Kristi: It's usually about 18 grams of protein—this might be a little bit more because I'm hungry— a serving of fat and about 30 grams of carbs. I was eating portion sizes like way bigger than his, and he'd just look at me like, "You gonna eat all that?" And my plate would be clean. So, trying to fix that issue. Patrick: And now she eats peanut butter shakes at night, which puts a smile on her face. Kristi: Everybody at my gym I talk to–we like to eat. I mean I like to work out, too. But I like to eat as well. Sam: Chocolate and caramel ice cream with chocolate cookie squirrels. Squirrels! I just pulled a Jenny. Squirrels in my ice cream! Jenny: I'm not very good at my words. I make up words and stuff. The bible actually has a lot of big words. So I have a children's book. Volume one to twelve that I read about bible stories. Real stories and pictures and words that I can understand. It's really hard to talk in the mornings, so it's just easier to talk like Marcel the Shell. Sam: Regularly has told me, "You know I could kill you and get away with it." Jenny: Women are psycho, though. For real. Sam: Only because she's so fired up about a book. Jenny: Everyone is at least 5% psycho. Sam: Knows exactly what she needs to do to fram my disappearance. Kristi: We saw Dave [Castro] posted a vest yesterday I don't think I've put mine on since the Games. Maybe once or twice? I should go through all the Hero workouts and see which ones I can wear a vest with but then I thought that one looked fun, cause 1. I like burpees and 2. I like running. So everyone keeps saying, "Are you ready?"
Well I don't know. I hope so. Hopefully I did the right stuff this year, but you never know. I'm from here, originally. We just moved back but it's a lot nicer. I like it better than Kentucky. My parents called me and said they're buying a gym after my mom did CrossFit for like a year and a half–two years? She called me and was like, "I want to buy a CrossFit gym." You want to buy a what? What's wrong with you? Donna: They thought that I could teach spinning there and you know I was a body pump. Kristi: She's a CFO but we call her the Chief Fun Officer. Donna: We went with Assault Bikes. And Assault Bikes are so much harder! Jenny: We look so different.
Sam: My wife is a very hard-working, intelligent, smart, beautiful, strong...
Jenny: I'm really smart. Sam: This is the Earth. We're driving one day and you might have to help me out a little bit with this. Honesty please.
Jenny: I get in Colorado there's altitude... There's mountains. But in Mexico, it's down here. Down South, right? Sam: She thought the further you drove away from the Equator, the greater the altitude got. Jenny: Mountains go up this way, right, on the Equator. So the more you go up... Sam: I had to explain it to her. I had to get a circle out and I'm like, "Jenny, how in the world do you think "people are attached to the world at the bottom of it?" Jenny: I just didn't think about it! You know, when do you really think about the world? I'm really book smart. I just study a lot.
Sam: She could kill me. Cause she's read so many books. Kristi: See you over there? Get the dust off this thing. Watch, it was a joke. We won't actually use weight vests. Dave's like some stuff–who knows how true it is, I've just been focusing on trying to move a heavy bar in workouts, efficiently. And then just fine-tune the other skills. I'm a really big nap taker. Food and sleep? Oh my gosh. Marz: So is there a class right now?
Kristi: Nope. I have a key. Yeah, so I tried to get in before because we don't have an open gym space and we have a lot of people that want to do their own stuff, but then we have a lot of people that obviously pay for class. So we try to keep that separate. So I like to think about setting the example. If I'm in there doing my own thing during class then it's kind of like, "You just told me I can't do my own thing "during class..."
So I just try to keep it all even. Ideally we'd come in at like 9 o'clock and do it just during class but that just wouldn't work. Two or three other people might be coming We have a beer fridge if you guys want a beer. I would do probably more like classic rock. And country. When I'm in here, by myself. Everybody likes Drake. Not a Drake fan. People will hate me for saying that, but I'm not a Drake fan. So my perception of myself has changed. Definitely believing in myself a little more. And not selling myself as short. And just realizing that, like, "Hey. You did do that. You went through the entire season. "You did well in the Open. You did well in the Region. You did well at the Games." Like, "Your work is paying off." So what do you guys want to do now?
