The Downfall Of CrossFit & The Future Of Fitness - Will Ahmed

In this conversation, the host and guest discuss the downfall of CrossFit, highlighting its grassroots origins and subsequent controversies, including leadership issues and community disillusionment. They explore how newer fitness trends like Hyrox have filled the gap left by CrossFit's decline. The discussion also touches on the importance of understanding personal desires and overcoming self-doubt in achieving goals. There's a focus on the significance of sleep and recovery in fitness, with insights into new health technologies and personal anecdotes about the challenges and growth experienced in both professional and personal realms.

• CrossFit began as a grassroots movement but faced significant challenges, including leadership issues and controversies.
• The brand's internal dysfunction and public controversies have led to a decline, creating a gap in the fitness market.
• New fitness trends like High Rocks and hybrid training are emerging, possibly filling the void left by CrossFit's decline.
• CrossFit's high injury rate and intimidating workout style may have also contributed to its decline.

"CrossFit is first of all a great grassroots movement... And then you've got the Greg Glassman racism stuff and like the craziness during Black Lives Matter."

• This quote highlights the initial success of CrossFit as a grassroots movement and the controversies that have plagued it, contributing to its decline.

"The level of adoption that CrossFit had and the pace of change... the only reason we're seeing Hier rocks and sort of hybrid training come through is because of the hole that has been left by sort of the exiting of CrossFit."

• The speaker suggests that the decline of CrossFit has opened up opportunities for other fitness trends like High Rocks and hybrid training to gain popularity.

• The fitness industry is seeing a rise in new trends and activities, such as pickleball and paddle, which have gained popularity in recent years.
• Sleep has become an important focus for fitness enthusiasts, with many people realizing they get less sleep than they thought.
• Consistency in sleep patterns is crucial for overall health and performance, as irregular sleep schedules can lead to "social jet lag."

"Last year the biggest uptick was pickle ball... paddle um which is what it's called internationally uh has just taken off."

• The quote indicates the growing popularity of racket sports like pickleball and paddle, reflecting shifting interests in the fitness industry.

"The thing that people still struggle with the most is sleep... 22% of people on Whoop um get over 7 hours of sleep."

• This highlights the growing awareness of sleep's importance and the challenge many face in achieving adequate sleep.

"One of the biggest things that shows up in the research is the importance of um, consistency, which is going to bed and waking up at the same time."

• Consistent sleep patterns are emphasized as critical for maintaining health and performance, underscoring the need for regular sleep schedules.

• Different regions and cultures exhibit unique fitness and lifestyle behaviors, such as late bedtimes in the Middle East and high alcohol consumption in Ireland.
• Cold plunging is popular in Nordic countries, while walking, running, and cycling are prevalent in the US.

"The average bedtime in Riad or in Doha is like 1:55 a.m... I think it's entirely cultural."

• The quote explains the cultural factors influencing late bedtimes in Middle Eastern countries.

"Ireland uh drinks more alcohol than everyone else... Australia and the US report um the highest rates of sex."

• This highlights the distinct lifestyle behaviors in different regions, illustrating cultural differences in fitness and health-related habits.

• The discussion touches on the impact of being an only child on personal development, highlighting traits like self-centeredness and comfort around adults.
• The importance of inward reflection and self-awareness in personal and professional growth is emphasized.
• Overcoming self-doubt and building confidence are crucial for achieving personal and professional goals.

"I do think only children are more self-centered... I also got comfortable around being people like sitting at a dining room table with like seven other adults."

• The quote reflects on how being an only child can shape one's personality and social interactions, which can be advantageous in entrepreneurship.

"The mistake that a lot of people make when they're that age, is they ask everyone else what they should do and they don't ask themselves."

• This emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and inward focus in determining personal goals and aspirations.

• Entrepreneurs often face self-doubt and uncertainty, questioning their ability to achieve their goals.
• Success can be tied to personal suffering and hard work, leading to a complex relationship with self-worth.
• Separating personal identity from business success is crucial for personal well-being and business growth.

"I believed that what I was building should exist in the world and would exist in the world... what I struggled with for years in building it was can I do this?"

• The quote captures the internal struggle of self-doubt faced by entrepreneurs, despite having conviction in their vision.

"If Whoop had a good day, I had a good day. If Whoop had a bad day, I had a bad day."

• This highlights the challenge of separating personal identity from business outcomes, which can impact personal well-being.

"The unlock for me in that category has been to be driven and grateful... you have to balance it with being grateful for the moment that you're in."

• Balancing drive with gratitude is presented as a key to maintaining motivation and well-being in the entrepreneurial journey.

• The balance between drive and gratitude involves different brain systems: dopamine for drive and serotonin for gratitude. Both contribute to happiness.
• The speaker's operating principle is to focus on being of service, which shifts focus from personal accumulation to benefiting others.
• Working towards a noble mission, such as enhancing human performance and health span, provides a sense of purpose beyond financial success.
• Gratitude is derived from meaningful impacts, like receiving testimonials about life-changing products, which reinforces a sense of fulfillment.

"I want to be of service. And that's a helpful framing because just out of the gates, it makes it less about what you accumulate and more about what you do for your company or society or your customers."

• The speaker emphasizes a service-oriented approach to work, focusing on contributions rather than personal gains.

"By not having my sole mission be around revenue numbers or company valuation, I think that alone helps you get a little bit outside of the miserable successes."

• Shifting focus from financial metrics to meaningful impact helps avoid the trap of "miserable successes."

• Painful experiences are viewed as opportunities for growth, aligning with a growth mindset.
• Personal trauma, such as the loss of a friend, can expand one's emotional range and lead to unexpected personal development.
• Reframing painful experiences can reveal benefits and growth on the other side of adversity.

"Pain in some form leads to growth, and if you adopt a growth mindset, it makes you much more comfortable with being in that painful state."

• Embracing pain as a path to growth encourages resilience and personal development.

"Being able to go down to a one or a two for some period of time actually opened me up in a really healthy way in the months later."

• Experiencing deep emotional lows can ultimately lead to healthier emotional development.

• Initial reactions to grief may involve numbing, but processing emotions is crucial.
• Delivering a eulogy can be a therapeutic release, providing relief and a sense of pride in celebrating a loved one's life.
• Grief involves various stages and triggers, but confronting emotions allows for healing.

"Your first reaction is to try to go numb because that is a coping mechanism. If you don't feel the pain, you can kind of still get through the day."

• Numbing is a common initial response to grief, but processing emotions is necessary for healing.

"Delivering the eulogy was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, but I felt enormous relief from doing it."

• The act of delivering a eulogy provides a significant emotional release and contributes to healing.

• Self-examination is essential for defining what one truly wants, as external input can be misleading.
• Attention to recurring thoughts and interests can guide personal goals.
• Hard work, consistency, and comfort with rejection are key factors in achieving desired outcomes.

"It's an inwards examination. You have to ask yourself what you want. You can't go asking everyone in your life what you want."

• Personal introspection is crucial for identifying true desires and goals.

"Getting what you want is some combination of hard work, consistency, and luck."

• Success is a blend of persistent effort, consistency, and the role of chance.

• Fear of rejection often outweighs the actual experience of rejection.
• Commitment and conviction are vital in pursuing goals, even in the face of repeated rejection.
• Ageism can impact young entrepreneurs, but belief in one's vision is crucial for overcoming skepticism.

"Most people aren't that bothered by rejection. I think most people are bothered by the fear of rejection."

• The anticipation of rejection is often more daunting than the rejection itself.

"I was committed. I stayed very committed to the idea because I believed it was going to exist in the world."

• Strong commitment to a vision helps overcome external skepticism and rejection.

• Failure is often romanticized, but the speaker expresses a strong dislike for it.
• A lack of failure might indicate playing too safely within comfort zones.
• Failure should be seen as a learning opportunity, but the fear of it can be paralyzing.

"Failure's gotten very romanticized. I hate failing. I hate failing so much."

