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.
Sunday. Power clean 3-3-3-3-3 (up to 95kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 10 power clean @ 50kg, 20 pistols. Metcon, 4rds of: 40m farmer's walk @ 130kg, 25 ghd's.
Today's agenda was inspired by the ongoing crossfit regionals. Pistols and cleans were the main goal for today. Prior to that I decided to take triples on power cleans and hit some records there. In the end another brutal workout to seal the deal. I call that a great Sunday! During the day we spent quality time with my wife in Porvoo, what a beautiful city, especially during the summer time!
Oly.
Power cleans 3-3-3-3-3 (80, 85, 90, 93, 95kg)
Didn't have this part in my mind early on but at at some point today I realized I need to warm-up anyway for the pistol / clean portion so why not take advantage it and rattle through some triples in the process. This time I built up to a heavy touch'n'go triple.
There is no doubt that those last two sets were personal records if I recorded max sets of something else than singles. Heavy power cleans are definitely not in my wheelhouse so I'll take this result victoriously and a smile on my face.
Metcon. Time, 9.00
5 rounds of:
10 power cleans @ 50kg
20 pistol squats, alternating
They did this for 4 rounds of 28 pistols and 15 power cleans. I modified it a notch, the volume stayed a little lower (118 --> 100 pistols and 60 --> 50 cleans). The reason was 28 pistols didn't something I'd be going through very fast. My legs are smoked from yesterday's strongman type of workout. Figured this would give me more intense end result.
This was brutal on lower body. Damned those pistol squats. I have them okay but when there's a good volume of those they are going to wear me down. More efficiency on those wouldn't be too bad of a thing. I did them 10-10 in every set.
This started with power cleans and so I did the first set unbroken. The following rounds were all singles. That was not predetermined by any means. In the beginning they were light, especially after the heavy clean triples. But then after the first round I started to save my legs for the pistols. Going unbroken would have taxed me a lot more than these singles. And thus I was able to keep going more effectively.
Metcon. Time, 12.20
4 rounds of:
2x20m farmer's walk @ 130kg
25 ghd sit-ups
My legs were cramping after the pistol metcon. Especially right quad was feeling miserable. Had to drink a lot and foam roll those quads to recover before the last event on this Sunday. I'll tell ya, those farmer's walks felt much more brutal after previous work being done today.
Ghd's were destined to be completed unbroken. Had to take a short break in the last set on top of the ghd machine as it felt like I'm not going to get up again otherwise =) This was a very good workout to smash core all the way.
Sunday. CF Open 14.4. Result, 184 reps. Accessory, 5rds of: 40m farmer's walk (135kg), handstand.
Old school benchmark which I have somehow been able to avoid this far. It was about time to attack it. After couple of minutes rest it was time for accessory work in the form of strongman meets skills. Farmer's walk set for 40 meters and handstand practice between carries. It's been months since being in freestand handstand.
CF Open 14.4. Result, 184 reps (4 muscle-ups)
14min amrap of:
60 cal row
50 toes-to-bar's
40 wall ball shots
30 power cleans
20 ring muscle-ups
The thing that got me terrified on this workout as I was thinking about was basically the power cleans and muscle-ups. Everything prior to that is just basic conditioning, and I kind of think that's in okay shape in my part.
Rowing was kind of a cool ride and I kept a smooth breathing throughout that stage. It was quite accurately 800 meters of rowing with a 1.48 pace. It's rare to complete a big bunch of t2b's in a row so I decided to go by feeling on this one. Took 10 reps to begin with, then 5's from then on.
Wall balls were the easiest part of this workout, took them in two sets, 25 at first and then 15 to reach a total of 40 repetitions. Those power cleans at this stage of the workout with a rather good heart beat was interesting. The bar felt good in my hands all the time and the weight wasn't too heavy. But it just gets heart beat a lot heavier. Took these in singles for all 30 reps. First a 10 rep stint, then 5's till the end. My heart was racing pretty wildly after these.
Got to admit my body wasn't eager to jump on the rings after working for 12 minutes of rowing, t2b's, wb's and cleans. Damn it felt heavy to get myself on top of the rings. Got a double at first attempt, then two singles. They look easier than they felt and this got me thinking should I have forced myself to jump on the rings earlier with less recovery.
CF Open 14.4
Strongman / Skills.
5 rounds of:
40m farmer's walk @ 135kg
Handstand
Strongman meets skills. Very different type of elements. There were 2x25kg bumper plates on each handle so that means the total weight was 135kg for the farmer's walk. This was not a timed workout, more of an accessory work. It's been months since doing handstand so it was fun to get upside down and attack this skill. It was a good combination of movements.
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.
