How to make it through ‘The CrossFit Open’ both physically AND mentally.

If you’re part of the CrossFit community, its more than likely that you’ve heard of ‘The CrossFit Open’, and perhaps you are even competing or participating in it. And, there is a difference, in the competing, and in the participating. Regardless of your intention in involvement, ‘The Open’ brings with it a shit tonne of mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s exciting and thrilling and elating. On the other hand, it is completely gut-wrenching, nerve-wrecking and anxiety-provoking.

 

In any attempt to take ourselves out of our comfort zone, to show up, be seen, give your best despite all odds and truly see what we are made of, it does not feel ‘comfortable’. It feels damn uncomfortable. As humans, we hate this, and we physiologically and psychology resist this.

 

So how do we survive five weeks of this exciting, yet gruelling process?

 

Physically, we need to ensure that we are prepping ourselves nutritionally and providing the nourishment our body needs for competition. Remembering that if we are more stressed than usual, we could be lower in vitamin C and we could be tearing through our B vitamins faster than usual. Upping our intake of vitamin C and B vitamin rich foods can help attenuate any negative affects the added stress (mental and physical) is placing on our body. A general rule of consuming a wholesome diet, filled with lots of leafy greens and vegetables, starchy carbohydrate to support training levels, as well as good fats to support our metabolism and energy production, mediate our inflammation and support our joints, is recommended to receive all the fuel we need, as well as the vitamins and minerals. Staying on track nutritionally throughout the 5 weeks is ample to stay fuelled for performance.

 

A word of caution: Don’t introduce anything new! Keep doing your thing – don’t add new supplements, or new foods, or new pre-workout meals for trial and error. The trial and error ought to have been done by now. It’s time to execute what works best for us, nutrition wise.

 

Physically, we also want to continue our regular training regime, however, plan our rest and recovery days around the day you do ‘The Open’ workout. If you are someone who usually trains 3 times a week, continue that, making ‘The Open’ workout part of that schedule. Same goes if you train almost daily, continue this way. Your body has adapted to this regime and any change in your physical training methods can impact your performance. You could end up more sore from increasing the time between your training sessions, or if you go overboard and try and train extra sessions, the same can happen.

 

Recovering physically from each workout is also important. Of course, we all know the importance of mobility and cooling down. These five weeks, and especially after these five workouts, it’s crucially important to take care of your muscles after you have finalised your Open workout for the week. You are likely to have pushed your body a little harder than usual, provoking DOMS you may have never experienced before! Relaxing in salt/magnesium baths, going for a float, booking a massage, taking a yoga class or just simply going for a ocean swim can work wonders on those tight, fatigued muscles!

 

Mentally, this physical recovery time can also help attenuate that stress response we were talking about. As soon as we are required to step outside our comfort zone, we move into our sympathetic nervous system, or our fight-or-flight response centre. Basically, it means we are ready, raring to go, physically and mentally, for any action needed by us immediately affecting our safety. You’ll find your heart rate increase, your pupils to dilate, your breath begin to quicken, your focus to heighten. These help us to escape danger or fight a foe (in this instance, ‘The Open’ workout). Coming down from these stress-highs can be hard, especially if you have been in this heightened state for a long period of time. Doing some light stretches, yoga, meditation or chucking on some ROM WOD before bed that night will work wonders for your nervous system. Not only will it help you to sleep, it will also help to drive you into the state of your system you need to be in to rest and recover, where we take care of those tired, worked muscles!

 

Mentally, having a game-plan before each workout can be super helpful to decrease the amount of anxiety you feel. Knowing if you need to be pumped up, or calmed down, is a good start. If the pumping atmosphere around you makes you feel sick, take some time out in a quiet area before you have to do your own workout. And, vice versa, if you feel you need the pump up to get yourself going and ready to attack the workout, put yourself in this environment and surround yourself around motivating people! Have a little regime you follow that helps calm you – breathing techniques, or just having that person you speak to – can really make you find your ‘zone’. We want to feel primed to perform – in that, we feel adrenaline rousing through our blood stream and perhaps some tingles over our body from our hairs standing up. This helps us get into the ‘zone’ and perform at our absolute best. It’s when we get too pumped up, too raring to go, too anxious about the outcome, that we overcompensate for this ‘zone’ and lose sight of what we are actually supposed to be doing and, effectively, lose the plot. If you feel you are this way inclined, speak to one of your trusted coaches to help you calm and mitigate your feelings of overwhelm. Talking about it can help!

 

What not to do:

• Don’t talk yourself down: ‘I haven’t trained enough’, ‘I am not ready’, ‘I can’t do ‘x’ movement, I am going to suck’.
• Spend too much time around people who are being negative. This will rub off on your mood and ability to do well.
• Compare yourself with others. Play your own game. Push your own limits. Make yourself proud. It’s not about anyone else here, just you.
• Ruminate about errors in a workout. If you stuffed something up, well, you learned a thing or two then didn’t you? That’s what these weeks are about! Learning about yourself; learning your limitations; learning your strengths. It helps to guide your future training and helps you set new goals for yourself. Embrace it.
• Take shit too seriously. Unless you are competing in the open, as in, you are hopeful to make regionals, you are a participator and you needn’t make ‘The Open’ the centre of your world. Friendly competition intra-box is fun, going overboard becomes cumbersome and affects everyone around you. Enjoy the process and celebrate the achievements of everyone around you.

 

What the open is about for us at Dignus

We want our athletes to feel a sense of community and support as they step up to the plate and challenge their physicall fitness. We understand how meaningful this is to even the most beginner athlete and we appreciate the process every one goes through. It truly is growth-provoking on so many levels and we want to be there for all our athletes who want to take part in the process. This is about making our athletes complete, mentally and physically. It’s not about making them a pro, by any means. It’s also the perfect opportunity for your team to meet each other and connect because they are all in it together.

 

If you haven’t registered for ‘The CrossFit Open’ yet, and you are a fence sitter, we highly encourage you to have a go! You don’t need to be as good as you think you do, we are all too hard on ourselves. Scaled is perfectly fine for even the most beginner athlete! Go on, you know you want to.

 

If you are not a CrossFitter, and want to know what this CrossFit Open business is about, you can come down to our gym if you’re in the area and check it out on Friday nights. It is super fun with so much atmosphere and awesome humans moving their bodies like there is no tomorrow. 6pm onwards!