S06E134 BISON 15 - Cotswolds Girl Keeps Calm and CrossFits On - Beth Holuba
Sam Rhee talks with Bethany Holuba @bethanyholuba
about building a CrossFit life across the UK, Hong Kong, and New York, and how she landed at CrossFit Bison with a sustainable, long-game approach.
We dig into training through pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and why consistency and smart scaling can beat ego and maxing out.
• her sports background from UK sprinting to trampolining
• how she finds CrossFit, gets hooked, and trains through moves from Sheffield to Hong Kong to NYC
• meeting her husband Jack through CrossFit
• why she trains through pregnancy
• postpartum return to training and rebuilding strength
• staying injury-free for 14 years
• what keeps CrossFit fresh
#crossfitcoach #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #gymowner #HealthyLiving #GymLife #CrossFit #FitnessJourney #BotoxAndBurpees #podcast @botoxandburpeespodcast @crossfitbison @crossfit
Click on your podcast site to listen and subscribe!
TRANSCRIPT
Sam Rhee (00:00.815)
Welcome to another episode of Botox and Burpees. I have with me very special guest. She is very English, and I knew that actually, you know, I will tell you, I'll tell you a funny story about the first time I met you, but but she is an amazing athlete. She's been a stalwart at Bison for the past three years. Beth Bethany, Haluba, thank you so much for guesting on our podcast today.
Beth (00:09.806)
You
Beth (00:26.126)
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.
Sam Rhee (00:27.801)
Yeah. So the funny story I had was when I first met Beth, at the gym, she y you don't speak much at the gym, you are pretty quiet. But when I did hear you speak, I heard you say something and I was like, I don't I'm sure you don't remember it, but I said, that accent, are you Australian? And you looked at me like I had two like two noses and you're like, I'm British or English or something and I was like, I'm so sorry. Like I
did not recognize that accent and all. And and then when I sort of just looked you up right now, I was like, you are probably the most English person I've ever met in my entire life. So so my apologies for mis mischaracterizing you when I first met you, Beth.
Beth (01:15.317)
good, I get it a lot.
Sam Rhee (01:17.115)
So Beth, let's get right into it. Talk to me a little bit about your CrossFit history. you have only been at Bison for three years, but you've been CrossFitting since twenty twenty fourteen or at least or longer, maybe. Yeah, so so tell me about that.
Beth (01:33.935)
I think longer. think my... So I... My like history of sports, I was always a really good runner growing up. So I was a sprinter. I used to compete all over the UK.
mostly at the 100 meters and the four person relay, but then sometimes I did 200. And I did that all kind of my high school career until I really hurt my Achilles heel and I basically couldn't run anymore.
And so I was in rehab with that for a couple of years. And while I was in rehab, I then got into swimming and dance and trampolining, which everyone in America always is like really shocked by trampolining. I get laughed at all the time by the fact that I did trampolining. And I also like, I went to college and did trampolining.
you know, in the UK, in my university, I continued with my dance and trampolining all throughout university. And a fun little fact, actually, my coach for trampolining won the Olympic gold medal for the UK. So in trampolining, yep.
Sam Rhee (02:51.959)
In trampolining. my god.
Beth (02:55.348)
Yeah, she won she won the gold medal at the Olympics. So I was doing that and basically I got into CrossFit because I was looking for something to keep my fitness up when I was home from from college for the summer holidays and one of my classmates from like
primary school, you'd call that elementary here. He had just opened his own CrossFit gym and I had no idea what CrossFit was. I just saw my friend promoting this gym that he'd opened and I was just looking for something to keep fit. And then that was how I started CrossFit. was just like, I'm just gonna go to this guy's gym, support my friend. then I just got addicted the way that most people do with CrossFit and just absolutely loved it and then basically changed all
my sports to just doing CrossFit. I found a CrossFit gym in walking distance from where I lived at college so I switched and I didn't do any of my college sports anymore. I went to an outdoor CrossFit gym there and then I have been doing that since I was 21 and I'm now 35 so that's like 14 years.
Sam Rhee (04:13.595)
my God. So what was the name of that CrossFit gym and where was it? It where did you go to university?
Beth (04:22.378)
So I went to university in Sheffield, which is kind of the northern part of the United Kingdom. I went to Sheffield Uni, it's called. And so the very first CrossFit gym I went to is called gym 66 in Cheltenham. It's still around today, still goes. I still drop in when I go home to Cheltenham. So that was my very first one. And then in college, it was CrossFit Sheffield, like very simple.
