CrossFit Open 2023 Wrap-up

Congratulations to everyone on an outstanding CrossFit Open! Did you know that about 300,000 people worldwide did the Open this year? It was cool to see our little community participate in this huge event!

Each week, there was so much positive energy in the gym. It was inspirational to see people pushing themselves in new ways. We saw so many firsts – toes-to-bar, double-unders, PR lifts – as well as people achieving things that maybe scared them or that they weren’t sure they could do – like 50 straight toes-to-bar or 5 wall walks in a row. Each week, you showed up and gave it your all. We hope you had fun and learned something about yourself to take into the next year.

A huge thank you to all the coaches and board members who helped the Open run smoothly! And a shout out to Jenny Morgan for the awesome action shots, many shown below.

FCCF Award Winners

• Top Rookies: Katie Baudler & Siyu Song

• Spirit of the Open: Jason Swan
  Jason joined FCCF in August last year and has been a dedicated member of Foundations & evening classes.  He was a bit nervous about doing the Open but after talking with some coaches gave it his all, completing all the workouts scaled and getting his first Double Under!  Afterwards, he said he was glad to participate with the community and be able to perform new movements.  We’re inspired by his dedication and efforts this year and look forward to his continued success!

Top Overall Finishers

Men:
Alex Garcia
David Cho
John Robinson

Women:
Liz Terry
Kim Tom
Brianne Cannon

Special shout out to Alex, who advanced to the Individual Quarterfinals by placing in the top 10% of individuals in the North America West Region, and Liz and Kim who advanced to the Masters Quarterfinals, placing in the top 10% of their age groups worldwide.

First Time Doing the Open

Taking on the Open for the first time can feel daunting. Congratulations to this crew for completing their rookie year:
Becca Charlton
Faycal Bouab
Hari Manikarnika
Jason Swan
Joshua Richardson
Katie Baudler
Siyu Song

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Congratulations to all our athletes on their participation in the Open. We wrapped up the last week and couldn’t be prouder of you all!! It was a fun year with some extra flavour and for those that have participated in the Open for a number of years, rehashing a previous year’s workout is always great way to measure how far we’ve come.

We have our Spring Fling and End of Open party this coming Sunday 3/12. We’ll be hosting this at the gym and kicking off at 1pm until 4pm. All our members are welcome, not just those that did the Open. Please come and hang out and bring your families too!!

It’s potluck style and so If you haven’t already please sign up to let folks know what you’ll be bringing. The sheet also has a place to volunteer some of your time to help set up and clean up. You know what they say about it taking a village…

Looking forward to seeing you there to celebrate 🌻😎🌈

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It’s the last week of the Open – time to finish strong! You all have been doing an amazing job with the workouts, so let’s keep the momentum going. This week we have a set amount of wall walks, double-unders, and snatches to complete in 6 mins and then a time extension (and some handstand push-ups) if you get it all done. We’re excited to see some firsts for these movements, PRs, and strong performances.

CrossFit Open 23.3 (RX)
Starting with a 6-minute time cap, complete as many reps as possible of:
5 wall walks
50 double-unders
15 snatches (95/65 lbs)
5 wall walks
50 double-unders
12 snatches (135/95 lbs)
*If completed before the 6-minute time cap, add 3 minutes to the time cap and complete:
20 strict handstand push-ups
50 double-unders
9 snatches (185/125 lbs)
*If completed before the 9-minute time cap, add 3 minutes to the time cap and complete:
20 strict handstand push-ups
50 double-unders
6 snatches (225/155 lbs)

CrossFit Open 23.3 (SCALED)
Starting with a 6-minute time cap, complete as many reps as possible of:
5 scaled wall walks
50 single-unders
15 snatches (65/45 lbs)
5 scaled wall walks
50 single-unders
12 snatches (95/65 lbs)
*If completed before the 6-minute time cap, add 3 minutes to the time cap and complete:
20 hand-release push-ups
50 single-unders
9 snatches (115/75 lbs)
*If completed before the 9-minute time cap, add 3 minutes to the time cap and complete:
20 hand-release push-ups
50 single-unders
9 snatches (135/85 lbs)

Full details about all divisions and movement standards are online. Please take time to look them over before coming to the gym! (Links: RX/Scaled/Masters and Foundations)

Logistics:

Sign up for class as you normally would. When you come, you will sign up for a heat and there will be a self-directed warm-up for you to follow. Expect to work out during one of the heats and judge/cheer a friend during another. If you know you need extra time, come a bit early to get yourself warm and cheer people on.

