The Crossfit open is now just 6 weeks away & starts on Thursday February the 23rd.
So as a box we will spend the next 6 weeks focusing on building the fitness and skills necessary for the open.
I love the open and its an opportunity to measure your fitness agains the rest of the world!

Skills 
For most athletes your weakest skill and strength is going to be what effects your overall score the most, so rather than focusing on what you are good at it is time to focus on any skills you can’t do.
Fitness
The fitness levels in the open always surprise me as an athlete, I consider myself very fit and this is my strength & I am always shocked at the speed other athletes can work at.
Athletes will need to be able to work at a 90% max speed in 12-16 Minute WODs, and at max speed for 7 minutes.
Your key fitness element which will come up is the Row. So I will be putting in an optional extra rowing session for those athletes who want to go the extra mile.
This weeks ROW is: 250m row 1 minute rest x 8
Burpees will also come up, so we will be making these easy over the next 6 weeks. Aim to make these feel like a mental rest.
Barbell efficiency
Barbell efficiency is a key skill for all athletes, and it means you must be skilful and efficient with your bar path and timing in lifts. So over the next 6 weeks we will be working at lower weights or reps and really drilling in these movements.
As athletes you need to be maintaining good timing on lifts, not just ripping them off the floor. Another key is the bar path, it must be maintained as close to the midline as possible key errors for most people are in the first pull off the floor, the second pull the bar path must be kept close, then the downward path of the bar from overhead, is your bar coming straight down or out in front of you?
So before each WOD with a bar, I want you to be thinking about this and warming  up with great form. If you don’t warm up well you can’t expect to do it when the clock hits 0.
Key skills and strengths 
Scaled athletes, the open also has scaled options for all athletes so please don’t be put off from competing if you can’t do any of the below exercises & please chat to me if you have any questions.
The key Skills and strengths you will need to RX the open are listed below, with regards to the strengths if you can hit one of these weights that can often be a cut off point for a lot of athletes so by hitting this weight your will jump ahead:
Chest to bar pull ups, always come up so we will be focusing on these.
Handstand push ups – New addition in the last 2 years and the ability to do them with your heels as the highest point needs practising.
Toes to bar – Always come up so make sure you can do these efficiently.
Muscle ups, Bar or rings — These are not as essential as the others for a ok score as so many athletes can’t they will not effect you as badly as if you can’t do one of the other skills well. However if you can do them this will put you squarely in the elite category & I recommend you are able to do 30 in a wod if you want to be top class.
Double unders 30-100 Always come up, these will hold you back if you can’t.
Snatch in WODS your looking at 35/20kg for 10-15 quick reps, But I also think a climbing snatch ladder is possible so being able to snatch 60 and then 70kg will be a big cut off for a lot of athletes. Again a 1rm snatch or C&J is likely to come up.
Clean & jerk In WODs your looking for 60/42.5kg, but over the last 2 years 84/56kg for clean singles is a good weight to aim for. However you will likely have a 1rm clean & jerk or snatch at some point in the open so being able to build to this within a 5 minute window under fatigue is important.
Over head squat In the past this has always been 42.5kg but could go to 50 this year. These are for high reps so tend to be more as shoulder endurance, combined with chest to bars.
Thrusters – Always come up and in high volume so your looking at being able to do 21 @ 42.5/30kg, My dream is a thruster ladder climbing in weight but I don’t think it’ll come up.
Deadlift, usually come up as low weight touch and goes so I recommend learning to touch and go with great form at 52.5/40kg-70/50kg.
Movements unlikely to come up:
Sit ups, press ups, ring dips, running, bench press, bicep curls this is because they are hard to measure accurately or just to beach.
Conclusion
So athletes. As a box we will be working on developing all of the above and getting very fit, however please go through this list and note down your weaknesses as I recommend spending some extra time on these. Please chat to me or one of our coaches to help you find the correct way to improve.
Its going to be a great fun competition. Pease feel free to chat to me if you have any questions.
Duncan