0:05

Hey everybody , welcome to the HerdFit wih Podcast

0:07

with Dr . Sam Rhee and myself , coach

0:10

David Syvertsen . His podcast is

0:12

aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking

0:14

to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness

0:16

, nutrition and , most importantly

0:18

, mindset . Alright

0:22

, welcome back to the Herdfit Podcast . I am Coach

0:24

David Syvertsen , I'm here with my co-host , Dr

0:26

and Coach Sam Rhee , and we have Coach

0:28

Adam Ramsden back for week two of

0:31

this time around the sun with him and

0:33

today . The word dark guys

0:36

in relation to CrossFit could

0:38

have a couple of different meanings . I

0:40

think we've used them in different contexts , both

0:43

right now and in the past . We're

0:45

going to talk about the dark week here at CrossFit

0:48

Bison . We did it for the first time and

0:51

what it was is that we did not release any

0:53

workouts ahead of time . It

0:55

was you show to the gym and you

0:57

should find out the workout at that very

0:59

moment , at the whiteboard , three minutes before

1:02

the talk , 15 minutes before the actual

1:04

workout starts , and I

1:07

want to get your feedback on that

1:09

initially , both as

1:11

athletes and coaches . What that was like

1:14

because old

1:16

school CrossFit are in me and

1:19

even , in some regard , old school Bison

1:21

in me is this is what it was

1:23

right CrossFitcom , when

1:25

they started releasing these workouts . You would not see

1:27

it until the night before , and that's what CrossFit Bison

1:29

did for a very long time , very

1:31

like years . I didn't post the workout

1:34

until I got home or until I was ready . Sometimes

1:36

it was eight o'clock , sometimes it was 1030 pm

1:38

. So you essentially went to bed not knowing what the workout

1:40

was . If you did workout at night , you could wake up and always

1:42

see it , but for the morning , people they

1:44

, a lot of them just didn't know until they woke up in the morning

1:47

, and we made that transition for

1:49

a lot of different reasons years later , and

1:51

I kind of missed the old ways . So we experimented

1:54

with , instead of sending out weekly

1:56

programming , you just found out the workout either

1:58

from someone else or when

2:00

you show up to the gym . Ramzan

2:02

, you like this kind of stuff , playing

2:04

games mentally with people Once in a while .

2:06

Yeah Well , playing games with

2:08

people all the time , but Dark Week specifically , once

2:10

in a while .

2:12

Do you think this is something that is a

2:14

give me a pro and con

2:17

to as an athlete ? Dark

2:20

Week .

2:21

Um , pro is uh

2:23

. I'll tell a story from the Asbury Park

2:25

Summer Games , where they had a workout

2:28

that was a lifting workout and

2:31

uh was something that we saw . We

2:33

had a lot of teams compete . We saw a lot

2:35

of people preparing for this . You know

2:37

, we we had programming that was

2:39

specifically designed for

2:42

the lifting that they were going to be able to do , to

2:44

make sure they got their maximum lifts . You

2:46

get there the first day , first couple

2:48

of heats go , lifting platforms break

2:50

. So all of a sudden , asbury

2:53

Park has to say listen , we got to switch

2:55

this up . And now I

2:57

saw the gamut of people

3:00

saying , well , I

3:02

, I , I can't do this workout anymore . Now

3:04

I have to squat and I plan to do 60

3:06

wall balls later , and all these things

3:08

and other people that were , like it happens

3:10

, go , you

3:12

know , um , let's come with a plan and let's see

3:15

what we can do . Um , and so

3:17

I think the more prepared you are for

3:19

that , or the more times you've experienced

3:21

not knowing what you're getting walking

3:23

through the door of the gym , the better

3:26

you'll be to handle a situation like that

3:28

. Cons , all

3:30

right , I got yelled at this um , all

3:32

throughout the week . So

3:34

I , it's not an issue for

3:36

us , but , um , fashion

3:39

or what you're wearing to the gym , is a big

3:41

thing for um women

3:43

. You know the movements

3:45

that are in the workout and that

3:47

just didn't cross my mind until I got yelled

3:50

at multiple times for it , um

3:52

, every morning , when I would get woken up at 545

3:55

and my wife didn't know what to wear to the gym

3:58

because she didn't know what the workout was . So

4:00

it's definitely a con of , you know , preparation

4:03

and especially those

4:06

morning athletes who you know want

4:08

to be prepared . In the next morning they got

4:10

to get out of the door really quickly . Just

4:12

, you know , get ready and go , uh , to the gym

4:14

. So I guess I do see the con there

4:16

.

