Europe Is Coming
Europe Is Coming
CrossFit Games Seminal 2026: MAD Programming
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Hello everyone, welcome back to the Europe is Coming podcast. My name's Adam Giles, and as ever, I am joined by John Tingleton. How are you, John? How's your week been?
SPEAKER_01I'm good. It's been a pretty standard week, which is nice. Nice. No traveling. No traveling, which you know is sometimes a bit of a novelty, but uh I'm enjoying it. Yeah, nice, nice.
SPEAKER_02Uh, we've got some people on the live. Welcome if you're joining us live on YouTube. And as mentioned last week, uh, this week, we've got a very exciting episode. We are gonna go over the Mad Fitness Festival 2026 semi-final programming. Um, for those watching, we're gonna we're gonna focus on the indie stuff. Just because we thought it might be a bit repetitious to go through all of it, but it is getting announced. When when is it getting shared by Mad John?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so after the podcast, I think everything's shared to go out. And as you mentioned, it was an interesting thing regarding uh the team workouts, which can go into a bit more detail, but how to structure those based on the individual competition as well. But yeah, everything like all um the 35 plus and also the crown will get released, at least the and not necessarily all the flows and everything like that, but the workouts will get released on the mad Instagram after the podcast.
SPEAKER_02Okay, cool, cool. And I'll uh I'll put a link into the description for for the for the audio listeners. So if you listen to this on audio, you'll um there'll be a link there, you can click on it that to uh to get access. Um so before we get into this, set the scene. So you get asked to program for for Mad Fitness Festival. Um, what kind of what was your thoughts going into this? What what was there anything in particular you wanted to get across in the programming?
SPEAKER_01I think it's I think it's like a real honour to program for semi-finals after or being able to program any part of the season. You know, something as a sport you know I've watched and participated in for a long time. And I remember when I always thought it was actually quite a big thing that maybe wasn't spoken about as much, but when programming got handed out to the sanctional events, because it was really the first time that CrossFit programming had been like given out to someone else, you know, it was always held internally before that. So I think it's uh well, first it's like a big privilege to be able to do it. I don't know. We have a lot of respect for it because you know, more so than a lot of people, we've seen the impact and lift that impact for better and worse, the the effect it can have on someone's life getting to the games. Like some people train a large majority of their life in order to make that point. And so we took it as a big responsibility in order to put together a test that you know, I think is something that's there's there's lots of factors that we can look into, but in essence, it's like uh a balance test over this many events to be able to qualify someone through.
SPEAKER_02Very cool, very cool. Yeah, and I I completely understand that. So we've got a few people on the live, I'm sure they they want us to get straight into the programming. So we'll usual. I know. Normally, normally in great everyone listens to this on their favorite podcast platform and don't normally join us in live. So it is very cool to see people in live. If you are with us live, feel free to get in the comments and ask questions, and we'll try and answer as many as you can. So forward at the programming. Um, because everyone should be able to see this. Hopefully, I'll try. Let me let me see if I can zoom in a tiny bit more just so everyone can see it on screen. There we go.
SPEAKER_01Okay. You jump, we just like to jump the gun straight in and full display.
SPEAKER_02Straight in, full display, yeah. So we'll start with indie workout one. Let me I'll zoom in a bit more just so we can focus on that particular. Um, so indie workout one is four time, a 1.25k run, 1.5 ski, 1.25k run again, 1.5 row, uh, 1.25 run, and then 75 burpees over log. Uh and the time cap for that is 40 minutes. Do you want to take us through uh the workout, John, and kind of what the thought around this was?
SPEAKER_01Uh so this one had already been released, actually. And the idea was it was to be able to do a longer conditioning event, uh, which is obvious through this. And you know, it wasn't just we had like free reign to do whatever we want to do with the programming. We had to follow certain criteria. And I think one thing that's really nice in starting a competition is you can get like mass start events, and we know there's similarities to this and the mayhem that came out. You know, everyone's starting together, and we're going to be able to set up really cool uh venue in Ciudad Real as well for this this event. So we wanted it to be long. We wanted to be able to be able to get a lot of people through at once, and therefore this longer conditioning format plays in well to that with the the running. And we also wanted to implement something that we'd seen before, maybe at games, it wasn't so outrageous, but this kind of burpees over the log. And uh, we thought it would be quite a novel, a novel introduction until we saw it come up in the first week as well. But and I think it's it's fun to see that there's similar thought processes in terms of what goes into a semi-final workout.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. And uh, one of the things that I mean it's funny because you mentioned on the podcast, seems we did our review of uh of mayhem, you were like, we've also got a burpee overlook.
