The Open

The CrossFit Open season is almost upon us.  If you’re training and prepping for the Open, unhealthy it’s already here.
I support the Open and would like everyone that is able to sign up – even if you think it’s not for you.  Yes, approved it’s a competition.  But it’s also a way to gauge your fitness and test yourself.  If you’re new to CrossFit and don’t think you’re ready, more about I say sign up.  Have fun with the workouts, do your best, and let the chips fall where the may.  But next year, with a year of CrossFit and training under your belt, you will see, in hard numbers, how much your fitness has improved.
Will the weights be heavy?  Maybe, relative to you.  I would say for most athletes, the weights are moderate to heavy.  Will they throw difficult movements at you?  Yes.  I would recommend that by the start of the Open you have the ability to do a double under and 1 Toe to Bar.  By the end of the Open, I would recommend that you can do 1 Chest to Bar Pullup.  That’s it.  And guess what?  If you can’t do this stuff, that’s ok.  There will be stuff you CAN do.
For our more seasoned, experienced athletes, we have completed the Cube and spent the rest of the year practicing and getting better at the big Olympic lifts.  For the next 7 weeks – the next 2 weeks and then the 5 weeks of the Open – we will be practicing the lifts and building our conditioning to superhero levels.  We will not be following a classic strength progression per se, although we will be doing strength work.  For now, you are likely as strong as you are going to be for the Open – let’s put all that hard work to the test!
Weekly, we will hit the Snatch, the Clean, Overhead barbell stuff and deadifts.  We will work barbell squatting (and wall balls) into this as well.
We will also work on perfecting our basic to advanced bodyweight movements – box jumps, hanging from the bar (C2B and T2B), doubleunders, burpees and muscle ups.  As the Open advances, and we can “cross off” movements we have done, we will focus on the movements we haven’t seen.
I look forward to the Open season.  I can’t wait to see you all face the upcoming challenges, support each other, and meet your goals.

Pete