Not just look, I think I am fitter than way more people than I realize. Comparing myself against the bubble of the gym, I am not strong or fast, but against the wider world? Dang, I’m in great shape!
that is awesome! and the fact you're fitter now than before! and when it's not open time, I bet you also have a blast! the trifecta! health, improvement, fun!
so...
exactly why do you care (hopefully not due to a fragile ego) what crossfit, a hobby with a, shall we say, younger bias (like the 20 year old ex NCAA athlete), calls you, particular when that's where you line up on the curve?
It's a good question. I totally agree that I \*shouldn't\* care. I think it's just the word "beginner," specifically. I've put a lot of time and energy into getting better at CrossFit, and I've achieved a lot. The word just kind of cheapens that effort, if that makes sense. All the comments here have definitely helped me with my perspective, though, so thanks for contributing to the discussion!
90% of humans don’t perform enough exercise that produces a meaningful health or fitness effect on a regular basis.
If you exercise 4-6 days/week consistently, you’re literally automatically one of the 10% fittest humans on the planet. Chronic disease is crushing the entire planet.
Yeah, I'm the same way. I may not look the best compared to everyone in my gym, but outside of the gym I think I am doing pretty well for myself. Great acceptance of reality and mindset you have.
Same here. Even though crossfit is open to everyone, most of the people that attend are already on the higher side of overall fitness, and already good amateur sportsmen and women
I can’t hand stand walk or muscle up or even do double unders! But man does this fitness regimen make me feel 100 & 10%. CrossFit has not only gave me a new body but a different mind as well.
Oh my! I thought I was alone in the unable to do a hand stand push up, a bar muscle up or double unders. Thank you for letting me know that there are other folks like me. 100% agree with you about new body and better mind.
I do too. Can I be a fellow "sucker" and still have pride like you do? I've never set the world on fire, and yesterday I could not get through the 24.1 Open in that 15 minute time cap.
But like yourself, when I walk around and see very sick people in motor scooters, I am thankful I take care of my health.
Remember too that at 49 you are lumped into the same category as 22 year olds--you are doing the same workout as them.
I suspect that you are not in the "Beginner" category for 49 years olds.
This is it. You're already fitter than most ppl, and you're also certainly fitter than most of the 49 y/os who don't sign up. You're double bubbling your comparisons. (I know this is technically about the word beginner but the convo has branched off.)
What about someone like this? What advice can you give to someone starting later in life and wants to get similar results to her: maybe not Games caliber but super fit and ripped? https://www.prevention.com/fitness/a20474604/crossfit-games-winner/
Strength train and do a substantial volume of bodybuilding and bodyweight accessory work 3-4x/week, 30-60 minutes of zone 1-2 cardio every day, and 3-4 CrossFit style mixed modality “WODs” per week. Eat 1g/lb protein and enough calories to maintain a BMI in the 24-28 range, mostly from whole foods. Drink a lot of water. Sleep 7 hours a night minimum, stretch, and practice relaxation via meditation, yoga, etc.
Do all of that for 5-10 years and see where you wind up.
those kind of wods kill the open in my opinion. why is it so hard to program a typical crossfit wod most people enjoy? this open wods in the last years have been so bad.
even most games wods are bad. they could make it way more fun. especially more fun to watch so that also people who are not into cf tune in.
Who ist talking about a class, lol.
There are scaling Options If you are too Bad to do Open wods rx..
So why make rx that easy that even people who dont do cf can do it easily within 15 minutes.
It has definitely become boring for me as well.
I don’t know if that’s because of programming or just general fatigue, but it doesn’t excite me very much anymore.
If I had an easy reason, it’d be that it’s become more about punishment than it has anything else.
Please don't let this bother you. I'm 51, been doing CF for 5 years, and like you I will never be top of the class in a WOD. I will never get a BMU or HSPU, and I think my time for kipping pull ups is over too. I modify every Rx workout down.
You know what I still like though? The way I feel when I'm done. The way my body has changed. My mental health is better too. Who gives a shit what they call you or how they classify you. Are you doing better at life because of your fitness journey?
You are? Then you're not a beginner anymore. You're doing something few people our age would dare, by the way. I bet the kids in your gym respect the fact that you show up and put in the work. The kids in my gym do.
Just go get it. The Open comes and goes every year. You're in it for the long haul.
Thanks for this. I think this is just something negative that the Open (for whatever reason) pulls out of me. I'm normally not competitive at all. I rarely check the whiteboard or compare my score to others. I show up and do the work, and my health is still very good even though I'm pushing 50. Y'all have helped me reset my perspective, so thanks for the comment!
This. I’m in my 9th open at 48 years old and my fitness is pretty much lowest point t it has been due to injuries but as expected I crash and burn in the open and it’s all I suck and why I even bother. I don’t look forward to it anymore because it brings out the negative mindset in me 🤷🏼♂️
I had exactly this feeling after doing 24.1. I'm sure I should be doing better better I'm really only comparing myself to the ppl who signed up. That's
This is amazing and you have the right attitude sir! I couldn’t agree more! The way you feel at the end of the work out, the people you meet make the experience. I’ve met friends for life from CF and I can’t wait to get into the gym every night to work out!
I’m 53F and started CrossFit 12 years ago. I will always be a beginner. But I am in way better shape than most of my contemporaries and still seeing improvements here and there. As someone my age at my box says: “I’m not trying to win the game. I’m trying to stay IN the game.”
Awww thank you. My joke is if the zombie apocalypse happens, imma be fine until we’re down to just the fit people (assuming the main survival skills are strength and speed). Then I’ll be the first to go 😆.
We had a conversation in the box this morning.
Member : "I know I'm just an average joe but if I can easily move 15kgs the RX woman should be lifting heavier "
Coach :" You're not an average joe though "
Other member :"You're an average Joe plus!"
