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“The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.” — Ben Stein

Alan Stengel Found CrossFit on Vacation

Some background.

Alan Stengel was an athlete growing up. So when he entered college at 245 pounds, he wasn’t really alarmed. But by the time he graduated he weighed 280 pounds.

Life changes.

After graduation, he moved back home and started to work for his church, doing production. “I was just working more and more and getting heavier and heavier,” he told us in an interview at Wodapalooza.

Then his dad, who had diabetes, passed away from lung disease.

Just six months later, his mother had a heart attack that required a bypass. But she was so out of shape that the doctors couldn’t perform one. “After that I thought, man I really need to re-evaluate my health here. This is serious,” he told us in an interview at Wodapalooza, where he was volunteering on the media team.

Alan had wanted to try CrossFit, but now at 320 pounds, he didn’t think he was fit enough. So he did it himself. “I cut out all starches, ate a ton of protein and vegetables, and read everything I could online.”

He lost 50 pounds on his own.

Then, in 2016 Alan was a groomsman in his friend’s wedding in Virginia. The groom wanted everyone to take a CrossFit class together at CrossFit Midlow. “I was crazy nervous, but excited. I had wanted to try it.”

A partner workout, Alan remembers that on the last round of box jumps, his partner got sick and went to the bathroom to puke. The rest of the class encouraged him just to finish the box jumps on his own. “I was the last one working on the floor, and the whole place was cheering me on. And I was just a stranger, I just dropped in,” Alan remembers.

Once Alan got home to Maryland, he dropped into a local box. “I quit my membership to the other gym right away,” he said. Now he trains at CrossFit 1214 in Middle River, MD and currently weighs in around 217 pounds, the lowest he can ever remember weighing.

CrossFit for the win.

Alan no longer worries about losing weight. But what he really hopes for is to continue to use his story to inspire people. “I looked to social media for accountability and for the community. When I posted that first photo, I was scared out of my mind. But once I did, it was real. I had to follow through now.”

Alan still documents his journey along the way, and he gets messages daily from people looking for support. “It’s really the community. I would never have been able to do this without CrossFit. I want to be able to give that back.”

GAMES NEWS

Special Invites Sent Out to Wodapalooza Top 5

Immediately after competition wrapped up on Sunday in Miami, special invites were extended to athletes in the top five to compete in two other sanctioned events.

Through a partnership with the Wodapalooza CrossFit Festival, both the CrossFit Fittest in Cape Town, and Brazil CrossFit Championships, will award top performing athletes automatic invites and entry to the event finals.

The partnership streamlines the process with which top performing athletes can earn a place at multiple Sanctionals by reducing the burden of competing in multiple qualifiers throughout the season.

Travis Mayer said he will decline his invitation, and if Noah Ohlsen, Kari Pearce or Sara Sigmundsdottir — who placed second and third in the men’s and women’s divisions, respectively — also decline their invitation to compete at Fittest in Cape Town, event organizers will not extend invitations to athletes further down the roster.

“We are too close to the competition and the admin process could get too drawn out,” Competition Director Chris Oman said in an email.

Continue Reading.

Coffee Break Conversations

What to say when someone says, “No offense, but”…

This doesn’t seem promising. You know what else is never promising? Skipping recovery. Recovery is key when it comes to better performance in the gym. There’s a thousand ways to recover, and different people will recover better with different things. But, at the base of all recovery are two things: sleep and nutrition. Take it from Lindy Barber. 

How to respond the next time someone says CrossFit is pointless…

Not today. Just look at this video Copperhead CrossFit posted. If this doesn’t give you all the feels then, I don’t know man.

Things To…

WATCH: Inside Invictus, the Dubai Episode

In this episode of Inside Invictus, follow the Invictus athletes in Dubai as they have way too much fun before the competition, almost miss their athlete briefing, and get ready to start competing. 

WHERE IS OUR WATER PARK?

HEAR: Everyday Competitor Ellen Holl 

Ellen Holl shares her inspirational weight loss journey, how she balances her two jobs, being a single mother, and active lifestyle, and why her investment into working out actually fuels her ability to be a mom. 

I TRAIN FOR BADASSERY.

FIGHT: Inflammation and Muscle Fatigue

High levels of Omega 3s are proven to help your body fight inflammation and reduce muscle fatigue. Prospera’s Omega-3 D SPORT is packed with Omega 3s from Alaskan Pollock and Vitamin D3 to aid with recovery. And with code “CHALKUP” you’ll get 20% off sitewide.

IT’S ALL IN THE OMEGA.

EAT: Egg, Tomato and Scallion Sandwich 

Speaking of breakfast, here’s a recipe to go with those smoothies. This egg, tomato, and scallion sandwich has sliced hard boiled eggs, juicy ripe tomatoes, and chopped scallions with a touch of mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Enjoy this one for any meal of the day, really.

WE JUST LOVE BREAKFAST GUYS.

Today’s edition of the Morning Chalk Up is fueled by

Chalk Up Community

• NEW AFFILIATE — Columbus, OH has a new affiliate. RAC CrossFit is open for business and ready to serve their community. 
• BOX BUILDS BUNK BEDS — Glass City CrossFit partnered with Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a non-profit that provides beds for families in need, raising $6,000 and building more than 60 bunk beds from scratch over the weekend.
• CYSTIC FIBROSIS — CrossFit Winnipeg helped host a fundraiser in support of Cystic Fibrosis Canada, raising more than $4200 in the six-hour event last Saturday.
• CALORIES VERSUS CANCER — CrossFit Unstoppable held a “Calories vs. Cancer” event in honor of Mary Huhmann who underwent breast cancer surgery on January 7th. Over 11,000 calories were either rowed, biked or skied in the three-hour event, raising almost $600 for the Jefferson City Relay for Life.
• CROSSFIT FOR ALL — CrossFit Raid, in Bensalem, PA hold classes three days a week for Flat Iron Supports, a local organization that works with adult individuals with disabilities to help encourage an active lifestyle and the benefits associated with such.

CHALK UP IN 2 MINUTES (a highlight reel around social media of CrossFit pros and average joes)

Ben Smith has joined the Puori team • Willy Georges does an EMOM with 364 pound cleans • Maddie Sturt has arrived in Australia • Brent Fikowski is holding an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit Thursday 3:00 – 4:00 PM PT • After four months of recovery, Dean Linder-Leighton gets a 264 pound snatch and 352 pound clean • Anthony Davis got a 406 pound clean and jerk PR during the Wodapalooza Weightlifting Faceoff • Noah Ohlsen met a five-year-old fan in Miami • Taylor Williamson gets a 255 pound overhead squat PR for two • Congratulations to Scotty on getting his first strict ring muscle-up • Mat Fraser got to fly in an F-16.

…and welcome to where? Welcome to Miami, from Armen Hammer.

Granite Games Confirms Venue — The 2019 Granite Games are returning to the stadium at St. Cloud University in MN for the weekend of May 30 – June 2. 

Australian CrossFit Championship Kicks Off Today — Competition down under kicks off today at 3:00 PM PT and runs through Sunday. There will be no live stream of the competition and our coverage will be minimal but we’ll do the best we can to keep ya in the loop. 

— Athlete roster

— Schedule

Jared Enderton on His 2019 Games Season — Jared Enderton posted his plans for the 2019 CrossFit Games Season on his social media yesterday. “I won’t be competing in the CrossFit Games season this year…It wasn’t an easy decision to make but I know it’s the best one. Why? I love coaching and competing. This fall and winter I traveled a lot coaching weightlifting seminars and also coaching with Invictus Weightlifting. However, this past month also made me realize how much I miss training and competing. I’ll be doing less seminars and less traveling this year but still coaching like crazy. This way I
can be at home more to focus on spending time with the family and training and still doing what I love for a career- coaching weightlifting.”

Lance Armstrong Ventures Back Into Fitness — Lance Armstrong, who has been banned from cycling for life after evidence surfaced in 2012 that he used performance-enhancing drugs, has re-entered the realm of fitness. Armstrong just invested in PowerDot, makers of an app-based, smart muscle stimulation device that helps athletes recover.

On the Minute — Episode 8 of On the Minute airs tonight at 5:00 PM PT on our Facebook page with a report card on Wodapalooza, who killed it at WZA and looking ahead to Australian CrossFit Championship.

— If You Missed This: Also, if you missed them, Armen and Justin did Wodapalooza special editions of On the Minute from Miami.

“How Mia Mellon Made it to Wodapalooza Just Two Years After Finding CrossFit,” by Jessica Danger, Morning Chalk Up 

Mia Mellon was working as an intern in Washington D.C when she first heard about CrossFit. It was Justin LoFranco, our Founder and Editor-in-Chief, who introduced her to it. He hadn’t started the Morning Chalk Up yet, but he was for sure CrossFitting on the daily.

