S02E74 SHOULD YOU TAKE A BREAK FROM CROSSFIT?

Ever feel tired from CrossFit? Maybe beat up not just physically, but mentally or emotionally? If so, you are not alone. If you have ever wondered if you should take a break from CrossFit training, this episode is for you. Dave and Sam discuss what aspects of CrossFit can make us feel "burnt out," and some thoughts about how and when to take a break from CrossFit training to optimize your life, health and performance.

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S02E74 SHOULD YOU TAKE A BREAK FROM CROSSFIT

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: And welcome back to the Herd Fit Podcast. I am coach David Syon here with my co-host, Dr. And coach Sam Rhee. We have interesting topic today.

We are going to talk about when you need to take a break from CrossFit. This is an awkward topic coming from a gym owner that's livelihood is based on a CrossFit and members paying their dues and not taking a break from CrossFit. Right? But I've always tried to be more human than business owner.

That's one, been one of my things I've done or I've tried to do since we opened a 2014. I care about the people more than the business and that kind of might sound. Contradictory, but it's true. I do, I care about people's feelings and lives and improving their lives, and sometimes, not all the time.

A break from CrossFit is what's needed. You know,

[00:00:46] Sam Rhee: it's such a good topic. I was running at 35 degrees in 6:00 AM this morning, and I was asking myself, is now a good time to take a break from prospect? Think so, I think,

[00:00:58] 2022_1021_1826: I

[00:00:58] David Syvertsen: think I need to, You and Susan both. I was talking about you guys later on. You guys look so cold and bumbled up when you came in.

I was like, Oh my god. Like four layers. Susan's like, Can you take two minutes off my time today? Cause I have to put on, off and on all these layers every single time. It'll be long winter, long winter. But yeah, I mean, I, I think that this really applies to, I, I wanna say this should only apply to people that have been in the game for years.

Multiple years. Not, not a year, not two years even. You've been doing CrossFit for three, four plus years. You are at the point where you're approaching or you are currently going through a burnout stage. And we've touched on this topic a couple of different ways, but I've act, don't think I've actually come up with like a template answer on when I think someone does need to step away.

And we just got done talking last week with Ron, who that was one of my favorite episodes we've ever done before. Absolutely. Just listening. I mean, he, he talked for 95% of it and that's the way it should be when a guy like that is on. It's just like, as he was talking about that, I was talking about, I was thinking about this week's episode where he was very like, Don't ever quit because it's gonna set you up for quitting other things in your future.

And when I say taking a break, I don't mean that as quitting and I just wanna make sure I get that out there. Because Ron himself, he said he has taken breaks, then he comes back, right like this. Took a break, come back. So I want to kind of talk about why reasons. And this discussion has come up with a few different people over the past few weeks.

That's why it's kind of like in the front of my mind and I kind of just wanna get some of these thoughts out there cuz I know that there are other, other people probably thinking about the same thing. CrossFit is a very, if you're really highly involved in a CrossFit, it, it can be pretty rigorous, like a 24 7, 365 type thing like you think.

This day, you're there that day. You think about your workout after you think about your workout, before you're buying all this equipment, you're strapping all these things onto your body before you workout. You're here at 35 degree weather at 5:00 AM running outside with a bunch of people in the dark

You know, there's a lot to it that can really beat you up, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. Let's touch on that a little bit.

[00:03:02] Sam Rhee: Yeah, and the reason I would say that that's more of an issue with CrossFit than say other fitness activities, is because there is the community aspect too.

Yeah. I mean, if you know a CrossFit athlete and they're really into it, that's all they f-ing do like that. I get made ups, I get made so much fun of from my friends who are not CrossFitters, like what's the first rule of CrossFit? always talk about CrossFit. And it's just because you're friends, you're all like-minded.

Yeah. You, you do share a very, a lot of commonalities. Mm-hmm. , you do. Have very painful workouts. You go through. Yeah. You talk about, you talk about your recovery, you talk about your health, you talk about, what your goals are. Yeah. It's just always there. And it's always there. So I can understand how it can be very pervasive.

It can be surrounding

[00:03:46] David Syvertsen: you constantly and know it even surrounds us even more. that you didn't touch on is the social media aspect, right? Right. Like what we're interested in pops up on our phone, whether we choose that or not, right? Like someone's always listening to you, but like when you're surfing through Instagram, whether they're posts, stories, reels, right?

