Masters Qualifier Event Strategies

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Masters Qualifier Event Strategies

Please be aware, this advice does not incorporate or take the place of the movement standards videos and rules produced by HQ and published on the CrossFit Games website.  I expect you to watch each of those videos and review all written descriptions at least 3-5 times between now and competition.  Find them here: http://games.crossfit.com/workouts/masters-qualifier

Event 1 – 1-RM Clean

In this event you will perform a clean for max load. There is no minimum or maximum number of attempts. Your score will be the load you successfully clean. You may not use plates smaller than 1 lb. or 0.5 kg. You may enter your score in either pounds or kilograms.

Video Submission Standards

For this event only the heaviest lift repetition must be shown on video. The plates and barbell must be filmed before or after the successful lift so the loads can be seen clearly. All video submissions should be uncut and unedited in order to accurately display the performance. A second person should be in the frame throughout the entire video. Shoot the video from the side so it is clear the elbows are in front of the bar while standing tall with the barbell.

Nutrition Considerations

You want to have a happy brain for this event. A happy brain means that you are appetite has been satiated. You shouldn’t feel “full” or gorge beforehand, but you also shouldn’t feel hungry. Eat a normal, satisfying meal between 90 minutes to 2.5 hours prior to the event. I would also suggest ingesting a little bit of caffeine and a small sugary treat 30 minutes prior to tackling this clean.

Equipment Considerations

Weightlifting Shoes – Almost every athlete will want to wear them. They permit athletes to maintain a more upright torso at the receiving position. That said, I have seen a few athletes now that stay back and better balanced in their Nanos. If weightlifting shoes don’t feel good to you, don’t be afraid to test out your Nanos. Just make sure that whatever you choose for competition is something that you have trained in for this event and you feel certain it’s the best option.

Weightlifting Belt – Most athletes will benefit from wearing a lifting belt. That added brace will help support midline stability. If you are uncomfortable in a belt, then do what is comfortable, but most of you should be wearing belts.

Wrist Wraps – If you are used to using them in everyday training wear them!

Knee Sleeves – As with wrist wraps, if you’re used to wearing them in training, do so for the 1-RM clean.

Chalk – I cannot think of any reason why you wouldn’t use it. I have been told that it makes you 10% stronger. J

Movement Considerations

I am passionate about weightlifting, and it’s probably my favorite aspect of CrossFit. There are so many nuances coaching points on weightlifting that it’s hard to summarize just a couple without putting too much information in your heads. Accordingly, I am just sharing two thoughts about how you can set yourself up for success with a heavy clean. Keep these two considerations in mind and most of the other common problems are normally cleared up pretty well as a result.

Stay Back!!! – The most common mistake athletes make when approaching heavier Olympic lifts is that they are pulled forward by the weight. In our ideal world, our athletes are sweeping the barbell away from the vertical plane of the barbell’s starting position and into their thighs and hips. In order to do this, you need to stay focused on keeping your lats engaged and transferring weight from the mid to forefoot at set-up to the mid-foot to heal as the barbell travels up the thigh and into the hips.

Finish!!! – If you have done a good job in the first pull you’ll be in a good position to finish with your shoulders behind your ears. Shoulders behind the ears at the top of the second pull shows me that you have hit a powerful and full hip extension. Do that and you’ll be in a good place.

Strategy Considerations

There is no time domain on this event. That means you have time to build at your own pace, which is something we practice frequently with “take 15-20 minutes to build to a heavy….” Even though you don’t have a time limit, you also don’t want to be taking 20 attempts. Be smart about how you approach your warm-up attempts. Here are my general thoughts on how I would suggest warming up to your new 1-RM clean:

• Barbell Warm-Up
• 3 reps @ 45-50%
• 2 reps @ 55-60%
• 2 reps @ 65-70%
• 1 rep @ 75-77%
• 1 rep @ 80-82%
• 1 rep @ 85-87%
• 1 rep @ 90-92%
• 1 rep @ 95-97%
• 1 rep @ 101-102% of your known 1-RM
• 1 rep @ 1-2% more than previous attempt
• Continue to increase by 1-2% until you fail a weight 2 or 3 times, and then call it there.

After you reach 85% on your warm-up lifts, I would suggest resting at least 3 minutes between attempts. Give yourself a chance to fully recover and visualize successfully hitting the lift with PERFECT mechanics.

Event 2 – “Amanda”

Complete rounds of 9, 7 and 5 reps for time of:
Muscle-Ups
Squat Snatches
**See CrossFit Games website for age division variations in movements and loading.

Notes

This workout begins with the athlete standing under the rings and ends when the last snatch is locked out. Every second counts in this workout. Your score will be the time it takes to complete all repetitions. There is no time cap for this workout.

Video Submission Standards

Prior to starting, film the plates and barbell to be used so the loads can be seen clearly. All video submissions should be uncut and unedited in order to accurately display the performance. A second person with a stopwatch should be in the frame throughout the entire workout. Shoot the video from the side so it is clear proper depth and lockout are being reached on the squat snatches, and that lockout is shown at the bottom and top of the muscle-up.

Nutrition Considerations

Assuming that you fed yourself appropriately and in line with the considerations laid out above for the 1-RM Clean, and that you are tackling Event 2 shortly after, you will be in a good place with your nutrition. This event will not be the sort for which you would want to be really fasted. It requires moving blood out to the extremities, but the movements are complex and you won’t be moving anywhere close to the pace of something like Fran. I believe a nice balance of having a happy brain and a relatively empty gut from a last feeding around 2-3 hours before is the right balance.

Equipment Considerations

Height of the Muscle-Up Rings

– Be picky about your ring height. You want them at a height that you can kip effectively without your toes skimming the ground. That said, you don’t want them any higher than that. You want to be able to reach up and control the rings and instantly get back to them – rather than waiting while they swing around. Put the rings where you want them before you start your workout!

Weightlifting Shoes – Most athletes will want to wear them. They permit athletes to maintain a more upright torso at the bottom of the receiving position…which is extremely important in a full/squat snatch.

If you know that you’re more comfortable in your Nano’s for an event like this, trust what you are used to training in…but as a general rule we would want our athletes to get the benefit of the heel in a weightlifting shoe for the squat snatches.

Weightlifting Belt – Most athletes should not need to use a weightlifting belt for this event, and unless you absolutely need it, I would avoid using it. That said, if you know that performing the squat snatches will be challenging for you, consider a weightlifting belt to help you stabilize in the receiving position. You will have to be comfortable with it on the rings though, or make a decision to quickly discard it before you transition back to muscle-ups. If you choose to wear a belt, it should be a lighter Velcro belt that you can quickly adjust to release pressure as you move back to the muscle-ups.

Chalk – You should have blocks of chalk staged at both the barbell and the rings. It should be staged such that it is within a short reach of either your barbell or the rings. It should be an aid to your performance, not a distraction. Be sure you quickly chalk only when necessary, and then get back to work.

For those of you who will move quickly through “Amanda,” I would suggest only chalking before you begin the workout. Know your goal time though, and your body – some people sweat more than others.

Secure Collars – Select your best, most-secure collars for the barbell.  You are going to be dropping the barbell periodically.  Make sure your plates are going to stay put and you’re not going to be spending time tidying your barbell.

Tape – Some of you will want to tape your thumbs for this workout.  If you’re prone to tearing your thumbs when cycling snatches, be sure to tape early and warm-up with the tape to ensure it’s comfortable.

Movement Considerations

Muscle-Ups

Use Your Hips! – The longer you can use your hips to drive the majority of the power in your muscle-ups, the longer you will be able to sustain your pace. If you default to the elbow flexors and pulling yourself into and over the rings, you are more likely to crash at some point later into the set of 7 or 5 muscle-ups. Think about driving your hips to the ceiling and then aggressively diving through the rings.

