Jocelyn Forest Haynes is one of the original Catalyst Athletics weightlifters. As you’ll read in this interview, she’s been with Greg and Aimee almost from the very beginning of the company. A former collegiate and professional softball player-turned CrossFitter-turned Olympic weightlifter-turned mother of two boys…the journey of her life and athletic experience is one hell of a story.
 
Jocelyn rose through the national ranks in weightlifting quickly, winning a silver medal at the 2012 American Open after only a short time of focused training in the sport. Despite already being 32 years old at the time, her physical and mental potential was obvious. I told her husband back then that I didn’t think it would be insane for her to think about possibly making a run at the Olympic Team in 2016. But Jocelyn decided to do what she’s obviously done her entire life…she listened to her heart and went in the direction she believed in. For her, that direction included starting a family and having two kids.
 
Now she’s back competing again, closing in on 40 years old and a 200-kg total in the 63-kilo class, raising her boys and living life the way she wants to. You don’t always meet weightlifters who are as balanced in their personalities and outlooks on life as Jocelyn is. We’re pleased to give you a look at one of the old-school Catalyst athletes.
 
Tell us about your background. Where are you from, where do you currently live, what’s your occupation, family life, what kind of sports background do you have outside of lifting, etc. 
 
Orcutt, California.  You’ve never heard of it.  It’s a small town on the Central Coast with tons of undeveloped land and farmland—strawberries, wine vineyards, flowers, etc., much of which has receded drearily over the years to strip malls and car lots.  I knew from the time I was a kid that I wanted to get out of there and into the world.  So when I left for school at UC Berkeley in 1998 where I had a full ride scholarship for softball, I never looked back.  After living everywhere from Berkeley to Amsterdam, Boston to State College, Pennsylvania, I finally settled in Santa Cruz, CA.  I came here in 2008 after retiring from professional softball.  I had just spent a decade bouncing around from town to town, either playing ball or coaching college teams.  It wasn’t the plan originally. 
 
When I was in college, I fell in love with strength & conditioning.  I loved it even more than the game.  It might have been because of the realization of the power you have over your own vessel.  I mean, you can literally turn your body into any kind of machine you need it to be!  Doesn’t that just kick ass?  Anyway, I largely attributed our Strength & Conditioning program for my preparation in leading the team to an NCAA Div. I National Championship (the first women’s team ever at Cal to do it.  I was a pitcher).  It was based off the Olympic lifts.  We did power snatches and power cleans, power jerks and front squats.  We learned full Olympic squats right from the start.  That was the language.  You might call it high bar.  If you were my coach, you’d just call it the squat.  We did short sprints and agility.  We tended towards flexibility and mobility training in all the right spots (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders).  We did a slew of trunk work. We periodized training and wrote out programs that lined up with various competition dates.   It was a solid program, one that I took for granted and would later realize wasn’t always how other folks were doing it.  And I was on track to make a career out of it after graduating, staying on as a grad assistant strength coach.  I worked with some killer athletes: track and field, men’s and women’s swimming and water polo, golf, baseball, basketball, men’s soccer, all while working on my master’s degree in kinesiology.  I was exactly where I wanted to be. 
 
But then I got this call about an opportunity to play ball (everything paid for, plus a small salary) in Amsterdam.  I declined the offer because I was happy with where I was.  When I told the head S&C coach, my boss, about it she said, “You HAVE to do this! Jocelyn, you’ll never have these opportunities come up later on!  You can always come back to strength & conditioning.”  Mary had a way with guidance.  Incidentally, she had also recently told me I should start training to compete in weightlifting because I “could be so good at it!”  (I wasn’t ready for it back then, but that’s a whole other can of worms.  And since you’re reading this now, you already know I got my second chance at weightlifting eventually).  But I had already said no.  However, just a few days later I got ANOTHER call from a different team in the same town!   This time I said yes!  I was scared shitless, but I packed up my stuff and hopped on a plane to the Netherlands where I thrived traveling the world and winning a Dutch championship.
 