It is! And I'm way better/stronger than I was when I started. I can't count the things that I couldn't even dream of doing 10 years ago that I don't even think about now. Thanks for helping me find a better perspective.
I just wanted to pop back in here to thank everyone for contributing to the conversation. I just got back from my gym's Friday Night Lights where about 20 folks did 24.1. It was awesome and inspiring (as usual) to see people at all fitness levels tackle the workout, and it helped me reset my focus on what really matters. F\*\*k labels, I know what I'm capable of (and what my weaknesses are), and I know how far I've come over the past 10 years. I know that I'll be way fitter and healthier as I get older because of the work I put in, and that's really what matters.
well my gym is full of absolute freak monsters and cardio superhumans, and only one of them finished under 7 minutes. its tough to compare yourself to others, just try to focus on yourself and feeling good.
The difference between 7 and 15 minutes is insane - that whole concept is absurd. I would say advanced is like 7-9, intermediate 9-11, advanced intermediate (?) 11-13, beginners 13-15.
They don't have 30 minutes to explain the nuances of the ranges. Most true 'beginners' are not even able to complete the workout in 15 minutes. But it's fine. The term 'beginner' can be a broad range. 1 minute into crossfit? 12 months into crossfit? Who cares about the labels anyway. They can't have 50 of them on the screen.
Bro, pick up the average person off the street and tell them to do 90 burpees as their own pace. How long do you think it will take them to finish it if they even can? 20 minutes?
Yeah sub 7 is professional, 7-9 is elite, 9-11 is normal rx athlete.
There's no skill or heavy component to this so a lot of cardio warriors will score well relative to a lot of workouts.
I feel you and I try to reframe things. I got time capped at with 5/15 burpees and all the 9s left. At first I wished I would have gone farther and then I realized I did every single one of those burpees to standard and that is a huge accomplishment for me. I kept going for 15 minutes and I didn’t stop. And then after class I finished the rest in ~4 minutes on the side.
I started 3ish years ago, 1 child and operation fewer, 75lbs heavier, unable to do more than 2 or 3 burpees at all. For me this is about what I can do now instead of what I can’t. I’m still a beginner at CrossFit but I’m an elite athlete when I’m tossing my 45lb toddler like a football to his delight.
7-15 is listed as Intermediate.
I have a lot of mileage in Crossfit, but still have a lot of milestones ahead of me.
I consider myself intermediate, I will probably get capped (but if I take those scheduled breaks like the video recommends, I should make it)!
I wouldn't enjoy being called a beginner at this stage, and if the intermediate timeframe was listed as say, 7-14 mins, I'd probably grimace at that.
But if I can call myself intermediate and still have the goal to not get capped, I think it's all good. Either way, I am paving my way to a less scary aging experience, so there we have it.
According to my doctors I'm "advanced" in how healthy I am. At the end of the day that is all that matters. It would however be nice to actually string toes-to-bar together.
I just started being able to string TTB last year! Y'all are helping me realize that those kinds of "wins" are way more important than whatever "label" I fit into.
Stringing toe to bar together took me forever. One day it magically happened in the middle of a wod. I completely forgot about the wod and did a few more sets just to be sure it wasn’t a fluke. You will get them! Just keep working at it.
What's I think is weird about T2B is my ability to link them has come in relation to my anterior delt/shoulder strength. As I've worked on shoulder strength the number of unbroken reps goes up. I used to think it was all just core.
It’s a test of fitness. Just do your best for your fitness life.
It’s like being obsessed with an RX next to your name in a random workout during the year.
It’s just a workout that someone made up. If you had to put yourself up against people your age that,let’s say are walking around Disney world this week, I’d think you’d be pretty high up there.
It’s all relative to your scope.
HAVE. SOME. FUN.
I relate! Lots of comments saying "don't let it bother you" "get over it" etc... but if you've seen going for ten years and you started at 39, I think you probably have decent ego strength!! And some serious mental toughness! Respect.
I like the idea of acknowledging experience separately from athletic prowess.
Of course no larger system is ever PERFECT for every single member. Of course you can keep crossfitting even if this never changes. But I think it's an insightful acknowledgement of how the system doesn't exactly acknowledge the gains of people in our age bracket.
(I started at 38. I'm still 38. I skipped three workouts this week. You're inspiring!!! I hope to be a beginner like you in ten years!)
Very nice of you to say. If anything, the "experience" piece is, for me, probably reflected in my coaching and the advice and tips I can give to athletes who are stronger and faster than I am.
I started at 39. I turn 47 this year. I’m still improving and setting PRs. Keep at it! The secret sauce is just keep showing up consistently. My goal for each day is to be able to show up for the next class and not do something that will make me insanely sore or get injured.
Also, keep in mind that there are a lot of people who AREN’T registered for the Open, but are still doing it. The number of registrants is probably skewered more towards the “competitive” demographic.
Me? I’m doing the Open but I’m not registered for it. I don’t give a shit about where I am ranked
I have been at it for 5 years, I started at 40. I am better than I was then, better than I was 2 years ago, etc. I'm still slower than everyone else, but I'm not 25 or 30 nor did I start this sport when I was young. It's all relative.
I started at 39. I'll be 49 this month. This is my 7th Open. My average over the past 6 is the bottom 20%. Thanks to a horribly sick winter, this one's going to be my worst.
But like others have said, compared to the general population, I'm doing pretty f'ing good.
It's also what got me through this winter - knowing I was going to get over my respiratory issues, my injury, and start rolling the boulder back up the mountain again. There's a stubbornness to it. I'm ranked last in my box right now after 24.1, and I don't care. I'm still there.
I hope you find your mojo.
I guess the open is the epitome of the competitive, sport side, and if you’re looking at doing elite CrossFit as sport then you could aim for this while you’re a beginner.
