Saturday 5.4: Rings, snatch, cleans and box

Saturday. Skills, rings. Strength, snatch (up to 60kg). Metcon, 10 rds of: 5 power clean (60kg), 10 box. Time 8.34.

Afternoon workout consisted of skills, strength and metabolic conditioning. That's a traditional set of pieces my training sessions consist of if I have enough time to rattle through all those elements of fitness. I'd like to cover all three in every session to get it as versatile as possible. Don't wanna concentrate in just strength, nor conditioning nor gymnastics. I wanna have them all to be as all-around athlete as possible.

Skills.

• Ring muscle-ups (5-6 reps)

I started the session by playing with the rings. This is the current trend. I try to involve rings 2-3 times a week in my training. I don't take any pressure about the number of ring sessions or reps I'm able to complete. I just wanna get the work done, get more confidence on the movement, work on my technique, making it more efficient and utilize my entire body in the movement.

There's a lot to be done obviously. I got my first muscle-up on rings 5.12.2013 so it's fairly new movement in my pocket. For months I only did false grip singles. It felt like it's the only possible way to do these. I stayed with that thought until March 2014 when I was training with my bro and we tried out going without false grip. That was another huge step for me, and my bro as well.

Since then I've tried to do most of the reps without having to false grip. False grip seems easier but it's impossible for me to do several reps in a row. So I'll keep on continuing to work on my weakness till I get where I want to.

Ring muscle-ups

Strength. Snatch

• Snatch, 5x30, 5x40, 5x50, 5x55, 1x60kg. Failed @ 65kg

Snatch is something I've skipped without any smart reason. That is also a weakness of mine so it would be even more important to get the figures up on this one. I've heard snatch should be around 80% of clean so it would be in line with the strength levels. My clean is some sort of strength with 1RM of 110kg. Having that in mind my snatch should be around 80kg.

Earlier this week I took snatches for fun and ended up making PR's couple of times. The heaviest I took up was 67.5kg as a squat snatch. The most bewildering thing was that it felt like it was a beautiful lift. Wasn't able to capture that on video though. Today I felt a little off game on the snatches but was still able to get 60kg up which is more than I've ever taken without a power snatch.

Okay, I didn't go below parallel on this 60kg lift but still it was way better than my regular snatches. 65kg was too much today. I lacked the same courage I had couple of days ago when I wasn't afraid of anything, just dropped quickly under the bar.

Metcon. Time 8.34

• 10 rounds of:
• 5 power clean, 60kg
• 10 box jump, 61cm

Juuso did something like this earlier this week, I liked the way it looked so I figured why not. Power cleans and box jumps. His rep-scheme sounded also smart so I went by the same plan. It turned out be a 10-rounder, 5 cleans and 10 box.

This type of workout is something I enjoy the most. I know I can keep on going, no need to stop to catch a breath in the middle of the workout. Just forget about the need to stop and keep moving. Plus both movements are the like that end up to heavy heart beat. That is what I love about crossfit.

Those 10 rounds were pretty consistent. At the end of the video you'll see the round times of most rounds. They were around 50+ seconds. The first round was clearly quicker because there's not that much transition between movements, I guess it was something like 30+ sec.

Those power cleans were kind of light but for the type of workout it worked perfectly. I could have had heavier bar but I wanted to do them touch'n'go style all the way. And unbroken of course. For a second I was thinking about making it tougher on myself by doubling the reps so that it would have been an amrap of 10 power cleans + 20 box. However, the nature of the workout would have been totally different.

Having 10 cleans in a row would have definitely brought some issues after couple of rounds, I suppose. And 20 box is tough. I've done workouts with 20 or 30 consecutive reps. Those are manageable but definitely forces to stop for a short break after you're done. At least in my case. When you look at the Games athletes, they don't stop in any case. That's the goal I have in the back of my mind. Having an engine where you can keep the motor running.

The box jumps went well. I've done tons of them lately. It's a king movement. I believe there was something around 600-700 reps last month. I believe this move has several upsides: explosiveness, heavy breathing, leg burn, balance, coordination, hip work.

The workout itself was very good and took my breath away. Had to get my sh*t together for a while before getting back on my feet. Got 10 rounds full at 8.34. Take a look at the pass below.

Metcon, 10-rounder

The Crossfit Open is over but here's the last glimpse behind the scenes, backstage pass for the CF Open workout 14.5. Looking forward to the Regionals in May. I'll be traveling to California with Pauliina at the time. Let's how much those guys give media time over there, in the roots of crossfit.