S02E37 How to CRUSH CrossFit Open 22.1
This is a special episode of the HERDFIT which dropped TONIGHT right after the CrossFit Open @crossfitgames live announcement of the first event, 22.1. Sam threw down with special guest athlete Kayla Gravalis @kaylagravalis, and then along with Coach David, recorded their hot tips and takes for our first Open Workout of 2022 at CrossFit Bison.
Complete as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:
3 wall walks
12 dumbbell snatches
15 box jump-overs
You can find more information at our website, HerdFitUSA.com. Like and subscribe wherever you watch or listen to our podcast!
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S02E37 HOW TO CRUSH CF OPEN 22.1
[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: All right. Welcome back to the HerdFit podcast. Special edition. We are going to review across it. Open workout. Number 22.1. We have two special guests here. Well, I guess Sam's not as special guests. Yeah. Why is Kayla's microphone so close? It was hiding her face special guests here, athlete who just completed the workout.
Kayla,
[00:00:20] Kayla Gravalis: gee, what's up. Not that much. I'm still coming down from the workout so we
[00:00:25] David Syvertsen: can actually hear each other in these these headphones. And all I hear is
[00:00:31] Kayla Gravalis: just Sam. I don't know.
[00:00:33] David Syvertsen: These guys ended the workout about 20 minutes ago. And they both crush it. And we're going to talk about the workout a little bit, just.
We'll go over some standard stuff from my perspective coaching, but also what's more important is these guys just did it. By the time we get this out there, a lot of you guys are going to be doing the workout either that day or within a couple of days. And hopefully this can help you out a little bit.
So 22.1 very simple workout. You have a 15 minute and wrap one five. All right. You have three walls. 12 snatches alternating 50 pound for the guys, 35 for the ladies and then 15 box jump overs. All right. Where you have to step off the box, every single rep that's like a new element in the new twist on the box.
Jump. The box jump has been, the box has been involved in the open several times. Just, if anyone's curious, why that's the case, it's probably safety based. There has, back in the old days, a lot of people had serious Achilles issues from box jump overs because a lot of athletes did something called rebounding.
Basically you. Off the box onto the ground. And like in springy type fashion, you jumped back up onto the box and some people can get away with it most cannot, but most still do it. So that's why that standard was real quick before we get specific. Kayla what is a quick summary of what your thoughts on that workout were?
[00:01:43] Kayla Gravalis: I think it was like a workout that you. Program for the gym. As soon as I saw it, Molly was texting us and I was like, this is a deep Cyrus have we done this a that's exactly what I thought they just do a
[00:01:56] David Syvertsen: workout with the wall walks the last bison, the open prep workout had three walks in it.
Right?
[00:02:01] Kayla Gravalis: Yeah. Yeah, so I was like,, oh Not like it was going to be easy. It was not easy at all, but I was like, we're going to be used to this kind of stress and the motions of going through it when you can rest, when you can't like just the whole strategy of it all
[00:02:15] David Syvertsen: Sam.
[00:02:15] INITIAL AUDIO SYNC: Yeah.
[00:02:16] Sam Rhee: I, it was something that I felt we've done before.
That kind of feel it is a low skill workout. It's a mental grind. And it's one that you have to go in thinking. Of a strategy of a pace. And if you stick to a pace, you will do okay. If you go out hot, like a lot of people do you're going to crash and burn. Yeah. So
[00:02:36] David Syvertsen: We should trade some thoughts on just a strategy overall approach on the workout.
So I think macro level first, just like in terms of like your P we can get into each movement to. But I think this is, everyone should know that this is really a conditioning test. This is like a, you're not moving a lot of load. Okay. It's the equivalent of basically an empty barbell in terms of what you're moving.
Yes, you're on the using one arm, but again, you're not moving a lot of weight in general. You're not doing anything really super high skill. There's some skill in the wall walk And then the box jump over. There is no skill there. Yes. The whole twist around and step off the box. The 180, I think that might save five seconds per round, and I don't really want to classify that as a high school movement.
