The 4th Pull Podcast

Hollis Molly is the current owner of the first CrossFit Affiliate, CrossFit Santa Cruz.  This is the gym that Greg Glassman opened and started back in 2001. I met Hollis 5 years ago when I was traveling through California on a west coast gym tour.  He is an excellent coach and business owner that has an exceptional amount of knowledge about fitness and the sport of fitness. He fell into CrossFit because his sister thought it would be a good idea for him to try. He was lucky enough to fall into it with Greg Glassman and learn from some of the original CrossFit flow masters. When I say lucky, it was a matter of right place right time, but it is much more than luck that got Hollis where he is today.  He was willing to learn and do whatever it took from the beginning.  We have to remember in 2004 and 2005 there were no CrossFit Games.  No Reebok, no social media and no coolness factor.  No one knew about it.  There was one gym and a few seminars.  Being an early adopter took guts and a belief that this was someth

Breck Berry is the owner of CrossFit Jenks in OK.  He is one of the most durable and rugged guys we have had on the podcast to date. Breck signed up, yes all you had to do in 2007 was sign up, for the CrossFit Games.  He was an early adopter.   When most people were still doing back and bi's Breck was exposing him self to the sheer pain of this new exercise phenomenon called CrossFit. The 2007 CrossFit Games was the first time Breck ever stepped foot in concept2 rower.  He tells a great story about this in the show! He went back to the games in 2008, 2009 and 2010.  After that he qualified for regionals and was at the games on a team.  And this year...he is going back! Breck turns 40 one week before the CF games so he qualifies as a masters athlete.  He trained hard and put a ton of pressure on himself to get back to the big show this year and he accomplished his goal. Listen in to one of the OGs of this young sport.  Breck talks about how things have changed over the years in sport and in his life.  He dives

We could not be more excited to introduce today's guest.  Chris Spealler is a 7 time CrossFit Games Athlete who has brought more to the sport of fitness than most people realize. He resides in Park City Utah with his family and spends of the day running his affiliate, CrossFit Park City.  He is also on the Level One Staff and travels the world teaching people about CrossFit, Coaching and moving better.  His new venture is Icon Athlete.  A website dedicated to helping competitive athletes get better at CrossFit. We start by talking about the 2016 CrossFit Open and ask him about his decision to go or not go to Regionals.  From there we talk about how is training has changed and the toll that competing at the games took on him.  His new style of training involves less time, but it is not producing less results.  He just PR'd his back squat at 400 lbs weight in just above 135lbs.  What an amazing feat of strength. Watching an amazing athlete dedicate him self to becoming amazing coach is great to see.  His sole f

Brittany Weiss is a coach, athlete and student. At 20 years old she is one of the younger competitors heading to the Regionals.  She is coming off a great CrossFit Open Season were she placed 20th in the Mid Atlantic and earned her ticket to the Super Regionals. But with her youth comes with experience.  This will be her second trip to the big show.  Brittany is a coach College Hill CrossFit and comes from a competitive gymnastics background. In this episode she talks about her background and how it has helped her in CrossFit.  She touches on her experience in the 2014 Regionals and how she is preparing to take the competition floor again this year. As always we pride ourselves on giving the listener a piece of advice or take away from each episode.  Brittany did not disappoint.  She uses her gymnastics background a ton while coaching so she dove into the ins and outs of kipping and how she gets her members to improve on the basic gymnastics movements.  We also talk about Brittany's weaknesses and strengths a

JP and Geo talk about their recent trip to CrossFit New England.  They had the privileged of hanging with Ben Bergeron for a few days to learn about how he runs his affiliate and how he makes his athletes the fittest in the world.   CFNE has been around for 10 years.  The gym is thriving because of Ben, his systems, his dedication and his pursuit of excellence.  Katrin Davidsdotter was there training, which was another added benefit of the program.  The 2016 CrossFit Open has come to a close. What a great year! The five weeks test of fitness was fun and engaging, but also had a ton of surprises.  Geo and JP break down the results, the workouts and the progress that CrossFit Federal Hill has made over the past few years.

Dave Durante is a multiple time USA gymnastics national champion.  He was on the Stanford University Gymnastics team and went on to coach that team to a NCAA team title after graduating.  Dave was the lead coach withe the CrossFit Gymnastics L1 course for two years.  He also wrote the curriculum for the CrossFit Gymnastics Advanced Course.  He leads Team Power Monkey which is comprised of elite level athletes and coaches who help design new equipment, provide gymnastics education to the fitness world and coach at Power Monkey's BI-annual Training camp.  Check out their website to register for the next camp! That might be the longest intro we have given on the 4th Pull.  As you can see Dave is one accomplished dude.  He is an amazing blend of gymnastics and CrossFit.  A hard thing to find in many elite level athletes. Dave talks about his background as a gymnast and how it lead to CrossFit.  He also goes into three of the most common things he saw when touring with CrossFit gymnastics.  We have pulled some go

