Girls Gone WOD Podcast

We’re back with another Ask Joy & Claire episode! This week, we discuss hand care, the best CrossFit gear for summer, and how to balance running and CrossFit. We also talk about the whiteboard, and what to do if someone at your box is constantly mis-reporting their scores or deliberately miscounting their reps. Our answer: So what? And Joy’s oh-yeah-she’s-a-professiona-psychiatrist advice is: if something is bothering you, then you need to look at what it is about you that’s being reflected in that behavior. Deep, huh? We also finally reveal our Fran times (as if we’ve been keeping them a secret?), except for Joy, who doesn’t even remember which one Fran is. Awkward.

The 2014 CrossFit Games Regionals are officially in the bag… but we recorded this episode on Sunday, so we didn’t know that yet. In fact, we may or may not kind of be watching the Regionals on the side during this episode. Hashtag sorry we’re not sorry. We also talk a about goals, the strongman program that Claire just accidentally started, meditation, and Joy even reads Claire’s tarot cards (well, one tarot card), and, spoiler alert, it’s not a whole lot different from a fortune cookie. Last but not least, Claire talks about her recent blog post where she finally plucked up the courage to talk about a pretty taboo issue: lack of sex drive in younger women. It’s embarrassing, it’s confusing, it’s super personal… so obviously we had to talk about it on GGW! Duh.

First of all, don’t be psyched out. Despite the intro, Christmas Abbott is not on this episode. We know, it’s sad, but y’know, sometimes we just like to use that little sound byte because it’s awesome. Anyway, this week we talk about yet another Regionals upset with Lindsey Valenzuela not making it to Carson and the fact that there apparently won’t be any wild cards to the Games this year. Dave Castro has stated that the “right people” are going to the Games… yet that doesn’t include the Gold of Silver medalists from last year. So things are about to get interesting. We also talk about Track Your Happiness, a cute little app that sends you happiness surveys throughout the day to collect data about what makes people happy (it’s science, people!), and about the definition of success. Last but not least, there are a lot of Mean Girls references in this episode. More than average. You’ve been warned.

Chris G returns from Episode 31! And this time Joy & Claire are prepared with questions for him, too, and we start by picking this former collegiate rower’s brain for tips that everyone can use on to improve their rowing. Claire struggles with rowing because she’s short, and Joy struggles with rowing for no explicable reason, so we could definitely use the help. We also talk about the first few weeks of Regionals, get some tips for our goal setting, and, most importantly, conduct an ongoing taste test throughout the podcast of the varying flavors of Dunkin Donuts “munchkins” aka donut holes. It’s for science, people.

What do you love about your CrossFit gym? What have you not-loved-so-much about other gyms? In this episode we discuss what makes a good gym, what the heck a “CrossFit community” even means, the differences between big and small gyms, coaching styles, and what to do if you love CrossFit but your gym isn’t quite the right fit. We also talk about vision boards, because Claire made her first vision board this weekend and Joy is a vision board veteran. Who once made a vision board for her love life and hung it in the southwest corner of her house. Because y’know, feng shui. Are you actually surprised? I didn’t think so.

Summer is almost here, which means it’s time for a new set of goals. But first, we decide to revisit our old goals from last August (dang it does not seem that long ago!) and reflect on the fact that sometimes, not accomplishing a goal can tell you even more about yourself than achieving a goal can. In this episode, Claire & Joy also discuss Christmas Abbott’s recent Instagram booty shot that garnered some negative comments from fans, and talk about self-confidence and whether or not you should ever feel the need to cover up in public just because someone else thinks you should–whether that means covering up your butt, your opinions, or your true talents (Hint: Nope, definitely not). Last but not least, Brandon makes his podcast debut in what is likely the biggest tangent to ever grace the GGW airwaves.

Well guys, it’s official… Claire is quitting her job to start coaching CrossFit! Kinda crazy and kinda awesome. So obviously that calls for an episode about life changes, goals, expectations, and redefining the way we plan our lives… and then Joy says some stuff that reminds us that she is an actual real-life therapist. Right, that. In this episode, we also talk about Week 2 of the Accountable Eating Challenge, what to do when you get in a rut with your workouts, and the fact that Claire might be the only person under 200 lbs to ever try the Lift Big Eat Big AJAX “Strength Program for Functional Fitness.” Oh also, it’s the 10th Anniversary of Mean Girls, and Joy is wearing so much pink in this episode that you can almost hear it. Listen closely.

