The 2014 Women's Crossfit world champion, Kara Webb, tells us what's involved in preparing an assault on this unique sporting event.

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Aside from the countless improvements gained from your fitness journey so far, there is another dimension to Crossfit – and that’s the Crosfit Games. The Games bring together athletes from around the planet to decide the World’s Fittest Man and Woman. Fancy putting yourself to the test? That process all begins with The Open. The Open is your chance to measure yourself against the very best in the game. If you make the top 30, you get to compete at the Regionals in Wollongong. The very best there get to represent Australia at the World Crossfit Games in the US.

BIG PICTURE

“The 2015 Reebok Crossfit Games season begins with the online Open. Anyone can sign up to compete in five workouts over five weeks and post their scores online. Last year, the Open reached more than 209,000 athletes from around the world.

“You can make as many attempts at The Open workout as you please. Your only limit is time: you have four days to complete the week’s workout and submit your best score to the Games site."

WHY COMPETE?

“It’s important to see that this is more about competing against ourselves, and measuring our progress against the world average. It’s a way to come together as an international community and do things that maybe we’ve never done before with our friends and family.

“Competition is only scary if you make it scary. People are sometimes overwhelmed by it as a result of their own fear of failure, judgement or disappointment. But it truly is fun if you can see it for what it really is. And often we find we can do things in a competitive environment that we struggle to achieve in our everyday training, such as getting a muscle-up for the first time or lifting a weight you never thought possible. Training is about practising our skills and developing them, while competition is about testing with the support and cheers of those around you. Adrenalin helps, too!”

SIGNING UP

“Start by registering online at games.crossfit.com. For US$20 you can compete against the rest of the world. See if your gym is making an event out of it and get excited to throw down against your friends.”

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GEARING UP

“How you approach your training around The Opens depends on your own individual goals. For me, I have my sights set on bigger things – the Games! So it’s important that I utilise those five weeks as hard training weeks and don’t save myself for just the one workout. I could miss a lot of opportunities in that much time. If you are on the cusp of qualifying for a very limited 30 spots at the Regionals, then maybe you’d look at not overloading the body with too much volume during the week and resting the day before you complete The Open's workout. If you are just doing it for some fun and to test yourself out, but have no intention of being a competitive athlete, then I would suggest you continue as normal not knowing what workout will be released. Eat well, drink heaps of water and probably rest the day before you do it. But don’t miss out on your regular training for one workout!

“The workout will be released on a Friday morning here in Australia. It’s announced live on the Games' website and will then be posted on their website and social media outlets. You are then responsible for logging your result before the cut-off time and submitting it for either validation by your registered affiliate, or alternatively you can post a video and have CrossFit HQ validate the standards for you.

"At the end of the cut-off period for score submissions, everyone will be ranked in country and worldwide categories. This ranking will of course change over the five weeks as you are testing across multiple domains.

“And that’s it! Fire up, all you CrossFitters! Competition is fun. Give it a crack.”