When setbacks line your path and mountains loom ahead, it's the champions like Gena Hartwick who remind us of the power of resilience and a competitive heart. On our latest episode, Gena takes us through her awe-inspiring transformation from a dedicated CrossFit athlete to a world-record-holding powerlifter. Tune in to hear how she conquered adversity, from embracing a new athletic discipline to triumphing over spinal fusion surgery, all while setting the bar sky-high in her age and weight class.
When setbacks line your path and mountains loom ahead, it's the champions like Gena Hartwick who remind us of the power of resilience and a competitive heart. On our latest episode, Gena takes us through her awe-inspiring transformation from a dedicated CrossFit athlete to a world-record-holding powerlifter. Tune in to hear how she conquered adversity, from embracing a new athletic discipline to triumphing over spinal fusion surgery, all while setting the bar sky-high in her age and weight class.
What up dogs? Welcome back to another episode of the Hungry Dog Barbell podcast. We're joined by Gina Hartwick right now. How are you today? How are you feeling after the meet? I know you told me a little bit just right there, but how was your experience overall, I guess, for that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I kind of did my very first powerlifting meet as a crossfitter just to show other fitness sports that were more than kind of like the taboo like kipping pull-ups.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cheating pull-ups, whatever you know, the joke set the memes on Instagram and the powerlifting sport here in Arkansas has just really embraced my husband and I with open arms and it's been really cool to just kind of transition. Well, I'm a crossfitter heart so I'm never going to leave CrossFit, but it's been fun to hop over there and participate in their sports and learn a lot Like there's some things that I've learned from powerlifting that I've been able to take back into CrossFit, into my training.
Speaker 1:So, on that note, right, master's fitness like that I just talked about was three days, I believe, last year. This powerlifting meet is going to be. Probably you'll do your nine lifts over four or six hours, something like that at most. So what was your training like as you're preparing for something that's so much shorter than what you're like you're used to?
Speaker 2:Powerlifters aren't going to like this but, so much easier than a three-day CrossFit comp. But you know that's three-day CrossFit comp. You're doing typically nine events, their max effort. You know there's a lot of running, swimming, max lift and for powerlifting you get to do I think I lifted about once every 15 minutes for the squats and the bench presses moved a little bit quicker than that and then deadlifts, probably one every 10 minutes. So you're doing one lift resting, coming back and you're doing nine lifts over the whole day.
Speaker 1:So definitely shorter than what I said, like three hours, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I mean whenever you're getting into the high end weights it is you know your CNS takes a beating, but overall my body feels great.
Speaker 1:Do you consider yourself like a barbell girl when it comes to CrossFit? Or did it just materialize that you were like good at this stuff, Did you love that beforehand? Or like what's your kind of go to for CrossFit?
Speaker 2:So when I met you at MFC, that was my first big CrossFit competition post spinal fusion surgery. Oh man. So I had major back surgery in 2020. L5s1, I got fused and previous to that my husband actually dressed me for a whole year. I couldn't put socks and shoes on her, pants on myself. And I went from 2019, I was the fittest female in Arkansas in the state to literally like a month later I couldn't dress myself and there was no accident, anything like that. It was just a dead disk. Anything could have happened. But about two years, you know, into progression you meet me at MFC a little bit longer than that and I had a whole lot of nerves going into that. But on my comeback from surgery we really concentrated on strength, because if my body is not strong enough to hold up to the demands of CrossFit, I can't do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah you go to competition and you push yourself to failure, then that is going to potentially open me up for like an injury. So strength has just been what we've hammered and we've done a good job and, like, what you did this past weekend was like the byproduct of that right, like you just saw the for rehabbing from that.
Speaker 1:So, man, I feel like this is a question for a later role, but I kind of want to ask it. So bad right now, when you injured yourself and you get a diagnosis and you're like in the thralls of the injury, was there ever a point where you're like I'm not going to come back? Or were you like full steam ahead right from the beginning?
