Hybrid Fitness Report

Hello and welcome to episode
14 of Hybrid Fitness Report.

My name is Paul Reynolds.

Jude is in the pod, just not in this
introduction, we were gonna be talking

about the next stage in our series,
looking in depth at stations from

the various hybrid fitness races.

But instead, we had the great pleasure
this week of talking to Yancy Culp,

who's the co-creator and senior director

at Spartan DEKA.

We had a great conversation with him
looking at how DEKA started; tales

from the old abandoned K-Mart in a
freezing Denver five years ago, as

they trialed and tested and changed
and altered and refined, and came up

with the DEKA events that we enjoy today.

We talked to him about DEKA's plans for
global expansion in 2026 and beyond.

What makes DEKA different and special?

Jude forces Yancy to pick his
ideal DEKA Fit two person team.

Hope you enjoy this
conversation with Yancy Culp.

Uh, and just before we do so, thank you
so much to our sponsors for this episode.

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with a passion for functional fitness.

WoDLETE Clothing is designed to be with
you throughout your fitness journey.

From starting out to competing from
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WoDLETE for your support.

Now, enjoy the interview.

Rock and roll boys.

Let's go.

So, Yancy Culp from DEKA,
welcome to Hybrid Fitness Report.

Thank you boys for having me on, man.

I'm excited for this little, little
journey we're gonna have here.

Talking all things fitness,
hybrid fitness, doing life

together, all the fun stuff, man.

Especially off listeners when
they heard him speak, would

just be like, what is going on?

Well, also a lot of the UK
people would've, uh, seen the

announcement yesterday about the
big Manchester event next year.

Let's go.

Yes.

You know, my wild, crazy a ADD brain's
always got 90 million things going on and

pushing forward and we were very blessed
to get Emily on the team and, and she's

just doing a, a bang up job freaking
helping us push forward with a, with a

full head of steam, her and Grant and.

Fran and, and, and team.

So we're, we got a lot of
stuff going globally, man.

Do you wanna take us back
to, to how DEKA started?

Well, you can kind of see
off my, my shoulder here.

There's a, there's a death race bib.

I'm about 30 hours into what
turned out to be a 72 hour Spartan

death race on Joe De Sena's farm
in beautiful Pittsville, Vermont.

And he's complete, there's about 300 of us
started, and he's turning us inside out,

along with his crew and we start talking
business on the side of his mountain.

And we've been collaborating and
doing business together and, you

know, working on things ever since.

And I found myself at his
farm in December, 2019.

We were shooting some
podcasts, uh, out there.

And, , we started talking

I said, it's crazy, when you hear
this stat, but about 70, 75% of

the people walking the planet
have never had a gym membership.

They're overweight, they're unfit,
they didn't play sports growing up.

Um, they're not participating in any
of the common participatory sports

that are available to us out there.

Marathons, half marathons,
triathlon Spartans, tough Mudders.

Uh, I could go on and on all the things
and I would even put Hyrox in that.

I've done all that stuff.

I love every bit of it.

If you're pulling somebody off the
couch, getting somebody fit, I love it.

But most people are, are kinda scared
to death of that kind of stuff.

I said, what if we created this super
low barrier of entry designed for all

levels of fitness event, where if you can
freaking walk and breathe, there's a damn

good chance you'll cross the finish line.

It'll be for those, we'll design it
for those 80 percenters that have

never really, 70, 80% has never
really had fitness in their life.

And I was kind of fingers crossed
in my head, and luckily Joe being

Joe, sometimes almost to a fault,
he said, let's fricking do it.

Let's go.

And I was like, oh shit,
we gotta do this thing.

So next thing I know, I'm on the phone
with my good friend, Jared Cogswell.

He's flying up to Boston.

We're in Joe's office the next day on
Joe's dry erase board in, in Boston.

And then a, a week or two after that we
find ourselves in Denver, Colorado, where

we rented an old abandoned Kmart for three
plus months and we murdered the plan man.

We were flying in professional
CrossFit athletes and hundreds

of people, a hundred pounds
overweight and everybody in between.

And we said, we're not leaving here until
everybody's crossing the same finish

line in the same arena on the same day.

Using the exact same standards.

Everybody can come together and celebrate
the power fitness, celebrate fitness.

That's something we say all the time.

Um, but that's kind of the, and lemme
back up one more, one more notch here.

So we had our first big event happening
in, in the Denver Broncos indoor training

facility, pat Bowen Fieldhouse, that was
gonna take place March 21st, I believe.

And that was what year?

That was 2020.

And about a week and a
half before that event.

Right.

COVID ripped the rug
right out from under us.

Yep.

So we had to kind of recalibrate
and we knew we wanted to

do the affiliate program.

Some may take this the wrong
way, but we shifted and moved

operations down to Florida.

Florida said, we're not really
participating in this COVID game.

We're, we're keeping everything open.

So we're in 2020 mode for three or four
months, putting on events inside gyms,

all up in, all up and down Florida.

COVID kind of got into the rear
view mirror a little bit, uh,

and other gyms across the country
started bolting on the affiliate

program and then other countries.

And fast forward to today, we've
got, you know, our gyms have held

about 4,500 small scale DEKA events.

DEKA Strongs, DEKA Miles, DEKA
Atlas, you know, the team events.

That's, that's 99% of our focus, you
know, to when we're talking to a gym

owner, that's our true convention center.

That gym that's got 50 to a hundred,
150 people coming to Celebrate Fitness.

That's the true celebration for us.

We, we love the big events, of course.

Uh, and that's a big focus of ours.

But man, anywhere from 10 to
50 events happen every weekend.

And that, that's a dream come true for me.

An an old guy that's been coaching
fitness and, you know, for 30 plus years.

Backing up to the, to the design of it,
when you were coming up with it in 20

19, 20 20, were you aware of this tiny
little European thing called Hyrox?

And if so, were you consciously
differentiating yourself from it, or

was it just a there's a similar thing
and we are just doing our own thing?

Absolutely, and I, and I, to be
perfectly honest, I, I thought what

they were doing was, was genius.

Um, y you know, I have actually had a,
a relationship with Christian and team

went to the very first, uh, U US event.

We had a lot of great conversations.

Um, and, and they moved, they
moved into a partnership with, uh.

I think with Ironman.

I had this wild, crazy focus.

Some may think I'm a nut job, but I,
I, I wanted this to be about like, you,

you know, as a coach for 25, 30 years,
you, you're always trying to crack the

code of why such a high percentage of
people in every community, mine and yours

they're not taking care of themselves.

It's like we, what do we
do to reach that group?

What do we do to crack that code?

, But while also having an event that
caters to the high levels where if you

look at a Ryan Kent, a Rich Ryan, or
a Lauren Weeks, and I could go a Tara

Jackson, I could go on and on, where if
they step up to a Hyrox or a DEKA start

line, they're both gonna kick their ass.

They're gonna get themselves
turned completely inside out.

But.

If we pull in a thousand random people
off the street and they walk into any

DEKA strong DEKA mile or DEKA fit event
or team events, 99% of them as they are,

they're gonna cross the finish line.

They're just gonna be slower,
but they're all gonna earn the

same medal, the same t-shirt.

So that was a, so it was a very
careful process of trying to pick

just, you know, 10, in our case, 10
zones and the weight standards where

if you can walk and breathe, there's
a damn good chance you're gonna be

able to cross that, that finish line.

Uh, and then every now and then, you know,
world championships, we'll celebrate the

cyborgs DEKA cyborgs we like to call it.

But it was really kind of
changing the game, man.

We, we wanted that sport, that globally
recognized sport, truly designed for

all the people that have never had
their, the power of sport and fitness

and testing their fitness before.

So the, the cyborg in the room had a
question following up from that as well.

I was, I was thinking when you were
talking about the why it came around, you

wanted to include a whole bunch of people.

Was therefore your first and primary
target audience, the general population

and then the elite athletes were a bonus,
or was it the priority to merge the two?

Or was there a preference either way and
you just happened to attract elite or

No, it's, it's a great question.

Jude and, and, and honestly 99% of the
focus was on the people that have, you

know, okay, the three of us own a gym
and we've got our 200 members and all

of them have friends out there that
tho and they've never been able to talk

to those friends coming into the gym.

They've just never been able to get 'em.

And, and they, you know, people peer
into the windows and they're scared

to death of what happens in there.

They see a fitness class
and they're scared to death.

Uh, and I understand that.

I've been coaching fit.

I've coached probably five,
6,000 group exercise classes.

I could go to a new class tomorrow
at a gym that I've never been

into, and I'm gonna be nervous.

