S02E77 CROSSFIT BASICS AND BEYOND

Do you remember your first CrossFit class, or even month? Dave and Sam give their thoughts on beginning CrossFit with some tips about starting out. How much should you work out? What should you focus on? What stuff do you need? This quick guide also applies for experienced or even advanced athletes, especially since we all need a refresher course sometimes. There's something for new and experienced athletes in this episode!

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S02E77 CROSSFIT BASICS AND BEYOND

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: Welcome back to the Her Fit podcast. I am Coach David Soton here with my cohost doctor and coach Sam Marie. We are in a Heard fit podcast first ever. Sam and I just worked out with the 5:00 AM class on a Thursday, and it is 6 0 5 and we are now recording a an episode. Sam, how was that? That's good.

That's

[00:00:19] Sam Rhee: dedication for us. I, I pat ourselves on the back for working out and then getting right to

[00:00:23] David Syvertsen: it. What are we doing ? But yeah, we want, we wanted to get a couple episodes recorded. Sam's gonna be gone for the next couple weeks and we know that if this is, if I'm gonna be up here by myself, this thing's gonna fall apart.

So we we have a couple episodes lined up that we're gonna record and the first one was Requested by, by a member of ours and thought about it, and it's a really good idea. We've had a couple of different kind of approaches to this topic in the past, but I think one episode dedicated to the Beginner's Guide to CrossFit training, and we have, as always, we have a lot of new people in the gym.

I feel like we've been saying that for, for nine years now. Right. Even right now. I, I think that we've done probably a dozen beginner sessions and that's what someone does prior to starting CrossFit classes. They do some classes, call it on ramp, some gyms call it fundamentals. We just call it beginners.

Right? And that's where you get taught a lot of movements. And we've, I've done a lot of them lately and some of our other coaches that do them had done them as well. And I really kind of wanna point this episode, kind of put this in their face after beginners and say, Hey, if you listen to podcast, this one is for you.

So if you are a recent. Beginner to CrossFit training, and this is an episode for you, but if you've been doing CrossFit for a long time, I think listening to this will benefit you as well because I think this can kind of circle back to your beginning days and maybe you missed out on some of this stuff.

And I think it's always good to get a little refresher, Sam, opening thoughts. We were all beginners

[00:01:48] Sam Rhee: ones. Even Matt Frazier. Even Tia Claire Toy, if you watch their early, early videos, you know, I love watching Tia, Claire Toy's early, early lift videos. Yeah. She looks just like I did. Well, not as bad, but almost as bad as a beginner.

Yep. And so don't be intimidated or worried if you are beginner. We were all there. Dave Sivertson did not spring forth into a CrossFit gym and suddenly, rep out, 225 pound cleans or something like that. Yeah. And we're all, it doesn't get any easier for us as CrossFit athletes for sure.

I think Dave is exactly right. If you, even if you've been CrossFit for a long time, it's nice to reassess. Mm-hmm. , these are fundamentals and sometimes we have to remember what. Is important for beginners is also important for us as experienced

[00:02:33] David Syvertsen: athletes. Yeah. We just did an episode on taking a break from CrossFit and how to approach coming back after taking a break.

And as I was doing this outline, that's actually what I started thinking about is some of these people that do need to go back to the fundamentals for a variety of reasons. And so I just wanna emphasize that it's not just for beginners. Some of this stuff you guys already know, but it's always good to.

Circle back and bring yourself back to the beginning. So the, we, we have a kind of just a multiple bullet points. We'll just kind of get some discussion going on it and we'll see whether this conversation takes us. So the most common question I get during these beginner sessions when someone is starting this kind of training is how many times per week should I be coming?

ARC Gym and most gyms have classes six days per week. Some have classes seven days per week. So you do have the option to go to the gym. We are open 363 days per year. We're closed on Christmas, We're closed on Thanksgiving. I bring that up because there's just so much opportunity to go to the gym and you have to be economic and you have to put some planning into how often you go, especially when you're starting, and I think there's three things.

That should steer you in the direction of how many times you should come per week. All right, three things. Number one, your goal. What is the goal? This is something that CrossFit coaches love to talk about with athletes. I love personally love talking to people about it because it really kind of gets me to know them and helps me coach them, but it also shows that you're investing in yourself here, right?

Number two is the. All right. How many times can you work out? It's not about how many times can I go in wad? I bet you could come every single day, but we know that it's not a good idea, especially for someone that's new. So I think you have to assess your recovery. We'll get into that a little bit. And then your training age.

How long have you been working out? How long have you been working out with a high heart rate? Like what you do at CrossFit? How long have you been lifting weights? All these things are gonna steer you in the direction of that answer. I don't have a template answer for everyone, Sam, if some, you used to do the beginner session.

And that was a question I'm sure you got a few times. What was your generic answer?

[00:04:31] Sam Rhee: I would advise people definitely not to go every day, and I usually said, Come start, maybe. Two or three times a week. As a rule of thumb right now, I will tell you when I started as a beginner, after my first, at least probably two or three weeks after every session, I would come home, collapse on the bed, and not be able to move literally for about two or three hours.

Susan Wow will tell you this story. She thought I literally had killed myself or something had happened. Like, Are you hurt? And I'd be like, No, I'm just really tired. And for me, I think I try to force myself to go more. Yeah. But that was a mistake.

[00:05:10] David Syvertsen: Yeah. It's hard not to, especially when it's something new, right?

I mean, this is not even in fitness. When something's new and it's stimulating, you wanna do more of it. Right. I have a new guy, his name's Victor just started and he wants to come every day. He wants, sometimes he wants. Two workouts back to back, and I've seen that situation dozens of times over the years and eventually it doesn't work out.

But like I said, I was talking to someone about this last night, you have to kinda let people learn their way. Like it's like parenting almost, right? You, you can, It's funny now that I'm parent, there are so many parallels between trying to teach Brock stuff and trying to teach CrossFitters things that you do.

You guide. All right. You open up the book for them, show them the pages they need to read, but they have to do the reading, right? They have to put the thought into it and assess themselves. And if I could, if I can give one final answer to someone says, How many times should I come per week when I first start?

My answer's gonna be less than you think. Yep. And I think your long-term progress with this will be better. Your fitness. You can get a faster track to quick results if you come in every day, but you will also be on a faster track to some bad things

[00:06:13] Sam Rhee: happening. We've said this a lot. What is the rest of your life like?

