Ever wondered how can you test your fitness with the rest of the world, of Canada, of your age group, your gym…?
While we hit benchmarks all year in our boxes (1 RM back squats, snatch, Fran, Diane etc…) , there’s a time every year when we can test our fitness with the rest of the world .
First of all, let’s take a moment to absorb the level of excitement on my face in the below photo dating back to my first open (2017) where I got my first bar Muscle Up a night before the muscleUp workout 17.2 was announced.
What is the Crossfit Open ?
The Open is comprised of five workouts over five weeks, and this year it starts with 19.1. Open workouts are identified by their year and the order in which they appear. The workouts will be released every Thursday during the five weeks of the Open.
Anyone & everyone doing fitness can & should take part of the OPEN!
After the workout is released, any athlete who has registered for the Open will have until 5 p.m. PT on the following Monday to submit their best score online.
The Open is the first qualifying stage of the CrossFit Games. Any athlete who wants to compete at the Games must first make it through the Open in their region. (The rules have changed a bit this year as to who qualifies and how many but the process starts the same way).
While the purpose of the Open is to find the fittest athletes in each region & country, it’s also an opportunity for any athlete at any level to participate in the competition. It can add meaning and purpose to your training while also bringing your gym’s community closer together. (As a rule of thumb, the Open is the time of year where we see many people achieve important firsts: bodyweight snatch, muscle-ups, toes-to-bars, handstand push-ups, double-unders, etc.)
Most importantly, the Open will also give you some interesting data on your performance in the gym, which can be a guide for setting realistic goals for the following year. You can basically see your placing and progress through out all the years on the official Crossfit Leaderboard.
Compare your performance with your age group, country, region…
Go online and read up more about the previous Open workouts and how it’s the most exciting time of the year for us people in the “getting fit” business that is Crossfit!
How to be Open ready ?
Wether you’ve been in Crossfit for two weeks or two years, you are invited to be part of the Open. Now to be ready for these 5 weeks, we better know the standards of the workout movements included in there and test the previous workouts themselves from previous years (archives go back to the first season of 2011).
Our program at Crossfit 819 is periodically planned to get you ready for the open, so you don’t have to change anything in your training but follow the daily WOD. Now if you are interested in filling in the gaps in your game and over-achieving this year, below is a table that can show you exactly how frequent every move has been prescribed over the years.
Practice the moves you don’t feel confident with and always remember that your coaches are here to help you achieve your goals.
Good luck in this year’s Open and remember that it takes good nutrition, sleep & training to smash these workouts.
– Coach B
