Posts Tagged ‘The CF Open’

Smashby’s CF Games Open Strategy – WOD 25.1

Posted: February 27, 2025 in CrossFit, Training
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The 2025 CrossFit Games Open is here! Today, they released the first workout of the three-week worldwide competition and it looks like an awesome AND accessible kick-off to this year’s Open.

Three main pieces of advice for this one:

1- Practice foot and hand placement for your Burpees over the Dumbbell. Your hands should end up in front of the DB so that when you jump or stand up your feet will be directly next to where it sits on the ground. Since you’re not required to stand all the way up before jumping over the weight, remind yourself to “Stay Low and Go!” Don’t waste any time taking extra steps or risk missing directly over the weight. Deliberate movement here will help ensure that all of your rep attempts count.

2- Keep Dumbbell Hang Clean-and-Jerks as efficient as possible by prioritizing a tall chest throughout the rep. Laying on the ground and getting up over and over again for the Burpees will likely lead to some lower back fatigue. Forcing even more hingeing with the DB complex will only make that worse. I’m going to attack these like a quick little Russian Swing to get the DB to the shoulder and then immediately link into a smooth Push Jerk. While Push Press reps may be possible out of the gate for some, it’s simply going to require more upper body strength to press the DB to a full lockout. A smooth Push Jerk will conserve shoulders even more, allowing for more powerful Burpees later on in the workout! I also plan to repeat reps with the same arm until I *start to* fatigue before switching arms. The first few rounds won’t be a problem at all, but one the rounds of 12 or 15 hit, I’m sure switching hands will be a welcome break. That said, despite the fact that I feel fairly proficient alternating reps with a DB, I think it will end up being an unnecessary use of energy to switch so often. As long as the goal is to aim to keep sets unbroken, just try to complete consecutive reps with one arm, and switch to the other arm before you get close to failure!

3- Lunges will likely end up being the “rest” portion of this 15-minute workout. While most athletes will have the ability to come out swinging and sprint these, as the volume continues to grow for Burpees and DB reps, it may be more and more difficult to maintain a faster Lunge pace. Instead, keep your chest tall and eyes across the room, your entire front foot flat on each step so that your vertical front shin allows for smooth steps every time, and try not to over-extend your steps whenever possible. Use this time to shake out your arms and reset your heart rate before getting right back to your DB!

From a pacing perspective, I think most athletes should approach this one as a marathon, not a sprint. Anyone can complete the rounds of 3, 6, and 9 at breakneck speed. If that means you’re spending the last 5 minutes standing around trying to catch your breath, though, that doesn’t make too much sense to me. Give this one an 8.5 out of 10 effort out of the gate and see if you can make it through the entire 15 minutes without really needing to stop at all!

In the morning, I’m going to try to record a video briefly demonstrating some of these key points. If you come back and watch it, please let me know if this advice helps!

Regardless of your experience or ability level, if you’re going to try this workout:
Good Luck, Have Fun, I Believe In You!

Smashby’s CF Games Open Strategy – WOD 24.3

Posted: March 14, 2024 in CrossFit, Training
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It’s time for the FINAL workout of the 2024 CrossFit Games Open!

Three main pieces of advice for this one:

1- Which version of this workout are you looking to attack? Some athlete who are choosing to complete this as prescribed may not have the strength or skill to complete the heavier Thrusters or Bar Muscle-Ups. If you fall into that category, your workout is 50 Thrusters and 50 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups. Stay unbroken for as long as you can on the barbell and do as many sets as you need to on the Pull-Ups to keep it moving. Bottom line, if you’re not expecting to be able to put a dent in the second part of this workout… CRUSH the first part for a faster “tie-break” time!

2- I think most athletes should take the approach of breaking up everything sooner than they think they need to! The “5 rounds of 10 Thrusters and 10 C2B PUs” may very well end up being a trap. If those numbers make it seem like the tempo can really be turned up on the first part of the workout, it may lead to significantly larger breaks and more potential failed reps when you get to the second part. Instead, take quick rests but leave some in the tank every time you pick up the bar or hop up on the rig. Make the CHOICE of when to rest, don’t break because your body can’t hold on anymore.

