This WOD had a "fun" surprise for everyone who did it that day. You'll have the advantage of reading it in advance, but essentially, you are your own worst enemy. First, you have to do an AMRAP to try to complete as many rounds as you can in 10 minutes. Once you've done that and you're tired, the surprise is that you now have to complete the same number of rounds as fast as you can. Basically, your good work in the first 10 minutes is rewarded with having to do the same thing again. I wasn't there when they did this, but I guarantee you there were some groans when Al told them that.
As far as safety goes, watch your form on the push presses closely. You want strict form there, to prevent any injury to your back. I know I harp on that a lot, but there's a reason for that. We really don't want anyone getting hurt, so protect yourself with the absolute best form you can muster at all times.
WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 10 minutes) of:
- 10 sit ups with dumbbell
- 15 dumbbell push presses
- 20 Russian twists with dumbbells (left/right = 1)
- 25 dumbbell step ups
Rest 2 minutes
Complete the same number of rounds of the above a second time:- 10 sit ups with dumbbell
- 15 dumbbell push presses
- 20 Russian twists with dumbbells (left/right = 1)
- 25 dumbbell step ups
Exercises
- Dumbbell Sit Up
Grab either a medicine ball or a single dumbbell (most people usually grab around 15 lbs worth of weight). Lie on your back, plant the soles of your feet on the ground (no butterfly position), holding the weight with your arms extended parallel to the ground; if you were standing, it’d be directly over your head. Touch the ground lightly (it's a bad idea to slam dumbbells into the ground if it's not meant for that) and then do a sit-up so that your torso is perpendicular to the ground. Touch the ground in front of you with the dumbbell if you can. The two touches make sure that you're doing the full range of motion, but don't bend over or reach forward to touch the ground. That defeats the purpose.
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.
- Dumbbell Push Press
You'll need two dumbbells, so grab two that are relatively heavily for you. I usually see between 15lb and 30lb dumbbells.
To start, hold the dumbbells 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 the weights. 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 dumbbells 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 dumbbells. As you come up, press the weights 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 weights back to beginning/racked position.
- Russian Twist with Dumbbell
Sit down on the floor with your legs out in front of you, then lift both of your legs off of the ground. If you have lower back problems, it can help to cross your legs in the air, since it'll take a little bit of the strain off of your back. Lean back a tiny bit, just enough so that you feel your abs contract. You don't want to overextend your back, so don't lean back any more than 45 degrees. With the weight in your hands, rotate so that the weight moves to one side of you. Touch the ground if you can, but the most important part is that your shoulders stay still during this movement. The idea is for your obliques (the side part of your abs) to do the work, so your core should be doing the rotation. It's possible to keep your abs motionless and just use your arms/shoulders to move the weight from side to side, but that's bad form. One way to think about it is to think that you want your arms about shoulder width apart at all times, and you want your head to be pointing straight ahead between your arms at all times.
This time around, you have to touch the ground on both sides of your body in order to get credit for a rep (or, "right/left = 1" for short).
- Dumbbell Step Up
Set up a platform with one riser on each side. These are just like regular step ups, but you have to hold dumbbells at your side like suitcases.
Step up onto the platform, one leg at a time, and then come back down one leg at a time. Stepping up with both legs & stepping down with both legs counts as a single rep. The faster you do this, the more it feels like a "quick feet" exercise. Even though it's only 1 riser, make sure you look down as you're doing this. After a while, your legs can feel tired enough where you'll slip if you're not careful.
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