2011.3.10

Today's WoD is one of those workouts you want to go heavy on the wegihts. We worked a lot of the upper body today, so make sure to stretch,

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Warm Up

• 25 Jumping Jacks
• 2 rounds of:
  • 5 Pushups
  • 10 Sit Ups
  • 15 Squats

WoD
5 rounds of:

• 20 Mountain Climbers (RT & LFT = 1)
• 10 Pushups
• 20 Weighted Lunges (RT & LFT = 1)
• 10 Split Jerks

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Exercises

• Air 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.
• 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, you count one rep for every time one of your legs comes forward (or, "right/left = 2," for short).
• Weighted Lunges
  Hold the weights at your side, one on each side. You can also hold them on top of your shoulders, if that feels more comfortable. Do a lunge with either leg forward, and then do a lunge with the opposite leg forward. That's a single rep. The idea is to weigh yourself down with the weights. Make sure you plant the heel of the leg that comes forward, and bring the knee of the back leg (the one that's bending) as close to the ground as possible.
• Split Jerks
  Grab two dumbbells; the heaviest anyone used was 20lbs, lightest was 8lbs. The first thing you want to do is take a step forward. Whichever leg you brought forward is the one you're going to want to have in front when you "land" during this rep, so keep that in mind.
  
  Hold the two dumbbells at your shoulders, in a hammer fist position (the palms of your hands should both facing inward towards your body). In a nutshell, this is a "dip drive dip" movement.
  
  The first part is to do a very slight squat (that's the first dip). When you come up from that, you want to do that very aggressively and press the weights directly over your shoulders (that's the "drive" part). It's almost like you're jumping, because you want that violent a motion. You also want to rotate your hands as you press the dumbbells, so that your palms end up facing away from your body. If you're facing a mirror, you should be able to see your palms in the mirror.
  
  The last important part is that you don't want to be flat footed when you land. Instead, you want to land so that there's a slight bend in your knees (that's the last "dip"). It helps some people to think about about getting under the weight before it gets to the top. In this case, because it's 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. 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.

As always, have fun with it.