This weeks guest is Selena Swanger former collegiate gymnast and now CrossFit athlete.
We dive into her finding CrossFit which turned into her pursuing that as her next sport after graduating and ending her gymnastics career. In that convo we tackle everything from competing against yourself and not tying your goals into external things to ways to overcome fears in training.
Then we dive into talk of the upcoming CrossFit season changes , guesses for the open and favorite past open workouts!
This weeks guest is Selena Swanger former collegiate gymnast and now CrossFit athlete.
We dive into her finding CrossFit which turned into her pursuing that as her next sport after graduating and ending her gymnastics career. In that convo we tackle everything from competing against yourself and not tying your goals into external things to ways to overcome fears in training.
Then we dive into talk of the upcoming CrossFit season changes , guesses for the open and favorite past open workouts!
I specifically remember being in level four, so I was, I don't know, eight or nine years old and I think I put a lot of pressure on myself. That's always been like a bigger weakness of mine. So in the events and in the all around, and so when I did it I was sad. But there are things I'm afraid of, specifically dumbbells.
Speaker 2:What's up, dogs? Welcome back to the Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast. This week, I'm joined by Selena Swanger, former collegiate gymnast and current competitive CrossFit athlete. We sit down to talk about the upcoming 2024 CrossFit game season, with some changes to the open and also the quarterfinals from there. We also talk about how Selena got her start in CrossFit and coming back from a season ending hip surgery that she had in 2023. You folks, you know right now in your training, like what did you do this week?
Speaker 1:So far this week, you know still touching on strength stuff. That's always been like a bigger weakness of mine. So kind of over the summer that was the main focus, so still kind of keeping touch on that. But then this week, and you know the past couple of weeks, has been focus on Metcons and you know doing the workouts that aren't fun as far as you know, interval stuff and trying to move from one movement to the next and you know go right into it and you know you're not breaking, not breathing, like the stuff that's not enjoyable.
Speaker 2:For sure.
Speaker 1:So high, very high, like high intensity stuff, right now, doing workouts that are very like open, like feel.
Speaker 2:Hate that feeling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's been. You know, I get more nervous now, even just going into training, because I know that there are gonna be workouts that like don't feel good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I was just talking about that with Jeff the other day that literally there's just workouts, that there's no way around it, there's no strategy. It's just gonna hurt. You know, if you're doing it correctly, it's just gonna hurt. Yep, so I put the post last night about the open. What would be your like dream open workout? Or maybe what was your favorite open? Actually, let's pick, put them separate First. What would be your dream open workout Like your favorite things you could put together?
Speaker 1:So favorite things would definitely be like a progression of like pull up, chest bar, bar muscle up, which they have done. I like that, but then they also incorporate into those workouts things I don't like. So I could pick. It would be like a progression from pull up to chest bar to bar muscle up, and then probably something like box jump overs or double unders and maybe like a heavy deadlift or something and make sure when like a handstand walk like that would be perfect for me.
Speaker 2:Bro, I'm out, put that into the third week for me, say I like the beginning of it, like do you remember that year and Jeff was like kind of talking about he put double unders in it, the year that they did chest, bar and squat snatches, like and the weights went up, the reps went down and I think the chest and bar reps went up. Dude, like please give us that again. That was so much fun.
Speaker 1:I know I liked there was another one too. That was I think it was toes of our double unders and squat cleans.
Speaker 2:Oh, I like that yeah.
Speaker 1:And the you had like a window to get like this done in and then, if you completed it, then you can move to the next window and the weights.
Speaker 2:Those are the best. Those are the best. Open workouts Like give us three of those. Like earn the right to keep moving on. That's the best. I like those a lot. So I feel like you kind of answered it but like what was your favorite open workout or one that sticks out to you besides that one?
Speaker 1:So I was actually, oddly enough, just looking through my Instagram the other day and looking at some of my open posts from previous years and the one that I remember I can't remember. I think it was 21. And it was. It had the I think it was toes of bar, chest of bar bar muscle ups, and then it was front squats and thrusters and then after that you had to test that complex.
Speaker 2:Oh, I liked that one.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, I did like that one. I didn't like the complex after cause at the time, like not only was strength a weakness, but strength when tired was even more of a weakness.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So the complex was tough but like did great on the workout part of it. I really enjoyed that, even though front squats and thrusters aren't, you know they're not fun, but it was so I could do it fast, so it was fun. I really enjoyed that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was another really fun one. I wish they would like just give the crowd pleasers like that come on now you know what workouts are enjoyable, even when they hurt to do. Just make them three weeks of that.
