Tomorrow is the day of the meet. I created a video going over some rules and a few other details, but who wants to watch me talking about the meet for five or six minutes? There are faster ways to communicate the information.

The doors at CrossFit Oakland will open at 7:30 AM.  When you come in and register, you will receive a card and your tshirt. That card will be where you record your bodyweight, your rack heights, and your opening attempts. At 8:00 AM, we will start weigh-ins based on your Lot Number. At that time, you will be asked for your opening attempts for the lifts. The meet will be held in pounds, so there is no need to remember your openers in kilos. You will also need to go to the rack set up in the front of the room and determine how high you need it to be for your squat and press.  Depending on your lot number and when you arrive, you can do that before or after you weigh-in. Once you have your bodyweight, rack heights, and openers, please return your card to the judges table.

Your opening weights will be used to determine the flight, or group, in which you will be lifting. I am planning to have three flights of 10 to 11 lifters. People with lighter openers will go in the first two flights and people with heavier openers will go in the last flight. The flights will be posted prior to the commencement of the meet, hopefully before the rules briefing.

I am making a small change to the rules regarding the minimum incremental increase. In the rules, it states that squats and deadlifts can be increased by a minimum of 5 pounds per attempt and presses by a minimum of 2.5 pounds. I am changing that so that all the lifts can be incremented by a minimum of 2.5 pounds. For those that would rather take 7.5 pound jumps instead of 10 pound jumps, you can now do so.

The use of ammonia capsules and smelling salts was not addressed in the rules. You are allowed to use these provided you do so off the platform and do not make a mess for others to clean up. Be considerate and everyone will be happy.

Bring your own water bottles. CrossFit Oakland has plenty of water, but they do not have cups. Please bring your own vessels to stay hydrated. If you forget a water bottle, a number of restaurants and the Berkeley Bowl grocery store are within an easy walk. There will not be any food at the meet, but the previously mentioned establishments can help you out. You are also welcome to bring your own food. You can park in CFO’s lot, or along 67th Street. Both are fine.

One final note, if this is your first meet and you are unsure about what to pick for your opening weights, Matt Gary wrote a good article that can help. The short version is, pick a weight for your first attempt that you can do for at least three repetitions. Make sure that you can successfully complete your opener because you cannot chose  a lower weight after that. Build your total with your second attempt and go for your personal record on attempt three.

I will see you there tomorrow.