CrossFit and Physical Therapy with Jen Dieter

Logan Christopher (00:03):
Welcome to the Health Sovereign Podcast. I'm Logan Christopher, and today with me on the line I have Jen Dieter. Welcome, Jen.

Jen Dieter (00:11):
Hi. How are you today?

Logan Christopher (00:12):
Doing well, doing well. So Jen is a master of physical therapy with over 20 years in practice. She is a many time CrossFit masters games athlete U s A and world record holder in Olympic weightlifting. So definitely has done some things out there. Jen, I'd like to get started with. How, how did you get into this in the first place? I guess starting with the, the physical therapy or, you know, even earlier in that?

Jen Dieter (00:40):
Sure. So for, so I started off, I've been you know, in athletics most of my life, I guess you could say. I was one of three girls and my dad kind of raised three tomboys. So I got started in gymnastics at a pretty young age, and then stayed in sports through high school. I was a gymnast the beginning half of high school. And then I transitioned into diving and I was a diver at University of Virginia. So I dove all four years there. And at some point along the way, as happens with most athletes, I spent some time in the training room. And so I discovered the world of physical therapy. I was like, wait a second. What is this? This is kind of cool. I think I could do this as a career. And so it was around the time that I had to declare a major U V A doesn't have a physical therapy program, so I applied to, like, for a graduate program. So I applied to their pre-physical therapy program, which is a sports medicine program, and I was a kinesiology major, and then went on to grad school and became a physical therapist. And that's kind of how that unfolded. It was through my participation in sport and some of my own little tweaks and sprains and strains and, you know, that thing along the way. So

Logan Christopher (01:50):
Was was there any specific, like injury or thing you were working with that kind of were the, the physical therapy really made a difference and things clicked for you?

Jen Dieter (01:59):
Yes. I was well, two things in college. I had some kind of weird rib sort of pain around my scapula and was having a really hard time doing much of anything. Like I had pain with a deep breath, and the physical therapist was mobilizing my rib and helping, you know, it basically get back into proper position while I was working on strengthening and stabilizing that whole area. So that was kind of like magic to me. Mm-Hmm. . And then my senior year I had a stress fracture in one of the vertebraes in my low back, and I was unable to dive, I can't remember if it was four weeks or how long they took me out of the season, but they basically took me out of competing, which, you know, was my senior year. You know, such an exciting time. Yeah.

Jen Dieter (02:51):
And so I remember I had to rest like Midseason, but they brought me back in for the big huge dual meet against Chapel Hill, because that was like our big rival at the time. And interestingly, I, we had met already with a sports psychologist named Bob Rotella. He's real big in the golf world, and he met with all the divers one-on-one, and we went through like mental and visual imagery and the importance of all that when you're doing individual sports. And so sure enough, while I was injured during that time, every day I would go through all of my whole list of diving in my head, and I went back to that dual meet after I'd been cleared to compete, and I had my best score of the entire, of my entire college career. Yeah.

Logan Christopher (03:31):
Wow.

Jen Dieter (03:32):
So

Logan Christopher (03:32):
That, that's not surprising, but still, it's, it's great to hear that affirmation of how well that stuff works. Right.

Jen Dieter (03:39):
Hey, hi. It's so cool. So cool. That's a whole nother tangent though, right? ? Yes,

Logan Christopher (03:43):
Absolutely. Well, let's fast forward a bit. You, you got started in CrossFit when you were 38 years old, is that correct?

Jen Dieter (03:50):
38, yes. So I mentioned I was one of girls and I kind of, you know, gotten out of doing much of anything sports, like real sports wise. Mm-Hmm. , I, you know, I had a, I have a good friend who's still a good friend of mine today, and we would go jogging every once in a while. But, you know, it was like, we both worked and had kids and it would be, you know, five o'clock in the morning I'd look at my, my phone and hope that I had a message from her saying that she didn't wanna go. You know what I mean? It was those like, ugh. Or I'd, you know, I'd go to the gym and I'd work out for a few minutes here and there, and I kind of did my own little, like, full body workout every day that I just, just made sense to me in my head, .

Jen Dieter (04:28):
And then my sister, who lives in Oregon and I'm in Florida, she was like, there's a gym that's two miles from your house, a CrossFit gym. Just try it. And I was like, no, I'm not gonna do CrossFit. I'm a physical therapist. I know a lot about exercise. I don't really need to go and have someone tell me what to do, . I'm just gonna do it on my own someday. I'm just not doing it right now. You know? And she was like, for God's sake, go, it's literally two miles from your house. So here's my sister in Oregon finding gyms close to me. 'cause She's like, you would love it. And so I tried it out and my, I, I don't remember what the workout was exactly, but it was my third workout and I was probably sweating, bleeding, and crying. I don't even know all of the things I was doing, but I remember feeling, oh my God, I love this. I will never stop. And I remember I was doing burpees and box jumps, and I don't really know what else, but it, it, it hooked. That was like 12 and a half years ago now. Yeah.

