This one was a pretty quick WOD, but you'll need a barbell and a little bit of space. We also played shuffle board with 2 lb weights (and a wall) as a cash out, but I'm guessing it's unlikely that you'll have the same set up. It's really a lot more fun if you have a couple of teams, so I would only consider it if you've got at least 4 people with you.
The safety warning this time is directed at the overhead squats. You'll be carrying weight over your head, so be absolutely positive that a) you keep good form to protect your back and b) you keep a good grip on the weight so it doesn't fall. So long as you do those two things, you should be fine. Really, it's the same advice as any other time that you use a barbell, it's just doubly important when the weight is over your head.
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- 25 jumping jacks
- 10 bottom downs
- 10 air squats
- 10 arm circles
- 10 overhead squats (no weight on bar)
Strength
15 minutes of:
WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 10 minutes) of:
- 10 overhead squats
- 10 bar-facing burpees
- 10 V-ups
Cash Out
(Only if you have space & people)
5 rounds of:
- Shuffleboard. Losing team has to do 2 air squats apiece
Exercises
- Bottom Down
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.
- 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.
- Arm Circles
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.
- Overhead Squat
Grab a bar and weight it as heavily as you can handle. Most people usually put between 45 and 90lbs. For the warm up, just leave the weight off, since you're trying to just get used to the motion then.
Standing, hold the bar over your head with your arms locked. Your arms should make a "Y" shape with the rest of your body. You want the bar directly over your torso, so that your spine & the bar are lined up (the idea is to keep you from leaning forward on the actual rep). This actually feels a little bit like you're holding it behind your head, and your shoulders should feel like they're actively trying to push the bar.
From that position, you want to do a regular squat. Keep your arms locked as you go down, but make sure your knees stay lined up over your toes. You don't want either of them to "buckle" by facing inward when your toes are pointed outward. That puts a lot of (unnecessary) strain on your knee. You want your butt to go at least as low as your knees, though if you can go even lower (i.e., "break parallel") that's ideal.
Once you've reached the bottom of the squat, stand back up to your starting position. At no point should you bend over or move the bar horizontally. The bar should move straight up and down. Once you come back to your original standing position with the bar overhead, that's 1 rep.
- Bar Facing Burpee
It sounds complicated, but this is only a slight variation on a traditional burpee. Before you start, put the bar down so that your face is in front of the handle of the barbell (the fact that you're "facing" the bar is where the name comes from). The barbell should run perpendicular to the way your body is oriented for the push up portion of the burpee. You're going to jump forward to jump over it eventually. You can rest the actual plate part of the barbell on a riser to keep it from rolling.
With that little bit of pre-work out of the way, it's still a 5 step motion: 1) squat down & touch the ground, 2) kick your legs out into a push-up position, 3) do a push up, 4) jump back to the squatting position, 5) come up from squatting and jump forward over the bar. You have to turn around for the next rep, so that you're facing the bar again. Essentially, you're going to end up jumping back and forth over the bar. With a weight lifting bar, this forces you to jump at least a few inches off the ground.
Once it starts to feel normal to do this motion, you can start to make it a smoother motion by essentially dropping down into a push up position, rather than squatting and then kicking out your feet. It requires a little bit less energy, but it also requires more coordination and muscle memory.
Scale down: Step over the bar instead of jumping. This takes less energy, but still makes you do the work.
- 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
No comments:
Post a Comment