Thursday 13.3: Handstand, jerks, metcon + bench, pull-ups

Thursday. AM: Skills, handstand. Strength, split jerks from rack (max 90kg), metcon: 15-12-9-6-3 hspu, box, power clean, 200m run between rounds. Time 16.05. PM: Metcon, 10 to 1, down by 1's, bench at bodyweight, 10 pull-ups between bench. Time 20.45.

Got to utilize this opportunity to workout at Liikuntamylly. I think I could live there… Just eat between workouts and hit it again =) If I had Pauliina with me and occasional other training partners I probably would do it on holidays. I attacked the place early in the morning, thinking it would be quiet. How wrong was I. The place was crowded! But it was mostly elderly people and kids being instructed in a huge group so even though there were tons of people there weren't many peoples working with barbells this time. In the afternoon I went to pick Pauliina from work and did a workout there as well.

Skills.

• Handstand

This place is ideal for handstand so I'm more than happy to practice my skills for warm-up before the actual workout. It's been awesome to have this opportunity so I can maintain my skills and add them up in the spring and summer time. La casa de in-laws is another spot where I like to work on this one too. It's about 20 seconds or so that I can hold on being inverted, no matter if it's staying steadily at the spot or moving forward, handstand walking.

After 20 seconds my shoulders get fatigue and I got to drop down from the position. I'm still very happy with the progress I've made in the past, especially as not having the possibility to work on this specific skill constantly. There's naturally work to be done. I should focus on having my legs together in a beautiful line together with the rest of my torso. It's a little too C-shaped to my taste. I just don't understand how you could push your head right under your shoulders. Seems unnatural. But that is probably a thing I could work with a partner, holding me steady and me forcing to get the ideal position.

Take a look at this place

Strength.

• Split jerk from rack
• 3x60, 3x70, 3x80, 3x85, 3x90, 1x90, 3x80kg

Focus today: heavy-ish split jerk triples from rack. I wanted to hit at least 90kg. I could have worked clean & jerks too but I wanted to save energy for the actual jerks so I took 'em from rack. I wanted my feet to work well on these, landing in similar position no matter the weight. A good lunge, not just a little movement there but a proper step further.

There's still work to be done with the feet. I like the fact there isn't such a huge difference between the sets but i'd like to see my front feet supporting the weight overhead in a better and stronger manner. It would definitely be a more stable form in that way.

Anyways, the weights were moving up nicely. On the last rep of the set of 80kg I hit the bar in my face. That didn't make the lift any easier =) It was awesome to throw some weights around in the morning, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Recap of handstand and strength work

Metcon. Time 16.05

• 15-12-9-6-3
• Handstand push-ups
• Box jump, about 60cm
• Power clean, 60kg
• 200m run between rounds

Wanted to do something that's beyond my regular options. Running, barbell work and bodyweight stuff. That's a good combo. I'd like to incorporate running into my workouts and this is the place where it can take place. This workout was tough. Total of 45 reps of 3 different movements with 1k running in smaller sets between rounds.

I didn't think about the strategy at all before the workout. Once I threw myself against the wall for the first time, it felt good to complete the handstand push-ups and I decided to give it a shot and try to go unbroken. That was great that I was able to do them ub every round. I'm very happy about it.

This rock tape thing really rocked! Thanks Toni for the tip

Box jumps were the same height as earlier this week that you saw on video. I believe it's the same hight as standard box, about 60cm. It felt actually a little higher. I had one miss on the boxes, I wasn't able to reach full lockout on top of the box so I did one "extra" rep. Other than that the box jumps went as planned, at a steady pace.

Power cleans weren't that easy. Well, I didn't think so but they got to me big time. They were the toughest part of this metcon. Even though it was only 60kg I had to cut them from early on. I remember having done 15 power cleans once in a row and it burned my forearms so badly. On the first round I did 3x5, on the round of 12's it was 2x6, on the round of 9's I did 6+3 and the rest went unbroken. I'm telling you the running part wasn't a pleasure after all that work. I felt like my running wasn't the fastest on this planet. It still was a cool element to have as part of this one. I really liked the programming of this one.

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Metcon. Time 20.45

• 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, bench press, bodyweight (80kg)
• 10 pull-ups

Rich Froning's bench workout. I remember seeing him done this unbroken on Crossfit Mayhem's youtube channel some time ago. I'm not a big fan of bench but once in a while it's worth doing it. I prefer it within a metcon though like this one. Total of 55 bench at bodyweight (I'm currently at around 82kg) in a descending ladder plus 10 pull-ups after each bench set.

The pull-ups were no big deal, I got them unbroken every round without any issues. It was the bench that really sucked. That's a whole lot of benching for me. On the first round I did 'em probably 7+3, then for the following couple of rounds it was probably 3 sets. Usually something like 4 reps at first try. From 6 and down it was either 2 sets and the last 3 ones went unbroken.

There's a 10m distance between the bench rack and pull-up bar so there was a lot of walking in the workout. I felt like I had done my share of training for today after this workout. It's been awesome to train in the morning and in the afternoon for the second time.

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