Jennifer
I think the other thing that is so fun is that you can have your higher-level athletes, you can have ages that can range from like 18 to 80, all working out at the same time and all cheering each other on and laughing and having fun.
Chris
What’s up, everybody. I’m Chris Davis here with my wife, Megan Davis, and we are your hosts for the mind-blank fitness journey podcast. We will reveal the secrets that we have used to help our community become more healthy, fit, and confident during this podcast. And also hear from some amazing people in our community as they fill in the blank and tell us about their fitness journey. Listen in and be ready to be inspired by our guests who, just like you, are superheroes as we dive into their origin story. Hey, guys, welcome to episode five of my blank fitness journey podcast. I know you’re probably expecting Megan to be here too. It’s just Jen and me today. So we’re going to be just talking through her journey. Megan has chosen to get pinkeye which she won’t listen to until the episode airs. So she’s going to be mad that I said it. But it’s okay. So we’re dealing with some sickness in my house. But it’s all good. We got Murph tomorrow, which we talked about for weeks and weeks. The gym is buzzing with excitement, nerves, and things. I think many people haven’t ever done Murph at the gym. And so they’re nervous or scared, some people are excited. It’s going to be a wild ride. So I think we’ll probably have, I don’t know, close to 200 people doing it tomorrow and on Monday. So it’s always a great experience for us to reflect, memorialize, and suffer together. And it’s just an amazing thing to be able to do with our gym fam and with their friends and family that they bring along. So yeah, that’s all we’ve got going on. Today. I’m excited. We’ve got Miss Jin Henkel on the podcast with me; we’re just going to chat through her fitness journey. She’s a spectacular athlete, spectacular woman, mother, and wife. She runs in all kinds of different directions. We were just talking through before we hit record; we were just talking through her awesome daughter, who’s getting ready to crush it as a swimmer in college. So anyway, before we get too far, Jen, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks. Yeah, absolutely. So I appreciate you being on, and like we talked about, we’ll just keep this as a conversation with friends. So I guess, to get everybody else caught up to speed on you, I guess you have a long history as an athlete. So let’s start with how you would fill in the blank of my blank fitness journey. So what? What one word describes your fitness journey? As briefly as possible in one word, I guess.
Jennifer
I chose to evolve.
Chris
Okay, now let’s dive in. Yeah
Jennifer
So the reason I chose it, I mean, I chose it because like you said, I’ve done a lot of things, since I’ve been a kid and have always been active, that this is different. It’s fun. It’s changing every day and involves things that I didn’t think were possible or possible. As you said, he doesn’t. You can’t use that one. Well, I just see what the body will do and listen to it every day and listen to what you guys teach me, and every day is a blessing. Every day is a surprise. Every day I can’t believe I just did something. And then there are some days like, oh, it’s not happening today. Okay.
Chris
One of the things I appreciate about you the most, Jen, is that you’re willing to listen to your body, you’re willing to listen to your coaches, and no, like, yeah, some days. Today is a great example. Like, we did this API test. By we, I mean Jen; Jen did the API test, which is one of the most brutal, brutal, brutal tests that we do. 15 minutes of work. That’s just it’s hard, and it takes a lot of mental fortitude. And Jim crushed it today. She leveled up. How many levels did you go up?
Jennifer
Just one. It was the second time I could do it the way you’re going to have to do it. Right. Yeah, I actually can do the jumping. So that’s not an. I don’t think that’s even been a year since I’ve been able to do the box jumps. So
Chris
Yeah, that’s huge. So the workout was wall balls and hang cleans, box jumps and pushes press, and burpees, which sounds terrible, and it is. But yeah, Jen, I watched her from across the room while working with a couple of my other folks, and you stayed laser-focused. There was no like I saw you with the barbell for Push Press, Right? And like, rep four or five as, oh, that started on a burner. I can see it. She’s slowing down. But you never stopped. You kept going. It was really fun to see. Yeah. Awesome. So I guess before CrossFit, tell us a little bit about your athletic history, like what’s your fitness journey been like up to now?
