"After doing so well at regionals this year, I made a goal to maybe make the podium at the Games. I think that it's attainable."
After three years of top-10 finishes at the South East Regional, Emily Bridgers finally qualified for the CrossFit Games.
In her fourth year, she didn’t just make it onto the podium—she made it to the top.
In Bridgers’ first appearance at the South East Regional in 2011, she finished in ninth place. It was the former competitive gymnast’s first CrossFit competition, and it only made her hungrier for the next year.
To her disappointment, Bridgers returned to regionals in 2012 where she finished fourth, just shy of the podium. The heavy weight in Event 2—135-lb. hang cleans—and Event 3—70-lb. dumbbell snatches—proved to be her downfall.
She and her longtime coach, Ben Benson, parted ways after regionals that year, and Bridgers moved to a new box, CrossFit Rx. Throughout the summer, she searched for a new coach, even traveling to Scottsdale, Arizona, to train with Max El-Hag and James FitzGerald.
Later that year, she and Benson reunited. Not only did he start coaching her again, but the two also began dating.
Everything seemed poised to go Bridgers’ way heading into the 2013 South East Regional. She was pleased with her training, as well as her relationship with Benson.
But once again, heavy weight stopped her in her tracks. A couplet of 205-lb. deadlifts and box jumps—an event she had struggled with at the 2011 regional—made a return. In 2011, she placed 16th on the event; in 2013, she placed 28th. Once again, Bridgers failed to make the podium.
“One thing we didn’t really tell anyone was that she really hurt her neck about six weeks before regionals,” Benson said. “That really played heavily into her results that year.”
The injury occurred on a handstand push-up during a training session, and, according to a chiropractor she saw after regionals, it affected her ability to activate her quads on squat cleans. Bridgers finished 17th on Event 7, a couplet of rope climbs and 135-lb. squat cleans.
She ended up finishing the weekend in fifth place overall.
After regionals, she joined Team CrossFit Rx on their trip to the CrossFit Games, where they placed 28th. Going to the Games on a team only fueled Bridgers’ fire to make it as an individual.
“It made me realize that I needed to train for individual or train for a team,” Bridgers said. “It was great to be at the Games, but truly I wanted to be there as an individual.”
During the offseason, she competed in several local competitions, including WODapalooza where she took fourth place behind Sam Briggs, Talayna Fortunato and Emily Friedman. It made her think maybe she could qualify for the Games if only she believed in herself.
“Do you have any doubt in your mind that you’re not as good as someone else? Because if you do, you’re going to let them beat you,” Bridgers said. “But if you know you can beat somebody, then you can do it, but you have to believe it.”
She held onto that confidence throughout the 2014 South East Regional and walked away with four event wins and two second-place finishes. Her worst finish was seventh on the hang squat snatch (165 lb.)
“I would’ve been happy being top three, but once I was in that first-place position, I did not want to let that go,” Bridgers said.
She ended the weekend with only 15 points to her name. Talayna Fortunato, who for the past two years finished regionals in first place, had 24 points to take second place. Lauren Brooks finished with 38 points in third.
This year, for the first time, the CrossFit community saw Bridgers is more than just an athlete who excels in the Open. She can deal with the heavier weights and higher-skilled movements at regionals, too.
“This was the most athletic regionals I’ve seen, and I think it tested a lot of skill,” Benson said. “I think if you’re going to the Games, you should have skills. You should have a lot of skills. It shouldn't just be who’s the strongest person, and you see those people not do well at the Games because their skills aren’t well-rounded.”
To prepare for the 2014 regional, Benson redesigned his Squat Mafia program, putting more emphasis on high-level, high-density skill work and less on volume and fatigue-based workouts.
“Something that I think has been lacking in CrossFit is that there is such a heavy emphasis on weightlifting and building strength before you develop the gymnastics skills, when it should be the exact opposite of that,” Benson said. “You should be able to know how to control your own body weight in space before you start moving heavy weight around you in space.”
The change in his programming paid off. Her first-place finishes in Events 2, 3, 4 and 5 all involved a high-level gymnastics skill: a handstand walk, muscle-ups, strict handstand push-ups and ring dips.
The only event in which she placed outside of the top two was Event 1, the hang snatch, where she tied for seventh place with a weight of 165 lb. In the past, the event may have held her back, but Bridgers has been consistently building her strength. At the same time, she has also continued to develop her gymnastics skills in her training, even transitioning from a kipping to a butterfly pull-up over the past year.
“When I (sat) there and (watched) the Games for the past two years, I (felt) like I could go out there and possibly win an event or be competitive in most of the events with the other girls, when it was just one thing at regionals that got me, which is what everyone is saying happened to them,” Bridgers said. “So in that aspect, I feel like while I’ve been training to keep up strength-wise, everyone else needed to be training to keep up gymnastics-wise, and that’s what maybe some people haven’t done as much as focusing on their lifts.”
Now that the regional is behind her, she has started to set some goals for herself at the Games.
“After doing so well at regionals this year, I made a goal to maybe make the podium at the Games,” Bridgers said. “I think that it’s attainable.”
“Each year I’ve become not only more confident, but more well rounded,” she continued. “The last couple years have provided me with huge learning opportunities to grow from and continue to push my limits. I’m not saying I don’t have any weaknesses, but I would like to believe this year I’m going in with no glaring weaknesses and can be consistent across the board.”
CrossFit Terminus, which Bridgers and Benson opened in the fall of 2013, has become her training haven. Along with Sonya McMillan and Allison Brager, who finished the South East Regional seventh and 22nd, respectively, she has started working toward her goal of making it on the podium.
“Ben kind of gave (McMillan and Brager) a choice after regionals,” Bridgers said. “They decided that they want to train me (and) push me, and they obviously want to train for next year. They’re training along with me.”
For the Games, Benson plans to incorporate more endurance workouts into her training because he anticipates a four-hour endurance event, specifically a ruck march with a sandbag. He is also expecting to see muscle-ups into ring handstand push-ups.
Bridgers is thinking a little more outside the box, even throwing out the idea of a back tuck as a possible move she could be asked to perform.
“I’m comfortable in the water,” Bridgers said. “Strongman stuff makes me nervous. Most gymnasts don’t know how to play ball sports, but I had a brother. I grew up playing everything—golf, softball, tennis and swimming. I’m not a basketball player. That would not be good.”
Her busy social schedule this summer has made training for the Games more difficult.
“I regret being so social sometimes,” Bridgers jokes. “It seems like I’m way different than most Games athletes just in the sense that I’ve tried to have a life outside of the gym.”
She has been a bridesmaid in two weddings this year, and even though she drops into boxes to train, it is never as effective of a training session as it would be at CrossFit Terminus.
“They’re not dead days, but they’re not days that she’ll be training at 100 percent,” Benson said. “It’s not the same environment for her. We have a four-hour training session because she gets distracted and talks to everyone, when it should have been a two-hour session.”
Another struggle she’s encountered is that her family doesn’t do CrossFit.
“My mom sometimes doesn’t quite understand my life,” Bridgers said. “Ben tried to explain that (going to the CrossFit Games) could potentially be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but she still has a hard time understanding.”
In spite of everything, Bridgers has the opportunity to prove to everyone—from those who have supported her to those who have doubted her—she truly belongs at the CrossFit Games. Even though it is her rookie year as an individual, both she and Benson have the same goal in mind: the podium.
“It’s not just making it to the Games,” Benson said. “It’s going to the Games and competing in the Games. Tenth place is not where we want to be. We want to be on that podium.”
