S05E145 - Navigating the Path to CrossFit 2024 Quarter Finals Excellence
Ever wondered best to gear up for high-stakes CrossFit competitions? This week on Herdfit Podcast, coaches David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic break down the adrenaline-fueled journey from the end of the 2024 CrossFit Open to the ramp-up for the QuarterFinals. Whether you're a seasoned athlete or a first-timer stepping into the competitive arena, we've got your back with a treasure trove of strategies, from goal setting to perfecting your mental game.
The road to the Quarter Finals is paved with more than just sweat; it's a meticulous blend of preparation, community support, and strategy. We tackle the nuts and bolts of what it takes to thrive in this environment, sharing firsthand experiences and the collective wisdom of gym owners, coaches, and athletes. From securing gym space to understanding the critical importance of a judge's course, we lay out the blueprint for success. Plus, we don't shy away from discussing the lifestyle factors that could make or break your performance — think nutrition, sleep, and stress management, not just increased workout volume.
As competition day looms, remember that it's not all about the physical grind. The final stretch is about sharpening your mental edge and embracing the calm before the storm. We'll guide you through the importance of a deload period and why the last 10 days should focus on routine maintenance rather than strenuous workouts. Join us as we share stories, cautionary tales, and our personal approach to ensuring you're not just ready but primed to bring your best to the Quarter Finals. Tune in and transform your CrossFit journey with wisdom from the trenches!
@crossfitbison @crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #personalizedfitness #crossfitquarterfinals
S05E145 - Navigating the Path to CrossFit 2024 Quarter Finals Excellence
TRANSCRIPT
David Syvertsen
Host
00:05
Hey everybody, welcome to the Herdfit Podcast with Dr Sam Rhee and myself, coach David Syvertsen. His podcast is aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition and, most importantly, mindset. All right, welcome back to the Herdfit Podcast. I'm Coach David Syvertsen. I'm here with my co-host, dr and Coach Sam Rhee, and we both just got done with our Sunday morning training session. I'm not going to talk to Sam about his workout so that he doesn't get mad at me as we start off this wonderful podcast.
00:38
This morning we just wrapped up the 2024 CrossFit Open and next week we are going to kind of reflect on the open, the workouts, the overall program and macro, micro, and then what you can do, what you can take from that open into your next 11 months of training. If the open is a goal for yours which we are pretty adamant that it should be at least a little voice in your head throughout the year in terms of planning out for your goals to 2025 CrossFit Open. So we will kind of help you guide you in terms of what to take from the open in your training. But I want to get something out there first and that is in regard to the CrossFit quarter finals. We are essentially three and a half weeks away, if I have my dates correct when this comes out, and I want to talk about how to prepare for the quarter finals, and I think it's really important for a couple of reasons. Number one there are a lot of people that are doing this for the first time because the CrossFit HQ expanded quarter finals from 10% to 25% and pretty much last year we had 24 people. This year we have, at CrossFit bison, 73 athletes that qualified for quarters.
02:00
I don't know, actually I know for a fact not all of them will be doing it. A few have already told me they won't be doing it, but you are talking about times three. The amount of people that qualified is times three and just this gym alone. So the vast majority of these athletes 50 plus have never done this before. And I'm the one telling them some of them, hey, you made it. And they're like wait, what? What did I make? What is it? So?
02:27
With that, I have gotten a lot of questions ready. What do I do? How do I get ready? What should I do? Should I do actual workouts? Should I do two days? Should I work on my muscle ups, my pistols and heavy lifting. I want to make sure that we don't get overwhelmed by it, so I'm just going to give some pretty clear cut what to expect, what you can do, what you should do, what you should not do in the next three, three and a half weeks preparing. So, sam, this is your. Let's see if I can do the math real quick. I think this is your fifth next stage that you made so it used to be the age online qualifier, then it turned into quarter finals. No matter what, you've been in it five years in a row.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
03:03
I made it by the skin of my teeth this year again. So that's, by the way, sam, to you I think you were what top what 200 this year, right around it, yeah, right around it In the world. So that's pretty impressive, congratulations, thank you. You mean I'm going to have to learn how to handstand walk in the next three weeks, because I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that. You're going to have to give me some guidance on that one.
