One place comes to mind during Open season, and that’s the pain cave. We never know what Dave Castro has in store for us, but we do know that it certainly won’t be easy and will probably cause some suffering, sweat, and maybe even some tears.

However, we keep coming back every year to participate in this worldwide event because we know that when the pain is over, nothing beats the feeling of lying on the ground post-workout, trying to catch your breath and knowing that you gave it your all. With 19.1 right around the corner, let’s get excited by looking back at five Open workouts that almost completely destroyed us.

5 Open Workouts That Almost Destroyed Us

18.1

This AMRAP should be pretty fresh in your mind: 20 minutes of grip intensive movements.

8 toes-to-bars
10 dumbbell hang clean and jerk
12-cal. row

Longer AMRAPs are never fun, but somehow they get even worse when it’s Open season and you’re giving it your all.

We were also thrown for a loop with a brand new movement being introduced to the Open with this workout: the dumbbell hang clean and jerk. We knew we would see more dumbbells in the 2018 Open, but the dumbbell hang clean and jerk is a complex movement and mixed with the T2B, it really wore out our grip.

The rep scheme of each movement each round was also just low enough that many wanted to fight to go unbroken throughout. Although tough, 18.1 tested us in many different ways and was an awesome way to kick off the 2018 Open.

17.1

Speaking of dumbbells, Castro didn’t disappoint with the debut of the dumbbell in Open workout 17.1. This couplet of dumbbell snatches and burpee box jump-overs lit us up.

For time

10 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump-overs
20 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump-overs
30 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump-overs
40 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump-overs
50 dumbbell snatches
15 burpee box jump-overs

For many, this may have been a first doing high repetition dumbbell snatches in a workout, and there were a lot of them. Not to forget the 75 burpee box jumps-overs sprinkled throughout the workout for an extra touch of “ouch.”

With there being ascending reps of dumbbell snatches in this workout, it was easy to start hot out of the gate with knocking out of the first 10 as fast as you could, but we all know how that ends. It was important to find a rhythm that you could keep up throughout with the dumbbell snatches and a pace you could keep pushing on the burpee box jump-overs.

16.5 (14.5)

Who doesn’t love a good burpee-thruster combo?!

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps of thrusters and burpees

For many of us, 16.5 was already done once in 2014, so we were aware of the hurt that we were about to endure. If this workout didn’t give you a “pukey” feeling, we’re going to go ahead and say that you may not have been going hard enough.

This workout ended the 2016 Open season with a huge bang. Even with the proper pacing and execution, there was no question that this workout was designed to make you crawl deep into the pain cave and embrace the suck.

14.4

14.4 is another great Open workout that tested us in many areas, such as gymnastics, weightlifting, and metabolic conditioning, all wrapped up in one AMRAP.

60-cal. row
50 toes-to-bars
40 wall-ball shots
30 cleans
20 muscle-ups

You needed to have the perfect game plan that played off of your strengths and weaknesses. This AMRAP really separated athletes, especially when it came to the muscle-ups. Although pacing was important, as the clock counted down closer to 0:00, there was no choice but to dig deep and get as far into this workout as you possibly could.

15.2 (14.2)

There’s nothing like racing against the clock to try to make it to the next round, right? Open workout 15.2 (14.2 repeat) brought us a weightlifting-gymnastics couplet consisting of chest-to-bar pull-ups and overhead squats.

Every 3 minutes for as long as possible complete:

From 0:00-3:00

2 rounds of:

10 overhead squats

10 chest-to-bar pull-ups

From 3:00-6:00

2 rounds of:

12 overhead squats (95 / 65 lb.)

12 chest-to-bar pull-ups

From 6:00-9:00

2 rounds of:

14 overhead squats (95 / 65 lb.)

14 chest-to-bar pull-ups

Etc., until you fail to complete both rounds

This workout probably had you feeling confident in the first three-minute window with 10 reps at each movement, but as the clock kept ticking and the reps kept growing, it turned into a “just hang on for dear life” type of workout. This workout was also mentally challenging because there was no “after five rounds I’m done” or “the pain will only last 14 minutes” type of reassurance. You kept going until you could no longer go, which means digging really deep and fighting the clock for every last rep.

Although these workouts hurt, there’s no denying that we love it. Year after year, we keep coming back for more. What type of pain do you think we’ll endure in 2019?

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