Finally! They gave us a fun one. 13.3 reinvented with muscle ups first. Not only will this be a fun one to watch but for most of you this will be a very fun one to complete. After watching the announcement and talking to some folks around the community I think standard scores for women should be pushing the double unders to get to the fourth round and guys you should be pushing the double unders to get to the fifth. Obviously that’s just a guess based on what I saw tonight but I think that’s certainly not outlandish. Gentlemen you should be prepared to do 200 wall balls or more and women definitely prepared to have done Karen plus some.
The reality behind this work out however is that the strategy for each individual person will be very different. For those of you very good at the muscleup the question becomes how hard can you push the wall balls and not turn the work out immediately into an anaerobic mess? For those of you not very good at muscleups the question becomes how many reps do you do at a time and how much rest do you complete between those reps and how well are you mentally able to manage those reps so that you never reach failure. The different strategy and reps schemes will be based on different strengths and weaknesses. For this workout specifically there is not one size fits all strategy. Each of you needs to take some time and create a strategy based on your strengths and weaknesses. Be honest with yourself. Imagine what your ideal workout would look like and then come down a couple notches knowing that it probably isn’t all going to go as planned. Furthermore, it’s in your best interest to plan for exact rest and work ratios specifically in the muscle ups and the wall balls. Some of you May need to plan rest ratios even in the double unders. Sit down with a piece of paper and a pencil and write out what your ideal work time versus rest time looks like for each of these different modes. Then, tomorrow, complete your strategy as written, adjust accordingly, and redo the workout. This is not a workout that can’t be done multiple times. You will be tight. You will be a bit fatigued in your legs after all those wall balls but if you complete the work out tomorrow you should have no problem completing the work out again on Monday. In the Power and grace program we do a whole lot of squatting. Your legs should recover just fine and be able to complete this more than once without any struggle.
Here’s some basic tips for tomorrow:
1- Muscleups: just like with toes to bar and the chest to bar pull-ups this is all about maintaining your positions. Make these as easy as possible by completing them as efficiently as possible. Remember the arch position as you begin your kip. Hold the hollow position longer than you think you need to as your hips rise to the rings. Turnover fast bringing your head through the straps quickly and remember to kip through the dip immediately. Check out our movement blog for more tips on the muscle up. As far as strategy goes there are very few of you out there that will be able to do all rounds unbroken, even men. Be conservative in your rep planning here and plan on specific rest ratios. The last thing you want to do is find yourself failing. If you do fail by chance take longer than you think you need to to rest. I always recommend three times as much as you have been resting previously in order to fully recover from the field rep. For some of you that may be four or five times that rest ratio for you. The last thing you want to do after a fail rep is fail another one.
2- Wall balls: the classic CrossFit movement. Designed purely to spike your heart rate, create an immense amount of pain, and make you question why you ever chose this sport. They’re just hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to fail. Not much to say here. It’s going to depend on your capacity. If you’re really really good at wall balls and your aerobic threshold and engine are massive then do big sets. If you’re a highly skilled athlete blessed with a limited engine then do smaller sets and bigger rest. As I said earlier your best bet is to pick specific work to rest ratios. Pick a specific number of reps that you plan to complete per round and then, with a clock in view, rest the specific amount of time after. I’ve seen many successful CrossFitters not allow the ball to hit the ground. Instead, they leaned against the ball as the ball pressed into the wall. This has worked for some and has been more taxing for others. Give it a shot and see if it’s something that may benefit you. Obviously the wall balls are designed to be where you spend the majority of your time. If you watched Julie tonight, she did a very good job of managing the wall balls to such a point that they never pushed her into a anaerobic state. She held her heart rate and speed to a level at which she was able to maintain regular consistent reps without over taxation of her body. Y’all would be wise to do the same.
3- double unders: I know I will likely be the odd man out to say this but I believe the double unders are where this workout is won or lost. I know many of you just raised your eyebrows thinking that those with good muscleups or those with the engine to push through the wall balls have a distinct advantage. You would be correct. However one double under takes far less time than one wall ball or one muscle up. There will be those who don’t get as good a score as they deserve simply because they have one or two wall balls left when the timer goes off. Furthermore, there will be those who get a better score than they deserve because they finish the wall balls with 15 seconds left and are able to rack up an extra 40 reps on double unders. What’s significant about the rep count for this workout is that every rep weighs the same. It’s the same for every single CrossFit workout but with this one, because double unders takes so much less time and each of those reps carry the same weight, your money is made on the double under. This really only matters in a repeat or as you push the gas pedal with one minute left. If you are on wall balls and you look at the clock and see that you have limited time it is worth your while to push hard to get through those wall balls in order to get the extra 5, 10 or 15 reps on the double unders. Not only are these reps easier to obtain but they take very little effort. What’s more, on the repeat, it’s important for you to evaluate how far you gotten in the work out the first time and strategize how you going to get back to the double unders from where you ended. This workout is not all that unlike 14.1. Many people repeated 14.1 simply because they knew they could get through the snatches in order to pick up the jump rope. They knew that if they could pick up the jump rope, even with 10 or 15 seconds left, they can accumulate a crazy amount of reps that would be this distinguishing factor between 100th place and 20th place. The same reality is true for this workout. Women, your double unders on that third round may be the difference between 200th place and top 50. Men the same reality may be true for the fourth round.
Lastly, two quick points on the mechanics of the double under. Relax your biceps and shoulders. These should be a movement where you rest and at bare minimum maintain a level heart rate. Channel your inner Spealler here and try to
be efficient but controlled and relaxed. Secondly pick a specific amount of reps that you can obtain with consistency each and every round. The most frustrating and demoralizing part of workout is when simple movements like the double under fall apart and ruin your workout. They are just too easy and too valuable to mess up. You have to be able to push to get more of those easy reps.
Good luck, hopefully many of you know you are prepared for this one. This is one that I believe to be in our wheelhouse. Go get em!