S02E53 2022 CROSSFIT GRANITE GAMES SEMIFINALIST JOE PIERRO

HERDFITUSA welcome special guest NJ native, Joe Pierro @jersey_jp 2022 CrossFit Semifinalist going to the Granite Games @thegranitegames June 3-5, 2022 at the TCO Stadium in Eagan, MN. Athletes are competing for a chance to advance to the CrossFit Games, including Brent Fikowski, Chandler Smith, Sam Kwant, Travis Mayer, Colton Mertens, and Phil Toon. We talk to Joe about his training, his take on the Granite Games events, and more!

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S02E5353 2022 GRANITE GAMES ATHLETE JOE PIERRO

[00:35:54] David Syvertsen: All right. Welcome back to the HerdFit podcast. I am coach David Syvertsen. I am here with Dr. San Rhee and we have a very special guest today, a 2022 Granite Games Semifinal athlete that is actually occurring a week from it's next weekend,

[00:36:08] Joe Pierro: right? Yeah, it's a.

[00:36:10] David Syvertsen: So Joe, Joe Pierro Joe, what is

[00:36:12] Joe Pierro: up man?

Spontaneous, spontaneous. You know, I came to support your your journeys in the 35 to 39 year old division for that last two workouts division. Nah, man, we've been three bins. It's given everybody a restart, you know? Yeah.

[00:36:26] David Syvertsen: Now we we definitely want to thank you all for coming on. He's a week away. And he really did.

He came into to just give me a little bit support for my last semifinal workout, but he has a training. And I just asked him if he can give us 20 to 30 minutes just to talk about his training and what he's, what he's prepping for. And I just want to give a little bit of background on Joe without getting, I, I want the majority of this podcast to be about him and granite games.

I've known Joe. I want to say for about seven, eight years now. And I think I can remember vividly. What was your first comp? Was it 9 0 8?

[00:36:55] Joe Pierro: First come first come. Ah, dude, I've done so many over the years. I want to say,

[00:36:59] David Syvertsen: I think I've my first memory of you was like, I think you were 17 years old. I am twenty-five okay.

Josie young Joe is pretty young compared to most of the people that we've had on the podcast and people that we coach and everything. And he's in that prime division right now. Right?

[00:37:14] Joe Pierro: So he is

[00:37:15] Sam Rhee: just open up with a granite game. So that's June three through five it's in Eagan, Minnesota in the Viking lakes venue.

And this is the path to the games he's in the 18 to 34 year old division. Yeah. Top three. Just to mention to people. So they know who he's competing against at the games this year, he's got Chandler Smith, Sam Quan, Brent for Koski Colton Mertens Markwan Jones, Travis man. These are the people you're going head to head against in a

[00:37:47] Joe Pierro: week in

[00:37:48] David Syvertsen: person, in person to in-person live.

So you go from competing at the garden, stayed open as a 17 year old saying, this is my first comp ever. I hope I can be like you someday compete against them at Hoboken competed against them at 9 0 8 multiple times. And now, I mean, Joe, Joe is actually one of my first ever next level, next level athletes back in the day when I started.

Some individual sport coaching. And the dude from there has just shot up and he's been with a few different coaches in that time, a few different programs. He's been invited to some of the biggest, I would say. I mean, what'd you call the move fast, left, moved, fast lift heavy team, that whole tryout. You need a team out there.

So I just, we're trying to pump him up right now. Joe is a big time elite level athlete is the biggest

[00:38:31] Joe Pierro: I know personally put it that

[00:38:33] David Syvertsen: way. Yeah. So Joe, let's get into just you know, what where's your mind at right now being a week away from

[00:38:39] Joe Pierro: the granite games mind is at we're going live in person.

So everything we've been doing has been basically online. I really haven't done any local comps due to obviously everything getting canceled in 2020. And then it's just been things not really coming back and. Timing of the seasons and just trying to really just stick to like the bigger comps and not peak too often.

So we could try to get, optimize my output and just help for long-term in the sport of CrossFit. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome.

[00:39:04] David Syvertsen: Now here's let let's talk about the two, I would say piece of adversity that I know about was it the Atlas games? It was the ATLA game. So the Atlas games in Montreal that you qualified for last year, two years ago, two years ago, he got, he drove up there and this is right at the start of the Penn.

And when they got there for the athlete briefing, that's when they found out that they were canceling the comp.

[00:39:26] Joe Pierro: Oh yeah, that was, that was gut-wrenching. Cause that's when you really,

[00:39:28] David Syvertsen: in my opinion, that's when you were like, all right, Joe's big time, you know, when you, when you made that and you're going to go up there and try to like, take that thing and just to have that taken out

[00:39:36] Joe Pierro: from you, what was that like?

Just felt a feeling, getting robbed. Yeah, no, just just one memory I got is just being in the, you know, the signing in, and just seeing Cody Anderson walked by, you know, little stud lifts, all the weight in the world. And that's the, just seeing him. It's you know, this guy, this guy knows what's up and that's going to be on the same floors.

And we all sit in briefing and it's just getting drug out, drug out, nobody's coming out. Then all of this. They walk on over and they just canceled leave and right in front of us. And we're just drove eight hours, just just for a little, a scenic route. That's all. And you stuck with

[00:40:09] David Syvertsen: it went back to work, right?

