Rich Froning - birth of a CrossFit legend

Today, perhaps, it is difficult to find a person who would know anything about CrossFit and at the same time have never heard of Rich Froning. But, nevertheless, in most cases, all that people know about this athlete is only that he won CrossFit games four times in a row, but at the same time left the individual competition. Because of this, many myths have formed around the athlete, both favorable and not so.

Biography

Richard Froning was born on July 21, 1987 in Mount Clemens (Michigan). Soon, his family moved to Tennessee, where he still lives with his wife and two children.

Promising baseball player

In adolescence, the parents gave young Rich to baseball, wishing their son a bright future and pursuing several goals in this regard. First, they thus tried to interest at least something obstinate teenager and tear him away from hours of watching TV. Second, baseball was then the most funded sport in the United States of America. The boy had a real chance to achieve success and provide himself with a comfortable existence over time. And, thirdly, baseball players at that time could study for free at any college in the country.

Young Rich did not approve of such grandiose parental plans for his future life, although until a certain time he followed their lead. In high school, he even began to show phenomenal results and just before graduation received a long-awaited sports scholarship ... But instead of continuing to study for free at a sports college, Froning dropped out of baseball.

Change of life vector

Richard radically changed his life vector and began to intensively prepare for admission to the best technological university in the state. But since he did not have a budgetary place, the young man had to work for more than six months in a car repair shop in order to save up some money for training. Upon entering university, Rich began working as a firefighter in order to be able to continue paying for his education.

Naturally, the retirement from professional baseball and the extremely difficult work schedule did not have a very favorable effect on Froning's figure. Today on the Internet you can find several photos that show Richard is far from the most athletic person. However, he was not discouraged. Being a fighter in life, the future graduate of the university assured that as soon as he had free time and strength, he would return to sports.

Coming to CrossFit

Upon entering the university, Rich Froning seriously considered returning to semi-professional baseball as part of a technical college team. But in order to regain their former sports form, it was necessary to practice. Then the student accepted an invitation from one of his teachers to go to the CrossFit gym. The teacher, who already knew about the peculiarities of the newfangled sports discipline, assured Rich that this way he would quickly regain his ideal physical shape than training in the classical way.

Crossfit career start

And so, an interested student in 2006 begins to engage in a new sport. Moreover, seriously carried away by CrossFit, in 2009 he receives his first sports certificate and coach's license, after which, together with his cousin, he opens his own CrossFit gym in his hometown. Finishing his studies at the university, Froning decided to seriously connect his life with sports and even developed his own training program.

In just 1 year of hard training, in 2010, he competed at the Crossfit Games for the first time in his life and immediately became the second most prepared man in the world. But instead of joy, this victory brought Rich a lot of disappointment in the crossfit industry. Then, the future wife of Froning very reverently recalls this moment, saying that after the competition, Rich was in complete depression, could not concentrate on anything, and clearly wanted to quit sports, heading into the profession of an engineer.

An interesting fact. Before Reebok entered the industry, CrossFit was not a highly promoted sport, meaning that many athletes practiced it in parallel with the main sport. Among other things, the prize pool for games in 2010 was only $ 7,000, and only $ 1,000 was given for the first place. For comparison, the championship held in Dubai in 2017 has a prize pool of over half a million dollars.

Legendary success

Thanks to the support of his future wife, Froning still decides to stay in the sport and give himself a second chance. It was a difficult step for him, since the new training program took up almost all of his free time. In addition, he was still oppressed by the thought that after graduating from a technical university, he never went to work in his specialty.

The athlete's own reserves of funds were running out, and only the prize fund of the next competition and world recognition could help him recover from the depression associated with getting second place, and assure himself that he made the right step.

It was at that moment that Froning harshly changed his training program, which violates all the classic principles of training, and which laid the foundation for the modern theoretical basis for the training of CrossFit athletes around the world.

Firstly, he significantly increased the intensity of training, and created a huge number of new programs and combinations, which, using the principle of supersets and trisets, shocked the muscles as much as possible, and for many even trained athletes seemed impracticable.

Secondly, he went into 7-day training mode. Rest, he says, is not a break, but just a less intense workout.

Despite all these difficulties, Froning did not break down, but, on the contrary, acquired a fundamentally new form. In 2011, his weight was the lowest in his entire sports career. So, the athlete entered the competition in the weight category up to 84 kilograms.

In the same year, for the first time, he became “the most prepared man in the world” and held this title for 4 years, consolidating the result by a phenomenal margin. Froning showed a new peak every year and proved that he is considered a legend in the modern world of CrossFit for good reason.

An interesting fact: it was because of Fronning that the competition organizer began to seriously revise the competition programs in order to minimize the advantage of one athlete over another, and make them in general more complex and varied.

Withdrawal from individual competitions

By 2012, the hall, organized by the Froning brothers, finally began to generate serious income. The popularity of the athlete played a role in this. This allowed Rich to no longer worry about the financial side of his life, and he was able to devote himself completely to training for his own pleasure.

But in 2015, after taking first place and leaving Ben Smith behind by a wide margin, Froning made a statement that shocked many of his fans. He said that he will no longer compete in individual crossfit competitions, but will only take part in team games.

