S05E176 - Growth and Unity: Why We Should Harness the Transformative Power of the 2025 CrossFit Open

Join us as we tackle the question: What makes the CrossFit Open a must-experience event for everyone, whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro? Coaches David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic promise a journey of personal growth, camaraderie, and a test of your limits, as they unravel the often mixed emotions surrounding this global competition.

Feel the pulse of the CrossFit community as we explore how the Open serves as a universal fitness test, opening doors to self-discovery and pushing athletes beyond their comfort zones. We emphasize the inclusivity and supportive environment that the Open fosters. Whether you're competitive by nature or simply curious about your capabilities, the Open offers a unique opportunity to unlock potential and foster personal development.

The episode also champions the themes of persistence, vulnerability, and unity within the CrossFit community. We argue for participation in the Open as a vital part of one's fitness journey and community engagement. By embracing vulnerability and accountability, athletes confront challenges and celebrate progress. From achieving personal milestones to overcoming unique fitness challenges, this episode encourages celebration, unity, and moving forward together, proving that the Open is far more than a competition—it's a testament to personal and communal growth.

@crossfitbison @crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #personalizedfitness

S05E176 - Growth and Unity: Why We Should Harness the Transformative Power of the 2025 CrossFit Open

David SyvertsenHost

00:05

Hey everybody, welcome to the Herd Fit Podcast with Dr Sam Rhee and myself, coach David Syverton. This 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 Herd Fit Podcast. I am Coach David Syverton. I'm here with my co-host, dr and Coach Sam Rhee, after we gave him a week off last week.

Sam RheeCo-host

00:30

I don't think there was any room in here. That was a big crew.

David SyvertsenHost

00:33

I do feel like we're very far apart from each other. Right now I get to spread out. I'm afraid to move closer because my microphone is set up perfectly and if I move these bottle blocks they're gonna start falling. Um, so this is gonna be the last episode of the year 2024, all right, and we figured this is right around the time we're gonna be start talking about the crossfit open here at crossfit bison, which we know you guys all know it's a big deal here, and I did want to throw one episode out prior to us signing up and registering, really blowing up and, uh, your inboxes with emails and Facebook messages about sign up for the open and blah, blah, blah. Right, because I do know it gets old after a while, especially those that have been here since the beginning. I want to talk about why I think you should sign up for the open and we're going to pretend that there's three crowds that we're listening to, that are listening to us. One is the people that have done this over and over and over for years, and those sometimes can be the people that are hardest to convince, and we'll we'll talk about that.

01:29

I want to talk about people that have done this a couple times and they're still feeling out what's the reason why I should do it a third, a fourth, a fifth time? You know there's a lot of debate right now with High Rocks, a race that I just did about. Will this actually be around 10 years from now? Because it's so repetitive. Like, do you really want to do this five, six, seven times, unless you're an elite athlete that's competing in it? And that's where I think CrossFit open and High Rocks. Really there's a huge contrast because it is different every year but it does. It keeps people coming back, wanting more, and that that's that's a crowd that I think CrossFit really should kind of hone in on are the people that have done it a couple times and they're kind of unsure what the point of doing it a third, fourth time is.

02:12

And then the newcomers. We have a lot of new members at Bison over the past year since our last open that listened to this and we've had conversations with them about episodes and how to start off and what to get out of the Herd Fit podcast. Whenever I do beginner sessions, I talk about the podcast to get them. Hey, if you want to learn more about the program you're about to do, learn about it via our podcast and I want to talk directly to them why I think they should do the open section. What tier you're in of the groups that we just talked about, try your best to just look at it from all perspectives, not just how do you feel about your performance in the open. There's a lot of lot that goes into it and a lot of reasons why I think we would all benefit.

02:55

Sam, you are one of the most veteran bison members bison athletes in our gym. You've done the open over a handful of times. Have you done every year since starting every year? So you're you're approaching probably 10 opens, right? Yep, do you and you can be honest about this do you get as excited about the open now as you used to?

Sam RheeCo-host

03:42

personally as an athlete uh, yes, I know. So I would say. The first thing is is um? I have gone up and down over the years in terms of my level of enthusiasm. Crossfit, listen to or watch social media some don't, and if you do, out there there are some.

