How To Beat Your Score With This 23.3 Redo Strategy

Written By Charleh Knighton | The Open

Are you looking to crush your score on the CrossFit 23.3 workout? If so, you’ve come to the right place! Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a newbie to CrossFit, improving your score can often be challenging and intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be.

With this re-do strategy, I’m going to teach you how to structure your workouts for maximum efficiency and effectiveness so that you can beat your first score.

With that being said - prepare yourself mentally, set some goals and let’s get started.

How To Crush Your 23.3 Open Workout Re-Do

For most, the biggest limiter is the shoulder fatigue. It sucks. Coming back to that second set of wall walks and after a bunch of double unders and 15 snatches, not only jacks the heart rate up but fries your arms.

This workout is the ultimate test between your engine, gymnastics, and strength abilities. We’ve broken down the best strategy depending on your goal.

If your goal is some reps at the second barbell (or get close to finishing) and you were redlining when you got there:

Slow down your wall walks in both sets. This workout isn’t won on the wall walks. Stay calm and steadily chip away at them.
On the wall walks, stay really focused on your technique. We’ve broken down these advanced techniques on how you maximize your wall walks in this YouTube video.
Be PREPARED for the lockout and shoulder fatigue that comes after the double unders and wall walks when you go to catch a snatch.
If you can mentally prepare yourself and KNOW that your arms will be tired, it won’t catch you by surprise when the barbell feels heavy.
Just like the wall walks, this workout isn’t won by going as fast as you can. You’ll find you’ll go faster by breaking up the first barbell into small chunks (or singles with pacing if needed). You’re better off hitting sets of 2 and 3, then 5+, if you have that ability level.

If you're struggling with the DU:

If you find yourself tripping up on the double unders, the best tip is to try and stay calm. If you do trip, breathe, reset the rope and go again.
It's best to stay focused on quality sets, rather than lots of frustrating sets that you keep tripping on. Make sure you watch our video on Slow Motion Double Unders.
The combination of the wall walks and snatches are going to make the double unders hard. So go slower than you think, and make sure your heart rate doesn’t skyrocket.

If your goal is some HSPU in round 3:

If you’re hitting the SHSPU, and it wasn’t bad, then the SHSPU aren’t you limiting factor here. You need more time, so consider pushing round 1 a bit more.
If by round 3, you were already redlining and your heart rate went through the roof, then consider slowing down to give yourself a chance to hit some larger sets or quick singles.
If you opened BIG on the HSPU then went to failure, consider singles the entire time. Stay focused on doing a rep, coming down, breathe, and go straight back up again. Repeat that process, and you will get a better score in the re-do - I PROMISE.
Again, focusing on quality reps will stop you from getting unnecessary no reps. Make sure you check out our video on strict handstand push ups to set a new PR.

If you are on the bubble for top 10%:

Unless you finish it or got a top score, consider redoing it. Every rep is worth so much when sitting at the top of the leaderboard.

The Best 23.3 Strategy For Scaled Athletes:

The biggest thing here is the wall walk. Yes the standard is HARD, especially for women, because of the height limitations (you can read more here). But we can’t do anything about it and have to focus on how to beat it.

Turning the hands out, scrunching the fingers can help shorten the distance.
Once your feet are on the wall, don’t walk them at all. Keep them still and just move the hands.

To Summarize

As the 2023 CrossFit Open closes, make sure you take some time to reflect. Reflect on how your Open workouts went. Where did you smash it? Where can you improve? What would you do differently next time?

Take it to the next level, reflect over the last 12 months of your CrossFit training, and repeat the same questions. You'll find there are times you've totally forgotten about or even not realized how far you've come.

Until next year, well done!