S02E73 SPECIAL GUEST CROSSFIT ATHLETE RON ANANIAN THE CAR DOCTOR

Dave and Sam have a bona fide celebrity CrossFit athlete on the podcast - Ron Ananian, known to millions as The Car Doctor™. Host on Talk Media Network's nationally syndicated show, Ron Ananian has been repairing cars for over 40 years and 27 years on the radio on over 130 radio stations across the United States, as well as on iHeartRADIO and Apple Podcasts.

@crossfitbison also knows Ron as one of the stalwarts at 5am class. Dave and Sam talk to Ron about his start in radio, how he started CrossFit 5 years ago, and why he believes in functional fitness.

@crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #personalizedfitness

S02E73 SPECIAL GUEST CROSSFIT ATHLETE RON ANANIAN THE CAR DOCTOR

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: Welcome back to the Herd FITT podcast. I am coach David Syvertsen here with my Cohos doctor and coach Sam Ree. And we have a celebrity guest and I'm gonna, Caps, lock the word celebrity. Ron An aian. I'm saying that right, right. Yeah, that's right. I always get nervous with the last names.

You're good. What is your label on your radio show? Cause I want to first introduce you as that and then we'll get into you, Ron, the cross hitter.

[00:00:23] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: I'm Ron an Aian the car doctor. That's, that's how I'm known. I'm, I'm a the car doctor. The car doctor that That started 30 some odd years ago. I was teaching mechanics how to repair cars at night, running classes, and one of the guys that was in the class, he was a little older than me, he wanted to do a radio show as an infomercial about his shop.

And you know, he came up to me and he said, Listen, he says, I don't have your knowledge. He said, I'll be the bartender. You be the patron. I can see the conversation like it was yesterday. And he said, you know, he said, he said, I'm gonna advertise. We're gonna go out to, we went on W F A S AM 1230 outta White Plains New York.

And you know, we did the show and, and, and I remember the whole thing leading up to it. I said, What are we gonna call this thing? And we went to, we went to dinner with the radio station people and they, what are we gonna call this? And you remember W K RRP in Cincinnati, It's an older show from the seventies if you ever catch it.

But they had the, the goofy sales manager and the ditzy blonde and the, you know, the, the, the cool dj. That's what we had at WFA s And they were all there. Oh, this is gonna be the biggest thing and blah, blah, blah. What are we gonna call it? We're gonna call it the car doctor. I said, That's the dumbest name I ever heard in my life.

I said, Why are we gonna call it that? But I, you know, I got overruled. Long story short, we were supposed to be on for three months. The show became a hit somehow. People like listening to me talk. I can't figure it out. And we went on for five and a half. At the end of five and a half years, the radio station changed format and I had completed the circle of radio or so I thought because I got fired, they say, You're not on radio too, you got fired from radio

So I went home. And if I'm off subject here, Dave, just stop me cause No, it's good.

[00:01:52] David Syvertsen: It's okay. And we gotta get the people to know who, who we're talking to.

[00:01:56] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: So I went home and about three months later, you know, I thought I was done with radio. I really did. I was doing this little one hour show on W FFAs and Yonkers.

It's very tiny. How much, Where could this go? I'm in my thirties. I'm thinking, you know, what is this? Where's this gonna lead me? I said to Susie, I said, I wanna do radio again. And I said, I said, we must know somebody. You know, it's like seven degrees of Kevin Bacon thing. We must know somebody in radio.

There's gotta be a way that, Cause I wanna be on real radio. I wanna be on like w r or w a c or something and you know, true story. And you know, everybody's married, everybody knows what this is. Like when your wife tells you Yeah, you know, the giants are looking for a quarterback and you go down to the metal lens, the tryouts are in two weeks and, and see what they'll, you know, cuz she's like telling me like, are you crazy?

But. You know, you go, Yes dear, and you just kind of, I got home about a week later cause I couldn't find anybody to help me do this. About a week later I go home and there's a car in the driveway with NYP plates on it. New York Press. I didn't know what New York Press was. I go in and I'm sitting there and I'm having lunch.

I came home for lunch that day from work and I'm talking to. Katie, my middle daughter that you guys know. Yep. Katie was 10 at the time. That's, you know, Katie's what, 35 now? That's how long I've been doing radio. Yeah. I'm talking to the mother of Katie's friend. They're having a play date. And it's, it, it was.

Judy Sheffield, and I'm talking to Judy Sheffield and we're going back and forth and you know, Kibbitz in and stuff. And she says, Here, you want to get on radio again? And I told her about it and she says, Well, maybe I can help. And I looked at her and I was like, But you're Judy Sheffield. Who is this? You know?

And I, she said, Oh, you don't know what I really do. And I looked at my wife and I went, Remember that conversation? She said, Yeah, and I said, Watch this. I said, What do you do? She goes, Well, we know her as Judy Sheffield. Right? Remember Judy Deans from WINS 10 10? Yeah. That was Judy Deans from Wins. 10, 10. I looked at my wife, I said, We've got the number one morning newscaster in the country sitting at our kitchen table.

Wow. And, you know, and one thing led to another. Her husband knew people at w r we went to w r. Well, you need a bunch of money. Where you gonna find the money? I thought it was dead. I thought the dream stopped there. Never say no. Right. I've, I've never said no in my life. Yeah. I, I go for bagels every Saturday morning, or I did at the time.

And I was, I, I, I was, I always wore my raincoat when it was raining. Where's my raincoat? I threw it out. It was all broken, and you know it's all broken. Why do women do that? I don't understand. It was perfect, right? . She threw it out. She says, Wear the castrel jacket. I don't wanna wear the castrel jacket.

