Introduction

While we made a lot of lemonade out of the lemons that 2020 gave us, the 7070 FitFam is going to make 2021 one for the ages!  Every year, we use the Worldwide Open as a platform to bring our community together, to help us push ourselves further than we thought we could, and to ultimately become better through some really fun (and tough) workouts!

Here are the basic details:  Sign up for the Open which begins on March 11 (3 workouts – 1 per week).  You’ll then (automatically) be in our in-house Star Wars Intramural (which will have an additional 2 workouts).  There will be themes each week as well as a multitude of fun ways to score points for your team.  Oh, and 3 fun workouts for the kids!

Be sure to checkout this short 2 min video by CF HQ:  What is The CrossFit Open?

Now read on for the slightly longer and more detailed version…

1st Step:  Sign up! (and why you should)

The CF Games Open is the largest athletic participatory event in the world.  It’s estimated there are going to be 1/2 million crossfitters around the world participating!  So why should you then?

Finding your why could be different for everyone, and it depends on why you started.  But in any case, you may surprise yourself with how much fun your Open experience will be.  You probably didn’t sign up at 7070 to be a die hard competitor, but it’s amazing when you sign up for a competition of how far you can push yourself and enjoy it in the process.  There’s a great article HERE of more reasons why you should sign up.

Make sure to go to games.crossfit.com to create a profile and sign up.

Intramural Open

Because just doing the Open by itself is not good enough!  Once you sign up on the games site, you’ll be in our Intramural.  This year will be Star Wars themed with 4 teams that will be named by our captains:  Samuel Walter, Jodi Walter, David Merritt, and Beth Merritt (spousal rivalries can get interesting!). These captains will do a private draft 1 week prior to the start.  Once we get going, there will be multiple ways to score weekly points for your team including:

• +1 pt for doing and submitting a workout.  This should be automatic!
• +3 pts for each Top 3 competitor in their Men’s/Women’s Division.
• +5 pts for SPIRIT – the individual(s) who have the highest energy and enthusiasm for not just their team, but everyone involved
• +5 pts for Most Improved – the individual who surprises the coaching staff the most, PR’s a lift, or does something that had otherwise not been done before

We also have some end of the year awards, and additional ways to earn points for your team:

• “Wookie of the Year”:  If you did the Open for the very first time, and showed stellar effort and spirit
• MVP:  The overall champion in each division
• Most Improved Player:  For the highest % increase from last year’s Open.

In the end, the champion team will have their spot etched in the 7070 Hall of Fame.

The Workouts

The Open consists of 3 workouts – 1 per week.  But since we’re just that into fitness, we’re going to add 2 additional workouts.  So, our Intramural will have 5 total workouts scored over the course of 5 weeks .   Dave Castro, the director of the CF Games, has hinted at the possibility of some additional “surprise workouts”.  Dave is always full of surprises, so until then, we’re going to stick with our plan and improvise if need be.

Thursday March 11 will be the first announced workout, and from there we’ll get a new workout to score each week.

Now for the fun stuff….

1st Workout:  Announcement Party – Thursday March 11 (Star Wars Night).  We’ll have a get together at the box Thursday evening (Time TBA), watch the live announcement, and then throw down right then and there!

2nd & 3rd Workouts:  Friday Night Lights March 19 & 26.  In lieu of our 4:15p/5:30p classes on these nights, we’ll have a chance to sign up for heats.  Themes to be announced for these nights, but you may want to find your 80’s gear!

4th workout: Saturday on April 3rd:  WOD and then brunch to follow.

5th workout:  “The Finale”:  Saturday, April 10th:  Our Final scored WOD!

When are the workouts?

Aside from the dates and opportunities above, we’ll have our regular Friday class times be the Open WOD.  We’ll split up into 2 main heats so that one athlete can go while the other can judge, and then we switch.  If you can’t make a Friday or the dates above, you have until the following Monday afternoon to submit your score.  So those open gyms become quite handy when you’re schedule gets hectic.

Kid’s WODs:

This year for the first time ever, we’re going to have 3 WODs for your kids to participate in FREE of charge!  We’ll have WODs on:

Saturday March 20 at 11am.
Saturday April 3, 11am
Saturday April 10th, 11am

All ages are welcome!

FAQ’s…

What if I can’t do the workouts?  CF HQ is making it more convenient than ever to do the workouts.  There will be a “Full Gear” option as well as a “Home Version” that you can do with minimal equipment.  And within those divisions there will be Rx (think of this as the “Brown” workout), Scaled, and Foundations.  For those 55+, the movements will be scaled further.

What division should I do?  When you sign up, based on your gender and age, you’ll automatically be enrolled in either Male/Female Division, and then either Teenage, Open, or Masters divisions.  There are also multiple adaptive athlete divisions that may also apply.  From week to week, you’ll be able to choose either Rx, Scaled, or Foundations.  So you don’t have to choose one path for the entire Open.  As far as scoring goes, Rx always beats a scaled score, and a scaled score always beats a Foundations score.  Our coaches will help you determine which workout variation will be best for you.

What is the age restriction?  To officially participate and register for the Open, you must be 14 by summer of 2021.  So, if you’re apart of the 7070 FitFam and don’t make that age cut-off, but would still like to participate in the Open, then please let us know, and we’ll make sure you have a spot!

Will there be T-Shirts? Yes!  We’ve got our Star Wars themed 7070 Shirts in the works, and we’ll send out an order form soon.  Even if you’re not officially in the Open, you can and definitely should still order a shirt!

If you have any further questions, shoot us an email at [email protected], or drop a question/comment in the Comments field below!

See you in the Gym!

Mark & Shannon