This one was more of a core work out, but you'll need a barbell that allows the weights to roll. Alternatively, if you have one of those ab roller things, you can substitute that instead. Either way, you'll be doing quite a bit of core work.
For the strength portion, load up your bar as heavily as you can handle, but do all three of the exercises together. Once you pick up the bar for the strict presses, don't put it down until you finish the push jerk. It makes it slightly harder that way, and it'll help you build up your upper body strength a little bit faster.
As far as safety goes, focus on the strength portion. Those three lifts can tweak your back if you're not careful, so be ruthless about your form. Do them right so that you don't hurt yourself. Once you get past that, make sure that you don't round your back when doing the good mornings. You won't have much weight on the bar, but you can still hurt yourself if you do enough reps with poor form.
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- 25 jumping jacks
- 10 shoulder rolls
- 10 strict presses (no weight on the bar)
- 10 push presses (no weight on the bar)
- 10 push jerks (no weight on the bar)
Strength
For 12 minutes:
WoD
- 50 sit ups to V-Ups
- 40 good mornings
- 50 shin to bars
- 40 barbell rolls
Exercises
- Shoulder Rolls
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.
- Strict Press
Grab a barbell. For the warm up, leave off weight. However, for the WOD, you'll want to weight it with as much weight as you can handle for the WOD. 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.
- Push Press
You'll need a barbell, but keep the weight off for the warm up. For the actual WOD, weight it as heavily as you can. 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.
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 weight 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.
- Push Jerk
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.
From here, do a quarter squat to load up your legs to act as springs, and then you want to violently shove the barbell directly over your head. In fact, your momentum will cause you to do a slight hop while your hands go upwards. At the same time, you want to squat down (about a quarter squat). It might help to think about it as your lower body is racing to reach a quarter squat at the same time that the barbell reaches the top of the lift. At the top of the rep, your arms should be completely locked out, and you should be in a quarter squat position. Once you've got full control of the weight, stand tall. Then, and only then, should you re-position your feet. 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 hang position 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). 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.
- Sit Up to V-Up
Despite the fancy sounding name, this is really just a sit up followed by a V-up. You have to do both to get credit for a single rep, though, which is why we list it as a single exercise.
for the sit up, 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.
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.
For the V-up, 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 (V-Up): Bend your knees as your bring your lower body up. You only have to touch your knees this way
- Good Mornings
Grab a bar, but don't put any weight on it for the 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.
- Shin to Bars
These are a bit like modified V-ups. Lie down on the ground, and hold a barbell up in the air, directly above your chest. Keeping your legs straight, bring your legs up to touch the bar for a rep. You don't want to move the bar, just your lower body. As the name implies, you want to try to touch your shins to the bar.
Scale down: Bend your knees as you bring them up
- Barbell Rolls
You'll need a mat and a barbell with this; believe it or not, it's actually easier to do this with more weight on your barbell. Everyone used at least 45lbs on the barbell for this exercise. With the proper amount of weight on your barbell, set it down in front of your mat so that it can roll forward, and make sure you've got about a body length of space in front of your mat.
Kneel down near the front of your mat, and put your hands on the barbell. Keeping your knees on the mat, bring your feet off the ground. At this point, your knees should be the only point of contact between you and the mat. Lean forward so that the barbell starts to roll forward; the weights are like wheels and the barbell is like an axle. You want to roll forward until your body is as close to parallel to the ground as possible. Your core/ab muscles are going to be the only thing keeping you off the ground, though, so you'll feel those muscles working.
To finish the rep, start the barbell rolling back towards the original start position. This will require your core to counter the forward momentum of the barbell. Try to keep your feet off of the ground the whole time, but if you have to lower them to the ground to give yourself a bit more leverage, go ahead. Roll back to the starting position to finish the rep.
Scale down: At the forward position, you can lay all the way down on the ground to decrease the work that your core has to do. The only down side is that you then have to start rolling backward from a completely prone position and you won't have any momentum..
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