This WOD was one of the ones where you had to do something every minute, on the minute (EMOTM, for short). That means you'll need something to ding/beep/notify you every 60 seconds. Oh, and if you don't finish your reps in the time that the minute is up, you get to do burpees. So there's no incentive whatsoever to slack off and go slow. Trust me on this one.
For the strength component before the actual WOD, you want to try to lift as heavy as you can. It's up to you to see what you can handle, but many people did sets of 5 or 8 at the heaviest weights. You probably want to start lighter and do more reps to get your shoulders warmed up, but the weight progression and the number of reps is up to you.
Lastly, the WOD involved a clean and jerk and the strength component involved a strict shoulder press, so you want to be good about your form. I keep saying it, and I'm going to keep on saying it so people don't get hurt. If you're lifting weight above your head, don't mess around with poor form. You can tweak your back that way.
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- 25 jumping jacks
- 10 static inch worms
- 10 jump squats
- 10 good mornings (no bar)
- 10 arm circles
Strength:
In teams of 3, sets of strict shoulder press
WoD
Every Minute on the Minute (for 15 minutes):
- 15 clean and jerks
- OR -
If you didn't complete your reps in your last round:
15 burpees
Exercises
- Static Inch Worm
If you've ever done an inch worm before, this is a slight variation on that (you don't move forward or backward). If you haven't done them before, start from a standing position. Keeping your feet on the ground, reach down to touch the ground and move your hands forward a little bit at a time until you end up in a push up position. Once there, move your hands backwards until you are back to where you started. You don't have to stand back up to finish the rep, but you do have to bring your hands as close to your feet as possible (that depends on your flexibility). That's one rep. You would move your hands forward to start the next rep.
- Jump Squat
Do a normal air squat, but as you come up to finish the squat, jump straight up in to the air. You finish the rep when you land and reset yourself. It's not uncommon for people to go right in to the next squat, though. This is okay so long as you're not bending over and losing the lumbar curve in the process. Basically, you don't get to cheat on your form because you're jumping.
- Good Mornings without Bar
Stand with your legs about shoulder width apart, and put your hands on the back of your neck. Don't apply pressure (that's bad for your neck), just rest your hands there. Bend your knees slightly, and bend at the waist (as if you’re bowing) while keeping your eyes forward. Keep your back flat as you do that, and finish so that your back is parallel to the ground. Come back up to standing to finish the 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.
- Strict Shoulder Press
Grab a barbell and weight it with as much weight as you can handle (most I saw was ~90lbs). Since you're working together with a couple of other people, they will help you rack the weights. Place your hands on the bar about shoulder-width apart, and working with your partners, lift it up to about shoulder height, with the weight resting on your chest/clavicle. Your palms should be facing out, so that you could see them if you look into a mirror. If you've got enough strength and flexibility in your wrists, bring your elbows straight up so that they point away from your body. This will force more of the weight against your upper torso and put more of a strain on your wrists, so only do this if you can sustain this position. Once you've got firm control of the weights in this position, your partners can let go and let you do your reps.
Once you've got the weight racked, lift the bar straight over head without using your legs. You are not going to dip or do a quarter squat. This is pure upper body strength, with no legs to drive the momentum. Be sure to lift the weight straight up and down, and lock out your arms at the top of the press. If you need help getting the weight back down, your partners can help with that, as well.
- Clean and Jerk
Make sure you have a barbell with weight on it for this exercise; the most I usually see anyone use is 60lbs.
To begin with, put the weight on the ground in front of you (this is different than the "high hang" where you start with the weight near your thighs). Squat down to grab the weights, but remember to face forward and keep your chest facing forward. Stand up, but as you do so, shrug your shoulders aggressively. I know it sounds silly, but it should be an *aggressive* shrug. You really want to build some momentum in that motion. However, keep your arms locked as you're doing this, or you'll end up doing more of a curl. If you need to make sure you've got it down, practice just that part of it a few times.
The next step, starting from the shrugged shoulder position, is to quickly bring the weight up to about chest level and do a quick hop at the same time. If you were to watch the path the weight travels, it should be as close to your body as possible, and as close to completely vertical as possible. If the weight travels in an arc away from your body, you're doing it wrong. Your hands don't lift the weight as much as they adjust themselves to hold the weight differently. At the end of this motion, you should have your palms facing away from your body, as if you were "racking" the weight near your chest/clavicle.
You can almost think of it as letting go of the weight in midair, and positioning your body underneath the weight so that you end up with your knees slightly bent and the weight at your chest. Don't actually let go of the weight, that can be all sorts of bad. However, you'll find that because it's a quick hop, you're pretty much jumping into it. At the same time, your hands will suddenly shoot up to hold the weight at your chest.
As always, keep a good lumbar curve. You don't want to bend over as you do this. If you do it wrong repeatedly or with a heavy enough weight, your lower back will pay for it. Again, practice just the squat motion a few times so that it feels natural. That's the "clean" part of this.
The last part, the "jerk" in the name, involves violently shoving the barbell directly over your head. Make sure that you're in a quarter squat position, then very aggressively press the weights directly over your shoulders. In fact, your momentum will cause you to do a slight hop while your hands go upwards. At the top of the rep, your arms should be completely locked out, and you should stand tall. Because this lets you use your legs to drive the momentum and the power, this should feel easier than a strict shoulder press.
To finish the rep, you have to lower the weight to the ground safely (we're not allowed to just drop weights). From the locked out position at the very top, bring the weight straight back down to the racked position (resting on your shoulders/clavicle, palms facing away from you, elbows as high up as you can). From there, lower the weight to your thighs using your arms. Lastly, squat down to put the weight on the ground. You'll need to keep your chest facing forward the whole time; don't bend forward at any point. All of that is one rep. If you need to, practice the motion until it starts to feel natural; form is really important here.
- 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.
Started out with ~60 pounds, had to knock it down to ~20 by the end. Did about 5 rounds of burpees
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