Come out tonight for a taste of the OPEN!

It’s that time of year again—time for the CrossFit Open! In less than a week, Dave Castro, who I lovingly refer to as the Head Gamemaker, will be announcing 16.1, the first of five tests of strength and endurance in which CrossFitters around the world will be competing. The Open is the launch of the journey to crown the fittest on earth at the annual CrossFit Games. Are you on the fence about signing up? Just do it already! I promise you won’t regret it, and here’s why:

You should compete even if you don’t have a shot at advancing

Competing doesn’t have to be about winning! It should be about pushing yourself to be better than you were. Have you ever trained for a 10K or a half marathon? I’m willing to bet most of you didn’t expect to win. Think about your daily time at the gym like conditioning yourself to run, and the Open is like the day of the race! Since competition tends to bring a rush of adrenaline, I’ll be willing to bet you’ll surprise yourself by what you can accomplish!

It gives you a chance to measure yourself against the rest of the world

This can be humbling if you’re typically the person who scores the most reps or lifts the most weight at your box, or this can be a huge boost of confidence! We have a masters athlete at our gym who does WODs every day with a bunch of people younger and stronger than her. She’s used to coming in last, so imagine her surprise when she competed in the Open and scored second in the state for her age group! On the flip side, have you ever wondered how you stack up against your favorite athletes? Well, competing in the CrossFit Open gives you a chance to see how you compare to the Rich Fronings and Annie Thorisdottirs of the world! I remember during 14.5 (which was a LONG combination of thrusters and over the bar burpees with no time limit), my judge yelled out in the middle of the workout, “This is where Rich Froning finished!” I was about a third of the way into my reps! That sure was a reality check!

“I got my first ____ during the open!”

Why every Crossfit should compete in the open continued here