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If you are new to CrossFit or know someone who does CrossFit, you know that there is a special “lingo” that is used.  If you are tired of feeling left out, or just want to be in the know, we have come up with a list of terms to get you up to speed or send to that friend of yours that “doesn’t understand.”

BOX – For a CrossFit lover, this is their second home.  The “box” is simply the CrossFit term for the gym.  Box refers to the simplistic nature of most CrossFit gyms.  Many CrossFit gyms, especially in the early days, had very few bells and whistles.  Just the bare bones necessities.

WOD – The WOD is the quintessential term in CrossFit.  It stands for “Workout of the Day” and refers to the main workout that is programmed for the class.  When CrossFit started, this referred to the workout that was listed on CrossFit.com.

Rx – Rx or Rx’ing a workout means that you did the weight that was prescribed.  For each of the WOD’s there are certain listed requirements, such as weight, number of reps, time, etc.  If you complete the workout as it is listed, you can say that you “Rx’ed the workout”.

AMRAP – This stands for “As Many Round/Reps As Possible”.  For each of the WOD’s, it is either prescribed to be for a specific time or a specific amount of reps that need to be completed.  When the word AMRAP is used this is the workout that has a specific time and you complete as many rounds or reps as possible in the time that was defined.

1RM – At OPCF most of our CrossFit classes will include a lifting portion before the WOD.  When 1RM is listed, this means that you are going for your 1 rep max.  Basically you are trying to lift as much as you can in the movement that is listed.

ATG – This stands for “Ass to Grass” and refers to going as low as possible in a squat.  For a squat rep to be per the standard, your hips must break parallel.  An ATG squat is lower than just breaking parallel.

C&J – Many CrossFit programs utilize the Olympic movements, the snatch and clean and jerk.  C&J is just a short term for the clean and jerk.

CTB/C2B – Similar to ATG, CTB is the next level for pullups.  The standard for a pullup is to simply get your chin over the pullup bar.  When CTB or “Chest to Bar” is listed, this means that you will need to pull yourself a little higher and touch your chest to the bar instead of just getting your chin above the bar.

EMOM – This is another way to program a strength or workout and stands for “Every Minute on the Minute”.  If you see EMOM, it means that the work listed should be performed every minute for as long as the time is stated.

Goat – In CrossFit terms a goat is something that you are not very good at.  For many of us this includes the more skilled movements, such as muscle ups, double-unders, snatch, etc.

This may be a small list of terms, but hopefully now you are better armed with the basic CrossFit terms.

We’ve made it.  It’s time for the last week of the 2017 Open and as many of you guessed, we get to see thrusters and double-unders.  This week brings a workout that has only two movements and is for time.

10 rounds for time of:
9 thrusters, 95/65 lb.
35 double-unders

Watching the games athletes complete the workout, it looked like it was a matter of just going through the motions and came down to how many misses there were on the double-unders.  Don’t be fooled, this is going to be a tough workout and will feel much worse than what it looked like on TV.

This workout begins with the thrusters.  The rep quantity might look small, but these are going to get tough.  To put it in perspective, this is the same weight that is done for Fran, but will have double the reps.  The strategy for the thrusters will depend on the fitness level of each athlete.  If you are a top finisher, try and go unbroken on the thrusters.  For you, there shouldn’t be many breaks in this workout and if there are, you don’t want to waste excess energy by picking the bar back up off the ground.  For the athlete that is in the middle of the pack, you probably aren’t going to be able to go unbroken on the thrusters for all of the sets, but you should be able for the first few sets.  Try to stay unbroken as long as possible, just keep in mind that if you take breaks during the thrusters, make sure they are short.

After the thrusters, we move to the jump rope for double-unders.  If you are proficient at double-unders, make sure to relax and use as little shoulders as possible.  The goal here is to move the rope as much as possible with your wrists, not your shoulders, and go unbroken.  If you struggle with double-unders, this can easily be the worst part of this workout.  Obviously, you will want to do as many as possible without missing, but that is easier said that done.  Double-unders get harder the more fatigued you get, so take those extra couple breaths before you start the double-unders to get as many as possible.  Try and stay calm, even if you are missing, there are 350 double-unders to do and getting frustrated is just going to cause more misses.

