CrossFit Games 2010 News

Minors in the Open

Extra steps are required for anyone under 18 to compete in the Open

The CrossFit Games Open is a six week, worldwide competition in the sport of fitness. It is not a kid's competition, and is not designed to be scaled to fit the needs of children. Nonetheless, there are athletes under 18 who have been training for the Games and are ready for CrossFit competition.

To accommodate these athletes, we have a way for minors from 14 to 17 years to participate in the Open. Since this is a virtual competition, there are some legal stipulations required to include minors. Minors are not allowed to enter into a contract without parental consent, and the privacy of minors is a sensitive issue on the internet.

The process for minors participating in the Open is this: If you are under 18 years of age and would like to compete in the Open Qualifiers and register online, you must submit an email to Under18@crossfitgames.com with MINOR in the subject line of the email, followed by your name. In the body of the email, you must provide the following:

Your Name

Your Home Address

Your Date of Birth

Your Parent or Legal Guardian's Name

Your Parent or Legal Guardian's Email address, at which they may be contacted

Your Parent or Legal Guardian's Home Address

Your Parent or Legal guardian's best contact phone number

When we receive this email, we will send instructions for participating in the Open as a minor, as well as a PDF that the legal guardian will need to sign and notarize, giving proper consent for your participation in the CrossFit Games Open. You will need to fax or scan and email this notarized document back to us.

Once we receive the document, we will send the legal guardian instructions on how to register the minor on the new Open site, which goes live very soon.

We strongly encourage you to do this as early as possible so that you can get the registration process under way.

More on Teams during the CrossFit Games Open

Everything you need to know about teams on the new site and in the Open

The CrossFit Games Open is almost here! The new website will launch very soon. This post explains the rules for teams, and the process for registering.

All athletes who wish to compete on a team must first register as individual competitors. Once you are registered for the Open, you will be able to search for registered teams. If you find your team on the site, you will see a Join this Team button on their profile page. Click this button to send your request to the team captain. When he or she accepts, you'll be listed on the team.

It's also possible that you will register as an athlete before your team captain registers the team. If you can't find your team on the site, prod your team captain to register. It's a quick process with a one-time $20 fee. There are no fees for adding athletes after that.

There are two types of teams: Official Teams and Other Teams. Official Teams are those that meet the requirements to potentially qualify for Regionals. They must include at least three men and three women. All of the athletes on a team must train at the same gym.

All team members must register and submit their first result by Sunday, March 20th at 17:00 Pacific, the closing date for submissions on the first Open workout. For a team member's workout to count toward the team's total, they must still be "in the running" as an individual. This means that they have completed all previous Open workouts as prescribed.

We are giving a prize to the Official Team with the most registered athletes at the end of the first week. They will get their next affiliate fee waived, two free spectator tickets to the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games for each registered athlete, and a plaque commemorating their achievement. Yes, if the winning team has 250 participants, we're giving away 500 spectator tickets to the Games!

For scoring, each week the computer will calculate each team's top three male and female results, and add them together. This combined score will be ranked among all other teams for that week (both worldwide and within their region). When the week closes on Sunday at 17:00 PDT, that ranking will be its score for that week. The same process is repeated the following week with the top (scored) athletes from each team. It doesn't matter if they are different athletes each week. These are the weekly scores. The overall score is the sum of each week's score.

After 6 weeks, the winner will be the team with the lowest overall score (fewest accumulated points). The top 30 teams from each region will be invited to their Regional competition.

The CrossFit Affiliate Community Gets Ready for the Open

A Look at the Various Ways Boxes Will Take Part in the Competition

The CrossFit Games Open starts on March 15th. CrossFit affiliates all over the world are gearing up to host Open workouts. The Open allows each affiliate to decide whether or not to opt-in to validate workouts each week, and what form that those workouts will take.

Some affiliates are keeping the Open basic, with a few members planning to get together to test their fitness against athletes all over the world. Others are opening up their doors to the larger CrossFit community and anticipating 150-200 participants each weekend. In some regions, multiple CrossFit affiliates are partnering up to pool equipment and staff, and taking turns at hosting the workouts. Scaled Open workouts will be available at some affiliates' events, even though they will not count as official Open performances. Other affiliates are only providing space for athletes who can complete the workouts as prescribed.

We've compiled responses from a few of the boxes participating in the Open to give a glimpse at the various ways that CrossFit affiliates are planning to take part.

Jesse Ward, Lynnwood CrossFit

Our affiliate is STOKED to participate in the Open. We're excited to host, compete and all the above. We hosted the Washington Affiliate "Meating" in Nov and it was a huge topic of discussion then. Our members who are into competing are all ready, training hard, eating right, resting clearly, it's good :)

My plan/hope is to opt-in every week. We've got a serious setup and hopefully enough gear to get it done. I like events, I'm reworking my schedule so I can always take Thursdays off so I can work all weekend for the Open. I want our gym to become a hub for all the smaller area gyms that can't run the main site stuff.

Merle Mckenzie, CrossFit Relentless

"There is a ton of interest and we are definitely opting in and opening it up to the community at large. Most likely we will charge $25 per athlete per wod."

Kevin Cherrick, Cactus CrossFit

Cactus CrossFit will opt in each week. We have blogged and talked about it to our members.

We are coordinating with 6 other area affiliates and will rotate hosting duties, we are hoping to use the Open as a competitive community event.

CrossFit The Human Laboratory

Yeah there seems to be a good response. We have about 12-14 people interested in The Open.

Yes we are planning on doing the weekly workout. We plan on meeting every Saturday and making a social event. I have extended an invitation to all in the area, including the other affiliates in town.

Chris Michelmore, CrossFit Moxie

We're gearing up big time. I'm right in the middle of organizing a whole bay area wide event each weekend here in california. I've gotten great responses from local boxes and we're going to be sharing locations, resources, and enthusiasm. Our goal is to make them much more than just completing the wod. We are opening it to the public, and our entire gym is excited about it and will be participating in some fashion. We are definiely opting in each week!

Ben Kelly, CrossFit Performance

We are gunning for the Open, 30+ athletes.

We are definitely hosting here, and will be advertising it around town.

Brian Wilson, Potomac CrossFit

We're running what we're calling "The Nova Open".

