Day In The Life of CrossFit Games Athlete LUKE PARKER

If you're trying to be the best at anything.

It takes what it takes, right? And a lot of that, a lot of the time, not all the time, that means more than everyone else.

Morning, bro.

Bob's so Bob actually is an absolute legend in our gym, our home gym across the mayhem. The dude actually was in a workout and technically had a heart attack and fell dead in the gym. Yeah, he had to be resuscitated. And anyway, long story short, he's with us and he has a lake house and he just loves having the competitive elite athletes, the CrossFit Games athletes over at his house because he's got a really nice setup on the lake where we can. Where he goes out and loves to set up buoys where we just get some open water swimming training. Just to give a little context, we. We did get the first. Technically it was the second workout I got released, but it's the first they released. This will be the first event of the CrossFit Games for 20 will be a run first into a swim. Unknown distances, but they said four miles total volume. And there's been some people that are like boots on the ground in Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas area.

At the park where they think it is going to be. So I think the best guess right now is roughly three and a half, ish, three point, whatever, a little bit over three mile run into an 800 meter swim. So technically last year was my first year in the Games, my rookie season as an individual. My first year of the games competing was the year before that. I came in fifth place on team, which the goal is the podium. But I was super stoked with fifth place on team. We had a solid team, but it was really cool the whole year we got to train Rich's Mayhem Freedom Team, which is the team that won. It was Rich's last gold medal before retiring. So that was cool because we got to train alongside him like all year. Like our team, our two guys and two girls would go head to head with his two guys and two girls and train against pretty much like race each other all year in training, which was like we'll never be able to like replicate that training atmosphere again. It was just so special. But.

But yeah, then this past year I got to.

Go lone wolf the individual side of things and did. The first event was a, they call it cyclocross. It was, it was pretty much like a little mountain bike bike race and around the loop, some of it, most of it was grass and some of it was also gravel, like kind of slick ground and Loose rock and dude, I ate it on the bike on the first event. Had to get stitches. So I literally started the weekend off with stitches. 30 minutes later I had to go do like 100 wall balls squat with stitches in my knee. That's brutal. Yeah, this year I feel really good. I.

I had a in mind and it was just to be healthy on day one. So I've been this time of year, man, well across the mayhem. Like part of our style of programming is just high volume. If you're trying to be the best at anything.

It takes what it takes, right? And a lot of that, a lot of the time, not all the time. That means more than everyone else, you know. So endurance runners, right? Who's usually your champion runner, the guy that runs more than everyone else as far as training volume. But now it's not always the case like that. Obviously you got to train smarter, not harder.

Peak at the right time and prepare your body for what it's about to go through. And that's part of what I'm figuring out as an athlete is I'm used to this time of year for the CrossFit Games feeling like half of a human being because I'm destroying myself with all the training volume and trying to rely on the. The fact that if I get that taper week and get some extra rest, I'm gonna feel like a superhero on game day. And it's a long season. So I.

Yeah, my big goal this year is just to show up healthy. And right now in this time of year.

For games training, I'm the healthiest, least amount of, you know, bumps and bruises and bang, being banged up and no injuries. So that's like a huge win for me right now. Cause usually this time of year smoked, I'm just a piece of burnt toast.

You're the one that asked for the extra meters. For the what? Extra meters last week. Oh, maybe a little. I did. Honestly, you're right. You know what they say, be careful what you pray for, right? Yeah. That's Bob. He's a legend. So it's going to be three sets. I don't know what the warm up will be, but the workout will be three sets. Two mile run into 600 meter swim. So freaking amount of volume.

Your life.

And if you don't love me now, you will never love me again I can't still feel.

I can still hear you say Never break.

I was happy with the last round. I finished drill. I was running like, excuse me, like 640 miles and then swam whatever I had left in the tank, the first few hundred meters, you just try to get your heart rate down and like survival swim. And then slowly start pulling harder, engaging the lats a little more. And then also at the last half, I start kicking a little harder. So I have like a little flutter and then a kick hard. A flutter and a kick hard. Yeah, you do like a scissor and then a flutter. Yeah, scissor and a flutter. Because in the beginning it's just kind of this, right? I'm like trying to get my heart rate down. And that's, that's not a bad plan coming off a run. Yeah. Recover the legs a little bit, get your heart rate down a little bit. That's actually a good plan. And then when you recoup. Yeah, then you can start doing that. Yeah. Increasing that kick. That's where your speed. All top swimmers all have good kicks. More so than good stroke.

This is Kevin Powers, by the way. He's ex Division 1 swimming coach, so he knows what he's talking about.

One thing I pride myself on in CrossFit is nutrient timing. Especially when we're competing. I mean, sometimes we only get an hour or 90 minutes until the next event. And this is my favorite thing to take between events. Literally right when I'm done, I have my brother who's kind of my, my nutrition coach. And then my, my other coach.

My CrossFit coach will just hand me a bottle of Formula One. I usually just do one scoop of this. One scoop of this. So 20 grams of protein. One scoop of this is 40 grams of carbs, which obviously is a crossfitter carb. So like the most important thing, that's my energy.

I'm fine now and then later I'm going be like.

What we got for the ride home? Smashing a chicken egg in hash brown burrito. And I have an egg white griller right there. I got extra hash browns, but I'm probably not going to eat those.

Since I've already crushed post workout Stag Formula one check. But boys are fueling up because we got a long day of training. I got a coffee right there too.

I think it's actually really interesting. You ask, like, you know, what did it feel like making it to the CrossFit Games for the first time? Yo, honestly, I think this is kind of interesting, but when I made it, I was like, oh, this is it. Now, granted, obviously I'm not the gold medalist from last year. Like I won the games or anything. I guess I'm trying to say I'm not on the top of the mountain. Yet I'm still pursuing, like, closing the gap to be, to be my best and to obviously win. It's always the goal, right, as a competitor is to win. But when I made it, man, it was kind of like, oh, man, I've been focused, dedicated the last four years of my life to this, five years of my life to this. And it's like, this is it kind of feeling. And from a standpoint of like, oh, there's so much more to life than just this sport, you know what I mean? And I really like what my brother told me. He goes, man, I'm so proud of you because, like, you're going to take.

All of your experiences in life. And he was talking about CrossFit specifically of like, man, you were like, you weren't any good when you started CrossFit and you turned yourself into a CrossFit Games athlete by throwing yourself into the fire and being so consistent and working so hard and like having discipline. All these things that we know we all strive to do right? And he was like, man, and like, you dealt with so much adversity and here you are now. You achieved your goal. He's like, man, when you go into the business world or start a business, he's like, you're going to be able to obtain that and use that for every other aspect of life. Even being a father, like being a guy right now who's about to have his first son and yeah, relationships, anything, it ties into every aspect of life. And I think it was really cool. My brother told me that it kind of fired me up, man, to be honest, because obviously I'm still pursuing being the fittest version I can be, right. And to do my best at the CrossFit Games. But I thought that was really cool. Just cool perspective. Like, it doesn't matter what you're doing. Like, dude, give it your. Give it your all, because you don't know what's coming down the the road. I think it's cool perspective too, to kind of zoom out from wherever you are. Because a lot of times we get focused on this mountain that we're looking at in front of us, this whatever, like whoever's listening, I don't know what goals or desires you have or what you're trying to obtain or what job you have, but. Or if it's the American dream or whatever you're trying to achieve. But, like, try to zoom out because whatever mountain you're trying, you're focused on, hyper focused on. And that's all you see. There's so many more mountains that you're going to be able to scale and climb once you get to the top of the mountain, you're focus on now, and there's so much more to life than just.

What you're doing. Right. Gotta latch onto our why and why we're doing it.

For me to look at a crib in my. In my home is just. It hits different, to say the least.

But yeah, all this stuff, like I just put all this together, a little changing table. Look, we got tons of diapers already stocked up.

But yeah. Gonna be a dad, huh? Yep. Yeah, I'm excited. Are you scared of them? No, I just. I think it's gonna be interesting the first year, maybe two, when. Well, I guess just year when they're just like a little blob and all they do is eat crap and sleep, you know, I'm excited for when he's like, you know, yay big, and I'll wrestle him and he'll run around with me and, you know, be a savage. All right, here's the ingredients for this cocktail we have. I'm gonna put one scoop of this ultraformance, which is electrolytes and carbs. One stick of hydration, which is just extra electrons, AKA salt and potassium. Half a scoop of this, because I had a half scoop this morning. And then I would put some magnesium in this, normally a little bit, but we have some in this blend, so I don't need that. And then here's.

A secret tip that I like to use. And I usually do this.

Consistently throughout the cross country season, but for me, it's because I train like a fiend, because that's what I do for a living. And if I'm ever in a place where volume is really high and I'm struggling with muscle cramps, baking soda really helps me with that. And it's essentially just sodium. So I'll put a couple teaspoons in a shaker bottle, which is roughly 20 ounces of water. I'll do that a couple times a day just to make sure that my sessions in the end of the day, as I'm trying to hydrate and take in as many electrolytes as possible, that by the end of the day, I'm not cramping in the middle of my workouts and I can't keep the intensity, so. Oh, you know what? I forgot to add.

I put some of this in there too. That's why it's a cocktail. Pink lemonade megawatt. I remember my first workout in the barn with Rich, I was coming to visit. This is before I committed a movie and to cook though. And it.

I think he would admit to this, but there was kind of an initiation process. So certain people that moved to Cookville or even just visited the barn, where he would literally go to the board and let a workout. And he usually would put a number and then sets next to it. But like, the initiation process would be a question mark. Sets. So you would see a workout and you have no idea how many sets you're gonna do. Like, is it two or is it 12? You know, and the workout I remember was like 30 calorie echo bike.

