Seat At The Bar: 2023 Rogue Invitational Study

Photo Credit: Athlete’s Eye

Day two at the 2023 Rogue Invitational kicked off with “Seat At The Bar” for the individuals: a couplet of log muscle-ups and back squats. These two movements are not new to the Rogue Invitational appearing in separate events at the 2022 iteration. “Ski Bar” featured 40 total log muscle-ups sandwiching other movements in the chipper-style second event of the 2022 Rogue Invitational while “Back Attack” featured 15 back squats in a 5-4-3-2-1 pattern paired with box jump-overs. In their respective events, the log muscle-ups and back squats were the crux of the workout. So how did the 17 athletes who competed in “Ski Bar” and “Back Attack” fare in “Seat At The Bar”?

The Men

Ten of the 2023 Rogue Invitational men competed last year and are present below sorted by the average of their Ski Bar and Back Attack finishes.

A couple things stick out when seeing how these men performed in “Seat At The Bar”. First of all, it is worth noting that the top four men in “Ski Bar” (Smith, Garard, Vellner, and BKG), were the first four men off the log muscle-ups in the first round. Garard, Vellner, and Smith maintained their lead going on to finish in 1st, 2nd, and 4th, respectively. Each of these ten athletes was within four spots of their “Ski Bar” and “Back Attack” average except for Garard who beat his average by 9.5 places to take the win. Finally, every man who had a top-ten finish in either “Ski Bar” or “Back Attack” had a top-ten finish in “Seat At The Bar”.

The Women

Seven of the 2023 Rogue Invitational women competed last year and are present below sorted by the average of their “Ski Bar” and “Back Attack” finishes.

Lawson was the only woman to finish all 40 log muscle ups in “Ski Bar” last year and followed up that performance by being the first woman off of the bar in “Seat At The Bar”. Like the men, each woman was within four spots of their “Ski Bar” and “Back Attack” average except for Laura Horváth who jumped from 7.5 to 2, and Arielle Loewen who dropped from 7 to 16th. Of the seven women with competition experience on the log bar, only three finished in the top-ten. One thing was evident throughout the event: if an athlete can string together log muscle ups in every round OR have a fast cycle rate in the back squats, they were looking to have a good finish. Singles on all log muscle ups after round one combined with slow back squats made for a poor finish in “Seat At The Bar”. 

Stay tuned to B.Friendly Fitness all weekend long as we provide analysis, studies, and more on the 2023 Rogue Invitational.