In retrospect, our warm up should've contained upward to downward dog instead of bottom downs. So make sure you do it since I kind of tweaked my lower left back doing this WoD...meep. Hopefully I can bend over by Wednesday!
Warm up
2 rounds
- 25 jumping jacks
- 10 upward to downward
- 5 lunge to elbow
- 10 arm circles
WoD
12 rounds - each round adding one additional move descending.
1, 2-1, 3-2-1, 4-3-2-1, 5-4-3-2-1, ...., 12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
- 1 Sumo Deadlift High-Pull
- 2 Thrusters
- 3 Push Press
- 4 Power Cleans
- 5 Ground to Overhead (Power Snatches)
Possible options: - 6 Kettlebell Swings
- 7 Bent over rows (simulate Pull-Ups)
- 8 Elbows to knees (right/left = 1)
- 9 Box Jumps
- 10 Double Unders or 20 Single Unders
- 11 Burpees
- 12 Overhead Walking Lunges (right/left = 1)
Exercises
- Sumo deadlift high pull
You'll need a barbell for this exercise. Weight it as heavily as you can handle, but you're most likely going to use the same weight as you used for the thrusters.
With that out of the way, keep your feet about 1.5 shoulder widths apart, and do a squat. Keep your hands between your legs, and reach down to grab the weight without bending at the waist. You want your hands to be about thumb-width apart from each other. Come up from the squat, popping your hips forward and aggressively shrugging your shoulders as you do that. It might seem a little silly, but both of these things help you generate momentum and drive the weight, without having to just lift the bar with your arms. Finish by bringing the hand with the weight to about your chin. This is one of the few times that you want your elbows to flare out to the sides; it should look like your forearm is roughly parallel to the ground. Without bending over at the waist, squat back down to bring the dumbbell back to the ground to finish the rep.
Realistically, most people go right into the next squat/high pull; that's okay, so long as you don't compromise the curve in your lower back to do so. You can also keep yourself honest by making sure that you hear the sound of the weight hitting the ground for every rep. In essence, you're doing squats while lifting weight off the ground for every squat. - Thrusters
To start, hold the barbell 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 weights are "racked" against your chest.
Keeping the barbell 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 barbell straight up and down, since any horizontal motion will put undue stress on your shoulders.
To finish the rep, you have to bring the weight 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 barbell, bring the weight back down before you start your next squat, and keep a good curve on your lower back the whole time. - Push press
You'll need to weight a barbell as heavily as you can. I usually see between 45lbs and 90lbs.
To start, hold the barbell slightly below shoulder level with both your palms facing away from your body so that you can see both palms in a mirror. You want the weights "racked" against your chest, with your elbows farther forward than the bar. You don't need to bring them all the way up like you do with a front squat, but you do want your forearms vertical and supporting the bar from underneath.
Do a quarter squat, and come up as explosively as you can. In reality, you'll end up end up hopping up a tiny bit because you're generating so much momentum/power from your legs. That's okay, but be absolutely sure that you're in control as you do this. You really don't want to trip or fall while holding a barbell. As you come up, press the barbell directly over your head. Remember, your legs should be driving the power in this motion, not your shoulders or arms. At the top of your motion, you want your arms to be fully extended and your legs completely straightened out. Also, bring your head forward a bit so that your arms, spine, and head are all aligned along the same vertical plane.
One last cue is to make sure you move the weight directly up and down; if you start moving the horizontally, you'll put extra stress on your shoulders. If your elbows flare out horizontally, that's also going to make it difficult to press straight up and down. Finish your rep by bringing the weight back to beginning/racked position. - Power cleans
You'll need a barbell for this, and you'll want to weight it fairly heavily for the strength and WOD portions. I usually see between ~45lbs and ~90lbs. For the warm up, just leave all the weight off.
To begin with, put the weight on the ground in front of you (this is different than the "high hang" where you start with the weight near your thighs). Squat down to grab the weights, but remember to face forward and keep your chest facing forward. Stand up, but as you do so, shrug your shoulders aggressively. I know it sounds silly, but it should be an *aggressive* shrug. You really want to build some momentum in that motion. However, 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 do a quick hop at the same time. If you were to watch the path the weight travels, it should be as close to your body as possible, and as close to completely vertical as possible. 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 weight near your chest/clavicle.
You can almost think of it as letting go of the weight in midair, and positioning your body underneath the weight so that you end up with your knees slightly bent and the weight at your chest. Don't actually let go of the weight, that can be all sorts of bad. However, you'll find that because it's a quick hop, 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. Again, practice just the squat motion a few times so that it feels natural.
Lastly, just stand up completely while holding the weight at your chest. You basically just need to straighten your legs out, but you don't want to do this step until you've got full control of the weight. Normally, you would then put the bar back down on the ground to finish the rep, but in this case, you are considered done when you stand tall with the weight racked at your chest/clavicle. All that's really left is to put it all together in a smooth motion. - Snatch
Grab a barbell, and weight it as heavily as you can. Remember that you're going to have to do a lot of reps with this weight, so find something that you can handle for that many reps. It's pretty common for people to use between 45 and 90lbs.
Stand with your legs shoulder-width apart, with the weight on the ground in front of you. Squat down and reach down to grab the bar with a very wide grip; it should be about two shoulder-widths apart. Whatever you do, don't bend over to grab the barbell, since that's a bad habit to get into (your back will not like you). Stand and bring the barbell straight up, aggressively shrugging your shoulders (this helps generate momentum). You want to pull it straight up and jerk your hips forward. The momentum from your lower body will actually help drive the weight up, so that you're not actually lifting the weight with nothing but your arms.
