My First CrossFit Open Experience

A few weeks ago I competed in my first CrossFit Open.

The CrossFit Games is an annual competition which aims to find the fittest man and woman in the world through a series of gruelling tests or competitions which athletes need to complete either in the fastest time or heaviest weight. But before an athlete can qualify to compete in the CrossFit Games, there are pre requisite competitions that they need to enter and win, to filter the best, or the fittest in the world. The CrossFit Open are the first round of competitions an athlete needs to enter.

Each week for five weeks, CrossFit HQ (based in the States) would release a workout that everyone who entered in the Opens has to do. They would announce it on a Thursday evening (Friday midday EST) and everyone registered had until Monday evening (Tuesday morning EST) to submit their scores online. Your workout must be judged by another registered athlete in person or online by submitting a video of yourself doing the work out. You can redo the workout as many times as you want before the cut off time, but you can only submit one score.

This year CrossFit introduced a scaled version of each work out. Scaled option gives people who haven't mastered all the moves yet, or can't lift the specified weight, an opportunity to compete by having an alternative movement, or lighter weight option to do it in. This was the group I considered myself to belong to.

I can't do the gymnastic type of movements such as muscle ups, I'm still building my strength to be able to do things like hand stand push ups, or do some of the olympic movements with heavy weights. So the scaled version allowed me to enter the Opens and throw down with people in similar situation as me. 

The table below shows what the workouts were each week during the 5 weeks of the Open and how I went. 

Work Out No.	Workout Description	My Results
15.1	Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 9 minutes of: 15 hanging knee raises 10 deadlifts @ 25kg 5 snatches @ 25kg	188 reps Each movement counts as 1 rep, so I completed 6 rounds + 8 hanging knee raises.
15.1 A	1-rep-max clean and jerk 6-minute time cap	40kg
15.2	Every 3 minutes for as long as possible complete: From 0:00-3:00    2 rounds of:    6 overhead squats (25kg)    6 chin-over-bar pull-ups From 3:00-6:00    2 rounds of:    8 overhead squats (25kg)    8 chin-over-bar pull-ups From 6:00-9:00    2 rounds of:    10 overhead squats (25kg)    10 chin-over-bar pull-ups Etc., following same pattern until you fail to complete both rounds	91 reps Each movement counts as 1 rep. I got to 2 rounds of 14 overhead squats + chin-over-bar pull ups, missing the last 9 chin-over-bar pull ups by the 15 minute mark.
15.3	Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 14 minutes of: 50 wall-ball shots (6kg) 200 single-unders	606 reps Each movement counts as 1 rep, so I completed 2 whole rounds and 106 reps of next round in the 14 minutes.
15.4	Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 8 minutes of: 10 push presses @ 30kg 10 cleans @ 35kg	51 reps Each movement count as 1 rep, so I completed 2 whole rounds, plus 10 push press and 1 clean.
15.5	27-21-15-9 reps for time of: Row (calories) Thrusters @ 20kg	13.47 mins

Every week there was a move I found challenging from a technique or maintain a large number of reps perspective. Sure I can do 6 over head squats at 25kgs, but then do another 6 within three minutes, another 18 in the next three minute window, another 20 in the following three minutes, and so on ... it gets hard. 

Thinking back to how I felt after the workouts each week, I really felt happy with workout 15.4. I surprised myself because I find cleans a really awkward move. I've only recently perfected my form and technique. Also I wasn't sure I could push press 30kg, or clean 35kg, ten times in a row and repeat as many rounds as possible in 8 minutes. 

I thought I'd do better at 15.3 but those wall balls are misleading. I've realised I squat too low making it harder for me to get up as the reps increases, so I found myself resting a lot between wall balls. Same problem with thrusters in work out 15.5, I squat too deep instead of just squatting below parallel and popping straight up. 

Looking back at the workouts I think the scaled version was slightly easy for me, but if you can't do certain moves anyways my only option was the scaled version. I'm just more motivated to focus on the skills and building up my strength this year, so that next year I can participate in the non scaled version, or a combination of both.

I really enjoyed the Open. I haven't competed in any individual sports competition since ... athletics carnivals in high school. It brought out a competitive side to me that has been dormant, allowed me to quantify how fit and strong I am ... and I managed to surprise myself. It also brought out other feelings like fear, self doubt and comparison - mostly against myself. I think its good to feel those emotions sometimes because I felt challenged and determined after I stopped beating myself up.

The Open also identified poor technique I was doing which I'm trying to change, but like any bad habit I'm finding it hard to stop doing and unlearn.

Since the Open my box has been focusing on testing. We've been testing our max 1 rep for the various olympic movements. I'll share where I am with those stats in a future post and compare how I'm fairing against my previous 6 month check point.

Linking up with Jess