Spartan Race and Reebok Team Up

A veteran of one Tough Mudder, anxious to participate in another, I've been paying a bit of attention to Spartan Race and wondering if this, seemingly greater challenge, makes any sense for me. Spartan Race videos are exciting, the events appear tough as hell, and I enjoy heaping long, abusive workouts upon myself. Probably I'm too old...but I have appreciation for Spartan Race.

Joe De Sena, Spartan Race founder and current CEO, sent out a press release last week annoucing Reebok as new title sponsor and partner with Spartan Race. Here are two lines from his essay:

"We both share the same ideals about the future of fitness and how it can transform people and communities forever."

"This is a sport for everyone, for all levels and all ages, from the elite athlete, to the first time participant."

Sounds a great deal like CrossFit, doesn't it? This appears to be a great move on the part of each company. Reebok clearly enjoys the adventure world, untraditional sports, and is unafraid to strike out into new territory. So far their investment in CrossFit appears to have been a sound decision; here's hoping title sponsorship of Spartan Race goes well. I've been very impressed with the reach of CrossFit, the activity, into the corporate mindset of Reebok, how employees and management staff participate and workout. I can't wait to see the same thing happening with Spartan Race. 

I'm hoping Don Hasselbeck asks me to be on his Spartan Race team!

My latest CrossFit injury: I got an Eddie Ifft!"

Fans of the Wodcast Podcast (subscribe right now via iTunes or the Podcast app, strap in your sense and humor, and enjoy!) will understand:

I was writing a check to my local CrossFit affiliate, with an old crummy pen I found in a drawer. It was sticky, the ink wouldn't flow well, and I actually injured my hand pushing the pen across the check! That night it hurt like hell, was very stiff and audibly creaked. My wife, also a regular listener of the Wodcast Podcast, gave no mercy and laughed at me. This isn't a phantom Eddie Effit injury, it was real, lasted two days, and got me as much laughter as Eddie's do from Kenny and Armen. 

Where's the truth about health and nutrition?

"Studies have found that hormone-replacement therapy is safe and effective, and also that it is dangerous and ineffective; that virtually every vitamin supplement lowers the risk of various diseases, and also that they do nothing for these diseases; that low-carb, high-fat diets are the most effective way to lose weight, and that high-carb, low-fat diets are the most effective way to lose weight; that surgery relieves back pain in most patients, and that back surgery is essentially a sham treatment; that cardiac patients fare better when someone secretly prays for them, and that secret prayer has no effect on cardiac patients. (Yes, these latter studies were undertaken by respected researchers and published in respected journals.)" - David Freedman in Columbia Journalism Review.

http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/survival_of_the_wrongest.php?page=all&print=true

Quality Supplements from Species Nutrition

Three of my favorite people work for UPS, FedEx and the USPS. When they show up on the porch I’m happy. Any day one of them appears with a Species Nutrition box in hand, I’m overjoyed.

Omegalyze is the latest fish oil / omega-3 capsuled product from Species. Dave Palumbo, head honcho of Species, has for years touted the health and fitness benefits of increased omega-3 consumption for everyone, not just athletes looking to cut body fat. Mineralyze is just what you think it is: minerals, chelated and also high in vitamin D. Nitrolyze-S is a nitric oxide-based pre-workout powder containing the usual suspects: creatine, caffeine, L-arginine, beta alanine and a slew of other jack-you-up ingredients. 

Species is probably better known in hardcore bodybuilding and strength-training circles than in the world of CrossFit, but athletes of all types will benefit from the high quality and innovation Species is known for. 

 

Mineralyze stands above many other mineral formulations simply due to being chelated. My understanding is that lightly binding to amino acids increases the bioavailability of the contents of this pretty large tablet. In other words, more of what you wash down your throat will be of use and make it’s way into your system. Who cares how big the horse pill is if most of it passes through your body? Mineralyze sticks to you!

Nitrolyze is produced by Species in two formulations; one is stimulant-free. Of course, I’m using the version with buffered caffeine. I’m happy to report, as a guy who drinks plenty of coffee and espresso each day, I’m not feeling overloaded nor in any way jittery when I send a serving of Nitrolyze down the hatch. Considering I usually workout in early evening so am using the product late in the afternoon, it’s not keeping me awake at all, either. Even with Nitrolyze consumed at 5:00 in the afternoon it’s easy for me to become sleepy in early evening, so don’t worry about that effect. 

Another hallmark of Palumbo’s supplement line is the absence of “proprietary blends.” This is one of the big grey areas of the supplement world; proprietary blends often are trademarked, so the seller doesn’t have to reveal the true contents. Who knows what’s truly in there, and in what concentrations? With Species Nutrition, everything is laid out for you, clearly, on the ingredients label.