Overall this workout is going to be different depending on your skill level.  For the best athletes, this is going to be a painful workout that had very little breaks.  Push hard and stay focused on the double-unders.  For the middle of the pack athletes, do as many thrusters as possible without burning out and try to go unbroken on the double-unders.  Just remember, when you are done, you are done with the 2017 Open, unless you are the lucky few to move on.  Congratulations and good luck.

We all knew it would happen.  Repeat week.  One of the great things about CrossFit is that is measurable and repeatable.  Each year we have gotten a chance to repeat a past workout to see our progress.  For those that did the open last year, the workout will look familiar as we did it week 4 last year also.  If you don’t remember this workout brings us a chipper with deadlifts, wall-balls, rowing, and handstand push-ups.

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 13 minutes of:
55 deadlifts, 225/135 lb.
55 wall-ball shots, 20/14-lb. ball to 10/9-ft. target
55-calorie row
55 handstand push-ups

The workout begins with deadlifts, lots of deadlifts.  Although the weight is not excessive, it’s the same weight used in benchmark workouts such as Diane, there are a lot of reps.  55 reps of deadlifts at this weight, without a breakup of other movements, will be challenging for most.  The key is going to be to stay consistent and take as many small breaks as you need.  Plan to take 5-10 second breaks.  Try to complete as many reps as possible while still being able to take that 5 second break and jump back on the bar.  For some this might be 5 sets of 11.  For others, this might start at sets of 5 and drop to triples or doubles.  Try not to drop to singles.  Picking the bar up each time from a dead stop is inefficient.  However, if you do go to singles, make sure that you drop the bar, take a quick breath and get back into it.  You don’t want to take 5 second breaks between singles.  Try to keep your form throughout the movement.  You want to be able to move the next day.

We all know how bad wall balls are right?  Well these are going to be a little worse than if you were starting fresh.  When you get to the wall-balls it means that you have just spent 55 reps taxing your lower back and glutes.  So you probably aren’t going to go unbroken on the wall-balls.  Once again, find a pace that you can stick with.  There is no doubt about it, these are going to hurt, but you should be able to take a break on the rower.  For movements like this that, that you know you are going to break up into multiple sets, try and start with a higher number of reps and do less each time.  For example, start with 13, then drop 1 rep each time until you get to 55 (13-12-11-10-9).  Mentally this really helps in the middle of a workout to always do less reps than the last set.

No breaks after the wall balls.  Jump right onto the rower.  If you are pulling, you are moving forward and getting closer to that 55 cal, even if it is slow.  Take the first few strokes to get your breath.  This is easier said that done at this stage in the workout, but taking a break before the row isn’t going to make it better and is just going to waste time.  It is going to hurt either way, so you might as well get a better time.  Depending on when you get to the rower will determine your pace.  If you get to the rower with 1 or 2 minutes left, you are going to want to row at a high level of effort.  You aren’t going to be able to get through 55 cal in 2 min, so might as well do as many as cals possible.  If you finish the wall-balls with 4 or 5 minutes left, your goal should be to finish the row and be able to attempt some handstand push-ups.  More than likely you aren’t going to be able to remember these in the heat of the moment, but a pace of 1200 cal/hr will take 2:45, 1000 cal/hr will take 3:18, and 750 cal/hr will take 4:24.  The difference between doing 1000 cal/hr and 750 cal/hr is only 1:06 difference in time, but the difference you will feel getting off the rower will be noticeable.  You don’t want to jump off the rower and be fresh, but you don’t want to get off and not be able to attempt any handstand push-ups.  Pick a pace that is somewhere in between.

If you made it to the handstand push-ups, good job. This is going to be the goal for most of the above average athletes.  Once again, depending on how much time you have remaining will determine how you attack the handstand push-ups.  If you jump off the rower and have less than a minute, it’s time to suck it up and do as many reps as possible.  If you think there is time for 2 sets, break it a rep or 2 short of fatigue on your first set, shake out your arms and get right back on the wall.  If you don’t think you have time for multiple sets, just go for broke and do as many as possible.  If you jump off the rower and have more time for handstand push-ups, remember to break earlier than you think, take small breaks, and get back onto the wall.  Most likely there isn’t going to be a lot of time and there are quite a few reps to do.  Push hard for the time you have remaining

Overall, stay consistent through the first 3 movements.  Push hard on the deadlifts and wall-balls.  No breaks between the wall-ball and the rower.  Row at a pace that is right for depending on where you are in the workout and do as many handstand push-ups as possible.  This is a repeat workout, so push yourself to do better than you did last year and have fun.

If you were like us, and thought we might be doing something with 3 dumbbells for 17.3, think again.  This week we are going heavy, that is, if you are efficient at chest to bar pull-ups.  After focusing on endurance in week 1, and skill work in week 2, the focus this week is on strength.  This weeks workout is a couplet of chest-to-bar pull-ups and squat snatches.  It has increasing chest-to-bar-pullups reps and decreasing squat snatch reps, while increasing the squat snatch weight.  The workout also throws time-caps at multiple intervals, see below for the complete workout.

Prior to 8:00, complete:
3 rounds of:
6 chest-to-bar pull-ups
6 squat snatches, 95/65 lb.
Then, 3 rounds of:
7 chest-to-bar pull-ups
5 squat snatches, 135/95 lb.
*Prior to 12:00, complete 3 rounds of:
8 chest-to-bar pull-ups
4 squat snatches, 185/135 lb.
*Prior to 16:00, complete 3 rounds of:
9 chest-to-bar pull-ups
3 squat snatches, 225/155 lb.
*Prior to 20:00, complete 3 rounds of:
10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
2 squat snatches, 245/175 lb.
Prior to 24:00, complete 3 rounds of:
11 chest-to-bar pull-ups
1 squat snatch 265/185 lb.

*If all reps are completed, time cap extends by 4 minutes.

For the athletes that are fairly efficient with chest-to-bar pull-ups, this workout is all about doing a high weight squat snatch while being fatigued, but lets start with the chest-to-bar pull-ups.  You will want to do what is comfortable for you.  If that is butterfly, do butterfly.  If that is regular kipping, do kipping.  Don’t try something new for this workout.  This workout might be focused on snatch weight, but don’t ignore the the chest-to-bar pull-ups!  At the 8 minute mark, you will have completed 39 reps, which is only 6 less than Fran.  We all know what the pull-ups in Fran feels like.

On the squat snatches, DO SINGLES.  If you watched the games athletes complete the workout, Scott Panchik didn’t do more than 1 squat snatch at a time.  There is plenty of time to do singles and get through all of the rounds.  As you can see, the weights in the workout jump very quickly.  There is probably a round that you think “no problem” and the next round is “that is going to be tough.”  Treat that tough round as your goal round.

Expect to be fatigued, but pace yourself so that you don’t redline to the point that you can’t lift.  This workout is about being able to go as heavy as possible with a high heart-rate.  Before you start the workout, you will probably know which round will be your “tough” round.  This is the round that is closest to your 1 rep max.  The closer you get to this round, the more you will have to focus on technique.  Your goal, other than which round you want to get to, should be to not have any misses on the squat snatches.  Take as much time as you need to setup for the squat snatches, but keep mind of the time cutoffs.  If you are in the workout and are close to a time cutoff, push to get through the squat snatches so that you have another 4 minutes of work.  You can always take a break after finishing a round, but you can’t keep going if time runs out.

The key points of the workout are to keep your heart-rate down as much as possible and take the time needed to not miss on the squat snatches.  Keep pushing and good luck.

For the first week of the 2017 CrossFit Open, we saw dumbbells for the first time ever, so of course Castro felt the need to step up his game for week 2 and double the dumbbells.  Week 2 of the Open brings front rack walking dumbbell walking lunges, toes-to-bars and dumbbell power cleans, with a bit of a twist after round two by switching the toes-to-bars with bar muscle-ups.  Fu

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 12 minutes of:
2 rounds of:
– 50-ft. weighted walking lunge
– 16 toes-to-bars
– 8 power cleans
Then, 2 rounds of:
– 50-ft. weighted walking lunge
– 16 bar muscle-ups
– 8 power cleans
Etc., alternating between toes-to-bars and bar muscle-ups every 2 rounds.

When looking at this workout, the first thing that comes to mind is “holy forearms.”  The only time that you get a break from holding something is between movements, or when you voluntarily take a break.  This is also the first workout that holds one of the higher skilled movements, the bar muscle up, which will slow down a lot of athletes.