We all are gonna be a
little nervous, right?

Mm-hmm.

So there's very real,
there's a very real reason.

And, and so all the focus was
about we gotta design it for them.

And if we're very, very careful, we
can have it to where the, the best

of the best, the Judes of the world
will still get their ass kicked.

They're gonna, they're gonna be challenged
and they're gonna be like, that was one

of the most painful things I've ever done.

But guess what?

Everybody finished and all the
males did exactly what Jude did.

All the females did exactly
what Lauren Weeks did.

That was something that was, that
was not an easy code to crack.

It was like those three to four
months in that old abandoned Kmart.

We, we just, we made so
many fricking changes.

It's like, can you tell us,
can you tell us any, the stuff

that you started with, that you
ended up leaving out in the end?

Oh, some of it was
weights, different weights.

We moved around.

Um, we, we wanted it to there to
be some, some differentiators.

You know, you could go, uh, you
could go with just super simple

equipment, but we wanted it to feel
like you were walking into a cool gym.

You know, you got the basic, the rower,
the ski, the air bike, like the, the

magnetic sleds for example, allowed us.

I grew up on a farm in the middle
of nowhere, Texas, where you just,

you know, push, pull is just basic
fitness, but you can't gamify, push pull

mm-hmm with traditional sleds on 10
different surfaces, with 50 events

every weekend globally, you can't.

So the magnetic sleds allowed
us to have this really cool,

unique piece of equipment.

The most gyms don't have.

And allowed us to, you know,
within one second, we can change

resistance if in a group exercise
class, the Rams, for example.

You have things like the med
ball situp throw and the dead

ball yoker, or wall over.

Okay.

Those are, those are optically
more appealing than just a sit

up or a shoulder over, right?

We're like, okay, but for the gym
events, we don't wanna force, you

know, Jude and Paul own a gym.

We don't wanna force them to have to
have a, a rebounder or a yoke or a wall.

So we'll do shoulder overs
and, and, and sit ups.

That's why we

started out with, uh, squats,
um, weighted squats for zone one.

Uh, and then just, you know, for,
for years of coaching and teaching

and doing research, the alternating
reverse lunge is, you know, when

you look at DEKA, here's what we do.

Super basic lift carry, push, pull,
kneel down, stand back up, get all

the way down on the ground, stand back
up, press a weight above your head.

Get over a really basic obstacle in life.

24 inch box by design people.

I get so much grief, why is the
male box the same as the female box?

Why are the kids boxes ...? 'cause
sometimes we gotta get over the

same fricking obstacle in life.

It wasn't all about, I know that
sounds a little crazy, but it wasn't

all about perfect scaling, right?

It was like we're out in the
woods and there's an obstacle.

The whole damn family has to get over
the obstacle y. You know what I mean?

Mm-hmm.

Um, so getting over a
basic obstacle in life.

Uh, and three rudimentary forms of
transportation has been around for

thousands or hundreds of years.

Row ski and bike.

In this case, the airbike not
a single zone where you have to

be taught how to do anything.

It meets you where you're at right
now and it's low risk of injury.

But yeah, we, we went
with squat for a while.

We changed that to lunge
'cause what's something we do

every single day of our life?

You see something on the
ground you gotta pick up.

Naturally, one leg goes backwards,
you kneel down and you stand back

up from that knelt down position.

Well, let's add some weight to that.

It's a beautiful full body functional
fitness works in balance, mobility and

coordination, adds some weight to it.

And, uh, so I absolutely love, it's
a pain in the butt, kinda like Hyrox.

You know, you look at some of our zones
like lunges and wall balls and whatnot.

Some of those, and Jason at
Deadly would tell you the same.

Some of 'em are a pain in the butt to
have judging, but really and truly, and

gosh, this may be taken the wrong way,
but the sport aspect is so important.

But ultimately, more
important than that is, is it

a beautiful, well-rounded
functional fitness test designed

for the whole damn world.

If we have 3000 gyms hosting 10,000 events
a year where 99% of the population is

within a short drive walk or Uber ride
to a gym event, and they can test their

fitness and it's for everybody and it's
super functional and you don't need, like,

I can walk in, I could be at a gym event.

I could be a hundred pounds overweight
in a pair of dress slacks and business

shoes and watching my wife compete
at this event, and I could say I

could get inspired and walk my ass
over to the front counter, sign up

and do it with no fitness education.

That, that, that's, that
was very key for us.

Exactly, and that's what I noticed,
especially with DEKA because of how

many variations of, if you wanna call
it variation DEKA, that you have nothing

like, there's no, so like with DEKA and
these hybrid sports, what's like, what

you're mentioning is so good about them
is like you don't have it with football,

you don't have baseball, you don't have
with any other sport other than hybrid

fitness where like you said, you can
take someone that hasn't exercised a day

in their life and get 'em to compete.

At something, people like this have
never had an experience of competing.

But hybrid sports creates that
environment where you can compete

by definition and complete a race,
whereas you can't complete, you know,

a set of 20 against a tennis player
if you're a hundred pounds overweight

and never exercised before because
just the sport doesn't work like that.

Whereas with hybrid fitness, when you
create a race that works like yours does

with the bike, the row, the ski, you're
stationary and then you're running.

Everyone can run or walk.

People who have never competed or
done something like that can find

motivation through a sport like
that, which I think is so cool.

Yeah, you, you nailed it, man.

And any good fitness coach, they're
either saying this or they should be

saying this, and I've said it a thousand
times, is no matter who walks into the

arena or to your group exercise class.

We're all athletes.

At a minimum, we're training
for the sport of life.

When you train for DEKA, you are
ultimately training for the sport of life.

What does that mean, Yancy?

Well, I want you to wake up.

Our whole DEKA team wants you to wake
up when you're 40, 50, 60, 70 plus.

And are you able to say yes to
everything that's beautiful the rock of

ours called Planet Earth provides us.

If the kids say, I wanna go on an
active vacation, let's say snow skiing

or hiking the the canyon, are you
able to say yes or do you have to say

no because you're a, you're a mess.

You've disrespected yourself
maybe one day your grandkids.

Do you, are you able to do the
type of work you wanna do and

could you protect yourself?

Ski,

stroke, again, protect.

Could you fricking protect
yourself and your family or

your friends if you needed to?

That's the sport of life.

Ultimately, man, that's a non-debatable
and a much larger percentage of our

nation is saying no to those kind of
things and, and global, probably globally

than are able to say yes to those things.

And that's a sad state of affairs.

And you know, I say all the time, a
hundred years ago, gyms weren't needed.

Fitness clubs and and fitness
spaces were not needed.

But now they are the beacon of light and
service of the world's most powerful drug

fitness movement exercise that our, our
communities need, man, what the, the,

the work that gym owners and coaches
are doing that motivate and inspire

people and, and plant that drug and
that, that, that addiction in the body.

It's like, I gotta come to class tomorrow.

Man, that just felt good, dude.

That's like, that's the ultimate
service industry if you ask me.

Hmm.

I think, yeah, just to sort of close up
on that thing on on this point you know,

this whole era of hybrid fitness that
we're in, you know, maybe I'm in a bubble

and it's not as big as I think it is, but
you know, for me, every single thing on

my feed 24 hours a day is hybrid fitness.

It has become bigger since
2017, 2019, something like that.

CrossFit was around but only
since the sort of 2019 when

Hyrox started getting bigger.

DEKA, you know, 2019, 2020, has
there been something like this

where you can get everyone involved?

And I don't know how it took this
long, 'cause there was, I know Dad,

you obviously know more about history
than I do, but all it took now was

this whole hybrid explosion for now
kids and even adults now to really

want to get into fitness because it's
so accessible and it's just such a

good idea to have basic functional
movements paired with each other.

It's, it's a thing, I think there's
a trend over the last 50 years.

'cause the first London marathon,
for example, was only like 81,

82 or 83 or something like that.

And then, and you know, you've got,
there's a famous picture in the

Boston Marathon, uh, of, of the
woman being someone tried to hoik

the, a woman off the course because
it was supposed be men competing.

And that's, that's just a few DEKAdes ago.

And then you, you start to have
the rise of marathons in eighties

and nineties, the advance in shoe
technology, which helps massively.

So, so people like me can run
without crushing our joints.

And then you've got half marathons and
that takes you through the nineties.

And then 2000 as you say,
Jude, you then got CrossFit

at the turn of the millennium.

And it's just bringing
more and more people.

So the more sedentary society becomes,
the more there's a, a minority that

going, hang on a second, I need to
do something to, to Yancy's point

again of, of just trying to drag
in as many people as possible.

