if you're a beginner High rocks athlete I've put together my best beginner High rocks tips that most importantly I've used over the past year or so as I've started this journey into high rocks if you're thinking about doing a high rocks or you've done one and you want to get better and you kind of went into the last one completely oblivious to what high rocks actually is let's jump into high rocks for beginners let me take you through everything you need to know to get started on your high rocks Journey what's up guys I'm Josiah Novak and I run a company called the true transformation the cool part about this video is I'll just tell you up front I am not the best high rocks athlete in the world so anybody watching this who's like oh you've never won a high rocks or you've never even been top three cool I get it uh this is my journey and I want to share with you the tips I'm learning as I've now done I believe six hyrax events along with a ton of other hybrid Fitness racing events and I've won a ton of local hybrid Fitness events so I do have some credibility here but most importantly I transformed thousands of people probably just like you over the years from overweight out of shape unhealthy mentally to feeling looking and performing at their best I know what I'm talking about with Fitness but I want to start sharing more of my high rocks and other hybrid Fitness events my experience that is my journey so that it most importantly helps you and we can relate to each other and support each other as we go along so let's jump into my first tip if you're a beginner at high rocks alright so most people think of hybrid Fitness and they go oh I gotta be ready for the stations right I remember doing this when I started racing Spartans a few years ago and I thought about all the obstacles and all the things and by no means are those things unimportant they're very important knowing each station how to be prepared what levels of strength you need for each one technique all that kind of stuff we'll talk about that in a bit but the most important thing is running running is almost 60 of the actual High rocks event so if you haven't been running at all or your running form is terrible or you get hurt every time you start running we need to put a huge emphasis on your running abilities all right this is arguably the most important tip now I do have two pillar tips that I am saving I'm going to share with one here in a couple minutes we you but then at the end I'm giving my best tip away so make sure you watch the whole video but tip number one is let's get better at running so how do we do that well let me tell you so I don't coach people on how to do high rocks specifically I'm more of the guy who transforms your life from the inside out right I want to get you mentally better and then obviously get your habits and routines get your body fat down get all that stuff dialed in but if I were forced to create a high rocks running prep program there's really three types of running I would focus on number one I would say is the most important and that is longer easy run all right this is where we want to keep our heart rate nice and low keep your conversation going as you run meaning a conversational pace and you could talk to somebody while you're running this is what we call getting into the aerobic or low aerobic Zone more like zone two if you're into the runner terms but most importantly it's just an easy run this gets our body better at being able to be efficient over long periods of time keeping our heart rate down being able to keep moving and also help get our soft tissue the tissue that is going to take an impact we run more efficient and better capable or more capable of handling longer events so number one type of run you should have in your schedule is a long run how long you should run and what's the distance you should cover that varies from person to person I would say start on a low end so if you're like I could probably go run an easy five mile I'd probably cut that in half to be honest I'd say okay I'm gonna go do two or three at the most see how I feel it's always better to start slower with your running and then add as you go along this will help you avoid injury keep you healthy especially as you get closer to the race the second type of running is what I call compromise running this is where we get good at doing the stations and then going to run when we're out of breath and we're feeling like death basically so an example would be if I did a burpee broad jump which is something we'll talk about here in a couple minutes arguably the hardest station in the high rocks you're going to come out of that feeling like wow I just did an insane workout and now I gotta go run a thousand meters well we gotta practice this this is called compromise running so you're not going to be as worried about heart rate here you're gonna be more worried about your Tempo so practicing running at a race level Pace after doing a station or in between specific stations so this is where like real specific High rocks workouts at least once a week will help you tremendously so you can find a ton of these on the internet I post them on my social media but once a week getting some compromise running in would be important there's one more that you need to include as well the third type of running is specific speed work all right so this is where we'll pick a Tempo in this case what we call probably like a threshold Pace I'll just tell you right now I am not a running expert I've learned a lot from some great coaches