We were on our own for this WoD, so we got to pick our own work out. We all decided to do a repeat of one we've done before. It's a work out affectionately known as "Drop 10," because for every subsequent round, you do 10 fewer reps of everything but the burpees. That means that you stop doing one exercise every subsequent round, but for simplicity's sake, I'll just write out the whole thing. Times ranged from about 18 minutes to 25 minutes, if you want a goal.
In case you hadn't noticed, there are a lot of leg exercises in this work out. So make sure you stretch out your legs. You're going to need them for everything but the sit ups. You're also going to be lifting a barbell over your head for the push presses and thrusters, so be extra mindful of your form when doing those reps. You don't want to hurt your back or drop the weights.
WoD
Round 1 Round 2
- 40 lunges (L/R = 1)
- 30 box jumps
- 20 push presses
- 10 sit ups
- 5 burpees
- 30 lunges (L/R = 1)
- 20 box jumps
- 10 push presses
- 5 burpees
Exercises
- Lunges
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)
- Box Jumps
You'll need to set up a platform with risers; most people use at least 2, but I've seen up to 5 on occasion. Before you even start the WoD, stomp on it really hard. You want to make sure it'll support your weight & won't move around when you jump on it. Just in case, look down at the platform when you jump. If it does move around at all, keeping your eyes on it should help prevent injury.
When you do jump on it, you want to make sure that you stand tall once you're on the platform. If you stay hunched over the whole time, you're not getting the full effect of the exercise. One way to think about this is that you want your hips to "open up" on both the jump up and the jump down; all that really means is that your hips should be pushed forward once you're standing on top of the box.
Scale down: Step up to the box, and then step down instead of jumping on the platform. If you do step, make sure you alternate which leg comes down off of the platform first.
- Push Press
You'll need a barbell, and you'll want to lift as heavily as you can for a minute. Most folks usually use either ~45lbs or ~66lbs, but I've seen up to ~88lbs.
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. You want the weights "racked" against your chest, with your elbows farther forward than the bar. You don't need to bring them all the way up like you do with a front squat, but you do want your forearms vertical and supporting the bar from underneath.
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. Normally, you'd finish your rep by bringing the weight back to beginning/racked position, but in this case, you'll want to bring the weight to allow you to do your next motion. If your next motion is a back squat, then bring the weight back down behind your head. If your next motion is to start over with the clean, then you're going to need the bar in front of you. So bring the bar down in front of you to a racked position there.
- Sit Ups
Keep your feet in butterfly position (heels touching each other), since that isolates your abs. Come all the way up, but don't pull on your neck or lean forward. Doing either of those things reduces the work that your abs have to do. You have to touch your toes to get credit for the rep.
- Thrusters
Grab a barbell and weight it with as much weight as you can handle (the most I saw was ~66lbs). 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.
Keeping the barbell racked against your chest, 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 barbell directly over your head, until your arms are fully extended. Push the barbell straight up & down, since any horizontal motion will put undue stress on your shoulders.
To finish the rep, you have to bring the weight back to a rack position. 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 barbell, bring the weight back down before you start your next squat, and keep a good curve on your lower back the whole time.
- Burpees
It's 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 2 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 back into the push up instead of jumping. Same goes for when you go back to the squatting position (step 4); step forward instead of jumping.
Finished in 25 minutes (I was last)
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