2013.04.22

This one is affectionately called "Drop 10," because you drop 10 reps for every exercise as you move from round to round. Ultimately, that means that it gets easier as you go along. For the sake of keeping things simple, I'll just write out the whole workout below.

Of course, that also means that you're going to be doing a whole lot of lunges and jump boxes, so be absolutely sure to get the muscles in your legs warmed up. This is not one you want to do with those muscles cold. The one thing you don't get out of doing are the burpees, but luckily you don't have to do too many of those

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WoD
Round 1

• 50 lunges (L/R = 1)
• 40 jump box
• 30 push press
• 20 sit ups
• 10 thrusters
• 5 burpees

Round 2

• 40 lunges (L/R = 1)
• 30 jump box
• 20 push press
• 10 sit ups
• 5 burpees

Round 3

• 30 lunges (L/R = 1)
• 20 jump box
• 10 push press
• 5 burpees

Round 4

• 20 lunges (L/R = 1)
• 10 jump box
• 5 burpees

Round 5

• 10 lunges (L/R = 1)
• 5 burpees

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Exercises

• Lunges
  From a standing position, bring one leg forward in a straight line, and then bend your knees so that both your knees are bent at 90 degrees. The back knee should be close to the ground, and your front knee should be directly over your front foot (otherwise you're putting undue stress on your knees). One cue that can help some folks is to treat your lunge like you're going straight up and down with your front leg. 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. Repeat the motion with the other leg coming forward to complete the rep. In other words, you have to lunge with both the right and the left leg coming forward for a single rep (or, "left & right = 1" for short)
• 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 hips should be pushed forward once you're standing on top of the box.
  
  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.
• Push Press
  Grab two dumbbells (heaviest weight is usually 25 lbs), and hold them at about shoulder level. Hold them with both your palms facing away from your body so that you can see both palms in a mirror. In a sense, the weights are "racked" against your chest.
  
  Do a quarter squat, and as you come up, press the dumbbells directly over your head. In a way, the quarter squat is just used to generate momentum. Remember, your legs should be driving the power in this motion, not your shoulders or arms. At the top of your motion, you want your arms to be fully extended and your legs completely straightened out.
  
  Also, make sure you move the weights directly up & down; if you start moving the horizontally, you'll put extra stress on your shoulders. If your elbows flare out, that's also going to make it difficult to press straight up & down. Your rep is finished when you bring the dumbbells back to beginning/racked position.
• Sit Ups
  Keep your feet in butterfly position (heels touching each other), since that isolates your abs. Come up to about 45 degrees for each rep – it forces your abs to stay contracted, so it works them harder. Any more or any less, and you're doing less work.
• Thrusters
  Use the same weights that you were using for the push press. Hold the weights up near your shoulders. The traditional start has your knuckles facing away from you and the weights resting against the upper part of your chest (this position is often called "racking" the weights).
  
  Do an air squat so that your thighs end up parallel to the ground; if you can "break parallel," that's even better. 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.
• Burpees
  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.
  
  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.

As you've heard me say plenty of times before, have fun with it.