Open Workout 16.1 looked like a disaster when it was announced last year. From a pure logistical standpoint, it was hard to fathom how gyms like ours would be able to accommodate large numbers of athletes when they would need wide lanes to do lunges with barbells overhead. We scrambled around on the night of the announcement, trying to get the gym set up the best we could. The next night, we ran as many heats as necessary so that everyone who had signed up for the Open was able to get the workout completed.
I also learned from 16.1 that Crossfit athletes hate lunges. (Note: To be fair, Crossfit athletes seem to hate holding barbells overhead as well, so making them do overhead lunges was kinda the perfect storm of movements they don't like. Also, they had to listen to Dave Castro for like five minutes, so they were already in a terrible mood.) Lunges look so simple, but they are devastatingly effective at destroying your legs. The workout scheduled for Thursday night included a lot of lunges while holding a barbell (no need to keep it overhead this time). It had a lot of light squats thrown into the mix as well. Everyone at our gym got ready to walk funny on Friday. Here's the WOD:
"Groundhog Day"
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Front squats (65/45)
Back squats (65/45)
*After completing each round of front squats and back squats, athletes must lunge for 8 mats (approximately 48 feet)
That was a very light weight for both the front squats and back squats, but then you had to withstand this feeling between rounds:
TIMEOUT!
Because we would all be lunging with a barbell in this WOD, I figured there might be some space issues for the second night in a row. I arrived early to see the heavily-attended 6:30 class complete this workout. The coaches had come up with an elegant solution to the space issue. Each athlete would measure how many lunges they would typically take to complete 48 feet. Then instead of running into each other with their barbells, they would do that many lunges in place between rounds. Hey, as long as I didn't have to worry about other people's barbells colliding into mine, I was a happy camper.
The 7:30 class wasn't as big of a draw as the 6:30 class. After watching 17 athletes lunge in place during that earlier class, I was kinda happy to see that only 4 of us would be inhabiting the gym during the final class of the day. It was only me, Andrew C, Noel, and Tia Gainz. With only four of us in attendance, we could pair up and each take half of the gym, lunging 4 mats forward and 4 mats back to our starting spot.
Of all the issues I had with Wednesday night's WOD, I couldn't claim that back pain was one of them. That didn't mean I was now unconcerned about it. If my back seized up during these lunges like it had on Tuesday night, I'd be in deep trouble. So as I thought about how I wanted to approach this workout, my focus was on stability, not speed. I could try and be speedy on the light squats, but it was going to be slow and steady on the lunges. My other goal for this workout was to do the whole thing without putting the barbell down. Why? Because everyone who didn't put the barbell down earlier in the day seemed to be getting extra credit on the KOP blog and I wanted some love as well.
LC was subbing in for Giulz, but there wasn't a lot that she had to cover for us in the warmup. We went over front squats and back squats using a PVC pipe. We would typically go from there to warming up with a barbell, but the RX weights for this workout were only slightly more than the empty barbell, so the next step was to try out the weight we were using for the WOD. As for the lunges, LC explained to us that we could hold the barbell any way we liked. We could hold it in the front rack, we could hold it in the back rack (my choice because we were lunging directly after the back squats), or we could hold it overhead (Andrew actually asked if he could do it this way). The only rules were that our back knee had to touch the ground, our hips had to completely open when we stood up, and we couldn't shuffle our feet to move ahead in the lunges. (I ended up shuffling my feet after almost every lunge to ensure I was stable, but I shuffled them forward then backward so that I didn't gain an advantage.)
Tia and I decided to work from the back of the gym, while Noel and Andrew started at the front of the gym. I was facing Andrew and Tia was facing Noel. There was no doubt that Andrew was going to blaze through this workout, so I tried to ignore how fast he was moving. I couldn't even keep up with him on the first round of squats, the only part of the WOD where I thought I might be as fast as him. We did 10 quick front squats, popped the barbells on to our backs, completed 10 fast back squats, and took off lunging down the gym. LC had put some buffer in between the turnaround points for Andrew/Noel and me/Tia. It was still possible to bump into your counterpart if you arrived at the middle area at the same time, so if you were a lunge behind as you neared the common area, it was best to slow down for a second and let the other person go. This is all a fancy way of saying that every time I saw Andrew lunging in my direction, I made sure to stay out of his way.
Surprisingly, the most tricky aspect of this workout came at the end of each series of lunges. The barbell was on my back as I lunged and now I had to transfer it to my front rack to begin the front squats. I guess I didn't put much thought into the fact that I use a narrower grip for my front squats, because it was really awkward holding the barbell once I popped it over my head to the front of my body. In the early rounds, I got the barbell to my front rack and adjusted my grip there. As I grew tired in the later rounds, I popped the barbell over my head and brought it down to my waist, where it was much easier to fix my grip. Then I'd bring it back to my front rack from there.
Samson using photo magic to make me look like a real athlete
I was lost in my own little world for most of this workout. I plugged along through the rounds of 10, 9, 8, and 7. When I got to the round of 6, I started experiencing pain, but where I was hurting turned out to be another surprise. The pain was in the upper shelf of my back. The barbell weight had sounded light enough that I didn't think I'd have to worry about the toll it would take on the area where I'd be holding it. Wrong! This wasn't the sharp, "maybe I have an injury" type of pain I had experienced in my lower back. This was more of a not-so-serious, "just put the barbell down and you'll instantly feel better" type of pain. Only problem was that I told myself I wasn't putting the barbell down until the workout was over. I'd need to suck it up for 6 more rounds.
I was probably on the round of 4 when Andrew finished up the WOD. A couple minutes later, Noel was done as well. That left me and Tia Gainz to lunge side by side at the far end of the gym. I wasn't sure what round she was on, but it started to seem like we were lunging down and back at the same time. Maybe we were on the same round. I was on the last part of my final round, lunging towards the finish line. I stepped over it and was relieved to get that barbell off of my back. Tia finished seconds after me and I crawled over to her to congratulate her on a job well done. Final time: 16:14.
Lunge buddies, unable to walk at the end of the workout
I wasn't keen on walking around for a minute or two after this WOD was over, but I didn't feel too bad later that evening and I was walking normally the next day. That was a big deal because I was definitely going to need my legs at the Friday nooner.
Friday preview: Large sets of deadlifts lead to yet another back flareup. Banded bar muscle-ups leave their mark.
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