2010.04.21

Today's WoD only involved two exercises, so we had to do a bunch of them. That meant that the warm up was slightly longer than we have been doing the last few times. Still, it was a fairly light work out; finish times ranged from about 10 minutes to 15 minutes.

For the warm up, you have up to 10 minutes to finish the 5 rounds. Still, make sure you keep good form on everything. You don't have to do so many reps where you'll get overly tired, so be good about your form. Also, be sure to stretch out your legs after you're done; you're going to need them for the jump box.

---

Warm Up
5 rounds of:

• 5 push ups
• 10 sit ups
• 15 air squats
• 20 jumping jacks

---

WoD

• 10 jump box, 50 dips
• 20 jump box, 40 dips
• 30 jump box, 30 dips
• 40 jump box, 20 dips
• 50 jump box, 10 dips

---

Exercises

• 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
• Sit Ups
  Keep your feet in butterfly position (heels touching each other), since that isolates your abs. Come up to about 45 degrees for each rep – it forces your abs to stay contracted, so it works them harder. Any more or any less, and you're doing less work.
• 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.
• Jump Box
  Set up the stackable risers with a platform on top of them (highest anyone used was 6 risers, lowest was 4). Before you jump on it, stomp on it really hard. You want to make sure it'll support your weight & won't move around when you jump on it. Just in case, look down at the platform when you jump, to help prevent injury.
  
  Jump up on to the platform, and stand straight up (you can also think of it as bringing your hips forward). You want both your feet to land flush on the platform. The idea is to not stay hunched over the whole time as you're doing your reps. Jump back down, and make sure your hips come forward as you're jumping down, too.
  
  Scale down: Step up & step down instead of jumping on the platform. If you do step, make sure you alternate which leg is stepping up. Otherwise, you're only working one leg the whole time.
• Dips
  Use the same platform that you used for the jump box. Position yourself so your arms are holding you up/off the edge of your platform, with your legs straight out in front of you. You should just be barely forward of the platform; your butt should practically touch the platform as you do your reps. If you come forward too far, you'll put unnecessary strain on your shoulders.
  
  Lower yourself so that your butt touches the ground, and then raise yourself back to the starting position. That's 1 rep. If you do the exercise properly, you'll feel the exercise the most in your triceps.
  
  Scale down: Bend your legs, and put your feet flat on the ground before doing your dips. Since you're lifting less weight this way, this makes the dips easier

As always with these WoD's, have fun.