WHOOP Podcast - Katrin Davidsdottir, 2-Time Fittest Woman on Earth, talks training, recovery, sleep, nutrition, & all the little things she does to stay on top.

Episode Date: December 19, 2018

Two-time CrossFit Games champion Katrin Davidsdottir talks about how she got into the sport (3:40), her rapid ascension to the top (9:59) and what it takes to stay there (23:05), her warmup routine (25:50), sleep and recovery (38:55), what she likes about WHOOP (47:05), the psychology behind winning back-to-back titles (58:40), inspiring and empowering her fans (1:00:05), gender equality in sports (1:05:10), being the best version of herself (1:15:13), and the cultural impact of Instagram (1:20:39). 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

We discovered that there were secrets that your body was trying to tell you that could really help you optimize performance. But no one could monitor those things. And that's when we set out to build the technology that we thought could really change the world. Welcome to the WOOP podcast. I'm your host, Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of WOOP, where we are on a mission to unlock human performance. At WOOP, we measure the body 24-7 and provide analytics to our members to help improve performance. This includes strain, recovery, and sleep. Our clients range for the best professional athletes in the world,

to Navy SEALs, to fitness enthusiasts, to Fortune 500 CEOs and executives. The common thread among WOOP members is a passion to improve. What does it take to optimize performance for athletes, for humans, really anyone? We're launching a podcast today. deeper. We'll interview experts and industry leaders across sports, data, technology, physiology, athletic achievement, you name it. When I founded Whoop, I didn't know exactly where it would take me, and hosting a podcast was certainly not one of the first things on my mind. In the process, though, I've gotten to interact with amazing athletes, advisors, investors,

and had some really fascinating conversations. And that was a lot of the inspiration for starting this podcast. I think there's something about this format. this type of conversation that really allows you to delve deeper. My hope is that you'll leave these conversations with some new ideas and a greater passion for performance. With that in mind, I welcome you to the Whoop Podcast. I wasn't a failure because I failed at that particular event. You know, it's only a failure if you stop trying.

This is episode three on the Whoop podcast, and my guest today is Katrin David's daughter, the two-time champion of the CrossFit Games, aka the fittest woman on earth. That's what you get called when you win the CrossFit Games, and Katrin has won it twice. Katrin's been a loyal whoop user for nearly two years. I'm thrilled to talk to her here in this conversation about her journey from Iceland to the U.S., how she took up CrossFit, the highs and lows of her rapid ascension to the top of the sport, and all the little things she does each day to stay there. I think that's one of the most fascinating things about this conversation

is all these different things that Katrin does to be her very best, training schedule, recovery tactics she enjoys, bedtime routine, how she makes the most of her sleep, nutrition, and then, of course, there's the occasional guilty pleasures. On a deeper level, we discuss gender equality and crossfit, inspiring and empowering her millions of fans, the psychological aspect of trying to defend a world title, and how she's constantly striving to be the best possible version of herself.

I hope you enjoy. Here's Katrin. Katrin, thanks for doing this. Thanks for having me. Well, very excited. There's so much I want to talk to you about, especially your successful career in CrossFit and some of the tips you have around training and recovery. We're going to get into all that. But first, I just wanted to ask you, like, when you were growing up, did you know you were going to be the fittest woman on Earth?

Absolutely not. But, like, looking back, I honestly, like, when I first tried CrossFit, I felt like it was a sport made for me. And I just, I was born in competitive, and I just loved competing. And I thrive in that atmosphere. And I love a good challenge. So, like, all through my, like, childhood, I would. I was probably so annoying. I was always like, I'd ask my brother to be like, race me to the next lamppost.

Or I'd just like set down a clock and like, who can hold a handstand for longer? I was like constantly looking for a competition. And throughout gymnastics, I did gymnastics from 6 to 16. And I'm not even entirely sure that I love gymnastics. I was never good at the sport, but I think I loved the dedication. And I love the, I was going to practice six days a week for four hours every day. and having to kind of like schedule myself around that work hard, and I loved the conditioning part.

I was the one that was always asking for conditioning. The other record was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Catching like, no, no, no, no. And I was good at the conditioning. And when I started CrossFit, it's like conditioning for time and everyone wanted to compete every day. I started with the purpose of competing. Which is a little unusual, right?

Or do most people at your life? level, get into it from the mindset, I want to compete at this. With CrossFit, I feel like it's mostly a lifestyle sport. Yeah. People do it for exercise and for making their life longer and being able to play with their kids for longer. But I think most gymnasts and most people that are coming out of a sport, they enter it with a mindset of like, I want to be the best. And I love waking up in the morning with a goal in mind and something to work towards and get better at. So no, I didn't know.

know, but I mean, I dressed up as Pippi Longstrum for like Halloween or like our kind of Halloween when I was a kid. And she was the strongest girl in the world. So it is definitely something that I think, it's something that I wanted. Well, congratulations in your career. Thank you. Now, you're originally from Iceland. I think of Iceland as being like very friendly, everyone's relaxed, less competitive. Is that a fair characterization or not at all? Absolutely wrong. If anything, I feel like Icelandic people are very very, closed off. There's no, I feel like in America, when you walk in, everyone's like, good morning, how are you?

There's all this small talk going on, and in Iceland, you talk to people that you know. If you don't know them, there's not a lot of small talk. But once you get to know them, of course, everyone is friendly. But we're very competitive, and I feel like every, there's no really recreational sports. We're in sports to compete. Interesting. And the thing that I love about Iceland so much is that, we only have 300,000 people

and I feel like when someone does something that's amazing and we're good at something, like we are good at something. You know, like the Icelandic soccer team are doing phenomenal, and so we all, it's like, we are good at soccer. And now that like we're doing well on CrossFit, it's like

oh, we're good at CrossFit. A lot of pride in being Icelandic. And we have so many great role models and when there's so few people, it's so easy. It's so, when you look at someone that's the best in the world. It's so easy to, like, he's a natural or you don't know how they got there, but when someone in ICE does something amazing, like, it's someone's on, or it's your friend. You know someone or know someone, and, like, you can see that it's possible.

If they can do it, you can do it. And I feel like that's kind of like, that's our energy. So you seem very outgoing, though, for the society that you claim is closed off. I don't know if that rubbed off on you at all. So tell me, you moved to, or when was the first time you came to the United States? So my grandparents, or my grandpa was an ambassador for Iceland, and I used to spend a lot of my summers. So, like, when I was a kid, they were in London, when I was, like, seven and eight, they were in Denmark, and then when I was, like, 12, 13, 14, they were in the United States.

So then in Washington, D.C. So I would come here and spend my summers with them. And when I was there, I used to do gymnastics camp, like, all summer. But my first time coming here for CrossFit was I started CrossFit in September of 2011, and that was after Annie, who is now one of my best friends, she won the CrossFit games. And I remember looking at her on television, and that was kind of like a year or two of where I had quit gymnastics, and I'd done a little bit of track and gone a little bit back to my, I was just a little loss. And I remember looking at her and be like, I don't do that.

And I started that, and I made the games in 2012. And that was my first time, like, back in the States and in the States for CrossFit. And this is Annie Thorisdottor, correct? Yes, yeah. And so Annie won the CrossFit games in 2011 and 2012, correct? And only three people, as I understand it, have won the CrossFit games back to back. Yeah. And it's you and...

Three girls. Yeah, two guys. Okay. And it's you, Annie, and who's the third? Tia. Okay. Yeah, she's from Australia. And so Annie was a bit of a role model for you, correct?

Absolutely, yeah. And so talk about that relationship. How did she inspire you to, you know, push down this avenue of competing in CrossFit? So, seeing her on television, and they had this, like, little episode that they showed on the Internet in Iceland, where it was, like, her leading up to the games. And her, because she had taken second the year before. So there was this whole thing of, like, you know, can she win the games, and she did? And CrossFit blew up in Iceland, and everyone wanted to do CrossFit, and she blew up in Iceland. That's so cool.

I remember looking at her, yeah, and just being like, I want to do that. And I can't remember the exact dates, but, like, in my head, I remember calling, like, her gym the day after. And I started working out at her gym. So she wins, and then you immediately start going to her gym. Yeah, yeah. So just like that. So just like that. And I remember being, like, totally starstruck when she was coaching one of the classes.