Wear the castrel jacket. Like she knew. It was just bizarre. It was like so, such serendipity. . I wear the Castro jacket and I'm standing online at the bagel store in Ramsey and I feel a tap at my shoulder and he goes, Is that stuff any good? And I went into this 10 minute explanation of why Castro was great oil and what it does and blah blah blah.

As you guys know, I can talk a little bit. Is the show on for two hours, ? And he said, You should be on radio. And I said, Boy, it's funny you say that. And I explained to him, I said, You know, I'm trying to get back on radio but I want to go to a real radio station and yada yada ya. He said, Well, maybe I can help.

And I'm thinking, Oh God, here we go again. Here's that. I said, Why? What do you do? He gives me his business card. I look at it, Dave Bere Castro, North America, Director of Marketing. Oh, wow. I mean, you just don't get that. That's, that's, You can't make there stuff up. You can't make that up. Yeah. Two weeks later where W Rro puts three quarters of a million dollars into the show and we're running for a year.

A year later goes by 'em on w r I'm like, Holy cow, look at this. Yeah. A year later, Castro changed their mind. Dave left the whole crew, left corporate changeover, blah, blah, blah. I wr calls me up and they said you know, Hey, listen, Castrell didn't renew. And I said, Hey, thanks a lot. I got to play quarterback for a year.

I really enjoyed it. Oh, you're not coming in Sunday? Hey guys, I don't have three quarters of a million dollars in my back pocket, Like, you know, Oh no. We're gonna take the. within three months, they took the show. Long story short, they took the show within three months they turned me on. They put me on the WR radio network.

We grew from 23 to 47 to 75. Within a year's time, we're on 200 radio stations across the country. Wow. And it's just, it's just grown. In 2012, the owner of wr, unfortunately, Rick Buckley passed. I thought I was outta the radio business again, but, you know, and I gotta give credit to God. Yeah. You know, there's, there's, This just doesn't happen.

You know, I set my prayers, I say my prayers every night. God wants me on radio for some reason. He really does, because he just creates these moments. WR is changing. So now I'm gone. Rick's gone. iHeart comes in. iHeart, this is the best. iHeart comes in, right? And everybody that's on is out. Okay. So I'm out, but I'm on, at the time I was on 122 stations or something.

Well, w r to me was just an a. . So there's another 121 affiliates that still would carry the show. Mm-hmm. . There's an agency in Atlanta that was selling the show. I talked to the agency, they talked to the affiliates and the sponsors. Everybody still wants you, so I just lost this one affiliate. Yeah. And it just, You know, we just kind of moved things around a little bit.

We quickly, over the course of time, built this $40,000 studio. If you're going to my laundry room at my house, there's a washer dryer and 40 grand worth of, you know, it's like that side of the house blows in the dark. . And we, I sit down on Saturdays two to four, and we go out over the airways. We go to, right now we're going to 150 affiliates.

We're distributed through Talk Media Network. Wow. They put me in the radio business. That's awesome. Never say never in life, you know, you never know what you're, And. . So I see that the

[00:07:17] David Syvertsen: radio question. Yeah. So that that's, that's what happens. That that's really important. Background information on a, your personality, perseverance, all that stuff.

But just the, the big picture story of never say Never, because that is a big part of what we're gonna talk about with, in relation to you, your CrossFit training and, and how that has changed your life and how you're actually changing. You know, our affiliate, you know the 5:00 AM Ron is a staple five Amer, and it's been that way for about five years.

Yeah. And Ron, how old are you? 66. 66 years old. That is the oldest member at our gym. And it's funny how I say that out loud. I actually think that's the first time I've ever said that out loud because we we're big here at Bison. Like we all know who's younger, who's older, right? Who's been around the block, who hasn't, right.

Once the workout starts, like, we're all together. This doesn't matter. Yeah. It doesn't

[00:08:04] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: matter. Right. And you know what? And the community here people say to me, What do you get outta CrossFit? You know, you're old, you should be sitting home. Like, what am I gonna do? Sit home and knit you know, like, it just doesn't work like that.

Yeah. How, why,

[00:08:15] David Syvertsen: why did you start? Yeah. What's your CrossFit

[00:08:18] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: start story? My CrossFit start story is, so my middle daughter, Katie, came back from overseas and she was doing CrossFit over in Afghanistan and, you know, to stay fit over there. Mm-hmm. , and she was doing it here for a while. She's a badass. She's a badass.

She's, she's a badass. Yeah. She's, you know, and she's on her own schedule and timetable now, but she's like, Dad, you gotta. You know, listen, I wasn't always the stellar, sexy individual you see in front of you, . You know, I was kind of beat up. I was, I was, you know, early sixties. I was, you know, I hadn't lifted weights since high school.

I, I treadmill, I bicycled, you know, I did a lot of machine stuff, but not. You know what I call, what we call functional fitness fit. Yeah. You know, so I started coming to CrossFit. Oh my God. I thought I was fit when I walked in the door. You know, it took about a year, but I finally left my ego at the door.

Mm-hmm. . Um, Because there's just, there's, I just realized there's just things I'm not gonna be able to do yet. So let's

[00:09:06] David Syvertsen: like even turn it back, like, let's say when you were in your twenties, thirties, forties, Like what was, I mean, you have a pretty active job, right? Right. Like you're still a practicing mechanic.

I'm, I'm a, I'm a I'm on the line every day. Yeah. So every day, hands, feet, lifting

[00:09:19] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: things, pulling things, Yeah. 20 inch wheels, walking around, carrying 'em like this, squatting, pulling, bending, all day long. All that stuff. All day long. So

[00:09:25] David Syvertsen: you, you've been a pretty active and that, that is, to me, that's real functional strength, right?

