CrossFit Masters part 2

The CrossFit Masters part 2

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The CrossFit Masters, part 2

This is part 2 of the article, "The CrossFit Masters" If you missed part one you can find it here.
In this interview and the three additional, I have gotten the chance to interview some of the CrossFit Master Athletes, actually the fittest on earth. All placed amongst top three in the 2017 CrossFit Games.
I have asked them about how and why they started CrossFit, how they train, how they eat and how they stay so extremely fit even though they are not in their 20's, 30's nor 40's any longer.
Please enjoy!



Shellie Edington

2. at CrossFit Games 2017 (50-54 division)

Shellie Edington_1


Please tell us about yourself:

I'm 53 years old.
In 2000 I founded a mobile gymnastics and fitness program Tumblin4Kids.com - I am a corporate trainer for Cover My Meds
I have competed in the Crossfit Games 5x
2013 - 19
2014 - 3
2015 - 5
2016 - 1
2017 - 2

When did you start with CrossFit and why?

9/2010 - I needed to do something and I hated the fitness industry


How and to what extent were you physically active before CrossFit?

I had basically not worked out for 2 years.

How often do you train today?

5x/week 1 hour at least - depends on where I at in the season.



Do you follow a specific programming?

Yes - MasterFit

Is your training structured in a specific way?

Basically - Strength - Skill - Metcon - Extra Credit -
Olympic Weightlifting
Open season - emphasis on endurance and stamina
Qualifier - continues emphasis on endurance and technical difficulty with accuracy being paramount
Games - all of the above with plus Heavy farm boy work = improved capacity with little risk of injury and mental toughness

Shellie Edington



As a Master Athlete, how do you train differently from younger athletes and why?

I need to break the training up into 3 phases.
1st phase is first thing in AM get on Assualt Bike or Rower
2nd phase - AM or Noon Strength - Skill - Metcon
3rd phase - Evening Olympic Weightlifting or Extra Credit

Do you follow a specific diet?

I use Renaissance Periodization templates they take all the guesswork out of what & when to eat.
Meal times are based on your workouts - how hard they are - how often etc. makes a tremendous difference to have the correct amount of fuel to train with.


As a Master Athlete, do you think that nutrition is more important than it is for younger athletes?

No - nutrition is important for everyone as it is a habit a lifestyle. Plus if you are wanting to build muscle and keep it you have to know how to eat. So it becomes more important as you age to dial it in - but if you learn to do so from an early age it will just be your life.

What has CrossFit given you?

The opportunities that Crossfit has given me are more than I could have ever dreamed of. If you’d told me at age 46 that I would become a professional Crossfit athlete, a world champion in my 50’s with sponsors and over 35,000 followers on Instagram - I would have politely laughed in your face and said: “what’s Crossfit?”
The major difference is the opportunity to change lives and a larger platform to impact others.
My position as a corporate trainer would never have come about without my Crossfit success.
Having the ability to inspire others to become the very best version of themselves because they are worth it and we all deserve that person!!

Remember pain is literally gain - don’t be a puss.​​​​​​

Shellie Edington_2



What do you think is important for older athletes to focus on when doing CrossFit?

Warm up - activation of all Joints - mobility - recovery
Having attentive coaches and being patient with the process. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Enjoy the journey. Find a gym with coaches you trust and people you enjoy being around.
A good chiropractor and massage therapist
Nutrition

And what should they absolutely not focus on?

Competing with some other than themselves. You vs you.

For older athletes that are considering to take up CrossFit what is your advice to them and what can they expect if they start?


It is hard and should kick your ass. Show up and keep going back. Remember pain is literally gain - don’t be a puss. If you can’t even handle what I am writing you need to reevaluate how you are going to survive getting older. Everything is going to get harder as
your age and you have to develop mental toughness if you are going to have any quality of life.
When was the last time you did something that scared you? And you did it? It’s crazy but I love that about Crossfit! The peeking at the board and looking at what’s on it and thinking “Oh no. No. No. No...” Oh yeah.

For you as a CrossFit Master Athlete what is your plan and expectations for the future?

