Mat Fraser Coaches Comedy Trio in “Mutant Conditioning” for Season 2 of Nashville Dads Club
What hasn’t five-time Fittest Man on Earth® Mat Fraser dabbled in since his retirement from competitive CrossFit in February 2021? The all-time winningest male CrossFit athlete is now a coach via his Hard Work Pays Off (HWPO) programming, with elite athletes like 2022 CrossFit Open winner Mal O’Brien under his tutelage, co-owns the supplement company Podium Nutrition with the Buttery Bros, and wrote a book with Spenser Mestel.
On April 14, 2022, Fraser furthered his career as a trainer turned actor/comedian as the featured guest on episode three of season two of Nashville Dads Club, “Mutant Conditioning.” The show follows three real-life dads based in Nashville, TN — Phillip Cordell, Rashad Rayford, and Dean Shortland — who encounter funny and often strange scenarios. Like when Fraser met up with them at Crossfit Rising Sun in East Nashville, TN, to share his “very peculiar training philosophy.” Check it out in the video below:
[Related: 2022 CrossFit Quarterfinals Team Results — Mayhem Freedom Victorious]
The episode opens with Cordell, Rayford, and Shortland entering CrossFit Rising Sun and acknowledging the box‘s co-owner, Kyle Hopkins. As the clanging sounds of barbells and weight plates are heard clashing in the background, Rayford and Shortland inquire about Cordell’s new trainer, presumably revealing that Cordell convinced his two fellow Nashville Dads to join him for this training session mere moments away.
[My new trainer] is awesome! He says it’s all about the preparation.
Shortland’s ears perk up at Cordell’s description, calling this mysterious yet definitely already known to be five-time CrossFit Games champion Mat Fraser a “prepper.”
Fraser’s voice radiates off camera before it cuts to his bearded face. He sports a blue tank top with the phrase “Just Do It” written across his chest in a graphic calculator font.
You boys ready for some truly functional fitness? Phil, did you tell them the philosophy?
Cordell, clearly uncomfortable about this “philosophy,” figured he would let Fraser relay that information. Fraser obliges:
My training is based on three core ideas: nutrition, consistency, and preparation…
A dramatic pause is held as the camera captures Shortland’s expectations met before Fraser veers wildly away from them:
…for the inevitable collapse of society and the rise of a mutant race which we will have to fight.
Rayford combines his and the audience’s confusion in his response, “Say what?” Yet Fraser, at ease, leads them to the workout as Cordell tells his fellow dads to maintain “open minds.”
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[Related: Tia-Clair Toomey Outlines Her Strength Days When Starting a New Training Cycle]
Jumpcut to Fraser performing a spiffy 135-pound thruster, which Shortland identifies, albeit incorrectly in the eyes of the CrossFit legend, who corrects him:
Nope! Dumpster. You’re going to be living in dumpsters, you’ve got to lift those lids each and every morning.
The still confused Rayford questions why they’ll live in dumpsters. Fraser, with a tinge of frustration in his voice, reiterates his concerns over the inevitable collapse of humanity:
The radioactive fallout! What do you think created the mutants?
As an ominous underscore permeates the scene, a montage of fitness…err…mutant conditioning unfolds.
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[Related: 2022 CrossFit Quarterfinals Results — Toomey and Medeiros Win Worldwide]
Mutant Conditioning Workout
The Nashville Dads perform the following exercises for an undisclosed number of reps under Fraser’s guidance:
Note: For those not familiar with the updated training terminology following the radioactive fallout, their previous names are included in parenthesis
- Mutant Peek-a-Boos (Pull-ups)
- The concentric portion of the movement is used to peek out of the dumpster to scan for mutants. The eccentric is to prevent being seen by said mutants.
- Boulder Balls (Wall Balls)
- Kettlebell Walking Lunges
- This movement is intended for grabbing “all the non-perishables” at the abandoned grocery store.
- Per Fraser, the most calorie-dense options — “rice, beans, batteries” — are located on the bottom shelves.
- Carcass Deadlift and Loading Medley
- Functionally a deadlift with an uneven mixed grip, Fraser demonstrates loading a carcass onto a figurative fire — corpses reanimate if the radiation reaches their brains. Piling the dead into a pyre is a preventive measure that simultaneously strengthens the posterior chain.
- Stump Jump & Vine Climb (Box Jump & Rope Climb)
While there remained some skepticism amongst the fatherly trio about Fraser’s methods, they all recognized in mutual silence that the chances of being involved in a global catastrophe are definitively 100 percent as the past is unchangeable and the present is happening.
The value is obvious.
By the end of the session, it seemed Fraser secured himself returning clients excited to start sword training. We’ll see if Fraser adds mutant conditioning to his current training program, Hard Work Pays Off, and if the Nashville Dads Club will put their newly acquired apocalyptic fitness to use when the world collapses into a radioactive hellscape overrun by zombies.
Featured image courtesy of Barrett Dennison, Nashville Dads Club.