Welcome And Episode Focus

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Hey everybody, welcome to the Herd Fit Podcast with Dr. Sam Reed and myself, Coach David Syberton. 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 Syberton, and I am here with 26.2 that just came out about five, six hours ago. And I just got to watch 13 athletes that cross sit bison do it. A good mix of athletes, RX scaled, people that finished, people that got to the muscle ups, people that got a few muscle ups. So definitely have a few thoughts I'd like to share with you guys in regard to your attempt that you are going to be taking on tomorrow, Sunday, maybe even Monday for some of you. Um, I want to just dive right into

RX Or Scale Decision Framework

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it. And I want to first touch on the most common question we get as coaches in this workout is should I RX or scaled? Um I could see some movements on here that I can do, I see some movements on here that I cannot do. What you know, what gives here? Well, what should I pursue? Uh, just to make sure everyone is on the same page. Some of you newer guys may not know this. If your goal is CrossFit leaderboard, worldwide rank, how I do, one rep in RX will beat a thousand reps and scaled. So first place and scaled is always going to be behind last place in RX. I don't think that should steer your decision, but I do want you to know that. Um from there, I you've used this philosophy. Uh, it's been the same answer for a long time. If you can do over half the workout, RX, I say you go for it. Um, in this case, you would even say if I can do two-thirds of the workout, it's a nine-round workout, essentially, or a nine movement workout, right? Nine stations. You got the lunge, the snatch, the gymnastics. Lunge, snatch, gymnastics. Lunge, snatch, gymnastic gymnastics. That is a nine-station workout, a three-rounder. If you think you can get through the first two rounds of that workout, meaning that second gymnastics movement, no question, do you do this RX? If the second gymnastics movement is where you get held up and the weight is heavy for you, I would err on the side of going scaled and pursuing the stimulus of the workout, which is kind of another like last week, race to the finish line. Um, I bring that up because this is going to be another workout. Most people that do will not finish the workout. They will not complete those 20 muscle ups at the end or whatever the hardest pull is. Um, we will see a lot more do it than last week. Last week you just ran out of time. I mean, you had to do so many reps per minute to finish. Um, hold on, I'm getting a text here. And I have to reply to this one. Sorry, bear with me. And I'm not gonna edit this, it's too late. Cool. All right, sorry about that. Um it's always open. There is there are no work hours during the open season. Um, so you get texts all all times of the day, night, and I love it. Um, talking about the open. So back to that that thought of should I RXR scaled? If that second gymnastic movement and the weight is kind of questionable, pursue the stimulus because a lot of people will not finish this, but it is finishable, it's a lot more finishable than last week. You are gonna have enough time. There will be a lot more standing around in this workout, meaning reps per minute last week was like rapid. You're going, you're going, you're going. Um, you take breaks, obviously, but your legs got tired, but you never didn't get to a lot of movements last week where you couldn't do it. At some point, this were the design of this workout is aimed at finding something you can't do, and you're gonna stand there and try it, or you can't do a lot of one at a time, any of these gymnastic movements, even the lunges for some people. Um, and that's okay. It's gonna be a different feel. So let's kind of dive into the scaled version of this a little

What Scaled Athletes Should Expect

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bit. Um, I want to just touch on the jumping pull-ups, what to expect, jumping chest to bar pull-ups, what to expect if you haven't done those. Um, we know there are a lot of athletes in CrossFit that are still working on getting that first pull-up. And for this, put yourself in this scenario. If you're one of those, right? You're gonna get it someday. I know you are, but you do walking lunges, you do snatches, and then you do jumping pull-ups six inches above your head. At the bottom, you lock out your elbows. You should be okay there. A lot of people get through those. So that's the first round of the workout. You go back to the lunges, you go back to the snatches. Your second movement is 20 regular chin over bar pull-ups. And that's that's a struggle point for a lot of people. And it is possible, and it will happen tomorrow several times, that that's the end of your workout. You might only be five minutes in. And if you know the pull-up is not there, you can try. We want you to. We would love to see you get your first pull-up, but just anticipate it is possible that if you're doing the scaled version of it, that will be the end of the workout for you. And there uh you could always go the foundation level as well, where there's a little bit more subjectivity to it. We have ring rose. Um, they do give you a little gray area where we can kind of come up with something for you. Um, but just keep that in mind that that second gymnastics movement for some will be the end. And that's okay. It happens all the time. I can't tell you how many times over the years I've seen someone get held up there in an open workout. They can't do it. The next year they come back and they're banging out 10 to 15 at a time. And I'm not exaggerating, it's probably happened over 50 times since I've started doing this. I could not do a pull-up this year, next year they're doing 10 to 15. So um, don't get discouraged by it. That's kind of what makes the open partially a community event, yes, but partially a test of fitness. And this one's gonna hold all of us up at some point.

