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The Emma Tall Situation

 
Morning Chalk Up

June 26   |   POWERED BY

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • Last chance qualifier, Nicole Mghenyi, says this is her year.
  • Tommy Marquez takes on the Emma Tall controversy.
  • This Week in CrossFit.
  • FiiT For Life Seeks to have exercise recognized as a medical treatment in the UK.
  • A collegiate study that isn’t about the dangers of CrossFit.
  • Last Chance to Enter: Be treated like a WIT-sponsored athlete and receive new gear drops every eight weeks for an entire year. Join Rx now for $1 to enter the draw.
  • The Morning Chalk Up is hiring a Social Media Manager and Homepage Editor, and Customer Service Representative.

We love seeing your story tips, quotes and PRs roll in. Keep sending them to [email protected].

 
QUOTE OF THE DAY + Send us a Quote

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” - Thomas A. Edison

 
CROSSFIT GAMES
  “This Is My Year”: Nicole Mghenyi’s Final Push To Qualify For The CrossFit Games  

“This Is My Year”: Nicole Mghenyi’s Final Push To Qualify For The CrossFit Games

At the close of the Granite Games, two well-known Games athletes, Kristi Eramo and Steph Chung sat in the position to qualify for the Last Chance Qualifier. But there was one other name on that leaderboard that many saw for the first time.

One big thing: If you looked at the Granite Games leaderboard and thought “where did Nicole Mghenyi come from,” you weren’t alone.

  • Over the course of the weekend at Granite Games, Mghenyi catapulted herself to the top of the leaderboard within a few events and by the final day, it was looking like she might be a contender to punch her ticket for a rookie year at the Games.
  • Unfortunately, two finishes outside the top ten on day three moved her outside the top five and into sixth place overall behind Caroline Conners by 30 points.
  • However, her sixth place finish earned her one of three spots in the last chance qualifier that would give her one last opportunity to prove her fitness and lock down a ticket to the Games.

Always the bridesmaid…now the bride: While Mghenyi hasn’t stepped foot on the floor at the CrossFit Games, she was the alternate for the prestigious OC3 Black team, which took fourth in 2019.

Continue Reading...
 
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“I love competing and working hard,” said Katrin. “It’s an opportunity for me to push myself further and see how far I can go.”

Ascent has some sweet swag signed by Katrin to giveaway before the Games.

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SPEED READS

  • Mid-Year Sale: The WOD Life’s mid-year sale is going on now through the end of the weekend.
  • MUST WATCH: Earlier this week, ABC News featured a story on Michelle Duboc, a CrossFit coach and co-owner of CrossFit Unbounded in Miami. She posted a video doing Murph in May at nine months pregnant that went viral, in part at least, because her husband and some male coaches and members strapped medicine balls to their stomachs to experience the workout similarly to her. The videohas 9 million views on Instagram.
    •  Duboc: “It was pretty cool to see them actually want to try it and to see kind of what it feels like.”
  • Dani Speegle recapped the 6K Ruck Runat the West Coast Classic, an event that, due to the extreme heat in Las Vegas, almost ended Speegle’s Games season.
    • Speegle: “I hit that second lap and at the beginning I still felt great — but not too long in I started to feel lightheaded, and I had started to get this weird tunnel vision sensation. I started to tell myself ‘lean into the pain — it’s okay. We’ve been here. We’ve practiced this.’ My body still felt good just my head wasn’t working. Still, I told myself ‘you’re fine: Everything is fine.’ *insert intense narrator voice.* — Everything was not fine.” ⠀
  • The NOBULL CrossFit Games Collection is available now.⠀
  • Blues City CrossFit, based out of St. Louis, MO, qualified for the CrossFit Games in the team division at the West Coast Classic Last weekend, taking the fifth-place spot. Hear all of the behind-the-scenes details on The Blues City CrossFit show.
 
CROSSFIT GAMES
  Tommy Tackles the Emma Tall Situation  

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Tommy Tackles the Emma Tall Situation

I am going to start this week’s edition by stating very clearly that the Emma Tall situation was a lose-lose situation for everyone involved.

By everyone involved I mean Emma Tall (read: athletes) and CrossFit, the two sides of a dilemma that quite honestly stands as a stain in the athlete-sport relations history for the CrossFit Games, and comes at a time when the rebuild process for the most part was going fairly smoothly.

Tall lost a coveted Games spot, one that was declared at multiple junctures to be hers, and one that she privately celebrated before it was rescinded days after the fact to which she had no other recourse than an appeal that everyone knew had zero success.

Continue Reading...
 
