Being crowned Ms. Fitness Olympia three times is what makes Whitney Jones an icon among her bodybuilding and fitness peers. However, if the mainstream sports world knew about the Arizona native’s comeback stories — and there are plenty to choose from — Jones’ status would be universally legendary.
Not all of Jones’ struggles — Jones has had more than a dozen surgeries to go along with his multiple titles — have ended with him being called the winner, but rarely has Jones thrown in the towel. no.
Just before the finals of the 2015 Arnold Classic, Jones was floored on stage after suffering severe back spasms during warm-ups. She crawled backstage and tried to find a way to continue the night, even when she couldn’t get off the floor. Her night eventually ended with a DNF, despite trying to convince herself she could do it. “It was very bad,” says Jones. “I was flat out backstage, and they kept telling me, ‘The show’s about to start—you’re not going to make it.’ I was like, ‘No, that’s not true! Just give me five more minutes.’ In my mind, we weren’t done.
Two years later, a serious neck injury not only shut down his 2017 season, but nearly ended his career. But eight months later, Jones was in full training mode and four weeks out of the 2018 Arnold Classic—only to tear the ACL and MCL in her right leg during practice. Not only did he compete at the Arnold—Jones came away victorious.
Her comeback experience was last year’s Olympia, with Jones looking to regain the crown she lost to Missy Truscott the year before. She brought down the house of Orlando with an electrifying routine to capture her third title — only to later reveal that despite suffering a broken tibia just three days earlier. was performed
You can call it. Fearless — just like the namesake of her clothing brand-Because there is no pain or obstacle that will prevent him from finding a way to cope. Jones would probably call his toughness a byproduct of growing up with two older brothers. Now a mother of two boys, she is also a world champion athlete, trainer, Jim Malik, And one entrepreneur says she’s driven by her passion to find ways to make things better. Jones says the ability to adjust and adapt to stressful moments is a skill that everyone has and can be applied to almost any situation—if you have the right mindset.
“It’s all a mental game at this point,” she says. “You’ve done all the physical work. Now, it’s you who controls whether or not you succeed or fail. And I’ve had a lot of experience mastering that. And I just go like this. I come in, and you get a shot. I was going to put it all in there. And if it works great, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t, but you don’t have a tap out. You have it. You have to put in the work, make some changes in your routine and you just get into it.”
Now a few weeks away from this year’s Olympia weekend, Jones is relatively healthy as she looks to defend her Olympia fitness crown and secure a fourth title. Championship-wise, there’s nothing left to prove, but as Jones says, doing what you love is a motivating factor. Passion is part of her winning strategy, along with learning to make adjustments as she goes through life’s limitations.
“That’s who I am, and I take that approach with a lot of things,” says Jones. Because you can’t level up until you completely let go of all fear and say, let’s go for it. And if you have passion, and you’re strategic in what you’re doing, you have to have confidence that whatever you’re doing, it’s going to work.
Dig deep and find what you are capable of.
For me personally, I never have a backup plan. Going into the 2018 Arnold Classic, I had my routine set, then I blew out my ACL with four weeks to go. I had to start from scratch and literally figure out what I could do without using my right leg. Since my neck was still healing and I had a lot of atrophy in my shoulders at the time, it was about what I could do with upper body strength alone. I went back to the drawing board. I stopped thinking about all these crazy things I could do that I had been working on for years, and went back to the basics and built it from there.
I was like, “I can do XYZ—but how can I make it more explosive and interesting?” Since I was thrown for a loop by injury, it really forced me to think outside the box without a backup plan.
This is where I feel a lot of people fall out—they don’t want to see their true potential, realize what they’re capable of until they’ve been tested. I was tested. And there was no way I wasn’t going for that show. And for me, me [already] It was to prove that I could come back from a broken neck. So when the ACL injury happened, I was like, OK, OK, this is a real test for me as a player. Where is my championship mentality coming from? Is there or not? And I was ready to prove to myself more than anyone else that I was worth it.
Bottom line: You work with what you get. Don’t focus on your mistakes and what isn’t working in your favor. Focus on what is and that’s how I was able to succeed. But that was probably the closest I came to taping because of my neck, then my upper body and lower body was a little jacked. What am I going to do? But you just have to tap into that mindset and know that I’m here to fight. I have worked very hard. I want to get on that stage and I want my shots.