I remember we were texting about that. You're just like back to the grind next year. This is the 2021 Joe makes the top 10% through the open. And then he finished technically in the top 1 25 last year in north America. In the quarterfinals. So you were due to make a semifinal and a video review, which, you know, it sucks that this is a standard because in my opinion, doesn't make anything easier, but you simply qualified for semis, but in your video review your GHD, sit-ups your hands went to the outside of your shoulders instead of over your head early.

Really?

[00:40:41] Sam Rhee: What the F the difference between when I first heard that I was like, who cares if he goes side or back? Honestly, it's about the same. And it's actually.

[00:40:50] David Syvertsen: Could you could

[00:40:51] Joe Pierro: make a case that's harder because you're have the momentum and you're more extension. You're more extension. That's

[00:40:55] David Syvertsen: what the GHD is.

Training. The hip flexors, the quads. It's not what your shoulders solely because of that. That's why he didn't get to go compete at a sudden final, last shot.

[00:41:04] Joe Pierro: I got, I got really hit a really hit twice with it, you know?

[00:41:07] David Syvertsen: And I'll tell you what, when that's a really good sign for you, just maturity wise that you hit that adversity.

And you're just like back to the grind and you have to wait a year to really test yourself again. I remember talking

[00:41:16] Sam Rhee: to you last year about it right after that happened. And you're like, I'm going to go right back on it. It's a whole effing year and you did it, which to me just shows your mental toughness to stick with it at this point, because I don't know how many people would have

[00:41:31] Joe Pierro: stuck with it at that point.

Yeah. Yeah. It it just became a lifestyle, you know, it's just it's work, work out, eat, sleep, and a repeat because what that, what that free time, you know, I used to have a video game addiction, so. , I replaced that video game addiction with CrossFit and fitness, and then that just turned into obviously optimizing health diet, and just way more I just think more beneficial. Yeah. Right. I'd rather than sitting behind a computer screen and, not having the opportunity to obviously meet other people in person. Right. And I being stuck behind a screen. So, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do it differently. I would, I would definitely keep it the same way.

It just, it's just tough going through these experiences over and over and over again. And within that mind you, I had the elbow tear that took me out of water Palooza one year, which would've been the big competition of my life. Yeah. Individual. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:42:20] David Syvertsen: So yeah. You know that everyone should just know this, that you doesn't know about Joe.

Like you see him. He's always people always talk about the gym. Like he's happy, he's laughing. He's always chill. But he's been through some stuff that I have seen other athletes turn away from the sport because of, yeah. And I give you a lot of respect for that, dude. I really appreciate that.

All right. So let's, let's talk about granite. You're going

[00:42:38] Joe Pierro: to leave when Joe I'm leaving a, the first, so I'm leaving Wednesday. Competition starts on Friday. I'm leaving first thing in the morning. 6:00 AM on Wednesday, just so I could gack let me get it out there. Okay. And where are you staying? Average staying at Airbnb about 10 minutes away.

[00:42:52] David Syvertsen: Okay. So you'd be cooking your own food and stuff. Yeah. So do you have a

[00:42:55] Sam Rhee: plan, like how you're going to live your life for those, for that time when you're out

[00:42:59] Joe Pierro: there? Yeah. I wanted to, I tried putting a plan together just briefly with obviously committing everything to around the workouts, but I look at the schedule and it's, we start at one o'clock and five o'clock.

It's a very short window of time. I feel, you know, Warm up, heat, your workout, boom, warm, hit your workout. You're done. And obviously we're going to be awake all day. I got a couple of friends going out there, so I figured, you know, probably just get up early, hang out with them and just don't do anything too exerting obviously, but definitely still live life and try and make an experience with everybody that's there.

[00:43:29] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I was going to say it's just are you going to, do you have any of the, I would say like appointments or drop-ins like, where are you going to be working out when you get out there? Just go for a run, stuff like that. I'm

[00:43:38] Joe Pierro: on a bit of a procrastination side with that. Definitely do have to move Wednesday, especially being off of flight.

Definitely move laterally because the hips are gonna be locked just on the flight going there. So I just, I just was pushing that off a little bit. Just trying to get everything else settled. And I just feel like a drop into a gym would just be simple as one phone call

[00:43:55] David Syvertsen: and I'm sure they're going to be ready for it too.

Yeah.

[00:43:58] Sam Rhee: Yeah. So do you want to talk about the workouts real quick and your thoughts about them as you're coming into it? Yeah.

[00:44:03] Joe Pierro: The first one we were getting is the reverse Fran or

[00:44:05] Sam Rhee: reverse Fran. So let's talk about that one.

It's a, heavy handstand reverse Fran 9, 15 21 barbell thrusters at 115 pounds. And then yards

[00:44:17] Joe Pierro: handstand,

[00:44:18] Sam Rhee: walk yards, hand sense walk. So, and the time cap is six minutes. So that's a fast one. So talk about

[00:44:22] Joe Pierro: that one a little.

Yeah. So I'm actually going to run through a rate. When I get out of here, I'm going to go I'm going to go hit two workouts and that's one of the two remaining it's reverse, ran for a reason, right? Fran, you get the work done before it really starts. The pain starts to set in here, the only thing is going to be the triceps in my thought because of the legs are going to be fresh in the handstand.

