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- 🏋️ 2008 Games Champ, 2026 Vision — Jason Khalipa on Community, Connection, and CrossFit’s Future
🏋️ 2008 Games Champ, 2026 Vision — Jason Khalipa on Community, Connection, and CrossFit’s Future
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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.
In today’s edition:
💥 Two decades later, Jason Khalipa still isn’t slowing down — the 2008 Games champ is coaching, building businesses, and doubling down on community.
📊 PushPress founder Dan Uyemura breaks it down, explaining why buying is better than starting your CrossFit gym.
🇬🇧 Brute Strength expands its coaching roster with the addition of UK coaches Will Kane and Fraser McKenzie, marking a major push into Europe.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
We’re trying to be the anti-AI. In a world that’s constantly digital, we’re trying to connect men, and the best way I have ever found is through a shared workout experience.”
PROFILE
Twenty Years of CrossFit: Catching Up with CrossFit OG Jason Khalipa
Credit: @jasonkhalipa / Instagram
Last Friday, Rich Froning and Jason Khalipa announced that their companies, Mayhem and NCFIT, are collaborating to better support gym owners and coaches in their respective communities.
For Khalipa, this is just another notch on his CrossFit resume, a resume that is as accomplished as anyone’s in the space.
Remind me: Khalipa burst onto the scene as an athlete in 2008, winning the second CrossFit Games. After that, he competed at the Games as an individual six more times and once on a team.
On the business side, Khalipa has opened gyms from California to Mexico to Asia, and today his company, NCFIT, provides lesson plans and programming to hundreds of gyms worldwide.
He has commented for ESPN, competed for Team USA, won the Spirit of the Games award, and, as a Level 4 coach, has led more than 100 Level 1 seminars.
Two decades have passed since Khalipa opened his first gym. However, today the 40-year-old Khalipa is still training, still coaching, still evolving, and still deeply committed to the community and the methodology that launched it all for him in 2006.
We caught up with Khalipa to reminisce about it all.
A MESSAGE FROM KAJABI
Be the Coach Clients Can’t Wait to Join
Maxed out training hours for clients? Here’s how to make 2026 the year you grow your business without burning out.
Kajabi has helped fitness professionals generate millions in online revenue by giving them the tools, strategy, and support to scale. That’s why we’re the go-to platform for instructors shifting into hybrid and online coaching.
Take advantage of our free ‘30 Days to Launch: Scale Your Fitness Business Online’ guide that will give you the step-by-step plan to combine in-person and online programs for more income, freedom, and flexibility.
SPEED READS
💪⏳ Train for Life, Not Just Today: Drs. Dustin Jones and Christina Prevett lay out why consistent strength and conditioning, as prescribed by CrossFit, matter more as you age, not less — and how training now builds the “reserve” you’ll rely on decades later.
🏋️♂️🔥 Josh Bridges in His 40s: The former Games standout shows how he trains now — simple strength work, hard conditioning, and Operation LFG structure that keeps him consistent, competitive, and motivated without beating himself into the ground.
❤️🔥💪 Emma Lawson Behind-the-Scenes at the Rogue Invitational: After some time away from competition, Emma Lawson stepped back onto the world stage at the 2025 Rogue Invitational in Scotland. This mini-doc follows her all weekend as she battles the field, tests her rebuilt engine, and proves she belongs among the best in the world.
🦋 👐 How to Butterfly Pull-Up (Without Wrecking Your Hands): If you’ve been muscling through sloppy butterfly reps or ripping your hands every time you try, this video breaks down the technique the right way. Games athlete Bayley Martin walks through the movement step by step.
ICYMI: 🤝 Rich Froning and Jason Khalipa just announced a new collaboration between Mayhem Nation and NCFIT aimed squarely at helping gym owners thrive.
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
80% vs. 5% – Why Buying a Gym Beats Building From Scratch
Credit: @besthouroftheirday / Instagram
Today’s article is the first in a three-part series covering everything you need to know about buying and selling CrossFit gyms.
First up: why the data says you should buy instead of build.
The dream is straightforward: start your own affiliate, establish the culture you envision, and build something from the ground up.
The reality is harsh. Less than 5% of gym startups succeed in the long run.
In contrast, gym acquisitions have an 80%+ success rate.
That's not a rounding error. That's the difference between building a career and wasting years of your life on something that was statistically doomed from the start.
Dan Uyemura knows this better than most.
As founder of PushPress, he works with close to 5,000 gyms and has both bought and sold affiliates himself.
TRIVIA
🥇Which male athlete had the most event wins in their first TWO CrossFit Games appearances? |
Last week, we asked: Which woman has the second-most career CrossFit Games event wins, behind Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr?
Annie Thorisdottir ✅
Brooke Wells
Katrin Davidsdottir
Sam Briggs
Laura Horvath
Kara Saunders
The correct answer here was Annie Thorisdottir with 14 event wins, which 30% picked. The second-highest vote getter last week was Laura Horvath, who is actually tied with Sam Briggs for fourth on the list with 11 wins. Katrin Davidsdottir is third with 13.
INDUSTRY
UK Coaches Will Kane and Fraser McKenzie Join Brute Strength
Credit: @willkane17 / Instagram
Brute Strength has added two UK-based coaches, Will Kane and Fraser McKenzie, to its expanding team to help the training camp grow its reach into Europe.
“Fraser and Will bring deep regional knowledge of the UK and European CrossFit landscape, and they will be key contributors to Brute’s growth and success in those markets,” Brute Strength CEO Matt Torres told the Morning Chalk Up.
Torres said he first connected with McKenzie, who coaches CrossFit Games athletes Aimee Cringle and Aniol Ekai, at last summer’s Games in Albany, NY.
“I was impressed by what he and Aimee Cringle have accomplished in a relatively short time,” Torres said.
So Torres took the initiative to get to know McKenzie and his business partner at Team Training, Will Kane, and quickly realized that their mindsets “aligned” well with Brute.
Further, Torres liked the fact that Kane has also been coaching in the HYROX space, “so he brings another dynamic to a staff of coaches,” Torres said.
“Together, they’re a goldmine for Brute,” Torres added.
Rounding out Brute’s coaching team are El Senouvor, Lindsey Przylepa, Daniel Condon, Dex Hopkins, Jaydyn Whatatope-Stewart, Amber Leonard, Jeff Cooper, Brian Foley, and Justin Cowart.
HIGHLIGHTS
Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.
🎂Happy birthday to Luka Ðukić and Steph Chung.
Congratulations to Olympic weightlifter Kyle Bruce of CrossFit Bil Athletic in Australia on this 155-kilo/341-pound snatch.
😮💨Watch Riley Martin silence some trolls on this 70-kilo/155-pound strict pull-up.
Watch this glow-up from Jay Crouch with his split jerk over the years.
😳Well done to Pame Gutierrez on this 99-kilo/220-pound clean and push press.