WHOOP Podcast - CrossFitter Noah Ohlsen discusses the training mindset, how to frame your goals, and the pursuit of greatness

Episode Date: February 23, 2022

The CrossFit Open begins this week, and we’re excited to have one of the best CrossFitters on the planet join us on the podcast – Noah Ohlsen. Noah won the Open in 2016 and has been a perennial contender in the CrossFit Games for years, finishing 2nd at the Games in 2019. He sits down with our resident CrossFit expert Mike Lombardi for a discussion that covers everything from overcoming disappointment, the power of a positive mindset, and understanding what’s really important as you pursue your goals in sport and in life. Noah details his goals in sport (2:17), his journey to CrossFit (6:43), getting to the CrossFit Games (9:24), pursuing his dream of a championship (11:29), why it's important to enjoy the process (13:49), reframing your training mindset (18:50), overcoming injury and disappointment (27:38), how the WHOOP Podcast inspired him to rethink his mental performance (29:25), and how he uses WHOOP in his day-to-day life (35:14).Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

what's up folks welcome back to the whoop podcast where we sit down with the very best from athletes to doctors to scientists and more help you understand what you can do to perform at your peak i'm your host will amad founder and CEO of whoop where we are on a mission to unlock human performance you can learn more about whoop at woup dot com you can check out the new whoop 4.0 which measures everything from sleep to recovery to strain. If you use the code Will, that's WI-L, you get 15% off a WOOP membership. The CrossFit Open begins this week, and we're excited to have one of the best crossfitters on the planet.

Join us on the podcast. That is the great Noah Olson. Noah won the Open in 2016 and has been a perennial contender in the CrossFit Games for years. Finishing second at the games in 2019. He sits down with our resident CrossFit expert Mike Lombardi for a discussion that covers everything from overcoming disappointment

to the power of a positive mindset to understanding what your goals are and pursuing them. Noah is really one of the more honest and optimistic athletes we've had on the podcast, so I think you're going to enjoy this a lot. Noah also discusses finding his sense of belonging in CrossFit and competing against the elite performers in the sport, persevering through disappointment. and the personal toll pursuing a CrossFit championship can take, why enjoyment and what you do equals sustainability, what he's learned about gratitude and the mental side of performance.

I thought this was a really good section. And how Whoop is also a tool to monitor your mental recovery in addition to your physical readiness. Without further ado, here are Mike Lombardi and the great Noah Olson. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Whoop Podcast. I'm Mike Lombardi. I'm joined today by Perennial CrossFit Games athlete, Noah Olson.

Noah, how are you doing, man? Wow, I don't know if I've ever been labeled as such, but I like it. Sounds good. It feels good. So you've been how many times? In my lifetime of being in the CrossFit world, Noah Olson has always been a name. It's anonymous with the top. Yeah, no, that's cool.

That's been kind of a subconscious goal of mine is to just kind of really make my mark on our community. And if you feel that way, then I guess I'm doing it. I've competed at the CrossFit Games for the last eight years in a row and hoping to close in on a decade here soon. We got two more years to at least hit that mark and then we'll see where we go from there. Longevity. So that means you really started, well, how old are you now, if you don't mind? I'm an old man. I'm exactly 30, a big 3-0.

Yeah, you're not old. Eight years in the sport, you basically started at 22 or eight years at the games. Yeah, exactly. So I started trying to qualify all the way back when I was 19, and I didn't make it until I was about 22. And you were doing this throughout college? Yep. I found CrossFit my sophomore year of college. I at the time was kind of all about aesthetics, just wanting to be as muscular and shredded as possible.

And there's a story out there that some people may know. I saw a poster of a guy who turned out to be Gito Trinidad. it was advertising peak 360 crossfit he was running on the beach and he looked shredded and i thought man if crossfit makes you look like that i'm in and the rest is history i have heard i think from you a few times um it's still a good story everyone has that sort of i'm gonna this is why i'm trying crossfit and i think people appreciate that you're just super honest about it you know you pick it up at 18 19 years old what were you kind of doing for that because nowadays crossfit athletes, they might start young. You know, the teen divisions, it's what people are doing to some

level, but I would say like our age of people, sorry if I'm putting us in the same bandwidth of age. We were multi-sport, just kind of did everything. What was your sort of athletic background prior to finding CrossFit? Yeah, similarly, I did a little bit of everything growing up. baseball, football, never basketball, unfortunately. And when I got into high school, I wrestled for a year, wasn't my thing. Ironically, I didn't enjoy the individual element of it. I'd grown up playing team sports and just the pressure of you versus one other guy and you either win or lose of wrestling, I just really didn't enjoy.

And so I joined the swimming and water polo team, and I played that throughout all. of high school and then a little bit of college, and I don't know how I forgot this, but lacrosse was kind of my main sport growing up. I played that. I thought I was going to go to college and maybe play pro lacrosse, but they didn't have a team at my high school. So it was wrestling, then swimming in water polo. And then my sophomore year of college, when I was playing club water polo, I started doing CrossFit and was kind of torn between the two and decided to go all in on CrossFit. And I got to say, I'm glad that I did. How is it, you mentioned the individual aspect versus team aspect.

that a hard sort of jump to make for you that where you're still training with a group of people but ultimately it's just your performance that matters yeah i kind of had that realization a few years ago that i had stopped wrestling because i didn't enjoy that but i obviously thrive in that setting and crossfit and i think what it might be that differentiates the two is that wrestling again it's it's you versus one other person and you either win or you lose there's not really a first second third, fourth, fifth. In CrossFit, it's not always just a singular head-to-head. You know, there's usually a field of other athletes that you're going up against.

And so if you don't necessarily win your heat, it's not like you lost. You just maybe took third or fourth or fifth. So I think maybe that alleviated some of that pressure. But there is just something about CrossFit that automatically felt natural and good to me. So it feels natural and good. What was the moment where you said, yep, I'm in the first. the right place. I know I'm in the right place. So you followed the poster, wanted to look like Gito. And now, what was, what was there a workout? Was there a lift or something where you're

like, yep, I got this. This is what I'm doing now. Yeah. So my very first workout that I showed up for like a couple of days after I had seen that poster was fight gone bad style workout, which is basically five different movements you're doing one minute as many reps as you can of each of the movements and a few rounds of that. And it really kicked my butt. I wasn't really used to to that style of training, that fast-paced, high-intensity stuff. And I loved it. I remember going back to the apartment complex that I lived at and laying by the pool just smoked.

And I was like, I'm going back tomorrow. I need more of that. So that was kind of when I got hooked on CrossFit. Shortly after, I realized that you could compete. And kind of between those two moments, I was getting a lot of positive feedback at the gym from the members and other people that were like, man you're picking up on this stuff really fast you've got you did a muscle up already in your first

week like that is taking me months to try to get um so i think that encouragement and that positive feedback that i was picking things up quickly made me even more excited to want to dive deeper and see how far i could take things and uh yeah it was the 2011 open so i was about a year in when i tried to uh throw my hat in the ring and make it to regionals i did not qualify that year, unfortunately, which I was crushed by, but that didn't even make sense at the time. Like, I don't know why I expected to be able to qualify and hang with the big dogs when I just started. But it was around then that I was hooked. And I was like, all right, I'm making it to the games. And that was kind of my initial goal when I first started. It was just to be a CrossFit

games athlete. Which year did you make your first regionals? So after I failed to qualify in 2011, I wanted free tickets to be able to go and watch regionals. So I volunteered to, help like set up and break down at regional's that year and the very next year I made it out onto the floor as a competitor so 2012 I competed at regionals didn't do very well but I was there and that felt good and 2013 I stepped my game up you know I worked on a lot of the things that I really needed to which mostly was strength related for me back then I was a little smaller than most of the guys in the field and younger. And so in 2013, it seemed like I had shored up some of those weaknesses.

I was in first place at regionals, which was mind-blowing, for a little while, and then I just had one workout that crushed me and knocked me out of contention. So I didn't make it in 2013, but I didn't give up. And in 2014, I finally stamped my ticket and qualified for the CrossFit games. So, I mean, it's a pretty quick rise from starting the sport and having never done. on it to basically get into the biggest stage in, what, three years? There were a few moments during that year's games that really helped to build my confidence and reassure me that I was meant to be there, you know, that I belonged with.

A lot of the guys that I was competing against then were my absolute idols, like guys that I would watch YouTube videos of every day and just wanted to emulate. And so the fact that I was standing next to them taking the field was mind-blowing to me. And then at one point, I had done well enough on a few events that I found myself in first place, my first year competing. And it was like it was like a dream. You know, I still almost don't believe it was real. But Rich Froning, the legend of the sport, I was beating him at that time. And it was just like, how is this happening right now?

And unfortunately, yeah, it didn't stick. I finished that year in eighth place overall. But that experience alone just kind of, again, told me, like, pursue this a little more. You belong here. And I think if you really, really dedicate yourself to it, you could be quite good. 2014 first games. You led. You have the lead to Jersey for a little bit.

And then it took until basically 2019 to podium, correct? Yep. Unfortunately. I mean, it's hard, right? It's hard. Obviously, the program makes different. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. And that's the challenging part about CrossFit.

What would you say that as you kind of look at it year over year because you know your goal was the same? So you've achieved, I'm a CrossFit Games athlete. Then obviously it's, well, I want to win the CrossFit Games or I want to get on the podium. What was the mindset shift from after 2014 to, okay, I know I'm good at this now, to finally getting on the podium and really, you know, having a really good chance of winning that one?

Yeah. You're absolutely right that it took that shift of the first year to go from just being satisfied. satisfied enough with qualifying for the games and being there, you know, getting the participatory, like, having, seeing Olson on a CrossFit Games jersey was kind of all I really wanted. I was like, I can just get a pair of shorts that say my name on it and I'm good. And then having done pretty well that first year, it was like, oh, okay, now this is a whole different game. Like, I know I can do it, so I want to step out there and I want to win the CrossFit games. I just don't want to, I don't want to just participate. And it's been a long road and I've still, yet to achieve that goal of winning the CrossFit games, which is tough, man. Honestly, if we're getting a little bit vulnerable after trying and failing for eight years in a row, there are definitely, I don't want that to sell my journey short. You know, it's been an amazing journey. I've gained so, so much from it. But it is difficult year after year to set out

to achieve one goal and year after year to fail in achieving that. So I have gotten the closest in 2019. As you mentioned, I took second place and was holding on to the lead for a little while, but that Matt Fraser guy is pretty darn good and he snagged it from me right at the end. So, you know, it's, it's tough, man. It really is. I have had to go through a lot of mental like reframing of trying to be satisfied with the journey and what I've accomplished, but still stay hungry to want to achieve that ultimate goal that I set for myself and not give up on that. I think the journey that you touched upon, that you kind of jumped where I wanted to go there was, you know, how do you keep coming back year after year?

The goal is the same, but it's still an evasive target. What are you building in outside of just the training, right? The training is one piece, but how important is the community and having the right sort of people in your circle to lift you up in these sort of moments and helps the training be more palatable and keeps it fun and keeps you engaged and sort of like, fills your cup. So how do you look at that, especially in the context of like last year versus previous years? Yep. I think community is huge. And being able to have fun and enjoy training is something that's been really, really big for me. And that there's a fine line there, I think,

between like having too much fun and not taking it seriously enough or being able to like really dig in and grind because I've gotten that feedback from people. You know, I think my persona is very happy, go lucky and people see that I'm having a good time. And to some people, I literally have read comments that's like, he doesn't have the killer instinct enough to win. You know, he's enjoying the process too much. And that sounds so silly, but I kind of get what they're saying, perhaps. But I think, like we talked about at the beginning, I've been doing it for eight years, want to go beyond a decade of competing at the CrossFit Games.