If you're into CrossFit, it's been that way for a long time and it's a lot of the accounts that you follow and the things that you like and the things that you post yourself, that's gonna appear on your phone. And we are all on our phones every single day, some more than others. Everyone I know is for the most part on their phone at some point, surfing.

Surfing a social media outlet. Right? And that's even in your time where you're not at the gym or you're not with people from the gym and talking about it, it's now in your face again. And it really creates even stronger subconscious thoughts that you really feel like you quote, can't escape from. Yeah.

And it's just always around us. And that really can create these hurdles for us. Right. We could talk. Physical, mental, emotional hurdles really quick. The physical hurdles are a little bit, obviously, right? You work out a lot. This stuff is never going to be easy. I think that's something that you just always have to know, and you can always scale, right?

You could always dial back the intensity. You could always not be competitive, but I don't think you're ever gonna be a, a true CrossFitter and have easy workout after easy workout after easy workout. It, It's always gonna be hard.

[00:05:06] Sam Rhee: It's never easy. And, It just depends on how much you really want to work to overcome those hurdles.

Right. And like for example, even this morning I don't think I was hydrating really well this week. Mm-hmm. , I've been kind of busy and I had these awful leg cramps and I was like, Oh my God, there's gonna be so much running and jumping and jumping. And I felt, I, you know, at our gym you have to sign up the night before.

Yeah. I'm one of those people because I coach. I hate the melt. I hate the people that sign up the night before and then don't show up the next morning. No, that's a

[00:05:39] David Syvertsen: good way of putting it. The melt. Yeah, I understand

[00:05:41] Sam Rhee: why. And sometimes you have to, Sometimes they're vow reasons for sure. But there are some people that consistently sign up, never show, sign up, never show.

Yep. And I, I don't wanna be one of those people. So I was like, Well, I already signed up. I know it's Dave and he is gonna judge. He's the coach. And I said, You. I, let me just show up and see what happens. Right. And and I do that about 99% of the time. Yeah. And let me just show up and see what happens.

Yeah. Some days, there are very few days I'm gonna say, I'm gonna kill this. This is my workout. Yeah. Most days I'm like, Hmm, all right, let me see what happens. Mm-hmm. , and it went, it went fine. Like I warmed up, everything felt okay. Yep. Started slow, got faster and it went really well and I was so glad after.

That I did do it right. But on the other hand, there can be many people where that hurdle is just too high. You've done it too often. Mm-hmm. , and now you're just like, Yeah. Oh,

[00:06:35] David Syvertsen: that, that, now it becomes mental too. Then it becomes

[00:06:38] Sam Rhee: the

[00:06:38] David Syvertsen: physical turns into the mental, Yeah. Like the, the mental hurdle. And like we can say the mental hurdle is, Oh my God, these workouts are hard.

But I think sometimes I wanna. Deeper than that. Mm-hmm. or, or, or in a, on a different road, I should say. Mm-hmm. , Let's talk about today's workout. Like, you come in, I'm not gonna go over the workout, for, for the people that don't come here, it's not that important, but had a workout with a few different movements, but the order of the movements changed every, two rounds, blah, blah, blah.

Right? There's intervals, there's rest, there's running, there's a lot of different scaling options I can see, especially with newer. You come in, you start writing this workout on the whiteboard and you're, there's so many things you have to think about. It was scary, The weights, the movements. What happens if I start failing these?

What happens if, then I have to look at the clock and write down my time so that I know when I'm starting up again. And I know that sometimes, and we've talked about this with our coaching staff, like sometimes my workouts, they'll be perfect. They're a little too detailed and they're a little harder to follow, and they're easier for me to follow.

Thought about them and wrote them where if you're someone coming off the street, it's just like, it's a lot to take in. And sometimes, a lot of times people come to the gym to escape the, the mental rigors of life and they don't want to have to process it. They like, they love being told what to do, having something simple going home and living the rest of their life.

And I think. As you start approach approaching a burnout stage, if that is your thought process, right? I bet you're very close or you're in that stage of being burned out. Like at the end of the day, the workout, they're ever that complicated. You had to maybe think about it for two, three minutes. Yeah. And then you're good to go.

Yeah. But if you're in that stage where like, Oh, I have to write this. Oh, I have to do this. Oh, how am I gonna do this? And you're getting overwhelmed and you get this anxiety. That's a point where it's like, All right, we gotta change something up. Have you

[00:08:15] Sam Rhee: ever been to that point where you felt burnt out, where you got to that stage?

