The Open has come to an end and regular training resumes. It has been a lot of fun and members of Defy have pushed themselves hard through 5 difficult workouts. Using experiences gained in the Open can help us progress further in our fitness.
I don’t believe that the Open is the be-all-end-all and that everyone should make it a 100% priority to focus on it. There’s a lot of areas of fitness that arent covered by the Open and there are plenty of other sports to use your fitness in.
However, we can take the workouts and dissect where we are lacking in our fitness.
- Strength – There is without a doubt a level of strength required to do well in these workouts. A 185lb (male) and a 135lb (female) deadlift needed to be pretty comfortable to be able to finish 20.3. That means performing sets of 3-5reps during strength training at 20-40lbs more than those weights at a minimum. Building strength takes time.
- Gymnastics – Every year the TTB, HSPU, Pull up and Muscle Up are tested in some variation. Being able to perform 1 rep of these movements is already an awesome achievement, but it won’t get you through some of these workouts. Building volume and density in a non-fatigued state are required before introducing them into workouts like the Opens.
- Weightlifting – The Snatch and the Clean&Jerk usually pop up in some form. Weightlifting is different when a part of a workout than when done traditionally for 1-3reps. An understanding of both is needed. In 20.4 the lighter reps required faster cycling and the heavier weight required a more deliberate technique.
- Skills – Double Unders, Box Jumps, Defy Functional Fitnesss, Burpees etc. are all skills you need to be efficient in order to be able to do well at them when you are fatigued. Some skills are simple, like Burpees (but efficiencies can still be found) and some skills are more difficult, like Double Unders. Skills require practice and everyone can make progress pretty quickly.
- Engine – This is the first thing that is needed but often the last on people’s priority list. Having all the strength and all the skills is great but if you can’t breathe whilst you’re moving at high intensity then you will be average at best. Being aerobically fit helps you to recover between workouts, recover during workouts (ie. between heavy lifts) and stay in control (mentally and physically) whilst doing a workout. The 3 energy systems are used in many ways in different workouts. The body needs to be able to work in all of them.
The Open itself is pretty limited in the movements that can be tested. Generally, these movements need to use equipment that is common across the world, able to be performed in a gym where the can be videoed and have a standard that can be common amongst all athletes. A rope climb or sled push, for example, is very unlikely to ever show up. There are a thousand different kinds of rope (some slippy or grippy, some thick or thin) and gyms come in all different heights. The variance between gyms would be too great to have an even playing field.
Even with the limited movement pool, there is still a lot of things that need mastering to be good at these workouts. Let’s have a look at a simple Handstand Push Up and see what is required to be able to do these well:
- A basic understanding of body position, the tuck and the tilt of the hip, how to stack the shoulders over the hands and maintain a tight hollow whilst upside down.
- Being able to do multiple sets of 60s in a good solid handstand hold
- Being strong in a bodyweight push-ups. 10-20reps should be a good goal but also maintaining a perfect body position in the reps too.
- Building up to bodyweight in the Strict Press and being comfortable in pike HSPU for 10reps+
- Now we can start to build the Strict HSPU working up to sets of 10+
- Learning the skill of the kipping HSPU and building volume, then adding some moderate breathing work, like a steady bike between sets
- Once we get good at them, reps are solid and sets can be done whilst breathing heavy, we can introduce them into workouts that have other movements that fatigue the shoulder (like OHS or DU) and build more volume
- Now your HSPU are good to go in big sets in a typical Open workout
The above order isn’t perfect and more complexity could be added, especially working the basics more. Some of this will transfer to other movements too. Understanding our body position and working basic gymnastics progression (hollow rocks, kip swings etc) will never be wasted.
I think everyone always needs to work on all of the elements of fitness always but you may be lacking in one area particularly. It could be strength, conditioning or maybe your weightlifting. Have a look at the gym leaderboard. Was there one workout you did worse than the others in? What was the limiting factor? Spending extra time on this will help your overall fitness for sure.
Coming up with a plan by yourself isn’t easy which is why our coaches are on hand to help. Book a session and we can build a plan. This can be good data for us to roll out Speciality Programs in the New Year.
Next week I will talk about picking events to focus your training on and help you stay motivated.