2014.05.22

This one was a birthday WOD, done in honor of Al's wife (the number of reps are all somehow related to her birthday). She's a pretty cool person, too, so I made sure to get my butt down to the gym to do this one. The WOD itself is slightly different in that each round contains 8 sets of movements. So, you'll do 8 sets of decline push ups and dumbbell thrusters and THEN follow that up with sumo deadlift high pulls to finish the round. Put another way, you should finish 40 decline push ups and 176 thrusters before you do your first sumo deadlift high pull. Of course, all of that is only a single round, and you're trying to finish as many rounds as possible in the 20 minutes allotted.

If you're looking for a target, the person who I saw finish the most reps was done with the first round at right around the halfway point. So shoot for 2 full rounds if you can.

This WOD was one that took its toll on your legs, so be absolutely sure to warm up the large muscles in your legs. Other than that, make sure you keep strict form on both the thrusters and the sumo deadlift high pulls. We don't usually throw around tons of weight, but even so, you're going to do a ton of reps. Like I always say, bad form can eventually hurt you even with a low weight, so protect your back.

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Warm Up
2 rounds of:

• 25 jumping jacks
• 5 T Push Ups
• 10 bottom downs
• 10 good mornings without bar
• 10 arm circles

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WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 20 minutes) of:

• 8 sets of:
  • 5 decline push ups
  • 22 dumbbell thrusters
• 43 sumo deadlift high pulls

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Exercises

• T Push Ups

  Drop down in to a push up position, and lower your body until your chest hits the ground. Push your body up off the ground, but as your arms start to get fully extended, lift one of them off of the ground. Rotate your torso towards the side where you lifted the arm, so that you are now facing sideways rather than towards the ground. At the same time, extend the arm you lifted straight up in the air. This is actually where the name comes from: at full extension, your body will make something of a T-shape. Lower your arm and rotate your torso back in to a regular push up position. Repeat this motion by lifting your other arm in to the air to complete a single rep.

• 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 three seconds, 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 three seconds 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.

• 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.

• Decline Push Ups

  Despite the name, it's more like an incline bench press. Set up a platform with as many risers as you can handle (the most I ever see anyone use is 6). Put your feet on the platform and your hands on the ground; your feet should be higher than your face. Do your push ups that way, with your chest touching the ground for each rep.

  If you're using these to simulate hand stand push ups (like in today's WOD), then you can work the appropriate muscles by sticking your butt in the air. Essentially, make sure your butt is higher than any other part of your body when you set up for the push up. This will force you to push your torso in more of a vertical angle than a slanted one, so it lets you get used to the feel/strain for handstand push ups. To help make sure that you're doing this right, keep your eyes on your feet and the platform the whole time. Keeping your head tucked in will keep you from flattening out the angle.

  Scale down: Put your knees on the platform instead of your toes. That reduces some of the weight that you have to push off the ground, so it makes it a bit easier.

• Dumbbell Thrusters

  Grab a pair of dumbbells; this time around, we weren't allowed to use more than 10lb dumbbells (we were simulating wall ball shots with a 20lb medicine ball). Start with the dumbbells at your shoulders with your palms facing each other (towards your armpits) and your knuckles facing out away from your body. You're going to be doing this in the hammer fist grip this time around (your forearm and the dumbbell make a hammer that you could swing). This is the start, or "racked" position for this exercise.

  Do an air squat so that your thighs end up parallel to the ground; if you can "break parallel," that's even better. As you come up, press the weights over your head, until your arms are fully extended. Push the dumbbells straight up & down, since any horizontal motion will put undue stress on your shoulders.

  Bring the dumbbells back to the “racked” position to finish the rep. For this, you can actually make it a smooth motion, and go straight into the next squat instead of stopping at starting position. This is fine so long as you fully extend the dumbbells, bring the weight back down before you start your next squat, and keep a good curve on your lower back the whole time.

• Sumo Deadlift High Pull

  You need a bar bell for this: most people used about 45lbs, as far as I could tell. Keep your feet about 1.5 shoulder widths apart, and do a squat. Keep your hands between your legs, and reach down to grab the weight without bending at the waist. You want your hands to be about thumb-width apart from each other. Come up from the squat, popping your hips forward and aggressively shrugging your shoulders as you do that. It might seem a little silly, but both of these things help you generate momentum and drive the weight, without having to just lift the bar with your arms. Finish by bringing the hand with the weight to about your chin. This is one of the few times that you want your elbows to flare out to the sides; it should look like your forearm is roughly parallel to the ground. Without bending over at the waist, squat back down to bring the dumbbell back to the ground to finish the rep.

  Realistically, most people go right into the next squat/high pull; that's okay, so long as you don't compromise the curve in your lower back to do so. You can also keep yourself honest by making sure that you hear the sound of the weight hitting the ground for every rep. In essence, you're doing squats while lifting weight off the ground for every squat.

As always, happy CrossFitting.