Wednesday. Lots of cleans. Thursday, metcon of running and barbell cycling with light weight.
Wednesday.
Hang power clean 5x5 @ 80kg
Emom x 10 min: 2 hang power clean @ 90kg
Purely moving the barbell. This was the first time I went a little heavier with the weights when training in Munkka, outdoors. It's been a blast doing stuff in the nature. Somehow I get a lot of kicks training outdoors. There's definitely a little twist working at an unsteady grass. But it's something I'm gonna get used to in the long run. I will train somewhere else than gym for the most of my times in the future.
Wednesday's clean session
Thursday.
15 thrusters @ 40kg
Run around the block
15 hang power clean and jerk @ 40kg
Run around the block
15 push press @ 40kg
Run around the block
15 front squat @ 40kg
Run around the block
15 back squat @ 40kg
Run around the block
Practically without no warm-up I started moving that light bar. Every bar set was unbroken of course with such light loading. My shoulders took beating in this one. That was kind of a funny thing as I thought legs would get killed. Breathing was high for sure, from the very beginning. Running around the block meant about 400m lap each round.
Getting back to the gym after taking couple of days rest due to a light flu. Felt great to move the barbell. Loads were light because I didn't wanna press my lungs that much.
Saturday.
Back squat 6x5 @ 120kg
I was a bit nervous how the squats would play out as my body wasn't in 100% condition. It turned out these were awesome. I was positively surprised of how nicely the barbell went up and down with this weight. Normally that wouldn't be worth that much of a celebration but this time it definitely was!
Monday.
Emom x 12 minutes:
4min: 10 thrusters @ 40kg
4min: 6 thrusters @ 50kg
4min: 3 thrusters @ 60kg
Emom x 10 minutes:
Odd, 12 pull-ups
Even, 10 dips
Time to do some lung work. Figured why not combine a bar with it. Thrusters it was. Good session of weights and bodyweight. The latter part was conducted unbroken on the pull-ups and dips were with the rings for 3 rounds, and the last 2 rounds with bar dips or whatever they are called :)
Used to do tons of these when I played floorball. Great for body coordination and awareness
Today's agenda was stolen directly from weightlifting101. That is Sara Sigmundsdottir's and Björgvin Gudmundsson's coach that posts sick workouts to instagram on a daily basis of what he uses to best develop his athletes. This workout stuck to my head right away and I understood this is something I need to perform.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 30 minutes
1st min: 1 clean
2nd min: 2 cleans
3rd min: 3 cleans
Barbell @ 70-75% (=85kg)
Not allowed to go touch'n'go
You have to take the bar down and reset the starting position but without ever losing grip. Drop only after the last rep of each set
Last minute you have to do as many reps as possible, minimum of 3 reps
That means to say it was 1, 2 or 3 reps depending on the minute. 1-2-3-1-2-3…etc. Last minute was max reps. The weight was written to be 70-75% so I came up with 85kg which is pretty much 72-73% of 117kg.
Recap of the last minutes
This worked well for high level sweating too as I didn't have more time for a metcon afterwards. The weight also seemed to be perfect for the workout. I jumped on to this with short warm-up and couple of singles with lower weights. I reasoned this wod starts easy with a single, double and a triple so that would work as my proper warm-up =)
I'm happy on how all cleans went. On the last set that bar felt super heavy. It was a deal breaker to hold on to the barbell. Had I been allowed to drop and reset the bar I would have taken more reps than 6 on the grande finale. My legs felt super weak after the 6th lift. Maybe I was also mentally worn out at that point. There was time but I had to let go of the barbell at that stage. Great barbell workout!
It was the first time in 10 days I got my hands on a barbell. I was like a little kiddo! I've been doing metcons after the little girl was born but the heaviest weights have been 25kg dumbbells. Bodyweight stuff, wall balls, rings and db's.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes
1-5min: 3 cleans @ 80kg
6-10min: 2 cleans @ 90kg
11-15min: 1 clean @ 100kg
Had no idea how it would feel like moving a barbell around. I had a short time slot to hit a session so I took very short warm-up, took couple of cleans at 60 and 70kg's, then started the timer. Went 15 minutes of cleans, then 2 minutes of recovery before the latter emom workout of jerks.
These felt pretty good all the way. Hips were a bit tight as they have not been activated that much lately. But the barbell moved nicely, no matter if it was 80kg or 100kg. Got a chance to tape the lifts so take a look below.
Overhead.
Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes
1-5min: power clean + 5 push jerks @ 60kg
6-10min: power clean + 3 push jerks @ 70kg
11-15min: power clean + 1 push jerk @ 80kg
Plan was to do jerks as well. Just to get used to moving some loads. Went touch'n'go without resting on front rack. Felt great to throw the bar overhead.
