Check out the CrossFit Beloit February Newsletter by clicking here!
Lots of great things going on at CrossFit Beloit however I do have to announce that Alison will no longer be apart of the coaching staff. She will be dearly missed.
Lots of great things going on at CrossFit Beloit however I do have to announce that Alison will no longer be apart of the coaching staff. She will be dearly missed.
Hello everyone! It's Coach Alison here and with just one more week until the 2018 Open is here, I wanted to make a post with all the info you need! We will be running the Open workouts every Friday during all classes as we have in the past. If you are signed up for the Open or you are not, you will still be doing the workout during Friday's classes. We will run each class similar to the past few Friday's with two heats where you have a judge.
Here are some FAQ that you may have with the Open:
Where do I register and submit my scores?
https://games.crossfit.com/cf/login?returnTo=%2Fregister%2Fathlete&flow=games You will first have to create an account (if you don't have one from past years) and register for the open. The cost with taxes is around $22. You will select CrossFit Beloit for your affiliate and team. Every week you will need to submit your score to the CrossFit Games Webpage before Monday evening. If you don't submit your score, we can't do anything to help out as this is a CrossFit run thing, so please enter in your scores! Once you enter a score, we will validate it and you will be on the leaderboard!
If I am not officially signed up for the Open can I still come to classes Friday's for the work out?
Yes of course! In fact, all Friday classes will be the Open workouts together! We encourage everyone to sign up for the Open but we understand if you may not want to this year! Still participate in everything else that we have to be a part of the community!
When do we find out what the workouts are?
For 5 weeks, every Thursday night at 7pm the CrossFit website will host an Open workout announcement that we will watch at the gym. We typically have a pot luck type of food gathering and watch the announcement at the gym on our projector. More info will be at the gym each week on what to bring! People have also brought some camping chairs along for these nights, as they come in handy. Thursday nights have been a fun tradition we have created, so try to come and be apart of it! If you can't make it to the gym Thursday for the viewing
When can I do the Open workout if I miss a Friday or want to Re-peat the workout?
Your first chance to do the Open workout will be Friday during all classes. Open gym times on Saturday from 9am-10am, Sunday from 12pm-2pm, Monday 7:15-8:30am, 4pm-5p. PLEASE sign up on Pike 13 and talk to a coach if you plan to do the workouts at this time. We have been having an issue with people not signing up for classes and this is important to ensure we have enough judges and to plan for you to do the workout. In the past we have had some people needing to do the workout Thursday night after the workout is announced, if this is the case, PLEASE tell us. This means coaches have to stay after hours for you to do this, so please give the courtesy of telling us in advance so we can plan for it. Please do not just assume we will be staying late Thursday for people to do the workout.
Please plan to do the workout during the above mentioned times. If you have extenuating circumstances, just talk with a coach and we will work something out.
What if I am out of town for an Open workout?
If you are out of town for an Open workout, we suggest that you drop in to a local CrossFit box where you are to do the workout. We also suggest that you email ahead of time to let the gym know that you are interested in this. Not all gyms run the Open workouts the same and it is best that you contact them. If you are in this position, please talk to a coach at the gym to help you find a gym!
Will I be judging someone like the past few Fridays? Do I no rep people?
Yes. We have been doing Friday classes how the Open will run for the past few weeks now. We will run two heats with partners counting reps with a score card that is provided. Sometimes there are tie breaker scores and it is important to keep track of workouts so people can post the correct scores. We will have head coaches around making sure that movement standards are meet, but it is everyone's job to hold each other accountable for the movement standards that are given. If the workout calls for toes to bar and the toes don't touch the bar, this rep will not count during the Open. We want to make sure everyone is having fun but we also have to stay consistent with the movement.
Do I have to have a judge for my Open workouts?
Yes. To keep everything consistent, all Open workouts and re-peats must be done with a judge to verify the reps. Since you have a membership to a CrossFit Affiliated gym, you can do them at the gym with out any video submission and the coaches that passed the judges course will verify your scores each week. When you submit your score online, you must enter the name of the head coach that was in charge of your class. This was mentioned before, but if you are making up a workout during Open gym times, PLEASE talk to a coach about having a judge so we can be prepared.
