S03E96 BUILDING OFF OF THE 2023 CF OPEN

Now that the 2023 Open is done - what can we take away and where do we go from here? We discuss programming changes, lessons learned and how the Open can guide our thinking regarding fitness and training starting today. We continue to talk about standards, accountability, and planning your fitness year to make the most of the 2023 Open experience for 2024.

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S03E96 BUILDING OFF OF THE 2023 CF OPEN

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: Welcome back to the Herd Fit Podcast. I am Coach David Syon here with my co-host, Dr. And coach Sam Re. And we are now a few weeks removed from the CrossFit Open, and I promise this is the last one, last time we'll talk about it for a while. Um, but this is one of my favorite episodes to record all year.

Um, the CrossFit Open is done. Where, where do we go from? And for most of you, it's uh, nowhere. I'm just gonna keep doing what I do and I'll see you at the open party Next year, hope maybe we might have the same beer sponsor again, or maybe even two and Chipotle again. Um, but last year on March 28th, 2022.

This is season two, episode 44 on the Her Fit podcast. Um, we did this episode, the 22 CF Open is done Now what? And I, and we did this the year prior on Sam's Botox and Burpees, uh, podcast. And I, I think it's a great time of year. It's, I call this the New Year's of CrossFit, where that your season's over most of you, right?

And. , you know, it kind of gives you some objective measurement of where you stand with certain workouts, certain movements in a, you know, amongst a very, uh, big group of, of fit people. And if you are in this for improvement, trying to escalate where you're at, trying to con, constantly push the needle, push the threshold, or you have competitive goals.

This is the time of year where you need to reflect the most. And I want to go into, A few different, maybe outside the box ideas on how you can get more at a CrossFit or get better. I don't wanna be too repetitive. I listened to the last two episodes that we did on this, and I really don't wanna just say the same thing over and over again, but if you do.

If you have not listened to those, if you just started to listen to us within the past year, I would go back and listen to those. Um, because there's a lot of information there. Like I was driving and I was like bobbing my head. , yeah. Is that, is that like really like, uh, kind of full of yourself? But it was just like things that you just always, always.

Kind of to go back to the roots of what gets you better across it, like what is, how do you actually get better across it if that's something that you care about? The answers are in those episodes, but I'm gonna go a little outside the box on this and just give you kind of three different mental approaches or things to think about throughout the year, including right now that I think can push the needle for you a little bit.

One thing that's challenging from my perspective is that we have a lot of CrossFitters in our gym now that have been doing this for years. You know, some people, 10, I mean, the amount of people in our gym that have been doing this for over five years now, it's, it's a lot. Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's over half of our gym.

Yeah. And when you try to make gains, after doing CrossFit for that long, it's harder. It just is, whether it's not just an age thing or your life has changed, it's just that's anything in life. The gains can still happen, but they are fewer and far between because if not to quote James Fitzgerald, we'd all be squatting a thousand pounds and running three minute miles if we've just, we're constantly improving.

It's just not going to happen. So Sam, opening thoughts. Where an athlete should go from here. And yes, this might be a little bit biased towards performance, but it doesn't need to be and it won't be because as you see what I'll talk about, just what are your opening thoughts if someone came up to you and said, Hey, like, how can I get better for next year?

[00:03:12] Sam Rhee: Well, uh, the first thing is, is that the, that predispose, uh, presupposes that you want to get better at CrossFit. Um, there are a lot of people that do this who don't. Necessarily think that CrossFit is the end dollar be all or fitness To me it is. Mm-hmm. , like if I got tested at something in the CrossFit open and I fell short, I would realize there's a hole in my game.

Good. There are others who might do that and I'd be like, eh, who cares about shuttle runs? That's not part of my fitness. Like, what does that have to do with lifting or this or gymnastics or whatever? Fine. Alright. So if you're in that category, then you could probably. Turn off the podcast right now, right?

Yeah. Right. I mean, I truly do believe that the te that these tests showed me what I was g good at, what I needed work on, and the things that I felt short of, and, and that's the way it is every and, and they're different every year. They're not the same every year. Last year there wasn't a whole lot of barbell, and so I wasn't looking at my barbell strengths last year.

This year I am mm-hmm. , so, so it's a, it's a changing sort of kaleidoscope of the different skill sets you need in CrossFit, but that's exactly what CrossFit is about. Right? It's about being. Not bad at anything. Mm-hmm. not necessarily good at everything. Right?

[00:04:27] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I mean, so what are some of the goals that people can shoot after?

I mean, it's common now. It's like quarter finals for some people. It's very realistic. Some people, they're like, I don't wanna put the work in to get there. Like, I'm just, what are some other goals that people can pursue through the open?

[00:04:45] Sam Rhee: Uh, one of the things that I've seen a lot of people do is, is they hit their head against, lift numbers.

Mm-hmm. or some sort of gymnastics movement. Like what, my question to you would be, what if there's someone who's like, you know what, I, I, I don't think I'll ever be able to do a 95 pound snatch. Right. I just can't. Right. Like, I just won't have it in me. Mm-hmm. or I, I don't know if I'll ever be able to get a bar, uh, a ring muscle up.

