Tips and Strategies CrossFit Open WOD 15.5

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Part of the "2015 CrossFit Open Strategy" Series

For Time – Reps 27-21-15-9:

Row (calories)
Thrusters (95/65 lbs)

15.3 started with a skill movement, then turned into a test of capacity. 15.4 started with a skill movement, and turned into a test of muscular endurance for most people. 15.5 is all about capacity, and for this reason, it is going to hurt more than any of the other workouts.

Preliminary Thoughts:

This workout favors an athlete that is a bit taller and can be powerful on the rower. We saw this play out precisely how I expected on the WOD release show with Briggs winning, followed by Annie, and then Camille finished last. The reason being, is that this workout is not a “Thruster” workout. This workout is won and lost on the rower, and the taller, “longer” athlete can create much more power on the rower. Camille just had no chance of keeping up with the taller athletes.

However, if you can understand the difference in rowing for calories versus rowing for meters, you will have a slight advantage over someone that doesn’t understand this. I will discuss this more later on.

Warm-ups:

General warm-up (get heart rate slightly elevated) + mobility work on hips, ankles, shoulders and front-rack position
Work up to a heavy triple in thruster. Keep reps and sets low, as to not fatigue the body too much. But feeling a heavy weight through the squat and overhead, will make the 95/65 feel a bit lighter (at least in the first round or two).
Get the heart rate elevated so that it is not a shock to the body to go from 0 MPH to 60 MPH when the workout starts. A good way of doing this would be to do a couple short intervals back and forth. Maybe something like:

3 Rounds:
5 cal row
5 Thrusters

You should increase the pace each round, so that the final round is a difficult pace to maintain. Then rest 60-90 seconds, and do 1-2 more rounds at a feverish pace, which will really spike the heart rate. Then rest a few minutes before starting the workout.

The Workout:

Rowing

First off, you must have good rowing technique. Do not get a really big lean-back at the end of the stroke. This will drastically increase fatigue. You must understand how to drive through the heels and put the load into your hamstrings. If your heels elevate too much, the row will become a quad dominant movement, and this will drastically effect your ability to push through thrusters (a very quad dominant movement).

I briefly mentioned the difference between rowing for meters versus cals. I will try to explain this in a way that makes sense. The more powerfully that you pull, the more cals you can accumulate without accumulating as many meters. If that doesn't make sense, follow me here - One person could row 27 calories and accrue only 300m (or less) with extremely powerful strokes, while someone that is rowing slower, could take 500m to accrue 27 cals. Obviously you want to accrue less overall meters. However, you also have to be careful not to go too hard on the rower that you redline when you get into the thrusters. This is a delicate balance.

The knowledge you should take from this, is that your strategy should NOT be to crush thrusters and then recover on the row. If this is your strategy, you’ve already lost, because the row will become the black hole of lost time. Instead, you should pace the thrusters to crush the row (within limits of your own capacity). Due to this aspect of calories, the workout can actually be won on the rower.

If this is confusing, here’s another way of saying it (credit to Jacob Tsypkin for his eloquence) – “Keep in mind that rowing for energy (calories) is different than rowing for distance (meters.) When rowing faster, the increase in output for energy is exponential. For distance it is linear. In other words, when you row for calories, there is a higher return-on-investment for pushing harder.”

Thrusters

To be competitive on a regional or world stage, you must do Thrusters unbroken AND keep a strong powerful row pace. For the majority off the world, we will need to break the thrusters into manageable chunks (especially so that we can push the row and get more return on investment). For this reason, you must have a plan for the thrusters. I cannot prescribe a generic approach, because it is completely dependent on your own ability to handle 95/65 lbs for high reps under fatigue. Some athletes may be able to break the thrusters into 2 sets for the 27 and 21 round (something like 18/9, then 13/8). Others may need to do 3 sets (something like 11/9/7 and 9/7/5). Others may need to break them even more. Regardless, you just need to make sure that you stay within your own abilities, and do not approach the redline while on the Thrusters. Once you get to the round of 9, you just gotta turn off your brain and push to the finish. This is the beauty of a workout that is “for time” as opposed to an AMRAP – You know exactly how much work you need to do, and can gauge your output to accommodate for the workload remaining.

Final Thoughts and Considerations:

REMEMBER TO BREATHE! If the thruster load is light for you, you can breathe at the top and the bottom. If the thruster is heavy, you will need to hold your breath through the squat and explosive portion, and should try to breathe while the body is fully extended in the overhead position. Stay consistent with breathing on the rower. Short and fast breaths. Big gulps of air mean you are approaching the red-line point.

You can do this workout twice, for sure. Especially if it is a test of capacity, and not strength. If the thruster is heavy, you will need to be cautious how many times you do this workout, as it will impact your CNS recovery much more drastically.

Make sure you have some solid glucose-based energy in your body. Doing this fasted will probably cause fatigue too quickly. But you do not want to be bogged down with too much food. The best approach would be to eat a small meal about 2 hrs prior, and then sip on a carb/protein mixture in the 30-60 min prior to the workout. And of course, make sure to get a solid post workout nutrition feeding 20-30 minutes after your heart calms down.

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Bryan Boorstein

Bryan started training with weights at 14 years old. He was playing varsity basketball as a Freshman, and needed a way to keep pace with the older boys.

What started as a tool to enhance another sport eventually turned into the full focus of his career. At James Madison University, where he attended with San Diego Athletics co-owner...