Meet the First Affiliate Owner in Congress — Powered by Born Primitive
December 5 |
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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Marjorie Taylor Greene founded and owned CrossFit Passion in Alpharetta, GA, now she’s headed to Congress as the first affiliate owner ever elected to the House of Representatives. And, episode one of the Spartan Games dropped this week, learn more in Patrick Clark’s recap.
Keep those story tips, quotes and PRs rolling in. Send them to [email protected].
“Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.”- Charles F. Kettering
Worth Noting
Product News
Gatorade announces the GX Sweat Patch. The single-use patch pairs with an app to analyze an athlete’s hydration and sweat profile.
Assault Fitness and BodyPlan Fitness partner to create a new fitness app that will include workouts, challenges, leaderboards, and custom content. It will be released in January, 2021.
James Newbury tries out for team bobsled in Winterberg, Germany.
Fun fact: The average age for all 10 athletes in Stage Two of the 2020 CrossFit Games was 26. Kari Pearce was the oldest at 31, Haley Adams the youngest at 19.
Everything Else
The first episode of the Spartan Games dropped this week.
Registration for the inaugural Rogue Challenge — 50 calories for time on the Rogue Echo Bike — is open now.
The #NoQuitNovember vouchers from the Community Coalition are available for use through December 25.
The Community Gyms Coalition highlighted survey data Illustrating that a third of local, independent gyms will not survive 2021 without federal relief.
SPONSORED
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All vouchers expire on December 25. Act fast!
NEWS
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
A Former Affiliate Owner Elected to Congress
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene was elected to represent Georgia’s 14th District in the United States House of Representatives in the 2020 election and in doing so, became the first CrossFit affiliate owner elected to Congress.
One big thing: It’s a critical moment for community gyms around the United States, as many have faced months of COVID-related restrictions and closures. According to the Community Gyms Coalition, the gym industry has faced a closure rate nearly five times that of the restaurant industry and over a third of local, independent won’t make it through 2021 without federal aid. Heading into the next Congress, there will now be a sympathetic voice for the affiliate-owning community, a legislator who fully understands the situation for more than six thousand small business owners.
The details: Greene grew up playing softball and water sports and later became a full-time mom and co-owner, with her husband, Perry, of a construction company called Taylor Commercial.
To Optimize Performance and Recovery, Reduce Injuries and Stress: Get to Know Your Menstrual Cycle
Katy Hayes didn’t used to pay any attention to her body’s natural cycle, let alone to how it was affecting her training. “I was terrible about tracking my cycle, and my period would constantly surprise me. I was also completely ignorant on ovulation and even when that occurred,” said 28-year-old Hayes, who is currently training for the 2021 Tactical Games.
When the COVID-19 shutdowns occurred, Hayes decided to hire Coach Meg Cruz, a former CrossFit regionals athlete, CrossFit coach and the founder of the Valkyrie Project, a company that provides programming for women in the military, many of whom are CrossFit athletes.
Cruz is a big believer in training differently during various times of the female cycle, and it has made a big difference for athletes like Hayes. “Once I was able to pinpoint everything and started tracking my cycle, we got the workouts completely synced. It’s crazy how much of a difference it made,” Hayes said.
To spice up your holiday season, Fitness Santa is bringing you 12 days of Crossmas, that’s 12 straight days of fun fitness giveaways from some of your favorite brands absolutely free.
From December 1 – 12, we’ll be doing Instagram live giveaways each day at 5:00 PM PT, totaling 78 prizes from:
CrossFitters Make Presence Known in Debut Episode of the Spartan Games
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
The first episode of the “Spartan Games: Battle of the Fittest, presented by Harley-Davidson” debuted this past Wednesday on the Spartan YouTube Channel. What the 36-minute episode lacked in highlighting the opening day events and competition it certainly made up in entertainment and in profiling the 24 athletes they gathered from different fitness disciplines to compete for a $100,000 prize purse.
Spartan gathered the athletes at its birthplace, the Riverside Farm in Pittsfield, Vermont where they would compete in ten events over four days. Day one featured three events that tested both cardiovascular endurance and strength.
Event 1, Spartan Cross: The Spartan Games kicked-off with its bread and butter, the Spartan Cross. This version of their famous obstacle race featured a shorter running distance at 5,000 meters on a six lap course but included 54 obstacles. The obstacles ranged from rope climbs to crawling under barbed wire.
The Trials officially started yesterday and the first workout is a new take on the classic WOD "Fight Gone Bad." All you need is a single dumbbell for this one, so get signed up and hit it hard.
UpLaunch's Free Guide to Writing a Facebook Ad for Your Gym
Writing effective ads is a critical skill when it comes to marketing your gym. You need to write ads in a way that brings in leads and doesn't spend all your money. To help create the best ad for your gym, we put together a free guide to writing a Facebook ad, customized specifically for gym owners.
This movement is named after the king of the Titans, and it's basically a Zercher squat, plus a stone to shoulder, plus a front squat in one. And this sounds crazy, but it's actually a great movement for someone new to lifting. Learn more in the article from T-Nation and work it into your squat rotation.
Ever wonder why some days you feel like you have an extra gear? The secret is in the data. The WHOOP strap and platform is built to help you unlock your potential by monitoring your heart rate 24/7 so you know what you're putting your body through on a daily basis. Sign up now and (no code needed) start optimizing your recovery, training, and sleep.
PAINKLLR and U.S. Air Force Special Warfare are bringing a second round of "Made of More Missions" in January 2021 and the Mission Kit, which includes everything you need to compete (a tactical sandbag with six ten-pound filler bags and a limited-edition speed rope, along with an athlete shirt and patch) is available for pre-order now! The event will include six workouts, all based on real Air Force Special Warfare missions, and with gym closures and equipment shortages, the Mission Kit is all you will need.
Chalk Up Highlights is our section dedicated to celebrating our community’s wins in the gym. Follow @ChalkUpHighlights and submit your highlight to [email protected] to be featured.
Christopher Spell hits a 66-inch box jump for a PR and an unofficial world record.
COMMUNITY
Our final community round-up of the week features a request for survey responses from the community for a thesis project, an awareness challenge highlighting the prevalence and problems of bullying in New Zealand and an upcoming discussion with CrossFit’s Country Manager for China, Liang Kong:
CrossFit Athlete Predictive Modeling:Pablo Cordero, a business analytics student in Spain and CrossFit athlete is writing his thesis on machine predictive modeling and is hoping the global community can help out. He has created a survey to gather athletic data and your information will only be used for academic purposes. His goal is to be able to predict athletic performance based on behavioral information. The survey only takes a few minutes to complete.
Let’s LeadNZ’s 32-Hour Awareness Challenge: Let’s LeadNZ was founded to build awareness about the collective responsibility to stop bullying. Chas Clark and the Let’s LeadNZ team will be doing a 32-Hour Challenge on December 10-11 to bring awareness to the prevalence and damage that bullying causes. The challenge will consist of 16 functional fitness workouts and 16 12.5km rounds on a Concept2 bike. They are not asking for cash donations, but hope for social media and news coverage to help raise awareness. Learn more and tune in.
Liang Kong, CrossFit’s Country Manager for China: On December 11, the Confucious Institute at Coventry University will host a discussion with Liang Kong about the development of the fitness industry in China and how CrossFit has succeeded there. The discussion is free and open to the public. Sign up now.
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