The Food Medic - S6 E9: Jamie Simmonds 2019 3rd fittest woman on earth

Episode Date: September 1, 2021

Jamie Simmonds (formerly Jamie Greene) is a four-time CrossFit Games athlete and two-time podium finisher, once in 2016 with team CrossFit Yas and once in 2019 as an individual. She’s been a national champion for six years and finished on the podium on prominent Sanctionals such as Strength in Depth and the Down Under CrossFit Championship. Jamie started CrossFit only in 2013 but her background as a gymnast and rugby player certainly helped secure her as one of the top crossfit athletes in the world. Jamie’s journey to becoming the third Fittest Woman hasn’t always been easy with her intense training schedule, injuries, and other stepbacks, yet she is still one of the most determined and committed athletes I know - and she always seems to do with a smile. This episode covers:- Jamie's journey into crossfit- Her experience at the 2019 Crossfit Games - what she loved and what she found the most challenging.- Dealing with Injury and not competing in the 2021 Crossfit season. - How to stay motivated with training - A normal day for Jamie - How the pandemic has affected her training and adjustments she has made. - Stigma around women and weight lifting and her experience as a female athlete in Crossfit - Strategies that are key to her recovery - Advice for those wanting to start Crossfit - Her current goals and what’s next for her Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Food Medic Podcast. I'm your host, as always, Dr. Hazel. Today on the podcast, we have CrossFit athlete Jamie Simmons, formerly Jamie Green. Jamie and I connected through WIT Fitness, who I work closely with as their resident doctor and women's health advocate, and who sponsored Jamie. We also have some mutual friends. Fraser Knox will not forgive me if I do not give him a shout out. So Fraser, this one's for you. That said, Jamie is a phenomenal woman, an athlete, and I could not be more excited to sit down with her today. If you've not come across Jamie before, Jamie is a four-time CrossFit Games athlete and two-time podium finisher once in 2016 with Team CrossFit

Yass and once in 2019 as an individual. She's been a national champion for six years and finished on the podium on prominent sanctionals such as Strength and Depth and the Down Under CrossFit Championship. Jamie started CrossFit only in 2013 but her background as a gymnast and rugby player certainly helped secure her as one of the top CrossFit athletes in the world. Jamie's journey to becoming the third fittest woman hasn't been easy with her intense training schedule, injuries and just other setbacks. Yet she is still one of the most determined and committed athletes I know. And she always seems to do it with a smile. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Jamie Simmons.

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free when you check out through join.whoop.com slash thefoodmedic. So I'd just love to start with kind of your journey into CrossFit and where it all started. Yeah I've always been like into sports. I think growing up in New Zealand there's not a hell of a lot else to do so yeah growing up I did like a lot of sports gymnastics rugby just pretty much anything to get outdoors and then I studied PE at uni so I went to phys ed school and studied exercise prescription and management and then that sort of led on to I did a bit of PTing. I worked at a gym at home, trained CrossFit, and then ended up being a PT. And then that sort of led me to the CrossFit life.

Yeah. And am I true in saying or am I right in saying that you started CrossFit in 2013? Yes. Yeah. My mom actually bought me like a six-week pass. I think I was getting a bit lazy and sort of I was in the rugby culture of going out every weekend maybe drinking a bit much beer um so my mum was like yeah have the six week pass to a crossfit gym and it might sort you out a little bit and lo and behold it did oh my god

that wasn't that long ago no like I the idea that I sort of like still trained before that and I've always done gymnastics that helped a lot. But yeah, I started and then cranked straight into wanting to compete and whatnot a few months after I started, I suppose. Does your mum do CrossFit? She did. She did a women's class at home. She used to always do the yearly things of them. But she's not like, I wouldn't call her a Cross's class at home she used to always do like the yearly things of them um but she's not like I wouldn't call her a crossfitter at all that's still very cool yeah and so I mean

you've had an incredible career so far and your last game so in 2019 you were given the title of the third fittest woman on earth which which is a huge title to hold. But how was your experience at the Games? What did you enjoy the most about it? And what did you find maybe the most challenging? Do you mean in that specific year? Yeah, in that specific year. And that year was very different to other years.

