An Unexpected Victory
“When WOD 12.3 came out, the first thing I saw was the 18 minutes. I wouldn’t say 18 minutes is a strength, but pretty much all the exercises were, especially the box jumps”, says Doug Oberbeck who came out on top of the Latin America Leaderboard for workout 12.3 with an amazing 447 reps.
His 12 rounds, plus 15 Box Jumps were even enough to break the undefeated Open stretch for Peruvian Orlando Trejo who fell 15 box jumps short of Oberbeck. Having completed 115 burpees in 12.1 (57th spot for Latin America) and 76 Snatches on 12.2 (6th in Latin America), this 1st place finish in 12.3 has put him at a comfortable 7th place on the Regional Leaderboard.
A Full-time CrossFitter
Oberbeck, 25, has been CrossFitting for about two and a half years. He is a full time CrossFit coach who works and trains between CrossFit Cali and CrossFit Bogota. “Luckily for me, I live and work at a CrossFit gym, so I can pretty much workout and rest as I like,” he says.
Unfortunately for Oberbeck, he qualified for the 2011 Latin American Regionals in 5th place, but blew out his shoulder a few weeks before Regionals and got knocked out of the competition. He underwent surgery last October and has finally completed his four months of rehab. By coincidence, Oberbeck had done a 15-minute AMRAP the night before Workout 12.3 was released of 5 handstand push-ups, 10 med ball cleans, and 15 box jumps, so he was rather warm and ready to go.
He completed Open Workout 12.3 immediately after it was released and posted his impressive score about an hour afterward. “I felt good being No. 1 in the WOD for Latin America, especially with such good competitors this year representing Latin America. I was definitely happy to see my name on the world Leaderboard also, even though it was somewhat short-lived,” he says.
Oberbeck´s athletic background includes competitive basketball and volleyball. He even worked for the University of Missouri men’s basketball team for three years. “I always considered myself in pretty peak shape, until I found CrossFit,” he says. “I’ve really never been in better shape in my life."
Applying CrossFit to New Fields
He is also grateful CrossFit brought him to South America and gave him a way to sustain himself while working for CrossFit Bogota. “Mentally I think CrossFit is a great concept to apply not only to working out, but anything else you do in life. If short, functional, constantly varied workouts work so well to change someone’s physical shape, why wouldn’t it work for studying for an exam in college, learning a new language, writing a report, etc.,” he says.
Oberbeck is currently working out once or twice a day with one or two days rest per week. He says he is focused on the 2012 season. He has put emphasis on improving his nutrition and has seen his strength gone up. “I’m finally transitioning back into more met-con style workouts, so I’m looking forward to these next two workouts and hoping they hit a more advanced skill or two,” he says. “It’s been two years since I´ve competed, so I’m looking forward to a competition setting and getting to test myself against the other athletes in Latin America and hopefully in Los Angeles.”
