Al wasn't there for this WOD, but he sent it to all of us. This one was all about form on the hang power clean. The strength portion mixed in the power cleans with front squats in order to make sure you have the technique down. In particular, if you're leaning forward or the bar isn't traveling in a vertical path, you're going to have a harder time getting down into a front squat. And of course, you're going to do a bunch of hang power cleans for the WOD. Basically, you're going to make good friends with your barbell.
Warm Up
2 rounds of:
- 25 jumping jacks
- 10 upward to downward
- 10 bottom downs
- 10 good mornings (no weight on bar)
- 10 position 1 cleans OR 10 position 2 cleans
Strength
For 15 minutes:
- 1 hang power clean
- 3 front pause squats (3 second hold at the bottom)
- Rest 60 seconds
WoD
- 25 hang power cleans
- 10 sit ups
- 20 hang power cleans
- 20 sit ups
- 15 hang power cleans
- 30 sit ups
- 10 hang power cleans
- 40 sit ups
- 5 hang power cleans
- 50 sit ups
Exercises
- 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.
- Good Morning
Grab a bar, but don't put any weight on it for the warm up.
Standing, rest the bar on your shoulders behind your neck. You'll want to squeeze your shoulder blades together, and keep your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Keep your feet about shoulder-width apart, and keep your legs locked. Bend at the waist (as if you’re bowing), keeping your eyes forward. Your back needs to be flat as you do that, and you should finish so that your back is parallel to the ground. Come back up to standing to finish the rep. Notice that this variation doesn't require a bend to your knees.
- Position 1 Clean
Essentially, this is a very specific type of hang power clean. "Position 1" just refers to the starting position. So, grab a barbell, and weight it as heavily as you can handle. I usually see between 45lbs and 90lbs.
You need to get the barbell up from the ground, and the safest way to do this is actually to deadlift the barbell. In essence, keep your chest up, bend down, and then lift the barbell from the ground using your legs (not your back). Once you've got the barbell hanging from your arms in front of you, slide the barbell down your thighs until they're at about the middle of your thigh (you're only going to move the bar a couple of inches). You will have a slight bend to your knees, but it won't be very exaggerated. This is "position 1," and that's where the name comes from. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at this point, and keep your chest up.
From that position, shrug your shoulders. I know it sounds silly, but it should be an *aggressive* shrug. You really want to build some momentum in that motion. Remember, though, keep your arms locked as you're doing this, or you'll end up doing more of a curl. If you need to make sure you've got it down, practice just that part of it a few times.
The next step, starting from the shrugged shoulder position, is to quickly bring the weight up to about chest level and bend your knees a tiny bit at the same time. If you were to watch the path the weight travels, it should be completely vertical. If the weight travels 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. At the end of this motion, you should have your palms facing away from your body, as if you were "racking" the barbell near your chest/clavicle. You can almost think of it as letting go of the weight in midair, and positioning your body so that you can receive the weight with the weight at your chest. Don't actually let go, that can be all sorts of bad.
However, you'll find that because there's so much momentum and you're trying to "catch" the weight with your knees slightly bent, you're pretty much jumping into it. At the same time, your hands will suddenly shoot up to hold the weight at your chest. As always, keep a good lumbar curve. You don't want to bend over as you do this. If you do it wrong repeatedly or with a heavy enough weight, your lower back will pay for it. You can practice this one step at a time until the motion starts to feel more natural.
Lastly, just stand up straight while holding the weight at your chest. Once you've stood all the way up, you can drop the weight back down to thigh-level to start over. That's the end of a single rep. Now all that's left is to put it all together in a smooth motion.
- Position 2 Clean
Essentially, this is a very specific type of hang power clean. "Position 2" just refers to the starting position. So, grab a barbell, and weight it as heavily as you can handle. I usually see between 45lbs and 90lbs.
You need to get the barbell up from the ground, and the safest way to do this is actually to deadlift the barbell. In essence, keep your chest up, bend down, and then lift the barbell from the ground using your legs (not your back). Once you've got the barbell hanging from your arms in front of you, slide the barbell down your thighs until they're at about the middle of your thigh (you're only going to move the bar a couple of inches). You will have a slight bend to your knees, but it won't be very exaggerated. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at this point, and keep your chest up (this is position #1).
From there, stick your butt out just a little bit, and slide the bar down a little bit more so that it's an inch or so above your knee. Your torso will feel like it is "over" the bar, even though your chest should still be facing forward. By going a little bit lower, you've basically forced yourself to use proper technique to get back to, and past, position 1. If you had any kinks in your movement when doing cleans from position 1, this will expose them just a tad. This, incidentally, is position 2.
