2010.01.07

I’m not going to lie, today’s WoD is rough. It’s meant to kill your abs, and it did a pretty good job of that for most of us. If you think of each of the “dirty 30” exercises as being roughly equivalent to one sit-up, you end up doing over 1000 sit-ups (1080, to be exact).

Again, the warm up is light, but make sure you stretch out after you do it. The fastest time was something in the 20 minute range, and the slowest time was 45 minutes (that’d be me).

Warm Up
30 seconds jumping jacks
30 seconds front-back jumping jacks
30 seconds running in place
30 seconds high knees
30 second jumping jacks
30 seconds front-back jumping jacks

WoD
Dirty 30 (3 rounds of: 30 sit-ups, 30 elbows-to-knees, 30 V-ups)
30 push-ups
Dirty 30 (3 rounds of: 30 sit-ups, 30 elbows-to-knees, 30 V-ups)
30 air squats
Dirty 30 (3 rounds of: 30 sit-ups, 30 elbows-to-knees, 30 V-ups)
30 burpees
Dirty 30 (3 rounds of: 30 sit-ups, 30 elbows-to-knees, 30 V-ups)

Exercises
· Front-back jumping jacksYour legs go forward & backward instead of side-to-side, but your arms still meet above your head as if you were doing regular jumping jacks.
· Dirty 30Most of those exercises should be familiar, they’re all meant to work your abs. You have to do all 3 rounds before moving on to the next exercise. Also, don’t do 90 straight sit-ups, rotate through all 3 exercises to finish 1 round, then move on to the next round until you’ve finished all 3 rounds.
· Sit-upsOnly reason I’m including this is for scale-downs – everyone knows how to do sit-ups. The prescribed form is butterfly position (lying down on your back, with the soles of your feet touching each other). If you can, only come up to a 45 degree angle, and then come back down. It’s actually harder than coming all the way up, because it forces your muscles to contract the entire time with no let-up.Scale down: Do the sit-up to a 90 degree angle (so your torso is perpendicular to the ground). Don’t go past 90 degrees, because that’ll let your muscles relaxScale down more: Don’t do them from butterfly position. Instead, put your feet flat on the ground, with your knees bentDoing this many sucks: Do crunches instead
· Elbow-to-kneesLie down on your back, lift your legs off the ground, and tuck your knees towards your abdomen. Touch your right elbow to your left knee, and vice versa. Do bicycle kicks with your legs as you do this.Scale down: Leave out the bicycle kick, and just leave your legs stationary
· V-upsLie down on your back. Lift your legs so that they’re perpendicular to the ground, and as you do so lift your upper body so it’s perpendicular to the ground. Touch your arms to your toes. In practice, most people don’t get fully perpendicular, but if you can touch your toes, you’re doing it right (your body makes a V shape, hence the name).Scale down: Put your hands behind your lower back. That helps a bit with the strain on your core/absScale down more: Leave your legs up in the air, and just lift your upper body to touch your toes These things are evil: Bend your knees, and raise/lower your lower body again. Touch your knees as you come up
· Push-upsAgain, this one is here for the scale downs. The prescribed motion is to do them on your toes & bring your chest all the way down to the ground.Scale down: Do the push-ups on your kneesScale down more: If you’re in the exercise room, do them against that bar that runs along the back wall. The angle means you’re not lifting your whole body weight
· BurpeesI think you all know how to do burpees: start standing, squat down to touch the ground, jump back into a push-up position, do a push-up, jump back to the squatting position, then come up & jump 2-3 inches off the ground (clap your hands above your head if you’re feeling industrious).Scale down: Cut out the jump at the endScale down more: Instead of jumping from squatting position to the push-up position, step back (or forward) one leg at a timeI’m going to cuss you out: Don’t to the push-up#$@#&*!!!: Just do the squatting part, then come back up. This should only be an absolute last resort

You’ll probably feel it the most 2 days after, if that helps you plan at all. Either way, have fun with it & good luck.