Like, I know guys that can lift, you know, power clean a hundred 350 pounds, but they. Can't pick up a wheelbarrow and, and go down their lawn. So you had real actual functional fitness in its actual term definition, but in terms of your actual exercise regimen, your health lifestyle, what was it like at, in your twenties, thirties, forties, leading up to CrossFit

[00:09:50] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: in your sixties?

Dave? I feel better at 66. And I've said this to you before. Yeah. I feel better at 66 than I did at 26, 36, 46, 56 and so on. Wow. That's rare. I, I didn't have. A great workout regimen because my life was, was, was building a business. Right. Building, building the empire. Mm-hmm. . You know, I would go to work at three o'clock in the morning.

I would get home at nine o'clock at night. Mm-hmm. , you know, I didn't have a great workout. Experience in high school. Okay. All right. My dad died when I was 11. Okay. So I was at seven, eighth grade. Mm-hmm. . I joined freshman football. I lasted a year on the freshman football team. I got to play twice.

I can still see the moment when the guy crossed the goal line as I was trying to stop him, but I wasn't strong enough. . You know, you can see those things burned in your mind. Of course, as a kid, you just remember that. Yeah. Never forget. Sophomore year I went out for football, but my mom needed money, so I had to quit football.

Okay. And when I went in to explain to the coach why I was leaving, his comment was, What are you gonna do? Go work in a gas station? Where would that lead you? Well, here you are, . You know, like, here I am, dude. Here you are. The Herd Fit

[00:10:52] David Syvertsen: Podcast.

[00:10:53] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: Right here I am at the Herd Fit Podcast Radio Show, syndicated 150 Markets Radio podcast downloads 750,000 on iHeart.

That's awesome, man. It's crazy stuff. But you know, it just wasn't great. So I kind of, I kind of, you know, what's the word? I kind of pulled in a little bit and all I did my sophomore year of high school was work out, but that. That was the weight machine. You know, you did the thing with the cables. Yeah, the cables and all that.

Yep. This is real weights. Yes, this is, This is very different. Yeah. I mean, we

[00:11:23] David Syvertsen: get asked all the time, Not all the time any anymore, but back when we first opened, we had a lot of people that would come in and look at the gym and, and cross. It was still kind of unknown back in 2014 to most people. And one of the first questions we always got from people, like, where are the machines?

You know, they're just so used to seeing Right. The cables, the treadmills, the ellipticals. And we, our response was always, you know, pretty old school CrossFit answers. You are the machine, right? Yeah. Like, you lift weights, you are, that's

[00:11:47] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: supposed to be in the machine. And I think that's what, to me, that's what makes CrossFit what it is.

Mm-hmm. , you know, it's like this morning, right? How cold was it this morning? Five degrees as Sam. It was like, holy smokes. Yeah, it was freezing this morning. You know, it's, it's, But if you did that run this morning, and I'm not saying it's bad if somebody didn't do the run, I get that. But if you did that run this morning, you know, that builds your internal resistance that that toughens you up.

that, that helps you get through the day. Yeah. You know, I started CrossFit because I knew I had to do something. I said I was gonna, I'll be dead by the time I'm 70. When I'm 70, I'm looking forward to my first muscle up because that's my goal. I'm do a

[00:12:26] David Syvertsen: muscle up by the time I'm 70. I think you can do it if you, if you follow your same trajectory, I think you're gonna

[00:12:30] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: get that.

That's, that's, and, and, you know, that's part. You have to think about too. This is a game of inches. All right. You know, it, it sounds funny, but when I started, you know, you get dressed in the morning, how do you put on your underwear? Do you sit down to put your underwear on? I don't . Okay. I, I used to have to sit down to put my underwear on.

Now I can put my underwear on. I stand on one leg. I put one leg. I can stand there, lift you like I don't fall down anymore. Yeah. Which is kind of a pain in the neck, in the dark, you know, you're trying to put underwear on in the dark. It's like, it's horrible. But it's the truth. Right. Talk about core.

Yeah. And it's, And that single leg strength Yeah. That's, that's single leg strength. Yeah. I learned that from Dallas when we were doing was it Dallas? Yeah. Oh yeah. Olympic lifting. Yeah. Olympic lifting. Yeah. We, we talked about that and it's, it's all these little things that I can do. I couldn't run.

Remember when I couldn't run? Yes. I couldn't box, jump. Yep. I don't know if I can ever jump rope though. I don't have that coordination. That doesn't. Never say never, Ron. Never say never. Yeah. I, you know, but it is on my list. Yeah. But you know, why do I CrossFit? Because it's a very unique experience. I think you have to come into this thinking, not, you know, can you do what everybody else is doing?

I rarely can do what everybody else is doing, although I am catching up. Mm-hmm. . But I don't do it for that. I do it because it's what makes me, that that little thing that I can do inches me further down the ladder. Yeah. You know, I write down what I do. I keep a log of what I'm doing. There are some weeks, yeah, I regress a little bit.

Some weeks I'm a little beat up. My, my achilles hurts, my hamstring hurts. But you know, people say to me, Ron, what are you doing CrossFit for? You can get hurt. Eh, you know what? I've heard that from a lot of. . And a lot of people I know that have said that they get hurt in every day, every walk of life.

Yeah. You know, they fall off the motorcycle, they fall down the stairs, they trip, they bang their head, they do this. I, I think you gotta know your limits. Mm-hmm. , you know, but you'll learn something every day at CrossFit. Yesterday yesterday's wa we were doing curls, right? Cleans, I call 'em pearls, cleans high school cleans.

Right. And I'm behind Nicole and I'm watching Nicole do her cleans. And I never realized. That when I do my clean, I would grab the bar so tight, whether I'm in a panic or not, and I would just hang onto the bar and I, and it would just strain my

[00:14:36] David Syvertsen: wrist. Yeah. Yep. Catch a little low, right? Find the rest of it.

Well, I

[00:14:39] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: would never catch it. I would just try to roll my wrist with the bar. Right. So yesterday I started to, when I watched Nicole and I got this from her when she came up, she pops. And she actually pops the bar let's the bar go and then she re catches it. Yeah. I started doing that. Ah, holy cow. Was it easier?

Wow. And I could lift more weight. That's

[00:14:56] David Syvertsen: awesome. You know, but that's, that's a game changer. When, when like Yeah. When we teach beginners CrossFit, it's like, it's so natural to feel like you have to death grip the bar. Yeah. But yeah, you have to let it kind of roll back to the fingertips a little

[00:15:06] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: bit.

Yeah. And just, And just hang onto it. Yeah. That's my starting CrossFit story. I came in, I came in thinking I could conquer the world. I learned I couldn't, and then I decided that if I was going to, I had to like, get rid of my ego, realize I can't do everything. I can't do everything right away.

Mm-hmm. and just kind of pick at it. Yeah. You know, I've done machines. Machines are boring. You know, it's, and then there's the community thing here. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, yeah,

[00:15:30] David Syvertsen: let's, let's touch on that a little bit. Let's go like the, I mean, we'll definitely get back into the physical part of this cause that's part of what we definitely want to touch on, but the advantages of being around a group of people, you know, you, you can use example, or I'm, I'm, You can Sure.

You can use any CrossFit as an example for this is being. Like-minded individuals that respect each other, support each other and work hard together. What, What's that like?

[00:15:57] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: It's an unbelievable experience. There's more positivity. In this gym, and I imagine it's at other CrossFit gyms too. I've never been anywhere else to compare.

Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . But you know, stand around in a garage and listen to a bunch of mechanics, belly ache all day long about the next crappy car they gotta work on. . All right. And I kind of look at 'em and I go, You know, that's your bread and butter, That's your livelihood. You should be happy to be here. You're upright, you're walking around, you're not hurt.

You know? Right. I come to this gym and it doesn't matter what I do, I get a fist bump. Yep. It doesn't matter what I do, you know, people help me put my weights away. Mm-hmm. , a couple of weeks ago we were doing those long runs and I was really shot at the end of that workout. I remember. And you remember, and I, Cause when I came back and Ryan and Nicole said, Come on, we're gonna go run with it.

We wanna make sure you come back in one piece. Yeah. And. I came back two minutes after the workout ended um, and I collapsed in the door. But, you know, I finished my workout. Yeah. And I felt good during the day cause I had done something I had never done before. Did I do at rx? No. Did I do it as good as everybody else?

I did it at my level. Yeah. And, and that's, Yeah. You know, that's, I. That's the CrossFit experience. If I went to a gym, we're all gonna ride the same bike. We're all gonna, you know, we're all gonna do jazzer size, we're all gonna do, you know, the same treadmill and, you know, you know, I don't need a lettuce cocktail to help me feel better.

You know, that's not what that's about. Yeah. You know, you know, the

[00:17:19] Sam Rhee: thing that I admire the most about Joran, and, and also I want listeners to know, it's not just all wine and roses. You have the same path to progression that many of us do. You have injuries like for a while your foot was really bothering you.

Yeah. You know, health issues that you gotta deal with. And then, but you always came back. I would remember seeing you at 5:00 AM and, and you were always there for a while and then for a while you're not. And I'd see you back again and you're like, I had this foot thing and you know, Yep.

And but now that's getting better and I'm gonna take care. I'm taking care of that and I'm coming back. And a lot of people. I mean, I'm gonna group you with me cuz you know I'm in my fifties, so, of our age. We'll start something and when we have setbacks, something new like this, it will stop, because it's just, it's hard.

This is not easy. Who wants to wake up and go to the gym at 5:00 AM every day? Right? That's, that's a real challenge. But your personality is such that, You, you slog through it, whatever setbacks you've had, because CrossFit is like life, Like nothing is, It's not like a steady progression. Your clean weight just keeps going up and up and up.

No, like you said, some days it's just not there. Right. Some days you, you get hurt and, or you're, feeling not so great, but you. Keep going. And I think that is really the true lesson that I take from you is that I don't care where I am with it or how I'm feeling or what's going on. I'll do the best that I can and I'll keep going and I'm not gonna quit, just because, something happens to you.

[00:18:55] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: It's, it's just a setback. Yeah. You know, when. When I had to quit football to go to work in, in my sophomore year, I remember if the coach left me with one positive thing, cuz it was a lot of negativity, he, he rode my ass for the next three years. It was, he said, you know, you can't get into the habit of quitting things cuz if you get into the habit of quitting things, it becomes a lifestyle.

Hmm. And I never forgot that. You know, it got me through college, it got me through, you know, building a business, buying a building, moving the business growing a radio show. It's almost like I'm afraid to quit because I'm afraid to stop. Once I stop, you get in that habit. It's a bad habit to get into.

Do I take breaks? Do I snitch a soda once in a while? Yeah. You know, I had PT yesterday. Nobody's gonna come to the house and arrest me. I'm just gonna have to pay for it on Monday when I come back to run or whatever. We're gonna do, what are we doing,

[00:19:45] David Syvertsen: burpees Monday. Yeah.

[00:19:47] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: You know? And listen, sometimes you got, I change things up and I think everybody has to realize that, you know?

So I used to come five days a week. Now I come four days a week. I do Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Wow, that's a lot. Yeah. Well, I used to come, I actually used to come. Cause I'd come Saturday morning, but you know, I was beating myself to death. Right. So let's talk

[00:20:05] David Syvertsen: about that real quick. Like, this is something I think a lot of people could relate to.

It's like, because we do, I just had a conversation with someone about this actual topic yesterday morning after class. They always wanna feel like they're. Inching up like another victory by inches, Right. Coming in every single day and just getting a little bit better. At what point did you realize, and how, how did you realize that sometimes doing that much volume, that much work, could actually kind of send you backwards

[00:20:31] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: when, Listen, I u I'm used to getting up in pain every day.

Not because of here Yeah. But because of what I do. Right. It's a very physical job. You're on, you're on concrete, 12 hours a day. So I'm used to getting up in the morning and being so stiff I have to kind of hobble around for the first 10 minutes to warm up. Right. That's normal. I've been doing that for 20 years.

Yeah. I realized when I got to the point where I wasn't as effective, even at scale mm-hmm. that, you know, I, I just wasn't, I just, I just didn't feel good. Right? But it doesn't mean you stop. It just means, you know, it's like a car. The car's not running a hundred percent. You get rid of the car. No, you gotta tune it.

You gotta tweak it a little bit. You gotta change something. You know, I realized that, well, maybe, you know what? Maybe all those burpees, if my feet hurt, maybe all those burpees on Wednesday isn't a great idea. You know, two weeks ago we did the warmup. We were jumping on the 20. Pound plate. And the next day, my Achilles heel and my right foot was killing me.

Mm-hmm. . Today when we did the warmup, I didn't use the plate. I just did, I just did jumping air squat kind of things, like jumping jacks almost. And it warm me up. It was good. Yeah. You know, you just gotta know. Who, and you gotta know your body. You gotta know what you're trying to achieve. Mm-hmm. , it's not working harder.

It's like fixing a car. It's working smarter. Smarter. Yeah. And, and, you know, you gotta, you gotta limit what you do. You know, last week we were doing squats. I'm up to a 2 45 back squat now. Is it nice? I can do that in two reps. It's big time. I think I got two 60 in me. Wow. You'll have

[00:21:53] David Syvertsen: the opportunity.

We're gonna, we still have another couple months of

[00:21:55] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: squatting. So, so, and you know, and I was gonna go to two 60, but I had done my three. Yeah. And I'm, I'm squatting with Andy and Andy's I don't like, and he's like, and I'm like, Okay, I'll wait. , I'll, No peer pressure here. Yeah, no. You know, it's, it's, But you know, I look around at the gym now and I guess I've been here a while and I see the newbies coming in.

Yeah. And you know, I try to be positive. I try to be encouraging, you know, because there's a lot of social stuff here at the, at a gym in this setting, you know? Yeah. Everybody's a little awkward. We all got our social masks on. We're trying to. Not look stupid. Yeah. You know, I don't care. I've, I've looked stupid before.

I'll look stupid again. I'm gonna make mistakes. I've, I've, I've learned, you know, that's what it is. But, you know, just to keep plugging away. Just you know, don't worry about if the weight's on your barbell or the smallest ones in the gym. Hell, I used to work out with no weights on my barbell. Mm-hmm.

You know, it's, it's, and nothing would stop

[00:22:52] David Syvertsen: you, even now if something was bothering you and you didn't feel, you would've no issue or hesitation in taking that weight off the bar and just moving it the bottom. And I've done it. Yeah.

[00:22:59] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: I've done it. I've, I, I've, I've, I've changed in the middle of the workout go, Yeah, this, this doesn't feel right.

I, I, you know, I'm killing myself. I'm gonna get hurt or I'm gonna make this worse. And it's, it's, it's getting there. You know what, my shoulder's actually getting better because I've been working on my left shoulder, been beat up. You know, it's, if I went down the. Places that are sore right now. But the problem is I can't tell you if it's, if it's my age, I can't tell you if it's from the gym.

I can't tell you if it's from work. You know? It's, it's what I am. You know, why do I keep coming to CrossFit? Because what's the alternative? I'm gonna go to a gym. I guarantee I'm gonna come off of a rower, a, a bike or a treadmill, and I'm gonna hurt just as much. But you know what, You know, it's really cool when you hang out with all your buddies that you went to high school with.

Yeah. Yeah, I gotta get up. I gotta go to CrossFit at 5:00 AM Yeah. Oh, how many of them are saying, Right. You know, what are you coaching? No, no. What are you, what are you, what are you sweeping for? No, I gotta work out with the kids. . You know, it's, it's, I gotta go do this. Yeah. Oh really? You do CrossFit? Oh yeah.

[00:23:52] David Syvertsen: Yeah. That's awesome. You know, it's, it's, I mean, I think also just like listening to, like, you definitely are pretty deep thinker and you reflect a lot on what CrossFit does for you and, and honestly what you do for CrossFit and I. One of the things that you do for our gym is, or Ron will write kind of like a dear diary in our private Facebook group for our members to read.

I mean, every would say on average, I don't know, once a month, who will read something and I'm gonna read one of 'em. And this is, again, this is for everyone to read and it's, you know, probably 10 sentences top. So here we go. Dear diary, Quite the workout week, it has been a real honor to sweat so much in the.

Of all of our service people from all branches and all walks of life. Today, I almost finished the seven rounds of manion and I asked myself, driving home, what did I learn today? And up to this point in my efforts, in my efforts to get fit, I can tell you in two words, A lot I found out there is success and failure.

