Friday 22.7: Barbell Cycling, Bar mu, Lunges

Friday. Squat clean 4x5 @ 80kg. Accessory, 5rds of: 5 bar mu, 10m walking lunges, back rack @ 60kg.

It's been couple of days of hectic life as we have been arranging our upcoming renovation and moving from home to to another place. At the same time the in-laws are moving as well so we've been doing this thing together. I have still found time to workout. It's just been difficult to find time to write them down. It has also been the most important time of the year for crossfitters as the Crossfit Games took place and came to an end on Sunday!

Antti working on some box jumps

Barbell cycling.

• Squat clean 4x5 @ 80kg
• Touch'n'go

Huh, this was quite heavy in the morning. Body felt a little stiff even though Thursday was a rest day. Figured that doing these tng would benefit me in the long run. The weight was perfect for this morning. I worked with the rings for muscle-ups for couple of tries but those sucked. Couldn't get one. That was a freak show. The straps are meters long that go all the way to the ceiling. I have always worked with short straps that go about one meter over the rings to the ceiling.

It felt great to do the swing at Kehä, especially the back swing as the rings were high enough and there was no risk of feet hitting the ground. Then on the other hand I didn't have the skills to do the transition with these longer straps. It felt awkward all the way.

Accessory.

• 5 rounds of:
• 5 bar muscle-ups
• 10m lunges, back rack @ 60kg

I wanted to regain my confidence on the muscle-ups and went to smash them on the pull-up bar =) Couple of unbroken reps, then right onto lunges with a 60kg barbell on my back. After lunges I took my rest before completing another set. Those lunges felt good too. Haven't done lunges with 60kg or more that many time.

Toni did emom of ghd's and bar mu's

Tuesday 5.7: Ring dips, Ring push-ups + Pair wod

Tuesday. AM. Death by ring dips. Result, 87 reps. Ring push-ups, emom x 20. Total of 160 reps. PM. Pair wod 20min amrap, other one does lunges 30mx30kg. In the meanwhile the other one does 10 burpees + amrap of db snatches @ 25kg

Rings.

• Death by ring dips. Result, 87 reps (12 rounds + 9 reps on the 13th round)
• Every minute on the minute x 20min: ring push-ups
• 2 sets of: 10-10-9-9-8-8-7-7-6-6

Started the day after breakfast with a stroll with the family. Then right onto playing with the rings. Death by ring dips was interesting. Got very tough at around 10 reps. I believe they were unbroken until that set. On the 11th round I needed to break it. Couldn't finish the 13th round anymore, 9 reps completed there.

Ring push-ups emom wod wasn't that much of a conditioning piece. Just needed to burn my chest, triceps and shoulders a bit more. Worked perfectly. Took 10 reps for the first 2 minutes, then dropped one rep for the next 2 rounds and so on. After the round of 6's, I started it all over again. That means it was a 20min emom workout.

Pair wod.

• 20min amrap
• The other one completes back rack lunges constantly for 30 meters @ 30kg
• In the meanwhile the other one does 10 burpees + an amrap of dumbbell snatches @ 25kg

It was super cool to get my friend Antti throw down with me in the evening. Women went for a walk with the babies and we got ourselves some bro-sesh. It was pretty much the first touch for Antti with crossfit. Sure he knows what it's all about but it was freaking cool to get him to try it out. And he beast modes through the workout all the way!

The idea was that one of us was doing lunges for the entire 20 minutes. Every time the other was doing lunges, the other one did 10 burpees and as many snatches as possible in the remaining time that the other guy was still doing the lunges. The movements hurt legs, butt and lungs. Very good combo and nice to get a training partner. Plus Kari was cheering us up and giving check point times in the middle of the workout. Great training day!

Thursday 7.4: Squats, Bar mu, Lunges

Thursday. Back squats 5x5 @ 135kg. Accessory, 5rds of: 5 bar mu, 12 reverse lunges @ 50kg

Getting heavier and heavier on the squats. Another grind day by having a barbell on my back. Then skills and more leg burn afterwards. Didn't time that one at all. It was more like accessory work even though the recovery time wasn't too long.

Strength.

• Back squats 5x5 @ 135kg

Last days of this progression that I wrote by myself. It's been 5's all the way. Different amount of sets every time but the main point is that I'll keep adding weights on the bar and keep the volume up. It's been mentally tough at times and especially the last couple of squat sessions have built a lot of personality so to say. These sets were challenging sets but I managed to finish them, very happy!

Accessory.

• 5 rounds of:
• 5 bar muscle-ups
• 12 reverse lunges @ 50kg

This was not a timed workout. I did the muscle-ups and immediately walked to the bar, back racked it and took 12 reverse lunges. Then sat down for a while, went back to chalk my hands and hit another set. It was great to get muscle-ups done, it was simply awesome. I had a miss on the third round. Then got my head around the game again and finished the following repetitions smoothly.

Lunges burned my legs more than I anticipated in the beginning. Last reps of each set were heavy but I refused to pause at any moment. The bar was rather light anyway so I decided to push forward.

Sunday 6.3: Row, S2o, Lunges

Sunday. Wod, 500m row, 15 s2o @ 60kg, 500m row, 20 s20 @ 50kg, 500m row, 25 s2o @ 40kg. Time, 12.00. Accessory, 5x20m walking lunges @ 50kg.

Yesterday my bro planted the idea of this first workout in my head, and I couldn't push it away. Sounded like a perfect metcon to me. This was an efficient session as it took me about 35 minutes to finish this after I started the first metcon.

