The Standard - Tuesday, March 5th, 2024

The Standard

We talk about movement standards all the time, and the importance of them. Important in terms of safety of the movement, in terms of the carry over to other movements, in measuring your fitness, and also in fairness.

On the sport side of CrossFit, movement standards exist to create an equal playing field. In class we can accommodate variations of a standard to still hold integrity in the movement, but to account for a limitation that an athlete might have. In Competition, like the CrossFit Open, we can not accommodate for any variations. The standard is the standard.

Movement standards are in place to create fairness, and an equal playing field. For example, I dislocated my shoulder years ago, since then I have chosen not to snatch a 35lb DB because I’m scared of that weight not being in the right position overhead and the possibility of a tweak in my shoulder. The 35lbs DB was never a problem for me, so 24.1 was frustrating. But since 2017 I have gone with 25 lb or less on a DB Snatch workout out of fear, so that’s on me. This weekend if I wanted to RX the workout I had no choice. Just because I’m scared, and worried about my shoulder I don’t get to shortcut any part of that movement, I also don’t get given reps for “almost” or “tried really hard”, I have to earn every single one of those reps. I also don’t have the best jump over the DB when my left leg is leading, which for me meant that 24.1 wasn’t my best, I did not finish the workout. But I did what I could, and I put that 35lb DB over my head, I overcame that fear, and I jumped over that DB. So that’s my win. Now I have done the open more times than any other athlete in our facility, this being my 12th year, and I also co-own the gym, so to also share the ego side of things, when I look at my placing on the leaderboard my first thought is I should have done better, and know it wasn’t my best workout. But I also know did what I could, I did what I had that day, and I know I earned every single one of those reps. I even no repped myself once when I kicked the DB jumping over it.

Craig Howard the owner of Diablo CrossFit in California, which is one the longest standing CrossFit Affiliates, and has also been home to former Games athletes like Alessandra Pichelli, recently made a post which is our photo above. We say this all the time, in fact I even had a conversation this weekend with almost these exact same wording before we even saw this post.

The open, and all competition is about testing our fitness, it’s about being given a workout to do, and doing the work. It’s not about who can come up with the best strategic way to ride the line, or game a workout. Movement standards are not open to interpretation. If a judge has to look at a rep and wonder if it was a rep, it’s not a rep. Please don’t ride the line, leave no doubt in your judges mind.

We also spoke on Saturday about the importance of the movement standards. We pride ourselves on always holding integrity in our facility, we always have. When I use to run UG Series, we didn’t always have athletes podium, but we were always complemented by other affiliates on how well Indestri athletes moved. As an affiliate owner, that means more than ever having an athlete on a podium.

We also have direct connections to CrossFit HQ, Stouty is part of the CrossFit Games on the adaptive side of things, so we don’t ride line, and we don’t ever want to put our affiliate’s reputation on the line. As mentioned on Saturday, which may have sounded harsh, we don’t care what you see online, or what other affiliates or athletes might be getting away with. Standards are in place for a reason, keeping our integrity and uphold those standards, regardless of what other’s do or might get away with, is important to us. We know that might not always seem fair, it’s frustrated us for years, but we can’t control what other athletes do, or what other affiliates allow. We can only control the fact that we uphold the standards.

We have also been trying to throw our name in the ring for an Open announcement since 2019. We would love the opportunity to host one, and bring that experience for our community. So if us harping on movement standards ever comes across as harsh, please know and understand that it comes from a place of love, and integrity and us wanting to pull the very best out of you.

Tuesday, March 5th, 2024

Focus:

Push Press
4 - 4 - 4 - 4 - 4

WOD:

15 - 12 - 9
Pull ups
Burpees

Rest 2 mins

9 - 6 - 3
Pull ups
Burpees

Check back each night at 8pm for the next days WOD .
Contact us: Address: 200 Mountain Rd #3, Collingwood, ON L9Y 4V5 Phone: (705) 444-0006 Follow us on Instagram @crossfit_indestri