S05E179 - Fostering the Best Gym Culture: Logging Results vs Gym Leaderboards

Ever wondered how technology can reshape your fitness journey? Discover insights on our latest episode of the Herd Fit Podcast with coaches David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic as we introduce the innovative Train by PushPress app at CrossFit Bison.

We promise to explore how this app transforms traditional score-logging methods and enhances athletes' ability to track their progress seamlessly. Say goodbye to outdated whiteboards and join us in this journey towards smarter training.

As we navigate the intersection of competition and community, the episode takes a deep dive into how gym culture can be influenced by auto-ranking systems. The balance between fostering healthy competition and maintaining a supportive environment is essential, and we discuss potential adaptations like chronological score displays to ensure inclusivity. Our conversation reveals the dynamic landscape of gym culture and why it’s crucial to maintain a supportive atmosphere, even as high performers push their limits.

Lastly, we explore the profound impact of self-worth and personal growth on fitness culture. Drawing from personal experiences, we discuss the often-overlooked pressures of leaderboards and social media on athletes' mindsets. Shifting the focus from ego-driven competition to self-improvement, we highlight the role coaches play in guiding athletes towards healthier attitudes. Join us as we champion the virtues of logging workouts consistently and emphasize quality-driven training over chasing numbers.

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

S05E179 - Fostering the Best Gym Culture: Logging Results vs Gym Leaderboards

TRANSCRIPT

Speaker Names

David SyvertsenHost

00:05

Hey everybody, welcome to the Herd Fit Podcast with Dr Sam Rhee and myself, coach David Syverson. 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 Syverson and thankfully back with my co-host, dr and Coach Sam Rhee, because I can't figure out the audio anytime I do this. Sam, it's good to have you back. Man, what's up? Happy to help. It's good to be back.

00:37

Sam is a plastic surgeon, a CrossFit box gym and owner a sound tech. Anything you can imagine to be good at he's good at. So, yeah, today's topic, guys, we are going to talk about something that actually came up in a couple of different conversations at the gym, and this is something. Anytime I have a conversation at the gym that comes up repeatedly with multiple people that are in completely different walks of life, I'm like there you go, podcast topic. I'm just kind of wired to think like that because at the end of the day, saying we're on season five or six, now, 160 episodes in. Yeah, I'm always. Sometimes I get like a uh, something comparable to a writer's block. It's like what should we talk about. I don't want to just pull something out of thin air, and you know the way that news cycle works there's always something. But I also think that, as my personal perspective changes on myself, on CrossFit, on the sport, on the community, on people there's always new things to talk about. But every now and then I'm kind of just listening to what people are talking about at the gym and that kind of inspires a conversation that I want to have with you, because, at the end of the day, you want to have something relevant to talk about. I know that everything we want to talk about isn't always something that others want to hear. So if I have conversations at the gym or I hear others have conversations at the gym over and over, it's like okay, there's something there to bite off. So we're going to talk about something today in regard to a new branded app that Bison is going to be launching about two weeks from today.

02:06

I'm not nervous. I'm so nervous that it's going to no, but the staff over at PushPress, which has been helping us out, for I mean, we started talking to these guys. I think our first email back and forth with them was two and a half years ago. It's been a really long time and they've been nothing short of amazing, and we're really excited. A half years ago. It's been a really long time and they've been nothing short of amazing and we're really excited. And part of this branded app is other than it being everything in one location sign up for classes, buy your memberships, update everything. There's going to be a lot that we can do with it in time is that's where the where our workouts are going to be. To give you guys some background color, our workouts have been posted on a private Facebook group and sent via email since 2000. Well, once we started actually sending workouts for the past five years, right? So at the end of every class.

Sam RheeCo-host

02:51

the coach writes down everyone's name, their score, and it's literally on a dry erase board with a marker, and then, at the end of the day, the last coach takes a picture of that post it to the Facebook group.

David SyvertsenHost

03:03

Yep, that's how we log scores here at an 11, almost 11 year affiliate. We use the whiteboard and I actually take a lot of pride in that and I think that's a key reason why we are what we are, but it's not the most efficient word I've changed so much. I'm using the words like efficiency, but there it's not the most efficient way for people to log scores. It's definitely not the most efficient way for coaches to help athletes track their own scores or look at past results. Give you an example we just did a bison benchmark early in the fall and we just retested it a couple of weeks ago. And people come in 10 weeks later looking to repeat the workout and they don't know what they got, and I don't really fault them for it. We'll get into that at some point.

