Graham Holmberg and Sam Briggs Deserve to go the Games

Regionals are completed and the Games field is complete. As with every year, there are some exciting new athletes and there are some

notable absences. While turnover is to be expected, there are a couple of athletes that really got the short end of the stick from Crossfit HQ this year: Sam Briggs and Graham Holmberg. They will be missing the Games for different reasons but regardless of the reasons why, these two athletes SHOULD BE AT THE GAMES! If the goal of the Open and Regionals is to get the fittest individuals to California, then the process failed Briggs and Holmberg.

The Case for Sam Briggs: The case for Briggs is twofold. First and foremost, she’s the reigning champ. Crossfit has never had a reigning champ fail to defend their title when healthy (Annie obviously missed last year with an injury). Prior to this year, any former champion was entitled to a trip to the Games. Kristan Clever didn’t qualify last year but was invited to the Games. HQ removed that rule this year and Briggs suffering because of it. But Briggs isn’t a charity case. She didn’t finish 12th in her region or perform terribly at Regionals. In fact, out of seven events she recorded three wins (more than any other female in her region) and two other top five finishes. She had a disaster finish in the handstand walk, tumbling after just 65 feet, and finished a disastrous 26th place. She totaled 44 points on the weekend, but 26 of them came in that event. Had she walked 20 extra feet, in an event that’s more “skill” than “fitness,” she would have qualified for the Games. On the cross regional leaderboard Briggs shows up at 27th which isn’t great but it’s certainly within the top 40 and without a doubt worthy of a trip to the Games.

The Case for Graham Holmberg: Everything I just said about past champions is true in Holmberg’s case as well. Plus Holmberg’s fourth spot would have qualified even if he wasn’t a former champion because Froning took first in his region and under the former rules; Froning’s qualifying spot would have opened it up for the fourth place male to go to the Games as well. Even outside of that though, Holmberg’s case might be even stronger than Briggs. Holmberg finished in the top ten of every event of the region except one and the exception was an 11th place finish. He also won two events and logged another top five finish. On the cross regional leaderboard, Holmberg was tenth in the world and would have won ten other regions. Needless to say he would have qualified for the Games in any other region in the world. He is a Games level athlete and deserves to be there in July.

Castro’s proclamation that there would be no wild cards or special invites seems not only short sided but bad for the sport of Crossfit. Two of the “fittest” athletes in the world are missing the Games because HQ decided to change the rules. If the goal is to find the FITTEST, Briggs and Holmberg deserve the chance to compete for that crown.

Strength Training Over the Month of May

I keep thinking I’ll be able to write more often and then I look up and two weeks have gone by (or almost a month in this case), but oh well. It’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to……or something like that. May has been a pretty solid month of training and I’m really loving this 5-3-1 program with Boring But Big as my main assistance work. I’m feeling stronger than ever and even my gimpy shoulder is finally feeling strong and stable again. I’ve also removed the regularly scheduled deload weeks and instead will just listen to my body and take the easy week when I feel wrecked.

Some notable PR’s over the month of May:

Cinco de Mayo = Deadlift Day

Whew, today was a Monday and what better way to start off the week than with a heavy leg day. It started with my 3X3 sets on deadlift (285, 325 and 360), but for some reason on the first set I did five reps and decided to just keep pushing through with five reps on all three sets. What can I say? I’m not terribly an intelligent programmer. I felt strong today after two days off and just decided to push through. The final set at 360 was pretty brutal but luckily I was in my garage instead of the gym so I was able to let out some blood curdling screams with the last couple reps. The deadlifts, although certainly heavy, felt strong and 360 for five is certainly a PR. I was tempted to try and bang out a couple more sets of doubles at a heavier weight just because it felt like a good day, but I was up against it time wise. I felt like getting in the accessory work was probably more important that t couple more sets at heavier weights. Who knows though, I left the weight on the bar so I might knock out a couple more sets after work. I also want to try some deficit DL’s or maybe some block pulls, but we’ll see....

After deadlift, I jumped straight into my second week of the Boring but Big routine with 5X10 back squats at 195. I could already tell this was a bit easier than last week. It had been a long time since I remember doing any back squats for 10 reps so it felt much more difficult last Monday, which is even more encouraging because last Monday the squats were done well after I finished my deadlifts. This week I jumped right into the squats though with minimal rest. Again, I might throw in some front squats when I get home. I wanted to do more during lunch but time wasn’t on my side.

Crossfit Already Looking Past the Games and into the Off Season

Towards the end of Thursday night’s Dave Castro said something that peaked my interest when he quickly mentioned some of the plans that HQ had for the upcoming off season. In years past there has been a significant “Games Hangover.” That means basically that the sport disapears for several months following the Games in July. There's very little news out of HQ, very few competitions and little to no buzz. I almost compare the CF yearly rotation to most Olympic sports. For three years they're totally out of sight, then one year we're all supposed to care and then they vanish again. For the past couple years Crossfit has been comparably cyclical, building in excitement and momentum from January to July, then falling off a cliff right after the Games.

We’ll normally get video clips of the events at the affiliate Big Sky event and the past two years they’ve started the USA vs. the World competition but that’s really all Crossfit HQ has had to offer from basically late July through the end of the year. During that time most athletes dive into off season training programs that center on getting stronger or shoring up individual weaknesses, not to mention allowing time for their bodies to recover from the grind that Games preparation demands. While that down time and off season training is necessary, it frankly sucks if you're a fan of the sport. While it’s an unfair comparison, I look at how the NFL manages to stay top of mind all year round despite their season only running from August to February. The NFL is the top of the sports pyramid in the US, so why not try to copy some of their methods? There are ways that Crossfit could stay on the 'front burner' during the off season, so what can Crossfit HQ do to change this recent trend?

2014 Crossfit Games Open 14.5: Reactions and Looking Forward to What's Next

Well Dave Castro didn’t disappoint last night as he rolled out another “first” for the Crossfit Open. Despite using only the two movements that everyone expected, Castro shocked us all by turning 14.5 into the first “for time” Open WOD. Needless to say, all these “firsts” are going to make predicting any future Open WODs virtually impossible (as if they weren’t already). So on to the workout…

So it’s basically a buffet of thrusters and burpees. Have fun with that!!

Crossfit Games Open 2014: Predicting 14.5

The final live announcement of the 2014 Crossfit Games Open is less than 12 hours away and it should be quite an entertaining show. Five, past and present, champions will compete head to head in the live throwdown. Of those five, we have the top two men and women in the world after four weeks of the Open. Yes, Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa, Graham Holmberg, Sam Briggs and Annie Thorisdottir step onto the big stage tonight to take on a WOD that just about everyone in the world thinks will center around burpees and thrusters. After four weeks of WODs, those are the two major movements that have yet to show up, but Dave Castro has shown that he’s willing to break from the mold in 2014.

Last week we saw a rower for the first time in an Open competition and while it created arguably more debate than any other WOD so far in 2014, it’s clear that HQ wants to take the Open in a different direction. Despite their claims of the Open being “inclusive,” I think they’ve proven this year that their only goal is get the fittest of the fit to Regionals and also that they’d really like all of these Open WODs to be completed at a CF box. I’ve never personally completed an Open WOD from home and had to upload a video submission but the process of videoing all the components of 14.4 would have been a nightmare, not to mention that the WOD included the use of a piece of equipment that costs nearly $1,000 brand new. My home gym, which has only been open a couple years only, has one rower so even for us completing this WOD took some time. Enough of that though back to the task at hand, which is of course, predicting 14.5.