David Syvertsen
Host
03:25
Yeah, there's. This could go in so many different directions and I want to try and not to, because it's an overwhelming concept for a lot of people to take in, and so I'm really going to kind of take you step by step what I think you can do Now. Hey, if you're listening and you haven't made quarter finals, there's two things you can do with this, All right. One maybe you will someday, Maybe you want to someday, and the sooner you get this information into your head, the better. Two you might have some friends that are have made quarter finals and you're going to try to support them, or people from your gym or your coach, right, People that you know take this serious and they want to put a lot into it. I think, as a friend, as a community member, it helps you, help them to know what's going on in their head and what's coming their way, Because if you're on the outside of it and you don't care that much or just haven't really put a lot of attention on it, you might view this as like hey, this is not a big deal To some. This is a very big deal, I promise you discussions I've had over the past few years. This weekend is in the CrossFit calendar. The biggest deal. To a lot of people, this is like. This is their world series. This is it. This is what they've trained for for 11 months. So I think it's a really important for you to be cognizant of what's coming their way and then, frankly, you might sign up for a competition, a local comp, someday. What I'm going to tell these quarter finalists to do in the next three and a half weeks is very similar to what I would tell someone that's a month away from their first ever CrossFit competition. So there's a lot you can take away from this.
04:54
So, number one, what is your goal, athlete? What is your goal? Do you want to have fun? This was the goal I wanted to make quarter finals. Do you have a certain threshold? Are you trying to hit top 100, top 200, top half, top 25% of this group? Whatever? Are you trying to make semifinals? You need to know that answer yesterday. I don't want you to think about it for a week or two. You need to know it yesterday. That's a way of saying you need to already know. So right now, if you're listening to this, if you're a quarter finalist and you have no idea what your goal is to get out of quarter finals. Figure it out ASAP, because that is going to dictate pretty much every answer to every question I'm going to ask you within this podcast. So let's talk, Sam and I. I think that it would be smart for us to reflect on our answers to these questions so that those out there can get that perspective and it might help shape theirs if they don't know. Sam, what is your goal for quarter finals?
Sam Rhee
Co-host
06:00
My goal is not your goal for sure. My guess would be your goal is to make semis. Mine is. First of all, I just am recovering right now from doing the open for three weeks. That was stressful. Yep, I'm sorry I forgot how bad five weeks was, because even three weeks now is rough. The adrenaline, the thinking about it, the worry, the really pushing myself, optimizing myself for that workout.
06:27
After the third workout I was just like ooh, and I just took a big step back and just even now, thinking about quarter finals, I'm like oh my God, that's coming up. And I was like, do I even want to think about it right now? And I'm like, all right, I'll start thinking. But for me, every year quarter finals has been these have been really challenging tests. I mean tests that have been sometimes beyond my physical capability, and so I realize that I don't have designs, other than maybe the first year I was doing it. I don't have designs in making it farther or further. I can't remember which one is the right way to say it, but I will say you're just talking to a cross-exchange, I'll believe whatever you say, doctor.
07:13
I do want to enjoy myself, I want to stay safe and I want to test myself, because sometimes I have surprised myself on some of these workouts and I've been like I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do, and so I feel like, especially this year more than any other, I'm going to see some things that I hope will be in my wheelhouse, that I can really challenge myself or do something that I haven't done before. After a couple of years, you figure out some stuff a little bit and maybe I can make myself proud a little bit.
David Syvertsen
Host
07:53
So Sam's in that state of mind and situation within the sport that out of the 73 people in our gym, I would say 60 plus are in that spot where they don't really have the goal of advancing to the semifinal or games level. All right, that again got realistically. There's probably only 2% of people that are in quarterfinals that have a credible shot at that. So what do you do? And I think what he said is perfect Make it a goal to do all the workouts so, a don't get hurt, and we'll talk about how to do that, how to avoid that. B if you get to do all these quarterfinal workouts, that means you are a fit mother effort. Because if you look at some of the history of quarterfinal workouts, there are multiple workouts where the first rep of that workout a lot of people cannot do this year is different in that the age group workouts masters and teens are the same workouts as the Open Division. So the workouts that Tia's doing to make it to the semifinals we're doing, you know, and it is crazy, and I don't ever want to put pressure on personal relationships that I have with people that are in CrossFit that already know what the workouts are, and I would never want to ask them something that is not already publicly out there. I just I would never. A that's cheating, and B I don't want to make them feel uncomfortable. So one thing I did find out, that is out there Dave Castro was on Savon last night, was saying the same exact thing. Boss has said this in the past, but maybe you guys haven't listened. So here you go.
09:31
I was told that the workouts are going to be affiliate friendly. Good, and they can be done in class settings Great, all right, so that does to me. There are a few things in that that make me think we won't see a GHT sit up, rope climb maybe, but I am thinking about affiliates that have classes. There just won't be that many gyms that can do that. So don't take my word for it. But those are a couple of things that, if you really understand logistics mapping things out multiple people in a class in a gym doing the same workout I think you can start to kind of get a picture of what won't be in the quarter finals.
