Technically, this was three different mini WODs all lumped into one. However, pretty much the only thing that anyone remembered was the middle part, along with the name Sally. Those of you who follow the main CrossFit site and the various names in the sport will immediately know what that means, but if you don't, you'll soon see why people don't like that lady. However, this particular WOD was unique in that you need to have some sort of device that can play music, as well as a Moby song called "Flower."
For the warm up, we did bear crawls and inch worms from the front of the exercise room to the back. I'm pretty bad at estimating distances, but I'd guess it's about 20 feet. Also, note that you only do the bear crawls in one direction and you only do the inch worm in the other direction. You're not doing a full lap of either exercise each time around, just from one side of the room to the other.
This particular set of WODs was a bit more fun with other people around, since we all had to finish each WOD before moving on to the next one. That might a bit more rest for people who finished early in the pack, but that also meant that the people who took longer had a cheering squad as they were finishing off their reps. If you're doing this on your own, just wait the prescribed time (4 minutes) once you finish each mini-WOD.
You're going to be doing a bunch of back squats, so be careful of your form with the weight on your back. We don't usually use enough weight for it to be really dangerous, but like I always say, you learn habits with the lower weight. So you might as well do it right before it can cause some serious damage.
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- Bear crawl across one length of the room (~20 feet)
- Inch worm back the length of the room (~20 feet)
- 10 bottom downs
- 5 lunges to elbow
- 5 upward to downward
- 10 arm circles
WoD
In 10 minutes or less:
- 50 burpees
- Sally Up, Sally Down challenge with back squats
In 10 minutes or less, 3 rounds of:
- 30 sit ups
- 30 elbows to knees (left/right = 1)
- 30 V-ups
Exercises
- Bear crawl
From a standing position, bend forward so that your hands are touching the ground. There should be a bend at your waist, and a slight bend in your knees (don't lock them). Crawl forward, moving your arms and legs without standing up in the process. As someone joked, you're welcome to make growling sounds as you crawl. Stop once you reach the other end of the room.
- Inch worm
Squat down, and touch your hands to the ground. Keeping your feet on the ground, move your hands forward a little bit at a time until you end up in a push up position. Do a push up. Keeping your hands where they are, step forward so that you end up bent over touching your hands on the ground. Most people have to bend their knees to do this, but if you're flexible enough, lock your legs at the top position. From here, you basically repeat what you just did; you start the next rep by keeping your feet on the ground and walking your hands forward to start your next push up. Do this repeatedly until you reach the other end of the room.
- Bottom Downs
From a standing position, reach down and touch your toes. Without letting go of your toes, squat down in to a full squat. Hold the bottom of this position for a beat, and then stand up without letting go of your toes. Your feet should be as close to locked out as possible, so that you're essentially bending down to reach your toes. Hold that position for a beat in order to finish the rep. The idea behind the hold is to ensure that you don't cheat by only coming up or squatting down part of the way.
- Lunge to Elbow
This starts like any other lunge: 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.
Once your lead leg is forward and your knees are bent, reach down with your arms and touch the elbow on the side that's lunging forward to the inside of your calf. If your right leg is forward, touch your right elbow to the inside of your calf. If you can actually reach your elbow to your instep (the side of your foot), do that since that'll make it harder. Try to balance without reaching down your off hand, but if you need to, put your off-hand down on the ground to stabilize yourself.
If you need extra support, you can use your hands to push up off of the ground. 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). One way to simplify this is to simply rotate your upper body to go from having the left leg forward to the right leg forward (keep your legs planted where they are). This can feel awkward at first, though, so it's up to you how you make sure you've done your reps.
- Upward to Downward
This is a lot like a "judo pushup" in reverse, if you've ever heard of that. If you're familiar with yoga at all, the starting position should look like the "upward dog." Regardless, lay face down on the ground and then lift your entire body off the ground by extending your arms, as if you were doing a push up. However, bring your upper body all the way up, so that your chest up faces forward while your lower body is still parallel to the ground. This is the starting position. From there, lower your head and bring it down and in, as if you were trying to bring it to meet your waist. This will naturally force your hips to come up, and you'll end up holding yourself off the ground with a noticeable bend at the waist (your butt will be a bit higher in the air than your chest or lower body). To go back to the starting position, lower your head towards the ground, then lower your chest and bring it forward in the same motion. It's not a straight up and down motion like a regular push up, it's more of an arc. You should also keep your lower body off the ground at all times. Continue the arc by straightening your arms and elevating your torso. When you finish the arc, your torso/chest should be facing forward with your lower body parallel to the ground. All of that is a single rep.
- Arm Circles
From a standing position, rotate your arm without extending your arm away from you. You're essentially making a windmill of your arm. Do this in both a clockwise and counter-clockwise motion for each arm, so that you fully warm up & stretch the muscles. Most people just do 10 rotations forward with one arm, 10 rotations backward with the same arm, and then they repeat this with the other arm.
- 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. Once it starts to feel normal to do this motion, you can start to make it a smoother motion by essentially dropping down into a push up position, rather than squatting and then kicking out your feet. It requires a little bit less energy, but it also requires more coordination and muscle memory.
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.
- Sally Up, Sally Down
Grab a barbell and add as much weight as you can handle. The song lasts for a little under 3 and a half minutes, and you are going to hold squats for several extended periods. Put it this way: some of the strongest, most hardcore CrossFit athletes used 135lbs and they felt it afterward. That said, if you're a guy, try to use at least 45 lbs.
With your barbell properly weighted, rack it on your back (let it rest on your upper back, near your shoulders/delts). The basic idea is to let the song call out instructions. Whenever the song says "bring Sally down," you have to squat down. However, you don't come up from the squat until the song says "bring Sally up." That's all there is to it. Oh, and you can ignore the very first "bring Sally up" right at the beginning of the song, because you haven't squatted down yet.
If you feel like your legs or back can't handle a squat anymore, come up (or don't go down) to give yourself a bit of rest. You can catch up the next time that the song says to bring Sally down. Regardless of how you do this, form is paramount. Make absolutely sure that you keep a good lumbar curve and that you keep your chest facing forward. Don't lean over and don't rest your weight on your knees. This is a weighted squat gone crazy, but make sure you keep good form for the squat even when your legs start to burn.
- 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.
- Elbows to Knees
Lie on your back, and touch your right elbow to your left knee. Then alternate, touching your left elbow to your right knee. As you’re doing that, do bicycle kicks (i.e., kick out with the leg that’s not touching your elbow). You have to touch both elbows to both knees for a single rep.
Scale down: Leave out the bicycle kicks.
- V-Ups
Lie on your back, putting our hands parallel to the ground "above" your head (if you were standing, they’d be directly over your head). Lift your legs off the ground and bring your torso up at the same time to touch your toes. In essence, your body makes a "V" shape. Go back to lying on your back to finish the rep. Be careful about slamming your legs into the ground when you finish the rep, that can hurt your lower back. Some people call these "jack knives," if that helps at all.
Scale down: Bend your knees as your bring your lower body up. You only have to touch your knees this way
Finished burpees in 2:46.
ReplyDelete45 lbs for Sally, missed 3 or 4
Finished the Dirty 30 in 9:50