03:47

But in order for us to find their past results, we're going into that private Facebook group, hopefully finding it through the search option, which in Facebook somehow still doesn't work, but we usually find it that one way or another, and we're looking through a picture, zooming in to try to find someone's name that might've come at 6am or 6.15pm and that's how we tell someone their score.

04:10

Now it's worked, but it's not very efficient and there's a lot of reasons why we're changing our whole backend system to this new app. But I one of the things I think the athletes are going to benefit the most from is the ability to see the workouts in there but also log every single result into that app and it will forever be there. It'll be so easy to find anything Past workouts, benchmark girls lifts, hero workouts If you're on top of logging. So that's something, an investment we as owners are making into that app, so that it's called Train, pushpress Train, that you guys can go in there and always be able to log and find your stuff. We've never really had that. We've tried it with Beyond the Whiteboard, sam. What's your initial impression as an athlete and coach and an owner? The value of doing it, but also some of the shortcomings.

Sam RheeCo-host

05:02

I am not a good person when it comes to logging and I'm very hopeful that this will change my habits. I've tried several times to log my results either beyond the whiteboard spreadsheets. It's been terrible. I take a picture of my score every day. When I leave. I write down the WOD on the little dry erase board. I take a picture of it. I've been terrible. I only have the vaguest ideas what my PRs are, what my numbers are. I couldn't tell you what my Bison benchmark was the first time.

David SyvertsenHost

05:36

Yeah.

Sam RheeCo-host

05:38

And it's because it's just. It takes a lot of work and discipline to log all this stuff, so I'm very hopeful that this app will help us take some of that grunt work out of it.

David SyvertsenHost

05:48

Yeah, and I've been inconsistent with it too. I know very few people that have logged everything and it's funny To me, the people that have done it most consistently. It's actually a handwritten book that they bring to the gym and they write down everything they do. Lisa Sargenti does that. Oh yeah, really impressive.

06:02

And to me, there are shortcomings in that approach as well, because it can be hard to find certain things. Like you know, technology can really help you filter and find certain dates and movements, but I think one of the reasons why and this sounds like a little bit of a pity excuse, but it's just. You know, we're busy people, we're constantly in and out and in an app like this, when everything is in one central location, it's a lot easier to be like hey, this is exactly where I go for this, that and that. Rather than close my Zen planner to sign up for class, go to my new app or go to my spreadsheet. Sometimes it loads, sometimes it doesn't. You have to look for a workout, or I have to look for a lift, or I have to input my own workout.

06:38

I stopped doing that for a long time because it was literally taking me six, seven minutes to log some of these more like complex workouts, and it just got to a point. I'm like you know what. My memory is good enough, I know generally what I can do lift wise, but I do want. I want to challenge our members here at Bison and I want to challenge anyone listening that is not from this gym that if you have an opportunity or some sort of logging system, try to give it a good two to three week run and once you get over the inconvenience quote inconvenience of it, see if you can start to really find the benefit of the discipline At the end of the day. That is what it is. It's a discipline to add a lot, because this time of year we have reset.

07:18

You have a lot of people that want to change their bodies. They want to lose weight, they want to lose fat, gain muscle, all this stuff. You do have to have some sort of logging system with your nutrition, like if someone says, hey, I want to lose fat, gain muscle. I'm like okay, what's your body fat percentage? I'm not stepping on that scale. Like, well, how do you know if there's, if there's a result there. I want to lose weight. How much do you weigh? And if you want to make progress within CrossFit, you do have to kind of log stuff. You can't always go based on memory, even if you have a gifted memory, so I'm really hoping that these benefits of logging workouts can help you out the negative. Let's talk about why you would not log a score beyond just being busy. Sam. Why is the main reason why you don't, other than inconvenience? Or is that the main reason why you don't log every day?

Sam RheeCo-host

08:07

Inconvenience, okay yeah.

David SyvertsenHost

08:09

Now the difference between this app and what we do on the whiteboard. Right, when you come to a class at Bison, you come to 5 am, 6 am, 7, whatever. We just write your name based on a random order. Coders have a different way of doing it, but it's never a leaderboard, it's never a rank. It's just like hey, what's your name, what's your score? See you later. Bye, hey, what's your name, what's your score? See you later. Bye.

08:31

In this app, when you log your score, it auto-ranks you. It's like the CrossFit Open, which is coming up into a website it poofs it's gone, but when it shows up on the leaderboard, it ranks you compared to every single other person workout that you did, every other person that did that workout, and that's okay because it's three weeks a year. It's kind of what the Open is Start of the competition. You get it, but does it get old after a while seeing where you rank every single day in the gym, Whether you tried hard or not, whether you're hurt or you're not, whether you're going through stuff or not, you're going to get an objective rank.

Sam RheeCo-host

09:16

Is that a deterrent to logging a score every day? A gym like one that uses a Wattify or other kind of logging software, where it goes up and you see who was the fastest, who lifted the most, who did the most reps, it changes things for sure in terms of the atmosphere of the gym and the culture of that gym.

David SyvertsenHost

09:42

And that is the number one concern that we always have as owners. We can talk about our books, our spreadsheets, our numbers, our revenue, our expenses, culture, culture, culture, culture. One of the conversations I had was hey, if we keep putting our scores in and it keeps ranking people, it's going to become and the word that was used was toxic it's going to become a toxic part of that app to the point where it could cause problems that we have done a decent job of over the year of avoiding. We're a very competitive gym, we know that right, but we've done also a pretty good job of not, you know, anointing people that do well and looking down on people that, quote, don't do well or have lesser scores. We've never really had that vibe here. From a macro perspective, I know there's probably little glimpses here and there that we get either side of that a little too extreme, but part of that reason why is we don't rank people on the whiteboard, we just write your name and you're part of the crew. I talked to the app developer and I said is there a way to create a scoreboard slash leaderboard where it's just chronological? Every time you put a score in your name goes in alphabetical order or the order in which you put it. That's how it shows up on the app and it's funny it's not an option right now and they are looking into it. They're very responsive on on that.

11:07

I go back and forth on this because you know I like to compete, right. I like to. Whether I'm driving down route 208 or, oh my god, and my son is telling me, dad, four cars past you, and I'm like like it's like a knife going through my heart when he says something like that. Or or I'm at the 7 am class with dan coda and we're going rep for rep on wall ball toes the bar, like literally trying to beat him and he's trying to beat me. I, I feel it, but I understand, I'm very understanding that not everyone is like that. If anything, it's a turnoff to some people. You won by one second I did today. Yep, thank you for telling them, but the there's I.

11:45

I have a feeling sometimes that we go too far in the other direction for the sake of trying to protect people's feelings.

11:52

I I felt that when I've actually had a conversation with liz about that too, that with, in regards to the open, what we're doing this year, with we haven't announced yet what we're doing at the Open with Bison, and that info will be coming out soon. But it's almost like we've kind of lost our mojo a little bit, because I mean this conversation going in a really different direction. But I do think part of the reason why we've lost some of that mojo is because some of our former athletes that were really high performers are no longer into it, like not even not capable. They're just not into that kind of scene of going hard and we just don't want to make them upset. I hope we don't hurt your self-esteem by still anointing everyone else now that you can't do it. You know that that's a concern of mine, that you almost lose your personality a little bit, the personality that made this what it is, and that's the conversation I'm starting to go towards in regard to oh, maybe we shouldn't make it a leaderboard.

Sam RheeCo-host

12:49

I would say I have always felt the opposite. I have always felt the opposite. I've been to gyms where they've listed all the scores in rank and the culture did not seem to be very healthy at those gyms. People would cherry-pick workouts. So if it was a lift workout and they were really good, they would show up. They'd crush it like 500 pounds over everybody else and then it's like some sort of cardio workout with toes to bar or some other high skill movement. They wouldn't even show up and at that point it was all about ego. It was truly about what they wanted other people to see.

13:31

Now, right now, the way the system works, I think, is a reasonable balance. I honestly feel like I know who's good at certain movements and at the end of the day I will scan and look at everybody's movements or scores and I'll say, oh okay, so so-and-so, who I know is really good or close to where I am did this. But it takes a little bit of an effort to do that and it doesn't like elevate automatically the best numbers all the way up there and I think we already sort that they're really good at, not do the ones that they're bad at and they look bad on the numbers side, but also maybe pushes people too hard. So maybe you're you know and I hear this time and time again I just talked to somebody and they're like you know, I don't like being in that environment because I'm around people and then I push a little bit too hard. I injure myself because I was trying to somebody and they're like you know, I don't like being in that environment because I'm around people and then I push a little bit too hard. I injure myself because I was trying to get that number so I could get a little bit better on the ranking. And to me maybe it's just because of my age or because I've been hurt so often, or I take a little bit of a different perspective in terms of what my goal is here.

