If you do not know or recall, here are the details of the Fran CrossFit WOD:

For Time:

• 21-15-9 reps
• Thrusters
• Pull-ups

In the workout, the athlete must perform 21 thrusters and 21 pull-ups, followed by 15 thrusters and 15 pull-ups and finally finish it off with 9 pull-ups and 9 thrusters.

Men use a 95 pounds barbell for the thrusters while women are to use a 65-pound barbell. Pull-ups can be done with any technique (strict, kipping or butterfly).

Noah Ohlsen Fran CrossFit WOD World Record

Noah Ohlsen began his video by saying he did the workout the week before and it went very well, even without any warm-up before. This time, he went for the kill not sure if he was going to PR. Turned out, it was better than he expected.

Noah Ohlsen’s Fran time: 1 minute and 49 seconds. In comparison, Ohlsen’s best time for Fran previously was 1:57.

The video happened while Ohlsen was filming for the Wodapalooza Online Qualifier team workout videos.

Check Out Noah Ohlsen Before He Found CrossFit

Why is the record unofficial? Besides needing to see if CrossFit Inc. is going to chip in, there is not a faster time that we can think of. Irving Hernandez has also a recording of a 1’49’’ Fran WOD back in 2016.

Noah Ohlsen now wants people to try and beat his record to make. Are you up for it?

Read More: 2023 Will Be Noah Ohlsen’s Final Season as Individual, Going Team in 2024

The Z-score points system is an idea that has been pushed by data analyst Tyler Watkins and commentator Brian Friend to be introduced in CrossFit.

What Is the Z-Score Points System?

Lovers of CrossFit know more or less how points are given to athletes during a competition. The traditional way is to give a specific number of points to each athlete depending on how the placement of each individual. At the Games, for example, the winner of an event gets 100 points, the 2^nd placed gets 97 points, the 3^rd 94 and so on, regardless of how close each athlete finished compared to others.

The Z-Score points system tells how far a certain data point is away from the average. According to Watkins and Friend, the Z-score would give a much more precise idea of how each athlete performed compared to the average of the playing field.

One simple explanation would be a race. Let’s say the winner of the race finishes the track in 5 minutes. The second place finished in 4 minutes and the 3^rd place finished in 3 minutes and 55 seconds.

In a traditional scoring, the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place would get 100, 97 and 94 points, even though the 1^st place won by a landslide. In a Z-Score points system, the winner would get 100 points, but the 2^nd and 3^rd athletes would get points that would be much closer to each other, and much further from the 1^st placement.

Crash Crucible Used Z-Score Points System for Leaderboard

Noted, Crash Crucible is not a famous CrossFit-sanctioned event of the off-season, but it grabbed the attention of the Community simply because it ditched the traditional scoring system for the elite individuals. Instead, for the first time, it used the Z-Score points system.

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The Crash Crucible took place in Spartanburg, South Carolina, from September 30^th to October 2^nd.

In the end, here is how the leaderboard ended with the first number being the official Z-Score points system, and the second set of points are from the traditional system – the organisers kept a track of the traditional scores for the individuals.

Male Elite:

1. Luke Parker – 616.13 / 664
2. Hudson Fricke – 588.70 / 601
3. Lee Sharum – 574.46 / 601
4. Marquan Jones – 564.40 / 592
5. Daniel Kuc – 559.95 / 586

Female Elite:

1. Shaylin Laure – 618.32 / 596
2. Alexis Johnson – 570.57 / 594
3. Ellie Hiller – 569.57 / 594
4. Emily Beroth – 543.67 / 516
5. Madeline Helms – 539.38 / 460

Read More: Tia-Clair Toomey Opens Up About Mental Game and the CrossFit Games Programming

Tia-Clair Toomey was everyone’s favourite to win the 2022 CrossFit Games this year. However powerful, strong and ready the Australian athlete is for any workout someone throws at her, there can always be a curve ball. For Tia it was her “very serious” back injury.

In hindsight, someone could argue that Tia’s back injury is what made her 9^th on the overall leaderboard at one point, her worse positioning at the Games in the past 8 years. “That is the thought in the back of your mind. I haven’t had my traditional lead-up to the CrossFit Games the way Shane [Orr] had wanted,” she tells us.

So how was Tia’s mental game before the Games and while she saw her name almost falling out of the top 10 at one point?

“The mental aspect is a key component to competing CrossFit. I remember specifically the weekend before the Games struggling to get out of bed and I was in tears. I know what I’m capable of, but for the first time ever I’m experiencing potentially falling short due to some physical capabilities.”

Toomey’s mentality, in the end, was to get to the Games any way she could, because in her vision the Games weekend is not as hard as training back at her Box. “You’re only doing 4 to 5 workouts during a day versus, you know, 10 to 12 [when training].”

Tia-Clair Toomey’s Comeback

It was on day 2 that Tia managed to climb back to her usual top 3 spots (behind Mal O’Brien and Emma Lawson). When people began wondering if this was finally the year someone else was going to get her crown, she cursed on the official livestream, something you rarely see her do.

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“The more I think about it, the more I believe that I was a little timid at the start. I definitely felt a little different. There was no way I was going to let a back injury hold me back.”

Her back injury was a kept secret between her and Shane Orr, the husband/coach of the Fittest Woman on Earth.

“I didn’t want to use the back injury as a cop-out, you know. I really didn’t want anyone to know about it.”

Toomey’s Last Event in the Coliseum

The individuals at the CrossFit Games finished the weekend inside the Coliseum with a triplet: row, thrusters and bar muscle-ups. It was during the muscle-ups that Tia-Clair Toomey decided to go against Shane’s proposition, take her time and not rush.

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Why did she take her time? Because it could have been her last time at the CrossFit Games as an individual athlete. “You never know the next time you’re going to be out on that competition floor. I just want to go out there and I want to break up almost every rep and every set and I want to just soak up the crowd, you know?”

Tia said she will savour this moment, even if she came in 10^th, more than anything else. “I will remember that more than going unbroken and trying to race to win the event.”

Related: Tia-Clair Toomey Competing at Down Under Championship Instead of Rogue Invitational

CrossFit Games Programming from An Athlete’s Perspective

BOXROX asked Tia-Clair Toomey how she felt about the workouts programmed this year. It was Adrian Bozman’s first time programming the Games entirely and there were new movements that we haven’t seen before and some events that took on the natural obstacles of the city around where CrossFit usually takes place.

In short, Tia-Clair Toomey loved it. “I have a lot of respect for Adrian Bozman and Dave Castro. Bozman gets to do it his own unique way and I think he did a fantastic job. It just goes to show that our Sport is evolving and growing.”

The only sad thing about the programming, according to Tia, was that the weather was uncooperative. Due to rain and storms, CrossFit had to postpone events 2A and 2B and also change up event Alpaca and eliminated the legless rope climbs for the safety of the athletes.

“The fact that we had to postpone that shoulder to overhead event. We would have had a few different positions or placements that would have changed and been shuffled a little bit throughout the men and women’s division.”

Tia’s Recovery

Being the Fittest Woman on Earth 6 years in a row is not an easy task. In fact, it was impossible until Tia-Clair Toomey made it happen.

Tia utilises an array of recovery protocols when competing, but her Oura Ring is something she hardly takes it off.

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“I get to track my sleep with my Oura ring. I see the trends of how I’m sleeping. If I find something out of the ordinary, I think back on what I did differently.”

Her Oura ring is not only to measure her sleep, but she also uses it to check her heart rate throughout the day. “I wear it when I’m walking around too, or on a rest day and it shows my activity levels. Having that data to show, to know if you need to emphasise on a recovery protocol, or sleep more and take training a step back.”

CrossFit Games Highlights: 5 Things We Liked and 5 We Didn’t

Customers who were sitting on outside tables at the Cervejaria Alphaiate, a steak house in Recife, Pernambuco, became famous for mistakenly assuming a few CrossFit runners were robbers. A viral video surfaced this past weekend in which every customer left their table in the middle of the night afraid of being caught in what is known in Brazil as “arrastão,” or gang plundering.

VIDEO – CrossFit Runners Mistaken For Robbers

In the video is possible to see a few people running slowly down the sidewalk and soon enough one person becomes panicked and flees the area followed quickly by everyone else. The news spread around Brazil and made headlines also in the New York Post and the Daily Mail.

The city’s police department later that day released a statement clarifying that no robberies were committed at that time around the bar and no one came forward alleging some wrongdoing. According to the bar owners, the clients returned to their respective tables a few minutes later.

The bar itself even used the opportunity to advertise itself and poke fun at the misunderstanding.

“Hey CrossFit people, after training, come over to drink a draft beer. And don’t forget to pay the bill,” a waiter says in their latest Instagram post.

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Read More: Hollywood Star Chris Pratt Repeatedly Did the Same CrossFit Workout to Prepare for TV Show

Hartley is himself a Kentucky state trooper and he wanted to pay tribute to the 31 Fallen Troopers of the Kentucky State Police. According to him, the agency created one hero WOD for each of the heroes from Kentucky who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

The 31 Hero WODs are completed by each cadet of the agency while in the academy over a 6-month period. “I wanted to complete them all within 31 hours,” Robert Hartley wrote.

Robert Hartley Completes 31 Hero WODs in 31 Hours

Each workout was developed by Thin Gray Line CrossFit, the official CrossFit Affiliate of the Kentucky State Police Academy. They honour troopers who died in the line of duty and each has the name of the fallen comrade.

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Robert Hartley began at 8:30 am on Monday, September 12^th with the Hero WOD “Toll” and ended with “Cam” at 3:29 pm on September 13^th, a minute before his cap.

“Never set a limit on yourself, and know that your mind will take you to places that seem impossible.”

Robert Hartley in His Own Words

For a while now I’ve felt that I needed to do something to push myself further than I ever have. I can’t explain why, but it’s been digging at me for quite some time. I needed to do something to prove to myself that we don’t have to set limits on ourselves. I needed to come up with something that when I told people about it, they would laugh or say, “that’s impossible,” which is exactly what they did. But the only people who know where the edge is are those that have went over it, and that’s what I wanted to do.

At the same time, I wanted this to be something important to me, not just something random. I wanted this to be bigger than just my own personal goals. A few months back, after many more months of brain storming, it eventually came to me. What if I could do something to bring attention to and honor the 31 Fallen Troopers of the @ky_state_police . How could I do that? I already knew that there were established @crossfit Hero Workouts created by the agency for each of the 31 Fallen Heros who paid the ultimate sacrifice. They are all completed by each cadet of the agency while in the academy over a 6 month period. I wanted to complete them all within 31 Hours.

Beginning at 0830 on Monday, September 12th, I kicked off this challenge that I have coined the #KY31HerosProject with the first workout. I would have 31 hours from then to complete all 31 Hero Workouts. I went to war with my mind, my body slowly broke down, and I went beyond exhaustion. Halfway in I was beginning to fall behind my planned pace, and didn’t think I would finish. With the help of my team of family, friends, gym community, and some coworkers around me, I somehow managed to complete the last and final workout at 1529 hours on Tuesday, September 13th (the EOW date for the last Trooper to be killed in the line of duty). I had 1 minute to spare.

Never set a limit on yourself, and know that your mind will take you to places that seem impossible. Most importantly, I hope I was able to honor 31 Fallen Heros and their families, and hope this will make some people want to take a moment to honor them as well.

There will be a short video in the months to come on the #KY31HerosProject

The 31 Hero WODs He Completed in 31 Hours

Toll

Four rounds for time:

• 11 burpees
• 121 single-unders
• 14 air squats
• 121 single-unders,
• 48 sit-ups (butterfly)

Miller

24 rounds for time:

• 141-meter sprint
• 14 overhead walking lunges 

Huffman

27-minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible):

• Five bar muscle-ups
• 19 dips
• 53 jumping air squats
• 299-meter run 

Bush

Buy-in: 28 burpees, then two rounds for time:

• 10 V-up
• 11 push-up
• 374-meter run

Then, 28 burpee buy-out.

Tevis

Four rounds for time:

• Five clean & jerks (80-pound sandbag)
• 26 sit-ups
• Five clean & jerks
• 16 back squats (80 pounds sandbag)

Mobley

Four rounds for time:

• Five thrusters (95 p0unds)
• 28 lunges 
• Five thrusters
• 31 hand-release push-ups

Uzzle

600-meter run buy-in, then two rounds for time:

• Five chest-to-bar pull-ups
• 28 back rack lunges (95 pounds)
• 19 HR push-ups
• 64 air squats

600-meter run buy out.

Powell

Seven-minute AMRAP:

• Eight burpees
• 18 thrusters (45 pounds)

Brady

Four rounds for time:

• 11 thrusters (95 pounds)
• Nine power cleans 
• 17 back squats

Barrett

No time cap, complete:

• 35 deadlifts

Unbroken sets of five, increasing with every set; athlete’s score is total weight.

McNeely

Four rounds for time:

• Two bear crawls — 100 feet
• Nine front squats (115 pounds)
• Seven push presses

Rest for three minutes, then follow with Hero WOD “Childs.”

Childs

Four rounds for time:

• Four power cleans (115 pounds)
• Eight thrusters (115 pounds)

Thurtell

15-minute AMRAP:

• 393-meter run
• Nine burpees
• 29 back squats (95 pounds)

Ward

Four rounds of: five-minute AMRAPs with one minute rest for 23 minutes total:

• Four push press (135 pounds)
• 23 burpees
• Seven sit-ups
• Three bear crawls (32 feet)

Smith

24-minute AMRAP:

• Four power cleans (95 pounds)
• 26 back squats
• 1973-meter run

Hutchinson

Six rounds:

• Seven pull-ups
• Seven push-ups
• Five toes-to-bar

Then, four rounds:

• Seven sumo deadlift high pull (95 pounds)
• Seven dips
• Five hollow rock

Then, two rounds:

• Seven burpees
• Seven thrusters (95 pounds)
• Five strict pull-ups

McCoun

Nine rounds for time:

• Six ring dips
• Nine pull-ups

Then:

Two-mile run buy out.

Pickard

Two rounds for time:

• 26 clapping push-ups
• 26 sandbag walking lunges (80 pounds)
• 26 sit-ups
• 26 sandbag back squats
• 26 burpees
• 742-meter run

Martin

20-minute AMRAP:

• 20 HRPU
• 20 pull-ups
• 20 dips
• 20 toes-to-bar
• 20 burpees
• 20 air squats
• 20 sit-ups
• 20 sandbag lunges

Cunningham

Two rounds for time:

• 24 back squats (95 pounds)
• 24 lunges (95 pounds)
• 24 push press (95 pounds)
• 24 sit-ups
• 24 burpees
• 24 Supermans
• 24 sit-ups
• 24 push press (95 pounds)
• 24 lunges (95 pounds)
• 24 back squats (95 pounds)

Harris

Seven rounds for time:

• Six bar-facing burpees
• Eight empty-bar thrusters

Then, two-mile run buy out.

Clifton

Nine rounds for time:

• Four front squats (70 pounds)
• Seven back squats (70 pounds)
• Five sandbag sit-ups (10 pounds)

Then, one-mile run buy out.

DP

12 rounds for time:

• Six burpee tire broad jumps
• Five tire flips

Buy out: two partner carries — 50 meters

Johnny

12 rounds for time:

• Three sumo deadlift high pulls (95 pounds)
• Six burpee tire flips 
• Five tire jumps
• 34-meter bear crawl

Adkins

Six rounds for time:

• Nine burpees
• Nine thrusters (95 pounds)
• Six chest-to-bar pull-ups

JC

For time:

• 800-meter run
• Five squat cleans (95 pounds)
• 50 double-unders
• Five squat cleans (95 pounds)
• 800-meter run
• Five squat cleans (95 pounds)
• 50 sit-ups
• Five squat cleans (95 pounds)
• 800-meter run

Leonard

Three rounds for time:

• 250-meter sandbag carry (80 pounds)
• 28 push-ups
• 250-meter farmer’s carry (45-pound weight plate in each hand)
• 28 sit-ups
• 250-meter run
• 28 burpees

Tribby

25 burpee buy-in, then 10 rounds for time:

• Three pull-ups
• Eight power cleans (95 pounds)
• Seven front squats (95 pounds)

Then, 2.7-mile run buy out.

Chrisman

Three rounds for time:

• Six push press (95 pounds)
• 23 sit-ups
• 15 burpee pull-ups
• 800-meter run

Gibbs

For time:

• 191-meter farmer’s carry (45-pound plate in each hand)
• Five toes-to-bar
• 10 overhead walking lunges on each leg (45 pounds)
• 20 pull-ups
• 30 burpees
• 40 push-ups
• 191-meter farmer’s carry (45-pound plate in each hand)
• 40 push-ups
• 30 burpees
• 20 pull-ups
• 10 overhead walking lunges on each leg (45 pounds)
• Five toes-to-bar
• 191-meter farmer’s carry (45-pound plate in each hand)

Cam

31-minute AMRAP:

• Nine sandbag thrusters (95 pounds)
• Five push-ups
• Four pull-ups

100-meter sprint/run between rounds.

Read More: VIDEO – 9-Year-Old Rory van Ulft Deadlifts 111 Kg (244 lbs), 3x Her Body Weight

Rory van Ulft is a 3x US Youth National Weightlifting Champion. She is gathering fame online for her determination and impressive lifts at such a young age. Recently, she shared on her Instagram what appears to be her PR deadlift – she chose the sumo deadlift technique for it.

9-Year-Old Rory van Ulft Deadlifts 111 Kilos

According to the caption on her Instagram, Rory was exactly 9 years and 217 days when she performed an impressive 111 kilos (244 lbs) deadlift.

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Weighing only 32.36 kilograms, the deadlift she performed is actually 3.43 times her body weight.

By now you should already be impressed by this feat, but check out these other facts to have your mind blown.

Rory van Ulft’s deadlift was, according to Open Powerlifting, one kilo heavier than the 2^nd heaviest all-time raw deadlift in the Men’s Youth division 53-kilogram class which was done by Elbrus Dzhatiev at the 2019 Power Global Powerlifting Alliance (GPA) European Cup.

110 kilos is currently the 3^rd heaviest all-time raw deadlift in the Men’s Youth division 66-kilogram class.

In other words, a 9-year-old girl who weighs only 32 kilos has performed a heavier deadlift than one of the heaviest deadlifts of all time from the boys’ division weighing 53kg and 66kg.

In April this year, she did the same deadlift but with “only” 100 kilos. The year before, she shared a video deadlifting 90 kilos (a 3.1x her body weight at the time).

Read More: 10-Year-Old Bennett Wins Dead-Hang Challenge Set By Mat Fraser

Below you will see our 2022 CrossFit Games highlights. Check out 5 things we liked and 5 things we believe can be improved for next year’s edition.

New Boss Boz, New Movements

Ever since Dave Castro was fired from CrossFit Inc, many wondered what would the Games’ events look like. Now we know and we love it!

Adrian Bozman is the new Director of Competition and was selected to lead the CrossFit Games programming going forward.

He introduced new movements such as the double-under crossover, paralette handstand walk from L-sit, the sandbag ladder, block handstand push-ups, single-unders, strict pegboard ascents. We didn’t see a focus on barbells (only in the last event did we see them being used for individuals) and we thought we would miss it, but we didn’t.

Many touted Bozman for going back to the basics when programming this year’s CrossFit Games, but he denied that saying he did what CrossFit is all about for him. Keep on doing that sir!

Chaotic Event 1

Although we enjoyed the CrossFit Games as a whole, the very first event left a bad taste in our mouths. A simple 5-mile bike ride turned the event on its head.

4 athletes (Danielle Brandon, Elena Carratala Sanahuja, Spencer Panchik and Lazar Dukic) rode only 4 miles, while Seungyeon Choi rode the bike for 6 miles. Athletes were then penalised, but it took over 5 hours after the event ended for the fans to understand who actually won the event. This leads us to our next point in the “dislike” list.

“The Leaderboard Is Not Updated”

We saw this sentence being spoken by people in the media and across the chat of CrossFit’s official Livestream many times.

As soon as an event was done, we could see on the Livestream who finished 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd. Commentators would talk about the winner of the event and some of them would even be interviewed. However, the leaderboard would not be updated accordingly.

For the media, that was increasingly frustrating to keep people up to date with what was going on. Even more frustrating, and it happened on more than one occasion, was for the event winners to be logged on the official platform, but the overall points were not added. This is a mistake that should be easy to fix.

The Year of the Comeback

Ricky Garard and Brooke Wells got the best out of the situation they were given.

The Australian athlete was banned for four years after finishing 3^rd at the 2017 CrossFit Games. He talked openly about that time and that he was “willing to take the risks” of having illegal substances to get an edge.

8 Takeaways from Ricky Garard’s Podcast Interview

He paid his dues and was ready to show the world how he could win without cheating this time. As we will still wait for test results to clear every athlete to podium this year, he did finish 3^rd, but for a big part of the competition, many thought he could actually win the Games. Against all odds, he did what seemed highly unlikely.

Brooke Wells was an athlete that, last year, was on everybody’s top list. Sadly, she suffered a dislocated shoulder during the snatch event and was medically withdrawn from competition.

In August that year, she went through reconstructive surgery on her UCL and many people did not expect her to qualify to the Games this year. Wells herself said that she had limitations and that going to the Games would be an enormous achievement. Well, she did that and more.

She finished 5^th overall this year, tying her best ever Games position ever – less than a year after going through an elbow surgery.

This is the comeback story we should be talking about for years to come.

Camera Work and Showing Favourites

Everyone loves an underdog story, so why can’t CrossFit’s director and commentators do the same? Whoever is in charge of deciding what spectators are watching on the Livestream needs to do a better job.

We understand that some athletes are bigger stars than others. But that shouldn’t take away from fans experiencing what is happening on the field. There could be 10 athletes competing at the same time, but we don’t know how it is going because the camera is fixed on one or another athlete for the whole time.

Most events, if not all of them, should have a split screen showcasing a specific athlete and another one showing a more broad view of the field. In fact, sometimes it feels like even the commentators are not watching the event live, but rather in a booth looking through the same images as we are.

One clear example of this bad camera work and playing favourites happened at the very last event for the women’s division. The camera was at all times on Tia-Clair Toomey (for obvious reasons) and Laura Horvath (because she climbed up to the 3^rd position at the previous event). And who won that heat? Kara Saunders. And who came in second? Mal O’Brien, but we completely missed that by watching the Livestream – and the commentators dismissed Mal’s second place by focusing only on Laura Horvath too.

The Capitol

The first event on Wednesday titled “The Capitol” was what the CrossFit Games highlights is all about and what the Finals should always strive for.

It was a long event, with running involved, so it was easier for the spectator to discern who is ahead and who is behind. But the brilliant idea Bozman had was to take the event outside, out in the open, where normal citizens from Madison were going through their day-to-day business.

In the 3.5-mile run, CrossFit athletes encountered other people doing their morning jog, walking the dog, or riding a bicycle to work. What an immersive experience that must have been and it paid off.

And it will be hard to forget that incredible photo of Rebecca Fuselier being cheered on by hundreds of fans on the final steps of the Capitol before the end of the event.

Chills!

1^st Place Tie Event for the 1^st Time

At the sandbag ladder event, crop top man Nick Mathew and arguably the strongest athlete on the field Guilherme Malheiros went head-to-head on the tie break to find out who was, indeed, the winner of that workout. Turns out, it was both – Fikowski and Hopper finished 3^rd and 4^th consecutively.

When you see the footage below you would think that Malheiros won the event, but the official chip stated that both finish the tiebreaker at exactly the same time: 08.23. This is the first time that two athletes share 1^st place at a CrossFit Games event with a chip timer.

After some research, we discovered that both finished at the same time because the line in which the chip on the athlete’s ankle has to cross is not at the beginning of the platform, but rather where the number is. Although Malheiros did get to the platform before Mathew, he did not cross his foot all the way to the finish line at first.

Better Judges

This has been updated on 17/08/2022.

To become a judge for most CrossFit sanctioned events you need to have a Level 1 certificate course. That means you need to sit through a two-day classroom instruction on the CrossFit methodology. During the Games, in the individual division, judges are usually L3 or higher and part of the CrossFit Seminar Staff.

This year we saw a lot of people complaining about the lack of judging standards throughout the Open, Quarterfinals and Semifinals. When it comes to the CrossFit Games, we expect judging to be top-notch, but that is not what we saw. Especially at the women’s event 7 “Echo Press”.

Watch in the video below how the judge for Emma McQuaid simply accepted all her reps, although it looks like some of them were “no reps”. Compare that with what Laura Horvath got – and they were both in the same heat.

We understand that judges are volunteers in the Age Group, adaptive and team competitions/events. But judges have to step up their game when it comes to the Semifinals and be near flawless during the CrossFit Games which could define who is the Fittest on Earth.

Khrennikov Stole Our Hearts

Roman Khrennikov’s story to get to the Games itself should be a book. In 2018, 2019 and 2021 he was invited to attend the CrossFit Games in person but was unable due to Visa issues every time. 2022 was different.

After getting his Visa, he had to miss the birth of his first baby to focus on the CrossFit Games – he didn’t see his wife since April to make sure he would compete in Madison. After 13 events, Khrennikov stood on the podium with his newborn in his arms.

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But that’s not all. Since it was the first time many people were getting to know Roman, it was also the first time they got to see what a kind, funny and joyful person he is. We already knew that when he showed his breakdancing skills.

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After winning an event, he also made a few inside jokes to friends back in Russia. During the last press conference, after he was crowned 2^nd Fittest Man on Earth, he joked with Adrian Bozman that, even if the Alpaca workout went through with the legless rope climbs, he would have won that event. Bozman laughed and high-fived the Russian Athlete.

We are happy to know that with his Visa for the next 5 years, we have a chance to see him more under the CrossFit spotlight – he fully deserves it.

Tia’s Retirement Ahead of Time

It is only a matter of time before Tia-Clair Toomey announces her retirement. However, nobody was expecting it to come from CrossFit’s commentator Sean Woodland during the Livestream after she just finished her last event.

“If you are wondering why Tia Toomey took her time to soak it in, this is it. She is planning to retire after the CrossFit Games,” Woodland said.  Tia was interviewed still inside the Coliseum and asked if she is retiring. “That is the question,” Tia replied. “We’ll see.” After the teams finished their competition, another announcement happened inside the Coliseum. “This is Tia-Clair Toomey’s final event. She is back there, she can hear you, put your hands together for Tia-Clair Toomey,” it was said.

At the press conference, the first question was directed at Tia and her retirement announcement to which she replied “I didn’t announce my retirement.”

It wasn’t nice to see her possible retirement plans being shared like this, not through her own words, on Livestream as she is finishing her last 2022 CrossFit Games event. She will likely announce her official retirement sometime soon, but in her own words, after the dust has settled.

Woodland had to defend himself later online saying he got the confirmation of her retirement from her camp and permission to say it.

Perhaps it was a miscommunication within Tia’s team that said that to Woodland. Either way, it was sad to see her retirement being announced not by her in her own words.

Read More: How Much Money Did the Athletes Win at the 2022 CrossFit Games

CrossFit sets itself on a mission to find out, every year, who are the Fittest on Earth by promoting the CrossFit Games. This ultimate fitness test takes a couple of days before someone can claim to be the best of the elite athletes worldwide.

In 2020 we saw a much different Games. Due to the pandemic, only a handful of individuals competed for the title. It culminated with Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey dusting the opposition in a memorable finale with both finishing the crossing line with hands held together.

There were a total of 12 events at that time, so how can you watch the 2020 CrossFit Games in 10 seconds if not even the trailer to the documentary is that short?

Watch the 2020 CrossFit Games in 10 Seconds

BOXROX has decided to pull the data from CrossFit’s official platform on the points each athlete got at the 2020 CrossFit Games.

Below you will see how each athlete stacked up against one another event after event. We all know how incredible Tia-Clair Toomey and Mat Fraser are as athletes, but it is with this animated graph that you can see the scope of their fitness level compared to others.

In the charts below you will see the name of the workout and each athlete’s total points after that specific workout. You may choose to see just one athlete individually, see the score or the ranks, and go back to a specific event to see how was the leaderboard at that moment. So check out the 2020 CrossFit Games in 10 seconds.

Women’s Division

Men’s Division

If you want to remember how it all looked like when Mat Fraser and Tia -Clair Toomey was still competing side by side, then click here.

2022 CrossFit Games

BOXROX will utilise the same technique for you to see how all 40 men, women and 38 teams will stack against each other event after event. After each day, and during events, we will be releasing similar graphs like the one you saw above of the “2020 CrossFit Games in 10 seconds.”

The 2022 CrossFit Games will take place in Madison, Wisconsin, on August 3-7. We know a rough schedule that will most likely include 11 workouts for teams and individuals.

It has also been revealed that CrossFit will have its customary cut of athletes after the last event on Saturday evening:

• Individuals – from 40 to 30
• Teams – from 38 to 20

Adrian Bozman, CrossFit Director of Competition, said that age groups will finish their competition inside the Coliseum on Saturday afternoon and that teams will be the last event scheduled for this year’s CrossFit Games.

2022 CrossFit Games Roster: Which Athletes Are Competing in Madison?

Chris Pratt did the Murph Hero WOD “several times” as part of his training for his newest TV show called The Terminal List. In the series, he plays a former Navy Seal officer investigating why his entire platoon was ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission.

In an interview with Men’s Health, Jared Shaw, a former SEAL and trainer of Pratt, said the Hollywood star needed to be in “combat shape, ready to do everything from sprint with a heavy pack to drag a body.” So the best way to hit all those marks was to embrace the Hero WOD Murph.

Chris Pratt Did CrossFit Hero WOD Murph Several Times

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In case you are not familiar with, this is the prescribed workout for Murph.

• 1 mile Run
• 100 Pull-Ups
• 200 Push-Ups
• 300 Air Squats
• 1 mile Run

According to CrossFit’s official platform, a good time for Murph is:

• Elite athlete – 40 minutes or less
• Advanced athletes – 40-50 minutes
• Intermediate – 50-60 minutes
• Beginners – 60 minutes is a good milestone

How to Complete the CrossFit Hero WOD Murph?

Although at the Games and in sanctioned tournaments the workout has to be done in the prescribed order, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. As Pratt did his Murph in the video above, he partitioned the exercise accordingly, which is highly recommended for beginners.

Hero WOD Murph: 6 Workout Tips from 6 Top CrossFit Games Athletes

Ben Dziwulski wrote previously many different strategies on how to partition your Murph. Here are a couple if you are interested:

“CINDY”

20 rounds of:

• 5 pull-ups
• 10 push-ups
• 15 air squats

Half Murph

• 800 m. run
• 10 rounds
• 10 pull-up
• 20 push-ups
• 30 air squats
• 800 m. run

Honourable Mention:

25 rounds of:

• 4 pull-up
• 8 push-ups
• 12 air squats
• 10 pull-ups
• 10 press-ups
• 10 pull-ups
• 30 air squats

Then 5 rounds of:

• 20 push-ups
• 30 air squats

Read More: Murph Strategies – Partition Variations

When you think of a strong and well-rounded CrossFit athlete, you can’t go wrong when betting on Mal O’Brien. She was named rookie of the year in 2021, won this year’s Open and is going to participate in her 2^nd CrossFit Games as an individual after winning the Granite Games earlier this month.

O’Brien and Jake Marconi (another HWPO athlete who finished 17^th at the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge Semifinal this year) took the challenge to see who would come out on top in a deadlift ladder challenge against Rob Kearney. Kearney is a strongman competitor who finished 4^th in the Qualifying group this year.

CrossFit vs Strongman Deadlift Battle

The men tackled the following workout:

Deadlifts for time:

• Two reps of 385 pounds
• Four reps of 365 pounds
• Six reps of 335 pounds
• Eight reps of 315 pounds
• 10 reps of 255 pounds
• 15 reps of 195 pounds

O’Brien performed the same rep scheme, but with weights adjusted accordingly (numbers were not specified). She was the only athlete who performed the movements utilising a lifting belt.

Also, each athlete was tasked with unloading the weight plates off their respective barbell.

In the end, the CrossFit athletes took the win. Mal O’Brien finished first, followed by Marconi and lastly by Strongman Kearney.

Although the lifts were incredibly lighter for Rob Kearney, having to do it in a fast-paced is completely out of his training. Also, Kearney trained deadlifts the day before, but he doesn’t think things would have been better had he not done that. “I don’t think I would have gone any faster had I not deadlifted yesterday,” he said.

If you want to see all the action of this CrossFit vs Strongman deadlift battle, check out the video below.

VIDEO – CrossFit vs Strongman Deadlift Battle

When CrossFit announced it would program two events across all Semifinals, it was an opportunity to compare how some of the fittest individual athletes in the world stack up against one another.

The events replicated in each of the 10 Semifinals around the world were:

WORKOUT 1 – 2014 Regional Event 5

10 rounds for time:

• 1 legless rope climb – 15 feet
• Run 170 feet

Time cap: 11 minutes

WORKOUT 2 – Barbell complex

3 attempts for max load of:

• 3 cleans
• 2 front squats
• 1 jerk (shoulder-to-overhead)

10 Highlights, Surprises and Shocks of All 2022 CrossFit Semifinals

How We Scored Athletes

Since in both men’s and women’s divisions more than 280 athletes were competing, BOXROX utilised the Open system to discover who was the fittest.

Athletes would get a minimum of 1 point in each event. The fastest person on WORKOUT 1, for example, would get 1 point, the second-fastest would get 2 points and so on. In case of a tie, athletes would get the same amount of points. The scoring system was applied to WORKOUT 2.

In the end, adding both points, the athlete with the smaller number was crowned the fittest.

Athletes with the name in green have received an invitation to the Crossfit games. names in yellow means that athlete can compete at the last-chance qualifier.

Men Leaderboard

Women Leaderboard

Tia-Clair Toomey Dominating (Again)

Tia-Clair Toomey won every single event at her respective Semifinal this year, the only individual athlete to do so this year. When comparing the numbers of both workouts that every 280+ athlete had to endure, she also came out on top with flying colours. Only 3 points – 2 points being the best outcome possible.

Jeffrey Adler Edges Out Competitors

While Tia-Clair Toomey simply dusted the opposition, in the men’s division the race was much tighter. Jeffrey Adler came out on top with 2 points difference from 2^nd place Tudor Magda and Roman Khrennikov.

Justin Medeiros Makes a Statement

Justin Medeiros is the current Fittest Man on Earth on the path to defending his title. Some people consider him not the strongest athlete in the mix – last year at the snatch event he finished 7^th with a 285lb lift.

Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

However, his numbers proved he is a well-rounded athlete with great capabilities. Compared with all 281 athletes that did the barbell complex, he came out tied in 8^th.

Best Athletes That Didn’t Make It

We know we are comparing only two workouts out of 6 events, but still it is mind-boggling to see some athletes that did very well on these two events, but failed to get an invitation to the CrossFit Games or to try again at the Last-Chance Qualifier.

On the men’s side, we saw the biggest disparity possible. Luis Oscar Mora, a Mexican athlete who competed at the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge, finished in 4^th place across all Semifinals in these two workouts but did not get even close to getting to the Last-Chance Qualifier.

At the MACC, his 335-pound lift was the heaviest and he finished the 2014 Regional Event in 5^th place. However, the other workouts programmed for his Semifinal only got him to the 12^th placement, not enough to secure him a chance in Madison, Wisconsin.

