Tips and Strategies CrossFit Open WOD 15.4
Complete as many reps as possible in 8 minutes of:
3 handstand push-ups
3 cleans
6 handstand push-ups
3 cleans
9 handstand push-ups
3 cleans
12 handstand push-ups
6 cleans
15 handstand push-ups
6 cleans
18 handstand push-ups
6 cleans
21 handstand push-ups
9 cleans
Etc., adding 3 reps to the handstand push-up each round, and 3 reps to the clean every 3 rounds.
The week after muscle-ups appeared first, HSPU now appear first. The power clean is the other movement. For most people, this weight is manageable. Regardless of who you are (assuming you can clean the weight), whether you are elite athlete or novice, you should be doing singles on the cleans. More on this later. I want to briefly discuss the HSPU. The standard is odd. It’s going to take some getting used to, and most athletes will spend the entirety of their first attempt just trying to figure it out. At first, it may appear to be unfair, or you may wonder why your feet aren’t clearing the tape. The standard itself isn’t a problem – the problem is the way in which you perform HSPU. If you perform HSPU in any of the following manners, you will struggle with the standard:
1. If you put your hands too far from the wall
2. If you place your hands too wide
3. If you don’t keep your feet together at the top
This standard rewards those that perform HSPU “correctly” with “virtuosity.”
I highly suggest practicing the standard as part of an EMOM (or to use my Open Prep work guidelines as posted on www.sandiegoathletics.com) prior to performing the workout. Especially if you only intend to do it once.
If you cannot perform 1 HSPU to standard, than go scaled. Everyone else should see what they can achieve with this workout RX.
Preliminary Thoughts:
For everybody (except those who find the clean to be close to their max), this is an HSPU workout. What I mean by that is that you will fatigue rapidly in your ability to press and sustain a handstand hold for a long enough duration so that your judge can give you a good rep within the constraints of the standard. You cannot perform your HSPU in the normal fast manner that you are used to, or else you risk descending into subsequent reps before your rep is confirmed as good. Due to this aspect, this workout is not a conditioning workout. It is 100% a test of your shoulder endurance. If you tend to burn out quickly on overhead movements, you will struggle with this workout. If you have great shoulder endurance, you will perform well, but you should still proceed with caution as far as how many reps you perform unbroken. With the rep scheme ascending so rapidly, your shoulders WILL fatigue – it’s just a matter of how fast.
Warm-ups:
- General warm-up (get heart rate slightly elevated) + mobility work on OH position
- HSPU – practice the standard, and warm-up the movement
- Cleans – Work up slightly past the RX weight for a couple heavy singles
- Then practice some cleans at RX weight doing fast singles, and alternate back and forth with a few reps of HSPU to standard (be very careful not to perform a lot of HSPU reps)
The Workout:
Two rules for this workout:
- Everybody should do singles on cleans - The speed at which you perform the singles will depend on how light the weight is for you. Regardless, you do not want to fatigue too much on this movement, because you will need that energy to fight through the HSPU
- Everybody should be smart on the HSPU reps – As I said earlier, this is purely an HSPU workout. The entire test is to determine how strong your “battery” is in regards to this movement. Due to the battery nature of the workout, you must understand that 8 min is a very short workout, and therefore, there is not enough time to sit around and wait for your battery to recharge. As a result of this, you MUST avoid muscular failure on these HSPU reps. If you even come close to failing an HSPU rep, you will need to rest to recharge the battery, and precious time will be wasted. The manner in which you approach the HSPU is more or less a factor of how much overhead pressing endurance you have. Yes, it also matters how proficient you are at the HSPU movement (and the kip), but the primary concern is how much endurance your shoulders possess.
See the guidelines below for a general idea of how to break your reps
(Chart is based on how many unbroken HSPU you can perform)
< 5 reps – Singles the entire way< 12 reps – Doubles the entire way, until singles become the smart move
< 20 reps – Triples the entire way, until doubles and singles become smarter
< 30 reps – Still probably do triples entire way, but you will be able to maintain them longer
> 30 reps – Go ahead and attack it unbroken through the round of 9 or 12, and then see how your shoulders are doing. In most cases, it would be smart to drop to triples at this point, as well
Regardless of which category you fall into, you must understand, above all else, that you should drop your reps to a lower number A LONG TIME PRIOR to when it is REQUIRED. You must pre-empt this fatigue and be smarter than it – you must break your HSPU before the movement kicks you in the face and forces you to rest and recharge your battery.
Final Thoughts and Considerations:
Breathing during movements – you must remember to breathe throughout your HSPU reps. Do not hold your breath or you will cut off oxygen to the muscles, and you will fatigue faster. Singles on cleans will allow you to breathe and you should take advantage of this.
Nutrition – This is another workout where you do not want to be bogged down from eating a meal too close to game time. You will need sustainable energy, so a small dose of liquid nutrition (protein/carbs) about 60-90 min before the workout will do best. You may also sip on a little bit of this same drink in very small quantities leading up to 3-2-1 go…. And then make sure to eat a hearty meal afterwards to aid in the recovery process.
How many time can I do this workout? – If you don’t go very deep into this worokout, (45 or less total HSPU) you can do it multiple times. For the elite athlete, twice is the right number (separated by a few days if possible).
