Jenny Hull - Dense Updates | Clydesdale Chat Sessions

We get to know Jenny Hull (Dense Updates)  Why has she jumped into the CrossFit Media Scene? How long has she been CrossFitting? What are her favorite aspects of the sport and the methodology and where does she see all this taking her?

What is Clydesdale Media Podcast?

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.

What is going on, everybody?

Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast.

My name is Scott Switzer.

I'm the Clydesdale.

I have with me someone new to the scene,

kind of, but not really.

Her name is Jenny Hall.

You may know her as Dense Updates,

but she has popped on the

scene giving us updates

about all the content going

on in the CrossFit space,

and we're here to get to know her.

So what's going on, Jenny?

Hey, good morning.

How are you?

I'm good.

I'm good.

So it's funny.

I've been following you

since before your Dense Updates.

Yes.

Dense after forty.

Yeah.

And you were Dense Mom for a minute too,

right?

Like Dense Mom something.

Maybe.

I think I changed,

I used to change the name

in the profile a couple of

times just to try to be funny.

One time I think I changed

my name to Potster.

Just like my profile name

because I had posted something and

a few athletes weren't happy with me.

So I, and then I quickly changed it back.

That's mom.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, so, uh,

Damien Fink says her stuff has been going,

gaining popularity.

Well,

why do you think we have her on here?

Well, I appreciate you having me on.

Yeah.

And this is your first ever podcast.

First ever podcast.

We take pride in having

people on for the first time.

Colton Mertens did his first

podcast with us.

I love Colton.

He's such a good dude.

Emma Carey.

So that's something we take

pride in is people who dive

into not necessarily all

the big names in the space,

but kind of that next tier

and hope that they get to

that upper tier.

So we're super excited to

have you on here.

I want to start with...

learning a little bit more

about you and kind of your origin story.

Yeah.

So I started doing CrossFit

in two thousand and ten.

So I've been around for

quite a while and kind of

the typical story, you know,

visit a CrossFit gym.

Some friends from work had

brought me to the gym that they go to and

Did a workout and was like, oh my God,

that was so hard.

But then was like finding

myself back there the next

day and then the next day.

And then my week trial was

up and I was like, yeah, sign me up.

And then just never looked back.

Here we are, fourteen years later.

That was all the way back in

two thousand ten.

So the end of two thousand ten,

just before my thirtieth birthday,

I was just kind of like

looking for something different.

I'd already done, you know,

like running on the

treadmill and narrow stance

squats in the rack at

Lifetime Fitness kind of thing.

And I was just looking for

something different.

And the guys that I worked

with came back from lunch

one day and they were all

sweaty and gross.

And I'm like, where did you guys go?

And they're like,

Oh,

we went in this warehouse and did this

workout.

It was like P-Ninety X style.

You probably wouldn't like it.

I'm like, I'll go.

And then, yeah, it was brutal.

I still remember that first

day we had to do wall balls,

like on the outside of this warehouse.

They didn't have like a wall

ball target or anything indoors.

It was outside in the sun.

just shooting it up on the

side of the warehouse wall.

Like no line, just throw it anywhere.

It was, it was awful.

But yeah, I loved it.

I'm going to trade it.

My first workout ever was Murph.

Oh geez.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Not, not pretty for a guy.

Not the first one.

Yeah.

I just remember the wall balls.

I honestly don't remember

anything else that was in it.

Cause I just remember like

hitting myself in the face

with the ball and like not being able to,

get it far up there and

looking around like, oh my God,

these people must think I'm so foolish.

But yeah,

then everyone cheers you on and

you're like, oh, okay.

Yeah.

So were you always into fitness?

Did you do athletics as a kid?

No, I mean, I wasn't an athlete per se.

I did dance for a lot of years.

When I was nine, my mom, I lived in,

I grew up in Northern

California and my mom was

really into like the country dancing,

which doesn't seem like it

would be a thing in California.

But she would drag me around

to all these like family dance things.

And I just started,

I learned how to dance and then ended up

just getting really

competitive with that and

did that until pretty much

until I graduated high school.

My junior year,

we won a world championship in Nashville.

So that was kind of fun, but it was,

I say dancing is just as

hard as any other kind of sport.

There's a lot of eight hour practices,

just madness,

practicing every night after school for,

you know, almost ten years straight.

Yeah,

I know one of my original co-hosts

and still with us is Kat,

and she studied ballet all

the way up through high school,

and the hours she did were

just as grueling as anything I did.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I got teased a lot for it in high school,

but it was good times

because we did two-step, country,

West Coast swing.

Country was not cool back then.

It seemed to be a little bit

more popular towards the

end of high school.

Yeah.

But it definitely gave me

like a lot of body awareness.

So I think that kind of

transferred over when it

came to CrossFit.

I picked up pull-ups really quickly,

double-unders, things like that,

butterfly pull-ups,

like that kind of stuff

like immediately just made sense to me.

Whereas some of the other

like technical stuff like

in the snatch and ring

muscle-ups and things like

that were a little bit harder.

So I went back through your

Instagram and like is back,

not as far as I could.

And I read a thing where you

were diagnosed at one point

with something and the

doctor wanted you to be

less active and to start

medication and you chose to

take it on with CrossFit.

Can you walk us through what

happened then?

Yeah.

So I was probably, let's see,

it was before I moved here.

So twenty four, twenty five,

somewhere around there,

I just started feeling like

really run down and would get like random,

crampy, aching feelings all over my body.

And then, you know, I was like, OK,

I should probably get out and run more,

do stuff like that.

And certain things would

kind of counterbalance it.

And I would find myself

feeling better and then not

feeling better.

But then

closer to my thirties,

but right before we moved out here, it,

it just seemed to take a

massive toll on me.

And I contribute a lot of

that back then to maybe stress,

life stress.

I was a single mom and

living on my own and things like that.

But yeah, so went to a couple of doctors.

We did all the kinds of blood tests,

all the things you could think of.

And they basically were just like,

we think you have lupus.

And I was like, what's that?

And then you start looking

into it and they're like,

can't be out in the sunlight.

And yeah,

You have to be on therapy medications,

you know, to combat all those symptoms.

And I'm just like, that doesn't like,

I knew a girl in high

school that had lupus and it didn't,

it didn't seem right to me.

And so I wanted to get a second opinion.

So I went and saw a couple

other doctors and they all

kind of came back to the same conclusion.

I was like, well, shit.

So then I never started my

treatment in Arizona where I lived.

I waited, I came back out here and,

went and saw another doctor.

I won't say the name of the clinic,

but it's a well-known like

rheumatoid arthritis type

clinic and they treat lupus as well.

And yeah,

so they just wanted to start me

on therapies and medications.

And I was just like that, let me,

let me do some research.

So I just went down the

rabbit hole of different

things and it was like, okay, maybe,

maybe this stress and my

lifestyle has a little bit to do with it.

Maybe I should stop smoking.

Maybe I shouldn't

go out as often with my

friends and have drinks or

eat Taco Bell and, you know,

things like that.

So I slowly kind of started

doing my own thing there.

And then when I found

CrossFit shortly after, honestly,

I started noticing like big changes.

And then it was like six months later,

I felt like I had zero symptoms.

And haven't had any sense.

So I was like, all right, doctors.

How much do you attribute to

the physical exertion of

CrossFit and how much to

like changing your diet?

I honestly think it was a

combination of everything.

And it's hard to really say

because it wasn't like I just.

cut one thing at once I kind

of was starting all of it

at the same time so it's

really hard to say like oh

it's because I changed my

diet because don't get me

wrong like I still would go

out with my friends and

have drinks every once in a

while if I could get a

babysitter um and I was

still wasn't eating that

great it's you know a few

years into CrossFit or when

people really start like

trying the different zone

diets and paleo and things

like that so at first it

was more I was just

trying to do what made me

feel better and I would cut little things,

but, um,

I will say like three weeks after

doing CrossFit,

I quit smoking cold Turkey.

Mike was like, I can't do this anymore.

I can't breathe during these workouts.

And that was great.

Yeah.

that's got to be a big one

yeah I had smoked for many

years and now I'm just like

it's so gross yeah I grew

up in a house with two

parents who smoked and um

when I moved out like just

being around it now I can't

even handle it it's yeah um uh but

So you're a single mom at the time.

How hard is it to work a full-time job,

be a single mom and find

time for you to get fitness in?

Honestly, I mean, it wasn't,

it wasn't as hard as I

think people would think it would be like,

yeah,

being a single mom is hard and you

got to go to work every day and

drive through traffic to get

your kids and do all the things.

But she would just come

along with me and the

community was really

inviting and welcoming and

other people there had kids.

And so our kids would kind

of just play around outside

and it was fun.

really more like fun for them.

And then sometimes they

could come in and like do

little workouts by the side of us.

I think maybe had it been a

different environment of a gym,

because I know some gyms

are a little more of a

younger crowd or more competitive crowd.

And at that particular gym I

was at at the time, everybody, you know,

there were lots of kids running around.

So that made it really easy.

And honestly, she was such a great kid.

She didn't really put up a fuss.

Like she'd just come and

hang out and she'd cheer us on.

And

then we go home, eat dinner and go to bed.

Uh,

I've seen pictures of you and your

daughter doing handstand

hold like competition.

Yeah.

Is that your oldest daughter?

So that is actually, um, my middle.

So my oldest just left for college.

She, um,

goes to Baylor full ride scholarship.

So very lucky there.

She's a real smart girl.

Um, and she used to do CrossFit with me.

Um,

She'd been around it since she was five.

And then at some point in high school,

her academic schedule and

all of her extracurriculars

kind of got in the way.

So it took a backseat,

but she's hoping to start back up.

And then that's my middle

child in the most recent videos.

She's been doing gymnastics

now for about a year.

And so I'm always like, come on, Madison,

let's go.

Let's see.

Can you beat mom?

Let's go.

And she's getting there.

She's going to beat me soon.

So it's so cool.

Cause like I have a similar story.

If I tried to go to like

lifetime with my daughter,

it would have never worked.

No.

Yeah.

When you go to CrossFit and,

and you're there with five

other sets of parents who

all brought their kids and

then those kids kind of get

to know each other and grow up together.

Yeah.

It actually became a beautiful thing.

And my daughter just

graduated from college.

So like I'm even on another step up, um,

which is crazy.

Yeah, it is crazy.

I love seeing all the kids.

