The CrossFit Open is upon us…again. Yes, we are doing it twice this year. CrossFit Inc. is officially moving the Open from March to October, so this year we double up. Next year, it will only be in October. For those of you who are new, read on to learn what the Open is. And don’t stress about it.

Dates
WODs are announced every Thursday night for five weeks starting Oct 10.
Cost to register
$20 (to CrossFit, not Second Wind)
Register Here
Games.CrossFit.com
Second Wind Schedule

• Friday mornings, normal class time
• Friday nights, 5pm (no Open Gym)
• Saturday, 11am
• Drop-ins and personal make-ups:  $25

Required Reading

Why Sign Up?, by Michelle Dolge
My Experience in the 2015 Open, by Katherine Lin
My Experience in the 2014 Open, by Kathleen Strouse

The information in this post is meant for everyone at Second Wind, whether you plan to register, plan not to register or have no idea what the Open is.  Please read through it.

What is the CrossFit Open?

How it works:  every Thursday night for five weeks, CrossFit announces a workout.  It is usually an AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) between 7 and 14 minutes.  But not always.  If you have registered with CrossFit ($20 cost), you must do the workout exactly as written either Rx or Scaled, meaning you cannot choose your own weights or modify the movements other than how they are written. There are multiple scaled versions depending on age group.

“Judges” (your fellow athletes in class) will be watching every rep you do and if you don’t meet the proper movement standard, that person will “no rep” you.
Your score is then posted, not just on the whiteboard at the gym, but online where you can compare yourself to everyone else in the the world.  You must complete the workout and post it online by Monday night.

Scaled Workouts

There are scaled versions of the workouts.  These are still very challenging and you still have to do the workouts as they are written and you still have to maintain the standards of movement.   These are for the 99% of us who have no desire or illusions about moving on to the next round…we just want to play in the reindeer games.  You can decide each week whether or not you want to do the “Rx” workout or the “scaled” workout.  Details on that and the scoring at the CrossFit Games website.

Pro tip: most of you should do most of the scaled versions of the workout.

Should I Register?

The answer is “that depends.”  First, you should know that we will be doing the workouts, regardless of whether or not you register.  Whatever CF announces on Thursday night, that will be Friday’s WOD at the gym.  If you are not registered, worry no more about it.  Just come treat it like you would any other day.  No one will count your reps and you can scale however you would otherwise.  This is the best option (don’t register) if you are brand new to CrossFit, if you can’t squat below parallel, or can’t hang from a bar.

If however, you are somewhat proficient at the basic movements and can throw a little weight around, then it simply comes down to whether or not you want to.  I am not trying to convince you one way or the other, but I will say that the energy during Open workouts is far different from any others.  There is cheering and crying and pain and personal records.  It’s hard and it’s fun.  It can bring out the best in the CrossFit community.

If you are on the fence, or even if you are not, please read this piece by Kathleen Strouse on her experience with the Open in 2014 and this one by Katherine Lin in 2015.

Understand:  the difference between registering for the Open and not registering is whether or not someone counts your official reps and whether your score gets posted on the worldwide leaderboard.  That’s it.  You can still come workout even if you don’t register!

The Open at Second Wind

Here is how we will handle Open workouts.  It will be very similar to last year.

Friday Morning: The workout is announced on the Games website on Thursday night.  That will be the WOD on Friday morning, normal class schedule.

Friday Night Lights:  This is the heart of the Open for us.  Instead of Open Gym, we will be rolling through the Open WODs in waves.   This is a fun event.  The energy is through the roof.   It’s amazing to see people struggle and overcome movements and lifts they never thought they could do.  People from other parts of town who don’t go to a regular affiliate often drop in to get scored.  We will open the gym for warm ups starting at 5pm and roll through the WOD in waves until we are finished.  Then a bunch of your friends will likely go to Moreland’s Tavern.

There will be no Open Gym on Friday nights during the Open.  Sorry, but it’s just too crowded and crazy for you to be working on your snatch technique while we are trying to get everyone through the workouts.

Saturday, 11am:  There will be normal boot camp class at 9:00 and a normal WOD at 10am for those who worked out on Friday and want to do something different on Saturday.  The 11am class will be a repeat of the Open WOD for those who need to get scored and could not make it on Friday.  Please arrive by 11.  Again, we will roll through in waves until everyone is finished.

If you have any questions about whether you can/should register, or anything else, please talk to a coach.

Steve