This one was a combination of a couple of smaller WODs, but you'll really need at least a second person to get the real effect. The second of the two WODs is a partner WOD, and you have to pace each other to make sure you're not both doing the same exercise at the same time. So you can do it on your own, but it's not quite the same. Regardless, people finished 12 rounds for first WOD, and 13 rounds for the second WOD.
Just to be clear, for the first WOD, you only increase the number of thrusters you do. You will still do a fixed number of box jumps every round (15). However, you do 1 thruster the first round, 2 thrusters the second round, 3 thrusters the third round, and so on. The second WOD is different in that the first person has to finish an exercise before the next person is allowed to do that exercise. So, one person will do 5 push ups while the other person watches. Once the first person is done with the push ups, the second person starts doing push ups, while the first person moves on to sit ups. Once the first person is done with the sit ups, the second person can start doing sit ups, while the first person moves on to air squats. In practice, if you and your partner move at comparable speeds, you can get a pretty good rotation going, so that neither person has to wait.
You're going to be doing a lot of leg work for the first WOD, so be sure to warm up and stretch out your legs. You can do this by going slower during the bottom downs, and making sure you get a good deep squat during the jump squats. Otherwise, make sure you mind your form during the thrusters. That's one of those exercises where you can tweak your back if you're not careful. So be careful. For the second one, it's all body weight, so just make sure to keep a good lumbar curve for the air squats. There's no point in building bad habits that can eventually hurt you when you include a little bit more weight.
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- 25 jumping jacks
- 10 bottom downs
- 10 push ups
- 10 jump squats
- 5 lunges to elbows
WOD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 10 minutes) of: As Many Rounds As Possible (in 10 minutes) of:
- 5 push ups
- 10 sit ups
- 15 air squats
Exercises
- 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.
- Push Ups
You want your entire body straight/rigid, without a bend at the waist, and you want to maintain this position the whole time. If you start dropping your waist, you're not doing it right. Bring your chest to the ground for every single rep, and when you come up, make sure your arms are fully extended.
- Jump Squats
Do a normal air squat, but as you come up to finish the squat, jump straight up in to the air. You finish the rep when you land and reset yourself. It's not uncommon for people to go right in to the next squat, though. This is okay so long as you're not bending over and losing the lumbar curve in the process. Basically, you don't get to cheat on your form because you're jumping.
- Lunges 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. Hold that for a couple of seconds.
Once you've gotten a good stretch out of the lunge, keep both feet where they are, and lean back. Your front leg will be fully extended and straight out, but your back knee will be bent, and you'll be sitting on your back foot. If your right foot is forward, you'd be sitting on your left foot. Since your front foot is still out in front, this pulls on/stretches your hamstring. Hold that for a couple of seconds.
Now you have to do the same thing on the other side to finish the rep. You have to do it once with each leg forward for a single rep (or "left/right = 1").
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Air Squats
Make sure that when you go down, your thighs are at least parallel to the ground. If you can, squat farther down than parallel, so that your bottom ends up closer to the ground than your knees (i.e., "break parallel"). You want to keep your weight on your heels the whole time, that will help ensure you keep a good lumbar curve & will help with any potential balance issues. For some people, it helps to look up at about 45 degrees to ensure you're not leaning forward & straining your lower back. To ensure this happens, you can throw your hands up to 45 degrees and focus your eyes on your hands on each rep.
Used ~45lbs. 7 rounds for the first WOD, 13 rounds for the second
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