Like our gym is,

has grown a lot over the years,

but we've always had like a tight,

like mom group, we call it.

So at one point I wasn't

working full time and I was

at home taking care of the two littles.

And so

Our mom class kind of just

all of a sudden just blew up.

It was ten or twelve of us moms,

and all of us brought the kids,

and they'd all play.

And now all the kids do CrossFit Kids,

and they compete with each other.

And we're getting to kind of

see the evolution of their

fitness along with ours.

It's really cool.

So you have one going off to college,

and you have two others.

How old are they?

Two more girls.

So three girls total.

Eight and nine.

Oh, nice.

Nice.

Yeah.

So back to back, um, I got remarried, um,

had Matson in, um,

did that part that did that open pregnant,

had her at the end of may

or at the beginning of may, I'm sorry.

And then found out when she

was five months old that I

was pregnant with my youngest.

Um, she was kind of a surprise.

Um,

so had to do the next year's open also

pregnant.

which was fun.

Yeah.

And did I see in your

Instagram that with one of the kids,

your water actually broke

while working out?

Yes.

With the little, with the youngest.

Yeah.

I,

so I actually had to be put on bedrest

for a couple of weeks with her.

My blood pressure was

getting really high and

they attributed it to just

having babies so close back to back.

Like they say,

your uterus doesn't have time to,

you know,

I didn't get to do all the birth

fit things and the things

that are out there now that

kind of help you with

pelvic floor issues and

all that sort of stuff.

And so they say just having

them so close back to back.

But anyways,

I was on bed rest for a couple

of weeks and then they

released me and they're like, oh,

you're fine.

And I want to say about a

week and a half later.

Yeah.

We're just doing a wall ball

workout and about twelve wall balls in.

Everyone's like, oh, my God.

And they just ran me out to the car,

grabbed my kid out of the

child care and drove myself

to the hospital.

And four hours later, there's Lucy.

Wow.

Yeah.

What a testament though,

that you're able to work

out all the way up, uh, until that point.

Yeah.

I actually felt really good with,

with both of them.

Like never really had any kind of issues.

I'd scale where I needed to scale.

Um,

the first one I did a little bit more

running longer throughout that pregnancy,

but with the second one,

I didn't feel like running as much.

So I cut that back really early on.

Um,

But like after Madison,

after my middle child, she,

I was back in the gym like

a week and a half later and

I felt really good.

And I think I even did a

competition that summer.

I recovered pretty quickly from her.

So my next question to you

is you join a CrossFit gym, you, you have,

you're diagnosed with lupus and,

and you figure out a way

around traditional medical

treatment and you go more,

more organic and it works.

Right.

And so you've got to be, you know,

they say CrossFitters love

to talk about CrossFit.

Like it,

it had to change your life so much.

Did, could, did you shut up about it ever?

No, I mean, I'm, I was definitely that,

that CrossFetter that is

telling everybody at work

and trying to get everybody to join.

And, um, yeah,

talking about it with my

family and trying to get my

family to go telling them

how good I felt and,

and they could see it.

Like the people around you, it doesn't,

you don't have to tell them all the time.

They can see the differences

in your body and your skin

and all of the things.

Um, so yeah, I definitely, and I still,

even to this day, I mean,

I will preach.

It's the best thing that

ever happened to me.

Yeah.

Amen to that.

Yeah.

I totally agree there.

And, but the hardest,

the hardest people to

convince her family.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Friends, friends,

you can get them to jump on board.

Yeah.

Family, not so much.

So my brother and his wife did CrossFit.

They lived down in Houston

for a while and they went to,

I want to say it was CrossFit Memorial.

And they had an elite athlete there.

I think she was a regional

athlete at the time.

And they did CrossFit there,

and then they did CrossFit in Jersey.

And now they live just outside Columbus,

and they still do it.

I have several siblings,

but my little brother was

the only one that did CrossFit.

What state, Columbus?

Columbus, Ohio.

So where I'm at.

Oh, yeah.

So he's, well,

he's not right outside Columbus.

He's in Stowe.

Do you know where that is?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm up north.

I'm in Polaris.

Polaris.

So I go to what was Christy

Arum O'Connell's gym.

Oh, okay.

And then she just sold the

gym like three weeks ago.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So, but yeah, it's the same vibe still.

Yeah.

They sold it to two members of the gym.

She's doing the programming

right now for .com, right?

Or was it last week?

Yeah.

And then I saw something.

It was like IBEX training.

Is that her personal

training platform that she does?

Her and her husband, Patrick.

Her husband is like an

eight-time regional athlete.

A lot of people don't even know that.

Yeah.

I did not know that.

But he created IBEX training,

which is just like HWPO.

You can buy it.

one track um and it's it can

be it can be used for

affiliates it can be used

for an individual it can be

compete but it has

different levels um and

then yeah it's it's the

best programming I've ever

done in my life really the

most right the most fun for

me because I'm not a

competitive athlete I'm

just gonna have fun and

stay fit have you tried

them all like have you tried all like

like the mayhem and the HWPO.

And I used to go to a different gym who,

who went through a couple different, uh,

programs.

Uh, so they did comp train,

they did mayhem.

Uh, I've,

I've seen HWPO and tried a couple of days,

but that's so like intense.

And we were, we had a short,

a short spurt on HWPO after the twenty,

twenty two games.

