S03E97 QUESTIONS ASKED AND ANSWERED SESSION 02

This episode is the SECOND HERDFIT Q&A session where Dave and Sam answer audience questions. This week they tackle the pros and cons of blind versus open leaderboards for online competitions, how to get stronger faster and break through training plateaus, and advice about how to train for new skills such as ring muscle ups and double unders?

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S03E97 QUESTIONS ASKED AND ANSWERED SESSION 02

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: Welcome back to the Herd Fit Podcast. I am coach David Syon, who with my co-host, Dr. And coach Sam Re. Sam re is fresh off an apparel change because he just got done working out, doing this Thursday's Wild Team Black.

It's all right. The awesome second place team from this year. So bad, . All right. Um, today we are going to do, we are a week out for the master's quarter final. So we are going to do a recap next week with a couple of athletes that are participating, uh, over the. So this is kind of like a little bit of a transition week for us with the podcast, and it was a good time for us to throw in our second ever q and a session.

Um, if you remember back, uh, about two months ago, we sent out a post saying, Hey, we'd love to do some more q and a's. What do you guys wanna listen to? What do you guys want specific answers to? And we got over two dozen questions, so we're just gonna. You know, chip away at them over the course of the year when we have a time like this.

And, uh, so we have three more questions today, but before we get into that, um, I do want to just ask Sam where, where, how, how he's doing, what he's thinking about quarter finals coming up. What are you excited about? What are you nervous about? , um, what's going through your head right now? Well, we

[00:01:05] Sam Rhee: saw the individual quarter finals and we saw those workouts and so they're related most years, but not exactly the same.

And some, sometimes they're very different actually. Yeah. And, uh, I'm very psyched about our group. Mm-hmm. , we have 2020. Yeah. And they are, they look. Amazing. You do? I just saw them in open gym and they are so ready. Yeah. Like they're mentally ready, they're physically ready. Mm-hmm. , like, I'm so excited. Um, I'm, I know that workout's gonna be challenging for me.

Yes, yes. But I'm so excited to see how our

[00:01:34] David Syvertsen: athletes perform. Yeah. Yeah. And actually gimme a little contrast because. You and Kathleen were really the first two, you guys were the catalysts behind Masters Qualifying Beyond the Open. You guys were the first two and that was the year right before Covid, if you remember back.

Mm-hmm. , it was that fall open of October, but then the quarter finals, which age? Online age, online qualifier wasn't till months later. Mm-hmm. . Um, what is the biggest difference between now and then? In contrast in just in. When we're talking about the number of people participating, does it help? Does it hurt?

What do you think? Uh,

[00:02:09] Sam Rhee: it, it certainly helps. I mean, there it was, um, well, first of all, I can't imagine how Kathleen felt just doing it all by herself that first year. Yeah. And then I was a, I was able to make it the following year, but, Um, I do like the fact that it's short. Mm-hmm. between the open and the quarterfinals.

Uh, I do like the fact that we have all of these athletes that they're so capable. Mm-hmm. , I think what it really, I mean, I don't like it cuz I'm about three years older now, so it's like tougher. Right. But when I see a. 20 people and I saw how they did in the open. Mm-hmm. like that makes, it actually gives me a lot of, um, I don't wanna say hope mm-hmm.

but it gives me proof that anyone, I mean, listen, they're all very talented, but there are a lot of people that were just short of the cut line this year. And seeing that just makes me know that we're gonna have more and more athletes in the future. Oh, absolutely. And I think that it's a good goal for a lot of athletes who are relatively capable mm-hmm.

that they can actually make the quarter finals mm-hmm. and it is

[00:03:05] David Syvertsen: possible. Yeah. And you just gotta, you gotta put the work in. Yeah. And right now, and, you know, in, in terms of. Bosman is now really all entrenched in the programming, and you can already tell there's just a different flavor to his programming than what we got used to with Dave Castro.

And it makes it very hard to predict. Like I usually have a decent pulse on what we're going to see. I have no idea. I was

[00:03:25] Sam Rhee: about to ask you, I mean, you're usually pretty

[00:03:27] David Syvertsen: good about it. I mean, I, I really don't. I don't think we're gonna see one at Max Lift. Okay. Right. Uh, that, that's my first prediction. Uh, just based on what Boza said.

I do think we're gonna see crossovers now. At first I said we're not gonna see 'em, but I think we're gonna see crossovers based on what he said on the Jason Grub podcast. Okay. Um, and I think you're gonna see you guys have five scores. In two days, the open division had five and three days. In my opinion, they're not going to make it tougher physically for masters.

So I don't think you guys are going to be doing five workouts. I think you will be doing four workouts and one of them will have two scores. So that, that's my last kind of, uh, thing. But you know, just to echo Sam, really excited to see how everyone does, and I think it's a great opportunity for all 20 athletes in the entire gym to come out and support each other and just know.

there are going to be athletes that crush certain workouts and then get crushed and then vice versa. And that's one of the advantages, in my opinion, of having a big group. You and Kathleen, for example, are relatively, uh, similar athletes, right? In terms of like what your strengths, what your weaknesses are.

Yeah. She has more gymnastics skill and you're a little bit more, uh, a little bit more of a lifter, a little bit more like mobility, that kind of stuff. But in terms of your scores, you're pretty similar, right? We have been, yeah. You're, you're not gonna see that in this year's group. You're going to see certain people just get crushed by weights and then crush the gymnastics and then vice versa.

And I think it's really cool it can actually connect some of these athletes on, on a deeper emotional level knowing that, hey, we went through the same thing this weekend, even though it was in complete different spectrums. So I, I think it's gonna be really fun to watch. So let's get into these, uh, the three questions that we're gonna go over today.

Again, as usual, probably about five to 10 minutes on each. Not gonna go crazy, um, but we'll let you know. Let the conversation take us where it will. Okay. So the first question. , speaking of competitions online, what do you think about online competitions having blind leaderboards? So let's explain what a blind leaderboard is first for those that don't know.

And the quarter finals is a relatively, it's kinda like a half blind leaderboard, basically. Okay. When you submit a score during the open, your score immediately appears on the games leader board. Okay. When these guys have the competition this weekend, the quarter of finals, they will submit their score.

Whenever it does not show up until after the deadline. So basically what this does is it makes it more like a real competition. You don't know how other people did. You can't use other people's scores as a gauge to chase. You just have to give your best effort. You submit your score and you keep your fingers crossed.

Uh, and that is pr. That is a growing trend in online competing. Legends does this, right? Legends sends out six workouts in August, and you don't know a single score until three weeks. after every deadline has passed. So you can't be like, oh, that person got eight more reps than me. I'm gonna go try and beat them.

You don't know until it's too late. So that's what the blind leaderboard concept is. And you know, if you go to a local competition, right? We have a couple local competitions coming up in this area. You can actually know what place you came in in event one before event two starts. So you know exactly like who's in front of you, who do you need to beat, who do you need to run away from?

And it. . What that does, it kind of creates an unfair advantage for the person going after you that they're shooting after number, right? Like I shoot after numbers here all the time on our bison, whiteboard leaderboard daily. Oh, so and so got this. I'm gonna try to get that. It's not fair. I always say that on this podcast, right?

You didn't really beat anyone. If you saw their score and then beat it, you really didn't, right? So you had to kind of get away from that thought. What are your opening thoughts on what a blind leaderboard is? What it does for competition, what it does for the competitor?

[00:07:07] Sam Rhee: There's a lot of strategy involved, one versus the other.

Right? So the open, the CrossFit open is an open leaderboard, right? Yeah. You see scores as they're posted. Yep. You can get an idea of where you're sitting as, you know, as like lit literally in a day or two after they post the workouts. Mm-hmm. and athletes, especially games athletes before when it meant a lot.

uh, before they did the quarter finals, they would wait until the very, very, very, very end Good point. To support, uh, to submit their scores. Mm-hmm. and they would be looking at everyone and knowing what you know, where they needed to be. And even now, like for, um, our athletes competing for quarter finals, they have a sense after one or two days where they're sitting with that event and then they'll.

um, see if they wanna redo it. Mm-hmm. , and we had a lot of people do that because they knew where they were sort of sitting. Mm-hmm. B based on those scores submitted, and then they were gonna try to do it again. Right. So, um, from a strategy standpoint, um, like you, like you said, if you're chasing, if you're the chaser, right.

Being in an open leaderboard is so helpful. Absolutely. Absolutely right. Yeah. The, the second thing is, is a half blind leaderboard, like the quarter finals where you post scores on Saturday and you get to see those. before the Sunday scores. Yep. That also helps you in terms of chasing someone for those last couple events.

Right. Um, you know, you have to crush those mm-hmm. , you know, you have to do that. Um, I prefer from a competition standpoint, personally, a blind leaderboard. Mm-hmm. , like totally blind. Mm-hmm. , um, it. , uh, it, like you said, um, it allows you to do your best effort without knowing what anyone else is. Mm-hmm. . Now that being said, and remember legends last year when you did the online qualifiers, you talked to a lot of people, or not a lot, but some, right.

To get a sense of your performance Right. And see where you're sitting. Mm-hmm. . So our blind leaderboards truly. Blind. Oh, for

[00:08:56] David Syvertsen: sure. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I talk to a lot of athletes that I've competed at Legends on Instagram, and last year I did not have to do the qualifier, so, but I did get scores from other athletes to help our current athletes out that were doing it.

Ah. They're like, all right, what? What do I need to get on this? I'm like, dude, I don't know. Let me see if I can find some scores. And you share them and. You know, maybe you, I give them some of my athletes scores, you know, a little bit of a trade off. But that is kind of taking away the value of the blind leaderboard, or at least the point of it.

Right. And I like what you said is if you're the chaser, you want the open leaderboard. If you're getting chased, you want everything quiet, you want everything in the dark. And what are your thoughts if the Open did this next year because, and I have an opinion about this, I actually think would make the open more enjoyable for people.

Okay. If the open went completely. Meaning the workout comes out Thursday, 3:00 PM and nothing is posted online leaderboard until Monday night, 8:00 PM What would you think about that? Even though it's different, the open isn't only about competition, but what is the, if it's not about competition, why do you care what the score is on the leaderboard?

So, What are your thoughts if, if the Open did that? Cause I wanna share mine after.

[00:10:01] Sam Rhee: Um, the first thing is, my guess would be the absolute performance on each event would be slightly lower. Agreed. Um, because people would not have something to chase. It's always easier once you see someone do it and then you're like, 180 reps, I can do 180 reps.

Mm-hmm. . Um, the second thing is, is I think the more competitive athletes might do better. I'm not sure. Mm-hmm. , the ones who actually perform better under pressure, maybe. Mm-hmm. . . I also think that there might actually be more redos for some people because they're really afraid of where they are. Yeah. And so every event counts more cuz and you can't see where you're sitting mm-hmm.

So you're like, okay, I need to get two more reps. I need to get two more reps. Mm-hmm. and, and I think you might actually see more injuries because people are redoing

[00:10:44] David Syvertsen: more. That's a good point. Yeah. I didn't even think about the inter angle to it. Um, I have two thoughts on it. One of them is, We can say that most athletes do better when they're pursuing a number.

I actually believe that there's an equal amount of athletes that leave something on the table because they chased after a number in, but they could have gone even further, but they just tried to beat that one person by one rep, or they just tried to beat that person's tiebreaker by 10 seconds, right?

That if they didn't have something to shoot for, they actually, but they were worried about their score not being good enough, not getting to their goal. , they would've actually pushed harder than that. Right? I I, it's almost like if you were gonna go try and PR two K Row and your p and your PR was 6 45, and then you're just like, you have this pace on your monitor.

You're trying to get 6 45. You gut your way to a 6 43. I wonder that if you didn't have the 6 45 in your head, if you just went into it and be like, I don't know what my PR is, I'm not gonna know what it was until after I do this. I bet you get a 6 35

[00:11:43] Sam Rhee: now you're talking about a blind leaderboard for the all five

[00:11:46] David Syvertsen: events.

Yeah. Um, no, no. Per week. I would say per week. Oh, okay. Yeah. But that's actually another angle. That would be

[00:11:51] Sam Rhee: fun too. Only because I think I would have to go so hard on each event because like for example, the last event, that's what it is. Yeah. You know, like last event, I knew I was. . Okay. Yeah. So I knew where I had to go with it.

Right? And I was like, okay, I know if I just make so, but if I didn't know, I would push harder. I would've pushed so hard cuz I had four scores. I didn't know where I was. Mm-hmm. , I was like, am I in? Am I not in? Yep. Who knows? And every week I would. Like literal, like I feel like I'm killing myself every week, but I would probably have to try even harder

[00:12:20] David Syvertsen: every week.

Yeah. And I actually think it would be less stressful for athletes at first. People might say, no, no, no. I need to know where I stand. But the amount of times people refresh their phone to see what percentile they ranked from Saturday, Sunday, and then they're like, oh my God, I'm nose diving on Monday. It's like, What if you just weren't allowed to look at it until Monday?

Right. . But, but how

[00:12:39] Sam Rhee: about all the people who like submit their score and be like, I'm number one in the world right now. . Like they would, you would rob them of that

[00:12:44] David Syvertsen: satisfaction. Yes, that's true. All, all nine people. Yeah. So that tho those are my thoughts. And then the last thing I would say about the blind leaderboard is relate this to your, your Jim's whiteboard.