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In the top 10, we also saw Kristof Horvath not staying inside the top 8 at the Strength in Depth Semifinal to give him, at least, a spot at the Last-Chance Qualifier. And yes, his last name is famous as he is the brother of 2021 2^nd Fittest Woman on Earth Laura Horvath. He is also the coach of his girlfriend Gabriela Migala, 6^th Fittest Woman on Earth.

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In the women’s division, there was less disparity, but still one athlete in the top 10 did not stay above the cut line at the end of the weekend in her Semifinal. Marie Robin is a 25-year-old French athlete who competed against Katrin Davidsdottir, Jacqueline Dahlstrom, and Emma McQuaid among others at the Strength in Depth Semifinal.

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Robin finished 9^th, one spot shy of receiving the Last-Chance Qualifier spot.

The Best of the Last-Chance Qualifier

Below you will find a list of the best 5 athletes from both divisions that somehow did not get an invitation to the Games just yet, but will probably compete again at the Last-Chance Qualifier.

Best 5 Men Who Got a Spot at the Last-Chance Qualifier

• Artur Semenov – 35 points (Far East Throwdown)
• Griffin Roelle – 58 points (Syndicate Crown)
• Nick Mathew – 75 points (Granite Games)
• Tyler Christophel – 80 points (MACC)
• Matt Dlugos – 94 points (Granite Games)

Best 5 Women Who Got a Spot at the Last-Chance Qualifier

• Gabby McClelland – 55 points (Syndicate Crown)
• Kloie Wilson – 106 points (Granite Games)
• Kelly Clark – 107 points (MACC)
• Lindsey Porter – 121 points (MACC)
• Arielle Loewen – 122 points (Syndicate Crown)

Bottom of The Pack

We’ve seen some of the best athletes in the 2 workouts that didn’t make the cut, but how about the “least fittest athletes” who managed to get a Games invitation.

Last 5 Men Who Qualified for the Games

• Kealan Henry – 329 points (Fittest in Cape Town)
• Pedro Martins – 325 points (Copa Sur)
• Colten Mertens – 234 points (Granite Games)
• Uldis Upenieks – 220 points (Lowlands Throwdown)
• Bayden Brown – 206 points (Torian Pro)

Last 5 Women Who Qualified for the Games

• Julia Kato – 328 points (Copa Sur)
• Seher Kaya – 238 points (Far East Throwdown)
• Brooke Wells – 225 points (MACC)
• Emily Rolfe – 198 points (Granite Games
• Michelle Merand – 180 points (Fittest in Cape Town)

Shortcomings of this comparison

Although the Semifinal events were relatively identical to each other, there are a few factors we need to take into consideration when seeing who was the fittest in our list above.

First and foremost, the order in which the events were fit into the Semifinal’s program. Some organisers decided to have the event at the very end (Atlas had WORKOUT 1 as the last event) while for athletes in other Semifinals the workouts were programmed earlier (Far East Throwdown had the workouts on events 2 and 3). Undoubtedly an athlete is more tired towards the end of a competition program than at the beginning and that can affect the overall performance.

Another factor that could affect the performance of the athletes is the type of competition floor they had to run on. At the Granite Games, for example, athletes did the shuttle run on turf, which can be slippery and make people more conscious about going full-speed.

BOXROX also didn’t take into consideration:

• The temperature of the environment when athletes were competing (the seasons are opposite in the north and south hemispheres).
• Possible travel fatigue – some athletes had to travel across the globe to compete in their Semifinals such as Roman Khrennikov and Tia-Clair Toomey.

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1. Kloie Wilson – The Best Performer That Didn’t Make It

Earlier in April, we made a comparison of which Semifinal had the fittest athletes based on Quarterfinals worldwide average and the Granite Games was the 3^rd hardest tournament in the world. And the person who felt that the most was the up-and-coming Kloie Wilson.

The 24-year-old athlete from the United States has never been to the CrossFit Games and this year it should have been different, but the competition at the Granite Games was too high.

Wilson finished every event at the Granite Games within the top 7 and was 5 points shy of finishing in a qualifying position at the end of the weekend.

She had an average finish of 6.16 at the Granite Games and still couldn’t make the cut to receive her 1^st CrossFit Games invitation.

To put that in perspective, that average would have made her qualify at any of the Semifinals from last year and also this year, except for the Lowlands Throwdown.

At least she will have another chance to showcase her performance at the Last-Chance Qualifier in

2. First Timers

It is easy to bet your money on Tia-Clair Toomey or Justin Medeiros when it comes to winning a CrossFit Semifinals’ event or even the entire tournament. However, in 2022 we saw 24 athletes rising to the occasion and securing their first elite individual invitation to the CrossFit Games.

The Torian Pro was the only Semifinal that did not qualify a new athlete.

Men

• Cole Greashaber (3^rd at the Syndicate Crown)
• Tudor Magda (4^th at the Syndicate Crown)
• Moritz Fiebig (4^th at the Lowlands Throwdown)
• Enrico Zenoni (5^th at the Lowlands Throwdown)
• Dalin Pepper (2^nd at the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge)
• Kealan Henry (1^st at the Fittest in Cape Town)
• Nasser Alruwayeh (2^nd at the Far East Throwdown)
• Phil Toon (2^nd at the Granite Games)
• Nycolas Joyal (5^th at the Atlas Games)
• Guillaume Briant (5^th at the Strength in Depth)
• Pedro Martins (2^nd at the Copa Sur)

Women

• Christine Kolenbrander (5^th at the Syndicate Crown)
• Matilda Garnes (4^th at the Lowlands Throwdown)
• Lucy Campbell (5^th at the Lowlands Throwdown)
• Rebecca Fuselier (5^th at the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge)
• Seher Kaya (2^nd at the Far East Throwdown)
• Alex Garzan (4^th at the Granite Games)
• Emma Lawson (1^st at the Atlas Games)
• Paige Powers (2^nd at the Atlas Games)
• Freya Moosbrugger (4^th at the Atlas Games)
• Solveig Sigurdardottir (4^th at the Strength in Depth)
• Elisa Fuliano (5^th at the Strength in Depth)
• Victoria Campos (1^st at the Copa Sur)
• Julia Kato (2^nd at the Copa Sur)

3. Big Names Out of the Games (For Now)

With so many new faces appearing at the 2022 CrossFit Games, surely some more experienced athletes were bound to stay behind. Thankfully, CrossFit has created the Last-Chance Qualifier, an online competition in which the top 3 athletes who just missed staying in a qualifying position at their respective Semifinal tournament get to battle for the last 2 Games invitation.

This year we had some big names who missed out, most notably:

• Jonne Koski (2021 6^th Fittest Man on Earth)
• Jason Smith (3x Games Athlete)
• Agustin Richelme (2x Games Athlete)
• Royce Dunne (4x Games athlete)
• Chandler Smith** (3x Games athlete)
• Katrin Davidsdottir (2x Fittest Woman on Earth)
• Sara Sigmundsdottir (6x Games athlete)
• Arielle Loewen (2021 Granite Games winner)
• Jammie Simmonds (5x Games Athlete)
• Sam Briggs* (8x Games Athlete and 2013 Fittest Woman on Earth)

* Sam Briggs has already announced she won’t be competing any longer and has retired to go back to being a firefighter.

** Chandler Smith did not make the cut to compete at the Last-Chance Qualifier.

4. Miscommunication Led to Scott Panchik’s Injury

Scott Panchik is one of the most beloved CrossFit athletes to date and everyone was sad when he announced his retirement last year. However, he kept on competing for fun and was on the way to securing his 10^th CrossFit Games invitation. That is until workout 3 happened, the event programmed by CrossFit that was forced to every Semifinal competition across the globe.

The event was a combination of legless rope climbs and shuttle runs. After being briefed on the morning of the event, Panchik expressed concerns about the safety of athletes with the amount of rope left on the floor. He asked if the ropes could be cut short, but was “told nothing could be done to change the ropes and this was what was provided to be used.”

During round 3 or 4, as he recalls, he landed on the rope and felt a pop on his knee. Although he finished the workout, he did not come back for the following event and had to withdraw.

You can read a more detailed explanation of what happened here.

5. Clean Sweep for Toomey, Mayhem Freedom, Reykjavik, Oslo Navy Blue

Tia-Clair Toomey is indisputably the Fittest Woman on Earth for the past 5 years in a row and she showed her capabilities once again at the Torian Pro Semifinal by winning every single event. She was the only individual athlete, male or female, to have done that across all CrossFit Semifinals tournaments.

In the teams’ division, there were three groups that deservedly got the media attention: Rich Froning’s CrossFit Mayhem Freedom, Annie Thorisdottir’s CrossFit Reykjavik, and Team CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue. They all swept the competition under the rug and came out with 600 out of 600 points in the competition.

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6. Chandler Smith’s Problems

Chandler Smith was perhaps the biggest surprise of the Semifinals as one of the top athletes that everyone thought would qualify but failed. Not only he did not qualify, but he did not finish in the top 10 at the Granite Games.

Smith is a 3x Games athlete with his best placement being 6^th in 2020 so far. Last year he finished 21^st overall. The question is not if something happened to him to perform poorly, but rather what exactly happened, as Talking Elite Podcast presenter Sean Woodland revealed.

”I have spoken to Chandler. There is a legit reason as to why he performed the way he did. We’re not going to get into details on that, we’re gonna let him do that when he is ready,” woodland said.

So far, Chandler Smith has not given any explanation as to what happened. His last post was uploaded after the Semifinals concluded and he wrote he “put out the worst athletic performance of my CrossFit career.”

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7. Ricky Garard is Officially Back

While the expected comeback has not happened yet for Sara Sigmundsdottir, another athlete is surfing in the renewal of his CrossFit career. Ricky Garard ended up 2^nd at the Torian Pro and is coming back to the 2022 CrossFit Games since he was stripped of his 3^rd place podium finish back in 2017.

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The Australian athlete vouched for coming back to the CrossFit Games and many heads will be turning to him once he hits the competition floor.

Related: 8 Takeaways from Ricky Garard’s Podcast Interview

8. Guilherme Malheiros Lifts 356lb (or did he?)

Most Brazilians already knew beforehand, but since last year after the CrossFit Games, the world was shocked to see Guilherme Malheiros snatching 305lb like it was nothing to claim an event win. So when it came to the barbell complex event that every Semifinal athlete had to go through, all eyes were focused on Malheiros, naturally.

And he didn’t disappoint. He first lifted 152 kilos (335), decided to skip his 2^nd attempt and went for the record on his last lift: a whopping 356 pounds (162 kilos).

That was impressive in itself, however, some people have complained about how he switched from the front squat to the jerk. Most notably, Andrew Hiller took to his YouTube channel to explain why Malheiros record should have been a “no rep” instead.

Hiller argues that Malheiros did the whole spectacle to get extra clicks. He explicitly chose 356 pounds because that is 1 pound heavier than the record previously established by Anthony Davis at the Granite Games.

“He shoved the bar up. Was he re-racking it? I don’t think so, I think he was going for that jerk,” Hiller says. And to prove his point, the YouTuber shows a video of Malheiros practising the exact same workout at home and going from a front squat to jerk almost immediately.

Another good argument from Hiller is the footwork of Malheiros. As he begins the movement of the re-racking, or jerk depending on which team you are on, his foot goes back as it is necessary for the jerk standards.

Hiller goes even further as to show a CrossFit commentator at the Granite Games explaining that once you begin the jerk movement, you cannot catch it and attempt it again. Another video of Panchik is shown with an eerily similarity to Gui Malheiros, but Panchik receives a no rep from the judge.

9. Team Nordic Original vs CrossFit Inc.

Unfortunately, another negative in our list of CrossFit Semifinals highlights. CrossFit Inc. has gone into an investigation and ruled that Viktor Langsved, a member of CrossFit Nordic Original’s team, was in violation of the Affiliate Cup Eligibility Requirements, and was disqualified from competing. The team was able to continue in the competition with a replacement and finished 5 points away from a Games qualifying spot.

In The Sevan Podcast, three members of the team, including Viktor, have explained what happened. That someone told CrossFit about the ineligibility of one of the members and HQ began the investigation.

In short, the team says they send enough evidence to prove Viktor Langsved trains regularly with the team, although he lives close to the 100 miles radius from the Box that is imposed in the rulebook. Viktor is also co-owner of another Box, although he does not train there regularly, which is what could have put him under the spotlight of CrossFit’s investigation.

Antonia Falt-Kottulinsky, one of the team’s members, said they sent to CrossFit HQ photos, training log, and even parking tickets to show Viktor was there on some training days. “It feels like we are getting suspected of faking a gym attendance log and then when we prove that, we have a picture of almost every check-in, they still do not believe that all of the check-ins are real,” she said.

At the Elite Talking Fitness Podcast, Tommy Marquez says he saw the evidence that was sent to CrossFit and, ultimately, thinks that CrossFit made the right call. Former CEO Adrian Bozman went to the official CrossFit podcast to talk about team eligibility requirements and to explain a bit further CrossFit’s point of view.

In response, Viktor said that there was conflicting communication compared to what was told to Nordic Original’s team earlier during the investigation. In an Instagram story, he posted:

When we talked to HQ:

• We could not count outside-training days as training days
• We could not count quarter final days at another gym as training days.
• We could not count competition days as training days
• Could not use the attendance log to show them a pattern that we are training together (Alexander asked them)
• We followed the rulebook

When HQ talked in the podcast:

• Of course you can count outside-training as training days.
• Of course you can count competition days as training days
• The attendance log is a really good way to show them a pattern that you are training together.
• “maybe the rulebook should say ‘and’ in the end of every sentence.”

Also:

• They said we used duplicate pictures for different days. We did not. Is it weird that Alexander wears white t-shirts more than once when he is sponsored by a clothing brand? I don’t think so.
• They also said we used the same bank transactions for different days. If we did that, my bank is showing me the same purchase more than once? So that is not true at all…

One thing is clear, CrossFit needs to make the rulebook clearer and with very specific rules to follow and stick to it.

10. Legend Sam Briggs Retires

Sadly we won’t be seeing Sam Briggs any time soon on the competition floor. After failing to qualify for the CrossFit Games after the Strength in Depth Semifinal, she did not accept her spot at the Last-Chance Qualifier and explained that “it’s time to fight some fires,” recalling her career as a firefighter.

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According to CrossFit’s official platform, Sam Briggs first competed in the Open in 2011 and finished 3rd worldwide. Two years later she would become the Fittest Woman on Earth, the only female athlete from the U.K. to do so to date.

She is currently 40 years old and could have competed in the Masters division in the previous 4 years but chose not to.

She was crowned Fittest Woman on Earth in 2013.

What was your favourite/shocking/memorable moment of the CrossFit Semifinals this year?

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When she finished 2^nd place at the last event in the Fittest in Cape Town Semifinal last weekend, Merand secured an invitation to the Games, but that was not the last obstacle before she can step onto the competition floor to get a chance at becoming the Fittest Woman on Earth. As it is sadly typical for athletes from developing countries, her new struggle is financial.

The South African athlete wrote that the amount of money she will have to pay to get to the Games is exorbitant and, therefore, she began a fundraiser and is asking for anybody’s help.

How to Donate to Michelle Merand Fundraiser

Merand is kindly asking for people to deposit any amount of money in her bank account in South Africa. Here are the details:

Name: Michelle Merand

Bank name: FNB

Cheque account: 62771220325

Branch code: 250655

Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

In her fundraiser post on Instagram, Merand explained how expensive it will get for her and her coach to be able to fly to Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Here is the breakdown (numbers in South African Rand):

• Flights = R80.000
• Accommodation: R35.000
• Entry: R5.100
• Tickets to the event: R8.800

This totals R128.900 for both her and her coach. That is around U$8.340.

That amount above, however, is not counting food, physiotherapy and any type of travelling to and from the venue in Madison. Safe to say the amount of money she will spend will be much higher than R128.900.

For comparison, according to the website Salary Explorer, the average salary of someone in South Africa in 2022 is R31.100 per month. The money Merand needs to spend to travel to the United States and take part in the CrossFit Games is more than 4 times what an average person makes in her home country.

If you choose to donate, Merand is asking that you text her on her private WhatsApp so she can thank you. Her number is 084 660 9334.

Read More: How Expensive Are the CrossFit Games for International Athletes?

Michelle Merand Fundraiser Story In Her Words

Below you will find what she wrote on her Instagram page about her fundraiser to travel to the CrossFit Games.

After many years of hard work and so much sacrifice I have finally secured my ticket to the CrossFit Games 2022.

The Games is held in Madison Wisconsin USA. Registration for the event is 31 July 2022 so I am already in the processes of trying to book flight tickets and accommodation which comes at an extremely high price.

Flights: R80 000

Accommodation: R35 000

Entry: R5100

Tickets to event: R8800

For my coach and I that is over R130K without food, physio’s and any travelling to and from the venue in Madison.

I am reaching out to the community to get together to help raise funds to get me to the Games.

As a full time coach and gym owner my time is very limited to run an event whilst trying to get as much training as I can in these next 7 weeks. I want to do my utmost best to represent South Africa on the big stage and I am not afraid to put in the work.

Below are my bank details.

Please if you are contributing, please Whatsapp me 084 660 9334 I would like to thank you directly.

There is no amount to big or small.

Michelle Merand

FNB

Cheque account

62771220325

250655

Thank you so much for all the love and support.

Please like share comment anything to get the word out.

If you are a corporate company and want to chat about exposure opportunities please let me know.

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There is No Plan B, which has just premiered, is the first instalment of the 3-part series. It starts at the roots of The Progrm, getting a more in-depth view of head coach and founder John Singleton’s life leading up to his “big break” as a pro-athlete coach.

“We unveil the whys and hows of The Progrm inception and how it aimed to help the CrossFit comunity overall,” said Carmen Olías from The Progrm Management.

Watch The Progrm Origins

Behind The Progrm Origins

The Progrm Origins is a self-produced documentary that showcases how The Progrm came to be a mainstay in the CrossFit industry. The aim of this three-part series is to highlight the behind-the-scenes workings of the training platform, explore its past as well as speculate about what the future has in store.

