Durable. Resilient. Bombproof. Sturdy. A Conversation With Rich Froning

Kelly and Rich Froning Jr. together

Yeah. We are talking about humans here. The internet may have you believe otherwise, but your body is a miracle of a tolerant, self-healing bio-machine that is easily capable of lasting a hundred years or more.  Here at TRS, we often say that you are more likely to outlive your gonads than your joints. 

A coach we admire, Frans Bosch, said recently that there is more variation in waltzing than there is in sprinting.   What he means by this is, that when we move slowly or under low load how we move appears to matter less.  When we are moving at high speed or under high load, best movement practices and movement solutions all start to approximate each other. That is, best practices start to reveal themselves under a little pressure and intensity.  This is why we look to high-level sport and performance environments as a sort of real-world living laboratory. 

Let’s be clear, even if we mortals can’t keep up with the training volumes and workloads of the world’s best athletes, there is real value in trying to understand how they have come to be able to work that hard. Hint: good genetics are a starting point, but not the whole game.

The father of the scientific method is Sir Francis Bacon.  He pointed out that science at its heart was trying to induce pattern recognition (induction) through large sets of data.  One of the best parts of my job is getting to hang out with the world’s most freakishly athletic people.  When they speak about the kinds of practices that allow them to perform at a high level for decades, you’d better bet that I’m listening.

At a recent training camp in Tennessee, I was able to sit down with Rich Froning Jr.  Rich is flat out one of the greatest athletes I’ve ever worked with.  He has more gold medals in the Crossfit Games than anyone else, and he’s also probably the most durable human I’ve ever met.  Like ever.  I asked him what he thought was the key to his legendary resilience and trust me, I took lots of notes.

I hope this helps you get into your Ready State!  Enjoy!

 – Kelly 

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