S02E13 - Ashley and David Syvertsen - Overcoming Performance and Training Plateaus

April 2, 2021 - This week's episode is with Coaches Ashley Syvertsen and David Syvertsen, owners and coaches at my box, CrossFit Bison, in Midland Park New Jersey. Sooner or later, everyone reaches plateaus in their fitness. What are plateaus, and how can we overcome them? We discuss different kind of plateaus, how to recognize plateaus, and how to overcome plateaus.

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S02E13 - Ashley and David Syvertsen - Overcoming Performance and Training Plateaus

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S02E13 - Ashley and David Syvertsen - Overcoming Performance and Training Plateaus
Sam Rhee: [00:00:00]    Welcome to another episode of Botox and burpees. I'm Dr. Sam Rhee plastic surgeon and CrossFit coach host of this podcast where we talk about plastic surgery, CrossFit, and everything in between. You can find more information at our website, botoxandburpees.com. And make sure to like, and subscribe wherever you listen to our podcast. 
Our next topic is talking about training plateaus or the perception of training plateaus. 
 When you first started CrossFit and everyone is like this, right? Significant improvement in your rep counts or weight counts are hitting PRS almost on a weekly basis when you first start and then maybe eight or nine months go by and then maybe instead of a weekly PR yeah, we're hitting monthly PRS.
And then maybe after two years, it might take a couple months to hit any kind of PR and then now if like I've been CrossFitting, I don't know about everyone else, but a couple of years and I rarely hit PRS. And if I do, it's if I talk about PRS, it's usually I hit 225, but maybe that was like a year and a half ago in a comp, like it's not happening.
Yeah. And and then are a lot of people, regardless of your phase of training, you just feel like you're not making progress any more in CrossFit. And first of all, I assume plateauing is inevitable. And then how do you deal with it? Yeah, 
David Syvertsen: [00:01:19] You're never going to be able to fight biology.
So at a certain point, like if we were all, if you were all a true believer of the 1% better every day, we all be dead lifting a thousand pounds running two minute miles and snatching 450, it's not physically possible. And I think the first thing that everyone does need to accept is we all have a genetic physical potential that you're not going to overcome.
That's a fact. And I think at some point you do realize that, and then you fight for the time that as you get older, it gets tougher and tougher to quote PR, see constant improvements, stay healthy, especially if you're training at intense rates, high volume So I, I think that if your definition of plateauing only revolves around performance-based metrics, weights, time scores, I think you need to recalibrate a little bit and say like the plateau does not.
Revolve around that, unless you're in a competitive atmosphere, you're trying to make the games, you're trying to win this competition then yes that is what is a determining factor. Plateauing to me has much more to do with, lifestyle habits of, trying to avoid certain eating habits, drinking habits, sleep habits.
That prevent you from feeling healthy for a long time. That's that's where I'd be like, Hey, if I've hit a plateau, it's not, I'm no longer being able to lift this or run this fast. It's I no longer can wake up in the morning feeling physically I'm always in pain, then that's a point where , all right, you probably have hit a plateau.
We need to recalibrate and figure out why you're at that point and then make a few adjustments and then see where we're at. 
Sam Rhee: [00:02:56] That's one definition of plateau. And I think for most people fixing what's outside of the gym, like you said, is probably one of the biggest parts of it. I know, certainly for me, even at this stage, I feel like I'm in a rut, but the only way I kicked out of it was to really make a real effort about the non gym stuff. But do you feel like you've ever been in a plateau ashen and how did you kick yourself out of it? 
Ashley Syvertsen: [00:03:26] Yeah, I think every athlete or even CrossFitter goes through them.
I think, like you said, when you first start CrossFit, you're just like, sure, let's try that. Let's do this. And you're like, Oh, I did that. And then you get to a point or you're just like, okay, I'm comfortable with all of the movements. I can do them efficiently. And now I'm just working out. And I think if you define the plateau they're fine. It's fine. If you are at a constant, and you can sit there and say I know every day, if we have pull-ups I can do 20 pull-ups in a row. No, no problems. I can do toes to bar. I can do this weight constantly. I can rep out, hang cleans at this weight or whatever it is.
I think that's fine. But if you are getting frustrated at that, Plateau or where that comfort zone is. And you're like, why aren't I getting better? You need to look and say okay when was the last time I challenged myself? When was the last time I worked on doing this? Like when was the last time, Dave brought this up earlier, like I came home and I was like, I did 30 pull-ups in a row.
Like I challenged myself to do that. If I didn't challenge myself to do that, of course I would have been like, yeah, I can steadily do 20 pull-ups in a row. No problem. But if you don't turn around and say Hey, I don't want to be comfortable anymore. Let's try to push it and find a reason why I'm sitting in this comfort.
You're never going to go anywhere. 
Sam Rhee: [00:04:45] So one of the things is working on weaknesses. So if you feel like you're being held back by something in particular, maybe it's your running, your hip mobility or providing strength. How does, I know that you can get accessory training involved, you can do next level or some other additional programming.
David Syvertsen: [00:05:02] Yeah. You could always like, shameless plug, you could always, find my program or someone else's program that could, again, it's going to push you into the direction. It's not going to do it for you. Sorry. A guaranteed result. But yes, extra time and extra work spent on your weaknesses can definitely help you avoid that physical performance plateau.
I think more important than like, how do I avoid hitting that plateau is knowing that you're going to have stretches where you plateau. Like you're just, you're not going to be on the constant arrow up. So I think that's the first thing you need to accept is that it's not going to happen where your arms never going to plateau out.
You're going to multiple times in a year. I think it's the best way to approach it is. Pick certain pockets of the year where like what you said right now with reset, like you really cleaned up a lot of things and you put a lot of attention on working on the weaknesses specifically so that when you do test it, you can say Hey, I put my best foot forward.
And are you necessarily going to hit a new weight that you've never had before now, but maybe your movement was better or something you've said multiple times in the past, you didn't know, you went out into a workout really intensely and then hit a high percentage of your one-rep max and you didn't feel like it crushed you the next two, three days.
In my opinion, even though you didn't hit two 45 clean and jerk, you hit two 25, but you weren't crushed the next day. That's a clear sign to me that you didn't plateau. That's why I don't like only using performance metrics. As a sign of plateauing. And I've, I remember made an Instagram post about this long time ago on the bison.
Instagram was like, if your score was determined by how well you moved, and you achieve the stimulus of the workout, if you're, what would your score be now? Would it be, at a one out of 10, would it should be a 10 every single time. Maybe when you were, we're hitting that two 45 clean and jerk and how you were feeling after that was really a four or five, but now you're hitting two 25, but you look.
No, it looked great. You felt great after your eight or nine that's a clear sign to me that you're not plateauing, even though that number on the whiteboard says that you did. 
Sam Rhee: [00:06:55] That's what I love about my that's the type of progress I'm making now. And that's what I really enjoy. 
David Syvertsen: [00:07:00] And you're going to enjoy that for the years to come. If you constantly chasing after two 65, clean and jerk, you probably could get there, but you would be bleeding yourself there. And for what. Tell me why, it's I don't, you have to play that risk, risk reward game, where it's really? What are you doing this for?
I would probably drop the bar on my head. And one of the interesting 
Sam Rhee: [00:07:19] advice tips I saw online was the opposite. You might hit a plateau. And you might kick out of it by working on a strength. So focus, and that was so counterintuitive to me because we always work on our weaknesses, but sometimes you feel better and you can kick yourself out of a rut.
If you know your son, you're good at something and you lean into it and work on it. 
David Syvertsen: [00:07:42] Yes. I'll tell you what a lot of plateauing. Mentally comes just like you're beating yourself up mentally. And if you go totally me to work on pistols and double unders for the next five days straight, I'm going to hate myself five days, and I do this all the time and I think there are probably some coaches out there that don't agree, but I don't care. It's worked for me several times where I try to enhance my strengths. Like I'm never not going to like row. Like I wrote three, four days a week and I've been doing that for five, six years.
I'll never stop that don't care what anyone says and. It builds confidence, builds capacity helps other movements modalities out a little bit, but when you feel good about yourself and you go into a training session, like I just did one before you guys got here that I was not happy about. Didn't want to do it's because the workouts are not my wheelhouse, but I, I got it done because the days leading up to I did some stuff that made me feel confident and it just gives you a different, or when you walk in at the end of the day, this plateau talk really just revolves around.
Being too hard on yourself. And I think confidence is huge and sometimes confidence gets misconstrued as someone loves themselves too much. But then we tell someone, you have to love yourself. Like we go back and forth where I'd rather be on the two confidence side than the side where I hate myself because I've been on both sides.
To be honest with you, I've been on both and I'm more productive. I'm nicer. I'm kinder. I'm a better coach when I'm more confident in what I'm trying to accomplish. And I think that's a big part of don't come in here with the only mindset of I have to get better at when I suck at it, because it's hard.
It's really hard work, do something that you're good at build the mental confidence, and then it's going to actually make you better when you are baking on the weekends working on the weaknesses. 
Sam Rhee: [00:09:18] This is another thing that's pretty common. I've seen other athletes do it at our gym. And I don't know if you've done it Ash, signing up for competition.
And getting involved in something like that. I can kick you out of elevate you 
Ashley Syvertsen: [00:09:29] some for sure. I think having that in the back of your head of knowing that you're going to be in front of these people and you're going to be working out totally kicks your ass a little bit and says like, all right let's go you want to do this?
Like you signed up for this, let's get after it. You don't just go out there and half-ass it like if you're going to put in like the work let's put in the work. And I think doing a competition is probably one of the best ways to kick yourself out of. Out of something like that, even if they release all the workouts and you're like, awesome.
These are all in my wheelhouse, like great. You know that there's going to be somebody out there that's probably better than you at it. So why not work on those things and say okay, I'm normally. Great at cleans. I can hang clean 65 pounds, 20 times without putting the bar down. All right. Let's work on that then.
Let's say I want to be able to do it 25 times without feeling gassed afterwards and without needing to take 32nd break, I want to be able to make the capacity a little bit longer. And I think signing up for comp is probably one of the best ways and we've seen it. Yeah. With so many athletes, especially, I remember one of your podcasts before you were talking about Ashwin, like him signing up and being brand new and not knowing a lot of the movements.
I remember he told me right before he did, I think you guys had a thruster workout or something. He said he was you tubing it before he was doing it, but like setting yourself up to say you know what, I'm going to sign up for our comp. It means I'm going to dedicate my time to learning how to do this, learning how to do it properly and how to get after it.
I think it puts your mindset, differently than if you just said, like, all right, I've been stuck at, a one Oh five snatch for me for four years and I can't get past it ma okay. Sign up for it, put in the work and I think it kicks you does kick yourself. 
David Syvertsen: [00:11:19] If you honestly I'll tell you what, if you want to know, find out how much you can lift or what your capacity is with certain movements, sign up for a competition, sign up for the open.
This goes back to the open talk that we talked about a couple of weeks ago was. That is probably when you're going to find out where your actual strength is with a barbell or how, if you can do a muscle-up, how many pulps you can do in a row is in that environment. That's when the adrenaline takes over, because I'll tell you what, the further you get into CrossFit.
Every year, this is going to happen. Like you might like on a day-to-day basis in the class, normal class, you just got here a minute before class should dog half-assed will warm up. It's cold in the gym. You hate the song, right? Your adrenaline is not as high as it. You're as it can be, but you put yourself in an environment where that kind of shoots through the roof.
That's where you find out. I feel like almost all of my PRS now will only be in a situation like that. I don't even think I'm ever going to go for a PR here in a class or in a training session if I'm in here by myself or with the class, but I remember last night, Dan Coda was here for the open prep workout, where it was overhead squat, step up straight pants and pushups.
He did a great job. And then it was. You had eight minutes to find a match complex of clean hang clean. And he knew his PO on that. I think it was two 55 or two 60, and last night he hit two 75 and it was the environment because he works out by himself, in a garage right now. And he's been doing that for awhile.
So he's not really around people that much. And he knows that when he's comes here and there's, his, some of his workout buddies are here and we're getting after a workout. That's when the cortisol, the energy adrenaline gets you to the point where you're really going to find out where you're at.
If he did that in his garage, by himself. He would have walked into his house after doing it at two 45, not feeling great and be like, huh, I am at a plateau. I just can't do this anymore. I'm getting too old. It's the environment that you're putting yourself in. So if you go out of your way to put yourself in an environment, that's going to raise your cortisol, your adrenaline.
You're going to find out if you've actually plateaued that dude, what is he? 39. And just did something he's never done before. Like that's. It's I think a lot of people have a false peak false plateau. They don't actually know where they're at, but you had to find the right environment for you to you find out 
Sam Rhee: [00:13:34] it's crazy. Because I do remember in those comps, it doesn't feel nearly as hard or heavy, not even close. Then when I go back and try to do it again, 
David Syvertsen: [00:13:42] I'm like, nah, it discouraged you sometimes. Yeah, I remember. Yeah. Like the last time I hit a snatch PR was that as very, and it was one who was a partner comp and I did it with Aaron and the workout was somebody finding one mat, one rep max clean and jerk.
Somebody find a snatch and it worked out that my Snapchat has clean and jerk. We're about the same. So we got to share the same bar, other pairs couldn't. And that was the last time I PR was probably four years ago. I can't hit that weight right now, 
Sam Rhee: [00:14:08] but it felt crazy good at the time. 
David Syvertsen: [00:14:10] It felt easy. That's usually when you hit a snatch PR that's usually, but right now, if you put me in an environment where I need to score for someone else, and it's like a big intense, I bet up here on my snatch and that's.
You know that it's a great point that Ash brought up that I think you've got to put yourself in that situation. 
Sam Rhee: [00:14:26] How about certain specific aspects? I think most CrossFitters, if they just worked, if you took everyone in all the classes and you said. And force them to work on their mobility all the time.
And this is a constant, it's a meme almost in CrossFit that we run away from mobility. How much better? Just in every aspect of their CrossFit performance, would they do that? They would 
David Syvertsen: [00:14:50] improve a lot. Why don't we, why don't we do that? 
Ashley Syvertsen: [00:14:55] There's nobody wants. It's not, and it's not fun. Or as people say it's not sexy, like no one wants to sit there with a green band and stretch your hamstrings out for five minutes.
No one wants to do that stuff. Like it's just not. We're CrossFitters and we want to get after it. And majority of the time, or we want to lift heavy weights. Like no one wants to, again, sit in the pigeon pose for a few minutes or sit at the bottom of their squat. It just, it isn't fun.
It isn't something everybody's Oh yes. Guess what? I sat in the bottom of a pigeon pose for five minutes and 30 seconds today. Like PR like no one cares about PR bring like your mobility 
David Syvertsen: [00:15:39] and people do it. They, their performance takes off in a good way. Like I know that a few people, like you've done it. I know you guys have done it. I remember Liz used to do this back, like when she was really starting to realize some of her potential, 
Sam Rhee: [00:15:50] how much mobility work are you doing now?
David Syvertsen: [00:15:51] I'm probably on average over an hour per week of just like post-workout I always do some pre-workout, but here just the stretch mobilize, like sometimes.
In between my classes, like on my long mornings, that's what I'm doing after I do conditioning. And it does, like I was thinking earlier, when you were talking about lifts and trying to get better at lifts and Hey, I'm a certain age. I'm not going to get any stronger. You're probably right. You're probably not going to get any stronger unless you start putting, taking some PEDs, but if your positions get better, right? If you get more stable at the bottom of the front squat, like how many people here fail squats because their eyes go right to the ground, their elbows sink.