 

Examine the label and see for yourself why this combination makes sense. Don’t fear using Nitrolyze-S before your workouts - enjoy knowing you’re heading into the gym with your system prepared to fully take advantage of the cascade of benefits based around intense workouts and smart nutrition. 

Many relatively inexpensive fish oil formulations are deceiving; they may proclaim a gram per capsule, but a detailed examination may show that half of it’s EPA/DHA and half is a mystery. With Omegalyze each three-capsule serving is comprised of 524 mg EPA and 349 mg DHA. There’s 626 mg of other omega-3 in a serving, too, but the EPA and DHA are critical, and Species has them in good supply. But even more important than including sufficient quantity, these are pharmaceutical grade. Again, we’re back to quality: if your body cannot absorb and use these vital ingredients, what good are they to buy and swallow?

Use Species Nutrition Omegalyze with no doubts in your mind; this is the real deal.

Omegalyze will run you $40 for 180 capsules; Nitrolyze-S is $54.99 for 25 servings; Mineralyze costs $24.99 for 120 tablets. None of these are outrageously expensive to any degree, and considering their quality, are priced logically. Head to the Species Nutrition website, read Palumbo’s explanations of the science behind each of these, or if you prefer watching and listening, he’s inserted brief video clips on each individual product’s page. Either way, pay attention and learn.

www.speciesnutrition.com

Talking With Bill Henniger of Rogue Fitness

Everyone in the CrossFit world is familiar with Rogue Fitness equipment. Rogue sets the standard for quality.  The CrossFit Games are held exclusively using Rogue hardware. Hundreds of gyms and CrossFit boxes worldwide are chock full of Rogue steel. Thousands of CrossFit videos on YouTube are populated by elite athletes proudly wearing the Rogue logo on their clothing, whether they’re sponsored by Rogue or not. Turn on Biggest Loser and check out Bob Harper and his entire Rogue-built gym sets. Rogue is everywhere.

Bill Henniger, the head of Rogue and founder of the company, maintains a relatively low profile. I’ve been around Bill the last three years at the Arnold Classic CrossFit and he’s always cool and in control. In the midst of  consecutive days of huge equipment set-ups, athletes asking questions, deadlines, booth set-ups, crowd control and the endless problems and situations that come with such an ambitious undertaking, Henniger is calmly in charge.

Henniger sat down with me at the 2012 Arnold Classic to talk about his vision for Rogue, why “built in the USA” is meaningful to him, and where the company is headed.

 

Koenig: Talk to me about Rogue and your ideas. Tell me what Rogue represents. How did you get into this crazy business? This isn’t something a person grows up thinking “I’m going to make high-quality strength training equipment.” Or is it?

Henniger: I grew up in a small town of hard-working people. Worked summers while in school, was in the military from age 18 until a couple of years after Sept. 11. When I got out, I went to work for General Motors, was in operations production, in a large production area in Toledo, Ohio. Was up there for seven years, working in manufacturing, living and breathing manufacturing, everything was metal work. I really loved working there. 

(But Henniger was looking around for his next challenge, thought about going back into the military, then...)

Henniger: Someone told me CrossFit was the way to go. So I checked it out, went to a seminar in Santa Cruz, hung out with those guys, wow, there’s a lot more smiling people here compared to me clocking in at a plant.

Koenig: You went through your Level-1 certification at HQ?

Henniger: Yeah, the original gym.

Koenig: So you had an interesting opportunity to be around the founders?

Henniger: Yeah, it was one of the original three-day seminars, the last one before they split into the individual components. My Level-1 cert was a big eye-opener for me. I came back, had heard about the affiliate program. It was $500, so I bought the rights to CrossFit Columbus, and also CrossFit Toledo, as I was living there. I knew I was going to move out of Toledo once I finished my MBA. I was three years into my MBA out of the University of Michigan. Columbus was the next location I was going to move to.

I outfitted my garage, like every other crossfitter. Purchasing bars from Glenn Plendlay down in Texas, medicine balls from another guy, spending lots of time shopping at all these different locations. So I thought, when I was going to open my own gym, Crossfit Columbus, why not buy and sell equipment and open a gym at the same time?

So I contacted all these niche manufacturers, asking “Can I sell your stuff?” They all said yeah. I was surprised, I’d never done anything like that before. Eventually I was enjoying it so much, I took a leap of faith and left my high-paying job at General Motors. Left GM, came to Columbus, got my own plyo boxes, laid my own mats, all that stuff. Bootstrapped the entire thing, only purchased what I could afford, even cashing in my 401K to get cash for some of the equipment.

Koenig: Sounds like a big gamble.

Henniger: I knew I had good work experience,figured if the whole thing went into the bag I could find a job somewhere. During this period I was still working on my MBA from the University of Michigan. I was driving from Columbus to Ann Arbor twice a week, as well, on top of that. 