Mentally?

[00:08:20] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I mean with training, yes. Ever to like walk away from like CrossFit training? No, but like having my own coach, right. And being on a different program and being by myself, but to me that was more lifestyle base where I was just so sick of having to make the schedule around the classes, and then Ash and then Brock, and then my coaching and then my other training.

Right. That got, that burned me out a little bit. Like to the point I just didn't want to do it. But I don't, I actually, in those moments, that's when I would return to like, I'm just doing classes this week. Yes. And because I love that. I love being like, it's the environment that I love. So is that what you would call

[00:08:57] Sam Rhee: a break?

Is dialing it down or are you calling a break, Like

[00:09:01] David Syvertsen: stopping it completely. So I, I do think a break should always be, unless it's physical. If it's physical, I think there. There might need to be time away from the gym based on how serious it is. Right. Although we do have people here in, who just had an elbow surgery.

I was just thinking of John Raymond, who has been in a boot for a long time. He had a severe ankle sprain on vacation. Came into the gym four days a week and had to change every single workout by himself in the back of the gym. And for the most part, he was doing the same thing every single week.

Yeah. Ski pushups, bench sit-ups, holler rocks. Right. Probably not the most fun thing in the world at 5:00 AM 6:00 AM in certain situations if you have a really serious surgery, like yeah, like I think it's okay to take a physical break from doing anything, would I? No. I would always wanna do something, but I think that, What is more common is people get the, to the mental or emotional part where like they, it's too hard for them to get up early in the morning because it's now 40 degrees.

Right. It, it's their best friend doesn't work out with them in the morning anymore or at night anymore, and they just don't want to be around other people. Right. Those are the times where a break to me would not be walk away from the program or walk away from your CrossFit, go to orange theory, go to F 45.

It would be go less, but keep going. And that's kind of a message that we heard from Ron last week, right? It, it's okay to take your volume down or take the intensity down, but the fact that you're not quitting, right? The fact that your keeps showing up just might not be as often. That should be your break.

Yeah, that makes sense to me. So that, that's where that, that's where I wanted to take that part of the conversation. Now I wanna talk about the, the pros and cons to taking a break, right? So now we kind of just turned like, what is a break? Could it be, we don't want it to be quitting, We want you to keep showing up maybe just a little bit less, right?

The advantage of doing this is, I actually think it can help you appreciate. Your CrossFit training regimen more than you used to. I do think in time, and this is gonna sound like bitter Jim owner dog, I think people start to lose appreciation for what a quality CrossFit has done for their life and what it's continuing to do for their life and what it's actually trying to do for your life.

Right? Because we know a lot of people over the past nine years, it's been a long time now, right? Different phases of life, right? Like I, if I'm gonna be selfish and talk about myself, it's, you know, pre kidd and post kid, like everything, a lot of things change. So we as coaches, we as owners, we as we as just members of the community.

We deal with people differently now than we did seven years ago, even though it's the same person based on what's going on in their life. Absolutely. And we will do that for the next X amount of years that we're here and they're here. And sometimes, and like we never want, like we never, we were uncomfortable getting thank yous and attentions.

It's not why we're doing it. I'm saying from the athlete's perspective, if you can self-reflect a little bit while you're taking your break. Right, and really start to see how much you appreciate how unique this is, how unique cross it is to helping improving your life. Thoughts on that? Wait, so this is the advantage of taking a break Oh.

Is actually, can it cause some reflection on how much this has actually done for you and kind of set you up for the future? Yes. I

[00:12:06] Sam Rhee: think that, that, that advantage comes not immediately when you take your break Correct. But after you've sort of taken your break. Yeah. And I, and the reason why is, is I'm, I'm just thinking of when.

I needed to take a break mm-hmm. and what situation that sort of came upon and, and it was like, I was very, very intense and I was training really hard. Right. And I think that the cleaning jerks the other day really sort of brought that home to me. Yep. Because I had when I was posting a lot on Instagram and I actually went back and looked at it after my cleaning jerks that I did Yep.

A couple days ago. And then I went back and I said, Hmm, what did they look. Back then because I looked and I was hitting like 2 45 mm-hmm. regularly. Yeah. And what my struggle was, was jerking the 2

[00:12:50] David Syvertsen: 45 mm-hmm. ,

[00:12:51] Sam Rhee: and I was like, Whoa. And then today, like, no. The other day when I was doing the cleaning jerks, like I struggled to hit two 15.

Mm-hmm. . and I failed at 2 25. Okay. And I was like, Whoa. I'm like 30 some pounds off of where I was then. And I was so intense. I was so into it. But then I also remembered, oh, my elbow was hurting a lot, a lot back then. Yep. Like, I wasn't feeling very good back then. Right. And it was shortly after that that I sort of back like dialed it down.

Mm-hmm. , you know, took, you know, less train, did less training. Yep. Less volume.

[00:13:22] David Syvertsen: Yep. And so, which could be termed as taking a break. That was a break. Yeah.

[00:13:26] Sam Rhee: And I don't know, maybe it's a permanent break at this point where I'm just taking classes and enjoying it, but so there is some regret. There's actually a lot of regrets.

So I, I feel two ways about it. I feel like, sorry, that I, I haven't made progress and I've sort of actually lost some progress. Mm-hmm. . But on the other hand, I feel way better than I

[00:13:42] David Syvertsen: did back. Yeah, so like you said, that could be a catch 22. And I think in terms of, we've talked about this, knowing what your goals are, what do you actually want to get at a CrossFit, right?

Like your 2 45 or two 15, other than the fact that it's a higher number than the other, it doesn't matter. It just doesn't. And it does matter to me though, if you're feeling, if your physical feeling in your elbow is better, you feel healthier.

[00:14:04] Sam Rhee: So that appreciation I have. Right. But it took a while to get there.

Right. Because when I took that break, I was like, I have to, I almost had to. Yeah. Cause I just couldn't really do anything. Right. It was hurting too much. Yeah. And then I was like, Okay. But now I, I do have that appreciation. Right. But there's still a little bit of. Regret

[00:14:22] David Syvertsen: there too. Human being. Yeah. Like I don't think that's ever gonna change.

You're human, right? Like do, you're always gonna wish you could do a little bit more. Is there a way to get there without injuring the elbow? And maybe

[00:14:30] Sam Rhee: there is Well, I was gonna ask you that. Are you gonna program, are we doing more of a clean cycle in the

[00:14:34] David Syvertsen: future or a clean jerk cycle? I mean, pre-op we just did a lot of cleans over the summer.

Yeah. Okay. That was like, that was like clean jerk was like our big strength over the summer. But right now we're into like more like the power lifting mode. But I do think the strength, the back squats that we're doing have. Are going to help next time we go to the clean jerks. Like we can't just clean a dirt to get the cleaning jerk better.

Right? Right. So now I, I even compare some of these breaks that we're talking about, like when I go away on vacation. Right. I normally don't work out. I usually eat what I want, drink what I want. Right. But, That, that's another, that to me, like that's a break from like the lifestyle. Mm-hmm. of being athlete, gym owner coach.

Mm-hmm. set the example, right? Mm-hmm. . But when I come back I always like can't wait to get back to the gym. Like I know Dave and Brit just got back from their honeymoon. They were gone I think for almost two weeks, you know, our 10 day, 10 days, 14 days, and uh, looked amazing. Awesome. Yeah. And they were back at the gym this morning.

It was great to see. And you could tell, like, it, it's, it's fun to be back. Like, it's almost like you appreciate, not that those guys don't show appreciation, they don't show a ton of appreciation. They're a huge part of the community now. Mm-hmm. . I think that when you take that break, whether it's a honeymoon or a selected break, like that mm-hmm.

You come back and you're, you actually feel invigorated a little bit better. And some people, like in your case, the elbow starts to feel a bit better and you start to appreciate that side of the side of the CrossFit angle. Mm-hmm. . But now we could turn this into the disadvantage of taking a break, which you already kind of opened up, which some of your numbers might go down.

Yeah. And I think that that's something when people come up to me and say like, Hey, I'm gonna take a break. Whether it's I'm quitting for the next two months, freeze my membership, whether it's, I'm gonna go from five days a week to one day a week. That's something that you need to kind of say to yourself prior to doing that, there's a good chance your numbers or your performance or your quality of movement, your gymnastics capacity ability Right.

