How to Watch CrossFit Open Announcement 24.2

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

Reminder: To make sure you get the Morning Chalk Up promptly each morning, please move us to your primary inbox or simply reply to this email. (And let us know how you did on 24.2!)

In today’s edition:

• Athena Perez discusses the first few training sessions with her coach, Andrew Hiller, and a breakthrough in confidence, mindset, and understanding how to communicate effectively

• How to balance cardiovascular endurance and weightlifting for long-term health and fitness

• CrossFit Rising Oak perseveres despite shaky infrastructure in South Africa

• And, how to watch CrossFit Open Announcement 24.2

Nominate your gym to be March's Affiliate of the Month. Drop us a note explaining why we should pick your gym!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Bravery is a deep breath in the face of frustration when all you want to do is walk out and give someone the middle finger. It's the courage to approach situations with an open mind and a welcoming heart. It's being a bridge-builder, a door-opener, a life-changer. It's a reservoir of good intentions, compassion, and a generous heart that welcomes second chances and new beginnings.” - Athena Perez

COMMUNITY

“My Hiller Challenge,” Part 4: We Don’t Miss Snatches

Most of day one on my first visit with Andrew was dedicated to what I interpreted as the “getting to know you stage.” I found him to be personable, funny, and down to earth, and it didn’t take long to feel at home.

Upon our return from Costco, I eagerly plunged into the task of preparing a few of the dishes I had previously showcased to him during our weekly check-ins. His amusement was palpable as the first song from my playlist, "Moving" by Secret Garden, filled the room. 

Yet, beneath his amusement, there was a spark of curiosity and a desire to participate, which made our interaction seemingly effortless.

Amid my culinary endeavors, he casually remarked that he could never fathom cooking a filet and consuming it as anything other than a solitary slab of meat. If one cooks a steak, he believed, it should be savored as a steak.

In the moment following his declaration, I found myself pausing to etch this into my memory. 

Could he appreciate the myriad possibilities that lay in between, the subtle shades of grey that blur the lines between black and white? 

I learned as much about him through talking about steak as watching him play piano. This was not a solitary instance of introspection. Indeed, there would be many more to come.

-----

My first in-person workout session with Andrew was filled with comfortably familiar movements. 

Nothing was too outlandish or unexpected; my time in CrossFit had exposed me to a wild spectrum of movement. I was acutely aware that the disparities between us would not be found in the movements themselves but rather in our approaches and styles. 

Our unique perspectives and communication styles were the true differentiators.

His training style is direct and unfiltered, starkly contrasting my softer approach. 

This didn't surprise me and I knew its what I needed. However, his communication style was also very rich with stories and often analogies. While analogies can be good in illustrating a point, they can also obscure key differences between the subjects being compared, potentially leading to flawed conclusions or confusion. 

“You don’t miss snatches,” he said. 

“Ok, sure, Andrew. I don’t miss snatches. Got it. Moving on,” I thought.

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SPEED READS

💪 Sign Up: Need more strength sports news in your life? Be sure to subscribe to The BarBend Newsletter to keep on top of the worlds of strongman, weightlifting, and more.

🎟️ 🎟️ Tickets for Torian Pro: Tickets for the Oceania Semifinal, the Torian Pro are on sale now and likely to sell out fast. Get yours today!

🚨🚨 New Film: “Identity,” a documentary film following Tim Paulson through his final season as a competitor in the CrossFit season in 2023, just dropped. Check it out now.

New Lab MGMT Athlete: Congrats to U.S. Olympic Weightlifter Mattie Rogers, who joined Lab Management last week. The athlete management company also touts Amanda Barnhart, Katrin Davidsdottir, Mat Fraser, Justin Medeiros, Annie Thoridottir, Pat Vellner, and many other CrossFit greats and up-and-comers on their roster.

The Mayhem Athlete’s Everyday Hero Games are back! This year, the top two athletes from each division on the online portion will be invited to compete at Crossfit Mayhem for a one-day in-person team competition where they will name The Fittest Everyday Heroes.

• The online competition will run May 1-6, and the in-person competition takes place on June 22. Full details will be released following the Open

🚨🚨 Syndicate Crown Community Event: Sweat before you spectate! The Syndicate Crown (North America East Semifinal) announces a new Community Event that will take place concurrently with the Semifinal Event on Friday, May 31 through Sunday, June 2.

• Community divisions will compete outside on Mary Costa Plaza, located directly in front of the Knoxville Civic Coliseum.

