👋 Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
Hi there! I’m Jamie Maynard, I am 33 years old and I am a full time hairstylist/makeup artist in Mount Pleasant MI.
I have had my YouTube channel now for four years and I absolutely love that it is a space I can share my fitness journey with anyone that wants to support.
I have always loved being active. In highschool, I stayed active in Cheerleading & Softball. Once I got to college I realized I needed to learn to motivate myself to stay active as sports was no longer an everyday thing.
I took a wellness class for credit and that changed everything, for the good and the bad.
The first day I received the “pinch test” to see my body fat percentage. I have never thought of myself as overweight but always had healthy curves. I am 5 ft 7.5 inches and my weight has always been between 170-190lbs.
When the results came back, they told me I was on the low end of being obeised. I couldn’t believe that? I hit cardio hard, didn’t do a lot of weight training, and skipped a lot of meals thinking this would help me.
Burn more than what I was taking in right? WRONG!
I put my body into starvation mode and I struggled keeping a healthy body weight for a long time.
Once I graduated college and moved away from home to attend beauty school I got out of working out every day. I was so busy I just didn’t have time to add that into my days.
As the years went on, I discovered group fitness classes at a brand new gym in my area. I was hooked! They had “body challenges” that were for 16 weeks and the person who had the biggest transformation won prizes (sign me up right?).
I got down to the lowest weight I had ever seen 158lbs. My boyfriend, who is now my husband was a little concerned. I became obsessed with the number on the scale and the amount of calories I was counting than what I was doing to my body.
I was working out 9-12 times a week as you could do multiple classes in one day. I did that for about four years. It was a rollercoaster.
At some point my friend Erika moved on from that gym and discovered Crossfit. I watched every video I could on it and I thought, yes! This was exactly what I was looking for.
I immediately signed up for my onboard classes and never looked back. I have never felt so good about my body. Seeing how strong my body can be and what it can do performance wise when you fuel it properly blew my mind!
I absolutely love the challenges that come along with every class and finding out that I can accomplish new things every single day.
I have been documenting my Crossfit journey on my YouTube channel now for three years and have gotten some great support.
I owe it all to my coach Jeremy Worthington as he truly understands all of our needs and what is most important to us.
I may not be at an elite level of the sport, but I absolutely love where I am at.
I may not be at an elite level of the sport, but I absolutely love where I am at. Being a woman and being told that we should never lift weights and if we did we would get bulky kept me away from something I have found so much joy in.
I can’t imagine never having this in my life. Nutrition now has become second nature. What is going to make my body best fueled for the day is what is important to me, not how shredded I can be on a daily basis.
I have found real happiness and acceptance of my body and what it can do, and that means everything.
⏱ Describe a typical day of training
With quarantine right now, training has looked a little different. Our coach has been awesome and has switched to full online training. I am sent my workout for the day via True Coach.
I usually start out my training with a walk/run around my neighborhood for 5-10 minutes (usually a mile). I come back home and start our warm up outside on my driveway. Getting warmed up is super important!
We then have a strength portion, which right now looks a lot different as I do not have proper equipment at home. I have been using all my gallon and liter developer jugs from work and that has been awesome!
So strength will take about 20 minutes and then we move onto the metcon (metabolic conditioning) of the day. This can take anywheres from 5-30 minutes depending on the format of the workout.
We have been doing alot of EMOM (every minute on the minute) stuff and that really keeps you accountable.
After the workout, there is always at least 10 minutes or more of cool down. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the gym does ZOOM workouts and that is great for your soul!
👊 How do you keep going and push harder?
If my husband works out with me I have to beat him!
Music is a big factor for me pushing harder. Also, if my husband works out with me I have to beat him!
I know I feel better after a workout, so even if I am not motivated that morning, I still get up and do it because in the end I always feel better.
🏆 How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
With the state the entire world is in right now, my feelings within a day are all over the place. I will say this, I will continue to always create content because someone out there is inspired by it.
If I can motivate one person to try a workout or to just go for a walk or run, I’ve done my job. To bring any joy to someone’s life right now means everything.
I may not know exactly when I can go back to my professional job, but I can at least create to pass the time. Keeping my hands busy is the best thing for my sanity.
🤕 How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
I wasn’t looking at the ground and rolled over a 25lbs weight plate, OUCH.
These three things are still a work in progress.
As far as recovery, I recover very quickly. My heart rate slows down quickly and within 10-15 minutes I feel like I can start a new workout.
Rest has been a blessing lately. I usually get between 6-7 hours of sleep when I am working. With quarantine, I have been averaging almost 10 hours of sleep. I am a morning workout person, but now that I don’t have to wake up at 5am, I have been doing my workouts at 10am or noon when I am waking up for the day.
Injuries however are my struggle. I have suffered on and off with sciatica and it has been very rough for me. I won’t have a flare up for many years and then it just pops up out of nowhere.
Right now I am dealing with a lot of pain in my right leg and so I have to take extra time for stretching and compression to relieve the nerve pain.
Back in October, I rolled my ankle for the first time in my 33 years of life. It sucked, period. I hit a PR on my sumo deadlift of 310 pounds and went to celebrate by high fiving everyone.
I wasn’t looking at the ground and rolled over a 25lbs weight plate, OUCH.
That was my very first sports injury ever and I hated every minute of it. It got better eventually and I got back to full range of motion.
🍎 How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
I don’t want to say diet because that sometimes has a lot of unsettled feelings with it. I would like to say eating lifestyle.
I eat when I am hungry and I stop when I am full. I have veggies with every meal and I try to not have a lot of sugary foods in our house. If I want that I must go to the store, which usually outweighs my wanting the sugar.
My husband and I do eat out a lot but I tend to get salads and chicken meals. I usually do not consume a lot of alcohol, but with quarantine, we have been having a glass or two of wine with dinner every night.
I have been cooking a lot more these last six weeks and I think that has me in even a better mind set when it comes to my eating lifestyle. Always a work in progress.
👍 What has inspired and motivated you?
I want to live a long life and I want to travel. I am the skinniest and healthiest member of my mother’s side of the family. That is scary. I never realized that until a few years back when I looked around at the holidays and it all just hit me.
I want to have a long healthy life with my husband. I love taking our dogs for walks, they are our life. We love to travel, and I intend on continuing that for a very long time.
You need to be in good health to withstand some of these long flights around the world and I don’t ever want there to be complications.
Basically it comes down to, I am motivated to live the best life possible that I can create and control for myself.
✏️ Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
Start with some changes. Contact your local gym that looks intriguing to you. These people are there to help you. That is their goal in life.
Don’t always just follow people off of social media. These online coaches sometimes don’t always have the best form or aren’t as interactive for someone new into this world.
Don’t get discouraged, we all start where you are starting. You just have to believe in yourself.
🤝 Are you taking on clients right now?
No, I am in no way an online coach. I am just a fitness enthusiast.
It has taken more than a decade to know the things I know and understand what my body needs to achieve what I am doing now.
📝 Where can we learn more about you?
You can check me out at YouTube: youtube.com/jamiemaynard and Instagram: @jlynnmaynard.
