AMRAP 20 Minutes of:
5 Pull-Ups
10 Push-Ups
15 Box Jumps 20"/18"
Sabrina hits a solid 3 reps at 170# yesterday. Nice job Sabrina!
Wanna squat like Sabrina? Well lets first perfect your air squat. Without building a solid foundation with an excellent air squat, the rest of the exercises you perform will suffer.
As Coach Glassman mentions – how can you expect to overhead squat before your air squat is developed? And how can you expect to snatch without a great overhead squat? So you think you have a good air squat? Now what? Keep working on it. It requires diligence in order to maintain good flexibility and hip/shoulder health.
Here are 20 tips to help you improve your air squat- taken from the CrossFit Journal: Squat Clinic. You should be fighting to get into a proper air squat. Butt winkers and third world squatters will be prosecuted!
1. Start with the feet about shoulder width apart and slightly toed out.
2. Keep your head up looking slightly above parallel.
3. Don’t look down at all; ground is in peripheral vision only.
4. Accentuate the normal arch of the lumbar curve and then pull
the excess arch out with the abs.
5. Keep the midsection very tight.
6. Send your butt back and down.
7. Your knees track over the line of the foot.
8. Don’t let the knees roll inside the foot.
9. Keep as much pressure on the heels as possible.
10. Stay off of the balls of the feet.
11. Delay the knees forward travel as much as possible.
12. Lift your arms up as you descend.
13. Keep your torso elongated.
14. Don’t let the squat just sink, but pull yourself down with your hip flexors.
15. Don’t let the lumbar curve surrender as you settle in to the bottom.
16. Stop when the fold of the hip is below the knee – break parallel with the thigh.
17. Squeeze glutes and hamstrings and rise without any leaning
forward or shifting of balance.
18. Return on the exact same path as you descended.
19. Use every bit of musculature you can; there is no part of the body uninvolved.
20. On rising, without moving the feet, exert pressure to the outside of your feet as
though you were trying to separate the ground beneath you.
Having a kick ass air squat will soon translate into having other kick ass lifts.
