Tips and Strategies CrossFit Open WOD 15.3
Well, the unthinkable happened – MUSCLE-UPS FIRST.
AMRAP 14 min:
7 Muscle-ups
50 Wall-Balls
100 Double-unders
The people with muscle-ups probably love this, because it immediately acts as a separator from the rest of the world. The people that don’t have muscle-ups are probably quite un-thrilled at the prospect of having to do a really terribly programmed “scaled” workout, consisting only of Wall-Balls and SINGLE-unders. I fall into the category of people that are quite thrilled to see this, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t empathize with the “RX” athletes that don’t have muscle-ups. It is almost as if CF HQ put ZERO thought into the scaled workout. It’s not even the same stimulus of a workout, since it exists in the absence of an upper body pulling movement. It would make way more sense to have programmed the scaled workout as:
50 Wall-Balls
100 DU (or 200 singles)
7 Burpee Pull-ups or 14 Kettle-bell swings
Regardless, we can’t change the workout, so we must move forward and discuss some performance points to ensure the best scores possible.
Preliminary Thoughts:
For top athletes, this workout is going to be won and lost by who takes breaks on Wall-Balls, how long these breaks are, and who trips up on Double-unders. You can pretty much assume that the top athletes won’t have any need to game or pace the muscle-ups. The idea will be to stay aerobic for as long as possible, throughout all movements, ensuring that you remember to breathe and consistently work beneath the redline. Any breaks that are taken must be short and succinct, and should be taken as a result of strategy, as opposed to necessity. For most of the rest of us, we will need to break all of the movements strategically. I will presume that everyone can do Double-unders and Wall-Balls relatively proficiently, and that the MU will be the limiting factor.
If you do not currently have Muscle-ups in your repertoire, this is probably the best opportunity you will ever get to achieve your first one. There is no other time that you will spend 14 minutes of dedicated effort to achieving one rep of one movement. If you can do a few strict pull-ups and a few strict dips, than you are just a transition away from nailing a muscle-up. Be excited – Be invigorated – Be confident, and don’t approach this workout as a victim – instead, use it as an opportunity to excel and exceed all expectations.
Warm-ups:
It will be vital to raise the heart rate prior to the workout. We will want to perform a combination of general warm-up, movement specific warm-up, and finally a couple interval pieces to elevate the heart rate.. So, for warm-up guidelines, let’s talk about an ideal approach:
1. The first step is to just start moving. This will generally be about 15-20 minutes of “light movement,” which may just consist of alternating some light rowing, light jogging, and some dynamic stretching until a light sweat begins to form.
2. Movement-specific prep will be very similar to what we did for 15.2, because 15.3 consists of the same movement patterns (upper body pull, knee flexion, Overhead stability). We should start with general mobility work and light movement through the desired range of motion, using PVC pipe. This cycle can consist of OHS, OH Lunges, Band pull-aparts, Face pulls, Ring Rows, Kip swings on the rings, maybe a few strict pull-ups etc…
3. Finally, you will want to perform a few reps of the workout itself, and this can double as an opportunity for you to incorporate the “interval” portion I spoke about previously. The following would be a good approach:
2 Rounds AFAP – 2 Muscle-ups + 8 Wall-Balls + 20 DU
Then rest 1 min, and repeat 2 rounds AFAP. That should be sufficient, because you have to be cautious of not creating fatigue in the movements for the workout. This is why reps and volume need to be low, but we still need to achieve the goal of elevating the heart rate.
The Workout:
Ok, so as far as the workout is concerned, there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to this one. Each athlete must assess, based on their individual proficiency at each movement, how they will partition the reps. You must first determine which is your weakest movement, and then game the other movements to ensure that you don’t burn out or fail reps on your weakest movement. For most, this will be the muscle-ups. Not necessarily on the first round, but in later rounds. You might be a savant at Double-unders, but if you aren’t proficient at muscle-ups, you will need to be very careful how aggressively you attack the DU, or else you will burn out your shoulders for the MU. For a different athlete, they might be proficient at Double-unders and Muscle-ups, but will struggle with high-rep wall-balls. In this case, you have to be smart and attack the WB in small sets. For a third type of athlete, this person might have no issue with MU or WB, but struggle with DU. So this person needs to also do smaller sets of WB to ensure they remain as fresh as possible for the DU. Regardless of who you are, the DU will spike your heart rate. We must manage fatigue throughout the entire workout. So here are some basic guidelines:
If you struggle with Muscle-ups – Start with small sustainable sets of MU, and then ensure that you break the Double-unders as much as needed to stay fresh for the next round of MU
If you struggle with Wall-Balls – Break the Wall-Balls into manageable sets, and be cautious as to how much overall fatigue you create by attacking the MU or DU too aggressively
If you struggle with Double-unders – Break the Wall-Balls into small sets so that you are relatively fresh going into the DU, and then ensure that you break the DU in such a manner as to ensure you don’t redline before getting back to the muscle-ups.
Final Thoughts and Considerations:
Breathing during movements – you must maintain composure through the WB and DU sets. Think about trying to remain stoic, and not showing pain on your face. Stay relaxed and remember to breathe. On WB, you should always breathe when the ball is out of your hands, and on the DU, you must remain calm and keep breathing consistently the entire time.
Nutrition – This is another workout where you do not want to be bogged down from eating a meal too close to game time. You will need sustainable energy, so a small dose of liquid nutrition (protein/carbs) about 60-90 min before the workout will do best. You may also sip on a little bit of this same drink in very small quantities leading up to 3-2-1 go…. And then make sure to eat a hearty meal afterwards to aid in the recovery process.
How many time can I do this workout? – If you don’t have Muscle-ups, you can do it as many times as you want! Assuming you will achieve somewhere from 2-3 rounds, you could probably do it at least 2 times, and potentially three times, as long as you’re willing to fight through some quad burn on the Wall-Balls. These bodyweight based workout do not tend to cause as much cumulative fatigue as barbell dominant workouts, so go ahead and attack it a couple times if you like.
