The CrossFit Games Open
 
For those of you who have been doing CrossFit with us for a while you will probably know about the CrossFit Games. For those who are newer to the gym, you may not have heard about the competition to crown ‘The Fittest on Earth”.

The CrossFit Games tests for the world’s fittest men, women, juniors, seniors and teams. The competition is in 3 stages: 

The Open - a worldwide competition, which this year starts on February 22nd and consists of 5 workouts across 5 weeks. All results are judged, submitted and approved meaning entrants will appear on the worldwide leader board. Anyone in the world can enter and compete against the world’s best! 

Regionals - the top 40 men, women and teams from each Region go to a weekend competition to find the top few of each, who then go on to…

The CrossFit Games – the finals, held in Madison, Wisconsin in August

​As per last year, we won’t be programming the Open workouts into WOD classes. We found, a couple of years ago, that logistically it was very difficult as we do not know what the workouts will be in advance. We will though, as per last year, be holding specific class times for those who have entered. These will be held every Friday night from Feb 23rd – Mar 23rd, more details to follow. 
 
Should I enter the Open?
 
Every year we have a number of athletes who enter the Open competition, this is mostly our athletes who follow the Performance Programme as the workouts must be completed as prescribed and judged to be able to submit a score. Common movements that crop up most years include: Muscle Ups, C2B Pull Ups, Handstand Push Ups, Toes to Bar, Thrusters, Wall Balls, Box Jumps, Double Unders and the Olympic Weightlifting movements: the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk.
 
For the last few years CrossFit have also released a Scaled Workout with adjusted movements and lighter weights. However, this workout must still be completed as it is written and may include Snatches, Clean and Jerks, Pull Ups etc.
 
If you are not currently following the Performance Programme (Level 3 on our Athletic Levels) have a look at your numbers to see where your weaknesses lie and come and speak to Jon if you are thinking about entering the Open. You should have been regularly attending our Olympic Weightlifting classes and have Level 3 Strict Pull Ups for it to be suitable for you.
 
We will have a scheduled session on Friday nights starting on February 23rd for those who have entered to come and complete the workout. Please come along and support our athletes if you are free, there is always a great atmosphere at these occasions! If you are unable to make it on Friday nights you will have to book in to an Open Session and arrange a judge to complete it over the weekend to be able to submit your score.

​As we mentioned in our post about the new Athletic Levels in November, we have been working hard on the next stage of CrossFit Avon’s evolution and we have some exciting changes coming up.
 
Before we get in to it, here is some context for our thinking. This is our mission statement in our coaching manual:
“Why” we do what we do:
 Everything we do at CrossFit Avon comes from our wish to transform the lives of our members. We love our members. Our motivation and approach comes from a genuine care for their wellbeing.
 
To achieve our mission we need to offer the most effective solutions to our members to help them move towards their goals and keep them training for the long term. One of the most important parts of any journey is the beginning. It has been clear to us for a while now that those athletes who started their journey with one-to-one sessions, to cover the fundamental movements, tend to make better overall progress towards their goals. Further to this, athletes who continued to receive regular one-to-one contact with a coach, trained more consistently and made amazing progress in the long term.
 
So, this is exactly what all new members will experience at the start of their fitness journey with us, from mid-February onwards. All new members will complete our Fundamentals Programme one-to-one with one of our coaches. Once completed they will move on to a hybrid membership giving them access to their ‘Coach for Life’ on a regular basis. Our future memberships will reflect this with a variety of options covering their monthly classes and preferred frequency of one-to-one sessions.
 
Existing members will have the option of transitioning on to a hybrid membership if they think this would benefit them. The one-to-one sessions could be used to set goals, assist with nutrition, work on technique, address mobility issues or work on weaknesses. But don’t worry, if this isn’t for you, your membership will continue as it is now. If you are interested please get in touch with Cathie.
 
SPECIAL OFFER: Our normal Personal Training rate is now £48 per hour but we will be offering the first 5 member referrals at only £36 per hour for their fundamentals. Don’t forget you will also get a half price month of membership for every person you refer! If you know anyone who might be interested please pass their details on to Cathie and she will get in touch with them.
 
If you have any questions about these changes please speak to Jon or Cathie.