What: Affiliates getting together every Saturday at Patriot Crossfit (Sister gym of Potomac Crossfit) to complete the Crossfit Games Open WODs. The following Affiliates are participating:

Crossfit Balance, Crossfit DC, Crossfit Fairfax, Crossfit Impavidus, Crossfit Liberation, Crossfit Montgomery County, Crossfit MPH, Crossfit Old Town, Crossfit Reston, Crossfit Woodbridge, District Crossfit, Outlaw Crossfit, Patriot Crossfit, Potomac Crossfit, Trident Crossfit,

We currently have 53 competitors signed up.

For more info, check out our Facebook page.

Jonathon Cridland, Southern CrossFit (Perth, Australia)

Down Under here at Southern CrossFit Perth Australia, we are gearing up and getting excited for the Open. We have a large and very strong community of about 150+. In one way or another most of our guys will be involved whether it be helping out or working out.

With our busy schedule of running the business and training our other athletes, we are going to opt-in every week and put on a social event open to anyone who wants to come along and join in free of charge.

Nick Scott, Fit 2 Fight CrossFit

We are participating in the Open. We have gotten excellent response from our members. We plan on Opting-in to validate workouts. We are offering our facility to anyone who is interested in participating. We are very interested in making larger events out of it.

Alex and Kyl, 5B CrossFit

We are psyched for the upcoming CrossFit Games Open.

5B CrossFit is planning to opt-in weekly for the events, and we intend to offer judged workouts held as fun social events every Saturday throughout the open.

We will gladly offer WOD validation for any athlete who comes to our gym.

There has been a fair amount of interest in our box, however much of our clientele is still very new to CrossFit and we won't likely have too many participants who can participate as Rx. We will be offering scaled participation for each WOD and are hoping for a large turnout each week. We are excited to be able to have a series of events like the Open to provide our members with a fun method of learning more about CrossFit, the Games, and how much larger the CF Community is outside of our box.

It is going to be a fun ride to the Games this year, we are looking forward to every step along the way.

Justin Bergh, CrossFit Southside

I can't wait to host people at CrossFit Southside. We'll be grilling and boozing even before the first workout kicks off, and we'll keep that party going long after the last heat finishes. When the boxes located near the beach host it, you can be sure you'll find a hundred CrossFitters taking their ripped hands right to the salt water and then owning the sand in front of the Jax Beach Lifeguard Station (our communities rally spot for beach WODs).

We've got a bad ass Affiliate community here in Northeast Florida...home of the CrossFit East, the third Affiliate ever, and now 10 outstanding gyms. We keep it all in the family, and when we get together you know it's a good time. We'll be throwing down for the Open and you can bet the farm we'll have the coolest WOD parties on the East Coast. Whether you're at a local Affiliate, a garage junkie or an out-of-towner you won't want to miss out on the Open...CrossFit East style!

Shawn Bandel, CrossFit Julia

We have had interest in the Open from the members at our box. We have set up an event beginning 3/18/11 and will be hosting WODS every Friday night. We have opened our event to our members as well as the rest of the community. So far, we have 10 people signed-up and there are more to follow.

We are looking to make this a fun and social event and will be having both individuals that are looking to crush the workouts as well as others that are just looking to have a good time and compete. Because of this we will be offering scaling options so that all ability levels can participate.

Leonid Soubbotine: The Lion Chaser

The Russian-American Affiliate Owner Gets Ready for the Open

Even in a community known for taking fitness to the extreme, Leonid Soubbotine is an extremist. It is common for athletes to lower their carbohydrate intake and eliminate grains. Leonid takes this approach one step further and abstains from all carbohydrates, even fruit and vegetables. Many in the community are experimenting with minimalist shoes, but Leo often doesn't wear shoes at all when he runs.

Despite his unconventional approach, Leo has achieved some impressive results. He has completed Diane in 2:43, a very fast time, especially considering his size (6'3 and 191), which is a disadvantage on handstand push-ups. Leo's also got solid strength numbers (500 lb. deadlift, 270 lb. clean and jerk), metcons (2:43 Fran, 7:30 Helen, and 5:38 Jackie), and gymnastics (100m handstand walk in 2:54).

Both Leo's unusual methods and his exceptional results stem from his general approach to life. A philosopher would call him a strict empiricist; he does not evaluate ideas by the strength of their logic, but rather by the results he gets by trying them in his life. In his own words, he "loves experimenting." Not only does he benefit from what he learns, but he finds joy in the process itself of experimenting with the unknown.

One area in which Leo has experimented the most is nutrition. He spent 1.5 years weighing and measuring according to the Zone diet, but was not satisfied with his results. His next step was cutting out fruits. Soon, Leo was eating just 50 grams of carbs a day. Even at such a low level of carbohydrate intake, he continued to progress in his fitness. At that point, the idea occurred to him to experiment with taking that number down all the way. The results have been great; most of the stats listed above are recent improvements.

Leo takes a similar contrarian approach throughout his life, including his meal frequency and work schedule. He normally only eats one meal a day, finding the lower body heat to be a plus in the humid Florida weather. As a business owner and CrossFit trainer, he only has to teach classes 17 hours a week, some of which he occasionally passes off to an assistant trainer. Despite his minimalist work schedule, Leo seems to be finding some success. His box, CrossFit Evolution is thriving, and the local competitions that Leo runs often sell out within several hours.

Whereas he had previously thought that his competitive CrossFit career had ended, Leo thinks that the new CrossFit Games Open format will fit perfectly into his carefully-crafted lifestyle. It's an opportunity for him to see how he compares with the rest of the world, without changing too much of his normal life.

Leo is planning to compete as an athlete, in addition to opt-ing in for his affiliate to validate workouts. The once a week schedule will allow him to add the Open workouts to his regular training schedule, without the tapering and recovery period inherent in multi-workout and multi-day competitions. Not to mention that he can perform all of the workouts at his home box, avoiding the hassle of travelling and booking hotel rooms involved in regular competitions. Leo's approaching the Open with the goal of having fun, but with his numbers you certainly can't count him out as a contender for Regionals and even the Games.

