WHOOP Podcast - What it Takes to be the Fittest Woman on Earth with Katrin Davíðsdóttir

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

On this week’s episode WHOOP Founder and CEO Will Ahmed is joined by fitness legend Katrin Davíðsdóttir. The Icelandic athlete was crowned the "Fittest Woman on Earth" in both 2015 and 2016 at the CrossFit Games. Her background in gymnastics and track and field led to her strong athletic foundation. In March of 2024, Katrín and fellow WHOOP athlete Annie Thorisdottir, launched Empower by Dóttir to help provide insight and training tips to women throughout their fitness journeys. Will and Katrin discuss Katrin getting started in the fitness world (1:57), what makes a good mentor (5:17), becoming the Fittest Woman on Earth (6:34), work ethic and mindset (16:22), how Katrin uses WHOOP (18:24), Katrin’s Surgery and her rehab (21:29), tools to recover from surgery (30:13), tracking in the WHOOP journal (34:33), and what’s next for Katrin (38:45).ResourcesKatrin's InstagramEmpower by DóttirFollow WHOOPwww.whoop.comTrial WHOOP for FreeInstagramXFacebookLinkedInFollow Will AhmedInstagramXLinkedInSupport 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

Hello, folks. Welcome back to the WOOP podcast. I'm your host, Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of Woop. We're on a mission to unlock human performance. Awesome guests this week before we get to her. If you're thinking about joining Woop, visit Woop.com. Sign up for a free 30-day trial. That's right. You can try Woop for free for 30 days. Great deal. Okay. This week's episode, I am joined by Fitness Legend, Katrin, David. David's daughter, the Icelandic athlete renowned for her exceptional performances in the CrossFit games where she won the title of fittest woman on earth in both 2015 and 2016. Her background in gymnastics and track and field led to her strong athletic foundation. In March of 2024, Katrin and fellow Wob athlete Annie Thurrah's daughter launched Empower by Daughter to help provide insight and training tips to women. Katrin and I discuss how she got into the fitness world, the qualities of a good mentor. She talked about Annie Thoris' daughter, how she took her under her wing.

Winning the CrossFit games and being crowned the fittest woman in the world. How Katrin uses whoop. She's been on whoop since 2017. And how she's been recovering from her recent back surgeries, a lot of good tips on recovery. Remindered if you have a question was he answered on the podcast. Email us, podcast at whoop.com. Call us 508-443-49-5-2. Here is my conversation with The Amazing Finn, Katrin, Davis, and daughter.

What's up, Katrin? What's up? It's been a couple years. I know. Welcome back to the Wood Podcast. Thank you. So, in the last 10 years, I mean, it feels like functional fitness in general is exploded. Yeah, very much.

You've been in this space forever for as long as anyone. Almost. Almost. Talk about kind of getting into it. Yeah. So I was a gymnast growing up, and I loved gymnastics. And I actually loved, I think, the dedication of it and how much we had to train. I trained six days a week for four hours since I was 10 years old.

And I loved that. And I loved the conditioning part of it. And when I was 16, I just realized I didn't want to de gymnastics anymore. And there was something missing and I need to do something else. So I tried out track. I loved the buildup phase because it was like, so much conditioning there were so many like hard run interval sessions which were awesome but i never really like found my thing that i wanted to compete in and so when it came to competition season

it felt like you were just constantly in a d-load week waiting to compete and i didn't like love the competing part of it and i felt like a little bit lost i tried gymnastics again and summer of 2011 i was 18 and annie thoris stutter wins the crossfit games and she's a fellow iceland lander. It blew up CrossFit and Iceland. It was all over the news, all over the media. They are showing clips from her at the CrossFit games and winning. And my mom and my grandma were kind of like looking at it. And they're like, why don't you try that? It looks like you could be good at that. And in my memory, I feel like I called boot camp, which was the gym that she turned out in Iceland, the very next day and went and tried it. And that's how I got into CrossFit. So when it's as long as

anybody i feel like i've been in it for so long but the fact that annie is still in it and she had already won the games yeah and she's now my best friend in the entire universe isn't that cool it's so cool like i think back at like looking at her when the crossfit games and wanting to just do what she did and i still remember the time when like she went on a little tour i forget where they even went. It was like a world tour with Reebok at the time after the game. So she wasn't in Iceland for a couple of months. But I remember when she came back and she was also a coach at boot camp, but she like coached one of the classes that I was at. And her just saying like, she was like, whoa, like good job, Katrin. And I just remember how I was like, whoa, like Annie knows

my name. Like I looked up to her so much. I so wanted to do what she did. And then the fact that we now get to like walk this journey together, share similar experiences. And we really have walked such a parallel path, but she's four years older than me. So she grew up 10 minutes from me and in one town over. She had the same gymnastics coaches growing up, but she was four years ahead. So I felt like I was very much, she started track after her gymnastics. She started boot camp after track and then got it. And so it was like, we've always walked. same path, but her ahead of me. And I love that our paths have now crossed. And we get to do this together and go through. It's a hard sport. It's a hard. It's so rewarding, but it's also so hard.

And the fact that we have each other to lean on and do this with is amazing. And she's been something of, I mean, obviously you're best friends now, but she was something of a mentor to you in the beginning. Very much. What makes a good mentor? I think A, having genuine care You know, I think there is, I think she saw something in me and I think she, I think I reminded her of herself when she started. And still to this day, she's very good at this. She sees a young, if there's anybody in the gym that she sees potential in and sees genuine interest and work ethic, she and invites them to come train with them, her and Frederick. And she, and that's what she did for me. And yeah, I mean, she's since. told me this but it's like she just noticed that you know I reminded her of herself and then the fact that like I just I love training I love giving everything that I have I will always like I'll leave everything out on the floor and no matter what the challenge is like that's just I I can take a loss like I can I can take a second place for a loss as long as it was a tight competition I was in it

I just love a competition and the fact that like she allowed me to just come constantly, I had no chance of ever beating her at the beginning. I was just chasing her, but I tried as hard as I could, and I loved it. And I think she really loved that too to get to do that with somebody and somebody was just trying as hard as they could. And you win the CrossFit games in just 2015, 2016. So that was only four years after getting into it, the fittest woman in the world. Yeah. I mean, the sport is so young. There's no way anybody would do that now. but yeah so what was what were those four years or so like going from cold start to being the best at it looking back like i genuinely like i said i just went as hard as i could and i loved

the training and i was good at it very fast which i think can be good and bad but i went in and in me i was two weeks in and everybody writes that are like scores up on the board and i remember literally it was two weeks in and there was the team from my gym that had gone to the crossfit games and like the girls on the team had written down their scores and I beat every one of them and I just remember being like I came home and I'm like mom like I want to go to regionals which is the qualification stage for the games I remember who you like okay it was around new year is when I remember it which was probably like four months into my crossfit I remember deciding that I was going to go to the crossFit games and I've borrowed this

It was like this yellow rubber bracelet. It was actually my cousins. And I remember asking him, I was like, hey, can I have this? And he was like, yeah, go ahead. And I put on my wrist, and that was my reminder that I was going to go to the CrossFit games. And every single training session was just I would see it. I was holding a plank. I'd be doing running intervals.

It was my constant reminder that I was going to go to the CrossFit games. And I made it to the CrossFit games. And so that regionals, it was really like, it was me and Annie. and I was constantly, there were six events, Annie won five of them, I won one. And so I beat Annie in an event. And the others, I was like second or third. Like, I was so much in the competition. And I, like, live for being in that competition.

Like, I'm so alive. Like, that's my favorite spot to be. And I think I got a bit of a false confidence from that regionals because then getting to the games, it was a whole other. other beasts. I had coaches at the gym assist me. I'd never been to the games. And then I get to the games and it's all these girls that I've just been watching on YouTube. And I thought that I was like in the competition. But I was in Europe. I wasn't at the CrossFit games. And it was very, I felt very small and very defeated at the games. And I got cut on the last day. And I remember

