The CrossFit Open takes place over five weeks between February 23 and March 27 in 2017. If you are over 14 years of age you can compete by just signing up online at CrossFit’s Games site.
I believe the Open is a great way of building a fitness plan that is goal oriented and clearly directed. It has also created a great sense of community and camraderie among my gym’s participants, and by extension, the other gyms in our area. We are often in competition with them during the year at weekend throwdowns and box competitions.
Whatever you may, nor may not, feel about CrossFit, the Open still remains the single largest online event in fitness. It has, since 2015, been more accomodating of anyone who wanted to participate but could not do the movements as prescribed.
It doesn’t really matter what level you are at becuase you can scale the workouts CrossFit HQ gives you so, at any age or level you can get something out of it. What are your fitness goals? How do you plan to achieve them? Are you motivated to get there? If not, maybe training for the Open is a good move to make.
Other reasons to participate in the Open include the pressure of competition. It may be outside of your comfort zone, but this is something that is self-recorded so, you can do it within the safe environment of your own gym with people who have your back. It’s a great way to push yourself. With a wide range of age brackets and scaling options, there are really very few reasons you might not want to do the Open.
In this first video, I talk about preparing for the Open: the whys and the hows. I have taken many athletes and teams through the Regionals and the Games but I have also had the pleasure of helping everyone I train with get involved.
So, getting prepared for the Open is a good thing to think about now. I like to train CrossFit competitors year-round, but the last 8 to 12 weeks is very carefully programmed with a set of specific training cycles.
If you haven’t been training year-round, don’t worry. There are strategies that you can use to make sure you kick butt at the Open. I am going to break it down into the fundamental elements you need to focus on to maximize your training time: barbell cycling, gymnastics capacity, and building your “engine.” And don’t forget the importance of training with like-minded athletes while working under the guidance of a supportive and experienced coach.
Finally, I want to give you an overview of what a year-long training program looks, and how you might want to think about your training timeline in the longer term. Check out my thoughts in this next video and then, when you have done your homework, you can start on Week 1-4 of my 2017 CrossFit Open Prep workouts. The link is at the end of this article.
I’ll add the remainder of the program in four weeks time and continuing to provide video updates on Breaking Muscle as we get closer to the announcements of the first workouts.
When the workouts are released, we will then look at specific strategies for each workout once we have broken them down and figured out a clear strategy. For each workout, you have about four days to get your results recorded so, there is plenty of time to fine tune your approach to maximize your results.
The most important thing about this program is to learn from the process and understand the mechanisms of planning your workouts around very well defined goals. I think targeting the Open is a great way to motivate yourself to get results, and beyond if you really feel competitive.
Every time you test yourself, you learn a little more about yourself. It’s up to you to make your workouts work for you. So, download the following PDF. Get going with the first four weeks of preparatory workouts. Keep an eye out for the next four weeks on these pages.
And remember: Have fun. This should be an exciting process for you. Good luck!
