All In: A Brent Fikowski Documentary - Episode 2 - The Open

you Frank fikowski 14.2 Canada website Bukowski open workout 14 for Brent fikowski 14.5 custody 15.1 Franco scheme in for Coast meant for Kowski Canada West 15 5 16 3 w 16.4 broke the coast Brent Kowski Canada let's go ski Canada West 17.5 fikowski Canada West 18 1 regular pull up our [Music] [Applause] [Music] Brent fikowski Canada West 18 - 18 - a 50 pounds I will say that will fill the bar ball after yeah second work out of the open here announced yesterday as you probably already know not my dream work out but should be fun a bunch of fast burpees bunch of fast squats and then in the remaining time gotta establish a 1 rep max clean heavyweight to the shoulder yeah just get it done here get my scoring by Monday keep racking up points and qualify again for regionals [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] mentally I was there but then physically I definitely thought once or twice felt like my peers were hitting you know big numbers and thinking like you're not even close to those guys that you know you're you were better than and you know in July I mean the two guys that came one two were Mitch Barnard and Jill Scalli they were the top two in the open in Canada West this year two buddies of mine that go back since I started CrossFit here in Western Canada and they were also part of the trash talk Thursday group the the open humiliation [Music] run exciting year ahead of year for the open humiliation trash talk Thursday's my humiliation back [Music] [Applause] one of one of the weeks I had the worst score amongst the boys so I had to eat a tablespoon wasabi here's my open humiliation for having the weakest deadlift in the bunch bottoms up Randy best buddy scallop Donna we're shooting a documentary about you right now and the theory of the documentary is will Brent make some Xavier plugs for Xavier yeah so this is it we just wanted to call and say hello hey miss you I love you the first word get rolled out probably he won it was a Joe and Brown workout long aerobic base you know they both have decently sized hands so the grip on the toes were would be fine they can that means it gloves pppt here and it went kind of how we all thought Joe won brentd well Brent didn't redo it because he was still in the mindset of I'm gonna qualify no matter what anyways so he didn't review it a couple people redid it and beat him that was fine it's still like top three I think 18 two comes out 18 - a shorts arguably the worst possible before benefit for a tall athlete to do squats and dampers and a slow athlete and a weak athlete yeah and then yeah legitimately the workout came out and he was like I'll be fine I know knocking five five and then he wasn't fun oh it wasn't he came last out of our little crew me and that's when we were looking you know if things go really poorly for prey you're seeing on eight he was outside the top five so then all the banter goes on the bubble boy and all this nonsense and you know we're like the workouts don't turn out so awesome for him he might be on that we gain takes from itching yeah so CrossFit as a sport is becoming much more difficult to compete at the highest level I think guys that were at the top top top of our sport you know three years ago you see a lot of them now struggling to make it to regionals especially they had big commitments outside of the sport you have guys like Brent who you know gained an edge and forced all of us to take the sport a lot more seriously and in a more professional capacity by analyzing workouts and really breaking it down and coming at it in such an analytical way that it kind of forced the sport to evolve and you know now even that might not be enough you know a guy like Brett fikowski who used to be able to you know if you got one percent better every year and he out thought all of us you know he would climb and climb and climb to you know second place we're now looking at him barely making regionals it being a question of whether he makes the games it being an even bigger question of if he makes the games could he ever beat Matt Fraser the quality of CrossFit is is climbing and it's going to become more more professional and it's going to be very interesting severe answer those are the logos yeah and these are humans that work for the companies pretty big part of my my mo my identity the last couple of years has been that I've been this really good CrossFit athlete that's also held a full-time job as an accountant for a private company and I've been really proud of that that I've been able to do those two things and this year I decided finally to to make a change to that as I was spreading myself too thin I had you know increasing amounts of responsibility both at work and as a competitive athlete but also responsibilities to the sponsors that I'm working with and wanting to make sure that I'm giving them the attention that they deserve and also to put my relationship with Claire even before CrossFit trying to balance all these things and do all these things and have your hand in all these pies and maybe this is the moment that you've been working towards is you have this ability now to take a step back eliminate your responsibilities and sort of enjoy the experiences you're being given and so with that in mind I decided to made the hard decision to eliminate a lot of my working hours at my job [Music] it's never good seeing your name you know fall down the leaderboard especially when you're that high and you're um you know on the first page is kind of what people that's the top 50 so slipping out that top agent probably won't be on the top page after this week either which again you know a little frustrating but hopefully I can climb my way back up and then if I don't it's good opportunity to remind myself doesn't matter but you know you got that's not that's not why we do this sport it's not for the open it's for the games like realistically you couldn't win the open because there's like too many workouts that's like just better I feel like really strong more like shorts or like those movements take that little bit less time traffic CrossFit favors shorter athletes 100% Brent is in a disadvantage every time that he goes and competes in a CrossFit event just by either the distance he has to lift that bar even if you think of a muscle up I mean he's got more weight than almost every single one of these athletes that are going out there to so there there are the odd events that he's going to have an advantage because of his height I think in all it's much harder as somebody who's 6 4 3 and 220 ever much ladies now it's much harder for them first is somebody who's five foot eight and under 200 pounds that's just the fact I think I've cross it right now as I got into high school really started to fall in love with the sport of volleyball and developed you know a really good friendship with my best friend Andy hammerling people would refer to us as Brandi because we sort of did everything together whether that was you know go to some party or obviously playing volleyball together we were sort of inseparable so level all right first bite I know definitely now if somebody knows myself don't want the first stories at the last week oh you went to Australia with that Brentford Kowski guy and then they go on to Branca Kowski who they obviously know through the CrossFit world we'd probably know more than us because for us it would just be our friends and our friends if they see us old boyfriends doing well it's actually staggering how many people know about it or at least say like wow Brent got in really good shape so they might not even know he's like it CrossFit like good at CrossFit they might just think he got in really good shape and post about it online so I don't know a thing I don't know if they know he's actually doing this for competition or if it's just for show this is a Beachbody [Music] [Music] that's it yeah yeah yeah the old 120 and she said she knew me oh yeah she was quite excited that this was going to you across the country we'll grab the other where he ends up and whatever happens doesn't do your best and have fun yeah just focus on what you do and if you're proud of it at the end of it yeah I just am so proud of him for Brent Ted him to get to that point I think I can expect Brent to just about do anything he wants to do I'm proud of him for a reason like I know what he does every day to accomplish what he accomplishes I know how hard he works I know all the things he sacrifices so when he accomplishes what he does like I'm not surprised I'm just proud cuz he deserves it and with no gym equipment anywhere near the farm had to improvise so he was lifting jugs of like oil or hydraulic fluid needed to want it to do some ring handstands or push-ups whatever and so his uncle hoisted up the the front-end loader you know attach the ropes to that and Brent was doing it ringg muscle-ups that he would take it as far as he has today to be one of the one of the best in the world that's quite something to see them the progress from that time to to where he is one of the reasons he had difficulty with that was because that one move when three muscle up he could not do the ring muscle open he was just learning to do it and he he was trying to struggle with it and it was just like heartbreaking but after that it was just like but it was so neat to see him compete in all of it to do so well and was just the one move that he had difficulty with but [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's only 15 pounds [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] here's to another week of having slightly fitter friends than myself keep it to cons stay warm I've got my PI got my ducks this was my sixth CrossFit open and it was definitely the most stressful the two years prior have been pretty low stress I was able to just you know do my best do the workout once kind of move on and that was pretty much the case for most years I've been in the open this year it was yeah it was a little bit of a roller coaster emotionally trying to make sure I had a score that was gonna keep me in the mix for that top five spots and just a lot of other stuff going on with my own training and just some personal stuff around home we just moved houses and we you know our car broken down so we did buy another car it was just like bad timing and not great performances and workouts weren't really in my wheelhouse a lot of a workouts that you know I wouldn't program for myself if I wanted to win a competition to be frank but you know still learn from them and I think definitely came out the other side smarter and stronger I think that I was due for a bit of adversity last two years I haven't had much adversity in the sport I've just been able to do my best and good things have happened and this year got a little bit of slap in the face and a reminder that you know it's it's hard work and that people are gunning for that tosspot hey Doc its cement that's coming good good good things that really impressed me when we first sat down a few years ago is you live your life based on a set of values which is important and the growth mindset thing that you you are always pursuing is you can't go wrong because even if you even if you do do something wrong you transition from that into the next thing when when you're continually growing you know what I mean yeah and then being adaptable like most people don't know that friend I don't think most people know that Brent broke his toe during the open but he didn't really make excuses because he's an adaptable guy he in the last workout he was like about to die from a cold and he didn't he didn't make excuses and everyone's calling him out and saying oh you know he lost the magic but if you're an adaptable human being and you're not someone who tends to you take responsibility as a leader which I think he does then you don't make excuses he just powered through and and you need to be the best that's what you got to do so I think his mindset is probably one of the strongest things that he possesses thanks dr. Mike truth people gotta know it's not a panic you don't want to panic yet but it's definitely an eyebrow raiser is that Brett fikowski right now remember Canada West only sends five people to regionals is in eighth place he's on the outside look at it yes that's not good okay there's my professional analysis of that I mean if you're in the conversation to be one of the best of the world you don't ever want to be on any week after any workout on the outside it's really easy to claim you're mentally tough when everything's going well and you're winning but it's not so I have to reframe this as an opportunity to to test my mental strength and to focus on just doing my best and trusting that that'll be enough and I think that that is what makes him as good as he is like I don't think he's naturally as built to be an excellent crossfitter but he makes up for that by using his brain he's a bigger brain and then most people who are doing what we're doing you know a really good example of that is you you talk to somebody that's stepping about step out on the regional floor and you go okay how you're gonna break up the hand sandwich they guy you know I might break it up like however like I feel and you go Brent how are you gonna break it up he's like I'm gonna do five sets of three with four seconds rest because I tested this five times and that's the fastest that I can possibly do it and then you have a stopwatch can you watch and do it and he does exactly what he says he's gonna do no matter what's happening around him I care a lot about what's happening around me and like I hate to lose so much that I'll blow myself up to try to take someone next to me for no reason to come second instead of first on paper this guy is way better than for Kowski on paper you put four Kowski for Mitch Bernard here like oh if I was gonna choose the team just based on this paper I would say oh mister now you're on my team right but if I knew whose mental game I would take Brent hopefully worked on it yeah because this guy is the fittest guy I know and a lot of people say this the fittest guy that's never never made the CrossFit Games right he takes a different view of it all and it's exceptional what he's being able to do a lot of people want to know where the nickname the professor came from and a lot of people think it's because of my analytical nature and how I break down you know this CrossFit as a sport that stems from my ability to be mentally tough and know myself like that's the tip of the iceberg and that's what people see first but that comes from my mental toughness and I think it's what really sets me apart and makes me me and when there's all these all this noise around me I try to block it out and I try to focus on my own performance and find enjoyment in focusing purely on what I can do so this is it it's lost work out of the open eighteen five should be a should be a doozy thrusters and Chester bars the plan is to go out fast but not too fast if I nail this home stretch and then and then just training for regionals so um yeah it's gonna really really hurt all right let's do it [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so an hour and a half ago I got a call from Mitch Barnard he said get yourself to the gym oh we got a problem I don't think your score is gonna be good enough to stay in the top five and qualify for regionals so I got to the gym read it eighteen five it was terrible just as terrible but I was able to squeeze out just a couple more reps submitted the score just before the deadline and looks good we made it fifth place Western Canada we're going to regionals come to San Diego see you guys soon Cali baby see you there [Music] you into the crowd into my competitors but final days [Music] [Music] what's the road [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: STORYHIVE

