Hybrid Horizons - Janie Stel

On todays episode of Hybrid Horizons, host Ari talks to Janie Stel, a world-class athlete and leader within the calisthenics community. Stel recounts her transition from competitive gymnastics and cheerleading to the raw, creative world of bodyweight movement, highlighting her preference for freestyle competition over rigid traditional forms. She details her efforts to formalize the sport through Calisthenics Canada and her entrepreneurial mission to empower women via the Women’s Calisthenics Organization. They discuss the various disciplines of the sport—including street lifting and endurance-based sets—while examining its potential for Olympic recognition. Ultimately, Stel emphasizes how shifting her focus from aesthetic fitness to functional skill has transformed her physical capabilities and personal confidence.

Follow Janie on Instagram @stellarcalisthenics

Follow Calisthentics Canada on Instagram @calisthenics_canada

Follow womens calisthenics on Instgram @womenscalisthenics

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Hey everybody, welcome to Hybrid Horizons. Uh the new and improved podcast is talking about all things athletics, uh, whether that's running, strength training, calisthenics, obstacle course racing, running, you know, uh rucking, anything that you can uh do. Um, you know, we want to talk and talk about. And today I'm I'm super excited to have Janie Stell on the call today. Um Janie is a uh I'm gonna say world class. She's she's got it all over. She's got America uh America and Canada. She's got her own organization she's a part of and started. She's running 5K's, she's flipping over bars, uh, she's doing it all. Um and I'm super excited to to hear the whole story. Um so Janie, welcome, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

That's so cool. Uh well again, you know, I I did a probably terrible job um introducing you uh and and you know rambling on. So please, you know, kind of give us the the rundown of of yourself, your you know, athletic career, your athletic uh, you know, organizations you're part of, and and the you know, quick, quick call, quick speech.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Yeah, for sure. Um so I initially started my movement journey uh with 12 years of competitive gymnastics. Um I love gymnastics doing it. Um my favorite event was bars. I would always do the best on bars out of the four vault bars being floored. I actually won the Ontario Championships back in like 2010 on the bars.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Um the thing about women's gymnastics is only one out of four of the events involve bars. And then in men's gymnastics, they have four out of uh four out of six. So um around 80, four out of six is eighty percent um actually dedicated to the bars. So um that's a whole other topic. We'll get there with women's tally. But um, and then I went to university, did cheerleading for five years, competitively went to the world championships for that, and then eventually fell out of love with cheerleading and found calisthenics, um, which was really a combination of like street sports and a little bit of gymnastics, but also it had like that raw, fearless element that form isn't as highly um like prioritize as much of gymnastics. And that was one of the reasons that I fell out of love with gymnastics, it was how strict um they were on form and all of that. And that's part of like their execution scores. And um, it just you know, you do it an incredible skill and it's about you didn't point your toes. It's like what I just did, the sick trick, like we should be celebrating this crazy dangerous thing I just did, and all that we're being judged on is like how you didn't point your toes. Like that aspect I did not love about gymnastics. Um, and so in calisthenics, specifically the type of calisthetics that I found um myself in, it's not about as much the form. Like as long as you land the skills safely, kind of like any other freestyle sport, like um skiing or um snowboarding, like as long as you land it safe, the degree access that you're on isn't as harshly judged, if that makes sense. Yeah, so let's talk about calisthytics. So calisthetics as a whole is an umbrella term, it comes from a Greek word, um, um, which means or calathenos in in the Greek term is beautiful movement. So anything, anything body weight technically falls under calisthytics. So technically running's a form of kind of calisthetic, that's kind of gray. But you know, Pilates, Pilates, gymnastics, um, anything moving your body is considered calisthetics, body weight movement, push-ups, pull-ups, dips. Um that's calisthletics as a whole. And then there's competitive calisthetics. So you have three different areas of calisthetics that you can compete in. There's what I do, which is the freestyle, which is what more closely resembles like gymnastics, where you have a routine and a certain amount of time on the apparatus to perform with difficulty and ex um and like creativity execution to get a certain amount of points during that time. And then there is street lifting, which is more similar to um Olympic weightlifting, where you have um weight attached to you and you're trying to do your one rep max with the amount of weight that's attached to yourself. So that could that in street lifting, those are for pull-ups, dips, and muscle ups. Depending on the competition, it varies. Um squats is also a part of that sometimes. Um and yeah, so your one rep max with um as much weight as you can. Um and it needs to be performed uh with a proper execution form there. And then the last is reps and sets, which is more of an endurance with your body weight. Um, so how much it depends on the competition again, but it could be unbroken. So how many push-ups you can do without stopping, how many pull-ups you can do without stopping, how many um muscle ups you can do without stopping, or sometimes they're put you like they'll put a routine together, like five pull-ups, ten push-ups, this amount of like some sort of routine you have to finish and who can who can finish it first. Um, and then that time, the lowest time wins, and you're kind of being judged. Similar to high rocks, I guess, in that way. Yeah. And then there's they might have like another category of how many pull-ups you can do in a minute. And so that would be more of like an endure. I mean, they're all kind of reps and sets is basically like endurance more so. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

And this is like all, I mean, is this I know you you uh started your your own you know organization, but is there like a governing body around this? Is there like similar to high rocks? Like is there a another organization that's you know bringing these to different areas?