Metcon. Time, 12.00

• 500m row
• 15 shoulder-to-overhead @ 60kg
• 500m row
• 20 shoulder-to-overhead @ 50kg
• 500m row
• 25 shoulder-to-overhead @ 40kg

This was excellent. The only bad thing was that it took some extra time in vain as I changed the plates on the barbell. That ate a bunch of the entire workout. But the combo of rowing and jerks was pretty cool. And it probably made it even more mental as the reps grew every round, even though the weights decreased. Don't know. Both ways would have rocked. Like this or then 15 reps @ 60kg every round.

I went unbroken on the 60kg jerks. Then 15-5 on the next round, and 18-7 on the last one. It just felt like my shoulders were getting numb on those two latter rounds. I really enjoyed this kind of pain on the jerks in a metcon.

Accessory.

• 5 sets of 20m walking lunges @ 50kg, back rack

This was more like muscle endurance / strength piece in the end. Weight was good. Next time I might go heavier on this kind of stuff. First 10 meters were fine. The last meters burned my legs big time. I'm very happy on today's performance by all means. Lunges for accessory are knocking at the back of my head quite often but there isn't enough time to get these finishers done.

Sunday 28.2: Skills workout, Strongman

Sunday. Metcon, 15min amrap of: 5 bar mu, 20m walking lunges (40kg). Result, 167 reps. Accessory, every 3:00, for 24min, alternating between: 20m sled push (165kg), 40m farmer's walk (115-125kg).

Strongman Sunday mixed with skills. That was the goal for today. My hands have healed pretty well from last muscle-up session and luckily they held on well today on those bar mu's too. Hitting a skills workout in the beginning, and then strongman elements in the latter piece.

Metcon.

• 15min amrap of:
• 5 bar muscle-ups
• 20m walking lunges, 40kg, back rack

These are both excellent movements. The barbell was light for back rack lunges. That was no surprise but the main ingredient of this workout was definitely the muscle-ups. Lunges paired up greatly. I was able to do the lunges unbroken, and would not have accepted it in any other way. They still got me breathing heavier and burned legs on the last meters for sure. They also gave my upper body that much needed rest between muscle-up sets.

I'm very happy on the performance on the pull-up bar. It was 5's all the way, unbroken each set, c'mon! Got through 7 sets of muscle-ups finally. It was only 8m short of full 7 rounds for result in the 15 minute time frame. Mu's got challenging somewhere in the middle of the workout. Okay, they were not a walk in the park at any point but still I was confident throughout the metcon.

Accessory.

• Every 3:00, for 24 minutes
• Alternating between:
• 20m sled push @ 160kg (+sled)
• 40m farmer's walk @ 115-125kg (2 sets @ 115kg, 2 sets @ 125kg)

This was a good call. Had both elements in my notes but hadn't closed how to chase them. Decided to go heavy and alternate between these two every 3 minutes. Didn't do any movement specific warm-ups. Instead, just piled the plates on each other and started to move the sled. The weight on the first leg of the sled came as a surprise. It weighed a ton. But I got it moving and continued to keep the legs churning.

Bought parallettes today, boom!

Farmer's walk was the "easier" part of these two. Maybe only because I'm more familiar with it. For the first two sets the cases were loaded with 2x20kg plates. Then for the latter sets I added 2.5kg on each end.

My body really felt this one hours after it was done. Somehow my quads were shaking and felt weak afterwards. That made me smile inside. The work was definitely put in. Got to keep these elements in the program in the future too. I'm positive these are giving a positive effect on overall fitness.

Saturday 23.1: Lunges, Squat, Kb, Bodyweight, Accessory

Saturday. Metcon, 10min amrap of: 10-15 kb oh lunges (2x16kg), 10-15 push-ups, 10-15 t2b. Metcon, 3rds of: 5 back squat @ 125kg + max set of hspu's. Accessory, 4rds of: 15 back rack lunges @ 50-60kg + ghd accessories.

It was a busy day on Saturday and I really got to the gym only at around 7-8pm. That was kind of a weird feeling getting there that late. Anyway, the session was a success even though my wrist is killing me. Have to think about the movements a lot now in order not to stress it too much.

Metcon. Result, 5rds

• 10min amrap of:
• 10-15 kettlebell overhead lunges @ 2x16kg bells
• 10-15 push-ups
• 10-15 toes-to-bar

This was my warm-up metcon. Every time I have programmed one with the same ideology they still make me feel heavy. I started by doing 15 reps each movement and then after 2 rounds changed it to 10 reps on every element. It was probably the first time doing overhead lunges with two kettlebells. At least with this weight. Spectacular movement for sure! It would be nice to try heavier too if I found some bells for that purpose.

It came as a surprise how much that static pressure burned my shoulders. Or maybe that was not the surprise part but doing push-ups right after turned out much more challenging than normally. And the amount of reps was very modest on that one. T2b's went nicely but had to drop the amount there too to get them ub.

Wod.

• 3 rounds of:
• 5 back squat @ 125kg
• Max set of handstand push-ups (15-11-11 reps)
• Rest 2min between sets

Decided to mix heavier squats with gymnastics movement. Very good combo. Never have I done this type of stuff. Pretty much like a strength set and bodyweight moves right away. I thought about doing 10 hspu's on each set, then at some point I figured 12 reps. It turned out I went for max set on each round. First was 15 reps, then 11 on the last 2 rounds.

Accessory.

• 4 rounds of:
• 15 back rack walking lunges @ 50-60kg (2 sets each)
• Ghd accessories, 10 reps with weights + 10 reps bodyweight
• Rest as needed between sets

Lunges are great. Rarely do I get a chance to walk straight forward with a barbell on my back at the gym. There are always people doing their work. During the weekends the probability to get an empty grass matt. Lunges felt good. The second element of this accessory stuff is easier to show in video. Take a look at the clip above. I did bunch of reps with a barbell, then dropped it and finished with 10 bodyweight reps.