Get key insight on how CrossFit Games athlete Christian Lucero trains, eats, and handles injury!
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If you would like to read instead of listen… here’s the transcript
Joe Bauer:
Welcome to the get better project. I’m excited to have CrossFit Games athlete, Christian, and Sarah on the show. Christian, how are you today?
Christian Lucero:
Good man. Thanks for having me on. It was uh, I, I have, I have to admit I haven’t listened to any of your other podcasts yet, but I’m excited to start, you know, after I do this, go back and see some of the other cool people you’ve had on and maybe listen to some of the ones that I might enjoy listening to you.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah. Well, the way that I set this podcast up is I’ve been a coach for a long time and I’ve always, I’ve done, I’ve been podcasting for about five years but never really as an interview format. And what I did is I asked all of my peers who they’d like to hear from the questions that they’d like to get from people like yourself and your name was one that came up several times, so I wanted you down to get on the show and yeah. And I’m excited to have you talk to you a little bit about, you know, yourself and your CrossFit and fitness and all that fun stuff.
Christian Lucero:
Yeah, absolutely. Sounds like a good, a good reason to have somebody on a podcast.
Christian Lucero:
So I’m always really interested about people’s backgrounds and what made them become who they are type of a thing. So can you give us a little background on like how you grew up, where you grew up, what kind of sports you played, you know, your influencers, whether those are parents are granted.
Christian Lucero:
Yeah. I grew up in southern California, So San Diego area or San Diego county rather. Um, when I was born, I grew up for the first, you know, I would say half of my childhood was spent in Vista, California and then moved to Encinitas. Um, shortly after that. And you know, did my middle school high school in Encinitas, Carlsbad area, and you know, played sports my whole life growing up, I was always into sports. My parents always had me in some type of sport sport. It was never kind of, I don’t know that it was never an option, but it was never an option. I don’t know if it was never an option for me or that’s just how they raised me and was like, hey, you should be, you need to be doing something. It’s not just, you know, go to school and then come home and hang out and, and be left to your own devices.
Christian Lucero:
It was always kind of like, no, there’s always something you should be doing or, you know, working towards and putting yourself in. And so it started from a young. My first sport I think I ever did was probably, um, gymnastics as a kid. And so just to, I think, you know, develop body awareness and learn tumbling and stuff like that. So gymnastics and soccer I played when I was really little. Um, I think those are kind of pretty basic sports that a lot of young kids start with. And then not too long after I started those, I think I was six or seven. I did started. I’m like martial arts. So I started with tae kwon do when I was little and then as I grew up that developed into more Thai boxing, wrestling, Jiu Jitsu, that kind of thing. And, and um, yeah, so I’ve always played a lot of sports.
Christian Lucero:
So growing up as a kid, I think I got to a point in my gymnastics where they were like, hey, you need to, um, they asked me, of course, but they asked my, my parents, they were like, hey, we want them to do, you know, beyond the travel competitive gymnastics team and that would have taken, you know, x amount of time. And so my parents asked me, they said, hey, do you want to do this full time? This is what it would entail, or do you want to do all these other things? You know, if you want to do this, you can, you only pretty much can only do this for a lot of your time because it’s so intensive and long training and traveling and stuff like that or you can, you know, play, keep playing soccer, do martial arts, you know, play basketball or whatever else it was, you know, so uh, you can play multiple sports.
Christian Lucero:
And so I, I think I was like, you know, hey, I want to do all these other things. I don’t want to just be doing one thing, especially because it wasn’t like something that I really had a passion for really like a drive for and I don’t know at that age how, how much of a passion and drive you have, you kind of just as a kid probably just do it because it’s fun and because your friends do it or whatever the case might be. Sure. Um, but yeah, so I’ve always, you know, played multiple sports in middle school, started playing, I finally, my parents helped me out of football until I got to middle school so I could, I played like flag growing up and stuff. And stuff, flag football and stuff like that. But then I couldn’t play contact until I got to middle school.
Christian Lucero:
And so then I started playing pop warner football, loving it and then play a little bit of Lacrosse in middle school and high school, kind of in the off seasons of football. Just I kind of looked at it like, hey, here’s a, here’s a sport, you know, that lets me keep hitting people. And then also, uh, you know, gives me a stick to hit people with. So I’m going to do that too. Um, so yeah, it was fun. And then went to high school, played football, lacrosse. I’m wrestled a little bit and those are my main sports. And then my senior year of football kinda got into fighting and MMA. And then, um, because one of my buddies that was older than me, he, he had started training and telling me about. And I was like, yeah dude, whatever. I’ve done that like my whole life. I know what you’re doing.
Christian Lucero:
Like, okay. And so he invited me to come workout, started incorporating more, all of those kinds of martial arts that I’ve always done together into like an mma format and you started right out of high school, moved to Denver and was in Denver and started training with a team out there that has a lot of good competitors, a lot of good athletes, some in the UFC, Sam and Bella tour. Um, and trained there for another year until I got full time into CrossFit. And so at first it was like I was training for, you know, pro fights getting ready for fights. Um, and one of my, my, uh, my strength and conditioning coaches kind of pulled me aside. He was like, Hey, um, you guys, he would have a, we had the CrossFit gym in the same gym as the fight gym. So they were like, Hey, we’ve seen some of your times on these workouts that we’ve been giving you and your strength numbers, like, you know, we’re going to start giving you some more workouts, let us know what times you get.
Christian Lucero:
And so I kept giving them info and like how I was doing on these workouts and they, and he kind of pulled me aside and was, you know, kind of explained to me what CrossFit was. And then, um, we did a little bit of research and he thought you said, Hey, I think you could be, you could be really good at this. And so I kind of credit him for getting me involved in that because he literally, I had no idea what it was and I would have continued down that same path of, of fighting and you know, trying to, I think, you know, at that time my, my goal was, hey, I want to be a UFC, you know, I want to make a, make it to the UFC, then be a UFC champion and then go from there. And Yeah. So I mean that road is, is just like any road to the top.
Christian Lucero:
There’s a long road, it’s a lot of training. It’s a lot of men. You need to be putting in a lot of time. You need to have certain skills and background. I think he saw something on the CrossFit side that was like, hey, you’re already a good distance, you know, you have a good headstart. So I think you could pursue this as a career. I was like, okay, yeah, let’s, let’s try it. And at first I tried to train both. I tried to train, you know, and try to start training to be a competitive CrossFitter and um, you know, a MMA fighter, uh, but that just wasn’t there. Not, they’re not in the same wheelhouse. They’re not in the same realm of, it’s not like being, you know, a competitive weight lifter and CrossFitter at a certain, at some stages, like as a junior, you might be able to get away with it as a junior weightlifter because the numbers are much lower.