 I feel my squats on that complex. Not because of my strength now I had at least 15 pounds more. I just, 
for sure, 
Sam Rhee: [00:16:34] I just didn't have a position. 
David Syvertsen: [00:16:36] And I feel like when you work on positions, that's, in my opinion, that's really what mobility stems around is putting your body into positions where it's not, excrutiatingly hard. Make it natural. And I think that when you mobilize a lot, that just because it's like that one inch better and that's where again, we want to see 30 pound PRS mobility gains are an inch or two.
But that inter two is often the difference between you hitting a lift and not hitting a lift, not your strength level. It was the position. And how do you get better positions, mobility, stability, all, focusing on technique. I'm a James Fitzgerald says this all the time. He says at some point you are going to have to accept.
You're not going to get any stronger. He goes, but that's only an issue when your technique is perfect. So if your technique is not perfect work on that technique, and some of it is mobility based. 
Ashley Syvertsen: [00:17:23] Think of Mark Olley. When Mark Olley first started here, he could not squat to save his life, his mobility in his hips and his ankles just wasn't there. And he would literally come before class and after class and spend. Quality time, actually stretching, mobilizing, and working on his squat. And now his spots are really good because he spent the time on the mobility, the shitty parts, like nobody wants to do that, but he said Hey, this is what I want to do to get better at this. So I'm going to put in the time. So I think, kudos to people that can do it. 
Sam Rhee: [00:18:05] How about a squat program? Okay. So that was another thing that I saw in box life magazine is just squat. 
David Syvertsen: [00:18:10] Yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [00:18:11] Because squad is so essential for everything that you do. 
David Syvertsen: [00:18:14] Yeah. And like a lot of times people only associate squat with like basketball, front squat, maybe a squat clean.
But if you think about how you derive power on a deadlift or on a power clean or on a power snatch, Your starting position, where are you? You're pretty much on the half squat. And the initiation of the movement is, creating force by pushing your legs into the ground. And then that triple extension comes from how much power you can produce from the, your legs going through the ground.
So yes, the stronger legs. Yeah. Or the more impact you'll have on pretty much every explosive movement that you do here. Probably with that is a lot of squat programs. Are high volume and you're putting yourself in this repetitive movement pattern over and over again. I think a squat program's great. We go through different cycles throughout the year where it's like, Hey, once a week, we'll squat, or I don't even want to call that a cycle because again, you have to monitor volume and it's really tough to do high volume CrossFit in addition to a squat program, it just is. And I think if someone came here with Hey, I want to take these next three months.
Like really just get stronger. That's all I want to do. I would probably recommend a squat program to them. And just put crosses to the side for a month, like where Metcon or your typical CrossFit workout once or twice a week, but don't do this five days a week and then squats, because usually you're going to get hurt.
It's crazy because I'm thinking in particular of Dan G when he first got here and brazen that guy, and I don't know, I assume you can still squat crazy. 
Yeah, he's pretty. Yeah. Yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [00:19:38] But he came in squatting more than anyone else I knew. Yeah. 
David Syvertsen: [00:19:43] Carlos are both. I'm going to say pound per. Yeah, her power is absolutely profound.
He's still pretty far up there. I would say his squat is maybe 20 pounds less than it was when he came here. Brazen. That's what they do. They lift five days a week basically. And then they'll throw them like a six minute workout at the end. I probably shouldn't say that. In pen because I don't know the program well enough, I've just, I've seen it.
And I've talked to those guys, talk to Jay a lot. They love to lift and they've, they're very good at getting people stronger. That's one thing, if I said if every Jim's got a certain personality or what they're known for praise is known for making some strong mother efforts, 
Sam Rhee: [00:20:16] and that, it carried over to pretty much a lot of what he, yeah. Forum. 
David Syvertsen: [00:20:21] He'll be the first to tell you, right? His squat is good. His lifting. His technique is not, and I'm not talking about Dan will say it to himself. Like yesterday's complex. Dan is probably one of the three or four biggest squatters here. Okay. Yesterday's complex was two 35, I think. So you probably had eight or nine guys do more than that.
