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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Today’s edition was chalked up while en route to Madison, Wisconsin to check out the new home of the CrossFit Games.
Today is also the 75th Anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor where 2,403 Americans lost their lives.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” — Benjamin Franklin
INTRODUCING THE CHALK UP GOAL PLANNER
In less than 30 days, we’ll usher in a new year. Often times, we don’t start seriously considering what we want to accomplish next year until days or hours before it starts.
WHAT IS IT?
In order to help encourage you and make setting your fitness goals easier, we built the Chalk Up 2017 Goal Planner, so you could quickly and easily write down your goals and download or email yourself a PDF to print out and save. You can even do it from your mobile phone. You can even do it over and over, as you think of new ones.
ANYTHING ELSE?
Don’t take our word for it, listen to what Arnold Schwarzenegger has to say about it: “People always came up to me and said, ‘why are you smiling? You’re working out five hours a day. You’re doing the same as the other guys, but the other guys have a sour face, they’re pissed off that they have to do another rep or another set.’ I look forward to another 1,000 reps of sit-ups. I look forward to another 500 pounds of leg press or squats…Why? Because I knew that every rep that I did and every set that I did and more weights that I lifted, I got one step closer to turning that vision into reality.”
CHALK UP IN 2 MINUTES
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU HIT THE BOX
The CrossFit Games team is in Madison, Wisconsin right now doing some recon on the new facilities. Chris Zardas of CrossFit First Down hit a 402 pound clean and jerk at EZ Muhammad’s Lift Heavy Move Fast event. This is what the Dubai Fitness Championship athlete jerseys look like. These are the nineteen CrossFit athletes to watch at the American Weightlifting Open: 1) Alyssa Ritchey… 2) Kaela Stephano… 3) Sarabeth Phillips… 4) Kris Klever… 5) Maddy Myers… 10) Nicole Capurso… 11) Sarah Loogman… 19) Elijah Muhammad. Roy Gamboa and Mekenzie Riley win the Misfit Athletics mock regional. The New York Post looks into what five boutique fitness adherents spend annually to stay fit.
You can access the Dubai Fitness Championship’s livestream here. Remember, Dubai is 12 hours ahead of Pacific Time.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Four-time CrossFit regionals athlete Alyssa Ritchey sits down with FloElite to talk about her decision to focus exclusively on Olympic weightlifting this year and setting expectations to medal and challenge Morghan King for the top lifter in the 48kg weight class. “My goal is to be number 1. Morghan King put up a 180 at the Olympics. I want to hit that. I want to hit 181. Morghan is an excellent athlete but everyone always wants to go for the top dog. I want to be that top dog.”
CHALK UP READS
“The Other 23 Hours” by Athlete Daily
You show up consistently and push yourself in the gym. But why aren’t most people taking recovery as seriously as their workouts? Unless you’re lucky enough to be a full-time athlete, time isn’t always on your side. But there are still ways to make the rest of your day productive, or at least not as harmful, to your training goals.
Remember, it’s much more time consuming (and costly) to undo bad habits or deal with injuries than to be mindful of the lifestyle you’re living outside of the gym.
Drink more water…Move around outside of the gym…Sleep more…change your thoughts.
“CrossFit competition debuts in Snowmass” by Snowmass Sun
When Pat Burke left the Marine Corps at age 23, the former combat veteran said trying to reintegrate with society was like “an outsider trying to come back in.”
In the few years following his military career, Burke moved five times and went through five different jobs, got divorced and lost his home in a housing crash. What Burke swears “saved” him is the fitness regimen known as CrossFit.
In 2008, Burke and his wife, Janelle, opened a CrossFit gym in Broomfield called Mind, Body, Spirit CrossFit. Burke said he had no expectations or hope that the gym would survive and that he thought it would close every month.
CHALK UP AFFILIATES
UPCOMING: Camille Leblanc-Bazinet will be in NYC This Saturday (Dec. 10) to help host and MC ICE NYC’s Fight Gone Bad Throwdown.
Aim Higher CrossFit outside of Coral Gables, FL launched a six-week “New You” summer challenge, but they got a lot more than participants who just wanted to shed weight when athletes like Mika Belgrave joined after she was diagnosed with cancer. “When I saw the ad for the challenge, I signed up. At the end, I didn’t expect how much they would do for me. They know me by name, not as a cancer patient.”
CHALK UP TIPS
Brought to You by Sam Dancer — Do you maintain a neutral spin when you deadlift or squat? Sometimes it can be hard to tell without an experienced buddy watching. That was until Sam Dancer came up with this genius — yet silly looking method.
CHALK UP DEALS
Reebok is offering 30% off already reduced items with code “SALE30.”
Buy any two FitAid cans for $0.99 + free shipping, no code necessary.