What You Don’t Know About the CrossFit Games Grind (with Amanda Barnhart)

There’s something about the ability to flip the switch and go a little bit harder. It’s so much easier on the competition floor when you have people next to you, and you have a crowd, and you have a real judge. It’s just real.

Welcome to the “BarBend Podcast,” where we talk to the smartest athletes, coaches, and minds from around the world of strength. I’m your host, David Thomas Tao, and this podcast is presented by barbend.com.

Today I’m talking to CrossFit Games athlete and Doctor of Physical Therapy, Amanda Barnhart. Amanda is one of the CrossFit world’s highest performing athletes in the space since making her games debut in 2018. That includes back-to-back top 10 finishes at the games in 2019 and 2020.

In our conversation, we talk about how athletes recover after the brutal CrossFit Games competition season, along with Amanda’s first reactions to a new qualification structure for the 2021 season. We also discuss an athlete’s competitive mindset, what it’s like going toe-to-toe in workouts against your spouse, and much more.

Before then, I do want to take a second to say we’re incredibly thankful that you listen to this podcast. If you haven’t already, be sure to leave a rating and review of the BarBend Podcast in your app of choice. Now let’s get to it.

Amanda, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. It’s a real treat to get to talk to you this morning. This morning — the morning of this recording, not when this podcast is coming out — we found out about the CrossFit Games tentative schedule for the 2021 season.

The shortest Open ever, more divisions than ever, a quarterfinals and semifinals of last year’s qualifier season. There’s a lot going on. I’m curious how you’re processing this and what your initial reactions have been as an athlete.

I’ve heard word of some of this stuff before today, but some of it was new. I’ve literally just found out in the last hour, [laughs] so I’m very much still processing and definitely need a lot more information.

I love that the Open is shorter. I don’t think many people are going to complain about that. Weeks four and five is pretty much terrible [laughs] . After week three you’re like, “You know what, I’m over this.” I think three weeks is awesome. I love that it’s getting pushed back a little bit.

Hopefully that more gyms can be open during that time. I’m not even sure which areas are closed right now, but I know that some are closed. Hopefully, that will help some gyms.

It gives me a little bit more time after the holidays because I feel normally after January, I’m like, “OK, I got to get fit now.” That gives me a little bit more time, take some pressure off. I love that.

Condensing the season a little bit too, if you think about it that way. Less time where there’s pressure on us is great. Last year, especially, we had the longest season ever. If we can shorten it up a little bit while still giving us adequate time between each event to prepare, I think that’s ideal and best-case scenario for our longevity after we’re done competing.

I like it from that perspective. I am very confused about the quarterfinals. I didn’t know about that. That was like, “Oh, great. Another online competition,” was the first thing that came to my mind. I hate online competitions. I don’t do great at them. Originally, I was thinking that there was just going to be the Open to whatever.

The semifinals or whatever.

Yeah. They added in that the quarterfinal thing. I hadn’t heard about it. That does make me a little nervous because it’s another online thing which isn’t ideal. I like the timeline of it. I like that we have, I don’t want to call it Regionals, but it’s basically what it looks like on paper.

The only other thing that worries me a little bit initially is that is it four or five weeks of the semis?

I think it’s four. We literally just found this out, Amanda. We’re finding all this out a few hours before this.

…again, I glanced at it quickly. I didn’t read it that closely. I was like, “Oh, that sucks for the last group,” because you have way less games training than the first week. Games training is where the money is. Everyone’s like eight weeks of hard games training.

The people that are competing at the beginning or mid-May definitely have an advantage over the people who are going to be competing in June, which is late. I don’t love that. I have no idea…I don’t think it said anywhere in that how we will figure out which one we’re going to. Those details are all very unknown.

Reminds me of the old Regional structure where you had an advantage. There was a bit of an advantage to going later in that you’d already seen the workouts. You could practice the workouts more for Regionals, but you really had sometimes a month less time to train for the Games.

Regionals training and Games training were very different. A lot more running for Games training, like the longer events and things like that. No indication as to where they are going to stack the weeks, whether by continent, location, or anything like that.

TBD, and I hopefully let you all know first so you can start figuring that out and getting your schedule in order for the coming year.

It’d be nice to know. I’m such a planner. I like to see my year from far away and get an idea of what to expect and what to plan for. It just mentally helps going into training too, knowing where you’re at and what you’re going towards.

This helps because it’s a better outline than nothing. Hopefully, by the time we start the Open, we will know what to expect with the semis and the quarters.

