The dumpster fire that is the 2017 Crossfit Games Open continued on Thursday night as the live announcement of workout 17.2 took place. There was all sorts of controversy regarding 17.1 because the terrible Crossfit Games website crashed repeatedly over the weekend, forcing HQ to extend the deadline for score submissions by two days. Then came Thursday night. Apparently no one checked the audio because there was no sound coming from Rogue Headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. For a time, it looked like we might have to read Dave Castro's lips to know what the workout would be, but they finally got the glitch repaired by the time Castro's big reveal took place. What was on tap this week? More dumbbells (the unofficial theme of the 2017 Open). No double unders (at least one more week to practice those!). Plenty of gymnastics (guess it's good to get toes-to-bar and bar muscle-ups out of the way in one workout). Here are the details:
Open Workout 17.2
AMRAP in 12 minutes
2 rounds of:
50 ft DB walking lunge (50/35)
16 toes-to-bar
8 DB power cleans (50/35)
Then 2 rounds of:
50 ft DB walking lunge
16 bar muscle-ups
8 DB power cleans
*DBs are held in a front rack position during the lunges
**1 rep given for every 5 ft of lunges completed
***Tiebreaker time based on completion of last full round
When I watched the live announcement, they gave some good tips concerning the DB movements. The DBs could be held on your shoulders (this would be the most natural way to hold them), but you could also hold them vertically on your traps. It would take more finagling to get them in a comfortable position if you went this second route, but the good news was that it would save your grip. And the rest of this workout was very grip intensive. The other tip revolved around the DB power cleans. The last DB power clean would set you up for the DB lunges, so if you needed to take a break, it was better to take it after 7 reps. You could then take a break and let the 8th rep set you up for the walking lunge. This mirrored the strategy we use when doing the workout called DT. It was a valid strategy for people who were going to do a lot of rounds. But for people like me who couldn't do bar muscle-ups, it was probably a bad strategy, at least for the end of round two. Thousands and thousands of people were going to end up with a score of 78 in this workout (34 reps x 2 rounds + 10 reps for walking lunge to start round three) and the only thing that would separate them would be their tiebreaker time. If you did 7 power cleans at the end of round two, then rested before doing the 8th power clean, you were letting a ton of people waltz on by you. When I got to this point of the workout, there was no doubt I'd be doing all 8 power cleans, even if I had to take a break and do an extra power clean to start round three. The tiebreaker time was just too important in this workout.
Three weeks ago, I participated in the muscle-up clinic. Both Theresa and Kevin B were in the same group as me and it was clear that they were going to have bar muscle-ups very soon. Kevin actually got his first one before the clinic was over, while Theresa came very close several times over. On Friday morning, each of them did 10 bar muscle-ups as part of 17.2. I guess when it clicks, it clicks. Theresa was the only one in the early classes to get her first bar muscle-up, but plenty of other folks were able to get their first toes-to-bar. That list included Ben M, Tori, Meggan, Ina, Katie, Meredith, Tim H, and Justin D.
I planned on getting to the gym earlier this week than I had in week 1, hopefully ensuring my place in a heat before the masses arrived. I was perfectly happy getting the workout done and then spending the rest of the evening judging/cheerleading. There was a 99% chance of my final score being 78, so the only mystery was what my tiebreaker time would be. I had hoped to get to the gym by 4pm, but I wasn't able to make it there until about 4:30. That ended up being early enough as most of the heats had plenty of vacancies still. I watched the heat that was taking place and saw Noel working through a set of lunges. I knew Noel could do bar muscle-ups, so the tiebreaker wasn't going to be important to him. However, he was having a very difficult time with the lunges, putting down the DBs several times. Having the ability to do bar muscle-ups wasn't going to do him any good if he couldn't get back to the bar. I had my first cheerleading duty of the day. I started chirping to Noel that he had to go all out to get through these lunges done so that he could show off his bar muscle-ups. He gave himself enough time to complete 6 bar muscle-ups before time was called.
I started to get warmed up and spent some talking with Alicia. She looked frustrated as she was getting ready. She told me that she was close to getting a bar muscle-up, but couldn't quite get over the bar. She did a couple of attempts in front of me and the girl was not lying. She really just needed to rotate over the bar faster and she had it. I had the same issue. Everyone always preached how you needed to get your hips to the bar and then rotate over. Well I had that first part down, but I couldn't commit to swinging my body over the bar with the velocity that was necessary to secure myself there.
