Thursday 6.11: Row 12min, Annie

Thursday. Row, 12min. Result, 3.220m. Benchmark workout Annie, 50-40-30-20-10 of: double unders and sit-ups. Time 6.03 (PR).

Had to go to see a doctor today due to my wrist. Okay, it felt a little better this morning as I woke up but still there's something wrong I suppose. At least right wrist is bigger than the left one so it looks awkward. Went to get the x-rays and now I'll wait for doc's statement tomorrow. I had a wrist support on my hand and it didn't bother me at all. Maybe this is just something minor stuff. Anyway, to take the burden off I went for rowing and benchmark lady Annie.

Row.

• 12min as far as possible
• Result, 3.220m

I've sat on the rower more lately than before. Not huge distances but the occasions have been more frequent. It's an awesome machine to say the least. For building engine it's number one element. Today I was open minded when I sat down and started pulling. I tried to keep a steady pace throughout the session. It was not easy at any point. It fatigued me a little more than normally but I'm happy on the distance I reached.

Annie. Time, 6.03 (PR). Compare to 22.10.2013

• 50-40-30-20-10 of:
• Double unders
• Sit-ups

It's been over a year since previous Annie. This was an easy call so I hit it with pretty much max effort. Double unders were as light as they could be. Went easily unbroken all sets. They got heart beating faster but because sit-ups don't get my heart rate up that much it stayed controlled all the way.

This was probably also the first time of regular sit-ups since previous Annie =) I do t2b's for core work and of course all strength movements and basically all elements of crossfit tend to develop core strength big time. Sit-ups also unbroken every round. I had my feet anchored during these reps. After Annie I tried some "around the world's" though, just for fun, inspired by Camille Leblanc-Bazinet and Kenneth Leverich. I saw them knock those on pull-up bar and decided to do couple of tens of those. Tough stuff for core.

It was a good workout to hit today. Got some adrenaline going and it didn't put any extra pressure on my hand. I'm satisfied on this training day as a whole.

Tuesday 22.10: Snatch technique, Annie x 2

Tuesday. Squat snatch technique. Benchmark workout Annie, 50-40-30-20-10, double unders and sit-ups. Time 6.26. Rest 3-5min, repeat Annie. Time 6.55.

Was supposed to go to Eltsu with my bro, to the cave where magic happens with olympic lifting. Had some timetable issues and the whole trip was flushed down the toilet. Had some great plans that had to be modified on the fly. My focus was on squat snatch technique that I want to refine. After snatches I wanted to take double unders but didn't know what to put with them. Remembered benchmark workout Annie and decided to complete it twice.

Technique.

• Squat snatches
• Empty bar snatches, overhead squats @:
• 3 x 30, 40, 40kg
• 2 x 45, 45kg
• 1 x 50, 50, 50, 50, 50kg

Small steps on the way to perfection. Currently my technique sucks =) Let's take half a year from this moment on and see what it looks like. I bet it's on a whole different level, I'm very confident about that. Did some light weight in the beginning, simply empty bar and 30kg reps. Added some weights until I hit 50kg. The bar wasn't heavy but it was difficult to find the correct spot for the bar to land overhead in the squat's bottom position. This was the first time I had 50kg in squat snatch. So that definitely was a step forward!

Got to practice these in a place where I don't have to mind if the bar drops. Only then I can dare to put more weights on the bar and hit heavier sets as well. Currently I can power snatch 60+ kilos so naturally squat version should be heavier. Same ideology as in power / squat cleans. Squat version's 1RM should always be heavier. Currently this is the other way around on my snatches.

As you can see from the videos (by the way, there's a lot of puffing before the actual reps…) I don't dare to drop down aggressively enough. I kind of break the speed on my way down. There's no need for that. Should just let go and drop my butt just like that. But the positive thing is that there are no mobility issues as long as I have good and long warm-up. Some time ago squat snatch was very challenging considering my mobility. I've been doing work for them and hopefully it starts to pay off.


Annie. Time 6.26. Compare to 6.1.2013

• 50-40-30-20-10
• Double unders
• Sit-ups, anchored feet

Annie has been in my calendar once before, in January. This is not a traditional benchmark workout in a certain sense. Breathing is tolerable all the way as normally breathing is extremely difficult in some point of benchmark wod. I thought I would do the double unders unbroken but it turned out that I did mistakes in sets of 50's and 40's. That consumed some time. Sit-ups are sit-ups. Haven't done them and probably won't be doing them. Don't find the movement that beneficial. On sit-ups there simply can't be a break. It's an easy movement. Speed on them definitely slows down except on the last 2 rounds when it's possible to speed up because of the amount of reps.


Annie. Time 6.55.

