Monday. Back squats 5-5-5-3-1 (max 130kg). Workout, pistols and dips.
I was thinking about thrusters and pull-ups for today (not Fran!) but my right shoulder was a bit too sore from yesterday's muscle-up training. So I switched some days in this week's calendar and decided to squat instead. Back squats and then workout of 2 movements that I consider a skill as well: pistols and dips.
Ring dips
Strength. Back squats 5-5-5-3-1 (100, 115, 122.5, 125, 130kg). Did some 5's to start with. After 122.5kg I took a triple with 125kg and wanted to push 130kg up once. I was thinking to take another single with 130 or heavier but decided to skip it today. I had some pistols ahead of me so I knew my legs would hurt anyway. I felt good squatting today even though the digits were not huge. I felt comfortable with the weight in my back.
Back squat 3 x 125kg
Workout. For quality.
5 rounds of:
10 pistols, alternating legs
10 ring dips / rack dips, then
3 rounds of:
10 biceps
10 rack dips
Main idea was to do 10 pistols and 10 ring dips for 5 rounds. There was one dude that needed the rings as well so at some point I switched to rack dips instead of rings. After those pre-determined 5 rounds I decided to take 3 additional rounds with some ancillary movements (biceps) and yet rack dips. Thus, I was able to work on my weakness, the arms, biceps and triceps. Quite a number of dips today, a bit over 80 dips (I did some extras when doing rack dips 'cause they are easier than rings). Also, those 60 pistols made my quads hurt already at the gym.
It's the last day to perform CF Open 13.3 but I missed it. Open is over for me this year, same with Toni. I was afraid some sort of workout would be published by Crossfit Games I would have difficulties to go along with. If you remember from reading my blog earlier, I have desired to do Karen (150 x 9kg wall ball for time) for a loooong time but haven't found the premises and circumstances where I could do that workout. 13.3 was 12min amrap of 150 wall balls, followed by 90 double unders and 30 muscle-ups. I don't have access to crossfit box and didn't have time to find one this week. We were thinking about getting it together outdoors to do some wall balls with a self-made wall ball / basketball but organizing that workout faced far too many difficulties so we had to skip it totally. It's a pity but no can do. I'm not thinking too much about it. Instead I drove to my home gym with Pauliina to meet Toni who arrived home during weekend!
Warming up
Strength. Bench press and deadlift. Sets of 5 in both movements.
Bench press 6x5 (all sets 80kg)
Deadlift 5x5 (all sets 120kg)
Traditionally I only take one strength movement per day but today I felt good about doing both of these. My goal was to do 5 sets of 5 reps in bench but I wanted to do that one extra set to finish with pride. Last reps of the sets (4th and 5th) were clearly heavier than the first three but manageable. I could have added some weights but my first priority was to do complete sets of 5 reps so I didn't risk that. At least in the end I felt this was perfect weight for me but in the beginning the first sets were 2.5-5kg too light. Considering the total amount of reps, this was exactly what my chest needed.
Bench, 5x80kg
For deadlift I was thinking about the weights for quite a while. In both movements my aim was to do all sets with the same weight. After the workout I felt good. Now as I'm sitting at my computer and writing this blog I began to rethink about the whole thing and my conclusion is there was no sense in the deadlift's weight-scheme at all!?! My max load is 180kg so this was clearly too light. I have no troubles in lifting 120kg for several times so why would I do 5x5 with 66% of my max?
Deadlift, 5x120kg
My conclusion is I should have done done sets with around 140/150kg for 5-reps. The problem I have with deadlift is that my technique is not as good as I'd hope. It's not as smooth as it should be, it kind of consists of various steps when you look at my movement from down to top, in comparison to seamless movement from ground to full extension. For 120kg I can manage it with some sort of style but as we go heavier my hips shoot up before they should. So that was the unconscious decision probably to keep the weights less than 140-150kg.
HSPU
Metcon. Result 6 or 7 rounds.
12min amrap
3 hspu
5 pull-ups
7 toes-to-bar
9 push-ups
I saw this workout at one finnish cf box's website and decided to give it a shot. 12 minutes of bodyweight movements. Other than handstand push-ups the movements weren't bad. On the hspu I had some difficulties from early on and that's the reason my result was rather weak today. Maybe it was the bench earlier in the training that had its influence.
My clock had it's own soul life today so I'm not exactly sure was it 6 or 7 rounds. I was hoping to stay on 1.00-1.30 pace per round even with handstand push-ups in play. The other movements were easy considering the amount of reps included. From some point on I had to do the hspu's in singles which startled me. Beforehand I was confident to nail those unbroken throughout the workout. Reality was far away from it =) I had some technical problems there as well and didn't find my flow zone in hspu's today. Still, I'm sure they are not going to be a problem for that long. I have to stay consistent in practicing them so naturally at some point they are not gonna be an issue anymore.
Toni's workouts. First "Death by deadlift", 120kg. Result 6rds + 4 reps. Total of 25 reps.
Metcon wasn't easy!
Then a metcon. Result 215 DU's. Amount of double unders per round: 4-37.
12min EMOM
4 power clean, 60kg
Rest of the minute double unders
Result is the total amount of double unders in 12min
First he did a death by deadlift with 120kg, last time he did it with 85kg. The latter workout was cruel. All about metabolic conditioning.
Toni getting prepared for "death by" workout with 80kg
I can really feel at the moment in my back that today was a day of heavy deadlifts. Toni joined me in the morning workout and we both did the same strength training. The metcons were different in nature, Toni went for death by deadlift. I took knees-to-elbows and wall balls as ingredients well. By the way, I find it awesome warm-up to do some bear complex with the bar (20kg) for starters after some rowing, jump rope, squats, lunges and overhead squats. It really heats up the muscles in a good way. I've taken it as a routine nowadays.