And the fact that we, as you're
saying, Yancy, we, we need this kind

of thing more than ever because as
society, our cultures naturally don't

lend itself to physical activity
the way it did 50 years ago or more.

Well, you hit on something that,
um, we are unbelievably proud of.

You.

You talked about, um, God, I
feel like we should do it justice

and look up her name again.

I can't believe, I can't remember the
name, the lady that was pulled off

the course, but, um, in, in the, in
the US um, participatory sport ticket

sales are about 65% males, 35% females.

Since we launched DEKA, we are 50 to
51% females on the, on the individual

side and about 60 on the teams side.

And why is that?

Is that for

sport in general?

That's for, that's for DEKA
ticket sale, DEKA ticket sales,

DEKA.

Right.

You know,

so it's a dramatic shift.

And I, you know, why is that?

Well, as a, as a fitness business
owner myself, over the years.

If you're not catering to females in
the fitness space, in the gym space,

you're crazy because, you know, any,
the average group exercise class

is gonna be about 65, 70% females.

Well, these, most of our events take place
inside the comfort of the second home

where people train, and females are really
good about shouting it from the rooftops.

What's happening in here is good for
me, and I want you to be a part of it.

They're way better than
us dudes at doing that.

So shout out to the females.

Um, they, they'll, they'll drag their
friends in for the team competitions.

And on the team competition side.

What what makes that great is, you know,
you're able to, now somebody that's

nervous about doing it by themselves
can come in and you can say, well, I'll,

I'll take zone six or zone whatever
zone, zone three for you, and we'll

divide the other nine zones together.

So the teams has really been a, a, a
unique, um, piece of this, but we're

really, really proud of, of how.

Um, we're kinda of shaking things up in
that p participatory sport ticket sales.

Um, and it's pretty
similar at our large scale.

Um, DEKA Fit events as well.

That's been really apparent.

Um, I think watching, watching Hyrox
as well, the where a guy will try and

find someone who's basically the same
and goes, as long as you're basically

the same as me, we will go together.

Whereas a woman will say, here's
my, here's my less fit friend.

Hey, come with me.

I'll make you feel better about yourself
and we'll go do this thing together.

It was, it was Katherine Switzer, 1967,
uh, her boyfriend, basically, when the

guy tried to pull her off the course, her
boyfriend intervened and she, she was the

first, she, she wrote her own bib number
and she was the first official finisher

the Boston Marathon, yeah.

58 ago, which isn't that long.

So you, for people

like Paul and I, that doesn't seem too
long ago, but for Jude, that probably

seems like several centuries ago

were 20 something when that happened.

Dad.

Oh, stop.

Good stuff, man.

Um,

yeah.

So I was thinking evolution of DEKA.

Um, you've had it in the UK before, but
the biggest event we've had in the uk more

of a breakthrough than it's been before.

Where do you see DEKA say in five, 10
years, say anywhere else in the world?

Or are you staying where it is now?

Yeah, you know, let, let's look at the,
at the UK as a microcosm right now.

How cool is it that Chris and team at
Clitheroe had a little small scale DEKA

fit at the castle, and then we have a,
a large scale DEKA Fit at East Midlands

at a really unique, beautiful location.

And then that was cool this coming year.

There's gonna be three of them.

I mean, that's, that's the type
of progression you want to, uh,

maybe I just broke some news
that you guys hadn't heard yet.

I think you did.

I think you just broke some news there.

There's gonna be, there's, there's gonna
be more than just that one you saw in, in,

there's, there's the clip in Manchester.

So, but I, I'll, I'll,
I'll zip it at that.

I get myself in trouble all the time.

Um, I can hear Fran and Emily and
Grant like, oh my gosh, shut him up.

No, but it's, we're, but there, there's,
that's, that's natural development.

You, you've seen how
amazing it's been in Spain.

Um, Angel and team.

We had, uh, you know, DEKA
Fits in Australia this year.

We'll have more next year.

You're gonna see, I, I love our growth
in Ireland with the, the stables,

uh, um, team down South Dublin.

Mm-hmm.

And that we're starting to get more,
um, affiliates in, in, in Ireland.

We've got probably 15 affiliates in Spain.

Now you're gonna see five to
six additional countries, uh, in

2026 adopt the affiliate program.

Look what happened in Italy this
year with, with the trifectas and,

um, there's some really neat stuff
happened in, in, in, in Italy.

You, you've got Italian
flags all over the map.

I think that's a big thing.

If you go to the world Championships 22,
23, 24, and now 25, you go from having

just pretty much US flags and a couple
others sprinkled to more and more.

And now this year it just littered
with probably 20 plus different flags.

And we love that.

That doesn't happen if you
don't have gyms hosting events

at

the affiliate gyms and,
and, and DEKA fit events.

Um.

Jack and I were working on some fun
stats, YY you know, uh, and, and Emily

and I were working behind the scenes
to create some really fun gamified

scoring things where you're able to
pit countries and continents against

each other in a really fun way.

And then we all meet up and celebrate
fitness together at world champs.

But, but to answer your questions,
Jude, really, uh, in a more precise

manner, um, ultimately the goal you'll
hear us talk a lot about: 3000 plus

affiliates worldwide hosting over
10,000 plus DEKA Strongs, DEKA Miles,

DEKA Atlas, uh, the team competitions,

the Ruck competitions.

Wow.

Where, you know, where, thousands
or tens of thousands of people are

within a very short drive or even a
walk to that gym event on a Saturday.

And then what happens in between those
of, you know, most of our gyms will

host three to four events a year.

So now you got three to four months
of training in between those events.

Well, now that training, which
was ultimately one of our goals,

has so much more purpose to it.

You know, we're not, you'll never hear
me say, let's go exercise or workout.

We're gonna go train.

'cause I, I've always gonna have
something bolted on an event bolted

onto my life that I, I know it's coming
up, spend a little money and, and

that's, most of those happen inside
the gym and they're for all levels.

So you, you, you've

hinted at what, you've hinted at what
you mean there, Yancy, but could you just

kind of, kind of double down on that,
what you mean by the, the distinction

between working out and training?

I think that's an important one.

Yeah.

So we talked about, you know,
the ultimate sport of life.

So one.

That's kind of the, the, if anybody says
I'm not an athlete, that's the one thing

that allows us coaches to say, no, no,
no training timeout, waving the BS flag.

You are an athlete because at a minimum we
need to be training for the sport of life.

But when you have an actual gamified
sport, DEKA and you, the gym that you

go to, or, you know, I go to this gym
and I bring a, a friend in and they

compete in it and it's got a leaderboard.

I'm getting a medal hung around my neck.

I'm getting the T-shirt.

Um, I, I, I can repeat the exact same
thing and see my score improve my three

to four months of training in between
being selfish with my time, three to

four days of the week I go to the class.

Okay?

And then I get that box checked.

My coach told me when I became a
member, when I first walked in here,

if you'll gimme three to four days
a week, gimme some of your time.

Be a little selfish with your
time, you're gonna get better.

My first DEKA strong was 42 minutes.

Two years later, I've done it four times
and I'm now doing it in 19 minutes.

I am an athlete.

Look at my improvement
going from a 42 to a 19.

I use those numbers because we've
seen stuff like that happen.

And now you got people, they
were doing it five years ago, now

they're gonna be competing at world
championships and they could fricking

they were a hot mess back in 2021.

Now they're world.

It's like mm-hmm.

That's

a beautiful transition of, of
slowly becoming a better version

of yourself and, and just checking
that box of, look at my time.

Look how it's improved.

This is a test where 35 other gyms
on the same weekend did the exact

same test and all these, there
was a live leaderboard at my gym.

And then a week later, those 35 events
populated the global leaderboard.

And, and in my 50 to 54
age group, did I climb?

Did I drop?

How much time did I improve?

It's really, where do I stand globally?

It's a sport.

Um.

So, yeah, that's, hopefully
that answered your question.

So are you saying that the
difference between, working out

and training would be intention?

So then if you have the
intention to improve Yeah.

At an objective sport, say for example,
instead of just, you know, losing 10

pounds, which is a good goal in itself,
you don't have to train to do that.

You can just exercise.

So are you saying that in order to
train that the, the differentiation

is the intention behind it?

Yep, absolutely.

So if, if we're going to a DEKA class
today, one of our gyms in the uk, our

great White down in Ca Cayman, um, you
know, any DEKA affiliate gym and as the

coach coaching the class, if we've got
box step overs, the row and the air bike

in there, it, this is not about looking
better in a bathing suit, losing a few

pounds or inches, breaking a sweat.

This is about training.