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yes, absolutely. Um there is a few international organizations. So there's WSWCF, which uh runs the um general rules for each nation on how we put together the national championships, which I'm a large part of organizing for Canada. And then there's um and then they have their world championships, and this is all for um the freestyle, so the part that I specialize in. And then there's other um organizations specifically for the street lifting. So um that's called Final Rep, um, which is another, you know, they have their own guidelines, how to run a national championships and how to qualify your people for each country to then compete at the world championships. Um, and that's kind of what we're looking at from a Calistics Canada lenses. There's a few different international um organizations at this point. And being Calistics Canada, we're kind of open to all of them. And whatever is, you know, serving Canada's best interest, we kind of engage with all the um a few of the um international organizations and um use their rules to put on our own national championships so we can qualify athletes to then move on to that.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Very cool. And is it only at the like national level or is there like teams or you know, I guess how how I almost want to say how professional does it get? Or um or is it like strictly Go ahead, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Yeah, yeah. No, that's a great question. Um, I'm really looking only at the higher level right now, but there anywhere you go, there'll be whether uh like gym events or there'll be provincial events or area events. There's all different scale of events. Um and you know, they kind of circulate, but once you are in the game long enough, you kind of start to know, oh, this is like, you know, this is the higher ranked competition. I want to train for this one. So I'm gonna put off doing this other one that I know isn't gonna be as grand kind of thing. Or, you know, different goals, like some people call are called to one um way to compete, like whether that be 1v1 battles um or a tournament or a tournament style, at least from the freestyle perspective. But they do that in reps and sets too. But for example, for me, I like tournament style. I don't love the 1v1 battles. Um, I did compete at um what's called Battle the Bars in LA at the LA Fitness Expo.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Um and, you know, uh loved the venue, loved the experience. Um, looking back as an athlete, I didn't love the 1v1 battles. It's just not I, you know, it's giving UFC fight and we're doing calisthetics. We're doing calisthics.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

And that didn't land with me as well. Um, and so I really like when it's a tournament style or like we're representing our country and it's more of like an Olympic um feel to it. Because for me, I would like to see calisthenics in the Olympics.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Um, that'd be awesome. I mean, it makes sense, right? They like you said, they've got skiing, they've got running, they've got calisthenics as a general term in the Olympics. Why not expand it to, you know, more parts of calisthenics?

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Exactly. You know, and one of the things there is gymnastics does have a really big monopoly over the Olympics at this point. Um, so if we calisthenics were to go in, we would probably have to fall under the figure international gymnastics. And and one of the reasons calisthenics has come alive the way it has is because there's almost like a retaliation to the way that gymnastics has been for so many years. It's like uh and so I know calisthenics people would not be happy falling under the gymnastics cards.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

You want to be your own kind of thing, you want to go my own rules.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Exactly. And parkour has had that same experience where you know gymnastics also wants to absorb them under their umbrella. But parkour is like, no, we don't want anything to do with you. We want to be our own thing. So it's it's really interesting there.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Where does parkour fit like? I mean, is that its own separate thing, or does that fit under like what you would consider calisthetics or, you know, because I can kind of see that's a kind of a gray area.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah, but the at least from a competition standpoint, parkour is very much its own thing, calcifics is very much its own thing. Are there athletes that can do both? Yes, but at its highest level, you need to be dedicated to either one or the other.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