I just, I don't think I'll ever have it in me. Mm-hmm. what? I was gonna ask you after you sort of hit those walls in the open, like what do you do or what do you tell an

[00:05:19] David Syvertsen: athlete? Something like that. Yeah, I mean, if it's a really, if it's a confidence thing where, hey, I'm never gonna get a muscle up or I'm never gonna be able to snatch a certain weight, I mean, that's where you have to have like a real conversation.

Like that's, uh, I love having these conversations with people after the open, like, I'm having a couple this week recalibrate, and you have to kind of dig down to why do they feel that way? Um, it's not really a coach's job that for them to say, Hey, yeah, you're probably never gonna get a ring muscle up.

It's, uh, to quote Hinshaw, it's, I will help you get there for as long as you want to try and get there. You know, I'm not gonna guarantee you're gonna get there. And so I don't have like a money back guarantee on CrossFit bison membership or your next level membership. Um, but I'll help you get there. And I think there needs to be some honest conversations with the athlete and the coach.

Like, let's, uh, use someone that doesn't have a ring muscle up that's been trying for three years. It's like, Hey Dave, what we've been doing, it's not working. , you know, like, can we, can we both kind of just like take a step back and kind of break down? Is there something else we can try and pursue? Um, I can go more macro level than that and, and say that, uh, someone that has that kind of weightlifting shortcoming, but also a high level gymnastics shortcoming is, Hey, what's the answer?

What can I do? I'm. I'm almost always gonna point you towards more strength work. I do think that in CrossFit, even though most of the movements that we do are not with a barbell, not with a dumbbell or kettlebell, it's you're moving your body. And that's the way with the open too. Most of the movements that show up in the open, you're not moving an exterior load, but that doesn't mean you don't need to lift.

And I, I think strength work is going to be the answer, especially as we get older. for almost everyone, right? If I continue to, and that does not come at the expense of technique work, especially with the snatch, but I do think that's an answer for everyone, no matter what kind of goal you are. And I think the health benefits beyond it too are, are enormous.

So again, I think that we, our gym has an addiction to like those high volume, like the week we just had. The amount of people that said, I love this week, but like, they're all sores, anything. I'm so beat up. But the, the amount of times that, like I've, I've heard in that the work workouts this week were hard.

They were high volumes, just one after the other. And people love that. But they, in almost, if we came in this week, Monday through Friday and just did five by fives every single day, just lifted. People would not be happy. And I'm not telling you that you need to, right? I mean, there's a lot more that goes into fitness and working out than just what your performance is, what you're doing at the gym.

Um, but I do think there are a lot of benefits that people would get from just simply trying to get stronger. And whether it's the snatch, whether it's trying to Rx the workouts next year, it's usually going to be strength. Um, now, uh, just lost my spot. Hold on. The. Now should, before we get into this, three things that I want people to focus on mindset wise mm-hmm.

should everyone view the open as a test? You know, um, again, on, on the open announcement I said it's a test and it's a celebration. I mean that fully thought a lot about that and that, that's really kind of where my mind goes to. Um, But do you think people should view this as a test or do you think it should be more a celebration if you had to pick one?

Um,

[00:08:15] Sam Rhee: I think everyone should view it as a test. Okay. I really do. Yep. And even regardless of where you are in your fitness journey, I just talked to, um, an athlete, the today an open gym, and he said, I haven't, this is my first open. I'm 15 pounds overweight. I know. Like, this was so hard and, and I said yes. So this is a good sort of, baseline test for you to evaluate yourself and let's see where you are next year.

Also, a high level athlete who just, um, had a kid and this was her first, uh, open coming back and she hated her performance because it wasn't near where she was. She was a quarter finalist the, like, the year before. Mm-hmm. and. . And so she's like, but I'm gonna use this as sort of a baseline as well to see where I am.

I love that. Yeah. My daughter, Sasha, she scaled everything, but she did much better this year than she did last year. Overall. Yeah. I mean, you know, the teen division, like, listen, it's insane. Like Ma O'Brien and those kids are in there, so it's not like she's killing it from a like absolute standpoint.

Right. But from her own fitness standpoint, she really surprised herself and in. And did

[00:09:22] David Syvertsen: really well on the shuttle running, and she's a busy girl. She can't CrossFit all year long. No. Like she can't train for the open all year long. Right. Just the fact that she did improve at all is pretty

[00:09:30] Sam Rhee: impressive.

She's really happy with it. And, and she's using that as, um, a gauge for that. The fact, you know, to help he self confidence to know that she's, she's getting better as she's getting older in, in CrossFit. Mm-hmm. so. Absolutely. The, the key is not to make it only like if you do poorly on it to be negative about it, right?

Like use it as a test, but use it as an objective measure and say, okay, wherever I am, where can I go next year with it? Yeah. And

[00:09:58] David Syvertsen: I mean, every success story out there includes failure at some point. So even if you are unhappy with how you did in the open, or you just feel like you left something in the tank, or you just weren't ready to train this year.

That's part of your success story right there. And it's probably the more important part of your success story than the actual success, right. Process over results. And part of the process is having, is kind of coping with the peaks and valleys, um, not just the peaks, the valleys as well. Right. I mean, that, that, one of my, one of our most listened to episodes ever was the dopamine.

Oh, right. Yep. Just you have those, those ups and downs, they're inevitable. But the better you are at maintaining that, even ground throughout your year is gonna help you out a lot. Um, so let's go into number, uh, number one of my mindset focused. Which this can also be pretty tangible with how you physically do things at the gym.

It's standards. I'm gonna get the eye roll comment out of the way , uh, immediately. And this is not, Hey, squat below parallel, lock your elbows out. That's not what I'm gonna go into. Yeah, but you should still do that. Yes. That's, that's, yes. Absolutely. Um, and you should brush your teeth before you go to bed.

I mean, come on, let's go. We, we know that by now. Standards you need to practice and knowing them, I'm gonna say this again. You need to practice and know the standards. All right. Um, every year things get tweaked here and there with the wall walk, the handstand pushups. I mean, I even find myself being like, wait, did they change the wall walk?

Like, Adam Ramson picked me up this this week. I got the wall walk scale, the scaled wall walk wrong when I was explaining it. And then he fixed me. Like, do your best to kind of know the standards, but from your perspective, the athlete that's trying to get better at CrossFit. Okay. A lot of us wanna practice mus practice to a bar practice handstand walks.

Practiced barbell snatch. How often do you ever come in and be like, you know, I'm gonna work on, um, hitting, uh, standing by barbell all the way up on hand cleans. How often do you see someone coming, like, I'm gonna try to get that wall ball above that target every single time. How often do you see, you know, someone, um, you know, not jumping off one foot for a burpee box, jump.

Like you, you don't ever see things like that. But then when the open comes around and all of a sudden you have a judge and you have, some of us coaches are a little bit stricter than others when when we're trying to keep you guys accountable to this stuff, you now start to get no reps or all of a sudden you have to do a standard that you haven't done all year.

And now it's making the movement tougher. So you really haven't been training the movement all year, but now for the first time, you're doing it by the book and it's slowing you down. It's taxing you more. That is a huge deal, and I saw it a lot in the open this year. I'm gonna give a few p. Examples without giving people examples, I'm gonna give movement examples.

What is your initial, beyond the eye roll of comment of standards being something that someone needs to mentally focus on the year for the sake of their performance? Um,

[00:12:51] Sam Rhee: absolutely, and I mean, I, I categorize two, uh, movement standards into two things. One is safety. Like if there's something that's, that's not helpful for an athlete, like from a health

[00:13:02] 2023_0312_1050: perspective,

[00:13:03] Sam Rhee: like when you do box jumps and you're, you're crouching over and not standing up.

That there's a standard there, but there's also That's bad for your back every time you're like crouching over. Absolutely. And so, so there's one that I'm sort of more after as a coach, but then the other one is like more arbitrary standards. Like the wall walk for example, changed to 60 inches or 55 inches.

Mm-hmm. . And that was really hard for me. Yeah. As an athlete, I sucked. Yeah. I used to be able to go four down, three back and now I had to go five down, four back. Mm-hmm. . And the temptation is to go back. So we just did a wall walk workout right. This past week. Yep. And I could see where the

[00:13:39] David Syvertsen: tape line was.

I'm, I'm thinking about keeping it there, . Yeah. By the way. And I was like,

[00:13:44] Sam Rhee: I know where I should be with my wall walk, but do I want to do that? Yeah. And so one or two I did. And I was like, oh, this is so much easier. I was like, yeah. Oh man. But if I do this, I'm gonna get burnt by this again later. Mm-hmm. . So I started doing the normal, um, like the new Wall Walk standard, and it's really up to you.

Like I watch, I coach that class too, and I watch people and some people are keeping to the new standard. Some people aren't. Um, It's the little things in the future that you're gonna see pay off. Yeah.

[00:14:12] David Syvertsen: And that wall walk is, I have a few movements written down right now. I'm gonna tell you guys that if you practice these standards, you are going to be a better athlete in next year's open.

Um, the wall walks and the handstand pushups are the, the two, the first two, the wall walk. We do wall walks that say probably 30 times a year. Right? Not, definitely not every week, but I would say rarely do we go three weeks without doing one in a workout. And. when we do them almost, I would say if I had to put a number on it, 80% of the people actually go all the way back with their hands.

And then the other 20%, they kind of just almost get there and then they come back. And then those are the same people that really struggle with the wall walk. Why? Because when you're doing the open, you have to get to that line or you will get no rep, and you have to ask yourself, are you able to remove yourself from the emotion of the moment?

and actually do the movement to the standard every single time. And maybe we might keep that tape line on, on the floor all year so that people always know where they need to get to the strict hand hand pushups, right? Um, in the past we've always said, as long as you use those, you know, 26 by 30, uh, 36 by 24 mats, if your hands are in there, you're good to go.

They now said Your hand needs to be 10 inches away from the wall. Something needs to be touch. Uh, a line that's 10 inches from the wall. And I noticed it on my strict hands. I felt close. And I'm gonna get into why, how I think you guys can get better at these movements and you're not gonna like the answer because you don't get to wad or go hard.