I tested, you know, it took me two
minutes and 30 seconds to do my 25 cals.

What am I gonna be able
to do it this time?

Okay.

I pulled 27 seconds off.

That stuff starts to resonate.

People start to pay attention
to the numbers and the stats.

The people that used to not give.

They could care less about the stats.

The coach can able to mesh that stuff in
just gradually without forcing it on 'em.

And the light bulb moments come on.

And so it doesn't matter if we're
going to a DEKA class, a Deadly class,

a Hyrox class, we're able to put some
structure, or I'm seeing hell Jason's

building a gym that's gonna be meshing
Deadly, DEKA and Hyrox together.

How cool is that?

Um, all kind of similar concepts.

Um, we just kind of have
a little different model.

Um, but yeah.

Sorry

that, that, that was, that was super key.

What, what did you just say?

Jason's building like an institute.

It's amazing, man.

I love that guy.

Yeah.

Shout outs to Jason.

We have so much in common.

He's building an institute that
where you're gonna be able to go

do DEKA classes, deadly classes,
Hyrox classes, um, a mashup.

Wow.

Uh, and plus the guy is just a, like
an exercise physiology genius up here.

He can just, I, I've, as we're
saying in, in the preview of the

podcast, I just finished his book.

I'm writing the Foreword for his book.

It's amazing.

Fricking stop what you're doing right now.

The, the moment that book comes out,
you buy it and you fricking read it.

If you're a PE teacher, a health
coach, um, a mom or a dad that wants to

graciously push fitness on your kiddos.

Anybody.

Uh, a gym owner, any coach, anybody

inter 1% interested in fitness.

It, it's the book that you
need to read over all books.

So trust me in that.

So shout out to to Jason, but yeah,
he, he's doing a, building a, it's

gonna be a brick and mortar like
institute where you can go, uh, just

participate in all things, uh, functional
fitness, you know, hybrid fitness.

Awesome.

Up

in

Macclesfield.

Mm-hmm.

The home of hybrid fitness.

Exactly.

Wow.

According, according to,

according to my interview with him before.

Yep.

Yep.

Yeah.

We're working on some
fun, fun stuff together.

At the end of the day when you're on
a, a similar mission, you could, I,

I, I tell, I tell gym owners this all
the time, you know, it would be real

easy for like Jason and I to be butting
heads or, you know, it's ultimately

we're all in the same business, uh,
dealing the world's most powerful

drug fitness movement and exercise.

We've seen it change
and say even save lives.

That's why we love what we do so much.

, We're, we're gonna partner
together in various ways and serve.

You know, we, we have the
opportunity to get our messaging

out there and serve more.

Um, and, and same with gyms.

There are so many people within
your three to five kilometer

radius in the fitness space.

You're like, you need to own
that three to five kilomet, three

miles to five kilometer radius.

That's always gonna be where
90 plus percent of your money,

your revenue comes from.

So own that space.

So don't look at the competitor gyms.

Find a way to partner with 'em.

I know that sounds crazy, but
don't forget, 70 to 80% of people

in every community, globally,
I, I shouldn't say globally.

I know in the US and several
other countries, that's the stats.

They've never even freaking had
a gym membership that needs,

that's who our focus needs to be.

What do we do to get them in here
to enjoy some of this fitness?

Mm-hmm.

Jason spoke about that, um, quite
a bit when he was talking about you

and also about Hyrox and saying on
the one hand, yeah, of course in

this one sense we are competing.

But on the other hand that the greater
business opportunity, as Jason was

describing, and as you are describing
it, and for, for Mo and Hyrox

isn't other people's fitness races.

It's the vast majority of people who'd be
up for it but aren't doing anything yet.

Yeah,

yeah.

They're crushing it.

I mean, you know, damn good and well,
at some of their locations, the high,

you talk about Hyrox, there's probably
seven, several thousand people that bought

a ticket that are nail-biting nervous.

A friend talked 'em into going,
and that's a beautiful thing.

And that that's, yeah, that's
1% kind of hard for me to say.

But dude, fist bumps, I know firsthand.

It doesn't matter how much support
you have, how much money you have, we

kept ours going with baling wire and
duct tape, as we say, as an old Texas

farmer, the budget had just a few
pennies in it and we held it together.

Anybody doing this?

Anybody in the event space?

It's hard fricking work.

It is hard.

It's seven days a week.

It's eight days a week, 25 hours a day.

It's, it's really tough.

So, so props to, to all of
our competition, um, it, it's

a fun movement right now.

It, it's, it's on us.

It's on all of us.

We need to do it in a way where
10 years from now, it's like,

oh, that was a cool thing.

No, 10 years from now, it needs to
be bigger and stronger and millions

of people have been touched.

Mm-hmm.

That's why you have to
keep, you have to get up.

You gotta strap on your
fricking boots and you gotta go.

You gotta push forward full steam
ahead because if you, if you don't,

shout out to our team in Europe, man.

Shout out to our team in Australia.

Shout out to the team in Spain.

Shout out to Italy, you know, Canada,
Mexico, our very first DEKA Fit is,

is this in a couple weeks in Mexico?

Um, shout out to everybody.

Back in 2020.

2019 and 20 when nobody would, oh, Joe
was the only one that believed in us.

Joe Joe was like, and even when
COVID smacked us, you know what

out of us.

And we didn't have two
pennies to rub together.

Joe's like, I believe
what you guys are doing.

We're gonna find a way to keep
the lights on through some

really fricking rough times.

And, you know, you just gotta keep
putting that best foot forward and

you eventually get to a place where
you can take a breath, like, oh,

we're making a few dollars now.

And, um, you know, we can start to,
we can relax a little bit and start to

have a little more, more fun with this.

But yeah, for if it's Hyrox or
Deadly or us or anybody else in

the business, just, just keep
putting your best foot forward, man.

And, and don't, you can't ever,
you're always gonna have the naysayers

and the 10 percenters slapping
you around on social media and

hammering on you, and you just can't.

What does Joe Rogan say?

You gotta 'post n ghost.' Post n ghost.

Don't look at the comments.

Just post and ghost,

first of all.

Yeah, I was gonna say, first of all,
shout out to whoever this Joe Guy is.

Sounds pretty awesome, but what I
wanted to go a little bit into were,

um, sort of the, the stations in DEKA.

What was the thought process be
behind sort of each one of them?

And for example, why is Lunges first?

Why is Devil's Press last?

Stuff like that.

Yes.

Oh man, this was so much fun.

And we, you know, I wish
Jared was on the call with me.

My, my, my, my brother Jared
Cogswell, who I met, uh, coaching

the US Army together for the US
Army Boss Strong Program in 2018.

Just an amazing fitness pro, uh,
general manager and startup manager for

Lifetime Fitness, you know, Lifetime

they're, they're the industry
standard in the club space.

Mm-hmm.

Um, he was the first person
that joined the team with me.

Um, and in that old abandoned Kmart
multiple times, we talked about.

Five, 10 years from now, if a bunch
of exercise physiologists and strength

coaches and just people that love
fitness and they're like passionate

about the science of it, we did, we
wanted them to say, you know, what

they did a good job with, with how
if the event flows, it makes sense.

It has a lot of purpose.

It wasn't just spit balling.

So yeah, we played with, with,
with jockeying around until

we felt like it made sense.

For example, you look at zones one
through five versus six through 10.

Six through 10 are all full body.

Everything's getting hit, man.

Everything, you know, farmers
carry looked at one of the most

full body functional fitness.

I mean everything is getting taxed.

Seven, slapping the crap out of you.

Chest, tris, back, thighs,
legs, core.. Um, there.

Anaerobic, aerobic system, everything,
depending on how you attack it.

So zone six is the farmer's carry
a hundred meters zone 7: 25 cals

on the, on the you know, aka
the murder bike, Satan's chair.

It's got all the crazy names.

It would've been very easy for
me to put that zone one, right.

That would not have made any sense.

It wouldn't have made any sense.

I wanted it to be like a warmup, you know,

the dark alley beat down is coming.

I'm about to go into the dark alley
and I see some eyes in there and

they're about ready to, I gotta
fight through that dark alley.

There's a faint light at
the end of the tunnel.

6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 is that dark alley
beat down, you know, zone eight.

The dead ball shoulder overs
or the yoker wall over it.

You're lifting up a heavy weight
by, and by this time it's, and you

look at anything like zone eight,
for example, put it zone one or two.

It's not that hard, but you've had
your ass kicked, man, and now you're

on zone eight and you're lifting up
a heavy, it's a good functional lift.

You have to have good mobility,
not a crazy heavyweight.

You gotta get it up over that shoulder.