Our gym was on that for a little while.

And then we went back to our

traditional programming,

which is Marco Coppola's dense protocol,

which we've pretty much all

been on aside from that time at HWPU.

Yeah,

what I like about the IBEX is it's a

lot of interval training.

Yeah.

And I seem to respond to

that better than like just

straight up long.

And I say that,

but like we have every

Thursday was a like long, long workout.

Mm-hmm.

Forty minutes.

Mm-hmm.

And I don't know.

I just really liked it.

I enjoyed it compared to

Mayhem and Comp Train for sure.

Yeah.

So were you at,

did you go to the Rogue

Invitational when it was

the first year it was there?

Uh, first, first three years.

Yeah.

So the second year was COVID

and I was a judge.

So I was sex and panchecks

judge for that when they did it online.

Oh, okay.

Yep.

Yeah.

Uh, so yeah, both in Columbus though.

Yeah.

We went to that first year in Columbus.

That was, that was pretty awesome.

Before they started that,

it was just a grass field

in front of the country.

And they turned it into a stadium,

which was really cool.

It was really cool.

I love Rogue.

My old office is only five

minutes from them,

which was really dangerous.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

You'd be like, oh,

I'm just going to stop over

here on my lunch break.

Yeah.

Corey Leonard says interval training.

You say,

have you heard of our Lord and Savior?

Brandon Luckett.

Corey, we have heard.

So, yeah.

So you you're in you're in CrossFit now.

What was the switch to like

make you a fan of the sport?

Honestly, I was immediately a fan.

So when I started in twenty

ten and then and that was

at the end of the year and

everyone was talking about

this online open.

So the first year of the

online open twenty eleven.

At the beginning of the year.

And I was like, well, what's that?

And so I immediately hit the

internet and I came across

a video that was put out.

It's Dave Castro, Greg Glassman,

Nicole Carroll, Josh Everett,

Tony Budding.

They're all talking about CrossFit Games.

I don't know if you remember that video.

Um,

but they're talking about the history

of the games and they go

through being out on, you know,

Rancho de Castro and

Woodstock of fitness and all that stuff.

And after watching that video, I was like,

okay, I need to see more.

And so from there, it was like,

I would consume any and all

content I could find when

it came to the CrossFit games.

And it's always the big hype.

It was so exciting that time of year.

And you're watching the

leaderboard and you're

going to look on YouTube to

see if anyone's posted videos and,

Yeah, instant fan.

It was weird for me because

I started CrossFit in two thousand eleven,

probably a year after you did.

But my gym, they weren't,

there were no elite athletes.

There was no like talk of,

they didn't even do the open.

Okay.

It wasn't until twenty

thirteen that three of us

decided to sign up.

Me and my two buddies and we

were like the guinea pigs to first do it.

And then the next year it

blew up like you paved the

way for your gym.

Yeah.

The bad thing is there's

still videos of me out

there trying to get my

first chest of our pool

hanging from the pull up

bar for like seven minutes.

I think there was like sixty

five pounds snatched that

first year and I couldn't

even snatch that.

I was like it was it was awful,

but it was fun.

It was fun because it kind

of made you feel like you

were a part of everything.

Right.

Like you could follow around

with the people that were

just super amazing.

But then you could also kind

of participate in your own way.

And I think there's

something to be said for that too.

Like if you,

if your gym has more like

competitive athletes,

then there is going to be

that instant awareness of

the bigger stage,

the games and everything

that's going on there.

So yeah,

like we had some athletes that had

a team that year at regionals.

And when I say regionals,

it was like in a field in

the country where

And like some small part of

Houston that you didn't

even know existed.

And I remember like tugging

my cooler and my kid and

all my shit out there

across the lawn to get to

the bleachers that are at

the back of this property.

And there were like four

sets of wooden bleachers

all around the little thing

they had outlined or the arena floor.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy.

And so from there, it was like, oh, well,

this is really cool.

And I started getting to

know those local athletes.

So it was back when like

Asia Bardo was coming up

and Carrie Kepler and Lisa Teal.

And yeah,

I even remember I still have like

one of those really old

books that they made with

all the athletes in it from

the regional that year.

It's pretty cool.

Yeah,

we were lucky here in Columbus

because it was held at our fairgrounds,

the Ohio State Fairgrounds.

Yeah.

And then this region was

just jam-packed full of the

Rich Froning stuff, Graham Holzer,

Marcus Hendren.

Yeah.

So when I dove into that first Open,

then I wanted everything about the sport.

I wanted to follow this the

whole way through.

And that year, all those guys were at our,

our regional here in

Columbus and I was hooked for life.

Yeah, it's definitely, it's,

it's such a cool

environment to be around.

It was so exciting.

And I brought the kit,

my daughter and she loved it.

And a lot of people from our

gym came and then it kind

of just got to be a thing.

Okay, well now we have to go next year.

And then the next year it was,

it moved into a bigger

stadium and then the next year.

So I started at a gym.

I was there for two and a half years.

And then, um,

some of the coaches there had

met Marco and he was going

to open up his gym.

And a lot of people kind of

liked what he was doing

with his programming and

things like that.

So I kind of went to go

check it out and yeah,

so started with him.

And then they immediately,

that gym immediately had a

team at regionals, um,

And then pretty much every

year we had a team at regional.

