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Episode 9: Gabe D: Climbing Trees and Cultivating a Positive Mindset with CrossFit
13 Plays29 days ago
Today we sit down with our resident 70 year old trailblazer, Gabe. A CrossFit Games Semi Finalist last year, Gabe has his sights set improving on last year's finish. From heavy snatches to handstand walks, Gabe show us that you don't slow down because you get older, you get older by slowing down! Gabe puts his fitness to work both in the gym and outside where he shows his grandkids how to climb ropes in the backyard! A true inspiration in the gym, Gabe shows us that CrossFit can be done at any age and at an extremely high level.
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Transcript
Introduction to Gabe Damore and CrossFit
Gabe's Early Life and Introduction to Sports
00:00:02
Speaker
welcome to Levels, the podcast where we dive a little bit deeper with members here at the All Level CrossFit community. Today we have Gabe Damore, one of our semi-finalists in the CrossFit Games season last year. Yes. Semi-finalist, that's amazing. Yeah.
00:00:19
Speaker
Gabe is an inspirational figure here in the gym. You turned 70 this year. Yeah. And you're still kicking butt and taking names. So we want to get to know Gabe a little bit better.
00:00:31
Speaker
so welcome to the podcast and we'll get into it with Gabe. So Gabe, tell me a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up? Grew up, born and raised in Amherstburg. Born in Windsor, but raised in Amherstburg.
00:00:46
Speaker
Grew up just like a regular guys back then. Our main sort of fun as we got a bit older was getting on the river a lot, biking. That was about it. And then went to university and then moved away for about 15 years and then came back to Windsor. We're now living in in Amherstburg again.
00:01:09
Speaker
Wow. Full circle. Yeah. So just kind of touching back on a few things. When you were growing up, did you play any sports growing up? We did mostly just backyard stuff with the boys and and girls sometimes when like in in grade school level. But in high school, went out for the football team.
00:01:29
Speaker
think everybody, all my friends, we did the same thing. We all went out. I basically made special teams and within within two games, I realized I would not be playing at all.
00:01:40
Speaker
so I had one friend that said, hey, you know, we've got a good gymnastics coach at our school. You want to try gymnastics? I was in grade nine.
00:01:51
Speaker
And I loved doing stuff like that, climbing trees and hanging from stuff, whatever. I thought, yeah, I knew nothing about gymnastics really, but that was my sport in high school. Awesome. And knowing you and getting to know you a little bit better, I know you're a super active guy and I could see you climbing trees as a kid and getting in trouble and doing all that stuff. Yeah. That's awesome. Okay.
Educational and Career Journey
00:02:11
Speaker
So again, circling back, where did you go to university?
00:02:14
Speaker
University of Windsor. University of Windsor. And yeah what was your area of study? Honors in business administration. Amazing. Yep. Graduated from that. Well, I went one year and just took a general arts program and just basically blew blew that year off. And then I took a year off to figure out what I really wanted to do.
00:02:36
Speaker
And then I went back into the business program. Yeah, I got a job almost immediately upon graduating. that brought me that's what brought me away from Windsor.
00:02:47
Speaker
And where did you move to? We moved, we settled in Guelph, but my head office was in, in Mississauga and I worked for the company that basically gave a lot of employment to people in Amherstburg. i worked for allied chemical for a long time as a sales rep, marketing rep.
00:03:07
Speaker
Thanks for that. Then did that for about five years. on I did, I did a number of things, but ended up back in Windsor. working for the utility company here in Windsor.
00:03:20
Speaker
Awesome. And just to let you know, you don't have to explain long university careers or lost years or gap years. I should have two or three doctorates by now. So it took me that long to finish my university degree. a couple changes of school, of majors, of all the things, and i kind of scraped by there. But great experience. I'm also a University Windsor yeah graduate and alumni. Go Lancers. Okay. So obviously, not obviously, you let us know what you did for work, but you're retired now. Yes. Retired now.
00:03:50
Speaker
A couple of years now.
Transition to Retirement and CrossFit
00:03:51
Speaker
A regular attendee of the 9.30 a.m. m class, which is, you know, a good class for those retirees. yeah Don't have to get up too early. No, it's great for me. Yeah. time is The time is just right for me It's perfect. Yeah. We have a great 9.30 class, really strong class.
00:04:06
Speaker
I love coaching that class. Yeah. When I, uh, in my last five years of work, I want to say that was the best five years of my work, but coming in at 9 30, I kind of look at it like this is a bit of my job. Yeah. And so the time's perfect. I would have loved to have started at 9 30 at my actual job. Yes. This is great. And then I get up, uh, an hour or so earlier.
00:04:29
Speaker
about an hour and a half earlier. And yeah, 9.30 works good for me. Awesome. Okay. What prompted you to start CrossFit? Actually, wait, let's back that a little bit. How long have you been doing CrossFit?