Speaker 2:Never, never was a thought. I was always going to get better. I'm a competitor deep inside. Now. I mean, if I had surgery and I said you're never going to compete again, honestly I could have made my peace with it, just to be pain free. But my surgeon, he treated me like an athlete. He used to CrossFit with us at our gym. He took really good care of me, but he's like I think that this can get you back to doing heartbreak. Things is actually what he said Heartbreak things, hell yeah.
Speaker 2:And and every time, like after I said, my world record squat this weekend, I text him on Sunday and I'm just like thank you, dude, you gave me my life back.
Speaker 1:Shoo man, all right. So I really want to go back to the beginning, but I want to hear about the week at a little bit more. So tell me, what did you hit for? The squat, the bench and the deadlift?
Speaker 2:I squatted 440 pounds, which for my age I'm a master's athlete, 38 years old and I weighed in at 162. My weight class was 165. So for my age and weight, that was a world record squat.
Speaker 1:Damn Hell, yeah. So now what's next? The bench press. What did you hit for that?
Speaker 2:Bench press. We benched 203. So it's in kilos, so it comes out kind of funky in pounds. But 203 is what we got on the bench and my overall goal I wanted. Obviously the squat is what I came for, but a thousand pound total is considered an elite total in women powerlifting so I wanted a thousand pounds total. So for my second deadlift we deadlifted 358, and that gave me my thousand pound total still.
Speaker 1:Damn. So he was there for the squat too. That number put you up super high Like when did it come to you that you could go set this world record? What did you first hear like about it? That like, oh, I could push to this number.
Speaker 2:So last year in December was my second meet and I actually set the world record last year at 413 pounds. So I actually broke my own world record lap for this year.
Speaker 1:By a wide margin too. That's 27 pounds. That's crazy. So then I'm reading the recap. I hosted an event called the super total, where we do those three lifts plus the Olympic lifts right.
Speaker 2:And like.
Speaker 1:So some of the like a higher level girls. They are getting like 1200 pounds. I think the highest girl ever was like 14. That's with an additional two lifts and I see that you post a thousand, like I think 33, a few pounds over just a thousand. You know, not just that even number. I'm like, wow, in three lifts my head started started. I'm like she's probably up to like 14, probably if you put all five together. You know that's super cool.
Speaker 2:I don't. I don't deadlift much, obviously with my back. I have no pain, no restrictions. It's just one of those things that whenever I start pulling over 300 pounds, the risk reward just isn't there for me. So I'll pretty much only pull in a meat and that's about it over 300 pounds.
Speaker 1:I totally hear that, like cross-climbers, we don't need to deadlift the whole bunch as long as you can do it all the day. That matters. That's really, you know, the only thing you got to worry about. We have a master's athlete at our gym that he says, like he knows that he's got about 20 to 25 total max lifts of the deadlift left in him. He was so sparely, you know, like of the upwards of 90% and higher, you know. So now let's take it back. I can tell your competitive right when did that come from? Like how long have you played sports? Tell me an instance where you first noticed that you were a competitive person.
Speaker 2:So I didn't have a really great home life as a kid. I actually moved out whenever I was a senior in high school. I worked a couple of jobs to get through college. So I don't have like your normal story. I wasn't an athlete.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:Graduated college, I married Greg, who has an incredible athletic pedigree. We stumble into a CrossFit gym because our friends, you know, are like y'all be really good at this, come check it out. I went to a class, fell in love with it and he was kind of like the show pony, because he's just like this beautiful, studly man that's great at everything that he does and I just kind of like fell to the back. You know, like I didn't get a whole lot of attention or coaching and it pissed me off, honestly.
Speaker 2:Yes, I was just like you know what, Like I'm going to get really good at this and I'm just going to kick everyone's ass in this gym right now.
Speaker 1:So like, how long ago was that? Like when was that on your marriage timeline? How far ago was that?
Speaker 2:It was our first year marriage and we've been married 10 years now, so we're talking like a nine year journey for right here.
Speaker 1:So so you had no athletic background, really like never pushed into wanting to like set records, beat other people. Like really push yourself before.