Jennifer
So probably since when I was a little kid, nice, I guess I thought I could breathe under the water. And my mom pulled me from the bottom of the pool. That’s the only place I ever wanted to be growing up. So it happened. Oh, wow. Okay, I don’t, and I might be exaggerating a bit. But yeah, I got pulled off the bottom of the pool when I was really little. I didn’t get I wasn’t sick or hurt or drowning or anything. But like, I guess I thought I could go down there. And under the water has always been this haven, and I go under the water, and the world disappears. And it’s just a cool place to be. So anyway, I swam most of my life and ran. And then, in college, I got introduced to triathlons and kind of post-college and did that for a long time. Got competitive in it, got introduced to it, and I thought it was the craziest thing I ever saw. And the next thing I know, the next year, I’m at Ironman or doing an Ironman. So it kind of like it just kind of grew on you. And it was kind of like a crust with this family of friends and people that grew up together. So it was a journey with a group of people at the time. And it also became a way for me to exercise. It has always been a way that helps me focus. I grew up in a mindset of you taking care of your body and your mind every day. Things work themselves out. So it was always a way to maintain my physical, emotional and mental well-being. And when I was in PT school and working, it helped me stay level and be able to focus when I needed to focus. And when I couldn’t focus, I found something else to do. So did that. And kind of competed on the national and world level with triathlons. And then I got married and started having the kids and then a little bit, but you know, life just got busy. And everybody else took priority. And I just kind of stay active and healthy. But there was no purpose for anything other than being active and healthy enough that I could keep up with my family. And then I guess, as the kids got older, and I got a little older, and all of a sudden I’m getting a little injuries, or my knee tweaks as I’m just trying somebody’s shoe at work, like okay, but enough is enough. I had taken my daughter, the swimmer, to see Chris try to work on getting stronger. And then I think one day you and I looked at each other. And I think the light bulb went on like, okay, you know, who wants to be here? It’s me. Then we started foundations, and it kind of grew from there. So and I don’t know, I loved it just because it gave me that challenge. And it’s I think I’ve heard from other coaches that if you’ve been an athlete, CrossFit is a nice fit because it gives you some of the competitiveness that sports do and a different environment, but you continually can challenge yourself but still kind of be with this group of people that have the same mindset.
Chris
Yeah, that’s true. Like I’ve seen a ton of post-high school, collegiate, even professional athletes that find CrossFit as that ability to come in and, you know, we have, we have one guy who, you know, basically worked out for a living as a pro athlete and at first he’s like, I don’t want to come in here, and you know, get yelled at to work out all the time. But really, what he’s enjoying is now that he works out on his schedule and still has that camaraderie like you’re talking about the community. So that’s awesome. Yeah, so you’re a physical therapist, which is awesome. And this is just a sidebar, but I’m a PT, Jen’s a PT, Stephanie’s a PT, Melissa PT. We like to have a bunch of physical therapists, either on staff or as members, that are doing and have continued to do CrossFit. So if there’s, this will be an entire episode. But if you’re worried about CrossFit being this awesome injury thing that hurts everybody, It’s all about how you approach working out. And as Jen said, You’re honestly just as likely to get hurt bending down and tying somebody else’s shoe as you are too, you know, doing pull-ups or lifting weights if you’re doing it correctly. So, yeah. Alright, so I guess, you know, that’s something we could talk about as you are a physical therapist; how is your experience working out at Triforce?
