A Few Thoughts On The World Series of Exercising
1 Aug
The past weekend the 5th Annual Reebok Crossfit Games was held in Carson, California. Sadly I was unable to make it in person this year, but like many I was glued to my computer screen for 3 days watching every single bit of coverage. I thought I would share a few of my thoughts on this event.
- Jenny Labaw Rocks: First things first – I want to say congratulations to my friend, Jenny Labaw, for finishing 6th in her first Crossfit games. Jenny is a true inspiration and I am so proud of all her hard work! Obviously the many that doubted you were very, very wrong.
- Amazing Competitors: The elite athletes continue to impress as they improve each year. Their relative well-roundedness, desire to compete, and willingness to suffer is nothing short of amazing!
- This Is Healthy?: To say that this type of event is for health is complete idiocy – no one claims that any other sport played at a high level is being done for health! There are those in the Crossfit community tracking health metrics on various competitors and it will be interesting to see how those markers change over time. I don’t think this means that you shouldn’t compete, but if you do just know there may be additional things that you will need to do to try to buffer that type of workload. I still remember stories of the early marathoners who were convinced they wouldn’t die because of their training.
- All Training Is Cumulative: Some of the events reminded me that training is always cumulative and your background will have a huge impact on how you handle unknown events. A former Navy Seal or Triathlete will likely always feel more comfortable with an ocean swim or running on sand than say a former competitive strongman. Someone that played ball sports (baseball, softball etc.) will likely be better throwing a softball than a former gymnast or competitive 400 meter runner. I don’t think this invalidates this tests. It just serves as a reminder than your training is more than the last 12 months you spent preparing. It started long ago.
- The Hopper Is Always Different: I believe the Games have gotten better each year, but the focus of the games has also changed each year. I think it is unlikely that you will ever see someone that wins several in a row. It is more likely that there will be a handful of folks that finish near the top year over year, but the winner will be different because the bias is always changing. I think this actually makes the sport more entertaining to watch.
- Effective Training Should Improve Your Ability to Respond: I believe really effective training should teach you about your body and better prepare you to adapt to unknown situations. It is always fun to watch the smart athletes create new techniques on the fly as they solve movement problems that they haven’t faced before.
- How Many People Will Watch This?: I’m not sure how large the potential viewing audience is for this type of event, but the ever-growing Crossfit community provides a built in audience for this sport. Sure strongman competitions are great to watch, but most folks can’t actually appreciate how hard that stuff is to complete. Everyone who trains at a Crossfit gym knows how hard those workouts are and can appreciate them.
- Practice Your Skills: The Skills tests weren’t perfect, but they were a great way to test some basic skills without a ton of metabolic demand. I believe it is critical to test some skills each year if Crossfitters continue to say they are important. I also think that the difficulty of some of the moves will need to increase both in the workouts and in separate skills tests. I’m really not impressed by watching someone do a bunch of wallballs or kip weighted pull-ups. Bring on the 1 arm chin-ups!
- More Equipment?: There is some irony in the fact that more equipment keeps showing at the Games. The Crossfit movement was once considered minimalist and now has athletes basically spinning during a workout.
- Bring Out The Eliminator: The monkey bars were cool and I thought provided a challenge that is hard to train for, but I was hopping for an Eliminator-type obstacle course where athletes would have to solve new movement problems under metabolic duress. Maybe next year!
The eliminator is child’s play.
I’d like to see something closer to Mount Midoriyama.
http://www.g4tv.com/ninjawarrior/
I echo your sentiment, but given how many world class athletes I have seen get trashed on that show I honestly don’t think any of the Games competitors could pass Midoriyama. Thoughts?
Good writeup Andy. Jenny was amazing to watch. The ladies were fierce this year!
I really liked the skills tests too. Though I wish they would have picked stuff that was more fan friendly. One that would be really freaking cool is a max box jump where you’re allowed to take a running start. And it’s ladder style like the thruster at regionals where the boxes get slightly bigger each time. A 400m sprint would be cool too.
I dig the american gladiator type stuff too. I wish they could incorporate something like Assault or breakthrough and conquer. The one issue with CrossFit is that nothing is reactive and instinctual like in team and ball sports. Would be cool to see events that test quickness, agility, and coordination as they’re tested in other sports.
Tom – I couldn’t agree more. Some thought will need to be given to try to make the events more fun to watch. And yes some shorter type sprints would be epic.
Nothing is reactive and its all just so damn linear. I have tried some different of types of workouts with former gymnasts and have laughed at watching them cut or try to throw a ball. Even shuttle runs with former 400 M runners have been a trip!
I agree with you Andy for some reason watching people work out is oddly entertaining. I felt like I got a mini-workout just sitting on my ass staring at my computer this weekend. The women were more entertaining for me than the men. No idea why…
I think it would be great if they had Erwan design the skills test. I’d like to see some huge dudes failing at simple tasks.
John Durant had an excellent suggestion on his blog today: put one “average” person (or Crossfitter) in each heat for comparison! That would be entertaining.
The women are way more fun to watch than the men for sure!
Some MovNat type skills test would be cool to watch – I think 90% of them would just fall apart, but I think there would be a few that would surprise us.
I love John’s suggestion – that would be so entertaining. Every workout gets an average person!
Lol trouble would be finding an average person willing to commit to getting their asses handed to them by the beasts in that heat. But would be interesting to watch to say the least.
And I also remember doing my first shuttle run in a workout…I am sure Andy remembers…It was like learning to walk again as a baby, very entertaining…
And I also agree that other skill testing would be great! They should let people submit to CFHQ a list of things they would like to see at the games next year and possibly put up a list to have people vote and pick on some without telling anyone which skills won till the games.
Matt – great to see you the other day! I remember your first shuttle run in a workout – it always brings a smile to my face. Fan requested skills would be legit. I would also like to see some more advanced gymnastics skills added – too much focus on work capacity at times.
…so with the advanced gymnastic requests and the movnat requests you guys are basically saying that they reincorporate some form of parkour essentially… ah, the good old days Andy at CFSW… a time when the Buckeyes weren’t on hard times and CrossFit had recovery WODs!
Saint!!! Absolutely – just had to pick on the Buckeyes huh?