Speaker 2:No, I mean I'm a fighter, but I was literally just like fighting to get the life that I wanted, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:As many jobs as I needed to work. You know I got graduated with honors from college I'm the first college to graduate in my family, you know. So I just was finally able to like transition that into a sport, and at 27 years old, CrossFit gave me the platform to be an athlete.
Speaker 1:It's like literally a trailblazer right, you don't get to use that word often and like actually being what it is, but like a trailblazer. So how does it first? How does it go? In your first year of CrossFit, you know what were the things that you struggled with the most. What did you love at first All that?
Speaker 2:stuff. I couldn't do a strict pull up Like I had abs. I always worked out, I just didn't. There's a difference in working out and training.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know learning how to train and learning capacity and the different energy systems and all those things. I have a master's in nutrition so I understand.
Speaker 1:you know, like the food relationship and things like that, but even that you came into it with that in your mind already you understood like one side of it. You just didn't have like the other side.
Speaker 2:Right. And yeah, I had a guy. They were trying to pick me up for a team and they said well, you know what about Gina? She looks like she's pretty fit. He's like she looks fitter than she is. Oh, that will be the last time anybody ever says that about me.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So people are still like lighting fires under you, even though that you work competitive, Like what about that? Have you always kind of been like that, Like you get a little chip on your shoulder and you're like all right, I got to go kind of beat this right now.
Speaker 2:For sure. Unfortunately, I didn't really have a life where I had a whole lot of positive movements, you know, to push me to go do things. So if you want to fire me up, talk shit.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, you know that's what you got to use sometimes, bro Like. So I have this question for you how do you feel about trash talk in sport specifically, or I should say just objectively, and then how do you feel about it in the crossfit space? You think trash talk has a place in all sports.
Speaker 2:I mean like I'll talk trash to like my training partners like joking, but whenever I'm competing I really like I want to beat you on your best day, you know, like I, and I think that it should be a positive thing.
Speaker 2:We're all. We have an opportunity to make each other better. The better you are, the better that I am, you know, and we have the opportunity to elevate each other together. I I love competing with the girls that I go with. You know, we go all over the country to different ones and it's great. Like if I'm still going, they're cheering me on, If I finished before them, they're cheering me on, like that's how it's supposed to be, oh yeah, so you keep it positive in there, but you got that fire burning.
Speaker 1:I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, speaking of, you know the difference between training and working out. When did it make that switch? Like was it around that time the person said that, oh, gina's pretty fit Like after. After that, when? When did that start coming up?
Speaker 2:I think that it was just and I mean we're talking, you know, nine, eight years ago. I think that CrossFit has come even a long way since then too, you know we have a lot of access to programming and things like that. Back then it was just your affiliate owner was still writing whatever you did for the day, so you could get 11 o'clock at night typing something out to throw up on water.
Speaker 1:Right now, wall walls and chest of our.
Speaker 2:three times a week, something like that you know, and it was literally like just max lift every day.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think that probably around 2017, 2018 is whenever it started making a little bit more sense with a methodology and all that stuff. I got a coach that helped me. He was OPEX and got a pretty good little training schedule with that and understood the energy systems in depth more around that time.
Speaker 1:So do you feel like your nutrition background played like one of the biggest parts in how successful you were able to be in recovery and like your general fitness program right now, like since you already had all that in there?
Speaker 2:I think it gave me a little bit of an advantage. I have sought out some more education specifically for athletes to be able to help crossfitters and things like that. But I have some marathon people or triathletes that will ask me and that's still just a little bit different than crossfit, Right? They all. You feel differently for all of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Do you guys, especially since you're like a married couple and do you have a lot of friends that don't exercise or is it mostly just the fitness community Most of the time? Do you ever deal with we were talking about the internet people earlier, like people giving you shit for being a woman with muscles and like your life being fitness. Like how do you deal with those people?
Speaker 2:Why would I care what they think?
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, I always say that Like, I see people responding to idiots on Instagram and it can be fun sometimes, right, just to put that how do you feel first, about the CrossFit Open and an online competition Like do you love the Open?
Speaker 2:You know, we're an affiliate owner here in Little Rock. It's just like this magic that happens. You know, you get a girl that's been scared to do a muscle up and she gets her first muscle up. Or you know, whenever somebody PRs their one rep thruster, I don't just like the energy that happens, I love it.
Speaker 1:So how do you feel about it as an athlete?
Speaker 2:I love doing it as an athlete too.
Speaker 1:The online part of it doesn't throw you off at all. You don't think that. Do you think the right people are making it through to quarterfinals and semis?
Speaker 2:Yeah, which I mean I haven't gone to semis or anything like that, and I did do the quarterfinals last year just to like go through the process. But it was never a goal of mine to go to the CrossFit Games. Top 10 is just not an option for me. I work a lot of hours, then we have the gym, you know. So just top 10 is not feasible for me, you know, I just I have too much on my plate but I mean this kind of takes it a chunk forward. But going to top 40 changes things for me.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so we'll get to that part. I want to talk about just the open first. What about the logistics and the layout? How do you feel about that stuff? It's a hot button topic right now on Instagram. Hq wants as many people as possible to do the CrossFit Open and they want to be doing it in affiliates and outside of it. Did you have any problems last year running the workouts at your gym? Like space wise, timeline wise, like how did this year's last open go for you guys? I guess.
Speaker 2:We're blessed with a pretty large facility so we didn't run into space issues really. But it doesn't make it hard to make sure, like the more roles you put on it, the harder it is to abide by. You know you start micro managing and it just makes it really difficult. And maybe athlete in lane one has somebody that has a judge that they've done everything right, but lane three has a judge that didn't really understand something and they kind of got away with something that wasn't quite just standard. You know like you're going to find that and I think the more you micro manage, the more of that you run into.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey there. If there's a couple hundred thousand people doing the open, right, like not everyone's going to have the best reps for everything, and if we truly want people to just be working out more and more, than how big of a sticklers can we get? Like we run at the Friday night lights at our gym every year too, and like we're starting to think about the CrossFit Open as if it's like a community 5k. You know, if that kind of makes sense, that the best people in town don't sign up for it to just crush it. You know, like you get all walks of life doing that 5k to kind of move their body just because they can, and if the CrossFit Open could do that, that sounds pretty cool to me. And if they could also crown the fittest people on earth at the end of it, that also sounds pretty cool. You know it was.
Speaker 1:We were pretty big size gym but we struggled a little bit with the spacing issues. But like when you see the backlash or a line, I'm like, oh, I don't know if I could agree with this. You know I I enjoy doing it, especially now that it's three weeks instead of five. You know, were you guys open when it was five weeks still? Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm so bad. It's not five weeks anymore.
Speaker 1:I was just gonna ask do you have that belief?
Speaker 2:Yeah, by like week five I felt like I was way less fit than I was, Like it took me three months back.
Speaker 1:Right, it's like, okay, guys, you really want to. You want me to go for five weeks the whole time, and they have what's supposed to be the separator workout in weeks four and five, but it's like I'm dead by that point already. Yeah, so how much can I really put into it? So what about when quarterfinal starts popping up? What was your initial thoughts on that? Like, how do you feel about it now? Is it a good idea to put something in between, like what was the open and what, like semi-final is basically regionals? Now, is it a good idea to put like that middle step in there?
Speaker 2:I think so. I don't love for the masters that it's all online, but I do understand logistics as far as getting people to them, so I'm not gonna complain much. I did listen to a podcast for what they're looking to do this year, which I think is great, having everybody following the same programming the masters and the youngsters, and it all being at the same time. In the years past it's not been very attractive to me because, like a score was due on like Friday morning, like I would have had to take off.
Speaker 2:Thursday and Friday to do these online workouts and I was just like I'm not doing that.
Speaker 1:Right, it's that's really hard.
Speaker 2:I think that will change that.