Becca Voigt has competed in every CrossFit Games since 2008.  She is the definition of a resilient, focused hardworking athlete.  She is by far one of the most accomplished CrossFit athletes in the sport.  Becca has frequently displayed the type of determination the CrossFit athletes are known for and she was recognized for it in 2014 winning the Spirit of the Games award. In this episode she dials it back and talks about her very first CrossFit experience and how is changed her life for the better. As one of the "original" CrossFitters Becca started training at Valley CrossFit with Kris Clever and the original Valley girls which was a powerful for her competitive and professional career.  We talk coaches and the positive and negative effects they have had on her training and intensity of the years. Then we jump into CrossFit Training Yard.  CFTY is Becca's affiliate and all of her members are near and dear to her.  They way she talks about making a profound impact on lives and creating change physically and

Andre Crews started out as a corporate banker.  He had no passion for banking and needed a change.  From there he found personal training and fitness modeling. You would think he might stop there, but Andre lets us know that "Modeling is F&*%ing boring."  So he keeps pushing and exploring new things.  That eventually leads him to find CrossFit.  After getting kicked out of a Globo gym for doing CrossFit workouts he lands at CrossFit Union Square in New York City. Andre opens up about his past CrossFit Open experiences and what was holding him back.  His capacity and strength were there, but the technique on his overhead squat was lacking. He dives into how he spent the last year working on his OHS and gives you some great actionable steps. He fills us in on his long term goal of the 2017 regionals and lays out his plan of action.  For most people goal setting this far out is difficult and hard to stick with.  Andre explains why the long game is so important. And JP chimes in because he just loves goals. N

Jordan Troyan comes on the show to talk about his experience as a CrossFit Games athlete and many other facets of fitness and life. Jordan is the owner of CrossFit Rage a 3,000 square foot facility in Skippack, PA.  He is passionate about his affiliate, his members and his coaches.  He talks about a typical day for himself and dives into what he needs to work on as a coach.  He gets his competitive background from his collegiate swimming career.  He was an All American swimmer from West Chester University.  His race was the 400 M IM.  One of the most brutal races that one can take on. It requires skill in all four strokes and stamina across the board. Jordan competed in the CrossFit Games as an individual in 2013 and 2014.  His goal is to make it back to the big show in 2016.  His weakness is no secret, he needs to get stronger. His strength is something that he has been working on this off season and hopes to continue attacking throughout the games season! Listen in as he talks about his training, his af

Geo and JP have Pat Barber on the show to talk about the landscape of competitive exercise and how it has evolved over the last 15 years. We start with Pats background. Theater and Volleyball are not the usual mix for a dude who lifts weights and runs fast, but it turned out to be an amazing foundation for Pat. He was a college volleyball player who found CrossFit through his Coach at the time Tony Budding.  From there Pat was immersed in the original CF gym, CrossFit Santa Cruz.  He was getting instruction from Greg Glassman and Nicole Carroll back in 2003.  Greg, the founder of CrossFit and Nicole, current director of training at CFHQ.   Check out this sweet old school video of Pat- Demo WOD Pat Barber. Pat talks about the landscape back in 2003 and how the sport and movements have evolved over the years.  The other curve ball Pat threw in was that he started on the CF media team.  He was not picked to be on the Level One Staff or picked to be a great athlete.  He worked his way up the ranks and took on any

Geo and Wes sit down to talk about all things CrossFit.  Wes Piatt made the CrossFit Games in 2013.  It was a wild showdown that came down to the last event. Wes describes his mind set during the competition and exactly what happened.  If you want to read more about it check out the article - Third Place- Wes is also the proud owner of Coast Range CrossFit in Gilory California.  He gave his open and honest opinion about why his gym as been so successful.  He dives into community and results and how powerful this CrossFit movement is. In the end we touch on training, preparing for the open and his favorite CrossFit Level 1 Lecture.  This episode is sponsored by Goat Tape.  Check out GoatTape.com and use the promo code GT4THPULL at checkout for 10% off your order.