Strength. 6x5 (110+120+130+140+145+ PR 150kg). I have really improved a lot in deadlifts in the near past. My first deadlifts were about two months ago with approximately 110kg. Since then I was able to upgrade it to 130kg. Since then it has been quite a steady development with adding some 5 kilos once in a while. And these are not 1 rep maxes but usually 3 reps. Today I took 5 reps for 110+120+130+140 kilos. For 145 (my previous PR) I took 3, as well as with 150kg, new record. I'm very happy to the result, you'll see the last three reps in the video below.
Deadlift 150kg, 3 reps
Toni took 5 reps for three sets, 100 + 110 + 120kg. Then he took 130kg once and 120kg trice. He said it was difficult to hold a good grip of the bar. After the training session I also paid attention to the missing pieces of my hand as the bar had scratched some skin off... =)
Wod. We had different types of metcons. Time 6.59, Toni had 63 reps. My workout was 21-15-9 of the following.
Deadlift (100kg)
Knees-to-elbows, K2E
Wall ball (15kg plate)
This means in the first round you'll have to do 21 reps of deadlift, K2E and wall ball, next round 15 reps of each and finally 9 reps of each. I don't have access to wall ball so I have modified it to using 15kg plate which I use to do thrusters, you'll see it in the video. I can see afterwards that I should highlight the full motion with the K2Es. I would like to see my knees go higher to touch the elbows correctly, not only the triceps. Next time I'll do this better. Anyway, that is a badass movement and really gets to your core. My grip got a bit loose in the final reps so I couldn't go unbroken. In the first round I had to wait some +20sec as there was traffic under the pull-up bar.
Don's metcon, first round
I got the first 15 deadlifts unbroken, then I had to take a short pause to adjust my grip. Same with the K2Es, 15 in a row, then a short brake. Wall balls were unbroken in each set. In the second round I took 5+5+5 for deadlifts, 9+6 for K2Es and maybe the third round of deadlifts was unbroken or then in two sets. This metcon was wicked, I was really gassed at the end and it hit me everywhere. There were a total of 45 reps each movement. That is 4.500kg of deadlifts, and 675kg of wall balls. And those approximately 30 reps of over 100kg reps before the metcon... No wonder my back really feels it now, in a good way!
Toni took another set of "Death by Deadlift". Last time he did this workout with 100kg about 1.5 months ago. That time his result was 7 rounds and 6 reps, total of 34 reps. However, he remembered he did it with 85kg so today he put 85kg at the barbell because he wanted to compare the development. Anyway, today the result was 10 rounds and 8 reps with 85kg, total of 63 reps. A lot of kilos was moving around today! Toni, do you want to comment you calculation skills? ;)
Sunday. Strength: deadlift 5 x 5. Rest 5min. Wod: 21-15-9 bar-facing burpees + pull-ups. Time 5.03
Time for deadlift, the whole trio - me, Pauliina and Toni - were into deadlifting today. I took a strength training 5 x 5 style and the others moved onto "death by deadlift" after warming up. Therefore, another mental struggle was indeed about to be faced at our gym :) Pauliina was clearly the toughest of us. My 5-rep sets were 110+120+120+130+120kg. Toni lasted for 7 total rounds and 6 reps on the eight round, total of 34 reps (100kg). Pauliina's guts were strongest today and she lasted for 13 rounds and 7 reps, total of 98 reps (25kg). Pauliina hasn't been pumped up on crossfit and this was pretty much the first crossfit wod she's ever done so we were extremely proud of her effort and result!
Double-unders. Yesterday evening I had to take another training session, this time skills training. I had watched some crossfit videos after morning training and a lot of them included double-unders. Since I had some spare time I decided to take another half an hour to learn this skills move a little bit more. I can do a double-under, no problems in that whatsoever. The problem is that I can't repeat it several times in a row. That's why I'm normally doing every other jump as a double and every other as a single-under. Usually I can do a couple double-singles in a row, so yesterday's PR 17 reps was astonishing :) It is vital to get DUs going well because they are used in quite a number of wods. I can do a couple of DUs in a row but still, I always have to take that exra single-under inbetween so there's a lot to be improved. I don't have rhythm at all to keep the jump rope moving constantly, I kind of stop rolling the rope after one DU. My skills definitely need more practice, today again I took some time at the gym to enhance in double-unders.
Strength and wod. The strength training was ok but for some reason the bar with all that weight on it felt heavier than I had thought beforehand. My sets were between 110-130kg, most of them with 120kg. At least my technique stayed correct, back straight and shoulder blades pulled just a little bit together.
At the end of the workout I took a wod consisting of bar-facing burpees and pull-ups, reps of 21-15-9. Bar-facing burpees means you do regular burbees but you always have to jump over a barbell. I put some weights on the bar so that it's compulsory to really jump over it. It's not allowed to step over it but you have to jump very time. Burpees went unbroken, wasn't so bad but pull-ups were broken from the very beginning. First 21 reps were something like 10+6+5. Second round maybe 5+4+4+2. Third round was a battle from the beginning, which forced me to conduct reps in 1-2 rep-sets. I have to keep on including pull-ups in my daily routine and start learning kipping style better to make it easier for my upper body. If I always have to do them broken I consume extra time constantly. Take Fran for example, I could drop over one minute of my PR just like that if I could perform pull-ups with kipping style.
Toni made some tabata workouts at the end, dips and single-unders. Little by little he's also getting to that double-under level, the first step has already been taken, he bought his own rope so it's easy to get it going at home as well. I have to keep on practicing, otherwise that guy is going to beat me in those. Tomorrow it's going to be a push press day, looking forward for it!