Kip Out of the Dip – If you are an athlete who is not really proficient with muscle-ups, you will probably want to reset and kip out of the dip on every rep. If you feel very comfortable with the 21 reps of muscle-ups in this workout, don’t over think the pause, reset and kip, but if you know that the lock out on muscle-ups can sneak up on you, make movement efficiency a priority from the very beginning.

Practice Calm Breathing – On every transition between the rings and barbell, make a conscious effort to slow your breathing and refocus on the next task. We have done a lot of practice with higher skill movement couplets. Just remember that these couplets are more brain-intensive and require greater focus for optimal performance. Take a good calming breath in transition and switch your thinking to moving flawlessly on the next task.

Squat Snatches

It’s tough to give general advice on this, but generally speaking our group of athletes moves the barbell pretty well. If moving the barbell is a strength for you as an athlete, use that strength to your advantage. If moving the barbell is not your strength, you will need to be more precise about your movement and positioning than the advice I am giving below.

Set Yourself and Go! – If the weight of the squat snatches for “Amanda” is not challenging for you, then don’t treat each lift like it’s a one-rep max. As soon as you get your hands to the barbell and your back set, hit the first rep. A lot of athletes will be worried about setting up perfectly with their hands in their standard snatch position, but if this weight is reasonably light for you – as in you would rarely miss it when we have performed snatches with this weight in training – just put your hands on it and go. If you’re off by a centimeter in either direction, it won’t matter.

Stay Back!!! – The most common mistake athletes make when cycling the barbell is to be pulled forward onto their toes as they return the barbell to the ground, which then throws off everything else in the lift. Make a conscious effort to sweep the barbell back and into you off the ground – driving through your heels as you pass the knee. Then on the return, be sure to keep the barbell close as you bring it from overhead. We coach athletes to focus on keeping their elbows high and outside as they bring the barbell down – which keeps you from allowing the barbell to drift out and away from you, and also to shoot their hips back as the barbell moves from the hang to the floor. If you can do these two things to keep the barbell close and your weight back, you will be much more comfortable cycling the barbell.

Stand up! – If you know that you can cycle the barbell quickly in this workout, do so…but make sure you get credit for each rep. A common mistake when coming up out of the bottom of a squat snatch is that athletes don’t always fully extend their hips before bringing the barbell back down to the ground for the next rep. In a lower volume event like this, repeating a repetition is a huge disadvantage. I would suggest that you pause for a split second at full hip and knee extension to ensure that the rep is good.

Strategy and Pacing Considerations

Know Thyself – Athletes need to have a strong and deep understanding of their individual strengths and weaknesses for this workout. Providing general advice for a broad spectrum of athletes is very difficult in a workout with the skill requirements presented in “Amanda.” Some athletes perform muscle-ups very proficiently, but struggle with snatches, while others have the opposite problems. Read through some of the general comments, but be sure that your understanding of your abilities as an athlete is accurate and given the highest importance.

BE SMART on the Muscle-Ups – Muscle-ups is a movement that you can ride to muscle failure. Our goal is to avoid that. For the muscle-ups, it is important that you make every rep count. A failed attempt requires athletes to reset and recover, and costs valuable time. I would encourage athletes to aim for consistent sets of muscle-ups, leaving a little something in the take for the final set of 5 reps. I do not want to see athletes string together big sets for the first set of 9 and then struggle to hit singles from there on. Instead, I encourage you to be patient and deliberate. If you can put together more than 10 muscle-ups fresh, start out with an unbroken set of 5 reps and then work on feel. If you are not that consistent with your muscle-ups, stick to singles or doubles and listen to your body between sets to determine when you’re ready to get back up on the rings. Listening to your body requires a CALM MIND, so breath between sets. The more patient and disciplined you can be about listening to your body and staying away from muscle failure on your muscle-ups, the better. Of course, in the final rep or two of the workout, go for broke . . . you don’t need to save anything then anyway.

