Tuesday 12.7: Holleyman

Tuesday. Hero workout Holleyman. Time, 28.19.

This was a dream day. Spent the day with the family, then towards the evening we met Toni and his wife at Crossfit Kehä, and hit a training session in the process. Toni had a plan to hit a hero workout Holleyman. Who was I to think otherwise. Kehä's coach Anssi also threw down with us.

Holleyman. Time, 28.19. Compare to 21.11.2015

• 30 rounds of:
• 5 wall ball shots
• 3 handstand push-ups
• 1 power clean @ 95kg

Rx'd weight is 102.5kg. Considering my 1RM on power clean is registered at 103kg, that would have been quite humorous to go at the prescribed weight. Last time I did this one with 90kg at 28.10. So today it was 9 seconds slower but with heavier load. I consider this a victory! That's 92% of my max anyway. Took one rep at 100kg before we entered the wod to build some confidence on this heavy lift.

It was cool to have those guys with me to attack this hero workout. Wall balls were the easiest part, then came the handstand push-ups and lastly the cleans, those were heavy. Every one of them. Strategy was to do wall balls and hspu's rather quickly, then recover a little before the clean.

This was more like a strength session for me. Breathing stayed under control. Shoulders started to fatigue early on, maybe before 10 rounds were completed. But the thing was definitely the cleans. I'm super happy to hit every single lift without misses. Great mental win!

Below you'll see the work we put in with the boys

First piece

Second piece

Saturday 21.11: Holleyman

Saturday. Hero wod Holleyman, 30 rds of: 5 wb, 3 hspu, 1 power clean (90kg). Time, 28.10.

It was time to take a rematch with Holleyman. It's a hero workout that I've done once before year and a half ago. Since then my upper back strength and conditioning must have gotten better since I PR'd this workout with over 13 minutes. Why this workout came to my mind  was because my friend Toni just hit it about a week ago with same weights so there was a good incentive for me.

Yeah, I know it's a bit messy but it shows most of the round times

Holleyman. Time, 28.10. Compare to 19.4.2014

• 30 rounds of:
• 5 wall ball shots, 9kg
• 3 handstand push-ups
• 1 power clean, 90kg

Last time (and first time) when I completed this one my clean weren't as strong and I had to take the bigger weights as squat cleans. It's not that long ago that my max power clean was 90-95kg. Currently it stands as 103kg. Squat clean is a notch better, at 116kg. Holleyman is 225 lbs (102.5kg) as rx'd. That would be pretty much the same as my record for a single so obviously time is not ready for those weights, yet. Went after 90kg cleans which are no joke to me, especially for this many reps.

Naturally all the reps were to be done unbroken, just 5 reps of wall ball shots and 3 hspu's per round. My strategy was to hold on to a steady pacing from the very beginning. I tried to do a collage of most of the round times, check above. I believe my tactic worked as well as it could have worked. I'm very satisfied to this. It was around 55 seconds per round for all 30 rounds.

Plan was to knock wall balls and hspu's right away, and then shake my shoulders before the clean. Right after I dropped the barbell, I went to do another set of wall balls and hspu's. Then releasing the tension in the shoulders again. This worked well.

It was a long ass workout to say the least, and at times it felt like it's never going to end. I just tried not to think about the rounds or anything else of this workout for too much, just complete every set of wall balls, every set of hspu's and every single clean at a time, then head forward. This time this also got to my breathing more than before. At that time I remember my lower back being on fire on the wall balls and squat cleans (had to do them as squat cleans that time).

I thought I had recorded the first 10 minutes of the workout but after looking at the video at home this was all there was =) Memory card had gotten full after less than 5 seconds. Nice.