I missed this class, but it sounds like I missed out on some fun. They had a skills test before the WOD, where you tried to do as many continuous, unbroken reps of a single exercise until you couldn't keep going (we did this once before on February 21, 2015). If you have the numbers from that day, compare the two to see what progress you've made since then.
The rules for the skills test are the same as before: you only get one chance to crank out as many reps as you can for a particular exercise. You can't take a break and start again. If you're being really strict, any pause means that your attempt at reps is over. We usually do this with partners, and we alternate who does reps. If you're doing this yourself, you can simulate the same effect by resting for about a minute after each exercise.
As far as safety goes, the exercises in the skill test are all body weight, so your main concern will be during the WOD. Keep good form with the strict press so that you don't put undue stress on your shoulders and back, and watch where you're jumping when you do the box jumps.
Skills Test
As Many (Unbroken) Reps As You Can:
WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 8 minutes) of:
- 20 box jumps
- 10 strict presses
- 5 burpees
Exercises
- 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.
- 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.
Don't bounce your hips or your legs against the ground to generate momentum. That actually generates power from your legs, rather than your core. In essence, that's cheating since you're not working your core as much that way.
This time around, 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.
- L Sit
There are a couple of different ways to do this, depending on how much equipment you have around. If you can grab some risers, sit down and set up a platform with 5 risers on either side of you. Put one arm on each platform with your fingers facing forward. From a sitting position, lift your body off the ground using your arms and keep your legs straight out in front of you. Your body will make the shape of an L (hence the name), but it feels a bit like holding a dip.
If you don't have any platforms available, you can do the same exercise on the ground. This gives you a little less height on the sit so you have a smaller margin for error, but that also means you can't hold the sit in as deep a position. It's not necessarily easier or harder this way, just a little bit different.
For the skills portion, count the number of seconds you're able to hold the L-sit. A watch or a timer is incredibly helpful in this scenario. As soon as your feet touch the ground, that's your score.
Scale down: If it's too hard for you to hold your feet straight out in front of you, you can bend your knees and bring them closer to your chest. That takes some of the pressure off your core and triceps, because your legs help carry some of the weight.
- Dips
Set up a platform with risers; most people usually use at most 5 risers, though remember that your height makes a difference. For this movement, adding risers makes it harder, because the platform denotes how far you have to dip your body weight.
Position yourself so your arms are holding you up/off the edge of your platform, with your legs straight out in front of you. You should just be barely forward of the platform; your butt should practically touch the platform as you do your reps. If you come forward too far, you'll put unnecessary strain on your shoulders.
Lower yourself so that your butt touches the ground, and then raise yourself back to the starting position. That's 1 rep. If you do the exercise properly, you'll feel the exercise the most in your triceps.
Scale down: Bend your legs, and put your feet flat on the ground before doing your dips. Since you're lifting less weight this way, this makes the dips easier
- Box Jump
You'll need to set up a platform with risers. I usually see between 3 and 5 risers. 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 steps up onto the platform first (and which legs steps off the platform first).
- Strict Press
Grab a barbell, and weight it with as much weight as you can handle. I usually see between ~45lbs and ~90lbs.
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.
Once you've got the weight racked, lift the bar straight over head without using your legs. You are not going to dip or do a quarter squat. This is pure shoulder strength, with no legs to drive the momentum. Be sure to lift the weight straight up and down. In order to do that, though, you'll have to move your head backward as you lift. Otherwise, you'd hit yourself in the chin with the bar.
At the top of the press, lock out your arms. The bar should be directly overhead, and you shouldn't have your back arched at. I've often heard this described as having everything "in line:" your legs, back, arms, ears, and the barbell should form a straight vertical line perpendicular to the ground.
Bring the bar back down to the starting position in a straight line, as well. Again, move your head out of the way as you lower the bar. Once you've got the bar back in a racked position, you've finished the rep.
- Burpee
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.
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