Speaker 1:Make the community happy you know, and honestly I was surprised last year with the first workout of the open. That was the row and the toes of bar and wall, ball cleans and ring muscle ups. I was like that's the first workout, so was I it was like one of those things I was like damn like okay, that's like I'm in.
Speaker 2:You know, like every year for the past few years it's been like this general feeling of like, eh, I guess we're gonna do the CrossFit open, you know. But like that one I was like, okay, like knocked it out of the park.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:So we're gonna revisit that exact thing later on. On that note, with that in mind, what's? I'm just gonna say so, how many years have you been doing the open, and what number of years is this for you?
Speaker 1:So technically I got my badge in the email the other day. Technically it's six, but I did do the open in 2017. I didn't actually sign up for it. I was still competing in gymnastics, so I and I only did like two weeks of it, I think, and that's when it was like five weeks just with season and everything. It was literally during our competition season. So I needed to make sure that I was doing what I needed to do for gymnastics. So I did kind of participate in 2017. Then I feel like there was another year that I did that I didn't sign up because I think I was dealing with an injury. So I didn't want to sign up because it was just kind of- Right, why would I do it?
Speaker 1:Right, I wasn't pushing for anything. So I think in total it's been eight years, but officially signed up I think it's six. So yeah, that's where we're at.
Speaker 2:In the past few years it's got convoluted too, because we had the COVID year and we had the year that they had two of them, yes, and not the year One in February, one in October.
Speaker 1:That's the year two that my hip really started bothering me, so I didn't do either open in 2020.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's the second one really sucked. That was the one you probably would have liked this, though that was the one that they had a workout that was choose your own adventure, and it was ring muscle-ups, wall balls and calorie row. Break it up however you want, and you know that with that in the open, it really just matters If you have the capacity to finish the row in the wall balls. It really just matters how fast you can get the ring muscle-ups done or how many of them you could get. That's cool.
Speaker 1:So that was a fall-up, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was bullshitting through the row and the wall balls. I was like, all right, as long as I get a couple muscle-ups, I'm going to jump so many spots on the leaderboard, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, and same with the one last year with the ring muscle-ups and I could just get some. I'll be good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that workout fucked me up. I won't go into that, but that got me a lot worse than I thought it was going to, though I tried to underestimate that.
Speaker 1:And that was a bad idea, because I tried to redo it. What two days later? And I got like 10 cleans and I was like I'm done. And I just stopped because it was to the point where I was like why am I doing this again? I don't feel good and I don't think I'm going to beat my score, so like I'm just done, and then I just stopped and was like whatever.
Speaker 2:That's I was going to move on. But do you redo workouts and like what's your mindset on that?
Speaker 1:So this is something I'm trying to avoid this year, because I have redone workouts not every single one, but especially like a gymnastics one, where it's a skill I'm really good at.
Speaker 1:So, if I do it and I'm like what was I doing? Like I should have done better than that, I will redo it. And I think I put a lot of pressure on myself for the gymnastics workouts and I'm like okay, like I should break this up and I'm going to do it like this, or maybe I'll do it on broken and I'm like when I just do gymnastics workouts, like at the gym, I usually just go for unbroken because I know that I can and I usually end up fine, but I like overanalyze it for the open because I want it to be perfect.
Speaker 1:Because, it is something I'm so good at. So I have redone gymnastics workouts because I'm like I know I can do better and then I usually do. I usually do do better, but I'm trying to avoid that. This year that's like one of my goals is to like just put out on every single workout so I don't have to do that.
Speaker 2:Right, like just go give it. Your all want it done. Like be able to move on. It's hard. So many people struggle with that aspect of the cross, that open, it's like unavoidable. Now you have to find your process to work through that and honestly, looking at the past few years of programming, I feel like they're trying to remove any one workout being like a gymnastics workout or a weightlifting workout where, like, this group of people is going to go knock this out of the park. You know they want to try to change that, like last year.
Speaker 2:The muscle ups I mean it was a repeat workout but the muscle ups were at the end of it, you know, and you had Toast to Bar. That wasn't that many. You know, like people did singles and made it through those Toast to Bar. And then the second workout with the burpee pull ups. I mean I could have. I could have stayed in that workout. I thought it was the dumbest program ever. But we won't even trash that. Tell me now, how did you get into CrossFit Like you were in college still doing gymnastics. What made you walk into a CrossFit gym?
Speaker 1:So my gymnastics coach from my home gym got into it while I was still in high school and she would come in and talk about it all the time and I was like that's pretty cool and so I kind of like saw her get into it and she was a Penn State gymnast so she, you know, did the gymnastics thing and I think that was kind of her outlet from, you know, not doing gymnastics anymore and so through those years didn't really get into it, but she kind of incorporated type types of CrossFit style conditioning into our gymnastics conditioning, which I thought was cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they got to put that in the dictionary CrossFit like because how many of us have said that we did that before we did CrossFit? I was doing CrossFit like. That's so funny. Yes.
