Your Coffee is ready.
Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Today’s edition was chalked up while watching this future toddler CrossFitter.
With your first cup of coffee, a Morning Chalk Up original: 7 Steps to Finding the Right CrossFit Box.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I Never Lose! Either I win or I Learn…” — Vincent Catteruccia
CHALK UP IN 2 MINUTES
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU HIT THE BOX
The trailer for the new Fittest on Earth documentary is coming soon. Looks like Becca Voigt will be competing in the CrossFit Open for the 10th time. Tasia Percevecz snatches 205 pounds. Local Cleveland news station interviews Julie Foucher about CrossFit and she’s wearing a lab coat and glasses. What’s the first thing Cassidy Lance shows off in the video of her new affiliate? The showers.Austin Malleolo shares why he’s doing the CrossFit Open and why you should too.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
The story of 4x CrossFit Games competitor Jenn Jones talking about her road to recovery after failing to qualify for the 2016 Regionals due to a lagging injury from college gymnastics. Until 2016, Jenn had no only qualified for Regionals but the CrossFit Games every year since 2012. Now she’s back to training and competing in the Open.
ON THE RADIO
**Very Relevant for Owners and Coaches** This week’s episode of Ben Bergeron’s Chasing Excellence Podcast covers being a leader at your affiliate, from building your staff, trust and listening to your coaches.
CHALK UP READS
“The CrossFit Open: No Excuses” by Sarah Loogman, CrossFit Regionals Athlete
The Open is upon us!! In 28 days, the largest scale fitness event in the world will kick off for athletes all around the globe. For a very elite few, this is the start of the CrossFit Games season, but for the vast majority, the CrossFit Open is a way to measure improvements, set global markers and generally interact and connect with the worldwide CrossFit community.
Misconceptions about this event sometimes obstruct daily gym-goers and everyday exercisers to make the commitment, but here’s our response to your every excuse and why we believe you should register for this worldwide event and get yourself on the leaderboard:
“I’m not good enough.”
“The Awareness Alphabet – Accountability” by Danielle Hughes
I was obese for most of my life. And like millions and millions of us, I was up and down with the same 30-40 pounds. Dieting and gaining. Never really creating a healthy relationship with food, never appreciating my body and completely taking my health for granted. At my heaviest I weighed about 235 lbs. I ate for lots of reasons (which I’ll get to in many future posts), but I never owned those reasons. I blamed food, or my family or society. Everyone but myself. I didn’t hold myself accountable for my actions. End of story.
So what changed? It wasn’t like a lightbulb went off in my head. But the most defining moment was the end of my marriage. I knew I’d have to start dating again and I didn’t want to do it overweight. Plus, my son was not quite 3 and I wanted to be a role model for him. I wanted him to see a strong, fit mom who made smart choices. Someone who could keep up with him on the playground and also teach him how to eat well. Let’s be very clear. I hated exercise. I thought it was boring and while I’d worked out on and off my whole life, it just never clicked for me.
CHALK UP AFFILIATES
If you’re planning on judging at your affiliate — or supervising a bunch of judges — here are some tips from CrossFit HQ on how to prepare ahead of time for the challenges of judging 100+ athletes at your box.
Stories We Love — American Electric Power donated $138,000 to Thrive360, a local ministry bringing health, nutrition and guidance to the Longview, TX community. Thrive360 is partnering with CrossFit Citadel to open Citadel360, a sister ministry that will offer after-school fitness and fellowship to the youth of South Longview.
This is what happens when you put your AM athletes on a team against your PM athletes in a weekend competition.
Jim Sayih owns 911 CrossFit in Cooper City, FL and his son is a quadriplegic born with cerebral palsy, but every year his son Michael and he compete in marathons, mud runs and even Iron Man competitions.
Chalk this up to things we didn’t expect to see but are glad we did — CrossFit Four Pillars does a CrossFit demonstration and giveaway at the Washington Women’s Expo and Bridal Showcase.