When Should I Tackle the 2018 CrossFit Games Open Workout?
Written by C.J. Martin
The excitement of the CrossFit competition season begins this week! For many of you, this is your opportunity to show how hard you have worked over the last 9-12 months. For others, this is an opportunity to be involved in a phenomenal community event, challenge yourself in a fun, competitive environment, and lend your support to the athletes who you see in the gym every day.
At this point, the question that I am hearing most frequently is, “When should I tackle the Open workout?”
First, it is important to clearly identify your goal in participating in the Open. Below are my thoughts on when you should be tackling the 2018 CrossFit Games Open workouts based on various goals.
I Love My Workouts and Want to Have Fun with the Open! – If you love working out with your friends, then I strongly encourage you to participate in the Open and make it a fun community event. I want every one of the members of the Sea of Green to participate in the CrossFit Games Open and feel the thrill of pushing themselves in competition. If you fall into this category, you should be choosing one day each week to do the Open workout…either Friday or Saturday.
But as strongly as I encourage everyone to try the Open workouts once each week, I am even more adamant that they are not doing it twice or more each week. The volume of the events can be too much to handle and properly recover from each week. Inability to recover from the same repetitive movements puts an athlete at a greater risk of injury – which is certainly not worth it if you’re just doing this for fun.
More importantly, the best part of competition is rising to the pressure to perform at your best right then and there. Our competitors don’t get a do-over at Games, professional golfers don’t get mulligans, and Olympic athletes in nearly every sport train for four years for one chance to perform. The nature of competition is that you get one shot to demonstrate how hard you have worked for that moment. Don’t spoil that with the mindset that you will just keep performing the same workout until you get good at it.
Finally, unless CrossFit is your sport of choice, you should be using your workouts to support your general health and fitness, and maybe as a supplement to your other athletic endeavors. To best do that, you should be employing one of CrossFit’s foundational principles – variance. Our typical program relies on constantly varied movements to hedge against overtraining and to best develop an athlete who is well-rounded. Spending 5 weeks performing the same events multiple times cuts against this core concept.
CrossFit Is My Sport! – If you simply LOVE the sport of CrossFit and have been training your butt off for months to perform well as a competitive CrossFit athlete – this means following a program designed to prepare you for competition, or at least diligently working on your weaknesses as a CrossFit athlete in addition to your gym’s typical programming – you may be a candidate to do the Open workouts twice each week. If you or one of your coaches has honestly assessed that you have a chance to qualify or help your team qualify for Regionals and you have prepared yourself well through rigorous training, get in there and get after it hard on Friday. Assess your performance, determine how you might be able to get a few extra reps if you did it a second time, and then hit it again on either Sunday or Monday before 2:00 p.m. PST.
Athletes in this category need to understand though that focusing intensely on the Open for 5 weeks is likely to slow their overall development as an athlete. It’s a short amount of time, and you can get back to off-season training quickly thereafter, but if your primary goal is to continue to develop to be the best CrossFit athlete you can be and potentially compete for a spot on the podium at Regionals in 2018 or beyond, I would consider treating the Open as just another training session in your weekly plan.
Competitive Masters Athletes – You may need to consider performing the Open workouts twice if you are a Masters Athlete who is serious about competing in the sport of CrossFit. These are athletes who dedicate 5 days a week to training and have already hardened themselves to the volume and intensity of some of CrossFit’s toughest workouts. I hate saying that, but if I am being totally honest, I may advise some of the Masters athletes that I coach to do some of these events twice depending on their placement each week. Masters would typically be the last group that I would want performing these events twice in a week, but this is a very competitive group now, so Masters will need to ensure that they have at least done enough on the first shot to give them the best possible chance of moving on to the second qualification stage. If your first shot puts you well within that group, do not perform the Open a second time.
To give our Competitive Masters Athletes the best chance possible, I will advise that they perform the Open on Friday…and then again on Sunday or Monday before 2:00 p.m. PST if necessary.
High-Level Veteran Competitors – You need to hit the Open workout only once in the flow of your regular training week only if you are part of the small percentage of athletes out there who are veteran competitors in the sport of CrossFit and have finished well at Regionals and/or competed at the Games in the past. If you are confident that you will finish in the top 12 in your Region, then you should tackle the Open workout on Friday only, and then continue training with the focus being to peak at Regionals. However, if you are not sure you will be in the top 12-20 in your region in the Open, I would suggest that you hit the Open workouts twice and ensure that you are safely moving on to Regionals.
I am committed to providing the best opportunities possible to ALL of our athletes – both within the walls of Invictus and in our online community – so I will be suggesting and scheduling workouts to accommodate the various approaches to tackling the Open workouts.
Performing the Open Events at Invictus
Friday – Invictus members will have the option to perform the Open workouts during any of our group coaching sessions. There will also be an alternative workout planned. If you train at our Downtown facility, you might consider trying out the Burn 30 class at lunchtime to add to your options.
Friday Night Lights – Every Friday night for the next five weeks, Invictus will host our annual Friday Night Lights event in which our competitive athletes will perform the Open workouts in front of a massive crowd of Invictus friends and family cheering them to their best possible performance. Friday Night Lights starts at 6:00 p.m. and will be at either the Downtown (Weeks: 1, 3 & 5) or Sorrento Valley (Weeks 2 & 4) location depending upon the week.
Saturday – Invictus members will have the option to perform the Open workouts during any of our group coaching sessions. There will also be an alternative team workout planned.
Sunday – I recognize that some of our members will want an opportunity to come in on Sunday to either tackle the Open workout, or because they missed out on their Friday session. Accordingly, Invictus will be open on Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for open gym at our Downtown location.
The Invictus Athlete and Competition Blog Schedule
For those performing the Open events ONCE per week, it is recommended that you follow the following schedule:
Monday – Invictus Training
Tuesday – Invictus Training
Wednesday – Invictus Training
Thursday – Active Recovery or Complete Rest
Friday – OPEN WORKOUT!
Saturday – Invictus Training
Sunday – Complete Rest and Weekly Preparation
For those performing the Open events TWICE per week, it is recommended that you follow the following schedule:
Monday – Invictus Training…unless you have the option of hitting the Open workout for the second attempt on Monday before 2:00 p.m. PST
Tuesday – Invictus Training
Wednesday – Invictus Training
Thursday – Active Recovery or Complete Rest
Friday – OPEN WORKOUT!
Saturday – Active Recovery or Complete Rest
Sunday – OPEN WORKOUT…unless you have the option of resting on Sunday also and hitting the Open workout before 2:00 p.m. PST on Monday
The Invictus Athlete Game Day Schedule
On Thursday evening, the Invictus Athlete team will be eagerly awaiting the Open announcement in order to compile tips and strategy for the Invictus Athlete followers. As soon as they are complete they will be posted on the Invictus Athlete page. We will be posting two session on Friday. The general format will be as follows.
AM Session
– Easy Activation Work
– Elements of the Open Workout. This is where athletes need to practice a portion of the workout for skills and to help determine pacing.
– 5-10 Minute Cool Down – Gentle Aerobic Flush
– Visualization and Physical Restoration Light mobility session as they breathe and visualize
PM Session
– General Warm-Up and Lung Opener
– Targeted Mobility & Activation
– Pacing Micro-Sets
– OPEN WORKOUT PERFORMANCE
– 5-10 Minute Cool Down – Gentle Aerobic Flush
For those competing a second time on Sunday, you will need to make a good judgment on Monday’s training. I would suggest that you train on Monday, but adjust volume and intensity as needed to recover fully for training and competing the remainder of the week.
If you have any questions about the schedule or how to best approach the Open, please submit them to comments and we will do our best to provide a prompt reply.