What is The CrossFit Open?
The CrossFit Open is an annual online competition that gathers athletes from all over the world to compete in a series of shared workouts. It has been one of the largest participatory sporting events in history. This year it runs from March 11 – March 29th. Each week a workout is released on Thursday evenings and athletes have the opportunity to complete it and put in their scores online by Monday night. Every workout provides a chance to compete at the RX, Scaled, and Foundations level, as well as an at-home version, making it approachable for any athlete, anywhere! At the end of the three weeks, you can see where you stack up against your affiliate, your state, your age group, your region, or in the world!
What is The Port Open?
Every year, The Port participates in The Open by hosting our own in-house competition. The atmosphere is a little different than your everyday class time, with a little extra competition feeling in the air. For each of the three weeks, the Open workout will be programmed in class on Friday. Members can come in, complete the workout as well as judge someone else, and have the chance to earn points for their team. We are also excited to announce that we will be bringing back “Friday Night Lights” (with some limitations, of course) because the atmosphere on those evenings is irreplaceable and a big part of this community event! More details and specifics on that to be announced, but you can expect an exciting environment, light snacks and drinks for post-WOD celebrations, and plenty of air fives and air hugs.
Each Open comes with a new, fun theme for breaking participants into teams and this year will be a “Battle of the Generations.” Athletes who sign-up will be put on one of two teams; the 34-year-old and younger group or the athletes 35 years and older. Each week the teams will go head to head, earning points for their teams in various ways listed below, until the end of the three weeks where we will see who comes out on top!
Ways to earn points for your Team:
Completing The Open WOD
+1 Points
Simply completing the workout each week will earn you 1 point for your team. You can complete the workout in class on Friday or you can utilize the Open Gym slots on Saturday (10:45 – 12pm), Sunday (6:15 – 7:15am), and Monday (10:15 – 11:45am & 2:30 – 3:45pm) for a make-up session. Please make sure you have a judge that can be there with you. Chat with a coach if you have any questions.
Finishing Top 5
We will have a master leaderboard updated live each week. The Top 5 Men and Women in each division (Rx, Scaled, Foundations) will earn the following points for their team:
5th Place – +1 Point
4th Place – +2 Points
3rd Place – +3 Points
2nd Place – +4 Points
1st Place – +5 Points
Winning MVP of the Week
+5 Points
Each week the coaches will pick a Male and Female MVP based on effort, sportsmanship, performance, etc.
What is the difference between The CrossFit Open and The Port Open?
The CrossFit Open is a worldwide competition. You can register at games.crossfit.com and see how you stack up against all CrossFitters in the world. The worldwide leaderboard allows you to filter by age, location, division, profession, and more. CrossFit has also brought back the Affiliate Cup this year, which is the team competition side of the Open, allowing members from the same gym to create a team to compete against other gyms in the later stages of the CrossFit Games competition. By registering in The Crossfit Open as a CrossFit Portsmouth Member, we can see where our gym stacks up against other affiliates! *Note: To register with us you need to search “CrossFit Portsmouth” as your affiliate. We are not listed under The Port.
At the end of the three-week Open, the men and women who rank in the top 10% and the teams who rank in the top 25% of each continent, will move on to participate in the next stage of competition — Quarterfinals. Quarterfinals are a series of workouts done over the weekend after the Open concludes. Those who come out on top after Quarterfinals go on to the semi-finals, which then determines who qualifies for the CrossFit Games. Each stage of competition reduces the number of athletes in the field with the Games in Madison Wisconsin only taking the top 40 men, 40 women, 240 masters athletes, 80 teenage athletes, and 40 teams. All the details about the journey from The Open to the Games can be found in the 2021 CrossFit Games Rulebook.
If you’re competitive and interested in your overall placement, and most importantly wanting to use The Open as a yearly benchmark, I would highly recommend signing up for the CrossFit Open. From year to year, you can see how you improve, which can be an incredible metric of all the work you put in each and every day. With that said, signing up for the world wide open is not required to be able to participate in The Port Open. In the gym, we will just be competing against ourselves and against other members of The Port. Although we will be doing the same workouts, we simply just love to put on such a fun community event every year!
Why should I participate?
The Open is a global celebration of all of the reasons why we show up to CrossFit each week.
Whether you are 14, 40, 64, just starting CrossFit or in your 11th year, The Open brings us together to show up and show off all of the hard work we put in at The Port each and every day. Rx, Scaled, Foundations, or still At Home, The Open puts us out of our comfort zone, makes us push a little bit harder, and oftentimes we figure out we are more capable than we thought!
Sample WOD 15.3
As we mentioned, there is a workout option for everyone who wants to participate. Here is an example of a past Open Workout and its RX, Scaled, Foundations, and At Home, versions.
RX
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 14 minutes of:
7 muscle-ups
50 wall-ball shots (14 lb. to 9 ft./20 lb. to 10 ft.)
100 double-unders
Scaled
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 14 minutes of:
7 pull-ups
50 wall-ball shots (10 lb. to 9 ft./14 lb. to 10 ft.)
100 single-unders
Foundations
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 14 minutes of:
7 push-ups
25 air squats
50 jumping jacks
Equipment Free – For those at home you can participate too!
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 14 minutes of:
7 dips between chairs
50 air squats
100 jumping jacks
These three levels should give everyone an opportunity to try the workouts and compete. When you register, you will choose which division you would like to complete each workout in. You won’t be able to jump around from week to week so whichever you choose will be your division for the whole competition!
Whether in class, at Friday Night Lights, or during Open Gym, every workout will be completed with a judge. Judges are there to count reps and make sure athletes are hitting certain movement standards that your coaches will go through each week. Judges will be required to wear masks and will be briefed before each workout.
How do I sign-up?
Click here to sign up for The Port Open.
Register for The CrossFit Open Here. Make sure to choose “CrossFit Portsmouth” as your affiliate and Team.