Sam Rhee (04:24.602)
Uh-huh.
Sam Rhee (04:29.851)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (04:37.285)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (04:52.292)
It wasn't huge in the UK at the time, so there was one place to go in every major city. And then from there, I then moved to Hong Kong and I joined CrossFit 852 in Hong Kong and I was doing CrossFit for...
the whole six years I was in Hong Kong and then I moved to New York and I joined Brick CrossFit in Chelsea and then that closed down and I joined CrossFit Union Square and I was there until me and my husband moved out to the burbs and we joined Bison.
Sam Rhee (05:19.095)
yeah.
Sam Rhee (05:25.691)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (05:33.061)
So why did you move to Hong Kong and why'd you live there for six years?
Beth (05:38.138)
because basically I loved it. went when I was like 14 years old and I fell in love with the place, with the country. I just absolutely loved it. And when I was applying to university, I did law as my undergrad in the UK. That's something you can do as a first degree, not something you do as second, like in the, in the U S. so I was doing international law and the program at Sheffield had the option to do a year
abroad in Hong Kong. So I applied, got into that course. did that. I spent a year at a university in Hong Kong, came back.
and because I had to finish my degree in the UK and then I went and did a masters in marketing, which is the field I work in now. And I found an international marketing degree that was with Sheffield University and a university in Hong Kong. So I chose that one. And then in Hong Kong, when you graduate to a certain level of degree, like honors, honors level, you would call it here, the government then sponsors your visa to work out there. So
After I finished school, I stayed and I worked there for six years. I loved it so much.
Sam Rhee (06:55.939)
It is a very unique city in so many ways and and I could see yeah, the appeal to it, especially if you're British. I think there's just so much there. you were pretty good. You were a hundred and ninety sixth in the CrossFit open in twenty sixteen in Asia. Did you know how good you were back then?
Beth (06:59.255)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (07:15.753)
I used to be pretty good, yeah. But then also, will also say Asia was a small pool. So like, it's not like the US. It was very kind of new there. There weren't a huge amount of gyms. There weren't a huge amount of athletes. So the pool was a lot smaller, but yeah, I used to be pretty good out there.
Sam Rhee (07:16.933)
Yeah.
Sam Rhee (07:37.487)
And then w why'd you come to the United States and New York specifically then after that?
Beth (07:41.998)
Work. A job moved me over to New York. A lot of my friends were leaving at the same time and I was kind of getting to a point in my life where I was like, well, if I kind of stay here, then am I committing to living here forever? I think I was like 26 years old at the time, 27, and I was like...
Sam Rhee (07:46.947)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (08:02.147)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (08:07.021)
am I kind of committing to like staying here forever or do I want to move home like back to London or I just happened to be like applying for jobs and I applied for one in New York and I got it and I moved. It was like cool new adventure.
Sam Rhee (08:22.447)
Hmm. You know, I s read on your online that you met Jack, your husband, at was it CrossFit Union Square? It was at Brick. Okay, so like obviously a lot of members date each other, that is a thing. So like how did that work between you two? How did he ask you out? Did you ask him out? Like how long did you guys wad together? What was that situation like?
Beth (08:32.147)
No, it was Brick in Chelsea. Yes.
Beth (08:39.831)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (08:51.885)
yes, so he, he asked me, he actually, he actually chased me quite a bit. yes. it was funny. It was like an ongoing joke in the class. He would like actively stare at me and not talk to me. It was really awkward. Other people noticed it. They were like, yeah, he's staring at you again. and he...
Sam Rhee (09:00.291)
Really?
Sam Rhee (09:16.649)
And that worked.
Beth (09:18.549)
He never spoke to me. He would just like oddly stare. And then one day we ran into each other on the subway in New York randomly. And it was my birthday, which was about six weeks after I'd moved. And I was basically like, I have no idea where to go. Do you have any suggestions? And then...
he basically was like, give me your number and I'll, you know, text some to you or whatever. So he got my number and then he was like, hey, I would really like to take you out for your birthday. And it kind of, it kind of went from there. I was, when I first moved, I was coming kind of to and from Hong Kong a little bit. And he actually followed me out to Hong Kong to ask me to be his girlfriend.
Sam Rhee (10:11.705)
Wow, that's romantic. I mean, a much better start or story than the staring at you in class approach, which I don't know if I would recommend to the single people in our at our cl at our gym. Like this is what you should do. Just stare and not speak to a girl and see if that works. But I mean, Jack has a lot of Riz, so I could see why you know, that that approach might work for him, but but that's for experts, not for not for everybody, I would say.
