Skill session:
– handstands
– press to handstand
– skin the cat
– L-sits
then:
3 rounds of:
:30 seconds burpee
:30 seconds handstand
:30 seconds L-sit
Rest :30 seconds between exercises
Every time your feet touch the ground, take away one burpee rep.

Back Squat Review

First of all, get your head in the game.  Forget about everything else that is going on in life and focus on this one lift thats happening right now.  Ready?  Good.  Approach the bar and place your grip slightly wider than shoulder width.  Step under the bar, but DON’T LIFT IT.

This is a HEAVY load, so let’s get prepared.  Standing in a quarter squat under the bar pull your shoulder blades back.  Act as if you are trying to make them touch.  Slide your grip inward as close to your shoulders as you can.  Tighten every muscle in your back and turn those elbows up high and away.  We’re using the muscles in our backs to create a platform for the bar to sit on.  Lift your chest, point it at the wall in front of you and take a deep breath into your stomach.  HOLD IT, and clinch every muscle in your stomach that you know how with a big belly-filling breath.  Now, begin to stand up with the bar, but don’t stand up hesitantly.  Stand up with some force.  Let that bar know now that you’re going to make this lift.

You’ve done this before.  We do air-squats all the time.  This time you have a loaded bar on your shoulders, but that does NOT change the technique.  Heels under your hips, toes pointed out slightly.  Initiate the movement with your hips.  HIPS BACK!  Continue taking your hips back and away all the way down.  PUSH THOSE KNEES OUT!  Pretend that there is a big piece of paper under your feet and you are acting to rip it in half with your feet.  All the way down below parallel.  That last 1/2in feels like a mile with 300lbs on your back, but don’t cut it short.

Once you hit bottom you’ve got to tighten every muscle in your body, fight to keep that chest up, keep that stomach tight, and DRIVE through your heels.  Keep your knees pushed out and drive as hard as you can.  Drive as if your life depends on it.  Thats 1 rep.

Back Squat Rules for The Total (know them!)

1. Any halt in the upward motion of the whole bar, identified at its position on the back rather than at its ends, constitutes a missed attempt, as does any change in position of the feet against the floor during the squat.
2. Any deliberate attempt to lower the bar counts as an attempt.
3. The lift is finished only after the bar is successfully replaced in the racks.