It's like going to the old, going
to the farm where Yancy grew up on.

We're gonna just do some farm work again.

If I brought a friend in from the
city in, and he goes to the work on

the farm with me, I'm not gonna have
to teach him how to do anything.

I might be a little more efficient
at these lifts and work than

him, but he's gonna get more
efficient as the day goes on.

So, and then we move on to the
100 meters of push pull with

the magnetic sled, you know?

Um, true full body.

True full body.

I love how the push and the pulls
incorporate into the same zone.

And then burpees, there's
a special story to burpees.

Joe has always said that the burpee is the
greatest exer exercise on planet Earth.

I, you know, I, again, I call training.

Do you

hate anyone over six foot?

You hate all of us over six feet tall.

Well, well, here's the deal, man.

From an exercise physiology
perspective, let's talk about why

the burpee by itself leaves out

it's not the greatest, but
when we we add the weight.

Well now we're pulling
weight from the ground.

We're transitioning that weight almost to
like a clean, it could be a fluid snatch.

Okay, so now we're getting
some overhead press.

So we're getting the deltoids
overhead press in there.

So the argument could be, show
me why the weighted burpee is

one of the greatest exercises on
planet earth training movements.

You could say, well, every joint is
used, every muscle group is used, and

it, it takes you on that dark alley
beat down and perfect in zone 10 when,

so it doesn't matter how good of a race
you've had, it could all fall apart.

And, and I've seen it completely fall
apart in zone 10, where somebody comes

in 15 seconds ahead and they lose 30
seconds and lose the race by 15 seconds

because they haven't trained it.

And it's like the, it takes your,
they suck so bad, it just so terrible.

So Jude asked a question.

Can you tell us about the, the
reasoning for the order of the stations?

And, and just to summarize the
reasoning for the order of the

stations is you're a complete sadist.

Is that, is that fair?

Well, going back to, and I've kind
of sprinkled in a little bit, but

one through five are a warmup, right?

We're doing, we're doing a basic, so, so
the order, the, let's, let's take yancey's

ADD brain and really answer your question.

Zone one, we're gonna do an
alternating reverse lunge it.

Go to take it, you dropped something
at the house, or you need to reach down

and pick up your, your, your 1-year-old
toddler, you're gonna kneel down, okay?

You're gonna, you're gonna have
the burden of the weight and you're

gonna stand up out of that lunge.

It is something we've been
doing our whole freaking life.

It is the most basic functional movement.

I need to be able to get that knee down
behind me so I can get down low in a

functional manner and I'm gonna alternate.

But when, when, when you
were one, I didn't bend down.

I just grabbed your shirt and
yoinked you up with my hand.

So that was, that was different, but yeah.

Well, sure.

That's why didn't

create DEKA station one.

That's why Yancy did that.

Well, if Jude was laying on the ground
right now and I had to pick his ass

up, he's a, he's a little bigger now.

What do you, what are you saying?

Hey, he's, what, what,
what, what'd you run?

A 33 minute.

What was your DEKA Fit time Jude 33.

Uh, just over

32.

32. Yeah.

He's, that's fast.

You know, you, you do a sub 36 and
you're, you're, you're a badass.

So that's a very fast time.

We'll see Jude at World
Championships this year.

Um, yeah.

Way that's definitely not
getting over by the 32

mark.

Thank you.

Um, and then rowing, you
know, rowing, um, just a good

traditional movement that's, um.

Now we're, we're sitting down
good functional movement, but

it's not really full body.

So you're getting some legs and some pull.

Um, and it's, it's something you can
work on to get more efficient at the box.

Step overs, we're, we're
going back to legs.

Uh, we're working in some
balance and coordination.

You know, the, one of the things
I love the most about three is

I caught so much fricking grief.

Oh, for like two years I caught so much
grief because people were like, they're

so used to having cross on the brain.

And when you jump up and over
the box and that's what you do,

it's like, well, I wanted 99% of
the world to be able to do it.

And ultimately I knew because
we were testing a thousand plus

people, the old abandoned Kmart in
2020, I knew that most people were

gonna, once step over was allowed.

It was a more functional movement.

We weren't gonna have people
bleeding all over the place and

falling and breaking things.

And it requires amazing hip, hip mobility.

Balance and coordination.

You look, you look at times now
with people that started doing it in

20, 21, 22 and how fluid they are.

Zone three alone has turned
people into better athletes.

They have better athleticism
because of that one specific zone.

You get some nice transverse movement
with the rotation of the body as

you're coming up and outta that box.

I love that.

I would say now 99% of
people step up and over it.

It's more efficient, saves more
energy, and it just, it's so fun to

watch people be athletic on that.

Um, so we, that's the first
one we work in balance and

coordination, the med ball setup

with, with that one.

Mm-hmm.

Sorry.

With the, with the station three.

The reason I like that so much
is something like a rower.

You can have a really efficient
technique, be the same fitness level

as someone and only beat them off a 500
meter row by two, two seconds maybe.

You know, if you have really
efficient technique, but if you

have really efficient technique on
a, on a box, step over on the same

fitness as someone who doesn't.

Either you smoke them mm-hmm.

Or you come off at the same
time and they've wasted so much

energy, their next run is awful.

So true.

So I think that one, in terms of skill
is so key because you can have, you

can be so much less fit than person A,
but if you have better technique, you

will be so much better on that, more so
than almost any other station, I think.

Yeah, it's a great, it's a great
point, man, and it really goes back to

that story of going back to the farm.

You know, by the time I, you know,
my high school years, I was very

efficient at working on the farm.

I got very efficient at using
my body to work on the farm.

People are getting very efficient at
getting through those, those zones.

And that's a beautiful thing to, to watch,
uh, seeing people get faster and, and

come off and, and watching their heart
rate and coming off of two and three,

just like you said, with a really, you
know, may, maybe their zone three, two

time and zone three time is the same.

It was two years ago, but now their
runtime after is 10 seconds faster.

'cause they got outta that zone
with a lower heart rate, zone four.

I really wanted to tax the core early
in the event because you know that

nothing slaps your running ability
around like, you know, a taxed core.

But so with the situps, you know, DEKA
Fit may be slightly more than Strong

and Mile, but you're using your arms
and your core and it was, so one of

the things I heard often we would
interview people after we were, we,

Jared and I would test them almost
every night at the old abandoned Kmart.

And they're like you.

The number one question we
almost ask is like, what zone?

Did, did you feel affected
on, on the run the most?

And a lot of people said after zone four,
and it made a perfect sense because I

hit my core and my arms and I just felt
lethargic in that when you tax the core

man, the running form can fall apart.

So, um, people, you train your core, you
get better, it doesn't tax you as much.

You running gets better after zone four.

So it's the first one
that really hits the core.

And, and the arms at the same time.

Zone five, we're getting that big pull.

And in a sneaky fashion you did
that crunch movement in zone four

and you get that crunch pull.

So really we hit the core back to back.

So you hear a lot of people
talking on the ski erg.

Yeah, the ski.

Uh, and again, another just like
the row, another one where you

get more and more efficient at it.

But the ski, I would argue as much or
more than the row, um, is just such a

phenomenal movement one, you're getting,
you're getting, you're getting up nice

and high, so you, you, you really activate
the lats that, that crunching motion.

Um, there's so much.

Ski is one of those where you'll
have maybe the best ski you've ever

had, but you'll never watch a ski
and say That was the perfect ski.

You'd have to manage it
and do the best you can.

Your form falls apart a little bit.

You have to get refocused, you
know, you'll watch people like, kind

of have a rollercoaster ride of,
of, of mechanics on, on the ski.

It, it's just a fun one to watch.

Um, really.

Uh, and then we get into zone six where
it's the first one where I would say

it's truly full body, uh, and then
7, 8, 9, and 10 are all full body.

So I don't wanna say that five,
one through five was designed to

be a really good functional warmup.

But, but that's, I do find myself using
that a lot for the, over the past six

years as kind of the, the reasoning.

I'll tell you a fun story on zone four,
you know, the old abandoned Kmart,

everybody's like, Yancy, Why didn't you
just go easy, make everything, 30 reps

or everything, 20 reps. It's like, well
that's not, if you're, if you're really

trying to make, make it make sense.

That's not how you design
something just perfect numbers.

You design your rep and your weight count
around exactly what's happened internally

in the body, mentally and physically
to the person when they're testing it.

That's,

so we rely,

go ahead.

That, that's what I'm saying.

It's, it's whether your priority
is to optimize, you know,

biologically an optimal race or
if you want to just make it easy.

