The 2019 CrossFit Open starts this week and some people are starting to ask questions.     Here are the top questions we’ve heard so far:

What is the CrossFit Open?

The CrossFit Open is a 5 week online CrossFit competition that is run at affiliates around the world.   Each week CrossFit HQ announces a workout and participating athletes have from Thursday evening to Monday afternoon to perform the workout and post a score to CrossFit Games website.  There are both Rx and Scales workouts available making this competition accessible to most people.

I’m not going to make it to the CrossFit Games, Why do I care about the CrossFit Open?

Competition (real competition) can help open peoples eyes to their preparation or can simply bring out the best effort.   Plenty of people are willing to sign up for a 5K run assuming they aren’t going to WIN the race.   The CrossFit Open is the same idea, but using CrossFit workouts instead.   It helps give people something to train for, measure how effective their training actually is, or simply offer a fun way to truly compete against fellow gym goers.   For me personally, it is an annual benchmark.   It helps show me the places in my own training that I’ve been excelling, and places that maybe I’m not focusing as much.     Also, the nerves of competition really do bring out my best effort and doing the competition with our gym family is a pretty safe place.

How do we know what the workouts are?

Each Thursday during the CrossFit Open, CrossFit HQ will announce the workout details.   Up until that point, no one knows what the workout will be.   To help everyone understand what the workout is, Rogue Fitness televises 2 Athletes doing the workout Head-To-Head shortly after it is announced.

How does the Competition work?  Do I HAVE to be judged?

After CrossFit HQ announces the workout Thursday night, CrossFit Banshee does the workout on Friday.   This is the Workout of the Day (WOD) and all of our classes do the workout regardless of participation in the CrossFit Open.   HINT: You don’t have to sign up for the official event to do the workout.   BUT, because many people in our gym will be signed up the evening class times will utilize a competition format that we call Friday Night Lights.   The normal 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30 PM classes will be split into heats.   These heats are smaller than our normal class size depending on the workout so we have to do multiple heats each hour to give everyone the opportunity to do the WOD.   For those athletes that are signed up for the CrossFit Open, a judge will count reps and ensure the CrossFit standards are met.   For athletes NOT registered, they simply perform the workout with other athletes without a judge.   The hype, excitement, and yeah even nerves exist for everyone.

How do I know WHEN I can workout?

As soon as we know the details of the week’s workout, we’ll start putting together heat times.   We’ll make these heat time available online prior to coming to the gym, or when athletes walk in the door they can sign up for an available slot.   Obviously signing up online will ensure you get a timeslot that fits your schedule, but everyone is encouraged to stick around and cheer on athletes and may even be asked to help judge.

I’m registered for the Open and can’t make it on Friday.   How can I make up the workout?

Getting judged for CrossFit Open workouts can be a struggle if someone can’t make it to class on Friday.   This year we will not take time away from existing classes to make up sessions.  We offer 2 ways to make up a session.

Option 1: During Sunday’s Open gym time.   Each week we’ll post a timeslot that a coach will be available on Sunday to facilitate.   This will be our primary make up time for the CrossFit Open workouts.   Please help us out by trying working with your teammates to find an adequate judge.   The Open Gym charge of $5 will apply to both athlete and judge so may we recommend the athlete pay for their judges Open gym time?   The Affiliate manager (Coach Steve) will need to ensure that the judge will uphold the CrossFit standards.

Option 2: Other times slots can be scheduled on an AS NEEDED basis.   These sessions will be charged as 30 Minute Personal Training Sessions.  This means that 1 athlete will be charged $45 and each additional athlete will be charged $10.   One of our coaches will need to run the session, but judges will still need to be found to help.   Judges will NOT be charged for help out.

Have other questions?   Let us know.   Comment on this post or send an email to info@crossfitbanshee.com