Thursday. Metcon, 30 bear complex @ 70kg. Time, 18.34
Barbell conditioning, and muscle endurance. Clear agenda for Thursday.
Metcon. Time, 18.34
30 x bear complex, for time:
Power clean
Front squat
Push jerk
Back squat
Thruster
Barbell @ 70kg all the way
This felt like a good idea the day before. Not anymore after 10 reps. In my mind the demons tried to hold me back and quit the workout at 20 reps but I kept mentally strong and continued forward. This sucked ass big time, no doubt, but it was a pleasure at the same time. Loved it!
No wonder the last lift (thrusters right from back squat) of every rep was the hardest. One rep constituted of those five movements (clean, squat, jerk, squat, thruster). Took 30 "reps" of that combination for time. In my mind I kept pushing through in sets of 5 reps. After every 5 reps I tapped the timer to see how my pace changes. Split times were 2:17, 2:52, 3:18, 3:23, 3:31, 3:11. That means 6 sets of 5 reps.
Friday. AM: Run 2k, swim 1k, run 2k. PM: Emom x 10min: Odd min, power clean, front squat, squat clean. Even min, pause at knee, pause at hips, then clean pull. Metcon, bear complex @ 40kg. Time, 11.30.
Different start to the day. Swimming in Italy was great and I got inspired to hit the Helsinki swimming stadium this morning. It's my last day on a holiday so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to go there. In the afternoon Toni invited me to visit his affiliate in Vantaa. It was all about barbell work.
Conditioning.
Run 2.000m
Swim 1.000m
Run 2.000m
The stadium is a bit more than 2k away from our house. I took a back bag, put my stuff inside, and went running. Took 15 minutes to get there. That means it was a jog obviously. Went to study this place. It was a 50m pool with a bunch of lanes. I took the slow one because I'm definitely not a fish when you throw me in water. Never swam that much when I was a little kiddo so there are some lack of skills.
Swam for 500 meters at first, that's 10 pool lengths in total. Then a break, and another 500 meters. It was a good battle for me. Really felt it in my lats. It was all breast strokes through that kilometer. At times my right fingers started to tingle. Go figure. But it was a lot of fun, and it was a good morning workout for me!
Cleans.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
Odd minutes, power clean, front squat (hold 2sec in bottom), squat clean (hold 2sec in bottom)
Even minutes, halt at knee for 4sec, halt at hips for 4sec, then clean pull
Barbell at 80kg
These workouts were 100% programmed by the affiliate itself. Had no word whatsoever in these. Toni invited me to join him, and I've never said no to a workout. This was good accessory style workout for clean. The difference to regular clean training was the obligatory pause in the bottom position. This was supposed to be 75% of 1RM so I figured 80kg would be fine. Toni went with the same weights.
Clean emom
Bear complex. Time, 11.30
Without dropping the bar, complete the following sequence for 7 times. That constitutes 1 rep
Power clean + front squat + push press + back squat + push press (=1 rep)
Once you've completed the sequence for 7 reps, drop the bar. That is 1 round
Repeat for a total of 5 rounds
Time cap 14 minutes
Time, 11.30 @ 40kg
This is a cruel workout. Forearms were killing me. Weight is light but not for long. It's that forearm burn that gets to me. Never has 40 kilos felt this cruel in my life. I just wanted to finish under the time cap. Realized after 3 rounds that there's plenty of time so I kept longer breaks before rounds 4 and 5. Normally this workout is not for time but they had to put a time cap so their daily schedule would stay in the plan.
Bear
Good workout, and got a high heart beat too! As we can see from the video, Toni still has some issues with counting reps hehe. He worked well with the barbell for the entire day for sure though!
Thursday. Skills, ring mu's. Complex with a partner, 10min amrap of: 1 rounds of Bear Complex @ 60kg. Result, 30 rounds. Sled push, every 2:00, perform 20m distance (up to 185kg). Farmer's walk 4x20m (up to 2x80kg).
Training with Toni. That's quality time. My main man. We started this thing called crossfit together 3 years ago and trained for the first year or so at the same gym on a daily basis. Then he changed the place to a crossfit affiliate which was definitely a good move for him. The development took a leap further. Every now and then we get a change to hit it together. The daily crossfit speculation still continues every day =) Today I got him to visit my gym for more like a strongman type session.
Skills.
Ring muscle-ups (total 12 reps)
I took couple of sets muscle-ups on the rings and actually on the pull-up bar as well. These were okay today. Not the best I've had but still good. It was triples and doubles to get a total of 12 reps. Had no specific plan for these, just wanted to get some reps on and get some feedback from Toni as he has a coach's eye. Toni did some emom clean and jerk work at the same time.
