S03E120 Q&A 4 - The Continual Challenge of CrossFit, Motivation, and Mindful Breaks

Ever wondered why CrossFit never seems to get easier no matter how long you've been practicing? Well, we’re here to tell you it’s not just you. Coaches David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic are back to answer listeners' questions in our fourth Q&A session.

We discuss the complexities of CrossFit, but also the aspects that do become more manageable over time, such as understanding the lingo and knowing your body better. Plus, we explore the significant role that coaches can play in assisting new athletes to comprehend workouts and CrossFit lingo.

Staying motivated in CrossFit can be quite a challenge, but we’re here to share some gems on how to keep that fire burning. From participating in local competitions to mingling with fellow CrossFit enthusiasts, we share our experiences and strategies to maintain motivation and avoid burnout.

Additionally, we dive into the concept of muscle efficiency in workouts and how to train for increased conditioning and capacity. We also discuss why the stakes need to be high for you to push beyond your limits and go 'really dark'.

Sometimes, taking a break from CrossFit can do more good than harm. We discuss when and how to responsibly take a break from the sport. We underline the importance of listening to your body and taking time to identify the causes of mental fatigue. It’s also important to note that while CrossFit is a significant part of our lives, we should not identify ourselves solely with it. Join us as we discuss how to maintain a positive mindset even during breaks, and the benefits of taking a step back to appreciate the performance aspect of the sport.

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00:00:05 When Does CrossFit Get Easier?

00:07:21 Finding Motivation and Efficiency in CrossFit

00:13:54 Improve Muscle Efficiency in Workouts

00:23:40 Benefits of Taking Break From CrossFit

00:33:42 Challenges of Taking a CrossFit Break

S03E120 LISTENERS QUESTION AND ANSWER 4

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: Alright welcome back to the HerdFit Podcast. I am Coach David Syvertsen, I'm here with my co host Dr. and Coach Sam Rhee, and We are back with another HerdFit podcast Q& A. Um, I am starting to run out of questions, so I might put another post out there. Or if you guys are listening to this right now, just know that I want to keep doing these every few months.

Um, because I think you guys have a lot of topics that are worth talking about. We don't need to spend 45 minutes on it. But, uh, if you have a question, or just want some advice, or just want something to be discussed, I'm sure others do as well. And, looking back on, on some of our, you know, downloads throughout our history, these always get a ton of attention.

And, because I think they, they come from you guys. So, uh, keep throwing them, you can send them to me personally, you can send them to our Instagram, and we will eventually get to them. So we have three questions today. And, the first one actually made me laugh, and I kind of just like, you know, swiped off, or...

Went on to the next one, and then as I'm coaching, a lot of times these thoughts come to me as I'm coaching just around the environment, around the community. I think this is a really valid question that a lot of people need the answer to. And it's very simple. It goes, When does CrossFit get easier? And, um, yeah, I want to talk about that because, again, I laughed.

And it was a newer person, uh, someone that started in the last six months. Um, he's coming in every day, he's working his ass off. Always looks like he's just like in that pain cave every time and he's just it's hard work. It's hard. It's really high It's not very efficient yet. But he he's made a lot of progress over the past few months and That's something that I think a lot of people when they're in CrossFit for a year are still thinking at some point This is gonna get easier.

It's gonna get smoother. I'm eventually gonna get that muscle up. So now the workouts will be easier I'm not gonna have to do all the banded pull ups and the ring rows at some point Sam, what's your initial answer to that question?

[00:01:58] Sam Rhee: I think most people who are listening to this, if you hear that, and you've cross fitted for a while, you laugh out loud, and you're like, Sucka, it never gets easier!

That was my initial reaction, and then I realized, you know, that's not, a nuanced answer would be... There are certain things that you get more experienced with, certain things that you get used to or know what to expect. Uh, but, yeah, definitely the easier part never happens. I will say every Open, I'm scared crapless by workouts.

I, every workout, every day, I sit there before the workout starts and the 3 2 1 goes and I'm like, what the F am I doing? Like, that happens. And I've, I've, I've been crossfitting for almost nine, like eight, nine years now, so, but that's why we crossfit. If it got easier, why would you do it? Yeah. Like, that's not why we do this.

