The Sevan Podcast - Noelle Henderson | 2023 CrossFit Games Prep

Episode Date: July 30, 2023

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Oh, you can't? Bam, we're live. Maybe go to settings. Can't hear me. I don't even know why I'm talking. Hi, Bruce. Hi, Barry. I can't hear anything.

Let me see if I can. Noel Henderson. Going to the CrossFit Games. Hey. Noelle Henderson going to the CrossFit Games. Hey, what's up? Can you hear me now? No, no, no, no. I like how calm she's staying. This could be really unsettling at times.

No technical issues. Let me try to get off of these. Oh, yeah, Mark. Yeah. How's that better mas bueno better oh now i can't hear you now i can't hear you oh you're muted hold on hold on hold on you're muted you gotta click the mute button let me see if i can tell her in private chat uh she's muted oh there you are oh no close dang we're getting close so close so close got her name up there bruce what's up barry what's up oh you can hear her you i couldn't hear you can hear her can you guys hear me no no you can't hear her all right we're patient oh yeah okay i can hear you oh awesome and i can hear you you would you went into the settings and just and change your microphone i did i did money nice job

I did. I did. Money. Nice job. Hey, how old are you? I'm 37. Oh, you look young. Oh yeah. I get that a lot. Yeah. You look young for a second. I seriously thought maybe you could be in the teen division. Oh gosh. That's crazy. Do you have kids? I do not. Oh, okay. Well, that's why you haven't aged. Hey, congratulations. You're going to the CrossFit Games. Crazy, Noelle. Crazy. It is pretty wild. I'm super excited. And your coach is my homeboy, J.R. Howell.

Yes. Super glad. Super thankful for that. Yeah. How long have you known him? Since I started, my first gym was Crash in 2015. So we've been together for – on this CrossFit journey for a while. Yeah, nine years since you were 28. Yep. This – Noelle Henderson, you're at the top. I've been trying to figure out why you're at the top.

Are you the number one contender, and is that why you're at the top I've been trying to figure out why you're at the top Are you the number one contender and is that why you're at the top I'm not I'm not sure I did I'm not sure why it's number one there but I did Finish overall In first in the open to that And so you Go straight from the open

To the games Yeah it's been a long Long Lots of training since since march yeah like crazy anticipation and then so so you do the when you do the open is your intention to go to the games noel yeah i mean i've i've been i've been trying for the games for i guess three years now since it since it started um I've been that bubble athlete for the past two years um and one of my good friends told me like if you're gonna go

let's go like stop being on the bubble you know I finished I think in fifth the first year that it adapted went to the games and then the seventh last year and so my intention this year was to not be on the bubble. So, so you kind of, you kind of answered my question because you said you've been wanting to go since the first year, which was how many years ago, three years ago. Yeah. And what do you mean by that? Your division only popped up three years ago. Yeah. The adaptive division just started in 2021 was the first year. And what does that mean, the adaptive division? It's adaptive divisions, right? There's a bunch of them that fall under the category?

Right. Okay. Right. There's several different divisions, and they take the ones able to go to the games so far have been the upper extremity, lower extremities, and then multi-extremity this year, which was neuromuscular in the years past.

And they just changed that this year to multi-extremity. Okay. I have such, I don't know what the word is. I don't know if sympathy is the word, probably not sympathy, but respect for anyone who has to make these categories. So like people are born and there's dudes and there's girls and then, and then, and then there's ages like the, like because we got the earth circling the sun kind of shit, you know, we can do that. But this,

this thing trying to figure out how to put people into adaptive, there's no, it's crazy because there's so many different variations on it right it's like yeah it's like there's a gazillion but there's gotta be say that again but i'm definitely not envious of of that that job but they they've done a great job recently um and trying to make it i guess i hate the word fair but trying to make it fair for everyone um that's able to to be in this this division and i'm guessing i don't know this and maybe you don't know either but you're you're trying to include as many people as you can to be able to compete but you can't have some dude who's missing you can't have

chandler smith in the upper extremity shit right because it's like hey you just got missing a little bit of your finger right that's good you're not you're and then and then there's someone else like are you saying i'm not adaptive enough and it's just it's just a fucking mess yes yeah damn yeah i don't envy that envy that's the word i don't envy like that's a tough you're never gonna win that you're never ever gonna win that no no you're not yeah okay and then and then to um, I want to go back and for kind of your athletic journey, but to try to figure out exactly yours is, so you, you're saying yours went from neuromuscular. So what's that mean? Your brain can't control your muscles. So the, the, the division that was originally the first, I guess the past two years, the first year

in 2021 and last year they had upper extremity, lower extremity, and then neuromuscular, which is, um, yeah, brain and muscles. Um, and with, I have cerebral palsy on my right side that affects my whole right side. So it, um, and well, the backstory is when I was born the night that I was born, I stopped breathing and was deprived of oxygen from my brain for too long. How long is too long? That I don't know. I don't know. I'll have to find that out for sure. So it's like a stroke. You were born having a stroke. Isn't that what a stroke is? Like your brain gets cut off from blood. Oh, okay. Yes. Um, which, and, and, you know, because of that, uh, parts of my brain were paralyzed, which is how you get cerebral palsy, um, the term cerebral palsy. Um, and so that's, so it does affect neuromuscular. um so that's how i fit that category but then when they changed the division crossfit to multi-extremity since my cerebral palsy does affect more than one extremity that's how i

qualified for the same division if and yours is just on your right side so and so you just uh your right arm you're from like your right arm and your right leg. Yes, and a little bit of my speech as well is impaired. I just talk too fast. My mouth can't keep up with my brain or vice versa. Yeah, me too. I must have that one too. But yeah, it's mostly like muscle tone muscle tone and my joints like my

wrist is a lot weaker um a lot of uh my my ankle my hip my right hip right elbow and shoulder so it's just mostly just the the major major joints on my on my right side are affected and the right muscles don't don't fire um so a lot of over over compensation on my left side actually is let me try to put it in layman's terms basically the way we understand the way that the the this human thing works is that there's a bunch of stuff in here that sends signals to the body to activate it to do stuff like pick my coffee up and drink it. Right. And some of your signals to the right side of your body from there to there aren't working – got broken. Right.

