We cover the sport of CrossFit from all angles. We talk with athletes, coaches and celebrities that compete and surround in the sport of CrossFit at all levels. We also bring you Breaking News, Human Interest Stories and report on the Methodology of CrossFit. We also use the methodology to make ourselves the fittest we can be.
Chill, chill, hey, hey, chill,
let's go I was born a killer,
I was meant to win I am
down and willing so I will
find a way It took a minute,
now it didn't happen right
away When they get hot in the kitchen,
you decide to stay That's
how a winner's made Stick a
fork in a hater on my dinner plate
What is going on, everybody?
Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast,
where we are featuring the
athletes of the 2024
Legends Masters CrossFit Games.
And I am so honored and
privileged to have with me Haj Bel.
Haj, how are you doing?
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm good.
I'm good.
I want to learn a little bit about you.
CrossFit seems to be
something that's very
important in your life.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, you are a coach.
Yep.
You met your husband in CrossFit.
I did.
Yes.
So,
so how do you like hang out at a gym
and meet a guy?
Well,
I wasn't hanging out at the gym and
meeting the guy.
So it was 2013 I started as
a New Year's resolution.
So it was like beginning of the year.
And at that time,
we had like very extensive on-ramps,
actually.
So it was really cool.
I had a pretty big class.
And then when we graduated
to the other side, you know,
there was a little bit of hand-holding,
but he was just my coach.
And, you know, we just...
I went to school for design.
He was an engineer.
We kind of just...
hit things off from the very beginning.
And, you know, as things progressed,
we got closer and closer.
We eventually started dating.
And, you know,
as soon as we started dating,
he could no longer be my
coach because it was just
like it went from like coaching to, well,
why are you picking on me?
Or, you know, well, I'm doing it this way.
So but, you know,
we just kept we still have
a very strong passion for
CrossFit and just living a
healthy lifestyle both inside
and outside the gym.
And it's just something we now,
12 years later,
try to instill in our daughter as well.
Our daughter's three years old.
Her name is Charlotte.
And, you know,
I try to bring her in here
with me whenever I can so
she can just kind of watch
me coach and sometimes train.
It's a little difficult to
train when you have an
agenda and there's a toddler around.
It's just a little bit more about her than,
you know, you got to get done.
But she's definitely just as
into it as my husband and I.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Kids just watch you and they
want to emulate you.
And yeah,
the best example is just being fit.
Right.
Oh, we lost her for a second.
Hopefully that was just a
phone call or it was,
we're on airplane mode now.
So all good.
All right.
Um,
so the next part I wanted to talk about
is the,
the coolest thing about the
masters athletes is that they,
Many of you work full time.
You have families.
You have so much going on in your life.
And you have to master not
only being a great athlete,
but balancing all that stuff.
Yeah, absolutely.
So how do you manage all that?
You know, things shift constantly.
You're a mom or just, you know,
career driven or whatever the case,
everyone's story is different,
but it's just about
prioritizing your time.
You know, there are days where.
You wake up at 3.45 in the
morning and go get it done
and you're home by 6.30
before the rest of the
family's up just to make
breakfast and get the kid
and the husband out the door.
And then there's days where
you didn't go to sleep late.
So you stay in and you sleep
and you get the rest that
you need and you try to fit
it in somewhere else throughout the day.
I like working out.
I love coaching.
I think, you know,
it doesn't necessarily feel like a chore,
even when this is my first
time competing at the Games.
I'm trying really hard to
just kind of focus on,
at the end of the day, to work out.
I know what I need to work
on at this point.
I know what my strengths,
what my weaknesses are,
and it's just about
literally prioritizing the time.
I have also found,
and I think what has helped
me in my training throughout the years is
Intensity is way more
important than volume.
When I was younger,
competing at regionals back
in 2017 and 2018,
we stressed a lot of volume
and longer workouts and
just getting it in.
And I just thought if I
didn't get two and a half,
three hours of sessions in,
I was going to fall behind
against everyone else
that's just getting...
better and better,
the more time that they put in.
And honestly, as I got older,
I just realized I only have
so many reps left in my
body and they just have to
have some meaning and
intention behind them.
So scaling back on the
volume and just kind of
focusing on intensity and
skill and moving well has
really helped me kind of
steer the course and not
just overdo it for sure.