Speaker 1:You ask people to commit more time to it, make it accessible for more people, and then you make it in the middle of workdays. It's like all right, well, which one is the true one? Are you really marketing to higher level athletes? Are you marketing to the everyday person with this open and quarter finals? I'm interested to see now, specifically with that point in mind, what it's gonna look like with 15% more people. How many of those people will actually be able to sign up and register with it if you have to do like those two or three windows that's what you're talking about Like you had to have one score in by Friday at like one o'clock, like what? Who could work out hard and put their time in by that time and then like do it the rest of the weekend too, just with the schedule for work alone?
Speaker 2:you know I didn't like the committing basically three weekends out of your spring to it. That was something I never really loved either.
Speaker 1:But that's a thing For affiliates, right? Because then you have the different groups that are gonna be going at different times. That was really hard for us too. It's like you set up for the open first and then you're like, all right, wind down for a week or two, set up for the next age group, wind down, set up for the next one. That's annoying. I would definitely rather get it all out one go, if you could. Speaking of like some programming stuff, who does the programming for your affiliate?
Speaker 2:We follow mayhem.
Speaker 1:Nice. Have you guys been doing that for a long time, or have you guys ever spent time like programming yourselves?
Speaker 2:So our business partner programmed for the gym for a long time and he did a great job, but there's just so many resources that mayhem has available in. Chris Black is my partner's name, but it gives him time to more time for his family. The programming is affordable Like it just it made sense and the amount of time that he spent on it just giving that part of his life back, you know.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. And then back to like the CrossFit Open. What's been some of your favorite new things that have popped up? Did you like the wall walks?
Speaker 2:Did you hate wall walks? Yeah, I'm happy. Of course I don't like wall walks and I don't mind the others. But the pullovers, I don't mind those terribly, but I can't string them together. I do one at a time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you just slamming yourself on the bar at the top and then have to push super hard away.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So are you looking towards the 2024 season? What's your preparation like going forward into the next year?
Speaker 2:Well, you had kind of mentioned like an off season and on season earlier too. So like if we take my 2023, I trained for Monster Games, which is in Joplin, Missouri. Have you heard of Monster Games?
Speaker 1:Yeah, when was that this year?
Speaker 2:It was in July, yeah, and so I did the Masters division there. It's a great event, and Jason is actually that too runs Monster Games. He's partnering with Legends. Yeah, I'm excited to see what that has in store. Because he does such a great job with Monster Games, I think that them pulling him over to Legends is gonna be pretty cool. But that was my only CrossFit comp big one that I did and then I knew I was gonna do the powerlifting meet. So, at 38 years old, I look at the schedule and go I basically have two in me. What are they gonna be? And I have to, yeah, and they have to be spaced out so I have proper time to recover and peak for them.
Speaker 1:Do you count the qualifiers for those potential things in there Like if you do the, if you're like all right, I wanna make it to maybe Legends next year for the games? Does the open and quarters count in your account for those things Like will you do something else next year?
Speaker 2:So for Monster Games I didn't have to do any qualifier last year and they just recently announced that they're gonna be making some changes for 2024. So that's made me relook at my whole year schedule. So in just the general open last year I finished 64th, so I'm too close to not try.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So we're going to go for it. So I'm changing up all of my training and I'm really blessed with some training partners that are willing to do it with me and I'm I'm all fitness from here. So I'm going to do the open, I'll do semis and I'm going to do quarters and we'll. We'll see what happens, but that's all that's on my schedule for next year and if I don't make the games, then I will be doing monster games with Jason in July.
Speaker 1:Well, because that'll be right there for you. There's no qualifiers for that. When will you kick up the full intensity for the training next year?
Speaker 2:Today baby.
Speaker 1:Oh, you have your trade already, or is it going?
Speaker 2:on. We're going to do it today.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah.
Speaker 2:So I told you I work a lot. I work a salary job. I'm normally at my desk 645 in the morning and I normally eat lunch at my desk. I don't leave until five. So there's not any extra time for me to get that in during the week. So I'm going to switch to two a days on Saturday and Sunday. Monday will be a rest day. I'll have regular training days Tuesday, wednesday, thursday and I'll rest Friday. So that's what that's going to look like for me.