• Registration will go live on Wednesday, February 28, at 12:00 p.m. ET.

• Pick your format (Solo, Team of 3, Pair) and division (Rx, Scaled, or Intermediate) and get signed up now. Each format is scheduled to compete on a different day, starting with “Solos” on Friday.

Working with Larger Bodies Seminar and PRVN Fitness: Athena Perez and Scaled Nation will be joining PRVN Fitness at their new headquarters in Nashville, TN, to present the "Working with Larger Bodies" seminar. The event will occur on April 21, 2024, beginning at 9 a.m. Register now!

ICYMI: Now that we have a very clear picture of the total CrossFit Open registration numbers for the year, Mike Halpin’s “The Open Report” breaks it all down.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

How to Balance Weightlifting and Cardio for Long-Term Health 

Each week on Chasing Excellence, we answer listener questions across the Five Factors of Health–Movement, Nutrition, Connection, Recovery, and Mindset. Recently, Hilary asked us whether her pursuit of Olympic weightlifting will hinder her health and independence as she ages.

Here’s our answer:

COMMUNITY

CrossFit Rising Oak: Raising the Bar for CrossFit in South Africa

Imagine being a gym owner and having the power at your gym shut off sporadically, sometimes for two hours, during your busiest classes of the day.

It sounds absurd, but this is very much the reality for affiliate owners Abigail Keats and Darren Sanders of CrossFit Rising Oak in Fourways, South Africa. 

The frequent, scheduled power outages, sometimes multiple times in one day, are caused by South Africa’s ongoing energy crisis. Ultimately, the electricity demand is close to the available supply level, so to prevent catastrophic grid failures and extended outages, the country practices load shedding. This means there are regular blackouts to preserve power.

• “This has been happening for a number of years, but it has gotten progressively worse in recent years,” Sanders tells the Morning Chalk Up, just as the power goes out in the middle of our Zoom call with them.

At least now, though, there’s an app that tells them exactly what days and times the power will be cut in their area, Keats explains. 

• “Sometimes it’s eight to 10 hours without power…but being in South Africa, you just kind of roll with it and make the best out of it,” Keats adds.

Raising the Bar Despite the Challenges

Load shedding is just one unique challenge South African gym owners face, but it wasn’t enough to stop the two long-time CrossFit coaches from pursuing their dream of becoming affiliate owners and opening a top-of-the-line training facility in the country. They realized this dream when they opened their doors in December 2023.

• Their gym doesn’t look like most other CrossFit affiliates in the country. They have 3,800 square feet, which isn’t noteworthy by North American standards but is large compared to others in South Africa.

Because rent is so expensive, most CrossFit gyms in South Africa open in the basements of buildings, but Keats and Sanders didn’t want to do that. 

COMMUNITY

How to Watch Open Announcement 24.2

Week two of the CrossFit Open kicks off with the live announcement of workout 24.2 on Thursday, March 7, on the official CrossFit YouTube channel. And we’ve got all the details you need to know heading into the event.

The details: The second live Open announcement represents the middle of the 2024 CrossFit Open, the world’s largest participatory sporting event. The live announcements started during the 2013 season and grew in size and popularity through 2018. CrossFit elected not to host live Open announcements during the 2019 and 2020 seasons but returned to host them in 2021.

• 24.2 will be presented by GOWOD, the Official Mobility Partner of CrossFit, and will take place in Boise, ID, at CrossFit Shred Shed, aka Justin Medeiros’ garage.

• The Two-Time Fittest Man on Earth, Justin Medeiros, will take on fan-favorite Games veteran Colten Mertens.

• The 24.3 announcement will take place at PRVN HQ in Nashville, TN, on March 14. It will feature a head-to-head battle between Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr and Arielle Loewen. 

Tune in to the CrossFit Games website or CrossFit YouTube channel for the live 24.2 announcement on Thursday, February 29, at 12 p.m. PT. 

THINGS TO…

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HIGHLIGHTS

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

• 🎂Happy birthday to Lab Management's Daniel Robbins.

• Congratulations to Colten Mertens, male winner of Open workout 24.1 with a time of 5:19. 

• Great job to all the kids of Core City CrossFit in Detroit, MI, who completed 24.1 over the weekend.

• Congratulations to Mirjam von Rohr, female winner of Open workout 24.1 with a time of 5:39.

• ⭐️Happy 11-year affiliate anniversary to CrossFit The Slab in Africa.