sitting in the stand and just feeling embarrassed and like this is not where I want to be like. And it was the top 10 girls and I remember really wanted to be like a top 10 girl and then the year after just a very similar like I didn't really have a coach I was a full-time student I was a full-time coach at a crossfit gym I was just spread very thin but I like made the games again and just a very similar story at the games and then the year after now I'm associating with being a games athlete and I'm associating with like this is my identity and I actually fail to qualify. And I was 20 years old. I was definitely not like mature enough to like handle that well. I felt so embarrassed. I did not see that as being like like now you look back and like it's part of sports. You know,

it's one weekend. Like you have off weekends, but it ended up being like the greatest thing that could have happened to me because I was like, this is not going to happen again. Like if I want to go to the CrossFit games and I apply myself, I'm going to make it. And it made me, like, take some, or make some moves and make changes that I don't think I otherwise would have done. I think I would have been, like, satisfied with being a CrossFit Games athlete. And that summer, I just started training with Annie. And I think she always had a harder time training with other girls or training with somebody who she saw as a competitor. And I think this time around, she didn't see me as a competitor because I wasn't competing.

and I showed up to push her. So, like, I got to do game training alongside the best in the world. Like, we had never trained, like, day to day all the time together. That was our first summer doing that, and, like, the start of our best friend relationship. And then after the games, I'd gone, like, to a training camp with CF&E. and Ben Bergerner was the head coach. He had four athletes. He always had a great team at the games.

And I just loved that environment. And I remember all of his athletes always being like he doesn't take on any more athletes. He doesn't take on any more athletes. And I just remember this one day. I was like, well, I don't have a coach now. If I walk in and he says, no, I just still won't have a coach. Sure, right. So might as well ask.

So I went in and he said it would think about it. And if I only got a yes. And I think that was the greatest thing that, like, I could have done for myself. And I ended up moving to Boston at the start of 2015. And I think, like, not making the games also just took so much pressure off of me. Like, all I started reading sports psychology books, I got a coach. I started training with that team. And I remember one of the things from, like, a sports psychology book that I read, like, it just sits with me still. It was just, like, get my gold. And it didn't mean get the gold, but it was my gold. whatever that was, whatever that standard was. And I kind of got ingrained in me that just be the best me. And that was all I was trying to do. I wasn't trying to win the CrossFit games. I was just trying every time I said I went on to the floor, I just wanted to be the best me, whatever that looked like. And I just would give everything. And suddenly the Saturday on the 2015 games, it was the first time it ever occurred to me. I was like, holy smokes. I was like, I'm in a position to win the CrossFit games.

And you did. And I did. And was your performance that day a lot better than you thought it could be? Was it exactly what you visualized and you just did it? So the CrossFit games are over a five-day period. So this year, we started on a Wednesday. We actually got the Thursday off and then we competed Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And it was like extreme conditions that year.

I think there was like there was an event that we did at noon and it was 105 degrees out in the field and it was MRF and we were wearing a weight best and we're out in the blazing sun and a lot of competitors got either like really they got a heat stroke they some there was a couple that had to pull out people got thrown off by it a lot and that's one of my strengths I a I think like physiologically, I handle heat very well. So I think I was in like a good position to handle that. And then mentally, I kind of like when things are, aren't straightforward and they aren't inside of the box. And like throughout my career, those have always been when it's been something has been like we get thrown a curveball. For some reason, I'm, I get like a, hell yeah. Whereas I think it sometimes even like, and you can hear it, even on a bus, when the athletes are like, oh no, like what we shouldn't be like starting this early. We didn't get any sleep and this. Like it, it kind of like invigorates something. It made me of like, good. I'm ready.

Yeah, well, just having a good attitude all of a sudden puts you ahead of like 50% of the competition. Yeah. You said that when you first started, you were, you were naturally good at CrossFit or came naturally to you. And that could be good or bad. How can it be bad? I think it was bad for me in the way that I associated myself with being good with CrossFit. And so then I think I'm good at CrossFit. And I think A, it can create a certain complacency. And then I think it can also create this, like, false confidence of, like, I think I'm good. And then suddenly the competition is just better.

