Interview: Ben Smith Talks CrossFit

With the 2013 CrossFit season upon us we tracked down one of the CrossFit Games top competitors, Ben Smith, to see what he has been up to since he left the garage gym to open his very own affiliate, CrossFit Krypton.

So what has Ben and CrossFit Krypton been up to? How about the Harlem Shake!!

Awesome, right!? Now, Ben assured me that was not his idea, but he thought it was pretty funny too. On a more serious note, here are some of Ben’s thoughts on training, the open and running an affiliate.

You’re a seasoned CrossFit athlete, how do you plan out all of your training to prepare for every Games season?

I’m really not one to plan out much of my training. I just like to do it by feel. I may be different than some other competitors out there, because I literally just do CrossFit all year long. I lift to get stronger and I CrossFit to get better at CrossFit. It’s that simple.

It may hurt me sometimes, because I may overtrain a little bit, but my training is always constantly varied, which helps.

What does your rest schedule look like, and a normal training day?

Normally, I do three days on, one day off, then two days on and one day off. But lately I have just been training during the week and taking it easy on the weekends.

A normal training day has changed a bit for me now that I coach at CrossFit Krypton. I normally workout before the class I coach at 9am, then I’ll workout after that class again, and then I will workout before the afternoon class.

Generally, I do about two to three sessions a day, and possibly four if I feel like doing one later in the evening.

Now with the affiliate open, do you tend to train more by yourself or with others?

I workout with my friends and people at the gym. Some of the friends I normally workout with are away at college, so my training partners change once summer hits, and during normal college breaks.

Right now, I am doing most of my training on my own. But It’s always fun and motivating to workout with other people when you can.

Has running the affiliate changed anything for you?

As far as training goes, no. Not much has changed, but maybe one thing, I love CrossFit even more now!

I even love coaching other people more than I love training. I absolutely love going to the gym everyday, it’s fun, I love hanging out there and the people are great.

Any final words on this year’s Open?

I am actually excited for it, and it should be pretty fun.