Predicting 15.2—Week 2 of the CrossFit Games Open

15.1 (and 15.1a) are in the books. On to 15.2—which is tomorrow! How time flies when you’re having fun. Not to sound too vain, but just to remind you: our prediction for 15.1 was fairly close. Both snatches and toes-to-bar were included in the workout, so if we had to grade ourselves, we’d get a B+. Not that we’re biased or anything.

After a compelling opener to the 2015 CrossFit season, the leaderboard is as follows:

Individual Women

1. Maude Charron
15.1: 39^th (223 reps)
15.1a: 13^th (240lbs)

2. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet

15.1: 11^th (239 reps)
15.1a: 44^th (227lbs)

3. Emily Bridgers

15.1: 2^nd (251 reps)
15.1a: 57^th (225lbs)

Individual Men

1. Nick Urankar
15.1: 43^rd (228 reps)
15.1a: 8^th (375lbs)

2. Rich Froning

15.1: 53^rd (226 reps)
15.1a: 57^th (350lbs)

3. Mathew Fraser

15.1: 37^th (229 reps)
15.1a: 80^th (346lbs)

Since it’s so early in the Open, there’s not much value in dissecting who’s where in the leaderboard, though it’s worth noting that Maude Charron, a relative unknown who finished 6^th at the Canada East Regional last year, currently sits atop the female standings.

Looking ahead to 15.2

Now that the fun and games of 15.1 are behind us, it’s time to give our prediction for 15.2:

15.2

As many repetitions in 12 minutes of:
30 Double-Unders
15 Overhead Squats
10 Handstand Push-Ups

The reasoning:

With the heavy use of the barbell in 15.1, we believe that Castro will revert to a movement that has been a staple of every Open: the double-under. There’s no question that the double-under will make an appearance in the Open at some point, and we feel it’s more than likely that it will be announced as a movement on Thursday. Based on previous Open workouts, Castro has a propensity to target specific muscle groups for fatigue. For example, last week our grip got a good working over. For 15.2, we expect to see the shoulders targeted. And since there was significant lifting in the combo workout of 15.1, expect to see more attention placed on bodyweight movements—such as the double-under and the handstand push-up (HPU).

Speaking of the HPU, if it is announced, it will be the first time the movement has been featured in an Open workout. It was most likely ignored in previous years as it is a fairly advanced movement, making any potential workout with HPU exclusive to a small percentage of athletes around the world. However, in 2015 there is an RX and a Scaled division, allowing Castro and the Games programmers more creative freedom. And given that we are starting to see more and more new elements introduced to the Open (15.1 was a ‘double-header’ workout, 14.5 was the first ever workout ‘for time’, and 14.4 saw the rower included for the first time), it may be time to introduce the HSP to the fold. After all, we’ve seen it at the Regionals and the Games—why not the Open?

In addition, it’s incredibly rare to have an Open workout without the use of the barbell in some capacity. Given our earlier point to how Castro likes to tax a specific muscle group, the overhead squat seems like an appropriate buffer between the double-unders and HPU. Besides, the snatch, clean and deadlift have already been used.

Lastly, we should consider the two athletes who will be competing at the live announcement at CrossFit Jääkarhu (Austin, TX). The CrossFit Games site has titled this matchup, “AMRAP in ATX” (confirming our suspicions that it will indeed be an AMRAP), and have picked two of the best female athletes to have the first crack at the workout. Michele Letendre (4^th at the 2014 Games) and Emily Bridgers (6^th at the 2014 Games) are superb all-around athletes with high motors and good strength to bodyweight ratios. With both athletes fresh off of competing at the CrossFit Invitational with Team Canada and Team USA respectively, they will be sure to demonstrate their exceptional engine power and put on a great show for the affiliate community—which is of course paramount to the ‘theatre’ of the CrossFit Games season.

Original image courtesy of CrossFit Inc.