Sunday, March 2, 2014

2014.02.27

Sadly, this was another one that I had to miss. It looks like it's built to tax your legs (thighs in particular), so be sure to do the leg exercises in the warm up well.

You're going to be holding weight over your head at one point (the dumbbell swings), so be careful with those. You're also going to be doing weighted back squats, so do them properly to avoid hurting your back. I know I say this every time, but I say it for a reason. Go slower if you have to, but don't hurt yourself.


Warm Up
2 rounds of:
  • Bear crawl across one length of the room (~20 feet)
  • Duck walk across one length of the room (~20 feet)
  • 10 bottom downs
  • 5 lunges to elbow
  • 10 arm circles

WoD
As Many Reps As Possible (in 20 minutes) of:
  • 10 dumbbell swings (5 left and 5 right)
  • 10 sit ups
  • 10 back squats with bar bell

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.

  • Duck Walk

    Squat down with your legs wider than shoulder-width apart (like a duck). Walk forward by bring one heel forward to where your toe used to be; then do it with the other foot. Basically, don't take large steps forward. You can only advance the length of your foot each time you step forward. You're going to look an awful lot like a duck waddling forward, hence the name.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Dumbbell Swing

    You only need a single dumbbell; the heaviest I saw anyone use was 25lbs. 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 in an arc until your arm is 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.

    Your arm should stay locked the whole time, so that you're actually swinging the dumbbell. If you start bending your arm at the elbow, you're doing more of a bicep curl. That's not what you're after in this case, so that's wasted effort.

    At no point should you bend over, that can hurt your lower back. You always want to be facing forward, with a good lumbar curve. If you get tired, it's preferable to stop for a bit than to do these reps with bad form.

  • Sit Ups

    Keep your feet in butterfly position (heels touching each other), since that isolates your abs. Make sure you touch the ground when lying down/leaning back, and touch your heels when you come up. 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.

  • Back Squat with Bar Bell

    Grab a barbell and weight it with as much weight as you can handle (most I saw was ~65lbs). Lift the bar and then rest it on your shoulders. From this position, do an air squat. Make sure you keep a good lumbar curve the whole time (you can tweak your lower back otherwise), and you bend at least far enough so that your thighs are parallel to the ground. Come back up to the standing "racked" position to finish the rep.

Happy CrossFitting.

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