I was like, oh, my gosh, like, that's her. and I became good very fast and I say good because I think it's not good like how because I think you can become very complacent if you're if you're accepting that you become good but good but I was good very fast and I did make the games within like what is it like seven or eight months after I started a crossfit and I remember her being coached me like whoa like who's that Oh, cool. So you stood out amongst the people taking classes. And I was already, like, I would compete against. I remember looking at, like, everyone would write their score up on the board.

And a couple weeks in, like, I beat everyone, like, that was, had been on the team and compete at the game. So I remember I was like, I call my mom, and I'm like, I'm going to make regionals. And that was, like, three weeks into CrossFit. And that's the quality, that used to be the qualification process to make it to the games. Right. And, like, shortly after that, it became, like, I want to make it to the games. Well, I definitely want to talk about the games.

Well, I definitely want to talk about the games, but let's back up for a second, and for our audience who, I'm sure a lot of people listening are super into CrossFit, but I'm sure there's also a group of people that are not entirely sure exactly how CrossFit differs from, say, weightlifting or traditional endurance competition. Talk about CrossFit as a sport or as a way of life as you like to think about it. So CrossFit is a little bit of everything, and you have to be prepared for everything. And I think that is what has kept me in the sport and so eager to wake up every day and go train because there's always, you never arrive anywhere. You're never, you're never good enough at anything because there's always something else. If you're really good at your gymnastics, then you can work on your weightlifting. And then you start working on your weight lifting and you're really good at your one reps or your high numbers, but are you good at cycling, a medium load? and then it's like okay are you a good sprinter but can you run a 10k and then it's like you have all these different time domains it can be so fast or it can be a marathon and then you have all these different movements whether it's weightlifting or gymnastics and conditioning or like cardio it's all of these things that there's always something you can get better at and you never know what's going to show up well one of the things that i find interesting at crossfit is it it feels to me like really the first class of

exercise that made weightlifting feel like a cardio event, you know what I mean? It could be, yeah. You know, like, I'm someone who works out with a trainer and we just do sort of slower weightlifting and it's more focused on lower reps. But the times I've done CrossFit, I'm always amazed by how out of breath I can feel at times, which I think for a lot of people who just do traditional weightlifting is an unfamiliar feeling. Is that something that resonated for you when you first got into it?

So the thing about, like, weightlifting, so let's say that you're a weightlifter, and that's all you do, and you get very, very strong. You're not going to run, because that's going to be tension on your legs, it's going to take away from the power that you can give into the weightlifting. So you're probably going to get better than me at weightlifting, because I'm going to do the weightlifting, but I'm also going to be running and doing gymnastics and this and that, and it's all fatiguing for that high power output. but I want to beat you in everything else, you know, and the same goes for running. Like, I'm going to, I want to be as good as a runner, but I'm also doing a lot of weightlifting, a lot of gymnastics, which makes my legs a little bit heavier. So I'm probably not going to beat a 400 meter and a runner or a 10K runner and a 10K, but I want to beat them in everything else.

So I think that's kind of like CrossFit. You want to be good at everything, which in return, you're probably not going to be best on anything but CrossFit, you know. Right, right, but you're the best over. Overall. Yeah, and you want to be good at everything. But that's how you get to be called the fittest woman on Earth. So that's the trade-off.

Now, the process for competing in the CrossFit games, I learned a lot about this, is actually, you know, it's quite involved. So first you have to go to an open event, correct, and thousands of people go to those, right? And then they select, what is it, 40 people from the open? So this is going to be very confusing right now. Okay. Because it just changed the whole thing. Oh. Okay, so first let's start with how it used to be.

How it used to be. So you're right. It used to be that in February or March every year, there's five weeks. And we call it the Open and everyone in the world can register for the Open. And I think it's been up to 500,000 people to register. And it's just a fun time of the year. You know, everyone in the gym will sign up and every week new workout is released on a Thursday night. So on Friday, everyone in the world is doing this workout.

And people take it, some people are just doing the workout for fun, and they like to see from year to year, like how much better they've gotten or where they're standing, and they like to compete against their buddies. And then other people are taking this very seriously. And they will do the workout on Friday. They'll have to learn from it. And you have until Monday night to submit your score. And they might have to do it again on Sunday and again on Monday if that's what they're trying.

Because if you want to be top 40 in your region, and there used to be like five, six, seven, eight, it's been different between years. Regions, so one of them is Europe, one of them's going to be the east, one of them's going to be Australia and New Zealand. And you have to become top 40 in your region. You make it to regionals, which is the next step in qualifying. And that was a competition in May, normally like May, sometimes the first weekend of June. And there you had to be top five and you'd make it to the CrossFit game. So at the end, there would be 40 women and 40 men out of the whole world that would make it to the CrossVee games.

That's amazing. Yeah. And so in the original competition, like that original open moment, could I literally just go and try to compete? Absolutely. Could anyone off the street just go and do it? Anyone can sign up. So I think that's really cool. I think that's really cool.

It makes it super accessible. Anyone can compete. And how exactly is that first event judged? Is someone have to monitor you doing these things? Yeah, absolutely. So you always have to have a judge. Okay. And you have to have a score sheet.

And let's say that I want to make it to regional. That's why I say there's, like, different levels of this. So some people do it for fun, and you can have your buddy, you know, count your reps, and he'll give you no reps if they're not good, and give you the reps if they're good, and all of that, like, you'll have more fun with it. But if I know that I want to make it to regional, that's my goal, I have to have a certified judge. And that's someone who has taken an online course that is testing, like, do you know the right range of motions? Do you know what the rules are? And put that score in, and I also have to videotape.

So at the end of the five weeks, you randomly get asked for a video, and they count all your reps and make sure that you are moving correctly. So not everyone will have video review. No, if you don't make it past to the next one, you're not going to get asked for a video. But if you make it through, so everyone that is making it to regionals. And then regional is, of course, a proper competition setting. You have to go. Regionales is where it's 40 from each of these different regions. Yes.

Okay. And then that gets narrowed down to the actual games, which is 40 men, 40 women. Out of the whole world. Yeah. That's pretty cool. So the first time that you got into this, you did well in regionals and then not as well at the games. So it says you got second in regionals in Europe. And then you finished 30th in the games.

This is in 2012. Fast forward three years later, 2015. you're you're getting 14th in the open then second in regionals and then sure enough first fittest woman on earth a lot of a lot of things happen yeah so so walk me through like over the course of a year how do you train for and prepare for that that moment for the games so if we start at 2012 13 and 14 I had no clue so you're figuring it out I had absolutely no clue I didn't have a coach I would kind of like pick and mix out of different programs what I wanted to do, which of course is never a good idea because then you want to do things that you like and what are things that you like, things that

you're good at. I have big holes and I was a full-time student. I was coaching a lot. I was very like results-based. Like I wanted, instead of being focused on, you know, what's my best, I'd be like, I think I should be better, like compared to someone else. I just, I didn't have a very I was very competitive, but I didn't have the right mindset, not for what I have learned in the past years. And so during that time period, what did, like, a week in the life of Katrin look like? How are you thinking about training? Then, to be honest, like, I was very just, like, going through the motions. I was the classic, like, I loved working out and I loved training, and I'd pick something that I do.

I'd normally go to school from 8 to 12, and then I'd go to the gym, train a little, and I think I'd just kind of check the boxes. Like, I would do the workout, done, and tell myself that, like, that's good job, because I did the workout, and then I would coach, and then I'd probably have more, and then sleep, and that's kind of how I went through the motions. And was the workout something that the CrossFit community was putting out on the internet? It was a lot of different programs. Or you would just come up with your own program.

I wouldn't come up with it myself, but I would pick and mix from different kind of programs and coaches. And I was one of the program that I would always look at is competitors training or comp train, which is who programs now and is my coach now. Oh, cool. And I think that, like, everyone asks, what happened? Like, how do you go from, like, 2014 not qualifying for the games to winning in 2015? And I think that's, like, the world of a difference. And I think, you know, when I became good right away, it's so easy to become complacent. And, you know, I was a games athlete, so you keep going through the motions.

