S02E34 MENTAL PREP FOR SUCCESS FOR THE 2022 CROSSFIT OPEN
The Open is coming! There is still enough time to optimize your mental preparation for the 2022 CrossFit Open. We break down how to hack the mental side of success. Take tips from our checklist of competition preparation for the next few weeks and maximize your chances for your best performances in the Open!
(and remember, sign up for the CrossFit Open! 22.1 starts February 24!)
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S02E34 MENTAL PREP FOR SUCCESS FOR THE 2022 CROSSFIT OPEN
[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: All right. Welcome back to the Herford podcast. I am coach David Syvertsen. I'm here with Dr. and coach Sam Rhee. We are now at the time of this posting, probably going to be a couple of weeks away from the open and we talked about what equipment we should expect, we talked about the opening in a few different ways.
One thing we want to dive into here is just mental prep for the actual open for the three weeks, but actually for the days individually. And I think that's really important because there are a lot of people right now, this is the first time they're doing it. Or we've had a few people say this the first time they've signed up in years.
And even for those that have done, the open, this is your eighth, one ninth, one 10th one have done it every time they've been to bison. I think there is something for you in this, in that everyone has different approach to the open, but there are a lot of similarities we should be aware of.
And I think it can help a lot of us out. So I would say the first one should be like, know your routine, because I'll say this about the open, whether you're at bison, whether you're at a different gym, there's a different vibe during the open. And because it means something and we take it serious here and maybe your gym does maybe your gym.
No matter what the vibe is different. And you have to try to keep as many things the same as possible, even though a lot around you will be different. And I think one of the things you really want to try to dive into over these next few weeks, some of you may have already started, this is try to know on Friday, what time do you work out?
What class are you going to go to? Or some of them we're going to open up that some can do it on Thursday night at eight 15. And we haven't even announced that yet, but we will. Sam, what are you doing? The open workouts.
[00:01:32] Sam Rhee: We've been talking about this. I am right now planning on doing it Thursday night.
Cool. Just so that in the service of the podcast audience so that we can selfless provide a perspective on it. I was able to do that last year. I didn't think it was the best way of doing it and I wouldn't recommend it because there's value in doing it when you're. I have given it some thought, given it a little bit of analytics.
Yep. Formulated your mental approach. Yep.
[00:01:57] David Syvertsen: The positive though, is that it will now come out 3:00 PM Eastern on Thursday, much earlier. Yeah.
[00:02:03] Sam Rhee: So we do have a couple more hours than we did last year where that's
[00:02:06] David Syvertsen: all you really need. Yeah. Like in the past example, Sam did this on Thursday nights.
Last year, the workout will come out somewhere between eight and eight, 15 at night and he was doing it. If there really isn't much time to reflect and kind of trade ideas and maybe bounce some ideas off of each other to reach his optimal before. And so now that we'll get those extra five hours.
[00:02:26] Sam Rhee: Yeah. That's super helpful. I would say it really depends on your mindset. Some people don't like perseverating over it too much. Yeah. Some people really do like calculating it, so it really just depends on what suits you, but I'll
[00:02:40] David Syvertsen: be doing it Thursday night. And Sam, he's to the best of his ability.
He has been coming in occasionally on a Thursday night to work out, just to start setting up his daily or weekly flow for all right. What's he going to be doing throughout the day Thursday? Does his work impact it? Does it have a positive impact, negative impact? So that's something that I'm big on.
I'm probably going to be doing them on Fridays at four 15 or five 15, somewhere in that window. So I've been trying to make sure I work out with the four 15 class every Friday. So now I have a flood. Now I have a plan, especially with like, all right, Brock's at daycare on this day. I get home from coaching in the morning.
I can sleep for an hour and a half. I eat at this time, go train. And I think that's something last year I made the mistake. I got yelled at where I did the last open workout, the hardest one, in my opinion, on a Thursday night. And I had trained on Thursday night and I don't know, ever really three on Thursday nights.
I've almost never trained. And I just hopped into that workout. Didn't warm up that well, didn't have the patterns set up my daily pattern set up and I did pretty poorly. And I think that was part of the reason why. And so I would challenge a lot of you guys to start putting thought into it.
What time are you going to do the open? All right. Now start planning your day for the next few weeks around. All right. As if you were doing the open workout that night, see what works. See what doesn't work. Yeah,
[00:04:00] Sam Rhee: I think I've started to do that for my own planning and I also want to mentally clear myself, so I don't have anything.
I don't worry so much about the day of, but I want to make sure that I'm not feeling like I have a ton to do on the day after. So that I can feel like I can chase it. And then. I feel like I don't have so many other things weighing on me. What do you do when you have to work out? Okay.
You're planning on working out at four 15 on a Friday, so what time do you feel like you're going to start arriving? What do you need for your mobility stretch? Warm-up because I think some people would use your example and
[00:04:37] David Syvertsen: tee off of that. I mean, I'm big on at least a half hour before that for 15 starts.
And I think all you by some guys and girls. No, that there's not going to be like as formal warmup period stretching period. A lot of that will be, the coach explains the workout, the scaling options. We make partners that you have a judge. We'll talk about that later. And they're just say, all right, you have about 20 minutes to start, go get, go, get yourself warmed up.
And we will have things written down for you, but it won't be. Robotic as go do this, stretch, this, do that, stretch, this, it won't be like that. And so with that in mind, you can really come up with a warmup plan for yourself because I'll tell you what, there's certain things I want to do in a warmup that if I show up to a class and that coach does not do that, what I want in the warmup, I don't get to warm up the way I want.
So it's like a positive in my opinion. I'm big on show up at least 30 minutes prior to that period, not before my workout before the period of that class begins. And five minutes of movement with it could be a bike, could be a squeak, could be a row, could be burpees. We jump rope, you can mix it up, right?
Nothing in towns, just move blood for about five minutes and then I'd get into some movement related stretching routine. I don't overdo the stretch, but I want to put my body in that range of motion, whether it's an overhead. Whether it's a handstand, a pull-up. I want to put my body in every position that it's going to be in and just hold it for a little bit.
Feel stretched, feel like my muscles are lengthening and feel good, but again, don't overdo it. You're not doing a yoga class before a wad. It's not good for you. And then based on the workout, which in most cases, open workouts are very high. Heart rate is I will get my heart rate at up at least once, probably two or three times, like an interval piece.
One minute on two minutes off, three times. Of the movements that I'm doing in the workout. So you start adding all this up. This takes time. It's a solid half hour that you. And again, I think I'm very big on you don't want your heart rate to spike from 60 beats a minute to 180 beats per minute at the start of a workout.
That's what gets you like to that red line stage? You want to feel that heart rate go up to, a hundred, 130 beats per minute, just to get yourself like that tastes a little bit, but you're not trying to destroy yourself. And I just watched Ashley and Julia do a Waldwick comp workout in preparation.
And. They both help them strategize a little bit. And I said, you got to go hard on that first assault bike. I don't think they touched the assault by, before the workout started and they both were smoked on the bike. And I think that's, I told them, I was like, I think you guys should get to that comp a little early, get on the assault bike a few times, make yourself tired.
And when some people hear that. And I hear this all the time when I warm up. The warmups are long. Sometimes they're a little hard people look at you. Dude, really? What, why are you trying to make this harder
[00:07:08] Sam Rhee: on us? Well, that's because I feel the same way. Sometimes I feel like I only have so much capacity and if I use it all up in my warmup, then I won't have anything left, but I
[00:07:16] David Syvertsen: will, intention is to help out
[00:07:18] Sam Rhee: your workout.
And I agree the more I do this, the more I feel like, listen, I don't have to tire myself out, and I don't want to over-exercise the muscles that I might be using. Right. Do you need to get my heart rate elevated
[00:07:32] David Syvertsen: and you can be very simple with heart rate hop on the assault, bike, hop on a rower.
And you're not going to jeopardize your workout. Here's something I want, what are your thoughts on, do you take a rest day before your open workout or do you take it two days before then come in the day before and just like low key
[00:07:48] Sam Rhee: it, I've tried it a couple of different ways.
If I'm not in. If I feel good, I need to do something the day before. Same not a lot. It doesn't have to be, I don't have to turn myself out. I feel like I'm more of an Imani kind of guy where I'll just run through some movements, feel like I get a moderate sort of exertion, not maximal, but moderate to significant where I am tired afterwards.
But I think that if I do that, I feel much better for the day.
[00:08:17] David Syvertsen: Uh, Great. I'm big on not coming in stiff. And I think sometimes you feel stiff after like I'm going to be taken off tomorrow and I know Tuesday I'll be stiff because of it. And, just plan around that a little bit and just, on Thursdays, prior to the open here at bison, we purposely.
We have classes, but we don't do anything recorded for time. And it's usually skill base, a little bit of strength base, and we keep your body moving, but we're never doing anything to like a max effort. Those are very good
[00:08:42] Sam Rhee: for me.
[00:08:43] David Syvertsen: Yeah. The day before a workout. Yep. Last thing I'll say to that is in terms of your routine, how intense should your efforts be leading up to the day you do the open?
This is something we should all be thinking about because we're going to be normal bison wadding, Monday, Tuesday. So if you're someone that needs to come in all day, every day, that's fine. I would be very cautious about doing anything really hard on Wednesday, so come in and I wouldn't put anything max effort out there.
And some of you guys that have a hard time recovering Tuesday should probably have, you should be tapping the brakes a little bit too, but it's hard. It's a hard line to drive because I've seen people get, back when it was five weeks, I saw people get in worse shape throughout the.