Recap of the day
Complex.
1 round of Bear Complex (power clean + front squat + jerk + back squat + jerk)
You go, I go, for 10 minutes @ 60kg
This type of complexes are very good for muscle endurance. You get lots of reps, and get fatigued in the process. Very valuable tool to improve the general physical preparedness, GPP. We had couple of options for barbell complex, there were some DT and Hammer type intervals on the table as well. Finally it turned out to be Bear Complex singles in a "you go, I go" style, meaning one guy does one set, drops the bar and hands the turn to the other guy.
Bar was 60 kilos so it wasn't that heavy. We anticipated it might turn heavier in the process. I felt good for the entire 10 minutes. That was a positive surprise that I could have continued forever. Heavier bar might have worked well too. Got to say though that this kind of complexes are awesome when done with a partner. Haven't done bear complex in a while. Originally this would mean doing multiple sets without dropping the bar in between. That is 7 reps without letting the barbell fall to the ground.
This was sick. We did 20 meter "sprints" every 2 minutes. Toni pushed it down the turf, and I pushed it right back. Have no idea how much the sled weighs but we started with about 80kg on the sled as plates. From then on we kept adding 10-15kg to the load. This was supposed to be for death. Let's build it up so that at some point you can't push the sled anymore. We ended up having 185kg (plus the sled) for load and there decided to stop after that set.
It would have been the last set for me most likely. Not that there would been any room for more plates either. Maybe 10-15kg more would have been able to be there. Toni pushed this like a pro even though it was kind of a new element. This really burned the legs and it felt like someone hit the quads with a baseball bat.
Farmer's walk.
4 x 20m (60, 60, 60, 80kg per hand)
We were done after the sled. But once we didn't have to rush anywhere so we played around with the farmer's walk for couple of rounds. Nothing serious but the load was pretty good for us anyway. Really had to focus for these walks. There was 2x60kg for most of the sets, and the heaviest was 2x80kg load for 20 meters.
Wednesday. Clean and jerk complexes @ 60-70kg. Metcon, 15min amrap of: 5hspu, 10 burpees, 15 burpees. Result 6rds + 5hspu.
It was a rare moment to get Toni at the gym to workout with me and Pauliina. We didn't plan this that well beforehand so it was more like a "go with the flow" type of training. Only thing I had in mind was the amrap of bodyweight movements. Didn't want to go heavy on the barbell work so it turned out to be more like a technique training and preparing for the metcon.
Bar complexes.
Bear complex: power clean, front squat, push press, back squat, push press behind the neck
Bar complex: hang power clean, hang squat clean, power clean, squat clean, couple jerks
Bear complex is awesome. Got to try that one out someday. I've done it once very long time ago, don't even remember when it took place. I took it with at max 50kg, couple of sets anyway, nothing serious this time.
Then I put on 60kg on the bar - still not heavy - and started doing bar complex, i.e. performing multiple bar movements without adjusting grip at ground at any moment. The idea was to do 4 different types of cleans, then finish the set with a couple of jerks. On the cleans I used the following sequence. First 2 hang cleans, the first as power clean and the second as squat clean. The last 2 cleans were from the floor, the first one as power clean and the last one as squat clean.
Recap
On the jerks I did couple of push jerks, that is feet landing side by side together. Most of them were split jerks, that is kind of a semi-lunge with bar overhead on straight arms. I wanted to do different types of cleans and jerks with semi-light weight. All reps were @ 60kg except the last which was 70kg. I felt comfortable doing this barbell work. Most of the reps were pretty solid, few flaws in technique though.
Metcon. Result 6 rounds + 5 hspu
15min amrap of:
5 handstand push-ups
10 burpees
15 box jumps, 61cm
This was something sick I was able to come up with couple of days ago. The combo turned out to be a little harsh. Hspu's, burpees and box. Once you've done handstand push-ups it's always a delight to go for burpees. After them the upper body is worn out. And you've been jumping on the burpees. So it's cool to start jumping on the Rogue box after that.
The combination of these movements was tougher than they look on paper. I realized it today in a hard way. My round times turned slower by the round. I went unbroken each round. First round was about 1:30 and the last full round was almost exactly 1min slower. It was the transitions between elements that took me more time every round.
I still loved the workout. It made me cry in the very beginning, in a good way if you know what I mean. Good and painful 15 minutes of my life, worth suffering it through. Made my engine a little bit better and more efficient once again. Love the metcons! That's why I do strength training; to become more enhanced in the metcons. To being able to keep on moving no matter what movements are thrown upon me. Love crossfit!
This lift is awesome in both technique and strength
Monday. Back squats 3x5 (max 120kg). Bear complex (max 50kg).
I started my training week with back squat strength and then a bear complex, which surprised me totally. Definitely a tough workout. Toni did some strength as well in western Finland at a local gym.
Strength. Back squats 5-5-5 (100, 110, 120kg). God damned it was tough, whaaaat!?! I felt good entering this training session but for some reason I didn't have the strength needed for this one. I have been thinking the whole day what it was, what's the reason 120kg back squat felt heavy but haven't found the reason yet. Yesterday was a rest day so should have been ready to pump it up! Well, I'm not gonna think about it too much because there are awesome training days ahead of me.
Back squat, 120kg
Bear complex. Result 40, 45, 50, 50, 40kg
5 rounds of 7 sets of:
Power clean
Front squat
Push press
Back squat
Push press
Completing the sequence of power cleaning the barbell from ground -> front squatting -> push pressing and landing the barbell in back rack position -> back squatting and finally push pressing the barbell and landing it to front rack position, is considered as 1 rep. The athlete must complete 7 reps (35 movements) before he's allowed to drop the bar and lose grip on it. After completing those 7 reps, he's allowed to rest and then add weights. This is not a timed workout. The result is the heaviest successful 7 rep combination. The 7-rep combo is repeated for a total of 5 rounds (175 reps in total). Today my result was 50kg, didn't try to go higher.
So a total of 5 rounds to be completed. I started with 40kg and as I understood the toughness of the workout I only added 5kg for the next round. On the 3rd and 4th round I kept 50kg on the barbell and didn't try to go further. I could have done some sets with heavier volume but I don't know about the entire 7 reps. I wanted to close this workout as it's meant to be done so I stayed with 50kg. I also haven't been dropping weights to my back from the push press lockout and I wasn't that comfortable dropping it there.
Bear complex definitely put a lot of pressure on the forearms. The tension was huge. The movements themselves weren't hard as you think about the kilos in play. Squats were easy, power clean too. The "toughest" part strength-wise was the push press but hey, it was only 50kg. However, having to keep a grip on the bar continuously was strenuous. I liked the feeling of it.
This week's training I have to post afterwards as it's already Thursday. I was resting the entire previous week due to some irregular beating of my heart. I didn't do any workouts Monday through Saturday. On Sunday I was at the gym doing some squats, deadlifts and push presses.
Monday. 800m run, 40 push-ups, 20 box jumps. 5 rounds. Time 26.20. Practising muscle-ups. Tabata hollow hold. Stretching in the evening.
I had two friends with me to run along. I had some doubts about running due to last week's problems so I kind of held back during the workout. However, afterwards it felt good and I had those bad thoughts in vain.
Tuesday, first workout. 5x5 back squats. Max 100kg. 5 min rest. WOD: 5 L-pull-ups, 20 burpee, 25 KB swing (16kg). 4 rounds. Time 10.36. Stretching in the evening.
Felt good. Still taking it easier than normally with the squats. Starting to feel pretty good though. I experimented this type of training from Mikko Salo's training programme: first weight lifting, then rest, then wod. I liked it and probably going to continue like this. This wod caused heavy breathing due to burpees. Kettlebell was too light I think. I have already ordered 20kg KB at my own expense. This 16kg was the heaviest at the gym.
Tuesday, second workout. Row 4 x 750m, 2 min rest between sets. Time 16.48. Practising double unders.
The first training session took place 10.00 in the morning so this afternoon workout was planned to be easier. My girlfriend went to the gym so I immediately tagged along. Rowing started nicely in every four sets. The last 250 meters were slower as fatigue struck. I'm going to increase the amount of rowing in the near future.
Wednesday. Bear complex. 5 rounds 20+25+30+35+20. 5 min rest. WOD: 5 Deadlift (80kg), 5 toes-to-bar. 5 rounds. Time 3.43. Stretching in the evening.
The first time ever to try out bear complex. Pretty tough I would say. Sound easy when you think about the weights I carried. However, for me they were enough, this time... Next time I'll raise. After short break I took on the deadlift and Toes-to-bar combination to strengthen the middle body. Nice combo, deadlift could have been maybe 90kg but due to the nature of the workout maybe it was better to be that 80kg. They were both movements where grip is essential which caused it slightly painful in the palms towards the end.
Thursday. Rest day.
Stretching in the evening. I feel like hitting the gym but I must think this rationally. I'm going to stretch today and take another workout tomorrow.