Christian Lucero:
Um, it just wasn’t, it’s not like, you know, hey, I’m, I’m a triathlete and I’m also a marathon runner. They’re just not in the same wheelhouse. So like, for fighting, I, my, my weight class was 1:55 and four for CrossFit, you need to be closer to like one 90 and lifting heavier weights and you can’t be doing that. If you’re cutting for fights and you know, it’s just to, to things that don’t marry very well, I don’t think any, any sport at an elite level you can really, you know, play with multiple sports once you get to a certain level and those being an elite level and being the best at what I do was always my goal. So I was like, Hey, if I want to be the best I can be doing, I can’t be the best and fighting and CrossFit or I can’t be the best in this and that, you know, I have to decide which one I want to pursue.
Christian Lucero:
And then also, you know, maybe who knows down the line if, if it’s something that I want to pursue later and it works out, maybe I can, but I’m not, I’m not going to sweat. Not doing it, but yeah. So that’s kind of how I got involved in CrossFit and the route I took. Um, but yeah, I love all sports. I love watching football. I think it’s probably my favorite sport to watch. Um, I watch basketball in the playoffs. I watch, I don’t watch any baseball, doesn’t matter what game. Um, I appreciate it though. I appreciate baseball. I watched some of the softball world series I got into that, which is odd enough. I think it was just because one of our friends she used to pitch in college and she was on the, the CrossFit the GMI train out of and compete out of that. They have a team and she was on the team and so she pitched in college and so we always give her a hard time about how, you know, or I’d give her a hard time about how, you know, if she pitched against me I would hit home runs off or no problem. And um,
Christian Lucero:
and so she was over at our house one time and, or during the world series and was kind of like explaining. I’m explaining how everything worked, the format of the tournament and players and all this. So I kinda got a little bit more background on it and we were just happened to be watching Florida state and then they ended up winning and going all the way. And so I watched a little bit of that just because I got involved with that and then don’t watch any soccer even when the World Cup’s going on, like I tried, I turned it on. I was like, maybe it’ll turn it on in the background and I’ll start to get into it. And then it’s just like, I don’t know any of the players. I don’t know, you know, I know like for players, you know, Cristiano Renaldo, Lionel Messi.
Speaker 4:
Um, maybe I’ll, you know, to, uh, who else is there that I know? Oh, I know.
Speaker 3:
Uh, you’re uh, Ibrahimovic, right? That’s one. Do you know any soccer players know.
Joe Bauer:
A few. I mean, not very many.
Christian Lucero:
Yeah. So I’m getting to soccer. No baseball. I’m pretty much the only sports I get into like watching football. But I mean, I appreciate just all of it. I like playing them. I like messing around with them. I like his appreciate competition in general. MMA, I’m a big guy and I’m a, a fan watch or whatever, whatever. Have you. Um, and you know, just because I did, you know, those types of martial arts and competed in mma for a little bit. It’s, I have a more of an appreciation for what they do and kind of, you know, seeing some of the guys that I used to train with, you know, uh, in the UFC is always cool when I’ll turn on like the UFC fights and I’ll see, you know, my old coach, you know, and some of the guys I used to train with and were my teammates coming out for a fight. It’s always exciting. Hello. Sorry. Uh, are you getting me? Got Me.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah. Okay, cool. Cool. And then anything that we messed up on, I, I can edit this out, so. No worries. Yeah. So something that you mentioned was how you had a drive to be the best in the world at something and you think that that started from early on or was that just built in or where did that come from?
Christian Lucero:
Yeah, I think that um, you know, I think that was obviously that goes to the question of nurture versus nature, something like that. Was that something that, you know, I’ve always had or was something as like a product of my upbringing I think. I think it was both. I think, you know, it’s something that was nurtured in me from my parents, you know, in my upbringing growing up. But it’s also, I think something that, you know, no matter how, how, how much you’re kind of pulled that are nurtured one way if you don’t have that instilled and it doesn’t like click, um, it’s not gonna matter. Right. So, um, you kind of see that with, you know, if you look at, you know, high powered executives or CEOS or um, you know, sports players when they have kids or when they have family members, you know, they have obviously genetic potential to do great things in whatever their field is, but you see some that are very successful and follow in the footsteps and outperform the last generation and you see some that, you know completely, you know, don’t want anything to do with anything related to that and um, or whatever they’re doing.
Christian Lucero:
You know, they’re okay with just being a, you know, an accountant. And you know, doing a nine to five and you know, helping people out and, and just kind of living in a really simple life and others are, you really do have that drive. So I think it was, you know, a combination of both is definitely my upbringing and how I was taught to as a kid and the principles that were instilled in me and, and then also, you know, it obviously registered and clicked with who I am as a person and you know, my beliefs in what my ethos and all that where I feel like I should be doing and meant to be doing and all of that I think just takes it one step further. Like another, you know, you have the belief and you have that and then that just kind of evolves that one step further into like, okay, this is really, you know, what I should be doing what I’m meant to be doing.
Speaker 3:
Do your parents or relatives, are any of them also elite? Uh, no. I mean not really. My, My, My, my dad’s more of a gym rat. He’s always been in the gym. So He’s had me like training and doing weightlifting and I’m not like Olympic weight lifting, but just like lifting weights, kind of more like functional body building stuff, I guess you would say nowadays. Um, since I was a younger, maybe middle school, like fifth grade, fourth or fifth grade. Um, and then my mom, she runs a lot. She runs marathons and does that stuff. Um, and she’s, she’s more of a um, so she loves and really appreciates like all the athletic stuff. She stays active sheet rock climbs now she’s getting into a lot more stuff. She does a little bit of CrossFit, she runs a lot. She’s always ran. Um, but now she’s like getting into like rock climbing and doing like her own, like her own thing.
Christian Lucero:
So it’s cool to see. Um, but she’s more like elite in kind of her, her business world. So she’s, um, she’s a very successful civil engineer and um, you know, has made it to the top of her company as a, um, you know, president and part owner of the company that she’s with and she, um, you know, that’s a predominantly male dominated field. And so I think she kind of applied that to that, you know, uh, that side of things, not necessarily her athletic side. Um, so yeah, I guess, you know, it’s, they’re just not in the athletic sense as much. Sure. Um, and then my uncle on my dad’s side is a boxing coach, so he’s um, you know, coaches a lot of very successful flyweights in Florida and he, um, so he has some experience doing that. Um, and then my sister, she plays stand for or played lacrosse at Stanford, so she had a full ride scholarship for that.
Christian Lucero:
Um, and she was a really good soccer player in high school and Lacrosse player and um, they’re gonna national champions I think in Lacrosse and soccer. So. Yeah. And so, you know, there’s a lot of, I think it’s always been kind of preached to us as kids growing up, you know, it doesn’t really matter what you’re doing. I know obviously my mom growing up, her for me was like always like, oh, I want you to be a doctor, I want you to, you know, be a brain surgeon or something like that and go into that field. Um, and obviously I took a different path, but, uh, she has always kind of wanted just out of her kids, just excellent. So like whatever we were doing, whether it was, um, you know, athletics, schoolwork, um, whatever it was that we were doing, put your, put everything you have and do and put your best foot forward and um, be something in what you’re doing.