4:17

Yeah , I think that equipment toys

4:19

, that that is one thing

4:21

for sure . Uh , if

4:23

you're wearing a chesty , because you

4:25

know you , you cut up your clavicle all the

4:27

time . What's a chesty ? Uh , it's

4:29

for women . They wear a lot . Some

4:32

of them will wear a padded top . Yeah

4:34

, so

4:36

you know , and maybe you

4:38

want to bring your lifters or this or that you know

4:40

for a particular workout . So

4:42

knowing those things can be helpful . It can

4:44

also be helpful to , when

4:48

you know a workout , to sort

4:50

of plan it a little bit

4:52

. I think that planning for the week , I

4:54

oftentimes will think

4:57

about these workouts off and on during

5:00

the week and I'm like okay , how am I going to break this one

5:02

up and this one up ? And we all

5:04

know , especially we just talked about

5:06

the open but if you can go

5:08

in with a good plan , that

5:10

makes such a difference so you're not going hot

5:12

every time . You're like okay

5:14

, like if you have , say , two

5:17

days to think about a workout , I bet you most

5:19

of the times you'll do better than if you were presented

5:21

that workout three minutes prior to doing it . Okay

5:24

, so if you want to optimize your

5:26

performance , sometimes just thinking about a workout can

5:28

be helpful . The problem is

5:30

is that you can obsess over

5:32

these workouts , which can be very unproductive

5:34

for many people . I want to

5:36

give a shout out to Ella Kinney because last

5:39

week she decided on her own

5:41

to go dark again and not know what the workouts

5:44

were because she felt like

5:46

she thought about them all the time , and

5:48

I see that with a lot of athletes they worry

5:50

so much about a particular

5:53

workout . Oh my God , there are 80

5:55

wall balls on Thursday . How the heck

5:57

am I going to get ? I hate wall balls , I don't

5:59

want to do this and

6:02

that can really just take up

6:04

way too much energy

6:06

and mental time

6:08

that you don't need to do . So

6:10

if you suddenly have a week where you

6:13

don't get to think , you don't think about it like Ella

6:15

did . She's like , wow , this is freeing , like I

6:17

don't have to worry . It

6:19

doesn't really matter if I hate

6:22

wall balls and I obsess over it . I'm still going to

6:24

do the workout and I'm going

6:26

to do the wall balls to the best of my ability

6:28

. So what's the point of freaking

6:30

out about it ? I mean , there are some people like CJ

6:32

who'd never look at the workout every day . I

6:34

respect that and they have a very free

6:37

, clear mindset . I

6:39

am not that way . I really do

6:42

think about these workouts . When

6:44

we did dark week , I only knew the

6:46

day that I coached . I did not know

6:48

the others .

6:49

Yeah , so even our coaches did not know

6:51

the workouts unless because

6:53

a lot of them planned days ahead of time for like

6:55

, warmups and logistics and all this their

6:58

whiteboard talk . So when

7:00

we released the programming we sent them that

7:03

their days workout . So if you coach

7:05

multiple days , you got multiple workouts . You could probably get a

7:07

feel for what's coming and whatnot

7:09

. But just so people know that , that the only

7:11

workouts people knew on the coaching

7:13

staff were the days they were actually coaching .

7:15

I will say the biggest

7:17

con with knowing is the cherry

7:19

picking , and it was right . It gets

7:21

pretty rife sometimes Like people will

7:24

just not show up for certain movements . And

7:26

does that bother me ? It bothers me a lot as a coach

7:28

. Yes , I think you should show up .

7:30

That being said , you programmed a crap

7:32

load of burpees that we did , and

7:35

my favorite line with Luke was like oh , no more burpees

7:37

. That's two days already . I'm like

7:39

ha , ha , ha ha .