The Progrm began with just a handful of athletes who enjoyed training hard, being competitive, and pushing past their limits. Nearly a decade later, the efforts of this group of recreational CrossFitters has expanded, giving birth to the brand, The Progrm. What was at first a weekly training plan posted online has now exploded to be widely known for developing the performance of CrossFit athletes of all levels.

This training platform has helped thousands of athletes reach their first milestones, improve their personal records, stand on competition podiums, and even earn invitations to the CrossFit Games.

This series will delve into the mission statement and methodology behind the programming. Viewers will learn the meaning of the brand’s motto, acta non verba, and how it has guided athletes from all over the world to be better at their sport.

Source: John Singleton

The Progrm’s founder and head coach John Christian Singleton gives a first-hand account of how the platform was created and how it has evolved into what it is today. Singleton reflects on his role of turning the Spanish island of Mallorca into a hub for up-and-coming CrossFit athletes. He also speaks on “Europe is coming”, a movement created with the intention of unifying Europe’s best fitness athletes and giving them more visibility and opportunities on the global stage.

The documentary will feature exclusive interviews with The Progrm athletes including the 2021 6^th Fittest Woman on Earth and 8x Fittest Woman in Poland, Gabriela Migała; Norwegian native two-time CrossFit Games Athlete, Jacqueline Dahlstrøm; and three-time Fittest Man in Hungary, Kristof Horvath. Audiences will get a sneak-peek into the training and the endeavors behind the athletes’ success. They’ll gain understanding of what it takes to stay on top of the leaderboard year after year as well as what it takes to make it to the highest level of competition, the CrossFit Games.

Read more: Important Mindset Tips from 6 Extraordinary CrossFit Coaches

The age-group Quarterfinal leaderboard will only be finalised on May 6^th, but sadly there is one trend we can already predict: that few or possibly no athletes of the age of 14 will receive an invitation to Madison this year.

Since 2015, CrossFit has introduced the teenage division to find out who is the Fittest on Earth for ages 14-17. Since then, the organisation has been putting together 14 and 15 years-old athletes. However, that shouldn’t be the case.

Read More: An Open Letter – The Open Is Not Programmed Properly for Teen Athletes (OPINION)

What The Data Tells Us?

It is common knowledge that we grow the most during the teenage years of our lives, both in height and in muscle. With that logic, one could argue that it is “unfair” for 14 year-olds to compete head-to-head with 15-year-old athletes. But what does the data tell us?

Utilising CrossFit’s official leaderboard platform and gathering the data from 2015 until last year, we can see how many athletes invited to the CrossFit Games were 14 years old and how many were 15. Unsurprisingly, a vast majority was the latter.

CrossFit Games

In the table below, divided by year and division (boys and girls), I have gathered the number of 14-year-old athletes who competed in the CrossFit Games, the percentage of 14-year-olds in that division who made it to the Finals, and if any of those athletes finished on the podium.

Due to COVID-19, CrossFit cancelled the age-group Games in 2020.

* In these years, CrossFit invited the top 10 athletes to the Games instead of 20.

Looking at the table above, as expected, most athletes who competed at the Games every year were 15 years old at the time (except for the girls’ division in 2015 where half the athletes were 14 years old).

In those 6 years where we have seen teens compete for the title of Fittest on Earth, only once a 14-year-old managed to grab the title: Olivia Sulek in 2018.

Why CrossFit Should Divide The 14-15 Teens Division for The CrossFit Games?

Simply because it is possible, fairly easy to do, and would increase the popularity of the sport among younger athletes.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

In previous years where the top 20 athletes were selected to compete at the Games, CrossFit LLC could have chosen the top 10 athletes who are 14 years old and the top 10 who are 15 years old.

Logistically, CrossFit would not even have to change anything. All teenager athletes would still compete side-by-side, but there would be two podiums to fight for this time. And the workouts prescribed? Both 14 and 15 year-olds could do the same event.

I strongly believe that giving the chance for 14-year-old athletes to compete in a more levelled playfield could boost the popularity of CrossFit among younger athletes. A chance to travel to the United States to a coliseum full of spectators and compete for a world title is sure to be an extra incentive for younger generations to come.

The Only Problem Is….

The only problem I see at the moment is the new rulebook CrossFit has released for this year’s season. Age-group will have to go through a new stage before being invited to the Games: the Semifinals. And it is after the Semifinals that only the top 10 of each division will advance to the Games, instead of the usual 20 we had in the past few years.

With only 10 athletes advancing, it would not be fair to subdivide that category even further and have the top five 14-year-olds and top five 15-year-olds competing, unless another stage would be introduced between Semifinals and the CrossFit Games to decide who are the top 5 like we have seen at the Games in 2020 during the pandemic.

What About the Other Divisions? 16-17, or 35+ Masters?

Robert, why aren’t you making the case for also dividing other divisions such as the 16-17 teens, or even Master athletes. That is a valid point, but one that not necessarily has ground.

If we look at the data, we see a much more balanced field of athletes who competed as 16 year-olds, and more often than not we saw one of those athletes on the podium or even 1^st placement.

* In these years, CrossFit invited the top 10 athletes to the Games instead of 20.

Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Not only does the data show us that the competition field is more balanced for the 16-17 teen division compared to the 14-15, but also we see more 16-year-olds finishing on the podium.

Those athletes received more media attention which, in turn, can spark the interest of younger athletes who are considering joining the sport.

And Master Athletes?

Master athletes already make the bulk of people sign up for the Open every year. In this regard, there would be little to no positive effect on dividing the 35-39 division even more. Logistically speaking, it could also be a nightmare trying to get an even amount of athletes who are 35 years old, 36, 37, 38, and 39 to compete in Madison.

Closing Argument

Utilising data we have seen that there is a bigger disparity between 14 and 15 year-old athletes and that gap is attenuated if we look at the 16-17 teen division.

Logistically speaking, there is little effort that CrossFit LLC would have to go through to subdivide the 14-15 division, hoping CrossFit would go back to inviting the top 20 athletes from the 14-15 division to the Games.

Putting the spotlight on 14 year-olds and giving them a fair chance to win the title of Fittest on Earth would spark more interest from younger generations to join the sport and thrive it even more.

Read More: Take Part in CrossFit’s Hope for Refugees Community WOD Fundraiser

After placing 3rd overall in this year’s CrossFit Open, the 2021 Fittest Man on Earth has gone back to being dominant.

He did not only win the second stage of competition, the CrossFit Quarterfinals, in his respective continental region but also submitted the best scores worldwide.

Watch Justin Medeiros WIN Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal results are unofficial until Friday, April 1 but, as things stand at the time of writing, Justin took the top spot for workout 2 in the North American region with a time of 6:56. Only two male athletes went under seven minutes in North America for that workout.

He earnt two more top 10 finishes for workouts 1 and 3 and lifted a total of 1047 lb for the Other CrossFit Total (good for 54th in the region).

What are Quarterfinals?

Quarterfinals are an online competition that will serve as the second step in the qualification process for the 2022 CrossFit Games. Athletes competing in the Quarterfinals will be required to compete in a series of advanced workouts over the course of the weekend.

In total, 27,700 athletes qualified for the Individual Quarterfinals around the world, with 12,218 women and 15,482 men given the chance to compete in the second stage of the journey to the CrossFit Games.

Depending on their respective continental division, a small portion of those athletes will advance to CrossFit Semifinals. In North America, the top 120 women and top 120 men qualify for Semifinals. Europe will see the top 60 athletes in each division compete in the next stage, and Oceania, Asia, South America and Africa will each send their top 30 athletes to compete in the next stage.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Quarterfinals workouts

Workout 1

For time:

• 50 dumbbell walking lunges
• 30 handstand push-ups
• 40 front-rack walking lunges
• 20 deficit handstand push-ups
• 30 overhead walking lunges
• 10 strict handstand push-ups

* Time cap: 15 minutes

Women: 35lb dumbbells for all lunges, 2 inches deficit

Men: 50lb dumbbells for all lunges, 3.5 inches deficit

Workout 1 movement standards.

Workout 2

3 rounds for time:

• 30 alternating single-leg squats
• 30 GHD sit-ups
• 10 muscle-ups

* Time cap: 15 minutes

Workout 2 movement standards.

Workout 3

For time:

• 8-16-24-32-24-16-8 wall-ball shots
• 4-8-12-16-12-8-4 shuttle runs
• 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 rope climbs

* Time cap: 25 minutes

Women: 14lb medicine ball, 10 feet target, 50-feet shuttle run

Men: 20lb medicine ball, 10 feet target, 50-feet shuttle run

Workout 3 movement standards.

Workout 4

Total load:

• 1 clean
• 1 bench press
• 1 overhead squat

* Time cap: 30 minutes

Workout 4 movement standards.

Workout 5

For time:

• 30-calorie row
• 20 burpee box jump-overs
• 10 snatches

* Time cap: 7 minutes

Women: 135lb, 20 inches box

Men: 185lb, 24 inches box

Workout 5 movement standards.

Her time placed her right on top of the women’s leaderboard for the workout and is so good it’s even 15 seconds faster than Uldis Upenieks’ and Noah Ohlsen’s, both of whom posted the best time on the men’s global leaderboard at 7:20.

Toomey was closely followed by teen athlete Mallory O’Brien, who did not only post an impressive score of 7:09 for Open workout 22.2 but also outright won 22.1. The 18-year-old currently sits on top of the women’s global leaderboard.

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Read more: CrossFit Open Workout 22.3 Clue Revealed

CrossFit Open workout 22.2

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps for time of:

• Deadlifts
• Bar-facing burpees

155 lb
225 lb
Time cap: 10 minutes

Read more: CrossFit Open Workout 22.2 Tips and Strategies: Master Deadlifts and Bar Facing Burpees

Watch Tia-Clair Toomey Demolish CrossFit Open Workout 22.2

Toomey’s time impressive in itself, but even more so considering the Australian athlete didn’t specifically train CrossFit in the three months leading up to the Open and was hoping to cut the weight she put up for bobsleigh.

The 28-year-old had been focused on helping the Australian bobsleigh team qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympics. She had therefore “put on an excessive amount of weight” and would have to “find my natural bodyweight again, as well as building my fitness” which would “be another challenge in itself,” she explained in a YouTube video posted at the end of January.

Back then, Toomey’s husband Shane Orr, explained that Tia has an overall great foundation of fitness and it should be no problem for her to make it the top 10% during the Open to qualify for the Quarterfinals.

She is now winning workouts overall.

The 18-year-old from the US finished two more reps than Gabriela Migala, who secured a second place in the workout, and Victor Ljungdal, who won the men’s division.

CrossFit Open workout 22.1 was:

AMRAP 15:

• 3 Wall Walks
• 12 Dumbbell Snatches
• 15 Box Jump-Overs

35-lb dumbbell, 20-in box

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A post shared by Mal O’Brien (@malobrien_)

O’Brien was judged by no other than five-time Fittest Man on Earth, Mat Fraser, and completed 13 full rounds and 2 additional wall walks.

“The daily effort put in by her is unmatched. Onto the next!” HWPO training, Fraser’s program, wrote on Instagram.

After rising to the top of the leaderboard on week one, O’Brien will be awarded $2,022.00 for her performance in workout 21.1.

Watch her incredible performance below.

Watch Mal O Brien’s World Record Performance of Open Workout 22.1

Who is Mal O’Brien?

“After skipping the 2020 season, 18-year-old O’Brien jumped directly from the 14-15 division into individual competition at the Games last year, and this year she’s proving she’s ready to continue her rise to the top,” writes the CrossFit Games website.

The 18-year-old athlete hails from the US and started training under the watchful eye of five-time Fittest Man on Earth, Mat Fraser, after the 2021 CrossFit Games.

She competed at the CrossFit Games in the Girls (14-15) division in 2018 and 2019, finishing 4th and 5th respectively.

Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Despite still being eligible to compete in the Teenage division in 2021, O’Brien decided to compete in the Individual division instead. She finished 5th in the worldwide Open, 3rd in the North American Quarterfinals, 2nd in the Granite Games Semifinal, and 7th at the CrossFit Games that year.

She also became the youngest athlete ever to win an individual CrossFit Games event and was crowned Rookie of the Year.

O’Brien previously trained under James Townsend.

The world record James is looking to break is the heaviest weight lifted by kettlebell swing under 1 hour (male). The current world record was set in August 2021 by Stefan Schwitter. He lifted an equivalent of 37,128 kilos (81,853.22lbs). James wants to swing 40,000 kilos, the weight of an average jet aeroplane.

“I am now focused on raising money for West Suffolk Trust Maternity unit as well as Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children,” James tells BOXROX. “The reason why I am raising funds for them is because my daughter was born there and I really appreciated all the hard work they put into helping her.”

Source: James Saward-Anderson

New Guinness World Record Attempt

James is no strange to holding a Guinness World Record. In fact, he currently holds the record for heaviest weight lifted in 1 hour – kettlebell swing squat (male). He lifted 12,400 kilos in September 2014.

“Funny story. The record was actually for swings, but my technique was so different that a new record was created due to me actually squatting and swinging,” James said.

Source: James Saward-Anderson

On March 4^th he plans on attempting to break another kettlebell world record and his tactic is similar to what he employed in 2014. He will be using 2 different kettlebells: 24 kilos and 32 kilos.

“My strategy is currently focused on doing reps per minute. For 24kgs I usually focus on completing 25 swings per minute, on the minute. For 32kgs I swing 20 swings per minute, on the minute.”

James tells BOXROX he is training 6 days a week for the challenge. His experience doing ultra-endurance training – he holds the record for fastest run between Canterbury and Rome which took him 58 days – helps him with training the same movement over and over every day.

“Practice of the movement itself is the best way to improve over conditioning specific parts of the body to isolate improvements. In simple terms, I practice swings religiously.”

James Saward-Anderson will utilise his moment under the spotlight to raise money for the medical organisations in the U.K., but he will continue to raise money throughout the whole year.

Anyone around the globe can donate by clicking on his Just Giving web page. You are given the option to donate as much as you want in different currencies such as Euro, U.S. dollar, British pound, Australian dollar, and Canadian dollar.

The event will be live-streamed for free on the LinkedIn page of Social Tree Global.

If you missed out on the action, you can watch all four days of the competition here.

If you just want to know the top stories of the weekend at Wodapalooza, continue reading.

Wodapalooza Leaderboard

Elite Men

Elite Women

Elite Team Men

• The Boys – Noah Ohlsen, Travis Mayer, Chandler Smith

Elite Team Women

• Team Kriger – Kristin Holte, Lena Richter, Ingrid Hodnemyr

Many more divisions were competing at this year’s Wodapalooza including adaptive athletes, master athletes, scaled and beginners.

You can check out the full leaderboard here.

Vellnerpalooza

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This is the third time in a row that Vellner has won the Wodapalooza consolidating him as the fitness king of Miami.

Out of the 8 events this weekend, Patrick Vellner won two and finished top 10 in the other 7. His worst placement was 12^th at the “row swim run” event.

Crazy Last Day for Elite Women’s

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On Sunday morning, before the last day of events started, Ellie Turner maintained her pole position with 525 points, 20 ahead of McQuaid and Shadburne (tied for 2^nd place).

It all changed on the last two events. Turner finished 32^nd and 9^th on events 7 and 8, which bumped her out of the top 5 in the end.

Emma McQuaid finished 7^th and 3^rd, which was enough to edge out Shadburne who ended up winning the last event securing her the silver medal.

Sara Sigmundsdottir’s Emotional Barbell Complex

Sara Sigmundsdottir came in strong at Wodapalooza. She finished day 1 in 5^th place. Unfortunately, her time at Miami came to an abrupt end when she was nearly in tears while trying to finish event 3 which included a barbell complex.

She was the last athlete standing on the competition floor trying to finish the workout, even though she was the first one to get to the second barbell in the prescribed workout.

Shortly after, she announced she was withdrawing from the competition without explaining exactly what had happened.

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A Brief Pause

The phrase “into the storm” got a whole new meaning this weekend. On Sunday, organisers decided to suspend the competition due to a warning of a storm that would hit Miami.

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After four hours, volunteers were called back to the stage to begin clearing the area of water and the competition was resumed.

The organisers took into consideration the rainfall and made adjustments to the prescribed workouts athletes were supposed to do.

• Shuttle run was replaced with burpees.
• Sandbag carry was adjusted from 90 feet to 60 feet for safety precautions.

The Upcoming Elite Athletes

Patrick Vellner and Emma McQuaid are quite known in the CrossFit community. Both of them have been to the CrossFit Games multiple times, but there were unfamiliar names that were on the podium for a while this weekend.

The following athletes did great at Wodapalooza, but are yet to debut at the CrossFit Games.

Phil Toon

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Phil Toon was chasing Vellner until the last day of competition ahead of names like Cole Sager, Samuel Cournoyer and the Panchik brothers.

Toon is from United States, he is 23 years old and finished 6^th at the Last-Chance Qualifier in 2021.

He finished Wodapalooza at 6^th place.

Lucy Campbell

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She is 25 years old and participated in her first Open in 2019. Lucy Campbell is from the United Kingdom and was 5^th place on Sunday morning.

She also competed at 2021 Last-Chance Qualifier and finished 18^th overall.

At Wodapalooza, she finished 4^th ahead of other elite CrossFit female athletes such as Dani Speegle, Emma Tall and Emily Rolfe.

Dave Castro was the face of CrossFit since its inception in 2007 and the director of the Games. He designed the workouts during the CrossFit season and was famous for his Open announcements and clues.

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When the news of Dave Castro being fired dropped, many people took it to Instagram to express their feelings. Some elite CrossFit athletes also commented on Dave Castro’s post in support of the former director of the CrossFit Games.

Overwhelmingly, the messages are of support for Dave Castro, with people creating the hashtag #SupportDaveCastro.

