Difficulty
Challenging, yes. But you’ve done just as much in a CF class within the last week, I’d bet.
Equipment
Various. Your Box will have what you need.
Time
One workout every week for 5 weeks, announced each Thursday starting on Feb 23rd.
Think about the last time you went to a big music concert. Think of the anticipation in the car ride to the stadium, the fight for parking, the huge crazy crowd, the line to get in, the $8 beer in a small plastic cup, the amazing people you were with, signing along to your favourite parts just like everyone around you, the guy behind you getting the words all wrong, the long wait for the washroom, the screaming for an encore, the excitement when the band takes the stage for one last song, the delicious slice of pizza at the place around the corner from the stadium and the heated debate with your friends on the ride home about what was the best part of the night.
Or are you the sort to stay home and say “nah, I have the album, I’m good”.
You go to a concert for the experience, the excitement, the energy – enjoying the music at home is an entirely different thing, no matter how great your sound system is. Live, in the moment, with your friends is what you remember for a lifetime. No matter whether you are true artistic audiophile or just a casual listener – the concert going experience is memorable for what it is.
That is the CrossFit Open.
Forget your fitness level, forget how long you’ve been doing CrossFit, forget how you felt in the last WOD or that you’re not “the competition sort” – none of that enters into the experience of the Open. Imagine the best most social day you’ve ever had at your Box. The Open is like that, but amped up. Everyone is excited, everyone is super positive, everyone is cheering on their fellow members. I dare you to find a box that isn’t oozing an astonishing level of fun during the Open.
Every box may be different, but CrossFit has a reputation for community. And every CF community, no matter how different from Box to Box, finds its stride during the Open. There is no better opportunity to get to know people than these incredible 5 weeks. You’ll work out hard, sure. But when don’t you?
But how many times do you get to work out with people that work out in a different class than you? We often get into our own time slot because it works for our schedule and then stick with it. So there are people in the Box you may never have met, let alone sweat along side. That changes in the Open.
Have you ever been the first to finish a workout and cheered your fellow athletes to help motivate them to the finish? Or have you been last to finish and gotten energy from the other athletes cheering you on? That’s the Open, but amped up.
Have you and your fellow athletes finished a workout, high-fives all around, then gone out and relived that brutal workout together over a coffee or a beer? That happens in the Open.
The Open is about community, family, purpose, drive, exhilaration, hard work, and triumph. Need I go on?
I challenge you to take the headphones off, get off the couch, and experience the rock show unlike any other that is the CrossFit Open. After you finish the 17.1 workout with your CrossFit family, you’ll wonder how you ever considered not doing it.
The experience of a lifetime starts February 23rd. I’ll see you on the leaderboard.