More mobility work, more stretching, and. Th those two movements, the wall walk and handstand pushups. If you have tight shoulders, if your thoracic is tight and you just don't like stretching, cuz it's not fulfilling, those are going to bite you in the ass every. Single time you have to work harder than every other person in the gym.

If you're tight and you're doing and you're going upside down, um,

[00:16:03] Sam Rhee: not also to mention you're going to have an increased risk of injury. Yeah. Like I cannot emphasize to people Why do you feel like you're always getting nicked and dinged up? It's because I watch you move. Your mobility is not good. I know that because my mobility is not good.

Right. And it limits

[00:16:20] David Syvertsen: you.

[00:16:20] Sam Rhee: It limits you on so many levels. But from a health perspective, you know, there are some people who seem to be very resilient and then some people who always get dinged up. Mm-hmm. . And I can tell you right now, the ones who really either are naturally very mobile or, um, work on their mobility, and you, you see them all the time working on it.

There's

[00:16:38] David Syvertsen: a difference. It pays off. And here, here's a question for you. You know, rhetorical, right? If you were to work all year on your mobility, thoracic, hips, wrist, knowing that you would only gain two inches of mobility, , two inches of range of motion. Would you do it? Would you work all year for that? And keep in mind, two inches spread out over the course of 11 months.

You're looking at like, I don't know, a third of an inch every month. Would you work all year? Would you come to the stretch, stretch at the gym every day or every other day for the whole year to get that? And if the answer's like, no, dude, like, I'm just, I wanna wad or no, like I, I want to be on Instagram instead.

Or I want to talk with my friends. More power to you. You're gonna go through the same exact thing next year when this stuff comes up. And let's get away from just wall walks and handstands. I think a front rack, your front rack mobility, if that sucks and you've been doing CrossFit for a long time, that is what you wanna fix, not how much you can thrust, right?

Because I'll tell you this right now, like no offense unless you take a P e d. If, if you've been doing CrossFit 5, 6, 7 years and all of a sudden you're gonna try to get your one Red Max thruster up a lot, it's not going up much in the next year. I'm sorry, unless you're really young. Like if you're Alex l I don't even know how much stronger that kid could get.

But you know what that you know the. If you're on the older side, master's athlete, let's say, and you've been doing cross for a long time, you're not getting much stronger and you could hate me for saying it. It's the truth. You will not get much stronger than you are right now. I hate you, but, but I'm just kidding.

Your mobility can improve. Yep. 1000%. And if your mobility improves in your front rack, you will thrust or more weight next year.

[00:18:12] Sam Rhee: It's a safe, it's a health issue too. So if you've ever watched people do an overhead squat and they lack mobility, thoracic hip, you know, like ankle, knee, what are they doing?

They're cranking those shoulders. Mm-hmm. so far back. And that's the extreme example of what a lack of mobility is going to do. Think about every other movement. You know, we always have problems as CrossFitters in terms of shoulder mobility. Yeah. I mean, should. Injuries. Yeah. But it's not our shoulders oftentimes that are the issue.

We're asking too much of our shoulders. Yes. Cause we are lacking mobility everywhere else. Yep. So it's not just, would you work all year to gain two inches of range of motion? Is would you work all year so you don't torque your shoulder and jack it up? Yeah. And. and be out for six weeks because you try to overextend because you, you lack mobility

[00:19:02] David Syvertsen: on something else.

Part of my knee issue has come from a lack of, uh, mobility in my quad and my hip, you know, and I've always like, oh, pigeon pose is great. I have great backside flexibility. But now that I go pt, you find out, like, I've neglected a lot with my quad over the years and it causing the injury. So

[00:19:18] Sam Rhee: how do people go?

Okay, so someone's listening to a podcast and they're like, yeah, all right, I wanna

[00:19:21] David Syvertsen: work on my mobility. What am I gonna do? My, my best one is the Goad app. It, it's the best app. It's not expensive. It, it's, and it's comes up with a tailored program for you. They're not, uh, a sponsor, by the way. . I was about to ask.

Um, but hey, well listen, if you guys wanna reach out to us, the. They basically give you a mobility test through the app and you, you put your scores and it's a pretty easy, I've done it. It's very easy. It's not overwhelming, it doesn't take a long time, but it gives you a, a mobility score on all parts of your body.

And then it will, the algorithm inside of the app will basically give you your own stretching program that you could do every day. It's. Pre-workout, post-workout, or just a stretch and it could be eight minutes, 15 minutes, 22 minutes. Like it, it really is, can be tailored to what you wanna do. I'm gonna try it and I, I think that I would love a few people to get on this and I don't know a single high level athlete, and I'm like these guys, high level athlete that does not spend a lot of time on the mobility.

You don't need to emulate them. You're not gonna, you. You don't need to be a games athlete to work on it, but if you are trying to maximize and you're sick of just trying harder or starting a new program or paying another, you know, 200 bucks a month for someone to program something for you, that might be solution number one.

