Wednesday 6.2: Sled, handstand walk

Wednesday. Sled pull and sled push, handstand walk skills training, wall balls.

Something a bit different. I had the possibility to go to Liikuntamylly during daytime in Eastern Helsinki 'cause I'm on a holiday. In the evening time these places all reserved for track and field clubs, which makes it a bid difficult to find proper spots. I fell in love with the sled previously when I was at the same place with Toni. My main focus today was sled and handstand walk skills training.

Track

Warm-up

• Run 800m, then
• 21-15-9
• Burpees
• Wall ball, 5kg

Warm-up was something different as well. I love doing wall balls and love/hate burpees so I figured doing them for warm-up would get by blood circulation going on and get my joints prepared for the workouts. This is the only place where I have possibility or wall balls so I definitely wanted to do them. It's a shame they don't have 9kg ball, otherwise I'd do Karen (150 wall balls for time, 9kg). This was a good warm-up and good to have burpees regularly in the training sessions.

Wall balls

Sled.

• Sled pull x 4 (23+23m)
• Sled push x 4 (23m)

There it is, sled work. It's actually very taxing on the legs. I honestly have no idea how much weight should be put on the sled and how these type of exercises should be carried out. I simply find it so attractive that I must pile some plates on and play along. I measured 23meter distance (there were white lines ready for that distance), put 2 x 20kg plates aboard and put the clock running. I sprinted the first set, turned around and sprinted back, a total of about 50 meters. Then I took a rest of 90 seconds and repeated for a total of 4 sets.

It's a total leg burner, no doubt about it. And it gets your breathing as well as your quads and hamstrings. Once you start pushing the sled it becomes even tougher, or at least slower. The handle of the sled is just maybe 20cm off the ground which means the athlete's form must be very low. It also activates shoulders because if you don't do anything with them, the sled doesn't move. One feature is also that shoes start to become somewhat slippery because of you have to be so low. It's difficult to get a good foot grip. All this makes it a perfect training method =) Sled pulling is more like "sprinting" and sled pushing is more like a very slow walk.

Sled

Handstand walk. The circumstances are perfect for training handstand walk. At my regular box I can train handstand but walking is impossible because there is no room for that. But take a look below of how much space there was today. Through training this important skill I realized that each time when I swung my legs overhead and a bit forward I was able to create better stability. Usually my legs stay just overhead, which creates instability and forces me to drop my legs.

Cashout. Something nice to the end: wall balls!

• 50 wall balls
• Run 1k, cooling down, stretching
• In the evening I have 2h floorball training

Toni's workouts. Snatches 3-3-3-3-3 (40kg each set). Annie, time 8.57.

• Annie
• 50-40-30-20-10
• Double unders
• Sit-ups

Pony improved his Annie time with 40 seconds. I heard rumors he was a beast with the double unders. Some of the sets went unbroken.