The Crossfit Open 2017
We are coming to that time in the year again when we all start spouting off about the Open. What is the Open I hear some of you cry, is it a golf tournament or is it Scotty’s mouth again? NO, it’s the CrossFit 2017 Open. Here is a brief breakdown for you boys and girls who aren’t fully down with the who, the where, the what and the why of the CrossFit Games.
The Open is the first stage of the games and its online results format allows people to participate against each other from all over the world. A world wide online ranking will select athletes to go on to one of the 8 Regional competitions (the second stage) followed by the final stage, where 100 finalists take part in the Games themselves. The handy infographic on the right (produced by Barbells & Beards) shows the road to the CrossFit games last year, when over 270,000 people took part (exploding up from 26,000 in 2011). This year we expect to see even greater numbers.
It’s pretty amazing to see how it has grown in size and popularity (and sponsorship). I remember the first CrossFit Games competition, held in Aromas California in 2007. It was a good old grass roots, spit and sawdust, lifting in the garage with workouts pulled out of a hat affair. There were no professional athletes and almost anyone could and did take part. This year the Games will be held on 1st-6th August at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, it’s sponsored by Reebok. It’ll be MASSIVE. There are more details of the times and dates here on the mothership site.
So, what will we be doing down at CFH during this time?
Each Thursday night for 5 weeks starting on the 23rd February us CF nerds will be pushing our refresh button on the CF games site to see what the workout will be for that week (the workouts are helpfully named 17.1 – 17.5) and what surprises the Open is going to throw at us to test how generally physically prepared we really are. Then we will bore each other for a few days working out the best tactic for the workout and then also slagging it off because we didn’t do very well and it didn’t play to our strengths.
When the workouts are posted there is an RX version, this means as prescribed or the full monty. There are also scaled versions and we – your team – will also breakdown the workouts and offer some guidance, tactics and also stress the scales you might be better off doing. Historically many people, despite usually being sensible in the gym, have just tried to RX the Open workouts and we have had a number of injuries on muscle ups, walking lunges, deadlifts and more. Please listen to your coaches, not your testosterone levels. This is not dick swinging club remember, safety first please. As Claudia Clarkson tells us, safety never takes a day off.
We will be holding an event every Friday night during the Open, starting on Friday 24 February 2017 (which Josh is calling the Friday night twinkle). This will involve doing the Open workout for that week with your fellow gym buddies and coaches (if the workout suits them), recording your scores online if you have entered and then having a shandy afterwards.
Come on down and have a go, it’s a laugh.