I think the amount of enjoyment in the process has made it very sustainable for me. I think that if I didn't enjoy it and I was just grinding, away and banging my head against the wall for eight years straight and not achieving that goal at a certain point you'd break and give up and be like it's not worth it like why why am I doing this to myself if I'm not getting the payout that I'm looking for and so that is kind of the fallback you know the consolation prize is like okay I didn't win the games again this year and I could really focus on that and be bummed and disappointed but think about how many moments that I had throughout the year where I got better. I helped other people get better. I had

these memorable moments of laughter and joy and like that I think for me is what the story is going to be that I look back on way down the road. Yeah, it's cool to have the metal to be able to show people because that's tangible. But I think that internal stuff, the joy and the laughter and the memories are going to be more meaningful to me when I'm retired from the top level of competing. that makes sense so were you training even through 2020 the the COVID games in Miami yeah that was interesting too because I went from in 2019 this awesome season where I felt so like full of life and love from the training group that we had at the gym and I performed really really well at the games and so I was like that's the formula you know I need to be around people that are awesome that

are filling me up but also pushing me and then boom that formula that formula got switched up because it had to be, and I ended up just training right outside my front door in our little carport area for an entire year. And that was tough. You know, there were days that I would wake up and step outside and be like, man, I do not feel like clean and jerking 335 pounds this morning and having nobody watch or cheer me on. But you got to do what you got to do, and we made it through it. And I think that that 2020, games again is that fine line like i have a hard time reflecting on that with a lot of pride the fact that i stuck it out in a difficult season and made it through to the finals and got to participate

in this top five thing that they had out in aromas because i think that's special i don't know if that'll ever happen again but then there's also this yeah but feeling of disappointment that i didn't podium when there were only five of us out there you know so it felt like the the chances were a little bit higher that I was going to be able to step on there and I just missed it. So it's always a battle. I think he touched on it a little there, but it's, you know, the mental toll of even just getting there in what was a very challenging year. So everyone's locked down, you're training, how to keep yourself motivated when the, like you said, you had the formula for success and it was stripped away. So there's that component. And yeah, that's sort of self-motivation,

and lifts and heavy weights, doing uncomfortable stuff. To still end up at the last five is really impressive. Yeah, thank you. I hear you on obviously you want to do the best you can, but even, you know, I think we've kind of seen this across the board in elite athletics. A lot of the Olympic performances after this sort of year of just kind of grinding out, it just like fell a little flat just because it took so much to get there.

So I think even to achieve at a high level, in the most challenging of circumstances, especially in such a community-driven sport, should be commended. And hopefully, you get a little smile on your face when you think about it. Yeah, no. I mean, man, I always have a big smile on my face, which is a good thing. You know, I definitely all in all, absolutely love my life that I have built for myself and that I get to live out every day.

And I know I can hear myself back while we're talking. and I know there are these hints of like let down talking about my crossway games performances, and that's because I'm doing a lot of work with my mental performance coach right now on what we want to do moving forward and processing some of that. And if it's okay to jump into this, in an effort to be vulnerable, again, sometimes it was really easy after the games to just jump right back into it. I don't know if you've had that with seasons where you either did or did not achieve your goals and it ends, you take your quick little break to recover,

and then it's like, all right, right back at it, you know, as motivated as ever to get back to the grind. And I usually have that, and it's really easy to fall back into. And for whatever reason, after the games this year, it was kind of like, man, I zoomed out and I had this realization that it was like this hamster wheel that I would just jump right back into.

And I was like, do I want to just try again? You know, and of course, I love competing and I don't want to give up on that goal of trying to win the games, but I thought, how can I reframe this and kind of maybe give myself a different purpose or perspective going into this season so it doesn't feel like I'm just jumping into that hamster wheel and doing the same thing over and over? That's been a little different. And I think that's what you're maybe hearing in my voice because I'm doing a lot of this

internal processing. But all in all, again, yeah, I do have that big old smile on my face because life is amazing. How does it feel being back home? I know that there was a big chunk of last year where you were away. What were the challenges he kind of faced going, you know, leaving Miami to chase winning the CrossFit games again? And how does it feel to be back now? It feels so good to be home.