Christian Lucero:
And so I obviously, um, uh, you know, didn’t apply that so much towards the academic side. I was more like, Hey, I want to put this all into my athletic side, you know, even from, from when I was in high school playing football and um, and, and fighting and all of that stuff, Lacrosse, it was always like she would get calls from the school, like, oh, hey, Christian wasn’t in class today. Um, and I was like, yeah, I was for sure there. Um, I don’t, they just seen me and I, I probably was like, I’m ditching class to go work out either at the, like a school gym or at a different gym, but I was always, you know, trying to get ahead athletically and what I was doing and so, um, yeah, that’s how that went. But I think it was, to answer your question, I think it was a little bit of that nurture and nature.
Joe Bauer:
Okay, cool. And how long did it take from the point that you started doing CrossFit to the point where you were competitive or good at CrossFit [inaudible]?
Christian Lucero:
Um, I think it just depends like you say CrossFit, like as a, as a whole, it was probably, I don’t know. What do you consider good. I guess that’s your question.
Joe Bauer:
What’s your regional, let’s say, regionals level.
Christian Lucero:
Okay. Uh, so like the first year? Yeah, the first year I started, um, I was still, it was like I started, I got introduced to it and was like, hey, you’d be good at this in like February. And so it was like right before the open started. I, I did the first when I heard that, I was like, all right, I’ll try this open and see how it goes. And the first open workout I did was the seven minutes of burpees and so obviously coming from fighting, being a lighter than I am now, um, you know, just like all conditioning background at that point. Not background, but all conditioning, a lot of conditioning work. That seven minutes of burpees was nothing. It was like, you know, how to really good time, you know, I was within five reps, I think of guys like rich froning and at the time he was the, the gold standard, right, of, of athletes, individuals, males. And I was like, okay, like maybe I will be good at this and then, you know, the next workouts, the snatches, all the snatches and that’s something that I hadn’t trained a lot of and haven’t seen a ton. And so I was like, that workout crushed me. I don’t even think I could snatch. The guy will got like maybe one or two at the, one 65. So, um, you know, obviously that was like. So obviously I started off like, okay, like there’s a ton I need to work on, but like there are good things here. Um, and just like just dove into that headfirst, you know, watching videos, working out, training, getting some coaching when I could. Um, I think a lot of the big leaps I started to make where when I switched and started training with, um, some different training partners that had been to regionals that were top level. Some of them, like the gym very close by that I started training at was called CrossFit unbroken. It was guys like Matt, Half Cock and Kevin Ogar and um,
Christian Lucero:
yeah, so they, they were there, Matt, Kevin Gara. They were there and like we trained together every day, you know, two or three times a day. Um, I lived with Matt for a little bit and um, and, and you know, we, I ended up going to regionals on a team with, with Kevin. I’m in 2013 and then 2014. Went to regionals as a individual and was top three until I got a, uh, like a stomach bug. It’s called Noro virus. And a lot of people in that southwest region at that time, I got that and, and uh, had to pull out. So I was one of those guys and you know, that was tough, but it also was cool because I was able to see, okay, like I belong up here, I’m in this thing with the, uh, you know, heavy hitters and it’s not far off, you know, my goal is of a making regionals check a be qualifying for the Games, you know, it’s right there, you know, I just need to dial in a few more things and then, and then I’ll be there. And then obviously there’s steps within the Games that you start going through once you get to that level. Um,
Christian Lucero:
So, I think it was 2000, maybe 2000. I think the first year I did the open was 2012. That was the seven minutes of burpees, right? I believe.
Christian Lucero:
Yeah. So 2012 and in 2014 I qualified for my first regionals and then have qualified ever since, um, 2015, they changed it to the super regions. Um, and you know, that was a new experience and something I had to get used to and be like, okay, this is another level and then 2016, you know, qualified for the Games placed in 18th, 2017 was doing well and I think was one of my strongest at the time, my strongest year yet. And then had the injury so that set me back a little bit and then 2018, obviously it wasn’t what I had hoped for, but was dealing with a lot of stuff outside of CrossFit. And then also some physical stuff that was holding me back a little bit, but
Christian Lucero:
I know all really good experiences to really see like, okay, this stuff is working, this stuff needs to change. How do we adjust from here? Uh, to hit that, that goal to hit our goal of being the best.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah, absolutely. So that leads perfectly into what are your goals right now?
Christian Lucero:
Uh, right now just trying to get healthy. I’m just had a loose body taken out of my knee and um, that was just a little orthoscopic. So I’m, I’m heavy and pt work and, and just kind of getting the swelling down and I’m four weeks out right now, um, so, you know, have pretty much full range of motion, still a little bit of residual swelling from the, the, the little surgery, but um, should be another two weeks I would say before I start to really start to load a little bit more and gradually increase volume and weight and get back to those, those training numbers and, and training hard. But
Christian Lucero:
it was, it was definitely something that needed to happen and I’m very thankful that I could do it now and didn’t have to wait any longer because it was definitely something that has been, I had dealt with really well the past few years. But it, you know, as, as time goes on that, that the body starts to ossify that loose body more and more. It gets bigger and bigger and starts disrupting more and more things. So, um, it just had gotten to a point where I was like, hey, this thing needs to get out of my leg, you know.
Joe Bauer:
So I, I’m not sure. I definitely saw that, of that on social media.
Christian Lucero:
Sorry, can you repeat that? Sorry, I lost you for a second.
Joe Bauer:
The is a loose body. So I was just saying that I saw the picture of that on social media. Um, what exactly is a loose body?
Christian Lucero:
Uh, so loose bodies. Anything that is like they really, they really use it for like any piece of tissue or cartilage or bone, something that’s in your body that they either can’t identify or is it a fragment of something else? So something that’s not attached to anything. So it’s not a part of the tendon. It’s not a part of the bone. It’s not.
Christian Lucero:
I’m a Bursa sac. It’s not a lymph node, it’s nothing really that should be there kind of like a Ufo, you know? Um, so, uh, in my case that was a piece of cartilage that had kind of sheared off from the group that the kneecap sits in. So the knee either then I think the kneecap, you know, just tracked a little different sometime and it had, had sheared off a piece of that cartilage, that kind of grooves where that kneecap sit in, sits in, and then that cartilage just found a spot, right? It was kind of above my knee cap kind of sitting underneath the Patella tendon and, and that’s kind of where it would settle and then kind of move around based on what kind of pressure, um, was on my leg or what kind of movement I was doing and kind of effect tracking and lock up my knee sometimes.
Christian Lucero:
And it was something that I didn’t really know what it was, um, when it happened to a three years ago. But know I’ve found ways to deal with it. And, and you know, I knew it wasn’t an acl or meniscus of, you know, how it looked at. I hadn’t looked at it and checked out tons of times and I knew it wasn’t any of those things. So I either thought it was someone, you know, I thought it was a loose body or be the Bursa. Um, but as time went on, it got bigger and bigger and it was pretty obvious as to what it was. And then last year I finally got it Mri and then, uh, and like was able to see exactly what it was.
Joe Bauer:
Cool. So your, those are your immediate goals and what’s the future longterm goals for you?
Christian Lucero:
Future a longterm or? Uh, I would say in order the top, top, um, I would say this next coming year, I think I want to really focus on making sure every stage of, of competition that I go through is kind of building on the next. So instead of just being, having the goal be, Hey, I, I just need to make sure I’m in, I make regionals and from the open I need to make sure I make regionals and make the top,
Christian Lucero:
uh, the top heat at regionals. That’s, you know, obviously a good spot you want to be in going into regionals, I’m from the open instead of having that be the goal, I think it’s, Hey, I want to uh, being first coming into the not necessarily the region. I would look world worldwide. So I’d be like, Hey, I want to be, you know, top 20 in the world through the opeand then hey, at regionals I want to be top three, I want to win obviously, but I think, you know, winning would be awesome and that’s what I want to do. So yeah. So then at regionals, hey, the goal is let’s win regionals. It’s not, hey, let’s go top five, let’s just qualify for the Games. And then at the Games, uh, for next year, the goal as obviously it just depends on, you know, where everything is. Obviously the goal is to win the Games, but I think there’s another step that needs to happen before that happens in that, you know, hey, I want to be top 10 and then or top, I would say next year, top seven, hey, I’m going to be top seven. Try like on the either break into that top five or top three would be awesome, but hey, this is the standard, this is where we need to be. And then, you know, that’s the year after. That’s kind of where you start to build on that. And so I think those are my immediate or my, my next, I guess you’d call those longterm. Those are kind of next year. That seems long term to me.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. How old are you, Christian?
Christian Lucero:
Uh, it just turned 25.
Joe Bauer:
Cool. So you’re still still relatively young?
Christian Lucero:
Yeah. Yeah. And I’ve been doing it, I’ve been doing it for a good amount of time. So, um, I think 2012 is when I started cross fitting. And so it’s been like six years. Yeah.
Joe Bauer:
Very nice. Let’s get into your training and uh, like how many hours do you spend training, whether it be now or you know, when you’re not rehabbing or both? Maybe it doesn’t change. I’m interested in hearing what that’s like.
Christian Lucero:
Um, yeah, it just kind of depends on what, what season we’re in, what time of the year we’re in. Normally I train twice, a twice a day, five days a week on, you know, a normal training week and we’ll go anywhere from usually the one session that I’ll do with a cross, like a CrossFit coach. So my coach, uh, runs and owns a part owner of CrossFit Costa Mesa, so, um, our first workout of the day is the CrossFit daily workout at the gym, so we’ll do the class workout with class and then we’ll do all of our auxiliary stuff in the middle of the day or after that in the evening. And so it usually comes out to just on say we’re in kind of like a law or just kind of like a normal, like off season training phase, it’ll be, you know, an hour and a half and then another session that’ll be two to two and a half hours. So anywhere from, um, I would say three and a half hours to four and a half hours. Um, that’s pretty standard. And then as we, you know, obviously get closer to regional to get closer to the Games, get close to the open that starts to increase. And um, you know, might break up into two or three sessions just depending on which one we’re, we’re getting prepared for the volume that we’re getting read before.
Joe Bauer:
Okay. Super interesting. And I’ve loved asking this question to other Games athletes because it actually comes, the answers come out differently. So I would love to hear how you’re training changes if you have any distinct changes. Like for example, I’ve talked to several athletes that have like a strength emphasis in the off season and then they ramp up around December or other athletes that just to CrossFit all the time. So I’m really interested to hear how you prioritize your different cycles of training.
Christian Lucero:
Yeah, I mean I don’t really do it. My coach does it. So from my point my point of view might be a little bit different than what he’s actually doing. So I’ll try to give you the best idea from just somebody that’s, you know, doing the work, not necessarily planning the work. Sure. So for me it’s, it seems more so like when we’re in, you know, after the Games, after a, through those months leading into, I would say November, middle of November, beginning of December. It’s a lot of strength cycles. So yeah, we’ll be going through a lot of strength phases. Um, you know, just kind of true strength, explosive strength. I’m a weight lifting, you know, Max’s and strength and uh, but we also CrossFit the whole time that we do that. So we always do CrossFit, we always do conditioning, we always do strength. We always do weight lifting, so it doesn’t really matter what time of the year it is. We’re always doing, you know, those four things. We’re always doing strength work. We’re always doing, striving towards being your standard back squat, front squat, Push, press, bench, press, dead lift, overhead squat.
Speaker 4:
Um, I said back squat already and then I’m a CrossFit being like any, any type of workout of the day where we’re, you know, doing multiple movements, time domains, a domain or domains are just all of that I would consider fall into CrossFit. And then I’m a weightlifting would be, you know, your snatch, clean and jerk, your pose, any type of accessory movements for weightlifting specifically for snatching and clean and jerking or barbell cycling and then conditioning, you know, being a single single modality stuff. So rowing, running, biking, swimming, first of climbing, you know, any, any type of straight conditioning stuff, interval work, all that backend stuff. So throughout the year you’re going to see all of that as we get closer to the open, we might see a little bit more of those CrossFit style WODs or open style wads, um, where like obviously the intensity is going to pick up.
Christian Lucero:
And so I think a lot of it to do two has to do with um, how you approach the work. So obviously the work’s is going to change a little bit, but also how you approach it has to change too. So, you know, I could give you the same workout, you know, hey, do this, this and this and the way you approach that, you know, can make all the difference in the world. So if you approach it just like, oh, this is just a chunk of work that I’m gonna forge ahead and just kind of put my head down and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, get through. I’m not really caring about anything other than hey, let’s get the work done. Or, okay, this, you know, that’s, you know, option a, option b would be, okay, I’m really gonna doubt every single thing in and focus on perfection through every movement, every motion through everything that I’m doing and you know, I don’t care how long it takes me that be like another option, a, option B, option c would be, hey, you know, I have this much work, I’m going to hit this first piece, you know, as hard and as fast as I can.
Christian Lucero:
I’m going to like give myself a little bit of break and I’m gonna hit this next piece is hard and as fast as I can as well. Trying to just keep the intensity high and the integrity of that. That through the, the amount of work. And so I think the like three different, you know, ways of approaching training that you know, all have their place and all are very important. I don’t think you can say, oh, one is better than the other, but I would say that one, you know, if you’re going to open that intensity is going to be key in being able to repeat that. Intensity is going to be key and recover from that week after week, you know, going into regionals, obviously the volume needs to be there and the intensity of multiple workouts per day and I’m just being able to recover.
Christian Lucero:
And then, you know, the Games, that’s another, another level entirely that’s, you know, multiple, multiple days, multiple workouts per day. You’re adding another, usually another workout in per day. So you’re doing three a day and you’re having to come up and down a lot of times during the day and recover from not only the physical strain but also the emotional of the crowd, the competition, uh, the leaderboard, the scores, the fans, everything like that. And so, um, that’s just, you know, how you approach training. I think the best, the best, the best way and the way I’ve found that, you know, I’ve had the most successful success with is, is being able to mimic the environment you’re going to be in well training to prep your body. And so when you get there, it’s not new. It’s not something that you haven’t seen before. It’s something that your body is like, oh, okay. I know what this is, I know how to do this, let’s just do it, you know, I know how to deal with this and we’re gonna body’s gonna do.
Joe Bauer:
Absolutely. And I’d love to dig in a little bit further to how you separated those three different kinds of approaches to workouts. You do those instinctively, or does your coach program you to look at them in that way or how does that work?
Christian Lucero:
Um, at first it was something that my coach, you know, we talked about and something that we learned and kind of figure it out. And that was. But now it’s just kind of instinctually now it’s like, it’s more, you know, you feel in your body, feels in your body, knows what time of the season it is and knows what it needs to be doing. And I think that, um, it’s, it’s kind of writing a really fine line of, of hey, you know, how do we train as hard as we can and get the most out of your body without, you know, going one way or the other without not doing enough and not getting the proper stimulus and not going over and getting overtrained and getting a negative stimulus and, and overdoing it in that far in that way. And so it’s like how do you ride that line and how long can you ride that line and different things you can, you know, throw into your training to make that line a little wider.
Christian Lucero:
Right? So the wider we can, I would say the wider you can make that line easier, it is going to be to stay, to stay there and stay on it without going one or two, uh, you know, one way or the other in the not in enough training and not too much training or not recovering enough for the training or for the stimulus. So it’s really, I think, instinctual at this point, but it’s also something that, you know, needs to be said, you know, just to re re edify it sometimes, whether it’s me saying it or whether it was my coach saying it or whether it’s us talking about it together. It’s something that, that is just constant. I think that’s that, that that’s constantly what it is, is you know, here’s the training, here’s a stimulus. This is, this is the training for a reason.
Christian Lucero:
What’s the reason? The reason is because this is the amount of volume that needs to be put in by this time. So like a lot of people are like, oh, hey, this is dead time. This is like, you know, say we were after the Games. A lot of people are like, oh, this is downtime. This is dead time. Uh, yeah, there’s a certain amount of time you need to let your body rest and recover and let your mind rest and recover. But there’s also like, okay, like what are your goals for next year? These are your goals, these are the things that need to happen for you to get to your goal and this is the, this is the volume that needs to be put in for, for you to be able to do this next year and this volume as a whole. How do we break that up throughout the year to get you to that volume and that intensity and, and train those things for this competition, you know, this far down the road.
Christian Lucero:
So you kind of have to look at, you’ve got to have to work backwards and then realize like, okay, now this is stuff that I need to be putting in right now. This is not a downtime, this is not a down phase. This is a phase that really matters in, in March, in May and August, you know, these, these months are going to matter and you know, if I can go in there having lifted x amount of, you know, x amount more and gone x amount faster than so and so, you know, I’m going to be in a better position in the competition to outperform them.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that it’s really interesting that you guys approach it like that because having seen CrossFit myself for some time, it seems like more often than not, people are going too far on the intensity and not recovering enough. So I think it’s very thoughtful of you to go approach it that way. And that brings me into, do you have any kind of recovery tools or tracking or anything other than just instinctual that you use in order to make sure that you’re in that sweet spot?
Christian Lucero:
Um, for the most part it was all pretty much instinctual and how my body was feeling and I would use like wait a lot of the times to kind of, to kind of, to kind of track that and kind of look at that and see that obviously how you’re performing, how your body’s feeling is one thing that you can use, but also using way. Alright, am I, am I light because the training is hard and I’m not getting enough calories in, am I, you know, I would say weight and body composition are really good because you got to kind of have to factor both of those in because you know, you can be light but also be, you know, body composition, not be that great. And you can know, you know, hey, this means one thing or you can be heavy body composition to be really good and be like, okay, that’s good.
Christian Lucero:
My Body’s adapting to the volume. It’s recovering, it’s, it’s doing well where it can be heavy and not have, you know, a great composition and be like, okay, you know, obviously I’m getting enough in but my body is, you know, how is that weight being processed? My body’s not processing it well and my body is processing it well or you know, so there’s lots of things. So I would say weight composition, um, sleep, how I’m sleeping is a big one. And then a resting heart rate. And then I just recently started playing around in and uh, wearing a whoop and um, to kind of see, um, you know, what kind of data I can get from that and how that can help me kind of continue to track and look at that stuff and just get more data. It’s all, I think it’s all about how many data points can you get on track without, you know, uh, well as easily as possible. Right? So you don’t want to like put your body through more stress or your mind through more stress by being like, oh, I needed to take my heart rate every hour on the hour and map out all of this. But it’s like, okay, how easy can we make it and how many data points can you get to really determine what your body’s doing internally? Um, and so yeah. Um, I don’t know. Did that answer your question?
Joe Bauer:
Yeah. And I think it’s, I think it’s super man because I’m a huge data geek as well and trying to figure out how many points you can track. So I’m interested to know like how you, how you do that. If you do it in a way that you’re like, oh man, I know what my resting heart rate should be, so this is a little bit high today, or do you have like a spreadsheet where you’re like, wow, I slept eight out of 10 and you know, my Whoop recovery score was this and my resting heart rate was this. So you can see when you have those outliers.
Christian Lucero:
Yeah. It’s Kinda like, like that. Yeah. Like I, I’ve used before a, uh, an APP to track my sleep and it’ll take my resting heart rate when I wake up so I can see that. But I think, Whoop, a little bit more accurate in that sense. Um, because obviously of the variables of having to wake up and then do your, your, your heart rate, it’s obviously going to be a little bit skewed based on what’s happening. I think oops, a little bit more accurate in that sense. And then also, yeah, I mean my, um, yeah, just looking at, you know, I know I can kind of see with the apps that I use in the people that I work with for like my nutrition. There’s, you know, a system that I put all my nutrition into that, you know, how’s my weight’s, has um, you know, pictures and body fat percentages and measurements. I can see all of this stuff and it’s kind of just, I’m at a certain point, I’ve done it for long enough. I can, I can kind of have a good grasp on what a good baseline is and what’s, what’s high, what’s low, what’s good, what’s bad, um, as well. Um, for that stuff.
Joe Bauer:
Very cool. Let’s, let’s get into the nutrition component and before we dive into like what your nutrition looks like, can you share who you’re using or doing your nutrition with and like what apps you’re using?
Christian Lucero:
Um, yeah, I use a working against gravity and I worked with Ade. I’m from working against gravity and then, uh, I track with my fitness pal and then there’s like a, an app we use through working on gravity that kind of does our checkins and kind of manages all that data. And then what was the other part of the question? Sorry.
Joe Bauer:
Uh, that was pretty much it as far as the, what you use. And then the followup question though is like, how would you explain your dietary habits?
Christian Lucero:
Uh, my habits are always going to be like the whatevers or in the past. So in the past and my habits have been really not focused solely on quality. It’s been like, okay, what can I, how can I get? Um, actually I would, I wouldn’t say that. I would say in the past I was really reliant on proteins and stuff like that for my body’s fuel source. And so I already had a lot of protein and it’s just, you know, not necessarily from any type of, not like it’s just kind of from, I would say bro Science, you know, like as a, as a kid growing up, you know, like I don’t know, it’s Kinda, it was kinda one of those things where it’s like, oh you need to be eating protein if you want to get big and strong, you know you need to eat steak and the chicken, you need this and that. And like when I grew up is a time when there wasn’t a lot of, like there was a lot of,
Speaker 3:
I think there still is, but now that we have the internet and there’s more people coming out and more knowledge coming out about it, a lot more people have a better understanding of nutrition and what they need to be doing to get certain things and to achieve certain looks or performances. Whereas back then it wasn’t really as widespread knowledge. It was kind of like people were just starting to talk about like organic foods and, and, you know, a grass fed beef and, you know, that kind of stuff. It was very, very new and, and so I always thought I needed to be eating more, more proteins and wasn’t eating enough carbs. And um, and then also just being busy and on the go. I never wanted to spend a ton of time in the kitchen. So it was always like, okay, what will be the quickest, you know, what will be the quickest, uh, in um, and you know, growing up you also hear about like, oh, you need to hit, you know, eat these or have this much nutrition in a certain window or you know, a certain amount, um, after your workouts or you know, you need to eat, you eat this much breakfast.
Christian Lucero:
And it’s kind of like, I feel like a lot of knowledge and a lot of people have, have put a lot of good information out there that has shed a lot of light on some of the habits that a lot of people used to have based on kind of funk information.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah, absolutely. And I completely agree with you. I’m having gone through the Bro Science, myself and all that fun stuff and then testing and get into all the technology that we have these days is super fun. Um, do you happen to know what your macros are or your calorie intake?
Christian Lucero:
Uh, yeah. Right now there are a little bit lower my macros, 380 carbs. 185 protein and 85 fat. So on the lower side of the protein and the carbs right now. But I think a lot of that due to what I’m, you know, obviously I’m coming out of the surgery not being as active, not being able to do as much. And I’m still coming off of I think a season in my eating where in my nutrition where my body really wasn’t absorbing or like utilizing the stuff I was putting in. So I feel like I was coming off of this past or this past season, I feel like I just kinda felt sluggish and slow and not really like I could ever tap into that, that final gear of what I’m able to do. And obviously some of that was a physical from what was going on in my knee. Some of that was nutrition wise, what was going on there. I just feel like my body wasn’t absorbing what I was putting into it. You know, like I feel like at a certain point you’re eating, you’re eating, you’re eating and you’re putting stuff in.
Christian Lucero:
If you don’t ever give your body a chance to, um, adapt to that stimulus or something happens, you can kind of get to a point where like everything you’re putting in your body is just working so hard to break down into absorb that. It’s never really shifting gears. Being able to process that and utilize that energy you’re putting in.
Joe Bauer:
Um, did you, did you do anything in order to shift that? Like fasting or, or?
Christian Lucero:
Yeah, so I played around. I’m just now that I’ve had the time and you know, actually um, had, yeah, had a little bit more time to mess around with it where I can look at, okay, how does my body feel if I, if I don’t eat until 12, you know, and I just get up, I drink some water, I do my thing, I start to know whether I’m going to do some conditioning or pt in the morning or whatever or I’m going to start, you know, my day and what I have to do for the day and then I don’t eat until 12 or one and then I finish eating at eight and get all my macros in, you know, I only for eight hour window, like an intermittent fasting, you know, how does my body feel with that?
Christian Lucero:
And then how does my body feel with the same amount of food, just like from sunup until sundown or from when I wake up till when I go to bed. And then how does it feel if I just eat from sunup to sundown? How does, how do these things affect obviously right now is a good time to test it and see. But also, you know, it might change based on, you know, the volume ramping up, the getting closer to competition, you know, competition, time and intensity going up, volume going up, weight’s going up, you know, how does that, how does that affect it and what feels good? I’ve, I’ve, uh, I have a feeling that the intermittent fasting isn’t going to be great for that. So it’s kind of a fun finding, a good line where I can, I can give my body enough time to, to digest and to absorb without, um, you know, going like we said, one or two, one or two in the other direction because there’s, in everything there is, there’s that perfect line, right? And eating, there’s that perfect line of like, okay, I’m eating just amount. Just write for my goals and everything’s operating at full speed, but then there’s like, okay, you’re undereating okay, you’re overeating and you know, you don’t want to go too far out from that center line. And I feel like there’s that with everything in, in life or in sports, you know there’s going to be that line.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s very, very interesting intellectual, how you’ve approached that. And I found something similar myself with my training were intermittent fasting is great until you have so much volume going that you just need more food in and then your body starts to get negative on some of his blood markers where to fuel all the time. So that’s super interesting and I, you know, I hope that I can follow up with you at some point as you’re training gets more intense and see if you actually made those changes in, in see what the differences were for you.
Christian Lucero:
I would say the. Yeah, because right now my proteins down a lot. I would say around open regional time. This year I was around 550 carbs and then around 250 protein and around 100 or about just under 100 fat and I think it was like 90 or 95 and I’ve always done well with, with that stuff. I think from 2006 or 15 in 2015, 16. And then like when I went to the Games in 2016, my carbs are high, my fat was a little lower and my carbs we’re closer to 600, maybe a little over. And my protein was at 2:50, but I’ve always, I would say for the past 15 or I would say yeah, 16, 16, 17, 18. For the past three years I’ve had a protein level that was in at 2:50 and didn’t vary much from to 50. And I think for me that was just too much protein for my body to be breaking down and processing for that long. I’m not giving it any type of break. And so, um, yeah, it’s just kind of like everybody’s body works different and you know, everybody’s genetically different and variance has so much variance that you can’t really know what’s going to be good for you and what’s gonna not be good for you until you test it out and until you, you play with things and unfortunately sometimes things don’t, don’t swing your way when you are doing that and when you’re trying to figure it out and trying to figure out that you know how to operate the minds of your body. But um, that’s all part of, you know, that learning curve and I think that’s just a, you know, a good, a good thing to remember and to note and to make sure that like you’re getting, you’re making that time useful. You’re making the, you know, the, the experimentation process worth it and getting the type of information you need out of it while you can.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah, absolutely. Do you take any supplements?
Christian Lucero:
Yeah, I take protein, I take creatine, I take fish oil, I take green supplement. I take sometimes a pre workout and BCAA depending on what I had going on. And then I would say keep coffee’s kind of a supplement t, you know, caffeine and, you know, I’ve played around with cbd and stuff like that.
Joe Bauer:
What’d you think?
Christian Lucero:
I don’t know. I’m, I really don’t have a definitive answer for cbd obviously. Um, see for like cbd on its own. I feel like, you know, you obviously when it’s mixed with Thc, you know, you’re going to feel something and you’re going to have some effects and you’re going to have some of those beneficial effects of the quote unquote cbd. But, you know, when it’s ever been, when I’ve ever tried it in just a straight form, um, I really haven’t had any noticeable effects as far as, you know, pain relief or, or, um, uh, or swelling or anything that or anything in that field like that I would like be noticeably, oh, this is really working, you know, I’m, I might have felt some, but it’s then you kind of wonder like, okay, is that just a placebo effect? And I think I’ve tried a good amount of, of things that have met, you know, uh, creams with cbd in them, you know, pills with cbd, um, just other supplements with cbd that, you know, different forms of delivery. So whether it’s edible, whether it’s topical, whether it’s under the tongue, tons of stuff out there, especially now that it’s getting so big you can find there’s even coffee in Costa Mesa now that has cbd in it. So these little cold brew coffees, they have cbd in the coffee, I think it’s somewhere like 10 or 14 milligrams of CBD per, per little coffee cold brew jar. And so it’s everywhere now. But I still am skeptical as far as like how much it actually does help and how much of it is, is kind of bs. And then how much of it is, is kind of like, okay, well cbd works and it’s, you know, there’s a lot of studies that proves that it’s helpful, but a lot of those studies are only when it’s combined with thc and only when it’s a part of, of that, of that full thing that it was made in nature with.
Christian Lucero:
So it’s Kinda like, okay, are we by pulling it away from the thc, are you affecting that effectiveness of it and are you changing that? And so I think a lot of the research now is, is, is kind of leaning that way that it does need to be incorporated in some form of, of thc and whether that’s a topical or at a bowl or you smoke it or whatever you want to do. I think a lot of those positive effects are also like in life. I think it’s just like life, you know, like you’re not going to have something that’s all good, you know, everything’s got a side to fix. Everything has got like a little bit of negative, a little bit of downside. And there’s nothing that’s like all upside, all perfect all the time. It’s like everything comes with its own drawbacks and you know, just like that. Like you can’t just pull cvd away from it and be like, oh, it’s going to be perfectly all by itself. It’s going to be this miracle drug without, you know, the, what some would say downside of having a psychoactive like thc. I’m attached to it.
Joe Bauer:
Sure. Yeah. And I think that it’s something that’s really interesting. I’ve been doing some research on it myself, so I’m in the same boat. I can’t really be definitive one way or the other, but it’s an interesting thing. Yeah. Um, let’s see, I’ve got a couple more questions for you. Don’t want to hold you here too long, but what are the, what are your favorite things and least favorite things about being a top level athlete.
Christian Lucero:
Favorite things are, you know, meeting so many different people and being able to travel and meet those people and experienced so many, you know, different ways of life, different cultures, different. Um, I would say fans or, you know, just kind of being able to experience the world a little bit differently, you know, you kind of get messages and you meet people that you know, have these experiences and share them with you and that’s so cool because, you know, they look up to you or you inspire them or whatever that might be or they just cheer for you or they just, you know, like your haircut or um, you know, whatever the case might be, they, they somehow connect with you or, or identify with you and then share what they’re going through and just being able to listen and experience and, and help those people if you can or just, you know, find out about those people and what they’re going through.
Christian Lucero:
And, and I think that’s really cool and kind of really is so uplifting and enhancing about it. You know, there’s obviously some, you know, I don’t know if I would call it a downside, but it’s not like, you know, people I would say, you know, that work, normal jobs, they can, you know, go out on the weekends and you know, kind of travel to, you know, oh we’re going to go to Disneyland this weekend or oh we’re going to go do this and that. Oh, and you know, oh, we’re gonna, you know, take a vacation and go here and it’s, you know, we’re just going to eat and drink and, you know, do whatever we want all the time. It’s Kinda like as an elite athlete, if you want to continue to be able to perform at the highest level, you’re not going to be able to do that.
Christian Lucero:
You’re not going to be able to, you know, go, you know, go on long vacations and you know, have these, you know, just do what feels good and what is relaxing all the time. You know, there’s going to come, some stress is going to come with that territory. Some amount of physical discomfort and pain and you know, that’s part of the game and that’s part of what you signed up for. But you know, at this point it’s not like those are things that I really miss is not like the other things that I want to do. It’s kind of like, you know. So to answer your question, I don’t really see any type of downside. The only downside I would say that I really notice or see as like not being able to spend enough time with, you know, or not enough, but not being able to spend as much time with my wife as I wouldn’t necessarily want to if I weren’t or my family, you know, my mom or sister or you know, um, my relatives, you know, just not being able to do things with my family as much or spend as much time with them because of competing training.
Christian Lucero:
Um, different things that come with being the best at what you do. Being one of the best at what you do. You know, there are some sacrifices that, you know, you have to give up and I don’t really see like, oh, I can’t go to Disneyland this weekend or oh, I can’t, or no, not camp, but oh, I, I shouldn’t or I’m not going to go to, you know, do this or that. I don’t really see those as downsides because I’m not, like if I wasn’t doing it, the chances of me doing that are really slim anyways, or wanting to do that. So it’s more like the time spent with loved ones and stuff like that. And so, but I mean they’re, they’re very understanding and they’re very, um, supportive of, of what it takes and I know what it takes. And so it, it, it’s um, it’s nice that they do are, they are, understand and are supportive of that and you know, don’t get hurt feelings or don’t get sad about, about that thing.
Christian Lucero:
You know, those things because it’s like, you know, you will have time for that eventually. You will have more time for that. And you know, right now it’s about, you know, taking advantage of the time you do have in what you’re doing as far as a competitive wise and athletically.
Joe Bauer:
Absolutely, absolutely. Do you have a job?
Christian Lucero:
Yeah. So I mean for the past year, I mean, I, when I was in California, I coached at a, at a CrossFit gym, I coached and manage a CrossFit gym. And then when I moved I moved to Oregon for a little bit. I wasn’t doing, I was just doing sponsor stuff and um, and then when I was back and forth between California and Ohio, I was doing, you know, just sponsor stuff and little things here and there. And then, um, so I mean, yeah, I would say to answer your question, I would say yes, like CrossFitting is, is my job, um, and competing is my job and being the best at what I do is my job being the best that I can be at what I do.
Christian Lucero:
And you know, having that goal of being best in the world at something is definitely a job. So that’s my main focus and that’s my number one job. Um, and so my sponsors are, I’ve been blessed to have some incredible sponsors that make that possible for me to be able to focus on that and the ability to do that, you know, with focus on that with all of my energy. Um, but I do do things here and there to help supplement that or to help make things not as, as hard if they do get hard. And so I, I coach at a gym in California called CrossFit Costa Mesa here and there. I programmed for some athletes remotely online and um, you know, I’m kind of like in the process of doing some other entrepreneurial things that are in the CrossFit space that I’m still working on developing.
Christian Lucero:
But um, and then I’ll obviously do some work with sponsors, helping them develop products and, and I’m working with them. So between that and training and, you know, spending time with my, my wife, my dog, my family, um, I don’t really find that I have a lot of time for much.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah, I get it. I just think it’s a super important question and I get all kinds of different answers as far as that goes. So it’s very interesting for me and for people that are listening.
Christian Lucero:
I think that I’ve done both. I’ve worked a full time job and competed. I’ve worked a part time job and competed. I’ve worked, uh, no job and competed and I think that like we were talking about that line of writing like, okay, how much do we put into this? Like how much is going to be be that that perfect combination and how much is going to be two less than two too much.
