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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Rogue Invitational Returns to Scotland — Here’s Who to Watch

October 21st, 2025

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Rogue is back in Aberdeen with one of the sport’s richest prize purses — and a field stacked with champions and challengers.

  • 🕰️ Ten daily practices for staying physically strong and mentally sharp — no matter your age.

  • 🏋️‍♀️ From training diaries to travel vlogs — here are the athlete channels keeping CrossFit fans hooked.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
❝

I’m going to join for a few minutes and Tia [Toomey-Orr] is going to…announce the new location for the home of the CrossFit Games.”

Dave Castro on the launch of the new Sport of Fitness podcast and a big announcment this week.
COMPETITIONS

2025 Rogue Invitational: Preview and Podium Picks

Credit: Scott Freymond

For the second straight year, the Rogue Invitational will be held in Aberdeen, Scotland, at the P&J Live Arena. Like always, it will be a showcase of some of the very fittest men and women in the world fighting for their piece of the million-dollar-plus prize purse.

Remind Me

The 20 men and 20 women who will compete from October 31 to November 2 in Aberdeen earned their spots either via an invitation based on the Rogue Points System, or through “The Q,” Rogue’s online qualifier.

  • Rogue has committed $1 million in cash, as well as an additional $275,000 worth of Bitcoin purchased at $95,000 per coin. Any rise in the coin’s value will be paid out at the valuation when the prize purse is finalized.

Last year’s men’s champion, Jeff Adler, will return this year looking to defend his title, while last year’s women’s champion, four-time Rogue Champion Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, will not be in Scotland next week, so a new female champion will be crowned.

  • After the jump — our Rogue 2025 podium picks. Who’s primed, who’s peaking, and who’s chasing redemption?

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SPEED READS

🎙️🔥 New Podcast Drop: The Sport of Fitness launches Oct. 22 — host Chase Ingraham kicks things off with Tia-Clair Toomey and the 2026 Games location reveal. Catch it live Wednesdays at 1 p.m. ET on the CrossFit Games YouTube channel.

🏁🔥 HYROX Tickets Drop Soon: Centr HYROX Phoenix (Jan. 29—Feb. 1) and The Feed HYROX Las Vegas (Feb. 20—22) kick off the 2025/26 season — tickets go live Oct. 30 and Nov. 6. New this year: Flex Add-On refunds, personalized checkouts, race-day wristbands, and PRO-only Worlds qualifiers. Don’t miss your shot.

📋✅ Take CrossFit’s October Brand Survey: HQ’s asking for your input on the brand’s direction — programming, events, media, and more. It’s quick, anonymous, and helps shape what gets built next for affiliates and athletes alike. Add your voice.

🤔🥵 Are You Addicted to Metcons?: Training Think Tank coaches Adam Rogers, Perrin Behr, and Max El-Hag unpack “intensity addiction” — why chasing daily redlines feels great (dopamine hit) but quietly kills consistency, progress, and longevity. 

ICYMI: 💥 One year post-Achilles tear, Henrik Haapalainen returns to Rogue — stronger and hungry for redemption.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

10 Daily Practices for Moving, Thinking, and Kicking Ass Into Your 90s

Credit: @benbergeron / Instagram

You want to stay healthy into your 90s. We all do.

But what should you actually be doing each day to make that happen?

  • For an episode of the Chasing Excellence podcast, we addressed exactly that question - what are the one or two non-negotiables in each of the five factors of health that we should do daily?

Here's what we landed on.

Train

1. Get through a full range of motion

You need to maintain the mobility you were born with. That means working your hips and shoulders – the two joints that matter most.

  • Can you squat below parallel with your heels on the ground? Can you get your arms completely overhead without your rib cage flaring open?

If not, that's your daily work. Stretch, do yoga, use Crossover Symmetry, hit up GoWOD – whatever it takes to preserve that range of motion.

TRIVIA

🥇 Which athlete is tied with Patrick Vellner for most career event wins by men at the Rogue Invitational with six?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Last week, we asked: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Who is the last woman not named Tia or Laura to win an event at the Rogue Invitational?

  • Danielle Brandon ✅

  • Dani Speegle

  • Alex Gazan

  • Emma Lawson

  • Gabriela Migala

The correct answer was Danielle Brandon, who won event 8, “Big Cat,” in 2023. This was a tough one, and 28% guessed Dani Speegle, while 26% guessed Alex Gazan. Only 17% of you nailed it.

INDUSTRY

Don’t Sleep on These Athletes’ YouTube Channels

Credit: Nicky Freymond

Just as we binge-watch our favorite Netflix shows, CrossFit fans also tune in to athlete-led YouTube channels for behind-the-scenes stories, training insights, and daily life content straight from the source.

When CrossFit’s Road to the Games returned this year, we were reminded of how much we love that raw, human view of elite competitors — but during the years it was absent, athletes took storytelling into their own hands.

  • From “What I Eat in a Day” vlogs to intense training diaries and travel recaps, many have built thriving channels that offer fans an unfiltered connection beyond the competition floor.

We’ve rounded up some of the best – from CrossFit legends to next-gen stars – who are posting consistently and keeping the community entertained between seasons. (And yes, we already know this list needs a part two.)

HIGHLIGHTS

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