Cool off. Yeah, we're all steaming. Do you want to do the rowing one? Not thrusters, though, because we just did a lot of wall balls. Patrick: Most people kind of break up their session. She'll cram everything in a really short time period so pretty much quick turn-over. Kristi: Pedal to the metal. Just go. Get everything I have done. Patrick's awesome. He's always there creating life balance. Patrick: She competes at a much higher level than I do, so I can also kind of bring her back down to having fun with it as well. Normally I let her wear herself out a little bit first and then I try to jump in and keep up. Kristi: He's helped me realize that there's more to life than just CrossFit. Sam: I'm allowed to drive because I passed my vision test last time. Which there's a little story to, but I passed it. Jenny: He really is legally blind. Shouldn't be driving, shouldn't be doing anything. Marz: Would you say your vision's getting worse?
Sam: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Jenny: Sometimes he'll go up to different girls at the bar and think it's me and it's not me. Could be an excuse, I don't know. Sam: But when I was telling the doctor, he was like, "Obviously you're not driving, so the goal "is to get you driving. That's where we want to get your eyes to." I'm like, "No. I drive." "What? No. There's no possible way you could figure out a way to drive." Because they're that bad. But I figured it out. Every day I go to the YMCA. Hop on the Trueform. Do a little walk/run warm up. And then I hit every isolated muscle group in my body. And it allows me to accumulate an absurd amount of volume and I still trained my entire body. It's ready! Bicep. Tricep. Pec. Lat. Oblique. Glutes. Hips. Quadracep. Hamstring. Calf. Like I've prepped it! I can get this done in 20 minutes, usually. It's a great warmup. My mobility session. And I got a pump. That gives me some confidence, going into something that maybe I haven't done. Cause I know I'm prepared. That area's ready for it. The volume that I've accumulated. Jenny: Sam confessed his love like a couple of days after we met. Like four or five days. And he calls me at 11 p.m. and he's like, "Hey, we have a problem." "What's that?"
"I think I'm in love with you." I kind of laughed. I'm like, "You just like the idea of me." And he was like, "Screw you." Kristi: When I got to my gym that I'm currently at, I felt like a lot of the men, especially, were like, "Who is this little girl? What does she know? I'm not listening to her." And the over time, especially after the Open this year, and I think seeing me train on an everyday basis and then starting to see some of my PRs when I was out squatting or out lifting them they were like, "Oh. Okay maybe I should listen to her. Maybe she does know what she's talking about." So slowly, over time, they've started to listen to me a little bit more. That's at least what it feels like. My job at CrossFit Polaris is awesome. The members are awesome. The community is awesome. It's been a joy to get to be part of that gym. Thirty-sixth place in the world finish in his teenage division. Maybe next year will be in that top 20. Get you to the Games! And then my mom. She just walked in. She was tenth, so congratulate her. She will be going to the Games. [applause] So it's usually my mom and myself. We have a super awesome staff that really helps us out. A bunch of volunteer coaches. I would not be able to do it without them. I think my mom said she made lasagna tonight. So I'm looking forward to going and eating lasagna. Donna: I love owning the gym. Cause I like people. I just love seeing changes in people. "Donna! This is the best!" And we just have a great gym. Sam: I initially got into this because I wanted to train athletes. Like professional athletes. You quickly realize that that's a very small group of people. And start noticing that the majority of people are broken and I needed to be able to diagnose them and prescribe them with what was going to lead them toward a healthier, more functional lifestyle. I like how we're all working together today to figure things out. Jenny: It's his passion. It's his dream. Without Sam, none of this would have happened. James: Hey guys.
Marz: Hey what's up, man? James: Good. Sam coached me today. I did my deadlift. He is the best coach ever.
Jenny: Who's the best coach? Sam: Ten squat tosses over the rig.
James: Yep. Sam: Farmers carry.
James: Yep. Sam: And front loading carry.
James: No carries. So James is my best friend. We learn from one another, throw the football around, we workout together. I coach him. He says he coaches me. Jenny: He's a Cubs fan. Right?
James: Cardinals! Jenny: Ah, my bad. Cardinals. James has changed Sam's heart. His outlook on life. Sam: I need to be more like James. I need to love everybody. I need to love even the people who suck. Jenny: Sam's always wanting to show love to other people, but I think James actually showed Sam how to love.
Sam: People need to be more like him! He thinks he can win. He thinks he can PR everything, every day. James: I got a new PR today. Sam: His go-to is love. I plan on working towards helping everybody experience that until I die. Kristi: I went to the Games, honestly hoping to make it through. Or not end, maybe, at the bottom. I really didn't have any expectations. I just wanted to go have fun. I like the aspect of not really knowing what's happening or—knowing ahead of time—the workouts. So it was super fun to hear something be announced. Be like, "Okay, how am I going to do on this? Let's just see." Last year, the best moment I would say is the Squat Clean Ladder. I think I took a top-10 finish in that event, and that was really, really unthinkable. Just because strength has been such a huge hole. But it was just super cool to be in that atmosphere in the final heat with Sara and Kara and Katrin and all of those girls that I've looked up to. And then I got to compete out there with them. Patrick: The silent assassin.
Kristi: This is the coolest thing I've experienced. Like walking out with Kara and Sara and everyone screaming. I was like, "Okay. Here we go!" Sam: I have these goals. I want to get top-10. And I was. I was prepared. I did everything I needed to do to be top-10. But I did a little too much. Announcer: Sam Dancer. Lugging that huge frame down the steps. Sam: I got a little stress fracture in my fibula. It's just really annoying. Sevan: Are you going to be able to complete the Games? Sam: Yeah. I've been injured my whole life, man. I ended up having a fracture in my fibula. So everything had to shift around. Goals had to change. The goal is no longer to be top-10. The goal is to finish. To complete it. But this is where that conditioning comes in. When you're experiencing what is pain, what is bad circumstance, you're able to lean up against what it is that you have prepared and conditioned yourself to do. Which is to compete. The Games, in my opinion, was a podium finish for me. There's never been a more perfectly executed attempt or run at anything that I've ever done in my life. But because of the people around me, the focus I had, even when you were just like... it was bad. It hurt. Like that box jump? Like it makes me want to puke, thinking about it. I was back there in the warm-up area. I couldn't jump up to two 45-pound plates. And every event was like that. I couldn't do any of it in the warm-up area! I had to spend so much of my time... like this was the warm-up. If you've ever done a 4-minute max calorie bike. Say 500 watts is exactly what your average is that you can hold. Through that four minutes. If you do 501, you went over your threshold, you fall off. You no longer can sustain 500 watts. Now you're at 350. I held 500 watts. The entire way through. It was a perfectly executed weekend for me. And people wouldn't think that. They're saying, "That's not really..." It was really good. Kristi: That Sunday morning I was not feeling good. I wasn't sore. Those were just some weaker events for me. And typically farmers carries are really poor and just watching everybody fly through it and I couldn't even get the thing to move. It was like, "Don't break down. You're fine." You're just here for the experience. It's okay. So i've been working a lot on the odd object stuff. Because it's... not that necessarily that I was failing but in a sense, for the expectations I hold myself to. To not be able to even get close to finishing or get the thing to move, I left like I failed. Krisit: Westside Barbell is this really crazy gym. There's weights and kettlebells everywhere. It's not organized. Known as the world's strongest gym, they specialize in strength and brute strength and kind of the grunt work which is what I'm not good at. Joe: Which is your weaker arm? If you had to punch a bitch? You'd use your right! So we're going to start with your left. Locking it out... Go! Kristi: They have me warm up with sleds, they have me cool down with sleds... When I drive down there, I have no idea what I'm doing. [grunting and yelling] Joe: The first thing I fucking told you when you came here was, "It's going to be shitty!" Kristi: So I go down, and I walk in and I'm anxious and I'm nervous... Joe: Do a double, walk to the far wall. Kristi: So I'm doing weird, wide stance squats and speed pulls off the ground because typically I am slow. And then this terrible belt squat machine. Which is miserable, but so awesome at the same time. So they hook a belt to you that pulls you down, and he always makes me do some sort of exercise and your body is literally under tension the entire time. He'll just put me in and tell me to march for two minutes. He'll just tell me, "Keep marching, do good mornings, pick up this D-ball, throw it to the ground." Joe: You got two minutes to stand there... Fifteen seconds... I saw that. Again! Come on! No pain! Come on! No pain! Let's go! Kristi: It's been a struggle for me. Each week, I think, has gotten better. Telling myself, "You can keep going." Just continue on. You can finish what he wants you to do. So it's been interesting, to say the least. Sam: I'll hop on the One Wheel, we hold hands, and I pull her along. You just feel like you're little kids on a date again or something like that. You're holding each other and you're close, facing one another, but we'll head up to this gas station. Grab some sour octopuses. Jenny: Obviously he's the guy who wants to have balance. He wants to make sure that me and him are happy, our business is going well... Sam: We wake up together. We drive to work together. We work together. We are working out around each other. We're coaching next to each other. Our relationship is challenging in a very, very positive way, because that challenge–that push–is allowing us to grow together and get to know each other more. Jenny: Sam's taught me how to be super hippie, super simple, not stress out. Sam: It's cool having these talks. You end up having more discovery. This. This is what I want with me and my wife. To think that we could continue, progressively getting more intimate. Getting more personal. Knowing one another. Achieving more things, together. Jenny: He cries more than I do in our relationship, for sure. I don't know if he wants me to admit that on camera, but it's so true! Sam: Gah, I got a lot of work. I got a lot of things to work on. Like I got to get to work on this now. Kristi: I love fitness. I've always loved fitness. I just love the feeling of either coming back from a long run or a long workout session. I've worked hard and I've achieved something. So for me, it's just kind of self-fulfilling. In the competitive CrossFit world, I'd love to be a multi-year Games athlete. To be considered not a rookie and to be considered a veteran. And I think the other thing is just being able to take CrossFit into the rest of my life. So I think that would be my goal for four years down the road: How can I use CrossFit in everything else that I'm doing. We're out hiking and we can do an 8-10 mile hike that's pretty treacherous or pretty advanced, and we haven't trained for it. We're just able to go out and do it. going and climbing rocks or the kayaking. OrJust being able to get outside and use the strength I've created in the gym, outside of the gym. To do cool things. Jenny: This is one of our children. We have all fake children, because we don't have real children. [toy squeaking]
This is the language Sam speaks to me sometimes. He'll really mimic it. We can bring it down and he'll do it for you. Sam, you want to pretend like you're...