3- Metered rest and intentional pauses. A split second pause with the barbell locked out overhead in a strong position can give athletes a moment to take their next breath before going into the next rep. Try your best not to hold the bar in your front rack position unnecessarily. Another game I’d like you to play is to try and set a specific number of BREATHS that you’ll allow between sets. If we rest until we’re “recovered” that time will get longer and longer the more fatigued you are. If you look at the clock to use a certain number of seconds as your break time, you’ll need to do math. (I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to do addition when I’m gasping for air.) Instead, count to a specific number of deep breaths and then really work to get right back to the workout!

If you’re interested, watch my video and let me know if this advice helps!

Regardless of your experience or ability level, if you’re going to try this workout:
Good Luck, Have Fun, I Believe In You!

If this Open helped you identify some ways that you can improve your fitness game, congrats! If you ever want to chat to see if you think I can help you make some of those gains, let me know. I’d LOVE that chat with you! I hope to see many of you back here next year!

Smashby’s CF Games Open Strategy – WOD 20.3

Posted: October 24, 2019 in CrossFit, Nutrition
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Happy Thursday, friends!

Another Open Workout is released, and it’s our first repeat of the 2020 Open Season. Workout 20.3 is a re-do of CF Games Open Workout 18.4. After going back and watching the video and reading the post I wrote for this workout back in 2018, I don’t really think I’d change my advice on how I think people should approach this one.

For that reason, I’ve posted the link to my entire 18.4 review at the bottom of this post!

The quick summary of my thoughts, however, is that I think there will be three main groups of athletes for this one.

Group 1 – Those Deads Are Heavy and/or Nope, Handstand Push-Ups Are Not My Jam

Since “tie-break” times are logged after every set of deadlifts, there will be thousands of people at each round’s cut-off. Therefore, the fastest you get through your final set of deads, the higher your ranking. If you think, or know, that it’s unlikely you’ll get through a single HSPU, your goal is to get through your 21 deadlifts as fast (BUT SAFELY) as possible. That could mean 21 seconds in 21 reps, tie-break time noted… and now you’ve got 8 minutes and 39 seconds to try and work through your first handstand push-up.

Group 2 – Diane I’ve Got… The Rest, I’m Not So Sure

If completing 21-15-9 of Rx’d Diane in 9 minutes or less is likely, but you’re not quite sure if you have much to offer for the second workout of heavier deadlifts and handstand walks, I think you should view this Open workout as, “How fast can I get through Diane?” Period. If it takes you 6 minutes to complete it, you have 3 minutes to get as many reps as possible of the second workout. If Diane takes you 8 minutes and 30 seconds, that still gives you 30 seconds to try and get in a few deads at the heavier weight.

Group 3 – Heavy Deads and Handstand Walks all day, baby!

If you fit into this category… congrats! You’re a beast. Pace this like you’d pace most normal CrossFit Open workouts. You need to be smart and realize that for most humans, trying to handstand walk when your shoulders are crushed typically doesn’t end well. If you plan to get to the handstand walks, my advice is to be patient enough to really fight for each 5 foot increment. Some people just flip upside down and hope for the best. Don’t get 4 feet in a row, then get charged a no-rep, four different times because you’re too tired. Be patient, regroup, and make every attempt at HS walk count.

Regardless of the version you choose, remember that you’re about to do a bunch of really heavy deadlifts, at presumably a very fast speed. Heavy deads are likely one of THE MOST COMMON ways that people injure themselves in this sport of exercise racing we all love. Please don’t become another statistic! Keep your core tight, and keep your movement sound. As fun as it is to sprint with a heavy barbell, I’d rather you be able to walk tomorrow. Please be safe.

Alright, here’s my FULL STRATEGY POST from Workout 18.4.

Check it out, and let me know if you have any other questions for me.

As always, “Good Luck, Have Fun, I Believe In You!“

Smashby’s CF Games Open Strategy – WOD 18.3

Posted: March 9, 2018 in CrossFit, Training
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Many of us predicted that the third week of the 2018 CrossFit Games Open would separate an incredibly high number of athletes from one another on the leaderboard. We were correct. This week’s torture includes up to 800 double-unders… yes, you read that correctly… eight hundred!!! There are also overhead squats, dumbbell snatches, and muscle-ups. What’s that? You’d like to know if the muscle-ups are bar or ring? This week, you have to do BOTH!