And obviously I think, you know, way more
prefer the whole biological preference in

terms of prioritization instead of just
making it easy to, to, to, to think about.

So I like that.

So, you know, why it landed
at 25 is that's interviewing

hundreds of people and doing it
on doing it multiple times a week.

Myself and Jared, and we were.

Gosh.

And it was like, it's, it's,
we're gonna catch grief from

this, but it needs to be 25.

It 25 was perfect and 30 felt
like, it's like, oh man, 20 just

didn't feel like quite enough.

So it's, it's that one weird number
because of all those interviews and

all that testing it, that's why it
was 25, because from a physiological

perspective, it felt right.

So,

so a lot of trial and error and a lot of
thought went into not only the order, but

also the reps of each station as well.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Oh, and the weights, man.

The weights, my gosh, we tried so many
weights and I, and you look back on

it, uh, and it's like, I really feel
like we, we got very close to just,

to just nailing it because the three
of us could, we could, we could roam

the streets and find as many a hundred
pound overweight people they could find

that don't have fitness in their life.

Bring them in and.

Maybe with a little bit of lifting
mechanics work, but no matter what, 99%

of those 1000 people we're gonna get 'em
through every zone with that exact weight.

Mm. But Jude can run a 33, and that
exact weight is gonna feel heavy to

him because he's, his heart rate's
at about 1 60, 1 70, and he, and he's

taxed and he's, he's hit it really hard.

So, yeah, that 60 pound weight
doesn't ever feel easy on zone eight.

That weighted burpee
doesn't ever feel easy.

That 20 pound med ball
always taxes your core.

That 60 pound.

Yeah.

Jude's running with that 60 pounds in
each hand on the farmer's carry, but it

still feels heavy because he's running
with the weight, you know, his heart

rate's spiking and his grip, so the,
the blood is stomping all over the body.

So the grip feels, it almost feels
like he's carrying 90 pounds because

he's going this real fast pace.

But most people, most males can
deadlift 120 pounds and most

females can deadlift 80 pounds.

If you can deadlift
that weight, guess what?

You can do zone six.

If you can simply do the
deadlift, you may have to place

it down and rest multiple times.

So that was, you know, it was, oh man,
it was, it was like going to the lab and

I'm, so we could have really half-assed
it, but without the lab, there's no way.

I mean, it was a true three
months of, of testing.

It was in the middle of Denver, Colorado
in the wintertime with leaky roofs,

snow melting during the day and water
dripping in, and us mopping up water.

And people come in as like, this
is, you sure this place is safe?

That was the lab dude.

That was the lab.

Does that abandoned Kmart still exist?

They tore it down.

I had an old affiliate call me.

We were on a call, an affiliate
call a while back, and he's like,

Yancy, they tore down the old lab.

No.

Yeah.

Good memories.

Need to get a, need a special
plaque put up there, man.

I check this out.

We had, we had probably 10, 15 high
level CrossFit games athletes come and

test it and they were props to them.

I mean, you look around and it was bad.

And then the zones were set up, but they
came in and tested, um, re uh, fit Aid.

Fit Aid, brought 'em in, shout
out to Fit Aid back in the day.

They brought 'em in and we had a, we had
a amazing couple days of, of testing.

With, with the CrossFit and that, that's

what definitely, I think that's what's
cool is that, you know, like you said,

the majority of people in the world can
do the weights that are selected in DEKA

and if your intensity is appropriate,
even elite athletes at some point,

despite their top end strength being way
heavier than the actual weight, if their

intensity, if their fatigue is at a point
in which they're pushing themselves,

it can feel heavy for them too.

Like they're lifting 120 pounds, like for
the majority of the elite athletes mm-hmm.

Is not difficult.

But, you know, in station six, after, you
know, already 15 minutes of being in zone

five with your heart rate, um, it's gonna
feel heavy or it's gonna feel challenging

to run with or something like that.

Yeah.

How, how cool to, to that, to that point?

How fricking cool is it that I have
seen, we've seen so many, like five,

10 K, 15 K runners, half marathoners.

They're amazing runners.

Well, like what's this
whole hybrid thing going on?

Well, they come in, they get their
ass handed to 'em for a while.

They, their running looks good for the
first couple runs and then their, their

500 meter runs drop off dramatically.

You know, the hybrid athletes crushing
this 1430 5K guy or 16 flat 5K female

who's getting crushed by the person
that's an 18 minute 5K and 19 minute 5K.

And then that person decides like,
wait a second, I like this sport.

Lemme go to the gym.

Lemme start training.

So now they put on 10 pounds of lean mass.

Well, now we've got people that, I
would argue that if all you're doing

your whole life is running that, okay,
you're gonna wake up at, you know, let's

say you get injured or something, and
you're coming in from a, a tough injury,

and you, you have to stop running.

What am I gonna do?

Well, now you wake up and you're
60 and all you've been doing is

running that, Hey, I'm not shout,
I'm not hitting on the runners.

I, I'm a runner myself, but I would
argue that you're gonna have a higher

quality of life because of that five,
10 year training cycle you did getting

ready for the hybrid space, and you
fell in love with it, and you kept the

hybrid, you kept that hybrid engine
going, and you like, I kinda like the

way I look in the, in, I'll see myself
in the mirror and I'm, I'm strong.

Anaerobically aerobically.

I have good strength.

I'm well-rounded.

There's a, I think it's a non debatable.

If, if you're, if you're really, if
you're really a really good Deadly,

DEKA or Hyrox athlete are, are all
three, you are a better, well-rounded

athlete than just a runner, you
know, or even just a track athlete.

Again, no shade to the runners and
the triathletes, but do all of it.

But I'm telling you right now, which
one is which sport, what new sport

is training you to really enjoy
the second half of your life and

be ready to say yes to everything.

This beautiful rock of ours
is called Planet Earth.

Like I said, be ready to say yes.

The hybrid space man, the hybrid
training athlete is, is, is, is gonna,

is gonna really just, it's a good,
well-rounded body of fitness, man.

And that's the thing to all the runners
out there like, like an said, we're

not trying to make you hybrid athletes.

You run, you run.

But at the same time, if you asked
Kipchoge, or you asked Noah Lyles.

Is the only thing you do run?

No.

You see clips of Kipchoge, you
see clips of Lyles in the gym.

Deadlifting, Bulgarian, split
squatting, unilateral strength.

Working one side of the body
at a time is so important.

Not just that you're, you
know, life quality like as

you said, improves later on.

But also just because it makes you
better at running, makes you better

at sport, makes you less liable to
get, less likely to get injured.

Strength training has so many benefits.

You don't have to convert from
being a runner to a hybrid athlete,

you know, do what you wanna do.

But to get better at that, you need
to do, you know, a bit of strength

training, get yourself a little
bit stronger as well to that point.

That's good.

Set me straight.

That

was a great point.

Dude.

Go ahead.

You know, you, you, you nailed it.

I mean, and when you look at our team's
competition, let's say you are, that I, I

mean, I would love to see like a kipchoge
come in and partner with like a crush the

way we designed our team competitions.

Mm-hmm.

You know, I wanted it to be insanely fast.

If you look at our two person
teams and our four person teams.

Jude could partner with the best
runner in the uk, male or female, and

she could do, he or she could do most
of the running, and Jude could do

all the zone, most of the zone work.

Or you could have, you could partner
with Ryan Kent and you guys would

have, like, you divide it all up.

But we, I love the fact that you
can have an Olympic, like literally

Olympic level runner come in.

So the first and the last runs have to be
done together, but that the middle eight

runs that Olympic level runner or that
local badass that can drop a 15 minute 5K.

He or she can do the entire, those entire
eight, five hundreds by themselves.

And when you see that happen, dude,
it's insane to watch in the arena.

They're dropping like three 20
mile pace at 500 meter repeats and

it's electric to, to, to watch.

So, uh, full person.

So if we, if we could,

if we could fix up a Kipchoge
and Roman Khrennikov duo.

That

would

be pretty special

then.

I was, I was gonna say
you related to that.

Related to that, sorry, Yancy.

Yep.

If you could make your DEKA Fit Dream
Team, Ryan Kent, Eliud Kipchoge, Noah

Lyles, two people to do a DEKA team event.

Who in the world would be the best
male in female duo, do you think?

Oh, man.

Um, well, obviously there, there all
the stats show us that it is so close.

We've seen the, you know, the, the, the
Rich Ryans and the Ryan Kents partner

together, you know, the Rich Ryans
and the Bridget Browns and the Lauren

Weeks with the, where they're like
just the, the, the perfect balance of

running and, and strength in zone work.

Um, and then you, we've seen Olympic
level athletes partner with that badass

zone person, like a Kevin Gregory.

