“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”- Rainer Maria Rilke
CROSSFIT GAMES
Teaganne Takes On the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games Quarterfinals: The Aftermath
The 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games Quarterfinals weekend has come to a close and for many, including me, their season is over. However, any athlete who qualified and participated in these five workouts should be extremely proud of themselves. The workouts, for me at least, were extremely challenging and gave me a very clear look into what my weaknesses are and what I can do for next season. The TL;DR – a lot of crossover practice is in my future. (Editor’s note: See Teaganne’s and Joey Adduci’s initial thoughts on the workouts when they were released last week.)
Test 1 – “A well-laid plan”: I went into test one a bit skeptical of that first barbell for the front squat, but like I had planned, I warmed it up last and went right into the workout. This tactic worked well for me and the barbell wasn’t much of an issue. However, as expected, the muscle ups took me the majority of the time but I somehow got through all of them (by doing singles) and got 20 front squats on the last barbell. I honestly am surprised at how far I got and proud of my performance on this one.
Test 2 – “A failure to plan is a plan to….?”: Some might say this is where it went downhill. I honestly came into this workout and was ill-prepared. I had tried maybe a dozen crossovers prior to the workout and just went into it thinking it would be fine. I was wrong. The dumbbell, as I expected, wasn’t much of an issue, the lunges were slow given my knee injury but doable. It was the crossovers that truly took up the majority of my time. I think the first set of 40 took me 3 minutes and maybe 10 tries. All in all it was a humbling experience and I was surprised I even made it into the fourth round given my lack of preparedness.
Test 3 – “Java and (burpee box) jumps”: This workout really scared me if I’m being honest and it should have. I haven’t lifted a 185-pound barbell in months and jumping is also questionable for me at the moment. After doing tests 1 and 2 I was already quite sore and not sure if I should even attempt it. But after many coffees and some encouragement from a friend I decided to give it a go. My plan of attack was to warm up to 175 and if I felt good I’d start the timer, do my 5 burpee box jump overs and take a swing at the 185 clean & jerk. After about 6 tries I threw in the towel. I was really bummed but also realized that I am not in peak performance and I also haven’t thrown around a barbell that heavy in quite some time. In addition, I have had to switch my split jerk footing given my injury and so that too was giving me pause. I think this is a workout to give another go when I am fully healed. But for now I’ll take my 27 second tie break.
Test 4 – “Midline massacre”: Does it hurt to cough? Yes. Laugh? Yes. Sneeze? I don’t even want to think about it, Can I get out of bed without groaning? No.
But hey, we got it done.
This was a great workout for those midline folks who love a good grind. I knew I was not going to win this workout on the rower, so I may have taken my sweet time, but I knew I could hit the GHD and V-ups hard. I think this workout was one of the only ones that I had a plan and idea of how it would go and it actually turned out that way. I was happy to be able to hop onto the rower for the second round of 500 meters and I really pushed it at the end. All in all I was happy with how it turned out given my rowing split was laughable.
Test 5 – “Last test, best test”: I can honestly say this was my favorite and best workout of the weekend. I came into it knowing the deadlifts wouldn’t be that bad and my grip fatigue was going to be rough, but I could hang on. I was really happy with how I broke up the deadlifts and was able to do the chest-to-bars in two sets. I did the bar muscle-ups in sets of 3 and then chipped away slowly at the rope climbs. I really kept moving throughout the whole thing though and I was really happy with my performance. I used to go to a gym with very tall ceilings and have some experience climbing a rope, so I’m comfortable with being up that high.
The bottom line: This weekend was a really great experience and as with most CrossFit workouts a humbling one. I never fail to learn new things about myself as an athlete and what I’m capable of doing. I know and hope other athletes can feel good about how they performed and come out of the weekend feeling proud (and very very sore.)
SPONSORED
Conquer the Quarterfinals: Using the Move+
Quarterfinals pack a TON of workouts into a short amount of time, so recovery between workouts makes the difference in your place on the leaderboard.
The MOVE+ works to reduce joint pain and inflammation FAST to ensure you are recovering optimally and as quickly as possible. But don’t take our word for it: take Games Athlete Brooke Well’s word.
“If you’ve come into the gym every single day and you’ve recovered more than your competitors, then you can ultimately push harder and train harder,” said Wells. “Using this device and enhancing my recovery so much is going to be a game changer in the sport.”
Africa
1. Kealan Henry (37) | Christina Livaditakis (30)
2. Darren Zurnamer (42) | Mariska Smit (45)
3. Callum Deeble (54) | Gemma Rader (47)
4. Michael Van Tonder (55) | Michelle Basnett (49)
5. Daniel Griesel (70) | Tanha Bouffe (55)
Reminder: The top-60 men and women will qualify for Semifinals in the North American East, North American West, and Europe regions, the top-30 men and women will qualify out of Oceania, South America, Asia, and Africa.
See the Morning Chalk Up’s full Quarterfinals leaderboards, and find all the details about qualifying for the next stage of the 2023 CrossFit Games season.
ICYMI: The Morning Chalk Up’s own, Teaganne Finn, took on Quarterfinals this weekend. Check out her and analyst Joey Adduci’s initial thoughts when the tests were released. And don’t miss her recap in today’s newsletter. 🙌
Athlete News: Australian CrossFit Games veteran Khan Porter announced the end of his 2023 Games season due to a nagging back injury. “I knew coming into the weekend it was going to be a gamble to get through,” Porter wrote on Instagram, “There’s so much I could say but to put it simply, this really fucking sucks.”
PROFILE
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Learning from Legends: Thundrbro Creator Dave Lipson
Learning from Legendsis a Morning Chalk Up coaching series that breaks down conversations with experts within the CrossFit universe. The goal of this series is to help affiliates and coaches continue to refine their systems and skills to deliver the best coaching to their communities.
This week, I was lucky enough to sit down with Dave Lipson, the creator of Thundrbro, best known for his entertaining and educational content on muscle hypertrophy. Lipson is a CrossFit Level 4 Coach, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and has competed at the National Level for the Physique, Classic and Bodybuilding categories.
“Not Disabled Enough”: Several Multi-Extremity CrossFit Games Athletes Ineligible Under New 2023 Rules
The multi-extremity division (former neuromuscular) roster at the CrossFit Games will look a whole lot different this year, as the majority of the 2022 Games athletes have either been deemed ineligible under this year’s rules, or they chose not to compete after seeing the new eligibility requirements.
The details: Morgan Johnson, Leila Ives and Alyssa Kobela, the first, fourth and fifth place women from last year’s Games, have all been found ineligible to compete in the multi-extremity division this season. Kobela and Ives are both appealing the decision, while Johnson has quietly moved on to powerlifting.
Further, last year’s third place finisher Letchen du Plessis switched from the multi-extremity to the lower extremity division this year once she saw the new rules, as she has dystonia, which affects muscular power in her entire left leg.
On the men’s side, two-time multi-extremity champion Brett Horchar, and Jeremie Perera, third in 2022, said when they saw the new rules this season they opted not to compete as adaptive athletes, as they figured their milder forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) would render them ineligible. (Further, at least one other competitor from last summer, who wants to remain off the record, has also been found ineligible).
Remind me: Last year, having a diagnosis such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) or cerebral palsy (CP) was enough to qualify to compete in the adaptive category in CrossFit, but under the new rules just having a diagnosis isn’t enough.
Now, athletes must go through physical testing and assessments and submit paperwork to prove they have one of the 10 eligible impairments to qualify to one of the adaptive categories. This means that an athlete with an MS diagnosis must also prove they have, for example, hypertonia, a common side effect of MS that leads to muscle stiffness and rigid joints.
Similarly, a spinal cord injury diagnosis itself is no longer an eligible impairment, but that athlete could be found eligible should they show they have impaired muscle power.
In short, athletes competing this season must show greater evidence of their impairment, and proof that this impairment consistently and measurably hinders their ability to do CrossFit movements.
What the athletes are saying: The common feeling among last year’s multi-extremity Games athletes is that the new rules are disqualifying athletes based on a judgment made by CrossFit LLC that they’re “not disabled enough.”
Alyssa Kobela: Kobela, who has MS and ataxia—meaning poor muscle control that causes clumsy movements—has been outspoken about it on social media. Although she thought her ataxia was “pretty evident” in her Open workout videos, she was still deemed ineligible.
“With no additional explanation from CrossFit despite my impairment being clearly visible in my video,” she said.
Recently, Kobela was able to have a Zoom call with two CrossFit representatives, who she said questioned her impairment.
“They went as far as to tell me I didn’t have ataxia that they observed at the Games last year even though I presented it in their (required) testing,” Kobela said. “So (basically) they are telling me not to believe my world renowned neurologist and multiple physical therapists about my diagnosis and impairments.”
Leila Ives: Fourth at last summer’s Games, Ives is another athlete with MS who was ruled ineligible this season. She feels the same way as Kobela.
“For them to say you must have something visibly wrong with you at all times is ridiculous. MS is an invisible illness and on most days you wouldn’t think anything is wrong with me,” Ives said. “But during a hard workout you will see I start to lose balance, so the reason I was deemed ineligible was because it was not obvious at all times something was up.”
Shoutout to the current leading gym (as of Friday) CrossFit Stealth with 50,816 and individual Aulbrey with 4,170 reps There’s still a lot of time left in March to accumulate more sit-ups for awareness of euthanasia in shelters. Anyone can do their part by doing their sit-ups, and/or donating to Barbells for Bullies!
After a heavy deadlift day or a lower back intensive workout, you can catch most of us groaning as we lay on a foam roller. But are you making this common foam rolling mistake?
Digging for gear in a messy gym bag will steal your focus and hurt your performance. The Haven Organized Duffel is a one of a kind gym bag designed to keep all your gear organized and in one place. It's collapse-proof, so you can see everything in plain sight when you need it most.
With all the protein powders out there, it’s hard to remember which protein types do what. So our friends at RP Strength tackled the two big ones, whey and casein!
The ButcherBox Flash Sale is Happening Until March 19th
New ButcherBox customers get wings, ground beef and ribs for free in their first box. That’s like, all the meat. Get your quality grass-fed meats delivered directly to your door and take advantage of this amazing sale.
When an Olympic silver medalist shares her squat warm up, you do it. Olympic Weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu works with Squat University to help her stay mobile and strong. Use this 1 minute warm up to help prep you for some heavy squats!
💍 Congratulations to Jake Dylik and Ranna Okab on their engagement — your Bloodline CrossFit family is so happy for you!
Congratulations to John from Burg CrossFit DTSP in St. Petersburg, FL on getting his first ring muscle-up.
Griffin Roelle shared a throwback to last year’s Quarterfinals when he front squatted four reps at 447 pounds/202.7kg.
🤯 Graciano Rubio, Owner of CrossFit Valley View in Los Banos, CA and known on social media as “The Wall Street Weightlifter”, push pressed 425 pounds/192.7kg.
CrossFit Games veteran Thuri Helgadottir took on Quarterfinals Workout 3 on Thursday; she made those jerks look too easy.
Dave Durante of Power Monkey Fitness completed 1000 Press to Handstand reps in 1:59:18 (just under two hours). #wow
This email may contain affiliate links. We make a small commision off of purchases made via our affiliate links to help support this newsletter. If you no longer wish to receive the Morning Chalk Up newsletter, unsubscribe here.