Rough Guidelines for Muscle-Up Pacing – As mentioned before, you need to know yourself as an athlete, but based on my experience, here is how I might coach an athlete on their pacing based on how many unbroken muscle-ups they can regularly perform in training:

• If you can perform 15 or more Unbroken Muscle-Ups – Your goal should be to go unbroken on at least the sets of 9 and 7 muscle-ups, and then you will need to assess whether that is possible on the last set of 5 reps. The fastest times in the world will likely be performed by athletes who go unbroken on their muscle-ups.
• If you can perform 10-14 Unbroken Muscle-Ups – Consider breaking the muscle-ups 5/4, 4/3, 3/2 for your sets.
• If you can perform 7-9 Unbroken Muscle-Ups – Consider breaking the muscle-ups 3/3/3, 3/2/2, 3/2 for your sets.
• If you can perform 5-6 Unbroken Muscle-Ups – Consider breaking the muscle-ups 2/2/2/2/1, 2/2/2/1, 2/2/1 for your sets.
• If you perform 5 or fewer Unbroken Muscle-Ups – I would strongly suggest sticking to singles for all of your muscle-ups. Consistency is king in this workout, and you need to protect that.

Antagonist Pacing – “Amanda” sets up well for most people who can pick up time by using their strength to offset their weakness. If gymnastics aren’t strong, often you’ll prefer to move the barbell quickly, and vice versa. Generally speaking, this is a good way to approach “Amanda.” If you know that you will need time on the muscle-ups, push through the snatches a bit quicker. Of course, understand that you cannot go so hard on the aspect that you are comfortable with that you have nothing left for the area that is your weakness. Think of it as controlled aggression…you want to move quickly, but not recklessly.

Event 3 – The Triplet



Three rounds for time of:
Row for Calories
Handstand Push-Ups
Double-Unders
**See the CrossFit Games website for variations by age division.

Notes

This workout begins seated on the rower with the monitor set to zero calories. At the call of “3-2-1…Go,” the athlete will grab the handle and begin rowing. When you finish each round and return to the rower, you must reset the monitor to zero before rowing again.
Every second counts in this workout. Your score will be the time it takes to complete all repetitions. There is no time cap for this workout.

Video Submission Standards

All video submissions should be uncut and unedited in order to accurately display the performance. A second person with a stopwatch should be in the frame throughout the entire workout. Prior to starting, show measurements of the marked box for the handstand push-ups. Shoot the movements from the side so it is clear all the calories are rowed, the head touches the floor at the bottom and the arms are locked out at the top of the handstand push-ups, and the rope passes twice under the feet on the double-under.

Nutrition Considerations
You want as much blood available to your extremities as possible. Your GI tract should be relatively empty (unless you are one of the athletes that did not respond well to fasted state training). My preference would be that your last meal prior to competition be 2-4 hours before completing the workout, and that it be comprised mostly of easily digested carbohydrates. Think in terms of purees, mashes, etc…that do not require your digestive system to expend a lot of energy to break down and digest.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Make sure you have hydrated well in the 24-36 hours before you tackle this Open event.

Equipment Considerations:

Tight Spacing – You want to set up your station as tight as possible to limit the transition time between movements.  My recommendation is that you place your Concept 2 within 6 feet of the wall on which you will do your handstand push-ups. Your jump rope should be just off to the side of that so that you have a neat, compact triangle to easily transition to each station without ever creating the risk of tripping over anything or being obstructed in any way.

Concept 2 Ergometer (Rowing Machine) – Make sure your erg is well- maintained. Use your newest erg, make sure it has been oiled relatively recently, and most importantly, make sure your batteries are charged/new. You do not want the erg battery failing on you during your effort.

Damper Setting – Don’t change your damper setting significantly from what you typically row at. In a shorter duration, some people do a little bit better with a slightly higher damper setting, but unless you’ve practiced this setting and feel comfortable with it, you don’t want to be straying too far from what is typical. In all reality, your damper setting will make very little difference to your performance in this workout. Stay consistent in your set-up and follow the pacing and strategy considerations below.

Stay Within the Lines – You all should be very familiar with the rules regarding outlining the dimensions of the box within which your hands must be placed for your handstand push-ups. Make that box very precise, and stay within the lines. It’s common that an athletes’ hands will start to slide as they get deeper into a set, so be careful that your hands aren’t sliding outside of the boundaries. You don’t want to have to repeat reps of the handstand push-ups in this workout.

