Improving CrossFit Open workout 24.3 (Part 1)
Following up on our Train for the Open Blog Series from the first two weeks (hyperlink) here is our final open related two part blog. In this blog we will illustrate how we apply Training Think Tank’s philosophy and methodology to improving performance in CrossFitTM Open workout 24.3. Below you will find a long term approach to development of both general physical preparedness (GPP) and performance in the sport of CrossFitTM. We will elaborate using our academic and data driven approach to sport development. Part 1 will cover how we think about the movements that were tested in 24.3 and how to improve them over the long term. In Part 2, we will discuss how to refine these movement skills into athlete’s programs if you aspire to train CrossFitters.
Sport Performance versus GPP
As mentioned in our previous two weeks’ articles, there is an important caveat we feel we need to share in regards to training for CrossFit™. It is our opinion that all people in CrossFitTM should not train the same way. If someone intends to build GPP, we feel they are going to have a radically different approach to training than someone who is trying to be a competitive CrossFit Games athlete. For the competitor, training needs to change to become more intense. For GPP athletes, they need to learn how to better control their bodies in space before they start trying to lift heavy, move fast, and breathe hard in a competitive setting. As a result of this, part 1 of this blog will cover the basics of moving well for thrusters, chest to bar pull ups, and bar muscle ups. Part 2 will cover strength, endurance, and sport-specific training to improve CrossFitTM Open workout 24.3.
Intro to the Workout
24.3 is…
HERE is TTT’s (LINKS):
Improving Movement
If we look at this from the lens of GPP, this test pushes the complexity of movement substantially from the first two workouts. The thruster is a squat into an overhead press, which most general trainees should be able to accomplish with some consistent training. However, chest to bar pull ups and bar muscle ups are advanced gymnastics skills that require high degrees of coordination, mobility, and upper body strength. In order to do this test, this means that athletes need to have the structural resilience and movement quality required to appropriately perform these hanging gymnastics movements. Someone performing even just the first portion of the workout needs to be able to do 50 thrusters and 50 chest to bar pull ups in a fifteen minute window. To tolerate this level of volume of complex swinging while under fatigue, a GPP athlete needs to have a strong structure. So, let’s look at each movement individually.
Thruster
From the commonly used movements in CrossFit™, the thruster is a relatively straight forward movement. It starts from the bottom of a front squat and ends with a locked out overhead press. The simplicity of it does not allow for varying styles of rep completion. Because of these constraints, the way to maximize efficiency is by improving the client's movement freedom, strength expression in the movement pattern, and the ability to pull themselves under the bar on the first rep and pull the bar back down to increase speed of rep.
From a movement freedom perspective, individuals who are able to reach full depth with an upright torso and full shoulder flexion are able able to cycle the barbell smoothly. What this means is that you want the ability to freely flex the knees and reach maximal dorsiflexion while maintaining a good front rack that does not pull the thoracic spine into a flexed position. As the bar is driven overhead, you want your clients to be able to maintain a stacked rib cage while expressing full shoulder flexion. Restrictions in scapular movement, shortening of the lats, and inability to expand the rib cage posteriorly will affect this positioning resulting in increased energy expenditure, an inability to improve loading capabilities, or inability to complete a rep as fatigue continues to be layered on.
Bottom Position
End Position
Below is a table that details the movement demands for each style of thruster.
| Style | What is Needed |
|---|---|
| Thruster |
|
Some movement training tools to improve these qualities could be:
Feet Elevated Breathing w/ Low Reach (breathing)
Supinated Grip Trainer Bar Pullovers (loaded stretching)
Pronation w/ Rotation (movement awareness/joint rotation)
DBL KB Front Squat (strength training/technique training)
Tempo Empty Barbell Thruster (strength training/technique training)
*These movement tools are taken from the TTT Movement Course. To learn more, click here.
Chest-to-Bar Pull-up (CTB Pull-up)
We would be remiss if we did not first talk about acquiring a strict pull-up before attempting a kipping or dynamic pull-up. In order to have the appropriate movement capacity to perform a dynamic movement well, your clients need the underlying strength and tissue resiliency to handle the forces and range of motions that the joints will undergo. While the skill acquisition process is long for all gymnastic movements, if the client does not have the base level strength to perform the prerequisite movement, they will be hindered in their progress and likely increase the risk of injury.
