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.

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 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.

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.

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 - 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!)

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.

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!!