Monday. Emom x 10min: 3 c&j @ 70kg. Benchmark wod Air Force. Time, 7.51 (PR)
Rough day huh. That Air Force is one nasty maddafakka. I took clean and jerks in emom style with a little heavier weight than normally in barbell conditioning workouts. Then a blast from the past in the form of that benchmark workout. That sealed the day perfectly.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
3 clean and jerks @ 70kg
It was great to smash that barbell up and down. Focus was to keep the barbell moving touch'n'go on the ground and on the front rack. No pausing at any stage. Went for triples at 70kg which is basically 10kg more than normally when keeping a bar moving constantly. These felt pretty good even though I haven't done c&j's in a while.
It's been about 1.5 years since I've done this benchmark workout. It's been in my mind in the past weeks and months but it's a nasty one so maybe that's the reason I've been putting it in the background. Those punishment burpees are cruel.
My mental game was clearly better than before and I'm extremely happy on this matter. Especially on thrusters and sdhp's. Jerks were okay but it would have been cool to smash then faster. Overhead squats looked ugly and felt miserable. That was not a surprise though.
What I'm super happy about is the way I finished the workout. Grabbed the bar after ohs's to get couple of reps done before the hopefully last burpees. I was definitely not going to complete a single burpee anymore so I fought through the 15 front squats even though my legs were very weak at that point and my mind wanted to put the bar down and go to bed.
It took me a good time to recover from this but I'm super happy for completing this! This was a 2min personal record on this benchmark wod.
Today I had time to hang out at the gym for just a little while because we were heading to a dinner and theater afterwards with a bunch of colleagues, Toni including. We were both planning to hit a workout but unfortunately he missed the session. I decided to go for a classic, Air Force. I'll write more about it later. Now I have some issues with internet connection. To be short: it was brutal!
Okay, internet connection is back and I'll try to re-live the feelings of yesterday's workout. That was some nasty shit. Toni did this one this Wednesday too and thought it was horrible. I've never done this rx'd. Once as individual February 2013, that time I did it as written except for the overhead squats which I didn't do at all. And one year ago in August as a partner workout with Toni. But that was way lighter as pair wod.
The point of this workout is to crawl in to that dark place and fight through the emotions. Just think about a happy place and grind through. There are 4 burpees on top of every minute which brings this to another level. You throw that 4 burpee element to any workout and it's a different game.
I got the thrusters done in the first minute and it was time to thrown chest to deck immediately after that. I was happy for not having to pick it up anymore for 1-2 reps. That would have been a turn off. This was probably first time doing sumo deadlift high pulls in 2 years or so. I honestly don't remember having done them except for the Air Force workouts last year of course. This was the first time this movement felt natural. It was so awkward in the beginning of my crossfit training. I got these done in maybe 14-6, that means to say I had to do burpees between those sets.
I remembered these were supposed to be done as push presses so I didn't jerk the bar. Just today, one day after the workout, Toni revealed the true nature of that shoulder-to-overhead standard. I was desiring to push jerk it but stuck to push presses as I thought that was the rx'd version. Don't remember how many reps per set but I recall doing them in 2 sets. I guess.
Overhead squats… This was easily the most challenging element for me, hands down! I took 'em in sets of 3-5 reps. Then I had to drop the bar down, reset, complete the punishment burpees, raise my head again and start working. On the first minute of ohs I power snatched the bar, from then on I took it clean and jerked it on my back rack from where I jerked it overhead for the squat. Now as I write it down it sounds kind of irrational but at the moment power snatch didn't feel like a good idea. On the first set of ohs I didn't have much positive thoughts concerning this benchmark workout but after 2-3 sets I got my hope back.
After the last set of ohs I had time to complete couple of front squats before the last burpees. Those few reps were crucial because I decided to mentally push through the pain and burn in my legs no matter what. The burn in my quads was enormous after completing the last 14 front squats in the last minute. Finally the clock stopped at 9.48, and I was happy again =)
I was hoping to catch the entire workout on tape but unfortunately I forgot to empty some old videos there so memory card got full of old training clips. Here are the first 2 minutes of it, thrusters, burpees and some sdhp.
Friday. Skills, ring muscle-ups. Pair wod, Air Force. Technique, back squat and clean. Cashout, 4x5 c2b pull-ups.
Got together with Toni to do a pair wod. We're thinking of doing Air Force separately but decided to make it a pair wod instead. We didn't mind the clock at all, I don't actually have no idea how much it took us to complete the set. I also did some muscle-up training in the beginning for skills training and then technical fine-tuning for back squats and hang cleans. After a long pause tried also c2b pull-ups and realized it's way easier than some months ago. That inspired me to take a few sets.