All right. Uh, my number two concept, it's um, this is, when I say outside the box, this is one of them, but I'm gonna roll with it. Um, it's loyalty and loyalty to me. It's funny, I've had two things that stand out in my mind. One of 'em is recent. One of 'em is from over 10 years ago, about what truly is loyalty.

And from the book Liars Po. Uh, liars Poker by Michael Lewis. Oh, yeah. Um, in the book, I, I remember reading it and just being like, wow, that makes so much sense to me. And it says, those that are short term, greedy are never loyal. And if you think about really what happens when someone is not loyal to another, it's usually they're trying to satisfy the moment, right?

This can be a relationship. This can be a gossip thing. This could be a, a social media thing. They're just try so infatuated with, I want to make myself happy right now, so I'm gonna screw everything else, screw everyone else, and I just want to make myself happy. And then I'll just lift to fight Another day, I'll just do again, same thing tomorrow.

I want to build this onto into your training for yourself. Loyalty to yourself is, is big to me, right? Now loyalty to your coaches, your owners, your friends, your family. Let's not go there yet. Loyalty to yourself. If you truly want to get better in the next 11 months so that next year when the open comes up, you are ready to rock.

You have to stop trying to satisfy the moment. And I understand how much going to a CrossFit gym helps your mental state. How many times do we hear that, right? Like, if I didn't have this place I'd, I'd go nuts, or I got blocked outta class because. I got wait listed. I had a bad day. I feel that way when I don't work out for a few days in a row, I get grumpy.

You gotta ask Ash. I do. , but I think we need to try as hard as we can. If you're chasing performance to stop trying to satisfy the moment, you might need to go backwards. Three steps for you to go and try to get that muscle up. Next year you might need to, you know, stop doing, stop working on your butterfly for the next, you know, two, three months and get back to strict pull up work.

And even though your scores are better when you butterfly, you feel better about yourself. When you have good scores and fast times and everyone's like, oh wow, look at you. You're so awesome. Right. If you are just gonna kind of run in this hamster wheel of, just try hard, try hard, try hard and hope, try hard and hope, try hard and hope.

I don't think it's gonna work out for you. Opening thoughts on this, Sam? , uh,

[00:22:55] Sam Rhee: that's hard. It's really hard to do. And, um, sometimes you actually need a system or, uh, a way of keeping yourself accountable for this because it is so easy to chase that short term. Mm-hmm. , um, and. In some ways, when I was listening to you just talk about that, I, I said I, I,

[00:23:14] David Syvertsen: there's so many situations in which I don't wanna do that, right?

So

[00:23:17] Sam Rhee: how did, how do I try to keep to my long-term goals? Mm-hmm. , you force yourself to, in a situation where you, you, you don't have a choice. So, so sometimes that means getting other people to make you accountable, right? So if you're like, you know what? And you see this in the morning actually, like some of the five amers, like they'll come in and do their whatever, strict Pullups or their Gs gds.

Yep. And they're doing it. Um, I think if they had to do it by themselves, they wouldn't do it. Mm-hmm. . But they're doing it cuz they know other people are doing it. Mm-hmm. , um, when I, I, I got better this year because I was always skipping the Wednesday wads. Mm-hmm. and I was forced to do them on sun on Sundays because I was coaching.

Coaching. Yeah. And I really didn't want to do it. . Yeah. I put myself into a situation where I sort of had to do it. And so if you feel like you're not, um, you know what you have to do from a long term perspective, right? And, and avoid the short term. Take it, take that decision out of your hands and try to put it in a way where you don't have a choice to mm-hmm.

but, but to do it right. And that way that want to is now like a.

[00:24:21] David Syvertsen: Too. Right. And, and becomes more natural

[00:24:23] Sam Rhee: in time. Right. And it could be as simple as partnering up with someone on a Sunday to do these things. Mm-hmm. or, or you know, that's why you always say make things public, cuz it sort of almost makes you feel like you have to do these things.

Right. Right. So whatever situation is. where you're, you're taking that choice out of your hand and out of your hand and putting into something where you're sort of forced to do it. Yeah. Um, I think overall

[00:24:44] David Syvertsen: is gonna make it better. And you could think deeper and beyond your training. I mean, let's think about lifestyle, right?

What, what separates a lot of people from hitting their performance goals? It's the outside of the gym stuff. It could be your nutrition, it could be your water intake, your sleep, uh, stress management. It could be alcohol, right? Um, I'll use myself an example because exam, uh, alcohol is very touchy for some people.

Um, . But there are times where I'm stressed, right? And I don't want to drink my stress away, but I just want a drink at night. And it's like harmless. It's a drink. No one's gonna criticize for me. Ash's never gonna say a word. If anything, she thinks I should have more. Right. ,

[00:25:20] Sam Rhee: I've seen you, uh, post the, uh, beer while you're,

[00:25:23] David Syvertsen: um, cleaning the floor.

Cleaning the floor. Yep. Yeah. And. But there are times if I'm really in a full-blown training mindset, I know that if I keep doing this or if my nutrition's not on point, even though that meal tastes so good in that moment, that's a short term greed to me in this respect. All right. I know we all need balance.