10:10
But you have to keep in mind what I just said earlier Tia is doing these workouts. The semis. Crossfit wants Tia in the semifinals. They can't. I just told Rams in this I'd be stressed out programming these because I wouldn't want to make it so affiliate friendly that some 10% or somehow got in front of the top 1% because it wasn't heavy enough, it wasn't high, skilled enough. So I think one thing programming wise, to expect I'm going to tie this back to can you get all these done is there's probably going to be multiple workouts where the difficulty aggressively ascends in the workout, meaning like a cutoff a cutoff, or it starts at this weight and then it goes to that weight and most of us can't do that weight Did you see that where the 10%ers went above the games, athletes and the open workouts, there were a few right, there were a few high like scorers out there that were, and I think the athletes took it a little less seriously.
11:13
Yeah, I think part of it is not every games athlete goes after these open workouts with full aggression, but they have to for these quarterfinals. For quarterfinals there's a lot less marks Like that. Yeah, you're at the right. They have to peak, basically, at quarterfinals. The top of the top can probably peak at semifinals, like Noah Olson. I remember last year he did all the quarterfinal workouts with them 24 hour period and that's still one first place. So to me that's not peaking, that's just like. He's just really fit. But yeah, if you're kind of like on the bubble semifinalists or on the bubble even games athlete that is expected to make some eyes, there needs to be workouts where they separate themselves, and the best way to separate themselves, in my opinion, is you ascend weights deeper into the workout to the point where a lot of us just can't do it anymore. You ascend gymnastics throughout the workout. So you start off with pull ups, chest bar, ring, muscle ups right or handstand pushups, strict handstand pushups, wall facing handstand pushups or ascending reps. That is something that I've always noticed over the year. The best athletes like let's say it's, let's create a workout three, six, nine, 12, 15, 18, 21, strict handstand pushups, heavy dead lifts when we can all start it, you know. But you get to that set of nine, 12, 15, we're all like, okay, one or two at a time, they're unbroken still. So those are things I think we can expect to see, and I think that is going to tie into. We will likely have a larger capability of doing all these workouts, at least starting them.
12:38
Yeah, that's what I mean. I mean, we've seen this in the past, sam, I don't know if you remember. There have been multiple quarterfinal workouts where it started off with a 185, 125 snatch, yeah, or overhead squat, yeah, overhead squat, yeah. And people just can't do it. Yeah, I was like what? Yeah, I think a strength lift one year was an overhead squat. We had some athletes in this gym that can't overhead squat literally at all, so they didn't get to do the workout. Then they're like screw this, I'm out, or they run the risk of getting seriously hurt. So I think that's a great goal to hey, can you do all these workouts? Another reason why I like that workout or like that goal. In my opinion, the quarterfinal workouts are going to give you a much more accurate standing on where you stand in the sport.
13:25
I see Open kinda, but the credibility of these tests, with these judges, with this difficulty, I think you're gonna get a really good gauge and I really want people that are in quarterfinals to get that.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
13:38
What is your goal in quarters?
David Syvertsen
Host
13:40
So my goal would be make semi-finals. So I think most age groups, I think it's top 200 in the world advance to the next stage and you got a shot. I got a shot which adds a layer of stress to it, and there's gonna be a few people in the gym that need to do this, and this is what I'm gonna get into on the next part of prepping for quarterfinals Mapping out your week, okay For that week, and I'll tie into if you're pursuing semi-finals. This is gonna be pretty important, okay. So what is this week?
14:09
Like everyone, we, I believe I actually don't know this for a fact, but in the past we get the workouts on Monday or we used to get floor plans. Is it Wednesday or Monday that we're gonna get these? Well, we got floor plans on Mondays and then they would release the workouts Wednesday. So it's possible we won't see the workouts to Wednesday. I see it used to be Thursday, so they're giving us a day early, okay, and now they're saying the date ends on Monday, so that's an extra day. So this is now two extra days of quarterfinals, okay, and I think the first, most important thing that people need to know, especially if you're at a gym where a lot of people have qualified. You need to figure out with your coach, with the owner of the gym, what is the schedule going to be, because, as many people have advanced to quarterfinals, the gym's still operating, we still have classes. The vast majority of those gym did not qualify. We're not going to push them to the side because you made quarterfinals. So that needs to be kind of put out there.
15:13
If you're an owner and a coach or you're in charge of that stuff, you need to get that stuff out ASAP Because, especially dealing with people that have kids, they need to know now what their schedule's gonna be like. And jobs, yeah, exactly jobs. So let's pretend we know this just based on history. There's probably gonna be five workouts, maybe six because of the extra day. It's likely they're gonna give submission windows, meaning you have to have the first two workouts done, for example, by Friday noon or by, let's say, thursday night, and then you have to have the next two workouts done by Saturday night and then the next two workouts done by Monday night.