Currently, I am dealing with a knee injury that will pretty much take me out of competitive CrossFit and I am sad. Pretty much on the verge of tears as I fly home from Chicago writing this.
I can’t cry though because life is amazing and I am so fortunate to have it. I will exhaust every good and wonderful moment I am blessed with. I will continue to train 5x per week and help others on their journey!

Follow Shellie on Instagram
Shellie Edington doing Double-Under Snatch






David Hippensteel

1. at CrossFit Games 2017 (60+ division)

David Hippensteel

Please tell us about yourself:

My name is David Hippensteel and I have been married for 34 years to my wife Carol. We have 4 grown children - Jonathan (30), Heather (27), Joelle (23), and Troy (20). We live near Nashville Tennessee.


When did you start with CrossFit and why?

I started hearing about CrossFit from my daughter, Heather, who was a diver in college. She got into CrossFit around her last year of college at CrossFit Signal Hill near LA in CA, and because of her background in gymnastics, she picked it up really quickly. She thought I would really love the sport because I’ve always been into fitness and competition, so I gave it a try when I was visiting her one summer. I was immediately hooked and soon found a gym close to me in Clarksville, Tennessee - CrossFit SolaFide.
Here was a whole new level of fitness I had not yet tapped into. Initially, I was doing it to help my triathlons, but I soon realized that this could be the sport for me because of the versatility of the physical demands that tested a broad range of skill, strength, and fitness.

How and to what extent were you physically active before CrossFit?

I’ve always been pretty active from high school football and track to decathlon in college and many sports in between.
After dental school, I started doing triathlons off and on for 20 years or so while racing motocross started at age 40. Weightlifting entered the picture when I turned 50, and I have always been an avid skier turned snowboarder. I do like to surf as well but time and distance keep it at a minimum.



How often do you train today?

Right now because of my work schedule I train five days a week - typically Thursday through Monday. I usually do longer workouts on Saturdays and Sundays (maybe 2-3hours) because I work Monday through Friday so it’s hard to get in longer workouts during the week. I take off Tuesday and Wednesday because those are my long days at work.



Do you follow a specific programming?

I started out doing everything at the local CrossFit gym, training a lot with a bunch of army guys from Fort Campbell who were mostly 20 - 30 years old and some great athletes. It was the perfect group to train with because I was challenged to keep up with them. The community and camaraderie were awesome.

After Heather graduated from college she got good enough after several months to join the Invictus team so I started getting training ideas from her when I would go out to visit. This was late in 2012 so I started incorporating those workouts from Invictus into the workouts at CrossFit Solafide to get ready for the 2013 Open.
I was in a bit over my head but my body quickly managed to adapt somehow and I got stronger and fitter in spite of overtraining and surprised myself and probably a lot of other people by winning the open that year. Invictus training gave me a great foundation for CrossFit, but eventually, I realized that I needed more specific training to really hone in on developing my weaknesses.
I then dabbled in a few other programming options like Opex and Chris Spealer's Beyond The Whiteboard training program.
 

David Hippensteel_1

Ultimately, after three years at the CrossFit Games, I decided to try just doing my own thing and it seemed to work out pretty well, winning in 2016 and through the Open in 2017.
It was after the 2017 Open that I started talking more to one of my CrossFit friends from the Games, Del Lafountain, who actually coached me the last day and a half of the 2016 Games and helped program for me for the 2017 online qualifier. Most recently, Coach Dan Delomba and Harry Paley with CompTrain Masters of CrossFit New England guided my programming prior to the 2017 Games. It was great to have Dan present as my coach for each event, and I have continued to work with Dan into 2018 as I prepare for the Open.

David Hippensteel_3



Is your training structured in a specific way? 

I try to keep it simple and somewhat spontaneous and it seems to work best for me so I don’t always have specific things that I’m going to do in a week or even a particular day. I know what I need to do and what I haven’t done in a while so I try and work on putting workouts together based on what I know I need to be working on. I still get ideas and guidance from Comptrain Masters and Dan Delomba who I talk to on a weekly basis.

