Breaking Makes You Unbreakable, World Champion Adventure Racer Rebecca Rusch

The Hard Way With Joe De Sena

Spartan Races

Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Alternative Health, Health & Fitness, 792700

4.7 • 870 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when the toughest person you know completely breaks? The Queen of Pain crashed, hit her head, and lost everything that made her strong: drive, purpose, momentum. Rebecca Rusch talks about rebuilding from zero, letting go of ego, and finding strength through movement again. No fluff, no fake motivation, just raw lessons on how to get up when your mind quits first. Watch it, then move.

What You Will Learn:

How to rebuild discipline and resilience after major setbacks.
Why movement and small wins are critical for recovery.
How to reframe success and purpose after life-altering events.

Episode Highlights:

[00:33] The bike accident and post-concussion symptoms.
[02:04] Losing mental health, motivation, and momentum.
[06:43] Movement as medicine and letting go of ego.
[10:10] Reframing what winning truly means.
[14:21] Building a new mission and helping others heal.

Tools, Frameworks, or Strategies Learned:

Movement as Medicine: Using physical activity to restore mental and emotional balance.
Small Wins: Leveraging incremental progress to rebuild confidence and momentum.
Reframing Success: Adjusting mindset to align purpose with current reality.

Closing Insight or Key Takeaway:
Strength comes from getting up when your mind quits first.

Timestamps:
00:00 Meet Rebecca Rusch, Queen of Pain
00:33 The Bike Accident & Post-Concussion Symptoms
02:04 Losing Mental Health & Motivation
04:45 Physical vs. Emotional Resilience
06:43 Movement as Medicine & Letting Go of Ego
10:10 Reframing What Winning Is
11:54 Finding Joy in Small Wins
13:33 Reflect, Move, Connect
14:21 New Mission: Helping Others Heal
15:30 Building Resources for Concussion Recovery
16:46 Thinking About Her First Spartan Race
18:06 Rebecca's Athletic Background

Connect to Rebecca:
🌐 Website: rebeccarusch.com
📸 Instagram: @rebeccarusch
📘 Facebook: Rebecca Rusch
💼 LinkedIn: Rebecca Rusch – Rusch Ventures
▶️ YouTube: Rebecca Rusch

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:
👉 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hard-way-with-joe-de-sena/id952870930
👉 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pYBkk1T684YQg7CmoaAZt

📲 Short, Impactful Content:
👉 Instagram: @spartanuppodcast
👉 From host directly: @realjoedesena

💥 Join the Spartan Community:
👉 Find Your Next Spartan Race: https://www.spartan.com/en/race/find-race
👉 For everything Spartan: https://www.spartan.com/

About The Hard Way Podcast:
Hosted by Joe De Sena, founder and CEO of Spartan, this podcast explores resilience, discipline, and the Spartan mindset. De Sena's journey from building a multimillion-dollar pool cleaning business in his teens to Wall Street success, then running an organic farm and creating Spartan, showcases how embracing challenges and endurance can transform life.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's really easy to give help and everyone wants to give help.
0:04.0	And I think when you need help, you're actually like, if you ask for it, your friends are
0:09.0	going to be there.
0:10.2	But we don't want to ask for it because of ego.
0:13.0	Spartans, listen up.
0:14.8	We need to sleep better.
0:16.0	How do you sleep better?
0:17.4	Never thought about it before.
0:18.6	And so I met Jack.
0:19.8	I met Ascentia, I had attention to the
0:21.8	mattress to sleep on because it's loaded with chemicals. Recovery, cooling, and pressure relief,
0:27.6	all in one mattress, up to 60% more deep and REM sleep. Less inflammation, faster bounce back.
0:35.3	No toxins, no EMFs, no BS. My buddy Jack Jack over to Sancho he's kind enough to give us a code
0:42.1	for the Spartan community that's Decc that's tough mother of all of us use Spartan 25 get a discount
0:47.4	prioritize your sleep so you can sleep faster you can do more burpees you can train more you can get
0:53.0	healthy when you sleep well, you live well.
0:56.1	Welcome to the Hardway podcast with Joe Dicenna, founder and CEO of Spartan races.
1:01.9	We're teaching you how to overcome your obstacles in your life the same way we teach our 10 million plus Spartans to overcome obstacles on the course.
1:09.6	With insight from the smartest, most accomplished experts from every corner of the world,
1:13.8	get ready to elevate your life today.
1:17.4	Joe DeSenter here, CEO and founder of Spartan, host of a Hardway podcast, got an old friend
1:22.4	to my, she's young, but it's an old friend, Rebecca Rush.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Spartan Races, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Spartan Races and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.