James Newbury: What It Takes to Succeed in CrossFit

 I was just completely trashed. I had no energy left. I remember going down and trying to do a burpee just lying on the ground and I was just thinking, “Oh, man. It’s so hard to get up out of this burpee.” It’s just like, “Oh, what have I done to myself?”

Welcome to the “BarBend Podcast,” where we talk to top athletes, coaches, influencers, and minds from around the world of strength sports. Presented by barbend.com.

Interviewer: In this episode, I’m chatting with James Newbury. He’s a multi-time CrossFit games athlete, and the fifth place finisher at the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games. If you’ve been a fan of CrossFit for a few years, even casually, chances are you might recognize James.

2019 was truly a break-out year for this Australian superstar. He had his best ever CrossFit Games finish and featured prominently in a number of big campaigns for Under Armour, one of his sponsors.

BarBend actually worked with Under Armour and James covering his training leading up to this year’s CrossFit Games. It was a really cool look into the mind of one the most cerebral athletes we’ve ever come across. James has come a long way but, as you’ll hear from our conversation on this episode, he thinks there’s a ton of potential left to tap into — athletically, mentally, even spiritually.

James Newbury is the kind of person who can easily turn a question back on you, and just talking to him will give you some insights into your own approach to and outlook on wellbeing. That was certainly the case for me.

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Today on the BarBend Podcast I am joined by multi-time CrossFit Games athlete and the fittest Australian man, that is James Newbury. James, thanks so much for joining us today.

Thanks for having me.

First question. How are you feeling after the games? We’re about a month…three weeks after the games, after a stellar performance. Are you recovered?

 Yeah. I’ve got asked that question yesterday actually, and it’s basically…I feel fairly recovered. We’re back in some pretty hard training now. Within 24 hours after finishing the Game we were already down in Peru doing a hike to Machu Picchu at altitude.

It wasn’t so much of a break there. Then we got home and we got straight back into big long days of training. And then we took three days out to the snow to go snowboarding. Because we were there for such a short period of time we were basically snowboarding eight or nine hours a day. So there wasn’t much break there either.

Now we’re back into training. I feel semi-rested but the body hasn’t really had a break yet but that’s OK. We have the Open round at the corner so if that all goes well then we can take a break after that.

The week after the games, my social media feed was just blowing up with all these Australian CrossFit athletes that were in Peru all of a sudden. I was thinking to myself if I just come off of the games, I’d be in a hotel somewhere at a spa relaxing, but you all just went down into the great outdoors and started exploring.

We’ve done the relaxing on the beach type thing post Games before. Getting back into training after that, especially with competition so close, normally we have the Open in February the following year but, this year it’s October, directly after the Game. We have to stay fit for that to make sure that’s a good chance of making it back in 2020.

We decided as a group, let’s go do Machu Picchu. It gets us outdoors, gets us hiking, gets us working at, not a crazy intensity but, it’s also something that we’ve always wanted to do so we figured why not?

What was your favorite part of that trip and did anything surprise you?

We went to Rainbow Mountain as well which is close to the Inca Trail. That was about 5,200 meters above sea level. So that was pretty close to base camp in terms of height. It was very, very low oxygen. It was hard to walk even 100 meters uphill without being really out of breath. It gave you a headache.

That was really interesting but also very fun at the same time. There were so many good things about that trip. We saw a big condor that was huge. The wingspan was almost three meters. That got really close to us which was pretty epic. There were so many highlights. We had a lot of laughs. We were in a big group of people, so there was plenty of good laughs and lots of walking. We hiked almost a 100 kilometers. That was pretty sweet.

That’s fantastic. Had you ever trained at elevation before? Do you ever get to train at elevation?

No, I’ve never trained at elevation. I have an altitude machine. I can get me to around about 13.5 percent oxygen. I use that every so often. It’s not like I’ve ever been at a consistent altitude before.

It’s certainly a humbling experience for everyone. I like how you frame that. [laughs]

Yeah, it makes you feel very unfit. That’s for sure. [laughs]

You obviously had a fantastic performance at the games, your best ever finish. I got to ask, and I got to throw it off. What did you think about the format this year? What did you think about the cut structure? I’m sure it’s a question you’ve been asked a few times now, but it’s certainly something that people are still talking about weeks after the games.

Totally. I didn’t mind it, not just because I had a good result. It’s different. I like evolution, I like change. I think if we just keep doing this over and over again, it gets a bit stale and all, so I don’t mind changing it up.

Look, at the end of the day, Tia and Matt, they still both won. They both showed they are still the fittest. They still made it through the cuts. I think the test, itself, was fine.

There’s definitely people that were every day fit enough to be in that top 10 that weren’t there, but some costly errors didn’t allow them to be in that position. I guess at the end of the day, that’s the game.

If you walk up to the Super Bowl and you don’t bring your A game and you lose, it is what it is. You have to perform one day at the chosen task that you’ve been given. If you can’t do that on the day, then that is what it is. That’s the game.

You’re really kind to put that in terms that our American listeners understand. I like that. [laughs]

I almost said Grand Final, [laughs] and then I was like, “I better say Super Bowl because they will understand what it means.”

[laughs] Well, we appreciate that. For those listening in Australia, just sub in Grand Final, and we’re good to go there. What was your favorite event from the games? Also, was there an event that caught you off guard?

Typically, I do enjoy the water events. They’re usually something that comes quite naturally to me. This year’s water event, it felt somewhat boring in a sense because we were just swimming a K and then paddling a K.

It could have been a little bit different if we were swimming a kilometer then paddling two or three Ks or putting a barbell, like heavy deadlift, for multiple reps in between those movements or something like that. It would have been cool.

I really enjoyed the ruck run. I really enjoyed event one. Probably the one that stands out the most, even though it pretty much flatlined my battery, was the Ringer 1. That was the assault-like workout, toes-to-rings. It was potentially not the most exciting in terms of movements, but it was fun to me.

The Ringers 1 and 2, they were back-to-back with very little rest in between, just a couple of minutes. It was fun to watch. It was a heck of an event.

I was doing commentary on it with my friend, Jordan Syatt, who’s a world record-holding powerlifter. It was interesting to get his take. He called it on the toes-to-rings. This is not someone who is very meshed in the CrossFit community, but as soon as you all start off on the toes-to-rings…When the women were starting off, he called it.

He was like, “Someone’s going to fall off these rings because they’re underestimating how much different this is than a fixed bar.” Sure enough, a few seconds after he said that, Kari Pearce fell off the rings. I was like, “This guy is so smart.”

That’s [indecipherable 09:51] , yeah.

I’m sure wasn’t funny to her. I’m glad she was OK after she slipped on those.

Yeah.

That was an event where you won Ringer 1. Then Ringer 2, I’m going to be honest with you. You looked mortal on that second work out there. What was going through your head there?

I was just completely trashed. I had no energy left. I remember going down and trying to do a burpee just lying on the ground and I was just thinking, “Oh, man. It’s so hard to get up out of this burpee.” It’s just like, “Oh, what have I done to myself?”

Then I looked across it. One of the judges is standing there looking at me. He says, “Are you all right?” [laughs] I’m just like, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

It was definitely worth going really hard on the first one. I would prefer to have done well on the first one and got an eighth place on the second one, knowing that if I had coasted or tried to game plan the first one, I probably would have ended up with a third, or a fourth, or a fifth, and then maybe similar in the second one anyway.

Getting up my very first event win was well worth it.

Yeah. There’s a financial incentive for event wins too. Those add up.

Totally.

For folks who aren’t familiar, event wins come with a cash prize. When they list off the event winners during the award ceremony, you see these people go up and with a big smile on their face. It’s because there’s a little bit of a kicker for those events wins.

Exactly. I wouldn’t turn down three grand any day of the week.

 [laughs] I do have to say as well — this is a sign for everyone listening at home — even games athletes, will get to a point in workouts where those burpees feel impossible, where burpees feel absolutely terrible.

100 percent. I was taking a two-second rest on the ground during each burpee. It’s something that I haven’t had to experience for quite some time.

Let’s talk a little bit more about the swimming events. This is something that I always observed. Australian athletes always do well on the water events. Why do you think that is?

 I did a lot of surfing as a kid. Then from there, I never really got too much into pool swimming, but I did a lot of surfing, then I did a lot of surf lifesaving. I know Matt McLeod and Tia. They also did the same thing too. Being decent in the water is our second nature

That’s an advantage too because there’s pool swimming, which we’ve seen in the games before. We’ve seen pool workouts where it’s like swim laps, do pull ups, which is always an interesting combination.