Focused today lots on clean complex. Afterwards I was tired of moving the barbell so it was time to move just the body. Calisthenics in the metcon.
Oly.
10 sets of the following clean complex:
1 hang cleans
1 cleans
2 front squats
Barbell at 90kg each set
Built up to this moving barbells in different combos at 40, 60, 70 and 80kg's. Then started the first set @ 90kg. This was not a timed workout. It was pretty cool to understand that this load was very much under my control. On the video you'll see the last set of the 10 completed ones. I believe all the sets looked alike.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
15 toes-to-bar
20 push-ups
Not a timed workout either. Focus was on getting the push-ups done unbroken. Those got very tough on the last 2 rounds but I'm really happy on completing them ub every round. The last maybe 6-7 reps were miserable on those rounds.
Toes-to-bar's were unbroken on the first 2 rounds. Then I had to start breaking them up. Third was maybe something like 8-4-3, then maybe 4 attempts to finish the round. This hurt more in the muscles than lungs.
Tuesday. Clean singles, build up (result 112kg). Every 15sec, for 5min: 1 clean @ 90kg. Emom x 18min. 1st: 15 db press @ 2x20kg, 2nd: 30 lunges, 3rd: 15 box.
Went to the gym today with a plan to hit some olympic lifts in the form of cleans. Pulling strength and explosiveness were on the agenda. Some variation with the cleans. Had to change my plans on the fly as I had Barbara on my mind. Had some nagging issues in the body so I modified the metcon in the end totally.
Every 15 seconds, for 5 minutes (20 reps), perform 1 squat clean @ 90kg
Studied some stories I heard Rich Froning tell about some of his lifting sessions with the guys. First go heavy, then do a notch lighter load for higher reps, for time. First I built up to a heavy single which I haven't done in a while. Took multiple fast singles at 60, 70, 80kg's before starting to do just one single per weight.
The game changed pretty soon probably somewhere at 105kg. Before that I felt quick and explosive, especially out of the hole. On the way up the bar felt easy, smooth and light. That's not a surprise to anyone that there's a lot of mental game in olympic lifts, as well as in pretty much every aspect of fitness. Let it be crossfit or something else.
Anyway, I realized on the video that there's plenty of space and time to go under the barbell also on the heavier cleans. The bar traveled much higher than it is needed in order for me to get a chance to drop under the bar. Still, that 112kg bar was the heaviest I was able to clean today. It gets mental at some point. There is no logical reason for not putting more weight on the bar. Something prevents from going under the bar though =)
95kg + 110kg
Conditioning.
Every minute on the minute x 18 minutes
1st minute: 15 push presses with 2x20kg dumbbells
2nd minute: 30 walking lunges
3rd minute: 15 box jumps
This was a good finisher. The combination of lunges and box jumps got to my lower body quite nicely. Went up and down the green matt for 30 lunges. That took me something like 40 seconds I'd guess. Left me some recovery to walk back to the box, shake my legs couple of times and then start jumping around.
The third element in this one was push presses with dumbbells in both hands at the same time. Got through with 20kg db's. On the first round I completed 12 reps as I figured that would be cool number of reps. However, on the second round I jumped to 15 reps and finished with that. Plus did the 3 extra reps that were missing on the first round. These presses were physically the most demanding part of the workout. Shoulders were gone but I still got them unbroken every round. Stopped on top and locked elbows correctly before getting another rep done.
Another benchmark workout in the books for this weekend. Yesterday I met with Amanda for the first time and today another lady came to see me at the gym. Linda is a workout I've done once before. That time it was a fair match as the weights were too heavy for me. Today I got a clear personal record on this one.
It's 3.5 years since meeting with Linda last time. I have gained quite a lot of muscle and strength since then. Back then my maxes were 165kg / 87.5kg / 75kg. Now they are 210kg / 108kg / 117kg so obviously the "three bars of death" were lighter as well. I also weigh a bit more (maybe 84kg compared to 79kg back in 2012) so the weights ought to be a little heavier.
However, I wanted to compare the work to the first time I hit this one so I kept them at 80kg. Bench at 84-85kg would have also brought lots of issues in this type of workout for me. Out of these three movements bench is definitely the weakest of them. I have never been a "bencher" by any means. Took my first bench presses after I started crossfitting, and only take them occasionally.
Deadlifts were unbroken each round. Felt rather smooth on them. My left hand was a bit sore on the palm so I had some doubts about how it would feel like during the wod but it was just fine. Cleans were singles all the way. Reckoned I would be able to keep pace better on them. Bar was light anyway so just drop and pick it up again. Worked well. Another focus area was to start cleaning right after bench.
