As many of you may or may not know, Crossfit is not merely a workout methodology, it is also a competitive sport. The Crossfit Games are an annually held international competition in which the world’s fittest athletes compete in a variety of workouts. These workouts encompass all areas of fitness and are unknown by the athletes until an hour before competition, meaning athletes must prepare for anything and everything. The Games are highly competitive with people from all over the world attending. The Games are comprised of both an Individuals Competition (a Men’s and a Women’s) and an Affiliate Competition (comprised of 2 or 3 men and 2 or 3 women). To qualify for the games as an individual, one must first compete in and advance from one of the 32 Sectional Qualifiers across the globe, and then from the subsequent Regional Qualifier. To qualify as a team, the teams must just compete in and advance from their Regional Qualifier. This year, over 4,500 athletes competed in the Individual Competitions and over 300 teams (over 1,800 team members) competed in the Affiliate Competition. Ultimately, 90 individuals (45 men and 45 women) and 69 teams qualified for the Games held at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles. Crossfit is growing exponentially so you can expect a lot more next year!
In this year’s Southeast Regional, Crossfit UNC trainer Tanner Martin competed for Crossfit Wilmington and dominated, his team placed second overall and qualified for the Crossfit Games. Finishing right behind in third were Crossfit UNC members Deepak and Jason competing with Crossfit Local (the affiliate in Chapel Hill) and also qualified for the Crossfit Games. This was out of 42 affiliate teams, with the top 8 qualifying for the Games! At the Games, both teams did great, Crossfit Wilmington finished 17th and Crossfit Local finished 62nd.
Crossfit UNC is now putting together its own Affiliate Team to compete in the Southeast Regionals expected to be held in May 2011. For those who would be interested, Crossfit UNC is organizing separate Team WODs during the week. The exact organization of these workouts is still being worked out. As a club, we do not have the funds (yet) to purchase all the equipment needed for traditional Crossfit exercises which all team members will need to be proficient in (described more below). Thus, there will likely be some sort of payment necessary to join. These payments will either go towards purchasing necessary equipment or towards joining a local Crossfit gym for workouts (or a mix of both). This decision will be made early in the year, and it will depend on the amount of people interested and which option people prefer.
In preparing to compete in Crossfit competitions, there are a lot of things
one has to work on that we haven't (yet) been able to offer during our UNC
WODs. One is heavy lifting, in order to compete, you need to get pretty
strong and this means a lot of heavy lifting. The second is work on more
technical movements. This includes all Olympic lifts (clean and jerk,
snatch, overhead squats, thrusters, deadlifts, squat cleans, squat
snatches, etc.) as well other "tougher" movements (muscle-ups, handstand
pushups, double-unders, rope climbs). Go online and look through all the
WODs on the mainsite. If there is any exercise you can't do or struggle at,
work on it!
Anyone who wants to will be able to join, whether to prepare for the Games or simply to get fit. Come time for competition, we will hold our own Crossfit UNC Games from which the final team members will be decided.
Don’t wait until school starts to begin working out! START NOW! Get stronger, and work on the Olympic lifts and technical movements. Attack you weakness! A well rounded athlete is what Crossfit is all about!
If interested, please email me, Nathan Mackay, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
For more information of the Games: http://games.crossfit.com/
For more information on common Crossfit exercises: http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html
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| From Crossfit Games |
Crossfit UNC trainer Tanner Martin competing at the Crossfit Games
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| From Crossfit Games |
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| From Crossfit Games |