We all need our times. But if I'm just randomly having a, a two three beer, one turns into two, turned into three beers on a Tuesday night, and I'm training hard the next morning, and I'm, our sleep's already garbage with a two year old. , I'm making things worse for me. Maybe not for tomorrow's workout, although it could be.

It could be where I want to be two months from now, and it become, it become a habit, right? I remember during the pandemic, I was drinking four or five nights a week. I think we were just bored as , bored as hell. But like it turned into, uh, Tuesday. That's fine. All right. Tuesday, Thursday is fine. Okay. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday.

Oh, Yellowstone's on, uh, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And like it, it does, it spirals. And I think if I had more awareness back then, or even. Recently, right? As I try to get back into my training lifestyle, which is coming up, those are the things that, yes, as much as I'm craving that meal or that craving, that snack craving, that beer craving, that tequila, whatever your crave is, that's a clear sign that right now you're being short-term greedy because you know, I know deep down it's not good for my long term.

but I'm doing it because it's gonna make me feel better in the moment. And how we balance those decisions day to day without expecting perfection. Right. I think will say a lot about us a year from now. Strong agree. Too. Strong . No, I really agree with that. Okay, good. So, um, . And this again, I, the one more thing I wanted to say on this too was the, the training partners, cuz our last part's gonna be about competing and who you're training with all this stuff.

The training partners is something I wanted to touch on too. Um, there's certain people I love to work out with. Certain people I don't like to work out with. I try to get around both. There's certain classes I don't like, I don't like to work out late at night, early in the morning there's, I can, you know, pick apart everything.

I want to make sure, who don't you like to work out with? You , your pur your burpees are too fast. anyone that's stronger than me, I'm like, ah, you know, I had to do Fridays while with the Carlo behind me. And I'm like, he's probably bouncing the barbell and cheating because he squats fast. . Um, but you know, I, I think that, you know, thinking about your long term and, and just the, the concept of loyalty to yourself, if.

You know, we say this all the time in this podcast, if you are chasing after comfort and what just makes you feel better in the moment with who you're training, with, who you're training next to. I think long term, it's gonna kind of take a bite out of your app a little bit. Um, last part here is competing.

All right. Now, let's be real about this. If you have a performance goal, if you have a competitive. in the open, but you try to say that you're not competitive. It's you're contradicting yourself. The numbers that dictate whether or not you hit your goal. If it's a ranking base, quarter final based, or gym based, you are essentially losing or winning to other people.

And I think many people get overwhelmed in the open because that's the first time they've put themselves into an environment like that. And. . Our gym is competitive by nature. I'm not saying you need to make everyday a competition. I don't think you should. And if you do, keep your mouth shut about it.

Just keep, keep it internal. , right. Um, I pe I try to beat people in the gym all the time and I don't need to tell anyone about it. It just, it helps fuel my fire. But I think there's a mental characteristic that comes from being like that, that helps people out in the open. I think there's a lot of athletes.

That leave reps and weights on the board because they've never put themselves in this environment before. This intense, oh my gosh, I'm nervous. Why am I nervous? Why do I feel nauseous? Why I have to pee every five minutes? Right? Because they just kind of were blah all year with, with like that go-getter mentality.

What do you think about trying to put yourself in more competitive environments throughout the year to help you out in the next year's open? Um,

[00:29:21] Sam Rhee: Mixed. So I think, uh, you definitely have to be able to put yourself in that environment. And the only reason, and and I, I was thinking about this year's open and it, it could have broke for me either way.

Like there were a couple, right? Perf like I had to perform at a certain time or, or, or really. Do something in a, in a very time pressure environment. And I was able to execute only because this was probably my, my ninth open mm-hmm. . And so I've been in that situation before where you don't think you're just executing.

And, and I know five years ago, It probably wouldn't have broke for me that way cuz I hadn't had enough experience in that. That being said, if you put yourself in that all the time, it's, it's really difficult Yeah. To burn you out too. Oh yeah. And just too much stress. Uh, and most days when I'm, uh, when I'm wadding I'm, I'm focusing on my own PO points of performance execution.

Um, sometimes, you know, and I, and I do this and we talked about this, I'll take that last two minutes and really push or, or see where I can go with it, depending on how I feel. Mm-hmm. , um, certain workouts I think are very important. The, some of the open, um, prep workouts that we did. Yeah. I definitely put myself in that mindset again where, yeah, I'm scared, like, like, how's this gonna go?

Like, this is awful. Where,

[00:30:40] David Syvertsen: where do you stack up? That kind of thing.

[00:30:41] Sam Rhee: Right? Yeah. Like, can I push myself? Uh, so you have to pick and choose some of those, I think, and, you know, especially for me, who, you know, I'm not chasing it every day for sure. Mm-hmm. . Um, but yeah, if you are on the sport or the competitive side of things and you, there's a skill to performing and, and I've done local comps mm-hmm.

and, uh, and tho that can be super helpful. I mean, there's nothing like being in a comp and, and having all of these people around you and, and, um, performing, especially in a partner comp where you, you don't wanna let your partner down. Yeah. Like all those situa you can put yourself in a lot of different situations over the year that can really help you sort of get that competitive.