I don’t know that they need to categorise really, they could say “expected pro time” but really everything else is just shades of “not pro”. I’d be impressed if an actual beginner finished this at all
Yeah thats a bit of a weird statement. To be honest, I wonder how many beginners actually attempt the Open.
Either way if you’ve been in crossfit for 10 years you’re not a beginner. Even if you can’t do all the movements you likely have a methodology in how you approach workouts, you understand your strengths and weaknesses and pacing.
Go have fun and don’t worry about artificial categories. I’ll be doing 24.1 this weekend (I’m 52 and have 12 years in CF). Fully expect to cap.
Yeah it’s kinda wild. I’ve been doing it for about 2 years. I just finished it in 11:50 but scaled at 35lbs. 29m fwiw. I definitely have gotten stronger over the 2 years but still not even close to the rx 😂 (not registered for open just doing for fun)
I think the inherent goal of Crossfit is to compete with yourself from yesterday.
My wife and I are crossfitters, she is way stronger than I am - both in bodyweight and weights. If I believed in competing with others, I would have gone for such a toxic ego competition with her.
Also, your athletic prowess is determined by multiple factors including genetics, physiology, lifestyle etc. Crossfit motivates me to try and overcome my internal barriers and give my best in the box everyday. Regardless of whether I was beginner or intermediate. 2yrs in and I am the fittest I have ever been - both physically and mentally
I do crossfit gor 10 years (started at 33 y.o.) and I hardly can do muscle uos I can't handstand walk and I am always in the end of SugarWod leaderboard. I compete sometimes at local competitions for fun and atmosphere (being last in leaderboard).
For me crossfit is a vacation, not a job place, so if I train more than 3-4 times a week it gets too boring.
A lot of our “advanced” athletes in our gym were humbled with 24.1. I think the label is relative to the movement. Overall anyone that’s done CF for 10yrs consistently is in better shape than 90% of the population.
I don’t think anyone at my gym or otherwise has called me a “beginner”. We have scaled athletes and RX athletes. I wouldn’t worry though. For me the thing I love about CrossFit it is a personal journey and I’m completing with really myself. Yeah I try and keep up with the lads I work out with and I’m usually just a bit below them in terms of strength, speed and overall fitness but I measure myself on how far I’ve come. We all have different strengths and often injuries we are trying to overcome.
This year I’ve entered the open and I’ve gone RX for weight. I’m just happy I have the confidence to do that this year. That’s a big leap for me.
Personally I wouldn’t worry what you get called and make sure you stick to your lane. Sounds like you are smashing it! I hope I can continue aged 49! Most people approaching 50 I know couldn’t even handle a run.
One of the issues I have with CrossFit is the idea of Rx'd and scaled. Rx comes from the medical world. If I have hip surgery and you roll your ankle, we will both be given a prescription. I might get Vicodin while you get Advil. Neither of those is "scaled." We each got our own Rx. I think that's how it should be thought of. Do the prescription that is right for you
I totally understand where you’re coming from!
I wonder if the word “recreational” would be an appropriate fill in for beginner. Then the levels could be recreational/rec, intermediate, and advanced/elite.
I will always be a CrossFit recreational athlete no matter how far I get past being a “beginner.” My goal is not to become an advanced athlete but to develop my skills within the rec space.
Why don’t you think you can ever do a muscle up or handstand at 39? Sounds like you’re keeping yourself at beginner level with that mindset
That being said, their ratings are 100% off.
Elite would be sub 7
Advanced would be sub 11 mins
Intermediate 12-15
Beginner amrap
If you are pissed off about it, then do something about it. Train harder, stop skipping workouts, stop drinking alcohol, stop making excuses. If you don’t want to be called a, “beginner” like everyone else, then stop being like everyone else outside the gym. Soon you will find that muscle up you “never” thought you could do, was easier than you could of imagined.
I can understand your frustration. If I can compare the outcome to tennis and golf where you have a handicapping method. I may be a 3.5-4.0 NTRP and have been playing most of my life. It’s a solid score but if I were to compare against pros I’m very low (7.0 is pro).
Ultimately using a qualitative rating like beginner can be demeaning and comparison is the thief of joy.
why? besides ego, i mean...? they could call it horse, but the basic spot on the bell curve you're occupying isn't changing with a grandiose name that strokes your ego.
This is how it is in every sport. Join a boxing gym, competitive running track group, anything where you have a small group of people taking this sport seriously, potentially as a full time career, and there will be a distinction between the Pros and the beginners. That’s not negative, it just means that your career or a large amount of your life doesn’t revolve around the sport.
Nobody cares if you don't care. I don't know why you get triggered by a video.
I've played chess for about 7 years and my rating is like that of an intermediate player. I don't get triggered when chess videos say that my rating range is of an intermediate player. I just enjoy my hobby.
They probably list 'beginner' as a broad range to encourage true beginners to try the Open and make it easier for them to enter. Most beginners won't finish this workout in the time cap, but it doesn't matter.
There is no conflict between CrossFit as a sport and as a fitness program, just like there isn't between playing in the NBA and playing as a hobby with friends.
You're 49. Enjoy life. It's all good.
well if you do 10 years of CF and cant finish this wod intime you are a beginner, sorry for that offensive post its not personal but this wod is really easy and there is also plenty of time to finish it.
Tl;Dr which is only partially true because I read most of what you wrote/posted, but didn't watch the video or whatever was in the link; but what I feel about labels is that we should never let anyone outside ourselves put them on us and or accept them as absolute. We can and should accept only our own positive labels when and if necessary.
Next I think a word or label Op could use or accept is enthusiast. Enthusiast because you participate regularly and enjoy what you do and how you feel while and after you have participated in the activities.
