Welcome And 26.3 Game Plan

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Hey everybody, welcome to the Herd Fit Podcast with Dr. Stan Marie and myself, Coach David Siverston. 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

Why Most Athletes Won’t Finish

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Podcast. I am Coach David Siverston, and I am here just hours after 26.3 has come out. And I would say within the hour, just got done watching the first two heats at CrossFit Bison. Definitely have some things to say about this workout in regard to your strategy, your mental approach, what should you do physically based on what your goals are. I'm going to be doing some stuff on the fly. So I just kind of want to get my calculator ready for those that love the uh the pacing plans. Uh, but before I start, um I'm not gonna discuss the overall programming of the open. We actually do an entire episode on that and uh also kind of help map you out for the next year uh because we are 49 weeks away from next year's open. Uh, but I know that many people are frustrated that we didn't get a max lift or a real true test of strength. I did I agree with you. I do agree that CrossFit has gotten away from that a little too much. Uh, but uh I don't want to go down that path yet. I do think strength has been tested. I do think strength has been will be tested in this workout 26.3, but yet you have to do a ton of work to get there. We'll touch on that. But in terms of either praising or criticizing macro level programming for the entire open, we'll save that for another episode. Just gonna keep this strictly about 26.3. All right. Um, so rule number one in that regard is also get that thought out of out of your head. Wait till the open's over, and then we could touch on it. But don't go into this open workout saying, oh, you know, woe is me. I don't get my strength, I don't get my lift. You know, we get it, I get it, it sucks. Uh, but keep that out of your head because I do think what happens in your brain for this workout is probably gonna dictate at least 10 to 20% of the the score that you get. Okay, so don't go in with any sort of negative thoughts in regard to wishing you saw a different workout. Um, I'm gonna put the workout on the screen for those that watch on YouTube. Um, what's better here? Let's see, just so you can actually see it. There you go. That's better. Okay. Um, and I'll zoom in a little bit. So 26.3 is essentially again, yet again, a workout with a type, a tight cap in that most people will not finish this workout. The three games athletes that did this on the live announcement, very high level, higher level than most, they did not finish. And I'll even say they weren't even that close either. They probably needed at least another 30 seconds, one of them. The others probably need another minute, minute 30 to get through this. So if they're not finishing, I think most of us have to go into this saying, how far can I get? And before you come up with a goal for yourself, or look at, I want to kind of touch on what I just watched at the Thursday night heat at Bison. And I always like kind of applaud these people that do it on that Thursday night because they they don't really get any time to truly mentally prep. It's like, hey, that's the workout, I'm gonna go out and do it. They don't have 50, 60, 70 people doing it before them so they can kind of gauge what other people did or have a number to shoot after. They just come in cult turkey, get the workout done. And I I got to see three, uh, I got to see it was nine people do it, and I saw a three different kinds of athletes. Um, not good or bad. I didn't go into, hey, you're level 10, you're level one, or you're new to cross it, you're old. Just the three different mental approaches or kind of style of cross-it, and maybe you fit into one of these, and that can help kind of gauge what might feel like for you.

Three Athlete Styles From The Gym

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Uh, one of them was just a lifter. He really can, he moves well, he lifts well, he can get through everything. Um Coach Brian, I've actually learned more from about gymnastics, ironically, from Coach Brian, uh, than any coach I've had at Bison, especially, uh, just over the past 12 years. And I think it's partially because he is good at gymnastics uh and he doesn't weigh 140 pounds. Like he's a big muscular guy. And for him to be able to do muscle-ups and handstand push-ups, you really want to listen to those guys and really figure out what is the secret. Uh, so I so he did it. We had another coach, Keith, who is just meticulous with perfect movement, the ultra like pacer, was almost going slow early on in the workout, but he paced it really well. And that was his plan. And it's not common in CrossFit that you actually see someone that applies lessons and pacing to a workout, and he was pacing from the first second. And then I actually judged for a girl named Jess who is somewhat new to bisons. We do cross it a couple while uh couple years, uh, just very athletic, very fit, still a little raw with some of this stuff. Like, she's like, I don't know how to pace. I'm like, welcome to the club. You know, there's people that have been doing this 12 years and they don't know how to either, and it's really common. And and I do think it gets a little overstated sometimes how important it truly is. But um, she's raw in that she's just she can gut through a lot of stuff. And I think you could maybe, as you're listening to this, put yourself into one of these tiers. Like, hey, you don't care about going fast early on, you just kind of want to get through it. That would kind of be in Keith, Keith's tier. Um, hey, I'm really strong on the barbell, but I can't just fly through body weight stuff left and right. That'd be kind of in Coach Bryan's tier. What did he do? How did he get what would he have done different? And then you just have a hey, a gritty just gonna get through it. I'm gonna suck it up and I'm gonna push through. That would be kind of be in Jess's tier. And we all kind of waver back and forth. I have days where I'm gritty, I have days where I'm I'm soft, I have days where I feel great on the barbell. I feel days where I have days where I feel awful. You do too. So uh you're not kind of like pigeonholed into that one tier, but I do think for how you're feeling about yourself right now in the open, it could help you kind of come up with your

Technique First And Mindset Reset

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plan. And the rule, the the common thread between all three of those athletes, especially, um, they all move well. Their technique, their form, if you walked in and you watched them in the workout tonight or any day, they move exceptionally well. And your engine, which is going to be tested, and you will probably hit a wall at some point. We all will, they all do, the games athletes, everyone does. Um, it how well you move and how efficiently and how good your techniques and form is, it means the world. It's actually probably more important than how good you are at engine or zone two or sprinting or your anaerobic energy system and your aerobic energy system is how well can you move? That will dictate how well you do in this workout and more importantly, how well you feel during this workout. So try to put attention on that during your warmup. Do everything perfect. What does your version of perfect feel like and look like? Do that in the warm up so you can kind of check yourself throughout. Another thing I also think everyone needs to understand about this workout is every single person that does this, the best athlete that you know, the worst athlete that you know, the newest person to CrossFit, and the person that's been doing the longest, they are going to feel the same exact way as you. You're not special in any regard, and oh my God, this is harder for me than it is for others. No, it's not. All right. Oh, this is easier for me than other. No, it's not. All right. Everyone's going, and that's partly what I hope people can take from the open. We're all in it together. We're all going into this knowing this is gonna be a pain cave workout. And I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. I know sometimes my guys at 5 a.m., Ron, shout out, he's like, Man, you really know how to like get us fired up. And I'm kind of saying how hard something is gonna be. I'm not gonna, I'm not, I'm not a sugarcoater. I don't talk fake. This is going to be a nasty fight, but it's for every single person. And I'll tell you this how you feel about high volume burpees, how you feel about thrusters, right? And how you respond to seeing a workout like this just mentally. Like if you're immediately going down that this sucks, I can't believe this. I don't want to do this, you will be slower than you should be 100%. If you go into it and say, like, hey, it's a hard workout, it's a test of fitness, this is what freaking CrossFit is, everybody. Like, you suck it up and you just do it. Just go in with that mindset. That's what this is. Your score will be 10% better than what it would be in otherwise if you have a bad mindset. So try to control that as best you can. Go into it and just like it's a challenge, dude. Like, shut everything else up. It's a challenge. Yes, like I saw the best score I saw at the gym tonight. I saw her laying on the ground with her cheek on the floor for five seconds before she wanted to get up her next burpee. Um, I've been there before, I'm sure you have been too. If you've been doing CrossFit long enough, like those burpees where like you just don't want to get up, you just lay down for a few seconds. That happens. And it's just it's a challenge. That's what this is. Embrace it and uh and just try to suck it up as much as you possible.

