WHOOP Podcast - Haley Adams, CrossFit phenom, discusses being a role model and her mission to win the CrossFit Games

Episode Date: May 12, 2021

Haley Adams won CrossFit’s teen division in 2018, and said then that she would win the CrossFit Games within 5 years. Since moving up to the adult division two years ago, she has turned in 6th and 4th place finishes at the Games and is looking for an even stronger performance this year. She joins the WHOOP Podcast to detail her journey to the top of the sport, how she thinks about performance, and why she tries to help girls who are getting into CrossFit. Haley sits down with Mike Lombardi to talk about finding success in CrossFit at a young age (2:05), switching from gymnastics to CrossFit (3:12), how different workouts affect your recovery (6:17), being a role model for the next generation of athletes (10:16), overcoming low recoveries (14:52), eating before bed (16:33), training and sleep (19:02), where she finds her inspiration (20:25), competing against her idols (21:37), and the new era of CrossFit (24:25).Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

What's up, folks? Welcome back to the WOOP podcast. I'm your host, Will Amit, founder and CEO of Woop, and we are on a mission to unlock human performance. We have a great CrossFit guest today. We'll get to her in half a second. Reminder, you can use the code Will Amid, W-I-L-L-A-H-M-E-D, to get 15% off a W-W-P membership.

That's right. Hardware included. software, analytics, everything you need to optimize your body, your health. Check it out at whoop.com. Okay, this week's guest is CrossFit Phenom Haley Adams. Haley is already one of the faces of the CrossFit sport. She's only 20 years old. She won CrossFit's Teen Division in 2018 and said then she would win the CrossFit games

within five years. Since moving up to the adult division, she has turned in sixth and fourth. fourth place finishes in the games and is looking for an even stronger performance this year. So our resident CrossFit expert, Mike Lombardi, is in the host chair for this episode, and he and Haley discuss her journey from gymnastics to CrossFit, what it's like competing against athletes she idolized just a few years ago, why she tries to be a role model for girls getting into CrossFit, her approaches to training, sleep, recovery, and performance, and how she uses Whoop and what she's learned about herself through data.

All right. Without further ado, I'm turning it over to Mike and Haley. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Wooop podcast. I'm Mike Lombardi, here with CrossFit Phenom, Haley Adams. Haley, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. We're so excited to have you on Team Whoop because, you know, it's so different now that

within CrossFit, it seems like there's this wave of young athletes, 16, 17, and then you're 20, but you've been at the top of the sport since you were 17. You won the games in the team division in 2018, and I thought I saw something where you said it wasn't really that hard. And then you saw the difference in 2019 when you were competing in the senior games. Would you say that that's accurate? Yeah, it actually was very accurate. Not to take away anything from the teenage version.

I gave my all in every workout, but just the intensity and, And the volume of the elite level is totally different. And just having to sell your soul in every single workout just to maybe get in the middle of the pack was something that was totally different for me and that I had to learn to really run my own race. So, yeah, I would totally say that's a very accurate statement. It's pretty cool to see the jump from winning the team to sixth and then fourth last year. Super fun. Do you almost surprise yourself sometimes? I surprise myself every year. And I don't know why I keep setting lower goals for myself when I know that I can do it. Like this year, I have way more confidence than last year or the year before. So, you know, let's go back a couple years. How did you kind of find your way into prospect? Yeah. So I was a competitive gymnast for a long time. I've played sports my whole life, even before gymnastics, softball, soccer, literally anything, you name it, I've done it. But I was

15, and I was just getting really burnout on competitive gymnastics, but I wanted to do something. I just joined the cross-country team from a high school and swimming. But there was this, like, building beside my cross, or gymnastics gym, and it had glass windows. It was a cross-foot gym. And I remember driving by there every day, and I would see these women, like, lifting weights, jumping ropes, doing something on a pull-up bar. And I just really, really wanted to try it. So I begged my dad after I quit gymnastics to take me in there.

And he did. And the rest is history. Wow. So it's this transition from a little gymnasics, which it seems like a lot of people that are at the top have a sort of background in gymnastics. And for a while there, I was doing CrossFit three days a week while still doing gymnastics because I just couldn't get the courage to give it up yet. Even though I knew I wanted to be done, it was just hard to quit and say, by all your friends. And so even then when I quit gymnastics, I was started cross country and swimming while still doing CrossFit. So I was kind of managing all that too for a little bit.