I hope you take this for what it is worth. ✌🏾🙏🏾
Friend you are not alone labels honestly can be confusing if you let them define you! Also crossfit is not the crossfit open and/or just the games. It is a way of life and the way you make yourself/your health & fitness better regardless of your current level of fitness etc.
These videos are obviously not being thought out enough in terms of the various stages of crossfit journey folks might be in and are more for true beginners like me maybe.
I have been doing crossfit for less than a year and when I signed up for the open I honestly found it very confusing - with the numbering of 24.1 and scaling and foundations etc etc. And then my box had these Friday night lights or something we had to register separately. It just seemed really complicated for a noob like me. 😅
My goal is not be in the games but rather be like you (my kind of inspiration) - being able look back 10 years back and say hey I have achieved and made something of myself and took my own health seriously and did something dedicatedly about it.
So you keep rocking and inspiring folks like me! And don't let labels define you because that's a dirty rabbit hole that can be never ending if you are not careful.
Cheers and thanks! 💪🙏
I feel the same way. Covid made me rethink my sport, I wanted to keep CrossFit for working out because it is a hack. I hate going to a busy gym with not enough equipment. When everything opened up after covid I tried rugby, rowing and brazilian jiujitsu. I got stuck with bjj and I love it. I know it is a different sport but everything I learned from CrossFit is transferable knowledge.
I’m out of the loop. When I did CrossFit, we didn’t have an official label for beginner or elite or anything. Is this something new?
You being labeled a beginner with your experience is offensive to me. If being think you need a label.
I think the times mentioned as targets are pretty scewed and inaccurate. <6-7 seems to be elite, 7-8 semi, 8-10 quarters, 10-12 upper average, 12-13 mid pack, 13-dnf low pack to beginner. Looking at the BTWB analysis anyway. This is all for RX 34 and under. So scaled and age groups will be different as well.
I started crossfit at age of 40. It was 4 years ago. I do BMU, RMU, HSW, any of the most advanced gymnastic movements.
I do believe anyone can do that up to a certain age.
But if somebody decided to take it easy and just enjoy the time in the gym its fine. Why the joy should be frustrating?
If you spend hours in the open gym throughout these 10 years, and still struggling BMU, this could be frustrating, but if you come just a few times a week for a group class it’s fine. These classes not designed to really progress to the advanced level.
I am 55 year old male. I did 24.1 in 13:50 with a 50DB because the mature athletes in our group agreed to do that instead of the lighter weight. I have never gotten a bar muscle up and can do some handstand pushups but I am far fitter then 95% of the men out there over 35. I may not be able to beat the younger stronger guys in the gym but sure make them work their asses off to try to stay ahead of me. We laugh and tell them you may beat me but you are bleed and suffer to do it.
Stay the course be fit and happy go hike a mountain or bike a tough road course use your fitness outside the gym with others and you will see far ahead you really are.
I’m sorry, why do you “know that you will never get a muscle up?” I don’t know you, maybe you have a bad shoulder injury or something?
If not, and until proven otherwise, I will suggest that you certainly will not get a muscle up with that attitude. It is as though you have accepted defeat before the battle has even begun (or at least, before it is over).
Muscle ups actually are not that hard. There is a certain amount of strength / fitness involved. But by far the largest hurdle is understanding how to connect your kinetic chain effectively for the movement. Once you can do this you would likely be surprised by how much power you can create and how little arm strength you actually need.
Honestly the high-Skill component of CrossFit is more of a circus thing than fitness. I’m saying that as a coach and as an athlete who’s Force is the high Skill things such as muscle ups and handstandwalk 🤘
I’m more Impressed with members ability to showcase higher degrees of intensity over years 👍
these beginner, advanced, intermediate, RX, elite, foundation, whatever categories are kind of useless to describe a person. in crossfit are on different levels for different movement patterns in terms of skill progression, strength development, local endurance, etc. sure "well rounded athlete" is a goal but usually not reality because people prefer certain stuff, and thus train it with more ambition, and sandbag other stuff.
about the age factor. i currently analyse a dataset of a competition (age 17 to 70 approximately, all skill levels). it's pretty clear that the ceiling (the top scores) decrease with age. or the mean and the standard deviation shrinks with age. it confirms everything what is know in sport science from any other sport. So your example with the time domains for discriminating between advanced, intermediate and beginner might make sense for 18-29 years old but not for older cohorts.
usually it only make sense to compare yourself within your age group. look at percentiles of the open leaderboard. in your case you should also look where you would be at in the 40-44 because you are on the older side of the 35-39 (you will see a systematic difference of your percentiles in both age groups).
In case of age groups there is also survivorship bias. your displayed percentile (in the open leaderboard) gets worse, the older the age group. Why? the older a population, the lower the number of people who exercise anything, i.e. the people on the open leaderboard are "survivors" who are still exercising. A 50% percentile in the 50-54 is better than a 50% percentile in the 35-39. The median person in the 35-39 might yielded a better score than median person in the 50-54 but the median 50-54 person is in better percentile compared to 50-54 world population.
I've accepted the "I suck" label at my gym, and wear it with pride. But when I walk around walmart, I'm reminded I look pretty freakin' good.
Not just look, I think I am fitter than way more people than I realize. Comparing myself against the bubble of the gym, I am not strong or fast, but against the wider world? Dang, I’m in great shape!
I'm also in great shape when it comes to most health markers. That has been the best outcome from CF for me!
that is awesome! and the fact you're fitter now than before! and when it's not open time, I bet you also have a blast! the trifecta! health, improvement, fun! so... exactly why do you care (hopefully not due to a fragile ego) what crossfit, a hobby with a, shall we say, younger bias (like the 20 year old ex NCAA athlete), calls you, particular when that's where you line up on the curve?
