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Good morning and welcome to the final week of the CrossFit Open. Today’s edition of the Morning Chalk Up is brought to you by RockTape, helping athletes of every level go stronger for longer with the best kinesiology tape, cutting-edge education, and fitness support products.
In just two days, Sara Sigmundsdottir and Katrin Davidsdottir square off in a rematch. We got a little excited so we designed this poster to help get ya in the mood.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“You either suffer the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Pick a side.” — Unknown
CHALK UP IN 2 MINUTES
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU HIT THE BOX
Baring any midnight updates, Samantha Briggs and Travis Mayer will likely win 17.4 with 330 reps and 329 reps respectively.
Jason Baumgartner hits a 501.6 pound front squat PR. Ever seen a 58-year-old snatch 250 pounds? Here’s a sneak peak at NoBull’s new Cheat Meal trainers. Ben Smith hits 315 pound clean and jerks for three reps. Brooke Wells redid 17.4 at sea level and improved by 73 reps. Rebecca Phillips won last week’s GRID league challenge with a 427.5 pound 3-rep deadlift. Watch Noah Ohlsen, Alex Anderson and Jacob Anderson compete against one another in 17.4. According to Builder Online, having a CrossFit box nearby can boost home prices.
Meet Lindsay Vaught, a crossfitting mom of two boys who’s been doing the Open while in her third trimester.
WHAT TO TELL YOUR FRIEND WHO SAYS YOU CAN’T SQUAT IN THOSE JEANS…
Take off those skinny jeans and try on a pair of these from Barbell Apparel. Here’s the number one rule to buying a pair of jeans: if you can squat more than 500 pounds in them then you buy them. Nuff said.
THINGS TO…
WATCH: What It Means to Finish Strong
Any of you watch the 17.3 live announcement between Cole Sager, Mat Fraser and Scott Panchik? To refresh your memory, Mat and Scott smoked the workout, leaving Cole in the dust. He didn’t finish under the time cap but he didn’t give up. This weekend, he went live with Faith Rx’d to talk about this mentality and what it means in his life.
WATCH NOW.
WATCH NOW.
HEAR: Two Attorneys and a Microphone
Zach and Liz from Lift Like Lawyers sit down with 2x CrossFit Games athlete and owner of CrossFit Lincoln Phil Kniep to discuss his career as a firefighter, owning an affiliate and balancing work and training.
START LISTENING.
START LISTENING.
KNOW: The History of Rowing
Did you know that of 4,176 CrossFit.com WODs analyzed, an average of 9% included rowing? Well it’s true and we bet there’s a lot else you didn’t know about rowing and where the sport came from.
KNOWLEDGE BOMB.
KNOWLEDGE BOMB.
EAT: Scrambled Tofu Breakfast Tacos
OK, so tofu is not exactly our thing, but hey, if it’s not you’re thing either then just substitute it with something else. Don’t let tofu stand in the way of eating breakfast tacos, seriously.
MORE TACOOOOOS.
MORE TACOOOOOS.
BUY: Brownies and Pancakes
Save $20 on AboutTime’s all-natural gluten free vegan protein mix and their uber delicious protein pancake mix if you buy one of each with code “TASTY.”
NOM NOM.
NOM NOM.
CHALK UP AFFILIATES
Elite Warrior Athletics, Beltway CrossFit and the Atascocita Volunteer Fire Department are hosting a partner WOD in Humble, TX next month to raise money and awareness for veteran suicide.
CrossFit Sand Springs in Sand Springs, OK featured green beer, margaritas, and leprechauns for 17.4 on Saturday.Meet Malissa Mott and Beth O’Neill, two members of CrossFit Portside who have lost a combined total of 140 pounds. They both run Mantras & Macros, a nutrition and lifestyle-focused blog and podcast where they cover everything from weightlifting, taco eating, CrossFit and dogs.
CHALK UP READS
“Open To Open: Benchmark And Beyond” by CrossFit Games
Air seemed scarce.
Brandy Digre stood over her barbell, hands on her knees.
She was more than 13 rounds and almost 20 minutes deep into the scaled version of Open Workout 17.3—a couplet of jumping pull-ups and increasingly heavy snatches, wherein the reward for completing the work before the time cap was more time to do even more work.
She shuffled her feet and gripped and ripped, catching the 95-lb. barbell a hair too far forward, dropping the weight and landing on her ass with half a smile on her face. Her coach, Stephen Hitt, stepped forward, twisting his arm to demonstrate external rotation. Someone called out the 90-second warning.
“The CrossFit Paradox” by Coach Nick Scott
So what is the CrossFit Paradox? The basic gist of the principal is this: You can improve athletic performance in a given sport using CrossFit training, but you cannot improve in the sport of CrossFit beyond a certain level by only using CrossFit training. Let that sink in a moment…
Now, that we’ve processed that statement, I’m going to start backing up my claim. For years Louie Simmons has been telling big, sweaty, huffing and puffing powerlifters that the only way they can beat the guy standing next to them is to out work them. He has always maintained that a lifter needs to have a good GPP (general physical preparedness) base in order to have the requisite conditioning to be able to handle more volume in the weight room. I think everyone can agree this statement is true. The more fit you are, the more you can do; and the more you can do, the faster you’ll develop. Simple really. So here’s the funny thing, what is CrossFit? Yep, you guessed it….a GPP program (straight from Coach Glassman’s mouth).
Over the years I have used Westside barbell methods to train my CrossFit athletes. At every single powerlifting meet I have had athletes in I have always had people on the podium, and in fact at every single meet we have won best overall lifter.