I'm going to basically use big leg drive on the thrusters. That's 63 foot, right? 21 yards at the end. There is a halfway point. So you have to, you have to be on broken halfway. So might use that to my advantage obviously, just to break it up. Cause I did see Phil Toon do it on his Instagram. He just posted a quick story.

Is he competing there? Yeah, just absolute study. Yep. Elbows just gave out and just boom right on his head. So, yeah. Okay.

[00:45:02] David Syvertsen: And he's, and he's probably one of the front runners of the division, right? Yeah, definitely. I think so. So when you see a guy like that at that. Kind of Get to failure. Does it alter your approach?

Do you see that kind of take some information and, and try to correct,

[00:45:14] Joe Pierro: because I know that they're there. They're I, you know, being, having a full-time job, I know that they're putting that extra extra time and that extra steps in, and if they're having these issues and this adversity, I'm going to have to take it a little bite, a humble pie here, take a step back, analyze it and say, I got optimize my output.

Right? Exactly. Gotta play my game.

[00:45:30] Sam Rhee: You know, Dave is the kind of guy who always does better live than online. I think. What kind of athlete are you and how are you going to use the live competition to

[00:45:39] Joe Pierro: drive? It's I, I would love to come back and answer that because I was an in-person always in person, but being out of competition for two years straight, it's almost made me adapt to have to be an online athlete with all the qualifiers, everything being online.

Sole sole thing I can remember is going to Waterloo's a team. I, I didn't feel a hundred percent there with my paces. I was almost like, felt like I was training a little bit. And I was team at three. So when you're up, we gotta, we gotta go. And I almost felt like I was holding myself back a little bit and not really, you know, giving that 110% effort like being scared of failure, but when we're competing, that's the time to test and that time to fail.

Yeah. To kind of like reach that

[00:46:20] David Syvertsen: breaking point. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Now, for those that don't know, this is another kind of curve ball, and everyone's got to deal with it. So it's not like a fair or unfair advantage and keep in mind that the semifinals they're all exclusive to each other. So how you do compare it to people at mid Atlantic, it has no relevance.

You're just competing against people at granite. So that's important to know because a lot of your competing is done on turf direct. And that, for those that have never done that, like it's not easy to lift barbells, walk on your hands and do some of the stuff that you would do on a hard gym. On turf. Ha what are your thoughts on that?

Do you think that it's something that should be practiced or is it like, Hey, adjust on the fly. Everyone's

[00:46:58] Joe Pierro: got to do it. Definitely something that should be practiced. I did a turf workout, I would say two weeks ago with my coach. I'm talking. It was a 10 minute. I think we were actually 16 minutes.

I think I was on the turf four feet. We're done, absolutely done. Just hurting or down fire. I just hurt. And I, I really have flat feet, so I feel every little bit of the soul in the middle of the shoe. And it just, it feels like you're just getting stabbed in the middle, so right with you soaking into the turf somewhere, you really just feel every step that much more.

Okay. So it's going to be a learning experience out there. Cool.

[00:47:28] Sam Rhee: What's the second event that you know, you're

[00:47:29] Joe Pierro: doing after the second event, let's just go through them and then we'll

[00:47:33] Sam Rhee: figure it out. Okay. Next one is barbell complex. They have listed three attempts for math, max load. That is it. Okay. Three cleans, two front squats, one jerk.

[00:47:41] Joe Pierro: Yep. That's the one that's across all events, all events, all.

[00:47:45] David Syvertsen: Yeah. Have you been tracking the past two semifinals to see what ways people are

[00:47:49] Joe Pierro: hurting? I have, I have, I think the Mac that's going on currently as we sit here was a little tapered back, I think that there's a lot of heavy hitters coming at the granite games.

Yeah. I'm just seeing people throw 3 35 around. I even seen Anthony Davis put three 50. I mean, he's a, got a bunch of training he's done with the strongest in sport, correct? Yeah, Colt emergence, but 3 35 up. Yeah. Phil tune just thrown 3 0 5 around there's nothing.

[00:48:11] David Syvertsen: Now you Jo in the, in the semi-finals was the strength event, which for you guys was one are mass clean bench and overhead squat.

And that, sorry, in the quarterfinals, wasn't that? What your best score? Correct. So you're, you are one of the heavy hitters with lifting, correct? Are you viewing this event as something that's like, all right, I got to go for it.

[00:48:28] Joe Pierro: Definitely. I'm I'm planning. I have been increasing, I did this workout four times in the past two weeks strategically Ben increasing my loads over the week, almost like RPE rate of perceived exertion.

So. Not going a hundred percent the first time I did it. So I've been increasing every single time. I did it. And did the first time at 2 55 and the second time, 2 75 and last the third time to 3 0 5 and I just did three 15 Friday on the complex. So. And

[00:48:54] David Syvertsen: how do you feel like you had some more

[00:48:55] Joe Pierro: left?

Yeah. Yeah. I just gotta make sure the the glutes are nice and warmed up. So I got big leg drive out of that jerk. It's going to be all about the jerk. Yeah.

[00:49:01] Sam Rhee: Okay. RPE rate of perceived exertion. So that's basically how fucking heavy it

[00:49:06] Joe Pierro: feels. Yeah. So just how much you, if you do have more left than a tank.