Execution

[00:31:23] David Syvertsen: skill. Yeah. Um, better Local, local comps have helped me out a ton in that. And there, there's a few options. Guys coming up. We had Cross at Waldo has one coming up at the end of April. Uh, cross at 9 0 8 has their annual, uh, co-ed partner competition. In the middle of May, there's gonna be others that come up.

If you ever see one and you kind of want to throw your hat in the ring. Again, it doesn't even need to be to do well at that comp. I just think it can channel some things in you as an athlete, as a person that can help you out with a long-term goal if you have an open base goal. Um, you know, again, think long-term that like signing up.

Like I'll have some people that won't sign up for 9 0 8 because there's like a bar muscle up in the workout. I'm like, well what about the other nine movements of the day? What about the environment of going back forward? What about really pushing through your threshold on an assault bike? You know, like there, there's benefits to every local comp.

That you ever sign up for. And I think if it's something, if performance is really a big goal for you in the open, I think you need to find a comp or two throughout the year. And it could even be the bison at, at, at bison in the summer. If you don't wanna spend too much money, um, that will help you achieve that goal.

Um, another other little things I think you can do. I have a few little things that you could do day to day, week to week at your gym that will help, um, finding those around you that push you maybe even to a point of discomfort. Um, . You know, I love some of the classes that we have, like the, I'm, again, I, I tell them all the time, you guys are so lucky.

I don't think everyone even realizes how lucky we are to have the amount of athletes in the shin that can push you and, um, . I would love to see some of that, that, you know, there's a general understanding. Like Julia Kelly told me that her, and she'll go after it with Karen sometimes or some of the other 6:00 AM girls and Kayla's there and, and, uh, yeah.

Karen, Kayla, Karen Wright, uh, special case, the. That that helps her. But I even kind of wanted to push her more towards like, how about you? They're all, they're also your friends, . You know, it's like, I would love to see some, like, I'm coming at four 15 tonight because, or five 15 because so-and-so is here.

And not that we dislike each other, but it's gonna help me try to put me in this edge of I'm trying to beat that person or trying to get the most out of myself, make myself uncomfortable. And I also think that brings up the timing component. that I think working out at different times based on when your open workouts are, will help you.

Right? If you can, I'm not telling you to rearrange your life in kids' lives to to train at a certain time, but let's say you are a morning athlete. This happens a lot, right? You work out at five, 6:00 AM all year, 5 67 open comes around. You wanna work out the open party because it's fun. It's like the sickest environment of the year like I do too.

I wish I could do it. Maybe next year I will. You should try to find some nights to work out. It doesn't have to be every week, doesn't even have to be every Friday night. It could just be like 15 times throughout the year, you're gonna go to a, a random 5 15, 6, 15 A. It'll stimulate you because there's new people, new surroundings, maybe new coach two, which will always help to not always be coached by the same person, but it puts you in that schedule.

Right? How many people show up to the gym on a Friday night during the open workout at that time for the first time, and it's the first time they've ever worked out with three meals inside. Right. They're used to waking up no food and going to work out like that needs to be trained. That needs to be practiced, that needs to be thought about.

And tho those are things I think that can really help you get into a competitor's mindset because I'll tell you what, guys like that. They tr they practice that stuff all year is nutrient timing. What time, what will they eat if they're working out at night, what time? What will they eat if they're working out in the morning?

Any thoughts on that? Because Sam, you. The open on Thursday night, and I don't like to get too controlling of you or any athlete in the gym unless they ask. Thank you. You. But I would have suggested more night workouts prior to that, especially considering you were kind of on the bubble this year. Yeah, I know.

Uh,

[00:35:09] Sam Rhee: I didn't have a, a really, I didn't

[00:35:11] David Syvertsen: push, uh, the competitive aspect of it this year. Okay. I

[00:35:15] Sam Rhee: wanted to, you know, if I fell there, like if I fell on the, uh, good side of the quarter finals, I was, I was good, happy if I didn't, if I, I didn't, I was, I was sort of saying to myself, yeah, I would be okay at now.

I'm like, in retrospect, maybe I wouldn't have been. Okay. , um, I would say that, uh, Um, in years past when we did the Thursday night Lights, I, I had gone to evening classes more. Okay. It, it's been kind of busy lately for me at work, and so it was really, it's tough. Yeah. Yeah. It was hard for me. I did go once or twice.

Um, I, you know, it, it, that whole context, like it's basically. Prepping your mind for the context, right? So that your context feels comfortable when you need to compete at your highest level. Right? And, and so all of these things are basically making sure that your mind is like, oh, I'm comfortable in this situation.

I know that I have my confidence and I can compete mm-hmm. . Um, and certainly if, if, if that was an issue this year, I, I, I would've done that. . I, I don't know. I, I, I feel like, uh, it probably would've helped me more. Mm-hmm. , there were, like, for example, the first workout, like I got one ring muscle up. Right. I knew I had two or three in there for sure.

