“Do exactly what you would do if you felt most secure.”- Meister Eckhart
CROSSFIT GAMES
Lazar Djukic Tops Rich Froning’s 2014 Record During 23.1 Live Announcement
Measurable and repeatable: They are part of the reason tens of thousands of people sign up for the CrossFit Open each season. And nothing showcases these concepts better than a repeat workout, as it’s a chance to measure improvement over time.
So when it was revealed that 23.1 was a repeat of 14.4, we knew we were in for a treat.
The workout: Complete as many reps as possible in 14 minutes of:
60-calorie row
50 toes-to-bar
40 wall-ball shots (20/14 pounds)
30 cleans (135/95 pounds)
20 ring muscle-ups
And if what we witnessed during the live Open announcement in Madrid, Spain on Thursday—featuring a men’s match-up between CrossFit Games athletes Lazar Djukic and Bjorgvin Karl Gudmundsson and a women’s throwdown between Laura Horvath and Gabriela Migala—is any indication of how far the community as a whole has come in the last nine years, it’s safe to say scores will be shattered this week.
The details: Both Djukic and Horvath posted better scores than the top men’s and women’s scores in the world in 2014 (however it was later discovered that the women’s barbell was incorrectly loaded so Horvath and Migala will have to repeat the workout as their scores were deemed invalid). As of Sunday afternoon at 5pm PT time, Horvath sits back in first with a new score of 261 reps, and Djukic is now 16th with his 287 reps, however the scores have yet to be validated by CrossFit.
Djukic finished the second round of rowing and managed 27 toes-to-bar (287 reps), 10 more reps than Rich Froning’s top score in 2014.
Further, Gudmundsson’s score of 276 in Madrid was just one rep shy of Froning’s 2014 score, and 25 reps better than he fared nine years ago when he was 22nd in the world with 251 reps.
In a port-workout interview, Lazar said had he listened to his coach’s advice about the toes-to-bar, he thinks he could have done even better.
Djukic strung together 25 unbroken toes-to-bar off the top in the first round and admitted he “should have done what my coach said,” which was to break them into smaller sets.
Just for fun: We broke down Froning’s performance compared to Djukic to see how he was able to best Froning’s score by 10 reps.
Lazar on 23.1:
Row: 0:00-2:14 (2:14)
Toes-to-bar: 2:17-3:57 (1:40)
Wall balls: 4:00-5:10 (1:10)
Cleans: 5:16-7:12 (1:56)
Muscle-ups: 7:24-9:39 (2:15)
Row: 9:46-12:35 (2:49)
Toes-to-bar: 12:42-14 minutes (27 toes-to-bar and 287 reps total)
Froning on 14.4:
Row: :06-2:28 Row (2:22)
Toes-to-bar: 2:37-4:19 (1:42)
Wall balls: 4:28-5:48 (unbroken) (1:20)
Clean: 5:54-7:51 (singles) (1:57)
Muscle-ups: 8:06-10:14 (2:08)
Row: 10:30-13:13 (2:43)
T2B 13:25-14:06 (17 toes-to-bar and 277 reps total)
SPONSORED
Feeling Rough After 23.1?
23.1 is a full body burner. Your legs and knees are feeling those wallballs and cleans, while your shoulders and lats are tight from the toes-to-bar and muscle ups.
Wondering how to get the best recovery before taking on 23.2? Try the MOVE+ by Kineon Labs. Just ask Brooke Wells, Emily Rolfe and Travis Mayer why they trust it for their recovery.
They’ll tell you that their MOVE+ helps them recover, repair and restore when they need to reduce joint pain and inflammation quickly through whole joint coverage, sniper-like accuracy, and cutting edge dual-light enhanced light therapy.
Carmen Perez Ruiz (243 reps) | William Leahy IV (295 reps)
Last minute tips: You still have until 5 pm PT today to log your 23.1 workout and if you’re looking for some last-minute strategy, we have you covered with a whole list of guides from various gyms.
More tips: Fitness app pliability also has a strategy hub for helping you tackle all three of the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Open workouts.
Looking back: Wondering which workouts have been repeated over the years for the CrossFit Open, we’ve got you covered.
Bravo: Fit Like Africa has launched an athlete incubator that will take place on Competition Corner to support African Athletes who will head to Madison for the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
Local love: Great piece about how CrossFit Mix in Midlands, TX is celebrating Black History Month and doing their part to help the local community get fitter.
PROFILE
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Learning from Legends: Coach Mike Burgener
Learning from Legendsis a new 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.
Coach Mike Burgener has been the subject matter expert for weightlifting since the early days of CrossFit, featured in some of the earliest content in the CrossFit Journal and on the CrossFit YouTube page. He originally developed and led the CrossFit Weightlifting courses and has continued to build a coaching empire with the help of his son Beau, daughter Sage, daughter-in-law Sophie, and the rest of the incredible team working for Burgener Strength.
23.1 CrossFit Open Livestream Numbers Surpass 2022 Figures
In its second year at the new time slot (12 PM PT, 3 PM ET), the 23.1 CrossFit Open announcement live stream showed fantastic growth in viewership. Even with non-elite athletes taking on the workout first, the livestream amassed many more concurrent views than previous years.
One big thing: Both maximum concurrent views (how many people were watching at once) and overall livestream views (after 24 hours) for 23.1 increased from last year. Furthermore, the total views after 24 hours for 23.1 actually eclipsed the average views (after 24 hours) for all three announcements from 2022.
The details: The 23.1 announcement recorded a maximum concurrent viewership of 113,624 and a total view count (after 24 hours) of 538,789. How does this compare?
The max concurrent average for the 2022 Open was 96,048, far below what we saw this week with 23.1. It’s also important to note that trends in previous years have shown that viewership increased each week of the Open, so the next two weeks could provide even higher numbers.
The total views per week average for the 2021 Open was 530,463, while total views (after 24 hours) for 23.1 came in at 619,394. A significant difference of a whopping 89,431 views.
What they’re saying:
Justin Bergh, General Manager of Sport at CrossFit: “We were proud to showcase the Spanish affiliate community and these impressive European athletes in our most watched Open broadcast ever. Both groups have massively contributed to sharing CrossFit training to new members worldwide. We are already looking forward to next week’s show with even more coverage of local community members, top athletes and their coaches.”
Let’s go back further: While the above numbers only include YouTube viewership, our 2020 data includes both YouTube and Facebook. Even so, the average total views after 24 hours for each of the five weeks was 367,857. With a total of over 600,000 views over the past 24 hours, the 23.1 statistics blow previous years out of the water.
The big picture: These numbers show positive growth and continue the trend we’ve seen over the past two years. We will continue to track viewership through the Open this year.
GOOD
CrossFit TILT Raises More than $30k for NKH Crusaders
Members of CrossFit TILT in Waltham, Massachusetts banded together on February 11 to support an important nonprofit organization, NKH Crusaders. They formed teams and completed a marathon row while raising more than $30,000 to fund lifesaving research.
An important detail: Nonketotic hyperglycinemia (NKH) is a rare disease that affects one out of every 76,000 children. NKH causes severe seizures and developmental delays, requiring the children to have 24/7 in-home care.
According to FoundationNKH.org, around 80 percent of babies will not live beyond the neonatal phase while “most children with severe NKH are not expected to live past their fifth birthday.” Additionally, many babies with mild NKH are not expected to reach adulthood.
NKH research does not receive funding from government grants or pharmaceutical companies. Friends and families of those affected by the disease are the ones that have footed the bill.
NKH Crusaders has stepped in to provide support. This 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization has partnered with the University of Notre Dame’s Boler Pargesian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases.
CrossFit TILT got involved after NKH affected someone close to them. Jack Urban, a family friend of affiliate member Joseph Rioff, was born in 2021 with NKH. The affiliate members wanted to provide support and raise money that would go directly to NKH research, so they used the marathon row as the opportunity to do so.
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