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Open 18.2 Blog

So we get to see our first look at the new standard Burpees, a new movement, and some heavy lifting! This one gets me all revved up just thinking about the new PRs that some of you will have a shot at. As I went into this one my mood was blah, it was a long day and later than I usually work out, about 9 o’clock, and my normal pre workout baking soda concoction had surely wore off by that point, and having not eaten anything since 230 earlier in the day my energy wasn’t at its peak for sure. But I knew I need to get it done so I got after it. So looking at this workout it looks pretty simple, grunt work to start, and finish with a big lift. So my initial strategy was to move as quickly as I could through the Burpees and squats to get the most rest I could before the Cleans, then I watched the big boys go, and it seemed they had the same idea, burn it up to start then get some rest. But when I watched them, it seemed like they had to take more rest than they may have wanted to, which tells me that this might have burned their legs up a little more than anticipated. So going into my workout I decided to try a keep a nice steady pace through the initial part and hopefully my legs would have enough recovery time. I was thinking I could get it done within 6-7 minutes (which ended up not being the case ha), and have a minute or 2 to rest before my first clean. Anyway I got through the Squats and Burpees at about 8:18 going at a pretty moderate pace, and yes my legs were still burning. I gave myself about a minute rest before my first attempt and then have about 3 shots at the clean, about 1 per minute. I ended up with a new PR at 285 but that first clean felt like 1000 pounds haha. So let’s break down how I think you should move through this. This one is tricky, go too fast and you might be too burned up to get that clean up to you max, go too slow and you won’t have enough time to get that clean up to where you want it, so you might have to make a decision that’s best for you. Do you think you’ll be able to score better on the time portion or the weight portion? Personally I think you should just keep moving through these movements inside your zone and try to get 3-4 shots at your Cleans. The movements themselves aren’t all that difficult, pretty simple really. My advice, once you pick up the dumbbells, don’t put them down, grind it out even if you have to do 3 take a breath with them still on your shoulders, do 3 more and so on. Too much time wasted putting them down and picking them back up. Which brings me to my next point, find a comfortable way to hold the DB’s. They are awkward I know, but do your best to find a position that minimizes the awkwardness for YOU, this may be different for every person. Once you find a good position practice getting them into that position, nothing kills more time than fiddle fudgin around with those dumbbells when you should be knocking out squats. For judges and athletes you must make sure you stand all the way up with those dbs on your shoulders before squatting, none of that picking the dumbbells up in a Squat and trying to count that as your first, clean them up to standing position, then squat. And obviously get to full depth, and stand all the way up on every squat, judges if it’s close give them a warning and if they do it again you gotta no rep them, if it’s not even close no rep them right away, standards are there for a reason, it’s not fair to everyone that are doing the movements as prescribed to let someone not do the movement how it’s suppose to be done. As for the Burpees, JUST KEEP MOVING, try not to lay there, or stare at the bar, get down and get back up. Now we’ve been working on the new standards, as long as both feet move back together and move forward together, you’re good, you can start a little sideways or land not completely square but they both must move together, we just don’t want to see the exaggerated steps forward. And obviously if your doing it Rx jump off 2 feet please. Don’t make it hard on the judges just do a two foot jump. Tip for those is to try and turn as your jumping over the bar, it’ll put you in a better position to drop into that next burpee. And then there was the clean. This is where the magic of the open happens! You can load up the bar to your opening weight before you start the workout so my suggestion is to load it up around 90-95% of your known 1 rep max clean (the heaviest clean you’ve ever hit), something that’s not too easy but not something you’ve never done before or only done once. Hopefully you’ll have 3-4 shots at it, so once you hit that 90-95% I would go to my known 1 rep and try to hit that. If I got that it’s PR time baby! My advice: Go for that shit! You gotta hit that clean as hard as you ever have, drop faster than you’ve ever dropped, and get those elbows in front of that bar. Like I tell you when we’re doing heavy cleans if you can get those elbows in front of that bar you’ve got the clean, then it’s just a front squat from there. As soon as you open up from that clean the only thing you should be thinking is throw those elbows as fast as you can. Another tip is to keep those eyes and your head up, if your chin drops it almost a guarantee that your elbows are gonna follow suit, keep that chin up. Other than that all I gotta say is GO FOR IT! I hope to hear all about the new PRs people put up. Good luck and have fun! See you guys Friday night.