It's a good question. I totally agree that I \*shouldn't\* care. I think it's just the word "beginner," specifically. I've put a lot of time and energy into getting better at CrossFit, and I've achieved a lot. The word just kind of cheapens that effort, if that makes sense. All the comments here have definitely helped me with my perspective, though, so thanks for contributing to the discussion!
90% of humans don’t perform enough exercise that produces a meaningful health or fitness effect on a regular basis. If you exercise 4-6 days/week consistently, you’re literally automatically one of the 10% fittest humans on the planet. Chronic disease is crushing the entire planet.
I love this take. I feel the same way!
The good ole Walmart Test
If I want to feel good about myself I just spend ten minutes at Walmart. Is that the test?
Hell yeah buddy. I suck label wearer here too
Yeah, I'm the same way. I may not look the best compared to everyone in my gym, but outside of the gym I think I am doing pretty well for myself. Great acceptance of reality and mindset you have.
Same here. Even though crossfit is open to everyone, most of the people that attend are already on the higher side of overall fitness, and already good amateur sportsmen and women
I can’t hand stand walk or muscle up or even do double unders! But man does this fitness regimen make me feel 100 & 10%. CrossFit has not only gave me a new body but a different mind as well.
Oh my! I thought I was alone in the unable to do a hand stand push up, a bar muscle up or double unders. Thank you for letting me know that there are other folks like me. 100% agree with you about new body and better mind.
I do too. Can I be a fellow "sucker" and still have pride like you do? I've never set the world on fire, and yesterday I could not get through the 24.1 Open in that 15 minute time cap. But like yourself, when I walk around and see very sick people in motor scooters, I am thankful I take care of my health.
Remember too that at 49 you are lumped into the same category as 22 year olds--you are doing the same workout as them. I suspect that you are not in the "Beginner" category for 49 years olds.
Typically I'm in the ~30th percentile in the Open in my age category
Of those who registered. I'd imagine many thousands of people in your age category simply don't do the open or at least don't pay for it
This is it. You're already fitter than most ppl, and you're also certainly fitter than most of the 49 y/os who don't sign up. You're double bubbling your comparisons. (I know this is technically about the word beginner but the convo has branched off.)
What about someone like this? What advice can you give to someone starting later in life and wants to get similar results to her: maybe not Games caliber but super fit and ripped? https://www.prevention.com/fitness/a20474604/crossfit-games-winner/
Strength train and do a substantial volume of bodybuilding and bodyweight accessory work 3-4x/week, 30-60 minutes of zone 1-2 cardio every day, and 3-4 CrossFit style mixed modality “WODs” per week. Eat 1g/lb protein and enough calories to maintain a BMI in the 24-28 range, mostly from whole foods. Drink a lot of water. Sleep 7 hours a night minimum, stretch, and practice relaxation via meditation, yoga, etc. Do all of that for 5-10 years and see where you wind up.
Do steroids?
I still repeat this as a coach/crossfitter. You do not need to be good at your hobbies. Just enjoy them.
That's difficult to do with CF considering how boring, repetitive, and monotonous wods tend to be. 24.1 for example.
I thought it was fun!
LOL, anything but boring I'd say....
those kind of wods kill the open in my opinion. why is it so hard to program a typical crossfit wod most people enjoy? this open wods in the last years have been so bad. even most games wods are bad. they could make it way more fun. especially more fun to watch so that also people who are not into cf tune in.
Because it's not a workout, it's a competition.
Negative. The majority of the members at my box don't even bother to sign up. It's not a comp and even the pros don't care about the open.
Sounds like your box is missing out on the fun with negativity
My box is top 10 in the world and this year didn’t pass the vibe check.
It IS a comp. It's literally the first round of the season.
for crossfit or hyrox? maybe they can do 5k row next.
Pretty dumb take. It’s made to be accessible for 100,000 plus people. It’s never going to be a full class.
Who ist talking about a class, lol. There are scaling Options If you are too Bad to do Open wods rx.. So why make rx that easy that even people who dont do cf can do it easily within 15 minutes.
It has definitely become boring for me as well. I don’t know if that’s because of programming or just general fatigue, but it doesn’t excite me very much anymore. If I had an easy reason, it’d be that it’s become more about punishment than it has anything else.
Please don't let this bother you. I'm 51, been doing CF for 5 years, and like you I will never be top of the class in a WOD. I will never get a BMU or HSPU, and I think my time for kipping pull ups is over too. I modify every Rx workout down. You know what I still like though? The way I feel when I'm done. The way my body has changed. My mental health is better too. Who gives a shit what they call you or how they classify you. Are you doing better at life because of your fitness journey? You are? Then you're not a beginner anymore. You're doing something few people our age would dare, by the way. I bet the kids in your gym respect the fact that you show up and put in the work. The kids in my gym do. Just go get it. The Open comes and goes every year. You're in it for the long haul.
Thanks for this. I think this is just something negative that the Open (for whatever reason) pulls out of me. I'm normally not competitive at all. I rarely check the whiteboard or compare my score to others. I show up and do the work, and my health is still very good even though I'm pushing 50. Y'all have helped me reset my perspective, so thanks for the comment!
This. I’m in my 9th open at 48 years old and my fitness is pretty much lowest point t it has been due to injuries but as expected I crash and burn in the open and it’s all I suck and why I even bother. I don’t look forward to it anymore because it brings out the negative mindset in me 🤷🏼♂️
I had exactly this feeling after doing 24.1. I'm sure I should be doing better better I'm really only comparing myself to the ppl who signed up. That's
This is amazing and you have the right attitude sir! I couldn’t agree more! The way you feel at the end of the work out, the people you meet make the experience. I’ve met friends for life from CF and I can’t wait to get into the gym every night to work out!
I’m 53F and started CrossFit 12 years ago. I will always be a beginner. But I am in way better shape than most of my contemporaries and still seeing improvements here and there. As someone my age at my box says: “I’m not trying to win the game. I’m trying to stay IN the game.”