Is gonna go backwards. Yeah. And you have to be okay with that. And you can't be surprised. That happens a lot. People are like, I lost my muscle ups. I'm like, You haven't done a strict pull up in three months. Like, what do you expect? Right. And, but yeah, I can't say that. But , you know, it, it, it's, it's kind.

that, that's where I think that the thought process needs to go bef as you're taking your break. Like I have someone that was a five Amer that is taking a break again for, you know, it's happened a lot over the years. Every time he comes back he's like, Oh, I can't do this anymore. I'm like, Well, that's the problem.

[00:16:48] Sam Rhee: I think if you take too frequent a break. Yeah, it, it's almost a negative feedback loop, right, Because you come back, you're not as good as you were. You get frustrated. Yeah. You try, Maybe you try too hard or you don't deal with it well, then you gotta take another break. Mm-hmm. and you just kind of, you spiral.

So I, I, I mean, I know this is about the pros and cons about taking breaks, but I would be like, you gotta be pretty judicious. If you really care about your fitness, Right. About your performance. Yeah. If you're a little bit more on the performance side, like we all have some performance aspirations.

Absolutely. Yeah. Even as fitness oriented athletes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I don't, That bothers me. Mm-hmm. , It really does. Mm-hmm. , even though, listen, I like, I'm not going to the games. I don't. Like it doesn't really, it does matter to me, right? Like, I know if I have the potential to do better, I should do better.

Mm-hmm. , and, and that's what too many frequent breaks

[00:17:41] David Syvertsen: will get you. So my suggestion for you, and I think there's probably a couple people in that same boat, would be it, it's tough. Like you hear games, athletes talk about this all the time, that are no longer training at that level. It's like it takes them a while for them to accept that they're not gonna ever do what they used to do.

Am I saying that to you? Absolutely. But what you could do, and I've heard a couple of them talk about. Is once you kind of get out of that initial, like, All right, I'm no longer there with my cleaning jerk at 2 45, but right now you're at two 15. Why can't this be your starting point? Why does 2 45 have to be your starting point?

Why is that the barometer? Like if you really. Wanted to work on your cleaning jerk and get that back up to whatever, Right. I think your current PR is two 15, so now you just, you cycle a lot of work in at 180 5, 1 95, 2 0 5. Like clean that shit up. Right. And then the back squat program should help a little bit.

We do some lifting off the rack. Right. Am I telling you to do extra work? No. But could there be an extra session per week that would kind of feed into that goal? Yeah, but I think the starting point, it's a moving. And that's hard to accept, but I think that's what it is. As we get older and we are kind of, I don't wanna call us weekend warriors cuz we work hard all week, but we're not just training for performance.

That's not the only reason why you're here. You are here for health. You do want to feel good. You don't want to come in like you did for a couple years, like banged up. Right? But yes, you were and still are incredible, you know, fitness specimen that a lot of people look up to. I think that that's, that that moving target idea is something that a lot of us could do after we take a break.

All right, where am I now? Right? Like I'm, I'm having someone leave the gym right now just for a little bit, some personal issues, right? And when they come back, I don't want that. Like where do my muscle ups go? Like, Hey, you're starting from scratch now let's see how many strict pulps in a row you can do.

Right? Let's see how many chess bar pulps you can do in a row. And then we move

[00:19:32] Sam Rhee: on. I think some of this is going to have to be to be me realizing. Is this my ego? Yeah. Right. Or is this just me trying to be the best person that I can be? Right. And if I can put my ego aside, but also I, you know, have this R realization that there is this desire that I need to see where I can fulfill my potential.

Yeah. That's where it's gonna come from because you know, it, everyone sort of sees it like they, And this gym is very inspirational in that sense too. Like I see a lot of athletes and they are putting that time in and they are doing amazing things. Yep. And I'm like, you know what, what could I do? Yeah. Not that I want to be Dave Bo right.

But I'm like, if look at what he's doing, and. He's achieving. Mm-hmm. . Now what could I do if I put more time in and, and focus and what could I achieve? Yeah. Cause I've been sort of not doing that for a while. Yeah. So, so maybe a break is good in the sense that it helps sort of restore and, and build that mental desire again.

Yeah. And, and, and then, and then sort of coalesce it and then suddenly, Comes into

[00:20:39] David Syvertsen: something, how do we get you back to being better than ever? Like that's the next part of, of the outline. It's like taking a break that should not always be associated with like too hard for me, too busy, I got too much going on.

