The 2016 “Fittest Man on Earth” has his eyes set on his second gold in 2017. In both 2014 and 2015 Mat Fraser was named the “Second Fittest Man on Earth” taking silver medal at the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games behind four-time CrossFit champion Rich Froning Jr and in 2015 behind Ben Smith.
A retired competitive Olympic style weightlifter, Mat Fraser earned a spot at the 2103 Northeast CrossFit Regionals a mere 8 months after stumbling upon the sport, where he finished in 5th place. One year later, Fraser not only returned to Regionals, but landed in 1st place, moving on to the Games where he finished in 2nd place. In this video, Mat Fraser talks a bit about Tabata Songs, CrossFit, and his athletic past. Fraser also demonstrates a CrossFit style Tabata workout while listening to “Tabata WOD” by Tabata Songs (available on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon MP3 and more).
“Tabata is four minutes of interval training,” says Mathew Fraser. “Twenty seconds on, ten seconds off. You can do the same movement for all four minutes or you can pick a different movement every 20 seconds.”
In this particular Tabata WOD, Fraser elected to choose eight different movements: Thrusters, GHD situps, Snatches, Bar Muscle Ups, Kettlebell Swings, Wall Balls, Burpee Box Jump Overs, and Overhead Squats.
Originally, Mathew had his eyes set on the 2016 US Olympic weightlifting team. However, during his time training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Spring, CO, a break to a lower vertebrae shattered the dream in an instant. Mat describes the injury as a result of “lifting too much, too often.”
“For ten years before Crossfit I was a competitive Olympic style weightlifter and retired from that and just kind of fell into Crossfit by mistake.” While home in Colchester, Vermont Mat decided to seek out a local CrossFit gym to simply use their bumper plates. “I Googled Crossfit in Vermont and Champlain Valley CrossFitpopped up.” Lifting alone at CVCF, Mat was originally turned off by all of the CrossFit “chaos.” But after being convinced to join a couple of classes, it was clear that Mat had a special gift (See some of his impressive CrossFit benchmark WOD times below!). His view on the sport and the CrossFit community quickly changed upon immersing himself into the sport.
“I like Crossfit because it’s different ever single day,” Fraser explains during his interview with Tabata Songs. “There is not a single workout that’s gonna be the same. You can take it as seriously as you want, or you can take it as casually as you want. When I came from Olympic style weightlifting you knew Mondays were squat and snatch day. you knew Tuesday was pull and deadlift day. CrossFit is different ever day”.
The song Mat is listening to is called “Tabata WOD” by Tabata Songs. This song, and others, are available on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon MP3 and more.
Just some of Mathew Fraser’s CrossFit benchmark times at Champlain Valley CrossFit (as of November 2014):