WOD Strict Press and Intervals SWOD 4 Sets of : A. Strict Barbell Press x 5 45 sec rest B. Strict Toes to Bar 45 sec Rest Strict Press Tips Hold the bar in the shelf of your lats – This is hard to explain but think about it this way; don’t support the bar in your hands or on your shoulders. “Shoulder” the load with your lats and keep your lats pinched and held tight. This will keep the bar path from getting out in front of you and make you feel stronger at the bottom. A good confident start makes a huge difference. View it as a total body lift – This doesn’t mean that you should turn it into a push press, something that I have caught myself doing from time to time. But because of the line of power goes from over your head to the ground, it requires your whole body to be tight. Squeeze your glutes hard! The press is NOT a shoulder exercise, it is a MOVEMENT. View it as such. 
WOD 1 min Max Strict Pull Ups 30sec Rest 1 min Max Thrusters (95/65) 30sec Rest 1 min Single/Double Unders Max 30 sec Rest 3 Rounds for Best Round Thruster Tips
- Always try to match your breathing to the movement. With the thruster, this means one breath one entire movement. Inhale on the way down and exhale at the top of the press.
- After full lockout is reached at the top of the press, do not lower the bar to the racked position and then drop into the front squat. From the overhead lockout, immediately drop into the squat, so that the bar reaches your shoulders at the same time as the squat reaches its lowest depth.
- Try to relax your grip during the squat. Grip and forearm fatigue can be quite severe during a thruster workout such as Fran, where the opposing movement, pullups, is also grip centric.
- With the grip and wrists relaxed, try to snap the wrists forward and up at the top of the press, and then snap them back immediately to start the descent.
- Really try to keep your weight firmly on the heels and off the toes as you perform the front squat. Pushing the knees out is also key, as is keeping the elbows up. All three of these keys work in unison. Not only is this proper squat form in general, but it will speed up your thruster by making it truly a vertical movement. Too many people bring their weight forward onto their toes when in the hole of the squat. In order to then rise, they need to rock back onto their heels and then drive up. This horizontal forward and backwards movement at the bottom of the thruster not only makes the movement much slower, but it also speeds up fatigue by wasting energy rocking back and forth.
- At the risk of stating the obvious, rest with the bar in the racked position, never overhead.
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