If you’re into health and fitness and haven’t been living under a rock, the chances are you’ve heard of CrossFit. The fact that I personally bang on about it day to day is hard to miss! So you’ve heard of CrossFit and you may well have watched some of the videos of the CrossFit Games. However, there is much more to “The Sport of Fitness” than watching the top athletes defy nature, performing super humans feats of strength and endurance. The following post is a quick guide to the CrossFit Open and why I think you should take part.
What Is CrossFit
For those who have heard of CrossFit but are unsure, this is part of the description you can find on CrossFit.com
“CrossFit is constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. Based on functional movements that reflect the best aspects of gymnastics, weightlifting, running, rowing and more. These are the core movements of life. They move the largest loads the longest distances, so they are ideal for maximizing the amount of work done in the shortest time.”
What Is the CrossFit Open?
For me, the open is the epitome of CrossFit. The Open is made up of 5 workouts across 5 weeks. Every Thursday a new workout is released and must be completed by the following Monday. Workouts must either be judged by a qualified coach or filmed and submitted for video review.
You may complete the workouts wherever you like and and as many times as you like between Thursday and Thursday, providing you meet the set standards with equipment etc.
Week by week you will able to see how you stand against, literally, the rest of the CrossFit world. An online leaderboard allows you to track yourself against top competitors as well as specific populations within your location.
At the end of the 5 weeks you will have a final seeding. If you are one of the elite you will progress to the next stage of competition, Regionals, if not, you simply have a marker of how you stack up against the rest of the world. Which I think is pretty damn cool!
But Why Should I Sign Up?
Multiple multiple reasons! If you consider yourself somewhat of a superstar then this is your chance to prove yourself. If you’re more of a weekend warrior, this is the chance to see what kind of shape your Saturday 5km in Bushy Park has put you in.
It also gives you something to aim for. The CrossFit Open may be the only time of the year you get to “compete” so to speak. Give it a whirl and see how it unfolds. The best thing? You get to take part again next year and see how much you have improved. You can even narrow your focus to improve the areas that let you down this year.
“I’m Not Fit Enough Yet”
Yes you are. The beauty of CrossFit is that everything is scalable. Rather than spending 10 minutes staring up at a pair of gymnastics rings, you can enter the scaled division. With achievable movements, find out how you compare to people on the same level as you!
Okay, How Do I Enter?
Simple, head over to the CrossFit Games website and register!
In my mind, you have nothing to lose, you can only gain experience and knowledge on where to take your training for the next year.
