Five weeks ago, in a flurry of excitement and activity, the 2018 CrossFit Open was about to begin! Now after that much time has passed, The Open is over, and with that comes some time to reflect.
For many of us, The Open is our annual opportunity to test ourselves once again against the fittest in the world, and to see where we stack up. Are we more fit than last year?
If it’s your first time, it’s a great benchmark to set, understanding what types of workouts or movements you did well on (and maybe not so well on?) and an opportunity to make adjustments in our training and our goals.
At CFKI, we make adjustments to our programming based on how all of you did in The Open. This year, the following themes appeared:
– Higher-level Gymnastics (muscle-ups, handstand push-ups and walks, chest-to-bar pull-ups, toes-to-bar) were prominently featured in The Open, and prominently failed for many people that generally do workouts “As Rx’d”. That will be the case at every CrossFit gym in the world, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t learn something from it and try to be more prepared next year than this. Expect to see these movements in the regular routine during workouts, but also in warm-ups and skill sessions so that we can always be moving forward in our skill level. Your coaches will help you scale the rep-scheme down appropriately so that you’re not discouraged to attempt the full movement if you can do it. Also, if you can do it, your coaches will hold you accountable to maintaining that standard going forward. If you can’t do it, we’ll work on strength-building exercises so that soon enough (if you attend class regularly) you will be able to perform these movements.
– Mobility – did you ever think the CrossFit Open would test for mobility, or the ability to move your body into difficult positions? How did your Overhead Squat workout go? We will absolutely work on mobility as much as we need to when incorporating a difficult movement, but if your mobility is a serious impediment to squatting or pressing correctly, you might want to think about addressing that individually by attending our Saturday 8am or Sunday 10:30am Mobility classes. I promise it will help!
We also confirmed this year that we have some amazing athletes that train at CrossFit Kent Island! From the newest athletes to the most experienced fire-breathers, there were so many awesome accomplishments to celebrate!
– 18.1 – Carrie and Bruce getting their first ever Toes-to-bar, and Paul dominating his second attempt after figuring out the best swing rhythm!
– 18.2 – Paul as a big dude dominating the male competition with a 7:50 time on the Burpee/Squat portion. Tons of Clean PR’s, including yours truly at 250 lbs and Sam Roberts with a 160 lb lift!
– 18.3 – Muscle-ups were featured once again, and this time Andrew (11) and Denee (8) were able to complete ring muscle-ups in an Open WOD!
– 18.4 – David, Lauren, Liz, and Wes got their first ever “Rx’d” Handstand Push-up! And Denee placed 96th percentile in the world on this workout in her 35-39 age group!
– 18.5 – Ascending Fran… yikes. But some of us have done this one before, as it’s a repeat from 2011 and 2012. Remember when you were doing CrossFit back then? I do. I got 87 reps on that workout and that was pretty good! This year I got 102 reps. That’s a big differential, and it’s because of the training that I’ve done at CrossFit Kent Island. I know, I get to do the programming, but my point here is that if you stick with it, you’ll get the results you want. I promise you.
Finally, I want to highlight one particular athlete that hasn’t been featured in any “firsts” or big-time accomplishments because she has been consistent for the past three years and this year was nothing different. Some of you all might have worked out with Maddie Little in the evening classes – she is 16 years old and odds are she lifts more than you. Maddie ended up as the #1 CrossFit Athlete in Maryland for 2018!! That is such an awesome accomplishment in CrossFit, and I feel so proud of Maddie and her family. That is up from #4 in Maryland last year! Congratulations!
Amazing effort to everyone this year in the Open. I hope you learned a lot about your current fitness level and your goals coming out of the competition. Please let me or any of our coaches know if you have any questions about how to set goals or create a plan to accomplish them based on your results this year.
Cheers!
Ryan
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