What CrossFit Athletes Said About Dave Castro Being Fired

Rich Froning

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Josh Bridges

Dave Castro and Josh Bridges were both Navy SEALs before turning to CrossFit. The athlete legend shared his thoughts and support for Dave Castro. “His impact on the sport and my life personally have been profound,” he wrote.

Saxon Panchik

5th Fittest Man on Earth in 2021, Saxon Panchik also shared a photo of Dave Castro smiling in the background while he does one of his WODs. “The standard you set for us athletes will never change.”

Brooke Wells

Gui Malheiros

The 7^th Fittest Man on Earth made a simple comment on Dave Castro’s Instagram post: “Not nice.”

Khan Porter

“This is sad news, the sport just won’t be the same without you mate.”

Cole Sager

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Jason Khalipa

“Sorry to hear this news Dave. You have made a huge impact on the sport and my life. Wishing you all the best on your future ventures, I’m sure you will keep crushing it.”

Sean Sweeney

Sean Sweeney recently retired and was chosen to test the Open workouts Dave Castro designed that we will see this February.

“Our sport has some very big shoes to fill. Like him or not – he was fantastic at what he did.”

Thuri Helgadottir

““

Becca Voigt Miller

“This makes me sad! It was an honor playing your game.”

Jacob Heppner

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Ben Garard

Ben Garard is the brother of Ricky Garard.

“Saddens me to hear this,” Ben wrote. “You’ve impacted the lives of many, especially mine over the last 10 years. I don’t believe the sport will be the same without your presence. Onwards and upwards for whatever you decide to do next. You will forever have my respect and I appreciate everything you’ve put into @crossfit @crossfitgames”

Ben Smith

Stacy Tovar

“Wishing you all the best, Dave! Thank you for making me a stronger person both inside and out. I’ll cherish the memories forever – from Big Sky to Cali to Wisconsin and everywhere in between.. thank you!”

Meredith Root

Alex Parker

Alex Parker is the partner of Meredith Root and CrossFit Games athlete.

“Many of my favourite memories of CrossFit were spent with Dave Castro. Testing workouts at the ranch and as a CrossFit Games demo team member. He will no doubt be missed. Thanks Dave!

Chad Kackert

“Unreal. Thanks for everything you’ve done. Your work has changed my life, Dave. Excited to see what you do next.”

Emily Bridgers

“Thank you Dave Castro for everything you did for the sport of CrossFit and the opportunities in my life personally. It won’t be the same without you.”

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Donal Trump Jr.

Yes. Believe it or not, Donald Trump Jr., one of the sons of the former president of the United States Donald Trump, has commented in support of Dave Castro.

“This sucks. So stupid,” he wrote.

What About Mat Fraser?

Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Mat Fraser and Dave Castro have publicly thrown punches at each other. On a personal level, they don’t like each other very much.

Fraser went to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and talked extensively about his opinions regarding Dave Castro’s personality and even said the former Games director had a conflict of interest working for CrossFit Inc. Read everything Mat Fraser said about Dave Castro on the podcast by clicking here.

Although now removed, Castro replied to Mat Fraser’s podcast interview with a couple of Instagram posts saying it was “blatant lies.”

More recently, Mat Fraser was invited to program a workout for volunteers at the Granite Games in 2021 and Dave Castro did the workout nearby the 5x Fittest Man on Earth. The result? Mat Fraser gave Dave Castro the middle finger during the workout.

As revealed previously, the CrossFit season kickstarts with the Open on the 24^th of February, a Thursday. This is the chance for everyone to test their fitness level and compare with people around the globe.

Although the rulebook revolves around elite athletes and the different CrossFit competitions throughout the year, there are a few clauses worth looking into for everyday athletes.

2022 Rulebook – Foundations and Equipment-Free Events

The 2022 CrossFit Open remains a three-week-long competition. Officially there will be workouts 22.1, 22.2, and 22.3. In 2021, the same was prescribed, but Dave Castro threw a curveball and added an extra workout at the third week, so be prepared for anything.

The Open continues to be the first step of the CrossFit season. Athletes who wish to participate in any CrossFit sanctioned event in 2022 must compete in the Open as well as submit their score to HQ.

Anyone around the globe who is 14 years old or older can compete in the Open. Adaptive divisions, introduced for the first time in 2021, remained and are divided into the same 8 categories: upper extremity, lower extremity, neuromuscular, vision, short statute, seated with hip function, seated without hip function, and intellectual.

The introduction of two new categories of workouts is also kept: foundations and equipment-free. These options will remain, alongside the Rx’d and Scaled events. Check out the official dates of the CrossFit season.

Read More: 6 Exercises You Need to Do Now to Prepare for The Open 2022

Costumes Banned

Some people do the Open just for fun, while others take the idea of “fun” and take it to a whole new level. We’re talking about people dressing up in costumes while performing the events from the Open.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

This time we probably won’t be seeing any of it. According to the 2022 Rulebook, under the equipment category, clause 9, athletes’ attire will be taken seriously this time.

“No attire shall interfere with a judge’s ability to determine whether the required movement standards and expectations for range of motion are being met,” the rule states.

Although we might still see some people with a painted face or with swimsuits over their normal trunks, we will not be seeing any more T-Rex from Indonesia.

2022 Open Leaderboard

If you perform your workouts at an affiliate during the Open, scores submitted will become immediately available – previously, affiliate managers had to validate scores to be able to see them on the leaderboard.

Affiliate managers still have to validate scores before the deadline (Wednesdays at 5 pm PT). Any score unvalidated at that time will be removed and the leaderboard will be updated accordingly.

This year, a registered judge will be an extra option for people performing the Open events and submitting them to the leaderboard. A registered judge is someone who has completed the 2022 Online Judges Course.

Athletes may choose freely any of the workouts to perform. For example, you may choose to do the foundations version of the 22.1 event, but switch to the equipment-free version on 22.3 workout.

However, to remain in the respective leaderboard (scaled, foundations, or equipment-free), the athlete should perform all workouts in that specific category.

If you Rx’d most of the workouts, but not all of them, you might still get invited to participate in the Quarterfinals. “Athletes are eligible to advance to the Quarterfinals, even if they choose to perform the scaled version of one or more Open events. Advancement is determined by placement on the overall CrossFit Games Leaderboard, where prescribed event scores are ranked higher than scaled scores,” the 2022 Rulebook states.

New Team Names

According to CrossFit, the way team names are formatted for the Affiliate Cup and on the leaderboard will be changed “so we can make sure each team’s home gym is recognized and celebrated.”

The 2022 Rulebook explains that team names will list the team’s affiliate first and then any descriptor or custom name. For example CrossFit ABC: Heavy Hitters.

You can check out the main takeaways from the 2022 Rulebook here.

If you want to read the full 2022 Rulebook for the upcoming CrossFit season, click here.

The trapeze exits are similar to bar muscle-ups. However, athletes are required to do the bar muscle-up on a movable bar that simulates a trapeze. And yes, the trapeze is common in the circus.

According to the dictionary, a gymnastics trapeze is a “short horizontal bar suspended from two parallel ropes, used for gymnastic exercises or for acrobatic stunts.”

The trapeze exits showed up for the first time during the Siberian Showdown, a sanctioned CrossFit event in Russia that occurred on November 26-28 on the event 6 titled “DN’T STP.”

Originally written in Russian, the event translated by Goggle read:

For time:

• 50 handstand push-ups
• 25 trapeze exits
• 75 med ball throws 9/6
• 25 shuttle running with box jumping 60/50
• 50 deadlifts 110/75

Time cap: 14 minutes

Although on the official Instagram post by the Siberian Showdown they called it “exclusive muscle-ups,” we are going with trapeze exits.

Check Out Trapeze Exits During the Siberian Showdown

* from 3:55:35.

Alex Snurnitsin is one of the organisers at the CrossFit Siberian Showdown and he defended the introduction of the trapeze exits in his latest Instagram post.

“My priority as an organizer is the safety of the athletes. […] They train in order to be as ready as possible for all possible physical tasks. And how to check if you don’t include new and untested ones? So you have to choose a difficult path – to look for the line between safety and creativity, classics and innovations, known and unknown.”

* loosely translated by Google.

Oh yeah, just so you know, only 6 out of 29 athletes managed to complete the entire workout before the time cap. At the end of the event, there was still one athlete who was trying to finish the trapeze exits.

Muscle building mistakes should not be shrouded in a cloud of mystery. If you are an elite athlete, some mistakes are obvious, but there are others you might not even know you are doing. This list should help elite and beginner athletes alike.

Sean Nalewanyj, a fitness coach and author, shared his personal experience about muscle building mistakes that people are probably doing.

Although nutrition plays vital importance in building muscle, he does not address it here. If you are interested in how nutrition can help you build muscle, click here.

15 Muscle Building Mistakes You Could be Making

1. Chasing the pump

Getting a pump is not the issue, but how you get the pump is. Doing hundreds of reps for a specific exercise will get your muscle pumped, but it is not ideal for muscle hypertrophy.

The pump should come as a result of your training, a side effect, not the cause for muscle growth.

2. Chasing fatigue

3. Relying on soreness

At the end of the day, being sore does not mean you are building muscle. On the other side, not being sore does not mean you are not building muscle.

4. Insufficient training effort

According to Sean, this is the top of the muscle building mistakes people can make. “Not going close enough to true muscular failure on your sets,” is a mistake people should try to avoid.

5. Not tracking your workouts

6. Excessive workout variation

7. Choosing the wrong lifts

8. Unequal body part focus

9. Unstable exercises

10. Ego lifting

Do not sacrifice form for numbers.

11. Excessively strict form

However, you do not also need to micromanage every single rep you are doing. Maintain solid technique, but allow room to move naturally.

12. High rep focus

13. Short rest times

14. Cardio before lifting

A warm-up before lifting is fine, such as 5-10 minutes. However, full cardio before working out should not be on your training schedule if you are aiming to build muscle.

15. Copying enhanced lifters

Do not just swallow what the fitness influencers or elite athletes with incredible genetics are releasing on a daily basis. Do your research and find out what is better and what works for you.

Read More: New Research Explains How to Maximise Muscle Growth

The research itself is rather long (30 pages). It is titled “Resistance Training Recommendations to Maximise Muscle Hypertrophy in an Athletic Population: Position Stand of the IUSCA.” The paper was authored by Brad J. Schoenfeld, James P. Fisher, Jozo Grgio, Cody T. Haun, Eric R. Helms, Stuart M. Phillips, James Steele, and Andrew D. Vigotsky.

The main takeaways from the research were simplified in James Linker latest video on his YouTube Channel called Shredded Sports Science.

“I cannot tell you exactly what you must do,” he says, but you should use this as a guideline and then adjust it to what fits your lifestyle and routine.

His video is divided into 8 parts:

• Constructs of hypertrophy
• Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy
• Load
• Volume
• Frequency
• Rest intervals
• Exercise selection
• Training to failure

Check out the video crunching down how to maximise muscle growth according to the research published. Below that you will find some points made by James Linker on his YouTube channel.

Watch New Research Explains How to Maximise Muscle Growth

In short, to increase your muscle there are a few points that you should know. It may not be groundbreaking news, but it is backed by science.

“As long as you have those underlying principles of overload, challenge and consistency, you can be successful,” Linker says.

”There may be a practical benefit to prioritizing the use of moderate loads for the majority of sets in a hypertrophy-oriented training program,” the research states.

A moderate load, in this case, is vastly understood as sets in the 8-12 reps. However, the research also says that preliminary evidence suggests that it will also be beneficial for athletes to employ a “combination of loading ranges.”

The paper also reads that a dose of around 10 sets per muscle per week would be the minimum necessary and part of the answer of how to maximise muscle growth.

You may also see better results if you increase the number of sets for a given muscle group to 20% of your previous volume during a training cycle (usually around 4 weeks of training).

Source: Alora Griffiths on Unsplash

As a general rule, rest periods should last at least 2 minutes when performing multi-joint exercises, the paper explains.

The research also exemplifies that training to failure should be used “conservatively,” usually saved for the last set of a given exercise. Keep in mind as well that you might need more time to recover from it, which could mean less frequency in the gym training.

Read More: The 5 x 5 Training Program to Build Muscle and Strength

CrossFit athlete and coach Marcus Filly uploaded a video in which he describes five tips every athlete needs to understand to get back in shape: good movement, do not sacrifice one concept for another, cardio, overload/deload, and the perfect programming.

At the end of the video, Marcus Filly mentions that while advanced athletes must vary their programming to see better results, beginners can stick to some foundational movements to get fitter which is a great motivation tool.

Watch COVID Killed My Gains – 5 Ways to Get Fit Back

1. Motor control and good movement must come first

If you just go back to the gym to get back to the same numbers of weightlifting you had before, you might lose the opportunity to learn better movement and technique. “Change your mentality from ‘fix it’ to ‘build it.’”

Perform slow tempos and pauses within movements and do foundational exercises in every program regardless of your skill level.

2. Range of motion, strength, muscle building and cardio are not exclusive concepts

While building muscle and gaining mass is important, you must give appropriate time and energy to range of motion training too. “Without it, there will tend to be a decline in joint health and, eventually, a training obstacle will present itself.”

How do you do that and still build muscle? Exercise selection is incredibly important. It has to help build muscle, strength, and also propose a great range of motion.

Marcus Filly’s five exercises to tackle all those areas are ATG split squat, deficit snatch deadlift, dumbbell pull-over, strict dips, and back rack Cossack squat.

3. Cardio will help with everything

The simplest way to get back to working out is to start walking. “Go for a 30-minute walk every day. If it starts feeling easy, walk faster,” Filly says. After a few weeks, if you still want to do more, then you can start thinking about bodyweight or weight training exercises.

Marcus believes that by doing cardio training you will feel improvements in your mental health, recovery, and detoxification.

4. Cycle through simple and complex progressive overload with a periodic return to fundamentals

In order to see some change in your fitness level, you need to make small increases in the intensity and volume of your training over time. However, you must also learn how to deload and not push for faster and heavier times at the gym.

So be part of a 6 to 12-week training cycles that allow you to progressive overload. Then periodically test yourself with some fitness benchmark. “These mark the end of longer periods of growth and should show off to you all the progress that you’re making objectively,” Filly says.

5. The best training program is the one that gets you excited and motivated

Are you excited to train? Many factors can alter your answer such as diet, sleep, programming, the environment and/or training time.

If one of the arguments above gets in the way of your enjoying your training you can improve your gains by simply tackling the issue head-first. Get more sleep, change your program, or surround yourself with people that cheer your progress. It is all worthy to get back to shape and stop saying that “Covid killed my gains.”

Read More: 10 Functional Bodybuilding Exercises to Help You Look Good

This is part of Rogue Fitness’ challenge named “The Wheel Challenge.” And it is simple as it sounds: you just need a weight and you are set to go.

The entry fee is $10, but you can pay $30 if you want to receive a Rogue Challenge t-shirt.

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The Wheel Challenge

For this challenge, you are required to perform a static front hold of the plate for as long as possible. Men must use the 45lb plate, while women are required to perform the exercise holding a 25lb plate.

Whoever holds the plate the longest wins the challenge. In case of a draw, the person with the lowest body weight will win.

Competitors must record his/her attempt and upload the video on YouTube.

The competition begins this Friday (9 am EST) and finishes on Sunday (8 pm EST). Videos must be submitted in the time allocated.

Prizes include:

• 1^st place – $2,500 + set of competition bumper plates (25lb – 55lb)
• 2^nd place – $1,000
• 3^rd place – $500

The gym with the most sign-ups will also receive a set of competition bumper plates.

You can register for the competition and read all available information by clicking here.

Stefi Cohen is the co-founder of Hybrid Performance Method, a program that has Mat Fraser as one of the coaches. She also is a 25x world record holder and has a doctorate in physical therapy.

She is very active on her Instagram account showing off her skills, boxing every once in a while, sharing tips on nutrition and exercises.

In one of her latest YouTube videos uploaded, she shared daily nutrition tips for cutting and staying in a caloric deficit. Also, she revealed what she eats in a day.

Watch Stefi Cohen Daily Nutrition Tips for Weight Loss and What She Eats in a Day

Stefi Cohen Daily Nutrition Tips for Cutting

• Caloric deficit is a must

Stefi Cohen starts the video by explaining the most basic understanding of losing weight: caloric deficit.

To lose weight, you need to spend more energy (calories) than you are consuming.

• Weigh yourself every day

Reference back to the scale to know if what you’re doing is working. “If not, if the scale is not moving, you have to reduce your calorie intake or increase the amount of exercise that you do in a day,” Stefi Cohen says.

• Choose a diet that fits your lifestyle and food preferences

It is better to make a diet suit you than the other way around. Maintaining consistency on your diet will get you a long way and it would be easier than simply choosing randomly a diet that will force you to drastically change what you like.

• What can you do to stay in a calorie deficit?

“Walk more, eat protein with all of your meals, drink enough water, be okay with being hungry,” Stefi Cohen explains. “And change the way that your kitchen is arranged so that you don’t have the temptation or the easiness of reaching out to those things that are likely to tip you off and take you out of being in a calorie deficit.”

What Stefi Cohen Eats in a Day?

• Breakfast

320 calories – 25 grams of protein, 23 grams of carbs, 14 grams of fat, 3 grams of fibre, 500mg of sodium.

• Lunch

Burger patties with rice and vegetables

• Dinner

Shredded chicken with soy sauce, zucchini. “And for carbs, we’re gonna have some sweet potatoes.” She also added a couple of hard-boiled eggs to increase the amount of fat in the meal “because the chicken breast doesn’t have much.”

She consumes between 20-30 per cent of her daily calorie intake in the form of fats for performance and health benefits.

“Usually the dinner I break it down into a three-course meal that I have across the entire night.” At 6pm she has, for example, chicken, eggs, potatoes and eggs. Followed by a thin crusty pizza that does not have much grease in it.

