Barbell Shrugged - The CrossFit Open is Coming! - 201

Episode Date: February 24, 2016

CrossFit Games athlete, CrossFit Regionals athlete, Olympic Weightlifter who is new to metcons, and CrossFit affiliate owner all talk about the CrossFit open!

This week on Barbell Shrugged, the Open is coming! We're going to give you our thoughts and tips on how to prepare for the CrossFit Games Open. Hey, this is Rich Froning. You're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com. Hey, I see you sitting there, lonely by your keyboard. If you want to, just whip your fingers out. Put them on your keys. Type in http://www.barbellshrugged.com.

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The show. Welcome. Welcome, everybody. I'm Mike McGoldrick with Mike McElroy, Michael McElroy, Coach Alex Macklin, and Kurt Mulliken, also coach. Kurt Murican. Once again, back to drop some great information into your brains. Should we do that again? We definitely should.

I think we should do that again. I don't have much room with this. We tried to tell you. I thought you were talking about this. You were like, it's okay. I like to bend over when I talk. Is that safe to touch? I wouldn't even touch that.

No, I don't. That's why I'm just like. Do you have enough room now? I don't know what to do with my hands. Coach Mike McElroy. Yeah, I didn't touch anything. do with my hands. Coach Mike McElroy? Yeah. What about you, Coach Alex Macklin? And you, Coach Kurt Mulligan?

Hey. Plenty of space. Hey. All right. Should we do it? Maybe we should do another Nuggets and Pearls before this and just get warmed up. Dude, I think we're good. You think so?

Yeah, I think we're ready. All right. Yeah, so opening up with the first question on today's topic of open prep or how to prepare for the open or get ready for the open. The open is coming, everyone. The open is coming. The open is coming. Right around the corner.

What are the numbers of the bottom 10% of regional athletes? Hmm. That's a good question, and I wish I just had the data charted up. I don't really have that. It's somewhat broad, but we could probably make like an avatar of who this guy is. It doesn't really does it. And my thing is, does it really change from year to year? I mean, I know the highest level people, you know, the top 10, those guys and those women, those go up. Like I saw an infographic, I can't remember who put it out. But, yeah, comparing from last year and then like two or three years ago,

and everybody's put like 40 pounds on their list across the board. But for the bottom part, I don't know if that has changed very much. Yeah, I definitely haven't changed as much. I'm sure it's going up. The thing is we've got to look at all the numbers across the board. Those avatars that usually post are just strictly the weightlifting numbers. They don't even take into consideration conditioning numbers. Obviously the workouts change every Open,

but we can take them baseline conditioning numbers like rowing times or things like that. If we're going to look at numbers to compare who we need to be as an athlete at that point, then we've got to look at all numbers across the board. Yeah, I think you've got to look at all numbers across the board. Yeah, I think you've got to look at all numbers. But, I mean, CrossFit, you know, the strength numbers, like how much you snatch, how much you clean and jerk, how much you squat, you know, that kind of stuff.

There's a definite range for that. Yeah, there's a definite, like, you know, if you're not snatching probably 240 or 245 and back squatting 400, pulling over four, you probably don't have a good shot. You're not a good shot. What was the article that they had online, the game's website had? Was it the numbers of regional athletes, or was it the top ten regional athletes in each region?

What were the average? Did you guys see that article? I can't remember exactly what the field was, but they had numbers drawn out for male and female. Yeah. And they compared it to what it was three years ago. Yeah. I mean, everything is higher now.

People are much stronger. I mean, you've had, you know, the time to develop strength and people have been focusing a lot on just getting strong. Friend times are only going to get so low. Yeah. Right. Well, I think those are the times that everybody sees. Those are the times everybody puts on Instagram.

Those are the times everybody likes to talk about. But if you know some of the higher level athletes and know some of the things they can do conditioning-wise and stamina-wise, those numbers are, to me, so much more impressive. Like just something off the top of my head, Travis Mayer doing like 500 and something unbroken double-unders. Like, the fact that somebody can just keep doing that for that long. And not rupture his Achilles. It's insane.

Or have a heart attack, because I would. I mean, like, some of those things are – it's just not what you post on Instagram. You don't post your 2K road time on Instagram. And a big thing, too, about CrossFit – I mean, I went to the CrossFit Games last year, and, you know, people were commenting on, man, they should have put the clean and jerk ladder, like, at the beginning of the week. But, I mean, and they put it in the middle after it all. They did that, you know, Murph and all that stuff.