For sure, for sure. Very cool. Well, this is this is it's kind of blowing my mind. I'm not gonna lie. Uh like I want to learn something so new. Like it it's it's funny because you're like, oh yeah, gymnastics, calisthenics, it all makes sense. Like I can see people doing it, and then you, but like to understand and to see, like, oh, there's these dedications, and there's you know, Olympic events and all this is just it's it's awesome to see. Um, you know, I'm I'm a very firm believer on just get people moving, right? Like it doesn't matter what they're doing, they're running, they're walking, they're jumping on bars, they're um, you know, my my one son um has found kind of like a passion, you know, kind of similar. Uh he does, they call it ninja class, but it's basically like body coordination. They have obstacles that, you know, he just for an hour for every week, he goes and runs and jumps on bars the roar calls and he loves it. And it's like the greatest thing I've ever seen. And I'm so jealous because I want to do it. Um, but like having that, and and um, you know, one of my favorite uh like kind of quotes, which I think is is so again so interesting to me, is is um the founder of Spartan uh was on a podcast. And and you when you think of Spartan, you kind of think of like the big muscly guys, you know, like the bodybuilders, the you know, kind of manly macho-e kind of thing. And and I know it's not, but like I feel like that's kind of the you know, the the image they they should. And he was mentioning, he's like, if I had to do it all over again with my kids, I would not let them do competitive sports until I think he said like eight or nine. And he's like, I would keep them in gymnastics or something like that first because like it gives them body, you know, the body, I forgot what the word he's saying. It makes them more comfortable, they get more coordination, you know, like all those things. And it's just you know, again, but my my other son uh started with gymnastics and loved it. Unfortunately, he you know didn't want to follow through with it too much, but it's that same kind of thing of like you just gotta get them moving and then they'll find a sport they love, you know, or maybe they won't, maybe they'll just keep moving. And it's really cool to see, oh, there's still things out there, you know, like you know, to your point. I feel like gymnastics, uh, you can do it.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Yes, it's body awareness, body awareness. Gymnastics will teach you how to use your body. And I will always be, I know it's uh I sound a bit, you know, unthankful or like no, not at all. I want to see gymnastics like expand. Um, and it has it helped me fundamentally so much, like you said. My mom also had that same mindset of put her in gymnastics and maybe she'll move on to something else. And I did a little bit like you know, I I snowboard for 15 years, I raced in high school, and I can do some pretty, I can do a few tricks and flips on my snowboard. Or um, and then you know, with that surfing became easier. I played soccer for 12 years and I would always do a backflip when I scored a goal. Um just like it definitely helps you. Mm-hmm. And um the I went to um Chandre Gymnastics Institute, and it was a very strict um gymnastics place, but I will say um with the girls that I grew up training with, there has been a handful that have succeeded in other areas. Like one I know has represented Canada twice in figure skating at the Olympics. Um, there's others who are like um huge on social media and are like pro league bodybuilders, like winning Olympia essentially. So, and just have that determined and driven, and especially for women confidence to exceed in the real world. I've definitely seen that come to life in gymnastics from my gymnastics experience.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Well, and I think too, on like you kind of almost look at it at the at the other end. Um, you know, I mean, I see um, you know, when you talked about like male gymnastics being much more, you know, on the bars and and and much more, you know, like strength driven. Um, but I feel like there's such a I almost want to say negative connotation for boys in in gymnastics, which you know, there shouldn't be. But I think to your point, like a thing like street calisthenics or you know, freestyle, where it's a little bit more flowy, it's a little bit more open. Like, I think you know, that's that's what you need to expand it, you know, to show people that it's not just okay, you've got to do this and you've got to point your toes, and you know, you've got to be very formal and organized. It's like go and swing on the bars. You know, like I'm how how many kids could you imagine doing freestyle calisthenics if you're just like, hey, there's two bars over there, go have fun, go, you know, just swing around for a while. They'd be they'd be out there for hours for years.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Yeah, I think there is a cultural, um, like definitely a big cultural play that goes into gymnastics. Um, like in Canada, you know, the the classic guy, like um macho hockey player or lacrosse or whatever else, like, and or in this um in the US, it's football. But in Japan and China, what what is our hockey is their gymnastics for men. So it's actually really cool there to actually go into gymnastics, um, which is why their men's team win win the Olympics every year. And um, I think again, it's it's what my brother calls the, I'm sorry, not my brother, my boyfriend calls the feetie pajamas, which is the outfit that they have them in, which I think is a big thing for some of the guys. And I know one of the famous American uh gymnasts that's a male, like wears male shorts and he takes the deduction just to prove a point. So I think there is some um movement there, but I don't see that changing anytime soon. But um, even pro-level gymnasts, um, it will take them many years to get into freestyle calisthetics and adapt because there are differences, such as the bars that we compete on are hard bars, like what you would find as a play at a playground outside, like they have no gift to them. Um, and then in gymnastics, the bars are completely bendy. It's like doing a trick on a trampoline versus the ground, essentially.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Yeah, that is that about that. I think though, too, like, I mean, you know, again, that like if we could get away from that cultural side of things, because if you look at the the men and women who do uh gymnastics and like the strength it takes to uh you know lift yourself up on the bar and to swing completely around on the bar and the rings and thus, like I remember, yeah, to your point, the Olympics whenever it was last year or two years ago, or yeah. Yeah. I mean, just seeing those, the the both again, the men and the women, and and just like the the pure upper body strength that they had for it. It's like, you know, you you can easily argue that you know it's not a flimmy flammy kind of you know sport. Like it takes it takes a lot of strength uh to get up there and do that.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yes, absolutely. And bringing that to like the women's side of things, you know, only I think it's less than 1% of women can do a single pull-up. And I think bringing into the gym culture, you know, most women they go to the gym because they want to train for the male gays. They want to have nice glutes, be skinny, Pilates princess, all of that culture, which is helpful. It helps people get into movement in general. So I'm not gonna like I completely support that. But I think once you've graduated from that and are okay with, you know, um you train for learning a new skill or functionality rather than an aesthetic purposes. Oh, a thousand percent. That is, I think, the biggest transition, or at least for me, because I was that person up until like when I quit gymnastics and then started calisthetics, I definitely went to the gym with those goals.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

