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

Steven Fawcett is a 3 Times CrossFit Games Athlete and Head Coach of JST Compete. How to become fit and how to use that fitness in a competitive environment are two very different challenges. Many athletes will spend years training and competing to see their numbers stay the same, or maybe even go backwards. So what's the solution? As a coach and athlete who has seen phenomenal success over the last few years, I figured Ste would be a good guy to ask. Expect to learn how to periodise your training, how often you should be competing every year, why a full break can be one of the best training tools you can use, what Ste's best advice is on competition weekends and much more. Check out everything I use from The Protein Works and get 35% OFF SITE WIDE with the code MODERN35 - https://www.theproteinworks.com/modernwisdom/ Extra Stuff: Check out JST Compete - http://www.jstcompete.com/ Follow JST Compete on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jst_compete/ Follow Ste on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/steveyf22 Check out everything I recommend from books to products - https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/modernwisdom #crossfit #crossfitgames #fitness - Listen to all episodes online. Search "Modern Wisdom" on any Podcast App or click here: iTunes: https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/modern-wisdom - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: modernwisdompodcast@gmail.com

Steven FawcettguestChris Williamsonhost
Mar 30, 20201h 19mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 0:44

    When CrossFit gains stall: unbundling lifting, conditioning, and gymnastics

    1. SF

      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. 0:44 – 0:59

    Setting the scene in Wigan: quick catch-up and podcast kickoff

    1. CW

      (wind sound effect) Steve Fossett in the building.

    2. SF

      Woo!

    3. CW

      How are you, man?

    4. SF

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

    5. CW

      It's beautiful.

    6. SF

      (laughs)

    7. CW

      Look at this. In the, in the dungeon.

    8. SF

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

    9. CW

      It's cool, man.

    10. SF

      It is very cool.

  3. 0:59 – 2:19

    Why Miami/Wodapalooza was the most fun comp Steven’s had

    1. CW

      Yous come back from Miami.

    2. SF

      Yes, it was-

    3. CW

      How was it?

    4. SF

      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.

    5. CW

      Why?

    6. SF

      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-

    7. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    8. SF

      ... 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-

    9. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    10. SF

      ... Wigan or-

    11. CW

      Slightly different to Wigan.

    12. SF

      ... some nights.

    13. CW

      Yeah, a little bit.

    14. SF

      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-

    15. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    16. SF

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

    17. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    18. SF

      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.

  4. 2:19 – 4:14

    Competition focus vs relaxation: finding each athlete’s optimal balance

    1. CW

      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. SF

      Uh, it's ... Yeah. It is a very hard balance.

    3. CW

      (clears throat)

    4. SF

      Um, if I was there, if we were there competing and we were going there knowing full well that we were gonna be a top three team-

    5. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    6. SF

      ... and be getting a games ticket, then m- whether or not the environment would've changed just kind of naturally, like people would've been a bit more serious-

    7. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    8. SF

      um, I'm not sure, but I mean, I'm sure there is a balance out there, but it's, I think it's a very hard balance for people to find, because, I mean, if there's three hours between events and this next event is potentially gonna be life changing with the result that comes, then it's quite hard to be, uh, you know, it's quite hard to be acting the way that we were acting, uh, last week. So, I'm sure some people have the balance, but I think everyone's balance is just a little bit different.

    9. CW

      When you watch it, right, you can see different personalities-

    10. SF

      (clears throat)

    11. CW

      ... come across within the games.

    12. SF

      Yeah.

    13. CW

      You know, watching the documentaries and, and stuff like that, you see some people who are kind of, especially some of the girls, some of them seem to have real polarized laser focus.

    14. SF

      Yeah.

    15. CW

      And others seem to be kinda like giggly, spending time with their partner or their-

    16. SF

      Yeah.

    17. CW

      ... coach and like laughing, just doing girls stuff.

    18. SF

      Yeah.

    19. CW

      You know what I mean?

    20. SF

      Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And like I say, it's ... I think everyone has that balance that's a bit ... is, is different. I've got 10, maybe 11 individual athletes and every single one of them has a different balance. Um, some like to be s- you know, t- talking to people in between events, going into the crowd and walking around the vendor village and just like kind of mixing around with people, and other people just like to go like full hermit mode and just-

    21. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    22. SF

      ... shut off from the world. Um, so yeah, I mean, it's ... W- what's right and wrong is, there's probably no particular way. I guess it's just a ... It's, it's down to each, it's down to each person, down to each athlete.

  5. 4:14 – 7:18

    Competition weekend fundamentals: sleep, food choices, and energy management

    1. CW

      Are there any rules that you think all athletes should try and adhere to within cro- competition periods, like phone use, sleep, nutrition, anything like that?

    2. SF

      Yeah. I think, yeah. I think sleep is definitely something that just it's not, it doesn't differ that much with different athletes. I think everyone needs as much sleep as they can, uh, especially on competition weekend, it's quite hard to get a full night's sleep because of nervous energy and obviously adrenaline.

    3. CW

      I was gonna say, I've never been ... So you've been, you've been to games, you've been to Waterpalooza, you've been to a number of big, big comps.

    4. SF

      Yeah.

    5. CW

      What is your sleep like in between those?

    6. SF

      (sighs)

    7. CW

      'Cause, you know, you're so exhausted from the day-

    8. SF

      Yeah.

    9. CW

      ... but also so terrified for tomorrow.

    10. SF

      Yeah. It's ... Personally, I never struggle to fall asleep. It's the waking up. I would prob- I would wake up a couple of hours earlier than usual, somewhere like 4:00 or 5:00, because, you know, sometimes if you, you do wake up, let's say, and you go for a wee to the toilet and, and then you start thinking, "Oh, oh, I've had five hours in," yeah, exactly, "five hours and something in front, in front of arena, in front of everyone." Um, and that's kind of when like that your CNS kind of wakes up properly 'cause it's kind of going into that fight mode and then it's, it's tough to get back to sleep, so ... I'll probably, I'll probably drop sleep by two or three hours, um, as the, as the lie-in stage in the morning.

    11. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    12. SF

      Um, but it's just important that the weeks before, that it's ... when you can control it and you can get good sleep, that you kind of get that sleep in the bank. Um, so yeah, sleep's definitely something that they'd all need and i- like you say, nutrition is probably a different thing. I'm not ... I've got people that help me with nutrition, help my athletes with nutrition, um, 'cause it's quite a big, broad thing. There's, there's programming and coaching, there's, uh, nutrition. It's a lot for kind of one person to try and control-

    13. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    14. SF

      Uh, everything.... uh, some people deal well with a lot of food during events. Some people deal well with barely any, and, um-

    15. CW

      What's your disposition?

    16. SF

      (sighs) I like to eat some food, um, as, as, as soon as possible, and it's probably something that I kind of got myself into the habit of. Back in the early days of competing, it was, um, it was just, like, a shake and some smoothie and then get by. But then by the end of the weekend, it was, it would always take its toll.

    17. CW

      Hmm.

    18. SF

      The fact that there was just no kind of, like, solid food in there to, to fuel me. Um, but now, you know, after working with some, some, some guys for the last few years, I need to get food or...

    19. CW

      What's your favorite intra-event snack or food?

    20. SF

      (laughs) It's really boring, to be honest. It is really boring. Just sweet potatoes and some white meat, white fish.

    21. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    22. SF

      Um, obviously, you've got your, your, your carb-y drinks and, and stuff like that, but-

    23. CW

      Nothing fancy.

    24. SF

      ... I just try and keep it as bland as possible because, um, you know, you don't want to be out of breath and a little burp mid-workout.

    25. CW

      Jalapeno sauce coming up or whatever, yeah.

    26. SF

      Yeah, yeah. Yeah, something horrible coming up. Some fishy, um, some fishy burps. So yeah, it's really, uh, it's really not too, like, exciting, just plain, plain food.

    27. CW

      What else have y-

    28. SF

      Yeah.

  6. 7:18 – 16:37

    Coaching by competing: why athletes learn faster when you’re in the trenches

    1. CW

      So you're, you're spending this weekend at Wodapalooza-

    2. SF

      Mm-hmm.

    3. CW

      ... with a team of guys who, um, there's some young ones and some people that have got experience similar to yourself-

    4. SF

      Yeah.

    5. CW

      ... in there as well. Are you giving them coaching with regards to their mindset during that time? "Look, guys, we need to think about this." Or what about, you know, speaking to their girlfriends, or their partners, or their phones, or, you know, what are you doing on that side?

    6. SF

      Yeah, so a lot of this season and, and with having, um, Wodapalooza just gone, a lot of my focus towards the athletes is just trying to relay as much knowledge and education to them around competition and training whilst, whilst doing it with them. There's one thing, like, trying to teach them as a coach, and then there's another thing being by their side as an athlete saying, "You should be doing this, that, and the other." And I, and I find that being, um, like, in a team with a bunch of guys or being there at the competition and maybe even competing and training with them, um, athletes tend to pick up a lot. They'll pick up a lot more than just, like, having that coach-athlete relationship where-

    7. CW

      Yeah.

    8. SF

      ... coach says this, athlete does, um-

    9. CW

      Leading by example as well as dictating by example.

    10. SF

      Yeah, like being, being in there and then showing them, like, why things help. And that's why, recently, over the last few months, I've enjoyed getting back into, um, train and competing because there's, we've got a lot of younger athletes coming up through the ranks, and I find that the results that we've had from JSD over the last, um, kind of eight or so years have come off the back of that. Where I've been in the kind of environment of, of competing and training, as well as coaching at the same time, rather than just being kind of stepped back and saying, like, "I'm coach now."

    11. CW

      Hmm.

    12. SF

      "Do this." Like, I find that getting that environment and that group of people together and, and putting the knowledge and education into them that way, um, is helping the guys develop much better.

    13. CW

      It's interesting to see people that lead by example, especially in a sport like CrossFit, right? Every CrossFitter respects hard work.

    14. SF

      Yeah.

    15. CW

      It's very much a nose, grindstone, suffering sport.

    16. SF

      Yeah.

    17. CW

      And I, I wonder, I wonder how much extra a coach brings by leading by example.

    18. SF

      Yeah.

    19. CW

      Versus how much they lose by having to inevitably sacrifice a tiny bit of coaching performance-

    20. SF

      Yeah.

    21. CW

      ... to focus on their own performance.

    22. SF

      Yeah.

    23. CW

      You know what I mean?

    24. SF

      Yeah, definitely.

    25. CW

      Like, there's a, there's a, there's a real balance there, but I would say (clears throat) , certainly knowing Reggie, Mikey, Taylor, so, you know, some of the, the guys that you work with-

    26. SF

      Yeah.

    27. CW

      ... um, they're the sort of team I think that would err toward wanting to see you live the lessons you're trying to give to them.

    28. SF

      Yeah. 100%. And l- like, I'm, I'm living that example right now, is last year, I put m- I took more of a step away and went more a coaching role. Um, I've got, so I coach Taylor and Jack coaches, uh, Mike and Reggie, and we've, we've very much had, like, a, a coach s- s- set away, and then they're the athlete. And more recently, we've got more involved in, with training with them and competing with them, and they're coming on much quicker. And you can tell they enjoy the fact that the coach is in there with them rather than just being kind of stood there telling them to do this, writing this in the program.

    29. CW

      Hmm.

    30. SF

      If we're in there getting involved and doing it with them, um, and then able to also teach them and, like you say, educate them on just the smaller minute details. 'Cause they see us doing them and then they, they ask, uh, "Oh, why are you doing that for?" "Why are you wearing trainers?" "Wh- wh- why are you wearing lifting shoes?" Or, "Why are you not wearing a belt?"

  7. 16:37 – 17:52

    JST’s track record: firsts, Games appearances, and building credibility

    1. CW

      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.

    2. SF

      Mm-hmm.

    3. CW

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

    4. SF

      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-

    5. CW

      First British male, really?

    6. SF

      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-

    7. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    8. SF

      ... to get there and we were the first

    9. NA

      also.

    10. CW

      Team of six. So individual, team of six-

    11. SF

      Team of six, team of four.

    12. CW

      ... team of four with years rest in between.

    13. SF

      Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much, yeah. 2015, '17, '19.

    14. CW

      Nice.

    15. SF

      Um, so yeah.

    16. CW

      So you've, you've seen some real, you know, the ... that's a number of different, uh-

    17. SF

      Experiences, yeah.

    18. CW

      ... and, and on top of that, like, firsts, right? So-

    19. SF

      Yeah.

    20. CW

      ... what is it about JST's approach to coaching or programming or training-

    21. SF

      Yeah.

    22. CW

      ... what's moving the needle here?

  8. 17:52 – 22:14

    ‘Inches’ that create ‘miles’: small technical and lifestyle details that compound

    1. SF

      (sighs) Do you know? I think it's doing a lot of little things the right way. And the ... and this is something that I only come into terms with now, kind of like the older I'm getting, the more, more people, more athletes I see and more gyms I'm getting about, um, is just I'm seeing people just doing, um, the little things not-... not optimally, not the, not the right way. And it's, and it is a lot of really small little things.