Mm-hmm. , if you're starting and you know, your nutrition hasn't been good. Yep. You're really busy at work. You have a lot of stress. Maybe you had kids and now you're coming back finally into the gym to try to work on yourself as a new parent. Like those are all things that are taking their toll. And most new people are coming in because they wanna change.

They wanna change where they're going with stuff. Yeah. Yes. But that means everything else has to change because if you just add more volume at the gym on top of everything that got you to say, I need to go to the gym. Right. It's gonna be tough. Yeah. So I think when I started, I was very stressed with, with work and, and all this other stuff.

Mm-hmm. . And I feel like if someone had said, Hey, listen, assess your whole life. Mm-hmm. fit this in, don't make. Another burden, but something that's actually gonna help you. And then most people can kind of figure out what they need to do.

[00:07:03] David Syvertsen: Awesome. Now we will probably circle back to this kind of this question because it's such a common question throughout the rest of this conversation, but we'll move on.

But you will hear more about this if you still want more clarity. I think the rest of this episode's gonna help you out with that question. So now that you have this thought of, all right, I'm gonna come either two or three or four days per week, right? What days should you put some extra emphasis on?

Alright. And this, this can really only happen if you get the programming ahead of time and disclosure here for the first man, I, I don't know, I think it was the first three years, it might have been the first four. It was leading up to the pandemic. I'm pretty sure we did it prior to, we did not release workouts a week ahead of time for like four.

For, So those that are somewhat new to buy in the past two, three years, can you imagine we send the programming out on Saturday and Facebook on Sunday via email. That was not the case. You did not know the workout until about nine or 10:00 PM the day before. And I posted every single workout back in the day and I posted it based on my schedule.

Like sometimes I was at the gym till nine 30. I got home, eat dinner, 9 45. I post workout at 10. I go on the coach the next morning and like, Dude, I was cooking refresh.

[00:08:14] Sam Rhee: Dude. I, I, I was one of those people that kept checking. How come Dave hasn't posted yet? What's

[00:08:18] David Syvertsen: mad at me? So I, I will say, if you're gonna, I do think there, there is some value and some old school love to CrossFit for not posting workouts.

I still, I promise it's gonna happen some point. We are gonna have a week where we don't post workouts. You will not know the wad till you get to the gym. We might tell you like what movements there are, and I, I just think that's a fun way. But for the most part, you're probably gonna know your workouts a week ahead of time.

That's gonna be the

[00:08:42] Sam Rhee: week he posts 200

[00:08:43] David Syvertsen: burpees for time. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. At least, at least 200. All right. Now, So now that you have this workout and these workouts in front of you for a week, okay, what days should you put an emphasis on? What are your opening thoughts

[00:08:55] Sam Rhee: on that? We have varying levels of skill for our new athletes very much, and some of them.

Come in with a skill set that they're already pretty good at. Yeah. Some people, if they've been lifting, they really like lifting. They either like squatting or they like deadlifts or they like

[00:09:12] David Syvertsen: something. I like the new kid, Alex, have you seen him lift? Oh my lord, that

[00:09:15] Sam Rhee: guy is a monster.

[00:09:16] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I remember we watched him do beginners.

We watched him lift through the PVC pipe. I'm like, That kid's been lifting for a long time. .

[00:09:21] Sam Rhee: Yeah. Yeah. And, and. Sometimes those athletes will come on lift days, right. But then the stuff that they're not really so good at. Mm-hmm. , burpees, running body weight movements. Yep.

They'll kind of skip. Yes. And so the cherry picking for that sort of stuff, Really hinders you. Mm-hmm. . And I understand why a lot of people, especially guys, they wanna bulk up. They wanna be big. Yep. And they're afraid, dude, CrossFit's gonna make you lose your gains. Yeah. . So why are you running so much?

Yeah. and, and I understand that. Same thing on the flip side. Like maybe you're one of those people like, I just wanna get toed. Yes. I don't wanna be bulky conditioning. Yeah. I don't wanna lift heavy. Right, right. Do the opposite. Yeah. Of what you think you're good at. Yeah. Or what you want. Right.

That is the key. Do the opposite of what you think you really want.

[00:10:07] David Syvertsen: Because, and the reason is it's not, we're not trying to be these CrossFit like, do or die people. It's because you have no, If you have a specific background, whether it's running, we have a lot of like triathletes or I ran a marathon in the past, and then you also have like your opposites, like Sam said, lifters, right.

You spent the majority of your training. Doing that activity and you got good at it, but now you're at CrossFit because you know that side of of working out that fitness regimen, you plateaued there because there was not enough variety in your fitness regimen. That is part of the reason why you probably started cross.

You wanted something new, but you have to let it be new. So if you have a responsible cross IT program, Right. There are heavy days, there are light days, there are high volume, days are low, there are fast, there are slow. There are long, There are short. And yes, in your perfect world, and I do think this is part on the, on the person that programs and I'll get into that in a sec.

But it's, it's more on you to make sure that you're not always kind of just having this gravitational pull to the days that you feel comfortable with. Right. And this is like a macro level thing. If you're gonna come here and try to be comfortable every single time, it, it's just you won't get out of CrossFit what you can.

And looking back on my personal history, right, I had a hard time accepting that for I would say three to four years, right when I started CrossFit and Hoboken, and then my first few days, at my first couple years at Bison. I love the thrill of the workouts. I could do well on score wise, PR wise, right?

I loved the thrill so much, and I didn't have. A lot of guidance. I didn't, like I was, I was, I didn't have a lot of leadership in me, in front of me, and that was kind of a disadvantage. And I try to use that experience to teach others not to say, Hey, you need to do what I did. I, it's almost like I want you to avoid what I did, and I think my gains would have been better.

I think I'd be a better athlete right now. If those first few years I did what Sam just said, do the opposite of what I really want to. Remember that the CrossFit training, it's not only about spiking the dopamine and making yourself happy. It's about making yourself the best version of yourself that you can.

And that's, that's

[00:12:12] Sam Rhee: how you get there On occasion, we do want that reward. So yeah, definitely take, pleasure in the things that you're good at for sure, and, and don't, You will.

