S06E198 Dark Week Revisited: When CrossFit Athletes Trust Their Fitness
What happens when your CrossFit gym goes dark? Coaches David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic dive deep into their CrossFit Bison's unique Dark Week experience – where workouts remain completely hidden until athletes walk through the door.
They explores the fascinating psychological impact of removing workout previews. While some members struggle with the lack of control, others discover unexpected freedom when forced to trust their fitness completely. As Coach David explains, "If your true goal is to become a fitter version of yourself, you're going to have to do things you don't want to do."
The hosts share candid insights about programming challenges, athlete reactions, and even expose how some members secretly try to peek at workouts ahead of time (spoiler: it ruins the experience like finding Christmas presents early). They tackle practical concerns like equipment preparation while highlighting profound benefits including breaking the subconscious bias of cherry-picking workouts and building mental resilience.
Perhaps most compelling is how Dark Week reveals character. Those who embrace the unknown with humility often benefit most, while those who resist relinquishing control miss valuable growth opportunities. The discussion ultimately circles back to CrossFit's foundational principle of preparing for the "unknown and unknowable" – something many athletes gradually drift away from as they settle into comfortable routines.
Whether you're a CrossFit veteran seeking to recapture early excitement or a fitness enthusiast curious about mental training aspects, this episode offers thoughtful perspectives on breaking patterns and embracing discomfort. Listen now to challenge your own approach to fitness and discover why sometimes not knowing might be exactly what you need.
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S06E198 Dark Week Revisited: When CrossFit Athletes Trust Their Fitness
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'm Coach David Syverson here with my co-host, dr and Coach Sam Marie just the two of us. Back to our comfort zone.
00:31
We're going to talk about something that we just did this past week, and it is Dark Week Revisited, and I think this is the third time that we ran a dark week here at Bison.
00:42
I did some checking back and I think this was the third time. I did want to do one every quarter, uh, but I also didn't want to lose any members here at crossfit bison, so, as of right now, it's a once per year thing. I do think we could get away with doing it a second time. Uh, we actually did a podcast with coach adam ramson on this exact topic after, uh, after a different dark week, and we're going to circle back on the same conversation because I think when we revisit something, we have new perspectives on it maybe different perspectives, maybe the same and then that kind of reinforces some of our thoughts and ideas on it, but I want to share some feedback I've gotten from members about this and people that normally don't have opinions about CrossFit. It's just stuff that came up in conversation. But, sam, you coached and worked out in Dark Week and what, what did doing this again bring back to the forefront with you as a CrossFitter?
Sam RheeCo-host
01:37
How much I don't like Dark Week, Tell me be real.
David SyvertsenHost
01:40
Why don't you like Dark Week? I, I, I Because we should be clear about this the coaches don't know the workouts either. The only workouts the coaches know including my wife, by the way, which I got a few dirty comments about throughout the week, unhappy comments from Ash they don't know the workouts unless they're coaching that day. So Sam only knew he's a Thursday morning coach here. He only knew the Thursday WOD. He didn't know any of them. Why don't you like it?
Sam RheeCo-host
02:05
I'm a planner, I like anticipating. It reminds me a little bit about honestly like as a physician, being on call and not knowing what the F is going to come in the door. Like I, I realize the value of dark week and I and, but it's just like burpees or something else. Like you may realize the value of burpees, you don't have a light gun, and so that's how I feel about dark week.
David SyvertsenHost
02:28
Do you try to find out what other work and be honest about this, because I'm going to talk about this for a little bit Do you try to find out what the workouts are beyond the ones that you're coaching?
Sam RheeCo-host
02:37
Never, never. I came in on Saturday and I gave it a lot of thought. I was like, okay, it's a partner workout, I don't know what's going on. I look at the list of people and I'm like I'm not sure. But I listen. The value of dark week is not knowing what the workout is.
David SyvertsenHost
02:55
Yeah, and I even know that sort of some athletes that are actually good at this. They can see what Monday, tuesday, wednesday were and like or you know what it process of elimination. This probably was what thursday was. Thursday you coached, it was was the primary strength day of the week and a lot of people were telling me dave, are we lifting tomorrow day? Are we lifting tomorrow because we haven't lifted yet and we have to lift every single week at least once. Are we lifting tomorrow? Uh, do you go into that frame of mind at all? Do you go into trying to guess what the workout will be based on? You know the previous two, three days of workouts.
Sam RheeCo-host
03:28
Well, if you don't have running yet, you're probably going to see some running. If you haven't had barbell, you're going to have some barbell. But I would say this I'm going to pick your thoughts about programming dark week because, as a programmer, this is a matter of trust of the athletes for the programmer. Because, as an athlete, if you knew your programmer was a sadist and it was like seven minutes of burpees today and then some other terrible workout on the next day, then you're going to be like I don't want to do dark week anymore and the fact that, honestly, most people who have experienced it here at Bison will do.
04:02
It shows that there is a pretty high level of trust that you, the programmer, are not going to f them up, and so that's. I want to actually think about how you thought of dark week and how do you program that differently than other weeks?
David SyvertsenHost
04:16
I do a little bit and I'll and I'll explain what is different, so I'll use tuesday's workout as an example. Tuesday's workout was the alternating EMOM, for, sorry, the repeated EMOM 20 minutes of six alternating lunge wall balls.
Sam RheeCo-host
04:33
Oh yeah, that was so messed up.
David SyvertsenHost
04:35
Six alternating single leg toes bar.
Sam RheeCo-host
04:38
Good movement actually.
David SyvertsenHost
04:39
Yep and six burpees. Okay, so basically that was the workout. Do that every minute and your score is out of 20, how many do you get done? And you have to finish under the minute for it to count.
Sam RheeCo-host
04:49
Where did you get the alternating lunge wall ball, by the way?
David SyvertsenHost
04:51
So they've actually been a thing I've seen a few times over the years and they were actually in their most recent, the NorCal semifinal Games athletes had to do them. Or NorCal semifinal Games athletes had to do them. Or the high-level elite athletes had to do them. And that competition out in NorCal they're known for doing things really outside the box, old school, like lifting on grass, parallettes and a handstand on grass. There are a lot of things that they do and even to the point to a fault.
05:20
There were things that they did wrong this past year that got a lot of negative attention and they're sending people to the games and I was like you know what, if I saw and I'll be honest about this, if I saw the alternating lunch wall ball at a local competition down the road, I'd be like, oh, losers and cream of the crop events sending the cream of the crop athletes to the games doing them. I was like you know what, if they can do it, we can do it. So I came to the gym one day and I practiced them and I was like you know what? I actually think there's a lot of fitness involved in terms of how we define fitness, of putting them into a workout. I also know that if I put them into programming, where people knew them ahead of time, I do think a lot of people would not come for that reason.
06:03
I see, and one of the concepts of dark week is trusting your fitness to come in. You can come in, trust your fitness, be able to do anything, whether you have to scale or not. Like hi, I am fit enough to show up to the gym and do any single workout, scaled, rx, whatever. And I want to challenge athletes to view dark week as that, instead of always being a planner and always feeling like you need to control everything, to take an alternating lunch wall bar, alternating toes bar, which is a great moving, like Sam said, great scaling to say, like you know what, yes, I don't know how to do it. Yes, it feels weird. Yes, I don't enjoy trying new things. You know I don't. I don, I don't want to be uncomfortable. At the end of that workout, you had a lot of people say the same exact thing. You know what. I got the hang of them and you know what. I think there was a lot of fitness involved. Did you do that one?
Sam RheeCo-host
06:53
I did not, but I wish I had honestly.
David SyvertsenHost
06:58
We're doing it again next week. No, just kidding.
Sam RheeCo-host
07:01
I remember the alternating toes to bar, the first.
David SyvertsenHost
07:10
then I saw more people doing them in the workout as a scale movement.
Sam RheeCo-host
07:12
It's a great scale and I've done them and, if nothing else, like Bobby's brought a lot, but if the only thing I could say is he brought alternating toes to bar, I'd say that's a win.
David SyvertsenHost
07:21
Still very valuable.
Sam RheeCo-host
07:23
Why did you make that Tuesday as opposed like so? Why'd you program Monday, monday, tuesday, when you know so?
David SyvertsenHost
07:28
Tuesday is the highest population, highest attendance day of the day most weeks.
Sam RheeCo-host
07:34
Is that right?
David SyvertsenHost
07:34
Right, I don't want to say like. I don't want anyone to say oh well, dave, three weeks ago Monday was busier, generally speaking, over the past 11 years, tuesday is the busiest workout day of the week, I see. So I figured that would be the way to get a um people to try something new without you know having to make the decision that they're doing something new, yeah, but also just expose them to what I thought a lot of people. Owen said this it was the hardest workout, one of the hardest he's ever done. I think part of that was he related like I don't think the workout itself was that much harder than other things that we do brutal on tuesday uh, but it was.