Do you struggle with double unders? How about kipping pull-ups? Snatches? Cleans? Um… anything and everything? It’s ok, because so do Joy and Claire. In this episode, we take some listener questions and give our best tips for conquering the elusive double-under, for stringing together more kipping pull-ups, and we barely go on any tangents! Well, except for one about Lindsay Lohan’s Instagram account. And another one about Rich Froning and his, err… playbook. Ok, so there might be some tangents. We also chat about the GGW Accountable Eating Challenge, which is officially in full swing, and we find out that the actor who played Damian in Mean Girls is apparently actually almost too gay to function, like in real life. Raise your hand if you feel like you already knew that (or if you’ve ever been personally victimized by Regina George).

The Spring 2014 Accountable Eating Challenge is coming up, and this episode is all about eating. Joy is worried about the challenge because diet “challenges” make her feel restricted and, therefore, rebellious. Claire is just going to miss tortilla chips. But most of all we talk about how having aesthetic goals doesn’t mean you’re less serious about your fitness goals, and that it’s equally ok to say that you really truly don’t care about being lean, and you would rather be able to compete in elite strong(wo)man events… But that at the end of the day, no matter what your athletic and/or physique goals are, it’s pretty hard to reach them if you’re just eating crap all the time. Especially if the label is in Swedish.

Did you guys know that April is supposed to be an astrological rebirth with all sorts of eclipses and astrological… stuff? Well, apparently it is, so in this episode we spend some time talking about moons and third houses and planetary turmoil… And then Joy admits that the stars have had nothing to do with her stress, and that in fact she’s been having an existential crisis brought on by Sunday marathons of the Kardashians. April also means that it’s almost summer, and we decide that it’s ok to want to not look pale and squishy in a bikini, so we are hosting a nutrition challenge starting April 21st! Nom nom nom. Wait, did we talk about CrossFit in this episode? Hmm…

Does this episode even need a description? We sat down at CrossFit Eminence for 50 whole minutes with one of the most badass and inspiring women in CrossFit: The one and only Christmas Abbott. If you have been listening to GGW for even one day you will understand how big of a deal this was for us. In this episode, we ask Christmas about the early days of CrossFit, coming back from injury, her seminars and upcoming trip to Cabo, booty shorts (of course) and lots more. Plus the real reason you need to start practicing toes-to-bar, like yesterday. Did I mention that Christmas Abbott is on this frickin episode? Say it with me… YAAY!

Are you sort of over the Open? Because we really are. So much so that Claire ditched 14.4 and doesn’t even feel a little bit bad about it. But 14.5 will be here soon, and then we can get on with our lives! In this episode, Claire also recaps her hut trip and considers signing up for a GORUCK Challenge this summer. Joy reminisces about 14.4, grad school sleep studies, and the fact that she was way more ripped when she used to do Power Yoga. Who knew? We also discuss an email from a reader who wants to know what the heck it meant when a friend told her she “couldn’t tell” she did CrossFit. Is that supposed to be a compliment? Um, thanks?

14.4 is here and we have no frickin idea what that even means. Turns out that we’ve never rowed for calories before, and Claire did her first ever toes-to-bar tonight after hearing the announcement. So, we are sort of flying by the seat of our pants on this one. In this episode, Claire and Joy also talk about the woes of dental work, and address some listener questions about body image. Hot bod, heavy lifts, happy hour… Can you have it all? Not if “it all” includes a thigh gap, we’ve decided. In fact, let’s just stop with the thigh gap thing already, ok universe? Thanks.

We promise that only half of this episode is about The Open. Because, let’s be honest, it’s about time that we took a break from talking about chest-to-bars, redoing Open WODs, and putting unrealistic expectations on ourselves just because it’s Open Season (although we talk about those things too). So instead we decided to focus on things like what superpower we would want to have and what celebrity people tell us we look like. Y’know, the important stuff.

Well, here we go 14.2! In this episode we recap 14.1 and Joy’s uneasy feelings of knocking out 304 reps at 5:30am. Claire gives awesome double-under advice (because she IS the double-under queen) and we discuss reasons why you should or should not redo the Open WODs. Let’s face it, the Leaderboard is driving us all a little crazy. Everybody calm down, look in the mirror and say to yourself, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and doggone it people like me!” Now go kick some 14.2!