Beth (10:12.727)
Yep.
Beth (10:19.882)
Yeah, yeah.
No.
Beth (10:30.261)
Yeah, no.
Sam Rhee (10:41.371)
so you guys dated for a while and then got married and it was I mean, I saw online it was a gorgeous wedding. It was at a castle in England and I just want you to tell me a little bit because as Americans obviously we're fascinated a lot with the sort of British customs and traditions and all that. So what was that like?
Beth (10:45.005)
Hmm.
Beth (10:48.589)
Yeah.
Beth (11:07.989)
Yeah, it was amazing. So the area that I'm from in the UK, it's called the Cotswolds and it's like very stereotypical, beautiful English countryside.
Like a lot of famous people live there. The Beckhams of that Madonna sent her daughter to school in the Cotswolds. It's very in vogue right now. A lot of people are traveling there, but it's been beautiful forever. The way I kind of explain it to people if they don't know it is if you've ever seen the Christmas film, The Holiday,
Sam Rhee (11:40.517)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (11:40.907)
where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet swap homes and she's from this big LA home and Kate Winslet is from this gorgeous UK little quaint town. That's where I'm from. That's how I always describe it to people. I go home twice a year every year after me and Jack got engaged. It wasn't me who actually pushed for the UK wedding, it was him.
Sam Rhee (11:52.571)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (12:09.125)
Mm.
Beth (12:10.84)
hadn't lived in the UK for a while. I didn't have a strong tie to getting married there. I like, have friends there, I have friends in Hong Kong, I have friends in the US. Whereas he is very just US based. So I was like, I'm perfectly happy getting married in the US. And then he was like, no, you're from such a beautiful part of the world. Let's get married there. And literally seven minutes away from where I live is King Henry VIII summer.
Sam Rhee (12:20.379)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (12:40.79)
Castle which is where we got married So yeah, we visited that Jack loved it. He was like a man like you said he was like the Americans are gonna absolutely like die for this So yeah, we got married there and yeah, it was amazing
Sam Rhee (12:40.973)
Mm. wow.
Sam Rhee (12:51.651)
Yes.
Sam Rhee (12:56.761)
Yeah, I saw the pictures. It is like a fairy tale type of situation. Like you couldn't imagine a more like princess die type of situation there. And it and that villa like that area, it's it's so classic British or English countryside. Like you said, the Beckons of there, Kate Moss, like all these super duper people. And it's it's what was it like growing up there? do you have brothers or sisters? Like what's your family like there?
Beth (12:59.882)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (13:04.182)
Thank
Beth (13:07.54)
Yeah.
Beth (13:14.156)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (13:24.94)
Yeah, my whole family pretty much still lives there. My sister lives in Sydney currently actually, but I have one full sister, as you would say, a half brother, and then two stepbrothers.
So my half brother is my dad's son and then my stepbrothers are from my mum's second marriage. So yeah it was was lovely growing up there. I love going back to visit it. It's a very kind of small town feel. I did like escaping to the cities like I went to a big city for university. I love traveling. I love going away but I do love to revisit it and there's something you know so magical about going
there at Christmas it's like a non-negotiable for me and luckily like Jack is more than happy too it's very like kind of magical and what you would just expect Christmas to be so yeah it was was a really nice place to grow up it was lovely
Sam Rhee (14:29.287)
so you guys were living in the city, you guys decided to move out to Jersey. Is that just because you guys were starting a family or what was the move to co to do that?
Beth (14:32.832)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (14:43.348)
Yeah, yeah, pretty much it was we'd got married and we wanted to start a family and I did not want to be in the city to have a family. We have two dogs as well. So it was just like the logistics of he wanted to stay in the city initially. But I
Sam Rhee (14:52.537)
I get it.
Beth (15:03.25)
with the two dogs and the baby and just everything I was like this is not manageable and I obviously as I just said all my family lives in the UK so I wanted to have somewhere I could host them for long periods of time and so a house really was the only option and we live in a in a town called Ho-Ho-Kus now which is where Jack was born and raised so we've he actually ended up dragging me back to his hometown
Sam Rhee (15:27.977)
Sam Rhee (15:31.649)
I see. I mean Hohokus is awesome. I love it. and then obviously you had to find a CrossFit gym because you've been CrossFitting for so long. So describe to me what your experience at CrossFit Bison was when you first got there and why you chose bison versus say another gym.
Beth (15:34.251)
Yeah.