Sam: No, Jenny! Jenny: I told them that's what you do, so they're kind of waiting for you to mimic it. You're embarassed? Sam: I can win the Central Region and still honor my duties as a Christian, be the husband I know I'm capable of being, be a business owner that I'm capable of being, and a coach. And then, down here, the training stuff. Donna: This is how I train! Sam: I want to desperately show people that you don't have to get rid of everything. Kristi: This would not- this would not fit. At all. So I did okay, but I have to eat that just because it's Saturday. Sam: People are sacrificing way too much for something so small. And it's not even valuable! Kristi: My dad's like, "You guys are disgusting." My mom's like, "Oh, I love it!" Sam: You podiumed, but you left a trail of hurt. You can be a good friend. You can still serve your community. There's enough time. Marz: I'm in the kitchen here with this taco! I'm at Sam Dancer's! He's making all these great foods and meals over here, we're chopping it up! I'm chopping it up with Sam Dancer in the kitchen right now! Sam: Maybe that's why I want to win. Maybe that's it: I want to win so I can prove to everybody that I can still take my wife out on a date. I can still maybe cut it off a little short and go make her dinner. I can have a beer with my friend Marz. If I just had one more beer than all the guys who made podium, it was worth it to share it with you. You don't have to sacrifice the good things to do a good thing. Kristi: It's hard to put a number on things. The workouts are different, the girls competing are different... Of course I'd like to do better than last year, but it's not really about the people around you. So I'm just trying to focus on myself. Sam: If I want to win the CrossFit Games, I'll win the CrossFit Games. If I want to win Regionals, I'll win Regionals. But I can't let myself get distracted. Be very present. Focus 100% of your attention in the direction of where you want to go–what you want to achieve. And what will happen if you do it. If you legitimately have that focus and attention that you need to have in the direction of whatever it is that you want to do and you want to achieve. You can condition yourself to be that. She was an ccountant. So she sees it on paper and she goes, "Check, check, check, check." She doesn't necessarily stress about CrossFit so much, but she stresses about getting everything done. Kristi: You're always chasing something. So as soon as I PR—just like everybody else in the world—it's like, "I want to do more." I wake up every day just wanting to be the best that I can be and also just see how far can I actually take it.
Freakin love Sam Dancer! Such a big dude with so much emotion. I hope he kills it this year!
Whatever they were doing at Westside looked fucking miserable.
Sign me up.
Sam Dancer is the best personality to come out of CrossFit in a while. How can you not want him to succeed? Eramo is a beast, but getting paired next to Sam in this... Hope they both do well.
Looking forward to the Valenzuela and Bailey episode.
I think Eramo is my new favorite! She seems normal and not too intense. Actually dancer is as well, oh gosh they are the best!
TIL Sam Dancer is probably the nicest guy on earth. Loved what he said about not letting it consume his life.
I just fell in love with Ms. Eramo. Bring it home, baby!
Sam Dancer is so amazing! I tore a ligament in my ankle and I DMed him about workouts and he sent me some he did while he was rehabbing! It was so cool
Sam and James' relationship melts my heart. Sam had one of James' open workouts streaming live on his facebook and it was one of the sweetest and most inspiring things I've ever seen. They have a very special bond and its apparent they have changed each other for the better. I sure hope being a big guy won't hold Sam back from making it to the games this year because I want more!