Wednesday Back Squats & Back To Basics

OK, friends… the intensity and volume of the Open is now behind us. We spent Monday and Tuesday doing some fun workouts focused on upper push-pull and lower body recovery of sorts (120 wall balls, yuck), so now we dive back into some squat strength work with the return of our 5s and drop sets. Wednesday offers us a simple, yet effective 3-part stimulus to control intensity (nothing crazy here, folks!), get the blood flowing, allow some upper body recovery, and enable those feeling strong and moving well to go heavy-ish below parallel and with the hang power cleans.

The intensity will ramp back up mindfully as we head into the latter half of the week. Let’s go!

WOD For 11-13-19:

On a Running Clock…

A) At 0:00

800m Run:

“You Pick The Pace”

B) From 5:00 - 20:00

Back Squat:

Establish a Heavy Set of 5 (not a 5RM), then…

2 “Drop” Sets of:

1 x 5 @ 85% of top set

1 x 5 @ 80% of top set

If you feel good then add to your top set from 10-28-19.

C) From 22:00 - 32:00

Hang Power Clean:

10 Minutes To Build to a Heavy Triple (not a 3RM)

The Tuesday Pump

Those Open 20.5 wall ball legs still got ya’ down?! We’ll hit one more day of upper push-pull (in a different pushing plane this time) and continue to flush the legs with mono-structural work intermixed into the conditioning stimulus. Should be a fun one for Tuesday’s program before we see the return of squatting in our barbell work through the middle & end of the week.

Enjoy!

WOD For 11-12-19:

With a Partner, As Many Reps As Possible in 16 Minutes:

PARTNER A

12 Dumbbell Bench Presses @ 50/35 lbs (each side)

6 Strict Pull-ups

60 Double Unders

PARTNER B

25/20 Calorie Row, Ski, or Assault Bike

*Partner A completes AMRep of the 12-6-60 triplet while Partner B rows/skis/bikes then athletes switch. 

*The team's score is total reps completed of the triplet PLUS total calories.   

-then-

Weighted Plank Hold:

3 x 0:45 (Rest 1:15 Between Sets)

Open 20.5 Scores Due by 5pm Monday!

Reminder to SUBMIT YOUR 20.5 score to the CrossFit Games website by the deadline of Monday at 5pm. We cannot submit your score for you so if you're reading this just do it now so you don't forget!

WOD For 11-11-19:

Deadlift:

4-4-4-4-4

-then-

5 Rounds For Time:

8 Single Dumbbell Goblet Walking Lunges @ 50/35 lbs

12 Single Dumbbell Hang Cleans to Overhead

16 Box Jumps @ 24/20 in

Switch sides on the DB Hang Clean-to-OH whenever you like.

Venue & Time Change: End of The Open Celebration

A note for those of you not on Facebook or in the private Arena Ready group…

VENUE CHANGE! We’re changing it up and meeting at Harmonic Brewing today (Sunday) from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. Kids and dogs still allowed (they’ll have some food on site), and this way people don’t need to bring anything... plus the colder weather won’t be an issue.

See you there!

Open 20.5 Thoughts & Strategy

REMINDER: Come join us for our “End of Open Picnic Celebration” on Sunday — click here for the original blog post, and click here to RSVP to the event in our private Arena Ready facebook group for members.

Open Athletes - it’s the FINAL WEEK AND FINAL WORKOUT OF THE 2020 OPEN!!! If you haven't already, please watch the 20.5 standards video below (which briefly covers only Rx standards), and read the full workout details here on the CrossFit Games website. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page with movement standards and expectations (both Rx and scaled) prior to every athlete and judge starting their workout/heat.

As we've covered previously in this post here, we'll be running the Open Workout ("20.5") during rolling heats in all of our Saturday morning classes.  If you haven't already please sign-up for class in advance and plan on doing the workout AND judging another athlete while in the gym (no, you do not have to be a certified judge who has taken the judges course).  

For those new to Arena Ready please note that these Saturday morning classes will be very different from our usual protocol.  The warm-up will be self-directed and written on a board for you to follow.  Please plan on showing up 10-15 minutes early for class if possible, so that you can sign-up for a heat time when you arrive and get yourself situated for warming-up. 

If you're not officially entered in the Open then ask a coach on site to help you decide on a reasonable scaling for the workout if needed -- based on availability & logistics we may assign you to a particular station to give priority to the athletes who are officially registered. 

The rest of this post will attempt to break down some strategy based on where your current abilities lie within the parameters of the workout...

I’ve Never Done a Muscle-up, and I’ve Never Been Close to Doing One

For you this workout is all about finishing the row and wall balls as fast as possible for a good tiebreak time (the time at which those two movements are completed). If you have any time left over you’ll have the opportunity to try a muscle-up assuming you have the pre-requisite strength, stability, and mobility to do so. If you don’t, or you simply don’t care to do one or try one, then you’re done! Bank that Rx score of row and wall balls and live to fight another day (or anther year where you come in to Open Gym and finally learn how to do a muscle-up).

How you break-up the row and wall balls is a matter of personal preference and strengths/weaknesses. Easy math would be 4 Rounds of 20 cal and 30 WB, but those of you who like smaller sets may want to take more rounds to complete the work — just make sure you’re not falling into the trap of wasting time with too many transitions (generally speaking any less than 10 calories at a time and you’re likely spending too much time not racking up any reps).

I’ve Never Done a Muscle-up, But I’ve Been Close

If this is you then the strategy is very similar to the first group above EXCEPT that I would recommend giving yourself a chance to get that first MU at the very beginning of the workout when you’re fresh. Give yourself a certain number of attempts OR a certain amount of time (we’re talking no more than 2 minutes or so), and then either way get on with the row and wall balls until completion of those two movements. With any time left over take a quick break to recover, and then if it’s safe & reasonable to attempt another MU rep then go for it. Every successful rep on the rings will jump you ahead of literally thousands of people on the leaderboard, so start the workout by giving yourself a shot at 1 or 2 successful reps — and then try to finish the row & WB with enough time to try again.

I Can Consistently Do Muscle-ups But My Max Set is 5 or Less

Start with muscle-ups and knock out a sub-maximal set (or two) to begin the workout. Then settle in to a pre-determined rep/round scheme that utilizes the row as the “recovery” for both the pressing action of the muscle-up dip and the generally higher intensity demand of the wall balls and rings. There are so many different rep/round combinations you could use here, so you’ll have to know yourself as an athlete and be reasonable about your current capacity — if in doubt err on the side of smaller MU sets, even if they don’t get you to all 40 reps by the end of the row & wall balls (you can just come back to the rings for singles or doubles if/when you finish the row & wall balls). An example of this could be:

5 Muscle-ups (3 then 2)

15 Wall Balls

10 Calorie Row

… repeat for another 7 rounds with the MU reps descending at a reasonable rate you can maintain (e.g. 4-3-3-2-1-1)…

When the Row & Wall Balls are complete attempt singles or doubles on the rings until the 20:00 mark.

I Got Muscle-ups All Day, Fam

If you’re in this group and you’re fit enough to sustain a high work rate for the row and wall balls then this workout is going to HURT YOUR SOUL. The game plan would be similar to the group above but with bigger rep sets on the rings (even as they descend to total 40). An example of this could be:

8-7-6-5-4-4-3-3 Muscle-ups (reps descend in each of the 8 rounds)

15 Wall Balls

10 Calorie Row

There may be a special segment of the higher level competitors who can game it a bit and use a very different strategy to break-up the ring work with super fast transitions and a more intricate rep scheme. An example of this could be:

10 Rounds of:

2 Muscle-ups

8 Calorie Row

2 Muscle-ups

12 Wall Balls

I realize that I stated at the start of this post that 10 calories or less on the rower is wasting too much time in transition, BUT the exception would be a very disciplined/experienced athlete who can hold this repeatable pace and knows how to transition quickly and use the movement breaks to their advantage.

Celebrate Another Year!

That’s it, friends. It will be another year (like for real this time, a full 12 months) until the next Open so enjoy this ending which marks the start of a new era… the Fall Open season. Another year to be grateful that we get to train and workout together, that many of us have come so far, that we all still have work to do, and that we get to do it among friends and cool people. And as all of our lives shift and change, and priorities move around like they tend to do in Life Tetris, we can all still come in to Arena Ready and get after it… not take ourselves too seriously, blow off a little steam, go hard (or just go with what we got that day), and then do it all again in good company the next time. We do the stuff in here so we can be better out there, and we’re grateful for such an amazing community of fit friends and family.

Come out and picnic with us on Sunday (even if you didn’t do the Open)!

WOD For 11-09-19:

“Open 20.5”

For Time, Partitioned Any Way (20 Minute Cap):

40 Ring Muscle-ups

80 Calorie Row

120 Wall Balls @ 20/14 lbs to 10/9 ft

Open 20.5 Announced!

