Wednesday, December 12th
A.
METCON:
“Rugrats” On the 4:00 x 5 Rounds: 9 Burpee Box Jump Overs 15 Dumbbell Front Squats 15/12 Calorie Assault Bike *Dumbbells - 2 x 50's/35's
*Equipment Modifications: Row 18/13 Calories if Short on Bikes
B.
GYMNASTICS:
10 Minutes of Practice: 8 Strict Toes to Bar 25' Handstand Walk Not for score, but for quality effort. Alternate between the two movements *as if* it were an AMRAP, but again, this is purely for practice. On the handstand walk obstacle course, athlete's choice on difficulty. Obstacles, elevation changes, changes of direction are all considerations, based off your specific level in the movement. Let's challenge ourselves here by focusing on a specific addition that builds our skill.
METCON NOTES:
In "Rugrats", we're bringing out intensity into intervals. The aim, stimulus wise, is to place us at round completion in the general vicinity of 2:30. This will naturally deviate somewhat between athletes, but if we are completing our first round closer to the 3:15-3:30 mark, we will not be able to sustain the intensity. If this is the case, we want to modify the repetition scheme by removing a handful of burpee box jump over repetitions and/or a handful of calories fro the bike. Let's aim to sustain the repetitions on the dumbbell front squats.
To look a bit at the loading, we are looking to use a set of dumbbells that allows us to cycle 30+ repetitions unbroken, when fresh. This places us at a loading that we feel confident cycling with speed during the actual execution of the workout. "Open" standards apply here - we can front rack the dumbbells similar to how we would with a barbell, or we can place them on our shoulders. No "right or wrong" here, but by placing them on our shoulders and getting our hands on the base of the dumbbell provides the most secure fit, despite it taking a extra fraction of a second to get into position. With some practice in racking, this can be just as quick, and far more efficient in the longer haul with the bigger picture in mind. We want to bring a strong effort to the final bike.
Burpee Box Jump Overs are the first movement of the triplet. Although we are in an interval here, we are not looking to sprint these at our top pace. Methodical aggression is our focus here. No wasted steps, tight movements, but not sprinting. Moving 2 seconds faster on these 9 repetitions can take significant effort out of us, which is very easily lost in a transition, or on the bike.
Dumbbell Front Squats come next. Here we are looking to cycle with speed. We naturally will train with workouts where we'll grind out larger sets, with small pauses at the top of each rep. Not the aim today. Aim to cycle just a bit faster than we find ourselves in other workouts. Always find full extension at the top of the repetition to meet the standard, but let's eliminate the pause as best as we can.
Biking closes out the set. Here, we want our best effort of the three movements. Taking full advantage of how calories accumulate under intensity, let's push our efforts here. It's not a full sprint from the start, but we are truly aiming to get outside the comfort zone here. At the higher wattages, athletes can be separated by 10+ seconds here, very easily. It pays to push the bike here today.