But that's really, like, the real, like, testament that they can still, you know, some of those guys, yeah, they clean 50 pounds less than what they normally clean their best. Right. But who cares? Yeah. It's still really heavy. Like who cares?

Like, okay, they only clean 300 and they normally clean 350, but like they did it after doing all that. Yeah. So like those, sometimes those numbers are where people that made regionals, that doesn't, I feel like doesn't mean that much. Yeah. Well, you're seeing that in the open now, too.

So, last year they made you test it when you're in a fatigued state. So, you did a really hard workout, and then you had to go do a one-rep max. Right. So, the idea relative to what CrossFit Games calls, you know, your one-rep max is a little different than what weightlifting would call it. And still being strong, though, like, you still have that foundation, that base. So, like, yeah, you've got to be – you know, if your best clean is 300, you know, in a fatigue state, if it's only 240, then, you know, there you go.

There you are. Yeah, so I think just wrapping up this, you know, talking about stats is just making sure we're looking at all the numbers across the board and giving yourself realistic goals of where you should be or where you should be sitting based off that. Yeah, great. What's your best right now? Best what?

Like lifts. Olympic lifts? Yeah, because you've been to the games and you've been to regionals and you're a competitive athlete. Well, so I like to look at my lifts as financing them. So my best I've actually ever done is 290 snatch, but the other day I tried 300 like 12 times. And it's kind of like borrowing money.

I know I'm going to do it at some point, so I'm just going to go ahead and count it. I'm going to pay that money back one day. So I'm just going to go ahead and say that I have 300-pound snatch. Yeah. Can you do that i don't know i mean yeah you may be it's close can you finance a lift maybe across me you could what's that the owner of the gym verified right right right yeah um yeah so with that said let's lead into our topic for today which is the open right so we've got um starting off let's chat a

little bit about like who the Open is for. Why do you want to do the Open? Should you do the Open? Can you do the Open? What are your thoughts? Who would be interested in doing this? Is it for beginner athletes? Is it for anyone?

Not fat weightlifters like myself. Definitely not. Who'd never do cardio ever. Well, I think we all have a different answer probably. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I think it's a positive experience for anyone that, you know, even if you're a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level crosser, I think it's, or fitness enthusiasts in general,

I think it's a great experience because it's, you know, it's a program or a competition that you do online that, you know, challenges you to do things you didn't know you were capable of. If you're not someone who has ever followed a program or trained for a goal, this is a really fun opportunity to do it because you've got a lot of other people doing the same thing. Yeah, I think any time you put yourself in a competitive state, like where you have to compete, that brings, like, whole new meanings to, you know, what you've been preparing, like, your training, like what you've been doing the whole year. It gives you a lot of clarity on, like, where you are as an athlete.

And it just gives you that competitor high. Like, I mean, like, even with weightlifting, like, if you compete, it brings meaning to your training. And there's a difference between training and competing. And if you train in something you should compete in something you know i think that's just that's just what you should do yeah i think i think it's is most of the time a very positive experience for anybody that does it especially if they go into it with the right mindset which i think we'll get to a little bit

later but um as far as gym owners and people in the gym it's a very positive experience for everybody involved it gets the community together on a regular basis it gets to see people push past limits that they're normally set against themselves when you know when they're for some reason if we call for something in the gym maybe a 24 inch box or something they are scared to do it but as soon as headquarters calls for it then all of a sudden they get it for the first time ever so it makes them experience things that they've never done before and they can get get PR. Dude, I see a lot of people PR'd during the Open. During the Open. That was crazy.

A lot of people, I was like, damn, you guys PR'd? What the hell did this come from? My wife's been cross-training for six years, and last year during the first workout, she PR'd her clean and jerk after doing that workout. That's an incredible sight. Especially for someone who's an advanced athlete and more developed. I was like, I would never have expected that.

But pressure does that. Pressure. Adrenaline. Adrenaline and pressure. The open creates pressure that makes you do things you didn't know you could do. Absolutely. Competition, I perform way better in competition than I do in training. And it helps you learn that about yourself just in general.

