S03E93 HOW TO CRUSH CROSSFIT OPEN 23.3

Welcome to The Herd FIT Podcast @herdfitpodcast with Coaches David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic. This podcast is aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition, and most importantly, MINDSET.⁠

This is a special episode of the HERDFIT which dropped TONIGHT right after the CrossFit Open @crossfitgames live announcement of the last event, 23.3. Sam did the workout and with Coach David, recorded their hot tips and takes for our first Open Workout of 2023 at CrossFit Bison @crossfitbison.

Workout 23.3 (RX)

Starting with a 6-minute time cap, complete as many reps as possible of:

5 wall walks

50 double-unders

15 snatches (weight 1)

5 wall walks

50 double-unders

12 snatches (weight 2)

*If completed before the 6-minute time cap, add 3 minutes to the time cap and complete:

20 strict handstand push-ups

50 double-unders

9 snatches (weight 3)

*If completed before the 9-minute time cap, add 3 minutes to the time cap and complete:

20 strict handstand push-ups

50 double-unders

6 snatches (weight 4)

♀ 65 lb, 95 lb, 125 lb, 155 lb

♂ 95 lb, 135 lb, 185 lb, 225 lb

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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S03E93 HOW TO CRUSH CROSSFIT OPEN 23.3

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: All right. Welcome back to the Herd Fit Podcast. I am coach David Syvertsen here with my out of breath co-host, Dr. And coach Sam Ree, who took one for the team yet again and just took on 23.3, the final workout of the 2023 CrossFit Open.

Sam, take a breath. How do you feel? ?

[00:00:19] Sam Rhee: Uh, that was a tough one. Holy Ka. You know, it's the time pressure is immense. Yeah. I felt the time pressure the whole way through. This is one where you just have to step on the pedal and just hold on as hard as you

[00:00:35] David Syvertsen: can and hope. And hope that you have it right. I don't like to use that word often, like hope that you can do it, but we'll get into it a little bit.

But I do think that there's gonna be some hope that needs to be thrown out into. That, that you can hold onto it? Yeah. Um, this is the first workout that we've had these interval workouts in, uh, timestamps where you have to get x amount of work done prior to a certain time for, in order for you to move on to the more complex, more difficult portion of the workout.

I don't want to think too hard about this, but I think it's. The first one since 2019 that we've had one of these workouts, and these actually used to be a staple. When I first started doing the open, there was something like this pretty much every single year. Um, it's, so basically, I'll go over the workout real quick.

You have six minutes to complete five wall walks, 50 double unders, 15 snatches. 95. 65 is the rx. And then five wall walks again, 50 double unders, 12 snatches at 1 35 95. That's the RX portion of the workout, um, scaled. You have the scaled wall walks where you're going, just basically on the other side of the line.

Just get your feet on the wall. You have single unders and you have lighter snatches, but it's the same flow for everybody scaled all the age groups. If you can finish all of that in under six minutes, you earn the right to move on to the next portion of the workout. If you don't, your workout's over at six minutes, you will see.

the majority of RX athletes take this on and your workout will be six minutes long. All right? So we'll talk about that in a little bit. But if you do get past, and we, and Sam was one of 'em, we had three athletes that just did it, and they all got to the nine minute period, three out of 11. Um, you now get into a very serious part of the workout.

This is where it turns , you have to do now. You have three minutes, or you have until the nine minute mark to complete 20 strict handstand pushups, 50 double unders, nine snatches at 180 5 for the guys. 1 25 for the ladies. If you finish that one. By the nine minute mark. Okay, you now move on to the last portion of the workout.

20 strict handstand pushups. Again, 50 double under six matches, 2 25, 1 55. So, um, I might have screwed that up, but if you, if you finish the, it's a four round workout. If you finish the first two rounds and under six minutes you get to move on. If you finish the third round and under nine minutes, you get to move on.

And then if you get to that last portion, your workout is now for time. So this is a workout where 99% of athletes you are going to get capped out at. . Um, and I would say 80 to 90% of athletes will not make it past the six minute window. Sam, express to us, give us some feedback on where you were mentally prior to this workout, because I think a lot of people are a little nervous about this six minute window.