Well, actually not finishing isn't a failure. It's a learning cycle. It tells me what I need to work on to get stronger and better, and I am, Every time I get up from a chair or lift something heavy at work or any one of that hundred everyday task, I realize. Now how much easier and effortlessly it has done.

What a struggle my life was till I found CrossFit. The positive and let's fucking go attitude lfg. attitude stretches beyond my time at bison. It is every day, every minute, and like my work day, and I cut back where I have to, but still do my best to get the job. As we head into the end of the week with Murf coming up, I am so excited to do that Monday, Old Man or not.

Thanks. Diary for listening. L fg,

[00:25:35] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: You know, when I work out sometimes, and especially around Murf and, and some of the other holidays, and we honor the veterans and those that have served and continue to serve, it blows my mind when I, when I think about how hard those people have worked, how hard. The, the World War II generation worked, how hard all the generations has worked.

I, I think about, you know, for some reason, my mind goes to this at times, I think about how hard those kids worked to storm the beaches of Normandy, never make it off the beach. I mean, two years of working out and, you know, to defend, to take care of me, to defend our country, to, to maintain our way of life and say, You know what, you gotta put it in per.

They had to do it. They had to be in the best physical shape of their life. And what payback did they get? What reward did they get? I guess there was a personal reward for them at their own level. When I come to the gym to work out, I don't have to achieve anywhere near the physical fitness of what they did, you know?

Mm-hmm. . But it's for me, yeah, it, it's, it's, it's, that's my reward. I feel, I feel better. I can sit there and. You know, it's the truth. When I wrote that and it's, it's still true today, I feel better having worked out. You know, I, I hope all the newbies that come in, they just stick with it. That they realize, you know, it's, you're not gonna move the marker that fast and sometimes you're gonna move the marker backwards.

You know, the gym, coming to the gym, you know, Cause my wife and I talk about it. She kind of doesn't get it either. Sorry, honey. She won't watch anyway. She hard listens to the show. I talk her about, on the show, nobody, she, I sue who I go, Oh, it's not . I wasn't talking about you. You know, they, my kids get it, you know, my kids understand why I do it.

You know, but it's, it's, I. You know, you gotta have the drive, you gotta want to do this. If you want to be better, it's gonna happen. It just takes

[00:27:27] Sam Rhee: time. I was gonna ask you this, and I think you were gonna tie into this about the growth of CrossFit. So you are a unique personality and, and, and I know a lot of unique personalities in our gym who really do have that drive.

They have that sticktuitiveness, they have grit. It. Trying to grow CrossFit and get more people into it. You're right, I have a lot of friends and they have and family members and trying to get them into CrossFit would not be a very fruitful task. Not that they don't have grit or drive or whatever, but is CrossFit for everyone.

And what do you tell your friends and how do you like. Are you someone who tells people they should be doing CrossFit? Like what is your approach to others who aren't doing it around you? Because they see you as someone who is unique and CrossFit and a badass and CrossFit is

[00:28:21] David Syvertsen: scary.

[00:28:22] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: Yeah, and I've, I've had those conversations with friends and family you know, and customers, you know, they come in at the shop and we're talking and you know, it comes up in conversation.

You know, I think CrossFit is for every. I, I think at some level, do I think everybody's gonna, you know, in five years do muscle ups? I don't know. I don't think so. I, I think the idea of CrossFit to me is, it's, it, it comes back to functional fitness. You know what functional fitness is? I'm 66 years old.

Some guy rolls in with an escalating, he's got 20 inch wheels on it. You know how heavy a 20 inch tire is? It's gotta weigh 75 pounds. And you gotta walk up to the thing, take the lug nuts off, and you ooh, you know, and you pick it up and you're walking around the shop and you put it on the back. That's functional fitness.

Could I do that? Working out at a gym? I don't know. I don't think so. I don't see, you know, the endurance, the, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the physical and the mental toughness. And that's something we don't really talk a lot about. There is a mental toughness. It improves your mental conditioning. Doing CrossFit.

Like I said, I've, I've done. The gym, the big box gym routine thing. Mm-hmm. , treadmills and bicycling and and and so forth. That didn't make me mentally tough. This makes me mentally tough because I can walk outta here with my head held high that I did something. You accomplished something. Yeah.

Nevermind my age group. Just a lot of people younger than me aren't doing, Can't do. Yeah. So how would I, how would I sell it to them? Yeah. Hey, try something different. You know, I ask people, I say, How do you feel? I feel like crap. Okay. You want to feel better? Yeah. Do you ever think about going to the gym?

Yeah, but the gym is boring. Well, I got something for you because trust me, it's like, you know, if you get bored in this place, being bored at CrossFit is kind of like driving a muscle car with no seatbelt at 90 with your head hanging out the window going , You know, if you don't pay attention, a friend of mine's got a 60, a real 66 Shelby GT three 50, right?

I once asked Jimmy, I said, I said, Jimmy, what's it like driving? You know, he says Blue is always trying to kill you and if you're not paying attention, she's like, Oh, look at that telephone pole. Bang, . You know? And that's kinda like what the gym is like, right? The gym is sorta like driving a muscle car a hundred miles an hour, not paying attention.

You can't one finger an old muscle car going down the road, a new one. You could. Yeah. And that's what the gym is like if you're not paying attention when you got 2 45 on your back, if you're not paying attention when you're trying to do a, a snatch or if you're not paying attention when you're just running on the road.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, the other day I turned and I wasn't paying attention and I, you know, I, Oh look, there is a car there, . You know, the worst was when we did the 800 meter r thank God. I started to run the 800 meter run and we go around the block and we got on the other side of the block and I came around.

