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Congratulations. We Made it to the Weekend.

Good morning and welcome to the weekend edition of the Morning Chalk Up. This is Jessica Danger, your Managing Editor, filling in for Justin while he climbs Mt. Langley, to bring you a quick wrap-up of the major news items throughout the week.

Today’s edition is sponsored by Chalk Monster. Stop worrying every month about ordering chalk and never run out of chalk again! Let us fill your chalk buckets with our premium 100% athletic chalk. If you are a Box owner, a Gymnastics studio owner, Rock climbing gym owner or any entity that constantly buys chalk, then our service guarantees you savings. When you subscribe to three or more pounds per month you unlock the savings. Give us a try!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility is being superior to your former self.” — Ernest Hemingway

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Why Should I Even Still Do The Open?

These last few days, our team has been inundated with emails about the Open. What happens if an athlete that won a sanctioned event also wins the Open? How will backfilling work for the Open? Why are there two Opens this year?

But most of these emails are from everyday CrossFitters like Justin and me. And, for the most part, they’re unsure of what’s next. Will there be live announcements? If there are two Opens this year why should I even bother? With age groups being limited, what’s in it for me? Will my age group ever be officially recognized by CrossFit?

Here’s what we have to say: Do it anyway.

For 99% of us mere mortals, we are not going to make it to the CrossFit Games. Not before the changes and not now. 

Greg Glassman is the first person to ever define the term fitness. And this is the modus operandi of CrossFit; You can now measure your fitness.

What better way to do that than the Open?

Every year you get to see where you stand in your box, in your state, in your age group, in your country, and in the world.

You get to see how much you’ve grown from last year to this year. Maybe this year you got your first RX Open workout. Maybe your first strict handstand push up. Maybe you PR’d your clean. These are things you can measure. 

And, you can also measure your ability to meet the unknown and be prepared for the unknowable.

The same fear that crept up when CrossFit announced its changes is the same fear you can conquer in the Open. The fear of failure, “Can I do this?”  The fear of being overlooked, “What about me?” The fear of being mediocre, “But where do I stand?”

There’s only one way around that fear. You have to meet it. You can do that in the Open.



And you should.

To the Unknown and the Unknowable,

Jessica Danger

Managing Editor

TOP STORIES
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Briggs, Newbury, and Project X Win Australia, Sturt Earns Invite
Tommy Marquez

The Australian CrossFit Championship wrapped up last week, giving us our third round of athletes earning their ticket to the 2019 CrossFit Games. Sam Briggs took it again, so it’s Maddie Sturt that gets the invite this time. 

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Oh Hey There Second Place
Justin LoFranco

With Sam the “Engine from England” taking first place at the Australian CrossFit Competition, the confusion around who gets invited to compete at the CrossFit Games, in this and all remaining sanctioned events, was on everyone’s mind. Here’s why we should be paying attention to the rest of the leaderboard moving forward.

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Will Work for Membership Dues and Community
Jessica Danger

What do you do when you get your hands on 16,000 square feet of factory space? You rally your CrossFit members to renovate it and move all your equipment in 37 days. You reward them with credits earned towards their membership dues and with a celebratory “housewarming” WOD at the end of course. 

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My CrossFit box is saving me right now
Erin-Kate Aleksek

Erin-Kate Aleksek’s husband is in the Coast Guard. After weeks of no income due to the government shut down, Erin-Kate decided to cancel her membership to Freakin’ CrossFit. There’s just one thing: They wouldn’t let her. 

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Today’s edition of the Morning Chalk Up is sponsored by
COMMUNITY

Saw it on the Internet, must be true. Here are a few of the things you guys gobbled up on the Internet this week.

  1. Cayla Harper hang snatched 200 pounds.
  2. Tia-Clair Toomey got a feel of what Adaptive Athletes do in WODs.
  3. Seventy-two-year-old Lauren is probably better at Mayweathers than you are. 
  4. Katrin Davidsdottir had a surprise visitor while training in Cape Town.
  5. Margaux Alvarez got everyone moving during WOD on the Waves, including the cruise staff
  6. Sorry fellas, this guy probably beat you at the art of surprise proposals. 
Oh and let’s not forget…

The Strange, Uplifting Tale of ‘Joy of Cooking’ Versus the Food Scientist (Helen Rosner/The New Yorker)

CrossFit Still Needs its Heroes (Justin LoFranco/Morning Chalk Up)

Fundamentals, Virtuosity, and Mastery (Greg Glassman/CrossFit)

Not Exercising May Be Worse for Your Health Than Smoking, Study Says (Gina Martinez/Time)

How Farming Saved my Body Image (AC Shilton/Outside)

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