We're doing this because it's still a challenge. Now, are there certain movements I feel more comfortable with? Absolutely. Are there certain things that I know more in terms of working out and, and sort of navigating and figuring out how to perform better? Absolutely, but, but that just means you get on to the next challenge, like, if you figure out bar muscle ups, you gotta figure out ring muscle ups, if you figure out ring muscle ups, you gotta do handstand walks, you gotta do this, you gotta, like, there's an endless cycle of stuff that you need to work on, but that, again, is both the frustration and the beauty of CrossFit.

[00:03:27] David Syvertsen: Exactly. Yeah, I always feel like if, if you feel like it's a lot easier than it used to be... You probably have missed something. You're, you're probably not doing something that you should be doing, uh, but I, I do want to actually start off with a couple answers of what does get easier. There are some things that do get easier with CrossFit, and it's more the mental component.

You touched on it, what to expect. I mean, I, Empathize with crossfitters that come in and it's a lingo. They're just always like, wait, what's the thruster? What's the hang squat clean weight with a pack the split shirt? We what that that takes a long time You know, I know when I do my beginner sessions, we're constantly going over.

I always tell people don't worry about the lingo You're not gonna memorize it. You're not gonna get tested on it and a good coach at a good gym We'll always either demo movements or really explain them Yes But then

[00:04:16] Sam Rhee: if single time these are the athletes that like there was someone at the gym last week And the athlete was like, wait, which one's the clean?

Is it this one? Like this? Not this one? And I was like, yes, it's the one where you lift the barbell up, not, not, not the one where you're pressing it out like this. So, so yes, they don't know the lingo, but then it gets

[00:04:34] David Syvertsen: like kind of crazy. Yeah. And there's just so many movements too, but, and there's so many variations and then you throw a dumbbell in there.

Right. I mean, we have a dumbbell snatch workout, dumbbell clean and jerk this week. And. You know, I understand that that can be really overwhelming at the start. In my opinion, that does get easier in time. Um, and also knowing yourself as an athlete gets easier. Um, you know, there's so many athletes that come in here, they don't know, when we talk about 90%, 80%, 60%, you know, 10 touch and go reps, they don't know what to do, and you really have to help them out.

A coach's job is really, you have to kind of bias yourself towards someone that's new. Because they have no idea where to start. Like, you're, you're coaching our strength day this week with the push press, pause squats, front squats, and you know, experienced CrossFitters, because it got easier, because they know where they're at with most lifts, at least generally speaking, you know, it's easy for them to come up with their weights for the day, to get the most out of that workout.

Someone that's new, that doesn't even know how to hold a front rack yet, like, they don't know what weight to do, they don't know what's, what are the dangers of pushing too much, but they also don't want to come in and not work hard. So, I do think that component gets easier as you go, just the experience factor.

Um, but let's talk about a couple of things that get harder. And, uh, to me, what gets harder really does revolve around the mindset of the motivation, the discipline, the ego checking, the trying to avoid comparing yourself to others, or even comparing yourself to what you used to be able to do. You know, I don't want to break the person's bubble that asks this question, but that actually gets harder and harder, and I see it as a coach, as an athlete.

Uh, all the time.

[00:06:08] Sam Rhee: Absolutely. I think the first six months to a year, you're making a, you're learning a lot. You're making a lot of progress. Typically, you're, you're increasing your strength, your, your, you know, your times are dropping. You know, you went from a 10 pound wall ball to a 14 pound wall ball up to a 20, like whatever it is, like you are making a lot of progression.

And then at some point you start like that, that improvement slows down. Tremendously. And it actually might regress in some ways. Absolutely. And so, you know, we're getting older, like it, it kind of sucks at this point when I look back at some of my performances five years ago and I said, wow, I, there, there's no way I can touch that right now.

Been there. Yeah. And so when, when you get to that point, it's not easier, it's definitely harder. Mm-hmm. , uh, you know, that's where you have to take away the wins where you can, one, once you have that experience, And you are a relatively good crossfitter, um, in terms of some of the movements that you learn and all that.

And I see this every day with a lot of our athletes. Like,

[00:07:10] David Syvertsen: they

[00:07:12] Sam Rhee: are so good at pushing themselves. The burnout factor is, is also a possible when you, you don't, when you get discouraged about what kind of progress you're making. When you're starting... You're making tremendous

[00:07:28] David Syvertsen: progress. That's right, you hit a PR every pre Basically every time you lift, you're just hitting a new PR.