It could just be like, Hey, I mean we see this in peaking athletics all the time. Like if you know anything about like peak performance and real strength and conditioning programs and real like, Performance based programs, like there are ups and downs, there's ebbs and flows with all of them. And I think that you taking a break could simply just be your down track, but this could eventually lead to you being a better version of yourself than you've ever been.

Right? But like, I think it all starts with reflection. What you're doing, you know, you, you watch around, you observe. You need to be inspired, and then you need need to turn into motivation. Then your motivation needs to turn into discipline, right? Do stuff when you don't wanna do it, and then it comes down.

You know, being consistent with it, right? Like it's probably one of the more cliche things with CrossFit, but I think what you could do. Part of your reflection process is what got you to that? I mean, I don't wanna keep bringing up your clean and jerk because I feel like you've gotten so many, so much better with other movements.

CrossFit, but let, let's stick on it, right? Let's say 2 45 is the goal at some point, right? Mm-hmm. , what got you there? You know, back then, like you reflect on that, it probably was the extra volume that you're doing, the extra work. All that lifting that you send me, those videos in your garage doing. Yeah, that probably was a big part of it, right?

But it also brought up some negatives. So what are some things that we can take from that extra training period and put it into your future when you do want to attack it again, if you want to attack it again for the reason of you want to hit that number and, you know, I, I think that there are ways to that goal that don't need to exactly replicate what you did back.

And I think that's something that just a lot of conversation, a lot of self-reflection on, Right. Maybe this is what really helped me get there, a squatting program. Mm-hmm. not doing imam cleaning jerks every two days. Mm-hmm. , you know, like it could have been a bit more technique work that's not as intense with 95 pounds instead of, you know, 185 pounds off the rack.

Like there's probably a lot of speed work. Accuracy work that you go, because like we're developed, you're a much more developed athlete now than you were back then. Just like, you know, you understand it more. I do understand it more, and me as your coach, I understand it more. The people that you talk with, Susan, she understands it more and I think that.

With with time, Should an experience should come, more knowledge, maybe that's not always the case with every coach, every athlete. Like we see people just going in circle mm-hmm. all the time, Right. Throughout the year. Mm-hmm. . But I think that's part of what someone can do when they come back from a break is, All right, what did I do wrong last time?

That I really want to avoid? What did I do right this time? And what's something new I can. In my pursuit of that goal. So the break isn't really

[00:23:27] Sam Rhee: necessarily stopping. Yeah. Your brain activity, your physical activity. Yeah. It's actually taking that time and reflecting on Yeah. How to get your next cycle or ebb or

[00:23:40] David Syvertsen: flow going.

I'll tell you what, man, Like if, if someone used to work out a five, you know, five days a. And we cut it down to two because this is, that's their break. Like, Hey, yo, Cherry, pick the wads this week. Come in twice. But those days that you don't come in, go for an hour walk. Mm-hmm. like, I've told people to do that.

Like, think about the amount of time it takes you to get ready for the gym. Mm-hmm. , drive to the gym, Warm up, stretch. You're talking about hour and a half, two hour commitment. Go for an hour walk. You'll still have more time. Right, And like, because I know I've, I've had people tell me this all the time is, Hey, go think and reflect.

I'm like, you know, I don't have a freaking time, dude. Like I always have something to do. But if you take some workouts out of the session, you can just go for a simple walk or go wherever you can be Zen, right? I think that's, that's an opportunity and start writing things down. It's hard

[00:24:22] Sam Rhee: if, because of the community and you wanna be here, right?

To say, Right, I'm just gonna go hang out by myself and be a hermit for those days. Like, I think that's hard. Yeah,

[00:24:33] David Syvertsen: it can be. It can

[00:24:34] Sam Rhee: be like, I wanna be here because I, like, I have my friends at 6:00 AM I like, you know, seeing them and talking to them and

[00:24:41] David Syvertsen: working out with them. I mean, I think it's, it's a long term approach.

You know, like I think if you, if you or someone took a two month break of coming two days a week instead of. I don't think in five months it's gonna be an issue. Right. It's a long-term goal. It might be a little hard early on because it takes you outta a routine, but it's for the sake of getting more out of this down the road.

I think it, I think there's value in it. How do you take a break

[00:25:03] Sam Rhee: from social media? Because I am inundated with social. I have nothing but CrossFit. Yeah. Things that I follow on Instagram and I see this watch, I see this, I see Rogue Invitational, I see

[00:25:14] David Syvertsen: blah, I see this. I know you always wanna watch.

