Top CrossFit Open 22.2 Strategies & Tips

Make 22.2 your best open workout yet with our ultimate strategy guide and tips for each movement.

CrossFit Open 22.2 WOD is a couplet of deadlifts and barbell-facing burpees, lots of hinging movements so we have some tips on how to help with back blow up. We also have some strategies on how to pace this ascending and descending ladder of reps for time.

Watch our video going over these strategies and more, or continue reading below.

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Make sure you warm up well for the deadlift, as it may be heavy for many athletes! Take some time to prepare your cardiovascular system, as your heart rate may get pretty high in this workout. A lot of our tips in this article will be about managing that. Also, you will want to practice your technique on the burpees to ensure you meet the standards.

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22.2 Strategies For Pacing To Get Your Best Time

If you’re worried about the burpees jacking your heart rate up, you’re right. If you complete the workout you’ll end up doing 100 burpees in 10 minutes plus all of the deadlifts.

With that said, we will have to respect our heart in the workout and pace from the start. This will come from a combination of pacing the deadlifts and burpees appropriately.

Rep Scheme For The Deadlifts In 22.2

A perfect workout would look completely unbroken with no rest between movements.

However, the deadlift is going to be heavy for many athletes and going unbroken is not realistic. If the deadlift is close to or around 70% of your 1RM, then you should do fast singles from the start.

If you don’t know your 1RM Deadlift, then consider if you could do your division’s prescribed weight for 15 reps unbroken. If the answer is no, then you should do fast singles from the start.

22.2 Deadlift Singles | WODprep

A fast single consists of dropping the bar from the top of the rep, NOT stepping away from the bar, and then immediately bending down to regrip and pull for the second rep.

How To Pace The Burpees For Open 22.2

You need to pace the burpees so that you can hold your fast singles (or unbroken reps) on the deadlifts.

Your burpees should be the same speed the entire time. If you’re trying to figure out what speed you could maintain for this workout, imagine doing these bar-facing burpees for 20 minutes straight with no breaks. That’s the pace you should maintain.

Should I Jump Or Step Back/Up In My Bar-Facing Burpees For Open Workout 22.2?

How you choose to do the burpee (jumping back/up or stepping) will be dependent on how you can hold your pace. In your warm up test out your technique and how your heart rate responds to the different techniques.

For the best time, we recommend doing a “glide step” burpee. This is where you jump back, but on the way up you jump with your feet staggered. Only one foot is brought closer to the bar and the other foot trails behind, then you jump over the bar from that split position.

22.2 Glide Step Bar-Facing Burpees | WODprep

In years prior, the glide step burpee was hard for some to complete without getting hit for a no rep because they were not leaving the ground with a two-foot take off. However, this year the burpee standards say that you do NOT need a two-foot take off, making this technique achievable for more athletes.

Other Pacing Tips For Improved 22.2 Time

1. Place chalk hand print markers.

Before the workout starts, chalk up your hands and do a burpee on each side of the bar, being conscious about hand placement. These marks should be something you aim for in each round to remain consistent in your placement. This way you won’t end up too close or too far from the bar.

2. Don’t let that barbell move.

Nobody can touch your barbell during this workout. If it rolls away, you have to get it. If your collars and weights become loose, you have to adjust it yourself.

With that said, be conscious of the floor space you pick and find a good flat part of the floor where your bar won’t roll away.

Make sure when you “drop” your last deadlift that you stabilize it if needed before starting your first burpee rep. Otherwise you’ll be chasing your bar mid burpee!

Make sure you don’t grab your gym’s old, rusted and loose weight collars! The last thing you want to do when you’re trying to get a good time is to be fiddling with keeping your weights tight on the bar.

3. Don’t dilly dally!

After your last burpee in each round, try to immediately grab that deadlift bar. Don’t step back far away from the barbell and spend a lot of time here. Your pacing should allow you to move immediately into the next thing. If you can’t, slow down a little bit.

4. If you are going to wear a belt, leave it on!

We don’t recommend wearing a belt. However, we know this will be a heavier weight for many athletes. If you are going to wear a belt, put it on from the start and leave it on. Do not waste time messing with it!

Start with your belt loose for at least the first 6 rounds. The belt should be loose enough that it doesn’t hinder your burpees. Once you get to round 7 or 8, tighten up the belt a bit for those more fatiguing rounds. Do not fiddle with tightening and loosen it between movements or reps. Once you get back to the descending round, loosen that belt back up again.

In all, you should only adjust your belt twice during this whole workout.

Tips On How To Avoid Blowing Up Your Back In Open 22.2

With a burpee and deadlift couplet many of your backs will start to blow up! These two movements both use a hinging pattern and will wear out that movement.

If you are prone to feeling workouts in your back, or start experiencing your back blowing up in this workout, then you can do the following;

1. Start standing up tall in your burpees when you do your jump over the bar.

This gives your back a chance to open up and relax at the top.

2. Step back your burpees and jump up using the glide step.

When you jump back and jump up with your feet even it is a deeper hinging movement. Stepping back and jumping up with a glide step will give the low back less work and put more work on the quads.

3. Don’t over-arch in your deadlifts.

When you pull your deadlift to the top, don’t lean backwards. This puts extra unnecessary strain on the back. A complete rep is just with your hips and knees locked out and your head and shoulders behind the bar. You don’t not have to lean back further.

Also, don’t “rest” at the top of the deadlift rep. Just drop or put the bar down as soon as your judge counts your rep.

4. Lower the hips more in your deadlift.

If you hold your hips high at the start of your deadlift, this recruits more of your back and posterior chain. If you’re struggling with your back blowing up, make sure you lower those hips a bit more to use more quads in your deadlift. Don’t lower them so much though, that the bar starts having to go around your knees. That is too low!

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Useful Links:

22.1:

Blog: CrossFit Open 22.1 Workout & Standards

Blog: CrossFit Open 22.1 Strategy & Tips

YouTube Video: CrossFit Open 22.1 Strategy & Tips

22.2:

Blog: CrossFit Open 22.2 Workout & Standards