20.1 Strategy - A Coaches take having watched 20+ athletes complete it this morning

[musicforerunner]

Keep it consistent. It’s easy right? As anyone who is season will know that it’s obvious but I watch a lot of seasoned athletes deviate from their plan only to regret down the line. It does NOT matter if you win round 1 or 4 if your pace falls from :90/round to 3 mins/round, you’ll quickly regret it.

For the Ground to Overhead:
- Snatching is quicker IF YOU CAN MAINTAIN IT. Don’t be afraid to clean and jerk it, just remember to utilize your legs in the lift and you’ll be able to keep moving
- Don’t break it up if you can help it. Unless form has gone to shit, or it is your weak point of the workout, hold on to the barbell. It’s meant to be a light weight that you can rep out fairly quickly.
- FORM. FORM. FORM. Yes we all want to move quickly but once you start feeling it in your lower back, the combination with the burpees is going to leave you tight and sore in places you do not need to be.

For the Burpees:
- If you’re like me and better at the barbell than cardio, utilize the step up and step down! There is no need to jump back and up unless you know you can maintain it. If you red line, you won’t be able to recover and your workout will quickly go to shit.
- Rest at the bottom of the rep. You’re not doing yourself any good standing around, at least at the bottom your halfway through the rep.

For the in-between:
- IF you need to pause for 5 seconds in between reps DO NOT bend over, put your hands on your knees and attempt to catch your breath. Stand-up, put your hands behind your head and take deep breathes. This will help open up your chest and allow more air into your lungs.

Best of luck to everyone participating! If you disagree with anything, I’m happy to discuss in the comment sections!

 

[rom1974]

@musicforerunner the hunched over holding knees position is the instinctive one for a reason. no need to force upright postures. it’s just a tactic to hide weakness, but has no benefit.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/pap...plin/266701908ca34f385ba936517dbf055da35941fd

 

[coffeeflunger]

@rom1974 Thank you for this. Also referred to as the tripod position in the medical world.

 

[pilgrim10]

@rom1974 Came here to say that.

 

[musicforerunner]

@rom1974 I appreciate you posting this! I may have been ill informed. I plan on reading it this week!

 

[pantelejmon]

@rom1974 Squatting down and putting your hands behind your head is the best recovery position

Edit: There’s a smaller hydraulic head if lower elevation change and raising your arms allows your diaphragm to expand completely.

 

[breeaug]

@musicforerunner Great advice, but a slight nit pick on that last paragraph. In actuality leaning over hands on knees could be a better way to recover. At least as far as heart rate goes. May not matter in 5 seconds and my guess is those 5 seconds are negligible either way you go but for more lengthy recovery turnarounds, don’t count out the Michael Jordan style recovery so to speak. I am no expert, but I have always thought hands over head was more, “show no weakness” BS from coaches rather than actually helping recovery. I seem to recover better going hands to knees. Especially hand in knees only breathing through my nose (Oxygen Advantage). Hands over head cause me to over breath and exerts more energy than controlled breathing bent over. Inhaling more oxygen isn’t really what you need it is to get your heart rate down and make sure you are allowing your body to absorb the oxygen you did breathe in (not over breathing through your mouth or too quickly). Although the article below does highlight quantity of oxygen and CO2 expulsion, The Oxygen Advantage really talks more about the balance of CO2 and Oxygen and giving your body time to complete its processes in order to do that efficiently. Not necessarily how much you can breathe in or expel.

https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a19547472/best-way-to-catch-your-breath/

Just something to maybe look into. I am not an expert, but I had seen the men’s health article a while back and it made sense to me. I believe in doing what your body naturally wants to do. We have instinct. And it is there for a reason. In this case I think it is human nature to slump over/forward to recover because it is natural. Then I started watching how elite athletes recover and damn near every single one of them goes hands to knees. Basketball players, football players on the sideline (common to go to knees/into a squat with hands on the ground), sprinters, long distance runners, soccer, etc.

 

[lone_disciple]

@breeaug Someone posted a research paper here not long ago, and hands on your knees was something like 30% faster for heart rate recovery.

 

[thetravman]

@musicforerunner I can't decide whether I want to scale or not. While I can snatch 65#, it's close to my max, but it's only about 60% of my C&J. So do I do the RX weight and clean and jerk it, or do the scaled weight and snatch it? This is my first ever Open.

 

[jpett]

@thetravman I'd say do the whole open scaled and try to get a good baseline that way.

If youre unsure about your snatches at that weight the C&J will not feel good either because you'll hold the bar for much longer.

Unless you do the super fast version that launches from the clean's dip landing but that's probably not the technique you use for your 60% 1RM

 

[livingstreamer]

@thetravman Why not both! Your similar to me (except I’m those stats on 95lbs) I will do a “official” Rx version tonight for a score - prob only get 5 rounds. Then on Sunday I’m going to do it scaled just for a good workout.

As you said may be one of the few you can do RX so might as well go for it and have good score + you will beat every person who scales by doing just 1 rep.

 

[shnoudashnouda]

@thetravman I definitely wouldn’t snatch it regardless of which version you do. I’d probably only go for snatches if the weight were around 50% of my 1RM power snatch. A C&J is just going to be much less taxing. So unless the weight is basically negligible you’ll make up more time taking less rest time with C&Js. That being said you can always start with a harder version and ease up. I did my first 2 rounds as touch and go C&Js while I was fresh to give the bar less time to bounce around. Than I switched to fast singles

 

[thetravman]

@shnoudashnouda Snatches, even light ones really take it out of me, so I'm starting to think I'll go scaled and do C&J

 

[jesusbecoming]

@thetravman I'd warm up both and probably try 1 round of each to see what feels better. I thought I'd go 2rounds snatch/2 round C&J, repeat. When I got to C&J they felt far tougher, and they were slower so I went only snatches. I had the weight scaled down so I use my arms a bit to muscle up the snatch and it seemed to work for this workout. Your results may vary, but I give each a chance.

 

[victorblack]

@thetravman I snatched round 1...quickly switched to c&j at round 2 and on.

 

[homeschoolmomd]

@musicforerunner I’m 12 weeks pregnant, and it’s going to be interesting trying this workout tonight. There isn’t much a bump to protect yet, so I’m not too worried about barbell other than breathing. I like your advice on trying to step down/step up approach for the burpees because my cardio is what is absolutely shot. I’ll be surprised if I finish finish the workout, but hey... it’s my 10th open so why not.

 

[imlove]

@homeschoolmomd I'm 21 weeks and I'm doing it with "no push up" burpees. Hitting the ground on burpees was one of the earlier modifications I made during pregnancy. I'll be doing the open workouts this year just for fun, as I will probably have to modify most of them. Good luck mama! Listen to your body.

 

[musicforerunner]

@homeschoolmomd Kick some ass tonight! The step method helped with recovery too actually. The snatches were light for me so I sprinted the and recovered during the burpees, while still moving quickly. I did not finish but I was into round 9.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes for you!

 

[kchorne]

@musicforerunner Do you suggest splitting into snatches and CandJs? Maybe 4-4 per round? Barbell movements are weaker for me so I’m definitely worried about muscle fatigue

 

[jpett]

@kchorne I broke 4-4 from the start and I think it's much better.

Forearms are under load the whole workout almost so it's good to alleviate that a little by breaking.