I’m curious because you’re not the first person to say you prefer in-person competition to online. Most athletes in any strength sport would say that. CrossFit especially because the workouts are so varied. There’s a broader range of things that you might be asked to do.

From an athlete’s perspective, a high-level athletes-perspective, what are some of the advantages or differences that come with in-person competition versus the online as you approach them, as you approach training and prep for them?

I’ll start with online because for me, there’s less advantages there. The best thing is that you get to stay at home and be in your normal routine. Sleeping in, for me, it’s having control of my food and sleeping in my own bed. That’s huge too, from a recovery standpoint. That is great.

The comfort of your own gym is nice, but also can be a bad thing because you’re too comfortable there. It is great, because you have your favorite pull-up bar that’s at a height that you like, and it’s not slippery. Those little details matter.

Just like the pull-up bars and rings, everyone has their favorites in their gyms. The rest of it, barbells are all the same, and that kind of stuff. It doesn’t really matter. That stuff makes you comfortable.

When you’re an athlete, and you’re a gamer, and when you compete, when it counts, it’s hard to flip the switch, when you’re in your comfort zone. Obviously, there’s pressure because you know it counts.

I still walk into the Open, the gym every day in the Open feeling very nervous and butterflies, just like I do at a competition, but there’s something about the ability to flip the switch and go a little bit harder. It’s so much easier on a competition floor when you have people next to you, and you have a crowd, and you have a real judge. It’s just real.

I know some people are different. Some people, that’s too much pressure. They tend to do worse there. They do better at home because there’s less pressure. It’s like they’re having fun. It’s another training day.

For me, it’s just another training day, I don’t push hard enough. I get beat by people that I may not get beat by in person. It is something I’m working on. I don’t want it to be an excuse. If you want to be good enough, you should be good enough in every scenario. Tia and Matt are perfect examples of that. Something I’m working on, I would call it a weakness of mine.

That did make me nervous when I saw the second event was online again, I’m like, “Ooh, great.” [laughs]

It’s all so interesting. It almost seems it’s the second Open, because they said it’s going to be roughly the top 10 percent of athletes coming out of the Open. If the Open’s got 400,000 people, call it an estimate, 10 percent of that is 40,000 people. That’s still a really big athlete pool to whittle down. I don’t know.

That’s true. I like to hear that.

Maybe it won’t be too bad.

The downside is the Open’s only three weeks, but you basically have another miniature Open after that. It’s like they’re still making you do extra of the Open [indecipherable 8:55] . I don’t know what’s…

On the thing, it said one week, which is cool.

We’ll see how many workouts in that week.

I like the sign, the idea of one week. It’s like maybe we’re not going to be redoing these workouts because that’s the worst part about the Open. [laughs]

 I know some people who like…I’ve talked to some athletes who will not redo Open workouts. Those are people who are either superlative at the Open. They know that they’re going to qualify at the Open, normally. I don’t think it’s probably an option anymore directly.

There’re some people who are like, “Hey, I never qualify out of the Open. I always have to qualify some other route. I’ll do them once anyway.” Where are you on that scale? Have you repeated Open workouts frequently in the past?

Yes. In 2018 when we had a pretty good idea that I would make Regionals, and it was not quite as competitive coming on the Open, that was the only year that I did not repeat most of them. I repeated one because I wanted to.

Otherwise, that year I didn’t. It was one and done. We were focusing on training for Regionals because you didn’t have to place that well for it to matter. All the other years where I’ve been trying to be top 20 in the world in the Open, and I’m not great at the Open, we are definitely redoing.

I’m not a person that does it more than twice because of recovery and stuff. It doesn’t do me any benefit to keep doing them, but we do them once on Friday, and then strategize over the weekend and make sure I’m rested to do them again on Monday. 98 percent of the time, I do better.

It’s huge for me to try to do better on those because I’m always trying to move up, especially on the weakness workouts. That’s the worst when you go into Monday, knowing how bad it’s going to hurt. Like Friday, ignorance is bliss. You have no idea.

All day Monday, you’re so nervous because you’re like, “OK, it hurt really bad Friday, and now I’m supposed to go a minute faster. It’s going to hurt really bad.” [laughs]

This is not a super uplifting question. You said 98 percent of the time, you do better. Do you remember any workouts where you didn’t do better and your new strategy didn’t pay off?

 It’s not always strategy. I feel like we always have a better strategy. You watch the video. How can you not have a better strategy? Unless you literally crushed it the first time. The only time is…It was last year, the second week, I think. The double-under toe-to-bar thruster with the dumbbells, I did not do better.

