Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Very Hard

This Open ladder couples a light-to-moderate overhead squat with advanced gymnastics (chest-to-bar), compounding fatigue every 3 minutes. It demands strong shoulder mobility, midline stability, barbell cycling efficiency, and high pulling capacity under mounting heart rate. The escalating volume and fixed windows reward pacing and movement economy while punishing grip, positioning, and breathing errors.

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (8/10): High, ascending volume of overhead squats and chest-to-bar requires repeated submaximal efforts under fatigue, testing shoulder, grip, and midline endurance over multiple intervals.
• Flexibility (7/10): Solid thoracic and shoulder mobility plus deep squat ROM are mandatory to stabilize the bar overhead while maintaining a strong, upright torso.
• Speed (6/10): Quick, controlled cycle times and short transitions create needed buffer within each window, but sprinting risks early failure from grip and positional breakdowns.
• Endurance (6/10): Work is continuous across expanding 3-minute windows, driving sustained heart rate without monostructural pacing. Aerobic recovery between sets becomes crucial as rounds progress and rest evaporates.
• Power (4/10): Explosiveness helps with efficient barbell cycling and powerful pulls to the chest, but the workout favors repeatability over peak power output.
• Strength (4/10): Loading is moderate (95/65 lb) and not a max-strength test, but overhead stability and pulling strength are limiting factors as reps increase.

Movements

• Overhead Squat
• Chest-to-Bar Pull-Up

Scaling Options

Scale to: 75/55 lb OHS + Chest-to-Bar • 95/65 lb OHS + Chin-over-Bar Pull-Ups • 75/55 lb Front Squats + Ring Rows

Scaling Explanation

These options preserve the couplet’s stimulus by adjusting load and gymnastics difficulty or swapping the overhead position when mobility limits would derail movement quality and intended intensity.

Intended Stimulus

Each 3-minute window should feel urgent but controlled. Aim to keep overhead squats unbroken and manage chest-to-bar in sustainable chunks with minimal rest. Early windows create a small buffer; later windows compress rest to near zero. Expect a building burn in shoulders and grip with breathing that climbs steadily as you fight the clock.

Coach Insight

Pace the pull-ups from the start. Quick sets with short breaks beat one big crash-and-burn set. The one tip: Keep overhead squats unbroken with perfect positions—locked-out elbows, active shoulders, and steady breathing. Avoid death-grip and sloppy transitions. Step right to the bar, chalk strategically, and come off the rig before failure to preserve your next set.

Benchmark Notes

These targets map typical stop-points: L2 finishes the opening 10s, L4 reaches the end of the 12s, L5 finishes the 14s, and L6 clears the 16s. Advanced athletes push into 18–20s, while elites accumulate past 360 reps. Score every completed rep; once you fail a window, the workout ends.

Modality Profile

This is a pure couplet split evenly between weightlifting (overhead squats) and gymnastics (chest-to-bar). With no monostructural element, pacing and capacity come from efficient barbell cycling and pulling, making it a balanced test of barbell control and upper-body gymnastics under fatigue.

Similar Workouts to Open 14.2

If you enjoy Open 14.2, you might also like these similar CrossFit WODs:

• Open 15.2 (91% similar) - For As Long As Possible From 0:00-3:00 2 rounds of: 10 Overhead Squats (95/65 lb) 10 Chest-to-Bar Pu...
• Open 11.4 (90% similar) - AMRAP in 10 minutes: 60 Bar-Facing Burpees 30 Overhead Squats (120/90 lb) 10 Ring Muscle-Ups...
• AGQ 23.1 (89% similar) - For Time: 3 Rounds of: 2x25 foot Dumbbell Walking Lunges (2x50/35 lb, hang position) 20 Toes-to-Bars...
• Open 19.3 (89% similar) - For time: 200 ft Dumbbell Overhead Lunges (50/35 lb) 50 Dumbbell Box Step-Ups (24/20 in) 50 Strict H...
• Triple-G Chipper (88% similar) - For Time 100 Pull-Ups 80 GHD Sit-Ups 60 Pistols (alternating legs) 40 calorie Row 20 Dumbbell Push P...
• Quarterfinals 22.1 (88% similar) - For time: 50 Dumbbell Walking Lunges (2x50/35 lb) 30 Handstand Push-Ups 40 Dumbbell Front Rack Walki...
• The Final Countdown (87% similar) - For Time 12-10-8-6-4-2 reps of: Overhead Squats (115/75 lb) Pull-Ups...
• Quarterfinals 22.2 (87% similar) - For time, 3 rounds: 30 Alternating Pistols 30 GHD Sit-Ups 10 Muscle-Ups Time cap: 15 minutes...

These WODs similar to Open 14.2 share comparable training demands, time domains, and movement patterns.