As you may have heard, either at the gym or one of the many online sources of CrossFit news, the CrossFit Open is gearing up to start very soon! Beginning on February 22nd, one workout will be announced on Thursday evening for five straight weeks. Each week, you have until Monday evening to complete the workout and log your score. And I really want all of you to do it!!
There are a few reasons that I feel like this is a great idea for all of our members, beginning with one that you might see coming from previous blog posts — personal challenges are important! I believe in periodically signing up for and then leaning into a challenge that will test you, whether that is physically, mentally or emotionally. Many times it will be all three! As you take on that challenge and emerge victorious on the other side, you will be stronger and more resilient for the next one! As far as “victory” is concerned here, please don’t think I expect you to win anything as part of competing in the Open. Victory in this sense will mean that you have given your all to each weekly test, and have timestamped a level of fitness for Spring of 2018 that you can then use as a benchmark for next year’s different but equally tough CrossFit Open.
That brings me to Reason #2: The Open is a great way to have an annual, comprehensive test of your fitness. True, long-distance runs or other pure endurance events are not included, but as those of you that checked out yesterday’s “17.1” WOD at CFKI, there are some pretty long tests of continuous movement that will tax your cardiorespiratory system quite a bit. There will also be short sprint workouts, tests of power and strength, and tests of skill (double-unders and muscle-ups come to mind!) What a good way to see how you have advanced in these individual capacities, as well as where you end up at the conclusion of the Open this year, as opposed to last year. Or again, if this is your first year competing, throw down a good baseline this year and then train hard to wreck it in the Spring of ’19!
Finally, as CrossFit Games commentator Rory McKernan says, the Open “is what we do.” Competing in the CrossFit Open binds you together with the rest of the CrossFit community for 5 straight weeks of competition and community. On Thursday nights at 8pm when the workouts are announced, you’re glued to the CrossFit Games live feed waiting to see what it’s going to be, and then you get to watch two (or sometimes more) big-time competitors you might have seen in the Games last year find out at the same time and then throw down head-to-head! On Friday the Open workout will be our Workout of the Day, and it always seems to be a bit more meaningful if you have some skin in the game — if you know you’re going to enter your score on the CrossFit Games leaderboard to see where you stack up against all the greats, but also against everyone else like you! You can filter the leaderboard to show you everyone in your age range, in the Mid-Atlantic region, even in Maryland! The workouts will have an “Rx” version and a “Scaled” version that everyone can do.
I’ll hope you’ll join us in having fun and testing your fitness in the CrossFit Open this year!
PS – here is a cool link that David Minich found that breaks down what movements and types of workouts have been in previous Opens, in order to predict what this year might have in store for us!
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