Right. Um,

[00:03:15] Sam Rhee: I just wanted to get past the. , uh, 1 35 snatches. Okay, so this is the second round. The second round. And for me, this is my thought one is when I first looked at it, it's fast. Mm-hmm. . So I actually came in early. You saw me and I warmed up a lot. Mm-hmm. , I, I, uh, I rode really hard on the bike for about two, three minutes, like really, really hard.

Uh, and then I warmed up the, uh, movements. Uh, and then I actually did the, around the, um, five wall walks, 50 double unders and the 15th snatches, just to get a sense of how that felt. Right. And when I did that, that first time, I did it in about two minutes and 30 seconds. Okay. And I said, okay. And I was gassed, like, I was like breathing really hard.

Right. That's to get Fran type effort right there. Yeah. Yeah. And I felt like, how am I gonna get through five more wall walks and then 50 double unders. To get to the 12 snatches mm-hmm. . And then I said, well, how many snatches? Like how long will those 12 snatches take me? Yep. And I figured it would take me at least 90 seconds if I did mm-hmm.

because I don't think I could do one every five seconds, which is a minute. Um, , I could probably do one, one every 10. That's my capability. Yeah. So I had to give myself a lot of time. Mm-hmm. . So I was, I wasn't sure. I knew it was gonna be really, really close. Right. So that's what I thought going into it.

Good. I was scared. I was really

[00:04:32] David Syvertsen: scared. Yeah. Yeah. No, it, there's a lot of pressure in this workout. If, if your goal is to get to that third round, it's gonna be a high pressure piece. And you're gonna have to channel that guys, if you're gonna come into this nervous, and I know a lot of you are already nervous based on what my phone, what happened to my phone after this workout came out.

You need to channel. And use it as positive energy for your workout. I'm always gonna say this, every year in the open, there's nothing wrong with being nervous or having anxiety prior to the workout. It can actually help you. But just trust me when I say this, the second that workout starts, those first wall walks and jump rope, it's gone.

Now, now you're in it. So I think a lot of these nerves that you have prior to the workout, just understand that it's worse before than it is during. Yeah. So once you get going, your, your body's gonna take over your fitness. All the training you've been putting in, it's gonna take over. But what Sam did, this is very interesting, I want everyone to kind of think about this.

I put this on my Instagram story. There's gonna be a lot of people in this position. I wanna get done with the six minutes, and you have to really pretty much look at that last barbell I, I call this reverse engineering. Sam basically went into this saying, how long does he need to definitely get 12 snatches at 1 35?

Done that second barbell. This is a different answer for everybody. I'm gonna use, uh, coach Liz and Coach Ashley as different examples, right? Ash is a better gymnast. Liz is a better lifter. Okay. Liz, you know, a little bit slower on wall walks than Ash. Ash, much slower on the barbell than Liz. So what I would tell them is, is basically the same thing, but their answers will be completely different.

How long do you need to get those 12 snatches done? Liz, I estimated it if she really had to, could probably get 'em done in about 45 seconds. Ash is probably gonna need about a minute 30, so twice as long. So what they both need to do is get that number on paper, subtract it from six minutes. That's the amount of time that you have to get everything else done prior to those snatches.

Yeah. So that can help you pace. I mean, again, we're telling everyone to go full send, go hard, but yes, you can't go full. Send on on five minutes, you'll burn out. Right? But it just means you need to be aggressive. How aggressive do you need to be on wall walks, on jump rope in order for you to get to that time that you think you need?

for the snatch thoughts on that, because that's kinda like what you naturally did. That's

[00:06:41] Sam Rhee: exactly what I did. Yeah. And, um, you have to be good. It's a very high skill workout. Very, I mean, you need to be very proficient at wall walks. Mm-hmm. a, a quick comment. The, the standard is a little long. farther away to start.

Yep. So I usually, I'm really good at wall walks. I can do four steps in and then three back. Mm-hmm. , I had to do five and then four. Yeah. Just because it was that little extra. Yep. Yep. And so you have to be prepared for that. I practiced it a little bit before I started. Um, the double unders. My first set was unbroken, but I broke like three or four times.

On the second one. I was just, I don't know, nervous or whatever. Um, didn't really matter. Yeah. Like, so don't worry so much about the double unders. Mm-hmm. , the snatches. Um, the first 15 I went, um, five sets of three. Okay. And I went five. So you held onto it a little bit. Yeah. And, um, , uh, no, sorry. Three sets of Three sets?

No. Yeah. Five sets of three. Five sets of three. Okay. Three at a time. Yeah. And when I finished, because of the adrenaline of the workout, I actually finished around 2 0 7 or 2 0 8 pretty quick. Yeah. And then I got through the five wall walks again. Again, it started to get really tired. Mm-hmm. , the double unders, and then it was just the snatches.

Mm-hmm. . But when you get to the snatches the second time, like. I thought I had a lot of time, but it adds up. Your shoulders are so smoked that the snatches felt good beforehand. I practiced a couple 1 35 s. They felt fine beforehand, but then afterwards, like in the workout, I was like, they were the. U ugliest snatches I've done in about five years.

Like, I was literally, like, they weren't that bad. I, I saw a few, they weren't that bad. I was like, Jenna, she last was a friend. I was like, I hope I don't run, like walk in there . And, and, but all I could think of was, and I, I suppose that might be a criticism of CrossFit, is like, should you be doing Olympic lifts under time Duress?

Yeah. Close to your one art max. Right. And I will say, I've done this for nine years now. Mm-hmm. . And that was about the only thing that really saved me in this, right. Because if I was. It's not like we don't snatch a ton. Right. But, you know, these are the sort of skills that you sort of keep and, and we do snatches like enough.

Yeah. Yeah. And so, um, it was enough for me to hold on and do them ugly mm-hmm. and get them done. Yeah. But boy, I was, I don't think I've ever been that panicked in a workout in terms of can I get this done under time domain in a long, long time? Cuz all I could think of. If I don't get these done, I'm gonna have to do this again on Sunday.

Oh yeah. Start

[00:08:58] David Syvertsen: from scratch. And I was like, I don't wanna do

[00:09:00] Sam Rhee: that, so let me please get

[00:09:00] David Syvertsen: these done. Please. Yeah, we'll get into that. I mean, so I, I think, so we talked about how you're gonna end this interval period. And again, you can apply this guys if you're, if you're confident that you're gonna get through the first two rounds, one of these barbells, unless you are one of the freaks of the freaks, you're probably looking at as like, Hey, that's probably gonna hold me up at some point.

You can reverse engineer the entire thing, but let's go back to the beginning because I've gotten this question a few times already. Should I go touch and go on that first barbell to bank some time for that second barbell? And I'm gonna give you, I'm not gonna give you the answer, I'm gonna give you what's gonna happen on, on either side of it.

If you don't go touch and go, you go singles that you could save yourself for the back half, right? That second round of work, and you probably will feel better on the snatches. There's a couple things about. Especially with the bar, the weights that you're using, guys would be using 20 fives. Ladies fifteens, that bar's gonna be bouncing a lot.

So if you're doing all singles, that's gonna be now part of your workout, not letting the bar bounce away from you, or you are actually gonna be chasing after your barbell. Um, so I would go at least some touch and go. Some can go 10 and five, some can go all 15. I know some people are gonna try. At the very least, what Sam did, I would try to do at least some touch.

Three at a time, four at a time, five at a time, whatever. But I would try that warm, warm that up, cycling the barbell. Um, because even what the cycling does, it doesn't necessarily make your next set of snatches that will be two minutes later harder. It, I don't think it's gonna make it harder. It just jacks your heart rate up.

Yes. But think about this, right. Most people, when you get to that second set of wall walks, it's no longer about heart rate. It's gonna be more about shoulder fatigue. Yes. So like when Liz got done tonight with that set of, uh, at 65, I, she was tired. I could tell. I said go get one in, just go get your ass on the ground and go get one in.

And then you lay on the ground. Take a break. You do have time to do a quick wall walk. Come down and sit there for 15 seconds. You have that time. That's when you can allow the heart rate to come down. That's when you rest the shoulders for the next set of snatches. So don't be afraid of being really aggressive on the first set of snatches.

[00:11:01] Sam Rhee: That is the best advice you could give. I did the same thing when I did the 15 snatches. I had to do one wall walk. S. Fast as I could. Mm-hmm. , because if I didn't, I wasn't going to. Right. And, and after that, then you're like, oh, I only have four left. Yeah. And then you can just sort of like, yeah. Get through that.

And then, you know, I mean, personally, you're like, after these five wall walks, you're done. You don't have to do anymore

[00:11:22] David Syvertsen: wall walks. Yeah. You're done with the wall walks. Yeah. Yeah. Um, now on that second barbell it, or for some of you, this might be at the third Barb Bell, like the one where it starts to get challenging, where you are doing singles.

Right. The games athletes, from what I saw, I'm pretty, I'm pretty sure. When that second barbell got involved, I think they all were doing singles. Did you watch the actual announcement? Uh, no. I was not. Most people are going to advise even the highest level athletes to go singles when you get to the second barbell.

So I, I wouldn't put that much thought or effort or energy into touch and going that, unless you are just a monster and it's a very light barbell. Um, but one thing I think people can practice in your warmup, this would be towards the end of your warmup, is I want you to do 10 snatches. , and I want you to see how long that takes.

Does it take you a minute? That means you're one every six seconds like that. That's pretty good. And it doesn't, it sounds like, oh, I could definitely do one every six seconds. The amount of time it takes you to do the rep, stand it up, lock it out. Drop it, let it bounce. Sit down, set up. That takes more time than you think.

So I, I think How long does it take you to do every single rep on average? Is it 10 seconds? Is it 15? Is it six? That's where I think if Sam knew that going in perfectly, it probably would've been a little less stressful. Like I went up to Liz and I did some quick math during her last round. I said, Hey, one every eight seconds you.

and she could do that. And like I think, I don't know if she heard me or not, but if you know that you can do one every eight seconds and you can handle that, it just makes it a little less stressful and you can actually manage your breathing a little bit better. In that situation,

[00:12:51] Sam Rhee: Liz stronger than me, so I don't think she ever had a problem with failing.

I actually failed like my first or second breath. Oh, did you?

[00:12:57] David Syvertsen: Okay. Yeah. And I was like, that

[00:12:58] 2023_0302_2016: would

[00:12:58] Sam Rhee: scare me then. Yeah, then I was a little worried. And so even. Thought I had maybe almost two minutes. I was like, I, I don't know if I can do this. Okay. So I just was literally ripping it up and trying to stand that thing up.

Credit

[00:13:11] David Syvertsen: to you then, because I, I've seen this a lot. When people fail a rep, it, it carries over into their next attempts. Was there something technique wise that you focused on after your fail that helped you succeed in the next few? I knew I

[00:13:21] Sam Rhee: wasn't gonna squat, snatch anything. Yeah. Like there's no way.

Right. , but I just pretended like fake squat,

[00:13:28] David Syvertsen: getting underneath it. Just

[00:13:29] Sam Rhee: tiny like a ti, like maybe a two inches more. Okay. And that helped me a little bit, but honestly it's just, um, You have to be really aggressive with that hip drive to try, even if it's an ugly, really aggressive. Yeah. If you don't do that, there's no way you're getting that

[00:13:45] David Syvertsen: thing up with your shoulders.

One thing that's been helping me lately, I've been trying to coach this up a lot, is instead of trying to move the barbell and be strong, it's trying to move the bar as fast you can. Does, does your frame of mind, does it change at all when you stop, get their mind, uh, your thought away from, I need to get this boy above my head.

Stop. How fast can you move the bar When you get it to your hip? How fast can you get it to go? That will help. Um, what, there was one more thing I wanted to talk about. Oh, will Dardy, um, he, he did it scale the version will d and he finished it in 8 56. He crushed it and I watched his final snatches were 1 35, which I believe is 90% of his one rep.

Max, I believe he's around one 50 right now. 1 55. And his last three to four reps were so good. It was the best I've ever seen him lift. And there was one difference that he did and everyone if once you get to that bar bell where you're not sure if you can get it, he simply just got underneath the bar and snapped his head through.

