The CrossFit Open is fast approaching us (This week folks!!). Wow where has that year gone?? Are you pumped for it?? We certainly are! We LOVE this time of year. But not for the reasons you may be thinking. (Note: If you are new to us and are not sure on what exactly this Open thing is all about check out our blog post here on the subject). We don’t love it for the leaderboard or to see where you stack up against 300,00 other souls. Nup, we love it for the way it brings us closer together as a COMMUNITY. We firmly believe we have one of THE very best CrossFit Communities around in the greater Melbourne area, heck even throughout all of Australia!! Yes of course we are biased as your Coaches however the camaraderie we see, the friendships we see & the bond we see from you guys is amazing. Second to none! No question about it. Perhaps what is more beautiful is the overall CULTURE that we have up here on our Rooftop of Dreams. All of the things we just mentioned above come directly from our culture. It is one that is welcoming, open, honest, loyal, oozes with integrity & is bloody FUN. We look out for one another like no other set of people (barring immediate family type stuff) that we have ever seen. You guys should very proud of what you have become a part of as we are super proud of each of you for buying into our culture. Now part of that make up of our culture too is the way we are not too much in one camp with regards to your “CrossFitness”. We are neither uber competitive nor are we just slap & dash don’t-give-a-poop about the whole comp scene. We sit right in the middle as (we believe) all Gyms should be. If you are a competitive CrossFitter, great! we will support your goals and feed you accordingly to help you get there. Or you may just enjoy CrossFit for its life benefits, thats awesome too. We will also feed you accordingly for what you need to thrive in that sense. It’s this blend that makes the community up here so cool. The ying & the yang if you will. We get to bounce off each other & offer some unique perspective to each others endeavours without ever throwing it in each others' faces. Why are we telling you all this & whats its got to do with the Open you say? Fair question. Let us explain. This will be the 6th CrossFit Open since we opened up. It will be our 5th actually holding Open WoDs up on the ROD (that first year we had just opened and were just finding our feet as a gym). We have seen & held lots & lots of Open workouts. 20 so far to be exact! Couple that with the many many heats & re-do’s over the years and we have seen somewhere in the vicinity of 750+ actual heats and scorecards filled out. We have seen our fair share of what works & what doesn’t. So we come to you this yer armed with LOTS of experience. The Open can be a wonderful time of year to embrace YOUR Fitness & celebrate it. But it can also be a time of year that may leave you feeling down or frustrated with the outcome. At the end of the day it all comes down to Perspective. Its all down to how you are viewing and perceiving the actual event itself. Yes of course it has a large element of your current Fitness level to it but, & its a big but here, the CrossFit Open is not just about you, its about ALL OF US!! It is a GLOBAL Affiliate Community event that has the entire CrossFit world all connected for over a month. Its a chance to see where your score sits on a leaderboard yes but at the end of the day its a chance to embrace & be a part of what you have dedicated to your lifestyle, but for 5 weeks we can do it on a global scale. Its so rare too that you get to do a workout, the very same workout that well over 350,000 other people all around the world will be doing around the same time frame. So rare. To say that you don’t care to put numbers on a leaderboard, etc etc is not a good enough excuse. By inputting your numbers into the global database you get to indelibly stamp your current Fitness level down to look back upon in years to come. CrossFit is a lifelong program, NOT a 12 week transformation program. You will be doing this for many years yet so to be able to look back at what you had achieved is a valuable resource to have. There is every chance that, if you have been doing multiple Opens in years gone past, your overall standings will drop from last year, this may largely be due to the ever deepening pool of folks entering as its' popularity increases. So don't let it be a reason not to enter! The open is a snapshot into your fitness at this point in time. It's actually fairly accurate to life itself. Your fitness has ebbs and flows - You don’t get to "PR" constantly week after week. It undulates as your body goes through many different points in its lifetime. Your Fitness does dip from time to time and maybe at this point of time it is dipping due to illness or inconsistent training. It happens but we just move onward from it. Again, don't let it be a reason not to enter! Worrying about your place on a leaderboard needs to have its perspective too. Don’t get us wrong, you have every right to be upset if you didn’t get your intended target score and/or have a target area you'd like to finish on on the ladder but it didn't work out the way you'd hoped it would. But take a step outside yourself for a moment and realise that you actually are a legit badass (Fit) CrossFitter. You are just not the only one in this world who is hey! 🙂 We know emotion can play a big part of this too. All of a sudden theres 100 wall balls ahead of you in 17.1 and you start to over analyse every single detail on the wall ball and how you break it up or go unbroken, etc. You even start to get nervous about it, all the while forgetting the fact the you just did 150 wall balls last week in a "normal" CBD Daily WoD!! Perspective. Nerves will form a part of it but thats a good thing, it means you care about it. A little bit of competition is good for the mind too as it will breath some adrenalin into you and can often times propel you to new PR’s and the like. Whats not to like?? . So this all brings us how we will run the Open at CrossFit CBD this year (Got there in the end!! Yay!! Bet you’re glad we didn’t make a video of this post!!). We are greedy, we want both sides of the coin to shine each week. We want to see you try your best & get the best out of yourself but at the same time its very important to us that you have FUN.