15:51
That is what my guess would be for the quarterfinal period. Maybe that won't be the case, I don't know. But now that you know that, I think you as an athlete, you need to figure out in that five day window how to get to the gym, probably four days Now. Can you just show up whenever you want? You can't why? Because you need an actual registered judge. So here at Bison we're telling these guys tonight on our Zoom call that made it. If you want to participate in quarter-finals you have to pass the judges course and it's not for any reason other than we got to help each other out. We don't have enough people in this gym that can judge 73 athletes, six workouts that's over 300 workouts that need to be judged.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
16:32
You're also creating some buy-in on the athletes. Yeah, so you're forcing the ones that may not be as committed, because it takes about 90 minutes maybe.
David Syvertsen
Host
16:43
It can't be done in an hour. I have been the top, but yeah, assume 90 minutes if you break it. I was slow.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
16:48
I couldn't figure out the double under so it took me a little longer. But, yes, somewhere around at least an hour of your life and $10.
David Syvertsen
Host
16:57
And quarter-finals is $50. So this is what Sam said there's going to be buy-ins to this. So once you get that set up, you have to figure out when is the gym going to be open for you to do your workouts? I've already had someone had asked me can I come in and do these workouts at my normal 5, 6 am? The answer is a hard no and I'm sorry. I genuinely am sorry, but that can happen. Well, we have like 30 people per class in the morning, yeah, and it's just like we don't know what you need. You need to get a judge. What if you need all the space?
17:29
And this is where, as an owner, this gets really tough. You can't put these people that quote, are the best athletes in the room on a pedestal to the point where everyone else is getting pushed to the side. I would be really uncomfortable if a class of 30 was working in the front corner so that I could have the back side of the gym so I could do shuttle runs for my quarter-finals that I'm not even trying to qualify for semifinals for. You know, this gets really. It does get sensitive. So find that out. And then you, if you have a job, if you have kids. If you have both, don't wait till the week of Like, start lining this stuff up now so that you can just focus on the workouts, because I've made this mistake in the past where you're trying to figure out this stuff on the fly and also warm up, also workout, also judge the heat after you, and you actually will perform worse and would increase your odds of getting hurt. Agreed, All right.
18:28
Yeah, other things to consider. Are you going to repeat any of these? I would say don't, unless you are trying to qualify for the next stage and you really think you're that close and you really think you need those extra reps. How many have you?
Sam Rhee
Co-host
18:43
repeated in the past for quarters.
David Syvertsen
Host
18:44
I've only repeated only one. It was funny, it was a workout. I did it at 8.45. Then I came back at two o'clock and did it again and you got better. Yeah, Yep, I just yeah, I screwed something up and again that was like a logistical. I just screwed something up pacing wise and I fixed it.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
19:01
So that was actually in between classes. So 8.45 was after the last morning, oh yeah, and then 2.45 was before afternoon classes. So you fit your schedule around the class schedule.
David Syvertsen
Host
19:12
Yep, yep, you have to do it.
19:15
That's the stuff you got. And here's another thing I lied up. My brother came and did my taping for me. Alan G was here. Alan G is the superstar of this place. When we need some help, he came and judged me. I think it was him that came and judged me.
19:29
But you know, your friends, there's a big, big part of the quarterfinals that I love, where there's like a crew of people that they train together throughout the year open gym, the same classes that both made it. They push each other. I'm all about trying to get to do these workouts next to each other. I really am, and if we can make it happen, we will. I can't guarantee it because of equipment, yeah, but you know, if you can just line all that stuff up, it helps.
19:55
A rest day I was talking to Kevin Yurchak about this. He was like, yeah, you know, saturdays are really tough for us, like I don't know what we should do. And Mike wrote you're not going to work out for five days straight. There's probably going to be a day where you're going to do two of them Pick. I think all of us should pick at least a day in the middle somewhere where it's a rest day. So if you can bang out like Wednesday, thursday, friday, takeoff Saturday, sunday, monday, let's do it. Or you go all the way through Saturday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, and then you wait until Sunday, monday to see how you feel. Like, if you're beat up Sunday or your hands are ripped up Sunday, wait until Monday to do the last one. I would just try to line those things up now ASAP. Without knowing the programming, it's really hard to gauge, like how your hands are going to feel, how your quads are going to feel, where's the lift at. But that's kind of what I would do. That now is just kind of line up your logistics as best as possible. All right, so what is your goal and what is your schedule logistics going to look like?
21:00
Now here's the most important part of this podcast. I know and I've been there, all right, and a lot of these things that we gave you a device on it's mistakes that I've made in the past. All right, this is where this one's coming from. You met, you qualified for this, you're excited and you just want to train, like you want to come in and just do all the movements. You want to work out, then work out again, then come back and work out again, and come back and work out again and do the muscle ups and do bar muscle ups, then lift heavy, then go for a run and then do a burpee E-mon, because like you're motivated and it's awesome to work out when you're motivated like there's no better feeling, where, like you just have that like tunnel vision that you're locked in, you're ready to go.
