Noelle Henderson (00:00):
I can’t hear you.
Sevan Matossian (00:01):
Oh, you can’t. Bam. We’re live. Maybe go to settings. If you can’t hear me, I don’t even know why I’m talking. Hi Bruce. Hi Barry.
Noelle Henderson (00:13):
I can’t hear anything. Let me see if I can.
Sevan Matossian (00:19):
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. Technical issues.
Noelle Henderson (00:41):
Let me try to get off of these.
Sevan Matossian (00:43):
Oh yeah. Smart. Yeah. How’s that? Better, ma? 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 got to click the mute button. Let see if I can tell her in private chat. 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? I couldn’t hear her. You can hear her? Can you guys hear me? Nope. No, you can’t hear her? No. Alright, we’re patient. Oh yeah.
Noelle Henderson (01:31):
Okay. I can hear you.
Sevan Matossian (01:33):
Oh, awesome. And I can hear you. You went into the settings and changed your microphone. I
Noelle Henderson (01:39):
Did. I did
Sevan Matossian (01:41):
Money. Nice job. Hey, how old are you?
Noelle Henderson (01:44):
I’m 37.
Sevan Matossian (01:46):
Oh, you look young.
Noelle Henderson (01:48):
Yeah. I get that a lot.
Sevan Matossian (01:49):
Yeah. You look young for a second. I seriously thought maybe you could be in the teen division.
Noelle Henderson (01:54):
Oh gosh.
Sevan Matossian (01:55):
That’s crazy. Do you have kids?
Noelle Henderson (01:58):
I do not. I do
Sevan Matossian (01:59):
Not. Okay, well that’s why you haven’t aged. Hey, congratulations. You’re going to the CrossFit games. Crazy. Noelle crazy.
Noelle Henderson (02:09):
It is pretty wild. I’m super excited.
Sevan Matossian (02:12):
And your coach is my homeboy. Jr Howell.
Noelle Henderson (02:16):
Yes. Super glad. Super thankful for that.
Sevan Matossian (02:19):
Yeah. How long have you known him?
Noelle Henderson (02:23):
Since I started my first gym was crash in 2015. So we’ve been together on this CrossFit journey for a while.
Sevan Matossian (02:34):
Yeah, nine years since you were 28. Yeah. Noah 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?
Noelle Henderson (02:47):
I’m not sure. I’m not sure why it’s number one there, but I did finish overall in first in the open to that.
Sevan Matossian (02:56):
And so you go straight from the open to the games?
Noelle Henderson (03:00):
Yeah. Yeah. It’s been a lots of training since March.
Sevan Matossian (03:08):
Yeah. Like crazy anticipation. So when you do the open, is your intention to go to the games, Noel?
Noelle Henderson (03:17):
Yeah. I mean, I’ve been trying for the games for I guess three years now since it started. I’ve been that bubble athlete for the past two years. And one of my good friends told me, if you’re going to go, let’s go stop being on the bubble. I finished, I think in fifth, the first year that adaptive went to the games and then seventh last year. And so my intention this year was to not be on the bubble. So
Sevan Matossian (03:45):
That’s what we did. So 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?
Noelle Henderson (03:58):
Yeah, the adaptive division just started in 2021 was the first year.
Sevan Matossian (04:04):
And what does that mean? The adaptive division? It’s adaptive divisions right there. There’s a bunch of ’em that fall into the category. Right, okay.
Noelle Henderson (04:12):
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.
Sevan Matossian (04:33):
Okay. I have such, I don’t know what the word is. I dunno if sympathy is the word. Probably not sympathy, but respect for anyone who has to make these categories. So people are born and there’s dudes and there’s girls, and then there’s ages because we got the earth circling the sun kind of shit. We can do that. But this thing, trying to figure out how to put people into adaptive, it’s crazy because
Noelle Henderson (05:03):
Yes,
Sevan Matossian (05:04):
There’s so many different variations on it, right? It’s like there’s a gazillion, but there’s got to be, say that again.
Noelle Henderson (05:11):
I’m definitely not envious of that job, but they’ve done a great job recently in trying to make it, I guess I hate the word fair, but trying to make it fair for everyone that’s able to be in this division.
Sevan Matossian (05:26):
And I’m guessing, I don’t know this, and maybe you don’t know either, but 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? Like, Hey, just got missing a little bit of your finger.
Noelle Henderson (05:42):
Right? That’s
Sevan Matossian (05:43):
Correct. And then there’s someone else will be like, are you saying I’m not adaptive enough? And it’s just a fucking mess.
