[cs_content][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][x_creative_cta padding="25px 25px 25px 25px" text="Click Here<br>To Register for the 2017 CrossFit Open!" font_size="36px" icon="play" icon_size="48px" animation="slide-top" link="https://games.crossfit.com" color="" bg_color="" bg_color_hover=""][x_accordion][x_accordion_item title="What is the CrossFit Open?" open="false"]The 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games season begins with the online Open. Compete with hundreds of thousands of athletes in five workouts over five weeks. Do it for fun, our affiliate family, fitness or to reach regionals and fight for a chance to make it to the CrossFit Games. You can either perform the Open workout at CrossFit South Bend, where you will be judged in person, or you can film your full performance and upload it to YouTube or another video-sharing site. The video will be displayed alongside your score so other CrossFit athletes can be your judge. You are free to make as many attempts at the Open workout as you please. Your only limit is time. Check out the schedule below.

STAGE 1: THE OPEN FIVE WEEKS | FEB. 23 - MARCH 27

17.1: Feb. 23 - 27 17.2: March 2 - 6 17.3: March 9 - 13 17.4: March 16 - 20 17.5: March 23 - 27 Registration for the Open begins Jan. 12, 2017. The Open is the first stage of the CrossFit Games season and the largest community event of the year. Every year, hundreds of thousands of athletes come together to compete in the worldwide, online competition. Anyone aged 14 or older can compete in the Open. All you have to do is sign up at Games.CrossFit.com and log your score each week. Workouts are released on Thursdays at 5 p.m. PT, and athletes have four days to complete the workout for the week and submit their score. Scores are due before 5 p.m. PT the following Monday. Complete the workouts at a CrossFit affiliate with a judge, or film your effort from anywhere in the world and submit a link as proof. Since 2015, the Open has offered a scaled option in addition to the prescribed workout. This option makes the all-inclusive event even more accessible to the masses. At the end of five weeks, the fittest move on to the next stages of competition: The Regionals and The Online Qualifier. You can see all Open workouts here. Read on to hear more about scaled and Rx’d divisions.[/x_accordion_item][x_accordion_item title="Is the CrossFit Open for Everyone?" open="false"]Like most CrossFitters, I enjoy the Open quite a bit. Its a fun event for the entire community to participate in, and with the addition of a scaled division this year, I am encouraging more people than ever to participate in the open. Reintroducing the idea of physical competition to someone often evokes a myriad responses and emotions they probably haven’t felt for awhile. We keep encouraging though, because we know the thrill that waits on the other side of diving into the Open. Here are a few reasons I encourage you to do the same: 1. Yes, You Are Good Enough. Even if you cannot do the exact prescribed weight of any or most of the Open workouts, you will most likely surprise yourself with what you are able to pull off, and even if you can’t, you can still skip back and forth between Rx’d and Scaled wods this year. The Open is about calling on the best in yourself no matter your current level. Most likely you are physically stronger than your mind lets you believe. 2. It Gets You Competing Again. Many of us competed as kids whether on an organized team or just racing siblings to the car. Some of you may have competed in college. When we become adults, we often feel like we need to retire that side of us. Sure, we compete for jobs and accounts and other “grown up” things, but more often than not, we have forgotten the thrill of physical competition. We may not be a win-at-all cost type – and this certainly is not the only kind of competitor – but there is something about putting yourself on the line that sparks inspiration. As adults, we suddenly believe that we are not allowed to fail at anything especially things that are supposed to be fun, so we avoid the risk of putting ourselves out there. Without that risk, we might not experience the biggest thrills. 3. It Gives You an Appreciation for the best During the Open workouts, you get a rare opportunity to do the same exact workouts during the same week as the best CrossFitters in the world. If you are a fan of the top CrossFit athletes, it’s exciting to match your stats to theirs – until the stats start rolling in. It’s one thing to be stoked you finally hit fifty double unders in a row and quite another to find out that not only can the top athletes do way more, they have figured out ways to do it faster and more efficiently. Yay, we personally smashed a prescribed workout, until you see the times or the number of rounds at the top of the leader board. The progression of the sport of fitness has grown to superhuman levels. Seeing their scores miles above mine only deepens my appreciation for their dedication, skill, and strength. 4. It’s Fun. No, really, it is. At our gym, we dedicate every Friday night to the Open workouts for all registered members. We assign heats, we print score sheets, we assign counters – we make it a big deal. But we also keep it fun. You just can’t recreate the atmosphere you have during these Open wods during a regular class. 5. It helps you set goals for the next year Rallying around the open each year gives you something to look forward to, something to keep your training and nutrition on point from year to year. If you have nothing you are training for, no goals in mind, then why even bother? Even if you don’t intend on doing the Open, I believe competition, in some form or another is incredibly important. Get out there, test your mettle. 6. You get some sweet ass pictures of yourself. Everyone loves cool pictures, we have an awesome photographer come out and take sweet pictures of you doing cool shit. ———— You’ll never know if what I’m writing is true unless you’re willing to throw your name up on that leader board, too, and go for it. Be open to exploring the best you have to offer right now, in this moment. More often than not, you’ll surprise yourself. And there’s no time like the present to find out. So get out there and register on our team for the Open.[/x_accordion_item][x_accordion_item title="Rx'd, Scaled...What division am I in?" open="false"]So these past few years are a little different. The early years, they had an RX’d only division, meaning, if the workout was… 3 rounds 10 thrusters 10 chest to bar pull ups You would do your thrusters, and if you couldn’t do your chest to bar pull ups…that was the end of your journey. The past couple years have changed things quite a bit with a scaled division. So here is the question. What division should I compete in? Well, seeing as how you can move between scaled and Rx’d workouts on a workout to workout basis. Whichever wod scaling you feel suits your goals for that particular workout. Click here to check out all Rx'd and Scaled workouts from the prior years Remember, the lowest Rx’d score, still beats out the highest scaled score If your goals are to keep a higher ranking  overall, and lets say the workout is 10 minutes 10 chest to bar pull ups 10 overhead squats You’d do best to get in as many CTB as possible and dig through it… But if you just want to get a good workout in, and ranking is a secondary consideration for you, do the scaled version, assuming it would be lighter weight, and scaled back chin over the bar pull ups. Afraid you won’t be able to perform the scaled wods? If you are afraid you won’t be able to even perform the scaled workout as written for a score. You’ll have one week to make that decision to sign up. Typically you can still sign up for the open before the first weeks wod score submission deadline. So do I really have to sign up? to do the workouts? If you have an open gym membership you can come in and do them on your own time, if you want to compete in Friday Night Lights, or get in on a judged time slot - you have to be signed up. [/x_accordion_item][x_accordion_item title="How do I register for the Open?" open="false"]All Information pertaining to the CrossFit Open can be found by clicking here Step 1 Register:Create an account by clicking here and clicking “Create and account”  If you have an account from last year, you should be able to use those credentials to login. Step 2 Click “sign up as an individual” and sign up! Step 3 Click “Join an affiliate/team” and find CrossFit South Bend![/x_accordion_item][x_accordion_item title="Need some skill practice?" open="false"]Each year as the Open draws closer we get a lot of inquiries asking for help on (insert movement here.) Could be toes to bar, snatches, chest to bar, butterfly pull ups, muscle ups, etc etc. If you want to really get some work in on something, Schedule a personal training session with a coach.   Check out our personal training by clicking here[/x_accordion_item][/x_accordion][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][/cs_content]