So it's low skill. It's low load. It's long though. All right. The average open workout is about 12 minutes long. So it's three minutes longer than that, which is, 25% more. That's a decent chunk of time. So you do have to budget that into how fast you try to go early on. And the biggest advice I'll give anyone on this, and then you guys give some feedback on it.
You get zero points for doing your first round fast. You get zero points for doing your second round fast. And if you go too fast, it can ruin the rest of the workout. What you.
[00:03:39] Kayla Gravalis: I normally I'm notorious for going at it, like right from the get go. Especially when there's like dumbbell snatches, I'm like, and I knew that the dumbbell snatches for this was not a rest part for me. But apart where I know that I can gain my emotion back and everything, but Molly said to me, she looked at me, she was judging me. Don't go hard. She's I'm going to slow you down. I was like, all right. all right.
And I think for me, that helped. Going at a nice pace, my muscle fatigue, like my shoulders didn't fatigue as quickly as they normally would with the wall walks. But they did eventually at the end, but and even the box jumps, I was telling Susan, I was like, for me, box jumps normally, especially when you have to extend all the way up, that's where I start to get like really like hands on my knees and everything, but those were good to pace. And I think. I want to say like minute five. That was the, I looked out for the first time. And normally I'm like looking at the clock. Oh my God. When is this going to be done? But a matter of minute five, I was like, okay.
And then the next thing I knew, it was minute nine. I was like, all right, like I'm at that good pace where I don't have to necessarily keep my eye on the clock because my body's not like hitting the deadlines. You kept it together. Yeah. And then minute nine, I
[00:04:45] David Syvertsen: was like, Okay. And then like at the end it gets nasty for everybody like that.
That's what, all right. San, what do you think? Did you have a plan
[00:04:51] Sam Rhee: what's up? Yeah. You know, You gave some strategy on next level, which was super helpful because you said to think of the wall walk and the dumbbell snatches. As half of around, around
[00:05:04] David Syvertsen: it, it's 15 reps. It's half the
[00:05:06] Sam Rhee: round. Yep. And then the 15 boxing and rovers as another half of the round.
And the issue is, is a lot of people are not going to know how fast should each round go for me. I came early. Around or two and it felt awkward and it was around two minutes, a little less. And so I talked to you and we were shooting around, well, maybe two minutes around, maybe a little faster.
See where you go with that. And so when I first started, that's exactly what sort of happened. I did three wall walks under 30 12 dumbbell snatches. Uh, Got to about a minute and then 15 box jump over. And then that took me maybe 45 ish seconds for my first round. And so I was finished around a 1 45 and I was like, whoa, that's a little hot cause we're shooting for two rounds two minutes per year.
And then I kept going around that took a couple seconds break in between each movement to space myself out to two minutes. And I was able to maintain that and not feel. When did until um, and then I got a, to about 10, once I got to 10 minutes and I was maintaining that pace. I knew. And this was the strategy.
You said if you can get to 10, 11 minutes without redlining, you know, you can go downhill at that point. And that's exactly how I felt. I felt really good at 10 and 11 minutes. I said, I can now you know, Take off the shirt and start like feeling strong
[00:06:32] David Syvertsen: camera happened to be right. Cause I was
[00:06:35] Kayla Gravalis: like, yeah, I can see this.
You're ripped it. Actually.
[00:06:39] Sam Rhee: I hope it out of it. And then for the last three, four minutes, I just started going really hard and hard at that point is basically the same pace you've been maintaining. Right. Right. It's not like you're going to go that much faster,
[00:06:52] Kayla Gravalis: but that was the mental grind of it. All.
[00:06:53] Sam Rhee: That was a mental grind. I was like, okay. I can go downhill from. And then I can finish strong and that's exactly
[00:06:58] David Syvertsen: how I felt with it. You guys both just sound like very, and it's true. You guys are both like seasoned veterans and cross it with the open or just, because these thoughts, like if we had this discussion five years ago, after an open workout, there would be no yeah, like a pasted.
I say smooth, I looked at the clock. I felt okay. How I could have went faster at the end. That's that's a sign of. Alright, I've been down that road before of just going way too hot. And I think the biggest reason why I don't think it's always score based why you want to pace. I do think in the end that could make you get a little bit more reps, but it's also, you don't want the workout to be miserable.
That's really like one of the things. And we talk about that in training, more than competing, and this is technically competing, but I think a big goal for a lot of people doing a workout that is engine. Is to get to that final third of the workout. So your first, third, five minutes, your second thirds until the 10 minutes, can you, if I went up to you at the 10 minute markets at EO, you have to go faster.
Like it's, you have to start, you should be able to. And I think if you have that mindset in a workout like this, you'll probably do just as well, if not better, but you'll feel safer too, because you're not going to be in shambles doing box, jump over and snatches, but you're going to enjoy it. I think the old school way of CrossFit, like eight years ago was do that first round that a minute, do the second round in a minute, and then just peel yourself off the ground for the rest of the workout.
It's not fun. It's not a fun way to workout. So I think you guys did both, did a really good job with that. Let's go into just each movement, little by little. K, sorry. The woe walks last year, they came in the open, they came out of nowhere and we ha we have done them before, but we didn't train them. We were very unprepared for that bad coaching program.
All right. But we did them a lot this year. Did you feel any contract. You know this year, as opposed to Lasher doing them the first time.
[00:08:42] Kayla Gravalis: Totally. I actually fought that. Why? Because what was the, we went up by
[00:08:47] David Syvertsen: threes last year. It was a weird rescue. It got really aggressive at the end. I remember
[00:08:52] Kayla Gravalis: being like, okay, I can do like last year I was like dying at them, but I was like, I can do three, three is good.
Like you did program them more. And I think also we just did a lot of those handstand pushups. Yeah. That whole like, yeah. Like I definitely feel stronger like in my shoulders, which was great. Yeah. It definitely felt so much different than last year. And I felt more confident in my wall walks even.
I take small little steps. I'm not one of the big steppers. I'm not a big separate, just because I'm clumsy. But it felt so much better and I didn't fit Teague as much as I did last year when I would do. Three at a time. I think the only other time I did wall walks prior to last year was like the 12 days of
[00:09:31] David Syvertsen: Christmas workout and like threw me like, it was just one
[00:09:35] Kayla Gravalis: and like the fact that we did it, I think so many more people are going to
[00:09:38] David Syvertsen: be prepared that, yeah.
Awesome. Thanks Sam.
[00:09:40] Sam Rhee: Yeah, I agree. We haven't done too many walks, but when we did it, I did have a little PTSD from the previous workout in the open, but only three makes it so much mentally easier. I watched the open workout with Vellner and Brandon and Chad Vernon, those guys, and they do 1, 2, 3, 4, and then they're already up on the wall.
So they only take four steps with their arms and then they go one all the way down to the tape. Yeah, too. Yeah. I couldn't, I can't do that. Yeah, that's fine. And so I did 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 1 2, 3, 4. Bam. Are you
[00:10:21] David Syvertsen: actually counting during or you're just like, Hey, that's
[00:10:23] Sam Rhee: my rhythm. That's I was counting. So I said, I want to try to get by six to the T to the near tape and then four to the far tape.
And it worked for the most, and it worked, sometimes I had to shuffle a little bit on the. On the near tape. But it generally worked and because we have practice, do you know, there's a skill to touching the tape and then letting your feet come right down right at that second and not dropping the feet too quick.
And. I had it I was like, oh, I still have this. Even though we haven't done it too often. The new standard, the 60 and the 55, I was a little worried about, because I'm short, I'm like 5, 5, 5, 6, maybe. And then, but it wasn't really that much of a difference.
[00:11:05] David Syvertsen: So yeah, just. Looked into the standards yet last year, you would lay on the ground with your feet on the wall and you would put the tape underneath your shoulder.
That's where your hands had to start and end. Now they just have a uniform guys, 60 inches. Lady's 55. Technically, yes. The shorter you are that you get, there's a slight disadvantage there, but you know, I think that they even said it on the broadcast. They tested this out with shorter athletes, our athletes, and it really didn't make too much of a difference.
So don't let that bother you a little bit. It's going to throw you off a little bit, but I also don't think the wall walks are a huge part of the workout. It's part of it, but I don't think it's a huge, it's a quarter of it, like you said. Cool. Yeah, you guys did really well on them and you look stable too.
A lot of us just look like dead fish at some point like this, like we actually looked like athletes. And like we did say it's a low skill workout, but we also say this throughout the year, a lot, everything you do in CrossFit is a skill. I didn't say no skill. I said low skill compared to everything else and just doing things over the course of the year, that alone, everyone should feel a bit more confident going into these a, the volume.
Yeah, you've developed a skill that's developed. Next part, dumbbell, snatch, not a huge part of the workout. I do have a couple of thoughts on it, but I want to get your thoughts. Kayla dumbbell, snatch, you destroy them. You probably could have used the 50 pound dumbbells and just score them in the same.
[00:12:17] Kayla Gravalis: I think my whole thing with dumbbell snatches is you getting into a rhythm, like you always use just talking about getting into the rhythm of the pants. Then the wall walks like me. I totally understand the rhythm. Understand that, but you know what I mean? But. To me, it's where you transition.
I love to transition as it's coming down in front of me, but some people might feel like they can transition quicker at the bottom. And I think finding that before you even do that, like being comfortable with it will help so much more. Again, like I said earlier, it was just, that's where I kinda got my rest a little bit, but for people who like that will be the struggled a little bit more, I think.
Do you know,
[00:12:55] David Syvertsen: is it a big deal if someone's got to break
[00:12:57] Kayla Gravalis: them up? I don't think so. I don't think so at all, because you're going to break up something like if that's going to be what you're gonna break up, that's what you gonna be able to break up. Like you're not going to then break up the box jumps.
Right?
[00:13:06] David Syvertsen: You can build in like a breathing rest. Absolutely. Sam,
[00:13:09] Sam Rhee: I think if you are one of those guys, Tim Raul did it today and he said he was he strong enough that he usually arms it. Yeah. And by round five he got pretty tired. Yeah. I tend to have to use my legs and hips and really pull it up.
I was able to go on broken for the entire workout. Okay. I think if you have a good rhythm and you can do them on broken it's 12, and if you can mentally think I'll just take my rest after that, I think you'll go faster. I didn't want to take my rest during the dumbbell snatches. I wanted to do them at a slow not a fast pace, but at a reasonable pace.
And then. It's a different movement, the box jumps. So I could actually do them, even if I was a little tired and then just start yeah. On the boxes.
[00:13:59] David Syvertsen: So w with the dumbbell snatch, there's a few different ways you can do it and you know how you're built and. How your, what your backing handles part of your decision making process here, but the legs are going to get heavy on the box items for over for everybody at some point.
All right. We'll talk about those next. So if that's you like if you don't have great legs, stamina, I would try to hinge more meaning don't bend your knee as much going towards the ground. And I don't want to say round your back, but you would be using more back from that position. If you feel like you can handle it.
I think that's a better way to go. But if your back is vulnerable to, get acts up after a little bit of pulling from the ground, then you are going to have to do that kind of half squat. Send the hips towards the ground type thing. Last two
[00:14:37] Sam Rhee: rounds. I just backed it.
Cause my legs were shot
[00:14:39] David Syvertsen: at that point. I'm back in the whole thing.
[00:14:42] Kayla Gravalis: I was holding on for dear life. My last year I finished my wall walks, like there was like 10 seconds left. Molly's like, and I was like, and I literally just I don't even think I used any part of my life.
[00:14:54] David Syvertsen: Yeah. I think really the only reason to break that up would be if you feel like you're having a hard time catching it and like you're just spending more time.
With it above your head then? Yeah. That's going to fatigue the shoulder, but if you can find a flow, like the second you feel that thing lockout bring that thing right down. But yeah. All right. Awesome. Last thing. The box jump overs. I do. I set it before the workout. I didn't do it. So it was just a guest.
I thought that was a huge part of the workout, just because it's the most reps and. If that ever becomes a high effort movement, like you really got to concentrate and jump hard. That's going to really take a lot of the wins out of the sale. I
[00:15:28] Kayla Gravalis: mean, for me, I have, that's the most thing I have to concentrate, like the most moment, because I always tripped and ball, but I think the fact that we didn't have to stand all the way up.
Yeah. I like to do lateral. I was seeing, I was looking at. Like I know Marissa next to me. And I think Tim, even they were doing it. They weren't doing it lateral. They were going like straight over. And for me, I was like, it's just more comfortable,
[00:15:51] David Syvertsen: just in terms of that is that's a huge part of the work that you have to concentrate on it.
[00:15:54] Kayla Gravalis: Like how you transition, like if you're going to go quickly, when you're stepping off the box, like the one you should practice
[00:15:59] David Syvertsen: before the workout
[00:16:00] Kayla Gravalis: , if you're stepping down with your left foot first and your right foot all the time, like you're not gonna be able to do that. The entire workout, the side where you're going to switch that up.
[00:16:08] David Syvertsen: Yep. What did you
[00:16:09] Sam Rhee: do? Good point. I went lateral, so my, I am not a good box jumper. Like 24 inches is almost my inseam. So I
[00:16:18] David Syvertsen: have to that's your ways for normal people.
[00:16:21] Sam Rhee: So I have to jump and, but for me, this wasn't actually as bad as normal box jumps. I will say that I felt like I could get a good rhythm.
I would jump. I wouldn't stand all the way up. Flexed, which is actually hard on your quads for some people it's going to be tough. Yeah. So I would jump lateral right side down first and then jump again, left leg down the other direction. And I would just keep doing that. I found a flow. What really got me tired?
Was your quads just start taking a beating? Yeah. You can go faster on the box jumps if you want. Cause that's the time. That's the movement if it's 15. So there's a lot of them. If you went faster on them, you could make up time. But your heart rate, I think will get jacked if you do that. Yeah,
[00:17:04] David Syvertsen: I
[00:17:04] Kayla Gravalis: agree. I think for me with the box jumps with.
Staying low helped me, but I, it, when I went too fast, my heart rate jacked up so much where I did around the 10th rep. Every single time I had to, not every time, like the third round in, I was like, okay, I have to like, slow, take a breather. Okay. But it was the box jumps. I agree. Normally in a workout I'm like sitting there I'm like, oh my God, these bags.
But then this workout was so much better. It's like a
[00:17:30] Sam Rhee: rhythm workout. It is a rhythm workout. But if you've got a motor and you want to make up. You'll make it, you can make it up on the
[00:17:36] David Syvertsen: box
[00:17:37] Kayla Gravalis: jump. Totally. I'm thinking about athletes who are going to crush it, right? Like with this, I can just
[00:17:41] David Syvertsen: Go. Yeah.
I think what kind of, what kind of athlete destroys this kind of workout? Like obviously, yes. Good engine. But is it like, is it the jumper? Is it the gymnast? What do you guys think? Just random guests. It's already.
[00:17:53] Kayla Gravalis: I feel like if the reps with the wall walks went up, it would be a gymnast.
Okay. I think that it is just like an engine, like a gritty athlete is going to be able to we keep saying it's a mental
[00:18:05] David Syvertsen: aspect at your mind games gotta be on.