I think a lot of people, I think I I'd be shocked to say if it wasn't 90% of the women who, you know, start at the gym. And I think men too. I think you know, men go and, you know, it's for the opposite sex's gaze, right? Like you want to look good, you want to feel good about yourself. So you're doing those specific things. And then I think, right, as you get more comfortable and probably you get a little bit older and you're like, well, yeah, you know, no, I want to be able to be on the floor with my kids when I'm, you know, 60, or I want to, you know, get off the couch and run a 5K. You know, it's those kind of things. And that's to right to your point, you you start training more for that and those other muscles than, you know, just your glutes or or you know, spending hours on the cardio.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Yes, exactly. And I think, you know, it's a it's the same cycle over and over again. And then like for me, it was so transformational to change my goals from aesthetic to functionality. Um, you know, and what what was interesting with that is the people around me also changed. I all like I started valuing those things in myself. And then the people around me, I started to value like who they are as a person, starting to find deeper, deeper meaning if that makes sense to all areas of my life, um, just from what I was focusing on at the gym. Um so yeah, there's that element too. So um I'll move on to the women's calisthetics organization. So um for my final project of university, so I went to university for a five-year degree in uh Bachelor of Commerce for business. My last semester, I did an entrepreneurship class. And at this point, I was already competing um in calisthenics um in Canada, and then eventually I won um national championships here. Then I was I went down to the States to compete at the World Cup, and I came second at that, and then they brought me to LA and then Miami, and fantastic experience. I was like, I I, you know, I was that was my version of being a pro athlete. Um it pretty much was at the I mean, yeah. And then um the common thing I kept seeing at every competition I went to in the United States, and still if I go compete in Europe, um there's always so much less female talent than male talent. And me coming from a gymnastics background, I know that there's very talented women out there that haven't found calisthenics yet. And it does have kind of a more guy ish vibe of like, you know, they like to play really dark music, and you know, you start to build a lot of upper body strength. And it has like a macho guy um culture to it, which is totally great. Um, but I wanted to see more women get into it, whether them coming from Jamaica. Gymnastics or CrossFit or pole dancing or rock climbing. And so that was when I did some more market research and came up with the Women's Calistics Organization. And that's the project I put together for my entrepreneurship class in university. Put all the market research together and then eventually launched it in 2022 and then actually made it a real thing to help get more women into the sport in all the different categories, whether that be freestyle or just training for fun or doing meetups and having, you know, those girl gangs in the same way that the guys do. And it have a more feminine approach to it that will bring in the girlies from like the Pilates and the rock climbing. And so that they still feel that they can maintain their femininity, but also like you know, start to build upper body strength, do cool skills and um yeah. So it's it's been great.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Your organization is more of a like community organization, is that fair to say, or like a marketing organization as opposed to like a governing body or like a um uh event coordination or anything, correct?

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Um for the most part at this stage, yes. We have done um a few competitions with one coming up in September. Um that one's called Empress of the Bars. So we do um an all-women competition. Um, it was in New York the first two years, and it's looking to potentially be in Montreal come September. And um, that's a great, I think, initiative to get women to sport. But exactly as you said, it's more of a community aspect at this point. Um, and then I am on the board of directors with Calisthetics Canada, so that's definitely more of a governing body at this yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

And and where are you like seeing, you know, recently, like are you seeing more people coming from? Like you said, the Pilates or the um rock climbing, or are you like are you seeing an intake or or it uh uptick of people from like CrossFit or um high rocks or anything like that? Or or is it the adverse? Are you seeing people like come to you and then head over towards uh high rocks and CrossFit?

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Um, I think what I mean for freestyle, I'll see different kinds of athletes come in than for um street lifting and reps and sets. So you get your your um CrossFit athletes definitely more drawn to the reps and sets, and they already train for um that anyways, so they can definitely cross over. I know we had this one girl that went to the CrossFit games, her name's Meg, and she dominated um a CrossFit competition years ago. And um so there's definitely that. But for freestyle, which is the area that I come from, we tend to see more of those athletes that are training for specific skills. So, like the pole dancers or the rock climbers, the ones that will sit and do the same thing over and over again, like literally the same skill meticulously until they get it. Um, and that's that's kind of that mindset. And like maybe even snowboarders, I've seen some of that, that have that um ability to face fear, which is a big aspect of it. Some people see a skill, they're like, that's scary. I would never do that.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Um there's a big fear, and that's the thing is a lot of the time, you know, you have your crossfit athletes and high rocks athletes who are insanely strong and they could learn the skills to do it. And if I'm coaching them half the time, it's me just supporting them with the fear of doing it and the technique, of course. But um, there's definitely a big fear element there. So people who are training to face their fears are people training to endure pain.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Yeah. I mean, I I I could I could imagine easily, definitely like on your side of the freestyle thing. I mean, I I would be, I would be very scared, you know, to to flip upside down or or you know, to flip upside down. I saw some of your videos of like, you know, you're you're switching direction, you're, you know, letting go and and catching yourself. Um, you know, I I'm not coordinated, so like I know I would fall, you know, face first. Um, so what's that kind of look like? Like as a coach, you know, are you are you putting a mat down on the floor? Are you holding them while they're doing it? Are you just kind of talking through it? Is a little bit of everything?

