Training with one of the world’s fittest
For what it’s worth, I’ve come to the conclusion that Jamie Greene absolutely deserves her title as one of the fittest women on Earth.
Even a brief period of time with the Abu Dhabi-based Kiwi CrossFit champion is enough to leave me wondering if she is, in fact, just a little superhuman.
The human body just isn’t supposed to move like that, I tell myself while watching her fling herself up and into the air via two flimsy hanging rings.
Greene completes five without breaking a sweat, genuinely amused at my unrelenting adulation.
Greene is back in the UAE having just claimed a bronze medal at the annual CrossFit Games in the United States.
The 28-year-old finished third in the overall women’s standings at the four-day event held in Wisconsin, which is often described as the most gruelling fitness competition on Earth.
But there’s no kicking back with a pizza and a lie-in for Greene. When I arrive at the gym she coaches and trains at, Vogue Fitness on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island, she greets me as she staggers by without stopping, panting and sweaty.
She’s dragging 20 kilograms in weights behind her, tied around her waist, and an 18kg medicine ball in her arms.
Greene has lived, worked and trained at this gym in Abu Dhabi for the past five years. In that time, she’s gone from something of a CrossFit rookie to a true force to be reckoned with on the world stage. Perhaps it was a natural pivot for the former gymnast and rugby player from Dunedin who once wanted nothing more than to become a Black Fern.
In 2014, Greene won the Dubai Fitness Challenge, which set her on a trajectory to roam alongside the fitness greats.
After making her debut at the CrossFit Games in the team event in 2016, where her side placed third, Greene subsequently competed as an individual, placing eighth and then 11th the past two years. So this year’s bronze medal was understandably a career highlight.
‘‘It was pretty cool, I don’t get emotional about things like that but crossing that finish line was pretty special. All the hard work had paid off.’’
Greene doesn’t seem particularly impressed at her maximum squat weight, 145kg, and her deadlift of 156.5kg, but her next anecdote makes me even greener around the gills.
In the 2016 CrossFit Open, she posted a blistering time of 7 minutes 20 seconds for a workout of thrusters and burpees over the bar. Competitors had to complete 21 of each, then 18, then 15, each set decreasing by three, in the fastest time.
The only problem was, Greene’s partner (now fiance), Elliot Simmonds, had set up the camera wrong, meaning most of the workout wasn’t captured – so she had to repeat it.
With three days’ recovery time, Greene repeated the exercise – three seconds faster.
So how do you condition yourself to endure such endless physical torture?
A day in the life of Greene and Simmonds begins around 7am or 8am, when they then kick about with a coffee for a bit while deciding how to spend their day.
After that, they’ll both head for the gym. ‘‘If I’ve had breakfast we’ll train for an hourand-a-half to two hours, if I haven’t, maybe only one hour,’’ she says.
After her first workout, Greene will have breakfast and do some admin for a couple of hours, before returning to the gym for a three- or four-hour bout of training.
After that, she’ll ‘‘train a bit and eat a bit’’, teach a couple of classes at Vogue, shower and then finally sleep. It’s relaxed and regimented, similar to her eating plan.
On any given day, Greene will eat six to seven meals (not all of them big) from a food delivery service. Breakfast consists of oats and eggs usually, and throughout the day the meals tend to be a mixture of rice, fish and vegetables. Interspersed within that are a few snacks and post-workout shakes.
It seems like a lot of work, I remark. Surely she must want to just throw it all in and relax a bit? ‘‘Nah, definitely not now, anyway. I love it,’’ she says. ‘‘I’m happy doing this for a few more years.’’
She isn’t exactly sure where those ‘‘few more years’’ will take place, but it’s likely to be Abu Dhabi, she says. While she really wants to move back to Otago, specifically Wa¯ naka, she says CrossFit comes first for a while, as she and Simmonds ‘‘build a brand we can take with us afterwards’’.