OF HIS
CrossFit Games athlete Ron Mathews has reached
the elite level of the sport’s over-45 division with
this grueling six-days-a-week routine.
/// BY JOE WUEBBEN /// PHOTOGRAPHS BY IAN SPANIER
T
here are CrossFit-
ters, and there are
CrossFit Games
competitors. The
latter is always the
former, but the former is cer-
tainly not always the latter. We’re
talking about two completely dif-
ferent types of individuals here: a
passionate yet recreational gym-
goer versus essentially a profes-
sional athlete competing in one
of the most physi-
cally (and mentally)
RON MATHEWS
demanding sports in
is also an M&F
the world.
contributor
The average
and wrote our
CrossFitter is very
preview of the
well served with four
2015 CrossFit
or five hour-long
Games.
training sessions a
week. The Games
competitor? Not even close. One
WOD a day won’t cut it. You need
more like two or three.
Such is the training protocol of
Ron Mathews, a true CrossFitting
beast and third-place finisher in
the ultracompetitive men’s 45–49
Master’s Division in the 2015 Ree-
bok CrossFit Games. The 46-year-
old Mathews’ typical weekly
routine (outlined in its entirety on
the following pages) hits on all the
various attributes the Games ath-
lete must excel at: brute strength,
speed, power, endurance, condi-
tioning across all energy systems,
skill in Olympic lifts, skill and
strength in gymnastics, stamina,
grit, and mental toughness.
“Generally speaking, I’m work-
ing my strength and metabolic
conditioning simultaneously in
my programming,” says Mathews,
co-owner of Reebok CrossFit LAB
in Los Angeles. “I don’t do a ‘bulk-
ing phase’ followed by a ‘cutting
phase.’ Of course, I’m not a com-
petitive bodybuilder; I’m trying to
maintain as much lean muscle as
possible to be able to perform well
and look great at the same time.
As for weights on my lifts, I go as
heavy as form allows, with this
caveat: I must get all reps of all
sets with minimal rest.”
Though physique enhance-
ment isn’t his top priority,
Mathews starts his week (Work-
out 1, Part A) with what he calls
a “giant set”—a circuit of five ex-
ercises, three of which (dumbbell
flyes, curls, and hammer curls)
are taboo in the CrossFit world
for their lack of “functionality.”
“It’s really hard for me to
give up entirely on my roots,”
says Mathews, who’s earned a
reputation as an A-list physique
specialist by training Hollywood
celebs like Hugh Jackman and
Joe Manganiello. “While not
very CrossFit-y, that particular
workout is surprisingly taxing,
and I feel it adds to my ‘intan-
gible strength.’ In the CrossFit
Games, there’s always some kind
of odd object carry or sled push/
pull, and I tend to either win
or finish no lower than third in
those. When you just have to
brute through it, I feel like that
workout helps me train for that.”