7:42

So I think if you program right , if you

7:44

program three days of burpees , I don't know

7:46

, the class participation might have gotten

7:48

gone down . So

7:51

I hate cherry picking . So

7:55

for me , I will set my workout

7:57

week , regardless of what the workouts

7:59

are . I will show up for the days that I have planned

8:01

. It doesn't matter what the workouts are , and

8:04

I think that as long as athletes

8:06

do that and they don't cherry pick unfortunately

8:09

a

8:12

bunch do then knowing what the workouts

8:14

may not be the worst thing .

8:16

I think what dark we can teach us to as athletes

8:18

is . If

8:21

your goal truly is to come here

8:23

and become fitter that's a goal

8:25

for a lot of people . I want to become fitter than I

8:27

am right now . 1% better , all that

8:29

. The

8:31

quickest route to that , the

8:34

path of least resistance , is

8:37

improving your weaknesses

8:39

. It's just not fun . It's not a satisfy the

8:41

moment type feel . I

8:44

can come up with movements like Adam with strict

8:46

muscle ups , sam with burpees

8:49

, me with rowing . If I

8:51

see workouts with rowing

8:53

and I'm like , yes , I'm going to come in and attack

8:55

this with fire , it's like , well , you're already

8:58

good at it , so you're really not working that much

9:00

harder than you already have . You

9:02

put it up pistol crossover workout in

9:04

and I don't know it , I'm going to come

9:06

in , I'm going to see it , I'm going to have that short term like crap

9:08

. You know like this is going to be a terrible workout

9:11

for me , which , one of those injuries

9:13

aside , is going to get you your

9:15

fitness level to a higher level , because

9:18

we often associate higher

9:20

fitness with just sheer effort and

9:23

it's just not the case . Right Skills

9:26

, movement patterns , developing things that you're

9:28

not good at to make you more balanced can

9:30

actually probably improve your likelihood of injury

9:32

. A lot of times when I see people

9:34

get hurt with a certain movement

9:38

or a certain body part , it was because it

9:40

got overworked . And a lot of times we

9:42

overwork the things that

9:44

are causing that pain , because that

9:46

joint , that part of our body , really

9:48

needs to work over

9:51

and over . Because I'm always coming in on the overhead

9:53

day , I'm always coming in on the squat day , I'm always

9:55

coming in but I'm ignoring the other ones that are going to help me be

9:57

more balanced . So I think

9:59

, in terms of the pro

10:01

of a

10:03

dark week or not knowing the workouts , whether it's every

10:06

other week , every other day , blah , blah , blah would

10:08

be that you , your fitness level

10:10

will get , will become higher , will get to a

10:12

higher point , if you don't always know those

10:14

workouts . Or , again , don't cherry pick

10:16

, which I think we all do a little bit , even

10:19

days where , if

10:22

I'm not cherry picking what days I go in , there are

10:24

certain days I'm much more excited to come in and I have

10:26

a much better mindset and I need

10:28

to be better with that . I'm really excited

10:30

to come on days and other days I'm like just

10:32

hope I don't get hurt . Tell

10:35

me this I had a good discussion with Ashley about this . In a

10:37

regard to dark week , if you're struggling with an injury , does

10:39

dark week help you or hurt you ?

10:43

I think dark week can . If you are somebody

10:45

that works out

10:47

, maybe at 6am , 415 are

10:49

really pack classes and you

10:51

do want to get good scales

10:53

for the movements that you're not feeling you know

10:55

like you can do . That can be difficult

10:58

because you got 24 people in a class

11:00

. You know . All of a sudden you have to say

11:02

, oh Sam , can you come over and just give me a scale

11:04

for this , this and that ? And Sam's

11:06

got a million things he's doing . He's worried about logistics

11:08

and everybody and getting people in zones and

11:10

stuff like that . So

11:13

it can be tough , you know , and it can be if

11:15

you don't know the workout going in . All of a sudden now

11:18

you see these movements and you're like , oh , I can't do half

11:20

of those . Uh oh , like my shoulders been bothering

11:22

me , I don't want to bother Sam , like it's

11:25

. It can be an extra

11:27

form of stress that you don't really need as an

11:29

athlete .