That open water experience comes up more often. We haven’t seen a pool workout in the games for a number of years now. It’s pretty much all been open water stuff.

Yeah, correct. I don’t mind the pool. The open water is cool. It puts another [indecipherable 12:58] there, which is all good things. It makes people have to work a little bit harder. Another pool event, it would be cool too. I wouldn’t mind seeing that come up again. I would give my hand up for that, for sure.

This is a question where I want to give a little bit of background. We did some work with you and with the Under Armour Performance Team leading up to the games, going a little in depth on your training. There’s some really cool content on BarBend that goes not only into your physical preparation for the games but a lot of your mental training, mindset training, focus.

A lot of that was work you did with the Under Armour team leading up to Madison this year. How did your training for the 2019 CrossFit Games season compared to previous years? Obviously, you did something correctly. You had your best ever finish at the games. What were some of the differences this year for you?

This year, we did a ton of training. We did a little bit of different stuffs as well. What we looked at was the specific time frames of workouts that we would potentially be seeing. We worked on those areas a lot. I worked on some extra longer endurance stuff, just doing a bit of triathlon training as well, which I really enjoy because it makes me happy. I do it little bit extra.

From there, I also spent a month over in Montreal with my coach, Michele Letendre. This was immediately after meeting up with the BarBend guys and the Under Armour Performance Team in Portland. I had a pretty well month block there where I was training with people that were specifically looking just to get the most out of me. That was really great.

It was also a time where I didn’t have to focus on my own business here at home, my gym. I’ve got my gym here. When I’m here, I’m training, but I’m also then making sure things are working at the gym too.

There was up for five weeks there where I wasn’t stressing about that.

All that type of stuff along with early…I started working with Michele, the December just gone. I’ve been with her almost 12 months now. That was a new dynamic with her. The training that she was giving me was a bit different from what I’ve been doing in the past.

It was a multitude of things, like less stress leading into the games, more focused training. Michele is very coolly when it comes to programming and making sure we’re doing the right things leading into competition.

I also feel like my nutrition leading in and throughout the competition was more on point as well. I’m lucky enough I’ve got my girlfriend. She runs nutrition business. She was with me the entire time this time instead of doing the media work at the game. She was helping me as like an onside chef, making sure I’m filled for the whole weekend, which I haven’t done before either.

The nutrition side of things, the training, the preparation, the title was good as well. I felt really good. We trained a lot more than I had done in the past leading into competition. I felt like it kept me on the burn instead of trying to pick back up and ramp back up into the games.

That was a big thing that I noticed. I remember in years past, probably earlier on, I would get to the games. After my first workout, I’d be like, “Oh my God, I feel so unfit.” Whereas this time, I slip straight into the first workout like it was just another workout, and could perform well. Those are a handful of things, but they’re the main ones.

You definitely see athletes at the games in years past who start off maybe a little slow, or they’re not known for excelling at some of those early workouts. They pick up speed as the weekend goes on. They fight from behind. This year, that was like a death sentence when it came to your performance on the leaderboard.

Someone who comes to mind who stays in a few years past is Patrick Vellner. He often starts in the back of the pack. He seems to get stronger and fitter as the weekend goes on. Those last few events, he’s getting first and second places. This year, that didn’t work.

If you started off in the back of the pack, you would get cut. I noticed that even from event one, you hit the ground running pretty well. How do you think tapering, whether or not you do taper and training volume in the month before the games, factors into that mindset and into that ability to perform early on?

 It does 100 percent. I can vouch for that personal experience. There have been a few years in the games where I’ve gone in and taken three or four days into the Games almost completely off.

Just getting there, and then you’re hitting the ground at 100 miles per hour. Your body just feels like “Oh, what are you doing to me?” It’s almost like you need to stay on the ball. You need to keep your body aspiring without wrecking your nervous system prior as well.

There’s a fine balance, and to be honest, it’s taken me four years to figure out. It was the same thing with Regionals. It took me five years to make it to the Games. It’s taken me four years to do what I would have expected of myself at the Games.

For some people, they can just jump in and just smash it straight away. Good on them, they can just crush it. Then other people are slow burners, you just have to be willing enough and determined enough just to keep rocking up.

That’s the thing that I try and tell a lot of my guys that train with me at the gym is, just like if you want it bad enough, you just keep hanging in there and keep working on the things that you’re not right up. Just keep rocking up. That’s pretty much what I’ve done just tuning what I think I need to do.