Jennifer
No, I think that’s one of the things I liked and appreciated, every, all the coaching, everybody comes from different walks of life. But at the same time, you bring in some of the coaches with the PT background, and they explain things differently. And sometimes that aha moment happens with an athlete, oh, that’s why this movement gets easier, or they understand why their bodies are moving or why you should do it a certain way. So you don’t get hurt. So, there are ways to modify everything. So from a PTS perspective, and for myself, I’m able to look at any of our workouts and realize, like, oh, well, I need to modify that. And then there are other things that I’ve always been afraid to try, like deadlifts. I was terrified. I had ACL surgeries on both my knees, and it was a hamstring procedure, and they’d been weak. So I always thought I couldn’t do those things. And actually, the deadlifts are making my pelvis more stable, and everything else gets stronger, and I don’t get sore no matter how heavy we go. Because I either can do it or can’t do it, I can go heavier. And I’m becoming more stable. And it feels really, really awesome. And the coaching has helped with that. So I think the diversity, the coaching, whether we come from a PT background, or the PTS in the gym, that also influence the coaches as they grow and develop as coaches, and the athletes as they do, have a great impact. And like you said, it’s sometimes I used to hear, ” Oh, CrossFit, you’re going to get hurt. And that’s so far from the truth of what I’ve been exposed to because everybody’s starting their journey from where they’re starting. And every day is a piece of that puzzle as it moves forward in the growth of that athlete in that person. And, like, you know, like movements like, well, you can’t do it, if you don’t have the mobility, you have to have mobility and stability to move forward. So if you can’t get there, you should try it; you have to modify and do that exercise in another way until you get to that point where you can do the exercise you want to do.
Chris
That’s a good point. And I’ve seen a lot of CrossFit gyms that allow, I’ve seen a lot of gyms, period, right. So like CrossFit aside, there are a lot of bad coaches. There are a lot of bad trainers that don’t do a good job of watching their athletes. I think an easy example is kipping pull-ups, right. So we have a very disciplined, procedural approach to ensuring that people stay safe with their pull-ups, and kipping pull-ups are fine on your shoulders, as long as you’ve demonstrated that you have the stability and strength to do strict pull-ups. But a lot of people just want to do pull-ups. So they start kipping and then a little touchy, and then it’s a little more Ouchie. And then they have to quit because they tore the rotator cuff or did something and have an impingement that they can’t get rid of. So, you know, pull-ups are the example that comes to mind for you. Right? Like, when we started, you’re like, I don’t know if I can hang on the bar, you know, and then just slowly but surely, because so tell us a little bit about your shoulder injury and how it’s gone.
Jennifer
I think it was probably in 2015 or 16. I had multiple injuries. In my right shoulder, there were labral tears, rotator cuff tears, and biceps tendon; there were just so many things in there. A huge surgery. And I lost so much strength and upper body muscle during the recovery time. I got somewhat stronger, but still, I remember going to the doctor on one of my last appointments. Will they ever be able to do monkey bars again? I have because I used to love hanging and pulling and doing all that stuff. And they just kind of looked at me like, well, why? Right? Like I’m like, I don’t know, maybe I guess I’ll never do that. It’s not going to be safe to hang because I could tear it again. And I didn’t want that to happen. And it’s just been little by little that I’ve been able to get the mobility.
I remember way back, Bree teaching us about overhead squats. I couldn’t have put the bar in the right position to hold the bar over my head, so of course, you can’t move because of your back and shoulders. Everything has to be in a certain way. So it took time, and I remember us showing me what a kipping pull-up was. And you told me you might never be able to do that with that shoulder. But let’s see where you get to. But you’ve, you know, you’ve never put limitations; you just say this is where we are. Right? So let’s see where it goes.
Chris
So where are you now?
Jennifer
Learning Kips, I can’t do them. I call them to wiggle Worms. I can do the swing where you do the hollow hold in Superman. I can feel what it’s supposed to feel like, it’s more than more of the motor coordination, but there were pull-ups the other day. I think last week I did 10 in a row. I’ve never done that before. So now I can do more than four, sometimes five in a row, which at one point, had gotten up to where I can do just five. So it’s come a long way; I still get sore, but not in a bad way. It’s all muscle soreness that needs to stretch; the shoulders loosen up. And every day, I’m amazed at what they can do, and they don’t hurt. I used to get hurt sometimes while sleeping, and they never hurt. It just feels a little tight. And then I stretch, and they feel good.
Chris
That’s great. And you’re one of the star students who do the extra credit every day, like you spend the time after class, not just cooling down, but stretching and doing mobility and doing the extra credit and like doing the extra things that it takes to have longevity, I think a lot of times it’s easy for people, myself included, to want to just get in the gym, do the lift, do the workout and then like scoot on to the next thing. But you are an incredibly disciplined person from start to finish to make sure that everything goes well. Yeah, how do you, I guess? How do you feel like that’s played into your success so far?