00:04:41
Speaker
Three and a half years. So I started when I was 67. I turned 67 the month that I started CrossFit. That is crazy to me. That is crazy. It seems like you've been doing CrossFit for 20 years, not like You know, it just, the way that you move and the level of success you've had and all the things that you can do, it's like you're a 20 year CrossFit vet and to to think that you've only been doing it for three and a half years and started at 67.
00:05:05
Speaker
That's insane. so what prompted you to start? You know, growing up and I realized, I wondered about this because I wondered what keeps people away from this kind of fitness.
00:05:17
Speaker
and my When I was growing up, i there were certain things I really loved about physical fitness. Like we were avid canoers in Amherstburg. We had almost every other friend that had bought a canoe. We all had canoes and we would go for long canoes on the river.
00:05:39
Speaker
And then bike riding was a thing and gymnastics. I just loved it because it took all year to get, you know, we started in September when I was in gymnastics, we would start in September, our basic basic physical training.
00:05:53
Speaker
And by time we had our first meet, it was February. So we had that whole time just to get fit. yeah And it was like that year after year for five years. And I loved how I felt like by the time, you know, April, May,
00:06:08
Speaker
and the summertime came, I felt great. And I love that feeling. So that just stuck with me. yeah And, you know, I had a lot of ups and downs. I gained a lot of weight at one point, you know, for my size and I didn't feel well.
00:06:24
Speaker
So I did a lot of my own programming, I guess you call you know, I would join clubs, regular clubs, fitness clubs. And I would try to maintain certain things. and I loved running. So I'd always run.
00:06:37
Speaker
That was always something I did. So at a certain point, I realized that some of the things that I was doing, my own programming
Family Influence and Initial CrossFit Experience
00:06:44
Speaker
just wasn't enough. Like I wasn't, i wasn i wasn't willing to put in the time to figure out what I needed to do better because I, with work and children and everything else.
00:06:54
Speaker
And, my son did CrossFit and in 2013.
00:06:59
Speaker
And, uh, he, uh, he did quite well and he came, he had some CrossFit swag once. And one of the tags off of, I think his hat was basically the 100 words of fitness or the 100 words, yeah fitness in a hundred words for CrossFit.
00:07:14
Speaker
And there was also a nutrition tag on it. And I read that this was back in 2013. I read that and I thought, man, this makes so much sense. Right. It was just sensible. Yeah.
00:07:25
Speaker
But it took till about 2017 or 18 till I did, I did a class with my daughter. It's funny, I've never done a class with my son, but I was in Saskia and she had joined CrossFit and she invited me to a class. 2017, I did my first class. It was, you know, awesome.
00:07:44
Speaker
Came back to Windsor, did nothing about it. 2022, I just looked it up. I said, my, called my daughter. She had worked out at your gym. I think of when it was on Howard. Right. And she said, just look these guys up. And I, I came in and it was good. I love that story, Matt. Cause I, I knew a little bit about your story and I knew that your son had done CrossFit and actually competed at a fairly high level as well too. Yeah. Yeah. Peter did, uh, did quite well.
00:08:12
Speaker
at one point crossfit used to have regions regionals yeah regionals and it was usually the top two or three in the region that would move on to the games right and uh the one year it was the top three he came in fourth yeah and i think one year was the top two he came in third yeah and but he did go to the games on a team yeah at one point and uh yeah so he did he did a lot and uh You know, he talked a lot about it and i I loved the idea of it, but I don't think I was quite ready to that. still wanted to do my own thing, you know? right
00:08:49
Speaker
uh, and then this is, this is so much better
Community and Camaraderie in CrossFit
00:08:52
Speaker
for me now, but it' it's, it's, it's, I'm really glad you found it. Like not only because I get to know you as a person, but also because it combines a lot of the things that you love to do. You love to run, you love gymnastics, you love getting outside, you love moving your body. So, I mean, it kind of checks all those boxes for you. Exactly. Right. John. The other thing it does is some of the things that i didn't know how to do, or I thought it would never enjoy doing. And it's not like I enjoy, enjoy Olympic weightlifting, right?
00:09:21
Speaker
It gives me a certain pleasure to be able to accomplish it. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it's hard as hell, but I I'm really glad that that's part of the program too. Cause I've never, I didn't do that. Yeah. My, in my day, it was mostly Body weight, you know, just move myself around that kind of thing. So yeah, this is this is definitely different. And I and i like it. I like how it makes me feel. That's an important thing to mention as well is that if you choose a fitness program that only does the things you like, or the things you're good at,
00:09:53
Speaker
then you're going to get into a rut and you're never going to expand your horizons. And you're totally right about CrossFit because it it includes a lot of things that push people out of their comfort zone, whether it be Olympic lifting, whether it be gymnastics, whether it be running, whether it be, you know, skipping or coordination-based stuff. Like there are so many different aspects to it that will, there is something that you're not going to be good at because it's yeah it's very rare. And I don't know if it's ever happened that someone's come in and they're like, oh, I'm great at everything, right? So there's always something to work on. yeah
00:10:24
Speaker
And sometimes it can be overwhelming because you're like, man, there are so many things I'm bad at. yeah What do I choose? But that's also the beauty of it is that I've always said that there's there's kind of no ceiling to your fitness because there's always something to work on and improve on. yeah right And other maybe fitness methodologies, you know you're limited by the weights they have or the exercise selection they have whatever.