I think that's a global
theme that's going on in
CrossFit across the board
is that you don't need to
put in all the volume.
And I think Dave Castro said
it beautifully in a lot of
his interviews that at most at the games,
you're going to work out
for an hour in that day.
You need six hours of volume
to be ready for one hour if
you're doing it with intention.
Right.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
So you prescribe wholeheartedly to that.
100%.
Yes.
Um, the,
I think the longest workout I've done in,
you know,
And over a month is maybe 20 minutes long.
That's not like zone two, you know,
just kind of sit there and
lubricate the joints and
things like that.
But I try not to go anything
above 20 minutes because, you know,
everything's going to be three, four,
12 minutes tops.
And even like two a days and
things like that,
they don't come often over here.
I know that that's important
when it comes to comp time.
I did compete at semifinals once.
with my team back in May at
Syndicate Crown.
And there was, you know,
two a days every day.
For the first day,
we actually had three workouts.
And that was something that
was a little humbling for
me because I try not to, first of all,
I don't have the time to do
two a days all the time.
But when I do, you know,
I still keep them short.
And there was two days
long workouts on the same day paired with,
you know, a really heavy lift.
So I had to, you know,
make sure I was fueled right.
And it was a little outside
of my comfort zone,
putting that much volume in a day,
but it was definitely
useful for me going into
the next phase of my competition.
And just knowing that I have
to really prepare and fuel
myself the days leading up
to it to make sure that I can, you know,
hang with the volume.
So whenever you find out you
make the games,
there's got to be a natural
inclination that like, man,
I've got to change this and
I've got to tweak that and
I've got to do more.
Yeah.
How do you hold those reins
in to tell yourself, no, you don't.
That's not what got you here.
um I get some help sometimes
so craig he's uh the owner
of branford crossfit where
I train and he is also
competing at the games too
and he is uh he's competed
prior um individual team
all that stuff regionals
games um so he's he's been
around he knows a lot about
you know when to
went to add the volume and
went to reel it in.
And I kind of just like,
I don't want to say blindly follow,
but I trust his direction.
And he'll see me over there,
like trying to add a little
extra to my e-mom or something.
And he'll just be like, no, no,
like you're not going to
forget how to do butterfly pull-ups.
You're not going to forget
how to do ring muscle-ups.
It's all about the accessory
work and all the other
stuff and the time under
tension and just trying to stay healthy.
And again,
enjoy it because sometimes when
we feel the pressure of
needing to maintain, um,
or get better.
I mean, there's a month left.
I don't really think I can
get any fitter in a month,
but I can certainly develop more skills.
It's funny.
I was watching Ariel Lowen's
day in the life today.
And in that she was talking
about how like the most
there's ever been of chest
to bar pull-ups in any games is 90.
Right.
Why does she need to do more
than 90 reps of that
movement in her training week?
Because any more than that,
you're just overtraining.
Yep.
And I was going to talk to
you about Craig because I
saw that he was the owner
of your gym and a
well-known OG CrossFit Games athlete.
Do you lean into him a lot
for that advice and those tips?
Yeah, I do.
I always lead with like, sorry to bother,
but would you do this or this?
But he's also a pretty good coach.
You know, he's been doing this for so long,
and he just has that athletic background.
I actually never played sports growing up,
regular sport or team sport.
I just really was always
very athletic and competitive.
So to me, I learn quickly,
but it doesn't come naturally.
I just need a little bit of guidance,
and he's really good at
giving quick cues to everyone.
But, you know, he understands me.
He sees when I get...
overwhelmed with a workout
or something like that.
And he has to just kind of tell me like,
all right,
maybe here we do singles or
here we do this.
Um, so it, it, but,
but we're totally different
athletes at the same time.
So, um,
he helps I i ask for
assistance too but I think
that a lot of times it's
just about trusting your
own fitness too and knowing
yourself um and knowing
when to you know push a
little bit just to see what
you have versus listening
to your coach which maybe
not everyone would say that
but I think that um there
is value in uh you know
sometimes making mistakes
or following direction but
um you know he's
He's a father of three kids.
He has a toddler as well.
And he's doing tons of other
things outside of the gym as well.