Once the weight comes to about chest level, squat down and raise the barbell so that your arms are above your head. Your arms will make a Y shape with your upper body. Again, you want the weight to travel in a straight, vertical line. Since you're trying to drive so much momentum, you're actually going to stomp hard/jump a tiny bit to get into the squatting position. Keep your weight back on your heels throughout, so that you are as stable as possible with the weight above your head.
Also remember that you want a good lumbar curve at the bottom of that squat. Just because you have weight in your hands, you don't get to cheat on your form (arguably, it's far more important then). Once you're down at the bottom of your squat with the weight over your head, stand up. Remember to keep your arms locked the whole time, since the weight is above your head. It's safe to bring the weight back down to finish the rep AFTER you have completely stopped moving your feet and you are in a standing position. - Clean and Jerk
Make sure you have a barbell with weight on it for this exercise; I usually see anywhere from about ~45lbs up to ~90lbs.
To begin with, put the weight on the ground in front of you (this is different than the "high hang" where you start with the weight near your thighs). Squat down to grab the weights, but remember to face forward and keep your chest facing forward. Stand up, but as you do so, shrug your shoulders aggressively. I know it sounds silly, but it should be an *aggressive* shrug. You really want to build some momentum in that motion. However, 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 do a quick hop at the same time. If you were to watch the path the weight travels, it should be as close to your body as possible, and as close to completely vertical as possible. 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 weight near your chest/clavicle.
You can almost think of it as letting go of the weight in midair, and positioning your body underneath the weight so that you end up with your knees slightly bent and the weight at your chest. Don't actually let go of the weight, that can be all sorts of bad. However, you'll find that because it's a quick hop, 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. Again, practice just the squat motion a few times so that it feels natural. That's the "clean" part of this.
The last part, the "jerk" in the name, involves violently shoving the barbell directly over your head. Make sure that you're in a quarter squat position, then very aggressively press the weights directly over your shoulders. In fact, your momentum will cause you to do a slight hop while your hands go upwards. At the top of the rep, your arms should be completely locked out, and you should stand tall. Because this lets you use your legs to drive the momentum and the power, this should feel easier than a strict shoulder press.
To finish the rep, you have to lower the weight to the ground safely (we're not allowed to just drop weights). From the locked out position at the very top, bring the weight straight back down to the racked position (resting on your shoulders/clavicle, palms facing away from you, elbows as high up as you can). From there, lower the weight to your thighs using your arms. Lastly, squat down to put the weight on the ground. You'll need to keep your chest facing forward the whole time; don't bend forward at any point. All of that is one rep. If you need to, practice the motion until it starts to feel natural; form is really important here. - 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. - Kettlebell swing
Just use one dumbbell or kettlebell - and go heavy (most guys used 20lbs, most women were using 10-15lbs). Grab it with your strong hand, wrap your off-hand around your strong hand. You want a curve in your lower back (your lumbar), as if you were sticking out your chest and bending your lower back inward towards your spine.
Do a quarter squat and put the dumbbell between your legs, right around mid-thigh. Stand up, and as you do so, swing the dumbbell in front of you, keeping your arms locked. Because it's a light weight, you want to swing the dumbbell until it is perpendicular to the ground, directly above your head. Bring it back to starting position to complete the rep.
You want to maintain a good lumbar curve the whole time, and you should bend your legs as you finish a rep. If you’re bending at the waist, you’re doing it wrong, and you might hurt your back. - Bent over rows
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. - 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. - Box jumps
You'll need to set up a platform with risers. I usually see between 3 and 5 risers. Before you even start the WoD, stomp on it really hard. You want to make sure it'll support your weight and won't move around when you jump on it. Just in case, look down at the platform when you jump. If it does move around at all, keeping your eyes on it should help prevent injury.
When you do jump on it, you want to make sure that you stand tall once you're on the platform. If you stay hunched over the whole time, you're not getting the full effect of the exercise. One way to think about this is that you want your hips to "open up" on both the jump up and the jump down; all that really means is that your hips should be pushed forward once you're standing on top of the box.
Scale down: Step up to the box, and then step down instead of jumping on the platform. If you do step, make sure you alternate which leg steps up onto the platform first (and which legs steps off the platform first). - Double/Single-unders
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.
Now double-unders are just that...you have the rope go under you twice as you hop once. - Burpees
It’s a 4-step motion: 1) squat down and touch the ground, 2) kick your legs out into a push-up position and do the push-up, 3) jump back to the squatting position, 4) come up and jump a couple of inches off the ground (touch your hands above your head). Since we only had to do 30 of these total, you're not allowed to scale down that much.
Scale down: Cut out the push-up, so for steps 2 and 3, you just kick out your legs and then jump back to the squatting position
Scale down some more: Instead of kicking your legs out in the second step, step back with one leg and then the other. The end result is the same, but it’s not as tough. Still no push-up - Overhead Walking Lunges
Basically weighted lunges but walking and weights held straight up above your shoulders. Grab two dumbbells.
Hold the weights straight up above your shoulders. Do a lunge with either leg forward, and then do a lunge with the opposite leg forward moving in a "walking fashion." Each pair of a step counts as 1. The idea is to weigh yourself down with the weights. Make sure you plant the heel of the leg that comes forward, and bring the knee of the back leg (the one that's bending) as close to the ground as possible.
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