I do not like the design of the workout above, especially for an athlete who may be very efficient at handstand push ups because then the workout is just performing 45 squat cleans for time to a degree.
If I were to redesign this workout it would look more like: 21-18-15 HSPU 15-12-9 Squat Clean This would force the athlete to spend a similar amount of time on each movement, with one not being far more taxing then the other.
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When programming a gymnastic piece during class in place of strength, I like to either do it as a stand alone movement or I like to pair it with another movement that will elevate the heart rate.
The reason why I like to do it as a stand a line movement sometimes is because it gives the athlete an opportunity to practice perfect reps without interference from any other movements. This is an opportunity to either make a gymnastic more efficient or to try a new technique/fix a flaw in your current technique. I also like to pair with a movement that will elevate the athletes heart rate because it provides a more game type stimulus. When they need to perform gymnastics in a workout offs are they will be tired from doing something else, so this gives them the chance to figure what they need to focus on when they are under fatigue to keep performing the movement efficiently. Gymnastics with another stimulus is always programmed in phases following doing them as a stand alone Chipper format workouts are always a great option because it allows you to train a wide variety of movements in a low volume manner. That is also what makes them challenging because quite often due to the fact you are only doing the movement once in a workout the reps you must complete are higher than normal. This requires you to approach the workout with more strategy because you don’t want to burn yourself out on one of the first few exercises, if there are still many more to do.
For example above the thruster will most likely be the most taxing barbell movement within this workout. It would not be wise to be overly aggressive on the first two barbell movements if you didn’t want to break the thruster up into too many sets This workout is a great test of gymnastic capacity with a more complex movement, the chest to bar. The way it is designed allows you attack each movement if you are capable in the movement pattern because you are switching between using the upper and lower body musculature.
Where you will find your hold up on this workout is dependent upon your chest to bar capacity. If you are efficient at C2B, then I think you will find the high box jump as the more taxing movement. Also the opposite is true, if you struggle with C2B the box Jumps won’t be approached as aggressively because you will be using it as active recovery before going back to the bar This is one of the more well rounded test the open has ever put out, for many reasons. I’m gonna breakdown why I like each movement and where it’s placed.
60 Cal Row: Putting this first in the chipper was a great way to test if people had regularly been rowing intervals because if you took this too hot, your heart rate would spike and your t2b would blow up due to the similarity in the movements. 50 T2B: This was a good test of capacity in a Kipping gymnastics movement. Once again like the row, due to the higher volume of reps it forces you to show if you were aware you capacity and how to break it up into sets. 40 Wall Ball: This number of repetitions is attainable for many people in one set, but at what costs. You still have to do 2 more taxing movements after, that are both quite shoulder intensive. I think the people who were able to keep heart rate consistent during this without many breaks had a large advantage going into the last 2 exercises. 30 Power Clean: This was awesome before the muscle up because it’s a whole body movement that is very fatiguing on the grip and upper pulling muscles. It payed off if you were smart during these 30 reps, especially if your muscle ups aren’t technically efficient. 20 RMU: For your average person this is the last movement of the workout and by this point most people’s heart rates are very. The goal here is stay as calm as possible and not fail any reps because that is a huge waste of energy When I program strength in preparation for the open it looks very similar to Louie Simmons dynamic effort day. It typically consist 8-12 working sets for 2-4 reps on the 60-90 second. For upper body movement I tend to go 10-12 sets of 3-4 reps. For lower body it’s typically 8-10 sets of 2-3 reps. Rest are normally longer for lower body and shorter for lower body.
There are few different reasons why I approach the upper and lower body programs differently. The main one is when you are performing a lower body exercise the intensity is much higher due to the fact you are lifting your own body weight + the bar weight (more often than not the bar weight of a lower movement is much heavier than an upper movement). Also the numbers of muscles/motor units recruited in an upper body movement is much lower then a lower body movement. Lastly bigger muscles take longer to recover, that’s why in the gym it is common to see the big strong guys using a bench to rest compared to the little guys who are always super setting exercises The “team” workout above is not really a team workout at all because there is no sharing of the reps that need to be completed in order to finish. This is more of a waterfall style workout, in order to move onto the next movement in the workout the person in front of you must have there reps complete.
The pace of this workout is based off one of two things. Either stations are changed based on the movement that takes the longest to complete, like for example above would most likely be the 500m row. Or it is based off one of the athletes who is either at the lowest level or struggles with particular movements. Programming specific movements to take longer is a great option in workouts like this because it can give the athletes more time to get a few quality reps in at a more technical movement like a muscle up or snatch This was the first open workout I ever did I believe back in 2014. The great thing about how many of the workouts are designed is they allow for average CrossFit athletes to post scores that can compete with elite CrossFit athletes scores.
This workout is a perfect example of one of those because it does not require any high level skill or strength, which is must harder to develop than a conditioning base. Your ranking in these workouts are deceiving and my lead you to believe you are at a higher level than you think. That’s why it’s important to do every test the open puts out because odds are one or two of them will show a weakness or while you have in your game that you need to work on to be more prepared for the next year As the time of year gradually progresses toward the open with training, the goal of the strength portion of class also shifts. Instead of only focusing on increasing the maximum amount of load you can lift for a certain number of repetitions to improve strength and power qualities, the focus partially shifts towards improving and capacity and efficiency.
During the Emom training with repetitions on the upper end (3-5 per minute), the goal is to move more weight total per Emom rather than lifting as heavy of a weight as possible by the end of the Emom, for example: 10x5@185 (capacity focused, weights across each set) 10x5@95-215 (strength focused, weights building) Also if you aren’t feeling up to lifting heavier then you did the previous week, than the goal can be to lift the same weight you did the previous week but at a lower RPE. Meaning you got the same amount of work done, but at a lower effort Another one of the movements I consider to be a special strength exercise in CrossFit is the thruster. It is a combine of leg strength, hip extension power, front rack/overhead mobility. If any one of these areas is lagging behind the others it will hold back your ability to move as heavy as loads as possible. It will limit your ability to perform them as efficiently as possible.
I like using the thruster in a strength setting of the class a couple times a year because it gives people the opportunity to gain confidence moving heavier loads in it. This realization of their makes the typically prescribed 95/65 thruster load seem much less intimidating |
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November 2021
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