2010.08.26

Thursday's WoD was focused on abs and shoulders, which worked out well because we worked on the leg muscles the day before. This one also involved a new motion, the dumbbell chop. As with any new movement, make sure to practice it a few times so you understand how to do it properly. Finish times weren't too crazy; they ranged from about 15 minutes to 21 minutes.

The warm up was slightly different, in that it was AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) for 5 minutes. The exercises are fairly routine, so make sure you don't cheat on them. For example, you have to lift your hands off the ground for the push up to make sure you actually go all the way down. We kept track of scores, and the guys hit 7 rounds and the women hit 6 rounds.

For the WoD, you have to do 50 reps at a time, but you also want to work both sides of your body. That means that for the dumbbell chop and the dumbbell swing, you do 25 on one side and then do 25 on the other side.

---

Warm Up
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 5 minutes) of:

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

---

WoD
3 rounds of:

• 50 dumbbell chops
• 50 one-handed dumbbell swings
• 50 V-ups

---

Exercises

• Push Ups
  The two things that you want to ensure when doing push ups are that you bring your chest to the ground for every single rep, and when you come up, you make sure your arms are fully extended. So, to make sure that happens, you have to touch your chest to the ground and go flat off the floor, and then lift your hands off of the ground. Lift them about an inch off the ground; the idea is that if your body isn't touching the ground and you lift your hands, gravity will make sure you don't cheat. Put your hands back down on the ground, and then push off the ground. When you come up, fully extend your arms. Also, both your butt and your chest have to come up off the ground. If your upper body is moving but your lower body isn't, you're not doing a full push up.
• Sit Ups
  For these, keep your heels planted on the ground (not in the butterfly position). You also want to come up to a full 90 degrees, so that your torso is perpendicular to the ground. We were more focused on number of reps in this case, so we made those two modifications to allow for that.
• Air Squats
  Make sure that when you go down, your thighs are at least parallel to the ground. If you've been doing this for a while, you're supposed to try to squat farther down than parallel, so that your bottom ends up closer to the ground than your knees.
  Regardless of how far you squat, 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.
• Dumbbell Chop
  Grab a single dumbbell; the heaviest anyone used was 25lbs, the lightest was 10lbs. Hold it in your strong/dominant hand, and then wrap your weaker hand around your strong hand. Really, your second hand is just there for support.
  
  For this exercise, your lower body is the key. You'll want to pivot your feet, or you can hurt your knees pretty badly. The first part is to swing the weight up to your shoulder. It doesn't matter which shoulder (you'll end up doing both sides anyway), but what does matter is that you pivot your feet as you do that. If you swung the dumbbell towards your right shoulder, your left heel should come off the ground, and your left knee should move down & to the right a bit. You also want your right knee to move a bit to the right and open up your hip a little bit to the right. Both of these things make it so that you're not planting all of your body weight and the dumbbell's weight on one leg and then wrenching it to the side. After enough reps, that'll hurt your knees. If you're bringing the weight up to your left shoulder, just do the reverse: right heel off the ground, right knee down and to the left, left knee to the left, and open up hip to the left a bit.
  
  Next, you want to swing the dumbbell to the side opposite of the dumbbell. Imagine chopping down a tree with an axe (that's where the exercise gets its name). You want the dumbbell to end up about hip level when you finish your swing. Again, be sure to move your lower body. Assuming you swing the dumbbell from right shoulder to left hip, your right heel should come off the ground and your right knee should move down and to the left a bit. Your left knee should also move to the left a bit, and your hip should open up the left side. It's the exact opposite of the way you pivoted your feet when you brought the dumbbell up to your shoulder, and identical to what would have happened if you brought the weight up to your left shoulder. That also means that if you're swinging from left shoulder to right hip, the lower body movement is the same as if you were bringing the weight up to your right shoulder.
  
  Since you want to work both sides, make sure you do half your reps from left shoulder to right hip, and half of your reps from right shoulder to left hip. The pivoting works the same way regardless of which side you start on, it's just a matter of which heel comes off the ground first.
• One-handed Dumbbell Swing
  Use the same dumbbell that you used for the dumbbell chop, and hold it in one hand. Do a squat, keeping a good lumbar curve, and hold the dumbbell between your legs at about knee/thigh level. Stand up from the squat, and as you do that, swing your arm upward in an arc until your arm is directly over your head. If you do the motion correctly, your legs will drive most of the momentum, and you're essentially just standing & squatting.
  
  At no point should you bend over, that can hurt your lower back. If you get tired, it's preferable to stop for a bit than to do these reps with bad form.
• V-Ups
  Lie on your back, putting our hands parallel to the ground “above” your head (if you were standing, they’d be directly over your head). Lift your legs off the ground and bring your torso up at the same time to touch your toes. In essence, your body makes a “V” shape. Go back to lying on your back to finish the rep. Be careful about slamming your legs into the ground when you finish the rep, that can hurt your lower back. Some people call these "jack knives," if that helps at all.
  
  Scale down: Bend your knees as your bring your lower body up. You only have to touch your knees this way

Have fun.