Speaker 1:And it was like, you know, it was just like so many rounds of and it was all body weight Like we didn't like throw weight in there, you know whatever. But so then in college I guess it was probably my junior year I really wanted to get into it. So I had one of my teammates come with me and we went to CrossFit Westchester in the fall of 2015 and did our on ramp and that's kind of how that started and I like Remember what it was that made you like want to really do it at that time, like what was the last catalyst?
Speaker 1:I think for me wanting like a different type of workout and just being really attracted to what CrossFit was given, like what my coach was doing, and I was like seeing her do it and like that's just it was cool.
Speaker 1:It was so cool to me and, you know, being in gymnastics, like I enjoy working out and you know we've done crazy, we do crazy conditioning in gymnastics and you know all that fun stuff and this incorporated some gymnastics things. But I also got to lift and, you know, put all the things together. So I just thought it was really cool when I, you know, really looked up to her and I still do and so when she was doing, I was like, well, I want to do that because, like, I want to be like her. So, you know, went for my on ramp and everything and then started going to class and I would go to class like in the morning before, like I had college class, and then, you know, would have practice in the afternoon and I'm pretty sure I don't remember how it came about, but my gymnastics coach in college found out that I was started CrossFit and she was like Selena, you better not get hurt.
Speaker 1:And she was a fan of it and I'm like I'll be, you know, I'll be fine, It'll be fine. So, come 2016,. So the gymnastics season is January to anywhere to like potentially the end of April, so it's a long season. So come that time, I kind of like backed off a little bit because I was like okay, like you know, I want to focus on gymnastics. I don't want to make my coach upset.
Speaker 1:I don't want to potentially get hurt, so you know. So I kind of backed off completely, like barely went. And then I remember the summer of 2016,. I stayed in Westchester for an internship, I think, and kind of had to relearn everything like, specifically, the Olympic lifts, because it's very like technical based and everything like that.
Speaker 2:Right, especially for a beginner, you know right.
Speaker 1:So I was like screw that, I'm not stopping next year during season Hell yeah. Yeah, so then during season I was still smart about it, like I still made sure that I wasn't going to be super sore or you know whatever. Before you know competition that weekend.
Speaker 2:But don't match it out of overhead squat before you have, like you know, gymnastics meets and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I do specifically remember, though, right before winter break and this was my senior year of college right before winter break I was doing a workout and I dropped a barbell on my leg and doing hang cleans, and I remember I just like my hands and my brain like were not connected, and Jenny was yelling out like three, two, one time I'm like I can get another one in, but then my brain was like no time and so, like my hands let go, but I like went to do another one and it fell like right on my leg and like I mean the bruise was horrendous.
Speaker 1:So luckily it was like literally the day I was going home, so like my coach didn't see it. And then I was home for like two and a half weeks for winter break and when we got back the bruise was gone, but like it's still hurt. So my trainers and I was like so I did this and like I feel like this hard spot from the bruising and I like needed them to do like the stim and like ultrasound on it to help get rid of like that calcification Producing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, never told my coach, though, oh thank God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't let it. I'm going to edit that part out. Don't let it listen to this. So do you remember any of your first workouts in the gym or like something that really was like the first time? You're like, damn, I love you, I love this.
Speaker 1:Oh, um, that's tough. I do remember Getting into CrossFit. So 2017, after gymnastics season is when I really took off and was like I'm gonna go every day. I'm gonna be there for five hours because I wanted to do it right.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna watch every Rich Frony documentary after our workout.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what I did, so Yup, but I will say the one thing I do remember doing most actually is my friend had a very basic online template for Olympic lifting and that was something I was really interested in. Starting CrossFit was the lifting, I think, because in gymnastics we never really lifted Like I can do all the body weight movements and I could do whatever my capacity. Obviously wasn't good, but so I think one thing that I was really attracted to was the lifting. So I do remember following that programming for I don't know at least a year probably, and loving that. I loved that, whatever the. I don't even know what the programming was, I don't know where she got it from, if she paid for it, whatever, but it was like all these complexes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like all these complexes and whatever and I would take videos of all of it and edit it and put it with music and stuff. Cause, like she did that too and I was like that's so cool, so like.
Speaker 2:That was a time, oh man.
Speaker 1:That was a time Like I still have videos on my Instagram Like if you scroll forever back, like they're there, yeah, so that like she was always at the gym, we would always go together and like her and I are still friends, so like we always had so much fun together so she made it fun for me and that's like that's one thing that I, like I would say, remember most about getting into CrossFit. And then at the time I think I was just doing the classes, so I would go to like the five or the six AM class, not in the summer, that's a lie. I didn't do that in the summer once, cause I started a full-time job then in August. So once that started I was doing like five to six AM CrossFit, would go to work eight AM to five PM, which is horrible, and then go back to the gym at like 530 to do lifting. It was. I mean I was getting like five hours of sleep a night and like my cup of tea during the day.
Speaker 1:Like it was horrible, like I was not I wasn't sleeping Like I don't even know how I did it, and I look back at that now and I'm like, oh, I would never.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a young beginning of your fitness.
Speaker 1:Dirty type energy it's exciting and you're like I'm just going to do it all.
Speaker 2:So I think it's pretty obvious that you are a competitive person and consider yourself competitive Like. When did you start to develop that? When did you like realize that you like to push yourself hard and like against other people?
Speaker 1:Well, we could take it way back and say that that kind of started in gymnastics.
Speaker 2:Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Even when I was little. So like I specifically remember being in level four. So I was, I don't know, eight or nine years old and I was a really good level four gymnast and I got first like all the time in the events and in the all around, and so when I didn't, I was sad. So I think that that probably started it and just learning new skills. And obviously when you learn new skills, you're not good at them right away and you go to the gym and you do drills and drills, and drills, and then you do you just have to do the skill over and over and over and over again. And I think the more you do that especially with the harder skills and you're like this is hard but I want to do it I think that there was something like inside of me that was like I will do whatever it takes to get this skill.
Speaker 2:I will work for it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I wanted to and I loved it. I loved gymnastics like the whole time that I did it and there were also times where I would have to be kind of like competitive with myself, even especially on the beam, because I didn't have like huge mental blocks. But there were some mental things with going backwards that like freaked me out. And it was specifically the connection skill. I did the backhand spring into like the layout on the beam and you have to connect it Like there's no way you can do them as two separate skills. So it's called your connection skill. So my connection skill. I would do the backhand spring and stop and I like wouldn't do the layout, so I would stop. And obviously the coach was you can't do that, like you're gonna stop midair sometime and you're gonna fall and you're gonna hurt yourself. So for me, something that helped me get over that was having my coach threaten conditioning.
Speaker 2:I hear that.
Speaker 1:I'm like tell me that if I don't go this time, I have to do 15 rope climbs, and they would, and then I would do it.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And then there were times where I didn't do it and I had to go do 15 rope climbs and that bummed me out Like I hated that and I was so mad at myself that I like let that happen, that, like it only took like once for me to have to do 15 rope climbs for them to like. The next time they threatened it I definitely went for the skill. So I think like that's, you know being a little bit competitive with myself and you know mentally, and then I think with you know obviously that carried over into CrossFit, but with CrossFit specifically just being around it more often, like the more that I was going and going to the gym and seeing you know like gains in certain things and you know, against other people, I'm like, oh, this is pretty cool, like I want to beat everybody.
Speaker 1:Like it was just kind of was there.
Speaker 2:It's like what you said earlier, like you keep working hard and that you see the results of it. You know, like you're able to see it, like not tangibly, but one of the most tangible, intangible things out there. You know, like Glassman said, men will die for points. And when you see your scores and your numbers and your movements and the way you're feeling all going up, you're like it just doubles down your commitment to work hard. You know.
Speaker 1:And even, like you know, when I look back, like even directly, like so, like in 2021, let's say, you know, I would do an open workout, I would record it, I would come home that day and watch it and like be irritated with like the rest that I was taking, I'm like why couldn't I have just jumped up like bar and like done a couple more toes to bar? Like you can do toes to bar when you're tired, like I know you can. And so it's like having conversations like that with myself and like watching videos where I'm like I know I can do better than that. Like why was I? You know, why was I doing this?
Speaker 2:Why are you doing that? Are you a perfectionist gymnast? I feel like almost all of them are, but are you one of those?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean not I wouldn't say like to a, to a, an extreme degree, but yeah, definitely, Like I remember, you know, say we had to do 10 of our connection skill on beam. Right, if I did my 10th one, but like and made it, but like it wasn't great or I wobbled or something I would want to do it.
Speaker 2:It was like a, B plus something like that.
Speaker 1:Like I'd want to finish on a good one and honestly same, with like when I do ring muscle ups in a workout when I get tired, obviously they get harder and I've kind of strayed away from doing this, which I'm proud of. But if I get really tired I will do kind of like a not super bad chicken wing, but like I'll kind of like shift the way up there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And after the workouts over, I'll jump up and do one more good ring muscle up to like finish on a good one.
