The question that gets asked every single year leading into the open!!

With less than 4 weeks to go until open workout 17.1 is released, it really is down to crunch time with training. The strength cycles are over, the conditioning has been picked up and another year’s worth of training is coming to an end.

Who should do the open?

I feel that everyone that does Crossfit should participate in The Open!! So many people are scared and feel intimidated because all these incredible athletes who participate in it, but at the end of the day, you competing against yourself.

The Open Isn’t just for the competitors trying to make it to the Games, it’s for everyone. Yes the open is stage 1 and the gateway to making to the Games but it’s not just about them. It’s a good way to measure where you are at as individual and how far you have come and progressed over the past year. For a lot of people, The Open is their benchmark to their own personal achievement. You may not be a competitive person but everyone has a bit of desire to be better and want to improve.

The best part about The Open, is the community behind it! There is also no better way to see your progress than with a room full of people who are positive, encouraging and with you all the way. There is even the option for scaling every workout, so at the end of the day, you don’t really have a reason to not sign up and join in on the fun.

Have you been preparing correctly?

If you plan on being competitive or just want to do well in The Open, the best way to prepare is through experience!! Whether it is from yourself or you’re coach, at the end of the day, the longer you have been in the game, the more understanding you gain as well as know how to prepare correctly.

If you or your coach is smart enough and took the time to look at all past Open workouts, you will start to realise which movements are more important than others. This doesn’t mean rule out any movements that haven’t been in the Open, because over the past couple of years Dave Castro has been throwing in new movements, which has been getting everyone by surprise.

What’s also fun and exciting about the Open is that gyms from all over the world play the guessing game of which workout he is going to repeat. Every year since 2012, he has done 1 repeat workout from the past years, so it’s not a bad idea as an athlete or coach to program past Open workouts into your lead up to The Open.

Open prep advice

Most CrossFit gyms around the world will go through a series of strength cycles in the off season, but as soon as it starts getting closer to the Open that’s when the conditioning starts getting implemented. The key thing when coming off your strength cycles is to make sure you maintain you’re strength because the stronger you are, the faster you can move! With saying that, you never actually know what could be thrown in The Open, for example in 2015 when they had the max clean and jerk after a 9min AMRAP. It comes to show, you really have to be prepared for anything!

The one big thing of The Open, is that it’s limited to how they can test athletes around the world, due to movement standards and measurement of the workouts. Each year a series of the same movements will show up with a couple been left out and maybe a surprise new movement but if you have a look at all the past workouts since 2011, there has only been a handful of movements that have been repeated every year since the first ever Open. These include  “toes to bar, double unders, chest to bar pull ups, thrusters, wall balls and snatches”. So my advice as a coach and a athlete, is that if you’re planning to be competitive or just wanting to RX The Open, make sure you have all these movements in you’re programming and become as efficient as possible with them.

Good luck and I hope you do much better than last year ☺