21:42
Don't do it, don't, don't, don't, do not do it. Now I am going to give real physical workout advice that you can do. I'm not telling you stuff to go put yourself, wrap yourself in a sleeping bag on your bed and recover. I'm not. I am going to tell you to train but don't all of the sudden start adding and adding and adding volume, because this is my line that I use every time we're close to competition. The most likely thing you're not that to happen between now quarter finals is you will get hurt. You will not get fitter, you will not get better across fit. You can get hurt. I want that to scare you a little bit that if you all of a sudden start training extra volume if you liked odds the odds are you'll get hurt. You're not going to get better.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
22:30
It was more of a temptation when there was a bigger gap between open and quarter finals. There was like a two to almost three month gap, one year right when it was like March, May or something like that, yeah, you guys did.
David Syvertsen
Host
22:42
you and Kathleen qualified in October. Yeah, that October open, oh right. And then, right before COVID, you did the in March it was like literally a week before.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
22:51
Dude, that was awful. You know how many mock weekends he ended up doing.
David Syvertsen
Host
22:54
How much volume we added in. So and that is fun, it's fun to sign up. Sign up, qualify for something months ahead, because you can get a lot better across it in a three month period. Three weeks is not enough to do anything, it's just not. But there is something you can do that can get you better for the weekend. All right, it's not sexy.
23:15
Make your lifestyle as perfect as you can. I promise, if you sleep, eat perfect when I say perfect, like you don't have a cheat snack until this is over, all right, none of this. Saturday, sunday, shit right. You don't drink alcohol All right.
23:33
You put a lot of time, effort, thought, energy into your recovery post workout. You get extra mobility sessions in you, extra rolling out sessions, extra accessory work sessions and you try to avoid stress, those those factors your lifestyle factors bring up reset, all right. Hydration, alcohol, sleep, exercise, all the stuff. If you are dialed into that stuff between now and quarter finals, that will do more for you than anything you do in the gym because we're just too close to it. I will give you some physical things you can do. So don't worry, I want you to work out, I want you to train, because I think that's mentally important as just as it is physical. But if you are going to try to get the most out of the quarter finals three and a half weeks from now, all right. Step one's, two, three, are lifestyle based, not workout based.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
24:25
You should have told me before this weekend, because I really don't go food wise Now I'm going to have to start eating clean now.
David Syvertsen
Host
24:32
Well, Sam, this podcast doesn't come out till tomorrow, so you can do whatever you want today, but the second you actually hear this podcast tomorrow you're right, though that does make a difference.
24:43
I will do that I do know this reset that leads up to the open. I see people changing mentally, physically, in their workouts, just like the look in their eyes after two, three weeks of reset, because everyone's motivated, you're perfect, you have seven great days in a row, 14 great days in a row. You start looking different, you're confident, right, that can happen between now and quarter finals. So I want that to be the number one focus. So, once you figure out your schedule, your logistics, you talk to your coach, you talk to your gym owner. Now the lifestyle. So let's talk about what most people do want to talk about the physical component. What can you do physically between now and quarter finals? I don't want to scare you, like I said earlier, into just getting hurt. What can I do?
25:31
Skill work, high intensity, speed, load and a mock weekend. So my first thing I would think is most important is skill work. So everything across it to me is a skill. A bar facing burpees is a skill. So, no matter what day you come in, no matter what the movements are in that day, I want you to view every movement as a skill. What can you do to make it more efficient so that, when you are in a hard workout. The efficiency can help you last longer. What are some skills, sam, based on things that you've done in the past, in quarter, finals or, let's say, any stage beyond the open? That man, I wish I had worked on this movement a little bit more, and usually the movements that you're worst at are the ones you can make the biggest gains at. So what are a couple of things that you just remember, looking back on like all right, if I work on this more, this workout will go better next year.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
26:24
You know, I was just thinking about the high box jumps, the high box jump overs, like even that is a skill that I'm really bad at. That I know, if I practiced a little bit I could get better at In terms of foot placement, repetition, economy of motion, like all of those things. I remember I had not practiced any of those and it felt really like after I did the workout I was like, wow, I could have made that a lot better if I had just practiced it.
David Syvertsen
Host
26:51
Yeah, and yeah. That's a great example because it's not something that you need a seven week progression on. Like sometimes like I'm watching people out in the gym right now do dumbbell thrusters, and like to me that's a skill. How do I hold it? What's the difference? How do I get it to my shoulders? Can I squat and thruster it Right? The first couple of times you do them they feel like crap, but the second time you do them it's just more natural because you have developed skill right.
