Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Today’s edition is brought to you by RockTape, the movement company dedicated to helping athletes of every level go stronger for longer.
Today is CrossFit Open 17.5 day and we’re celebrating it by sharing this poster and by giving away a free jump rope to the reader who accurately predicts the outcome of tonight’s matchup between Katrin Davidsdottir and Sara Sigmundsdottir.
RockTape’s 20% off sale expires at the end of the Open, so don’t miss out on your chance to grab a pair of knee sleeves, wrist wraps, arm guards or gloves. Plus, if you spend $50 or more, you get free shipping. Use code “OPEN17” for your 20% discount and start shopping.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Go hard in the beginning, hard in the middle, and hard in the end.” — Mathew Fraser
17.5 LIVE
WHAT’S GOING DOWN?
Oh not too much, just Katrin Davidsdottir and Sara Sigmundsdottir going head-to-head in 17.5 tonight in Madison, WI — which is the new home of the CrossFit Games for the next three years. If tonight is too long to wait, you can watch this 17.5 teaser and Katrin and Sara working out from yesterday.
FUN FACT: If you don’t remember or you weren’t around last year, the two Dottirs squared off for 16.4 and Sigmundsdottir won.
HOW DO I WATCH LIVE?
The livestream begins at 5PM Pacific and you can watch it on YouTube or Facebook. Round 5 of Ro vs Boz will stream on Facebook shortly after the cool down show.
THE WORKOUT.
Once again we have no idea, but here’s what we do know:
FUN FACT #1: Thrusters have been in every Open. They have always been in the final workout and the workout has always been a couplet.
FUN FACT #2: Thrusters, ring muscle-ups, barbell cleans (squat or power), double-unders and shoulder-to-overhead movements have not been prescribed this year.
FUN FACT #3: There have been an average of 12.6 movements prescribed per year. We’re counting burpee box jump-overs as one movement which brings the 2017 total to 12 so far.
FUN FACT #4: Double-unders have been prescribed in every Open so far.
OUR GUESS
Throw out everything you read above. It’s going to be dumbbell thrusters, it’s going to be a triplet, and it’s going to be an AMRAP. We are literally just guessing.
CHALK UP IN 2 MINUTES
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU HIT THE BOX
Another 17.5 hint released from Ronnie Castro. The Daily News Journal Tennessee take a look at a local Masters athlete. Maddy Myers hits a 249 pound clean and jerk complex in between finals. Alexis Johnson is on her way to Dubai to do 17.5 with Kristin Holte and Sam Dancer at CrossFit Alioth.
Beyond the Whiteboard’s 17.4 workout analysis shows that 54% of men finished somewhere on handstand push-ups and only 5% made it beyond Round 1. For women, more athletes finished on the row than on handstand push-ups.
WHAT TO TELL YOUR FRIEND WHO NEVER HAS ENOUGH TIME FOR BREAKFAST…
We’re on the road a lot and sometimes there just isn’t enough time to put together a solid meal. We get it. That’s why we keep a stock of Coffee Blocks handy so we can get a good mix of fat and protein even when our next meal is hours away. If you’re someone who prefers to drink their breakfast you might want to try a subscription and right now Coffee Blocks is offering them at 20% off.
THINGS TO…
WATCH: Catching Up with Katrin Davidsdottir
Pat Sherwood sits down with 2x Fittest Woman in the World Katrin Davidsdottir to talk about the recent release of the Fittest on Earth documentary and her mental approach to training during the Games season.
WATCH NOW.
HEAR: Discipline, Mindset and Preparation with Cole Sager
If you were following Cole Sager during the 2016 CrossFit Regionals, his trip to the CrossFit Games hinged on a couple rope climbs in Event 7. He joins Brute Strength Podcast and talks about what was going through his mind and his mindset, preparation and daily disciple that led him to a third Games appearance.
LISTEN NOW.
EAT: Greek Salad for the Strapped-For-Time Athlete
Chances are a lot of you love salads. Chances are also good that you don’t usually have enough time (or vegetables handy) to chop everything up for a daily salad. Bacons & Squats lays out this really easy recipe that can keep you fresh and green for the work week.
RECIPME.
BUY: From The Company That Brought You Jeans You Can Squat In…
Comes the polo shirt for the people that lift weights. Barbell Apparel just dropped a new wrinkle resistant, temperature-regulating and moisture wicking polo shirt in four colors.
I’LL TRY ONE.
CHALK UP AFFILIATES
AFFILIATE STORIES | JH CrossFit — Mobile, AL
“Before JH CrossFit came to be, it was called CrossFit Mobile Midtown. I was the head coach there for two and a half years before buying it from the previous owner. While coaching for him I had a good 30+ minute drive every morning at 5am to get everything opened for the first class every day. The owner had an old office building with many empty rooms that were being unused, so I asked him one day if I could move into one of those rooms during the week so I could save gas money and precious sleep time and he agreed!
So for the next year I physically lived at the gym and the athletes there dubbed it John’s House.
Soon after that we ran out of room and had to look for a larger facility and when we found one they actually built me an apartment in one of the corner rooms of the gym because I had nowhere else to go. So as the gym moved I did too.
After a year of living at the new gym, I asked the owner his opinions on me purchasing his gym because it was literally my home where I ate, slept, showered, trained, coached, etc. and I wanted to make it mine. So after a long process of paperwork and procedures we both finally agreed that it would be best for the both of us if I took everything over and purchased it from him and so I did!
When I was looking for a name I wanted something that forced me to sign my name on everything I did. I wanted something I could be proud of and something that hit ‘home’ for me and that’s when I thought of going in the direction of something to do with John’s House. I originally wanted to go with CrossFit at John’s House, but HQ denied it because a personal name cannot be in the name. So I sent back JH CrossFit and they accepted it and that was the day JH CrossFit was born – although it was my house long before that.”
CHALK UP READS
“5 Reasons You’re Not Getting Any Stronger” by Athlete Daily
It happens. The beginner gains slow to a crawl (what? No more 20 pound strict press PRs?!) and you hit a wall. Maybe you aren’t new to lifting, but it sure feels like it. Every session is hard and heavy and you can’t remember the last time you had a personal best.
While everyone goes through ups and downs in every strength sport, you could be sabotaging your own progress. Here are five of the biggest reasons you may be stuck at a strength plateau and how to get out of it.
“In the CrossFit Open, the Weird Get Even Weirder” by Anabelle Tometich
Pulling yourself out of a perfectly fine bed early in the morning to work on your handstand technique is, maybe, a bit unusual if you’re older than 12. As is sacrificing your Friday nights to sweat it out and almost die alongside your kooky CrossFit friends.
And maybe that’s the beauty of the CrossFit Open?
These five weeks are our Comic-Con, our March Madness. It’s a time for us CrossFit crackpots to bask in the sublime weirdness that is this chosen sport/exercise/pastime of ours. It’s a time for us to brag about the progress we’ve made on dubs (as in double-unders, wherein you twirl a jump rope so fast it passes under your feet twice). Or about hitting our snatch PR for a triple (a triple!). We can post videos of first handstand push-ups (that’s HSPU, FYI) and boast about getting seven more reps than our husbands did in 17.4 (the fourth Open workout of 2017).