This was another one that I had to miss, though at least I knew about it in advance this time. This one was an AMRAP, but it had a couple of exercises that were unique. I'd suggest doing a few reps of each before the actual WOD, so that your body gets the feel for the motion.
Most of the exercises can tweak your back if you're not careful, so be careful about your form. You're probably not going to be using heavy weight, but doing that many reps in a row with bad form can definitely lead to some discomfort.
WoD
As Many Reps As Possible (AMRAP) - 15 minutes
- 10 single arm dumbbell swings (5 left, 5 right)
- 10 Russian twists with dumbbell
- 10 one and a quarter squats
- 10 mountain climbers (left/right = 2)
Exercises
- Single Arm Dumbbell Swings
This is just like a kettle bell throw, but with a dumbbell. Traditionally, guys have used 15-25lbs, and the women have used 10-15lbs
Do a squat, keeping a good lumbar curve, and hold the dumbbell between your legs at about knee/thigh level. Stand up from the squat, and as you do that, swing your arm upward until your arm is almost directly over your head. If you do the motion correctly, your legs will drive most of the momentum, and you're essentially just standing & squatting. At no point should you bend over, that can hurt your lower back. If you get tired, it's preferable to stop for a bit than to do these reps with bad form.
- Russian Twists with Dumbbell
Sit down on the floor with your legs out in front of you, then lift both of your legs off of the ground. If you have lower back problems, it can help to cross your legs in the air, since it'll take a little bit of the strain off of your back. Lean back a tiny bit, just enough so that you feel your abs contract. You don't want to overextend your back, so don't lean back any more than 45 degrees.
With the weight in your hands, rotate so that the weight moves to one side of you. Touch the ground if you can, but the most important part is that your shoulders stay still during this movement. The idea is for your obliques (the side part of your abs) to do the work, so your core should be doing the rotation. It's possible to keep your abs motionless and just use your arms/shoulders to move the weight from side to side, but that's bad form. One way to think about it is to think that you want your arms about shoulder width apart at all times, and you want your head to be pointing straight ahead between your arms at all times.
Every time the dumbbell passes across your body, that's 1 rep.
- One and a Quarter Squats
Start from a standing position, with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Drop down as if you were doing a squat, to the point where your bottom ends up slightly lower to the ground than your knees (i.e., "break parallel"). Instead of coming all the way back up, though, come up so that your bottom is only slightly higher than your knees.
From that position, drop back down to the lowest point of your squat, so that you are below parallel. Now, come back all the way up to a standing position. As you can imagine, the name of the exercise comes from the fact that moving from slightly above parallel to slightly below parallel adds about one fourth of an air squat to the motion. It taxes your legs a bit more and takes good balance on your air squat to do this, though, so don't be surprised if it takes a few reps to get used to the motion.
- 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.
Both of your legs have to come forward one time to complete a single rep. For simplicity's sake, we describe that as "right/left = 2."
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