Every year, the Open creates a kind of fun and electric atmosphere that only comes during this 5-week competition. While the excitement level is very high in the gym, nerves and feelings of anxiousness also arise.
After over seven years of owning an affiliate and participating in the Open, the single best piece of advice we can give everyone is to simply HAVE FUN.
Now while “having fun” can take you very far in ensuring you perform your best and get the most out of the Open, we know that everyone likely wants to maximize their opportunity to log their best score possible.
Here are a few tips to help you show up to each workout ready to perform your best:
1.) Do your Open workout at the same time you normally do your workouts.
While we encourage everyone to come and do the workouts in the afternoon during Friday Night Lights, if you normally work out in the morning and that is the time you feel your best, then stick with that. And then you can come and cheer on others during Friday Night Lights. A heat sheet will be printed and left at the front desk of the gym on Thursday night, so the sooner you show up on Friday for Friday Night Lights (starting at 3:30pm) the better the chance you have of securing your preferred workout time.
2.) Plan your rest day accordingly.
The last thing you want to do is not plan a rest day during the week. If you don’t plan a rest day mid-week, come Friday, your body will be so sore and tired that you will unlikely be able to perform your best. To help with this, every Thursday for the five weeks during the Open, will be a “Goat Day.” This is basically intended to be an active recovery day where you can come in and work on some skills that you/we think may come up in the Open, maybe do a short session on the bike or rower, or even work on mobility and do some foam rolling. Our suggestion would be to come in Monday-Wednesday and then make Thursday your rest or active recovery day.
3.) Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition!
CrossFit‘s hierarchy of development pyramid starts with nutrition at the very bottom. If you’re not prioritizing what you are fueling your body with, no amount of fitness will be able to undo the harmful effects of poor nutrition. Also, try to resist the urge to add in a new pre or post workout supplement that you do not take on a regular basis as you could end up feeling worse if your body doesn’t end up handling it well. If you don’t want to navigate this alone, you don’t have to. Set up your free 15-minute nutrition consultation with Haley if you haven’t yet to get started on some guided help.
4.) Don’t sacrifice everything you practice in training on competition day.
What we mean by this is, if you train on a regular basis with the proper mindset, executing the movements with proper form, and scaling appropriately, don’t throw that all out the window when the clock ticks “3, 2, 1, Go” during your Open workouts. By doing this, you risk injury and even frustration if you don’t meet the full standard of the movement. Maximize the opportunities you have, but in a safe and mindful way. Don’t sacrifice form just to get a better score. This is something we talk about on a regular basis when we’re training, but it especially applies to competition day.
5.) Don’t forget to warm up!
During Friday Night Lights, we will have heat times spaced out according to the workout, allowing enough time for the workout and then a quick turnaround to start the next heat. Therefore, we will not be able to take everybody through an individual warm up before every heat time. However, we will post the warm up on Wodify as normal and have it up on the TV screen on the black side, so please show up with enough time to allow you to properly warm up. Showing up five minutes prior to the start of your workout is not a good idea and will not present a favorable outcome.
Our goals at CrossFit Helix: to educate and inspire, and make people better every day. Competition helps with the ‘inspire’ part: the pressure to perform pushes you to train harder; the social boost of dozens of your best friends cheering for you will help you reach a higher plane. It’s super inspiring!
So go out there, give it your best effort, have some fun and cheer on the other 50+ Helix’ers competing — they’re going to need it!