Noelle Henderson (05:49):
Yes. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (05:50):
Damn. There’s all of that. I don’t envy that. Envy. That’s the word. I don’t envy that. That’s a tough, you’re never going to win that. You’re never ever going to win that. No.
Noelle Henderson (05:59):
No, you’re not.
Sevan Matossian (06:00):
Yeah. Okay. And then to help, I want to go back for your athletic journey, but to try to figure out exactly yours is, so you’re saying yours went from neuromuscular, so what’s that mean? Your brain can’t control your muscles.
Noelle Henderson (06:15):
So 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 brain and muscles. And with, I have cerebral palsy on my right side. That affects my whole right side. 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. And that caused
Sevan Matossian (06:52):
How long is too long?
Noelle Henderson (06:55):
I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ll have to find that out for sure.
Sevan Matossian (06:58):
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? Yes. Oh, okay.
Noelle Henderson (07:03):
Yes. Which because of that, parts of my brain were paralyzed, which is how you get cerebral palsy, the term cerebral palsy. And so it does affect neuromuscular. So that’s how I fit that category. But then when they changed the division and CrossFit to multi extremity, since my cerebral palsy does affect more than one extremity, that’s how I qualified for the same division.
Sevan Matossian (07:39):
And yours is just on your right side, so from your right arm and your right leg.
Noelle Henderson (07:47):
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,
Sevan Matossian (07:59):
Me too. I must have had that one too.
Noelle Henderson (08:02):
But yeah, it’s mostly tone, muscle tone and my joints, my wrist is a lot weaker. A lot of my ankle, my hip, my right hip, right elbow and shoulder. So it’s mostly just the major joints on my right side are affected and the right muscles don’t fire. So a lot of overcompensation on my left side actually is,
Sevan Matossian (08:33):
Let me try to put it in layman’s terms. Basically the way we understand the way that 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, pick my coffee up and drink it. And some of your signals to the right side of your body from there to there aren’t working, got broken, actually stopped working. Is your left side, 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. Does that get better as you get older? Does your brain, is it good that it happened to you when you were little so that you have as your left side of your brain developed? It can be like, oh shit, we got some extra work to do.
Noelle Henderson (09:18):
Yes. I’m not sure the scientific answer of that, but I think that would be, yeah, I don’t know any different. It wasn’t like I lost anything because I was just born this way, and so,
Sevan Matossian (09:31):
All
Noelle Henderson (09:32):
Right. It’s all I know.
Sevan Matossian (09:35):
Yeah, tribute. Okay. I’m guessing as a CrossFitter, have you been an athlete your whole life?
Noelle Henderson (09:45):
Yes. It is kind of funny. When I was preparing just what I was going to tell this story growing up, I have vivid memories of being super active with my siblings and my cousins. And no one ever told me that I couldn’t do anything. I grew up on the lake, water skiing, tubing, knee boarding, 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 started roller skating when I was three, and looking back now, I’m super thankful that no one, my cousins, my siblings, my family, no one told me like, Hey, you can’t do that because you have this or that. I just did it. I didn’t even know, actually. I didn’t really know until CrossFit, that the way that I did things were looked a lot different or just done differently. And so, yeah, super
Sevan Matossian (10:49):
Active. You weren’t like six years old and you looked at your hand and looked at someone else’s hand and was like, Hey mom, what’s up with that? What’s wrong with that person’s hand? Why is their hand all fucked
Noelle Henderson (10:59):
Up? I mean, I grew up, I was in under PT care, physical therapy care and chiropractic care my whole life, but all of my cousins were, we went roller skating and then did the chiropractor in the same day, the same outing every week. And so I knew my physical therapist and I had a team of doctors, but never, nobody told me I couldn’t do anything, my mom.
Sevan Matossian (11:28):
But you knew you had cerebral palsy, right? You would hear someone say that her cerebral palsy is doing fantastic or something.
Noelle Henderson (11:34):
Yes. My mom just told me 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, we’re not in control. We’re not God. We’re going to let her do, but don’t tell her she can’t do anything. And so here we are
Sevan Matossian (12:00):
Going
Noelle Henderson (12:00):
To the CrossFit
Sevan Matossian (12:01):
Things. What’s crazy, there’s some people who would say, oh, her cerebral palsy is not that severe. It’s like people who say that, oh, your kids are born with talent. It’s like, dude,
Noelle Henderson (12:16):
You
Sevan Matossian (12:17):
Fucking knucklehead. It’s because you work so hard. It’s because you didn’t see it as a, you didn’t see it. Yeah.
Noelle Henderson (12:31):
It just who,
Sevan Matossian (12:32):
And so there’s going to be this misunderstanding of what’s humanly possible with cerebral palsy. 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.
