Dutch Lowy

Logistics:
I have been involved with organized athletics for 90% of my life. I have seen good and bad events. I have seen good and bad referees. This post is not meant to put any of the volunteers or judges down. I personally know many of them and know they are of the highest quality coaches and people.

Having said that i have never liked referees. They will make mistakes and sometimes that can determine the outcome of a game.
I don’t feel like that happened at the games. There may have been some inconsistencies but i think overall they did a great job with what they were given.
Now lets talk about what they were given. The overall organization of the event was pretty poor. The judges had no idea what was going on both with the time line for the day and the workouts coming up. Almost all announced times throughout the weekend were off by at least 20 minutes. This made it hard for competitors to plan for recovery and food. It also made it very hard to watch as spectators never knew when the next event was going to happen.

There was a big screen which would have been perfect for standings. Just a thought.

I was not impressed by the way this event was run. Next time i hope they get more help on the logistics side.

The start of the run.

This will probably be a multi part post so stay tuned. There are a couple categories i am going to post about.
First, lets talk about the test, or tests that were claimed to have proven the fittest man and woman on the planet.

Taking a look at the event as a whole (i am not going to list all the workouts. You can see them here) i can’t argue that they didn’t test overall fitness. They hit a broad time domain, a wide range of movements and skills and rewarded the people that were willing to fight through the pain. I think they were fun to watch (except for the hill run).

I was unlucky with the order of the events but that is a personal problem. Since i didn’t get to do the majority of the competition the rest of this will simply be my observations and what i heard from the competitors.

Despite the fact that the games tested all modes and skills needed in crossfit, i think it was really inefficient. This could have been a great event with half the workouts. I don’t feel like the volume was necessary to test fitness. In fact i think you can blame most of the injuries that occurred on day 2 on the massive amount of work the competitors were asked to do. I understand that HQ is new to this as well so i don’t blame them. I do feel that they tried to compensate for the criticisms from last year and went way overboard.

All of the guys i know that made it to the end of day one are not feeling too healthy today. My point here is that if fitness is the ultimate goal on the wellness continuum then what those guys did this weekend was not healthy and did not make them more fit. In fact it could take its toll over time. How many professional athletes retire to be pain free and healthier than before they started playing. If HQ wants to make this a sport they have to take a look at what they preach and readjust the tests. I am sure next year will be better. They are pretty good about learning from their mistakes.

Many of you have gotten on board with the dedicated strength work on a daily basis which i applaud you for but make sure you are not missing the other stuff. When you are feeling run down by weights but still feel like training try to take your max effort into a different realm. For example Eric is pictured above performing a max effort box jump.

What are some Max Efforts you use for your training? Besides weightlifting.

I just wanted to let everyone I am back to civilization! It was awesome to be able to relax before the big weekend. I am currently hanging out at Catalyst Athletics with Greg and Aimee where i get the chance to train with Jolie. She is looking pretty unstoppable for the games this year.

Has everyone seen the setup for the games? Anyone have any thoughts as to what it could be???

I had the honor to coach an olympic lifting class here in Fort Worth at a good friend of mines gym (it is also my new home gym). Ryan runs a tight ship at Crossfit Seven. If you are ever in the Fort Worth area you must stop by!

The class was small but they moved alot of weight! I made a highlight reel of there final day. We invited members of CF 7 to come watch and cheer on the lifters. They had been working hard for 6 weeks and i wanted them to showcase their abilities. They came a long way and i am so proud of them!
Enjoy and don’t miss out next time!
I want to mention that David (owner) and Lindsay are from Crossfit Denton County and would drive damn near an hour each way to come to class. That’s commitment!

Eric,
We will have to get some good footage of you lifting and i will get you on here as well.

Finally, an apology to everyone that enjoys this blog. The next couple weeks are going to be really crazy for me so bear with me as i try to update here. I am sure to have some good stuff after the Games and everything settles down. I hope to meet as many of you as possible at the Games so don’t be a stranger!