He didn't stay behind the bar and had like, That ugly press out, he fully committed to the redip. So when you get to that barbell, do everything like you can, like we just said, move the bar fast, but then you have to fully commit to getting yourself under and then through the barbell, if you get it to that sweet spot, it'll be easier, it'll look better, you'll be safer.

It's gonna check all those boxes. Um, Sam, do you have any closing thoughts on the workout? Um, and I'm gonna ask you for one, . Um,

[00:15:07] Sam Rhee: the first thing is, is I'm not a big warmup person. Mm-hmm. . But for this one, you gotta get really sweated out beforehand. Mm-hmm. gotta go through all the movements. You gotta do the 10 snatches, you gotta do the whole thing, and then you gotta give yourself at least 15 minutes Yeah.

To just like, completely like rest. Don't short your up. Yeah. So, so if you're like, oh, but I'll be so tired. Okay, then give yourself an extra 15 minutes after that to rest. And then when you hit. It's not that shock to the system. Right. And it actually felt so much better. Yeah. When I actually did it. It's got, there's proof in the pudding right there.

Yeah. Yeah. This is one you can't short. And then the, the second thing is, is, um, for the, the guys who, um, get through that, um, be like, , I think, um, Brian DeCarlo, right? Like he was, he wasn't even thinking about it. He was trying to get to the 180 5 snatch. Yeah. Right. Because there are are a few guys who are that strong.

Yeah. They really wanna try that 180 5. Yep. And so they just had to go so much faster because you gotta get through those 20 strict handstand pushups. Yeah. That's, that's time snacking. Yeah. And at that point I was so happy to just get there that I just knocked out a bunch of singles and that, that to me

[00:16:14] David Syvertsen: was.

Singles Were fine on the shirt. Dance dances. Now I'll tell you this, anyone that gets to the shirt, dance and pushups, every rep you get is gonna make a big difference. Just keep that in mind, you know, like that. If you get there and like, oh, I can only do six or seven, whatever, that would be awesome. Every single one will will mean something.

Yeah. Um, okay. Now for this gym, I might've undersold it when I talked to the coaches. We have a coaches chat. What's the over under on how many. Athletes RX will get to that third portion of the workout. We already had three tonight.

[00:16:46] Sam Rhee: It's rough. I would say at least. Um,

[00:16:50] David Syvertsen: 20. 20. Okay. I was gonna put the over number at like 10 or 11.

Really?

[00:16:54] Sam Rhee: So you think it's gonna be way above that? I think so. Okay. Um,

[00:16:56] David Syvertsen: I, because the straight tan sands are not a part of the equation at that point. Right. So it's just, it is, it's a rare workout. . Like if you're getting through this, like you're very fit, that means you move a lot of weight with the snatch, you're pretty good upside down and you're proficient with jump rope.

[00:17:09] Sam Rhee: I, I think the, the bigger question is how many people will at least touch one, one of the

[00:17:14] David Syvertsen: third round snatches? That could probably be a better question. I think that that was what I think what was asked in the. if that in the coach's chat, I believe. I was like, who, how many are gonna get to the third barbell?

Right. I think that number was six and a half. That, that's like the market I put out there. I was gonna say

[00:17:30] Sam Rhee: five. Okay. Only because on the women's side, that shoulder stuff is so difficult. Yeah. It blows up. Yeah. And And then also that heavy snatch, that's a r, that's a freaking heavy ass snatch for people to actually do.

Especially on the women's side for sure. After all that stuff. Yeah. So it. I don't know. All right. So, okay, so now you're gonna be doing it on Sunday, so what are you I might do it tomorrow actually. Okay. So, so gimme your strategy, your thoughts, like how are you gonna pace it? What are your, what's

[00:17:55] David Syvertsen: your goal?

I'm gonna try to be really quick on the 5 50 15, like almost as if that was the workout. Try to be sub two on that.

[00:18:02] Sam Rhee: And how are you gonna do the snatches

[00:18:04] David Syvertsen: on broken 15 snatches? I'll probably go 10 and five. Okay. With like a really short break. Okay. And then I'm gonna do five quick wall walks, and then I'm gonna do the jump rope is what it is.