The CrossFit Impulse Open

Jeff Barnett Experiments with an Open CrossFit Competition

Jeff Barnett, a trainer at Crossfit Impulse, recently ran a 13 week Affiliate team try-out that was similar to the CrossFit Games Open. He sent in this report of his results:

In mid-November 2010 the leadership team at CrossFit Impulse began planning how to select our affiliate team for the 2011 CrossFit Games. Assuming the same format as the 2010 CrossFit Games, we decided to select our team through a competitive process. This would not only ensure that the fittest men and women made the team, but the process would be completely fair and transparent. The rules for the 2011 CrossFit Games Open have now changed that plan, but we found our competitive process was incredibly valuable. Most notably, its structure was very similar to the 2011 CrossFit Games Open. By examining lessons learned from the perspective of athletes and event coordinators, we may get a glimpse of how to best prepare ourselves for the Open.

The Competition

Athletes voluntarily competed for spots on the team over the course of 13 weeks and 13 workouts. Workouts were announced on our website on Sunday evenings. Athletes were allowed to perform the “affiliate WOD” during any class during the week and were responsible for reporting their results on our website by the following Sunday. Additionally, the affiliate WOD was offered as our regular WOD on one day during that week in order to give athletes a chance to perform in a competitive atmosphere.

The intent of our competition was to find the fittest men and women at our affiliate. We also wanted to maximize inclusion by gradually ramping up the programming towards skill-intensive WODs in later weeks. This allowed almost any athlete to take part in the competition, and many of our beginners enthusiastically accepted. A trainer was required to be present during an athlete’s WOD, but each athlete did not receive an individual judge. Athletes were extensively briefed on standards and ranges of motion prior to the WOD, and those standards were enforced rigorously. Scoring used the 2010 CrossFit Games format of accruing points based on your placement in each event, with the winner receiving the lowest total points at the end of the competition. We tracked results using a spreadsheet on Google Docs, and all athletes could view their placement online at any time. You can view the final men’s results here and the women’s results here.

Multi-Week Format

A multi-week competition with one WOD per week was a much different beast than a single weekend of multiple WODs per day. The length of the competition was double-edged. A 13-week competition makes consistency and dedication two additional skills to be tested, which we explicitly desired in selecting a team. We decided consistent, well-rounded athletes would work better on an affiliate team than firebreathers who show up sporadically. However, the length also made life difficult for competitors with work and travel obligations.

To combat this we created a video submission system very similar to the CrossFit Games Open. By coordinating with a trainer ahead of time and receiving a WOD brief over the phone, athletes were allowed to submit videos of the WOD performed remotely. Camera angles would have to show relevant body positions for judging. We emphasized that video submissions would be scrutinized and face the full standard for every rep. We chose a time penalty of 10 seconds per missed rep. A maximum of 10 missed reps would be allowed in any WOD before the entire WOD would be disqualified. Only two athletes attempted this, and neither had good results. The first athlete attempted our 1RM clean and jerk WOD in a Globo Gym and was quickly told to stop dropping weights. The other athlete didn't fully test his cell phone's recording capability, and it stopped recording about 2/3 through his conduct of Fran. Yeah…ouch. For all the thought we put into video submission, no athlete successfully used it. The learning point is that 3,2,1 Go! is not the right time to test your camera. Test, re-test, and examine the video before you perform the WOD.

The length of the competition also meant that some athletes missed WODs due to injury. Zan Hamilton injured her ankle coming off a rope climb and was not able to complete the final two WODs. I broke my right clavicle snowboarding and also missed the final two WODs.

Conversely, one bonus of the long duration was that competitors could build leads that buffered them against bad days or even missed WODs altogether. Because of her performance in previous weeks, Zan's ankle injury did not prevent her from finishing 3^rd overall. Similarly, I was still able to win the men's competition despite my clavicle fracture and two DNFs. Tyler Dalrymple and Lisa Fink both missed WODs at the beginning of the competition but were able to work back to top 6 placement by the end. This format seems to ensure that the most well-rounded athletes rise to the top. All things considered, a multi-week format has many advantages. However, a competition of 6-10 weeks would be an adequate test, and we'll shorten our next competition.

The Affiliate Experience

Events like this weren't new to our staff. All of our trainers participated as judges or competitors in the 2010 CrossFit Games Deep South Sectional and Dirty South Regional. However, over 13 weeks we still learned much about judging, programming, and administering a competition.

A long competition like this made consistency between trainers and classes a challenge. We learned to mitigate this by conducting trainer conference calls on Sunday evening after the Affiliate WOD was announced. Christina Barnett, our general manager who programmed the WODs, took us through the workout in extreme detail and tried to anticipate any problems and how we would address them. These judges’ briefs were critical. We also used a free group text messaging app called “GroupMe” to quickly and easily clarify questions discovered later.
If a slip-up occurred and a trainer allowed something outside the intent of the WOD, then this was always discovered early in the week. If something was allowed for even one athlete then we allowed it for all competing athletes to ensure fairness.
Athletes were briefed on the WOD and its standards immediately prior to execution. This seems obvious, but if left undone it could have disastrous consequences.
Large classes create a challenge for a single trainer and judge. In a more formal competition, a judge for each athlete is a necessity.

The Athlete Experience

I solicited feedback from our athletes that participated in the competition until the end. They had some interesting thoughts on how the competition changed their approach to CrossFit.