03:55

There's a lot of noise about whether you should or shouldn't participate in the open. There are people out there that are saying stuff like I'm not going to be doing the Open, and I think that's such a critical mistake on so many levels, and the fact that these people are out there telling others not to really bothers me. It really bothers me on a very visceral level, and so to me, the best thing I can do to answer those naysayers is to participate in the open, and I'm not doing it on principle, I'm doing it for myself also, and I feel like it means a lot. Now, trust me, when 20, was it 25.1? Starts and it's like 3, 2, 1. I always am like crap, what am I doing? Why I should not have done that? Every year, I feel that way, but in the end, I realized what a net benefit it is for me and I think, because of all the noise this year, I feel like this is a more important year than ever.

David SyvertsenHost

04:57

That's a really good point. Yeah, do you do it out of personal ambition or do it out of principle? And that's kind of what I start to touch on towards the end of when I made an outline about what I really want to get out there and unfortunately, because the world is the world, it has turned into a moral issue for some and I can't get fully behind it. But I do understand why that situation has become really cloudy for a lot of people. So I want to start off with the lowest hanging fruit of why we do promote the Open, why I think you should do the Open, and it's the fact and these are probably, these are almost always the people you don't need to try and convince. But it's competitive, it's a competition. At the end of the day, that is what this is.

05:39

This is the start of the CrossFit Games. And, for those that don't know, when you watch the CrossFit Games in August and these elite athletes are doing crazy things, this is how they all start. We all get to start with them. We're all on the same page. We all start at zero, at 25.1. And, as Sam said, three, two, one go. You know Tia's doing the same workout as you. I always thought. I've always thought that's a cool component to it, that you know it's not like the NBA or the NFL, where you know we all start at the same stage and we're going to work our way up throughout the season. No, this is, they're on their own section, their own world.

06:09

The CrossFit Open is the start of the season and if you like to compete and you like that feeling you're a former athlete, you're finding something to cling on to. You have to do the CrossFit Open If you want to accomplish anything in CrossFit sport. It's the best fitness test you're ever going to find, not even including quarterfinals, semifinals. The CrossFit Open is a great fitness test that will show you where you competitively stack up, you and I. I'm still into the competition scene. I love it. I love coaching it. I love participating in it. I love watching it.

06:45

You've been. You were one of the OG Masters athletes that qualified for the age group online qualifier in 2019 and you were. That was like a that. You have to have felt like an athlete back then. Can you touch on something that you were? You were in your 40s, right, and you are. You've been a plastic surgeon for years. You haven't been in sports for a long time. What did that ignite inside of you? Even though it didn't take over your life, but what did that ignite inside of you Because I want others to hear about that.

Sam RheeCo-host

07:11

I think I mean I never was an athlete. I was never sort of a really good high school athlete or on any level. But when I got to that point it had been several years in CrossFit and it was about seeing where your potential could lie. It was like I could go pretty far here, like I feel really capable, and it was. Those challenges were very exciting because you're like you know what I think I could do really well, or I really want to see where I stack up here. And I think the best part of it wasn't necessarily the events per se, it was training and working out. At the time Kathleen Staunton had been the first person out of our gym who had done the AGOQ. She was super capable and was just doing this. There's there's no upside to it for me, but the fact that we were all there competing like I really wanted to see where I was.

08:32

And and the funny thing is is I'm not a particularly competitive person. Like I said, my background was not in that. But over the years I've realized, even if you are not a competitive person like your goal is, I'm just wanting to get fit. I'm not a competitive person like your goal is, I'm just wanting to get fit. I'm not a competitive person.

08:48

You have to on occasion, I truly believe, push yourself and see where you sit Not all the time and the open, even if you're sitting here thinking well, I'm not a fire breather, I don't really need to know where I am with this. I'm just working out for health. You know what? How can you know if you don't actually put yourself in an environment where you are trying to reach your max potential at least once in a while? Yeah, and this is the safest way of doing it. You're not competing against someone else right next to you. You're not trying to beat someone who's right next to you. You're not like doing things like you know. A marathon or something like these are three events which, done properly, are very, very safe. So you should even if you're listening like I'm not really competitive why do I even need to listen to this? Give it a shot. You will find that that will increase your overall health and fitness.