[00:18:06] Sam Rhee: Yeah. You have to have a motor for sure. If you don't have that capacity, you're not going to do well. And then you have to be disciplined to hold to that.
The whole time, like a super disciplined motor person. Yeah. And
[00:18:18] David Syvertsen: I'll even say it, sam was saying that he thought he went to hot. Because he was aiming for two minutes around. He was 1 45. It doesn't need to be eight year round, took two minutes. What it could be as you start a new round every two minutes.
So it could be like, all right, I'm a little quick right now, I'm in at 45. Like I'll rest 10 seconds before I start up again, or I'll go right to my wall. Walks is so if you guys just real quick, if you want to write this down, I'll be quick with it. If you want 10 rounds, you gotta be a minute 30 per if you want nine rounds, you gotta be a minute 40 per if you want eight rounds, 1 52 per.
That would beat both Sam and Kayla. If you want seven rounds, that'd be two eight per if you want six rounds. Five rounds three minutes, four rounds, 3 45. All right. So that, that can give you a guide in terms of like how often should you start a new round. And then if you want to be more detailed, then you just start breaking down, moving by movement.
How long you want to spend that station. It is a complimentary workout. Meaning. While you're doing a movement. You, your muscles that you need for the next movement are essentially resting. All right. So if, while I'm doing all these box jumps your shoulders aren't doing anything. That's, what's going to get used the most on the wall walk while you're doing these annoying wall walk.
Your low back and your hamstrings, aren't doing much. So that, and that's really, what's going to be used most on the snatch while I'm doing my dumbbell snatches. What's not being used in my calves and quads. So just keep that in mind, the workout is designed that you could be able to move through it the whole time, unless of course, the breathing becomes the main issue. And that's what the test is. I think it's a breathing issue. And I think athletes that are a little like. That can move a little bit of weight with comfort, have a huge advantage in this workout.
[00:19:52] Sam Rhee: What do you think the top score at our gym is going to be
[00:19:54] David Syvertsen: like around?
I agree, same. I do think someone can break 10. But I think it's gonna be between nine and 10. I'll say that's right.
[00:20:01] Kayla Gravalis: The reps is that like
[00:20:01] David Syvertsen: 2 75, 10, 10, 10 rounds is 300. Yeah. So Heidi got Heidi, she crush the SEL workout. She did a really good job. She got 270 reps. That was nine rounds.
That's great. And yeah. And just a quick note on the scale guys, if you're doing the scale wall walks, it is a little tricky with the lines, if you're short, but you know, I saw a few people experiment with it before the workout where your whole hand has been in front of. Then you have to get it behind and they're all like, this is way too hard.
And then five reps in that were fine. And Heidi was one of those people. I remember she was like freaking out. She was like, freaking, literally starting to freak out when we said oh yeah, your whole hands gotta be in front of the front line. And she was like, crap. And then she crushed it at 270 reps annihilated the workout.
And remember the wall walks are not a huge part of the workout. Any clue, what do you guys think? Would it be the top scores in the gym? I
[00:20:51] Kayla Gravalis: mean, I would think around that, I think someone might be able to break 10. Okay. Like I, I could see
I feel like it's just one of those things where I could totally see someone like going completely out of their minds and
[00:21:05] David Syvertsen: you're gonna have to go dark if you want 10. Yes.
[00:21:07] Sam Rhee: I would like to see you and Matt Malone's final score and alone. Cause I think a and also obviously Nicole has a wife. Yeah. Like those guys.
they got motor plus plus plus and, and even at Kevin, your check, we'll do great on it. And he's a totally different body type than Matt Malone, but what they all have it and U2 is motor capacity and discipline, right? You can be short, you can be tall, you can, be bulky. You could be thin, but if you have a motor and you have disciplines, You could,
[00:21:45] David Syvertsen: you could get there.
Yep. All right, guys. Thanks for coming on. K. Thanks. All right. Good luck. We'll see you tomorrow. Thank you.