Christian Lucero:
And I think for me having some coaching hours and being able to, to talk and be in the community of the gym is really great for, for me personally and in my energy and my morale and everything that I do. Um, and, and so like, I really think that, that I’ve tried, you know, these past couple of years have been a really good example of like experimenting and trying what works, what doesn’t work and finding it so that it can be dialed in and we can know with absolute confidence like, yeah, this is right and I can go into next season, I can go into this season and being like, yeah, this is right, this is what I need to be doing and I know that and I don’t have any question of Oh, will this work better or would that work better because, you know, I’ve tried this, I’ve tried that and this is what works the best for me.
Christian Lucero:
And I don’t have any doubt in my mind. And so I think for me as far as the job or as far as like working extra stuff or doing extra things are doing, you know, any, any quote unquote job or having a job as, as like I feel like for me it’s like a very, a very good balance is like doing something part time. So like having some coaching hours and you know, doing something, you know, if I’m helping a sponsor or working for a sponsor to do something and just having some something that gets me know into the community, helping others and uh, utilizing, you know, what I’ve learned and developed and what I’ve worked for to help somebody else. And I think it was a really rewarding and really beneficial and you know, it’s just a really good all around for me as a whole.
Christian Lucero:
Um, so yeah, I think there is that, that fine line and for me it’s, it’s really like being able to coach but not have not having my livelihood or my, my income solely reliant on that. It’s just kind of like, you know, helping and making everything easier and giving me a chance to get out and get outside of myself. Because as athletes we do a lot of the times tend to look solely inward on like, you know, ourselves and our bodies and our performances and are things that we have going on because, you know, you have to. But I think it’s good to, to, to find that line of like, how do you balance that and be able to be a healthy human. And I think that’s gonna make you the most successful in that competitive space.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like this podcast, we’ve gotten so much actionable advice from you. So I want to thank you, but, uh, one more question and that.
Joe Bauer:
I don’t have anything to do a.
Joe Bauer:
If someone asks you how to become a CrossFit Games athlete and I know this is a loaded question and I feel like you’ve given a bunch of great information already on how to do that. But when they asked you that question, I want to be a CrossFit as a CrossFit Games athlete. You’ve made it before. How do I do that? What do you say?
Christian Lucero:
Um, first I would ask why do you want to be a Games athlete? You know, why, what is it about, what is it that you want? Because okay, so you want to be a Games athlete, but why do you want that? You know, I would ask first and if that’s the, if that’s the thing that somebody’s listening to this podcast, you know, wants to do, it’s I would say take a big and long look inside and be like, why do I want this and what are my motives and what are, what is my motivation? Because it’s going to take more out of your body and out of your mind then you know, or realize and there’s going to be so many points along the way where you can quit or you can give up where you can, you know, let go of that, that goal or that dream that you really need to have a good why and a good, a good thing to be working in, to be fighting for.
Christian Lucero:
And whether that’s your family, whether that’s your, your, you know, a pro, like anything your faith, your, um, anything it could be, you know, a promise you made to somebody that had passed away and you feel like that would be honoring it or. I don’t know, I’m just thinking of like, that’s pretty like movie that’s pretty. Like, uh, uh, what do you call it, like a Romcom movie, but, um, that, you know, so you really need to have a good why and a good reason what you’re doing because it’s gonna, like I said, it’s going to take more out of you than you know, it’s going to take more hours, more time, more energy, more mental strain and more pain than you’ve endured. And so if you don’t have a good reason why you’re doing it and it’s just, Oh, I want to be famous or I want to, you know, do have a lot of followers on instagram where I want to, um, you know, you just kind of are doing it for Bain or selfish reasons. It’s, it’s not gonna work out and in your journey’s going to be over pretty quick. And, but once you have that dialed in, I would say I would. So I would say dial that in and find a good reason and, and have a good reason for doing what you’re doing. And then if not, there’s a lot of other ways, a lot easier ways to get more followers or get likes or get famous, you know, there’s a lot less painful ways to do all of those things that’ll make a lot less time and, and a lot less energy and will be a lot more successful. So I would, uh, your question was how, what do I do to become or to go to the CrossFit Games or what do I need to do? And it’s, you need to have a good reason and then I think you’re going to find a way. Regardless. You’re going to find, you’re going to find a way to do it if you have a good reason.
Joe Bauer:
Wow, I like it. That’s powerful. That’s good stuff. I, I would, yeah, I haven’t been to the CrossFit Games, but I, I tell people the same thing in business. So good. Good stuff. And then just lastly, how can people follow you and is there anything you’d like to promote? You can mention sponsors or whatever you would like to. I feel like a lot of times CrossFitters don’t promote themselves as much as they probably should, but yeah.
Christian Lucero:
Okay. It was like hot ones. You’ve seen hot ones. They eat the hot wings and they asked him the questions and they get to the end of it and then they were like, okay, now you can promote your stuff. And they’re like, oh, I got tours going on. Come see me. Yeah. I don’t have any tours. Not yet, no tour dates, but I am. You can find me on Instagram, twitter, snapchat, facebook, whatever. At ChristianVLuc and that’s on all those platforms. And um, I think the next thing I have going on in October is going to be, I’m going to be going out to Rio for, it’s called the Wad jam and it’s a big event in Rio that they’re putting on and it’s going to be televised in, in Brazil. And um, it’s a little team comp or it’s a team competition.
Christian Lucero:
And me and a few other Games athletes from the states are going down and teaming up with some of the local elite competitors. And going to be competing down there with a bunch of other teams and um, yeah, so that’s going to be fun. So, um, look out for that. I’m not sure if any other competitions I’m doing in the off season. And so, you know, might be a WodaPalooza. Might not. Uh, I’ll be in Madison hanging out at the Fnx booth. So if you guys are going out to Madison and want to see me, you want to hang out, I’ll be cruising around there. I’ll be at the Fnx booth for a little bit every day. That’s the supplements, FNX supplements. And then I’ll probably stop by. So my other sponsor booths, um, RX smart gear. Um, see who else? I don’t know if barbells for boobs is going to have a booth, but if they do guarantee I’ll be there. A trifecta might have a booth, so I might be out there.
Christian Lucero:
Yeah, let’s see who else? Um, yeah. So Madison, I might be able to see some of you. And then if not, see you in the open. So you at regionals see you at the Games next year. Um, I think that’s all I’ve got going on. Obviously if you follow me on Instagram, twitter, snapchat, all of those things, facebook, you’ll get a live look at kind of my days and what I do and what’s going on and you can follow me a little bit more closely and you know, announced on their, you know, anything that’s going on, anything that’s happening. Um, if you guys are out in Nevada, my wife’s competing at American open series three, which is a world team qualifier, a world team trials. And so if you guys are out there, I’ll be out there. We’ll see you guys there. Um, otherwise if you’re in Encinitas you might see me on the one on one. Um, but that’s about it. Thanks for having me on, man. It’s been, it was cool. I liked it. It was fun tools.
Joe Bauer:
Yeah. Well, Christian, I appreciate your time. It’s been a pleasure and uh, yeah man, have a good one.
Christian Lucero:
Thanks again. Thank you. You too. Talk soon.