David SyvertsenHost

09:40

Yeah, and it just kind of keeps you in that stage of like kind of pushing beyond the boundaries of your comfort. And no matter what fitness program you do, if you are never wanting to go out of your comfort zone, you cap your potential to a point you probably don't even understand. I get it. I hear this every single year, sam, I'm not competitive and because of that I don't want to do the open. Because, dave, you just said it yourself the open is a competitive thing. So if I'm not competitive, why do I do it? And I wanna challenge the you're not competitive line.

10:15

I think every single person, it's in human nature, it's in our DNA to be a little competitive. Some of you might not compete in the gym, but you compete at your job. You compete with your friends how big your houses are, what kind of vacations you go on, what kind of? You know what your kids are doing. You compete with your family. You do compare yourself here and there. Maybe you don't use the word compete, but you do compare and that is a very slippery slope. You do need to be careful with how much you compare yourself to others in regard to your self-worth. I don't want to use the word compete in the same sentence as self-worth. That's where I think some of you guys need to remove the competing. You are competitive, you are. You know where you stack up, whether you're at a 12 pm class on a Wednesday in August or you have a ranking telling you where you rank competitively in the CrossFit Open, and I can remember this opens the door to something you may not even know about yet. I mean, we just had the Legends athletes on last week and I can remember I was with Kathleen when she started, I was with Dan Cota when he started and Mindy I was not. So I want to use Dan and Kat in this example that you guys won't even believe what state these two were in when they started, and I'm pretty sure the first time the competition switch turned on for them was at their first respective CrossFit Open. And if you told them at that moment that they would be flying across the country for four days competing against people from all over the world, against pretty much the top one to five percent of the athletes in their age group in the country and even the worldwide, they wouldn't believe you either. But the door was opened at the CrossFit Open and they got ranked. And I'll tell you what me, sam, those two, mindy, everyone they got shellacked their first Open. They couldn't do it. They were incapable. They had lives and careers. They were in the same exact shoes as you.

12:21

And I'm telling you what, if you ever feel like you're out of, like a crossroads with your fitness, with your health, with your motivation levels, because you're oh so busy Okay, these people are too, and in most cases they're busier than you. And again, I'm bringing that up because you can find reasons not to compete. But really it centers around with your viewing competition as being attached to your self-worth. That's the mistake. I actually try to talk some people out of doing that at our gym. But what it does? It keeps the wheel spinning, it keeps you motivated and that's at the end of the day, whether it's CrossFit or any other fitness program. If you can't find ways to keep yourself motivated and disciplined, you will at some point fall off.

13:04

So the word competitive and compete I think a lot of you guys will look at it from the wrong perspective. Yes, if you like to compete, you don't need to be told to go do the open, you know. But if you're not competitive or you like to tell others you're not competitive. I think you're more competitive than you think. You're just attaching it to the self-worth. That's where the mistake is than you think you're just attaching it to the self-worth with. That's where the mistake is. The number two reason why we should all be doing the CrossFit open this might be the most important one and it's community and it's one of the most overused words in CrossFit. I think it gets used so much that we kind of lose track of the value of it. But, sam, what's the energy like here and I know Bison might be a little different than other places, but what is the energy like here at CrossFit Bison during the Open? Good, bad ugly.

Sam RheeCo-host

13:51

It's so funny. You said you thought this might be the most important reason and I was just about to say that it's almost like we know each other. I mean, well, we've been here at Bison and, like you said, we've seen what the Open can do for people in terms of community, and it is the strongest reason for me and for so many people to do the Open. I think Jiffy had her speech during the holiday party where she talked about how important the community was for her, for her family, for everyone around her. So touching, and that's exactly the spirit and ethos of what the CrossFit Open is about.

14:30

I cannot tell you how many memories I have of watching people do their best, try their hardest, sometimes reach below what they thought they could do and be disappointed, sometimes reach beyond what they could do and be elated, but the fact that we were there, or just me with one of my friends, or just judging someone and watching them, that connection is invaluable. My best memories at Bison so many of them are of the open, of people meeting and talking and commiserating and complaining, and you know all of those things, those bonded experiences, I think will resonate in our lives. They're so rich and it only is something like the spectacle of the open, where everybody is participating, everyone's trying, on any level. I remember, you know, people starting for the first time, being so scared, doing beginners or fundamentals or or scaled and achieving something they didn't think they could do, and that jazzed me. That jazzes me up If I ever am a 10 year veteran. Feeling jaded, feeling sick and tired of doing this. Stuff like this is the same old every time.