Logan Christopher (05:24):
So the, the average person is not hooked by burpees . Right. But was it because you think the, that competitive background and there, there's just something about, you know, the average CrossFit workout, like you're, everyone's sort of a, a competition against yourself, against the clock, that sort of thing, right? So is that what you think really was a match for you?

Jen Dieter (05:43):
The competitive nature of it and the effort? You know, like, I hadn't tried hard in anything physical in a long time. I mean, this, this may sound weird, but I you know, I have three kids myself, and I had all of 'em with natural childbirth mm-hmm. , and I can remember those early days of CrossFit, feeling like you had three babies naturally suck it up. It's not that bad. You know what I mean? So it was like that, like full effort combined with the competitive nature, whether you wanna compete against yourself or whoever's right next to you. You know, I, I think all those things just kind of combined for me to just be a wow moment of like, yeah, I really actually like this stuff a lot. Yeah.

Logan Christopher (06:24):
So what led you to competing in the CrossFit games versus just doing CrossFit?

Jen Dieter (06:31):
So funny enough, my very first CrossFit competition was actually regionals. So, you know, it, it started off, I had no idea that there was any kind of competition in CrossFit at all. And I can remember someone at the gym I was going to coming up to me and saying, Hey, would you consider going to a competition in West Palm Beach, you know, at, on such and such date? And I was like, well, I don't know. I mean, what, like, what does that even look like, a competition? And they were like, yeah, we think that we, you know, through the open, we're gonna actually qualify a team to regionals. I'm like, what's that? Mm-Hmm. you know, and so they're like explaining it to me and I'm like, I guess so. And so, I, I mean, I had, we all, you know, it was back when there was a six person team, so it was three girls and three guys.

Jen Dieter (07:18):
I mean, I was, as a newbie, as newbie as newbies can be, right? I mean, I was decent. I had made it on a regional team. And I, I, because I have this, the gymnastics background, I had some pretty good strengths and the gymnastics elements. Mm-Hmm. not, I mean, to this day, I'm not the greatest on a lot of the machines rowing and running and cycling and all that. But our team made it the most stressful thing for me was my other two female teammates wanted to wear hot pink booty shorts. And again, here I am, like 39 now, right? I'm a year into CrossFit, a mom of three. I'm like, I can't wear hot pink booty shorts. Like, I literally went into lulu, tried them on and left, and I was like, guys, I can't, I can't do it. And then they convinced me to go back.

Jen Dieter (08:00):
So I went back in, I bought my hot pink booty shorts, and you know, here I am walking into the CrossFit Games regional event in my hot pink booty shorts. And I'm like, you guys, this is the first time I've competed in anything at all in 19 years. You know what I mean? So it brought back a lot of really fantastic emotions and that competitive nature, you know, and all that kind of stuff that I really loved. So I think it was just sort of, it happened that I was lucky enough to make it onto a team. And then I did a few other local competitions after that, mostly team events. And then it was like, oh, there's a master's division and CrossFit, and I'm almost 40. Huh. Let's give it a whirl. And so I upped my training a little bit, and then I actually did not make it to the CrossFit games when I turned 40 my first year.

Jen Dieter (08:54):
And I didn't really realize how much I wanted that until . These scores were unfolding. They took the top 20 then, and I was in the, you know, 17th place or 18th place. We're at my youngest child's birthday dinner, and I have my phone under the table as I'm watching the scores, you know, come through. And we're about to say happy birthday to him as I see my name go 21st, 22nd, and I'm, you know, trying to hide tears as I'm singing Happy Birthday to my son. And it was sort of this like, okay, what do I need to do to make it next year? Because I, I feel a lot of emotion about this, so let's do it. Mm-Hmm. .

Logan Christopher (09:35):
Yeah. So what would you say, what does competition do for you? Why, why do you find that you enjoy it?

Jen Dieter (09:43):
That is a great question. Because there's a lot of elements I don't enjoy. Yeah. I mean, it's very , it's really hard. I was talking to somebody the other day I had four CrossFit girlfriends. We've all been at the games before, and we all did a girls' weekend last weekend, and we were like, why did we pick a sport that hurts so much? Right?

