Sunday 2.3: Back squats, mainsite wod

Sunday. Back squats 4-3-3 (all sets 135kg). Metcon, with a running clock for 12min: 4min cj (60kg), 4min rowing, 4min burpees.

After having done couple of outdoor workouts it was time to make a comeback to "home gym". We spent the weekend at Pauliina's parents and it was simply great. Relaxing time, eating well and lots of stuff, catching up with the in-laws and working out. I went to the gym later in the day for back squats - surprise - and completed one crossfit.com workout from earlier this week.

Strength.

• Back squats 4-3-3
• All sets @ 135kg

This is the first time I've been systematic with my squats. I'm very happy Pauliina talked me into going to heavier weights. It's about to carry out some pretty decent results. Today was the first time ever I was able to do 4 reps @ 135kg. It was a little too early to do several sets at this weight. That was my goal - 3x4 - but the reality crawled in and it was triples after the first set of 4 reps.

It was extremely encouraging to nail that first set. My legs were jello already as I entered the gym because of those 120 kettlebell swings yesterday with 2-poor bell. That seems to create similar type of hamstring pain (good pain) as back squats. Kb swings are supposed to develop posterior chain so no wonder I felt those two workouts in my lower body. But after warm-up they weren't that sore anymore and I was able to go to heavier weights.

I took quite long recovery periods between sets, about 3 minutes. Normally I like to push through quicker but these sets felt heavy and I needed that longer time to get my logs to get ready for the next set.

Recap of squats

Metcon.

• With a running clock for 12 minutes:
• 4 minutes of clean & jerks, 60kg (30 reps)
• 4 minutes of rowing (1.000m row)
• 4 minutes of burpees (50 reps)

This is something that instantly caught my attention as I saw it on main site this Tuesday. In front of a clock set for 12 minutes you go through 3 different movements, each for 4 minutes and where the result is the sum of all movements. Calories would have been the result on the rowing but I just measured the distance. This workout was tough for sure. It wasn't an all in effort this time. It still sucked all my energy reserves.

On the clean & jerks I know my Grace - 30 clean & jerks with 60kg - is currently 2.50. With that in mind I reckoned 30 reps in this type of workout would be suitable because there was 8 minutes work left after the clean & jerks. So I did the math and thought about doing 5 reps every 40 seconds. I stuck to the plan from beginning to the end with the unbroken 5rep scheme but the time usage was a bit quicker. I started my second set at 30second and it took about 30+ seconds per set for all 6 sets.

It was about 3.17 when I was done with the c&j's. I was satisfied with that and wasn't going to lift that bar even once after I got those 30 reps. That was my goal and I got it. There would have been time for another set of 5 reps or more but as I said, this wasn't "balls to the wall" kind of effort this time and there was 8 minutes of work still left and I wanted to get a steady performance with all 3 elements.

On the rowing I aimed for 1k distance. I started rowing at about 4.05 and kept the pace between 1.53-1.58 all the way. It was about 1.000m when timer hit the 8min time frame. Next movement burpees. It wasn't a surprise those were several times tougher than when having a fresh body. I took them in sets of 10 reps, then took a breath and continued moving. I got the 50th rep when the digits showed 11.58.

Mainsite workout

If this had been a benchmark workout I would have done couple of clean & jerks more, rowed about the same pace but then stepped my game up with the burpees. There would not have been a reason to chill out so much. It hurt all the way, no doubt about it, but in a benchmark-type competition situation you got to dig deep way further beyond the comfort zone to get the best results. I believe maybe 60+ reps would have been manageable. As I look at the results people performed in this workout I guess I managed it still pretty well. You'll find athlete's results in the comment section on the www.crossfit.com under post: Tuesday 25th February 2014.