Opportunity sure has a way of generating more opportunity, especially when you take advantage.  Journeying down this rabbit hole brought me so many adventures.  An invite to try out for the Olympic Softball team (in which I narrowly missed), five years of professional softball in the States (and one more championship), coaching college ball at Boston followed by Penn State University.  As the sister team to the Boston Red Sox, I got to do all sorts of cool shit like throw out the first pitch a game, run clinics for kids on the field, meet players, and I was even the ball girl… ha ha!  I’ve gotten to throw out first pitches at both Oakland A’s and Giants games.  One non-Olympic year I made a USA roster and got to play in Spain and Canada.   I played a couple tournaments for a Greek team and got to spend time in Greece and Italy.  I’ve been invited to MLB Home Run Derby’s; I’ve traveled to practically every state and many countries, met tons of great people and acquired friends in really cool places.  During it all, whether I was driving across the country alone stopping at truck stops to grab a workout or on the road coaching, waking up early to do sprints before the game, I was always “out there.”  I was still putting in the time any way I could: sprints in the parking lot, squats at the nearest gym to the hotel, jump rope and footwork in the hotel courtyard, you name it.  People would ask me, “Why are you doing all this?”  I didn’t really know other than I loved it and I knew staying sharp would come in handy one day. 
 
And then one day I just woke up and decided I was ready to hang up the cleats.  I had grown tired of flying from town to town every weekend, living out of suitcases.  I had been taking all the opportunities that came my way over the years, but my heart wasn’t really in softball for the long term. I wanted to feel settled somewhere I knew I’d want to be forever doing something that I knew I wanted to do forever.  I was in State College, PA, sort of freaking out because I didn’t have a plan and I was really far away from home.  I had a fantastic job with all the bells and whistles in terms of retirement and benefits, etc. My dad gasped, “Jawz, you’re going to quit your job in the middle of a recession???”  But I just packed up all my things and moved to Santa Cruz. 
Naturally one of the first things I did was hit up the gym.  It was a Gold’s Gym.  The first day I walked in, I headed over to the squat rack for some front squats and push press.  I started noticing these whiteboards all over the place in the corner where I was squatting.  Then there were these weird ass people swinging shit around, doing cheater pull-ups and what not.  I was like, WTF?  Within a few minutes, a dude comes over and says, “You belong over here with us.”  Turns out he was running a CrossFit affiliate out of the back of Gold’s Gym.  CrossFit West Santa Cruz.  It took him a few days but I finally said, “What the hell, I’ll jump in.”  It was The Chief.  All I remember is looking over at this chick like, “I just need to go as fast as her.”  Afterwards, I was floored! A few months later, I was officially partnered with the dude and we moved into our own space.  A few months after that, I won the 2009 NorCal CrossFit Regional and was headed to The CrossFit Games. 
 
That was the last year The Games were at The Ranch (damn those were the days) and was also right around the time I met Aimee.  I had done a little CrossFit video thing for the main site with Coach Burgener, who had coached Aimee for a long time and I think he mentioned me to her.  She and Greg had also been at the Regional.  She invited me to come lift at their open gym in preparation for The Games.  Catalyst had recently opened in Sunnyvale and the gym was hopping.  I remember walking in that Saturday and the platforms were like four to six people deep, everyone sharing bars, lifting heavy weight, having a good ol’ time.  I was super intimidated and didn’t know what the hell I was doing.  But Aimee’s all, “You can lift with me on my platform!”  Greg’s platform was right next to hers and he was lifting, too.  She introduced me but, honestly, I didn’t even know who he was at the time (sorry Greg!), ha ha.  This whole world was all so brand-stinking’-new to me, and I didn’t realize at the moment what a privilege this all was.  So I’m attempting to do snatches and I think Greg makes a comment sort of like, “Jesus fucking Christ you picked your feet up so high off the ground I could have gone across the street for tacos and when I got back you’d just be landing.”  I thought, “Yeah, this is rad.  I belong over here with these guys.”  Aimee took over my CrossFit programming and coached me through the following year.  All the while I kept lifting over there with them and I think they were ultimately grooming me to switch to weightlifting.  And I don’t mean subtly.  Aimee would straight say, “You should just do weightlifting, you could be so good at this sport!”  I don’t know why I was so reluctant at first.  Part of me thought it meant I had to get super huge (interestingly I was almost 20lbs heavier at the time).  I thought all the things that CrossFit enthusiasts think when they’re considering this.  “I’m going to lose all my fitness, my CARDIO!  What if I get really out of shape?"  Ha. Ha. Ha.
 