David SyvertsenHost

15:54

All I have to do is go through the open again and I'm like I'm rejuvenated, yeah, and that's why I think it's important to do it every year, whether you feel like you're in good shape or not good shape, whether you think you're capable or not capable. The community component is and this is really aimed at a few different people, at all three groups of people that we mentioned at the start, but I actually want to start off with the ones that have been doing it the longest and they start to question at some point do I really want to do it? Because I'm not that physically capable anymore. I can't do what I used to and I don't want someone to prove it to me. I just want to kind of disappear into the darkness. Right the benefits that you had when you were super into it. We're not because of just you and your mindset. It was because of everyone else around you. So you have a lot of people that are in their second, third, fourth and first open For you veterans out there. This is one way that you could give back to the community that has helped you for so long is you go in and add to the environment, add to the juice, add to the energy that's in the room that other people have not yet experienced? I will say this the first three Friday Night Light things that we've done at Bison, but probably they may never be that special again, because the first, second, third time you do anything, it's always it's got that special first time ever feel to it. But we're going to do something this year that we're going to announce pretty soon that we're hoping to recapture some of that juice that we all got to experience back in 2015, 16, 17.

17:20

People took off work for this. They brought their kids, their friends, their family to this thing to watch them do an open workout. And I understand there might be a lack of desire to do that at this point because of you and what your situation is, but what if you viewed it from? Hey, I'm one of the veterans of this community. I want these people to experience what I got to experience. So I'm at least going to show up, and my RX plus version would be I'm going to show up and work out. I don't care if I get crushed by the workout or there's things that I can't do or I have to scale the workout, and I never used to be a scaled athlete.

17:55

It's the energy that your presence brings to the room. It's probably the biggest opportunity? More than a check, all right, more than a high five, is your presence felt during the open? Are you talking to people that are beyond your social circle? Are you trying to help someone and give an experience that you had back seven years ago and really kind of opening the door to someone else that might want to do what you used to love to do? That's a challenge to a lot of the veteran CrossFitters. We get asked a lot hey, what can I do to help? What can I do to help? My answer is almost always get into and be into the open.

18:31

And it's funny I had a conversation with someone that I trained last week and she goes it was. She said something along the lines of like, wow, this place like can be dangerous with, with, in terms of how close people can get with each other. And you know I was thinking like, why is that? I've always thought that that shared pain is good pain, shared stress is good stress. Shared joy and celebration it kind of exemplifies it to the point where it feels even better. We get that during the Open. Trust me, guys, everyone during the Open the best athletes and the newest athletes there's a shared stress there and when they do well, there's a shared joy. When they don't do well, there's shared sorrow, if you want to call it that. That bonds us together. That is a huge reason.

19:18

We were just out to dinner last night. It was saying well, what? 30, 35 people? We didn't know each other a few years ago, some of us 10 years ago. We didn't know any of each other. Most of us didn't know anyone. And I'm not saying the open brought us together, but CrossFit brought us together, and a big part of what CrossFit has been over the past 10 years has been the Open. And I can give you a story from every single person that was at that table last night in regard to the CrossFit Open only. And I think that if you choose to not be a part of it, I'm not shaming you, but I want you to be aware that you are going to rob that opportunity from other people simply because you're only thinking about yourself in regard to the CrossFit Open. Any thoughts on that? Is that a little too strong?

Sam RheeCo-host

19:55

No, it could not be better said. I agree with that a thousand percent. Do it, do it for the others. I think that doing some self-sacrifice and if you're not into any of the other reasons is one of the biggest.

David SyvertsenHost

20:09

Yeah, now a physical checkup. Here's reason number three. I'm assuming most of us go get a physical every year, or you go see a doctor once a year, or you're on some sort of routine Some of you guys more often and you get blood work done to just make sure. Why do you do that? Well, do you do that because you want to, because it's a hobby, because it makes you feel good or, as some of you guys get older, you don't like going there, you don't like stepping on that scale, you don't like being told that this is no longer as good as it used to be, but you still do it because you kind of you should know, right?

20:43

I always tell people you should know how much you weigh. Yeah, I know it's a sensitive topic for some of you, but I do think you should know you don't have to should know what your blood work says your heart, your liver, your kidneys. You should know what's going on down there. If you don't, something bad's going to happen. Can you relate that? Is that a little too serious to relate to the CrossFit Open in terms of, hey, it's just basically a physical check-in in regard to year, which is? I mean, that's just the reality of it.

Sam RheeCo-host

21:18

I am less fit now. I mean, I don't want to say less fit. My numbers, objectively, are not as high as they were, say, 10 years ago. I cannot, you know, if you ask me to compare myself to my 45-year-old self. I'm 55 now, like there's no way. But I think that what is awesome about this is that I still want to stay as fit as I can for where I am right now.

David SyvertsenHost

21:47

Right.

Sam RheeCo-host

21:48

And there are people like that who are many of them oh geez, many of them who've been around for a long time. They're not none of us are doing what we could five years ago, six years, seven years ago, but they inspire me because they participate in the Open every year. They're in the gym regularly. I was just next to Ryan Sorafin at 5 am and that guy is as OG as they come. He was crossfitting way before even there was a CrossFit bison. He had been a coach elsewhere. He has come to bison. He's such a staple he is and I would say he shows up, he does his work. He's not a glamour guy and both of us are not as fit as we were four, five, six years ago.

22:28

Absolutely, we're scaling, we're doing lighter weights, but I would say every time I work out next to him, he inspires me for a couple of reasons. One is uh, he's like me. We grunt a lot when we work, like all the old guys always grunt. I don't know why it is. And then the second thing is is he moves really well? Like, regardless of what he's doing, weight wise or capability wise, he generally, particularly with a barbell or dumbbell, he moves very, very well, he does and he tries his hardest, like he really puts in, and so the open is a good way for me to look and see.

23:07

Okay, I know I'm not going to do as well on all these workouts, but why would I shorten myself now and not check in and see where I am and be like, oh, you know what, there, maybe I am doing a little bit better on this, that or the other thing.

23:21

You know, maybe my technique has improved a little bit and I can string together three bar muscle ups instead of two, like there are still ways of me improving without me physically, like increasing my, you know, strength or something I don't know. So so I feel like every year I do know I'm I get told something from the open Uh, this movement isn't as great as it was, or this one is a little bit better. I, actually I'm doing better on my double unders. I, you know, uh, we did a whole bunch of them this past month and they've gotten smoother, or or whatever. So I feel like the check-in is a good analogy. I don't think you should expect, especially over a certain age, year over year improvements, but if you have been diligent, if you have been working on your fitness. There's no reason to look at your numbers and be disappointed. It is about as objective a test as you're going to get in terms of your general fitness.

David SyvertsenHost

24:18

Yeah, it's like a physical, like you just get very objective information. And no, I know that because of the crowd that we're talking to me, as we've been around a long time it's always like it's okay to not be better at CrossFit, it's okay. But let's talk about the other side of it too. Like let's talk about about, you know, a guy like alex who's been doing this a few years and he's trying to story, he's trying to go places with this. Let's talk about people that started last three years, like I did this for my first, probably eight years of crossfit where I had a. I had a numerical goal, a percentage goal with where I ranked competitively in the sport, whether it's whether you're top one percent or top 50%. That this was my check-in. I didn't get to pick the workouts. Some of my strengths showed up, some of them didn't. Some of my weaknesses showed up, some of them didn't. But at the end of the day, if you trust your CrossFit fitness, your actual test of fitness, you have a real goal to go shoot after and it's a check-in. Did you really work on your snatches this year? Did you really work on that engine? Did you really work on the burpees? Because they show up every year or did you skip those days because you're not good at them? And it's a check-in and it gives you this objective information where remove yourself from your current emotional state and view of self and say, hey, this is a very objective sign of proof of, hey, the work I put in worked, the work I put in did not work, or hey, I should have put in the work.

25:41

And that's where that check in can come in, from that Ryan Saurafine, dave Syverson, sam Marie angle of like, hey, yeah, you might not be what you were five to 10 years ago. Who is, by the way? All right, very few are in our age group when you go outside of the CrossFit world, right, but it also can show the people, like the guys that have started in the past two, three, four years, that are really trying to getting into it and they're learning all these new skills. Right, I love watching, you know, for example, kristen Torres. I'm hoping there's ring muscle-ups this year because she just got them and I want her to be like wow, last year I would have been ranked 20th percentile in this workout because I don't have the rings, but now I have them. I just did a workout with her and she banged out, I think 17 muscle ups on a workout.