A typical day of training would be some strength work in the beginning either with heavy back squats, deadlifts, or front squats and then maybe some EMOMS of clean and jerk or snatch, also heavy, and then finishing up with one to three met cons of varying lengths, anywhere from 5 minutes to 25 minutes.



As a Master Athlete, how do you train differently from younger athletes and why?

It’s taken me a while to learn that as a masters athlete, especially one of the older ones, recovery is super important. I’m pretty sure I was overtrained for the first three years of the CrossFit games and that’s why I know those years weren’t necessarily my best performances even though I came away with 2, 5th place and 1, 9th place finishes.
I was always afraid I was not doing enough; training all the time with 20-30-year-olds can take its toll, but it's kept me competitive and it still works pretty well. I just have to remember I need rest days a bit more than that age group.

One of the things I added before games in 2017 is the WHOOP watch that I wear all the time. It monitors my training and my recovery so I know when I’m overtraining and then can back off a bit. It’s been a really cool technology to use and it helped me through the 2017 games for sure!

I think you have to really focus on loving fitness because that’s what carries you through the training from day to day.


Do you follow a specific diet? 

I started Paleo which I'd never heard of before back in 2012 because that's what all the guys at the gym who I trained were following. Cole Spitzak and his wife Nicole were the owners of CrossFit Sola Fide and that’s what Cole was doing so I just started doing the same thing and it was perfect for me and my body quickly adapted to burning fat as fuel. I was always eating pretty clean before that but I was lacking protein and healthy fats so the Paleo diet really gave me the balance that I needed through my diet and nutrition. I continue that today with lots of spinach, avocado, steak, eggs, and fish. I snack on nuts and seeds.

As a Master Athlete, do you think that nutrition is more important than it is for younger athletes?

I think it’s important for everyone! It’s just that for the Master's athlete it’s more critical because the younger guys can get away with a lot more and don’t have to worry about being as strict.

David Hippensteel_2



What has CrossFit given you?

CrossFit has been a perfect fit for me because I’ve always been a versatile athlete and always loved physical challenges. I feel like my athletic abilities are a gift from God but I am responsible to work really hard to develop that gift and abilities.
CrossFit has been the best way to express that gift and also fulfil that deep desire to compete and do my best to something I really love.
One of the greatest results of all this is the platform to inspire the world to greater fitness. It’s like fulfilling a calling to inspire people that no matter what their age is, they can get in the best shape of their life and stay there. With all the chronic disease happening everywhere the world desperately needs to know that fitness is a big part of the answer in preventing it!!!



What do you think is important for older athletes to focus on when doing CrossFit?

I think you have to really focus on loving fitness because that’s what carries you through the training from day to day.
You really have to enjoy not just the competition but the process. I absolutely love competing at the games but at the end of the day, I have to continue to remind myself it’s about being in the best shape of your life. And we're in a battle against ageing and chronic disease, not necessarily against your competition.

And what should they absolutely not focus on?

You really have to be happy with where you are at competitively.
If you focus too much on winning and competing you can lose perspective and you can get discouraged very easily.
Even though I do love winning and love the competition I found that at the last several years at the games it's easy to get preoccupied with winning. Putting too much pressure on yourself can affect your performance so you have to be able to learn to be content in the midst of the most intense times of pressure during competitions.

Don’t overdo it in the beginning - I can’t emphasize that enough!


For older athletes that are considering to take up CrossFit what is your advice to them and what can they expect if they start?

I really believe that CrossFit is for everyone, even older individuals my age and beyond. The most important thing, though, is when you’re starting out don’t use heavy weights too soon. Listen to your body, try to stay injury free, build up your cardio, and your strength will come. Don’t overdo it in the beginning - I can’t emphasize that enough!

For you as a CrossFit Master Athlete what is your plan and expectations for the future?

I still love winning and I love competing and hope that I can continue to compete for a few years. But again, the most important thing is always being focused on being in the best shape of your life and staying there and using the competition as a means to that end and not vice versa.

Follow David on Instagram
Watch David doing Double-Under Snacth
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