"This year at regionals, I truly felt like I had to draw on everything I have learned in training for the past five years to succeed."
Don’t let the last name fool you—second-place Mid Atlantic Regional finisher Christy Adkins is no rookie. Games veteran Adkins (nee Phillips) tied the knot with Tim Adkins on September 21, 2013. This year, she’ll be sporting “Adkins” on her jersey for her sixth trip to the CrossFit Games.
“I just watched the video of Julie Foucher visiting the Reebok warehouse where our Games shirts are being printed and I was excited to see that our name is going to be on the front and back now,” she said. “That is great timing with my married name change. I will have ‘Adkins’ front and center on my shirt!”
Her husband added: “I still think it’s awesome when she calls and I see the new name on the caller ID. It’s cool that our family name will be on the shirt this year, but I learned at regionals that I still yell ‘C.P.’ in the heat of the moment.”
The race was tight at this year’s regional, as Games vets Anna Tunnicliffe and Emily Friedman were now competing in the Mid Atlantic Region. Adkins finished the weekend just 6 points behind first-place Gretchen Kittelberger, proving Adkins’ years of experience and devotion paid off.
“This year at regionals, I truly felt like I had to draw on everything I have learned in training for the past five years to succeed. For example, I worked on strict handstand push-ups in 2009 and 2010 and then most of us switched to learning the skill of kipping in 2011. Through that whole time, I was working on building my overall strength, especially upper body and pressing strength,” Adkins explained.
“Similarly, it’s taken years of practice in the Olympic lifts, body-weight movements, handstand walking, etc., just to get proficient at them. So the elements tested in regionals were testing the layers and layers of CrossFit training experience that I have put in over the years.”
Adkins attributes her success this year to being mentally stronger and more prepared for anything due to her extensive support group. Aside from her husband and family, Adkins surrounds herself with a team of coaches: John Main, Melody Feldman, Cara Heads, Rebekka Ellman; and training partners such as fellow regional competitors, Kittelberger and Teresa Luz.
“Knowing that I have all of that support and expertise behind me gives me an unbelievable feeling of gratitude and confidence,” Adkins said.
She realized self-confidence also plays a large role in her success.
“Being more confident in my abilities and able to own my weaknesses … with the help of my coaches, I’ve been able to not only survive workouts that have former weaknesses, but thrive in them,” she said.
Kittelberger elaborated that differences in strengths and weaknesses is a benefit of training together, as they are able to help each other improve.
“We have a great dynamic where we both want to push really hard and of course win competitions or workouts, but at the same time we both genuinely want the other person to succeed,” Kittelberger said. “As much as I want to be on the podium at regionals and the Games, I also want Christy to be there with me.”
Luz said Adkins often schedules their “lady throwdowns” and said it’s an honor to train with Adkins who shows consistency year after year.
“She trains exactly how she competes on the floor. I think it’s one of the reasons she is such a successful athlete,” Luz said.
Adkins is managing being a newlywed along with training and a full-time career as a ballet school nurse.
“I have no idea how she balances it all,” Main said of his athlete. “She’s a part of the shrinking group of top competitors who can’t commit every moment of the day to the gym.”
Tim said, as a couple, that, as a couple, he and Adkins have contemplated her leaving nursing to focus on training and bring her closer to reaching her goal of winning the CrossFit Games. But Adkins refuses. She said she feels energized by her career and relationships she’s able to foster through it.
Her students also keep her feeling grounded.
“The students at the school where I work love ballet as much as I and the members of any CrossFit box love CrossFit,” Adkins said. “When they aren’t dancing, they are watching YouTube videos of dancers, practicing in the hallways and stretching while they do homework. So the cool factor of me doing CrossFit just doesn’t do it for them. But I did have some parents this fall mention excitedly that they saw me on ESPN from the 2013 Games.”
Making the Games hasn’t lost any allure for Adkins.
“Each year making it back to compete means that much more to me,” she said. “I happily devote a majority of my time in the year to training and preparing. It is so great for that prep to pay-off with another trip back to California. There’s a world of difference between saying you’re good enough to be on the podium and going out there and doing it. I haven’t hung in there for a whole weekend yet and proven myself to be the best. I am looking forward to seeing what the tests of fitness will be this year and testing my limits once again.”
Main said he believes Adkins has all the characteristics of a champion.
“Christy works incredibly hard,” he said. “She’s a fighter, a true competitor, and she loves this sport and our community. In those ways, nothing has changed. Venues move, events are invented and innovated, the field grows exponentially, and talented competitors come and go, but Christy tops all of those challenges every year, feeling more grateful, more fortunate than ever.”
He doesn’t question how Adkins balances married life and her training.
He joked: “As long as (Tim) keeps her full on steak and sweet potatoes, I don’t need to know how she manages it all.”