From that position, shrug your shoulders. I know it sounds silly, but it should be an *aggressive* shrug. You really want to build some momentum in that motion. Remember, though, keep your arms locked as you're doing this, or you'll end up doing more of a curl. If you need to make sure you've got it down, practice just that part of it a few times.
The next step, starting from the shrugged shoulder position, is to quickly bring the weight up to about chest level and bend your knees a tiny bit at the same time. If you were to watch the path the weight travels, it should be completely vertical. If the weight travels 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. At the end of this motion, you should have your palms facing away from your body, as if you were "racking" the barbell near your chest/clavicle. You can almost think of it as letting go of the weight in midair, and positioning your body so that you can receive the weight with the weight at your chest. Don't actually let go, that can be all sorts of bad.
However, you'll find that because there's so much momentum and you're trying to "catch" the weight with your knees slightly bent, you're pretty much jumping into it. At the same time, your hands will suddenly shoot up to hold the weight at your chest. As always, keep a good lumbar curve. You don't want to bend over as you do this. If you do it wrong repeatedly or with a heavy enough weight, your lower back will pay for it. You can practice this one step at a time until the motion starts to feel more natural.
Lastly, just stand up straight while holding the weight at your chest. Once you've stood all the way up, you can drop the weight back down to thigh-level to start over. That's the end of a single rep. Now all that's left is to put it all together in a smooth motion.
- Hang Power Clean
You'll need a barbell, weighted as heavily as you can handle. I usually see between 45lbs and 90lbs.
The starting position for this is with the barbell around mid-thigh in front of you, with a slight bend to your waist (this position is considered a "high hang" so that's where the name comes from). Obviously, though, you have to get the barbell there from the ground somehow. The safest way to do this is actually to deadlift the barbell. In essence, keep your chest up, bend down, and then lift the barbell from the ground using your legs (not your back).
From that position, shrug your shoulders. I know it sounds silly, but it should be an *aggressive* shrug. You really want to build some momentum in that motion. Remember, though, keep your arms locked as you're doing this, or you'll end up doing more of a curl. If you need to make sure you've got it down, practice just that part of it a few times.
The next step, starting from the shrugged shoulder position, is to quickly bring the weight up to about chest level and bend your knees a tiny bit at the same time. If you were to watch the path the weight travels, it should be completely vertical. If the weight travels 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. At the end of this motion, you should have your palms facing away from your body, as if you were "racking" the barbell near your chest/clavicle. You can almost think of it as letting go of the weight in midair, and positioning your body so that you can receive the weight with the weight at your chest. Don't actually let go, that can be all sorts of bad.
However, you'll find that because there's so much momentum and you're trying to "catch" the weight with your knees slightly bent, you're pretty much jumping into it. At the same time, your hands will suddenly shoot up to hold the weight at your chest. As always, keep a good lumbar curve. You don't want to bend over as you do this. If you do it wrong repeatedly or with a heavy enough weight, your lower back will pay for it. You can practice this one step at a time until the motion starts to feel more natural.
Lastly, just stand up straight while holding the weight at your chest. Once you've stood all the way up, you can drop the weight back down to thigh-level to start over. That's the end of a single rep. Now all that's left is to put it all together in a smooth motion.
- Front Pause Squat
You'll want to weigh a barbell with as much weight as you can handle. The most I usually see anyone use is 4 sets of plates on each side, which works out to about 90lbs total. You need to get the bar to a racked position against your clavicle/shoulders in front of you (a "front rack").
Once you've got the bar racked, do an air squat. Make sure you keep a good lumbar curve the whole time (you can tweak your lower back otherwise), and you bend at least far enough so that your thighs are parallel to the ground. You need to pause for 3 seconds at the bottom of the squat. To make sure you're counting a proper 3 seconds, add in "thousand" after each number.
Once the 3 seconds are up, come back up to the standing "racked" position to finish the rep. You want to drive the weight up, not just stand up, so think about squeezing your glutes together to generate some momentum. It might sound a little silly, but that motion helps to really push the weight upward. Each time you come back up, that's one rep.
- Sit Up
Keep your feet in butterfly position (the bottoms/soles of your feet should be pressed against each other, so that your legs create a diamond-like shape), since that isolates your abs. Also, be sure to keep your feet planted on the ground (lifting them off the ground generates momentum that doesn't really come from your abs). Come all the way up, but don't pull on your neck or lean forward. Doing either of those things reduces the work that your abs have to do. You have to touch your toes to get credit for the rep.
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.
Happy CrossFitting, y'all
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