right like Ryan Yeager who's my personal High rocks coach like guys on my team like Ryan Callan must be something with the name Ryan because there's another guy named Rich Ryan and then a guy named Ryland who I'm friends with these eyes are just phenomenal Runners and they know their stuff I'm just lucky enough to have learned from them over the years but I'll tell you speed work is something you've got to include this is the third type of run so this is where we pick shorter distances in my case I was doing like 400 meter repeats where I would run you know once around the track at a really fast pace then I would rest I'd recover for a period of time and then I would do it again right so we're working on our body's ability to generate more power and speed not compromise running that's different and not the easy long duration running the easy aerobic runs that are I think the most important to start Speed work so those are the three types of runs this is the overall tip number one which is be prepared to run it's almost 60 running at High Rock So if you're not running currently in your race is in one week well I might want to pick another race But ultimately get your running going now so that you're prepared for hours let's talk about tip number two and don't forget I have my best tip for the last one this will blow your mind but anyway let's go to tip number two so if you're going to go into the high rocks and you have this race mentality which is one I've been guilty of so many times and that is literally I'm going to win the high rocks no matter what it takes and I go out of the gates like a crazy person right sprinting trying to do the stations as fast as possible and then hitting what we call the wall right this is where you you go wow I am not cut out for this I'm not in shape I feel terrible this sucks and the rest of the race is just you trying to survive my advice would be to ease into the race all right obviously once again we'll talk about the most important tip at the end You're Gonna Know What To Expect but you're gonna get into the race and you're gonna feel like wow this is more intense than I had planned on right this is just normal I think I think most athletes will agree until you've done tons of these things it's going to be a little bit of a shock to the system so I suggest because adrenaline is going to be pumping you're going to come out of the gate the music's going the DJ's killing it you got the MC on the mic like you got hundreds of guys and girls running around you most of them freaking in shape and you're like what is going on this is nuts and your brain goes all right you gotta push in these beginning parts of the race purposely make it feel easy trust me you'll be thankful that you did because you'll hit the middle of the race which is the machine I'm sitting on this is the row machine this is I believe station five out of eight at the high rocks arguably the easiest one at least for me to kind of sit down get a breather get my form get my breath back by the time you get to the middle of the race you'll be like oh I can step it up a notch and you'll finish strong which is the most important thing because I'll tell you I've been in races over the past year where the guys I started the race with ah they blew me away in the beginning I was like well there they go there I don't even see them anymore by the time I get to the middle of the race I'm running past them because they blew their gas tank way too early on and I purposely start easier than I want to so that I can build as the race goes I can get faster better stronger so tip number two start easier on purpose let's go to tip number three and then we'll finish with the last one now these last two tips are my best ones so do not skip these These are going to change the game most most importantly mentally for you but one thing I experimented with and this won't necessarily always be possible for you but the training environment that I create to get ready for high rocks I have tried to make it more challenging than the actual High rocks I'm gonna explain what I mean so I personally suck at running in the Heat and the heat I tend to overheat them 220 pounds on my heavier days I'm like 217 on my lighter days right so I'm a bigger person I carry a lot of muscle and I start running in the heat my body heat my heart rate go through the roof and so I start to feel pretty crabby so what I've tried to do especially on my like race specific training days where I'm training things like wall balls and burpees and then I'm running afterwards and I'm really pushing myself and these days in those days I'm not worried about heart rate I'm just worried about being efficient through the workout I started doing it outside in the heat now it's summertime where I am now so maybe you're watching this and you're like dude I live in Antarctica thanks for the advice well you know what honestly you could get more uncomfortable even in cold environments you could train in the cold and be like man this sucks this hurts my breath like even breathing in it feels like I'm just inhaling ice right because once you get to the high rocks thankfully it's the same event every time we'll talk about some of the things that may not be the same but it is a consistent event meaning the stations are the same order it's the same distance running in between each station but it's indoors it's air conditioned and yes it gets humid because there's a lot of bodies there's a lot of people putting heat off because they're training I'll tell you right now it's