• 50-40-30-20-10
• Double unders
• Sit-ups, anchored feet

Understood that my sit-ups would probably slow down a little bit so my plan was to concentrate properly on the double unders to finish in same time frame as in the first Annie. However, I made the same stumbles in the first 2 rounds as in the first Annie. That sucked but other than that, I managed to keep a good upright form in both workouts with the DU's. Focused on bending my knees as little as possible and keep straight torso from toes to head. It's not perfect but it's better than before. Step forward as well =)

Wednesday 4.9: Mary + Handstand

Wednesday. AM: Benchmark wod Mary. Result, 9 rounds + 2 hspu. Total of 272 reps. PM: Skills, handstand

Back from Sweden in the morning, taking a nap, eating and heading to the gym. That rest day was a good thing for me, my body felt good after being a little stiff for a couple of days. Stockholm was beautiful as it always tends to be. It also seems to warm and sunny every time I've been there =) It was awesome to make a comeback there as it used to be Pauliina's home for a couple of months last autumn. It would have been nice to stay a little longer.

In Stockholm

Mary. Result 272 reps. Compare to 9th April and 21st February.

• 20 min amrap of:
• 5 handstand push-ups
• 10 pistols 5/5
• 15 pull-ups

I once read Mary is Mikko Salo's least favorite benchmark Girl. For some reason that inspired me to go for this benchmark early this year. I completed 7 rounds + 3 hspu's and today I was able to top that result with about 2 full rounds. Not bad! In April I did this one for 5 rounds for time. Then it was little less than 11 minutes. Today I happened to check time at that point and the digits showed it was about 9 minutes. Realizing I had topped my previous time clearly brought that much needed encouragement in the middle of the workout.

This metcon went very well in all meters. Every set of handstand push-ups were unbroken. I once dropped off the wall on the first rep because of weak balance but jumped right back up on the wall to finish the set. Don't know if I've done 47 reps in a workout, ever. Very glad about this amount!

Mary's rounds of 1-6

The pistol squat always gets me a bit confused. It feels taxing in the beginning as body is not yet fully prepared to do one-legged squats. Even though I mobbed my ankles and legs properly pre-workout. Then after squatting for a while, it gets much easier. Once you've been squatting some more, the strength-part walks in and it gets way tougher to get ass back up from the floor. I managed this movement well today. Same as with the hspu's, probably never smashed as many reps (90) in one session.


On the pull-ups I went unbroken for maybe 4 rounds. For the next 3 rounds I did 11+4 reps, and the last 2 ones it was 9+3+3. I focused on minimizing the rest period between the reps. Once I dropped from the bar, I shook my hands, tried to release the tension and jumped right back there. In my opinion I was more consistent with the breaks and transitions today overall as well. My pre-determined break was placed after the pull-ups. I had the feeling that if I tried to go straight to hspu's, it would have been much more challenging. As I held a break there, I was able to do the hspu's unbroken. Then I figured that I should do pistols right away because the two other movements are not leg-oriented.

Mary's rounds of 4-9

First round was around one minute, the next two ones about half a minute slower, and the following rounds were between 2:10 - 2:50. I was able to pace up on the last 2 rounds and cut some time on both of them compared to the previous one. All in all, I figure this workout went well for me.

After the workout I spent about half an hour for mobility at the gym. Used the resistance band and lacrosse ball to find painful points and then active stretching to finish it. Wish I had enough time on a regular basis to put enough effort on mobility. I've been taking stretching / mobility sessions in the evening, hopefully it pays off.

Handstand. Couple of hours later I went cycling for active recovery purposes and found a perfect place to practice on my handstand skills. Just couldn't drive by, had to stop and utilize the opportunity. In the beginning it was a bit shaky, my legs were waving in the air to all possible directions. Still, I was able to maintain inverted position and move forward. In the end I was focusing more on keeping my legs more together. It's still far from the look of gymnasts doing handstand walk :)

Toni's workouts.

• Skills: pull-ups, pistol squats, hspu, handstand walk, snatch
• Annie, 50-40-30-20-10, double unders & sit-ups. Time 7.20

He completed 5 sets of pull-ups, with incredible results: 14, 10, 10, 10, 8 reps!

The guy is getting better and better!

Monday 18.11: Pull-ups + handstand

Monday. Pull-ups, ring pull-ups and handstand.

My body really wasn't in the best possible shape in the morning. I felt it in advance and decided yesterday to concentrate in some skills in the morning. It turned into a pull-up workout and handstand skills training. Toni did a new PR for bench press.

Workout. For quality.
10 rounds of
5 wide grip pull-ups
5 ring pull-ups
5 attempts of handstand

I performed my pull-ups with ease. I had no juice to for strength training today but this workout was perfect for me. 100 different type of pull-ups and skills training as well. Doing pull-ups with rings will definitely work for my benefit with muscle-ups in the future. I also wanted to do the regular bar pull-ups with a grip that is way wider than normally.

Toni's workouts. Bench press 3-3-3-3-2-3-2-3-1-F (65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 85, 90, 90, PR 92.5, 95kg)

He had a lot of reps today. 3 rep sets up to 80 as intended. He then took 85kg up twice. After a short rest, three reps popped up. Same happened with 90kg. This encouraged him to go for new personal record and he got it, 92.5kg! Toni still pursued 95kg but it wasn't time for that, yet… Strength training was followed by hero called Annie, 150 double unders and sit-ups in sets of 50-40-30-20-10. Time 10.50

• Annie
• 50-40-30-20-10
• Double unders
• Sit-ups

Toni's Annie, time 10.50

Camera's memory card got full during the wod

Now I'm going to play some floorball!