2010.06.15

First off, a little info about logistics. We're moving our usual Tuesday class to Thursdays, so expect posts about WoD's on Wednesday and Thursday starting next week. The space we usually use is going to be occupied on Tuesdays, so there we are.

With that out of the way, today's WoD was heavy on the legs. Starting from the warm up, you were focused on taxing your legs. This one was for time, and times ranged from about 15 minutes to 25 minutes.

Make sure you stretch out your legs after the warm up, you're going to need them. The grapevines probably won't take too much of a toll on your legs, but laps of weighted squats will definitely wake you up. Each time you move from one end of the room to the other end, that's 1 lap. For simplicity's sake, I wrote up the description for the grapevine so that you move in one direction. Since you're doing laps, you'll have to reverse which leg moves when you do the return lap.

For the WoD itself, you'll use the same pair of weights for everything, so find a weight with which you're comfortable. Try to hold the weights the whole time you're doing your reps. If you get tired, you can rest by putting the weights down.

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Warm Up

• 10 laps of grapevines
• 5 laps of walking weighted squats

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WoD
4 rounds of:

• 25 thrusters
• 5 burpees with weights
• 25 weighted lunges (both legs = 1 rep)
• 5 burpees with weights

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Exercises

• Grapevine
  Starting from a standing position, cross your right leg in front of your left leg, so that your right leg is farther left. Swing your left leg farther left, behind your right leg, so you're back to standing normally. You have essentially moved two steps to your left. Now cross your right leg behind your left leg, with your right leg again being farther left than your left leg. Uncross your legs again by moving your left leg one step to the left. Again, you've moved to the left another two steps. Repeat this from one side of the room to the other (about 30 feet). On the return lap, do everything in reverse, so that you are essentially taking steps to your right.
• Walking weighted squat
  Grab two weights (heaviest anyone used was 20lbs, lightest was 8lbs), and "rack" them at about shoulder level. That means you hold them with your palms facing away from your body, with your elbows tucked in. From this position, do an air squat. Make sure you keep a good lumbar curve the whole time (you can tweak your lower back otherwise), and you bend at least far enough so that your thighs are parallel to the ground. Come back up to the standing "racked" position, and then take a step forward. Do this until you hit the other side of the room (roughly 30 feet).
• Thrusters
  Use the same weights that you had for the walking squats. Hold the weights up near your shoulders so your knuckles face away from you (this position is often called "racking" the weights). Do a full air squat (if you can, go lower). As you come up, press the two dumbbells over your head, until your arms are fully extended. Push the weights straight up & down, since any horizontal motion will put undue stress on your shoulders. Bring the dumbbell back to the “racked” position to finish the rep. For this, you can actually make it a smooth motion, and go straight into the next squat instead of stopping at starting position. This is fine so long as you fully extend the dumbbells, bring the weights back down before you start your next squat, and keep a good curve on your lower back the whole time.
• Burpees with weights
  You have to hold the weights throughout the whole rep. It’s a 3-step motion: 1) squat down & touch the ground, 2) kick your legs out into a push-up position & do the push-up, 3) jump back to the squatting position.
  If you're feeling really ambitious, you can jump off the ground with the weights at your side to make it more of a true burpee.
  
  Scale down: Instead of jumping into a push up position in the second step, step back with one leg & then the other. The end result is the same, but it’s not as tough.
• Weighted Lunges
  Hold the weights at your side, one on each side. You can also hold them on top of your shoulders, if that feels more comfortable. Do a lunge with either leg forward, and then do a lunge with the opposite leg forward. That's a single rep. The idea is to weigh yourself down with the weights. Make sure you plant the heel of the leg that comes forward, and bring the knee of the back leg (the one that's bending) as close to the ground as possible.

As always with these WoD's, have fun with it.