The thing in this workout was definitely the bench, again =) Bench is my goat for sure. Doing moderate load sets with bigger volume screams for trouble. I'm still happy on how well they went. It's just that comparing them to deads and cleans they were the toughest without a doubt. Went 5-3-2 in the first round, then 3-3-3 on the second. On the round of 8's had to break it more. Plan was to do a triple to start with in every set, and succeeded in it as well. All the way up to the round of 5's (3-2).
Let's see how my body feels after this. Last time it took me almost a week to recover =) I have strong confidence that it was due to the heavy volume considering I had just started crossfit about half a year ago. Now my body feels just fine, hopefully tomorrow as well. Couple of years crossfitting in between must have made miracles to body adaptation and recovery.
Saturday. Benchmark workout Amanda. Time, 15.20. Squat clean triples, build up to a heavy set (100kg).
This day was remarkable in my crossfit career. First time being able to do benchmark workout Amanda rx'd. Wasn't pretty to be honest but was able to do it anyway with real weights. Afterwards I went to build to to a heavy set of squat clean triple.
I've done this once before with 40kg barbell. It's a totally different game to add 20 kilos on the barbell. Ring muscle-ups went pretty nicely today. For no reason it's been some time since hopping on the rings. It was cool to see I still got it. Had to break them obviously in several sets during the workout.
In the warm-up I took one rep at 60kg snatch, then started the clock on Amanda. The feeling after having 9 muscle-ups fatigue shoulders a bit and then trying to stabilize the barbell overhead in the bottom position was unreal. Hard to even describe how it felt but it simply felt unnatural. I lost the first one in front, and the second attempt went too far back. By the way, that was the first snatch that went through in my life. They always stay in front if I miss them.
Third attempt was caught but it looked ugly as hell. Same with the fourth. Then little by little I started to get it under control. Last reps on the round of 9's were decent. Rounds of 7's and 5's were already smoother. It felt better and better in the course of the workout. It was almost a pity the workout ended. I liked the snatch part towards the end.
I'm very happy I was able to complete this workout. It's been in the back of my head that some day I want to complete it rx'd. These are written to be squat snatches and some of them definitely were not but I'll take it anyway. 60kg snatch is not self-evident for me, especially in a metcon. Sometimes in a snatch session it feels heavy so doing 21 reps of those in metcon is great.
Oly.
Build up to a heavy set of squat clean triple
Sets at 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100kg
It was different to do these sets after metcon. Usually I do strength and barbell cycling before and then hit a workout afterwards. It was a good change in methodology. These weren't the lightest of cleans I've done but still they rolled quite okay.
Doing them touch'n'go style is more taxing than 3 x quick singles so I'm happy with this. On the last rep of the 100kg set I lost the tightness in my body so had to reset the bar and take the last rep as a single.
Friday. Emom x 12min: clean (up to 100kg). Metcon, 3x4min amraps, with 2min rest between amraps.
After taking two days recovery there was no chance in this world I would have skipped the gym. It turned out to be a clean session and then a combination of metcons that I got from one pal.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 12 minutes
1-3min: 90kg
4-6min: 95kg
7-9min: 98kg
10-12min: 100kg
My plan was to hit a longer session but the traffic was quite horrible and basically cut my training time a little. Went after cleans in the beginning without that much of a warm-up. That was probably the reason why the barbell felt a little heavier than normally. I was looking forward to building heavier but decided to stay around 100kg because I didn't feel that smooth in the movement.
Clean recap
Metcon.
4min amrap of:
6 push-ups
6 pull-ups
Result, 8 rounds + 6 push-ups
2min rest
4min amrap of:
4 handstand push-ups
4 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Result, 7 rounds sharp
2min rest
4min amrap of:
2 strict handstand push-ups
2 bar muscle-ups
Result, 3 rounds + 2 hspu
This was a good twisted idea by Miku. Three different 4min amraps of pushing and pulling. It got tougher considering the movements the further the clock ticked. Yes, the reps decreased simultaneously. First of these metcons was the toughest for lungs. Those were light kinda light movements so I was able to move faster. It was about 50 reps each elements.
Next round the pushing changed to handstand push-ups. Those went well too as it was okay to use kipping motion and thus utilize the entire body to move up and down the wall. I'm glad c2b pull-ups were just 4 reps per round. Got exactly 7 rounds at this second amrap.
The last one was miserable. The fact that strict movements are not in my wheelhouse was witnessed efficiently on this one. First round of this was okay. On the second round I got a no rep (actually two of those), and since then had to singles and rest between reps. Bar muscle-ups felt a lot tougher than what I'm used to but I got them unbroken still.