I know that sounds cliche, but home really is where the heart is. And when I am home with my people, it makes my heart feel so full. And I didn't really realize how much of an impact that would have on me until. it was getting pretty close to the end of my stint up in Georgia. So I spent six months training at Training Think Tank to go all in and do everything that I could to try to win the games. And at the end, I just really felt like heavy and empty and so eager to get back home. You know, I do a lot of journaling and my gratitude journaling in the morning usually

is it flows so easily. You know, my pen just moves down the page and I am so grateful. for the beautiful sunlight, the beautiful air and environment, Max laying by my side, Joanne, like all of these things that just fill me up and make me feel so grateful. And I recognize that toward the end of that period in Georgia, I would write in the gratitude section every day just like, grateful for the opportunity to train. And that's amazing, but I was just missing out on so much. You know, my athlete cup was very full, but my human cup was not as much.

So I'm hoping that being back home now, I can find a system that's similar to what they had up there at training think tank where I'm getting that competitive push. But I also am really fulfilled and happy with my life outside of the gym. Did you kind of see that with some of your biometric data with whoop stuff? Maybe like HRV being a little bit down, sleep being a little bit off? Totally. That's actually a really good question. I did. We can go back and look at the whoop data.

but I had a really hard time sleeping for like the last two months of being up there, which is strange to me. You know, the first two months that I was there, I think I adjusted pretty quickly and felt fine and I think I was sleeping through the night. I had actually, while I was there, a hot streak of being in the green. I think they did a little open workout announcement that I got to be interviewed on, and they compared our loop data, and I had like nine days in the green, and that was my best ever.

So there was a period of time where I was doing really well. And then toward the end there, I was so restless. And I don't know what it was. It wasn't, I don't think it was anxiety because that's not something that I usually deal with. And if it was, it definitely wasn't on the front of my brain. You know, I wasn't waking up nervous about anything in particular. But if it was my subconscious keeping me awake, I would wake up 10, 15 times throughout the night and just kind of like turn over and fall back to sleep.

So I wasn't laying there awake, but it still wasn't a full restless night of sleep, and that definitely reflected in my recoveries. Yeah, you know, you're talking about the journaling. Was that something you were doing last year as well? Yeah, I started journaling probably back in like early 2019. And I had made this shift that was interesting. When I would journal before, the reason that I would reach for the journal was to kind of vent. And it was during that period of time, a lot of negative.

my parents were going through a split and I was heavily in the middle of that and having a really hard time with it. So I would grab my journal and like if you look back, I've opened it up and gone to the first few pages. It's all really heavy, sad stuff. And reading that, it looked like I was a depressed person and I was living a life that was not such. I was like, man, I'm actually really happy. Aside from this stuff that's going on with my family, I do enjoy my day to day and I don't want it to look like I don't. So let me reframe my format of the way that I'm journaling so I can actually talk about some of the positives.

And so I just gave myself these categories that I would sit down and journal on every day. So it wasn't necessarily just this reflowing vent session. It was gratitude. I'd write what I was grateful for. I would write, I titled the section currently, but just like what's going on that day and then set an intention for the day or a few intentions, intentions. and affirmation, and then something that I was going to do for other people that day.

So those were my five sections, and I kind of stuck with that. It felt really good. I got into the flow of it. And just all of that stuff gave me this different outlook on life where I realized how happy I was by writing down all the small things. You know, I think sometimes you can overlook a lot of the small, awesome things that are going on in your life and focus on the big, difficult stuff. But when you sit down and write them all out, you're like, whoa, I got so,

much good stuff going on. I don't know how I could not be happy about today. And then having those intentions to go back to and check in on throughout the day to make sure that I was living up to what I wanted that day to be was really helpful. Let's talk about this year's games a little bit. So, you know, there were plenty of things that could have been an excuse for just not even show up to the games, right? When you finally got to Madison, where would you say you felt like your own head was at? Were you showing up to win the games? Or was it that same sort of feeling in 2020, we're like, okay, I'm here, and a little sense of relief. Just from the Noah, the athlete perspective, it feels like at some point you really turned

it on. And I think you even talked about it on social media a tiny bit, just like, the last day and a half, you just really, you're like, okay, yeah, that's Noah. Yeah, it was tough. I showed up, and I don't know if you can relate to this, but as an athlete, I think sometimes we kind of lie to ourselves because, you know, it's the best thing to do. If I was honest with myself and really focused on all of the negative stuff that had gone on that season, you know, being out for months at a time with this kidney issue, having to have surgery,