Lay the Rope Out Neatly! – Place your jump rope exactly how you will want to grab it to get into a perfect position to start your double-unders. Don’t just toss it down in a heap next to you. Place it neatly so the transition is as smooth as possible. For most of you, this will mean creating the bottom of the “U” closest to the wall and your handles farther from the wall so that you can step into the middle of the “U”, grab the handles and start into your first double-under.

Movement Considerations

50/40/30 Calories of Rowing


Sprint Start on the Erg – There is no need for me to reinvent the wheel on this. Shane, our rowing coach at Invictus, has already produced a video on this for the CrossFit Journal. He explains the sprint start as a five-stroke sequence – A three-quarter-slide stroke, a half-slide stroke, another three-quarter-slide stroke, and two full strokes . . . then normal, smooth rowing strokes.

Here is the full video of Shane’s tutorial: http://journal.crossfit.com/2012/08/shane-sprintstart.tpl

Here is the abbreviated YouTube preview if you don’t have a subscription to the Journal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gm8tiSp23c

If you prefer written explanations, here you go: rthttps://invictusfitness.com/coaches/sprint-your-way-to-victory-part-one/

https://invictusfitness.com/coaches/sprint-your-way-to-victory-part-two/

Kip from the Start – You should kip the handstand push-ups from the very beginning. You are going to need every bit of power you can get from your shoulders in this event, so keep your movements efficient from the very beginning.

Compress As You Descend – Your handstand push-ups should look like an upside-down version of your wall ball shots. You would never catch the ball with your legs straight; you would always absorb the ball, receiving it as you descend into the next squat. I want you to do the same on your kipping handstand push-ups. You should be bending your knees to put you in a good kipping position at the same time that you are bending your elbows to descend your head to the mat. This will also ensure the quickest cycle time of the kipping handstand push-ups and minimize the amount of time you spend resting on your head.

Keep Your Head In Front of Your Hands – To ensure that you have a good kipping “tripod” position, make sure that your head is a few inches closer to the wall than your hands. You should be able to see your fingers without turning your head when your head is on the mat.

Strategy and Pacing Considerations

How to Establish Pace on the Row – Using your typical 500 meter pace is probably the best way to plan your rowing pace in this event. 50 calories will play closer to around 650-750 meters of rowing depending on the pace at which you are pulling. Accordingly, I would suggest aiming to hold just under what you would typically try to hold if this event called for 500 meters instead of 50 calories. You will push closer to your 500 meter pace or even slightly faster for 40 calories, and you’ll treat the 30 caloris more like it was 350 meters of rowing.

What to Watch on the Monitor – If you’re set for calories, you can watch the Calories/Hour average on each pull of the handle. Here is a handy chart that will help you understand what those Calories/Hour mean in terms of your pace per 500 meters:

• 1:30/500m Pace = 1946 Cal/hr
• 1:40/500m Pace = 1500 Cal/hr
• 1:50/500m Pace = 1207 Cal/hr
• 2:00/500m Pace = 996 Cal/hr
• 2:10/500m Pace = 848 Cal/hr
• 2:20/500m Pace = 740 Cal/hr
• 2:30/500m Pace = 657 Cal/hr

Ease Off the Throttle – When you are 3-4 calories from finishing your prescribed rowing set, ease off of your pace and begin focusing on calming your breathing and preparing yourself for handstand push-ups. The amount of time gained by continuing to sprint through the final 3-4 calories isn’t worth the energy you will expend just before going into Handstand Push-Ups.

Coast into the Finish – You don’t have to start a new pull once the screen shows more than 49, but be sure you don’t start unstrapping until you see that 50 calories have been achieved.

Handstand Push-Ups

Smart Sets on Kipping Handstand Push-Ups – This prescription will be highly individualized based on your proficiency with handstand push-ups, but everyone will be well-advised to stay away from muscle failure. Many of you are proficient and will be able to keep the sets unbroken for all three sets – which could be necessary for a top score. If you’re not particularly confident with handstand push-ups, go with small sets and short rest.