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Yeah, it's really a bit of everything. It depends on the person. So yeah, I also am a coach in Mississauga at Indominal Spirit Academy. Um, I'll take on uh clients on an individual basis, and then I every so often do workshops in different pop-up gyms. Um, sometimes if I'm traveling, I actually got to do it on Australia a few months ago. Um, I have one coming up on Sunday in North York. So I really get to like touch on different areas. Um, but on a day-to-day basis, I'm in Mississauga, and that's where um, yeah, the gym that I'm training out of. So uh it really depends on the athletes' goals. Like if their goals are to learn their first muscle up or their first pull-up, then we're gonna be, you know, working on like all the progressions leading up to that and using the bands and working on the technique. If they want to get into freestyle, then I usually play into their strengths because unlike gymnastics, there's not just like a one size fits all. You that you have to learn this way and you have to have this body type. No, freestyle, you get to embrace your strengths if you're more flexible. Like I can see it in their in my clients' bodies on how they move, what skills they're gonna pick up quick and what skills might be more of a challenge for them. So if they first come to me, I want them to feel the momentum of learning new skills. They're happy, excited, they want to keep going. And then I'll just play into like whatever they're picking up quickly, and then we'll work on the other stuff, like you know, um, down the road so that they're really enjoying the process. Because that's really how people get hooked into um freestyle, anyways. And and anything. As soon as you start to see progress in what you're doing, it becomes addicting to a thousand percent.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Yeah. I mean, that's to your point, that's that's how you get um that's how you get right. That's how you you get people hooked, right? Yeah, yeah. You get you get excited about it, you get uh you want to tell everybody, you know, right, I did my first muscle up or I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Yeah, post the video, yeah. Show your friends, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Exactly. Very cool. Um, I have to ask, and and if you don't know this, that's totally fine. But like when you say like, you know, the the the one rep max or the the sets and reps, like what are we talking? Uh I should say, how much are we talking about? Like, is this like an astronomical people are gonna be floored when they hear this?

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Is it like kind of like what kind of weights are being moved in their sport?

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Yeah, I think I think so like weights, how many push-ups are they doing at a you know, at a time?

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Um, okay, at the Canadian level, um I think the one rep max for Canada and I could be a bit off. Oh my gosh, I don't want to I okay. My female friend from Australia who is who plays second in street lifting, I know she did a muscle up with 27 pounds um attached to her. I know her pull-up, I believe, was around 93 pounds. Yeah, she's and then so I think for the men, for the men, they're definitely 200 plus pounds that they're pulling. And then uh my friend's dip. I want to say 150 pounds, she dipped.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

So for for men, I would double it. So I'm you're probably gonna see guys doing 300 pound dips, um 90 pound muscle ups, and like 250 pound pull-ups.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

That's insane. Do you know how many push-ups they're like? I'm gonna stick on the push-ups just because I like I just finished a challenge with with some of my friends, where not anything like this. It was just it was 100 push-ups a day, but you could do you know 10 at a time or or anything like that. So I've got push-ups on the brain, but like I I'm just curious to know how many push-ups they were doing, like uh in a row, for example.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

It could be 350 without stopping, unbroken. So, what we call unbroken is you know, you can't stop for more than two seconds, and your chest needs to be hitting a water bottle lying down on the way down.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Okay, so good push, a good push-up, yeah. Wow, 350. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Let me look up the world record for push-ups. Okay. Oh wow, what the that's crazy. Okay, so the the mo the most challenging world record push-up titles include Charles Serviso, 46,000 in 24 hours. Okay, and then yeah, yeah, in 24 hours. That was in 1993. Wow. And then most amount of push-ups done in one hour is three thousand three hundred and seventy-eight. So that who that guy was just going. Like he didn't stop that whole hour for that.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

That's that's not that's crazy. Yeah, wow. All right, we got some things to look up for, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

I mean, so that's not really the area that I compete in. I'm actually doing a competition at the end of the month for reps and sets. Um, like I definitely have a great foundation in terms of strength from you know, training, but I don't train that that will help me um for the power strength that I need to do um my skills and like have power enough to, you know, do a twist or a flip and recatch the bar. Um, but there's there's athletes that will specifically dedicate themselves to training for each of these, like whether it be streetlifting or reps and sets. And so uh I'm excited to see how I do. I'm doing a competition at the end of the month just to like see, but it's it's really exciting to actually do a competition and not have any expectations go into it like I usually do for freestyle.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Right?