Speaker 2:I love that. I tell that to my athletes all the time, or just just people in general, like it's good to like make the last month best one. You know one of those types of vibes so you were talking about, like mental blocks and gymnastics. Do you have anything like that in CrossFit movements or just anywhere in the CrossFit space?
Speaker 1:I wouldn't necessarily say mental blocks, but there are things I'm afraid of, specifically dumbbells. I hate them and I actually just did a workout this week that incorporated gymnastics, because my coach knows that I like that, so he tried to incorporate the dumbbells with something that I enjoy. So it was like two rounds of 15 pullups, 50 double unders and 10 double dumbbell power clean and jerks, and then two rounds of 15 chest bar, 50 double unders, and then I think it was was it just squat cleans? I think 10 squat cleans with the dumbbells. And then the last one was two rounds of seven bar muscle ups, 50 double unders, and it was supposed to be 10 squat clean thrusters. I misread it and just did 10 thrusters with the dumbbells. But yeah, it was, and I was so scared. I was so scared to do that workout and I even said to him I was like I don't know how to do this workout. He was like go slow on the gymnastics and take your time to the double unders and then attack the dumbbells.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I did, but even after I was like I didn't believe in myself in that workout. So I think there are movements and there are pieces of equipment that I don't believe in my capabilities necessarily and so I'll like hold back. But given how that workout went, I was like pretty happy with it. So just going through workouts like that and like allowing that to like boost my confidence in a movement like that. So next time I have a dumbbell I'll be like you can do this, like you know. You know how it went last time, it's okay, like you can do it.
Speaker 1:And not like afraid to like push, like I think I'm afraid to push on a movement like that, cause I think I'm just going to like die and fall apart. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Right when, like movements that are in your wheelhouse, you're like all right, I could go to absolute failure on this and then I could take the time afterwards to like mitigate, get back together and go again.
Speaker 1:you know, Right, like I could handstand, walk while I'm literally dying.
Speaker 2:Right. Like I and there's no questions asked about it, but like picking like that video where you were like too close to the wall, it kicked up to the side. Yeah, so funny that made me laugh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but then, like with a dumbbell, I'm like I'm really out of breath. I don't even think I could pick this up, but like that's a lie, you can pick it up, but like head I'm like, that's like scares me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like the. You think you go to worst case scenario. You know fight or flight in your head as soon as your heart rate goes up. Yup, so something you said before, like watching back your videos. For me it's like coaching a class after our workout, cause, like I'll be slow to transition and that's where fitness always is or I'll be like hands on my knees, like taking a long break after doing something like that, but then I'll watch a class later on and I'm always like saying to someone like you can keep moving, like even if you're going slow, and I'm like, oh shit, that's me stopping right. Then, when I don't need to stop, when I have one chest of more left, I can finish off that chest of more. Those are the moments that upset me so much, where it's like one, one lift left, you can do this last one and then you have so much for that's time afterwards.
Speaker 1:I know, I know. And then there's like times too where, like I'll do class over like a D-load week and there was one workout that like the entire workout I did not stop moving and I was like why can't, what? Like why can't I do that?
Speaker 2:sometimes why don't I just do this on the regular yeah?
Speaker 1:All the time. Yeah, now, sometimes you know it depends on what day of the week it is and how much I've done before that when, like sometimes, I just feel like my heart rate like can't keep up, or like you're very like out of control of your heart rate, and I don't like feeling like that. So when that happens, I know that like okay, maybe you're like either under recovered or a little over trained today, so just take it with a grain of salt. But for the most part I'm like just keep moving. Like, even if it's slow, just keep moving.
Speaker 2:Right, right, cause you don't get any points when you're standing still. So there's that you talked about, like gaining confidence, like right there or not. I feel like you might have answered this question At least halfway already. But, like, do you have any processes that you go about that to help instill confidence and build it in areas you feel like you lack it in? Like, do you do like self talk? Do you do like journaling? Like what do you go through?
Speaker 1:I definitely don't do any of that. I maybe should, but I think for me, one thing that will incorporate into programming is you know, we talk about what I still need to work on and what I am like afraid of, or what my weaknesses are and I think my coach is really good about programming progressions for those movements or you know, whatever it is to allow me to build confidence in doing them. The act of doing, yeah, that's a major one, Yep.
Speaker 2:So I think, and then you know, for me.
Speaker 1:I think, too, watching back on my videos is a big help for me versus, like, maybe, the self talk. I do self talk a little bit. I mean, just the other day when I PR'd my clean, I was nervous but I was like you just front-swatted this for a pause. Three, you can lift it, you can do it, and so, like I'll do stuff like that, like in the moment, not necessarily like outside of the gym, but I also do a little bit of self talk. But I also like will have a lot of conversations with my coach after a workout or before a workout and we'll like talk it out and that kind of helps too.