Hidden Traps That Demand Pacing

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Uh, but the the common question is gonna be how much should you pace in a workout like this that is absolutely designed to trick you? If you don't know programming well, this workout is going to trick you for in a few different ways. Number one, you're gonna start off with the light barbell. And you know, early in workouts, when you're not tired, you're not out of breath, burpees aren't that bad, you're good. You don't, you know, you can even kind of do that like little like unathletic hop over the bar. The only rule is that your feet have to be off the ground at the same time. So no, you don't have to jump, you don't have to jump and face the bar. It's lateral. You can barely just do a half-ass hop over the bar. So you know you're gonna get through that. Then you start off with a really light barbell, you know you can rip through it. But guess what? The burpees, it's not 12, it's 24 per round. You're doing 24 burpees per round. You think it's 12, it's 24 before you even start round two. So that's a tricky where that's a tricky component to this workout. That it's actually more burpees than you think. Tricky component number two that you should be aware of. The bar starts off light and it feels great, especially if you get a good warm-up in. And then all of a sudden you've done two rounds, you get to that second barbell, which is still not a heavy barbell. We would not call any of these a heavy barbell. Um, it's going to feel like someone smacked 40 slash 50 pounds on it because of the amount of work that you've done and the rep and just kind of the interference that you get in your legs from getting off the ground and hopping over a bar and picking a barbell off the ground even cleans, it taxes the lower body more than you think. And the fact that you have to go through this whole thing twice before you end the weights, it's tricky. You're not even you don't really comprehend. But I saw a couple looks in people's eyes that you get through one round of 12 burries over bar, 12 cleans, 12 burpees over bar, 24, remember, 12 thrusters. Okay, guess what? You're tired, cool, you got to go do it again. You can see it's almost like, oh my gosh, I have to do that whole thing again. And then there's nothing to save you. There's no intervals, there's no new movement patterns or new rep schemes, right? Part of the uh rationale between declining reps in a lot of crossfit workouts is to maintain intensity. That's where the 21159 came from from Greg Glassman is hey, if I take six reps away from that 21 and then six more from that 15, you can maintain intensity. You don't get that in this workout. And a lot of and a lot of us are programmed to have descending rep schemes. And that's why in tests of fitness, you got to be ultra aware. So, no, not trying to scare you on it. I think it's, I hope this is what this is enforcing in your head right now is that you have to take in the word that a lot of you hate. You think it's evil. It starts with P and it rhymes with race. You have to pace this workout out. You can't just kind of go for it and see what happens. I'm gonna bring about Jess, and I talked to Jess about this after the workout, and she's gonna be awesome at this. That as long as she sticks with it, she's gonna be great. And she was asking, I don't know how to pace, and I was like, hey, let's keep this simple.

Reps Per Minute Math And Goals

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If I do 18 reps in a minute, I'm gonna bring you guys down to the scorecard for those that are watching on YouTube. Let me zoom out a little bit. It is a 288 rep workout. So again, I'll do this with you 288 divided by 16, which is the cap. 18 reps a minute. So we've talked about reps per minute a few times, and 18 reps per minute, generally speaking, it ain't that bad. Um, now this the fact that the barbell does get a little spicy towards the end and the ascending, but a lot of highest level athletes can do 18 reps per minute. Okay, you want to know how many reps Jess did in her first minute? She was at, I think, 26. So she did the 12-12 and started the next set of burpees in the first minute. And then she was done with the 12 thrusters. She was uh 48 reps into the workout at like 210. So she started off at a 24 to 25 rep per minute pace. And her score, just I'm gonna give you guys for reference. We are at, I believe it was 209, if I remember correctly, divided by 16. Cap. She finished, uh, she averaged 13 reps per minute. So think about this. She started off at around 26 reps per minute, but the score ended as 13 reps per minute. And that goes to show that if I told her early on, you're not allowed to do anything more than 15 reps per minute, I'm gonna make you stop. You're gonna go so slow in those burpees that it's gonna take you 60 seconds to do 12 burpees and then just three cleans. All right, she would have been like, Dave, that's too easy. Like it's just way too easy. And it is true, it's okay to overshoot it a little bit early on, especially when the light the barbell load is lighter. But if she had done 15 reps per minute, you want to know where she would have felt a lot better, that middle barbell. No question. And that's where it hits her, that's where it hit everyone. When they got to that second barbell, it's like the the uh the air came out of the balloon. So I want to challenge you guys to come up with a goal for yourself and divide that number by 16. So let's, for example, a common goal, I think we'll see, is to maybe finish the thrusters in the fourth round. So at that second barbell to finish that second round of thrusters. That score is 192. Okay, 192 divided by 16. That's the cap. That's 12 reps a minute. You know what that is? Guess what that is? That's Imam. 12 burpees in minute one, 12 cleans in minute two. You can do all singles, by the way, doing that. 12 burpees over the bar, 12 thrusters. You could do sets of two or three if you're doing that, by the way. That gets you really far in this workout, 192 reps. And I bet a lot of you can actually move a little quicker that maybe it's 13 reps or 14 reps a minute. Now you are getting to, I think the the separator in this workout will be can you get to that third weight and start ripping through the cleans for the people that know they can get there. Now it's going to come down to like, hey, I wonder, could you get through those thrusters? You know, you got to move a little quicker. But at no point, I think it's really important to know for everyone, you never have to go, quote, fast in this workout. When I watched in the announcement and I watched tonight, it's really hard not to do that early on. Keith, the pacer, moves well. He's very, very thoughtful, he's very meticulous with how he does a lot of different things. He was ultra pacing early on. Like he was standing up after every burpee, then going down. He did all singles on the cleans on the first bar. How many of you would do that? Um, do I think he needed to do that? I don't. I think he could have done two or three at a time. Um, and that kind of helps you, and I'll I'll get into why I think that as well. But you can overpace, yes. I would say for every overpaces and goes a little early on, about 200 crossfitters go too fast. You're probably on the other side of it. You probably go too fast early. And I have had this argument with not argument, just discussion with so many athletes, friends, and athletes at bison of no Dave, you know what? F that. I'd rather just go fast and I'll end slow, but my score would be the same as pacing. I'm like, okay, that's actually in a lot of cases, it is true. Your score might not always be better if you pace a lot early on. A lot of conditioning coaches, crossing coaches don't agree with you, but I'll let you get away with that one for now. But you want to know what happens when you don't pace well and you just sprint. You hit a pain cave about three to four minutes in, and then for the rest of the workout, you're absolutely miserable. You look terrible, you look like you're gonna cry, your movement starts falling apart, it becomes even more inefficient, you get even more tired, you increase your odds of getting hurt by going super fast. So, again, it's not always about the score. It is often to me, it's also how where's your mind go in workouts? If some of you guys are awesome at gritting through workouts, like you're in an ultra pain cave and you can go dark and you can get through it, good for you. That's awesome. Most of you can't. Just straight up, most of you can't. You hit that pain cave and all of a sudden you just stop trying as hard. And that's a that's a fact. You stop trying as hard as you can because you hit the pain cave. You look at the clock and you're like, I gotta do this for another seven minutes, and then you start getting stressed about missing out time, you know, you're running out of time. I'm not gonna get to my goal. Where if you were smooth, calm, collected, the pain cave is still coming, but it doesn't come as early, and it's easier to control your thoughts. Your thoughts, I'm telling you this right now: your thoughts, not your front rack mobility, not the playlist, not who your judge is, your thoughts that happen inside your head that you control are going to dictate dictate over 10% of your score. So take your reps. You could get 10% more of those reps if your mind is in a good place. If you can't control it and you hate it and it's miserable, you can wave goodbye to those 10%. So that's that's my plea for you to try and pace this.

