2016 Reebok CrossFit Games OpenMar 22, 2016 by Armen Hammer
Breaking Down Julie Abildgaard's World Record 16.4
Breaking Down Julie Abildgaard's World Record 16.4
Julie Abildgaard's 318 rep performance on 16.4 is awesome (full video below). She got 43 wall ball into her second round, putting her 2 reps ahead of 2015 3
Julie Abildgaard's 318 rep performance on 16.4 is awesome (full video below). She got 43 wall ball into her second round, putting her 2 reps ahead of 2015 3rd place Games finisher Sara Sigmundsdottir. More importantly, her pacing can teach us something about how to be better CrossFitters ourselves.
This graph only includes her completed segments.
Here are her splits:
One thing Abildgaard does exceptionally well is manage her rest. Take a look:
You can see how consistent and short her rest periods stay. In real life, this was her dropping the bar after every 11th rep, then spending just 3-5 seconds before getting her hands back on the bar.
An important note is that her final "rest" data point, 4.21 seconds, is actually her transition from the barbell to the wall ball.
Check out her wall ball breakdown:
Again, her second "rest" period is her transition onto the rower.
If you were to look at only her 55 deadlifts and 55 wall ball, you'd see she only rested 26.07 seconds out of about 3:25 effort.
It gets even crazier.
You can see she never rests more than her time under tension during the handstand push-ups. Her rest periods are also about twice as long as her previous rest periods. This is not about conditioning; it's about muscle endurance and moving at the pace that allows her to continue knocking out those hspu.
Again, that last "rest" period is her transition from the wall back to the deadlifts. Her first transition from the deadlifts to the wall ball was 4.21 seconds. And her transition from the wall back to her deadlifts was 4.34 seconds. That is the epitome of controlling transitions.
If you need even more data about how well she's able to control and manage her rests, take a look at her second set of deadlifts:
Even exhausted, after crushing 220 reps of deadlifts, wall ball, rowing, and handstand push-ups, she's still able to keep a 1:1 or better work to rest ratio.
Abildgaard's 16.4 performance is amazing, and we can learn something from her ability to manage her transitions and rests.
If you liked that, you'll love our breakdown of Kara Webb vs Ben Smith on 16.2.
The Big Picture, segment-by-segment
This graph only includes her completed segments.
Here are her splits:
| Segment | Split |
| Deadlifts, round 1 | 1:40.83 |
| Wall ball, round 1 | 1:43.64 |
| Row | 2:49.40 |
| Handstand push ups | 2:16.70 |
| Deadlifts, round 2 | 2:48.78 |
The Magic of Rest
One thing Abildgaard does exceptionally well is manage her rest. Take a look:
You can see how consistent and short her rest periods stay. In real life, this was her dropping the bar after every 11th rep, then spending just 3-5 seconds before getting her hands back on the bar.
An important note is that her final "rest" data point, 4.21 seconds, is actually her transition from the barbell to the wall ball.
Check out her wall ball breakdown:
Again, her second "rest" period is her transition onto the rower.
If you were to look at only her 55 deadlifts and 55 wall ball, you'd see she only rested 26.07 seconds out of about 3:25 effort.
It gets even crazier.
You can see she never rests more than her time under tension during the handstand push-ups. Her rest periods are also about twice as long as her previous rest periods. This is not about conditioning; it's about muscle endurance and moving at the pace that allows her to continue knocking out those hspu.
Again, that last "rest" period is her transition from the wall back to the deadlifts. Her first transition from the deadlifts to the wall ball was 4.21 seconds. And her transition from the wall back to her deadlifts was 4.34 seconds. That is the epitome of controlling transitions.
If you need even more data about how well she's able to control and manage her rests, take a look at her second set of deadlifts:
Even exhausted, after crushing 220 reps of deadlifts, wall ball, rowing, and handstand push-ups, she's still able to keep a 1:1 or better work to rest ratio.
Abildgaard's 16.4 performance is amazing, and we can learn something from her ability to manage her transitions and rests.
If you liked that, you'll love our breakdown of Kara Webb vs Ben Smith on 16.2.