The warm up was a little odd in that involved a weighted bar; that doesn't happen very often. You probably aren't used to doing overhead squats all that often, either, so be sure you understand what good form looks like on those. That's one exercise that can hurt your lower back if you're sloppy about your form. Odds are that you're not going to be using super heavy weight, but you also don't want to develop bad habits.
For the WoD itself, you'll work your upper body a good amount. That means you'll want to stretch out your arms & shoulders before you start the work out. As always, be sure to stretch out your legs, but don't forget the upper body in this case.
Warm Up
3 rounds of:
- 5 push ups
- 10 good mornings
- 15 overhead squats
WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 15 minutes)
- 10 push ups
- 10 jump box
- 10 thrusters
Exercises
- 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. - Good Mornings
Grab a weighted bar. Most people usually use about 12 lbs, although the highest weight anyone uses is usually around 30lbs.
Stand with your feet about two shoulder-widths apart and rest the bar on your shoulders behind your neck. Keeping your legs locked, bend at the waist (as if you’re bowing), and keep your eyes forward. Keep your back flat as you do that, and finish so that your back is parallel to the ground. Come back up to standing to finish the rep. Unlike the other variation of this exercise, there shouldn't be a bend to your knees during any part of this. - Overhead Squats
Use the same bar that you had for the good mornings.
Standing, hold the bar over your head with your arms locked. Your arms should make a “Y” shape with the rest of your body. You want the bar directly over your torso, so that your spine & the bar are lined up (the idea is to keep you from leaning forward on the actual rep). This actually feels like you're holding it behind your head, and you should make sure not to lean forward. Do a squat, keeping your arms locked as you go down & come back up. Make sure you keep a good lumbar curve the whole time, or you can tweak your back. - Jump Box
Set up a platform with stackable risers. Shoot for at least 4 risers; the most anyone uses is usually 6 risers. Before you even start the WoD, 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.
When you do jump on it, you want to make sure that you stand tall once you're on the platform. If you stay hunched over the whole time, you're not getting the full effect of the exercise. One way to think about this is that you want your hips to "open up" on both the jump up and the jump down; all that really means is that your butt shouldn't be sticking out at all and your hips should be pushed forward.
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 (highest is usually 25lbs, lowest is 8lbs). Hold the weights up near your shoulders so your knuckles face away from you and the weights are resting against the upper part of your chest (this position is often called "racking" the weights).
Do an air squat so that your thighs "break parallel." That means that at the bottom of your squat, your bottom should be closer to the ground than your knees. 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.
As always, have fun with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment