Thanks for checking out our tips and strategy for this weeks workout – 15.3.
My first impression of this workout is lungs and shoulders. There are two big range of motion movements in the Muscle-ups and Wall Ball that are going to create a large metabolic demand and a reasonably big set of Double-unders which will could finish you off if you’re not careful with your pacing, not to mention the compounding effect that all three movements are going to have on the shoulders.
Muscle-ups: As discussed on the broadcast, I would avoid failure in these at all costs and also consider the effect of pushing the boundaries of the muscle up on later movements in the workout. For people who are quite proficient at Muscle-ups I don’t see any great advantage of breaking up the first set but from then on you will need to continually monitor your level of cardio vascular and localized muscular fatigue so that you can make wise decisions about the size of your sets.
Assuming that you are reasonably proficient in the WB and DU, the MU’s are where a lot of time will be gained or lost. Pick your best pacing strategy to get you through each set of MU’s in a timely fashion.
If you’re breaking up the sets of MU I suggest that you drop off the rings when you still have one rep left in the tank (unless you only have one to go of course), this will see you recover quickly and you’ll be able to get back up on the rings sooner with less chance of failure.
Another tactic that has worked well for me in the past is to have 2 sets of rings set up – one high set for bigger sets of kipping MU’s and one lower set for doing singles in false grip.
My strategy will be to kip the MU’s without false grip while ever they are still flowing nicely but once I get to the point of having to take large rest breaks between sets, I will revert to singles with false grip. This will keep me moving and allow me to utilise a bit more upper body strength which will hopefully take some of the slack off of my cardio vascular system.
Wall Ball: My suggestion is to break these into achievable sets with small and accountable rest breaks. I’ve used this strategy in past Open workouts (150 WB, 90 DU, 30 MU) where I did sets of 10 right from the start and simply used the time it takes the ball to settle as my rest break. This keeps me accountable and keeps my metabolic and muscular fatigue in check.
I would only suggest to do otherwise (big sets or unbroken sets) if you’re the type of beast that does Karen unbroken – even then, consider the effect of this decision on the other movements.
Double-unders: Even if you could do these UB, I still recommend that you break these strategically. I plan to do 50-30-20 right from the start. You only have to rest for a few seconds to recover quite a bit from these size sets and you will only be a bit slower than someone who did the set UB but will be a lot more composed going into the next set of Muscle-ups.
You will lose a lot more time in heavily broken sets of MU’s than you will by strategically breaking up the sets of DU’s.
As always, don’t let the little things let you down, double know your laces, use the right rope, tape up where necessary and have all of your equipment spaced out in a logical order. Good luck – Chris!
Chris Saliba is the co-owner of Coastal CrossFit Queensland and has competed at the Australia Regional 3 times and was the 2013 state weightlifting champion in the under 69′s. For more info, check us out a www.coastalcrossfit.com.au
