Crossing Fitness

https://admin.headliner.ai/crossing-fitness-mp3

Uyi Agbontaen

Guys, welcome back to another episode of The Point of View. I'm your host, Uyi Agbontaen. In today's episode, I'm joined by CrossFit coach Grant Reynolds. We sit down and discuss everything about CrossFit. If you were ever curious this is the episode for you. There is a wealth of information to check out in general in this the podcast. But also I saw your movie selection for Christmas films and I thought that was quite an interesting selection. What was your top three? Again?

Grant Reynolds

The number one for me is The Grinch That Stole Christmas. I got to put it out there because obviously there's another Grinch movies out there. So the Jim Carrey version. Number two, trying to remember my own list. Now I believe I put The Christmas Carol.

Uyi Agbontaen

Okay.

Grant Reynolds

And then number three, what did I put again?

Uyi Agbontaen

Home Alone.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah. Home Alone. Yes.

Uyi Agbontaen

So number one, The Grinch, That's Christmas. And number two, A Christmas Carol, which is good. And then Home Alone.

Grant Reynolds

I think those are just more linked to my childhood base. So that's why I picked them, even though I was young enough. Well, I had all the siblings I was watching Diehard at Christmas.

Uyi Agbontaen

So now you're making excuses because I was like, what are you talking about? I was looking at that list and I was like, first of all, where was Die Hard in that list, which is the best Christmas classic?

Grant Reynolds

I guess I prefer comedies.

Uyi Agbontaen

It's hilarious. Die Hard is hilarious. I was like, what number two, I think I said was Batman Returns.

Grant Reynolds

Yes, Batman Returns.

Uyi Agbontaen

And I was like, how can you choose these films over Batman Returns, another classic Christmas movie. And then number three, we completely disagreed. I was what's my number three? Gremlins.

Grant Reynolds

Gremlins.

Uyi Agbontaen

Yes. But I don't even know if you've seen Gremlins.

Grant Reynolds

I understand the concept. Do you recall was it you might like to feed them after midnight or something like that?

Uyi Agbontaen

Don't get them wet.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah.

Uyi Agbontaen

Don't feed them after midnight and don't put them in direct sunlight. I actually remember this, actually. I haven't seen it so many years.

Grant Reynolds

Wow.

Uyi Agbontaen

In my household, we were debating whether we should watch it because I got two young kids, two young girls now, really young. Six and four. And we're thinking about Christmas movies. And my other half, she bought me a Gremlins Christmas jumper. Gremlin is like, you're going to watch that? And then I thought, actually, is it child appropriate? Because it's pretty gruesome and funny.

Grant Reynolds

That was released in the 80s, right?

Uyi Agbontaen

Yeah. Like 84, 85.

Grant Reynolds

Yes. 80s was a big era for horror movies, wasn't it? Like Nightmare Street?

Uyi Agbontaen

Yeah, massive.

Grant Reynolds

I remember being very little walking into the living room. I think my dad and my older siblings were watching Nightmare and Ellen Street. And all I just remember seeing and just being horrified was the scene where the kid falls asleep on the bed and he gets pulled into the bed and then just grinded it to be.

Uyi Agbontaen

Do you know who that was?

Grant Reynolds

Johnny Depp.

Uyi Agbontaen

Johnny Depp.

Grant

Yeah.

Uyi Agbontaen

Young Johnny Depp. Yeah. There was a lot of horror movies in the 80s. I guess it set the standard for horrors even today. Funny enough, but I'm in the street. I used to be terrified of that film. It was terrifying, but if you watch it now, it's hilarious. What is this film?

Grant Reynolds

This guy has, like.

Uyi Agbontaen

Claws on his hands, a strange hat and a stripy jumper, and that's not very scary.

Grant Reynolds

And his face kind of looks like Deadpool. Now he looks like Deadpool, right?

Uyi Agbontaen

Yeah. So we didn't watch Gremlins. We haven't watched it yet. My kids are still like Gremlins. Gremlins. We watched Home Alone. Anyways, standard. There's nothing wrong with it. It's a great family film. And we watched Willow, which I don't know if you can remember Willow.

Grant Reynolds

I love that one.

Uyi Agbontaen

Do you remember it?

Grant Reynolds

Yeah. Val Kilma.

Uyi Agbontaen

Val Kilma. Yeah, that's what we watched.

Grant Reynolds

I'm a big fan of that movie. Yeah.

Uyi Agbontaen

These were the two Christmas films we watched and my kids still like, we want to watch Gremlins. I'm like, I don't know.

Grant Reynolds

So I want Christmas movie. I got my mum to watch. Well, I regard this, My brother, regardless, as a Christmas movie. Friday after next.

Uyi Agbontaen

Okay. Friday. Those are classic films.

Grant Reynolds

Friday after next.

Uyi Agbontaen

So let's talk about. Let's talk about CrossFit. So you're a CrossFit coach, which is why I asked you to come down. How did you get into Cross?

Grant Reynolds

It I remember it super clearly. I was just a normal PT in a normal gym doing the Standard routine, like Monday chest, Tuesday back, Wednesday legs if I could be bothered. Thursday shoulders, and then Friday with my arms. And then I got really bored of that routine. So I did try out other training regimes. Like, my friend got me onto something called German volume training. So I really enjoyed that. I love working on a cycle and stuff like that. So for me, I found that much more motivating.

Uyi Agbontaen

What was the difference between German volume training and what you were doing with.

Grant Reynolds

Like, the standard day? And I'd be like, okay, I'm doing this today, but I'm basically doing the same exercises and doing the same reps and everything, whereas German volume training had, like, a method behind it. So doing ten sets of ten reps of everything and then as you progress through the program, you can actually feel yourself getting stronger and fitter so that you're working under fatigue. And then it would always get to the point at the end of the program where I'm like, yeah, so amazing. And my mate would be, yes, we're done. I'm like, I was really getting into that. The first few weeks are absolutely suffering and you just get into it and he goes, no, we need to move on to something else and, okay, cool. So then I just remember one day I was like, I'm so bored of this. Don't know what I want to do, but I love exercising. And I said I missed the days of when I used to do athletics where I used to feel like an athlete. And then a friend of mine at the time, she told me, I said, why do you do CrossFit? I was like, what the hell is that? And then she goes, oh yeah, so watch this and tell me what you think. And I watched the 2015 CrossFit Games documentary Fits on Earth and I just fell in love with it straight away. Let you just watch all the stuff that they were doing. And I was like, okay, that could be a bit of me. But then there was some stuff I was looking at. You would never get me to do that. But funny enough, now I am doing some of that stuff. And then when was this roughly, why am I going? I know exactly. September 25, 2017. Oh, you know that's when I joined CrossFit, that's when I joined my first CrossFit gym. But I think it was like a week or so before because she was a member of Kilburn. So she got me come down and then here we are now, right?

Uyi Agbontaen

And when you stepped into the gym, what was your impression straight away?

Grant Reynolds

Impression, very different. I was looking around, I was like, okay, this is very different to like the gym that I was accustomed to. Like I'm used to seeing machines everywhere, used to seeing dumbbells and plates all over the floor. Whereas I came in and after just finishing watching a class, they were putting all their stuff away. And I was like, what the hell? I wish my members would do that. And just seeing all these different ages and different backgrounds and going, wow, no excuses here, man. But overall I was just pretty impressed. And my first session, my first beginning session, I was the only one that turned up. So I was just like, plus also scared because you're the only one you're like, oh crap, it's just me and the coach. And the coach was amazing. He really didn't let me progress onto the next thing until I got it right because as I was going into CrossFit, I had friends. I go, no, don't do it. You're going to get injured. You're going to be moving like this and that. And I was like, all right, cool, I see your side of the document. But I am reading and doing my research and they say they don't do that right? So I've gone into it and he proved it wrong. He was like, no, your form is not good enough. You're not doing the movement properly, you're not moving on until you get it right. And then eventually I got to that point.

Uyi Agbontaen

So let's talk about what CrossFit is because obviously it's been around for a while now. Crossfit, I feel like it's become really popular, probably because of the CrossFit games and because of documentaries on Netflix, a lot of people kind of understand what it is.

Grant

That CrossFit workout is amazing.

Speaker C

Coach Tray is awesome. All CrossFit kicks so much ass. You have a rest cloud. You're not a CrossFitter.

Grant

Yeah, but I'm totally going to hit it when my shoulder feels better.

Speaker C

Sure, fish.

Grant

Guys, check out my ABS.

Speaker C

Okay, plan. We hit it hard today. So let's say we relax, grab some protein, then hit the sack early so we can crush tomorrow's workout. Oh, yeah, I'm already hooked.

Grant

I am in for the swollen enchilada.

Speaker C

All right, time for the morning workout. Ouch, my body, it's dead. Oh, my God. Why can't I move? It must be from CrossFit. Jeff, down here. I'm stuck too. Do I hear that correctly?

Uyi Agbontaen

What is CrossFit?

Grant Reynolds

I completely agree. So it's varied movements performed at high intensity, different domains, time frames, different style of workouts and stuff like that. Also, this big promotion of a healthy lifestyle. The aim of it is not for you to come in and be a Matt Fraser or a Tier Claire. To me, being the fittest in the world, you're coming in there to build a better quality of life. One of my favorite quotes that they throw is keeping you fit, that you can play around with your grandkids. Most people tell themselves, I need to have kids when I'm 30 or before I'm 30. I'm like, Why? So I can run around with them? And I was like thinking to myself, shouldn't that be our prime years? Everyone thinks that as soon as you take that done. But for me, I'm just thinking myself, why can't we do this one with 40 50? Obviously, we've got to take steps in terms of we need to look after our bodies a lot better. But why can't we just build on that and make ourselves fit 40, 50 year olds and then just keep going? Because I've seen so many examples. One guy from Kilburn who I did a competition with, as soon as I found out he was like 40 something, I was like, okay, I'm definitely going to try and look like him when I'm 40. But a lot of people think CrossFit is just like your standard group classes, like in most gyms. Yes, we incorporate that group and community, but we are very big on making sure you're moving well, moving safely. Obviously, you improve your quality of life and as well as prove in the movement, because I've experienced going into group classes and commercial gyms. It's just go, go, go get sweat on. That's good for some people. But then for me, I'm looking around the room like that person, not particularly moving well, not moving safe. So that's obviously the coaching.

Uyi Agbontaen

I think a key part of CrossFit is moving efficiently and moving in an effective way. Obviously, you want to keep moving throughout your session, throughout your workout. You want to move with minimal loss of balance or strength. Would you agree?

Grant Reynolds

Yeah, 100% agree. We should always be striving for perfection. Perfection for me is just like, it's not achievable, but we can at least aim towards it. I like trying to quote, remember the Titans here Denzel, when he demands perfection, I'm never going to be perfect. Do your best. All anybody can ask for. You demanded more of us. You demanded perfection. Now, I ain't saying that I'm perfect because I'm not and I'm going to never be. None of us are. But we have won every single game we have played till now. This team, this team is perfect. I don't want to leave a workout knowing that I've done a horrendous looking workout. Obviously fatigue. When it does kick in, there will be a loss of form. So this is where your strategy and understanding of yourself comes into play. There's times when some people go into work thinking, oh yeah, I can do this work at RX. And then I'm like, no, not a good idea for you. And they do it. And then I speak to a master, it's like, okay, what did you learn from that? Maybe the weight was too heavy for me for this amount of load. So it's all about us coaches making sure that they get the best workout possible. So I'm always a big fan of the mechanics and moving consistently first. So you're showing me through the stages before I consider tapping a specific weight. Like for example, if we're doing a workout that had snatches in it, for example, and the weight is like 60 kilos and your onearm is 50, there's no way I'm going to allow you to do 30 of those full time like Isabelle workout. I'm going to make sure that you're out weight like 30 kilos or just with the bar to make sure that you get the stimulus of the workout. That's pretty much my views.