Read More: 10 Stefi Cohen Workouts to Get In Your Best Shape

These exercises on this list have been chosen strictly because of their high chance of appearing in one of the workouts next year.

BOXROX have searched all workouts released in the past 5 years (including 2021) to know which exercises appear more often and hint you at what can possibly appear in 2022.

What to Expect from The 2022 Open?

2020 and 2021 were unusual years due to the pandemic. Although COVID vaccinations have been easier to get by each passing day and the virus is somewhat declining its lethality, there is still a chance that there will be a partial lockdown in some countries.

As the Open thrives to be inclusive, the pandemic can, once again, influence the exercises that CrossFit will put out in February.

What does that even mean? We could bet on utilising smaller and easy-to-get equipment gear, such as the skipping rope and dumbbells, for example.

Endurance Training – Prepare For the 2022 Open

Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Let’s face it, most of the workouts on the Open are going to be “For Time.” Not only you need to run against the clock, but you will also need to take smart breaks between sets.

If you improve your endurance, you will break up the workout movements into bigger chunks, which could translate into being faster in the end.

And how exactly do you increase your endurance? One of the best ways is to add running workouts to your normal training routine.

One workout from endurance coach and overall CrossFit expert Chris Hinshaw is:

• 3 sets: 500m fast run, 200m recovery jog, 100m sprint
• No rest between intervals
• 5 minutes rest between sets

You may also check out these 7 CrossFit Running Workouts if you want to.

Double-Unders – Prepare for the 2022 Open

Appeared in which workouts the past 5 Open?

• 21.1
• 20.2
• 19.2
• 18.3
• 17.5

Every year, for the past 5 Open, there were double-unders involved. All you need is a skipping rope and proper technique. It’s possible to do it nearly anywhere at any time, so no wonder this exercise has been put together in couplets for years in a row.

If we have to put our money where our mouth is, double-unders should be one of your priorities to prepare for the 2022 Open.

Burpees

Appeared in which workouts the past 5 Open?

• 21.2
• 20.1
• 19.4
• 18.2
• 17.1

You love to hate them, but they are incredibly effective to test an athlete’s endurance with little skill involved. However, on the Open the burpees usually come in some sort of variation, being the bar-facing burpees the most common, although we have seen in 2021 the burpee box jump-over.

Either way, practising burpees now will guarantee you to become a better athlete for next year’s Open.

Thrusters – Prepare for the 2022 Open

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Appeared in which workouts the past 5 Open?

• 21.3
• 20.2
• 19.5
• 18.5
• 17.5

Thrusters are also one of CrossFit’s favourite exercises to put in the Open. It has appeared every single year in some variation: usually with dumbbells, but sometimes with a barbell.

Try out any of these 7 Workouts with Thrusters. It will hurt. You have been warned.

Barbell Complex

It would be impossible to judge the fitness of athletes without putting in one barbell workout with moderate to heavyweight.

Unfortunately, there are numerous barbells (check out our Barbell Exercises Guide here) and to prepare for only one type of movement would be like hitting the lottery. Yes, it’s possible but incredibly difficult.

Your best bet then would be to try to practice all of them. Or, you can try this barbell complex below of cleans, front squat and jerk.

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If you want to go even further, you can try one barbell exercise focusing on the lower body, one focus on the upper body, and one focus on an Olympic weightlifting movement.

That could be, for example, deadlifts, overhead press, and clean & jerk.

Wall Ball

Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Appeared in which workouts the past 5 Open?

• 20.5
• 19.1
• 17.4

Wall ball does not always appear during the Open, but practising them will definitely make you a more well-rounded athlete.

They will increase your mental toughness, strengthen your lower body and pump up your endurance. Tell me if that does not sound like it’s a 3 for 1 type of deal?

Why not try the Optimus Prime workout?

AMRAP in 7 minutes:

• Wall ball shots (20/14lb)
• 5 deadlifts (225/155lb) at the top of each minute

Score is the total number of wall ball shots and deadlifts completed combined.

Read More: Wall Ball Workouts to Improve Your Core Strength

Extra Exercises to Perfect

Source: CrossFit Inc

We also have seen a fair share of exercises that require you to be upside down holding your body weight on your arms. For that, we encourage you to practice handstand push-ups or the infamous wall walk that we have seen this time in the Open and also during the CrossFit Games.

Another difficult exercise that might pop up and you should do to prepare for the 2022 Open is the pistol squat.

WheelWOD is a non-profit organisation dedicated to providing competitive adaptive fitness to coaches and athletes. This weekend, the organisation separated athletes into divisions accordingly. Unfortunately, all but one female in the sensory (vision) division was able to participate: Kym Dekeyrel.

That meant that she was automatically crowned the fittest female sensory vision athlete in the world, but still, she wanted to show her fitness level on the competition floor. WheelWOD organisation then added her to the men’s sensory category.

“This is the first time we have had a mixed division. Kym has always finished first in every online qualifier and competition with sensory athletes involved,” WheelWOD wrote on their Instagram.

After 11 workouts, Kym finished 2^nd in the men’s sensory division.

Kym Dekeyrel has been awarded an invitation to compete at Wodapalooza in January 2022.

WheelWOD Recognises Errors But Congratulates Kym Dekeyrel

Although well intended, WheelWOD recognises that the ending results were not entirely fair.

“Some of the adjustments we made to the workouts did not give a fair result as we needed to understand percentages on max lifts and mono structural equipment between men’s & women’s divisions when mixed better,” the organisation wrote.

“As we navigated this division as mixed we needed to do better at levelling the playing field.”

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Nevertheless, Kym was crowned the fittest female sensory vision athlete in the world and will receive the appropriate prize purse for her result as a top female athlete.

Other divisions that competed this past weekend at Wheel WOD include:

• Seated 1: Without Hip Function
• Seated 2: With Hip Function
• Upper Impairment 2 points of contact
• Upper Impairment 1 Point of contact
• Lower Impairment 2 Points of Contact
• Lower Impairment 1 Point of Contact
• Short Stature
• Neuromuscular Major
• Neuro Muscular Minor

All divisions included male and female categories, except for short stature which only included male athletes.

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You can check out the final leaderboard by clicking here.

Jeff Nippard is a natural professional bodybuilder who shares tips and training programs on his YouTube channel. His latest video dives deep into how strong should you be depending on your history of going to the gym.

He divided every possible athlete into 6 categories:

• Noob – 3-6 months of lifting
• Beginner – 6 months to 2 years of lifting
• Intermediate – 2-5 years of lifting
• Advanced – 5 years of lifting
• Elite – 5-10 years of lifting
• Freak – +10 years of lifting

Note: genetics play a crucial part in how much a person’s strength develops over time. To become a “freak,” genetics has to be in your favour, Jeff Nippard explains.

The categories he came up with are based on his 10+ coaching experience and the average strength of his students and data from competitive powerlifting events.

Also important to note that the standards of how strong should you be are based on body weight ratios, so it is less reliable at high bodyweights.

How Strong Should You Be?

In the video, Jeff Nippard explains some basic standards that people should be able to lift.

Noob

Male

• Squat: 45-135lb (20-61 kg)
• Bench: 45-95lb (20-43kg)
• Deadlift: 45-135lb (20-61 kg)

Female

• Squat: 45-95lb (20-43 kg)
• Bench: 0-45lb (0-20kg)
• Deadlift: 45-135lb (20-61 kg)

“You should be able to progress your level by just working on your technique while incrementally adding a minimum amount of weight to the bar each and every workout generally in the 3-6 rep zone for strength work.”

Beginner

Male

• Squat: 1.25x bodyweight
• Bench: bodyweight
• Deadlift: 1.5 bodyweight

Female

• Squat: 0.5-1x bodyweight
• Bench: 0.5x bodyweight
• Deadlift: 0.5-1x bodyweight

“Most people should be setting new PR nearly every workout still adding minimum increments of 5 pounds to the bar or one extra rep in that same 3-6 rep range.”

Intermediate

This is when people usually hit their first plateau in their strength development.

Male

• Squat: 1.25-1.75x bodyweight
• Bench: 1-1.5x bodyweight
• Deadlift: 1.5-2.25x bodyweight

Female

• Squat: 1-1.5x bodyweight
• Bench: 0.5-0.75x bodyweight
• Deadlift: 1.25-1.75x bodyweight

This time, due to plateau, rather than hitting 3-6 reps, vary your training. Jeff Nippard exemplifies one scenario.

3-5 reps with higher exertion where you go to almost failure. A few days later, working the same muscle group, you should ddo a more hypertrophy workout, in which you hit 6-10 rep range with a lower exertion.

Advanced

Male

• Squat: 1.75-2.5x bodyweight
• Bench: 1.5-2x bodyweight
• Deadlift: 2.25-3x bodyweight

Female

• Squat: 1.5-1.75x bodyweight
• Bench: 0.75-1x bodyweight
• Deadlift: 1.75-2.5x bodyweight

According to Jeff, not necessarily everyone can reach an elite level and it would also involve a lot of sacrifice in the gym, which most people are not willing to do. However, becoming an advanced athlete is reachable to the majority of people.

“Regardless, this is the point where you’ll need to become much more methodical with your programming and likely have to run specialisation phases where you narrow in on one lift while putting the others at maintenance.”

Elite

Male

• Squat: 2.5-3x bodyweight
• Bench: 2-2.5x bodyweight
• Deadlift: 3-3.5x bodyweight

Female

• Squat: 1.75-2.25x bodyweight
• Bench: 1-1.25x bodyweight
• Deadlift: 2.25-3x bodyweight

Freak

Male

• Squat: >3x bodyweight
• Bench: >2.25x bodyweight
• Deadlift: >3.5x bodyweight

Female

• Squat: >2.25x bodyweight
• Bench: >1.25x bodyweight
• Deadlift: >3x bodyweight

Read More: New Upper Lower Split Program, the Most Effective Workout for Leg Day?

Mat Fraser is the legendary 5x CrossFit Games champion who has stepped away from the competition floor earlier this year to dedicate himself to his business.

Part of his business is a collab with Marz Sawyers and Heber Cannon, also known as The Buttery Bros. On the latest video uploaded on Mat’s YouTube channel, the business partners dedicated a morning pump session focused on the biceps and the back.

”8 to 10 reps for muscle building,” says tyler Armstrong.

The workout started at 6 in the morning and it included:

• bent-over lateral raise
• Lat pulldown
• Single-arm cable curl over the decline bench
• Dumbbell row
• Barbell curls
• Curls with rope

There were a few more curls involved with a barbell as well.

Read More: Fraser’s Hardest Workout Ever

Watch Mat Fraser and The Buttery Bros Back and Bicep Workout

In the end, Sammy Moniz, Mat’s girlfriend and culinary chef, explained what the team would be having for breakfast: a frittata.

“Onions, broccoli, bacon, eggs, milk, provolone, shallots,” she says.

In the video, Mat Fraser also talks about his new addition to the gym: a decline bench. We have already seen a tour of his home gym and we are incredibly jealous.

Shane Orr is Tia-Clair Toomey’s coach and has challenged the Fittest Woman on Earth to another CrossFit-like workout to see who is the fittest in the house.

Here is the workout they did.

For time:

• 30 calories on the echo bike
• 30 power snatches
• 30 burpee get-overs

The last time Shane and Tia did a Fittest in the House competition was in September, and Shane was nowhere near winning. Check it out by clicking here.

”I think I’ve taken advantage of the situation. Tia just literally has done a competition,” Shane said. “I think if there is a good shot [at becoming the fittest in the house] it’s probably now.”

Watch Tia-Clair Toomey and Shane Orr Battle for Fittest in the House

As usual, the video is full of funny moments between the fit couple.

Unfortunately, they do not specify who won the workout at the end. Shane did try his way to win in any way possible by going fast in the beginning and putting his body in front of Tia so she couldn’t perform the burpee get-overs properly.

In the end, it looks as if Tia managed to finish one rep ahead of Shane, but the coach says he was not able to count his reps properly and possibly did more than 30 so he should win.

From comments on the YouTube video, most people agree that Tia has in fact won.

I guess we need to wait for the next video of them to find out who officially is wearing the Fittest in the House belt.

Read More: Abs Workouts from Tia-Clair Toomey to Bulletproof your Core

Mario Tomic is an entrepreneur who helps other busy working professionals get fit and build a sustainable and healthy lifestyle.

On his YouTube channel, you will not see crazy workouts or diets to force a body transformation in 6 months. He is focused on sharing tips and training ideas to increase your overall health, be it to lose weight, gain muscle or some advice he learned the hard way 10 years after bodybuilding.

In one of his videos, Mario Tomic gives his honest advice on building muscle as a natural bodybuilder. He explains how long it took him to see results, why staying lean and shredded can be a problem and the fragility of building muscle.

Watch Mario Tomic’s Honest Advice on Building Muscle Naturally

How long does it take to see results?

After searching online, Mario Tomic thought he could gain 20 pounds of muscle in the first year of training. Although he did lose weight and was happy with results, he only packed 10 pounds. The following year, when he was supposed to pack another 10 pounds of muscle, he managed to get only 5.

“It’s only about year 4 or 5 where I could look myself in the mirror and start seeing how those gains accumulated to a physique that I could say ‘well, I look like I lift,’” tomic said.

“When people just go crazy with their programs because they are not seeing immediate results a month after, two months after, they’re making decisions that eventually end up crippling their results.”

Trying to stay too lean can be a problem

If you are not a competitor, there is no need to go very low on your body fat percentage. According to Mario Tomic, 10% body fat should be as low as you want to go.

As a natural gym-goer, you do not want to look shredded all year round. “That is not sustainable for most people,” Tomic explains. He says that most people on social media that stay all-year-around 7% to 8& body fat are probably not natural bodybuilders. “And there is a huge problem with these fake naturals causing mismanaged expectations.”

Building muscle is a fragile progress

Tomic tells us that training hard almost every day in the gym will not give space to other activities. The idea for building muscle is that you need to know what to prioritise.

“If I add some high-intensity cardio or some classes or some martial arts, I won’t be able to recover from all of that and my gains will start to suffer.”

Every person is different, some will recover faster and some slower. “You gotta know yourself in order to maximise your gains.”

Read More: The Best No-Equipment Workouts at Home for Athletes

The feat was recorded during Halloween and the person behind the bat mask was powerlifter Carter Wu. The Taiwanese athlete, who weighs only 78kg, dressed up as batman and lifted four times his bodyweight.

Watch Batman Deadlift 320kg

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Carter Wu competes in the 83kg division. For comparison, the deadlift world record in the 93kg class is 362.5kg from John Haack.

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Would you like to develop this level of strength? Check the link below.

Deadlift Workouts to Increase Muscle Power

He first appeared on a movie set in 2001 for The Mummy Returns as the Scorpion King. Years The following year he stared on his first movie as the main character and hasn’t stopped ever since.

Most people don’t know how troubled his past is. He was arrested “8 or 9 times” as a teenager and was usually in trouble at school. The Rock that we know now was part of a series of life decisions that involved turning his anger into strength – physical strength.

His physique is indistinguishable and for each movie role he takes on, it seems that he works on his body more and more. BOXROX has dug out a few of his workouts and his tips to maintain your focus on your goals.

Dwayne Johnson Workouts and Tips

During the lockdown, Dwayne said he would refrain from posting videos of him working out because he knows many people around the world does not have access to the gym.

Throughout his adult life, Dwayne Johnson always have done cardio workouts early in the morning on an empty stomach.

The Rock’s long life training coach has been Dave Rienzi.

Dwayne Johnson Workouts – Hercules

For his role as Hercules, Dwayne Johnson revealed his workout and it is a beast and he got into the best shape of his life up to that point. The workout was shared on Muscle and Fitness magazine.

If you are crazy enough to try this workout, do it for 4-6 weeks 5 days each week.

Day 1 – Back

• Pull-up – 4 sets to failure
• One-arm dumbbell row – 12-10-8-8 reps
• Hammer strength two-arm row – 4 sets of 10
• Cable lat pulldown – 3 sets of 12
• Seated cable row – 3 sets of 12
• Straight-arm rope pulldown – 3 sets of 12
• Cable face pull – 3 sets of 12
• Barbell shrug – 4 sets of 12

Day 2 – Chest

• Incline barbell bench press – 10-12-8-6 reps
• Alternating dumbbell bench press – 4 sets of 12
• Hammer strength incline press – 4 sets of 12
• Flat bench flye – 3 sets of 12
• Cable crossover – 3 sets of 15
• Bodyweight dip – 3 sets to failure

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Day 3 – Legs

• Leg extension – 4 sets of 25
• Leg press – 4 sets of 50
• Dumbbell walking lunge – 4 sets of 40
• Hack squat – 4 sets of 20
• Dumbbell Romanian deadlift – 4 sets of 12
• Lying leg curl – 4 sets of 12
• Standing calf raise – 5 sets of 75
• Seated calf raise – 5 sets of 50

Day 4 – Shoulders

• Hammer strength shoulder press – 12-10-10-8 reps
• Seated dumbbell overhead press – 3 sets of 10
• Standing lateral raise – 4 sets of 12
• One-arm cable lateral raise – 3 sets of 20 each arm
• Machine rear delt flye – 4 sets of 12
• Bent over lateral raise – 4 sets of 10

Day 5 – Arms

• EZ-bar preacher curl – 12 reps
• Standing EZ-bar biceps curl – 12 reps
• Cable rope curl – 12 reps
• Rope pushdown – 12 reps
• Overhead rope extension – 12 reps
• Bodyweight dip – 12 reps

Training Tip: Be consistent

“Shit is hard to do, with a million people and things pulling at you every day,” The Rock says. “Do your best to block out the noise and stay focused on the goals and initiatives. Make your goals a healthy obsession and then apply the strategy of consistent, daily hard work.”

”Slow and steady always wins the long game race.