So if we're going for a 10, we're going all out. We're going to, we're not leaving any reps left in the tank. I see. Right. So if we're going to build two around a seven, where. Three reps left in that tank. So we have more room to improve off of that in the upcoming weeks. Who's your coach and programming that you're using a goal.

I went off to Sean NEEF, Seattle fortitude fitness.

[00:49:29] David Syvertsen: I met Sean new years. Awesome, dude. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:49:31] Joe Pierro: Smart dude. And he's programming. He, he has been programming for the last four years. I think, I think Ray from Ray from next level, I went up there. Yeah,

[00:49:39] David Syvertsen: yeah, yeah. That was 2018,

[00:49:41] Joe Pierro: 2017, 2018. I yeah, we were lined up for water Palooza.

Yup. And. I just went more on the that's the very long Mont of structural and just breaking everything down into, to square one and just really running away from basically CrossFit and breaking everything down monitor

[00:49:58] David Syvertsen: structure, right? Yeah. Yeah. Is he going out there? He is not going to, are you going to have any presence out there to help you out

[00:50:04] Joe Pierro: with.

Yeah, I got my girlfriend, Danny actually awesome. The girl that does my body work, a Laura's going out there. And then I got four other friends had an out there as well. So

[00:50:14] David Syvertsen: some guys like it, they can watch a heat before you are just give you some feedback that while you're in the warmup area, you might

[00:50:18] Joe Pierro: not get to see yourself, right?

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I definitely I'll definitely be on them saying, you know, give me some construction criticism. Yeah. You know, a lot of people want to see the positive things, but tough love is definitely the way to go. What

[00:50:28] Sam Rhee: do you like about your coach and programming over the past couple of years, that was really helped

[00:50:32] Joe Pierro: you, you think oh yeah.

That your perceived exertion is the biggest thing, right? When you're nowhere near competition. You almost, you have to work on your quality. You have to prioritize that because when you do get close to competition time and things start to get a little shaky, and let's say you do start to get tired. W where are your good habits at, where are your bad habits at right.

If you have good habits and good range of motion in a movement, when you're tired, it should be exactly the same. Right. As the, over the course, you've developed the volume and stuff. So yeah, it's just. Quality quality is everything far away from comp. And then as we start to get closer to comp, we start taking risks and raising intensity at the same time.

So farther away from comp training sessions are very long because you're developing the volume under lower stress of the body. And as we get closer, there's a lot more stress on the. Well, you're in the gym for less time. So

[00:51:18] David Syvertsen: that's what you mean by like, all right. I did this workout four times in two weeks, but everyone should know, like you were not maxing out those four sessions.

It was, it was just increasing the intensity of

[00:51:26] Joe Pierro: yeah. Building good habits. Seeing if I'm a power clean, I'm going to squat clean. What's going to beneficial. Benefit me the best. Perfect.

[00:51:32] David Syvertsen: All right. What's the next event? We

[00:51:33] Sam Rhee: could talk about Minnesota mashup or speed chipper.

[00:51:35] Joe Pierro: Which one? Or let's go.

Let's go. Speed shipper. Alright, speed.

[00:51:38] Sam Rhee: Chipper is the 120 yard shuttle run 16 snatches at 1 75 36 chest to bar pull-ups another, a one 60 yard shuttle run 36 chest to bar pull-ups 16 snatches at 1 75 and then another 120 yard shuttle run time cap, 10

[00:51:53] Joe Pierro: minutes. Yeah, dad. It really has finished tested it yesterday.

It's hard. You have to run on those. You don't, you don't have to kill yourself. I'm gonna have to be you ha I would say you just have to be in it. Okay. You're running. You're not jogging. You're running the other movements that are going to dictate. The other movements are going to dictate coming into the snatch bar.

You feel pretty fresh. I took riskier, so I did open up huge in the snatch just to see where I would fail in the beginning and just seeing how it would bounce back from that. And it's, it's going to be finishable it's it's oddly enough. Right. You gotta pulling on the snatch and then you got to pulling on the chest of the bar, but it does feel different.

So you almost felt fresh going into both movements. Definitely. Heart rate control is going to be the biggest thing in not blowing up and just staring at that chest to bar and not. Taking five steps back from the snatch rate with Dave's gray Ford, Dave stays over that bar and he's right back on it for everything he does

[00:52:38] Sam Rhee: people do on those 16 snatches each time go touch and go for X amount.

Like what does that X, I don't know what that would be for an

[00:52:44] Joe Pierro: athlete of your caliber. So I, I tried, I did nine and six. Okay. I did nine and six. You like descending

[00:52:49] David Syvertsen: reps? I get this question a lot from athletes. You know, when you were, when you know you're going to break something out, let's just say two says like that.

Do you like the descending rep scheme instead of just like splitting it down the middle?

[00:52:58] Joe Pierro: I do. So my favorite one is when you see the number 15 6 5, 4, 600 4604, it just, you get the big chunk out of the way. You said I did six, the first set I'm coming back in for that. And then I did six and five. Now I got to finish it up.

I gotta, I gotta finish the trunk. Yeah.

[00:53:12] Sam Rhee: Yeah. But for this, you can't go more than two sets, I would imagine, but just because of the level of

[00:53:17] Joe Pierro: competition here. So w what happened in, on the way back? It did turn into singles. So I dunno, maybe if I, if I was to dial it back a little bit on the, on the, going into it part, I would have a little more energy on that.

