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How Has College Life Changed Games Vet Olivia Kerstetter's Training?

October 31st, 2024

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • Olivia Kerstetter made a big splash at the 2023 CrossFit Games when she was still in high school. She’s now a freshman at the University of Arkansas, and we caught up with her for an update.

  • Squatting to depth and locking out overhead matters in the Open and in competition, especially to avoid the dreaded “no-rep." Moving through a full range of motion (ROM) is also crucial for health, longevity, and lifelong fitness.

  • The Catch a Lift Fund, a nonprofit organization, provides fitness, wellness, and nutrition support for veterans injured in combat. Learn how to get involved in its month-long “Coffland” Hero WOD Challenge in November.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It is encouraging to see that I'm still fit and getting better, even though there have been a lot of major life and training changes. One of the biggest things is that I work out alone now, so sometimes it's hard to push yourself and show up when you're all alone.” - Olivia Kerstetter on her performance at Crash Crucible, her first competition since entering university.

PROFILE

Credit: @rtphotos__ / Instagram

Olivia Kerstetter’s New Balancing Act — College Life and CrossFit

When I was in college, I was happy enough to wake up in time for my 7:40 a.m. statistics class after a late night out. 

  • Olivia Kerstetter is happy when she puts 200 pounds over her head. 

Our college careers could not have been any different. 

Kerstetter is a freshman at the University of Arkansas this year, and with three CrossFit Games appearances under her belt (two in Teen and one in Individual), it was the first time in a long time that something felt brand new. 

  • When picking a college, this Shawnee, KS, native quickly chose the University of Arkansas, following in the footsteps of her two older sisters. 

The family has a lake house near the school, and Kerstetter has been vacationing there since she was a kid.

  • Kersetter describes the basics: “My major is exercise science. It made sense with CrossFit — the health and human body stuff. I don’t know exactly what I want to do with it yet, but something sports-related.”

She managed to squeeze in a lot of college-level classes before graduating high school to help ease the transition, but she couldn’t get away from everything. 

  • “I would say my prerequisites are all pretty easy, except one,” she laughed. “I’m in chemistry right now, and that’s really the thing that’s killing me.”

Kerstetter is taking 14 credits, rushing a sorority, and living on campus like a typical freshman. In between all of these college staples, she continues to train to return to the CrossFit Games.

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SPEED READS

😎🌴 2024TYR WZA Miami Team OCQ Is On! Check out the details below for the TYR WZA Miami Team Online Challenge & Qualifier (OCQ), which has been taking place over the past two weeks for individuals. The Team OCQ runs October 31-November 6. Get registered here. Check out the Team OCQ schedule here.

  • TYR WZA OCQ Team Divisions

    • Teams of Three (MMM or FFF)

      • Elite | Rx

      • Intermediate | Open

      • Masters Rx | Masters Open

🎖️❤️ Chad 1000X: On November 11, 2024, join the CrossFit community, Rogue Fitness, and The Step Up Foundation in support of “Chad 1000X.” Take on the challenge to bring awareness to the causes and prevention of veteran suicide.

🏋️ 📺 Rogue Invitational Iron Game Premium: Iron Game Premium is back for the 2024 Rogue Invitational!

  • In addition to the Iron Game Tailgate Stream, which features guest commentary from some of the most knowledgeable experts in CrossFit and Strongman, Rogue will introduce an all-new VR Control Room. This will give subscribers the best views in the arena with multiple camera angles and customizable live feeds. Learn more and get subscribed now.

📺👂Hear Their Stories: CrossFit’s new video series, Hear Their Stories, brings viewers into the heart of the CrossFit community. Episode six focuses on Brock Yost, Owner of CrossFit Triple River in Three Rivers, MI, and 2024 Teenage CrossFit Games Director. Watch now.

ICYMI: Greg Glassman once wrote that “men will die for points,” but the leaderboard may be losing favor at some CrossFit gyms. We talked to gym owners across North America about the role of daily, in-box competition in their communities.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Credit: @benbergeron / Instagram

3 Reasons Why Range of Motion Matters

Are you shortchanging your fitness potential without even realizing it? The key could lie in your range of motion (or your lack of it).

Most CrossFitters believe range-of-motion matters because it’s how we “judge” a good rep from a no-rep. And, of course, it does matter for that reason. 

But that’s only part of the story.

Why ROM Matters

There are three key reasons why you should care about achieving full ranges of motion across the many movements we see every day in the gym.

Creating Measurable, Observable, and Repeatable Actions

One of the key reasons to focus on the full range of motion is that it allows us to create measurable, observable, and repeatable actions. 

This is essential for tracking progress and knowing if you're actually improving.

  • Consider this scenario: You do a workout like “Cindy” (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats, as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes) and get 28 rounds. You feel pretty fit. But a year later, after training consistently, you do the workout again and only get 22 rounds. What happened?

It’s unlikely you got less fit. Instead, your range of motion probably improved. 

COMMUNITY

Credit: Catch a Lift

Catch A Lift Fund Gears Up for Month-Long "Coffland" Hero Challenge

One month shy of his 42nd birthday, Chris Coffland decided to join the Army. 

  • Just three weeks into his first deployment to Afghanistan, he was killed fighting for his country.

His sister, Lynn Coffland, has since created Catch a Lift Fund, a nonprofit organization going into its 15th year of providing fitness, wellness, and support to combat-injured veterans. 

Army Cpl. Coffland was a fitness enthusiast and found fitness wherever he was, at home and abroad. He would always end a conversation with the caveat that he was going to “catch a lift” or head to do a workout. 

  • When he passed, his sister Lynn was his point of contact back in the States, and she received Coffland’s footlockers from Afghanistan, which had workouts etched on a legal pad. 

She and a friend of Coffland’s who also served reached out to CrossFit HQ to create a hero workout in Coffland’s honor. 

The workout was adapted from those notes on Coffland’s legal pad, and from there, Lynn went on to create the Catch a Lift Fund in honor of her brother. 

  • “My brother was a huge fitness enthusiast his whole life. He always believed physically, mentally, it changed you. Since [he was] a young boy, he lived by that philosophy,” Lynn told Morning Chalk Up in an interview. 

Origins

It was actually after a walk and heart-to-heart talk with her niece, now Director of Development, Jess Drew, that Coffland set off on her plan to create Catch a Lift.  

Lynn wanted to create an organization that helped post-9/11 combat-injured veterans in a way that her brother would have wanted — through nutrition, wellness, and fitness. 

HIGHLIGHTS

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