The hardest part of the chest-to-bar pull-up is having the movement freedom and strength to achieve the actual chest touching the bar. It requires a fair amount of thoracic extension paired with shoulder extension from both a freedom and strength perspective. Most individuals will struggle with this 1-2” reach towards the bar at the top of the movement. It is therefore imperative that this component of the skill is trained separately in a meaningful way (see the skill acquisition section for further details). Notice in the picture below how the wrists are flexed over the bar and the elbow are pointing slightly backwards, these two joint positions allow for better contact at the bar.
From a movement efficiency perspective, there are two options based on the level of the athlete and their ability to learn skills: (1) kipping chest-to-bar pull-up and (2) butterfly chest-to-bar pull-up. The kipping chest-to-bar pull-up is a good starting point for most individuals to learn the dynamic effort required to reach the bar. It takes less coordination to complete the movement which makes it easier to learn and complete, especially as fatigue sets in. The butterfly chest-to-bar pull-up style is more of a dynamic effort due to the speed of rep and the lack of pause in the motion. Both movements require full shoulder flexion, shoulder extension, global spinal extension, and the flexibility of the pecs and lats to achieve the arch position.
Video of butterfly and kipping ctb
Start Position
End Position
The main improvements you can make for your clients are to improve their arch position (shoulder flexion and spinal extension) and improve their ability to reach their chest to the bar. Below is a table to show the movement demands for each CTB Pull-up style.
CTB Pull-up Movement Requirements
| Style | What is Needed |
|---|---|
| Kipping CTB Pull-up |
|
| Butterfly CTB Pull-up |
|
Some movement training tools to improve these qualities could be:
Table Top Rockbacks (flow)
Shoulder Extension Lift Offs (end range lift offs)
PVC Pipe Arch Raise (technique training/strength training)
Kipping Swing (technique training)
Paused Butterfly Follow Throughs (technique training/strength training)
*These movement tools are taken from the TTT Movement Course. To learn more, click here.
Bar Muscle-up
Much like the CTB Pull-up, the prerequisite to the bar muscle-up is having many strict pull-ups and potentially even a weighted strict pull-up around 20-30% of bodyweight. This is due to the increased forces placed upon the shoulder during the eccentric phase of the bar muscle-up. As an individual is dropping from the top of the bar and transitioning into the next rep, they are experiencing 2-3x bodyweight in force. If you can spend the time with your athletes helping them develop the strength and tissue resiliency needed for these dynamic movements, you can decrease the risk of injury.
From a movement efficiency perspective, there are several different styles of bar muscle-ups depending on the level of athlete, their ability to manipulate tension, and their movement freedom: (1) kipping bar muscle-up, (2) glide kip bar muscle-up, (3) knee drive/delayed kipping bar muscle-up, (4) uprise bar muscle-up, and (5) low catch bar muscle-up. The general movement requirements for each of these styles is relatively the same, the difference comes down to the strength of the individual and their efficiency in manipulating their body around the bar. Individuals who are stronger and more powerful will tend to use more of an uprise style and delayed kip whereas individuals who need to rely more on the gained momentum will use the glide kip and potentially a low catch. The movement freedom needed is similar to a chest-to-bar pull-up with the shoulder flexion, global spinal extension, and flexibility of the upper body to achieve a smooth arch position. The top portion of the muscle-ups movement requirements are relatively low and therefore will not be discussed in great detail. More of the emphasis will be placed on the skill and strength requirements necessary to turnover smoothly (see the skill acquisition and part 2 for more information).
Some movement training tools to improve these qualities could be:
Feet Elevated Breathing w/ Low Reach (breathing)
Shoulder Flexion Overcoming Isometric (loaded stretching)
Bridge (flow/movement awareness)
Arch to Straight Arm Pull (technique training)
Kipping Hip-to-Bar (technique training)
*The bolded words are movement tools taken from the TTT Movement Course. To learn more, click here.