Because there is no scaling in a competition, athletes were motivated to try loads and movements that they previously would not have considered without scaling. Many, many athletes found themselves much more capable than they had envisioned in their minds. Four ladies achieved their first kipping handstand pushups and ring dips during the competition. Two ladies achieved their first pullups and chest to bar pullups. It turns out that “do it or get left behind” is a stronger motivator than “do it or we’ll try again tomorrow.” Competitor Ginga Cox said, “The biggest benefit for me was challenging my perception of my own capabilities. The competition was invitation and inspiration to try things I didn't believe myself to be capable of. Sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I failed, but even with the failures, the realm of possibility in my mind expanded - and that certainly is its own reward.”
On the flip side, when athletes were not able to complete a prescribed movement well, it painfully exposed that weakness and motivated them to improve. During the course of normal WODs, if you scale double unders to 3x singles then you still see yourself jumping rope and your time isn’t badly affected. You know the WOD was scaled, but the mental impact isn't substantial. However, if you have to trudge through double unders at a slow pace and get left behind in a competition WOD, then that’s a real motivator to improve.
Athletes discovered they could push themselves to new levels of intensity. When you lose by 5 seconds or 2 reps you start rethinking those trips to the water fountain and chalk bucket.
Athletes planned cheat meals, rest days, and the week's training around when they planned to complete the Affiliate WOD. Top female finisher Jordan Pepe says, “One week I felt that my body would perform optimally on a specific day, given the WOD cycle that week, and I actually took off work at the fire department to come to CrossFit Impulse for the affiliate WOD.”
Fellow competitors helped one other to excel. Competitor Sarah Rankin observed, “We all gave each other tips or told each other things that we would have done differently during the WOD.”
Some competitors developed specific strategies about when to conduct their workouts and report their times. Specifically, some of our female competitors did not report their scores until Sunday afternoon even if they had performed the WOD much earlier in the week. This denied their competition a score to shoot for and beat. Overall I'm not sure this is healthy, but it's reality.
Many competitors cleaned up their diets in an effort to get ahead. Suddenly the loaf of pumpernickel at Outback became the difference between 2^nd and 3^rd place, and most athletes decided it wasn't worth it.
Another unexpected side effect was a highly contagious strain of CrossFit Irritable Bowel Syndrome (CFIBS) that spread throughout our competitors. CFIBS is a documented medical condition characterized by chronically loose stool caused by anxiety of an upcoming CrossFit workout. It seems that on the day you were to perform the Affiliate WOD for time, almost everyone would develop CFIBS.

Conclusions

Perhaps the most common theme from all competitor feedback was the great camaraderie that developed among competitors and the improvements they made as athletes. To demonstrate this improvement in performance Christina programmed the same WOD for the final week as the first week, a mid-length chipper. Of 20 athletes that performed the WOD during both weeks, 17 PR'd from Week 1. Sarah Rankin PR'd by over 5 minutes. Mandy McDaniel was able to complete the WOD in a very competitive time while she had DNF'd in Week 1. Results across the board were astounding!

Athletes also greatly enjoyed the competitive experience. Lori Bean writes, “The competition was always friendly, and I noticed how the trainers and athletes were always willing to help everyone with a weakness or challenge.” Sarah Rankin observed, “It was the definition of ‘friendly competition’ and I can't wait to do it again next time. I love my CrossFit Impulse family!” Alex Vlasse says, “I would not be where I am today in terms of physical and nutritional health without having such wonderful friends and competitors in the CrossFit Impulse family!” Jordan Pepe writes, “Competing with such great athletes at CrossFit Impulse has been an awesome experience. It’s truly inspiring to see everyone push themselves to the limit every week. Our competitive spirit has never been stronger.”

In sum, while our competition occurred on a drastically different scale than the Open, many of our lessons learned still apply.

The experience is incredibly valuable to competitors in developing both fitness and relationships.
Kinks will always emerge in the conduct of a complex event, but thoughtful, transparent, and timely decisions can solve most problems.
Consistency in judging requires extreme amounts of communication and is very important to competitors. If you feel like you’re being very redundant and over-communicating, then you’re probably getting it right.
Longer competitions can allow athletes to have a bad day and still place well overall.
Competitors planning to submit video should test and re-test their setups before game time.
Competition motivates athletes to make positive changes that might take much longer or never happen at all in its absence.

Planning for the Open

CrossFit Morristown and Guerrilla Fitness Team Up to Host Open Workouts

Karianne Dickson, owner of CrossFit Morristown, and Gregg Arsenuk, owner of Guerrilla Fitness/CrossFit Montclair, regularly talk to each other about business. So when the CrossFit Games Open was announced, they got together discuss how their gyms would participate in it.

Arsenuk’s gym, Guerrilla Fitness, hosted the 2010 New Jersey Sectional. From that experience, he knew he “could definitely use some help” hosting Open workouts. This year, he and Dickson are pooling together their equipment, resources and coaching staffs to host Open events.

Dickson and Arsenuk expect that a lot of people who don’t normally train at affiliates will show up to have their workouts validated. Because these athletes often train by themselves, they may not be used to having their reps checked for range of motion. Therefore, it’s important that the judges clarify the movement standards beforehand and enforce them fairly throughout the workout. Fortunately, CrossFit Morristown and Guerrilla Fitness’ coaching staffs are well trained and experienced.

In the end, both affiliate owners hope to create an atmosphere that’s competitive, exciting, professional and fun.

See the entire video in the CrossFit Journal.

Planning For The Open Preview

Download as QuickTime.
Download as Windows Media.

Video Submission Tips For the CrossFit Games Open

The CrossFit Media Crew Gives Some Video Advice

Athletes who do not perform a CrossFit Games Open workout at a registered affiliate will have to submit a video of their performance. With the Open just two weeks away, now is the perfect time for you to start honing your video skills. Don't wait until the Open starts to learn how to upload your videos. Here's a few tips from the CrossFit Media department on how to create and upload videos online:

Before the Open starts, be sure to set up a Y outube, Vimeo, etc account. Make sure that you figure out how to upload videos to the site you choose.
Send a link of the uploaded video to friends and family to make sure that it works.
For each video, you'ill need a stop watch, camera, and tripod.
Keep the camera view wide enough to see your entire body and the equipment involved through the full range of motion.
Some cameras only shoot for 12 minutes at a time. That may not be long enough for you to complete a workout. Make sure that your camera doesn't stop during the middle of a WOD.
The new Open site will run a weekly video on how to perform a given week's workout.
There must be another individual in the frame while you're doing the workout. Use this person to time you, coach you, and make sure every rep is legit. Find some friends now to help you through this process.
Youtube has a 15 minute limit on video length, and that may not be long enough for some workouts.
Find someone who has experience with Youtube or Vimeo to help show you the ropes.
HD video creates large files. You may need to compress them (not edit) to a smaller format for some sites.

Remember, the Open begins on March 15, so start practicing now!

Media Tips For The Open

Download as QuickTime.
Download as Windows Media.

Scouting Report: European Edition Round Two

A Few More of the European Athletes

With the 2011 CrossFit Games season starting on March 15th, preparation for the Games is going into high gear. If there is anything we have learned from years past, it's that previously low-profile athletes will come out of nowhere to challenge CrossFit's elite.

