Glossary of Movements

I am going to add this as they appear in our workouts (to the best of my ability)

back squats—start with the bar on a rack, place it behind your head on the meat of your shoulders, then squat down below parallel and stand back up.

bear crawls—this is like an army crawl, but you are using your hands and feet (not knees or elbows). Crawl forward keeping your butt as low as possible, your hands wide, and your feet narrow.

box jumps—jumping onto a box of a certain height by starting with both feet on the ground, swinging your arms up, and using that momentum to land on the box with both feet. Basically a jump with a knee tuck.

burpees—start from a standing position, get down on the floor so that you’re lying flat with your belly touching the ground, then get back up to a standing position, jump and clap your hands above your head. That’s one burpee.

deadlifts—my coach calls this “picking up heavy shit.” Basically, it’s just picking up a bar with heavy weights from the ground and standing up with it.

double unders—jumping rope where the rope passes under you twice.

floor press—like a bench press, except instead of being on a bench, you lie with your back on the floor. Push the weight above you until your arms lock out at the top, then bring it back down, touching both elbows to the floor to finish the movement.

forward rolls—using your arm to guide you and protect your head, lean down and roll forward, standing up at the end to finish the movement.

hand release push ups—a push up where you lift your hands off the ground every time you get to the bottom.

handstand push ups—against a wall, kick up into a handstand with an ab mat under your head. Bend your arms and lower your body until the top of your head rests on the ab mat. Push up and straighten your arms to return to the starting handstand position.

hang cleans—a weightlifting movement where you start standing up and letting the bar hang down in front of your legs. Then you clean it up to your shoulders, ending in a rack position.

lateral box jump overs—jumping completely over a box laterally (from the side) starting with two feet and ending with two feet.

overhead squats—start with the weight above your head, with your heads wide on the bar and your feet in squat stance. Squat down, keeping the weight above your head, and then stand back up.

pull ups—you know what pull ups are. In Crossfit, we do kipping pull ups and butterfly pull ups, too, which are a more gymnastic kind of movement that involves swinging between each rep.

push jerks—start with the bar in the rack position on your shoulders. Dip with your legs and use that momentum to drive the bar overhead, ending with your arms locked out.

shoulder press—start with the bar in rack position, resting on your shoulders/collar bone. Push the bar up over your head until your arms are locked out, then bring it back down to your shoulders. A strict shoulder press is ONLY an arm movement. No dip or knee bend to help you.

sit ups—Crossfit uses ab mats for sit ups. The standard is the backs of your hands touch the ground behind your head and you sit all the way up and touch your toes.

snatch—an Olympic lift where you explosively move weight from the ground to overhead in one swift movement.

sumo deadlift high pulls—starting with your legs wide, toes pointed out, and your hands close together on the bar (about 4-5 inches apart), deadlift the weight, then using the momentum from opening your hips, pull the bar up (elbows high) to your chin.

toes to bar—start by hanging on the pull up bar, and then using a swing (arching), kick your toes up to the bar. Crossfit standard is both toes touch the bar at the same time.

walking lunges—self-explanatory. The crossfit standard is your knee touches every time.

wall balls—stand facing the wall, holding a medicine ball. Squat down below parallel then come up, using that momentum to throw the ball up to a 10-foot stripe painted on the wall. Catch the ball, then immediately go back down into a squat. Repeat.

wall walks—start by lying on the ground, face down, with your feet touching the wall. Begin the movement by walking your feet up the wall while simultaneously walking your hands in towards the wall, until you are flat against the wall in a handstand position with your belly touching the wall. Walk your hands back out and your feet back down to end the position lying flat on your stomach on the ground again.

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