What can I expect for Rx and Scaled workouts?
During the Open, the workout is provided with the standards that CrossFit tells us, and the workout is to be done to that standard for each workout. There will be an Rx and Scaled version of the workout each week. If there is a movement or weight that you are unable to do, we will suggest which workout you should try. In some cases there may be a high skilled movement such as a pull up or muscle up that you may even record a score of 1 rep. During the Open we encourage everyone to try each workout with and open mind and aim for first double unders, first pull ups, muscle ups, a new weight, box jumps or even the new burpee standard through a whole work out. Movement standards will be monitored by coaches and partner judges. If the workout calls for chest to bar pull ups, the chest must come in contact with the bar, "almosts" will not be counted during the Open workouts to keep it fair and to follow the rules of the Open. You are allowed to change between Rx and Scaled workouts for each workout pending the movements and your choice.
What will the week look like for programming?
Typically during the open most people come in during the week as usual and take Thursdays off before they do the Open workout. This is what we suggest, but by all means, you do what is best for you. If you are planning to take Thursdays off and do some sort of active recovery, something like rowing, biking or stretching would be a good thing to do. The programming may also change depending what the workout is, if Friday is heavy on pull ups, look for a break in those bar movements to let hands heal if needed!
Another year has come and gone and 2018 will bring each of you new goals in and out of the CrossFit Beloit gym. Last year we had a "Goal Board" and had each of you write down your goals for 2017. I was reading the board the other day and saw some people cross of many goals and some crossed off zero goals. I even talked to a few members about why they didn't reach their goal and a common answer was that they didn't spend the time working towards their goal, or they made to lofty of a goal. Just because you didn't reach your goal you wrote down for 2017 doesn't mean it is a failure. What it means is that we may need to go over what a better goal is for you and what can be done to reach that goal. Maybe a PR in every lift isn't a great goal, I haven't had a PR in a major lift for 2 years... it happens! Making smaller goals and a road to reach those goals is something we want to emphasize. If you are having a hard time making or reaching a new goal, talk with a coach on a plan that will work for you. We will be leaving up the goal board for another 2 weeks, the erasing it to make a "Celebration Board", you can write up any new things you have accomplished in and out of the gym to share with your fellow CFB family members! We want to celebrate you and your awesome lives!
In a short 7 weeks, the 2018 CrossFit Games Open will begin. It seems just like yesterday we were doing endless thrusters and double unders to end the 2017 Open. For those of you that are newer to CrossFit and may not know what the Open is, it is a World Wide competition that acts as a qualifier for the CrossFit Games. We hate to burst any bubbles, most likely we will not have any CFB members make the Games, but we like to encourage as many people to sign up for the Open ever year. Last year we had a record number of people sign up and we would love to see us beat that number this year! The Open is 5 weeks long with a new workout announced each Thursday night at 7pm, you complete that workout that CrossFit puts out by the following Monday evening (submitting scores on line). Sign up for the Open is $20 and we encourage each member to sing up. You will hear us talk a lot about the Open and even seen a switch in programming to ramp up our cardio during those high intensity Metcon workouts! The Open is a great way to get people outside of their comfort zone and to try new movements or weights they normally wouldn't. Keeping a positive attitude is something that we want to encourage as well during the open. Maybe you don't have pull ups down yet, or maybe double unders are a struggle for you. We want you to keep working on those skills through the year so that when they show up in the Open you will have more success. Talk with a coach today to get some more information on the Open!
Each week we will be posting a video of tips and techniques to move more efficiently at the movements that come up in the Open. Here is a great article that talks about common movements in the Open
You can even go back to the CrossFit.com site and see past Open workouts , every year there is a re-peat workout and it's always fun to guess which one it will be!