Jennifer
It’s huge Because I can’t go in and just do it. I have to get up and move around in my house a little bit before I get to the gym and then take the rollout; I may miss a little bit of everybody else’s warm-up. Or I’ll extend it longer than everybody else. But I have to do certain movements and stretching. And sometimes, as we’re doing our first strength component, I’ll have to go back and do a bit more stretching and take my time because it’s just not there yet. But when it loosens up, the body feels it. So I just really listen; I have to encourage everybody; you have to listen to your body. Suppose you try to push through something. When you’re not either warmed up or tired, that’s not going to end well.
Chris
Right. And so, you use the word evolving for your fitness journey. I mean, I imagine when you’re a kid, it was jumping into the pool and going like, you probably didn’t have to sit here and warm up quite as much as you do now. Even moving into triathlons, probably, but then you’ve probably felt the need to do that. And as you’ve gotten wiser, you know, you’ve taken the time to do the things it takes. And that’s evolving towards longevity, which is great.
Jennifer
… To work at it. Yeah, the amazing part of being stronger is I still love swimming, and I go in; I don’t swim all the time, but I’m still strong enough to have fun. The endurance piece in the water takes a little bit, but I can get in and swim all the strokes I can, I can do what I want to do, and the mobility is there in the water. And that’s a really fun feeling to know, you know, to go back still in and do it the way I like to do it. Because sometimes, when we stop playing sports, we stop it because it’s not fun anymore, or we can’t do it the way we wanted. I mean, I can’t race the way I used to race, but I still can enjoy going for a run when I want to go for a run or getting on a bike and riding and getting in the pool and swimming. And no, I’m not going to be hurt. You know. This is, I guess, part of CrossFit; it moves into any fitness, which is true.
Chris
It’s pretty cool how functional CrossFit is. And that the whole goal of CrossFit typically is not to get good at CrossFit. But to do regular life without pain without worrying about getting tired. You know, we talked about, I’ve got lots of people that want to be able to chase their kids or take their dog on a walk or swim or go for a bike ride, jump into triathlon, you know, enjoy everyday life without feeling fatigued, like 95% of Americans do whenever they’re active for five minutes, you know, so that’s a really good point, Jen. What is your real-life superpower?
Jennifer
I’ve had to think about that one for a little bit. I’m a tenacious, very tenacious person. And I have, like, I guess you kind of saw it this morning a little bit, the engine that just keeps going. So my engine, I like to empower myself, and I like to empower other people. When I’m working, that’s the best feeling ever to empower somebody who is scared to death about their mobility and watch them re-empower themselves, like, oh, I can still do that. Maybe I have to do it differently. But I can do that.
Chris
That’s great. Yeah. And we see that at the gym, like you’re cheering other people on, like, you’re, I think that without you, maybe even know yet, there’s a lot of people that look at you and say, okay, Jen, still go, and I have to get going. Not I was like, not wanting to disappoint you. But there is this feeling of, ‘let’s keep going as a team,’ so that’s awesome.
Jennifer
That’s a big piece of it. And, you know, when you’re there with that group of people, you know, you look at other people, like even this morning, I wasn’t planning on the Yeah, his genius. Genius said that, my Oh, genius. I was saying that if I don’t try it, I’m not going to get better.
Chris
Okay, so you walked in not thinking you would do that workout, and you jumped in?
Jennifer
I promise myself to get up. You can do the ten pong ball; you can do the workout just to show up. And then. But here’s how you feel so amazing. After you do something hard or challenging, it doesn’t matter. Whatever you do, however, it ends. There’s still this amazing feeling you have once you recover. Again, then wow, I just did that. That was hard.
Chris
Yeah, and maybe you’ve seen a few times where maybe you do this test today, you give it all you got, but you don’t improve? You know, I guess Tell me a little bit about-
Jennifer
I didn’t expect to, okay, I didn’t expect to at all,
Chris
how does it impact your Outlook whenever you give full effort but don’t get like don’t hit the achievement you’re shooting for?