Logan Christopher (10:04):
, right? It's a,

Jen Dieter (10:07):
That are like, what, what are we thinking? I think part of what I love about it is when it's over that sense of accomplishment. Hmm. Regardless of the outcome, you know, I mean, it's always nice to win or to do well, but at the same time, there's something about that, I guess it goes back to effort pushing yourself and seeing what your body can do, whether it's, you know, your best effort on any given day or you PRD something or any of that. I think I really enjoy that element combined with the fact that there was a lot of years when I was just raising babies and, you know, being a mom, but I didn't exercise and I didn't compete mm-hmm. . So I think I like the turn of events that have happened since then, so it's just sort of become who I am. I love the, the grind and the drive and the results you know, that goes along with competing mm-hmm.

Logan Christopher (11:05):
. You, you mentioned that you ha with a gymnastic background, like that's one of your strengths in the games and one of your weaknesses was the machines. Any other strengths or weaknesses you wanna mention here?

Jen Dieter (11:19):
But I, I would say, you know, I think luckily because of gymnastics first and then diving that I've been, you know, I've been more of a sprinter powerhouse, you know, strength kind of athlete my whole life. I'm just, I just am a sprinter. So the short events, you know, like I jokingly said the other day, like, if, if I could just work out for four minutes , right? It's, that's

Logan Christopher (11:42):
Generally my policy too. I don't, I don't love the endurance either. ,

Jen Dieter (11:47):
Oh, gimme Fran all day long, which is, you know, like something you can get done in under three minutes. And I'm happy, but it's the long ones that get me. So I would say, you know, sprinty and, you know, and then I've gotten into Olympic weightlifting over the years. So anything that has some moderate to heavyweight snatches or clean and jerks makes me pretty happy as well, whether it's in con or just as a separate event or that sort of thing. Mm-Hmm. I'm working on my weaknesses and I'm working on some improvements in my cardio base and endurance. I have a new coach and he's giving me all kinds of fun, 40 minute to an hour long things to do. So I'm, I'm starting to learn to love it, or at least not hate it. .

Logan Christopher (12:35):
Well, that, that leads to a question. As I was doing some research on you online, you, some old, older articles were saying you were at the same coach for over seven years, but you just missed a new coach. Could you talk about your old coach and that that's a long time to work with the same coach, right? So what were the advantages to that? And then Yeah. Why a new coach now and what has that led to?

Jen Dieter (12:58):
Yeah, so I would say, you know, the nice thing about starting off with one coach for a long time was that I, you know, like I said, I was a newbie to CrossFit. So the guy that coached me was the guy that literally taught me my fundamentals class. So he, you know, kind of helped me learn the skills, and then he knew exactly where I was over the years. So I would say, you know, I grew as an athlete and he grew as a coach probably along the same time, you know, as he was obviously coaching a lot of other people too. But it just became, it just you know, it kind of grew organically, I guess you could say was the nice thing. And then, you know, sometimes there's a season for everything. So I think, you know, with anything, it just came time for me to shift gears a little bit.

Jen Dieter (13:49):
So now the new coach that I have is a remote coach, so I've never had a remote coach before, and I've never had individualized coaching before, so I think my other coach gave me a lot of individualized programming, but I still did the CrossFit classes mm-hmm. with other people. So I'm not sure I'm, I may actually wind up missing that aspect of it. And you know, this, maybe this will be something that I wind up you know, jumping into class periodically and still having that sort of, you know, comradery. Right now I'm kind of nursing a couple of injuries, so it's working for me to really be very individualized with my programming so I can focus on the things that, you know, I need to work on in order to get healthy and well, and hopefully hit it really hard next year.

Logan Christopher (14:40):
Right. Yeah. So tell me about those injuries. What, what happened what are you doing with them now? And I imagine obviously your, your job as a physical therapist has played a, a big role in what you do for yourself over the years, and probably with these new injuries as well.

Jen Dieter (15:01):
Yeah. so I hurt myself, I think 3, 4, 4 weeks ago now. And I was doing a super top secret thing that I can't talk about, because I was lucky enough to be invited to be a tester for all of the CrossFit games events. Hmm. So I'm not allowed to talk about the events. The CrossFit games starts next week, and all of the events will be unveiled then, and then I'm not allowed to talk to about 'em for a while, you know, obviously. But I was doing something super cool that I've never done before, and I'll probably never do again and tweaked my shoulder. Yeah. So, so anyway, so I'm nursing that. And then I also I have a bit of a history of some hamstringing, high hamstringing sprain strain, small tears. And so I retweaked one of my hamstrings as well, so I kind of have one good arm and one good leg right now, .

Jen Dieter (16:03):
So I'm working on those things, but it's getting better. And, you know, I've been able, luckily I have I'm, you know, I've been around for a long time. So there's a physician that I've worked with Stephan Esser, and he did a P R P injection in my shoulder, which is platelet rich plasma. Mm-Hmm. . So I had that done three weeks ago yesterday, and it's healing. And then I just had a prolotherapy injection done on Tuesday, so just like three days ago. So we're just trying to get the body's natural properties to, you know, heal as much as it can. I, I'm not in a hurry to compete tomorrow, or, you know, right now I, I'm in a hurry to be great for next year. Yeah. You know, so I have time to kind of rebuild the base and that's gonna look like a lot of cardio and conditioning and building that, that base.

Jen Dieter (17:00):
And then, you know, getting my body put back together again. I really haven't focused on my body or on CrossFit for about a year to a year and a half, I would say something like that. I'm 49, the CrossFit age group goes from 45 to 49. Last year I was the only, I think I was the only 48 year old, and I don't think there were any 49 year olds that made it. So it was sort of in the back of my head, you know, trusted people that I talked to, like, oh, have you thought about taking a year off? And I sort of was like, no, I don't think I'm gonna take a year off. I think I'll just sort of see what happens. But I really didn't put a lot of effort or time into training. I kind of went in, I did class, maybe one or two quick other elements if I had time, you know, hour two, somewhere between 1690 minutes at the gym.

Jen Dieter (17:52):
And that was about it. And it kind of got me by, but I didn't, I didn't listen to my own advice really, you know, and my body just sort of broke down. I wasn't getting enough sleep. I'm kind of building my, a new business. Like I have all these other things going on, and I didn't set CrossFit as a priority or my, my fitness, you know, as a priority. So I would say, you know, now that things have changed a little bit, I didn't qualify for the CrossFit games this year, which was the first time in nine years, it would've been my ninth year. Yeah. So now it's like, okay, I have this year off and kind of to reset and then, you know, boom, hit it hard for next year. Yeah.

Logan Christopher (18:30):
Very nice. Well, speaking of what you were just mentioning there, you know, the average person has, feels like a full plate just between like work and family. So to add competition and this on top of it, like how do you do it all? I'm sure that's a question you, you often get, right? The average person out there, like, how, where do you make time for this? Right. Even an hour or 60 minutes or so at, at the gym is, is a lot to the normal person's schedule, right?

Jen Dieter (18:56):
Right. I would say it's not easy. . Yeah.

Logan Christopher (19:01):
.

Jen Dieter (19:03):
And I also kind of thrive on the sense of productivity. Mm-Hmm. . So I work out typically at 5:00 AM I get up at, you know, four 15, something like that, and then start working out either, you know, by five or a few minutes before five. And then I don't spend a lot of time, you know, in between workouts or hanging around the gym or that sort of thing. Luckily, a lot of the, my training partners that I have or have had, we're all kind of on the same mission, right? Like mm-hmm. , we got to do , you know, so get in there and get out and get done. And I think that really helps to be efficient. Mm-Hmm. And I love the feeling of being done with my, you know, workout by 6 30, 6 o'clock, seven o'clock in the morning, whatever it is. And I'm like, okay, check it off the list. That is done.

Logan Christopher (19:59):
I'm right with you on that one. .

Jen Dieter (20:01):
Yeah. Like such a feeling. And the days that I don't work out first thing in the morning, it's just like this daunting thing. It's like, oh my gosh, I gotta, I gotta find time. Or when am I gonna do this? Or how am I gonna have the energy after work to get to the gym? And I know a lot of people do it that way, and that's their, like, relief after work. I just prefer to do it beforehand, which is another thing I've been trying to get myself to do, is to work out at different times of day. Because when I get to a competition and I have to work out in the afternoon or evening, it's really hard for me to up for that. Actually, my first American open event that I did in for U S A W I lifted and they were running way behind, and my event didn't start till 9:00 PM Yeah.

Logan Christopher (20:43):
,

Jen Dieter (20:44):
It was just like, oh, I am, I have not trained for this. Right. You know? So anyway, I would say starting off early in the morning and getting it sort of done is one thing that really helps. And then I, my three kids are very independent little beings, you know, like mm-hmm. , I bless 'em one way or the other. They've turned out to be pretty independent, I think, because I've not done, I mean, I try to be a good mom and do things for them and all that, but they also are pretty self-sufficient. And, you know, even when they were younger, I would walk in the door, the, the gym I was going to only had a 6:00 AM class, so I'd do the 6:00 AM class, I'd leave at seven oh something mm-hmm. , I'd walk the door and the three kids and myself would be out the door by seven 30 to go hit carpool and get 'em to school.

Jen Dieter (21:34):
So it was just like very efficient. We're on the go, you know, lunches were done, everything was done. I just had to jump in the shower, grab things, grab kids, and then we're out the door. So it was a lot of years of that kind of efficiency mm-hmm. , I would say, in order to, you know, sort of get it all done. But I'm, I don't know. And, and I probably didn't give myself enough sleep for some years. Yeah. I think I've hit some of those highs and lows in my training and in I've learned a lot. But there, there was definitely a period of a year or so where I didn't respect sleep. Mm-Hmm. And it caught up to me, so Yeah. You know,

Logan Christopher (22:11):
Oh yeah. You need sleep for recovery so that, that will catch up. Right.