If, if your Jim records scores on a whiteboard at the gym, whether it's an an app, a software, or physically writing on a whiteboard, You know, we've had this discussion many times. I'm sure we'll do an episode on this at some point. If the people that came in throughout the day didn't have any scores to chase.

Would that be a good or bad thing? I don't want to go down that rabbit hole yet because I wanna move on to the next question, but just if you're having a hard time comprehending this, right? Imagine you come in after the 5:00 AM after the first class of the day, and there was never a score up there for you to pursue.

Would that be good or bad for you? Right? Would that help your fitness hurt your fitness? Would it help your fun? Part of it would hurt, you know, would, would make you less competitive or more competitive. So that, that's kinda like where I want people to kind of just leave their thoughts on that. Do you have any extra thoughts before

[00:13:39] Sam Rhee: we Only that the five amers should feel a sense of superiority because they never have a benchmark and they, they are the benchmark every day.

They are. And you know, they have a blind

[00:13:48] David Syvertsen: leaderboard every day. Every day they come in and just set the tone. That's why it's a special group, those five ams, it's always been a special group of people. Um, a if they wake up so damn early. But B, they set the tone for the entire. You know, and then, yes, the rest of the morning classes do too, because it helps to come in and see numbers.

But the 5:00 AM is like, they are the first ones there while we're all sleeping. All right. Um, next question. This is a little bit of a long question, so just stick with me and then I'll kind of, uh, dumb this down a little bit to make it a little bit more understandable. Which method do you feel could be more effective for getting stronger, faster, or getting through a plateau option?

A train at moderate to hard pace more days per week and pick a just a couple of days to go all out or train a little less often. And always go all out. So this is a really common question. I don't always have the answer. I do have an opinion on it though, and I'm sure Sam does too. The question is, Hey, I wanna get stronger.

I wanna get better. CrossFit, I want to increase my performance. Do I simply need to come in more often and just maybe tone it back a little bit, go 80% effort four or five days a week, and then go all out twice a week? Or should I take a couple extra days off per week so that I can really fully recover, get that CNS ready, and then go all out on the three or four days that I do come in?

Which one would be better for you? What are your opening thoughts?

[00:15:05] Sam Rhee: So the first thing I did was I Googled how do you get stronger, faster and, uh, peds, right? Yeah. Aside from that, the, uh, the training methodology that most people espouse when they want. To get stronger, faster, or break through a plateau is to increase training intensity while either maintaining or decreasing your volume.

Okay. So if you are normally a three sets of 10 to 12 reps, this is mostly weightlifting. Yep. Um, decrease it to three to three sets to six to eight reps with a heavier weight. So that's the traditional mindset for weightlifters. So how do you translate that into CrossFit training? So I. Decre for, I mean, it depends on where you're sitting in terms of your fatigue level and your recovery, but I feel like for most people, you're gonna do better if you decrease maybe your sessions and increase your intensity for those sessions.

Mm-hmm. , that's, that's sort of the gestalt that I got and, and honestly I feel like a lot of us over train anyway, um, just because we want the mental health benefits. Yes. Um, and it's so hard for. Not to go intensely. Mm-hmm. , I tell everyone like, you know, if this is sort of your deload, they just deload. But as soon as the clock starts, everyone

[00:16:27] David Syvertsen: is just like

It's a, it's

[00:16:30] Sam Rhee: a drug. It's so hard not to. And so I think that a lot of people would do better if they pick, and Cho chose very careful. I am gonna go full sin on these particular days, especially when you're focusing on certain aspects

[00:16:43] David Syvertsen: of your strength training. Yeah, that, that's a great way to put it. That really is like Sam has the answer.

That's kind of echo that. I would definitely echo that opinion. And just to put it in my own words, most CrossFitters that are performance based, need to work out less often and and really focus in on recovery. And understand. Here's an example. This weekend, you guys had the quarter finals this weekend, right?

No one's coming in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, going all out. Mm-hmm. . If anything, I'm gonna tell the group you should pick Monday or Tuesday to go hard at the other day to chill a little bit Wednesday, take off Thursday, do some slow conditioning. Like, so, like, it's almost like you're taking an extra two days away from working hard so that you can what?

