Friday 25.4: Snatches, Isabel + Rings

Friday. AM: Snatch (max 65kg). Benchmark workout Isabel: 30 snatches for time (50kg). Time 3.01. PM: Ring skills. Recovery 9km / 30min cycling.

The tough holiday (=training) week continued today in Eltsu. Obviously I can feel it in my body there's been a lot of workouts in the past couple of days. It has helped that I've had the possibility for naps, no need to work and have had good company with Pauliina, the love of my life. She stayed home to study and I went to workout in Eltsu in the morning. It was snatches all the way.

40kg

Snatch.

• 5x40, 5x50, 5x50, 3x55, 1x60, 1x65kg

As I walked through the tunnels of Eltsu there were not another soul, got a chance to workout in piece. I taped my hands properly as it feels like there have become all kinds of wounds in my fingers and palms this week. When you hold on to a barbell on a daily basis, hand care plays a significant role in your life. If it doesn't, destiny will remind you to keep them in shape.

I took much longer warm-up to get properly ready for the work ahead of me. In the middle of my snatch session an old guy entered the cave. He was around 70 years old and had competed in weightlifting back in the days. It was more like 50 years from now. We talked in length about training, competing and, weightlifting and crossfit. To put things into perspective he snatched 120kg and clean & jerked 150kg as his one rep maxes. Those are pretty impressive numbers for a 20-year old dude back in the 60's!

It was a heart-warming feeling as the gentleman was giving props on my power snatches and the general fitness level of being able to smash 30 snatches away in relatively short time. That conversation boosted us to talk about crossfit of which he said sounded pretty much like a perfect training method. Couldn't agree more!

Snatch recap

Anyway, I had no specific objective for the snatch session. Wanted to build it up to rather heavy and listen to my body and listen to what it tries to tell me. it would tell me how far could I go. My goal was to do squat snatches but on the video at the spot I found out I didn't go below parallel. Just couldn't find the path all the way down. So those were definitely power snatches in description. But I tried to lower my butt below 90 degrees.

My max today was 65kg, not the most beautiful as I had to take couple of corrective steps to balance it, it was about to fall forward. Those 50-55kg lifts came up "easily", then on 60kg I had to concentrate a lot to get it. The last weight (65kg) failed at first, then I got it up on the second try.

55kg

Isabel. Time 3.01

• 30 snatches (50kg)

I had clean and jerks in mind too but it was way too goo momentum on the snatches to throw it away. I took couple of power snatches with 50kg and put the clock running. Probably would have been smart to rest a little after the power snatches. It felt like light weight so I didn't wanna wait anymore, just put the camera running and do the work.

Decided to go by feeling from early on. I took a set of 5 reps in the beginning, dropped the bar, and then decided to stick to this rep-scheme for as long as possible. Those 5's felt good and I had the possibility to drop the bar after each set so I pushed through those mental obstacles and kept the motor running with 5's. The grandpa talked to me every now and then, so I tried to say something back to be polite =) I almost made it to the end as planned. After 25 reps I decided to grab the barbell quickly. The recovery was too short for me to knock the last 5 reps in a row so I dropped it after 28 reps and then took the last 2 to finish at 3.01.

Isabel

This was second time I took on Isabel, the first one was at 40kg a little over a year ago. Then, in the beginning of this year I completed 30 snatches not for time but I remember those snatches being way consuming and I had to cut them to doubles from early on. I was very happy of being able to smash them in 5's almost to the finish line.

Rings.

• Ring muscle-ups (10 reps)
• Ring swings

In the evening Pauliina needed her fitness doze so we drove to "our" gym. This week has been ring-free so it was about time to go after them. I took no stress about the training session and it turned out I put effort in my ring skills. I took all reps without false grip. This is next level stuff for me. I try to get rid of false grip to being able to knock consecutive reps. Today I did one set of double, the rest being singles, total of 10 reps.

We noticed that my kip swing is a bit inadequate in terms of being as aggressive and smooth as I'd like to. I have a standard height to where I adjust the rings at the gym. It's about max height they can be 'cause otherwise I'll smash my head to the tubes running in the ceiling. After having done muscle-ups I raised the rings a little higher so that I had to jump to catch them in the starting position.

Muscle-ups

Now I was able to swing with much better motion, way smoother and way more momentum. However, now the rings are too high and I can't go over the rings because my head would touch the ceiling. Anyway, it felt good to practice on those swings and I gained more confidence on those.

Tuesday 29.1: Isabel, snatches

Tuesday. Isabel, 40kg. Time 3.39. Metcon, 6 rounds of 5 db (20kg) snatches, right hand and 5 snatches, left hand. Time 2.49.

This day was fully snatch-oriented. My main workout of the day was Isabel, second benchmark wod for this week. After getting a grip again, I continued doing snatches with dumbbells, it was something like Isabel as well. I also did some kipping handstand push-ups training. Toni took it easy in the morning.

Isabel. Time 3.39

• 30 snatches for time, 40kg

This workout should be completed with a 60kg barbell but considering my max snatch (45kg), 60kg would be a joke. I piled 40kg on, and started lifting. My strategy was to do sets of 5 reps with a short break and continue this style throughout the workout. This plan held on until 20 reps. Next set after that was 4 succeeded ones and one failed rep. Then I struggled with the last piece of strength that was left in my body to finish Isabel. Finally the clock stopped at 3.39. I'm quite happy I was able to do this workout consistently, with a steady pace and without too much breaks in between. I believe soon it's about time to add weights and complete a PR.

After the workout I had similar feeling as with Grace. The start of the workout flows forward without too much troubles. After one third the barbell starts to weigh quite a lot. After two thirds it's a mental game as you simply don't have that strength anymore but you have to dig it from somewhere. I enjoy both of these a lot. Throughout the workouts breathing grows heavy quite soon and you have to do work to catch your breath and simultaneously keep on lifting the bar. Good and complex movements.

It was a bummer my camera's memory card filled up during the filming of Isabel so the last reps are not shown in the video… The first 24 reps are on the video, all that went by the plan :) The last 6 were tougher.

Isabel

Metcon. Time 2.49

• 6 rounds of:
• 5 dumbbell snatches, 20kg, right hand
• 5 dumbbell snatches, 20kg, left hand

I wasn't done with Isabel =) I wanted to do it in a different way, with dumbbells. I used 20kg dumbbell by snatching it one handed, 5 reps with right hand, then 5 reps with left hand, continuing for 6 total rounds. That is 30 reps with both hands. My time was about one minute faster with dumbbells compared to 40kg barbell. The big difference was that I went unbroken all the time. I didn't have to break it into sets. My heart beat was fast but manageable. It was a good metcon and I'm gonna add dumbbells into my metcons as well after some good experience working with them. Last time I used 15kg db's, but 20kg was way better and more suitable for me.