Sunday 17.8: Snatch, Hero wod Ship + Mu's, C2b's, Handstand

Sunday. AM: Snatch, emom x 8min, 1 power snatch (55-57.5kg). Hero workout Ship, 9 rds of: 7 squat clean (70kg), 8 burpee box jumps. Time 22.55. PM: Skills, bar muscle-ups 5x3. C2B pull-ups, 50 reps. Handstand training.

It was another day of hard grinding at the Box this Sunday. Pauliina and Juuso accompanied me for this session so I was in good hands. It's been ages since last time I snatched so my conscious was banging at the door and I had to go after them. Juuso has been talking me over for about 3 weeks now to hit this new hero workout he completed himself. Had to scale the movements though, it was a battle still. In the evening Pauliina met her friend so I utilized the opportunity and went jogging and practiced some skills outdoors in the sun.

Barbell.

• Every minute on the minute x 8min
• 1 power snatch (55, 55, 57.5, 57.5, 57.5, 57.5, 55, 55kg)

It was a bit frightening to grab the barbell with snatch grip and start lifting. It's been so long since last time that I had no idea how this would turn out. I took couple of sets with lighter weights (40, 45, 50kg triples), before putting the clock running and began this emom workout. Just 1 rep every minute, 1 power snatch.

At this moment I'm not dreaming of completing stylish squat snatches as my mobility hits a wall in the overhead squat position. In front / back squat I can hit the rock bottom of my squat depth but in overhead squat position my lower back rounds a little so I don't wanna mess around with bad form. That's why I took power snatches today, and probably will concentrate on those in the future.

First rep was at 55kg, decided to take another one before going up a notch. The set of 50kg was easy. 5kg more was way more, and the ridiculously small step of 2.5kg up to 57.5kg felt huge =) I battled through 4 reps of those and then decided to drop down back to 55kg, which felt a lot lighter at that moment, after 4 heavier ones.

I've always wondered how come small jumps in snatch makes a big deal. Just 2.5kg up or down feels in the barbell. Anyway, I'm pretty satisfied with the bar path today. Okay, I should have got the bounce higher from my thighs but the bar stayed close enough to the body. Two lifts at 57.5kg were ugly in my opinion but other than that, they were okay lifts.

Snatch, recap

Hero workout Ship. Time 22.55

• 9 rounds of:
• 7 squat clean, 70kg
• 8 burpee box jumps, 61cm

Thanks Juuso, this sucked big time! =) Had to scale this one down, rx'd version would have been 85kg and the box should have been 91cm. I guess I would still be doing this workout with those details. Anyway, Juuso is the one to be blamed for this one. He got inside my head and this moment came sooner than I thought. Had to throw down for this one today. It was one hell of a workout!

My plan entering the workout was clear. Smash the burpee box jumps unbroken, don't hassle with them. I practiced them yesterday for the first time in my life and they felt good and natural movement. Got to find the rhythm, otherwise it's gonna be a misery. Then on the other hand, for the squat cleans I figured it's not that bad weight in the beginning but it's definitely gonna get ugly. And it got.

My plan was to hit the first set 4-3, then go by feeling. The feeling on the third round was that it's better be more like 3-2-2. I carried through the rounds of 3-8 with this rep scheme but then in the last round I got them 4-3 again. I was a bit bummed up about not being able to nail them in 2 sets each round because it took me some time to breath between attempts. Plus, for some reason that was left a mystery, my lower back got sore about in the 3rd round.

I told this to Juuso because I was afraid there was some sort of flaw in my technique, round back came to my mind at first. Juuso paid attention to this one in the following rounds and told it was straight all the way. And I believe this guy, he would say if there would be something to be said about. And that's a good thing from a training partner. So it was a bit odd but it definitely slowed me down as I was afraid to go harder.

In the middle of the workout this one felt very challenging mentally. There was no other option but to lay my hands on the barbell and start working. "Think about a happy place" was how I tried to go further. Burpee box jumps were easier than the cleans. At least they didn't hurt as much in my back as the cleans.

I'm pleased how well the burpee boxes rolled on. On some of the later rounds I had to shake my legs before the last 2 reps to get them back in the game. This movement seems to burn legs if something. It was awesome to have Pauliina and Juuso to talk me up, especially towards the end. You tend to get more energy from your training partners when you're feeling fatigue.

Ship recap

Skills.

• Bar muscle-ups, 5x3 reps
• Chest-to-bar pull-ups, 50 reps
• Handstand training

We went home, ate turkey, vegetables, and lots of salad for recovery. Then, some chilling before I hit another session outdoors. Pauliina had a friend coming over and I was not needed at the house =) No prob, found my Nike Air's and I was ready to hit it! Went jogging in the woods. There's the classic monkey bars station about a kilometer southward which is perfect place for bar muscle-ups.

Took 5 sets of 3 reps, focus was entirely on technique. I've now stepped up my game and found a good technique getting myself up over the pull-up bar. I have more patience on the movement and I land evenly over the bar. These felt great!!!

Bar muscle-ups vid

After muscle-ups I took chest-to-bar pull-ups. Took 10 rep sets for 3 times, then smaller sets. This was not a timed effort, just working through the reps for skills. After C2B's it was time to start jogging again. I ended up in the track at Eltsu. It was very attempting, and I had to stay there for a while.

My intention was to do just of some mobility and stretching but the grass area was simply too appealing and I did handstand training for about 10 minutes. The platform was perfect and I got good attempts done. The training session was great. Lot of hard work earlier in the day and lots of skills practice later in the evening!