2024 Individual Quarterfinals: The Brief

The overall take is this: “They are what we thought they were.” (If you don’t get it, youtube Dennis Greene, coach of the Arizona cardinals years ago. He’s at a press conference talking about the Bears, it’s a classic).

Yes folks, anyone who wants to criticize or whine or complain about what is being tested in the 4 individual workouts this year simply hasn’t been paying attention. We’ve been warned, we’ve been teased and we’ve been quite able to predict the way the tests would play out. So much so, in fact, that if you are following TTRU Fitness TTRU Competitor you have literally done a version of each of these tests in the last 4-6 weeks through quarters prep. Bottom line is that we are getting all aspects of fitness tied into this, but not testing strength the way the meat heads really enjoy it, boo hoo. Get fitter. Strength endurance is essential and for YEARS in our sport whether you like it or not, it was a prerequisite before you got to tout and show off your big guns with a 1rm of anything. Know your history, respect the game. 

Order of operations 

When it comes to preferred order of attack, this is different for everyone. But generally my suggestion would be to attack with something similar to this. 

Workout 3: It will fatigue your arms and blow up your midline but legs will feel fine and ready to go. 

Workout 4: This will typically be a great workout to start with due to its explosive nature, but due to the other tests and also considering that most athletes perform better at tests like this after feeling more relaxed so they don’t “mispace” it, I suggest this test 2nd. 

Workout 1: Shout out to all the tall homies out there, you’ll like this one. Due to the fatigue that will be built snatching and rowing, the step ups can lend themselves as a natural advantage to taller athletes with bigger engines. And the amount of fatigue build here will be significant but mostly in the glutes and low back. One of the biggest limiters here may be grip fatigue, hook grip the dumbbells. 

Workout 2: I think Dave and Adrian just hate ya’ll, well us. This is brutal. There are many different ways to attack this for the masses, but for the tip of the spear you need to keep moving. The burpee box jump over volume with the amount of wallballs may leave many people with skinned shins or flipping over boxes due to built up leg fatigue that they didn’t expect. This one should be saved for last if you are attacking these from Wednesday afternoon on because it still allows you to do 1 workout a day and finish before Saturday evening, easy. 

Plan of attack: 

Workout 1: This is going to be grippy. Be smart. Singles are a must, steady on the step ups and separation CAN happen on the rower. Unlike Fight Gone Bad, there will be separation that happens on the rower and all 3 of these movements matter. You basically are fit enough to execute this at a high level and stay in the pain cave or you simply are not. I like this test, because it tests the most fundamental aspects of our fitness. 

Workout 2: Pain. Discomfort. Accuracy. Coordination while fatigued. Mental capacity to stay focused on 1 thing at a time for a long time. Those are all aspects that are important to be successful here. Aim small to hit small, this means you need to focus on making all your wallballs count. If you are female and you train under me at TTRU in any capacity you’ll destroy this, we do no wallballs at 9ft anymore–that’s so 2014. The big separator here is breathing control. Can you tolerate making your body do a burpee then box jump and step down for that long and still remain in control of your breath and overall fatigue while mixing in Karen? That is the test, the burpee cadence. Find a rhythm and stick to it, don’t get caught up in losing or winning round 1. The deciding round will be the latter of 2 and into 3. 

Workout 3: Break it up early and often. For the masses this is no race through the end but to the ring muscle ups. Then if you get some reps you’ll be able to do lots of separating. When it comes to the Semi hopefuls you’ll need to think back to last year’s rope climb even from quarters. Remember how most of the workout was spent on the last movement? Well rope climbs are in this workout but they are simply a place you can lose a lot of time or blow yourself up so your ring muscle ups suck. You need to navigate your limiter so that if you can finish this workout, you are getting to rings as fresh as possible. The foreign feeling of climbing rope before doing ring muscle ups will limit many in their first attempt. This is the easier workout to repeat, it’s worth giving it a stab early in the week to run it back a time or two. 

Workout 4: Strength endurance. Don’t go fast out the gate, go steady. Sure up all your reps so they prime you for the next heavier bar. If you are the masses you need to know it’s going to feel heavy from rep 1 of the 3rd bar. And if you are a Semi hopeful, you need to know this is like a bear fight with 245/165lb. You will get there and not feel bad, and that feeling will change quickly after about 6-8 reps of the load being done. But this is where you have to settle in and hold yourself accountable to a cadence or count to keep you on the pace you want to get the score you want. Without it you will listen to your body too much and find yourself settling into a slow pace that feels justifiable only to look back and wish you would have forced the issue a bit more. No touch and go people, it’s dumb.