Jennifer
Um, sometimes I have to look at the reason why that day. You know, like, a few weeks ago, I think it was after a throwback throwdown, you know, we were able to do power cleans and a squat in a weight that I had never done. So the next week, I’m like, oh, I should be able to do this. I think it was 25 pounds less. I could hardly do that. But it was that day. So I was like, Okay, well, it’s silly to force something that your body’s not going to do. It’ll happen another day. But obviously, you’re tired, you know, more tired than you, you want to think you are. So I try not to take, you know, to get frustrated with it too much more just like, Okay, this is today. It doesn’t define me; it’s not forever. This is today. And let’s work. Let’s focus on form. If I can’t do something harder, let’s make it easier. And let’s focus on learning the form a little bit better.
Chris
That’s huge. There’s certainly this mindset, I think, that progress is going to be completely linear when people get going. And that’s just not the way that our human physiology works. Like maybe in a video game or on the computer, like everything is very, you know, this input, plus this input gives you this output. But there are so many inputs like you’re talking about like, Okay,
Jennifer
Were you just traveling that weekend before? Were you in the car for eight hours? Were you on a flight home from someplace that takes a couple of days? You know, did you not sleep? Are you stressed out? Did you know? Did you have a big meeting yesterday or later? I mean, so yeah, all those factors are huge. And you can’t just you have to remember that.
Chris
100% So, I guess how you would encourage somebody that’s been working out, but maybe they’re hitting a plateau, or they feel like hey, it’s been a couple of workouts, and they’re, they’re not going quite the way that I want them to? What would your encouragement to them be?
Jennifer
Maybe just a little bit of reflection on your life as how’s your nutrition? Ben? What’s your stress level? Like? What’s your sleep? Like? Are you overtrained? Are you just exhausted, and you need a couple of days off? You know, then rest is huge. If you’re just frustrated and tired, maybe it’s mental and physical. So there are multiple components. And being frustrated doesn’t help. So it’s kind of more honest with yourself looking at what’s the situation, you know, and what’s going on in your life. Yeah, I think we should go to the gym, it’s fine. But the rest of your life has a huge impact on what you can do. Some, it’s a good distraction, but at the same time, stress and stress
Chris
So I agree. And I think we add stress, which only makes it worse like if we have a bad workout or two, and then we like, get frustrated, and get worse. And then we stress about the next time we get in the gym, and then like, very hormonal, like, not just psychological effects. But there are true hormonal cascades that occur whenever we have this negative stress in our lives that, for whatever reason, is going to continue the downward trend in our performance. So I think it’s great. What you’re saying is to take a minute to reflect on what’s going on in my entire life that could be affecting this. And remember that this isn’t my entire life. I think that what you’re getting at is the workout. Workouts a piece, right? It’s enjoyable, but it’s just a piece of who you are. It isn’t who you are right now. Awesome. Jen, tell me about one of your favorite memories at Triforce. So far. Before that, I guess how long you have been a member of Triforce?
Jennifer
Ah, I think I finished the foundations, right? As COVID hit, I thought as soon as I finished. So that was
Chris
1920 20. Like March 2020. So Right? Yeah. Yeah. So you’re like a little bit over two years in. So what’s one of your favorite memories so far? Triforce.
Jennifer
So a couple of them from before we moved to this location. When we were over the plenty area. Probably when Daniel and Justin were trying to teach me how to learn what double under was. Okay, what the ropes are, what sizes do they need to be, and how do you have to hold them in the jump. And this then, it was just a blast. Yeah, yeah, that was fun with those guys. Awesome. And another memory of Justin over there. Like, I do not know why the heck we were doing them. But we were doing like this insane amount of burpees. And I can’t remember what the purpose was. But it was only Justin and me. Only the two of us would probably think that would be fun because he’s just as nutty as I am when it comes to that kind of stuff. But so were those two, and then Gina got me to do a box jump. Yeah, she put an X at the end of the workout one morning. And like, you know, I think I can do that. She’s like, of course, you can do that. So she had the softbox. And she’s like, You need to get out of your head, step up to that thing, swing your arms and jump up. And it took me a timer too. And then I just did it. And next thing I know, I’m on top of the box. And it was crazy. So yeah, that was like she said, get out of your head. Just step up there and go.
Chris
That’s super cool.
Jennifer
That was fun. And that was huge golf for about a year and a half, maybe forever. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do a box jump. I still won’t do it in the woods yet. But that’s okay. That’s okay. They go.
Chris
I think these boxes are harder to jump on anyway. So you know, you’re getting better by doing it. Those things all go back to what you were talking about before, like being empowered, like, practicing something like a double-ender jump rope that you’ve never maybe even seen before today. And then you’re like, Okay, well, I’m going to get this thing, and then you do it, or you’re jumping on to the boss. That’s just when you have something like that. It’s amazing how it just lurks in the background. Like you’ll walk by the boxes every day. And you can’t do that yet. Or like, I want to be able to do that one day, and that’s like, I’m doing that today, and then Gina put it in front of you, and you knocked it out. That’s cool. Great job. Okay, so I guess the last question for you before we hop off is that you’ve done physical therapy at Triforce. You’ve been involved in nutrition, you’ve been involved in, you know, the group classes everything is for somebody that is on I’m sure like a, I don’t know if Triforce is going to be right for me or, you know, they’re kind of on the fence, can I do CrossFit? What piece of advice would you give them?
Jennifer
CrossFit can be for anybody; I don’t care what level your fitness level is, I’ve observed. All ages are coming into the gym; we’ve got a mom working with us now. And she’s got a smile on her face every time she’s there. And I’m watching her grow and learn, and she even knows how to do anything. I don’t know what her fitness journey was before them, but it’s like this person has a smile on her face, no matter how hard it is. And no matter what it is, and always wanting to learn, like, well, what is that? How is that? So anybody can do it. And we have all the tools at the gym as you said, we’ve got the nutrition, if you don’t know, the things that you need to do, how to eat or how to change eating healthy eating habits, or just making modifications. It’s a continual journey with that everybody does everybody needs to? I know I’m always doing that. And we’re those conversations always going on, of understanding about diet and having it, having a therapist at the gym if you need it, rather than waiting for an excessive injury. Suppose there’s something that doesn’t feel right or working. Right. We have her there, which is amazing. So it’s been super helpful. So I, I haven’t seen anybody that can’t, because the purpose of the gym and the way the sports are introduced is a modification of the level method. You know, like, you, and that’s the coolest thing to have all the different colors. And what is it, crystal? Did I talk about the rainbow? Yeah, there are a few areas of your weaknesses that are there. But, it is a progression that does everything you start where you’re starting. And there’s always something you can do.
Chris
Yeah, that’s great. So be okay with coming in wherever your level is and knowing that progress is to be made. That’s great.
Jennifer
I think the other thing that is so fun is that you can have your higher-level athletes, you can have ages that can range from like, what 18 to 80 all working out at the same time, and all cheering each other on and laughing and having fun.
Chris
Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, the diversity is amazing.
Jennifer
Yeah, that is fun.
Chris
Jen, I think one of the best things about you is that you always smile on my face whenever you’re at the gym because you are having a good time. No matter how hard the workout is. I know that you’re going to laugh and smile afterward. Some people come to the gym because it feels like a chore, like you’re not. Like I can tell that for you. It’s a joy. And so it makes everyone else more joyful, especially at 630 in the morning, when we all want to be still asleep, right?
Jennifer
As I said, I just get up and get there because I feel so much better all day.
Chris
That’s great. Well, Jen, thanks so much for coming on. This will be fun for people to see what it’s like to have an evolving CrossFit or an evolving fitness journey where you know you were an athlete before, and you’re continuing to be an athlete. It just looks a little bit different now. So thanks for coming on.
Jennifer
You’re welcome. Thank you.
Chris
Have a great day.
Jennifer
All right, you too.
Chris
Bye. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the I blank fitness journey podcast. If this story inspired you, make sure you like and subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you’re using. If you’d like to reach out to us, check us out at Triforce crossfit.com. Just send us a message. We’d love to help you and see you guys soon on the next episode.