    2. CW

      What like?

    3. SF

      Um, like why are you wearing ... Like I said, we touched on it before, why are you wearing trainers to do your back squats instead of lifting shoes at this point in the season? I could ... (clicks tongue) So just to explain that one itself, that lifting shoes are going to help most people lift. They're going to help most people squat better. I say most, not everyone. But they're making you better at lifting because it's an, an accessory that's going onto you. It's not yourself, it's something that you're adding to your body. Um, so learning to squat or lift without that added perform- we call it a performing, performance-enhancing accessory, a P. Um, learning to lift without them and then introducing them closer to competition so it does give you that effect is going to put you at a higher level than if you just wore them all year round-

    4. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    5. SF

      ... because you're improving your own body's ability to do whatever it is you're trying to do. And then you're adding on the, the performance-enhancing-

    6. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    7. SF

      ... accessory. Um, and that's just like, that's just one small, tiny little thing. Another thing is maybe resetting on your, your snatch deadlifts instead of, like, a touch and ... If it's, uh, three sets of three snatch deadlift, so many people I will see just doing touch and go, where it's like, again, it's a very small thing, but you're doing a snatch deadlift for three sets of three, a high percentage, so it transfers into your one rep max snatch. So doing that touch and go rep is not that second rep and the third rep, it's not transferring into a one, into your one rep where you're pulling it from a dead stop off the floor. Um, and like I said, loads of really small, tiny things. And this is what I'm having a lot of, uh, fun doing now is educating the likes of Taylor, uh, David and, and Mikey and, and Reggie, with Jack, um, to get all the really small details of how to live the life and how to approach a training session, how to recover from a training session. Um, you know, when to s- when to supplement, when to time certain meals. Like, all these fine little, little, uh, details, and we call them inches, all of them, all of them done the right way over, say, if all of them done the right way over one week is 10 things that you've, that you've, well, 10 inches, that done for six months is just, then it starts to snowball.

    8. CW

      Yards.

    9. SF

      And, yeah, exactly, yards and, and, uh, and miles. But that, that's something that I only really now have realized that we've started doing, um, we just had to do it from, from the beginning. So, we're, uh, it's stuff that I'd learnt and passed down from other coaches and other athletes I'd, I had competed and worked with. And then we kind of had this group, in the beginning at JST we had this group of maybe 10 or so athletes where we'd, we'd, uh, we'd always be training together. If someone was doing something wrong, if someone was wearing lifting shoes when it didn't really make sense for them to wear lifting shoes, they'd be told in a nice way and said, "Look, you should just not wear them because this, that, and the other." Um, belts would only be used at a certain stage. And, and then coaching cues and techniques, you know, little things that just get tweaked. But going round and round in that, those 10 people for weeks, months and years on end made those 10 people get to a high level, and then that's, that kind of snowballed again that people wanted to get involved in, in the whole knowledge and education of, um, just kind of training, living and, uh, the li- having the professional lifestyle that an athlete needs, um, to grow and, and to develop, rather than just, like, the actual training session that they're completing.

    10. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    11. SF

      Um...

    12. CW

      One of the things that Reggie mentioned to me the other day was the professionalism that he sees when training with you guys.

    13. SF

      Yeah.

    14. CW

      That he really s- says he struggles to see elsewhere.

    15. SF

      Yeah.

  9. 22:14 – 29:13

    CrossFit as training method vs CrossFit as sport: why elite prep isn’t ‘constantly varied’

    1. CW

      And what I find interesting about that, you know, all of the CrossFitters that are listening, there are two ... CrossFit's problem is that it is two things. It is a training methodology, but also a competitive sport.

    2. SF

      Yeah.

    3. CW

      And there are some people who do it because they like to train CrossFit-

    4. SF

      Yeah.

    5. CW

      ... and there are some people who train CrossFit because they like to compete in CrossFit. And the fact that you have those two things running side by side means that you've got the normal class environment, rock up before, Angela comes in five minutes late, she'll just jump on the C2 bike instead of doing the run-

    6. SF

      Yeah.

    7. CW

      ... because everyone's halfway around and blah, blah. And then you've got the guys that want to make it to the games, want to make it to the regio- not regionals now, want to make it to, uh, the-

    8. SF

      Yeah.

    9. CW

      ... sanctioned events. Um, you know, you've got those guys who are also in that environment, you know, someone who's still maybe sweating out a couple of beers from last night-

    10. SF

      Yeah.

    11. CW

      ... or whatever it is, and you don't have them segmented off. Whereas if you look at any other sport, you have any semi-professional or professional football team, they don't also have the Sunday league team-

    12. SF

      Yeah.

    13. CW

      ... warming up with them.

    14. SF

      Yeah.

    15. CW

      You know?

    16. SF

      Yeah. And it, it is, it is two completely different things, and it'll, it, and it should be two completely different things, and it should also, to the, to the kind of, um, to the outlooker looking in, it probably looks quite similar, but in terms of how they train and how they live, like, it should be completely different. I put a post out, um, not too long ago actually on our Instagram about const- it was just called Constantly Varied with question mark, and how an elite athlete's training is rarely constantly varied. If anything, it's just constantly repeated. It's just the same. It's this, it's you, you get a bunch of exercises or a, a bunch of workouts, um, that are perfect for this type of person, and it's just repeated and repeated and repeated until they improve, and then it's developed. Whereas your, like you say, your CrossFit class where you've got Angela comes in, they just want to have a good time, get fit and do different movements-

    17. CW

      Yeah.

    18. SF

      ... so it's constantly varied and it keeps them on their toes and-

    19. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    20. SF

      ... uh, everyone has a good time. But to get, for the elite athlete, um ...... like, it's so much different. It's so different.

    21. CW

      Is progressive overload king in all areas?

    22. SF

      Yeah. Yeah. That's, yeah, 100%. Um, you know, there's o- there's other methods, but because ... And it's ... And I would say because CrossFit ... Because we cover so many different, um, like modalities in CrossFit; running, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, we are still way behind runners at running. So that our training, uh, you know, our training to get better at running needs to be s- much more simple, uh, than Mo Farah's training program. Um, and our gymnastics, uh, training is a lot more simple to, uh, Max Whitlock's training program, and the same goes for our weight lifting. Whereas progressive overload, i- it can't not work for, for CrossFitters because with that, our level is that low compared to these elite athletes. Like, progressive overload for Mo Farah probably won't work. It ... Probably not see any improvements.

    23. CW

      It'll be much more sort of cyc- cyclical periodization-

    24. SF

      It needs to be ... Yeah.

    25. CW

      ... of ups and downs and-

    26. SF

      Yeah. It needs to be much, in much finer detail. Um, but because we are kind of at maybe like, say we're like 70% performance than all ... Than the guys who are elite athletes in their sport, um, it can be a lot more simple. And I think it's ... People see the m- the, the, the people at top in their sport and they try and copy their methods of training. Um, but I think it's, it's sometimes, especially for something like running, um, it's too a- it's too advanced to, to do in training sessions that is, um, further on than them.

    27. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    28. SF

      Um-

    29. CW

      Certainly one of the things that I remember seeing (clears throat) a few years ago was when Meg had started working with you guys when she moved down to Wigan.

    30. SF

      Mm-hmm.

  10. 29:13 – 37:55

    Progressive overload and periodization: building bases, then blending for event specificity

    1. CW

      When it comes to training, that's a really important point (clears throat) that I've heard brought up by Ben Bergeron before, which is the difference between MetCons for practice for competition-

    2. SF

      Mm-hmm.

    3. CW

      ... and what you do in training.

    4. SF

      Yeah.

    5. CW

      Is there a pattern at the moment of overtraining MetCons for a lot of athletes, or are people starting to catch on to the - I don't know what you call it - specialization of movements?

    6. SF

      Yeah. I would, I would hope people ... And I think people are catching on, um, although it is, it is still hard for people to kind of let go 'cause they kind of ... It's like, it's kind of like a safety thing that, "If I'm doing MetCons, I'm getting better. And, you know, if I'm finishing a workout, um, you know, completely, like, depleted, then that's me got better as an athlete."

    7. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    8. SF

      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-

    9. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    10. SF

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

    11. CW

      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?

    12. SF

      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.

    13. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    14. SF

      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-

    15. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    16. SF

      ... gradually increases over time.

    17. CW

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

    18. SF

      Yeah.

    19. CW

      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-"

    20. SF

      Yeah.

    21. CW

      "... 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-

    22. SF

      Yeah.

    23. CW

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

    24. SF

      Mm-hmm.

    25. CW

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

    26. SF

      Yeah. Yeah.