[00:12:20] David Syvertsen: And you will. You will. It will

[00:12:21] Sam Rhee: naturally happen. But like for example, if you're a lifter, you will actually find your lifts will be better by doing all the complimentary non lifting stuff, right?

So if you found you hit a plateau outside the outside of CrossFit, you will actually a lot of lifters break through because they're doing the other stuff, the accessory stuff. Mm-hmm. , the cardio stuff, the stuff that actually helps them, and vice versa. If you've been doing nothing but bootcamp all this time.

And you don't find that you're as lean or as toned as you feel you wanna be lifting is actually what you're gonna need to do to break through and actually reshape your body. Yep. So as. Contradictory as it sounds, right? Doing the opposite of what you actually think you might need will

[00:13:00] David Syvertsen: actually get you to your goal, right?

I mean, I just always ask, I always kind of bring me, brings me back to that statement like, if you do what you've always done, you're always going to be what you've always been, right? Like if, If you're just constantly repeating yourself over and over, you're not going to change. It just won't happen. All right?

Now that's kind of like big picture. If the days that I would want you to emphasize are the most CrossFit days, right? This is more specific, right? And again, if you can get the workouts ahead of time, this definitely helps. All right? If you're very regimented on your days that you can go to the gym, then you have a little bit less control here.

But I, I think the programming can take care of that for you. The most CrossFit days is what I would call mixed modal work. You have a mix of conditioning, you have a mix and strength and gymnastics, right? And there's so many, I'm not gonna get into specific workouts, but just an example would be like a pull-ups, heavy power cleans and burpees, right?

Like you have your conditioning, you have your skill, you have your gymnastics last skill, and then your lifting. Okay? Those are the days where I really feel like you get the most benefit from. If you really need a bang for your buck workout. Like if I can only get to the gym, or I'm only gonna go to the gym three days because I'm a beginner and I don't wanna do too much volume, that's gotta be at least one of the days.

The, the next one I would say that you really want to focus on. are days that you can focus on scaling and how to use scaling to progress yourself as a cross hitter. And there are certain days where there just isn't that much scaling available. Today's workout we just did, we just did Ron Burpy and, and KET bell swings.

You can scale the weight in the kettle, but you don't really learn that much about scaling in a workout like that. And I think the, the athlete that learns how to scale properly, It's all about stimulus training and having something to progress to in time are the ones that progress the most. They really truly understand the, They're not coming in saying, I only want to RX because I get it written X my name.

It's no the stimulus of the workout, right? If the stimulus says, Hey, try to finish between 12 and 18 minutes, but you finished in 24 and you got the RX next to your name, No offense, you did a, you did a bad. All right. Not on the workout, not on your effort. You did a bad job getting the stimulus of the workout, and now your long-term progress, which you say you want, it will not be there.

[00:15:02] Sam Rhee: We've talked about this and you told that story about the guy who insisted Fran had to be done regardless how long it took, and that goes for everybody. I mean, this is something we've emphasized time and time again. Don't worry about your ego. And it goes for experienced CrossFitters as well as beginners.

But you have to be able to assess yourself and say, Listen, it doesn't matter what other people think of me. Right. And honestly, if you think about it, if you're an experienced CrossFitter and you see a beginner come in, do you care what weights they're using or how good they are? Mm-hmm. , no. If their technique is.

Flawless and they're moving well. That's very impressive. Mm-hmm. , whether it's 55 or 75 or 200 pounds. Mm-hmm. , that's important. So think about what you would look at when you see someone at the gym. Are you really impressed that they're doing 95 pound Rx Fran? If they're taking 10 minutes right? Or 50 min?

Yeah. No, you're not impressed at all. Right? If you see someone do that. Right. So be that person that you know moves well with the appropriate weight and is. Getting the stimulus that has been programmed for them. Right. If you see other people doing it the right way, you should think about yourself doing it that way

[00:16:13] David Syvertsen: too.

Yep. Love it. Now the last thing I'll say on this topic is again, another like big picture perspective is try to, and this doesn't, this isn't for everyone because everyone has different backgrounds, but I think the proper way to progress. In, in this fitness regimen is conditioning first, strength, second skills third.

Right? And the reason I bring up conditioning before strength, some people will disagree with that, is only because 80% of these workouts, the conditioning is a factor, right? And if you can't breathe your way through workouts, and that's learning how to be aerobic and learning how to pace, and it's not just do burpees until you get too tired, right?

There's a lot that goes into conditioning that we won't go into. But I think that if you. Get over that hump, your personal hump of conditioning there. There is a world of cross that you're just never gonna get exposed to. Strength being second. But I would say it's just as important as, as conditioning is just for your long term health, to strengthen your bones, to continue to be able to be stable outside of the gym.

Right. Functional fitness is still a big part of CrossFit and I think. You trying to focus on strength coming in on Squat day and not, and not just Burpee Road Day because it, it's not as fulfilling to some people. I think is, like Sam said, it's gonna have such a huge benefit to you and your, your fitness down the road.

And then the skills like, there, there's some fun stuff to do in CrossFit. The handstand walks, the, the pistols, the, the muscle ups. The pull ups, the toes, the bar where we have people that have been here six, seven years and they're still trying to work on them, but it's still, it has to come after you forget the, the proper, the strength, right?

Like we could talk about the keeping pull up and the butterfly pull up, like, yes, we can teach you those before you get your strict pull up. Is it the smartest thing in the world to do? I don't think so. Like you should always be able to do some strict pulls before you start swinging. On the rig back and forth, not because the textbook says it's because it builds the proper strength to protect your joints.

And I think that's something that's a really frustrating process for a lot of people that wanna muscle up is, just, I get asked all the time now because we're in a muscle up thing. I'm like, yo, go 50 strict pulls a week. And if it's someone that has them go do a hundred per week, and I'm telling you that will benefit you more than, than trying to get banded muscle up.

And they're boring. It's fun. It's, it's not fun. It's not fulfilling. But that's, that's a strength component that I think is really important. A good

[00:18:23] Sam Rhee: programmer at your gym. Will allow you to make gains in all three areas without even you having to worry about that so much. Mm-hmm. , when I started, I wasn't thinking, Okay, I need to work on my conditioning.