A hundred heavy double unders.

No, no, it was 25 cal echo bike, 100 heavy double unders, 25 calorie echo bike, four rope climb.

That's it, one to one rest. But I'm one to one on bridge, which means when I go, he's resting and then we switch where I'm resting and he's working. And when you do that with someone who's fitter than you, that means their split time on the workout is faster, which means they're cutting out less. So you're, you're getting less rest and you're going slower, which means you're giving them more rest so they're more fresh in the next round. So essentially, if you do one to one rest, you go, I go style. Someone who's fitter than you eventually drown like you're in sinking sink. And that was exactly my experience doing that. Rich and I just thankfully by his great graces. I think we only did.

4, 8, 12, 16, 20. I think we did five rounds of that, like 20 rope climbs worth of volume, 500 heavy double unders, however many calories in a bunk that is. And after the second round, I was doing sets of 10 on the heavy double unders. I was new to like CrossFit from a sense of like the high skills. So double unders were hard for me, much less the heavy cable double. Excuse me, double unders. He's just smooth. 100 unbroken every set. I was like doing 10. Shake out my arms, do 10. I almost fell from the top of the rope a few times, like struggling. He didn't even look like he was breathing hard. But yeah, that was, I remember that was a good initiation. I think he was testing me to see if I'd quit, which I didn't. But it was rough.

So I actually will do my workout probably on this turf because the, the pigs, they're really called flip sleds. I don't know if you've seen this big red block, blocks that Rogue makes, they're like £550 per minute. But yeah, I'll be flipping that. We'll see. I may do some muscle ups and I gotta look at the program but anyway, I might work out in here for the first workout.

All right.

First round's warm up.

Wearing other things that nobody wears.

You call my name but I gotta make it clear.

I can't say baby where I've been a year.

Oh.

I don't want to do this but it's the last set, so from the gutters I'll.

That's a follow for me. The intensity and the volume was obviously part of it, but primary movement was the pig flip. I was just trying to get volume on GHDs and under fatigue going broken smooth on. I mean bar muscle ups are easy for me compared to like handstand push ups in essence. But that was exactly executed I wanted. Now I'm going to do some higher intensity sprints on the row machine and then after when my pole should be hurting from swimming and rowing, I'm gonna do some heavy snatches which is good to get a little barbell touches. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 3 or 4. I sprinted that last round with whatever I had left. It probably looked the same speed and I looked probably a little sloppier. I just was.

I probably over paced it a little bit in the beginning, but I was trying to be smooth and give myself a little bit, knowing the fatigue would settle in. But this was a sticking point here. After the third round I was hurting but I had it in me to gut myself and like, hey, just push whatever you have left in the tank. I mean that's the part that's the biggest thing. Granted, I guess it's a good workout for me, but so I was able to like really have perfect negative split. But that's the biggest thing in this sport and like training in general is like pick a stimulus and stick to it no matter what the pace is and just be disciplined to hit what you're trying to get out of it. That's how you're going to get the most out of it. There's a time and place to full send and you get fitter that way, but you can't do that all the time. So I was happy with this. We changed our mind. We're actually going to do snatches first.

Then rowing. This is what we're doing. 185 for 5 rest, 90 seconds, 205 for 5. Rest 90 seconds. 225 for 5. Rest 90 seconds. 2:45 for 5.

Oh yeah. I'm gonna just do these row sprints 30 cal sprints.

Rest three to five minutes. We'll see how it goes four or five sets. But make sure the quality is like super high.

It.

What's the nightcap look like? Recover 4:30 to 6:30.

So soon. I have my small group. Some guys that I do Bible study with, their wives are coming over for couple Bible couples Bible study. Today is honestly our first day meeting together with the wives. So it'll be more of an intro. Just hang out a little bit and then eat a ton of food.

Is this a secret to being a high level prospect? Game passer 100. I gotta get my extra fruits in with Fruit Loops.

Blur it out so people don't know the secret.

Fruit Loops and baking powder. Yeah, Baking soda. Yeah, I heard you think the baby's gonna come early.

I told him that. You're adamant.

I hope so. Yeah, I saw somebody today and they were like.

I don't know what she said, but something to the extent because I'm due a week and a half, two weeks after the games and I plan on being in Texas. And she said something to the extent of, well, I hope you go, you know, I hope you make it to your due date. And I'm like, I don't. I just want to make it back from Texas.

Now. Are you hungry still? I'm about to eat. Well, I'm sure you are. Your second. What do you even call that? Burrito casserole.

Yeah, yeah.

Some food.

I don't like ketchup, by the way.

I don't like ketchup. Actually might need Alice trade.

That one's yours? Yeah, that one's mine. Thank you guys for being a part of the day in the life of a CrossFit Games training day. And yeah, I'll be on the competition floor here in a few weeks and I hope to have your guys support. See y' all soon.