“We forge our bodies in the fire of our will.”- Han, "Enter the Dragon"
COMPETITION
2023 NorCal Classic: Results and Analysis
Although this weekend’s NorCal Classic has already come and gone, there is still plenty to discuss about the event.
Below we will review the results from the Elite division as well as take a look at some of the event’s most interesting tests.
With ten tests completed over three days of competition, the NorCal Classic also happened to be one of the season’s most volume-heavy competitions, testing the athletes in a sort of mini CrossFit Games.
Before we dive more into the tests however, let’s begin with the Elite results:
Men’s and Women’s Podium
Sean Sweeney (51) | Brittany Wiess (56)
Tim Paulson (71) | Lauren Fisher (70)
Malachi Bennett (76) | Elizabeth Wishart (71)
Men Results Review
With no finishes outside of the top ten and starting the competition off with two straight second place finishes, Sean Sweeney was in firm control of the men’s division throughout the entire weekend.
He got to show his prowess in the water, finishing in the top three in each of the three total water events, while avoiding mistakes in all other tests.
The other two men on the podium flip-flopped their positions multiple times as Tim Paulson had a relatively bad start to the weekend with two finishes in tenth or worse while Malachi Bennett had three straight finishes in sixth or better.
Paulson had one more bad finish (22nd), but then went on a hot streak, closing out the competition with four straight top-three finishes, while Bennett gave up his lead after finishing worse than 12th in three of the next six tests.
Fun Fact: All three of the men on the podium are 30 years old or older (Sweeney: 31, Paulson: 33, Bennett: 31).
Roman's Key to Recovery at the Games: Unbroken Aminos
“I have been taking Unbroken for 3 years- taking 2 tablets after my workouts, twice a day and 1-2 tablets on rest days. Unbroken has definitely helped me with my progress and achieve the results at this year’s Games. I feel faster recovery and can push harder. I am especially taking Unbroken now with my injured foot to get back on track for the 2023/2024 season. It’s a clean product tested by Informed Sport with 25 free-form aminos including 9EAAs, Vitamin B12, Zinc and Selenium, easy to take and beneficial for everyone at whatever stage of their game. I highly recommend it.”
🚨 🚨 The Weekly Buzz: Check out the new collab between the Morning Chalk Up and Kettlebells and Cocktails and get caught up on some of the top community, affiliate, and sport stories of the week.
Adrian Bozman will be programming CrossFit.com, September 11-25. His first workout was an “athlete’s choice” style WOD to commemorate 9/11. Athletes were asked to select a Hero WOD for the day and honor one of the heroes with “an all-out effort.” Stay tuned to see where Boz goes from here.
Kara Frey is now a Mayhem athlete. Following her win at the Madrid Championship, Frey announced that she is working under the Mayhem banner with Coach Facundo.
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INDUSTRY
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Forging Connections: How Lab Management is Facilitating Mutual Growth Between Athletes and Brand Partners
It’s Tuesday night, leading up to the 2023 CrossFit Games and Cooper Marsh stands amongst his friends, family, clients, fellow leaders and innovators in the industry, creators and journalists.
He raises a glass and toasts to his Lab Management colleagues and all those that came to celebrate and support the team and the hard work that it took to take them to this point. He is joined by Daniel Robbins, one of the co-owners of Lab Management.
Some background: Before they were the Lab Management of today, Marsh and Jason St. Clair ran the company of the same name, while Robbins and Matt O’Keefe, after amicably parting ways with Loud and Live in March of 2022, were running Title Sports, a competing agency, representing athletes like Katrin Davidsdottir, Annie Thorisdottir, and Justin Medeiros among others.
How CrossFit Training Helps Special Needs Adults Build a Foundation for Life
There are some cool things about CrossFit. Big lifts under the coliseum lights, PRs in your affiliate during the Open, and the day you learn a complex skill you’ve been training.
There are things even more straightforward about the joy of CrossFit that we breeze over every day, but not at Agape Village.
A program for adults with special needs age 18 and up in Santa Clarita, CA, Agape Village has embraced fitness as not just a way to teach their students to be healthy but to better understand the world around them.
It is the brainchild of Jessica Escorza and Tim Smith, former teachers from Trinity Classical Academy in the special needs department. Agape came out of necessity as Escorza noticed that there wasn’t anywhere nearby for special needs adults to go to after they graduated high school.
“We wanted to provide a place where once adults were done with school, they had a place to go where they are still engaged and challenged, learning different skills. There are not a lot of programs like this in Santa Clarita, and when you look at the surrounding area programs, you need to commute, leaving parents to figure out caregiver situations and respite workers.”
Agape offers many services, including social, vocational, and functional living skills. Their goal is to provide the tools necessary for individuals to build their confidence and gain valuable skills in a supportive environment. The service Escorza is especially passionate about is adaptive fitness.
She started focusing on teaching fitness early on in her career:
“I got my foot in the door with adaptive fitness when I taught at Trinity and realized how much I loved it.”
After getting her degree in special education from Point Loma, Escorza started teaching at Trinity. Escorza wanted to do more because it’s challenging to incorporate fitness into the lives of special needs adults.
“For special needs fitness, a PE teacher often does assessments, just checking flexibility, jumping ability, and that you’re growing, etc. It’s not a structured workout for anyone.”
“I got free rein from our principal and was told I could build a program or design a fitness class, and we started working out at a facility near the school, which ran CrossFit-style workouts. I knew the guy who ran it, and three days a week, we would walk over from Trinity and do workouts there.”
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Ready to learn helpful information about yourself and your training? Whoop helps you monitor your recovery, sleep, training and health and gives recommendations to become a more efficient and healthy human. And don’t worry, for new members we’re hooking you up with a free Whoop 4.0 and a month of membership on us!
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