What is it?
The CrossFit Open is the largest fitness competition worldwide and allows everyone in the CrossFit community to enter.
From 2019 onwards, this event will take place over 5 weekends (Friday to Monday) starting October 11. A workout is announced in the early hours of Friday morning (UK time). The workout may last from approx. 7-20mins and includes Rx and scaled options for different age categories. The moves and their standards are clearly defined to ensure that no matter where in the world, the workout is the same.
Entry fee is approx. £20 and you can enter via the CrossFit website. https://open.crossfit.com/. If you enter online, you can input your results following your workout and track where you are on the worldwide leader board.
How does it work at CFR?
We love the Open. Its a great event that brings the community together and fires up some friendly competition in the gym. Usually we find mini-competitions emerge from those of similar abilities, maybe workout in the same classes, etc... which makes it even more fun.
The best time to do the Open (in our opinion) is during the Friday evening. Generally we start around 17:15 and complete all by about 19:30. There will be time slots on the board for you to enter your preferred times. Time slots are usually 15mins apart but depending on the workout this can run slightly over or under. At the end of the evening we usually get a takeaway and recover with pizza, curry, Thai or whatever we fancy! Its a great social event.
If you cannot attend the Friday evening session we will run the Open workout during other classes. The Friday 09:30 and 12:30 classes will run the Open workout. For the 06:30 crew, this will run on the Monday morning at 06:30. We will not run the Open workout at 06:30 on the Friday as we do not have time to prepare having only seen the workout details on that morning. If you have signed up to the Open online and would like to complete the workout outside of these times you will need to make specific arrangements as the workouts are judged. If you need your workout judged for score submission you will need to arrange someone to be there to do it with you. If you are not entering online you do not need a judge, you can complete the workout on your own and submit your score on the board in gym. We will accommodate you as much as possible - Open Gym is available Friday and Monday and Phil is often here on the weekend mornings too so Open Gym can be available.
The Workouts.
The workouts are strict on standards but have an option for all to participate. It is designed to be an inclusive event but if you can not do the workout Rx, you must scale. In our standard WoD's we allow for some 'suspect reps' but this is all because we are happy with people trying their best and developing their skills. In the Open, we (and your judge) must be strict, if you do not squat low enough in cleans, wall balls, thrusters, etc. you will get a ‘no-rep’. If you do not get chest, chin or toes to the bar you will get a 'no-rep'. You must think about the workout, if you can't do it, it is best to scale and get a good workout.
If you enter the CrossFit Open, you will need another member to judge you and track your score. You will also be expected to support others and judge them. On Friday nights there are usually many people in so we have good coverage but during other classes we need everyone to help each other.
The scoring on the Open is a little odd. If you scale a workout you will always score less than someone that has done the workout Rx. For example, if the workout was the following (an unlikely example but you'll get the idea):
- 50 x box step-ups - 50 x burpees - 50 x bar muscle ups with pull-ups as the scale
Both Rx and scaled workouts would do the box step-ups and burpees. If the Rx athlete gets 1 muscle up and the scaled athlete gets all 50 pull-ups, the Rx athlete would score higher. From a scoring perspective, going Rx will always benefit you, but you may get less of a workout and find yourself staring at a bar until the clock runs out! This is only the case in the Open, for the in-house comp, we will reward those who get the best workout and try their hardest (see below)!
All Open scores must be submitted via website/app by yourselves by Monday evening.
In-house Competition - Battle of the Classes
People will be grouped based on the class they attend most frequently.
The top 4 scores from each class will go through each week. (doesn't matter if you are scaled or Rx'd your score will count on the CFR scoring system).
Those of you that have registered interest in previous posts have been put you in your usual class slot (6:30am/9:30am/12:30pm/17:15pm/18:30pm).
The workout will feature on Friday for every class APART from the 6:30am as detailed above.
Everyone will complete the Open workout as that will be the board workout for the day. There will be a movement specific warm up on the board so you can have your full 45 min - 60min session and you can make the warm up as hard as you like or just to prime you for the actual workout
The Open is supposed to be fun and to test yourself so enjoy the experience!
It is hoped that the Battle of the Class format will make things more exciting and hopefully generate a bit more banter between classes.