808 Rich Froning: Becoming The World’s Greatest

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO WIN? We can have our eyes on the prize. We can work every day to accomplish our goal. We can sacrifice and suffer to be the best. But at the end of the day, you can’t define yourself by whether or not you get “first place.” If your identity depends on one thing, you’re bound to fail. You have to free yourself from tying your worth to winning. When you do, you just might see some amazing results. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I talk about faith, family and CrossFit with the “Fittest Man On Earth:” Rich Froning. Rich Froning is a CrossFit athlete known for his achievements participating in the CrossFit Games. He became the first person to win the title of "Fittest Man on Earth" four times and has led team CrossFit Mayhem Freedom to the first-place finish three times. Froning owns and operates the affiliate gym CrossFit Mayhem, located in Cookeville, Tennessee, and is a member of the CrossFit Level 1 Seminar Staff. Rich fell off the rope the first time he competed in the CrossFit Games and got second place. He felt like a very public failure. But when he released his need to win, he became unstoppable. So get ready to learn what it takes to be an outstanding competitor, husband and father on Episode 808. Some Questions I Ask: Who did you have a deeper relationship with- mom or dad? (7:18) How did you get into CrossFit? (10:00) Did you get injured a lot when training? (20:00) How did you train your mind to prepare yourself for the whole world to take you down? (33:00) How did you handle fear throughout your career? (38:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: How Rich trained for the CrossFit Games (18:00) About the changes happening in the CrossFit Games (26:00) How Rich’s faith helped him compete (35:00) The importance of pain in daily life (41:00) About Rich’s infertility and adoption journey (48:00) The three lessons Rich has learned from his years in CrossFit (58:00) If you enjoyed this episode check out the video and show notes at http://lewishowes.com/808 and follow at instagram.com/lewishowes Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is episode number 808 with four-time fittest man on earth, Rich Froning.

• 0:09Speaker 00

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:34Speaker 00

  T. Allen Armstrong said, "Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character." I'm pumped about this one because we've got Rich Froning, who is one of the greatest of all time in CrossFit. He is a four-time fittest man on earth, meaning he won first place at the CrossFit Games in 2011 through 2014. Didn't lose during that time. He also won the Worldwide Open for three consecutive years. And when he retired from the individual competition, he captained his team,

• 1:17Speaker 00

  CrossFit Mayhem Freedom, in back-to-back Affiliate Cup Championships. His story was documented in a movie in 2015 called "Froning: The Fittest Man in History", produced by CrossFit. He currently owns and operates the gym CrossFit Mayhem in Cookeville, Tennessee, and has a podcast that he shares with his friends called "Froning and Friends". In this interview, we dive in about a lot of different things. We talk about the mindset behind his unprecedented wins. How actually losing his first CrossFit Games, getting second place, was the changing moment and defining moment that allowed him to win the next four years as an individual.

• 1:59Speaker 00

  The reason he stopped competing as an individual, how he's handled fear throughout his career, the journey of adoption, and the greatest lessons he's learned from his wife.

• 2:10Lewis Howes?

  And adopting his children and so much more. I'm very excited about this. If you're a fan, make sure to share this out with your friends, LewisHowes.com/808. Tag myself at Lewis Howes and at Rich Froning over on Instagram. Let them know that you're listening to this while you're going through the process and the interview. And text a friend or two. Let them know about this interview to send some inspiration and spread the message of greatness today. Alright, guys, I'm super excited about this one. Without further ado, let me introduce to you the world champ, Mr. Rich Froning.

• 2:46Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. We've got the iconic and legendary Rich Froning in the house, man. Good to see you, brother.

• 2:52Rich Froning?

  Yeah, thanks for having me.

• 2:53Lewis Howes?

  The greatest of all time in the CrossFit world. Unless, unless the new guy.

• 2:59Rich Froning?

  Yeah, unless Frazier, Frazier's got a couple more to get there, so.

• 3:01Lewis Howes?

  He might be able to get there in the next few years.

• 3:03Rich Froning?

  Yeah, probably.

• 3:04Lewis Howes?

  I wonder what it would have been like if he was the same age as you and he would have started in 2008, 9, 10.

• 3:09Rich Froning?

  And yeah, yeah, it's just different. You know, it's different eras, you know, it's like comparing Jordan and LeBron, that type of thing where it's like, you know, when we started, it was like, we were trying to figure stuff out and nobody really knew what we were doing. And we were just kind of crushing ourselves all the time. And so.

• 3:24Lewis Howes?

  Now there's a model.

• 3:25Rich Froning?

  Yeah, and he's an incredible athlete, you know, not, but it's just, it's different. It's just comparing different eras is hard. But yeah, he's super fit, man. He's a good athlete, good dude.

• 3:36Lewis Howes?

  He's a machine. So now I met you, I think in 2011 or 12, briefly at the games with Graham. It was like in the athletes, I got like a coach's pass, so I came back there.

• 3:48Rich Froning?

  With the enemy, yeah.

• 3:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, the enemy. And I think you'd won twice at that point, so it didn't matter. And I remember you just having this reputation, and I'm also friends with Webb, I think Webb was working for a while.

• 3:59Rich Froning?

  Yeah.

• 4:00Lewis Howes?

  And I remember you just always had this great reputation of being like the nicest guy, solid guy, Christian guy, just like cared about family and the hardest worker in the room.

• 4:09Rich Froning?

  Well, my parents, you know, that's all from them, really, you know, that's the, literally, the, anytime anybody asked me about my parents and how I was raised, it was like. You know, my, my parents were the hardest to working people in the room wherever we went.

• 4:22Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 4:23Rich Froning?

  So, yeah, that was just kinda, it was understood when I was a kid. That's, that's what you're gonna do. And um, if you weren't gonna find yourself something to do, they were gonna find you something to do.

• 4:31Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 4:31Rich Froning?

  So, yeah.

• 4:32Lewis Howes?

  They were gonna put you in something that really made you.

• 4:34Rich Froning?

  Oh, yeah. Yeah. If we weren't outside, you, you were gonna, and, and weather was, weather permitting. But, you know, if we weren't outside doing something, they were gonna find us something to do. So, we were always, you know, trying to play a game or do whatever. But even on the days we found stuff to do, they were still finding us something to do.

• 4:48Lewis Howes?

  Who did you have a deeper relationship with, mom or dad?

• 4:51Rich Froning?

  Uh, both, really. You know, uh, I was, I was a momless boy when I was real little and really close with my mom's still and, and. Um, but yeah, they were both have equal, equal parts, um, responsibility in, in my upbringing. I'm still really close with my dad too. So, um, I couldn't say one way or the other. They're both, you know, have different, different things. You know, I got certain things from my mom. Maybe a little bit more nurturing. I got, you know, the, kinda the, the, the hard line and, and some of the stuff that I use now with, from my dad. So it's, but, you know, they were both the hardest workers ever.

• 5:24Lewis Howes?

  What was the biggest lesson both of them taught you?

• 5:27Rich Froning?

  They weren't super, there weren't like a lot of speeches or a lot of like pep talks or anything like that. It was more lead by example. You know, they weren't gonna ask us to do anything that they weren't gonna do. Like if we were outside doing chores or doing work, they were right there with us doing it. And so I think that's probably one of the biggest things I learned from them is I'm not a, I'm not gonna get in, you know, on the team stuff. I'm not gonna get in the, getting in anybody's face and, you know, I'm not a real rah rah, get you fired up person. But they all know that I'm gonna be right there next to them and I'm not gonna ask them to do anything that I wouldn't do. Or I'm not gonna work just as hard as they're gonna be there. So, that's probably, you know, I, somebody asked me about that a while back. And I was like, I don't really, you know, I don't have any like particular speech I can go back to from either one of them.

• 6:09Rich Froning?

  But they were always just there. They were always there. You know, they were always present. Um, you know, that was one thing when I think about now with my kids is like, I wanna make sure that I'm there. You know, it doesn't have to be, you know, and there doesn't have to be a big speech or anything like that. But it's, you know, when I needed something, they were both there. And so, uh, it's pretty awesome.

• 6:28Lewis Howes?

  Is there anything you missed from your parents growing up that you wish they would have given you, whether it be a mindset, a skillset, a nurturing?

• 6:36Rich Froning?

  Yeah, you know, my dad is incredible, like building stuff, working with his hands. I was actually just talking about this. We, you know, build anything, can fix anything, do any of that stuff. I wish I had that. I can fix enough stuff, but I'm not, it's not my, you know, like, I'm not gonna go do that. But I think, you know, I was there helping him and doing that stuff, but I was more concentrated, like, I wanted to play sports. I wanted to do that type of stuff. So I don't, it can't blame him for me not, you know, wanting to do that type of stuff growing up. But yeah, I mean, I wish I could.

• 7:03Lewis Howes?

  Build a house.

• 7:04Rich Froning?

  And my dad is just like, oh, yeah, you know, like, that's broken. Let me fix this. Two seconds, it's knocked out. And I'm like, dang it, you know, I wish I could do that. You know, like, I would, I could YouTube a video and I know, I know enough that I've, you know, helped him a bunch growing up, but it just wasn't my, my, uh, my thing that I wanted to do growing up. I wanted to be outside. I wanted to like, you know, play baseball or play football in the yard where he was like, oh, I'm gonna go over here and work on this. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I'll help you clean up when you're done or whatever.

• 7:29Lewis Howes?

  Would you trade that for being the greatest of all time?

• 7:32Rich Froning?

  I don't, I don't think so. I don't think that, you know, yeah, yeah, I think, I think it worked out all right, you know? And so, you know, you can't really look back and be like, oh, I would change this, I would change that. I'm, I'm happy where I'm at. I learned from things that I, that I moved on from, but my parents were awesome. But, you know, I, they did the best they could with, you know, with what they had. So I, I'm super appreciative of them from that.

• 7:52Lewis Howes?

  Now, what got you into lacrosse in the first place? I never talked about this before, but how did you first discover it? Cause you were a star in baseball and baseball's the main sport.

• 8:00Rich Froning?

  Yeah, so I, yeah, I went to college to play baseball and

• 8:03Lewis Howes?

  D1, D2?

• 8:03Rich Froning?

  It was Juco.

• 8:05Lewis Howes?

  Juco.

• 8:06Rich Froning?