Jen Dieter (22:15):
that say

Logan Christopher (22:18):
Let's see. Going back to the, the pt, how much, you know, besides the workouts with the strength and endurance, how much is like mobility, flexibility stretching? How, how does that fit into your routine?

Jen Dieter (22:33):
Yeah. I've changed it up a lot over the years. You know, in 12 years I've, you know, thought I've had the perfect recipe and then changed my mind a million times. Right. But sometimes I were at different times I've decided, okay, this is my rest day, but I'm still gonna go to the gym on that day and I'm gonna do all of my PT ish sort of things. Mm-Hmm. , whether it was extra foam rolling or a lot of stability work. I'm a big proponent of, especially in CrossFit, I think we need at least as much stability work as we do flexibility and people love to stretch and they feel tight and all that, but a lot of times I find it's because they're lacking some stability somewhere else along the train. Mm-Hmm. , you know, that created those muscle imbalances. So I'll try. Could you

Logan Christopher (23:21):
Give an example of stability for someone listening that might not know exactly how you're using that word?

Jen Dieter (23:27):
Sure. So, so for example, your lumbar spine, right? Your low back should be pretty much a stable area. It's not meant to fulcrum like the knee, right. The knee should bend in half mm-hmm. and it should be able to just, you know, squat down or whatever. And it's a hinge joint. The low back is not supposed to bend in the middle. That's why people say, you know, don't lift with your back sort of thing. We want it to be nice and stable. It should always maintain like a slight curvature of the low back and we wanna try to maintain that all the time. Mm-Hmm. . So anytime someone doesn't do that, if they're, you know, kind of doing like that CSS shaped cat back or, you know, hunched over back, then they are lacking stability in that area. Mm-Hmm. essentially. To dive a little bit deeper, there's a really cool, you know, there's, everybody has a different idea on the human body and how it works.

Jen Dieter (24:24):
But I think there's a really cool way of explaining it. It's called the joint by joint approach. And it's that every opposing joint has a job of either stability or mobility. So if we start at the big toe, it needs to move a lot. Right. That's a very mobile joint. And then as we move our way up to the arch, we want a nice stable arch, right? We don't want someone who has a super flat foot that would be too mobile. So we want stability then the ankle mobile, right? That should move around. Ev people talk about needing dorsiflexion and ankle mobility, all that kind of stuff all the time. And then the next joint up, I already mentioned that's a stable joint for the most part, right? You wanna be able to land off of a box or, you know, jump out of your car or whatever.

Jen Dieter (25:08):
And you don't want your knees to cave in or buckle on you. It just, the hip is a ball and socket joint mobile, I already mentioned a lumbar spine, stable thoracic spine. We want a little bit of a bend to it. And then we want the neck to be you know, mostly stable until we get all the way up to your head and it needs to be able to move around. Mm-Hmm. . So, you know, it's kind of, kind of cool to think about that, that each joint should have a, a job, you know, whether it is stability or mobility. And hopefully I didn't dive too deep into all that.

Logan Christopher (25:37):
Yeah, no, I think that's great that I was poking around on your Instagram and just saw you talking about those things and independently or from other areas that came up. Same concepts, like if you want your, if you want strength and movement, then having flexibility, stability and mobility are very important. And if you have an injury Yeah. Assigned to rehab again, those are the components you're going to wanna look at.

Jen Dieter (26:02):
Right? Yeah,

Logan Christopher (26:03):
For sure. And I really like what you said in one of the videos there, rest doesn't fix anything. Could you go more into Yeah. That concept, which is, is actually really appropriate. My wife and I just got rear-ended in a car crash. Someone going like 50 behind us. Oh, the car took it pretty well, but my wife, her, her shoulder was a bit jacked up and we were having the discussion, you know, there's a time and place to rest an injury, right? Like, let the inflammation die down, but you, you don't want to just rest too long because then injuries can become chronic. Like if you don't use it anymore, then that is an issue. So at the right point, that's when you wanna begin the, the PT doing some work that's going to rebuild the, the function that was lost from the injury.

Jen Dieter (26:45):
Yes, for sure. So, you know, that, that's exactly the point. Rest doesn't fix everything. Right? Right. So I had, and I, that post, because I had had two patients two days in a row that said that they tweaked something or they, you know, one of 'em had come in the week before and he was like, oh, I retweaked such and such. And I was like, okay, well make sure you're, you know, I did the manual therapy and got things, you know, moving the way that they should. I was like, okay, well make sure you're following up with your exercises. And he came back and he was like, no, I was hurting more, so I just didn't do anything. And I was like, what we review this, you needed to, you know, whether it was working on some mobility or some stability or whatever it was, they needed to be working on that.

