CrossFit® fans and Regional competitors get ready. Dave Castro has announced one of the first hints for this year’s CrossFit Regionals competition, which are set to begin May 18th and extend through June 3rd.
Every year, Castro drops a string of hints in lead up to the CrossFit Open, Regionals, and the Reebok CrossFit Games. Yesterday, we got another (possibly the first) hint for the 2018 CrossFit Regionals contest. The hint comes in the form of a handstand obstacle course.
In his video, the athlete (Lexi Beal) handstand walks up a ramp, which is often called a cheese mat in gymnastics, and then down a backside mini set of steps. Castro writes in his video’s description, “Coming soon to a Regional near you…Teams and individuals you have been warned. (Available for purchase at stuff.crossfit.com) -demo athlete @lexibeal”
Check it out below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiAldu2lbNC/
This event looks fun, but it could be problematic for the athletes and gyms that don’t have the right equipment, aka this cheese mat variation. If you want to practice these and don’t have a cheese block available or a gymnastics gym close (with open tumbling hours), then there are some ways to work around this.
From the looks of it, you could stack plates to get the step feature, and then work on something like a loading dock [or any ramp-like surface] to get the slightly elevated ramp. They may not be connected, but it’s one way to get the work in.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen handstand obstacle courses in formal CrossFit competition. For example, at the 2017 CrossFit Invitational athletes competed in a 2-minute time capped event that entailed handstands walking over plates and around a zig-zag course. Then, in an interview after the Invitational event Castro told Rory McKernan, “I can guarantee you’ll see more of these [handstand walk courses] in the future.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbGk2iLgg11/
Well, I guess we can’t really say we didn’t see this one coming.
Feature image from @thedavecastro Instagram page.