Actually stopped working. Is your left side – is the part – so that part of your brain, is it actually dead, and then some other parts of your brain had to compensate for it? Yes. Okay. Is that a life – and does that get better as you get older? Like does your brain – like is it good that it happened to you when you were little so that you have – like as your left side of your brain developed, it can be like, oh, shit, we got some extra work to do? Yes. I'm not sure the scientific answer of that, but I think that would be – be yeah because I don't know any different you know it wasn't like I

lost anything because I was just born this way and so all you know right it's all I know yeah trippy okay and then and they I'm guessing as a crossfitter

have you been an athlete your whole life yes I it's kind of funny when i was preparing just what i was gonna how i was gonna tell the story i um growing up i have vivid memories of you know being super active with my siblings and my cousins and no one ever told me that i couldn't do that anything like grew up on the lake, you know, water skiing, tubing, kneeboarding, all that stuff. Played a lot of rec league basketball growing up in elementary school and middle school and high school and roller skated.

When I was like, started roller skating when I was three and, and looking back now, like, I'm super thankful that no one my cousins my siblings my family no one told me like hey you can't you can't do that you know like because you have this or that I just did it I didn't even know you know um actually I didn't really know until until CrossFit that I the way that I did things were looked a lot different or just done differently. And so, yeah, super. You weren't like six years old and like you looked at your hand and looked at

someone else's hand and what it was like, Hey mom, what's up with that? What's wrong with that person's hand? Why is their hand all fucked up? I mean, I grew, I grew up going, I mean like we had, um, I was in, you know, under PT care, physical therapy care and chiropractic care my whole life. But all of my cousins were, we went, we went roller skating and then to the chiropractor, like in the same day, the same outing every week. And so, I mean, I knew like my physical therapist and like I had, you know, I had a team of doctors, but it never like nobody told me I couldn't do anything. My mom. But you knew you had cerebral palsy, right?

They would hear someone say that her cerebral palsy is doing fantastic or something. Yes. My mom just told me like just last week or this week that the original doctor that we had told her that I would never get better. And I could get worse. And then we met with a different orthopedic doctor and he said, well, you know, we're not in control. Like we're not God. We're going to let her do what she don't tell her. She can't do anything. And so here we are. You know, it's crazy.

you know it's crazy um there's some people who would say oh her cerebral palsy is not that severe it's like people who say that like oh your kids are born with talent it's like yeah you fucking knucklehead it's because it's because you work so hard yes because you didn't you didn't deal with uh't deal with – you didn't see it as a – you didn't see it. You just – it's just who you are. And so there's going to be this misunderstanding of what's humanly possible with cerebral palsy because people are going to say that. Oh, she's a special exception. No, she's not a special exception.

She just didn't go down the path of being treated like something was wrong right not the victim for sure in that regard um is it um uh did it did it hold you back were there times in your life where you're like oh shit i didn't make the varsity team my sophomore year and it's probably because i have cerebral palsy or shit like that? I do think high school is when I started to notice, you know, when I would try out for basketball. I didn't make the basketball team because I could only dribble to the left side. You know, I couldn't – I wasn't as fluid or wasn't as quick or fast on my right side.

And so – but then I just went to, like, the rec league team and said they didn't have tryouts. And so, and honestly, people on that team didn't even know in high school that I had disability. Some of my friends were able to hide it. Yeah. And I, and I was at that point in high school, honestly, until CrossFit, I was very insecure about it because then i knew something was something was off i still did things but i just need you know it's it's it's kind of crazy you didn't tap after you didn't make the high school team like i would have been um

like like i like i mean i like i was i wouldn't go to like to a birthday party if it was a swim party. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I, like I just avoided shit. Like if I didn't want, like if I had an insecurity. Well, I mean, I did, I did avoid CrossFit or I avoided, um, but you didn't avoid, avoid going to the rec team. Like you weren't like, Oh, I suck. I didn't avoid team sports. I didn't. But I did.

I did avoid group fitness classes on purpose. I do remember like not going to, you know, the 530 class with my friend at the gym because I knew that my right side was was weaker. So when they would say a regular gym. Yeah. Like if you're playing basketball, they're like, what position you play and you just tell them, but in the class, in a CrossFit class, you might walk in and they'll be like, Hey, does anyone have any limitations? You don't want to be like, yeah, I have cerebral palsy. You didn't want to do that.

Right. Crazy. How did you, and wow. And you at 28 years old, you went into CrossFit crash for the first time. I did. And who took you there and how did you make that leap? Did you want to be competitive, by the way, going back a little bit? Were you competitive? Did you like winning? Yeah, I don't like losing.

Yeah, yeah. I didn't know. And you didn't want anyone to say, hey, that's pretty good for a girl with cerebral palsy. You probably hated that. Right. Fucking hated it. Right. Fucking hated it. Right. Greg Glassman told me that.

