This WOD was one we did on our own, since Al couldn't make it. Still, we had the WOD, so a few of us headed down to the gym. If you're looking for a target, one person managed to hit 18 rounds.
In terms of movements to which you need to pay attention, both of the ones with the barbell are on the list. For the squat cleans, keep good form throughout, even if you have to slow down. You can tweak your back with poor form, regardless of how much weight you put on the bar. Similarly, be careful jumping over the bar. You want to be sure that it's not moving before you jump; bad things can happen if the bar is rolling around while you're trying to jump over the thing.
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- 25 jumping jacks
- 5 lunges to elbow
- 10 bottom downs
- 10 good mornings
- 10 pass throughs
- 10 deadlifts
WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 20 minutes) of:
- 3 squat cleans
- 5 V-Ups
- 7 lateral jumps over bar
Exercises
- 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.
- Bottom Down
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
Grab a bar but don't add any weight to it (you're only trying to warm up with this, so it's more for the motion than anything else). Standing, rest the bar on your shoulders behind your neck. You'll want to squeeze your shoulder blades together, and keep your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Keep your feet about shoulder-width apart, and keep your legs locked. Bend at the waist (as if you’re bowing), keeping your eyes forward. Your back needs to be flat as you do that, and you should finish so that your back is parallel to the ground. Come back up to standing to finish the rep. Notice that this variation doesn't require a bend to your knees.
- Pass Through
Keep using the same bar, but don't weight it. Hold the bar at your thighs with a really wide grip (think about the same width as when you do a snatch), and swing the bar upward in an arc in front of you. You want the bar to go over your head and then keep going so that your arms are behind you. In essence, it's like a two-handed arm circle with the bar. If you don't have the full range of motion, go as far as you can, but don't push past that. Your shoulders themselves can handle the motion because they're ball-and-sockets, but it can take a while before you get used to the motion.
- Deadlift
Since you're using this for a warm up, just use the bar. You're not trying to lift heavy, you just want to warm up your muscles by going through the motions. 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.
- Squat Clean
A single rep of a squat clean is essentially a weighted squat with some hand motions thrown in. This particular version requires a barbell, so grab one weight it with at least 20lbs. Several people end up using 45lbs and 65lbs.
To begin with, put the barbell down in front of you. From a standing position, squat down while still facing forward (don't bend over). You want the barbell to be at about mid-shin. If you're using the barbells in the exercise room, that means you'll have to lift it up off the ground a few inches. From that position, stand straight up and pop your hips forward. This should be a violent motion, since the point is to generate a lot of momentum (in fact, you should come up on your toes and "jump" from the momentum). However, the barbell will move in a straight vertical line. You're just using your body to move the barbell in as efficient a route as possible.
With the barbell at about hip level, shrug your shoulders. I know it sounds silly, but it should be an *aggressive* shrug. You want to continue the momentum of the barbell without having to "lift" the weight with your arms. That means you have to 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 dumbbells up to about chest level and squat down at the same time. Again, the barbell should be move in a straight vertical line. If the barbell 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 barbell 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 in a squat with the barbell at your chest. Don't actually let go of the barbell, that can be all sorts of bad. However, you'll find that because it's a quick squat down, 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 it feels natural.
Lastly, just stand up while holding the weight at your chest. Once you've stood all the way up, you can drop the barbell back down to thigh-level and then put the the barbell back on the ground to start over. That's the end of a single rep. Now all that's left is to put it all together in a smooth motion.
- V-Up
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
- Lateral Jump Over Bar
It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like: put the barbell down and make sure that it doesn't move (you can use one of the risers to make sure it doesn't roll). You have to jump over it; jump from side to side, not forward and backward. This time around we only counted it as a rep when you jumped over the bar in both directions; for simplicity's sake, it's "right/left = 1."
I lost track, but at least 13 rounds (~65lbs)
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