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

Tabata (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off) for 10 rounds each of:

• Push-Ups
• Crunches
• Air Squats
• Burpees

This workout is a grand total of 20 minutes. The hardest part is doing the burpees last because your heart rate is spiked already and the movement combines the other three movements in some way. It originally called for Pull Ups instead of burpees but I changed it so that people without a pull-up bar could take part. In the near future I may be adding in a kettlebell or a jump rope and can link to what I am using. Also, Tabata WODs are typically 8 intervals each. I was feeling bold and went for 10. In hindsight, was probably not the best choice >_< .

My splits are below. I took a 60 second break between Air Squats and Burpees because I wanted to die at that particular moment (remember, my cardio is horrible). I also took three separate intervals of burpees as rest intervals because I felt my heart rate was spiking too much. Feel free to do the same at any point in the workout. For me, the goal was to survive all 40 intervals even if I had to sit out a few or do only a single rep during it.

The soundtrack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWIrDONQpzY