Understanding Fitness As A Competitor | Steven Fawcett | Modern Wisdom Podcast 155

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Everyone who starts CrossFit…

   1. SFSteven Fawcett0:00

      Everyone who starts CrossFit can just do regular CrossFit for six months or maybe two years and continually get better. Your body is, has been exposed to CrossFit. It knows what it's about and then ... And you will also know what it is, and then start looking to maybe fine-tune areas. But yeah, anyone that's looking to, to compete at any level, if you've got to a point where your lifts have stayed at a certain level, you don't feel like getting much fitter, your gymnastics isn't getting much better, and you're doing all those things in like ... it's all bundled up in like one session, then it's time to stop, separate them, work on them individually. Work on your weight lifting, work on your, your condition, work on your gymnastics. Build them all up separately, and then bring it back together.

   2. CWChris Williamson0:44

      (wind sound effect) Steve Fossett in the building.

   3. SFSteven Fawcett0:48

      Woo!

   4. CWChris Williamson0:48

      How are you, man?

   5. SFSteven Fawcett0:48

      Good. Thank you. Thanks for having me on. Well, thanks for traveling to Wigan to, uh ...

   6. CWChris Williamson0:52

      It's beautiful.

   7. SFSteven Fawcett0:53

      (laughs)

   8. CWChris Williamson0:53

      Look at this. In the, in the dungeon.

   9. SFSteven Fawcett0:55

      I know. This is my little, uh, man cave.

   10. CWChris Williamson0:57

       It's cool, man.

   11. SFSteven Fawcett0:58

       It is very cool.

   12. CWChris Williamson0:59

       Yous come back from Miami.

   13. SFSteven Fawcett1:00

       Yes, it was-

   14. CWChris Williamson1:01

       How was it?

   15. SFSteven Fawcett1:01

       Uh, yeah. Such a good time. Such a good time. I've been back for a week or so now, but it ... In terms of competitions, um, probably the most fun that I've, I've, I've ever had.

   16. CWChris Williamson1:13

       Why?

   17. SFSteven Fawcett1:14

       Um, probably a couple of things. Mixture of who I, who I was with, who was around. There was, uh, obviously I was there competing in a team with, uh, Taylor, uh, Anita, uh, and Mikey, but we also had a little bit of a JST crew going on with Reggie, um, Philip, the Danish lad, Philip Bisquard, um, and the girls as well, so there was Evie and Isla there. So it was a good group of maybe eight or nine of us-

   18. CWChris Williamson1:37

       Mm-hmm.

   19. SFSteven Fawcett1:38

       ... um, who've all known each other quite a while, so it was good just to go out to Miami, which is somewhere just completely different to-

   20. CWChris Williamson1:44

       Mm-hmm.

   21. SFSteven Fawcett1:44

       ... Wigan or-

   22. CWChris Williamson1:45

       Slightly different to Wigan.

   23. SFSteven Fawcett1:46

       ... some nights.

   24. CWChris Williamson1:46

       Yeah, a little bit.

   25. SFSteven Fawcett1:46

       Um, and just go and have a good time and, and you know what it's like being around Mikey and Reggie, they just bounce off each other and, uh-

   26. CWChris Williamson1:52

       Mm-hmm.

   27. SFSteven Fawcett1:52

       ... you know, there's l- kind of laser sharp focus when it's time for, um, the event and the warming up.

   28. CWChris Williamson1:58

       Mm-hmm.

   29. SFSteven Fawcett1:58

       And then 10, 15 minutes after, it's just back to, uh, just having a good time. So, it's something that I've not, um, always had that balance of around competition. Sometimes I get myself kind of in the zone and the fun aspect is maybe just kind of like limited because I'm so focused on wanting to compete. Um, so having those guys there was ... it just made it, yeah, really, a really fun experience.

   30. CWChris Williamson2:19

       Do you think that you can have the level of focus that you want from yourself and from your athletes whilst still having that turn off?
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Yeah. …

   1. CWChris Williamson15:00

      rules for people to follow.

   2. SFSteven Fawcett15:02

      Yeah.

   3. CWChris Williamson15:02

      And I suppose this is the, the value of a coach.

   4. SFSteven Fawcett15:06

      Yeah.

   5. CWChris Williamson15:06

      Right?

   6. SFSteven Fawcett15:06

      Yeah. Yeah, 100%. And, and all ... that whole thing is what we're trying get across to all the guys that are on our programs, no matter what tier they're on. They could be on the 40 pound program where we've got hundreds of people following or the ... all the way up to just one to one individual. Um, and it's just the tools to be able to know what to educate them so that they can make their own decisions for what's the best for them. And if, if every athlete can then make their own decision, um, you know, and, and they know that's the right decision for them-

   7. CWChris Williamson15:38

      Mm-hmm.

   8. SFSteven Fawcett15:39

      ... whether it's, uh, what to eat after a comp, how much sleep they should get, should they have a nap in between, hydration, um, you know, wearing certain equipment on some events and not on the others. If they know and they're educated and they can make that decision themselves, then it's gonna be far more effective than a coach trying to guess what's right for them. Like-

   9. CWChris Williamson15:59

      Dictating as well.

   10. SFSteven Fawcett15:59

       ... everyone knows themself better than anyone else knows them.

   11. CWChris Williamson16:03

       Mm-hmm.

   12. SFSteven Fawcett16:03

       Um, so education f- for the athletes is key and that's something that we try really hard to get across, um, with the guys on, on, on the program, um, so that they can make the right decisions because someone's not ... there's not always gonna be someone there that can tell you what to do. You need to be able to ... if it's middle of an event where it's just you and your judge on the, on the competition floor, like, something happens, you need to be able to make a decision yourself based off your own knowledge.

   13. CWChris Williamson16:29

       It's a great point. You can't rely on your coach as some crutch-

   14. SFSteven Fawcett16:34

       Yeah.

   15. CWChris Williamson16:34

       ... for every-

   16. SFSteven Fawcett16:35

       Exactly.

   17. CWChris Williamson16:35

       ... incident which occurs.

   18. SFSteven Fawcett16:37

       Yeah.

   19. CWChris Williamson16:37

       So you, you, you've touched on it there, the fact that JST over the last few years has seen quite a bit of success.

   20. SFSteven Fawcett16:44

       Mm-hmm.

   21. CWChris Williamson16:45

       What are some of the accolades that you guys have, have had?

   22. SFSteven Fawcett16:48

       Um, yeah, so we've had ... so we were the first ... um, so I was the first British male to qualify for the games, uh, out of-

   23. CWChris Williamson16:54

       First British male, really?

   24. SFSteven Fawcett16:55

       Yeah, out of regionals. There was, there was actually a guy, um, Jamie, he was called, think maybe 2009, uh, qualified through us, uh, I think you called it sectionals back then. Um, but out of regionals, the first British guy and then we ... two years later we were the first British team to the games and then two years later, so last year, 2019, uh, we made it back again as, as on- the ... well, the second only British team-

   25. CWChris Williamson17:22

       Mm-hmm.

   26. SFSteven Fawcett17:22

       ... to get there and we were the first

   27. NANarrator17:23

       also.

   28. CWChris Williamson17:23

       Team of six. So individual, team of six-

   29. SFSteven Fawcett17:25

       Team of six, team of four.

   30. CWChris Williamson17:26

       ... team of four with years rest in between.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Mm-hmm. …

   1. SFSteven Fawcett30:00

      got better as an athlete."

   2. CWChris Williamson30:02

      Mm-hmm.

   3. SFSteven Fawcett30:03

      Um, and the thing is for the, for the first few years of CrossFit, that worked because everyone was that new to the sport that anything would have worked. Um, but it's getting to that level now where the improvements aren't as quick in like the top, uh, tier of athletes, um, so it needs a, it needs a different approach and it needs that, um, like I say, that special, that specialist approach where you, you're training things-... um, separately and bringing them together and actually periodizing the training, um, you know, with a bit more thought than just head in, train hard-

   4. CWChris Williamson30:36

      Mm-hmm.

   5. SFSteven Fawcett30:36

      ... li- be on the floor, and then leave the gym.

   6. CWChris Williamson30:38

      Have you got any examples of particular pairings that you like to put together in terms of, you know, daily or, or periods of pairings where you think are ... some monostructural stuff with some gymnastics stuff tends to go well, or if you're doing muscle-ups with rowing? I, I don't know, but are there some things that, that you've found tend to lend each other as complements?

   7. SFSteven Fawcett30:59

      Um, (sighs) yeah, it's, it's, uh, you can go into, you can go into it in however much de- detail you want, but there's ... you've got these, you've got your skill elements of CrossFit, so weightlifting, uh, like ma- max weightlifting or heavy weightlifting, um, your gymnastics, um, and, and your max lifts in general, and then you've got your capacity and threshold end of, of CrossFit, so, you know, your burpees, your rowing, running, just the really simple things, your assault bike, simple things that anyone can do. Um, and both are limited by, limited by, uh, different things. So your capacity is limited by, um, like, your VO2 max, your heart rate, your, your threshold, and your, the skills are limited by coordination, strength, um, balance, and, and being able to, um, use, like, different muscle groups from all over your body at the s- at the same time, kind of co-contraction of different muscle groups.

   8. CWChris Williamson32:02

      Mm-hmm.

   9. SFSteven Fawcett32:02

      And it's, it's hard to, it's hard to, if you've got something at this end which is, like, the highest skill, let's say, if let's say your max snatch is 120 kilos, if you link that in with something capacity-based, where, um, you know, your heart rate's raised, then the skill breaks down. And it's, tha- that's a, an obvious example. Like if you was to hit a max snatch from fresh and completely kind of a, a rested and, and prepared state, and then if you were to do a 1K row at a, a hard intensity and then hit the snatch, you're not gonna, you're not gonna make the lift. You're very unlikely to make the lift. Um, and that's just an obvi- an obvious example there of how, um, the skill and, and threshold, how it affects each other, and then you kind of, you can go into quite a bit of detail of how you can work them with each other so that the, the threshold of the skill-

   10. CWChris Williamson33:04

       Mm-hmm.

   11. SFSteven Fawcett33:04

       ... gradually increases over time.

   12. CWChris Williamson33:05

       Plus, see, that's what people are looking to do, right? In competition.

   13. SFSteven Fawcett33:09

       Yeah.

   14. CWChris Williamson33:09

       And this is what I think the seductive factor of metcons is, it's that, "Fuck, I hit 90% of my X movement after I did-"

   15. SFSteven Fawcett33:21

       Yeah.

   16. CWChris Williamson33:21

       "... 2K row test, uh, 30 muscle-ups for time," blah, blah, whatever it might be. And that's where it's like, and that's that sort of send-it mentality-

   17. SFSteven Fawcett33:31

       Yeah.

   18. CWChris Williamson33:31

       ... is kinda, that's what people are chasing, right?

   19. SFSteven Fawcett33:32

       Mm-hmm.

   20. CWChris Williamson33:32

       It's like, can I do the thing which I could almost not do fresh under fatigue?

   21. SFSteven Fawcett33:38

       Yeah. Yeah.

   22. CWChris Williamson33:39

       Um, but from a training perspective, that's suboptimal.

   23. SFSteven Fawcett33:43

       It's, i- i- it's not that it's suboptimal, it's the timing of things. Like, if you're gonna have to do that at competition, then you're gonna have to get used to doing that, like, when you're getting close to the competition. But long-term, doing that over and over again is not going to, not going to, um, increase your performance year on year. So if it, let's say it was, uh, rowing into some heavy snatches, and the snatch weight was 100 kilos, and you had s- um ... Imagine, we'll take the strength and depth workout was double-unders and cleans, and the cleans got heavier as you went along, and the heaviest weight for the guys was 140 and the girls maybe 93.

   24. CWChris Williamson34:21

       Mm-hmm.

   25. SFSteven Fawcett34:22

       And it's heavy for a lot of people. And, um, that's the end of a, round about a 10-minute workout with they probably had a good 200 or so double-unders by then and I think another 28 clean reps. So the fatigue has built up quite a lot there. Um, but in o- in order for that, for that athlete's performance to increase, may- say maybe in a 12 months' time if that workout was to come back, their skill level of clean needs to be, have increased.

   26. CWChris Williamson34:51

       Mm-hmm.

   27. SFSteven Fawcett34:51

       Their threshold level of working kind of those, uh, lower weight barbell cycling reps with double-unders, which is now probably classed as more of a low- lower-skill exercise.

   28. CWChris Williamson35:01

       Mm-hmm.

   29. SFSteven Fawcett35:02

       Building the threshold of that, building the skill level of heavy cleans, then bringing them back together, letting the body get used to that kind of, um, that clash of skill and threshold, and then retesting, um, is the only way that that type of workout is gonna improve rather than just doing that type of workout over and over again.

   30. CWChris Williamson35:24

       Mm-hmm.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   You're right, it's very…

   1. SFSteven Fawcett45:00

      get to a competition so you need to decide what competition do you want to do, what are the most important competitions of the year, what are kind of like secondary, like priority-wise to that, and what's further down the line. And obviously prioritize the ones at the top, prioritize those qualifiers, and then maybe you have to do those qualifiers to get the competition. Um, and just don't get sucked into the hype of a competition or some really good marketing from a competition if it's not ultimately what you want t- to, if what you set out to do there. Um-

   2. CWChris Williamson45:33

      You're right, it's very seductive. You see the, um, "You, your three friends-"

   3. SFSteven Fawcett45:38

      Yeah, yeah.

   4. CWChris Williamson45:39

      "... throwing down-"

   5. SFSteven Fawcett45:40

      Yeah.

   6. CWChris Williamson45:40

      "... in a stadium, in the sunshine."

   7. SFSteven Fawcett45:41

      Getting a little champagne in.

   8. CWChris Williamson45:41

      Yeah. And you're like, "Fucking hell, like, this sounds mint."

   9. SFSteven Fawcett45:44

      Yeah.

   10. CWChris Williamson45:44

       But you're right, you have to ... it's the guy saying, "Oh yeah, mate, I know you're driving, but just one more pint."

   11. SFSteven Fawcett45:48

       Yeah, yeah.

   12. CWChris Williamson45:48

       It's the one more pint guy.

   13. SFSteven Fawcett45:50

       Yeah. Yes.

   14. CWChris Williamson45:50

       Right? And you're like, "Fuck, like, uh, I really need to consider does doing this qualifier align with my long term goals as an athlete?"

   15. SFSteven Fawcett46:00

       Yeah. Yeah. It's a good-

   16. CWChris Williamson46:02

       And I, I wonder, I wonder how many people that are listening are pushing themselves. You know, I love, I absolutely love the fact that the UK's got some cool competitions. You know, like other things like the coast to coast bike ride that we just had recently.

   17. SFSteven Fawcett46:16

       Yeah.

   18. CWChris Williamson46:16

       That's, that's mint. I don't know whether-

   19. SFSteven Fawcett46:18

       Yeah.

   20. CWChris Williamson46:18

       ... you'd class that as a comp. I mean, some of the guys are, I mean, probably gonna have to take a little bit-

   21. SFSteven Fawcett46:21

       (laughs)

   22. CWChris Williamson46:21

       ... couple of weeks off squats, but-

   23. SFSteven Fawcett46:23

       Yeah.

   24. CWChris Williamson46:23

       Um, you know, there's cool shit happening.

   25. SFSteven Fawcett46:25

       Yeah.

   26. CWChris Williamson46:25

       But the problem with cool shit happening is it's distracting from training.

   27. SFSteven Fawcett46:28

       Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, I've, I had a, had a podcast with, uh, Eric from, from Weightlifting 101 a few months ... and we, and we went through in detail my development as an athlete from 2010 when I started CrossFit to, uh, to up until this point. And for the first five years, the common thing that went round and round is that I did the Open and I did Regionals and then, and then I didn't compete, and maybe I did like the odd one like here and there. But for five years running, it was Open Regionals, Open Regional, until it became Open Regional Games. And whereas now ... like then didn't have the opportunity to compete every other weekend because there wasn't a competition-

   28. CWChris Williamson47:07

       (laughs)

   29. SFSteven Fawcett47:08

       ... to do. Like in 2012 there was maybe Regionals and one other. Um, UK competition, it was London Throwdown which changed its name about five different times.