Last week, we highlighted a few athletes from Oregon and the Central East. Today, we cross the pond yet again to expose some of the athletes out of Europe. Among them, we have Iceland Annie's affiliate co-owner, a Welsh ambulance technician who saved a man from a burning car, and a Danish medical school student.

Dafydd Dennis

Dafydd Dennis co-owns CrossFit Cardiff in Wales, UK. He took 5^th at the 2010 UK/Ireland Sectionaland 15^th at the 2010 European Regional. Dennis has been training with CrossFit for the last two years, and according to one of his friends and fellow CrossFitters remains “super keen about CrossFit.”

Dennis spent seven years in the Royal Marines serving as a commando, where he says he established the majority of his fitness. Since leaving the Marines he was employed as a team leader on a close protection team in Iraq for two years before joining the Welsh Ambulance Service where he works as an EMT. Dennis has been CrossFitting since 2008.

Dayfdd was recently awarded the Welsh Ambulance Service Special Bravery Award for saving a man from a burning car. Dafydd was driving home from a ten hour shift in the early hours of the morning when he noticed some debris by the side of the road. He pulled off to check for an accident when he saw the glow of a fire down the bank below. Dennis scrambled down the hillside, found a car flipped and ablaze, and pulled out the victim before the car exploded. Since the man was quite a bit larger than him, Dennis says that "CrossFit likely had a good part to play in his survival." Though there's no WOD that can build the courage and altruism that Dennis displayed, he brought that in on his own.

To get back to CrossFit, Dennis shows impressive conditioning with a 2:33 Fran and 31 rounds of Cindy. In the European Regionals of the past, we have seen many quick athletes with lower strength numbers than in other regions of the world. Dennis may have a shot at returning to the European Regional and improving his showing since last year.

Age: 28
Height: 5'11”
Weight: 172lbs.

Fran: 2:33
Diane: 3:06
Helen: 7:21
Grace: 2:21
Cindy: 31 rounds (+5squats)
Elizabeth: 5:19
Nate: 21 rounds

Filthy Fifty: 16:02
Fight Gone Bad: 401
30 Muscle Ups for time: 4:05

Deadlift: 385lbs
Overhead squat: 242lbs
Power clean: 253lbs
5k run: 18:39

2010 UK/Ireland Sectional: 5^th
2010 European Regional: 15^th
2010 CrossFit Central Manchester Invitationals: 7th
2010 CrossFit Copenhagen Fit as Fu*k Challenge: 10th

Elvar Karlsson

Elvar Karlsson runs CrossFit BC Island in Reykjavik, Iceland with 2010 Games competitor ‘Iceland’ Annie Thorisdottir. On the side, he works as a trainer for Bootcamp Iceland.

Karlsson says that he’s drawn to tough physical challenges. In addition to CrossFit, he has twice gone through Hell Weekend, a 36 hour SEAL training course simulation, and has competed in long distance running, a few marathons and ultra-marathons (up to 100 kilometers for a single race).

As one might expect, Elvar holds some impressive run and row times. He can churn out a 2000m row in six minutes and twenty two seconds, and an eighteen minute 5K run. He says that he excels in workouts that involve high repetition bodyweight movements and light loads; get out of his way for runs and double unders. Elvar shows that he has strength with his 495 pound deadlift, but he needs to work on his Olympic lifts and his aversion to heavy-load WODs. He’s got solid stats, and at just twenty years old he has plenty of time to improve and keep coming back for more.

Age: 20
Height: 186cm (6'1)
Weight: 86kg (190lbs)

Fran: 2:52
Annie: 4:56
Jackie: 6:08
Elizabeth (Power Cleans): 3:01
Fight Gone Bad: 456
Filthy Fifty: 15:21

400m run: 0:59
5k run: 18:01
10k run: 37:48

500m row: 1:21,0
2000m row: 6:22,1

Snatch: 165lbs.
Clean & Jerk: 242lbs.
Deadlift: 495lbs.
Squat: 341lbs.

30 Muscle Ups for time: 6:05
Max reps HSPU: 18

2009 Iceland Regional: 2^nd
2010 Iceland Sectional: 1^st
2010 Europe Regional: 7^th
2011 Danish CrossFit Open, 2011: 3^rd

Anders Galaly

Anders Galaly is a twenty three year old medical student out of the city Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark. He is still new to CrossFit, with just a year of training and two CrossFit competitions behind him.

Before Anders found CrossFit, he kept active with basketball and tennis, and mixed together various training programs so to push his fitness (such as strength training, yoga, and distance running). He was drawn to CrossFit because he’d heard it covers “most aspects of fitness.” While training for medical school, CrossFit offered all he needed for fitness and fit within his busy schedule.

On January 29^th, Galaly traveled three hours by car and ferry to get to the Danish CrossFit Open in Copenhagen. The box was packed with spectators as they watched to see which of the 15 pre-qualified men would come out the victor. Icelander Elvar Karlsson and Dane Frederik Aegius alternately claimed first place in the five events, drawing the attention of those watching. But Galaly tracked behind them and performed consistently in each workout. Anders eventually edged out Elvar by beating him in the Chipper, and pushed out a 3^rd place backsquat by force of will. Galaly claimed 2^nd overall.

Age: 23
Height: 1.92m (6’ 3”)
Weight: 89 kg (196 lbs)

Fran: 2:55
Barbara: 26:09
Helen: 7:21
Eva: 35 min

Nate: 17. 3 rounds
Randy: 3:13
Bull: 42:09

Filthy Fifty: 17:10

5 K run: 18.33
500 m row: 1.23

Deadlift: 463 lbs
Back Squat: 331 lbs
Press: 170 lbs
Benchpress: 287 lbs
Clean and jerk: 235 lbs
Snatch: 165 lbs

Jeff Rader: Competing in the Open in his Second Year of CrossFit

Another Challenger in the Masters Competition

Jeff Rader first found CrossFit Dallas Central in January of 2010. His previous gym had closed down, and a friend recommended that he give CrossFit a shot. At 53 years old, he had never before picked up a barbell. He could only pull his chin over the bar with the gym's thickest green band assisting him. When he saw what the other athletes were accomplishing, and heard what the trainers expected him to do, Jeff was "borderline intimidated."

