Ricky Garard on His Road to Recovery

August 23   |   POWERED BY

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

• Curtis Marzinzik and CrossFit SCV are using a rowing fundraiser to help members cover gym memberships
• Elite female coaches encourage more women to get into the space
• Ricky Garard talks about recovery and taking on the 2024 CrossFit Games season

We want to feature your gym for affiliate of the month. Send us a note and be sure to include a note about why we should feature it.

“The first step in believing something is true is wanting to believe it is true...or being afraid it is.” - Terry Goodkind

Pulling For The Community: How a Rowing Fundraiser is Bringing Members Together

Curtis Marzinzik has been in the CrossFit space since 2010.

In the first year of the Games in Carson, CA, Marzinzik fell in love with CrossFit. He jumped headfirst into the sport, taking classes and quickly becoming certified to coach. Although he loved the physical movement of CrossFit, the thing he enjoyed the most was the community, so in 2015, he opened up his affiliate, and CrossFit SCV was born. Now in 2023, CrossFit SCV has almost 250 members.

The community is the cornerstone of how Marzinzik runs his affiliate and he takes personal responsibility to ensure all of his members can afford fitness.

• Marzinzik: “I’d say probably half of the months of the year; we have personally paid for at least one person’s membership since we’ve opened, just because we thought it was important.”

Whether it was because of the loss of a job or trouble at home, Marzinzik just made it work.

• “I told them just to keep coming to the gym. And then whenever you get reemployed, do it right. Members would approach me sometimes, letting me know they couldn’t keep up with the membership–I would find out why and then I usually said we would work it out for a few months.”

With his affiliate located in Los Angeles, the hotbed of production, CrossFit SCV saw the repercussions of the recent writers strike up close when most all television and movie production screeched to a halt on May 1, 2023. The strike still needs to be resolved, and many people are without work, including writers, actors, and all crew members.

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🚨🚨 TYR Wodapalooza Online Challenge and Qualifier (WZAOC): The WZAOC is the first step in earning a spot to compete in Miami at the TYR WZA fitness festival in January, but it’s also a great opportunity to throw down with your gym family, Friday Night Lights-style. Athletes have two options for the TYR WZAOC, individual or team of three. Check it out register now!

• The first two weeks are focused on our individual athletes and kick off on Thursday, September 14th, with scores due and registration closing on Monday, September 18th at 8:00 PM ET.
• The second week starts on Thursday, September 21st, with scores due on Monday, September 25th at 8:00 PM ET.

The Rogue “Q” Workouts: The Rogue Invitational qualifier, known as the “Q,” will take place August 25-28 (this weekend). The workouts have just been released and they all look 🔥🔥🔥.

🚨🚨 Down Under Championship Online Qualifier: Australia’s Down Under Championship qualifiers have already kicked off for masters, teens, and intermediate teams and scores are due August 25th. Elite individual and elite team qualifiers will take place September 4th-8th. Get registered and ignite your inner competitive fire.

ICYMI: Can strength be a weakness at the CrossFit Games?

The Elite Female Coaches of the CrossFit Games

One year ago, Caroline Lambray called her shot.

• “It would be cool to be the first woman coach [to have her athlete] win the CrossFit Games. That’s something that’s on my bucket list,” she said in an interview with the Morning Chalk Up’s Emily Beers.

But Caroline Lambray’s goal was even more significant than just having her athlete stand atop the podium.

One big thing: Every year, the six fittest CrossFitters in the world step onto the podium at Madison after five long days of competition (three men and three women).

• While these athletes have achieved the pinnacle of fitness, behind them also stand some of the greatest coaches in our sport.

Ricky Garard Already Eyeing 2024 Games Season, Continues His Fight After Facing Multiple Setbacks

A four-year ban, a comeback year with a podium finish at the Games, and a major shoulder injury mark some of Ricky Garard’s most notable moments thus far in his CrossFit career. His latest, taking him out of the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games season, only makes him hungrier for the comeback that should have been.

Australian athlete Garard announced in April that he suffered a shoulder injury during a mountain biking accident that required surgery and would ultimately take him out of the 2023 Games season entirely. Shortly before the incident he’d taken first at the TYR Wodapalooza fitness festival and placed seventh place worldwide in the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Open and 15th at Quarterfinals.

Remind me: Garard, 29, was coming off of a highly impressive 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games appearance where he finished third, after facing a four-year suspension due to a drug testing violation during his rookie year at the 2017 CrossFit Games.

• In reference to mountain biking, Garard said: “I love it. It’s something I’ve done for a long time. And it’s something I’ve always done outside of the gym just to get away from the gym for a day or two and still get some fitness in. Have some fun at the same time.”
• “I definitely regret hitting the jump that I did. I mean, I was probably pushing the boundaries a little bit too far and tried to do stuff that I shouldn’t have been.”
• “Pretty much straight off the accident I could pretty much tell I was in trouble just from the way it felt from the outside and even when I tried to move my shoulder, I was like, ‘This isn’t good’.”
• “But I did everything I could to try and avoid surgery. But it pretty much got to the point where they said if I wanted to get back to being as good as I was in CrossFit then I was going to need surgery. So eight days after the accident I was on the surgery table getting it done.”

Garard has been focused on recovery for the last four months, going through recovery sessions and physical therapy, to restore the use of his shoulder. He shared that he’s back to full training and is at about a 90-95% recovery.

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This Key Factor in All Games Champions

WOD Science took a look at the common denominators between CrossFit Games champions, and they came up with something you might not have thought of.

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These Three Exercises to Prepare for Back Squats

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Exercises You Don’t Make Eye Contact On

Eye contact during some of these movements should be illegal. Watch it and let us know if you agree.

Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise. Send us a tip.

• 🎂 Happy birthday to Bethany Flores and Mattie Rogers.
• Happy ten year anniversary to CrossFit Terminus in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Congratulations to Elizabeth B. of Adventure Awaits CrossFit in Schofield, WI,  for mastering double unders and PRing her metcon.
• Congratulations to Cameron G. of CrossFit Highfields of Meringandan, Australia,  for the 331 pound/150kg clean and jerk PR.
• Congratulations to Teaganne Finn and her teammates of CrossFit Union Square of New York, NY, for taking second place at the Asbury Park Summer Games.

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