'cause they were so like, don't go hard. Don't go hard. All right. Go hard Friday. Do it again. Sunday, don't go. Hurry. I ripped my hands. I'm sore as hell. Like I can't work out these next three days. My plan for everyone would be assuming you're doing the workout Friday. Do the workout Friday, go hard. And I would try to get in Saturday or Sunday and go hard again.
It less. You're going to repeat it. We'll talk about that later, but if you're just one and done on Fridays, I would go hard again Saturday. All right. Monday or Tuesday, and then every other time that you're coming in. So not both those don't come in Saturday and Sunday. Go hard. Don't come in Monday and Tuesday and go hard pick Saturday or Sunday pick Monday or Tuesday.
Alright, and go hard on those days. And every other day should be like 70 to 80% zone.
[00:10:04] Sam Rhee: I feel that way there and that I think everyone has to individualize what yeah. Go hard means. Like for example, if that workout that. Let's say 22.1 smokes my shoulders. I will probably go moderately hard on Saturday if I were to do it on a Friday, but I would probably work on something else, like maybe more squatting based or something else.
Just because I know my left shoulder always gets so.
[00:10:28] David Syvertsen: Cranky. Yep. That's where it can get very
[00:10:30] Sam Rhee: individualized and I will have to do something, but I might not necessarily
[00:10:34] David Syvertsen: do more shoulder work. Yeah. So that's another thing guys. Like I'll put myself out there. If anyone wants to reach out to me and just Hey, what do you think about this plan?
I think it would help a lot of you guys out because sometimes those spontaneous decisions where you just decide to go hard because your best friend came to the gym you guys want to get after each other. You know, Next week's open workout. Some of you guys that rip your hands up every time you go past 50 pull-ups.
If the bison wad has 75 pull-ups on Tuesday, maybe you cut it down on notch. Like just little things like that. I think you can, if you seek some outside help, we can definitely help you out with that.
[00:11:04] Sam Rhee: The other thing I would say is that you have to realize you can have your routines. Daily and weekly for the days leading up to the open, but you also realize that things may have to be flexible during the open.
True. And if you want everything set up perfectly for your open performance and it's not equipment wise or anything like maybe you're like, man, why are we starting so late or right. Or whatever it is, if you get thrown off, maybe you did miss a lunch that day. For some reason, like you gotta roll with a little bit, cause there's, it's never going to be perfect.
Never. It's very rare that any performance will be perfect. So your routine will help you get prepped, but you also have to anticipate that they're probably going to be little bumps, right? Leading
[00:11:48] David Syvertsen: what you can control. And be flexible with what you can not control. And I'll tell you this right now.
If one of the open workouts is 20 minutes. The morning classes, you're starting late six and seven. It's impossible to do two 20 minute heats warm that people upset people, especially if there's equipment needed. So yeah, it's things like that. You can't control, that's a good point. So nutrition sleep, hydration, right?
The boring stuff that has an enormous impact on everyone's performance. One thing that's helped me cope with this digestion and hydration. Look at it as a two to three day. Meaning what you eat Wednesday will impact how you feel on Friday. And I think a lot of us only think about, okay, I'm working on heart tonight.
I got to eat clean. Or if I'm going to, if I'm behind on my hydration reset is looking at you, if you're behind on your hydration Tuesday, Wednesday, but then you get back on it Thursday. It's probably not going to be good enough. And I think that's something we should all be cognizant of if you want to recover.
Well, what you do Friday after your open workout will impact how you feel Sunday. And that's always tricky with us because we do the open party on Friday night. Let's not talk about this and she's our new event, planner, social director, sorry at bison. And she's going to be planning a lot of parties.
And we talked about the open party being the first week versus the third week. And she's like maybe we should do it the third week. And I was like, no, we always kick off the open with the open party. And then she liked the way she does. She made me think about it in different way. If people are going to go after it Friday and then go get, you know, a lot of people it's like a big night out for them, but drinking in eating.
Yeah. That could affect their recovery if they want to redo it Sunday or just for the next week in general. So that's not a very athlete way of looking at it. But you know, we talked, we combined some thoughts on it. It's also an anniversary party for bison. So we're keeping it that Friday, the first.
[00:13:35] Sam Rhee: I think this is also something that is individual to you. Usain bolt eat chicken nuggets during his Olympic performance. And he did fine. If you're like me and you're older keeping on track makes such a big difference. I can tell if. Same pizza with my kids on Friday. I will feel like crap for a while.
And it's just, especially during the open, it's just not worth it for me to do that. If I want to, I'm going to wait until after the open to really let go, but I know what I feel like if I'm not hydrating properly and eating properly. And I think almost everyone who's been doing feels it.
Yeah. So if you can just hang on for a little while longer, that
[00:14:18] David Syvertsen: that will help. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Three weeks again, it's not that long. It's five, five hits. It's funny. Five like the FA for those that haven't been at bison for a long time in the past, I would say half the people that signed up for the open after three weeks, they're like, dude, I'm done with this.
I don't want to do it anymore. And now that it's three weeks, I love the fact that it can just keep everyone engaged and it's not a long time. It's really not. Now let's talk about a mental state. We call it, I call this the pre pain cave, mental state. All right. And. Some of you guys are going to experience this for the first time.
Some of you already know what I'm talking about. You're going to feel anxious and nervous before a lot of these open workouts. For a few reasons why? Because we make it a big deal here. B you have a judge that's going to be watching you and counting you and you think they're judging you.
They're not right. The bad kind of judging. But you're going to be worried now anticipate that you're going to feel like I still to this day have weird feelings right before an open work. And at legends last year, and this year I got nauseous, literally thought I was going to throw up on the floor right before the workout.
And I still had to tell myself this means I care like that. That's what it means. It doesn't mean you're in bad shape. It doesn't mean you add, you had a bad piece of chicken the night before. It means you care. Like you care so much that it's actually physically having an impact on you. Tell me, like you've had that before, right?
Yes.
[00:15:34] Sam Rhee: Many times the more I care about something, the more. Yeah, anxious. I will definitely feel beforehand.
[00:15:40] David Syvertsen: And that's a good thing. I think that's something that you should actually look at and try to channel it as this is a positive, right. If you're sitting there and be like it's 22.1 when we starting.
All right, cool. Like that. That's when I go, yeah. You're probably not going to really hit your physical peak in this workout. And I think that you need to trust that what you're doing in the open is what you do all year here. The second the coach goes 3, 2, 1 go. It's the same. yes, your mental state might be different.
You might be trying harder. It might burn the lungs more, but you're not all the sudden speaking a different language. You're not doing different things, you're doing what we do all year. You're challenging your body and your mind. And you're trying to find where your physical potential is.
And for some of us, you really find out in the open, sometimes you kind of leave some out. I think that pre pain cave mental state is really important. I hope you experienced it. To be honest.
[00:16:31] Sam Rhee: I want to also say something for the athletes who are feeling a little overwhelmed. Yeah. If you don't have any experience with the open, I know people are like, what is this?
I don't know. And they're not people who deal very well with anxiety or they want to avoid an overly intense experience. Just remember this. Dave and I really care a lot about this and we have competitive aspirations Dave, more than me, but you know, it means a lot, right?
If this is something that's relatively new to you. Don't worry about the anxious feelings or the overwhelmed feelings, because all you really have to do is focus on staying safe which we will help. Yes. You're enjoying it because you're around the people that you work out with on a regular basis.
Yep. You're going to get three good workouts in. I promise you they will be three good workouts. Yes. And whatever you score. You score and that will be
[00:17:29] David Syvertsen: it. And there's going to be a lot of support too. There will be a ton of support. The support level in this gym is the highest for eight years.
Now this will be the ninth time. All right. Eight years in a row, the highest three string of support you see in the gym is during these
[00:17:43] Sam Rhee: weeks there are a big subset of us in the gym. Love it and hate it. We love the fact that we're challenging ourselves, but that anxiety and anxiousness and I don't want to say fear, but that, that upregulated, adrenaline, state, listen, I know half the athletes that I know are addicted to that.
Yeah. They're addicted to it. Yeah, for sure. And if you love that you chase it. If you're someone like me, who knows, this really makes you a better person, but it's not easy to get into that state or to deal with it. Yeah. It makes you a better person every time. I mean, what, but you have to find what works for you.
So I, I remember thinking when I first started in CrossFit, the 3, 2, 1 go, and I'd be thinking about the workout and I have 500 thoughts in my head. I'd be like, okay, I need to get to the burpees here and this and this. And it would just lock. And at this point, when I do most of that thinking before, and then when I start the workout, I try to keep my mind as clear and as empty as possible and trust my body will do what it's going to do.
And if I try to control it consciously. I will not do as well as I normally do. And you have to find whatever works for you. It might be a clear state. It might be a fully analytical state. You might have it, a really up-regulated I'm going to crush it state. And this is where you can develop your own.
Success mantra and you can really only do it in a state where it's meaningful to you. Dave said, if you're just like, all right, 22.1, then you won't know what it's like to actually be in a situation where you have to perform and do your best. And most people will find that with this.
And I think that's a great opportunity. Yeah.
[00:19:27] David Syvertsen: Yep. I agree. It's staying in the moment. So this is building off what Sam just said, kind of natural transition that we have right there. Pacing, creating, sticking to a plan. I don't want to overdo that. There's some, and I respect this sometimes I wish I was like this where you don't need to create a pace, a strategy, a plan for your workout.
It will help if you're really trying to maximize your own result. But what I think what everyone that might be your plan is to not go in and just let your body tell you what you're doing. Let your body dictate how you're feeling, how you're breathing. I think what I really mean by it is don't let.