And so it's actually like a, I think it's always, you need to be like teetering on a knife's edge. You need to always be a little scared, a little pushing, like everybody at this level or your, your competitors, the ones that are competing to be, I think there's people that love participating in the CrossFit games. And then I think there's people that are there to win. And those that are there to win, they work really hard. They're really good. they also have a mental edge. They also have a great attitude. They're also working as hard as you are. And I think, like, thinking that, oh, like, I'm good at this. I think too much stress can also be bad, but it gives you just the right amount of stress that you're always pushing forward, that everything matters, that you need to make sure that every single detail, every single interval. I don't just go in and check off a box. Like, this portion of my day matters. The sixth interval out of 10 rounds on my bike interval, that one matters too, like to never let up and to always be pushing. And I think realizing that, that everybody is good and having that fear and having that

just a little bit of adrenaline, cortisol, something to propel me forward, I think is necessary. You mentioned that you've always had this, like, really strong work ethic. Do you think that's the number one criteria to get great at CrossFit or a similar type of fitness? I think for sure. I think without it, I don't know if it's the number one, but I can tell you that without it, you won't be great. What would be other potential characteristics? I think having a, I think a mindset of just like having a strong mind of just like knowing when things go wrong, when things get hard, how do you handle that? And kind of like knowing to brace for them and expecting them. So I think a mix of a work ethic, a strong,

strong mind and an intelligent mind. I think that's probably something that's also been my downfall. I rely on my work ethic. I rely on the fact that I can do more, that I want to do more and I love doing more. And I think throughout my career and even the fact of like getting older, I think that like it would have been very good for me to start relying on my wits more and to train smarter and rely on experience, but because I draw a lot of confidence from the work that I put in and the amount of work that I put in. And when I'm 22 years old with a rubber body and if something, if I blow my back out, it's going to be fine next week. Like, I bounce back so fast. And I think I won on a 22 and a 23 year old body. And so even just like last year,

like I work myself to the ground and that's how I feel confident. Like even if I'm really, really fit, it's really hard for me to tell myself that and believe that if I haven't put in what I believe is an insane amount of work. And so I think for me, adding in a little bit more of like just trusting a smart training approach also could have benefited me. But I love relying on my hard work. So I think those strong mind, intelligent mind, and a work ethic will get you very far in CrossFit and probably life in general. Probably life in general. Yeah.

How long you've been on whoop now? 2017. Summer of 2017. Wow. So you're like OG Woo. OG. And how have you used it? So I have had to learn.

So at the start, you get a score every day, a recovery score. And, you know, green days, you're like, woo, it's going to be an amazing day. And red days, you're like, oh, no. And I've had to learn. I honestly do not get a lot of red days. Like red days are actually very telling to me about I'm probably getting sick or it's been after red eye flight. Well, you actually shared your data with us so I can interject here for a second. Your red days are only 1.2% of days. Yes. Yes. So it is like a very unusual. They're very low. And so normally for me, they are a big teller. I know I'm going to get them after a red eye flight. And then normally it's been. I'm sick, but if I can disassociate from the one day, and I've learned to see trends. And so if I'm not trending in a good direction, if I'm not trending, if I don't, if my recovery doesn't start coming up after a certain amount of days, I need to start looking into something. And then the same time, I love just seeing my stats and I get a little competitive with my

strain, I want to see 100% sleep score. And one of the best things about WOOP, and I started realizing this was like, I'm like, okay, I'm going to be in bed by 10. And then, you know, at 945, you start getting ready, you start brushing your teeth, you go in, you, whatever, you set your alarm, you put, you charge your phone. And suddenly, like, you fell asleep at 10.31 p.m. You're like, no, like, he doesn't lie. And Roof tells me exactly, like, how many hours I got. And I just feel like it's my accountability buddy it's definitely that you've got some amazing statistics so resting heart rate 49 is that from the past 30 days the past 90 days past 90 days okay I had surgery five weeks ago now okay I would like to talk to you about this my resting heart rate jumped

it was like 20 beats at the start I know because my my body was just trying to like work through something or so it's normally lower i'm proud of my low resting heart you're normally even in the lower 40s yes well 49 is in the top 5% of all women on whoop so that's really good thank you very much and sounds like it's normally better what's up folks if you are enjoying this podcast or if you care about health performance fitness you may really enjoy getting a whoop that's right you can checkout whoop at whoop.com. It measures everything around sleep, recovery, strain, and you can now sign up for free for 30 days. So you'll literally get the high performance wearable in the mail for free. You get to try it for 30 days to see whether you want to be a member. And that is just at

whoop.com. Back to the guests. You just had surgery. So explain what happened and how you're recovering from it. So I got a herniated disc in 2019. So before that, I, you know, I think if anything, like my threat to my career has always been my back. I, I, I bought it easily. I think I'm predispositioned and I have a sharp angle between my, my back and my sacrum. Like, I have a hyper extension and blow it out. And that recovered, that recovered well. And 2020. second place at the CrossFit Games. And last year, even like, I know it was a seventh place finish at the games last year, but I am so proud of that. I am so proud of my approach to last year, the work that I put into last year, just finding my joy in competing again and

finding fire and competing again. Like, there's so much that I'm so proud of it. I was so excited to build on it. Like, there were so many breakthroughs that I made last year. And when I started training this year, it just was off. You know, I suddenly couldn't, like, extend backwards, which I'd never had pain with anymore, even like a Superman hold or butterfly chest bar pullups or no, like when you kick your feet back. And I am stubborn to a fault. If I set my mind to something and set my mind to competing, I think I will run through many walls for it. that. I think I pushed for a very long time just trying to get through the seasons when I should have seen the signs, you know, months ago. And also did not, had not like had imaging on it or anything. So I don't think I, I didn't know what was going on. And when I finally do go and get an MRI and an x-ray, that disc is just pretty much gone. It had been. bone on bone, there was extra bone growth, and there was arthritis, so L5S1, which explains so much

of just the pain that I'd been in and even just sitting, standing, laying, like, it was all painful. And just my back couldn't move anymore. Like, I couldn't hinge for it. I couldn't rotate. It just didn't move. And so we tried to just get me through the season. We tried a cortisone shot. It was so terrible. That was like my final like, okay, we'll do it. We'll try it. That should get me to right before semis, like just to try and get through and qualify for the CrossFit games. And it was just so bad for me and it did nothing and it made it worse of anything. And just the cortisone in my system, like, holy smokes, I doubt I'll ever get one again. That was a tough week. What did it do? I just felt like I am a very like, I have a very even temper. And I

I really like having an even temper like I like having my temper under control and I was so aggravated even just like for summer I feel so bad about my little pup my little baby my palm he was frustrating me and like just feeling things like I was so frustrated I had zero patients like I was just angry that week which I think was just like it's cortisone in your system severe headaches like my back didn't get any better which is what I was hoping for and so when I went back to see the doctor told him that it didn't do anything and my back was worse if anything and he was like well it's very telling to me it's it's not the joint it's disc so this was before the imaging we get the imaging done and it was correct and he was very confident he was like I can help you

I can get you out of this and I felt I would have flown anywhere like this is my back and my body has been my livelihood and I would have flown anywhere in the world to get the best surgeon. And he was the local one in Cordillane and he just felt like he had so much confidence. I believe that he could help me. And he also like his bread and butter is going in from the back. And he like he knows the nerves. He going from the back. And for me, he was like, I like to do it differently for you.

You know, he wanted to go in through my front so that he didn't touch my back. He didn't cut through any of my back muscles. My back anatomy is completely fine. go in from the front, which essentially is in the short term, a much harder surgery. There's just a higher risk for any kind of complications. But because I was otherwise so healthy, he was like, I have no doubts about it that you can do it. We can insert a bigger cage. They took the disc out, inserted a cage, cadaver bone around, inserted a plate with screws in the front, and then closed me back up.

And so that was, yeah, four and a half. weeks ago now. Well, you seem like you're in great shape and spirits. That's not a long ago. Yeah, I'm so, yeah, that's, I'm doing so well. I don't think I knew at all what to expect. Like, even like what kind of pain I would be in after the surgery or what I've never had surgery. I've, and it's my first surgery and first major surgery. And immediately, the day after my back pain was gone. I have lots of other pains from the surgery. So my back pain was gone. And, even just trying to get through the, through the season, I was doing therapy. And I was trying anything.