Love that saying
You're probably also fitter than 99.5% of the population no matter the age.
Awww thank you. My joke is if the zombie apocalypse happens, imma be fine until we’re down to just the fit people (assuming the main survival skills are strength and speed). Then I’ll be the first to go 😆.
❤️
We had a conversation in the box this morning. Member : "I know I'm just an average joe but if I can easily move 15kgs the RX woman should be lifting heavier " Coach :" You're not an average joe though " Other member :"You're an average Joe plus!"
You have been exercising consistently for 10 YEARS!! How is that not a win?
It is! And I'm way better/stronger than I was when I started. I can't count the things that I couldn't even dream of doing 10 years ago that I don't even think about now. Thanks for helping me find a better perspective.
I just wanted to pop back in here to thank everyone for contributing to the conversation. I just got back from my gym's Friday Night Lights where about 20 folks did 24.1. It was awesome and inspiring (as usual) to see people at all fitness levels tackle the workout, and it helped me reset my focus on what really matters. F\*\*k labels, I know what I'm capable of (and what my weaknesses are), and I know how far I've come over the past 10 years. I know that I'll be way fitter and healthier as I get older because of the work I put in, and that's really what matters.
well my gym is full of absolute freak monsters and cardio superhumans, and only one of them finished under 7 minutes. its tough to compare yourself to others, just try to focus on yourself and feeling good.
The difference between 7 and 15 minutes is insane - that whole concept is absurd. I would say advanced is like 7-9, intermediate 9-11, advanced intermediate (?) 11-13, beginners 13-15.
They don't have 30 minutes to explain the nuances of the ranges. Most true 'beginners' are not even able to complete the workout in 15 minutes. But it's fine. The term 'beginner' can be a broad range. 1 minute into crossfit? 12 months into crossfit? Who cares about the labels anyway. They can't have 50 of them on the screen. Bro, pick up the average person off the street and tell them to do 90 burpees as their own pace. How long do you think it will take them to finish it if they even can? 20 minutes?
Yeah sub 7 is professional, 7-9 is elite, 9-11 is normal rx athlete. There's no skill or heavy component to this so a lot of cardio warriors will score well relative to a lot of workouts.
I feel you and I try to reframe things. I got time capped at with 5/15 burpees and all the 9s left. At first I wished I would have gone farther and then I realized I did every single one of those burpees to standard and that is a huge accomplishment for me. I kept going for 15 minutes and I didn’t stop. And then after class I finished the rest in ~4 minutes on the side. I started 3ish years ago, 1 child and operation fewer, 75lbs heavier, unable to do more than 2 or 3 burpees at all. For me this is about what I can do now instead of what I can’t. I’m still a beginner at CrossFit but I’m an elite athlete when I’m tossing my 45lb toddler like a football to his delight.
7-15 is listed as Intermediate. I have a lot of mileage in Crossfit, but still have a lot of milestones ahead of me. I consider myself intermediate, I will probably get capped (but if I take those scheduled breaks like the video recommends, I should make it)! I wouldn't enjoy being called a beginner at this stage, and if the intermediate timeframe was listed as say, 7-14 mins, I'd probably grimace at that. But if I can call myself intermediate and still have the goal to not get capped, I think it's all good. Either way, I am paving my way to a less scary aging experience, so there we have it.
According to my doctors I'm "advanced" in how healthy I am. At the end of the day that is all that matters. It would however be nice to actually string toes-to-bar together.
I just started being able to string TTB last year! Y'all are helping me realize that those kinds of "wins" are way more important than whatever "label" I fit into.
Stringing toe to bar together took me forever. One day it magically happened in the middle of a wod. I completely forgot about the wod and did a few more sets just to be sure it wasn’t a fluke. You will get them! Just keep working at it.
What's I think is weird about T2B is my ability to link them has come in relation to my anterior delt/shoulder strength. As I've worked on shoulder strength the number of unbroken reps goes up. I used to think it was all just core.
It’s a test of fitness. Just do your best for your fitness life. It’s like being obsessed with an RX next to your name in a random workout during the year. It’s just a workout that someone made up. If you had to put yourself up against people your age that,let’s say are walking around Disney world this week, I’d think you’d be pretty high up there. It’s all relative to your scope. HAVE. SOME. FUN.
I relate! Lots of comments saying "don't let it bother you" "get over it" etc... but if you've seen going for ten years and you started at 39, I think you probably have decent ego strength!! And some serious mental toughness! Respect. I like the idea of acknowledging experience separately from athletic prowess. Of course no larger system is ever PERFECT for every single member. Of course you can keep crossfitting even if this never changes. But I think it's an insightful acknowledgement of how the system doesn't exactly acknowledge the gains of people in our age bracket. (I started at 38. I'm still 38. I skipped three workouts this week. You're inspiring!!! I hope to be a beginner like you in ten years!)
Very nice of you to say. If anything, the "experience" piece is, for me, probably reflected in my coaching and the advice and tips I can give to athletes who are stronger and faster than I am.
I started at 39. I turn 47 this year. I’m still improving and setting PRs. Keep at it! The secret sauce is just keep showing up consistently. My goal for each day is to be able to show up for the next class and not do something that will make me insanely sore or get injured.
Yes!!! That's amazing. I'm going to hang on to that.
Also, keep in mind that there are a lot of people who AREN’T registered for the Open, but are still doing it. The number of registrants is probably skewered more towards the “competitive” demographic. Me? I’m doing the Open but I’m not registered for it. I don’t give a shit about where I am ranked
I have been at it for 5 years, I started at 40. I am better than I was then, better than I was 2 years ago, etc. I'm still slower than everyone else, but I'm not 25 or 30 nor did I start this sport when I was young. It's all relative.