  And so it was Walter State. A lot of the guys had either been drafted and didn't go the round they wanted to, so they went Juco ball, or they went to an SEC school and, or got an offer from an SEC school and they didn't want, wait three years to get drafted. So they went to Walter State and I was neither of those things. I'm 5'9", white guy, good glove, decent speed, leadoff guy, a dime a dozen. And so I got there, had a girlfriend back home and That's really the reason I was like, you know, ah, you know, I need to head back home and so.

• 8:34Lewis Howes?

  The girlfriend made you come back.

• 8:35Rich Froning?

  She didn't really make me come back.

• 8:36Lewis Howes?

  Why do girls always ruin everything?

• 8:37Rich Froning?

  It's always, you know, it is what it is and I hate it because they won the national championship the year that I left.

• 8:42Lewis Howes?

  Oh, no.

• 8:43Rich Froning?

  And so, uh, but you know, I wouldn't be where I am now. So it is what it is. And, uh, so actually.

• 8:48Lewis Howes?

  Was your wife or now?

• 8:48Rich Froning?

  No, not my wife. So she knows the story. So it's all right. I went back and they had this program at Tennessee Tech where I went where, um, you'd work as a full-time firefighter and they'd pay your tuition. It was actually the city of Cookeville would do it. And so I worked as a full-time firefighter for four years, three and a half years while I was getting my undergrad. And I was taking a, a class in exercise science and one of the professors was the head strength and conditioning coach, who also did CrossFit, owned CrossFit Cookeville at the time. And so, uh, he was like, man, you're, uh, you're into working out. You're a firefighter. A lot of military police fired, um, do CrossFit. You should check it out. So.

• 9:24Lewis Howes?

  Was 2008, 2009?

• 9:25Rich Froning?

  2009. I still have the like the textbook and I just wrote CrossFit.com on the inside of the book. And so, uh, started reading the book or went to the website. I was like, oh, this is pretty cool. So I'd add some of the workouts in. And then I end up getting my level one in June of 2009. And then in, uh, July of 2009, my cousin moved down who's my coach, uh, but glorified training partner.

• 9:49Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 9:49Rich Froning?

  Um, been with me since the beginning and, uh, we started doing CrossFit, only CrossFit on July 1st that year. And so it's been, been going on 10 years.

• 9:57Lewis Howes?

  In a month.

• 9:57Rich Froning?

  In a month.

• 9:58Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 9:58Rich Froning?

  And so, uh, yeah. And so kind of haven't really looked back from then. And then I didn't even know you could compete at the time. So we just kind of trained people. We couldn't afford the affiliation fee. And we would, uh, you know, we'd say we use CrossFit methods, do it the legal way. And so we didn't know you could compete. And then we saw these videos and we're like, oh, this is cool. So we tried some of the workouts from the 2000, I guess it was the 2009 games where they did, Savan did these videos. And we tried the workouts. I was like, oh, my times are pretty comparable and so were his. So we're like, maybe we should try this. And so I guess it was the beginning of that year, they announced that they were doing sectionals. And so sectionals was in Huntsville, Alabama. Played arena football there. There you go. Nice. All right. I never want to go back. No, no, me either. It was on the way to spring break and we were like, on the way

• 10:43Rich Froning?

  to spring break, we'll stop and see, see what, you know, give it a shot. And so that year you had to be in the top. Twenty-two, twenty-three at the time? Yeah, twenty, it would have been twenty-two. And so I was like, if I'm in the top, because you had to be in the top fifteen, if you're in the top fifteen. Sectionals? Yep, to go to regionals. So I was like, if I'm in the top twenty, you know, we'll hang out. But if I'm, you know, there's seventy-something guys, if I'm in the bottom twenty-five, I was like, we'll get an early jump on spring break. Well, I was in first after the day and I was like, all right, we'll hang out a little bit, see how it goes. And so went to regionals, same type of deal, didn't want to get last, ended up winning the region. Wow. Went to the games and we talked about it earlier. Got second. Fell off the rope. Oh, man. And that's been kind of the. That was probably the greatest lesson you learned. Yeah. That year. For sure. As much as you wanted to win. Yeah.

• 11:28Rich Froning?

  It probably made you so much more disciplined. Oh, yeah. Over the last nine years. For sure. I go back and say, if I wouldn't have, if I would have won that first year, I don't think I would have won the next four. Wow. Because, you know, I'd, I'd kind of narrowed my focus so much that I'd let CrossFit kind of define who I was and it'd become my focus. And I'd put so much, you know, into that, that, you know, when, when those type of things are taken away from me, you say taken away from you, you got second place, but for me, it was awful. It was like, I was miserable for months. And so it really helped me. And I grew up a Christian and my faith has always been a huge part of it. But that really made me refocus and realize that's why I do what I do is, you know, you know, those were my talents and they've been

• 12:11Rich Froning?

  given to me and I'm gonna bless him or, you know, glorify him with all that I have. And so it really made me focus on, all right, it's not about, you know, who I am and my identity's not in CrossFit. It was very freeing and, and like, I didn't have to worry and it took a lot of pressure off. You know, I don't, I don't necessarily think that God willed me to win, but it was the. The fact that I didn't put so much of my identity in that, that it kind of loosened me up for that, so.

• 12:37Lewis Howes?

  It's funny, cause I remember I was training with Graham for two years before that because I was playing professional football, arena football. He was training me in the offseason.

• 12:45Rich Froning?

  Right.

• 12:46Lewis Howes?

  And this was about the time where he learned about CrossFit.

• 12:48Rich Froning?

  Okay.

• 12:48Lewis Howes?

  And he was a trainer at a, I think, Bill's Gym.

• 12:52Rich Froning?

  Bill's Gym, yeah.

• 12:52Lewis Howes?

  He was a trainer there and they were doing just kind of like sports specific training stuff, you know?

• 12:57Rich Froning?

  Right.

• 12:58Lewis Howes?

  Kind of like Accelerate Ohio type, all those training facilities and. But he was doing more and more CrossFit type stuff. I didn't even know what it was. And he was, he said at one point, he was like, I'm gonna go and. There's like this, you know, world championship thing. I'm gonna go check it out.

• 13:12Rich Froning?

  Go try it out.

• 13:13Lewis Howes?

  My goal is to get like top five. I did it last year and I think he was like top 20 or something. He's like, yeah, I'm hoping to get like top five. And then I remember like, cool, have fun. I had no clue what it was.

• 13:22Rich Froning?

  Right.

• 13:23Lewis Howes?

  And I was like, good luck and I'll talk to you later, whatever. And then it was like a month afterwards, I saw him. I go, oh yeah, how did that thing go?

• 13:28Rich Froning?

  Yeah.

• 13:28Lewis Howes?

  He's like, I won. I was like, what? Yeah, I was like, and then I really dove into CrossFit and learned about it. And I was like, wow, this is powerful. And that's when I heard about your name.

• 13:38Rich Froning?

  Yeah, okay.

• 13:38Lewis Howes?

  You were like leading and then.

• 13:39Rich Froning?

  And then I ruined it. Yeah.

• 13:40Lewis Howes?

  But it's probably the greatest lesson of your life.

• 13:42Rich Froning?

  For sure, man. Like it's, uh, it was, like I said, it was awful. I'm in that backing up.

• 13:48Lewis Howes?

  Especially as a 22 year old where your whole life is sports.

• 13:50Rich Froning?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 13:51Lewis Howes?

  You've got to win a championship.

• 13:53Rich Froning?

  And, you know, everybody asks, you know, how, why are you so competitive? I was one of 32 first cousins, 25 of us are boys.

• 13:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 13:59Rich Froning?

  So I mean, it was just, and even the girls would beat us on a lot of stuff, you know, cause I mean, all athletes.

• 14:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:04Rich Froning?

  And so, man, it was, I hate losing in anything. And so for that to happen and be so public, like it could be just me and you and nobody else know and I get embarrassed.

• 14:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:12Rich Froning?

  Like I still, it still drives me nuts to lose. And so to be that.

• 14:15Lewis Howes?

  Public.

• 14:16Rich Froning?

  Public and just, you know, a failure, it felt like a failure getting second. You know, everybody's like, oh, you got second. That's awesome. I was not.

• 14:22Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 14:22Rich Froning?

  And no part of me was happy about that. And so, yeah, for sure. It was like, all right, we're gonna, it lit a fire for the next couple of years, for sure.

• 14:29Lewis Howes?

  What did you, what did you think about the next 12 months or however long until the next games? What was the mindset every morning?

• 14:34Rich Froning?

  Yeah, I mean, every day.

• 14:36Lewis Howes?

  Did you have a photo of Graham up on your wing mirror like?

• 14:38Rich Froning?

  It wasn't really, you know, you can't, in CrossFit, you can't really concentrate on just one person, you know? It's like, there's so many people that could.

• 14:44Lewis Howes?

  It's every person's skill set, yeah.

• 14:46Rich Froning?

  Those years, you know, there was five or six guys that were always, you know, mixing it up for events and, and, you know, it was a tight field for a while. And so, yeah, I mean, every day, you know, that's one of the things I talk about is why people get. Are so upset that I don't compete as an individual now. It's like when I woke up every single day, my goal was to win the CrossFit Games. Every single day, like whatever I had to do that day was, it was the CrossFit Games. That was my goal. And there was a lot of relationships and a lot of-

• 15:12Lewis Howes?

  Five, six years, right?

• 15:13Rich Froning?

  Five, six years, yeah. There was a lot of relationships. There was a lot of missed, you know, family time, stuff like that. And that was my goal. That's what I wanted to do. And that's, I was gonna do whatever it took. Like, I would, you know, nine to 10 o'clock at night, I would, part of me now is like, it was so probably counterproductive, you know, now knowing the stuff that I know and I've trained for as long as I have, I'm like, man, if I would've just been smarter, you know, we would've been better. And now, but you had to learn those things, you know, like, like I said earlier, we were kind of the guys that were figuring it all out. And so, we had Lakeland, my first daughter, I was like, I can't do that. You know, like, my goal needs to be being a dad and a husband first. And, and I just don't have that. Like, now it's, I do want to be super fit and I want to, you know, win the games for my team. But it's now I've got, you know, three kids,

• 15:58Rich Froning?

  wife, business that I run first. And then, I still compete and still have fun and get to do that. But it's not my number one goal. And I don't feel like, if I was to go back as an individual, I don't have that. Like, I'm not gonna sacrifice those things.

