"It is important as a mum to invest time in yourself, just like you invest time in your partner and your child, because if you're not looking after yourself then you can't be a good mum."
Heading into the 2014 season, Denae Brown’s goals were to compete at the CrossFit Games as an individual and not get pregnant.
So far, she is on track to achieve both goals.
After a recent first-place finish at the 2014 Australia Regional, Brown has secured an individual appearance at the StubHub Center in July. And at this stage, she is still yet to become pregnant.
For those who have followed Brown’s story since her third-place finish at the 2012 Australia Regional, her need for those two goals to align is understood.
Just before the 2012 Games, Brown found out she was pregnant and subsequently withdrew from competition. She then took the 2013 season off after giving birth to her daughter and focused on being a mother.
At the time, she was unsure if she would return to competition at the same level, and seemed resigned that her fittest days were behind her. However, Brown’s performance at this year’s regional is reason to believe she is now even fitter than she was in 2012.
The 34-year-old finished the weekend with seven top-10 finishes.
“I know that going in, for the girls, it was definitely about consistency,” Brown said. “You really have to be consistent because anything could have happened.”
“Going into that last workout there were so many good girls that, worst case scenario, if I’d finished outside of the top 13 in that workout I would have lost the podium. While the Australian guys are phenomenal, the Australian girls are fierce. It’s just so tight and at any point, it was anyone’s.”
In the lead up to the 2014 season Brown focused heavily on her Olympic lifting, a shift away from her gymnastics strengths. So the strong emphasis on gymnastics movements in the regional events was both a blessing and a curse.
“I hadn’t been doing those (gymnastics) movements, just focusing on my Olympic lifting and the gymnastics movements in part had been put to the side,” Brown said.
“I can’t remember the last time I did pistols before that weekend. Dan (Williams) had me doing variations of them in my programming which assisted, but it was Murphy’s Law,” she said.
The increased strength carried over well for the regional events, however, and Brown credited her coach Dan Williams for noticing some weaknesses in her movement patterns.
“He helped to balance my body out. For example, my strict press isn’t very good so I was working on that with Rob (Downton) and Dan (Williams) which carried over well to the strict handstand push-ups,” she said.
With Brown’s 2012 trip to the Games called off due to pregnancy, steps have been taken to ensure nothing holds her 2014 trip back.
“I’ve sent my partner away to Italy and he’ll meet me in L.A.,” Brown said. “I’m making sure that’s not happening because I’m not doing this again. I’m not coming back again, it’s too hard.”
With her partner overseas, Brown will be relying on the support and guidance of her different coaches and sponsors.
“I’m lucky to be able to have access to resources and really good people,” Brown said.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and not going last time taught me to appreciate when things happen because it could never happen again.”
With the programming for the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games still unknown, there is a lot of anticipation on what CrossFit Games Director Dave Castro will announce.
In previous years, Castro has unveiled a number of events that are often quite difficult to train specifically for.
As a result, Brown is doing her best to prepare for the unknown.
“The workouts may suit me or they may not suit me, and there’s so many variables with going overseas, the jetlag and the heat,” Brown said. “I’ll control what I can control and go over knowing that whatever happens, I tried.”
For Brown, the biggest distraction at the Games may be the other athletes.
“I think I’m going to get really star-struck,” she said.
With Canada East’s Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet’s sponsor, BSN, coming onboard to help out with Brown’s trip to Carson, California, a possible photo shoot between the two athletes has been touted, and Brown said she would be the envy of everyone if it came off.
“I’m actually a big fan of Julie Foucher and Sam Briggs, though I know she won’t be there … I’m a big fan of Rich Froning and Josh Bridges, as well, so I’m going to have to be closing my jaw all the time,” Brown said.
“I’m just going to soak up the whole experience because … I know I can’t compete forever, so I’m going to enjoy it while I can,” she added.
In the few weeks that separate the regionals and the Games, Brown said she will continue to work on increasing her strength.
“Being a smaller athlete, when you get something high reps that is a moderate to heavy weight I can’t go as well as those athletes that are 10 kg (22 lb.) heavier than me, so it’s always about increasing strength while keeping my other skills,” she said.
“It’s been a good foundation for me and it’s helped to prevent injury,” she added.
While Brown rates her strength as her weakness, her lung capacity has been a lifelong strength.
“Leading into the Open, I did mostly strength sessions, and two cardio sessions and two lung-capacity sessions per week,” she said.
“When they had something lung-ier come up in the Open, it didn’t pull me down at all. You can’t get good at everything all at once unless you’re Rich Froning. There’s always an exception to the rule, but you have to pick your battles and slowly work on each bit.”
Despite the podium finish, the medal and the ‘Proven’ T-shirt she earned at the regional, Brown remains in shock about her outstanding return to professional competition.
“I’m still pinching myself,” she said. “It’s been a really tough year and it feels really good to have the hard work pay off.”
“Now I can say to myself, ‘I’m fit.’ I had a successful weekend, I stuck to my plans in the workouts and they were suited to a gymnastics-strength based person so they were in my wheelhouse. Some things are meant to be.”
Brown’s rapid return to the top has been an inspiration for female athletes around the world—especially those returning after pregnancy, and Brown said it’s important to have fun.
“There’s a quote: ‘Don’t take life too seriously because no one gets out alive,’ and the beauty of kids is that the time in the gym is your time,” she said.
“It is important as a mum to invest time in yourself, just like you invest time in your partner and your child, because if you’re not looking after yourself then you can’t be a good mum.”
