Join us this afternoon for our first Friday Night Lights of 2024! We are going to begin our first heat around 4:45 and look to move through the remaining heats one by one after that. Please please PLEASE show up well ahead of the time you plan to workout. We will roughly run heats every 20 or so minutes. With that, there will be a warm-up and warm-up stations set for athletes to do whatever they need to do ahead of time. We also will need athletes to judge other athletes so factor that into your planned warm-up. The Open is all about community so if someone needs a judge or a friend to help them out you better raise your hand and volunteer. Don’t leave your teammates in the dust when they need you!!! Not only that, but helping out your friends helps us run things more smoothly and when things run smoothly everything is EXPONENTIALLY more enjoyable and fun!

So what else do I need you to do? I’m glad you asked! I need you to bring your friends, bring your family (and bring some snacks as well) so we can turn this into a big celebration! This isn’t just a normal workout. This is an opportunity to show yourself, show your loved ones, and show everybody around the world what you are capable of. The Open is about pushing yourself and finding that there is so much more in you than you know! The success stories of the Open around the world are inspiring and I have witnessed more than my fair share of them firsthand. Come to Friday Night Lights, sign up for the Open and put your toe on the starting line with thousands of people worldwide and you will find some success stories for yourself over the course of these three weeks, I promise you!!! Now onto the stuff you really came here for:

24.1 is…

• 21 Dumbbell Snatches (Arm 1)
• 21 Lateral Burpees Over the Dumbbell
• 21 Dumbbell Snatches (Arm 2)
• 21 Lateral Burpees Over the Dumbbell
• 15 Dumbbell Snatches (Arm 1)
• 15 Lateral Burpees Over the Dumbbell
• 15 Dumbbell Snatches (Arm 2)
• 15 Lateral Burpees Over the Dumbbell
• 9 Dumbbell Snatches (Arm 1)
• 9 Lateral Burpees Over the Dumbbell
• 9 Dumbbell Snatches (Arm 2)
• 9 Lateral Burpees Over the Dumbbell

–15:00 Time Cap–

*Rx Dumbbell Weight - 50# for men & 35# for women

*Scaled Dumbbell Weight - 35# for men & 20# for women

*Foundations Dumbbell Weight - 25# for men & 15# for women → Also the Lateral Burpee Over the Dumbbell is changed to normal Burpees where the athlete only needs to stand tall to finish the rep (athlete is not required to jump over the Dumbbell)

Quite the doozy of a workout if you ask me! Having done it already and watched some athletes do it I can tell you it is a bit of a sneaky one so let me give you my tips and tricks for how to approach this.

First, if you are an athlete (regardless of your division: Rx, Scaled, Foundations) where DB Snatches are not a concern, you should aim to hang on to the DB and do each set unbroken. I found that the second set of 21 and the set of 15 (specifically the second set as well) was a bit tough to hang on. I wanted to put it down because I was tired but I knew that I could hang on and that everything would be alright. If you know the DB Snatches will be a challenge then I strongly encourage breaking the Round of 21 down into 2 or 3 sets to stay fresh. At the end of the day, this workout is more about the Burpees than the Snatches, so doing whatever we can on the Snatches to maintain a good pace on the Burpees is crucial.

Second, the Burpees. This is the part that is truly sneaky. At the beginning you are going to want to come out guns blazing even if you plan on going in low and slow. I started my Burpees and was moving at a good pace but around 10-15 I started to notice I was getting more gassed than I wanted to be so I tried to slow down a teensy bit. If you are an athlete where Burpees are no sweat, then stay low and go quick but make sure you are jumping over the DB’s. Any No-Rep because you didn’t jump is a costly mistake and will lose you precious seconds. I had to No-Rep a couple of athletes at 9 am this morning because the jump wasn’t to standard which ate into their time more than I expected. If Burpees are your nemesis then take them at a pace you know you can hold steady for a little while. After you finish your Snatches, take an extra breath or two before you get down to the ground. A very important tip is to make the jump over the Dumbbell quick - try not to stand up tall, take some breaths and then jump - instead jump over the Dumbbell then take your breath or two before you get back down to the ground. Doing so will save you fractions of a second which adds up over the course of 90 Burpees.

Third, don’t let this workout intimidate or psych you out. This workout is no harder than any other workout you do. Just like all the other WODs you do, you go at the fastest pace you can manage. All this workout is about is finding how hard you can push and how well you can manage that discomfort. Will it be easy? No. Will it be doable? Absolutely. On the call of “3…2…1…GO!!!” it’s your time to shine! We have been training for this (whether you know it or not) since last year and now it’s time to show off what you can do!

"CrossFit Seminar Staff member Denise Thomas (CF-L4), U.S. South East Affiliate Rep and CrossFit Simpsonville affiliate owner Gordon Lake (CF-L2), and Dr. Jason Garrett from Airrosti join host Chase Ingraham on the podcast to share tips and tricks for getting through CrossFit Open Workout 24.1 and having a successful kick-off to another year of the Open."

Finally, SIGN UP FOR THE OPEN!!! That is if you haven’t already yet done so. You have until Monday to sign up so it isn’t quite closed yet, but if you are coming to Friday Night Lights and are going to do the Workout, why not! It’s only $20 and the Open happens every year! It’s one of, if not the best and most consistent way, of tracking your fitness over time. Signing up for the Open is your annual Turkey Trot 5k run but for CrossFit. It only makes sense to sign up!