11:33

It's dark week if you're injured . It can

11:35

be difficult in terms of

11:37

figuring out your scales . But if

11:40

you have , let's say , a shoulder issue and

11:42

then you're like , oh my God , this is all shoulder stuff , I'm

11:44

not coming in today , then that's worse . So

11:47

it's okay to

11:50

have an injury and have to change

11:52

all the movements . I've done that and

11:55

it sucked . Okay , I ended

11:58

up doing it and just coming in because I

12:00

knew coming in and doing something

12:02

that was really , really different , but

12:05

trying to keep to stimulus , even if it seemed

12:08

really different , was better than just staying at home

12:10

and not working out . And that's the problem

12:12

is , I see a lot of people who have injuries are like okay

12:14

, this is this date

12:16

kind of day and so I'm not going to come in because

12:19

all the movements include my shoulder

12:21

. So , figuring that out , don't

12:24

use as an excuse not to come

12:26

in , absolutely .

12:28

I want to give a shout out to Deb T and Vivian , who

12:30

Vivian's coming back , I think might

12:32

be this week coming up . Actually , when does this for

12:34

being released ? She's already come back at this point and

12:38

she sends me a text every week saying

12:40

you better have that spot at 6 AM open for me . But

12:44

those two have

12:46

their own respective injuries and personal situations

12:49

going on that they're really trying to get the bottom of and they're

12:51

trying really hard and doing things and surgeries

12:53

to try to fix whatever

12:55

is going on . And they

12:57

both say this I feel bad at once . You

13:00

guys always have to change the workouts for me , and

13:02

two things . That's a coach's job . So if a coach

13:04

ever doesn't want to do it for you , just let us

13:06

know . That won't work here anymore . If

13:09

you have a coach out there that acts like that , they're

13:11

not really a coach , they're just more of a cheerleader

13:13

type , and you need to know that ahead of time

13:15

. But so let's take that thought

13:17

out . You never feel bad and

13:20

B you coming to the gym

13:22

and still trying to piece together a workout

13:25

, even though it's definitely not nearly

13:27

as fun as it could be . You're not always

13:29

doing what you want to do . I got to

13:31

get on the bike again . I got to do this again

13:33

. Try as hard

13:36

as you can to look at the benefit of

13:38

what you get from . Like Debti's doing

13:40

a lot of core work right now instead

13:42

of certain movements . It has nothing to do with

13:44

a squat , clean right , but she's building

13:47

up her course that when she is back , that

13:49

is going to be that much stronger . She says

13:51

, oh my God , I tried to squat there and I felt so slow

13:53

. Or this movement pattern feels weak

13:56

. I'm like , well , that's going to happen while you're

13:58

trying to rehab and try to get to the bottom . But

14:00

let's look at the benefit of how much core

14:02

work you're doing , how much hinge work you're doing , how much

14:04

DHD , how much biking . That

14:06

, if you can I tell this to coaches all

14:08

the time and athletes if you're hurt

14:10

, if you're banged up , that does not mean

14:12

don't come in and

14:14

just ended a period . There's always

14:17

going to be something that you can do . It

14:19

just might not be as fulfilling , but

14:22

I think the second you take yourself out of the routine

14:24

of coming to the gym , it's going to

14:26

multiply and compound how much harder

14:29

it is to get back into the routine and

14:31

then you miss out on a lot of the community benefits of being here too .