Uyi Agbontaen

First thing, if you walk into a cross street, there are barbells everywhere, right? So there are barbells, there are plates, not that many dumbbells, there are kettle bells. They'll be your work station. On that station you'll have rings, you'll have a bar you can do pull ups on, you have row machines and you have normally an air bike, right? An air dining bike. So talk us through the different functions of the workout and why they have this particular equipment in CrossFit gyms.

Grant Reynolds

Well, it all depends on the programming, really. I liked your observation when you said that dumbbells don't necessarily get used enough for me. I think single arm work is very beneficial. For example, say, like we were doing frag, which is 21, 59 or frustrs with a barbell and pull ups with a barbell, you'll be able to get away with your weaker arm because obviously it's one solid object if you were to do the same workout, but with dumbbells you're going to find out a lot harder because one arm is probably going to fatigue quicker. So I think that thumbbells need to be used a little bit more, especially for beginners, so that they can understand movement patterns and seek muscle and balances, for example. And if someone was to do the Crossword open, guaranteed dumbbell work will always be in there. So it's always important to make sure that you practice with the dumbbells in many different range of movements and with the other bits of equipment. It just all depends on what the workout is and what you're trying to achieve with the stimulus. A lot of people look at workouts going, this looks so random. But then when I'm talking to my members for a workout, we had just a plain, simple workout. Most people would be like, oh, this is boring. Air squats and V ups. So 150 air squats. I think it was like 50 V ups, and then it dropped down to 120 air squats like you. So it was a bit of a chipper. So this workout here is definitely going to target your hip flexors, which is going to make it a lot harder for you to squat efficiently. So you'll probably start leaning forward. And then when you get back to your V ups, for example, you're going to find it very difficult to get into that position. So it's all about education for the members. Don't just let them go because they're not going to get the best workout with the machines. It all depends on what the workout is. What sort of stimulus do I want to say? War balls and rowing. Everyone has that combination, including me. That's literally the ultimate workout for a tall person. The rowing and the war balls, when combined together, obviously it fatigues out your legs, fatigue out your hip flexors. Probably the main focus is fatiguing out your back muscles, because obviously when you're running, you're pulling with the wall ball. You're holding that ball right here by your chin. It's like doing a front squat, for example. There's always a method to the madness. Well, I hope in most CrossFit gyms is not just someone just riding along.

Uyi Agbontaen

What workout looks tough today?

Grant Reynolds

How much do I dislike my members? All right, I'll just put bike Frosters and burpees.

Uyi Agbontaen

Olympic lifting is massive as well in CrossFit. One thing I realized when I started CrossFit is actually you have to really study the movements. And I had to study the lifts, not because you're just lifting weight, because anyone can lift weight, but you want to be able to do it effectively again and in a safe way.

Grant Reynolds

Exactly. I completely agree. This might trigger some people, especially in the weight lifting community. Growing up, I didn't know anyone that did weightlifting.

Uyi Agbontaen

Neither did I.

Grant Reynolds

Right.

Uyi Agbontaen

When we were saying weight, we talked about Olympic weight lifting weight.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah, exactly. So I never knew anyone that did it. For me, going into CrossFit, I've seen a more popularity in weightlifting. So I feel like CrossFit has improved and got more people Olympic lifting. For me, what I feel it's done is loads of people come in, done a little bit lifting, realized that their technique isn't particularly great. But then it's got people going over to specific weightlifting coaches. At Kilburn, I wanted to get better my weightlifting. Everyone said go to go to memed. And in one session with him, I was like, wow, he's already improved me. That's why those people stuck with him. I know some people have done CrossFit who stopped CrossFit now, but into weight lifting. So they found what they're looking for through CrossFit. So I feel like it has improved the reputation of weightlifting and the respect that it deserves. A post I recently saw not even my sport. And I'm triggered when they were talking about getting rid of Olympic weightlifting for the Olympics. Yes.

Uyi Agbontaen

It's crazy, right?

Grant Reynolds

I was like, what?

Uyi Agbontaen

It's crazy.

Grant Reynolds

I was like, what, are you going to keep skateboarding?

Uyi Agbontaen

Yeah. I believe they said they're going to get rid of wrestling, Olympic wrestling. I was like, but that's one of the founding sports of the Olympics.

Grant Reynolds

There's just certain ones that you just can never touch. Imagine if ten years or so and say, oh, we're going to get rid of the 100 meters.

Uyi Agbontaen

I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised.

Grant Reynolds

Scoot you.

Uyi Agbontaen

Yeah, I know. Yeah. I wish I could speak to someone from the IOC and say, how do they decide what sports they take out and the random sports that they put in? Some sports are like, what is this?

Grant Reynolds

Don't get me wrong. I do feel that some sports need to be showcased and respected, but then it's all about being careful which ones that you take in and out. For me, with the Olympics, I pretty much only watch the sprints. I watch maybe a few field events, depending on the athlete. And I watch weightlifting. Going back to my point there, I feel CrossFit has helped weight lifting, but then weightlifting has helped a lot of CrossFit to improve their game.

Uyi Agbontaen

You mentioned Matt Fraser. Matt Fraser was an Olympic weightlifter.

Grant Reynolds

Right.

Uyi Agbontaen

And I remember listening to a podcast with him and he said the reason he had a head start when he came in to Cross, it was because his technique was so good that actually he's able to go longer than other people.