There was one more heat before I would have my chance at 17.2. In that heat, I watched Mooney do bar muscle-ups in a much different way than everyone else. His hips were nowhere near the bar as he floated through one bar muscle-up after another. He barely had his chin over the bar before he used his upper body strength to pull his body up and over the bar. It was unfair, yet totally impressive. He made it all the way into the second round of bar muscle-ups before time was called.
It was time for my heat. I tested out how the 50 pound DBs felt as I held them in the front rack before attempting a few of the power cleans I'd be doing at the end of each round. Those felt awkward. It wasn't the weight as much as the movement. We don't do a lot of DB cleans at the gym, so doing fast cleans with heavy DBs was going to be new territory for me. I was lined up next to Brian S for this heat, with Gordy and Samson further to my right. The heat began and I felt very comfortable with the lunges. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that the four guys were all moving in sync. I reached the turnaround point, pivoted, and began marching back to the pull-up rig. Gordy did the same thing, with Samson and Brian just a step behind us. I got back to where I started and dropped my DBs. The easy part was over. The tough stuff was about to begin.
I took way too much time transitioning to the toes-to-bar. I was worried about where my DBs were, so I took a few seconds to move them. Then I wasn't sure which way I wanted to face. By the time I jumped up to start my set, I was behind all three of the guys next to me. Then I botched the rhythm of the toes-to-bar. Instead of punching my feet down to get a quick kip going, I began doing a loosey-goosey pendulum swing. I should have dropped down from the bar after that first rep and started over so I could use the kip, but I didn't want to drop after only one rep. I kept doing that pendulum swing until I reached 10 reps. It was much slower doing it that way, something that was made obvious when Samson, Gordy, and Brian headed to their DBs for the power cleans. I had 6 more reps to go which I completed by doing two more sets of three pendulum swings. The three guys were already lunging away from me as they started their second round. I got to my DBs and did 7 power cleans. I wasn't looking down as I tried to hit the floor with the head of the DBs which explains why I nailed my feet several times at the bottom of the reps. (Note: This was the second week in a row of me crushing my feet with DBs. Last week, I was dropping the DBs from overhead late in the workout and they were bouncing on to my feet. I should know better than to drop DBs like that, but I was tired and everyone else was doing it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
The 8th power clean would lead directly into my second round of lunges. This round did not feel nearly as easy as the first one did, but I was much happier about doing lunges than toes-to-bar or power cleans. I set the DBs down at the turnaround point for a brief breather, then lunged back to the pull-up rig. When I jumped up to the high bar this time, I reminded myself to kick down for the kip. I got 3 good reps before dropping to the floor. I did that once more before failing on the third rep of my third set. I was switching to the low bar for the final 8 reps. I did singles as fast as I could, knowing that my tiebreaker time was getting worse and worse the longer I spent doing toes-to-bar. I finished rep #16 and got over to my DBs. I sprinted through the 8 power cleans as if they were the last thing I needed to do in this workout. For scoring purposes, that was mostly true. I finished the second round at 6:01, meaning I had almost 6 minutes to lunge across the gym and back before pretending that I could do a bar muscle-up.
I was no longer in any hurry. I took a break before lunging across the gym. When I got there, I put the DBs down and joked around with a few of the guys before picking them back up and completing my last set of lunges. I took some time underneath the pull-up rig to catch my breath. Might as well recover first if I was going to make some real efforts at getting my first ever bar muscle-up. With about three and a half minutes remaining, I took my first shot at it. My hips were high, but the low bar gave me the Mutombo. I made a few more attempts but there was no change in the outcome.
Noel seemed convinced that I was going to get a bar muscle-up because he appeared in front of me with a camera in his hands ready to capture the moment. I got some really good advice from Olan, who told me that the reason I was getting rejected by the bar was because I was pulling the bar to my chest rather than to my hips. I didn't realize I was doing that until he said something. It made sense that I was making this mistake because I was trying to pull myself in to rotate over the bar quickly. That wasn't the way to get a bar muscle-up. I needed to push down on the bar, then use my kip and some core strength for the rotation. Pulling in on the bar for the rotation was simply going to leave me with a bunch of bruises on my chest.