    27. CW

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

    28. SF

      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.

    29. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    30. SF

      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.

  11. 37:55 – 58:00

    How often should you compete (and qualify)? Goals first, then a sustainable season

    1. CW

      Um, let's say that there's some athletes listening that are those sort of local level-

    2. SF

      Yeah.

    3. CW

      ... comps, maybe Scaled1, maybe RX team or individual, um, how would you advise your athletes of that standard? How frequently would you allow them to compete?

    4. SF

      Yeah, this is, this ... I get this one, yeah.

    5. CW

      It's the question everyone wants to know, right?

    6. SF

      Everyone wants to know and everyone asks. It's like, it's, it's such a, um, talked-about thing for our athletes on the program, and just generally people, um, that just want some advice, is they're always asking, "How often should I compete?" And-

    7. CW

      Well, I, I think the question might actually be, how often can I compete?

    8. SF

      Can I compete?

    9. CW

      Yeah.

    10. SF

      And th- the answer I always give is, first of all, you need to k- you need to, um, decide why you, why you do it, why you train, and why you compete in it. Are you doing it to get to the highest physical level that you can get your body to, or are you just doing it because you enjoy competing, and you ... although you'd want to get at a higher level, like, you just like going to, you know, your Scaled or your RX comps every few weeks, um, and just, and just doing them and having a good time.

    11. CW

      Mm.

    12. SF

      I think that's the first thing that people need to, need to understand and they need to realize, and then off the back of that, can they then make a decision, sorry, on what, um, and h- and how often they compete. I would say, um, three to four, uh, three, maybe four, but d- definitely three competitions per year as a maximum. And c- try and have them so they're quite, um, they're quite closely knitted together, so there's maybe six to eight weeks between them.

    13. CW

      Okay, 'cause I guess-

    14. SF

      Yeah.

    15. CW

      ... for somewhere like the UK, that works as you kind of bundle a bunch of comps into summer.

    16. SF

      Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Um-

    17. CW

      You can now also add the open prep is probably the last comp-

    18. SF

      Yeah.

    19. CW

      ... of the year or one of the f- one of the last comps of the year as a part of that, maybe?

    20. SF

      Yeah, so like e- example maybe is, is y- obviously you've got the open now, which is October, and then there's, there's Strength In Depth, which is January, and if there's a couple more, uh, out of UK or Europe-based competitions in around there, then that's kind of y- your season to compete. Um, and if your goal is for longer-term development, then that gives you potentially eight months of off-season to do exactly what we've just been talking about, just to, to really break things down and build them back up. When it comes back round to the next year's open, you will be in a, a better position to perform better and get to a higher level and perform higher

    21. CW

      Is, is part of the complication ... So one of the complications of why people can't get better whilst competing is that they're training in the build-up to a competition, requires them to do more MetCon style stuff, which doesn't lend itself to improving progressively over time?

    22. SF

      Yeah.

    23. CW

      But how much of it is also, uh, the demands of the comp itself? Is it 50/50, do you think?

    24. SF

      Yeah. And it, it goes, it goes hand-in-hand that before a competition, um, you know, the two weeks before, the volume, um, you would hope to has, has, has dropped. Maybe still some intensity there, um, but the volume should be lower than what it has been in the weeks leading up. So, if you say there's a two-week period there, like, before the competition, and then you've got a one- to two-week, um, uh, deload or bit of time off after competition, then you've had a month, a month where training hasn't really been at the volume, uh, or intensities to warrant continuing developing. It's been ... It's ... The volume has changed and the intensity has changed so the performance of that, that two days in the middle, um, is at the best it could be, and then ... Although two weeks is probably nowhere near what most people have off after a competition-

    25. CW

      Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

    26. SF

      ... um, but that's in there to recover from the stresses from that competition.

    27. CW

      Mm.

    28. SF

      Um, and, and yeah, then the problem you get is people don't take the two weeks, they take two days, uh, uh, if you're lucky-

    29. CW

      Yeah.

    30. SF

      ... um, and then they have another one two weeks later, and it goes, and they just kind of, like, snowball into that l- uh, kind of overtraining, I guess. It's a lot of stress on the body, uh, in a competition weekend, although not actual, the actual amount of reps, it's the, the adrenaline, the nerves, um-

  12. 58:00 – 1:11:45

    The post-competition crash: CNS fatigue, identity whiplash, and recovery planning

    1. CW

      One thing that I wanted to bring up, you mentioned about, um, the CNS-frying nature of doing competitions.