Okay. So when you're looking at, Oh, what's the issue? Is he tired now? Is he in bad shape? No dancing, standing shape, there's positional work, there's mobility work that hasn't been done. So if Dan really wants to get his squat clean, that complex yesterday two 75 to 85, 300, which he has the strength to do 300 it's going to be mobility work.
It's going to be technique work. It's not going to be squatting heavy. There's some athletes that are going to need that. Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking about like Kyle Stefanik right now. Like he's really he's into the competitive scene right now is trained his butt off is working really hard to clean two 25 for the first time yesterday.
Wow. That was a big goal of his, when he started CrossFit that he said he would never think he would do. And he's not a big, heavy dude too. So two 25 for him, for his body weight. It's very pressive and it was a power thing too. But he like, we're working with them right now. Like he's got a squat, he's got to get stronger.
If he's trying to get to the certain level and that will, he's still you so young though, and he's still relatively new to the sport and it's cross, cross a program where he's an example where a squat program will. Elevate his game, right? Avoid the plateaus of snatching and cleans and push jerks and split jerks and thrusters.
Where as Dan G is more mobility based. So this is where it's becomes very individualized. Like you can't say Hey, I'm going to try to avoid a plateau. So I need a squat program. Like before you need a squat program, you need more mobility work and you can't escape it, 
Sam Rhee: [00:21:59] what do you think about in terms of training cycles, people talk about to break out of your plateau. You need practice training and testing. And this is from what hopper they basically said. You have to practice, which is master the mechanics of a specific activity. You have to train, which is working on a particular aspect of your fitness, like cardio strength or flexibility. 
And then you have to test. What you're doing, benchmark it after you've done the practice of your mechanics and you've trained, whatever aspect of fitness you're looking at. Do you cycle through that? 
David Syvertsen: [00:22:33] Yeah. Again, big picture when you're talking about a template program, which is what the gym is, it's your, you don't have everyone on the same page, right?
You don't have everyone starting at the same time. If we're going to test something on a Monday, but there's people that never come on a Monday or you tested this week while other people are away. That's why it gets a little tricky with a gym. If you're going to but you can say, Hey, for the next eight, nine, 10 weeks, we're working on snatching and pistols, right?
You can put that out there, let people know ahead of time. These are the days we're doing it. So if you really want to work on it, you got to get here for that day. There are cycles where there are days here let's use a snatch, for example, where we tell them, don't go heavy, work on the technique, work on the high pole, work on the muscle snatch, work on getting under it, work on catching it and holding it in you're catching a receiving position.
And then there's days where we do, we push the way a little bit, and then we'll retest one of our max snatch. It's. The week before the open. Just so people know what their number is. So yes, there's practice, there's training and there's different kinds of training within that training.
You're talking different loads, different volume, in a workout out of a workout. And then you test it again. So yes, I do think I think the common CrossFIt issue is that every single time it's test, it's a test, it's like, And the test is usually, Oh, that person got that. So now I have to go get this.
And that's where I think you should be testing lifts each lift maybe once a year. I really, I think that's where we're at. You'll have opportunities in certain workouts. Like this one we just did. For example, with those clean, I'm thinking about Dave, both in that three 15, the clean hand clean at three 59 guy that was in spite that like, that was a true one rep max for him for that complex.
But we worked on squawking tranq in September, October, November, December, and a lot of that training leading up to got him to that number right there. We only tested it once in that period. And I've, but in those times there were a lot of heavy days and I'm a fire have seen him fail clean than while seeing the fail the jerk a few times.
But I, I bring that up because it can't always. Just like randomly decide to test it. I think that's what I'm trying to get at right now is you can't just show up and be like, Oh, I had a bad day at work. I'm going to go for the one rep max today. And I just think that's, that can lead to this like kind of false peak where you're stuck.
Are you supposed to take? The last thing I wanted to ask is, 
Sam Rhee: [00:24:54] like you said, perception of, are you really plateauing? How do you take the long view and look at what you're doing over time to make sure that. How do you keep track of your performance so that you don't necessarily realize that you're like, it's false?
