You may know Jackson Glover as the phenomenal coach of the noon and 4:30 classes, or as an overall stellar guy, but he is also incredibly fit and impressive athlete. Jackson has been doing CrossFit for over 4 years ago, beginning CrossFit training to support Track and Field in high school, and later making CrossFit his sport, and now his career. Jackson has recently shifted some of his goals and priorities, transitioning from training primarily for competition to training for health and longevity, while still maintaining an elite level of fitness. Read below to learn about how Jackson organizes his time, how he has honed his mental game, and how he keeps training partner Storm working hard.

How many classes per week do you attend on average? 5. 9am Monday/Friday, 4:30pm Tuesday/Wednesday, 10:30 Saturday

Do you do extra work outside of class? How long are your training sessions on average (outside of class)? Yes, 2-3 hours

How many hours a week do you work? 40-50

How many hours of sleep do you usually get per night? 8-9

What does an average day-in-the-life look like for you? (food, training, work, recovery, leisure time, etc.) My Schedule has changed since I came back from my trip this summer (New Goals). I'll typically wake up at 7am, make breakfast and coffee, eat my breakfast then drink my coffee while I read for 30-45min (depending on how many times I hit the snooze button that morning). Once my alarm goes off from reading 
I'll pack my prepped meals from the weekend and my work/gym clothes for the day. Right now, I'm either 9am or 4:30pm for training depending on the day. I'll typically put my full energy into the class workout and follow that up with one strength piece for the day (unless strength is programmed in the class). My typical work day is between 10:30am-7pm were I eat my prepped meals or snacks after my workout, after my noon class, and before my 4:30 class. I'll cap my day off by making dinner, stretching, and catching up with Leah at home before bed.

Have you changed the way you eat since you began CrossFit, If so, how? I have to say nutrition is my weakest point in my athletic and everyday life when it comes to CrossFit and health in general (It's something I plan on focusing on over the next 6 months). I've been fortunate to have a very high metabolism growing up which allowed me to eat anything and everything in sight. In the past year, I've notice the effect on timing of when and what I eat with training. So, I've worked on eating meals at certain times before and after training (with some trial and error) so that I have the necessary fuel to train and recover properly. In the past month, I've played around with my calories and macronutrients, making sure I hit within a certain range by the end of the day (the next trick is to open my variety and not eat the same meals every single day of the week)

How does training/CrossFit fit into your life? Fitness is a huge part of my life, I enjoy it so much I decided to do it every day for work. With that being said, I'd probably spend the same amount of time at the gym even if I didn't do it for work. The community’s energy is contagious, I love catching up with everyone and seeing how their day, weekend, life is going. I feel like I've made hundreds of new relationships since joining the community from connecting at our gym as well as competing in the sport.

What reasons did you have to train when you started CrossFit? Have those reasons changed? If so, how? It started out as a strength and conditioning tool for me as a track and field athlete in High School, it then became my sport in the absence of track and field when I was in college. Later it became my sport and my job. Now I don't see it as a job but as a passion that I'm excited to push and pursue every day I wake up.

What improvements have you made in the past 6 months that you are most proud of? Listening to my body. Coming from playing competitive sports my whole life, my foot has been pushing the gas pedal through the floor every day when it comes to fitness. Learning to listen to my body on a day to day basis, scaling when I need to, as well as pushing on days when I have it! Mobility has been huge as well, long gone are the days of going "jaguar." I make sure I do some rolling and dynamic mobility before class as well as hitting the areas I know will be tight after the workout.

Do you currently have a main focus or goal(s) with your training? It sounds odd but backing off my training. I scratched the itch of competition this summer, and with some goal changes of mine, I'm focusing on hitting the workout of the day with good intensity, and doing one extra strength piece after class, unless its programmed in the class.

What would you consider to be your greatest strength as an athlete? My mental game. In the past (couple of years ago) I always wanted to beat everyone else in every workout all the time, and if I didn't I'd get frustrated. If someone got in my way in a workout or I had to give up my equipment it got in my head (sounds ridiculous thinking about it now). In the past couple years, I've worked on things I can control, not letting my rower messing up at the start of my workout phase me, having a clear focus for every workout whether it’s to try and go unbroken, or push a specific movement I know I need to work at, or even scaling or slowing down knowing I won’t get the best score and that, that score doesn't reflects my fitness.

What is one thing that you do every day that you feel is essential in contributing to your success in the gym? Reflecting after my sessions, looking at what went well that day and what I did so I can replicate that, or looking at what didn't go as well or feel as well and why it went that way and what needs to be changed to fix it. I know from experience it can be frustrating having a poor session, or feeling low energy, or not getting the result you want. I think were you see the most success or I have recently in my training is actually addressing that "thing" after the session and talking with another coach or athlete and finding out why and what I can do to be better next time.

If you could give yourself one piece of advice when you started CrossFit, what would it be?: Be Patient. work smarter, not harder. mobility makes a difference. Ripped hands aren't cool, invest in grips.

Do you have a go-to self-pep talk? (i.e. something you tell yourself when things get hard with training or during a workout)

I have two.
1. On days things are getting hard, or if I'm struggling near the end of the workout, I tell myself "It's going to hurt the same whether I rest 30 seconds or 5 seconds, just keep moving"

2. On days I'm feeling good, I tell myself before my workout "Lets make Storm work a little harder then he wants to on this one" (I don't think it's been working, he still laps me in workouts)

Is there anything you would like to add? I love this community, and it feels good waking up and looking forward going into "work" to see all your friends everyday :)