Others by. And when I say others, I mean, the people around you don't let them dictate how hard you're going to go after a workout, because I've seen this on a daily basis at the gym where someone feels they need to go at a certain rate of speed or they need to lift a certain load, a certain weight.
They need to RX because only because somebody else did I see it all the time would that person do okay. I'll do it well. Why does that matter? Well, we always, we usually do the same way. It's why. Well, we just, I, we just, you don't have a reason why it's just, it's like a comfort thing, right? And this can go one of two different directions.
One can be, you've lost like some independence with this. And the other is that you're trying too hard to beat others and we'll get into that in a little bit, but I think that it's important for you to really use a coach, or use yourself to say, what should you do? How should you approach this workout?
Example, if you can do eight pull-ups in a row, and there's a workout that has seven pull-ups per round, and there's seven. You probably should not be doing those first seven unbroken in the workout. You should try to go into a pace and say, I should probably break this up into two or three sets because I know at some point I'm going to be near failure.
And a lot of these goals, I try to tell people this, anyone that will listen your goal is to get to the halfway point of the workout and still feel like you can go faster. That will help you out immensely. If you start thinking like that, because you'll feel better, you'll feel safer, honestly, too. And. It's more enjoyable to work out that way.
How many times did we see people in a 15 minute workout go so hard for three minutes? And then literally the rest of the 12 minutes are just miserable. And then like those negative thoughts, they actually slow you down. It's not just your breathing that slows you down. You just hate it so much where if they simply just tap the brakes and we're very aware of what they can and cannot do , you can make it to that eight minute mark and be like, all right, I'm tired, but I'm not.
And I can really, I can actually go faster now if I want
[00:22:01] Sam Rhee: to. I think most of my experience in CrossFit has been. To pace properly. Yeah. Like that's, what's made me a better CrossFitter and in terms of workouts is knowing how to pace myself. But I do use outside cues to help myself. If I'm not the first person working out that day, or, and I look at the whiteboard, I'm not looking at numbers to try to beat people like, oh, I have to beat that person
[00:22:29] David Syvertsen: or what to expect, but
[00:22:30] Sam Rhee: I'd look to what to expect.
And then I look at my own capabilities and say, well, I feel like I can do X if I do it this way. But then I also know that when I'm in the middle of the workout, I might not stick to that plan. I might feel better. Like you said, and halfway in I'm like, listen, I can pour it on a little bit more, or I can say, whoa, this was a little ambitious.
And I have to dial it down just a little bit. But you never want to get to that part where you burn out where you red line, where you feel like, you know what, this is like you said, suffering for another five minutes. Like you can, everyone can suffer for 15 seconds or 30 seconds at the end, but you want to get to that pace where you feel.
Confident confidence during your workout is what you want to feel. You can't do that if you're basing your performance solely on whether or not you're doing better than somebody else. You can use it as motivation, but that is not what you should be using in.
You're planning, pacing, and creating whatever it is that you
[00:23:28] David Syvertsen: feel like you can achieve coping with your result. Okay. So you're going to do a workout on a Friday. Maybe some of you do a Thursday. Some of you will do a Sunday right after almost everyone will leave every open workout saying the same thing could have.
I could along a little faster. I could have. I rarely hear some that's my best score right there, and honestly, in some cases it probably is true. That's why people will redo it. We'll talk about that. Next is, it's like the point of a test, right? If I think back to no academics in school, you do a test.
You get a score. If you were going to redo that test the next day or the next week, you would probably get better or that, but the point of the test is where you were in that current state. And whatever you get, that is your result. And I think sometimes CrossFitters are notorious for this that you always are just not happy enough.
Like you're not proud of yourself for what you did. And I'm proud of everyone that signs up for this. That alone is hard to do. Like I think right now our numbers at 183 people, all of you, every single one, I view whether you've done this a lot, whether you're confident or not, whether you're new or not, I'm proud of that person for doing it.
And I'll be even more proud when they show up to do the workout. Absolutely. I don't really care that much about the scores, to be honest. I just like for the ones that have competitive goals, I want to get to a certain stage. There'll be some care there. I really don't look down on anyone that feels like they didn't do well.
And I always also don't praise anyone up or lift anyone up that crushed the workout. I really genuinely mean that
[00:24:56] Sam Rhee: as some of this is perspective too. So I've gone back and look, I have felt, I often feel exactly what you say. I don't feel like I did what I could have done. But I will also with time, go back and look at my workouts and say, That was a pretty good score actually for what I did.
And regardless of whether my elbow was feeling right or not, you will probably achieve closer to your capacity than you really think you did. And you will have tried very hard in a situation where your adrenaline was, maxed out where you were really gunning for it. So take that effort and.
Really be happy with it. Yeah. I think the longer I've done this, the more I have been able to look at my workouts and say, you know what I have given it, my max effort at the time, same here. Maybe I could have gotten more reps if I had done this out of the other thing, but listen, you, you do it to see how you do and whatever that run is, whatever that shot you gave is you have to just realize.
