Has the CrossFit Open Entered a New Era?

The 2022 Open has now come and gone, and with it many changes to what we are normally used to in terms of open programming. This shouldn’t be entirely surprising, as we’re still in year two of a new format for the season as a whole, including the new quarter-final stage, and we’re still learning how all these pieces fit together.

However, now that we’ve seen the full training list, there are certain questions that feel necessary, which ultimately leads to the larger question of whether the 2022 Open schedule suggests the Open might not be what it is. . once it was.

observable, measurable, repeatable

One of the fundamental elements of CrossFit as a methodology was that Greg Glassman assigned definitions to previously undefined terms and set out to create an evaluation system that would be observable, measurable and repeatable; That’s why Benchmark Workouts were created. And, in the case of the Open, it has been one of the tenants since the second year of open training when the concept of repeated training was introduced in the form of 12.5 (and in every iteration of the Open since) until this year. . Repeated training has been present and subsequently has been perhaps the best opportunity for us, as a community, to maintain this original and fundamental part of what the CrossFit methodology is.

The repetition of training as part of the Open is usually one of the most important topics of communication and emotion. But it’s also an integral part of being able to apply science to fitness with concrete examples of individuals and the community as a whole improving on an earlier version of itself. His omission from the 2022 Open is a major departure from what those who have been doing the Open for a long time expect, but it is only the first of several things that are uniquely different from this Open from all previous years.

Monostructural, Weightlifting, Gymnastics

One of CrossFit’s suggestions for finding a balanced schedule is to check the number of monostructural, weightlifting, and gymnastic movements in the entire event or competition. It’s not a perfect formula, no one expects all three to be evenly distributed, but when evaluating the list of tests, it’s something any programmer would look at as one of several ways to make sure the tests are balanced.

Featured open numbers of 2022:

• 108 double basses as the only monostructural element of the entire essay
• Very low volume of skills tested (18 chest to bars? Pulled up for the first time?)
• 54 gym reps in last workout (total)
• Compensated for an average of about 8 snatch rounds of 12 db (96 reps) at 22.1
• and an average of 60 deadlifts in 22.2

This year’s high-rep gym moves — box jumps, barbell burpees, and wall walks to some degree — could be interpreted as one of two things:

• either balance to high repetition weightlifting movements, or
• aerobic enough in nature to make up for the near total lack of monostructural elements at this year’s Open.

The history of monostructural outdoor movements

• There have been double unders in every Open
• Rowing was introduced to the Open in 2014
• He has been to every Open until 2022
• This meant that we always had a minimum of two monostructural movements.

It’s normal for a competition to have the fewest monostructural implements in the competition (relative to weightlifting and gymnastics, which have a lot more moves to choose from), but they often have just as many ‘M’ moves at their disposal given the campus. 108 Double Unders in the dose they were given is not enough as the only ‘M’ in the entire Open.

No Olympic lifting

• Barbell Snatching has been to eight Opens
• Barbell Clean has been to seven open
• Clean and Jerk has been to five open
• The Olympic lift had been in every Open until 2022

Olympic lifting is a massive component of the CrossFit methodology. It’s hard to see the omission of the Open for the first time as anything more than a failure of CrossFit on the scheduling front. The Open is predictable in many ways, and that’s fine. Everyone knows the community loves heavy weights, and if you’re not going to try anything heavy, at least give us some Olympic weight cycling.

To give a counterexample, there was another move omitted from this year’s Open that had been in every previous Open, toes to bar. And that’s perfectly acceptable, and really good. Those are the unexpected elements of the Open that make it fun every year. I can hear people talking about it now in the week leading up to 3/22:

“So you think gymnastics will be head to toe?”

“Yes, they have been to all the Opens! …. Unless maybe this is the year they’re left out…”

But there is a big difference between toes on the bar and the Olympic lift. Olympic lifting is such an amazing thing to be able to do. Thanks to CrossFit, millions of people you or I would never suspect can lift their own bodyweight off the floor and onto their head in one or two fluid movements. I don’t need to elaborate on how integral Olympic lifting is to the CrossFit community. Toes to bar does not support the same weight, sorry toes to bar.

nothing heavy

It seems minor compared to some of the other things on this list, but the omission of a heavy item altogether is another big departure from what we’re used to in the Open.

And before I continue, let me remind you that according to CrossFit’s own methodology, what qualifies as heavy is something that can be done for five to seven reps with moderate rest in between. Not 100 times in 10:00.

Remember me:

• 2021: Complex 1RM
• 2020: Deadlift at 315
• 2019: Squat Clean Ladder finishing at bars of 275 then 315
• 2018: 1 clean RM
• 2017: Snatch Ladder ending at bars of 245 then 265
• 2016: Squat Clean Ladder finishing at bars of 275 then 315
• 2015: 1 RM in clean and jerk
• 2014: Deadlift ending at 315 then 365
• 2013: Snatches that finished at 210 pounds…this is the last time we could argue there wasn’t a heavy implement in the Open

Minimum time domain

A vast majority of Open entrants did not finish 22.2 before the time limit. The same is predicted to be true for 22.3. That means the time domains for the three workouts were:

• 15:00 (22.1)
• 10:00 (22.2)
• 12:00 (22.3)

Five minutes? That’s the full range of evidence that was given… and speaking of which…

Are three tests enough?

This question can be asked regarding three different things:

• Are three tests enough to qualify a group of athletes for the next stage of competition?
• Are three tests enough to be the test we encourage hundreds of thousands of people to sign up for each year as a benchmark for their fitness?
• Is three tests enough to justify those hundreds of thousands of signing up for the competition and giving your $20 to CrossFit?

Until the 2021 season, the Open had always lasted at least five weeks and consisted of at least five scoring events. Both of those things changed in 2021. The Open was shortened to three weeks, but as a consolation, we were given two separate rated events in the final week (22.3 and 22.4).

Seeing the total number of tests now reduced to three this year has to be discussed. The original CrossFit Games were three events. That changed immediately the following year and we have never gone back to that. It was a great test, but it was obvious that more tests would provide more fitness because a greater variety of time domains, movement patterns and, more specifically, combinations of movement patterns could be tested.

So to see this year’s Open we have:

• Fewest trials since the 2007 CrossFit Games (the first “in-season” event)
• No repeated training
• No Olympic lifting
• No significant monostructural movements
• nothing heavy
• Almost identical movement patterns tested in two of the three workouts
• And having the narrowest window of time limits in Open history means that there are too many things that are deviations from some of CrossFit’s original core principles, or markedly different from what Open has been on a regular basis, or both. And so, we have to ask this question.

Has CrossFit changed course?

However, we must not forget that we only have a glimpse of the season so far, and the Games team has a much broader view. So have they simply changed course?

Stay tuned for the quarterfinals, because the schedule for this new stage of the competitive season will be an important clue to know exactly. what the Open represents now.