2010.04.13

Tuesday's WoD was something that Al affectionately called "Back to Basics." The reason for this was simple; the WoD involved the most common (the "basic") exercises we do. That also means that you want to maintain good form for everything, so that you have full range of motion on each rep.

The warm up is more about getting your legs pumping, so that the muscles are ready for all the squats you're going to do. After you finish the mountain climbers, make sure to stretch out your legs. Take particular care to make sure the muscles around your hips aren't tight, or you'll feel it when doing air squats.

As for the WoD, aim for 30 rounds if you can. That works out to roughly 40 seconds per round, which one person almost hit (he got to 29).

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Warm Up
3 rounds of:

• 30 seconds of mountain climbers

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WoD
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

• 5 push ups
• 10 sit ups
• 15 air squats

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Exercises

• Mountain climbers
  Get down on all fours, almost as if you were about to start a race. Or if you prefer, it's also a bit like being in a push up position with a bend at the waist. For the allotted time, move your legs as if you were running while keeping your hands stationary on the ground. Essentially, alternate bringing your legs forward. The exercise is commonly called "mountain climber" because it's analogous to what you would do if you were climbing a steep hill/mountain.
• Push ups
  Bring your chest to the ground for every single rep, and when you come up, make sure your arms are fully extended.
  Scale down: Do them on your knees
  Scale down more: Use a wall or a ballet bar to push off against. Since you’re doing them at an angle, you’re not pushing your entire body weight that way.
• Sit ups
  Keep your feet in butterfly position (heels touching each other), since that isolates your abs. Also, don’t go past 90 degrees as you sit up. In fact, try to stay at about 45 degrees – it forces your abs to stay contracted, so it works them harder.
• Air Squats
  Make sure that when you go down, your thighs are at least parallel to the ground (you can squat farther down than parallel, but it's not required). You want to keep your weight on your heels the whole time, that will help ensure you keep a good lumbar curve & will help with any potential balance issues. For some people, it helps to look up at about 45 degrees to ensure you're not leaning forward & straining your lower back. To ensure this happens, you can throw your hands up to 45 degrees and focus your eyes on your hands on each rep.

As always with these, have fun with it. For people who have been doing these WoD's for a while, push hard so you can see how much stronger you've gotten.