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The third and final week three of the CrossFit Open is here. Whether you're shooting for the top of the leaderboard or a personal best, these tips from CrossFit veteran Jacob Heppner will help you conquer workout 22.3 and finish the 2022 Open strong.
CrossFit Open Workout 22.3
Workout 22.3 includes:
- 21 pull-ups
- 42 double-unders
- 21 thrusters
- 18 chest to bar pull-ups
- 36 double-unders
- 18 thrusters
- 15 bar muscle-ups
- 30 double-unders
- 15 thrusters
Jacob Heppner's 22.3 Strategy
This is a fantastic and fast workout! Note that just as the gymnastics get more complicated, the weight for the thruster bar increases, but the reps will go down.
Alright, now we gotta warm up for this bad boy. Let's talk about how we're going to do it.
22.3 Warm-Up
First of all, we have a lot of gymnastics, a lot of upper body movements; so we need to prepare.
To do this, I'd recommend doing banded, upper-lat stretches to get your body prepared for the pulling motion of the chest to bars, the pulling motion of pull-ups, and the pulling motion of the bar muscle-ups.
Next, roll your shoulders out with a hard ball (like a lacrosse ball) against a wall.
From here, you'll want to warm up for the thrusters. I'm a huge fan of slowing things down. Before we go fast, we need to slow things down to get our body, joints, and knees ready to go fast, I'm a huge fan of goblet squats for this purpose.
Doing eccentric goblet squats allows you to slow down and get a good position as you're squaring. Grab a kettlebell, put it in the front rack position, slow the movement down, take 3 seconds on your way down, pause at the bottom, then come up slowly.
Feel the movements out and get prepared. Pay attention to your weight on your feet (am I leaning too far forward or too far back). What you don't want to do is get into this workout and be super "toesey," blow your back out, and get a bad score.
The last piece you need to get ready for is the push-press—the last part of the thruster where you press it out. Warm your upper body up by taking kettlebells or a light barbell and doing push-presses in the lockout position. That way when you do the workout, you're prepared.
Lastly, you need to spike your heart rate. Get on an assault bike, do some burpees, or do a couple of rounds of the workout, so when you get into the workout, your body is conditioned and ready to go.
Jacob Heppner's Strategy for Conquering 22.3
Alright, let's talk strategy. Here are three keys for this workout:
1. Conserve Your Energy
For the Rx division, if you're not feeling over-confident, you'll want to make sure you enter into the bar muscle-ups feeling fresh because you're about to go into some intense rounds of pull-ups and chest-to-bars.
Be conservative with your energy and control your heart rate. You'll want to save your energy for these movements because they will demand a lot.
Stay calm and cool and get to the bar muscle-ups with the intention of doing singles or doubles in an effort to get as many reps as you can.
If you can't do bar muscle-ups, and you're basing off a tiebreak, aim to get as far as you can through the workout till you can't go anymore.
2. Use Your Momentum
Tip number 2 is don't stand right under the bar, especially if you're doing singles. Stand a couple of feet away, then jump into the bar and take advantage of your momentum to get you over.
3. Know What Your Breaks look Like
If you're an elite athlete going for time, there's a completely different strategy that includes knowing when you will take breaks and what they will look like.
The round of 15 is a big part of this workout and a majority of us, who are elite CrossFitters, can easily knock out 21 pull-ups and 18 chest-to-bars. But, the compounding effect of doing these workouts on top of each other requires going in with a plan for breaks.
Breaking it up will help prevent you from crashing and burning, especially when you hit the round of 15. So, where do you take a break in a smart way that gets you the fastest time possible and minimizes your amount of transitions?
Normally I'll have an athlete do some thrusters and have them think about how many times they're going to take a break and what those breaks look like.
Something, like dropping the bar and taking three steps back for a breath, then tightening your belt and getting back in, may take a lot longer than just setting the bar down, taking a breath, and getting back into it.
Obviously, you want to minimize the total number of breaks and you can schedule them throughout the movements.
If you're going to break, minimize how much you're breaking, and minimize the amount of time inside the break. Do it quickly and get back to the workout.
Now Go Crush The Workout
Alright, that's 22.3, I think it's a fantastic test of fitness and I'm excited to see your scores.
This is a time to have fun, enjoy your community, and be safe.
Go out there and crush this workout.
Crossfit athletes succeed because they build healthy habits in all areas of their life, not just with their workout routines. What you eat can make or break your performance, which is why Jacob Heppner uses Trifecta Meal Delivery to help him crush his nutrition and health goals
If you missed them, be sure to check out workout 22.1 with Sara Sigmundsdóttir and 22.2 with Noah Ohlsen.