I had to miss this class, but Al sent me a copy of the WoD. So, here it is. I'm also going to try to find quick, short videos with the movements. I figure it might be easier in some cases to actually see what you need to do.
I always stress good form when doing the Olympic lifts, and this time is no different. Be very good about your form when doing the clean and jerks.
WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 15 minutes) of:
- 5 clean & jerks
- 10 front rack lunges (left/right = 1)
- 15 hand release push ups
Exercises
- Clean & 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.
- Front Rack Lunge
You'll need a barbell weighted with as much as you can handle; the most I saw anyone use was 60lbs. 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; this is the "front rack" position.
If you have difficulty with this or feel more comfortable with the bar resting on your back, it's safe to do that. Just make sure that you have full control of the bar when you go to move your legs.
With the weight racked, you want to bring one leg forward in a lunge, and then bend your knees so that both your knees are bent at 90 degrees. 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.
It's up to you if you want your back knee to touch the ground or not. Touching the ground forces you to complete the full lunge, but doing so means that you'd do your lunge slightly differently. First off, you'll want to put a mat down in front of you so that you don't end up scraping your knees every time you touch the ground. However, you really don't want your front leg to step on the mat, since that can slide as you're moving back and forth (slipping with a barbell in your hands is a BAD idea). So if you're going to make your back knee touch, step diagonally with your front foot and step OVER the corner of the mat. Again, avoiding stepping directly on top of the mat. That angle will allow you to make your back knee touch the mat, but will also give you enough stability to safely perform the exercise.
This time around, you get credit for a rep only after you bring both legs forward (or, "right/left = 1" for short)
- Hand Release Push Ups
Bring your chest to the ground for every single rep, and lift your hands off the ground at the bottom. This forces you to go all the way down (gravity will take care of the rest if you don't actually bring yourself to the ground). At the top of the rep, make sure your arms are fully extended.
Scale down: Do the push ups on your knees. You lift less weight this way, so it's easier.
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