00:10:46
Speaker
you know, stuff like that. But with CrossFit, it's like, do you want to climb a rope? Cool, we can help you do that. Do you want to snatch? Cool. Do you want to get better at running? We can do that too, right? So it's, I think that's really important that it does push you outside your comfort zone. yes And one thing that you failed to mention that really is big is that you like to talk and we like to talk to you, right? So the community aspect. So with Gabe,
00:11:12
Speaker
We get to know Gabe because Gabe loves to share his story. And that's part of it too, is like the community aspect and hanging out after class or talking before class or talking at the whiteboard. That's something that people don't associate with CrossFit.
00:11:24
Speaker
They don't always associate that community piece to it. That is something that has kept me coming. I mean, really, if I'm having a really hard time and and some of the stuff that you know I've had to do here really humbled me.
00:11:37
Speaker
And, you know, you'll hear about it at the end of my class. Like you'll hear about why how hard it was, why it was hard. And everybody gives me a good ear. Like that's nice to to be able to to kind of vent what I'm feeling. yeah and And then I feel better, you know, like sometimes it can it can get pretty rough out there, but I love it. And I love the idea that people around me are actually suffering just like me. And once you're done, it wasn't it wasn't the suffering that really was the thing that you remember. What you remember is how you got through it.
00:12:10
Speaker
And chatting about it at the end really is cathartic. I love it. Yeah, no, i shared suffering builds bonds, right? That's something
Challenges and Varied Exercises in CrossFit
00:12:17
Speaker
that I... i really think is true is that when you go through hard things together as a community, as a group, as a class, as friends, it's something that creates a bond between people that is, it's hard to explain, right? Like we did that hard thing and we did it together. I know we were doing it individually, but we did it the same class. We high five it afterwards. And that little debrief after class where we talk about it
00:12:42
Speaker
And we talk about how much the burpee sucked or how much that happened. Like yeah that's important too. I think that's a lot of these things that are kind of the hidden aspects of CrossFit that don't get advertised or people don't see when they see athletes on TV doing these crazy things.
00:12:56
Speaker
They don't see us hanging out after class yeah and yeah just having a chat and, and also helping each other, right? Like, Hey, you need, you need a hand doing this or, you know, whatever might be. This is a community that helps. Exactly. I would never have found that. And that's probably why i never stuck it out at at gyms themselves. Right. I mean, unless you, you really do find a bit of a community that you can share some of what you're going through at the time, it can be a pretty lonely place where they just go in, you do your thing, you leave.
00:13:27
Speaker
And I'm a generalist, like physically I'm a generalist. I I'm, You know, if I wanted to improve my running and stick to just running or biking, I love biking.
00:13:39
Speaker
it would have been a whole different story, you know, and that's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to improve on that. or But after a while, I just want to, you know, yeah i'm always looking for something different to do. Yeah.
00:13:48
Speaker
And it's like, okay, I'm a little bit bored with that. I've done that, you know, four days a week for the last two months. i want to try something different. And that's what I found when I came here and every day.
00:13:59
Speaker
is different. and And I trust the programming. I trust what's happening in the gym because having gone through it, of course, you got to build up trust. So it took me probably about four months and I realized, yeah, I can trust the program in here.
00:14:15
Speaker
We're not going to work on legs every day for two weeks. Right. We're not going do that. and And I wouldn't want that. And it just made me a better generalist all around as far as physical.
00:14:27
Speaker
And, you know, I can, I'm doing things that, that I really the love to do with my kids. I throw the ball around with my daughter. yeah i don't have to worry it's so much that my shoulder is to get thrown out. yeah Right. I, and I know how to pace myself now a bit, you know, yeah as you get older, you well don't want to get injured. So I tell you what, man, like, you know, I feel fairly fit for my age.
00:14:50
Speaker
And then i look at someone like, like you, that is, you know, at the age you're at and doing the things you're doing and outlifting people that are 30, 40 years younger than you. And it it gives me hope. It gives me hope for the future. You know what i mean? Like it's,
00:15:03
Speaker
It's, you are, in my mind, you know, yourself and Lana and some of the older athletes in the gym are trailblazers and are showing us what's possible, right? Because a lot of people have the mindset that once you hit a certain age, it's like, okay, I can't do that anymore. Those are things that I don't do. I can't bring intensity to a workout. I can't lift weights. I can't. get my heart rate elevated. And it's like, those are all yeah not true. Right. All things you need to do still at, as you age up, but people are content to say, well, no, I'm too old for that. And I'm like, man, Dave is 70 and he's doing handstand pushups and snatching 145 pounds and, and, you know, doing all these things.
