Saturday. AM: 7 sets of 10 db snatch @ 25kg and uphill sprint. Rest as needed between sets. PM: Metcon, 10rds of: 20m farmer's walk @ 2x25kg db's, 7 double db jerk @ 2x25kg, 30 air squats.
Went outdoors with Kari to hit a session at Tornimäki hill. Dumbbell snatches and sprints up the hill. Hurt legs nicely.
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.
Thursday. 4min amraps of burpees and snatches with ascending weights. Metcon, 20 to 2, down by 2's ghd's. 10 db press between ghd's.
Another long day at work. This thing called crossfit is a perfect way to zero my thoughts and get back to life. It was a productive day indeed but energy levels start to come down at some point. Then it's time to gear up and go to work, to the gym though. By the way, the Crossfit Open is upon us! They will publish the first event, 16.1 on the upcoming night. It's gonna be spectacular to kickoff the crossfit season. I love to watch and follow the pros doing their job to find the fittest on earth.
My camera's battery went dead on the first amrap so I couldn't relive the moments but fact is that on the first round I went unbroken on the burpees. Actually every round. That was the easy part. Then came the snatches. First round was 10-10-5-7 reps to finish it with 32 reps.
Second set was with slightly heavier weights at 50kg. First 20 burpees, then use the rest of the remaining time of 4 minutes to complete as many snatches as possible. It was triples all the way until the last set where I took one extra rep.
Third amrap was at 60 kilos which meant it's gonna be singles from the very first lift. This was a good strategy, and I don't know how many fails there would have been had I tried to do doubles. In the beginning I was a bit too ambitious and tried to do fast singles. This led to one failed rep. Other than that it was okay. Definitely not the best snatches I've had but the barbell came up.
Metcon.
20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 of ghd sit-ups
10 dumbbell presses @ 2x15kg
This was created on the fly. Just started moving and came up with this during the first set of ghd's. That was a good time pressure to think what to do after the 20 reps are done. Walked right onto dumbbell rack and picked up two pieces of 15kg db's, and went for 10 reps. That was easy in the beginning.
During these 10 rounds they got tougher towards the last rounds. Core got also stiff in the metcon and both movements brought pressure there. Went unbroken still, and refused to take any rest between elements. Walked over to the dumbbells, picked them up right away and put them overhead. Same with the ghd's.
Tuesday. Skills, ring mu's. Weighted pull-ups 8x3. Metcon, 5min amrap of: burpee box jumps and pull-ups. Metcon, 5min amrap of: hspu's and kb swings. Metcon, 5min amrap of: t2b's and db presses.
Yeah, kind of a different day. Took ring muscle-ups in the beginning after a long break. Also pull-ups with added weight is something that hasn't taken place in eternity. Metcon consisted of 3 quick workouts, mostly bodyweight, mixed with some dumbbells. This was great stuff!
Really needed these to save my palms today
Skills.
Ring muscle-ups, 1-1-1-1-1
Good to have these in my system. And it was solid effort all the way. Each rep were assumably similar. I did mental work prior to each rep to avoid misses because this is as much physical as it is psychological movement for me. This was probably the second time in the past months I've done ring mu's at all. I remember I intentionally skipped this movement totally for a while when I had those wrist issues. Now this needs to make a comeback.
Ring mu's but not from today's session
Weighted pull-ups.
8x3 (10, 15, 20, 20, 20, 15, 15, 15kg)
Don't know where this came from but for some reason I had the urge to go after these. Not sure did I get anything out of these but at least the work was being done. Originally I was looking to do 7 sets with normal pull-up grip, that is pronated grip. After 7 sets I though trying one more set with supinated grip. That felt much lighter.
The first 2 sets were the at 10-15kg and I felt there was room to add up so the next couple of sets were at 20kg. The 5th set felt a bit too tight and it felt like next set wouldn't succeed as a triple so I dropped it to 15kg and finished the rest of the sets, maybe a bit too light though on those. Maybe it could've been 17.5kg or something like that.