It annoys

[00:07:33] Sam Rhee: me as an experienced crossfader when I see a really good young crossfader, like early experienced crossfader, I'm like Yeah. Damn. Like, man, like Seventh PR of the month? Dude, that, like, oh, you picked up double unders in like, two weeks? Oh, it only took me like, six months. Like, I hate that, but I also like it like, when I watch him, and so You know, once you stop getting that kind of dopamine rush from all of the pluses and all the improvements that you're making, you got to find other ways of scratching that itch and making sure that you're engaged.

And, and that's where we've talked about, like, local competitions or, you know, other ways of, you know, being social and working out with people or. I just saw the legends, like, all of these people doing the qualifiers, like, these people are very experienced CrossFitters. They all killed themselves on this stuff, and they, they got tremendous benefit, um, from doing that.

And that, that, was that easier? That was not easy.

[00:08:27] David Syvertsen: Yeah. No. I mean, when you are really trying to push against the threshold that you've already really pushed hard and achieved things on, you know, the classic, classic CrossFit equation is... Doing more work in a short amount of time. I mean,

[00:08:41] Sam Rhee: what do you find easier or what do you find easier or

[00:08:44] David Syvertsen: harder for yourself personally?

So it's kind of, I'm trying to find a way in my head right now because we just really haven't even talked about these questions and we're kind of doing this off the cuff but the One thing that I feel is harder now than it used to be, and we can come up with every excuse under the sun, is on certain workouts knowing that you have to go into a pain cave to do your version of Will.

Yeah, that dark place. I've done a couple for the Legends qualifiers, and one of them was yesterday. The Burpee Box Jump, Shoulder to Overhead, and the other one was the Cow Row Burpee one. Like, those to me were just like really high effort. Workouts, and I know, I actually, I didn't tell anyone this yesterday, but I almost, uh, did not do the workout yesterday.

Oh, really? Because I was, I, I didn't feel right. I felt, uh, but I think it was nerves. Why was I nervous? It was a very simple workout. I know, I knew it was gonna be pretty quick. It wasn't heavy, it wasn't high skill, my specialty. Um, why did I not want to do it? And it's because I had this expectation for myself.

That I had to be sub this. And... And I knew that I could get there, but I had to go through a lot of pain. And when I say pain, I mean like just discomfort, not, not injury. Right. Right? That, to me, it's a lot harder to just keep doing that over and over again. I'm in year number 12 of CrossFit now. And I, you know me, like I've done, I've put myself through the blender several, like, I have a reputation with some people that I can really go dark.

And I actually feel like I... Don't go dark as often as you

[00:10:12] Sam Rhee: used to. I've never seen someone go as dark, as hard as you have. Well, maybe one or two people in the gym, but that's it. So

[00:10:18] David Syvertsen: I feel like I've hit the peak there. But, um, now I want to flip, so it's harder for me to start doing that now. Like, I used to be like, let's go, I can't wait to go dark.

Now I'm like, I don't want to. You know? What's getting easier for me now though, and I hope the person that sent this can get something out of it, and this is gonna take a long time, but, again, learn from our mistakes, let the coaches tell their experiences to you guys. That I have gotten so much better at knowing what I can and cannot do pacing last week's episode reps per minute I did that for every single Legends qualifier.

Sometimes it really works. Well, sometimes it's like, ah, you know Maybe I overshot it or undershot it but the two workouts that I was man. This is gonna be pancake workout I was very happy with my time. I beat my times that I wanted to because I started slower I I really avoided the redline stage until like the end of the workout where you just have to push through And it got easier, like these workouts have gotten easier for me because I start slower and faster and I really have taken into, it's not just trying harder that makes it a good workout, it's being smarter about it.

So to me, pacing workouts has become easier, so the person that asked this, I think that if you really can get into, Some of the deeper level components of CrossFit training. I think the work doesn't get easier, but how you feel It's a lot smoother of a path to get

[00:11:38] Sam Rhee: there. Absolutely. I used to redline all the time when I first started I just didn't have the capacity to sort of or figure it out and that takes time.

I didn't know my body, right? You're right though At this point, it takes a lot for me, the stakes have to be super high for me to go really dark, and it doesn't happen very often. I mean, it happens during the open, maybe, not even all the time, but some of the time. And then maybe in quarters occasionally, but like, and then in the past it was like comps and stuff like that.

