The Fikowski Story
The Michael Caz Podcast
Michael Cazayoux
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2019
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Students, you’re going to want to get your notebooks ready because Brent “The Professor” Fikowski is taking us to school on the Brute Podcast this week.
Brent is a three-time CrossFit Games athlete, placing second in the 2017 Games, and after this episode, you’ll understand how he’s remained one of the sport’s top four male athletes since 2016.
Even though Brent is “The Professor,” he brings a mindset to the game that can’t be taught—the mindset of a competitor. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had his ups and downs in the sport.
Listen to this week’s episode to learn more about what you can do to emulate that mindset, what it’s like to compete against the fittest athletes in the world and how he almost left CrossFit in 2015.
Topics:
01:00 – Sanctioned events
06:20 – Early competitive career
26:50 – Starting CrossFit
35:20 – Transformation year
43:20 – First experience at the CrossFit Games
1:16:30 – “The Professor Project”
Links:
Books:
The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance – George Mumford
Burn Your Goals: The Counter Cultural Approach to Achieving Your Greatest Potential – Joshua Medcalf
Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great – Joshua Medcalf
The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance - Josh Waitzkin
Reviews:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Root Strength Podcast, bringing you worldwide experts from all areas of health and fitness. |
| 0:08.0 | We cover training, nutrition, coaching, and mindset. |
| 0:12.0 | Welcome your host, Strength and Conditioning Coach, |
| 0:15.0 | 2012 and 2013 Cross-Tic Games Champ, |
| 0:18.0 | Michael Kaju. |
| 0:19.0 | Mind, Body, Brute. body brute. |
| 0:29.7 | Hello and welcome back. My name is Mike Kaju and you're listening to the brute strength podcast. This week's guest is Brent Fekowski. |
| 0:33.0 | Brent is a three-time CrossFit Games competitor and he's placed as high as second. |
| 0:38.0 | For about three years in a row, I believe. |
| 0:42.0 | Brent competed at the Cross Fit Regionals and was one |
| 0:47.5 | or two spots away from competing. In 2016, I think I've got my facts right, in 2016 he went from not qualifying to suddenly being the fourth place competitor and he has stayed in that top two to four spot for the last three |
| 1:07.5 | years so he went from not qualifying to becoming one of the absolute best in the sport over the course of one year. |
| 1:15.0 | And this is one of the most interesting shows I've done in a really long time |
| 1:20.0 | because Brent is an incredibly thoughtful and methodical athlete and he's one of the few that I've ever talked to that can truly articulate how he developed the mindset that he has and how he's become so successful. |
| 1:37.0 | Most people, most people, most athletes aren't fully aware of how they got to where they are. |
| 1:44.3 | And so it can be hard to learn from them sometimes. |
| 1:47.8 | Brent is not one of those people. |
| 1:49.8 | He can fully articulate what's going on in his mind, how he developed a lot of these |
| 1:54.6 | things, and because of that I think it's just such a rich podcast for learning. |
| 2:00.5 | We talk a lot about his history growing up in sports, what he was like as a competitor growing up, some really big influences, some coaches that he had early on. |
| 2:11.0 | We talk about his early years in the sport of Cross Fit and how he almost quit after placing second at, I think it was the 2015 regionals. And then we get into his time competing at the Cross Fit Games and he's got both just |
| 2:27.3 | hilarious stories along the way as well as some really inspiring ones. |
... |
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