• 16:09Lewis Howes?

  What were you doing, what were you doing those first two years afterwards? Were you just training 10 hours a day?

• 16:15Rich Froning?

  Oh, yeah, for sure. Every day, all day. You know, it was like a get up and, you know, everybody talks about, you gotta get up at 5 a.m. to be successful. No. I would sleep. Sleep was a huge part and is a huge part of recovery. And so I'd sleep until I, I would get up and then I would literally from, you know, I might get up 8:30, 9 o'clock, but literally from 9 o'clock until I went to bed at 9 or 10 o'clock again that next night, or that night, I was training, doing something.

• 16:38Lewis Howes?

  Obsessing.

• 16:39Rich Froning?

  Obsessing, obsessing, yeah.

• 16:40Lewis Howes?

  What would it be like?

• 16:41Rich Froning?

  It was unhealthy.

• 16:42Lewis Howes?

  What would it be like? Was it just two hours in the gym doing lifting and then-

• 16:44Rich Froning?

  Yeah, I mean, it was literally anything I could think of, you know, it was machines, it was real, actual, like, strict CrossFit workouts. There was lifting, there was, you know, anything that I was like, oh, yeah, I should do that. Or, you know, I'd have a group of guys that would come in the morning, I'd have a group of guys that would come midday, and then I'd have a group of guys that come in the afternoon. And I might do the same stuff in those same, it was just like-

• 17:04Lewis Howes?

  You're trying to beat them all, if you're fresh-

• 17:05Rich Froning?

  Every time, it didn't matter, yeah, exactly. And so, and I had, it was a great, a great group of people that, you know, they would beat me in, or like, push, like, I'd have a guy that would push me in something super heavy. And then I have a guy that pushed me in something, you know, all body weight. And then I have somebody that pushed me in the cardio type stuff. So it was a team effort even then. But man, it was, yeah, if, if you look back at those years, you're like, man, I- I, you know, we worked hard, but it was, it was, uh, maybe not the smartest at the time.

• 17:32Lewis Howes?

  Part of me just feels like I miss those days though.

• 17:34Rich Froning?

  Right, yeah, me too.

• 17:35Lewis Howes?

  All you do is train.

• 17:36Rich Froning?

  That was it, you know, that was, that was all I wanted to do and that was, uh, I was gonna do it. And now looking back, I'm like, man, that was, it was a lot of fun, but man, it was, it was, some of it was stupid. You're like, why was I, you know, I would clean in the morning and then I would do, you know, cleaning again at that night, you know, it's like, what am I doing? But I was like, oh yeah, it'll, it'll help somehow.

• 17:55Lewis Howes?

  Right. Did you get injured a lot through those?

• 17:57Rich Froning?

  Honestly, no, I, you know, I, you know, you have some overuse type stuff, but never, nothing, the only, the only things that I, major injuries that I've had in 10 years, and you know, you're talking, top 1%, you know, so it's a profession now. It's not just CrossFit, so I'm not gonna link these back to CrossFit, but I came down off of a rope, twisted my ankle and broke my ankle. That was in 12 or 13, November 12 or 13. Stupid. We had like a Thanksgiving party at the gym and Hillary left and I was like, I'm gonna sneak something in real fast. And sure enough, I come down on the rope, break my ankle and I'm like, oh man. So I like, it's the only workout that I've ever quit. I was like, I was the first rope climb too.

• 18:38Rich Froning?

  So I'm like, I could finish. I went to do another one. You know, like you walk off an ankle sprain, you're like, I'm all right. This wasn't a walk off ankle sprain. And so I actually had to like drive with my left foot.

• 18:48Lewis Howes?

  That's the hardest thing to do.

• 18:50Rich Froning?

  Yeah, it was so bad. My right foot's up on the dash. I'm like, stop the swelling. And I get home and Hillary's like, what's wrong? I'm like, I twisted my ankle a little bit. What were you doing? Uh, I was trying to show Henry how to climb a rope and blah, blah. She's like, oh, okay. Well, she's like, should you go to the hospital? I'm like, no, I'm fine. Well, so about mid, middle of the night, I get up to pee and I go to stand and just immediately hit the floor. So I scoot on my butt to the bathroom. And so I get back to the bed and Hillary's like, we're going to the hospital in the morning. I'm like, yeah, you're right.

• 19:18Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 19:19Rich Froning?

  And so I get an X-ray, sure enough, it's broken. So that's, that was an injury I had. Um, and then honestly, you know, I've had little, like, you know, overuse type things and, you know, shoulder stuff, but nothing major.

• 19:29Lewis Howes?

  That's pretty amazing.

• 19:29Rich Froning?

  I tore my meniscus in 17 and that was, that was been the most frustrating thing is because it was like, oh yeah, you, you know. Tore it the week before regionals. Oh. Doing a workout in the basement, was gonna do three rounds. It was just like ski, double under, burpee over the parallette and then rest. It was like an interval type thing. I was gonna do three rounds. Well, I did three rounds. I was like, I might as well do four. On the fourth round of the 90th double under, I just feel something. It just doesn't feel right. Doesn't really like pop or anything, but doesn't feel right. I'm like, okay. It starts to swell up. Can't put any pressure on it. Like, alright. So I go the next day, see some PTs at the gym. They're like, I think you just maybe sprained your MCL. I was like, take it easy for a couple of days. So I did a bunch of upper body stuff. And it's a week before regionals. So I'm like,

• 20:12Rich Froning?

  I can't completely take time off. I probably could have been and been fine. Yeah. Um, so the next day, the next morning, we're doing a workout, swimming in my dad's pond. We're doing dumbbell snatches. I go to dive into the pond and I just feel something. Oh, no. And let go. And you're like, oh. No. And you're like, leg kinda goes like. Oh, no, man. And you're like, you're like, ah, that's not good. So I finish, finish the workout. Oh, you're crazy, man. I'm an idiot. And I'm like, tell the team, I'm like, hey, we need to talk to John Lindy. He was on our team. It was our alternate. I was like, you need to get him, get his mind right. Cause I don't know what's gonna happen. So I text one of our, uh, he's a PA at the gym. It's like, meet me at the office. So he does these tests. He's like, you tore your meniscus. I'm like, what do I do? And he's like, good news is you can't really make it worse. He's like, if you can handle the pain, like if we can get some of the swelling down, you can probably still compete. Shut up.

• 20:58Rich Froning?

  And so he gives me a cortisone shot. Oh, my gosh, man. And so I go see a surgeon and he's a, an ex NFL surgeon. He's like, yeah, you'd be fine. He's like, as long as you can handle the pain. He's like, you can get through regionals. He's like, we'll look at it after regionals, see how the cortisone shot does. He's like, we can do the surgery. You got about six to eight weeks before the games. We'll do the surgery. No way. He's like, or you can wait till after the games. So I did the cortisone shot and felt fine. Like, was good. So I was like, you know what? I'll be, I think I'll wait till after. I might even do the surgery. After the games? Yeah, I might even do the surgery. About halfway between training from regionals and the games, that cortisone shot wears off. And I'm like, I need another cortisone shot. So I got another cortisone shot, which had to do it not wish,

• 21:39Rich Froning?

  kind of wish now I wouldn't have, but then I had surgery the week after the games in 17.

• 21:45Lewis Howes?

  So you did the games?

• 21:45Rich Froning?

  Did the games.

• 21:46Lewis Howes?

  With a torn meniscus?

• 21:47Rich Froning?

  With a torn meniscus. We got second that year.

• 21:49Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 21:50Rich Froning?

  It was frustrating. But then I had surgery, man, and it never got better. And I was frustrated. So I did stem cell. I did the hyaluronic acid. I did a bunch of stuff. And for like a year and a half, the hyaluronic acid and the stem cell kind of helped, but I still was like, some days it would be great. And other days it would be like, depending on what I did the day before, it would be awful. And so I was like, that was going up until December of this year. And then met this doctor in Cookeville. And he does, it's called strain counter strain therapy. And then he did some acupuncture. And I'm back to about 95%. Pretty crazy. Like, those were the, the meniscus was the hard one. Cause it was like, you know, you just.

• 22:26Lewis Howes?

  You can't load anything on that.

• 22:27Rich Froning?

  Can't do anything. Can't do anything.

• 22:28Lewis Howes?

  Squatting, jumping.

• 22:29Rich Froning?

  Squatting. It would get so swollen. I couldn't, couldn't run, couldn't squat, couldn't.

• 22:33Lewis Howes?

  Jump rope, maybe like.

• 22:34Rich Froning?

  No. And it was frustrating. And so, but man, I found this guy in town. Everybody's like, did you go to Nashville? And I'm like, no, it was Cookeville, Tennessee. This guy's a genius. And it's basically all but fixed it. You know, like, still, like, there's days I need to be smart. Like yesterday, we walked around at Disney for eight hours. And it's a little like tender today. But man, he's, he's a magician. It's pretty cool.

• 22:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Okay. So very minimal injuries.

• 22:58Rich Froning?

  Very minimal. Yep.

• 22:59Lewis Howes?

  And after you got second, the first year, you, you went four years back to back?

• 23:05Rich Froning?

  Yep.

• 23:05Lewis Howes?

  Four years.

• 23:06Rich Froning?

  Four years.

• 23:08Lewis Howes?

  What do you, did you ever feel challenged at all?

• 23:10Rich Froning?

  Oh, yeah. Every year. You know, I'd always, and we were talking about, you know, when people dig their holes at the beginning of the weekend. I had a couple of years where I would do that. Like I got 27th in 11 on the first event. I got 27th on the first event, I think in 13. And then 14, I had another event that was terrible. And so I always decide to like dig a hole and then have to climb out of it. But just make it interesting.

• 23:33Lewis Howes?

  Make you come back.

• 23:34Rich Froning?

  But yeah, no, heck no. I mean, back then, you know, there was a lot of guys that were, you know, right in, right in the mix all the time. You know, Kalipa was on the podium several years in a row. You had Graham, super fit. You know, Bailey, you had Matt Chan, you know, kind of all the originals, all the guys that competed with in the, the legend of it last weekend. But yeah, it was just a different time. You know, it was a little bit, a little bit different than it is now.

• 23:55Lewis Howes?

  Where is CrossFit now compared to 10 years ago?

• 23:58Rich Froning?

  Well, with all the

• 24:00Lewis Howes?

