Time for a little reflection:
Imagine this. It’s 2016. As we await the announcement of CrossFit Open WOD 16.2, there is a nervous anticipation about the next challenge the CrossFit programmers are going to throw at us. What will it be? Muscle ups? Chest to bar pull ups? Pistols? There are as many guesses about WHAT the WOD will be as there are movements in CrossFit. THE Dave Castro grabs the microphone at tells us…16.2 will be…..4 minutes….of…25 Toes to Bar. 50 Double Unders. And 15 cleans at 135. If you make that in the 4 minutes…..you have 4 more minutes to do….15 Toes to Bar….50 Double Unders…..and 13 cleans at 185. If you finish that within 4 minutes…you will have 4 more minutes….OK you get the point and maybe some of you read that in Dave Castros voice.
If we know anything, we know that change is constant. With the change in this years Open format, we no longer get Super Dave telling us what’s next in his bag of WODS. Even though the format has changed, the one thing that hasn’t is the test and retest component of the Open. For this year, our retest was 19.2 (aka 16.2). We may have another repeat WOD. Who knows? For now, let’s dig deeper into 19.2.
As a gym, we had about a dozen athletes that did 16.2 that also did 19.2. In EVERY case…there was improvement in scores. Some were one rep (but one rep at a heavy clean). Some were almost 100 reps!! Some were SCALED in 2016 and RX in 2019. This is what we love about the Open. The retest that occurs under the same conditions as the original test with a judge and someone counting reps and managing standards. We can’t duplicate this on a daily basis.
Of our 37 participants in the Open, 23 are in Masters age groups (35 and older). We point out this specific group for the simple fact this group is in age brackets where getting older is a huge component of physical performance. In theory, at this point, athletes in these age groups are already beyond their peak in terms of physical development. But wait….ALL of them did better than the 3 year younger version of themselves!! Most of them substantially better.
So here is what we know as a result of this retest (and almost every retest we have done in the last 3 years). CrossFit works and the programming at CrossFit970 is working for you. This is especially true when done with consistency in combination with a generally healthy lifestyle. You are getting stronger and more fit from year to year. The proof is in the numbers. (OH…and btw….with very few exceptions, almost everyone PR’d their back squat today. Further proof that a squat progression is good for everyone).
Congrats on the PR’s. Hopefully there will be many more of them in your future.