And then, again, you make to the game. So again, you just keep doing the same things over and over. And then in 2014, I had a huge weakness, and I didn't make to the games. I didn't make it past regionals. And that was such a big hit for me. But maybe the wake-up call you needed, because the next year you came back and won. It honestly ended up being the best thing that ever could have happened to me. even though that summer sucked, and I didn't have any plans because all I wanted to do was

training for the games. It showed me how bad I wanted it and how hard I was willing to work for it. And I started reading sports psychology. I started reading all of these different autobiographies from other athletes. And you see, like, they fail along the way. And it kind of showed me that I wasn't a failure because I failed at that particular event. You know, it's only a failure if you stop trying. And you get up and you keep trying.

again. And at the same time, I started going, I would take these training camps in Boston with Ben Berger, my coach who runs comp train, and that's the program that I was doing. He had this phenomenal team and individual athletes that I just thrived on the environment there. And instead of going through the emotions, it kind of like, or going through the motions, it showed me what hard work really was, you know, and it wasn't just doing the workout. It was continuously asking myself again and again and again during the workout, am I given my best effort? Am I going as fast as I can go? You know, if I'm going too fast or going out, it's like, all right, let's reel it back in. Or am I not? Like, can I give this a little bit? Can I sustain

this for, you know, this many more minutes or this many more rounds? And every single time after workout, I wanted to make sure that I'd given it everything that I had. So it's an elevated level of focus is one thing that I hear. That was the start of it. And then, at the same time, like, I'm reading the sports psychology books, and my coaches, he talks to me before, like, what I should be focusing on? And after, like, what are your thoughts when you finish a workout? And, you know, what should I be focusing on? And it's things that I can control, like everything else, like the leaderboard and, you know, where I'm placing, and my judge and the weather, it's all just wasted energy. And all you can do is focus on myself and my effort and

my nutrition and my recovery. And that's when I started focusing on. I think, I think, I think I accidentally, by being in Boston so much, I put myself in this, like, this bubble where I was, like, a professional athlete. And I wasn't. I just, when I was in Iceland, I was a full-time student and the coach and trying to train for the games. And in 20, this starts mainly in 2015, like, January. That's kind of like when I started spending so much more in Boston. And I asked him to be my coach. And, you know, it took him like a month of, like, wanted to, like, figure things out. And then it was like, all right, I want to be your coach. And, and. And. And. I just spent, I didn't have any friends in Boston. I mean, I had the people that I was working out with, but no one else. So I wasn't like rushing in and out of the gym. I wasn't, I was going to bed so much earlier and sleeping so much more. And I started focusing on like little things like, I mean, I say little things, but they're kind of everything. It's, you know, like, am I sitting in the normatex after training?

Am I using my muscle stem? Am I warming up, probably cooling down? Am I sleeping enough? It's like, it's all of those things that just like you think are so little things, but they add up to great things. So there's a world of a difference of the athlete that showed up in 2014 and 2015. Well, I mean, it shows from the things that you're reflecting on. It's a very whoop mindset for us to be thinking about, you know,

all the things that you do outside of exercise. And you and I have talked a lot about this. So let's focus on that for a second. What would you do, what would a day in the life of Cashin look like when you were, you know, in 2015 and training optimally so you wake up in the morning what's the first thing you're going to do so now which is basically this it's the routine that i still have it's i my number one thing is always asleep it's asleep enough and it's asleep you know eight hours at minimum but hopefully it's 10 hours and when i'm in like the peak of my training it's it's almost

certainly 10 hours every night and i like getting a slow morning like i need my morning routine and need that to be good and it kind of like sets the tone for the day and also my day is so much better and I'm happier and I'm probably way more pleasant to be around if I just have my like. Slow morning is interesting because a lot of people are the opposite mindset where they're like, I wake up and I need to go. So I like that you've got this concept of a slow morning. Yeah. If I'm reading a good book, I do like reading like a chapter or a couple pages of that in the morning. Would that be first thing in the morning? I kind of like I wake up and I wash my face and I go to the bathroom and I like kind of like getting ready a little bit and I make my bed and then when I go like

once I leave my bedroom it's like okay that's when I probably make my coffee um so you do drink coffee I drink coffee in the morning and I make my breakfast and then I normally like before I eat my breakfast that's when I would normally like read a chapter read a little bit just while I sip on my coffee and I don't always do it but sometimes I journal like if it's something good that I read I like journaling about it, reading about it, I like sometimes to write down three things that I'm thankful for. And that's something that's a great practice. That's, it's just, I think everyone should look around and just like sometimes you're on that third thing and you have so many things that you're thankful for you don't, you don't even know what you want to put down there. And that's

like, how good is that? Like, how good is that feeling of just acknowledging how much good you have around you and the opportunities that you have and the people that you have around you? so that's like that's my morning routine and I like to have like I like to wake up like two hours before I have to be at the gym and then I go to the gym in the morning and again like I kind of like a slower start to it like I like to roll out well I like to stretch I like to mobilize I like to activate everything and then once I'm going at the gym I'm all like go go go go so so that that warm up process walk me through exactly what you're doing in that period of time I normally sit on a roller and I just like rolling everything out. Normal roller or will it vibrate?

Because I know now it's popular to have a vibrating roller. I actually, I don't, I'm not a big fan of the vibrating one because I just feel like my head's shaking a lot when it's like, I like to roll it like my glutes and my like upper bag and traps and stuff. But I have tried a little vibrating ball. That's, I like that. That's good, right? Yeah, I like that.

So the one that I normally use is just a normal one. So how long will you roll for? I don't know. Maybe like five minutes, ten minutes. Okay. It just depends. Not a lot longer than that. I just like to roll it a little bit.

I'll stretch, especially like my soas, my glutes, my, um, my lats. And then I'll go through like, um... And at this point you haven't really done any cardio or you haven't gotten on a bike yet or anything like that. Yeah. And then I'll get on a bike or a rower or runner. And I'll do anywhere between, it's, it's, it's, It's a minimum of like 10 to 12 minutes, but I like going a little longer. And I'm known for going for my like extraordinary warmups.

But that's, yes. Everyone's like, oh, it's a cat warmup. And they start laughing. It's like, no, we're not doing a cat warmup. But I do feel better and I just feel primed after I've sweated and after I've opened my lungs a little bit. And sometimes that just takes a little bit of time. So I'll make up any kind of e-moms, but it's normally just like ski, bike, row, run, burpees, any kind of like things that I don't need a lot of warm up for.

Will you do all of those or you'll pick one on a good day? Oh, like today I did bike and run. I'll just pick anything. Sometimes it's just a bike. Sometimes it's just to run. I just like I mix and match and whatever I'm in the move for, but I like to go for anywhere between like 10 and 25 minutes is very normal for me. And what will be the sense for you that you've done it enough?

Are you sweating? Do you try to get your heart rate to a certain level? It's a dangerous thing because for me it's sweating. And like when it gets colder or when it's hotter, like sweating, happens at different times or try and like really listen to my body and I can just I can just feel when my body is flushing out better like if you are cold and you just go out and hammer the assault bike like your body is going to lock up within 30 seconds but when you're primed and ready you can just feel how much better like your body is flushing out the lactic acid and I can kind

of just feel one that's starting to happen and then I kind of know all right I'm ready and I also like sometimes you're just a heart rate monitor or I go into like the whoop up and you go to like that I would go to strap status and I just look at that. You just look at your heart rate. And I make sure I like to get above like 160 at least for, you know, for a couple minutes, let it come back down and then I'm ready. And then I'll do, I like starting my days with cardio. Like today I started with bike intervals.

Yep. I don't always get to do that because I'm working all my strength. Right. And then I need to be fresh for that. And I want to be, you know, have all my muscles and recruiting and fresh to be able to get my big squats in. But my favorite is to do all my cardio in the morning and then take a little bit of a break, have a shake or a little bit to eat, and then train again. So to be clear, right, you've now done 25 minutes of warm up or 15 to 20 minutes, something like that.

Now you would go into more intense cardio? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And this is on a day in which you're doing two workouts. I normally train twice a day. And I just feel like you get a lot more out of your training if you take a little bit of break. like I can definitely I can hammer things out and go one two three four or five like but by the time you're in the fifth thing like how good is that fifth thing going to be you know it's going to be way better if I at least get in some carbs at least sit down relax a little bit um and then breaking the workouts up yeah yeah okay so then you have a shake or lunch and does your diet vary by the time like by where you are in the season absolutely okay so I think I think it's just

like if you look at my training for the games, I'm training three times a day. I'm training there's so much volume and so much intensity that my, I can just, my, I don't even know what it's called, like my metabolism. I can just feel it. It's just crazy. You're burning a ton of calories. So I just need to constantly be getting in carbs when I'm training and making sure that I'm feeling my body enough so that I'm not like losing weight or losing muscle mass. And, but then like after the games there's a month that I take completely off and then I started weightlifting a lot and I'm more just lifting and so much less cardio and I can just feel that I don't need all of those carbs but my fat is a little bit higher like it does change a little bit

and my my calories are definitely the highest and like throughout July and then I feel leading up to the game yes so the games are in August and now I feel like you know they've been a little bit lower and then you know as soon as it just holds hand in hand with my training and now i'm ramping my training up and um so my calorie intake will go up a little bit and the carbs will go up a little bit with that too okay cool so you have a shake you've got lunch then you do your afternoon workout will your warm up be as long for that as well as soon as i um if i've warmed up once throughout the day my body is kind of like it's it's working well for the day and i feel like If I took a big break, if it's a couple hours, I'll definitely, like, get on a bike for five minutes or do, like, a 10 minute, something.

