Pursuing Health

“When you think of the CrossFit community, you think of people who are going to the gym to challenge themselves, to be better than they were the day before, and that is such a cool part of the community, and it’s what I fell in love with.” - Cole Sager   6-time CrossFit Games athlete Cole Sager wants to be known as the kindest person you'll ever meet, and in doing so, he hopes to motivate others t...

“When I was 12, I played my last season of parks and rec basketball in braces, and after that, everyone was basically like, 'Hey, no sports.  Try to limit activity, we don't need you to get hurt because you could seriously injure yourself.'  So, it basically turned into video games and reading.  I think it was in the best interest to keep me safe, but in my mind I was like, 'So, I don't get to pla...

“When women learn to chart these observable external signs or symptoms that help them understand what’s happening internally with their hormones, it is so empowering, and we really should be about empowering our patients with this information. I mean, that’s why we encourage our patients to track with they’re their eating, or patients with diabetes to monitor their blood sugar so that they can use...

“If you're wrapping up your identity in the results… there’s a lot of things that go on that you have no control over that can sway the results big time. So, if you’re basing your identity off those results… it might go right, but… There’s only two options when you sign up for a competition, either you’re going to win or you’re going to lose. I try to base my identity off of the effort that I put...

“We have life changing events, and at the time, they feel as if they are life-ending but they really mold us into somebody who we are meant to be.” - Marti Giambruno “My first memory of waking up in the recovery room was the consent beep of the monitor. A feeling of impending doom consumed me as my doctor leaned over the stretcher and said, ‘Everything went well. We got it all, and the biopsy came...

“I can say with probably 99% [certainty], I would never be at the Games if it weren’t for my mental coach.  I think I would be good but I would’ve gotten fourth place instead of third place at the 2014 Regionals, and who knows what would’ve happened after that, but I think that was the edge that I had in my training.  I was not better physically than any of the other girls there, I just performed...

“I think spontaneous healing is a lot more common than we realize. I’ve asked a room of doctors before, 'How many of you have seen a case of unexplained recovery that you didn’t think was possible and it happened?' Well, lots of doctors raise their hands. And I asked how many had reported it.  No one had reported it.  And I was loathe to report things myself, because, first of all, how are you goi...

“‘Olivia, you're healthy.’ I held it in in the moment, but when I left the [doctor’s] office that day I cried. I had never had a doctor tell me I was healthy.” - Olivia Vollmar Diagnosed with fibromyalgia in July 2016, Olivia Vollmar started CrossFit four months later, despite her doctor’s reservations.  “He loved that I was moving, but he thought it was too much. He has friends that are avid Cros...

“The thing about it, she said, ‘Why are they destroying our city?’  And I said, ‘What if you were trying to get mommy and daddy’s attention and we weren’t paying attention to you? What would you do?’  She was like, ‘Well, I would talk louder.’  I’m like, ‘What if we still didn’t listen to you?’  She was like, ‘I would scream!’  And I was like, ‘What if we STILL didn’t listen?’  She was like, ‘I wo...

“I love competing and testing.  You know what you were like the last time you competed, or the last time you did this sort of training block… and I just like building on trying to get better.  So there’s that. I also like… I know growing up what my parents and my sisters put into me to try to help me build something like that, so it’s not just for me, I’m doing it for them. And also when I compete...

Everybody puts their boots on the same way.  And what that means is, it doesn’t matter your title here.  It could be the people on our leadership team, Bill and I, or it could be the person coming in their first day on the job on the assembly line...everyone is the same. And everyone is going to be treated the same. And it goes back to that first [value], we work until it’s done. If there are boxe...

“Being a professional athlete, it’s a really selfish lifestyle that you need to lead. You’re number 1, 2, and 3.  You think about yourself -  it’s your life.  Like Cami said, it’s that extra percent that you put in that people don’t see.  It’s the sleeping during the night, the recovery in the evening, the food that you eat, the meal prepping, the training. It is everything, it’s the whole package...

Dr. George Slavich is a leading expert in the conceptualization, assessment, and management of life stress and it's relationship to poor health. He is the founding Director of the Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research at UCLA whose goal is "to advance the science of stress and health to help prevent disease and improve human health and resilience worldwide." Since beginning his career as a...

“What we’re talking about is systemic, low-grade inflammation where the body’s barometer for this inflammatory response is turned up just modestly.  This contributes to a whole host of diseases.  Diseases of chronic inflammation that range from type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease with heart disease and stroke, neurodegenerative disease, fatty liver– which is now epidemic in our societ...

What does good movement mean? And what are the principles of good movement? And sometimes people have a hard time articulating that, physiatrists, physical therapists included. Because we focus a lot on, is this person strong, do they pass these … Continued The post Ep 132 – Healing Through Functional Movement with Dr. Amy West appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete .

Im still the Director of the Games. Im still Director of Training, also. I still have that responsibility to conduct it. I still have a lot of freedom to conduct it the way that I see the direction that I … Continued The post Ep 131 – Dave Castro on Changes in Life and the CrossFit Games appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete .

We, ultimately- we love CrossFit, but we also view CrossFit as a way for us to be fit and do things outside of the gym. And do them together. We always try to continue reminding ourselves of that, so, in … Continued The post Ep 130 – Kristi OConnell on Training for Joy and Balance appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete .

I believe something as fundamental as nutrition shouldnt be complicated, and if you keep it simple, and you help people make changes, and you encourage them and find bright spots- find positive things in what theyre doing Theyll make those … Continued The post Ep 129 – Improving Your Fitness from the Ground Up: Nutrition Basics with Nicole Aucoin appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit G...

But if my model works, I am positive people can copy it. And group visits certainly have been part of the solution. You see a lot of patients, you provide more services, you overcome barriers, you do it in a … Continued The post Ep 128 – Dr. Jeffrey Geller on Loneliness and the Power of Groups appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete .

She said when she went in with the lump they basically denied her mammogram and said, Youre too young for breast cancer, and they wrote on her medical documentation mammography recommended at age 40. And, once I heard that, I … Continued The post Ep 127 – Fighting Breast Cancer with Barbells: Barbells for Boobs Founder Zionna Hanson appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete .

“It was really fascinating because I think theres such a disconnect, right? So, on one hand, we have the whole population of people that are criticizing women doing CrossFit while theyre pregnant. And it literally helps develop the natural– squatting, … Continued The post Ep 126b – Nicole Christensen on Coaching Pregnant Athletes appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete .

“I think I talked about nutrition so much, and I talked about functional movements, and I talked about scaling and intensity so many times in blog posts that I was just like, Yeah, people get it now. And you forget … Continued The post Ep 126a – Nicole Christensen on Growing a Thriving CrossFit Affiliate appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete .

We are trying to reach the populations that would otherwise never consider walking into a CrossFit gym. That was goal #1 was, when we first put this out to people, if youre the least likely person to go to a … Continued The post Ep 125 Bridging the Gap Between the Hospital and the CrossFit Affiliate appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete .

I think weve seen a lot of these to-be athletes, these persons with disabilities be told no, or that they cant, and then they just give up or they stop and theyve never actually tried, and theyre only told no … Continued The post Ep 124 – Breaking Barriers with Adaptive Athlete and Coach Kevin Ogar appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete .

For me its so easy, its just so easy. So, if we could put aside the conflicts, would we all be able to agree that we should eat real food and not processed food? Surely, that is a starting point … Continued The post Ep 123 – Zoë Harcombe on Dissecting Nutrition Research and Dietary Guidelines appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete .