GYMNASTICS 03/24/2019
2 Rounds:
10 Forward to Backward Swinging Kicks (On right + left)
30 Seconds Tricep Bench Stretch
30 Seconds Standing Pike with Alternating Bent Knees
Forward to Backward Swinging Kicks :
1. Begin standing on both feet, grabbing a sturdy object for support with your right hand (I recommend the post of a rig).
2. Extend your left arm directly out to the side, keeping it parallel to the floor for the entire set.
3. Keeping a straight leg, lift your left foot up in the air as high as possible.
4. Once you reach your full range of motion, drive the heel backward, using momentum to swing your eft leg behind you.
5. Continue swinging your left leg front to back, focusing on keep both legs locked out at all times.
6. Repeat steps for the right side.
Tricep Bench Stretch:
1. Begin sitting glutes-to-heels on the ground, facing your bench (or, any apparatus you are using: Chair, couch, desk, etc.)
2. Place your hands on the bench, palms down, and slide them forward until your elbows are supported. The goal is to keep the joint as comfortable and safe as possible.
3. Arms should be shoulder width apart.
4. With your knees together, lift your glutes and set your hips directly over your knees. Both legs should be together and creating aa 90 degree angle.
5. Allow your head to fall through your arms, and press your chest towards the floor.
6. Bend your elbows and pull your thumbs to shoulder blades. This will intensify the stretch in the triceps.
7. Engage your core by pulling the belly button into your spine. This will flatten out and protect the lower back. No sagging.
Standing Pike with Alternating Bent Knees
1. Begin standing with both feet together, legs locked out.
2. Hinging at the hips, allow your chest to fall forward, towards your knees. Allow the arms to extend down, hanging the hands towards the floor.
3. Keeping the left leg straight, bend the right knee and lift only the right heel off the ground.
4. Sink deeper into the stretch (chest to quads). You should feel the left hamstring stretching, while the right hamstring relaxes.
5. Switch legs: Lock out the right leg, and bend the left knee, lifting the left heel off the ground.
6. Sink into the stretch as much as possible.
7. Continue alternating back and forth between both sides.
3 Rounds for Quality
10 Hollow Hold + Banded Lat Pull Downs
10 Zombie Sit-Up + Backward Fold
10 Candlestick Roll + Tuck Jump
Sub Options:
Tucked Hollow Hold + Banded Lat Pull Downs / Feet on the Ground + Banded Lat Pull Downs with Thinner Band
Toes come backward as far as possible / Swing arms forward to help with the sit-up
Bend the knees & do not lift the hips high off the ground
You will put your time for a score - but really this is not about speed but quality.
Hollow Hold + Banded Lat Pull Down
1. Secure a band to a sturdy object, making sure you have enough space to stretch the band while fully extended on the ground. Thicker band = more difficult.
2. Lying with your back to the floor, grab the band with both hands and slowly move away from the rig.
3. Once you have enough tension on the band, extend your body and lift into a hollow hold: Pointed toes, straight legs, squeezed glutes, hips rounded under and pushing the lower back into the ground, shoulders off the floor, arms shoulder-width apart gripping the band.
4. With control, pull the band from overhead, down towards your hips. Your hands should make contact with the tops of your legs.
5. Slowly return.
Zombie Sit Up + Backward Fold
1. Begin in a seated pike position, with your legs together and extended straight in front of you. Toes will be pointed, and the palms of your hands in contact with the ground (ideally for the entire movement).
2. Engage the core, and begin to lay backwards, rounding your back to the ground.
3. Once fully extended, laying on the floor, use your core and hip flexors to pull your heels off the floor. The legs will remain straight for the entire movement.
4. With your palms and back remaining in contact with the floor, continue piking the hips, pulling your legs towards your face, and pushing the toes towards the ground behind your head (you should be staring at the tops of your knees). At this point, most of your back will peel off the floor as you roll onto the back of your shoulders. You will end in what feels like an upside-down pike stretch.
5. To roll forward, lift your toes off the ground, begin pressing your entire back, back into the floor one vertebrae at a time (think of rolling down through your spine), and slowly directing the heels back to towards the floor. Your palms will still be in contact with the ground.
6. Once your legs are fully extended on the floor, once again, engage your core and sit-up. Your palms and entire lower body should remain on the ground. Do not allow your legs to lift off.
7. Sliding your palms along the sides of your calves, reach them as far forward (towards the heels) as your hamstring mobility allows. You should be moving through a seated pike stretch, pressing your chest into the tops of your quads.
8. Reach your full range of motion in the pike stretch, and repeat.
Candlestick Roll to Tuck Jump
1. Begin standing with your feet together, legs straight, and arms extended overhead, shoulder-width apart.
2. To sit back, act as if you were sitting into a chair, directing your glutes towards your heels. You will “sit back” into a position very similar to a deep squat. At this time, you want to begin rounding your back by pulling your belly button into your spine, reinforcing a smooth, hollow position.
3. As your glutes come to the floor (ideally right behind your heels), allow yourself to carefully roll backward, making contact with the floor one vertebrae at a time. No flat backs! Your arms will still be extended overhead.
4. When your shoulders and arms come in contact with the floor, you will press the backs of your hands into the ground for stability.
5. With pointed toes, lift your feet towards the ceiling, allowing the legs to fully extend and straighten. Here you will squeeze your glutes, so your body makes a straight line from your shoulders to your toes (vertical line). Do not allow your hips to close (creating a piked position with the legs coming towards your face).
6. Be as tight as possible in the top of your candlestick position.
7. To stand up, you will aggressively pull your heels into your glutes as you roll forward (getting them as close as possible), which will make for a much easier time standing.
