Saturday 19.7: Handstand, C&J, Metcon

Saturday. Skills, handstand. Strength, complex of 1 clean + 3 jerks (max 90kg). Metcon, 21-15-9-6-3 of: hspu, front squat (70kg), bar-facing burpees.

We had an amazing day with my lovely fiancé in downtown Helsinki. We put on our "tourist glasses" on and wondered around the city like we were in a foreign country. Tried to absorb everything inside and astonished all details of our magnificent capital of Finland. It was simply awesome to walk around the city. Helsinki is a place where you can really walk to anywhere. Very much different from the american style cities where you mostly need car to move around. At least from where I've traveled. Don't get me wrong, I love the States, it's my favorite travel destination, hands down! In the evening I went to the gym to bully my body big time.

Skills.

• Handstand

Haven't done much handstand in Haaga, mostly outdoors or in places like Liikuntamylly or Eltsu. Now the gym was empty and even though the there's not much room I decided to give it a shot. My skills have gotten much better and the tiny space didn't bother me. There was some pressure to stay still and not move around. Maybe that was a good thing and I was able to handle my skills pretty well.

Strength.

• Complex of:
• 1 clean + 3 jerk
• Sets @ 60, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90kg

I wanted to put some weight overhead. Thought it would be a good idea to take the bar from ground anyway. I kind of get my hands on the bar better when I clean it from ground compared to grabbing it from a rack. My hands go around it more naturally when I do the front squat, bounce the bar up and catch it airborne over my shoulders. Funny but that seems to be the case. It's more natural for me.

Recap of the training day

My goal was to go as heavy as possible in touch'n'go style. It felt very good on almost all sets. There were maybe two reps where I jerked it too much forward instead of upwards but the tng style worked well for me. The last set that I got as planned was 85kg. On the 90kg I had to re-rack the bar in the front rack position before completing the last rep. Anyway the first two reps went touch'n'go on that set too.

Metcon.

• 21-15-9-6-3 of:
• Handstand push-ups
• Front squat, 70kg (from ground)
• Bar-facing burpees

This was a pain cave! I'm telling you I was so deep in some dark place that I was thinking about dropping crossfit. But as it always happens, you just push through and keep thinking about happy thoughts until you reach what you came to the Box for. And once you nail that last rep, get a grip of life again, you feel like a king and are ready for another challenge. That is crossfit. You overcome the barriers thrown in front of you. Period.

This workout was something similar to the Regionals' workout. I did something like this once before because the Regionals workout looked cool when I first saw it. Those handstand push-ups are always a battle. Not that bad when you do something like 5 reps per round in a workout but these high rep rounds are killers for shoulders. Today I got them done okay but my shoulders were burning big time. On the first round I did maybe 10-5-4-3. On the round of 15's it was probably 5-4-3-3, round of 9's was 5-2-2 and then 3-3 and unbroken the last round.

If hspu's made my shoulders go numb, front squats were destined to make my legs spaghetti. 70kg front squat isn't bad when you do couple of reps. But hey c'mon, 21-15 sets are not cool with this weight. On the first set I got them 11-5-5, the second set was 9-6 and then it was unbroken on the remaining sets. They felt grueling on my lower body. I had a week's pause on squatting (and barbell work in general) and my legs were a misery all day today as I squatted yesterday. I figured more squatting would help. A man's logic… Let's see how they feel tomorrow =)

So the first two movements made my strength leave my body and bar-facing burpees were left to destroy my engine. They made me breath like a maniac. I kind of love and hate those burpees. No doubt they are a pain in the ass but they also bring you the mind-blowing feeling afterwards as you realize you can hit them and don't let the workout beat you. Bar-facing burpees are way tougher than normal burpees. If you haven't done them, try them and you know what I'm talking about.

World class breakfast in Don's Kitchen (okay, Wifey's Kitchen)

Great day in general! Loved the day with Pauliina earlier and then I survived the evening training at the gym too. It was also great to get some handstand action done too.

Enjoy the summer!