With the movements that have been eliminated so far in the Open, just about anyone who’s in the guessing game is thinking that 14.5 has to be centered around burpees and thrusters, even the Games Update show predicted those two movements. It’s for that reason, and that reason alone that I think Castro will pull something else out of his hat tonight. I think he’ll want to surprise everyone will something else entirely new. I also think this is finally the week where we finally see a triplet. So with that being said, here’s our fearless prediction:

12 minute AMRAP
15 Thrusters
12 Bar Facing Burpees
9 Sumo Deadlift Highpulls

I'm thinking they start at 95 pounds and increase each round. That gets two of the major missing movements involved while also throwing something at everyone that hasn’t been seen before in the Open. Sumo deadlift high pulls are a fundamental CF movement though and I’m sure almost every person who’s been in a CF box for any length of time is pretty familiar with the movement. So what are your guesses?

Crossfit Open 2014: Predicting 14.4

With three weeks down in the 2014 Crossfit Open and the live announcement for 14.4 less than 24
hours away, I'm quickly running out of chances to get even close on one of these predictions. As the weeks go by though the list of exercises that Crossfit HQ has to choose from is dwindling so I'm liking my chances this week. First let's recap some of our basic assumptions:

Crossfit Open WOD 14.4: Josh Bridges vs. Scott Panchik

The live announcement of the 2014 Crossfit Open 14.4 is creeping up on us again and tomorrow night Dave Castro will pull the curtain back and shock us all for the fourth week in a row. We’ve done pretty terrible on our weekly predictions so far, but that’s to be expected and I think it’s pretty clear that HQ wanted to break free of the mold they’d developed over the past two years. We’ll still take another shot at predicting 14.4 later on this evening or tomorrow morning, but first let’s talk about predicting something we have been better at so far. With three live throw downs in the books, we’ve correctly predicted the winner on twice with only the lovely Talayna Fortunato spoiling our fun on 14.2. This week HQ offers up another star studded pair in which they’ve combined for four Games appearances and of those four appearances, the worst overall finish was a 7th place. We’re of course talking about matchup between Josh Bridges and Scott Panchik.

Tale of the tape
Josh Bridges is 30 years old and reports himself as 5’5 and 165 pounds. Bridges is a two times Games veteran and a podium finisher in the 2011 Games. So far his CF resume looks like a donut. He broke out in 2011, finishing second at the Games and looking like the biggest competition for Rich in upcoming years. Then active deployment and a severe knee injury completely wiped out his 2012 season. He returned in 2013 to so much fanfare that an eventual 7th place finish at the Games felt like a letdown. Bridges cruised through the 2013 Open collecting four top-10 finishes and winning 13.5 en route to a third overall finish in the world, behind only Froning and Mikko. He continued to dominate at Regionals winning four of eight events and finishing in the top-4 in all but one event. At the Games, many expected Bridges to be Froning’s biggest competition but it was a somewhat mixed bag of results. On the positive side, he won just as many events as Khalipa and Froning (3) and logged two more top-3 finishes (pool event and Cinco 2). On the negative side though outside of those four events, his average finish was 28th place with three finishes of 36th or worse.

Scott Panchik is 26 years old and lists himself as 5’9 and 190 pounds. Panchik is only entering his third year of CF competition but there hasn’t been much of a learning curve. He burst onto the scene by winning 12.1 (7 min of burpees) and even an article on the Games site described him as an unknown. He’d go onto to finish 27th in the world in the Open and then place 5th in the stacked Central East Region, behind two previous champions (Froning and Holmberg) so he earned a trip to the Games. Once he got to the Games though, Panchik no longer looked like a rookie. He collected eight top-10 finishes, including a streak of six in a row to close out the weekend, and won the final event, Fran. When the dust settled he was in fourth place, not bad for his first trip the Games. In 2013 he continued to prove he belonged among the big boys, finishing fourth in the world in the Open and then taking second place in the Central East at Regionals. At the Games he got off to a bit of a slow start with two 11th place finishes then a 16th and a 30th,but he again closed out the weekend with an impressive run of five top-10 finishes. In the end he again took fourth overall.

Head to Head
There’s less data here than previous weeks considering Panchik is only entering his third year and Bridges was absent during 2012, so that leaves us with all of 2013 and the three Open WODs so far this year. This almost might be the closest head to head matchup we’ve seen so far in 2014. Of the 27 WODs these two have both completed over that span, Panchik holds a 14-13 advantage over Bridges. Since we’re talking about an Open WOD though it’s worth looking at how they’ve fared in the past eight Open WODs and in those Bridges holds a 5-3 advantage. Panchik’s wins have come in 14.3, 13.1 and 13.2. The first two of those are both WODs that included ‘increasing weights’ so this matchup could very well come down to what kind of workout Castro announces. It would make sense that any workout with heavier weights will favor Panchik, considering he’s got 25 pounds on Bridges, and that any WOD basically mostly on movement will favor Bridges.

Conclusion
Since I obviously don’t know what the workout will be yet, this is really more of a gut feeling that anything else, but I’m going to go with Bridges for two reasons. The first, I don’t think we’ll see heavy weights this week after seeing the heavy deadlifts last week. Secondly, I think Bridges will come into this week feeling like he has something to prove after a somewhat poor showing last week. He only completed 148 reps, good for 1,336th place in the world, dropping him from 2nd overall to 157th in the Open standings. While all of the elite level athletes don’t put much emphasis on the Open WODs, that’s still a disappointing result. His coach, CJ Martin, has addressed the result as well, saying that he was still recovering from a taxing deadlift WOD a few days earlier and ‘played it safe on 14.3.’ That’s a very legit excuse considering Bridges isn’t competing to win the Open, he’s competing to win the Games. Still though, no one is going to enjoy being called out like he was on the CF Games Update Show and I think he’ll have a little something extra when Castro calls out 3,2,1… GO.

Friend or Foe of Crossfit: National Pro Fitness League

If you follow Crossfit, The Sport of Fitness, at any level then you've most likely heard of Tony Budding. Budding was Crossfit's media director for many years and often seen as Dave Castro's right hand man at the Games. That all changed though late last year when Budding left Crossfit to build something of his own. What has resulted is the National Pro Fitness League, a team based version of  the Crossfit Games (my words not his). Here is how Budding describes the league:

2014 Crossfit Open Update: Rich Froning is Dominating

We’re officially past the halfway point of the 2014 Crossfit Open now and in just two short days Dave Castro will again step to the microphone and announce 14.4. We’ll take a look at the live throw down matchup between Scott Panchik and Josh Bridges tomorrow, but today I wanted to pass along some thoughts so far on the Open, mostly concerning how the leaderboards are shaping up.

• First and foremost let me announce that Rich Froning will be crowned the Fittest Man Alive until he decides to no longer compete. I wondered if he’d limp into the Open after flirting with retiring or going “team” in the off season but he’s been absolutely dominant in the first three weeks of the Open. In true Froning form, he hasn’t won a single event but he’s placed fourth, second and eighth. Seriously. With tens of thousands of men competing against him he’s been in the top eight of all three WODs so far. While you might think that’s not particularly impressive for an elite Games level athlete, consider that no other male athlete can even boast two top-10 finishes. Froning’s average finish so far, is 4.7 and no other male or female athlete has an average lower than 11 (Jason Khalipa and Samantha Briggs both have an average finish of 11).
• On the women’s side, (surprise, surprise) Samantha Briggs holds a healthy lead with an event win in week one and a fifth place finish in week three. She’s one of only two females (Camille Leblanc-Bazinet being the other) with two top-10 finishes. Sitting in third place overall right now though is Annie Thorisdottir who’s on the rebound track this year after sitting out last year with a back injury. She finished 35th overall in 14.3 and perhaps more importantly reported no issues after the deadlift intensive WOD.
• In an eerie coincidence both of this year’s redemption stories, Josh Golden and Danielle Sidell, sit at 16th overall on their respective leaderboards. Sidell announced herself in a big on 14.3 by winning the week and destroying the box jumps that got her booted from the competition last year. Despite posting such a high score though, Sidell wrote her blog (another good read if you’re wondering) about some minor missteps that cost her a couple extra reps:

  First, I stopped jumping for a split second after 10 reps and headed back to the deadlifts, wasn’t thinking! Then, I got my jumps mixed up and totally missed the box, haha, ugh those two things are going to haunt me for a while. I am never 100% satisfied with the end result of my workouts. I always look back and think shoulda/woulda/coulda… I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help myself.