If you take that out to just in general. Yeah. You know, if you take that out to life experiences, when you have pressure put on you at your job or whatever, are you somebody that performs under pressure? Or do you need to learn how to deal with that? You cry like a bitch. And if you do, you need to figure out how to deal with it. Yeah. Figure out how to grow from it.

Yeah. I definitely think, like, too, you know, we got a shout out to the home gym dudes, you know, like, and women. Like, if you got a home gym got a shout-out to the home gym dudes, you know, and women. Like, if you got a home gym, you definitely probably should do the Open because, I mean, that's your chance now to, like, get around a bunch of other people doing stuff that you've been doing all year. Yeah, I mean, you've done a lot with your gym. You get to visit an affiliate and train with a bunch of people you might not

know, make new friends. Meet some chicks. Yeah, I mean, you know. Well, you do a lot of at your gym for as far as your community at your gym during the Open, don't you? Yeah, I mean, you know. But you do a lot of at your gym as far as your community at your gym during the Open, don't you? Yeah, yeah. We kick off the Open with a huge party. Everybody's gathered around the WaterFi monitors.

We've got the workout going on. And we have a huge table full of food. There's probably 100 people in there. And then after the main two people whoever you know hq decides on goes head to head we have like five or ten people like do the workout on the spot everybody's standing around eating cake and drinking beer and cheering for these people and it's incredible to see like some pr they're cleaning that's awesome for community development yeah should should beginner crossfitters do do the open i've always i've always kind of wondered

wondered this and people we get to ask that question a lot we had that question come in do you have the exact question yeah i said would you encourage a beginner to do the open and i actually want to bring that up because um what do you say to someone who is a beginner and there's a lot of opinions out there about is it safe is it actually even safe to do should you be testing your clean and jerk after a workout when you're in a fatigued state if you're not very proficient in that lift yet, what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think, uh, I think the person also said, you know, they were worried about seeing their name so low on the leaderboard starting

out. And would that be bad for mentally? Um, and I think if they, if they ask that question, obviously you can talk to them and discuss, you know, why they shouldn't be comparing to the rest of the Royals their first time or so early. So it should be okay. Like, take a positive mindset into that. And then knowing that when you get into those fatigue states and the lift comes up, maybe it's a heavy deadlift on that, like, deadlift ladder that they had a few years ago. Like, the owner and the athlete going into it should know, like,

we're going to call it at a certain point. Like, we're not going to push you past safety. We may push you past what you're normally comfortable with, but we're not going to push you past safety. And if they can wrap their head around that mentally, then I think, yeah, it's a good experience. On the flip side of that, I think if you have a relatively inexperienced athlete, this could be like last year's first work I had, that clean and jerk.

That could be a time they could very easily PR because they're getting noob gains. Yeah, they got their noob gains. Noob gains. Yeah, they're making progress, and that could be like a huge boost in their self-esteem. And then you're the smartest coach in the world. Yeah, automatically. I mean, easily. And then they wound you up with Toast-O-Bars and Deadlifts.

Right. And I think that's why they now – I mean, well, last year they added that scale division. Scale division. So, I mean, now there is a level for where that, you know, if you're a raw beginner, you can still do the open you know and uh yeah i mean i i think the bigger picture it's just important to understand that like you're picking something and sticking to it like like it's five weeks long it's not easy no matter what level you're doing it at like it's it's challenging doing committing to something that kind of rules

your schedule for five weeks like that's really hard and I think if you commit to that and handle it, like that's something to be very proud of, regardless of where you finish on a leaderboard. For sure. And I think you should also kind of look at it too. Like it's not, it's not the end all be all like it's just, it's just five weeks.

So it's workout, their workouts, just like everything else that you do in your own training. Like, you know, you, it's, it's not,

it's not something that defines who you are so like that person who's like man i don't want to see my name so low i'm like i mean you you try that's just give your best shot and that's and that's what you do you know yeah why are you on the front end well why are you upset that it was so low did you maybe not understand where your fitness level is and now it's kind of a reality check so maybe you needed to see that and kind of understand that and it could be a little eye-opening and painful but yeah that's the truth people people don't like you know people don't like measuring um because it does it makes you be honest like it shows the truth the cold hard truth and like maybe you thought you were you know this badass because maybe you were the best in your gym or whatever

but you know now when you're comparing to everybody else like this is where you are and you know, this badass because maybe you were the best in your gym or whatever. But, you know, now when you're comparing to everybody else, like, this is where you are. And, you know, you can see that as a negative or you can see that as a positive. The tough thing about the Open is that, I say this to people all the time, is that there's only one person who's really the winner every year. And that's, like, walking into that, it's a hard thing to swallow because it's like, I mean, no matter what I do, like there's only one guy who's going to win it every year. And it's just how it's displayed where you can see everything stacked up that makes it harder than any other competition.