Breathing was heavy on the first and second metcon, and muscles burned due to keeping this body in constant movement. On the last piece breathing stabilized because I wasn't able to just go further. It was more just about hitting a wall and trying to copy with that. Thanks Miku for this combo!
Friday. Emom x 10: Hang clean + Clean @ 90kg. Emom x 10: 3 back squat @ 120kg. Emom x 15: 1st 10m oh lunges @ 50kg. 2nd 10 hspu. 3rd rest.
On Friday it was quite a bit of barbell work. Cleans, squats and overhead lunges. This hurt my body. Especially squats makes my butt cry today on Saturday.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
Hang clean + clean @ 90kg
These were good all the way. Hang cleans started to feel heavier but it's good do notice they can be completed any day. Hips felt a bit tight but somehow they managed to do these.
Strength.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
3 back squat @ 120kg
This were brutal. I've one this once before with the same weight I suppose. For couple of minutes it was okay but for 10 minutes it felt nasty. One day after my hamstrings and glutes are sore as hell. I like it!
Workout.
Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes
1st minute: 10m overhead walking lunges @ 50kg
2nd minute: 10 handstand push-ups
3rd minute: rest
Squats took the best of my energy but after some recovery I took one metcon with overhead lunges and hspu's. Had to take advantage of the empty grass matt at the gym as it was almost empty during the day. Lunges were overhead version as it's something that is difficult to arrange on a regular training day because the gym might be crowded.
By the way those lunges sucked! They were as good piece of fitness as they were supposed to be but I mean they burned my shoulders. Or maybe it was the combination of oh lunges and handstand push-ups but my shoulders were devastated after this.
Monday. Emom x 15min: Snatch (up to PR 72kg). Emom x 15min: 2 cleans (up to 100kg).
Did you watch the Crossfit Regionals during the weekend. It was great to get some competition action streamed at games.crossfit.com throughout the weekend from Friday to Sunday. Pacific, South and California regions threw down first. The events were as tough as they looked like beforehand. It was cool to see those guys attack them. It was a nice surprise that Josh Bridges smashed also the big weights in every event even though he's not a monster in size. Dan Bailey being left out from the Games was a bummer though. So many super athletes were competing for those 5 tickets to Carson that everybody can't go.
My muscles felt good after the HC Triplet but somehow my body felt worn down in general. Probably due to the three workouts completed on Saturday. Decided to go by feeling on this one. No pressure, just take some lifts on the snatch if I could get my hip mobility on point. I took my time with the warm-up and started taking singles at light weights. It felt like I would definitely stay light all day.
However, it was emom and I decided to go up after every 3 minutes, starting at 50kg, then 55kg and finally 60kg. Those felt nice so I just added 2kg after each set every minute after the initial plan. That 64kg was something that startled me. It felt super good and I surprised myself by really dropping under the barbell. Yes, it might sound funny looking at my snatches =) But that was the feeling I had on that specific lift, and it boosted my confidence to ridiculous levels. So I just kept adding little plates on the bar until I got to 70kg.
Only once in my life have I got 70kg up, and that must have been something like 2 years ago. It's a threshold that has frightened me for too long. That should be a given on any training day in my opinion. My snatch is currently pathetic. Got that 70kg and was pumped over it! Decided to take it safe and add just 1kg on top of that to nail a personal record. That was ugly as hell so I added another kilo to get a better lift completed. Another Personal Record saw the daylight at 72kg boom!
Then it was time to get some cleans under my belt. Took doubles every minute for 15 minutes. Starting at 80kg, and going up 5kg after every 3 minutes. Last weight at 100kg. These were cool too.
Saturday. HC Triplet Goes Kehä. Three team events with Toni and Sipa.
Huh what a competition day with the boys!!! The volume ramped up to this year's HC Triplet. To see what HC Triplet is really about you can scroll to the right hand side of the blog and check the links to prior Triplets. This was the fifth time we arranged this with Toni. Last two times my bro has been part of it too. Shortly, the idea is to thrown down for 3 grueling events to torture our bodies and minds. This year's "games" were a success as well. First time we did this inside, location was Toni's crossfit affiliate called Crossfit Kehä. Usually we have been outdoors, mainly in Pirkkola sports park. This was also the first year we had barbells included in the game.
Event 1. Time, 38 minutes
One athlete rows 300m constantly
In the mean while, 2 athletes chew down a chipper of:
50 bar muscle-ups
100 burpee box jumps
50 handstand push-ups
100 pull-ups
50 squat cleans @ 80kg
50 thrusters @ 50kg
All of the three events were supposed to be different style and different stimulus. The first one was classic chipper style workout with one guy rowing at the sidelines all the time. Just row your 300 meters and tag next one in line for rowing. We rotated the rower evenly of course for the entire 38 minutes that this bad boy took us to complete.
This felt like it took an eternity. It was difficult to know exactly how much it would take time but it was no surprise it took energy, a lot of energy to get to the finish. Our plan was to go by feeling. We didn't divide the work load evenly, just agreed to go for a good bunch of reps, then tag the next one to work on his behalf.
Bar mu's kind of fell on my neck to complete mostly. Those felt pretty good today. I reckoned not to take too big bites as it was the first part of the workout. It was 3-5 reps per set all the way. Burpee box jumps were about 5 reps per dude at a time. That seemed to suit well for everybody.
Hspu's felt very good. Those also seemed to be good for Sipa and Toni too. So I only got to do one set for 10 reps and the second one for 5 reps. At this point I thought they would suck more but luckily not.
Pull-ups. Those could have potentially destroyed us but there was good mental strength and someone was hanging on the pull-up bar constantly. Toni ripped his hands right on the bar mu's so these were nasty to go after with a bloody blister in hand. Luckily he found a glove in his bag. It was probably not cool to do pull-ups with just fingers.
God damn that squat clean @ 80kg! Especially the first reps felt heavy. I was able to rack that barbell perfectly every time. It just felt heavy as hell in the bottom position. There was no doubt of standing it up though. But it really smoked legs and hip flexors with every lift. But those got better through time on everybody's behalf. I believe I got most of these done. Ideally it was planned so that we would do quick singles but it change on the fly and went by feeling.
In the beginning thrusters felt like they would definitely be the most disgusting element. Never have I done so light thrusters at 50 kilos! After 80kg barbell that really felt something we smashed rather easily. It was about sets of 5 reps all the way. Finally after 38 minutes it was over. Very good job guys! Great way to start the Triplet, awesome commitment from everybody!
Event 1
Event 2.
PART A. Time 17min
Interval work of kettlebells and shuttle runs
Each athele completes one round of work, tags the next one to work the same work load. Once every athlete has completed the first round, they move on to the next round
5th round: 20 double kettlebell front squats @ 16kg + 10x10m shuttle run
PART B. Result, 74 reps.
Right into part b, as many reps as possible in 8 minutes of:
Clean and jerks @ 70kg
This was nasty. If the first was more of a long, grueling chipper, this was interval work where legs were destined to get murdered in the process. Point was that Sipa started, he completed the 1st round of work, Toni and me rested in the mean while. Once Sipa threw himself over the finish line, I completed the same work load. And after I had done my part, Toni did his. After Toni, Sipa moved on to round 2, and this system continued through all 5 rounds.
The dark place definitely showed up on the shuttle runs. It was shuttle runs on purpose. That's a million times worse than 100m run itself. It really didn't matter which element of these five alternatives was going on. Okay they first swings were heavier, and front squats got our legs big time as well.
Sipa lost his calf in the process on one of the runs. He started limbing because of the cramp. Luckily we had magnesium spray and he was able to continue nicely. We had different weights for different movements. This time we agreed the loads were right were they needed to be.
It took us 17 minutes to complete the kettlebells and runs. Part B initiated right after the work had been completed. This frightened us a little prior to the workout. I thought why the heck did I program this heavy barbell right after intervals.
However, we got this! We won the barbell for sure. We kept the same order on this one. Sipa started, I was second, Toni came third. I felt strong already on the first rep. Took it on the front rack, and bounced it overhead with the same movement, not stopping at any point. Was able to keep this pace throughout the 8 minute time window. I felt like my partners also improved towards the end all the time, and it started to look like a feather in their hands towards the end! We got through 24 rounds + 2 reps. That makes it a total of 74 reps.
Event 2
Event 3.
15min amrap of:
Rope climbs
Grande Finale! We once saw Mikko Salo and Jonne Koski post a workout where they did 30min amrap of rope climbs. That really stuck to my head as we honored their work capacity with my bro. HC Triplet seemed like the perfect place to redeem that promise we made to each other to get after it some day.
The rope was long. A lot longer than I have used to climb in Klaukkala. Well, I have 7.6m rope but the distance to climb is probably 5 meters long. This was probably 7 meter all the way. At first we climbed to 5m (I went to mark it with a tape in the beginning) but at some point I decided to start going all the way to the roof. I still had something in my tank and strength left, and I didn't want that to be the case once HC Triplet Goes Kehä was finished!