That was the best that you had at the time. Yeah. That's
[00:26:02] David Syvertsen: what you did. And it's the best of your score was, and I'm okay with that. And I don't honestly I don't want to hear anyone say it this year. I would love for it. Oh, it could have went better. Like, why didn't you, that's gonna be my answer.
I want you to be, Hey man. I gave it my best effort and that's my score. That's that's what makes me proud as a coach is ones like, do I want as hard as I don't want anyone to I didn't try that hard. If someone came up to me I didn't try that hard. What are we doing here?
So if you know that, you're not going to say that because you went as hard as you can. You tried your best, maybe you strategize wrong or patient wrong. That's not what I'm talking about. That's okay. You tried as hard as you can. And that's your score. Like I'm proud of you for that score right
[00:26:37] Sam Rhee: now.
I tell my kids this all the time and also pretty much actually, when I was teaching in medical school was listen. If you're prepping for a test, like you're prepping for the MCAT or the sat or something like that, you want to get to the point where you, no matter what your score was. You felt like you gave it your best effort.
So even if you did crappy on it yep. You got to say, at least I gave it my best effort. Yep. Like you said, maybe you didn't prep, right? Maybe your strategy wasn't right. Maybe the situation wasn't ideal for some reason, phase beyond your control, maybe your shoelace became untied and you weren't able to, finish your double unders.
But you gave it your best effort and that if you can say that for your.
[00:27:19] David Syvertsen: You'll be fine. You'll be proud. We'll be proud. All right. So that brings us to a really hot topic with the open, less than it used to be, which I'm really happy. Redoing your open workouts. All right. The first thing I'm going to say is this is your open.
You decide if you want to redo it or not redo it. There's no right or wrong. It's not good or bad to redo the workout. It's not good our bed to not redo the workout. So that thought is out there. I want you to ask yourself, why are we doing a workout? So for those that don't know, this actually does happen.
People do the workout on Friday and they come back on Sunday and do it again because they want to get a better score. Cool. More power to them. All right. But I want people to ask themselves before you do that, why are you redoing it? And this is someone I've ridden workouts, man. How many open workouts have I done?
I've probably have done a. Close to 50 open workouts. Yeah, I was going to guess 50. So I've probably read Don about 20 of them, I would say. All right. So just know that I've done this several times. But you need to ask yourself why, and if you are trying to, if you're doing it to one up somebody else, I think that's a really shitty approach because I'm going to tell you why it's not fair.
If let's use this example, if Sam does the open workout on Friday. It gets 188 reps. That's a score. And I want to beat Sam, whether I'm vocal about it or not. I come in on Friday night and get 189 beat Sam flex. My muscles, Sam comes in on Sunday morning. I'm like, fuck that. I'm going to, I'm going to beat Dave now.
And he gets 190 reps. Is that a real winner? If I don't get another shot at it in your head, you probably, I beat Dave, but that's and I'll get into the competitive, like between people. I do think there's some healthy competition in the gym and I like it. That it's a cheap thing. And this happened a lot early days in bison where someone just want it to be the top dog.
And this is why we had to make a rule that no, you can't do it Friday, Sunday, and then come back on Monday and do it again. We have a hard cutoff. You are not allowed to do the open workouts on Monday. Gone the entire weekend. All right. You
[00:29:26] Sam Rhee: know, in the past we've listed the top RX and scale.
Are we going to continue to do that? Because I think that was one of the motivations, why people would try to redo
[00:29:34] David Syvertsen: it so they could be at the top. So this is what I'm going to say. I might, in the past top 10 guys, top 10 girls scaled in RX, we used to put it on a whiteboard and it's cool. Like I know people have told me that was a goal for them to get up there.
And I love when I see new names up there, they're proud of it. I might say your first score will go. Oh, so there are no repeat scores. You'll lock something different online, but whatever, your first score, your first shot at a workout. That's the number we're putting up there. So even if you come in and beat your own score two week, two days later, not putting it up.
So because real competition is you get one shot. That's why I like live competing over online. You get one shot at a workout. You're done. Just keep that in mind with all this, we're pretty competitive gym. Some people are vocal about it. Some are not, I think some people don't handle competition.
Well, they just don't know how to, put it in different departments in their head. It's just I'm better than that person or I'm worse than that person or vice versa. Right. I would want to steer people away from it. Just, I'm just going to say that if you are doing it so that you can beat someone else, because it makes you feel good that you'd be someone else who, it sounds silly to even say that out loud.
But it happens and it has happened. Don't do it . Dallas and I used to play like, almost would joke with each other. And he would go redo a workout Monday night and be like, oh, I came to the gym one time on a Monday and tried to beat him, but him and I would laugh about it. And.