CROSSFIT GAMES
  This Week in CrossFit  

This Week in CrossFit

What are we going to do this weekend with no Semifinals to watch?! I’m sure we’ll think of something as we get ready for next week’s Last Chance Qualifier. As we continue to digest how freaking fit athletes have become over the years, let’s also work on putting down the sanitation spray and walk away from the bumper plates as gyms revamp their COVID cleaning protocols.

Games Bound Athletes:

The West Coast Classic

  1. Cole Sager (583) / Bethany Shadburne (632) / Invictus (603)
  2. Noah Ohlsen (548) / Kari Pearce (628) / Invictus Unconquerable (595)
  3. Sean Sweeney (513) / Danielle Brandon (573) / Ohio Brutes (539)
  4. Will Moorad (489) / Dani Speegle (542) / Backcountry Black (530)
  5. Brandon Luckett (481) / Regan Huckaby (528) / Blues City Athletics (528)
Continue Reading...
 
NEWS
  “FiiT For Life” Seeks to Have Exercise Recognized as Medical Treatment in the UK and Beyond  

“FiiT For Life” Seeks to Have Exercise Recognized as Medical Treatment in the UK and Beyond

Six years ago, a member of CrossFit Deviant in Derby in the UK showed up at the gym “super upset” because his mother was about to undergo cancer treatment

  • “She had gone to her GP and her GP told her she needed to lose weight and get fit or this cancer will come back. And this woman, who was in her mid-50s asked, ‘What do I do? Where do I go?’ And the GP said, ‘I don’t know. Now off you go,’” said Athalie Redwood-Mills, the co-owner and coach at CrossFit Deviant, and a Senior Lecturer in the Sport and Exercise Science Department at Nottingham Trent University in the UK.
  • “It was insane that her doctor said that to her. What do you mean you can’t tell her where to go to get fit?”

Lightbulb moment: Hearing this story was a “turning point” for Redwood-Mills, and is part of what led her to start FiiT For Life, a charity that offers world class training through their CPD (continuing professional development) courses for health and fitness professionals.

  • The second reason Redwood-Mills started FiiT For Life was that she noticed a trend among CrossFit coaches: They want to help everyone but sometimes lack confidence, and the necessary skills when it comes to working with special populations, such as people with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, neuromuscular disease, she explained. “And it can be expensive to get qualified in those specific areas,” Redwood-Mills added.
Continue Reading...
 
NEWS
  A Collegiate Study That Isn’t About How Dangerous CrossFit Is  

A Collegiate Study That Isn’t About How Dangerous CrossFit Is

The Department of Human Performance and Health at the University of South Carolina Upstate wants to know a little more about the CrossFit community, how it exercises, how often, diet and psychological effects of doing CrossFit.

While CrossFit has a checkered past with collegiate studies (see below), this survey was not funded by an external organization and its purpose is to be able to compare CrossFit athletes to other types of exercises.

  • Fun reassuring fact: The study is being conducted by a CrossFit athlete who works out at a South Carolina affiliate.
  • Even more fun fact: There’s a CrossFit athlete who’s a professor of exercise science at a University. Not likely the only one out there but it’s nice to see CrossFit’s influence in upper academia.

If you want to participate in this 23 question survey, give this a click

So why don’t CrossFitters like collegiate studies? Because in 2013, Ohio State University published a study erroneously concluding that CrossFit was dangerous. They went so far as to falsify the data. If you want to know more you can read this overview.

  • Cliff Notes: The study was retracted for falsifying the data, the author of the study resigned from Ohio State University, a federal judge awarded CrossFit $4 million in legal fees alone. They eventually settled out of court for an unknown sum.
  • The judge’s conclusion: The NSCA (who published the study) “deceived and continue[s] to deceive the public and consumers regarding the safety and effectiveness of CrossFit training.”
 
THINGS TO...
 

...DO

This Aerobic Capacity Running Workout

Summers here, and it's time to get outside. Hit the road (or trail) and give this 30-minute endurance workout from Chris Hinshaw a try. Pace yourself to start, or your easy, moderate, and fast paces will look awful similar by the last round.

IMPROVING CAPACITY.
     

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...LEARN

Which Omega-3 is Right For You

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FISH OILS AREN'T CREATED EQUAL.
     
 

...TRY

The Kneeling Squat

Add this into your workouts so you learn to use your hips when you squat and stop relying on your lower back to take all the heat. Get on your knees and make a conscious effort to keep your spine neutral and your torso upright to get the full effect.

KNEELING NOT RESTING.
     
 

...BUILD

Your Aerobic Engine

Train Your Weakness has a new course to improve your aerobic endurance in just three easy-to-follow workouts a week for eight weeks. Make this the summer you crush those summer runs, swims, and bike rides.

GET SUMMER READY.
     
 

...STOP

Just Icing an Injury

Tried and tested it may be, but the results are in...just icing an injury isn't going to help. Learn the P.O.L.I.C.E method of injury rehab and get back to full fitness faster than a speeding cruiser.

SPEEDY RECOVERY.
 
HIGHLIGHTS...

Chalk Up Highlights is our section dedicated to celebrating our community’s wins in the gym. Follow @ChalkUpHighlights and submit your highlight to [email protected] to be featured.

 
LOCAL COMPETITIONS + Submit an Event
3/9: The Valkyrie Fitness Competition (Tampa, FL)
3/16: Upper Hunter Strongest Novice (Muswellbrook, Australia)
3/16: Shamwod & Shenanigains (oceanside, ca)
3/16: Oceanside CrossFit 1st Annual Shamwod & Shenanigains (Oceanside, Ca)
3/16: Shamwod & Shenanigains (Oceanside, Ca)
3/23: CFL Teen Take Over (Lorton, VA)
3/23: Masters Distinguished Games (Fort Wright, KY)
3/23 - 3/24: Beach Brawl (Spring) (Pensacola Beach, FL)
4/6: Best Babes Wyoming (Cheyene, Wyoming)
4/6 - 4/7: SeaDog Summer Showdown (Jupiter, Florida)
4/6: Girls Gone Rx Minnesota (Austin, Minnesota)
4/6: Girls Gone Rx Kentucky (Richmond, Kentucky)
4/6: Girls Gone Rx Ohio (Lancaster, Ohio)
4/6: Best Babes Decatur (Decatur, Alabama)
4/6: Best Babes 608 (Janesville, Wisconsin)
4/6: Best Babes South Carolina (Beufort, South Carolina)
4/6: Best Babes Houston (Houston, Texas)
4/6: Best Babes Tampa (Tampa, Florida)
4/6: War Off I-4 (Deland, FL)
4/6 - 4/7: No Pain No Game (Legnano, Italy)
4/6 - 4/7: Shack Team Edition (Rome, Italy)
4/6: Best Babes South Carolina (Beaufort, SC)
4/6: Best Babes Decatur (Decatur, AL)
4/6 - 4/7: Landifornian Battle (Seignosse, France)
4/6: Two Peas in a Pod: Mixed Gender Partner Comp (Burlington, MA)
4/13: Queens of Oly East Tennessee (Bulls Gap, TN)
4/13: Queens of Oly Rockledge (Rockledge, FL)
4/13: Fittest on Main (Boaz, AL)
4/19 - 4/21: Crash Crescendo (Spartanburg, SC)
4/20: Festivus Games (Clermont, FL)
4/20: Barbells For Bullies: Community Workout Savannah (Savnnah, Georgia, US)
4/20: Festivus Games @ CrossFit Plattsburgh (Plattsburgh, NY)
4/20: Festivus Games @ CrossFit Masiphumelele (Kommetjie, Cape Town, South Africa)
4/20: Festivus Games (Goderich, Canada)
4/20: Festivus Games @ The Gym – CrossFit Kilo (Cedar Falls, IA)
4/20: Festivus Games @ CBM Sirens (Caledonia, MS)
4/20: Festivus Games @ Coyote Valley (San Jose, CA)
4/20 - 4/21: Okanagan Valley Throwdown (Penticton, British Columbia)
4/20: The Fittest 4 (Sunshine Coast, Australia)
4/20: Embrace the Challenge (Mentor, Ohio)
4/20: Festivus Games @ CrossFit Pagosa (Pagosa Springs, CO)
4/20: First EVER Adaptive Festivus Games Competition (Waterford, United States)
4/20: Festivus Games (WAUKESHA, WI)
4/20 - 4/21: BGR Contest Spring Edition (Bergerac, France)
4/20 - 4/21: Okanagan Valley Throwdown (Penticton, British Columbia, Canada)
4/26 - 4/28: Crash Crescendo (Spartanburg, SC)
4/27: Cap Crown Throwdown (Gladstone, Australia)
4/28: 249 Spring Throwdown (Sittingbourne, Kent, England)
5/4: Team Challenge Texas (San Antonio, Texas)
5/4 - 5/5: Italian Bulls Games (Lido di Ostia, Italy)
5/4 - 5/5: Pavia Spring Challenge ’24 (Pavia, Italy)
5/4: The Strong and Courageous (Cullman, Alabama)
5/4: CHLKDUP Classic (Nashville, TN)

See all upcoming events

 
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