SPEAKER_01It'd be cool to see how the athletes handle it as well, and if there's anything that they can learn from mayhem and and put into practice here, or or or whether it's a completely unique test, and we just we see people experience and it was is cool because there's a reason why lots of new things don't get introduced, and this is why the games has always been so impressive in terms of what Rogue have managed to do. You know, Castro's kind of asked, build me an obstacle course. Just like, yeah, okay, or you know, build me this device, like the snail or the pig, or all these, all these different things. And uh they managed to do it. But it's it's it's not an easy task for an equipment company just to come up with these crazy devices, and it's like a testament to how impressive rogue can be, you know, when you especially when you go to the like when the rogue event was in in uh Texas and you saw like the these deadlift frames or the roller coaster or the wheel dead, like you know, we've managed to build something quite cool as well with a log, but it was a push to uh to get then. So like shout out to Ruster for putting that together. I'm excited to see that in practice. Yeah, and another another thing I would say, like the process. So we program probably for three to four events throughout the year, and we have a standardized process. So uh myself and our head coach Chris go through, you know, go through all the brace, go through everything together. And then usually we have an extra person internally to kind of thought check it and proof everything. But this time, because of the you know, this this programming got ends up going through a lot of people. You've got to coordinate with the equipment, with CrossFit themselves, etc. So then we used, we didn't want to bring anyone else into the internal team, so then it got sent off for uh verification by by the competition team and by CrossFit's team as well.
SPEAKER_02And you mentioned that there were some like criteria to hit. Was was some was there something in kind of the first um event having to be kind of a longer workout or having like more conditioning components in it or something like that?
SPEAKER_01Um so you had to have a certain set number of workouts, which was or the there was a certain criteria that they they want more or less around that six events. You know, over the years I think semis have become a bit standardized. So they want you to be able to have something that's slightly longer, contain something that's slightly stronger. There's a classic criteria for for you to follow. I mean, and it makes sense when you've followed semis programming for this long as well.
SPEAKER_02And uh has anyone anyone tested this first one out? Have you given it a whirl at all? Have you given the the first one a go?
SPEAKER_01Not specifically after it after it got announced, we uh had some people go through. Um, but for those who've been to La Real, the the part that we're gonna do on has a bit of sand as well. So that'll influence the running where we go around. And I they put a video up on their Instagram to show the track and how it will finish. You know, there's certain logistical concerns as well, like if you have the run at the end, how does that affect judging? How does that affect timing chips? There's certain things that went back and forth in order how do we get uh this kind of long workout in, but not have it so that it's taking you know, volunteers are gonna have to be outside for 14 hours. So there was some some stuff back and forth in that regard. And they they've announced for the the team as well that they will do the in essence the same work, a kind of shared stations, but it'll be a similar workout.
SPEAKER_02And in terms of the run, did you is it on a track? You're saying is it on that like a running track or is it on like a route?
SPEAKER_01It's kind of it's on a route. So this is a nice thing about the venue, is it has a huge outdoor area that's all kind of fenced off. They use it for lots of different big events, and so on this fenced-off area within the venue, you can fit in a 1.25k run. So, and also the run's just going to be one lap, which is quite a fun thing to be able to do. Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, cool. Very cool. Nice to follow, easy to see what's kind of what's happening as well in that regard. And in terms of the burpee on the log, one of the things I noticed from Mayhem was that they kind of had spray painted almost like lanes on the log, because they had like one big log that all the athletes went over. What's in terms of the logs up, uh I don't obviously we don't have pictures of it or anything like that, but like is there anything similar to that the athletes can expect?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so there'll be lanes that they then have to stay in, uh, you know, as to raise the idea. Um and they'll be brief, but it it it's similar. I I from the looks of it, I didn't oh or they put the measurements at the mayhem, they're slightly smaller than the uh the mayhem log, so the style becomes a bit different.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01And the heights more similar to what they did at the games in 20 the it was the the COVID games in 2020. And they had a burpee workout through there. The height's a lot more similar to to that height for people wondering.
SPEAKER_02Okay, cool. Um, and have you got any uh what do you think time-wise finishing? What do you think the fastest finisher is going to be finishing this around?
SPEAKER_01I think there'll be around 30 minutes, maybe a bit under. Yeah. I I think there'll be some some good runners. And you know, I think a certain type of athlete will look at this workout and be like, you know, then they know you just know with this long workout and a lot of running and and relatively high amount of burpees how it's going to fit relative to the field. Yeah, nice.
SPEAKER_02Okay, cool. Very cool way to kick off. So into indie two, um, which is four four times, sorry, ten rounds, ten toaster bar, ten front squats, sixty for gents, forty-five for ladies, uh, and that's some kilos, and the time cap is 10 minutes for this one.
SPEAKER_01So the thought process here was we wanted something that was kind of easy to start, but really built up. And it's the same. Now, ultimately, for lots of people going through a few rounds of 10 toes to buy 10 front squats, it doesn't become meaningful, but eventually that volume adds up from you know, obviously going to a 100 reps in total. And we wanted to put then so you know, the pacing we think is going to be quite interesting here. Like, do you choose to go out and hope that you can hold on, or do you end up being you know a bit more conservative in those first rounds and confident in your ability so you can push the pace at the end? And again, this workout's gonna be there's the squatters will be very happy with with something like that, like speed of squats and ability to keep them unbroken. It's gonna be the hope is there's gonna be some exciting races here. We also put a time cap relatively tight. I mean, I don't think it'd be a worry for the top athletes, but a little bit of a focus that, you know, can you finish this going em? You know, also for people at home to be able to try, like, could I hit this as an emo and get through the 10 minutes?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, when do you when do you think it's gonna really start to we're gonna start seeing the kind of race play out? What round do you think that that's gonna start really kind of coming into effect?