It felt super good to climb. And I was very positively surprised how well my body was able to hold on with just short recoveries between climbs. Toni had some issues with his shoulder and had to withdraw at some stage and it was on me and Sipa to finish the 15 minutes. That made the recovery even shorter. Still, we somehow were able to move up and down the rope nicely. I have no idea of the amount of reps we completed. Sipa had an idea of about 20 reps per dude.
These competitions have always been tough as nails for us. Definitely heavy work both physically and mentally. These are written to be tough, and we succeeded in that goal. As we look at this afterwards I got to say some progress has taken place for Sipa, Toni and I. There's no way we could have done this volume in the last Triplet in 2014. Neither did we have the skills back then required in this comp. So it's very uplifting to stop for a while and think how much progress has been made in the past years.
Wednesday. Every 30sec, for 10 min: clean (up to 100kg). Wod, 6rds of: 10 hspu, 10 pistols, 15 pull-ups.
Some oly lifts to begin with, then Mary-style practice to hone on my gymnastics skills. By the way, it's getting closer. The Crossfit Regionals I mean. On Friday the first athletes are going to throw down in California. It's gonna be freaking awesome!
Oly.
Every 30 seconds, for 10 minutes
1 squat clean
0-2min: 80kg
2-4min: 85kg
4-6min: 90kg
6-8min: 95kg
8-10min: 100kg
This was one squat clean per 30 seconds. And after every 2 minutes I put 5kg more weight on the barbell, starting at 80kg and finishing at 100kg. I'm happy on these lifts. First ones were easy, and the jumps were moderate so my body adjusted well to those weights. It was good to see the 100kg cleans went down well too. It's cool to be able to move that weight. Sometimes I take that for granted but then again looking back occasionally from where I come from this is good progress. Wasn't able to clean 50kg when I started crossfit =)
Metcon.
6 rounds of:
10 handstand push-ups
10 pistol squats
15 pull-ups
Didn't time this one and I took it easier than a normal metcon. Wasn't looking for the best possible time. Instead, focused on going unbroken on the sets. Not that I took too much recovery anyway. This burned my lungs anyway. These movements tend to do so at least in my case. Last set of hspu's had to be broken to two sets but other than that it was ub. It is also good to witness doing sets of 15 pull-ups quite often and I've been able to do most of them unbroken.
Wednesday. Oly, power clean triples (up to 90kg), hang squat cleans (up to 100kg). Front squat 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1 (up to 130kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 21 cal row, 15 pull-ups, 9 thrusters (2x20kg db's).
This time there was no rush at all so I took a good bunch of volume after work day before heading home to eat and recover. It was a whole lot of fun to throw down at the gym with some friends.
Oly.
A - Power clean triples (80, 83, 86, 88, 90kg)
B - Hang squat clean doubles (80, 85, 90, 95, 100kg)
The thing was to hold on to the bar and go for touch'n'go reps on the cleans. No dropping in-between but hold that grip and complete the triples and doubles. Consecutive power cleans at these weights are something I haven't been practicing that much so this was beneficial for sure. I built up to 90 kilos and walk home with some pride in my shirt.
Second part of cleans was hang squat cleans. These are closer to my forte as I can utilize my legs more. Thus, I was able to go to 100kg. Cleans felt pretty good. On the last one I had to adjust my grip before completing the latter rep of the heaviest load.
More barbell work. These were supposed to be done yesterday but I simply forgot to do them. Who does that? =) At home it came to my mind so I postponed it for today. Couple of triples, doubles and singles, with increasing load. The 130kg was heavy and took me a good time to bring it up so I dropped down to 125kg for the last two singles.
Metcon. Time, 15 minutes
5 rounds of:
21 cal row
15 pull-ups
9 thrusters @ 2x20kg dumbbells
After working with the barbell for some time my body felt like the session is about ready. Had to sell the idea of this metcon to myself more than normally. This was stolen from Ben Bergeron, just modified it a little. Original version was c2b pull-ups and thrusters were clusters. I figured it would be a better conditioning piece this way. No need to lean my elbows on my knees that much.
It worked very well for the purpose I was looking for. No idea what the pace was on the rower, just tried to get that Concept2 moving right away as I sat down. Pull-ups were unbroken on the first round, and then 10-5 from then on. Yes they were pain in the ass (okay, in the lats) but somehow I felt more comfortable on those compared to how I imagined they might feel like. There was 75 total reps anyway. Comfortable is probably not the right word, they were nasty. But I was able to keep moving which was the main goal here.
Thrusters kept heart rate up for sure, as did each of the elements in this workout. Went unbroken with the dumbbells. Shoulders got smashed on these though. Legs felt fine on the thrusters but really needed to focus to get the path good on the dumbbells.
