Hell to the N-O

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Today’s edition is fueled by RP Strength, the leader in strength sports nutrition, with numerous high-level CrossFit Games athletes as satisfied customers, including our newest athletes Rich Froning and Team Mayhem. Interested in reaping the benefits of dieting and training with RP? Start by downloading four free chapters from their best-selling ebooks.

QUESTION: From time to time we’re invited to be a guest onpodcasts, but we’re always at a loss of what people want to hear us talk about. So here’s where you come in –> tell us what you’d be interested in listening to us yammer on about.

“Either you run the day or the day runs you.” – Unknown

WHEN A PRO-MOUNTAIN BIKE RACER DOES CROSSFIT.

The story.

Selene Yeager has many titles: pro-mountain bike racer, health coach, author, and fitness journalist. Mostly though, she is a cyclists, through and through.

So what happened to her cycling fitness when Selene decided to give CrossFit a try?

Cycling meets CrossFit.

She’d dabbled in cross-training before, but never fully committed. After spending countless years building a massive aerobic engine, she didn’t really see how barbells and gymnastic movements would benefit her on the saddle.

After some trusted fellow cyclists were singing the praises of their local box, she decided to give it a try.

So what happened?

First, she became a more well-rounded athlete. She was regularly training parts of her body she’d never focused on before and felt much stronger overall. It also gave her another gear. We all know that gear: the dark place. It improved her base rides, too. 75 miles into a three hour ride she still felt like she could ride all day (you do you, girl).

More and more athletes are getting drunk on the CrossFit Kool-Aid. It really is the perfect supplemental training for any sport— but we knew that already.

COFFEE BREAK CONVERSATIONS

What to tell your friend who asked you to demonstrate a girl push-up…

Come again? Ask one of these girls to demonstrate a girl push-up and you’ll get a blank stare. Ask one of them to do a push-up, and you’ll see something truly beautiful.

What to tell your friend who just heard that Weight Watchers will begin offering free memberships to teenagers starting this summer…

Hell to the N-O. That’s what the Internet said after a press release announced the new initiative. Both groups and individuals were concerned about teaching teens, especially young ladies, to find their worth in the number on the scale. Several ladies under the hashtag #WakeUpWeightWatchers shared their personal stories of struggling through Weight Watchers’ program at a young age, that ultimately led to eating disordesr and dieting issues as they matured. 

Whoops, we did it again.

Rick roll please…

Yesterday, instead of linking you to the “11 Best Healthy Packaged Snacks at Costco”, we revealed our out of the ordinary Google habits and educated you on one of the SECs favorite college drinking games — Slap the Bag. 

We hope you LOLed as much as we did. 

…and if you’re still looking for that link, here ya go.

THINGS TO…

WATCH: 2018 Team Preview

Big changes have come to the team competition. The CrossFit Games update studio breaks down the teams to watch going into the 2018 Games season.

GET READY.

HEAR: CrossFit in School

Pat & Ro welcome Shannon LaNeve on the show. Shannon is the coordinator for health and physical education for the Clark County School District, which integrated CrossFit into their PE program across 365 schools and more than 300,000 students. 

REIMAGINING P.E.

EAT: Kung Pao Chickpea & Brussels Sprouts Stir-Fry

For when your Chinese takeout cravings are taking over, here’s a vegan and gluten free answer to prayer.

GRAB THE CHOPSTICKS.

Today’s edition of the Morning Chalk Up is fueled by

CHALK UP COMMUNITY

• HE’S MAKING A LIST — CrossFit HQ released an Open checklist. So whether you’re competing as an individual or team, or are managing an affiliate, here are all the resources you need to be prepared on game day. 
• TEAM CARTER — At just three-weeks-old, Carter Peddie contracted the Respiratory Syncytial Virus, stopped breathing and was rushed to the ICU. At two-years-old, she was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. At three-years-old, she was diagnosed with PURA Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder which affects brain development; at this time she cannot speak. The Ruination CrossFit family in Aliso Viejo, CA is stepping up to help, hosting a fundraiser WOD on February 24 to help the Peddie Family. You can also support their family
  by donating.
• THE BAR MUSCLE-UP POV — Kati Breazeal straps on a GoPro so you can watch a muslcle-up from the athlete’s perspective. One caveat, this is probably a no-rep as the 2017 bar muscle-up standard stated “the heels may not rise above the height of the bar during the kip.” We say probably because we can’t verify the height of the bar.

CHALK UP IN 2 MINUTES (a highlight reel around social media of CrossFit pros and average joes)

Jamie Hagiya joins the 300 pound front squat club • Rachel Garibay hits 11 unbroken 175 pound cleans • Fourty-one-year-old Laura Mc Sadler from JH
CrossFit got her first muscle-up • One of the members of the US Olympic Curling team has modified Nike Metcons with adhesives on the bottom and uses them on the ice • 

…and this is the highest box jump we’ve ever seen IRL. 

Launched Yesterday in London — Eldmóður, an old Icelandic word, whose closest meaning equates to ‘the fire within’. The project led by photographer Tom Oldham, “aims to investigate the correlation between the incredibly harsh landscape and brutal weather conditions with the astonishing ability of Icelandic athletes in the sport of CrossFit.” Tom followed Thuri Helgadottir and Sol Sigurdadottir while training for the CrossFit Open, capturing them running through snow and swimming in Seljavallalaug, the secret pool in the South of Iceland who’s outside temperature yesterday was 37F/3C. The photographs and video are on display in London until February 28. 

“Always Open” by Hilary Achauer, CrossFit Games

Jennifer Abel is probably busier than you.

Abel, 31, works the graveyard shift as a 911 public-safety dispatcher for the California Highway Patrol. She has two kids, ages 9 and 11, and her husband works out of town during the week.

Even with this busy and unconventional schedule, Abel finds time to fit in an Open workout every week for five weeks.

She looks at it like this: The Open workouts are announced at 5 p.m. Pacific Time (PT), and scores are due by 5 p.m. PT on Monday. That’s 96 hours.

“You can find at least 20 minutes in those 96 hours to do one workout,” she said.

2/16 – 2/18: Iron Sharpens Iron (Miami, FL)2/17: Lovers and Lifters (Springfield, KY)

2/17: Steel Rail Shootout 2018 (McComb, MS)

2/17: Wynwood Throwdown (Miami, FL)

2/17: St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (Venice, CA)

2/17 – 2/18: The Shred Fest (Orlando, FL)

2/22: CrossFit Open 18.1 (Worldwide)

2/23 – 3/26: Garage Games Junior Open (Worldwide)3/1: CrossFit Open 18.2 (Worldwide)

3/8: CrossFit Open 18.3 (Worldwide)

3/10: Women Who WOD (Barbados)

3/15: CrossFit Open 18.4 (Worldwide)

3/22: CrossFit Open 18.5 (Worldwide)

3/23: The Redeemed and the Dominant: Fittest on Earth is released (iTunes)

3/24: 4th Annual St. Paddy’s Day Competition (Norwood, MA)

4/7: Battle of the Badges (Anaheim, CA)

4/7: The Revolution (San Antonio, TX)

4/14: Battle for the Mountain (Dawsonville, GA)

4/14: Appalachian Games (Asheville, NC)

4/14 – 4/15: Mid-Atlantic Affiliate Challenge (Columbia, MD)

4/14 – 4/15: WOD Wars Fitfest (Dunedin, FL)

4/21: Festivus Games (Nationwide)

4/21: Mayhem for MSR (Cookeville, TN)

4/28: Battleground SoCal (Wimington, CA)

4/28: Girls Gone Rx (Cincinnati, OH)

4/28: Salem Slaughterfest (Salem, OR)

4/28 – 4/29: Walter’s Cup Throwdown (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

5/4 – 5/6: European Masters Throwdown (Budapest, Hungary)

5/5 – 5/6: Tribal Clash (Quarteira, Portugal)

5/5: Cinco de Mayo Classic (San Antonio, TX)

5/5: The Locomotive Games III (Youngstown, OH)

5/11 – 5/12: Beast Mode Games (Greenville, SC)

5/19: Raising the Bar for Recovery (Medina, OH)

5/19: East Coast Battle (Hanover, MD)

5/26: Beauty is a Beast 2 (Indian Rocks Beach, FL)