Grant Reynolds

Exactly. And he could snatch and clean the jerk and squat weights that a lot of guys had to take years and years and years to get. Obviously, he did have advantage in the weightlifting section. But if anything, I would say that's probably maybe a bit more difficult in some ways because with the CrossFit pyramid, weightlifting is near the top. So obviously one of the smaller sections are not as big. You've seen the CrossFit pyramid. At the bottom is nutrition, obviously the biggest one, which is obviously ideal. Then you have your metabolic conditioning tense workouts, your methods, and then you have gymnastics, and then you have your weight lifting and throwing and then at the top sport. So he's had to work his way down that period where someone who's probably coming with a gymnastics background, if you come in with a gymnastics background, it can do a lot of these movements. You've got a big advantage because most workouts I see or competitions or the open gymnastics is the biggest factor in there.

Uyi Agbontaen

That's interesting. Let's talk about the terminology in CrossFit. The next thing I realize when you do CrossFit is you have to decipher these terms, right? There's a lot of inside lingo that you have to now understand.

Grant Reynolds

So let's go for something like learning a new language, isn't it?

Uyi Agbontaen

It is literally like learning a new language. Hey, guys, I'm wrapped today and a bit of met calling you're like, what are you talking about?

Grant Reynolds

So obviously Amrap has two meanings. As many rounds as possible or as many reps as possible. So it depends on the structure of the workout. And then you have your emo, which is every minute on the minute. But then sometimes you have Emon with a number written inside the word. So it means every two minutes on the minute breakdown.

Uyi Agbontaen

Because obviously I imagine there'll be some people listening. Like, they have no idea. So, Amrap, what is the intention for the person who's going through that?

Grant Reynolds

It depends on the workout structure. It's obviously trying to measure how many rounds you can accumulate in a certain timeframe. So if it's like a really short workout, you're probably going to want to be going pretty fast. If it's a long workout with high volume of repetitions, then you're probably going to go a little bit slower.

Uyi Agbontaen

So give us an example of what kind of workout that could be.

Grant Reynolds

Okay. One of my favorite workouts is called Mary. Mary is a benchmark workout. Another terminology. So like a benchmark of fitness test. Do you remember when you want to go back to school and you have to do the Bleep test, Cooper test and all that? So imagine it's kind of like that. Mary is a 20 minutes Am wrap. So as many rounds and reps as possible of five handstand push ups, ten pistol squats, so single leg squats, and 15 pull ups. With that intention, 20 minutes, you're not going to be going as quick as you can, so you're going to be keeping a strong pace that you can maintain throughout. So kind of like the tortoise and the hair effect, because if you go out like the hair, you're going to burn out very quickly. If you go out like a tourist, you'll probably get the best possible outcome. And then if you get a workout, which is a short five minute Am wrap, you know that you can go a lot faster.

Uyi Agbontaen

I like that analogy. I haven't heard that the tortoise in the hair that literally just sticks with me throughout.

Grant Reynolds

When I used the shadow member for weightlifting, he told me once, there's a programming things that you say to someone which will make them click, and then there'll be things I say that will make them quick. Doesn't make you a bad coach or anything like that. It's just about how you relate to the athletes.

Uyi Agbontaen

He had some funny sayings, oh, yeah. And I remember when I started doing the Olympic weightlifting, he'd say, the bar has to float. I was like, what do you mean? He shouldn't even be lifting the bar. He should be floating in the air. I was like, what are you talking about? Oh, okay. I understand eventually.

Grant Reynolds

There you go. So emo every minute on the minute, it's like interval store style training, like circuit training. We used to work out 1 minute in this station, 1 minute in that station. It's a pretty simple one to explain. Emans are very good for skill work. So isolating one movement in each minute instead of going from one movement straight into the next one, because it's a good way to help train people up. For example, if you're working on double unders or something like that, it's a good way to keep your structure. So say you're working for 40 seconds within that minute and you're resting for 20, like, ten minutes. Do double unders. They'll just keep going, going. It's a good way to help structure keeping.

Uyi Agbontaen

And if people don't know what double unders are, double under.

Grant Reynolds

Skipping when the rope goes under yourself twice. So you're going to have to jump a lot higher than your normal single skipping.

Uyi Agbontaen

Explain Metcon.

Grant Reynolds

So Metcon is basically two words that are put together as a short. So Mekcon stands for metabolic conditioning. So obviously that's what regarding the sweaty part of our workout. So the high intensity part helping us to increase our metabolism. That way we can burn off fat and burn off a lot more calories quicker, even in our rest stage. So in that way, we can build up the muscle more efficiently and more effectively. What else do we have? Wod. Yeah. So a lot of people want to say, yeah, the wood today. And then I was like, what the hell is he talking about? The what stands for workout of the day. Pretty simple ones. When I'm pointing at the board on the screen, then everyone knows this is exactly what we're doing today.

Grant

Rx.

Grant Reynolds

Rx is actually a funny one. It doesn't stand for anything in terms of abbreviation. It's RX means as prescribed. So the work that has to be done as written for you to hit RX and then obviously scaled means the adjustments made in order for you to do the workouts. For example, if you have muscle ups and you don't even have a pull up, then you do something that helps you keep the stimulus of the workout. And then RM one, RM or three RM, five RM. So basically that's depending on what the number is, if it's one RM, it means one rep Max. So whatever the target the workout is, is for you to hit the heaviest weight that you can physically possibly hit. It's three RM, three reps, and then five RM, and then ten or 20. Those workouts can be very intimidating for a lot of people because obviously the fear of being hurt. But then as people get more exposed to it and more confident, a lot of people are chasing like, yeah, I want to get that rep. I want to get that rep. I think it comes from education and embracing failure. And then when I started out, I used to get so angry and annoyed when I used to hit like a one R M when needed to run my programming. Now I just smiled off and like, oh, it's not happening today, but it's going to come. No point wasting energy over something that is not ready yet.