I don't think there's a lot of laughing when it comes to people redoing workouts that they could beat someone else. I think it's a faulty approach that I think could actually ended up hurting your CrossFit experience.
[00:30:56] Sam Rhee: If your self-worth is bound up into it, it's a problem. So you and Dallas, it wasn't.
It made you feel like you were better or worse for doing it? Playful trash. It was just because you guys like ribbing each other about stuff, right? I would never redo a workout unless I catastrophic really failed on my first one for some reason. And my personal goal is to. Get to the quarter finals.
And if I felt like redoing, it would substantially increase my chances of getting into the quarter finals for my age group. I would consider redoing it, but I would have to think about it quite a bit. Because it is a goal, but it's not an end all be all right. Yeah. And. I would have to think about it, right?
Like you mentioned, there are dangerous for redoing things and I want to protect my body and safety first. Yep. There would be a lot of considerations, but I have never really thought about trying to beat someone in a workout or achieve a higher ranking at the gym.
I have looked at it. There's no doubt. No. Yeah. At the end of the open, I will tell you
[00:32:00] David Syvertsen: what if that's something that really you want, you need to work on Southwest. It's not just about the open. No,
[00:32:05] Sam Rhee: It's a litmus test to see where I am overall. I also love it when I see newer athletes.
Shooting up on the ranks too. Yeah. And listen, I realize it, it pisses me off when younger, newer athletes get really good. I love it, but it also pisses me off because I see how much progress they're making. And at this point, my progress is
[00:32:24] David Syvertsen: Really slow if you're making any.
Yep.
[00:32:26] Sam Rhee: But I wouldn't ever want to redo something. To make myself feel better about it. Right. And I don't think that's a really healthy way of,
[00:32:34] David Syvertsen: yeah. Like I think it makes a lot of sense for someone like, Sam, if he's like, Hey, I really blew it on Friday and I want to make the quarter finals and.
You know, That score is not going to be top 10%, because that's how you make the next stage from the open as you finished top 10% in your age group or in the open division, if you're not 35 yet. It makes sense to do that, right? If that is a situation where we're like, all right, you know what, let's do this
if if you have two weeks where like you finished ninth percentile, and then your third workout, you finished 20th percentile, , all right, Sam, you're going to have to do this again, actually. So. like something like that is where if you really are trying, if that is your goal I know there's people in our gym that really want to maximize the worldwide rank.
That's what they're using as a litmus test. So yes, it does make sense to come back in on a Sunday. And what it does, it can force you to learn. I've learned so much by redoing workouts when it comes to how many reps per minute can I handle of something? How do I properly pace? That's when I really started to getting into how to pace workouts in a mixed modal setting where you don't have a machine, that's telling you what your pace is like a rower
like my wall ball pays thrusts or pays, pull a pace muscle pays. How long does it take me to do 10 muscles when I'm tired, blah, blah, blah. Like how many times do I need to. I started learning all that by redoing workouts. Because I was like, all right, I got to do the same workout, same environment, same situation.
What do I need to do every minute in 35 seconds to get better? In that regard, it makes sense. And you will see a benefit from learning about yourself, but the dangers of repeated. Especially with max intense rates is the repetitive movement patterns. If you're going to go out and do a workout, that is 110 thrusters and then two days later do it again.
You're not gonna have. A day or two later, and you're opening up the door for
[00:34:15] Sam Rhee: injury and I've seen people without a high confidence level that you can do substantially better. I've seen people actually do slightly worse on their repeats. Yep. So you really have to know yourself and know what it is that I can substantially improve upon on my repeat good
[00:34:30] David Syvertsen: point in order to do very good point. Yeah, I've been on that side before. I remember we did a. The thrust or jump rope workout. And I obviously have Adam rains and judge me just use it very objective. There's no emotion. Just Hey, 2, 3, 4. All right. Next one. Next movement. So I always like having, and I drew out a pace and one time I did a thrust or jump rope workout.
It was one of the last one. It was the last open workout of 2017 maybe. And I was convinced I was a minute faster. And I get done, do the dramatic flop to the ground. I look at him like, yeah, I'm going to faster. And he just looks at me. I just wipe. No slower. I was like, I just went through all that for nothing, because my goal on that was literally just get better than my previous score.
There was nothing beat that person and be that person and it didn't work. And I'm like, wow. I went through all of that for nothing. And it was, that's a funny story. Last thing I want everyone to be prepared for. Is dealing with the judge. We know we don't do a lot of workouts throughout the year where someone is standing next to you, counting your reps and letting you know if you're doing reps or not.
And this is a very tough thing as a gym owner. We try to be as objective as possible. If you don't squat on a wall ball, you're not getting the rep. And we've had issues like people get frustrated, they yell at the person and sometimes poor innocent, new member.
That's getting yelled at because they said no rep, or honestly, a judges afraid to know rep someone. And I'm very adamant. Every time we run competitions here, when I go to a competition during the open, if I ever see anyone go out, a judge, you're out. In a, I won't even give you a warning.