According to Froning, 3 main things influenced this decision:

1. The athlete's marital status, and the fact that he wanted to devote enough time to his family, sometimes sacrificing training for this.
2. Froning felt that his physical form was at its peak, and already at that time there were serious competitors who in 2017 could compete with him, which means he wanted to leave undefeated.
3. Richard saw himself not only as an athlete, but also as a coach. And teamwork made it possible to significantly expand the theoretical base of CrossFit and make training even more effective.

Today, his team still has not left the top three medalists in crossfit games for 3 years. In fact, leaving professional individualists did not stop Froning's development as an athlete. In addition, he clearly changed the principle of training and nutrition, which suggests that the athlete is preparing for something new, larger. Who knows, maybe in 5-6 years, he will return and, like Schwarzenegger in 1980, will win another gold medal, after which he will leave professional CrossFit forever. Until then, we can only support his CrossFit Mayhem freedom team.

Sports heritage

Despite his retirement from the individual competitions, Rich Froning still holds the title of undefeated champion and, most importantly, is not going to stop there. This one brought a lot of useful and revolutionary things to CrossFit, namely:

1. First, this is the author's training method, which radically violates the classical theory of training complexes. Moreover, he proved that by training intuitively and hard, you can achieve really impressive results.
2. Secondly, this is its gym, which, unlike sports complexes of other representatives of the fitness industry, has a maximum focus on crossfit (there are many specific simulators) and is extremely affordable. Fronning himself explains this by the fact that he wants as many people as possible to go in for sports at a professional level. And this is his personal contribution to the development of a healthy nation and the future of fitness.
3. And, perhaps, the most important thing. Fronning has proven that you can achieve any result even with shunts in your hand and suffering from excess weight. All this is temporary and you can get rid of everything. He was able to overcome his shoulder injury from his baseball career, was able to overcome an unhealthy lifestyle that made him overweight. And, most importantly, he proved that even one who constantly chews cookies and chocolates can become the most prepared person, the main thing is to set a goal and stubbornly go towards it.

. @ richfroning is the Fittest Man In History. Let him inspire you. Bonus: streaming this counts as exercise. #froninghttps: //t.co/auiQqFac4t

- hulu (@hulu) July 18, 2016

Physical form

Froning is undoubtedly the best athlete in the world of CrossFit. But not only this makes him stand out from other athletes. In his best form (sample of 2014), he appeared in front of fans with surprising parameters.

1. He became the thinnest and most drained athlete in the games. Its peak weight reached 84 kilograms. For comparison, Fraser, who is showing similar results today, weighs well over 90 kg and cannot boast of such dried muscles.

2. With an overall low weight, he showed a dryness, bordering on the forms of bodybuilders - only 18% of adipose tissue in 2013.

His anthropomorphic data with a weight of 84 kg was also striking:

The waist is still considered the only weak point of this magnificent athlete. Since he began to gain weight, she has exceeded 79 centimeters, and today continues to grow.

Since his last individual standings, Froning has put on a lot of weight, but has maintained his impressive dryness and even reduced his waist.

With the growth of the mass, the athlete added in strength indicators. Weighing 94 kilograms, he increased his arms to 49 centimeters, and the size of his chest to 132 centimeters. And with such parameters, only slightly reducing the size of the waist, you can already compete in Men’s physic.

Rich Froning continues to gradually increase his weight, while maintaining his physical condition at height. Who knows, maybe in this way he is preparing for new achievements, and will soon perform in new sports disciplines.

Interesting fact. In Muscle & Fitness magazine, where Froning appeared on the cover, his body was clearly underwent correction with imaging tools. In particular, the athlete's waist was clearly reduced on the cover. But when processed for the sake of a glamorous picture, its extremely elaborate relief appearance also suffered. So the editors tried to create an image of a person from among the people who can achieve anything.

Best performance

I must say that despite leaving individual tests, Froning still remains undefeated in the complexes developed by him. Even if individual athletes were able to overtake him in a particular exercise, then with a complex task performance, he certainly shows the best results so far.

While overall good performance, Rich shows an impressive time in the exercises.

Note: the athlete performs the programs "Fran" and "Helen" in a complicated version. In particular, his strength indicators in the "Fran" set standings were fixed with a barbell 15 kg heavier than at the usual standings. And the "Helen" indicators are calculated for weights weighing 32 kg, against the standard 24 kg.

Individual performances

Despite his retirement from CrossFit as an individual athlete, Fronning has set the bar for his seasons, which seems incredible. Today Rich has wins in 16 events and prizes in more than 20 events. His performance in speeches in recent years looks like this:

As you can see, over the years of his professional career, Rich took third place only in his first competitions. In all subsequent tournaments, Fronning and his team take either first or an honorable second place. No active athlete can boast of such results. Even Matt Fraser, the reigning champion, has dropped below third place several times in the qualifying or preparatory stages.

