Wednesday WODs

In keeping with the spirit of the AP Fitness Challenge, I decided to post a Workout of the Day (WOD) every Wednesday to give you, the readers, a challenge to complete. I will be doing them beforehand and posting my results with the WOD. These WODs are not original, new or super secret. You can find lists and lists on the internet and adapt them to what equipment you have – or even if you have no equipment at all. I personally love the book Cross Training 101: Build the Ultimate Athletic Physique, which is where many of the WODs are coming from (I may modify some slightly to make them more relevant to our purposes).

I am going to start out with mostly beginner bodyweight WODs just in case readers do not have access to equipment either at home or in a gym. Of course, modify the exercise as needed (i.e. if you cannot run, walk; if you cannot do a push up, do a modified pushup with your knees down OR a wall push up, etc)

Let’s first go over some basic types of WODs:

• As Many Reps As Possible (AMRAP) – Within a certain time constraint, complete as many rounds of exercises as possible
• Every Minute on the Minute (EMOM) – Within a certain time constraint, complete the exercise(s) at the beginning of every minute
• For Time – Complete the workout in the quickest time possible and record your time
• Tabata – Style of interval training where you exercise for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds for a total of 8 rounds

WOD

3 Rounds FOR TIME:

• 10 Burpees
• 20 Air Squats
• 30 Situps

My total time was: 15 minutes, 26.93 seconds. My abs started cramping halfway through the first round which slowed me down. After the second round, however, I was good to go. It highlighted that abs are still one of my weakest parts. I also don’t particularly like morning workouts (I do better after dinner) but I don’t consider that an excuse.

I finished up after this with a 5K (3.1mile) ruck on the treadmill with a 40lb ruck in 55 minutes and 23 seconds. My quads were shot from the burpees and air squats (I had done Powerlifting legs on Thursday and light accessory leg workouts yesterday) but after about 20 minutes I moved up from a 3mph pace to a 3.5mph pace. For the last 0.1 miles, I ran at 5.5mph.

If you want to make a cheap rucking plate, take four 5lb masonry bricks from Home depot and duct tape them together in groups of two and/or four. This creates plates of 10lbs and 20lbs you can slide into a backpack. I use a 5.11 Rush 24 backpack that has been removed from my daily carry and repurposed into a solely rucking backpack

The soundtrack:

GET TO IT.