And probably some of these little things would've gotten me there. Mm-hmm. pisses me off. I left a little bit on the table. Mm-hmm. , but whatever it, it was like, to me, that wasn't my goal. I think. it, it next year, I might have to, um, tune it up a little bit. Yeah. If I really wanna make it mm-hmm. and now that I have a couple years, that might be a good

[00:36:43] David Syvertsen: goal for me to sort of shoot for.

Right. Yeah. And it's something again, like, I, I like the idea that you think about this now and, and you're not putting pressure on yourself January 18th to do it three times in a row, like things come up. But if you have a random night, throughout the year. I think it's just something to maybe plan ahead and, and play around with.

Yep. Um, last part of this is from a competing mindset, and this did make a difference for a few people. This year is repeating workout and we, you guys all know how I feel about this. It's all about what you wanna do, what you wanna get outta the open. If you wanna repeat a workout, go for it. But I'll tell you what, if you're on the bubble or you think you might be on the bubble next year, you getting a few more reps in every workout might be the difference.

So that's something I talked about this two years ago, more than I talked about this this year. That's something that can be practiced. I want some of my athletes to do the Friday wad at bison, then come do it again on Sunday. Oh, now you gotta be careful with which movements are involved. Like I wouldn't have done last Friday's workout.

The one with the squat cleans push press. Uh, Toast bar double on their handstand pushup, especially with what we're doing the next day, like Monday, we're back almost doing the same movements. So you have to be careful. Don't do this every week. I'll definitely help out anyone that wants to do this, but if you are trying to chase after every possible rep, there is so much untapped skill in people to get a score and a.

and then think about it for 24 to 36 hours, come up with a pacing plant and then try to beat the score. I can't tell you how many times it's helped me in the past. I can't tell you how many times it's helped other people to repeat a workout. And again, I say this with caution. You should not be doing every workout.

There's certain movements that you should just not be doing twice in 36 hours. Um, but that, that's a huge deal. There are a couple people that missed the quarter finales this year that if they got four more reps for workout, they would've been in. Yeah,

[00:38:33] Sam Rhee: there, I, I could think of at least three or four people that were like, I was short by

[00:38:37] David Syvertsen: 10 places.

Yep. And there was a few that just barely made it too. Yes. You know, that repeated a workout. Yep. It, it, it can mean something if you have a competitive goal and there's nothing wrong with repeating. I'll, I'll say that until I'm no longer involved in this. I, I'd feel strongly about, it's gotta be a personal decision.

Um, you just gotta make sure your head's in the right place and. that, that's, that's my, my closing thought on that part of this episode. Do you have any closing thoughts? I was just thinking, you know, not, again, not to sort of put the quarter finalists up so much, but,

[00:39:09] Sam Rhee: um, I was just thinking what they might have in common.

And honestly I was thinking about all 20 and, and I mean, except for me honestly, cuz I'm the oldest one out of the group. For, I think Tracy and, and, and Kathleen, but they're women and they move really well. Yeah. The women, all, everyone

[00:39:24] David Syvertsen: moves really well. Basically they're both crush you in the open toes.

They are .

[00:39:27] Sam Rhee: Yeah. Everyone, every one of those 20 moves really well. Mm-hmm. , like, if you look at their technique, it's true, like, like no one is sloppy, no one has like crappy toes to bar or, or like, you know, they, you know, their. Is excellent and I think one of the things that I would say if I had aspirations is I would want to make sure that all of my move.

got better and better. Mm-hmm. like quality of movement. Quality of movement, and, and actually that was one of the things I took away from the open this year is, you know, I don't think my quality of movement was what it could be for certain movements. Mm-hmm. . And I started really saying, I gotta think about how is it that I'm moving for everything.

So for the whole year now I'm gonna really think about. , how am I really doing toast to bar the right way? Right. I maybe I could do some more if I sorta like, kind of

[00:40:20] David Syvertsen: like feet together on the way up. Right? Yeah. I think that's one of your biggest issues with to bar like your feet separate

[00:40:24] Sam Rhee: a little bit.

Yes. And, and I've been working on, I just worked on that today. Right. Um, you know, so, uh, going overhead with certain things. Mm-hmm. like really making sure head through, head through. All of the things that I feel like can, can make me look like a better athlete is going to actually make me a better

[00:40:41] David Syvertsen: athlete.

Yeah. And you can follow the, the old school methodology of CrossFit is mechanics, then consistency, then intensity. And this would be the time of year to screw your scores for a little bit. Think, you know, be loyal to yourself. Think long term, not short term. And. Some of your movements, even if it makes your workout slower, this is the time of year to do it right now.

Not in January Next year. Yep. Like it's too late if, if you wanna turn the switch at that point. So those that try to blend this desire to work hard, get after it go hard, try to mesh that with, or even put it behind the mechanics and consistency of those mechanic. , this is the time of year to do it. And if you do that, like Sam said, you will be better next year.

I, I can almost guarantee it. Not a money back guarantee though, . All right. Thank you guys. Great job in the open, and we can't wait to just kind of help you out, get to whatever your goal is next year, no matter what it is. Reach out to us, let us know. And we have the next herd fit q and a session coming up in our next episode.

Can't wait.