Eventually I decided that I would switch to weightlifting exclusively as soon as my CrossFit road came to an end that year.  I narrowly missed the Games, partly because my heart was already being tugged in a different direction and my fire for CrossFit was fizzling out.  I mean, I’m stating the obvious here, but you gotta dig in deep for real success at stuff.  And if your heart’s not in it…
 
I’m pretty sure I started my first program under Greg like the Monday after the qualifier.  It was so much damn fun!  And I totally thought I was badass.  I’m all, “I’m a weightlifter now,” over on my platform snatching 85…POUNDS.   I go back and watch old video now and it’s super embarrassing.  But seriously, lifting did make me feel pretty triumphant and I loved every second of training every day.  I’d watch Aimee snatch and she’d be doing stuff in like the 70s and 80s as warm-up sets.  When she said I’d be able to do that soon, I couldn’t even fathom it.  And Greg can be such a smart ass, which is what makes it fun, but he really has an eye and a superpower for breaking down the technical part of weightlifting, so between that and having a fairly decent foundation for athletic movement in general, I did progress pretty rapidly.  Heck, I think I qualified for Nationals at my very first sanctioned meet. 
 
I believe it was 2011; I was in the thick of all this, I decided to sell my portion of the CrossFit gym.  My husband, whom I had met back at Gold’s (also a coach at my gym), and I opened up our own Strength & Conditioning gym, Santa Cruz Strength.  It was a similar model to the program I’d experienced at Berkeley, and naturally, we wanted to have a weightlifting club, too.  Our gym thrived; Greg and Aimee playing a huge role as mentors.  I was firing on all cylinders in weightlifting but also discussions about having kids were becoming more frequent.  It was funky timing because here I was running the ultimate gym, kicking ass in weightlifting, competing for Catalyst Athletics, the sky felt the limit, but I was also acknowledging the fact that I was getting older (33 at the time) and that I did indeed want to have a family.  I had to seriously consider the fact that weightlifting would come to an end one day (or rather I’d eventually be met with the inevitable decline in my ability to compete at the highest level) and ask myself what I really want my life to look like when that time came. 
 
And just like that, the same way I packed up my shit and moved from PA to CA, I got pregnant.  Kyle, my husband, switched gears too and became a cop.  He started the academy literally a couple weeks after Jackson was born.  So for a little over a year, I ran SC Strength solo with a baby strapped to my back. The gym was still booming and people were actually more excited about weightlifting than ever.  I’ll never forget the day a client walked into the packed gym full of lifters, took a look around, and said to me in genuine, “This is so amazing!  Look at all these people lifting here.  They’re here because of YOU, Jocelyn!”  It was accidentally the coolest thing anyone’s ever said to me. 
 
There was guilt in receiving this compliment, however, because we were quickly approaching another huge crossroad.  Jackson wasn’t easy to take to work with me anymore.  He was getting so mobile and was a really engaging and active kid.  I was working long hours, usually seven days a week.  I had to decide, do I want to put him in daycare and keep working these crazy hours, never getting to see him, or do I want to be with him, be the biggest role in his life on a daily basis and be THE ONE who raises him to be a man?  Shortly thereafter, we sold the gym to one of our trainers who shared a similar vision.  We bought a house in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  I hung on to a handful of private clients and a few remote athletes.  We built a gym in the garage and I was able to train at home. 
 
During all of this, I had also been getting back into shape, training for the American Open in Reno.  It was my first meet back and I was just hitting some of my regular heavy lifts again from before.  My husband and I had previously talked about having a second kid within a couple of years of the first (which was starting to come up again in conversations).  We both wanted more kids and had talked over the years about having them close in age so they could be buddies.  But I was finally feeling on fire again with weightlifting. After all the talks of being in favor, I suddenly started shying away.  I think literally a day after I planted the seed of, “You know, I’m starting to think maybe I’m not ready yet after all,” I found out I was already pregnant.  I swear I either went to the AO already pregnant or got pregnant like the day after.  It was happening.  I was terrified to tell Greg because I thought he would be bummed, but he was really supportive and told me there would always be a place for me on the team.  So I tried to stay as strong as I could for as long as I could throu2ghout my pregnancy following a program Greg sent over with no weights assigned to the exercises.  Everything was by feel as the pregnancy progressed and over time, exercises got deleted as my body began to say no. 
 
At the end of July 2016, Sawyer was born.  I started moving the bar around at week 4, but I didn’t start training seriously again until six months later.  I qualified for the 2017 American Open, which marked one year almost to the day that I started focused training.  Now I spend most my days here at home, raising two wild and free boys.  I do all sorts of fun shit with them like climb trees, ride rope swings, carve trails through the property (five acres of undeveloped redwoods, oaks, madrone) have rock throwing competitions, build ramps and ride bikes, and spend an insurmountable time at the beach or anywhere outdoors.  I train in my garage, coach a handful of private clients and write programs for a handful of remote athletes.  And I cook.  A lot.  Aimee said it perfectly when she said, “You just want to be a mom, lift weights, and bake pies and shit.”  It turns out that’s exactly what I want.  So that’s what I do. 
           
Describe your weightlifting history. When/how did you start? Who have your coaches been? What are your proudest accomplishments? 
 
Well I think I already covered most of that!  Haha.  My coaches from the start have been Greg and Aimee.  Greg took over my weightlifting when I switched from CrossFit, so we’ve been together for a long time.  For a brief period when we were getting the gym up and going, my husband also coached me.  People tell you never to be coached by a spouse, but I actually thought it was pretty fun, and he was good!  Greg has been my coach since I started weightlifting, though, and I will never leave until he fires me and tells me he is sick of me and never wants to see me again.  Even then I’ll probably cry and guilt him into keeping me because I’m one of the only people who knows that even though he comes off as a hilarious hardass, he’s actually a bit of a softy and quite sweet. 
 
Greg has coached me to some pretty cool successes.  I’ve broken a few PWA records and won lots of local meets over the years.  I’ve medaled at National level meets and until I started having babies, I was mostly ranked in the top 10 at all times nationally.  I’ve qualified for and competed in national level meets every year I’ve competed. But honestly I think my proudest accomplishments have to do with the fact that I have come back after EACH pregnancy, able to compete at National level meets in the senior division (technically I’m a masters lifter.  I’m almost 38!)  IT AIN’T EASY!  I look back at what life used to be like without kids… really there’s no reason not to be good when you can dedicate three to four hours to the gym daily with no interruptions, no mouths to feed, no mortgage to pay.  You really just need a means to live, somewhere to train, food to eat, a focused mindset, and time.
 
Once you have kids, that luxury goes away and you have to get really creative with how you’re going to carve out time for yourself.  It’s a constant balance and you’re never getting enough sleep.  I’ve gone months on end trying to train with an accumulated three hours of sleep from the previous night.  Between the sleep debt and the nursing, the being needed at all times and the general toll that growing and delivering a human being takes on your body, I sometimes feel like I’m falling apart.  It is by far the most challenged I’ve ever been.  But I am doing it.  And I am proud of that. 
 
Please give a basic description of your training method. Just tell us as much as you can about your program, weekly/yearly planning, etc.
 
Since Greg and Aimee moved to Oregon, we do everything remotely.  I was with them at their gym for years and he knows me well, so it actually works great.  I’m familiar with his style, language, and well versed in everything he teaches.  All the same shit I’ve been working on for years still comes up and when he gives me feedback, I know exactly what he means.  He sends me my program weekly and I send him video of my lifts each day.  He gives me corrections and adjusts the program based on all the video and my long self-loathing texts regarding my execution (or lack thereof) of the workouts. 
 
Greg tends to break things down quite a bit to attack certain weaknesses in the lifts.  In my program, you’ll see a lot of complexes reflecting this, various pulls addressing strength in certain positions (segment pulls, pause pulls, segment deadlifts, etc.).  You’ll see some skill transfer stuff like snatch balances, muscle snatches and cleans, etc.  There’s usually at least a day in there where I get to handle heavier weight with the straight classic lifts.  I’ve been doing a lot of higher volume sets in the squats (probably because I look like I skip leg day) and also mixing up the variations of squats (parallel, pause, slow eccentric, etc.)   He sticks with things for long periods of time, sometimes months, building intensity and every few weeks backing off.  It’s fun for me because it becomes a game.  I come into the gym each day already knowing what numbers I hit last week on a certain complex for example, and therefore what I’m going to aim for today.  On the weeks he assigns all the numbers, I know he’s put them there because he knows I can hit them, so even when I feel like shit, I have confidence that I can execute.  And there’s always an opportunity to be better than last week.
 
All of the programs are built out to have me peaking for the big meets.  At the time I am writing this, for example, we are 23 weeks out from Nationals.  The program will build and then taper for that meet.  Should I do a local meet between now and then, he may opt to train me straight through since it would only be for practice (I’ve already qualified) or he may back me off pretty good so I’m feeling rested and can make big lifts, thus feeding my confidence.  However he approaches my training in that regard, I’m always confident knowing he’s considered all the variables and made a thoughtful decision.  This makes it really easy to just get in there and lift without questioning anything and everything the way athletes sometimes do.  
 
Describe some of the obstacles you face, or maybe some things that frustrate you in your weightlifting life.  What kinds of changes would you like to see, either personally or with the sport in general? 
 
Having kids, hands down, has been the biggest challenge for me personally as an athlete trying to continue my career afterwards.  I think I watched too many social media posts of moms kicking ass and taking names after babies and I had this vision that it would be a piece of cake.  I seriously assumed it would be easy to just incorporate my kids into what I do on a daily basis.  I thought, “I can just be over here doing my squats and baby can play with his toys next to me like a sweet little boy and we can hang out and it’ll all be fun and simple!”  Haha. yeah. It turns out it doesn’t exactly work that way.  I’M NOT COMPLAINING!  Every mom would take this moment to spew some cliché about how it’s the hardest thing they’ve ever done but that they wouldn’t change it for the world and that their kids are amazing blah, blah blah.  It’s true, though!  However, it is really challenging and I’m here to tell you that no matter how many cute videos you see on social media of moms with their kids doing workouts (myself included), you can be certain that she is struggling!  And I want you to know this so that if you are a mom and you’re seeing this stuff, you don’t beat yourself up just because it seems like someone else is doing it much easier than you or with more grace. Anyway, it turns out kids need you ALL the time for every detail of life.  And, as with anything, being good at momming requires time and effort.  So simply carving out the time, let alone being lucky enough for it to be focused and uninterrupted, it the biggest challenge. 
 
 My second biggest challenge has been dealing with nagging aches, pains, and eventual injuries. Along with that, the emotional challenge of coming to terms with the fact that I’m getting older and my body is feeling the effects of the wear and tear over the years, that recovery comes much slower and being proactive about recovery is going to have to become an even bigger part of the program (which, again, you’re going to have to make more time for).  I’m learning that I can’t just ignore some things and work through the pain until it eventually goes away like I used to.  More than ever, I’m really going to have to be aggressive with prehab/rehab, extra stretching, soft tissue health, sleep, nutrition, and addressing issues immediately.  It is a frustrating transition going from young and invincible to older and breakable.  The time I’m going to have to put into this is going to far exceed the couple of hours of lifting in the gym each day.  The challenge becomes finding a way to work it into a daily schedule that is cohesive with juggling everything else. 
  
What are your plans and goals for your weightlifting career? How do you see your future in the sport?
 