The final workout of the 2020 CrossFit Games Worldwide Open AKA "20.5" was announced on Thursday evening, and for the first time ever we are allowed to partition reps in any fashion!

If you're going to be completing the workout this weekend at Arena Ready (either during the fun craziness of our Open Heats during all Saturday classes, or during Sunday Open Gym) then please start by reviewing the workout details here and watching the standards video below (which covers only the Rx workout, and not the scaled version) - thanks!

REMINDER: Come join us for our “End of Open Picnic Celebration” on Sunday — click here for the original blog post, and click here to RSVP to the event in our private Arena Ready facebook group for members.

WOD For 11-08-19:

On a Running Clock…

A) From 0:00 - 5:00

2 Hang Power Snatches + 1 Overhead Squat:

5 Minutes to Quickly Build to a Working Weight for Part B

B) From 7:00 - 19:00

Alternating EMOM For 6 Rounds (12 Total Minutes):

1) 2 Hang Power Snatches + 1 Overhead Squat

2) 40 Double Unders

C) At 21:00

“Shotgun”

For Time:

50 Burpees

Yami at The 2019 SPS Rite of Passage Meet!

Arena Ready has a long history of competitors in Olympic-style weightlifting, and that tradition will continue with our very own CF Games Open Majority Whip, Yami, competing in her first-ever USA Weightlifting sanctioned event — the 2019 Rite of Passage Meet!

Yami will take the competition platform next weekend with AR coaches and supporters cheering her on, and our friends at Speed Power Strength (SPS) will once again play host to this awesome event which they run every year at their amazing facility. The SPS staff does fantastic job organizing and running one of the most fun weightlifting meets around, so come out & make the short trip over to Oakland to watch some big lifts and cheer for Yami. Meet location is listed below and Yami’s and session start time will be updated on the blog once we receive that info from the organizers. GOOD LUCK, Yami!!!!!

Meet Location:

Speed Power Strength

2140 Livingston Street

Oakland, CA 94606

Yami’s Session Start Time:

TBA in the coming week once the meet organizers send out the info

WOD For 11-07-19:

With a Partner, AMRAP 20 Minutes:

1 Deadlift @ 225/155 lbs

1 Power Clean

1 Front Squat

1 Jerk

*This is a “You go, then I go” format. Complete one FULL round then switch.

*Any style of jerk is allowed (push, power, split).

*If you’re doing this workout unbroken for the entire 20 minutes then either:

A) You should be training for The CF Games and we should talk

… OR (more likely for the rest of us)…

B) You’ve scaled it too light

(Workout inspired by HyperFit)

End of The Open Picnic Celebration This Sunday!

The end of the “2020 CrossFit Games Open” is nearly here, and after we’ve all completed “20.5” this weekend we’ll be celebrating yet another awesome Open with a picnic for fitness friends. We’ll get the festivities started this Sunday at Precita Park around 12pm and will be hanging out for several hours waxing poetic about suffering in workouts and setting the stage of years of talking about that “one time there were TWO Opens in the same calendar year and I just couldn’t even…”

Participation in the Open is not required to come and picnic with your Arena Ready crew (so everyone get your butts down there to be social OK?) and we welcome friends, family, kiddos, and fur babies. Feel free to bring something to snack on, drink, and/or share (no kombucha allowed, sorry not sorry) — and we’ll have some stuff on hand as well for noshing and replenishing your soul which got hurt by 20.5.

WOD For 11-06-19:

4 Rounds For Max Reps (0:45 per movement / 0:15 rest between movements):

Sumo Deadlift High Pulls @ 115/75 lbs

Ring Dips

KB Swings @ 70/53 lbs

Medicine Ball Sit-ups @ 20/14 lbs

(rest 1:15 between rounds)

Tuesday Teamwork Makes The Dream Work

And we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming of “things you would never do by yourself in the gym which is why you come to Arena Ready to suffer in solidarity.” Also known on Tuesday as wall balls, pull-ups, burpee box jumps, and rowing.

Oh, and MATH. Duh.

WOD For 11-05-19:

In Teams of THREE Athletes, As Many REPS As Possible in 22 Minutes of:

Athletes A & B Complete…

33 Wall Balls @ 20/14 lbs to 10/9 ft

22 Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups

11 Burpee Box Jump Overs @ 24/20in (face the box)

Athlete C Completes…

30/24 Calorie Row

*One athlete MUST always be rowing, and MUST always switch after 30/24 calories.