14:58

I don't want that. I don't want more pressure on the gym to have so-and-so always doing great. I think their egos are good enough at this point and I don't want people feeling badly about it. I don't want no scores. The opposite would be terrible. I think it would be worse to have no scores. I think people should put their scores up. You should see what they are. You should have some accountability. But that straight up ranking all the time, every day, for every workout. I'm really against that.

David SyvertsenHost

15:32

Yeah, and I see your point and this is why you know someone, in a different conversation I had about this very thing, someone said it's like, it's like you guys always seem to find like that perfect, like the balance of the two, and that's why I think this answer is all about art and it's not about science, like there's not going to be an equation or an exact template that says, on these days, on that, you do it this way, you write it that way, but you don't do that it's. There's an r to it where you have to have a little bit of back and forth, you have to have a little bit of give and take, and maybe certain points of the year you are going towards the performance and the rankings which open quarterfinals, but for the vast majority of the year you go. Don't go down that path because if you overdo one side, if you overdo the rankings first place, last place, rx scaled you are going to shut out, whether you agree with it or not. You are going to shut out a huge crowd of people. But if you constantly get away from the competitive side and you don't kind of talk about that or um, uh, anoint, or exploit some of these issues that, or at least just talk about them and give competitors the opportunity to really shine and show and display what they put the work into. Um, they'll leave, they'll go somewhere else where they can.

16:48

We have people in this gym right now because of the competitive environment. We also have people in this gym because it's a community environment and I've always said these gyms, you should be able to do both. You don't have to pick one, but you do have to have people at the top that are not so biased towards one side. People listening right now might say, dave, you are biased towards performance and competitive because you like to do it, and I won't argue against it. So that's why it's important to have people that are not in charge as well, because you complement each other well. I think the best businesses and especially the best CrossFits they're not so intense on one side of this discussion.

17:29

You have voices on both sides, but it takes more than just voices to do that. It takes the humility and the ability to look at the other perspective and actually make sound decisions off of that. So, example if I'm saying you know what, sam, I'm going to listen to that. I don't want people overreaching and going after things they shouldn't go after. But hey, we have a leaderboard in the gym every single day and it's going to be on a big widescreen TV at the front of the gym, because that's the way I feel it should be.

18:00

You know it, and these decisions can be hard If there's kind of like a T in the road, you have to go left or right. But I do think there's a balance, there's a way to feed both sides and I think that is always our goal is to make sure. So this circles back to this app that I'm actively trying to find a way to make it where it's not a leaderboard every day and if we get that option, we're going to do that. But maybe on certain days a benchmark workout, a Fran, an open workout there will be a leaderboard. So that's from the administrative side. What about from the athlete side, sam?

Sam RheeCo-host

18:39

I thought you've been doing a great job about sort of balancing it. I thought the level system has been such a positive add in terms of programming. I was a little skeptical when you first introduced levels. I think it's awesome. I think it allows people to perform at a level and push without feeling like they have to do something because somebody else is doing it. But you're still recording and seeing what your performance levels are.

David SyvertsenHost

19:08

And there's still some of it, but not as much.

Sam RheeCo-host

19:11

I think the competitive people who are out there are still getting their juice because they can all see all right, who did level one, what did they get? And then for everyone else, who's like me, who's like, all right, I'm level two or level three, we're still pushing and we're still doing what we have to do, but I don't feel like I'm comparing myself to the level one guys. I'm just like all right, I'm doing my thing, but I can still see what my numbers are. It's more like the community cup that's coming up. They're doing the levels thing, for that too.

19:41

I think that was a great add. I am mixed. I'm not sure what ranking certain days would do. I guess it would be sort of like a mini open at the gym. If we saw that, I would be very strongly against ranking every day. I would say I would rather not put anything up literally than to put a rank up every day if push press couldn't work that out.

David SyvertsenHost

20:09

So that's the question. We're really talking about it from our perspective, like the decision maker perspective, the administrative perspective, from the athlete perspective, and this is where I think I mean they, they hold the keys to the bus on this because I want them logging their stuff. I really do, it's for selfish reasons. Is this going to be easier for us to help them out? Like, we can find their lifts, everything, find their scores from two months ago? Last time we did grace, last time we did isabel, they could. It's just so much easier to find than using our outdated facebook system. Um, but if they feel that way, the whole ranking the leaderboard, they won't do it right. So you kind of have to listen, like to the inmates in the asylum a little bit you know, it's like you're calling our athletes crazy.

20:51

We are great. Someone just called me. I've never watched the squid games before someone just said do. Do you ever feel like you're the whatever guy in the Squid Games? Do you watch it? I watched the first season.

Sam RheeCo-host

21:00

I haven't watched the second.

David SyvertsenHost

21:01

I've never watched it once in my life, and I guess there's someone that stands over the top and watches people torture themselves, do you?

21:07

feel like that guy. So if they're going to way, whether I agree with or not, the end of the day it's irrelevant what I feel about how they're feeling it is. I do have to listen to it. They're not going to log and it kind of like takes away part of the reason why we're investing in this. You know this is an increased cost for us as a business Like we're putting some serious coin into this compared to what we've used in the past, and if they don't use it, it's kind of like a pointless thing. So I do want to listen to them to a point.

21:49

But here's a question athletes, I'm going to reverse this on you. Are you willing to record workouts that you RX and do well in, but you're not willing to record the workouts that you don't do well in or that you don't scale? Be honest with yourself Right now. Put yourself in this scenario If you crush a workout because there's a strength workout for you and you can't wait to put it in that app, you can't wait to log that score. You, you can't wait to lock that score. You do it before you walk out of the building. If your reaction is different than hey, this workout crushed me, I can't do this movement. I had to scale it. My shoulder hurts, my knee hurts, I'm not going to lock it. That is is an athlete problem. 100% not 99. That is a complete athlete problem. If you want to log your score when it's good, you don't want to deal with the leaderboard when you're bad. That's where I think this issue is going to circle back to at some point.

Sam RheeCo-host

22:50

It's going to be more work for me as a coach. I can already tell if you rank these people, like right now, like, for example, today on the snatch workout, I was telling people don't worry about your numbers worry about your technique.

23:04

And if that leaderboard comes out, they're going to think I need a number? I don't care. I know I can hit 105 if I press the crap out of that snatch, but if you want me to do it properly, I can only do 95. So guess what they're going to do? They're going to freaking, press that thing out. It's going to be ugly. They're not going to learn any better and they were not going to progress more because they just capped out, because they keep pressing out. And as a coach, I'm fighting that leaderboard a lot. I'm every not every time, but a lot of times I'm like guys, focus on this, the scores will come if you focus on this. And and the great athletes know that, like, kristen Torres hit 135. She knows she can hit 155, but she squat snatched all of it. Why? Because she wanted to work on her squat snatch, but her number now says 135 instead of 155.

23:58

That's exactly right. And if it was ranked, then maybe someone who has less of a presence, mind presence than Kristen would be like screw, that I'm going to go for 155.

David SyvertsenHost

24:11

Yeah, I know this for a fact. People will come in. They're going to try to hit 140 now just because of that number, right, and that's a huge. That is, again, it's a blessing and a curse. I like the idea of pursuing things and working hard and being pushed by others. I mean, it's part of the reason why we come here is to be pushed by others. But the attachment that we have to those numbers and those results will undoubtedly make the coach's approach a lot more difficult, because we're constantly fighting through this. Guys, don't pursue numbers, only Pursue your movement first, your quality first, your recovery first, and then pursue performance.

Sam RheeCo-host

24:50

I've done it so many times. You do a ladder or whatever, you do a lift workout and you're only recording the heaviest. So guess what I'm doing. I'm like going really light. And then, on that last lift, I'm like, oh, I'm just going to go so hard for that one. Um, it's a cheat like. And then I remember I was lifting with adam storms and we were back squatting and he started heavy, like heavy, and he didn't go up much, but his workout was better than mine for sure, because I started at 95, he started at 135, we ended around the same. Uh, so your numbers are the same on the numbers are the same, but he got a better workout and he was a and, and, and that's the sort of stuff that I just I know is going to happen yeah, no, it's, it's immature, but you know it's going to happen.

David SyvertsenHost

25:38

You know it's like we need speed limits on our roads because you know people are going to go pat. You are going to go way too fast, you know, and you can't solve every speeding issue with these signs that you put up on the street, but you'll take out a good chunk of them. You'll make people think twice about doing something. And you know a coaching line that I've used a lot over the years and I still use it. I've got to come up with new stuff, man. It's been 11 years now. But I'll say, if we were not writing your weight on the whiteboard, but we were going to rate the quality of your movement on the whiteboard, would your approach be different? Like today we snatched. If sam walked around and gave you one out of ten one being worse, ten being best with your technique and that's the number you're getting like would you go as high? Would you go that high?

26:19

absolutely not, probably not yeah and that's that's where again, blend of athlete responsibility, but also us as coaches and owners, putting them in the right position to make good decisions. It's almost like I hate this, but it's almost like being a parent. You're opening the door and like you want them, you want your kids to go and succeed on their own and be adults, but you are kind of pushing them in a certain direction as much as you can, to a point. Same thing as a coach to an athlete If we are using a daily leaderboard, then you're not pushing them in the direction of pursuing what we preach Quality first, consistency second, intensity third. What are you going to do if?

Sam RheeCo-host

27:02

Push Press comes back and goes. You know what we can't? Really do that? I'm afraid that's, I'm pretty sure that's going to happen, and what will your decision be in terms of how we use this, because I agree with you? What will your decision be in terms of how we use this, because I agree?

David SyvertsenHost

27:13

with you.

Sam RheeCo-host

27:13

We really do need to start logging scores. Like it's a criminal. It's really a cardinal sin that I'm not keeping good track of my numbers and almost everyone else isn't either.

David SyvertsenHost

27:24

So my approach we're not getting rid of it, period there is. There is a workaround that I still have not confirmed it's working. It is why I'm nervous about the ad. I think it works, but I'm not sure. There is something I have on the snatches today. It's called everyone and there's Rx, or scaled, and there's everyone. I think I can delete Rx, scaled options and just put everyone in there. So that means scaled and Rx would be on the same leaderboard. You wouldn't know who did what. So in a scaled day, all right. The you know people that do single unders right are getting better scores on that leaderboard than rx. That, to me, immediately becomes all right. It's no longer a leaderboard. The higher numbers will appear first, but it won't say rx and scale, it'll just have something so that's an option.

28:12

Option two is hey, do you. If you don't want to log every day, don't. You should log every lift you do, because that that to me is just important. Or go fill out the benchmarks. So anytime we do a girl workout, oh, I see, anytime we do a lift, don't put the workout in today's result. Oh, just put it into the benchmark, to the benchmark, and like so that that's another option. Um, is there a setting? And there is not right now. Is there a setting? Will there ever be a setting? Oh, just put it into the benchmark, into the benchmark. So that's another option. Is there a setting and there is not right now? Is there a setting? Will there ever be a setting where someone on their own app can say I don't want my score to be public?

Sam RheeCo-host

28:44

Right, so you can log but not have it show up on the leaderboard.

David SyvertsenHost

28:48

That to me. I don't know much about coding and software development. That is probably an easier solution that you can make a setting on someone's profile to be private, because that's everywhere, that's Instagram, facebook, everything so that's another option. But I don't ever want to say hey, we're not going to log results, because I don't believe in that. Do you want to?

Sam RheeCo-host

29:07

just try it for a month and just say hey, we're going to log, it's going to rank, and just see what happens.

David SyvertsenHost

29:14

Yeah, and the word toxic to me, that one word that stands out, and who said it? To me it means a lot. She's just very smart and I respect her opinion on a lot of things, and she's someone that doesn't say a lot. When she does, you've got to listen. And that word toxic to me is something that lingers for a long time. It toxic to me is something that lingers for a long time. It like kind of builds up for like a year or two and then you know.

Sam RheeCo-host

29:37

so I don't know if a month would be enough to really figure that out, so you maybe, just so, let's assume, push price comes back and says you know what? We can't do it yeah you're still gonna try it right, you're gonna yeah, we're, everyone logs.

David SyvertsenHost

29:50

yeah, we want you. We know not everyone will, though I'm telling you right now, I would say less than half our people will log. I believe that I think everyone should try to log.

Sam RheeCo-host

29:58

Yeah, we're going to try we should push, and we'll push it at the whiteboard. Yeah, and then you're just going to see what happens when everybody sees the numbers ranked the way they are. Am I allowed to say this, sam? What?

David SyvertsenHost

30:09

You don't have have to look at the leaderboard. Yeah, you can log your result and never look at it. Today I came in and I purpose purposely because I'm not feeling great right now, just not like body actually feels good, but I just feel a little under the weather and I didn't want to feel any pressure to snatch a certain way. I just wanted to see how I felt and I didn't look at one lift on the whiteboard as you were talking, and I'm usually looking at like what did squire hit? What? What did Greg Figer hit? Didn't look at once and I just lift it. I just went based on feel and I was actually really happy with how it felt today. And I go up to the whiteboard, I give it 190. Then I look I'm like oh crap, 205. Like crap, 190.

30:44

But, I honestly think that if I looked at that number prior to different mind yes, yes yes, so it goes to show even someone that's been doing this a long time I'm not afraid of competition. Even when I lose, I'm not afraid of it but, it goes to show it.

31:02

It's almost like how I feel about what people social media, you look for things that piss you off. You look for things that make you upset. Like it is so easy in this app. It's not like you log your result and it's like dave, you came in 18th place today. Good luck, you suck. We'll see you tomorrow.

Sam RheeCo-host

31:20

It's that's the way some people feel about it.

David SyvertsenHost

31:23

You bet because you're looking yeah, you can log your result and not know where you stand does it take discipline. Yes, it takes discipline to not eat three desserts either, but it's very possible, very possible. You can definitely log a result and not let it fuel your competitive fire.

Sam RheeCo-host

31:41

Do you think we've lost members? Because they felt like they weren't competitive and they were constantly competing and they were like I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying and I'm not good enough compared to the people. I feel like I should be better than so I'm leaving. This is not good for me yes, all right, one thousand percent.

David SyvertsenHost

31:59

Yeah, um, I also think there's people that won't come to this gym because it's too intense. I do, um, and even like you know you, there's a lot of classes. It's not intense here. It's not, but you don't know because, uh, I don't know why. You know reputation, social media, media, your friends, your self-esteem, but one thing I think we've talked about in this podcast more than anything is that you can't it's in one ear out the other for some. Your self-worth can't be on where you rank in the gym, especially if you work out one hour a day, five days a week. You don't pay attention to it elsewhere. You just can't. It's not realistic.

Sam RheeCo-host

32:32

You know what. You're right. I think this is going to leaderboarding. It is going to magnify people's issues. So if you have an ego problem, if we have an ego problem to begin with, it's going to make it worse, yeah, but maybe that also means we're going to have to be like I have an ego problem, I need to address this. I can't freak out about what I'm doing on the leaderboard, the root cause, yeah. So it might be not a bad thing. Actually, I'm kind of flipping around a little bit. Let's try it. And if people start getting toxic about it, well say you know what? It's not the leaderboard, that's the problem. It's what you're seeing and perceiving in your head. That's really the problem.

33:11

And what you're looking for, yeah because, you know what the numbers are. The numbers it's how you manage, how you feel about it. Right, and maybe, as coaches, that's what we're going to just have to work on is say, listen, you're going to have to work on your problem. That's not a numbers problem, it's a perception problem, right?

David SyvertsenHost

33:28

Yeah, that's a great way to wrap it up, because I do believe in logging for a lot of reasons, and even just like the comment section notes. And then there's a. There's a, there's a community component that we're all in there and you can leave comments on people's things, Like I've left some comments on workout scores and like it's just like, oh, nice job he's. Hey, I didn't get to see you. I haven't seen you in two weeks. Right, Great job. Us all those cows. It's an opportunity for coaches and athletes to really build each other up if we can get over the egocentric stuff that has to do with leaderboard. Now, compromise here. We're not going to put a flat screen TV in the gym Sorry, De Silva With a daily leaderboard. That would be too much. A lot of gyms do that, I know. And it's the same six people and at some point it's like all right, I think that's overkill, in my opinion. Well, you don't want to see Dave Syverton up there every day.

34:21

No, I don't want to see Alex Lanzana, above above Dave Syverton every day Six years ago. Maybe, no, just kidding, but the I do. I want to wrap this up with everyone that you know, whether you come to Bison or you have an opportunity to log your results, do it, and you're only the only way you're going to know how you feel about it and if it's helping your long-term, if you do it for, I would say, at least a month straight. Good, bad ugly, scaled RX, injured, not injured.

34:51

It's a great habit to get into and if you truly are here to better yourself, whether you're competing or not, this is a near mandatory thing to do. I think there's so much skin left on the bone for people that want to improve anything, but they're just. They don't want to take the extra minute or two to log their stuff. I think there's so much positive that comes from this, but we are fully aware in our positions that there are potential negatives here and we will do our best to stay on top of them. Yes, I think that's our responsibility. Yep, All right, Thank you guys. We will 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.

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