  Global

• 24:01Rich Froning?

  It is, yeah, yeah. Well, and you know, all these changes we've talked about this year, it's uh it'll be interesting to see what happens. You know, it's grown exponentially and you know, the games last year were, I think, one of the best games we've had.

• 24:13Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 24:13Rich Froning?

  Um, especially, you know, it being in Madison, they moved it from California, you know, it kinda, the first year in Madison, it almost felt like a glorified regional. It didn't feel like the games, but last year it felt awesome. It felt like the games, it felt like, you know, back.

• 24:25Lewis Howes?

  They should do it on Ohio State.

• 24:27Rich Froning?

  There you go.

• 24:28Lewis Howes?

  Rogan.

• 24:28Rich Froning?

  Yeah, yeah, it would be cool. I mean, who knows with this new system, what's gonna happen?

• 24:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:32Rich Froning?

  And so, yeah, it's kinda frustrating just to see all these, you know, we felt like we got to this really good point and then everything completely changed.

• 24:39Lewis Howes?

  Why did they change it?

• 24:40Rich Froning?

  You know, Greg, um, you know, Greg's the owner of CrossFit and he's the, he wanted to see these changes and it's his, his deal and he can do whatever he wants. And so, um, you know, it, that's, that's what he wanted to do. And so now we have all these sanctionals, which I think are a cool idea, you know.

• 24:54Lewis Howes?

  What's that, what's that mean?

• 24:55Rich Froning?

  So, um, you know, we used to have regionals, used to go to the open, regionals and then games. And so basically you built on each other.

• 25:02Lewis Howes?

  The top three from regionals go or whatever it is.

• 25:04Rich Froning?

  Yeah, whatever it is. And so now it's like you have the open. And so this year, what they did with open was the top 20 individuals, men and females, got an invite to the CrossFit Games.

• 25:13Lewis Howes?

  Automatic.

• 25:14Rich Froning?

  Automatic.

• 25:14Lewis Howes?

  The top 20 in the open, so you don't have to go to regionals anymore.

• 25:16Rich Froning?

  Nope. And so

• 25:17Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 25:18Rich Froning?

  That also, if you won your country.

• 25:20Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 25:21Rich Froning?

  Um, and as long as there's an affiliate in your country, you can go to the CrossFit Games if you win your country. So then

• 25:28Lewis Howes?

  That means anyone can go to some country.

• 25:30Rich Froning?

  But it has to be your passport country. So like wherever your passport is issued.

• 25:33Lewis Howes?

  It is dual citizenship, you can like apply for anything.

• 25:36Rich Froning?

  So whatever country, then you can go to the games.

• 25:38Lewis Howes?

  It's like Olympic stuff now.

• 25:39Rich Froning?

  Now they have these sanctional events. So any, not any, but you have to go through CrossFit, you pay uh whatever fee to call yourself a sanctional event. So this year there were 14 or 15. So if you won one of those sanctionals, you got to go to the CrossFit Games.

• 25:55Lewis Howes?

  Man, it sounds like it's so much easier to go now.

• 25:57Rich Froning?

  Yes. And so as individuals, well then teams, the only way you can go to the games is if you win a sanctional, no open, no nothing. So there's only like 15 teams or 14 teams gonna go to the games this year. However, there's gonna be 100 and I think 160 something men and 160 something women.

• 26:12Lewis Howes?

  Huge.

• 26:13Rich Froning?

  Where there used to only be 40, 40, 40 men, 40 women. So now the deal is allegedly, the first day of the games, they're gonna have one or a couple of events and they're gonna cut like the field and like huge.

• 26:26Lewis Howes?

  Done a half.

• 26:26Rich Froning?

  And so basically if you

• 26:28Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 26:28Rich Froning?

  If you won, uh, I think your open rank, somehow they're like, however you qualified has precedent over how somebody else qualified. I don't remember how exactly.

• 26:38Lewis Howes?

  Because if you have the worst event first and you're the best in the world.

• 26:40Rich Froning?

  Exactly. There needs to be some type of, of net, safety net. So it'll be interesting. Um, it's just gonna be different. You know, it's kind of frustrating. CrossFit cut all of the games media. There's no games media anymore.

• 26:52Lewis Howes?

  What does that mean?

• 26:53Rich Froning?

  So like, any of the videos that they would produce, CrossFit would produce, they're gone for the games. So now they're relying on

• 27:00Lewis Howes?

  Marketing videos or like?

• 27:01Rich Froning?

  Everything. So now.

• 27:06Lewis Howes?

  Why'd they do that?

• 27:07Rich Froning?

  Money. I guess he was like He's wanting to, Greg's trying to concentrate more on the health side of things instead of the game side. Where I feel like is, it's a good idea. Like, I think for a while we got too caught up in, you know, the CrossFit Games, the top 1%. I think there's value to that and I think we don't need to completely abandon it. Uh, but he's concentrating on the health side of things and, and you know, getting people moving and, you know, trying to reach an older type of crowd. And I feel like maybe he got a little scared that people got intimidated seeing the games and they think injury and all that stuff. But you gotta look at it as two completely separate entities, you know, like the games is literally, it's a showcase of, of what CrossFit can do, but it's not CrossFit. You know, CrossFit is the community. It's the gyms. It's the affiliates. It's the people that do CrossFit.

• 27:49Rich Froning?

  It's not the CrossFit Games. And so we've kind of swung completely another direction where it's kind of like, I would like to see almost like middle, middle direction. But like I said, it's Greg's to do and he runs the show and it is what it is. So back to it, there's no actual games media anymore. He's kind of relying on these other, you know, there's a, called Morning Chalk Up. There's some other publications that are doing the media type stuff for it. So I mean, it's actually opened up an avenue for us like we know we we have our own YouTube channel and we produce our own videos. We have in-house media. So it is good. And you know, it's it's kind of the whole market that he does with the affiliates where it's like the the cream rises to the top type of deal. So we'll see. It's just big change. It's just

• 28:31Rich Froning?

  a lot of change in such a short amount of time. There hasn't been a ton of communication about it like they cut Instagram like there's no now no CrossFit. Instagram? No CrossFit HQ. Social media? Or Facebook. What? Something about privacy issues with Facebook. So last two weeks ago. No way. All of a sudden it was gone. All the content is gone. There's Twitter still because it's not Facebook owned. Completely got rid of Instagram and Facebook. That's. Games, CrossFit HQ, all of it gone. The website's still up? The website's still up. That seems kind of crazy. Kind of crazy. But hey, it's his. Like I said, it's his. Maybe there's something else happening behind the scenes. Who knows? Who knows? But. But everyone is on Facebook and Instagram. Everyone. To promote and tag and share.

• 29:13Rich Froning?

  And so it was just like, all right, we're done. And it was just like, gone. So CrossFit HQ or the CrossFit Instagram was gone first. At CrossFit Games is still gone? Was for a day and then it was gone the next day. And so you're like, kind of like, all right, see you. Peace. Wow. So yeah, it's been a lot of changes in the last couple of weeks and a lot of people are frustrated and fired up. You know, you talk to people in the gym and they're like, what's going on? And it's just like, the the problem is there's just lack of communication. And you know, he's going on these podcasts and there's a couple like CrossFit, traditional CrossFit podcasts and he's kind of talking about why he's doing this stuff. But it's there's no media anymore to kind of tell you why it's going on. Yeah, yeah. It's it is what it is, you know? And so then I'd also heard that he turned down

• 29:57Rich Froning?

  the viewer like, I think Facebook actually offered to to broadcast the games and turned that down. And so you're just kind of like, so right now, apparently, there's nobody to broadcast the games. ESPN or no? CBS Sports was and I'd heard I'd hearsay, you know, you kind of hear different things. And CBS Sports is was turned down as well. So we'll see if the games is even broadcast. Maybe CrossFit.com, maybe. I don't know. You know, that's what they did for years, but there's no media. So what are you gonna do? It's it's kind of

• 30:26Lewis Howes?

  Interesting man.

• 30:27Rich Froning?

  It's kind of gotten uh it's Wild West right now, so.

• 30:30Lewis Howes?

  Um, I feel like it's always been that.

• 30:32Rich Froning?

  It is, and that's

• 30:33Lewis Howes?

  Every year, something changes, right?

• 30:34Rich Froning?

  When somebody, you know, when you have one person that runs the show and they they can do what they want to do, you know, that's it's

• 30:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:39Rich Froning?

  That's what it is. It's a Wild West.

• 30:41Lewis Howes?

  How do you think your mindset is different than the rest when you were competing at the highest level as an individual? How do you feel like, because everyone can work the same amount of workload.

• 30:50Rich Froning?

  Right.

• 30:51Lewis Howes?

  Right? And I feel like there's probably guys that did just as much.

• 30:54Rich Froning?

  Yeah, I think there's probably people that are mentally or physically fitter.

• 30:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. How did you, how did you train the mind to prepare yourself for the whole world to try to take you down?

• 31:03Rich Froning?

  Yeah, so I, you know, I, I think it was kind of a mix of everything, you know, my, my entire growing up, you know, like I talk about my parents. I talk about um the hard work and the leading by example, and they were always, you know, always, there was always something to do. There was that. There was me being one of thirty-two first cousins. Always, everything was competitive. Everything was a, you know, a competition. We would, now I realize it was my parents trying to tire us out and, you know, "Hey, run around the pond. Let's see who can run around the pond the fastest." He has kids, you know, we're like, "Yeah, let's do it." And so that type of stuff. And so there was that. And then, you know, high school baseball, I had an incredible high school baseball coach that would push us. And we would always joke that we ran more than the, the track and cross country team. And, you know, he was huge into mental toughness.

• 31:45Rich Froning?

  And, you know, he said he, he did CrossFit before CrossFit was a thing. That's his joke now. And, you know, we would do these workouts. And now I look back having an exercise science series, and I was like, "What the heck were we doing?"

• 31:53Lewis Howes?

  We were doing, yes.

• 31:54Rich Froning?

  But it was hard and it was mentally tough. And, you know, that was his deal and mental toughness. And there was that. And then I had, you know, being in the fire, fire department and those lessons that I learned from that. I think it's just a mix of all of it. I don't think there was one thing that I can pinpoint down or think about the mentality of, you know, what, what one thing it was. I think it was just a mix of all of it, you know, and like wanting to win the games, work, having the, the atmosphere where I could do that, like having those guys that would train with me in the mornings, in the midday, in the afternoon, those to push me and, you know, my cousin the same way. And, um, you know, just all that, all of that into one perfect storm, I guess. There wasn't, there's not one thing that I can be like, "Oh, yeah, that was it."