It is important to understand that even in 2010, at his first CrossFit games, Fronning lost the opportunity to take first place outright, not because of physical flaws or poor form. He successfully bypassed the athletes, leaving their indicators far behind, but he was in for a complete fiasco in the exercise "lifting the rope". Fronning simply did not know the correct technique of movement and climbed using only his hands, incorrectly using the support of the body and making other mistakes. Because of this, he actually performed the exercise in a much more difficult form than his competitors.

Froning and anabolics: was it or was it not?

The information below is not exclusively objective research results. It is based on the general principles by which modern associations determine the anabolic background of athletes. Officially, Rich Froning Jr. has never been convicted of doping (be it testosterone, diuretics, pre-workout complexes, IGF, peptides, etc.).

Like any competing athlete, Fronning vehemently denies taking anabolic steroids. The athlete emphasizes that they cannot bring tangible results in training. But there are a few troubling points worth noting.

1. In CrossFit, unlike powerlifting, bodybuilding, and Olympic sports, there was no rigorous doping test.We passed basic tests for artificial testosterone, which is easily bypassed by modern stimulants due to their intake in parallel with hormones.
2. There is no offseason check in CrossFit. This means that at the stage of preparation, athletes can take prolonged testosterone, which allows you to hide the fact of its use, and the effect of which lasts up to 3 months after stopping the intake.

The editors do not claim that all CrossFit athletes compete with anabolic supplementation. Several main factors testify against this fact:

• Taking testosterone exclusively stimulates protein synthesis in the body. In this case, the effect of delaying the strengthening of ligaments and joints occurs. In addition, most modern supplements dry out joints. All this can lead to an increase in injury risk. Those. muscles are ready to carry out new loads, while ligaments and joints are lagging behind. If athletes took testosterone surrogates, they would be much more likely to get serious injuries in preparation for the competition. For comparison, just look at injury statistics between lifters, builders, and crossfitters. Even beach bodybuilders regularly tear their ligaments and break their joints.
• Reception of classic testosterone propionate, as well as its surrogates (anavar, stanazol, methane), significantly change the athlete's appearance in the offseason. The effect of being flooded with water appears. In addition, all the latent chemical processes in the body contribute to significant weight gain in athletes. The weight indicators of CrossFit athletes do not change as dramatically as that of other athletes in strength sports.
• Testosterone propionate, like peptide growth hormones, is ineffective when used with endurance training. In particular, this is due to the fact that they stimulate exclusively the growth of red fibers (predominant in muscles) and practically do not affect the performance of white fibers. CrossFit workouts are designed to stimulate hardy white fibers.

Returning to Froning, it should still be noted that the supporters of the statement of doping use by an athlete form their opinion based on the following facts (not without reason):

1. Fronning's training cycle is 7 days a week, with rare exceptions. As practice shows, in almost any sport (except chess) such diligence leads to the effect of overtraining. Overtraining leads to a decrease in performance for a long period, which forces athletes to re-achieve previously set records.
2. Fronning does not use periodization in training. He uses extremely high circular loads in every workout.
3. Rich's meals, unlike most non-competitive CrossFitters, are high in protein shakes. It is important to understand that even athletes on the course can process a limited amount of protein per day (about 3 g per 1 kg of body weight). All excess protein, at best, is converted into energy, and at worst, it is deposited in the kidneys. For athletes who do not use anabolic steroids, the ability to break down proteins into amino acids in such quantities as Froning takes them (about 7 g per 1 kg of body weight) is simply physically unrealistic.

In addition, there is a confirmed fact that the coach of the baseball team in which Fronning was engaged before joining the power all-around forced the best players to use anabolic steroids to increase their punching power and running speed.

Well, the last fact testifies in favor of the fact that Froning uses (or used) steroid drugs. It consists in the periods of its weight fluctuation. In particular, almost immediately after retiring from professional baseball, the future athlete began to dramatically gain weight. Moreover, this was due exclusively to adipose tissue. And in the first months of training in CrossFit, Richard practically returned to his original shape.

After retiring from individual credits, Rich appears to have changed his drug and dietary regimen. This led to a change in the body fat ratio. If at peak form he was in the region of 19-22 (the threshold for competitive bodybuilders is 14-17), then after leaving Froning added 5% fat mass to his main weight.

And this means that if he did take doping, he did it exclusively to achieve the highest goals in the individual competition.

Editorial note: regardless of whether Froning used doping or not, it is worth remembering that even if prohibited drugs were used by athletes during the preparation for the competition, they gave only a positive background. This made it possible to train more, angrier, experience inhuman stress. If the most prepared athlete in the world used exclusively anabolic steroids and did not make titanic efforts in his classes, he would never have achieved his triumphant greatness.

Finally

Whether you love or dislike this greatest athlete, it cannot be denied that he is one of the greatest athletes of our time. If you want to keep abreast of how the American's team is training, or just want to be the first to know about the latest news from his life, subscribe to his pages on social networks Twitter and Instagram. Who knows, maybe this is where you will find out about Froning's return to Individuals or you can personally ask him for advice on your training programs.

And for those who love Fronning Vs Fraser holivars, we present a video.

Watch the video: Rich Froning. MOTIVATIONAL Workout Video. 2020 (December 2024).