SPEAKER_01I do think the top athlete is gonna have to race from the start and hope that they can they can hold on. And it, you know, you shouldn't they shouldn't ever have to question going unbroken at 10 reps. But I think if you've gone out a bit too hot, then that question starts to creep in a bit more.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure. And is is Colton Mertens making a surprise appearance at Mud?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. This uh this is the the jam. I mean just the squat speed in this is it's gonna be important.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean you you'd think that it's gonna be sort of unbroken the whole way, right? Like that no one's gonna be breaking either of these one the bell bowl, they don't want to have to pick it up again and toaster bar, most athletes are gonna be able to knock out ten toaster bar, I imagine, pretty comfortably.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I don't see that being too much of a problem. It'll just more come down to the ability to race and and get through. And that's why I wanted something like that. Does hopefully we get some exciting finishes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, nice. Do you think the kind of grip or or anything like that, like having to maintain front rack throughout the workout, would do you think that'll play play a factor at all for anyone?
SPEAKER_01I think it can play a bit of a factor. Also just with the high heart rate for a longer period of time and always having to hold on to something could could play into it. Yeah, interesting.
SPEAKER_02Do you know how many people are gonna be able to get into heat for this?
SPEAKER_01Is it gonna be sort of 10 and 10 or um I believe it's I believe there's a 14-person rig, but I'd have to confirm, reconfirm.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Cool. Very cool. Yeah, so some fun racing on this one. So far, we've got two that are gonna have like some good finishes to them, I think. Both of these workouts can have really been entertaining. And that was, you know, I think that's that's the thing with any of the semifinals, is another thing that I kind of took from mayhem was like the racing was was fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think we'll see on the finishing with the burpees on event one is gonna be interesting because you can gain or lose a lot of time on those last burpees. So you might be able to come in with like a significant advantage. But for people who are quick at burpees and have paced well, they'll be able to gain like minutes in the in the last set of burpees.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure. Especially over the log. I th I saw on the ladies' heat, I can't remember who started off, but there was like this technique that they started kind of doing that was just far quicker to kind of like get up and over the log. So it'll be interesting to see if that that sort of technical stuff comes into play on that as well. Okay. Indie three. Right, four time, 18, 12, and six, dumbbell-seated strict press. I'm a big fan of this already. I like uh dumbbell-seated strict press. It's uh it's dear to my heart, and then go into one, two, three, rope climb from seats from seated, and that's 15 foot, and then directly into um 18, 12, 6 dumbbell bench press. Uh the strict press is at uh is two dumbbells at 22 and a half and 15 for the ladies, and the bench press then goes up to 32 and a half and 22 and a half. Um, and then you finish the workout with uh four rope climbs, I guess, for the ladies and five for the gents.
SPEAKER_01And no, so it's in between. So you still go 18, 4, 12, 5. Uh agree.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Nice. So I'll read that again just just in case. So you get you got 18 seated strict press, one rope climb, 12 seated strict press, two rope climbs, six um seated strict press, three rope climbs, and then directly into eighteen bench press, four rope climbs, twelve bench press, five rope climbs, and then finish with six dumbbell bench press. And there's a nine-minute time cap on that, which sounds punchy to me. It is punchy.
SPEAKER_01It's uh the the thought process of this workout was we really wanted to get strict gymnastics working or like a great push-pull workout. And honestly, with handstand push-ups, I think there's certain you know, there's certain people who well, handstand push-ups are almost easier than push-ups. So it's like you can really get away, you know, if this workout were to come up, it's almost like they don't have to think about the movement. You see, the range of motion is so small. Whereas with the seated strip press, you're forced to use at least a bit more range of motion because you have to come down to the shoulder. And also the you know, if we learn standing, it's a lot easier to get away with different movement. Like, how do you judge the sway back or people moving? And so we wanted to have a movement that was like going to really test people's pressing under fatigue, and do so in a way that you know was a kind of a controlled environment, not because the judging's super strict, but just because the movement forces that to uh to occur. And it's it's a fun one to play about with because once you've gone to failure on these movements, it can become very hard. And so we you know put the rope climb from seated on purpose at the start. So again, to play into that fatigue, and then it kind of eases as the as the workout gets on, being able to kind of go to normal rope climbs.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and uh on the seated, are they just sat on the bench press bench for the seated presses, or are they on the floor, or how how's that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a seated is a good question, so it's on the bench. So you'd be seated on the bench. We played about with a few variations of this. We had like people the trouble with the floor is that flexibility becomes a big issue. So for the athletes who aren't very flexible, you know, the movement's really challenging because they don't have the movement in the hamstrings, they don't have in the in the shoulders, and so therefore they just end up going out in front. Whereas on the bench, because you take away that movement component, then they are able to get over overhead.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, cool. Um, and in terms of the rope climb from seated, so they can start seated and then they can bring their feet in once they're far enough up. Yeah. Okay, cool. Cool. And what was the why the choice to to kind of increase the weight to the bench press just because you felt like 22 and a half is probably not challenging enough for for the bench?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, rather than just going crazy and like rep volume, we wanted to keep the rep volume relatively low and just increase the the weights of the bench. And this bench has been used pretty standard uh weight, you know, it's for the athletes now. This rep scheme with just the bench and the rope climbs wouldn't be too crazy, but having to do it after fatigue is where where things get interesting. And I think them it's one of these workouts that someone could be doing extremely well all the way into the last couple of rounds, and then all of a sudden, you know, if they've if they've lost that pressing ability, the recovery time can be so long to get it back.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Do you think do you think that's gonna catch up on people? And at what point do you think that's gonna they're gonna hit in the workout?
