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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.