So it was like, we, the whole gym would go,

we, our whole crew, we'd all, you know,

get hotels together and,

and go watch the team and support.

We've got all the shirts

from every year regionals

on all that stuff.

So we've w we're probably

one of the more like

hardcore fan gems in the area.

I would say just because of that fact.

Yeah, I love it.

The community aspect of it

is the best part.

It really is.

It's so awesome.

I'm like,

I don't understand why more

people don't want to do this.

Yeah.

It's so much fun.

Hi, Barry.

Yeah, so now you're consuming it all.

Yeah.

If I look at your Instagram

before you switch over to Dense Updates,

it was a lot of your progress,

like kind of showing what

you're doing in the gym.

And the cool part is you're

making these videos where

you're showing what you're

doing in the gym and then

you're showing like the

same movement in real life.

right?

Like you're lifting a sandbag,

you turn and now it's,

you're holding your

daughter or those are fun for a deadlift.

And then you're lifting a

laundry basket or like,

I thought those were really cool.

Thank you.

That was a lot of fun.

We are, um, our gym owner was pushing, um,

like a media challenge this summer.

And I was trying to think of

just more creative ways.

Cause usually it's just me

and my group of friends

lifting or doing whatever.

And sometimes I would Mike

us up and just catch some

of our funny moments and

I don't know how many people

even ever watch those,

but we thought they were funny.

Um, but then the challenge was like, uh,

it kind of like pushed me to, you know,

try something different.

And so, um, yeah, I was like, how can I,

how can I use some of this

movement and show how

functional it is and how you're,

you're probably already

doing those things.

You just don't realize it.

And so, yeah,

I really liked the one with the, um,

the clean into the push jerk.

And it was like,

I was picking something up

in the closet and putting

it up into the shelf overhead.

Yeah, those were fun.

And then I got my daughter

in on that sandbag one.

Yeah, they were brilliant.

And those are things that I

think like CrossFit Media

should use to promote the methodology.

Like I think it's to show

like the reason you're

doing this is so that for

the rest of your life,

you can do the everyday

things in your home.

Yeah, absolutely.

And more affiliates too.

Like our gym owner had a

great idea there doing that,

that media challenge and trying to get,

it was kind of like we

could all get points for our content.

And at the end of the summer,

he'd pick a winner or, you know,

pick a winner,

whoever had the most points.

So it's like getting your,

your member base involved

to make that content and

put that out there as well.

Just gets more eyes on it.

And yeah,

like you can tag CrossFit and

maybe they'll collaborate, but it really,

it's us and the people in

the gyms and the affiliates that,

are putting the most content

out there and making the

most impact in that way.

Have you ever got CrossFit to collaborate?

I do not believe so.

Just checking.

I have to think about that.

I don't think so.

No.

And all the stuff that I've

tagged them in one time, they,

they shared.

Yeah.

Collaborated.

Yeah.

If they dive a little further down my,

my Instagram, I think I have a comp,

video on there of me and my bestie.

And the shirts that year

were a little controversial,

so that might be why they

wouldn't want to post any of my stuff.

Yeah, just said Trump won.

Rich Froning thought it was cool.

He was there that year.

It was at BCS,

the one that he programs for.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Like right after all that drama.

So it was fitting.

That looks like a fun

competition to go to someday.

That's a good one.

That's definitely one of the

bigger ones around here

that our gym does every year.

That one in TFX, that one's coming up.

We've got a lot of teams

that are going to be competing there.

And I love that they're

throwing masters in now.

That's good for us old folk

because I'm not going to lie,

it gets hard when you're in

your forties to keep up

with those twenty-year-olds.

It does.

Yeah.

So see the big jug says, wait,

did I meet Jenny at the

twenty twenty three games

with a baby that said get to the chopper?

No, actually we did not go that year.

I was at twenty twenty four.

I was there this year and

then twenty twenty to our

team in Madison.

And that was really cool.

I didn't get to go.

Our team went in twenty

sixteen out in Carson,

but I just had my youngest

child and then the other

one was still in diapers.

And I was just like, there's no way we're.

even going to try this with

a one month old and the

other one I was like that

would have just been zero

fun for us and I didn't

want to put them through

that especially it being

outdoors and in the sun the

whole time I was like

that's just too much

preparation so I had to

sadly watch that one from home

So my, my next question is you,

you make this transition from these,

these videos about you and

you kind of getting better

to now like updating

everybody on what's going on,

on all the different

content aspects in the

space and the timing of that.

I know that you're,

you're friends with Marco

and his kind of like first

uh,

video on what happened at the games out

and you start doing these

updates almost the exact same time.

Yeah.

Was that just coincidence or, um, no,

I mean,

so because I consume so much

content and I have that

long history of knowing all

the things I'm kind of

always been known as that

person in the gym.

Like if they want to ask a

question about something or they,

somebody will randomly come up and be like,

Ginny,

what was that one workout that one

year at the open and this or that or,

you know,

and ninety nine point nine

percent of the time I have the answer.

So it's kind of just like, go ask Ginny.

She knows, you know, one of those things.

And so I've always thought

about wanting to do something like this.

I just.

I don't know.

It just was never the right time.

I was either too busy with

work or personal life or whatever.

And then everything kind of

happened at the games.