But, but boy, like you keep touching, you keep flying that close to the sun. You don't want to go there. Yeah, I know. Like, it's that just like, you know, you have to do one more and you. But do you really want to do it? I know. And the stakes have to be, like, at this point, very high. It's something. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, I'm not just doing it just because I want a nice score on the whiteboard anymore. Yeah. Like, that's not

[00:12:29] David Syvertsen: happening. So just to sum up the answer to that question, um, It's not going to get easier, um, because CrossFit is designed to be intense and difficult, right? And we do, we think that the most rewards you're going to get in life in general come from going through some discomfort and getting that reward at the end.

But what does get easier, especially in an established gym with good coaching and just good people around, is that there are more efficient paths to getting there. And that we just didn't know much about five, 10 years ago. And I think just with the amount of quality coaching out there, not just here at Bison, but out there as well, just because the education has gotten a lot better, and CrossFit's doing a really good job with that right now, um, that your, your path to that end point could be a lot smoother than what a lot of us had to do over the past 10 years.

And

[00:13:15] Sam Rhee: if you're an experienced CrossFitter, and you don't have that spark maybe as you did when you first started, you also, like Dan Dodd said last week, you gotta find your why. Yep. You gotta, you know, find a new challenge. You gotta, you gotta spark it up a little bit. And I think that that's also very important, uh, as you go along your CrossFit

[00:13:31] David Syvertsen: journey.

All right, second question. Um, I just want to make sure I read this one correct. I want to read this word for word. I think it might be worded a little weird. All right. I haven't, I don't know these other two questions. Yeah, Sam doesn't know. We'll see. I am plenty strong, but how do I improve my muscle stamina slash ability to move medium weights longer?

There are girls I am much stronger than that, but they can do much bigger sets than I can, but I outlift them on strength days. So this is all you. This, this is like a,

[00:14:00] Sam Rhee: like a right down your alley

[00:14:03] David Syvertsen: story. I say I'm not strong. No,

[00:14:05] Sam Rhee: no, like as a coach. Yeah, like this, this is. Like the easy, not the easiest, but like a

[00:14:10] David Syvertsen: softball question for you.

Yeah, I think so. Um, I mean, you probably could do an episode on this, but I just want everyone to be on the same page. What the question is asking is why do people weaker than you lift better than you in workouts? And there are a lot of answers to this, and I'm going to probably touch on two of them that I think are the most prevalent.

One of them is this, the quality of the movement. You can get away with a really inefficient, maybe even borderline poor technique lift, on most lifts, not all, if it's one rep. You know, because the inefficiency doesn't catch up to you. It's just one rep and you're done. Right? Or a set of three and you're done.

If you have a workout that has 30, reps, and it's a clean and jerk, a snatch, a thruster, and all those movements are inefficient, I say this in my classes all the time, you're doing more work than other people because you're inefficient. Shoulder to overhead, the one thing that I really tried to coach hard this past week was the shoulder to overhead burpee box jump workout, 9 12 15.

Alright, so an ascending workout where you end with a set of 15 shoulder to overheads after doing a lot of work. And I said how well you move on the sets of 9 will dictate how you do on the set of 15. And I really spent a lot of time on hinging the elbow. Getting the bar to land on your front rack, so it's sitting on your shoulders, you're not holding it, right?

Because think about this, a somewhat heavy barbell coming down with inertia, if you don't have a front rack, your entire upper body, arms, wrists, hands need to stop the inertia before you push it back up. If you have a good front rack, if you're really skillful, if you have good technique at landing it on the front rack, you actually can relax for a second.

Before you launch it back up, you know, set of nines, it's irrelevant, but when you get to the set of 12 and 15, if you've worked harder than other people that are not as strong as you, guess who's going to flame out first? It's the stronger athlete, and you can apply that to every single movement. Take the weightlifting out if you want, but this person is a weightlifting biased person that the lifting that raw, there's a huge difference between raw strength.

And workout strength. And you can get into some conditioning components, but what's your initial thought on just the technique and the efficiency adding up to being able to do more work?

[00:16:24] Sam Rhee: Absolutely. I see people who first are incredibly strong, but their technique is poor, and it's so much harder. If you are not accelerating that bar...

properly. If you're not, you know, uh, if you're, if you're one tempo the whole way on a clean, that is so much harder than getting to that, uh, you know, barbell to your hips and then accelerating through. If you can't figure out how to Uh, accelerate your body at certain times and move properly. It's incredibly inefficient.

It's like doing a pull up and like going super slow versus moving really quickly. How efficient can you go if you could actually move fast as opposed to going super slow? I just did the tempo front squats from last week and oh my god, that's crazy bad. But you know what? That's so much more inefficient than just doing

[00:17:18] David Syvertsen: a regular front squat.

