Al was out of the office, so the it was up to the inmates to run the asylum. This one was a slightly modified version of one that they did at someone else's box. The weight was scaled for the equipment we had, but you're always welcome to go heavier if you can handle it. As for the rep scheme, you basically do 21-15-9; do 21 reps of each exercise, followed by 15 reps of each exercise, and finish with 9 reps of each exercise. For simplicity's sake, I just wrote out the whole thing.
For the WOD, be mindful of your back on both the bent over rows and the thrusters. If you do them wrong, you can hurt your back. So don't do them wrong. I know that sounds overly simple, but it really does boil down to making a concerted effort to stick to good form.
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- 25 jumping jacks
- 5 T push ups
- 10 upward to downward
- 10 bottom down
- 5 lunges to elbow
WoD
- 21 thrusters
- 21 bent over rows
- 15 thrusters
- 15 bent over rows
- 9 thrusters
- 9 bent over rows
Cash Out
Exercises
- T Push Up
Drop down in to a push up position, and lower your body until your chest hits the ground. Push your body up off the ground, but as your arms start to get fully extended, lift one of them off of the ground. Rotate your torso towards the side where you lifted the arm, so that you are now facing sideways rather than towards the ground. At the same time, extend the arm you lifted straight up in the air. This is actually where the name comes from: at full extension, your body will make something of a T-shape. Lower your arm and rotate your torso back in to a regular push up position. Repeat this motion by lifting your other arm in to the air to complete a single rep.
- 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, 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Thruster
Grab a barbell and weight it as heavily as you can handle; most people use between ~45lbs and ~90lbs.
To start, hold the bar slightly below shoulder level with both your palms facing away from your body so that you can see both palms in a mirror. 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 a lot of reps. Regardless of how high you bring your elbows, the bar is "racked" against your chest.
Keeping the weight racked against your chest, 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 barbell directly over your head, until your arms are fully extended. Push the weight straight up & down, since any horizontal motion will put undue stress on your shoulders.
To finish the rep, you have to bring the bar back to a rack position. 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 weight at the top, bring the weight back down before you start your next squat, and keep a good curve on your lower back the whole time.
- Bent Over Row
You'll need a barbell for this; I usually see between 45lbs and 90lbs.
To begin with, put it down in front of you. Start with your feet a little bit more than shoulder-width apart, and bend your knees to reach down for the barbell. Grab the barbell with your hands on the outside of your legs/knees, so that your hands are slightly farther apart than your feet. From that position, stand straight up so that you have the barbell resting near your thighs (if you know what a deadlift is, you basically need to do one of those).
From that position, bend your knees slightly and bend forward until your back is at about a 30 degree angle. Your back still needs to be as flat (like a table top) as you can manage. Squeeze your shoulder blades together before you start, and then pull the barbell straight up to your chest while keeping your back stationary. Bring it back down to the bottom in a fluid motion to finish the rep. You want to bring the weight up and down from this position until you've finished all of your reps.
- Medicine Ball 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.
As always, have fun with it.
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