And then there was just so

much content all at one

time and just everywhere.

And, you know,

people would be asking me in

the gym and I'm just like,

I'm going to just make a video.

I'm like,

I'm just going to all the stuff

I've consumed.

I'm just going to try to

lump it all together in ninety seconds.

And there you go.

And so that's kind of how that started.

It did help that Marco was

also putting out content

because I could kind of use that as well.

But there are so many voices in the space.

And, you know,

with Sevan and Talking Elite

Fitness and you guys and Barbell Spin.

And there's just so much out there.

And then aside from Instagram, it's like,

oh,

people all ask someone if they had

seen something.

And they're like, oh, no,

I didn't see that.

So that's kind of where it stemmed from.

did you anticipate like the

response you would get and

how many people started watching these?

No, I mean, honestly, none of my,

I would say if you go back and look,

a lot of my videos are kind

of like around the one

thousand to fifteen hundred view.

Like I just figured somebody

might come across something

or but if somebody happens to share it,

then you see that it gets

more views and that sort of thing.

But

honestly I didn't really

have any expectations for

it I just wanted to put it

out there and if somebody

finds it great if if not

okay it's there if you ever

want to find it so what I

love about it is like the

weekend I was in birmingham

with the masters right I

because I was there all day

I had no time to to consume

any content yeah

So then for my drive home,

I go to your Instagram to

hear what are the hot

topics where they're at.

And then I line up my queue

to listen on the drive home.

Yeah.

And it it's perfect.

And if I ever get like,

where I just need balance in

my life and I need some

family time and I just

check out for a day,

I can go to your update and see, okay,

who said what, where,

and where do I need to go,

like get caught up.

And it really helps me sort

out like what I'm going to listen to.

Yay.

Well, I love that.

And I don't know if you even

had that intention of it,

but it helps me tremendously.

Yeah, I mean,

I guess that really is the

intent behind it because of

the fact that there are so

many things out there and

people might not know what

they're missing.

It's like if you can try to

just touch on a little bit of everything,

then they can decide for

themselves what they want

to go listen to.

Yeah.

I did a poll the other day

because I was just curious

like how many of the people

that do regularly follow me

or even bother to look at my story,

I wanted to see like what

content they're consuming regularly.

And so it was just, you know,

which podcast,

and it was basically all the podcasts,

which ones do you watch the

froning and you guys and

spin and all the ones that

I already talked about and sub on.

And it's,

it seems to be a lot of the

people who consume the same

amount of content are the

ones that are following along as well.

So I found that interesting.

Yeah.

Just because they know a lot

of that content already.

Right.

But they're still coming to

my page to check it out.

So that's cool.

Have you noticed a shift in

the responses you get now

on your Instagram or the DMs?

No, I don't.

I usually would just,

I wouldn't get a ton of DMs.

There's a couple of people

who like really want to

talk in depth about stuff.

And I'll respond.

Like I try to respond to everybody, but no,

no change.

Just like a couple of people

have actually commented on the videos,

just being like, Hey, thanks.

Appreciate it.

Keep it up.

which I think is cool.

So I don't,

right now I don't spend a ton

of time on making the video.

Cause like I told you earlier, I,

I just try to just go off the fly.

Like what I remember I

consumed and what key

things I think people might

want to know about.

And then I just kind of, you know,

plug them all in and make

the videos and trim where needed.

If I start rambling.

Yeah.

That's my train of thought there.

Your iPhone to do it all.

Yeah.

I'm just using my iPhone.

I have like a little iPhone stand that I,

the same one I use at the

gym and I just pull it up

and find some sunlight and

get to recording.

Um, Corey Lawrence says,

I'm not one of those people.

I like dark humor and blueberry.

Um,

So do you have hard, fast rules?

Like you say,

what would I can get in in

ninety seconds?

Do you go by the Instagram

real rules like you make

sure it's under ninety every time or?

Yeah, I mean,

right now I'm only doing them

on Instagram.

I have been like posting

them over to the YouTube channel as well.

I did make one YouTube video

and that was just kind of

me breaking down the

timeline because I had a

lot of people at my at the gym and

Just be like, oh,

if I sit down to read that timeline,

it's going to take me like

an hour because it was so in depth.

And I mean, it was so good.

It was so detailed.

So I just kind of went

through it and read some of

the all of the stuff that

really stood out to me.

And that's, you know,

some of the stuff we didn't

know and and things like that.

But other than that, yeah,

I'm just doing the ninety

second reels right now.

Do you see... So I noticed early on,

it was just, hey,

Siobhan talked about this.

Hey, if you go over to Hiller,

he did this with Danny, blah, blah, blah.

Then as you've gone along,

you're inserting a little

bit of your own editorial comments now.

Like the courage is growing.

Now you're throwing in more.

Do you see...

a desire for that to grow

even more into like a

longer format or do you

want to just stick with what you have?

Um, I'm trying.

I'm trying to keep those

updates completely unbiased, right?

Like just give people

everything that's out there.

Like whether or not I agree

with the content or not,

I'm still consuming it.

Like there's definitely some

people out there I don't

enjoy listening to,

but I'm going to consume it anyway.

Just because I feel like for me to have,

to be able to give that

back to the people,

you have to give them

everything so they can see

from every side of it.

Um, so there,

there might be a space where

I would make videos, you know,

with more of like my, my side of thing,

my input on certain things.

But right now I feel like

Hiller does a really good job.

He's a big personality in the space.

And, um,

Yeah,

so I don't see myself going full-on

YouTube video personality

and that sort of thing.

I really enjoy doing the updates,

honestly.

Okay.

Yeah.

Uh, cause I could,

the way you're inserting

some editorial stuff, I could see you.

Well,

I feel very strongly about the PFAA

stuff.

And so, and I'll just be,

I don't know if that's what

you're speaking on, but the, um,

in particular,

John Woolley had made like an,

he was doing like a news

update video that I've

never seen him do before.

And I was like, Oh, okay.

Somebody else had a good idea.

Yeah.

And it was like five minutes long,

but it was just like,

here's what's going on in

the last week kind of thing

and talked about this and

talked about that and then

entered some stuff with the PFAA.

And I was just kind of like, oh, well,

all right.

But we kind of,

we're leaving some things out.

And I feel like if you're

leaving things out,

then you're kind of leaving

that open for

interpretation or maybe just

trying to push like a

certain narrative that you

want people to hear,

which it's his platform.

He can do whatever he wants.

But I just wanted to

kind of add on that and I

was in my car that day and

I'd been sitting in traffic

for like an hour and a half

and I was just listening to

this and I was just like

well wait a minute let's

because he specifically

like addresses a specific

question and I was like

well you didn't really

answer that question and so

yeah that might that there

there's probably going to

be those times that's just

me you might get a random

video where I'm just gonna

be like wait a minute I

don't agree with that

But I'm trying to just give

the people the updates,

where to find the stuff,

and then they can decide for themselves.

Yeah,

the PFAA is a... So I have very

strong feelings about the PFAA.

Yeah.

And whenever I remark about it,

I get the strongest

comments back that I ever get.

which it just blows my mind

that there's this

organization and that's the

thing that's triggering everybody.

Everybody.

Yeah.

Like why?

Yeah.

Like I,

you can't say anything bad about

Brent or Pat or you're going to,

you're going to hear my wrath.

Yeah.

And I love, I love Pat.

I've always like, he's my number one,

like this last year at the games.

Um,

They had a, um,

it was like a fan favorite

vote that they were doing.

And, um, I'm always voting for Pat.

Like he's always been one of

my favorite male athletes

to follow in the sport.

Um, but yeah,

there's definitely some

things I didn't agree with

in some of those videos.

And I don't think that it's

a bad thing for people to

be talking about that, honestly.

Like, I think it's a good thing.

There should,

we should all be able to have

those open conversations.

That's been my answer to the

people who are coming after me is,

this is an open platform.

I never say you can't

express your opinion.

I can express mine and you

can come back with yours

and I'll even put it up on the screen.

And we can talk about it,

but to just shut it all

down and say you're

unsubscribing and doing

whatever because I blasted the PFAA,

it's kind of ridiculous.

Yeah.

And nobody's... I don't feel

like anyone's really...

blasting them or bashing them.

It's just, we, we,

we don't necessarily agree

with everything,

which they've even said themselves,

like not everyone's going

to agree with you.

Not everyone's going to like

your decisions,

but it's okay for in this

space to have opposing

opinions on these things.

And so, yeah, the people who are like, oh,

I'm just not going to follow you anymore.

Or, you know,

you're a bad person because

you think this or that, or yeah, that,

I think it has to be tied

with Castro because they want him gone.

And if you are saying

something bad about the PFA,

you must be supporting Castro.

And I think that's truly the trigger.

Yeah.

Yeah,

there's definitely people who have

drawn line in the sand.

If you want it this way, then...

I don't want anything to do with you.

And I just think that's ridiculous.

Yeah.

My whole beef is like,

how is the PFA just by default?

The,

the people who get to represent the

athletes because they're

not really representing all the athletes.

Yeah.

Select few.

They've decided that they're

going to cover.

Yeah.

Well,

I want to know more about that

process too.

Cause I don't think that's been said.

Like we know that the

criteria is to be a voting member,

but what's the criteria to

be voted in as a board member?

because it's kind of all over the place.

I think I posted in the

comments of that one video

to John Woolley, like, well,

this is all their names.

These are all their stats.

Some people haven't even

been to a games that are on this board.

Like how,

how are we determining who we're

voting for?

Are we just picking anyone

from the region that's

willing to volunteer and just being like,

Oh, you got my vote.

Or how does that work?

How do you get elected to a

board with absolute voting

rights when you're not even

a voting member of the body?

Yeah.

Like that doesn't even make sense.

It is wild.

I would be curious to know

more about that.

Yeah,

and the fact that the only vote that

the body gets is who's on the board.

Right.

Supposedly.

Yeah.

And then after that,

all the other votes are

done by the board.

Right.

They have like what monthly

calls where they will invite the members,

I think,

and then they'll have discussions.

And I know they've said one

of their last discussions

that it wasn't even a

majority that agreed with

them on certain things.

So it's like, well,

that's also concerning.

But yeah, I find it.

We could have a separate show on that.

Yeah,

we could probably go into a lot of

that for sure.

So as you have dove into doing this,

has it become something

you've really started to

love and enjoy doing?

Yeah, absolutely.

I love it.

