Another Year In The History Books—Crossfit Open 18.5
Fittest On Earth
The Games
The Crossfit Games is the “Olympics” of the Crossfit world, where arguably the fittest athletes in the world compete each July to be crowned the “fittest man/woman” alive. They must first, however, qualify at Regionals in one of the 18 Regions across the globe. But, to compete at Regionals, you must first qualify in the Open, five workouts released across five weeks. Source
Live Announcement 18.5
A Recap of this week's Live Announcement of 18.5 can be viewed on YouTube by clicking below:
In this epic Live Open Announcement three of the most dominant women in Crossfit—Sara Sigmundsdottir (2x Third Fittest Woman on Earth), Katrin Davidsdottir (2x Crossfit Games Champion) and Annie Thorisdottir (2x Crossfit Games Champion)—showed off their elite athleticism as they competed in a workout chosen by the Crossfit community.
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In a bold move by the Director of the Crossfit Games, Dave Castro, three workouts were selected to be voted upon in the two hours leading up to the live announcement, which took place at Crossfit Reykjavik in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Although, this tiny country provides only 1% of the Crossfit Games female competitors, those Icelandic athletes make up 27% of the Games Female Podium Positions AND 36% of the Games Female Champions.
The Vote
The workouts selected to be voted on by the Crossfit community were:
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The Community was given two hours to place their vote via Facebook Live comments.
The Winner Is???
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What The What?
Let me decipher...18.5 as voted on by the Crossfit Community is a repeat workout, created in 2011 and repeated in 2012.
Here’s how it works, you have 7minutes to get as far as possible in a workout consisting of:
- 3 Thrusters (95/65#)
- 3 Chest-To-Bar (C2B) Pull-ups
In the next round, you add 3 reps to each, completing:
- 6 Thrusters
- 6 C2B Pull-ups
Continue adding 3 reps per round until time runs out. Your score is the total number of reps completed.
Movement Standards
This demo video from YouTube, clearly explains the movement standards and gives you a visual of what the workout should look like:
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Catch Up
Hopefully, you’ve read the previous week's posts introducing the CrossFit Open and 18.1, 18.2, 18.3 as well as 18.4.
If not, take a minute to catch up on all the action!
Follow Along
Personally, 18.1 and 18.2 were not strong performances for me, which you can read about in my Week 1 Results and Week 2 Results. Week 3 allowed me to hold steady, which you can check out here. Week 4 bolstered me slightly as I was able to accumulate several reps of a very challenging move, the Handstand Push-Up.
My Week 5
The workout I voted for, Option 1, was the workout that won! I chose it because Option 2 had the same movements (Thruster and C2B Pull-ups) as this one, but it required me to get more reps of a more challenging movement for me, the C2B Pull-up. While Option 3, had Overhead Squats, which already destroyed me in 18.3. I think Option 1 was a good choice.
Although, I hadn’t tried C2B Pull-ups in over a year, I was able to knock out reps one at a time. As a result, I achieved a much higher score than I anticipated. Below, shows my results and ranking for each workout:
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In The End
When I started the 2018 Crossfit Open, my goal was to improve upon my ranking from last year.
This year, I achieved my goal by moving up the leaderboard slightly:
Finishing 6,644 out of 19,859 Women Ages 40-44 years old, which is in the top 36%!
I’m proud of my accomplishments and happy that I met my goal, but the 2018 CrossFit Open only fueled my fire to improve my performance drastically by next year. My goal is to jump into the top 25% in my Division.
I’ve already begun systematically working on my biggest weaknesses and already seeing improvements! Bring on 2019!
Thanks,
Coach JJ
All information for this article was sourced from this YouTube video and the Crossfit Games website.
Hi Friends! Thanks For Reading!
Hi! My name is Coach JJ and I've been coaching and inspiring athletes to better health and fitness for over five years! I'm a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer at CrossFit Edwardsville in Edwardsville, IL, USA. But, my vision is to bring together the Fitness Community on Steemit in order to have a greater impact on improving the health and fitness of our fellow Steemians.
I'm also a mother of two teens and a self-defined “spicy, sassy Christ-follower” who posts about my personal journey, but loves all those on any journey. Feel free to check out my intro post, get inspired on your fitness journey, or ponder on my faith-based posts. If any of this connects with you, follow me and say Hello!
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Coach JJ
I was actually into CrossFit for a long time. It is one of the most amazing way to almost "die" in a short period of time. I remember those days even today. Just laying down on the ground after the workout trying to catch your breath, drenched in sweat after a 15-minute workout. lol
You are dying after but I love those quick and explosive workouts. Give it you're all in short period of time and go home. That is after you get up when finished. It usually takes 10 minutes after just to catch your breath. lol
Great post my amazing friend. Have an amazing day :)
Thanks my friend :) It is an amazing feeling when you’ve given it your all. Charged with energy even though your spent. Even better feeling...cheering on the last guy/gal grueling it out.
You are absolutely right. Amazing feeling when you give it all you have. I enjoyed doing it. :) I never did it in groups but only with my friend. We would usually laugh at each other when one was doing it. But, in a friendly and a fun way. hehe :)
This is an amazing post. Work outs are good but even with knowing that they are good, I just don't know why I always drop it off after a few weeks. I guess it takes much more determination than I thought.
There can be lots of reasons why we fall off, believe me I’ve been there many times. But, the important thing is that we just pick up right here in this moment and do something good for our bodies. Just move. Then, think about recruiting a workout buddy to hold you accountable. And, then consider going to a quality gym with experienced trainers. Surrounding yourself with that environment and paying for training helps you value and stick to a workout program.
Wow! Great job beating your own record! I can't even imagine ... I'm trying to get "back" in shape (I'm not sure I ever was, but definitely not since the twins). You'd think all the "squats" down to pick up babies and "lifts" to check for poopy diapers would count for something :P
Btw, what do you think it is about Iceland?! The climate? Lifestyle?
I’m pretty sure that carrying the babes in car seats built up some upper body strength that I still have today...13 years later. Lol
I don’t know what it is about Iceland. But, in interviews, they make it sound like sport is a high priority growing up and Crossfit was a natural extension for them. They also said that the main cab company in Reykjavik said that their gym was their 2nd most frequent requested drop off. Weird.