Tube of the Week: Crossfit Special

The first stage of the CrossFit Games is The Open, which runs for five consecutive weeks. Each week, a "workout" is proscribed. Athletes must complete the workout within the week and their performances are then ranked. If they finish in the top 48 for their Crossfit region after the five weeks of The Open, they're invited to The Regionals, and from there they can qualify for the ultimate event, The Games.

It really is an Open competition. There's no seeding, no automatic qualification for the top 10 from last year. Nothing. Each new year starts with a completely clean slate and whole new set of workouts. To defend her title, 2013 champion Samantha Briggs must first do the workouts and submit her scores like everybody else.

As the Crossfit website explains: No test, regardless of its lofty claims, can grant legitimate title to the best without first providing access to all. The Open is a truly "open" competition. Anyone from anywhere can participate.

The name of each workout is "14" (for the year) .1, .2, .3 etc. for the week. So, the workout for week two of this year's Open was "14.2", week three "14.3" and so on.

Every Open workout needs to be validated to count. Competitors will have two options to validate their performances. They can work out at a local affiliate, where they will be judged in person, or they can submit video evidence of their performance to the entire community. There is no limit to the number of attempts an athlete can make, provided the score is submitted prior to the close of each week.

Today, our Tube of the Week Crossfit Special looks at the best performances from weeks two and three, workouts 14.2 and 14.3. Why? Well, first of all, at the time of writing, these were the two most recently completed (at the time of publication the fifth and last week will be coming to a close). And secondly, it just so happens that the best in the world for those workouts were two of FMS' favourite CrossFitters.


14.2 CAMILLE LE BLANC-BAZINET

Last seen on FMS in our Hot and Hard 100 Countdown (see #53), the very gorgeous Camille had already lost out to Talayna Fortunato in a head-to-head workout battle earlier in the week, her defeat blamed on her feeling a little under the weather. However, Camille recovered and, as the clips shows, returned to record not just a better time, but the best time in the world for 14.2 with her second attempt.

You can check the exact specifications for each workout, including this one, on The Games website, but essentially it's squats followed by pull-ups. Two rounds of 10 reps for each in the first three minutes, then 12 reps for the next three, 14 for the three after that and so on until the athlete fails to do two rounds of each exercise in a three-minute period. Camille performs a world-beating 404 reps by the time she fails.

Just watching will probably leave you breathless...




14.3 DANIELLE SIDELL

FMS' Crossfit correspondent dubbed ex-figure competitor Danielle his 'One to Watch in 2014', and clearly he knows what he's talking about. She premiered on FMS in January (see Swells Digs) where we noted it would be our pleasure to take our correspondent's advice and "watch" Danielle, who at 5'10" (1.78m) is a proper power Amazon.

14.3 was a combination of deadlifts and box jumps with an eight-minute time limit. 15 box jumps every time, but the deadlifts not only increase in number by five for each new set, the weight ALSO increases each time. So in set one Danielle is deadlifting 95lbs (43kg) for ten reps, but by the fourth set she's lifting 185lbs (84kg) for 25.




Phew!

And in case you're wondering who was the world's best for 14.1, and also, incidentally, the number 1 ranked CrossFitter overall at the time of writing (ie. after the first three workouts had all been completed), here is a clue.



Follow the Leaderboard on The Games Website

Enjoy!

Dedicated with thanks to Aiden