• Despite the romanticization of failure, the speaker maintains a strong aversion to it.

"The failure porn thing comes from a place of wanting to reassure people that if stuff doesn't go well, you'll be okay."

• The narrative around failure aims to reduce fear and encourage taking risks.

• The discussion challenges the common notion that failure is the best teacher, suggesting that successful endeavors offer more valuable lessons.
• Startups often fail for predictable reasons, but successful companies possess unique qualities or "magic" that others can learn from.
• Avoiding pitfalls is useful, but knowing what to pursue is crucial for success.

"My reflection is that I've learned more from successful endeavors than I have from ones that have failed. And I think failure is largely overrated."

• The speaker believes that success provides more actionable insights than failure.

"If people were to learn more from failures than they were from successes, they still don't know what they're looking for."

• Knowing what to avoid doesn't necessarily guide you towards what to pursue, which is essential for growth.

• The Matthew Principle suggests that those who have more will continue to gain more, applicable in wealth, business, and life.
• Being number one in any field is significantly more advantageous than being second or third, highlighting the compounding nature of success.

"To those who have everything more will be given to those who have nothing more will be taken."

• Success tends to build on itself, creating a widening gap between the successful and the less successful.

"Being number one is 10 times better than being number two which is 10 times better than being number three."

• The exponential benefits of being at the top underscore the importance of striving for excellence.

• Experiencing failure can increase emotional resilience and reduce the fear of future failures.
• The emotional tolerance gained from overcoming setbacks can be beneficial, but it should not overshadow the pursuit of success.

"They realized how much they can sort of personally overcome the suffering of a failure."

• Overcoming failure builds emotional resilience, which is valuable for personal growth.

"It also dampens down the pain of having to deal with the failure."

• The experience of failure can lessen the emotional impact of future setbacks.

• Success often depends on factors like timing, luck, and unique advantages that are not entirely within one's control.
• Post hoc rationalization of success can obscure the true reasons for achievement and may not offer universal lessons.

"Retrospectively trying to take lessons from someone who had a close to a victory that was at least in part dependent on something like timing on something like luck."

• Success can be influenced by uncontrollable factors, making it difficult to derive universal lessons.

"How universal are the lessons that you took away from this if it was so close to not being the thing that happened?"

• The narrow margin between success and failure challenges the applicability of lessons learned from success.

• High achievers in sports and business often pay a significant personal price for their success, including sacrifices in personal life and mental health.
• The intense drive and obsession required for success can lead to a lack of balance and personal fulfillment.

"You don't see the cost of having to be the first person at the practice facility every single day and cold plunging for hours afterwards."

• The unseen sacrifices made by successful individuals highlight the complexity of their achievements.

"Most people think they would want to be me. They don't want to be me. They don't know. They don't understand. My mind is a storm."

• The internal struggles of high achievers reveal the hidden costs of their success.

• Reflecting on experiences, whether successful or not, is crucial for personal growth and development.
• A growth mindset, characterized by reflection and learning from experiences, is a valuable asset in life.

"Taking something from that is in turn a path towards growth."

• Extracting meaning from experiences fosters personal development and growth.

"Reflecting and having a growth mindset like these are things that are just enormously useful in your life."

• Cultivating a growth mindset through reflection enhances one's ability to learn and adapt.

• Elite athletes share common traits such as intensity, drive, and the willingness to experiment for an edge.
• The sacrifices and dedication of top athletes are often unseen but are crucial to their success.

"There's a certain intensity that burns inside them that is hard to fake."

• The intense drive of elite athletes is a key factor in their success.

"Amongst the very best athletes, they're actually willing to experiment a lot."

• The willingness to experiment and seek improvement sets elite athletes apart from others.

• Technology like Whoop is designed to be a tool for improvement, not a master, providing valuable data without being intrusive.
• The balance between using data for improvement and avoiding over-optimization is crucial for mental well-being.

"We view Whoop as a tool that can make you healthier or live longer or perform better."