And then at what point did you just go all in on on CrossFit? After freshman year of swim team. So in the spring of 2016, I think. Yeah, it was the year the 2016 open because I just started CrossFit a little before that. At some point, you decided you're going to make the jump to move to Tennessee. and train with Rich and the Mayhem team. Yeah. What kind of, could you walk us through that process?

It's a big job for someone young to do that. Yeah, in 2018, after they announced all the changes of CrossFit, I was like, I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it as individual. Maybe I can find a team or something or just keep training until I can make it. And they reached out and asked if I wanted to be on the second team, Maham Independence, and if I wanted to move here to train with them, which ended up being the biggest blessing because I would never have just picked up and moved to Cokeville.

I was 18 or 17, but it was seriously the best thing I've ever done for myself for my career. Ended up making it as individual at the games that year. So it didn't end up going on a team. Only did one team competition before we decided that it was best for me to go individual. But, yeah, I originally came here with plans of being on the team. Okay, so that changed very quickly.

With Woop data and in CrossFit training, there's obviously everyone has their gaps in physiology. It seems like you have a very good sort of capacity background. So something like, you know, a lot of running, swimming, et cetera, longer Medcons, you know, they'll drive your strain up and they're challenging, but it's not necessarily the thing that taxes your body the most over a period of time. You know, just as you're going through your training blocks, what are the things that you feel like are the things that sort of smash your HRV down

or taking you a little bit longer to recover from. And what are the things that you kind of wait, let's say you are tired, like today, say I'll feel a little beat down. Is there the way to sort of like change the training enough where you're like, all right, I'm still getting in good fitness,

but this is the thing that's going to kind of bring me back up for, you know, a Friday and a Saturday push. Yeah, so I've picked up on that met cons with really high intensity, but still like that 10 to 15 minute time frame with a heavier barbell really seemed to catch up to me. and made me feel kind of sluggish and just, you know, affect my recovery score the next day. I'm usually longer intervals and stuff, like running seem to help in some way.

I'm not usually in the red or it's not because of that, I would say. Those are just the trends that I've picked up on to, like today I feel pretty smash. So I'll probably just do cardio today, maybe a pump session with the boys. Yeah, and hopefully that will get my recovery up smart. It's not bad today. It's like 55%, but I still feel pretty bad. That's good. And I think a lot of people don't understand necessarily to do those things.

Yeah. These things are like I'm kind of my wheelhouse. So a little, like you said, some cardio, good. That's easy for me. Yeah, it's a lot of figure that out. So it's just good for everybody. Yeah, exactly. Take some breaks, get a little swole.

What's the biggest thing that you've been working on over the, you know, from last year, games through this season. Obviously, the goal is podium and win, right? A couple years ago, you said you're going to win the games in a few years. So obviously, it looks like you're tracking that way. You won the team, then sixth, then fourth. What are the things you've really been working on in the last year?

Yeah, so we're just trying to overall increase my top end strength. That's something that's been building for a while. It's not anywhere near the top, but, you know, it's my journey. And I've seen improvements. And so that's all it matters to me and just becoming overall fitter, which I train with one of the best in the world. So he obviously knows what he's doing and just listening to what he has to say. So, I mean, I think I'm on the right path and we're doing all the right things to give me where I need to be. Rich is kind of like your training partner.

Yeah. That's wild. I mean, did you have a match that when you were younger saying, hey, at some point I'm going to be training every single day with Rich Froney? Yeah, no way. never now I look at him as like an older brother I know you've said to me before that you argue a little bit but it's it's not arguing but it's kind of arguing who usually wins out in those situations with you going individual and rich you know doing the team stuff he I mean obviously he always wins because I mean got to give him the benefits of the doubt he always comes back

with that I've been doing this for 12 years like I know what I'm talking about it's just me being stubborn sometimes it's usually over the stupidest things too like a workout if I'm like well why don't we do this he's like well why don't we do that and you know just button heads everyday thing it seems like you have a nice little training group down there um and kind of flow in and out do you feel that a lot of people in the space are a little more closed off whereas you know rich in the mayhem training group or a little bit more like here's what we're doing come on down you can do it too everyone do it yeah I really like that too because you know like we all want to better each other and you know just make the work

a better place while doing it too. So in any way I can help someone like a younger girl. I like that they have that mindset too, you know, and I don't mind sharing what I'm doing. It's really not that big of a deal, you know. I mean, you're only as good as you're going to get. So that's how I see it. And I love that we open everyone with open arms. So Haley, you mentioned a little bit about helping younger girls in the sport. Is there any way that you're actively doing it now or is it more you helping just kind of the CrossFit Mayhem membership or is it when people come up to you at the games and looking at you as a sort of young up-and-coming athlete and they see themselves in you as opposed to maybe some of the athletes that have been around a little bit longer.

Right. That's what you're in reaction like. Yeah, I get a lot of messages from young girls asking things like even just simple stuff about nutrition and training. So I always try to make an effort to answer those because I would like to try to, you know, help people not make mistakes that I did when I was at age. And just little stuff like that, you know, hopefully it's enough to help someone prevent just for making the same mistakes that I did.

Did you ever play basketball? I did. Do you know who Charles Barkley is? Mm-mm. Okay. He's on the TNT countdown. Okay. All-fame basketball player.

I never want a title of. Obviously, I know him because he's the Philadelphia guy and he's loud mouth and all this stuff. So just like everyone else from where I'm from. So at one point, he said, I'm not a role model. And he just was very much himself and didn't really care. Would you say that you're more in that line of, I'm just going to be me and people can like deal with it or not? Or I want to be the person that people look to as the example of being a good person,

being a good athlete, being a good community member. because there's plenty of people in the CrossFit space that are maybe one or a combination, but maybe not a ton that are all three. So is that something that's important to you? I see both sides, but also I was also that young girl that knew basically nothing and just looked at other people and would do what they did if that's like tracking macros or doing their program, you know. So I think it's important to be, to me, to be someone that people can look to and trust for advice and just for help.

So, yeah, I see both sides, but I definitely would like to be a role model. I love that. There's also such a big focus on service as being part of this community, particularly the Mahan community. Is it crazy to fit in all of these things that you're doing for other people as well as managing to take care of the training? that's going to drive, like, your own career forward. Yeah, I mean, ever since being here, I've gotten to, I mean, everyone here makes me

want to be a better person, just seeing, seeing everything that goes on behind the scenes and, like, may have missions and just this huge thing that they've created. It really has made me a better person. And obviously, training is very, very important. And I want to win one day and be the best. But also, I want to affect a lot of as many people as I can in a good way. Like, I want to leave a good impression and just make someone want to better. himself or help someone in any way that I can. And I've definitely been inspired by that year.

What would you say has been some of your most memorable moments since you've moved to Cookville? It's probably not anything that anyone will expect. But honestly, the days that we just, I mean, there's very few of us and we just spend all day together, just training and just, you know, getting better together in the hard days. And we don't want to be there. But we all show up because, I mean, he's showing up. So I've got to show up, you know, just pushing you other. Those are some of the days that I'll like honestly cherish forever, just looking back at, you know, how hard it was and that we all got to do that together. So just the grinding in the trenches with the, with your close crew. Yeah. Things that honestly no one sees just the,

like I said, the bad days and where we all just show up for each other. That's, that's really what you need to keep pushing. Yeah. Like this. You know, I totally get that. My background's in rowing, but, you know, it's a slog, and you don't get to do a lot of different things. You literally just row or lift weights, and it's competitive, right? You're on a team where you're trying to win, but you also are competing for spots, right? It's the same sort of thing. So, but I totally agree with you. It's, it's cool to hear that there's still this team environment within, basically an individual sport. Oh, yeah, it's definitely a, we've got a team here, for sure. How much, let's just talk a little bit of whoop here. When you're looking at something

like a hard training day, you know that, okay, this one's going to be really hard. How much you sort of factoring in where your recovery is versus like how much sleep you need and what sort of recovery things are you doing through the day? So let's say you wake up with the lower recovery and you know it's still going to be a heavy day. You're most likely going to do the work. What are some of the things that you're peppering in throughout the day to try and optimize yourself because you know it's going to be a long day? Yeah.

So I make sure to try, when I wake up and see that in the morning, I'm like, well, you're not going to show up today and so you're not doing something because you're in the red obviously that wouldn't go over well um so usually i'll spend that day a little i mean eating more seems to help um obviously making sure i get a good night sleep that night it's really just trying to take care of myself in other ways and not making sure i'm not doing other stuff between training like just laying down you know just little stuff like that adds up yeah so actually taking the time to rest as opposed to Yeah.

They're like, oh, this isn't that taxing, but I'm running around and doing some errands. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. So you've kind of got it pretty nailed down. Mm-hmm. By this point. Yeah.

In your Woop Journal, are there any things that you really have noticed are like game changers? I've noticed that CBD, like the beam that I use helps to sleep. Then I say take that. And the sauna, I'm telling you, it works. For some reason, it works really well for me. I don't know if it's because it's close to bed, but my recovery seems to be better when I use a sauna. So your timing of the sauna is usually close to bed? Yeah.

It's at the end of the training day. Yeah. Also, I like to eat later at night. That seems to help me get a better sleep. Do you have a go-to food later night? Because we've seen lots of people who would say the opposite, where when they do sort of eat late at night, it very negatively affects their sleep. See, if I don't eat. close to bedtime, I'll wake up all night, toss and turn in, especially when training

or it gets hard. I just don't know why. I just, if I don't have food in my stomach, up on night. So is it something different every night or do you have a go-to? No, I, I eat like a big dinner and then have all the snacks, like rice cakes, oatmeal with a lot of fat. That helps me staple too. So would you say it's a, it's probably a combination of everything. Yeah. of your macros at the end of the night oh yeah okay what's your favorite i guess then rice cakes like the the flavor ones so like chocolate everything white tether i can eat i actually almost do eat a whole sleep a day yeah i miss being 20 that's the line i think i used to eat those caramel ones which are definitely not good but the caramel ones yeah well i mean they're

delicious but oh with some peanut butter on them yeah you know you get older you You don't have as much time to train as much anymore, so it's not, I can't just be going wild. But that's awesome. Okay, so rice cakes, something for people to think about. I always tell people to find kind of what works for you, right? Yeah. Some people have problems with, you know, alcohol and timing. I know you're not 21, but, you know, different things that eating late, it could be,

like don't have like a chicken pot pie at like 10 p.m. or something like that. Yeah, totally. And you know those trends as you work with, like, move longer so for sure so let's talk sleep because you swear by being yeah correct you'd use it every night yeah i'll either take the powder or the capsules yeah and what have you kind of seen you is it helping get deeper sleep is it helping you get more quality sleep just stay asleep for longer because i think you know everything works a little differently sometimes you'll take molytonin and helps you get to sleep yeah i have a hard time falling asleep so i've noticed that it kind of helps

me get into that like oh my eyes are getting heavy you know about 30 minutes before bedtime um i try to put my phone down but yeah just helping me get to sleep is huge because i could lay and sit on my phone till 1 a.m because i'm not tired but that's what i've really noticed from it so that's an amazing statement is that you train and you are tired but you could also stay up till 1 on your phone because you're not tired. It's a weird thing of when I'm in the off season and I'm eating you know enough or whatever I could sleep all night and not wake up once but as soon as I start training hard and I'm so eating enough it just seems like I'm up all night like just you know go to sleep for an hour wake up get on get on my phone because I can't go back to sleep so I mean it's

just strange how it works do you ever throw in things like meditation or trying to put the phone away sooner? Anything like that? No, because this sounds bad, but it's just like my time to calm down and decompress and just catch up on all things that are outside of cross daily, like keeping up on TikTok and that kind of stuff. So it's just my thing that I look forward to at the end of the day. I know it's not the best habit, but it helps me wind down. I don't think you're alone. I do the same thing. So it's my wife. So I think that it's a very normal thing when you're go, go, go, go, go. to unwind a little bit, sleep environment, dark, cold. Dark and cold.

I have two fans going. Oh, that's what I'm talking about. I don't understand the people that can sleep in hot. No way. I just need to sound, too. How much would you say that you sleep on any given night? Because I think we would see elite athletes getting nine to ten hours of sleep the night.