• 32:35Lewis Howes?

  How did you feel like you handled the pressure, though, during those first few years where it seemed like a lot of pressure?

• 32:39Rich Froning?

  Right.

• 32:40Lewis Howes?

  You know, so many people there, it's on the line, each of that matters, or you lose. What did you think about before every event would start? Or in the middle when you're like, gosh, I'm exhausted?

• 32:50Rich Froning?

  Yeah.

• 32:50Lewis Howes?

  Like, this person's crushing me right now. How did you stay focused?

• 32:54Rich Froning?

  Yeah, I think a huge part of that, like I said, was my faith and not having such a, you know, not having that pressure on, it was, there was still pressure. Like, I'm not gonna say that, you know, I didn't have pressure on me. But it was very, it took some of that pressure off and...

• 33:08Lewis Howes?

  What would you think about in that moment? When you felt like, oh, this pressure is on me? What would you say to yourself?

• 33:13Rich Froning?

  Well, you know, the good, the good thing was, is like, I'd had that, that rope fall and I'd embarrassed myself greatly, or way more than I was gonna embarrass myself again. So it was kinda like, I've already done...

• 33:24Lewis Howes?

  The worst.

• 33:25Rich Froning?

  The worst that it could happen, in my mind, was the worst thing that could happen. And so it was like, it's gonna be alright, you know? And then, and then the more and more I competed and the more and more the years went on, I, I noticed that, hey, it's not, um, it's not about one event. You know, like, as long as there's damage control, you know, like, there's certain events you're not gonna do great at if you can damage control in those events. And I think that was one thing that I kinda figured out a lot earlier than people was, you know, everybody was like, when I go out there, I compete against myself and I just do the best that I can and blah, blah, blah, and all this, this stuff that people wanna tell themselves when they don't wanna, either don't wanna push hard or don't wanna take credit for their, you know, something happening. So what I learned was you can watch people and watch, you know, hey, I need to stay ahead of so and so.

• 34:08Rich Froning?

  You know, there's times where it bit me in the ass, but it was like, you know, luckily for us, you kinda knew what lane you were in, what, is what place you were in. And so you could figure out, alright, so and so is maybe better at this, but if I'm within a, either a rep or two or a person or two of them, I can make up points or not lose too many points and then I can get ahead of them in another event. And so I kinda learned that, you know, you would kinda call audibles in the middle of it, you're like, oh, I gotta push here, I need to like, do whatever. And so I think that was something that I, one of the things that I figured out a lot earlier than people was, it was, it is a sport. Like, as much as, you know, it's just working out, there is some strategy to it, there is, you're trying to game things and you're trying to like, alright, I know this movement is kind of a rest for me so I can kinda push here, or, you know, this movement's gonna

• 34:53Rich Froning?

  be a little bit harder so I need to slow down and, and gaming workouts. And that was something, I think, training so much and doing so many different things that I did, um, and the volume that I did, that I learned... You know, I'd done certain combinations of movements. They may not have done the exact workout, but I knew how they kind of played off of each other. And so that was something that I'd learned pretty early on and helped a ton.

• 35:13Lewis Howes?

  That's great. How did you handle fear throughout the career?

• 35:17Rich Froning?

  Um, yeah, I mean, there was, there were times where especially I remember specifically one time in 2013. So I'd gotten 27th on a pool event. Um, I got second on a rowing event. That was, it was the half marathon, but you started out with a 2K sprint, which was the worst thing ever. So I went 27th, second, seventh, I think on the, the marathon. And then I went seventh, I think on the burden run. Well, Kalipa had went first, first, first, first. So he had like a huge lead and I'm just pissed off and I'm in a horrible mood. And uh, my wife comes up and we're kind of sitting in the athlete area between events. And she's like, you don't look like you're having fun. I was like, I'm not having fun. I mean, like I was probably in like third or fourth at the time. This is awful. Like whatever.

• 35:59Rich Froning?

  And she's like, go get your stuff. What do you mean get my stuff? She's like, if you're not having fun, we need to go home. And I was like, what are you talking about? Like, I'm gonna go get my stuff, leave this. Like I trained all year for this. She's like, you do the best when you have fun. And I'm like, back. Like she's, she's never played any type of sports, like anything like that. She, she did when she was really young, like she played basketball and stuff like that, but she never in high school. She's the least competitive, could care less about anything CrossFit related. But she was like, go get your stuff. We're leaving. Go tell Dave we're leaving. And I was like, what are you talking about? Then she's like, well then start having fun. And I was like, all right, well then, and you know, I didn't like start having fun immediately, but I, it turned around. So she always takes credit for, you know, that, that year that she was, she was.

• 36:42Rich Froning?

  But yeah, I mean, it's like, uh, you know, you try to have as much fun as you can. And, and over the years, you learned that when I first started competing, like a month out, like my nerves would start getting me and you're like, man. You know butterflies and all that. Well then, you know, after a year or two, it was like two weeks out, then it would start. And then it was like a week out. Now it's like

• 37:00Lewis Howes?

  Two days before, yeah.

• 37:01Rich Froning?

  Now it's like the event, the event of, then I start getting a little nervous still. You know, everybody's like, you still get nervous? I'm like, heck yeah, I still get nervous. I think when you stop getting nervous is not fun anymore, you know?

• 37:09Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 37:10Rich Froning?

  Um, but yeah, I think it's just the nerves and, you know, being a competitor and you, you know, you have that like before, you know, you have all this buildup. But then literally as soon as three, two, one, go happens, it's just like

• 37:21Lewis Howes?

  You gotta go.

• 37:21Rich Froning?

  It's just like, everything goes away. You know, you talk about flow or whatever it is, but it literally like, I can't tell you any music that's played um, during events. You can't hear any of the cheers. You can't hear any of that stuff. You're just kinda in it. And you just kinda go through it and it's, it's kinda, it's hard to explain, you know? It's just like a competitive nature. You know, it's hard to, people are like, what, what makes, what makes you so competitive? I'm like, I don't know. I just, it is, it's just something that you just get into and you don't really think about those things. Yeah, the workout sucks and it's gonna hurt. And you know, for a long time, you know, like I said, I have those certain things that go through my head. I'd write Bible verses on my shoes and think about, you know, like the crucifixion of Christ. And those were the things early that really got me. But then it's just like, after you've done it for so long, it's just, it's what you do.

• 38:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:04Rich Froning?

  You know, it's like, uh, you just get into that space and you get in that zone and it's just, it's go.

• 38:09Lewis Howes?

  When you've already experienced the pain so much, you're like, I know it's gonna suck.

• 38:11Rich Froning?

  Yeah, it's gonna hurt, you know, it's just like, when is it gonna hurt? You know, like, most of the time you're like, alright, this workout's gonna take 10, 15 minutes, but you know, the pain's really gonna set in about minute nine, minutes. You know, depending on whatever the workout is, but yeah, it's just, it's like, you've almost become, not numb to the pain, cause it still hurts, but you've almost like embraced that pain and you just, you just know, it's almost like a sick, twisted thing where you're just like, this is what it is, you know? And it's, um, I was talking, I've, I've got kind of an addictive personality and there's, you know, some substance abuse in my family history, but I've never had any substance abuse. But I think working out is, working out is probably my, my substance abuse. Yeah, really it is.

• 38:51Lewis Howes?

  How important is pain for everyone in the world to experience on a daily or weekly basis?

• 38:57Rich Froning?

  It's when you grow, man. You know, it's, it's, um, you never grow and you never move forward when you're comfortable. You know, like you've gotta, as bad as it sounds, you gotta go out and you gotta seek that stuff. You have to, that's when, that's when you, you get better and that's when you grow, I think. It's same as physically, you know, like when it hurts, that's when you know something good is happening. So you almost embrace that where it's like, this is gonna hurt. But I know on the other side I'm gonna come out better and it's the same way mentally. It's like if you're not pushing, you're not, you're not growing.

• 39:26Lewis Howes?

  Why do so many people resist pain when they know?

• 39:30Rich Froning?

  It's either their upbringing or it's, it's they've never had that or they just, they just don't enjoy. You're not gonna enjoy pain. Like, let's be honest, you know, we, we talk about like, some of the most miserable experiences when you're done with it, you're like, that was awesome. You know, like you go out and seek these like challenges.

• 39:46Lewis Howes?

  I never wanna do this again.

• 39:46Rich Froning?

  This in the middle of it, you're like, you know, I went on this elk hunting trip for six days. And for the first three days, it was awesome. The fourth day downhill, we didn't see any, any elk. I hiked sixty miles in six days, like sun up to sundown, going through the woods. And I'm like, this is miserable. Like, I hate this. And then I got done, I'm like, I can't wait to do that again. You know, like, you're just like, it's sick and it's twisted, but you know, like, you're growing in that, you know, as long as it's productive pain, like, there's different, like, there's certain things that aren't productive. But as long as it's something good, you know, you're on the other side, you're gonna come out better. And I think, I don't know, I don't know, it's hard for me sometimes to relate to other people that are like, how do you, how do you get there that you wanna, you know, you wanna compete or you wanna go to that pain? I'm like, how do you not want to? How do you not see the benefit of it?

• 40:30Rich Froning?

  It's hard sometimes for me to like, talk to people that don't get that, you know, like, you get it, you know. You're just, we're just talking about it, but it's, it's hard for me, you know? Like, it's just hard to like, relate to that, cuz I, I don't know, I don't know what makes me wanna do that. But my wife, she's similar. She's like, I don't, I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna do anything that's painful. Like, like, I just, for me, that's just how I do it.

• 40:53Lewis Howes?

  Why do you think you're wired that way to want it?

• 40:58Rich Froning?

  I don't know, I think it's that, like, that perfect mix of everything that we talked earlier. It's just.

• 41:04Lewis Howes?

  Cuz you wanna win that bad.

• 41:05Rich Froning?

  I wanna win that bad. It's not even I wanna win that bad. I don't wanna lose. I don't wanna make an idiot of myself. Like I said, it could be just us two and nobody else could be watching, but it still just drives me crazy. And it's, it's ridiculous, you know, like, if you really look back and like, yes, you know, like we're saying, grow, you wanna grow through pain, but like, some of the stuff, it's like, why does that cause? Like, why am I so caught up in that? But it's just the way I am. It's just the way I'm wired, just the way I've always been wired.