Give your max effort Friday. Uh, yeah. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And if you wanna apply. To the rest of the year, your normal week to week training. There needs to be less amount of times during the week for that you're going all out or, and here's the question, Sam said, and as Sam brought this up, my mental health somewhat relies on me coming to the gym and starting off my day that way and feeling accomplished and feeling healthy.

And you know what? I'm all about that. Right? I, I feel the same way. I do take more days off than I used to, and I right now do. Well, maybe not right now cause I'm not trained to compete, but I feel healthier and I feel just as fit. I'm working out less, I feel healthier, and I feel just as fit. How do I get stronger?

How do I get in better shape? It's not necessarily just come in every day, do two days. Even though I would love to do that mentally, that would make me happy. It would make me feel good and make me feel accomplished. Um, you have to know that with every extra session you do, that you sh where you're not fully recovered, you're taking a bite out of something else, and eventually you get to a point where you get burned out.

You get. , um, injured all this stuff and it could have easily been avoided by simply taking more rest days. Right. And this is why I love long-term approach training is Yeah, it's like, uh, the person that's trying to lose 10 pounds before they go on vacation next week, so they can look at, uh, on their pictures in their, in the album Right.

Or whatever. You know, they're social media. I guess I just dated myself saying picture album , but the, you know, and that, that carries over like, oh my God, I have a competition two weeks. I have to train four dimes. Like, you know what? Sure, go, go ahead. But I think the long-term progress approach is to take more days off and then come in and just increase your intensity when you're here.

Um, so any closing thoughts on that? Yeah. The

[00:19:03] Sam Rhee: other thing is, is that if you're working on a very specific type of movement or exercise, You. I mean, you should talk to your coach, but you could also vary. The routine. So let's suppose you're always using a barbell for your overheads or something, right?

Mm-hmm. , maybe scale it and change it to dumbbells or, you know, make it more like if you're doing, um, certain movements and you're like, you know what? I really need to focus on my asymmetry of strength, you know? Scale it to single legs. Mm-hmm. , whatever it is. Like most of the time, if we're doing the same movements over and over and over again to try to get better at that movement, we might not necessarily break through that plateau on that movement.

Right. We actually might have to. Change up. Something about that movement. So if your hip hinge is not awesome, maybe you need to think about, all right, how can I change up this, um, movement So I'm hip hinging, but slightly differently, right. Maybe it's a pause. Mm-hmm. , uh, like if, so if there are, um, are back squats that are programmed, maybe you go lighter and do a pause.

Mm-hmm. , right? And, and just instead of the Rx. Get the scale, but you know, you're working to try to break through that plateau and you're doing something different. So, you know, this is where having a coach can be really helpful because you could say, I'm really stuck on this movement. Mm-hmm. . And then, you know, like, and Dave has done this, I know you've done this with athletes all the time.

You're like, okay, so for this week, for this wad Yeah. Do this and

[00:20:30] David Syvertsen: like do this. Yeah. I, I've done that for tomorrow's ring muscle per out for a few people already. Right? Yeah. So they're not doing muscle ups every time. It's just a last round and the other movement's leading up. Are different movements.

Right,

[00:20:40] Sam Rhee: right. So, so work with someone to change it up a little bit, work on the weakness and, and, uh, vary it in order to,

[00:20:46] David Syvertsen: to break through that. Yeah. And so, I mean, I think the macro level answer to this is intentional training. Right, like have intentions when you show up, right? The person that asks this question, I know who, who it is, and she works very hard.

She comes in and she just basically wants some guidance on, Hey, I feel like I'm not getting better anymore. What, should I simply take more days off, work harder? Should I come in every day and just tap the breaks? And I, the answer's gonna be intentional in training. And, you know, the, these are where the conversations with a coach would really help you out.

Um, because the answer can vary person to person based on experience, volume, tolerance, lifestyle, all that kind of stuff. Um, but intentional training is, is vital to, to, to everyone. All right. Um, oh,

[00:21:26] Sam Rhee: before you st Yeah. And one quick plug. I know you don't plug your next level. Yeah. But I think that that's where next level is very helpful for people.

Yeah. Because they have helped. Including me when I've done it. Mm-hmm. It's, it, if there's something that I need to focus on, I'm, I'm really sort of stuck at, um, I've seen the program programming that you do for that. Yep. Um, and I also, just a quick plug because I know you probably won't, , you just announced this past week that you're offering affiliate programming Yep.

For others, um, other gyms and, you know, based on. , what I've seen of your programming for nine years. You are very, like you said, intentional, right about working specific aspects. And I know that your strength in programming is being able to, one, uh, minimize the risk of injury. Two Foc, you know, whatever aspect that you have chosen to focus on for the gym or for athletes.