I had a couple more close calls, but time was running out. Jason came over and gave me some more good advice, although his advice was part-joke, part-serious. He told me to try the chicken wing, the method where you throw one side of your body over the bar then try to pull the other side up once you've gotten half of your body over. I hadn't tried that because I didn't think I had the strength to pull it off (although upon further reflection, this seems like the perfect style for someone lopsided like myself). Jason told me I needed to throw the right side of my body over the bar as hard as I could. How hard? "Dislocate your shoulder...it will be worth it!" Those were the words I heard with a little over 30 seconds left to go. Normally that sentiment would sound crazy to me. But having tried everything else, I kinda shrugged my shoulders and decided to give it a shot. On my first attempt, I got the right side of my body over the bar and for a second I thought I might have finally done it. The left side of my body was way too low though and I had to come back down. With less than 15 seconds left, I needed to hurry to get one last attempt in. I threw the right side of my body forward as hard as I could and this time I got further over the bar. If only my right hand didn't slip as I rotated over. I finished 17.2 with my arms draped over the bar, wondering what might have been if I had spent the entirety of those three and a half minutes attempting to dislocate my shoulder. Oh well. Final score: 78 (Tiebreaker time of 6:01).
I wasn't in a hurry to have a post-workout drink, but someone handed me a beer as I watched the next heat. I spent some time yelling at Jason in hopes that he'd get the bar muscle-up I couldn't. Then I finished up my cheerleading with Keely, who was visiting us from Canada. She had a plan of doing 1 toes-to-bar every 30 seconds and try as I might, I couldn't get her to ditch her plan, even when time was running out on her. She didn't make it through all 16 reps, but she had a smile on her face after the workout was over.
The next heat was the "78 heat", as six of the seven athletes ended up with that magical score of 78. I judged Matt B during this heat, the second week in a row I got to cheer him on. There were some very high scores in the next heat. A lot of the focus was on Maggie and rightly so. She would beat Aimee with a score of 125. But quietly working at the other end of the gym was Andrew, who simply destroyed this workout with a final score of 162.
My second turn at judging came in the next heat as I agreed to be Mark Stipa's scorekeeper. Mark was very quick through the lunges and his kip on the toes-to-bar was strong. Even when he missed on a rep, he'd jump back up to the high bar after a short break and started pushing through his next set. His tiebreaker time was almost a full minute better than mine (5:02). Like many of us, he'd be spending the last few minutes of his workout trying to get that elusive first bar muscle-up. After seeing his form on the toes-to-bar, I got the sense that he was going to be the first one in the afternoon to have a bar muscle-up breakthrough. He made a bunch of attempts, but wasn't able to get over the bar. Then, as he grew tired, something happened that I was very familiar with. When he went to pull himself over the bar, his left hand was sliding towards the center of the bar. That was exactly what I used to do when I got tired doing pull-ups. I knew the cause of this problem and I knew the remedy. Mark had a very wide grip that shortened the range of motion necessary for this movement. Except I knew he was strong enough to handle a greater range of motion. And I knew his hand was sliding because when you get tired with a wide grip, one of your hands will slide to the middle of the bar. It's the body's way of saying "narrow your grip". Matt and I told Mark to try and perform the bar muscle-up with a narrower grip. The sliding hand went away. And his attempts were much better. He was also trying the chicken wing and you can see in the photo below how close he was to getting over the bar:
Mark's chicken wing almost got him his first bar muscle-up
I spent most of the next heat reminding Danielle that she could do toes-to-bar, even though she didn't seem to believe it herself. It wasn't until the end of the workout that she seemed to regain her faith, making it through 12 toes-to-bar in under two minutes after spending over 7 minutes doing the first set of 16. Cline was in the same heat and for the second week in a row, I did not get to cheer him on. That doesn't mean there wasn't an epic picture of him doing the workout:
The best pain face in the gym
My last turn at judging took place in the second-to-last heat of the night. I would be judging the meme captain of the Purple Crush team, Kris. She was pretty understated when I asked her how she felt going into the workout, so I didn't have a good sense of how she would do on this one. Turned out she would do just fine. She had no issues with either of the DB movements. When it came to the toes-to-bar, she took her time and did singles. She had some misses along the way, each one punctuated by an F-bomb. But even the misses were very close. As she did her toes-to-bar, I kept an eye on Esra, who was working behind her. She was trying to get her first toes-to-bar. Unfortunately, she didn't get it, but like Kris, her misses were not far off.