He's like, I tell people that it's an injury from gymnastics because I don't want anyone to say, oh, it's pretty good for a dude with polio. He hated that. Yeah. Yeah. No, I can relate to that for sure. No, I didn't even know competitive CrossFit for me was an option. We did. Two of my close friends,

um, got me into, to crash. Um, they, they, they were going and, um, but I mean, I've like anybody, I was skeptical at first, you know, going to something like CrossFit for the first time is a little unnerving, but especially with someone who does things differently. But I mean, they're good friends. I trust them. And they were, it was fun for them. And so I went and I think the first workout was like pull-ups and wall balls. And I had been going to like a normal like Planet Fitness gym and just running the treadmill and doing different things.

And so I felt like I was pretty strong. And so I remember the first workout, the coach at the time, who was now one of my other closest friends, um, was like workouts, wall balls and pull-ups. I was like, Oh, okay. I can squat and do pull-ups fun. And then I couldn't do squats or pull-ups fun when the workout came. And so that was very humbling and a little discouraging, but no one little discouraging but no one what made you think what made you think you could do a pull-up like i didn't even at 20 i knew i couldn't i could do strict pull-ups but not for that many yeah for not not that many reps in the workout and my wall

balls were like uh free throw shots like just oh yeah it's my right side i didn't know what didn't know what to do um so, yeah, very humbling, very discouraging, honestly. But then but it was fun. You know, no one was saying you can't do that. Everyone was very encouraging, like a normal CrossFit class is. And I came back and came back and then actually signed up for a in-house competition with one of my friends and I think we got last place but it was it was fun and then somehow found out about the adaptive uh competition world like worldwide or I think it was working wounded games at the time so it was um like you know disabled veterans or anyone in adaptive community could

compete and i there was no qualifier for it so you just sign up and go and me and my friend ashley we we went and i did really well and it was fun made a lot of friends and that was the start of my competitive, I guess, career in the adaptive sense. Have you ever competed at Wheelwod? I have. I have. I've done Wheelwod. I've done Waterpalooza in the adaptive division. How did you do at Wheelwod? Wheelwod, I think I've done that. I think I've gotten gotten first one time then i did it in 2021 and got gotten second is that is that is wheel wad the most like in the crossfit community the crossfit games are the most prestigious you know event for individuals but for i hear for adaptive wheel

wad is more prestigious like the winner of the wheel wad is truly the the fittest is that true in the adaptive i would say in the adaptive it's more it's a more competitive field it's a huge field savages okay yes that's kind of cool good on them who runs wheel wad do you know who the owners are um chris stoutenberg he he runs that and i know kevin ogar has involvement with with them i should have him on what a stud yeah great guy um and these girls here this uh um jordan courtney reagan and uh amay have you did you compete have you competed against all of them before i have not i have not i'm excited to meet them oh none of them they're not like you're not like oh i beat these girls at wheelwad oh that girl jordan no no where is the wheel watt champ is the wheel watt champ not here

they are they've been in raleigh the past three years raleigh no no but i mean is that but when i say where's the champ where's the multiple extremity champ from wheel watt she's not here jordan jordan oh it's jordan oh yeah okay but you didn't compete against her last year sorry i didn't i didn't go last year, no. Oh, shit. Okay. Oh, this is good. Yeah. Oh, shit. So you beat her in the open.

I actually think we tied. No kidding? Yeah. Wow. So this is kind of for all the marbles. This is good she showed up. Yeah. I'm excited.

Holy cow. This is good. what days do you guys go we compete tuesday wednesday thursday oh you got three days crazy and as far as we know seven seven workouts as far as we know um uh your your um uh lat development is that is that the same when you're in the mirror and you look at your back and you flex your lats? Is your lat development the same on both sides? I have to get back to you on that. I'm not sure. I don't do that, but I will. But I'm guessing if you hold your arms up, you're saying your arms would look different, right?

Yeah, my – it's definitely different. My right side is, you know, visibly, um, weaker. Um, and then my, my right elbow does not, it's not full, doesn't full flexion. So, um, I'm sure that my, my right lat is weaker and less developed than my, I've just never looked in the mirror at it. Um, what about, um, and what are your pull-ups now today? What, what's your PR for most unbroken pull-ups? Um, also haven't tried that. What? JR.

But he, he, anyone at crash can tell you that my strict movement is way better than my kipping movement. Um, I don't really know how to use my hips that well. And so I'm much better at strict pull-ups than I am kipping pull-ups. And I'm much better at strict handstand push-ups than I am kipping handstand push-ups. I just don't know how to, that part of the brain.

JR, what a shameless attempt by Sevan to get her to show her armpit you're a good dude i know right you saw that okay uh i'm an armpit aficionado um so okay so um oh i want to go back to being not born breathing i had a kid that was was um born not breathing okay yeah you were um you were uh you were born actually not breathing was was um umbilical cord wrapped around your neck or anything? No, I was breathing, but I stopped breathing that night that I was born. Oh. The nurse came by and was like, she's blue.

So you actually, wow. Yeah. And they were speculating you. Okay, okay. Yes. So I sent home with a monitor, you know, to make sure that, because when I would stop breathing, my heart would stop. And so just – my mom was a rock star with all that when I was little.

Dude, she aged 10 years right there. Crazy. Yeah, me as well. Do you work? Do you have a day job? I do. I actually just got a new job recently. Almost a year. I was in pharmaceutical supply chain for 15 years.

And now I do retail supply chain. I say this is the only nerdy thing about me is my job. Great company based out of Minnesota. So it was a good, it was time to change. I'm thankful that I did. What does that mean exactly? You get drugs from the plant to the pharmacy? Yeah, we were a wholesale, well, I worked for a wholesale company. And so the liaison between the manufacturer and, um, the customer, the pharmacies that bought the product.

Business is booming. Yes. Business is booming. And, um, you, you, do you coach it at, uh, crash? I do. I do coach there a couple of times, a couple of classes a week. So you went from, uh, it's it's i mean it's kind of weird it's kind of weird um you went from wanting to hide and not go to now being in front of the class and being like yo ding dong uh you're not your kip's no good let me come over here and work on that with you right it is it is um we have a really good team in forest jr is um great at coaching the coaches and we do a lot of uh demo of the movements you know and so um it's kind of comical whenever i demo a movement that i know i look different doing it i

i'll say do this but keep your heel on the ground not like i'm doing or things like that you know make sure you um you know extend your arms all the way out not like i'm doing because i can't do it so like um it is kind of kind of cool how i can you know again like you said like i was embarrassed and hot and tried to hide it and now i'm driving and talking about it a lot you know so let me show you how not to do it yes yeah um tank reeves i bet 80 plus percent of americans can't do a strict pull-up man i bet you it's more i don't want to say it's more than that okay so you start going there and um what do you notice first why do you start liking it eventually i mean it's it's a good i mean it was fun it was different than you know uh arms on monday

legs on tuesday core on wednesday you know and um i think like most people you you find your core group of friends there because you're struggling together. And, you know, people are, you can't, you can't hide your weaknesses at CrossFit and people, you know, things you once tried to hide people, that's what people love you for and accept you for. And so I think that was a big thing as I was accepting and I didn't have to worry about looking different. People just knew that's how I did things.

And, you know know high five and good job noel you know do you have a lot of friends there have you met people there who are your friends outside the gym I do yes yes I'm biased but I think crash community is one of the best communities that anybody can be a part of and um how long did you go there before you met jr part of. And, um, how long did you go there before you met JR? Um, he was there when I was, um, when I was going, when I first started. Um, and so, yeah, when he took over the gym, you know, I just stayed and he became instead of a workout partner, he became, you know, workout coach and the owner of the gym. So, oh, okay. There was a different owner there when you started and then JR slipped in. Yeah. Did people trip out when it got a new owner i know people don't like that

no because he was already i mean heavily involved in in the gym um as a coach and a good friend and so that was it was it was a smooth smooth transition for sure seamless yeah um he's a trippy cat he's like a pretty solid and you knew him before you even had kids right yes yes wow did you see him go through some changes like as a person i mean he's now a great great father in addition to everything else that he yeah so yeah yeah yeah he's an interesting mix of like a really fun person, but he's also serious. Like he's really fun, but he's, but he's serious. He's, he, some people might call it professional. Um, I definitely know and don't take lightly the, the gifts that I have in him being my coach all the time. And especially at the games. I have a huge advantage.

Oh, that's a sweet thing to say. Tell me, how did that go? What do you say to him? Does he walk up to you and say, hey, do you ever think about competing in the open? Or do you say to him, hey, JR, I did pretty good at the open. What do you think about me going to the games? Like, how does your relationship build to where you guys are like, okay, let's do this together. Let's get on a team.

Well, I mean, if I'm, you know, have interest in competing, be he's going to be on board he's always going to push all of us at any level to you know towards better and so when i was interested in competing at any of the competitions like qualifying he was you know he was on board and gave me the tools to, to, to, you know, to get better and to use those. And, but now with the open, I remember, you know, in March we were, I honestly was just, was just doing it. I mean, I, I didn't really prepare for, I honestly, cause I'm not really big on social media. I know you said, Oh, it makes me sick. How little your social media don't throw up but i didn't even know that we had we only had the open i thought we had open and then semifinals and then

the games and so my my plan was to just you know make the make the open and then get serious about semifinals or quarterfinals but then when i it was the first workout open workout jr was like hey you know this is all you have you have to go what does that mean i don't understand what that means what i mean this is all you have like i don't have another chance to go to the games except for oh oh oh oh oh okay yeah and so even though you didn't plan it even though you didn't plan on going to the games he he said that I didn't before then. But then that at that moment on the first workout, oh, I have to really be, you know, be serious because I'm not going to be on the bubble again. Oh, and so we had a plan. And if we had stuck to my plan, I wouldn't be going to the games.

going to the games jr made me um redo every workout and with his his plan i did yeah zero post and that story is is about this right now so very very active um but but no so with his help and, you know, obviously my hard work, I got there this year. And, yeah. So you did – he made you do every workout more than once? Yeah. But I did better on the redo, every single one. Are you glad he did that? I am. I'm very thankful.

Did you want to push back? I think there was one where I was like, i really don't want to do this one again but and he said let's wait one more day and then let's redo it and we did and and have you ever had to work with a coach one-on-one like this before where there's someone riding you like this i have not and um how does how does that work you just uh it sounds like you guys don't even talk about it. It's just like there's this unspoken respect you have for him and you recognize what you want. And you're just like, it's like kind of a get in where you fit in. Well, when we started getting serious about games training, we had this little thing where every evening I'll text him what's tomorrow.

text him what's tomorrow and he would send me the workout what he you know my goal time should be or what my goal rep should be or goal weight should be and then I would I would do the workout and I would give him the feedback and then he would give me feedback and and then there are times we'd meet together either at you know at the gym or offsite somewhere. And, um, some people would tag along and come with us, which was great. Um, and then he would say, before we start, he'd say, this is your goal time. This is your goal reps. Let's go. And we would do it. What did you do offsite running or swimming or? Um, both I've, I've been running at, um, on different trails with JR and we actually, a girl from the gym has been really helpful with, with swimming. So.

Wow. Crazy. Um, how many hours a day are you training? Um, a good, a good mini. Uh, I don't, I mean, three times a day. Some weeks was three times a day. Some weeks was twice a day. Yeah, I understand why people who go to the games more than once, it kind of has to be their job because it's very time-consuming. Crazy. And he's going with you. He's coaching you.