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yeah, yeah. Bring back the the love and the just for fun aspect.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

So for you, like like you're saying, as as as you're training, if you're training for freestyle, is it to your point, is it more like repetition, like you're getting a uh like a flow going and like you a routine kind of, and then you're building, you know, you're building on that and and practicing each move and and you know, kind of putting it all together. Are you doing like other exercises to help build the strength, the combination? What's what's that kind of look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Yeah, let me walk you through uh like what I would do training for the world championship. So last year I competed in Bulgaria at um the Calisthetics World Championships. And um with WSWCF, they have a code of points for each skill on how much points like difficulty you'll get for doing each skill. So once I commit to a competition, maybe eight, 10 months in advance, I already have obviously like a basis of skills that I can do. Um, but I might put like a goal together. I want to be able to do this skill, I want to be able to hit this in a flow. Um and essentially how they judge is for freestyle, 50% of the mark comes from well. Yeah, we'll say 50% of the mark comes from static. So those are your three second strength holds. That's back lever, human flag, one arm handstand, front lever, planche, human, like anything that is like a strength hold, that's called a static. And then the other 50% of your mark comes from dynamics. Those are the skills that resemble more like a gymnastics where you're doing like a 360 recatching the bar, 540 recatching the bar, um, what we call ganger, like a side flip recatching the bar, um, a shrimp flip, uh 720, five uh super 540 giant, those like movement skills. And then basically you put together routines between statics and dynamics. And obviously, there's you know a combination aspect where if you're doing difficult combinations, you'll get more points. And then also there's the aspect of creativity, which you don't really see in gymnastics, where um the more, I don't know, flair, like things that don't really give you marks, but you're kind of making it your own and make standing out to the judges as your own individual person, you can also get points for that. And then of course, there is an execution aspect where if you fall off the bar, you are gonna lose points, but not as detrimental like gymnastics, where basically your whole competition is over. Um and so training for this competition. Um, you know, I'm trying different, I might be training dynamics one to two times a week because it it takes a lot on the hands and my hands will rip like crazy. Um and then I'm training statics um twice a week. So maybe one day is a handstand day and the other is like a back lever human flag um core day. Um, and then I'm putting together these skills, and then leading up close to the competition, I'm uh training endurance for those routines because I'll have um I'll for qualification round you do a two-minute routine. And then for semifinals and finals, you're doing uh two times one minute routines. So you want to have at least some sort of endurance that you can put all these skills together and perform them under pressure with people watching in that minute that you have. So you need to have like great endurance and um dynamics are a little bit more tricky than statics because statics, once once you can do it, you can usually get you can usually do it every single time. Dynamics, there's a risk element to it.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

So what is endurance, what is like an endurance training like that? Is that like doing multiple reps of it like you know in a minute, or is it like I guess how do you build your endurance in a move like that?

SPEAKER_00 36:45

So because the routines are very like are dangerous and you you don't want to fatigue yourself too much that you start to do it when you're super tired because that's how you get injured, and actually how I've dust dislocated my finger once. Um it's I'm going to training and I want to hit three to five routines and I want to hit them clean. And, you know, if there's certain aspects that I'm struggling on, and especially if it's leading up closer to the event, maybe I should take out the harder aspect and put it in with something else. Um, and so just you know, working on your routines and just perfecting them until leading up to the competition, that's how you would train for endurance, being able to do the same routine perfectly three times in a row each time you go to train. Um and maybe like, you know, when I was doing uh cheerleading, one of the things we would do, and I definitely brought this into calisthenics, is I would like start with 50 jumping jacks and then try to hit my routine and make it so that when I'm doing it on stage at the competition, it's as easy as possible and I can actually enjoy the experience.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Kind of important, right?

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Yeah, yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

Awesome. Um, so I mean, just to kind of bring it a little bit full circle, I know we talked uh uh briefly before the call and everything. So um, you know, you did the 5K and you said you weren't much of a runner. I mean, has running has running been a part of your kind of training, like, you know, with gym gymnastics and with cheerleading and like that endurance aspect? Um, you know, has running been kind of like a baseline or was this a a new avenue for you?

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Oh, that's a great question. Um running has been a part of my training in gymnastics. We definitely did, you know, cardio training in that way, but in terms of like running outside, no, I did cross country growing up, like cross-country running. I was I was pretty mediocre, I'd say, at it. Um, and then my brother really fell into running. He's been running for oh, I'd say 20, maybe not 20, 18-ish years.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

And he ever like you wanted to beat your brother at a 5k or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

Because I was so into gymnastics, like I would be training 20 hours a week, um, get getting pulled from school early, like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, each of those days I'm training five hours, and I'm like a 10-year-old kid. That was my entire world. Um, and so at the same time, my brother was really into running in the same way. And so I never stand at a chance, but he definitely inspired me to get into running into some capacity. But when I actually started to get into running like on my own accord, I would say it was more for like dealing with anxiety. Like it was more of like a mental and a way to get outside than specifically to support with calisthenics. It definitely has helped. You definitely want to have a good like basis of cardio. But um yeah, when it starts to get nice, like I like to just maybe do like once a week of running and no marathons in your future or anything like that, it sounds like. I love a challenge. I love a challenge. All right.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

I guess I would ask, you know, this is a great way. Like, how how interested are you? Or what do you feel about, you know, kind of these new, I'll call them hybrid and they're they're you know, very close to calisthenic type of workouts around like the Spartan Deccas and the Hyrux and things like that. Do you see that as like way, way different or kind of in the same vein, or it's a competitor of yours? You know, like what are your what are your kind of thoughts on those?

SPEAKER_00 40:37

I think that I like that it's becoming so normalized and that's almost becoming like the new cool thing instead of going to the bars and drinking with your friends. Like I like that there's some sort of basis of fitness that's you know been so normalized in society. And I think that that's from the way I see it, a great first step for people to get into calisthenics because there is it is such a hard thing to get into. And I think that's a great starting point to get your body into shape and um and then maybe hopefully we start to see more of those people come to calisthetics. I don't necessarily see it as like a threat. I think it's gonna continue building the growing fitness community in general because it is a really fast growing industry.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

Oh, a thousand percent. I mean, I think I I I think personally, HyROX is gonna get into I don't want to say trouble. They're gonna, they're gonna have to deal with something soon because I feel like they're they're limiting their potential for growth for as quick as they're growing. Um, you know, because they they and I I could be wrong, I've never done one, but like I feel like it's very almost exclusive, you know, there's a little bit of exclusivity to it where it's you know, you gotta pay quite a price to get to these events, and the events are you know only in certain places. Um, you look at like a Spartan Deca, which is very similar, um, but it's much more at that kind of entry level, you know, and and not entry level as far as the exercises, but entry level as far as like even the small mom and pop gyms can host an event and people can come and stuff. And and you know, I think hopefully for you guys, like there's gonna be those people who train for high rocks, do a high rocks, probably do it once or twice, and then are kind of like, I don't really feel like paying that much to get back into it or to go back there. What else is out there? Ooh, calisthenics. That sounds cool, that sounds, you know, tough. Uh, you know, let's let's go to that avenue. So I think I think, you know, to your point, I think it's a great entry to hopefully get, you know, your your sport to to grow even more.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

Yeah, exactly. And yeah, I would I I know a few people who have done it. And um it just uh I know F-45, I think, partnered with Red Bull and they're putting together their own version of Hyrock. So it's definitely becoming a saturated field. Um, but again, like you said, I think it, I think it's fantastic at the way that it's brought in all different kinds of areas of people. Um, for me, with the like lifetime of dedication to gymnastics and calisthenics, I see that as a bit of a rat race for me to get into. I just I like to have um a degree of mindfulness when I'm working out, and I get that from calisthenics.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

Very cool. Yeah, and I think I saw you you've you do a little bit like like you said, kind of more of that movement and that flow kind of state of of you know, I guess I would say that's calisthenics as well, right? Where it's like like the I always tried, I I always try not to refer to it as animal flow, but I feel like that's kind of what everyone knows it as, you know, that like that kind of walk and and movement and mindful movements and stuff. Um, you know, so I I I think to your point that that's a a different animal, but animal, um, but you know, another way of get right of getting people kind of in and moving and and you know, maybe it's a uh a path to to Calce.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

Yes, exactly. I mean, I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, I always wanted to fly. And I love the idea of being able to fly. And I feel like I get that same like experience when I'm actually in control, complete control of my body. Yeah. Um it's quite yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

I was gonna say, not me. I I'm afraid of heights. So I I didn't want to fly, but I get I get what you're saying. Uh well, also, well, I I know we're we're going a little bit over, which is fine. This has been unbelievable. This has been such a cool conversation. Um, I think, you know, ideally, I'd I'd love to wrap up and just kind of understand like, where do you see uh, you know, calisthenics as as a as a sport and as a you know organization, community, and all that stuff kind of like growing. You know, where do you want it to grow? What are kind of your you know your goals for it?

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Yeah, there's and we have this conversation very often when we do our um meetings with the Calisthetics Canada Board of Directors. Um I'll speak for myself right now, the way that I'm focused on things, and I'll give my own perspective on the future. Um, for me, I'm very prioritizing helping Calistics Canada build the foundations of the sport. And then secondary, I want to see women specifically in the sport. But we can't have, you know, I can't be all in on getting women in the sport if there's no sport even created in the first place. So focus on building the sport, you know, having a consistent national championships with growing sponsors and and um attention. So one of the really cool things that we have coming up is um our national championships is gonna be in a street sport festival with other street sports that have recently made it into the Olympics, including rock climbing, skateboarding, and breakdancing. Um essentially, there is a street sport festival that started in Montreal called Jackalope. And they put on a festival with the local city. So they work with the city of Montreal, they're working with the city of Mississauga, and they also work with Virginia, um, like Virginia, US, um, Ventura, California, and Newcastle, Australia to put on these street sport events. And so for their Mississauga competition coming up January 11, 12. Um, and I hope that this podcast comes out after we announce this. Um, I think it'll be fine. Um, but we're going to be setting up a barrian being one of their featured sports for our national championship. So day one, we're gonna have streetlifting, and day two, we're gonna have freestyle, and that will be a qualifying event for um the final rep World Championships and the um WSWCF Freestyle World Championships, which is super exciting. We haven't seen that before. And the fact that we can integrate with these other similar sports where people have that similar interest in this kind of thing will help our sport grow immensely and get our get, you know, our um sport out to other sponsors. You know, they have an array of large sponsors there, like grenades there, our Turix builds the rock climbing dome, um Red Bulls there, you know, monsters there, and getting those kinds of companies' eyes on the sport is gonna be huge.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

