For Five Consecutive Saturdays Starting Feb 24th: The Open at Arena Ready!
Are you IN THE OPEN at Arena Ready?!
Starting on Saturday, February 24th - and for five consecutive Saturdays - our daily WOD will be the current week's CrossFit Games Worldwide Open workout (for those of you who have done The Open at AR previously you know the drill). On Saturday, February 24th we will do "Open Workout 18.1"... whatever that may be (we shall find out on Thursday, February 22rd at 5pm, along with the rest of the world). Every Thursday at 5pm the Open workout will be released, and the following Saturday we will do the WOD as a gym during all Saturday morning classes.
Each Saturday class during this five week time period will consist of multiple heats of the Open workout, and each athlete should expect to do the WOD during one of the heats and also judge a fellow athlete during another heat. You are, of course, welcome to stay for as long as you like to cheer on other athletes as they tackle the WOD, or continue to help with judging. These "Open Saturdays" are pretty energetic and are really fun days at the gym - and many AR members like to hang out for a few hours to watch, judge, and cheer for their friends. We will continue to ask you to sign-in for class, just like any other Saturday, to save your spot during that hour.
If you're not formally entered in The Open you can still do the workouts at AR, and you'll participate in heats just like those of us who are registered for the event. But if you plan on working out on Saturdays (or even on Sundays) during those five weeks anyway you may as well sign-up and officially participate in the fun!
It's ten days before the first workout ("18.1") is announced, and it's not too late to register for this awesome worldwide event which you'll be able to participate in with your fellow friends and members at Arena Ready. You can still register for The Open through the CrossFit Games website here (registration cost is $20):
When registering yourself please be sure to select Arena Ready CrossFit as your affiliate and Arena Ready as your team, so that your profile appears on our team roster. There are several of you who have already signed-up and are currently registered under our affiliate but NOT under our team - so please double-check!
As always, please let us know if you have any questions.
WOD For 02-12-18:
Back Squat:
2-4-8-4-2
Work up fairly quickly to a heavy set of 2, then climb in weight on the 4 and the 8. When going back down the ladder to 4 and 2 see if you're able to use a slightly heavier load than the previous 4 and 2.
Yes, we did this 3 weeks ago. Feel good? Then go up a bit from that last session. Not so much? Then use the same loading as you did previously or go by feel through the progression. Either is fine today.
-then-
"Helen"
3 Rounds For Time:
400m Run
21 Kettlebell Swings @ 53/35 lbs
12 Pull-ups
(Compare to 03-19-15, 08-05-14, and 02-22-14)
The classic benchmark WOD "Helen" is as elegant, simple, and effective as it gets. It's easy to want to scale up (heavier KB, make the pull-ups C2B, etc.), and at times we have certainly played with variations of this proven staple. But the beauty of "Helen" as written is that once you're reasonably fit and can do the KBS and PUs unbroken, then the only way to shave seconds off of your PR time is to run so fast it hurts (AKA much faster than you probably want to).
***The astute exercisers among us (and there are lots of you in this community LOL) will notice a slight drop in total/overall volume this week. Yes, we are giving you a bit of a "de-load" prior to the start of the Open, so you can go into next week feeling strong and fresh. Do not, however, confuse this volume decrease as it being an "easy" week -- you'll have plenty of opportunities to chase intensity (see "Helen" above as a good example), which is where all the magic happens anyhow.