Mobility Limits And Overhead Lunge

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Um, the weight selection, the overhead lunge, you might be the strongest guy or girl in the gym. If you don't have mobility where you can really truly get the arm next to the ear locked out as you walk with it, that's gonna be a really tough movement. You can do it, but it might be really segmented and you have to make it 20 feet unbroken. So just keep that in mind where, hey, just because you're strong, it might not mean that you should use that heavy dumbbell uh because mobility does more for you on an overhead lunge than strength. Um, I just had Rafi do it tonight. He did a 50-pound dumbbell overhead lunge for the first time. Not the greatest shoulder mobility in the world. It's better than he gives himself credit for, but it's not good. It's not it's not good shoulder mobility. Um, and he said he had a few reps where he got it locked into place where it really needed to be, and it's night and day easier. So people that have mobility, that it's literally an easy movement. The thing just is set in place and it's almost has it's no different than putting it on your shoulder. So just keep that in mind that the mobility needs to be thought about when you're thinking about hey, should I RX or scaled?

Universal Strategy: Save For Final Gymnastics

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Um, also lean on coaches for this. This is what coaches are really there for. They're not just there to clap their hands, put a good playlist together. Like they'll have some good input for you in regard to RX or scaled. They know you better than you probably think when it comes to this stuff and what your goals are. Hopefully, you guys talk about those every now and then uh and they pay attention. Um, that that's a this is a really good question to ask a coach and let them kind of just open up their mind to you about what you should do in terms of RX and scaled. Um, let's dive into overall general strategy that everyone can listen to. I do want to excuse myself a little bit in that this is a tough one to give everyone a strategy for because gymnastics slash skill capacity is so different. When you go to a gym and you see a workout like this on a board, the times are all over the place. Like we might see people in our gym finish this in eight minutes, eight, nine minutes, and then you'll see other people that don't even get to the last station as six, seven minutes difference, like literally taking twice as long. And it's really gymnastics capacity, but there are a couple of things we can all take away from it. This is what I'm gonna challenge all of you with. This workout is going to come down to that last set of gymnastics for you. Now, that doesn't mean the muscle ups or the chest bar pull-ups are scaled. It could be your last set of gymnastics that you do in the workout. That is going to determine how well you score, how well you rank, if you're into that kind of thing. I want that to be number one in your head. Not how fast can I lunge, not how many things can I do unbroken on the dumbbell, not can I do the first set unbroken? That's it. We can get we'll get there in terms of talking about should you do that? It's just not that important. So even though it feels cool to get to that second round quicker than everyone else, even though it feels cool to be like, yeah, 20 unbroken, yeah, I'll I'll uh just rip through the snatches, rip through the pull-ups. It's not that important. It doesn't matter. It's impressive, but it's it's not necessarily going to help you out. I think everyone should have that last gymnastics movement in their head from the start of the workout. What do you need to do to make sure that you get to that station and you feel like you can get through a big chunk, respectively to what your big chunk is? Um, there's a lot of tension in this workout. And a lot of people don't see that because it's unilateral. You're not holding onto a barbell. So in your head, you might be like, oh, this arm is resting while this is working, and vice versa. That is the case. But what you need on the rings, especially if you if that if you're going RX or the chest bar pull-ups, you need good stamina and good strength, good mobility in both both arms. So even if you favor one side on the lunge and really can um rip through all 80 feet with it in one side, and oh, my weak arm got a break, you're not gonna feel strong, you're not gonna feel effective, you're not gonna feel normal when you get to the gymnastics. So I'm actually gonna challenge all of you with this break it sooner than you think. Even the lunges, even the snatches, break it sooner than you think. If you have a rep goal in this workout, I can help you

Reps Per Minute And Scorecard Math

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out with that. I'm kind of just literally just got home now. So I don't have this written out for you, but I'll bring up the scorecard. I should have done this already instead of looking at my face this whole time. All right. So if you go down to the actual scorecard, going all through the standards. Don't forget to read the standards, a couple tricky things there. All right, it's a 132-rep workout. However, 20 feet of uh overhead lunges counts as one rep. I counted a few people doing it. It look you're probably gonna be seven or eight steps on these lunges. I think if you're creating a rep per minute plan, you need to count all of those into your plan. So I had a text from an athlete earlier, and she wanted to know how many reps are in this workout prior to the muscle ups. And we're saying, hey, you'll probably do the lunges in seven steps. And it's about 176 reps prior to. So if again, if you don't know much about reps per minute, that for a an above-average athlete, you'll go you'll do 176 reps in probably under 10 minutes. You know, that that's a uh 17 reps per minute. There are people that can do 20, 22, 25, even. Um, so you'll yes, you will see people get to those muscle ups at the five or six minute mark. That's just how it's gonna be. Um, but anticipate how long stuff takes you and create some reps per minute plan to kind of create, all right. If I know I'm doing 17 reps, let's even say, let's be aggressive. Let's say you can do 20 reps per minute, and that's gonna get you to the rings in about eight to nine minutes. Okay, you can put that dumbbell down on the snatches three times. You don't need to, but that you could easily put that down three times. The dumbbell uh overhead lunge, you could put it down after every single 20 feet. The pull-ups, you could do four to five at a time. It that that is what 20 reps per minute is. Now you just have to only get to rest three to five seconds, all right? You have to have to pick it right back up, but there's no point almost in going unbroken, other than the fact that you just like to almost get a head start. And if there was only 10 muscle-ups or 10 of your hardest gymnastics movement at the end, I would buy into that. I would say go take a chance. 20 guys for everybody, including the games athletes that we watched, that is a lot of muscle ups after all of that

Pacing Tradeoffs And Tiebreaker Myths

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work in a short amount of time. You can tell it wasn't just pulling themselves up there that got difficult. It was the press on that dip. And no offense, they're better than at muscle ups than pretty much all of us that are listening to this. So if you know they're struggling to press out like that, and that's partially the overhead lunge, you're gonna struggle too. So, to me, I think that the plan for this, the disciplined smart athlete that knows themselves and hopefully you practice this throughout the year, is that you're gonna break more than what your first thought is. So I would normally in a workout like this do the 80 feet unbroken, 20 unbroken snatches, 20 unbroken pull-ups, 80 feet lunges unbroken. Maybe uh I would do the 20 snatches unbroken, and then maybe I would break out the chest bars twice. That would be like, yeah, Dave, you could finish this in eight, nine minutes. I can't. But why would I put myself on that pace? You like that feeling, but I know what would happen when I get to those muscle ups. Even if I get three or four solid ones, those last 16 are going to take five, six minutes, and they and they shouldn't. That it that would only happen if I missed uh if I misfired my initial pacing. So I do want to challenge you guys a little bit. This is something that we talk about all year, every year, whether it's at the whiteboard on class, whether it's on the podcast with different coaches, different athletes. Are you disciplined enough to break things up and not worry about who gets to the pull-ups first? Again, the last gymnastics of this workout, that's the workout. All right. Nobody gets a medal for finishing the pull-ups first. Nobody gets an extra fit eight or a high five if they get to the chest of uh chester bar pull-ups before you, right? It's all about getting to that last set. I know we have a lot of athletes that kind of have muscle ups, kind of don't. Kind of depends on the day, right? You should not be doing more than four to five of anything on the rig prior to. So the devil's advocate to what I'm saying is, well, Dave, what about the tiebreaker? And I get that. That is a that's a tough situation where I don't have the answer. You don't, your favorite coaching games athlete, they don't have it either. But I'll tell you this, okay. If you're gonna make yourself so tired and get nine muscle-ups, but you got there a minute earlier, and you could have gone slower and gotten 10 muscle ups, no-brainer. All right. I gamble on the side of being uh feeling better when you get to the muscle ups. That's where I think you need to bias yourself. I want to feel as good as possible. Now, are you gonna walk through the entire workout? No. But again, the mindful athlete that we talk about this throughout the year, I would just pretend to go a little slower than you want to. I really do think stop looking at the clock, stop worrying about your tiebreaker. That stuff is what it is. Stop worrying about the person next to you. Just focus on I should go slower than I need to because the workout is at the end. That's what I'm really trying to do. Now, if you don't think you're going to get to those muscle ups, right? Remember what I said earlier, the last gymnastics, that's where it's at.

Confidence, Failures, And Mental Game

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So if you're not getting to those muscle ups and you can get to the chest bar, you want to feel good when you get there. All right. If you're scaling the workout or you're doing masters, right? You're starting off with jumping pull-ups, maybe, right? But you can do the pull-ups in the middle, but that's that's the hardest movement for you. That's what you want to stay fresh for. If you get through that, go rip it away. Go. You get done with that middle gymnastic set, rip through the lunges, rip through the snatches. But that's, I think, advice that I would give to everyone if I was at the whiteboard right now. Take a little RPMs off early on so that you can feel a little bit more confident. I've seen this happen. I've been coaching a long time. There are people, especially on ring muscle ups, that fail over and over, not because they are physically tired. It's because that they lose confidence in themselves. They fail one, they fail the second, and it's it's over. They just unravel mentally. They start changing, they start doing weird things with their feet, they're getting frustrated. You can tell there's hesitation, they forget simple mechanics of the movement. That is going to happen if you get there and you're too tired. So, again, I don't want to say be afraid to push the needle, push put your foot on the on the gas. All right. Open style is all about blending aggression with patience. But if there's one, that's the one piece of advice I'll give to everyone is put the dumbbell down maybe one more time than you've plan on doing. Come down off the rig one more time than you plan on doing. That's the start because I really want you guys to get to that last part. You will have time, guys. You will have time there. Um, if you can get through that dumbbell work relatively quickly. Okay. Um, so I think that's it for me. Again, you guys can go through some of the standard stuff. I think one thing I saw that was important. I just want to confirm this before I say it on the podcast.

Standards Clarified And Practical Warm-Up

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Um, the lunges, you don't need to alternate legs. So that that's important to know. You don't need to alternate. Let's see if I can get there. Um look right here. I'm gonna highlight it. Okay, there is no requirement to alternate feet after each step. You do have to alternate on the snatch, but I know some of you guys are really have bounce issues on certain legs or balance issues in general with the overhead lunge. That can help a lot of you out more than you probably think. So put some thought into that. Maybe practice it in the warm-up. And last thing I'll touch on is the warm up. Um, going a little longer than I wanted to on this. Um, mobilize your hips, get the heart rate up, all that general stuff. But I want you to practice um lunges pre- and post-fatigue. And I want you to see the amount of steps. Does it is it less? There's nothing worse than getting to that line and barely nipping it with your heel, and you have to do a whole nother lunge. So go count how many lunges it takes to do to get down and back. So do the 40 feet, go do dumbbell snatch, pull-ups. I'd recommend anywhere from eight to 10 of both, and then go right back to the lunge and try it again and see if it's still that many steps. Or do you do you start to naturally shorten your stride when you get tired? Um, you can even get your heart rate up with some burpees or biking and get a little bit of fatigue, like that. Hey, my legs are tired, my heart rate's high. Try lunges before and after and just see what the difference is. What are some go-tos you can get to in your head when you get tired? Um, my biggest go-to on the overhead lunge is get my arm next to my ear. And I usually have full control of that thing. All right. So that's it, guys. Good luck. Have a lot of fun tomorrow. It's a challenging test. It's a great open workout. We're gonna remember this one for a long time because I think if some of you guys are gonna get your first muscle up or your first open workout muscle up and pull up. Uh, we had a couple of really close calls tonight on the pull up, and I'm looking forward to these are this is where the magic in the open appears. Good luck. I'll see you there. Thank you, everybody, for taking the time out of your day to listen to the Hurt Fit Podcast. Be on the lookout for next week's episode.