Uyi Agbontaen

True, scaling is an important one. You walk into a CrossFit gym and there's a workout of the day. Your coach will typically say to you, this is what we're working on, guys. And there are some targets, some recommended targets which are normally off, in my opinion, they're like, for men, this is what you should ideally be hitting. For women, this is what you should ideally be hitting. And then comes the scaling. Talk us through that.

Grant Reynolds

That depends on the workout as well. Sometimes men will have a different stimulus to women. It definitely happened in the open with some workouts where the men's bars would take really big, drastic jumps, whereas the women's bar will have smaller jumps. I don't know whether they misjudged it thinking that, but women are getting a lot stronger.

Uyi Agbontaen

Yeah, I definitely think CrossFit is a massive contributing factor to that. Now you look at Instagram, you see so many women working out with weights, especially the barbell. And I'm like, that's definitely down to CrossFit.

Grant Reynolds

Yes. And what pisses me off the most is when a lot of guys go, yeah, they're too big.

Uyi Agbontaen

But the women are too big.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah. I'm like, are you dumb? I remember posting up a picture of Danny Spiegel and Sarah Sigmundor and they're my two crashes in CrossFit.

Uyi Agbontaen

Crossfit crush. Exactly.

Grant Reynolds

Some guys are going, what the hell? They're too big. They're traps are massive. I'm going, Bro, you can change how you look. These girls are elite athletes and they train like that. But back to scaling. I love that little subject, though, on women in CrossFit. But we'll probably touch on that a little bit later, if that's cool. But that scaling is vital for me. When the workout has tended stimulus, you need to hit that stimulus regardless. Ego does get in a way for a lot of people.

Uyi Agbontaen

Especially in the beginning.

Grant Reynolds

Don't get me wrong, been there, done that myself, man. 2018, Cross. It open. There was one workout I had no business RX in. It had overhead squats, which are 50 kilos for 20 reps. And that was my one RM at the time. And I'm trying to do 21 RMS right then and there. I was so surprised my shoulders were still in place. So for me after that, it was just a big reflection. And I also got injured once in a class when I was a member because I was lifting a weight, which I had no business lifting, especially with my technique at the time.

Uyi Agbontaen

And down to ego. Right.

Grant Reynolds

Bit of ego. But also on the coach's part as well. Coach was kind of like feeding that ego go heavier.

Uyi Agbontaen

That's an important point. Yeah.

Grant Reynolds

That definitely made me think to myself when I started becoming a coach guy, I'm going to try and avoid that sort of mistake. I've already made those mistakes, but in a different way. Like a friend of mine who's in Kuwait now, don't, if you remember Ibrahim.

Uyi Agbontaen

Big guy, he used to do a lot of weightlifting.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah, very scary. But he was actually the nicest guy.

Uyi Agbontaen

He's a weightlifting all the time.

Grant Reynolds

He's probably nice. I remember when I started out young coach level one, just fresh out of it, and he was doing a lot of weightlifting at the time. So he was doing a workout. I think it was a bare complex. So they see a clean, a front squat, a push press, a back squat, and then a push press. So his form was dipping a bit. And I noticed it. And because I was so intimidated by him at the time because I felt like I couldn't tell him anything and he got injured in my session. And for me, I took responsibility for that. And then I told myself afterwards to put development coach. If I see that anyone is not moving appropriately, especially in the warm up, I'm going to recommend you scaling, and I'm going to demand that you do it as well. So you get the stimulus of the workout. And on top of that, you're moving safely because if you're moving dangerous in the Walmart, what are you going to be like under fatigue? Like serious fatigue, scaling is so important, especially men.

Uyi Agbontaen

Yeah.

Grant Reynolds

They see it as damage to their ego. That's where I feel like a lot of us guys need to just crush that ego and be like, cool. I'm going to aim to move as well as I can in this workout. Whether that means a lighter wall ball, a light, a barbell, a light downball, scaling the reps down for pull up, try and get the best possible workout for you. I agree.

Uyi Agbontaen

When I started CrossFit, I was lucky. The gym in Kilburn was a good gym. I had good coaches, and they were actually very much on the point of saying, no, you need to scale. But when I first started, I was like, I'm a strong guy. I can lift the weight as we all do. So you see, like, I'm strong. And then you realize, oh, no, this is different. Very different, continuous. And then you're like, oh, I do need to scale. You learn pretty quickly because otherwise the risk is actually you can injure yourself.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah. And on top of that, you're not going to get the stimulus required. Say, for example, it's a sprint workout and then everyone's done in three minutes and you're done in twelve. That twelve minutes of suffering was not needed. So I love it. A lot of people kind of need that you get knocked down a peg to get built back up, but stronger. Don't get me wrong, I've visited and I've been to other CrossFit gyms where I'm like, oh, my God, this does not fly with me. I remember going to one gym and it was cold as hell, mid winter sort of thing. I went with my friend and then they go, all right, guys, we're going outside. 30 meters sprints. Sorry, what, bro? I'm going to pull my house dream. Don't get me wrong, there are some people letting the side down, like with any industry, but I am seeing an increase of coaches taking their level ones. Some people who aren't even going into coaching, they're doing their level one. And then I'm seeing more people do level two. And then for myself, I'm aiming to do my level three in the next 18 months or two years. So it's like your coaching badges, like in terms of football, for example, obviously you get level one, two, three, and then you wait for B and this and that. So level one is your first one, which is your beginners. You do learn a lot over those past few days. Level two is the intermediate progression. It goes into a lot more depth in your coaching. Level three is an advanced and then level four is the seminar staff at the top level of CrossFit. So as far as I remember, it's still only 1% in the world are level three.

Uyi Agbontaen

1% of coaches.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah, our level three. So there's more people who are level one.

Uyi Agbontaen

Why is that? Is it because it's so hard to attain or.

Grant Reynolds

I think it's partially down to a lot of people just get comfortable in level one.

Uyi Agbontaen

One thing I also noticed about CrossFit is the real importance of the warm up. Yeah. There's like a heavy focus on we're going to spend time warming up before we actually hit the workout.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah. I definitely understand and respect that a lot more as I've got older.

