“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”- Vincent Van Gogh
LIFESTYLE
How to Adapt CrossFit Games Tests for your CrossFit Kids Class
There are few things more exciting for any avid CrossFit fan than a Games event they can adapt for their own fitness. Whether it be a benchmark workout like Helen, Murph, or Amanda that the elites take on at the Games or the opposite way around, any concrete comparison for just how fit these athletes are can be a fun game.
Now imagine that the athletes you’re comparing the Games athletes to were seven-years-old.
Here are a few ways you can include the youngest athletes in your gym in the Games excitement.
For a classic CrossFit workout: “Echo Thruster Finale”
While there’s not much many adults would prefer to do less than Echo Bike calories and thrusters, kids can get value from the movements and still have fun.
For time:
20-15-10 Row calories Dumbbell thrusters
Then,
66-foot goblet walking lunge
This quick workout will allow athletes of all ages to find the same aerobic and muscular stimulus in a more age appropriate manner.
Bike calories could also be used here, but for shorter and younger athletes, biking may not be comfortable or even doable.
Dumbbell thrusters or even just goblet squats for elementary athletes will achieve the same lower-body fatigue as the heavy barbell thrusters for elite athletes.
Just like at the Games, a lunge to the finish could result in a fun race.
For odd-objects: “The Alpaca Redux”
While seated legless rope climbs, a 546/433 pound sled and heavy kettlebell clean and jerks may not be in the wheelhouse for your gym’s littlest athletes, the same modalities certainly can be.
Older or more experienced athletes may very well be capable of rope climbs as written. However, smaller athletes can start laying down beneath the rope and pull themselves up to standing using the least amount of leg push possible (aka “zombie climbs”).
For plate sled pushes, set rubber plates up on a soft gymnastics mat. Athletes push the plate (which could range from wooden trainer plates to 45 pound plates) from one edge of the mat to the other.
For maximum CrossFit Kids fun: “Inverted Medley”
The original workout, which featured a variety of handstand walk obstacles and pull-overs, took top athletes just under three minutes and 30 seconds. To adapt it for kids, making this a multi-round relay race keeps the inverted and gymnastics-heavy workout engaging.
Divide class into two teams–each person has to complete the course and tag the next person in line. The first team to get all athletes through the course wins.
Lay out a series of small plates, cones, and other obstacles for athletes to move through during their bear crawl traverse.
For plyo push-ups: try deficit, clapping, or step-over varieties. Change it up each round to make it extra interesting.
Box around-the-worlds give athletes the stimulus of walking on their hands and being inverted while still giving them stability and an accessible scale.
Pull-ups could be modified in tons of ways–kipping, strict, jumping, or even ring pullups are simple fixes depending on an athlete’s skillset. Also, skin the cats or even pullovers are an option for more advanced athletes.
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The ELFIT Championship Official Leaderboard is live now.Check it out.
This year the Crossfit-licensed event is being programmed by new Technical partner, Underdogs Athletics. Send all questions here.
The Rogue Invitational “Q” begins this week, on August 25. Compete online for a chance to earn your spot against the best CrossFit athletes in the world.
Last year, a minimum of five men and five women qualified out of the “Q” for the in-person competition in October.
The qualifiers received travel stipends and hotel accommodations along with being included in the elite competition.
🎟️ Invitations for the Dubai Fitness Championship are out this week. Thirty men and 30 women will be invited to compete in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on December 8, 2023.
ICYMI: For Krystal-Kate Meacham, judging at the CrossFit Games was a bucket list experience, her week in Madison did not disappoint.
CROSSFIT GAMES
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Was Strength a Weakness at the 2023 Games?
Although all parts of fitness must be elite in order to compete at the CrossFit Games, high levels of strength are often what separate the best from the rest.
When it comes to strength needed at the Games however, is there a cut-off where getting stronger at the expense of other modalities leads to diminishing returns or even becomes a disadvantage?
By looking at the leaderboard results of some of the strongest athletes at the Games this year there are definitely some things that stick out.
Susan Clarke Comes Out of “Retirement” at 64 to Win Sixth CrossFit Games Title
After winning her fifth age-group title at the 2021 CrossFit Games, Susan Clarke thought she was done competing.
“I said it out loud. This is going to be my last year. I’m not going to do it again,” said the 64-year-old Clarke, who has been training at CrossFit West Vancouver in British Columbia for the last decade.
She stuck to her retirement plan.
For a little bit anyway.
But after watching the 2022 CrossFit Games from home, Clarke was “so impressed by the programming and the upping of the skill level for masters athletes” that she started to feel the itch to throw down again.
That being said, the woman who had never placed lower than first at the CrossFit Games wasn’t so sure winning this year was realistic, as she would be the oldest age in the 60-64-year-old division.
What happened next: After taking a year off competition, Clarke finished second in the Open and second in Semifinals, but put it all together at the Games, winning by 50 points over Betsy Vanderburgh. Her performance also included earning six of eight test wins along the way.
A former gymnast, Clarke said she was most proud of the fact that she won the Olympic Total event, as lifting is one area of her game she doesn’t feel has traditionally been as strong as the others.
As she finished the final test of the week, the strongest emotion she felt was “utter relief,” Clarke said, as she had put a lot of pressure on herself to win again, not necessarily for her sake, but for the sake of those who had been part of her journey.
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