2011.5.10

Today's WoD is all abount maxing out. No stopping on your reps. If you stop or pause on a rep, that movment is done. Just keep going to you fail. Just be carful when you fail... a few of us had small incidents when we failed on the squats.

Work with a partner. When you are doing your MAX reps, your partner will count. Then you switch places.

For the WoD, as always, pay attention to your form.

---

Warm Up
3 rounds of:

• 30 seconds of running in place (scale up: quick feet)
• 30 seconds of high knees (scale up: double time)
• 30 seconds of jumping jacks

---

WoD
5 Rounds of maxing out on:

• Max Pushups
• Max Situps
• Max Squats
• Max Dips
• Max Lunges

---

Exercises

• Pushups
  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.
• Situps
  Keep your feet in butterfly position (heels touching each other), since that isolates your abs. Come up all the way so that your torso is perpendicular to the ground.
• 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.
• Dips
  Use a box so that when you are in teh down position, you are breaking parallel. 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
• Lunges
  Make sure you go all the way down on your lunges. In this case, each time one of your legs comes forward, that counts for one rep (or "right/left = 1," for short). Your knees don't quite have to touch the ground (you might get burns/scrapes that way), but come as close as you can to that. If you need extra support, you can use your hands to push up off of your lead leg.

As always, have fun with it.