Thursday. Emom x 15min: Cleans (up to 100kg). Front squat 7x5 @ 100kg. Metcon, 15min amrap of: 10 hang power clean (40kg), 12 box, 14 ghd. Result, 293 reps.
Today I'm having a day off from work so I got a chance to hit it early in the morning. I had some studying waiting me up to do so that's the reason the session took place even earlier than normally on free days. Took some clean and jerks in the beginning but shoulders felt tired so I changed it to cleans on the fly and then some lighter front squats. And metabolic conditioning in the end. Good session.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes
1-5 minutes: 3 cleans @ 80kg
6-10 minutes: 2 cleans @ 90kg
11-15 minutes: 1 clean @ 100kg
These were all squat cleans. Decided to go by feeling on these. Even though I warmed up longer than normally my body felt stiff and maybe it was still asleep =) That's the reason why the upcoming front squats turned out to be a notch lighter as well.
Three parts, each section took 5 minutes. 3x80, 2x90, 1x100kg emoms. At first I almost game myself too much slack and thought about going at 80 kilos all the way. Luckily I didn't. These felt pretty good despite the stiffness.
Strength.
Front squat 7x5 @ 100kg
It was fun to get some front rack squats done after a while. The load was moderate, something that needs to be moving smoothly under any circumstances any day. I focused on proper bar path and having a good control through the middle on both ascend and descend parts.
Metcon. Result, 293 reps (8 rounds + 5 cleans)
As many reps as possible in 15 minutes of:
10 hang power clean @ 40kg
12 box jumps
14 ghd sit-ups
This seemed like a lot of fun and definitely was so. Cleans and box jumps were completed right next to each other so there was no time-waste there. Ghd's need to be completed at the other side of the space and you can't do cleans there so this needed to be completed at two spots. That took some transition so I played it in my head before starting the workout.
I figured the walk is compulsory between stations so my strategy needs to be so that once I get to the ghd's I gotta jump right into those and start moving. Same thing when returning from there. Grab the barbell right away (after marking the time of each round). Did all these unbroken for sure. I wrote this so that there are no excuses to stop. Round times varied by just seconds, they were quite sharp around 1:50.
Saturday workout took place rather early in the morning as we had planned a day in the downtown Helsinki for a full day. Body felt more stiff than normally but, especially in the beginning. Little by little it got more fresh.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
3 hang squat cleans @ 80kg
I kept the weights moderate as I was on a rather tight schedule. First couple of minutes felt tight on the hips but then they got looser and looser. Felt okay on these cleans.
Metcon. Result, 8 rounds + 180m row
12min amrap of:
250m row
6 handstand push-ups
This was a lot of fun. It would be tempting to do this for a longer period of time. For this time domain I was able to maintain the round times consistent and transitions short. Hspu's were close to 50 reps. What would happen after 75 reps. There might be some sort of threshold but doing only 6 hspu's per set is tolerable, and could be for a good time.
My goal on the rower was not to take it as a recovery at all but to keep a good pace all the way. It's just something like 20 pulls to reach 250 meters so I kept pulling with a purpose, walked to the wall and took those 6 hspu's unbroken. This was a good efficient session, and I left the gym with a smile on my face
Friday. Wod, 10min amrap of: 20 squats, 15 ghd, 12 jerks (2x15kg db's). Result, 273 reps. Cleans up to 100kg. Wod, 4rds of: 12 kb swing (32kg), 25 lunges, 250m row. Wear a 10kg vest. Time, 11.25.
Today was somewhat an easier day. It wasn't supposed to be but I didn't come up with a perfect plan so this is what it turned out to =) The latter metcon beat my legs though. Cleans in the middle were lighter ones.
Metcon. Result, 273 reps (5 rounds + 3 jerks)
10min amrap of:
20 air squats
15 ghd sit-ups
12 shoulder-to-overhead, 2x15kg dumbbells
First piece was basically no warm-up needed type of wod. Bodyweight plus some lighter dumbbells. Focus was on keeping my body moving constantly, and not stop to breathe. Still, this didn't get me gassed that bad. Legs got their share on the workout. I did the s2o's as push jerks all the way so those got to lower body nicely too.
Cleans.
Singles 60, 70, 80, 90, 95, 100kg
These were light ones. I was spotting one guy on the bench occasionally and didn't have a timer running so this turned out to be a little sloppy piece but I'm happy the lifts were good anyway. Below is the last one at 100kg's
Metcon. Time, 11.25
4 rounds of:
12 kettlebell swings, 32kg
25 walking lunges
250m row
Wear a 10kg weight vest
After the last round was completed I realized the set-up sucked quite a bit of my time. It took me 15+ seconds to walk from rower to the kettlebell. Yes I know, sounds like I should have brought the bell next to the rower. The idea didn't even cross my mind :) On the other hand, maybe that was a good thing so I got my legs recovered a bit on the walks.
Having that vest on also on the kb swings and rowing definitely had its effect. Swings felt kind of funny, and I'm still wondering if I was wearing it the right way or should the front side be on my back. Anyway, lunges were nasty. Definitely liked those in some twisted way.
Sunday. Every 0:30, for 10min: 1 squat clean (up to 100kg). Emom x 10min. Odd, 12 hspu. Even, 12 k2e.
There was a tight time window in the evening to get some fitness done at the gym. There was simply no other soul at the so it was kind of funny to hit it. That's fine by me though! I went for cleans, hspu's and k2e's.
Sunday evening set-up
Oly.
Every 0:30, for 10 minutes, perform 1 squat clean
80, 80, 80, 80kg
85, 85, 85, 85kg
90, 90, 90, 90kg
95, 95, 95, 95kg
100, 100, 100, 100kg
My legs are trashed. Maybe the reason for this is the metcon with running included. Haven't run in ages - not a good choice in the long run - but that's the situation right now. Foam rolling these quads was painful. Anyway, I wanted to hit some cleans, been missing those.
Because I was in more or less hurry it needed to be efficient. Emom training suited perfectly for today. One lift every 30 seconds. This started at 80kg, then jumped 5kg up every 2 minutes. That was 4 lifts per weight. I'm very happy on getting up to 100kg for 4 lifts in the end with good confidence despite the smashed legs.
Gymnastics.
Every minute on the minute x 8 minutes
Odd min, 12 handstand push-ups
Even, 12 knees-to-elbows
Jumped into this with about 3 minute recovery after cleans. This was intentionally short and thus I added some reps to what I would normally do in emom workouts. That means more reps on the handstand push-ups than traditionally. 12 reps per minute is no joke but I got through them nicely. On the last minute I took one fail but other than that it was rather smooth.
Don't even remember when I had done knees-to-elbow's for the last time. Usually when I go after something like this, it's most likely t2b's. Or ghd's if we can count them as similar movements. These were a nice variance and they rolled smoothly.
I took a day off on Wednesday because of issues with timetables. Thursday was a real blast. We directed to Lahti with a bunch of colleagues for workshop purposes, and then relaxed at the Vierumäki sports resort. That is one heck of a mecca for a sports dude. You can practically do anything there, either solo or then in a team.
We had the pleasure of getting familiar with curling to kick the sports piece off. I've played this sport once before in my life couple of years ago when I still played floorball. That time we had a training camp in Kisakallio, similar sports center near Lohja. This was as fun as it could possibly be. We enjoyed this one a lot, hilarious stuff.
Then I got my chance to hit crossfit session and I definitely utilized that. Got some friends accompany me and they were down for a real metabolic conditioning session. I'm very proud of these two studs for giving their best effort in the form of rowing, kettlebell swings and burpees. Looked nasty but they made it through their first cf wod with winning mental attitude!
Oly.
A - Clean complex: Clean + Hang clean + 3 Front squat (60, 70, 80, 90, 95, 95, 95, 95, 95kg)
B - Clean singles (100, 105, 110kg)
There was really no plan whatsoever. That's because I had no idea if there will be a good time slot for a training session or not. So I just grabbed the barbell and started moving it around as we got to the gym. Took some front squats at the end of clean + hang clean combo. Thought about doing that for light weights to get legs warmed up properly but during time I realized I was going heavier and heavier with the same format.
These felt pretty good and I'm happy on being able to do the front squats easily right after the second clean on each set. After taking couple of sets on the complex I added some weight for couple singles. Wanted to have bigger weights. I'm pleased that I can clean 110kg any day as my one rep max is set currently at 118kg.
Clean complex @ 90kg
Metcon.
7min amrap
2-2, 4-4, 6-6… of:
Front squats @ 60kg
Burpees
As I put the guys sweat their butts off in a pair workout there was no doubt I would go for burpees myself too. This was a short-ish metcon where the idea is to keep grinding. I went unbroken on the burpees for every round and for front squats up to the round of 10. The 12's were 8-4 and 14's were 8-6. These really shot my legs big time. They were cramping in the evening. Loved this wod!
After recovering in the sauna and eating a fabulous dinner it was time to get some bowling done. It's been years since I've had my fingers on a bowling ball but it came back quite quickly. Best result for one round was 172 points for me so I'll take it!
