Pushing past pain: McCordsville teen to compete at Crossfit games

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MCCORDSVILLE — She smacks chalk in her hands, prepping her calloused palms for the barbell and pull-up station.

After some dynamic stretches, Lexi Neely, McCordsville, is ready for anything her trainer throws at her. Any given day the 15-year-old might be seen putting up deadlift reps at 120 percent of her body weight, or perhaps she’ll take a four-mile warm up run followed by sprint intervals. She might be transcending a rope using only her arms, or effortlessly walking on her hands across the gym floor.

Lexi never knows what’s in store for the day’s workout, but it always ends with her gasping on the floor in a puddle of her own sweat, she said. Yet strangely, a persistent smile remains stuck to her face as she talks about her favorite past-time.

The freshman at Hamilton Southeastern tied for 13th place in her age division worldwide for the Crossfit Games, an event oft described as the “Olympics of Crossfit,” said her coach Jay Watkins, the owner of Lexi’s home gym, Circle City Martial Arts and Fitness.

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This August, Lexi will compete against 20 athletes from across the United States and international opponents from Europe, Mexico and Iceland. Her unyielding mental toughness is her greatest advantage as she travels to Madison, Wisconsin, this summer; it’s a challenge that will push her physical capabilities to the extreme, Watkins said.

Crossfire is a system of physical training with practitioners that strive to achieve excellence in a wide variety of physical skills, Watkins said. Crossfit enthusiasts always aim to be well-rounded athletes, able to lift heavy, run, jump and climb.

Lexi has been training in Crossfit since she was 12 years old, Watkins said. She had a background in gymnastics, and even at a young age she displayed the necessary flexibility, coordination and mindset that top competitors are made of, he said.

Crossfit has given Lexi an outlet to push herself day in and day out; there’s always a new record for her to set, he said.

“There’s community, competition, and challenge,” Watkins said. “There’s always something that she can work on here.”

In February, Lexi submitted a video of her tryout for the games; a sort of audition workout for top competitors. Now that she’s secured a spot as one of the top 20 Crossfit athletes in her division, she has until August to prepare for the Games.

She has been given little instruction other than to prepare for the worst, said her personal trainer, Matt Rattay.

Crossfitters pride themselves on the idea that no two workouts are ever the same, Rattay said. That same principle applies to their competitions: Throughout the week of the competition, Lexi will take part in two to three events per day, physically testing her in a variety of ways, Mattay WHICH ONE IS IT? said.

It could be a 500-meter freestyle swim, a bike ride or a one rep max on a low bar squat. She won’t know what the workout will be until she arrives.

Mattay recalls the extensive diversity of the events at a previous Crossfit Games competition: One event was as simple as a shot put throw. The next: A full-blown marathon run.

“They’re testing her fitness,” Mattay said. “That’s the whole point of the Crossfit games. Are you fit enough to do anything and everything?”

Lexi’s strengths lie in gymnastics and weight training, said her father, Preston Neely. Since Lexi began training as a younger girl, she’s packed on a significant amount of muscle, with plenty of skill to back it up, he said.

The dedication she displays to her practice is an impressive feat for a high school girl, Neely said. She calculates everything from her workout progress, recovery rate and nutrition, he said.

He’s seen her carefully count out almonds, worried she might go a single gram over her macronutrient limit for the day, he said with a laugh.

“She’s a beast on cardio, and the mindset is the best,” Neely said. “Lots of people gas out after three rounds of burpees. Not her. She’s so competitive we have to be careful about her not injuring herself.”

“It’s easy for people from the outside to look and say ‘Oh, you’re just naturally good at this.’” he added. “Or ‘(it’s) your genetics.’ They don’t see the hours of dedication she puts into it. She heads to the gym on Friday nights, rather than going to hang out with friends.”

Mattay said until August he will likely work with Lexi primarily on endurance-based skills. She’ll be spending plenty of time in the “pain cave,” their nickname for the time when she’s at that point in a workout where it’s tempting to slow down or give up, he said.

Having an anti-fragile mentality is a concept that can be difficult to teach to athletes, Mattay said. Visiting the pain cave is never fun, but Lexi practically lives there, he said.

Pushing herself is made easier when she has the friends at her home gym there, suffering right along with her by her side.

“You just don’t want to slip out,” Lexi said. “If you get comfy there you’ll be fine, just keep pushing. You’re never, like, the best. There’s always something more you can do. More weight, move faster. And it’s one big family here.”

In Crossfit, the heavy lifters learn to improve their stamina, and cross country runners learn to better move a barbell, her dad said. There’s something for everybody there, and Lexi is consistently one of the gym’s top performers.

“At the end of the day, everybody’s in a puddle on the floor dying together,” Neely said with a chuckle.