Well, it's interesting because it's the one sport where, like you said, the amateurs and the beginners even are comparing to the pros. Like we can't say, yeah, I'm pretty good at football, but I'm not even in the NFL, so I'm not anywhere close to them. You can get that. Like you said, it's a big thing. If you're the best in the gym, like even that used to be five years ago, if you were the best in the gym, you probably had a good shot at regionals. Now it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter one bit.

You may not be at a great gym. Have you seen the movie Trainwreck? I have not. The movie it's out? I have not. Yeah, I think we talked about it. Yeah, we talked about yeah we talked about but i've only seen that one there's a scene where uh the i don't remember the comedian's name but he's

playing basketball with lebron james and every time he tries to take a shot lebron james packs him but they're like casually they're like buddies hanging out playing it's kind of funny to me because it hit me it's like crossfit's different in that you're not going to go play basketball recreationally with lebron james and like you and think that you're going to be pretty good at it. Right, right. But that scene was funny because that's actually how it is in the CrossFit World. In the CrossFit Open, yeah. You're playing with the people who won the games.

And it shows you, but it also – And it going to pack you. Yeah, it gives you the respect that's deserved for those people that are at the top. It shows you how good those guys really are yeah like man i'm not even in the same field as them yeah so i i say if you're gonna do it i say do it with no regrets and commit to no regrets no regrets no ragrats oh my bad yeah no no no i'm just from a movie oh yeah mackaroy hasn't seen that movie yeah all right well all right well real quick before we move on to the next piece how do you handle what if you're a leaderboard larry what

do you do what is a leaderboard larry leaderboard larry is that is that one guy that we all know i'm guilty of it that is refresh refresh oh yeah watching the name and it's eating you alive how do you handle that what What do you do? I think you mentioned it before, scheduling when you're going to look at the workouts or just saying you're not going to look at them at all. And I think the only reason you should be looking at them constantly is if you're in that competition zone of possibly making it. That's the place to put it.

Otherwise, you just got to take yourself away from it. Look at it in the end. I mean, if you're already – yeah, exactly. If you're close to making that cutoff, then maybe refresh the thing on – what is it, Sunday night? Sunday. Yeah, so – I don't remember.

Monday night. Yeah, Monday night. So, yeah, refresh it a couple times. But, man, just go and do it for fun. If you know you're not going to make regionals, and a lot of people, I mean, they know that. Just do it for fun. Do the best you can.

Do the best you can. No one gets enjoyment out of clicking refresh and seeing their name drop 14 spots every time they do it. It's not a fun thing. It's not going to go up. It's only going to drop. Generally, it only goes down. And I totally get it, too.

You want to be competitive. Can you see this guy, though? Don't fall into the trap every week. Can you see this guy, though, like, at a desk? There's a small desk lamp. It's kind of dark in there. Like, his wife started going to bed, and he's like, I am really getting packed right now.

Just so packed. You know, actually, it's funny that we talk about this, because, like, you know, so I did the American Open, and I lifted. I didn't even check to see what I ended up placing because there were like 150, 85-kilo dudes, and I wasn't one of them. I know I wasn't near the top, and I was like, you know what? I don't care, man.

It was about the experience. I had fun, man. That's just what it's about. Just go and have fun and do the thing and learn from it and move on to the next thing. That's just what it's about. Like just go and have fun and do the thing and learn from it and move on to the next thing. That's a really good point. That helps us lead into how do we actually prepare for the open? So not just physically, not just figuring out where you are, what you can handle physically, but mentally, you know, maybe when you go into the open, if you know that doing something, checking the leaderboard daily is going to bring a negative

impact on it, on the experience, then maybe you should have a rule set before you go. I'm not going to check it until the end or I'm only going to check it once a week or have some kind of standard set where if you know it's going to hurt you and make the experience sour, don't do it. Yeah. Make rules for yourself. Set standards for yourself. If you've got standards in the workout.