18.3

Strategy

For those who can’t complete a particular movement, my advice is to sprint as much as you can to get to that movement as quickly as possible. For those who can physically do everything, pace the double-unders however you need to in order to not burn-out, and break up every other movement prior to failure. While the goal is to get through as much of the workout as you can, if you burn out on any one movement early on, everything else is going to suffer because of it.

The most important set of double-unders will always be the last one that you’ll be able to complete. Get through the final 100 wherever you are to the best of your ability, so you don’t miss hitting that final tie-breaker time for yourself.

In terms of choosing which version of this workout to complete, if you care about your ranking, I think you should 100% do as much of it Rx’d as you can. If that means getting to the Ring Muscle-Ups in an absolute sprint and spending the rest of the workout staring at the rings, that’s what I’d recommend doing. Thousands of places will separate those who get stuck at a movement, but got to it faster than others.

After you get as far as you can and get stuck, you can redo the workout “for fun” with the Scaled options and see how far you can get. In my mind though, if you care about your ranking, doing even three double-unders in 14 minutes makes more sense than going scaled because you’re scared of overhead squats.

Double-Unders

The majority of the workout is spent here. You need to know yourself and understand what makes the most sense for you. If these are legitimately a really easy movement for you and you consider them the “rest,” then you should be really excited. Very few people are going to be able to get through these unbroken. Unfortunately, a lot of people are going to TRY to get through them unbroken because they think they can do three or four sets without stopping. A lot of those people are going to get so tired about halfway through the workout, that every other movement of theirs is going to suffer.

Be smart, rest on your own terms, keep your heart rate down and shoulders as relaxed as you can, and try your best to view these as your time to recover and regroup. Since there’s a tie-breaker after each set of double-unders, I think athletes should push hard and redline on their final set of jumps! Again, there will be THOUSANDS of athletes separated by tie-break times before the following movement. If you don’t have ring muscle-ups, I think the workout needs to be an absolute SPRINT to get to that movement. Finish the jumps as fast as possible, then spend the remainder of the workout trying your best to get one, or as many as you can. Same thing applies if you don’t have bar muscle-ups yet.

If time is potentially going to run out during a set of your double-unders, that’s also a time to absolutely go for it. I don’t care how tired your shoulders are, if you can complete that full set of 100 before the clock runs out, do EVERYTHING in your power to complete them before the buzzer. Otherwise, rest as needed and mess up as little as possible. Being able to complete nearly one hundred reps more than someone else in less than a minute will bump you up big time on the leaderboard. Also, have a second “back-up” rope nearby just in case.

Overhead Squats

If the weight is manageable for you, try to complete slower and comfortable reps and not drop the bar. Consider resting the bar on your back if you need a break if you can, just be sure to completely lock out the bar overhead before continuing onto your next rep. Eyes straight ahead, core tight, and reach that bar up to the sky. If the weight is heavy for you, don’t try to go unbroken, just complete smart sets with short rest between them. Only consider squat-snatching the first rep if you’re confident you’ll be able to catch it controlled and balanced. Otherwise, just power snatch, get set, and then start.

Dumbbell Snatches

Slow and steady wins the race here. If you can keep your heart rate down, and not fatigue the shoulders, just keep it moving. Aim to set the dumbbell down back between your legs a bit, so you can use your hammies and glutes to “swing” the weight overhead rather then pulling it straight up using your arms. Be sure to switch hands BELOW the top of your head to avoid any no-reps, and that both heads of the dumbbells touch the ground each rep. These will be more of a break than any other movement for a lot of people.

Rings AND Bar Muscle-Ups

For the most part, you’ll either have these, or you won’t. In my opinion, the worst thing to do is miss reps on either of these. Hop down from the rings or bar BEFORE you reach failure on either variation.

I can’t say this enough: “If you know that you won’t make it through either of these stations, GET TO THIS MOVEMENT AS FAST AS YOU CAN.” There will be THOUSANDS of people who get TO the muscle-ups, but complete zero (or only a few) of them. The faster you can get here, the faster your tie-break time will be, and the higher you’ll be ranked. And finally, just because you might be able to do a large set of these out of the gate, remember that there’s a lot of work left afterwards. Doing smaller sets with short rest will likely conserve more of your energy to keep you more fresh for everything else.

Good luck, have fun, I believe in you!