Noelle Henderson (12:47):
Not the victim for sure. In that regard,
Sevan Matossian (12:55):
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.
Noelle Henderson (13:03):
I do think high school is when I started to notice when I would try out for basketball, I didn’t make the basketball team. I could only dribble to the left side. I wasn’t as fluid. It wasn’t as quick or fast on my right side. But then I just went to the rec league team and said they didn’t have tryouts. And honestly, people on that team didn’t even know in high school that I had disability. Some of my friends,
Sevan Matossian (13:36):
You were able to hide it.
Noelle Henderson (13:38):
And I was at that point in high school, honestly, until CrossFit, I was very insecure about it then I knew something was off. I still did things, but I just knew
Sevan Matossian (13:52):
It’s kind of crazy. You didn’t tap after you didn’t make the high school team. I would’ve go to a birthday party if it was a swim party. You know what I mean? I just avoided shit. If I had an insecurity.
Noelle Henderson (14:12):
Well, I mean, I did avoid CrossFit for it. I avoided.
Sevan Matossian (14:17):
But you didn’t avoid going to the rec team. You weren’t like, oh, I suck.
Noelle Henderson (14:21):
I didn’t avoid team sports. I didn’t, but I did avoid group fitness classes on purpose. I do remember not going to the five 30 class with my friend at the gym because I knew that my right side was weaker.
Sevan Matossian (14:41):
So when they would say
Noelle Henderson (14:42):
A regular gym,
Sevan Matossian (14:44):
If you’re playing basketball, they’re like, what position? You play and you just tell ’em. But in a CrossFit class, you might walk in, they’ll be like, Hey, does anyone have any limitations? And you want to be like, yeah, I have cerebral palsy. You didn’t want to do that.
Noelle Henderson (14:54):
Right?
Sevan Matossian (14:56):
Crazy. How did you, wow, at 28 years old, you went into CrossFit Crash for the first time.
Noelle Henderson (15:03):
I did.
Sevan Matossian (15:04):
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?
Noelle Henderson (15:12):
Yeah, I don’t like losing. I didn’t.
Sevan Matossian (15:19):
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. Greg? Greg Lastman told me that he’s like, I tell people that it’s an injury from gymnastics. I don’t want anyone to say, oh, it’s pretty good for a dude with polio. He hated that.
Noelle Henderson (15:34):
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 got me into crash. They were going, but I mean anybody, I was skeptical at first. 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 it was fun for them. And so I went and I think the first workout was Pullups and Wall Balls, and I had been going to a normal 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 was workouts, wall balls and Pullups. I was like, oh, okay, I can squat and do pull-ups fine. And then I couldn’t do squats or pull-ups fine when the workout came. And so that was very humbling and a little discouraging, but no one there.
Sevan Matossian (16:45):
What made you think you could do a pull up? Even at 20? I knew I couldn’t do a pull
Noelle Henderson (16:49):
Up. I could do strict pull-ups, but not for that many. Yeah, not that many reps in the workout. And my wall balls were like free throw shots, just one,
(17:00):
Because my right side didn’t know what to do. So yeah, very humbling, very discouraging, honestly. But it was fun. 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 fun. And then somehow found out about the adaptive competition world, like worldwide or I think it was working wounded games at the time, so it was disabled veterans or anyone in adaptive community could compete. And there was no qualifier for it, so you just sign up and go. And me and my friend Ashley, 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 since.
Sevan Matossian (18:09):
Have you ever competed at wheel wide?
Noelle Henderson (18:12):
I have. I have. I’ve done wheel wide. I’ve done water palooza in the adaptive division.
Sevan Matossian (18:17):
How did you do it? Wheel wide.
Noelle Henderson (18:20):
Wheel wide. I think I done that. I think I’ve gotten first one time, then I did it in 2021 and got second.
Sevan Matossian (18:31):
Is Wheel wad the most in the CrossFit community? The CrossFit games are the most prestigious event for individuals. But I hear for Adaptive Wheel Wad is more prestigious. The winner of the wheel wad is truly the fittest. Is that true in
Noelle Henderson (18:44):
The Adaptive? I would say in the Adaptive
Sevan Matossian (18:47):
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 wide? Do you know who the owners are?
Noelle Henderson (18:55):
Chris Outenberg. He runs that. And I know Kevin Ogar has involvement with them as well. I
Sevan Matossian (19:00):
Should have him on What a stu. Yeah.
Noelle Henderson (19:02):
Great guy.
Sevan Matossian (19:04):
And these girls here, Jordan, Courtney, Reagan, and Amay. Have you competed against all of them before?
Noelle Henderson (19:13):
I have not. I have not. I’m excited to meet them.
Sevan Matossian (19:16):
Oh, none of them. They’re not like, you’re not like, oh, I beat these girls a wheel wad. Oh, that girl Jordan.
Noelle Henderson (19:21):
No, no.
Sevan Matossian (19:22):
Where is the Wheel Watch Champ is the Wheel Watch Champ. Not here.
Noelle Henderson (19:27):
They’ve been in Raleigh the past three years.
Sevan Matossian (19:30):
Raleigh. No, but when I say Where’s the champ? Where’s the multiple extremity champ from Wheel Watch? She’s not here.
Noelle Henderson (19:36):
Jordan.
Sevan Matossian (19:36):
Jordan. Oh, it’s Jordan. Oh, okay. But you didn’t compete against her last year? Sorry,
Noelle Henderson (19:42):
I didn’t go last year. No,
Sevan Matossian (19:44):
I didn’t go. Oh shit. Okay. Oh, this is good.
Noelle Henderson (19:46):
Yeah, this
Sevan Matossian (19:47):
Is good. Oh, shit. So you beat her in the open.
Noelle Henderson (19:52):
I actually think we tied points
Sevan Matossian (19:55):
Wise. No kidding.
Noelle Henderson (19:56):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (19:57):
Wow. So this is kind of for all the marbles. This is good. She showed up.
Noelle Henderson (20:02):
Yeah, I’m excited.
Sevan Matossian (20:05):
Holy cow. This is good. What days do you guys go?
Noelle Henderson (20:09):
We compete Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Sevan Matossian (20:12):
Oh, you got three days. Crazy.
Noelle Henderson (20:15):
And as far as we know, seven workouts as far as we know,
Sevan Matossian (20:20):
Your lat development, 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?
Noelle Henderson (20:31):
I’ll have to get back to you on that. I’m not sure. I don’t do that, but I will.
Sevan Matossian (20:36):
Well, but I’m guessing if you hold your arms up, you’re saying your arms would look different, right?
Noelle Henderson (20:41):
Yeah, it’s definitely different. My right side is visibly weaker, and then my right elbow doesn’t full flexion. So I’m sure that my right lat is weaker and less developed than my, I’ve just never looked in the mirror at it.
Sevan Matossian (21:05):
What about, and what are your pull-ups now today? What’s your PR for? Most unbroken pull-ups
Noelle Henderson (21:12):
Also haven’t tried that. What
Sevan Matossian (21:14):
Jr.
Noelle Henderson (21:16):
But anyone that crashed can tell you that my strict movement is way better than my tipping movement. I don’t really know how to use my hips that well. And so I’m much better at strict pull-ups, and I am keeping pull-ups, and I’m much better at strict handstand pushups than I am keeping handstand pushups. I just don’t know how to, that part of the brain
Sevan Matossian (21:41):
Jr. What does shameless attempt by Seon to get her to show her armpit? You’re a good dude. I know, right? You saw that. Okay. That’s true. I’m an armpit aficionado, so okay. I want to go back to being not born breathing. I had a kid that was born not breathing. Okay. Yeah. You were born actually not breathing. Was umbilical cord wrapped around your neck or anything?
Noelle Henderson (22:05):
No. I was breathing, but I stopped breathing that night that I was born. The nurse came by and was like, she’s blue. Oh, so you
Sevan Matossian (22:13):
Actually Wow.
Noelle Henderson (22:15):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (22:16):
Was a lot. And they were hesitated. You okay? Okay. Yes.
Noelle Henderson (22:19):
So sent home with a monitor to make sure that, because when I would stop breathing, my heart would stop. And so just all that. My mom was a rockstar with all that when I was
Sevan Matossian (22:32):
Little. Dude, she aged 10 years right there. Crazy. Yeah. Do you work have a day job?
Noelle Henderson (22:44):
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. So it’s probably the, I say it’s the only nerdy thing about me is my job. Great company based out of Minnesota. So it was good. It was time to change. I’m thankful that I did.
Sevan Matossian (23:10):
What does that mean exactly? You get drugs from the plant to the pharmacy?
Noelle Henderson (23:16):
Yeah. We were a wholesale, well, I worked for a wholesale company, and so the liaison between the manufacturer and the customer, the pharmacies that bought the product.
Sevan Matossian (23:29):
Businesses booming.
Noelle Henderson (23:31):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (23:32):
Businesses booming. And do you coach at Crash?
Noelle Henderson (23:37):
I do. I do. I coach there a couple of times. A couple of classes a week.
Sevan Matossian (23:42):
So you went from, I mean, it’s kind of weird. You went from wanting to hide and not go to now being in front of the class and being like, yo, ding-dong your KIPP’s. No, good. Let me come over here and work on that with you.