Dwayne Johnson Workouts – Black Adam

Dwayne Johnson workouts intensity are so humongous that not only he does supersets or tri-sets, he came up with “giant sets,” – multiple exercises back-to-back-to-back-to-back with little rest as possible. That is his key to building flashy bigger muscles for the camera.

For his latest superhero role as Black Adam, we got a glimpse of his workout routine, although we do not know how many reps or sets. Take a look.

• Mondays – back and biceps
• Wednesdays – shoulders
• Thursdays – back and biceps
• Fridays – chest and triceps

– Flies, chest press, incline press and bodyweight dips (giant set) until failure.

– Different exercises to target the long, lateral, and media heads of the triceps.

• Saturdays – leg

– Leg extensions, compound pressing movement, chain lunges, shark pit squats, barbell squats (giant set).

– Hamstring and calves superset.

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Check out the Buff Dudes trying out Dwayne Johnson Workouts for Black Adam.

Training tip: listen to your body and learn to fail.

Dwayne Johnson went through multiple knee surgeries, quad and adductor tear-off pelvis, ruptured Achilles, hernia surgical repairs. “Stronger now and carrying more dense muscle then (SIC) ever before, but the key is really smart, precise, intense training and diet. And doing my best to always listen to my body.”

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For The Rock, failing is also an important part of the process of becoming a better version of yourself.

“If I did fail at least what was important was the lesson.”

Dwayne Johnson Workouts 3

This workout is in many ways similar to the previous two, as The Rock work out six times a week focusing on one group muscle each day. The workout was first seen on Man of Many Magazine.

Again, Dwayne Johnson does 30-50 minutes of cardio workout early in the morning on an empty stomach, goes on with his daily work and then hits the gym at the end of the day.

Day 1 – Legs

• Barbell Walking Lunge – 4 sets, 25 reps
• Leg Press – 4 sets, 25 reps
• Leg Extensions – 3 sets, 20 reps
• Barbell Squat – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Hack Squat – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Single Leg Hack Squat – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Romanian Deadlift – 4 sets, 10 reps
• Seated Leg Curl – 3 sets, 20 reps
• Thigh Abductor – 4 sets, 12 reps

Day 2 – Back

• Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Bent-Over Barbell Row – 4 sets, 12 reps
• One-Arm Dumbbell Row – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Barbell Deadlift – 3 sets, 10 reps
• Pull-ups – 3 sets, to failure
• Dumbbell Shrug – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Inverted Row – 3 sets, to failure
• Hyperextensions (Back) – 4 sets, 12 reps

Day 3 – Shoulders

• Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Standing Military Press – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Front Dumbbell Raise – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Side Lateral Raise – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Reverse Machine Flyes – 4 sets, 15 reps
• Seated Bent-Over Rear Delt Raise – 4 sets, 12 reps

Day 4 – Arms/Abs

• Dumbbell Bicep Curl – 4 sets, 15 reps
• Hammer Curls – 4 sets, 15 reps
• Spider Curl – 4 sets, to failure
• Triceps Pushdown – 4 sets, 15 reps
• Overhead Triceps – 3 sets, 15 reps
• Hanging Leg Raise – 4 sets, 20 reps
• Rope Crunch – 4 sets, 20 reps
• Russian Twist – 4 sets, 20 reps

Source: Bastien Plu / Unsplash

Day 5 – Legs

• Barbell Walking Lunge – 4 sets, 25 reps
• Leg Press – 4 sets, 25 reps
• Leg Extensions – 3 sets, 20 reps
• Barbell Squat – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Hack Squat – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Single-Leg Hack Squat – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Romanian Deadlift – 4 sets, 10 reps
• Seated Leg Curl – 3 sets, 20 reps
• Thigh Abductor – 4 sets, 12 reps

Day 6 – Chest

• Barbell Bench Press – Medium Grip – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Incline Dumbbell Press – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Dumbbell Bench Press – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Flat Bench Cable Flyes – 4 sets, to failure
• Incline Hammer Curls – 4 sets, 12 reps
• Dips – Chest Version – 4 sets, to failure

Training tip: Enjoy Cheat Meals

This training tip is the best we could hope for. The Rock has one day a week of cheat meals, usually on Sundays. And he always goes epic on his cheat meals.

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According to him, life gets more meaningful when he enjoys his cheat meals and gives him fuel to work hard for the next six days.

Which of these Dwayne Johnson workouts is the hardest? Will you try any of them?

Read More: New Upper Lower Split Program, the Most Effective Workout for Leg Day?

“The purse prize can only go up,” Rogue announced when it first revealed its prize purse to competitors. At first, the total prize would amount to a minimum of $1,250,000.  A minimum because a percentage of ticket sales would bump up the prize purse fund awarded to athletes.

A total of $1,490,583 was handed to CrossFit athletes and Strongman competitors this weekend.

With the end of the competition on the back mirror, we now know how much money each athlete won at the 2021 Rogue Invitational.

Tia-Clair Toomey and Justin Medeiros won the competition and have taken home the biggest prize purse, but what about the other competitors?

How Much Money Did Athletes Win at the 2021 Rogue Invitational

Male

Female

Strongman

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The list will be updated regularly as more tests results are made public.

In a press statement, CrossFit Inc. wrote that athlete samples are tested at laboratories approved by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and tested according to WADA guidelines.

“CrossFit announces all violations of the drug testing policy publically and can do so even if an appeal of the violation is in process,” crossfit stated.

Full List of CrossFit Athletes Banned from Competition

* Athletes in yellow have had their sanction reduced after proving their supplements were contaminated

You may check CrossFit’s Drug Testing Policy by clicking here.

Read More: 10 PEDs Banned by CrossFit and How They Affect the Human Body

Brazil’s Fittest Woman and winner of the Brazil CrossFit Challenge Semifinal uploaded 6 Instagram posts with 22 photos explaining her side of the story before being tested, during the drug test, and what happened after and how she believes her situation is unfair.

As of now, Larissa Cunha is banned from any CrossFit sanctioned events for two years after the substance Ostarine was found in her urine sample prior to the 2021 CrossFit Games.

Key takeaways from Larissa Cunha’s explanation:

• CrossFit told Larissa about her failed drug test on July 22^nd, five days before the beginning of the CrossFit Games.
• After sending sealed packages of her supplements to a lab recommended by CrossFit, it was found that there were traces of Ostarine in her Beta-Alanine and Collagen supplements, although the substance was not labelled on the package.
• Cunha understands that there must be some kind of sanction for violating CrossFit’s drug policy, although she believes that a 2-year ban is unfair.
• Larissa Cunha believes that if her supplements were approved by Informed Sport or NSF and contained traces of an illegal substance, her sanctions would be fully revoked.

You can check out Larissa’s posts at the bottom of this article to get a full spectrum of what happened.

To further appeal her case online, Larissa explains that experts, doctors and even CrossFit personnel agree that the amount of Ostarine found in her urine was not enough to help her perform better.

She also talks about researching similar failed drug tests occurrences in other sports, such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and the Olympics.

”In the UFC, athletes have a fair chance of having their evidence reviewed. From there, bans have, in certain instances, been either revoked or mildened. The same goes for the Olympics where sanctions have been overturned when athletes have presented evidence to prove their innocence beyond a reasonable doubt,” Larissa writes.

The Brazilian athlete states that CrossFit is a privately owned company and that their drug testing protocols and rules are at their own discretion.

Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Larissa Cunha’s uphill battle will be similar to Kelli Holm.

What Does CrossFit’s Drug Policy States?

Item 13 of CrossFit’s Drug Policy https://games.crossfit.com/drug-policy is what needs to be looked at.

It says ‘The following will be considered in a drug test appeal:

• The athlete used due diligence prior to ingesting a supplement and is able to prove the banned substance was not listed on the label. […] In this situation, the athlete must provide proof that they did not know and could not reasonably have known or suspected that they had ingested a supplement containing a banned substance.

That Larissa Cunha has proved and presented to CrossFit HQ already.

However, CrossFit’s Policy Drug also states that the following will not be considered in a drug test appeal:

• The type or amount of banned substance detected through the drug test as banned substances is often used in small or trace amounts.
• The degree to which the banned substance may or may not affect athletic performance.

It also states, in bold letters, that “athletes are solely responsible for what they put on or into their bodies.”

According to the rules established, Larissa’s testing her supplements on the recommended lab by CrossFit is what helped her appeal case and saw her traditional 4-year ban reduced to two years.

Larissa’s appeal that the amount of Ostarine found in her urine test was not enough to help her perform better at the CrossFit Games is not taken into consideration.

Read More: 10 PEDs Banned By CrossFit and How They Affect the Human Body

Could Larissa Cunha See Her Ban Reduced Even Further?

Larissa Cunha is presenting solid arguments and questioning CrossFit’s strict decision to completely ban athletes and not judge them case by case.

In some of her Instagram posts, Cunha talks about supplements products not being certified by Informed Sport or NSF, two organisations that test supplements and are recommended by CrossFit.

According to Larissa, if her supplements were certified by any of these organisations and still contaminated with an illegal substance, her ban would be fully revoked.

“The reason why I am highlighting the certification from Informed Sport and/or NSF is because those are the standards that CrossFit have emphasised in their communication to me,” she writes.

“This leads me to assume that my ban would have been fully revoked if the contaminated supplements I was using were certified.”

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If her suggestions are taken into consideration, Larissa would be the first CrossFit athlete to have her sanction completely revoked. We have not seen this kind of flexibility by CrossFit in the past, but under new management and CEO, perhaps it could happen.

If her appeal is not met, Larissa Cunha will be 33 years old when she will be able to compete at the CrossFit Open again and begin her quest to compete at the CrossFit Games.

“I love this sport, I love the CrossFit community and I believe in my heart that something good and positive will come out of this. I will keep on fighting,” Larissa ends.

Larissa Cunha’s Full Story

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Miles to Madison is new CrossFit series focusing on the journey top athletes took to get to the CrossFit Games, starting with the Open, Quarterfinals and Semifinals, and ultimately covering the behind-the-scenes of the big event.

It provides “an unprecedented look at what goes on behind the scenes of the CrossFit Games season every step of the way” with interviews with CrossFit employees, athletes, and coaches.

Watch Miles to Madison Episode 10

One of the topics this episode addresses is the last-minute changes that happened during Events 6 and 7. Seeing as the athletes struggled to meet the time cap, the distance of the run portion of the workout was shortened and the time cap was extended on the fly.

“That’s what Dave does; he puts aggressive time caps out there because he doesn’t want to showcase the athletes, he wants to test them,” explains Sean Woodland about the planned workouts.

We then learn what happens in the background for schedule teams, scoring teams and general event management to make such an adjustment a success.

The episode also touches on managing athlete injuries and minimising the risk of covid-19 during the event.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Catch up on past Miles to Madison episodes

Catch up on past episodes by clicking the links below.

Episode 1 – Prep for the Open

Episode 2 – First Week of the Open

Episode 3 – Second Week of the Open

Episode 4 – Third Week of the Open

Episode 5 – Quarterfinals with Ohlsen, Mayer, Cary and Mundwiler

Episode 6 – The Rise of New CrossFit Superstars Semifinals

Episode 7 – Las Vegas and Lowlands Throwdown Semifinals

Episode 8 – The Art of CrossFit Games Programming

Episode 9 – The Return of the Games

Miles to Madison is new CrossFit series focusing on the journey top athletes took to get to the CrossFit Games, starting with the Open, Quarterfinals and Semifinals. It offers an inside look into the CrossFit Games season with interviews with CrossFit employees, athletes, and coaches.

“Get an inside look at the challenging logistics the CrossFit team faced in an effort to produce this mega event that brought the global community together,” CrossFit published.

Watch the latest episode.

Miles to Madison Episode 9

Miles to Madison episode 9 centres on day 1 of the 2021 CrossFit Games for Individual athletes. While the four events of course a big part of the episode, we also learn about COVID testing procedures, logistics, and secondary stories happening alongside who wins which event.

The stories of Danielle Brandon and Scott Panchik are also told during the episode.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Catch up on past episodes

Catch up on past episodes by clicking the links below.

Episode 1 – Prep for the Open

Episode 2 – First Week of the Open

Episode 3 – Second Week of the Open

Episode 4 – Third Week of the Open

Episode 5 – Quarterfinals with Ohlsen, Mayer, Cary and Mundwiler

Episode 6 – The Rise of New CrossFit Superstars Semifinals

Episode 7 – Las Vegas and Lowlands Throwdown Semifinals

Episode 8 – The Art of CrossFit Games Programming

The episode is filled with great insight into what happened before, during, and after Garard’s infamous ban after failing his drug test in 2017.

Ricky talked about his knowledge of the illegal substance he was taking, his future competitions, and also explained his accusations that Mat Fraser was also allegedly doping in 2017.

8 Takeaways from Ricky Garard’s Podcast Interview

1. Ricky Garard Started Taking PEDs During 2017’s CrossFit Open, But Didn’t Know It Was Illegal Until Regionals

Right at the beginning of the video, Ricky Garard establishes that he knew he was taking illegal substances.

According to the athlete, he started taking them “during the Open” in 2017. Garard says he was approached by someone who sold him supplements that would help him recover faster and become stronger. Ricky bought the pills and added them to his supplement intake.

Garard finished 23^rd at the Open in 2017. He goes on to explain that a few days before Regionals, he received a text message from the same person who sold him the supplements warning about the illegality of it.

”I found out a week before Regionals. Bought it from a guy and he said that [the supplements] could come out in a drug test.”

Ricky explains that he stopped taking the supplements “three or four days” before competing at the Pacific Regional in which he came out 2^nd.

After Regionals, Ricky Garard was tested and his result came out clean. “It cemented my thoughts that the advice I was receiving was right.”

2. He Knew and Chose to Continue Taking Illegal Substances During the CrossFit Games Thinking He Would Not Get Caugh

Since Ricky Garard’s test after the Regionals came out clean, he went back to taking his supplements with illegal substances, knowing there was a risk he would get caught. He claims to have taken the same two supplements leading up to the Games and also during the competition.

”I just thought I was gonna get away with it and it wasn’t going to come it up on the [drug] test.”

After finishing 3^rd at the CrossFit Games that year, as standard procedure, Ricky Garard had to go through another drug test. The test was similar to the previous one during Regionals, Ricky recalls – a urine test. “The guy at the Games didn’t watch me. He took me to the toilet, but he didn’t watch me pee into that cup.”

A few weeks later he received an e-mail saying he failed the drug test. Ricky appealed and tested again, but the same result came up and he was banned from CrossFit-sanctioned events for 4 years.

3. Ricky Garard Explains What Made Him Think Mat Fraser Was Doping

Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

After his 4-year ban was made official, Ricky Garard took it to Instagram to insinuate that other “top athletes in the sport intentionally” outsmart the system. Chase Ingraham pressured Ricky and asked if he was talking about Mat Fraser. After a long silence, Ricky Garard confirms it.

At first, Ricky Garard did not want to reveal what he saw that made him believe Mat Fraser was taking illegal substances during the CrossFit Games, but later he opened up.

“At the drug testing in 2017, he was chewing on a gel and spitting it into a drink bottle. That drink bottle was, he kept with him, and it was very suspicious.” Ricky also said that the “water [in Mat Fraser’s bottle] was changing colour” after Mat was spitting in it.

Ricky Garard said he was approached by CrossFit regarding this episode. He revealed what he saw from Mat Fraser and that nothing came out of it. “CrossFit said he was chewing tobacco.” The athlete says he spoke to Mat early during his ban, but has not talked to him ever since and will not reach out to him either.

When asked if CrossFit is doing a job good enough to catch people cheating, Ricky Garard replied positively. “They’ve stepped up their game, yeah, which is awesome.”

4. Ricky Comes to Terms that Cheating With Steroids is As Bad as with His Pills

Back in 2017, on his lengthy Instagram response to his 4-year ban, Ricky Garard wrote that his “supplement was taken in tablet form with nothing ever injected.”

27-year-old Ricky says that, back then, he thought that cheating with steroids was different than taking performance-enhanced pills, hence his famous claims from 2017’s CrossFit documentary that he would never do steroids.

”I see steroids as something different, that you inject into your body. I understand that [it is not entirely different] now. Just at the time of filming the documentary, that is how I proceeded.”

Chase Ingraham then pressures him into acknowledging his mistakes and owning to them. “Cheating is cheating, performance-enhanced drugs are performance-enhanced drugs,” the broadcaster says. Garard replies: “Yes. It’s on the ban list and it’s illegal to take them in sports.”

5. Ricky Will Not Apologise to Pat Vellner

Pat Vellner came in 4^th at the 2017’s CrossFit Games. He was later named 3^rd Fittest Man on Earth after Ricky Garard was disqualified. An emotional Pat wrote that he was sad for receiving the accolade while being home, sitting at his kitchen table doing homework.

Ricky Garard says he will not apologise to Pat Vellner, claiming that that “bus has left,” although he would also feel the same as Pat if he were in his shoes.

“At the time I didn’t feel like my apologies should have been to him. It was more an apology to my family and my close circle of people. […] I’ve thought about reaching out to him. I feel like he would be like ‘yeah, whatever man’. That bus has left.”

6. Ricky Garard Was Tested Only Once Since 2017

After failing his drug test in 2017, Ricky Garard says he was tested only once after it. At the beginning of this year, a press statement from CrossFit named a few athletes who were tested with Ricky Garard included.

Although tested only once so far, Ricky says he was in CrossFit’s contact list this year to be tested every now and again. “I had to register where I was, current address if I was travelling anywhere. I had to constantly update that information.”

Source: Instagram

7. Ricky Says He Stopped Taking Any Supplements Since 2019

After the documentary came out, Ricky Garard felt he needed to show the world he does not need anything to help him succeed so he claims to have stopped taking any kind of supplements since 2019.

”I don’t need extra protein, or BCAAs, or pre-workout, or all the gimmicks that the industry tries to sell you,” Ricky says. “I don’t want to take the risk.”

His ambition comes from the belief that he would have been great in 2017 without taking the illegal substances. “I genuinely and honestly believe that without that supplement I was taking, I still would have come third at the CrossFit Games.”

8. Wodapalooza, Dubai CrossFit Championship and 2022 CrossFit Open

Ricky Garard labelled out his future competitions for this year and the beginning of next year.

First, he will participate in this year’s Wodapalooza online qualifier to be able to compete in Miami in January.

Before Miami, Ricky Garard will compete for the first time at the Dubai CrossFit Championship. Ricky says that the director of the competition reached out to invite him.

After Dubai, Ricky will fly to Las Vegas for a few weeks before heading to Miami for Wodapalooza.

Depending on the COVID situation in Australia, Garard might stay in the United States during the CrossFit Open, because, as of now, people are required to quarantine for 14 days after arriving in Australia.

The Dubai CrossFit Championship will take place between 16-18 December at the Dubai Free Tennis Stadium and Ski Dubai Mall of the Emirates.

The competition is an invite-only format with some of the best CrossFit athletes around the world receiving the invitation. Here is a breakdown of all 40 athletes invited to the tournament this year.

Full List of Dubai CrossFit Championship Athletes

Men

• Patrick Vellner – 2^nd Fittest on Earth
• Björgvin Guðmundsson
• Brent Fikowski – 3^rd Fittest on Earth
• Saxon Panchik
• Jonne Koski
• Guilherme Malheiros
• Alex Vigneault
• Lazar Đukić
• Travis Mayer
• Jeffrey Adler
• Andre Houdet
• Henrik Haapalainen
• Jayson Hopper
• Ricky Garard
• Roman Khrennikov
• Shalan Mahmood
• Eliot Simmonds
• Ben Smith
• Uldis Upenieks
• Willy Georges

Women

• Sara Sigmundsdottir
• Laura Horvath – 2^nd Fittest on Earth
• Annie Thorisdottir – 3^rd Fittest on Earth
• Kristin Holte
• Sam Briggs
• Gabriela Migala
• Kari Pearce
• Katrin Tanja Davidsdottir
• Emma McQuaid
• Kara Saunders
• Haley Adams
• Carolyne Prevost
• Alessandra Pichelli
• Emma Tall
• Amanda Barnhart
• Emma Carry
• Danielle Brandon
• Bethany Shadbourne
• Mallory O’Brien
• Emily Rolfe

Ricky Garard, Sara Sigmundsdottir and Willy Georges Invited

Source: Phot courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

The most famous (or infamous) athlete on the Dubai CrossFit Championship invitation list is Ricky Garard.

The Australian athlete finished 3^rd at the 2017 CrossFit Games, but later was stripped of his medal and prize money for testing positive for testolone and endurobol. He was banned from competing at CrossFit events for 4 years.

Such ban ends on October 3^rd, 2021. The Dubai CrossFit Championship will be Ricky Garard’s first competition since being banned by CrossFit Inc.

The organisation of the Dubai CrossFit Championship revealed that Ricky Garard and Laura Horvath will compete.

Source: SIGMUNDSDOTTIR x WIT

 Sara Sigmundsdottir and Willy Georges are two other notable CrossFit legends that could make a comeback at the 2021 Dubai CrossFit Championship. Both athletes missed the CrossFit open due to injuries.

Willy Georges heard a crack on his shoulder after finishing CrossFit Open 21.1 workout. Sara ruptured her ACL (knee ligament) and did not complete a single Open workout this year.

Notable Dubai CrossFit Championship Athletes Not Invited

This year’s CrossFit Games winners are the Dubai CrossFit Championship athletes who are notably not invited.

5x Fittest Woman on Earth Tia-Clair Toomey and Fittest Man on Earth Justin Medeiros.

It is believed that both athletes were not invited as they have agreed to participate in this year’s Rogue Invitational, a competition in Texas that announced a prize purse of at least $1,250,000.

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“This is actually a spinoff of Cindy,” Shane explains at the beginning of the video. He did not want to do a 20-minute AMRAP of Cindy, so they changed it to a 5 round Cindy.

Here is the detailed workout both Shane Orr and Tia-Clair Toomey tackled:

With a 20 pound weighted vest, 5 Rounds of:

• 5 Strict pull-ups
• 10 bench press (115 / 80 lb)
• 15 Front squats (weight undisclosed)

Shane Orr explained the range of weight he and Tia would lift for the front squats. For the men, it is either 115 or 95 pounds. For the women, there is a bigger selection of weights to choose from: 115, 95, 85, or 65 pounds.

Watch Shane Orr and Tia-Clair Toomey Battle for Fittest in the Relationship

Tia-Clair Toomey is the Fittest Woman on Earth for the 5^th time in a row. She displayed ultimate dominance during this year’s CrossFit Games in Madison.

If you are looking to become stronger, check out 10 super healthy foods to help you gain muscle.

If eating is not your issue with gaining weight, but a proper bodyweight workout, then try out any of these 10 hardest bodyweight CrossFit workouts.

Rubio is a CrossFit athlete, coach and affiliate owner, and performed Isabel at more than double the prescribed weight in 19:58 with a fun celebration at the end.

The workout challenge, named “Isabel at 330 lb.” began when CrossFit’s Director of Sport, Dave Castro, saw a video of Rubio performing the workout in 27:43. Impressed, he offered a free Assault bike to the first person to complete the workout in under 20 minutes (who held an active CrossFit Level 1 certificate).

Graciano Rubio re-did the workout and finished with two seconds to spare.

“I’ll do it in 15:00 for an AssaultRunner,” Graciano commented on the CrossFit Games Instagram post highlighting his feat.

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CrossFit workout Isabel

For Time:

• 30 Snatches

With a running clock, perform 30 Snatches as fast as possible. Any type of snatch is acceptable; power snatch, full/squat snatch, split snatch.

Traditionally, the prescribed weight for Isabel is 135 lb for men and 95 lb for women.

Read more: CrossFit Benchmark Workouts – “The Girls”

Watch Graciano Rubio demolish CrossFit workout Isabel

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Who is Graciano Rubio

Graciano Rubio is an Investment Advisor and 105k Pro Strongman. He is the Affiliate Owner of CrossFit Valley View and holds a CrossFit Level 2 certificate.

For this impressive feat of strength, Graciano did not miss a single lift. According to a reply on his Instagram post, his snatch PR is 375 lb.

He won CrossFit Open workout 21.4 worldwide with a barbell complex at 365 lb. The workout was:

For heaviest load complete the complex of:

• 1 Deadlift
• 1 Clean
• 1 Hang Clean
• 1 Jerk

Take a look into the behind-the-scenes footage of the 2021 CrossFit Games season, find out how athletes prepared throughout the different stages, and learn more about them through engaging interviews with them and their coaches.

Get insight into their mindset, background, and training, and relive CrossFit Open workout 21.2 in Miles to Madison episode 3.

Watch Miles to Madison Episode 3

From CrossFit: “In Episode 3, the road to the 2021 CrossFit Games continues with Open Workout 21.2 — a repeat from 2017.

“At the CrossFit Home Office in Scotts Valley, California, 2020 Games podium finishers Sam Kwant and Justin Medeiros get their chance to improve their scores from 17.1 in the live Open announcement.

“Meanwhile in Nashville, Tennessee, Fittest Woman on Earth Tia-Clair Toomey and Games veteran Brooke Wells gear up to revisit the past, this time going head-to-head. Hear from Toomey and Wells on being training partners and competitors, and learn how the two elite athletes prepared for the 2021 Games season.”

Catch up on the last two Miles to Madison episodes.

What is Miles to Madison

Miles to Madison is a new series by CrossFit Inc.

The main goal of Miles to Madison is to showcase what happened behind the scenes in the lives of top athletes as they prepared to qualify for and compete at the CrossFit Games.

The series will showcase unseen footage of Open workouts and announcements, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and how it all lead to the CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisconsin, at the end of July 2021.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

The 34-year-old competed in the Motus Duck River Triathlon and called it “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

The race consisted of an 880-yard open water swim, 18-mile mountain bike, and 3.5 mile trail run.

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Watch Rich Froning Take on an Off-Road Triathlon

Froning starts the video with a mountain biking session and a couple of falls, and then takes viewers through the off-road triathlon.

He podiums with a time of 2:43:14.

Source: Motus Duck River Triathlon

This was not the first time Rich Froning has taken on a triathlon – watch him and the Mayhem team compete in August 2020:

Rich Froning

Rich Froning is a seasoned CrossFit Games veteran and one of the best CrossFit athletes of all time. He was the first athlete to earn four consecutive CrossFit Games titles (2011-2014) and now leads the most dominant Affiliate team, having won the CrossFit Games team competition in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2021.

The 34-year old athlete considered retiring from the sport after the cancellation of the team division for the 2020 CrossFit Games, but ultimately decided against it. He would go on to earn another CrossFit Games title at the 2021 Games with a completely new team.

Froning owns and operates the affiliate gym CrossFit Mayhem, located in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Read more: Rich Froning Before CrossFit (and 20 of His Workouts Every Athlete Should Try)

The series offers an inside look into the 2021 CrossFit Games season, offering viewers unique behind the scenes footage, engaging interviews with top athletes and their coaches, and pointed analysis.

For episode two, Kari Pearce, Kristi Eramo O’Connell, Justin Medeiros and Mallory O’Brien are highlighted.

Get insight into their mindset, background, training, and the first steps of their journey to the CrossFit Games.

Watch Miles to Madison Episode 2

Next episode of Miles to Madison will feature Tia-Clair Toomey, Brooke Wells, and the second CrossFit Open announcement with Sam Kwant and Justin Medeiros.

Miles to Madison athletes  

Justin Medeiros is the reigning Fittest Man on Earth. He started the 2021 season fresh off his third-place finish at his debut CrossFit Games in 2020. The 22-year-old has a background in wrestling and football, and he started training CrossFit around the age of 13, improving year on year.

Mallory O’Brien finished the 2021 Open ranked in 5th place overall. At 17-years-old, the American athlete competed in the 2018 and 2019 CrossFit Games as a teen. While she was still eligible to compete in the Teenage division this past season, she decided to skip straight to the Individual, qualifying through the Granite Games in 2nd place and earning herself the Rookie of the Year title at the CrossFit Games, having become the youngest ever event winner.  

Kari Pearce is a six-time CrossFit Games athlete and the 2020 Third Fittest Woman on Earth. A lot of eyes were placed on her to be a podium contender at the 2021 CrossFit Games, but the 32-year-old athlete unfortunately had to withdraw from the competition after testing positive for covid-19.

Kristi Eramo O’Connell has competed in the CrossFit Games five times as an individual and finished inside the top 10 four times. Prior to CrossFit, Eramo was a collegiate swimmer and triathlete for much of her teenage years and early adulthood.

Catch up on Miles to Madison, Episode 1

The first episode of Miles to Madison features Rich Froning, Haley Adams and Jonne Koski.

The main goal of Miles to Madison is to showcase what happened behind the scenes in the lives of top athletes as they prepared to qualify for and compete at the CrossFit Games.

The series will showcase unseen footage of Open workouts and announcements, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and how it all lead to the CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisconsin, at the end of July.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

“It could have been better,” Lazar explains. “But we need to save something for next year.”

How did he get there? Was it really lucky that someone in his rookie year finished in the top 10?

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BOXROX interviewed Lazar Đukić a couple of weeks after the end of the CrossFit Games while he was in Strasbourg, France, resting mind, muscle and bones.

Find out how the Waterpolo athlete became the most known Serbian household name in the CrossFit community in less than a week.

Note: This is the 1^st part of the interview with Lazar Đukić. The 2^nd is available by clicking here.

Lazar Đukić Was a Waterpolo Athlete

In Serbia, there are two sports that get the crowd going: basketball and Waterpolo. Interestingly enough, Lazar took the water sport, while his younger brother Luka Đukić diverted to the team sport – Luka also participated at the CrossFit Games this year for the first time and came in 29^th overall.

Source: Courtesy of Lazar Dukic

Lazar however had given up Waterpolo when he travelled to the United States to study and work for a short period of time as a lifeguard. “There I got familiar with CrossFit through a friend who was doing it already.”

Lazar thought he was athletic until his friend challenged him to his first CrossFit WOD: the Murph. Lazar did not do Murph with the weighted vest, and still, he lost to his friend and could not finish the workout. “He beat me bad and I wanted to win, so I started practising, learning new skills, and that is how it went,” Đukić tells us.

Lazar was just interested in CrossFit at the beginning and then he saw some competitions happening in Serbia. He trained for a few months and he came in 2^nd a few points behind the Serbian Fittest on Earth on Lazar’s first competition.

”So I was like, maybe I can be good in this if I try. And I kind of started training for real and started lifting.”

Rookie Only If You Don’t Know Where to Look

Malory O’Brien won the 2021 Rookie of the Year, but we are pretty sure that Lazar Đukić was a big contender for the honour. However, you are mistaken if you think he is a total rookie.

I had the mistake to ask Lazar which competitions he participated in before and which ones did he get on the podium. What followed next was a 2-minute list of competitions around the Middle East and Europe.

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A post shared by Lazar Đukić (@lazadjukic)

From Serbia to Belgrade, to Belgium, Croatia, Egypt, Romania, France, Cyprus, and also the Dubai CrossFit Championship.

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A post shared by Lazar Đukić (@lazadjukic)

Lazar Choose Not to Participate at the Games in 2019

In 2019 CrossFit Inc. had changed its approach to how athletes would get invited to the Games. And that is one of the reasons Lazar Đukić was eligible to compete in Madison, but chose not to.

National Champions would get a straight invitation to the Games and the Open would dictate who was the fittest in each country around the world. Lazar was named the Fittest in Serbia for the 3^rd time in a row in 2019 and could have travelled to the United States to try his luck against Mat Fraser, BK Gudmundson and Noah Ohlsen, but he chose not to.

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A post shared by Lazar Đukić (@lazadjukic)

“There were hundreds of athletes,” Lazar recalls. “I knew most of them would be cut off their first, seconds, or third event, and for Serbia, that trip is pretty expensive. It was a really easy decision for me.”

Lazar says he decided to focus his energy on improving as an overall CrossFit Games athlete. In 2021 CrossFit changed again how athletes would be invited to the Games, with Quarterfinals and Semifinals around the world, which gave Lazar a better understanding of his athleticism and gave him the assurance that he was ready to take on the big names of CrossFit.

• Open = 34^th overall
• Quarterfinals = 14^th in Europe
• Semifinals = 2^nd at the CrossFit German Throdown

“It was a great confirmation for me that I did all of those stages [Quarterfinals and Semifinals] pretty good,” he says. “It gives you some kind of motivation. That you are ready and it’s time now.”

And so, after a week in Madison on his first attempt at the CrossFit Games, he is now the 9^th Fittest Man on Earth.

Lazar Shared the Bedroom with Brother Luka Đukić

Not only it was Lazar’s first time at the CrossFit Game, but his brother, Luka Đukić, finished 3^rd at the CrossFit German Throwdown and was also eligible to go to Madison. The brothers shared the same bedroom and hyped each other up before the events.

Source: Courtesy of Lazar Dukic

“It was really, really special for both of us,” Lazar remembers. The fittest brothers in Serbia usually compete with each other to know who is better at a particular WOD than the other. But during the Games, the atmosphere was different.

“We didn’t even consider each other as competition. We considered ourselves as a team. Even though you have your coach, they are not going to know what you are going through,” Lazar Đukić explained.

This is part 1 of the interview with Lazar Đukić. Part 2 focuses on Lazar’s future and his plans for 2021 and life after retirement. Click here to read part 2 of the interview.

Bar muscle-up relies heavily on upper body strength and explosive power from the hip. While you may think you have that, there are three pre-requisites you should be able to perform to know, for certain, you can do a bar muscle-up.

• 6 strict pull-ups
• 4 kipping chest-to-bar
• 6 toes-to-bar

Everything should be done unbroken.

According to Ben Dziwulski, if you can do all these, you can do a bar muscle-up. Dziwulski is a CrossFit athlete and a YouTuber for WODPrep, a channel who wants to provide “simple, effective, and inspiring fitness coaching for people.”

If you can’t do any of them, then you need to work on your strength with other exercises to get strong enough to perform the 3 pre-requisites. Work to strengthen your entire upper body, with a focus on your lats, biceps and triceps.

Watch Tips on How to Do Your First Bar Muscle-Up

Then, practice the pieces of the bar muscle-up with drills that break down the bar muscle-ups into specific individual pieces.

The bar muscle-up is divided into three main parts: the lever, the hip pop, the arm pull and the transition or fast sit-up.

First, make sure you know how your body should behave on each of the bar muscle-up part.

1. Kipping Lever

Jump into the bar in a hollow body position doing one kip swing. In the backswing, get your head and shoulders as high as possible. Activate the lats by pulling down the bar.

Practice single repetitions.

• Hip pop

Once you reach just before the apex, at the top of your lever position, you are going to pop your hip. That gives you even extra lift and should get your head and shoulders even higher.

• Arm pull-up / Transition

Set up a low barbell with weights on the side. Sit on the ground, hands on the barbell with feet on an elevated surface – a couple of bumper plates should suffice. The position at this should be similar to the position you trained on both earlier exercises, the kipping lever and the hip pop.

Pop your hips, get full extension, then aggressively pull yourself up the bar. The pop should happen slightly before the arm bent.

Extra tip:

• When transitioning, think of looking up the ceiling and just as your head and shoulders passes the bar, look down to the floor, as if you were smashing a glass in front of you with your forehead.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Drills to practice for bar muscle-up:

• Jumping bar muscle-up
• One foot jumping bar muscle-up
• Double banded bar muscle-up
• Box drop-in bar muscle-up

Read More: 20 Muscle Ups Workouts for Dedicated CrossFit Athletes