I had to miss this WOD (I'm actually going to miss a bunch of them coming up due to meetings), but Al sent me the WOD. You're going to use a single barbell throughout, and it's going to work your legs, for sure. Every single movement involves your lower body, so be absolutely positive to warm up and stretch out as necessary. For the lunges, you get to pick how you rack the weight. You can put it in a front rack or rest the weight on your shoulders (like for a back squat). It's up to you, so long as you do it safely.
Speaking of safety, the two Olympic lifts are the two biggest things to watch out for. They're not particularly scary if you mind your form, but you can hurt yourself if you get sloppy. It almost doesn't matter how much or how little weight you're using; I've seen someone tweak their back using 15lb dumbbells. So don't get sloppy.
WoD
10 rounds of:
- 10 hang power cleans
- 10 push presses
- 10 barbell lunges (either front rack or back rack)
- Plank for a total of 5 minutes
Exercises
- Hang Power Clean
You'll need a barbell for this, so weigh it with whatever feels comfortable; most of the time, I see anywhere between 45lbs and 90lbs. To begin with, hold the barbell down near your thighs (this position is considered a "high hang" so that's where the name comes from). From that position, shrug your shoulders. I know it sounds silly, but it should be an *aggressive* shrug. You really want to build some momentum in that motion. Remember, though, 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 bend your knees a tiny bit at the same time. If you were to watch the path the weights travel, it should be completely vertical. If the weights travel 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 dumbbells near your chest/clavicle. You can almost think of it as letting go of the weight in midair, and positioning your body so that you can receive the weight with the weight at your chest. Don't actually let go, that can be all sorts of bad. However, you'll find that because there's so much momentum and you're trying to "catch" the weight with your knees bent, 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. You can practice this one step at a time until the motion starts to feel more natural. Lastly, just stand up straight while holding the weight at your chest. Once you've stood all the way up, you can drop the weight back down to thigh-level 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.
- Push Press
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. Finish your rep by bringing the weight back to beginning/racked position.
- Weighted Lunge
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 rest the bar on the muscles in your shoulders and upper back, not on your neck (that's dangerous). You also want to have full control of the bar when you go to move your legs, so adjust as necessary before you take any steps.
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)
- Plank
From a push up position, lower yourself so that you are about two inches off of the ground. Keep yourself there without moving up or down for a total of five minutes. If you have to stop at some point, you can, but then the clock stops. You will want to make sure you're in a plank position for five full minutes.
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