Jelle Hoste Was Prepared for Dave Castro. What Did He Ask?

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up premium subscriber edition.

In today’s edition:

  • Belgium’s CrossFit star, Jelle Hoste came prepared to his Dave Castro interview with a list of questions, all the 2023 receipts, and probably a spreadsheet or two. Get the lowdown on his back-and-forth with the GM of Sport for CrossFit.

  • Are you considering a sleep aid supplement? Get more information about how and whether they work and what you might consider instead.

  • In a rare admission of regret, Dave Castro shared with Games athlete Jacqueline Dahlstrom that firing most of the CrossFit team in 2018 “set us back.” Get the details below.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"It is what it is, no worries; at least I know it wasn't you." - 2023 CrossFit Games rookie, Jelle Hoste, during his interview with Dave Castro, on being looked over last year for the Rookie of the Year honors

CROSSFIT GAMES

Credit: Ava Kitzi

Size Advantages? Rookie of the Year Selection? Quad Sizes? Jelle Hoste Questions Dave Castro

As Dave Castro’s athlete interviews roll on, more and more athletes (at this point, almost all of them) have been given around 10 to 15 minutes to chat with CrossFit’s General Manager of Sport and head programmer for the Individual division. 

At the end of each interview, Castro also allows some time for the athletes to ask him some questions.

  • Listening to the interviews, we’ve learned some details about the athletes’ backgrounds, how they began CrossFit, where they train, and how they feel about the upcoming competition. 

We’ve also heard Castro’s perspective on programming, some of his favorite benchmarks, and anecdotes from his time spent creating and building the sport over the years. (It’s worth noting that he’s asked more than a dozen athletes about their “Cindy” PRs.) 

In Castro’s interview with Jelle Hoste, the two men discussed Hoste’s previous career (IT consultant) and sporting background (Judo) and spent about eight minutes discussing Hoste’s questions. 

Hoste began by asking whether Castro considers the advantages and disadvantages of different body types, specifically height, when programming certain movements and workouts for the CrossFit Games. 

  • “If you program for the Games, do you factor in, when you have certain twists or standards to movements, do you factor in the impact it has to certain athletes?” Hoste asked.

He goes on to give the example of doing a burpee to a target, and how different the movement would be between him and an athlete like Colten Mertens.

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SPEED READS

🕶️😎ACTIV Eyewear Relaunch: Co-founded by Aussie CrossFit legend Kara Saunders, the eyewear brand for your active lifestyle, ACTIV relaunched this week. Check it out now.

❓❓New Movements at the Games and More: In his interview with Elisa Fuliano earlier this week, Dave Castro revealed that there will be a movement or movements “new to the CrossFit Games.” Check out our full story on the exchange and more.

  • He also confirmed that Friday Night Lights and Run Swim are the only outdoor events in his Week in Review.

🎟️📈 Known and Knowable Games Ticket Tracker: Mike Halpin, the mind behind Known & Knowable, is keeping an eye on the 2024 CrossFit Games ticket resale prices on StubHub, Vivid Seats, and Ticketmaster. If you are still hoping to get your hands on a couple, find the best available deals here.

ICYMI: A CrossFit Games rookie in 2023, Shelby Neal’s sophomore bid is off to a strong start with a fifth-place finish in the stacked North America East field. Learn about how her training has evolved with the help of “The Professor” Brent Fikowski and coach David Spurr.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Credit: Gregory Pappas / Unsplash

Better Sleep Without Supplements: The Truth About “Sleep Stacks”

Are you struggling to get restful sleep and wondering if supplements are the answer?

With the supplement industry booming and influencers touting "sleep stacks," believing a pill can solve one's sleep woes is tempting. 

However, as is often (always?) the case with supplements, the truth may surprise you. 

The Supplement Hype

The U.S. supplement market reached a staggering $50 billion in 2021, with $900 million spent on marketing alone. 

However, despite the allure of influencer-promoted sleep stacks, the evidence supporting the effectiveness of most sleep supplements is weak at best.

  • Melatonin, the most popular sleep supplement, has been shown to reduce sleep onset latency (the transition period between being fully awake and being asleep) by a mere 7 minutes and increase total sleep time by just 8 minutes. 

Other common supplements like magnesium, apigenin, theanine, glycine, and GABA have little to no conclusive evidence supporting their efficacy in improving sleep quality or quantity.

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CROSSFIT GAMES

Credit: CrossFit Games

Dave Castro Shares Regrets, Claims That Firing Media Team in 2018 “Set Us Back”

As Dave Castro wraps up his final interviews with the 79 (excluding Ilya Makarov) 2024 CrossFit Games athletes, we continue to focus on Castro’s insights into this year’s upcoming competition and his reflections on the past.

One big thing: Not one to admit regrets publicly (at least very often, in our estimation), Castro’s statement that CrossFit has been in “rebuilding and recovering” phase since 2018, at least from a media perspective, is, in a word, huge.  

The details: When chatting with Jacqueline Dahlstrom, the Norwegian asked him if he has any general regrets, knowing what he knows now about the sport and its growth, and if there’s anything he could do differently if he could.

Castro ruminated on CrossFit’s drastic decision in 2018 to fire most of its media team and shut down its social media accounts. 

  • “I believe [this] set us back,” Castro says. “If you look at that moment, ‘18, ‘19, when we shut down our media, social media…started getting rid of our media teams, it kind of set us back and it feels like we’ve been rebuilding and recovering from then.” 

He continues to discuss how this decision had a negative impact on CrossFit’s trajectory.

  • “The Open was on this growth path that was straight up, and the Games was growing and literally when you look at that time frame, it just went down…. So we’ve been coming out of a hole ever since then,” Castro continued.

Some background: Culling the media team in 2018 was a bizarre decision, and Castro is open to admitting that he regrets it. CrossFit and the CrossFit Games also shuttered all social media accounts, except Twitter.

HIGHLIGHTS

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