SPEAKER_01I'd be surprised at how um how quickly they notice going from even into the round of 12. I mean, it's quite a low rep scheme. The 18 18 seating strip press, I think, is the nice part of this workout. And it kind of uh then you start having to play about with it.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um we've actually had a question from Jafolo in the comment section. Do we know if the rope is a true 15-foot rope?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's uh 15-foot rope. So it's on the Ruster of Done various uh semi-finals as well, and so beyond the Ruster Ruster rig.
SPEAKER_02Okay, cool. Very cool. Gang, do keep getting your questions in if you have any any any comments as well for John on this. So Indie Workout 4 is a one rep max snatch, 20 seconds on 20 seconds transition. Um and this is building by the looks of things. So are these set weights that they have to hit 20 seconds to hit the lift, then 20 seconds to transition?
SPEAKER_01This this event was actually inspired or slightly modified from German throwdown. I mean, we've been to a few German throwdown events over the years, and obviously, one of the most common events at a CrossFit competition is a max lift or a heavy lift. And personally, I really like ladders, I think they're really exciting to watch. You get cool races happening at the end. There's a couple of things with a ladder, and one is obviously like the amount of weight that you need and the amount of time it takes to get people through. And I think there's another thing with them lifting is that when you have these, say just eight eight minutes for someone to lift, it's really hard to highlight people when they've done well. So it's like all of a sudden someone on the third platform hits a PR or whatever it may be, and they can't really celebrate. Well, they do celebrate. break, but no the crowd can't see. What I thought was quite clever with this way of doing it is that everyone gets their, you know, everyone who makes it to the heavy bar gets their big moment. They'll be in front of the crowd and they go through. And then the question is, okay, how do you tie break something like this on these set weights? And the tie break of this comes down to the overhead squat. So and there can become a bit of a a strategy for the athletes as well through this. Like let's say I, you know, I hit 130, I'm not sure I'm going to hit 132. Do I take the risk of fatiguing myself more and trying to get a good tie break so I jump on that? Or do I save myself for the 132 and try to push there? So there's some strategic things that come in with the the tie break at the end. We had a lot of back and forth with uh people on the weights so this is these are the weights that we uh end up coming down to and for people who want to see actually you can go back and watch the the Germans throw down events that are on they're on YouTube. They've done it previously with a clean and also with a snatch and what you see is obviously the stronger lifter when they have to then go into the overhead squats it's it's a lot easier for them. If 132 is your max lift you know you're not exactly standing up quick and then going through a a lot of overhead squats. Whereas you know for guys who are hitting over 140 plus then you know they it's a lot easier for them to get organized and rep out in that timeframe.
SPEAKER_02Okay cool. So for if if you haven't tuned in live and you can't see the screen I will read this out for our audio listeners. The weights are for guys opening bar is 110 then it goes to 120 and 125 128 130 and the final bar is 132 kilos. And then for the ladies it's 70 75 80 83 85 and the final bar is 87. And the tie break correct me if I'm wrong is whichever bar you want to kind of finish on is max overhead squats at that weight. And that's kind of where you were saying that perhaps it you you have a decision to make whether you go for push it and go for the next heavy bar or try and get as many overhead squats as you can on that on the previous bar.
SPEAKER_01Exactly so you know let's say you know nervous about the 128 bar that I might not make that weight then what some athletes may choose to do is at the 125 you push for the tie break there before you attempt. And obviously if you make the 128 you jump into that next section um so on and so forth. So like after I hit the 128 my overhead squats will count at that weight um but obviously everyone who hits 130 would then be above me in the leaderboard.
SPEAKER_02Yeah nice nice yeah I'd be pretty nervous at 110 let alone 128 to be fair um in terms of do you see that many people kind of get into the final bar and then we just end up with like an overhead squat off between you know the guys and girls kind of at some of these weights what do you think?
SPEAKER_01Um we could do that there there'll be a a few hitting over 130 I mean it's not going to be like a a huge amount and in the field. But I think that's where the movement efficiency comes in. You know we again we had to uh choose a weight and and I I know I think that we'll probably be seeing maybe around six athletes or so getting this 132 and then it does come down to the overhead squat. This was a nice thing having seen it tested live before is that you you see that the strong athletes are there's a big there's a big separator between someone who can hit 132 comfortably and someone who struggles to hit 132 in terms of getting overhead squats after. And like this is why I wanted to put overhead squats not like you know we some competitions dumb burpees or these other things that aren't relevant to the movement or you know or even a deadlift. But the thing about the overhead squats is like you have to be strong enough in order to stabilize after such a big lift.
