Thoughts on CrossFit Open Workout 24.2
Continuing on this series re: The CrossFit Open 2024 - the second workout was released last week and I competed in my gym’s Friday Night Lights.
(if you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, visit this post where I talked about my thoughts on the CrossFit Open Workout 24.1).
This week’s workout was …. more of the exact same. A lot of hinging movements.
The CrossFit Open Workout 24.2 was an AMRAP for 20minutes of:
300M row
10DL (185# for men, 125# for women)
50 double unders (jump rope)
To be honest, the Open has been catching a lot of flack this year for being “too approachable,” or boring. But CF HQ openly stated before any of these workouts came out that they wanted as many athletes to be able to RX as possible (do the workout as “prescribed” without scaling / changing any movements or weights). And so far, they’ve really stuck to that.
There are a lot of arguments that CrossFit uses the Open as a way to find “The Fittest Athlete On Earth,” and while it is technically part of the funnel, the Open doesn’t really do that as a lot of the elite athletes simply opt-out. They’re already over-qualified to do these workouts. I mean, do you want to go up against the fittest in the world and see how well you would stack up directly if you’d only been doing the sport for a year? I wouldn’t.. personally. Actually who am I kidding, I would love to do that but I’m a special type of Masochist and I understand not everyone shares that particular trait haha
CrossFit is a competitive sport by nature, and the Open provides a great way for anyone in the community to get a taste of real competition instead of just during classes. It’s a way to see how you stack up against others worldwide, but more importantly how you are progressing in movements and the sport in general year over year. It’s fun to have a little record of all the Opens I have registered and competed in and to see my progress as an athlete over the years as I’ve switched up my training.
I do think the workouts have been relatively “boring” so far - not only to complete but also to watch. I am excited to see what 24.3 has in store for us, but I’m really just hoping it doesn’t have any more hinging movements. Based on CrossFit history, we’re missing some inverted work (handstands / wall walks), gymnastics movements (toes to bar, pull-ups, muscle ups), and heavy barbell work (anything worthy of a PR, like having 5 minutes to find your max thruster or clean & jerk). But my argument stands that we won’t see really heavy barbell OR any PR work until the Quarterfinals in a play by CrossFit to make more people interested in competing at that higher level.
Overall lessons learned:
I did actually utilize what I learned last week re: breathing whilst moving and not stopping to take a break to do so. I think this really helped me. (shocking).
You don’t need to death grip … anything. Not the row handle, not the deadlift bar, and definitely not the handles of your jump rope.
Fix your form on the rower. Just do it and stop complaining about it.
Jump ropes matter. Spend the money to have a good one and get used to it prior to 24h before the workout.
I’ve had one that I’ve been using forever that I love so this isn’t personal experience, but a client of mine did exactly this. Not great results.
The key was in the transitions. Spend the least amount of time moving in/out of the rower, setting up for the deadlifts, and getting your rope ready to jump.
I didn’t mess with the foot straps on the rower at all, once I set them up at the beginning, they stayed at that setting for the entire 20min
My DLs were pretty much all unbroken until the last 2 rounds where I split them up, but the bar didn’t really move
Jump rope set up was crucial. Every time I finished, I laid my rope back in the U shape so I was immediately ready to get to work. Never tried this before the workout and it was beautiful. Highly recommend.
Create a plan that you believe in and follow that plan for the workout, don’t go in willy nilly just to see what happens.