Saturday 22.3: Tgu, Cleans, Jerks, Chief

Saturday. Skills, TGU. Strength, cleans (PR 110kg). Clean and jerk complex (max 95kg). Benchmark workout Chief, 5 x 3min amrap of: 3 power clean (60kg), 6 push-ups, 9 air squats, 1min rest. Result, 459 reps.

What a day! We slept late, ate a good breakfast and hit the gym with Pauliina. We met a friend - Juuso - at the gym for a training day. He's a new crossfitter and has taken on the challenge quite well in my opinion. I talked him into this sport for quite a while before he tried his first wod. Since then, he's taken on some pretty nasty workouts, Fran and Cindy to mention some examples. Today it was time for him for a PR squat of 115kg. I did some barbell work in different styles of clean & jerks, some PR stuff was also in play.

Skills.

• Turkish get-ups, couple of sets

I've forgotten this movement totally. Yesterday evening Toni threw in this one so that's the reason I figured why not? We don't have any heavy kettlebells at the gym so I used dumbbells instead. It feels a little different with kettlebells / dumbbells. With kb's the weight leans towards the wrist where as db's don't. This was actually a good preparation to the training session as it activated pretty much every muscle in my body and stretched the shoulders as well.

Strength. Cleans

• Hang clean, 5x60, 3x70, 3x80, 1x85, 1x90kg
• Clean singles from ground 1x100, 1x105, 1x110kg PR

I had planned on doing a clean and jerk complex but decided to take some hang cleans prior to that main strength element. The cleans felt good so I ended up hitting some PR's =) First of all the heaviest bar I've ever hang cleaned is either 80 or 85kg at max. Probably 85kg, I recall I might have once taken a single at that load. Today I as able to get 90kg on my front rack starting from hang position. Some might call that a PR.

That was great and felt awesome! I had to hurry getting under the bar. I felt like the bar didn't come that up so there was no other option but to drop down and find a place under the bar. After 90kg hang clean I wanted to take a couple of regular full cleans, from ground as squat clean. The bar was light so it turned out I had taken a 105kg clean up and understood it's pretty close to a PR lift. My max load before this day was 107.5kg. I decided to give it a shot and skip it, jump to 110kg and try it out. I know it failed last time because I simply didn't dare to go under the bar.

The front squat part of the clean is not the thing, it's definitely the speed under the bar. And courage to drop there. Today I psyched myself up to the lift properly and had decided to get it. It wasn't the most beautiful lift I've done but hey c'mon it was 110kg, that's a big load for this guy.

110kg clean, PR

Clean and jerk complex.

• 1 clean + 5 split jerk (60kg)
• 1 clean + 3 split jerk (70kg)
• 1 clean + 2 split jerk (80, 85, 90, 95, 90kg)

The main focus of the day strength-wise was the jerk portion. I've been thinking about pushing / pressing more iron to the sky in the future to strengthen my shoulders. Push presses, push jerks and split jerks are gonna be the answer. Let's see how it turns out. Anyway, today I did this so that I picked the bar from the floor and then did couple of split jerks in a row.

Starting at low weight, building it up to 90kg and up. I think I'll still have to drop lower on the jerks. A positive thing was that I was mostly jerking the barbell upwards, not that much forward. And my back leg is not sideways anymore as it used to. I got some tips rom Toni's coach when I visited his affiliate. I appreciate the tips I got there.

Recap

Chief. Benchmark workout Chief. Result 459 reps. Compare to 26.7.2013.

• 5 x 3 min amrap of:
• 3 power clean, 60kg
• 6 push-up
• 9 air squat
• 1min rest between amraps
• Result. 5 rds + 3 reps / 5+3 / 5 / 5 / 5+6 reps

After quite a lot of cleaning and jerking my fuel was pretty much gone. I had thought about it yesterday but at this stage it wasn't that attempting anymore as I had done more barbell work than I had planned. Chief is a tough bad ass so it would be nice to do it with a fresh body. Luckily Juuso was there too so I suggested we'd hit it together. It's definitely easier mentally to start off if you have a training buddy with you. He was in and so we put the clock running!

I don't know how the total result should be announced but I completed 5+ rounds per amrap. I played it safe all the way. I got those 5 rounds in about 2:30-2:40 each amrap. I thought pushing the limits to the final seconds all the time would have burned my legs badly so I left something in the tank in each 3min amrap. There were a total of 81 cleans, 153 push-ups and 225 squats.

Cleans were the easiest part for me in this one. Then came the push-ups and lastly the squats. It has surprised me every time how the squats eat the juice out of legs. I went through all the movements unbroken except the last couple of sets of squats where I took one second of breath to release the tension in my lower body.

Push-ups are tough for me normally but in Chief I believe I haven't had any issues. That's naturally because of the number of consecutive reps. And the clean is light weight for me so I would be surprised if that brought any issues. The only thing I'm wondering afterwards is should have I gassed more in the earlier amraps to gain better result. I know I could have pushed it for 6 rounds on the first amrap. But how would it affect the following sets as it would obviously suck the strength out of a human being more fiercely.

Don't know the answer. Maybe it could be worth doing couple of short amraps of this one just for fun to see how many rounds I could hurry if it was just for let's say 2-3 amraps with all-in mode. Could it possible to maintain that 6 round pace? I was happy for being able to keep this pace today and speed up a little on the last set. I was done after the workout, both of us were. Chief is tough.