14:34

I think one of the things we're doing is trust

14:37

. When a programmer and a

14:39

gym gives you the programming ahead

14:41

of time , they're trusting you . They

14:43

are saying we trust you to be responsible

14:46

about not cherry picking so much

14:48

, about making sure

14:51

you trust us with how

14:53

your fitness is going . Because I know , for example

14:55

, there are a fair number of athletes that

14:57

are like I want to move

14:59

, I want to sweat , so they'll come to all the

15:01

20-minute plus workouts with

15:03

a bunch of different movements , but

15:05

then it's front squat day and they

15:07

won't show up because they're like I don't want to get bulky

15:10

, I just want to burn some fat

15:12

and I don't want big

15:14

legs . And

15:16

, honestly , they couldn't be further

15:19

from the truth . And

15:21

that's where I think

15:23

you , as an athlete , have

15:26

to understand they're trusting you

15:28

with the programming to do the

15:30

right thing and show up

15:32

. You don't trust your programmer , you don't trust your gym

15:34

. Then why are you there in the first

15:36

place ? Like do the right thing and

15:39

if you really believe in CrossFit , if you believe

15:41

this is going to help you , do that . You don't necessarily

15:44

know the best Like . I don't know

15:46

my like . There's a lot about programming

15:48

and getting fitter that I don't know . I trust my

15:51

coaches . I trust the person who's

15:53

programming at my gym to help me . I'm

15:55

not an expert by any means about

15:57

any of this stuff . I'm learning

15:59

, I'm getting better . But if you tell

16:01

me doing more wallmalls is gonna make me better , I'm

16:03

gonna do them and you know what they do . And if

16:06

lifting is too , so don't

16:08

look at it like you

16:11

know . And so Dark Week is sort of an experiment , like

16:13

now . I do have to trust

16:15

my programmer . I do have to know that whatever

16:17

I'm doing is right . So

16:20

you know , take that for

16:22

what it is . You know , look at it as

16:24

an experiment of I'm

16:26

gonna just show up no matter what , but

16:28

maybe I should be doing that all

16:31

the time , regardless of whether I know the workouts or

16:33

not .

16:34

And if we take the injuries and cherry picking

16:36

and put it aside , everybody

16:38

likes to go on vacation , right ? If

16:40

you go on vacation and you're just not gonna work out for a week

16:42

, two weeks , you know , are you gonna know

16:44

exactly what's in the hotel gym . If

16:46

you drop in somewhere , you're gonna ask them what the workouts

16:49

are . When you email them . It's like you

16:51

inviting me over for dinner and being like , well , what

16:53

are we having first ? You know Nothing

16:55

. Good Right , but

16:58

you know you're gonna show up and

17:00

you're gonna have to deal with what you've got in front of you

17:02

because you wanna get a workout in . You know , because

17:05

we are trying to get fitter , and

17:07

not working out at all for a week is

17:09

not going to get you fitter . That's

17:11

the bottom line .

17:13

How often should we do this ? Let's wrap this up

17:15

with should this be

17:17

an everyday ? Always Once

17:19

one week a month , one week a quarter

17:22

, one watt a week ? I threw

17:24

a random Saturday

17:26

into that mix a couple weeks ago . I just

17:28

said , hey , here are the movements , you know . Is

17:30

that what we should do ? Because I know some people I do

17:32

empathize with the equipment

17:35

and clothing factor , because I am that

17:37

way too with like shoes and stuff right Matching

17:40

my outfits and Knee

17:42

sleep running days . Do

17:46

you see value in telling people

17:48

when to expect this that hey , we're gonna do this once

17:50

a month , once a quarter , or do you

17:52

just randomly do it ?

17:55

I think the randomization is great . Yeah

17:58

, you know , I think we told people the

18:00

week before that they weren't gonna get the

18:02

workouts for the following week and

18:05

I think we would need to give them some notice

18:08

, because you can't just say , here's the programming

18:10

, oh , what's Wednesday ? Oh , there's nothing there

18:12

, or maybe you could do that . But

18:15

yeah , I think , having it

18:17

, you know you don't wanna do it every week , you

18:20

don't wanna do it once a month , I think , like

18:22

once a quarter , you

18:24

know , maybe for a couple workouts , or sprinkle

18:26

them in throughout the month

18:28

or the two months , the two

18:31

program ahead of time , like I think that would be the

18:33

sweet spot .

18:34

I think it's whatever you want as a gym , Like

18:36

see what would be best

18:38

to shake up your gym a little bit . You

18:41

know , I think a lot of

18:43

people you might get a lot of negative feedback

18:46

if you did it every week we get negative feedback about

18:48

everything .

18:48

Yeah , that is not true , that is true

18:50

.