Think of a Kevin Gregory type that
can just, you know, DEKA Strong

world champion to his resume.

Um, it's so close.

You literally don't know.

I mean, it's gonna be within seconds.

So let, let, let's create the
perfect, team on a female side.

You, you'd have like a, a, let's
say a Lauren Weeks and a Lauren

Griffiths, something like that.

On the male side, you'd have like
a, you know, a, a Hunter and a

Ryan or a, or any of the top 10
DEKA and Hyrox athletes out there.

You put them together.

Rich Ryan, um, Dylan, Dylan
Scott, who can do it all.

But then on the other side, you take
that Olympic, I would take an Olympic

1500 meter champion, male or female,
and for the male or female, and then you

put 'em with a true CrossFit athlete.

But even more important, like Lauren
Weeks, who's a, a lot of people don't

realize she was a very high level
CrossFit games bubble athlete who Yeah

decided to get into the, the high,
the, the, the Spartan space, the

hybrid space, the TMX space and, and
is still a great CrossFit athlete.

She's gonna move better and DEKA zones and
Hyrox zones and still has that CrossFit

engine and, and strength capacity.

So you put Lauren Weeks with that
insane, uh, runner and, and I don't know

man, I, I, I, what we've seen is that
when that runner, that Olympic level

runner has to do the, the entire 500,
they're about the same pace as like

a Rich Ryan and a Ryan Kent dividing
it up and also dividing the work.

So Rich Ryan and Ryan Kent
dividing the work or a Lauren

and a Lauren dividing the work.

It's gonna end up being as fast, maybe
faster than that CrossFit athlete

that's doing a hundred percent of
the row, or a hundred percent of

the ski, or a hundred percent of
the sled push or the shoulder over.

So it's such a balance, man.

I mean, I, we've, uh, it
naturally happens a lot.

You know, you'll see the world
championships, the different

type of teams, and now with four
person teams in three different

ways to divide up the running.

You know, we've had a lot
of fun testing that out.

Two years from now when that's
really taking over as like

a, a neat piece of DEKA.

We're gonna have all of
our US events, uh, in 26.

It's just, I love the concept so, so much.

It was so fun to work on that and, and
plan and scheme and, and, and test.

So really excited about, uh, you
guys running some four person teams

Jude in 26.

That'll be sick.

I'm looking forward to that.

So then if I was, if I was to then
put you on the spot, like you said,

so you have team A, you have Rich
Ryan, and let's say Ryan Kent k that's

team A, and then you have Team B,
which let's say coming off the back

of the Lifetime Games is Noah Olsen.

And let's say Yared Nuguse or
Cole Hocker Team A or team B

who are you taking to win DEKA

team?

Oh my gosh.

You said Roman.

Roman and Cole Hocker.

Uh, Noah Olsen or Roman and Hocker.

Noah.

Yeah,

Noah.

Noah would be a good one.

'cause Noah does move well.

Um,

he does,

Cole Hocker would freaking.

Watching him.

Oh, and, and who was my, mm-hmm.

Who was my, who was on the other.

But you're

also bearing in mind Rich, rich
Ryan and Ryan Kent, obviously

they've got the experience.

They're more efficient at DEKA
than both obviously I don't know,

y Yared Nagoose, and Roman or Noah
Olsen, I'm telling versus them.

Hopefully we can create
some controversy here.

If I'm going to Vegas, and I have to bet
on this, I'm putting my money on Rich

and, and Kent Rich Ryan and Ryan Kent.

There you go.

I'm gonna put my money on 'em every time.

Um, just because I, because of the way
they've been training Now, if I had a

chance to train Cole and Noah for like
a three month meso cycle of training

Yeah.

You get three months.

If I could have three months with
that team, and Rich and, and Ryan are

over doing whatever they want, I might
shift the way I bet in Vegas because

I'm gonna, we're gonna be able to plan
and scheme and there's, it is so funny

watching people at the start line.

They've got their sharpie notes on their
forearm of how we're dividing stuff up.

They've got their quarterback
sleeves You ever seen like a

Tom Brady quarterback sleeve?

So he is how he's got his,

yeah.

Yeah.

They've got those on
their arms and it's like.

Sometimes, like Mike Tyson says, you
get punched right in the face and our

plan goes right out the damn door.

And, but sometimes you stick with it.

Nick Riker and I ran a 26 together,
still a real, one of the probably

top 20 fastest times ever.

We had a great plan.

Wow.

Put together a great plan and,
and we stuck with the plan.

Um, so there's a lot, a lot of factors.

But I would love, man, I would
love to have three months with Cole

Hocker and Noah Olsen training 'em
for a DEKA Fit, two person teams.

Man, that would be fun.

I'll

let him know.

I'll let him know.

Do

that.

That is a great Tyson quote though,
EV everyone has a great plan until

they get punched in the face.

So it was, it was a caveated
answer then to, to Jude's

ultimate controversial question.

So it's, it's, it's, you're Rich and Ryan
now, but given three months under the,

under the Culp tutelage, uh, and your
CrossFit and your runner guy are winning,

shout

out RMR Yancy's got faith in you.

Wow.

Rich and Rich and Ryan, right now.

You know, their improvements and, and
I think they would both agree with it.

Their improvements are very tiny.

You're buying mini like
microseconds here and there.

You could see some dramatic
improvement from, from Cole and Noah.

But if the races happened Saturday,
I think Noah and Cole are gonna

get their ass handed to him.

But I mean also,

would you, would you say that Cole has
a huge room for improvement because

his, his part in the DEKA teams event
would be exactly what he does now?

Yes.

And that's what we hope to see as
Hyrox and DEKA continue to grow and

deadly and they continue to grow.

There are naturally going to be, it might
not be a Nagoose or Cole Hocker level.

But imagine the D1 athlete
that was like 1% behind them.

That's now just the lawyer, you know,
their corporate employee and they're

like, I get a second lease on life.

Yeah.

I I used to run a 1328 5K, or,
you know, or a 3 40, 1500 meter.

Okay.

3 35, 1500 meter.

And now I decided to train for a couple
years for hybrid and he's, he or she is

10 pounds bigger than they used to be.

That's gonna be a very dangerous athlete.

Very, very, because they're gonna
get really good and efficient.

Yeah.

They may never be pulling, you
know, a 1 35 in a row, but with

a good coach, they're gonna get
really efficient on all the things.

And boy that, that fricking 3 35 and
1330 running engine, that's, that you

don't, that's, that's some, you just
don't wake up and make that happen.

That's some genetic
amazing genetic ability.

You've seen a lot of former
college level runners that just

get a second lease on life.

And now they're, they, they get a new
sport in their thirties and forties.

I love these conversations, man.

It's fun stuff.

Fun stuff.

As,

as we close it up, uh, something I
asked Jason that I'll try and ask

everyone, everyone that we get on
that, that represents or, or runs

a a different sport is what do you
think separates DEKA from the rest?

So, so on the one hand, you and Jason
and Mo and, and everyone else are going,

Hey guys, just, just do all of these
things and you're better off trying

multiple hybrid races rather than
just doing one all your life anyway.

Yeah.

Um, but if someone's to say, okay,
I'm actually quite content, content

doing these things over here, uh, what
would you say Yancy is the, is the

differentiator that, that makes DEKA
the greatest hybrid fitness sport?

And I appreciate that question
'cause it means a lot to me.

Um, the, the, the best answer I
can give you is our true vision and

passion and reason for doing what
we, what we started back in late

2019 and, and it's still true today.

99 plus percent of our focus is and
always will be on that gym owner that

decided to pinch their pennies and
save some money and get their brick

and mortar started, they fell in
love with fitness for some reason.

Maybe they, they went to a class and
then they, they've always loved anatomy,

physiology, and they exercise physiology
and they just, they love coaching.

They, they're motivational and like, I,
I need to be able to do this as a career.

So they put pinch their pennies together.

They get that brick and mortar started.

They get their clients, their members.

They hire a couple coaches, and they're
dealing in the world's most powerful drug.

The work they are doing in their
communities, like I said, is, is, is one

of the greatest acts of service that's
happening in communities today, globally.

And to be able to serve them with a
fitness competition that really checks the

box and allows them to test their people.

Okay.

And every so often show and just
have those emotional moments, like

I told you so you just gimme those
three to four days, come to class.

I told you your life, it's gonna be
a life changer for you and I. And

even in some cases it was a life
saver for some of those people.

I'm speaking for every gym owner on
Planet Earth and every coach, they know

exactly what I'm talking about when I
say this and I'm passionate about it.