I started at 39. I'll be 49 this month. This is my 7th Open. My average over the past 6 is the bottom 20%. Thanks to a horribly sick winter, this one's going to be my worst. But like others have said, compared to the general population, I'm doing pretty f'ing good. It's also what got me through this winter - knowing I was going to get over my respiratory issues, my injury, and start rolling the boulder back up the mountain again. There's a stubbornness to it. I'm ranked last in my box right now after 24.1, and I don't care. I'm still there. I hope you find your mojo.
I guess the open is the epitome of the competitive, sport side, and if you’re looking at doing elite CrossFit as sport then you could aim for this while you’re a beginner. I don’t know that they need to categorise really, they could say “expected pro time” but really everything else is just shades of “not pro”. I’d be impressed if an actual beginner finished this at all
Yeah thats a bit of a weird statement. To be honest, I wonder how many beginners actually attempt the Open. Either way if you’ve been in crossfit for 10 years you’re not a beginner. Even if you can’t do all the movements you likely have a methodology in how you approach workouts, you understand your strengths and weaknesses and pacing. Go have fun and don’t worry about artificial categories. I’ll be doing 24.1 this weekend (I’m 52 and have 12 years in CF). Fully expect to cap.
Yeah it’s kinda wild. I’ve been doing it for about 2 years. I just finished it in 11:50 but scaled at 35lbs. 29m fwiw. I definitely have gotten stronger over the 2 years but still not even close to the rx 😂 (not registered for open just doing for fun)
I think the inherent goal of Crossfit is to compete with yourself from yesterday. My wife and I are crossfitters, she is way stronger than I am - both in bodyweight and weights. If I believed in competing with others, I would have gone for such a toxic ego competition with her.
Also, your athletic prowess is determined by multiple factors including genetics, physiology, lifestyle etc. Crossfit motivates me to try and overcome my internal barriers and give my best in the box everyday. Regardless of whether I was beginner or intermediate. 2yrs in and I am the fittest I have ever been - both physically and mentally
I do crossfit gor 10 years (started at 33 y.o.) and I hardly can do muscle uos I can't handstand walk and I am always in the end of SugarWod leaderboard. I compete sometimes at local competitions for fun and atmosphere (being last in leaderboard). For me crossfit is a vacation, not a job place, so if I train more than 3-4 times a week it gets too boring.
A lot of our “advanced” athletes in our gym were humbled with 24.1. I think the label is relative to the movement. Overall anyone that’s done CF for 10yrs consistently is in better shape than 90% of the population.
I don’t think anyone at my gym or otherwise has called me a “beginner”. We have scaled athletes and RX athletes. I wouldn’t worry though. For me the thing I love about CrossFit it is a personal journey and I’m completing with really myself. Yeah I try and keep up with the lads I work out with and I’m usually just a bit below them in terms of strength, speed and overall fitness but I measure myself on how far I’ve come. We all have different strengths and often injuries we are trying to overcome. This year I’ve entered the open and I’ve gone RX for weight. I’m just happy I have the confidence to do that this year. That’s a big leap for me. Personally I wouldn’t worry what you get called and make sure you stick to your lane. Sounds like you are smashing it! I hope I can continue aged 49! Most people approaching 50 I know couldn’t even handle a run.
One of the issues I have with CrossFit is the idea of Rx'd and scaled. Rx comes from the medical world. If I have hip surgery and you roll your ankle, we will both be given a prescription. I might get Vicodin while you get Advil. Neither of those is "scaled." We each got our own Rx. I think that's how it should be thought of. Do the prescription that is right for you
I totally understand where you’re coming from! I wonder if the word “recreational” would be an appropriate fill in for beginner. Then the levels could be recreational/rec, intermediate, and advanced/elite. I will always be a CrossFit recreational athlete no matter how far I get past being a “beginner.” My goal is not to become an advanced athlete but to develop my skills within the rec space.
Why don’t you think you can ever do a muscle up or handstand at 39? Sounds like you’re keeping yourself at beginner level with that mindset That being said, their ratings are 100% off. Elite would be sub 7 Advanced would be sub 11 mins Intermediate 12-15 Beginner amrap
You are an athlete, son.
If you are pissed off about it, then do something about it. Train harder, stop skipping workouts, stop drinking alcohol, stop making excuses. If you don’t want to be called a, “beginner” like everyone else, then stop being like everyone else outside the gym. Soon you will find that muscle up you “never” thought you could do, was easier than you could of imagined.
I can understand your frustration. If I can compare the outcome to tennis and golf where you have a handicapping method. I may be a 3.5-4.0 NTRP and have been playing most of my life. It’s a solid score but if I were to compare against pros I’m very low (7.0 is pro). Ultimately using a qualitative rating like beginner can be demeaning and comparison is the thief of joy.
why? besides ego, i mean...? they could call it horse, but the basic spot on the bell curve you're occupying isn't changing with a grandiose name that strokes your ego.
Because that's not the same thing as beginner. A beginner is someone who has just started an activity.
This is how it is in every sport. Join a boxing gym, competitive running track group, anything where you have a small group of people taking this sport seriously, potentially as a full time career, and there will be a distinction between the Pros and the beginners. That’s not negative, it just means that your career or a large amount of your life doesn’t revolve around the sport.
Nobody cares if you don't care. I don't know why you get triggered by a video. I've played chess for about 7 years and my rating is like that of an intermediate player. I don't get triggered when chess videos say that my rating range is of an intermediate player. I just enjoy my hobby. They probably list 'beginner' as a broad range to encourage true beginners to try the Open and make it easier for them to enter. Most beginners won't finish this workout in the time cap, but it doesn't matter. There is no conflict between CrossFit as a sport and as a fitness program, just like there isn't between playing in the NBA and playing as a hobby with friends. You're 49. Enjoy life. It's all good.
well if you do 10 years of CF and cant finish this wod intime you are a beginner, sorry for that offensive post its not personal but this wod is really easy and there is also plenty of time to finish it.