18:52

So I think you should

18:54

do it whenever you feel like I would listen if I , as

18:56

an athlete , I like knowing what the workouts are ahead

18:58

of time . But if you are like , hey , once

19:01

a month , for a whole week , we're going to do

19:03

that , I would adjust , I

19:05

would just get used to whatever it is that you threw out there

19:07

. I think you should make it what

19:10

works for your gym . Like you said , logistically that

19:12

can be an issue . It's kind of a

19:14

pain because then you're , as

19:17

a gym , to sort of do that really

19:19

often . But yeah

19:21

, should you throw it in there ? Absolutely .

19:23

Yeah , I think we're going to .

19:26

Yeah , when we're relating it back to the open before

19:28

. I just wanted to mention that we have

19:30

a lot of first responders . We have a lot of people that work

19:32

during the weekends and

19:34

so you're saying , oh , the workout gets Thursday

19:37

afternoon . We have a lot of people that have to do that workout

19:39

Thursday night and that's their only chance , it's true . So

19:42

they have a couple hours . Maybe they don't even know , because they're

19:45

working during the day . They can't

19:47

see what the workout is . They come straight to the gym just

19:49

because they got to get the workout in before they go

19:52

away for the weekend . So

19:54

I think being able to train

19:56

your mind to say look at a workout

19:58

and be able to say , okay , these are the ways

20:00

I'm going to break this up or I'm going to try this , try that

20:03

. I think there's value in that .

20:04

Yeah , the whole idea of relinquishing

20:07

control and knowing that you're not

20:09

always in control of things . You don't

20:11

get to control your workouts from time

20:13

to time and this is not

20:15

coming from . We're the ones

20:18

that have the power and you will do what we tell

20:20

you . There's none of that . But I do

20:22

think there needs to be an understanding of

20:24

where you have , what your place is here

20:26

. You don't get to control . I had a coach for

20:28

multiple years . Same thing . I never got to control

20:30

anything and I didn't know those workouts

20:32

ever till three days before . It's always three days at a time

20:35

. So it's kind of like I've been

20:37

on that side and I get it and I

20:39

get the positives and benefits behind sorry

20:41

, the pros and cons behind it , but

20:44

again , relating to the open being

20:46

fit enough to tackle on any

20:48

task that is thrown your way scale , their

20:51

scale , their RX doesn't really matter but

20:57

also the fact that I

20:59

just lost my train of thought . It doesn't happen in a while

21:01

. The why behind

21:03

it and how often we want to do

21:05

this is probably going to be once

21:08

a quarter right , and

21:10

the reason is this is what I want to talk about it

21:12

brought a lot of life to the gym during that

21:14

week . Like I really try as hard

21:16

as I can as an owner and this gets harder

21:19

over the years is to like have a pulse

21:21

on what is the vibe in the gym . Sometimes

21:23

you maybe will make some things up in your head and

21:25

get too upset or too happy . Right

21:28

, just take things from what

21:30

they are . But there was a lot of discussion

21:33

and laughing and like

21:35

joking and like you saw a different side of people

21:37

. That I really enjoyed that whole week . Like

21:39

people come in and they're like look at the whiteboard

21:41

real quick to see what it is and I really

21:43

try and create exciting moments like that

21:46

that take us away from like

21:48

the mundane day to day

21:50

. Already know my workout , already know my plan , already

21:52

know my pacing . I

21:54

just think there's values that are a little beneath

21:57

the surface that help

21:59

the community out . So I have settled

22:01

on that . We're probably going to do this once a quarter .

22:03

I will say this you did program good

22:06

workouts that week . It wasn't punitive or horrible

22:08

. I mean , okay , you did burpees three days

22:10

that week , but like you didn't program

22:12

500 burpees for time or some

22:14

horrible punitive type work

22:16

, like you were super

22:19

responsible with that and that made

22:21

it fun Good .

22:22

All right . Well , thank you guys . That is Dark Week

22:24

For those that don't come to Bison

22:27

. I think it's something you guys can consider . You

22:29

talk to your coaches , owners about it . I think it brings

22:31

a different level of fun to it and just kind

22:33

of shakes things up without it being overboard , and

22:36

for the athletes at Bison it's coming

22:38

. Thank you guys

22:41

. Thank you everybody for taking the time out of your day to

22:43

listen to the Herdfit podcast . Be

22:45

on the lookout for next week's episode .