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Main details you need to know:

• We will be running the Open Workouts on SATURDAY MORNINGS. We will be portioning a block of time of (7:00am - 9:30am) in which to complete our heats. (book yourself in each week please). Anyone not able to be there on a Saturday morning contact Karl or Susan (links below) to discuss alternatives. We have from around Friday Midday to about 10am Tuesday to do the WoD & submit the score. It would need to be an actual reason like working, family, away on a trip, etc as to why you can’t do it a Saturday.
• There is a SCALED version of each workout released so if you were worried about some moves popping up that you can’t yet do then you will be able to select the scaled one (you can choose week by week which version to do).
• Dependant on the actual details of the WoD, to which we find out on Friday around 11am, this will determine how many people can go at any one time, whether we go all boys, then all girls or go mixed. It may be another 20 min AMRAP so the block of time may stretch out a bit & it may be 4 min workout (in which case you can expect a 5km row or similar to be programmed by us afterward).
• We will also THEME EACH WEEK BY COLOUR. Yup you read that correct, themes are the name of the game this year. Each week we will get a PLAYLIST together based on that theme & we will all dress up in that colour (you don’t need to fancy dress it up unless you want to. Simply wearing the colour will be enough). On top of that we will get in a case (or two if needed) of beer/cider and sell them for a gold coin donation (there will be a minimum cost), with all profits going to a charity connected with that colour.
• Each week we will award someone a "spirit of the Open" recovery prize pack (PRO Bar & Fitaid) to the person who showed the most spirit in keeping with that weeks' colour theme.
• And on top of all this this we will be selecting a "Sprit of the week" award to the person we feels most embodies the traits associated with that colour of the week. The winner will receive a recovery prize pack (PRO Bar & Fitaid). We will be selecting a "Sprit of the Open" winner for the whole thing on week 5.
• Lastly we will celebrate the Open in fine style by heading out for a lovely lunch together on the last Saturday of the Open (Details to be released nearer the time).

Why do all this you ask? Simples, its about that Perspective.

• To all those that may get too excited at the Open & get all up on everybody about it.
• To all those that “don’t care for it, I’m here just for a Saturday WoD”.
• To all those that go over to others and say “i only got 12 Toes To bar and it was rubbish” without realising the person you just spoke to might not even be doing the same movement standards as you just did.
• To all those that do have the best of intentions but get all nervy during this time.

This is for you all. Don the colours, embrace the occasion, let the themes help relax you. Throw down to YOUR best ability & have a beer in celebration afterwards. We want to help take the edge off of the these weeks so you can enjoy your Fitness & throw down in a peaceful state of mind. This first week the COLOUR THEME IS RED!! Red exudes passion, determination, enthusiasm. Everything needed for week 1 of the Open. We will have a carton of beer & all profits collected will go to the AIDS Foundation so dig deep.      

Some logistical stuff to cover:

• We would really love it for you ALL to be here in time for the 1st heat & to stay for the duration of the morning (its just 2.5 hours hopefully). If you end up being in a 8:45am heat for example we still want you here at 7am to cheer on/judge the folks throwing down then. Its not fair on them that they get no cheers but you get lots as you insisted in sleeping in for an hour. Family circumstances & work stuff happens, we get it, but if these aren’t your reasons get your butt out of bed and come be part of the cheer-squad. We will try to get heat times out on the Friday night or early Saturday morning.
• There will no DUMPING on the floor during these WoDs! This one may not be popular but it is what it is. We know that one week out of the 5 there will likely be a heavy barbell & we will combat this with the pound pads which may have an impact on a potential strategy (quick singles may need to be re-thought to something else). For all other workouts that may involve the light to moderate weights (think the usual thruster weight, etc) there will be no dumping & no pads for those. You are all well used to it during regular weeks so it shouldn’t pose any issues.
• Submit your scores IMMEDIATELY after your WoD. Use the phone app and log it so we can verify it that night. Too often peeps leave it to the last minute and then in some case we have seen people get the cut off time wrong & miss out altogether! If we have you down to judge someone be available for action & please don’t wonder off to the coffee house if you know you are due up (we will be utilising as many of you as we can. Anyone not approved via the judges course can judge/count for anyone not officially entered).

So there we have it. Saturday morning throw-downs on the ROD for the win!! Lots of flair & colour on show. Lots of fun being had. Lots of $$ being raised for Charities Lots & lots of FUN being had.

If you haven’t yet entered you can do so by clicking here.

Also please select CrossFit CBD as your AFFILIATE & as your TEAM.

We are so looking forward to seeing you go at it in the Open. From a coaching & training point of view we have seen over the past 4-5 months the gains you are getting just keep on rolling up. We can safely say that you are well equipped to deal with this year, whatever they may throw at us!! (Dumbbell “Clusters” anyone???).

Any questions on the Open or how we will stage it. Or any reservations about any of it that we could hep with feel free to contract Karl or Susan on these links.

Roll on 17.1 !!!!