Rest Day

Join us tonight from 5:30 to 8pm to take on Open Workout 18.2 at Friday Night Lights! You can sign up for a heat here, but even if you’re not competing, c’mon out to cheer and have some fun. BYOB!

Should I Redo an Open Workout?

By Chris Fox

Congrats! You completed 18.1, the first workout of the 2018 CrossFit Games season! Whether this is your very first Open or you’ve been in the game since 2011, you’re probably (over?) analyzing your performance and what you could have done differently to score higher. It’s natural, you’re human, and we’re all a little bit competitive in CrossFit LaLaLand. While the answer may very likely be yes, you could probably do a bit better your second time around, I’m going to recommend you not plan do just that for a few reasons.

• The few extra reps you may (or may not) get don’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Sure, you probably know you could have rowed harder now that there’s video evidence of you rowing your boat ever so gently down the stream (or, sleeping while rowing?). Compared to the larger picture however, the larger picture being your long term health and fitness, those few points mean nothing. Unlace your nanos and use the info for the next workout.
• If you go in knowing that you might redo a workout, you will not give the first attempt your best effort. Of you’re treating the Open as the Sport of Fitness, then be true to that. Does Christiano Ronaldo get a practice shot on a breakaway? Does Aaron Judge get a 4th strike? (I wish, but he probably still would have struck out over 200 times.) The point is, treat the opportunity to do the workout like it matters the first time. You might be able to do it again, but that doesn’t mean you should.
• You wouldn’t redo “The Chief” or 1RM squat session a day or two after later, right? Srsly, right? One of the original tenets of CrossFit, and one reasons it works so well, is it’s Constantly Varied. Give your body a break and move on to the next workout. Your body will take less of a beating, your hands will likely thank you, and you’ll have the opportunity to redo the workout at some point in the future anyway. Dave Castro likes to repeat Open workouts every year, and so does your head programmer at CrossFit South Brooklyn.
• If your friends jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you jump too? Maybe the bridge was a different one for you growing up, but I’m pretty sure everyone had a mother figure in their life ask them some iteration of this query. It was meant as a prompt for you to think for yourself a bit before you act. Sure, you’ll hear people at your gym brag about doing it again. They’ll even make it sound “hardcore” with their broken backs and tore up hands. Don’t be swayed, make your own choices. I know Games athletes all redo the Open Workouts…but you’re not as dumb as your friends and, you are not a Games athlete.

Wait, you are a Games or Regionals athlete? Even if not, there may be times when redoing the workout wouldn’t be too bad of an idea. Let’s say…

• You had a outlying mishap. Your dumbbell fell apart, your rower collapsed, your pants fell off mid Double-Unders, whatever. If you truly had something prevent you from continuing for a significant amount of time then go for it, you have my blessing.
• You’re on the “Next Level Bubble,” meaning you actually have a shot at going to Regionals. Or, you’re fit and committed enough that competing in CrossFit is a realistic goal and you have a long term plan that involves placing higher each year. If this is you, then you probably stopped reading a few paragraphs above anyway but you can and should do the Open workouts twice. The first time as a “test” and 2nd as the “event”. Depending on the workout and the damage/soreness it’s likely to cause, you might do a shorter version for your test, and you probably have a coach already telling you this so listen to her or him.
• You have a compadre who’s going to redo it, and it would be a really good time do go again with her or him. You fell in love with CrossFit in the first place at least in part because it’s fun to workout with your friends. Don’t forget that.

Statement of Full Disclosure: Last year your author redid ALL of the 2017 Open workouts. Yep, all of ‘em. I did them with a great crew on Friday early afternoons and then again on Monday afternoons. So in my defense, I had pretty much as much time as possible in between workouts. It sort of snuck up on me, I didn’t plan it and it was the first time I’d ever redone an Open workout. But, a friend and colleague (McDowell) who was leaving Brooklyn later in the year was redoing them. I guess I wanted to squeeze in as much CrossFit fun as possible before he and the family hightailed it to Virginia, something we hadn’t really done much of recently since we were both pretty busy with work and life. Jess (the wifey aka Lady Fox) and some other gym friends/colleagues were in for it, and we all had a lot of fun. Funny thing is I thought Mcd was just doing them twice for kicks…I later learned that he had to redo them since that was what his coach programmed for him. He’s someone who is near that “bubble” mentioned above…I am not. Hence I am back to my old self in 2018, planning to give my best at FNL (which was OFF THE CHAIN) or Saturday with group classes and then be done with it.

News and Notes

• Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Open Mat is cancelled this Tuesday, March 6th. 
• Starting this week, Thursday night Next Level Weightlifting Club will move to Friday night from 6 to 8pm. NLWC will now meet Mondays from 7 to 9pm, Wednesdays from 7 to 9pm, and Fridays from 6 to 8pm.
• The 5th Look, Feel, Perform Better Challenge Lecture and Q&A is this Sunday at 12pm in the Annex. In “What Even Is a Carb?” we’ll learn a bit more about what macronutrients are, which foods contain which, and some simple guidelines to help us choose foods that are better for us along a spectrum of Healthy to Less Healthy to Unhealthy. As always, there’s an open Q&A afterwards where you can air out whatever you like.

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