It's strengthening your positions. Right. You know, we just got done talking about positions, your technique, like you, it's not just squatting that you're getting stronger at when you're doing the tempo stuff. It's improving your positions that when you do squat, you're more efficient. Technique

[00:17:33] Sam Rhee: is, uh, if you look at the great athletes, you know, the efficiency makes a huge

[00:17:38] David Syvertsen: difference in their performance.

And the second answer to this is kind of obvious, but it's, you know, there's a conditioning component to a lot of this stuff and capacity and how do I train conditioning? How do I train capacity? We've talked about that a lot. I'm sure we'll talk about it more in the future. But again, if you're a strong athlete, That is struggling in a workout, but let's say like you do Grace and Pull Ups and then Isabel, right?

So you do 30 Clean Jerks, 30 95 Rx. That should be a good workout for someone that's strong. But if your capacity is not there, if your conditioning is not there, It probably is a very simple, you don't train those hard enough, right? We see this all the time. The lifters are always coming in on lifting day.

They're pumped up and they're happy, but on burpee pull up day, they're like, eh, I'll take today off. Or I'm just not as fired up to work on it today. And that can add up. You know, we, I think your mindset when you train, whether it's a good day or bad day, I'll throw the challenge at you, the challenge to you, the mindset on a day where you don't love the workout because it's not your best workouts, those are the days where you'll make your biggest gains.

This

[00:18:41] Sam Rhee: is a complete Henshaw answer, and I just listened to him again, uh, I think it was on Beyond the Whiteboard, and it's so classic. So let's suppose you can bench press like 300 pounds, but you can't do like 20 pushups. Well, what is the issue? The issue isn't your strength, it's your recovery and your aerobic capacity.

So a lot of that is being able to train your muscles. to function fatigued. Right. Uh, so he talks about recovery. And then like you have this lactic acid that's building up and you have to train your body to use that lactic acid and use it as fuel while it's fatigued in order to keep going. So that's what all the periodization is.

That's all the recovery stuff. That's what we've talked about in the past about, listen, don't just sit there and do nothing after you do a really hard workout, you know, work the downside of that. Um, recovery curve, get your body used to moving, still moving while you're fatigued, so that you can keep going.

So these people who are not as strong as you, but can continue to go more, their, their muscle fibers are continuing to process this waste product and use it as energy while your body is just like shutting down, shutting down. Yeah. So, you know, mindful training, it is mindful training to build that aerobic capacity.

And, uh... I would say Hinshaw is the master, the master about, um, trying to, to manage that.

[00:20:08] David Syvertsen: Absolutely. Yeah, if there's one little thing that I, you know, we can go on to the next question after this, but one little thing, if you're looking to build capacity, um, without, you know, spending hours and hours in the gym, because yes, training volume will help, and as, if you can handle it, is be mindful of what you do immediately after you work out.

Now, I don't want every single athlete going back to the bike. Yeah. The second they get done with a set of squats, they can recover. But I do think there's some value in what you do for the last five to ten minutes, if you have time, alright? I know a lot of you guys have to get in and out and I do too sometimes in the morning But if you have time to literally just go for a walk or do some air squats, do some push ups, some burpees Yes, hop on a bike, hop on a rower to help get that body back If your body's gonna be so used to work hard, work hard, work hard, crash on the floor and just lay there Your muscles are not being trained to clear that fatigue And remember, we've, we've done so many episodes on this and we've had Hinshaw Ahan himself talking about the inability to clear fatigue is usually the separator between good and great.

So even if you're not trying to get to great, if you're trying to get from bad to good or from average to good, whatever you consider yourself at your next level, let's say, if you want to get to your next level, you're going to have to get better at clearing that fatigue. And a lot of times your biggest opportunity to work on clearing fatigue is what you do immediately after your workout.

I know a lot of us just want to lay down on the, on the ground next to the fan and, and, and be proud and, and be tired and get our breath back. That's fine. But at some point, get up and at least go for a walk. A little jog. I'm telling you right now, if we made people do that in the gym, their fitness level would get higher.

It

[00:21:41] Sam Rhee: just reminds me of that Hinshaw thing where he talked about Matt Fraser on our podcast where he was like, I can do X number of these. So he would have, uh, was it push press or something? And then he said after he did his max number, he would have them take a PVC pipe Spencer Handel and strict handstand pushups.