So obviously that was the first year that you qualified through when we had the sanction sanctional season so everyone was sort of like competing a lot more throughout the year because you had the option of all the sanctionals rather than just the whole regional road so everyone was a bit more like I guess competition ready and then it got to that point where there was like 150 of us so that was a bit crazy in the first event but there was something about it that made it quite cool how there was like the cuts so you sort of never really looked too far ahead in the competition you're like oh this may be my last event so I might as well put everything into it because I might not make the next cut there was something like yeah and sort of kept everyone on edge but it was also like a good way of looking at competing because

you know how a lot of the time sometimes you're not really focusing on what you're doing at the time and you sort of miss the moment I felt like it was a really good way to sort of stay in the present moment and like compete as if it was like the last time you're competing for the weekend so it was cool yeah it was good what event did you find was your favorite there was quite a few that yeah I think like I always love the swimming ones and not that I'm like a really good swimmer What event did you find was your favorite? There was quite a few that, yeah. I think, like, I always love the swimming ones. Not that I'm, like, a really good swimmer. Yeah.

I'm not a really good swimmer or anything, but it's just always, like, a good atmosphere to it because, you know, you're outdoors. You get to swim in either the lake or when it was in California in the sea. And it's just sort of, like, throws you around a harder workout that we're not all used to. So I really like that one. But also there's like the things like the sprint. I think that was just such a big one because that was like the field was cut in half. And that was like, you know, make or break. And so much can change in like a short sprint.

So yeah, that was pretty cool. And what about your least favorite of the events? Oh, that year. There's not anything that sticks out that year. But the year before it was the marathon row I can't say that was my favorite three hours of my life I completely forgot about that and you had no idea it was coming no I'd literally said like I think it was maybe two weeks before the games I was like there's literally not one workout that I mind coming up but the only one I don't want to do is a half marathon row that's happened before and then a marathon came up I was like oh sweet just exactly what I didn't want so I think like it was good for me

because I hate rowing and like just mentally I need to just suck it up and do it so I would like to try it again one day and um maybe go in with a bit of a better mindset. Yeah, of course. I would not want to try it at all. Maybe a team one. Yeah, maybe a team. Like tag team, you go, I go. Yeah, I'll deal with that.

But so this year you've unfortunately had a shoulder injury. So you won't be competing in the 2021 CrossFit season. But how are you dealing with that? That's tough. Yeah. So it was like at the time um so obviously it was actually during the first stage of the open so I think it was just before week three I was literally like just finished training doing some accessory work and my shoulder just dislocated which yeah it was a bit of a freak accident but obviously something waiting to happen like I had this feeling that I might be able to get through the last week depending what the workout was and then it came up and it was all gymnastics and I was

like okay this might not go too well so I had to pull out then and at the time yeah it was pretty rough especially since we had moved from the UAE back to the UK, just to sort of focus on being athletes. It was like, shoot, what do I do now? But I think with like the help of everyone around me and like the good support system here of like physios, talk to a surgeon and stuff as well, that they really helped me sort of like stay on track and focus on rehab and sort of like getting back for later in the year.

So to be fair fair I've been pretty busy with all of that and um yeah it's just one of those things that happen in sport but now hopefully after all that rehab it's going to make me stronger for the years to come yeah yeah absolutely but you're totally right in that it will kind of help hopefully future-proof your shoulder for more years to come and And so what does a normal day look like for you now in terms of your training? Are you still doing daily training and like as you were before? Yeah, so the last few months it's been like I've done a lot of sort of just cardio sort of stuff in the mornings and then rehab or lower body strength in the afternoons but now as

of like three days ago me and Elliot just started a new training block and now we're on the same program so we never have been before we've always had different coaches so three days ago we started with on this exact same program so that's been really fun so now we're just back to normal training sort of like building up I want to compete maybe later in the year if like Rogue or something goes ahead. So at the moment it's still just like strength training, but yeah, still sort of like cardio and conditioning in the morning and then trying to

