The CrossFit Open 18.2 Tips: When Round 7 = Halfway 😳
Yea.
And newsflash: You need to prepare yourself.
Ascending ladders are a special kind of mindfuck. Throw in a strength component at the end of a hard and fast cardio WOD and most athletes are donezo. Compile that with the fact that you only have 12:00. And that burpees literally take your breath away. And that now these new standards are here and you can’t use the step-one-foot-up trick when completing your bar facing burpees.
I know, I know- that doesn’t instill much confidence does it? I’m just trying to prepare you for what those 12:00 are going to entail.
So how do you make sure that you do well on 18.2 AND 18.2a?
Walk with me… I’ve got all your 18.2 tips.
The Warm-up
Let’s start from the beginning. You need to make sure that your engine is already going- AND that your are warmed up for your clean.
Perform a warmup that will get you sweaty- like:
3x
1:00 Assault Bike (moderate speed)
15 Air Squats
10 Deadlifts with an empty bar
5 Yoga Push-ups
Then go into a barbell warmup to a weight that you know you can hit but that’s pretty heavy for you- which should be around 85-90% of your 1RM.
The Set-up
There are 2 options:
- You can set the dumbbells up so that you are perpendicular to the bar. Then all you have to do is clean them up, squat, set them down and roll them to the side before starting your burpees. (But do keep in mind that you will have to step of your bar to get back to them on those odd numbers).
- Set the dumbbells up at the end of your bar. Then you can clean them up, squat, set them down, step over so that you’re perpendicular to your bar. Burpee. Step back to dumbbells.
If you are wondering what the difference is then time yourself before officially starting. Complete 2-3 rounds (one of each option) and see if you felt more comfortable or noticed a significant time difference.
The Execution
Start standing in between your dumbbells.
3, 2, 1, Go! Squat cleaning them is not allowed. You can muscle clean them and then squat. The rep starts from the top.
From there set the dumbbells aside and step perpendicular to your bar to burpee.
Repeat.
The key here is to maintain a quick and efficient pace. I don’t care if you can finish round 7 (28) in 2 minutes. You still have just as many reps to do in rounds 8, 9 and 10 (27). Okay so it’s ALMOST as many reps. One way to attack this is by thinking of what set you are going to go to before you take a brief pause to breathe.
And once you finish try to be on the bar attempting your first lift within a minute.
On to cleaning.
Again- your starting weight should be a heavy weight you know you can hit.
Work up as you feel comfortable to a weight that is around 95% of your 1RM.
From there take brief pauses and make gradual increases toward a higher weight instead of taking a lot pause and adding a lot of weight. (Example: 155. Brief pause. 165. Brief pause. 175 is suggested over 155. Long pause. 175. Long pause. 205.)
A way to go about this is by adding weight every :15-:20 or so.
Takeaways
I took a second to ask Head Coach of Reebok CrossFit Miami Beach from Jason Woolley for his top insights and he suggested the following.
- Don’t kill yourself on the burpees
- Don’t rest in a squat
- Stay steady
I agree. It’s likely that you are going to fare better on one of these so use that to your advantage- but still try to make sure you have a good showing in the other.
This workout is pretty straight forward in terms of execution and a true test to the well-roundedness of cardio and strength for the athlete. After all- CrossFit is the speciality of not specializing so if you can hit middle of the pack for both then you’re doing it right. Now you just have to make everything faster and heavier.
Until Monday night I will be wishing you all the fastest burpees ever, quads of steel, the lungs of 100 Sam Briggs’ and multiple PR-gasams.
