That left it’s mark!
The first CrossFit Open was in 2011 and in every year since 2012 CrossFit has repeated one workout from a previous year so that athletes could look at their scores and see if they’re fitter that they previously were.
After 17.3 was completed we hadn’t seen a retest, rowing or deadlifts so every man and their dog expected to see 16.4 to come up as the retest – CrossFit HQ did not disappoint and we once again got to take on this absolutely brutal workout!
During our Open coverage I’ve discussed how you should look at a workout in it’s entirety and try to understand how each exercise would affect the next.
17.4 was another great example of this; on paper deadlifts at 155/225 look tough but double however, as we now all know, 55 reps leaves a serious mark and people had to quickly reassess their goals as that bar got very heavy, VERY fast!
One of the beautiful things about 17.4 is that it basically works the same movements twice; pulling with deadlifts & rowing and pushing with the wall balls & handstand push ups.
In theory this meant that as one muscle group worked the other rested HOWEVER in practice it meant that you found the second exercise even harder than normal – seriously how hard was it to row after ALL of those deadlifts!
Well played CrossFit, well played.
Moving onto 17.5 and the rumours of thrusters won’t go away.
Whilst it’s very dangerous to listen to those who make predictions because we don’t actually have any insight into CrossFit HQ’s plans we do know that the last workout in every Open has had three things in common; thrusters, it’s a couplet (two movements) and is very gassy.
11.6 Thrusters & C2B pull ups (there were 6 workouts in 2011)
12.5 thruster & C2B
13.5 thrusters & C2B
14.5 thrusters & burpees
15.5 thrusters & rowing
16.5 thruster & burpees (14.5 repeat)
17.5 thrusters & ????
We know that we are expecting thrusters and we haven’t seen double unders so 17.5 could be thrusters and double unders or maybe, just maybe, 2017 could see the first double retest and we get to do 15.5 again…
We’ll know for certain tomorrow evening at 8pm…
Here’s another great write up from Beyond the Whiteboard on how the preliminary scores panned out across the world.
Please remember that we’ll be having a CrossFit Open social at the on Saturday to celebrate ending of The Open. Feel free to bring your dogs, children, other half/bit on the side and friends.
There will be pizza and beer.
We’ve set up a Facebook event where you can confirm your attendance (please make sure that you do or we won’t have enough pizza).
17.3 saw the heaviest workout of the 2017 Open and with that a chance for many people to life a new one rep max (and then do it again and again and again…).
Well done to Constance, Bryan, Patti, Lori, Role, Dmitry, Ivy, Tiff and Jolina who had to hit a new one rep max just to attempt the workout!
Your performances were the highlight of 17.4!
With an even heavier weight and a big focus on knowing how to pace yourself came plenty of moves on the leaderboard and let to the WOD Godz being the biggest winners in this round.
Some of the biggest movers were;
– Rav (The WOD Godz) moved from 9th to 2nd
– Aaron (Amino Disrespect) moved from 19th to 11th
– Constance (PR City) moved from 16th to 8th
– Rita (PR City) moved from 19th to 11th
– Albert (The WODding Crashers) moved from 17th to 12th
– Jon (The WODding Crashers) moved from 21st to 8th
– The Arch (The WOD Godz) moved from 26th to 14th
– Spencer (the WOD Godz) moved from 28th to 19th
On the captains side, Hilda finished 3rd on the ladies side, just pipping Rachel who finished in 5th which means that it’s 3-1 to Hilda with one round to go. This has been a very close race with both ladies scores points for their team in each round; in week one Rachel was 4th vs Hilda in 5th, week two in was 7th vs 3rd, week three it was 7th vs 3rd and in week 4 it was a reverse of week one with 5th vs 4th.
On the mens side, despite a battle performance from Mark during 17.4, Greg took the round and is now 3-1 up. Whilst Mark has had the best finish of the two in any WOD, Greg’s consistency of finishing 15th in every WOD so far sealed his victory.
Will 17.5 be Hilda and Greg’s victory party or will Rachel and Mark finish on a high?
In the ‘family feud’ between sisters Surya and Rekha it’s was all tied at one a piece after 17.2 and as 17.3 however 17.4 has seen Surya take the lead.
Let’s all get behind Rekha during 17.5 and hope that she can tie the series.
Skills to pay the bills.
During the last two Thursday’s we focused on handstand push ups which paid massive dividends when they came up in 17.4.
This week we’ll be focusing on pistols. They’ve been tipped to come up in The Open for the last few years and it can only b a matter of time before they make their debut…
the Spirit of the WOD for 17.4 was very deservedly won by Roie (The WOD Godz).
This was a very big weight for Roie and his performance can best be describe as a war where he had to fight tooth and nail for Every. single. Rep.
This is typical of his performance during The Open so far where he has now completed two workouts Rx’d.
When you know that you have very little chance to get through the first exercise it presents not just a physical challenge but also a massive mental one and his ability to grind through 43 (!) reps at a new one rep max during 17.4 was the highlight of the weekend.
Well done Roie.
ps we suspect that you may get a new PR the next time you test your deadlift.
In 17.4 the gyms top score went to Warren (The WOD Godz) who, alongside, Tracy (The WODing CrashersWOD) finished in first place for the second time and earned their teams a massive ten points each.
As the weeks go by the leaderboard is getting more and more interesting.
this week The WOD Godz were the big winners with a massive 42 points.
Amino Disrespect’s consistency and strength of the ladies continues to pay off with 33 points.
The WODding Crashes are making a late surge with their best week to date scoring 26 points whilst the heavy deadlifts proved a massive stumbling block to PR City who finished the week with 14 points.
The standings after week four are:
1st – 150 points – Amino Disrespect
2nd – 136 points – The WOD Godz
3rd – 92 points – PR City
4th – 82 points – The WODding Crashers
After 4 weeks there’s now a two horse race for the win and last place!
Will PR City or the WODding Crashers finish top of the pile during 17.5 and spoil the party for one of the other two?
Will the WOD Godz finish closing the gap and overtake Amino Disrespect?
Will Amino Disrespect use 17.5 to make a statement (then eat pizza)?
Are there any other points to be score after the Open which the teams don’t know about and could these have a big affect on the final standings?
We’ll know by Monday evening.
17.1 was endurance
17.2 was gymnastic
17.3 was a heavy olympic lift
17.4 was all the deadlifts
17.5 ?
Come on CrossFit HQ, we may not want them but we’re ready for ALL of the thrusters!
Fergus and the team at CrossFit UV
#CrossFitUV #UVStrong