I love, like,

if I'm not talking about

CrossFit in a day,

something's wrong with me.

Like, I'm always talking about it.

I come home and, you know,

my spouse and I will talk about it.

I'm talking about it with my

friends at the gym.

You know,

most of my friends are people

that go to the gym.

Um, so that also helps my closest friends.

Um, so yeah, like I, I love all of it.

I'm consuming all of it.

I'm watching all of it.

I'm talking about all of it.

I've,

I've followed it for so long and

through its entire evolution and it's,

it becomes a part of your

life when you've been doing it for.

Fourteen years.

It's like,

how can you not care about those

things and how can you not

love it and want to be, you know, I,

I tell everybody like I'm a lifer.

I could never see myself.

doing anything else and not

being a part of this community.

So what do you see in the future?

Just continue doing this or

maybe dabbling in some

other areas to see what

else you might like to put out?

Yeah,

I'm enjoying doing this right now and

kind of seeing where that goes.

And yeah,

if other opportunities come up or

other ideas come to me, then

Yeah, I'm going to explore them.

I'm just kind of enjoying

doing this right now and

seeing where that goes.

Might start making some other videos.

I don't know.

Right now,

my goal is just continuing to do

the dense updates and kind

of grow that part of it and

then see what happens from

there for sure.

if people want to sign up and, and,

and follow you on Instagram,

they can do that by going

to at dense underscore updates.

That's me.

And hit that follow button

so that you get all the

updates of what's going on.

And I do appreciate the fact

that you do give a very

unbiased opinion about,

and you include all the shows.

So if you don't know what to

tune into next,

go to dense updates and listen.

And Jenny will tell you

what's going on in each show.

She doesn't tell you which

one to go watch.

She just says, Hey,

this happens on this show and that show.

And you can go check all that out.

That's right.

Anything you want to tell

the listeners before we let

you go for the day?

No.

I have one other question.

What do you do for a job?

So right now I do like

bookkeeping and accounting.

I was working for,

I was working full time for

a roofing company here in Houston.

And literally the day we

came back from the games, he was like,

we are shutting down operations.

I was like,

Ooh, that was kind of a weekend.

I really didn't mean that on

a Monday morning, but okay.

So I've just kind of been

helping him close things

down and get his books all

together and things like that.

And been doing some,

some contract work on the

side at home for right now.

And that's kind of what's

freed up my time to be able

to make a little bit more

of these videos.

So yeah,

I'm probably going to stay on that path.

I can't,

I can't see myself going back to a

traditional,

nine to five and working for the man.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I didn't have to work for the man anymore.

I would love to just talk to

people like this.

Yeah.

Right.

It'd be nice.

But someone's got to keep

the lights on in the house.

That's very true.

And the internet flowing or

we couldn't even do this.

So that is true.

I mean, if I have to all work three jobs,

I don't care, but yeah,

I'm fortunate enough right now to,

To be able to take a little

bit of time for myself and

just figure out, yeah, what I want to do.

I'm forty four and so I'll be forty four.

And I've had a lot of just

bouncing around careers over the years.

And it's like, man,

I just want to find one

thing that sticks.

But trade work is I've worked for a lot.

I've worked for a plumbing company.

a roofing company, um,

and then a custom home builder, just,

you know, accounting and all that stuff.

And COVID was,

was a bad time for everybody.

And roofing is wildly

competitive here in Houston.

So unfortunately that didn't

work out either.

Yeah.

Is what it is.

You know,

I didn't find the thing I loved

in my life, which is doing this at

Um,

and then I dove in head first and my

wife is probably like,

I'm glad you found it.

Work on balance a little bit,

but we're getting there.

Well, Jenny, this has been a blast.

Um, and, um,

I'm going to keep you in my

contacts to have you back

because I'm sure there are

subjects we can talk about that,

like we just talked a little PFAA,

and I think that could have

went on for a good hour.

Yeah, awesome.

I'd love that.

I'd love to be on with Jamie.

I love her.

I follow her.

She's super awesome.

Fittest

Yeah, I wish she believed that.

Everybody around her believes it.

I wish she believed it.

I feel like that's such a

common thing for some Masters athletes.

My best friend,

she's a little bit older in

the fifty to fifty four.

And I'm like, girl,

you're going to the games next year.

And she's like, nah.

And I'm like, hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We have to convince them

that they are as good as they are.

Yeah.

What I love about masters is, you know,

here comes Jamie off the

games and now her son's in

his senior year of school.

And then that becomes a priority, right?

She can't like an elite

athlete just gets to keep training.

Nope.

She's got a,

her son's senior year is

what's most important.

And so that takes the front

seat right now.

Yeah.

Your kids, your family, your jobs,

all those things.

A lot of those athletes

don't have sponsors and all that stuff.

So yeah, definitely harder on them.

And speaking of Masters

athletes to cross promote,

in about eight minutes,

the episode three of Behind

the Scenes at the Masters

CrossFit Games comes out.

Oh, yeah.

I've got my notification on.

I'll be watching that.

So you check into that.

It's twenty five minutes today.

So not too long.

Pretty digestible.

And I hope you enjoy that.

With that, Jenny,

thank you so much for doing this.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Have a great rest of your day.

Yes, sir.

You too.

We'll see everybody next time.

Bye, guys.

Bye.