Uyi Agbontaen

Sometimes a warm up feels like a workout. This is the warm up.

Grant Reynolds

Not on that the workout. No, that's the warm up for me. I know that was a good warm up, especially when it's got their heart rate because it's going to get them prepared for what's to come.

Uyi Agbontaen

Yeah. And the warmups are very specific.

Grant Reynolds

The way we tend to structure as coaches is we do a general warm up just to get the heart raised and get the blood flowing. And then we'll get very specific. A lot of factors come into a place and then that's when you have to really think about what exercises and movements get you warmed up and you go and get the movement pattern in as well. So it saves you a bit of time explaining later on, for example, why I tend to throw in Med ball cleans, like what you do in your beginners stage for when we're doing cleans later on with a barbell. So that way you're keeping the movement pattern. And when we go into the cleans, you understand it like you said with people when they come in and I'm saying, all right, we're doing cleans today. Which one is that? I guess with the hands closer, not with your hands wide. That's the snatch today.

Uyi Agbontaen

Crossfit. I find it amazing because I like learning things, but it is one of these workouts where you go into it and you're like, actually, no, I need to study. I need to actually study what I'm doing exactly right for the next workout. I can't just be like, yeah, I'm going to turn up. Yeah, just show me. And I'll copy the movie.

Grant Reynolds

It wasn't walking apart from me coming into CrossFit. I had a lot of issues. I was not squat to death. I had poor mobility through football background. I practiced at home when I was a member and then got more training. Obviously, when I became a coach, I really wanted to get better overhead squats and snatching. So I'll take the broom at home, take the brush off, and I'll start practicing with the broom at home and doing horse rose in that because I was like, I want to get better at this.

Uyi Agbontaen

Which I think, again, if you've not done Olympic weightlifting, you'd be surprised. People are like, yeah, here's a broom handle, here's a bit of PVC. You're just going to do that movement again and again and again. And actually the movement itself becomes hard without the actual weight. You're like, right? No, you need to focus on the technique. You need to squat more, lock your arms out.

Grant Reynolds

So on our level one, we did some stuff with PVC pipe and we were told to hold I think it was overhead squat. We did an air squat one and we did an overhead squat with a PPC pipe.

Uyi Agbontaen

Pc pipe, again, for someone who might be listening, is just a hollow plastic tube.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah, literally. We were told to hold that position for a good couple of minutes. And I tell you now, the next day it felt like you did five times, five heaviest backsports that you could do. Tension holds are no joke.

Uyi Agbontaen

There's a lot of tension, actually, that you have to build up to move the barbell.

Grant Reynolds

There's a lot of things to think about. There's so much to think about any good coach with triage. So thinking, all right, cool. What is the main focus that I need to get this athlete to do? So instead of throwing ten things that you like, yeah, you haven't got your chest up, you're not kicking your legs, you're not doing this. All right, cool. I'm going to give you one thing to do and then once that is ticked, then we'll move on to something else.

Uyi Agbontaen

So the controversial side of CrossFit, so you said yourself and I've experienced it myself. Right. Coming from my background, a lot of my friends are very fit people. I come from a jujitsu background. So a lot of fit people. And when you say to them, I'm going to do CrossFit, there's that, what are you insane? You're going to get hurt. You're going to get injured. I think initially as well. Ten years ago, CrossFit had this reputation of now you're going to get injured, you're going to get injured.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah. So people need to remember that CrossFit is still a young sport compared to football. Football has been around for God knows how long now. Obviously, we weren't around for the early stages with the balls that they were kicking back in the day, obviously a lot harder. So probably a lot more broken foot, toes and everything. People need to remember that it's a young sport.

Uyi Agbontaen

Footballers used to get concussion.

Grant Reynolds

Exactly.

Uyi Agbontaen

And weight the ball.

Grant Reynolds

Exactly. So they've learned and they're still learning, surely over 100 years of football now.

Uyi Agbontaen

Like the old days of football, where you'd be able to have a drink at halftime and then come back home.

Grant Reynolds

You'Re about to say like the Roy Keane era where you could just do some crazy challenges.

Uyi Agbontaen

I'm thinking further back.

Grant Reynolds

I'm like, man, these guys were hard, man. Cool. So looking back at a lot of Crosses history, because I've tried to stay impartial. I don't want to be like CrossFit diehards going, yeah, CrossFit is perfect. It isn't perfect. There's a lot of things I don't agree with CrossFit and CrossFit is showing that it's trying to learn.

Uyi Agbontaen

It's evolving.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah, it's evolving. Over the years, they brought people in. They brought weightlifting coaches because they built up a reputation of poor weightlifting. With gymnastics, they brought in gymnastics people. I recently did the gymnastics course and one movement, which is one of my favorites, ring muscle ups. They showed us a little demo of a good one and a bad one. So when you get yourself up onto the top of the rings and you had bought yourself through, how many of you do that? Loads of us just like looked at each other, raised our hands slowly. Yeah. We thought that was good. And then they taught us more efficient ways of how to do it and a lot of keeping your shape together. So I'm like, cool. This is great education which CrossFit is bringing in to help see how coaching.

Uyi Agbontaen

So you're saying the quality of the coaching, the quality of the gyms now is improving?

Grant Reynolds

Yes, it is improving as long as the coaches want to learn.

Uyi Agbontaen

So would you say then the risk association that people have the stereotype of if you do CrossFit and you work out to your fatigue, you will get injured? Do you find that not accurate anymore?

Grant Reynolds

Yes and no. I would say, well, I'm going to lean towards it still happens. I think part of it is down to the athlete themselves. It can get addictive. So a lot of people like, oh yeah, I'm really enjoying this. We can just get too excited and be like, yeah, I need to keep going. I need to keep going to progress. But little do they know, taking those rest days help recharge you so that you can keep your performances up and get better. Because if you're not taking those recovery and allowing your body to repair itself, you're on the verge of catching injuries, especially when you're on a roll. Because I would gamble if you want a role, he's like, yeah, I'm going to keep going, keep going.