There's really something to watch. I mean, it's a good question. I mean, I, I've, I remember I've talked about this before. I think we, we've talked about doing an episode on this at some point, social media and CrossFit, but I don't really have the best advice because I think the only advice on it is go cold Turkey.

Like you just don't go on your phone. And I know, you know, Coach Mike talks about this all the time. Like, you know, taking a social media break mm-hmm. , you know, you get sucked in at some point or you want to go read something and mm-hmm. , you know, we talked about there's a lot of good on social media too.

There's some education you can get on social media. Mm-hmm. , I have been less on social media in the past, I'd say eight to nine months. This all started back kind of like right around the open last year. How did you do it? Honestly, just cold Turkey. Like, you know, if I wanna read something I'm not, it's not on social media.

And I tried, I have other interests too, outside of CrossFit, which also that helps to be honest with you. And that's what I spend my free time doing and reading and writing about and all that kind of stuff. And I simply just don't scroll and watch as much as I used to. And it does, it does help. It really does.

Like I. I have found myself that I compare myself to other performing athletes a lot less now. Like I used to be so addicted to like, what's that person doing for their training? What's that person doing? That person beat me in that event last year. What are they doing now? Like I couldn't tell you what any one of the guys are competing with at Legends are has done with their training.

Is that right? Yeah. Cause you used to know everyone. I have no idea. Hmm. I saw the list of guys on competing games. I think I know two of 'em well, one.

[00:26:43] Sam Rhee: Busted for drugs. I mean,

[00:26:44] David Syvertsen: who, I mean, wasn't Nick Block one of the guys? Oh, no, no. Well, I'm talking about Legends this year. Oh, this year. Yeah. Yeah. But yes, Nick.

Yeah. But you know those big stories, I'm never gonna avoid them. Like the morning chalk up, they send you the emails. Oh, I wanna go read that. Like, I'm always in the game. It's my career, it's my profession. I should be in the game. But when it comes to like my personal training and then the personal side of social media.

Mm-hmm. . And if that is something that kind of, you might not know that subconsciously it's kind of throwing you down this, like this dark place with CrossFit. I don't, like I said, I don't have the best advice other than, I mean, I've unfollowed a lot of accounts. There's a lot of accounts that I don't follow anymore.

[00:27:18] Sam Rhee: You know, I follow Nick Block now and he's body building. Yeah. He looks juice to the gills. Oh yeah. Like he just went all in on it. Yeah. So that was actually very

[00:27:26] David Syvertsen: satisfying to see that. Yeah. I mean, just let him go. And honestly, it's like Dave Lipson, you know, like . I. So I think sometimes the, the best outlet for some of those guys that have that, I mean, there's definitely insecurity with them, right?

Mm-hmm. , when they were train competing very much so, they needed to take all these drugs to, you know, fulfill their self, you know, their prophecy, right? Mm-hmm. that They cheated and they broke rules and they got caught. But you know, I don't ever want to see people suffer for a long time if they made a mistake.

And I think a good redemption story for some of those guys is just go all in on body building, you know, forget the competitive crosses

[00:27:58] Sam Rhee: scene. So how do I reset my expectations after having taken a break

[00:28:02] David Syvertsen: here? So I, like I said, we touched on it earlier, I think coming in with new goals and starting from scratch and how do I know when I'm

[00:28:09] Sam Rhee: supposed to do that?

That's the other thing. I don't know when I'm supposed to be like, Okay, my break is over. Now is the time.

[00:28:14] David Syvertsen: That's a good question because you might get addicted to that lifestyle only coming in twice a week. Right. That's what I'm,

[00:28:18] Sam Rhee: I'm afraid of other, I mean, I know, I, I

[00:28:21] David Syvertsen: don't think that, Yeah, I probably would never happen to you, but that would I I do, I mean, it has happened.

It's like there's key studies within our gym where like they took a break and they never came back because it's really hard. The person that used to do this, but can no longer do this in a gym that is incredibly fit. Yes. It's tough. It's very difficult. Yes. The quote, Ron, you have to check the ego at the door.

Right. That gets old hearing after a while, but it's something you're never gonna stop hearing. It's, we're gonna say stuff like that at the gym all the time because if you can't, it's just not gonna work for you. Like it's crosses too humbling. And so I think that when is the right time for you to come back?