Right, Okay. I need to work on my strength. Right? Like I would just show up. Yes. And I would naturally, by working out. Make gains in those departments. Absolutely. Yeah. I think a lot of people are like, I don't really need to do all of the skill work because I don't really need to go upside down and do handstand pushups, or I don't need to do muscle ups or, or handstand walks.

I. I think the value in it is not necessarily the achievement per se, but it's the working on your skills. Neurologically, we need to learn new skills. I think the challenge in it of itself is always good. It may not be overnight. It literally took me a year to get double or maybe more, and some people never get them right, but I, I feel like the people that continually work on them are improving.

Mind body awareness. Yeah. Their ability to move their body and control it through space. Through space. And I think that those are invaluable skills that even get more important as we get older. And you look at Ron, we talk to him and he is like, I still wanna get a muscle up. Yeah. Like, he may never

[00:19:36] David Syvertsen: Yep.

But if he

[00:19:37] Sam Rhee: keeps working on it, Yeah. Guess what he's doing with his brain? Right. He's really active with it. Right. And that's going to help him both mentally and physically. Yep. So I. Um, Poo poo. Anybody, anyone who's working on skill work and listen, it may take 10 years or 15 or never. Don't put a time on it.

Yeah. But,

[00:19:54] David Syvertsen: but just keep working at it. So here, here's kind of a, not a funny topic, but it's kind of like this is something where as a coach I don't really spend that much time talking about, but. If I think about it, it does get asked a lot, What equipment should you purchase when you start CrossFit? And gone are the days where we all show up in Asics and in wristbands with I guess I can't make fun of some, like the finger glows because some people still wear 'em.

But what stuff, what stuff should you buy when you start CrossFit? And it, it's, for a lot of people, it's a pretty expensive gym membership, so I always kind of feel a little awkward when someone kind of gives us their credit card. We charge 'em for the first time. I'm like, It's that much, and then they're like, Oh, by the way, the shoes are 150 bucks too and all those noble outfits.

Yeah. So shorts. So I, I would say, we'll give you just a really, like a bullet point or two on a few different things that I think in time you should probably have of your own. Do you need to do it right away? But I do think within a year or two you're probably gonna start to realize these things would help your training.

The first one is your footwear. There's a, You have your noble, I mean, I don't even wanna go into the specific brands, right? But there, I've always been a Reebok guy. Some people love Nike. You're gonna have to play around with what shoe fits your. Your foot the best, but you know, big picture, a lot of these CrossFit shoes are relatively flat, not the most comfortable things to run in because of everything that we do in the gym with pulling off the ground and squatting.

But there's flex. They're flexible enough to to, to run in and jump and burpy in. A lot of them are designed with a certain kind of soul that when you do rope climbs, the shoe doesn't rip. Like there are CrossFit shoes, if that's what you want to know. And, and you can kind of, I would Google that.

Maybe play around or ask some people around the gym what they wear. I would say 90% of our gym is either wearing Noble or Reebok. Alright. There's still a few Nike Macon truths out there. But Sam what are your thoughts on just shoes real quick? So the first

[00:21:46] Sam Rhee: thing is, is if you are one of those people who are anti, I don't know, materialist, and you're like, I don't, I'm just gonna wear the same You can Yeah, for sure.

A lot of people do. Yeah. We have someone who I think still wears tow shoes for every workout and, and we have people who just wear their own running shoes for everything, and that's totally fine if that. What you want. But I will tell you, if you, you probably will find benefit in wearing something that's more multifunctional, which Dave said has a flatter soul.

Mm-hmm. can give you a little bit more stability on your lift type movements, but also find a balance where you can run relatively short distances. Maybe up to 800. Yep. Meters with it comfortably. Once you start getting into it, you can go nuts. I mean, we have athletes who have upwards of, what, how many does W Track have 54 pairs of shoes.

Yeah. Something insane. But you don't have to do that. I How many pairs of shoes do you own and what do you use

[00:22:40] David Syvertsen: regularly? So at, at any given time, I have usually about three or four pairs of nanos, Reeboks, and I kind of just rotate which ones I wear day to day, so I'm not wearing the same ones every time.

And then I also have a pair of running shoes and a pair of weightlifting shoes. And the weightlifting shoes are something that I think if you're gonna try to take your lifting to a higher level that you could get. But there are some high level lifters that never wear them. The purpose of a weightlifting shoe is that it raises your.

It's almost like a high heel, just not as high. And it, it's a little bit easier to sit into a deep squat from that position. And if you have ankle flexibility issues where if we really assess every single person's ankle, I would say over half of them have an ankles that are so tight that it makes their squat less efficient.

The, the weightlifting shoes, and they're, and they're, they're not as expensive as they used to be, but they're probably a little bit more expensive than your normal workout shoe. They do help that. Like, I wear those maybe once every two weeks, I would say. And it's usually with an Olympic lifting type session or, if I'm having some squat shoes, I'll, I'll wear them.

So yeah, I would say about four or five pairs of shoes. And I'm on the high end. I wear, I, I work out a lot. I, I go through shoes a lot, so I don't think you need four or five. I think you're fine with one or two. And like Sam said, it does not need to be one of these $140 pairs of shoes. It could be anything that you get that you feel comfortable.

The one thing I will say that I, I do highly recommend people get right away are gymnastic grips for your hands. Anytime we have someone go to the rig for the first time and they start doing like the grinding on their hands, the chipping motion, and they do a workout with that, they come up and they're like, Oh look, my hands ripped.

And I look at it, there's like a little, little dab of skin missing. I'm like, You don't know what a rip is yet, but it hurts. I remember my first. Couple years, like this is back before grips were like a big thing. We were taping our hands for like, it would take us 15 minutes to get ready for, and it looked like a disaster.

And by the end of the workout, the tape wouldn't even work. There are, there are a lot of grip companies out there. If you google CrossFit gymnastic grips, you're gonna have a lot of varieties. I like Bear Complex. Complex is spelled with a K, They're not a sponsor of this show, so don't worry about that. I think the biggest thing it does, guys, is to prevent you from ripping.

Kind of like halfway down your palm and then on the skin between your palm and your fingers. And not to sound soft, but when you do rip really bad, it affects your workouts for a couple weeks sometimes. And to me you're just like, this is not worth it to rip my hands up like that. What do you

[00:25:02] Sam Rhee: think?