Even if I trip up, I'm, I'm sure I will. Okay. Um, I'm gonna go all singles on the snatches and I think my goal would be to get done with that part in four-ish minutes. Four minutes? Yeah. And then, um, maybe a little bit more. Um, and then I think I, I think I can hang on to three or four at a time on the handstand pushups.

Okay. So that should get me to that 180 5 barbell. with maybe two minutes left. Okay. I haven't snatch. Anything above 95 in four months now. I think three months. It's all power though. Yeah. So I just gotta be a little careful though, like, I don't know, I don't think my strength will be there. Um, I haven't looked like that.

I gotta be a little careful getting underneath the barbell. A little nervous about that. It's nine snatches. Yeah. So I'm just gonna play around with it. I, um, but I'm confident I will get to the 180 5. I don't know what will happen when I get there. ,

[00:18:57] Sam Rhee: if you finish the 180 5 that would,

[00:19:00] David Syvertsen: Amazing that I, I don't think I could, but if, if you did, I think you're gonna be in like, probably that, that alone probably puts you in the top one or 2%.

[00:19:08] Sam Rhee: I know you're so good about warming up. So can you just run through what your warmup

[00:19:12] David Syvertsen: is gonna be for this? Yeah, so I think what I'm gonna do is just my traditional like skier bike for the, the three to five minutes. That's just like whatever, get your core temperature. You can do whatever you want. You go for a walk if you want, but the, um, my specific warmups will be, I will do some toast.

I did rip yesterday though. Sucks. Um, mm-hmm. , but I like to, that's like my, uh, I'll do like a mini workout, like a 21 15 9 wall balls, toes bar, something like that. Sounds crazy, but like, that gets my legs going. That gets my heart rate up and it opens up my thoracic, like when I, my thoracic open up, my wall walks are quicker, they feel better, my snatches are better, even if it's not a squat.

Snatch my overhead position. So I like doing something on the rig to really get like that forward and back movement show, you know. and then I'll probably do what you did. I'll probably practice that first set of 5 50 15 at that first weight. Um, and then I'll just work up my snatches. Like I'll probably do a few at 1 35, a few at 1 55, a few at 1 65, just so I to feel heavy weight.

And then, you know, in terms of mobility, I'm not gonna stretch much before this. I'd rather, and then I would say if I have time, we'll see what the schedule's like. I'll do all that chill five, 10 minutes and then probably about three to four minutes before the workout I'll get on the bike for about a minute and go hard, get the hurried up a little bit, let it come down and go for the workout.

The last thing

[00:20:26] Sam Rhee: I almost forgot is, you know when you're doing the wall walks, the palm can get a little slick on the wall walks. Yeah. So I put some grip. Tape on. Okay. But I think people should try it out and if it's a little slippery, they should use something. Okay. To try to get better

[00:20:39] David Syvertsen: grip, more friction.

Yeah. On, on the wall walks. Okay, cool. Yeah. All right guys. Well, um, this is the last workout of the open and I think. At this time next week, we're all gonna be reflecting on it. Some of you'll be happy it's over. Some of you're gonna be upset that it's over. Some of you're gonna wish it was another few weeks or you didn't hit your goal, whatever.

But I, I say that because I know at this time next week, a lot of people are gonna be very motivated for the next year. Let's not think too far down the road. Let, let's get through this. Put everything you have into this workout. This is one where a lot of people will repeat, but I'm gonna warn you about this, okay.

Go still try as hard as you can in the first workout. This is something I see every year. People know they're gonna do it again, and they don't actually give the real effort on the first attempt through, and you're gonna come back on Sunday and do it again. Your shoulder's gonna be tired. Mm. They like, I'm telling you, some of you guys, your shoulders do not recover well.

And if you put a lot of effort into them and, and beat them up tomorrow on Friday, they're, they're probably not going to be 100% on Sunday. So act as if you're not gonna. Put everything you have into it. Stop thinking about next week you hit your goal, you didn't hit your goal. Just put everything you have into it.

Get a good warmup in. The shorter the workout is the more important your warmup is, and I can't wait to see you guys crush it. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Thanks guys. Good luck.