Speaker 1:That'll be so dope. Well, have you ever done two days before like preparing for anything else?
Speaker 2:No, so we're going to have to be really smart about recovery.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's perfect. I wanted to ask you about that. Are you? Do you write your own nutrition plan? Do you follow anything specific? Do you count macros? How does that go? Yeah?
Speaker 2:So I count macros whenever I'm in training. So, like leading up to monster games, I tracked my food. Leading up to this power lifting me, I tracked my food. But whenever I'm not like close to prep, I normally eat the same thing, you know so I try not to nitpick much.
Speaker 2:My body weight normally stays about the same, but just to make sure that I'm getting enough food, I will be tracking my food during these two days. Biofeedback and I do occasionally get a nutrition coach, depending on like what my life looks like If I'm not giving it the attention that I need. Then Jamie free he owns CrossFit Trivium in Nashville. He's a master's athlete as well. He's normally my go to nutrition coach. He's work well as nutrition coach. He's got a lot of really high end athletes that he coaches for.
Speaker 1:So we need somebody besides you to like give you that extra nudge, tell you like what you should be doing, what to back off of stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean sometimes, you know, just having somebody else look at my biofeedback, like maybe I'm tired or whatever and I'm going to just push through it because I'm, I just I don't know, sometimes I just don't give myself grace, I guess, you know, I'm just like oh, whatever, you're tired, get over it, you know it's hard to take your foot off the pedal, you know it's just a difficult thing to do, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so having somebody else there, you know to be like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, what about this, what about this? I'm like oh, I wasn't thinking about that, you know, that's great.
Speaker 1:So what about for the actual workouts themselves, like how many training partners will you have? Are they going to be there for the full two days? How long do you plan on having those sessions?
Speaker 2:Well, it's just going to kind of go by feel for now. And just because we're going to be in the gym twice a day on those days doesn't mean that the intensity is crazy. Right, my goal is just to get like 1% better, like maybe it's just skill focused or maybe a little bit of interval training. It doesn't mean that I'm going in there and just doing max effort stuff, you know for all those days.
Speaker 1:Just blast it every day. That's not how you get better folks out there.
Speaker 2:No, that is not how you get better. I think there's four or five of us and I didn't ask these guys to do this with me. They just jumped all in. They're like hell, yeah, we want to be a part of it. So I'm super blessed. My training partner she was the college swimmer and she is. I think she's been doing CrossFit out two years. She qualified for intermediate division last year, Monster Games, and she's trying to qualify for RX this year, Just to kind of give you an idea where she's at in her fitness journey. But she's got us man. She's got a lot of fit there. She's lacking some high-end skills that she's gotten a lot better at the last six months. So I'm excited to see what this does for her too, and she's going to help me swim.
Speaker 1:That's the hardest little pickup for so many people, right? You're in an iron sharpens iron kind of like mindset right now. So for you, if you're you're training for something right, you have this big goal in mind. Like five months out, what would you rather have to age you to get to that goal? Like the best coach and program or just really great training partners? What? What do you think would make you better?
Speaker 2:Man? That's a good question. I couldn't do it without my husband. You know he's my biggest support and I don't have a coach. He's not coaching me per se, but he's definitely that for me. He's definitely going to motivate me on task. He has his own goals that he's doing too, but just having him there, you know, he can tell me if I'm being a baby or whatever About the only person that can talk to me. That way, I followed mayhem for probably the last two years. Personally, I followed mayhem compete and I just kind of modify for myself on it. I don't know if I need a coach or not. I'm going to roll without one and I'm going to be relying on my training partners, I guess.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean I feel like for me, everyone can have the best program in the world, but if you don't put the intensity to it and if you don't want to like honestly, if you don't have someone with you, that is like really going to push with you. You know that like we can be best friends afterwards, but I really want to beat you in this. It's going to be hard to get better at things. It's going to be hard to make that translate out on the floor anywhere. You know we talked about that chip on the shoulder earlier, you know.
