{"id":1148554,"date":"2022-11-11T21:59:50","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T21:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.muscleandfitness.com\/?p=1148554"},"modified":"2022-11-11T22:02:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T22:02:23","slug":"winning-strategy-whitney-jones-can-break-but-can-never-be-broken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.muscleandfitness.com\/athletes-celebrities\/interviews\/winning-strategy-whitney-jones-can-break-but-can-never-be-broken\/","title":{"rendered":"WINNING STRATEGY: Whitney Jones Can Break, But Can Never Be Broken"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being crowned Ms. Fitness Olympia three times is what makes Whitney Jones an icon among her bodybuilding and fitness peers. However, if the mainstream sports world knew of the Arizona native\u2019s comeback stories\u2014and there are quite a few to choose from\u2014Jones\u2019 status would be universally legendary.<\/p>\n

Not all of Jones\u2019 adversities\u2014Jones has racked up more than a dozen surgeries to go along with her multiple titles\u2014ended with her named called as the winner, but rarely has Jones ever just thrown in the towel. Nope, Jones rather be dragged offstage\u2014or in one instance, crawling offstage\u2014than having to withdraw.<\/p>\n

Just before the finals of the 2015 Arnold Classic, severe back spasms during warmups had Jones on the floor onstage. She crawled backstage and tried to find a way to continue that night, even while she couldn\u2019t get off the floor. Her night eventually ended with a DNF, despite trying to convince herself she could make it happen. \u201cIt was pretty bad,\u201d Jones says. \u201cI was lying flat backstage, and they kept telling me, \u2018Show\u2019s about to start\u2014you\u2019re not going to be able to make it.\u2019 I was like, \u2018No, that\u2019s not true! Just give me five more minutes.\u2019 In my brain, we were not done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years later, a severe neck injury not only shut down her 2017 season, but came close to ending her career. But eight months later, Jones was in full training mode and four weeks out from the 2018 Arnold Classic\u2014only to suffer an ACL and MCL tear to her right leg during drills. She not only competed at the Arnold\u2014Jones came out victorious.<\/p>\n

Capping her comeback r\u00e9sum\u00e9 was last year\u2019s Olympia, in which Jones was looking to regain the crown she lost a year earlier to Missy Truscott. She brought down the house in Orlando with an electrifyingly showstopping routine to earn her third title\u2014only to reveal afterward that she had performed despite suffering a broken tibia just three days earlier.<\/p>\n

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You can call her Fearless\u2014just like the name of her clothing brand<\/a>\u2014because there\u2019s no pain or obstacle that will prevent her from trying to find a way to compete. Jones would probably call her toughness a by-product of growing up with two older brothers. Now as the mother of two boys, she\u2019s also a world champion athlete, trainer, gym owner,<\/a> and entrepreneur in part she says due to her dedication finding ways to make the best of situations. Jones says that having the ability to adjust and adapt to stressful moments is a skill all of possess and can apply to almost any situation\u2014if you have the right mindset.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all a mental game at that point,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019ve done all the physical work. Now, it\u2019s you who controls or not you succeed or fail. And I\u2019ve had a lot of experience to kind of master that. And I just get into like that go mode, and you got one shot. I was gonna put it all out there. And if it works great, if it didn\u2019t, it didn\u2019t, but you there\u2019s no tapping out. you got to make it work, make some modifications to your routine and you just go all in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now just weeks out from this year\u2019s Olympia weekend<\/a>, Jones remains relatively healthy as she prepares to defend her Olympia fitness crown and attempt to earn a fourth title. There\u2019s nothing left to prove, championship-wise, but as Jones says, doing what you love remains a motivating factor. Passion, along with learning to make adjustments as you push through life\u2019s limitations are all part of her Winning Strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I am, and I take that approach with so many things,\u201d Jones says. Because you can\u2019t level up until you totally banish all fear and say, let\u2019s just go for it. And if you have passion, and you\u2019re strategic in what you\u2019re doing, you should have the confidence that whatever it is you\u2019re doing, it\u2019s going to work out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

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\n\t\t\tWhitney Jones Wins The Fitness Division at Olympia...<\/a>\n\t\t<\/h3>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t

The three-time Ms. Fitness winner showed class and gratitude on social media.<\/p>\n\t\t\n\t\tRead article<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

DIG DEEP AND FIND WHAT YOU\u2019RE CAPABLE OF<\/h3>\n

For me personally, I never have a backup plan. Going into the 2018 Arnold Classic, my routine was set, then I blew out my ACL with four weeks left. I had to start from scratch and literally figure out what could I do without having to utilize my right leg. Since my neck was still recovering and there was so much atrophy in my shoulders at that point, it then became what could I do with just upper-body strength<\/a>. I went back to the drawing board. I stopped thinking about all these like crazy skills I could do that I\u2019d been working on for years, and went back to the basics and built it from there.<\/p>\n

I was like, \u201cI can do XYZ\u2014but how can I make that more explosive and exciting?\u201d Because I was thrown for a loop by the injury, It truly forced me to think out of the box with no backup plan.<\/p>\n

This is where I feel a lot of people tap out\u2014they don\u2019t want to look at their true talents, realize what they\u2019re capable of until they\u2019re tested. I was tested. And there was just no way I was not going to show up for that show. And for me, I [already] had to prove that I could come back from a broken neck. So when the ACL injury happened, I was like, Okay, well, this is a true test for me as an athlete. Where\u2019s my championship mentality coming from? Is it there or not? And I was dead set on proving to myself more than anyone else that I was capable of it.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: You work with what you got. Don\u2019t focus on your faults and what\u2019s not working in your favor. Focus on<\/a> what is and that\u2019s the way I was able to be successful. But that was probably the closest I ever came to tapping out because of my neck, then my upper body and lower body was a little bit jacked. What am I going to do? But you just got to tap into that mentality and know like, I\u2019m here to fight. I\u2019ve worked hard. I want to get on that stage and I want my shots.<\/p>\n

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DWELL AND YOU\u2019LL BE LEFT BEHIND<\/h3>\n

The best advice I have is to put yourself on the other side of the situation. So if it\u2019s a friend or family member telling you about their obstacles, what would you tell them? It\u2019s easy to fall into that victim, pity-party mentality. But everybody knows that serves you no purpose, it\u2019s a waste of time.<\/p>\n

If you have goals, if you want to achieve something, you\u2019ve got to be able to learn from whatever mistakes you made. Life is not always amazing. You learn your lessons from failures. So if it was an epic failure, you should have epic lessons that you\u2019re learning from. You have to look at it in that mindset to go, yeah, today sucked, and whatever the case is, you don\u2019t want to relive it, but what can you learn from it? Because then there\u2019s something productive you can take from that to improve on and it\u2019s just constant forward thinking.<\/p>\n

Again, something that I always say is, you know, everyone in our sport is focused on an outcome and a goal. Would you ever want to be outworked? Probably not. So guess what, when you\u2019re sitting in your pity-party mentality and you\u2019re wasting days doing sorry for yourself or dwelling on some negative aspect that happened, someone else is working you and that\u2019s up to you so you can allow it or not, I wouldn\u2019t allow it. I will not be outworked.<\/p>\n

BRING YOUR BEST AND YOU\u2019VE WON<\/h3>\n

Focus on your goal\u2014but that goal needs to be internal. You can\u2019t be motivated by external validation<\/p>\n

Our sport is subjective, so you\u2019ve got to feel like a champion way before you hit the stage. You need to be like, \u201cHey, I already won, and everyone is in the audience to watch me win.\u201d Having that mentality helps get you in a spot for that to actually come to fruition. If you have doubts or hesitation, bad stuff\u2019s gonna happen because you\u2019re not confident.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019ve prepared properly, and have done everything you should have to get to that point, you should feel like a winner. You should feel like it\u2019s your day to achieve success. And no matter what happens when you walk off the stage, you still need to be proud of yourself.<\/p>\n

Never giving the validation to the judges is one of the most powerful things I\u2019ve done. I haven\u2019t won every show\u2014Hello! everyone takes knocks in life\u2014but I\u2019ve learned something from it. And there have been plenty of times I\u2019m like, I should have won. I felt amazing. I you know, I did the best I could, I didn\u2019t. But guess what, as long as I felt proud of what I presented, then I won.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got to just continually be better than your previous self. You\u2019ve got to show up better to every show. Your routines need to be better, more exciting, and with a higher degree of difficulty. Some people may require victory, but I feel like that\u2019s the wrong mentality. If you do all of that, then you\u2019ve won, with or without a trophy.<\/p>\n

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CREATE A CHAMPION PLATFORM<\/h3>\n

In the fitness industry, there\u2019s so many opportunities for self fulfillment and financial fulfillment. You can monetize your fitness passion, but if you\u2019re too focused on yourself you\u2019re not enjoying this experience or keeping your eyes open to opportunities,\u00a0 friendships, even sponsorships. You\u2019re also missing opportunities to really give back to the community.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest things I\u2019ve learned, without a doubt, is that you\u2019re a champion not for those moments that you are onstage for two minutes, and they give you that trophy, it\u2019s what you do the minute you walk off the stage, and that entire year that truly dictates what kind of champion you are. How do you hold yourself? What are you representing? Are you helping younger athletes benefit from the sport and gain everything that you have? For me, being a champion allowed me a platform and a voice that I\u2019d never had before, to share my experience to share my excitement to share my love the sport.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just like everybody else\u2014no one on the street knows that I\u2019ve ever won the Olympia, and they don\u2019t care. But if I could motivate someone to start getting active, become healthier for their children, or help a young athlete recover from an injury and realize their life\u2019s not over. It\u2019s allowed me a platform to really help motivate and inspire others. And to me, that\u2019s what a true champion is, you\u2019re a good representation of the sport, you represent your division well, and you\u2019re helping to share your passion.<\/p>\n

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