[00:53:29] David Syvertsen: Um, Here's a question for athlete of your caliber and because you are, you sound like you've gotten very, in a good way, methodical like almost like robotic analytical. Yeah. And you just never to be like that. That's another good sign of maturity for you and just how much you've grown in the sport is when you do you account for, at all, for a spike in adrenaline and capability, when you're in the moment you know, I'll make this mistake sometimes.

Hey, you know what, like I know when I'm in the moment, I'll be able to do that. But when you're training, you do want to see kind of like, can you reach your peak intensity adrenaline when you're training by yourself in prep for a comp or in the back of your head, do you say now I'll probably have as little spike on the day of

[00:54:09] Joe Pierro: I I can have, I wouldn't have a spike on a day of I've been using that a little too much.

I think just what's special with the workout. We'll talk about later the latest rope line. When I do say, you know, game day, there's gonna be adrenaline. Yes. Yeah. And it's, it's something I say, because of going out there it's, it's amazing what takes over your body.

[00:54:26] David Syvertsen: Yeah, no, it is. I mean, Kathleen says it all the time.

Like you wish you could bottle that and sell it. Right. It'd be worth a

[00:54:31] Joe Pierro: lot of money. It's just, yeah, it really is. You, you, you feel invincible out there. You don't know where your endpoint is.

[00:54:36] David Syvertsen: It's like that movie limitless, you know, take that pill and like you just turn it to

[00:54:39] Sam Rhee: in the middle of frigging Viking stadium out on the turf.

Athletes,

[00:54:44] David Syvertsen: if you crazy with like tens of thousand people watch online, you know, and you, you know, we'll be watching, I'll be going on vacation to Florida. I'll be watching that, that rush.

[00:54:51] Joe Pierro: Yeah. Yeah. That's why, so even with the snatches, I don't like, I'm going to have to really go by feel, I could go in there with a plan, but you know, all plans their plans because you know, they don't always go to plan.

Right. So I'm definitely gonna, I it's, it's a beat, a big off a field. And if you realize on that workout, it's 1 75. So my also. Right. A 45 and a 25 on a bar equals 180 5, but at these competitions, so they fit more lanes. They use a shorter ball short. So there is different different, does it feel different coming off, you know, from the ground?

[00:55:20] David Syvertsen: And for those that don't know, they're called shorty bars. So basically like it's a 45 pound bar right. Still, or

[00:55:25] Joe Pierro: correct. It's 35 pound bar. It's a 35 pound bar,

[00:55:28] David Syvertsen: same thickness and same thickness. And it's just simply short. So the weights are closer to your hands. So for some people that go really wide with the snack.

Yeah, they have to burn their hands in a lot.

[00:55:37] Joe Pierro: So Kelsey's going, and that's a big dude and a long arms, correct? It's yeah, it's almost, it almost might be just outside his cleaner jerk, right at that point, as funny as that sounds. Yeah.

[00:55:48] Sam Rhee: So then the next one Minnesota mashup, 10 wall balls, 50 GHDI, 20 wall balls, 40 dumbbell, single arm, overhead squats at 70 30 wall balls, 30 ring muscle ups, 40 wall balls, 200 double unders 50 Wells.

10 dumbbell, clean and jerks at 70 time cap, 25

[00:56:07] David Syvertsen: minutes. I was going to say, that's gotta be a long cat cow finishable. That is a nasty. That is

[00:56:12] Joe Pierro: a grind. I think it's a generous cap. I do really. I

[00:56:15] David Syvertsen: really do. I have to, I have to I need to do, to get the total reps in my head for that. That is a growth, no matter what that is a

[00:56:21] Joe Pierro: grind.

I want to say I broke it down to work without transitions. So just pure work time. It's there. It's around 13 to 15 minutes. So the transitions is that key for this transition going to be everything. Well, in my eyes, the third ring muscle ups is everything. Yeah. Everything else is fluff to get to that point, your hip, pull your hip flexors out.

Okay. Did you

[00:56:39] David Syvertsen: do in the quarterfinal workout on the ring muscle ups that were after the G.

[00:56:43] Joe Pierro: So, this is my my situation I got right now, as I feel heavy. I feel, I feel heavy right now. You know, I feel heavy, but it, yeah, I feel heavy but strong. So it's going to be a fair balance. And that's what, another thing where I say, hope adrenaline, hope adrenaline comes in.

Yeah.

[00:56:57] David Syvertsen: You know, in the, in the quarterfinal you have to do 10 bring muscle-ups at a time, right after 30 JCCs. Correct. So this is a more GHD and 30 ring muscle-ups is no joke like that alone for a lot of people is a workout. Do you write what? What's your plan? The muscle-ups on that one because I think, do you agree?

That's where it's going to mostly come down to

[00:57:13] Joe Pierro: a hundred percent. Yeah. Muscle upsets. Obviously. How many times you break it up? Because when you come down, it's not a quick pick back up, right? Definitely plan plaintiffs to open open on the bigger side, say book, but playing the side of caution. So.

Two reps before failure, I'll say mid workout may say eight. I'm going to, I'm going to be, I'm going to be conservative. I'm gonna hit it right after this. My goal is to do eight, six, right. It's going to take me to 14 and then we're going to do five, five. I'll take me 26 and hopefully four. Yeah. Are you one

[00:57:38] David Syvertsen: of those guys, like mid workout?