*Reps for the triplet may be split in any fashion (does not have to be equal) with only one athlete working at a time.

*Every calorie on the rower equals one rep added to the team's score from the triplet. Score for the workout is the sum of the triplet reps PLUS the total calories rowed.

Open 20.4 Scores Due By 5pm Monday

Reminder to SUBMIT YOUR 20.4 score to the CrossFit Games website by the deadline of Monday at 5pm. We cannot submit your score for you so if you're reading this just do it now so you don't forget!

ALSO, ANOTHER REMINDER that the construction crew next door will be demolishing our Shotwell driveway starting early on Monday morning, so we’ve been forced to cancel Monday’s 6am, 7am, and 12pm classes — we will be open for Open Gym from 4pm until 8pm. We’ll keep everyone posted here on the blog and in our private Arena Ready facebook group as we learn more. Thanks for your patience.

WOD For 11-04-19:

Open Gym hours from 4pm - 8pm

Open 20.4 Thoughts & Strategy

PLEASE NOTE: Cahill Construction notified us that they will be demolishing our Shotwell driveway starting early on Monday morning, so we are forced to cancel the Monday 6am, 7am, and 12pm classes — with the hope that we can re-open for afternoon and evening classes that day. We’ll keep everyone posted here on the blog and in our private Arena Ready facebook group as we learn more, but for now wanted to notify everyone so that you can plan your training week accordingly. Thanks for your patience.

Open Athletes - if you haven't already, please watch the 20.4 standards video below (which briefly covers only Rx standards), and read the full workout details here on the CrossFit Games website. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page with movement standards and expectations (both Rx and scaled) prior to every athlete and judge starting their workout/heat. Also, remember to record the "tiebreak time" which is what the clock says every time an athlete finishes a round of box jumps AKA STEP-UPS and/or pistols AKA single-leg squats.

As we've covered previously in this post here, we'll be running the Open Workout ("20.4") during rolling heats in all of our Saturday morning classes.  If you haven't already please sign-up for class in advance and plan on doing the workout AND judging another athlete while in the gym (no, you do not have to be a certified judge who has taken the judges course).  

For those new to Arena Ready please note that these Saturday morning classes will be very different from our usual protocol.  The warm-up will be self-directed and written on a board for you to follow.  Please plan on showing up 10-15 minutes early for class if possible, so that you can sign-up for a heat time when you arrive and get yourself situated for warming-up. 

If you're not officially entered in the Open then ask a coach on site to help you decide on a reasonable scaling for the workout if needed -- based on availability & logistics we may assign you to a particular station to give priority to the athletes who are officially registered. 

The rest of this post will attempt to break down some strategy based on where your current abilities lie within the parameters of the workout...

Without intending to oversimplify, this workout boils pretty nicely down to four elements: box jumps, clean and jerks, pistols (or weighted step ups) and wind. As always, managing each component intelligently will yield the most optimal results.

Box Jumps (Step Ups) & Weighted Step Ups:

For nearly everyone, stepping up and stepping down will be the best strategy to manage heart rate, and (if you factor in not needing to take as many breaks) will likely be faster as well. Think: lower heart rate and faster time, i.e. yes please!

As always, especially if you’re doing weighted step ups, be sure to balance which leg you use to step up and also to step down so that one leg doesn’t get disproportionately tired.

If you must jump up, please please please step down.

For those who are likely to max out on the first, second or third barbell (and for those in the 55+ or scaled divisions) the time for completing the box jumps/step ups will form the tiebreaker, so finish those at a reasonable clip as long as it doesn’t interfere with your ability to do the next set of clean & jerks.

Clean & Jerks:

These bars will get HEAVY at some point for pretty much everyone. We clean & jerk a lot at Arena Ready, and recently completed a Friday Barbell Therapy program oriented towards clean & jerks, so hopefully most of us have a pretty solid idea of our metcon and top-end capacity for this movement (at least fresh).

We would recommend warming up to a reasonably heavy single prior to this workout, to get an idea for which bar you’re likely to reach (especially if you think you might be ready to set a new PR). Grab a coach, and see how heavy you can get with near perfect form. From here, you’ll know how long your workout is likely to be (in terms of number of accumulated box jumps and pistols or weighted step ups).

Once you know the actual length of your workout, approach it “for time” rather than as a 20 min AMRAP, and strategize to get the most reps alongside the best tiebreak time you can, based on accumulated fatigue and wind.