And one of them remembers being like, okay, close your eyes and imagine that you have no back pain. And I couldn't imagine it. I could not even imagine having no back pain. And it was so insane that like now I have no back pain. I was like the hunchback of Notre Dame because my abs hurt so much. My incision hurts so much. Like, I don't know if you notice it, but I'm a little bit taller. I got a little extra height

in between my vertebraes but that also stretched the nerves and so there was I had a lot of nerve pain after a week and so there are other things to recover from but I would say it like the two week mark I was feeling it was a world of a difference

and I felt much more normal I could start biking again I started doing just like very light bodybuilding I was so like I overdo things and so I was just making sure that I did everything right. I was so nervous about anything going out of place or doing something wrong. But now I'm feeling just, I feel good. I'm not in any pain. I'm still very careful with training, but I have my abs back. They're working. I'm biking. I jogged last

Sunday. And so feeling so just thankful that it went well because it's also, it's my spine. So even though I had a lot of pain and I wasn't able to train now I it crossed my mind of like what if something happens in surgery you know and it's so I felt like it was there was also a risk of that but it's good I'm out of pain I'm extra I'm not training but I'm exercising again and it feels so good and your whoop data after the recovery it sounds like it was like pretty out of whack oh yeah it was so out of whack so my heart rate variability I was also in very strong pain Mets for two weeks. And so I think that puts a lot of things out of whack. I was so happy when I was like completely off of them. But my heart rate variability plummeted. My resting heart rate

skyrocketed. So if you were normally in the 40s, did it get as high as 60? I saw 63. Wow. Yeah. That's the one that I remember. Probably the highest it's ever been short of you being really sick. I got worried. So right after, I've never had major surgery. Brooks, my boyfriend, hockey player, he had, I didn't even countless surgeries. You know, things happen. He needs to be back on the eyes. And so it was so funny because I, I panicked over a lot of things.

So I was like, I was like, can you, this is how I put my socks on. Can you just, can you make sure, can you look that I didn't like? I was worried that something are gone out of place or, you know, I was like, my resting heart rate is like so high. Do you think, do you think this is this? And he's always like, it's okay. it's okay. Like, you're going to be okay. And I feel like I've now reached that point, but it's just been funny that like I worried about it. And now it's coming back down, slowly but surely. I mean, as someone who has spent her whole career focused on recovering

fast, what is, what are some of the tools you've used to recover from surgery? Trying to hydrate well, trying to sleep well, trying to eat well. And then right now, Now I feel like I'm starting to train again. And so at the start, like I, even a walk was hard for me. Like, I was able to walk from day one, but like everything hurt so much and it was slow. And so it wasn't able to get in any exercising. And I've exercised since I was like 10. Did that affect your mood?

Yes, very much. It was hard for me. Because if you're used to that endorphin release every day and you don't do it for a few days. Yeah. I just like don't even know myself. I don't think I. It affects your identity a little bit. Yes.

And even like, I don't even. I think I sweated for like three weeks because then when I started biking, it was so slow. And so, and then we've been in the process of building a sauna, which I'm so excited. I love saunning. And it, it's just ready, like, from last week. So that I would have added that end sooner. So now I've been doing like hot and cold. Will you do cold plunging at all?

So, yes, we haven't gotten a cold plunge yet. So that's the next thing that we're going to get. But we have a lake. And it still, it has a forms of a lot. So I just went in the sauna and then hopped in the lake. wasn't like, it was probably a little bit too warm for a cold tub, but it was still felt chilly at the time. And so basically it's been walks. It's been spending sleep. I think a lot about like any kind of recovery, even if I'm sick. I always think like eat the colors of the rainbow.

