For the warm up, just make sure you stay on your toes as you're doing it. If your heels start hitting the ground, you're going to slow down and potentially hurt yourself from the constant impact. Otherwise, it's a fairly light warm up.
For the WoD, practice the movement a few times before you start. Even though we didn't use heavy weight, it's easy to hurt your lower back if you have poor technique on these reps. The WoD is actually a "One Bar" routine, so pick out a bar/weight that you're comfortable with and use that for all of the exercises.
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- 30 seconds of jumping jacks
- 30 seconds of running in place
- 30 seconds of high knees
WoD
In 10 minutes or less, 5 rounds of:
- 10 squat cleans into thrusters
- 10 sit ups with bar
- 10 wipers (with bar)
- 10 V-Ups with bar
- 10 Good mornings (with bar)
Bottom Squat Challenge:
Hold a squat for as long as possible
Exercises
- High Knees
It's pretty much what it sounds like; run in place, only bring your knees up as you do that. You want to bring your knees up as high as possible. Also, stay on your toes the whole time. If you do land on your heels, it'll likely hurt, and it'll also slow you down. - Squat Clean into Thruster
Grab a weighted bar (heaviest anyone used was 25lbs). Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, and hold the bar with your arms just slight more than shoulder-width apart. You want the bar to be as high as the middle of your thigh (this starting position is a "high hang").
From the start position, aggressively shrug your shoulders while keeping your arms locked. It might sound silly, but that shrug is what kicks off the momentum for the rest of the lift. It's far more important with heavier weight, but you want to build good habits regardless of how much you're lifting.
The next step, starting from the shrugged shoulder position, is to quickly bring the bar up to about chest level and squat down at the same time. It's actually less of a squat and more of a jump, since your feet should end up about one and a half shoulder-widths apart (with your knees pointing outward), and your arms should be inside of your legs. You want your knees to point outward when you finish to relieve stress on those joints. And as always, keep a good lumbar curve. If you find you're leaning over when you catch the weight, you're doing it wrong. You should end up in the same position as if you were doing a plain squat: head up, facing forward, chest out, and with a slight curve in your lumbar/lower back.
If you were to watch the path the weight travels, it should be completely vertical. If the weight travels in an arc away from your body, you're doing it wrong. Your hands don't lift the weight as much as they adjust themselves to hold the weight differently. You also don't want the full weight on your forearms, so you should catch the weight in a "racked" position; the bar should be pressing against your upper chest/collarbone and you should mostly be holding it on your fingertips instead of jammed into your palms.
You can almost think of it as letting go of the weight in midair, and positioning your body underneath the weight so that you end up in a squat with the dumbbell at your chest. Don't actually let go of the weight, that's all sorts of bad. However, it feels a bit like you're racing to get to the bottom of your squat before the weight comes up to your chest.
From the bottom of your squat, stand tall and press the bar directly over your head. That means that your spine, your legs, and the bar should all be in a vertical line. In practice, this feels almost like you're holding the weight behind your head. Your legs should be locked at the top of your press.
Finally, bring the bar back down to your chest, and then back to the starting position to finish the rep. - Sit Ups with Bar
You can do these either from butterfly position (soles of your feet together) or with the soles of your feet on the ground. Lie on your back, holding the bar with your arms extended parallel to the ground (if you were standing, it’d be directly over your head). You don't want to actually touch the ground, but hold the weight a couple of inches above the ground. Do a sit-up, and come up all the way to 90 degrees; your torso should end up perpendicular to the ground, and the bar should end up in front of you. Go back to the starting position to finish the rep. - Wipers
Lie on your back, and hold the bar in the air above your chest. Lift your feet so that they’re perpendicular to the ground. Swing your legs to one side so that they touch the ground, bring them back to the middle, and then swing them to touch the ground on the other side. That’s 1 rep. Try to keep the bar still as you do so, because that will force your abs to work harder.
Scale down: Move the bar in the opposite direction of your legs. If your legs are moving to the right, offset that by moving the bar to the left. The extra movement helps balance out the weight and relieves a bit of the strain on your abs.
Scale down more: Don't touch the ground with your legs. You still have to move your legs to the side, but it's a more limited range of motion.
Wipers are no fun: Bend your knees. This reduces the amount of weight that your abs are compensating for, so it's easier. - V-Ups with Bar
Lie on your back, arms extended parallel to the ground as if you were holding your arms above your head. Swing the bar up and bring your legs up at the same time, so that they both end up perpendicular to the ground. You’re supposed to touch the bar to your legs.
Scale down: Hold the bar above the ground above your chest, and just bring your legs up to the bar.
Scale down more: Bend your knees instead of keeping them straight out. If you do this, you have to move both the bar and your legs.
- Good Mornings
Stand up, resting the bar on your shoulders, behind your neck. Keep your feet about shoulder-width apart, and bend your knees slightly. Bend at the waist (as if you’re bowing), keeping your eyes forward. Keep your back flat as you do that, and finish so that your back is parallel to the ground. - Bottom Squat Challenge
It's simple: do a squat but don't stand up. Essentially, you're holding the bottom of a squat (hence the name) for as long as possible. Make sure you keep good form on that squat; in particular, keep a good lumbar curve.
You can set your feet as far apart as you like, so long as you squat deep enough for your thighs to be parallel to the ground. Most people who did this actually "broke parallel"; they were squatting deeper than the required position, so that their knees were higher off the ground than their butts.
Lastly, don't rest your hands on your knees. It's easier that way, and you want to hold a legit squat for as long as possible.
As always, have fun with it.
Only finished 4 rounds of the WoD (25lb bar)
ReplyDelete5:55 on the squat