Thursday 14.8: Jerks, Clean and Jerk, and Burpees

Thursday. Strength, split jerk 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1 (max 95kg). Metcon, 10-8-6-4-2, clean & jerk (60kg) and lateral burpees. Time 4.47.

My focus for today was getting the bar up overhead. The solution for that was split jerk work taken from the rack. Going heavy, not maxing out though. Then for high intensity I took advice of Toni's hint and completed a workout he did just yesterday. I had in mind mixing clean & jerks and pull-ups but those burpees weren't that bad idea after all. Decided to roll the dice with this one. Juuso was there today to workout with me.

Strength.

• Split jerk 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1 (75, 75, 75, 85, 85, 85, 90, 92.5, 95kg)

I did some clean and jerk work earlier in the week, on Monday. Then, the set-up was a little different as I took the barbell from ground with a clean and then finished it off with 3 touch'n'go split jerks. Plus, it was "every minute on the minute" - work so the nature was a little different. Anyway, it was a great way to get these shoulders activated to overhead work and prepare for this day mentally. Bar felt light on Monday, it was 70kg all the way for 12min emom.

I had determined the weights beforehand, especially for the triples and doubles. I was a little sketchy on the singles and left a little room for listening to my body and make the decisions on the fly. Got the triples done in TnG style without resting the bar in the front rack position at all, just bouncing it back up right away. Those were not bad at all, I felt confident with them. Had some issues with my right shoulder though, it felt very tight and you could say it didn't feel perfect on the lifts when I had my hands straight overhead.

85kg double

Anyway, it was time to add 10kg on the bar and go for doubles. Same thing, shoulder wasn't perfect but the weight itself was okay to handle. Got identical lifts on all 6 attempts at this stage. However, I didn't want to bring too much burden on my shoulder so I jumped to 90kg for the singles. Had in mind doing them all at 95kg but decided to jump there gradually, from 90kg with 2.5kg increase after every jerk.

This was a good session in my opinion. Got good heavy lifts and reminded my body how it feels like having considerable weight overhead. And I got to say it feels awesome! I love having bar up with straight hands, there's something brutal in that =) Let's make these shoulders stronger!

95kg single

Metcon. Time 4.47

• 10-8-6-4-2
• Clean & jerk, 60kg
• Lateral burpees

God damned Toni! This was not cool at all. I realized it when Toni said his time on this metcon. Before that I hadn't thought about the length of this workout. Obviously it was going to be short and intense, all in effort. Got to go hard from the beginning. It was kind of a mixture of Grace (30 clean & jerks for time) and 30 burpees with a slight twist: you got to jump over the bar after every burpee. That's a lateral burpee. Toni nailed this one in 6:10 and was one of the toughest stallions at his affiliate. So I had the usual butterflies in my stomach that always come before Grace or Fran.

It was game time baby. My plan hitting in to the workout was doing the first set of c&j's in 5-5. I could push them through unbroken, no doubt but I thought that would bring a disaster pretty soon. I think it was a smart move for me. Got them as planned, then went after burpees. For some reason I have the same issue with lateral burpees & bar-over-burpees as Toni has pretty much all the time ;) that is trouble in counting the reps right. After looking at my performance from the video, there seems to be 13 burpees on the first round and 7 on the round of 8's. Luckily there were anyway more than there were supposed to be, otherwise I would be devastated.

Clean & jerks and burpees workout

Burpees weren't nice for sure but they were the easier movement. No doubt. But they had a serious effect on me. On the round of 8 clean & jerks my shoulders were smashed from the first set of burpees. All of a sudden the bar felt like 70kg. I took this set in doubles, 4x2reps. Round of 6's went in two sets, 3-3, round of 4's in 2-2 and the last one was 2 singles. The bar got heavier towards the end but I kept telling myself this is a quick workout, don't whine and keep moving. Finally I got the work done and the digits stopped at 4.47.

I was very satisfied with this time, considering my Grace is a little sub 3min and there were 30 lateral burpees accompanying those c&j's. Couldn't decided which was burning more in the metcon, my shoulders or thighs. Both were in flames plus my lungs were trying to get mouthfuls of air but it seemed difficult at the moment. This felt horrible as all short "balls to the wall" metcons do but at the same time it felt great!

These guys are phenomenal, the Masters of the Crossfit Games, which means to say they include in the age groups of 40+ all the way to 60+ division. I look up to these guys a lot. Fitness does not look at the age of a human being, take care of your bodies people