This WOD was a fairly typical CrossFit work out: a 15 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible). If you've never done a man maker before, you'll probably want to do a few reps before you actually start. It's a bit of a funky movement to just start doing for the first time. However, the cash out made things just a tad more interesting. You'll need a partner for it, but you're going to be doing a bunch of core work. Put it this way: when I was writing this up, I remembered doing the cash out much more readily than doing the actual WOD.
As far as safety goes, keep good form on the man makers. It's just a complex movement, and it basically involves a clean. Even though you won't have much weight in your hands, you don't want to do them wrong. Also, watch where you're jumping during the box jumps. You don't want to land wrong and hurt your leg(s).
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- 30 seconds of jogging in place
- 10 jump squats
- 10 push ups
- 10 upward to downward
- 5 lunges to elbow
WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 15 minutes) of:
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.
- Push Up
You want your entire body straight/rigid, without a bend at the waist. Maintain this position the whole time, regardless of whether you're moving or not. 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.
- 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.
- Lunge to Elbow
This starts like any other lunge: from a standing position. Bring one leg forward in a straight line, and then bend your knees so that both your knees are bent at 90 degrees. The back knee should be close to the ground, and your front knee should be farther forward than your foot (otherwise you're putting undue stress on your knees). One cue that can help some folks is to treat your lunge like you're going straight up and down with your front leg. Your knees don't quite have to touch the ground (you might get burns/scrapes that way), but come as close as you can to that.
Once your lead leg is forward and your knees are bent, reach down with your arms and touch the elbow on the side that's lunging forward to the inside of your calf. If your right leg is forward, touch your right elbow to the inside of your calf. If you can actually reach your elbow to your instep (the side of your foot), do that since that'll make it harder. Try to balance without reaching down your off hand, but if you need to, put your off-hand down on the ground to stabilize yourself. Hold that for a couple of seconds.
Once you've gotten a good stretch out of the lunge, keep both feet where they are, and lean back. Your front leg will be fully extended and straight out, but your back knee will be bent, and you'll be sitting on your back foot. If your right foot is forward, you'd be sitting on your left foot. Since your front foot is still out in front, this pulls on/stretches your hamstring. Hold that for a couple of seconds.
Now you have to do the same thing on the other side to finish the rep. You have to do it once with each leg forward for a single rep (or "left/right = 1"). You can either walk forward, or rotate your body so that you are now facing the direction that used to be behind you. Either way, make sure you do the lunges on both sides.
- Man Maker
Grab two dumbbells (most people usually use 10-15lbs). Start standing, with one weight at each side. Squat down and, still holding the weights, put the weights on the ground a little bit wider than shoulder-width apart. Kick your legs back into a push up position. Do the push up. Staying in the push up position, do a one-armed row with your weak hand (i.e., lift one dumbbell off the ground to about your chest while keeping the other dumbbell on the ground). The elbow of the hand that’s lifting should end up behind your back when you do this; otherwise, you’re not lifting high enough. Also, don't rotate your body; the point is to do a pull, not work your obliques. Do another push up, and then do a one-armed row with your strong hand.
Jump back to squatting position, so that your feet are between the two dumbbells. From here, you'll basically do a squat clean with the dumbbells. Keeping your chest up, start to stand and pop your hips forward. That will generate a bunch of momentum so that the dumbbells start to move upward. You want the dumbbells to move in a straight vertical line, even though you're doing more than just standing up. Shrug your shoulders aggressively to keep the momentum going upward, and quickly bring the dumbbells up to about your shoulder level and squat down at the same time. If you were to watch the path the weights travel, it should be completely vertical. If the weights travel 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.
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 in a squat with the dumbbells at your chest. Don't actually let go of the dumbbells, that can be all sorts of bad. However, you'll find that because it's a quick squat down, you're pretty much jumping into it. At the same time, your hands will suddenly shoot up to hold the weight at your chest; since you are holding the dumbbells in a hammer fist, that's basically the same as bringing the dumbbells to your shoulders.
From the bottom of your squat, stand tall and press the dumbbells straight over your head (essentially, do a thruster). Keep your chest up, don't bend over, and make sure you lock out your arms at the top of the press. Once you've done that, you can bring the dumbbells back down to your side.
All of that is one rep. As you can imagine, it might take a little bit of time to get used to it.
- 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: Bend your knees as your bring your lower body up. You only have to touch your knees this way
- 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).
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