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Patrick Blennerhassett

Retired five-time CrossFit champion Mat Fraser is most definitely keeping busy in retirement.
He’s already launched a YouTube channel “FRA5ER”, which has amassed 155,000 followers in just over a month, and can now add one of the world’s most famous podcasts to his resume: the Joe Rogan Experience.
Fraser, who retired from CrossFit in early February, had his interview with Rogan appear over the weekend. Rogan’s podcast was the most popular podcast on Spotify last year, after the UFC commentator and comedian left YouTube for a multimillion dollar deal.
Fraser spoke to Rogan for close to three hours in his new Texas studio (Rogan used to be based in southern California) and dived into a number of subjects, including, of course, CrossFit.


He said one of the things he’s always liked about CrossFit (Fraser came from a weightlifting background) was the variables the sport throws up.
“If I’m practising the same thing over and over again, you adapt to it, you get more comfortable with it,” he said to Rogan. “It’s like when those curveballs get thrown at you, it’s something that you’re not used to. That’s basically what our training is, we’re trying to think of different things that can be the test for us, and figure out, alright, if this comes up, how do we deal with it?”
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Fraser conceded his success in the sport is still something he is coming to terms with, and didn’t expect at all when he started out back in 2012 after heading to a CrossFit gym in hopes of losing weight he’d gained while at college.
“I’m not blind to it, I’ll be sitting with my fiancée, you know just when these cool opportunities get plopped in front of me, and I’m like, ‘How did I end up here, this wasn’t supposed to be my life.’ I was a mechanical engineer, I thought my sports career was over with Olympic weightlifting, I broke my back.”
Fraser said when he started competing in CrossFit, he was sure the sport wasn’t clean. He first won the CrossFit Games in 2016 after finishing second two years in a row. He railed off five straight titles in convincing fashion, and also mentioned he was originally going to retire after his fourth, but was talked out of it.
“When I first got into the sport, I was like, ‘I think these guys are doping. I don’t believe it.’ And I didn’t know about the drug testing protocols.”


The American also spoke about how a back injury ended his weightlifting career, but also conceded there is a danger to doing CrossFit if you don’t know how to properly do some of the movements.
“You’re putting yourself in these susceptible positions and if you don’t have the technical foundation to back it up, yeah, you’re probably going to let go and something is going to fall into a bad angle. And now you’re putting such a heavy load on it, something is going to pop or break.”
He also spoke to Rogan about what some of his plans are when it comes to business endeavours, saying he is very “passionate about espresso” and coffee in general and could see himself getting into that industry. Fraser has multiple endorsement deals with the liks of Nike and Rogue Fitness.
Fraser’s fifth title at the 2020 CrossFit Games last autumn took place inside a bubble with four other men and five women. He said the fact that CrossFit told him he would have to test negative to compete led him to restrict his movements drastically.

“I know nothing about any of the medical backside of this [expletive]. All I knew is that when it first happened for the CrossFit Championships, we couldn’t compete at the Games unless we had a negative Covid test. So I just stayed at home for months. I trained at home, I have a sauna and an ice bath in the backyard, massage table in the living room – I just stayed home.”
Fraser also said he got Covid-19 this past December on a hunting excursion with friends, however it didn’t phase him too much, but understands being around vulnerable people is something to continuously take into account.
“But for me I don’t give a [expletive], I’m like, ‘Cool, got it.’ I lost my sense of taste, lost my (sense of) smell … it was enough time that I got concerned if it was ever coming back, I think it was three weeks, zero taste – could not tell the difference between coffee and water, it was so weird.”


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Mat Fraser continues his media explosion after retirement with an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Photo: Dubai CrossFit Championship

Mat Fraser can end the GOAT debate this year. Photo: CrossFit Games

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Tia-Clair Toomey can chase Mat Fraser's GOAT status this year. Photo: CrossFit Games

Photo by Michael Valentin/CrossFit Games

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Photo by Duke Loren/CrossFit Games

Samuel Kwant at the CrossFit Games. Photo: CrossFit Games

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Mat Fraser. Photo: CrossFit Games

(From left) Samuel Kwant, Mat Fraser and Justin Medeiros on the CrossFit Games podium 2020. Photo: CrossFit Games

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Tia-Clair Toomey on her way to her fourth straight CrossFit Games title. Photo: CrossFit Games

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Mat Fraser’s background in weightlifting helps him to his fifth straight CrossFit Games victory. Photos: CrossFit Games

Rich Froning, box jump, at the CrossFit Games. Photo: Michael Valentin

Mat Fraser at CrossFit Games.

(From left) Samuel Kwant, Mat Fraser and Justin Medeiros	on the CrossFit Games podium 2020. Photo: CrossFit Games

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Fraser, the retired five-time CrossFit champion, made his first appearance on the podcast
Rogan is known for having a number of famous guests on his show multiple times including Elon Musk and Edward Snowden


Five-time CrossFit champion Mat Fraser makes appearance on popular Spotify podcast the Joe Rogan Experience.


CrossFit Open

Coffee

Joe Rogan

CrossFit: Mat Fraser’s Joe Rogan Experience interview dives into steroids in sport, his love for coffee and getting Covid-19

Fraser, the retired five-time CrossFit champion, made his first appearance on the podcast Rogan is known for having a number of famous guests on his show multiple times including Elon Musk and Edward Snowden

Fraser, the retired five-time CrossFit champion, made his first appearance on the podcast

Rogan is known for having a number of famous guests on his show multiple times including Elon Musk and Edward Snowden