Sadly, Nina was the only one holding it down on this particular day. She did, however, make sure to pass along the WOD so that I could post it here. You'll need a rope, so bring it if you have one handy. If not, there's usually one floating around in the gym somewhere. Either way, grab one. The usual rule applies: if you can do double-unders, you're not allowed to switch to the single-unders. Do them one at a time if you have to, but challenge yourself.
The other thing to note is that you only do the warm up once through, not twice. We usually do TWO rounds of the warm up, but not today. This time around, it's just one time through. Oh, and there's a quick Tabata as the cash out. You'll get your ab workout today.
As far as safety goes, watch your form on the deadlifts. Everything else is mostly about body weight, so you're less likely to hurt yourself that way. You can whip yourself in the legs on double unders, but that's mostly an annoyance. You won't really do much damage to yourself that way.
Warm Up
- 25 jumping jacks
- 10 bottom downs
- 10 good mornings (no weight on bar)
- 20 high knees (left/right = 1)
- 20 butt kickers (left/right = 1)
- 10 lunges and twist (left/right = 1)
- 10 arm circles
WoD
As Many Rounds As Possible (in 12 minutes) of:
- 7 deadlifts
- 24 mountain climbers (left/right = 1)
- 30 double-unders OR 60 single-unders
Cash Out
8 rounds of:
- 20 seconds of hollow rock holds
- 10 seconds of rest
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.
- 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.
The other thing to note is that for the warm up, this is a stretch. You aren't supposed to do these quickly. If you're bouncing up and down, you're doing them too fast. Take a few seconds to get into the bowing position, and take a few seconds to get back up to a standing position.
- High Knees
It's pretty much what it sounds like; run in place, only bring your knees up as you do that. You want to bring your knees up as high as possible. Also, stay on your toes the whole time. If you do land on your heels, it'll likely hurt, and it'll also slow you down.
You need to bring both knees up in order for it to count as a single rep (or "left/right = 1" for short).
- Butt Kickers
Run in place, and as you do so, kick your heels up against your butt (hence the name). It's sort of like the opposite of high knees, in a way. You have to bring both legs up in order to get credit for a single rep (or "left/right = 1" for short).
- Lunge and Twist
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 directly over your front 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 back 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.
From this position, rotate your torso towards the leg that is out in front. So, if your left leg is forward, rotate your body counter-clockwise so that your torso is now facing left. You want to keep your lower body stable through this, and keep your upper body upright. Don't bend over and don't rotate from the lower body. That forces your leg to work harder to stabilize your lower body.
You'll have to repeat the motion with the other leg coming forward. This time around, both legs have to come forward for you to get credit for a rep (or, "right/left = 1" for short).
- 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.
- Deadlift
Place a barbell on the floor pretty much right in front of your feet (with a full Olympic bar, you'd put your feet right underneath the bar). Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, and bend your knees slightly (about 20 degrees) to reach down to grab the barbell. You want your hands on the outside of your legs/knees, and you want to start with the barbell to be high enough off the ground to be about halfway up your shin (this is about the same height as an Olympic bar resting on the ground with 45lb plates on it).
Keeping your head up and your chest facing forward, lift your torso a few inches until the barbell almost hits your knees. Your arms shouldn't bend at the elbows, you're just lifting your upper body with the weight conveniently attached to the upper body. Also, the weight should move in a straight vertical line, with no horizontal motion. It can help to think about it as if you're trying to skin your shins with the weight.
Once the barbell is at about your knees, pop your hips forward to generate some more momentum. At the same time, contract your shoulder blades towards each other. This will naturally pull the weight up even more (again, in a straight line). You should be standing straight up with your chest out at the top of the movement. Even though it looks like you're pulling the weight up using your biceps, you should try to avoid pulling up with your arms. That actually decreases the amount of weight you can lift in the long run, and it's bad form.
- Mountain Climbers
Get down on all fours, almost as if you were about to start a race. It's also a bit like being in a push up position with a bend at the waist, with only one leg back. From the starting position, simultaneously bring your lead leg back & your rear leg forward. You want your knee to come forward as far as possible, but you also want it to slide to the side as you do this. Your knee should be farther from your chest than your arm. Do it again to switch the positioning of your legs, again making sure to try to bring your lead leg forward as far as possible.
This time around, you get credit for a single rep after both of your legs have come forward. For simplicity's sake, we describe that as "right/left = 1."
Scale down: You can make this easier on yourself by setting up a platform and holding your upper body up against it. This takes some of the weight off of your upper body.
- Double-Under
Jumping rope, you want the rope to make two full revolutions each time you jump. The important part is actually the flick of your wrists, not so much how high you jump. If you worry too much about jumping higher, you’ll throw your rhythm off.
- Single-Under
This basically means jumping rope. The “single” refers to how many times the rope revolves around you each time you jump. Try to keep a steady rhythm, so that you can do all of your reps without stopping.
- Hollow Rock Hold
Start by laying down on your back. Extend your arm and legs straight out (so that your body is completely flat), and then tighten your abs so that both your arms and legs are a few inches off the ground. One cue that can help is to exhale as you do this. Normally, you'd rock back and forth. This time around, though, just hold this position without letting your hands or feet touch the ground. This forces your abs to contract to fight off gravity, and works your core.
As always, have fun with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment