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24 Hours of Fitness, Fellowship, and Fundraising for United in Movement

April 5, 2020 by
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The inaugural livestream for the United in Movement charity kicked off this past Friday with a collective media effort unlike anything seen in the CrossFit space before. The ambitious fundraiser — whose goal is to raise a million dollars — began with a 24 hour, round-the-clock livestream featuring celebrities, top athletes, and subject matter experts all over the globe. The scope and execution of the livestream set the stage for the rest of the fundraising week which includes livestream workout announcements and workout demos every night at 6:00 PM EST through Friday, April 10.

The logistics of the livestream were insane, the home base for the livestream was in the Netherlands where all the incoming streams would be collected and controlled accordingly, before being pumped out to the internet on the United in Movement YouTube stream. The location of the main hosts and production team made it that much more impressive.

  • The production coordinator for the stream in charge of managing the content flow of the show was based in Tanzania, Africa.
  • Rory Mckernan played host to the largest portion of the stream from his home in Cookeville, Tennessee.
  • The Talking Elite Fitness crew of Sean Woodland and Tommy Marquez hosted more than 8 hours of the stream from their newly created studio in San Jose, California.
  • Bill Grunder and Chase Ingraham were constant presences on the stream for quizzes, and programming discussion from their homes in Dallas, Texas and San Luis Obispo, California.
  • Niki Brazier got up bright and early to host the stream at 4:30 AM local time from her home in Rhode Island.

That was only the beginning, as the full scope of content coming in from all corners of the globe was enormous by comparison, and featured 80 different guest spots, from more than 25 countries and states on 6 continents.

  • Subject matter experts and coaches provided instructional performance content and included Chris Hinshaw, Mike “Coach B” Burgener, Dave Durante, Laird Hamilton, Gabi Reece, Danny Lehr, and Chris Rawlins.
  • Top current and former athletes like  Dan Bailey, Annie Thorisdottir, Katrin Davidsdottir, Rich Froning, Kara Saunders, James Newbury, Ant Haynes, Tammi Robinson, Scott Stallings, and Javier Vazquez joined in to share training tips, workouts, and the impact training has had on them with viewers.
  • Hollywood stars Max Greenfield and Wilmer Valderrama joined the stream to share their fitness journeys, and the impact of health and fitness in their lives.
  • A variety of healthcare professionals such as Julie Foucher-Urcuyo, Dani Urcuyo, Abe Avender, Patrick Vellner, and Michelle Workun-Hill shared tips for staying healthy at home and their experiences on the frontlines of the pandemic.

But the real focus of the livestream was the fundraising effort and build-up for the first workout announcement for the weeklong competition that will run until Saturday, April 11 at 8:00PM EST. The “warmup,” for the eventual workout announcement included 19 reps of varying movements done at the 19th minute of every hour.

  • $160,000+ was raised during the livestream, including a significant contribution from NoBull and a special promotion from Chipotle featuring signature burrito bowls from Mat Fraser and Tia Clair-Toomey.
  • Fraser and Toomey joined the livestream for the first workout announcement and to demo the workout for the 11,000+ athletes registered for the competition at the time of the workouts announcement.
  • The workout: 7 minutes of “line-facing” burpees, with a new standard for the jump portion.
  • Scores: 130 reps for Toomey, and 139 reps for Fraser.

The 24-hour stream was a monumental start for United in Movement and it’s charitable efforts benefitting The Red Cross, The CrossFit Foundation, and Action Against Hunger, and there’s still plenty of time to sign up for the cause and donate. You can do so, as well as get additional information at www.unitedinmovement.org 

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