7.30.18 - 8.3.18

Monday 7.30.18 

Power Clean
Elbows
Quick elbows sets the tone for a good complex and a good AMRAP. Upon extension, loosening the hook grip will enable athletes to quickly get their elbows through, allowing the barbell to securely rest on the shoulders. Slow elbows mean that athletes are having to muscle the weight up with the upper body, which makes supporting the front squat and push jerk more difficult due to the added fatigue.

Movement Prep
2 High Hang Power Cleans
2 Hang Power Cleans

4 Power Cleans

Front Squat
Upper Back
One thing that can contribute to elbows dropping is a loss in stability of the upper back. When the upper back rounds forward, the elbows drop and the bar sits lower on the shoulder. Puffing the chest out and pulling the shoulders back keeps the spine in neutral alignment and the bar closer to the middle of the body. The closer the bar is to the center, the lighter it will feel and the better athletes will move.

Movement Prep
Establish Front Rack
2 Pausing Front Squats
2 Front Squats

Push Jerk
Heels
Balance is key when going overhead. Just like we touched on in the front squat, the closer the bar is to the middle of the body, the lighter it will feel. A common fault in the push jerk is letting the weight more forward over the toes. Keeping the heels down and elbows up better ensures that the weight is balanced. A balanced weight feels strong and stable overhead.

Movement Prep
10 Second Dip Hold
3 Push Jerks

1 Empty Barbell Complex (Power Clean + Front Squat + Push Jerk)

Tuesday 7.31.18 

Box Jumps
Hips Up, Knees Up
With a higher box, hip extension will be important. At smaller heights, athletes can get away with just brining the knees up. With a half a foot added to the height of the box, it helps to get more out of the hips. Athletes can think about opening their hips all the way before the knees come up. Bringing the hips higher allows the knees to get higher, allowing for better box jumps.

Landing
How we do one thing is how we do the other. It is really common to see a loss of midline when landing on the body. This looks like athletes crashing onto the box with back rounded forward. If that happens on the box jumps, it is likely to happen in the deadlift. When athletes land, looking for a more upright chest and neutral back position.

Movement Prep
10 Small Hops
10 Tall Hops
5 Step-ups (Each Leg) 
3 Shorter Box Jumps
3 Workout Height Box Jumps

Deadlifts
Set the Back
With a moderately heavy barbell in today’s workout, we want to make sure that athletes set their backs in the start position before pressing the bar off the floor. Typically when we are doing sets of more than one, the first deadlift is always the most difficult. The following are usually easier and look better because of the added momentum from the top going into the next reps. That being said, if athletes aim to make the first and hardest deadlift flawless, the others will likely follow along. However, it is hard to recover to a good position after the first rep once the spine has been compromised. Athletes can use the bar to pull the chest up so that they establish their natural lumbar curve. Taking a big breath in and squeezing the belly allows athletes to lock in this position. Let’s set the tone from rep one.

Set the Upper Body
The arms are what connects the weight to the torso. If the arms are are not active and secure, the weight will run away from the middle of the body and pull the back out of position as well. Squeezing the shoulder blades down and back and the arms to the sides allows the torso and arms to move as one throughout the lift.

Movement Prep
Establish Setup Position
5 Deadlifts (Pausing in Setup)

Build to workout weight

Wednesday 8.1.18 

Row
Feet
In a workout filled with thrusters and rowing, we want to make sure to use all the legs and not just the quads. It is very common to see athletes drive out of the catch just pressing from their toes. This puts most of the bodyweight in the quads, which will also make the thrusters more difficult. Keeping the heels down allows athletes to better use their posterior chain during the stroke. If athletes struggle with keeping their heels down due to ankle mobility, dropping the height of the foot plate down will help. The higher the number is, the easier it will be for athletes to get more length while keeping the heels down.

