3/20 CrossFit Games Open Friday

Leslie and Becky doing the scaled version of the CrossFit Games Open Workout 15.3 at CrossFit Bozeman. 
Thursday night at 6pm the fourth CrossFit Games Open workout was announced. The CrossFit Games Open is a worldwide 5 week CrossFit competition. We are one of thousands of CrossFit gyms around the world competing in The Open. We have 9 people on our team, and all us have competed in previous CrossFit Games Open competitions. 

New to this years competition is the scaled division. The Open is supposed to be accessible to all CrossFitters, yet in the past lots of folks have griped about the weights and movements being too heavy or advanced. Since CrossFit is famous for infinite scalability, why not have a scaled division? Well, be careful what you wish for. This year's Open is much different than years past, and we all got a taste of that last week with a workout triplet that began with muscle-ups. The scaled workout eliminated the muscle-ups and made the other two movements much easier. For many competitors, the scaled version was "too easy." I thought this at first, too. 

The scaled version of last week's 14 min AMRAP workout was 50 wallballs 20/10# to a 9 foot target and 200 single unders. Well, for nearly everyone that didn't have muscle-ups, this seemed too light. Some of us hadn't practiced our single unders once we became efficient at double unders. Some of us hadn't thrown a light weight wallball, or to a shorter target once we "achieved" proficiency with the standard Rx'd weight and height. You know what we learned? Scaling a workout can make you GO FAST! You can do a heck of a lot more reps with a lighter weight, a shorter distance, or single jumps on the rope! At the end of the 14 minutes all of us were GASSED! Surprise! Just because we can do certain things as prescribed, it doesn't mean its always a good idea to do it as "Rx'd." Scaling a workout can increase the intensity and make you move faster. Consider doing your next 3 workouts scaled, or lighter than you normally would choose, and see how much faster (and perhaps better!) you can move. 

Today's Workout
CrossFit Games Open Workout 15.4
As many rounds and reps as possible in 8 min of:

Scaled Version
10 push presses
10 cleans
Men push press 95 lb. and clean 115 lb.
Women push press 65 lb. and clean 75 lb.
Rx'd Version
3 handstand push-ups
3 cleans 185/125#
6 handstand push-ups
3 cleans 185/125#
9 handstand push-ups
3 cleans 185/125#
12 handstand push-ups
6 cleans 185/125#
15 handstand push-ups
6 cleans 185/125#
18 handstand push-ups
6 cleans 185/125#
21 handstand push-ups
9 cleans 185/125#
Etc., following same pattern