As the bar muscle ups start in round 3, this workout is done different for athletes that are proficient in muscle ups vs. those that aren’t as good, or who have never done one before.  If you are the athlete that has never done a bar muscle up before, but might be close, push yourself to do the workout RX and get that first one.  You’ll never forget that feeling when/if it happens, and with the adrenaline of the Open, there is a good chance you might see it!  That being said, if you aren’t as good at bar muscle ups and think you might get stuck at the first set of 16, your strategy is to go as hard as possible until you get to the muscle ups.  This will give you as much time to work on the muscle ups and will also help with the tiebreak, which is the time at the end of the round.

For those of you that are proficient with bar muscle ups, as stated above, this is going to be a forearm buster.  The only place that you might have a chance to hide is during the lunges.  Try to find a position with the dumbbells that is comfortable so you can rest them on your shoulders to take as much of a break as you can on your grip.  Although there are only 8 cleans, this is something we would recommend you hook grip.

Take calculated small breaks.  Once your grip goes, it is going to take time for it to come back, so make sure to take small breaks.  As you may have seen with the games athletes, neither one of them completed all of the toes-to-bars unbroken and the dropped on the lunges after the first one.  Set the dumbbells down on each trip to give your self a quick breather.  If you are feeling good jump straight from the toes-to-bars into the cleans and set the dumbbells down on the SEVENTH clean.  This will give you a small break and have you use the 8th clean to get you into the front rack for the lunges.  It is ok to break between the toes-to-bars and cleans, but you should still set down the dumbbells on the 7th rep.

This will be a completely different feeling workout than last week.  Push, but make sure to take small calculated breaks to save your forearms.  If you are on the fence about scaled or RX, go RX.  Five feet of walking lunges puts you ahead of all scaled scores, and if you get that first bar muscle up, this could be your favorite workout.

There seems to be a common theme over the years of “go hard & fast” when athletes complete their CrossFit Open workouts.  We get it, it’s exciting to compete against everyone else, but it’s also difficult, especially in long workouts, to get the best score you can without any real strategy.  This is very evident when people redo workouts and get drastically better results.  This year we are here to give you strategies & tips for each Open WOD to hopefully help you get the best score you can.

The 2017 Open brings something we have never seen before, dumbbells.  That’s right, the first workout has dumbbell snatches, and lots of them.  It pairs the dumbbell snatches with burpee box jump-overs.  See below for the complete 17.1 WOD.

For time (20 minute time cap):
10 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump-overs
20 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump-overs
30 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump-overs
40 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump-overs
50 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump-overs

This is going to be a long workout.  For some of the best in the biz, we saw scores in the 10 minute range for the women and 12 minute range for the men.  For the rest of us mortals, expect to go much closer to the time cap or hit the time cap.  With a workout this long, the biggest challenge is going to be starting out too fast and burning out.  Pick a pace that you can stick with for at least the first half of the workout and then re-evaluate at the 10 minute mark.  If you still feel fresh, pick it up a little.  If you feel like you are about to keel over, slow down a bit, but don’t stop moving.  The key to this is that you keep moving the whole time.

There are a lot of reps in this workout, which means that you will want to be as efficient as possible.  An inefficient movement that is performed over 200 times will result in a lot of wasted energy.  On the snatches, make sure that you use your hips for every rep.  At the beginning it might feel like you don’t need to do this, but by the end of the workout it will pay in dividends.  Focus on good reps and keep the dumbbell as close to your body as possible.  Place the dumbbell where you want it for the next rep.  On the burpee box jump-overs, don’t waste energy standing up on the box.  Use as little energy as possible to get over the box.  You can recover by slowing slightly on the burpees.

Again, pace, pace, pace and keep moving.  Good luck out there, enjoy the pain, and stay in it until you are done!

Each month Overland Park CrossFit recognizes a member who exemplifies our values and motivates others in the gym to push themselves with encouraging words. February’s Athlete of the Month is Bethanie White. Bethanie was chosen because of her consistency in the gym and positive attitude. It’s inspirational for other members to see someone’s hard work paying off! Learn more below about Bethanie!

1. What were your thoughts after your first CrossFit workout?

A mixture of “Am I Dying?” and “I can’t wait to come back tomorrow!”

2. What has been your favorite workout?

3. What is your favorite cheat meal?

Spaghetti and grilled cheese

4. Where do you work?     

Blue Dart Ventures in online marketing

5. What do you like to do outside of work?

I love home remodeling. I constantly have a project I am working on or I go stir crazy.

6. What advice would you give a newbie just starting at OPCF?

Show up often and just keep going – sometimes that is the hardest part.

7. What is your favorite lift?

The snatch. I am horrible at it, but that’s why I love it – it’s my nemesis. And just so darn sexy once you get it down 🙂

8. What’s your biggest “GOAT”?

Ring Muscle-Ups – 4 years in and still can’t nail one.

9. What changes have you seen in yourself since starting at OPCF?  

Other than physically I have eaten better and taken care of myself outside of the gym more than I have in the past.

10. What is your biggest improvement or proudest accomplishment thus far?

I hit a 100# snatch after only being able to hit about 70# prior to that because of form. The coaches here are so good!

11. What is something you have always wanted to do but haven’t yet?

Sky diving or going cage diving with sharks.

Overland Park CrossFit is very much symbolic of what the sport represents which is continually evolving to be the best version you.  In the past couple weeks, Overland Park CrossFit has continued to change with new renovations which we believe will to help us accommodate our growing community and their needs.  We are excited to share this new space with our members and hope to see lots of new PRs to break the space.

With the new renovations, we thought it would be fun to take a look back as many of our members might not remember the “good old days”.  We thought we would use this as a time to take a trip down memory lane and also thank all the members that made where we are today possible, especially the ones that have used their “functional fitness” to help.

To the OG’s (Original Gangsters) that started with the park WODs, these first pictures might look a little familiar. OPCF took over our current building from a gymnastics facility, hence the crazy colors and mirrors.  Before that, it was a place called “Wacky Banana”.  Could you imagine if we were called “Wacky Banana CrossFit”? As you can see from the pictures below, there was a lot of work that was needed to make this into a CrossFit gym. We actually went 2 months without a rig, so no pull ups or squats racks.  Lots of body weight movements, which we all know can sometimes be worse!

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After a few months of hard work, we ended up with what you see below. A fully matted gym with our trusty wall-mounted rig. You actually might recognize the rig from our recent remodel ;). We used the wall mounted rig for a little over 3 years, until we got the rig you all know and love today, Ruby.

When we got Ruby, we didn’t get rid of our first rig. How can you just forget about your first?  Instead we held onto it, honestly not knowing when/if we would ever need or want to use it again.  Luckily our hording tendencies paid off and with our recent renovations, we actually brought it back to life!  We now have almost twice as many squat racks and a great place to do all our goat and accessory work. If you haven’t seen it, you need to get back to the gym or if you are not an OPCF member, you might just become one if you come check out this space.

We are excited about the new changes at OPCF and after looking back at where we started, we’ve said it once, but we’ll say it again to all our members… THANK YOU! Thank you for your help in building OPCF into the best community and gym around!

Have you ever thought about how much time you spend at work verses your free time?  If you haven’t, maybe stop reading, and don’t do the math, because you might have a mid-life crisis or quit your job and never come back.  The reason for this, is I’m about to tell you that almost half of your waking hours each week are spent at your job.   In general, people spend 40 hours at work (the lucky ones) and 50-60 hours using their free time on evenings/weekends.

For active people, this can be a jarring number when you think about how immobile you are throughout the day, especially if you sit at a desk for your job.  Sure most days you might be able to squeeze in a workout, but do feel that you are just offsetting the damage that you are doing all day by sitting verses actually improving your health?  What if I told you there are ways to take back your work hours?  No, I don’t know how to not have a job and get paid (if someone knows, let me know) but it’s just about finding the time, whether that be 5 minutes or 15 minutes during each day and taking them back from the man!  Below are a few ideas of how to be more active during the workday.

• Park at the back of the parking lot. If you are like the rest of us, you are probably already late.  What’s 5 more minutes?

• Take the stairs. Have to dress up for work and think I’m crazy? I took 7 flights of stairs, every day, for 4 years after college in heels.  It can be done, and yes I got lazy and started taking the elevator with the “rest of them”.  Let’s go back to the stairs together.

• Start a health challenge at work. Rather than spend your time complaining about your boss, why not talk about ways to get healthy with your co-workers while taking a walk.

• Go to the meeting instead of dialing in. Yes, I know, technology is a beautiful thing, but IT’S KILLING US.

• Exercise at your desk or in a meeting without people knowing. Flex or tighten your abs and glutes for 30 seconds and repeat 5 to 10 times.  Multitasking on a whole new level.