Buses and you will be left behind.
The best advice I have is to put yourself on the other side of the situation. So if a friend or family member is telling you about their obstacles, what do you tell them? It’s easy to fall into this victim, pity party mentality. But everyone knows you have no purpose, it’s a waste of time.
If you have goals, if you want to achieve something, you have to be able to learn from the mistakes you make. Life is not always wonderful. You learn from failures. So if it was an epic failure, you must have epic lessons that you’re learning from. You have to look at it in the mindset to go, yeah, suck today, and whatever the case, you don’t want to relive it, but what can you learn from it? Because then there’s something productive that you can improve on and that’s just constant forward thinking.
Again, something I always say is, you know, everybody in our sport is focused on a result and a goal. Have you ever wanted to be successful? maybe not. So guess what, when you’re sitting in your party mentality and you’re wasting the day feeling sorry for yourself or dwelling on something negative that happened, someone else is working on you and it’s you. Depending on whether you can allow it or not, I won’t allow it. I will not be worked out.
Bring your best and you win.
Focus on your goal—but that goal must be internal. You cannot be motivated by external validation
Our game is subjective, so you have to feel like a champion before you hit the stage. You need to be like, “Hey, I’ve already won, and everybody’s in the audience to see me win.” Having this mindset helps you get to a place that is actually productive. If you doubt or hesitate, bad things are going to happen because you don’t have confidence.
So if you’ve prepared properly, and done everything you should have done to get to this point, you should feel like a winner. You should feel that this is your day to achieve success. And no matter what happens when you walk off stage, you still need to be proud of yourself.
Never endorsing judges is one of the most powerful things I’ve ever done. I didn’t win every show — hello! Everyone knocks in life but I have learned something from it. And there’s been so many times that I’m like, I should have won. I felt amazing. You know me, I tried my best, I didn’t. But guess what, as long as I felt proud of what I presented, then I won.
You have to constantly be better than your former self. You have to show better in every show. Your routine should be better, more exciting, and with more difficulty. Some people may need victory, but I think that’s the wrong mindset. If you do all of these, you win with or without the trophy.
Create a champion platform
In the fitness industry, there are many opportunities for self-fulfillment and financial fulfillment. You can make money from your passion for fitness, but if you’re focusing too much on yourself, you’re not enjoying the experience or keeping your eyes open for opportunities, friendships, even sponsorships. are You’re also missing out on opportunities to really give back to the community.
One of the biggest things I’ve learned, without a doubt, is that you’re not a champion for those moments when you’re on stage for two minutes, and they give you that trophy, that’s it. is what you do the moment you walk. phase, and the entire year that really defines what kind of champion you are. How do you hold yourself? What are you representing? Are you helping young players take advantage of the game and achieve everything you have? For me, being a champion allowed me a platform and a voice that I never had before, to share my experience to share my excitement to share my love for the game.
I’m just like everyone else — nobody on the street knows I’ve ever won an Olympia, and they don’t care. But if I can help someone start getting active, get healthy for their kids, or help a young athlete recover from an injury and realize their life is over. It has allowed me a platform to really help inspire and motivate others. And to me, that’s what a true champion is, you represent the sport well, you represent your division well, and you’re helping to share your passion.
Act like all eyes are on you — always
What keeps me motivated? I really love this game. On the creative side, I like to try to challenge myself, “Hey, can you do this skill?” People will throw ideas at me, and that’s the only way for me to know. I love thinking about new clothes, new music, new routines. That’s what keeps me motivated.
But at the same time, being a mother, and coaching athletes all over the world, I’m also setting an example. So you have to walk the walk and talk the talk. Not that I don’t have bad days, but I realize that eyes are watching and what I do and say can absolutely inspire and motivate. My two boys are now teenagers and entering their athletic careers. And they’re trying to dedicate their lives to schoolwork, so what I’m doing is setting an example. So it motivates me to push harder every single day. Because if I fall down and slack off, it’s giving my clients as well as my guys a pass or an excuse. So by modeling the behavior that I would like to see for my kids and my clients that keeps me accountable, it keeps me motivated and always focused on just enjoying my work. I don’t have to – I get.
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