The Pursuit Of Fitness w/ Noah Ohlsen

Noah  (00:00):

Hey, this is Noah Ohlsen and you’re listening to the Airborne Mind Show

Misbah Haque  (00:29:)

Hey guys, Misbah Haque here. Today we’re going to be talking with Noah Ohlson, he has made three trips to the Reebok CrossFit Games. And in this episode, we’re going to talk a little bit about games prep. He’s going to share some of the things that he might be changing to his approach and his training this year, he’s going to share some of his favorite TV shows, foods, movies, all that good stuff with us. And he’s also going to give us three workouts that you can try that are nasty in just the right ways. So before we get started, head over to the airbornemind.com, make sure to sign up for the newsletter, so you can get my weekly athlete digests. You can also check out some of the show notes there as well. So with that being said, Please enjoy. Noah, welcome to the show, man. 

Noah  (01:12):

Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.

Wanting to be the ripped dude running on the beach

Misbah Haque  (01:13):

 I’m pumped to have you here. I want to start by talking about your first ever experience with CrossFit. You know, I feel like everybody remembers the first time they walked into their gym, their first workout, whether they loved it or hated it. So I’m curious, what was that like for you? 

Noah  (01:31):

I vividly remember my first CrossFit workout ever. I was here actually on the University of Miami’s campus right now. And prior to doing CrossFit, I’d go to the wellness center here and do the typical kind of bodybuilding physique meathead type of stuff. And it was a little bit interval training here and there, but mostly just slow, get your pump on stuff. And more and more, I was getting into the health and fitness side of things and kind of actually stumbled upon CrossFit. I had heard of it, but I didn’t know exactly what it was, I thought it was kind of a military training program. And I was mistaken there. And I saw a poster somewhere down here that had a rip dude running on the beach. And I was like, wow, and it looked just like that guy. And that turned out to be one of my best friends and mentors, Guido Trinidad. And so I saw the poster and wrote down the phone number that was on there. And when I tried to work out that actually was six years ago, almost today, it was September 11. In 2010, they were doing a memorial workout and the fight went bad. And I got my butt kicked. But the environment was so cool. Like being in health and fitness to go to your first CrossFit gym and the garage door opens and there’s ropes and barbells and dumbbells and all that stuff. My jaw dropped and I was in heaven. 

When Noah decided to go ALL in

Misbah Haque  (02:55):

That’s awesome. Now, how long was it before you were like, Alright, I’m gonna go all in, you know, I want to make it to the games. I want to win the games. What when did that happen? 

Noah  (03:06):

I don’t know the exact time frame on that. I know that I kind of quickly got into the competitive side of things and started picking up some of the skills a little quicker than most people. I guess that was what I was being told, like getting kipping pull ups. I think I got a muscle up in my first month. And so the more that people started to tell me that I was doing well and feeling good and being competitive within the classes, I think the more I realized I wanted to try to take it a step further and found out what the CrossFit Games were. And I know that six months into doing CrossFit, I took my level one. I think that kind of solidified everything because I had seen videos of all the guys like everybody has in the past. Chris Spealler and Jason Khalipa. And then Chris Spealler happened to be the Flowmaster my level one so that was like, I remember saying one of the coolest weekend’s of my life and I think I was sold after that. 

Going from fan to peer

Misbah Haque  (04:00):

So what’s it like going from you know, being a fan of all these kinds of top dogs to kind of competing on the same playing field side by side with them.

Noah  (04:10):

Alright, so cool. I never thought I would, well, I was gonna say I never thought I’d be there. But I did have that vision and I had that goal. So once I got there, it was still a little bit surreal to remember , in particular, my first year in 2014. At the games, there was the, the event was called it was like the 2115 Nine triplet or something like that. And we had to do deadlifts, power cleans, snatches, and then pull up chest to bar bar muscle up. And I was in between Jason Khalipa and Tommy Haque, and Brooke and just a whole bunch of other studs near my side. And I remember looking around and I happened to be wearing the leader jersey for that event. And I don’t know it was just so surreal to me to be there to be competing with these guys to be doing well. So it’s pretty cool. 