You get the warning before, maybe this is your warning right now. You do not argue with a judge that no rep to you. Like you just got to be better. That's the thing. And this happens a lot with like squat depth, elbow lockouts. You're going to have someone tell you that you didn't do the movement correctly and how you respond to that.
We'll say a lot about your character. Just know that going in because I've been no reps. So many times you don't. You just don't get credit for the rep. You just keep going. If you're going to stop and get frustrated and cry and yell at the judge, or think even a, think a bad thought about your judge, it's a really bad job by you.
What are your thoughts?
[00:36:39] Sam Rhee: The other thing is that we're holding the judges. To uphold the standards. I have seen many times judges, it's their friend. They want to be nice. They don't want to compromise somebody's score. And so they're not holding people's to standards. And if we're coaches and we see you as a judge, and you're not holding that person to a standard properly, we're going to be on you for it because that's not right.
You're not helping that athlete. And let me tell you, a lot of people don't even realize that they're not meeting standard for, I will tell you when I did wall. For years, I thought I was squatting to depth and it took people constantly telling me I wasn't, before I videoed myself, looked at myself and I said, wow, I feel like I'm doing it, but I'm not.
When you sit there and you are not holding an athlete to standard and the temptation is to let it slide just because you want them to get a good score or you're afraid of them saying something you are hurting them as an athlete. So please, if you are a. be dispassionate. Don't bring any emotion into it if they're not meeting standards.
No rep
[00:37:44] David Syvertsen: them. Yeah. And just seeing you guys, I think. And I've been in over up so many times, like it happens to everybody. It doesn't mean you're doing a bad job. Doesn't mean you're out of shape. Doesn't mean you suck it's like anything like a pitcher throws a ball a professional basketball player misses a free throw.
You're not going to be perfect on stuff. So just don't be afraid of that. And I actually think, I always appreciate when I get no. It's like Sam said, I know the judge is making me a better athlete. It's the judge is actually helping you when you get no repped. And that's why, like I freak out when Danny Spiegel starts crying on why the Palooza, when her judge and a rep certainly get up, get over yourself,
[00:38:16] Sam Rhee: and the other thing is that if that athlete, if you let that athlete go and they get an awesome score. You're also doing a disservice to everyone else in the gym. Correct. So you know why it's a lie? It's a lie. You're not validating that person's score, you're actually invalidating their person's score.
You're going to be a judge,, you're going to want to make sure you hold the standards, not just for that athlete, but for the rest of the gym, we're counting on you. And if you're that athlete and you don't even realize that you're not holding to stand up.
Well, this is a good way of getting that feedback. And like Dave said, you're not going to be angry about it. You're going to understand that there is something I'm doing that needs to be changed, improved, and improved. And listen, I know that there's some people out there that literally their mobility sucks and they're not going to be able to maintain standards.
Yep. So be it. So you're going to get no reps. That's just, the rest of the year, your physical limitations are going to be what they are. Yep. We all have them too. You're going to go three times a slow this time and really see if you can actually hold to a certain standard and that's just the way it's going
[00:39:24] David Syvertsen: to be.
Yep. Yeah. So just overall, just to wrap this up there, there's a lot that goes into this, this mental prep, like how you're going to work out, how do you respond to certain things that's going to be like? I'm always say, try to condition your response before it happens as best you can.
So try to go in with a weekly plan, not just a daily plan. What are you going to do when certain movements come up? What are you going to do when you're judging a reps? You, what are you going to do when you're not happy about your score? What are you going to do when someone next to you crushes your score?
How do you respond to that? We'll say a lot about you and it'll say a lot more about you than what your actual performance is in a workout. We're so like performance, what's your score, which is score. Let me read it on the whiteboard, log it out, log it on, the games website before Sunday night your mental response.
Is going to dictate a lot about you just as a person in the gym. I mean,
[00:40:11] Sam Rhee: I'm thinking about this podcast and I'm thinking about how we're I don't want to say being harsh, but we're saying, do this. Yeah. I would say nine. Five or 4% of the athletes that are at the gym.
Are examples to me. They are resilient awesome, great attitude. People that I look up to and I look up to so many people here at the gym. But I also know that we all need some encouragement. Some positivity in terms of how to look at things and also sometimes a little bit of a mind shift to just make sure, I'm not being down like I got to get into the right mindset with certain things.
And sometimes what we talk about is just. Give that
[00:40:49] David Syvertsen: little, yeah. Give a little boost, give things that we wish we had in our first two, three years of CrossFit, is a lot of these lessons. Like we learned the hard way we've made mistakes. And then and we didn't have really any, we didn't have as much guidance as of, I feel like a lot of people in the gym now have more guidance than a lot of CrossFitters had, not just at bison in general.
Then people had eight, nine years ago.
