Friday. Oly lifts emom: sdhp's and hang snatches. Wod, 5rds of: 40m farmer's walk @ 113kg, 40m lunges, 10 t2b. Cashout, 200m walking lunges wearing a weight vest. L-sit pull-ups, 4 sets.
Friday night training session. As I entered the gym, the owner told right away that he's ordering jerk blocks from Rogue. That was sick news! I've been drawling over those for a year now. Hopefully someday I'm able to put some weight overhead because those will definitely make a difference for jerks.
Oly.
Every 30 seconds: 1 sumo deadlift high-pull @ 80kg, for 10 minutes
Every minute on the minute: 3 high hang power snatch @ 40kg, for 10 minutes
Two different emom style workouts. There was a 3min break between these. Damn I'd like to do cleans. Sumo deadlift high-pulls are my substitute for those. There aren't many bar movements I can smash right now so I went heavy on the sdhp's. Never have I gone over 60kg before today.
It was a positive thing I was able to do power snatches. Can't put real weight on the bar though but the movement was okay this time. Focus was on extending my hips properly and being powerful. Towards the end it got better.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
40m farmer's walk @ 113kg
40m walking lunges, bodyweight
10 toes-to-bar
Great one. That farmer's walk was a nice piece to throw in the mix. That's definitely not too light. Haven't gone beyond this weight on this movement either before. That's obviously an entire body movement
Bodyweight burned quads big time, especially right after the farmer's walk. That was purely bodyweight stuff but it was definitely sufficient. T2b's were there to bring more pressure on the core. Great workout. Didn't time this at all but worked with same determination as normally.
Cashout.
200m walking lunges
Wear a 9kg vest
Went back and forth that 20m length of grass matt, wearing a vest that weighs 9-10 kilos. Went unbroken for each leg of the distance, then shook my legs before continuing the journey. This was bad ass on lower body.
Gymnastics.
4 sets of:
L-sit pull-ups
Result: 10, 10, 9, 5 reps
In the end I decided to do this old fella I haven't said hi to in ages. L-sit pull-ups, max sets for for 4 sets. First two were 10 reps each, third was close but on the 4th set my arms were so pumped that I could only go for 5. These were no-reps by a long shot but I'll take it. Didn't come to a dead hang in the bottom position. I'm still happy to being able to do these sets nicely.
Sunday. AM: 1mile sled drag, 60kg. Time 27min. PM: Benchmark workout Karen, 150 wb for time. Time 7.46.
Great weekend! Yesterday we had a family reunion, annual tradition from Pauliina's side of the family. These people are great and it's a blast hanging out with them. The event is always hosted by Pauliina's parents so we stayed at their place for the entire weekend and came back late Sunday evening. The surroundings and nature at their backyard is just a big gym in my eyes so it's difficult for me not to workout there. After breakfast we took the home made sled from the storage and it was some serious sled drag time and some playing with the pull-up bar. Later in the afternoon after fueling some food I went to my car to get wall ball and hit Karen just for fun.
Sled. Time, 27 minutes
1 mile sled drag, 60kg sled
125m downhill, 125m uphill
Credits to Pat Sherwood, host of the Crossfit Games, for posting this one on Instagram. It could not have come to a better time as we were spending the days in the countryside where we have the home-made sled, built with Kari in the springtime. Today it saw the daylight again as I decided to hit this workout. Totally different in nature to what I thought I would do with the sled. One mile of constant pulling / dragging. Today we weighted the sled for the first time, it was about 22kg, made solely from wood.
I put 38kg worth of stuff inside, a smaller kettlebell and 30kg worth of weight plates. So it ended up being 60kg. The venue was the back yard of the in-laws which is practically a city-owned park with plenty of space. I measured the distance being 125m one way and there's a slight incline on the park which made it a downhill to one way and uphill back to the starting point. One round was thus 250m. One mile equals 1.600m so it was 6 rounds + 100m.
Beforehand I thought it would be my legs that would be burning on a regular basis. And I'm not telling it wasn't so, they were definitely on a burn. What surprised me was the pain in my arms and especially elbows too. The straps came over the shoulders and I kept my hands in a tight package on my chest. Holding the straps there on a steady position for a long time caused a lot of static hold and that resulted in a misery for hands. My elbows were killing me as much as my legs.
On the first set of 100+ meters I thought this might be easier than I figured. As I turned and faced the incline for the first time my mind changed =) It was another game to work through that slight uphill. It obviously wasn't much but you don't need much when you're dragging a load behind you. On the last set I was able to jog a little 'cause the end was looming so nearby. Gave my heart to this one in the end. Awesome workout but mentally tough as you just have to walk with the sled and it feels the goal is not in sight.
Karen. Time 7.46
150 wall ball shots, 9kg
After recovering for couple of hours I was ready for another shot. I had no intention to go after Karen in the beginning. Just throw the ball in emom style. We measured the hight of the wall and marked it with a tape so I would know where the ball should hit the wall. Told Kari I would throw 20 wall balls in a minute, then rest for the remaining of the 60 seconds. Then maybe drop it to 15 reps after a while because it would obviously be tougher. At some point I realized I've done these about a 100 and at that point I reckoned Karen is close by and I went after her.
