This one was slightly different, in that included a "skill" component. We've occasionally done that before, where we spent time working on a particular motion, but it's been a while. Essentially, you want to try to push yourself on that first part, to see how many reps you can do. You'll need a platform with risers, but it's all pretty much body weight.
The WOD itself only requires a couple of dumbbells, but it's actually a pretty heavy leg work out. All of those exercises generate most of the power/momentum from your legs, so doing that many reps is going to work your lower body. Given that, be sure to warm up your legs as well as your upper body.
Skill
- As many hand-release push ups as you can in 60 seconds
- As many sit ups as you can in 60 seconds
- As many squats to a box/platform as you can in 60 seconds
WoD
10 rounds of:
- 30 dumbbell sumo deadlift high pull
- 20 dumbbell push press
- 10 dumbbell front squats
Exercises
- Hand Release Push Ups
Bring your chest to the ground for every single rep, and lift your hands off the ground at the bottom. This forces you to go all the way down (gravity will take care of the rest if you don't actually bring yourself to the ground). At the top of the rep, 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.
- Sit Ups
Keep your feet in butterfly position (heels touching each other), since that isolates your abs. Come up all the way, but don't pull your neck forward or bend over as you do so. That releases the contraction of your ab muscles, so gives you less of a work out.
- Squat to a Box
Set up a platform with risers; most people usually use 4 risers. For this movement, removing risers makes it harder, because the platform denotes how low you have to squat.
Stand in front of the platform, and do a regular air squat. Make sure that when you go down, your bottom touches the platform; this should be at parallel or further. Don't bounce off the box, though, since that's cheating. 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.
- Sumo Deadlift High Pull (SDHP)
Grab two dumbbells and put them down in front of you. Keep your feet about 1.5 shoulder widths apart, and do a squat. Keep your hands between your legs, and reach down to grab the weights without bending at the waist. Come up from the squat, aggressively shrugging your shoulders as you do that (it might seem a little silly, but with heavier weight, the shoulder shrug is important to help drive the momentum). Finish by bringing your hands to about your chin. This is one of the few times that you want your elbows to flare out to the sides; it should look like your forearms are roughly parallel to the ground. Bring the dumbbells back to a standing position to finish the rep. Realistically, most people go right into the next squat/high pull; that's okay, so long as you don't compromise the curve in your lower back to do so. In essence, you're doing squats while lifting weight off the ground for every squat.
- Dumbbell Push Press
Use the same two dumbbells you were using for the sumo deadlift high pulls, 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.
- Dumbbell Front Squats
This exercise starts from the same racked position as the push press. Hold both dumbbells at about shoulder level, with both your palms facing away from your body so that you can see both palms in a mirror.
Keeping the dumbbells in this position, do a squat. The same rules apply as always: keep a good lumbar curve while you do this, keep your weight on your heels, keep your head up & look forward, and keep your chest facing forward (don't bend over). With weight in your hands, these cues become more important. If you do enough reps poorly, you can tweak your back. Incidentally, this is also why we try to learn good from with air squats; so that it's habit by the time you put weight in your hands.
No comments:
Post a Comment