Thruster And Clean Strategy Plus No-Reps

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The thrusters for most of you guys, almost all should not be unbroken. Um, I think a lot of you can get away with doing three sets. You can go a 5-4-3, rest three seconds in between, take two, three breaths, squat, clean it, get it back up. Not because you can't, but because you know what really sucks after thrusters? All that tricep pushing, all that front rack fatigue, the shoulders, the wrist. You know what sucks after big sets of thrusters? Burpees. And every time you're doing thrusters, you're you're back on the ground doing burpees, taxing that pushing motion with your arms again. Mentally, it starts to drain you as well. So I think that's a really good plan for some of you guys. Um, yes, if you're trying to finish this or really get deep into that third weight, you might have to do the 95s unbroken, but not the 115s. Um, the strategy on the cleans, I don't mind singles. Um, I the the issue with singles on cleans with these barbell plates, um, 10s, 15s, 25s, it's really unlikely that they're gonna stay in front of you as you drop it. So part of your workout is gonna be dropping, stepping to the getting set ups, chasing to the bell, trying to comp down. And that that's my my one negative on doing singles on the cleanse. I do think it's a good idea to break them up. Um, but if you have good touch and go, efficient movement, there there is a case to be made that they're actually easier when they're touch and go. Just get that bounce off the rubber, the rubber off the ground a little bit, no matter what. You're not supposed to bounce the bar, but it naturally will if I touch and go. Um, you get a little bit of momentum, you got better tension. Um, so that's something I would just pay attention to. At that first barbell, I would at least try to string at least, you know, three to five at a time. Um another thing about the cleans that I do think makes a big difference, especially if you have a real judge that's giving you real standard, checking you on real standards. Um, it's really common on these weights that you'll get underneath it slightly and you'll bring it off your shoulder before you show the full show the full control with true extension. Um, I would recommend warming up with muscle cleans and see how it feels, at least at the first weight. A muscle clean is essentially when you come off the ground, you get that bar to your front rack, elbows come through no matter what. But the second it hits your front rack, you're extended because you did not re-dip. It's like a kettlebell swing. You just or dumbbell snatch. You come up, that thing, everything's extended. Your elbows get through, you can go right back down with it. You get find a really good rhythm with those, and they're a lot quicker, a lot less time under tension. Practice that. Some of you guys could probably get away with that at the second barbell as well. Um, be careful with those no reps. I had no rep Jess tonight for letting go of the barbell too soon. The elbow's got to come through. That's not the end, though. The end is you standing all the way up. Um, I think I saw Danielle Brandon get no rep. That's a really common no rep. I've been no rep there a ton of times. Um, so if you can muscle clean, do it as long as you can because I do think it helps out a lot with a time and b tension, which is gonna be the big, the big factors into this workout.

Empty The Tank And Sign-Off

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Um, other than that, guys, strategy. Like, I don't have much, I'm sorry, uh, other than what I said already. This is actually just what, to me personally, this is what a CrossFit open workout is. It's inclusive. Um, it's for time, it's not an AMRAP, although I'm not anti-amrap. Um, and it's got three different movement patterns. Uh, this workout has two barbell movements, one body weight movement. And someone's weakness gets exposed in this. You most people feel more comfortable squatting than hinging slash pulling. Other people feel more comfortable hinging slash pulling than squatting. So you kind of like one of these barbell movements, probably. You probably hate one of them or feel like you're worse at one of them than the other. Um, or you love the barbell and you want to be on that thing all day, but. 24 burpees per round, that that's going to change the workout for you. So I like workouts that truly do expose someone at some point. And to me, it's not necessarily just the fittest person that gets the best score. That's definitely part of it. We can't fight that. We can't even argue against it. The fittest is definitely going to rise in most workouts like this. But to me, it's the people that have it between the ears. They like the challenge. They don't like burpees and thrusters. If you find someone that likes burpees and thrusters, don't trust them. It's like get away from them. They're weird. But they like the challenge of doing something like this. At the end of the day, it's 16 minutes. And guess what? The open's over after this. Like, I love ending the open with this workout. I love it. Because you got nothing else after. Why wouldn't you empty the tank? When you hear two minutes left, why not? Just go for it. Let's see what happens. I'm going to try to make a point that I'm going to tell every single person in that gym there's two minutes left, and we're going to see what you got. Because I'll tell you what, that your mind is always going to give up before your body needs it. Your body can push those last two minutes. It absolutely can. And I can't wait to see who actually does it. See you tomorrow, guys. Let's get it. Good luck. 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.