build strength and Olympic lifts in the afternoon. But it's really cool training with Al now. Yeah, absolutely. And for people listening, Elliot's your husband and also a CrossFit athlete. Yeah. And she's lovely to have the support. support yeah it's a good competition sometimes I was gonna say I can

imagine that would be um especially now that you're on the same program yeah it's funny like it's only been three days and we're both like oh my god we're both so sore like get just those extra like gonna try beat each other at those small things and so what would be kind of like a typical morning routine for you then um so normally Elliot's a bit more of a routine person so he sets the tone um but normally I just will get up I'm just learning I'm really useless at like a morning routine and getting up and like eating and things so sometimes I'll just have coffee just go straight into the gym and do like our first session and um Liam at PH Nutrition is like no you need to you need to start fueling that morning session so at the moment I'm building into like

getting up making sure I have breakfast which means sometimes I have to wake up a bit earlier get breakfast then we head into Dragon um here in cardiff dragon crossfit and normally just do some either like you know zone two zone three cardio or some like intervals and a bit of conditioning just to get the morning started and then we sort of hang out at the gym for a bit do a bit of work and then that leads us on to our afternoon session wow so a lot of training in a day yeah so yeah it's not like too bad it's just sort of like two hour block windows throughout the day yeah and um you mentioned Liam from PH Nutrition is he your nutritionist yeah so we've worked I've actually

worked with Liam for like the last four years four or five years yeah and he's awesome to work with and obviously things change throughout the season like you're in different you know at the moment we're in like a strength block so nutrition is a bit different again also when we're competing he's just so helpful like making sure you like we've done it for years but you still forget things all the time like making sure you stay on top of things and if say if I say to him like oh I'm feeling like I don't have energy by the end of the morning session and he'll be like well you need to change this meal before you train and things like that he's really good to work with absolutely it's good to have also like to hand that responsibility over to someone as well to

help figure it out for you definitely because I guess when it comes to when you're competing like it's the difference between you know getting first place or coming second I guess yeah those little tweaks and also like it's one of those things that it can prevent injury and help recovery and things like that and maybe that was something that was off for me as well like you never know like maybe during March with the move over and stuff I hadn't really you know done any habits or anything yet so maybe my nutrition was off a little bit and that also didn't help with you know my shoulder just went for another reason who knows yeah that's it there's so many things to consider like stress and like you said a move new environment yeah yeah where we often we just put

it down to the actual movement or yeah the activity you're doing before but like you said it was almost a freak movement it was at the end you're just doing an accessory exercise so you obviously train very hard and recover hard but how do you stay motivated to do the same thing day in day out I think this one comes down to a lot of obviously like it's been a lifetime habit for me just to sort of live this way. But I think as well, a big thing is who's around you. Like I'm obviously everyone over here that we sort of hang out with is into the gym life. So you sort of, you know, you're motivated by them working hard, them training hard.

So you're like, yeah, I'll give it a go too. But it was always like that at yes as well like we had maybe like six coaches of us there at one point that would just you know work in the morning train work train work train and you just sort of get into that habit you sort of end up doing what everyone else is doing around you so I think the more you can surround yourself with people that are living similar lifestyle to you or a lifestyle that you want to live the more motivation you have to sort of keep up with that so I think it's a lot of it is environment but then again as well also just like you know sitting down and being honest with yourself is this what you really want to do and then that in itself is motivation yeah I completely agree I think what you spoke to there about you know having a tribe of people around you who

have similar values similar behaviors and habits really does help shape your life and the habits that you want to create yeah especially like I bet you see that in London like there's so many different groups or like lives to live in London that you want to make sure you get caught up caught up with the right one absolutely and I think you know when I when I look at my own kind of friendship groups you know they're not all of them have the same interests so I've got like my kind of group of friends who are very active into CrossFit and then yeah my group of friends who are less into that and maybe like to go out a bit more and I think that's fine you know to circulate amongst these groups have a good balance yeah

100% I spoke to James Clear on this podcast recently about that and sometimes there'll be people in your life who you you know they're very close to you you love them but they may not share those values they may not want to train they may not want to eat in a certain way and that's fine but finding people who do can also kind of help take that pressure off you as well. Yeah and then you can sort of you know balance your time between between everyone. And so how has the pandemic affected your training? Like were you in a lockdown at all? I guess over when you moved over here you were in a lockdown. Yeah we've been pretty lucky to be fair so obviously when we're in Abu Dhabi we were still actually working at the gym because we had to do the live online workouts.

So we were allowed in the gym. Also, we had a gym at home. So it was hot, but we managed to still train probably more, if anything, because we weren't coaching as much. And then when we moved here, we actually stayed at Elliot's mum's for 10 days for a quarantine. And she has like all the equipment that you need at her house so that was amazing um and then when we came to Cardiff they actually had like a rule if you were a professional athlete you were allowed in the gym so to be fair we've been pretty lucky but I did notice the difference in motivation in like a quiet gym like a especially a cold quiet gym

in the UK compared to like a gym where there's like classes and other people training and you just have that you know that vibe to feed off from other people to keep you motivated. Absolutely I think that's one of the beauties of CrossFit or why I was drawn to it is the social kind of group training element of it. Yeah definitely and like the people you meet they're just yeah everyone's so like-minded and everyone's just yeah motivation's awesome yeah so next I wanted to chat to you a little bit about your experience as a female athlete specifically and I guess you just mentioned that you and Elliot are now on a on the same training program so I guess you train the same and there's no differences but

have you come up against any challenges specifically as a female athlete in the CrossFit world essentially? Yeah so yeah it could go down sort of two ways here like the inclusive thing with females and males and CrossFit I've always believed that like crossfit is one of the only sports where there hardly is a difference between females and males like from a athlete competing like at the games and things I reckon like the females almost get preference over the males to a point you know you see them almost like in the media more you we get even prize money all that sort of stuff workouts are meant to be similar just like that 70 difference in weight and stuff um so i feel like crossfit's really good in those terms but i

don't really think yeah like training with elliot the difference there is sort of when i always talk to him about like you know like monthly cycle and things like that and he's like oh he's like doesn't get it so sort of you know you're coming up to your period and you're feeling a bit more tired and you don't want to push training as hard i he's like why are you not you know not hitting the same numbers as you did a few weeks ago and i'm like well your body changes a lot within a month and you don't really get that so um it's funny just seeing from like a male's point of view like why i don't understand that it actually affects you quite a bit and yeah like obviously all the girls in the sport are dealing with the same thing um so it's not an excuse or anything

it's just that you need to know your body enough to understand when to push it and when to not so I've been working with Liam a bit about this because I don't know you would have seen his um fitter something woman program yeah um and so I think that's a big thing that could be taught a bit more in CrossFit because again I think that's something that can lead to injuries if you're you know at that point in your month where everything's not sort of functioning as well and you're not feeling you know as energetic then you might push it too hard there and that's when injuries occur as well so I'm learning now how to listen to my body and know when to push and when not to yeah it's so important and it's so interesting in terms of the research that's coming out and it's very early days but I think

the kind of message that you're leaving there with listening to your body and what works for you because we do know that you know at certain times of the cycle especially in the the days leading up to your period in that second phase it may be more difficult for you to kind of really push yourself you may feel more lethargic you're holding more water as well like you tend to burn more calories and things so there's like nutritional considerations but again like the practical implications for athletes I think we're only starting to learn but it's great to hear that Liam and other nutritionists are starting to take this on board and I think we'll soon see like coaches starting to help program around the menstrual cycle yeah

definitely and then also as well it's like the other end of the spectrum you you're feeling good and like it might be you know after after your period or whatever and it's like Liam's really good at going you know if you feel good just go for it like your body's strong right now just see what you you know see what you've got so it works both ways but doesn't it yeah 100% and so when it comes to your recovery what what kind of strategies are you using? And do you take many rest days or deload weeks? Yeah, so normally, Thursday is either like active recovery or rest day, depending how I'm feeling. Sunday is normally a total rest day or like, no, stay out of the gym, do something outdoors. So yeah, normally by those days, I'm like, oh yes, I can't wait for a

rest and sleep a bit longer. But yeah, otherwise, normally I just sort of see a physio every one to two weeks to keep on top of things. Active recovery, I find helps a lot. And for me, I just find like getting out of the gym is recovery in itself, you know, like getting outdoors, especially here, the UK, after being years in Abu Dhabi it's nice just to get out and sort of go to parks get out in the greenery to be honest and I feel like just have given your mind a break can sometimes be like the best recovery for your body as well and do you kind of include any specific strategies in recovery like are you using any kind of things like cryotherapy or

hot and cold therapy things like that yeah so we actually when we're in Abu Dhabi we used to always use cryo I feel like I don't need to here just go outside but um no sort of like I try keep on top of it with like um obviously like go ward um there a gun and things like that and also I've always been a big fan of the power dot because you know you can just you know strap it on wherever you want and then just sit in front of tv and try recover there also we go I go to a sauna once or twice a week and I feel like that's you know a good sweat out and I find that helps with recovery as well and just like muscle soreness and also I on Sundays I know that's your day off because you always share like the

best food from like various food markets in Cardiff so I guess yeah food's a big part of your recovery as well and yeah and getting the calories in yeah like because the big thing as well I know when I'm training I'm a bit sometimes I don't keep on top of like you know getting all the food in that I need to and it's something I'm working on this year. So that comes to recovery day. I'm like, fine, I haven't got time training so I can fill that time with eating. And I feel like that fuels me for the rest of the week. And since coming here, I'm like, oh, Cardiff has such good food. And I've become a food chaser.

So any recommendations? Let me know. Yeah, I actually went to uni in Cardiff. So I do. Yeah yeah I loved it there um so I guess for people who are wanting to try CrossFit what advice would you give them because I know there's so many who are following my channel and now after this conversation they'll probably be thinking wow I'd really love to give that a go yeah so like I think a big thing is people look at CrossFit and they go I'm not fit enough or I'm not ready as such to do CrossFit and there's like no such thing like I've said to a lot of people just go in there and if you don't want to go in

alone find a friend who maybe is a similar fitness level take them with you go in there and there's always an option for everyone so whatever gym you go to, just make sure it's one that you trust like the coaches and you feel like you're going to get, you know, the attention you need at the gym. But once you get in there, you'll realize that no one cares what fitness level you are and the coach should be able to give you options for whatever fitness level you are.

So even if you're injured or there's something that you don't want to do or you can't do, the coach, you know, they won't make you do it if they're a good coach. They'll give you options of how you can fit into the class. And from there, you'll just grow and you won't mind getting in there and getting fit. And I guess, you know, you mentioned the coaches. And definitely, like, I found that when I was about to join CrossFit, my biggest fear was that I'd just be chucked into

this class and everyone would be just throwing around weights and I wouldn't know what was happening but like it is a it's a structured training program yeah which I think a lot of people aren't really aware of yeah like in in theory it's safer than most normal gyms because a normal gym you're just sort of like showing how to turn the treadmill on and then do as you please but whereas if you come to a CrossFit class you're going to of like showing how to turn the treadmill on and then do as you please. But whereas if you come to a CrossFit class, you're going to be coached even two years down the track. Like I'll go to Saturday, I went to a class at Dragon and we still got coached through the movements at the start. I'm like, that's fine with me because then, you know, you get your warm up in.

