Rucking, Psychedelics, and the Truth About Mental Fitness
The CrossFit Podcast
CrossFit LLC
4.3 • 757 Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Former Green Beret, longtime CrossFit coach, and licensed therapist Bill Anthes joins Jocelyn Rylee for a conversation that cuts straight to the heart of what it means to train the whole human. Drawing from military selection, years on Seminar Staff, clinical practice, psychedelic integration work, and the creation of the Ruck Race League, Bill explores the deep connection between physical stress, psychological patterns, and nervous-system awareness.
He and Jocelyn dig into failure as a training tool, why monotonous work exposes truth, how coaches can hold space without overreaching, and what it means to listen to the body instead of overriding it.
Topics Covered
- Using physical stress to access deeper psychological insight
- Coaching beyond mechanics: listening, curiosity, and psychological tolerance
- Failure as an intentional training tool and catalyst for growth
- The rise of rucking as both sport and self-exploration
- Psychedelic preparation and integration through a whole-person lens
Resources Mentioned
- Ruck Race League — ruckraceleague.com
- Between the Ears (Bill’s practice) — btwntheears.com
- The Immortality Key
Community Highlight
Parker Fontecchio is a beacon of hope for the younger generation of CrossFit athletes. At 24 years old, he’s not only the head coach at CrossFit Tempe, but also dedicates his life to raising funds for veteran causes using his fitness.
He’s carried 22 lb for 72 miles to raise awareness for veteran suicide, flipped a tire for 24 hours, rope-climbed the height of Everest, and most recently pulled a truck for 31 miles.
Every challenge is powered by CrossFit and a mission to show what’s possible when you refuse to quit — especially for the veterans who often feel forgotten.
“Every event might look individual, but there’s always a crowd around me — friends, family, my gym,” Parker says. That’s what makes CrossFit, CrossFit.”
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you really think you know what's best for people, every single person better than them, you are not a good coach. But I want to train athletes who do not need me to be there. We're trying to fail but in a no fail environment. Yeah, most people are afraid of failure. I don't want to fail. Allow the fear of failure to exist in your consciousness. And when we've done that, I think now we have self-awareness. I think we have |
| 0:21.8 | self-reliance. I think we really have a level of empowered. Welcome to the CrossFit podcast. I'm |
| 0:34.0 | Jocelyn Riley. I have the privilege of being joined today by Bill Anthe's. |
| 0:39.3 | And as I was going through trying to come up with how to make an intro for this guy, |
| 0:43.6 | I was like, where do we even begin? Collegiate soccer player, at one point an accountant, |
| 0:49.1 | a green beret, an affiliate owner, a coach, former seminar staff, now a licensed therapist. There's so many places |
| 0:55.8 | we can go, Bill. I'm so excited to talk to you this morning. Welcome to the CrossFit podcast. |
| 1:00.5 | Jocelyn, thanks for having me on. It's an honor. So I'm really looking forward to talking to you |
| 1:05.6 | about this intersection of physical and mental health. I've been railing, yelling, in all caps on my social |
| 1:13.7 | media for years, that these are not two separate things. And I feel like you're really a guy |
| 1:18.4 | that's brought these two worlds together in some really interesting and effective ways. |
| 1:23.5 | What was it that inspired you to pivot a bit from the world of athletics and coaching and CrossFit and go back to school, get a master's of social work to become a therapist? |
| 1:36.1 | What was that leap like for you? |
| 1:38.7 | Yeah. So I started working with people. Once I got out of the army, I was working with people in a very |
| 1:46.5 | kind of experiential way of creating experiences using physical movement, maybe a workout, but |
| 1:54.5 | maybe like an overnight event, you know, using the body, doing some, doing some hard work, |
| 1:58.7 | some stuff as the kind of trailhead for them to explore more |
| 2:04.5 | about who they are. And I, as the sort of leader of those experiences, really didn't know. Like, |
| 2:11.5 | I had no idea where we were going. And I had done that for a few years. And people were having |
| 2:17.1 | really powerful powerful profound experiences |
| 2:20.6 | and I thought like right on this is great this is going in the right direction and then after |
| 2:26.5 | one night it was like a very long workout one of my good friends came up to me afterwards and |
... |
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