“The past doesn’t matter. Take today.”- Becky Sauerbrunn
PROFILE
DJ Lucky Lou on Touring with Lil Jon and the CrossFit Games
There’s not much that can help you get a PR more than the right song at the right time. Gym owners and athletes alike spend hours cultivating the playlist specifically suited to their needs, their music taste, and types of WOD.
So – what happens when you get a professional in the mix?
DJ Lucky Lou, who grew up around music and with a father working at CBS Records, found CrossFit while training for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and kickboxing, looking for more strength and aerobic capacity. He fell in love with the new sport quickly at CrossFit Rancho Cucamonga near Los Angeles, one of the oldest CrossFit affiliates that started in 2008. The owners, Shelly and Dan Mielke had connections to CrossFit executives and introduced Lucky to them. From 2013, when he first started DJing the CrossFit Games, the rest is history.
“(The Mielkes) both expressed that it would be refreshing and nice to have an actual CrossFitter DJing the games,” Lucky said. “I usually pick out songs that I would like to work out too with lots of energy. Being an actual CrossFitter working out daily helps in my selection.”
Outside of his work with the CrossFit Games (including specially curated mixes for each Open workout), Lucky is a traveling nightclub DJ and is currently on tour with rapper Lil Jon. This, along with being able to retire his mother and financially support her, are two of his top-five accomplishments in life, he said.
Josh Bridges is a legend in the CrossFit community; he’s reliably kind, humble, and all-out hard working. For Josh, physical strength comes from his mindset. Here’s how he stays mentally fit to conquer anything that comes his way:
Real toughness shows itself in what you do when no one is watching.
When things don’t go as planned, the ability to adapt is where you find your full potential.
See an injury as an opportunity to come back stronger.
Don’t get dehydrated. Drinking lots of water (with sodium in it) keeps your body healthy.
💪 💪 12 Heroes WOD at TYR House: Operation Underground Railroad is presenting 12 Heroes on Wednesday, August 2nd, at the TYR House at CrossFit Connex during the CrossFit Games. Stop in and take on a different Hero workout every hour on the hour, starting at 7 AM. Break a sweat, fundraise, and make a difference between events. There is no drop-in fee, but register to save your spot now.
The ELFIT CrossFit Championship registration is officially closed, but more than 1000 athletes registered for a chance to qualify and compete in November. This year the Crossfit-licensed event is being programmed by new Technical partner, Underdogs Athletics. Send all questions here.
NOBULL and the 🐐 Tia-Clair Toomey: Register now for an opportunity to meet the six-time CrossFit Games champ, Tia-Clair Toomey and shop the NOBULL retail store early in the week. The meet and greet will take place at the NOBULL retail space at the Alliant Energy Center on Wednesday, August 3, 4:30-6:30 PM. There are only 100 (paid) tickets available, so get yours now!
🚨 🚨 New Gear Alert:Built for Athletes, the UK-based premium fitness brand, yesterday launched their most advanced backpack to date, the Pro Series. Designed specifically for the dedicated athlete, the Pro Series bag is formulated specifically to reduce back pain, avoid absorbing odours from sweaty gym kit and provide protection to contents via shock absorbent and fully waterproof compartments.
ICYMI: The next installment of our onsite guides series for spectators at the CrossFit Games dropped yesterday; places to get your grub on in Madison.
CROSSFIT GAMES
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
What if the CrossFit Games Had a Running Leaderboard through the Entire Season?: Men's Division
If we were to choose CrossFit champions based on the number of total points they have accumulated throughout multiple competitions during the season, what would that look like?
Other sports like Formula 1 and Cycling choose their winners this way, but it isn’t quite a right fit for CrossFit.
It is, however, an interesting way to get a general idea of which athletes have been the most well rounded throughout the year so far.
Below we have taken the results of all 40 male Games athletes in their Open, Quarterfinals, and Semifinals workouts (16 events total) and compared them all to each other (i.e. only against other individual Games qualifiers in the field). We then awarded them points based on their placing in the field using the CrossFit Games scoring system.
Total points: Total number of points awarded on a 1st-40th scoring system in relation to the other 2023 Games athletes
Average event placing: Avg. placing among other 2023 Games athletes
This year marks the 15th anniversary* of the Affiliate Cup. Back in 2009, no one could have imagined the scale that team competition would grow to in CrossFit.
