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Prepare For Your Optimal Scores
Hey Vic City,
As everyone is well aware, the Reebok CrossFit Open 2018 is here! We've all had the chance to improve our fitness over the past year, and I know some people have made incredible improvements and put in hours and hours of hard work.
Even though 99.8% of people who register for the Open will not advance to the Regionals, we all want to display our best, most accurate version of our fitness. Unfortunately, or fortunately, you won't be able to gain or lose too much fitness during the Open, so let's hope you've been working hard to bank those 'fitness dollars' over the past few months.
Just like previous years, Cam has structured a fantastic class program that will lead us through the Open, staying in the best physical shape over the next 5 weeks. With all that being said, there are still plenty of ways to influence our Open scores outside of just your current physical abilities.
I will continue to go over strategies and tips, weekly, during the Thursday gymnastic class, which is now going to be from 6:30pm-7:30pm. The time change is only for Thursday, ideally letting everyone get a bit more rest leading into Friday, the day most of us are attacking the Open WOD.
For those that are unable to make the Thursday session, here is a short list of things to keep in mind during the Open that should lead to you achieving your best result.
1. Don't change too much leading into the WOD. Your sleep, nutrition, warm-up, and workout time of day should be what you are used to. Changing any of the above might be theoretically more ideal, however shocking your body with drastic changes could be detrimental. AFTER the Open is a great time to 'experiment' with those changes.
2. Treat your first attempt as your only attempt. Some people end up doing a workout more than once. Even if that might be your situation, attack that first attempt like your last. The workout will get tough, and it will hurt, but having that 'out' thinking, or "I'll try it again later" will only slow you down and cost you reps. Who knows, your redo might go worse so give that first attempt all you have.
3. Have a strategy going into the WOD and know the movement standards. If at all possible try to come to the Thursday info session to get strategy tips based on your strength and weaknesses for the movements that week. There will also be a short video published each week with the movement standards. Review that video as getting 'no repped' is never fun, but getting a no rep, and not knowing why, mid WOD is devastating.
4. Communicate with your judge prior to your start. The judge is the final say in all rep counts, so make sure that you listen to them for when you are done, and don't try to move on beforehand and don't waste time once all your reps are complete. Some athletes like every rep called aloud, some like silence. The judge's job isn't to be your cheerleader, it is to accurately count and assess your reps, but communicating beforehand is usually a good start.
5. Every week is a new opportunity. Each week is a fresh slate, so don't give up just because you had a bad previous week. On Thursday at 5pm, we all start with 0 reps. Some weeks might go well, some might not be as awesome, but you need to just take it week by week and just don't quit.
6. Have fun and be supportive. Like I mentioned earlier, 99.8% of athletes will only get the 5 weeks of the Open. You could come 40th in Canada West or 4000th, and 18.5 will be the end of your season. Don't stress too much, and just go out and give it your all. Everyone is trying their best, regardless of ability. We all hurt and we all suffer for 1 rep or for 1000, so cheer and be supportive of everyone who registered.
Hopefully see you all out on Thursday at 6:30pm for some week 1 strategy. This is my 6th Open, and I'm looking forward to sharing as much knowledge as you are willing to listen to, to help maximize all our scores.
Here is "The Story of the Open" from 2015, it's a longer video but the first 2 minutes is great. For those of you new to the Open, this might give you some insight on how things go down week to week. For those veteran CrossFitters, it might either give you chills of excitement or panic attacks.
Good luck and get pumped!
Adam
TRAINING WEDNESDAY - THURSDAY
WARM-UP: 3 rds - 8 lunges, 8 hanging knee raise or ttb, 8 KBS
SKILL: Athlete's choice - HSPU or Ring Muscle Up progressions
20-30 sec work, 1:30-140 rest (2 minute cycle) x 6
Work through progressions for HSPU (holds, strict or kip) or Ring MU (seated with bands / ring row transitions / spotted reps / full reps).
BE SAFE, this is practice and we want to reinforce great technique!!
WOD: 30 sec rolling intervals
For this workout, you may choose to row or assault bike. The rotations will be the same but for class organization, you will stick with the same machine for the full workout.
If you row, set the monitors to 30 sec work, 10 sec rest to make sure that you get the full benefit of the 30 seconds of work. You will go off your monitor not the main clock if you are rowing.
Try to keep your intensity to clearly defined effort levels - there should be a clear "easy", "moderate" and "hard" progression through the rounds!
No score, just keep moving :)
All groups: In teams of 3 people rotate every 30 seconds through the following sequence:
30 sec effort each @ 60%, 30 sec effort each @ 75%, 30 sec effort each @ 90-95% x 5 (22:30 total time, longer for rowing)