What weaknesses do you think you still have as a Games athlete?

They’re really CrossFity style workouts like the ring muscle-ups, into squat snatches and fast burpees into…those types of movements. Those things like the real CrossFity, Old School CrossFity workouts, getting them done really fast is probably something that has let me down in the past in terms of placing the leaderboard and also probably top end Olympic lifting strength.

Those things I would say probably things that I’m needing to work on more than others.

We have what might be the shortest offseason in sports history coming up for you between the Games and the Open. How has that changed your approach to training and just for reference the Games ended in early August, the Open for 2020 picks up on October 10th?

The five week Open kicks off then that window is really, really tight. You have to get back to those Open-style workouts in a matter of weeks, really. How’s that changed your approach to training, your mindset and your schedule for this year?

Normally, we get to take a bit of time off post Games but this time around, [indecipherable 20:37] done post Games has been active. Then we’re pretty well straight back into training, getting ready for the Open. So there’s not much rest. The first few days of training was like, “Oh man, I don’t know if we’re fit yet.”

Just knowing that if we do work hard now, and then we can make it pay off during the Open or in a sanction event very close to the Open, post-Open, that we will then be able to get a break. Hopefully around that December-January period, to really let the body rest and recover a little bit more and then [indecipherable 21:13] backup hard to the Games to be as soon as they possibly can.

It’s changed our approach in terms of having to go on for a few days of going to get back in, but then you know also looking at changing the way that where how we’re currently fit getting it more Open-fit ready. That’s where I’m at at the moment.

What is your qualification goal this year? Do you expect to qualify out of the Open or do you have your sights set on particular Sanctionals? Is Sanctionals a backup plan for you?

Yeah, Sanctionals is definitely a backup plan. Typically I haven’t been a great Open athlete. That’s something that I don’t think I can rectify this year. I know that I haven’t ever been particularly super fit for the Open.

I usually try and let my fitness come together, more so around Regionals. This time around because we have such a big gap, I’m going to be as good as I possibly can for the Open to make sure that if I can lock down like a National champion spot or a top 20 in the world spot, then that’s my goal.

If it doesn’t pan out that way, we never know what’s going to happen, then I’ll align for some close Sanctionals after that.

Where do you think the Games goes from here? Obviously, we have a very different qualification structure than in years past. Regionals, they’re gone, they’re not coming back. I think a lot of fans still haven’t quite grown accustomed to that yet.

The Regionals, they’re not coming back in 2020. They’re probably not coming back after. Get used to Sanctionals, get used to qualification out of the Open. Do you think we’re in store for more changes into the 2020 season?

That’s an interesting question. I think so. I think there will be a few changes here and there, potentially not so much with the sanctions and opens, but potentially the games. I might rearrange a few things. To be honest, if they could develop a way that maybe open, a little more regulated. That I would be happy with that. I would be all for that.

Whether it’s potentially making a system where people can’t do, and do, and do, redo workouts and things like that and hit them five times. Or I don’t know, figure out a system that makes it a little bit more user friendly, and a little bit more honest for a lot of people. I feel there’s so many thousands of people competing in the Open. Riding that fine line is quite a tough one.

What’s next for you as an athlete as far as your goals? Obviously, we know you want to do your absolute best at the Games. Winning the CrossFit Games is every Games athlete’s goal. Are there any particular, you mentioned some of your weaknesses earlier, but any particular athletic goals that you might have beyond just performance at the Games year after year and improving upon that?

Yes, I really like all sports. I’m not like, CrossFit is my number one. It’s what I go to as a professional athlete. I really get hooked on trying lots of new things. I just got back from the snow. Snowboarding is my newfound love. Then I’m also doing an Ironman at the end of the year. Full-distance Ironman. That’ll be my first one that I’ve ever attempted,

I’ve done a half Ironman before, I did that…we signed up for that three days prior to it, I hadn’t been training. I was just like, this will kick me into gear, so I’ll give it a go. I ended up loving it. I’m going to give a full-distance Ironman a go, which is 140.6 miles 3.8 k swim 180 k bike, and then a marathon run. I’ll do that in December. That’ll be on December 1st, just enjoying the use of the fitness.

I don’t really at this point in time, like if I had to train completely by myself these days, I wouldn’t do it. The training is way too long. It’s long, it’s hard. If I had to do it all by myself, I wouldn’t do it. Then in saying that as well, if I had to restrict myself so much that I couldn’t do things that made me happy and things that allowed me to have a good time then to be honest, I don’t know how worth it is.

