Scaling with a purpose

Nick | 02/11/2014 | 7

When we scale a movement, generally we do so to achieve the desired stimulus of the workout without letting the “Rx” bog us down.  Today’s scaling will not only do this for us, but will also help us build habits that will help us Rx in the future.  Rather than subbing 2 or 3x as many single unders for double unders, we’ll be doing hollow jumps to a target.  This will achieve two things that single unders are less likely to help us with: proper body position in the air and a high enough jump to get the rope under our feet twice consistently.  It might seem a bit strange at first, but give it a try if your double unders aren’t consistent (or not there at all).  You’ll still be getting the metabolic response we’re looking for and be encouraging great habits.

Oh, and while we’re at it, our 5×3 deadlift should be habit by now, but let’s review:  take 3-5 (err on the side of 5) warm up sets before  you get into your working sets.  Remember, those first four working sets are just as important as our final set.  While we all love to PR, if we want to get stronger we have to do to the grunt work.  That means working set #1 is heavy (70%+ of your 1rm, heavier than the first set a few weeks ago if you did them) and the rest climb from there.  Test day is soon.  Lets get some work done.

STR:

Deadlift
3-3-3-3-3

WOD:

Annie

50-40-30-20-10
double unders
situps

*scale for double unders will be hollow jumps to a 6″ target, not single unders