~Coach Nate Dunfee

Raise your hand if you’re excited for The Open?  Raise your hand if you’ve never heard of The Open?  Ha…I’m picturing all of you staring at your phones and computers raising your hands.  Well I hope between those 2 groups we’ve pretty much covered everyone.  Either you’ve never heard of The Open, or you have and are excited for it.  If not, I’ll tell you why you should be.  For those of you that don’t know what The Open is I’ll give you a quick explanation.  CrossFit started as, and always will be for the vast majority of followers, a fitness program.  A very fun, effective, functional, scaleable, awesome fitness program.  But over time CrossFit has also developed into a sport with elite athletes participating in competitions to test their fitness against each other.  The biggest competition of the year is The CrossFit Games, where the best of the best compete over the course of 3-5 days for the title of The Fittest On Earth.  In order to qualify for The Games you must first participate in The Open, which is open to anyone, anywhere in the world.  The Open is a 5 week competition starting on February 27^th.  On each Thursday for 5 weeks CrossFit will release a new workout.  Everyone participating in The Open has until Monday evening to complete the workout and submit their score online.  That process repeats for 5 separate workouts.  Participants receive a score each week based on their ranking compared to the rest of their region.  At the end of 5 weeks the top 48 men and women in each region are invited to the next stage of qualification called The Regionals.   We are in the North Central Region and there are 16 other regions worldwide.  The Regionals are 3 day competitions in the spring, after which the top 3 men and women receive invitations to The Games, which take place in California in July.

So…back to The Open.  Why do I think you should spend the $20 entry fee and sign up?  Well I’ve got a bunch of reasons, but I think the coolest reason is to be able to say you were a part of literally the biggest sporting event in the history of the world.  The Open started in 2011 with about 26,000 participants.  It grew to almost 70,000 in 2012 and was pushing 140,000 last year in 2013.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see that number over 200,000 this year.  The New York City marathon had something like 50,000 people finish last year.  The Open will be easily 3 times that big.  You may have heard us talk about “shared suffering” in CrossFit.  How the workouts are brutal, but it makes it bearable to know there’s someone next to you going through it with you.  It is so cool to think that there will be people in Texas, Montana, Japan, Brazil, and all over the world doing the exact same workouts as we are.

Why would I sign up if I’m not going to win?  That’s the easiest question in the book.  Do you think people sign up for marathons, or triathlons, or The Hammer Race only because they expect to win?  No.  In competitions like this it’s not about how you finish.  It’s about the simple fact that you DID finish.  That you took the challenge head on and stepped outside your comfort zone to accomplish something you believed you were capable of and even probably some things you thought you weren’t.  There was a great promotional video released before the start of The Open last year (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CiWByHqv4I).  That video gives me the chills and gets me fired up every time I watch it.  My favorite part is the line towards the end, “To prove to yourself, that you have improved yourself.”  That’s what it’s really all about.  It’s fun to compare ourselves to others sometimes and see how we stack up, but the real goal is just to be better than we were yesterday.  Doing The Open will give you a very clear picture of how well rounded your fitness is, and can be very motivating towards achieving the goals you have for the future.

But I can’t do double unders…toes to bar…pull-ups…whatever.  Another great thing about The Open is that the workouts are specifically designed to be inclusive for all levels of fitness, while still challenging the advanced athletes.  In order to complete the 5 workouts from The Open RX last year you needed to be able to perform:

Week 1 – a burpee

Week 2 – a shoulder to overhead at 115#/75#

Week 3 – a wallball at 20#/14#

Week 4 – a C&J at 135#/95#

Week 5 – a thruster at 100#/65#.

If movements show up later in the workouts that are beyond your capability then you can try them as long as you want, and then scale as needed in order to keep working.  The workouts are all AMRAP’s so once you complete your first rep you have done the workout RX.  The Open is great because it challenges you to try movements you might normally shy away from.  I’ve heard tons of stories about people who got their first toe to bar, or muscle up, or PR’d their snatch in The Open because they pushed themselves a little harder than on a normal day.

Team CFP.  I almost forgot about teams.  Not only do the top individuals from The Open get invited to Regionals, but the top 30 teams do as well.  The teams are ranked by taking the top 3 male and female scores from your gym for each week of The Open.  The best part is, anyone can contribute those scores.  At CFP we have a strong chance of sending a team to Regionals, and the more people we have sign up the better because you never know what the workouts in The Open are going to be.  If a workout happens to come out that has your 2 favorite movements in it, then you could be one of the three scores we take that week.  Plus it gives you another reason to wear the sweet new Team CFP shirts that are on sale at the gym now.

When do we do the workouts?  At CFP we perform The Open workout as our WOD for Friday each week.  The atmosphere in the gym is always electric.  There’s something in the air and it doesn’t feel like just another normal day.  It seems like everyone has been online watching videos, getting tips, checking scores throughout the day, and everyone has a goal in mind for how many reps they want to complete.  We always try to encourage each other during our WOD’s at CFP, but it goes to another level during The Open.  Everyone pairs up and gets their own judge who counts for them but also acts as your own personal cheerleader to encourage and push you through the entire workout.  Anyone who has seen my wife in action can tell you Heather is worth an extra 5 reps on every workout as your cheerleader.  You can tell after each heat of the workout that people are pushing themselves to new heights and without fail each week you will see someone surpass their goals or set a new PR.  That is my favorite part of The Open.

Training for The Open.  Well I hope I have convinced you guys to sign up.  And if you’re looking to ramp up your training I am excited to announce we are going to start offering a competitor’s class at CFP.  The class will be open to anyone who is serious about taking their fitness to another level.  The plan is for the class to be held on Saturdays at noon at CFP HQ and go for 75 minutes.  The general format will include skill sessions on advanced movements like handstands, muscle ups, and pistols followed by some EMOM or interval work and finally a met con.  I know many of you have other members you like to compare yourself against.  You check the whiteboard to see their score, but might not be able to work out together during the week due to conflicting schedules.  This class will be a great time to get together and learn from each other, push each other, and have some fun throwing down.

That’s it for today guys.  I’ve already signed up for The Open, and I know some of you have joined me already as well.  The rest of you need to head on over to games.crossfit.com and get on it!!  Let’s see if we can get 100 people signed up to represent CFP out there in the CrossFit community!!

Monday 01202014

Announcements

Pre-orders for the new CFP Team T-shirts and Tanks go out Feb 6th.  You can place your order by clicking HERE  

Do you need to work on those double-unders?  Come join us with World Champion Molly Metz for a two hour Double-under seminar to help you successfully get those Double-unders!  

Date:  Sunday, February 16 

Time:  9:30am – 11:30am  

Click HERE to Register 

6 Spots Left  

Fitness 

A.  Every 90 Secs in 4 Sets 

3 x Heavy Deadlifts (Increase each set, perfect mechanics) 

B.  10 Min AMRAP 

10 x DB or BB  Push Presses 

30 x Double-unders 

Rest 2 mins 

and then…. 

3 Min AMRAP 

10 x Air Squats 

5 x Sit-ups 

Performance 

A.  Every 45 Secs for 8 Sets 

3 x Power Snatches @ 115lb/85lb 

B.  10 Min AMRAP 

15 x Push Presses @ 95lb/65lb 

30 x Double-unders 

Rest 2 mins

and then…. 

3 Min AMRAP 

5 x OHS @ 95lb/65lb 

5 x BOB or (5 x C2B Pull-ups optional)  

Sport 

A.  Every 45 Secs for 8 Sets 

3 x TNG Power Snatches 

Set 1 – 2 @ 115lb/85lb 

Set 3 – 4 @ 135lb/95lb 

Set 5 – 6 @ 155lb/105lb 

Set 7 – 8 @ 175lb/115lb 

B.  10 Min AMRAP 

15 x Push Presses @ 115lb/85lb 

30 x Double-unders 

Rest 2 Mins 

and then… 

3 Min AMRAP 

5 x OHS @ 115lb/85lb 

5 x C2B Pull-ups 

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