00:15:44
Speaker
So why can't you, right? Yeah, no. and And, and sometimes it does take a community to help you get out of that rut. It really does because I hear you. Uh, you can let yourself get kind of entropy, I think it's called, physically and mentally. Right. And so, you know, learning new things and then coming and trying new things physically, I think really does keep you young, I guess. And,
Inclusive Community and Adaptive Classes
00:16:10
Speaker
you know, at least it it keeps you interested yeah in your life. And so, I mean, it translates to so much more, like the discipline of putting yourself through it or making sure you show up
00:16:21
Speaker
For me, it's five days a week, yeah which is great. like That feels good. Actually, it's been six days a week. It's a little too much now. I've been bringing my my niece in every Saturday. yeah and Sometimes I think I just want to come in and and just watch.
00:16:37
Speaker
but it's hard to just watch sometimes it's like, well, I'm here. yeah you Might as well do a small workout and then, and then you're pushing yourself. But yeah, the five days a week to me has been, I take it seriously as far as it's just like my job. I took my job seriously. You know, you just, you do what you can, even if you don't like something, I mean, I'm not saying I don't like CrossFit, but there's many jobs that people don't like yeah and I've had many and there's days in CrossFit, you don't like. Yeah. Yeah. But you just go in and you do it.
00:17:05
Speaker
And you feel better. You feel more dignified because you gave it your all and you're accomplished. Yeah. So a couple of things I want to touch on there. So you you bring your...
00:17:18
Speaker
niece Yan Hong, yes right? yep To our adaptive and inclusive class, usually on Saturdays, where we have athletes with intellectual disabilities that work out alongside neurotypical athletes. yeah And Yan Hong is a beast in the class yeah and such a good personality. And a there all the athletes bring that level of energy to that class.
00:17:40
Speaker
Why is that important to you that that you bring her with you? You know, something that was like, she has always done physical physical things. like she she She's always danced.
00:17:57
Speaker
And she's done gymnastics. and She's a swimmer. And she's a swimmer. yeah and And this was such an opening. I thought, wow, man, I can't do it on on a Tuesday night. i think I know there's a Tuesday class also. yeah But I knew I had Saturdays available.
00:18:14
Speaker
And I just knew she would like this. Like I knew she would get into it. And I thought, well, I'm going to just commit myself to doing this. It can be my down day if I want it to be, right? I just like coming.
00:18:27
Speaker
And I'll tell you, the first time I brought her here, think we were doing we were doing skipping and we' were doing crossovers, which was new at CrossFit at that point. Yeah, And like, everyone of the coaches said, okay, so, you know, going to single unders and try double unders, but but if you can just try cross overs.
00:18:46
Speaker
And she starts doing these, like she's whipping them off. I'm like, gosh, and I, I was having a hard time. Yeah. I couldn't do it. i still have a hard time. Yeah. yeah so could She impressed me so much. I thought, you know, I want to be like the antahog. Like I want to do this. Right. Like, and so anyway, I just like bringing her and she, I, we, um, we,
00:19:06
Speaker
it just It's such a great community. Oh my gosh, the the laughs that we get in there, it it's awesome. And everybody's so open and they just want to support each other so much.
00:19:20
Speaker
yeah And that it just it just it warms my heart to be there. i love being in there. Yeah, it's i I have specific memories of Yan Hong in the class. I know when she first started, she was a little hesitant to maybe push the envelope a little bit, but you could see that she had...
00:19:36
Speaker
lots of capability, but it was just a little bit, you know, like the intensity piece and, and some of the movements, but now watching her go in there and, and, and again, the personality and the energy that's in that class is you can't replicate that. yeah And as a coach, I've always said, sometimes, you know, you've coached the third, fourth, fifth class of the day, and then you've got our adaptive inclusive class, which we do have on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. right But you can't help,
Early CrossFit Experiences and Practical Skills
00:20:02
Speaker
but feel the energy there as a coach sometimes you have to bring the energy to the class because the class is a little flat that class is not in those days never i think that's what gets me back out workout i come in some days thinking i need a rest day and then i see the energy and i get the energy i'm not going to work out today also yeah it just it just happens yeah no i love it yeah okay
00:20:25
Speaker
do you remember your first class or session at our gym? I know you did some stuff. Uh, you, you mentioned in yeah Saskatoon and you did some stuff. Uh, yeah, I didn't mention this, but I did, I did some Windsor CrossFit stuff. So I had, I had a foundations class there yeah from Kyle, I believe. Oh, nice. Yeah.
00:20:43
Speaker
Kyle did my foundations there. And, uh, And I remember that first class thinking like we were climbing ropes and swinging kettlebells around yeah and just doing some fundamental stuff.
00:20:56
Speaker
You know, how do you hold things and what do you, what do you do with your body and that kind of thing? Do remember that? Yeah. Do I remember my first class here? Yeah. Not really. You know, it's it's so funny because I've had that response from quite a few guests where they don't really remember. It's all a blur. For me, I, clear as a bell, remember my first class. It wasn't really avian a class. It was just a workout. but But a lot of people, it just kind of blends in, which is fine too, right? Because you get... I'll tell you, I remember my very first class, though, yeah in Saskatoon. yeahp
00:21:30
Speaker
I remember that class with my daughter. cool We went in and we were going to be doing rope climbs, burpees, and rowing.