Oh, yes. And then just keep That motion going, and then he was learning how to clear fatigue after he maxed out, and then he would progressively add more weight, and then, and then his, and then that's how he was able to, uh, increase his aerobic capacity. I've

[00:22:11] David Syvertsen: used that exact template for a couple people, Jim.

Like with handstand pushups and without a doubt, it helped, you know, again, it's, it's one thing to do interval work and just sit there fine. Not, not bad, not bad at all, but there is something you could do during that rest period to improve your ability to recover. And if your ability to recover improves, you're going to have higher capacity.

All right. Last one, we've actually done an episode on this, but. Um, little refresher, slash, there's a little different flavor to it. Do you ever, do you, and we just talked to Dan about this last week, do you ever take a break from CrossFit? Is it smart to? How do I push through, and when should I know to take a step back?

And, ironically, I think even like right now, like Sam has a banged up shoulder right now, and he's gotta change a few things, and we He's said it himself. He's got, he might have to take a little step back for, you know, X amount of time. I mean, you can't always put a timeline on it, but he's really got to go back to some crossover symmetry work and just building some muscle and mobility and stability.

You know, I have another person right now that's taking a break right now because their shoulder's been banged up as well. He's had two shoulder surgeries and he's just like, it's getting really banged up. I need to like really take a step back, crossover symmetry, get treatment. I took a step back when I injured my knee at Legends and Um, really, I was upset.

I was probably six, eight weeks of just not being involved in anything at the gym, you know, like, other than coaching and limping around. You know, I don't know if you would constitute that as a break, but there's a few different angles you could take this on, and I don't want to get repetitive from what we have talked about in the past.

But, is there a benefit, Sam, to literally canceling or putting your membership on hold, not coming in this place for X amount of months, let's say three months?

[00:23:58] Sam Rhee: I think it depends on what the underlying factor is. So for me right now, it's a force, it's almost a mandatory break that I, I have to take. If you're talking about, if you're a listener who's healthy, burnt out mentally, then taking a break absolutely can be helpful. And I actually know a few athletes at, at Bison who, have decided to, for a little while, like, just work out at home, or go to a globo gym and do some other stuff for a little while, and then come back.

Like, those are all totally fine, and sometimes necessary, if you feel like... Like, your emotional state when you come into the gym should be of, like, I mean, anticipation or at least generally

[00:24:41] David Syvertsen: positive. Yeah, absolutely, 100%. Yeah, I mean, listen,

[00:24:44] Sam Rhee: I, I, sometimes I'm grumbling when I come into the gym because I'm like, ah, this workout's gonna suck.

But, honestly, generally, my, my mindset is positive. And if I truly felt negative when I thought about coming into the gym, then I would have to say, alright, I need to figure out why that is. If there is some reason why I need to address that in my own head, if I'm perfectly healthy, everything is fine with me physically, but there is some sort of mental hitch, yes, figure it out.

Take that break. Do whatever it is that you need to do to, to get your mind right. Because every day that I do come in, it is a joy. It is literally a joy no

[00:25:25] David Syvertsen: matter what I'm doing. That's a privilege. Yeah. I hate to sound like that guy, but it is a privilege. Yeah. And so

[00:25:29] Sam Rhee: if, if you're not feeling that, then you need to, to self evaluate now.

If, if. Like, for example, for me right now, I, the issue with my shoulder is that I really, I had, uh, like, uh, this is stupid, I'll go into it very quickly, but I was, uh, doing Murph, or training for Murph, and I did weighted Desk pull ups and it got a little tweaked and I didn't really I knew it was tweaked But I just kept pushing through it because I knew I could like it goes kind of achy, right?

But I was like, you know what? I can still do this workout. I can still get through it and Like so many CrossFitters. I was like, you know sort of ignoring the warning signs Like it's not really getting better But I could still get through this workout and it was kind of sputtering along and then it just kind of took a turn down after um, I mean Mucking around with it for a couple months and at this and then at the point where it starts hurting at rest Like when you're sleeping when i'm sleeping.

Yeah, then i'm like, okay Now that the big warning light is coming on and i'm like there's there's got to be so then that's when I took a huge step back. I started taking my rehab seriously because I was half assing the rehab, right and i've actually made But it's slow progress, like it's literally taken me two weeks to get off of Advil, off of like, you know, um, all these other stupid things, and just really, really work on it.

