The six time Fittest Woman on Earth®, Tia-Clair Toomey, has recently revealed that she is not retiring from the sport of CrossFit despite many rumors that hinted towards it. Tia-Clair will instead go after her seventh consecutive CrossFit Games victory in the 2023 season. However, despite it having been two months since her last competition, she has not yet returned to training properly. This is due to a back injury which Tia-Clair has been carrying from some time before that as well.
Tia-Clair Toomey explained that this back injury significantly altered her final stages of preparation for the 2022 CrossFit Games. However, she managed to work around it and become the champion once again. Tia-Clair decided to rest from gym activities to heal properly, which meant not putting any stress on her back. Now, two months after, Tia-Clair Toomey issued an update on her YouTube channel and revealed her next steps.
Related: Where Does Tia-Clair Toomey Rank in Terms of CrossFit Greatness?
Tia-Clair Toomey’s Back Injury
The video started with Tia-Clair Toomey helping Saxon Panchik in completing his workout. It consisted of three rounds of 500-meter runs and a sandbag run uphill. Tia-Clair just ran alongside him without carrying the bag, but did aid him with some motivating words.
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The second part of the video saw Tia-Clair Toomey complete some reps on the squat with two 25-pound (11.4-kilogram) plates fitted on each end of the barbell, alongside one smaller metal weight plate. Tia-Clair looked exhausted after finishing her set, but immediately started sharing the good news.
“It felt better than last time… It’s not the weight, it’s just my heart rate, which is good.”
Tia-Clair Toomey then answered her camera man’s question and revealed that she did work with a physio leading into the 2022 CrossFit Games, but not after.
“After the games I’ve just taken it off. Not put any pressure on getting back and have just been slowly moving the body… I think that the rest has just really helped, not just physically, but mentally given me a bit of time off.”
In regards to the mental aspect of injuries, Toomey didn’t want to find out how severe her back injury was before taking part in the 2022 CrossFit Games. According to her, some bad news may have affected her performance, which may have caused her to hold back or to believe that some exercises were impossible as a result of her injury. However, Tia-Clair Toomey does encourage everyone suffering from an injury to visit a doctor and get a scan as soon as possible.
“After the Games, the intention was if it never got better to go and get a scan and I was highly recommended to go do that. But I was gonna wait until Australia to go do that (the scan) and over time it’s just gotten way better.”
So, Tia-Clair Toomey still does not know exactly what her injury is, but she states it started coming from her left hip. This seemingly resulted in some tightness and stress on the lower back, which possibly resulted in something even more serious. Tia-Clair will still get her back scanned once she arrives in Australia, despite significant pain reduction.
“I am honestly really really happy with how it’s going… I’m not in any rush… I am doing the best with what I’ve got and I am happy with where everything’s at.”
Watch the full video here:
Related: Check Out Tia-Clair Toomey’s 4000+ Calorie Diet That Led Her to Victory At the 2022 CrossFit Games
Tia-Clair Toomey will be going to Australia very soon, since she is set to take part in the 2022 Down Under Championship on Nov. 18-20, 2022. She won’t be under too much pressure, as it is a Team competition. Tia-Clair has already shared some video footage of her training sessions with Brooke Wells in preparation for this.
According to Tia-Clair Toomey, her back injury gave her a chance to reset mentally and prepare for the upcoming season. Tia-Clair Toomey is not doubting her ability to return to peak physical condition, since there is nothing she cannot accomplish when she is motivated and fresh.