00:21:42
Speaker
think those were the three. Well, the rope climbing just caught my attention. Like, wow, I love, I love climbing stuff. Like, I'm like, we're, we're going to climb ropes.
00:21:52
Speaker
This is awesome. yeah Like, and and then there's a technique. Yeah. So I'm like, you know, as a kid, and just doing everything I can to get up a rope. Right. I don't know if I'm doing it right or whatever, but you know, you get up there.
00:22:04
Speaker
But man, when I found out that you could actually have a technique and get up a rope flat fast. Yeah, i was, I just like, I love that so much. I'm like, this is awesome. I i love this. And then like hanging on a bar, yeah we're doing, we're doing pull ups and stuff. shit That's gymnastics. Okay. I like this. Yeah. And I remember that class and leaving that class thinking.
00:22:27
Speaker
one day I'm going to be doing CrossFit. Like it wasn't because it was just in Saskatoon in the middle of winter. I had no you know idea that I would, when I would start, but remember saying to myself, when I'm going to do this. yeah And yeah, there's something about those ropes because it's the first thing that like I coach younger kids as well. had some soccer teams in here, had a few different, uh, teams in here and the kids always gravitate towards the ropes.
00:22:54
Speaker
And a lot of times they can climb them, but we call it that schoolyard climbing technique where they kind of go hand over hand and pinch the rope in between their, yeah their thighs. And they're like doing one of these. And then when you show them, like you said, you show them there's technique and it doesn't have to be so hard to get up. yeah I also kind of, I've always thought that climbing a rope is like a super functional movement that could you know save your life one day. You've got to get out of somewhere. You've got a rope available. you got something. like That's always in the back of my mind that this is a functional skill that potentially could be really handy yeah in everyday life. as we know Hopefully it never pops up, but if ever have to climb a rope, I think I can do it. well there's
00:23:35
Speaker
yeah I did in a Spartan race. right so there's spartan race They have rope climbs. and Some people struggle mightily with the rope. Mind you, it is a smaller diameter and it's a nylon rope, so it makes it harder to yeah to climb. but But you're like, oh I'm just going to fall back on my technique, right? it's you know I'll tell you a funny story about using a rope.
00:23:55
Speaker
So my grandson was was over and I was trying to find things for us to do in the backyard that weren't boring. And I have a pretty thick rope that we that I got from as a just a towing rope. Mm-hmm.
00:24:08
Speaker
And i thought, you know, it'd be fun to hang a rope on this tree. We have a tree in the backyard. But didn't want to get the ladder out. I didn't want to go through all that. But I needed to tie that rope up to the the branch.
00:24:20
Speaker
So I used my rope climbing skills to do this. I whipped the rope over the branch. And I got two ropes down. And I basically climbed both ropes. And I got up on the branch and tied it down. And then got myself down. And my grandson was so impressed. Yeah. Like he's like,
00:24:36
Speaker
oh my gosh, no, no, I want to do that. Like, yeah, so we climbed ropes for about 40 minutes in the backyard. Kids, don't try it at home. Do not. Do try throwing it over a branch and climbing two ropes at once.
00:24:49
Speaker
That could be disastrous. I have i have a similar like proud proud, my proud daughter moment. So at a soccer tournament, the ball got kicked over a chain link fence. was actually at the, in Bell River at Atlas Tube.
00:25:04
Speaker
And the the gate to the fence is way down there. so I ran over and I hopped the fence and I got the ball, kicked it back and hopped the fence again. And my daughter was just so proud because everyone just kind of looked and they're like, that guy just hopped the fence.
00:25:20
Speaker
Right. And I hopped the fence and came back and she was like, I had Superman. Yeah. The fence. Not too many fathers would have been able to do that. I know. And it was and it's it's so it's such a good feeling when your kids, you know, whether it's grandkids or your kids are proud of you for like your physical prowess at an age that maybe that doesn't get displayed a lot. So yeah so
Competing in CrossFit Open and Achievements
00:25:39
Speaker
that was cool. And I love the fact that you're out there climbing ropes in the backyard. with your grandkids and showing them again what they can do. right My son is always teasing my my grandson, his son, how his no-no can beat him in certain things. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And he's just like, so Bruno really drives out of now. Yeah. And and sir very soon, I will not be be able to beat him in certain things. No, there's always that there's always that. I've talked about this before. There's that, you know, there's always that time when
00:26:07
Speaker
kids always want to beat their their dads and their granddads. And for the most, for a long time, they can't. And then there's that certain tipping point, right? Where the kid starts to age up, get a little older. And then it's like, okay, I can beat him in a race. I'm stronger than I'm, you know, you all, you have that in your memory. Like what's the day that you can beat your dad in a foot race, right? Or what's the day that you beat your dad in an arm wrestle or whatever it might be, right? So there's that There's that little, that piece, but it's nice that you're still showing them. You're showing those kids, showing the youngsters. Okay. I'm going ask you couple questions here. So do you have a PR in the gym that you're most proud of?