Can’t make it Saturday? Post to Slack and we’ll help find a time for you to do it with a judge before the Monday 5PM score submission deadline.

Strategy: Go Go Go for 6 Minutes!

Although this workout looks intimidating, for most folks, this will be a 6 minute workout that is heavy on the shoulders. Here are some tips on each of the movements:

• Wall Walks: Know yourself with this movement. No-reps are costly since it’s such a long movement, so try to balance the need to go quickly with making sure you are rested enough to nail the rep. When starting, aim to get your legs up as high as possible. Then try to minimize the number of steps your hands take to and from the wall. Throughout the movement, keep pushing through the ground to maintain a strong body position. Don’t forget to review the standard: hands stay on the tape until both feet are on the wall. Remember, the first set will feel great, but the second will be much more challenging – be mentally prepared for that.

• Double-Unders: Breathe here and stay composed. Misses happens, so when they do, use it as an opportunity to take a quick breath and then refocus and restart. Trust your good form: elbows in and jumping straight up and down.

• Snatches: Use your legs and save your shoulders on these! Even though the first set is light, breaking them up into 2-3 sets of descending reps with short breaks  (e.g. 9/6 or 6/5/4) will help reduce your time under tension and save your shoulders for the other movements. When you get to the second bar, expect it to feel heavy and treat it like a 1 rep max as it may be in that range for some of you. Eyes up, braced off the floor, get the bar to the hips, jump and punch!  Don’t forget you can squat snatch if needed to get under it. Wherever you catch the bar, make sure your core is braced and arms locked out to give yourself the best chance of making the lift.

• Handstand Push-ups: There is a new standard this year – you just need to keep some part of your hand on the tape and only your feet can touch the wall. Remember, these disappear very quickly, so break them up early and often. Stay tight throughout the movement, actively squeezing your glutes and abs, to sustain your push.

Scaling

We will have scaling options for everyone! If you’re entered online, there is an official scaled version. (See above). Remember though, that any reps at RX beat all scores at scaled, so if you want to work to get those first wall walks or double unders – go for it!!

Also, since the workout will likely be pretty short for most people, we'll have an option to extend the time to 12 mins if you want to keep going.

Have fun, cheer on your friends, and then we can all celebrate our accomplishments next weekend at the Spring Fling/End of Open Party Sun 3/12 at FCCF! Let’s do this!

If you haven’t already please make sure you block your calendars on Sunday 12th March from 1-4pm for our Spring Fling party. It’s going to be pot luck style so please bring your favourite dish to share. We’ll be hosting the party at the gym given the current weather. ALL our members and their families are welcome. If you’re new to FCCF it’s tradition to have a bouncy house and so your children (and perhaps yourself) will be delighted.

Come and celebrate the turn of the season and also the end of the Open! It’s a fun way to connect with your swolemates by spending time with each other outside of working out and in proper clothes!!

We’ll be sharing a sheet in Slack where you can add your dish and also volunteer to help setup and/or clean up.

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It’s week 2 of the CrossFit Open and it’s a two-parter with some surprises: 2 new movements (shuttle runs and burpee pull-ups) plus a max thruster finisher!

CrossFit Open 23.2 (RX)
Part A: AMRAP 15 Minutes:
5 burpee pull-ups* 
10 shuttle runs (1 rep = 2 x 25 ft) 
*Add 5 burpee pull-ups after each round. 
Part B: Immediately following 23.2A: 
5 minutes to establish: 
1-rep-max thruster (from the floor)

CrossFit Open 23.2 (SCALED)
Part A: AMRAP 15 Minutes:
5 burpees (to target)*
10 shuttle runs (1 rep = 2 x 25 ft) 
*Add 5 burpees after each round. 
Part B: Immediately following 23.2A: 
5 minutes to establish: 
1-rep-max thruster (from the floor)

Full details about all divisions and movement standards are online. Please take time to look them over before coming to the gym! (Links: RX/Scaled/Masters and Foundations)

Logistics:

Sign up for class as you normally would. When you come, you will sign up for a heat and there will be a self-directed warm-up for you to follow. Expect to work out during one of the heats and judge/cheer a friend during another. If you know you need extra time, come a bit early to get yourself warm and cheer people on. 23.2A will be done in 1649 (our main space) and 23.B will be done in 1643 (barbell space) to maximize floor space for running.

Can’t make it Saturday? Post to Slack and we’ll help find a time for you to do it with a judge before the Monday 5PM score submission deadline.

