Opinion | CrossFit 20.5 preview and predictions: Vellner and Thorisdottir square off in Boston for final workout

Historically, the final week brings us the same thing every year: the barbell thruster. It has shown up in the final workout nine consecutive times, and while I’m not entirely ready to rule it out as a possibility for this week, since we’ve already done thrusters with dumbbells, the safer money is on a final workout that does not include the barbell thruster for the first time. 

If not the thruster, what will we see? There are still two movements we haven’t had this year which we’ve had every previous Open, the chest to bar pull-up and a muscle-up of some variety. The chest to bar pull-up has shown up five different times in the final Open workout. The muscle-up, on the other hand, never has. It seems most of the community (including myself), was expecting muscle-ups as part of either the third or fourth workout this year.

But, as is usual, predicting what Dave Castro will do has once again proven difficult. Even with patterns emerging as we have more and more years of data to draw on, he continues to find new ways to surprise us. That is why this year, I believe we will see both chest to bar pull-ups and muscle-ups.

So 20.5 movement predictions are as follows: a workout that pairs wall balls with chest to bar pull-ups for the first part of it; and that participants who have the capacity to, will earn or unlock a second couplet consisting of muscle-ups and overhead squats.

When it comes to the Thursday night matchups, as has become customary, prominent affiliates and organisations have been organising live Open announcements consisting of the release of the workout and then head-to-head showdowns featuring some of the best CrossFitters on the planet.