Speaker 1:But I think really like him programming progressions for me in something that I'm scared of really helps like boost my confidence in that Specifically ring muscle ups Like I struggled so much with those and like would be terrified to do them in a workout. But the way that he like wrote the progressions for me to like get better at them is like yeah, I can do that in a workout now. So that's like a big one for me for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the act of doing that's a really major one Like that helps in still confidence of people, especially when they're in a specific field of doing one thing well, it's multiple things across it, but you don't have to say it so like tell me now about your hip injury.
Speaker 1:I remember it so vividly. It was January of 2020. I was actually at KOP for a comp that I was working at P3 at the time. We were set up there with food and I remember like getting there and I was like walking around and like all of a sudden I just felt this like sharp pain in my hip and I was like what the heck? Okay, and I've dealt with aches and pains before, so I was like probably just tight, whatever.
Speaker 1:And then, honestly, for like the first couple months after that, like I could barely walk. It hurt to walk and I'm like what's going on? But everybody I talked to because, given my low back injury history and I've had hip issues before everybody's like you're tight, you're tight, you're tight, you gotta stretch, you gotta do this whatever. And I'm like I'm doing that and it's not working, I can't walk, it hurts to walk. So that was frustrating. And then there was some time where it kind of subsided and there was a time where I went to PT and was doing needling and PT exercises and that kind of seemed to help. And then I had days where I wasn't in pain at all and I could lift and squat clean and I was fine. And then there were weeks where it hurt to try to come up from a front squat because of the pressure. So it was very sporadic after those, like first couple months.
Speaker 2:Where would you say you were at like when training was gymnastics over at this point as you graduated, and you were in CrossFit? Were in CrossFit. Where were you like, mindset wise, like I wanna compete in it? Or were you doing it for fun? Were you like I wanna compete in that stage?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So I would say, aside from where I'm at now, 2019 was probably where I really started to make progress in CrossFit and like you were gearing up at that time. Yeah, yeah yeah, so I was really looking forward to continuing that and getting better and getting stronger and all of those things.
Speaker 1:And then that happened and I was still able to train, but it was like at weeks at a time, because it would flare up and whatever, and I would do my exercises and I would stretch and it helped alleviate it for like a little bit, but it definitely didn't make it go away and with certain like stretching movements there was always pain, Like it felt like there was like a catching, like pinching feeling in my hip. And so when everybody's telling me like it's, you know you're so, as is tight, or your low back is tight or you know whatever it is, I'm like I grew up doing gymnastics. I know like when-.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Weird and when I'm sore or something's tight. So but just let it go, and I just let it go, and then for a while I honestly almost had like no pain at all. Okay, like maybe we're out of the woods here.
Speaker 2:I'm good now yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then come, like I want to say it was probably like April, may of 21. It started to like irritate me again, kind of went through the summer and then I was like I'm over this, I'm getting an MRI, or I had to start with an x-ray, of course. But so go get an x-ray and come to find out the doctor goes the ball of your femur is like abnormally shaved.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:I'm like, what Like? And nobody would know that Like yeah, nobody would know that. So he's like, yeah, it's. You know, obviously it's supposed to be like a sphere, but it kind of looks like a football, like you know. I'm like, hmm, he's like, so I'm a little worried that, you know, that might have been rubbing against your labrum. Okay, so I remember going and telling my coach and he was just like, oh shit. And like, yeah, I knew I was injured, like I knew it was more than you know whatever everybody was saying. So schedule the MRI has to be with contrast. To love all that good stuff. Go get it read. Yeah, you're a labrum's torn.
Speaker 1:Oh like, oh okay, and on top of that had damaged cartilage, bone cysts and like osteoarthritis.
Speaker 2:Cause your fever is just like irregular shaped and then shaving oh man Over who knows how long. To I mean. I was likely like your whole life, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so he, you know, the surgeon said that this was definitely like a, an overuse over time injury and then when it finally did like I guess maybe actually tear or tear to a certain degree, is when I started feeling the pain. So I believe, if I remember correctly, I believe I got the MRI read in September and I scheduled my surgery for November.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it was because at that point I'm like that's all there is left to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no other options.
Speaker 1:There's. There's no other options. I'm tired of being in pain. I can't. I'm not making gains in the gym because I can't consistently lift. I can't consistently, you know, whatever. So.