And all the things that I kept saying, well, I'll get better on, it'll get better on its own. At some point, if you do realize it, you have to, you have to really take a big step back and figure out what's going on. I'm a very stubborn person, um, I know, like, we talked last week about how you and Dan Dodd self program and self coach.

I'm like that with my rehab, like, I will only go to someone if... I'm at my complete wits end, and I will take charge of myself doing it, and I have, and it's getting better, but that also means there's certain things, and there's certain workouts I love doing, and I've done them, and I've done well, but then I'm like, oh, my shoulder was really hurting, so That's upon me as an adult and a responsible CrossFitter to figure that out.

So, I have seen many, many, many athletes. They're like, you know what, I was just running and my hip now starts feeling a little like, ick. And I'm like, listen, I'm not your mom and I'm not going to tell you exactly what to do. But I'm like, don't ignore those signs. And there's a ton of things you can do to mitigate early.

Uh, and so, don't be afraid. And I know a lot of athletes actually at Bison are getting better and better at it, to like, scale, change, mitigate. I don't necessarily say you have to take a break, like, I'm still coming in, I'm still figuring out what I need to do, um, I did take a couple days when it got bad, but I'm, I'm, but most days I'm going to come in, even if it's a push press overhead squat workout, I'll figure out something to do.

Cause I love it too much not to come in. Yeah,

[00:28:28] David Syvertsen: so, my answer on this is, might not be the most popular thing in the world, but I don't think you should take a break. I don't think you should leave. I don't think you should cancel your membership. Definitely, definitely not cancel your membership. I love that.

But, and the reason Sam just starts to touch on it at the end of that. Was, you know, the second it's easy to take that break now a few days here and there fine. That's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about like Extended periods of time months and thinking that you're just all of a sudden gonna want to come back and get motivated again Because I think one of the benefits of coming here is is is deeper than your workout But you don't realize that until you can't work out So there are a lot of times where I know I can't do this workout because of X Y Z it might be this reason Might be that reason might be physical might be mental right could be both Right?

I know, and I know I've had a lot of other people say this too, when they come in here, you leave better because of the people, the community, the coaching. And it also gives you, it widens, broadens your, your perspective on CrossFit sometimes. Right? Like, it's actually great to sit on the bike in the class sometimes and just watch a class operate.

You pick up on things, even as someone that's been doing this professionally for a long time, you pick up on a different perspective. When you're just watching a class work, um, you might learn some things about how some people work out. You might learn how they move. Um, And it might eventually build a deeper level of appreciation, respect, uh, for yourself in regard to CrossFit.

Meaning like, hey, I've seen so many people get hurt trying to train for this big competition. You know, they take a few weeks off, they come back, get hurt again. Different injury, same injury. You know, and then they come back and they take this break from training really hard and they start to see, I miss just being a part of the class.

Like, I miss being just a part of the gym, coming in to work out. And since then, they're like, you know what, the comp scene is not for me, because I don't want to adjust my life. I mean, if you, you know, in some cases you really have to adjust a lot of things if you want to compete. And they just come back and like, I just love working out of the group and being a part of it.

And actually that situation was, you know, they, they went backwards a few steps, but now they're soaring to new heights now because they never left. You know, they, they never had this, this option of just quitting. Right. And I think the second you start opening that door to, hey, quitting is an option.

Quitting is an option. You're slowly going to quit more often and the quits will be bigger. And I think that's something just to keep in mind that if you're in this mindset, whether it's mental, physical, both right. That if you really do think taking a break from CrossFit is going to help you long term all for it, go for it.

But I could see that more often than not over, we've been in business for 10 years now almost. Right? That usually does not end well.

[00:31:18] Sam Rhee: How about someone like Owen Morrissey, who's training for a marathon is now a lead marathoner, skinny as crap as, uh, , but runs really fast. So that's awesome.

[00:31:27] David Syvertsen: I told Owen here, uh, both on and off the record, that I think what he's doing is I think he's doing the right thing.

Now, because he's, because he's pursuing something, this is like what we talked about with Dan Dodd last week. If I'm pursuing big time strength, I gotta stop doing this. I can't be doing Karen before my Snatch Day. You know, you can't come in and rip your hands to shreds when you're supposed to be holding on to a bar about three to four days a week.

So that, that's, you know, if you're really pursuing something on the elite level, and what Owen's doing right now is elite with his running, I do think it's smart that he takes a step back. Now, it's up to Owen, and there are other circumstances like that, too, with some people in this gym that are lifting right now, or, um, you know, have life situations that are preventing them from getting to the gym.

When you come back, you know, you're going to have to wait longer than you think before you get even halfway back to where you were. Like, we can use Owen as an example. If he comes back in November, he's not going to be in Owen's shape at the Open. And that's four months later. It's not happening. And he has to be okay with that.

And he accepts that, and I think he will be fine with that. Um, and that's the case, I would say, with most people. If you are going to kind of make that sacrifice of leaving the gym so that you can focus on another elite level goal, Uh, that is still very health and fitness based. You, you have to temper your expectations when you come back.

Um, and that, that's something that we've seen a lot over the years that people struggle with. Like, you just can't get back to what you used to after you took your break. And we've done an episode on this. You need to recalibrate where you are right now. You can't always use your former self as the goal.

Uh, if anything, you wiped the slate clean. And like, what if we told a guy like, Hey, no arcs and workouts until after the Open next year. If, if for four months, you know. Most of the workouts. Could you do that? Can your ego handle that? You know, I think that's where it's, uh, It's really important what happens when you come back.

[00:33:19] Sam Rhee: I think you're right. I think if you go away by taking a break without knowing whether you're going to come back, that's tough because what's going to substitute in for CrossFit? Working out at a Globo gym or Orange Theory or F45? Like, you know, honestly, and I'm very very biased,

[00:33:38] David Syvertsen: obviously, that Is not

[00:33:40] Sam Rhee: even close to substituting for what a good gym and a good CrossFit, you know, community is going to do for you.

Absolutely. Yeah. And so... I agree with you. I would never want to see anyone take a break because they're going to permanently leave to do something else that they think is better. I don't, I don't believe that personally. Um, that being said, uh, you take a break with the full intention of knowing why you're taking a break and why you're coming and when you're coming back or, you know, with, you know, your plan of coming back.

I might be okay with

[00:34:16] David Syvertsen: that. Yeah. Yeah, and just communicate. I think there, I wish we had more of that. If someone was really struggling, they're in a rut. I think some people are afraid to admit it or they're, they're afraid to open up about that in an environment where there's so many motivated individuals in here.

Like, you kind of feel like you're an outcast if you just say like, Hey, I'm just not motivated right now. Like, I think if you have conversations with people about that, you'll find more common ground with them than you think. And then you might find a solution that worked for that person. Uh, but again, don't, I just, this is where I do get nervous when I see people are clearly identifying themselves through CrossFit only.

It should be a huge part of your life, health, fitness, but especially the performance aspect of it. You know, like, I, everyone in this gym could put 60 percent work, uh, effort into the workouts, 60 percent of the weights that they normally do, and they'll still get a lot of benefit from it. But because you have these thresholds.

From previous times in your head or because of other people doing things that you can no longer do, or can't do right now, or other people making progress. It turns this into a huge mental struggle every time you come in here, where I really think that a lot of you guys can maybe just have like a, like a rebirth of what you are to Cross It.

It's just an exercise program, and it would take out so many of the little injuries that some of you guys are experiencing. It would take out so much of the daily anxieties that some of you guys are experiencing, to the point where you really could fall in love with it, and really kind of see what Cross It can do.

[00:35:44] Sam Rhee: That really makes me think of one guy that I know who was an early morning guy, came so regularly, great athlete, and now no longer comes. And I remember seeing him a little while ago, maybe a month or two ago, at a social thing, and... I miss him. He's a great guy. Yeah. I loved him and I wanted him to come back and he, I think there are similar, like, wanting to demonstrate who you are in terms of, and, and tying your self worth into, you know, and comparing yourself to others, which led him to just leave.

Right. And it's such a loss for him, but it's a loss for me too. Absolutely. And the class. Yes. And I don't, I haven't lost hope that he might come back again, but I feel like he's lost so much, uh, just from, because, because of those mental roadblocks.

[00:36:41] David Syvertsen: Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. And I don't want to see that to happen to other people.

And, you know, we're a CrossFit podcast. I own a CrossFit gym. We're both CrossFit coaches. Of course we're CrossFit, CrossFit, CrossFit. It's all coming from, and we'll admit that we're biased, and, but I do think that there's a lot of ways to solve whatever issues you have without just calling it quits and thinking that at some point a light's going to turn on.

Uh, it's got to be a little more proactive about it. Alright, thank you guys. Hopefully, uh, keep sending those questions for the next HerdFit, HerdFit Q& A, and we'll see you next week. Thank you,