A workout from the champs

Workout of the Week with Dylan Scott and Markus Frison

Starting today, each edition of The Hybrid Letter will feature a workout from Dylan Scott, the Hyrox North American Champion, and Markus Frison, the original Hyrox VCF champion and head coach of The Frision Method. They both have competed as top athletes in the sport, and we are excited to share some of their training methods with you.

Race weights for sandbag lunges are 10kg (22 lbs) for women, 20kg (44 lbs) for open men and pro women, and 30kg (66 lbs) for pro men.

Race weights for wall balls are 4kg (9 lbs) for women, 6kg (13 lbs) for open men and pro women, and 9kg (20 lbs) for pro men.

If you are interested in training with The Frision Method, you can find out more information here. If you have any questions about this workout, let us know in the comments. 

The Hybrid Letter Interview: Coach Jake Thompson

Jake Thompson is the founder of Compete Every Day, a company that focuses on leadership development and mental performance. He works with individuals and teams to help them develop a winning mindset and reach their full potential.

The Hybrid Letter chatted with Jake about his own struggles with confidence, strategies for overcoming common mental hurdles, and how to appropriately leverage competition to improve results. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

The Hybrid Letter: How did you get into this line of work? 

Jake Thompson: I grew up in Texas, where we have two religions: Sunday mornings and Friday nights. A handful of NFL guys came out of our high school, and so I just grew up as a kid loving football and being ultra-competitive. 

I was never bigger, stronger, or faster than anyone. The problem I developed was that I constantly compared myself with other people and would judge my value and worth on it. When I had the opportunity to play football in college, I ended up just mentally losing it. I was coming off an injury. I had imposter syndrome. It screwed me up, and so I walked away from a good opportunity to play college because, mentally, I was just going through so much. 

I lost my identity after that. Nobody really knew why I walked away from football. I blamed it on an injury versus the mental side because I didn't understand it. 

I worked as a consultant right after college, and I started working at a sports agency. I wanted to be Jerry Maguire. After spending a couple of years in it, I didn't love it. I started asking myself what it would look like to be more intentional with my life.

I dove into leadership development, personal development, professional development, and mental performance. I just became obsessed with this idea of improving performance because those are the things I wish I had known earlier. 

Around that time, I started my company, Compete Every Day. I wanted to encourage people not to do what I did—not to live in a constant state of comparison with others. It's you versus you. 

I started selling T-shirts for Compete Every Day out of the trunk of my car in 2011 behind a CrossFit gym in Dallas as a side hustle. And it started to grow. I was focused solely on building that brand and business. We did CrossFit events, the Arnold, Rock n' Roll marathon series, and different races. And along the way, I'm still just devouring information, trying to think of cool things we can teach people on a T-shirt.

I started getting asked to speak in 2014. At first, it was just a random couple of schools and then a hospital in Houston. Afterward, the VP of that hospital pulled me aside and said I should do more speaking.

I was still frustrated trying to pay off debt from building the business. 2018 was the worst experience I've ever gone through as a business owner, but it was the best training ground for everything I've done since. Eventually, everything started to take off. Despite COVID, the speaking business grew. From there, I started to get opportunities to coach people. 

THL: What are some common struggles you see with people in terms of mental performance? 

JT: Our negative inner critic can run wild. Self-talk is a huge issue for all of us. So many internal thoughts are negative, just as a biological default. If we can become more aware, then we can start to change them. 

Other athletes set a big goal but don't set micro goals along the way. So they set themselves up to fail. It's self-sabotage. 

THL: When you start working with an individual or a team, how do you figure out actionable steps that will enhance performance?

JT: We start as simple as possible. 

A couple of months ago, I worked with a college basketball team that was on a 14-game losing streak. At that point, you're already thinking the season's over. When you're a college kid, you're going through the motions. I shared a story about Tom Brady early on in his career at Michigan. His idea was to think about winning the next possession. Don’t worry about the next game. Don't worry about the score. Win the next possession.  

For individual athletes, we'll find one area of focus during the race. Then after the race, grade yourself and set a target for next time. You're not going to change dramatically from one race to the next. But if you get a little bit better over the course of a year, you can dramatically improve. 

Many people try to do it all on the first day. They get overwhelmed, and then they won't do it again. They get frustrated and decide they just don't have the mental game. 

THL: Many athletes rely on mantras. How do you help people find one that means something and clicks for them?

JT: It's really important to not pick something generic because if there's no emotional connection, it's not going to be effective. Your brain knows when you're blowing smoke. If you're struggling paycheck to paycheck, you can't look in the mirror and say, "I'm a millionaire." But if you remind yourself that you are starting to make financially smart decisions, that's more believable. You can build confidence. 

So the way I found mine was going back to what are my core values. It gives you a good baseline to start identifying what phrases could be beneficial. 

In a race, a lot of people say to themselves, "You got this!" But what would you tell your best friend? You probably would say, "You’ve trained your butt off for this! You've worked really hard, you're gonna do awesome!" Notice the difference. When you remind yourself that you've been training for weeks, that you are prepared, it changes how you show up.

THL: Hyrox is often an individual sport, so it can be a challenge not to compare yourself to others. How do you help athletes avoid that kind of thinking when it starts to impact their performance? 