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. Metcon, 4rds of: 4 bar mu, 20 wb. Time, 5.24. Push jerk triples from blocks (up to 85kg). Farmer's walk 2x20m (up to 135kg).
Huh I was waiting this session like a little kid. Reason: yesterday was a day off. We went outdoors for a dinner and quality time with family. Today I had decided to take the first step towards the newly acquired Rogue jerk blocks. Respect to the gym owner who finally got these bad boys! This place is great.
Metcon.
4 rounds of:
4 bar muscle-ups
20 wall ball
Session started with a skills related conditioning piece. I went back and forth in my head between ring and bar muscle-ups and finally ended up with bar mu's. It's been an eternity since doing mu's last time so it was about time to throw down.
Nice combo. Shoulders were burning pretty well. I still battle with the feeling of how much to gas in metcons including muscle-ups. I'm kinda afraid of hitting the wall on those so I hold back a bit throughout the wod. In this one I felt like I kept good breaks between wall balls and mu's but then again afterwards it was like I could have gone faster. Or with shorter breaks.
Like a dream come true. This is an understatement though. I've seen dreams of these since day one when I started crossfit. My clean is way stronger than my jerk so this is a tool to work on my overhead strength and technique with heavier weights. It's a different thing to lower the barbell on front rack position compared to this where you can drop it on the blocks and tie another shot at it.
I basically didn't have any plans as this was a totally new thing for me. Took a set at 60kg, then 70kg, and just built up by feeling. Finally there were 3 sets of triples at 85kg. Only afterwards I realized that was definitely the heaviest push jerks I have done in my life. 85kg as a single is PR for me and today I did 9 reps at that weight. Split jerk is over 100kg but push jerk's limits have been at this point. I guess something good has happened even though heavy barbells have not been over my head in a month. Felt super happy on this part!
Strength.
Farmer's walk 2x20m (105, 115, 125, 125, 135kg)
Lately I've learned to respect this movement big time. The matt is 20 meters long so I grabbed the handles and went one way, dropped them down, and came back after a little breath taking session. This is definitely an entire body element that requires you to fully engage the entire body. That also results in developing every piece of this body.
This strongman stuff is great. I'm planning to add this to my program on a weekly routine. At least some strongman piece for sure, variance is the key to everything. Pretty obvious stuff. This was the heaviest I have done this far. It started to get on my grip strength in the last round.
Friday. Oly lifts emom: sdhp's and hang snatches. Wod, 5rds of: 40m farmer's walk @ 113kg, 40m lunges, 10 t2b. Cashout, 200m walking lunges wearing a weight vest. L-sit pull-ups, 4 sets.
Friday night training session. As I entered the gym, the owner told right away that he's ordering jerk blocks from Rogue. That was sick news! I've been drawling over those for a year now. Hopefully someday I'm able to put some weight overhead because those will definitely make a difference for jerks.
Oly.
Every 30 seconds: 1 sumo deadlift high-pull @ 80kg, for 10 minutes
Every minute on the minute: 3 high hang power snatch @ 40kg, for 10 minutes
Two different emom style workouts. There was a 3min break between these. Damn I'd like to do cleans. Sumo deadlift high-pulls are my substitute for those. There aren't many bar movements I can smash right now so I went heavy on the sdhp's. Never have I gone over 60kg before today.
It was a positive thing I was able to do power snatches. Can't put real weight on the bar though but the movement was okay this time. Focus was on extending my hips properly and being powerful. Towards the end it got better.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
40m farmer's walk @ 113kg
40m walking lunges, bodyweight
10 toes-to-bar
Great one. That farmer's walk was a nice piece to throw in the mix. That's definitely not too light. Haven't gone beyond this weight on this movement either before. That's obviously an entire body movement
Bodyweight burned quads big time, especially right after the farmer's walk. That was purely bodyweight stuff but it was definitely sufficient. T2b's were there to bring more pressure on the core. Great workout. Didn't time this at all but worked with same determination as normally.
Cashout.
200m walking lunges
Wear a 9kg vest
Went back and forth that 20m length of grass matt, wearing a vest that weighs 9-10 kilos. Went unbroken for each leg of the distance, then shook my legs before continuing the journey. This was bad ass on lower body.
Gymnastics.
4 sets of:
L-sit pull-ups
Result: 10, 10, 9, 5 reps
In the end I decided to do this old fella I haven't said hi to in ages. L-sit pull-ups, max sets for for 4 sets. First two were 10 reps each, third was close but on the 4th set my arms were so pumped that I could only go for 5. These were no-reps by a long shot but I'll take it. Didn't come to a dead hang in the bottom position. I'm still happy to being able to do these sets nicely.
