These elite athletes know about hard work.
Team HWPO (Hard Work Pace Off) is one of the many arms of five-time Fittest Man on Earth® Matt Fraser’s growing organization. Based on an inside look at a recent training camp, Fraser looks set to use his experience and resources to prime the top competitors and prepare for the 2023 CrossFit Games, which run from August 1st to August 6th.
On July 13, 2023, Butter Brothers posted a video to their YouTube channel There he visited Team HWPO during their camp preparations. Under Fraser’s tutelage were veterans of the CrossFit Games — two-time Fittest Woman on Earth® Katrin Davisdottir, top-10 finalist Jason Hopper and Christine Kolenbrander (who was making her second appearance as an individual women’s competitor).
Here’s a rundown of the dynamic exercises Fraser and Co. are practicing in their camp ahead of the 2023 edition of the Games.
Handstand practice
The day’s training began with the assembled crew performing various handstand drills. The route consisted of a handstand walk to ascend and descend a ramp, a handstand push-up, a pirouette (performing a 360-degree turn while performing a handstand), a second handstand push-up, and a final ramp ascent and descent.
Fraser also participated in the practice and soon developed a friendly rivalry with Hopper to the point of betting five dollars to see which athlete could complete the course in the shortest time. Hooper won against the winningest champion in Games history. However, when the pair attempted to go for “Double or Nothing”, both elite competitors suffered a technical collapse and did not complete the course for the final time.
Scarecrow snatch, power clean and back squat
Hopper has the Buttery Brothers join them for some scarecrow snatches. The athlete worked up to 84 kilograms (185 pounds). Hopper revealed that he is relatively new to Olympic weightlifting and his technique leaves a lot to be desired. Fraser, a national weightlifting champion prior to his CrossFit training, is helping him with his training aspect.
Daviesdóttir and Kolenbrander took the Butter Brothers through power cleans, eventually hitting 95% of their respective one-rep maxes. To close out this strength component of the session, everyone performed squats, working up to a five-rep max, taking three seconds to lower the first rep, and then doing a traditional speed with the following four reps. Several participants reached the 136-kilogram (300-pound) range.
Echo Bike Sprint Interval
The latter part involved the team rolling through 12 sprint and echo bike intervals every 90 seconds – a variation of EMOM training. The women’s goal is to burn eight calories in 15 seconds. The goal for men is to burn 12 calories in the same time frame. He closed this interval and dynamic morning with 15 legless rope climbs.
Sprint Metabolic Conditioning
Once the athletes ate lunch and recovered, they returned to an afternoon session focused on the AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) format. It’s six sets with a 2.5-minute work period, followed by a 2.5-minute rest after each set:
- Standing Bike Erg – Women: 12 calories | Men: 16 calories
- 12 burpee box jump overs
- Four squat snatches – Women: 61 kilograms (135 pounds) | Men: 93 kilograms (205 pounds)
- Maximum ring muscle-ups
Per Fraser, the goal was to get the athletes heart rate up on the bike, fatigue with burpees, perform a technical movement in the squat snatch, then push through fatigue with muscle-ups.
Games-style workout
After seemingly “easing up,” Fraser does an exercise reminiscent of something that happens in his group games. They went through four rounds of two handstand walk ramps, barbell thrusters and 400-meter runs. Thrusters increased in weight and reps each round. He started with 43 kilograms (95 pounds) in five repetitions and ended with 56.7 kilograms (125 pounds) in 11 repetitions.
Outdoor
Finally, to close the camp day, Daviesdóttir and Hopper took the exploits outside. He started with a 300-meter (984-foot) lake swim, followed by 21 reps of double kettlebell snatches, 21 reps of double kettlebell front squats,. The next round requires another swim with 15 repetitions of each exercise, followed by a third swim with 9 repetitions of each exercise, and a final swim.
Fraser’s bunch are ready and willing to put in the hard work required to capitalize on their upcoming appearance at the Games. At least, from a training standpoint, they seem functional.
Featured Image: @butterybros on Instagram