Jen Dieter (27:24):
And then, so the next day I had someone else, same thing. And he is like, yeah, I tweaked my back. So I just didn't do anything, you know, and I was like, funny you should mention that. You know, and there is a time and a place, I'm not saying you need to work out an injury super hard, like with my shoulder right now mm-hmm. it, and I, you know, was trying to keep it moving initially, but then once I decided to get that p r P injection, it's like, okay, I need to not move it and really let things heal. There is a time and a place for rest mm-hmm. , it's just people can't just assume that if they rest it, it's gonna get better. Yeah. Like me, my shoulder right now, I can tell it's getting weaker. It's not getting, you know, it's, it's not moving better because I'm resting it. I'm just waiting for the ligament to heal as much as possible. So, you know, that's, that's always the kind of conflict with what people think. It's like, okay, well I should just rest this. But a lot of times there's something that you can do to actually, you know, be getting it better. Right.

Logan Christopher (28:29):
Yeah. The, the way I like to look at, it's like, can you move it in a way that feels good with o obviously not getting the pain or more damage, but that, that is building towards more functionality and, you know, that line's a fuzzy line. It's not always easy to hit, but that's what you're aiming for. At least that's, that's my opinion on these things.

Jen Dieter (28:49):
Absolutely. And then even, you know, just because I'm not working my shoulder right now, I feel like I'm as fit as I've been minus the right shoulder. I mean, I'm doing mm-hmm. A ton of other things. And there's research that's shown, you know, for example, with the shoulder, if I work my left shoulder, which is my good shoulder, then there's carryover strength the right side as well. So when someone has an injury, they're, it's gonna benefit them overall to work what they can. Right. you know, and I think that that's a really hard thing for coaches, and I think it's a really hard thing for athletes to you know, on the coaching side, come up with modifications that don't get too stale for an athlete and then for the athlete to not get too frustrated that they can't play with their friends, you know, and do everything how everybody else is doing it, but they have to modify. So, I mean, I'm not perfect. I, you know, I feel, I feel that way sometimes myself, like, man, I just wanna, you know, do a handstand or go match, you know, or something like that. But I know I have to just be patient for now.

Logan Christopher (29:51):
You just gotta master the one-handed handstand .

Jen Dieter (29:54):
No, I know, right?

Logan Christopher (29:56):
Yeah.

Jen Dieter (30:00):
But that's very true. And I think, you know, something that's you know, it'll probably always be there in a, as a struggle for people in one way, shape, or form.

Logan Christopher (30:10):
Right. Yeah. One other thing, you mentioned the visualization earlier, but some studies from long ago when person was in a cast, but visualizing, exercising the arm when it came out of the cast, it hadn't lost any muscle mass compared to the other arm as opposed to that, that function happening normally. So yeah. Working around injuries and then yeah. You can still be visualizing the use of them, which is gonna support it coming back strong. Yeah.

Jen Dieter (30:36):
I mean, I, I'm, I'm grateful the, for the experience that I had, you know, I think that when we can think about, you know, conflict or difficulties that we've had and all that, I mean, at the time, like I said, my senior year of college not being able to, you know, compete and all that, but if I hadn't been forced to practice that visualization mm-hmm. , you know, that have it as a tool in my tool bag as strongly as I have it now. And I, I love the doing CrossFit, but I also love doing Olympic lifting because I feel like Olympic lifting gives me that like, real deep focus in on visualization Yeah. And fine tuning, you know, it kind of reminds me of diving, which was just like, okay, you get one shot mm-hmm. , you know, walk out to the end of that board and go, yeah. It's kind of like lifting. You get one shot, you go up on that stage and you know, I do all my visualization. I see it in my head which is a lot harder than you might think it is sometimes. I mean, sometimes I see myself doing it poorly. I'm like, what's wrong? Yeah. You

Logan Christopher (31:33):
Know, well, that happens to me too,

Jen Dieter (31:35):
Like that, it's really not that easy to just visualize perfection. Yeah. so yeah, it's not easy to, to do it perfectly either. Right. But but it is a really great skill and I think it's served me well over the years in all kinds of different avenues. Mm-Hmm.

Logan Christopher (31:52):
. So is that it sounds like you use the visualization more for the, the Olympic weightlifting than for CrossFit, but I'm sure you use it there as well. Yeah. Just how, how does that aspect of mental training kind of blend into your workouts, your training and all that?