8. As your feet hit the floor, engage the core and “sit-up”, shifting your shoulders over the front of your toes as quickly as possible.
9. Once balanced, begin standing up.
10. When you stand, you want to move straight into your tuck jump (no resting or stalling between these two movements.)
11. As you jump pull your knees into your chest as high as possible.
12. Land with soft knees, absorbing the force of the jump.
13. Straighten the legs, and stand tall in your starting position, prepared for the next rep.
3 Rounds for Quality
5 Wall Walk + 5 Second Hold at the Top
10 Box Handstand Shoulder Shrugs (Hold 2 seconds at top and bottom)
5 Cartwheels
Sub Options:
Wall Walk to a height you feel comfortable holding
Knees on the box / Plank shrugs
Level 1 Cartwheel (Swing legs around the side, close to the ground + slowly build)
Wall Walk + Hold
1. Begin in the bottom of a push-up position, perpendicular to the wall. Feet should be nearly touching the wall, with your hands on the outside of your rib cage, and elbows tracking backward (pointing towards the wall behind you).
2. Push-up into a plank position with shoulder extension. Think, “push the floor away”, which will activate the shoulders, slightly rounding the upper back, giving you a sturdy base in which to begin your wall walk. In this plank position, make sure to squeeze your glutes and round your hips under, flattening out the lower back. A flat lower back is proof that the core is engaged and working. Do not allow your back to sag.
3. Aggressively press your hands into the floor to reinforce your shoulder extension, and lift your first foot to the wall. Press the ball of your foot into the wall, squeezing the quad, in order to set up a strong position. You should feel your hands pressing down, into the floor, and foot pressing backwards, into the wall.
4. Carefully lift your second foot to the wall, now pressing outward through both hands, and both feet. You will be in a position similar to the elevated plank.
5. To walk up the wall, you will move one hand, and one foot simultaneously: Right hand + left foot, or, left hand + right foot.
6. For the first step, channel all your energy into pressing through the left shoulder and hand. This will naturally begin to shift your bodyweight to the left, so we can easily lift the right hand to take a step.
7. Once you have shifted your weight slightly to the left, lift the right hand off the floor, and step it backwards, towards the wall. Pressing your right foot into the wall, lift your left foot and move it vertically, higher up the wall.
8. Press through the right hand, shift your weight to the right side, and repeat on the opposite side.
9. Continue shifting your weight, stepping one hand and one foot at a time, until you reach a fully extended handstand, parallel to the wall.
10. Being as tight as possible, hold for five seconds.
11. Descend from the handstand by shifting your weight side to side, and walking your hands forward, away from the wall. Your feet will simultaneously step down the wall, as your hands move forward.
12. Once your feet are close to the floor, return each to the ground, setting yourself back into a plank position.
13. Lower your body into the bottom of a push-up position, preparing for the next rep.
Box Handstand Shoulder Shrugs:
1. Choose a box/chair/etc. at a height you are comfortable with. The higher the box, the less strain on hamstring mobility.
2. Begin by standing in front of your box, and setting your hands on the ground. Hands should be initially placed a few feet away.
3. Carefully step one foot onto the box at a time. You should find yourself in a position similar to the Elevated Plank.
4. Keeping your legs straight (for the RXed version), walk your hands in, towards the box, until they are set directly under the hips (putting you into a ‘stacked position’).
5. Spread your fingers apart, and actively grip the floor. Engaging the fingers will help maintain balance while inverted.
6. Extend your shoulders by “pushing the floor away”. You should feel contact between your shoulders and ears.
7. Tilt your head to approximately 45 degrees, and lift your eyes to look at the floor. Do not stick your head out and explore your ears (as this will compromise your position), bur rather, keep your ears hidden between your shoulders. You should be able to see the ground space between your palms.
8. To shrug, relax your shoulders and allow your entire body to sink down. Your shoulders should be the only muscle group to deactivate. The core and legs should remain tight.
9. Re-activate the position by “pushing the floor away” to return back into an extended handstand.
Cartwheel:
1. Begin in the universal gymnastics starting position: Stand with your full weight on your non-dominant (“bad”) leg, with your dominant leg extended forward, quad squeezed with toes pointed and in contact with the ground. Set arms overhead, shoulder-width apart, and extend the shoulders into the ears (there should be no space between the two). Squeeze your glutes and round your hips under to engage the core and flatten out the lower back. You should be completely tight from head to toe in this position.
2. Carefully shift your weight forward, into your dominant leg. Your front knee will dramatically bend, as your bodyweight travels forward, over the front of the toes. You want a big bend in the front leg in order to better control your speed as you approach the floor.
3. Keeping your arms shoulder-width apart, continue reaching your hands towards the floor. Here, your body will act similarly to a teeter-totter. As your hands approach the floor, your back leg (non-dominant) will rise off the floor, preparing for the “kick” to generate the full rotation over your hands.
4. When your hands are within 1-2 inches of the floor, externally rotate your fingers to 45 degrees, and drive your back heel (non-dominant leg) vertical.
5. Your back leg will initiate the the full rotation of your body in the cartwheel. You need an explosive kick-up that generates enough power to help you fully rotate in the movement.
6. As your first hand (dominant hand) reaches the floor, your first foot (non-dominant foot) will drive over the top. As your second hand (non-dominant hand) reaches the floor, your second foot (dominant foot) will push off the floor, and drive over the top. At this point, your body should be in an upside down “X” position.
7. Maintaining this X-position, pull your first foot (non-dominant foot) to the floor, and lift your first hand (dominant hand) off the floor. When your second foot (dominant foot) reaches the floor, lift your second hand (non-dominant hand) off the floor.
8. Control your landing, and make sure you are fully balanced before moving on.