He got the coaching pass. Yeah, wow. What a cool thing team you've become. Hey, there's this video of you on the internet. There's a camera on the floor. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's called the CrossFit muscle impairment test. Oh, yeah. When I saw that, I'm like, does CrossFit make,

do you have to make that and post that? Oh, explain that to me. This is amazing. When we were, since they have gotten, like you were saying early on, like you can't have someone who, you know, sprained their ankle or missing a finger

try to qualify for the adaptive division. So they made you do a have a have a physical therapist or a medical physician, someone come and do it, do an impairment test on you. And you had to the physician had to uh grade you based off your impairment level and that's what gave you access to compete in this division so you're like do you know that lady who's touching you like for 12 minutes like you do yes yes she's a very um well-known physical therapist here. And we worked together. I mean, she's been very helpful.

We worked together since October to kind of get me ready for the open. And then once we got there, she's been with me the whole time. Just for preventative care, movement, like trying to change movement patterns um so i don't overcompensate as much on my left side and and kind of give some equal equal love to my right side um yeah it's been a game game changer having her i haven't ever had like a full team of um you know care before the games, you know, and going to the chiropractor and going to the physical therapist, massage therapy, just trying to keep everything, um,

injury free before. It's kind of crazy, right? Um, uh, if you have a handicap placard and you park in park in the handicap spot cops aren't allowed to say to you hey what the fuck you look fine they're against the law and if you bring your dog on the plane they're like hey dude you don't look fucked up and you're like sorry service dog they're legally they can't say shit to you right there's like something in the law it's greg showed it to me one time like if you claim some sort of adaptive shit, you, you got the law on your side. You can just say anything.

And that's why, like when I was a kid, you never saw a dog anywhere. Now they're everywhere. People bring their dogs into restaurants, supermarkets. No one gives a shit. Um, but to enter the CrossFit games, you have to make a video. It was weird. I was looking for the spot in the video. She never does it where she would like hold up your foot and be like, look, this thing doesn't work.

I'm like, shake it back and forth or something. But she doesn't. No, that's funny. You know what I mean? Yeah. I do have I do have I'm unable to to move my my toes on my right foot. I'm unable to, to move my, my toes on my right foot. I saw that you, you, you're very coordinated. Actually, I was trying to do some of the stuff you were doing in the video, like that, the one-legged balance. And then you get on your tiptoes. That shit's hard. Yeah. But I, but I did see you try to do it on your, on your right side.

And that foot didn't want to like, I mean, you could still do it better than probably honestly, most 90% of the world, but, but you, you, it was nothing like your left side your left side was rocking yeah i have i do have a pretty um especially when i get the more fatigued i get drop foot pretty pretty significantly oh that's interesting is it because that's interesting because the muscles there get have gotten so much little attention from the brain to activate that they just don't have a lot of staying power. Yeah, so a lot of things that we worked on in physical therapy was trying to make my brain do things it's never done before. I mean, I honestly hopped on my right leg for the first time in physical therapy, like just this past year.

Wow. Wow. Yeah. It was pretty, it was pretty wild. Hey, you think you would ever be able to do a single under on one foot on your right foot?

Like jump rope with that right foot. Like just, you know what I mean? Like I'm assuming. And I did that last week for a warmup and I think I did four in a row. Holy shit. Pretty cool. Yeah.

Hey dude, do you think this is off subject here a little bit but do you think that if you would have started crossfit you think crossfit's like physically like i mean greg used to talk about this and so did start but you think you should have started crossfit like right away like as a form of physical therapy when you were three that would have been yeah beneficial for sure dude nuts uh hold on i gotta straighten ken walters out here ken walters one of my favorite in the um i gotta just rework some of the stuff he's saying one of my favorite in the posse this is amazing to learn more about the divisions uh that don't get much hype uh good on you and jr for getting her on to bring awareness i will definitely be watching adaptive

leaderboard for first time okay you said you and jr i thought you're giving jr jr doesn't even talk i would i didn't even know until like i'd like somehow be like wait did you say you're going to the game what are you going you're going to the games with an athlete i'd like squeeze this out of him this guy won't even tell me he he's on my show once a week he won't even tell me when the crash crucible is i he doesn't he doesn't talk he doesn't talk to me i did when i this, I ran to him. I go, I got to get her on. Well, it's been cool. Thanks, sir. Thanks for letting me do this.

Dude, you're a beast. Number one on the leaderboard. Plus, I'm attracted to winners. I want to have like all the – I like winners. I want to have all the like good people on the – Oh, Jedediah. Oh, maybe a toe spacer would help do you do toe spacers

I do not would you like some I know Mary over there okay cool will you I don't have your phone number will you get my phone number from GR and text me your address and I'll ask Mary from toe spacers to send you some

oh my god I cured my cerebral palsy from Toast Pacers. Holy shit. That's the only thing that can make you say that. But it's worth the 20 bucks for the spacers. That's cool. Thank you. You're a good dude. That's Jedediah.

Jedediah Snelson. The weird last name Snelson. Great guy. Great guy. What if his last name would have been Smelson? Smelson. JR, ever stink at the box you ever work with them and he smells and you're like if and if he did would you tell him would you be like dude you got you're crazy right would you tell us that smell is that you that stinks that's why

you change your shirt today would you tell him? I probably would. Yeah. Yeah. We're good friends. Hey, dude, you're right. Right? Isn't that the nice way of saying it? Yes.