So, yeah, really excited for that and to have that growing um connection with them so we can continue doing catalytics events with them, whether that be for national championships or other events at their um other locations for their um this festival. So that is what I'm excited for for Canada, for international for the sport. Um I would like to see the world championships become bigger. I know there's discussions of it potentially moving out of Europe. You know, they've done it in Hong Kong, they've done it in Eastern Europe, they've done it all over Europe. Um, I would like to see it maybe in North America. Um, and of course, growing sponsors and growing relationships with the Olympic committee is very important.

SPEAKER_02 48:05

So cool. Um awesome. No, I I think that that's awesome, and and I hope for nothing but all of that and more. Um, you know, I think, like I said, this has been such a cool uh conversation, really opened my eyes. I mean, I it um to put it lightly, I'm foaming at the mouth. I'm like, oh, this is cool. I I you know, I want to I want to see what's around, you know, uh in the US. And uh, you know, I I'm part of a workout group um that's very like kind of the same mindset. You know, we we don't get on the bars, I think um just because we work out at like local schools or parks, you know, so there there are some bars kind of things there. Um, but it's all about like mostly, or shouldn't say all about, but it's mostly about like body weight. We use cinder blocks for our weights, like you know, for more accessibility and things. But you know, uh we all love a good challenge, right? And like I'm trying, as soon as you were like, oh, we do like the max push-ups, I'm like, oh, I know exactly who I'm telling this about, and I'm gonna challenge him to do it because like I want to see him because he's he's a push-up guy, you know, and that.

SPEAKER_01 49:01

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:02

Uh I think it's just so cool to, you know, that that I got a chance to talk to you and and and really learned about this. So um, you know, I really hope this, this, you know, like I said, gets more people involved um and get more people's eyes on this, uh, you know, wherever. Um, so I'd love, you know, if you if you have anything to to plug, any channels or websites, please, you know, uh share them and and you know, we'll we'll continue to pass that along as well.

SPEAKER_00 49:26

Yeah, for sure. Um, no, it's been great to honestly talk about this. Not many people, I haven't I would like to ch talk about it more. Um I just feel like sometimes I'm moving at a thousand kilometers an hour. And I it's it's nice to actually sit down and be like, wow, yeah, this is what's happening. Um between like competing and training and organizing and coaching, like it all the worlds they kind of all start to cross over. And so to actually sit down and break through each of them, it's it's very gives me a little bit of clarity too, actually.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

Well, awesome. Uh yeah. So where can people find you know more information about your organization, about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 50:05

Yeah. So women's calisthetics.org is the website for any meetups that might be coming up for women's calisthetics or competitions. Um and then you can also go on Instagram. That's women's calisthenics on Instagram. Feel free if you're posting something and you're a girl wanting to share what you're doing, whether it be your first pull-up or your first 360, whatever, um, we're happy to collaborate and um do a repost. Just tag the account. I have a lovely um girl named Emmy from university that's been helping me with that social media. So she's on there like three times a week, supporting with sharing things on that social media. Um, Calistics Canada, another great resource. They do incredible meetups, really inspiring the community that I've supported with women's calisthetics. They do incredible meetups um throughout the throughout Canada, whether that be um, you know, the GTA, Montreal, Ottawa, I know they have plans to go out to the West Coast as well sometime this summer. So they do meetups, and then we have the national championships coming out through Calisthetics Canada. So um you can find them, I believe, calsexcanada.org or.com, calsexcanada.com and calistex canada on Instagram. Again, same thing if you want to tag them and you're Canadian and you want to share your content with the local community. Um, we have another uh Ethan on there sharing that information um and reposting, collaborating, all the things. Um, and then for myself and my social media, I'm Stellar Calisthetics on Instagram. I also have stellarcalisthetics.com for my coaching um business based in Mississauga, but I also do a lot of online programming for um building strength, learning skills, helping you put together routines to compete. Um, it's really, yeah, I can help you with your first pull-up or I can help you work train for the world championships. So um happy to work with people that want to grow and are dedicated to the sport and improving themselves. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:22

Cool. Well, Janie, this has been so fantastic. Like I said, I can't get over it. Um, and again, I we wish you nothing but the best. And and uh, you know, hopefully we can maybe reconnect in a couple of months or or even you know next year as your as your sport continues to grow and um you know you continue to grow in there and and catch up and see, you know, how far you've uh you've taken this.

SPEAKER_00 52:42

Yeah, I would love that. And you know, if you're in the GTA area, July 11, 12, square one, we're gonna literally be doing our national championships in the heart of the damn city. So if you're in the GTA, you should definitely come out. Um, it's gonna be epic.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

I love it. Thank you so much. Have a great rest of your night. Um, and uh hopefully again, we'll talk soon. Thanks. Bye bye.