The Fast-Exercising Mathematician: Jacob Heppner

2020-05-13

You might know that Jacob Heppner is a CrossFit Games veteran, but did you know he's also a nerd?

While his friends partied in college, Jacob holed up in the library. And after requesting the "hardest major you have" of his guidance counselor, he chose math. He was pretty good at it, too—his first internship was as a mathematics technician at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

That's also where he discovered CrossFit. At first, he thought it was a cult. Now, he's a four-time Games athlete with a career-best finish of 6th in 2019.

He joined Sean Woodland to talk about his interest in math, his passion for community service and the lessons he learned about being successful under the new Games format in 2019.

Links:

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Contact:

Instagram: @jheppner66

Timeline:

2:42 – On being terrible at football but bringing up the team’s average GPA.

4:45 – The drive to serve others.

8:51 – Why math?

11:58 – Finding CrossFit at Fort Leavenworth: “Sounds like a cult.”

16:15 – Jacob’s first Regional experience.

18:38 – Remembering “Thick and Quick.”

22:20 – On being top 10 in 2015 and 2016.

24:54 – Two years of setbacks.

29:40 – Making a comeback in 2019.

34:04 – Lessons learned from the new Games format.

35:54 – The return of the dreaded handstand push-up standard.

40:11 – Becoming a content creator.

43:56 – Learning to appreciate the platform he’s been given.