00:26:45
Speaker
I think so. The, the, my snatch has been, uh, like it was iffy for a long time and just to get it right on overhead snatch.
00:26:56
Speaker
And, i know I think I did 145 or 150. I forget what it is now, but, but whatever that weight was, it went up so nice and felt so good.
00:27:07
Speaker
I thought, wow, okay, I'm, I'm glad I, I've hit this. And, and that was a good one. but just the other day, my, my, uh, pull-ups are getting better. I think I did 13 in a row, which I was surprised that I, I, you know, I was,
00:27:23
Speaker
I felt fresh and I didn't, I'm sure I could have done a few more, but I think in my head, i'm thinking I have to get to 15. I think, okay, I'm going to take a break. because There was something else we had to do right after that. So I'm just going to wait. I am going to break yeah instead of doing the 15, but yeah, so that felt good. That's awesome. Yeah. Those are two really cool PR. So I'm going to ask you, I know you've competed in the CrossFit open two, three years in a row.
00:27:48
Speaker
Yeah. So I'm trying to think it was 2003. three Yeah, because 2022 is when I started here. the first Open was 23, and then 24, 25. And this will your fourth Open. And this is my fourth Open. And last year, in the 65 to 69-year-old division, you...
00:28:08
Speaker
I made the semifinals, yeah which is amazing. And this year, you'll be one of the youngsters in the 70-plus division, right? And we have really high hopes for you. and I'm sure you have high hopes for yourself.
00:28:19
Speaker
Do you have any moments in the Open, the CrossFit Open, that are particularly special to you?
00:28:31
Speaker
Last year's semifinals, probably, there were a number of workouts in the, during the semifinals that I really, I just felt like I could crush them. Yeah. That, that they weren't intimidating.
00:28:47
Speaker
Yeah. And I think they called it heavy Isabel. Right. was that one of them? Yes. 30, yeah. 30 snatches. And to me, it felt light.
00:28:59
Speaker
Yeah. Like, so we're really fast on that. And Jaleesa said, you know, you could have probably shaved off another five or six seconds here. Yeah. And I thought, I'm going do this again just to shave off. Anyway, that was a good, that was a really good feeling. I remember watching you do that because we had several athletes, I think doing it at the same time, yeahy of including Kyle, right. Who, who was last year, one of the fittest 35 to 39 year olds in the world. Yeah.
00:29:26
Speaker
and you blazed through your weight of maybe 115. Yeah, I think it was lighter than that, but regardless or whatever it was, yeah, I don't remember. You don't make up the rules. You just do a workout, right? And so I remember seeing you do that and being like, wow, because you absolutely smashed that workout. Yeah, and it felt good to do that. Then there was another one quite long, yeah which had a lot of gymnastics. and had It had chest bars. it had pull-ups.
00:29:54
Speaker
It had box jump overs and there was a lot of them, like 50 at a time, he just repeated it and went around. yes And I felt really good about that. Like it was just, it just felt like I got, I got pretty, I did pretty well in everything.
00:30:11
Speaker
And you know, my goal last year, i think the year before in the semifinals, I was 37. So my goal was just do better than that. Yeah.
00:30:22
Speaker
And I did. So I came in 34th. And a lot of it was because those two workouts just really helped me. yeah There was others that, I mean, i didn't have a ring muscle-up. I tried for seven minutes to get one. You were close, man. I was very close. You were very close, right? And just to let you know, you shouldn't be any be intimidated by any workouts.
00:30:41
Speaker
and Workouts are intimidated by you. So
Advice for New CrossFitters
00:30:44
Speaker
it's kind of like you're the you're the Chuck Norris of the gym, right? So workouts are intimidated by you. Okay. Watch out, workout. That's right. Watch out, workout.
00:30:52
Speaker
Okay. If you could give your day one CrossFit self some advice. So first day CrossFit, if you go back and tell Gabe back then, what's the advice you give Gabe? It's good to have goals, but don't have huge high expectations.
00:31:10
Speaker
Pace yourself, balance yourself and listen to your coaches. Yeah. and And just start like that. Start with your foundations. And don't come in thinking you're going to just crush everything because there's a lot to do.
00:31:27
Speaker
and And I just felt like I didn't do that. I felt that was more paced with myself because I knew myself enough, but I could just see I was tempted to. yeah I was tempted to. I came in and I'm going to just try that. I'm going go heavy on a deadlift or whatever. Right.
00:31:44
Speaker
No, I just say pace yourself and and don't don't have these high expectations like, oh, this is going to be life-changing within a week.
00:31:55
Speaker
right It is not going to be life-changing within a week, but it's definitely life-changing. Consistency is just the thing. it just it It will grow on you and you'll understand that you feel better physically.
00:32:12
Speaker
And you're more, you're just better off with it, with working out every day. And I'm not saying it's got to be CrossFit, but consistency in in whatever physical activities you're doing is I think important.