After a few months, Jeff began to be able to complete some of the WOD's as prescribed. When he had been at the gym for just over half a year, Jeff was going as prescribed on almost all of the workouts.

Now, a year later, Jeff has performed the Double Under Helen (3 rounds for time of 50 double unders, 21 swings, 12 pull-ups) in 10:25, a faster time than 9 of the 15 Masters athletes who qualified for the CrossFit Games Masters competition last year. He has made some impressive strides in the strength department as well, reaching a 285 lb. back squat and 375 lb. deadlift. In terms of standard CrossFit benchmarks, Jeff's reached a 6:25 Fran, 288 Fight Gone Bad, and 3:40 Grace. Perhaps his most stand-out performance though, is a 1:28.9 500m row.

Since starting CrossFit, Jeff's improved much more than his physical fitness. He's found that he has more energy, sleeps better, and feels more focused "as a result of being truly fit for the first time in many years." As a result, his work as the owner of a medical spa, as well as his family life, have benefitted. Jeff's 18 year old son and 21 year old daughter have both gotten into CrossFit too.

To kick off his second year of CrossFit, Jeff's going to compete in the Crossfit Games Open as a Masters athlete in the 50-54 category. If last year's results are any indication, he will certainly be a contender to qualify for the CrossFit Games Masters competition at the Home Depot Center.

The Women of the 2010 CrossFit Games

This video is a tribute to the women of the 2010 CrossFit Games. CrossFit differs from most sports in that its women are on an equal footing with its men. The top female CrossFitter will win the same amount of money as the top male CrossFitter in 2011, $250,000. CrossFit women routinely beat men on workouts. 2010 CrossFit Games champion Kristan Clever has taken the top score on the mainsite WOD multiple times, even outperforming Austin Malleolo, who took 6th place at the 2010 Games.

Whereas gymnastics confines ring exercises to male athletes, CrossFit demands upper-body intensive movements such as ring muscle-ups, handstand push-ups, and rope climbs from its female athletes. This is the sport of fitness, and the real world does not vary its demands according to the sex of an individual. The result is a female athlete that is far more capable and confident than is the norm outside of CrossFit.

Women Of The 2010 Crossfit Games

Download as QuickTime.
Download as Windows Media.

Last Chance for the Early Bird Special on CrossFit Games Tickets

The Price Goes up to $50 on Tuesday

The Early Bird Special for CrossFit Games tickets is a great deal: $40 gets you full three-day access to all the CrossFit Games action at the Home Depot Center.

But this deal ends Monday. On Tuesday, Games tickets will go up to $50 for the three-day pass.

Get your CrossFit Games tickets now!

2011 CrossFit Games Regional Boundaries Announced

View your region and dates for competition

The top 60 men, 60 women, and 30 teams from each Region during the Open will qualify to compete at their Regional competition. The official boundaries for the 2011 CrossFit Games Regional competition can be seen in the pictures assigned to the post, with North America the featured picture, and the World map available on the right of the post.

The Regionals season will run each weekend for four weeks from May 27 through June 19. Each Regional competition will last three days. The Regional breakdown is the same as last year's outside of North America, with a few changes made to the regions of United States and Canada in light of last year's Regionals. A PDF file of the Regional divisions and dates is available here.

May 27-29: North Central, South East, Australia, Canada West
June 3-5: Northern California, Mid Atlantic, Canada East, Europe,
June 10-12: North West, Central East, South West, Africa, Asia
June 17-19: Southern California, South Central, North East, Latin America.

Remember, in order to participate in Regionals, all athletes must participate fully in the CrossFit Games Open.

Freddy Camacho Aims for Masters

A Contender in the 45-49 Age Division

Freddy Camacho is aiming for the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games, this time as a Masters competitor in the 45-49 Age Division.

Freddy is well known by long-time CrossFitters for his classic Games interviews, and his presence on the early Level 1 Certification staff. Camacho quickly endears himself to strangers by being the opposite of what they expect. They see a big, burly guy with full sleeves, and don’t expect his charisma or easy smile. He now runs a successful affiliate in Northern California called CrossFit One World, and works as traffic officer and SWAT operator for the Union City Police Department.

Camacho came to CrossFit the year before the Games, in 2006. At his Level 1 Cert. in San Diego, he went one for one on the overhead squat with Certification Staff member Nicole Carroll. Both used the same weight, 75 pounds. Freddy was strong, but inflexible. He held the weight too far forward, and he paid for it by fatiguing quickly. After the eleventh rep, he dumped the weight and had to watch as a “totally cute tiny chick kicked my ass” in front of the crowd.

Five years later, Freddy has a 225 pound overhead squat and a long list of solid stats:

Age: 45
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 190lbs.

Nasty Girls: 7:15
Linda: 19:13 (with squat cleans)
Fran: 2:38 (3:05 a few months ago)

Fight Gone Bad: 380
Filthy Fifty: 22:13

Squat: 400lbs.
Press: 220lbs.
Deadlift: 450lbs.
Bench Press: 335lbs.
Overhead Squat: 225lbs.
Clean & Jerk: 250lbs.
Snatch: 176lbs.

5k: 22:51
400m: 1:04

Camacho has been involved in the Games since the beginning, competing as an open competitor in the 2007 and 2008 Games. As the Games have grown, Freddy has felt the effect of being in his early forties. He has not returned to open competition, but he hasn’t let that affect him. In his words:

Year in and year out, my goal is always to try and make it to the CrossFit Games as an open competitor, but realistically, I know that a person in their 40's or older will likely never qualify for the Games in that category. I am excited about the Master's division being opened up to my age group.

By pushing himself to match or beat younger athletes, he keeps increasing his fitness and he’s hoping it’ll show when he’s matched with athletes the same age as him. He knows it’s going to a tough fight to make it to Masters, and after giving it his all he’ll be happy wherever he ends up; whether it’s in the arena or in the crowd. As he says:

I wrote in a blog post that I believed I was one of the top 20 forty-year-old men in CrossFit. In hindsight, CrossFit is worldwide, and that's A LOT of forty year olds! I really think the CrossFit Games are going to be amazing this year. Whether I am a competitor or in the stands drinking beer, I can't wait!

We wish him the best of luck in the CrossFit Games Open, starting March 15.

Judging at the CrossFit Games Open

It's the Affiliates Responsibility to Select Judges and Ensure Movement Standards

There are two way's for an athlete to participate in each workout of the Open. They may either complete the workout anywhere and submit a video of their performance, or complete the workout at a registered affiliate that will validate their performance.

For an affiliate to validate a week's workouts, it will need to opt-in on the Open site for that particular week's workout. The affiliate will be required to provide a judge for each athlete that performs an Open workout.

It is up to the affiliate to select its judges. They may, but do not have to be, Level 1 trainers. It is the affiliate's responsibility to ensure that the athletes whose performances it validates have followed the movement standards provided by CrossFit HQ.

The Crossfit Games Open - Judging

Download as QuickTime.
Download as Windows Media.

Change

Coach Glassman addresses the format of the 2011 Games Season

“The goal of this thing is two-fold: it’s to maximize participation and to find the fittest man and woman on Earth,” CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman says as he discusses the significant changes to the format of the 2011 CrossFit Games.

“There is no aspect of this change that wasn’t an unavoidable consequence of explosive growth,” he says.

While the feedback hasn’t all been positive, Glassman says that those speaking out against the new format haven’t thought it through. He says the CrossFit Games Open will help realize the true purpose of the Games.

“It changes the landscape significantly, and it doubly reinforces the potential that we are truly going to find the fittest man and the fittest woman on Earth,” he says.

And rest assured, cheating won’t win you the title “Fittest on Earth.” According to Glassman, there are unavoidable issues in logistics and judging, but that won’t change with any format.

“The sanctity of the top placers, I think, is fairly guaranteed in what we’re doing,” he says.

Watch the free 10 minute video in the CrossFit Journal.

Coach Glassman - Change

Download as QuickTime.
Download as Windows Media.

Cheryl Brost's Training and Diet

Staying Fit and Competitive at 39

Cheryl Brost placed 13^th at the 2010 CrossFit Games. She is thirty-nine years old, a mother of two, and nearly two decades older than many of her competitors. We recently wrote about her mental game and we received a few requests for her insight into her training and diet. Today, we’re providing just that.

Training

If you’re looking to copy a regimen, you won’t find one here. While balancing her commitments to family and work, Cheryl often has to shift around her workout schedule. She tries to train each morning, Monday through Friday, with one mid-week rest day and the occasional Saturday workout. Her goal is to get at least one rest day per week, and she often takes two. She says her schedule “typically goes three days on--one day off, then two days on--one day off” but sometimes changes to “four days on--one day off, then one day on–one day off.”

Cheryl does the same workouts as every other member of Eugene CrossFit. She shows up for the morning classes and follows the box’s programming. After the WOD, she sticks around for 20-30 minutes for skill work. On Monday and Thursday nights, and a few Saturday mornings, she returns to the gym to work on strength training with a particular emphasis on the Olympic lifts.

Outside of CrossFit, Cheryl plays city league soccer and connects in to her Hawaiian roots with hula dancing. Her sports life adds up. In the spring and fall she has at least one soccer game per week, and every Thursday night she dances for two hours. Soccer gives her a competitive outlet, and hula challenges her body to move in new ways, as she says, “you’d be surprised how difficult many dance moves can be!”

Diet

Cheryl does not recognize the orthodox divide between Zone and Paleo diets, for the last ten months she has eaten a diet influenced by both but not yielding to either’s stricter regulations.

Her meals typically look like this:

Breakfast-Eggs and/or bacon with a fresh fruit or veggie smoothie and a handful of almonds or walnuts. Occasionally she’ll have a serving of oatmeal.

Lunch-Examples: (a) Salad with chicken or tuna with balsamic vinaigrette, (b) Lettuce wrap burger, (c) The occasional deli sandwich w/half the bread.

Dinner- Family meal. “Typically we’ll cook steak, chicken, pork or fish with a big serving of veggies; and once in a while, we’ll have rice or potatoes.”

Post-WOD snack and supplements- Progenex recovery shake, and fish oil.

Miguel Toledano Gets Ready for the Open

He's Spent the Last Year Training...in Afghanistan

Miguel Toledano took first place at a recent local CrossFit competition. He's also found time away from his busy job to train for the CrossFit Games Open in March.

Miguel's not your typical CrossFit firebreather though. The local competition that Miguel won was the CrossFit Leatherneck Fitness Challenge Throwdown. It took place on February 5-6 at Camp Leatherneck, a forward operating base in Afghanistan. And Miguel's job is not your ordinary desk work, he is a Captain in the United States Marine Corps.

He sent in this list of his benchmark workouts:

Fran: 2:08
Helen: 7:04
Cindy: 34 rounds
Grace: 2:18
Diane: 2:20
CrossFit Total: 1230 (525 squat, 510 deadlift, 195 press)
Snatch - 175 lbs.
Clean and jerk: 250 lbs.
30 muscle-ups: 4:58
5k row: 18:29

While these stats are impressive, they are even more meaningful in light of the obstacles that Miguel's overcome to achieve them. Miguel's has been deployed for most of the past year and dealt with a couple of major injuries along the way.

At the 2010 San Diego/ Arizona Sectional, Miguel tore his hamstring in the first event, but continued with the competition. Given his injury, he finished 34rd overall, a placing that belies his true fitness level.

Shortly thereafter, Miguel deployed to Afghanistan. While on a mission, he suffered another injury to his legs and tore his ACL. Getting surgery would have meant the end of his deployment, but Miguel "wasn't hearing any of that," so he decided to try to "rehab it on my own."

His workout regimen since that injury has been remarkably intense. Miguel combines olympic lifting programming from Coach Burgener, mainsite CrossFit.com WOD's, and CrossFit Endurance programming into his exercise regimen.

Miguel's journey with CrossFit began in June of 2008 when a friend convinced him to take his spot at a CrossFit Level 1 course, paid for by the Marine Corps. With a 405 lb. bench press, 510 lb. squat, and 17:05 3 mile run, Miguel thought he was in the best shape of his life. When the weekend was over, and he had given his first efforts at Fran (11:08), and Helen (13:25), Miguel realized that he was "nowhere near being in good shape."