Tell yourself you're only going to do the workout one time. Yeah. If you're going to repeat it, you say say i'm doing this is it worth it or i'm just gonna do it one time and repeat it one time and i'm not gonna sit there and like oh i think i can do better this time like just and tell somebody that because otherwise you're gonna redo it probably um how do you feel about repeating workouts like i think it we just all agree that it depends on what your goals are in the open i mean i'm a big fan of it if you feel like you could do better i say why not give it a shot now if you're like hurting yourself and redoing it three times and you did the chest of war workout three or four times like come on be smart but

if you did it and be like man that wasn't my best like i want to walk away really happy with that like i have no problem having clients do it again. Now, if they're, like, someone who's trying to go to regionals, then guess what? The next five weeks, like, you're an open athlete. You are dedicated to redoing workouts and taking care of yourself to get the best absolute score you can do. Well, I definitely think that there are some workouts you can repeat. They're repeat safe.

And there are some that are not repeat safe. Like what was it a couple years ago? It was like the deadlift walk. Deadlift walk. That completely just wrecked everybody. And like people couldn't walk, like wheelchair, like bound for like a week. Like that's one you probably don't want to redo. Power snatch double under one.

I did it like ten times. Yeah. I mean, you didn't blow your Achilles out, but hey. Some people were ready for the jumping, some weren't. And that's a good point coming into how do we actually prepare for it physically. So you had something to say? Yeah, I was just going to agree with those points. I mean, if you're a regionals athlete or a possible regionals athlete,

you have to start repeating them. If you're not a regionals athlete, we need to take an objective look at the workout and if it's worth redoing from a risk of injury standpoint and and if you're really gonna improve on it or if you like like you said if you come out of that first attempt and you know like yeah that wasn't that wasn't it like then you can go and redo it but if you're like i gave it all i got but i think i can squeeze one or two more reps like yeah is it really worth it and this is i think a prime example of when having like a coach

would help because then that person could sit there objectively and decide like look you're not doing it again don't do it again especially if it's week one so if week one is like a tough workout and you know like i know i can do better and your coach is like yeah but at what cost is it what cost to redo it you know you may do a little better but what's it going to take you got to turn around do another one three days later that comes right back out. So, I mean, the Open's long. It's five weeks long. So you've got to take that into consideration.

It would be a pyrrhic victory. Yeah. I mean, I've seen a lot of athletes that redo workouts. I mean, like 90% almost always do better the second time. Oh, yeah. Because, yeah, they know how to do it. Well, you learn. It's experience-based.

These CrossFit workouts are experience-based. Every time you do it, you're you learn you learn right it's experience based like these crossfit workouts are experience based like every time you do it you're like you're nervous the first time you're scared you don't you probably don't follow the plan that you had like you learn so much the next time you do it you're like man i just crushed that score from three days ago and i'm like i'm not even near as tired yeah this is how it works so yeah but again it's a it's a it's a long race so keep that in mind all right well, well, physically then, leading up to the Open, how many months out should you prepare for the Open? Five years? Oh, God. Yeah, it's intentional.

Intentional questions. Yeah, you started yesterday. What you probably don't want to do is start January 1st. January 1st. Yeah. So, yeah, I think the point of that question was – But still start. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I think the point of that question was – But still start.

Yeah. Don't not start. The point of that question was you need to slowly accumulate volume, building up to get ready for the volume for the open. Conditioning volume, strength volume? Yes. Like what? All of it.

All of it, yes. Being able to handle upper body density volume for one of the main things with shoulder injuries and things like that. What's that? Muscular endurance. Yeah, being able to handle 100, 150 chest to bar pull-ups one week and then 100, 150 toes to bar the next week. Being able to handle that volume, you can't just start that, like you said, January 1st and expect to, one, see that much progress. So it needs to be an accumulation all the way through the year.