00:32:26
Speaker
I guess, did
CrossFit's Role in Retirement
00:32:27
Speaker
I give you too many things? No, no, no, no, no. I don't know. I love that. And I think there's two things that, well, a few things I take away from that. One is check your ego at the door because it's very easy to to let ego guide your training, which is a recipe for disaster, right? Listen to your coaches. I thought it was great.
00:32:44
Speaker
The consistency piece, awesome. So, I mean, there's so much good stuff in there. I've been making a lot of parallels lately between like your physical fitness and your your health.
00:32:55
Speaker
and investing right so when you invest and you start maybe you're starting with a small sum you're not going to see returns for quite a while and it's the same with with exercises that you have to put the time in and the consistency in and then you will start to see the payoff but it's hard for people too because they don't get that instant gratification and so like hey i came to crossfit once now i'm fit right you know you've got to show up you know consistently for three months six months year whatever whatever your goal is and i think What's important that you said as well, too, is that you should have goals, but also enjoy the process, right? So it's not always the goal, but it's the time along the way, the training along the way that's getting you there and the friendships and the community and the progress that you make. Maybe it's not reaching the 500-pound back squat, but it's the progress you make getting there as well, too. So I think yeah those are all super, super important things and and sage advice. Sage advice. yeah Okay.
00:33:54
Speaker
How has CrossFit helped you in your daily life? Like, I think we've touched on this a bit. You know, you're climbing ropes in the backyard, you're running around with the grandkids, but, and I know that you are an outdoors type of person. Like you've done, you know, some camping and traveling and trailer and hiking and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So it' does it translate in things like that for you? It does. Well, the I think the, the, the biggest part was, uh, you know, retiring. Like when I started here, I was still working.
00:34:23
Speaker
And then, where was I? cant It's hard to remember. But I think it was very close. I think I retired six six months early earlier than when I started.
00:34:34
Speaker
And what I found was that because I had a routine when I was working, just coming here and the discipline of of showing up,
00:34:46
Speaker
it really was important for me in my transition from retirement from work to retirement. yeah So in that way, it was helpful. And that isn't, I know what you're really looking for, but in my life, yeah that was very that was very important. It's like, this is what I'm going to do. And I've always felt like that with most things in my life. Like like if I'm going to eat food,
00:35:08
Speaker
I try not to make it just an obsessive thing. Right. So, I mean, you can you can eat all the cake you want, you can do all sorts of stuff. All the Panatone. Yeah, exactly. And, and, you know, the Murtatella and the prosciutto and, and, but the thing is, well one of of things that keep reminding myself is like, why am I here? What am I doing? Like, i like why do I want to eat that much?
00:35:31
Speaker
Yeah. If I don't feel physically well, what am I doing about it? and And so finding a routine that made sense for me, coming in every day, committing to that, helped me transition from my retirement, from my work to retirement. That's that's for sure.
00:35:50
Speaker
And in that, it has helped me find other avenues of things to do in my life. Like I will commit myself to, to you know, volunteer. Like because i I have kind of the discipline of doing other things. It's like, yeah, I can commit myself to that. so and And that's where it's translated for me is in the discipline part of it.
00:36:12
Speaker
When it comes to the physical part of it, it's It's awesome because i don't have to be afraid of going out in the backyard and running around with my grandchildren. I don't have to be nervous about hauling a trailer across Canada. Yeah. And if something does happen, like, can I change a tire? do I have to, you know, don't have to be nervous if, but if I have to move the trailer and, and I'm tight and I don't want to move the car and that kind of thing. I can do certain things now that I know I can physically handle. Yeah.
00:36:42
Speaker
And, and it's, it's helped me. It saved me time. It's like, I don't have to get a ladder out to do this. I can, I don't have winch out to do that or whatever. Yeah. And I know what I can do and it's helped me like that.
00:36:53
Speaker
Yeah. And it just keeps me active. When I get home after working out, I still feel like I have enough energy for my wife. Yeah. You know, like if Cecil wants to go for a walk, it's like, yeah, let's go for a walk. Yeah. That kind of thing. So, yeah. It's your, you don't have many limits on what you can do, you know, physically. That's, which is awesome. as That's what we always talk about is like,
00:37:17
Speaker
health span over lifespan, right? So the longer that you can be able to do all the things you want to do yeah as you age is way better than just getting old and and being around. yeah You still want to have your independence. They talk about activities of daily living, but they also talk about like the things that you really want to do. And so it sounds like CrossFit has helped you you know be able to still do all those things. And the the discipline piece, I think, is really important because we've all heard the horror stories of people retiring and then their health goes downhill really rapidly. You
Handling Injuries and Positive Mindset
00:37:49
Speaker
know, the one thing that I did, I i will mention this as as far as so because of my age, you know, injuries do happen or things come up. I probably got some arthritis, you know, that kind of thing.
00:38:03
Speaker
But I realized because I'm doing this and because I'm doing it daily, when I do get injured or sore or something happens, I in my mind, I feel like I'm going to heal.
00:38:18
Speaker
Yeah, like I can heal, I can get through this. Whereas I think if I felt unhealthy, or I would, I might say, oh, this is the way it is that, you know, I can no longer lift my arm over my hand. just can't do this. Right. yeah It would be kind of a negative, uh, more of a negative feeling where now I feel more positive.
00:38:37
Speaker
If I do get hurt or I'm tired, or whatever is going on with me, ailments or whatever, yeah I feel like i can heal. Like I'm going to get better. yeah I'm going to be okay. And and so it goes back to what you're talking about, about longevity. yeah I feel like that. I feel like I'm going to be okay. I love that because it's it's turning from kind of a negative mindset, a pessimistic mindset to an optimistic mindset. like even And that's what we always talk about is is you know things will come up if you have a long enough training you know, history, you know, you're going have stuff and you're gonna have to work around it. And for the people who can't get past that, and they're like, well, I'm done. I'm never going to do this thing again. Or the people that say, you know what, I can still do so many things. Yeah, regardless, my shoulders bothering me. There's so many things I can do, I can still come to the gym, our coaches here are super knowledgeable and how to scale workouts. And that's, you know, that's 80% of our job is to figure out how to scale the workout
00:39:34
Speaker
to the appropriate level of the person that's in front of you, right? So how to meet you where you are with the workout rather than have you stretch yourself and try to get to a workout that's not really attainable at whatever your age, fitness level, psychological tolerance, injuries, any of that stuff. Yeah, so for sure. We didn't talk about that enough. that That is really true. I mean, and I'm proof of that. Like I had a pretty good shoulder injury. And when, when you know, i let people know here, the coaches know,
00:40:02
Speaker
There's always workarounds and things that keep me going and at a pace that I did heal and I got over it and it feels great. Somebody asked me today, you have arthritis? Are your shoulders sore?
00:40:20
Speaker
And honestly, in the last month, I don't feel anything in my shoulders. My shoulders feel great. Yeah. But that hasn't been like that forever. Yeah. Actually, you know, four months ago, it wasn't like that. Yeah. So, but.
00:40:32
Speaker
Now I feel great. Well,
Daily Routine and Life Reflections
00:40:33
Speaker
that's the coaches are problem solvers. And so you know, we like to do things like scale workouts for people and come up with creative ways to scale it and still maintain the stimulus to the workout. That's something that excites us. If everyone just came in and did the workout as prescribed all the time, coaching would not be as an exciting, right? But it's it's more exciting to to kind of have to figure stuff out and like, what's best for Gabe? What's best for Sheila? What's best for, you know, this person and get everyone to the same goal through different ways. So yeah yeah we love doing that. Yeah. Okay.
00:41:07
Speaker
Do you have a morning routine, Gabe? I do. have a morning routine. I will drink, I'll get up, I'll drink probably half a liter of water. That's the first thing I do.
00:41:19
Speaker
And then with my pills, you know, my my supplements and other things that I've got to take. And then I'll pray for about 45 minutes.
00:41:31
Speaker
and then get ready and come to the gym. Awesome. yeah Cool. I love it. All right. A little rapid fire here. Favorite movement at the gym? Ooh. Favorite movement.
00:41:43
Speaker
Recently? da any Pull-ups have been feeling pretty good. Yeah. that's that's a I like that movement yeah because it's going lead me to a muscle-up one day. But yeah, no I like doing pull-ups.
00:41:57
Speaker
that's a good That's a fun movement. Yeah. Cool. Least favorite.
00:42:05
Speaker
I don't know. I wanted to say burpees because i some days I hate them and then other days I i don't mind them. so i don't know if But that's pretty close. Burpees are probably of my my least favorite. all right yeah What's your favorite cheap or indulgent food?
00:42:25
Speaker
Apple pie Sounds delicious. yeah all right What's your favorite healthy food?
00:42:32
Speaker
this overnight oats breakfast that my wife has been making for herself. And now she's making them for me with blueberries and, and protein and creatine mixed in. And it's it's just so delicious. And what, okay. We got to get a little shout out. What kind of protein?
00:42:50
Speaker
That's R and F protein. The vanilla is delicious. Yeah. Yeah. It's vanilla. And what kind of creatine? Creatine is and F creatine. We got to get a shout out. Okay. What's your favorite
Conclusion and Gratitude
00:43:01
Speaker
way to relax?
00:43:02
Speaker
Uh, reading. yeah Yeah. It's a lost art, man. thats I love, I love just sitting and reading and thinking about what I'm reading. And yeah. Awesome. Gabe, thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks, John. It's been a pleasure as always talking to you getting to know you a little bit better. i love, I love having Gabe stories and gay business here. So, hopefully we can share them for a lot longer. Well, you know, I didn't want to do this, but I feel good that I did. Yeah. I think it was awesome. I think it was a really good, really good podcast. So thank you for coming on. Okay. Okay. Thanks very much, Gabe. We'll see you soon.
00:43:37
Speaker
Damn, that ran. but