Uyi Agbontaen

You want to push yourself up.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah. And until you lose everything. And then I've seen that with some people and then they just turn around and blame CrossFit for that. I'm like, okay, cool. Crossfit does have a part to play in that. The coach has a part to play in that. But then also look at yourself holding accountability. So for me, I would be like, what was your last rest day? And if they tell me, oh yeah, I haven't had a rest day in like six days, I'll be like, no, you're taking this workout easy today and you're resting tomorrow. Because the last thing I want to do is see injuries. I want to keep people going more than often when people start seeing results, they just want to keep going because they want to see more. It's also down to the coaching, depending on where you go. For example, some gyms I've been to, they're more focused on trying to get the workouts done as quickly as possible rather than your form. And in the community, a lot of us, we tend to say there are some gyms out health and fitness and in competitive gyms, not saying all competitive gyms lean that way of screw form, but they're not particularly form focused in some areas, in my opinion. So good group management is vital as well.

Uyi Agbontaen

The competitions, it's huge now with CrossFit.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah.

Uyi Agbontaen

It wasn't actually the aim of CrossFit to be competitive, but it's almost as if the competition side of CrossFit has now become what CrossFit is in a lot of people's minds.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah. The fitness and the world documentaries do have a part to play in that. Crossfit is health and fitness first, sport second. So hence the pyramid. Sport is at the very top move. Well, first, before anything because I've seen a number of people dive straight into competitions. Now they're injured and they struggle completely.

Uyi Agbontaen

That's a huge factor of getting injured going into a competition too early.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah, I didn't do it once for a year. Right. Because I wanted to make sure that I was at a certain level. I wanted to make sure that I moved well and wasn't going to get myself injured because it's very easy to get caught up in the moment to just screw form, go for it. So it's all about making sure that you keep yourself in good Nick as well when you're doing that.

Uyi Agbontaen

It's almost easier in the gym to try and maintain form, though. There is the ego and there's a group and everybody's feeding off each other's energy and the coach is pushing you. The form can slip because you want to hit the target. It must be really hard to do that in a competition. Now you're competing, right?

Grant Reynolds

Yeah. You got that competitive mindset.

Uyi Agbontaen

You'Ve got a mindset and you've got your team with you. And there are people who you're competing against for real. So it must be really hard to maintain the form throughout.

Grant Reynolds

I completely agree. But then I always keep thinking to myself, maintain your form, because that is going to make sure that you don't waste energy. So like, for example, if I wanted to do cleaning jerks, I could move this bar Super, super quick, but they're not going to look pretty and I'm going to be at risk of obviously injuring myself. But then obviously the more realistic ones that are going to happen immediately is I'm going to lose balance, which is going to maybe cost me a few seconds because I have to readjust and the bar path isn't going to look great. The bar is just going to be everywhere, but I'm just moving it so quickly. That's why I tend to teach barbell cycling. I want you to move this quick but under control, and you can manage your breathing at the same time, not just trying to move it a million miles an hour. And then after five reps your guests, there's a certain point where you can move quick. For example, running to do 200 meters sprint. If you try to sprint that curve at your Max, it's not really going to pan out well because you're not going to be in control. You're probably going to step into the other Lane by accident or you're going to take too big of a curve. You've got to just keep focus on your technique, keeping towards that line. But as soon as you see that straight bone.

Uyi Agbontaen

That'S when you're gone CrossFit. It takes certain skill sets from other sports, particularly the gymnastics and particularly the Olympic weightlifting. I know there are a lot of people from the Olympic weightlifting community who frown upon CrossFit. They're like, no, that's not what you're supposed to do. And from the strength community. Right. Especially when it's about, like, how do you lift weight? They're like, well, you shouldn't be fatiguing yourself to lift weight.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah. There's always going to be this debate because, well, the thing with CrossFit that they need to remember is it's hard to master all these skills. There's so much involved, so no one's going to be perfect at everything. The CrossFit Games. When I see a sprint event, I am the biggest critic in the world. I was watching when my mom was going to myself, oh, my God, these look cannot run for shit. And then I'll see one person like, yeah, that person has got good form. They've definitely done running. But if anything, I feel like CrossFit has improved my lifting, my compound lifts. I'm a bit baffled myself with some things that the power lifting community do. Have you seen how far they bend their backs and then the bar hardly moves, so people can nitpick at each other as much as they want. But like I said, with CrossFit, it's still a young sport and it's still grown, it's still learnings. But this is the thing. Everyone's got their biases, so they feel like this should be done a certain way. The thing is, I find it's beneficial that we all learn from each other. Crossfit is coming into weightlifting, which is obviously boosting up numbers for weightlifting, and it's making a lot more popular and giving it the respect it deserves. And gymnastics is getting the respect it deserves. Back in school, if I had a boy, did that gymnastics, I'm like, Jeez, my mindset back then was poor. Right now, I'm like to myself, I wish I did gymnastics now.

Uyi Agbontaen

Yeah. I mean, when you meet a gymnast and you're like, my God, your course grip is incredible.

Grant Reynolds

And you're controlling the bar. Yeah, right.

Uyi Agbontaen

Age and wisdom you mentioned overtraining as I got older, that was something I definitely recognized. To listen to your body when you're young. I want to go, I'm going to go.

Grant Reynolds

You feel like you're invincible.

Uyi Agbontaen

Yeah. When you're older. My experience is if I wake up and I'm like, I need to rest, I'll take the rest. When I was young, I'd be like, what do you mean? A puzzle for me, that was when I would get sick, I'd catch a flu or something because I burnt my body out. There was a famous MMA fighter, female fighter called Katzengo. And one of the things she said was, what you don't realize is you don't get stronger when you're working out. You get stronger when you're resting. And I was like, oh, you're right.