    2. SF

      Mm-hmm.

    3. CW

      Talk to me about what it's like, um, taking JST, your business, your gym, over to the Games as the first British team, and then talk to me about the aftermath, like what was your CNS like before, during, and after?

    4. SF

      Yeah. So, I mean, I think the, the, the most I've struggled is 2015 Games. Um, didn't really have much ... Uh, sort- the JST Complete Rowing was still- it was around then. It was, it was probably 10% of the amount of people on it, uh, as there is now. But, um, it was still there, it was still, it was still a thing, and that was probably the only thing as well as running the gym that I had outside of training. So training was just like for years-

    5. CW

      You were- you had training, you had training people to train, and you had training people-

    6. SF

      Yeah (laughs) .

    7. CW

      ... to train online.

    8. SF

      Yeah, exactly.

    9. CW

      Yeah.

    10. SF

      Um, but my own training itself, like my wife will tell you and any of my friends that are around me was like if, if anything didn't, um, help me with training, then it was a, a hindrance. Like it was just-

    11. CW

      Ruthless.

    12. SF

      Yeah, it was kind of out the way. And that for years and years on end, and then having the competition and it being a bit of a brutal competition, 2015 Games, to then coming back to it all just kind of like, "Ugh." It's like that happened.

    13. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    14. SF

      And then your CNS still having like that fatigue, like that was, um ... I've really struggled. I- I- I'd planned three weeks rest after competition, took the three weeks rest, came back to training for a week, and then needed another six. After-

    15. CW

      Wow.

    16. SF

      It was just ... And then it, it was mentally because for so long in, in my head, like it was building up to get to the Games-

    17. CW

      Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    18. SF

      ... for five years or so. And then like it kind of ... I was in LA for like four weeks on motion Muscle Beach competing in front of thousands and then, and then I get back into my front room in, in Wigan and it's my dog's wanting to go for a walk and it's pissing down outside and it's like, "Ugh." (laughs) So that kind of whole like dump of adrenaline and like-

    19. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    20. SF

      ... 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-

    21. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    22. SF

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

    23. CW

      Where'd it go?

    24. SF

      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.

    25. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    26. SF

      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

    27. CW

      Learned from that-

    28. SF

      Yeah.

    29. CW

      ... experience in 2015.

    30. SF

      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-"

  13. 1:11:45 – 1:18:06

    Knowing when to push vs when to back off: health signals, life priorities, and longevity

    1. SF

      Oh, yeah. Exactly. So, I wanna finish on this actually, 'cause it's something that keeps coming up in discussions that I have with people, and it's how do you know when enough is enough within training? You know, JST, I think, especially with the, the, this new wave of athletes that you've got that are coming through-

    2. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    3. SF

      ... they, the guys train hard.

    4. CW

      Yeah.

    5. SF

      You know, they do like to go hard. How do you know when it's time to slow down because you're pushing your body too much, and how do you know when you need to push more because you've got, like, some left in the tank? Yeah. I mean (sighs) , it's hard to, um, it's hard to just kind of, like, say, uh, like, a few things. Like, I would say I just internally just, like, know when it's time to take some, some time off. Um, I, I know f- f- for my own, for my own performance and for my own, for my own, my own life that if relationships or business start, um, like, having a negative effect on my own health...

    6. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    7. SF

      Like, if last year, uh, although I competed at the games, I had a kidney infection, a, a chest infection, and, um, an ear infection-

    8. CW

      That's no good.

    9. SF

      ... all within, like, four months. And that was between having qualified at Reykjavik and then before the games. So, for me, during that time is that was like, "Right. This is enough indication." Um, I've got those, those infections.... life was busy and, uh, my lad was six, six months or so old at that point. Like, this is too much and, and competing

    10. CW

      Th- that's life RX plus, plus, plus.

    11. SF

      (laughs) Yeah. So competing and training to be an athlete, I have to think once I get through to these games, once that's done, it just needs to take a, a back burner until I feel like I'm ready to go again. And, and it took fore... it took from August and then December it was like, "Right, okay, I feel like I've got everything under control. My health's better. I'm in a better routine with, um, with the baby, and, um, the business is in, is in a better position for me to be able to bring training back into my life again."

    12. CW

      Mm-hmm.

    13. SF

      Like, I was always training, but bring, like, what I would class as proper training.

Episode duration: 1:19:08

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