Yeah, I I would say gymnastic rips are essential. , there's some people that don't use them, but I don't know how they grip the, the bar. Like they must be so soft and really careful with it. Mm-hmm. , I would say it's like when you golf and wearing golf gloves mm-hmm. , like I would say there are few people that don't wear golf gloves when they're playing golf.

But most do, and I think it, it helps and it's the same thing with gymnastic grips. If you rip, you. It like the first time you're in the shower, it just kills you. That's the worst. Yeah. And it takes a while to heal and, and most people don't wanna have blisters. Yeah. I use Victory Grips again, not a sponsor of the show.

I use Fingerless. I just like having some material between me and the bar. It helps move a little bit better. Mm-hmm. , but give it a shot. And usually what I'll do is for the last round of whatever gymnastics movement, I just strip 'em off and just go bare because I feel like I can go a little

[00:25:49] David Syvertsen: bit faster, right?

Yeah. But the volume's low and you're at the end like, I screw it. Screw it.

[00:25:53] Sam Rhee: Yeah. Yeah. So you'll know when you need them. Yeah. You'll

[00:25:56] David Syvertsen: know. Yep. Next up, we have two things that are kind of like, that can go back to back with each other. Belts a weightlifting belt and compression.

So weight lifting belts, pretty obvious, right? The things you strap around your waist and it, is meant to, I don't wanna use the word, protect your spine, because if you have an issue back there, it's gonna happen no matter what, but it, it can add some stability to your midline or feeling of stability in your midline when you lift.

Compression can be knee sleeves, elbow sleeves, wrist straps, right? The feeling of warmth around a joint that doesn't feel good naturally, right? I envy people that can lift without knee sleeves on. I'm not one of 'em. It's like one of my lifetime goals once I'm done competing and just go in and never have to wear a knee sleeve again.

It like, like what a lot of my PT friends will tell me if you have an issue, it's not going to solve the issue that needs to be known. Like if there's something going on in a joint, it might not hurt as much when you wear compression, but there's still an issue in there. It's not, it's not solving anything.

If anything, it's just keeping the joint warm and keeping the blood flowing. And that's a, a huge part of healing and making things feel good. But thoughts on that? Sam's, we have a lot of, I don't wanna call them older right? But people that are not 21, they have. A life full of, past knee injuries or wrist injuries, and they like that feeling of something tight around their body.

Thoughts on getting those right away or waiting off a little bit until you start using them.

[00:27:18] Sam Rhee: I'm a, a bare knee person. Mm-hmm. , and I don't use compression sleeves. I have in the past. I now I feel like they're too constrictive for me. Yeah. I do cut

[00:27:27] David Syvertsen: off your range of motion a

[00:27:28] 2022_1110_0615: little

[00:27:28] Sam Rhee: bit. Yeah, I, I got them because all the CrossFit games athletes, every time you see them, like, especially lifting heavy, they're always wearing knee sleeves and so I was like, I gotta wear niece leafs too.

Right, right. If you have relatively stable knees and you do well, you should. As Dave said, try to lift without the crutch. Yep. Less crutches, the better. My goal eventually is to have to, like, I could show up anywhere at any time. Just work out and just work out. Yep. I'm slowly getting there. I've, I've noticed.

Yep. But I think that Scientifically I have, I, I read up on it. Mm-hmm. , knee sleeves do take some weight and pressure off the knee. Mm-hmm. , because it's stiff. Yes. And, and that can help, especially at peak or maximal loads. Mm-hmm. . But how many times are we really doing peak or maximal loads?

Right. Not often. Right. But if you do have some knee instability, previous knee injuries other issues. There's no doubt that, that, especially the psychologic comfort of having that support there is helpful. So it really is based on your mindset. But if you But don't use them because you need them the time.

That's right. Yeah. And, and try to go without. And then if you feel like, you know what I, I, I really wanna use 'em,

[00:28:37] David Syvertsen: then by all means. Yeah. And to touch on that. Right. This is where some sport and some fitness can kind of intersect a little bit because we talked about this a lot on the, on this podcast is, am I here for sport?

Am I here for performance or am I here for health and fitness? And yes, they intertwine back and forth, right? If you are truly only here for health and fitness and you don't care that much about performance and competing, then if you need something, if you need a knee sleeve or need a wrist strap to do a certain.

At a certain weight, that is usually a sign that there is some lacking of health in that joint. So may why not dial back the weight and care, not care about the performance that day. Weightlifting belts get asked this a lot. I mean, I have people in the shin that wear weightlift belts when they do a keball swing, right?

Like that. That's usually a problem like that, that you have to either go lighter or we need to change up the movement. There's an issue we need to fix. But I like kind of one of my personal rules, and again, unless something doesn't feel. Is, I won't use a belt unless I'm going above 80% of that respective lift.

And it's, it's a pretty solid, Okay, hey, if I need a belt for 60, 70%, that means something's off. But I, again, for the feeling of security and the psychological factor once I'm going above that number, I allow myself to put a belt on.

[00:29:47] Sam Rhee: Weight lifting belts are not back braces. What they are designed to do is to to have your core push against something so that it can be tighter.

Cause in general, when you do lift, you have to brace your core. This helps brace your core a little bit harder. Cause you're, it's actually now pushing against something, not just pushing against air. Mm-hmm. . So the first thing is, is when you wear a weight lifting belt, you're not supposed to make it so tight that you can't breathe.

Right. Your body does have to push against it. Right? Yeah. I. Generally don't use a weightlifting belt, but I have started about for my 80% plus max lifts. Mm-hmm. . And I think it does two things for me. One is it helps me psychologically. Psychologically, like it just says, Okay, now you're going into the next mode.

Yeah. Like, get serious

[00:30:31] David Syvertsen: about this. Yeah. Which is a huge deal. Yeah.

[00:30:33] Sam Rhee: It's a huge part of lifting psychologically knowing that like, okay, and now I can do this. It's like turning the dial to 11 or something. I don't know what it is in my mind. Yeah. And second, Yes. If, if I am bracing, I think it does help me.

At, at very high end. But I really, really, really try to avoid it for almost anything else. And, and again, I think like, like you said, if you're doing it for competition and performance, By all means, if you're trying to eek out that last five or 10% of your accomplishment, then fine do it. But if you're doing it for health and you feel like you are requiring a weight belt all the time,

[00:31:08] David Syvertsen: you need to figure out what's going on.