Grant Reynolds

That's exactly what I was trying to say. With people who get addicted to CrossFit, they just think you need to keep doing CrossFit to get better across. I'm like, no, you need those recovery days because that's where the gains are made in recovery.

Uyi Agbontaen

And I was like, that makes so much sense.

Grant Reynolds

Exactly. And I like how you said that you were just overturning. It got you ill because that is something that happened to me very recently. I was doing way too many competitions in a short space of time and I got ill three times in the space of two months and a couple of times I start thinking I've caught COVID. But then I did tests and it wasn't that. I was like, what the hell is wrong with me? And I was like, yeah, probably because you did competition so much, your body just hasn't recovered. And my immune system is just like, no, you have to be 110% and go as hard as you can.

Uyi Agbontaen

I think that's because even with social media.

Grant Reynolds

They only see those things.

Uyi Agbontaen

That's what you see, right?

Grant Reynolds

Yeah.

Uyi Agbontaen

You should be pushing, push yourself. Exactly.

Grant Reynolds

You only see those things with my programming that I follow. When it comes to the weight lifting, I really love the lighter days because one, it just really refreshes me. And two, it helps me to work on things I necessarily wouldn't be able to do with the heavier, for example, heavier is going to be getting me stronger. And then when they have the light, they're like, yeah, get as quick as you can under that bar. I'm like, Boom. And I feel great because when you just do too much, it's just too taxing onto the body and you're just not going to recover efficiently.

Uyi Agbontaen

So you wanted to talk about women across fit. My perspective is that it's a really positive thing, obviously, you're telling me some men from the outside of it, from outside across fit. Because when I see I'm like, man, you are an amazing athlete.

Grant Reynolds

Exactly.

Uyi Agbontaen

And you're doing things that I can't do, clearly. And that's only something that you can commend.

Grant Reynolds

If you look at all the different athletes, they're all different shapes and sizes, which is what I love about CrossFit because there's no weight cat breed. Everyone shows off their strengths and their weaknesses. And obviously you see everyone with different physiques, like Matt Fraser, he's like, what, five, six? And he weighs nearly 90 kilos. Bmi says he's overweight. You're telling me the fittest man on Earth is overweight that whole BMI thing?

Uyi Agbontaen

I think people have outdated. Yeah, it's way outdated. And I think people's views on aesthetics, aesthetics changes over time. We've already talked about it changes. I think it's great that a lot of women are doing it, obviously, especially because of the weight element. The weight lifting element, which I think was the biggest thing that put off a lot of women because there was that misconception that if I lift weights.

Grant Reynolds

I'm going to get really bigger.

Uyi Agbontaen

Do you know what I mean? And now women are like, no, I want to hit the barbell, I want to do the kettlebells, right. Yeah, I think that's amazing. When I started doing CrossFit, I need to start learning how to Olympic weightlifting. I went to wars and sports center. And the coaches are female. Like the main coach. The head coach is female. And actually the majority of the sports Center Olympic weightlifting team are women. I think that's incredible that there are more women doing sports that they haven't traditionally done. I've got two daughters. So obviously going to back that side, someone was considering taking up CrossFit and going to a box, right? A box is CrossFit gym.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah.

Uyi Agbontaen

What do you think are the key things to look for in terms of good coaching and in terms of bad coaching?

Grant Reynolds

That's a very good question. I would definitely say. I think the atmosphere is key part is the gym welcoming. One of my clients, she had a bad experience across the box. And I thought, I'm very surprised that you came to us because a lot of people just brand us all with the same brush. But, yeah, it's CrossFit now, not going back there again. She came to us and she said, you guys are so much more professional, better in many different ways in comparison to the other one that she went to. So I would say the atmosphere is it welcoming. Has it got good values? What are their goals for their members? For example, number two, I would say the investment of coaching that the coach puts into anyone can just tell them, yeah, cool. Put your knees out when you squat. Does the coach get into much more detail? Are they trying to fix your problem rather than just tell you how to fix it? Are they actually getting in there and fixing it? And number three, I'll probably say the community, if it's got a good community, I can imagine people staying there for longer. And one thing I did learn by level one, I remember casting and telling me that if you prioritize money over community, you're not going to last long. So if you prioritize the community, you would not have to worry about money. Obviously, they're invested. They want to support you. So community is a big factor to it.

Uyi Agbontaen

I like the community aspect that you talked about, actually, when you go into any kind of gym, you should get a feel of what's the vibe, what's the kind of energy in this place? But also you can tell whether a gym is focused on their members or just focused on the numbers. You know what I mean? Do you really care about me or you just care about finding more members up? Where can people reach out to you?

Grant Reynolds

So obviously, if you're around Harrow Error, you can also drop down to be an arrow. Yes, you can drop down to my box. I work at CrossFit Harrow, but also on my Instagram as well. I'm pretty active on there, so it's underscore Coach Reynolds. So that's the places to reach out to me.

Uyi Agbontaen

Cool. All right. It's been good. It's been a lot of information.

Grant Reynolds

Yeah. I felt like we were on for like 2 hours or so.

Uyi Agbontaen

It did feel quite.

Grant Reynolds

An hour and 40 minutes because I was literally thinking to myself like I'm getting the vibe of like it's getting dark now.

Uyi Agbontaen

There are no windows in this room. He's just feeling like daylight is going no, it was man, we packed in a lot and there was a lot of valuable information in there about CrossFit so thank you for kind of unpicking it and breaking it apart for us. I appreciate it man.

Grant Reynolds

No worries.

Uyi Agbontaen

Okay guys, so that was it as always. I hope you've enjoyed the show and you can find some more information about my guest in the show notes. Don't forget to like subscribe share the episode. I really appreciate your support tune in the next couple of weeks or the next episode.