Open 16.3

7 minute AMRAP

10 snatches (75/55#)

3 bar muscle ups

Wod 3 of the Crossfit Open is now complete. Who else was not excited to see bar muscle ups?? Me!!! I had a feeling they were going to come up this year though so I wasn’t too surprised. As I’m sure you’ve read in one of my prior posts, I’m afraid of heights – like hands shaking, hard time breathing afraid of heights - so naturally, bar muscle ups are not a great gymnastics movement for me & if I’m being totally honest with myself, no gymnastics movement is great for me. Because of my fear of heights, I choose to not work on bar muscle ups. I’ve always just crossed my fingers that they don’t come up in any competitions that I compete in and if by chance they do, I usually have a teammate that can do them so I’m automatically off the hook. If bar muscle ups happen to show up in a training day, I’ve always done them jumping from a box. Over time I’ve shortened the height to make it a little more difficult; even using a box to help me I still have the hand shaking & breathing difficulties. I remember one wod during the summer last year where I cried through the entire workout because of the bar muscle ups (I know, totally ridiculous). Amazing just how much that mental fear sinks in & you can’t shake it.

A few months ago after a training session, I was talked into trying a bar muscle up without the box for assistance. It was the same story I hear all the time, “You don’t have bar muscle ups? How is that possible, you’re so strong” or “You have ring muscle ups but not bar muscle ups?” Over the years I’ve heard people say that bar muscle ups are easier than ring muscle ups – I’ve always disagreed.

Here’s a short video from my very first bar muscle up last year:

Ugly, right? I know. I practically ripped my nipple off in this attempt. I swear I did a hundred of attempts that day & I only got that one ugly one.

So Friday night when I got to the box to attempt 16.3 I was greeted by several of my box mates saying they got their first bar muscle ups & that it was now my turn. Well, shit. There went my strategy of doing 10 snatches & then spending the remaining 6 minutes trying to get 1 bar muscle up. I instantly thought, “Well they did it – why can’t I do it?” Then reality set it….oh that’s right, they aren’t afraid of heights! Lucky bastards.

After cheering one person on after another of getting their first bar muscle ups, it was my turn to go. I ended up using the bar that was set up with the gymnastics mat below – trying to trick the mind. I decided to use the technique that I watched on Youtube videos earlier that day, jumping to the bar & using that momentum in my swing rather than starting from a dead hang. I missed my first attempt due to pulling to my chest & not my stomach. My second was better & I was able to pull myself over the bar. I then retried so the first one wasn’t just pure dumb luck & I hit another one. =) Did I mention at this point that my hands were shaking like leaves? Well, they were.

My new strategy for the wod was to break up my snatches into sets of 5 in order to save myself (mentally) on the bar muscle ups. The snatches & weight weren’t at all a problem for me. My score for 16.3 was 63 reps (4 rounds + 11), which means I did 13 bar muscle ups! J caught a couple of them on video:

Once the 7 minutes was over, I was instantly relieved that wod was out of the way. I had done it & got more than 1 muscle up, which was my goal.

Sadly, I decided on Monday to repeat the wod & try to get a better score. I don’t know why I do this to myself – the Open is a sickness I tell you. Not only did I not PR 16.3, but I got 1 rep shy from my last score (62). Ugh. I knew in round 1 that the wod wasn’t going to go as I had planned. I chose to do sets of 10 on the snatches in order to give me more time at the pull up bar. My first 3 bar muscle ups were more of muscling rather than technique. I wasn’t pulling low enough & hitting just below my chest & then trying to muscle the rest of the way – insert chicken winging. My arms fried out quickly & I had a lot more misses.

It is what it is – like I said before, can’t change the outcome now. I wish I would’ve just been happy with my first score & avoided getting greedy. Maybe my mind will let me do a one & done on 16.4…..we shall see.