The first three weekends of the CrossFit Regionals competition series kicks off on May 18th, only two weeks from today. Athletes who have qualified for Regionals positions have been practicing and perfecting every single movement and skill in an effort to prepare for the competition.

“Social media can be used for a myriad of different purposes. You can be building awareness, so just getting people to understand that you exist. You can actually be trying to have conversations with people, meaning engaging them, asking questions, getting return commentary. You can be trying to get reactions to keep people engaged with what you’re doing and watching what you’re doing. You can, actually, at this point, you can try to convert them over to other web pages or actually into a sales funnel. That might not make you feel very confident, because there’s so many different options.”  – OPEX Fitness CEO Jim Crowell

It should go without saying that there are some gleaming differences between younger and masters athletes.

“What is the help that you need? Why are you not the best person to do that? And who can you get to help you who will benefit you specifically? You have to bring in somebody who can tangibly benefit the needs that you have.” – Jim Crowell

Kinsy Rosati is working on her muscle-up dip kipping here with these extra reps on top of the rings. She has been working on creating fluidity with these for some time now and they are becoming more and more efficient. One way in which we characterize athletes at OPEX is how quickly they can pick up new skills and movement techniques. Many individuals have aspects of their muscle-ups which lack efficiency, and sometimes it takes dedicated practice to make lasting changes that are effective for improving performance.

“The importance of testing, especially at this time of year, really surrounds just knowing where you sit. You have to know where you sit with some specific characteristics in relation to the goal. Of course, this time of the year, the goal is the Crossfit Open.” – Director of Coaching Mike Lee

James Fitzgerald discusses the TNG or Touch and Go. How to properly execute this movement in any form with the help in demonstration by OPEX Coach Brian Foley.

Another day of strongman and gymnastic work for Tennil Reed as she prepares for CrossFit Open Workout 18.4.

“My biggest goal was to improve from last year and maintain the same strategy as I had done the previous year. I did that with 321 reps (compared to 312 last year),” Calhoun said.

The step up is an excellent movement for building the single leg strength and stability of your clients. The benefits of this movement translate into numerous fitness activities such as squatting, biking, and running. The muscles developed through this movement could also aid clients to lunge correctly and will help their balance and overall strength in each leg respectively.

Today is Tennil's active recovery day. She was three longer pieces including waling in the elevation room. This is all designed to aid with recovery and move blood.

On Saturday, the Fittest Woman in America completed 18.1 with a score of 410. She won’t be doing another attempt today.

Our bodies are temples and, as humans, we are not taking care of them.

I just got off a call with a young teen and her mother who were inquiring about a training plan that would help the young athlete reach her goal.  The goal is to compete in the CrossFit Games in the 14-15 age division.  Within 5 minutes of the conversation I discovered the young teen was training over 30 hours per week doing CrossFit classes, gymnastics workouts and whatever else she could muster up in the home gym.   I then asked her if she could do a strict pull up…she said “maybe one, but I can kip”.

Do you need a strategy guide to tackle CrossFit Open Workout 18.4. Click here to download and learn the same strategies Tennil Reed will be using for the Crossfit Open.

People often ask us where we go to compete and learn more.  We have the unique privilege of having access to many of the more well known conferences in the market but we also have found some smaller events that are gems!  Here is a small list of the competitions and events that we always try to send people to when given the opportunity.

The rankings above are how the 2015 CrossFit Games COULD HAVE unfolded with MINOR tweaks to scoring methods. If you watched the Sunday finale, suffice it to say, the pegboard proved difficult for the majority of female competitors. Out of the remaining 37-competitior-field, three completed all three pegboard repetitions, two completed two pegboard repetitions, and seven completed one pegboard repetition. This left a MASSIVE tie for 13th-place amongst twenty-five individuals NOT completing a single pegboard repetition.

Losing a game, getting an injury, not improving your personal record; disappointment is synonymous with competition. As The Open draws to a close you too may be feeling disappointment. James FitzGerald, Founder and Director of OPEX Fitness, offers two helpful perspectives.