Monday, October 2, 2017

2017.10.02

I know I start off with Nina a lot these days, but she's been bringing in the workouts so hey, shout out to Nina with another great workout.

For the skill/strength portion, we worked for about 10 minutes. For lighter weights, we did 5 reps and the heavier we got we settled for 3 reps. Some folks did get up to 4 plates...I attempted and failed twice...Oh well! Maybe next time!

The main workout is short, sweet and will get you winded. I think we were all huffing and puffing through it for sure! Most of us slowed down during the burpees and blazed through the hang cleans and dumbbell/weighted sit ups. Everyone finished from around 9.5 minutes to 12 minutes just to give you an idea.

Warm up
  • 30 seconds jogging in place
  • 30 seconds high knees
2 rounds
  • 10 air squats
  • 10 arm circles

Skill/Strength
10 minutes
  • Hang cleans (lighter weight - 5 reps, heavier weight - 3 reps)

WoD
5 rounds
Skill/Strength
10 minutes
  • Hang cleans (lighter weight - 5 reps, heavier weight - 3 reps)

Cash out

Exercises
  • Hang cleans
    To begin with, hold the barbell down near your thighs (this position is considered a "high hang" so that's where the name comes from). 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 weights travel, it should be completely vertical. If the weights travel 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 dumbbells 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 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
  • Burpees
    It's 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 2 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 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.
  • Sit ups with weight
    Grab either a medicine ball or a single dumbbell. Lie on your back, plant the soles of your feet on the ground (no butterfly position) holding the weight with your arms extended in front of you. Do a sit-up, stopping at about 45 degrees. Any more than that, and you’ll stop contracting your abs, so it’ll actually get easier. Your arms stay where they are as you're coming up for the sit up.
  • Sit Up
    Keep your feet in butterfly position (heels touching each other), 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.
  • Elbows to Knees
    Lie on your back, and touch your right elbow to your left knee. You want to move both your elbow and your knee during this motion, rather than keeping one static and touching the other one to it. Also, while you're doing this, your right leg will be straight out in the air about six inches off the ground. Then alternate, touching your left elbow to your right knee.

    This time around, you only get credit for a rep once you've touched both elbows to both knees. We tend to call that "left/right = 1" for short.
  • V-Ups
    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