No matter how many clean and jerks you do, despite this being the Open, they should all be the best clean and jerks you can muster. Pull from the floor with a stable midline, catch the bar high on your shoulders with your elbows high, lock out your arms on the jerk (keeping your midline stable), and then stand with control (without needing to stagger to get control of the bar). If you’re having trouble, grab a coach and ask for help.

This will hopefully be a cool opportunity to push yourself to do a little more than you would ordinarily do in class, and maybe even surprise yourself a little!

Pistols:

For those able to clear 90 box jumps and the first three bars, a “few” pistols will be waiting to greet you. These are pretty “simple”: just get them done one by one. In preparation be sure to warm up your hips and ankles, and consider rolling out your shins.

This might be a good time to switch to weightlifting shoes as they will help with the pistols and may help with the clean & jerks as well, especially if you’re likely to be squat cleaning. While we don’t think it’s ideal to need knee sleeves all the time, knee sleeves may also be a good choice to help support the knees and potentially improve stamina a little bit.

If you don’t have pistols yet, but think you might be able to get them, it’s ok to try in whatever time you have remaining IFF (that’s short for IF AND ONLY IF) you have no pre-existing knee, hip or back issues and it doesn’t cause you any pain whatsoever to try. This is another opportunity to grab a coach to help if you think you might be able to use this as an incentive to get your first pistols.

Wind:

Pacing will be the final consideration for this workout (and a major one, at that). For those anticipating getting into or past the third bar (but not finishing), avoid the trap that is doing the first two rounds too fast. Yes, you can do 30 box jumps in under a minute. Yes, you can do the first bar in 30 seconds. Sure, you can do Grace sub 3 and therefore the second bar in 90 seconds… but how do you FEEL after doing Grace? Ready to do the rest of your 20 minute workout? Hmmm…. Intentionally backing off a decent amount from your “normal” pace, maybe 10-20% of perceived exertion, or about 15 seconds per set of box jumps or cleans will make the first part of this workout feel far more pleasant, and is also likely to yield much better capacity later on when you haven’t already been gasping for air for the last 10 minutes.

For those who are likely to cap out on or before the third bar, wind may be less of a concern as the total volume will be such that the workout becomes more of a sprint. Still be mindful of not letting the box jump pace exceed your capacity to clean and jerk, but it’s likely ok to push the pace on the box jumps a bit to try to optimize your tie break time. That said, an extra rep trumps a faster tie break time, so strategize accordingly.

Fun!

This is the Open workout I’ve been waiting for my whole life… heavy weight at the end of a chipper, but without any hanging gymnastics movements. Yes PLEASE! I hope we’ve trained you well and that you all enjoy it as much as I think you will :)

WOD For 11-02-19:

“Open 20.4”

For Time (20 Minute Cap):

30 Box Jumps @ 24/20 in

15 Clean & Jerks @ 95/65 lbs

30 Box Jumps

15 Clean & Jerks @ 135/85 lbs

30 Box Jumps

10 Clean & jerks @ 185/115 lbs

30 Single-Leg Squats (alternate sides)

10 Clean & jerks @ 225/145 lbs

30 Single-Leg Squats (alternate sides)

5 Clean & Jerks @ 275/175 lbs

30 Single-Leg Squats (alternate sides)

5 Clean & jerks @ 315/205 lbs

Open 20.4 Announced!

Open workout "20.4" was announced on Thursday evening, and for the first time ever we see pistols in the Open! We have some serious pistol ninjas at Arena Ready, so I think there are more than a few people happy about that… and, of course, nearly everyone here loves them some barbell work and clean & jerks — so that’s always a bonus.

If you're going to be completing the workout this weekend at Arena Ready (either during the fun craziness of our Open Heats during all Saturday classes, or during Sunday Open Gym) then please start by reviewing the workout details here and watching the standards video below (which covers only the Rx workout, and not the scaled version) - thanks!

WOD For 11-01-19:

For Completion and Quality (NOT For Time):

10-8-6-4-2

Snatches

5-4-3-2-1

Ring Muscle-ups

*Any style of snatch is allowed (power, squat, split) and both strict and kipping muscle-ups are allowed

*Alternate between movements (10/5-8/4-6/3-etc...) but rest as needed between movements and sets

*Climb in load as your technique allows (touch-and-go not required)

*Scale mindfully & intelligently for the MU as needed to work on progressing skill level and/or positional strength required for the next step (don't just "go through the motions") -- if MU are "your jam" then do them unbroken and/or strict and with solid technique