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  • 🔑 Inside Redemption Road — Building Coaches Behind Bars

🔑 Inside Redemption Road — Building Coaches Behind Bars

September 29th, 2025

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • 🏋️ CrossFit behind bars isn’t just fitness — it’s transformation.

  • 🧩 Forget the fads — attitude, basics, consistency, and discipline still win.

  • ❤️ Fitness + Community: TYR WZA SoCal reminded us what CrossFit is all about.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
❝

It is all about leadership development…you have to change your life inside…so that when people come into the gym, they look to you.”

Nick Wells on one of the pillars of Redemption Road CrossFit.
COMMUNITY

Checking in With Redemption Road CrossFit

Credit: Carlos Marquez

The opening of a CrossFit affiliate inside Avenal State Prison, run and entirely coached by inmates this year (a story we shared back in August), would not have been possible without someone else forging the path. 

  • The affiliate that started it all? Redemption Road.

(Editor’s Note: We started highlighting Redemption Road in 2019. Get caught up and check out some of our past articles here, here, here, here, and here.)

Remind me: After facing several difficult years as a teenager, Nick Wells found himself at Limon Correctional Facility near Colorado Springs, CO. 

The program started inside the facility in 2017. Several inmates had been participating in the CrossFit Open since 2013, and they decided to form a group and participate together beginning in 2015.

  • Continue reading to learn how inmate-led classes evolved into official certifications and a growing network of affiliates.

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SPEED READS

🏋️🔥 Better Positions → Bigger Lifts: Olympians, Games athletes, and veteran lifters all share one secret: they warm up with purpose. In this video, former Olympian Sonny Webster demonstrates two mobility drills — duck walks and a barbell flow — that prepare your joints and strengthen your positions for snatches and cleans.

🎯 ✅ The Standard is the Standard: CrossFit's movement, nutrition, and intensity standards aren’t arbitrary — they exist to balance safety, efficacy, and efficiency. Nailing the standards properly is what separates programs that deliver results from those that fail. Learn more.

📈🥤 Market Movers: From shakes to bars, women are driving the boom in protein products and reshaping the industry. Learn more here.

👟🔥 Reebok Launches Nano Pro: The newest Nano just dropped, a “super training shoe” built with a Graphlite carbon-fiber plate for next-level stability and power. Get the Nano Pro starting on October 7 — sign up for alerts and be first to get yours.

💪🔗 Rebecca Fuselier’s Guide to Ring Muscle-Ups: Start with a base of strict pull-ups and dips, learn false grip for lat tension and a secure catch, then progress to neutral grip for bigger, smoother kipping sets. Money cues: “Fist-bump the sternum → draw the line → deep dip” and “pull back, punch down.” Watch here.

ICYMI: 🔫 CrossFit x precision shooting — ErgShoot impressed at the 2025 TYR Cup.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

The ABCDs of Real Health: A Simple Framework That Actually Works

Credit: @benbergeron / Instagram

Navigating health information online feels impossible these days. 

  • A recent Health Affairs study found that 82% of people perceive false health information on social media, and here's the kicker: 67% cannot tell what's true from what's false.

Another study analyzing 220 TikTok videos about sinusitis found that non-medical influencers produced the most harmful content but also had the most significant reach. Fewer than half of the "educational" videos posted by these influencers were actually factual.

So we're drowning in bad information, but good advice does exist if you know how to find it.

On a recent episode of the Chasing Excellence podcast, we stumbled across something genuinely useful from an unexpected place: a TikTok video. (Oh, the irony.) 

  • But sometimes solid wisdom hides in plain sight, even in the noise of social media.

COMMUNITY

Our Favorite Community Moments from 2025 TYR Wodapalooza SoCal

Credit: Scott Freymond

Over the weekend of September 19-21, while many focused on the elites competing in the TYR Cup at TYR Wodapalooza SoCal in Huntington Beach, hundreds of athletes in other divisions were throwing down on the same stages. 

From three-person teams to adaptive pairs, as well as RX and Intermediate solo athletes, countless stories and moments helped make TYR WZA SoCal one of, if not the greatest, events of the year. 

Here were some highlights that stood out for us while we were enjoying the weekend on-site.

Buttery Bros Throw Down: The Buttery Bros always bring the vibes to any event, but this time they hit TYR WZA SoCal with some major main character energy, as they competed on a team of three in the Men’s Intermediate Team Division.

Marston Sawyers, Heber Cannon, and Julian Marquez teamed up and competed, completing six workouts over three days. They successfully balanced competing in the event, creating TYR Cup content, and engaging in community outreach.

  • Don’t stop here — check out the community PRs, adaptive victories, and even a life-saving mission from Vendor Village.

HIGHLIGHTS

Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.