not nowhere near as uncomfortable as training in 90 degree heat like I did before my last High rocks where I set a 10 minute PR I trained in uncomfortable situation so then I want to get to the race and it is uncomfortable I'm like well at least I'm not overheating right and I feel a little better so mentally prepare yourself by making some of the training harder than the actual event itself promise you the race will always be mentally the most challenging because you are going to be pushing yourself but physically you'll be like oh I've done things that felt harder than this so I can get through this so you'll have more self-belief let's go to my last and most important tip this one will change the game for you let's do it okay the best tip I promised this one for the end so hopefully this will give you as much help as it's given me I'm a former athlete that played baseball I'm a huge fan of all sports I coach a bunch of sports for my kids and one thing we've started doing is reviewing film now you're like dude what are you talking about so I want you to go into high rocks over prepared for everything so here's how you get a little bit ahead of the game first of all you watch videos like this okay so take full advantage of all of my libraries of hyrax videos search the internet for high rocks but you can also now watch former races you can go watch old races World Championships you can take the form that these people use right and you can apply it to yourself you go into the race with a game plan for each station okay so review fill so you're watching other athletes how they do it what do their transitions look like what does their form look like on the row machine on the ski machine practice it and mimic it right success leaves Clues you don't have to go into the race going oh how do I do a ski or how do I do a farmer's carrier what should my Pace be or how do I do a burpee broad jump like what is the pace they they take how many steps are they taking on the sled before they take a break watch how the best in the world do it okay then at each station have a game plan okay when I get to the sled I'm gonna take eight steps three breaths eight steps three breaths right and of course it's gonna vary slightly for you maybe because you're finished level could be different than others but if you have a written down Game Plan before you go into the race meaning literally type it out write it out read it a couple times review it with your team with your friends who are maybe doing the race with you I promise you you'll go into the race relaxed like my first Hot Rocks I went into it had not watched any film on how to do things I was like oh there's a sled push oh there's a sled tool okay how do I do all these things well I'm an athlete I should be able to handle it not so fast right it's a totally different game when it's an actual race with running and other stations that tire you out to review film sit down and write out a game plan for each station what's going to be your strategy where do you want to push yourself during the race where do you want to ease back a little bit what pace do you want to run at write all this down ahead of time okay this is part of mental preparation this will change your race completely here's the thing too you're gonna you may get into the race and you go well the plan that I wrote down didn't work so great for this station cool that's a mental note for the next one but the cool part is you got notes for the following stage you got notes for the following runs in your head so you're like okay cool plan a didn't work so great but I'm going to move into the next station and rip it according to the plan that I wrote down and you remember visually what that looked like when you review tape of other top athletes doing the high rocks or doing whatever hybrid race you're doing that's the beauty of the internet that's the beauty of the information age that we're in now we can be more prepared we can have video footage audio footage we know like hey what to expect what to feel like and then when you get in the race you're like ah it's like muscle memory right and you're just going to have a more efficient race so that is the most important thing to do before you get into things you would be shocked at how powerful and efficient you can be with some preparation on the front end all right guys that wraps up today's high rocks for beginners video I have a ton of other hybrid racing videos and we're adding more each and every month to help you become the best version of yourself I decided to do more of these type of videos because honestly I don't want Fitness to stop for you when you lose weight I don't want you to go back to doing what you were doing before Fitness has so many Adventures to be had these are just a few in the hybrid racing space that you could jump into my specialty is helping you use Fitness to transform not just how you look and feel but every part of your life I believe Fitness is the lowest hanging fruit to seeing wins and everything you do so if you want to learn more about our VIP transformation system where we help people just like you who are powerful have a great career busy schedule but you want to lose the weight you want to look feel and perform your best check out the description we have a ton of resources including a link to check out our program directly but if this video was helpful if you're going to do a high rocks let me know in the comments I'd love to hear from you life moves fast Go Make It Count I'll talk to you on the next video peace