I wasn't able to make it to class (seems like I've been saying that a lot lately), so I asked Al for the WOD. It's a relatively quick one, since finish times ranged from 11:19 to 12:48. You'll need a box to jump over and a barbell, but that's about it.
As far as safety goes, watch your form on the thrusters. Bad form can hurt you, so don't have bad form. It sounds deceptively simple, but make it a point to always have good form. That will prevent you from getting hurt.
WoD
5 rounds of:
- 10 V-Ups
- 12 burpees box jump overs
- 14 thrusters
- 18 jumping jacks
Exercises
- 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
- Burpees Box Jump Over
If you're used to regular burpees, the only real difference is you jump on to your platform at the end of it and then jump off. Just make sure that you jump forward (not laterally) to get up on to the box. It's up to you how many risers you use, but remember that you are combining burpees with box jumps.
If you're unfamiliar with the technique for the burpee, it's a 6 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 onto your platform, 6) jump back off to finish the rep. 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.
For the jumping part, you need to jump forward on to your platform, so gather your feet underneath you before you do so. You don't want to start jumping and crash into the platform. You can step forward to do so, but make sure that you're not doing a long jump just to get back to the box. Also, you have to come down on the opposite side of the platform (it's a jump over). Whether you jump or step off is up to you, but both feet have to touch the platform simultaneously when you're jumping over.
Scale down: Step back into the push up instead of jumping. Same goes for when you go back to the squatting position (step 4); step forward instead of jumping.
Scale down more: Step up & down from the platform instead of jumping.
- 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.
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