And even if you know the movements, you're still like, oh, yeah, it's nice to go over it again. It's really cool. Yeah, 100%. I think also one of the things that comes up quite a bit when I talk about CrossFit online, and a lot of my audience are female, and I asked them recently, like what was the biggest thing holding them back from weightlifting or doing CrossFit? And a lot of comments that were coming back

was the fear of getting bulky. And I wonder whether you could speak to that and like your kind of take on this, this stigma around women and weights. Yeah, so this one's been around for years, isn't it? I think a lot of the time, for a starter, people will look at, you know, people who compete in crossfitting

and go, oh, I don't want to look like that. And that's sort of like, yeah, but you'd have to eat a lot of food and train a lot of hours to end up like that for a starter. And then I think it's just the idea that, again, you only have to go in and do as much as you want. Like you don't have to go in there. And if you don't want to put more weight on the bar, don't put more weight on the bar. But normally you get in there and you start getting competitive and you're like, no, I can do more.

I can do more. And I think that's when that mindset changes. But I think the biggest thing is, again, you'll know it comes down to what you're eating anyway. So whatever training you're doing, it's gonna change your body a little bit, but it's more in the nutrition that that bulkiness or whatever comes from. But I think if people can get around the idea that strengthening your muscles is more beneficial for you than, you know, trying to sit at home and not eat so much yeah and I think also CrossFit changes the narrative around like how women should look and yeah I know that my

feelings towards my body changed once starting CrossFit in that when I entered kind of weight lifting gym based environments I definitely had this mindset that I was training to look a certain way and now three years down the line of doing CrossFit I don't ever really think about my body I'm like thinking about my like what skill I'm improving on like increasing the weight and performance and like yeah being surrounded by women who aren't you know focused on being the smallest versions of themselves yeah but actually being more powerful stronger healthier just completely takes appearance out of the equation and yes you will get like it is still you know an appearance

based sport like with guys with their tops off all the time and things like that but it's more about being the best version of yourself I think yeah and I think as well like going into sort of like CrossFit gyms and stuff where everything's a bit more social you learn a lot more about nutrition and things like that whereas like you're not just reading about it and trying to do these things yourself everyone's sort of like they have these nutrition challenges or you you learn what you eat affects how you train so all of a sudden people start eating so they can train well rather than eating so they can look a certain way and I think that makes a big change on how

how you fuel your body I completely agree so what goals are you working towards now like what's what's next um well at the moment now that I've started training again with Elliot I think we just want to start again building up the base for the next season so obviously I want to compete and make it through the open next year so for the 2022 season I would like to compete the full year get to the games for the back end of this year I hope there's some in-person competitions maybe like Rogue I would love it if DFC went ahead again so we'd head back to Dubai and compete there. But again, like at the moment, just building that base because you don't want to plan too far ahead with how things have been the last few years, but just enjoy training as

well. Cause that's, you know, that's why we do it in the end. Absolutely. Well, let's hope we get some more in-person events. I think everyone's hoping for that. But yeah, like you said, you just, right now, you have to just take it day by day, right? Yeah, yeah, definitely. So to wrap up, I've got some quick fire questions for you. Cool. Which I actually consulted with Fraser on on this. Oh, you did? Okay.

Oh, I hate to think. No, they're really straightforward straightforward for context to anyone listening fraser is a mutual friend of mine and jamie's um and he pops up everywhere he pops up everywhere he knows everyone okay so let's go snatch Snatch or clean? Clean. Gymnastics or weightlifting? Gymnastics. These are easy ones. Bike or rower? Bike. Front or back squat? Back. Pizza or burgers? Pizza. Watch rugby or CrossFit? Rugby. Really? Yeah. I see CrossFit enough day to day of course of course Cardiff or London Cardiff night in or night out oh that depends on the mood that one I'd be right in the middle I'm not sure and finally Fraser or Elliot oh that's terrible of course Elliot

depends it depends on the day as well that yeah absolutely that depends if it's night in or night out that is so true Fraser always up for a night out exactly amazing well thank you so much for coming on the podcast today Jamie it was a joy to speak to Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, Jamie. It was a joy to speak to you. No, thank you for having me. Okay, guys, that was Jamie Simmons. What an incredible woman, incredible story, and such a source of inspiration.

I am literally ready to go tear up the gym after that conversation. Again, you know the drill. If you enjoy this episode, please do leave a rating, a review, hopefully five stars and share this podcast episode with someone who you think might enjoy it too. And I'll see you again next time.