But I think it's a great
testament to you really
don't have to spend three hours.
And it wasn't until I
started to train with him
that I saw that it was more
about quality versus quantity.
So I trust the programming.
I do the same programming as
everyone else here at the gym.
I just insert, you know,
what I need to do on the
side but and that is where
the guidance from him comes
in but I'm working
alongside the members every
day do you have a training
partner do you do classes
and then just accessory um
We all get training partners, you know,
you kind of just always
gravitate towards someone
that pushes you or is
always like chasing you.
There's quite a few at the gym that,
you know, I train with on the regular.
There was a really close
friend of mine that just recently,
unfortunately, switched gyms,
but he was on my team for regionals.
I'm sorry, semifinals, regionals, whatever,
the same thing.
So we trained a lot together.
But it ends up being a lot
of just you versus the
clock because we're all
just kind of at this point
running our own race.
So with that,
you've been around a long time.
You've been on a team at a
very high level.
Do you have enough race
experience that when you
get to the CrossFit Games
that you'll be able to race it out?
Or do you want to just have
blinders on and go down your lane?
I think there's going to
have to be a combo of the two,
which goes back to my statement about,
you know, listening to your coach,
but at the same time,
it's just kind of like
pushing the limits just to
see how far you can go.
I know what my row time, my 5K, my 10K,
you know,
but there's the adrenaline aspect of it.
There is the how far or how
deep can I go down this
rabbit hole and how hard is it going to,
take for me to climb back out.
So I think knowing yourself
as an athlete is important.
There are workouts where I
will be able to glance over
and hopefully not get intimidated.
But there are other workouts
where I'm going to know
where I stand and there's
no sense in redlining really early on,
despite everyone being ahead of me,
because it's not always the
first couple of minutes.
Yeah.
So
just to like follow up on
that though I am if in all
of these things like that I
think about the games and
you know this will be my
first time competing
individual in general so
that in itself is a little
um like uh intimidating for
me because I've always been
on a team and I'm not by
any means saying team is
easier because it's not I
personally think it
maybe harder because you
have other people relying on you,
but I've always been on a team.
So I've never gone to this level.
I've actually never even done a individual,
like a local comp individual.
So this is like my first
time ever competing by myself.
It'll be interesting.
I think it'll just be like a
big learning experience for me,
but I have to, like you said,
just know when to like use
the other athletes as, you know,
a pacer or, and then just
trust that I know myself as
an athlete as well and when
I can push it I'll push it
well nothing like picking
the crossfit games as your
first big individual
competition not even your
first individual
competition I figured I
might as well try it out
yeah why not give it a go
um are you equal parts
excited and nervous
Yeah, I'm very, very much excited.
I think this is really cool.
I like to think I'm a big
part of the community.
I try.
Like I said,
I'm in the classes all the time.
I think a lot of the people
just see like what I do and
that I'm very passionate for it.
So I think it's just a big
like representation of not just me,
but just like my community
and all of my like family
and friends outside of the
gym too that just know how
much it means to me.
So I think that goes a long way and
I have friends that don't
even CrossFit that just, like,
call me up and ask me about this stuff.
And they're just wondering, you know,
how are they going to watch
me and all that stuff.
And I think that that's really cool.
That's super cool.
And that's how we grow support, too,
right?
Your passion.
Yeah.
Share it with friends and family.
So...
A lot of the team athletes I
talk to don't even think
individual when they go
into the season because
they have committed to
three other people that
this is what they're doing.
But because of the way this
season laid out,
was it always a goal to try to do both?
Um, not necessarily.
No, the goal was always to try individual.
I mean, I, I turned 35 in August,
so I'll be 36 in a couple of days.
And I knew I was like, okay, you know,
I'm going to be the younger
of that age group.
I might have a shot.
We'll see what happens.
I'm going to focus on what I
need to focus on.
Um,
but I did have a close training partner,
Zane, and, um,
he competed last year at
semifinals as an individual, um,
and we would just like talk
back and forth but there
was not really much set in
stone until uh later on
last year we just you know
when you meet the right
people you just kind of you
just connect and then
they're all great athletes
and we just started working
out together and things
just progressed and it was
more of like uh um
The main goal was individual.