Yes. Not you stink. Is he tall? People keep telling me he's tall. Is he tall? I don't think so. He's pretty average. So you send that video into CrossFit, and then they're like okay uh miss noelle we've seen your video and then she also sends in a piece of paper with it

yes yeah and she's like a signature and like a stamp official yeah yeah and that's it good to go yeah you had to wait for the the process and then to review all of the, there were several different tests, assessment tests they did. And we kind of, some of them we kind of laughed our way through it, you know, because it is, it makes you do awkward things. And yeah, she had to, we met once a week and she had to sign off on it saying that. a week and she had to um sign off on it saying that that's a that's a weird uh way to to measure you know like you want to be you want to qualify but then you like like you're saying like what if you're not adaptive enough or disabled enough hey we saw her foot bend yeah yeah yeah so that was it was different what do these other ladies got Do they got the same thing you do as cerebral palsy? Like the most common? Honestly, I'm not real sure. I'm not sure. I mean, again, I'm, I'm sure they have cool stories as well. And I can't wait to hear more about them, but I have not dug into their, their stories.

But someone could be a motorcycle accident uh yeah like someone could have like crashed and lost like their hand and their in their leg will you go against people who actually just have whole pieces missing um i i'm not sure i i don't know if these ladies these girls uh like i said i don't know enough about them to yeah but you could but you could yes um you didn't look up all their disabilities all their adaptive i have not oh that lady she's missing a leg i'm beating her oh no no i i know not not i don't have that attitude okay they're tough hey i'm gonna tell you something i don't know if you're gonna like like this or not. JR knows. He looked them all up already. He has a strategy for the girl missing a hand.

He has a strategy for the girl missing a foot. I think he's got better things to do than... Nah, nah, nah. He figured out your whole... He's figured out your whole... He knows every workout, how you're gonna do it um how do you um what about the whole uncomfortable part of crossfit um you're okay with that you're you're you're okay with the pain cave stuff that doesn't get exhausting for you that you haven't reached a point in your life where like hey this is too much i'm not I'm not there yet. I, um, I don't, I honestly, uh, this is kind of funny

because I don't love the pain cave. I don't love pushing myself that, that hard to, um, but I understand that that's how I need to be for the games. Um, and so we've done a lot of back-to-back workouts where you know the last little bit you have to sell your soul as i say to to get there and so i'm appreciating the pain cave more but i don't i don't love it you ever throw up i threw up one time at wadapalooza trying to to beat someone in front of me that wasn't even in my division. Oh, Oh, that's,

that's good. Wow. You are competitive. Crazy. And then I just kept walking past the finish line and just, yeah. That's the only time. What about cry?

You ever, you ever cry at the gym? You ever like push so hard and you just have an emotional no no i'm i'm very um thankful that i don't have um i love i love crossfit and i love working out but i don't i'm thankful that my identity is not in my performance um and no matter how i do i know i'm gonna do my I usually, I mean, leave most workouts with that, knowing that I did my best and that's all I can do. So not a whole lot of emotions wrapped up in my exercise ability. Hey, do you think a part of you is addicted to the competition part? I say a healthy addiction yeah yeah yeah yeah you like

it good for me yeah the tension the stress yeah the the the climax the release of okay i'm done like the accomplishment yeah yeah man you're brave dang will your mom and dad go they are they are going i'm really excited to have them there yeah that's cool all the athletes are crazy brave it's nuts okay you know you're gonna push harder and i guess you're about to push harder on some workouts than you even knew was possible this weekend yes you're gonna go to some spots some crazy spots explore some spots yeah yeah i mean i'm i'm nervous i'm i'm excited but i'm nervous you know i think that's the whole i think every athlete going is in the same same boat just wondering you know if you've done enough if you train the right

things if you've um but i also i know i need to look at this going the getting to the games was the goal when i've already i've already done that and so this is just the the icing was the goal and I've already done that. This is just the icing on the cake for sure of being there. When is Wheelwod? Wheelwod is in November or December. It's probably on Instagram. I need to check that out. Okay, so it's a good spot.

Why aren't you doing social media? I was really active on social media, um, a few years ago and then just, it just, I don't know. I feel like, like life is loud enough and chaotic enough. And I just don't, don't do well with extra, extra noise. And, um, I get stressed. Yeah. Shouldn't you be on there and be like, I'm Noel Henderson. I've had, um, extra extra noise and like it's stress yeah shouldn't you be on there and be like i'm noelle henderson i've had um cerebral palsy and like like being inspiration to other girls and and boys who have young and have cerebral palsy shouldn't you be like i don't know there's there isn't there like some cliche like shit you should be doing that but that's like

good yeah i mean and i do i do wrestle with with that with that thought of, you know, the more people that can, you know, I can talk about and be more comfortable with their disability and abilities, the better. But I'm just not great at being a tootin' my own horn. Like, you know, and I thought that's what a lot of social media is, and it is good. It is tootin' your own horn. It's your own people magazine. Like, you're like, yeah, look at my part but i mean and they are honestly the one who encouraged me to to get back on just for this this season of you know just to receive just to receive you know hear people say congratulations or your inspiration whatever um but i did i did add to my story your post about

me being on here today so i am getting better about posting some things that matter um did you did you um i asked jr like probably five times within a very short period like within like four hours i i think i probably called him text them and told them maybe on the podcast, Hey, I really want to get Noel Henderson on. Like I really wanted him to know that I wanted you on. Did you have any pushback where you're like, nah, I'm not really interested in like being on a podcast. Not verbal pushback. I didn't tell him. I told him, you know,

my response was sure. Um, but it was the initial, Oh gosh, I'm not, I'm not a good speaker. I'm not, you know, my story's not that great. Just that internal dialogue. But then I was also like, why not? You know, this is a time, this is part of the process of, you know, getting to where I am today. And, um, so no, I was, I was actually really excited to be, to be that you, that you, you know, had the opportunity to be on here. Thanks, and thanks for doing it.

