Today we are going to talk a little bit about why CrossFit competitions are so great to take part in and why everyone that comes into CrossFit should make it a goal to enter into at least one. If not make it a regularly planned part of your CrossFit habit. I would even say that taking part in competitions is part of the key to sticking with this CrossFit thing in the long term. I don’t mean that everyone should be aiming to make it to the games or make it to regionals, what I am saying is that local competitions are a great place to step out and find growth.
Most competitions offer divisions for scaled, RX, or beginner for intermediate/advanced CrossFit athletes. These competitions offer certain challenges that most athletes don’t ever get. Using barbells that don’t feel like the bar you use. Pull up bars that are a little bit higher, thicker, or thinner. Having to lift or double under on unfamiliar ground. Having someone you have never met before judging your movement as well as having friends show up and drive somewhere to watch you do this competitive exercise thing! For someone that has never been in a competitive sport this type of setup can be extremely nerve racking. Often times what people discover is that they are capable of much more than they would have thought possible. Finding the adrenaline gear can be an amazing thing for an athlete that has never been there before.
What about those people that have been around a while? Those athletes that have been doing CrossFit and understand their strengths and weakness’? Those people have a very established habit? Those that may have a few limitations and can do some workouts RX and others they need to scale back? I would say that local comps are even more important! All gyms program differently. All comps have a different flair from each other. I am sure that many of us long time CrossFit enthusiast have our typical approach to our training week. We pick and choose which wods we go all out on and which ones we kinda sandbag. You probably don’t go all out every week and every wod. When we decide to enter a comp though. You are probably going to be doing 3-6 events and they all count. You have to go to a gear you normally wouldn’t use. There may be movements that you would scale down or reps you would cut the range of motion on…. but with the judge there it is a totally different story.
These local comps give your training a goal and a focus. Most people that are involved with CrossFit for the long term are good at maintaining a balance of training and their personal lifestyle. Not everyone is a regionals or games athlete that can go with a super strict diet and drinking stints that cut out a lot of social activities. Signing up for a competition can be a motivator to dial in your nutrition to a level that would otherwise be hard to stick to. Lots of people will adopt some of these changes into permanent diet strategies. There may be a comp in the future with a movement that is the deciding factor of whether you do RX or scaled. How many people wish they could do pull ups, chest to bar pull ups, muscle ups, handstand push ups or any other “advanced” movement? Lots of people want to do these movements but have a hard time finding the drive to put in the home work to get the skill and strength. If you sign up for an event where there is no “bro-reps” and it is pass or fail, that is motivation to practice!
In summary, local competitions are essentially what the games started as. Before it was a giant international stage. It was just gym owners and friends meeting up to throwdown. You could even show up and scale the WODs at the games. Obviously the times have changed but there still is the platform for regular people to find their inner competitor and lay it on the line! Your first comp is typically not your last!
Coach P