2019 CROSSFIT OPEN REVIEW

The 2019 CrossFit Open has come and gone. 🎉

For some, it was a new experience being in the crosshairs of Dave Castro’s torture chamber.

For others, it was a test to see how much improvement was gained since the last Open chewed them up and spit them out.

Either way, now that it’s officially over, we can look back on what happened and enjoy knowing we survived. 🙌

I must admit… even though the announcements were a complete train wreck, I kind of miss the anticipation building up of what’s coming next.

It made Thursdays at 5pm enjoyable for 5 weeks.

I actually miss Dave Castro announcing the workouts with his ‘you have no idea how much this is gonna mess you up’ smirk…

Let’s get this party started.

CrossFit Open WOD - 19.1

This one seemed simple on paper and very doable. 19 wall balls and 19 cal row for reps… in 15 minutes.

How hard could it be to throw up 19 wall balls and then row 19 cals, right?

Well about 3 minutes in you realized you were in for a whole lotta pain.

Oh, and breathing… fuggedaboutit.

It was just a pure test of your will to go to that dark place and keep going, kind of like having to watch endless reruns of Jersey Shore. 🙅🏽‍♂️

On the men’s leaderboard, the difference between the top spot and the 60th spot was a little more than 20 reps.

For the top athletes, that’s maybe 30 seconds difference. Every single transition counted.

Losing one second picking up the ball or getting on your rower could have cost you a rep.

So to get a great score, you had to go ‘balls to the wall’ for 15 minutes straight… yikes.

And the carnage it did to our legs afterwards, for days it seemed… double yikes.

That’s what makes a ‘simple’ workout in the Open so damn challenging and so much fun.

19.2

Here came our repeat WOD, but with a slight variation. The minimum amount of time was now 8 minutes instead of 4.

Round 1 was 25 toes to bars, followed by 50 double unders, then 15 squat cleans at a starting weight.

Round 2 was the same toes to bars and double unders, but now 13 squat cleans at a heavier weight.

If you didn’t finish the 2 rounds in under 8 minutes, your punishment was over. If you did…

Round 3 was the same 25 and 50, but now 11 squat cleans at a heavier weight.

The same process would go on for up to 5 rounds as long as you finished the round before each 4 minute mark. Round 2 by 8 minutes, round 3 by 12, round 4 by 16 and round 5 by 20.

If I went all Rain Man on you and you’re lost, don’t worry. You just had to be a badass to get through it all.

This was probably our favorite Open wod.

It had the technical skill of gymnastics, the body control of double unders, and then you had to find your ‘Sloth from Goonies inner strength’ to get those huge weights off the floor. 💪

And still breathe…

This particular Open WOD really separated the ‘men from the boys’, so to speak. (We’re talking to the badass ladies too!)

If gymnastics was your hot sauce, chances are the weightlifting was your kryptonite.

But if it was the other way around, let’s just politely say doing double flips on the uneven bars is not in your future.

If you were solid with both… hat’s off to you.

19.3

This Open WOD was hands down the ‘that was WAY WORSE than expected’ workout.

200 foot lunge with a dumbbell overhead, followed by 50 dumbbell step ups on a box, followed by 50 strict handstand pushups, followed by a 200 foot handstand walk… in a 10 minute time cap.

Side Note: The scaled version of the strict handstand pushups were ‘strict handstand pushups’… but with a 5″ cushion. Oh, okay. That helps 🤔

The moment had finally arrived. This is what we’ve been waiting for… handstand walks.

But like last year, even getting to them was a HUGE challenge. Most people didn’t.

Side Note 2: We didn’t get handstand walks over fire as predicted before.

The lunges started burning about half way through. The box steps ups were absolutely brutal. That extra weight made it way worse than expected.

When you got to the handstand pushups, the reality was you either had them or you didn’t. You weren’t going to get through 50 if you weren’t already solid with them already.

If you had time, and that was a big ‘if’, then you’d get to show off your handstand walking skills.

But don’t forget your shoulders were shot by that point.

At least it was only 10 minutes… 👍

19.4

Here came the ‘sprint’ WOD for the CrossFit Open.

3 rounds of 10 snatches and 12 bar facing burpees, followed by a 3 minute rest, then 3 rounds of 10 bar muscle ups and 12 bar facing burpees… for time with a 12 minute cap.

Having a mandatory rest during the middle of a wod was kind of like shaving off your hand calluses the first time… Weird, but hey ‘let’s do this’.

There was only 1 strategy… go as fast as you can and don’t stop.

Burpees suck because they’re burpees, but only doing 12 at a time wasn’t too bad.

The real challenge in this WOD was the bar muscle ups. You either had them or you didn’t.

And if you did, stringing together 10 in a row is what separated the top from the rest.

This one overall was the most interesting and least taxing of them all, which probably meant that we were going to end the Open with a bang.

And we did…

19.5

In keeping with tradition, the Open ended with thrusters and chest to bar pullups, with a 20 minute time cap.

Ah yes… we finally got thrusters.

It’s like seeing your annoying cousin during the holidays. They bug the crap out of you, you don’t want to be around them, but you have to because they’re ‘family’.

Then came the live announcement and there was a collective ‘WTF did they just say?’

Okay, we get the 21-15-9 rep scheme. That’s classic CrossFit.

But to add 27 to the front of that. Okay… we’re not happy, but we can live with that.

But then to drop the hammer and add 33 to the front of that.

Holy Toledo Batman! (I’m keeping it pc there)

Dave Castro was like, ‘hey, I got a great idea. Let’s take a classic workout and add 120 reps to it… you know… for fitness.’

Then, if you watched it like I did, we got the pleasure of watching Mat Fraser just destroy it in front of our very eyes in sub 7 minutes.

(White flag waiving)

In all seriousness, this Open WOD was a strong punch to the gut, but it’s exactly the kind of workout the Open should end with.

Yes, it was brutal, but it will probably be talked about in years to come the same way we still have nightmares about 16.5.

Looking At The Overall Picture

The 2019 CrossFit Open was another well balanced test by Dave Castro.

Each WOD had it’s own positives and negatives, but when you look at the totality of all the workouts put together, it had a little bit of everything.

The Open tested your strength, your endurance, and your ability to go to a dark place and stay there.

You weaknesses were exposed, your strengths were highlighted, but your mental strength was what got pushed to the limit.

If you RX’d every workout, that’s awesome.

If you scaled some or all of the workouts, that’s awesome too.

Doing RX or scaled didn’t matter. The fact you actually participated to test yourself is what mattered.

The beautiful thing about CrossFit is that no matter what level of fitness you are at, you will be humbled… and fast.

Committing to improving your overall fitness and overall health is what it’s really all about… and that’s what makes the Open so great.

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