Views: 334,560

Rating: 4.9370565 out of 5

Keywords: storyhive, british columbia, alberta, local film, documentaries, Fitness, CrossFit, CrossFit West Regionals, CrossFit Games, Canada West, Silver Medal, Brent Fikowski, Kelowna, Okanagan, BC, British Columbia

Id: pJrL71-lgTI

Length: 26min 22sec (1582 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 05 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/billydelp4]

What’s not to like about that guy. Looking forward to the next part in the doc.

[u/tylerdurden2357]

Definitely liking this series. The interviews, clips from the open, and his own commentary seem to have a nice balance.

I also like some of the funny details like their hashtags or messing with his name in the clip below. https://imgur.com/a/ZoBwIr6

[u/notrichfroning]

Sad, but also happy for Fikowski to see him effectively quit his job for the Games. Give Fraser a run for his money.

Also: Fikowski fails a thruster and resorts to singles for his CTB at the end, consoling to see that however talented you are some workouts will always end in the same way for (most)/all of us

[u/jovialjacki]

This documentary is so well done. Can’t wait for more parts!

I think my favorite part was when they said Brent’s chances of making it to Regionals were not certain, and then it said something on screen like “...which made the makers of this documentary very nervous”. 😅

Also, loved the attempts to spell Fikowski, and then just giving up and referring to him as Brent F. 👌🏼

[u/ljozmo]

So much love for Fikowski! Also this editing is awesome. This is by far the best crossfit doco yet.

[u/Skuffukaka]

Wait a second is this a wall full of Nerf guns there in 7:50?

[u/tinyhuman_]

So good again!

[u/RichRichieRichardV]

Loved this. Him and V just the two nicest, most likable guys ever, or so it seems. But then that's Canada, right? Very self deprecating slant on this, not taking himself too seriously on screen, but you also find out he's serious AF. It would really be ok with me to see him take it from Fraser this year. Also, it must be brutal to be these people, and read the comments. I get so offended if somebody doesn't like or agree with a comment and I go hide. I couldn't IMAGINE checking to see what people would say about my 20 minute documentary.

[u/JacobmovingFwd]

At the beginning, it's interesting to see his physique change over the 4 years of submissions.