26:24

Oh my God, and that's the kind of person who's like. This year's check-in, I hope it has the rings for you, rings for you so that physical checkup. Try to relate it to you going to the doctor every single year and finding out information that, hey, might not make you feel the greatest or may make you feel like you've made a lot of progress. Either way, that information does have value. The worst thing you would do and some of you, I'm assuming, wouldn't do this with your doctor is just skip. I'm not going to go to the doctor for the next two, three years because I don't want to know what's going on with my body. I don't want to know what's going on with my blood work. You have to know, and that's another reason why I think you should do the open. The last one kind of centers around that. It's kind of like more of like a mental thing. You have to go into the mindset a little bit here, Her mindset a little bit here at Herdford Podcast.

27:13

Vulnerability, accountability and discomfort I think those are traits that I think are really important for us to put. I think it's really important for all of us to put ourselves in vulnerable spots. What do I mean by vulnerable. The example I just gave Kristen Torres I think we both hope that there's ring muscle-ups in the workouts because she just got her first ring muscle you know about a month ago, maybe a little over a month ago but she doesn't get to control what the programming is. They might not show up, Okay. And being vulnerable to me in regard to the CrossFit Open means you put in the work all year and you still don't get to control what the actual test of fitness is, and that, to me, is being vulnerable you don't get to control what the test is.

27:58

You just get to control your mindset, the effort that goes into it and the training you do throughout the year. Do you think vulnerability actually shows up day to day at CrossFit but also as an athlete in the open, being vulnerable and the benefits from it?

Sam RheeCo-host

28:13

yes, I think so. I think I am interested this year because this is a much more direct path to the games than it has been in the past. So that means the way they program these workouts might be different than they have in the past couple of years, so we might see different ways of programming the workouts. So, but there have always been issues where people have been so disappointed because vulnerable, because the stuff that they were weakest at got got shown up and then the stuff they were strongest that did not, uh, come into the open. I will say vulnerability to me means just things you don't want.

David SyvertsenHost

28:53

Right.

Sam RheeCo-host

28:54

And I, honestly, if you had at my core, I don't like doing the open. Yeah Right, I don't because it puts me in a vulnerable spot. I got to really try hard.

David SyvertsenHost

29:05

I think that's why a lot of people don't do the open. Yeah, it's not competing, it's not lacking community, it's not the lack of the checkup.

Sam RheeCo-host

29:11

They don't want to be vulnerable. They not the lack of the checkup, they don't want to be vulnerable, they don't want to be put in that position. And I don't like it either. But you know what? The reason? I know, because of my life, the reason if I see myself saying I don't like doing this, guess what? That means that means I got to do it, that means I have to do it. Like, just because I don't like doing it, that tells my brain, tells me guess what?

David SyvertsenHost

29:32

Yeah, that means you really have to do that, especially if it's once a year. Yes, if we were going to do this every week, yes, and all year at the open lasted 52 weeks, no, no, I get that that's like dude, that's overkill, but it's literally one, three week stretch in in difficult periods, in times of trial.

Sam RheeCo-host

30:01

And I don't necessarily want to deliberately put my I mean yes, at work. You have to. You have to take flying leaps of faith. You got to put yourself out there. You have to put yourself in vulnerable positions to be successful in every aspect of life. So if you care about your fitness, you're going to make yourself vulnerable in this case, and I know once a year, even though I don't like it, I can do it and I'm going to be better for it. So that is reason enough. If you're sitting there like, oh, I hate this, I don't want to do it again. Guess what that means.

