Tuesday, November 2, 2010

2010.11.2 - Tabata


Today's WoD was a Tabata workout. Actually, check that, today's WoD was a modified Tabata workout meant to be harder than usual. For those of you who haven't done Tabata before, the idea is high intensity with very little rest. Traditionally, you do 20 seconds of work, followed by 10 seconds of rest, only you repeat that 8 times in a row. You do this for every single exercise in that work out.  Today it was the men vs women... I will leave it to you as to who did better.

The warm up was simply to get the blood moving.  Simply three rounds of jogging in place, front-back jumping jacks, and high knees, each for 30 seconds.

The WoD was made a little more difficult with the addition of burpees tossed into the mix.

Warm Up
3 rounds of:
·         30 seconds of running in place
·         30 seconds of front-back jumping jacks
·         30 seconds of high knees

WoD
·         8 rounds of: 20 seconds of decline push ups, 10 seconds of rest
·         8 rounds of: 20 seconds of situps, 10 seconds of rest
·         8 rounds of: 20 seconds of dips, 10 seconds of rest
·         8 rounds of: 20 seconds of burpess, 10 seconds of rest
·         8 rounds of: 20 seconds of squats, 10 seconds of rest


Exercises
·      Front Back Jumping Jacks
Start with one leg in front of the other, then alternate. Jump back and forth between the two positions. As you do so, bring your arms up as if you were doing regular jumping jacks. It really is just like a jumping jack, the only real difference is that your legs move forward & backward instead of side-to-side.
·      Decline Push Ups
Despite the name, it's more like an incline bench press. Set up a platform with 4 risers on each side. Put your feet on the platform and your hands on the ground; your feet should be higher than your face. Do your push ups that way, with your chest touching the ground for each rep.
·      Sit Ups
Keep your feet in butterfly position (heels touching each other), since that isolates your abs. For these, come up so your torso is perpendicular to the ground.
·      Dips
Use the same platform that you used for the decline push ups. Position yourself so your arms are holding you up/off the edge of your platform, with your legs straight out in front of you. You should just be barely forward of the platform; your butt should practically touch the platform as you do your reps. If you come forward too far, you'll put unnecessary strain on your shoulders.

Lower yourself so that your butt touches the ground, and then raise yourself back to the starting position. That's 1 rep. If you do the exercise properly, you'll feel the exercise the most in your triceps.

Scale down: Bend your legs, and put your feet flat on the ground before doing your dips. Since you're lifting less weight this way, this makes the dips easier.
·      Burpess
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.

If you're up for it, you can make these harder than usual by using weights throughout all 5 steps. When you squat down, touch the dumbbells to the ground. Keeping the weights on the ground in front of you, kick back to a push up position. Do the push up while holding the weights (this forces you to go a little bit lower on the push up). Jump back to the squatting position, and jump up while still holding the weights. At that point, you don't have to jump quite as high, but aim for at least an inch off the ground for each rep.

Scale down: Step back into the push up instead of jumping. Same goes for when you go back to the squatting position (step 4); step forward instead of jumping.
·      Squats
Make sure that when you go down, your bottom ends up closer to the ground than your knees (this is called "breaking parallel"). If you have to do your squats slower to accomplish this, that's fine.

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.

Scale down: If you can't squat that far, you should aim to end up with your thighs parallel to the ground at the bottom of your squat.


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