One last read on the Open and a history of common movements
Check out these links for past blogs on the Open:
http://crossfitbeloit.com/wod/2017/1/18/the-crossfit-open-2017
Shortly after Thanksgiving, the World Championships of weightlifting began in Anaheim California. Inspired by the broken world records and inspiring lifts that happened during the week long competition, CrossFit Beloit has decided to hold our very in-house weightlifting meet.
Rest assured, there will be no weigh ins or singlets necessary though if you have one and would like to, feel free! Since there are lots of rules and nuances to the sport of Weightlifting, we are inviting anyone that would be interested in participating to come to our informational session on January 3, 2018 at 11:30. During this informational session we will go over the lifts, talk about judging standards, and answer any other questions that you may have. You do not have to attend the informational session to participate.
We will also watch some lifting in competition to give everyone a feel for what it is like. If you decide to participate we will be offering lifting templates for you to do weightlifting specific training during open gym. The actual weightlifting meet will be held a month after the informational session on February 10th. Sign up for the meet will be at the gym. Once we get an idea of how many people are interested, we will get out more details.
This past weekend, as you may have seen from our social media bombardment, there was a CrossFit competition held at Harbor Park CrossFit in Kenosha called the Shipwreck part 2. CrossFit Beloit had the most teams competing, with a total of 7 male/female teams! Everyone came out and rocked the competition and represented CFB to the fullest! We also had a lot of supporters there, which is always nice to have!!
Check out all of the photos from the event here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/43622317@N05/albums/72157689590722265
Stranger Danger (Justin and Kristen) got 9th place overall and their best event was the 800m run, getting 4th place with a time of 2:42, and just edging out his twin brother Jon for the win! Kristen and Justin rocked every event and also had a strong finish on the last event of the dreaded assault bike, dumbbell snatches, push ups and knee raises.
Mawidge (Liz and Kevin) placed 10th, proving that couples that CrossFit together do well in competitions together! Their best finish was a 7th place finish in the last event, and they finished it out with 25 unbroken hanging knee raises! Impressive guys! They had two 9th place finishes and I believe some PR's for both in the snatch ladder!
Pain Train (Jon and Gwen) ended up in 13th place and came in 5th place during the 800m run with a time of 2:43. They came up with a 9th place finish in the partner dead lift and thruster workout, and Gwen rocked her first official competition!
For Bacon We Burpee (Lindsay and Zach) ended in 18th place and though no burpees where done, they sure earned that bacon! Both had impressive snatches during the ladder to earn them their best finish of the day. They also rocked the last event and flew through those dumbbell snatches!
Kipping It Real (Mary and Pete) ended in 20th place and had their best finish in 10th place for the snatch ladder. Both Mary and Pete got a new PR on their hang snatch! That olympic lifting has been paying off for them! Their next best event was the last even and Mary looked just like Sara Sigmundsdottir on that bike with her hair blowing in the wind. Pete looked like a brick house during the dead lifts!
Jell-O-Squats (Scott and Katie) not only rocked the best shirts of the competition, but also their workouts. The placed 6th overall and missed the finals by a slim 2 points. They placed 1st during the 800m with a blazing time of 2:22! They got 6th place on the last event and did an amazing job with those toes to bar!
#Schweaty (Cindy and Jamie) Cindy had a last minute partner change with a member of the Harbor Park gym who did an awesome job. They came in 9th place and had their best event finish on event 3 with a 6th place finish. They owned the dead lifts and thrusters and made that weight look easy. Cindy had a PR on the snatch ladder as well!
Swole Train (Mandi and Jamie) finished in 11th place and had their best finish with event 1, the snatch ladder. Mandi rocked the hand stand push ups in her first Rx competition and Jamie loved riding that bike! Both did a great job on the dead lifts as well!
Overall, the competition was fun (and hot!) and everyone that competed did an amazing job. It is so nice to see the camaraderie between our members even when they are competing against one another. Seeing the member support in those that come to cheer on all of those competing is also something that is amazing to see. The CFB community is the best! We hope that some of you have caught the competition bug and will continue to put yourself in situations that make you a little uncomfortable while doing CrossFit! As always, we will make announcements as to when there are more competitions if you want to get involved!