Okay, so when you say upper body density, give me example of a training session for that yeah or or how do i know where to start like how do i know how much i can do and then how much do i add each week yeah so i mean a simple example you've seen you know everybody's seen different kind of emoms or every minute on the minute type pieces just for conditioning you can break it down to a specific movement and say let's start with three chest to bar pull-ups every minute for 10 minutes and maybe that's starting back in september and you accumulate up to where you're doing 10 chest bar pull-ups every minute for 10 minutes and so that accumulates 100 chest bar pull-ups and a very measurable piece to where you can week by week progress and if it's easy for two three on the minute

then you progress up to four if it's not easier if you don't you get to seven the seventh minute and you can't make it then you stay the same number the next week until you can and slowly progress that way and that's just a very basic template of progressing your volume throughout the year yeah so you say you talk about you know it seems like a lot about skill and gymnastics but what about the the raw strength like building that and building your your tank up you know like when, like when would you start and how would you progress with that? Yeah, I mean, the season, though, if you took a look at a year season of training, then your strength training is going to be highest in priority farther away from the open, and it's going to lead in intensity towards the open, similar to how you would for a weightlifting meet.

Right. The volume of strength training goes down, but the intensity goes up. Intensity goes up, yep. And then you have, of course, we bring in the battery work and being able to do high percentage work for a lot of reps, but that's kind of another topic. But the intensity peaks during the open so that you can still have that one rep max in the tank after the nine-minute AMRAP or whatever they throw at you.

So volume is highest in the offseason with just overall cumulative volume and then intensity on both, intensity of gymnastics work and intensity of strength training peaks towards the open when you're getting ready to do those testers. Cool, cool, very nice. So we talked a little about movements or how to get better at them over time, like high-volume chest-to-bars, things that you kind of usually know

are going to show up in the Open. I don't ever want to say things we absolutely know about the Open. It's a shot in the dark. You have no idea what's going to show up. But it's not that unknown. It's not as unknown as doing a weekend competition where you go and you have running and maybe ropes and they might make you swim and all that.

This is kind of inclusive in that you know it's going to be in a gym yeah right right we see a pattern in the movements for the most part yeah i'm not saying new ones aren't going to come up but what are the things that we do know that we can start preparing for maybe a few months out yeah i mean the two examples we've already listed high volume chest to bar knowing that it's not just going to be like a few chest to bar yeah no it's going to be high volume. Toes-to-bar, same thing. You know you're going to have to repeat that for a long time. Some people are good at toes-to-bar for sets of five, but then when they're doing a fatigue statement,

we've got to do 50 of them in a row without moving to some other movement, then they start breaking down tremendously. High-volume wall balls, muscle-ups. Yeah. Muscle-ups are going to be there. Muscle-ups and double-unders. Yeah. They're going to be there.

Everyone's going to act surprised when they see muscle-ups. And these movements, too, they're general just fitness athletic movements. Yeah, common movements. And if you get good at them, you're killing a lot of birds. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that kind of brings up a point that a lot of people see these movements that the high-level athletes are doing, like back-up rises and different things like that,

and they go and start trying to do these things. It's like your goal is still the open. Those aren't going to be in the open. We know that pretty much. So focus on the common basic movements and get really good at those. Or even if it is, you still need to be really good at the stuff that's going to be more of it there. So if that's 3% of the work,

you've still got a lot of other things that you need to perfect first. Get really good at those. What's your biggest return like on investment biggest time for your book yeah exactly yeah so all right well what about things other than just like movement specifically like there are other knowns about the open that we we can discuss like like standards like the schedule of it like you know that going into it even if you didn't train right a lot of things that you could do to set yourself up for success coming into the Open would be having a good schedule set. Like having a day that you're going to pick it.

For example, finding out a good gym to go to with good energy. Like that kind of stuff matters. You've got to consider that. So that kind of preparing could really elevate your success or it could really crush it if you don't have those things set up. Any thoughts? Yeah. I think planning ahead of time too, not only planning it in your head and maybe planning it with a gym owner,

but planning it in the sense of, like, starting in December, my athletes start doing open-style workouts on Friday to get their body used to, all right, the workouts announced on Thursday, so we're going to hit it on Friday. So backing up, there's going to be a new thing where we hit the workout on Friday. They're going to be used to getting ready and getting mentally prepped for that. And if you're doing it at a different gym, start going to that gym on Friday afternoon to do that. I mean, it's a routine that you're going to, body's going to get used to. Yeah, absolutely. Like, I mean, I think that's why a lot of gyms, you know,

start doing, you know, Friday night lights. Like they do Friday night little mini competitions so that, you know, they get their, you know, everybody, the members of the gym, you know, Friday night lights. Like they do Friday night little mini competitions so that, you know, they get their, you know, everybody, the members of the gym, you know, used to doing a tester on Friday. And same thing with that, you know, with weightlifting, max out Friday. Like you're going to max out on Friday and, you know, that's the day you're going to lift. Or max out Saturday because maybe sometimes you lift on Saturday for a competition.