You're looking around where other guys are. Are you just trying to stay in your lane?

[00:57:42] Joe Pierro: I definitely gonna, I'm definitely gonna work on that. I haven't had much individual experience to really work on that. And I just thinking back in the past, it has been a blur. Yeah. To understand that just getting caught in a moment, but I think the awareness is going to be very key.

Yeah. Your body awareness. Yeah. Do

[00:57:56] David Syvertsen: you practice

[00:57:57] Sam Rhee: your transitions for something like this, to make sure that you can get off the GHD, get to the wall balls, you know, get the single arm, overhead squat dumbbell, get to the wall ball. Like how do you, how do you know. Flow with

[00:58:08] Joe Pierro: those sorts of things.

So a big thing I like to do is play it by brief breaths between each set. So rather than you know, saying, okay, I'm gonna take a ten second break. I'm going to say, all right, I'm gonna take three breaths in between each break. And as per feel, I'm not gonna go, you're not going to go to failure before those.

You're not going to go to failure. Buffalo's ring muscle ups. And even after those ring muscle ups, right, you, when you want, you're gonna play that fine line, but then you go right back to wobbles and you still got 200 double unders. So.

[00:58:34] David Syvertsen: The workout. I didn't catch that workout ends with 200

[00:58:36] Sam Rhee: dubs, 200 double unders 50 wall balls, and then 10 dumbbell clean and jerk

[00:58:40] David Syvertsen: what's 17.

[00:58:41] 2022_0529_0821: Okay.

[00:58:41] David Syvertsen: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:58:43] Joe Pierro: Normal jump rope, normal jump rope. You want to bring your own? I would assume so. Yeah. I'm definitely going to spread spare rope too. God forbid. That's right. Yeah.

[00:58:50] David Syvertsen: That's you know what, when that

[00:58:52] Joe Pierro: is, what date is that is the, either the first one day three or. The second one on day two.

[00:58:58] David Syvertsen: Okay. All right. So you're going to still have some decent amount of work to do after that. Yeah. Okay. That one's going to be tough. All right. Let's next

[00:59:04] Sam Rhee: endure the sled 50 yard sled push 30 lane facing burpees 50 yard sled push thousand meter run hundred Cal echo bike thousand meter run, 50 yards sled drag 30 lane facing burpee.

50 yards leg sled, drag cat time cap

[00:59:23] David Syvertsen: 2,700. I feel like they're having you guys do a lot more volume than the other.

[00:59:27] Joe Pierro: Yeah. So with the bumpers of CrossFit what the rumors are out there is you're gonna have two long workouts. That was the bumpers CrossFit said you're gonna have two long workouts. They obviously gave you the strength being the complex.

They gave you the legless rope line one there's two long ER, tests that have to be tested. Okay. I'm just,

[00:59:43] David Syvertsen: I just even like just total volume. You guys are doing more than others. Not that it matters that much, but we can even get, if we have time, we can talk about that at the end. But what are your thoughts on that workout?

[00:59:52] Joe Pierro: To hit that one yesterday? Definitely humbling. It really is that workout should be changed from endure. This led to it's a trap because as soon as you, we don't, we know the sled weight. I did put 180 pounds on this. Did you practice them? I did not practice on a wet ground though, cause it was raining outside yesterday.

So I just deal with the circumstances I was given and my heart rate came up and it did not want to come back down. So I would definitely going to have to feel it the most the beginning just feeling so fresh on that first 50 yards then going rain to 30 bar hopping, burpees. I just felt my heart rate.

Elevated. And the second sled just got a little got a little too sloppy, too early. Yeah. Yeah. By the bin, the

[01:00:32] David Syvertsen: surface you were on though. I mean, I, I I've, I think. If your slide is on turf, it won't

[01:00:38] Joe Pierro: crack. It won't be that bad. You should have more what was harder? The bulk of the run? The run, the bike.

I was just hovering around 65 RPM. Just being honest. The rogue echo bike, right? Yeah. Robeco buck. Yeah. Okay. Are you a good runner? Do you like running a. I used to like running until I became 205 pounds. And now every step I take, I feel like I'm lifting lifting a big load every time. But you know, that's a,

[01:01:02] David Syvertsen: that's a Hinshaw thing.

Hinshaw says, he says every elite athlete, he knows running is a huge part of their program because you know, when you're supporting your structure, your body weight, That's that's real conditioning, you know, compared to rowing and biking where you're sitting on something, you know? So it's just something to keep in mind.

Yeah. Running is a different animal. And we've talked about it in the past a few times. There's some give and take with running, you know, if the form isn't great. If the technique isn't great, it can really. You know, prohibit some, some progress within other areas. If you know, joint issues and all that.

Oh, that's why CrossFitters. Don't like running in general. Yeah. Yeah. And then

[01:01:34] Sam Rhee: the last event is the the same common event, 2014 regional event. Number five, 10 rounds for time, one legless rope climb, and then 170

[01:01:43] Joe Pierro: foot run. If anybody from granite games is watching this, come on, man. We got to end with that thing.

Oh, it's going to be war out there. What's up. We're threading needles with this one.