Yeah, and there's four Deer , and I'm like, Look at this. I'm gonna get run over by Bambi you know, I didn't even tell you and, and because I'm, because I'm slower and I'm, I'm last on the run. All the deer watched everybody go by and they're like, Okay. And you can see him. They're all like, Okay, let's see who this guy is.

Like you. This must be the slow guy. You know, we always, we always eat the last guy cuz he's the, he's the least fit of the herd. But I got by you know, it's They gave you one? Yeah, they gave me one. They let me go. It's different.

[00:31:24] Sam Rhee: That is true. There are no training wheels in CrossFit. You do have to bring your mind as

[00:31:27] David Syvertsen: well as your body into it.

You gotta bring your mind. Yeah. I think that's one thing that from the outside, if you, if there was one message that I could have get into everyone's head that's on the outside and at some point wants to try something new in the fitness. Industry, it would be, it has less to do with your physical ability and capacity and more to do with your mindset, right?

Like you, you, if you make the mind, if you make up your mind that you're gonna come in and put your best foot forward, check the ego at the door, be coachable. It'll be a program that works for you. Yes. And it has nothing to do with what you can and cannot do physically. It has

[00:31:59] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: nothing to do with physical strength.

It, it really doesn't it, it has nothing to do with physical strength. It has nothing to. With capability and coordination. I think you develop all that. I think it's, I think your mental attitude helps build your, your physical attitude and your physical presence. You know, I didn't even realize it. Marco pointed it out to me one day.

Yeah. Remember Marco? Yeah. Yeah. Marco, where are you? Yeah. and Marco pointed it out to me one day. He came to the 6:00 AM and I'm, I'm finishing up 5:00 AM and I'm carrying the bar belt back in my right hand, you know, and I'm kind of, and he is like, Look at. He, I said, What? He goes, Look at what you're doing, and I.

Oh yeah. Crap. Look at this. I can carry the barbell in one hand. Now.

[00:32:39] David Syvertsen: Not easy, not easy to carry barbell one

[00:32:41] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: hand. I'm just, and I got the weights in my other hand that I'm going, Oh, oh, I guess I, but, you know,

[00:32:46] David Syvertsen: but that's soon you're gonna show up wearing a tank top to the gym.

[00:32:50] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: Never know. I, you know, it's, it's, I'll get a rocky tank top.

Let's, I

[00:32:54] David Syvertsen: like your

[00:32:54] Sam Rhee: rocky.

[00:32:55] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: It's one of my favorite, actually, you know, the, the Rocky Story stuff is, is because, you know, in my generation, Rocky was a big thing and, and I used. To psych myself up, you know, I'd have to go to work at three, four o'clock in the morning to keep the business, to get the business going.

You know, 30 years ago, I've been fixing cars 50 years. Start doing the math. It's scary. And I would walk out the door, you know,

when I started CrossFit. Yeah, my kids bought me rocky t-shirts. They said, You're gonna be rocky. You know you're gonna, you know, you're a million to one shot. You're gonna, you're gonna make this happen. And, you know, that's, that's what that's about. It's, it's, it's, it's nothing more, nothing less. But again, you know, that's state of mind.

I'll look down at that Rocky t-shirt or any one of the t-shirts, you know, rub some dirt. Old men don't take or old, what is it? What does the one say? Real old men don't take naps. Real old men let steal and then take naps. You know, , that's all mindset. That's all you know. How tough are you? How bad do you want this?

You know, I'm done being a pushover. I don't want to be a pushover. I want to be physically fit and I wanna take crap from anybody. And that's, and some of that's in there. Hell yeah. I'm gonna do boxing. Can we do boxing

[00:34:04] David Syvertsen: first? next Tuesday. Vibe. So give me this, if, what would you say if you were sitting across the table from someone and they were on the brink of either quitting, stopping and you're having a conversation with 'em, They have all these different excuses.

What, what would you wanna say in your most honest state, no sugar coating?

[00:34:25] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: You know, are, are you happy where you are in life? Yeah. Are you happy with how your life is turning? , you know, because CrossFit, the mentality for CrossFit is beyond just, I gotta get up at 5:00 AM and go to the gym and, and, and try and do these, these, these great big things.

You know what, there's a regimen involved in life. To be successful in life, you, you have to be organized. You have to be responsible. You have to be driven. And you can take all of that and apply it to CrossFit. And at the end of the day, if applying that to CrossFit, Physically fit, more physically fit than what you are and you know, aren't you better off?

You know, it's, it's kinda like, are you better off with CrossFit than you are without it? Cause what's the alternative? It's the alternative is CrossFit or nothing. All right. Yeah, that's probably not gonna work too long. You know, it's like, I want to be on the planet at least another 35 years, and then I'll decide what do I wanna do next.

You know, the people that, and I get it. I get why people want to quit because they're looking for, You know, we talked about this, you know, they want to be sexier, they want to be stronger, They want to be able to wear a tank top after two weeks, you know, after eating hotdogs and donuts for 35 years, you know,

It doesn't work like that. Yeah. There's, there's no fast food in life. There's no fast path to good physical fitness. Yep. Agreed. You know, and that's, and that's really the bottom line. If, if, if, if I had to convince somebody, I'd say just do. Try it. Keep going, Do less. You know what? And I would ask them, Are you keeping a log?

Are you writing down what you can do now versus what you could do a month ago, two months ago, three months ago? If the answer's no. I gotta tell you, you're just showing up. Great idea. You know what, You haven't been, you haven't been, you've been trying, but you've been disorganized about it. Start writing stuff down.

Mm-hmm. . I know where my numbers are. I'm so excited to go back squat again. Or, or I wanna get back to doing cleans again. Curls, curls, cleans again. Yeah. Curls. Curls with the girls, you You know, so that's what I would tell 'em. It's, it's, if you're, quit. I tell you what my coach told me in my sophomore year, once you start quitting, it's a bad habit to break.