Yeah. Now to kind of change the, the, the tone here to away from some of like the actual workout stuff and because a huge part, I would say a bigger part of the CrossFit. Methodology is the, is the community and the community aspect and trying to create some bonds and relationships here that help you get to the gym and make working out fun rather than a liability.

It's, it's really kind of how to put yourself into the community and how you can benefit it from long term. And there's a few things that we can get into. My first two are actually coming up. One of 'em. Is try to get to the social events that your gym runs. Hopefully your gym runs a few per year, right?

We have a big one. Probably our biggest one of the year coming up in a couple weeks is actually at Sam's house and he is not gonna be there . So the, and it, I think it's really hard to do at a gym that's been around a long time. I, I tell our coaches and I tell some of our members this, that it's hard to start bison now.

It's harder to start bison now than it was six years ago. Even though it's a better operation. We have more coaches. We know what we're doing more than we did six years ago. It's a really big, tight-knit group, and it can be very intimidating to walk into. And you feel like you come in and there's 18 people talking to each other, and you're sitting there with your water bottle saying like, What am I doing here?

So I think this is a responsibility for the athlete that's new to put yourself out there, but it's e just as big of a responsibility for current members of a box. When you see someone new, you should be taking the initiative. Multiple times to say hi to that person, introduce others, ask them how their workout went after, like that means so much to a new person.

And just imagine you were new. No one talked to you before, during, or after your workout, but they all talked to each other. You at some point would probably leave. And this is not a business owner trying to get people to get, help us keep people. It's, it's about serving the people and making sure everyone feels comfortable.

So, Sam, thoughts on someone that really needs to kind of just dive into the social component. Not saying you need to go get drunk with everyone on a weekend that you just met, but if a gym runs an event that's open to everyone, I think you should try and go. Absolutely.

[00:33:07] Sam Rhee: I, I know a lot of people are just saying, Listen, I don't need this to be my new best friend group.

Right. I just wanna work out and get fit. And, and we have a lot of athletes at our gym that just show up. They do class and then they go home and they're busy people or they have other lives, and that's totally fine. Yep. But I feel like when you, you can take advantage of the fact that most CrossFit gyms are a community and.

When you have like-minded friends that are focused on health, fitness, optimizing your performance, living your best life, why not take advantage of that? Mm-hmm. , these are people that have the same goals and mindset that you probably do, right? And when you get to know them, First of all, they might be very different in terms of walks of life.

I would never be able to meet the type of different people anywhere else. Right. Other than at this gym. Yeah. And that has broadened my life tremendously. So for me to be able to reach out to others, use them as resources, it is so amazing how many people at the gym have, have not just had personal relationships, but business relationships.

[00:34:15] David Syvertsen: That's a big one. Yeah.

[00:34:16] Sam Rhee: Yeah. And, and so think about if you're an existing person wanting to bring new people in, you would, you wanna bring new people in? Right. And if you're a new person, make that effort. Really. Some gyms are different than others, but, but you're, Dave, you're absolutely right.

Make that effort to really put yourself out there. Mm-hmm. . And you'll find, especially you've mentioned this after a wad when you're all sitting there just completely. Trash,

[00:34:42] David Syvertsen: uh, You can, but, but feeling the same way, but feeling

[00:34:44] Sam Rhee: Yes. Shared adversity. Yep. You can really get to know people well in a way that you might never after 10 years of work.

[00:34:52] David Syvertsen: Yeah, that's so true. I mean, it's so true and, and I think just the way the world is right now, it's just very volatile and people hate each other because it's a politics or social media or both. Right. I do think that the CrossFit, for the most part, it's a pretty safe space and there's a different, I mean, I had Marissa, Eliza come up to me after.

It was after a 6:00 AM class, I think it was. She goes, I'm amazed at like the energy, the positive energy that you like is so early in the morning, there's 20 people here. High fives, like, Where do you get this? And like, she's like, Nowhere on the face of the earth do you get this? Like, no gym does this right.

And I'm like, It's so true. Like how many people wake up and they just go through their routine, They have their waffles, they watch the news, they probably get angry watching the news, and then they go to work, they punch the clock, they punch out, they come home, maybe they go to the gym on the elliptical.

Like, there are people that have like their heart rate spike, their endorphins running so high that it actually carries over for the rest of the day. I just had a new guy come back that's been gone for a couple years and he came back and he's, he's in, he's I think in week three, right? And he says the, the difference in his day on the days he gets to come in and work out it's tenfold.

Andrew? Yeah. . And he's probably not listening to this, so, but he, he just said it and we had a good conversation about it last night. It's, it's amazing how it can do, what it can do to set up the rest of the day. And I'm telling you, it's not just the workout, it's the coming in and seeing the people. It's the positive energy that you have.

It's a really unique environment. But you almost have to kind of appreciate it, respect it, and want to contribute to it if you really wanna reap the rewards, right? It can't just be a take. It's gotta be a give. And I think even a bunch of people in that mindset, it, it makes it all that much better. Partner workouts, right?

Again, not every gym does this. We do 'em every Saturday. We do them on holidays. We have a couple of those coming up, all right, with Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's, right? Those are a really cool opportunity to meet some people. And we've talked about, we've had an episode on partner workouts, I believe, right?

And we, we want to make sure that you guys know, especially new people at bison, that when you sign up for a partner workout, You don't need to sign up with a partner. We make the partners. And it's based on ability level, talent level, partially, but more about your personality and how new are you to the CrossFit.

Right. And we know people in this gym so well that we know like, Hey, you're a new person, but you would pair really well at that person because I've known that person for six years and you guys are very much alike. You have kids in the same age, blah, blah, blah. Right. And that is, I'm, I'm telling you that.

Matchmaking that we've done on Saturdays has created a ton of bonds that I'm not even sure they realize that, hey, the first time they really got to know each other was at a partner workout. I, I'm looking at some of these friendships in the gym, like they don't even remember the first time they talked to each other.

Was a Saturday in April, six years ago on, on a partner workout. Thoughts on that? If you're

[00:37:41] Sam Rhee: a control freak, you don't like Saturday . You don't like Saturdays because if you control every other aspect of your. and then you don't know who you get to partner up with on Saturday. There's a lot of fear. We've talked about this.

