Open Workout 16.5 Injury Prevention Tips

Can you remember 14.5 like it was yesterday? 2 years ago you had to go through a grueling cycle of Thrusters and Burpees. For your last Open Workout, you’re going to have to do it all over again. 16.5 is 14.5. Although we can’t promise you we can get you to finish this in a little over 8 minutes like Mat Fraser did during the 16.5 live stream, we can provide the following tips to make sure you get through 16.5 without injury. Workout 16.5 is all about having hip mobility and proper front rack position. Remember to keep your upper back and chest nice and tall. With Thrusters, when fatigue sets in, elbows tend to drop forward causes the upper and middle back to drop forward as well. This causes strain in these areas and this type of inefficient position not only hurts performance but can lead to injury. A tip we like to give CrossFitters is to move their grip out a bit – hands a bit outside the shoulder – to let the elbow have more room to move.

Hip and back problems comes about with high rep or high load. With Burpees, your body is undergoing a quick succession of a closing and opening motion. Having a stable mid-line will save your back.

To get joints lubricated prior to doing 16.5, here are a couple of exercises we recommend.
• Split-lunge: Get hip and groin open.
• Goblet squat: Practice getting to the bottom of squat
• Workout 16.1 warmup exercises are also relevant for this 16.5: Thoracic spine extension, Burpee Prep, T-spine over medicine ball

CrossFit Athlete Mat Fraser finished his Workout 16.5 in a little over 8 minutes. What’s your goal? Thanks for including us as part of your 2016 Open Workout journey!