Beth (15:40.62)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (15:48.333)
so Jack actually got a
I should have got the name of this person before coming on this, but Jack's friend actually recommended it. He's a member of the gym. He is still a member of the gym. And he was the one who recommended we came there. And yeah, we did. We came. It was great. We thought the programming was great. We thought the coaches were really, really great. Everyone there was, you know, really friendly, even though, as you said, I am quite a like quiet person. I do.
Sam Rhee (16:00.939)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Beth (16:23.898)
generally kind of like get coming come out especially since having kids I'm always like five minutes late through the door like I'm very rarely like speak that much but everyone is always so so friendly it is such a nice community vibe in there which especially when you don't know anyone in the area is kind of nice it's nice to feel warm and welcome and
Yeah, as I said, I also thought the programming was really, really great. It's enabled me to keep my fitness going through multiple stages. So it's been awesome.
Sam Rhee (17:01.391)
Yeah. And you're right. You are not the most you're not a Dave Lancelotti where you're out there like s like, you know, talking to everybody. You you do your thing. You're you're super polite. but and then but you pretty much get in, get out, just like a lot of people do, especially in the morning. I get that. you've had two kids. now I have to say one of the things that really struck me about
your fitnessing during pregnancies were how much accessory work you did and how creative or maybe not creative but well considered your scaling options and movements were for a workout. So you didn't just stop working out. You continued to work out well into your pregnancies. But and there are some athletes that do that and they're just
gung ho, like they will try to I mean I was talking to Mia Pagano a month or two ago and she's trying to hang on to every little bit of strength and, you know, motion and, you know, movements that she can. And and you are someone who thought of very different ways of managing the same types of stimulus, a stimuli, but in a in a creative way. So talk to me a little bit about how you manage that during your pregnancies.
Beth (18:25.195)
So, with both pregnancies, so I'm a very type A person.
as well. I read everything, I research everything. It's in like basically every aspect of my life. I'm extremely type A and very organized. So, you know, as soon as I got pregnant, I was kind of reading about what you can do and what you can't do in certain stages of fitness, what are good scaling options, what is something I really got into is my pelvic floor.
I really wanted to have a smoother birth as possible. I will say, I preface this with I am not medical in any way. Anything that I say worked for me. I don't want to be like, this is what you need to do when you're pregnant. Every pregnancy is different. And just through my reading, this is kind of what I decided to do and what was best for me, but everyone make their own decisions.
But with that being said, I researched also a lot about births within the US and found out that there is kind of a very high rate of C-sections and a very high rate of...
what's the word, interventions, which can cause a lot of damage to women's pelvic floor. So by interventions, I'm talking about vacuums and episiotomies and forceps and all of that, which I was very, very scared of happening. just didn't want, I didn't want any of that to happen. And to the best of my control, things are more often than not out of your control during birth, but to the best of my control, I wanted to do everything I could to avoid those kinds of outcomes.
Sam Rhee (19:55.045)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (20:23.501)
And so that involved doing a lot of pelvic floor strength training and exercising and stretching. So I would every single day, twice a day do pelvic floor stretching. And that is things like you would see me do before a workout and after a workout. And then I would also do that in the evening at home. It's like lunges and opening up your hips and opening up your pelvis so that your baby can descend further down.
down into your pelvis and it can help as the baby gets bigger, it can help press on the cervix and soften the cervix so that it makes it thinner and everything is just smoother. And so with that, it's kind of subbing a lot of movements to doing squats to doing lunges where you can being very, very careful of your core, because a lot of women get ab separation, which I actually had have second time around.
So that's something I am also currently dealing with and rehabbing second time around. I will say with my first, I was really overly cautious about core work and I didn't get it with my first. With my second, I wasn't as cautious and I did get it, but my second was also nine and a half pounds. So I don't know whether, yeah. I mean, my first was almost nine pounds. So, yeah.
Sam Rhee (21:37.179)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (21:44.803)
my god.
Sam Rhee (21:49.625)
my god.
Beth (21:51.98)
So neither of them were small girls, but Jack was a ten pound baby. I mean But yeah, but But yeah, I was I was only a six pound baby So I was hoping my genetics would kind of even things out in there, but apparently not So I just really wanted to prepare myself as much as possible for that and for me that looks like
Sam Rhee (22:00.56)
Jack's a big guy, yeah. I get that.
Sam Rhee (22:19.162)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (22:22.279)
early scaling, not doing anything that would over strain my core. Any core work I did was deep and connected to my pelvic floor. And then, you know, as I said, a lot of squat movements, a lot of, you know, kind of like wall sits or lunges, you know, things like that, that would just kind of help me help me during labor.
