2011.5.24

So, for today's WoD I was actually home... glued to the couch, trying to get better over some stomach bug. So, the "hollow rock" movement is off the discussion I had with Allen on Thursday.

Have fun, be safe.

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Warm Up

• 25 Jumping Jacks
• 2 rounds of:
  • 5 Pushups
  • 10 Sit Ups
  • 15 Mountain Climbers
  • 20 Hollow Rocks

WoD
10 rounds of:

• 10 pushups with one leg (5 each right and left)
• 10 situp to stand
• 10 jump squat to box

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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.
• Hollow Rocks
  Start laying down on your back. Extend your arm and legs straight up towards the ceiling. Now rock forward and back on your butt. Do not let your hands or feet touch the ground. You should aim to get to a 45 degree angel with either your hands or feet. Forward and back is 1.
• Pushups with One Leg
  This is your normal pushup, except you keep one leg off the ground for each set of 5.
• Situp to Stand (Sit/Stand)
  Lie down on your back, and keep the soles of your feet flat on the ground. Aggressively swing/throw your arms in front of your legs, and then stand straight up. The momentum from the swing will help with this motion, so make sure you really throw your hands hard. Standing up is going to be all legs, though. Go back down to lying down to finish the rep.
  
  This is an awkward motion for most people, so using some weight helps. Most people grabbed roughly 15lbs of weight (dumbbell, medicine ball, doesn't matter), and used that to help with the balance. Think of the weight as pulling your weight forward a little bit as you're standing up; that's why you want an aggressive throw.
  
  Scale down: If you can't stand in a single motion, you can do a sit up, and then use one hand to help push yourself off the ground. Be very careful with where you place your hand, you don't want to twist a wrist the wrong way and then apply your whole body weight to it. It's almost preferable to do this part slowly to prevent injury.
• Squat Jumps to Box
  You need to set up a platform with stackable risers. You're going to use this as a guide for your squats, so use as many risers as necessary for you to squat deeper than parallel. That means that at the bottom of your squat, your bottom will be closer to the ground than your knees. For most people, that was 3 or 4 risers, depending on height.
  
  Once you've done that, stand in front of your platform. Do a squat so that your bottom touches the platform. If you don't feel the platform, you didn't go low enough. When you come up, jump up at least an inch off the ground (shoot for 2 if you can).
  
  The platform forces you to go all the way down, and the jump forces you to come all the way up on your reps. The idea is to counter any bad habits that you may have built up.

As always, have fun with it.