Would you say that's about your average? I would say my minimum is usually eight and a half. Okay. My end would be nine and a half. Who would you say over the course of your time in CrossFit have been some of your biggest influences? They could be competitors, coaches, just people you train with. It's always a hard question. Because there's seriously, there's so many good people in CrossFit that have inspired me and many others.

That is just hard to put a list on it or names. It could say Ridge, for sure. I think he's one of the big ones. But I think just the community as a whole and just seeing how we all try to lift each other up, like just over something simple like working out but the way it makes people feel and just seeing how you know everyone comes together i think has has been huge where was that moment obviously you walked into a crossfit gym because you were looking to get out of competitive gymnastics had you seen the crosswood games before that i saw it on tv like ESPN okay andy

annie was on there i was like why are they calling her thor's daughter i was like i had never even heard of it, like how they do in Iceland. So I just remember that too. And they were doing like a snatch ladder or something. And I was like, gosh, these girls are so strong. I'm like going to be like them. So Annie was actually one of the first ones that I remember. Does it blow your mind sometimes when you go out on the competition floor and you see these people that it's, I mean, it's probably similar to, hey, I never imagine I'd be training with Rich Froning. Yeah. Okay, now I'm lining up against all these people. Yeah, I remember the first event of the 2019 games. I was ahead of so many girls. And I was like, how am I ahead of them right now? What is going on? Like, what the heck? And that was

cool, like doing rope comps. And I'm like, okay, Haley, like you're in third place or fourth place. What the heck? Just hold on. And that was kind of like a, you know, flip, flip up a switch in my head that I was like, you belong here, you know? So do you think that this switch is flipped now? You've talked about how you always kind of sell yourself a little bit short on, you know, Oh, maybe I'll find this place. Are you, is the outlook on this season a little more that's, I'm taking it now? I, like, I know I belong and I want a podium this year. And yeah, there's no doubt my mind.

Because you had a pretty good quarterfinal. Yeah, I was actually super happy about the quarterfano. I had a fifth place, third place, first place, 28th place. And then unfortunately, a 500 place. But there's only. 30 people in competition, not 5,000 that can just squat heavy, which is unfortunately how it was. But to see my other placements, and even on the heavy snatch, I was super pumped. And yeah, I'm just excited about semifinals.

Outstanding placements. You take that one out. It completely changes it, right? Yeah, for sure. And that's what I did tell myself that. That's how I got in last year, too, because there's not that many people in competition, you know. so and it's certainly and it was it was you still felt good about that number yeah that was a great number for me to hit i can i'm squatted 10 pounds heavy in that for one rep last year during the

game so i've made improvements and you can't be upset about that so and i'm not as great at one rep max lifts or like just you know do this fresh um i'm better with moving a heavier barrel under fatigue so so looking yeah you're looking forward to the more standard competition environment. I guess it would be the first time back with fans. Are you excited about that? I'm so excited. And just for my family,

you get to come and just hopefully have a crowd, cannot wait. What are you most excited about for the rest of the season? Obviously, semi-finals. Yeah, I'm just excited to get into that game training, hopefully, and just put my head down and work. It's something special about that. Like I was saying, about the days, just the hard days. And we're all together, just grinding.

Yeah, I'm excited for that. Do you think that the wave of the future, right? It's kind of, is, like, do you think we're entering a new era of CrossFit of new athletes? Yeah, I totally think so. I mean, I think the future is bright for all these young athletes too. I'm very lucky that I was kind of got to lead that way, hopefully, and, you know, inspire other people. But, yeah, the future is here and strong, and I'm excited to watch it all go down and hopefully be a part of it. And yeah, it's definitely a new era. Well, this has been great. I know that you probably

have more training to get in today. We don't want to take too much of your schedule. We really appreciate you hopping on. Oh, thank you guys for having me. It's good to talk through everything. Yeah, for sure. Thanks to Haley for coming on the WOOP podcast. Great job as always to Mike Lombardi. A reminder you can get 15% off at WOOP membership if you use the code Will Ahmed, W-W-I-L-H-M-E-D. Check us out at whoop.com. Follow us on social at Woop at Will Ahmed. Stay healthy, folks. Stay in the green.