In terms of sacrificing happiness, things that bring you joy, things that bring in connection with other people, things that you can share and think about and memories that you can share with a bunch of people that you really enjoy hanging out with. At this point in time, I probably would have just sacrificed that. I did sacrifice that a lot when I was 20, 21, 22, 23.

Now, looking on it, I’ve been to the Games four times. I’ve finally had a result that I’m happy with but I obviously want to improve on. I really do want to improve on that. I’m going to work very hard to do that. I also don’t want to sacrifice the fun of still living life.

Speaking of that and speaking of those sacrifices, the compromise that comes into play when you are elite at any level of athletics or really any sport, there are always compromises and sacrifices. What you do as you get to higher and higher levels becomes just a part of who you are. Not just when you’re in the gym, not just when you’re training, but how you sleep, how you recover, how you eat all aspects of your life.

Given all of that, how long do you think you have in the sport to compete at that top level? How long would you want that to go for?

 I’ve said to a lot of people that have been pretty close to me and around me. They’ve asked me how many years left have you got in you? I’m like, I’ll base that upon…just off the top my head, if I had to give you a number, I would say maybe another two or three years. In saying that, I will take it as long as it continues to make me happy.

That’s pretty well the instant that it doesn’t make me happy anymore. The instant that it’s unknown on every day is great. Some days, I drag myself into the gym and that’s like everyone, not everyone has a brilliant day.

The instant that it doesn’t get me out of bed. It doesn’t make me enjoy life. I’ll stop then, if that’s tomorrow, then I’ll stop tomorrow. If it’s in two or three years’ time, then I’ll stop as soon as it doesn’t make me happy. If it continues to make me happy, I’ll keep doing it.

Who were some of your early inspirations, when it came to CrossFit, when you came to fitness competition?

Also who inspires you in that realm in this particular sport most today?

As in terms of an athlete that…?

Or could be an athlete could be a couch, could be anyone in the CrossFit Community?

Yes, as always, when I first started CrossFit, this is back in 2011. There was an Ozzie athlete. His name is Chad Mackay. He coached our team at the Invitational. He was one of our top placing male athletes at the CrossFit Games for a numerous amount of years. He had like, I’m pretty sure, he had a ninth overall finished at one year in particular.

Also Steve Willis, who got a fourth-place finish back in 2009. I like Chad and Steve. I kind of looked up to them being, the blokes that kind of led the way for the Ozzies. I got along really, really well with Chad at the Invitational, when he coached our team, which is very relatable.

I kind of looked up to him. I’ve called him on a couple of occasions [indecipherable 29:39] just asking him for some advice, leading into the games, how to carry yourself when things don’t go well and how do you deal with the pressure, sitting in a top eight and maintaining that throughout the whole weekend?

I also have a really good relationship with Steve too. He talks about the Games and talks about the training, so he’s just someone to relate to. In saying that as well, I’ve done a lot of training with Tia-Clair Toomey as well.

Should I say Tia, I look up to her a lot even though she’s younger than me in everything like that. I just like to look at her work ethic, look at how she can bring that competitive edge on the day like she rose to the occasion. She’s just so fit.

She’s so fit. She’s mentally strong and she just wants it so bad that’s inspiring too. I would say in the community like the people that look at them as like man you guys, you crushed it. You’re still crushing it. That gives me a lot of motivation as well to try and bring the best out of myself.

Well, James it’s been an absolute pleasure getting some insight into your mindset, your approach, especially as we head into the next season which is just around the corner. I’m still kind of in disbelief and how quickly, they’re turning around from the Games to the next Open.

Where can people follow along with your training and follow along with what you’re doing this coming season? What’s the best outlet to do that through?

 I put pretty much all of my stuff up through Instagram, so just at add James Newbury. It’s the best place to follow what I’m doing. I’m always trying to document as much of it as possible. Can’t always get it all up there. Yeah, I’d like to do lots of different stuff.

I’m always getting out doing random things too. You won’t just see myself in the gym. You’d probably see me out and paddle board or biking some week.

Really taking that regularly learn and play new sports to heart?

Yeah, 100 percent.

Well, James, thanks so much for joining us. It’s been an absolute pleasure.

Good night. Thank you so much.