[01:01:54] David Syvertsen: Yeah. What do you mean by that? Mo so that's one of the events that every semifinal has across the world. Most of them, if not all of them, it was on day, one day,

[01:02:05] Joe Pierro: one day one, our first thing day to get in

[01:02:07] David Syvertsen: the way. And you know, like that test is 110% about just the form grip, bicep capacity, and none of the other sanctional semifinals had to do that workout first.

Or I had to do that workout in the last day, so that that's a clear disadvantage. Again, you're only competing against people at granted, but that's, that's rough that they put that on the last day.

[01:02:28] Joe Pierro: Yeah. I mean, again, adrenaline is going to take over hopefully and everything will be all good and dandy at the end of the day, but definitely anyone a sprint, right.

It's always makes it interesting to you know, have that sliding finish. I've seen a lot of sliding finishes at the the, the syndicate and the Mac, and it's just, it's just making for good good finishes practice.

[01:02:43] Sam Rhee: Technique-wise on a legless rope climb that you focus

[01:02:46] Joe Pierro: on. Clearly. Legless means upper body movement only.

So everything with your legs and a Kip, you could give a, you want to take so. Just going to work on flailing those legs in an organized fashion and just really trying to minimize each hand being on the rope. So obviously big bites and just fascinating. Consistent. Yes.

[01:03:04] David Syvertsen: Yeah. What's the contingency, if it what's the weather looking because granite games is outdoor.

Is it? I thought it

[01:03:09] Joe Pierro: was indoor. No, it's outdoor Minnesota Viking stadium. Oh, okay. Yeah. What's what's

[01:03:13] David Syvertsen: the contingency there. If it rains.

[01:03:15] Joe Pierro: They briefly read the you know, the, the packet that was sent out. It said they were going to work around weathering. So definitely could see some things changing.

Yeah. Okay.

[01:03:24] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I'm not a huge, again, everyone's on the same playing field. You're not competing. It's like what, what, you know, you're not competing against people that already did it or a different semifinal. But I wonder if that event, especially if it rains, you know, what do you do? You could put a tarp over the ropes, I guess you technically, you could, it wouldn't be that hard with the rig and everything.

Now that event in particular, right, it's 10 rounds, 10 rounds. Okay. The, the workout, it's not hard for four or five rounds for anybody. And, you know, after every legless rope climb, you have to run basically to the other side of the field and back, and then you go do your legless again. Wendy will you start running hard right away to just get a little of a headstart and then once you feel the grip go and that's when you just start to on purpose, start running a little slower.

[01:04:04] Joe Pierro: Yeah. If I, if I knowing I test, I test this workout three times already knowing where I'm at, I'm going to have to play my own game here. Obviously that first run is going to be very fun, running down a few with everybody, but then I think I'm a play on game from there. Optimize my performance. Try to hang with obviously the big dogs.

If I can't, I'm going to try to get the best time I can get. Okay. I think

[01:04:23] Sam Rhee: a lot of this seems to also be recovery in between because there's so much volume. So how do you focus on your recovery and what you can do to, to come back every day? You know, hit

[01:04:35] Joe Pierro: it hard and I'm having to take the best protocol I can after each workout, just get on a bike just move a little bit.

And the biggest thing, right. You know, recovery, obviously all assistance with whoever I'm going to have, you know, the bodywork get some body work in between each movement, nothing too deep. Just make sure I stay stretched. I'm going to stay a stretched out the whole weekend. And the biggest thing I find is after the workouts as going back and hitting like a 10.

Just active cardio warmup before the event, just to let the blood flow through the muscles. And just before that 10 minute piece, and after that 10 minutes just nice, easy bike. It's it's crazy. How much better you actually feel? Do you eat Snickers and all that sort of stuff too? I do. Yeah. Just the goal.

The goal is to give myself diabetes throughout the weekend. That is the goal. I'm not even kidding. I mean, it's not a, it's not the healthiest style trying to compete. Definitely when I do step out of. Competitive CrossFit mindset. I'm definitely going to utilize dropping sugar intake, but the goal is to be dumped as much sugar in the muscles as possible throughout the weekend and try to gain weight just so I know I'm recovered and everything, you know, all energy stores are there.

Okay,

[01:05:36] David Syvertsen: cool. So, I mean, lastly, let's just say any thoughts on the fact that do you like how across it has transitioned the sport this year in terms of. You know, you basically somewhat randomly got placed into semifinals. I know they tried to spread out the town a little bit, in my opinion, the granite games is the most talented, but that's just, you know, who, who, who cares what Dave says.

Right. But do you look at other sanctional calls and the programming, sorry, semifinals and the programming. Do you, is there, are there any thoughts in terms of like, all right, there needs to be a little bit more cohesion or do you like the individuality of the events and, and who you're seated up

[01:06:09] Joe Pierro: against?

Well, we had the, we had the linear. Uh, For regionals, right. Regionals had the linear programming. Right. I think that worked very well.

[01:06:18] David Syvertsen: Because basically what that does is it gets the same kind of athlete to the games. Correct. Right. Where, you know, let's say the top five from mid Atlantic. If, if three of those people are granted because the programming so different, maybe they don't make it.

Is that the way it really is?

[01:06:34] Joe Pierro: Yeah, I think that's going to be a question over time. We figure out the only thing that I would see, right, is them having a swim event at granite games right here. There's a lake close by, and I know that I would be, I would be basically heartbroken. There's a swim cause I try working on my swimming, but just something in me doesn't seem to click with it.

