As the four-time Fittest Woman on Earth®, fans and athletes alike look to Tia-Clair Toomey for help and motivation for the CrossFit Open workouts. She broke down her performance during the 21.4, and opens up about some lessons she learned from the workout.
Throughout this year’s Open, Toomey has put up the type of performances you would expect from someone with the credentials that she has. Between the 21.1 and the 21.2, she has looked awesome and shared her experiences with others looking to follow in her footsteps.
This did not change with the 21.3 and 21.4, which were announced last week. The 21.4 is to be completed right after the 21.3, which fully tests an athletes cardio, and Tia performed this with seeming expertise.
Here is the workout for the CrossFit Open 21.3 and 21.4, just in case you forgot:
21.3 (Scored for time, 15-minute time cap)
- 15 Front Squats
- 30 Toe-To-Bars
- 15 Thrusters
- Forced 1-minute Rest
- 15 Front Squats
- 30 Chest-To-Bar Pull-Ups
- 15 Thrusters
- Force 1-minute Rest
- 15 Front Squats
- 30 Bar Musle-Ups
- 15 Thrusters
Weight: 95lb men, 65lb women
21.4 (Done immediately upon completion of 21.3; Scored for Max Load, 7-minute time cap)
- Deadlift, into
- Clean, into
- Hang clean, into
- Jerk
Tia-Clair Toomey Learned Her Lesson
There was a big lesson that Tia-Clair Toomey made while completing the CrossFit Open 21.4. Speaking in a recent video to her YouTube, the Games champion explained that she was a little disappointed in the gameplan she had for the workout, and how she managed her energy.
“For me personally, I actually walked away a little disappointed with that workout, purely because when I look back at it, I don’t think I had a proper gameplan going into it,” Toomey said.
“Typically, once I’ve got my heart rate up, I can lift very good afterwards, but I don’t think that I really accounted for how high my heart rate was after a workout like (the 21.3).
“So I walked away with that, knowing that I could have done more, especially because when you watch my video, the more lifts and the heavier I got, the better I got as well. So I felt like as my heart rate started to lower, I was able to actually push it and get better reps and movement patterns out of my lifts.”
To be clear, Tia-Clair Toomey explained that this was actually one of her favorite Open workouts that she has ever completed, due to the fact that it catered to a wide range of athletic skills.
Check out her performance of the 21.4 barbell complex, beginning at 2:51 of the video below:
Tia-Clair Toomey completed the 21.4 with a max lift of 230lb, which landed her in eighth place for the workout, provided nothing else changes before the scores become official. Regardless of this, she is still in first place overall for the Open, according to the current leaderboard standings.
