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This year, the CrossFit Open begins February 21st- a Thursday. That’s 7 weeks from today.

When CrossFit HQ developed the Open in 2011, their purpose was clear: ” To cast as wide a net possible. To make sure anyone, who wanted to prove their fitness, had a chance to compete.” And in that year, 26,000 people signed up.

Fast forward seven years, and almost 430,000 officially registered and participated in 2018.

While for a few, the CrossFit Open is the gateway to the next step- a bigger step this year than any other, because the winners go directly to the Games. But for the rest of us, the Open represents an annual check-in on our fitness. This is the one time a year (typically, but this year is an anomaly with the Open appearing twice- Once in the spring, and once in the Fall) that you can go head-to-head with anyone in your age group across the globe.

Plus, it’s a great way to hang out, cheer on, and bond with your CrossFit box community.

Last year, many of you jumped on one of our teams for a voluntary, friendly team competition. This year, I invite you to do the same, but as we all learned from doing 18.1-18.5, five weeks of new challenges takes tenacity, perseverance and strategy. And so, I urge you to consider starting NOW to prepare for it.

 

Here are 5 good reasons why:

1- Burpees are easier when you’re five pounds lighter.

2- NO ONE likes to be NO REPPED. Practicing your skills now can reduce and eliminate that (THINK: Wall Ball touches the wall, feet touch the bar in Toes To Bar, full lock out on the Ring Muscle Ups)

3- You want to be the top one compared to your gym “same fitness level” buddies. You know, those names you look for on the white board. Yes, you’d like to beat them (in a nice way of course).

4- You WANT a PR during the Open.

5- If you’re going to commit to the five workouts, it might as well be your BEST five workouts.

 

So, here are five ways you can prepare:

1- Get your nutrition on point. The holidays are over, so clear the pantry and stock up on things that will set you up for success.

2- Return to your regular frequency doing WODs OR even increase your frequency at the gym with WODs and accessory work.

3- Fit in your recovery.

  • Be intentional with what you eat/drink BEFORE you workout.
  • Be intentional with what you eat/drink AFTER you workout.
  • Warm Up properly
  • Make yourself cool down and stretch.
  • Be intentional about your rest and making sure you’re getting enough of it through scheduled REST days, naps and nightly sleep.

4- Practice previous Open workouts to re-create the scene and see how you compared to that year’s leaderboard.

5- Sign up officially at CrossFit HQ AND sign-up for our Blue Wave Open 2019 (our in-house team competition where participants are drafted by the Team Captain and you earn points for your team while participating in the CrossFit Open workouts- this year’s details are coming soon!).

 

Regardless of whether you officially register, we still invite you to participate in the Open at the gym. And to that end, we want you to be as successful as you can, because preparing for the Open directly OR indirectly helps any fitness or weight loss or “toning up” goal you have for 2019.

 

If you clean up your nutrition, come to the gym consistently, get more out of your workouts because of better technique, work harder because of the competition and preparing for “the Event” then ALSO what happens: you lose weight, can lift more, will tone up, feel better, get that pull up or that muscle up or that clean and jerk PR you want.

 

And any other fitness goal is impacted by your efforts to focus on an event now. 

 

So here’s what we are doing to help:

1- We are offering a 6-week Nutrition Challenge January 14-February 23 to help you get your nutrition on track and dialed in.

2- Coach Sam is offering a 6-week Back to Basics: Prep for the Open class to help with cleaning up form and technique on the fundamental CrossFit movements (so you won’t get NO Repped AND your improved technique can lead to a new PR).

3- Head Coach Brian is already peppering the weekly WODs with previous Open workouts. The first one (18.1) is TODAY. You can also use Saturday Open Gym mornings to redo previous Open WODs and work on technique and skill for any movement.

4- Lastly, we are offering 30-min private SKILL SESSIONS. This is an opportunity to work with any of our coaches on a specific movement or workout strategy, so you are better prepared for the Open.

If you have questions, just ask. We are here to help… Get ready, it’s going to be a great year!

Want to find out how many competed in your age group last year? Click HERE to see.