They knew that everyone
understood that they were
all very supportive.
But let's give it a shot for team.
It'll be fun.
We were just going into this for fun.
And it really was.
I mean,
like the training leading up to it
was fun.
The open was obviously the
open is what it is.
It's always just like head down and grind.
The quarterfinals team was a lot of fun,
but it was.
I think out of all the
qualifiers that I did,
because I was basically
doing a qualifier like
every other weekend, was the hardest one.
Because again,
you've got these people just...
you know,
we're all leaning on each other here,
so you don't want to let anyone down.
And you always end up just
pushing a little bit harder
when there's other people in your corner.
So, no, they were very,
very supportive of my decision.
I didn't know what I was
getting myself into,
to be honest with you, neither did they.
You know, I tried my best to not, like,
overdo it with training the whole season,
just because once the Open started,
it was always something
that we were kind of trying
to stay focused on.
But it was a little
challenging after team
quarterfinals to try to
And we figured out when we
found out we made it,
I still had my qualifiers to go through,
but we we needed to get to work.
You know,
it's not just about making it there.
It's about showing up when you get there.
So it was just like team
training one day qualifier
for individual the next day
back to team training.
There was one day where I did a qualifier
in the morning and then we
did team training in the afternoon.
So it was just like,
they worked their schedule
around me and they were
very supportive during my portion of it,
which made it more fun.
And obviously that makes the
team grow closer together too.
But would I do it again?
Probably not.
I would probably focus on
team or individual just
because it is a lot
physically and mentally too.
And obviously time away from my family.
Yeah,
there were a handful of athletes I
talked to that were trying to do both.
Whether it was individual
semis or even individual
games both way or team individual.
And I don't think anybody made it.
I don't think anybody made games on both.
Yeah.
For all the people that tried.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, if you got it,
you might as well try it.
But I do think there's
something to be said about, you know,
not spreading yourself too thin.
And you don't want to do that too.
So I wanted my team to know
that I was there 100% for them.
And they also were 100% very
supportive of me when I
needed it to be just about me.
And I think it couldn't have
gone any better.
It really couldn't have.
I think going to semifinals
for me was a huge learning
experience because the sport has changed.
It's evolved.
It's gotten harder.
It's gotten bigger.
And when I was at regionals 2017, 2018,
there were smaller regions.
The margin was much wider in
terms of everyone's fitness level,
whereas we went into the
weekend 21st and we walked
out at the end of the weekend 21st.
It wasn't like no one
stopped getting fitter than us.
Everyone was just there.
Everyone is so good nowadays
and the workouts are just
getting more and more.
advanced and grunty.
And when you're on a team, it's just,
it's not even about your fitness level.
It's about your
communication and those
little mini seconds of just
missed reps and the no reps
or like the non-synchronous movements.
So yeah, it's the, I thought, you know,
leaving that weekend, it was,
I had a lot of information
in my pocket to kind of
dissect and go through and learn from.
So Jody Lynn asks,
does Hajj compete against Jamie?
What age category is Hajj in?
So Jamie is my co-host.
She is actually competing in
the 40 to 44-year-old division.
Hajj is competing in the 35 to 39.
Just clearing that up for Jody.
Okay.
Fight for the fittest comes
in with a big fan of Hajj.
Good luck at the contest.
thanks guys yeah I competed
there last year it was a
lot of fun tons of fun I
want I'm actually trying to
convince my team to sign up
again this year but we'll
see what happens we're
waiting till till I finish
the games and then we'll
see how we feel but it was
a good time yeah I really
love those guys we had them
on weeks ago and uh love
the the concept of that
that a competition um
One connection I have kind
of with you as I was
researching you is at CrossFit Brantford,
one of the other coaches
was one of our very early
analysts on this show like four years ago,
and her name is Diane Stone.
Oh, I love Diane.
She's the best.
So, yeah,
we had her on as an analyst way
back in the day when we
were first starting out.
Yeah.
I love Diane,
and I didn't know that
connection until I was researching you.
Yeah, no, she's super cool.
I actually met her husband
first at I used to coach.
I used to coach like all over the place,
but I used to coach at this.
Jim,
a couple of towns over and I met him
and he's really super cool laid back,
just like her, of course.
And his name is Charlie.