Noelle Henderson (24:01):
Right. It is. We have a really good team. And of course, JR is great at coaching the coaches, and we do a lot of demo of the movements. And so it’s kind of comical. Whenever I demo a movement that I know I look different doing it, I’ll say, do this, but keep your heel on the ground, not like I’m doing or things like that. Make sure you extend your arms all the way out. Not like I’m doing because I can’t do it. So it is kind of cool how I can, again, like you said, I was embarrassed and try to hide it. Now I’m driving and talking about it a lot.
Sevan Matossian (24:44):
Let me show you how not to do it.
Noelle Henderson (24:46):
Yes. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (24:48):
Tank Reeves. I bet 80 plus percent of Americans can’t do a strict pull-up, man. I bet you it’s, I don’t want to say it’s more than that. Okay. So you start going there, and what do you notice first? Why do you start liking it eventually?
Noelle Henderson (25:09):
It was fun. It was different than Arms on Monday, legs on Tuesday core on Wednesday. And I think most people, you find your core group of friends there because you’re struggling together and you can’t hide your weaknesses at CrossFit and things. You once try to hide people. That’s what people love you for and accept you for. And so I think that was a big thing is I was accepting and I didn’t have to worry about looking different. People just knew that’s how I did things. And high fived and good job, Noelle.
Sevan Matossian (25:47):
Do you have a lot of friends there? Have you met people there who are your friends outside the gym?
Noelle Henderson (25:52):
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.
Sevan Matossian (26:01):
And how long did you go there before you met Jr?
Noelle Henderson (26:05):
He was there when I first started. And so yeah, when he took over the gym, I just stayed. And he became, instead of a workout partner, he became workout coach and the owner of the gym.
Sevan Matossian (26:21):
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.
Noelle Henderson (26:30):
No, he was already, I mean, heavily involved in the gym as a coach and a good friend. And so no, it was a smooth transition for sure.
Sevan Matossian (26:40):
Seamless.
Noelle Henderson (26:41):
Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (26:43):
He’s a trippy cat. He’s like a pretty solid. And you knew him before he even had kids, right?
Noelle Henderson (26:48):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (26:49):
Yes. Wow. Did you see him go through some changes as a person?
Noelle Henderson (26:53):
I mean, he’s now a great father in addition to everything else. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sevan Matossian (27:00):
He’s an interesting mix of a really fun person, but he’s also serious. He’s really fun, but he’s serious. Some people might call it professional.
Noelle Henderson (27:10):
I definitely know and don’t take lightly the gifts that I have in him, being my coach all the time. And especially at the games, I have a huge a,
Sevan Matossian (27:22):
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? How does your relationship build to where you guys like, okay, let’s do this together, let’s get on a team.
Noelle Henderson (27:42):
Well, I mean, if I have interest in competing, he’s going to be on board. He’s always going to push all of us at any level towards better. And so when I was interested in competing at any of the competition, qualifying, he was on board and gave me the tools to get better and to use those. But now with the Open, I remember in March, I honestly was just doing it. I didn’t really prepare for it, honestly, because I’m not really big on social media. I know you said
Sevan Matossian (28:21):
That earlier. Oh, it makes me sick. How little your social media don’t want to throw up.
Noelle Henderson (28:25):
But I didn’t even know that we only had the Open, I thought we had open and then semifinals and then the games. And so my plan was to just make the open and then get serious about semifinals or quarterfinals. But then when it was the first workout, open Workout Jr was like, Hey, this is all you have to go.
Sevan Matossian (28:50):
What does that mean? I don’t understand what that means. What do you mean this is all you have?
Noelle Henderson (28:53):
I don’t have another chance to go to the games except for the
Sevan Matossian (28:56):
Oh, oh, oh, okay.
Noelle Henderson (28:59):
Yeah. And so
Sevan Matossian (29:01):
Even though you didn’t plan on going to the games, he said that
Noelle Henderson (29:03):
To you? Well, I didn’t before then, but then at that moment on the first workout, I was like, oh, I have to really be serious. I’m not going to be on the bubble again. And so we had a plan, and if we had stuck to my plan, I wouldn’t be going to. The Games Jr made me redo every workout, and with his plan, I did Zero Post, and that story is about this right now. So very, very active. But no, so with his help and obviously my hard work, I got there this year.
Sevan Matossian (29:49):
He made you do every workout more than once?
Noelle Henderson (29:52):
Yeah, but I did better on the redo every single one.
Sevan Matossian (29:56):
Are you glad he did that?
Noelle Henderson (29:57):
I am. I’m very thankful. Did you.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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