Coaches Foreword -
So three weeks in and things really got a shake up with this latest test of Fitness from HQ! The often ignored Bar Muscle Up made an appearance! Some peeps were joyful, theres not so much. what we did see though was buckets of enthusiasm, camaraderie, Community, effort & heart! 
As your coaches this made us hugely proud!! We're you all know what is going to feature in the build up & focus toward next years Open! (yes we think that far ahead when it comes to your training!).
Anyhow its now time to get your minds & bodies right for 16.4 which is again on Friday Night Lights on 18th March. We don't expect you to train on Friday if you are serious about your performance but we DO expect you to turn up to training Wednesday & Thursday! Keep that Fitness up dudes.
Now lets see our next instalment of our Open experiences Blog is going. Over to Steph...
Sixteen Point Three
. I have to admit, this week I really didn’t know what to expect. So many different murmurs out there. An “Amanda” style workout, a repeat, muscle-ups….I even saw a breakdown of what movements have been and gone already and then based on previous years what it would have to be this time.
It was always a good guess to assume that muscle-ups were coming, but it looks to be this year that 2016 is the year of firsts. Bar muscle ups have never been seen in the open before (nor had overhead lunges) and there were some pretty happy community members out there. Like many others around the world I am sure, I have been putting a lot of time and energy into ring muscle-ups. It’s almost as if they are a given in the Open and as such I was quite shocked when Dave Castro moved away from the rings in his announcement – and a little happy as I have not mastered them, but equally surprised. I thought I might actually have a good chance at getting a bar muscle-up in the right circumstances and having them follow snatches meant that if I didn’t get one at least I would have a score up on the board.
All I can really say about my performance after all is said and done is that I went in with a positive mindset, I gave it every ounce of my being and I came out the other side with some extra fire in my belly. Was I disappointed that I couldn’t join those around the world celebrating their first ever muscle-up? Absolutely!
But at the same time I can accept that I gave it literally everything and it isn’t quite there yet. It’s hard to expect your body to do something for the first time, (even if you’re strong enough), that it has never done before. Gymnastics movement patterns of this nature are complex, hard on the body and equally hard on the mind. I went over and over that movement in my head all day, the vision of myself doing it in my minds eye. I gave myself every opportunity for it to happen and that is all I can ever ask of myself at the end of the day. That’s not to say I didn’t try it again…
I have never repeated an Open workout. I’ve heard the expression “one and done” more times than ever this year. I’m not sure if that is because I am following more CrossFitters on social media or whether it is actually becoming a “thing” that people are trying to do? It even has a hashtag this year #oneanddone. I decided that because I was so close I would give it another try. I knew that if I could just get one it would separate me a bunch score-wise. Not having a tie-break after the snatches meant that all of those who got 10 reps, aka - the snatches, would all be lumped together with the same score. However, another lesson learned. It was not worth it.
My hands were sore and torn, my left shoulder (my leading shoulder of the chicken wing variety) was really feeling it and because it was just Sim & I throwing down together there wasn’t a whole lot of atmosphere. It felt hard, it was hard and in the end I had the same result with slightly more pain and bruising. I am glad that I did it again because if I didn’t I would have been left wondering what if?? …but unless I am put in the exact same situation again it will be #oneanddone for me from now on.
The Open is always a learning experience and I know that I am going to learn different ones every year. There has always been something that has stumped me in every Open I have competed in:
- 2014 – 30kg overhead squats. 3 mins to complete 2 Rounds of: 10 Overhead Squats (OHS) and 10 Chest To Bar Pull Ups (C2B), I got 9. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to try and get 1 C2B.
- 2015 – If I had competed, it would have been the Handstand Push Ups (HSPU’s) for sure. Let’s also not forget the ring MU’s. Hence my focus for 2015 has been very gymnastic focussed since the rehab of my shoulder.
- 2016 – Bar Muscle-Ups