And I call my daughter Charlie.
So when I met him, I was like,
you are my second favorite, Charlie.
And then I met his wife
shortly afterwards.
And I was like,
you are you two are just so cool.
They're very cool people.
I met their daughter as well.
I've coached her a few times.
Hannah, she's really cool.
Diane brings a lot to this
community as well.
And she's very like all,
all heart all the time.
Yeah.
She's great.
So, so with,
I'm going to go past the team thing.
Let's walk through your season real quick.
So,
so you went through age group
quarterfinal and you finished the 30th.
Yeah.
Under, yeah.
Some, somewhere around there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then in semifinals,
you improved a little bit up to 26th.
But the turnaround for that
for you had to be insane
with doing team and individual.
And then like it had to be week, week,
week, week, bam, done.
Yeah, it was every other week, basically.
Whereas if I was just doing individual,
I would have had a month
break between the qualifiers,
but I didn't because of the
team in between.
And then my semifinals was
two weeks before the team semifinals.
Yeah, I mean, honestly,
every qualifier was...
A little different.
I prefer a little heavier
weight and higher skill.
So I always like the open, you know,
I think everyone is just
everyone can do a burpee.
It's just a matter of who's faster.
But when it gets to like the
higher weights and the ring
muscle ups and the higher skill movements,
that's where I tend to kind of.
hopefully step it up because
those are the things that I
try to work on.
But I actually,
I don't know how everyone
else feels about this.
I really, really enjoyed the
semi-final workouts to the
age group semi-final workouts.
I thought they were a lot of fun.
I don't think everyone thinks the same way,
but you know, I don't necessarily,
it's like, it's so weird.
Ring muscle-ups have always
just been like a big weakness of mine.
And then this past year I was just like,
well, enough's enough.
So I just kept working on
them and it really wasn't
just doing ring muscle-ups.
It was just all the other stuff,
the ring supports,
the negatives and all that stuff.
And the ring muscle up ended
up being my best finish out
of all of them.
So, um, I was pretty happy about that,
like super ecstatic.
Um,
and then also just the heavy barbell
and I, we get along.
Yeah.
I, uh, I,
I think CrossFit workouts are
like Chinese restaurants
just because one person loves it.
Doesn't mean everybody loves it.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Um,
And depending on your skill set,
you're going to love
something different than
someone else is going to love.
But it's cool that it didn't
fit your needs.
What are your reasonable
expectations for the games?
As you're a rookie,
you look down the list of
perennial semifinal
athletes that are going to the games,
some former games athletes.
Yeah.
It's tough to say.
I honestly have...
This may sound weird,
but I have no expectation.
I'm trying not to have any
expectations because I
don't want to... I'm just
going to have fun with whatever it is.
I mean,
there's only so much I can do to
get myself there.
Just to go back to the whole open season,
when I got to my quarterfinals,
semifinals, or I'm sorry,
age group semifinals, I was kind of like,
finally I can catch a break
because I did struggle a
little bit on the...
quarterfinal workouts um you
know and I was thinking
it's because of it it's
because I'm doing team too
and my body's not
recovering enough so like
the self-doubt starts to
come in um but I think once
I get there I have to just
kind of trust myself um
take it all in I am there
at the end of the day so
and just have fun I mean
everyone there is like
obviously we're like
just as passionate as I am about it.
So it's not like I'm going
to be around people that
don't have the same, you know,
interests as me.
I think, I think it'll be cool.
I think it'll be such a
different experience than I'm used to.
And I'm very much looking forward to it.
Just being by myself there.
it's hard to have any
expectation when you don't
even know what the workouts are,
how many workouts are going to be like,
and nothing's been released.
Are you someone who would
prefer they don't release
any of the information?
Absolutely not.
No, I need to know.
I'm very typing.
I need to know everything.
Um, like, I don't know that it's not even,
I don't want to practice them all.
I just need to know what I'm
getting myself into.
Um, yeah.
Because then I know where I'm at.
That's it.
Then I'll know where even if
I if it ends up being
something I can't do,
then it is what it is.
But like, you know,
I'm not going to figure it
out in two weeks.
But yeah,
I definitely am a person that
needs to know what,
what I'm getting myself into my husband,
when we first met,
he was actually very competitive.
And then just, you know, through our paths,
our linear paths, we stayed with CrossFit,
but I just, you know,
kept getting more
competitive and he's just
focused on just staying
healthy and fit for as long as possible.
But he doesn't even look at
the workout ever.
He just walks in.
And his shoes just happen to
be shoes that he can run in
or climb a rope in.
And he always has his jumper open.
He will never look at the workout.
He just, he's there for the day.
Whereas I'm like, I need the whole week.
I need to know what I'm doing this day.
And, you know,
and that's just a big part of, you know,
prioritizing my time and
when I'm going to fit it in too.
So knowing what I'm getting
myself into is kind of
important for things like that.
i hear you and I'm a lot
like you like I am type a
and I want to know but it
is bad for me to know
because you cherry pick I
don't cherry pick I just I
will run it through my head
5 000 times before I do
yeah well you know what
you're right we are very
similar because I do the
same thing I i if it I for
sure will be stressed out
if it is something that I can't do um
But I'd rather know still.
I don't want to show up that
day or that weekend and
just get a workout thrown
at me every time.
I just don't think I
mentally could... I don't know.
I say I don't think, but who knows?
Maybe I would thrive off
under that scenario.
You never know.
I mean, we don't even... We got, you know,
a welcome kind of info
package email thing.
that said we had to check in
on wednesday and then our
athlete briefing is
wednesday night at 8 30 and
then we're we're competing
thursday friday saturday
sunday so that's the extent
of information that I have
um that makes me nervous
right then and there
because it's like well I
got a toddler and I want to
be sleeping at nine o'clock
at night but I know I won't
be so I really hope the
first workout these are the
things that are going
through my head doesn't
start till like nine or
noon you know and it's not like a sunrise
Who knows?
One year at Waterpalooza,
we had literally a sunrise swim at 6 a.m.
on the ocean.
Not swim, I'm sorry, a 5K run on sand,
and we had to run in the
water every 400 meters.
And we didn't know what the
workout was until the night before.
My anxiety was through the
roof up until I saw the workout.
And then I saw the workout and I was like,
God, I hate this workout,
but at least now I know
what I'm getting myself into.
Yeah, I'm terrible.
Even with these interviews,
I run interviews through my
head the night before.
Well, I'm glad you do,
because I had no idea what to expect.
It's gotten to the point
where I don't even do the
full research on anybody
until the day of.
Okay, that's good.
Or I won't sleep.
Right,
you have too much stuff going on in
your head.
I get that, I get that.
And today I'm doing five of these.
That would have been a
disaster if I was trying to
run five interviews through my head.
Yeah,
calling me the wrong name and asking
me about the wrong people.
That wouldn't have been fun.
True.
Don't want that to happen.
So who are you taking to
Birmingham with you?
My husband and my daughter
are coming for sure.
My mom came to semifinals this year.
So my mother-in-law is
coming this time to
Birmingham and she's pretty
excited about it.
I'm excited she's coming.
I think that's really cool.
And then I think just like some friends,
obviously Craig's family
will be there as well.
But there's some friends
from the gym that have been
talking about coming down
and looking at hotels.
But for sure, my husband and my daughter.
Yeah, we got to pack that place.
Make this a big event.
We should.
We really should.
Yeah.
Well, I'm going to be there.
I'm going to do, we got permission,
full access to do a behind
the scenes documentary of
the entire Masters CrossFit Games.
So Ellie Hiller and myself
will be backstage interviewing people,
just having conversations,
not really interviewing.
And then we'll have some
videographers catching
footage of on the floor to
put that all together after
it's all over for you all to enjoy.
That's awesome.
That's really cool.
I really appreciate you doing this.
And I'm really,
really stoked at how the
competition is just the
direction it's going for sure.
Yeah.
Well,
I want to thank you so much for
taking the time out.
I could,
I could talk to you for another half hour,
but I'm trying to keep
these so they're manageable.
It's been a,
it's been a treat getting to
know you and I can't wait
to meet you down in Birmingham.
Awesome.
Yep.
Thank you to everybody.
You too.
Thank you to everybody in the chat.
I will be back later today
with more of these interviews.
We'll talk to you all later
on the Clydesdale media podcast.
Bye guys.