Sam Rhee (22:50.671)
Now, did you come up with these yourself or did you have a coach or did you find all of this online? Like where did you come up with this program?
Beth (22:57.371)
I found a lot of it online. I joined, I joined an app it's called mom day, like O D A Y. And she specifically, she's actually, I think she's from New Zealand. but she specifically does workouts and yoga and stretch routines for very physically active, active women or people who want to be physically active during pregnancy. And those were the routines.
Sam Rhee (23:05.999)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (23:11.28)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (23:22.191)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (23:25.723)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (23:27.105)
that I kind of followed every day. And yeah, I just read up about what can be good and what can't be good. What I will say is quite hard, I think for women is I think the advice in pregnancy is very outdated for what you can and can't do. Like when I got pregnant the first time, like...
Sam Rhee (23:44.795)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (23:49.959)
my first kind of doctor's appointment with my OB she was like, okay, well, you can't really do any strenuous exercise. You can't lift over 10 pounds. And there was no kind of questions as to, know, what's your current fitness level? What do you currently do? Like, obviously, I don't recommend if you have no fitness base to then go start, you know, squat snatching or whatever when you're pregnant. But if it's something you've been doing for a number of years, and you're confidently doing
Sam Rhee (24:12.571)
Right. Right.
Beth (24:19.902)
safely. There is really no reason unless medically told so by your doctor that you should stop exercising during pregnancy. It's labor is the hardest thing a woman can go through, like period. There is nothing harder that a woman can put her body through and
Sam Rhee (24:25.85)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (24:34.618)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (24:41.072)
you wouldn't show up to any kind of sporting event, a marathon, a CrossFit Open, or you wouldn't show up to any of these sporting events without preparing yourself. I mean, that's what we do in the gym basically for the full year, we're preparing ourselves for the Open in some regards, like for other competitions. So you wouldn't...
Sam Rhee (24:45.083)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (24:57.061)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Beth (25:01.104)
show up to a marathon having done no training. So why you would then show up to labor having done no preparation or no training is slightly backwards to me. And I just don't think there's, you know, the right education out there for women.
Sam Rhee (25:03.803)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (25:09.157)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (25:17.583)
That makes a lot of sense. as a guy, I can already hear someone saying, Well, I don't think labor is as tough as Murph with with a weight vest or something, but I just as a joke. But I would say yes, I would I agree with you a hundred percent. as I do remember my experience as a medical student in L and D, labor and delivery, and it was eye opening on a lot of levels.
I agree that maternal fetal medicine needs a lot of it can it could use a lot of work. I at least when I saw it back twenty some years ago, I I think things have advanced some, but I think a lot of the issues are that it is difficult to do research on
in maternal fetal medicine, just because it you can't really do rigorous research studies or do the type of trials that you would need to really determine what is helpful. But I can certainly say anecdotally from the people that I have seen at the gym, the athletes, you and so many others at Bison, I mean at least double digits, if not yeah, at least like high like mid double digits, where these are
people who have redefined to me what a healthy pregnancy looks like, what training and performance looks like. And we also see that in on the most elite level too, when we see Tia Clairtoomey or Annie Thorazod or or so many of these women, I think it really does show you what you said, that d depending on where you are in terms of your
physical function and capability, obviously physicians are extremely, extremely conservative. They would much rather have you do nothing than to do s than to advise you to do something and then have an adverse outcome. So, but as you said, preparation is key for everything and preparation for pregnancy and labor is it makes all the sense in the world, at least to me.
Sam Rhee (27:34.489)
But the other flip side of it is also recovery after pregnancy. And I wanted to ask you what your training regimen looked like after both of your childbirths and and what experiences you you pulled from that.
Beth (27:49.813)
So.
For my first, with both of them, I will say I stuck to the six weeks of I didn't come back to CrossFit before six weeks before I'd been given the all clear by my doctor. The first time around though, I did a lot of walking with my first daughter in those six weeks. She was born in May, so it was like a very nice weather month to be able to go and walk with her. So I would go on, and she was my first as
I would go on really long walks. I would actually from Hohokos, there's like, if you kind of walk up to the train up into Ridgewood Heights, there's like a really steep hill. And I basically used to kind of like sled push the stroller with her asleep and my two dogs up there like every day to just kind of try and keep some active side to it. And then I came back after six weeks, I will say,
first time around, it was it's different. So the first time around I had, it was a harder recovery in that I just felt
Like I was going back to square one with CrossFit when I came back in after that first pregnancy. Everything was really, really hard. I was completely out of breath all the time. I remember the first time I tried to do a pull-up and it was like the first time I'd learned to do one without a band. I was doing them in singles, one at a time. like I was absolutely crushed for a while. And then I just,
Beth (29:28.532)
through my own again research I started working doing additional work after class on my core and on my glutes.
Generally for a lot of women their center of gravity shifts when they get pregnant and tips forward so you lose a lot of Your glue kind of muscle mass when you're pregnant I refer to it as like the mum bum when it goes like a bit for me It just went like really flat and I was like I've got a mum bum now Just because you know, I wasn't using my muscles in the same way. And so after that I spent a lot of
trying to build back my glutes and my core and I think doing that really really helped me and then my second pregnancy the recovery is different in that I felt fitter faster I didn't feel like the same gut punch of coming back to it it wasn't as hard to come back to it but as mentioned I have abdominal wall separation I can never say it's like diastolic
I'm sure you can say it better than me. But yes, I have separation. So now it's being very careful with movements that I can and can't do. So things like regular sit ups, toes to bar, I have to be really careful when I'm doing pull ups, basically any movement that causes me to cone like down the middle of my abdominal wall, I cannot do. And I'm actually for this one, it's not just what I've looked up online, I'm seeing a
Sam Rhee (30:39.555)
Yes. Yes. That's good.
Beth (31:08.947)
physical therapist for it. I go to him every week and each week he kind of gives me new exercises to work on. You know, he's great. He's actually someone that Jack had when Jack was playing football. So he's known Jack a while and he's been really, really good. He helped me. I also went to him when I was pregnant with my second because I had a lot of lower back and hip pain as well.
with her I think that was just because she was so big and it was just very painful carrying such a big baby for me.
And so yeah, I've just been kind of working on that at the gym now and I work on that in the evenings. I work on that after class and it's how I sub, I'm still doing a lot of scaled workouts because I can't physically do a lot of them to the prescribed because of my abdominal wall. So he says it's getting better and better every time I see him. fingers crossed it closes soon. I had about a two finger gap and it's now down to one.
Sam Rhee (32:13.402)
Mm.
Beth (32:18.247)
so
Sam Rhee (32:18.265)
Wow, that's impressive. I would say, yeah, you could call it rectus diastasis, which is I guess the more proper British pronunciation. I always said dia diastasis, but that's because I'm just a yank. But I would say I think P T can help a lot. I I s encounter it a lot in patients, especially my patient population that I'm I I work with. there is functional d there is dysfunction.
Beth (32:27.325)
Okay.
Beth (32:31.836)
Yeah
Sam Rhee (32:48.055)
associated with it for sure. And I have talked to even CrossFit Seminar staff about it and and they and how they deal with it. Or, you know, you can document Annie Thorod Thor's daughter's issues that she has with rectus diast di diastasis. So the fact that there but obviously P T, strengthening, all of those things can be extremely helpful. Extremely helpful. it really
does depend on the person and sort of the degree to which that abdominal separation has occurred. but I feel like that's not, I mean, I wish I had a reason why I scale a lot of workouts. That is a very legitimate reason why you do. I don't really have a good reason. I would say your discipline in terms of how many days a week do you go to class at
Beth (33:19.219)
Yeah.
Sam Rhee (33:46.406)
bison right now. Yeah, I see that. And and all of and I've saw so much accessory work that you've done. do you do anything in terms of your nutrition as well? Like how does your nutrition operate for you right now?
Beth (33:47.849)
4 to 5.
Beth (34:02.044)
Yeah, so my nutrition, I've really always had a pretty good diet. My mom has a very, very good diet. She used to cook very healthily for us growing up. It's kind of been instilled in me since I was younger. I'm pescatarian, so I don't eat a lot of meat. I just eat fish. And with that, I focus a lot on kind of high protein diets.
well not diets, I don't really like the word diets, but just like with what I eat, I wouldn't say I've ever really followed a like diet scheme. It's just I've tried to eat consistently healthy, throughout my life. So, yeah, a real focus on protein. would say currently now I'm also focusing a bit more on higher fat foods like, avocados and
Sam Rhee (34:42.523)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (34:57.625)
higher fat greek yogurts because I'm breastfeeding and those kind of nutrition nutritional elements can be really really beneficial for breastfeeding and so yeah I just try and
Sam Rhee (35:08.495)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (35:13.637)
eat really clean. eat a ton of vegetables every morning. It looks like something like eggs and then a Greek yogurt fruit bowl. And then I do use a meal service for my lunches just because like with the kids and working, I don't really have time to cook my own meals. And it's a company called Territory. And they, you know, do do healthy foods. It's like salmon and veg, basically fish and veg just delivered to my door every week.