• One note on the negative side, two time Games athlete Daniel Tyminski is currently 716th in the North East region after injuring his shoulder during 14.2. He rebounded nicely on 14.3 but the damage has already been done. It’ll be interesting to see if Tyminski resurfaces as a member of his boxes’ team or if he’s one of the “celebrity demonstrators” that HQ has used the past couple of years at the Games. I didn’t see any other notable Games’ athletes who are currently in danger of missing a trip to regionals though.

Open WOD 14.4 is right around the corner so stay tuned the next two days as we'll take a look at the live throw down matchup and take a blind stab in the dark at guessing the WOD.

Crossfit Open 14.3: Back to Basics

Dave Castro dropped the announcement of 14.3 on us tonight and for the first time in the 2014 Crossfit Open, you won't read any complaints from this lowly blogger. This is an inclusive, yet increasingly challenging WOD, and it'll challenge the beginner, intermediate and advanced athlete. This is, at least in my opinion, exactly what the Open should be about. These type of WODs are why the Open has grown from 26,000 people to over 200,000 people in just four years.

Crossfit Open 2014: Predicting 14.3

Tonight Dave Castro will grab the microphone and shock us all with a WOD we never saw coming, but just for grins, we’re back this week trying to predict what Castro will pull out of his hat. I was incredibly wrong again last week (and next week I’ll write this same sentence again), although I was right that burpees wouldn’t be involved. I’ll wear that as a badge of honor for sure and I’m definitely going to continue with my theory based on mainsite programming. With that assumption and many more, here’s what I’m assuming going into 14.3:

• We won’t see double unders, snatches, overhead squats or chest to bar pull-ups. That’s a given, we’re done with those movements for the remainder of the 2014 Open. That’s leaves us with these movements as available options thrusters, clean and jerks, burpees, toes-to-bar, box jumps, muscle-ups, wall balls, deadlifts and push-ups.
• The mainsite workouts of the past couple days have included push-ups a couple days ago and heavy push presses yesterday. So I’m assuming we won’t see push-ups or anything heavy overhead in 14.3. The overheads might be a stretch but I've got to rule out some options one way or another.
• I also thought that they might stay away from anything like toes to bar or muscle-ups because so many people tore up their hands on 14.2, but after looking back at previous years, I’m not so sure. In both 2011 and 2012, they had back to back WODs with toes to bar and then chest to bar pull-ups. Granted the order would be switched this year but at best this is probably a flaky assumption (still going with it though).

If these three assumptions can be trusted (which of course they can't), that leaves us with burpees, box jumps, muscle-ups, wall balls, deadlifts and cleans. I also think we'll see a longer WOD this week and I still think we see some form of triplet. I thought the same thing last week, but previous Opens have each included multiple triplets, so they've got to surface at some point. So with all that being said, here's this week's prediction:

17 minute AMRAP
Two rounds of DT at 115/75
20 Bar facing burpees
Two rounds of DT at 135/95
20 Bar facing burpees
Two rounds of DT at 155/115
20 Bar facing burpees
Two rounds of DT at 175/135
20 Bar facing burpees
Two rounds of DT at 195/155
20 Bar facing burpees
AMRAP rounds of DT at 215/175
A round of DT is 12 deadlifts, 9 hang cleans and 6 push presses

Now you may be wondering why several elements of that WOD conflict with my assumptions above (namely the overhead portion and the triplet), but it's a guess and I figured since I'm throwing darts blindfolded it might as well be a WOD that I'd like. I actually did a WOD similar to this the other day and it was a real beat down. This would also be a creative way of adding a strength portion while still being very inclusive. I assume almost every athlete could make it to at least the hang clean portion of the second set of DT. They could go one step further as well and allow full cleans instead of just hang cleans. Anyone else want to take a shot at guessing?

Crossfit Open WOD 14.3: Stacie Tovar vs Alessandra Pichelli

The 2014 Crossfit Games Open is nearing the halfway point and 14.2 is officially in our rearview mirror. With two weeks in the books, the leaderboards are starting to take shape and they’re filled with names we’re all very familiar with. On the women’s side the top 25 is populated with stars like Camille, Webb, Letendre, Briggs, Thorisdottir and Horrell and the men’s side is arguably even more top heavy with Froning, Bridges, Smith, Khalipa, Panchik, Bailey, Holmberg, Forte, Golden and Maddox. While I personally may have some qualms about the programming so far, the cream is certainly rising to the top and ultimately that’s the main goal of the Open. The live announcement of 14.3 is right around the corner and HQ announced earlier this week that the throw down will pit long time Games veteran Stacie Tovar against last year’s 4th place Games’ finisher Alessandra Pichelli. This should be a great matchup regardless of what Dave Castro pulls out of his hat tomorrow night. Let’s take a look at these two ladies:

Crossfit Games: Steriods, Injuries and the Turnover from 2013 to 2014

Much has been made in the past week or so about several big name athletes missing from the leaderboards after 14.1. We posted an article about it, message boards and social media were buzzing and even the Games site posted

their own video addressing the absence. I’ve seen and read too many people instantly bring up the steroid issue as they wonder aloud about so many people dropping out in the first year of Crossfit’s testing policy. While I think it’s ludicrous to jump to such a conclusion, it did make me start wondering about how much turnover there was from year to year, especially among Games’ level athletes. After all, maybe this amount of turnover is normal and it’s just more noticeable this year because it’s names we all recognize. That sent me searching out each and every male and female (individual, non-masters only) athlete from the 2012 Games. Once I had that list, I checked to see how each of them did in 2013, or more specifically to see if any of them completely skipped the Open.

Just to recap there were 91 Games athletes last year and there were 9 who didn't register a score for 14.1 at all. We’ve got four back injuries (Matt Chan, Zachary (ZA) Anderson, Heather Gillespie and Natalie McLain), a pregnancy (Deborah Cordner Carson), an illness (Mikko Salo), a change to weightlifting (Aja Barto), and two unknown reasons (Nicole Tainatongo and Erin Light). I have gotten a report that Tainatongo’s absence is due to personal reasons, including a desire to rest and focus on her family, but I don't have any way of confirming.

The two things that jump off the page pretty quickly are the number of back injuries. Matt Chan posted pictures of his his injury on Twitter and it’s generally considered fairly severe. ZA Anderson posted on his FB page that he hurt his in the process of completing 14.1 and thanks to a comment on this blog; we know that Natalie McLain is dealing with two herniated disks. Four back injuries from a field of 91 athletes would certainly be concerning if that were a trend from year to year but maybe this is just an anomaly. Also somewhat questionable, to me anyways, is that the CFG Update Show addressed four males and four females, but one of the females they addressed wasn’t a Games athlete last year. So basically they didn’t address the two unknowns (Tainatongo and Light). It’s certainly possible HQ doesn’t know why they didn’t sign back up this year, but by not addressing them at all it does make you wonder if there is more to the story. Editor’s Note: We also listed Orlando Trejo and Travis Mayer in our article, but apparently they created new profiles in 2014 instead of just using the same profile from previous years. They are both registered and completed 14.1.

With a turnover rate this year of almost 10%, let’s look at the change between 2012 and 2013. The short and quick version looks like this: In 2012 there were 90 individual Games athletes and of those 90, only two individuals did not compete at all the following year. Jon Pera, 23rd overall at the 2012 Games, chose not to sign up in 2013 after dealing with multiple family issues in the months preceding the Open. Also sitting out in 2013 after earning a spot in the 2012 Games was Denae Brown, who actually found out she was pregnant shortly before the 2012 Games and withdrew. These are only two athletes that fit into the “didn’t compete at all” category one year following their Games appearance. There were others that underwent drastic change in just a year’s time:

• Joey Warren: The northern California competitor had a shoulder injury at the start of the 2013 Open and he completed one rep in 13.1 and two reps in 13.2 before withdrawing from the Open.
• Alicia Gomes: Completed single digit reps in four of the five Open WODs before announcing she was going to ‘team’ in 2013. I couldn’t find an article that explained her decision but looking at the results I think it’s fair to say she was dealing with an injury during the Open.
• Azadeh Boroumand: After dominating her region and finishing 18th in her first Games appearance, Boroumand looked like a rising star in the CF world but she limped through the 2013 Open, eventually qualifying for Regionals but talking herself out of quitting several times. She’d eventually withdraw from the competition one day after the close of the 2013 Open. She is not signed up for 2014 either.
• Jenny Labaw: We all remember Labaw inspirationally struggling through the Open with a cast on one foot. Despite basically completing all five Open WODs on one leg she finished 337th in her region. By the way she’s back healthy now and posted a 392 on 14.1, good enough for 10th in Northern California.

Oddly enough, that’s it. Two complete ‘no shows’ and four that drastically changed their competition level for one reason or another. Is that enough evidence to suggest CF has a problem with injuries or some other unknown factor? As with most things there are two ways to look at this evidence.

First, I think we’d feel quite a bit differently if there were a couple less names on the DNF list already this year, and there probably should be. I doubt Anderson hurt his back doing double unders, which means he most likely completed at least 30 reps (even if he hurt his back on the very first snatch, which is unlikely). If he and a couple of the other “injured” athletes had at least posted some kind of score in 14.1, then it likely doesn’t raise an eye brow and the Update Show doesn’t have to do a special video to address it. Mikko could easily fall into that same category as well, which could mean that he has a really severe case of pneumonia that he doesn’t think he’ll shake in the next week or two. Barto switching to Olympic lifting is something that CF hasn’t had to deal with in the past but will probably become more common place in the future. At 6’5, Barto doesn’t exactly fit the ‘prototypical’ body type of your elite level Crossfitter and he did qualify for the American Open last December.

The other side of the coin, at least I feel like, is an easy yet very flimsy argument to make. It basically takes two facts (1-This is the first year of more rigid PED testing and 2-the turnover rate is very high) and assumes these two facts must be related. That’s it. It’s 100% pure speculation. While I don’t think any sport, or any gym you walk into for that matter, is 100% clean from all PEDs, I do think Crossfit has taken the necessary steps to ensure that it PED’s don’t run rampant. And I say that as opposed to “ensure that their sport is clean,” because I don’t think any sport is clean. They have instituted random, unannounced off season tests of both blood and urine. That’s a strict and tough as any of your other major sports. Will there still be people that attempt to use PED’s? I’m sure there will be and I’m sure that some will be caught and some will slip by the tests. That’s the nature of the cheater (now if Crossfit doesn’t announce someone has failed a drug test within a year, then maybe I’ll get skeptical of their testing procedure).

So is there a conclusion somewhere in this article? I’m not really sure that there is a clear conclusion that we can draw from this data yet. Yes the turnover rate from 2013 to 2014 does appear to be higher, especially on the injury front, which probably isn’t a good thing considering the studies HQ has tried to fight this past year regarding injury rates in the sport. I also wouldn’t be terribly surprised if we continue to get athletes who drop out each year for “personal” reasons simply because of the amount of time and energy it takes to train for the Games, despite very little payoff. Eating right, paying for membership, plus individualized coaching (which most elite level CFers have), equipment, travel and entrance fees to both Regionals and the Games (yes these athletes pay money in order to be a part of these events) is a tremendous investment that for almost all of the field has absolutely zero monetary payoff. I would imagine that’s a very tough pill for most to swallow once the excitement of going to the Games dies down.

In an sport or profession there will be turnover and Crossfit isn't immune to that fact. I believe this year we are seeing a couple of anamolies that are skewing the data. We will continue to see turnover from year to year but I would be surprised if it continues to be as high as the 10% we've seen between 2013 and 2014.

Crossfit Open Workout 14.2 Standards

Crossfit Games 14.2 Continues to Take the Open in a Different Direction

Dave Castro and Crossfit HQ unveiled the Open WOD 14.2 tonight live from Miami, Florida at I am Crossfit and the live throw down between Talayna Fortunato and Camille Leblac-Bazinet didn't disappoint. I was wrong about the WOD, the movements and the winner of the throw down but, two weeks into the Open, one thing is becoming very apparent; the Crossfit Open isn't for everyone anymore. I wrote leading into the Open that it had two goals, to get the fittest to Regionals and to also be inclusive so that athletes from all different ability levels could participate. Through the first two weeks though, I think the second goal no longer exists.

First let's talk about the workout, it's an overhead squat and chest to bar pull-up ladder where you have 3 minutes to complete two rounds of 10 OHS at 95/65 pounds and 10 C2B pull-ups. If and when you complete that, you have another three minutes to complete another two rounds of 12 of each and so on until can't complete them within the 3 minutes. It's a brutal combination and although the weight is relatively light, both the OHS and the C2B pull-up are a step above basic movements.

While an athlete of my stature generally approaches every WOD with the only goal being survival, I do think I'll try to mimick Talayna's plan. She said afterwards that she wanted to do the OHS unbroken, then break up the C2B as needed. That will be my plan as well, for as long as I can manage. OHS are certainly not a strength of mine and anytime I'm gasping for breath, which will certainly happen after some C2B pull-ups, they are particularly awful.

Predicting Crossfit Games Open WOD 14.2

Its prediction time again as Dave Castro is set to announce the Crossfit Games Open WOD 14.2 this evening. Last week I took a huge swing and miss as I put too much faith in pictorial evidence and Castro zigged when I fully expected him to zag. I hinted a couple days ago that I had a new theory I was working on though and now it’s time to take it for a test drive. First let’s go over some basic assumptions:

• I assume we can completely remove double unders and snatches from the available movements for 14.2. I think double unders are totally gone for the remainder of the Open. Snatches may resurface in later weeks but not for 14.2.
• I’m also assuming that clean and jerks will not show up in 14.2 because so many people used them as a way to break up the snatches. Clean and jerks will definitely show up later in the Open but I don’t think we’ll see them this week.

Sadly those are the only two assumptions with which I have any confidence. That does eliminate three movements though and if we take a look at the remaining movements that have been used in previous Opens, we’re left with thrusters, burpee, toes-to-bar, chest to bar pull ups, box jumps, muscle-ups, wall balls, deadlifts, push-ups and overhead squats. Now remember that theory I was working on…..it’s basically centered on what the “mainsite” programs leading up to the Open announcement. Going back to the first WOD of last year, the mainsite has at least somewhat avoided the movements that will be in each Open WOD in the days leading up to the announcement. For example as of the night of the announcement of 14.1, the closest the mainsite had gotten to double unders or snatches was a WOD with triple unders 11 days prior. Going back to 13.5 last year (thruster and C2B), it had been four days since they’d programmed either of those movements. Looking back at 13.1 (snatches and burpees), neither of those movements had been touched in the previous week. Now this certainly isn’t a fool proof theory, but when grasping at straws is all you’ve got, you gotta roll with what’s available. So I’ve been keeping an eye on the mainsite this week hoping it would eliminate several more eligible movements and I didn’t have a single ray of hope until last night. That’s when they posted a WOD that included 125 burpees!! That means if my theory holds true, we can eliminate burpees from our list as well, meaning we’re left with: thrusters, toes-to-bar, chest to bar pull ups, box jumps, muscle-ups, wall balls, deadlifts, push-ups and overhead squats.

Crossfit Open WOD 14.2: Talayna Fortunato vs. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet

The matchup for the live announcement of 14.2 has been announced and you can bet that these two headliners will not disappoint. Together these two boast six appearances at the Games, five of which ended with top 10 overall finishes including one podium. Talayna Fortunato and Camille Leblanc-Bazinet are no strangers to the Crossfit spotlight; in fact both of them were also a part of last year’s live announcements. Fortunato was teamed against Kristan Clever in 13.3 (150 wall balls, 90 double unders and 30 muscleups) and despite jumping out to an early lead, Clever got the best of Fortunato by four reps. Leblanc-Bazinet was pitted against eventual 2013 Games Champion Samantha Briggs in 13.5 (wicked Fran ladder) and she destroyed Briggs when she was able to advance to the 12 minute round, winning by 69 reps. With two very solid veterans like this, we are sure to get a great throw down.

Games Veterans Missing from 14.1 Crossfit Open Results

Every sport lives and dies with star power and the Sport of Fitness will be missing some of their stars this year. We know for sure that Zachary (ZA) Anderson will be out this year with a back injury, thanks to his Facebook page. There are also a handful of Games veterans who's names are suspiciously absent from the 14.1 results leaderboard. While I was inclined to think it might be some late validation issues, the Games Update Show this evening dropped a delicious tease at the end of their five minute show. They ended with a comment about big names being absent from the leaderboard and that it would be something addressed in tomorrow's update show. So we do know there will be some big name athletes who won't be returning in 2014. Here are list of possible "absentees"

• Mikko Salo: he was first one that caught my attention earlier today. It looks like he's registered but he doesn't have a score yet. 
• Matt Chan: exact same scenario as Salo and Chan tweeted this evening "he forgot the Open started last week." While that totally impossible, it does sound like he won't be competing in 2014, for whatever reason.
• Aja Barto: he's from my region so I might be more familiar with him than most be he's a veterans Games athlete. It doesn't even look like he's registered this year. I found an article right before the 2013 Games where he talked about the strain of running a gym and training full time. He talked about the possibility of giving up the competition side to focus on his gym. He's also very big into Olympic lifting so he might have gone that route as opposed to CF.

Zachary Anderson Out of Crossfit Open 2014 With Back Injury

While we're unsure of the status of Miko Salo, Zachary Anderson (ZA Anderson) has confirmed, via his Facebook page that he will miss the 2014 Games season due to a back injury sustained while performing 14.1. Anderson exploded on the scene last year by winning the South East region and then following that up with a solid top ten finish at the Games. Anderson is still fairly young (25 years old and still hasn't been Crossfit for two years so it's probably safe to say this won't be last we see of him on the big stage.


Hopefully he recovers quickly and Anderson makes a big run in 2015. I'm searching last year's games roster for others who haven't submitted scores yet for 14.1. We'll try to have a full list tomorrow morning. Stay tuned......

Mikko Salo Out of Crossfit Open 2014?

Mikko Salo might be one of the most popular Crossfit athletes in the history of the sport, and he
might also be the most ‘snake bitten’ athlete as well. Salo won the 2009 Games, finished 5th in 2010 and has never been the same since. In 2011 he suffered a busted ear drum during very first workout of the Games, which included an ocean swim. He completed the WOD but had to withdraw himself from the competition. In 2012 he was recovering from knee surgery and couldn’t even compete in the Open. Last year it looked like he ready to challenge for the title again when he finished second in the Open (behind only Rich Froning) and finished second in his region. Just a week shy of the Games though, Salo suffered an abdominal injury that forced his to withdraw yet again. Now his 2014 Games season might already be in jeopardy.

Wrapping Up Crossfit Open WOD 14.1

Crossfit Open WOD 14.1 is in the books and the leaderboards are filled with names that we know and love. On the both the men’s and women’s leaderboard, top 25 reads like “who’s who” of Crossfit power houses with names like Dan Bailey Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa, Josh Bridges, Scott Panchik, Ben Smith, Graham Holmberg, Samantha Briggs, Rory Zambard, Michele Letendre, Kara Webb, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet and Annie Thorsdottir. Two names that I’ll be keeping an eye on this year also had very good weeks, Josh Golden (no relation to me by the way) and Danielle Sidell. Both these athletes were booted from the Open last year after HQ determined that their 13.2 submissions included reps that didn’t meet the standards. Sidell and Golden are both at least Regionals level athletes and should challenge for a Games spot this year. Sidell is just 25 years old and was fairly new to CF during last year’s Open so her best days are certainly ahead of her. Golden is a bit older, 31 years old, and in a stacked region with both Dan Bailey and Josh Bridges. Barring some very late submissions, Bailey and Briggs won the 14.1 weeks with 461 and 472 reps respectively. For some reason the results from the 2011 Open aren’t available on the Games site so we can’t compare those results yet (the article from HQ has to be in the works).

A couple other parting thoughts before we close the book on 14.1. While I didn’t like the first WOD of the Open starting out with double unders, I did like how this WOD left some “grey” areas for people to strategize more than they have for other WODs in the past. Ground to overhead leaves people a couple different options and I saw quite a few videos and read several posts on CF’s board about people playing around with snatches vs clean and jerks and a mixture of the two. Snatches would of course be faster but once fatigue sets in, clean and jerks can take over and help you get back to the double unders. I also saw some guys using women’s bars because it’s easier to ‘hook grip’ on the skinnier bar. While these options may not support the idea of “finding the fittest,” I do like the idea of allowing some strategy to come into play (the old “work smarter, not harder” mantra). I’ve always thought it would be really interesting if they had a WOD at the Games where there were say 100 reps of five different movements (just random numbers for this example), but athletes could partition and complete them in any order they wanted. That would really focus on strategy and the mental side of a person’s work capacity.

For a final thought, I think it surprised some people that Froning’s final score was worse than his 2011 score, but he also pointed out he’s incredibly stronger now than he was three years ago. His powerlifting and Olympic lifting numbers have gone through the roof in the last three years and it’s apparently cost him a bit of “motor” when it comes to light and fast WODs like this one. This has been a growing topic of conversation the last year or so as more and more top level Crossfitters are basically switching to almost entirely Olympic lifting sessions in the off season. The American Open, held a couple months ago in Dallas, included several dozen Games’ athletes including Aja Barto, Spencer Hendel, Josh Bridges, Kristan Clever, Andrea Ager, Candice Ruiz and Lindsey Valenzuela just to name a few. Smaller guys like Chris Spealler and Bridges have spoken about really having to focus their training on bulking up and getting much stronger to compete at the highest levels of the sport. Crossfit the last couple of years seems to have really pumped life back into American weightlifting and events at Regionals and the Games seem to go heavier and heavier each year. It does make you wonder if at some point we’ll see some kind of cyclical type of programming where HQ shifts a focus off of heavier weights and more onto longer, cardio type WODs.

Ok, closing the door on 14.1 and anxiously looking forward to 14.2, which should be announced in just a couple days. HQ hasn’t yet released which two athletes will be throwing down at the live announcement (which sucks because I could be working on a matchup article already if they had), but you can bet it’ll be a great show. I’m also formulating a new theory on predicting the Open workouts (since my last one crashed and burned big time) so keep an eye out for that. I should have a pretty good idea of what to expect Thursday morning. Check back early and often…..3, 2, 1..GO!

Crossfit Open 14.1 Reactions: A Change in Direction?

