Sunday, October 4, 2015

2015.09.17

This one was a pretty simple WOD, but the box jumps and sumo deadlift high pulls took their toll. You'll also need a good way to keep time, because the 1 minute rest between rounds is counted towards your finish time. In other words, the clock doesn't stop while you rest between rounds.

Keep in mind that the 1 minute rest only happens between rounds. That means that you don't have to wait 1 minute after your 5th and final round. I made note of it below, too.

As far as safety goes, protect your back on the sumo deadlift high pulls and the thrusters. The thrusters are pretty easy to overlook because you're using a pretty light weight, but the same rules apply as always: keep a good lumbar curve and keep your chest up. Don't get sloppy just because the weight is smaller. For the box jumps, watch where you're jumping so you don't skin your shins or roll an ankle.

Warm Up
2 rounds of:
WoD
5 rounds of:
Exercises
  • Bottom Downs

    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.

  • Upward to Downward

    This is a lot like a "judo pushup" in reverse, if you've ever heard of that. If you're familiar with yoga at all, the starting position should look like the "upward dog." Regardless, lay face down on the ground and then lift your entire body off the ground by extending your arms, as if you were doing a push up. However, bring your upper body all the way up, so that your chest up faces forward while your lower body is still parallel to the ground. This is the starting position. From there, lower your head and bring it down and in, as if you were trying to bring it to meet your waist. This will naturally force your hips to come up, and you'll end up holding yourself off the ground with a noticeable bend at the waist (your butt will be a bit higher in the air than your chest or lower body). To go back to the starting position, lower your head towards the ground, then lower your chest and bring it forward in the same motion. It's not a straight up and down motion like a regular push up, it's more of an arc. You should also keep your lower body off the ground at all times. Continue the arc by straightening your arms and elevating your torso. When you finish the arc, your torso/chest should be facing forward with your lower body parallel to the ground. All of that is a single rep.

  • 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.

  • Air Squat

    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.

  • 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).

  • V-Ups

    Lie on your back, putting our hands parallel to the ground "above" your head (if you were standing, they’d be directly over your head). Lift your legs off the ground and bring your torso up at the same time to touch your toes. In essence, your body makes a "V" shape. Go back to lying on your back to finish the rep. Be careful about slamming your legs into the ground when you finish the rep, that can hurt your lower back. Some people call these "jack knives," if that helps at all.

    Scale down: Bend your knees as your bring your lower body up. You only have to touch your knees this way

  • Sumo Deadlift High Pull

    You'll need a barbell for this exercise. This time around, try to weight it as heavily as you can handle. I usually see between 45lbs and 90lbs.

    With that out of the way, keep your feet about 1.5 shoulder widths apart, and do a squat. Keep your hands between your legs, and reach down to grab the weight without bending at the waist. You want your hands to be about thumb-width apart from each other. Come up from the squat, popping your hips forward and aggressively shrugging your shoulders as you do that. It might seem a little silly, but both of these things help you generate momentum and drive the weight, without having to just lift the bar with your arms. Finish by bringing the hand with the weight to about your chin. This is one of the few times that you want your elbows to flare out to the sides; it should look like your forearm is roughly parallel to the ground. Without bending over at the waist, squat back down to bring the dumbbell back to the ground to finish the rep.

    Realistically, most people go right into the next squat/high pull; that's okay, so long as you don't compromise the curve in your lower back to do so. You can also keep yourself honest by making sure that you hear the sound of the weight hitting the ground for every rep. In essence, you're doing squats while lifting weight off the ground for every squat.

  • Dumbbell Thrusters

    Grab a pair of dumbbells; this time around, I saw folks grab 15lb dumbbells.

    Start with the dumbbells at your shoulders with your palms facing each other (towards your armpits) and your knuckles facing out away from your body. You're going to be doing this in the hammer fist grip this time around (your forearm and the dumbbell make a hammer that you could swing). This is the start, or "racked" position for this exercise.

    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 weights over your head, until your arms are fully extended. Push the dumbbells straight up & down, since any horizontal motion will put undue stress on your shoulders.

    Bring the dumbbells back to the “racked” position to finish the rep. 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 dumbbells, bring the weight back down before you start your next squat, and keep a good curve on your lower back the whole time.

Happy CrossFitting.
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