JT: The actual state of competition is beneficial. Duke's Head Basketball Coach, Kara Lawson, talks about this. She has a famous YouTube video where she talks about hard work versus competition. She says hard work is running three laps in a certain amount of time. However, if you run next to two teammates, you would go faster because you would be pushing each other. That’s competition. There's a beauty of competition and being aware of the other people in the game. We don't get better when we seek weaker competition. We get better by going against people who force us to raise our game. 

When we get into the competitive state, it's healthy. But here's the big thing. After the race, you need to understand your self-worth and identity is not tied to the final score. I can be disappointed with my time. I can be elated with my time. But that doesn’t make me any better or worse as a human. And that's where comparison really starts to derail us. When we're only happy if we're doing better than the person next to us. 

THL: What are the key concepts for people to understand to improve their mindset?

JT: The first is Lego blocks. Make one small choice of intentional improvement, then do another one tomorrow. It may not show up on race day immediately, but over time, it stacks. Most of us are trying to start too big. 

The second is that you can care about your ego, and you can care about excellence, but you can't care about both at the same time. What most of us get tripped up on is we care about how we look and what people are going to think. We do everything to protect our ego instead of simply committing to excellence. And when you commit to excellence and you start to work on metal performance, it’s going to be a little bit sloppy. But over time, you will improve. 

THL: What are some books you recommend for those wanting to improve their mental game?

JT:  For information on self-talk, Soundtracks by Jon Acuff. 

To understand how your brain and inner dialogue work, Chatter by Ethan Kross. 

For the science of the competitive mindset, Top Dog, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. 

You can follow Jake and his work at Compete Every Day via Instagram. You can also read his book Compete Every Day or dive into his podcast, where he shares more insight on winning in your work and life.

Science Corner: The truth about sleep and athletic performance

Sleep is important. As Alex Hutchinson notes this week in Outside, sleep "boosts performance, protects against injury, [and] accelerates recovery." But what happens if you don't sleep well in the lead-up to a big race? Or if you are suffering from jet lag? Are you doomed to failure?

A study published earlier this year in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance involved surveying over 1600 Olympic and Paralympic athletes in the lead-up to the 2021 Games in Tokyo. The study found that about 40 percent of the athletes reported sleeping poorly. Hutchinson notes this is consistent with surveys of Dutch Olympians (41% poor sleepers) and Australian Olympians (52% poor sleepers). 

So what does this mean? Sleep has very real benefits. But if you aren't sleeping well, it doesn't preclude you from having a good race or training session. These studies show that many of the top athletes in the world — those competing on the Olympic stage — also have sleep issues. 

Ironically, relaxing a bit about your sleep quality may end up improving your sleep. Obsessing about "optimal" sleep, a phenomenon known as orthosomnia, can cause sleep disturbances. For some people, wearable technology that allows you to track your sleep in minute detail can make things worse. So try to chill out, get the best sleep you can, and then hit the starting line with confidence. 

Hybrid athlete of the week: Andy Jones

Name: Andy Jones
Age: 39
Hometown: Washington, DC

When did you start competing in hybrid races? Fitness has always been a big part of my life. In 2016, I wanted a big challenge, so I committed to running a marathon in each US state, which I completed in 2021. However, soon after that, I began to experience lightheadedness when running. As it turned out, 3 months after completing the 50-state marathon journey, I found myself lying in a hospital bed, having just had surgery to implant a dual defibrillator and pacemaker in my chest. I was subsequently diagnosed with ARVC, which is a rare exercise-induced degenerative heart condition that leads to heart failure. It’s been a slow process, but over the past year, I’ve been able to start exercising again, under close medical supervision. I’m allowed to do one 2-3 mile run per week plus strength training, and I wanted to put that training towards a goal. That led me to sign up for Hyrox in Washington, DC, last month, with approval from my cardiologist. I like the mix of cardio and strength, the race atmosphere and crowd support, and the fact there is no cut-off time. Those aspects make it inclusive and accessible to almost everyone, irrespective of fitness level, including me!

Favorite race to date? Just getting to the start line in DC last month was a huge victory for me, health-wise. And it being a home race, it was special to have so many friends there. I loved being able to look up and smile as friends cheered me on, high-five them between stations, and chat with and fist-bump other racers on the way around the course. And then I lost my voice, cheering all of my friends on for the rest of the day!

Do you have a race goal? Being a marathoner used to be such a big part of my identity, which is something I’ve had to grieve. But now I look back, and I wish I’d had a healthier perspective on racing. For Hyrox, I set myself two pretty simple goals: stay safe and race happy. 

Favorite station? Farmer’s carry or sled push. I find farmer’s carry to be the easiest station from a cardio perspective, so it feels like a recovery. But I enjoy sled push the most. There are always huge crowds around that station, and it’s just fun to push heavy shit around for no particular reason. The run afterward isn’t great, though!

Least favorite station? Burpee broad jumps. I want to blame my poor heart for this because BBJs spike my heart rate. But the truth is I’ve always hated burpees! 

Something you wish you knew when you started racing? Marathons or hybrid racing should be about more than just mile splits or station splits. Almost all of us are choosing to use our limited free time (and money) to do this recreationally. So, I think we all should make sure the training and racing are genuinely contributing to our physical and mental health. Otherwise, what’s the point?