Like you said, it's, 
Ashley Syvertsen: [00:25:09] I think one of the biggest things, especially that we do here, like the whiteboard, right? We write down everything so you can see You know where I was at this point. And then going after those numbers and testing again, Dave does like the repeat wads, we always do the repeat quads and trying to see okay then did you really plateau?
Did you get better at it? Yes or no. Or did you say last time I did it. I was doing pull-ups with the band and this time I'm able to do them, test yourself. And I think marking those things down. I know you guys had a conversation a few weeks back about like writing down, like your information.
I know Terry does, she has her journals and she'll say we don't write on the whiteboard. Okay. I use a 35 pound bar. I did blah, blah, blah. And this and this, all of my scaling options or whatever. I think having that for yourself and knowing okay, I can do this. Like I have on my phone, like all my PRS and my weights and things like that.
I think having those. Those items. And then looking back and testing those, like what you guys are saying, like Rhee testing, are you really plateauing or are you getting better at a move at one movement? Even if you're getting better at one movement or the way that you feel doing that movement, like that's, you're not plateauing.
And I think people. Get in the mindset of Oh, I used to do a three 50 Fran and now I, I'm in the fours like, Oh I'm plateauing. Like you're plateauing at that one piece. But how many other pieces are there in CrossFit? Like how about you look at all, all of those things, not just like this one little aspect, look at everything else.
As my cardio gotten better, has my stamina on the pull-up bar gotten better as my stamina doing wall balls. You guys know me. I, every time we do wobbles, I hit myself in the face and usually I fall over at some point, look like a turtle. Did I make it through 15 mumbles without hitting myself in the face?
Like that to me is not plateauing. I'm getting better somehow. And in some way I think of looking at those metrics is a lot better than people just saying Ugh, I can't hit that weight anymore. I 
David Syvertsen: [00:27:08] plateaued. It's so hard to get better at everything there's so much, if we went, if I had us do a running watt on Tuesday, a repeat running water from the summer, nobody is touching that their scores.
Does that mean they got worship? No, you haven't trained it. I think part of this, you have to be honest with yourself about have you been training? You're not going to just show up. Five days a week for an hour and get better at every single thing across the board. It's not going to happen. Like it, you have to be realistic with that.
And maybe your plateau feeling has more to do with, your ability to bounce back day to day, or you said, Hey, I'm going to put attention on this particular modality, this area of CrossFit for the next. Six, seven weeks. And then now I'm going to see if I can really try to get better at that part component of CrossFit.
But if you do that, just know that there's going to be a sacrifice elsewhere. If I'm going to really put a lot of attention on trying to get a strict muscle up by may, that's like one of my goals right now. And I'm going to come in every day. There's going to be things that I'm not working on elsewhere that might take a hit.
So if I go tell Tesla's things elsewhere, I'm like, I can't, I'm not allowed to get down on myself for not being able to do something that I was able to do. That even just your general engine, I was better at engine workouts for 20 minute. Amwraps in 2018 than I am now. But I haven't been training that for awhile.
I've been training other components, so I can be more of a well-balanced athlete, there's probably an open score in 2018 that I can't get right now. I'm not going to get discouraged by that. That the training leading up to the open 2018 was so intense every single day with that Coliseum crew.
And that was like four days a week where I'm just not getting that right now. And I feel better about my training now because it's more long-term approach and I'm not, Going to hurt myself, not getting banged up. Like I was back then. And that's just something you're going to, I think the shift, the focus on what a plateau is.
That's the first thing we talked about this. You have to really put a lot of thought into what that actually means. What is a plateau? 
Sam Rhee: [00:29:02] I feel like the more I think about it, there's less of a real plateau of anything. If you approach it the right way. 
David Syvertsen: [00:29:07] Yes, exactly. Yeah. 
Sam Rhee: [00:29:08] You can get every episode of Botox and burpees, wherever you listen to podcasts, or go to botoxandburpees.com. thanks for listening