My thoughts about the CrossFit Open 2016. First of all I would like to mention that I am aware, that no matter what the tests or Open Workouts are, the fittest will always be on top.
But I am very disappointed with most of the Open Workouts this year. With having a Scaled Division for the second year now, I would have liked to see more difficult and heavier Workouts. In my opinion the Scaled Division is a great tool to let anybody participate, but it should have been used to make the Rx’ed Division more challenging. This Open have just been about engine and cardio. Also it was, just like most of CrossFit sadly is, the Open for small people.
Sidenote to Josh Bridges: If you are just 5 feet tall, you shoudn’t have to shorten your range of motion anymore! And if you want to be the fittest in the world, there should never be a doubt if a rep is legit or not! Everyone can take a lesson concerning perfect reps from Rich Froning! Be the best without cheating and without even discussing form!
Back to the Open: I think with a few adjustments they would have been more fair. Take 16.1: if you increase the weight for the lunges to 135lb/95lb it would have been a lot better workout, because it would test a bit more strength and coordination under fatigue. In 16.3 I would have liked to see a slightly heavier weight also, maybe 95lb/65lb. Increasing the weight in both workouts makes them more fair for tall people, who have a clear disadvantage on both of the workouts.
16.5 aka 14.5 was once again just cardio, which was already tested in 16.1… Is it all about Burpees lately? There were so many good guesses out there, which would have been a lot more fun than this one. I would have liked this popular guess:
16.5) 10min AMRAP:
5 Ring Muscle Up
10 Dumbbell Thrusters 35lb/25lb
15 Box Jump Overs 24inch/20inch
16.5 a) 6mins to establish 3RM OHS
My guess for the Regionals would be, that it gets heavy with a lot of skills, because nothing of that has been tested in the Open. I am looking forward to that!
#crossfit #crossfitgames #open2016