Amanda Barnhart: Chasing Her Dreams

Five years ago Amanda Barnhart qualified for her first Regional Crossfit event. She was working towards her PT degree and training at the same time. Today, Amanda is one of the most well known female competitors in the space. If you want to know Amanda’s passion and what drives her, read on! Xendurance spent a little time asking her what her goals are and what keeps her chasing her dreams!

Xendurance: We know you live and breathe CrossFit right now because we see it in all your photos.  But when you're exhausted, what gets you in the gym? On a day you just don't want to go in, what gets you in the gym?

Amanda: Just the discipline of my routines. And knowing that I have goals and I want to keep working towards them even if I don't feel like it. So I'm not motivated most days, it's just consistency, routine, habits, all of that just drives you to do it no matter how you feel.

Xendurance: That's great! But we need to ask - why CrossFit? Why not gymnastics? Why not swimming? Or have you done other sports before CrossFit?

Amanda: I did sports like that before CrossFit. I did gymnastics when I was young. In high school, I did volleyball, swimming and track. And then I was a swimmer in college for four years. So after college - I just wanted to keep working out to stay fit and healthy and started doing CrossFit for exercise and realized that I was pretty good at it and decided to start competing. So it kind of just happened naturally, it wasn't that I wanted to be a CrossFit athlete and seek it out.

Xendurance: If you have a sport after CrossFit, have you even thought about that?

Amanda: No, I'm too old.

Xendurance: So you did volleyball, track? If you were to do an Olympic sport, what would you do?

Amanda: If I had a choice now, it would be volleyball for sure. Like beach volleyball.

Xendurance: Do you cheat on your diet? Do you have a cheat meal?

Amanda: I'm trying to have more balance. So I try to have like a little bit of chocolate a couple times a week just in small moderation so I don't restrict myself and go crazy on it the next time I have it. But if I'm having like a real cheat meal or going out to eat, I like to go to a Mexican restaurant and get margaritas and tacos and chips and guacamole. That's probably my favorite meal to get.

Xendurance: Yum.

Amanda: Yeah, I really enjoy it.

Xendurance: All right. So what is your favorite workout? We heard your favorite movement was heavy power cleans, I don't know if that's still the case. You said your least favorite was burpees.

Amanda: Yeah. That's probably still pretty accurate. Anything with a heavy power clean. Like my favorite workout is DT, which is a hero workout.

Xendurance: How would you describe your workout ethic? 

Amanda: I would just say consistent and disciplined are probably the two words I would use the most. Like it's all about being consistent, showing up and being disciplined to what you need to do and also listening to your body and not having an ego and being able to listen to your body and know that when you need to do more and when you don't need to do more is really crucial in the sport of CrossFit. Because you can do too much and burn yourself out and get hurt and not be making progress by doing too much.

Xendurance: If you had like a 60-year-old coming in the gym, how would you inspire them to get into CrossFit?

Amanda: I would just tell them that CrossFit is for anyone and it can be modified for one. So if you're just trying to be able to bend over and tie your shoes, you can still do CrossFit. If you have a good coach, they can modify the workouts for you and change things for injuries or limitations. And you'll be hooked pretty quickly just because of the community of CrossFit and meeting people, like-minded people who are trying to better themselves in every aspect of their life, is pretty inspiring to be around. So I think the scariest part, it's the first step of joining and feeling like you don't belong, but you will soon realize that you do and that everyone's different, everyone comes from different walks of life of fitness and health and everyone's just trying to improve. So I really do believe that anyone can do it and improve and help their health to live longer.

Xendurance: How do you handle stress?

Amanda: I try to focus on what I can control. So if I'm stressing about something that I have no control over, I try to let that go. If I'm stressing about something that I do have control over, I figure out what I can do about it and what I can't do about it and try to let that go as well. When I was younger, I realized how much time I spent stressing about things that didn't ever happen or might happen. It's just like your mind for seeing something that will probably never happen, so trying to stay present and focus on what I can do about the situation has really helped that.

Xendurance: That's great advice for everybody!

Amanda: For sure.

Xendurance: What does a perfect Sunday feel like or look like for you? And don't tell me you work out on Sunday too!

Amanda: No, I don't work out on Sundays. I would say a perfect Sunday starts an early morning on like a porch with watching the sunrise and coffee. Going to church, having a really big breakfast with family and then ideally doing something outside, like going for a long walk.

Xendurance: What was the last book you read or movie you watched? People are always interested in what people are reading and watching.

Amanda: I'm so bad at remembering book titles. Movies are easier to remember, which sounds bad. We just watched The Tinder Swindler the other day on Netflix, it was kind of creepy. It was about this guy. It's a true story. It's a documentary about a guy on Tinder, it's a dating app, who just swindled these women for money, like stole a ton of money from them over pretending to date. It was really, really, really tragic that that kind of stuff happens.

Oh, I do remember the last book I just finished. It was called The Well-Watered Woman. It's a daily devotional for women, a Christian book. I loved it.

Xendurance: If you had a superhero, what would you be?

Amanda: I think I'd like to fly.

Xendurance: How would your best friend describe you?

Amanda: I would say funny, loving and loyal.

Xendurance: And who's influenced you most in your life?

Amanda: Oh my gosh. That's such a hard question.

I mean, I feel like my parents for sure. I would not be who I am without them and every part of who I am. So I think it's my parents.

Xendurance: I need to ask you about Xendurance. Cooper (Amanda’s Agent) just raves about you as far as supporting us, which we so much appreciate, but do you have a favorite XND product?

Amanda: Oh gosh. That's hard to pick. I am such a routine and habitual person, like I love taking vitamins and stuff in the morning and night. I will not go a day without taking Immune Boost, the vitamin D & omega, Extreme Endurance, Joint-4, and Probiotics. I take those every single day no matter what.

They make me feel better. And also, I guess I would not survive training without Fuel-5!

Xendurance: Where do you see yourself in 30 years? Trust me, it goes fast. You blink, and then all of a sudden you're like, whoa.

Amanda: I don't know. Part of me thinks that like maybe I would be living somewhere warmer.

My husband and I would both be older and maybe getting close to retirement age so we would be living somewhere warmer than Ohio because I'll probably move back to Ohio some point during that 30 years and then be looking to retire somewhere.

Xendurance: Well, Arizona's great right now. You don't want to be here in the summer though!

Amanda: That's what I've heard.

Xendurance: So last question. Important question. Why do you hang around Cooper Marsh? (Lab Management)

Amanda: Cooper's the best! I feel like he is so on top of stuff and he's so selfless in the fact that he's always thinking of things before I even think of them and looking out for other people, that's why he's so good at his job. And his charismatic personality just makes him fun to be around. So I'm so thankful that I have him in my life and that he's in my corner. I know if I ever need anything, he's going to knock down a wall to get it for me.

Xendurance: Well, that's great to hear. But we won't let go to his head!

We also want to thank you for supporting Xendurance and representing us in such a classy way!

Amanda: You guys support me and make it easy with having supplements all the time and really a great company to be a part of.

Xendurance: Thank you so much! We will always be cheering you on!