No Grinding on Reps 1-13 – While you all may choose a slightly different rep scheme strategy for your handstand push-ups, everyone should abide the advice to avoid grinding through reps 1-13 on any set. Grinding means that your kip doesn’t get you all the way to the top of your elbow extension, and instead your movement slows significantly as your triceps work to finish the movement at full elbow extension. In my opinion, you have only a couple of those grinding reps in you before complete muscle failure. If you start to grind a rep before you reach rep 13 of a set of 15, you need to come down and shake it out so that you don’t risk complete muscle failure and end up staring at the wall for a while. Keep your reps crisp with a good kip, and if your kip fatigues, be smart about short rests before resorting to trying to grind through them strict.

Double-Unders

Here’s my game-changing strategy for double-unders . . . do as many as you can without breaking. If you trip the rope, gather yourself, take a deep cleansing breath, and then do another set of as many as you can without breaking. Repeat as necessary until you get to assigned reps reps.

Ok, hopefully you sense the sarcasm there, but one of my biggest pet peeves is watching someone intentionally break on a double-under.

Double-unders are a rhythm and coordination exercise. If you are in rhythm, there is NEVER a reason to break rhythm. For some of you, it may be inevitable that you will break rhythm and unintentionally trip the rope. That’s fine . . . just don’t stop on purpose. There is no benefit to doing so.

Trust your normal double-under rhythm if you are normally proficient with double-unders. In a this event you will not gain much by trying to speed up your double-under cadence if it comes at the expense of tripping the rope once or twice. Stick to the cadence and rhythm that is most consistent. Consistency in the double-unders is going to be a huge key to a big score in this event.

Event 4 – 100 Pull-Ups + 100 Wall Ball Shots
For time:
100 Pull-Ups
100 Wall Ball Shots

Notes

This workout begins with the athlete standing under the pull-up bar and finishes when the last wall-ball shot hits above the target. Every second counts in this workout. Your score will be the time it takes to complete all repetitions. There is no time cap for this workout.

Video Submission Standards

Prior to starting, film the measuring of the height of the wall-ball target, as well as the weight of the ball. All video submissions should be uncut and unedited in order to accurately display the performance. A second person with a stopwatch should be in the frame throughout the entire workout. Shoot the movements from the side so it is clear that proper depth and height are being reached on the wall-ball shots and the chin can be seen over the height of the bar on the pull-ups.

Nutrition Considerations
You want as much blood available to your extremities as possible. Your GI tract should be relatively empty (unless you are one of the athletes that did not respond well to fasted state training). My preference would be that your last meal prior to competition be 2-4 hours before completing the workout, and that it be comprised mostly of easily digested carbohydrates. Think in terms of purees, mashes, etc…that do not require your digestive system to expend a lot of energy to break down and digest.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Make sure you have hydrated well in the 24-36 hours before you tackle this Open event.

Equipment Considerations

Grips – If you are comfortable and familiar with using some kind of gymnastics grips, wear them! The gymnastics grips typically give a little bit of tack and might help you feel more secure to the pull-up bar. They will also keep your hands from tearing on the high volume of reps. If you’re not comfortable with gymnastics grips, you need to at least make tape grips to protect your hands. If you’re not familiar with how to make these, please refer to this blog post that we wrote back in 2009 – https://invictusfitness.com/blog/how-to-tape-your-hands/.

Chalk – Stage a block of chalk at your pull-up station on a box or some sort of platform that allows you to grab the chalk without having to bend over and pick it up off the floor, or walk more than 1-2 steps from under the pull-up bar. This will save you a lot of time over the course of the 100 pull-ups. As we will cover later, you need to be standing under the pull-up bar until you have completed 100 pull-ups.

Weightlifting Shoes – Almost every athlete will want to wear them. They permit athletes to maintain a more upright torso at the bottom of the squat, which will be really helpful during the wall ball shots. You can always kick them off once you transition to the pull-up bar. That said, if you’re one of those athletes that only trains in Nanos, stick with what you know.