08:04
We had a heat wave this past week, so that was part of the rationale behind programming that workout. Other things that you can uh plan on with crossfitters and I do take pride in this, or try to do this is that you do want the athletes to trust the programmer, meaning, uh, we're not going to go overhead five days in a row, right, we're not going to do 80 toes to bar tuesday, then 90 chest of our pull-ups on Wednesday. And I do take that as a huge responsibility that if you are going to come to the gym four, five, six days in a row, it is going to be as safe as possible within relation to your fitness level and not overextending yourself. But movements I've actually always seen this and I'm not going to throw anyone under the bus specifically. But movements I've actually always seen this and I'm not going to throw anyone under the bus specifically.
08:51
I remember when watching other gyms and their programming, having them just simply do pull-ups two days in a row, yeah. Or toes to bar one day, pull-ups the next day I've always been like, do they not care about people's hands? Or doing a heavy thruster one day, then a heavy squat clean the next day and, trust me, it's really hard to program big picture. Anyone can program a good workout. It's really hard to program five good workouts in a row that complement each other well, that are also fun, also good training, and stick to a routine and I do almost challenge myself on dark week that can I do that and these people walk out of here being safe, got it. Now let's give some of the cons from last time, and this actually came up a couple of times. What is a con of Dark Week? That maybe someone like myself is not empathizing enough with athletes.
Sam RheeCo-host
09:42
Well, I did see Sydney Sher come in with Rob on Thursday.
David SyvertsenHost
09:46
Yeah.
Sam RheeCo-host
09:47
And it was a lift workout, yeah, and they didn't know what it was. And she had the thickest running shoes I've ever seen.
David SyvertsenHost
09:54
Those are so common now.
Sam RheeCo-host
09:55
And so she was. It was like lifting on pillows for her, like it was like she was moving back and forth. There was like I was amazed how good her form was on like three inch pillows, and she thought there was. She wasn't sure what it was, and so that's what she brought in. And so, without the proper equipment and Susan complains about this every dark week the equipment I got to bring chesties every day because I don't know and I'm going to need it.
David SyvertsenHost
10:21
Yeah.
Sam RheeCo-host
10:22
So it's? It's that like lack of having your equipment?
David SyvertsenHost
10:26
Yes, um having your equipment right. Yes, katie miller made a post. Or?
10:29
I think it was a post somewhere or an instagram story about, like the, the seven pairs of shoes she has for different crossfit workouts, whether it's running, jumping, squatting, lifting and I do that. I I am a little picky with what I wear on certain days with workouts as well, so I do understand that. Um, I know some of my uh, the female athletes here said like they'll, you know the, the shirt they wear, the sports bra they wear, will change based on what workout they're doing, whether it's running, going upside down. So I do understand that, and ash brought that up a couple times. I said bring both. And you know, unless she kind of rolls her eyes, it's like to me it's kind of like an obvious answer. Just like, throw it in your car, throw in your gym bag and you have, if you have to go, make a quick change, you make a quick change. Another one that I have a lot of empathy for are people that are currently battling some sort of injury, right, and that they, whether it's a back, a knee, a hip, an ankle, a foot, and I understand that when you get to plan things out, you get to actually plan keeping yourself safe when, yes, some people cherry pick workouts based on what they like to do, what they're good at.
11:32
Others are like, hey, I need to be able to function the rest of the week. I have a job, I have kids. I can't come in on the heavy deadlift day with a bad back, but I'll definitely come in on the day where we do toes to bar and jump rope because I feel safe doing that. And my response from the coach that can get some eye rolls is like, hey, you should just be able to scale and a coach should help. You should be able to help you out with that. And that's one thing we give our coaches like, hey, you guys need to be extra ready this week to be able to help someone change the workout if they need to. Thoughts on that, your stance on? Hey, dave, I get this whole CrossFit truther perspective of be ready for anything at any time, but I'm a human being and working out is just a part of my life. It's not my entire life and I want to be as safe as possible. What would your response to that be?
Sam RheeCo-host
12:20
I mean, I do see it that way. I've been injured and there's so much less joy when you can't participate in the workout with the uh, with the class, when everyone else is doing. You know, I remember when my shoulder was really bad and I couldn't, you know, get on the rig and then I was having like wall ball thrust, like thrusters or something like that, and it feels, it feels crappy, and and so I I sympathize if you're the one always on the bike or you know whatever, because you can't do those movements. You know, unfortunately it's only one week though, Right, so I feel like if it was every week, it might be an issue. Yeah, but even if I was really injured this week, I would try to show up on my normal days and say, OK, make, make this a challenge. What can I figure out and what, when can I take from that day?
David SyvertsenHost
13:09
Right and that's something I was hoping you were going to bring that up, because that's something that we've been talking about a lot over the past year with you know our new venture here with Outlast and why we're doing it to, why behind it is the feeling of winning and losing, right, and when you have, whether we agree with it or not, it's a that when people constantly have to change a workout up and they're not doing what the rest of the crew is doing, they do kind of walk out. They can walk out of the gym feeling like they lost and we don't want that. Like there's so many goals that we have for athletes here at Bison. But I think that if you strip everything down to the most basic layer, we want to just help people, we want to make them feel better about themselves, we want them to be healthier. That we want to make them feel better about themselves. We want them to be healthier. That's physically, mentally, emotionally, everything. And when they come to the gym and they have to change things up because they came to dark week and they didn't know there was deadlifts and they can't do a lower back workout for whatever reason, that can just kind of diminish the flame. And again, it's not whether or not we agree with it or what my stance on that is. We don't want that for people in general and I do empathize with that and again, that's why, hey, it's only one week, um, maybe only one week a year, definitely not two weeks in a row. I also want to circle back to um.
14:19
The challenge to the coaches is that you know, it's funny that our app, for the first time ever with push price, it went down for a little bit, uh, where people couldn't sign up, and I remember ash came home she goes what's wrong? Like, I have like 10 text messages. People can't sign up. I'm trying to get a hold of push press. They're not responding. Um, they solved it. Great, great job by them. It was very timey fashion, but you know, those minutes feel like hours sometimes and the uh, one of the athletes, or a couple of athletes, made the same joke. They they're like oh, you know what? We're not even going to sign up. Dark week for the coaches too. Can you imagine being a morning coach and not knowing who's coming to your classes in the morning?
14:55
That would be another wrinkle to everything else that would be a dark week for coaches, but that in and of itself would be a challenge for the coach. But I also think when a coach is coaching dark week and you don't know what the workout is the next day, especially, it can change how you coach and it can make you actually kind of come back to the roots of like all right, what? What is my focus today? What am I actually trying to do and what should I be prepared for? Because you know, when people come to the gym and they don't know the workout to the second they walk in. Some of them react differently to wow, I hate this, I love this, I can't do this. I need the scales. It puts a little bit more pressure on the coach. Did you have any of those situations or did you anticipate that at all as a coach?
Sam RheeCo-host
15:38
I got lucky, I had the barbell workout, so it was all and it was a variation of what we had done the week before, so I felt very comfortable, sort of going through it. If I had to do that alternating lunge, wall ball, alternating toes, my mind would have exploded because not just trying to coach that, but then the scales and sort of figuring out how to do that. Good point, you know kudos who coached that?
David SyvertsenHost
16:03
Tuesday was Bobby, so he opened the gym that morning, and then you had Adam Ramson, I believe, and Liz.
Sam RheeCo-host
16:10
Yeah.
David SyvertsenHost
16:10
So kudos, all three of those guys are very well prepared.
Sam RheeCo-host
16:14
I mean, yeah, three of our best coaches. So I'm really glad that you know. So it really does depend on the workout. You're right.
David SyvertsenHost
16:19
Now let me ask you this Do you think this whole like type A personality controlling right? Do you think that am I annoying when I say that kind of gets some CrossFitters to kind of lose touch with what CrossFit truly is and even bison people because this is what it was for years. Right, I didn't post a workout till 930 the night before. We didn't start sending weekly programming out until near COVID maybe, maybe the year before, but it was, that was not a thing. For years. Have we lost touch with, kind of what CrossFit should be. It's like, hey, show up and do your thing being unknowable unknown.
Sam RheeCo-host
17:01
CrossFit Open. That is exactly what the CrossFit Open is. I think on some level we have done that, but uh, I personally like setting myself up for success, so okay. So there is always value in being able to be thrown um a curveball and being able to handle it um. I feel like one week of dark week a year is a good sort, and the open, for example, are great times where we are challenging ourselves with the unknown and unknowable. But for me, like when I know what a workout is, I can say okay, my weak point in this workout is this. I can work on focusing on getting that part better. Yeah, unknown and unknowable is very good for part of your training, generally speaking.
17:53
Yes, and if you don't have some of those elements in your training, then, yes, you should add them. But yeah, you're not going to do it all the time, right?
David SyvertsenHost
18:03
And that's a very like OPEX type answer, like when I took that OPEX course during COVID or right after COVID it was. You know they're talking more about the sports side of like. All right, you don't know the CrossFit Games events essentially until the week before. Until you get there, your training needs to cover all grounds and you know they're very on the very much on the side of like no, you need to. What High Rocks is like, you need to know exactly what's coming so you can train exactly for it, be well prepared, create real training regimens around what you know is coming.
18:33
I do see both sides of it and that's why I like going back and forth and I like, honestly, from a gym owner perspective, we always have to find ways to stimulate people right, like this is why the fitness industry is a fat industry. Is that at some point, honestly, you just get sick of it and you just move on to something different. So like if we did. That's why we've never done like hey, lifting on Mondays, gymnastics on Tuesdays, endurance on Wednesdays, body weight on Thursdays and mixed modal on Friday. We do switch up what days we lift. We do switch days, which days we do gymnastics, but I'll tell you what you talk.
19:08
You look at competitors, right. They're very regimented throughout the year. Look at competitors right. They're very regimented throughout the year and that is a big way in terms of having to really kind of push the needle and find your ceiling as an athlete and I've always internally struggled with that as a coach and as an athlete is what is the best way to prepare for someone.
19:25
That is something that is unknowable. We don't know what the open workouts are, the semifinal workouts, and I do think there is a mental component to dark week that can make you a lot better and at the end of the day, I know we have a lot of performance favored athletes here at Bison, whether they're competing across it or they just want to get in better shape. There is a lot of value that comes from not being able to plan or being able to come up with a plan on the fly. You walk in, you look at the whiteboard. You need five minutes. You have your plan for the workout. You don't need four days to plan out what Thursday's WOD strategy will be. Well, that's me.
Sam RheeCo-host
20:01
So when you got the feedback, do you think there are personality types of the people who gave you the feedback that reflect the type of feedback they gave you about Dark Week?
David SyvertsenHost
20:10
Yeah, absolutely Not to throw people under that reflect the type of feedback they gave you about dark week. Yeah, absolutely, um. So, man, not to throw people under the bus. No, I won't throw anyone. If anyone. I'll only praise someone. I'll praise, um, uh, somewhat of a new member here. He's been here for, I think, about a year now, mike Bates. Um, yeah, he, he came so great. He's been crossfitting for a long time. He's been Hoboken for a long time and he goes.
20:31
One thing it did is it got me away even a subconscious bias of what days to take off. He goes like I just showed up and he goes. If your true goal is and Owen said this as well he goes. If your true goal is to get fitter, right, you can't just keep doing the ones that you want to do, even though it makes you feel good in the moment because you're good at that stuff. He goes like. If your true goal is to become a fitter version of yourself, you're going to have to, and we all know this. You have to do things you don't want to do. But I, I, I think, because we know that and we've a lot of us have been crossing for a long time. Push comes to shove. That's exactly what you're going to do. You're going to make very biased decisions towards what you like to do rather than what you should do.
21:13
And both of those guys were. It was in the same exact conversation. They said that they no longer had the ability to make a subconscious decision, to only cherry pick a workout that they really want to do, and they felt and it almost was freeing in some ways that they kind of that decision was taken out of their hand. I remember you said something like that last time and I actually think this centers around the personality trait that you were just saying. I hate bringing this, gonna ruffle some feathers here, but humility to me is a huge part of dark week and being able to just be like, relinquish the control of like hey, it's for one week, be humble about it, just show up and do your thing and then you get back to your routine next week. Because I understand routine, how important that is. Am I going too deep on that?
Sam RheeCo-host
22:00
No, absolutely. I think honestly, all of CrossFit is some relinquishing of control. The athletes are not determining what they're doing. The program is determining it every day. Which is the beauty of being part of a CrossFit gym is you don't have to think about what you're doing. Yeah, the only difference with dark week is you don't get to think about it at all until you show up. But you're still trusting the programmer every day, every like, every day, I'm like, okay, what is Dave programming for me? And and I'm trusting you, uh, this is a. This takes it to another level. Mike and Owen are a thousand serious back injury.
David SyvertsenHost
22:37
He's been doing awesome by the way, and Owen has always been a really high-level performer here.
Sam RheeCo-host
22:57
Yeah, owen's crazy and I assume Mike is not crazy. That's the difference.
David SyvertsenHost
23:01
But the fact that they had the same response to me, it shows me that there is a similar personality trait to them and that they're okay with relinquishing that control for a little bit because they understand the bigger picture benefit of it. And that's the one challenge I want to throw. Everyone that feels any certain way about dark week is that there is an advantage doing it. And I want to challenge the next time I do it, whether it's next week or next year, to not try and find out the workouts. Oh, did people try, oh yeah.
23:31
They definitely tried to find out the workouts. Oh, did people try? Oh, yeah, they definitely tried to find out, whether it's through conversation, texting, you know, coming early in the day to drop something off in the gym when they're coming out. That's sad, and I do. I want to say, without creating any unnecessary drama, is that when you do that, it's a disrespect to the, the concept and, to me, even the community. Like I even think it's kind of disrespectful to the community because you can even tell some people know the workouts when they come in they don't look at the white board Like if I didn't know the workout, like that's the first place I'm looking.
24:07
What is the workout? If you walk in, you know you're not like it. Kind of it's like, oh man, you're not like it kind of looks like, oh man, you're missing it. You're missing out on something you are, and it's not every week, and I really do want to challenge people the next time. I do this to just take it for what it is, and I hope that you can trust that. We've done this a few times now and it's overwhelming how positive the response is to it, even though you might not like it in the moment. It's also overwhelming how positive the impact it can be on just keeping it fun and keeping it stimulating. And if you did try to find out the workouts, you did find out the workouts. I want to challenge you next time to not do that, because I do think you're the one that can benefit the most.
Sam RheeCo-host
24:45
I bet these are the ones who, when they were kids, would go into the closet and try to open up the Christmas gifts before Christmas day.
David SyvertsenHost
24:51
I will tell you, I did that one time. I think we talked about this last time. I remember finding all my Christmas presents one year, I think it was like 9 or 10 or 11. It was one of those years and it ruined Christmas. It did it 100%, ruined us, and then you had to act like you were surprised, which made it even worse. Don't do that All right. So closing thoughts on Dark Week Revisited. If you got to decide, sam, when we're doing it again, would you do it at a certain point of the year? Would you do it at a certain point from now till then?
25:26
Or here's a third question.
Sam RheeCo-host
25:29
Would you announce that we're doing it? All really good questions. I think the fact that I wasn't aware that this was going to be a dark week was good. Yeah, I think it should be spaced out, because I think you do a really great job spacing out things that keep our attention, because I've done this for 10 years and so there's stuff that gets old.
25:51
Listen, coming to the gym is a necessity, but the joy, the dopamine rush you got to chase it a little bit more, let's just put it that way, and so the fact that you kind of space these things out so there's always a little bit of a lift for the athletes, something a little different. Now we got the benchmark, which is exciting. So I don't think you should announce when you're going to do it. The athletes you know something a little different. You know, now we got the benchmark, which is exciting, yep. So I don't think you should announce when you're going to do it. I think it should be done. You should space it out at a time when it kind of picks people up a little bit, got it and I got to tell you my feedback is that I thought you were really kind with it this year, like I thought there was going to be at least one week, one day, where you were going to sort of be punitive or Like a seven-minute burpees.
David SyvertsenHost
26:36
Yeah, I think there was one year where I did three burpee workouts in a week. Yeah, I mean that's not that mean, but it's kind of mean. Yeah, I wouldn't normally do that, yes.
Sam RheeCo-host
26:44
I remember that one very vividly and when I showed up on Saturday I was like I don't know what's going to happen. But the workout itself was very friendly and I was like you know what, dave didn't F us over. I trusted Dave and I think you have, over the years, maintained that trust with the athletes. In terms of programming, the workout was step ups, v ups, sit ups, row, row, a couple dumbbell moves and a hang dumbbell, clean and jerk, which literally everyone who showed up more or less felt pretty comfortable with. I mean, I had someone tell me the workout was too easy, you know, and I understand that and I get it.
27:25
But at the end of dark week it's like we have a tough week coming up, right, and you know, the funny thing is is like, for example, susan was like I'm going to outlast because it's a partner workout, it's dark week, I don't know what's going to happen. And then I showed up and her work was like yeah, and I was like you know what, susan, honestly, you would have really enjoyed this workout. It was a good one. So you got to put some trust in the people that are doing this and after 10 years I still I can't believe that I still trust you to do these.
David SyvertsenHost
27:54
I can't believe it either, sam, and I promise I won't take advantage of that. Yeah, all right. Well, thank you guys. That's dark week revisited. We will do another one. I can't tell you when it is going to be and I'm not going to tell you. All right, thank you guys. See you next week. 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.
