December 6, 2012
December 8, 2012
HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE

After a lesson in fundamentals on Tuesday, what was in store for Thursday’s class? Well, as our announcement e-mail hinted at, we’re all about to get a lot better at double unders and handstand push-ups! 

Warm-Up 1: 
Full Ct Spider Lunge, 10 Squats, 1/2 Ct Hamstring Walk, 10 Push-Ups, 1/2 Ct Bunny Hop, Full Court Carioca Rt, Full Court Carioca Left, 1/2 Ct Bunny Hop 
Warm-Up 2: 
5min Jump Rope (single skip only) 

With some loose wrists and ankles, and some very warm calves and shoulders, the night’s workout was revealed.

Met-Con: 
10 x 2min Rounds of HSPU Ladder and AMRAP DUs 

Still operating with a minimum of equipment, but an greatly increased amount of floor and wall space, Thursday’s class set about putting all that space to good use with some handstand push-ups and double unders.

Option #1: HSPU ladder with max DUs remainder of 2 minutes  

Option #2: 2 Wall Walks with max DUs remainder of 2 minutes

The met-con was run in two minute blocks, with everyone tackling their prescribed number of HSPU, and then completing as many DUs as possible in the time left. HSPU were done in an ascending ladder: in the first 2min block, everyone did 1 HSPU, and then spent the rest of the two minutes on DUs; in the second block (min 3), everyone did two HSPU, and then DUs. HSPU had to be unbroken, and when you broke, you began the next block back at one and began working up again.

Those without sufficient HSPU scaled to two wall walks each round (rather than laddering), followed by AMRAP double unders. As for DUs, Everyone was encouraged to give double unders a shot, although instead of trying one at a time, the first scaling option was for two single skips followed by a double under (if this wasn’t working, the fall back was to all single skips).

It’s not often that we get an opportunity to practice DUs during a workout, so this was an excellent chance for those just getting the hang of the wrist speed required for a DU to really work on the movement under load. After 20 minutes was up, everyone put down their ropes, walked off the lingering effects of a high heart rate, and then hit the wall for some much needed calf-stretches.

Remember, we will be back in the gym this Saturday at 10am, and then again Sunday at the same time (10am). We will be holding on one class each day, but rather than an hour, we’ll go for an hour and a half. Hope to see everyone then!

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0 Comments

  1. Andraea says:

    Great class! HSPU and DUs are two things that need a lot of work for me and DUs are definitely not something I tend to work on when I’m on my own. I was able to string around 7 together which is a huge improvement but unfortunately it was only one time. The rest of the rounds I did 1-4 at a time. One day I’ll get there. I put my bag on the floor to lower down to on HSPU, I made it through round 7 unbroken.

    Loved the class and loved seeing everyone again this past week!!

  2. Katie says:

    Congrats Andraea, that’s really impressive! Very creative to use your bag, too.

    This workout did not go well for me. Oh well. I’ll never get DUs if I don’t work on them. I did get some good pointers from Tom. I’m stopping my wrists after about 1.5 turns. I think I’m so used to hitting my shins that my wrists just stop turning there.

  3. Steph says:

    That was a great workout! Andraea and I got creative and put out stuff on the floor as “ab mats.” Unfortunately I’m still not very good so I had to use my big fluffy coat with my sweatshirt and sweatpants, but for some reason I really enjoy working on HSPUs. Hopefully I can get to 1 ab mat soon. The highest I got last night was 4. It was awesome to see Andraea stringing them together one round after another.

    See everyone tomorrow! More HSPUs? 😀