Knee Sleeves – Some athletes will want to play with wearing knee sleeves for this workout. In the wall ball shots you might get a little bit of elastic rebound out of the compressed position. Play with them a bit and if you like the way they feel, use them in this workout. If you’re not used to them, don’t try to make them work. The potential gain is minimal, and the risk of being uncomfortable probably makes the risk exceed the potential reward.

Movement Considerations

Smooth is Fast on the Pull-Ups – Many athletes will be more concerned with reps and set strategies than with rhythm and feel. But the best athletes will keep their pull-ups smooth and efficient. If you reach a point in your set that you are “pulling” or the movement becomes labored, simply drop off the pull-up bar, take a SHORT rest, and jump back up and try to establish a smooth kipping rhythm. Once the pull-ups become labored they will turn slow and your sets will drastically shorten. If you come off immediately when you notice that they are no longer smooth and driven by the power generated by your hips, then you will remain consistent for much longer. Smooth will be fast when you have to chip away at 100 pull-ups.

Find A Breathing Rhythm on the Wall Ball Shots – It will be essential for you to establish a good breathing rhythm for the wall ball shots. Exhale as you toss the ball and inhale as you descend into your next squat. Maintaining a good breathing rhythm will allow you to go deeper into your set of 100 wall ball shots before you feel a need to break.

Strategy and Pacing Considerations

Pull-Ups
The prescription for these are going to be highly individualized, but in general, please see my note above about keeping your pull-ups smooth and effortless. Once you reach a point where you feel yourself straining to achieve the pull-up, you need to take a short break and try to resume a good, rhythmic kip. If you know you are prone to burning out on pull- ups early, check your ego and go with small, consistent sets from the very start. There is no point in knocking out a set of 25 reps in the first set if you are going to be down to 5 reps with 50 reps to go. If that’s your case, keep your sets around 10 reps and try to hold that rep range for as long as possible – and then drop to 5 rep sets and try to hold that.

My only other note regarding pull-ups is that I want you to stay in position at all times. Keep yourself positioned right under the pull-up bar. Walking away from the bar to get chalk (or just aimlessly wandering) will only add unnecessary time to your recovery and transition. If you stay directly under the bar you will understand that you’re not going anywhere until you finish the immediate task at hand. It will help to keep you focused, and you’ll be able to get right back on the bar after a short break.

Wall Ball Shots
This is little more than a pain-tolerance test – a challenge to see whether you will be conquered by the discomfort of high volume repetitive movement, or if you will stay committed to your goal and embrace the discomfort that will guarantee your success in achieving that goal. I LOVE these tests for Invictus athletes.

“Invictus” is all about mindset! Go back and read Henley’s poem and think of how this sick, bedridden amputee was putting these words on paper as a manifesto that no matter how bad things got, he would overcome them to be the master of his fate. Then remember that as much as your legs may burn while doing wall ball shots, you’re going to be back to walking around like normal 20 minutes after finishing. Program yourself with the understanding that the voice in your head telling you to rest on these wall ball shots is lying to you.

For our athletes, throwing a 20 lb ball to a 10 foot target, or a 14 lb ball to a 9 foot target should feel like cheating after months of training with 30/20 lb balls to a 10 foot target. The movement is simple, but the reps are high. It’s unlikely that you will fail reps based on fatigue, but highly likely that lesser athletes will take long extended breaks due to discomfort. Your goal is to fight for a few extra reps every time you think you need to rest, and then to force yourself to return to work quickly after each rest break.

Times to completion for the 100 wall ball shots will range from 3:00 to 5:00. Athletes who perform the wall ball unbroken at a controlled, rhythmic pace will finish around 3:00. I want you to fight hard to be one of those athletes. Ask yourself throughout the event whether you are wanting to rest because you will fail to successfully achieve the rep, or simply because you’re uncomfortable. If the answer is the latter, push through and rest easy when it’s done knowing that you gave it everything you had.