   30. CWChris Williamson47:16

       (laughs)
5. 1:00:00 – 1:13:51

   Mm-hmm. …

   1. SFSteven Fawcett1:00:00

      (laughs) So that kind of whole like dump of adrenaline and like-

   2. CWChris Williamson1:00:04

      Mm-hmm.

   3. SFSteven Fawcett1:00:04

      ... expectation to then just like back to, to norm- normality. Um, I c- I think it, I think it's that that people struggle with. Like when you're at a competition, your name's being called out on the, on the ... from the MC and the crowd cheer your name and then you have a good event and it's the endorphins are flying. Like you go from that and then it suddenly being like over-

   4. CWChris Williamson1:00:27

      Mm-hmm.

   5. SFSteven Fawcett1:00:27

      ... like two days later you're back at home and like, "Fuck."

   6. CWChris Williamson1:00:30

      Where'd it go?

   7. SFSteven Fawcett1:00:31

      Yeah. It's like that ... I think that's what athletes struggle with the most, um, as opposed to maybe the actual physical effects of the competition.

   8. CWChris Williamson1:00:40

      Mm-hmm.

   9. SFSteven Fawcett1:00:41

      Uh, it is that dump. Um, but having, having experienced that quite badly in 2015, like-... I'm able to, uh, I know, I know what's going to happen now. I know that... I did well at Perugia at the weekend. I knew I was going to have a great time, I know I was gonna come home and, uh, like ex- because they expected how I would feel, like I didn't feel any way

   10. CWChris Williamson1:01:00

       Learned from that-

   11. SFSteven Fawcett1:01:01

       Yeah.

   12. CWChris Williamson1:01:01

       ... experience in 2015.

   13. SFSteven Fawcett1:01:02

       Um, so getting that across to the guys as w- as well is, is quite important for them to then regain motivation and have it back rather than that just hitting them like a bus and being like, "Oh-"

   14. CWChris Williamson1:01:14

       Shit, yeah.

   15. SFSteven Fawcett1:01:15

       ... "I'm done now."

   16. CWChris Williamson1:01:16

       Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   17. SFSteven Fawcett1:01:18

       So I feel like that's... In terms of, uh, you call it CNS, but in terms of just kind of having like that, that dump after competition-

   18. CWChris Williamson1:01:25

       It's more than just CNS, right? It's like you will be fatigued from the level of, of, um, work that you've put in, but-

   19. SFSteven Fawcett1:01:32

       Yeah.

   20. CWChris Williamson1:01:32

       ... it's like a sociocultural thing as well that's been going on. "I have been placed in high esteem."

   21. SFSteven Fawcett1:01:39

       Yeah. Yeah.

   22. CWChris Williamson1:01:39

       Here is egos just getting fucking-

   23. SFSteven Fawcett1:01:41

       Yeah.

   24. CWChris Williamson1:01:41

       ... cold shovelled into it like-

   25. SFSteven Fawcett1:01:43

       Sponsors thrown at them and-

   26. CWChris Williamson1:01:43

       Yeah, for sure. And, um, I recently did a podcast, I've done two with DJs recently, a guy called Kristoff and another one called Danny T. And, um, both of those guys talk about their post-show slump, um, and Danny deals with it a lot better than, than Chris does, but he's supporting Eric Prids around the world, he's playing to thousands of people. He's literally living the dream-

   27. SFSteven Fawcett1:02:05

       Yeah.

   28. CWChris Williamson1:02:05

       ... for this guy. And, um, he gets back to the hotel and it's just him and a room service and a flight in four hours time to go to Buenos Aires-

   29. SFSteven Fawcett1:02:16

       Yeah.

   30. CWChris Williamson1:02:16

       ... or wherever's next on the tour. And it's just-

Episode duration: 1:19:08