SPEAKER_02Yeah absolutely absolutely I think it's going to be really interesting interesting rates and I I don't know I could be wrong and I apologize if I am but I have a feeling that we might get a bit more of that on the on the lady side of things kind of with that final bar than maybe the guys but I could be well well wrong with that. But yeah exciting one to watch another I think I mean obviously I'm biased I do a podcast with you but so far I'm I really I think that these are really nice and they're going to be really entertaining to watch. I think that's sometimes my criticism of some of the comp workouts I've seen in the past is that sometimes they're not as entertaining when we get to the business end. And I completely agree with you on the on the one rep lift like I was watching comp the other day and they and they were zoomed in on someone and they're about to hit their lift and then they panned over to someone else. I was like I was I wanted to see that person lift so I really like the fact that you everyone's going to get the showcase their their lifting abilities on this. Is the rope climb legless it is not legless but the first rope climb does need to be start started from a seated position so on the floor. Nice keep getting those comments and questions in the chat team so moving on indie workout five um so this is one of those again correct me if I'm wrong this is going to be kind of like one of those interval style workouts John where it's two minutes on, one minute off then two minutes on one minute off two minutes on one minute off two minutes on to try and get through um this as fast as you can so you get 25 chester bar 50 beaded double rope double unders and then there's going to be an AMRAP at the end of five sandbag cleans um at 200 pounds for the guys 150 pounds for the ladies and did you have to advance the bag what's what's the how's the mechanics of this workout?
SPEAKER_01Yeah I mean so some of the the flows are not necessarily uh within the workout descriptions here uh but there'll be certain flows as you go through but yes it's just literally that once you've done five you then take it to the next section and do your five there take it to the next section I mean people who've watched CrossFit competitions before will have a very clear idea of how that will work.
SPEAKER_02So there'll be like a in their lane there'll be like a section every every round they'll progress it. Yeah. And it's max max sandbag reps is the score I'm guessing. Exactly so number of sandbags we have a minimum work requirement that you have to get through the at least the chester bar and the double under so you know that is the you can't just rest a whole interval you have to do minimum work in order to advance the next uh the next interval yeah nice nice I like this I I do quite like the what versions of this where there is like a you can finish early like the reward of finishing early however I do appreciate from an athlete and coach perspective they are brutal because then you end up having to do loads of extra work which affects your next workout whereas this is more you know everyone's still doing the same amount amount of time of work. So I think it's probably fairer in that perspective.
SPEAKER_01It's a bit what we spoke about with the programming before where it's like I I think obviously it incentivizes the athlete to to do a bit more but for here everyone be working for that same amount of time as they as they go through. And the the B to double unders you know we again we we kind of had to add some uh some equipment pieces in so the B to double unders are there I think annual will be very happy that he doesn't have to do crossover doubles in order to get through. But I think this was another thing we just wanted the test to be like fun races you know we didn't want to put anything that was that was crazy. We just want to see fun races and have the fittest person emerge and I think with this as well we didn't want it to just become about an AMRAP of sandbag cleans which is why we've got you know you'd be accumulating a hundred chester bar and and two hundred beaded double or so but they will become significant in that in that workout.
SPEAKER_02And the beaded rope is it does it feel a bit more like a heavy rope like obviously beaded ropes vary I'm guessing this is supplied by the um equipment sponsor what can athletes expect from the beaded rope it's not necessarily it depends the ropes are so varied now between the heavy ropes and whatnot.
SPEAKER_01The one thing with the beaded rope is you do have to put a little bit more energy into getting it to move just because of its design. So I think sometimes some athletes can find it a bit more fatiguing than the heavy rope because you don't have that momentum going around. But I I think it's a bit athlete dependent on which rope they prefer like you know with the heavy double unders or whatever it may be with the weighted handle weighted cable in this example it's just those having to generate the momentum with it is a little bit more challenging than just having your standard right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah nice and in terms of in terms of the sandbag weight what made you kind of settle on 200 pounds for the guys 150 for the ladies?
SPEAKER_01It's heavy we wanted we wanted a something that was challenging this work how we had to and we had some other ideas at start from like a sandbag to obstacle and all these things that we couldn't necessarily implement. But it it in essence the weight was kind of predetermined by the sandbags that we have and we wanted to get a weight that was also challenging because again we didn't just want to have people repping huge amounts of reps just as they finished this we wanted it to be a bit more of a strength challenge as well so that's why we came with the the 200 150 and it's uh it's not a light sandbag this there will be your ability to move the sandbag is gonna really influence your ability in the workouts. And you know as you are pushing the time on the sandbag you're going to be fatiguing your grip again for the chester bar and the double undersafter so the idea was there's a bit more interference through through the workout.
