It’s that time of year, boys and girls! Time to pony up and decide to toe the line. It’s time for the CrossFit Games Open!
Have you signed up? Will you sign up?
“Why should I?” you ask.
There are plenty of reasons- to test your fitness, to take yourself to another level, to challenge yourself more than the normal workout, to help Team CFW. These are just a few.
“But I’m not trying to be the best at exercising. And there’s no way I’ll win the CF Games, much less Regionals!” you exclaim.
While that may be true, I have a couple of questions for you-
Why did you sign up for and run that 5K? Did you think you could win that?
Likely, you signed up to test yourself. Hopefully you did it because you enjoy running and the 5K was the expression of competing in your sport. If you won, well, that’s just cool!
The CrossFit Games are no different. Many of you are passionate about CrossFit. You’re watching videos, sharing inspiration with one another, and figuring out how to improve your <insert difficult CF movement here>.
The Games Open is our 5K. It’s the first level of competition in our sport. Sure, there are a myriad of “local” competitions almost every weekend. But this is the big one! You get to compare yourself with CrossFitters literally around the world! How cool is that??!!
“But I can’t do pull ups/muscle ups/double unders/etc.” you say.
I’m not going to lie to you. You will need some proficiency at these types of movements. Your strength, skill and ability level should factor into your decision to sign up. If you are thinking about it but aren’t sure, just ask one of your coaches about what they think.
My thoughts-
1) If you’re on the bubble, sign up.
“But, but, but…”
But nothing. These workouts are geared with the average CrossFitter in mind. We haven’t seen workouts with movements like pull ups or muscle ups that would disqualify you from the next week’s WOD. Generally they put something ahead of them that is do-able. And who knows, maybe the next week is in your wheelhouse!
2) It’s going to be FUN!
Last year during the Open, CFW was buzzing! The workouts were exciting! The place was full of energy and we had a blast! No doubt it’s going to be like that x10 this year!
3) You can inspire others!
The biggest cheers last year during the Open workouts weren’t for the ones “killing it.” The biggest cheers came when people busted through and did more than they thought they could. They came for the ones trying and trying and trying to overcome. It. Was. AWESOME! Seriously some top ten moments in the box have come from these WODs.
4) I’m going to make you do the WODs anyway.
That’s right! I can’t make you sign up for the Open but every Thursday in March, we’ll be doing the Open WOD at CFW. Those that are signed up will have a judge and complete the workout as written. Those that aren’t will be able to scale.
So, strap on your wrist braces and get out your compression tights! The Open is coming!!! March 6th we’ll find out the first WOD!!!