Your body definitely gets used to it. Prepare, you just train how, you know, train how you're going to compete. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Good info on what to do leading used to it. Prepare. You just train how you're going to compete. Yeah, yeah. Cool. Good info on what to do leading up to it. Now, what about during it? So let's say you're week two in the open, or you're about to start week two.

Week one just finished. You knocked out the chest of bars. Do you do any, like, what kind of maintenance work do you do? Do you never do chest of bars? Not never. Do you not do chest of arms for the next four weeks like what's up what's up there yeah so one easy thing that i like to do is so let's say we do the open workout on friday my highest volume training day is going to be on saturday so um we're

probably going to be a little sore just from the intensity of the open workout but my highest volume training day is going to be on saturday and then on monday it's pretty high, too, and then it starts tapering back down Tuesday and Wednesday, getting ready for Thursday. Is this assuming you're not repeating? This is assuming you're not repeating. Gotcha. If you are repeating, then things change a little bit. I don't know if we want to get into that.

It's hell for a coach. I mean, you wrote a program, right, for being in the open. Yeah, and the program that's in the overtime that that is starting weeks ahead of ahead of the open leading you all the way through the last week of the open that's exactly what it is we have the the tester is on friday and then you train pretty hard on saturday with high volume do some strength work and some pretty high volume and when i say volume during the open time volume is not in the sense of the length of time that you're doing it's more in the amount of uh kind of classic crossfit movements that we're talking about toes to bar gymnastic

chest to bar wall balls things like that there's a bunch of those on saturday and monday and then it starts kind of tapering down throughout the week leading up to that friday again very cool um so when do you usually have an athlete repeat the workout do you does it depend on the workout or how they felt or yeah for me it depends on the workout like like kurt said about the double under snatch one like you do it on friday maybe do it again on saturday afternoon maybe again on sunday maybe again on monday like yeah if you're a borderline regionals athlete like that's a go-getter if it's not if it's the deadlift workout and you're still the only reason you're repeating this because you

are borderline regionals uh then you got to spread it out a little bit more and you got to do some maintenance work in between that to make sure you're prepped so yeah it definitely depends on the workout there gotcha and it's just constant communication with that coach yeah cool um and of course your recovery has got to be on point if you're going to be doing all this shit. I mean, damn. Like all these workouts, these AMRAPs and whatever. Friday night is pizza and ice bath night. Yeah, pizza and ice bath.

Keep yourself sane. Vice Friday. Yeah, that's a huge thing, especially such a competition. It's already so much adrenaline and pressure. You've got to keep yourself mentally there, man. You can only tell yourself no so many times. You've got that cup of free will. When it starts getting empty, you start falling apart.

It's like a gauntlet. I stay pretty drunk for the Open. That's a tough one. I mean, hey, beers are covered, right? It's got carbs. Speaking of that, how do you keep it fun? What do you do with your athletes at the gym kurt that are you know two weeks in and they're maybe they're they got that shock reality that they're not as good as they thought or they didn't

do as well as they wanted on week one what do you do to keep them encouraged and moving through it hopefully i don't i don't have too many people that are really disappointed with their overall performance versus the rest of the world um You know, that's another issue. But I like to do, like, a community leaderboard, which you can do on the Open website, and have the people that are in the scaled, you know, division really kind of battling it out. And that's one of the times I think it's okay to have somebody repeat a workout, is when you've got a couple of guys that maybe go back and forth, and they're, like, super close all the time.

You know, that's fun for the whole gym to watch and and when you have people who are capable of repeating workouts like that one that we talked about and you have 50 or 60 people standing around cheering just you two on that's exciting and it pushes everybody to a prize at the end of the open yeah your local gym yeah there you go i think it's important to compete in a level you're proficient at so like the the most fun I think I've ever had competing, I'll use ping pong as an example. When you play someone that's pretty good, like the same level as you.

