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Pursuing Health

Mentally Tough: Kristin Holte, Second Fittest Woman on Earth PH151

Pursuing Health

Julie Foucher MD, MS

Health & Fitness

4.81.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2020

⏱️ 74 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over the last 8 years, Kristin Holte has been quietly climbing her way to the top of the CrossFit Games leaderboard. A native of Oslo, Norway, Kristin grew up in an active household and competed in a variety of sports, including gymnastics, track and field, soccer, triathlons and cross country skiing. The work capacity and discipline she developed in her youth would help lay the groundwork for her success as a CrossFit Games athlete, where she is known to excel at endurance events and gymnastics movements. Kristin has competed at last 6 CrossFit Games, never placing outside the top 20. After spending two years in 7th place, Kristin knew she wanted to go from good to great. She doubled down, surrounded herself with a team of coaches, and addressed as many nuances in her training, nutrition, and recovery as possible. The attention to detail paid off with a second place podium finish at the 2019 CrossFit Games in Madison. Her third place finish in the 2020 CrossFit Games Open earned her an invitation to this year's Games, and Kristin is excited to return to the Ranch to continue to put her training to the test. Since qualifying for her first Regional, Kristin has also put a tremendous amount of focus into training her mind and credits her competitive edge to her mental game. With the help of a mental coach, she has improved her confidence and her ability to perform at her best under pressure by using a variety of exercises including an intensive training camps, visualization, mantras, and more. Kristin and I first competed alongside each other at the 2014 CrossFit Games, where as a rookie she took an event win in Triple 3. I was excited to catch up with her to learn more about her mental training game, how she continues to improve as a competitor year after year, and why she believes that when it comes to training volume and intensity, sometimes less is more.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I can say like with probably 99% sure like I would never be at the game if it wasn't for my mental coach

0:08.5

because I think I would be good but I would be like I would go in the fourth place instead of the third place after 2014

0:16.0

originals and who knows what would have happened after that but I think that was the edge that I had in my training. I was not better physically than any of the other girls there. I just I performed when I had to and when the pressure was at its highest.

0:33.0

And I think that's what kept me in the game for all these years too.

0:39.0

I've performed at regional every single year.

0:43.3

If you look on the paper, like my stats are not super good

0:47.4

compared to a lot of the other athletes.

0:49.8

But I'm able to PR, PR my smash in every single regional since I started and like I'm able to perform

0:58.7

and it really really matters and yeah that's the difference and that's where the mental training comes in.

1:09.4

Hello and welcome to pursuing health.

1:11.6

I'm Dr. Julie Fushe, family physician and former

1:14.5

Cross-Vit Games athlete. Here I bring you information and inspiration to help bridge

1:19.2

the gap between fitness and medicine and support your journey toward your healthiest self.

1:23.7

Thank you so much for joining me. Now let's get started with this week's episode.

1:29.2

In this episode I sit down with Kristen Holta, six-time Cross-Vit-Ames athlete and reigning second- fittest

1:34.8

woman on earth.

1:36.8

Kristen and I competed alongside each other at the 2014 Cross-Vit Games, and I've enjoyed watching

1:41.2

her continue to climb the Cross-V's leaderboard year after year since that time.

1:46.0

I was really really excited to catch up with her to learn more about her mental training game,

1:50.0

how she continues to improve as a competitor year after year, how she's

1:54.0

feeling after a

1:55.0

feeling after a recent carpal tunnel surgery

...

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