Fitness
Fitness Training
Why Haley Adams had to stop being an athlete to find her way back
At 22, Haley Adams walked away from the sport that had defined her life. A year without training or competition changed her relationship with fitness – and with herself.
For most of her life, Haley Adams knew exactly who she was. She was an athlete. She started gymnastics as a child, tried almost every sport she could find, and discovered functional fitness at 14 after spotting women lifting weights through the windows of a gym. She fell in love with it almost immediately, and before long she was competing at the highest level.
Then, in 2023, she stopped.
So she took a year off. No competing. No training. No obligation to be fit or productive. She travelled, spent time with people and, in her words, got to "be a kid". It turned out to be one of the best decisions she has made.
Read on for Haley Adams' thoughts on burnout, finding balance and learning how to be an athlete without letting being an athlete define her.
Haley Adams took a year off from competition
© Alex Trobough/Red Bull Content Pool
I just felt like I truly had never gotten to live my whole life
What have been the most meaningful moments of your career so far?
And when I tell you I stopped cross functional training, like I stopped, I did not do it. I took off the entire year. I did not want anything to do with it. I decided I wanted to try it again in September or October, but I was so out of shape, it basically felt like I was starting again.
I worked so hard to qualify again the following year in 2024. I ended up getting fourth that year, but I didn't even care about the placing. Being able to come back after taking a year off was definitely one of the highlights of my career – and to still do that well. But it was just very, very humbling. It will definitely stand out for sure, forever.
Beyond functional fitness, Haley Adams grew up training in gymnastics
© Alex Trobough
I just didn't feel like I had to do anything - that was the cool thing
What made you decide to take a year off from competing?
Well, I was getting really burnt out. I guess at this time I was 22 and I'd been doing it for a while already and I was really burnt out. Mentally I'm so hard on myself, but I was very, very hard on myself back then.
I was also struggling with some eating issues. I was very, very tiny. And I was seriously hating the gym. I was not a good person, just having a really hard time. I just felt like I truly had never gotten to live my whole life. I had just been doing something and working so hard – sure, I'd take a little vacation here or there, but never truly just gotten to live life for a little bit.
And after talking with quite a few people, it sounded like it was going to be the right choice for me, even though I did not want to do it at the time. But if I wanted to keep competing, they were like: “You should really try to take the year off.” And it ended up being one of the best things I've done because I had such an amazing year, truly. I was just so burnt out and needed a break.
What did you discover when you weren't training?
I just didn't feel like I had to do anything. That was the cool thing. I didn't feel like I had to go do this or go train or go compete or be in this shape. I just would travel and go be a kid that I hadn't got to be. Just literally getting to live day by day with nothing that I had to do.
Haley Adams has worked hard on her mental approach to functional fitness
© Alex Trobough
Did you work with anyone during that year?
Yeah, I did a lot of therapy, mental therapy, just to get myself in a better place so that I wasn't being so mean to myself and was able to fuel myself properly and take care of myself. So, lots of work in that area as well.
How did it feel to come back?
I would say it's definitely [going] uphill because the way that I feel now versus how I feel years ago is night and day. But of course, with everything, there are downhills too, I still have bad days. This year definitely was not the best athletic placing for me, but what I can take away from that is that I'm mentally OK. I'm happy. I'm healthy. It happens sometimes, but I'm in a much better spot now and to be able to handle that versus if this happened three years ago, I would have dropped off the face there, you know what I mean? But I'm proud of myself for putting that effort in to be OK with that.
Haley Adams lifts at the Mayhem Classic
© Alex Trobough/Red Bull Content Pool
You said you had been an athlete for almost your whole life. Where did that start?
From the time that I could walk to basically when I started cross functional training, I did gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming, cross-country, everything. I've always been an athlete. It's just been in my blood, it’s who I am.
How did you discover functional fitness?
So, I was getting a bit burnt out from gymnastics when I was 14, I think. And there was this building beside my gymnastics gym and it had big windows so you could see in. Every time we would drive past it, I would see these women and they were jumping rope and hanging from the bar and lifting weights. And I was like, what are they doing? That looks so cool.
I've never seen people just drop a bar from over their head. I was just really tired of gymnastics, so I begged my dad to take me in. I was like: “Please just let me try it. I just want to try it.” I tried it and I loved it. From the day I tried it, I just fell in love.
Haley Adams sees things differently since her year off
© Alex Trobough
A bad day isn’t a bad life
What do you tell yourself when you have a bad day or a disappointing result?
I've just learned [that] you’re never promised tomorrow. So, I just don't get stressed out about tomorrow. Something else is that a bad day isn’t a bad life, realizing that just because I'm having a bad day, that doesn't mean that my life's bad or I'm spiralling or going back to how I used to be. Little things like that and just truly enjoying what I'm doing.
Do you still love training?
If I don't enjoy it, I don't want to do it. You have one life. So, learning to love cross functional training again and being in the gym and building a healthy relationship was the best thing I did, because I do feel like I have a gift and I want to be able to do this. Now I love it and I want to keep doing it for as long as I can.
What don't people see when they look at Haley Adams the athlete?
I'm just a human that loves other random things too. I love Disney, I love Star Wars. I'm a nerd too!
Haley Adams loves a bit of Disney
© Lindsey Childs/Red Bull Content Pool
I love Disney, I love Star Wars. I'm a nerd too!
What kind of person do you want to be?
I think something that I value most from other people is kindness, treating everyone with kindness. I try to do that too, because you never know what someone's going through. I wouldn't say I need to do that more because I really do try to do that. I don't know. What do I need to do more of? […] I think just being kind to people is what I recognize from a lot of people, how they treat others.