JP and Geo jump on and talk about how to prep for the upcoming CrossFit Open Season!   The CrossFit Open is 5 weeks long and consists of 5 different workouts each week.  Everyone from around the world can participate in the open.  It is an exciting time in the world of CrossFit! Most of the open workouts are a test of the good ol' engine.  How fast can push, pull, row,  and jump in 7-18 minutes.  There are strength events and you need to have good control of a barbell, but if your engine is not tuned up you will feel it. There are few different approaches here.  We dive into straight up endurance training.  Rowing, running ans assault bike.  We also talk about incorporating short quick met cons to prep for the open.  Try a few of the workouts below over the next few weeks to test yourself! Endurance Work: Running intervals : 4x200m, 3x300m, 2x400m all done at pr mile pace.(not sprint) 60sec walking between reps, 60sec rest between sets Row- 4x (alternate 500m @1:42-1:46/1:58-2:04 and 1000m @1:56-2:00/2:10-2:1

Mike Dewar jumps on the show today to drop some serious knowledge.  Mike is an accomplished, entrepreneur, strength coach, and athlete. Mike has been featured in Breaking Muscle a premier strength and condition website. He is also the co-founder of J2Fit. Where he helps athletes get stronger and faster through personal training and online programming. He is the founder of The Barbell CEO which helps brands and athletes develop programming and find the right mindset. He also just started The Fittest League, with his team they host a podcast and hold live weightlifting meets.  They are focused on the fun and excitement of CrossFit competitions but the performance aspect of a weightlifting meet. Mike also has a bachelors and masters in the fitness field and holds a slew of certifications.  In the episode today we talk about power output.  Most importantly how to tweak your programming to increase power out put.  Power is one of the  most important things we can develop when it comes to raw strength.  How fast ca

Stephanie Ring the founder of Endureyoga.com A resource for athletes in the sport of fitness to turn for Yoga.  Stephanie is passionate about lifting weights and getting people flexible.  She goes over the benefits of yoga that are often over looked and dives into her passion in the field.  If this is something that you have over looked or not put much time into listen in.  Stephanie goes over a ton of important information on how Yoga can improve your athletic performance. Check out our website for more resources- The4thpull.com Remember to grab some goat tape for all those chest to bar pull ups you are about to hit in the 2016 Open. Head over to GoatTape.com and type in GT4thPULL at the checkout.

Geo and JP sit down and talk strength.  John has a self proclaimed strength bias and runs the strength program at CrossFit Federal Hill.  He provides some great insight on how to attack a strength program. This show is sponsored by Goat Tape.  For 10% at checkout type in GT4thPull.  Get a roll for you and all your friends.

Owners of CrossFit Brian and Marina Anglim hop on the show to talk about what they have learned in the first year of owning a CrossFit Gym.  How there roll from athlete, to coach to owner changed their perspective and how it affects their community.  For Brian and Marina their CrossFit experience was built on relationships.  The relationship with each other and the athletes at their gym.  The effect this has on your experience and ultimately your fitness is extremely important.  Tune in to hear all about their story. 

Dawn Fletcher is the founder of MentalityWOD.com.  She has her masters in sports psychology, she is a CSCS trainer and CrossFit Level 3 Coach. She has helped numerous CrossFit Games athletes improve their mental game. She also works with everyday athletes to help them accomplish their goals and become better athletes.  When it comes to the mental game of a competitive exerciser Dawn Fletcher is the best.  In this episdoe we dive into tips and tricks to help the everyday athlete.  We speculate on what makes Rich Froning such a good athlete and we talk about how coaches can help athletes complete lifts and perform better through positive self talk and reflection. This episode is brought to you by Goat Tape.  Go to goattape.com and type in FT4THPULL at checkout for 10% off your order.  From the team at The 4th Pull!

The Battle of Baltimore is a local competitive exercise competition hosted by CrossFit Federal Hill.  Listen in to see what it is all about.  We also answer two fan questions from Facebook.  One about how to modify and scale workouts for people who need adjustments.  The other is about pull ups and how to get stronger with strict and kipping pull ups. Great questions! Keep them coming. We keep this one short, enjoy! This Episode is brought you by Goat Tape.  Use the code GT4THPULL at goattape.com when you checkout for 10% off from the team at The 4th Pull.

John Pickering, Matt Ropke and Captain David sit down and chat about how CrossFit can help prepare ROTC students.  Clipper City CrossFit has developed a partnership with Johns Hopkins ROTC.  Their goal is to prepare them for graduation of the ROTC.  A great episode on how CrossFit can help ROTC programs. 

Our guest today is Mario Dispenza.  He is our the first Olympic Weightlifting Coach that we have had on the program. Mario was out of shape and looking for a change so he took up Olympic weightlifting, found a coach who put my first workout plan together for me and he created a long-range plan to change my eating habits.  Eight years later, and 70 lbs lighter, he competed in the World Masters Weightlifting Championship.   When he weighed-in for the meet he was 20 lbs lighter than he weighed as a senior in high school!  Mario owns MyOlympicLift.com and he trains his athletes out of The Colosseum Gym in Columbia Maryland.   Not only is he an accomplished lifter, but his passion has turned to coaching.  He helps tons of CrossFit Athletes clean up their form and work on issues that can be developed from CrossFit. Mario starts with his story then dives into ways you can improve your Olympic lifting.  Everything from mobility and flexibility drills to what position to work on improving the most.