There has been a lot of talk around the gym about participating in Crossfit Games in 2011. Crossfit Games 2010 is this weekend. They will be streaming the event live on the internet. I am not sure how it works, but I am guessing that you can go to the main site www.crossfit.com and their will be a link to the live feed. If you are thinking about doing the games then this would be a great thing to watch, in order to give you an idea on what you are getting yourself into. Most have been talking about doing the Affiliate Games, while a few want to try the individual section. For those who have never heard of Crossfit Games, I will try to explain.
CrossFit Games was invented to find the “Worlds Fittest Person”. The CrossFit Games are the ultimate test of fitness. It’s a grueling three-day competition in which the world’s fittest athletes compete in a variety of workouts. What are the workouts? Each year they change, and the details of them are not announced until a couple days before the event. This means that all year long, the athletes are training for a competition whose format is almost completely a mystery. Most athletics have the luxury of knowing exactly what they are training for. CrossFit games you have now idea what you are going to be doing.
Crossfit Games workouts are designed to bring out athletics strengths and weakness. I like to compare CrossFit Games with UFC Fighting. Most of us have watched UFC fighting on TV. If you watched the fighting 15 years ago, it was a whole different type of fighting. Back then fighters would show up knowing only one thing, it might be that they were good at wrestling but didn’t now anything about boxing. I remember watching a match were a guy came out with one boxing glove on. He was hoping to hit the guy once and drop him. But they put him against a wrestler, the wrestler took him to the ground and the boxer was defenseless. Nowadays the fighters still have their strengths, but all show up being able to defend against anything that is thrown at them. You might have a fighter who is an excellent stand up fighter, but if he gets taken down he knows what to do to defend himself.
This is the way the Games are. You will always have your strengths that you depend on, but you should be able to get through any task that is set before you. For example, I have been struggling with double-unders. Last week I took one day and kept working on them until I got it. I’m not as good as Will, but I can do 6-8 at a time. Double-unders might not be one of my strengths, but if I am asked to do them in a workout I can at least get through them. If you are considering training for the Games, then know is the time to start working on your weakness. Pick something that you know are not good at and start working on it. Come in early and work on muscle-ups or stay a little later after the workout and work on your technique for clean and jerk.
The Affiliate Games works a little different. You still do not know what the workouts are, but you do them in teams. The teams consist of 3 men and 3 women. But during the workout you only use 4 people. You can pick and chose which 4 people you want to use for each particular workout. This way you can use your strengths for the workout.
You need to start working on your nutrition now. Stop shoveling crap into your mouth. We are going to start having a nutrition class on Saturday after class. It won’t matter how hard you train if you don’t have your nutrition dialed in. Remember “Ferrari don’t run on pump gas” and neither does an athletic. If you expect your body to perform at a high rate of speed and power then you need to feed it accordingly. Getting your nutrition plan together will be one of the hardest things you do. But once you get it dialed in it will also be one of the most rewarding.
Crossfit Games are getting bigger every year. A couple of years ago it was a small competition that only had about a 50 competitors. Now it has evolved into a massive competition. This year you had to go to a sectional competition and place in the top 20. Then those 20 went to a regional competition where only the top 4 move on to CrossFit Games. This year the top male and female will win $25000.00 and numerous other prizes. I predict that in a few years the prize purse will be double and you will see it on ESPN. The time to start training for the Games is know.