Speaker 2:Were you, like, worried at all that there would be like no other side to this, like that was the end of your athletic journey? Or was it like I'm going to do this, get better and be right back?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I think I would say I didn't really have doubts. The only thing that made me nervous was he being the surgeon didn't know if he would be able to actually fix the tear because of the bone cysts that I had. Yeah, he was like if there's, if there's too many bone cysts, I like won't have good bone to anchor into to fix the tear. He was like what I can do when I'm in there for surgery is at least clean up the damaged cartilage and clean up some of the bone cysts, and that should at least help alleviate a lot of your pain.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So he was like okay, I'm going to do a day of surgery. He's like now, remember, don't know if I can fix it.
Speaker 2:I'm like okay, Right.
Speaker 1:Here we go. Yeah, so come out of surgery, told me I took it like a champ and told me that he was able to fix it completely, cleaned up damaged cartilage. He said it looked like a hangnail. So that's cool, damn.
Speaker 2:He would body is crazy.
Speaker 1:I know and like I have the little like images that they took like while they were in for surgery. So personally I can't pick out exactly what he was talking about. What the before pictures like just looks very red and irritated and just not good. And then, like the after pictures, it just like looks just like it's fixed.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:It's crazy. So, yeah, so did that and you know, honestly, I was a little, I think, nervous about the recovery. I didn't know how it was going to go, and he even was like I can't promise that you'll get back to 100% CrossFit, which I think they just have to say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:But for me I'm like well, I'm healthy and determined, so I think I'll be fine.
Speaker 2:I'm going to give it my best. That's what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I remember the recovery just going like as good as it could have gone and going for some of my like check in appointments, and one of them I was I had finally gotten like I was doing I wasn't doing air squats, but you know you stretch the bottom of your squat right so I was able to like grab under my toes and get myself to squat the whole way down. And I told him that and he was like you're squatting below parallel All right.
Speaker 1:And I was like yeah, like what do you mean? Like like I felt good, Like I had no pain, I had no issues, like it just literally went, like as good as it could have gone. And to this day I'm like that is the best decision I've ever made, because haven't had issues, I've no longer in pain. Like it's just, it's literally like the best, the best possible outcome.
Speaker 2:And it's like thank God, I did that and now I'm one of the next part of my life. You know exactly, that's awesome. So, with that in mind, like, let's bring it up to like today. Then, how do you feel about the CrossFit Open not really the CrossFit Open, the quarterfinals expanding from 10% to 25? Like, what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1:So I feel like I have like mixed opinions about it obviously, like seeing stuff that people post on social media about it and then reading comments about it and kind of forming my own opinion. I feel like you know everybody's like, oh, it's a money grab. I'm like, well, CrossFit is a business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it needs to make money.
Speaker 1:Right. So like a business has to make money.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I've had that.
Speaker 2:F all you dweebs. I think everything should just be for free, Like come on now, let's be honest.
Speaker 1:No, do I think it needs to be $50? No, but like you know, people are going to pay it, right?
Speaker 1:Like it's, we're going to do it. So that's kind of how I feel about that. Every business has to make money, it's. You know, that's part of it, I think personally, knowing how like I felt through the years that I wasn't like super good, like I was still getting good at CrossFit and like wanting to be a part of like all of these things, I think it's cool to incorporate more people. I think it's cool for people to be able to go to the next step who wouldn't have qualified if it was the top 10%. However, the only problem I see with that is, if they don't water down the programming, you could end up with a lot of hurt people.
Speaker 2:That's my next question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the only thing that like worries me is that people are going to like try to do these hard skills that like aren't ready for it because they've expanded it to the people who maybe aren't at that level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think they said like of the 10%, only like 4% of them could do all of the workouts and be, able to like finish them.
Speaker 1:I mean there's people in the top 10% that can't even do all of the workouts.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:So that's definitely one thing. The other thing that I thought was interesting was seeing people complain and say, oh, like I was a bubble athlete to be in the top 10%, Now it's not even worth working hard for anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like you could still make that a personal goal and like work hard to be in the top 10% and then, by all means, if you want to post about it, be like I qualified in the top 10%, Like so to like use that as an excuse to not work hard, I think is absolutely dumb yeah.
Speaker 2:And only the most important metric should be like how you feel you performed in a situation Like, I should just say, having a goal, accomplishing the goal. You know whatever that is, but no matter how big it or how small it is to other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that doesn't mean you have to, like you know, sandbag the workouts because you know you're going to make it Like still push yourself and test yourself and see where you are.
Speaker 2:So if you're not Tia Tummi or somebody like, don't be, don't sandbag a workout. Let everyone else go out there and see how fit you are on the leaderboard, or it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know. So that was like. That was one thing. I was like reading some comments of people being like so upset that like it doesn't even mean anything anymore, and I'm like, well, you could make it mean something to yourself. So, that was a little like rub me the wrong way, but but overall I think it's to me, I think it's cool. It seems like they're trying to be more inclusive to more people. It's just that the skill thing like worries me a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think like, just like you said, a little bit worried. I don't want to see it completely watered down open we talked about earlier. Earlier, when we saw the first workout of the open start off and have power cleans, toes, the bar and muscle ups in it, I was like, okay, I am not worried about giving you my $20 anymore. This made it worth it for me right here Just to have like a cool workout. I don't want to see that completely go away.
