This one was another one based on the CrossFit Open (15.1, to be precise). We don't have some of the same equipment available to us at the work gym, so we substituted some exercises. Still, we all had fun with it. Remember that there is no rest between the two parts. You have to go directly from the AMRAP to the lifts, without any weight. I didn't catch some of the scores, but I know that some folks hit 6 rounds, and I suspect at least one person got to 7.
There's a bit of explanation required for this one, so here goes. This one includes a "ground to overhead," which means you have some options in lifting the weights. A snatch is preferred, since that was what was originally programmed for the Open. However, if you're not familiar with that lift, switch to something else (e.g., clean & jerk) so you can still do reps. As always, I'll write up several options. Secondly, we did the cash out as a group, which meant that everyone had to stay in a plank for the clock to keep running. If one person had to drop, everyone dropped and the clock stopped. If you're doing this on your own, just do 3 minutes of a plank. Stop the clock if you have to drop, and then start it up again when you get back up into the plank.
As far as safety goes, the deadlifts and the snatches or clean & jerks are going to be the biggest concerns. As Al said, make sure you do a lift that's comfortable. If you're not used to doing power snatches, do NOT make this the first time you try them. It's a little crazy to do a WOD that requires you to do a bunch of them if you're not familiar with the movement, so just don't. Obviously, you can hurt your back with any of these movements, so don't sacrifice your form. Also, don't rack your weight for the good mornings or deadlifts in the warm up. That's very much meant to be a warm up, so don't use any weight. In fact, the good morning is meant to be a stretch, so make sure you go slowly for that movement.
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- 25 jumping jacks
- 5 lunges to elbow
- 10 bottom downs
- 10 good mornings (no weight on bar)
- 10 deadlifts (no weight on bar)
WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 9 minutes) of: With no rest after the previous AMRAP, as many reps in 6 minutes of:
- Ground to overhead
Possible options:
Cash Out
3 total minutes of:
- Plank (with group if possible)
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. 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").
- 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. For the warm up, don't add any weight, you're just going to warm up. 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.
- Deadlifts
Place a 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 hits 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.
- Sit Ups
Keep your feet in butterfly position (heels touching each other), since that isolates your abs. Also, be sure to keep your feet planted on the ground (lifting them off the ground generates momentum that doesn't really come from 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.
- Snatch
Grab a barbell, and weight it as heavily as you can. Remember that you're going to have to do a lot of reps with this weight, so find something that you can handle for that many reps. It's pretty common for people to use between 45 and 90lbs.
Stand with your legs shoulder-width apart, with the weight on the ground in front of you. Squat down and reach down to grab the bar with a very wide grip; it should be about two shoulder-widths apart. Whatever you do, don't bend over to grab the barbell, since that's a bad habit to get into (your back will not like you). Stand and bring the barbell straight up, aggressively shrugging your shoulders (this helps generate momentum). You want to pull it straight up and jerk your hips forward. The momentum from your lower body will actually help drive the weight up, so that you're not actually lifting the weight with nothing but your arms.
Once the weight comes to about chest level, squat down and raise the barbell so that your arms are above your head. Your arms will make a Y shape with your upper body. Again, you want the weight to travel in a straight, vertical line. Since you're trying to drive so much momentum, you're actually going to stomp hard/jump a tiny bit to get into the squatting position. Keep your weight back on your heels throughout, so that you are as stable as possible with the weight above your head.
Also remember that you want a good lumbar curve at the bottom of that squat. Just because you have weight in your hands, you don't get to cheat on your form (arguably, it's far more important then). Once you're down at the bottom of your squat with the weight over your head, stand up. Remember to keep your arms locked the whole time, since the weight is above your head. It's safe to bring the weight back down to finish the rep AFTER you have completely stopped moving your feet and you are in a standing position.
- Clean & Jerk
To begin with, put the weight on the ground in front of you. Squat down to grab the weights, but remember to face forward and keep your chest facing forward. Squeeze your shoulder blades (your lats) tight to reduce the strain on your lower back. 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, 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.
- Hang Power Clean
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.
- Plank
From a push up position, lower yourself so that your weight is resting on your forearms. Keep yourself there without moving up or down for a total of three 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 the full time.
Used 75lbs, finished 4 rounds. 21 reps for second half (15.1a)
ReplyDelete