This WOD was really simple - there were only two exercises you had to worry about. Of course, that means that you had to do a whole crap load of them, so it's not like that made it any easier.
Even though you get to pick how to lift the weight overhead, it's still going to be over your head. That means the usual warning about lifting things above your head applies: be careful. Mind your form or you can tweak your back.
WoD
- 21 shoulder to overhead
- 21 burpees over bar
- 15 shoulder to overhead
- 15 burpees over bar
- 9 shoulder to overhead
- 9 burpees over bar
- 15 shoulder to overhead
- 15 burpees over bar
- 21 shoulder to overhead
- 21 burpees over bar
Exercises
- Shoulder to Overhead
Grab a barbell and make sure it's weighted with a decent amount of weight. You're going to do a bunch of these, but you also want to challenge yourself. Most people usually end up using somewhere between 30lbs and 60lbs.
To begin with, hold the barbell up near your shoulders, 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.
From here, though, you have a few options for how to get the weight over your head. What you choose to do is completely up to you, but I've purposely listed the remaining options in order of how much you use your legs (press requires the least, jerk requires the most). It'd be pretty reasonable to start relying more on your legs as you start getting tired.
- Strict Press
I've also heard some people refer to this as a military press, but it's pretty much all upper body. Push the bar straight up into the air with your shoulders and arms. As the bar moves over your head, push your head forward so that your arms, spine, and head are aligned in the same vertical plane. Make sure to lock out your arms so that they are fully extended at the top.
To get back to the racked position, bring your head backward and then lower the barbell in a controlled motion back to your clavicle. You don't want to just drop the bar (with much, much more practice and a non-hardwood floor, this is acceptable, but for our purposes, just don't do it). So, make sure you're controlling the descent of the bar, not gravity.
- Push Press
From the racked position, do about a quarter squat, and then come up from that position, hard. As you come up from that slight squat, drive the weight up with your shoulders and arms. Remember, the main push is now coming from your legs, not your upper body. That's the whole point of doing that mini-squat, to use the power from your legs to drive up the weight when you come up. Push straight up and down, so that the barbell travels in a straight vertical line, and lock your arms out at the top of the lift. As the bar moves over your head, push your head forward so that your arms, spine, and head are aligned in the same vertical plane.
To get back to the racked position, bring your head backward and then lower the barbell in a controlled motion back to your clavicle. You don't want to just drop the bar (with much, much more practice and a non-hardwood floor, this is acceptable, but for our purposes, just don't do it). So, make sure you're controlling the descent of the bar, not gravity.
- Jerk
The jerk is meant to take full advantage of your legs to get the weight above your head, so be absolutely sure of your footing and your stability if you're doing this. From the racked position, do a quarter squat, and then violently push upward with your legs. In fact, your feet should come off the ground a short distance (don't actually jump, that's more than a little dangerous) from the momentum you're generating upward.
As before, your job now becomes to position yourself in a position to catch the weight that has been violently shoved upward by the momentum from your legs. Extend your arms upward to keep the barbell moving straight up, and do another quarter squat so that you don't catch the weight with your legs fully locked. As the bar moves over your head, push your head forward so that your arms, spine, and head are aligned in the same vertical plane. Once you've got the weight all the way up and you have full control of the weight, stand tall. If your feet have moved at all, re-position them underneath you so you have a good base. Again, don't try moving your feet until you're certain you have control of the weight.
To get back to the racked position, bring your head backward and then lower the barbell in a controlled motion back to your clavicle. You don't want to just drop the bar (with much, much more practice and a non-hardwood floor, this is acceptable, but for our purposes, just don't do it). So, make sure you're controlling the descent of the bar, not gravity.
- Strict Press
- Burpees Over Bar
It sounds complicated, but this is only a slight variation on a traditional burpee. Before you start, put the bar down so that it runs parallel to the way your body is oriented for the push up portion of the burpee. You're going to jump sideways over it eventually.
With that little bit of pre-work out of the way, it's still 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 sideways over the bar. You're going to end up jumping back and forth over the bar (if the first jump is to your left, you'll jump to the right for your next rep). With a weight lifting bar, this forces you to jump at least a few 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 sideways over the bar instead of jumping. This takes less energy, but still makes you do the work.
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