I wasn't there for this one, but I bumped into one of the guys who did it. His assessment of the WOD was, "it was tough. Any time you're doing an increasing number of burpees, it's no fun." So yeah, this one is going to beat you up a little bit. The good news is that you know exactly how long it's going to last: 15 minutes.
Remember, you keep adding more reps every single round. I won't write out the whole thing, but you'll do 1 thruster, 2 burpee box jumps, 3 thrusters, 4 burpee box jumps, 5 thrusters, 6 burpee box jumps, and so on. The number of thrusters should always be odd, and the number of burpee box jumps should always be even.
In terms of safety, be sure to take extra care on the thrusters not to tweak your back. You will also be holding weights over your head, so pay extra attention to your surroundings and your grip. You do NOT want to drop the weights from above you if you can help it. The burpee-box jump combo can also scrape up your shins or cause a leg injury if you stumble, so watch your footing.
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- 10 jump squats
- 10 drop squats
- 10 bottom downs
- 10 shoulder rolls
- 10 push ups
WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 15 minutes) of:
- 1 thruster (dumbbell or barbell, your pick)
- 2 burpee box jumps
- (Add 2 more reps to each exercise every subsequent round)
Exercises
- Jump Squat
This one starts like a normal air squat, from a standing position with your feet about shoulder-width apart. 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. However, 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.
- Drop Squat
This is a lot like a regular air squat, only you're intentionally making it a more violent motion. Start from the same standing position, with your feet shoulder-width apart. Normally, you would lower yourself down using your quads and hamstrings; this time around, hop just a tiny bit so that you drop your bottom as fast as possible.
Make sure that when you hit the bottom of this exercise, 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 land with your weight on your heels, with your chest facing forward and a good lumbar curve. 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.
Stand back up to finish the rep.
- 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.
- Shoulder Roll
From a standing position, rotate your arm without extending your arm away from you. You're essentially making a windmill of your arm. Do this in both a clockwise and counter-clockwise motion for each arm, so that you fully warm up & stretch the muscles. Most people just do 10 rotations forward with one arm, 10 rotations backward with the same arm, and then they repeat this with the other arm.
- Push Up
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.
- Thruster
You can use either a barbell or dumbbells for this exercise. It's up to you how heavy to weight it, but it's pretty common for people to use anywhere between ~30lbs and ~90lbs.
To start, hold the weight slightly below shoulder level with both your palms facing away from your body so that you can see both palms in a mirror. Whether you're using a barbell or dumbbells, this should be the starting position (i.e., don't do a "hammer fist" grip with the dumbbells). 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 weight 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 weight directly over your head, until your arms are fully extended. The drive all comes from your legs, rather than your upper body. Still, push the weight 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 weight, bring the weight back down before you start your next squat, and keep a good curve on your lower back the whole time.
- Burpee Box Jump
If you're used to regular burpees, the only real difference is you jump on to your platform at the end of it. Just make sure that you jump forward (not laterally) to get up on to the box. It's up to you how many risers you use, but remember that you are combining burpees with box jumps.
If you're unfamiliar with the technique, it's a 6 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 onto your platform, 6) jump back off to finish the rep. 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.
Scale down more: Step up & down from the platform instead of jumping.
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