I started the gym with a guy named Troy Taylor. He was co-owner; he and I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into that gym. It was really going great; I enjoyed coaching, the people, it was a great community. I think that’s one of the big draws to CrossFit; the people you meet, their quality. It was good, but the equipment business began to grow rapidly. That’s how I ended up doing what I’m doing.

Koenig: Why are you so good, why is Rogue equipment of such high quality? Is it your personal standard, how Bill Henniger looks at the world. 

Henniger: It began with the very first product I offered. It started with Ian King, he’s the product control guy at Rogue Fitness. I met him on the CrossFit message boards. He said “I’m a guy who welds, does anybody need anything done?”

I was interesting in building equipment from the beginning because of my manufacturing background. I immediately saw areas where things needed to be built. So I said, “can you make rings? I want the rings to be such that when someone opened the box, they immediately knew these things were quality.” Old school, USA-manufactured product. Like when you go to your grandfather’s garage, open up the tool drawer, look at the tools, they look different than the tools in Sears right now. There’s a big difference, I wanted to bring that back. The look and feel of quality. 

I knew the only way to do that was through American manufacturing. My strategy was to invest in that, knowing people would appreciate it. We were building an equipment business at the beginning of the recession, in the industrial heartland. What’s interesting is, many of these shops were probably at a low point when we were approaching them.

 

Ian and I really see eye to eye. He comes from a family with a hundred years of manufacturing background. Ian’s ability to see the difference in our product is critical. There are other companies chasing the profit, taking something we make, sending it to China, reverse engineering it, bringing it back so they can have more margin, but our quality is almost impossible to recreate, in my opinion. 

Koenig: How do you determine how to expand your product line? Where do the ideas come from?

Henniger: We try to look as far back as possible. For example, take powerlifting. We go talk to Louie Simmons [Westside Barbell]. We’re going to talk to the expert in each field. We’re the apprentices, we go talk to the journeymen, take what’s best from them, bring it back, put a new spin on it. If you look at the racks we carry, they have the Westside hole pattern. These things have been in Louie’s gym for 30 years. If those guys, who squat 1200 pounds, don’t destroy the equipment, we’re good to go.  

For Olympic weightlifting, we go talk to those experts. We know we don’t know what they do, these people with decades of experience. A lot of this stuff has been around for a long time; the barbell has been around for a while. Over a long time the equipment field evolved away from heavy-duty, American-manufactured products, and we’re trying to go back full circle.

Koenig: Like to the old York equipment?

Henniger: Yes, the old York.

Koenig: How did you get so tied in with CrossFit? 

Henniger: Obviously we’ve been part of that community since 2006. But in 2008 I signed Caity Matter, Joe Thomas, and Eric Jones, three of my best folks that were at the gym, to the CrossFit Games. One day I came in, put their registration letters on the white board, said “All three of you are going to the Games and I’m paying for it.” I didn’t have very much money at that time, but thought this was going to be neat. We trained hard, every single day, took Katie out there and she won the Games.  

That was the moment. Then I knew we needed to sponsor athletes, so we sponsored Jason Khalipa, cause he won the games that year as well. That was the beginning of sponsoring athletes and the Games. 

The following year, working with Dave Castro, we provided the boxes and bars, things like that. Then I approached them and asked if we could be the sole provider for the CrossFit Games, and since then, people have seen what we’ve done. 

 Koenig: Now you’re on ESPN on weekends.

Henniger: Yeah, we had no expectations that was going to happen. When we made our commercials it was for what we thought was going to be a livestream on the internet. Then we find ourselves two or three months later, seeing ourselves on the big screen. These are defining moments for us as a company.

Koenig: Where is Rogue going to be in a few years?

Henniger: Our metric is not millions of dollars; it’s jobs. Our goal is by 2015 to have 500 jobs. We figure that if we’re doing that, everything is going to be good. Manufacture more and more, get more into machining, more metal fabrication, leatherworking, woodworking, anything and everything that is something we think people here in the US are good at. We’re going to create a manufacturing campus.

Even as more competitors move into the equipment side of home gyms and CrossFit, Rogue continues to innovate (see the 2012 Games) and constantly produce high quality equipment. Examine their wonderfully professional website and you’ll be impressed by the breadth of selection, if not by the stimulating list of athletes they sponsor. Sign up for the Rogue newsletter, an always stimulating monthly event in my inbox.

I’m looking forward to the fun and imaginative Rogue set-up I know awaits me in Columbus at the Arnold Classic CrossFit coming up Feb. 28 - March 3.

www.roguefitness.com

http://www.arnoldsportsfestival.com/home/sports-and-events/crossfit-training.html

http://games.crossfit.com/article/her-terms-caity-matter-henniger