2010.09.21

Today's WoD involved a couple of Olympic lifts, so you'll want to be very sure that you can do the movement properly. You can do it wrong and survive, but even with low weight, bad form will take its toll. Everyone finished in under 20 minutes (times ranged from about 12 minutes to 19 minutes), though, so the WoD wasn't ridiculous.

For the warm up, do the good mornings, squats, and mountain climbers slowly. The emphasis should be on stretching out your muscles and getting them loose, rather than going quickly. You're particularly going to want the muscles in your legs to be warmed up, and doing those exercises slowly will help with that.

For the WoD, it's a fairly common 21-15-9 set up. You have to do 21 reps of all of the exercises in the first round, 15 reps in the second round, and 9 reps in the final round. That means that the workout gets a little easier as you go along. Also, try to use the absolute heaviest weights you can. You'll get the full effect of the WoD and the need for technique if you lift heavier weight.

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Warm Up
3 rounds of:

• 50 platform steps (1 riser)
• 10 good mornings without bar
• 10 air squats
• 10 mountain climbers (right/left = 1)

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WoD

• Round 1:
  
  • 21 clean into split jerks
  • 21 weighted platform step (4 risers)
  • 21 burpees
  • 21 V-ups
• Round 2:
  
  • 15 clean into split jerks
  • 15 weighted platform step (4 risers)
  • 15 burpees
  • 15 V-ups
• Round 3:
  
  • 9 clean into split jerks
  • 9 weighted platform step (4 risers)
  • 9 burpees
  • 9 V-ups

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Exercises

• Platform Step
  Set up a platform with 1 riser on each side. Step up onto the platform, one leg at a time, and then come back down one leg at a time. Stepping up with both legs & stepping down with both legs counts as a single rep.
  
  Even though it's only 1 riser, make sure you look down as you're doing this. After a while, your legs can feel tired enough where you'll slip if you're not careful.
• Good Morning without Bar
  Stand with your legs about two shoulder widths apart, and put your hands on the back of your neck. Don't apply pressure (that's bad for your neck), just rest your hands there. 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. Unlike good mornings with a bar, you don't bend your knees, you keep your legs locked the whole time. Come back up to standing to finish the rep.
• 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.
• Mountain Climbers
  Get down on all fours, almost as if you were about to start a race. It's also a bit like being in a push up position with a bend at the waist, with only one leg back. From the starting position, simultaneously bring your lead leg back & your rear leg forward. Make sure that your lead leg also slides sideways, so that it is outside of your arm on that side. Do it again to switch the positioning of your legs, again making sure your lead leg ends up outside of your arm. For these, both legs have to come forward once for a single rep (or, "right/left = 1," for short).
• Clean into Split Jerk
  Grab two dumbbells (heaviest anyone used was 30lbs, lightest was 10 lbs). Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, and hold the two weights at your side. You want the weights to be as high as the middle of your thigh.
  
  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 weights slightly above your shoulders, but still keeping your arms at your sides (it's like holding each weight in the "hammer fist" position). It feels more like a jump than anything else, since you want to get under the weight before it reaches the top of its arc. If the motion ends up feeling like a bicep curl, you're not lifting properly.
  
  Your hands don't lift the weight as much as they adjust themselves to hold the weight differently. 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 with the weight at your shoulders. 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 before the weight comes up to the top.
  
  From here, do a very slight squat and press the weights directly over your head. Your arms should be locked and they should not be leaning forward or backward. Your legs, however, should not be locked; you don't want to land flat-footed when you do this.
  
  Because this is a "split" jerk, you want your legs to land with one leg forward and one leg back. If your left leg is the one in front, you want it at 11 o'clock, and your right leg at 5 o'clock. If your right leg is in front, you want that leg at 1 o'clock, and your left leg at 7 o'clock. Either way, you want to make sure that your legs aren't locked when your arms are fully extended and your feet hit the ground.
  
  Still holding the weights over your head, move your feet so that you're now directly under the weights. Usually this takes a step with each leg, so we'll refer to it as the "step step" portion of the movement (usually people move the front leg back into position first). Remember, you don't want to lower the weights as you're adjusting your feet. Once you're done moving your feet, THEN you can bring them back down to the starting position. That's one rep.
• Weighted Platform Step
  Set up a platform with 4 stackable risers on each side. Use the same dumbbells you used for the clean/jerks. You can either hold them at your sides or on top of your shoulders; so long as you're weighing yourself down, it doesn't make a difference. With the weights in position, step up on to the platform. Each time you come up and come back down is a single rep.
  
  You can step up with either leg, but remember that the lead leg is probably doing the most work; it doesn't hurt to alternate.
• Burpees
  It's a 5 step motion: 1) squat down & touch the ground, 2) kick your legs out into a push-up position, 3) do a push up, 4) jump back to the squatting position, 5) come up from squatting and jump 2 inches off the ground.
• 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.

As always, have fun with it.