Speaker 2:That's what I do love about Hannah is that if I let off the gas for a second, she come.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people that don't let you just like take it easy. You know those are some of my favorite especially as a coach things to watch with. Like you see one person that go balls to the wall and the other person back up a little bit. It's a very, very subtle thing that you can see in the races sometimes that develop in these events, these workouts, but it can be really fun to see like that person is willing to push like past that dark zone, you know.
Speaker 2:I've had training partners before that are kind of like oh, gina's goal is to do 10.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to do six you know, whenever I hand it, you got to do 11. Yeah, if I'm like, well, I'm going to do 10.
Speaker 2:She was like I was thinking 12. I'm like okay.
Speaker 1:I'm like, okay, well, I'm thinking 13 now, how about you? You know, let's go for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my God. We've got a couple of boys in there too that are really good, but we just have a ton of fun and it's honestly changed my life. Training I've trained by myself for a long time and being able to have fun with these guys has just brought some life back to me and has me really excited for the next season.
Speaker 1:That's so dope. Well, you were trained by yourself, because I train mostly by myself now, like, what kept you motivated? Did you change your life or did you change your life, or did you change your life?
Speaker 2:I mean, originally it just kind of started, I guess, with that chip on my shoulder, Like you know, I felt like I had something to prove, and then you just set new goals. You know, like I wanted to go to what a plaza and I want to go to the credit games and different things, and you know, so those are kind of things that motivated me to continue training.
Speaker 1:I'm just thinking about if someone said, or if I heard someone say, she looks fitter or he looks fitter than he actually is. Oh, I'm going to go hit it pretty hard after that shit. You know, that would definitely light a fire for me. Now I feel like you told us a little bit. But what are you most hungry for? Going forward.
Speaker 2:The only thing I've got on my calendar next year is try to make the games. If I can get there with a whole lot of heart and left over time, then that's what we got.
Speaker 1:Like I survived, I made it. It might be a little bandage itself, but I'm going to keep going forward with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that some people get and that this is their business. However they want to approach your life, but you know, they put crossfit as number one in their life. You know or I think that could translate to any sport, honestly but my marriage is number one. So as long as me and my husband are good, then I'm good. You know, I have financial goals, financial freedom, my job is important to me, my gym is important to me and my fitness has to fit in under that, you know. So as long as those top priorities are lined out and going good, then I can carry on. You know I'm not willing to sacrifice my real life for crossfit life. I love that.
Speaker 1:You said you guys have been together for 10 years, married for 10 years.
Speaker 2:Married for 10.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did young Gina, like 20 year old Gina, think that you were going to be married and that, like your relationship, would be this big a part of your life, like the number one thing to you.
Speaker 2:Before I met him, I thought I was going to be single forever. Honestly, that's also, and they just like transformed your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's crazy. He just came in and snatched me up and I don't know.
Speaker 2:we've just been doing it. I feel like I met my equal in life. You know, I told him I always want forward motion. You know, I always have a new goal and it's not always the same, it's not always fitness, but, you know, maybe it's a retirement goal or savings goal or whatever business related. I was like, if you don't come with me, I will step over here. You know, like you have to, like, you have to level up with me, because there's always going to be something new. I'm chasing down. That's just who I am. And every time he steps right up and sometimes it's him, you know, hey, babe, I want to chase this on my own. Let's go get it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Two fires that keep each other alight. You know, yeah, that's awesome, and sometimes he'll kind of like I just hop me down.
Speaker 2:He's like.
Speaker 1:Are you sure this is?
Speaker 2:the smartest thing. And I look at him and like, hey, this is what I want to do. And he goes okay, let's figure it out. Oh yeah, and like are?
Speaker 1:you. Are you an easy person to trust other people, or does that come like?
Speaker 2:sparingly, I try to give you the benefit of the doubt going into it and if you mess it up, it's game over. There's no second chances.
