Mindset After Not Making It To The CrossFit Games, Current Training Methodology and Why Josh Bridges Is So Dangerous - Dan Bailey - #004

**Dan Bailey** (0:00)
Like the Games is important to me, and being that athlete is important to me, and being the fittest man on earth is always something that I've been trying to do, trying to accomplish. But there's so many other things that I would like to be remembered for. Like if I die and all that's on my gravestone is, here lies the fittest man on earth in 20 whatever, I'd be pretty disappointed with myself. I think I would look at that as more of a failure than not making it to the Games.

**Chris Williamson** (0:37)
Mr. Dan Bailey, welcome.

**Dan Bailey** (0:39)
Thanks for having me.

**Chris Williamson** (0:39)
How are you feeling in the UK? You good? Enjoying it?

**Dan Bailey** (0:42)
Yeah, yeah, it's my second time here.

**Chris Williamson** (0:43)
Not to London, but second time here. I heard the only place you've ever been in the UK before is Manchester, right? Correct.

**Dan Bailey** (0:48)
Yeah, down at Sam's gym.

**Chris Williamson** (0:50)
At Train?

**Dan Bailey** (0:51)
Yeah, at Train, yeah. We did a good dude's camp, Josh, Rich and I down there. We had fun, yeah, it was good. I mean, we spent a lot of time at the gym, obviously.

**Chris Williamson** (0:59)
So, on Instagram yesterday, I saw Dave trying to put you off during a photo shoot.

**Dan Bailey** (1:03)
Oh, yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (1:05)
Have you ever tried to just sort of give him a little nudge or whatever, before he's got a workout or like whisper random movements in his ear?

**Dan Bailey** (1:12)
We go back and forth every now and then on things like that, but no, Dave treats me like a little brother sometimes, so I appreciate it.

**Chris Williamson** (1:21)
You get looked after.

**Dan Bailey** (1:22)
We have fun with it, yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (1:23)
That's cool. It's such a good interplay seeing you guys, you're obviously such good friends. Right. I think that seeing the guys that are at the pinnacle of the sport, that are still so tight and you can kind of see yourself and the relationships, yeah, like it's really, really nice. I think that sets a really good example for the community as well, which must feel empowering for you guys.

**Dan Bailey** (1:43)
Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's good to know you guys see that.

**Chris Williamson** (1:45)
We really, really do.

**Dan Bailey** (1:45)
It's authentic. It's legit, yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (1:47)
So can you talk to me about your changes in training styles over the years? So what you're doing different now that you were five years ago, ten years ago?

**Dan Bailey** (1:54)
Sure. I think a lot of new CrossFitters, like right when I got in, obviously it's like volume, volume, volume, you know, you're trying to play catch up almost on all these different things that you have to learn. And then as you kind of get through some of that, you kind of start to figure out how to do muscle ups, how to snatch properly, how to, you know, you get your technique down and your mechanics down, then some of that volume, I've kind of dropped off a little bit in specific times of the year and focused more on the quality. Getting in more intensity, getting in more simulations of actual workouts that you're going to see in the open regionals or the games, and not so much of the beat down.

**Chris Williamson** (2:34)
You don't have to get as much time under the curve, maybe?

**Dan Bailey** (2:36)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, kind of.

**Chris Williamson** (2:37)
So in terms of training volume, be a little bit more specific.

**Dan Bailey** (2:40)
Yeah, especially when you start looking at, like the regionals, time frame in the regionals weekend is pretty set, right? You know, you're going to compete for three days and you're probably going to do two workouts a day. Maybe it's three scored workouts, but it's really one workout that's crushed together or something like that. So as long as you're training within those confines and improving your weaknesses in that kind of parameter, you're going to be doing enough.

**Chris Williamson** (3:04)
I guess that comes with experience as well, right?

**Dan Bailey** (3:05)
Sure, sure, it comes with the experience, yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (3:07)
So Reebok's got a lot of bases covered with its range of CrossFit shoes now. So you've got Nano, Speed TR, Legacy Lifter. Is there a shoe that you keep on finding yourself wearing all the time?

**Dan Bailey** (3:18)
I love the Nano. I'm actually kind of partial to Speed TR.

**Chris Williamson** (3:21)
Really?

**Dan Bailey** (3:21)
I'm a big fan of any shoe that I can put on and go run three miles immediately as well as it's not going to get torched on the rope. I'm pretty happy with, I'm excited with and that's kind of what I lean towards.