Wellbeing, Rachel Grunwell: Kiwi CrossFit star's 5 top motivational tips

Jamie Simmonds trains one to three times daily. In season, it's four to five hours daily.

The world knows her as CrossFit star Jamie Greene — one of the fittest women on Earth. But she's now Jamie Simmonds after marrying in Queenstown recently.

I caught up with the 28-year-old, based at CrossFit Yas in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. She shares her training secrets, motivation tips, and goals.

Jamie is a former gymnast and rugby player. Muscle-bound and beautiful, she's 163cm tall and 61kg. She burst on to the CrossFit global scene in 2016. This was when she won the 2016 Reebok CrossFit Open and placed third at the CrossFit Games on Team Crossfit YAS. She has since competed as an individual at the Crossfit Games for the past three years, placing third last year.

She wants to compete for the next three to four years in international competitions.

"I want to see what I can challenge my mind and body to do."

She hopes to compete in New Zealand too one day. "Later on, I hope to come back to New Zealand and build a fitness/ training sort of thing for kids/ adults to do alongside sports. A sort of supplement fitness and nutrition programme to help the rest of their life or sports career."

Jamie trains one to three times daily. In season, it's four to five hours daily. Training is five days weekly with one active recovery day and one rest day.

She credits her Kiwi background for her success.

"My background and amount of sports I did growing up helps a lot, but I also think how I was brought up helps a lot. The mental side of CrossFit is huge as everyone is fit and everyone is strong. So it's who can pull it together on the day with a bit of pressure.

"I think my parents helped me with this — finding the balance of embracing nerves and enjoying the pressure. They threw me into a lot of stressful situations as a young kid haha every race or competition you can think of."

Here's her five top motivation tips:

Ask what will your future self want? Think how you will feel in the future with the work you put in now.

Ask what would your past self think? I always think back to a 10-year-old Jamie and think would she be happy with how she's turned out. So work a little bit harder for the kid who wants to change the world.

Find your own personal why. Once you've worked this out you can always fall back on this when motivation isn't quite there.

Build habits. If you always finish your sessions or you always get your workouts done (even if it's raining) then your brain will know this as the only way. Trick the system and make it something you do without thinking.

When you feel like giving up... I know if you push harder at that point you will be finished a little early (ha ha). But also I know the feeling at the end of a workout when you know you could have pushed harder ... it's the worst feeling ever. I want to make sure I gave my all every time I'm supposed to. Show up or pay for it later.

Rachel Grunwell is a wellness coach, qualified Personal Trainer and yoga teacher, and author of Balance: Food, Health and Happiness

Find her via inspiredhealth.co.nz Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/rachelgrunwell/