Speaker 1:No, don't lie to me If you lie to me done. That's the big one, the big red flag, yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't need a big circle, I need a loyal circle.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, Like. One of my biggest morals is like what are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm just trying to get you to know that.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, like one of my biggest morals is like what I say I'm going to do, I want to do that, like it'll eat me up inside If I don't do the thing that I'm going to do to a person, especially if I really care about them. Do you have like a big moral code, like one thing that you really buy by, like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, like I said, the truth is a big deal to me and if you, if I mess up, I want the opportunity to apologize. Or you know, like I never intentionally hurt somebody, you know, but I'm pretty rough around the edges and I'm very direct, so that comes with a lot of hurt feelings for other people A lot of times and so that's not my intent. So I will apologize very quickly Because I know kind of how rough it comes off and so I want to take ownership of that and make people as comfortable as I can and that are going to be around me. But I can't change who I am at the end of the day either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I relate to that completely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that kind of dog in me is what's gotten me where I'm at today, and I don't regret it at all.
Speaker 1:Did it take you a while to find that that empathy, not sympathy, to realize that other people can't take things as harshly as you probably could?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that just kind of growing up and like having emotional awareness, like I'm very comfortable with who I am, and that can be off-putting to people too. You know, I'm told a lot that I'm intimidating and I can really quickly strike an insecure like cord in somebody and not realize it. You know, because I'm very secure and I don't think about those things, I'm completely happy with who I am, where I'm at in life. I'm proud of myself, the things that I've overcome, and that comes from just things that I've actually had to do, you know my back surgery and taking care of myself as a.
Speaker 2:I look at 17-year-old kids now and I go how in the hell did I move out on my own at 17 years old? I don't know how to work a washing machine. It doesn't come from a place of like conceited or anything like that. It's just like I've literally taken on the world and I've survived and like that's where it comes from for me. And so I want to catch people in a positive way and I don't want, however that comes off, to ruin my heart, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's tough, like I said, with the voice thing. It's like sometimes I will talk passionately to someone because I care about them. If I don't care about you, I will probably not say anything. And it's only within the past two to three years that I've learned that even with the best intentions, you can still hurt somebody's emotions and their emotions are valid, even though they're different than mine. But it's been a long journey to, I guess, realize something like that, that your intentions don't always trump someone else's feelings and emotions.
Speaker 2:For sure I get a lot of shit for cussing too. I'm sorry, I don't know, it's just the way I talk.
Speaker 1:It's just how it comes out and I'm really pretty good with it. Yesterday I was coaching this class and like I was just really flowing with it and I dropped about three F bombs in my class. I mean, it was all like adults that were fine with it, but I'm like damn, I can kind of let it go a little bit if I'm just talking regularly.
Speaker 2:I don't even notice it. But yeah, whenever I coach a class, sometimes somebody's like why is she cuss so much? I'm like I'm sorry, it's just how I talk.
Speaker 1:It's just how it came out. I'm passionate about what I'm saying. I mean it. I mean this shit.
Speaker 2:And Greg has helped me a lot with realizing, as far as softening my words to other people or not taking it personal whenever somebody's offended or whatever that it maybe doesn't even have anything to do with me is something that's beyond me.
Speaker 1:The last little bit of this podcast would offer the direction that I didn't even foresee, but I really love that. Talking about like how emotional maturity and awareness is important, like in your overall development. So that I hope that people the listeners out there take away from this is that you are a big time athlete and that may be how you present in your life because you are super fit and you are competitive there. But the biggest parts of this conversation and what seems to be your life is your relationships. You know your main relationship, your marriage, and the relationship that you have with everyone around you, and so I really love that and, like I said, I hope everyone can take that away from this podcast episode.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that Having good people around me means a lot to me and I want to pour into people. I have poured into the wrong people before, so I'm a little bit you know reluctant sometimes, but whenever you're close to me, I will give you absolutely everything I've got to give.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I relate to that. It's hard. It's when you've lost trust beforehand. It's hard to rebuild it with others and like, give it to them. You know, all right dogs. This has been a great episode. This has been Regina Hartwick out here. Be able to look for this game season, regina peace, thanks.