That one’s mental. You get to a point, and you’re starting to hurt really bad, and you’re behind. It’s like am I going to make up time because I’m behind right now?

Once I hit that point when everyone fell apart that 12-minute mark, I was already trying to play catch up. I was like, “This is game over. We might as well just stop.” I did keep going, but I was out of reach. Then another time on…Sometimes when the workout is super CNS, just shot. You completely give everything you’ve got.

You come in on a Monday thinking you’re going to do better, and your body says no. That has happened to me too. I don’t think that was last year because last year, we ended on the muscle-up workout. I think it t was the year before.

We ended on something with chest-to-bar and pain. I don’t know if it was chest-to-bar burpees or whatever it was. I went into it fully mentally prepared to do better. I was in such a good place mentally. We had a great strategy. I was doing great. Then all of a sudden, my body just locked up.

I wasn’t even mad because I did everything I possibly could have. That’s one of those things where I put everything into Friday, and by Monday, I wasn’t ready for that high of intensity, which tells you how hard the Open is. It’s like literally going to your death twice a week. [laughs]

 They don’t tend to do these much anymore, but there was a series of years — this is 2013, ’14, ’15 — where a lot of the workouts, they would do a lot of high-rep deadlift workouts. There was one that was deadlifts at increasing weight and box jumps. I remember I did it once. I was pretty happy with my score. I was like, “I actually think I can get a really good score.”

Did it again, and I was just so fried from doing so many reps of heavy deadlifts, not even that heavy in hindsight, but heavy at the time. I didn’t just do worse the second time I did it. I did 25 percent worse.

Mentally, you’re like, “I know how to strategize this,” but at a certain point, your body, you just can’t rep deadlifts that fast. You’re like, “OK, well.”

Especially if it’s a stimulus like that, how often do you train that at that intensity? If you’ve trained that deadlift at that intensity normally, that turnaround would be nothing. That’s not what most of us do. You think you can do it. Your mind is ready to do it. You feel like your body is ready. Then all of a sudden, it’s just like, nope. [laughs]

Wait. You don’t train deadlift to rep failure three times a week? What kind of training are you doing? I’m absolutely joking. Any powerlifters listening to this will be like, ” No, no, no, no. Don’t do that.” I’m joking, guys.

What is your training schedule looking like now? We’re in between seasons. We’re removed from the 2020 Games. We’re gearing back up for the Open. December 2020, two and a half months before the Open, what does your training schedule look like on a weekly basis?

The last two weeks, I’ve been easing back into normal training. Before that, I was still working out. I’m always going to work out because I like to exercise, but I did not have a written program. I was doing a lot of running. I would do the class workout and maybe a little bit of accessory work. I wasn’t doing any gymnastics training, because that’s what I trained so hard during the year.

Physically, I need it, but more mentally, I need the break from the high-volume gymnastics. I’m on week two right now, week two or three. I can’t remember now. It’s been very gradual, moderate amount of volume but doing a little bit more Open type stuff but also adding in all of my gymnastics, slowly squatting again, lifting again.

It’s been gradual, but we’re almost getting back to what I would call normal for me. Obviously not games training volume, but normal, trying to get all of the movements, feeling normal again because you never feel good coming off of an off-season physically.

Mentally, you feel good, but physically, you don’t feel good. It takes a lot of time to adapt to that and be prepared for it mentally that you’re not going to feel great.

What is your wind-down time after the games? You mention CrossFit games level of training where the volume is super high. The volume of training you’re doing in a given few days is probably similar to the volume you undergo at the actual games.

Coming off of that, are you someone who goes through that, almost feels like an adrenaline crash? Right after the games, you’ve got nothing, or are you able to recovery pretty quickly after the games turnaround?

This year was different because it was online, and the volume was less. I did feel OK Wednesday after the games this year. I look back to the two years that I was at the games in person, and I definitely did not feel that way. In 2018, I was extremely wrecked. The volume was higher. I was less prepared for it because it was my first year there.

I didn’t do anything for probably two weeks, and I didn’t want to. My body, I could feel like I was wrecked. 2019 wasn’t as bad, but I didn’t want to do anything. We went to a CrossFit gym probably a week later. We dropped in.

My husband did the class workout. I just sat on the [indecipherable 17:05] . It was like I had no desire to do that right now, not even a little bit. [laughs] They’re like, “Come on. Aren’t you going to join in?” I’m like, “No. I’m just going to sit here.” [laughs]

They’re like, “You finished top 10 in the CrossFit Games. Come and join the workout.” You’re like, “I’m good. I’m going to settle a little bit, just stretch a little bit.”