Couple of L-pull-ups for core work
I started by doing 20 reps per minute and it took me 40 seconds each time, so there was 20 seconds recovery after each set. Continued like tho for 4 rounds (=80reps). From then on I did 15's per minute and there was clearly more recovery time. It was welcomed with warmth. Took 4 more sets of 15 reps. At some stage I stopped looking at the clock because I'm about to complete my first Karen rx'd. The final set was 10 reps to reach 150 reps.
Karen was done in sandals this time. It's summer!
My shoulders were wasted after the workout and breathing was as heavy as the hot summer air. This was a good burner. There might be some time to be squeezed by shortening the recovery periods after the set of 15's. It took about 30 seconds (about 2sec per throw) so I could have started a little earlier. But it was emom workout at that point. My shoulders would definitely have been in more pain but what would have happened to the sets, that remains a mystery. Could have I kept working on sets of 15's to the end or would have I cut them in 10's or something like that.
Cashout. Wash the cars. Before that, move them to a proper spot
At this point we won't get an answer. This was my first Karen ever. Good benchmark workout! I enjoyed this weekend a lot. Thanks for Kari and Maija for hosting us and letting us stay over!
Monday. Mainsite workout from yesterday. Max reps of shoulder presses in a descending weight ladder and pull-up variations.
Better leave this lower body chill out for a while, my right calf went to cramp during yesterday's workout in the last two rounds and has not recovered since so it's been a limbing day =) Anyway, that's not an excuse to skip the gym so I went there and reckoned the main site's workout from yesterday would turn out perfect for me. And it certainly did. Got to mention that Pauliina continued her burpee project and smashed couple of tens them again. I'm extremely proud of her!
Workout. Total of 54 shoulder presses and 57 different pull-ups
Max reps shoulder press, 60kg (result 6 reps)
Max reps L-pull-up (result 10 reps)
Max reps shoulder press, 50kg (result 10 reps)
Max reps strict pull-up (result 12 reps)
Max reps shoulder press, 40kg (result 16 reps)
Max reps chest-to-bar pull-up (result 15 reps)
Max reps shoulder press, 30kg (result 22 reps)
Max reps pull-up (result 20 reps)
The weights were described as in pounds, I wasn't so precise them. They should have been 135, 115, 95 and 65lbs. I rounded them up to the nearest ten kilos. Started at 60kg and dropped 10kg after each set. On the pull-ups the style changed every round, starting from L-pull-ups coming down to regular pull-ups.
This looked easier on paper than the feeling in my body was during and after the workout. It was not a timed workout. The main point was to put max effort to the table and see how many reps you can nail in every press / pull-up set. My shoulders and arms in general were burning like crazy, already in the 50kg presses. My entire body was shaking, legs included, when I pressed the bar up for max reps. It was a sick feeling to have it as whole-body feeling even though this was targeted to upper body mostly. I guess I gave it my all in this condition as my body was shivering all the way.
L-pull-ups are something I rarely do. To be honest I've done them just couple of times in my life so I didn't know what to expect from them. In my opinion they went pretty well. Got two-digit numbers and that satisfied my hunger. On strict pull-ups I was looking to get somewhere around 15 reps but my strength started bailing me after couple of reps and I couldn't find a good rhythm. Those presses prior to this one definitely had its' effect. Then on the other hand C2B's went very well. Having done them clearly shows in this number (15 reps). At this point my upper body was numb and I still got 15 reps done so I'm happy. Last set of regular pull-ups was not cool either because shoulders and arms had taken so much hit.
It was a very good strength type of workout. As this one was not a timed workout, I took my rest times between attempts and heart rate was high only occasionally but for a very short period of time. These mainsite workouts seem to always kick ass!
Sunday. Tabata workouts: push-ups (8), L-pull-ups (4), sit-ups (12). I was supposed to have a day off… Today is Father's Day and we spent it at the in-laws with Pauliina. Spectacular lunch and good company. As we drove home I wanted to do some crossfit training at home. I took some Tabata training with push-ups, L-pull-ups and sit-ups.
Tabata timer
Tabata. 8 rounds of 20sec work, 10sec rest. Total of 80 push-ups (result 10), 35 L-pull-ups (result 4), 100 sit-ups (result 12).
Push-ups (10+10+10+10+10+10+10+10)
L-pull-ups (5+5+5+4+4+4+4+4)
Sit-ups (14+12+12+12+12+12+12+12)
Tabata workout's idea is to do 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times. First I did push-ups for a total of eight rounds (10sec rest in between), then continued to L-pull-ups and finally sit-ups. I counted the number of total reps but the actual result is the lowest number of reps during those eight rounds. I had a total of 80 push-ups, lowest round was 10 reps. Total of 35 L-pull-ups, lowest round was 4 reps. Total of 100 sit-ups, lowest round was 12 reps. This time I planned my Tabata's beforehand. I decided to go for 10 push-ups each round to reach 80 reps in total. Previous times I've done as many reps each round as possible and my result has dropped from 20 reps in the first round to 3-4 reps in the last round. This new tactic brought me more reps in total and my lowest number was also better than before. This was the first time I did L-pull-ups as Tabata and as I hit 5 reps in the first round (my triceps were burning after push-ups), I decided to stick to that number. After three rounds I managed to get 4 reps in the remaining rounds.
L-pull-up
My sit-ups were strong. I decided to put myself to test in the first round and hit 14 reps. However, I decided to go for 12 reps each round. That's a number I can definitely reach and this time was no exception.