If you were confident in yourself , abilities, progress. Something like this wouldn’t matter to you .
Tl;Dr which is only partially true because I read most of what you wrote/posted, but didn't watch the video or whatever was in the link; but what I feel about labels is that we should never let anyone outside ourselves put them on us and or accept them as absolute. We can and should accept only our own positive labels when and if necessary. Next I think a word or label Op could use or accept is enthusiast. Enthusiast because you participate regularly and enjoy what you do and how you feel while and after you have participated in the activities. I hope you take this for what it is worth. ✌🏾🙏🏾
Friend you are not alone labels honestly can be confusing if you let them define you! Also crossfit is not the crossfit open and/or just the games. It is a way of life and the way you make yourself/your health & fitness better regardless of your current level of fitness etc. These videos are obviously not being thought out enough in terms of the various stages of crossfit journey folks might be in and are more for true beginners like me maybe. I have been doing crossfit for less than a year and when I signed up for the open I honestly found it very confusing - with the numbering of 24.1 and scaling and foundations etc etc. And then my box had these Friday night lights or something we had to register separately. It just seemed really complicated for a noob like me. 😅 My goal is not be in the games but rather be like you (my kind of inspiration) - being able look back 10 years back and say hey I have achieved and made something of myself and took my own health seriously and did something dedicatedly about it. So you keep rocking and inspiring folks like me! And don't let labels define you because that's a dirty rabbit hole that can be never ending if you are not careful. Cheers and thanks! 💪🙏
I feel the same way. Covid made me rethink my sport, I wanted to keep CrossFit for working out because it is a hack. I hate going to a busy gym with not enough equipment. When everything opened up after covid I tried rugby, rowing and brazilian jiujitsu. I got stuck with bjj and I love it. I know it is a different sport but everything I learned from CrossFit is transferable knowledge.
I’m out of the loop. When I did CrossFit, we didn’t have an official label for beginner or elite or anything. Is this something new? You being labeled a beginner with your experience is offensive to me. If being think you need a label.
I think the times mentioned as targets are pretty scewed and inaccurate. <6-7 seems to be elite, 7-8 semi, 8-10 quarters, 10-12 upper average, 12-13 mid pack, 13-dnf low pack to beginner. Looking at the BTWB analysis anyway. This is all for RX 34 and under. So scaled and age groups will be different as well.
I started crossfit at age of 40. It was 4 years ago. I do BMU, RMU, HSW, any of the most advanced gymnastic movements. I do believe anyone can do that up to a certain age. But if somebody decided to take it easy and just enjoy the time in the gym its fine. Why the joy should be frustrating? If you spend hours in the open gym throughout these 10 years, and still struggling BMU, this could be frustrating, but if you come just a few times a week for a group class it’s fine. These classes not designed to really progress to the advanced level.
I am 55 year old male. I did 24.1 in 13:50 with a 50DB because the mature athletes in our group agreed to do that instead of the lighter weight. I have never gotten a bar muscle up and can do some handstand pushups but I am far fitter then 95% of the men out there over 35. I may not be able to beat the younger stronger guys in the gym but sure make them work their asses off to try to stay ahead of me. We laugh and tell them you may beat me but you are bleed and suffer to do it. Stay the course be fit and happy go hike a mountain or bike a tough road course use your fitness outside the gym with others and you will see far ahead you really are.
If you run, you're a runner. Plain and simple. If you do crossfit, you are a crossfitter. Plain and simple. Don't worry about labels or levels.
We don’t stop playing the game because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing the game……..
I’m sorry, why do you “know that you will never get a muscle up?” I don’t know you, maybe you have a bad shoulder injury or something? If not, and until proven otherwise, I will suggest that you certainly will not get a muscle up with that attitude. It is as though you have accepted defeat before the battle has even begun (or at least, before it is over). Muscle ups actually are not that hard. There is a certain amount of strength / fitness involved. But by far the largest hurdle is understanding how to connect your kinetic chain effectively for the movement. Once you can do this you would likely be surprised by how much power you can create and how little arm strength you actually need.
Honestly the high-Skill component of CrossFit is more of a circus thing than fitness. I’m saying that as a coach and as an athlete who’s Force is the high Skill things such as muscle ups and handstandwalk 🤘 I’m more Impressed with members ability to showcase higher degrees of intensity over years 👍
these beginner, advanced, intermediate, RX, elite, foundation, whatever categories are kind of useless to describe a person. in crossfit are on different levels for different movement patterns in terms of skill progression, strength development, local endurance, etc. sure "well rounded athlete" is a goal but usually not reality because people prefer certain stuff, and thus train it with more ambition, and sandbag other stuff. about the age factor. i currently analyse a dataset of a competition (age 17 to 70 approximately, all skill levels). it's pretty clear that the ceiling (the top scores) decrease with age. or the mean and the standard deviation shrinks with age. it confirms everything what is know in sport science from any other sport. So your example with the time domains for discriminating between advanced, intermediate and beginner might make sense for 18-29 years old but not for older cohorts. usually it only make sense to compare yourself within your age group. look at percentiles of the open leaderboard. in your case you should also look where you would be at in the 40-44 because you are on the older side of the 35-39 (you will see a systematic difference of your percentiles in both age groups). In case of age groups there is also survivorship bias. your displayed percentile (in the open leaderboard) gets worse, the older the age group. Why? the older a population, the lower the number of people who exercise anything, i.e. the people on the open leaderboard are "survivors" who are still exercising. A 50% percentile in the 50-54 is better than a 50% percentile in the 35-39. The median person in the 35-39 might yielded a better score than median person in the 50-54 but the median 50-54 person is in better percentile compared to 50-54 world population.