Best Hour of Their Day | Podcast

In this episode, Fern sits down with Jud Dean. Jud has been an affiliate owner for more than a decade.  Jud and Fern go back to 2011 at the Mid Atlantic Hopper Challenge.  Jud owns CrossFit 1st State in Delaware and does online coaching with his company Forever Hungry.  Jud coached the 2019 CrossFit Games Champ in the 60+ age division.  We discuss training masters athletes and...

What if I told you that the stress of living month to month as a struggling entrepreneur is something to be grateful for? After listening to this episode with Rob Grupe, you will understand exactly what I mean. In this episode, Ackerman sits down with friends and someone who he credits as making him a better person, Rob Grupe. Rob is the founder and owner of Twice Bitten CrossFit in Okla...

In this episode hosts, Ackerman and Fern pull to pieces a very common problem, whereby a coach doesn’t like their box anymore. This was emailed to the guys by a listener, about what they should do when they butt heads with the owner of the CrossFit affiliate they go to. The listener also laid out the scenario, including their answers to the problem and Fern and Ackerman, talked through them and ul...

In the episode, Jason Ackerman sits down with the one and only Steve Liberati. As the head caveman for Steve’s PaleoGoods, Steve is always on the hunt for the healthiest way to eat, live, and give back to his community.  Never satisfied, Steve works tirelessly to find the best ingredients on Earth to fuel himself, his athletes and the entire paleo/primal and CrossFit community. He is the driv...

In this episode Jason and in part Roz sit down with Joe Tepe is the owner of The Strip CrossFit, the only box in Las Vegas with air conditioning.  Joe reached out after our episode about Open gym and when Fern and Jason jumped down the rabbit hole of drop-ins. Joe has a unique position to comment on drops in because he’s box gets over 2700 unique drop-ins every year, in fact, one stopped in d...

In this episode, Jason Ackerman sits down with Amy West MD. Amy is a genuinely wonderful human being who is working with Crossfit and Crossfit health to make people healthier and help as many people as possible. She found earlier on the push back from her co-workers by saying this like “CrossFit is bad” “crossfit will injure you” to lessen ten years on from when she first start and see this more n...

In this episode, Ackerman sits down with Andrew Frezza who is one of the owners of CrossFit Palm Beach in Jupiter, FL.  Which has been open for close to 7 years, last year brought in over seven figures in profits and has reached that 500 members. For a box that is out of the heavily density populated area is amazing. This may be a surprise as you’ve probably never heard of either himself or t...

In this episode, Todd and Fern discuss the meaning behind the term "Rx."  Why it’s valuable, where it goes wrong in affiliates, how to educate your members on its place in training and some different ways to execute it at the affiliate level.  How it heavily demonized. Along with how coaches and affiliate owners are trapping them into the RX culture with their programming. Using their pe...

In this episode, Fern sits down with long-time friend Mike Giardina, who spent more than a decade on the CrossFit seminar staff coaching all over the world. You may recognize him if you took your Level 2 in the good coach/bad coach videos.  Mike started his career at CrossFit Atlanta and is a multi-time CrossFit Games athlete as both an individual and on a team.  Mike is currently workin...

In this episode, Jason sits down with time Andrew and Jen Charlesworth are both on the CrossFit seminar staff, are involved with multiple other businesses, own and run CrossFit Tuebor, one of the most successful boxes with over 200 members, and manage to regularly squeeze in their own training.  They have been both to regionals and Andrew is the other bro as part of the Thunder Bros with Dave...

In this episode, Jason Ackerman sits down with long-time friend Keith Wittenstein put your probably know him better as “Coach Panda! And if you’ve ever wondered why he’s called that? Look no farther they get into that. Keith is a real OG, it feels like he’s been in the sport since the beginning of time. But before the CrossFit, Keith taught vinyasa yoga for many years throughout New York City. Kei...

In this episode, Jason Ackerman sits down with Nicole Aucoin. Nicole is the founder of Healthy Steps Nutrition and realized how important nutrition was at a young age. Her mom was diagnosed with cancer and her family completely changed their diet and lifestyle. Her mom lived years past the doctor’s expectations. Even though her mom ultimately lost the battle to cancer. Nicole was able to have year...

In this episode, both of the host Jackerman and Fren sit down and talk about the muscle-up. Which most people haven’t even heard of until they walk into the box, and is viewed by many when you get your Muscle-up you get your “Crossfit Card”. The muscle-up (MU) is a movement that transitions from a hanging position below the rings to a supported position, arms extended, above the rings. It is a com...

Marc Reklau is a Consultant, Speaker, and author of 7 books including the #1 Amazon Bestseller "30 Days - Change your habits, change your life", which since April 2015 has been sold and downloaded over 170,000 times and has been translated into Spanish, German, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Chinese, Portuguese and Korean. He wrote the book in 2014 after being fired from his job and literally went fr...

Chriss and Andrea Smith are two of the most awesome people in the CrossFit Community.  They have Owned Trident CrossFit for nearly 10 years, have seen their gym grow past 600 members, have both worked on HQ Seminar Staff, own multiple other businesses and have made all of the mistakes.  They are incredibly generous with their time and experiences so take notes! Support Trident CrossFit:...

Spencer Hendel is a six-time individual CrossFit Games veteran, competing in every CrossFit Games from 2009-2012 and 2015-2017. Though a bubble athlete frequently on the cusp of qualification, fans were shocked when he missed qualification for this first time in 2013 and then again in 2014, each by just one place. But Hendel proved he wasn’t down and out just yet with a comeback in 2015, returning...

What's the right thing to do when it comes to having an open gym at an affiliate?  Is it good to allow members to do their own thing?  Does it cause a rift in the community?  Should you charge more or less for it?  We discuss all of this and more in today's episode. Rate/subscribe in Apple Podcasts! Find us on Instagram: @besthouroftheirday + @thejasonackerman Check out our web...

Saxon Panchik is not only a CrossFit Games athlete, placing 9th at the 2019 Games, but he's also the owner of CrossFit Cliffside along with twin brother Spencer.  The two of them plus older brother Scott are a part of the world's fittest family.  In this episode we talk about his epic performance at this year's Games, including his slide in against Noah Ohlsen, running a business with yo...

Matt and Cherie Chan have been involved in the CrossFit world since 2007, using CrossFit as a way to to help Matt improve his endurance as a Denver area firefighter. After four Top 10 finishes at the CrossFit Games, (including the runner-up slot in 2012), Chan became a full-time athlete and one of the most popular and knowledgeable veterans in the sport.  Cherie also has competed two times at...

One of the most commonly asked questions we get from both box owners and coaches is, "what's a fair pay?"  In this episode, Todd, Fern, and Ackerman, breakdown best practices, dos and don'ts, and some words of wisdom on how to best compensate CrossFit coaches. Rate/subscribe in Apple Podcasts! Find us on Instagram: @besthouroftheirday + @thejasonackerman Check out our website - besthourofthei...

Have you heard of “Toxic Exercise Dependency” (TED)? TED is a condition that is defined as the following: Person(s) who exercise vigorously causing measurable negative findings in common health markers including but not limited to: Elevated white blood cells, hormone variability, loss of menstrual cycle, persistent muscle, tendon, and joint pain, and irregular sleep patterns. In severe cases of TE...

Want to party with 2000 of the fittest people on the planet?  Meet other like minded fitness enthusiasts?  Train with CrossFit Games athletes?  Attend seminars from industry experts?  Most importantly hang with Fern and Ackerman!?  Listen to this episode of Best Hour of Their Day and learn everything you need to know about WOD on the Waves.  Jason sits down with Austi...

Chris Irwin has been part of the CrossFit Community for almost a decade in several different capacities.  He's a Naval Academy graduate, a former Navy SEAL,  has been an affiliate owner, the president of Kill Cliff and now serves in the non profit arena with the Navy Seal Foundation where he heads up strategic partnerships and is working on a growing a Hero WOD fundraiser.  We discu...

Freddy Camacho is the owner of Good For You CrossFit. Freddy retired from police work in 2018 as a sergeant at the Union City Police Department. Over the course of his career in law enforcement, he was an assistant team leader on the SWAT Team, the team leader on the SWAT Sniper Team, and a former defensive tactics instructor at both the police department and the police academy. In addition he is...

Matt and Fern break down apparel sales in the affiliate from start to finish.  Forever Fierce works with more than 500 independent gyms.  They have solved most of the issues that affiliates have with selling apparel.  How should we sell retail? Should we sell retail? How much stock should you carry? What should we charge? How many designs should we carry? How frequently should...