How to Do a Functional Fitness Woodchop Exercise

Functional fitness places emphasis on developing working muscle with exercises that mimic strenuous movements from everyday life. The woodchop is one of the most intensive and precise functional exercises that has the ability to improve calisthenic conditioning and raw strength. Follow these steps to do the woodchop functional fitness exercise.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Take a medicine ball of moderate heaviness and hold it with both hands. Raise the medicine ball above your head, keeping your elbows slightly bent. Take a stance with your feet shoulder width apart and your toes pointing forward.
2. Ease into a squat by bending at the knees and lowering your butt towards the ground. Keep your back straight and a slight inward curve in your lumbar spine.
3. Lower the medicine ball from overhead down towards your knees as you squat so that by the time your thighs are parallel to the ground your arms are all the way down. Hold the down squat position for a second and then stand back up as you raise the ball up and back overhead.
4. Increase the weight of the medicine ball as you learn the form. Then, increase the speed and integrate the exercise into a Tabata protocol or other high-rate calisthenic workout.