Speaker 1:I know, I know I'm curious to see because they're doing that like if the programming is going to change, because I feel like last year, with that ring muscle up workout being the first open workout, the year before that all of the workouts were pretty mediocre yeah for sure, box jump up with a step down Right, right. And so then when this came out, I was like, oh okay, so I'm hoping they don't like revert back to all of those silly things. But I guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2:When they made it after for 23.1, Jeff and I were literally together at the gym. We were like, oh, like, it's one of those things that you just can't predict what they're going to do anymore. I have no idea.
Speaker 1:You have no idea so weird.
Speaker 2:So, with that in mind, what do you think? Give us a prediction for 24.1.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I feel like, again, this could be completely changed because of what they're doing, but typically I feel like you see some kind of longer piece, whether it's a or whatever, with like a wall ball. They had the shuttle runs. Was that in the quarterfinals, I think?
Speaker 2:Well, there was two. There's multiple shorter runs now. Last year's first workout was what we keep talking about. The shuttle run was number two, but usually they do. They do the capacity workout first usually.
Speaker 1:Right. Then there was also the part A and part B, where there's a lift, usually gymnastics at the end. That's usually. I feel like the last workout is something that incorporates the gymnastics stuff. I don't know, I wouldn't be surprised if it. I mean, maybe they do a chipper again, I don't know, the first one last year, or something longer. That's just like a row in one other movement and it's just like 20 minutes long.
Speaker 2:You know what I liked back in the day? They did. I think it was 15 minutes of dumbbell, hand cleanses, rowing and toast a bar.
Speaker 1:I really liked that one.
Speaker 2:I liked it. It was like I put my dumbbell right here, my row right here, this is my pull-up bar spot and I could just have this little unit that was. Do that again, if you're listening out there to this podcast right now, do that workout.
Speaker 1:We did an open workout in class from 2011. It was 20 minutes and it was five power cleans, 10 toasts, a bar and 15 wall walls. It was so hard. When I tell you I was part of my score. I went on to the 2011 Open Leaderboard and looked up scores and was like are you kidding me?
Speaker 2:Games athlete Go. Let me close.
Speaker 1:I mean it was okay, but I'm pretty sure it was Annie Thorstotter because that was the year she won the games of 2011. She got 16 rounds in 20 minutes.
Speaker 2:Yuck.
Speaker 1:That's like a minute and a half pace for the entire workout.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a no for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a big no for me.
Speaker 2:It's a no for me. For sure, the workout's cool, but that is 16 rounds of that, 15 wall walls. I mean, just do that math right there, that's what I'm saying. It's disgusting. It's over 300. It's completely a no for me. So wrapping it up here. What are you hungry for? What is your goal?
Speaker 1:My goal this year. So I will say I'm a little bummed that they went from 60 athletes going to semi-finals to 40.
Speaker 1:I think, that makes a big difference. Looking at the leaderboard from last year, looking at that 40th place and what their placings were in each workout versus 60 is a pretty big difference. So definitely a little bummed about that. So I think with given that my goal would be to try and be in the top 100 in quarter finals and then I would say next year my goal would be to qualify for semi-finals. That's kind of like the direction that I'm headed. I think being in the top 60 this year would have been kind of a closer possibility, but now that they bumped it to 40, I don't know that we're quite there yet.
Speaker 1:Just because I finally have had one solid year of training and I've made a ton of progress. I just don't think it's quite enough time to get to that top 40 this year. So I think pushing to be in the top 100 is a good goal for me this year and then hopefully can push for that next year. And maybe they'll change next year too, I mean, who knows?
Speaker 2:Next year it's going to be like top five. Every region go and they're going to burn each other at the games. It's the hunger games now.
Speaker 1:I wish they would go back to the multiple regions where it was like Mid-Atlantic, and I don't even know what all of them were, I just know that we were in the Mid-Atlantic and it was like only a couple of states. I wish they would do that again.
Speaker 2:I like that. I think you and pretty much everybody else. Yeah, we fully love CrossFit, but still waiting to see. But awesome, dude, I think that's a great goal. You're going to work hard, get after it here. Selena, thanks for coming on. It's been a great convo.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Boom. Now it's time for us to go back to our jobs. Peace out, peeps.
Speaker 1:So much fun Thanks. Drink some water. We'll see you, bye.