David SyvertsenHost

30:32

Right, you got to do it Right and it's I mean, crossfitters is kind of what you do. You know you, you show up to the gym and I know some of you guys see the workouts a week ahead of time when we send it out, but it's kind of what you do every day. You show up and you're kind of told what to do, and some people love that, some people don't, some people really dislike being told what to do, but it's kind of like that. Even that the programmers and the coaches, myself, right, like I get to, I know the workouts ahead of time more than anyone. I know how to approach a warm-up and what the strategy of a workout is. But the open I like the feeling of coming in and being like I have zero control of this situation. So I'm going to control what I can control, right, and a lot of that does come down to mindset and I do think that's something that some of you need to train. You know, I think CrossFit trains so many things beyond muscle groups and movements and skills and lifts, right, I think it really can train your brain and I've heard this I'm not just being a you know CrossFit truther here. I've heard other people say this to me that I'm not even friends with, I'm not close with outside of the gym, what this does for them outside of the gym. And if you really approach a CrossFit Open with, hey, what can this do to train my accountability, my ability to handle discomfort, my vulnerability? I guarantee this will actually help you out at home with kids. I think this will help you at work with colleagues and interviews you pursuing something that's bigger than just a workout. I think the mental components that you get from CrossFit, and in particular the open, can help you in all those other areas if you want it to and you had to put some effort into that Last part of it Do you CrossFit? Do you even CrossFit, bro? This is where I could probably ruffle some feathers here, and I think you guys know I'm not. That's never my intention.

32:18

I don't want to offend or piss anyone off, but I've always thought this about the CrossFit Open that if you really do CrossFit, I think you should be doing the CrossFit Open, and that applies to everybody. You know, when I hear that there's 2 to 3 million people that CrossFit worldwide, I don't know where the number is now, I don't even know how you would get the number and then you see there's 3 to 400,000 people that do the Open. That tells me there's a lot of you that you kind of do CrossFit. You do some of the workouts cool, you know CrossFit, you do some of the workouts Cool. It's like someone that's like they go for they play one-on-one basketball or YMCA men's league basketball, and they're like, yeah, I do the same thing as LeBron James, yeah, yeah. Now you kind of do you dribble the ball and you shoot it into the, and every now and then you make a basket Cool, you don't really play basketball like that.

33:04

Though To me, you don't really do CrossFit unless you do the open, and I say that to people on the outside looking in. I say that to gym owners and coaches that tell their athletes hey, do the open, you don't have to sign up and submit a score, but we'll still do the workouts, right. I don't think you're really doing CrossFit if you make a conscious decision to not do it. You know, if you have an injury, you have a schedule issue, you have a personal issue, fine, but if, year after year, you don't do the CrossFit, you don't do the Open. I think you're kind of like a 50 percenter. You kind of do CrossFit but you don't really do it and I want to get into why I think that way. But do you think that's a little too strong?

Sam RheeCo-host

33:44

No, I agree very strongly with that. I know that a lot of people at our gym just come to work out and they get their hour of fitness in and then they leave. But the ones that do care enough in a positive way, they also do the open. They will take that time to do it. And so the ones who don't it disappoints me, it really does, and I feel like they're not not only they're shorting themselves, but they're shorting a lot of other people. I do want to say, like there are people like you're.

34:22

You got into a back and forth with John Woolery because he posted a video and he's a well-known CrossFit guy. He I forget his stuff, but basically he makes memes. Yeah, he makes. I don't know how, I don't know. He's a CrossFit social media guy and anyway, he posted this video about why he's not doing the Open this year and you responded to him in his YouTube video and comments and there's a little bit of a back and forth in it and I felt like you were 100 percent right.

34:50

Like his reasoning for not doing the open yet still quote supporting CrossFit was so fallacious, it was wrong. It was. It made no sense. Logically, you cannot support if you believe in this fitness regimen, if you believe it is helping you get more fit, if you believe that it's a net positive in your life and others Right, which I assume you are if you're actually coming in and doing these workouts, then you should support CrossFit by doing the open. That is the least that you could do, the barest minimum that you could do, still be a net positive for you and others, and without causing yourself undue stress.

35:34

So the fact that he himself is out there saying this really shows me how wrongheaded there are, I believe, so many people out there by using every excuse they possibly can. Like you know, I don't want to spend the money. I don't want to give the money to CrossFit. I don't want to do this. I don't want to like forget that you are wrong. I firmly believe you're wrong. If you actually do CrossFit, you believe the methodology helps you, you believe you are getting fitter, then there is no reason not to sign up for the Open and do it.