I'm gonna be paired up with a monster or I'm gonna be paired up with someone who stinks and and I'm not going to get my workout in. Right. I am one of those control type people and it's always been a challenge for me on Saturdays. Mm-hmm. . I will say my advice. Try giving up a little bit of that control.

Mm-hmm. and see what happens. Right. If you don't like it and you continually hate it, okay, that's your personality, that's totally fine. But I have found every time I've done it And given up a little bit of control afterwards. I'm like, that made me a better person. Right? Yeah. Especially if I'm paired up with Adam Hawkinson and he beats the living crap out of me.

I was a better person for it. Yeah, and, and I know that doing that is very scary. It's

[00:38:36] David Syvertsen: good to be on both sides though. It's good to come in and work with someone that's fast than you and it pushes you like. Probably faster than you want it to go because you've been on the other side of it before you've been paired up, someone's been paired up with you and be like, Man, like Sam's a beast.

Like I don't wanna be with him. But the fact that you've been on both sides, it should help you in both situations kind of understand what's really truly going on. Absolutely. Yeah. So yeah, I really would highly suggest you guys. Some of you new guys, try to get to a Saturday workout partner up and just, it might open up a new door to you with people, but also yourself as a workout.

Just a couple left here diving into some CrossFit material and content on your own. When I started CrossFit, okay. We, we did not get to workouts until the day of. So I would, I would go to work, I would wake up and go look at the workout of the day on the website and then know that I was going at night, and then I would see what movements in, and then at work I would go on YouTube.

What is a thruster, what is a power clean? And I would just read and watch as many videos. That's what I, I really started getting to watching like froning work out because every, I feel like he was on every single CrossFit video there was back then. And that actually probably taught me as much as coaches taught me, no offense to coaches, it was just, The time spent on it, it was, you hours of work in a, in a week of just trying to dive into, Right.

How do I get better at the Kip? Right. You have a lot of people that come in like, how do I get better at doubles? And I don't want say this to 'em, but like it's, a, it's a hard thing to coach and we'll do our best, but they're gonna have, you're gonna have to do some shit on your own. Because there aren't template answers and there's a lot of content out there now that if you really want to get better at your Kip, if you can't figure out the bar muscle up, I wanna see a log of how much time you spent on it outside the gym.

Because if you're only coming to the gym and working on it, your results will be there. It's just gonna take longer to get there. And I think di there's so much quality material out there now that, that, that's a sign to me that someone's really gonna. Go far with this thing is on their own. They're trying to learn a little bit.

We

[00:40:28] Sam Rhee: have athletes that have never done any kind of studying or work on their progress outside the gym, and that's, that's fine. Yep. We not judging right. Our we are, but that's okay. We're glad that they're coming in and they're fitnessing with us. If you care about your fitness, it's so easy.

It's easier now than it ever has been. I follow maybe about eight or nine sort of teaching social media accounts like Squat University or, or any of these other types of lift accounts. Mm-hmm. and I am just constantly watching movements. Yeah. Where before in the old days, Yeah. You had to go to YouTube and type in power clean.

Right. And then, And I would be sitting at my desk, like practicing my, my, my, my pretend barbell. Yeah. Now, even if, like, think about it, if you're so busy, maybe you're a rocket scientist, you're like, I can't even spend time looking at anything or learning anything fine. Yeah. But if you're sitting there surfing the inner webs and looking at Facebook and Instagram, yeah.

You can probably take five or 10 minutes and you, like I said, you can literally follow people. Right. And just watch what they're doing. Yeah. And think about it. It's pretty

[00:41:39] David Syvertsen: painless and it's just watching people work. It doesn't even need to be like an a boring instructional video. Like if you just watch quality athletes work out, like on their, a lot of people post, stories of their workouts or videos of the workouts.

You can pick up so many things, but if you really just pay attention, like I'll watch people on Instagram do burpees. I'm like, All right, how do they do this? Okay, so they, Okay, I wonder if that would work for me next. So I'm gonna try that next, like something stupid like that. You can easily do it. You're not investing any money.

That much time right into it. I, I think it would help a lot. So just to like, sum that up, try to dive into CrossFit content as best you can, and I think it would help you a lot in your workouts. The next two, I, I think I'm gonna try to blend these together. It's in, it's, it's the bullet points are injury talk and what we, what we wish we knew personally.

All right. And this is like a very common line, right? And we, it doesn't only have to be about injuries, but. The truth is with CrossFit, right? Is it's a really high intensity, high performance, high output exercise program, right? And because you're doing that in a competitive environment with a lot of people, and we have a lot of A type personalities who are just such go-getters and they wanna get the most out of themselves and they really wanna push, right?

Injuries creep up at some point. And it's something Sam said a long time ago. Don't know if he remembers, but I remember it sticks with me. It's like we shouldn't run away from it. Right? Like CrossFit coaches and box owners. Right? You gotta take that shit head on. And talk about it when you get hurt, what should you do?

How do you avoid, get hurt? Do, can you avoid getting hurt? Right? Is it possible to do that? Like I compare this to a sport more than I do a fitness program. And even if you're not in the sport and it's because of the intensity and the, the, the creeping up of chasing after scores and times, and people in some cases, how does a beginner.

Avoid as best as possible getting injured. And how could you take your experience as an early CrossFitter Man? If I didn't do this or if I did do this, I would've been in a better spot.

[00:43:44] Sam Rhee: I don't know if I would actually take back most of my injuries. Yeah. Because I really had to learn a lot for sure.

From them. Uhhuh, , and. No, I'm, I'm alright with what I did. I was stupid a bunch of

[00:43:55] David Syvertsen: times. What was stupid? Was it just working out too

[00:43:58] Sam Rhee: often? So, So telling a beginner don't be stupid is probably like really hard cuz I was stupid. We're all stupid when we start, but that's,

[00:44:04] David Syvertsen: Yeah, I mean, again, that's what parenting is, right?

Like what mistakes does Sam make growing up? I'm gonna try to make sure my kids don't make those mistakes. That's kind of what we're getting at. Right? So

[00:44:12] Sam Rhee: tell me your biggest mistake you made when

[00:44:14] David Syvertsen: you. Started. So I, I never spent any time post-workout, pre-workout really mobilizing and stretching and really putting emphasis unless the coach did in the class that I was in, but in the sessions that I did on my own.

