For time:
21 Deadlifts, 225/155 lbs
21 Handstand Push-ups
15 Deadlifts, 225/155 lbs
15 Handstand Push-ups
9 Deadlifts, 225/155 lbs
9 Handstand Push-ups
21 Deadlifts, 315/205 lbs
Handstand Walk, 50 ft
15 Deadlifts, 315/205 lbs
Handstand Walk, 50 ft
9 Deadlifts, 315/205 lbs
Handstand Walk, 50 ft
* Time cap: 9 mins
“Excitement comes from the achievement. Fulfillment comes from the journey.”
SCALED WORKOUT
The scaled workout may be best for athletes with no goals of competing, as they are likely to get more work done in the 9 minute window
The lighter deadlifts and lower skilled hand release push-ups and bear crawls will allow athletes of all ability level to keep moving forward
STRATEGY
Bucket 1
Finish “Diane” In ~2:30
Finish Entire Workout ~Sub 7:00
Our Games level group will come down to the 15’s and the 9’s of the heavier deadlift barbell. When you think about it, breaks between these sets are the only moments in the entire workout where athlete’s at this level are resting. The opening weight deadlifts are not the separator, and neither are the transitions to or from the handstand push-ups/handstand walk. It becomes a test of how well can we push that heavy barbell.
But by “push” this doesn’t mean unbroken, nor does it even mean big sets. Example breakup strategy below for a Games level athlete who completed this workout in the 6:30 range:
First and Second Barbell
21’s: 6-5-5-5
15’s: 6-5-4
9’s: 5-4
Breaks between sets on the first barbell was a matter of 2-3 seconds. Just enough to break the “time under tension”, and we got right back on it. On the second barbell, it was a little more stretched out, and rightfully so. More now towards 5 seconds. The take home point here is that consistent movement forward with touch and go sets is the key here, with “the workout” being the final two sets at that heavy barbell.
On the handstand walks, all athletes in this group are doing the 50′ distance unbroken. Our speed of the walk does indeed matter here however. With 150′ for time, it’s not uncommon to see 15+ second differences, even with unbroken efforts. As we enter these handstands, remind ourselves to fall forward, pushing our speed knowing that it’s a short 25′ distance each way. The less time we’re on our hands, the better.
Bucket 2
Finish “Diane” in ~4:00
Goal Is To Get As Far As We Can In The Second 21-15-9 (And To Maybe Even Finish).
This group has a “Diane” time somewhere in the 3:30-5:30 range. For the effort today, we are pacing our “Diane” to the tune of about 0:45-1:00 slower than what we would if it were solo. What this looks like, is frequent breaks on the deadlifts, and consistent chunks on the handstand push-ups.
Beyond this first 21-15-9, the big separator is the heavy barbell. This is where we can see 1:00+ separate athletes in the completion of just that first set of 21. Knowing our ability level, and how much time is left on the clock, it’s our aim to space out our effort over the time remaining. If we have 5:00, breaking up the deadlifts into small chunks (let’s go with 7×3 as an example) can be a smart start knowing that we may have a chance to attempt 45 reps at this weight. If we have 2:00 left, we know it’s now time to push. It’s going to be on the only time we’re on that barbell, and our aim there may be to make it to one length of the handstand walk.
On these handstand walks, where we naturally have many different ability levels, let’s draw back to two focus points:
Composure. Don’t rush the kick up. This is where we often have to come right back down, as we weren’t patient enough to take a breath beforehand, as well as, allow the feet to travel up and over our head before we take our first step. Better to take a brief moment here and nail the attempt, than to waste precious seconds (and energy) with failed attempts.
Grip the Ground. A quick cue to dig our fingers into the ground. Especially when we get metabolic and out of breath, we can lose some fundamentals. Grip the ground with your fingers to better support our handstand.
Bucket 3
Aiming to Finish “Diane”
AMRAP Deadlifts in Time Remaining
This group is focused on the handstand push-ups. This is our battle to fight today, and can separate us by minutes when we strategize properly. On the deadlifts of this first part, we are pacing just like the above two groups: conservative. Whether it’s 6-5-5-5, 7 sets of 3, or a combination of the two, we like touch-and-go reps for the reasons specified above, and we like the early breakups as this is not our biggest battle to fight in this workout.
On the handstand push-ups, after spending ample time in our warmup fine-tuning the standard, it’s our aim to first minimize all no reps due to positioning. If there is a chance we are going to receive a no-rep because of our posture on the wall, rep strategy doesn’t really matter. We’re going to have to adjust dramatically regardless. So our first aim is to truly game plan around, “how can I best minimize no reps?”. Following that, we then think through rough breakup strategies. Below, purely for example:
21’s: 5-5-4-4-3
15’s: 5 Sets of 3
9’s: 3 Sets of 3
This would be controlled breaks between, using either the clock, our our judge, to hustle us back on the wall.
On the handstand push-ups, loading can be a large benefit here. What that is referring to is the power of our kip. We essentially have two “styles” of kipping handstand push-ups: the “frog kick”, and the “ball up”.
In the frog kick, it’s a quick bend at the knees, and a flick to extension. It’s a tight and fast kip. But… it doesn’t bring a ton of power behind it. For athletes who are strong on the handstand push-ups, a great option for speed. But if we know we are going to struggle in the later portions of this opening 21-15-9, the “ball up” technique can leverage more hip power into our kip.
The ball up technique starts by coming to dead-stop headstand (note that for the workout, each rep must start from a handstand, or full lockout with heels above the tape line). From here, as we are resting in our tripod (head, hand, hand). we’re going to bring our legs to our chest. We’re going to ball up, with our knees coming below our waist. When this kick opens up, in comparison to the “frog” style, there’s far more power. The downside, is that it’s simply a bit slower. But based on where we are with our handstand push-ups, a very smart strategy to use for longevity in this workout.
Recent Comments