I was filming with Jason Kalipa I remember one time, and he goes – this was early on. This was when the games were at the ranch, and he said something like, hey, I had to decide. There's only two ways to deal with the media. You accept it or it's just going to fucking ruin you. Right. And so like pushing back or avoiding it or whatever and and i'm not saying that staying off of social media is a bad thing in the slightest but i'm just talking about like at the games or or whatnot but it is a um i i i wonder if maybe it's then something you should approach social media because you do seem to want to deal tackle difficult things. Right. So you did go to a CrossFit gym when you didn't want to. At some point, I'm sure you're like, who talked you into being a coach? Tell me how that happened.

But did you also have pushback on that? You're like, I'm not coaching. Or did you want to coach? No, I mean, I wanted to coach. I went and got my level one and told JR I was getting it. And like anything that makes me better, he was for it. And so he coached me. Like I said, he's good at coaching our coaches on what he expects and how we can approach members. And I love it. I love coaching. How was the level one? Any, any issues? No, I passed it first time. And I told them up front, you know, I had TP and they, you know, said that, you know, my movements were, were good. And just the whole, it was, you know, when you have to go up there and demo in front of people and things that would – someone would may consider a no rep. I just – that was my good rep.

They pulled you into the center of the circle, and they did that with you? Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Wow. Yeah, it was. It was. It was good. Good experience. Good teaching experience for me. But also, I think that in a way, well, I do know that having CP now I know that it is a gift, but it is having it is very helpful in the coaching realm because I understand, you know, when someone I always say when I'm coaching if you have a you know limitation in moving or whatever you can i know more different scales to to keep the stimulus because i have i've had to do the same things so my um say that again no i'm saying it is it is beneficial to have cp in the crossfit coaching world oh right right right my my my wife did a um i was doing a video on some high school over the hill that there's many years ago in los gatos like 20 miles from me where they had adopted crossfit into their

uh part of their pe curriculum and while we were, my wife went with me while I was making the video. And there was a girl there in the class who had a CP. Um, um, my wife started talking to her. My wife's like befriended her and she's like, Hey, can I come back some other time and do a video on you? And she said, yeah. So my wife ended up doing this video on her for CrossFit. It's on, it's in the journal somewhere buried. And basically this girl shows up at high school with a helmet on and in a wheelchair and her whole life there was this like catering to her like hey because of your cp you can fall down and hurt yourself right and through doing crossfit at her pe high school she got out of her wheelchair and got to ditch her helmet yeah Yeah, that's awesome. And it's like, dude, like, I don't want to talk about being blind, but have you ever seen that? Like, I know if this is the way, but have you ever seen like blind people have those sticks?

Yeah. But then there's those blind people who do the sonar thing where they go. Have you seen those people? I haven't. No, I know what you're talking about but i haven't seen anyone they're they're free yeah we don't see them because there's not a lot of them but those people are free they don't got the stick they can ride a bike rollerblade they can do stuff they found a different way that may have been like the right way to do stuff and so like there's this

like benign thing that you're going to help someone with cp and you give them a wheelchair and a helmet and really just cut their life short yeah Yeah. That's what I, yeah. I mean, I think that, um, I have, you know, like I said, I was never told growing up that I couldn't do anything. And then when I got to CrossFit, no one told me you shouldn't do that. They just showed me a different, different way to do the same thing. Um same thing, like JR coaching or other coaches when I first started. So, yeah, I mean, I understand. That's awesome that that girl was able to do things differently and better. Like if someone was trying to protect you, you might have atrophied into just a little ball of fuzz right now.

Yeah, I think the best thing I did was put on roller skates at three years old, honestly. Yeah, you did that? You did that? I did was put on roller skates at three years old, honestly. Yeah. You did that? You did that? I did. Yeah. Crazy. Hey, is your left leg kind of weird strong? It's strong.

Glassman got a weird strong leg, like a quad that's like a hammer. Yeah. I mean, he can just do a pistol. He's 68 years old. He can still do a pistol like it's nothing. Yeah. My pistols are really good on my left side. Yeah.

Big old calf on there too. Big old ball-y calf. Yeah, it's a lot bigger. I used to say, you know, when I was on social media and was posting a good bit, I would like hashtag left side, strong side. Because it was, and then like my right side is like my shaky leg or, you know, something, something funny, but my right side has gotten way, way stronger. And for the longest time, I wouldn't, when I first started CrossFit, I wouldn't, I wouldn't get sore on my right side

at all. Like it wouldn't, it wouldn't get sore because I wasn't using it a lot, but since PT, all like it wouldn't it wouldn't get sore because i wasn't using it a lot but since pt um i have to give credit to that um just using my right side more i get super excited when i do a workout and my i'm sore on my right side like my right you know hamstring or right quad or right bicep is sore and i you know thankfully both sides are sore do you do um do you remind yourself now that you can use your right side like if you're going upstairs you'll be like and you used to always drive with your left foot you'll be like nah nah nah right yeah in the mix you're gonna drive now every time yeah lunges are one of the hardest movements for me um simple you know but having to pause and say okay now right now right side work, you know,

push off on your right side. Um, and so I'm slower at them, but I'm definitely more mindful of, of them and, um, making sure that, cause my left side, it does get, it gets really tired really fast. Cause it's like box box jumps anything that's a lot of um bounding double unders whatever um my right side my left side takes a lot of the grunt work and so having um jen my pt really focus on using my right side has been very helpful are you right-handed or left-handed? Left-handed. It's funny now.

Some of my friends are like, I didn't know you're left-handed. I'm like, yeah, I've been that way my whole life. And if something ever happens to my left side, I think we're in trouble. Hey, what if you – are you sure you're left-handed? Maybe you're right-handed, but you just never knew. Yeah, you just never got to. So you had to figure it out. Using a spoon while eating with my right hand is not the same, though.

