Fraser on 3rd-Place Finish, Thuri Helgadottir Injured

Mat Fraser talks about placing third in the 2020 CrossFit Open. Thuri Helgadottir tells the world about her shoulder injury before the Open.

Friday, November 15th, 2019

Good morning and welcome to the WODDITY podcast for news about CrossFit. We are a daily podcast, Monday through Friday, doing CrossFit news in five minutes or less.

My name is Ben Garves and today is Friday, the 15th of November, 2019.

Fraser on 3rd Place Finish

Men’s Health dove headfirst into some post-CrossFit Open mania with Mat Fraser. It’s great to see a national publication embracing the methodology as much as they have been in the last few months. In the article, they cite sources like Morning Chalk Up and BoxRox, which makes the world feel either upside down, or like it’s finally correcting itself to be right site-up.

I’ll read you my favorite portion of the article, which talks about Fraser not taking first in the Open and how it’s due to the shortened offseason:

Fraser always takes time off after the Games in August, but in previous years, the CrossFit season didn’t start until March. This time, the Open kicked off in October, giving him far less time to prepare — in this case, only a week. “I definitely pushed the off season a little bit longer than I usually do,” he says, “and it definitely showed,” especially compared to his competitors.

“Five or six weeks before the Open, I was talking to [three-time Games podium finisher] Pat Vellner, and he's telling me some of the workouts he was doing,” says Fraser. “I was like, ‘Are you serious? That’s like full-fledged Games training.’” That intensity paid off for Vellner, who’s currently the Open champion, but Fraser’s personal motto is “Hard Work Pays Off,” so he isn’t particularly upset that his minimal inputs resulted in a minimal output.

“It's definitely disappointing not to see my name at the top,” he says, “but I'm not surprised at all.”

I have the link to the full article in my show notes at WODDITY if you want to get the full five tips from Fraser on how to crush it, post-Open.

Thuri Helgadottir Injured

Thuri Helgadottir took to Instagram yesterday to celebrate the completion of her tenth CrossFit Open and consequently open up about an injury she has been competing with. The injury is a type 2 SLAP lesion, which is basically fraying of your labrum near your biceps.

I actually have been managing a very similar injury since high school football. Athletes have a wide variety of options, including surgery, but less-invasive choices include cortisone shots and a whole lot of accessory work. My personal savior has been Crossover Symmetry. The stuff of legends. I think I first discovered it when Camille Leblanc-Bazinet was recovering from her shoulder injury, but it’s made all the difference in the world to me.

Despite the injury limiting the movements Helgadottir can complete, she was still able to finish 64th in the world in the 2020 CrossFit Open. The stars aligned and Dave Castro didn’t program any of the movements Thuri Helgadottir was unable to complete. 

I told you yesterday that competitor spots for the CrossFit Italian Showdown would go fast. It took them barely over 24 hours to sell out of all 1,500 spots. Things got crazy and I’m pretty sure I saw an 85 year-old masters athlete elbow out Sean Sweeney for the last spot. That’s not all she wrote, though - they’ll be selling spectator tickets sometime soon.

Other than that, the only other big piece of news I have for you is that ticket sales are now open for the Norwegian CrossFit Championship in February. They start at 25 euros for single-day tickets or 40 euros for a full-weekend pass.

Healthy Holiday Gift Guide

My holiday gift guide item for today is a fun one: the Gainz Box. I was suckered into my first subscription box about six or seven years ago when a girlfriend gifted me a six-month subscription to Birchbox. All I remember from that was that I got a cool pair of socks, a phone charger for the wrong type of phone, and eighteen bottles of cologne I refused to wear because I'm not THAT guy. Gainz Box has broken out of that mold for me, and it’s definitely the highlight of the month when it shows up at my door. October’s box showed up with...you know what? I won’t ruin the surprise.

You can use the link in my show notes at WODDITY and the code "GZ10" to get 10% off your first order, and check out my full holiday gift guide while you’re at it.

Also, circling back on my love of the Reebok Nano 9, Reebok gave us a really epic deal for you, it’s $50 off select Reebok Nanos. I have the link to that in my show notes, too.

Get Select Nanos for $50 at Reebok with code NANO50

And that’s it for news about CrossFit on Friday, November 15th.

We have a few more Sanctional sponsorship opportunities available to organizations looking to sponsor our live reporting during the 2020 CrossFit Sanctional season. Those companies and organizations, like Reebok and TriggerPoint get access to our amazing daily podcast audience, spaces on our event live streams, analysis videos, and more. Reach out to me at [email protected] for more details.