It's very short, but at least, like, get loose, get a little bit warm again, and it depends on what I'm about to do. But that warm-up is not. I do one big warm-up a day, and then I'm normally, I'm pretty good for the day. How long will your weightlifting session take? That depends. I normally do two big weightlifting days a week, and one of them is a lot bigger. A lot heavier, a lot more accessory work, and the other one is lighter, but maybe higher reps, and that one's going to be a lot faster than the one that has all the accessory work.

So it could be, like, two hours, and it could be, you know, an hour, but then I might do maybe some cardio work with it. Sure. It's so, my training days are all over their place. There are, you know, there are so many things to work on that. You know, Ben is a mastermind of all of that, and he puts that together and programs all that for me. And I love being the athlete. You know, I love being coached and doing what I'm told to.

Just executing. Yes. And will you know what your workouts are days in advance, or will some days you show up and not even know what you're going to do until the moment? Kind of both. I feel like the summers can be like that. Like, I don't know. Yeah.

I feel like he always has, like, a structure to it. So I kind of know, like, what days I'm going to the track, what days I'm going to the pool, like when I'm doing weight lifting, one of this. But leading up to the games, I feel like he plays it kind of by ear and by how I'm feeling and how I'm responding. but right now I always know sometimes I could probably look it up weeks in advance like he programs a couple weeks ahead so I could definitely I don't know I like looking at sometimes look at what's coming up but mostly it's just what I have for like I'll at night I like looking

at like what I have for tomorrow okay and planning that out and then I don't look at like I haven't seen what I have tomorrow yet well it's interesting I've talked to athletes and who have both points of view some say i always want to know what's coming next like it'll it'll getting in the mindset helps me then perform better during a workout but others will say not knowing and just showing up and getting thrown into it kind of takes the monotony out of exercising every day you know takes it away and therefore it's fresh and you're sort of experiencing something in real time which in some ways makes you more present so it's interesting but but i agree with both yeah i'm definitely on the side that I like to know in advance.

Like, not a lot in advance, but like the night before, because I like, sometimes it's something that's so challenging. I have no clue how I'm going to hit those squats or how I'm going to make that e-mom or this. And I get a little bit nervous. And I like to, like, go through it in my head. Like, all right, like I'm going to, like. So you're visualizing it.

Oh, I do that. Yeah, I guess. I do that a lot. Especially the night before, but. So you do a lot of visualization. And what does that practice look like for you? Is it almost a meditation where, you know, you're thinking about other things and then you'll focus on,

weightlifting or is it is it uh is it something that's very crossfit specific i don't know i think it very depends on like what it is like if it's a movement thing that i'm working on um skill based um or weightlifting i think it's more like i think about a lot before i go to bed and i'm like seeing it in my head but if it's a workout or like an e-mom or something that like i need a hit or within a specific time frame or a time goal that i want to hit i'll more like strategize in my and try and break the workout down, like, what I'm going to hit, like, piece by piece. Do you visualize in the third person or the first person? So if you're visualizing in the first person, you can see the weights in your hands, right?

If you're visualizing in the third person, it's almost like you're looking from the ceiling down and seeing catch and lifting weights. I think I do third person. Yeah, I do third person, too. But it varies by athlete. Some are in the first. I never actually thought about that. It's kind of cool, right? Yeah.

Yeah, it's interesting. I visualize in the third person. too and do you practice any form of meditation sometimes i've been through a long like period of time where i used to do 10 minutes every morning when i got to the gym there's the first thing that i did that i would just focus on and it really helped me um learn about my breathing because it's really hard to focus on your breathing when your heart rates at 180 totally but when you focus on it when you're it's the first thing that you do in the morning and focus on your breathing and kind of trying and clear your mind i yeah i did that for a long time i haven't been doing it as much

recently i might start doing that again but um yeah i do do sometimes meditate and any specific type of meditation that you do or it's more just a breathing practice you know there's transdental meditation there's different forms of mindfulness no i don't i think it's i think i'm doing mindfulness like what i'm trying to do is clear my mind and all i'm trying to do is focus on my breathing and and just be just be where I am just like be where your feet are and that's what I'm trying to do I I feel like I have that little like the monkey brain I'm constantly going somewhere else right but I think it's normal you know but now at the end of the day so you've done two workouts you're feeling very accomplished you know at that point are you are you very

focused on getting your next meal in like we have a couple of meals before bed what's sort of that evening routine. I try and always make sure that I'm getting in, that I'm refueling. And I do have a nutritionist that kind of like helps me, like guides me to, you know, how much it should be eating throughout the day, what should be good with eating, you know, at certain times or right after workouts, or to make sure that I'm in the sooner after a workout that you can refill the better it's going to help you, or the more it's going to help you recover. So I do try I'd always have something, you know, and whether it's, like, my favorite thing to eat during training, it's like, you know, raisins or banana or my favorite, like, I always, I do one shake a day. I don't do it after every training, and I like mixing it with coconut water.

So that's my, like, little trick or secret. And my, like, my favorite one now is, like, it's a cappuccino from a scent. Oh, wow. I don't know if you tried it, but. I haven't tried that. So that's kind of like what I tried doing. And will you put a lot of different powders in? No, only that one.

And I'm very, like, very picky with what protein I use. And I just, like, I want it to be clean. And, like, the one from a scent has five ingredients, or the vanilla is, like, five ingredients. And no artificial, so they use, like, monk food extract. Wow. So it's, like, I'm very just, like, aware of that, of what I put into my body. And with food, I just try and keep it as clean as possible. clean being not processed what else does clean mean to you clean yeah it's definitely the not

processed because i do eat rice and i eat oats and i eat grain and and a lot of fruit a lot of vegetable um a lot of eggs and then i mean you can eat any meat that you want but i'm definitely more of like over the fish and the chicken side so less red meat yeah and that's just like a personal preference okay i think my mom doesn't really like red me so that's kind of like what i grew up on you're raised on less red meat yeah um okay and then and then before bed do you have any routines before bed what are some things that you think improve your sleep so my favorite thing to do after training is actually go in the sauna oh cool that's like that's like a me time like i like bringing up and i like sit in sauna and sweating and i my body is this feels better in heat so that's something that i love

Will you stretch in the sauna or will you focus on breathing? No, I'll read. Just read. So do you just chill? Yeah. And how long will you spend in there? 15 or 30 minutes. So that's a pretty decent amount of time, especially, and this is after you've done two

workouts most of the time? I am very, like, if it's the summertime and I sweat it a lot that day, I won't go. Okay. I can't. It's like that I'm just depleting my body. So it really depends on the day. Like I will, sometimes it's not the time for a sauna. And you'll only do sauna or sometimes you'll only do sauna or sometimes you do you.

do steam too? I do sauna. If I have the choice, I'll always go in the sauna, but some people prefer the steam. And then I, other things I like to do is sit in the Norma Tech if my legs feel crushed. Like, that's something that I like doing. How long will you go in a Norma Tech for? That varies too, 30 minutes to 60 minutes, just depends on what I'm doing. 30 minutes, 60 minutes, okay. And then other things. Like, if something's tight, I'll use a muscle Sim like maybe anywhere between two to three times a week I see a PT or Cairo just to make sure that every like I only have this one body you know if I want to be an athlete I have to take care of it and I have to stay on top of everything so instead of trying to try to fix things I'll be trying

and prevent things from happening will you do massage work I'll do massage work that's at most once a week but the PT does a lot of soft tissue work and then I do like exercises to strengthen the muscles that maybe I'm neglecting or aren't activating as well and then I literally just like my focus from like you know six o'clock I like I don't like eating too close to bed sure I just sleep better when not with a full stomach so I like getting like in an early meal

and then trying to like wind down so depends on what I'm going to wake up but I like my new thing is literally trying to be in bed by like nine it's only like 10 for me um and then just make sure that i get in the like my number one recovery is always sleep so i'll never like i won't go in the sauna and i won't sit in the normal cycle i won't do anything like that if it's taken away from my sleep like i'll skip everything even like at the games i'll skip body work if i feel like i need the sleep interesting and and are you doing anything um like in your bedroom like do you have blackout shades Do you believe in natural light?

