Party like it's 2009

Saturday we will re-do a Regional workout I did in 2009 – it is as many reps as possible in 10 minutes of Cleans at 185/115 and/or Muscle Ups. I did this workout in the shed at the Aromas Ranch, the home of the CrossFit Games from ’07-’09.

If you tell someone you did a competition at the Ranch, which is actually Dave Castro’s families’ ranch, they may assume you participated in the Games. So, I am a very small fraternity of folks that have competed at the site of the first 3 CrossFit Games, except it wasn’t the Games.

But it was badass. There was a gnarly hill in Workout 3, we did burpees on mats in the mud bin Workout 1, and Workout 2 was in the shed.

Instead of barriers, they put up some safety netting, and packed 10 athletes in with 10 sets of rings and barbells. Couple that with 10 judges, and it was tiiiiiiight quarters. Couple that with the fact that 185 was a very heavy lift for that time, and not everyone was great at muscle ups, and it was like the alley fight scene from Big Trouble in Little China.

The workout out was as many reps as you could do, but to qualify, guys needs to do at least 10 muscle ups, and ladies had to do 4. For the most part, competitive folks did the minimum MU, then basically cleaned for the remainder of the time.

There were rumors of the MU requirement being 20, which I would have been a big fan of, but alas, it was 10. I think I did pretty well in this workout, completing 60 reps. I basically did 2 of each rep, then switched.

On Saturday, we will scale this workout as needed, but I will review Muslce Up progressions at 9 and 10. At 10am we will do some handstand practice first.

I remember the winner did 10 MU to open, then 81 Cleans. That basically pissed me off enough that I decided to get serious about Olympic weightlifting. There were a handful of guys there that Cleaned beautifully, and the rest of us looked gross. I became clear that if you wanted to be good at CrossFit, you needed to be really good at the fast lifts.

Workout of the Day

As many reps in 10 minutes

Muscle Ups

Cleans 185/115

Your choice – do as many reps as possible