• 41:29Lewis Howes?

  How did you meet your wife?

• 41:30Rich Froning?

  Met my wife getting my haircut. I was a firefighter, getting off, getting off shift, and we had a. Mutual friend that uh she cut my hair and she colored Hillary's hair. And so while Hillary's getting her hair colored, I was getting my cut and we'd actually both gotten out of like four year, four or five year long relationships. We were both miserable in those relationships and finally got out of them. And I was a perfect gentleman to every woman that I ever dated. My mom was always like, open every door, do whatever. And I was a jerk to Hillary. And she kept coming. I was like, like, I'm not ready to get in a relationship, you know, like. Have some fun. Have some fun. I gotta go on that spring break trip. Exactly. And so I'm like, was a complete just jerk to her. Really?

• 42:10Rich Froning?

  And she just kept coming and was like, I don't know. She and she's doesn't take any crap either and would just like, there was one time. This is awful. And I'm such a jerk for doing it, but she came to visit me at the fire station, kind of met her, introduced. This was like a little bit later on when we were like, we'd kind of hung out and talked and text and all that stuff for probably three or four months and I was just like, you know, I'm not ready. I'm not ready and all this stuff. So we, she comes to the fire station. I introduced her all the guys and she's going to leave and you know, I'm take her out to her car, open the door, let her in. And she's like, so what are we? We, we talking? Are we texting? You know, what's our deal? Together or we uh? And I'm like, I don't like titles. The stupidest thing I could have ever said, ever. And she goes, don't ever talk to me again. Wow. Like, okay, that's not good. So the next day.

• 42:56Rich Froning?

  So you text her the next day? I didn't text her the next day because I was like, all right, I'm gonna see what happens. The next night she goes, why the hell have you texted me all day? I was like, you told me not to. And so I was like, all right, this girl, you know, so she, you know, she can dish it out and she's perfect. Like she's completely, the, the statement opposites attract are, are literally me and my wife. Uh, but we work really well together and she supports me in everything and I support her in her things and you know, she could care less about anything CrossFit related, you know, we uh, we, she. Really? Even this is your whole life? Whole life, man. This is my life. She doesn't care about it? Listen to this. So she's. She supports you and shows up? Supports. Yeah, heck yeah. She's there. She's my biggest fan, but she could care less. Like as long as, you know, whatever. And so

• 43:36Rich Froning?

  we have three kids, our oldest, um, Lakeland. She bought all the most expensive like Dolly clothes for her and Lakeland hates them now, but at the time, you know. Lakeland maybe wore this stuff once, twice, whatever. So I'm doing some laundry one night with her. And so, um, full laundry, I take it up to Lakeland's room. I open this closet and it's just like the, the amount of money hits me that we spent on these clothes and it's just like the light. I'm like, oh, and so I'm like, whatever. So, you know, and we had some infertility issues and all that stuff. And Lakeland's adopted and all three of our kids are adopted. So I, you know, I wasn't, didn't really, like I would give her crap about spending money, but I'm like, hey, you know,

• 44:16Rich Froning?

  we've waited long enough for this kid, like, you know, I want, I want her to, and so this is years later. And so I walked back downstairs and I'm like, I have to be a dick. Like I'm just, I just want to know, how much money do you think is in that closet up there? And she's like, it's a hobby. And I was like, it's an expensive hobby. And she goes, well, if you weren't so good at CrossFit, that'd be an expensive hobby. And I was like, that doesn't make sense at all. Like, that's pays for this stuff. Like, yeah, this is what I do. And she's like, well, you know what I mean? And I'm like, no, actually I don't know what you mean. So that's, that's in a nutshell, that's our relationship is. She could care less, but she's super supportive.

• 44:52Lewis Howes?

  What's the biggest lesson that you've learned from her over the last eight years?

• 44:57Rich Froning?

  Oh, man.

• 44:58Lewis Howes?

  Through her journey, supporting you?

• 45:00Rich Froning?

  Too many probably to list. I mean, she's the most, with the stuff that we went through with, with, you know, infertility, with adoptions, with failed adoptions and all that stuff. She's the most just resilient, um, woman I've ever met, but also the most caring and loving, you know, like now she'll go, like if somebody's had any type of any, you know, like she had a friend that had a failed, um, I U I or like whatever, it's a, um, uh, fertility treatment. And, you know, it's devastating, like watching Hillary go through that, you know, for me, it was a little bit like, until I knew we were having a kid or, or something was, until we had the kid in our hands, um, I was.

• 45:41Rich Froning?

  I was okay, but for her, anytime anything failed or any adoption failed, just watching her like it was like she had gotten so like that's our kid and then it wouldn't happen and it was just it was awful.

• 45:51Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 45:52Rich Froning?

  But she's.

• 45:52Lewis Howes?

  You get your hopes up.

• 45:53Rich Froning?

  Hopes up, but but watching her do that, it was almost like two like, you know, we had the disappointment of not having that, but then watching her was like double because she would just get so just distraught and so but she's now so supportive for these uh, women or anybody who is going through that. And so it's it's just she's the most caring person on that side and it's it's pretty cool.

• 46:13Lewis Howes?

  Did you guys know you wanted to have kids pretty?

• 46:15Rich Froning?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we talked, um, you know, when we first, you know, got serious and we were kind of talked about family because, you know, you're twenty, twenty years old, you're like, hey, you know, it's it's coming and we our plan was to have three biological and adopt one. That was our plan. And so we're like, yeah, let's do that. And so when we finally decided to start having kids, we're like, it's not working. And we went and got all these tests done and they're like, oh, you're you're both completely healthy. There's no reason why this can't happen. And so we tried for a couple of years. Well, then Hillary went on like hormone therapy and that was a nightmare. Um, and then, you know, like even having those like she's like, I'm pregnant. I think I'm pregnant. And I'm like, do you have a test? No, no, but I think and I'm like,

• 46:55Rich Froning?

  let's hold back here. And well, you know, she'd get so caught up and then, you know, it wouldn't happen. So she gets and it was just watching that those those things happen. And then so she came to me and she's like, what if and we were talking about doing IVF and I was like, I don't want to pay for IVF for a chance and it not happen. And so she's like, what about adoption? I'm like, I just don't know if I could, looking back, this is the stupidest thing ever. But I was like, you know what? I don't think I could adopt my first kid. Like, I just don't feel like she's like, well, just think about it and pray about it. And I was like, I just don't think I can. Well, then she was like, finally, I was like, let's let's look into it. Well, she found

• 47:33Rich Froning?

  found Lakeland's birth mom. She had a family back out. That was the day that Hillary actually talked to her through a through an agency, um, the lady. The family had backed out the day that Hillary talked to her and she was like, this is kind of weird. This is kind of a godsend. Let me, let me process this and I'll get back to you. So she talked to Hillary a couple of days later and she's like, I'd like to meet you and, you know, have, have lunch and kind of figure it out. And so this girl is eight months pregnant at the time.

• 47:59Lewis Howes?

  My gosh.

• 48:00Rich Froning?

  This is my last year as an individual at the CrossFit Games. And I'm like, okay. And so she's like, she meets Hillary, loves Hillary. She's like, I'd like to meet your husband. Well, met her. She's like, yep, let's do this. And so that was a month before the Games. Lakeland was born two weeks before the CrossFit Games.

• 48:14Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 48:15Rich Froning?

  Um, we were both in the room. I cut the cord. So then, yeah, we had to like, it was finalized actually on my birthday. Cause in Tennessee, there's a 14, it was a 14 day waiting period. So like at any time during those 14 days, she could have came back and said, I want to keep the kid. And so you're just like.

• 48:32Lewis Howes?

  Waiting.

• 48:33Rich Froning?

  Waiting. It was awful.

• 48:35Lewis Howes?

  And the game started that day.

• 48:36Rich Froning?

  Yeah.

• 48:37Lewis Howes?

  14 days later.

• 48:37Rich Froning?

  It finalized my birthday, the next day we started the CrossFit Games. So it was kind of a whirl. When Lakeland came out here with us, she was two weeks old on a plane, all that type of stuff. Man, it was, it was chaos. Uh, but it was awesome. And I won. And so I was like, all right.

• 48:52Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing.

• 48:53Rich Froning?

  We're good. Yeah, it was hard. It was a, it was a tough.

• 48:55Lewis Howes?

  Emotional game. It's your last one. Everyone's talking about it.

• 48:59Rich Froning?

  Yep. And so it was, it was rough, but it was, it was awesome. And then, yeah, it's kind of funny. So we had Lakeland during the Games. We had Trice, my son, during regionals, like a couple of weeks before regionals. And then Violet, our youngest, we got, um, the first week of the Open in, in 18. So it's like, we always games, regionals, open. So.

• 49:17Lewis Howes?

  So you've adopted three children now?

• 49:18Rich Froning?

  Adopted three, yep.

• 49:19Lewis Howes?

  What's it like being a father of a, uh, adopted children versus, and how do you feel not having a biological child?

• 49:27Rich Froning?

  Never once does it cross my mind that those aren't my kids. They're my kids. I don't, I don't know the feeling of having biological children, but I could not love these kids anymore. They're, they're our kids, you know, like.

• 49:39Lewis Howes?

  They came, they were yours in the first day?

• 49:41Rich Froning?

  Yeah, so Lakeland was, Lakeland was there the first, uh, we got her, um, immediately. Like I said, I was there, cut the cord. Trice was nine days old. He was in the NICU. When we got him, that was a kind of a crazy story too. We had a couple failed adoptions. I was tired of watching Hillary go through that. And so I was like, you know what? I'm perfectly content with Lakeland. Like, let's, let's, let's pump the brakes with this. She was like, I don't, I feel like there's, there's, we have another kid out there. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm not watching you go through this. Let's take a little break. And she's like, fill out this paperwork. And I'm like, I can't fill out this paperwork because I can't watch, like, I'm not doing this. So she comes up to me, she's like, you're gonna fill out this paperwork. I'm like, alright, I'll fill out the paperwork. But this is the last time. This is it. I'm not doing it. If it doesn't work, I'm not going through it anymore.

• 50:24Rich Froning?