Strategy: Pacing & Thruster Tips

You know the story of the rabbit and the hare! Continuous movement at a steady pace will win the race on part A. For Part B, start with a thruster weight that you can do in your sleep and go up from there. Here’s some guidance to help maximize your score for both:

• Shuttle Runs: this workout won’t be won here. Pick a steady pace to run/jog through these. There are a lot of turnarounds, so try to be efficient there – lower your body as you approach and turn your shoulders as you come up from your hand touch.

• Burpee Pull-ups: There are different ways to do these – jumping into a strict pull-up or doing a kipping pull-up. Test the options in warm-up and see what feels best for you. Using a kip will slow you down a bit, but will also help you manage your breathing. Either way, set yourself up so your feet are below the bar when you jump, meaning your shoulders will be in front of the rig at the bottom of the burpee.

• Thrusters: Most people will do best by using a power clean to get the bar to the shoulder, then begin the thruster, in order to get in a good position for the squat.  If you are proficient with squat cleans, you may get some additional bounce out of the bottom – test this out in warm up and see which one feels most comfortable. In either case, focus on explosive leg extension out of the squat before engaging the arms to press.  Lifting under fatigue is different, but can often lead to PRs! Pick a weight you can do comfortably as an opener (~80%) and plan for 3-4 attempts. Have your bar pre-loaded and additional weights and shoes/gear you want to change into available off to the side. Aim for that first attempt around the 1 minute mark. 

Scaling

We will have scaling options for everyone! If you’re entered online, there is an official scaled version. (See above). Remember though, that any reps at RX beat all scores at scaled! So, if pull ups are your limiting factor, give them a go. Who knows, you may surprise yourself! If you hit the wall on them, but want to keep doing the workout, tell your judge you’re done with the RX version and switch to scaled with burpees to target and keep going.

Here’s to another week of having fun, cheering on your friends, and challenging yourself.

Thank you to everyone that came and showed up to either participate in the first workout of the CrossFit Open 2023, judge or cheer your fellow athletes on!

It was a tough workout but everyone gave it their all and some folks even got their “first …” (fill in the blank). You know who you are!!

The next announcement will be Thursday and we’ll be sharing some tips on how to conquer that, once we know what it is of course.

In other exciting news we have brought back our beloved The fog always lifts slogan with a new colourway.

If you haven’t ordered any new swag now is the time. Deadline closes 2/23. Here’s the LINK in case you missed it! Just ordered mine :)

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Here we go! It’s week 1 of the CrossFit Open and we have a chipper style workout that’s a throwback to 2014!

CrossFit Open 23.1 RX (aka 14.4)
AMRAP 14 Minutes:
60 Calorie Row
50 Toes-to-Bars
40 Wall Balls @ 20/14 lbs to 10/9 ft
30 Cleans @ 135/95 lbs
20 Muscle-ups

CrossFit Open 23.1 Scaled
AMRAP 14 Minutes:
60 Calorie Row
50 Hanging Knee Raises
40 Wall Balls @ 14/10 lbs to 10/9 ft
30 Cleans @ 95/65 lbs
20 Pull-ups

Full details about all divisions and movement standards are online. Please take time to look them over before coming to the gym! (Links: RX/Scaled/Masters and Foundations)

Logistics:

Sign up for class as you normally would. When you come, you will sign up for a heat and there will be a self-directed warm-up for you to follow. Expect to work out during one of the heats and judge/cheer a friend during another. If you know you need extra time, come a bit early to get yourself warm and cheer people on. You can use 1643 for warmups, leaving our main class space for the athletes working out and judges.

Can’t make it Saturday? Post to Slack and we’ll help find a time for you to do it with a judge before the Monday 5PM score submission deadline.

Strategy: Pacing & Smart Sets

Let’s be honest, for just about everyone, this is a chipper – where you work your way through as much of the workout as possible before the time cap. Follow the guidance below, and when you get close to the end of the 14 minutes, go go go!

• Row: Don't dog the row but don't go all out either – you don’t want to tire yourself out too early. Pick a quick but manageable pace and stick with it. Keeping your heart rate in check and breathing under control are the goals early on in this workout.

• Toes-to-bar: Break them up early, do small sets, and know yourself! These go away quickly, so while the first 20ish reps may feel easy, don't let that fool you.  Leave 2 or 3 reps in the bank during your early sets and it will pay dividends in reps 35-50.  Remember to keep that rest short and be disciplined about getting back on the bar. For those good at toes-to-bar, one set of 10 and then sets of 5 with short breaks will keep you moving. For others, fast singles can be a good strategy if you're smart about it and keep chipping away.

• Wall Balls: Four to five controlled sets is a good goal – this is with a breath or two in-between and then right back on it. The breaks will give your shoulders a rest from tension and help you manage your breathing. For those doing muscle-ups, this will also help prevent shoulder fatigue.

• Cleans: The cleans are singles/small sets from the beginning. (And by singles we mean: clean, drop (with hands following bar), set, go again.)  No wasting time between reps, unless this is a heavy weight for you (if so, take the time you need to feel set and tight so you don't waste any missed reps).

• Muscle-ups: Have you been practicing them? If not, be smart about attempting these. If you have these, do a first set where you know you won’t miss any, then settle into singles or small sets. Steady, confident singles with no misses, and intelligent rest, is better than missing and wasting energy, time, and mental focus.   

Scaling

We will have scaling options for everyone! If you’re entered online, there is an official scaled version. (See above). Remember though, that any reps at RX beat all scores at scaled! So, if toes-to-bar are your limiting factor, do the row and give yourself time to get as many toes-to-bar as possible. Who knows, you may surprise yourself! If you hit the wall on them, but want to keep doing the workout, tell your judge you’re done with the RX version and switch to any scaled version of toes-to-bar and keep going.

Have fun, cheer on your friends, and come back this week! Let’s do this!

It’s only February and yet there is LOT happening. To make sure you don’t miss a thing we’ll keep you in the loop with a quick rundown

1. FCCF Scholarship Applications Close Wednesday 15th February:

   In order to increase access to FCCF for those who are not able to afford a full membership, we’re excited to share that we have launched our new scholarship program. If you or anyone you know might be interested please apply here.

2. The CrossFit games begins on Thursday 16th:

   It’s that time of year…Open time and the games are starting. The first workout will be announced this Thursday. What do you think it will be? We hope they go easy on us at least for the first one, let us ease into things. We have a couple of posts on how we’ll be running the workouts and our own Jen Clarke blogged about why you should join (scroll down for more details). ALL levels are welcome so do consider signing up and participating. We promise it’s a lot of fun!!

3. Spring Fling Party:

   We are still confirming the date (please vote in our Slack channel if you haven’t already) but we’ll be hosting our first party of the year after the CrossFit open rounds are finished. Its a great time to come and socialise and get to know one another outside of the gym and outside of our athleisure wear!! Kids and dogs all welcome 😎 More details to come so stay tuned!

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WODs

It’s that time of year again and the CrossFit Games kicks off on Thursday 16 February 2023 and they will be announcing the first workout. There’ll be a total of 3 workouts over 3 weeks announced every Thursday with scores due by Monday at 5pm and here’s how it will work…

We’ll be running Open Heats on Saturday mornings instead of our usual partner WODs. Sign up in MindBody for 8:00, 9:15 or 10:30am each week. We’ll go over the workout, provide scaling options, get you warmed up and then we’ll start the official heats!! We’ll have judges to count your reps and sign off on your participation. If you can’t come on Saturdays don’t stress you can still do the workouts and submit your scores.

If you haven’t participated in a CrossFit Open before it is A LOT OF FUN and ALL LEVELS are WELCOMED! The energy in the gym is amazing, athletes often get their “first” of movements and of course there’s cheering and encouragement from the whole community! If you just want to come and help out by counting and cheering, please come on down.

We’ll also be running a little friendly competition. After each workout you’ll get to submit a token of participation. By the end of the third week if you did all 3 workouts you’ll have 3 X the chances to win an amazing prize and of course bragging rights too!

Register to participate on the CrossFit website and don’t forget to select Fog City CrossFit as your local affiliate.

SEE YOU ON SATURDAY 18TH!!

On February 16th, the official CrossFit 2023 season kicks off with the Open, a worldwide annual event that’s the first stage of qualification to the CrossFit Games. Much more importantly, the Open is a chance for you to set a goal, benchmark your current fitness level, and participate in a fun event with the FCCF community!

Fog City “exists to investigate the limits and capabilities of people, both individually and collectively, to improve their own lives and the lives of those around them.” Health, fitness, performance, and community are the backbone of this labor of love. The CrossFit methodology is a key part of how we try to do this every day.