How cold is your bedroom? These sorts of things. My bedroom is very cold. And I actually, I get very cold, but it is better to sleep in that. And I just, I like that better. Right now it's dark enough that I don't need curtains. Right, right now we're filming this in November. Yes.

But I do like, I have like my phone setting. I always sleep with it on do not disturb. I have like a natural light, like, lamp that wakes me up in the morning. So, and that has, like, a clock on the front, and I always twist it so that it, so that the light's not aiming at me, and I have my computer set so that, like, at a certain time, it starts, like, putting on that, like, it looks a little more yellow, but just so that it's not, like, waking me up, you know, it's aggravating that blue light. so there are things that you know I do try and do that and wind down and not be too much like sometimes it's so easy to get like wound up at night you know if there are certain things that you didn't get done during a day or you want to start answering emails or think about things that all that you forgot to do this so I got to remember that tomorrow and like get really wound up and

I feel like it's hard for me to fall asleep like that so really try and keep like a easier night that's harder for me because I feel like with all the training that I do during that day um sometimes like other things get pushed to the side and at night you like feel like you have so much to do but will you ever take any sleep supplements melatonin magnesium no i am being even something more no i've never done that um yeah that's that's that's something that i not that but like a nighttime routine is something that i have multiple times in the past try to like get into my schedule but i just feel like every night so like i have such a good morning routine and a routine throughout the day, and everything is so like, and I like a good routine,

and that's the only thing that I haven't quite gotten into, but I think that could help a lot. Got it. And how many hours of sleep are you getting on whoop? On whoop? Yeah, in general. How many hours is it telling you you're getting? Let's look. 827.

Wow, that's good. Eight hours and 27 minutes. How much time are you spending in bed? 834. Wow, good for you. So you spend eight hours? eight hours and 34 minutes on average in bed and eight hours and 27 minutes of those are sleep so for all you whoop users out there that's a ridiculously high sleep efficiency ding ding ding I wonder why well it's probably because your body is so tired yeah so spent I'm exhausted

and I think you it sounds like you have a very healthy you have a very healthy diet which helps it sounds like you don't have that much variability either in your sleeping routine. Yeah. So going to bed and waking up at the same time, we call that sleep regularity and sleep consistency rather. And sleep consistency is actually one of the best things for increasing your heart rate variability and lowering your resting heart rate. So it can naturally improve how efficient your sleep is.

Efficiency being what you have, which is the more time in bed you spend equals more sleep. Because we have some people who spend eight hours. hours in bed, but they only get six hours of sleep. That's so annoying. Yours is literally like one-to-one, which is amazing and it explains in a lot of ways how you're so fit. That's good knowledge. That's something that I wish would, like, pop up on your phone.

Yeah, we're working on more of those little feedback loops. Yeah, even like if your recovery's high, like, tell me why. It's because my sleep's been so good and like my strain's been low or like if my recovery's low, like I want a reason for it too. Like I want something to fix and work on. Well, the fascinating thing is there's also things. things that we don't know to answer that, right? So we don't know what you just did in the gym, for example.

I know, yeah. Like, we can measure your strain, but we don't know if you necessarily did more weight or less weight than usual, things like that. We also don't know if you introduce something new to your diet. One thing we do now know is if you're traveling. So time zones is a big thing that we're working. I've noticed that. Yeah.

The only time I've ever hit a red is when I fly to Iceland, and it's like an overnight flight and you miss on sleep and it's five hours ahead and you're just exhausted. Whoop is really good at scolding you when you travel. So that's one area that we're investing a lot in is really understanding travel, jet lag. What we also want to do is incorporate more data from more different sources. So for example, knowing everything that you're telling me, if Whoop knew that, we actually would be able to tell you why your recovery was lower or higher than usual. You know, even things about your schedule, like whether you had that mindfulness practice,

whether you did sauna. What I want to be able to do is figure out effectively the recipe for every individual to recover optimally. So some days you're doing sauna, some days you're not. Some days you're doing PT, some days you're not. It'd be interesting to figure out which of one, you know, those specific things. Imagine how good it was if we had that recipe. You could like just set it up for competition. Yeah, yeah, you go competition mode and whoop then tells you all these things.

So, you know, that's a part of the big vision around Loop is how do we do, like what can we do to optimize your performance all the time. Yeah. I mean, we're a couple steps in. Yeah. So what else do you use in the product or enjoy about it? My favorite is definitely the sleep. That's the one that I check every.

It's just, like I've said, like recovery is so important. Like I can go as hard as I want day in and day out, but you can only go as hard as you then recover again for the next day. So it's something that I'm so focused on that I, you know, it's so silly, but I feel like the, The Wu keeps me accountable. That's good. Because it's going to tell me when I went to sleep, and it's going to tell me when I woke up.

So I can't just, like, get by with, like, you know, six or seven. It's going to tell me when I went to bed. And I feel like I always wanted to, like, log good things. So it's definitely the sleep. But the one I think I get the most excited about is I look at my recovery score when I wake up. Yeah, right. And I look at, I do log workout. So I always do the, like, the adactivity and put in, like, when I do, like, cardio things.

Like, when I did, like, my bike, and I will. this morning or if I do any kind of like met cons I'll always like add that end and I'm always so excited to look at my heart rate after you know like how fast is dropping like how high did I get it and it's right it's my like competitive thing but I get competitive with like how high I can get my heart rate or how high my strain can get throughout the day well one thing it's interesting to look at which you called out is how fast your heart rate recovers huh so if you're if you get your heart rate up to 180 during a set and then you go sit down to rest for a second look at how fast your heart rate drops because as you get fitter, your heart rate's going to drop really, really

quickly. I bet you already have a really, really fast heart rate recovery. I do. Me and I can compete that all the time. Yeah, right. There you go. We're like, who's the first below 120? Yeah, right after you come out? Yeah. Are you on a team with any of your friends or competitors within CrossFit? It's a belt by Bergeron team. It's me, Brooke, Cole, Matt, and Ben. So it's like the strongest women in the world on a woo team together. Yeah. Badgering each other back. much sleep you got so it's interesting it seems like you the the crossfit community has uh you know a friendly camaraderie is that fair to say or is there actually a little bit of it definitely depends on who it is you know like um if you look at annie is one of my absolute best friends and and brook it's

like i know them so well and they they're like actually wells yes they're actually close friends of mine and you know i travel there's you have these different friends all over the world world and people that, you know, I travel to Colorado and I train with Camille. And it's like, I have friends all over the world and then you have others that I just don't know as well, you know, it's just like with anyone else. You know, some people are friends or some are not. And it's not because you're not friends. It's just because you don't know them as well. So I definitely think that there, of course, there's a camaraderie with your friends. Like, I want the absolute best for them. Like, of course, we'll always look at each other and

like, I want to beat you, you know? Right, right. But, and it's just a mutual respect that all of us are working to be the best. in the world. And will you share training tips or, you know, form tips or diet tips? And again, that depends on who it is. Like if it's, you know, me and Annie, it's like we're complete open books. It's like with each other. It's like, what are you doing? What are you doing? Like, how are you feeling this and that? But if it's someone that I'm competing against against the CrossFit games, you're normally in your own little world and you're not, you know, sharing anything. It's like, but yeah, it's like and me and Brooke, we have the same coach and we train together. Of course, we're going to learn from each other.

There is so much to learn from each other. We all have different strength and weaknesses and whatever I can teach her, she can teach me and something else. Now, I want to talk for a second about the actual event because I think what's fascinating about the CrossFit games is you don't actually know what you're going to do. Like I was trying to think about any analogy to another sport or competition where you show up and you don't know what the competition is.

It's kind of crazy, huh? Yeah. So how do you visualize for an event that you can't visualize, so to speak, you know? I don't. So you don't. You just show up. I mean, before I know, I don't visualize anything. Before I know, I have all these things that I want to work on.