If you want a number on me, like, I think less than a. You know, like that, that would be me. Like, I think a a a lot happens in a month, right? Not a lot happens in a week. So like that's like if you want something objective like that, I would say like a month is a good time to take away. I also would maybe couple it if you can, around time where you have a lot going on, whether it's a vacation, you have a lot of work coming up.

There's certain people that have jobs that have very busy seasons. Mm-hmm. and adding to that stress could just make it, you know, send you to like a tailspin. So you know, an example if you're an accountant and you know, April hits, like maybe that's the time for you to take a break or if you're a teacher and like that start of the school year is always tough for them.

Maybe that's just time you start to kind of dial it back for a little bit. So those are just couple of examples. What do you think, when should someone come back from. Like how long is too

[00:29:43] Sam Rhee: long? That's a good question. I think you're right. The reason that a lot of people will not come back from that is the ego.

Ego is such a mind killer. Yeah.

[00:29:51] David Syvertsen: And I know we can easily say like, don't have an ego, but we all have egos. We have egos. I have

[00:29:54] Sam Rhee: egos too, you know. . And if I were to say, come back and be like, Okay, you can't even do two 15 now, but you know, you can only do like 1 35.

[00:30:03] David Syvertsen: Right? Like,

[00:30:03] Sam Rhee: whoa, where would I, where would I be sitting with that?

Where I'm sitting at the 6:00 AM class and everyone else is doing 180 5 and I am, and I used to do that and now I'm doing 1

[00:30:13] David Syvertsen: 35. No.

[00:30:14] Sam Rhee: Yeah. I don't know how I would. I don't know how I

[00:30:16] David Syvertsen: would feel about that. Yeah. I mean, let's see. I bet, I bet it wouldn't be as bad as you think. I think it would be worse in the moment than it would be afterwards.

And I think the stuff that is afterwards, the stuff that's going on in your head afterwards will last a lot longer than any sort of fulfillment or lack of fulfillment that you have from that particular

[00:30:31] Sam Rhee: workout. And you know, I say that only because I know I can you, like you said, I can think of at least three or four people right now.

Yeah. Where that might be the sort of thing going in their head. Oh, absolutely. And. So I would say the, the thing that allows you to come back is one, don't let your ego dictate if and when you're gonna come back. Mm-hmm. like, like ronza, take it outta the equation. Mm-hmm. . It's really about you can do two ways of doing it.

You can take it just like a set time Yep. And say, All right, I'm gonna give myself 30 days. Yep. Or I'm gonna give myself until the end of the tax season mm-hmm. , and then I'm gonna see like, and then I'm going to do it right. Or you could, I mean, a tougher goal would be to say, you know, when I mentally feel like I'm ready, because who knows when that's going to be.

So I,

[00:31:17] David Syvertsen: I like having something. Yeah. Objective, I think

[00:31:20] Sam Rhee: objective is, is good. And then you, you try to come back with that and see where you are with that. I think that that's probably the safest

[00:31:25] David Syvertsen: thing. Last suggestion on that, and then we, we'll wrap it up is, and I'll give anyone full permission to, if you want me to help you out with this, I can, because it's pretty easy is if you take a break, alright, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, whatever.

One of the things you could do is take the decision making out of your hands in terms of what you should do to scale workout. . Hey, like, I don't want to pick 65 when the RX is 85 because all my girlfriends are doing 85, or all my guy friends are doing 1 35. I don't wanna do one 15. Hey coach, I just took my month off.

What should I do for the workouts this week? What waits? Here you go. There's the decision, and then you evaluate how well you're recovering, right? It doesn't always have to be about the score, like screw the score for, you know, your first couple weeks back. How well do you recover? How do you feel the next day and the day after that?

And if the, and if all signs are pointing north, you feel. , one of two things are gonna happen. Start increasing. The loads are intensity, I should say, because that could be time or loads, right? Or you might actually start to like that. You might like that feeling that you doubt it back a little bit. You got a good workout in and you feel like you're recovering.

You feel like you're getting fitter, and you feel like you're not beat up every single morning or trying to strap things onto your body so that you can, you. Do a, do a squat the next day. Right. So I, I think that's some, that's something that, that, those are two different angles I think someone could have when they come back to set themself up for future success.

All right. Thank you guys for listening and we'll see you next week.