Open 20.4 Thoughts & Strategy

PLEASE NOTE: Cahill Construction notified us that they will be demolishing our Shotwell driveway starting early on Monday morning, so we are forced to cancel the Monday 6am, 7am, and 12pm classes — with the hope that we can re-open for afternoon and evening classes that day. We’ll keep everyone posted here on the blog and in our private Arena Ready facebook group as we learn more, but for now wanted to notify everyone so that you can plan your training week accordingly. Thanks for your patience.

Open Athletes - if you haven't already, please watch the 20.4 standards video below (which briefly covers only Rx standards), and read the full workout details here on the CrossFit Games website. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page with movement standards and expectations (both Rx and scaled) prior to every athlete and judge starting their workout/heat. Also, remember to record the "tiebreak time" which is what the clock says every time an athlete finishes a round of box jumps AKA STEP-UPS and/or pistols AKA single-leg squats.

As we've covered previously in this post here, we'll be running the Open Workout ("20.4") during rolling heats in all of our Saturday morning classes.  If you haven't already please sign-up for class in advance and plan on doing the workout AND judging another athlete while in the gym (no, you do not have to be a certified judge who has taken the judges course).  

For those new to Arena Ready please note that these Saturday morning classes will be very different from our usual protocol.  The warm-up will be self-directed and written on a board for you to follow.  Please plan on showing up 10-15 minutes early for class if possible, so that you can sign-up for a heat time when you arrive and get yourself situated for warming-up. 

If you're not officially entered in the Open then ask a coach on site to help you decide on a reasonable scaling for the workout if needed -- based on availability & logistics we may assign you to a particular station to give priority to the athletes who are officially registered. 

The rest of this post will attempt to break down some strategy based on where your current abilities lie within the parameters of the workout...

Without intending to oversimplify, this workout boils pretty nicely down to four elements: box jumps, clean and jerks, pistols (or weighted step ups) and wind. As always, managing each component intelligently will yield the most optimal results.

Box Jumps (Step Ups) & Weighted Step Ups:

For nearly everyone, stepping up and stepping down will be the best strategy to manage heart rate, and (if you factor in not needing to take as many breaks) will likely be faster as well. Think: lower heart rate and faster time, i.e. yes please!

As always, especially if you’re doing weighted step ups, be sure to balance which leg you use to step up and also to step down so that one leg doesn’t get disproportionately tired.

If you must jump up, please please please step down.

For those who are likely to max out on the first, second or third barbell (and for those in the 55+ or scaled divisions) the time for completing the box jumps/step ups will form the tiebreaker, so finish those at a reasonable clip as long as it doesn’t interfere with your ability to do the next set of clean & jerks.

Clean & Jerks:

These bars will get HEAVY at some point for pretty much everyone. We clean & jerk a lot at Arena Ready, and recently completed a Friday Barbell Therapy program oriented towards clean & jerks, so hopefully most of us have a pretty solid idea of our metcon and top-end capacity for this movement (at least fresh).

We would recommend warming up to a reasonably heavy single prior to this workout, to get an idea for which bar you’re likely to reach (especially if you think you might be ready to set a new PR). Grab a coach, and see how heavy you can get with near perfect form. From here, you’ll know how long your workout is likely to be (in terms of number of accumulated box jumps and pistols or weighted step ups).

Once you know the actual length of your workout, approach it “for time” rather than as a 20 min AMRAP, and strategize to get the most reps alongside the best tiebreak time you can, based on accumulated fatigue and wind.

No matter how many clean and jerks you do, despite this being the Open, they should all be the best clean and jerks you can muster. Pull from the floor with a stable midline, catch the bar high on your shoulders with your elbows high, lock out your arms on the jerk (keeping your midline stable), and then stand with control (without needing to stagger to get control of the bar). If you’re having trouble, grab a coach and ask for help.

This will hopefully be a cool opportunity to push yourself to do a little more than you would ordinarily do in class, and maybe even surprise yourself a little!

Pistols:

For those able to clear 90 box jumps and the first three bars, a “few” pistols will be waiting to greet you. These are pretty “simple”: just get them done one by one. In preparation be sure to warm up your hips and ankles, and consider rolling out your shins.

This might be a good time to switch to weightlifting shoes as they will help with the pistols and may help with the clean & jerks as well, especially if you’re likely to be squat cleaning. While we don’t think it’s ideal to need knee sleeves all the time, knee sleeves may also be a good choice to help support the knees and potentially improve stamina a little bit.

If you don’t have pistols yet, but think you might be able to get them, it’s ok to try in whatever time you have remaining IFF (that’s short for IF AND ONLY IF) you have no pre-existing knee, hip or back issues and it doesn’t cause you any pain whatsoever to try. This is another opportunity to grab a coach to help if you think you might be able to use this as an incentive to get your first pistols.

Wind:

Pacing will be the final consideration for this workout (and a major one, at that). For those anticipating getting into or past the third bar (but not finishing), avoid the trap that is doing the first two rounds too fast. Yes, you can do 30 box jumps in under a minute. Yes, you can do the first bar in 30 seconds. Sure, you can do Grace sub 3 and therefore the second bar in 90 seconds… but how do you FEEL after doing Grace? Ready to do the rest of your 20 minute workout? Hmmm…. Intentionally backing off a decent amount from your “normal” pace, maybe 10-20% of perceived exertion, or about 15 seconds per set of box jumps or cleans will make the first part of this workout feel far more pleasant, and is also likely to yield much better capacity later on when you haven’t already been gasping for air for the last 10 minutes.

For those who are likely to cap out on or before the third bar, wind may be less of a concern as the total volume will be such that the workout becomes more of a sprint. Still be mindful of not letting the box jump pace exceed your capacity to clean and jerk, but it’s likely ok to push the pace on the box jumps a bit to try to optimize your tie break time. That said, an extra rep trumps a faster tie break time, so strategize accordingly.

Fun!

This is the Open workout I’ve been waiting for my whole life… heavy weight at the end of a chipper, but without any hanging gymnastics movements. Yes PLEASE! I hope we’ve trained you well and that you all enjoy it as much as I think you will :)

WOD For 11-02-19:

“Open 20.4”

For Time (20 Minute Cap):

30 Box Jumps @ 24/20 in

15 Clean & Jerks @ 95/65 lbs

30 Box Jumps

15 Clean & Jerks @ 135/85 lbs

30 Box Jumps

10 Clean & jerks @ 185/115 lbs

30 Single-Leg Squats (alternate sides)

10 Clean & jerks @ 225/145 lbs

30 Single-Leg Squats (alternate sides)

5 Clean & Jerks @ 275/175 lbs

30 Single-Leg Squats (alternate sides)

5 Clean & jerks @ 315/205 lbs