Hard to try an catch your breath holding a sandbag on your chest. haha High speed burpees all the way. The overhead hold was miserable. Missed a dub at 17 in round one and at 53 in round three. Three unbroken sets of 60 is great for me!
Midline
4 Rounds
40 OH Hollow Flutter Kicks (20# KB)
30 Reverse Crunch
20 Russian Twists (45# plate)
10 PVC Sit-ups
This was a grinder! I slowed a bit between some sit-ups, but otherwise went unbroken, which was not easy at all. Finished in 8:27.
Sweating bullets watching the Masters leaderboard. It’s going to be down to the wire to see if I can hold a spot in the top 10% (according to CrossFit’s ranking). Out in the garage at 4pm and it’s a nice day so we left the door open.
Warm-up
3:00 TrueForm Run (0.47 km)
80′ Lateral Monster Walks
80′ Monster Walks
Legs
3 Sets
6 Single Leg Lateral Step-ups (20″, 35-45-50# DB)
6 Step-ups
6 Single Leg Lateral Step-ups
6 Step-ups
8/8 Single Leg Glute Bridges (0-25-25# DB on hip)
This was a new combo with the different step-ups, but following along with some stuff that help’s Brandi rehab her MCL tear.
3 Sets
12 RDLs (50# DBs)
12 Goblet Squats (53# KB)
Conditioning
2 Cycles
5:00 AMRAP
5 Strict Pull-ups
10 cal Row
12 Russian KBS (62#)
2:00 Rest
After one time through I went to quick singles on the bar. Did 3+6 and 3+5, so YAY for consistency. This workout was much worse than I expected.
My chest, lats, and shoulder area is all still sore from 21.3. My legs are a bit tired too. Calves are getting sore from yesterday. Out in the garage after 11am.
My chest, lats, and shoulder area is all still sore from 21.3. My legs are a bit tired too. Calves are getting sore from yesterday. Out in the garage after 11am.
Back
3 Sets
10 Pendlay Rows (supinated, 95#)
8/8 Kroc Rows (62# KB)
I also did 10×45# Pendlay rows to warm-up.
3 Sets
10 Lat Pulldown (115-126-131#(
10 Seated Bent Over DB Back Fly (30-35-35# DBs)
3 Sets
10 V Pulldown (double handles, 126-126-131#)
8/8 Single Arm Pulldown (handle, 60-60-65#)
3 Sets
10 Straight Arm Pulldown (71-71-76#)
10 Dumbbell Shrugs (60#)
Conditioning
6:00 EMOM (alt)
15 Burpees
20 Push-ups
I wrote this as 10 minutes with 25 push-ups. LOL. After having to do 10-5-5 it quickly became 20. In the third round I had about 10 seconds left after barely being able to get my self up from the bottom of the burpees and then barely made the push-ups, having to do 10 sets of 2. Ended the workout there.
Rested yesterday, while watching my nieces for the night. It was nice to have the day off exercise after 21.3 and 21.43. Out in the garage by 2pm I think.
40:00 AMRAP – Partner
30 H2H KBS (53#)
16 cal BikeErg (standing)
30 Big Hollow Flutter Kicks (20# KB OH)
30 alt Side Crunches
80 Jump Rope (singles)
12 cal SkiErg
Worked out with B, each doing the assigned reps per movement (she had some differences in calories). She started and we both got through 5 rounds plus she got two swings. This was a good one to just move. Will be taking it on the easier side to recover from the three weeks of the Open.
Watching the leaderboard to see if I stay in the top 10%. Looking good right now.
My quads have been very sore from Monday’s workout. On the bright side, I got a new bed last Thursday and my back has felt so much better through the night and getting out of bed in the mornings. I’ve hit 100% of my sleep need, according to WHOOP, every night so far too.
Even though I set a PR last week, 21.2 dropped me in the standings, as expected.
Note: for the number of total athletes I only count those who have submitted a score, which is why it differs from the percentiles calculated by CrossFit.
Looks like I’ll need to place about 830 for this workout to make the top 10% in my Masters division. If there are two scored parts this week, I would need to average a placement of about 1,645.
With the earlier 3pm announcement of 21.3 today and some plans for tomorrow night, I was out in the garage at 5pm to warm-up and finish my Open.
I thought there was a good chance we’d get two parts! This is actually a pretty cool workout, but they had to unnecessarily complicate things with a starting line and this eight foot area.
It’s also pretty shitty that the original equipment list mentioned a place to do pull-ups, but didn’t mention chest to bars or bar muscle-ups, which much different in requirements. Not sure how many people doing the workouts at home have a high enough garage for those two movements. Also, having to move forward eight feet runs in to issues with garage doors being in the way. Not sure what they’re thinking with dumb requirements like these. I turned my bar the other way and stood well past the 8 foot line so I wouldn’t have to worry about hitting parts of the garage door.
Going in I wasn’t sure I could do butterfly or even kipping C2B because of the height needed for my head. I knew I’d have to do single whacky muscle-ups on my low pull-up bar too. Not a ton of strategy for me here since I’m restricted by my setup. How about… not toast my back with all of the front squats and thrusters?!
I work grips and a belt. I did the front squats unbroken, 5×6 T2B, 9-6 thrusters, unbroken front squats, 5-5-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-1-1-1-1 for C2B (all kipping style), 9-6 thrusters, unbroken squats, and then single bar muscle-ups. Not ideal conditions for several things, but I made it work(ish). I got through 14 bar muscle-ups. I didn’t have any expectations going in because of the pull-up bar situation and I had no idea how I’d handle that many squats/thrusters.
CrossFit Games Open Workout 21.4
For Max Weight – 7:00 Time Cap (immediately after 21.3)
Deadlift +
Clean +
Hang Clean +
Jerk
I took 2 minutes loading the bar and resting before my first attempt. Went 165-185-205-220 and made sure not to start that final rep until a few seconds before the clock hit 22:00 to use all my rest. Nice that they changed the rule and the complex only had to be started before the time was up. The hang clean was the worrying movement for me, due to my back. Happy with what I got.
After tweaking my back each of the last four years during the Open I’m happy to have survived without any new injuries this year. Now I can start thinking about golf season. 🙂
With the early Open announcement this Thursday and plans for Friday night I’ll be doing my workout on Thursday night. So I’m switching up days for the week and will rest tomorrow. Out in the garage at 4pm.
30:00 EMOM (alt)
12 cal SkiErg
16 cal Row
16 cal BikeErg
Aimed for 40 seconds on the monitor’s screen with each machine. Eww for the last nine minutes.
I need to get back to doing more interval work with the machines.
My back is still really tight, but at least the low back is all muscle soreness and not pain. Slept about 9 hours each of the last two nights to help with recovery. Out in the garage after 10am.
Back
3 Sets
12 Seated DB Bent Over Fly (30#)
12 Seated DB Bent Over Row (30#)
12 Face Pull (rope, 54-60-60#)
3 Sets
12 Incline Straight Arm Lat Pulldowns (60-71-71#)
12 Incline Forward Facing Lat Pulldowns (93-104-104#)
3 Sets
12 Standing Offset Row to Chest (double handle, 71-76-82#)
I liked the 12 reps sets and going a bit lighter I tried to bust through everything and not take breaks. Good pump!
Conditioning
5 Rounds
20 cal Row
20 Push-ups
Pulled an average of about 1,400+ cal/hr over the course of the workout, with the last two rounds being my fastest. Went 10-10 on every round of push-ups. Finished in 7:55.
My shoulders and back (lower and upper) are really tight this morning. Out in the garage at 11.
Chest
10 Incline Bench Press (45#)
4 Sets
8 Incline Bench Press (95-105-115-125#)
12 DB Pullover (50#)
3 Sets
15 Incline DB Bench Press (40#)
12 Incline DB Fly (20#)
10 Incline Plate Presses (35#)
Conditioning
30:00 AMRAP – Partner
4x 3/2 Strict Pull-ups
12 Seated Leg Lifts over DB
12 OH Crunch (55# plate)
2×10 Lunges / DB RDLs
2x 8/5 cal BikeErg (standing)
This was a good sweater and those pull-ups were hard. The way this worked was B and I alternated between me doing 3 pull-ups and her doing 2 until we each went twice. Then we each did 12 leg lifts and 12 crunches. I did 10 lunges and she did 10 RDLs, twice. Then we each got on the bike twice doing 8/5 calories respectively. It was a really good variation.
Each year I update my own spreadsheet with my Open workout rankings and calculate percentiles. If you use the iOS CrossFit Games app they calculate percentiles based on the number of registered athletes in the division, which I think is quite dumb because some people register and never post a score. I’ve always done my calculations based on the number of submitted scores. Here’s how my placing looks after week one.
Open Division 25,571 / 116,559 (78.1%)
Masters 40-44 2,183 / 16,776 (87%)
One of my goals each year is to hit the 90% or in the top 10% of participating athletes. That’s well within reach for the Masters division and all I have to do is stick around that placement to get there. The top 10% move on to the Age Group Online Qualifier. I wasn’t sure how CrossFit would determine the %, but according to a video they posted yesterday, I’m right under the cut line. So their using all registered athletes.
A repeat of 17.1, which I did twice that year. In my first attempt I got through 215 reps (10 short of finishing) and then I finished in 19:15. When this was announced as a repeat I wasn’t excited at all; it’s horrible on my back and that’s a lot of dumbbell snatches for a bad shoulder. On the bright side I weighed in at 206 pounds this morning compared to the 214 I was for that redo in 2017.
My plan of attack was pretty simple:
With the dumbbell, switch hands from the top, if my shoulder allowed it.
Step back and up on the burpees, turn through the jump and on the box, and step down backwards.
Tape my thumbs.
I knew my first split was behind that 17.1 redo and felt like I was dying every round of burpees. Turned out I was also behind split after the second round, I started closing the gap in round three, and then really made up ground in rounds four and five. I did all sets of 10 snatches until the 50 where I did 14-12-12-12. Finished in 18:30! Brandi really pushed me through the second half of this workout. Here’s my scorecard as well as comparing my splits between all three times I’ve done this workout.
Analyzed the video for more splits…
Looking at how much time a round of each movement took and then in parens how much of a time difference it was compared to the previous round…
Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs 