We all saw this is coming. Whether we wanted to admit it or not, deep down in our hearts, we knew that they would do a repeat. Personally I’m a fan. I think repeats are a great way to show progress of fitness and allow even beginner athletes to look back on where they were a year ago and feel better about their progress over the year. We all know that’s a hard task for most of us to do day to day. Workouts like this often are pretty encouraging for the average athlete and even elite level ones as we can look back over our progress in a year.
With that in mind, most of you have done this work out already. You learned a lot last year when you did it at least twice probably. You understand that this workout is all about managing your work to rest ratio on the chest to bar pull-ups, avoiding your lactate threshold, and saving you’re pulling strength for when it is most necessary.
I want to point out four things for you to consider for the repeat work out this week.
1- Overhead Squat: obviously the overhead squats need to be done unbroken and quickly. There’s just no necessity for wasting time here. I said it last year and I’ll say it now that this workout is won or lost on your ability to manage the chest to bar pull-ups so the overhead squat should really be an afterthought. What you can do to help manage those better and save your shoulders as much as possible is make your grip a little bit more narrow. The more narrow grip will keep the bar stabilized better, prevent any extra movement of the bar overhead, and in doing so save your shoulders.
2- Don’t race the clock early: This is a simple principle that was handed out multiple times during the Open announcement today but it’s worth repeating. Long rounds early will not only help you in the later rounds but will help you get to the later rounds. Don’t rush through those early rounds of 10 and 12. Allow those rounds to push to even as far as a minute and forty-five seconds. Taking your time early will allow you to save your capacity and strength for later. If you rush to those early rounds and begin to build up lactic acid before it is necessary you will regret that in the middle of round 16. That’s a promise. Take your time early. Be present in your workout. Pay attention to the clock. Don’t rush early. Take your time, figure out what intervals on each round work best for you and stick to them. Ultimately what makes you successful in this workout is having the capacity and presence to push the gas pedal at the very end of your hardest around in order to make it to the next round. Just surviving your hardest round in order for you to get the extra “bonus” reps is what will be the difference between placing 250th and 50th.
3- Quality of movement in the pull-up. Since this workout is largely a chest to bar pull-ups workout, it is of critical importance that you maintain proper technical precision. There are a couple big principles you have to always remember. Firstly, always return to a good arch position off the pull-up bar. That will always be the driving force for getting your chest to the bar with less work. Secondly, as you come through the kip, remember to stay hollow and stay tight. For a more detailed explanation and some more detailed tips on the chest to bar pull-ups you can see our movement blog here. Also last year I posted a demo video of the proper form for doing singles on the chest to bar pull-ups. We all know that there will probably be a time where singles are required of us or there may be person who does them from the very beginning. If so, there’s a very specific way to do them that saves any eccentric motion and ultimately allows you to keep moving for a longer period of time. Check that demo video out here.
4- Rest: This is not the type of workout that can be done multiple times in a day and really should be given at least a days rest in between attempts. I recognize that there are exceptions to the rule out there that were able to do the workout back to back days and even more than once in the same day and do better. You’re the exception to the rule, not the rule. My suggestion is to attempt this work out as early as possible. Tomorrow is ideal. Then take a full two days rest before attempting again on Monday. You will need that time to work through some stiffness and soreness and mentally and physically prepare for a second attempt. This is a workout you could get hurt on. Make no mistake about it. Repeating this work out multiple times in a day can cause injury. Be smart and remember that ultimately this is just exercise. It’s designed for the growth of your fitness. Pushing yourself to injury defeats the purpose.
I will be sending updates to this blog as the weekend progresses. This is familiar ground for all of us but we all know we are much fitter than last year. Set your goals high and go run them down. Good luck!