DT and Cycling

I was searching for a good video to discuss Barbell cycling and found a great older blog from Coach Adam discussing barbell cycling specifically for the WOD "DT". Today our skill portion is essentially rounds of DT and practicing our barbell cycling.

See below Coach Adams words on DT and proper cycling:

Barbell Cycling and Strategy

February 8, 2018 | Adam

Hey Vic City,

During the Open and certain class WODs barbell cycling and strategy can be the difference between being near the top of the leaderboard or being near the bottom. Power snatches, at 75/55, have shown up in the majority of the years of CrossFit Open competition. Often times this weight is seen in 10+ repetitions at a time for multiple rounds. Cycling the barbell in an effective touch and go fashion might save you 0.5 seconds per rep. Over the course of a 100 rep workout, that's 50 seconds! Looking back at the Monday-Tuesday partner WOD, having a solid power snatch cycle time worked to your pair's benefit.

Also, cycling the barbell by using the least amount of energy to get the bar overhead allowed for bigger sets, and less overall fatigue. Think about a wallball rep, you want to finesse the medicine ball just over the line for the rep. If you throw the ball as hard and high as you can, each rep, you'll end up tiring out way faster than necessary. The same applies to the power snatch.

As far as barbell strategy, certain workouts, like 'DT' reward athletes with a plan. The WOD, DT, consists of 12 deadlifts, 9 hang power clean, and 6 shoulder to overhead. Knowing that to get the barbell to the hang position you need to perform a deadlift, and to get the bar to the shoulders you need to perform a clean, a specific strategy has been consistently used. If you do 12 deadlifts and drop the bar, you'll need to essentially perform a 13th deadlift before starting your hang power cleans.

Similarly, if you drop the bar after your 9th hang power clean, you'll have to perform a 10th hang power clean to get the bar on the shoulders for the STO (AKA doing more work than you get credit for). Therefore, the ideal strategy would be resting after the 11th deadlift and then compete the 12th deadlift as you go into the hang power cleans. If you need to drop during the hang power cleans, ensure that there is at least one rep remaining and get credit for that as you start the shoulder to overhead.

Take a peak at Annie Thorisdottir completing a heavy version of DT, and notice her strategy, so that she isn't doing much more work than she has to. She takes break but always manages to compete all the rounds of 6 shoulder to overhead unbroken.

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TRAINING MONDAY-TUESDAY

WARMUP

3 rounds with a partner

Partner 1- runs 3 LAPS of gym

Partner 2- Air squats, Plank T rotations, KB Deadlifts

SKILL

Barbell intervals: 5 rounds Every 2mins

6 deadlifts

4 hang power cleans

2 shoulder to overhead

*add weight each round, first few sets should be smooth

WOD "Clock Hop"

Teams of 3: 25min AMRAP (1 work, 2 rest)

15/20cal Assault Bike

then AMRAP Double Unders (1 attempt)

*once you break your double unders the next person begins their cals on the Assault bike, and repeat for 25mins

Score is teams total Double Unders

FG Single Unders (divide by 2)