Metcon. Result, 73 reps (13 burpees on the round of 15's)
3-3-, 6-6, 9-9… of:
Burpee box jump
Pull-ups
Toni just completed this kind of stuff maybe yesterday. He got 2x5min amraps, pretty much identical, the only difference was he had burpees over the box whereas I had burpee box jumps. Difference? Mine had to be facing the box all the time whereas in burpees over the box you may face the box however you want to. I wanted to work on that explosiveness at the same time when coming up from the burpee. Need to use hips and jump close to the box so that I could bounce on top of the box with one constant movement. Thanks to Toni for the inspiration on the metcons.
It was good to have this kind of quick and fast-paced action. The nature of these metcons is different compared to a 20min amrap or a long benchmark workout. Anyway, I went unbroken on both movements except the 12 pull-ups that I cut to 7-5. Burpee box jumps really know how to get heart rate up. This was a good one.
Metcon. Result, 68 reps (8 hspu on the round of 15's)
3-3-, 6-6, 9-9… of:
Handstand push-ups
Dumbbell swings (30kg)
Same logic with the reps. Start with a triple with both movements, add 3 more reps each round to both movements. Complete as many reps as possible in the 5min time frame. I got hspu's unbroken on the first 2 rounds. It was no surprise handstand push-ups was the more challenging element of these two. On the round of 9's I cut it to 6-3. And round of 12's it was 4-4-2-2, I just tried to keep the recovery as short as possible, still keeping in mind that I can't rush it so save shoulders a little bit. Once they go out of order, they won't come back in seconds.
"Kettlebell" swings were tougher with a dumbbell. No matter the 2kg difference to 2-pood bell. I'd rather swing the traditional bell because of the grip. It was kind of awkward to fit both hands on the dumbbell as there's not that much space. Well, no biggie, I got those unbroken anyway. Swings for 3-12 reps is nothing so it was only inevitable to make 'em unbroken.
Great workout, and my shoulders were definitely smashed after 5 minutes. I enjoy this kind of 3-3, 6-6… system, especially for workouts that last something between 5 and 7 minutes. Works perfectly, this is what we talked with Toni too.
Fast forward to event 7
Metcon. Result, 101 reps (11 t2b's on the round of 18's)
3-3-, 6-6, 9-9… of:
Toes-to-bar's
Dumbbell presses (2x15kg db's)
This was extra stuff. I had planned to hit only 2 wods but Pauliina talked me over for a third one. She often hits 4 x 7min amraps, that is some serious shit. What hit me the most on this workout was grip weakness. Had no idea how heavy dumbbells would make perfection on this workout but afterwards thought this weight was great. I got them unbroken which is pretty much the idea for all movements in this kind of short workout. Db presses were not light so I'd figure it was exactly what I was able to move.
And here's the Final too!
Toes-to-bar's were easy for first 3 rounds (3's, 6's, and 9's). From then on I cut it, the round of 12's were 8-4, and the round of 15's were 6-5-4. On the last round I think it was 5-5-1 before the buzzer finally rang. My grip was losing me at some point. There was some tingling in forearms after db presses and that transferred to hanging at the pull-up bar. Great combo of movements, got to say!
All 3 metcons had their moment, and each were good quick efforts and I was happy on being able to move most of the time. That is exactly the reason in a workout like this. That is always the objective for me but the pace needs to be different compared to a short and long workouts.
Monday. Strength: 10 x (hang squat clean + full squat clean + 2 push press @70kg). Metcon, 2k row. Every 250m perform 5 strict shoulder press + 5 diamond push-ups. Wear a 9kg vest. Time 13.36
I love cleans! It was time for another complex type of workout, combining cleans and push presses. It was perfect. And the metcon to follow, huh, exactly what I wanted. And it gets better. I had Pauliina and Tony the Pony with me, couldn't be better.
Strength.
10 x (hang squat clean + full squat clean + 2 push press)
70kg on the barbell each set
Was wondering the weights for a second and then realized 70kg would suit well for my purposes. I wanted to have 2-position squat cleans: from hang and from ground. I can clean 95kg from the ground but haven't probably done cleaned more than 70-75kg from hang position. And there were also 2 push presses to be done after the cleans. So I got my head around 70kg and completed all sets with the same weight.
It was good to have Tony with me to coach. We did our strength parts alternating so that we were able to give feedback to each other. That was valuable. My elbows weren't in perfect position in the first 2 sets. After that Toni pointed out the importance of the elbows shooting straight ahead. The weight was not that heavy that it would force me in having them in the right position so it was crucial to have a coach saying that out loud. Thanks for that man.
Barbell flew up pretty nicely in my opinion. That 70kg isn't that bad and it was awesome to realize it was also easy on the hang squats as well. The push press was the toughest part strength-wise. However, I had no doubts in any of the lifts. The weight was simply perfect for today. Could have been 75kg but no point in going further from that in this type of workout. It was about one set per 1.5min throughout the workout.
Metcon. Time 13.36
2.000m row
Every 250m, perform the following:
5 strict dumbbell presses, 2 x 17.5kg
5 diamond push-ups
This was nice. Rowing pace was around 1.40 / 500m in the beginning and the latter kilometer was around 1.45 / 500m. I usually go with the damper setting of 8 and today was no exception. 250m is a short sprint, only about 20 strokes so you can put more effort there. Those presses and diamond push-ups started to eat some of the strength which caused the pace to slow down a bit. Still, that was not the bottleneck, it was more like the transition times between movements.
Had 2 x 17.5kg dumbbells with the strict shoulder presses. Those went unbroken as well as the diamond push-ups. Those concentrate more pressure in the triceps. Having 9kg vest on from the beginning makes it a bit tougher on every aspect of it. In the beginning it felt awkward to row with a weighted vest but I got used to it pretty quickly.
Enjoyed this workout and this entire training session a lot. These were all good wods, first the barbell complex and then some wet-shirt metcon wearing a vest. Loved it!
Pony did some old school strength to strengthen his posterior chain. He did some beautiful squats, good depth on the reps, good form in general, and good breathing technique as well. Highest set was 115kg. Then it was time to move on to his metcon, consisting of box jumps and db snatches. He completed those snatches changing hand after 5 reps: first 5 left, then 5 right hand. I put there 4.5 rounds because he was supposed to do 5 rounds but for some sick reason he forgot to complete the last set of snatches =) Well, he punished himself after he relayed it and did the 10 missing reps with 25kg. Fair enough.
Saturday. Clean & jerk (up to 80kg), bench press (up to 95kg). Dumbbell metcon.
Today's program was about working with barbells and dumbbells. Some clean & jerk for starters and bench press.
Strength. C&J and bench.
Clean & jerk, 5x60, 3x70, 3x75, 2x80 (failed on the third rep at 80kg)
Bench press, 3x70, 3x80, 3x90, 1x95, failed on 100kg
That 90kg bench was sick. I believe I've done that weight only in singles before. Now I hit a triple, nice! After all that work with clean & jerks and bench, 100kg didn't come up. I'm sure it would if going only after a record with singles. You'll find those attempts in Youtube.
3x90kg
1x95kg
Dumbbell workout. Increase load between sets. Not for time. Sets: 17.5, 20, 22.5, 22.5, 22.5kg db's.
5 rounds of:
5 deadlift
5 hang cleans
5 press
5 squat
Rest between sets as needed. Had no idea what weights would suit for me to start with. I grabbed 17.5kg, added to 20kg and finished the last 3 cycles with 22.5kg. Grip strength was the name of the game.
Take a look at this series of handstand training. I'll keep adding the rest of the season clips, awesome tips to proceed in handstand walk (up the stairs…)