It's crazy. Like you put the oatmeal in your eye. Yeah. Hey, do you have a crazy strong left hand, too? Like are you a good arm wrestler, left-handed arm wrestler from overuse? I probably would be. Never done it, but yeah, probably would be. You got good hand strength when you shake people's hands?

They're like, oh, yeah, that's a nice hand. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Grip is definitely, uh, different from right hand to left hand. Yeah. How about, uh, how about when, uh, things like just simple tasks, like, uh, if you were drinking water, would you have always used your left hand and now you do CrossFit, you

force yourself to use your right hand? Yep. I do. You're a good dude. Damn. I do. Hey, I, I hope, uh, I hope i get a chance to meet you at the games oh yeah for sure thank you so much for coming on um yeah thank you it's been fun yeah uh yeah you're you're you're killing it i don't know i want to tell you like hey you should post more on social media but i also like to fuck social media like

good on you so i don't know what i just noticed that that my um i probably did my name at the bottom of the screen wrong i probably you probably were expecting my instagram name and not noel henderson it's it's weird it's it's a mix of people who who do it is this yeah like i should if someone like if if if if Sousa were here or something, he would have he would have figured it out. Let me see. Is it is it that? Yep. There you go. Look at that magic. I should take that. I think I can even do this like fancy now that the podcast is over. I'll fix it. Look fancy. I think I have fix it. Yeah. Look.

I think I have it backwards. That's okay. Thank you. Will you guys head out soon? A couple days? Sunday, yeah. Okay, sweet. All right. Congratulations. Tell JR what's up, and I hope I run into you.

I'll see you there, for sure. Okay. Thanks. Ciao, Noel. Thank you. Bye. what's up and uh um i hope i run into you i'll see you there for sure okay thanks ciao noel thank you bye so on podcast i want it to be anything but crossfit and yet it's all it is is crossfit jedi snelson will be on the show tonight kenneth some opportunities not the same though mainly because of coverage i believe oh were Were you guys talking about sponsorships? Listen, don't get weird. Until there's a Daniel Brandon in the adaptive class.

Sub on adaptive athletes and master's athletes get the same sponsorship opportunities as elite indies. Could be an untapped potential. You know, the old people for sure could be untapped. There's a lot of money there if you can figure out a way to do it. Noelle's pretty cool. Oh, I need to tell JR to – I want to send JR a text right now and get her address. Toe spacers. Toe spacers.

JR. I wonder if they ever sent Ty Emery toe spacers JR can I have can you send me L's address

I am going to try and get those pieces. It's okay. Sorry, Seve. I was was late I went to the gym you can always go to the gym instead of watch the show and for lunch unacceptable fuck lunch

I gotta see something really quick quad zombie quick quad zombie quad zombie i want to see something all right um i'm sure the what are we looking forward to tonight? Mr. Walters, we are going to bring your phones to the show tonight.

We're going to sign up for the gambling app, the fitness app, the distinct Tyler Watkins has been working on forever. It's finally launched. You got over a thousand people signed up already. I think it's easy. I think it, I think it might even be like old man, seven on proof. Basically you pull your phone up and then you choose who you're going to win

you can follow along for the weekend it'll make the games more um more more fun because you'll have some skin in the game a heat one kenneth delap knows heat one app okay and so is kyle and so nice boys kyle look at you with the boys and um so we're gonna do that and um we'll have a new guy on the show jedediah let's see if he can hang uh we had pedro on last week pedro could hang what a funny guy wow he was funny and um uh brian will be here andrew hiller will be here it's gonna be a wild group i'm sure we'll i'm sure j poor jason smith's name will come up that'll be interesting with hiller on here to see um what hiller thinks um and uh i don't know if john young's been invited to that show he be. He's kind of like the staple of the show.

I don't know, but it's going to be a fun show. I'm going to watch Dave's Week in Review. Oh, Dennis Teixeira. Are you related to Glover Teixeira? Side profile is strikingly handsome dude i'm i'm on this crazy regiment right now i'll tell you guys when i'm done with um i feel like i look different my head feels i feel like i'm getting like one of those like tiny bobble heads no not related to glover all right okay so 6 30 p.m tonight oh let me tell you what's happening tomorrow tomorrow's kind of not games related i have great glassman on in the morning

oh and then a crossfit prediction oh the, the final, the CrossFit Games prediction show. Oh, man, that's going to be gnarly. Big old pipe hitters, spinning young. I wonder if Hiller is going to make it on. That's going to be fun. Okay. I don't know. I don't know. I want to talk about the UFC

but I'm ready I'm trying to get away from the podcast for a second because I need to pack I'm really stressing about packing to make sure I have all the right gear but man the UFC stuff is going to be amazing hey I don't say this to you guys very often but you should share this show

the Noel Henderson show it's cool because or you should share this show uh the noel henderson show it's cool uh because or you should leave a comment and uh and uh and a like and it's cool because of this it's cool for a bunch of reasons uh because she's legit um because she's well spoken uh because she's competing at the games uh because uh she's our um homeboys uh student uh client jr howell um you should really if you're going to share a podcast with someone if you think there's some value in it share it with this one make a comment down there and like this one i know i i i feel very comfortable telling you about this one i really uh like her it's good and it's good it's it's it's healthy for the soul to uh be aware of people like her who are doing things that people who have were who don't have heard the imposed limitation that

she was she was born with she's doing she's still in the one percent of one percenters out there performing so all right uh noelle was a great guest. Thank you, Barry. See you guys tonight, 6.30 p.m. Bye-bye.