There is a ton of thought behind the CrossFit methodology that informs our daily WODs, and there’s a wealth of info on CrossFit.com that can compliment your time in the gym. One key tool in improving your fitness is the ability to track and measure your performance over time. This is why we write scores on the white board, and why we encourage you to track your workouts. It helps you to identify your relative strengths and weaknesses, and can show you empirically where you are getting better (especially when it comes to lifts, or benchmark workouts like Fran). For some, competing with others is a big motivator. But for most of us at FCCF, competing with ourselves is where we get the most motivation to stretch and grow!

The Open takes place over 3 weeks every year around this time. Workouts are announced at noon PST on Thursday, and participants have until the following Monday to submit their score online for the given workout. Fog City provides everything you need, including judges, and then you just have to log your score online before the deadline. We will hold multiple sessions each Saturday during the Open, complete with blasting music, people cheering you on, and other folks pushing themselves in the workout. It’s a whole other level of energy, and pushes many of us to do our absolute best!

Hundreds of thousands of people all over the world participate, and you’ll be ranked overall and within your age group. The workouts are pretty representative of your general level of fitness according to CrossFit’s methodology, so I’ve found that the ranking provides a good sense of my degree of improvement year over year. This will only be my 3rd official Open, and I wish I had data going back to previous years. My first year gave me a baseline, my second year I set (and surpassed) a goal to improve within my age group, and I have a goal for this year as well. In a perfect world, signing up for the Open is a catalyst in the months leading up to it for you to stay committed to your fitness - at this point, perhaps it’s a catalyst to really focus over the next two weeks! But even after the Open, you can take what you learned about yourself as motivation to improve throughout the year.

Note there are scaling options just like in class every day - every single FCCF member will be able to do a version of these workouts. And we will cheer you on whether you’re killing it Rx-style, or are doing a scaled version. This is about you doing your best at your current level of fitness! And also, doing it responsibly - push yourself, don’t kill yourself. As always, we want you coming back the next day.

There is a $20 registration fee that goes to CrossFit HQ to support the content they create, the platform and judging (competitive level athletes submit videos for review). Admittedly, as a CrossFit superfan and consumer of a lot of content from CrossFit, I’m biased, but I personally get much more than $20 of value from CrossFit throughout the year and I’m glad to support their efforts. It’s that much more meaningful to me this year because I think with their new CEO, as well as CrossFit OGs, the company is headed in a really positive direction after some quite tumultuous years. 

If you are at all curious, just sign up, show up, and have fun! And please also feel free to come during other sessions to judge or cheer! Register here.

Jen Clarke

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We are running our first internal weightlifting meet for our members this Sunday 5th February!

It’s going to be a lot of fun and there are many ways in which you can participate:

1. If you’d like to lift… YAY!  We’ll have platforms set up and be doing 3 lifts for each the Snatch and Clean & Jerk, just like a real meet.

2. If you want to come and workout and lift but don’t want to be part of the “mock meet”... that’s great!  We’ll have a programmed session you can follow at your own pace and you can vibe off the excitement. 

3. If you don’t want to lift at all… perfect!  We need volunteers to help us run the event and you can get a glimpse into how a meet is run.

4. If you just want to come and check it out… awesome!  I’m sure our athletes would love to have our community cheering them on.

If you haven’t had a chance to lift in the recently opened space on a platform you’re gonna love how it feels AND sounds!

Let us know you’re interested in participating in ANY way and sign up for Barbell Class (2/5) on MindBody (open only to our FCCF Members at this time).  We’ll be kicking off 10am, getting warmed up and then getting into lifting heavy shit over our heads.

Bring your singlet, bring yourself and we’ll bring the coffee and donuts!!

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Sunday 22nd January marks the New Lunar New Year and brings forth the year of the rabbit.  The most popular Chinese story tells that the legendary Jade Emperor who is considered the Ruler of Heaven decided on his birthday to have a race.  He called for all animals on earth to participate and 12 showed up.  The order in which they finished would help determine the passage of time.  The animals finished in this order: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, or pig.  SO the rabbit is the fourth sign of the Zodiac.

Each animal is attributed with individual traits.  For people born in the year of the rabbit they are:  kind-hearted, friendly, intelligent, cautious, skillful, gentle & quick.  If we think of our rabbit friends I’m sure we see these characteristics in them.  

So what does the year hold for us? It holds longevity, positivity, auspiciousness, wittiness, cautiousness, cleverness, deftness and self-protection.  When we think about these and the way we push ourselves at the gym to be stronger, faster, improve our technique or master a new movement they all apply to the journey we are on.

In the spirit of wittiness and kicking off this new lunar year don’t be hare brained and grab it by the ears before it disappears!!

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