  So it was a lawyer in Florida. And so, uh, she overnights the paperwork because it had, it was due the next day. Uh, we get an email that night and they're like, hey, you're one of 20 families. This girl wants, um, this baby to go to some, he's already been born, he's nine years, nine days old. He's four pounds, three ounces. Um, he's in the NICU. This, she wants him to go to a family that, um, that doesn't have any kids. I was like, crap. But in the 20, you know, there's two or three that don't have kids and they, they won't, they don't list the names. They just list ages, um, names of, or not names, but number of kids, ages of the kids and whatever, and where they live. And so we get an email that night. It's like, uh, you're one of the top five.

• 51:06Rich Froning?

  And so Hillary's all excited. I'm like, just calm down, pump the brakes here. And so the lawyer calls a couple hours later. He's like, how soon can you get to Jacksonville, Florida? We're like, well, I mean, we can be there the next morning. Mind you, this is a month before regionals. I'm like, okay, here we go. And so we drove to Jacksonville, Florida and we met Trice. And Richard the third is his name, but we call him Trice. And so, um, we, we've had Trice since he was nine days old. And then Violet is actually our youngest. She's Lakeland's biological half-sister. Uh, Hillary stays in touch with the birth mom. You know, it's not an open adoption, but she'll give her updates. And so she reached out to her on Facebook. It was like, hey, I had another baby and can't keep her. Would you guys keep her? Or would you guys take her? And we're like, of course.

• 51:47Rich Froning?

  And, uh, Trice was 10 months old at the time. That was tough. 10 months and Violet was super colicky and it was hard, really hard. Now she's an angel. She's our sweetest kid. Trice is a disaster. He's literally like 100% boy. I'll go all the time, but. It's awesome to see, you know, like they're not biological, but they like if you look at Lakeland and the way she acts, it's Hillary and myself like combined and then tries the same way and like you don't think about the things that the kids pick up on, but now the older two go to me, go with me to the barn or to the gym a ton. And so like I've never once told them, hey, let's work out, but Lakeland loves to work out. Like when I say work out, she swings around on the pull-up bar. She'll make like obstacle courses. She'll run around. She has a little

• 52:30Rich Froning?

  barbell, picks up dumbbells. Trice is the same way. He tries to follow her around all the time. He's two. But yeah, it's the things that's it's kind of cool to everything comes full circle. Like I've never once, like I said, I'm not going to be a like get in their face, rah rah type of parent, but the things that they pick up on, you don't realize. And so that for me is another motivator now is like, hey, I need to, these kids are watching. Like that's this, they're the most important thing to me. And the things that they pick up on, like I've got to like, you know, when you get a little emotional, you're like, all right, and you're ready in a little bit because you know, that's what they feed off of it. And you don't think about it because you're like, oh, they're two years old or four years old or one year old. They're not going to pick up on some of this stuff, but they do, man. It's, it's insane what they pick up on.

• 53:15Lewis Howes?

  On everything. Where do you think it'd be if you weren't married during those five years in the games? Do you think you'd have won?

• 53:22Rich Froning?

  No, I don't think so.

• 53:23Lewis Howes?

  Without being married?

• 53:23Rich Froning?

  I don't think so. I think, yeah, I mean, there's some type of focus there that, you know, you can't replace. And like I said, Hillary kept me super grounded during those years and still does, you know, she could literally care less about like, I'm like, hey, I snatched 300 pounds. Take out the garbage. Or like when, in, in one of the events, the overhead squat event, you know, I tried to put 400 pounds over my head and she's like, why did you do that? I'm like, I mean, I was trying to, trying to win the event. She's like, I just don't think it's necessary that you put that much, put that much weight over your head. Why do you ever need to do that? I'm like, thanks. You know, she could literally care less. But like I said, it's good, you know, like, cause like, I know that my worth to her is not in.

• 54:07Lewis Howes?

  Based on, that's powerful.

• 54:09Rich Froning?

  Based on track record. Like I don't, I don't have, that's something, a piece of. Of the equation I can take out is like, oh, I have to do this for my wife to stay with me. My wife's like, no, you have to like, watch the kids. That's how you're, you know, she's gonna stay around. But um, so it's, it's been a very, she's been awesome for, for, you know, getting me to where I am. She's a huge part of it.

• 54:29Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing, man.

• 54:30Rich Froning?

  Yeah.

• 54:30Lewis Howes?

  And transitioning into the team, you guys won once or?

• 54:33Rich Froning?

  We won three times.

• 54:34Lewis Howes?

  Three times?

• 54:35Rich Froning?

  Three times, yeah.

• 54:35Lewis Howes?

  What's that like, winning with a team versus winning?

• 54:37Rich Froning?

  It's so much better, honestly. Uh.

• 54:39Lewis Howes?

  You get to do?

• 54:39Rich Froning?

  It's more fun. You get to share it with people, you know, like, growing up, I was a team sport guy. You know, obviously, there's a ton of individual sides of baseball, and I did play some football, too. But being able to, to share it with other people and, and to see the, the sacrifice that they put in and, you know, they're right there with you going through it. And to be able to, when you reach something like that, a goal like that together is, is pretty awesome.

• 55:01Lewis Howes?

  Pretty cool.

• 55:01Rich Froning?

  Yeah.

• 55:01Lewis Howes?

  Do you guys win money on the team or no?

• 55:03Rich Froning?

  Yeah, yeah, not nearly as much as an individual.

• 55:05Lewis Howes?

  Fifty grand total or something?

• 55:06Rich Froning?

  Yeah, probably, yeah. I think last year we, I think last year was like seventy-five or something like that.

• 55:10Lewis Howes?

  How many is it?

• 55:11Rich Froning?

  Twenty, twenty-five, yeah. So yeah, now it's four. It used to be six. So yeah, but it's fun. It's a lot of fun. You know, I still get to compete, still get to do the sponsorship stuff, because I'm still competing, um, but I get to share it with other people. It's a whole lot more fun. You get to suffer together and it's, uh, you know, you're not suffering by yourself all the time.

• 55:29Lewis Howes?

  It's not a lonely suffering anymore?

• 55:30Rich Froning?

  No, not lonely suffering, but it's, it's good. It's, uh, you know, and, and, you know, made some of my best friends now through, through competing on a team. So it's, it's cool.

• 55:40Lewis Howes?

  Now that you're literally, probably the time this comes out, it'll be ten years since you started the, uh, CrossFit. What would you say are the three biggest lessons you learned in ten years of training, competing, and being in CrossFit?

• 55:54Rich Froning?

  One of the main things, and this is something I always tell people, is if you're not doing it for a profession, use fitness as like a, like a, a release of stress. Like, some people get so caught up in, you know, I've gotta do this, I gotta, and there, there is value in, you know, being, using, you know, like, not stressing about it, but. Putting some value in it, but getting so caught up where it like affects your day or affects your home life. It's like, hey, be stressed out about it while you're doing it in that hour, but go home, have some fun. Like, don't, don't get so caught up in it that you're, you're ruining your day. Um, another, another pet peeve that I actually have is kids and, and sports and giving up sports for playing cross or playing CrossFit,

• 56:39Rich Froning?

  for doing CrossFit. It drives me nuts. When kids are like, yeah, I quit, quit playing football, I quit playing baseball to pursue a career in CrossFit. I'm like, man, you have the rest of your life to do CrossFit. I was like, some of the memories, best memories that I have are sports. Some of the best lessons that I learned are having, are playing sports. And, and I probably, you know, playing more sports would have been better. Like, I kinda, I concentrated on baseball, but I did play football and you know, like, maybe not organized football, but I was playing football in the yard and doing that type of stuff where you're gonna learn a whole lot more and you're gonna have a whole lot better base of, of athleticism and fitness and it's gonna serve you well. Like you, um, that's one of the things too, is you see a lot of the guys that are gym rats, you know, when certain events come up, they're not as good. But the guys, Graham, who played

• 57:24Rich Froning?

  sports, you can adapt on the fly. Graham was one of the best guys that would adapt to stuff on the fly because he played sports, played a lot of sports. Ben Smith, the same way. Um, cause you played as many sports as they could. They're the best athletes. And so there's a big part of that. Number three, I don't really know if I have a third one. I think just enjoy the community side of it, you know, like, you know, have some friends, like share, like I said, the shared suffering, you know, don't work out by yourself if you don't have to, you know, like if you can get with some people, have some fun. And that's, that's what the beauty of CrossFit is, is that community side of it, you know? Um, people see the games and see what we do, but that's not, that's not really CrossFit. It's, it's the, you know, going. Day in, day out. Yeah. Going to the gym. Like I got to go hang out at CrossFit Glendora a little bit while I was here.

• 58:08Rich Froning?

  And just seeing, you know, it's the same community, no matter, no matter where you go. Like we're in China competing and it's the same, you speak a different language, but it's the same people.

• 58:16Lewis Howes?

  Do the same workouts?

• 58:17Rich Froning?

  Same workouts and, and everybody's super supportive and it's, it's, it's pretty awesome to see that.

• 58:22Lewis Howes?

  That's cool, man.

• 58:23Rich Froning?

  Yeah, it's awesome.

• 58:24Lewis Howes?

  Uh, this is called the three truths. It's a question I ask everyone at the end.

• 58:28Rich Froning?

  Three truths.

• 58:29Lewis Howes?

  So imagine it's your last day on earth.

• 58:31Rich Froning?

  Okay.

• 58:32Lewis Howes?

  As many years away as we want it to be.

• 58:34Rich Froning?

  Right, right.

• 58:34Lewis Howes?

  You get to pick the day, but you gotta go.

• 58:36Rich Froning?

  Okay.

• 58:37Lewis Howes?

  From the physical body.

• 58:37Rich Froning?

  Right, go on.

• 58:39Lewis Howes?

  And you've created and achieved every dream that you wanna create.

• 58:43Rich Froning?

  Mm-hmm.

• 58:43Lewis Howes?

  You've got as many kids as you want, the family life, the legacy, everything you want, you've done it.

• 58:49Rich Froning?

  Right.

• 58:49Lewis Howes?

  But for whatever reason, you gotta take everything with you, everything you've created. You know, your, your content, your books, your jam, whatever, it's all gonna go with you when you leave. But you get to leave behind three things you know to be true about your entire life. Your experiences, your lessons, and these would be the only three things you could leave behind.

• 59:07Rich Froning?

  Okay.