The clock started to become an issue as Kris was wrapping up her second round of toes-to-bar. It seemed like she was going to finish the toes-to-bar before the clock struck 12, but I wasn't sure if she'd make it through the power cleans to end round two. And if she got through those, would she have enough time to do all of the lunges and get a 78? When she got her 16th toes-to-bar, I urged to hurry to her DBs and do all 8 power cleans. She was able to hold on through all of those, leaving under 40 seconds left to lunge. I knew she would need a break after the power cleans, but I tried to shorten it by counting down a three-second rest period before she had to pick the DBs back up again. She got them up into the front rack and lunged as quickly as she could. She got all the way down to the turnaround point and then made it 60% of the way back to finish with a score of 76.
Kris would sprint through some lunges to complete her 17.2 experience
I mentioned last week that the MVP of week 1 was Meredith. The MVP of week 2 wouldn't take center stage until the last heat of the night. There were 6 people in the final heat, but the focus would narrow down to two of them as the heat went on, with the MVP nearing tears mid-way through the workout.
There was a time when I wrote about LC and Michal all the time because they were working out alongside of me. Nowadays, I tend to write about LC as the leader of Dudes After Dark and I write about Michal as the person who makes fun of me while she's taking a break during her lifting sessions. The Open provides one of the rare times that I can write about them doing Crossfit. They were lined up next to each other in the final heat and it wouldn't take long before everyone's attention was on them. The DB portion of the workout would favor LC and the gymnastics movements would favor Michal. It was no surprise that they would be neck and neck in the final stages of 17.2. But who would come out on top?
LC opened up a huge lead early on. The DB lunges might as well have been air squats. She was efficient with her toes-to-bar and I'm not sure anyone moved faster through the power cleans than she did. Her tiebreaker time at the end of two rounds was an obscene 3:43. She did one more round of lunges and then faced a movement that she's had some recent struggles with: the bar muscle-up. I often see LC doing personal training with Aimee. They're always working on something muscle-up related. Occasionally it is on the rings, but more often it has been over at the bar. Rachel had bar muscle-ups a year ago, getting 3 in the Open workout that required them. After the Open, her focus turned to Olympic lifts and I think lack of practice caused the bar muscle-ups to go away. As this year's Open has drawn closer, she's been practicing off the hook, so I expected her to knock out a bunch of them in this workout.
Michal was still working on her second round of toes-to-bar when LC made her first attempt at a bar muscle-up. She was higher than I was on any of my attempts, but wasn't able to rotate over. That scene was repeated over and over again during the next 2 minutes. LC had the same face that I had on Wednesday night when my double unders disappeared. She looked slightly panicked and very frustrated. Her face was screaming "why is this happening to me right now?"
Michal would finish her second round exactly two minutes after LC, but I became convinced that she was going to end this workout with a higher score. LC looked stuck, while Michal was gradually reeling her in. Michal lunged across the gym and dropped her DBs. LC still didn't have a bar muscle-up. Michal lunged back across the gym to the pull-up rig. That two minute lead was gone and they were essentially tied.
Maybe LC needed her boo's companionship. Maybe she needed to know someone was breathing down her neck. Or maybe she just needed a bunch of practice to get in the groove. Because as soon as Michal made her way to the pull-up rig and drew even with her, LC swung on her bar and catapulted herself up and over it. She finally got a bar muscle-up. And when it happened, the gym exploded. There was a lot of time left in the workout, but people were rushing over to congratulate her. LC looked happy, but also like she wanted to burst into tears. From that point forward, LC would not let Michal draw even with her again. Every time Michal got a bar muscle-up, LC would get one as well. They even did a couple at the same time:
The stars of 17.2 doing synchronized bar muscle-ups
When the clock hit 12 minutes, Michal had done 7 bar muscle-ups for a score of 85. That was a really good score for someone who claims to not do Crossfit anymore. However, it was not enough to come out ahead of the MVP for week 2. LC might have spent several minutes not getting a single bar muscle-up, but when the dust settled, she wound up with 11 of them for a score of 89.
At the end of the night, I was convinced that I wanted to do this again. Most people were complaining about sore butts from the lunges or tired forearms from all of the grip strength required. I wasn't one of them. The lunges felt fine to me and I didn't hang on to the bar long enough to destroy my grip strength. And truth be told, this was really only a 7 minute workout for me because I got nothing done in the last 5 minutes. On the other hand, what was the point of doing this all over again if I was just going to end up with another 78? I decided I'd take the weekend to think about whether or not it was worthwhile to do 17.2 a second time.
Monday preview: I set a deadline for my decision. Will I do 17.2 over again or will I take part in the Monday WOD?
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