Jen Dieter (32:09):
Yeah, so I would say definitely for Olympic lifting it, it's, it's something that takes over a lot of my brain space, right? Mm-Hmm. , so I'm thinking a lot about mental imagery and visualization and all that. Whereas in CrossFit, there are times that I focus a lot on that if it's a high skill movement, right? So if I'm getting ready to do ring muscle ups or, you know, a heavy snatch or a heavy clean and jerk even certain like handstand pushups or walking up and down the hand, the ramp, like the higher skill mm-hmm. , then I would say I might like grab a little, you know, nip of visualization and see it for mm-hmm. , you know, a second before I go, you know, you can't stand there for that long. But, you know, I think muscle ups is the, the biggest thing for me that I still visualize with a ton. Yeah. Which is, as I, you know, I see myself, okay, I see my hips rising, I see myself coming over the top, and that's just something that from when I was learning it, I still can like, quickly call on that and kind of combine that, okay, what did I feel on my last rep and what do I need to do better on my next rep mm-hmm. , you know, as workout. Yeah.

Logan Christopher (33:21):
All right. Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about nutrition and health. How, how important has nutrition been in your staying healthy and competing?

Jen Dieter (33:30):
Yeah. it's a great question. You know, I would say in general, I eat really quite cleanly overall. You know, I mean, I, I like to say that I eat really well so that I can eat whatever I want when I want. My son's birthday was this week and I ate cake and ice cream and didn't, you know, blink an eye at it. I didn't feel guilty or anything like that. But I also, you know, eat a lot of vegetables and a lot of protein and, you know, for the most part, I eat very well. I'm not one that counts macros, and I know that a lot of people count macros. And I think that that's great. And that's a, it's a great way to kind of like, take control of what you're putting in your body and know what you're putting in your body. I have been, you know, aware and conscious of nutrition ever since I was probably, you know, a teenager in gymnastics. Mm-Hmm. , you know, we talked about it, whether it was good or bad, it was talked about. And then, you know, through college we had to meet with the nutritionist. It's just everybody on the whole swim team had to meet with the nutritionist. I had to weigh in at times. I mean, gosh, I was a cheerleader for the Jaguars for a year, actually. Oh,

Logan Christopher (34:47):
I didn't know that one. .

Jen Dieter (34:49):
Yeah. But we had to weigh in for that, you know? Mm-Hmm. . So I've been in sports and activities, if you will, where I've been sort of judged on, you know, what you look like when you're jumping up and down on a diving board, , or you know, how you look in a leotard or, you know, whatever it is that you're doing. So I've been very aware of what you put into your body and what happens to your body when you put those things in your body. So I try to be very careful about, you know, real positive nutrition talk. Like with my kids when they were younger, I never tried to talk about bad food or good food. I try to talk about food that makes you go fast, like food that makes you go, or food that makes you slow. You know, like, okay, well if you guys eat all that, you're gonna feel bad and you're not gonna be able to, you know, beat your friends in a race or run fast around the bases mm-hmm.

Jen Dieter (35:41):
or crush it on the soccer field. But if you put in these really healthy things, then you're gonna feel better. So I think, you know, that, that everything in moderation works well for me. So when it comes from a nutrition perspective, I really like that. Mm-Hmm. I've done a few blood tests over the years, you know, just to sort of see like what, how my body processes food and nutrition and where I'm lacking and what I may need from a supplement perspective mm-hmm. or need to eat more of, you know, for example in that sort of thing. Yeah.

Logan Christopher (36:14):
Well, you mentioned supplements there. Do you have any favorites that have been useful for supporting everything that you do?

Jen Dieter (36:21):
I do. I'm a little bit of a supplement junkie or I guess, you know, more vitamin, you know, vitamins and supplements and that sort of things. But you know, I did this, this spectra cell, I think it was called blood test when the first year I made it to the CrossFit games. And you know, it said that I came, I was deficient in Omegas, so I take a Omega supplement regularly. I take magnesium regularly. I like, you know, anything that can help with the inflammatory process. So the fish oil that I mentioned combined with turmeric. Mm-Hmm. I think, you know, works pretty well for me as well. I mean, I do take a quite a little handful. It depends like, you know, there are B vitamins that can help with nerve health, so, yep. I have some, you know, orthopedic things going on from time to time with my neck and back. And so if I feel nervy on, if you will mm-hmm. , then I'm loading up on the bees. You know, so it, it just depends a little bit. I take a eggshell membrane for joint support, so mm-hmm. I, I have a decent sized list, Yeah. Of my,

Logan Christopher (37:25):
And you recently started taking some lost Empire herbs. Any standouts from that so far?

Jen Dieter (37:31):
Yes, I sure did. I have definitely liked that as well. I think that, you know, actually one of the ones that I really like is the beet juice powder. Mm-Hmm. . So I've enjoyed that one for sure. And there's a ton of great research behind that. Yeah. you know, that

Logan Christopher (37:50):
One unfortunately tastes a lot better than, than the other herbs, right. .

