Sorry for being so behind on these, y'all. I was out of the office for a few weeks, so I didn't get a chance to post them. Regardless, I'm going to spend a bit of time catching up today, so you should see a few weeks' worth of WODs shortly.
This one was a fairly simple WOD in theory; all you have to be able to do is count to 9. The cash-out is going to hurt just a bit more, though. In fact, you'll notice that there is no ab/core work in the WOD. Don't think that wasn't intentional; Al was just saving it for the cash-out.
All of the exercises with the bar can tweak your back if you're not careful, so be extra good about your form when doing those. You really, really don't want to hurt your back doing this, and I sure as heck don't want you to hurt your back while you're doing this.
WoD
- 1 deadlift
- 1 power clean
- 1 push press
- 1 lunge (right/left = 1)
- 2 deadlift
- 2 power clean
- 2 push press
- 2 lunge (right/left = 1)
- 3 deadlift
- 3 power clean
- 3 push press
- 3 lunge (right/left = 1)
- 4 deadlift
- 4 power clean
- 4 push press
- 4 lunge (right/left = 1)
- 5 deadlift
- 5 power clean
- 5 push press
- 5 lunge (right/left = 1)
- 6 deadlift
- 6 power clean
- 6 push press
- 6 lunge (right/left = 1)
- 7 deadlift
- 7 power clean
- 7 push press
- 7 lunge (right/left = 1)
- 8 deadlift
- 8 power clean
- 8 push press
- 8 lunge (right/left = 1)
- 9 deadlift
- 9 power clean
- 9 push press
- 9 lunge (right/left = 1)
Cash Out
(Something we not-so-affectionately call "Dirty 30")
3 rounds of:
- 30 sit ups
- 30 elbows-to-knees
- 30 V-Ups
Exercises
- Deadlift
Grab a barbell and weight it as heavily as you can (the most I usually see is around 60lbs). Place the barbell on the floor pretty much right in front of your feet (with a full Olympic bar, you'd put your feet right underneath the bar). Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, and bend your knees slightly (about 20 degrees) to reach down to grab the barbell. You want your hands on the outside of your legs/knees, and you want to start with the barbell to be high enough off the ground to be about halfway up your shin (this is about the same height as an Olympic bar resting on the ground with 45lb plates on it). Keeping your head up and your chest facing forward, lift your torso a few inches until the barbell almost hit your knees. Your arms shouldn't bend at the elbows, you're just lifting your upper body with the weight conveniently attached to the upper body. Also, the weight should move in a straight vertical line, with no horizontal motion. It can help to think about it as if you're trying to skin your shins with the weight.
Once the barbell is at about your knees, pop your hips forward to generate some more momentum. At the same time, contract your shoulder blades towards each other. This will naturally pull the weight up even more (again, in a straight line). You should be standing straight up with your chest out at the top of the movement. Even though it looks like you're pulling the weight up using your biceps, you should try to avoid pulling up with your arms. That actually decreases the amount of weight you can lift in the long run, and it's bad form.
- Power Clean
You'll need the same barbell that you had for the deadlifts for this exercise.
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.
Lastly, just stand up completely while holding the weight at your chest. You basically just need to straighten your legs out, but you don't want to do this step until you've got full control of the weight. Once you stand all the way up, you can drop the weight back down to the ground to start over (if you want to slow this down, drop your hands/barbell to your waist, then squat down to put the weight down). That's the end of a single rep. Now all that's left is to put it all together in a smooth motion.
- Push Press
Keep using the same barbell that you had for the power cleans. To start, hold the barbell slightly below shoulder level with both your palms facing away from your body so that you can see both palms in 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 through a lot of reps. Regardless of how high you bring your elbows, the weights are "racked" against your chest.
Do a quarter squat, and come up as explosively as you can. In reality, you'll end up end up hopping up a tiny bit because you're generating so much momentum/power from your legs. That's okay, but be absolutely sure that you're in control as you do this. You really don't want to trip or fall while holding a barbell. As you come up, press the barbell directly over your head. 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, bring your head forward a bit so that your arms, spine, and head are all aligned along the same vertical plane.
One last cue is to 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 horizontally, that's also going to make it difficult to press straight up & down. Your rep is finished when you bring the weight back to beginning/racked position.
- 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 back 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. If you need extra support, you can use your hands to push up off of your lead leg. You'll have to repeat the motion with the other leg coming forward for the next rep.
This time around, you have to bring both legs forward one time in order to get credit for a rep (or, "right/left = 1" for short)
- Sit Up
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.
- Elbows to Knees
Lie on your back, and touch your right elbow to your left knee. You want to move both your elbow and your knee during this motion, rather than keeping one static and touching the other one to it. Also, while you're doing this, your right leg will be straight out in the air about six inches off the ground. Then alternate, touching your left elbow to your right knee.
This time around, you only get credit for a rep once you've touched both elbows to both knees. We tend to call that "left/right = 1" for short.
- 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
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