Our analysts, Brian Friend, Tommy Marquez and Patrick Clark drop some takeaways from the final 2021 Semifinals weekend.
The theme for the West Coast Classic was “History Relived,” but with all the Regionals records that were broken over the weekend, it was also “History Revised.”
How have gym cleaning practices evolved over the past year?
“Forget all the reasons why it won’t work and believe in that one reason that will work.”- Unknown
CROSSFIT GAMES
Six Takeaways From the Final 2021 CrossFit Games Semifinals Weekend
And just like that the 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games Semifinal stage is done. Three Semifinals took place over the course of the weekend: the West Coast Classic, the Atlas Games and the Asia Invitational, resulting in 24 athletes and 12 teams punching their tickets to Madison, WI. Our analysts Tommy Marquez, Brian Friend and Patrick Clark give us their takeaways from the exciting weekend.
Brian’s Takeaways
The other Asia contenders: The road to the Games (mostly) goes through Russia in Asia, but it might not be long until that’s not the case. Earlier in the season when the rulebook revealed that Russia would be grouped into the Asian continent, we speculated that for anyone to qualify to the Games from there they would have to go through the Russian athletes to do so.
Now that the Asia Semifinal has wrapped up we know that was in fact mostly the case. The top three men (and four of the top six), the top woman (and also four of the top six), and the top team were in fact all Russian.
However, the second qualifying woman (Seungyeon Choi of South Korea) and the second qualifying team (Team DUBAI) were clearly not, which means we get representation from other countries at the Games in addition to the three Russian individual athletes and four Russian team athletes that will be in the field.
This Energy Drink Was Developed and Tested by 2,000+ Military Service Members.
After two years of development, ECHELON launched today with an energy drink designed and tested with over 2,000+ military service members to ensure it meets mission-essential standards.
The new proprietary formula is a combination of energy enhancing active ingredients including beta-alanine, citrulline, arginine, 300mg of caffeine and 200mg of l-theanine.
One early tester called it “God juice.” It’s going to sell out fast, so get yours while you can.
SPEED READS
This week on the Clydesdale, Fitness & Friends podcast, Mike Malloy owner/founder of M2 Performance Nutrition shares the story of how he started researching nutrition’s effect on performance. Mike tells the crew, “The evidence is overwhelmingly pointing in the direction of carbohydrate-based fueling, once you understand the science of anaerobic performance being exclusively being fueled by carbs or glucose, the next logical step is to say okay I’ve got to put more of these in my diet.”
After experimenting on himself and seeing unexpected performance, people began asking Mike how he was doing that, including one future CrossFit Games Competitor. “Hi my name is Tasia Percevecz its nice to meet you I would love to talk to you about helping me with nutrition. I am an elite gymnast, sort of in the sport of CrossFit and I really don’t know what I am doing.” This started a trickle of competitive CrossFit Athletes that has now grown to a stable of over 50, as well as more in other pro sports.
Congratulations to Patrick Vellner on a great week that included qualifying for the CrossFit Games and the birth of his son, Owen William.
Due to a technical error, the leaderboard for day three of the West Coast Classic was incorrect in our newsletter yesterday. Here is the correct leaderboard:
Jacob Pfaff (414) / Jessica Androsik (392) / Salt Lake City CrossFit Gold (316)
CROSSFIT GAMES
History Rewritten: Records Fall at the West Coast Classic
CrossFit’s ability to continuously measure our progress is one of its undeniable traits that gets so many of us hooked. So for those of us who get particularly stoked about comparing performances and measuring improvement, nothing was more exciting than the West Coast Classic in Las Vegas, NV this weekend.
Remind me: The West Coast Classic Semifinal featured seven workouts that had previously been tested at either Regionals competitions, the CrossFit Invitationals or the Games between 2013 and 2019, making it the quintessential chance to assess how some of the top athletes in the world have progressed in recent years, both as individuals and as a community as a whole.
“We thought it would be perfect to celebrate the history of CrossFit…by programming old workouts historically,” explained Matt O’Keefe, the president of Loud & Live Sports of the decision to program all former Regionals and Games events.
Uncommon Sense: Gym Cleaning Policies, a Year in Review
When it comes to the various ways gym owners had to pivot to accommodate COVID-19, nothing turned out to be as nonsensical as cleaning policies.
Remind me: When the pandemic hit, gyms collectively doubled and tripled down on cleaning, leaving no surface unscrubbed, no plate, no box, no band unsanitized.
It made sense at the time. It wasn’t clear whether COVID-19 could be transmitted from surfaces, and the limited evidence in the early days of the pandemic suggested it could. Surfaces on the infamous Diamond Princess cruise ship, for example, found COVID genetic material was present for up to 17 days after infected passengers left the ship, so wiping or spraying absolutely every corner of every piece of equipment and floor space in the gym after every single use, or investing in expensive electrostatic spraying devices, seemed like the right move to make.
And so that’s what we did. And all the obsessive cleaning started to eat away at our precious class time. And at our equipment, which started to rust. And at our resistance bands, which became unbearably gummy. Meanwhile, we hoped to God that all the chemicals in the cleaning supplies weren’t harming our health. But still, it felt like the lesser of the possible evils.
Worth noting: Daniel Boyd, the owner of CrossFit Wichita Falls in TX, said he lost three rowing machines “due to over zealous spraying of the screens.” Meanwhile, Saul Garcia, a coach at Rio Gyms in Osborne Park, Australia said all the cleaning wreaked havoc on their barbells.
The chemical serotonin plays a crucial function in your overall health and wellbeing. It serves the critical role of being the “happy chemical” in your body, and we could all use some more of that. Check out these five ways to naturally boost your happy chemicals.
You know those days when you feel capable of anything? When your energy, stamina, and focus are tuned in, and you can perform at the best of your abilities? The primary difference between these days and an average day isn’t your body; it’s your mind.
It's summer, and you want to get outside. But adding more running into your program can lead to a lot of foot pain if you don't prepare properly. Add these four exercises into your daily routine to avoid developing painful plantar fasciitis (AKA really painful feet).
Struggling to string together pull-ups? Or struggling to get your first one? Simply commit 30 minutes, three times a week to Train Your Weakness's new course and conquer one of CrossFit's fundamental movements.
These crispy wraps are so simple to make, easy to store, and have a special spicy sauce that makes them next-level delicious. Perfect for lunch or post-WOD snacking, these are going on permanent rotation in our kitchens.
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.
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