Day 16: The CrossFit Open Experience

Day 16
"The CrossFit Open Experience"

WOD 130416

For Time

25 Reps of:

Box Jumps 24"

Jumping Pull-Ups

Kettlebell/Dumbbell Swing 35#

Walking lunges

V-up Sit Ups

Push Press

Back Extension

Wall Balls

Burpees

Double Unders or 200 Single Unders

**This is the modified version of the benchmark workout "The Filthy 50". You definitely will be walking around the gym at the stations but make sure you get there quickly and rep out the movements as fast as you can! A good time is between 25-30 minutes! Push presses can be modified to dumbbell push press 10-15# each hand for girls and 20-25# for guys. If you don't have a jump rope, 200 jumping jacks can be substituted. Pace yourself but go hard! Rest day is tomorrow! Check out the videos if you don't know what these movements mean. Good luck!**

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The CrossFit Open Experience

CrossFit's global move to promote its brand has brought together the whole new sport to the world; the sport of fitness. Constantly varied, functional movements, performed at high intensity with scalable weights and movements, allow all walks of life to participate in their workouts. CrossFit's philosophy towards exercises are inclusive and welcoming. Their belief in "not being great at one thing, but good in everything" has their athletes claiming themselves as elite generalists. Of the three modalities (monostructured, gymnastics  and weightlifting), CrossFit believes the fittest man/woman are great at all types of fitness, covering the 10 essential aspects of fitness (explained in earlier blogs).

So what exactly is the CrossFit Open? What is that?

CrossFit does not discriminate or specialize in any group or individual, but allows an equal opportunity for anyone to participate in their worldwide, all inclusive competition. Think of it as levels. The top level, where the elite athletes compete on the world stage is called the CrossFit Games. Current winners, Rich Froning and Annie Thorisdottir, hold the title, completing 14 workouts within several days, and having the most consistent score across all modalities of workouts. There are usually 48 male and female athletes. Those 48 athletes come from regions across the country and around the world. Regions include South West (Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico), Central East (Tennessee, Virginia, Kansas), Europe (France, Italy, England, Austria), and others. The CrossFit Regionals take the top 48 competitions from their regions for spots for the CrossFit games. This is the tier 2 of the CrossFit Games. To get to Regionals, CrossFit created the CrossFit Open to allow everyone and anyone to compete in workouts that can be counted, scored, and judged. There are over 70,000 people competing in the world for the Open. You can imagine just how elite the people in Regionals are and THEN imagine how fit and elite the athletes who make it to the CrossFit Games are. These athletes truly are well-rounded and great across all three modalities. 

The CrossFit Open is the entry level, first tier, competition to allow everyone to see how they rank themselves against THE WORLD. How amazing is that? To see how someone across the globe did on the same workout is an amazing experience that people like me, who probably won't have a chance to even make it to Regionals, to take on so I can at least say I'm more fit than so and so, or wow someone that's younger/older, heavier/lighter, faster/bigger than me did against me. CrossFit's inclusive and elite generalist philosophy gives all their athletes something to be proud of when it comes to skill, and something to always work on, again, when it comes to a different skill.

My experience with the CrossFit Open was a very humbling experience. I thought I was at a high level of fitness until I placed my scores each week and saw about 3000+ in my region score higher than me. There's no excuse for a 5'8", 142 pound athlete to not be scoring well. Although I hit a PR during the first workout 13.1, with a 135 lbs snatch, that was probably the greatest moment during the Open Experience. I had my peers around me pushing me and telling me I could do it even when I've never snatched more than 115 lbs the week before. I felt blessed, but more humbled because there was 3 more levels of snatch weights I couldn't put up. I just need to train harder, gain a few extra pounds, and use better workout programming so that I can improve for next year. Even though I am one of the fittest among the guys in the gym, I am not satisfied seeing 4 digit place next to my name. I realized how much harder I have to work to achieve that level of fitness, but even if I don't break the top 1000, I will make sure I will say I tried my hardest and worked for greatness with passion and discipline.

The follow videos are the video submissions we taped for the CrossFit Open judges to score our Open workouts. I had a blast participating in all the workouts and see how fit I am compared to the world. It was a good rest to see where I'm at and I definitely look forward to improving all my scores, all my lifts, all my times, and all my techniques to prepare for next year. George, the owner of the gym, Big Hit Fitness, has been more than a blessing for me. By allowing me to use his CrossFit gym, my fitness has improved ten fold and his advice and push helps me reach the next level every time I lace my shoes and get to putting up weight.

Workout 13.5 isn't searchable right now, BUT, you can go to http://www.youtube.com/user/BigHitFitness
so you can see all the videos and subscribe to the channel.