You're very good at building that up, um, and cycling through different, um, aspects of fitness. Mm-hmm. and three, it, you know, um, you give so much thought. into people being able to do the workouts. Like I've seen some other programming, like I, I won't name other program. Yeah. But it's like, it's effing heavy, right?

And there's so much volume and you feel like you're dying. Mm-hmm. . And I feel like sometimes that programming is not as helpful. Mm-hmm. , um, You know, this is the type of thing that you need to, to sort of have a coach work with you specifically in order to, um, not get injured, not feel beat up, and yet make progress.

[00:22:57] David Syvertsen: Yeah, no, thank, thanks for that. And I think, well, we will have an episode coming up on just the whole affiliate programming idea and whether you're gonna be on it or not, just something that, some bullet points I think every gym could benefit from including us. Like we're still trying to make our programming better here.

Um, so last question. Okay. Speak. This is kind of like in the same conversation. When is the best time to learn a skill? Example rope climb, ring muscle up. Open gym by yourself while Googling instructions. Try to follow an online program. Hire a trainer. What should I do if I wanna learn a skill? Um, excellent question.

One of the questions that as a coach of a growing. That now has a lot of members, has been a stressor for myself that, I will say this, it was a lot easier to help people with skills six years ago Yep. Than it is now. Yeah. Um, a just a volume of people. And B, the varying degree of, of talent level and ability levels, I should say, shouldn't say talent ability level, right?

We have people in the gym that can do 15 ring muscle ups in a row, and then we have some people that wanna ring muscle up that can't do a pull-up yet, right? And everyone in between. And it's, it's hard. And I, this is something I'm working on, on the side that I really want to get out there to the whole gym at some point.

Part of the affiliate programming as well is that like, Hey, you are level one through. At every single movement, level five can do this. Level one is here. You have to know, and here's a test. This is what level you currently reside in. Okay? Hey, you're at level three on. Bring muscle up, Sam. This is what you need to do over the no over the next year to try and get yourself to level four.

And that's kind of something, and I'm working on that with Wall Walks. I'm working on that with Olympic lifting that, that kind of stuff. And I think it would be, it's a cool, like what I like where it's going right now, I just need to firm it up and clean it up and make sure it's foolproof. Because again, you're gonna have a volume of people on this thing you got, you have to basically answer the questions before they get asked.

And. This, this is why, the reason I'm doing it is like you're just, you know, well, I'm one person. Our coaches, they're one peop, they're one person. They have families, they have their own training. This is a part-time job for a lot of people. You can't just expect someone to meet you here every Sunday to work on your muscle ups while there's nine other people that want work on rope climbs.

Right. So what does Anth, what should an athlete do that's in this position?

[00:25:13] Sam Rhee: Uh, my first answer is all of the above. Yeah. Try everything right? Like there's no reason not to try any, everything. Right? The the second thing I would say is, is how receptive are you personally to learning that new skill? Mm-hmm.

like, and what modality are you going to open your mind to? So any one of these ways you could, you could, um, practice all by yourself and, and YouTube all day. Um, and, but you may, and that. Open your mind. They might say the same things on that YouTube video as someone standing next to you, um, is saying in the gym.

But because the person on the YouTube video is Rich Froning and the person in the gym telling you is Sam Reid , you might feel like. Sam doesn't know what he is talking about. Yeah. But then you watch it on YouTube and you're like, oh, well I really should do that. Right. Like it's how receptive are you as a person mm-hmm.

to receiving that instruction. And some people just do really well by watching YouTube

[00:26:09] David Syvertsen: videos. I do. Yeah. I, I've learned, I've self-taught myself so much on YouTube. , um, with, with every movement in crosser, like including rowing. Like I'll spend a half hour watching rowing instructional videos and, and apply that to workouts, but I know that's not for everyone.

What, what do you, what else do you think

[00:26:24] Sam Rhee: about it? I mean, I also think different trainers. That's why people are always complaining like, Um, like ashes are learning something and you're like, I told you that 15 nine, but then Adam Ramson tells you that and you get it. It's like it again, it's, it's, it's the modality or, or the way it's being delivered.

Yeah. So it's okay to try all these sort of different things I think. Um, You know, there are so many online progression programs now. Mm-hmm. that's like how to get a ring muscle up in three weeks and something like that. Right, right. . Um, and so you can, you can try all of that and, and they may all might work.