27:14
Skill is only developed by repetition. It's not by thinking, it's not by watching videos. You have to go out and do them. So just think about a movement that you're not comfortable with a high box, jump over which I don't like either A wall, walk a wall facing shirt hands and push up right, and then you can get into some of the hardest up bar muscles, frame muscles. It doesn't need to be, they feel good right now. It's just like every little session you put in it's going to develop the skill a little further so that on game day you are just a little more proficient with it Every day you come in. The movements on the board are a skill that you can work on Now high intensity, speed and load.
27:51
Okay, I would, instead of coming into every bison wad and trying to get my best time and trying to beat this person, I would try to look at it as like quadrants of a workout, like you know, four sections of a workout. Or, if the number game is not for you, look at it as like how am I starting, how am I finishing? And try to really practice intensity. Example we have a workout on Tuesday this week. It's going to be the hardest workout of the week. In my opinion. It's got muscle ups, pogo burpees and a lot of wall balls. Instead of being like, can I get this workout done under the cap? Can I beat this person? I would look at it as how fast can I get a round done and then go rest a minute? I don't care, Rest 30 seconds.
28:37
And that intensity I think needs to be practiced between now and your quarter final weekend is practicing the speed in which you need to be at. It's not just about can I do it five rounds in a row. That's something you have to train throughout the year. But can I actually move at this speed within a round? And what do I feel like after that round?
28:56
Because a lot of times in a competition setting, an open setting, a quarter final setting you move faster than you probably think you're going to Because of the adrenaline. You're pumped up. You're like, fuck pacing, I'm going for it. You should practice that. How fast does that heart rate get to a point you just can't breathe anymore? Those are things that I think that you can. When I say high intensity, my favorite format you can't really do this in a class setting, but you could try is equal work rest ratios. So I did something similar this morning where I went really hard for three, four rounds, faster than I would ever go to work out, and then, whatever amount of time it took me, I would rest that much time and then I would try to do it again, and then do it again, and then do it again. That is like practicing really fast movement. Thoughts on that.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
29:40
Yeah, I, this is something I haven't really done so much of, but I think that makes sense. I think, if you some of that is imagining that when you're doing that, that you're actually in the quarterfinal workout, like pretending in your mind that always gets me the adrenaline pumping a little bit more. If I'm like, okay, I'm going to imagine this is like my quarterfinal workout, I gotta do this at the intensity, at the speed, at the way I'm going to be moving for it, it always adds a little bit of extra adrenaline to it.
David Syvertsen
Host
30:11
Yeah, and it's like Wednesday's workout we have a run kettlebell swing, handstand pushup, kettlebell swing, handstand pushup Like you could be like, all right, I'm going to jog these runs because I don't really care about my time in the workout. But when I'm going to get to the kettlebells and handstands I'm going to try to get that section of it done as fast as I can, just to practice the speed. And then I'll go after my second run. I don't really care that much and I get a rest. Like those are little things that you could do. You could find one movement of a workout. We're like hey, I'm doing these, I'm broken, I'm going as fast as I can. The other stuff I'm just going to kind of jog through.
30:39
I think there's a lot of value in that Lifting heavy. So high intensity is not just how fast, how many reps, it's lifting heavy. I would definitely try to get some heavy days in. Should you go for a max? The professional coaches do have a lot of times. Have their coaches hit max lifts the week before or about 10 days before the CrossFit Games? On our level I'd be a little careful with that. I would probably stop yourself at 90% of any lift you do between now and quarter finals, I would not go above 90%. That brings me to the last part of what you could physically do, and it's the mock weekend. Sam did 11 of these.
31:16
It felt like a few years ago when we had months to work with and just turn these guys into mutants but a mock weekend. So what is a mock weekend? We basically create five to six workouts that you do over the course of five to six days. It is basically what you will be doing quarter final weekend. So I can say this right now at bison we will be doing this I haven't told everyone yet, but not this upcoming week. So I have to keep remembering when this podcast is coming out. Not this week, but next week. Thursday and Friday, bison wads will be mock quarter final weekend workouts Not gonna tell you what they are yet and then I am gonna open up the gym at 11 am Saturday after the Saturday classes and do another workout, and then I'm gonna try to get people here on Sunday.
32:09
And then I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with the following Monday, because now we're I don't know if it's necessary, but basically the purpose of this is to put you in this competitive mindset I just told you guys to come up with your logistical plan. What are you gonna do? All right, let's pretend that you're a morning workout person and because of logistics, you're gonna have to come in at night and do these workouts. That Thursday, friday you should be coming in at night, and how does your body respond? Why do I care how you do the workouts? Nope, not even a little bit. If you crush it, don't care. If you get crushed, don't care. I want you to figure out your flow.
