Hey guys,
It’s time for another week and another Rundown! We actually have a pretty interesting week ahead of us with the start of the 2019 CrossFit Open… Part two? In case you guys aren’t familiar the CrossFit games has used the CrossFit Open as a qualifier for years now. For the elite athlete this is a chance to earn a spot at the CrossFit Games. But for the rest of us this is an awesome opportunity to have a little fun, test our fitness, and get a good view of what we need to work on the following year and see if there are any holes in our fitness. Because we already had the CrossFit Open in February and they are switching over to a new schedule this will be the second Open of the year. So we have decided as a staff to take a little more laid-back approach to the Open this October and then gear up for next year when there will only be one in October instead of one in February and one in October as there is in this transitional year. That being said, the first Open workout is being announced this Thursday and will be programmed in class this Friday. Whether you sign up for the Open or not these are great workouts and we will hit one every Friday and Saturday for the next five weeks. If you’re not signed up for the Open you will hit this workout in class on Friday. If you are signed up for the Open and you can’t make it on Saturday you can hit your workout in class and be judged on Friday or come Saturday and we will do things in a little more formal competition style and have some fun as well. We have a great week of programming ahead as usual so check out some announcements and a few more Open details and then let’s have a look at what’s planned for you guys this week…
- There will be NO 8:30am class tomorrow, Monday, morning. (10/7). We will have a normal schedule otherwise. Sorry for any inconvenience!
- New CFS shirts will be in the first of this week! Look for these at the gym and be sure to ask your coach how you can snag one for $20!
- As mentioned above the CrossFit Open starts this week. Below I will attach a link for those of you that are interested in signing up. Remember, whether you sign up or not you will be completing these workouts in class so you might as well have a little fun. The sign-up is through CrossFit headquarters and they charge $20. This allows you to input and track your scoring throughout the five weeks of the Open.
Monday: Heavy Day! And it’s also a test day! We will be looking for a new one rep max back squat. For many of us the back squat is our favorite lift and we haven’t tested a true one rep max in a while so if you are feeling good today definitely go for it and let’s see what we can put on the board! Remember to keep your chest up in the bottom and focus on below parallel depth over weight. We will spend about 15 or 20 minutes doing this at the beginning of class and then we have a short little flow piece to get in a little bit more conditioning. This is a simple three round workout with some light running, push-ups, and double unders. Easy day!
Tuesday: Please direct all hate mail to daniel123@crossfitsimplicity.
Wednesday: Hump day…and our last kind of “test day” will be a one rep max snatch. My personal favorite! Even though it is a one rep max day we still want to try to accumulate between five to seven heavy singles while working up to our max. Remember to keep that bar close to your body and be patient, waiting for the bar to get all the way back up to the hip crease before opening up and pulling under. After this we will revisit another test we have done in the past: one max effort set of wallballs! This one is almost as much of a mental/grit test as it is a test of strength. When you feel like you want to quit try to get at least 5 to 10 more reps and really push yourself mentally!
Thursday: This is our last day before the CrossFit Open begins and this is actually the evening that they will announce Open workout 20.1 live online! If you are signed up for the Open and need to hit the workout on Friday you might want to think about taking a rest day or at least some sort of active recovery day and doing some light running, rowing or biking so that you are feeling 100% for Friday’s workout. If you are doing it on Saturday then I would take this as your last major workout day and take things easy on Friday. If you are signed up for the Open but just participating purely for fun then I would stick to your normal schedule and don’t stress out too hard if you are a little bit sore for the open test. Remember though, that the workouts get released five weeks in a row every Thursday evening and we never know what to expect. This means we could have clean and jerks on a Thursday and then find out that the Open workout involves clean and jerks that week as well. That’s what adds to the mystery and the excitement of the Open! Now, back to Thursday: we have a pretty simple 11 minute AMRAP today consisting of rowing/biking calories and moderately heavy clean and jerks. There will definitely be some element of pacing on this one as the time domain is kind of in the mid-range. However, you still want to make sure you are pushing the pace on the rower or bike so that you can give yourself the opportunity to get about four rounds here. Pick a weight for the clean jerk that’s something you can do quick successful singles at and really go for it!
Friday: This will be the first week of the 2019 CrossFit Open (the second Open of the year really) and we are excited! We have no clue what to expect in this first workout but we know it will be solid and we know it will be challenging. If you need to sign up then head to www.crossfit.games.com and follow the link for Open Registration!
Saturday: Unfortunately during the Open season Saturdays are a little bit different. There will not be a typical partner workout but we will instead be doing more of competition style heats for those who need to complete their Open workout with a judge. Get excited!
Like always we have an awesome week ahead of us here at Simplicity! I know for some of us it’s a little… Interesting… That the Open is coming up again so soon. I would encourage everyone though to try to have a positive attitude and keep in mind what the Open is all about: community and testing your fitness! These are great things to keep in mind, and since we’ve already had one Open this year in February it’s not a bad idea to kind of take some pressure off yourself this year and just have fun with this one! We have some great programming coming up in the first part of this week so make sure you guys get into class and let’s keep pushing towards those goals! See you all in class…
~Daniel