“He definitely had a reputation as ‘That CrossFit Guy’. He was the only one there doing it as far as I know,” Mia told us in an interview at Wodapalooza.

But it took three more years for Mia to try CrossFit. “I kinda thought it was a fad,” she told us.

After her internship in D.C. was up, Mia moved back to the CA Bay Area. Her boyfriend, now husband, was a rugby player and Mia had taken up running in D.C., running full marathons. “We couldn’t really work out together. It was so opposite.” So they tried CrossFit.

The first class Mia dropped into, the WOD was the CrossFit total, the opposite of endurance sports. It wasn’t until she tried another class in another box that it clicked. The second time it was “Elizabeth” and Mia couldn’t do a single ring dip.

Those ring dips rekindled the competitive spirit that Mia loved about marathons. “I made my boyfriend take me to the park and teach me ring dips on the little bars. I told him we had to go back to CrossFit.”

Mia settled in with coach Todd Wise who was coaching at Sundown CrossFit at the time. She asked him to help her improve. “It went from something I had to get better at to what do I need to do to excel in this?”

1/25 – 1/27: Australian CrossFit Championships (Queensland, AUS)

1/25 – 1/27: Judgment Day Hawkes Bay (Napier, NZ)

1/26: The Force Wars 2 (Pembroke Pines, FL)

1/26: Lost River Rumble (Bowling Green, KY)

1/26: The Blizzard Bowl (Little Canada, MN)

1/26: 2019 IceBreather Classic (Springfield, IL)

1/26: ATCF Cancer Crackdown: Revival of The Fittest (Pasco, WA)

1/26: Hung Like Coff at PFC CrossFit (Las Vegas, NV)

1/26: Steel Rail Shootout 2019 (McComb, MS)

1/26: Woid Beast Fitness Challenge (Cham, Germany)

1/26: Brick NY Midtown Throwdown (New York, NY)

1/26: Fifth Annual Cold Steel Classic (Oswego, IL) 

1/26: New Year’s Revolution (Seminole, FL)

1/26: Three Rivers Throwdown (Rome, GA)

1/26 – 1/27: Cougars and Cradle Robbers (Salem, MA)

1/26 – 1/27: Game Day Eau Claire (Eau Claire, WI)

1/26 – 1/27: NorCal Masters (San Rafael, CA)

1/27: Big Dawgs Athlete Development Camp (Letchworth, England)

1/29 – 2/2: Fittest in Cape Town (Cape Town, South Africa)

2/1 – 2/2: Battle of the Brave III (North Kansas City, MO)

2/2: Golden State Games (Stockton, CA)

2/2: Left Coast Classic Competition (Laguna Niguel, CA)

2/2: Golden State Games (Stockton, CA)

2/2: A League of Their Own (San Antonio, TX)

2/2: True Paw III Crossfit Competition (Annapolis, MD)

⅔: Coffland Hero WOD (Norwalk, CT) 

2/9: Valentine’s Day Crush (North Hollywood, CA)

2/9: The Garage Games Master of the Masters (Suwanee, GA)

2/9: Cupid’s Roar Partner Competition (Melbourne, Australia)

2/9: 3rd Annual Black Ops Partner Competition (Wheaton, IL)

2/9: Bedrock Heart Breaker (Calgary, AB)

2/9: Battle of the Ages (Jacksonville, FL) 

2/9: Battle for Bae 2019 (San Mateo, CA)

2/9: Battle of the Fittest 6: NYC Throwdown (New York, NY)

2/9: My Bloody Valentine (Vidalia, OH)

2/9: 2nd Annual Battle of the Ages (Fruitland, ID)

2/9 – 2/10: The CF Circus (Des Moines, IA)

2/15 – 2/16: 2nd annual Tough Love Competition (Louisville, KY)

2/16: Valentine’s Day Massacre (Kilgore, TX)

2/16: The Garage Games Xs & Ys (Valdosta, GA)

2/16: Couples Clash 2019 (Pensacola, FL)

2/16: Tuff Love (Boulder, CO)

2/16: Valentine’s Day Massacre (Selma, TX)

2/16: Vicious Valentine’s Partner Throwdown (Carlisle, PA)

2/23 – 2/24: Strength in Depth (London, England)