Bar Muscle-up Movement Requirements
| Style | What is Needed |
|---|---|
| Bar Muscle-up |
|
Skill Acquisition
When teaching a new skill, you want to begin by showing the individual the whole skill so they understand the end result and then take components of the movement and teach them individually in a meaningful way. If you just train the individual pieces without understanding the end result, or what the intention is behind the individual pieces, then it’s going to be difficult for someone to understand why they are practicing broken portions of the skill. As a general rule for learning a new skill, you don’t want to over-cue or overcorrect someone. Below we will show example breakdown skill sessions for thrusters, chest-to-bar pull-ups, and bar muscle-ups.
Thruster
Session 1:
A. Tempo Seated Squat DBL KB Strict Press (20x3): 3 x 5 reps, rest 60-90s.
B. Tempo DBL KB Front Squat (4311): 4 x 3 reps, rest 60-90s.
C. Tempo DBL KB Thruster (21x2): 3 reps x every 75s x 10 sets.
Session 2:
A. Tempo Seated Squat Barbell Strict Press (20x3): 3 x 5 reps, rest 60-90s.
B. Tempo Barbell Front Squat (4311): 4 x 3 reps, rest 60-90s.
C. Tempo Barbell Thruster (21x2): 3 reps x every 75s x 10 sets.
Session 3:
A. Seated Squat Strict Press: 3 x 8 reps - afap, rest 60-90s.
B. Front Squat: 4 x 8 reps - afap, rest 60-90s.
C. Tempo Thruster (10x1) + Thruster: 1+1 reps x every 60s x 10-15 sets.
CTB Pull-up
Completing a smooth chest-to-bar pull-up, especially in the middle of a workout, comes down to the ability of the individual to learn the motor pattern efficiently. The movement needs to be consciously built in a non-fatigued setting, then appropriately layer volume and complexity of pairing movements as the individual moves through the stages of a beginner to an advanced athlete. Rushing steps will only hindered long term progress where the athlete can sometimes perform the movement well or the movement rapidly breaks down.
The most difficult part of the chest-to-bar pull-up is the last 1-2” that the athlete will need to cover to get their chest to make contact with the bar. This portion of the movement requires a combination of strength and timing that is difficult for individuals to master. This is where building isometric strength/awareness of what thoracic extension and shoulder extension feels like is imperative, which you will see for both the beginner and intermediate athlete below.
From the motor learning aspect, learning the kipping chest-to-bar pull-up is slightly easier than the butterfly chest-to-bar pull-up because it can be broken down into more components for individuals to compartmentalize and bring back together. Due to the dynamic nature of the butterfly motion, it has been our experience that most athletes will not be able to control the motion because it happens too quickly and there are no checkpoints to ensure positions are being met. We discuss the process of breaking movements into components further in the TTT Movement course which you can learn about here.
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
CTB Pull-up density
See sport-specific section in part 2.
Bar Muscle-up
While we discussed several different types of bar muscle-ups, it is our suggestion that you start with the most common style of bar muscle-ups to teach your clients. The additional nuance of glide kips, delayed kips, or uprise catches are unnecessary components for the initial learning process. Remember the process of learning is not an all-or-nothing process, meaning as your clients learn a bar muscle-up, you must be okay with them making mistakes and not be quick to overcorrect them. Every repetition is a chance for them to learn what they felt relative to the execution of the movement. To learn more about this, you can read on knowledge of results versus knowledge of performance from motor learning theory.
Beginner
Intermediate
Bar Muscle-up Singles
Advanced
Bar Muscle-up Density
See sport-specific section in part 2.
Conclusion for Movement
Movement is the foundation for strength, endurance, and sport. Without adequate movement capacity, whether from a range of motion perspective or resiliency of the pattern, you are limiting your clients ability to grow and adapt. Especially with the development of gymnastics, we must prioritize keeping people safe. This means that we must develop the structural strength in the joints, the coordination to perform the movements well, and the endurance to do them under fatigue. Once that is done, you can begin to focus on sport practice to develop self mastery. In Part 2 of this blog, we will discuss how to take this foundation and layer sports performance on top of it.