SPEAKER_02Yeah I mean I I think what certainly for the first maybe round or two you could start to see maybe some athletes going you know touch and go on on for five but I don't think that's going to last very long if they do do you think people will attack this quick singles or or try and yeah I always think quick I think quick singles I I think it'll be it'd be challenging to go out there and start just touch and going. Okay. Nice so that's individual workout number five on to the last the final workout uh number six for time 20 meter handstand walk over an obstacle um 15 cows for guys 10 for ladies on an echo bike and then 20 ring muscle ups for gents 15 for ladies then 15 calorie echo bike 10 for ladies and then a 20 meter handstand walk back over the obstacle quick one this one seven minute time caps this is kind of a fast and furious finisher yeah I also think that a lot of people will be getting in under this time cap.
SPEAKER_01So to clarify the the obstacle it will be you know your your classic semi-final regionals obstacle they'll start going over the ramp down the stairs and then finish going up the stairs down the the ramp. We we put 20 meters because that'll be the you know the the total length and the obstacle or the ramp will be in the middle.
SPEAKER_02Nice so from a flow perspective where's the bike and and the rings in relation to the ramp?
SPEAKER_01So the athletes will go on the start mat, three, two, one go, they handstand walk up the up the ramp, down the stairs to the end of the line, then they jump onto the bike that shall be the next portion do their calories on the bike they then go to the rings then do the same comeback they go to the bike and then walk this time over the stairs into the finish line. Nice they finish where they start yeah very cool very cool and uh what do you think the separator is going to be here for athletes what do you where do you think the racing is going to really be uh we wanted a workout where you know if you're on that fringe of qualifying for the games you really can you can send it and not know what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02The Cole Sager workout is how I like to think about it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah and there's been lots of these examples that you know semis over the years or regionals back in the day where all of a sudden even someone from the non-top heat has managed to come in and do really well because the rep scheme in this you know for these guys like 15 calories on the echo the the the handstand walk shouldn't be a problem I'd be going through it quick. You know the 15 calorie echo you know it's it's a an in some ways a a very low number for these guys. 2015 ring muscle ups again ability to get unbroken should be should be fine for the top and then you go back saying small number and then you've got to get over the obstacle but if you want to do if you want to do well and maybe that spot's on the line then you're kind of going to have to push a little bit harder than you want. The hamstambox going to be a bit quicker you're gonna have to kick up quicker the calories are going to have to go quicker than you would necessarily do um if you're taking it easy you're gonna have to fight to go unbroken and then the same on the way back and as we've seen like having to go up the stairs on the last one and kick up maybe a bit before you want to should create some exciting finishes. Yeah with your heart rate in your ears um after that echo bike yeah exactly and you know the handstand walk on the stairs it's it's something that's been around now for I don't know eight years something like that. So the athletes have have got used to it but it's still a a factor that can you know if you have a bit of a wobble and you have to start back it's maybe not the best for the athlete but very exciting for the fans to be watching.
SPEAKER_02Yeah absolutely um and in this workout you've kind of mentioned that kind of going unbroken and and all that kind of stuff do you how how big a do you think transitions will play a part in this this sort of workout do you think the speed of transitions is going to or do you think it's just it kind of flows and there won't be too big a factor it's more about pushing the intensity yeah I think it's more about the intensity I don't think that the the transitions in this will matter too much.
SPEAKER_01Like in the 10 rounds for time with the toes to bar and front squat those transitions are very significant. Whereas in this because of the way it flows I don't think the the athletes will will necessarily made or it would be made on the transitions it'd be more made on the intensity as you said. Okay cool.
SPEAKER_02I know that I'm conscious there's a few people that joined us a little bit after we started so I'm just gonna do a bit of a recap over all of the workouts again and job maybe chuck in some any any other flow stuff that you think might come up because I know we didn't we didn't go through the flow on all of them. But Indie1 is going to be four times going to be outside it's gonna start with a 1.25k run then a 1.5 ski um 1.25k run 1.5k row 1.25k run again and then 75 burpees over the log to finish all going to be outdoors cool log setup as John mentioned the time cap for that is 40 workout two is going to be 10 re uh 10 rounds for time sorry of 10 toes to bar 10 front squats 60 kilos on the bar for the gents 45 kilos on the bar for the ladies 10 minute time cap for that one then indie workout three is going to be four time it's gonna be 18 seated dumbbell strip press at 22 and a half kilos for guys 15 kilos for ladies followed by one rope climb which is going to start in the seated position up to 15 foot um then it's going to be 12 seated strip press then two rope climbs and six seated strict press then three rope climbs that's gonna directly followed by bench press this time two dumbbells at 32 and a half kilos for guys 22 and a half kilos for ladies that's gonna be a rep scheme of 18 followed by four rope climbs for 15 foot target then um 12 bench press followed by five rope climbs and then the finisher is six dumbbell bench press that's a nine minute time cap sorry then the look the workout four is going to be a one rep max snatch you're gonna have 20 seconds to lift then 20 seconds transition the weights are set so for the guys it'll be 110 kilos 120 125 128 130 132 um and then the tie break will be as many overhead squats on the athlete's final weight of their choosing um so as John and I talked about if you want to go for it then you can go to the next weight if you don't then you can kind of cycle the bar at the the weight you're on uh for ladies it'll be 70 75 80 83 85 and 87 kilos and then indie five is two minute window with a one minute rest after each window in that two minute window you'll complete 25 chester bar 50 beaded downers and then an AMRAP of five uh of max uh sandbag cleans sorry and you'll do that in increments of five sandbag cleans and then advance your sandbag and the weight will be 200 pounds for guys 150 pounds for ladies and it's four rounds of that workout time is 11 minutes and then the last one which we just went through which is the handstand 20 minute handstand walk 15 uh calorie echo for guys 10 for ladies 20 ring muscle ups for guys 15 for ladies 15 uh calorie echo 10 um for ladies and then a 20 meter handstand walk over the obstacle seven minute time cap so if you did join us late those are the workouts again anything to add on those John now we're looking back no now they're now they're out there I'm excited to see the athletes throw down I mean we only have uh a few weeks so it's gonna be it's always exciting to see these things play out after you've you know you've spent a lot of time going through and debating back and forth. Yeah I bet it's uh being being put down yeah I bet it's super exciting but also like you know nerve wracking kind of having people kind of test and uh view these workouts now and sort of we we kind of review other comps workouts so it's now kind of being on the other side end of that I don't know that you do that for a lot of competitions but it's it's cool to have a semi-final like you said and at the top kind of the honour of of doing doing one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah I think it's always interesting you know I the sport has evolved so much through this type of feedback. You know I I like to think that I'm a lot better at programming and also now with our head coach Chris that like together as a team we we can do a lot better job than we could have done 10 years ago. And that and that comes through feedback watching this play out learning from this and then being able to advance it forward. I think this is one interesting thing with with CrossFits and you know we've we've spoken a lot about standardizing the test one thing has to be said there's this kind of advancement of the well there should be some advancement of the sport as you learn, see new things, athletes get better at adapting whatever it may be, that you kind of allow for these changes to to occur over the years.
SPEAKER_02Yeah exciting stuff there's a couple of comments I just wanted to get your feedback on um so so uh all sort of the same vein. So one question was are the same are the same workouts for the masters um also what are the changes for the crown and then um also when are we finding out the team workouts?
SPEAKER_01So there's a few people kind of wanting to know about the other variations of these workouts so we went back and forth so starting with the team we went back and forth should we write a completely different set of tests in order and apply them to the team athletes um we went back and forth and one thing is obviously logistical then the other side of it was you know we've already got this balanced test how can we apply this balanced test across to athletes of four so there will be you know certain things are different obviously as I see but the workouts will get released I think in the next 15 minutes for the team they're gonna have a lot of similarities there'll be six workouts the first workouts already been announced as the same lifting's gonna be the same so there's we tried to find the quality of getting enough teamwork synchronization work the stuff that CrossFit team's famous for and then also being able to showcase the individual members of the team as well and then the masters and the crown again they're both going to have uh same number of tests similar tests but they're gonna be slightly varied the crown for example we tried to not always just push the weights because of the the you know the age of the athletes and the upcoming athletes so the weights will be a bit varied more and that might impact like they might be doing more reps or different reps scheme and then with the masters for example like you know a lot of these a lot of the 35 masters are you know they're they're certainly strong enough to compete with the individual so we've tweaked that according to their ability as well.
SPEAKER_02Nice and if anyone listening is like yeah kind of that sounds great. Where can I find the workouts? Where can people go to kind of check all of these out. Are they uh on Mad Fitness Festival's Instagram now?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I believe they'll go up on the program, Instagram, Mad Instagram around in 15 minutes or so. So they'll all be able to for everyone to see then. I think at this moment in time, this is the only place the only place you can see them. But in 15 minutes it will all be all be out in public.
SPEAKER_02Okay, great. So if you are watching along and you're like these individual workouts are great but I want to see the team workouts or the crown workouts or the masters workouts, they'll all be up on the programs Instagram and the Mad Fitness Festival Instagram. I will put links as well in the description of this video, but also if you're listening tomorrow, good morning to you if you're listening in the morning or the evening, whenever you're listening, but I'll put them in the link in the description as well. So whatever podcast platform you're listening on, look in the description. There'll be links to those workouts. Nice. Just having a look at the comments and question section. There was a question saying are there going to be any cuts? I'm pretty sure being a semi-final there are no cuts. So no one's going to be getting cut from from the uh from the workouts. And then another question to explain the sandbag. So just a quickly recap, it's two-minute window so you have two minutes to complete 25 chest bar, 50 beaded dumblenders, and then amrap of sandbag cleans. You have to progress your bag every five reps. Okay so you'll just do as many of those as you possibly can in the remaining time of that two minute window. Cool. Please do if you have any other questions or comments get them in the comment section. Any other final thoughts on the workout John before we move on to a competition that we wanted to speak about?
SPEAKER_01Um no I I think it's it's time to see them play out. So and and as I said that the other divisions will be seeing them in the next 15 minutes or so. And then there'll obviously be more detailed information coming out for the athletes in terms of flow and standards all of those all of those things.
SPEAKER_02Okay excellent so you've got we've got a competition to to mention to announce.