I know that that’s fun for everyone else, but it’s not fun for us. It’s not fun to want to relax and then feel like every person in the gym is trying to beat you because of who you are. It’s mentally not even worth it.

I would so much just rather get a light, easy sweat in and have no pressure on myself. Plus I never want to do a pull-up or pick up a barbell when it’s that close to competing. It’s like, “I’ll just sweat, but I don’t want to do anything that hurts.” [laughs]

There’s no winning there. It’s a lose-lose scenario because say you do hop into a workout with everyone. They’re all going to try and beat you because they want to see how they stack up against a games athlete, right?

If you don’t push it, which is hard to do because you’re a competitor, they’re going to be like, “Oh, my God. She’s not that fit.”

“I beat Amanda Barnhart.” [laughs]

Right. Who the heck is she? Then if you do push it, your body’s wrecked. You’re not recovered. You might not do that well, and then they’re going to say the same thing either way. There’s no winning there.

No winning. It’s easier said than done. I’d like to say I don’t care, but when you’re put in that situation, it is like, “Ew.” [laughs] It is easier not to do the workout because otherwise you’re stuck with this moral dilemma. “Does my ego matter more than my recovery does right now?” Usually the ego wins in that situation so that [indecipherable 18:51] . [laughs]

Does anyone straight up challenge you? Like over the course of a year, does anyone just challenge you? You live in the Midwest so people are very friendly. They’re much friendlier than, say, maybe here in [laughs] New York, where I live. Does anyone ever come out and be like, “I just want to throw down with you,” like, “Let’s do it. I think I could beat you.”

No, no one ever said that [indecipherable 19:12] beat you.

[laughs] That’s smart.

[laughs] I do take class a lot this time of year. All the guys are always trying to beat me. It’s usually like I’m doing the same calories as them and a heavier barbell and more pull-ups. They’re trying to beat me. I’m like, “Well, if you beat me, great, but we didn’t do the same workout.” [laughs]

 It’s like, “You weigh 40 pounds more than me. Yeah. OK, cool. I’ll spot you a little bit of room on the cleans,” or whatever it is.

It’s still nice though. It does push me because even if it’s slightly different, I still don’t want to lose to them. It’s fun to have that extra push. It’s very rare that someone like…We have a lot of really good runners in our gym. If it’s a very heavy running workout, I’ll definitely get beat.

That doesn’t count. They’re runners. It’s OK, runners don’t listen to this podcast. We can make fun of them.

 I’m kidding. I’m sure some do. If you’re a runner, and you’re offended, you can email me [email protected], and I’ll hear your complaints. I’ll apologize in person. I’m very sorry.

I’m curious about when it comes to heavy training as far as not volume gymnastically, but heavy weights, you’re one of the strongest CrossFit Games competitors, period. There are very few people who are going to be able to hang with you when the barbell gets really, really heavy.

Are you someone who can maintain that base of strength out of the off season or is that something you have to build gradually back up? I know conditioning is something that you’re going to have to build up again, but that barbell, does it feel extra heavy getting back into the swing a full training now?

Yes, it feels heavier than normal. It’s still not an issue for me. Like the first couple…Squatting is usually bad at first. It’s like, “Oh, I haven’t back squatted.” I was so sore the first week we did squats.

The underlying strength doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s a matter of me getting used to hurting again and getting used to the barbell and trusting that I have the strength there. After a few days within the gym, I’m not maxing out my clean and jerk, but I’m lifting fairly heavy and feeling good about it.

I definitely don’t feel that way when I go back to gymnastics after some time off. I do think it’s purely a strength of mine. Obviously, if I didn’t do it at all, it would start to fade away, but we truly do maintenance on my strength. We don’t work too hard at getting stronger. We just make sure I’m not losing strength and working on everything else.

Do you work with a coach? For those who might not be familiar with your career of might not be as familiar with you as an athlete, what is your support structure, coaching structure look like?

I’m a CompTrain athlete. I work with CompTrain. My coach at CompTrain is Harry Palley. He does a lot of the masters stuff and actually coached Sam Kwant this year too. He coaches Sam and I. Then I have a coach in my gym in Ohio who’s with me on a daily basis. His name’s Mitch Lyons. He’s my in-person coach.

The two of them work together. I have the balance of having a part of the bigger part of CompTrain, but also have someone who’s with me on the daily which is best case scenario.