I’ve come to the realization that it’s categorically difficult to make goals that depend on where you stand relative to other people, especially now that there are so many amazing athletes in the sport.  Not to mention, I’m quite a bit older than most of the senior athletes and been a little tied up over the past few years while everyone else was training hard and getting strong!  Years ago I might have affirmed something about winning a medal at a National level meet or placing a certain way overall.  Now my biggest quantitative goal is to make a 200 total.  Somewhere in the neighborhood of 90/110 would do the trick, and I’m not too far off at the moment.  I think it’s realistic and achievable, but also a big enough goal to really have to work hard for which is, of course, what makes it fun.  Wherever that lands me is where it lands me, and I’ll be fine with that.  To get there though, I’ll have to train like I’m trying to make the Olympics!  And that’s how I’ll approach it every time I hit the gym.
 
Even more than hitting big totals, my goal is to inspire others to stay the course: work hard, maintain focus, and strive to be better each day without comparing yourself to others.  And above all, BE REAL, BE HUMBLE, and BE GRATEFUL.  Superstars will come and go and winning medals is pretty fun, but all the qualities of your character that rub off onto the people you encounter in a lifetime will be the most profound and memorable.   No matter our level of athleticism, we all get up in the morning and put on our pants the same way.  And we’re all just lifting weights and having fun.
 
As for my future in this sport?  Well, I certainly never want to stop!  It’d be cool to stay a part of this world even when my ability to compete at a high level comes to an end.  So I suppose I’ll spend the rest of my days taking advantage of the opportunities that come my way. 
 
Who are some of your major influences, people you look up to, etc.? Who are the people you want to thank for your success?
 
Obviously, Greg and Aimee have been my biggest influences and I look up to them both very much.  I’ll periodically reflect on how lucky I am to have been invited to their gym that day and how it has paved the way to where I am at this exact moment.  I literally have them to thank for every success I’ve had and every opportunity that has come my way since I started weightlifting. Their starting with pretty much nothing but an affection for weightlifting followed by building an entire weightlifting empire is really inspiring and they are extremely good at what they do.  Not to mention the thick skin you have to have to honey badger your way to success in this business.  They’ve created a super organized platform for millions of people to learn anything and everything about weightlifting from videos and articles to an extensive exercise library.  They coach a loaded weightlifting team and they coach it well.  They put out the Performance Menu magazine, publish books, sell merchandise, make movies, put on seminars, etc., etc., and generally work really hard.  It’s fucking awesome.  All the while they are super giving people and do shit like let me be on their team. 
 
Besides them there’s no particular person I look up to, though I do enjoy watching YouTube videos of the top lifters in the world just as much as the next guy.  My whole life I’ve been more inclined to envision the person I WANT to be.  I imagine this person: What is she like?  How does she carry herself?  What makes her good?  What level of work is she willing to put in to reach her goals?  What sacrifices is she willing to make?  I see this person and I strive to be her.  And the people who inspire me to keep after it aren’t the ones breaking records.  They are 40 or 50 somethings with jobs or kids or who have suffered loss or experienced tragedy or who suffer with health issues who are down grinding in the garage or at their local gym, working just as hard at their weightlifting as I am mine and for no glory, no shot at records or fame.  They are simply driven by their love for the bar.  The 15-year-olds who were introduced at a young age putting up massive numbers, have more drive or focus than I ever did, their confidence is through the roof, and I think how I hope my kids will be like them one day.  The ladies in the suburbs who work out in their garage with the door open while the neighbors peek distraughtly and make comments about how it will turn them into a man as well as the newbie who just thought weightlifting was so cool and wanted to learn, so they started teaching themselves by watching videos because there were no coaches or gyms around.  The soldiers who build make-shift platforms in the desert and lift weights while they’re literally at war and the poor guys in third world countries who put fucking rocks on a barbell and lift barefooted in a dirt alley.  It’s all of the regular people who weren’t lucky enough to have someone come up to them and say, “Hey, you can do this.  Here, hold my hand, I’ll show you how,” the way I did.
 
It’s our pleasure to share your story with our readers, Jocelyn. Best of luck to you and your family, and we hope you’re in this sport for a very long time.