What started as 50 North American gyms sending their top athletes to represent their affiliates in Carson California has turned into an international sport drawing some of the highest caliber athletes in the sport of fitness.
This year, 38 teams, representing seven regions of the world and fourteen countries will take the floor in Madison to once again fight for the Affiliate Cup. Here are the big things to watch for next week.
Stories To Watch:
East Nashville PRVN Fields a Powerhouse Team:In 2021, Taylor Williamson and Andrea Nisler paired up with CrossFit legend Rich Froning on CrossFit Mayhem Freedom to win the Affiliate Cup two years in a row.
In 2023, they’re back representing East Nashville PRVN with Tola Morakinyo and Timothy Paulson in what might be the first team other than Mayhem to claim the Affiliate Cup since 2017.
The team has already won the worldwide Open, worldwide Quarterfinals, and the North America East Semifinals, where they bested CrossFit Move Fast Lift Heavy 24/7 by 24 points.
Aside from their impressive ability to work together on the competition floor, the individuals comprising the team are also some heavy hitters themselves.
This year, Tola Morakinyo came in second worldwide in the Open, while his teammate Tim Paulson finished 14th.
Overall, the team had an average worldwide Open ranking of 57th, making their presence as both a team and individuals, not one to overlook.
Momentous Signs Partnership with Annie Thorisdottir
Poised for her 13th Games appearance, two-time champion and CrossFit icon Annie Thorisdottir just signed a partnership with the renowned and championed supplement innovator, Momentous.
Some background: Like most professional athletes, Thorisdottir has always gone to great lengths to research what she’s putting in her body and how those foods and products can benefit her as an athlete and as a woman.
During COVID lockdowns, with the extra time available to her, Thorisdottir dove into researching supplementation, and devoted herself to self-education on the subject. In working with Dr. Stacy Sims, a Momentous scientific advisor and female physiology expert, she gained vast knowledge about her body systems and what products she could safely consume to feel her best and perform at the highest level.
“When it comes to supplementation, I’m a person who takes quite a lot of supplements.With the amount of thought that goes into the food that I eat, I think it also matters to think about what supplements you take.”
“I’ve always thought about this, but especially when I became pregnant with Freya. I wondered, what’s safe to take, what should I be taking,” said Thorisdottir.
Decade-Long British Study Says, For Best Results, Sleep Could be as Important as Exercise
As CrossFit athletes, we tend to prioritize fitness and nutrition and think we’re good to go.
But according to new research—a decade-long study published this month in The Lancet Healthy Longevity Journal—there’s another key pillar to the overall health and wellness sauce that we sometimes don’t emphasize quite as much.
That ingredient is sleep.
OK, so maybe this isn’t new news. We have, after all, heard since childhood that eight hours a night is the magic number, but the reality is we’re busy, we have children, life is unpredictable, so eight hours a night eludes many of us, and then we trick ourselves into believing all we need is six hours.
We digress. Back to the research. The new UK study discovered that sufficient sleep is required for the full cognitive benefits that should come from physical activity.
The details: The research, which followed 9,000 adults over the course of a decade, found that the highly-active adults in their 50 and 60s who participated in the study, who slept less than six hours a night, essentially lost the cognitive advantage exercise provided, as they experienced the same cognitive decline levels as those who don’t exercise.
In contrast, those with a high level of physical activity, who also slept between six and eight hours a night, experienced better cognitive function as they aged than those who didn’t sleep as much. In this sense, for best results, physical activity, combined with enough sleep, is required, especially in aging adults, the authors concluded.
The bottom line: Six hours of sleep probably isn’t enough for you, nor is it enough for the elite CrossFit athlete.
Food for thought: Brent Fikowski and Sam Briggs told us their ideal number of hours of sleep a night is 10, while Noah Ohlsen aims for nine hours a night during competition season.
Morning Chalk Up is doing it big this year for the 2023 CrossFit Games by partnering with amazing brands like Reebok, Momentous, goodr, Thirdzy and Kineon Labs to give away amazing prizes each day of the CrossFit Games.
Entry is FREE and you can start building up chances to win NOW through the final day of the CrossFit Games.
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Counseling and Functional Fitness, which focuses on the integration of mental health and fitness, just released a captivating episode on their podcast all about building self confidence. Check it out and pump yourself up!
Introducing the 1.5L/50 oz YETI Yonder™ Water Bottle. The 100% leakproof, light recycled plastic water bottle that you love, with even more room for hydration just in time for the heat of summer. Get yours today!
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