Movement Prep
Adjust Foot Plate
:20 Seconds Rowing (Feet on Top of Straps) 
:20 Seconds Rowing (Feet Strapped In)

Burpee
Feet
On the theme of feet, we can also be aware of how our feet are landing in the burpee. When athlete bring the feet forward to land under the body, the heels should also be planted slightly outside of the hands. It is common to see athletes bring the feet within the hands and land on the toes. Looking for a wider, more athletic base on the land today.

Movement Prep
3 Push-ups
3 Spidermans (Each Side) 
3 Frog Hops
3 Burpees

Pull-up
Rhythm
The reason athletes get out of rhythm during bar gymnastics movements of any kind is because the upper half of the body and lower half of the body are imbalanced on either side of the bar. The chest and legs should be evenly distributed out of the front and back of the bar. Beginning with the end in mind may help athletes feel out what this balance and finish position should look like. Athletes will begin this drill with a strict pull-up and hold the hollowing position for 3-2-1. After the 1, athletes will press away and complete 3 kipping pull-ups, aiming to get back to the position they were previously holding.

Movement Prep
10 Scap Pull-ups
5 Kipping Swings
1-3 Strict Pull-ups

2 Rounds: 
1 Strict Pull-up
3 Second Hollow Hold
3 Kipping Pull-ups

Movement Substitutions
Reduce Reps
Banded Pull-ups
Ring Rows
Jumping Pull-ups

Thruster
Loose Hands, Full Grip
We know that the thruster is a combination of the front squat and the push press in to one big movement. In just front squatting, we are able to maintain a loose fingertip grip to ensure that the barbell sits as far back onto the shoulders as possible. However, just push pressing requires all of the fingers to be wrapped around the bar in order to complete a safe and strong press overhead. This hybrid movement also requires a hybrid grip. On the thruster, looking to have all of the fingers wrapped around the bar, but will a slightly loose grip to allow for higher elbows during the squat.

Feet
If the bar is balanced properly on the shoulders, athletes will be more likely to find the balance with their feet. Just like on the rower, we want to drive through the whole foot, only coming up on to the toes as a follow through to extension, not as the main mover. We can jump more weight up with our hips than we can by calf raising it to an overhead position.

Movement Prep
3 Pausing Front Squats
3 Push Press
3 Thrusters

Build to workout weight

Thursday 8.2.18 

Tire FlipsBegin by gripping the bottom of the tire on the tread, and position your feet back a bit. Your chest should be driving into the tire.
To lift the tire, extend through the hips, knees, and ankles, driving into the tire and up.
As the tire reaches a 45 degree angle, step forward and drive a knee into the tire. As you do so adjust your grip to the upper portion of the tire and push it forward as hard as possible to complete the turn. Repeat as necessary.

Sand Bag Run
Shoulders Back, Head Up
Although the bag is roughly the same weight as an empty barbell, it presents a different challenge to position than a barbell would due to the odd nature and size of the bag. The weight has the tendency to want to pull athletes shoulders and head forward into a collapsed positioning. Pulling the shoulders back and the head up will help combat the breathing and postural issues that the Wreck Bag presents.

Movement Prep
50 Meter Wreck Bag Run

Friday 8.3.18 

AbMat Sit-ups

Eccentric

One part of the sit-up that is often overlooked is the eccentric portion. There is sometimes the tendency for athletes to really slowly control the descent back to the ground. If done for many reps in a row, this can become very taxing on the midline. Letting gravity do some of the work will limit this fatigue and allow for an easier concentric portion of the movement.

Movement Prep

5 Slow Sit-ups
5 Sit-ups

Double unders

To learn how to do double unders, it starts with finding the right rope. Though speed ropes are best for double under performance, heavy ropes are better for learning because they provide more tactile feedback, which helps greatly with your timing and coordination.

To get started, your basic jump rope technique must be solid. As you progress to double unders, your wrist rotation will be critical as it controls the pace. Your jumping needs to be powerful and controlled so you are landing in a balanced position on your midsoles to allow for quick rebounding.

The final steps of learning double unders comes down to finding the perfect balance between jumping and wrist rotation so you can start stringing together repetitions consecutively.