The CrossFit Open is the biggest CrossFit competition out there! Every CrossFitter around the world gets the opportunity to participate in this once a year competition to help them identify their strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly have FUN and set some new Personal Records (PRs)!

YOU SHOULD! Seriously, every member we have should be signed up for this year’s Open! Whether you have been CrossFitting for a week or 5 plus years. Trust us, you will be happy you did!

We recommend that you participate in the CrossFit Open for several reasons. Below is a list of just some of our favorite reasons why you should participate:

Competition Experience:  Many athletes have considered competing in a CrossFit competition, but this thought can be overwhelming for some us. We have heard all the following comments before, “I am just a beginner, I don’t have the confidence to step foot outside of my CrossFit gym into another CrossFit gym, yet alone to compete against people I don’t know and/or who may be much better than me.” “I will only make a fool of myself.” “I can’t do all of the CrossFit advanced movements.” “I have been doing CrossFit for a while and I know myself, I am not at my prime yet, I will compete when I am really at my best”.

Imagine this, an opportunity to compete against a large pool of people, many with the same amount of experience as you/similar skill levels, yet you will never actually have to look them in the eyes, and you get to do this all in the comfort of your own gym?

 

“I am just a beginner, I am not ready to compete yet. The word competition scares me!” If I am a beginner this sounds like a great first competition. I get to show up and compete against a bunch of people, yet there is no intimidation factor, as their presence won’t intimidate me, nor mine intimidate them. I get to do this in the comfort of my own gym, alongside all my regular workout buddies, at the same times I would normally be working out anyway (regular class offerings). For beginners this is great way to get a taste of competition.

 

 “I don’t want to make a fool of myself!”  In over 7 years of participating/watching people participate in the open we have never witnessed athletes “make fools of themselves”. In fact, it is quite the contrary.  The CrossFit Open sparks a fire under everyone’s butt. Yes, everyone’s butt! I am sure some are reading this right now and are saying, “Not me, I am not competitive, I can’t be sparked up…” BULLSH*T, we are calling your bluff (so much so we will put our first born on it) ðŸ˜‰! One of the best parts about being a Coach, is being on the outside looking in at each athlete. We get the honor of seeing that spark in each one of you (whether you know it or not, this spark is what keeps you coming back each day/week/month/year/years). What is your inner spirit animal? Wait to see this animal come to life when you are doing a WOD, but not just any WOD, a special WOD, one where you want to leave every bit of yourself on the floor, your favorite gym buddies are cheering you on (not like they do every day, but with the energy of thousands of fans cheering you on as though you were going for Gold at the Olympics). You will most certainly surprise yourself for the better, the compete opposite of making a fool of yourself.

 

“I can’t do all the advance movements” If you haven’t notice yet, one of the wonderful things about CrossFit is that the program is scalable, and just like any regular class workout, so are the workouts in the Open! So, you don’t have double-unders or unassisted pull-ups yet, this doesn’t matter. You are certainly going to be challenge throughout the Open, but in a way, that is within your abilities.

 

“I am a veteran who isn’t afraid of competition, I am just not at my best yet. Next year after I have had some time to work on my weakness I will sign-up. It will be a better comparison then”. Okay, we are calling you out! Remember it is part of a job to hold a mirror in front of your face and tell you when your ego is getting in the way of your advancement. If you are thinking this thought, this is one of those times! Let’s be honest, this is true of our programming. If you are consistent in showing up to our gym, you will without question be better next year than you are this year! Part of getting better and becoming an elite athlete is being able to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Now, your same ego may be saying, “I know my strengths and weaknesses”. Again, imagine us holding a mirror up in front of your face. Are you truly sure of this? Have you compared yourself against every athlete out there who classifies themselves as a CrossFitter? If you work out alone, or amongst the same cohort of members day in and out, you probably only know your strengths and weaknesses in relation to this everyday population, which in the grand scheme of all the CrossFitters around the world this is like a kiddie pool population. Even the largest CrossFit gym populations can’t bring the measures of the CrossFit Open (how about comparing yourself to 300,000 others?!). Instead of just comparing yourself to the 20-year old’s in your class or the same males/females that you work out with regularly, how great will it be to see how you measure up against females/males in your age group, state, region, country, against others in the same occupation? This is a pretty remarkable experience! Also, you would be surprised I remember thinking, “bar-muscles” this is a weakness of mine (since I had not done one until they were announced is last year’s open), and if I recall correctly, I did the best in relation to my cohort in the workout that had bar-muscles-ups in it. Who would have thought. What this told me? In fact, I didn’t truly know all my strengths and weakness. It allowed me to re-evaluate my “fitness GPA” and truly identify what I needed to be working on with my Coaches and during Open gym time. Where I am going with this is this a great way to evaluate your currently level of fitness and make sure you a preparing for next year as efficiently as possible.

Whether you just want to be super human (continuing to be prepared for all of life’s unknowns), you are just trying to keep yourself independent and out of a nursing home for as long as possible, or whether you want to be a Games athlete, the desired endpoints may be different, but the route we take to get there is the same; turn weaknesses into strengths and what better way to identify these than the CrossFit Open?

We host the Open as a part of our regular class program. So, whether you sign up or not, you will inevitably end up doing an Open workout during a regularly schedule class at CrossFit Jungle Gym. So why formally commit and register?

1.      You pay a small fee to register, yet the experience is priceless: Whether you are data nerd or not, you get a ton of insight as to where you currently stand fitness wise and some insight into all areas for potential growth! Again, you may not have a goal of becoming a regional athlete or even of making an appearance at the CrossFit Games, but you all have the goal of improving your fitness over the long-haul and the best way of doing this is by identify and filling in the gaps in your fitness.

2.      Fueled by a new fire: You get the opportunity to taste what it is like to compete and be fueled by a fire, that is unlike any fire ignited in a regular class setting (and considering our daily/already high energy environment this is saying a lot). You can only imagine what this environment is like if you experienced it in a previous year, and still with every passing year, the excitement grows!

3.      Opportunity for PRs/firsts: Without fail, every year, countless athletes set PRs. Are you so close to getting your first double-under, toes to bar, handstand push-up, muscle up, or any first for that matter? Maybe the high energy, environment that only the Open brings is exactly what you need to make an “almost” a “first”!  

4.      Dedication to your training: You all come to the gym at least 3x a week and dedicate yourself to your training, won’t it be fun to test this fitness in a non-intimidating environment and demand more of yourself? 

As The Jackson 5 say, “ABC…Easy as…one, two, three…Or simple as…Do re mi” … we will send you the link at games.crossfit.com and boom it’s simple from there. You will sign up as an individual under the CrossFit Jungle Gym Team and represent our facility!

Beats us! We can’t come up with one good reason, if you can think of one, we would love to discuss it over coffee!

 

What’s the best way to prepare for The CrossFit Open?