MICHAEL CAZAYOUX | From Childhood Addiction To Becoming The Fittest On Earth
Chris Williamson (host), Michael Cazayoux (guest)
In this episode of Modern Wisdom, featuring Chris Williamson and Michael Cazayoux, MICHAEL CAZAYOUX | From Childhood Addiction To Becoming The Fittest On Earth explores from Heroin Addiction To CrossFit Champion And Conscious Entrepreneur Michael Cazayoux recounts his journey from severe childhood addiction and multiple rehab stints to becoming a two-time CrossFit Games team champion and CEO of Brute Strength Training.
From Heroin Addiction To CrossFit Champion And Conscious Entrepreneur
Michael Cazayoux recounts his journey from severe childhood addiction and multiple rehab stints to becoming a two-time CrossFit Games team champion and CEO of Brute Strength Training.
He explains how hitting rock bottom, learning radical honesty, and embracing vulnerability in rehab became the foundations for his later success in sport, business, and personal growth.
The conversation covers his evolution as an athlete, the building of Brute Strength as a high‑level coaching company, and his current focus on mindset, meditation, and deep work.
Throughout, he offers practical principles for anyone stuck in a ‘not terrible but not great’ life, emphasizing responsibility, self-awareness, and deliberately choosing hard, meaningful paths.
Key Takeaways
Rock bottom can become a foundation if you choose to rebuild deliberately.
Michael frames his lowest points—heroin use, stealing, losing friends—as what ultimately broke his ego and forced him to adopt honesty, humility, and structure, which later powered his success as an athlete and entrepreneur.
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Integrity with yourself is the core of confidence and performance.
He contrasts his addict years—constant lying and broken promises—with the period when he did every session, slept properly, ate well, and recovered; keeping commitments to himself made him mentally tougher and more capable under pressure.
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Environment and peers can accelerate or destroy your progress.
From negative peer groups in addiction, to deeply honest rehab peers, to highly professional teammates like Adrian Conway, Michael shows that who you surround yourself with dramatically shapes your standards and behavior.
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You can design training phases for different goals without betraying core values.
Brute Body is positioned as a time‑boxed, aesthetics‑focused program that expands a CrossFitter’s ‘training vocabulary’ without abandoning functional fitness, illustrating that hypertrophy and accessory work can support long‑term health and performance.
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Self-knowledge and honest appraisal are prerequisites for sustainable recovery or moderation.
Before reintroducing alcohol and marijuana, he spent months reflecting and consulting his support network; he set a strict rule never to use substances to cope with negative emotions, only in social, non‑medicating contexts.
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Meditation creates a gap between stimulus and response, giving you choice.
Through simple breath-focused practice, he learned to become the ‘watcher’ of thoughts and emotions, which lets him choose helpful interpretations (e. ...
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Cutting shallow distractions like social media can dramatically increase presence and deep work.
Influenced by Cal Newport’s ‘Deep Work,’ Michael deleted social apps, noticing that even small, frequent checks were sabotaging his focus and feeding unhealthy comparison; without them, he feels more present and less ego-driven.
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Notable Quotes
“It was because it broke my spirit that I've been able to have the success that I have.”
— Michael Cazayoux
“The best way to get out of a hole, the first step, is to literally just put down the shovel.”
— Michael Cazayoux
“As a drug addict, I had zero integrity with myself… when I started keeping promises to myself, I started to really believe in myself.”
— Michael Cazayoux
“The more I am that watcher, the better my life is. The more I have the choice of which thought to believe.”
— Michael Cazayoux
“I realized the only reason I still wanted to compete was because I think other people will like it and I will get attention for it.”
— Michael Cazayoux
Questions Answered in This Episode
How can someone who hasn’t hit a dramatic ‘rock bottom’ still create the urgency and clarity to turn their life around?
Michael Cazayoux recounts his journey from severe childhood addiction and multiple rehab stints to becoming a two-time CrossFit Games team champion and CEO of Brute Strength Training.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What practical steps can people take to build integrity with themselves after years of breaking promises or underperforming?
He explains how hitting rock bottom, learning radical honesty, and embracing vulnerability in rehab became the foundations for his later success in sport, business, and personal growth.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How should recovering addicts decide whether moderation is ever appropriate, and what safeguards are essential if they try?
The conversation covers his evolution as an athlete, the building of Brute Strength as a high‑level coaching company, and his current focus on mindset, meditation, and deep work.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
In a typical CrossFit gym, how can coaches intelligently blend aesthetics-focused work with performance and health without confusing members?
Throughout, he offers practical principles for anyone stuck in a ‘not terrible but not great’ life, emphasizing responsibility, self-awareness, and deliberately choosing hard, meaningful paths.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What specific routines or boundaries around technology can help someone reclaim deep focus and reduce the comparison trap of social media?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
(wind blowing) Hi, friends. Today, I am sitting down with Michael Cazayux, who is the CEO and founder of Brute Strength Training and two times CrossFit Games team champion. (inhales deeply) He is also the man behind Brooke Ent, Jacob Heppner, Kara Webb, and the winning team from last year's CrossFit Games, the Wasatch Brutes. What makes his story so compelling is the fact that he does not come from what you would consider to be the typical perfect (laughs) environment for an elite athlete or a fantastic businessman. He's an ex-drug and alcohol addict. He's been to rehab a number of times. It is apparent that he has suffered with some really dark places in his life and yet he's managed to come out the other side and be this incredibly well-balanced, very altruistic, very shrewd, intelligent, and compassionate guy who also has an unbelievable capacity as an athlete and as a coach. Um, it's definitely one of the- the best conversations that I've had. I found it incredibly empowering. A lot of the conversation isn't about sport, it's to do with his approach for how to mentally overcome obstacles within your life. He's been to a stage where he was smoking heroin and injecting cocaine, which I didn't even know that you could do. (laughs) And out of the other side of that, he's got this fantastic life where he's flourishing and he's doing something that he really cares about and is well-regarded within his field. It was a wonderful chat, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to sit down with him. So that's enough for intros, here he is, the man himself, Mr. Michael Cazayux. (instrumental music) So, Mr. Michael Cazayux, welcome to Modern Wisdom.
Thanks for having me, brother. I'm- I'm excited.
Yeah. Me too, man. Me too. So CEO of Brute Strength, two times CrossFit Games winner, an all-around good guy. How are you doing today?
Doing great, man. Uh, other than the fact that my water got shut off. They sent me- they sent me, like, three warnings-
(laughs)
... but I thought it was all spam, so I just threw them away, and today they shut it off. And my wife's family is in town, so we're- we're having to use the bathroom and stuff-
No way.
... not at the house. Yeah-
Wow.
... it's pretty funny.
That's funny. Well, I think you can-
It's a great day though.
(laughs) Yeah. Um, so I wanted y- yourself to give a little bit of background, um, I think pretty much everybody in the CrossFit community will have heard of Brute Strength, Brute Body, in one form or another, but I think it would be interesting for you to give us a little bit of a background as to what you did as an athlete when you were younger. I know that you said that you did a lot of sports when you were younger, so if you could try and just give us a little bit of background to begin with, that would be great.
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