I know you're laughing. I'm terrible at it, by the way. When you play someone that sucks, it's not fun. When you play someone that crushes you, it's not fun. When you have someone that can go point for point with you the whole time, it's way more fun. So I think it's so important for people to compete at a level that they're proficient at. So the custom leaderboarding, people around town, like your friends,

is so important in the open because you can do that. Don't go compare yourself to Rich Froning. You might just get discouraged. You're going to get packed. I mean, you are going to get discouraged. I mean, there's not a might. You are going to get discouraged. So, I mean, I'm not saying that if you're trying to be a high-level athlete,

it's a little different. But for most of you who are trying to get a really good experience out of the open, I think that's really important. What about scaled or open? How do you know what to do going into it? What do you – some athletes that might be on the fence, like, because of a movement, like, what do you have them do? Yeah, I mean, I think we address if you get into the open,

you don't have to choose. You can choose open at first, and if you get bumped to the scale, you get bumped to the scale. But if you want to start, and maybe you know you're not an open-level person, so you want to compete for that top scaled spot, so you want to start there, but you're not sure if you should or not, then, I mean, certain things that, again, the open is somewhat unknown, but we do know there's muscle-ups, there's double-unders.

There's some weights that you know you should pretty much be able to do. So looking at those kind of just basic movements and making sure you can do those. If you can't, you know you're going to have to bump to scale regardless. If you can't do double-unders, you're going to have to bump to scale. So go ahead and start in the scale division and see where you're at. Got it. Very cool. Anything else you guys want to add on that? don't know it's i feel like we talked a

lot we there was a lot of points a lot of nuggets maybe we should wrap like maybe wrap it up a little bit like and summarize what we kind of we kind of went over yeah right on so we opened with the numbers of the regional athletes kind of gave you a broad overview of why it's important to focus on where you're at exactly and then figure out what's actually reachable and capable of you um progressing in or improving in within like you know a year or two years or so um who's the open for talk about pretty much everybody right but just most importantly commit to doing it if you're going to do it put you know both feet in not one foot at a time um be very confident in that decision. Would we encourage beginners to do it? Yes, but just have the good conversation with your coach or with yourself

and say, I'm only going to push myself to a level that I feel is safe, and, you know, that's up to the coach too. I think both of those are making sure we have the right mindset going in. Absolutely. Yep, yep. We talked a little bit about how to prepare, right, so how to build volume over time about how to prepare right so how to build volume over time how to accumulate volume how to not dump it all on at once um how to try

and you know avoid injuries that way and uh things that we do know about the open standards we didn't really talk about that a lot actually yeah we didn't but standards are going to come up in the open every year and you know that and what i mean by standards are, like, making your reps good reps. And I don't mean, like, doing the rep great. I mean being comfortable with being held to a standard. Right. Right? Yeah, I've seen some people get –

Some people flip out. Flip out, man, about, like, what the hell? Like, I was down. I was hitting the standard. Yeah, that's a cheater McSteve. Yeah, cheater McSteve. He's just not comfortable being told, you know, no rep. So get yourself comfortable with that.

Hold yourself to a standard. When you're training on your own now, be honest. And don't be afraid to no rep somebody, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I mean, everybody's doing the same thing. That's how you hold the competition to that level and make it fair. So, you know, some cheater McSteve getting all in your face be like no rep bitch

just get comfortable being told no rep and being told no we talked about maintenance during the open how to take care of yourself are you going to repeat or not you know maybe some scenarios there yeah well I mean McElroy wrote that program it's in overtime that you know, maybe some scenarios there. Yeah. Well, I mean, McElroy wrote that program.

It's in overtime that, you know, if you're in there, you can do. So, yeah. Yep. Solid program. Sport versus recreation, just how to keep it fun, you know, like go into that again. Choose a custom leaderboard with your friends. Compete with people that, you know, at the same level with you. I'm not saying don't try and rip their faces off, but still do that.

You know, you want to beat them. It's competition. I get that. Have fun beating them. Yeah, have fun. Don't be a douche. Just overall, keep it a positive experience because that's what it should be doing.

That's what it should be. It's five weeks out of your year. That's a lot of time. So don't be miserable that entire time. I've been there. It sucks. Use it as a platform to, you know set set goals and see where you are for the rest for the rest of the year and what you want to do and come around next year

absolutely yeah use it to guide your training going forward cool cool anything else you want to add have fun thanks everyone yeah thanks for listening That was really good. That was packed full of information. I was trying to wrap it up.