I think honestly, personally, um, I do like starting with YouTube videos and stuff. Mm-hmm. , but at some point for me to have to break through, I do need live guidance. Absolutely. I need to video myself. Mm-hmm. , I need to sort of get that course correction feedback. Mm-hmm. and. it. I think the other thing is, is you have to have patience.

There's a lot of times where you will plateau for the longest time and you're like, I'm not getting it. I'm not getting it. I'm not getting it. Is um, I saw Susan with double unders, like mm-hmm. the same thing. It was single double. Single double, yeah. For literally like months and then something. Now

[00:27:30] David Syvertsen: she dominates them.

[00:27:31] Sam Rhee: You broke through. Yeah. And now she had 'em. But, but it took a long time. And I think some of that for a lot of athletes is complimentary training. So sometimes it's like, you know what, I, I can't do ring muscle ups, so I'm, let me strengthen the muscles and the skills I need. Mm-hmm. , don't keep trying to fail.

Ring muscle ups. Right. And then come back like, a month later and, and see how it goes. Right?

[00:27:54] David Syvertsen: So I, I think, and echo again, same thing. We're speaking the same language here. Um, yes, be coachable. I would say one thing, especially if it's a skill, a hard skill that's, that you're not close to, right? Um, this person that asks, you know, if, if, if the ring must is your goal, I could say right now you're not there strength-wise yet.

So that, and when you ask a. This question, how do I get better? And you need to be ready for an answer you might not want to hear. Right. And you need to be okay with that. Yeah. And I think, I think it's the coach's responsibility to be completely honest. Like I hate coaches that fabricate and you know, beat around the bush.

Like, Hey, you're not strong enough for the ring muscle up yet. That's the end of the discussion. Now that that part of the discussion, the discussion now will move onto, , what do we need to do to get you stronger so that you can try these ring muscles at some point? So I think step one for an athlete that wants to get better and you have all these different options, but you, you're overwhelmed, you don't know where to go, is to have a conversation with a coach.

And this is something that might need to, in my opinion. All right. Protecting the coaches here. You, you need to reach out to that coach, whether, email, text, ask, Hey, when are you free? When? When can I come in and talk to you? Don't do it in between classes. Absolutely. Don't ask a coach to come help you with the ring muscle up three minutes after class and two minutes before the next, you'll get.

Almost zero instruction or bad instruction. That's just not the right time to do it. But they're overwhelmed just dealing with class, right? My recommendation would be like, Hey, when, when is the time that, cause I've, I've done this, I can't even time count how many, hundreds of times, Hey, let's meet at the gym, um, next Tuesday at three o'clock and let, we'll talk, or, we'll, we'll text each other back and forth, like you find a way to communicate.

And then the question is, all right, where do I currently stand with this? , and again, this is where my, my level one through five five talk starts to come in. And that's okay. So I'm currently at this level, I can't do this. What do I need to do? And Sam used the word earlier that everyone needs to know. If you are trying to learn a skill, you need to know the progressions.

All right? What do you need to have done before you try this? All right. Um, when, lately when someone, Sally Lee is currently pretty close to a muscle up, a bar, muscle up. Okay, she's gonna get it pretty soon. The other day she was working on it unsolicited. I said like, Hey, just real quick, try to get your stung to the bar.

And she did. And because she almost got her stomach to the bar, she almost got the muscle up. And I said like, what if that's your next progression? How about if we made a rule? You're not allowed to, you're not allowed to try another bar muscle up until you do 50 stomach to bar pull-ups over the courts of the next six weeks.

Oh my God. I don't know. Five a week. I'm not saying five a week. Just like you said unbroke. I was like, whoa, no, no, no, no. 50. Like over the course, like build a Kelly cabin right now we're working on her snatch. and we're going back to 55 to 65 pounds. Mm-hmm. , and I said we are going to do a hundred snatches over the course of the next three or four weeks before we go to 70 pounds.

And then we're gonna do that a hundred times before we go to 75 because we want to get the mechanics. We want to train everything perfectly and not rush, right? Sam said, be patient. When you're trying to learn a skill or you're trying to get stronger with the barbell, you have to not put a timeline on it.

You have to be very patient and understand and respect the progression part of it. So I think that conversation with the coach needs to happen first then. Yes. Research on your own. Do everything. You can meet us halfway. Right. Don't expect a coach to do everything for you. Yeah. You have to do the work even when no one's looking.

You have to do the work. Yeah. And you have to be ready for an answer you might not want to hear. And then from there, It can go into a couple different directions. An online program, how to get a muscle up in three weeks. You can hire a trainer, um, you can hop on a pro online program. Um, but remember the program is not as important as your approach when you're training.

And it, again, putting a timeline on it could, could actually put a detriment on what you're actually trying to pursue. I

[00:31:44] Sam Rhee: would say the only other thing I would agree with, a thousand percent, obviously with everything you said. Is when you do ask a coach and you listen to them, you have to buy in, right?

Like I've seen people ask casually to like, you know, and, and they'll hear something and they won't really. Fully

[00:31:59] David Syvertsen: Right. They, they don't hear what

[00:32:01] Sam Rhee: they want to hear. Yeah, they don't, yeah, exactly. They're like, no, I don't think that that's really what I need. Right. It's like, well, if you're gonna ask somebody Right, you better trust them.

Otherwise don't ask. Right. Right. Like, and if they're saying something that, you know, you. Didn't expect or you're like, you disagree with. Yeah. Like you said, maybe you have to open your mind and

[00:32:18] David Syvertsen: actually follow them. Yeah. And like, yes. Hey, coaches out there, don't be a dick about it. Like, don't, don't be mean when they're like, oh no dude, you suck.

You can't even do toes bar. Like you can't do a muscle, don't, don't go in that direction. But you do need to be honest and the athlete needs to be able to accept honesty. Um, and it's like to quote Hinshaw, like, we'll always try to help you get to whatever your goal. We don't care until you say you're not gonna do it anymore.

But it's not our job to tell you whether or not you can get there. You know, it, it's, we will help you get to these progressions. Um, but just be ready for, for those kind of answers and, and be ready to grind and be able to do a lot of that stuff on your own because every a, uh, accomplished athlete that you see out there, let's stick with CrossFit.

We'll stay away from other things. They did a lot of stuff on their own. And I feel that way about life too. You can't always be spoonfed, you know, as an adult, interior, adult life, you have to do a lot of the work by yourself. A coach, a program that's kind of just like a little push, you know? But you have to go do the most of the work.

I will

[00:33:14] Sam Rhee: do one real life example. Uh, and uh, I used to play violin. I used to play a lot really. I

[00:33:20] David Syvertsen: didn't know that. Oh, really?

[00:33:21] Sam Rhee: I had no idea. Oh, yeah. I played since I was like four. Oh, wow. And I played until I was 18 and I got to college, and then I like never played again. Okay. But, uh, you know, I played, uh, in a ci uh, city symphony.

I, I, you know, did recitals, I did all that stuff. Yeah. And you, you could always tell who put the work in. When I really wasn't sending it, I would just show up for my lesson every week, and my teacher could totally tell if I was putting the work in mm-hmm. or I was not putting the work in mm-hmm. and you know yourself too.

And that's, that's really where all of it is. Your, your teacher, your coach, all of that stuff, like you said, doesn't mean. anything unless you are the one putting that effort in on your own. Mm-hmm. thinking about it, working on it, and it's fun. Like it should be fun. Yeah. Like, I enjoy wa like when I'm learning a new skill, I enjoy watching videos.

I enjoy thinking about it. I enjoy, um, you know, working on those things. And you should too. It should be a joy because once you finally get it, it should be like, A, a huge accomplishment. Um, I can't remember. You know, I remember when Susan got her double unders how happy she was and how long she'd been working on it.

Good analogy. And so I think, you know, don't be afraid to do that. You should want to mm-hmm. otherwise, why are you doing it? Right? Yeah. Like, just so you could say you can do it. Yeah.

[00:34:35] David Syvertsen: Well, I, that, that's one of the questions I ask people when they say they want a skill. I'm like, I would like to know why. If, and if the answer could be like, Hey, it's cool and I wanna do cool things with my body.

Awesome. That's fine. Yeah. But like, it can't be because I want to say I can do it. You know, like I always say a goal, any. I remember talking to a CrossFit competitor that's, um, back in the day and I still feel this way. If no one ever knew what your accomplishment was, would you still pursue it? And if the, if the answer is no to show off and show that I did it, then I don't think you should pursue that.

So, all right guys, well thank you for the, uh, the second ever q and A session. It looks like the camera's only pointing at me right now. So , we will see what the YouTube video looks like, like , um, that, that I did not have anything to do with that, but we will try to get that fixed by next week. Uh, please tune into next week's episode as well.

We're gonna have a couple quarter finalists up with here. We haven't decided who's gonna be on there yet. Um, it's gonna be based on performance. No, just kidding. Uh, but we can't wait to go over that with you guys and, um, we'll see you.