Do train ever with CompTrain athletes, or compare scores or thoughts on workouts?

Sometimes, like a few times a year, we’ll get together with the rest of the athletes. I’ve trained with Katrin and stuff and gone to Boston. It’s not a consistent thing.

I do have a buddy, Drew Wayman, who lives probably about 45 minutes from me. He does CompTrain as well. My coach Mitch helps him too. We get together as much as possible. Our program [indecipherable 23:04] is very similar. It’s awesome because we push each other.

The only thing right now is he’s in school full time. When he has breaks and stuff, we train together like almost every day. This week, he’s on break so we’ve trained together every day. Then, once he goes back to school, I don’t see him for several months. It’s still better than nothing. It’s great to have someone to push you.

Especially when it comes to someone who’s trained with you before and knows your strengths and weaknesses as an athlete, knows your mental game a little bit, and know when to egg you on, I would guess.

I have to ask. Your husband is also a CrossFitter. Do you guys ever train together or is that a completely separate thing?

I love training with him. The reason we don’t too much now is because our schedules are different. He works second shifts. He goes into work in the afternoon. He trains at noon. I’m usually finishing my first session, going home for lunch, and then going back to the gym. We just miss each other.

I could make it work where I trained with him, but then it would be hard to make a two-a-day happen when I’m training in the middle of the day. Saturday is the only day that we really get to work out together. We are very competitive. I don’t like to lose to him.

Especially before the games when I don’t have many people around to push me, I’m like “Will you please do my weight and my workout, and do it against me?” He will push me at the girls’ weight. He’s very fit. If we put on the games weight, the men’s weight, it’s going to slow him down too much that I’m going to beat him.

We definitely convince him a few times a year to suck it up and do the girls barbell or whatever, so he can push me. Then it’s a really good race because he’s fit. [laughs]

I have asked this question of a few CrossFit couples before. I’ll get some dramatically different answers. Steph Chung mentioned, she’s like, “Yeah, my husband and I, we had like when we do workout or compare times, it gets really brutal. It’s like we really throw down. I’m never more competitive than when it’s against my husband.”

I’m like, “OK, cool. You got to keep it fresh.” That’s cool to hear.

It definitely depends where I’m at mentally. We’ve definitely had times where games training is just rough. Girls are more emotional during games training because you’re always tired. You’re always beat up. You’re freaking out that you’re not fit enough.

He would come in and do a few workouts with me occasionally. I would be on my fourth workout of the day. It’s the end of the week. It’s so hot. He would demolish me. I start crying. I’m like, “I’m terrible. I’m not fit.” [laughs] He’s like, “What’s wrong with you?” [laughs] I’m like, “I’m so tired that anything that upsets me makes me cry right now.”

We’ve learned now we have to be careful when those workouts happen to realize that he’s not doing the same amount of work as me. It is totally different and not to let it stress me out too much if he’s beating me at a time like that. [laughs]

We have to come up with a word. The word hangry applies to when you’re angry because you’re hungry. There’s got to be a word for that if you’re angry because you haven’t worked out yet or because you haven’t done all your training yet. We got to come up with a good term for that.

I’m not creative with stuff like that. [laughs] [indecipherable 26:27] or something to describe girls during games training. There’s no way to describe it other than you’re on edge. [laughs]

I’m really glad we’re doing this podcast. The way you’ve spelled it out, I’m glad we’re doing this podcast now. I will make sure to completely leave you alone in the lead up to the games. Only after the games, we’ll catch up. We’ll do episode two after.

I pretty much tell everyone no to anything during that time of the anyways. I’m so focused on that. I’m too tired on my in-between times that on a rest day, I don’t even want to move from the couch. [laughs] You don’t have to worry about it.

That’s your season. You’ve spent an entire year building up to one, couple, two months period really, eight weeks before the game. That’s understandable. I think it’s true in a lot of professions.

If you’re an accountant…Brent Fikowski used to have that twice in a year. He was an accountant, so he’d have tax season. Then he would also have the games. He’s not doing it anymore. For a while there I was like, “Just go full-time man.” [laughs]

Amanda, I really appreciate you taking the time to catch up with…People who want to follow along with your training, what you’re doing, where’s the best place for them to do that?

 @Amandajbarnhart on Instagram. I have a YouTube channel as well, which I’m trying to get content on every week. Just Amanda Barnhart on YouTube.

We’re trying to get workout videos and lots of fun stuff out so check it out.

Awesome, really appreciate it.

Thank you.