than everybody else in there.
You do? It's outstanding therapy dude. You're a teen man. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so how do you feel today? You know, my back is lit. I've worked till three o 'clock in the morning the night before. Yeah. I'm a mess still. Do I want to do it again? Absolutely not. I'm satisfied with what I hit. Well, no, yeah, exactly. But you'll do it. You'll do this. So Friday we'll have another one and you'll, you'll be there with me. But, um, so what do you, you don't, do you stretch it? Now,
You have Jeff has a kind of the reputation of being the guy that just kind of shows up and Jacks around and stretching the warm -up and then I use my mouth more than I do stretching. All right, and and when you are you home when you're home, do you do anything? Absolutely not. Nothing. You like do not tell Kyle that you do nothing like you do not tell Nissa that either. I won't. They'll listen. But you don't do anything like you don't stretch. You don't do any ups and so you don't do anything. No, I play guitar. You play guitar. That's it. That's it.
Sam Fischer (14:41.006)
So here's what I did in preparation. I'm also embarrassed. Okay, please tell me. But I'll tell you what I did. I took, for the first time ever, I followed, I have like a of people that work on me all the time. And I spend tons of money on this stuff. And that's another thing about CrossFit, it costs more money. It always costs more money, dude. And I...
So I had a four consecutive days at Epsom salt baths and then he absolutely did help. His soft tissue was not, I'm not, I wasn't quite as, uh, kinked up as I normally am. And then, and I'm doing this, this little, this little routine throughout the open on Thursday, I see my, my, my physical therapist for an hour. And then 30 minutes later, I go see my deep tissue massage person. And I'm not, when I.
Ladies and gentlemen, I get a massage. I don't. It's I'm not asleep. It is like fricking rush. I go for pain. She's cupping me on my back and she is extremely strong. She's like the best massage therapist in town. I won't give her a name because she doesn't want to see any other crossfitters. She thinks they're all like me, but she's like wiped out when she's done with me. And I mean, I'm I'm just like screaming in pain, right?
Sam Fischer (16:02.51)
And then the next day at 10 a .m. I went to the stretch zone and I've got this guy who's, he's extremely strong and he's actually leaving his last day is like coming up and I won't see him next week but he stretched me for an hour and he spent probably 30 minutes on my right hip to get full internal rotation and he was doing a technique called flossing.
which is like going back and forth, back and forth. And I mean, I'm screaming in pain and just, just to get ready for this one workout. So I, I, I spent approximately 260 to 280 bucks just for this one freaking workout. And what happens, I come in dead last and, and, uh, in my heart, but I get, not in my heart. You're welcome. Um,
It's nuts. Yes. All right. So what's I'm going to finish with this. What is your eye? What is your ideal open workout? Like if you don't say like honestly, here's exactly what I would like to do. As you say, me at the gym, I always say, Dave Castro, let people feel like they're doing something right. Make you feel like you're important, like you're matter in this crossword fit world. Do a hundred burpees for time.
Is Kyle going to beat me? Absolutely he is, right? But at least you give me some kind of hope that I can finish these workouts and do it without wrecking my body. So an ideal one would be a hundred burpees for time, a mile run. I'll take it. See, I wouldn't do that at all. Neither one of those. No wait. And so this first one did not meet your standard, did it? It did not. No, it couldn't be the time you have. is all back workout, right? It does something me and you struggle with, right? Our backs. Yes.
Yes. Okay. Well, your strength is see, that's interesting. I would think it would, yours would involve pull ups or something. That's where you pull ups. I can do. Yes. You can rock those out. Well, thank you for me. It would be like a salt bike and bench press. I can see you doing a salt bike. I think I could bench press. You'd kill it all day. I think I'd be okay. Uh, I wouldn't be, cause right now as it sits, uh, I'm roughly out of the.
Sam Fischer (18:25.282)
out of the 3 ,400 people my age in the entire world that actually do this between the ages of 55 and 59 that have entered the open, out of 3 ,400, I'm sitting approximately 2 ,800 out of 3 ,400. And my goal was basically to be in the middle. But if they on Friday gave me something like bench press and assault bike, I think I could get those numbers up. You would kill it, yes. Yeah. Yeah.
But knowing Dave Castro, right? He's going to do something along the lines of bench pressing where you build and wait and you do it where you crush yourself, right? Right. Yeah. So I don't think I'm sure bench press has never been in the open, but why not? No, come on. Try something different. Make the little people feel important, right? I do pushups and setups are going to be in the open. So you really, now what's your prediction for the next workout? Just curious.
Oh, I don't have to. I don't I don't I don't care. Exactly. In that game. We don't matter, brother. We live our lives every day. Don't we? And we'll get it done. Agree. Done. Jeff, thank you. Do you have anything else to add today? You know, I'm sorry. Normally. I did all the talking. Yeah, no, it's all right because Jeff is a it's a Sunday morning. He's just he's just flying by the seats of pants. So I apologize. I've seen no Chuck Silver groggy. I know I'm out of it, but.
I do apologize. It's so good brother. Thank you for being on. Thank you.