And I still, to this day, it's still not a consistent strength of mine, and it's more because I'm busy, but, The, the proper way to cool down from a workout, getting on a bike, getting on a rower, going for a walk, stretching, mobilizing, rolling out, Like today I'm gonna go home and, and Norma check my legs for, for about 40 minutes.

Right? Like those kinds of things I never did back then that in combina. So I was just less mobile and that put me into some bad positions when I was lifting heavy. And then that led to some of the injuries, right? The, but I also, Always felt like I had to, satisfy the week by, or satisfy the day by go crushing a workout, even though I knew I wasn't feeling.

Like I had a calf killes issues for about two and a half years. And it was because I was doing so much volume, but I knew that even though something was gonna bother it, running, jumping, running, deep, squatting, I still did it because I was like, Hey, I gotta get this training session in because I'm competing in two months and I have to do it.

And those are things that actually set me back for a longer amount of time and, and impeded my training for a long time. So I think when your body's starting to tell you something, you have to be really disciplined and listen to it.

[00:45:33] Sam Rhee: When you're a beginner, it's very hard to balance. Safety and intensity.

Mm-hmm. , we always have that thing about form consistency, intensity. Right, Right. And some beginners always get hitched up and they're too conservative and they're, they never actually get to the intensity part of things. And then some beginners blow through the form and consistency and then they're just like max intensity all the time.

Right. Right. It's really hard to be able to tell a beginner this is the right balance of where you can be intense and not. Mm-hmm. , some of that is what I had to learn on my own. Mm-hmm. , I think the biggest thing was I didn't listen to my body. When I needed to. Right. So if my elbow started to get a little sore, Nick Squire's so good at this, his shoulder's not feeling perfect.

Yeah. He will scale back. Yep. He will modify. And this is a guy who's one of the best athletes in our gym. No question. And I will see him literally be like, All right, I'm I, my, I can't feel it in my shoulder. Yeah. I'm switching to leg. And he'll still come, He'll no. He'll come regularly all the time, but, but he is so good at listening to his body, and if I had sat there and said, Oh, my, my elbow's feeling a little sore, right?

I'm gonna switch. I'm not stopping. Right. I'm switching. Right. That would've probably helped me about. 10 times during my beginner career for

[00:46:53] David Syvertsen: sure. Yeah. So, yeah, like take that from us, that if something's aching on a body or it doesn't feel right, like, we'll, the coach can easily change up the workout.

We do it every single day, guys. It's like, it's not, not, it's not selfish of you to ask us. It's not annoying for you to ask us. We do it every single day. We will change. I've been changing workouts for Lori Rogers for, for. Two months now, right? Shoulder and it's, and it's no problem, right? Like, it's part of my job and if I don't want to do it, that's a bad job by me, right?

Like that's what, that's the athlete's perspective is if the coach is gonna get annoyed by it, it's a bad coach, right? And I, so I, I think that the injury talk right, really stems away from. Release kind of comes down to listening to your body, right? And knowing that there's nothing wrong with having to change a part of a workout and don't be short-term greedy with it.

Like, I really want today's score, like that short-term greed, and it's gonna be long-term pain, and that that's, save your bullets. To quote John Hartman is if you really wanna. Go all out and kind of play through pain. That's fine. Save it for your comp, save it for a big workout down the road at some point.

Save it for the open, save it for the quarter finals, whatever you're shooting for. Then at that point I say, Yeah, play a little risk game, but a normal random wad when something's been bothering for your long time it's irresponsible to to, to ignore the pain. And you're not soft if you change up the workouts.

Right. I promise. So the, the way I'm gonna wrap this up, guys, is I hope that if you start CrossFit this, this whole thing could help you out. We actually went a little bit longer than I thought it would and we probably could have made this even longer. But if you want just like a quick summary on what to do if you're new.

Don't overtrain. Alright. This program is really hard. It's always going to be hard, right? It's never gonna be to the point where, Oh, I got my handstand pushups. Like, these workouts are gonna be easy. Like, if anything, it's probably gonna get harder as you get deeper into cross, to be honest with you. And that's not why you're here.

You're not here for easy. It won't work if you are. If you wanna hear for easy, you gotta go somewhere else. Focus on your conditioning, your strength from a macro perspective. Get the right equipment that's gonna help you, help your experience out and, and kind of keep you in the game a little bit longer and, and feel comfortable when you're working out, or safe, I should say.

When you're working out, you're never gonna feel comfortable. And I would say the last thing is just be as coachable as possible, Season one. Episode five. Alright, season one, episode five. We did an episode on How to be Coachable. It was with Coach Adam Ramson. It was one of my favorite ones. I've listened to it actually a couple times and I've pointed a few other people in that direction to listen to it.

And. That is being on time and being on time for CrossFit classes is you should be in the door five minutes before class starts at the latest. All right? I know that's not doable for some of you guys, but if it is doable and only you know if it is doable, right? You gotta get here early by five minutes, not asking for anything more than that.

It's gonna help you out. And the most important part of class is the whiteboard talk, and then it comes the workout, right? The whiteboard talk is where you can really learn a lot. CrossFit, the workouts, the methodology, and how it's gonna help you and your approach. Sam, any

[00:49:35] Sam Rhee: closing thoughts? Yeah, it, I know we have a lot of serious stuff about this, but the reason why we do CrossFit is because we love it.

For sure. And if you're a beginner, I think you're gonna love it too. Pat Sherwood has always said, and I try to remember this, the goal is to get fit. Make it the best hour of your day. Stay safe. Turn up the music high five someone and blow off some steam. So remember that. Relax. Have fun. Yeah,

[00:49:55] David Syvertsen: have fun. I mean, I, every day I do a workout, I say right before I do the, the 10 countdown from 10, I'm like, All right guys, here we go.

Have fun. 10 seconds. Right. And I get made fun of her sometimes. But that's important, right? This, this, this stuff should be fun. And it can be, if your mind's in the right place and if we, we lined a few ducks up for you. If you just follow them as as much as possible, it will lead to higher level of fitness.

It will lead to more fun and probably some strong relationships. All right. Thanks guys. We'll see you next week.