One athlete working at a time, completing 20 reps before the next athlete steps in
Complete the movements with a 42.5kg barbell
For every drop, both athletes complete 5 burpees on the spot
Normally you do Air Force individually with 20 reps each 5 movements. The twist is that you'll complete 4 burpees on the start of every minute. That really sucks =) And you don't really get to rest that much because the clock is ticking and the next set of burpees is waiting you again in no time. We mixed it up by going for pair wod, doubling the reps but the idea was that both complete 20 reps of each movement. I started, went for 20 thrusters, then Toni did 20 thrusters, then move on to sdhp's. Every single time either of us had to drop the barbell, the punishment was 5 burpees for both of us.
Felt strong with the movements. Thrusters unbroken, sdhp's unbroken, push jerks unbroken, overhead squats in 12+8, front squats unbroken. I was a bit worried pre-workout about the overhead squats. Last time I was ashamed those were too difficult to overcome, had no reps at all with the rx'd barbell and had to skip them totally. Since February, I've improved greatly on the movement and today I had no problems in executing the reps successfully. Had to still break it in 2 sets, dropped the bar after first 12 reps, did the burpees and finished the set.
Don't know what the case would have been with 4 burpees in the start of every minute. It's a rush to get all 20 reps done each minute. All thrusters should be done in the first minute but from then on I don't know how it would turn out. Tomorrow it felt better to do this as pair wod anyway. We had 45 burpees in total with Toni during the workout. The most difficult part of the workout for Toni was definitely the ohs. It's only because he's not been practicing them. I'm sure he's gonna fix this one. I punished myself in the end by doing 20 extra burpees.
Cashout.
4x5 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Pauliina worked on her pull-up skills and I got so inspired that I had to jump up there as well. Tried a few c2b's just to see it's like from another planet compared to what it used to be. That's why I took 4 sets of 5 reps. I might just take these short sets in the end once in a while. I'm sure all those muscle-up training sessions have created more explosive strength because I'm sure I've never pulled myself that high with as much ease as today.
Sunday. Front squat 5-5-5-5-3-1 (max PR 130kg). Air Force modified, time 8.30. Floorball game in the evening.
Tough day. Heavy front squats for starters and main focus on benchmark challenge workout called Air Force. I had decided yesterday evening I'm gonna hit a PR today in front squats and I saw dreams about it couple of times during the night =) I had no other choice but to crash it. The entourage at the gym consisted of Pauliina, Tony the Pony and his wife Saara.
Pony & Don
Strength. Front squat 5-5-5-5-3-1 (80, 90, 100, 110, 120, PR 130kg). Even though I was desperate to hit a new record, I mainly wanted to do sets of 5 reps in the beginning as far as I could go. My previous max was at 125kg. I started carefully with 80kg, adding 10kg after each set. 110kg was tough on the last reps and on the 120kg I got 3 reps. After doing 5 sets already and quite a number of repetitions with heavy kilos I decided to skip current PR of 125kg and go straight up to 130kg. Take a single rep and celebrate. Check!
Front squat, 130kg, PR
Air Force. Time 8.30
20 thrusters
20 sumo deadlift high-pulls
20 push jerks
(20 overhead squats)
20 front squats
Use a 42.5kg barbell for all movements. Complete 4 burpees at the beginning of each minute.
Total of 100 repetitions with a bar, all with the same weight on it, 42.5kg (95lbs). Each minute starts with doing 4 burpees for starters, then continue with the movement where you are at the workout. Starting with thrusters, then sumo deadlift high-pulls, push jerks, overhead squats and finally front squats. Barbell starts from the floor all the time, don't use a rack.
We knew it's gonna be a nightmare to go through this one as you have practically no time to rest as the burpees will be waiting for you just around the corner when the next minute starts again… Even though the barbell is not that heavy but considering the amount of reps and burpees it's gonna make your shoulders scream for pain. And it did.
What surprised us both was that we both failed to complete any overhead squats in this workout. I'm a bit embarrassed I had to skip them totally after trying it for a while. It was simply too demanding to hold the bar overhead and squat neatly in to perfect 90 degrees angle for a full range of motion at that point of the workout. So we did Air Force without the OHS but still I wasted one minute on trying those out. Time was finally 8.30. Here is a 20min time cap on this workout.
Thrusters went practically unbroken, sumo deadlifts took me two separate minutes to go through. Push jerks at that stage felt heavy, I took them 4x5. Front squats in the end went first in 14 reps and 6 reps in the final minute. There were a total of 32 burpees in addition to those actual barbell movements.
Cashout. Triceps training 3x12. I want to get those handstand push-ups going well! This is my ancillary movement for that one.
Game Day. In the evening I have another floorball game. I dared to go to the Box and train hard because it's my turn to be the back-up goalie and let the youngster take his moment today.
Toni's workouts.
Front squats. 5-3-5-1 (80, 90, 90, 100kg). He also took a 110kg attempt, which failed.