32:44
So if you are a morning person and now you're coming in at night, what are you eating for breakfast? Are you gonna come in in the morning and just maybe move your body? All right, to kind of keep yourself in that routine? What are you eating at lunch? What are you eating at four o'clock? If you're working at six o'clock? Because, again, if you don't figure that out until the day of, you're throwing a dart at a dartboard with a blindfold on and you're hoping for the best. And it's okay if you make a mistake, mark Weekend, because if anything, you kind of want to make a mistake. What is it like to do these repeated high intensity efforts? Do you last? I'll say this I think some people shouldn't do it because they're afraid of getting hurt or they're tweaked up right now.
33:26
But I would say this if you're, that's fine. If you make the decision not to do it, you don't want to get hurt, that's fine, but if you get hurt this weekend, it just probably means you'll get hurt quarterfinal weekend and this is probably a safer environment to do that in and that might be a decision that you shouldn't do it because you're just not ready. I know a very good athlete right now that's probably not doing it because he's not bouncing back from workouts and he's afraid of getting hurt, and that would be an incredibly smart and hard decision. Sam, give me some feedback on some of these mock weekends that you've done. Do you like them? Do you think they're important?
Sam Rhee
Co-host
33:57
I think they're important, I think they're helpful. I think there is a skill to knowing how your body responds when you do a high intensity workout and then you do another one and your recovery time is short and you have to be able to figure out how you recover and perform again. Yes, this is verging from fitness into the competitive aspect of things, but most of us straddle that line to a certain degree. We want to see how competitive we can be and we don't do this every week or every month or every year. But that's what competitions are for, and this is the big one. This is the big competition, this is quarterfinals. This is in your local comp at XY gym. This is where you're ranked up against everybody else in your age group, in the country, in the world. So if you want to see how you do, you must replicate that environment, you must see how you do, you must dry run it, you must pre-vis, like visualization.
35:00
I have never heard anyone on any level of high level success and I've just been interviewing and talking to a bunch of people. Everyone pre-visualizes everybody for success. If you ask anyone athlete, successful person in life, they're like I visualize what I do before I do it. Well, this is the perfect way of visualizing what you're going to be doing for quarterfinals Working out at night, eating, getting ready, hitting it again the next day. I remember we would do one and then we'd have to wait a couple hours and then do another one, like how your body responds to that and how you manage. That is how you're going to manage it in quarterfinals, and so, if anything, it's worth taking that time to do it. Is it risky? Like you said, there's always risk when you're chasing a relatively high intensity stimulus in a workout. But you have to be smart and you also have to listen to yourself and you also have to see what you can do, and that's what being an athlete's all about.
David Syvertsen
Host
36:07
Yeah, I mean it is risky. So is pre-season football. You see it every year Guys get hurt for the entire season because they got hurt in a meaningless we to pre-season game and then like, oh, we should cancel pre-season. You know what Sam said earlier. It hit the nail on the head. This is sport. You might get hurt, mock weekend, and if you can't accept that, just don't do it. That's fine. But also question what you're doing, Like you know what's the first thing. We said what is your goal? Right, if your goal is to have fun and this was the goal to make quarterfinals, it's probably not as important to come in and do the mock weekend if you're afraid of getting hurt. But if you have a pre I want to hit this metric, or I really want to see where I stand, so next year I can go after this, or I want to make semi-finals. I think it's important that you put some effort into getting to at least some of these.
36:57
I'm more into what is the? What is it like if you have to switch up your workout times? Like for the Sunday session, it's gonna be after open gym, so you're not coming at eight, you're coming at 9.30 to warm up. How do you warm up on your own? That's something that a lot of athletes don't have any experience with. You know, we're not doing a group warm up at any of these quarterfinal workouts. So what are you gonna do? You know, like, how do you warm up? Do you know how to you should? You know if you've been doing CrossFit for a few years, so you can view it that way. It's just like what is this gonna be like? Because, again, we have 50 people that have never done this before, so there's a significant advantage to those that have done this before. You know exactly what's coming. So that's the purpose of the mock weekend.
37:41
If you can't make it, don't stress out. Okay, really don't stress out. It's not gonna move the needle that much. Lastly, okay, focus on elements, not your scores. Okay, don't get obsessed and don't get upset if you have a bad few workouts, If this person beat you, if you couldn't RX this, if you couldn't go level one here. So oh, I suck.
38:03
No, focus on elements in your workout, right? Your pacing, your breathing, your mobility, your ability to keep, stay mentally clear in a workout. You know, like, the more I talk to Rafi, the more I'm working with him, like that. That's a PED, that is a performance-enhancing drug. If you are really good at avoiding those negative thoughts in the workout, it literally makes you better and I have a couple examples I might bring up down the road with him still working through some stuff, but I've noticed significant difference in my workouts. Where I'm really tuned into my mental state, good and bad, Like if I forget it or I let it kind of spiral out of control, my workouts get worse. So focus on that, Like what are some things you have to practice it? Just like you practice your Olympic lifts, you have to practice your headspace in a workout. Sam, do you get like get into?
