I missed this one, but it was a lot of barbell work. Both the strength and the WOD portion involved a good amount of technique, so make sure you pick a weight that you can safely handle. For the shoulder to overhead, you have your choice of how to get the bar there. So long as you can safely get it there, it's up to you which option you choose. I've written out a bunch of options, but you only have to choose ONE of them. If you want a target, someone finished 5 rounds (using ~90 lbs).
A quick note: I couldn't find a good video for a one and a quarter squat thruster, so I linked to two videos that explain the two parts of it independently. The first video shows the one and a quarter squat, and the second video shows you how to do the thruster. Essentially, you want to do a one and a quarter squat, but push the bar overhead when you come back up all the way.
Every single one of the exercises listed below can tweak your back if you're not careful, so be good about your form. The one and a quarter squat might also feel weird at first, so I'd suggest trying it with an empty bar (or really light weight) a few times before you load your real weight on to the bar.
Strength
- 10 minutes of one and a quarter squat thrusters (one and a quarter squat mixed with a thruster)
WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 10 minutes) of:
- 3 power cleans
- 6 hang cleans
- 9 shoulder to overhead: (pick any one)
Exercises
- One a Quarter Squat Thruster
Grab a barbell and weight it with slightly less than your max. This is an exercise that is meant to teach you explosiveness from the bottom position of your squat, so you may lift a bit less than usual.
Hold the barbell at about shoulder level, with your palms facing away from your body so that you could see both palms in a mirror. In a sense, the weights are "racked" against your chest. 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 lots and lots of reps. Regardless of how high you bring your elbows, the weights are "racked" against your chest.
Keeping the barbell in this position, drop down into the bottom position of a squat, so that your bottom ends up lower to the ground than your knees (i.e., "break parallel"). The same rules apply as always: keep a good lumbar curve while you do this, keep your weight on your heels, keep your head up & look forward, and keep your chest facing forward (don't bend over). With weight in your hands, these cues become more important. Instead of coming all the way back up, though, come up so that your bottom is only slightly higher than your knees (about four to six inches).
From that position, drop back down to the lowest point of your squat, so that you are below parallel. Now, come back all the way up to a standing position. However, don't stop there. As you're coming up from the bottom of your squat, press the barbell 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 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. As you can imagine, the "one and a quarter" part of the name comes from the fact that moving from slightly above parallel to slightly below parallel adds about one fourth of an air squat to the motion. It taxes your legs a bit more and takes good balance on your air squat to do this, though, so don't be surprised if it takes a few reps to get used to the motion. So long as you keep a good lumbar curve, though, you should get the idea.
- Power Clean
You'll need a barbell for this, and you'll want to weight it fairly heavily.
To begin with, put the weight on the ground in front of you (this is different than the "high hang" where you start with the weight near your thighs). Squat down to grab the weights, but remember to face forward and keep your chest facing forward. 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, starting 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.
Lastly, just stand up completely while holding the weight at your chest. You basically just need to straighten your legs out, but you don't want to do this step until you've got full control of the weight. Normally, you would then put the bar back down on the ground to finish the rep, but in this case, you are considered done when you stand tall with the weight racked at your chest/clavicle. All that's really left is to put it all together in a smooth motion.
- Hang Clean
The starting position for this is with the barbell around mid-thigh in front of you, with a slight bend to your waist (this position is considered a "high hang" so that's where the name comes from). Obviously, though, you have to get the barbell there from the ground somehow. The safest way to do this is actually to deadlift the barbell. In essence, keep your chest up, squat down, and then lift the barbell from the ground using your legs (not your back).
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 weight travels, it should be completely vertical. 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 barbell 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 slightly 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.
- Shoulder to Overhead
Grab a barbell and make sure it's weighted with a decent amount of weight. You're going to do a bunch of these, but you also want to challenge yourself. Most people usually end up using somewhere between 30lbs and 90lbs.
To begin with, hold the barbell up near your shoulders, with the weight resting on your chest/clavicle. Your palms should be facing out, so that you could see them if you look into 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.
From here, though, you have a few options for how to get the weight over your head. What you choose to do is completely up to you, but I've purposely listed the remaining options in order of how much you use your legs (press requires the least, jerk requires the most). It'd be pretty reasonable to start relying more on your legs as you start getting tired.
- Strict Press
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 upper body strength, with no legs to drive the momentum. Be sure to lift the weight straight up and down, and lock out your arms at the top of the press. Since the weight is below your chin when you start and it needs to go straight up, you'll have to pull your head back as you're lifting the barbell (otherwise you'd smack yourself in the chin).
- Push Press
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.
- Jerk
a quarter squat. Do a small hop, shoot the weight straight up, and land in a quarter squat position. The idea is to land so that you have the weight raised above your head with your arms locked, and your body in a quarter squat position. In a way, you're almost trying to get your body under the weights rather than trying to get the weights above your head. From there, stand up with the weight still above your head. Finally, bring the weights back down to the racked position to finish the rep.
- Split Jerk
Do a quarter squat. Do a small hop, shoot the weight straight up, and land in a quarter squat position. The idea is to land so that you have the weight raised above your head with your arms locked, and your body in a quarter squat position. In a way, you're almost trying to get your body under the weights rather than trying to get the weights above your head.
In this case, because it's a "split" jerk, you want your legs to land with one leg forward and one leg back. If your left leg is the one in front, you want it at 11 o'clock, and your right leg at 5 o'clock. If your right leg is in front, you want that leg at 1 o'clock, and your left leg at 7 o'clock. Either way, you want to make sure that your legs aren't locked when your arms are fully extended and your feet hit the ground.
From there, you have to get the weight back down SAFELY. So, holding the weights over your head, move your feet so that you're now directly under the weights. You want full control of the weight at all times when it's over your head, so usually you take one very deliberate step with each leg to get your legs directly underneath you again. Remember, you don't want to lower the weights as you're adjusting your feet. Once you're done moving your feet, THEN you can bring them back down to the starting position. Finally, bring the weights back down to the racked position to finish the rep.
- Strict Press
No comments:
Post a Comment