Sam Rhee (35:34.255)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (35:38.885)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (35:43.531)
And then I do love to cook. So I kind of every week go through my recipe book and pick out recipes to cook for Jack and I every night.
Sam Rhee (35:43.653)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (35:48.699)
Mm-hmm.
Sam Rhee (35:54.088)
have you ever counted macros in the past or done anything like that?
Beth (35:58.139)
Yes, I did for my wedding. Yes.
Sam Rhee (36:00.508)
Okay. Well, good reason. have you ever been injured because of CrossFit? Never. And how what do you attribute that to? How were you able to I mean, and knock on wood, I I always never want to cause any anyone any problems, but what do you attribute that healthy injury free approach to CrossFit for 14 years?
Beth (36:04.807)
Yeah.
Beth (36:09.327)
No. Never.
Beth (36:31.145)
I would say because I don't have that one rep max drive in me. if something feels like, I could, or I couldn't do this, I will not do it. For me, I'm really risk averse. I would say I don't take the risk if...
if I really don't think I can do it a hundred percent, I, I just don't do it, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. It probably means I've never hit numbers that maybe I could have done. But for me, I am more doing crossfit, just to stay healthy, to stay fit. you know,
aesthetic reasons for myself is not not bad either honestly if I'm being honest but I've never really been hugely competitive in chasing certain numbers or really going to competitions or anything it's it's just to kind of maintain my lifestyle and so that's probably why because I don't necessarily
push myself to exhaustion or push myself to the heaviest weight or you know where you can those zones where people can slip up and you know.
twist something or hurt their back in the, to the flip effect, Jack is very opposite of me. He has, he has actually recently had to pretty much switch entirely to outlast from CrossFit because his back was just hurting him too much because he does not have it in him to scale. He always goes like 110%.
Beth (38:17.544)
and wants to push the numbers and wants to compete with everyone in the gym, wants to compete with himself and that has kind of worked against him in that he has then I guess hurt himself in some ways and so he's kind of switched to outlast now which he you know loves and finds so much better for him and you know what he does.
Sam Rhee (38:41.187)
I would agree on a lot of levels. I think as a former athlete, Jack and many other former athletes have that competitive bug in terms of, like you said, pushing numbers, pushing themselves. And as we get older, that is no longer really feasible without, like you said, running the risk of problems. And I think all of us find ways of managing that.
whether it's changing gears or like Jack has done really f found out last which is, you know, really longevity focused. Not easy. I let's put it this way. It's defin no. I when I take those classes, they're so challenging. But the great thing is is you're not sitting there like looking at what someone else's clean and jerk numbers are versus yours or having to compare your previous PR to what you're doing today.
Beth (39:23.384)
No, no it's not.
Beth (39:28.188)
Mm-hmm
Beth (39:34.844)
Yeah.
Sam Rhee (39:40.468)
I think it it makes a a huge difference for a lot of athletes. but f for you, for my wife, or a lot of others, like there's there's a lot of wisdom to be gained by realizing that if you can s s you know, sort of channel that and not make that your focus in terms of your fitnessing, you there's no reason why anyone can avo you know
can learn to avoid injury, to stay fit, and to use CrossFit to their fullest advantage without without burning themselves out one way or the other. So what keeps CrossFit fresh for you? You're someone who's done it for so long, who has so much experience with it, has obviously gone up and down in terms of their fitness levels. what
Is it just pure discipline? What do you get joy out of the movements? What is it that really up why do you not do something like Pilates or some other fitness type of thing that is popular and all that kind of stuff?
Beth (40:54.408)
So I mean with CrossFit, it's different for me. It's different all the time. I mean really no workout is ever the same. Obviously you have, you know, the standard kind of CrossFit hero ones or
you know, the the set, I can't remember the name of them now, like the set, like the Annie's and the merit, the girls. Obviously, you have those, but really kind of every day you go into the gym, it is really different and it is exciting. And, you know, even though I don't, you know, push to where I
Sam Rhee (41:14.341)
Yes. Mm-hmm.
Beth (41:31.74)
don't know if I could do something or not. I still see improvement and that for me is also still really exciting to see like recently, especially with bison when we do the benchmark workouts that we do. The most recent one I had like such a huge improvement on and it made me really happy.
Sam Rhee (41:46.085)
Uh-huh.
Sam Rhee (41:53.648)
Mm.
Beth (41:54.717)
because especially where I am in my life right now with a baby and a two year old and just kind of coming out of the postpartum, it's, you know, sometimes you can get like down on yourself. Like I would say I'm still not, you know, really happy with how I look. And it does like play with your head sometimes mentally to feel like that. So when you see...
really good improvements on the board. Like my run, my 800 meter run was a minute faster the second time, which is like huge. And my AMRAP was a whole round faster. So for me, it was like a really good achievement. And I feel like that's something I have seen throughout my whole CrossFit career is, you you do, you really do see the
Sam Rhee (42:23.839)
wow.
Sam Rhee (42:28.837)
Wow.
Beth (42:44.648)
the growth and how you're getting fitter. And you do see it like physically as well in your body. That's something I've always liked how CrossFit has made me look and made me feel personally. So I've never really, I don't have anything against other sports. I've just never felt the need to try them. You know, my mom and my sister are really into yoga and running. But for me that has never,
provided the same stimulus that CrossFit has provided and I feel like even when it's just a short 15 minute workout I feel like you're getting so much more from it physically than other sports you do within just like an hour class.
Sam Rhee (43:28.955)
I think the advice I'm taking away from what you just said is it's not so much that every given day you have to push to some insane maximum, but the consistency of doing it every day got you from the initial benchmark result to your final benchmark result. And I think for the for a lot of guys, including me sometimes, we'll just destroy ourselves for two or three days and then take
Beth (43:48.498)
Yeah.
Sam Rhee (43:58.652)
three days off because we really destroyed ourselves for those three workouts that week. And rather than sort of dialing it back maybe ten or fifteen percent, being able to consistently go more often and then seeing more improvement as a result of that. And that's something that sort of speaks to me as well. So if you had to give advice to anyone now starting at Bison,
What would that advice be for you?
Beth (44:32.615)
Don't, for me it would be don't worry about the number on the board. Because I feel like for a lot of people that plays with their head and especially if you're starting out you could look at your score and feel really disheartened in comparison to what other people in the class are doing. That was also an impression I got when I came to Bison. I was like, my God, everyone here is insanely fit.
I was like, everyone here is so good at CrossFit. It was like really intimidating when I first came and I'd been doing CrossFit for like 12 years at that point. And I was like, wow, everyone here and it's not just guys, like there are incredibly fit and impressive women there. And so I feel like I would...
Sam Rhee (45:13.051)
Mm.
Sam Rhee (45:20.475)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (45:25.037)
say to someone don't let that intimidate you if if you're likely to get intimidated by that don't be intimidated by the movements you know when i first started i couldn't even lift the 35 pound barbell i had to just work with the training barbell that's like i couldn't lift anything and so
You know, you stay consistent as we've said, you will see improvement over time and just keep coming and don't worry about what's on the board.
Sam Rhee (45:58.746)
That's really good advice, especially coming from a veteran who you are at some major big places, BRIC and CrossFit Union Square. I think you've seen you've seen it all probably at this point. So that makes me feel good about my numbers. I won't look at and and just try to be more consistent, I think. I didn't even get to your work, which I'm just gonna give a shout out to your agency, C3creative.nyc. That's your
the the place that you work at. and I wanna say Beth, thank you so much for taking the time. Two kids, two dogs, a husband, and yet you you you are one that I really wanted to talk to because like I said, you are so I don't want to say reticent, but you you keep to yourself at the gym. And I was like, there's gotta be a lot there that, you know, same with Evan Johnson, same with a couple of other people I spoke speak with.
Like when people don't say much, there's there's a lot under the surface that you could sort of learn from in terms of their experience and their life. And so I I I did. So I appreciate you taking that time. And I mean I don't think I don't think there's anything here that I wouldn't take away as as a positive in terms of of fitnessing and and sort of how you approach things. So thank you so much.
Beth (47:24.103)
Thank you, I hope I haven't rambled too much. I hope it's made sense. I hope I haven't rambled too much.
Sam Rhee (47:27.864)
more than me. A absolutely not. And someday I'm gonna go out and visit the Cotswolds and and yes, I I have heard and saw so many pictures when I was looking online and and I'll I'll probably go say hi to the Beckhams too while I'm out there as well. All right. Thank you so much. I'll see you at the gym, Beth.
Beth (47:35.473)
you said it's beautiful.
Beth (47:43.687)
Hahaha
Beth (47:47.698)
Thank you. Bye.