Like I just want like salads. I want green juices. I just want like variety in my food. And then just like socializing. I was really happy too when I felt like good enough that I could start like seeing my friends again. And then I got to go to Iceland. my family, like that was just good for my soul. And it also just took my mind off of like, I'm not training. I'm not moving. I'm unable to do this. And it just like gave me so many other things to just smile about. If someone's really down on their body post-surgery, like what are, were there any things that you found could could pick you up? I mean, you'd normally do exercise and you couldn't do that. Yeah. Right. Like what did you find any tools for yourself to kind of

be a little bit more uplifted um yeah people that was what i was like really excited and i felt the biggest and the immediate like right after it was my boyfriend and my two pups and i would just try even like the first i would say for the first like 10 days i even just would take the pups and i would just walk literally i didn't even leave our property i would like walk around the guest house you know a couple of times but i would take them and and i was outside i think that's also a huge thing that maybe I hadn't realized, but just getting outside, getting some sunlight on you. And I was so out of it for like the first week, which was hard. And then just like when I finally got to like ready to get visitors and like going to

Iceland, I think that's where I realized like, okay, this my people lift me up. Was there anything you had to change about your sleep to sleep effectively? Oh, yeah. So at the start, they cut through my abs. So I had zero. I couldn't contract at all. like nothing. They didn't work. And if I try to make them work, it was so bad. And so... It must have been so unfamiliar for you. Yeah. And it was really uncomfortable because I stayed in

the hospital for one night. And they have the beds that you can like lift all the way up. And so it made it really convenient for me to be able to then just like stand up. And I still remember when I lay down, I got into bed. Burks helped me lay down. And I felt so claustrophobic and stuck because there there was no way I was going to be able to get out there. I was like, oh, I made a mistake. I was like, I made a mistake. And I just, like, lay there on my back. And I remember waking up in the night. And I'm like, it's like tapping on Brooks. And I'm like, oh, my God, I need help. I'm like, I need help. And I couldn't even, I wasn't allowed to rotate my back. So it was too scared to you. And I don't even think I could at the time. But I was too

scared to try and like rotate, like push myself up. And when Brooks pulled me up, I was, I was just so scared I would move anything out of place. And so for the next five days, I slept on our couch. It has like, we have one of those couches that can like lay back and lay. So it still was not totally laid back. It was not great sleeping at all, but it at least gave me a place to sleep where I felt like I can get out, like stand up by myself again. Some of the things you track in the Whoop Journal, and I'm curious how these things affect you. So sound machine. Yep. So I never used a sound machine. That was something that Brooks has always used. And I thought it was kind of uncomfortable at the start.

Like, I still remember when he first turned on the sound machine, and it sounded like a broken radio. And I was like, is he kidding? And now I actually really like it. I sleep really well with it. And silence sounds kind of loud to me now. Interesting. That's trippy. Silence sounds kind of loud.

And you find it's improved your sleep. Yeah. Chiropractor? That is something that I don't do daily. So I do that on rest days. Thursdays was my like chiropractor day. And I like logging anything that I see if I see a difference or not. Yeah.

I honestly think that probably lowers my recovery. I don't know if you can see it there, but it's good for my body and long term, but normally the day after it's a little lower. Late meal? I don't like, I really don't like eating late. You know, it's fascinating. It's the second worst thing for me behind alcohol. Yes.

I believe that. I just don't sleep well. It's unbelievable how badly it affects my recovery. Air travel. Terrible for me, especially if it's overnight. That's one I've actually learned to optimize around. Yeah. I drink a lot of water. I don't eat on flights.

Don't eat at all? What about long flights? And why not? I find that eating on flights makes you kind of lethargic, and I feel like your body isn't digesting well. I also learned from a flight attendant that they never eat on flights because it makes them, like, ineffective at their jobs, which I thought was kind of an interesting insight. You're the second person that I've heard say they don't eat on flights for travel. And to me, I travel in the Middle East fairly often now, like maybe every quarter or two. And that's often like a 14 hour direct flight. And I won't eat anything. And then you get there, drink a lot of water, go to bed. Sona. Love a sauna. That's one of my favorite recovery tools. I don't know. know what that does for me, but even just mentally, it's one of my favorite things. That's my

time. Yeah, hot cold for me has become like an amazing ritual. I've gotten really into to both and probably do like some form of a hot cold routine five times a week now. Yeah. How do you do it? Like, so I'll do probably eight to ten minutes of a steam room or a song. and then I'll go three to five minutes in a cold plunge. Yeah. And the cold plunge will be, you know, something in the neighborhood of 40 to 44 degrees. Yeah. And I like to end in the cold plunge with my head under.

Oh, I haven't been doing that. But I do like to end in the cold. It just feels so much better. And I feel like it almost gives you. Oh, totally. So I've never been high. but that's what I imagine it feeling like the the when you've been super hot you get into super cold and as soon as I get out of the cold I started this when I was in Iceland so sometimes air temperature would be so cold but you kind of feel warm you have this like three to five minute window where you just like feel so warm and amazing even though you're sitting outside and I just love that feeling it's a great like meditative state for me yeah I think I do it as much from a for the mental benefits as the physical like I'm sure like a challenge yeah and and there's a There's the endorphin rush afterwards that you get from coming out of the cold.

And then there's also just the element of doing something really hard to start your day. Yeah. You know, like this morning I worked out with my trainer and then I did the hot and then I did the freezing cold. And then you submerge your head and then you take a freezing cold shower. You don't want to do it anyway. Yeah. They got everything after the, you know, the rest of the days felt kind of easy comparatively. Just go beat yourself up. If you kick your own ass, no one else is going to.

Exactly. What can we expect for you in the coming months? So right now, I'm just focused on recovery. And I feel like it's been hard to get, like, accurate answers out of anybody. And I guess because it's everybody's so different about what, like, when I can start training, when I can start lifting. And the thing that, like, I think is kind of for certain, they say it's going to take six months for the bones to, like, fuse, which would be a successful surgery. like I want them to fuse. And so now I'm just trying to do my best to like get everything activated again, take care of my body, get it into a good spot.

And in the meantime, really trying to like enjoy life. You know, I don't want to. Yeah, this time is going to pass anyway. I'm going through this anyway. Like I might as well take advantage of things that I never have time to do. Like I never get to travel. Like everything revolves around my season and training. And even if like a good example was like going to Iceland, like I have family there, my best friends there. And it's my favorite thing in the world. But like I'm always stressed about training because I'm like I need to get training in. Like if I don't get training in, I don't have time to do the other things, not the other way around for me. And then like so I'm always like getting up super early so that I can manage to get in my first session and then I have a planned lunch with with somebody and then get in my second session and then see somebody for coffee. And then see somebody for coffee.

And then we do family dinners, and I love it, but it's also hard. And going to Iceland now, I got to just spend time with everybody. And it was really fun and valuable. And now we have, so I got to go to Iceland. I'm getting to be here. And so, I mean, I lived in Boston for eight years. And so I have a really good community and friend group here, which I was excited to visit. I was excited to come see you here.

Of course. noble um and so that is something that i never would do you know this it's july and the crossfit games or in august like this is lockdown mode you know i i've ready to take phone calls this time of year right and so we're going to do a little bit of travel with my whole family coming in august we're going to do some traveling i'm going to go to indonesia um in october yeah so i'm getting to do some yeah i'm really excited i'm going to go get go with brux and um his role playground community and gets to just go experience some things that I've never gotten to do before. So also just seeing the, I think this time could, and if I even look at myself like

eight years ago, this would have been a much harder time regardless. Like I think I would have been more much more in my head and much more beating myself up for things that I'm not able to do. And instead I feel like I can now like, I also see it as an opportunity of things that I can do. Well, it's been great getting to catch up with you, Katrin, and I'm thrilled to hear the surgery once so well, and it seems like you got a unique moment of time ahead of you. Very much. Yeah. Thanks for having me on, and it's so good to see you again. Anytime.

Big thank you to Katrin for joining me today on the WOOP podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a rating or review. Please subscribe to the WOOP podcast. You can check us out on social at Woop at Will Ahmed. If you have a question was answered on the podcast, email us, podcast at whoop.com. Call us 508, 44349.52. If you're thinking about joining whoop, visit whoop.com. Try whoop for free for 30 days.

That's a great deal. New members can also use the code will. W ILL get a $60 credit on WOOP accessories. All right, folks, that's a wrap. Thank you all for listening. We'll get you next week on the WOOP podcast. As always, stay healthy and stay in the green. me.