Support system

Misbah Haque  (05:00):

Now, what’s your What was your support system? Like from that? You know, very beginning, when you kind of made that choice, you were like, Alright, I’m going all in. I’m training for this. I want to make it to the games. 

Noah  (05:10):

I think when I first started, my parents were supportive of me, obviously, me being fit and finding this new hobby that I was passionate about, didn’t really know too much about the CrossFit Games and what that was all about. But I think getting my level one cert, because it’s $1,000. So as a college student, I was pretty expensive. That was my birthday gift that year, or Christmas, or something like that. And so that was kind of the first thing that my parents were like, Oh, this is kind of serious, we’ll support you by helping you out with this. And since then, they’ve been super supportive. Guido obviously kind of guided me on that path, letting me know that I had potential and kind of took me under his wing and helped get me a little bit stronger and more skilled. So just everybody along the way has been really awesome and supportive. And I would say it’s not until the past couple years that there have been the quote unquote, haters. 

Choosing which competitions to do throughout the year

Misbah Haque  (06:06):

Now, aside from the games, how do you choose which competitions you’re going to do throughout the year? Because I’m sure you get invites, like all the time to drop in everywhere.

Noah  (06:16):

So it’s, it’s changed a lot from what I would say, since I made the games until now in terms of the invites and stuff like that. But I actually just last night wrote my first blog post in a long time, just a very brief thing, because I’m going to try to get back into that. And in the post, I went back and did the math on how many local competitions I did. And I believe since my first one until most recently that I’ve done, and I might have done the math wrong, but it was 43 local competitions, which is quite a bit. So I know that back in the day, it was a lot more than it is now. I just felt like I was doing one every other weekend. And I think that was really, really good for me then to get a lot of exposure and that extra competition stuff. So I recommend to anybody that’s not kind of already at the games level and trying to peek for that to just get out there and get exposure to as many local competitions and different athletes and different programming as possible

Misbah Haque  (07:24)

That’s awesome, man. So now what’s it look like? Are you every couple months or so? Are you trying to hit one?

Noah  (07:30):

Last year, there was not as much structure to it, it was just kind of like hitting some of the bigger ones, water Palooza, etc, I ended up out in Dubai, which was awesome. I made a team for crush games. And those were kind of just taking them as they came. And I think looking at how I performed the games this year, a lot of the people that tend to help me out said that they think I should kind of pull back on that a little bit. Just focus on really training for and speaking at the games this summer.

Approach for sharpening the mental aspect of performance

Misbah Haque  (07:58):

Gotcha. Okay, now, so getting ready for regionals? This year, I’ve heard you mentioned that there was a huge emphasis on your mental game. So what exactly did that look like? What are some of the things you did to make sure you were just on point and sharp?

Noah  (08:15):

I actually didn’t end up really very hard or sharp, I think, unfortunately, but I was conscious of it and wanted to start training the mental aspect. But I was kind of lost, I didn’t know exactly what to be doing, what I should be looking for, who I should be talking to, I spoke to a couple of different people. But I think for the most part, it was all really brand new to me. And I didn’t know how to wrap my mind around a lot of the stuff that I was kind of studying, I guess, or training. But yeah, more and more as I get into it, the more and more I realize that a big component of being at the top level is being able to show up and have your mind ready on game day. Because training is relatively easy in the sense that like you’re in the comfort of your own gym, you’re with people that you’re with every day. So that game day mentality is something that I definitely need to work on and that I am kind of going to hone in on this entire year. 

Misbah Haque  (09:14):

So like day to day what does that kind of look like? Are you trying to focus on certain things like how you’re kind of talking to yourself, you know, how hard you’re pushing, things like that?

Noah  (09:24):

So just this past weekend, I actually worked with a potential new coach. And we spoke a lot about that aspect of it and kind of just framing different thoughts in your mind and being able to shift your perspective. So the training that I’d be getting into with this guy is going to be like, I want to say less fun, but not like the sexy typical CrossFit stuff. It’s gonna be a lot of high power output like short, gross intervals and just having to like really get after it and That’s some stuff that I don’t usually do, I kind of go in, throw down, do a lot of volume of like CrossFit stuff and bounce around from piece to piece. And this is going to be more structured. Two minutes of 100% effort rest for 10 minutes and repeat. And so we talked about being able to frame that and not because that stuff makes me nervous, you know, everybody thinks about salt like intervals and you get that pit in your stomach and you’re like, oh, that sucks. And rather than thinking about how much it’s gonna suck, trying to reframe that and think, yeah, it’s gonna be hard, but that means it’s gonna be really good for me, and it’s going to change who I am as an athlete, and it’s going to make me more powerful, and it’s an opportunity for growth rather than it being shitty.

Misbah Haque  (10:46):

So I’ve heard you mentioned that you read the champion’s mind, right? Have you ever checked out relentless by Tim Grover? 

Noah  (08:15):

Have not been I think I’ve heard of it. Something you recommend? 

Misbah Haque  (10:59):

Because he was Michael Jordan’s personal trainer and Kobe Bryant’s personal trainer. And like, I think, you know, he’s got tons and tons of NBA athletes that he works with. But that really digs into like, just the mindset behind those two, and like, kind of, you know, how they got to where they are. And it was really interesting. It was one of the coolest, like, psychology, sports psychology type of books I’ve ever read.

“You need to get a little stronger”

Noah  (11:22):

That’s awesome. I bet I just watched Cobis muse, and he talks a lot about some of that stuff. So I’m interested now, relentlessly. 

Misbah Haque  (11:30):

And so now you spend a lot of time with the barbell, it looks like you are still doing barbell WOD. 

Noah  (11:37):

I am kind of figuring out my plan right now, barbell WOD has been so great for me since the games were over in 2014. A really good friend of mine, Charlie Zamora, who owns caffeine and kilos, contacted me, and he said, Hey, dude, I don’t mean this offensively at all, because I love you. And I want to see you do well, but it looks like after the games, you need to get a little stronger. Good friend of mine, Dave Spitz at Cal strength is creating this program. And I think it’d be really good for you. So he kind of linked us up. And I did that to 1415 and 16. And doing the kind of stats on it this week, my lifting numbers have all grown pretty linearly over the past three years, since then, I’ve put about 15 to 20 pounds on all my lifts each year, kind of just going up. So I think that’s been really great for me and just kind of building that strength base. But talking about it this weekend, I started to reach a little bit too often and go for maxes and I was hitting a lot of misses and that kind of messed with my confidence, just the way that I was structured. So I think I’m going to kind of pull back a little bit to really build consistency at higher volumes of like the moderate weights, so being able to, rather than working up and hitting a 285 snatch, like and having that go to 85 One week 265 One week 290 Another week 255. Another week, just focusing on like the first week hitting 10 perfect reps at 255. Next week hitting 10 programs at 260. And just really building that consistency there because I think even when it gets to the ladders and stuff at regionals in the games, if the aboriginals that snapshot or if the 225 and 245 felt a lot easier. I think I’d get to the 265 bar and feel fresher and it wouldn’t feel like as much of an exhausted effort so that’s like a little bit of a different perspective for me now is just to build that consistency while the strength is kind of being built slowly behind it.

Exposure to weightlifting meets to sharpen your mental game

Misbah Haque  (13:45):

Are you curious? Have you ever tried a weightlifting meet? 

Noah  (13:45):

I have actually done a couple just for the experience of it like the all eyes on you thing. I did the caffeine and kilos Invitational relatively recently, and then I did the soul classic or something a couple years ago. So I have done those. I think it is a lot of fun. But I just love CrossFit so much, I’d never be able to make that full transition. 

Misbah Haque  (14: 08):
Well mentally, how do you feel like, you know, is it any different from you competing in a CrossFit competition?

Noah  (14:16):

I mean, it’s a little bit more of that focus and having to hit the one lift rather than having to like, pace yourself throughout the day and refuel and recover. And I don’t know, it’s just like a totally different game. But I think there are aspects of the Olympic lifting that you will see in CrossFit competitions. So I think it’s good to get that exposure.

Misbah Haque  14:39

Definitely. I just feel like mentally it’s a good way to kind of put yourself in that situation. Even if you do CrossFit full time and you’re trying to compete. Just kind of getting that experience is awesome. 

Noah  14:51

I agree. That’s why I wanted to do it a couple times.

Injury prevention

Misbah Haque  14:54

So obviously your level if you get injured sitting out for a couple weeks day days, right is, uh, probably a little bit devastating. So, you know, how do you do injury prevention wise, anything specific.

Noah  15:10

I’ve been lucky the past few years in that I haven’t had any major injuries knock on wood. So the stuff that I do to keep healthy is just like the very basics. And I don’t want to say bare minimum, but I’ve neglected that up to this point. And I think I’ve been okay, I’ve been able to get by that way. So now I might start looking into now that I’m getting older 25 Just taking care of myself, making sure that I’m seeing somebody for a massage to break down tissue and stuff that used to just go away by itself every month or something. And I’ve always taken care of myself  like foam rolled, stretched, pretty good nutrition, and done some of the right things for recovery. But as I get older, I’m sure I’m going to need to pay a little bit more attention to it.

Noah’s breakfast

Misbah Haque  16:02

So all right, I know you’re not going to give away the hair product that you use. So I want to kind of dive into some of the actionable stuff that people (inaudible).. Tell me what does your breakfast look like? What’s the breakfast of champions look like for Noah Ohlsen?

Noah (16:19): 

So I’ve actually been lucky enough to be able to partner up with many different people over the years, but right now a company that Guido and his wife, Virginia are actually a big part of and it’s called perfect fuel down here in South Florida. And so they make macro based meal plans for athletes, specifically CrossFit. And so they deliver to our door on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a breakfast lunch and a dinner. And they’re all portioned out, I’ve got the gains portion. So the bigger size, it’s got about 25 grams of fat per meal, 75 carbs, and then about 50 grams of protein. So pretty significant size meals, pretty good quality, it’s always some type of clean protein, like breakfast will be eggs. They’ll do like a sweet potato hash. And like to mix bacon in there for a little bit of fat. Or they have easy kills like English muffins. Greenfingers muffins with eggs and turkey sausage. And I don’t know if they get creative with all the combos and stuff. But it’s awesome just to have the right amount of the right food just ready to go.  

Supplements

Misbah (17:35): 

You just don’t have to think about it. Just eat. Now supplements wise, I know you’re not huge on supplements, but what are some things that are kind of staples for you.

Noah (17:45): 

I am actually kind of free on the supplement market. Right now my contract has expired. So I’m looking into what the next move is. But I’ve always taken protein on and off a couple of times a week. I’ll grab a shake after a workout. And that’s one thing that I think I was kind of neglecting, that I’m going to try to focus on a little bit more now. And one thing that the coach I worked with this weekend wants me to focus on as well as getting carbs in after my workouts just really really making sure that I’m getting enough fuel to sustain the amount of training that I’m going to do. So having this weekend every workout I’d finish with a 100 grams of carb carb and like 30 grams of protein shake right after the workout just down it and then kind of go on throughout the day. So that’s an extra 200 grams of carbs and 60 grams of protein that I wasn’t getting before that I’ll probably start incorporating. I’m always like creatine. I think that’s helped me put on a little bit of muscle mass and add to that strength and power. I don’t take it all the time. But I’ll do little bats with that. And that’s really about it. I don’t take many stimulants. don’t really take anything for sleeping. I do take fish oil. I’ll try to take that pretty regularly.  

Milk and desserts

Misbah (19:04): 

Cool. Now how do we feel about milk? 

Noah (19:06): 

I love milk. Still, that’s always been my thing. I grew up having a glass of milk with dinner every single night. And when I started doing CrossFit I was 155 pounds and wanted to get stronger and bigger and Guido recommended trying to. I heard somebody referred to it as a gallon of milk a day. And I quickly found out that that wasn’t really feasible. So it was just as much milk as I could handle. And we still always at my apartment have at least one carton of whole milk pretty regularly. 

Misbah (19:40): 

So what do you think on an average day how many cups of milk you drink? \

Noah (19:45): 

I might have one in the morning or mix one in a shake. And then I’ll definitely have like one or two glasses at night. Okay with a cookie or on top of some ice cream or something like that.

Misbah (19:56): 

Nice. All right, well, that leads into my next one. Let’s talk about desserts. What’s your favorite dessert?

Noah (20:01): 

I’m pretty ice cream obsessed. I love ice cream. I don’t know just the texture, the feeling, the taste, all that stuff. So we always have ice cream in our freezer Joanne is my girlfriend she keeps that stocked up for us and sometimes mad about it that I’m always eating ice cream she’s like I don’t work out that much I can’t eat all this ice cream all the time and just have it in my face but it’s yeah, that’s that’s probably my go to and then if we go out to dinner anywhere I’ll get a Whatever it looks good on the menu I don’t usually hold back when it comes to dessert. 

Misbah (20:38): 

Now what kind of ice cream has any specific brands, flavors? 

Noah (20:43): 

Joanna loves to lente Caramel Cookie Crunch her activities really well.

Misbah (20:50): 

Like the peanut butter cup one, the coffee one, all that stuff is pretty good. 

Noah (20:55): 

Those are good. They What’s your other favorite join into the new McConnell’s, we just discovered a new brand that they haven’t Whole Foods called McConnell’s. It’s so good. Like really, really creamy. And the our favorite flavor so far is seesaw and like sweet cream and cookies or something like that? I don’t know. It’s incredible.  

Misbah  (21:21)

Gotta try that out. Now, do you guys have Turkey Hill down there? Turkey Hill, Brands?

Noah  (21:27)

I don’t think so

Misbah  (21:27):

It might be this area. But I don’t know. If you’re ever in this area. You gotta try a Grand Slam, Philly’s Grand Slam by Turkey Hill. That’s like going to it’s literally like graham crackers infused in the ice cream. And then you got chunks like graham crackers and peanut butter cups in there. It’s pretty awesome.

Noah  (21:44):

Yeah. Awesome. Sounds good.

Favorite things to do when Noah’s not training

Misbah Haque  (21:46):

Cool. Now you’re pretty adamant about your rest days, right? Like you take two scheduled rest days per week. What are some of your favorite things to do when you’re not training?

Noah  (21:56):

I definitely try to get out of the gym and kind of give my body a little bit of time to recover. And we heal and fuel and everything on those rest days. I don’t do anything crazy. Yes. Occasionally, I’ll do the active recovery type of workout and just kind of flow on a bike or sometimes get in the pool. I think that’s always really good for your body. We always have weight bearing down on us. So to be in the water and be weightless, I think is a really good, negative thing to do. Obviously not negative but like the opposite of what we’re used to. 

Misbah Haque  (22:33):

Sure. Now do you swim, like a lot throughout the year?

Noah  (22:39):

I don’t as much as I should. I swam and played water polo in high school and a little bit in college. And then when I got into CrossFit, I realized that everybody was so far behind on that I was like, Oh, I’m okay with that experience that I have. And Joanne actually, we call her coach Joe sometimes, I think had kind of an epiphany this year, she said, instead of just kind of keeping the swimming thing in the air and like doing it occasionally, making sure it’s fresh, why don’t you like to really, really practice that. So instead of the game sticking, like third or fifth or eighth in the swim, go train that really hard and take first on that event in Sydney. And you’re absolutely right, I should kind of get back into actually practicing that and not just getting little touches on it here and there. 

Music: favorite genre, artists

Misbah Haque  (23:38):

Now what’s your favorite genre of music? 

Noah  (23:31):

I love hip hop. I don’t know why but I just have always really been a big hip hop fan. I was a little gangster when I was in high school. I had diamond earrings, blow out dog tags and all that good stuff.  

Misbah Haque  (23:44):

So I know Drake is one of them. But who else? Who else is like your top three?

Noah  (23:48):

I’m a big Drake fan. I love Jay Cole. I was just yesterday I we got Apple Music and I was exploring a little bit and just started listening to some Childish Gambino you got some cool flow on some stuff and Chance the Rapper, a couple people have recommended to me so those guys are kind of new in the game, but sounds like good stuff. 

Misbah Haque  (24:12):

Is that what you’re listening to during training or kind of just when you’re hanging out or both? 

Noah  (24:18):

A little bit of both. I would say during training, we’ll usually put on like a Pandora station or some type of Playlist that’s got some Drake on it or it’s just like a general Hip Hop playlist. Sometimes it gets a little more intense and they’ll put on like a who’s tense. Trying to think of one of the harder playlists that will be listened to but I don’t know it kind of depends on the mood in the gym every now and then I’ll throw on like Frank Ocean or Maroon Five and just kind of like flow and move and get a little change of pace. 

Movies

Misbah Haque  (24:52):

How about your favorite movies? Favorite Movies? I love movies in general. 

Noah  (24:54):

My favorite movie probably is Gold Member Austin Powers. So funny. It’s like a family movie. We have a bunch of my friends in my neighborhood growing up and we still watch that all the time. So that kind of sticks out but like really powerful moving movies. I love the movie Warrior with Tom Hardy, and I always forget the brother’s name. But that’s such a good movie if you haven’t seen it, it’s awesome! 

Misbah Haque  (25:54):

Is that like the MMA one? 

Noah  (25:28):

Two brothers that are both fighters, lit up and then met back up later in their life. 

Misbah Haque  (25:33):

That was a pretty sick movie. 

Noah  (25:35):

Yeah, I liked that movie a lot. 

Misbah Haque  (25:36):

How about Rocky, you’re a fan of Rocky at all. 

Noah  (25:39):

I am a Rocky fan, not like a crazy diehard. I was just hanging out with my buddy Chandler Smith, and he’s obsessed with Rocky. So we’re watching Rocky motivational videos and clips and montages on YouTube. I probably need to get back into the rocky game. But I think the first Rocky that I watched when I was like 12 years old was the first movie ever that kind of got me fired up for fitness. I remember wanting to go work out after seeing that. And like, I don’t remember. I think we bought a punching bag. I vaguely remember having one in the garage. Or maybe I just wanted one. 

Tv Shows

Misbah Haque  (26:11):

I didn’t do the exact same thing. 

Noah  (26:13):

So funny. Right? So fired up.  How about your favorite TV shows? I’m embarrassed that the first TV show that came to my mind was the Bachelorette. But I wouldn’t say that’s my favorite. That’s just what Joanne had to watch. And I’ll kind of tag along on that. And I, I slowly became a fan. I actually met the guy that won this most recent season. Jordan Rogers is a cool guy. He’s at the CrossFit Games. Okay, we hung out a little bit. And outside of that, we’ll just watch occasional Netflix shows we were in. How to get is basically whatever join wants to watch. I’ll just kind of hang on watch as well. So How to Get Away with Murder. I don’t know if she wanted me to say Grey’s Anatomy, but I don’t know if I can admit that one as well. We did just start watching Stranger Things, which is pretty interesting. We’re only a few episodes in and it got my attention. So we’ll see how the rest of that goes. So are you into crime shows a little bit?  I think so. We watched. Was it called the following. I think we watched the entire, like two or three seasons. That was pretty good.

Misbah Haque  (27:24):

Have you seen this on Netflix? But have you ever heard a Lie to me?  Dude, that is sick. So what it is is like, the guy is a deception expert. So he can tell he’s like a human lie detector. 

Noah  (27:36):

Oh, you know what? I think I have heard of that.  

Misbah Haque  (27:38):

And like, yes, he’s pretty much a consultant that’s hired by the FBI, CIA and like, just all these other law enforcement agencies. And he figures out like these crazy crimes from literally just like, watching tiny little expressions like on your face. It’s pretty good. I have heard of that one. And the other one is a I think it’s making a murder. That’s like a classic one. I think it’s like 10 episodes. 

Noah  (28:00):

We did. We did watch a little bit of that we kind of fell off Making a Murderer. Yeah, I don’t know. That was kind of a true story. 

Misbah Haque  (28:09):

It was it was kind of mind blowing.  Have you ever thrown up from a workout? 

Noah  (28:15):

I have never thrown up from a workout. But I have been close occasionally. Like the past week when I was up in Atlanta training. I did two workouts that had me kind of dry heaving. But I never have actually, all the way thrown up. 

Training partners

Misbah Haque  (28:33):

How about training partners? How important are training partners for you?

Noah  (28:37):

I mean, I think they’re awesome. I think it’s a really, really great thing to have if you have that resource. I’ve been lucky enough on and off throughout the years to be able to train some really awesome guys, Guido Chase Daniels, Jared Davis, John Adams, all those guys. That kind of faded off a little bit. We don’t get together as much as we used to, unfortunately. But there are some awesome guys in our gym now. My friend Zach, and Shawn and Bijon and Travis and we just we have a solid crew, I don’t have anybody that is like, same level and that we do the same workouts and get that push from every day, I think that would really, really kind of take it to the next level for me. So there’s a possibility that I end up kind of getting to work alongside Travis Mayer. A little bit more. So I think that would be good for us both. If that happens.

Maximus Ohlsen for President

Misbah Haque  (29:33):

Now, I know you love Max. So let’s talk about him and his Instagram. He’s a big stud, man. I just looked this up yesterday.

Noah  (29:44):

He’s the man Max is, he’s actually right here by my feet. But he’s awesome. He’s almost three years old. We’ve had him for three years and when he was 10 weeks is a big, chunky puppy. And he’s grown into his own now and he’s the best. He’s just always happy, super loving, always having fun. Really good boy, for the most part, sometimes he’s a little crazy. And does some outrageous stuff. My favorite post was probably the max for President one. That one got me thinking, That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s probably that most people would be happier with that than some of the other choices we’ve got going on right now.

Habits, processes, non-negotiables

Misbah Haque  (30:26):

So alright, so clearly this didn’t just kind of happen overnight, right? Like you had certain processes, certain habits that you stick to on like a day to day basis. What are some non-negotiables for you ? When you do these set things, you feel like you’ve had a successful day, you’ve given it all you got.

Noah  (30:45):

I would say training is definitely just the main focus. I know there’s a lot of stuff outside of that, like what you eat, what you how you sleep, different routines and stuff like that. But I feel like if you have all of that stuff dialed in and onpoint, and you don’t get after it in the gym, then it’s kind of not as big of an impact. So I really focus on getting a high volume of training in really getting after it, making sure it’s some good quality stuff. And everything outside of that. Sometimes we end up slipping away, just because more of my focus is in the gym, but I’m going to try to fix my sleep a little bit right now. I probably get to bed at like 11 o’clock, and we’ll wake up at like 730 I mean, that’s pretty good. That’s a good eight and a half hours, but I’m gonna try to get in bed an hour earlier, see if I can get in bed by 10 and still wake up at seven. So just having that more recovery there is more rest? 

Misbah Haque  (31:46):

So what I mean, with the volume of training that you do, like when you don’t get your eight and a half hours asleep, do you notice that? Like, do you feel that right away? 

Noah  (31:54):

I don’t and I think that that is probably why I’m able to have it be whatever, cuz I don’t wake up and see like shit and feel like I can’t get through a day of training, I just feel like there’s so many variables that if I feel a little bit better, a little worse, on some days, it could be it’s not necessarily the sleep, it could be something else or something else. And so I don’t know, I have a hard time determining whether one little thing has a big impact, whether it’s a supplement, a certain food or a sleeping habit. So I just try to keep everything as semi consistent as possible. And then just really focus on getting good training. 

Workouts for you to try

Misbah  (32:35)

Now, let’s give the listeners a workout that you tried recently, that you know people can get a shot. 

Noah  (32:45):

So I’ll give him a couple. Some of that high high power training that I was doing this weekend that I really need to work on. I forget exactly what the different titles of the size of workout were. But I want to say that it’s like an anaerobic power workout that I did. So that would be like, just a heavy barbell over and over and over again. And that’s something that I obviously need to work on, like the clean letter to the game. So I did three rounds of 10 Full cleans at 275 as fast as possible, with like five minutes of rest in between rounds. So a pretty good amount of recovery, five, five to 10 minutes, almost. So you get back in there and it’s just 10 cleans, like under two minutes. Wow. That was pretty tough. And we did some what was called more anaerobic and Durance stuff, I believe. And so it was like an interval highpower intervals. So row 1k I ended up doing three rounds with plenty of rest in between row 1k at a I think it was a minute 40 per 500 pesos. So it came out to a 320 for the 1k. So 320 1k get off and immediately go hit five cleans at 275. So it’s kind of the same concept but under fatigue, which is a little bit different. Yesterday, I did five power cleans at 225 10 burpees as fast as possible and then like run to the rower and just rip it at a sub 125 per 500 meter pace for as long as possible it just like hang on until it gets like up towards 130 per 500 So those are only like minute and a half intervals and and that was pretty significant like you feel that was another rest 10 minutes in between so you can come back and hit it just as hard. Right. And then the last one that I remember that also was just that, like gross. Feeling but again, trying to reframe it in my mind is probably awesome for me. It was four rounds of 20 unbroken wall balls with a 30 pound ball, and 15 cows on the assault bike, and like hustling back and forth each. So get off the bike, pick the ball up right away. That one was like a five minute workout. That just hurt.

Misbah Haque  (35:24):

Sounds nasty!

Noah  (35:25):

In an amazing way.

If you had to start over and had only 1 year to live, what would you do to make it back to where you are now?

Misbah Haque  (35:27):

All right. Now, let’s say that everything you’ve done, everything you’ve accomplished was gone, and you had to start over. And you only have one year to live, and you will do anything to make it to the games. What would you do to get back to where you are now?

Noah  (35:45):

That’s tough. If I was starting where I started, I don’t think that that’s possible in a year to be able to get done. I mean, I’m sure I would try my best and just grind away. If I was where I started, I would definitely need to build my strength up because I could not snatch 135 When I started doing CrossFit. So that would be a big thing for me is just trying to really get strong and get some extra time under tension with the barbell, because I was not used to that at all. And I know everybody says just like doing CrossFit makes you good at CrossFit. I think that’s true of a beginner, not so true as much when you get to the higher level. But if I was starting over, I would just be doing a ton of CrossFit and lifting as much as I could.

Biggest influences

Misbah Haque  (36:32):

Now, who are some people that have been your biggest influences? Like who do you learn from some of your mentors and training partners that you respect? 

Noah  (36:43):

So I’ve obviously mentioned them already. But Guido Trinidad was probably the biggest influence in my CrossFit career in the beginning, kind of taking me under his wing, letting me train with them, teaching me a lot of stuff, just having faith in me and being able to support me the whole way through my career. I’ve met so many awesome people along the way, in terms of friends and athletes. Kenny leverage was really confident in me and gave me a lot of help and confidence at the beginning. Dusty Highland has been such an awesome coach and friend to me over the past couple years along with Dave Spitz from CAP strength. So there just have been a lot of really great people that have kind of helped me with this, this whole journey and to get to where I am. 

Misbah Haque (37:27):

Where can we point people to how we can support your journey? Where can people learn more about you? 

Noah  (37:34):

So I was just yesterday talking about maybe getting Noahohlsen.com locked in, I always thought that was so silly. But the more and more that things start happening and connections, and working with certain people, I think the more and more that may be necessary, so that might be relatively soon. In the meantime, I just kind of put everything on my Instagram, I share a lot of stuff there with a lot of people and I hope that people enjoy it. So @noahlsen forgot to spell my own name there. @noahlsen, Max has his own he’s at Maximus Ohlsen, and Joanne and Max are both all tagged in my stuff, so you guys can find them on there. I just rebooted that blog a little bit. It’s called the pursuit of fitness. And I think it was, and nohlsen.tumblr.com or something like that. I don’t know. I’m gonna be posting some more stuff on there. 

Misbah Haque  (38:30):

I’ll be reading and we’ll get that all linked up in the show notes and all that good stuff. Awesome, man. I appreciate it. Yeah, man. And so I just want to acknowledge you for all the hard work that you do. I mean, you know, on this podcast, I like to have people who have kind of gone all in on something. And I feel like those are the people that we admire most. So keep doing what you’re doing, man, and we’ll be supporting your journey.

Noah  (38:52):

Cool. Thank you so much. That means a lot that kind of keeps driving me to do it over and over again.

Misbah Haque  (38:56)

Thanks again for being here, man. I appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you so much for listening. Guys. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to iTunes and leave a five-star review. And or share it with a friend, share it somewhere on the web where people can enjoy it. Be sure to head over to the airborne mind comm and sign up for the newsletter. You’ll get my weekly athlete digest along with a few free gifts. If you have questions that you would like to see answered on future podcasts, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can send an email to info at airborne mind att.com And in the subject line, please put Q and A. I’m looking forward to hearing from you guys. Thanks again for listening. Until next time!