2010.08.18

Today's WoD was one we've done before (March 3). It was a Drop 10 work out, which means that it gets easier as you go along. After you finish the first round, subtract 10 reps from everything but the jumping jacks. For convenience sake, though, I wrote up all 5 rounds. Finish times ranged from about 19 minutes to 25 minutes, to give you a rough idea of how hard today's work out was.

For the warm up, the focus is on form rather than speed. You want to make sure you do the reps as cleanly as possible, even if that means sacrificing a little bit of speed. However, it's still in your best interest to finish your reps in less than a minute, as that'll give you some rest.

For the WoD itself, you'll mostly end up working your legs. The warm up should have gotten your muscles loose, but if it didn't, make sure to stretch. You really don't want to go into a ton of lunges and jump box cold, you could hurt yourself.

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Warm Up
3 rounds of:

• 60 seconds of jumping rope (double-unders if you can)
• 5 push ups, 10 sit ups, 15 air squats (in 60 seconds or less)

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WoD
Round 1

• 50 lunges (both sides for 1 rep)
• 40 jump box
• 30 thrusters
• 20 burpees
• 10 sit ups
• 25 jumping jacks

Round 2

• 40 lunges (both sides for 1 rep)
• 30 jump box
• 20 thrusters
• 10 burpees
• 25 jumping jacks

Round 3

• 30 lunges (both sides for 1 rep)
• 20 jump box
• 10 thrusters
• 25 jumping jacks

Round 4

• 20 lunges (both sides for 1 rep)
• 10 jump box
• 25 jumping jacks

Round 5

• 10 lunges (both sides for 1 rep)
• 25 jumping jacks

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Exercises

• Double Unders
  Jumping rope, you want the rope to make two full revolutions each time you jump. The important part is actually the flick of your wrists, not so much how high you jump. If you worry too much about jumping higher, you’ll throw your rhythm off.
• 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 the push ups on your knees. You lift less weight this way, so it's easier.
• Sit Ups
  Keep your feet in butterfly position (heels touching each other) if you can, since that isolates your abs. For these, come up all the way so that your torso ends up being perpendicular to the ground.
• Air Squats
  Make sure that when you go down, your thighs are at least parallel to the ground. If you can, squat farther down than parallel, so that your bottom ends up closer to the ground than your knees. 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.
• Lunges
  Make sure you go all the way down on your lunges, and do a lunge on each side for a single rep. Your knees don't quite have to touch the ground (you might get burns/scrapes that way), but come as close as you can to that. If you need extra support as you get tired, you can use your hands to push up off of your lead leg.
• Jump Box
  Set up the stackable risers with a platform on top of them (most people usually use about 4, 6 is the highest anyone ever goes). 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. If it does move around at all, keeping your eyes on it should help prevent injury.
  
  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.
• Thrusters
  Grab two dumbbells - most guys used 15-25lbs, and most women used 8-15 lbs. Hold the weights up near your shoulders so your knuckles face away from you (this position is often called "racking" the weights). Do an air squat. 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
  It’s a 4-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, 4) come up & jump a couple of inches off the ground (touch your hands above your head).
  Since we only had to do 30 of these total, you're not allowed to scale down that much.
  
  Scale down: Cut out the push-up, so for steps 2 & 3, you just kick out your legs and then jump back to the squatting position
  
  Scale down some more: Instead of kicking your legs out in the second step, step back with one leg & then the other. The end result is the same, but it’s not as tough. Still no push-up

As always, have fun with it. If you were around for the first time we did this, compare your time to see how much progress you've made.