Sam Rhee
Co-host
38:55
that or not really Absolutely. I just was thinking about this morning's workout you were not happy with it I wasn't, and you know the workout was not fun. But what I hated was that I tapped out mentally in the middle of the workout, which really bothers me. So I'll be here Thursday for that workout. That doesn't make me feel better.
David Syvertsen
Host
39:15
I will be here. I will be here because I know I don't want to be here, so it's important that you did the workout, though I'm saying you should give yourself some credit.
Sam Rhee
Co-host
39:22
Okay. But the issue is like, for example, it's one where there's no rest. It's very briefly, it's 100 burpee pull-ups Every minute. It's either eight box jumps or the other minute it's eight step ups, and so you're not resting and there's a 20 minute cap. And so I didn't know, going in, where I was going to score with it.
39:40
But going in it was pretty clear, like I thought well, if I did my burp, like my box to work, my box work within 30 seconds, I could do five burpee pull-ups in the remaining 30 seconds and I'd get done by time cap. And it turns out that I'm very slow and I cannot, and I was getting maybe 40, but that, and so maybe I'd get like two or three burpee pull-ups. And once I figured out I'm not going to finish, my mind just fell apart and instead of saying you know what, let me at least get a goal here, three to four burpee pull-ups per round, or whatever it is, you know, try to finish I just kept slowing down and slowing down, and so what became? And the wheels just totally fell off and I got such a horrible number, at least for what I thought I could do. And Susan, who was next to me. She knew she wasn't going to finish either, but she just kept going Like she had a much. It's very mentally tough. Yeah, she had a very good mental attitude and she kept moving and she kept moving and she finished like 20 plus burpee pull-ups over me, wow.
40:39
And I, susan, and so in retrospect I was like I did not help myself by giving up, and that is the kind of mental challenge that any of these workouts you have to look at. Like you said, it's not the score, because I knew I wasn't going to finish Right, it was. Did I do what I could do? And I did not. And so I think that that's where every workout, every focus should be on like, listen, if you don't get the score that you want, what is it that you could take away from that workout that you did right so you can become better?
David Syvertsen
Host
41:15
I mean what Rafi would say in that instance. I don't want to speak for him, but what he has said to me is I've reflected on similar struggles with him in a few sessions 23.2 in particular is he goes the fact that you can say that so soon after your workout to like he goes, like that's it, like that's. That's the reflection you know, like that is what you want, because if you can reflect on that so soon after a workout, I bet it helps you in a future workout and that's what we want. So, like in these workouts coming up whether they're great for you, whether they're terrible for you, can you really be present with what your thoughts are in the workout? Can you reflect on them? And then can you be honest with yourself and ask yourself did I do even worse because of my, my inability to control my negative thoughts? And if the answer is yes, which? If you're listening to this, the answer is yes. A lot of your bad workouts are because you were in a bad spot mentally. All right, and we're empathetic. We feel bad, we'll try to help you out, but you are the one that's going to fix it, it's not somebody else.
42:23
So now that we know this, can you reply this to a future workout? Can you come back in the next day or whenever you train again? Sam, the next time you train, can you come in with a better mindset if things start to go off? Because now what just happened today is now it's a positive. You hit adversity, something went wrong, and now it's making you better. That is the purpose of things that go wrong. They should make us better. So we really shouldn't be that upset when bad things happen. So if you struggle with the wall balls on Tuesday and you get hit in the face, you got to break them up right. Let's reflect on it. What could you do different? Was it your mind? Was your body? Was it both? Now we have some. You have to acknowledge the issue and then move forward. That's how you're going to get better at them. It's not going to just be punch the wall ball every time there's wall balls.
43:08
So that's where I just want you to wrap up the prep for quarterfinals. I know most of this was not workout based, but I really I feel strongly about this. There are little things you can do, but I would say 90% of your prep for quarterfinals is between your ears. It's not sexy, but we're three and a half weeks and you need a deload right After that block weekend that I just talked about. We are 10 days away and I'm going to suggest come workout, stay in your routine, but no more really high effort stuff. You got to kind of preserve as much energy, as much fuel as you can eat, sleep, all this stuff.
43:49
So just be aware that that's what comes after the mock weekend, that's what comes about seven to 10 days prior to your big event is less working out, more rest, and so you're really looking at just two and a half weeks of prep, really not even that much. So if you guys can just dial into the mental side, I think it's going to help you out as much as anything. See how many closing thoughts. No, that's it, let's get after it man, let's do it baby. Thank you guys. See you next week.