[01:06:51] David Syvertsen: Where are you saying there's still a possibility,

[01:06:53] Joe Pierro: there is no possibility now, but when they were announcing it, that was because there was a sanctional overseas that did have South Africa yet. They did have swimming in theirs this year. So if I was put to that, I would be a, that's a huge

[01:07:05] David Syvertsen: setback.

[01:07:06] Sam Rhee: We've discussed this, like I'm chasing grumb and there was another podcast and they said, yeah, it works for the south Africans, but you can't have swimming in a semi-final in north America. And with the other ones, not. That that's not fair,

[01:07:23] David Syvertsen: right? Yeah. A lot of us don't live with your water. You live in the Northeast.

You're not, you know, some of these guys in Florida, they swim all

[01:07:27] Joe Pierro: year round. It's not an equal test. Yeah. I guess that comes with bumpers for CrossFit. Right? The big thing I've been hearing is bumpers. What are the bumpers? What, what is CrossFit? What is CrossFit? Tell these semifinals. Right? I use the wrong word before sanctions, but what's this?

What does CrossFit have to do to get the right people to the games? What do they do? Give the events freedom versus having them be controlled. So they are getting the right people there. Yeah. Have you talked to

[01:07:51] Sam Rhee: other competitors yet? And at the granite

[01:07:54] Joe Pierro: games or? No, I have not, not spoke to one person from a subpoena at the grand jury.

I don't think it, I don't think

[01:07:59] Sam Rhee: anyone ever does. Right. Because it's just like you, you guys are competing against each other. So unless you're really friends

[01:08:04] David Syvertsen: to begin. I mean, you you've been friendly with chairman before,

[01:08:07] Joe Pierro: right? Yeah. James James is a good dude. Yeah. Don't want to lose it too. Yeah.

[01:08:11] David Syvertsen: So, but yeah, I mean, you guys are pretty, you also on the more secretive side with what you do training wise, right?

You don't put a lot of yourself out there.

[01:08:17] Joe Pierro: Yeah. I've been trained in the loan for so long that it's nice to put myself out there sometime just to see where I stack up. Right. And understanding that now's the time if I was around a training camper within reach of other athletes, even if they were going to the grand games, I would want to capitalize on that.

Right. Like I'm trying to get people to go through these workouts with me. Now it's the training wheels have to start to come off and we got it. We got to send it. So I don't, I don't, it doesn't matter the fitness level of the person I'm going with. I want to scale it to the point for them. Yeah. If they need to be scaled that we're going to finish at the same time.

And they're going to give me that push or be slightly ahead and give you real feedback

[01:08:48] David Syvertsen: to cool. It's

[01:08:49] Sam Rhee: a really amazing how much CrossFit the landscape has changed over the last three years, but every year. You just keep trucking. That's crazy. Yeah. What else is it about you that, you know, despite all the changes in the organization in terms of how they compete, you know, all of the setbacks.

What is your ultimate goal in terms of what you can

[01:09:11] Joe Pierro: do in CrossFit? I it's just really to optimize it. I'll put, you know, knowing I have a full-time job. And, and I'm just trying to be in that, that 0.0, zero, zero 1% that I just want to see what the body's capable of. I want to see if it's doable because you know, obviously everybody has those doubts over time.

How many people are juicing? How many people you

[01:09:29] David Syvertsen: can't

[01:09:29] Joe Pierro: be recovering. You can't be, you can't be performing at this level and doing that, this and that. And it's just I want to see if it's. Yeah, I just want to see if it's possible, what the body's capable of it. I do not know where that ends and as long as I stay healthy I'm going to be competitive.

So if I'm not competitive in CrossFit, I might, I'm going to find somewhere else to be competitive personally on snap video games though. No, definitely not. I was going nowhere, man. You know, you just wait, you just, you just look at a screen for, for 16 hours. You close your eyes, you wake up, you repeat. And it did the world.

Just don't worry. I was just going in circles and you're just, I'm just throwing my life down the drain. I mean,

[01:10:01] David Syvertsen: it's been awesome. Watching your set, just like from, you know, from our seed it's been watching we've always been tracking, you talked about you guys all the time and you know, you go into a good, like a young man now dude.

And like a lot of respect for you and everything you've accomplished. And I know you're totally. In, in battle mode now, like you're going to our version of war, you know, not to disrespect it, but you know, and I hope that you can look back on it when it's all over. Not right now and just be proud of yourself

[01:10:24] Joe Pierro: because you deserve it.

Yeah. I have a very hard on myself, so no matter what I do out there, it's not going to be enough. Cause I know there's gonna be points left out in the board. Just, just. Just throughout my experience though. You know, starting with class program, going over to the next level with you going over to my coach, just the growth throughout the sport, and just seeing you keep trucking as well with your changes too.

And obviously having a baby as having a baby and is still going for it. It's just. Yeah. Yeah. You're leading by example quite a bit for me. And uh, you know, feed off of you. I will see you on Instagram if we don't reach out. Yeah, dude. Hell yeah, man.

[01:10:55] David Syvertsen: And we'll be watching and best of luck to you say anything else?

No,

[01:10:58] Sam Rhee: I'm just be cheering for Joe all the way, man.

[01:11:01] Joe Pierro: Let's get it. Get it. All right. Ready? Let's go.