not being able to train, then tweaking my shoulder, I ended up partially tearing my labrum and my rotator cuff like two weeks before the West Coast Classic, which was our qualifier for the games and i just had to like shove all of that aside i felt like i needed to make that decision i'm either sticking this season out and really going for it and pretending that stuff is not going on you know doing my best to work around it or i call it and i say you know what i've had a really hard time a lot of health issues this season it's just not the season for me i'm going to sit it out and recover until next season and that's just not the way i operate so i kind of like tucked it all away. I did what I could in the moment to make sure I was being smart about

everything, but I went into the games and I wasn't thinking about my shoulder. I was telling myself, you are prepared. You did everything that you could. You're healthy now. You got yourself to a position where you're going to perform to the best of your ability. So in a way, I was trying to convince myself that I could do it. But if we look at the facts, you know, I don't think I was as optimally prepared physically, and I guess mentally as I could have been going into this past year's games. What was this sort of like a ball moment for you? You're in the midst of competition.

It's not quite going exactly how you want, that you kind of were like, all right, I'm finishing this out the right way, and then I'll figure it out. So day one went okay. Day two, again, it was kind of like okay. And I found myself in a spot where I was kind of middle of the pack. You know, I think I had even fallen outside of the top 10 at one point, which the thought occurred to me. My worst finish at the games ever was back in 2016. I took 15th.

And that was crushing because I'd been in the top 10 every year since that, or prior to. And I was like, man, I'm getting pretty close to what was my worst finish ever. Like, I definitely don't want this to be that year. And I remember waking up the morning of the final day, Sunday. and I'd had a few conversations with my coach that encouraged a little bit of this and Joanne was there, my fiancee, thank goodness. And I just kind of, to be honest,

I broke down crying on Sunday morning because I realized that it wasn't going to happen again this year, you know, and that doesn't usually happen to me during the games or even after where I have that like emotional breakdown, but there was just something about it all that kind of escaped me that morning and I got it out and I was like, you know what,

I may not finish on the top of the podium this year like I wanted to, but I'm not going to go out like a sucker. I want to be proud of my effort. I don't want to look back on this year and only think about the bad stuff. You know, I want to be able to look back and be proud of the way that I finish. You know, at least I can finish strong. That quote is something that we say often in the gym. You know, you're on the last round of a workout. Come on, finish strong. And so that kind of was a resounding phrase that I had in my head all day that day. And I feel like I closed it out on a better note than the rest of the weekend had gone. People were pumped.

People were pumped to see you pushing in the stadium. And you're just one of those guys that people feed off the energy. This year, so post-games you said you took some time off. It feels like you've been, or it seems just in our back and forth via Texas, you've been kind of traveling a lot, getting to work with all different people, kind of getting in nature. Do you feel like that's sort of unplugging and like reconnecting just kind of like now it's going to sound a little bit hippie-ish? But it's like reconnecting with the world has been helping just kind of mindset, sleep, how your body feels overall.

I know when you, I think you're like first night in the Grand Canyon, you're like, yep, my recovery is great. This is sleeping in the 10s, fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. I needed to have those moments of disconnecting. I think in order to realize that it's not all about the leader boarding. I was very stuck after this season on like not winning. And I just kind of kept thinking about that and thinking about that.

And whether or not I wanted to put myself in a position again where either going back to that whole wrestling thing, I was getting to the point where I either won or I didn't win. It didn't matter if I was second or 10th or whatever. It just felt like if I didn't achieve that goal of winning the game. games, then I lost. And I think being able to take these vacations allowed me to shift my perspective a little bit. I actually listened to, I think it was the Whoop podcast that you guys had a sports psychologist, mental performance coach that was on there. I can't remember his name

right now. I wrote it down somewhere. And he talked about how he worked with a lot of athletes that were very dominant in their sport, but winning wasn't as fulfilling when it was just about them. and when they made it about others and were able to give back, I think he gave the example of Andre Agassi, that was way more fulfilling to them. And I think that was very helpful for me to have those moments of disconnecting and then hear that and start to shift my perspective and be like, okay, I think I can still do this.

I just need to make the purpose about something else. And not only hopefully will I be able to perform better, but I'll also really enjoy the process and be fulfilled by it. So for those people that maybe feel like a little bit stagnant with whatever, what would you say, like what sort of advice would you give them to kind of get started in this sort of introspective work on, you know, separating the athlete life from the personal life and then how it all kind of comes back together? It has been an interesting process because it's tough stuff, right? it's heavy like it's uncomfortable to sit there and have those thoughts and I for a little while was avoiding it and just pushing it off and like the thoughts would creep into my head and I'd be like I'm going to go do something else because I don't feel like diving into that right now

but I think actually allowing myself the space to push everything else aside and let my true thoughts and feelings come out and I actually one day after listening to that podcast literally the same day I was like you know what that sparked something in me I'm going to grab my laptop and just type everything that's on my heart and my mind and just kind of spill it all out and then be able to look at that and assess and see where my head is really at. So I think that was helpful. Just like biting the bullet, you know, even if you don't want to, but sitting with yourself, having a real conversation, maybe there are people that you really trust their opinions on

that can help give you a little bit of guidance. that feels like a dangerous thing to say because I definitely have people in my life that I love and trust but ultimately I know it's me that has to make that decision and what I want to do moving forward and if you listen a little bit too much to what other people have to say you could be doing something that's not really true to you and I think that will end up kind of biting you in the butt down the road so yeah I mean I guess that's my advice is just give yourself the time and space to really think through it all so once you've started down this path What are the things that kind of help keep committed?

And you could talk about any of these things. It doesn't even just have to be on a sort of personal journey around right now. It could be something as simple as improving capacity, the weight loss, you know, just trying to pick any behavior that, you know, is going to positively impact your life. But it is a change from what you've been doing. So once you've started day one, what sort of advice that you have on staying committed and seeing things through, especially when things get tough or can get monotonous. I'm trying to think of how to frame this properly because what you're asking is kind of about

consistency and commitment. And one thing that I was just thinking about when you first asked that question was how this season I really shifted things and felt like I needed to change something up in order to reinvigorate myself and re-spark some hope. So for me, it had been eight years. years of doing not the exact same thing right like always change things up across the course of my career but for the most part the last few years it's been pretty standard what my training and season has looked like and so when i was having a little bit of that doubt about just jumping back

on the hamster wheel i thought well let's take a step back commit to the process but do it in a different way you know give yourself something exciting to sink your teeth into mix the programming up because then now I'm allowed or I'm able to think, well, I haven't really gone into the games this light in a while. Maybe that's what I needed. I haven't really focused as much on my aerobic capacity. Maybe that's going to be what makes all the difference for me. So I think in staying committed to the process and the goal, being able to experiment and try different things after a while, right? Because that can get a little bit risky there. If you're just always bouncing around and trying different things. I think not having consistency can be

dangerous to a sports career. But after having committed to something for a long time, getting a lot of benefit from it, if you do feel like you need to mix it up, I think that can be a good thing. What are some of the things that you found out about yourself from like a biometric data that you probably didn't expect? I think everyone's kind of different and has these sort of aha moments. And it is always interesting to find out, you know, the sort of self-discovery that people have. Yeah, wearing the whoop has been super interesting for me.

I really love the data. And I think as a competitor at heart, I almost have turned it into a game for myself, not in the sense that I'm comparing it to other people, but I'm always comparing it to myself. You know, I want to wake up and I want to see that green because that's like a little mini win for me. So I find myself as I'm getting ready for bed, doing the little things. knowing that it's going to lead to a better recovery score the next day because I know that's

going to feel rewarding and fulfilling. And then similarly with like a strain, I want to see how high I can rack that strain up just because to me that's acknowledging that I really put in the work and left no stone unturned. So I've turned it into a little bit of a personal challenge with all of the data on loop. But I would say some of the things that have been kind of interesting were, and maybe this makes total sense, but on the days that I would, like, hammer myself and have a 20 plus strain, recovery was usually pretty low,

especially when it was high-intensity cross-fit stuff, which I have found personally that it's harder to get a high strain when you're doing cross-fit-specific, like weightlifting, short, fast stuff, versus a day where I'm doing like some longer running, that maybe doesn't leave me feeling as wrecked but will give me a higher strain. So in order to get a really high stream doing the CrossFit stuff, I would be super banged up and my recovery would show that on the days that I backed off a little bit and did some more

like aerobic-based activity, my heart seemed to respond really well to that kind of like TLC. But I guess that seems kind of obvious now that I'm saying it out loud, that resting and doing aerobic work is going to be better for your heart. You said you're always chasing green and you kind of fine-tune the bed stuff. If you had two or three things, you said these are the bona fide Noah Olson tips for better sleep behavior, you know, staying asleep. Could be any of those things.

