Wodapalooza 2020

The Wodapalooza Functional Fitness Festival is one of the largest world events which since 2012 is held in January/February in Miami, in the fantastic place Bayfront Park.

Competitions last 4 days: Thursday to Sunday. On the first day, the entrance for this event is free and open to everyone, further on tickets. It is necessary to note and compliment organizers – SOLD OUT speaks for itself.

To become a participant of competitions, it is necessary to pass online competition, registration or receive an invitation from organizers, as TOP athlete.

This year, as always, the festival was perfectly organized. Four competitive playgrounds allowed a huge number of competing athletes to be placed. This year, athletes could compete in 17 individual divisions (Elite, Scaled, Masters, Adaptive, etc.) and 5 team ones. It should be noted that the organizers increased the size of the stands of the main stage (Flagler stage) to accommodate everyone. To be honest, final competitions looked amazing, both on the heat of fight, and on the picture itself.

It was also very interesting to look at the Athlete`s Village. It was a separate zone. There was organized a special location where partners of the festival assisted athletes in recovery and rehab. There was also a stretching area, a medical center, and an administrative unit.

Special respect to organizers for the zone of seminars where trainers, athletes, and owners of businesses shared the knowledge, experience, and secrets. All visitors to the festival could listen to lectures and ask their questions.

In general, the whole atmosphere of the festival is filled with the feeling that it is made with a core focus on celebrity fitness, community, and life: a great training area for spectators, beach, foodcourt, bar and common infrastructure. It seems to me that this year organizers managed to take into account all small things and details, for the creation of comfort to athletes and spectators.

The exhibition has grown both in level and range over the years. It has become more interesting: most brands offer activities and interaction using their goods and equipment. Better advertising is difficult to come up with.

I won`t stop much at competitions, experts will write about it in more detail. But definitely, the level of results in the last three years has increased. 

Even TOP athletes have to give their all both in men’s and women’s divisions. As for me, I am pleased to note that this year two phenomenal athletes stood on a pedestal with whom I was also lucky to share the experience. Cole Sager was a guest of my seminar at California Strength. Then we worked to improve mobility – it was the first time when an athlete of this level worked with the whole group and tried to improve his skills. Noah Ohlsen and I have known each other a long time, we trained together and arranged battle at his box. It’s nice to see these guys are still at the TOP level. I wish them big and loud victories!

For me, a separate point of attending the festival was the desire to see with my own eyes Weightlifting Face OFF: weightlifting competitions, which took place according to very unusual rules.

After passing online selection, athletes (16 men and women each) competed in the format of a battle: 2 platforms – 2 athletes. The winner was determined by the Sinclair system (ratio of weight per bar to body weight). I was impressed most of all that the competitions went the whole day and athletes had to pass 4 rounds of competitions where they performed a snatch and a clean&jerk in the format of EMOM. In the ending, athletes demonstrated technique and results worthy of TOP 10 American Open. I repeat that before the final battle athletes came to their maximum 3 times during the day. Clearly, such an event is a plus for the Wodapalooza festival. I will remind you that in 2018 Fernando Reis himself won here. It would be interesting in the future to see more world TOP athletes at these competitions.

By the way, I am thinking about my performance with the show Weightlifting Face OFF next year. Please, write in the comments your opinion is about it.

You might be interested in:

• olympic lifting regimen
• women’s weight lifting plan
• 12 week deadlift program
• free weightlifting program