by Coach Amy
I can’t believe this will be my 4th year participating in the Crossfit Open. If you’ve never participated in the Open, or any other Crossfit competition for that matter, you need to throw yourself in. You work hard all year. You track your numbers and know that you are getting stronger, faster and more coordinated. People don’t give it a second thought to run and then test themselves with a 5k. Why not test yourself with the Open?
Here are my 5 Great Reasons to Sign up for the Open:
- See how you stack up: Not only do you get a global ranking, you can see how you rank regionally and against people in your age group. I’ll be 44 this year and sometimes it can be discouraging to compete against the under 30 group. However, it can be a real ego boost to see my ranking among the 40+ women in the region.
- It exposes your strengths and weaknesses: It sure does feel good to crank on an open work out – chest to bar pull ups? No problem! In my experience (at our non-elite level) we all excel at different movements. When it’s your workout you will feel like a bad ass and everyone will tell you that you are a bad ass. That is, until the next week when it’s painfully clear you’ve been avoiding a particular movement and you know what you need to work on for the next year.
- Keeps people (and you) honest: Ever been working out and you see the person next to you doing sit-ups so fast they are not legit? I hate that. They get one more round than you do and it pisses you off . You want to go up to that person and say “hey, your sit-ups sucked.” To be fair, I think most people are unaware when they are skimping on the range of motion. The Open, however, is the great equalizer. Movement standards are enforced like no other week. You have a partner who is counting EVERY rep and watching EVERY movement. Those sit-ups? This is your time to yell “NO-REP”.
- Really see your results: During the year change happens gradually. You string a couple of double unders together and a month later a few more. You are certainly happy about it and you should be. However, because the Open happens once a year, improvements feel more dramatic. One year you can’t do toes to bar – they next year you are stringing sets of 10 together. Yes, this happens.
- Work harder than you’ve ever worked before: It just happens and you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. I hope that you all register and the join the Team Inner Loop. Your team of coaches and your gym friends will be there to cheer you on!