What do you do outside the gym

[00:36:30] Sam Rhee: now? in terms of your

[00:36:32] David Syvertsen: lifestyle? Is it good, Is it bad?

[00:36:36] Sam Rhee: Like how do you live your nutrition and sleep and everything else that, you know, sort of makes up

[00:36:42] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: your health? Nutrition is hardest, right? You know, we, we live in the food capital of the world here. Mm-hmm. , You know, it's like, I think I would be skinnier if I lived out in Oklahoma, because there's no pizza, there's no bagels, there's no, you know, I did a season of television or two for Scripps Networks about 20 years ago.

We were doing TV down in Knoxville, Uhhuh. And you know, and the first night after the shoot, they, they, they, you know, and we're gonna pick you up at. You know, seven o'clock and we got bagels from Paneras tomorrow. And I'm like, Wow, really? Like, that's it. Like, you know, And I don't wanna hurt their feelings, but I'm like, you know, listen, I'm from New Jersey.

You kidding me? Got a bagel store in every corner. . Real bagels too. Real bagels, you know, So it's hard. I try to cut out bread. You know, bread has wheat. I try to stay away from wheat. Do I snitch a soda a week? Yeah. I have a Dr. Pepper here and there, but I don't, you know, I don't guzzle. I don't have more than one.

Tonight for dinner I had a cheeseburger, which was a burger, some cheese. I had a pickle. I cheated. For dinner. I had my bread, I had an English muffin bun and I had a bottle of Perrier and that was dinner. I

[00:37:40] David Syvertsen: love that. That's a cheat, like to have a, to have bun with your cheeseburger. That's my,

[00:37:44] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: that's my cheat.

[00:37:45] David Syvertsen: How much did, how much thought did you start putting into the nutrition side? A lot after you started CrossFit and contrasted before, like night and day. Listen, night and day. Because it's a lifestyle,

[00:37:54] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: right? Well, it's a lifestyle and because you're sitting there, you're putting that donut in your mouth going, God, this is 20 burpees,

You know? There's no way, you know, it's like you start weighing it up. Is is, is it worth the burpee? Is it worth the mile one? Eh, you know what I. You know, it's, it's, it's, and as you get older, you know, listen, no lie, right as you get older, I'm gonna live to see my grandkids. I'm gonna have a granddaughter.

My first granddaughter's coming February. I wanna live to see that. I wanna be here to help raise that kid and teach that kid about the world. Yep. You know, I wanna be the elder. You know, it's, I think that's

[00:38:27] David Syvertsen: so important for so many people to hear it. Like you, you can, you don't have to go into talking about cross food with your current, you know, bathing suicides or what you look like.

It could be like you're, if you have kids or you're gonna have grandkids, or at some point you wanna be around for people, like what you do will matter 15, 20, 30 years from now

[00:38:43] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: when the kids are older. You know, we, we. The adults, we have a, I have a responsibility to the next group. Yes. I have to leave the world a better place than I found it.

And the only way I can do that is to explain to 'em, here's the things I did wrong. Mm-hmm. , here's the things I did. Right. Here's what I think you should do. An elder is supposed to impart wisdom. I mean, that's what you're supposed to do. That's your obligation. That's what you're, that's what you're supposed to do.

You know, like they say, you're supposed to leave the world to a better place. You know what I've. Not to be corny or anything. I've watched my kids be born, You know what? To watch the miracle of birth and see that happen. There's more to life than just what we physically see here. There's, there's, there's a higher being of some magnitude.

Mm-hmm. , he didn't put us here by accident. You know, to make it better. I think that's our obligation. I agree. To live longer, you gotta do CrossFit. Yeah. It's that simple. Mm-hmm. . It really is. It's just, it's just that simple. Do it at some. Best I got David. Yeah, that's awesome. Love that

[00:39:36] David Syvertsen: answer, you know.

All right, well, hey Ron. Thanks so much for coming on. Dude. This was, Mm. Even we, we were both so excited for this. We've been talking about this for a long time. Well, I'm, I'm honored to be here really, and this ones even better than, than I was even hoping it would be. And you know, I know you're a busy guy and you are a celebrity.

might be one of the most famous people we've had on the podcast. We really do appreciate your time. You

[00:39:59] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: know what's weird? You, you. And I'm, I'm really just so glad to be here. Listen, I love coming to this place. I really do. It's love having you here. It's, it's, it's just, it's the acceptance. It's, it's, you know, it's like I go out on the run and like this morning, way to go run, way to go run.

Way to go run. You know, it's, it's, you know, it's, Although it does work against me because, well, you know, what was it, last week we were doing the run and my feet was, my foot was shot. And you were like, Yeah, do have the run. And then the kids took me out there and I'm like, All right, I guess I gotta do the whole run out.

Oh, we look up, right. I'll do the whole run. You know, it's,

[00:40:30] David Syvertsen: So, but now, I mean, yeah, as, as much impact that you feel bison has had on your life, I think you have a, a very equal impact on bison and its people and everyone that's listening. Definitely me as a coach. Definitely love having you here.

It's humbling to have people like you at the gym because you know, without stories like you, without people like you, I don't, I don't think this place exists.

[00:40:48] Ron Ananian THE CAR DOCTOR: I really don't. Well, thank you. I, I mean that from the bottom of my heart. It's an honor to be here with you guys. It really is. So,

[00:40:53] David Syvertsen: yeah. Thanks Ron.

And we'll see you guys next time. That was awesome. It's almost like you're pretty comfortable on the microphone.