That will always be our foundation.

That will always be the strong foundation.

It's got a lot of rebar in it, man.

A lot of classes have been taught, you
know, it's like that home foundation

that it cures in three to four days.

Well, a coach's foundation is this
beautiful life of coaching and like

we're, every class we teach is like a
piece of rebar going in that foundation.

And we learn more about humans and what
makes 'em tick and the power of the

world's most powerful drug and the power
fitness and that foundation cures and

you wake up when you're 70, 80 years old
and you're so damn happy that, in that

you're standing on that strong foundation
of coaching fitness and, and, and being

a, just the, the passion that you get
every single day when you walk into a gym

and you turn the lights on and you know,
people are gonna come in there and test.

And for us to be able to
partner with them, we have no.

Competitors in the gym space, they're
all partners of ours, or we hope

they're a partner of ours one day.

Every type of gym club, studio box
on Planet Earth, we have 'em all.

We have chain, large chains, small
chains, franchises, the smallest mom

and pops, large clubs, small clubs,
chain clubs, mom and pop clubs.

We got 'em all man that
are affiliated with us.

They walk in, they turn the lights
on, they train their people, and they,

they, they, they, they empower their
members to put their coaching hat on

and invite friends, family or coworkers
and neighbors to come in, come to class.

I promise you it can improve
your life, maybe save your life.

And then we get to test.

This is a brand that we've probably
spent over a hundred million

dollars marketing this damn helmet.

And if, and if you own a gym, you
own this brand, you are the CEO

of Spartan DEKA in your community.

When you bolt us on, there's
gyms, Jude in the UK right now.

There's gyms all over the
UK that own this brand.

They're the CEOI told Joe
to center the other day.

It's like we got, we got
381 CEOs on our team.

You, Joe and the other 380 gym
owners that are hosting 1500 plus

events a year, hopefully 10,000
plus events, long term a year.

That's why we exist.

That is who we are.

Yes, we will always host big events.

We will celebrate fitness.

We 200 gyms come together
and thousands of people.

We love that it'll be a strong piece
of our brand, but we will never, ever

step away from the number one reason
we exist is that Saturday morning

where people walk into that gym,
nailbiting nervous, some of 'em for the

very first time walking into the very
first gym, or it's been a long time.

Maybe they played sport back in middle
school and now they're 50 years old.

And that wild, crazy friend of them
talked 'em into coming into that event

and they finish and that gym owner sees
the tears in their eyes and the gym owner

and the coach, the judge are all crying.

They hang a medal around their
neck and they just started their a

hundred pound weight loss journey.

That's who we are at our core.

That's who we will always be.

So that when we who, when do we get the
most excited is when we get a new gym in

Spain, in the uk, in Ireland, in Italy,
in Australia, in Canada, Mexico, USA.

We get a new gym and that gym is
nervous about their first event.

And we get 'em all coached up and
they open up that box of medals in

shirts and they got 'em folded up.

And people walk in, they get 'em checked
in on the kiosk and they get a scorecard.

30 minutes later they're out on
the course and then a short time

after that, they see their name on
a leaderboard on a 70 inch screen.

And then they're being
told they're an athlete.

At a minimum, you're training
up with a sport of life and

all that comes together, man.

And I think the coolest part of the
last five minutes of me answering your

question is I am given the biggest fist
bump on planet Earth and hug to every

gym owner, every single coach that
is dealing that world's most powerful

drug because they know exactly what
I'm saying and how they feel the same

passion I feel about why we do what we do.

And um, and that's why they're having
a good time with, with, with DEKA and

just, yeah, so big shout out to all of
the, the gyms and the owners out there

that have believed in us and the coaches
that, that, that speak our language.

That's truly the, I think the best
answer I could kind of off the cuff

improv answer I could give you brother.

That's it, man.

I really do drugs, start fitness.

What's that?

Jude, that's it.

Do drugs, start fitness.

Hey, it's kind of a, a controversial,
I've been saying that a long time

and it rubs the people the wrong way.

But dealing the world's most powerful
drug man, that's a, I could have that

argument and there's a lot of people
like the Peter Attias and out there that

would, I think they would agree with me.

What's, you know, it's, it's more
powerful than the, you get people off

the pills and the, all the injections
and the drugs and all the stuff and.

You see people, you see people, you
see commercials now about go in and

get your GLP one shot and, and lose
that, lose those 30 pounds quickly.

I'm just not a fan of that.

You know, I, I, I've seen the power
of, of grinding in that class and

stacking a good day on top of a good
day, and you wake up just like that.

And I'm six months into this,
I'm like, I look better.

I feel better.

I feel mentally stronger
and more resilient.

My wife, my kids, my cul-de-sac, my
city, my state, my country, my co, my

planet is benefiting from the fact that
I've been taking better care of myself.

It is the world's most powerful drug man.

Yeah, there's, drugs have their place,
actual drugs have their place, of course,

but the one drug that we all need.

We need to sweat, we need to
feel that pump in our muscles.

Okay?

It is, it's addicting.

And you two guys know exactly
what I'm talking about it.

That gym pulls you in that
signing up for that race every

now and then pulls your ass in.

A lot of people have never experienced it.

So everybody that's out there
in the hybrid space that's doing

what you're doing, all of our
competitors, man, we love you all.

You're doing great work.

We gotta all keep doing it.

So we keep, uh, we keep
providing that, that test.

It's important to test your
fitness a couple times a year.

'cause it, man, it, it feels
really good when you improve.

So yeah, man, let's go fired up boys.

And, and that's the thing, if
you think like you're too, you

know, inexperienced, overweight.

High on drugs, like some of some
of the best current elite athletes

in the world were high on drugs
two years ago, three years ago.

Oh geez.

Hunter McIntyre, three time world
champion Cole Learn probably in

the Elite 15 this or the next year.

I mean, you got people that were
high close to death on drugs three

years ago that are now current.

Mm-hmm.

You know, if not world champions
close to it, you're not too far gone.

You know, if you're ex, you know, 200
pounds overweight, lose some, and you,

there's always someone bigger than you
or older than you, or more inexperienced

than you that has started and is now Yeah.

In this hybrid fitness space.

Even if they're not competing to
be the best in the world, the way

better off than when they started.

So

yeah.

Jesse Bruce is one of my
favorite stories up in Canada.

Um, you know, we've all, I think we all
have somewhat of an addictive personality

and if we just feed that addiction,
you know, my wife knows if I, I could

have like a 30, I was like, I got 37
minutes before this before we leave.

She think it's, it's like she gets it.

My kids get it, but not everybody gets it.

It's like, okay, it's gonna
take me two minutes to drive

to the gym two minutes back.

So I got 33 minutes.

I'm gonna go get a 30 minute session in.

And it just feels normal to me.

That's kind of, I'm slightly addicted
to that, you know, I gotta get my

four to five days in every single
week, or I just don't feel right.

And yeah.

So, yeah.

Would a psychologist say, yeah, Yancy,
you're a little addicted to that?

I was like, probably, but gosh dang man.

It's, um, that's a, that's a, that's
a, I I'm okay with that addiction.

Yeah.

And it gets, it gets worse.

The more you, the more you do
it, the more you have to do it.

Guys, I wanna give a big shout out to our,
to our team, um, our team here in the US

uh, our, our core team that just, um, man.

Brian Nelson, oh gosh.

Arlene, Cynthia, Robin, um, our Arlene,
um, our, our, our European team, Emily

Grant, Fran, um, Sergio and team.

And we continue to grow our, our
teams that are starting to getting

startup across countries globally.

Um, it's such a fricking hard grind.

It is such hard work.

It never shuts off.

And it's so amazing having, you know,
I was just off, got off call with

Ricardo, one of our, and our, and our,
some of our, uh, road show managers.

Ricardo's, our affiliate
sales guy here in the us.

Um, just amazing people pouring
into to what we do and, and

to Joe for believing in us.

None of this takes place.

None of this is go going.

We got through, we went through hell
and back with Joe, who was the o

when I say he was the only one that
believed in us, he was the only one.

Love.

It was a couple of people and
it was Joe believing in us.

So just shout out to, to
everybody on, on our team, man.

I, I, I love each and every one of, and
I appreciate you getting up every day

and dealing with some of the hardships
we have to deal with and the obstacles

we have to get over every day to make
sure we keep the, keep the lights on.

So fist bump, fist bump to the team.

Awesome.

Awesome.

I hope I didn't forget anybody was.

Thank you very much.

You got a lot of CEOs to list through.

Thank for having me, man.

Appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

No, thank you for your time.

Your time.

You got it boys.

Thank you very much.