Inside Dave Castro’s Secret CrossFit Box

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Today’s edition is powered by Working Against Gravity, the Official Sports Nutrition Sponsor of the Morning Chalk Up. WAG just released a weight cutting ebook that gives the exact protocol Adee, WAG’s founder and CEO, uses when coaching competitive athletes. If you purchase a copy before Feb. 28, you’ll be invited to a private webinar with Adee where she’ll answer all
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The CrossFit Open kicks off in three days, 15 hours.

“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel…AND it’s NOT a TRAIN!” — Unknown

CROSSFIT INVICTUS EXPANDS TO BOSTON.

Say what?

One of CrossFit’s most iconic affiliates is expanding to the East Coast, right in the heart of New England; Boston, MA.

Over the next few weeks, CrossFit Back Bay and CrossFit Fenway will begin transitioning into Invictus Boston. Both gyms will operate out of their individual locations as CrossFit Invictus Back Bay and CrossFit Invictus Fenway.

C.J. Martin and Josh Plosker, former co-founder of Back Bay and Fenway who will head up Invictus Boston, said “we couldn’t be more excited. We are so well aligned on our goals as business owners and what we’re trying to create in our communities. We really want to create communities where we provide [athletes] education, support and encouragement for anybody of any ability level.”

How many affiliates is that now?

After nearly 10 years under C.J. Martin’s leadership, the Invictus brand has grown from one San Diego location to three. With this new addition that brings their total to five, making Invictus among the largest affiliate umbrellas worldwide. Exact figures are hard to come by, but only Reebok’s branded affiliates and NC Fit come to mind as having more locations.

So what about the CrossFit Games?

On top of their already impressive cadre of individual athletes — Lauren and Garret Fisher, Kristin Holte, Bjork Odinsdottir, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, Kristi Eramo, Regan Huckaby, Casey Campbell, Alex Anderson, Holden Rethwill, Eric Carmody, and Jenn and Sam Dancer — Invictus plans to register six teams, four of which they hope to see competing at the West Regionals. 

One of those teams is Invictus Fenway, recently joined by former Games team athlete and East Regional athlete Kelsey Kiel a few months back. She also won the 2017 CrossFit Games Liftoff. She’ll be joined by Tola Morakinyo, Briana Hamilton and Nate McCabe.

Besides all that, Invictus’ performance at the CrossFit Games is legendary. They’ve competed in every affiliate cup, standing on the podium twice. Across nine appearances at the CrossFit Games, they’ve averaged sixth. And at the California Regionals, they’ve fielded two teams for the past four years. 

COFFEE BREAK CONVERSATIONS

What to tell your friend who’s wondering when Dave Castro will release the first Open tip…

Should Dave choose to continue the tradition started in 2016, we think the first Open tip will come today. Dave’s first hints for 16.1 and 17.1 both came on Mondays, but as Monday is the due date for all subsequent workouts a hint only occured on a Monday for the kickoff workout. As for workouts two through five, We charted the rest of the data found that on average Dave gives 1.7 hints per workout. Thirty-five percent of the time they drop on Tuesday, 23% on Wednesday, and 29% on Thursday. If you wanna check the data yourself, feel free to poke around here. 

What to tell your friend who’s kinda freaking out about the Open…

You need to LOL a little, so watch this. 

THINGS TO…

WATCH: Inside Castro’s Secret Gym

By now, everyone knows that the CrossFit Open, Regionals and Games WODs are the most tightly held and guarded secrets in this sport. So Dave Castro has his own secret gym where he can go to test out new ideas before unleashing them to the world. CNN got an exclusive peek inside. 

TAKE A LOOK.

KNOW: 9 Subtle Diabetic Symptoms You Shouldn’t Ignore

First off, always consult your doctor if you have any questions about your health. But as you go about your regular and health-fueled life, here are a few signs from the Mayo Clinic to watch out for.

TYPE 2.

HEAR: Be Still My Anxious Heart

Anxiety. Just reading that word might send your heart rate through the roof if you’re one of 40 million Americans suffering from anxiety. The Nasty Girls podcast tackes what anxiety is and what you can do about it.

JUST CHILL BRO.

EAT: 21 Healthy Lunch Recipes That Are Perfect for Meal-Prep

From gorgeous salads to yummy sandwiches to protein-packed bowls of goodness, Ambitious Kithcen has every recipe you need to power you through your week.

TIME FOR A GROCERY RUN.

Today’s edition of the Morning Chalk Up is

CHALK UP COMMUNITY

• HONORING OFFICER DAVID SHERRARD — Officer Sherred, a 13-year veteran with the Richardson Police Department was killed in the line of duty last week. Hunter Strickland, a Richardson Fireman and owner of Stoneyard CrossFit organized a memorial WOD and fundraiser for David’s wife and two daughters this weekend.

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

This is maybe the most awesome place on the planet anyone has done a row WOD • This is a very strange (looking) but probably very challenging ab workout • Brent Fikowski joins the Ascent Protein team • Brent Fikowski is auctioning off a signed Games jersey and shorts to help raise money for a local box owner’s family who’s baby came 3.5 months premature to help pay for hospital expenses • Rich Froning takes his daughter to the daddy daughter dance • FloElite releases their list of who to follow in CrossFit (they obvi must have forgotten us) • Jeff Evans hits a 440 pound clean PR • Ring that record bell again, Harrison Maurus clean and jerked 441 pounds at the 2018 USAW Junior Nationals to set a new Junior American Record, a record that stood for 11 years. He also swept gold this weekend #Shocker • Sam Briggs is down in São Paolo, Brazil prepping for 18.1 alongside Brenda Castro • Nike plans to release an all camo Metcon 4 in Europe • Stefi Cohen cleans 240 pounds • 

…and for most of us, this is what we wish we were actually doing right now. 

Dave Castro on the “dark place” of Open WODs…“If you’re doing CrossFit at its intended intensity, every single workout should bring you to your dark place. For many people, the Open is the first time they reach that place. It’s something about the atmosphere and spirit that surround this competition. It heightens your intensity and suddenly you reach this stimulus that you never knew existed. That’s your dark place.” He continued on to name the ones he thought brought athletes to the darkest place: 1) 14.5/16.5, 2) 13.5, 3) 12.1, 4) 11.6, 5) 14.2…Unsurprisingly, four of those five WODs included thrusters, chest-to-bars or both.

“Falling Out Of Love With The Process” by Pete Hitzeman, Breaking Muscle

As an editor, I have developed an allergy to clichés. This presents a problem for many of our writers, as I have become likely to nuke from orbit any sentence that references “the journey” of fitness, or encourages readers to “trust the process.” It’s not that these banalities aren’t true or useful—an overemphasis on goals or desired end states does lead to impatience and all sorts of other issues—it’s just that they’ve been beat to death worse than a Toby Keith song at a political rally.

The objective of a coach or writer who encourages you to fall in love with the process is trying to create a sustainable mindset for growth. This is a noble intention. But my own experience, both as a coach and an athlete, has led me to believe that it falls short of its intended outcome. For me, and for many of the athletes I have observed or coached, the process is inextricably linked to the goal, and so falling in love with the former is only one degree removed from the latter. The result is that often, when the complications of life interrupt the plan, both process and goal fall apart.

This is the reality behind so many unclaimed marathon bibs and event t-shirts relegated to the floor of the closet. The process is powerful, but only while you’re in it. What do you do when you find yourself off the wagon?

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)

4/21: Swamp Challenge (Gainesville, FL)

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)