I’ve had a night to digest the announcement of Crossfit’s Open WOD 14.1 and, while I thought I’d wake up with a better feeling and understanding of the surprise, I’m still very torn on what Dave Castro threw down. There are some things about 14.1 that I understand.

• I understand that HQ likes “repeat” WODs so that they can later brag about how much everyone improved. Mark my words, we will see a post on the Games site within a couple weeks concerning what percentage of the population posted improved scores (granted it’ll be a small sample size considering only 26K people were signed up for 2011 and not necessarily all of that pool is currently signed up for 2013).

• I understand that this is Crossfit’s baby and they can program absolutely anything that they wish.

• I also understand that this is a competition and thus just about any movement, and then some, that’s ever showed up on Crossfit.com is an option for HQ to program. We all knew that double unders would show up at some point of the Open. The surprise though was them being the very first movement in the opening WOD. I would feel very differently if double unders were used as they have been in the previous two years or even if this exact WOD was used later in the competition.

• Lastly, I understand that the primary goal of the Open is to get the correct people to the Regionals competition and every athlete who makes it to Regionals (or for Masters straight to the Games), should be able to knock out double unders with ease.

So what’s my problem if everything above is true?
Crossfit HQ goes out of the way leading up the Open to “sell” it as an inclusive competition. They post countless videos, including several with Glassman himself, encouraging anyone and everyone to sign up and “prove yourself.” They encourage those who are brand new to Crossfit and even encourage those who’ve never done Crossfit. Glassman talked in one of the videos about athletes from other sports and them proving themselves if they think they’re truly a match for Rich Froning. I guess what I’m driving at is my frustration isn’t with how 14.1 was programmed, instead my frustration is with how it was sold leading up to the announcement.

If Crossfit wants the Open to simply be a vehicle to get the most deserving athletes to Regionals, then I agree with, understand and fully support that goal. If that is the case though, 200,000 don’t need to sign up for the Open in 2015. I certainly don’t need to sign up for the Open next year and maybe that entirely ok with Crossfit HQ. Maybe they’d like to establish a clear line between the person who does Crossfit for sport and the person who does Crossfit for exercise. And if that’s the case, it won’t change my love for Crossfit or my passion to write, think, watch or follow the sport. I could not be clearer about that last point, while I’m disappointed and/or discouraged in the programming of 14.1; it certainly hasn’t changed my passion for Crossfit as a whole. Perhaps I look at the Open differently now but that’s ok. I’ll struggle through and Crossfit will crown the fittest man, woman and team in a couple months and all will be right with the world.

Crossfit Open 14.1 - Dave Castro Throws a Curveball

I'll admit it, Dave Castro juked me out of my shoes, he broke my ankles with a wicked crossover and I'm still reeling from it. I thought the rig meant something and I thought they would stick as close to inclusive as possible. Basically I could not have been more wrong. Ok now that my mouth is full of crow, let's move on to 14.1, which is of course a repeat of three years ago (11.1).

Here's a look at the movement standards:

Crossfit Games Open 2014: Predictions for 14.1

I posted last night that I thought Crossfit North Atlanta had given us some really good clues as to what we’ll see tonight when Dave Castro announces the first Open WOD of 2014. Now that I’ve had all night to think about it, I think I’ve come up with a prediction that I feel fairly confident with, at least for now (small disclaimer: I always feel confident with predictions until they’re proven wrong, it’s my process).

First, let’s recap, here’s what we know based on the pictures that CF North Atlanta posted. One, there is a two man rig set up for some movement that’ll require hanging from a bar (pullups, toes to bar, chest to bar etc) and the rig doesn’t currently have any capability for squats from the rack or wall balls. Secondly, the rig is not set up in the center of the arena so that tells me there will be more to this workout than just pullups, toes to bar, chest to bar, etc. Now of course I’m probably making way too many assumptions based on just a couple pictures. Maybe the rig won’t be used at all (although last year if they set up a rig they used it and when they did need a rig they didn’t wait until the last minute to set it up) or maybe Dave Castro is just trying to throw us all off, but at this point it’s just more fun to mild wild assumptions based off the few clues at our disposal. Now onto the prediction for 14.1:

17 min AMRAP (ode to 13.1)
30 burpee pullups
30 clean and jerks (95/65lbs)
30 burpee pullups
30 clean and jerks (135/95lbs)
30 burpee pullups
30 clean and jerks (185/125)
30 burpee pullups
30 clean and jerks (205/145)

I'll freely admit that I'm at least partially biased, if not totally and completely, because if I have one minor strength, it's with the clean and jerk. I'd feel fairly confident if this were the WOD (and by confident I mean that I would post a number I'd be happy with, not confident as in a number that even a Regionals level athlete would be satisfied with) and to be honest I'd enjoy it. Burpee pullups are brutal, especially when you're talking about 60+, but all of the Open WODs are going to be brutal and at least with any variation of burpees, you can keep moving. Your strength isn't going to "give out" on a burpee. You're going to slow down but you can keep moving and for a very average CFer like myself, that's important. If this were the WOD, and I can assure you it won't be, I'd be shooting for at least getting to the 185lb clean and jerks. Now that I think about it, I'm going to have to try this WOD at some point after the Open just to see how far I'd get.

Crossfit North Atlanta Drop Big Clues about 14.1

Ever since Crossfit started the live announcements of the Open WODs I've gotten even more
enjoyment out of trying to guess/determine what the WODs will be by searching Facebook and Twitter for photos and hints of the site of each live announcement. There is some logic to this after all, equipment and an "arena" must set up ahead of time and it's only logical that each home gym and their members will be excited about the unveiling. So far this has led to plenty of pics regarding each setup and Crossfit North Atlanta did not disappoint today. They've posted quite few pics from before any set up started and all the way through final construction. Here's what we know:

An arena was constructed and nothing was inside that arena while it was built. Once the arena was complete, a small, two person rig was added to one side of the arena. The rig was very simple with one pull-up bar on each side. There was no J-hooks for squats or targets for wall balls, this rig will used for pull-ups, T2B or perhaps my favorite idea, burpee pull-ups. There is a small chance that wall balls could be a part of this but as of right now there are no targets on the rig. That would be an easy add at the last minute so don't totally rule them out.

Of course just knowing that the WOD will involve a rig doesn't tell us even close to the entire picture but it is pretty interesting considering that the none of 11.1, 12.1 or 13.1 used a rig at all. Perhaps 2014 will be quite a surprise form Dave Castro after all.

And yes, that's Mr Bob Harper, from the Biggest Loser, in the brown jacket. That guy loves him some Crossfit.

Crossfit Open 14.1 - Garret Fisher vs. Marcus Hendren

When HQ first announced that the live throw down for 14.1 would be between Garret Fisher and Marcus Hendren, I was a bit underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong, both of these guys are extremely upper echelon Crossfitters. They boast Games experience and they’re both young enough for us to assume that they’re best days are ahead of them. While Rich Froning deserves to be the favorite until he decides to stop competing, both Hendren and Fisher are very serious competitors for the crown and/or a podium finish. Did I say I was underwhelmed? What the heck was I thinking?!? Crossfit only started these live throwdowns last year but I think this one is the second best matchup on the men’s side that we’ve seen, second only to Froning vs Khalipa. Let’s take a look at how these two young guns stack up:

Measurables:
Garret Fisher is 22 years old and reports himself as 6’1, 210 pounds.
Marcus Hendren is 25 years old and reports himself as 5’10, 198 pounds.
My only thought on this is that I was surprised Fisher outweighed Hendren. Fisher looks like the leaner athlete but I guess that’s what an extra three inches does for you. There’s obviously a three year age difference as well.
Experience
Garret Fisher, as best I can tell, started competing in CF in 2012 when he finished 29th in Northern California in the Open (285th overall) and finished up a very respectable 7th at Regionals. That didn’t earn him a spot in the Games but the then 20 year old proved he would be back. Last year Fisher cemented his spot as a Northern Cali beast, taking 4th in the Open (50th overall) and nailing down third place in a very tough region to earn a trip to the Games. He beat out solid Games veterans like Pat Barber and Gabe Subry. His first trip to the Games wouldn’t be a disappoint either as narrowly edged out Hendren for 5th place, including top 5 finishes in Row1 and the Burden Run. Fisher was solid and consistent throughout the Games, getting off to a solid start with top 10 finishes in each of the first four WODs and ended the weekend with three more top 10 finishes.
Marcus Hendren, again as best I can tell, also started competing in CF in 2012 when finished 11th in the Central East in the Open (141st overall) and followed that up in a 4th place finish at Regionals (behind two Games Champs Froning and Holmberg). His first trip to the Games culminated in a solid 7th place finish that included two top three finishes. Last year Hendren had an eventful ride to the Games, finishing 3rd in the region (42 overall) in the Open, but then having to make a mad dash on the final day of Regionals to earn his return trip to the Games. In the first four events at regionals, he placed 9th or worse in three of them, but in the final three WODs he notched two wins and fifth to squeeze out Nick Fory by a single point for 5th place (again behind two former champs). At the Games, Hendren again got off to a slow start finishing 37th, 10th and 24th in the first three workouts. Once he got going though, Hendren put on a show finishing inside the top 10 on six of the nine remaining WODs.

Head to Head
Obviously since both these guys were at the Games last year, we’ve got some data to compare since they were doing these exact same WODs in the same conditions. In the 12 scored events from last year, Fisher holds the head to head advantage by finishing ahead of Hendren in six of the events. Hendren can boast four victories and they actually tied in two events. Fisher had six top 10 finishes and two top five finishes while Hendren had seven top 10 finishes, but only one top five, although that was first place overall finish in the Zig Zag sprint.
When you go back and look at Regionals, Hendren really dominated Fisher although the times out of the Central East were incredible across the board out of that region last year for whatever reason. Hendren posted better times/lifts on six of the seven events when compared to Fisher, although Fisher was in the top 5 in all but one event, whereas Hendren only posted three top five finishes. If you go back even further, Hendren posted better numbers on three of the five Open WODs from last year.
So is there a conclusion somewhere in here?
The honest answer is I don’t know. Fisher and Hendren are both amazing CF athletes, they’re both going to post awesome numbers and most likely be back at the Games in 2014. As to who will win this throwdown, I think the data says it should be Hendren. Hendren performed better in the Open and Regionals phase last year and his worst events at the Games were ‘unconventional’ CF WODs (37th place in the pool and 24th in the marathon row). This WOD should be very basic and conventional. I think the only reason I want to pick Fisher is because he’s more visible during the offseason. He works out with Jason Khalipa and my personal favorite Miranda Oldroyd (aka Shoulder Meat) at the NC Lab so I can at least see some of what he’s doing and who he’s working out with on a daily basis. I know he’s getting pushed and getting better. So now that I think about it, on the off chance that Miranda stumbles across this lowly blog, I have to pick her guy (call me Miranda, let’s talk :-) ).
Garret Fisher will win the live throw down at 14.1!!
You can of course watch it all live on the Crossfit Games site Thursday, February 27th. Be there and be ready…..(seriously Miranda, call me!)

What is Inclusive and Why Does Crossfit Care?

After my last post, it occurred to me that perhaps not everyone understands why it’s so important that the Open is “inclusive,” I when I say inclusive I mean that almost everyone, regardless of their fitness level or experience in Crossfit, can post a score. Crossfit HQ wants as many people as possible to compete and complete the Open. They use the word “inclusive” quite a bit and they’re very up front about wanting anyone and everyone to join this worldwide competition. You don’t have to be in great shape, or be able to lift the backend of a car off the ground or even be a member of a Crossfit gym. They literally want everyone to sign up and do their best to complete five WODs over five weeks, it’s really that simple.

Why would Crossfit HQ care about being inclusive?
I’ll start with the answer that I think they’d give, they don’t want anyone to feel intimidated by some crazy, highly skilled WOD. They want everyone to feel comfortable with signing up and competing, to the best of their ability. They want everyone to be able to “post a score.” In order to accomplish that goal, they won’t have WODs that start with a “skilled” movement (double unders, handstand pushups, muscle ups, etc) or a movement requiring heavy weight. By starting with movements or weights that almost everyone can complete, they allow and encourage more people to sign up.
And of course the secondary reason, or you could just describe is as an outcome of the reason listed above, the more people that sign up, the more money it generates. Signing up for the Open isn’t free (although it is cheaper than any other competition you’ll find) and let’s be honest, HQ wants the Open to generate as much money as possible. The Open has grown by astounding rates over it’s now four year history and it’s “inclusiveness” is a huge reason for its success.
In 2011, just over 26,000 people signed up for the Open. That’s pretty impressive for a niche sport in their first year of competition but each and every year has remarkable and astounding growth. In 2012, over 69,000 people signed up and in 2013; over 138,000 paid their $20 to join (you do the math on that!). So far in 2014, I count right around 186,000 that have signed up and that number will certainly grow over the next 24-36 hours, until the release of the first WOD. By tomorrow night, I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if Dave Castro announces that over 200,000 people have signed up.
The Crossfit Open is growing at an unprecedented rate, and it’s “inclusiveness” is one of the biggest reasons why.

Crossfit Games Open 2014

The Crossfit Open is just around the corner and I for one, can’t wait. Even though I’m far from a competitive Crossfitter, I love the Open competition. I enjoy the competition it breeds within a gym and I relish the idea that somewhere Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa and Talanya Fortunado are all doing the exact same WOD. As the excitement builds each week I spend hours each day thinking, strategizing and projecting what I think the WOD for that week will be (spoiler alert: we’re never right because Dave Castro is an evil genius) and regardless of what it announced, the excitement instantly turns into frantic preparation. How quickly should I start on the 7 min of burpees? Should I try to go unbroken on the 75lb snatches? The bottom line, for 90% of us Crossfitters out there, the Open is our big stage. While my main goal of doing CF every day is to just be a fitter human being, I really enjoy the feeling of being a competitive athlete for these five weeks. With all that said, I decided to do some predictions on the Open, interview style (because we all talk to ourselves right??):

Will we see any new movements this year in the Open?

Interesting question and I thank you for asking. There are three years of history to consider here when looking at movements from previous Open competitions, but I’m going to narrow our sample size even farther. I think the first year, HQ wasn’t entirely sure what they wanted to the Open to accomplish. Sure they wanted to find the fittest and I think they accomplished that goal but I think when you look at the three Opens in total, 2011 stands out as the least “inclusive” and it’s by a considerable margin. Start with the 11.1 and it opens with 30 double unders. That knocks out a sizeable number of CFers instantly. Double unders are a fairly high skilled movement and any time to you introduce a highly skilled movement first in a WOD, you are going to lose a large number of your population. In the two years since then, both 12.1 and 13.1 started with burpees, a movement every single CF can perform at their own speed. 2011 also included a WOD that was made up entirely of heavy squat cleans and a third WOD that included heavy overhead squats. Both of these WODs don’t fall under the “inclusive” portion of the Open. With three WODs out of five (well techinically six because of HQ error), the 2011 Open wasn’t very ‘inclusive’ at all. Since then the weights have been light and the higher skilled movements have been buried with WODs so that everyone can at least post a score.

So you didn’t really answer my question, will there be any NEW movements in 2014?

Oh forgive me, I started talking and totally forget where I was originally headed. I think HQ is comfortable with what they’ve presented in the past two years and I don’t see them changing up the formula too much this year. I think we’ll see at least “repeat” WOD, but if there is a new movement, I think it’ll be introduced to clear up some of the controversy last year. Box jumps are a difficult thing to judge, especially on a video submission, but you they need to keep some form of jumping or explosive movement as a component of the Open. My solution to that problem: Burpee box jumps. I think we see them this year and that’s the new movement. There I answered your question.

So that’s it, burpee box jumps? What about bar muscle ups or handstand pushups, running or rowing?

I don’t think bar muscle ups would be used simply because I’m not sure how many garage gym-ers have the equipment to do that movement. Handstand push ups are a possibility, but they’ll be buried deep within a WOD, much like double unders and muscle ups have been the last two years. As for running, rowing or Aerodyne work, that’s too difficult to judge in a video submission. There’s no chance of those showing up.

Check back later today or tomorrow and we’ll hit up predictions for 14.1, including what the WOD will be and who will win the live announcement battle between Marcus Hendren and Garret Fisher.

Crossfit Competitions - From the Judges Perspective

If you’ve spent even one afternoon watching a sporting event you’ve no doubt gotten frustrated with a referee or umpire or judge, depending on which sport you were watching of course. That’s one of those roles where the spectator never truly appreciates the how difficult the job is for that person. It’s often a thankless job and one that will almost always end with one fanbase or team pissed off at you for ruining their day. Well, I recently had the experience of being a volunteer/judge at a local Crossfit competition and it was an eye opening day. I’d never judged or officiated any kind of game/match/competition before so I had no idea what to expect going into the day. It didn’t take very long though to realize that it wasn’t going to be an easy or relaxing day. I won’t give you play by play of the whole day, but here are some things that I took from my day:

The day felt like it lasted forever! It started at six in the morning with set up and organization and by the time the dust settled with it was five in the afternoon before competitors were standing on our makeshift podiums. In between I had maybe thirty minutes of downtime, once a 15 minute break in between the second and third events and once because my athlete was a no show for her heat. Between standing on concrete, constantly moving barbells, plates and kettlebells and generally having to think and concentrate all day, I was physically and mentally exhausted. Other than having to count reps for others at the gym during Open workouts, I’d never had to “judge” anyone before so I had no idea just how mentally taxing it can be to do that for five to six hours straight. When you’re competing, you do your WOD, then you go relax/recover for an hour before the next event, but as a judge it was literally hand one score card in, receive the next and find your athlete. At times it felt like one big blur with periods of really intense focus in between. When I WODing myself I have a really hard time keeping track of reps or rounds because I perform so much better when I “zone out” and just go into a trance, but as a judge you have to do just the opposite. You’re focused on hip creases, hand placement, full lockout and so on and so on.

No repping someone is not enjoyable! We’ve all read articles, seen videos or heard someone complain about getting “no repped” or how amateur or “buddy buddy” judging is one of the biggest flaws in the Open. Dan Bailey (aka Danny Broflex) and the Games site even put out a video mocking or warning against “bro reps,” which is basically giving your buddy reps even when they don’t meet the standards. From my experience though (which remember is all of this one day), it was harder for me to ‘no rep’ someone I didn’t know as opposed to no repping a buddy (since my home gym was part of the competition, it was a mixed bag of people I knew and didn’t know). You see I assume that people who know me, know that I would want them to no rep me if I didn’t meet the standard. They know that, for the most part, I’m a stand-up guy and I’m not out to screw them or tank their performance. For someone who’s never met me though, they might think that with every no rep I’m just trying to help out someone else and completely ruin their day. I know, I shouldn’t be concerned with their petty feelings and focus on being 100% impartial for the sake of the sport, but we’re all human. We care what others think and how they feel, at least I do and that’s why it was harder for me to ‘no rep’ someone who I didn’t know.

Crossfit really does have a great community! I’ll be honest, I get burnt out at times on all the PSA’s about how Crossfit changed my life, gave me new way to live, and now I have friends that I love more than family. Especially during the Games season, it seems like there’s a new video or article every other day about someone touting how CF changed their life and about how the community is the best thing they’ve ever experienced. I get it and for this one day I really appreciated it. With three events and 9 heats in the each event, this day was a marathon for me, but almost every heat was finished with a “thanks” or “really appreciate it.” Even when whatever athlete I was judging couldn’t stand up or sit up, they said “thank you.” Even they didn’t agree with the count or got ‘no repped’ they were respectful and didn’t argue. The Crossfit community does have a great vibe and days like this one are proof of that.
Overall my experience was a good one, one that while I’d stop short of calling it enjoyable, I’d certainly do it again. You can’t pull of competitions like this without the hard work and dedication of volunteers willing to give of their time. Look for volunteer opportunities out there if you can’t compete, you are needed and appreciated.

Who Loves CrossFit???? This GUY!!

So I started this blog to talk all things Crossfit, from what WODs I’m doing, to what’s going down in Games season and basically anything and everything that pops into my mind that’s even remotely related to Crossfit (like…is Rich really that good?). Now make no mistake about it, I’m not a professional writer or elite level Crossfitter. As a matter a fact, I’m pretty mediocre at both but they’re both things that enjoy. That may not be the best endorsement for what you’re about to read but hey if you don’t like it, I’ll gladly refund your money.

Now that I spoke so highly of my skills, let me tell you a bit more about myself. I’m 33, happily married and a proud father of three (two girls and a boy sandwiched in between them). I’ve been Crossfitting for almost three years with about half of that time split between the gym I love (Crossfit EST) and trying WOD at home or more recently a globo gym. Time and money have forced me to resort to “globo-WODing” but that’s still better than nothing for now. So my introduction into CF all started on the way home from Chicken Express (didn’t expect to see that on a CF blog did you??). I took the normal way home and noticed a new bright sign on what used to be a vacant warehouse. I recognized the name “Crossfit” and was vaguely familiar with this ‘crazy workout stuff’ but really had very little idea what it was all about. As luck would have it, I was just coming off failed attempts to get back in shape, first just going to a globo gym and then trying my hand at the Insanity DVD series. I was at my heaviest weight ever (5’9 260lbs), discouraged and ready to try absolutely anything to break the spiral that I was in. As soon as I got home I googled this new Crossfit box, called the number and found out that they had just opened and that every Saturday they had a free WOD that anyone could attend. The following Saturday I walked through the doors and attempted my very first CF WOD. I say attempted because it was absolutely terrible and I remember it to this day. As luck would have it, Helen was on the menu that morning and she destroyed me. I barely completed the first run without walking (we won’t even talk about the remaining rounds) and of course I struggled mightily with even banded pullups. I finally completed the miserable experience, although I think it took a sun dial to track my time, but I was instantly hooked. I signed up before I left and showed back up the following Monday, still relatively sore from the two days prior.

I wish I could tell you that every day since Helen ate my lunch I’ve improved, gotten bigger, faster and stronger but that would be huge lie. I excel at “imperfect progress,” that is I take two steps forward and then one step back (or sometimes, one forward and two back or three back). I’d like to blame my lack of “elite-ism” on a busy and chaotic life that’s included two kids since I started CF (for a total of three with my beautiful wife), two job changes and one move, but it’s more just a lack of consistency on my part. I also tend to avoid my weaknesses (don’t tell HQ?!?!) and not exactly stick to the paleo lifestyle (I eat like Neal Maddox, so sue me). In the end though, I’m not a Crossfitter because I have dreams of unseating Rich Froning or standing on the big stage in Carson. I Crossfit because I enjoy it. I enjoy WODing, I enjoy reading about CF, I enjoy talking about CF and I guess now I can say I enjoy writing about CF. If you enjoy all these things as well, you’re in the right spot. Welcome and with all that out of the way…..3, 2, 1…GO!!