Since that Level 1, the Marine officer has CrossFitted "religiously" and even incorporated CrossFit into the training that he conducts with his Marines. He runs all of his Marines through a 12 week workout "fundamentals training course", and the results have been extraordinary. He's gotten so much positive feedback about the CrossFit course that he can't even "keep track of the number" anymore.

Miguel enjoyed the format of last year's Sectionals, but he has a flexible mindset as a competitor: "A top competitor will still end up being in the top when all is said and done. I'm ready to follow whatever format is out there." He's recently returned home from Afghanistan, and this year he's "ready to make it to the top."

Heidi Fish on Separating Competition from Training

Looking Beyond the Whiteboard

Heidi Fish works as a fishery biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service (a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, NOAA) in Santa Cruz, California. With a name like hers, she muses that she may have been destined to work with fish. Her job involves a lot of fieldwork, taking her out to the small coastal streams where she presses her snorkeled head below the cool water in search of salmonids.

The lab time has allowed her to set up a lunchtime CrossFit program in one of the fishery service’s warehouses. A CrossFit Level 1 trainer comes in three days a week and leads the group through the WOD. Scientists from different projects that would normally never interact come together for workouts, and according to Fish, “they get to know each other on a personal level that only enhances the professional relationship.”

They have just the basic equipment, “nothing fancy,” Fish notes. And unlike other CrossFit boxes there is less emphasis on PRs and competition between the people working out. “Everyone gets their name on the PR/benchmark board in no particular order” says Fish.

Heidi has never cared for the practice of ranking scores. She is naturally driven to strive for her best, and she has learned from an unfortunate experience in her first box that getting competitive with her fellow CrossFitters can detract from her personal well-being, and even hurt relationships.

In our conversation we went through all the usual topics, but her reluctance to go for PRs or compete with others in the gym were the most compelling. What, after all, should a trainer know about the people who don’t respond well to emphasizing competition? Particularly when that person is an exceptional athlete, like Heidi.

Fish was willing to open up and share her ‘dark side’ with the community, offering the words of Theodor Seuss Geisel “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

I was a founding member at a start-up CrossFit gym and by virtue of already kind of knowing what I was doing compared to the rest of the novice crowd, I had the dubious distinction of having my name on the top of the benchmark record board. As everyone else naturally improved over time, I found myself slipping from the rankings and the first thing I'd do when stepping in the gym was to look up at the board to see if my name had moved down. We had a super-star women join our group and the attention I used to get from my coach shifted away from me toward her. I was a hamster in a spinning wheel trying to catch up, but going nowhere and very unhappy with myself and no fun for others around me! It ultimately led to the demise of the relationship with my coach as a coach and a friend and I still feel badly about it to this day. This is an extreme (and unflattering!) example of how competitiveness can have detrimental consequences. My type-A personality didn't help, but no excuses; I have only myself to blame.

She has learned ways to push hard in the gym, but not let the perfectionist’s voice inside her wreak havoc on her personal wellbeing and relationships.

One way I help myself stay on track and positive (mentally and physically) is to keep a workout journal. There are more narrative entries than numbers and I find it cathartic to write down what I'm feeling (good or bad) and make sure there is a positive spin on things. I sometimes include inspirational quotes. Here are some that I like:

Eleanor Roosevelt: "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission."

Roderick Thorp: "We have to learn to be our own best friends because we fall too easily into the trap of being our own worst enemies."

As she sees it, the community is an essential part of pushing oneself to the fullest—even if the competitive aspect is removed. Part of removing the competition may come from one’s box, like the one at the fishery that doesn’t rank athletes, but the other part must come from redirecting the sights of one’s inner competitor. Take a moment, and see that everyone in CrossFit--even Mikko and Graham--varies at what they're exceptionally good at.

Reality is there is no way you can do a "Fran" or push your hardest in any WOD for that matter on your own (not me anyways), so it really is helpful to have others around you when working out. I also learn a great deal from watching others (I'm developing my own coach's eye even though I'm not a coach). Everyone's got something they're good at and it's just the luck of the draw if you come out on top or not in a WOD on any particular day, so what does it matter?

The majority of CrossFitters are just trying to be as fit as possible in the good company of other like-minded people and have some fun while they're at it. A very small percentage competes at the CrossFit Games, and I'd venture to say the benefit of CrossFit for the masses has nothing to do with a killer Fran time. Personal records are just that: personal. My worth as a person has no correlation to fast benchmarks. I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

The Open - The New Site and Programming

Get a real-time ranking for your performances

The CrossFit Games Open begins on March 15. With athletes from all over their world submitting their results and videos, we needed a new site to keep track of the competition. The new Open site will have some cool new features such as showing participants their up-to-date position in the world and in their region. The ranking will update in real-time as results pour in.

Another new feature is that athletes will be able to create side-to-side comparisons with any other Open athlete. For example, you'll be able to find out how you compare with Mikko Salo across the Open workouts.

With regards to programming, the Open workouts will be very manageable. They will draw mostly from standard CrossFit movements like thrusters, cleans, pull-ups, and push-ups. At only one workout a week, any athlete training for the Games in will be able to easily handle the volume of work.

Affiliates will be able to turn hosted Open workouts into community events. Upon completing a week's Open workout, athletes will be able to relax and drink some beers with their fellow CrossFitters.

And it all starts in just three weeks.

The Open - The New Site And Programming

Download as QuickTime.
Download as Windows Media.

Greg Glassman on Universal Participation

Dark Horses Will Always Have a Shot at the Title

The prize for the individual male and female winners of the 2011 CrossFit Games is set at $250,000 each, but CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman expects that the winners of the CrossFit Games will soon win a million dollars. With the rapid growth of the sport, some have wondered if unknown athletes will still have a chance at winning.

Coach Glassman fundamentally disagrees with this idea. No matter how large the Games become, or how successful it's top athletes are, a teenager training in his garage will be able to dethrone the big name athletes like Mikko Salo and Rob Orlando. There will always be dark horses, and with CrossFit's commitment to universal participation, they will always have the opportunity to compete and show what they've got.

Greg Glassman On Universal Participation

Download as QuickTime.
Download as Windows Media.