SPEAKER_01Yeah do you want to do you want to share what that is? I know we're just debating if we if we can do something with Madrid. So uh anyone in the comment anyone who's commented even like a random thing will and then I suppose we'll put the date on this Friday so and let me still check what day that is the 15th of May we'll select a winner from the comments and they will get free entry and a pass to Mad X at the competition to do that yeah so anyone who comments now you just automatically be entered put whatever down just comment mad below or any comment will be in and we'll randomly select on Friday the winner of the giveaway.
SPEAKER_02Are we going to do that on this YouTube video? Uh on on the comments on this video yeah yeah so if you are if you haven't joined us live we we miss you so next time we're in live please come to us it's nice having people live and interact with the show it's fun but if you are not one of those people if you're like oh I missed it I forgot that that was happening um and you want to get involved uh whatever player you're listening to this on be it Spotify Apple Podcast wherever you're listening to us in the description there'll be a link to this video to this to the YouTube channel go and find the live video click on it and then comment anything you like um please be nice but comment anything you like and we'll pick a comment at random and the closing for that will be um Friday the 15th so this Friday well was there a time John sorry did you mention a time uh maybe we we select like eight o'clock eight o'clock Madrid time okay eight eight pm yeah eight pm Madrid time so that's 7 p.m UK time will be the cutoff this Friday the 15th get your comments in one will be picked at random and if you win you get free ticket to the event which is pretty awesome uh and you can go and go and see all these wicked workouts in person I think mate I think I'm really uh like I said I obviously am biased but I think these look great I'm really excited to uh I'm really excited to watch these play out I think there's gonna be some fun races yeah I I do too and you know from a spectator and fan point of view that's what's nice to see hopefully some leaderboard changing round and emerging over the weekend and hopefully by the final there'll be a a few people with a look in who can maybe take a bit of a shot at the making it. Yeah very cool very cool excellent stuff well I think we're we're out of comments there's been some nice ones as well about people saying that they really like the look of the workouts um so we've had a couple of those as well which is great so thank you very much everyone who's joined us on the live and commented um and that's pretty much it for this week it was cool doing a live and having people come and do some some live stuff with us on the on the workouts.
SPEAKER_01Anything else before we wrap up John No I we've got a it's probably like a big couple of weeks for Europe now as well French this weekend which is going to be very very exciting I think I think probably in this year's in-person semi-finals mayhem and French are going to be the two hardest competitions to have qualified for the games from especially now with the the controversy of Jason Hopper coming over so uh so let's see let's see how that plays out so it'll be it'll be a fun weekend the guys are traveling over on Wednesday um are you um are you attending are you you traveling for that no i'm I'm not we've got head coach Chris and also coach dom who are going to be over there this weekend for the the athletes and then we have a a few athletes competing. Nice who's who's competing so like an yeah and I'd like we've got Ella who Ella Wunger who's qualified for the the games and I forget the year now. 23 I think qualified back so she's she's kind of slowly making her way uh back on and French will be the first big competition she's done individually for a while. And then we've also got Nico for competing. So he's he's quite the character the Georgian uh you know we're gonna come up with a good nickname for him but George it'll be Georgian something that he's he's lying over and be competing there. And he'll it he'll be one to watch like he's in great shape and see if he can put himself in the mix this time to get to get he was very close last year to getting us together. Nico's been on the fringe for quite a while is one of those athletes who is extremely good but hasn't had his breakthrough yet. Almost qualified a few times French last year was very close so you know is this year can he punch it through and if he manages to do so at French it's like a good standing for how you'll level of athlete you are at the games you know I think we said that you used to say it's for European regionals back in the day but if you were a female who qualified through Europe I mean you're pretty much guaranteed top 20 at the games because of the relative level and I think if you've qualified through uh mayhem or French you're probably like one of those you know already in the top half that games field as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah Nico did really well in the open correct me if I'm wrong I remember we talked about him in the open he was yeah I I think he was like fifth or sixth in this year's open and he's done well I think it's just because CrossFit doesn't really travel east so far.
SPEAKER_01You know like Krenikoff was one of the big famous athletes who came over from the east and did very well and so that you don't just the competitions that they do don't necessarily get on the radar. He's been competing a lot in in that region. It's easier to fly to it. There's just different things that you encounter like the visa visa issues or just general travel restrictions it's just harder for them to get over in it with everything happening now it's also getting over to the US is even harder still yeah yeah hear that.
SPEAKER_02Well hopefully um again team comments for the for the competition but maybe also comments for a nickname for Nico um we can we can talk about that on the next week's episode um and we'll obviously talk about the French as well so next week we'll we'll be here again live we'll be kind of talking about French and then I'm sure we'll be previewing Mad more and more right up to it. If you joined us late and you you you've kind of tuned in we've gone through all the workouts they will be live in about 10-15 minutes on the programs Instagram and Mad Fitness Festival Instagram and if you are hoping to see kind of masters and teams or different age groups or whatever they'll also be on there as well we've only gone through the individual workouts for today okay but yeah I think with that we'll probably probably wrap up John unless you had anything else you wanted to finish off with no I'm uh thanks to everyone listening and I'll see you next week yeah amazing thank you very much team and as John said we'll see you next week