Jen Dieter (37:53):
Yes, yes, it does. That's actually very tasty for beet juice. Mm-Hmm. . But yeah, that's been great. And then, you know, there's some good research behind some of the tendon healing properties of deer antler, and then the new one that you guys have that helps with, you know, just sort of the Athena blend. Mm-Hmm. It has a whole bunch of different groups in it that helps with, you know, everything from stabilizing mood and stress and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, it's pretty fantastic. And it's really fun to, to look at some of the different herbs and be like, and, you know, think about, well, it's derived from plant and so is big pharma. It's just like we can get it at the holistic herbal level instead of having to go through big pharma, you know? Right. So, like, why not do it from the, the, the ground level quite literally.

Logan Christopher (38:45):
Right. And then it's not like tweaked, which our body doesn't necessarily love and amplified up a single molecule. So the, the other issue is that come there last question I'll ask, 'cause I know you have a, a client coming in real soon. Any lifestyle practices that help support your recovery performance and everything? Like, I take a infrared sauna on a regular basis. Is there I go outside and do grounding, deep breathing exercises, things like these. Anything else that's been kind of essential or a, a mainstay of your routine over the years?

Jen Dieter (39:17):
Well, I actually am sitting here with my red light therapy this went off, but yeah, I have red light therapy. I've been using for the better part of the year, I guess. So I don't have the, a whole sauna, but I have a panel and a wrap that I use that I really like. You know, and I, and I'm a big proponent of it just because I, I don't think ice is the be all end all right? Mm-Hmm. , so ice and anti-inflammatories is sort of, you know, what's been in practice in the medical field for forever and ever, but ice isn't gonna fix everything. It's just gonna numb it up. And anti-inflammatories, it goes along with, I mean, I guess it's not big pharma, you can get ibuprofen everywhere, , but a fan, unless, you know, unless I'm really hurting and I just wanna get rid of the pain, like, there's a time and a place, but I don't really take, I, I don't, I don't wanna take ibuprofen if it's just gonna be to mask my pain so I can go work out art, go work out harder.

Jen Dieter (40:14):
Like, no, that's,

Logan Christopher (40:15):
Yeah, that's generally not a good idea. Right, , because if you just can't feel the pain, which is a signal from your body that you're doing damage, then yeah, probably not .

Jen Dieter (40:25):
Thank you. Right. So I do like the red light. I have a nice breathing tool as well that I should probably use more to help keep me grounded in that capacity. But I do have that as well. And then, you know, I, I've learned a lot, I would say over the years, just about giving myself something that is rewarding in a, in a very, like gosh, I don't even know how to say this, but, you know, sometimes I get so busy with, with, with being busy mm-hmm. , and then just take the time that I don't let myself just like myself rests my brain for a second. And sometimes I can still be busy, but I'm resting my brain. And that may sound silly, but all the other busy people out there will understand like folding laundry. Mm-Hmm. , it's sort of like a mindless task.

Jen Dieter (41:16):
I don't like to do it, but when I'm doing it, I'll try to just go, okay, there's nothing else going on right now. I'm just folding the laundry. Mm-Hmm. , you know, or sometimes even if I'm working on a patient, I just really try to focus on like, okay, what do these muscles feel like right now? Like, I just try to stay grounded in that task because I don't have time to go out in the morning and drink my coffee in the yard and watch the birds fly by. Like, I wish I did. Mm-Hmm. But I just, so I try to find, it's like one of my kids' teachers told them years ago, try to find pockets of time in your day to get your homework done or whatever. So I try to find pockets of time in my day where I can just kind of ground myself a little bit or rest my brain. Mm-Hmm. just a little bit because I, I don't always get the time to just say, oh, good, I'm done for the day and now I have a couple hours to decompress. I might have like two minutes here, three minutes there, 30 seconds there. And I try to take advantage of those as much as I can.

Logan Christopher (42:17):
All right. So it's like a mindfulness or a meditation, but in those moments, 'cause you don't have an hour in the morning to set aside. So that goes back to the question, how do you do it all there? There's work right there. There

Jen Dieter (42:27):
You go, . Perfect.

Logan Christopher (42:30):
All right, Jen, a any final last words that you'd like to share with the people listening?

Jen Dieter (42:36):
Not, not particular really. I mean, I think that what you just said kind of sums it up with be that mindfulness, you know, and we're all, we're all busy in our own ways and we're all trying to accomplish things in our own ways. So it's really just a matter of finding your own recipe that works for you.

Logan Christopher (42:53):
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And lift some heavy weights that, that helps . Okay. All right. Thank you so much, Jen.

Jen Dieter (43:01):
Thank you.