David SyvertsenHost

36:04

Yeah and yeah, and I question how influential some of these guys actually are. I don't know. I'm not saying they are or aren't, but the fact that anyone would try to influence others to not sign up for the Open is mind-boggling to me. It is absolutely crazy. And I believe he owns an affiliate.

36:31

So if you're out there publicly saying I don't want to do now, if you are protesting, if you're doing out of protest because of crossfit leadership, of what happened at the games last year, I don't know if I necessarily agree with this approach either. All right, because I. The question I asked him is that are you part of that? Are you part of the solution? Are you part of the problem? Because I do agree that CrossFit leadership has changed so much in the past five years. I do agree that they do do things wrong. I think we do things wrong here at Bison every now and then. We're trying to fix them, we try to make them better. You know, probably is never going to be a perfect solution, but let's simplify. Whenever we have problems here, whenever I have personal problems, the number one thing I try to do is simplify, and to simplify this problem quote problem of declining numbers, which I do think we're going to see declining numbers this year for a lot of reasons. I think the simplest way to approach this is do I want to be part of the solution or part of the problem? Starting a new fitness competition where some of the Games athletes go and some of them don't? Having some of the Games athletes tell some of their affiliate members not to do the Opens? That will never help. The only thing that that will do is fracture a community that, to be honest, is bigger than any individual person. But now the community is broken into pockets. Now we have to be loyal to those people, and if we're loyal to those people, we can't be loyal to those people because they don't like each other. It's a really selfish endeavor to go into any sort of media outlet and say that you should not do the open.

38:07

The open is a huge part of what this brand is. It's a huge part of the methodology, and to say that you're going to tell people to not do it, you will get some people to listen to you and that will make you feel good about yourself. But really what you're actually doing is telling people that you can sign up for your affiliate, pay your dues, go work out every day, but hey, let's not do the one thing that we got to do together. Let's ignore that. And what do you think that will do? In time, it fractures the entire community and that is the fault of people that feel like they are now quote influencers.

38:44

Sometimes I hate the world that we live in because that has become more important than reality and relationships and being together. To me, crossfit do you CrossFit? And relate to the Open. A huge part of CrossFit I think everyone would agree with this is celebrating ourselves and others. Yep, maybe even just say celebrate others and sometimes ourselves. This is the best opportunity to celebrate others.

39:09

All those videos there's thousands of them now of someone getting their first muscle-up in the Open. We've had it here. Someone PR-ing a snatch, someone qualifying for the next stage. You know how good that makes people feel. Do you know how good?

39:22

I'm talking about a games athlete like Trace McGee? Do you know how good Bison made her feel? Do you know what we did for her and and what she does for others in the same regard, in the same breath? Do you remember? I remember I don't want to say her name because I haven't gotten permission to share the story, but I remember someone crying full boy. I've never seen this girl cry since or before, because she rx'd her first crossfit open workout. That was like an emotional celebration and that kind of stuff.

39:47

It happens every year.

39:48

It it didn't.

39:49

That was not a one-time thing. It happens, I would even say, every week of every year. You will always lose out on the opportunity to celebrate others if you don't do the open. So let's remove ourselves. There's a big part.

40:03

I'm ranting now, but now let's stop thinking about yourself in regard to the CrossFit Open. I think if you do that, it will give you a completely different perspective, and I say that about CrossFit as well. Stop thinking about yourself in regard to CrossFit, whether you're talking about a burpee workout, whether you're talking about your bum shoulder right and start talking about others, and I guarantee you'll see the light when it comes to doing the open and doing CrossFit All right. So, guys, those are the reasons why we want you to do the CrossFit open. We really do want this year, whether you're at Bison or at a different gym, we want this year to be like you know what. We are moving on upward and onward with each other.

40:48

There are mistakes that have been made, I think, issues that have come from members, coaches, leadership of CrossFit everyone can contribute to problems that we've had over the years. That doesn't mean we turn our backs to each other. That doesn't mean we insult each other. We can use the open to be united, move forward together and explore the future and celebrate each other. Sam, any closing thoughts I still haven't learned handstand walk, so I hope they're not in there. Well, they're being programmed in January and February so you'll get the opportunity to work on them. Prior to thank you guys, sign up for the open, for your community, for CrossFit and for yourself. See you next week. Thank you everybody for taking the time out of your day to listen to the Herd Fit Podcast. Be on the lookout for next week's episode.