• Whoop is intended to assist in personal improvement without being overbearing.

"We've done I think a lot of things around the concept of have this be a tool that's in the background versus having it being a master that's trying to control you."

• The design of Whoop emphasizes unobtrusiveness and user control over data.

• The conversation discusses the idea that being mediocre in a skill can be dangerous, as it might lead to a lack of ambition in other areas.
• There is an emphasis on the importance of choosing pursuits wisely, aligning them with personal strengths and ambitions.
• The concept of engaging in activities purely for enjoyment, without striving for mastery, is explored.

"I do think there's an element of if you can't be great at something, it's kind of like dangerous to be okay at it."

• This quote highlights the potential risk of settling for mediocrity, which may lead to complacency and hinder personal growth.

"So that idea of you're going to try to do a thing, but you're not going to try to be the best at it."

• This reflects the concept of engaging in activities for pure enjoyment rather than achievement, promoting a more relaxed and joyful approach to hobbies.

• The discussion touches on the importance of progress in personal pursuits, particularly as people age.
• Activities that allow for measurable improvement, like weightlifting or yoga, are seen as beneficial for maintaining motivation and satisfaction.
• Progress is viewed as a key component of personal fulfillment, even in non-competitive activities.

"I think there's something for people older in life picking up particularly activities that they can get better at."

• This quote emphasizes the value of continuous improvement and the positive impact it can have on personal well-being and satisfaction.

• The conversation explores the balance between desires and the realistic effort needed to achieve them.
• The importance of focusing on a few key goals to avoid spreading oneself too thin is discussed.
• The concept of desiring a lifestyle without being willing to adopt the necessary habits is critiqued.

"If you desire the life but not the lifestyle, you guarantee disappointment."

• This quote underscores the disconnect between wanting an outcome and being unwilling to engage in the processes required to achieve it, leading to inevitable dissatisfaction.

• The importance of establishing a morning routine that sets a positive tone for the day is highlighted.
• Morning rituals are seen as crucial for maintaining focus, energy, and productivity throughout the day.
• The role of pre-performance rituals in managing stress and enhancing performance is discussed.

"I want to kind of win the pillow. I think about winning like owning the pillow."

• This quote illustrates the significance of starting the day with a sense of accomplishment, setting a foundation for a successful day.

"I find if you can have a great first couple hours of the day, it just makes the rest of the day and everything that gets thrown at you so much more manageable."

• This reflects the belief that a strong morning routine can enhance one's ability to handle challenges and maintain productivity.

• The importance of sleep and recovery for overall health and performance is emphasized.
• Strategies for optimizing sleep, such as avoiding late-night screen time and using blue light blocking glasses, are discussed.
• The conversation touches on the impact of sleep on daily functioning and the challenges of managing sleep with a busy lifestyle.

"One of the worst things, and this was a lesson learned from going to bed at 4 in the morning a couple of times a week for a decade and a half, was realizing that tomorrow was ruined before tomorrow has even begun."

• This quote highlights the detrimental effects of poor sleep habits on the following day's productivity and well-being.

• Effective strategies for managing jet lag and maintaining health while traveling are shared.
• The benefits of avoiding plane food, staying hydrated, and maintaining a positive attitude towards jet lag are discussed.
• The conversation includes insights into the psychological aspects of jet lag and how mindset can influence its impact.

"I think a lot of jet lag is psychological and that people start telling themselves they're jetlagged and they get kind of into this downward cycle."

• This quote suggests that a positive mindset can mitigate the effects of jet lag, emphasizing the power of psychological resilience.

• The release of new health and fitness technology, such as the Whoop 5.0, is discussed.
• Features like health span tracking, heart screening, and blood pressure monitoring are highlighted as significant advancements.
• The conversation reflects on the long-term development and impact of these technologies on personal health management.

"We recently launched the Whoop 5.0 and the MG. So that's all of our new hardware with Whoop. It's got much longer battery life and new features like around health span."

• This quote showcases the technological advancements in health monitoring devices, illustrating their role in enhancing personal health insights and management.