• 59:08Lewis Howes?

  What would you say are your three truths?

• 59:10Rich Froning?

  Three truths?

• 59:14Rich Froning?

  My faith for sure. Um, that's something, obviously I, I wanna take that with me, but, um, that's.

• 59:21Lewis Howes?

  The lesson you would leave behind?

• 59:22Rich Froning?

  Yeah, yeah, my faith, you know, I wouldn't be where I am without my faith. I wanna say my, whatever my kids take from me, so I don't know if that would be my parenting, my, you know, just the things that they've learned, um, you know, I want, I want them to, I wanna be known as a good dad to them. You know, not to anybody else. I don't care what anybody else thinks about me. But I want my kids to take that as like, I don't even know if that would be a truth, but that's.

• 59:51Lewis Howes?

  What's the lesson you would want to leave behind?

• 59:53Rich Froning?

  I don't know if there's any one lesson, but I want them, I want them to look, look and say, my dad cared. My dad was there, my dad was present.

• 1:00:01Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 1:00:02Rich Froning?

  Um, probably the same as a husband, honestly, like, um.

• 1:00:07Rich Froning?

  It's the relationships and the things that you get with with with family, with friends. Those are the things that I want people to remember. I don't honestly like the CrossFit Games and the fame and all that stuff was cool. It is whatever, but it's it's more or less like I now it's I want to have want to make as much money as I can to where I can spend more time with with my family and do this. Not necessarily that we have, you know, above and beyond what we need, but enough to take care of the things that we need to do that I can be there and be present because that's something that I got from my parents. They were there, you know, and they were they were always there. So I don't even know if those are three truths, but yeah, that's that's kind of what I want to leave behind, I guess.

• 1:00:52Lewis Howes?

  Okay. I want to acknowledge you for a moment because since I've heard about you over the last 10 years and seen your stuff, you've been so consistent with your how you show up, just as in person as online. You're just a good, consistent, hardworking guy who, you know, doesn't make a lot of mistakes, who doesn't try to hurt anybody, doesn't say anything stupid.

• 1:01:15Rich Froning?

  Appreciate it. There's some times where I do some stupid stuff, but yeah.

• 1:01:18Lewis Howes?

  But you're you're just constantly like a good guy.

• 1:01:21Rich Froning?

  Appreciate that.

• 1:01:22Lewis Howes?

  And you work really very hard.

• 1:01:24Rich Froning?

  Appreciate that.

• 1:01:24Lewis Howes?

  And I acknowledge that because you could have easily letting the fame or whatever, you know, celebrity in the CrossFit world take over to be more egotistical. But from my experience of you over 10 years, you've always been just a consistent and good dude. And that's what I want to acknowledge about you is just like it's hard to be consistently at that level.

• 1:01:47Rich Froning?

  Like I said, I've had a lot of good people around me that kind of, you know, hold me accountable. And and that's one thing. That's another thing is like having people that are going to hold you accountable and being able to take those when people tell you, hey, this is what I see and this is what you're not doing right. And granted, you have to have miles miles of those people and you got to trust those people. But, you know, having somebody that's going to hold you accountable and tell you, hey, you you need to you need to ship or shape up here. And you're like, all right, and have the wherewithal to be like, all right, you're right and and actually do it. So I appreciate that.

• 1:02:17Lewis Howes?

  Of course, man. What, how can we support you? Where can we find you online? You've got an app, you've got a gym.

• 1:02:23Rich Froning?

  Yep, we've got Instagram, Twitter is @RichFroning. I don't do a ton of tweeting, but.

• 1:02:28Lewis Howes?

  Instagram you're on a lot?

• 1:02:30Rich Froning?

  Ton to say. Yeah, Instagram. I have fun with Instagram. I'm not a super like, I'm not really on top of it all the time. Like if I'm like, oh yeah, I need to post something, I'll post something. But yeah, we have, you know, our CrossFit Mayhem. We have Mayhem Athlete Instagram that has a lot more of that type of stuff. And then our YouTube is just CrossFit Mayhem. Same, The CrossFit Mayhem on Instagram as well. But we do a lot more on that type of stuff. But my personal is literally, it's me and it's just, it's really who I am. It's, I try not to, you know, we've talked about like having somebody run it. But I'm like, I want it to be authentic and be real. So it's, that's, that's where we're at.

• 1:03:04Lewis Howes?

  That's cool, man. You got a book as well?

• 1:03:05Rich Froning?

  Got a book, yeah. First, it's been a couple of years. We've had a couple of people like, hey, should I write another one? I'm like, I didn't think anybody would read the first one. Why would I want to write another one? So we got that and then Netflix, there's a movie. We don't actually have an app yet. We're working on an app, but we have CrossFitMayhem.com.

• 1:03:20Lewis Howes?

  The movie is called what? Froning?

• 1:03:22Rich Froning?

  Froning, Froning. Book is first. Froning is the movie, yep.

• 1:03:26Lewis Howes?

  And this is different than the, the CrossFit Games documentary?

• 1:03:30Rich Froning?

  Yeah, so there's the Froning CrossFit Mayhem or CrossFit documentary.

• 1:03:35Lewis Howes?

  I gotta watch that. I don't think I've seen that one. I saw the CrossFit one, which you're in, I think.

• 1:03:39Rich Froning?

  Is that the main one? Cause there's one that I'm like, there's like the, the next couple of years, they did them on a couple of different people. But the first one that they did is called Froning.

• 1:03:47Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 1:03:47Rich Froning?

  And it's on Netflix.

• 1:03:48Lewis Howes?

  I'll have to watch that.

• 1:03:49Rich Froning?

  But then we put out a bunch of stupid stuff on our, on our YouTube, CrossFit Mayhem. So that's where most of our current content is.

• 1:03:57Lewis Howes?

  Awesome. And so you've got the CrossFit Games coming up?

• 1:04:00Rich Froning?

  You got the Games coming up and into July. So about to go into hibernation with, kind of shut out all of every life. You know, this, we kind of, it's been a long season with the sanctionals. So we gave, I gave the team, I was like, two weeks, like just go relax. Still train, but don't be super stressed. I said, when I get home from California, it's.

• 1:04:18Lewis Howes?

  We're going to.

• 1:04:19Rich Froning?

  June 1st, we're on, so it's.

• 1:04:22Lewis Howes?

  It's exciting, man.

• 1:04:22Rich Froning?

  Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's, anyway, it's been a long season, but I'm ready to, ready to get there.

• 1:04:28Lewis Howes?

  It's exciting, man.

• 1:04:28Rich Froning?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:29Lewis Howes?

  Very cool. So we'll check you out, @RichFroning, CrossFit Mayhem.

• 1:04:33Rich Froning?

  CrossFit Mayhem, yep.

• 1:04:34Lewis Howes?

  Froning, the documentary, get the book, all this stuff. Make sure to support. What's the team called?

• 1:04:39Rich Froning?

  CrossFit mayhem freedom or just mayhem freedom.

• 1:04:41Lewis Howes?

  Mayhem freedom. At the games, make sure you guys support you guys, follow you.

• 1:04:45Rich Froning?

  Appreciate it.

• 1:04:45Lewis Howes?

  If it's online.

• 1:04:46Rich Froning?

  If it's online, who knows? Yeah. And I don't really know to tell you where to get that information. Maybe check out our Instagram or whatever, because that's where we'll put that stuff.

• 1:04:53Lewis Howes?

  But if you go to the games in Madison, scream for them.

• 1:04:56Rich Froning?

  Yep, that's right.

• 1:04:56Lewis Howes?

  Give them a high five.

• 1:04:57Rich Froning?

  Heck, yeah. Yeah, come see us. Heck, yeah. We, you know, I try to, in between events, try to take as many pictures I can with people when I can, you know, as long as they're not rushing us in and out of places because they're the reason why we get to do what we get to do.

• 1:05:09Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 1:05:09Rich Froning?

  It's fun.

• 1:05:10Lewis Howes?

  Final question, what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:05:12Rich Froning?

  Definition of greatness, you know, you can go with the who we are when nobody's watching, that type of stuff. But I think it's just being present wherever you are, you know, like you can't be a, that's something that I'm working on is like when I'm a dad, I'm a dad and that's, I'm present there. And it's hard with social media, it's hard with all this stuff. And when I'm working, I'm present there. And yeah, I think it's, you know, you can't get too caught up in, you know, I just work out for a living and everybody wants to think, oh, you're, you know, you have all this going on, but it's like, there's other people that are, you know, your job may just not be as in the limelight, but you're great at your job. So yeah, be present wherever you are.

• 1:05:50Lewis Howes?

  The legend, Rich Corning.

• 1:05:51Rich Froning?

  Awesome. Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it.

• 1:05:58Speaker 00

  There you have it, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Always fun for me to bring on the world's greatest at what they do. And for someone who'd be able to repeat back to back to back to back years of what they do. It's unbelievable, the mindset, the commitment, the discipline, the consistency of showing up and performing at the highest level. When everyone is trying to take you down, everyone is trying to beat you, everyone's trying to get better than you. To continue to push yourself to be and stay at the top, it just blows me away. And I loved connecting with Rich because he's such a humble, genuine, grateful man as well.

• 1:06:38Speaker 00

  And really enjoyed his energy and looking forward to doing some type of workouts that's not a CrossFit workout with him in the future. Maybe we'll play basketball, so it's more of an even playing field because I'm a little taller than him. Even though he'll probably run circles around me. Uh, make sure you share this out with your friends. LewisHowes.com/808. Tag me at Lewis Howes and at Rich Frowning. Let's stay connected over on Instagram, on YouTube, on Twitter. We've got the content up there as well, so make sure to check that out. We're on Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, anywhere podcasts are that you can listen to, you can find us. So make sure to subscribe, leave a review and a rating that helps us continue to spread the message of greatness. And share this with a friend. Share it on your social media platforms.

• 1:07:23Speaker 00

  Text a couple of friends. Let someone know you were thinking of them today. Be a hero and a champion in someone's life by spreading the message of greatness. Just send them this link and let them listen. It's free and we hope they enjoy it as well. And to bring us back to the beginning, T. Allen Armstrong said, "Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character." I love you guys so very much. I hope you enjoyed this interview like we do with every interview. We give you our best as we want you to give your best. I love you so very much. You know what time it is.

• 1:08:07Speaker 00

  It's time to go out there and do something great.