You know, I'm focusing on what I want to get better. I'm focusing on the training that I have the next day, and I know what I'm good and I know what I need to work on. And those are the things that I'm doing. So it's honestly, I love when I don't know anything. of the events because I'm not thinking about the CrossFit Games. It keeps me present in the moment of what I'm working on today and what Ben has programmed for me today and to make me as a complete athlete as I possibly can be. But once I know an event and you might get to know something, you know, a week in advance. You might get to know something a day in advance and

sometimes you don't know at all. And I love every aspect of it. When you get something a week in advance, you know, you get to think about it a lot and you get to stretch. strategize and I actually I think I like that the least because then you you have to practice it and do it over and over again kind of gets in your head a little bit yeah and I just like I like to just like kind of more of like the difference of repeating stuff rather than performing like I like the pressure like the adrenaline I like the the more like you know is this going to work out or not and you got to rely on what you've trained and what you know and how well you know your body but when you do it over and over again you can you learn you have to like fix them and do it so you just end up

repeating it a lot of times and that's fun too because you see how much you improve every time but that's probably my least favorite and then we know something with like three days in advance like the marathon road the games for for example you know you have to prepare for that and you have to prepare for how you're going to feel during a marathon and what you're going to wear and so to be clear the games this past year had a rowing event that was a marathon. Is that correct? It took three hours. Right.

And how soon did you know about that beforehand? So that was, I think, it was either two or three days in advance. So then, of course, you started thinking about it, and, like, you can't practice that, but you can start strategizing, and you can start prepping for, you know, how you're going to feel during, you know, the first hour, the second, the third, how you're going to recover from it. But then there are some events that he will literally bring us out on the floor, and just be like this is the workout and you have the time to go warm up you might have depending on what heat you're and you might have half an hour and you might have like two hours right but that is definitely my favorite because then you really have to rely on yourself you have to rely on your skills and your ability and your own like strategizing and with your coach with like with what you are going to do and I think that's what really showcases like who is prepared and who is not that's a healthy attitude so the CrossFit games experience

Explain for our listeners just the basic structure of it. How many days is it? How many events? And how do you technically win? Regularly, it's a very, because it could be anything, but it's normally five days, 15 events. Five days, 15 events, typically three a day? No, so sometimes the Thursday is off. So we might do like, let's take this year, for example.

I think we did four events on the Wednesday. I think I don't know if we done anything on Thursday but then we might have done like 4-4 or something like that or it might be like 4, 1 on the Thursday, 3 on the Friday and then like it's very there's normally a lighter day in there we've never done five heavy days on actually we did do Thursday this year but yeah I can't they all kind of like mix into one sometimes so it's interesting I mean there's a lot of variability to the competition

Absolutely. And has there ever been like any scandal where a competitor found out what the event was going to be ahead of time? No. No. That's good. So the games have been pretty clean. You know, the director of the CrossFit Games has a gym that he has people test out workouts and no one even knows where the gym is. he keeps it very close with like who knows the workouts and this is being a competitor i don't think anyone wants to know the workouts like how how much fun would it be to win a workout that you're like

oh you knew it like way in ahead yeah right well not that it even guarantees that you would win the workout but i don't know so wait i got to go back to this blindfolding thing so like this this guy's like the founder of crossfit yep dave cashrow okay and so dave has a secret gym somewhere in the United States probably and he'll blindfold athletes and bring them there yeah and then they'll do a workout and then kind of get I mean I've never been that athlete because I'm always competing but I did see a video once of like someone like blindfold or like coming in so they don't know where it is because I know that he writes up workouts like and throughout the whole year probably like changes them and and mixes them up but so he's constantly innovating on what

the competition can look like and in 2015 Do you feel that you feel that you were just the fittest of everyone? Or do you also think that the events that were chosen helped you win the competition? Because there's that balance as well, right? To be honest, I think the one that wins is always the fittest out of everyone. That's cool. Yeah, I do believe that. I feel like, you know, let's, I think, like, top three to five are all, they're going to be the fittest in the world.

And there, I don't think one is necessarily. like a lot better than the other and I think any one of those top five could win and I think like I think it definitely matters what events show up like if it plays your strength or your weaknesses but something that we want to do every single year is I don't want to have weaknesses I want my worst finishes to be a 10th place finish and I want to be racketing those points and whatever shows up so I don't think it's ever an excuse as to what shows up because you could have trained that that year I would never ever be like she won because of the events that showed up. Well, she trained better then. She was good at those events, and I could have done that too. Like, there's nothing that anyone else does. Like, if someone got so good at something, then I can do that too. Like, why should she be able to be good at that and not me?

You know, so I believe we can all become as good as we want at anything, and it's just a matter of our training and our mindset. So I do believe that the top three to five in the world are the fittest in the world. And then it is a matter of your mindset and your training. And, of course, it does matter what shows up because it is so tight. But that's never an excuse. And are there some events that you think certain individuals are more naturally capable of? Absolutely.

You look at body types. Of course, someone that's bigger is going to have an easier time with the barbells. And someone that is smaller is going to be better at muscle ups and the gymnastics and someone that's leaner and longer limbs is going to be better at running. but at the same time, I believe that it evens out because the girl that then is winning the muscle up event normally isn't the strongest or the one that's so good at running

is going to have a harder time with a barbell or if you're longer, you know, you're going to be more efficient at rowing but then you ever give a longer, like, plane of motion for thrusters, let's say. So normally, like, you know, you win some, you lose some in CrossFit. And of course, like, people have different backgrounds

So they're going to have different strengths and play of that. But, yeah, you are here yet. You work with what you've got, you know. What was the psychology from winning the games in 2015 to winning the games in 2016? Because when I talk to professional athletes who have won an NBA championship or something, for example, they always say it's harder to win the next year. Yeah, it is. Because there's more pressure.

People now recognize you. You now are thinking about it. Yeah. Did you feel any of that? Absolutely. In 2015, it was, I'd just not qualified. No one was looking at me. I was in no one's radar, and there is no pressure.

I just, I truly fell in love with the process of working out hard and giving it my best effort and becoming a better version of myself. And I just, I loved it so much, and I just had a great mindset that year that literally nothing else mattered, just my performance on the field. And every time I'd come off and I'd high find my coach, and it's like, yes, and right, let's move on to the next one. And there was, not to say that that's easy, but you don't have that pressure, you don't have the media, like, asking what you're doing. You don't have everyone, like, pulling at you in so many directions, but coming in as a reigning champion, number one, I felt like I did feel a little bit of, like, people thought it was a fluke.

You know, like, oh, like some people got injured or, you know, like, oh, the events lined up, and it's like, it's not the case. You don't accidentally win the CrossFit games, and I worked so hard all year round. because I wanted to prove that it wasn't a fluke and I worked day in and day out and with my coach and I again like took another year where I I moved to Boston and to get to work with him every day so I literally was like focus boat and I and a lot of things happened that year and I I lost my grandmother. It was my absolute best friend and rock in this world and I had something I had a higher purpose. I did everything for her and I made sure that I was going to give everything that I had whether it was in training or in recovery. and when I showed up, like, everything, and I felt like I had her with me. Like, I'd come off her feeling. I didn't even know how I did the things that I did. Yeah, that's inspiring. So, I, there was a lot of mix of things.

Like, I did work so extremely hard because I wanted to prove that it wasn't a fluke, but I also, I had that higher purpose. Yeah. Well, that's awesome. So you now have amassed a big fan base, you know, and whether it's on social media or elsewhere, you know, did you expect to have millions of fans who are rooting for you in this journey? No, I actually still think that's crazy.

That's got to be a little surreal. It is, but it is what pushes me, you know. You have to redefine your why so many times, and sometimes, you know, you literally ask yourself, why are you doing this? And there are, you know, periods of time where you do that. And my biggest why is definitely, like, I get messages from girls that tell me that, in some way or another, like they saw me, whether it's work out or, you know, listen to a podcast or saw me in a documentary and, you know, and they, because I get to go in and do what I

absolutely love every day and work so hard towards that, they get inspired to become a better version of themselves. And that means the absolute world to me, whether it's, you know, little girls or you know i get messages from men grown men or women or whoever it is it's just like i remind myself of that every single day that i'm going to do it for that i'm going to do for someone that is going to see because i feel very i'm very thankful for the opportunities that i get like if i get to speak and if i get to be in a documentary or someone you know because of the the position that I'm in, people want to, you know, do documentaries or videos on me, and I get to speak. And someone is going to look at that and become a better person or be inspired

to work harder or get better at, whether it's CrossFit or being a better friend or at school, you know, like if it can do something for one person, it's going to push me today. And that's something that I try and think about every single day. Well, female empowerment is very important right now in society and if you think about you know there's a very clear analogy to being strong you know both literally and figuratively um as a woman and it seems it seems that just weightlifting for women has been growing over the last five 10 years have you noticed that absolutely like in popularity i think that's crossfit or at least like the one reference that i have to that is iceland and when crossfits are growing in iceland of course like

we started weightlifting, and that's what brought weightlifting back into Iceland. You know, there were no girls competing in weightlifting until the CrossFit girls started competing in weightlifting. So I'm sure that has had an effect here, too. I know there's a bigger base of, like, of girls that train weightlifting and are weightlifters and are phenomenal in that. But I'm sure that CrossFit did help that with just, like, getting more girls in there. And I think, like, I don't know if it's just the image that you have in your head, that

you're going to get like, you're too big or you're too bulky or this or that if you lift, but it really is, it's empowering and it's just girls all over the world that like to lift. And I think seeing someone else do that, and I think it gives you, when you get stronger, it gives you confidence. And when you're confident in what you can do and who you are, I think that really, it always shines through. I think you're happier. I think you're able to compliment others more because you don't feel threatened because you're happy with yourself.

Yeah, I mean, weightlifting or working out or whatever it is, I think it gives you confidence and it makes you a better person. And do you find you have more male fans or female fans? I don't know. I really don't. I would, like, at the top of my head, like, if you have to give an answer, I'll probably say females. Yeah. And maybe it's just that I notice them more and maybe they're more vocal about it.

Maybe they're the ones that come up to me a lot more. Right. And whenever I see the thing that means most, absolutely, most of me in the world is when little girls come up to me and tell them that I inspire them or that they want to become stronger and better at this or healthier. It's like that means the world to me, you know. So I would guess that, but I think my Instagram is pretty, it's like 45, 55%, something like that. Okay. You know, from the database, but. Right, right, right.

And do you feel that men and women within CrossFit are being treated equally? You know, there's a big debate in sports, right, where you look at tennis, for example, the last 12 months, there's been all kinds of debate about whether Serena Williams is not being treated as fairly as other male tennis players, or we saw this in soccer recently. Yeah. How about in the CrossFit community? That's another. I feel like I'm just lucky, you know.

I, coming from Iceland, we have the highest, like, gender equality in the world. Did you know that? Oh, that's cool. It's, like, our parliament and our, like, our pay and, like, females in power positions, and we had the first female president in the world in 1980. We have, it's, I'm so incredibly proud of that. And at the same time with CrossFit, I'm so proud to be a part of the sport where we are equals. and we get the same amount of TV airtime.

We get the same prize money. We get the same workouts. I mean, we scale the loads relative to the men, but everything else is the same. And I just feel very lucky to get to be a part of that. I'm proud of that. Well, I think it's terrific. I also think it may reflect the fact that, from an audience standpoint,

the audience is just as excited to watch the female CrossFit games as they are to watch the male cross-fit games. And that may very well be because stars like you are doing such a good job commercializing the sport. You know, I think other sports like, say, the WNBA, for example, it's not as an exciting product. It doesn't have the same level of star power. So it's harder to make a case that NBA players and WMBA players should be,

you know, getting paid the same and this and that. So it's, I think it's good. A lot of that, though, is that. who do you support is the people you know who do you know is the people that have documents out it's people that have books out when you get to know someone on a personal level you're going to like feel like you you're going to want them to win a lot more right and you're going to know them a lot better and when you have more TV time you know more people are going to see you more people want to get to know you so I think like when you already have this distorted

image of something when like the guys get all the TV time the females don't of course you're going to know the guys you're going to want to watch them you're excited like if it's your friend competing, you're so excited to watch him. But if you don't even know who's competing, you know, like, I feel like in so many sports and in this world, it's so distorted already. And I know what you're saying. Like, of course, they have so much, they're going to draw so much more attention. They have so much more power. Of course, they should get more pay. But it's just because it already is so distorted. And I feel like in CrossFit, we, we entered it at a level playing field, and we're able to do that. And I think we're setting a great example for other

sports now we're both games for the men and for the women started at the same time yeah so that's probably as far as I know that's probably one piece that's very helpful yeah right you started on a level playing field yeah a lot of these other professional sports were male dominant exactly and then introduced so to your point you know that's probably that could contribute in large part to why this you know income inequalities continuing or or just general fan base inequalities continuing yeah I want to quickly run through some of the different recovery modalities that you may have tried or you may have used. So we're just going to run through these and you tell me whether or not you tell me whether or not you like them or you've tried them. Cryotherapy.

Yeah, I did that. So I had a really bad experience with that one. So I denied to get into that for years. What's a bad experience look like? I think she put me into like two. I'd never done it before. And I think I got put on like, I think. I think if you just look at me, like, a high lot, like, of course you should do the highest level of, like, cold.

And so I just, I freaked out in the chamber, and I felt like my body was getting ruined, and I was getting frost by it and all these things. So that was terrible, but this summer, I started giving it, and I literally went in and I was like, I want level one. They're like, oh, I was like, level one. Yeah, right. And I started doing that, and I slowly worked my way up. And it's actually something that I do like. It's, I never know, like, if it really works or if it's a placebo effect, but if it's, makes me feel better. You know, like, I felt like a rush going down to my legs, like,

after you're done, and a little bit like a, like a Norma Tech to the extreme, especially in the heat. Like, I just thought it was like anything that can cool your body temperature down, like, that I did do that this summer and I did like it, yeah. I know what you're saying about that moment where you go in for the first time. Because it feels like straight out of like a torture camp. Yeah. And it hurts. You're locked in this tiny little... I thought it was ruining my body. And she didn't let me out. So that was the thing. She would just let me out. I would have tried again. She didn't let me out. I was always panicking in there. It's a scene.

A bit of a situation. How about acupuncture? I don't know the difference between acupuncture and dry nailing, but I have had needles in my body. And is that something you'll do regularly or no? No. I'm definitely afraid of needles.

And I've like, because it's my only body and I take care of it, it's something that I'm working with a PT that belies in this and thinks that it's going to do good. like I'll go with it if it's a PT that I trust so I have had it done a couple times never so that I see so it's always been like the back of my shoulders or my back and I feel like honestly feel like I can't breathe while it's happening but I've tried it and I don't know which one I've tried I don't know the difference we've talked about NormaTech and foam rolling so

you're a big believer in both of those have you ever used the hypervolt or the therogun Like those little... Yes. I have a hypervils. I love that. I haven't had it for a long time, but it's like, especially like on a competition day when you just like want to sit there and like flush your legs out. I do like that. The hypervalt's a little less.

The therogon is very loud. And the hypervalt, it's more like you can have it in public, you know? I've heard people like hypervolt more than the third gun generally. We talked about sauna, so you're a big fan of that. You mentioned Easton. before? Yes. So what will you use for that?

I've had a compacts for years, you know, that I'll use, and I'll put that on my back. And I just like the normal one that, like, has all the wires, and I feel like you can, like, pull your pants up over them, and because I use it a lot of my back and my glutes. Yeah, so normally I have used them on my quads. They're just hard to use on your shoulders or your biceps, because I feel like anything that I want to use on my arms, I just feel like I can't do anything while I'm, like, while I'm using them, but yeah, I use it a lot. Coughing?

Yep. I actually have, like, cupping bruises right now. Just tried it for the first time. Oh, interesting. Do you think you'll do it again? Yeah. I mean, I've done it twice now, but, um, and I might, I think they're helping. I always do so many things at the same time, you know, like, I am still, like, you see a PT

and you might do, like, cupping, and you might be doing, like, manual work, and then you might be doing extra exercises for it, so you never know, like, what's the thing that's moving the needle in the most but I mean this is probably the best time of year to be trying all this stuff right because the games are nine months away or something yeah so I mean I definitely they're bringing blood flow to the area so I

I always think that's that's great for recovery you ever used a compression suit uh no kineshesiology tape uh I mean it's been put on me but I'm never really I don't know what that does I think that at the same is kind of I'm probably like a light cupping, you know, it's bringing some blood flow to the area, but no, I've never really used that.

Do you ever do ice bath? Do you ice? Very little. I'll use an ice bath if I'm really hot during competition, and I just need to cool my body temperature down, but not really for recovery. Anything, anything that I've missed that you think's important? Just like PT work, you know. that's like massage therapy chiro or pt like all those things i think that's important you know especially for like you know if you're thinking about your shoulders or you know your lower back like you can't really work on those things as well as you need to do like you can maintain but i think like like deep tissue work needs to be down by someone else okay all right we're i'm going to ask you

some quick questions these have been crowdsourced to some degree uh and we'll go from there what is something that you do that no one would expect from the fittest woman on earth? So I guess this could be like a guilty pleasure ever having martinis late at night or, you know, like... Well, that would be a complete surprise, huh? Yeah. Um, what do I do? Maybe you're just, you know, perfect and dialed in and focused. No, it's not true.

I wish it was. I don't know. Like right now, my like bad things that I'm doing is, like, like I'm like I'll get like a cappuccino or something that like normal just get a cappuccino and I'm like I'm like one pump up white chocolate please that's my like yeah a little chocolate yeah uh when you hear the expression optimal performance who comes to mind I don't know I just when you say optimal performance I like see myself and I see the gaps where I should improve you know that's interesting yeah like I want to see myself an optimal

performance and I know how to get there like not to say that you'll ever get there but like I'll continue like i'll always continue to like strive towards it like strive towards better sleep towards better workouts towards better you know getting better at this skill and better at this conditioning and like it's just there's all these like levels that you need to like raise and you want to get everything to the top what are some influences uh for you on on health or training so you talked before about some books that you read you said you got into psychology what are some of the different things that were impactful um definitely like champion's mind

that was a book that I think has impacted me the most and then it's just my coach Ben Bergeron and he kind of like gets me in the right mindset and has taught me so much what's the most important theme from champion's mind

being the best version of yourself you know not don't compare yourself to others it's like compare yourself to yourself that's at least what of what I can take out of it. It's like, what's your gold standard? And, like, try and live up to that. You know, how can I do what's, how can I give my best at this, at this exact moment?

Other, like, you know, influences, it's definitely, like, you know, my family. Like, you pick different things from different people and different athletes, have different work ethic, and you pick different things that, like, all right, I want to be, like, this one on this or this one on this. It's like, I literally find influences and inspirations. everywhere it could be my friends or my siblings you know for certain characteristics it's you know for some it's just like how to have fun and for some it's like how to literally grind through a for a stocky workout you know and you just like pick different have you met any athletes that you felt starstruck around

or you're not not for a long time you know my first games yes and i just like you know you feel out of place and you feel nervous and it's like oh my gosh i've seen them on youtube but right you know I think as soon as I start being on YouTube and I start being in all these articles, it's like you stop looking at them and you become equals. I think it's very hard to compete with someone that you are star-struck by. How about in other sports? Do you interact with athletes ever in other sports? Yeah, I don't know.

I just feel like it's, I feel like I get approached a lot and people are so star-struck. They don't even know what to say. And all I want to say them is like, oh my, like I'm just. just Katrin like i still get told off by my mom and i put stuff in the dishwasher you know it's so like i'm i'm just cat you know and it's it's surreal to see how people change around you you mean yeah it's like and it's like and then being starstruck so that's why it's like when i meet someone that you know you think you should be starstruck by it's almost like you know they still just have a mom and they're a family and and a friend and all those things so it kind of like

it brings things back to me like back down earth it's like you know we're all we're all just humans that was one thing for me I remember in getting to work with athletes like yourself like it's you know you just have to really focus on the purpose of the meeting or yeah because I've put technology on on some of you know the top most recognizable athletes in the world and then when you're in that moment you just have to yeah focus on the moment and not make it weird not make it weird for the athlete or whoever else yeah and so well anyway that it's It's no surprise that's how you feel about it. What's the most relaxing vacation you've ever gone on? I'm probably going to have to say, like, the one that comes to my mind, like, you know, probably years ago. Like, I've been to Thailand when I was a kid, and I was probably like, you know,

I'd probably just take a break and this and that. But the one that comes to my mind is when I went to Morocco after I didn't make the games. And, like, all I wanted to do is be training for the games, but I didn't have that. So I was like, you know, my family had already planned a trip to Morocco, and my dad's like, well, do you want to come? And I was like, well, I guess, yeah, you know? So it went tomorrow, and that's when I started reading.

I'd never even, like, read a book in my life. You know, not barely in school. You know, if it was a school book, I'd read it. But I'd never, like, read anything outside of it. And I just started reading, and I, like, hang by the pool or the beach. Any tricks for beating jet lag or travel? I think it depends on, like, where you are, but I always try and get, like, right on the time zone.

like when you do an overnight flight to Iceland and it's so early still here but it's like middle of the night in Iceland and you like land there it's like I could go get a full night's sleep but then I'm just going to stay up like then I'm going to be sleep like you land at like 6 a.m you're probably in bed like eight like for me it's like just get less sleep for that day it's like get up at 11 you know get on schedule get on schedule just be tired for that day and then be in bed like early like that night like something like that like whenever I land I try and as soon as I can, like, get on the schedule for that day. And if I can, I move around, always after a flight.

It's like try and move around and get some blood flow. Now, you have a book coming out, Daughter, my journey to becoming a two-time CrossFit Games champion. Do you want to talk a little bit about that book? We're still, there's still so much left and so much left in the process. Yeah, that it's just like, we're hoping that it's going to come out. I think it's like we're looking at, like, like March, April, but it's crazy writing a book and it's so many directions that you can go in

and what I want to write about and what I want to say and how do I want to have like the storyline and this and that. But we'll talk about it. We'll do another one later when it's ready. How do you feel about the growth to these like celebrity fitness models, you know, like Instagram models? Do you feel like it's good in that they're incentivizing people to exercise, or do you think it's bad in that they're, you know, taking these perfect snapshots of themselves? They actually don't work out that much. You know, what's your point of view as someone who's clearly an athlete? I don't know.

I honestly haven't thought about it. If they inspire someone to get up and get moving and be healthier and eat healthier, then I think it's great. And I think it's easy for people to criticize when they think that's easy. And they think that, you know, oh, they're just an instant. Instagram start or just this, like I bet they put a lot of work into it. Put a ton of work into it. You know, there's so much work that goes into, like, being on social media, and it takes a lot

of time to create content. And so if it's all done, if they have, if they're doing it for the right purpose, I'm all for it. Yeah, that's great. So, but, like, I just think everyone needs to be able to do their thing. And I definitely, like, I've been asked if I'm, if I'm just showing a glamour side to this and that. And my answer is always, like, I want to do positive things.

I'm not, if I'm not feeling good, if I'm not looking good, I'm not going to go take a picture and post it. Like, I'm not going to put something negative into the world. And I'm not going, if I don't feel good that day, I'm not going to go complain on Instagram. It's, I want everything. I want people to go to my page or to look at what I post and be inspired or empowered.

And I want them. So I want to put positive things out there. So, of course, it's going to be more of the better sides of my life. but I also try and be honest. I do all of my social media and I want it to be me and I want it to be see-through and I want to be vulnerable and I want things like not making the Crosby games or I failed a lockhorse once

and I try and talk about it because anything that when you can find a silver lining in anything, I think that's good. So if there's something that I can, a failure of mine that ends up being the best thing that could have happened to me, If someone's going through that right now, and like maybe it is the best thing that happens to me and, like, can pull themselves out of that, like, yeah, I'll talk about that. But a lot of things are, you know, they might look like you're showing a glamour life.

But, you know, I want it to be positive, but I do put in real things. And if it's, I want to be open and honest. Makes a lot of sense. And how can people find you online? It's just my name and my middle name. So Katrin Tanya, so K-A-T-R-I-N and T-A-N-J-A. And we'll include this, obviously, in the show notes. Yeah, so I'm mostly on Instagram, but I do have Twitter and Facebook and Snapchat, but Instagram is where I put out content and where I thrive the most.

Well, look, Katrin, you've been so much fun to interview. It's been a pleasure working with you at Whoop, and we're glad that you get. I love working with you guys. We're glad that you get a lot of value out of the data. Yeah. And happy training this winter. Stay warm. And thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to the third episode of the Whoop podcast. Big thank you to Katrin for joining us and being such a wonderful guest. Katrin, we are rooting for you and wish you nothing but the best of success. You can visit whoop.com slash the locker for show notes and for links to the relevant topics of what we talked about. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review the Whoop podcast on iTunes, Google, Spotify. Spotify or wherever across the internet that this podcast exists, you can join the Whoop community for $30 a month and get 24-7 access on your biometric data as well as

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