Part of your routine, you found the most important for you. Yeah, I think the most important one. and it, again, seems pretty obvious, is just holding yourself accountable and going to bed early. Like, it's really easy to just watch another episode of that show or stay up late, scroll, and Instagram, but you have to check yourself at some point and say, no, it's important to me to improve my recovery, get a good night's sleep, like I'm shutting everything off. So that definitely is where I have to make sure that I get to bed at an appropriate time to allow myself to get that good night's sleep.

That's most important. Other things that I like to do, I'll try to throw on the blue light blocking glasses as often as I can. Sometimes you forget, but when I do that, I feel like it's helpful. Even if it's like placebo,

it feels like I'm doing the right thing. And then I often like to in bed have some good conversation with Joanne that we kind of close the day out on a good note, feeling good and relaxed and at peace with the way that our lives are. And I'll try to do some deep relax

relaxing, breathing to drift off to sleep. I know those are no, like, major secrets, but that seems to be what works for me. Having Max cuddling with us on the bed feels good spiritually and in my heart, but sometimes he takes up too much space. Like last night, I ended up like diagonally with one leg off the bed and no sheets on because Max was on my right side, taking up half the bed, but it's worth it.

Max is a big dog, relative to the big dog. When you show up at peak 360, do you all, that you're with your training group, do you guys kind of check on each other's whoop stats and you guys have like a team that edge each other? Yeah, yeah. We do. We have, there are a couple different groups. There's kind of like a competitive crew that has a little whoop stat thing. And then there's a general like all the gym members. And it's funny, there's this one girl who literally every single day, and it was Tanya, every day Tanya's 20 plus stream and everybody's minding. blown. I'm like, how is, what is she doing to get this? She must be like doing the class running seven miles, doing something else, but she inspires me for sure. When I look at hers at like a 20.3 and I'm like, I'm at a 12. I need to step my game up. It's definitely fun and motivating. Well, that's good. It's always nice to have that data and something that just kind of keep you push in. What's next to this season? I know that you sort of passed on Rogue, no Dubai.

I looked at this season. Max and I talked it out. We decided that getting healthy was number one priority. I think that if I rushed into competing in Rogue, as tempting as it was, you know, it's a really well-run competition, best of the best guys competing, huge prize purse this year. And I had a really hard time saying no to it, but ultimately, knew that it wasn't the right path for this season. I could have banged myself up more and set myself back even further for that 20-22 games, which is the priority. Where can people find more Noah Olson? You got YouTube, Noah Olson on socials? Yeah, my social stuff is N-O-H-L-S-E-N. And like I said at the beginning of this podcast, everywhere that I am, I like to try to be an open book. So I'm pretty

open and honest with a lot of the stuff that I share on there. I know it's usually a highlight reel, but I'll even sneak in some of the funky stuff just because I know people can relate to it and probably need to hear that we all go through it. So on my Instagram and my YouTube, you're getting a big, big picture of what my life looks like. And I appreciate you guys all that follow along for the journey and give me that support. Yeah, go ahead, check out everything that was doing. And Noah, thank you so much for being here today. Thanks for being part of the Wu family. So proud to have you on the team. My absolute pleasure. Thank you guys for allowing me to be it.

Thank you to Mike and Noah for coming on the WOOP podcast. If you enjoyed this episode of the WOOP podcast, please leave us a rating, a review. Please subscribe to the WOOP podcast. You can check us out on social at WOOP at Will Ahmed. And you can get 15% off a WOOP membership by using the code Will. That's just W ILL. All right. With that, stay healthy folks. And stay in the green.