Anywherefit Chipper

Workout of the Day

Anywherefit Chipper (meant to as much outside as possible):

800 meter run

30 meter handstand walk

5 rope climb (15 feet)

30 KB swing (32 kg)

5 KB thruster (2 x 32 kg)

30 Sumo Deadlift Hi Pull (50 kg)

5 Turkish Getup (32 kg)

30 Burpee

30 meter OH carry all weight used (2 x 32 kg KB & 50 kg barbell)

So you know if I'm going to name a chipper after this site, it must be something that combines a lot of disciplines, requires creativity, getting you dirty, and leaves you feeling demolished.

Well, that’s exactly how I feel. Certainly one of the most challenging chippers I’ve ever done for a couple of reasons. First, many of the elements require high levels of strength and coordination—two things that don’t often find themselves in the same exercise. Further, neither respond well to heavy breathing and muscle fatigue. A few examples of what I mean:

The handstand walk wasn’t terrible because it came early in the sequence, but it certainly wasn’t easy, especially the last 5 meters or so. After 800 meters of fast running it's hard to regulate your breathing, which, by extension, means it's hard to control your core. Without your core, you can't stand on your hands. Just isn't gonna happen.

More obvious were the problems on the KB thrusters and the Turkish getups. Brrrruuutal. 32 kg kettlbells are too big for most people to rack on their shoulders, so doing thrusters with 2 of them means you have to stabilize the weight at the bottom using mostly your arms to prevent them from dropping off. Needless to say, there's a big difference in balance and flexibility, and there's a ton of power wasted that is otherwise utilized with a barbell. I had to do singles. Every one felt like a max effort. Hell, even cleaning the weight to a rack position was a challenge after 5 rope climbs and 30 swings.

The getups were hard because they came late and they were heavy. To give you an idea of how hard these were, my boy Dellus is a fit guy. He was at 18 minutes coming into this portion and he didn't start the burpees until 5 minutes later. It’s so easy to get sloppy when you’re tired, but with this exercise you can’t be off in the slightest or else you miss.

The second thing that made this workout so difficult was its alternating rhythm between low volume, skill based movements and high volume, nuts and bolts movements. This made the challenge feel like a psychological interval. Not only did my body have to recover to take on the next element, but my brain had to either switch itself on (handstand walk, rope climb, kb thruster, Turkish getup, OH carry) or switch itself off (run, kb swing, sdlhp, burpees). Failing to do either leaves you in the wrong state of mind for the task at hand and that's no good.

When all was said and done I finished in 21:45, covered in sweat and asphalt. Big ups to Brian and CrossFit Central London for hosting the WOD, and to Dellus for putting me up last night in fine fashion. Going to miss you guys. This was really rough, but of course really fun. Hopefully somebody out there can get this thing under 20.

Rest day tomorrow, boy do I need it.