CrossFit Open 14.1 Tips
Today (28/02/2014) I did the CrossFit Open 14.1 workout and thought I would share my tips and thoughts:
Equipment
For the men I recommend using a 15kg bar with 2 x 10kg plates. The smaller diameter of the bar will make it easier to grip for the high repetitions. A 15kg bar with 2 x 5kg weight is the best option for women if you want to do the snatch from the floor.
It would be interesting to see if the shortened range of motion (small weights and only taking the bar just below the knees) would be quicker than pulling from the floor?
As the workout goes on your arms become a heavy and it can be tricky to keep tension is a thin rope. Personally I think using a slightly thicker rope makes sense for this workout. It is easier to keep tension in a slightly thicker rope, as you do not need to turn it as fast. You might also consider using a rope that is slightly longer than usual. As you arm fatigue most people will laterally raise their arms when doing DU’s. As the arms move away form the body the length of the rope under foot shortens. A slightly longer rope may give you some more room for error here.
Shoes – I’m not a fan of skipping in Olympic lifting shoes, my inov-8’s worked fine for this one
Double Unders
Love them or hate them just get them done as quickly as you can. Jump high and whip your wrist at a steady and calm pace. Don’t try to do them too fast as tripping on the rope will be time expensive.
Snatch
Treat the bar with respect. It might be a lightweight but the number of repetitions will challenge your technique
– Move fast and try to muscle snatch the bar as long a possible. The muscle snatch is the quickest way to take the bar from the floor to the lockout position. When your muscle snatch start to fatigue the power snatches with minimal knee bend is you next go to.
– Aim to bring the bar down to the hips before taking it back to the floor. Lowering the bar from your hips to the floor will help build tension in the glutes and hamstrings instead of smoke your lower back.
– Try not to drop the bar and do all 15reps unbroken (UB) if you can. If you know you cannot do 15UB reps you want to minimize how many time you drop the bar. Ideally you want to use the eccentric tension to help with the next lift.
– If you need a short rest during the snatches try to do it with the bar overhead. The stored energy from lowering the bar and the time saved by not needing to recover the bar will be a massive gain.
The WOD
I was aiming for 6 rounds and thought :90sec per round was a good target to aim for. The first couple of rounds were smooth and I managed to do them unbroken and on time. After the second set of snatches my arms felt heavy and my 3rd set of DU were a disasteras I could not spin the rope with the required speed. I made the wrong choice of using a thin rope and I have the whip marks to prove it.. DOH.
I also started breaking up the snatches in the third round in an attempt to give my arms a short rest. The 10minutes quickly passed and I ended up a little short of my target (5 rounds + 10 DU).
I hope some of my tips are useful for your attempt at 14.1.
Best of luck.