The CrossFit Open:
1) TK 1, 2, 3) too close to call between:
2) Craig Kim, Melissa, and Holly
3) Is too close to call between:
Brad, Ryan S, and LA Ryan
Our team finished well past 30th place, the number required in each region to continue to the next level. But that doesn't mean we didn't get anything out of the competition. This is how a coach at Diablo CrossFit described the Open:
"...You have compared yourself to others in the gym, or in your age group, or against the best in the world. And, some of you may have been disappointed with your comparative results and maybe even embarrassed with so many amazing athletes posting breathtaking results. But now it’s time to get real about the Open, our physical accomplishments and how we’re really doing. Let me help you put your performance into a more realistic perspective:
"60,000 people chose to do the Open including you. But, it is likely that more than 1,000,000 chose to NOT do the Open. And, of course, millions more could never do the Open. You are in very rare company. And, if you finish the Open wods, you’ll be part of the original 30% who do...
"...The anticipation and execution of the Open workouts have many parallels to the challenges we face in every day life. For many people, just attempting to do the Open workouts (in front of a crowd!) is more challenging than anything else in their lives. Normal daily life challenges suddenly seem easy when compared to what you have accomplished at the gym. The Open has improved our confidence in ourselves.
"Finally, we spend a lot of time looking at the leader board comparing ourselves to our peers at the gym, or the top CF athletes. However, most of us forget to compare ourselves to “ourselves-before-CrossFit.” When you take a moment to evaluate yourself versus you-before-CrossFit, you will very likely find amazing gains in strength, endurance, overall fitness, body composition, and most importantly, your attitude..."
The Rest of us:
The CrossFit Games are just one aspect of CrossFit, and the least important if you ask me. To work out at that intensity all the time, I'm pretty sure a bunch of these athletes aren't really concerned about overal health and wellness, which is how I view fitness. Most of us are like the author of this humbling article from the CrossFit Journal (Click the title under the picture to view the article):
By Gary Jeffress
What Next?:
Since we've all finished in the back at some point, it's safe to see we all have improvements to make. So why stop, when we can push ourselves more....safely of course. Since there are many new members at The Compound, some of you may not know that every three months we test several specific workouts and we call it our benchmark week. They include the CrossFit Total, Fran, Filthy 50's, vertical leaps, etc. We have done 5K's in the past, but traditionally few people show up for that workout. So we're thinking about switching that out of the rotation for now. You can be assured, it will be replaced with something fun.
Monday will be the CrossFit Total. What is the CrossFit Total?
Weight lifting totals have been around as long as weight lifting has. In the sports of Olympic Lifting and Powerlifting, you have three attempts at each lift in the contest to lift the largest amount of weight you can. CrossFit, like these weightlifting sports, has a Total too. For those who have never done it, you get three attempts at a max Back Squat, Standing Overhead Press, and Deadlift. This was added a few years ago to CrossFit programming, because many CrossFitters were simply not strong enough to complete the workouts as prescribed. Strength days began to be programmed more often and the CF Total was born.
Preparing for the Total, you can take as many warm up sets as you need, but once you are warmed up in a particular lift you will have three attempts to hit a 1 rep max, the heaviest you can lift for one repetition. The lifts must be completed in the order written, and are completed during the same hour session (you can't do the first one in the morning and the second two later that afternoon). You will need to employ some strategy. For the first attempt, go for something heavy but that you know you can lift. If you get that weight, go for a new PR weight on the second rep. If you get that rep, go for broke on the third attempt. If you didn't get the second attempt, drop the weight lower, but higher than your first attempt. The max weight of your three attempts will be your score in that lift. Take the max of all three of your lifts and add them up.
For a couple examples of how to "game" the Total, take a look at Brad's Training Log and Craig's Training Log from Friday 9.23.11. These examples are a different set of exercises, but the same idea.
And of course........
You could always train for this challenge in June. The workouts will be able to be completed by anyone regardless of age or skill level!
Thanks for the article The Guy at the Back! It really hit home for me minus the car accidents. Everyone at The Compound has been so motivating and this is a big part of why I keep coming back!
ReplyDelete