Late evening session. I got inspired by two other crossfitters at the gym. They had a long pair workout which they had stolen from the legend himself - Mikko Salo. I went to explore Mikko's instagram for a good half an hour and tried to absorb every piece of wisdom he had revealed to fellow crossfitters. Then I brainstormed with myself and came up with this gem =)
Workout.
3 rounds of:
500m row
40m farmer's walk @ 113kg
500m row
40m sled pull @ 110kg (+sled)
500m row
15 sumo deadlift high-pulls @ 60kg
This was exactly what I was looking for. The stimulus was right on point. Lots of rowing mixed up with strongman elements. Haven't done much farmer's walk or sled work lately. Sumo deadlift high-pulls have been in the program for a reason in the past two weeks because that's pretty much the only thing with barbell that doesn't bother my wrist.
Got to say this was something close to genius. Rowing pace was something between 1:50 - 1:58 so nothing serious but still I had to keep pulling to keep the boat moving. Lots of these elements burdened lower body so rowing was a good add-on to that.
Farmer's walk after a day of deadlifting was interesting. I was able to maintain an upright torso so that didn't stress lower back that much. I like this movement for some reason.
Sled pulls are close to a nightmare. Damn they burn quads big time. First leg of the 40 meters is okay but the comeback is awful. These are far away from comfort zone.
Last strength element was the sumo deadlift high-pulls. I've done them in the recent history couple of times. Before that it was probably something like once a year pace. Now I've done them with 50kg barbell. Today I jumped up to 60kg, and felt okay with that weight. The bar path is a little off from ideal as it escapes a little too far from my shins but at least the barbell moves pretty well up and down.
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. AM: Strength, front squat 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1. Farmer's walk 10x20m @ 70-80kg. Accessory, 4rds of: 10 glute ham raises, 15 ghd sit-ups. PM: Skills session of bar muscle-ups (5x5) and handstand.
I had a day off of work so it meant only one thing. It's gonna be two-a-day. There were some errands to be taken care of but I found the time to get a good session in in the early afternoon. It was a squat session combined with some strongman elements and accessory movements. In the evening we went to get with Pauliina and I focused totally on skills. Good one!
Strength.
Front squat 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1
Triples @ 110kg
Doubles @ 120kg
Singles @ 125kg
This was tough. I took 60-90kg lifts from a dead stop in the bottom. Started from the hole, stood up and came back down. So it was totally vice versa than normal front squats. Without any bounce from the bottom it made it very difficult and a different type of stimulus. Probably a very good way to train I'd figure.
At 110kg it was triples, got them done in touch'n'go style and was very satisfied on these. Doubles at 120kg were a lot heavier. I took a breath on top before the second rep. And these were the slowest front squats ever. Definitely not even a slight bounce in the bottom. But form remained okay so I'll take 'em!
On the singles the first one was the heaviest. That startled me a bit but then I decided to man up and do the work as planned. Happy on how I got them done. These really got to me legs and they felt smashed already later in the day. Or was it because of farmer's walk, don't know but it feels good.
Front squat recap
Strongman.
10 x 20 meter farmer's walk
70-80kg per hand
I've done this movement once before. It was awesome that time. A lot lighter but it was intentional because it was a metcon spiced up with burpees. Today I went heavier and had 50kg extra weight on this handle that weighs either 20kg or 30kg. Don't know, I asked about it but didn't get a precise answer and haven't compared it to a normal barbell. Anyway, this was much different than the lighter load.
This is a full body workout to say the least. Legs are doing the work, core has to be very tight all the time. Posture has to be good and shoulders back. Grip needs to be strong. Don't know what part of the body this movement would not strengthen. Suits very well to crossfit. This is classic strongman stuff. You'll see farmer's walk in Rob Orlando's site all the time. And there is a reason for that.
This was 10 rounds of 20 meter carry. I didn't have a clock running for a purpose. Recovery was pretty much walking back and forth the grass mat. It was a good length. No need for too much recovery. Could go heavier on this one. It would be a good idea to have a training pal and do this alternating. We're gonna hit it one day with Jasper.
Farmer's walk
Accessory.
4 rounds of:
10 glute ham raises
15 ghd sit-ups
These legs are going to get stronger. Glute ham raises are one more tool to reach that goal. Farmer's walk and sled are also excellent ways to get there. These ghr's are brutal on hamstrings. I still need a resistance band to assist me do these. This was only the second time doing them. Hopefully soon I'll drop the band away and focus on doing them with bodyweight only. Once I got a set of ghr's done I changed sides and completed ghd sit-ups right after, then a pause before doing another round of this couplet.
Skills.
Bar muscle-ups 5x5
Handstand
Handstand walk
Strict weighted pull-ups
Couple of hours later I stepped in at the Box for a skills session. Muscle-ups were the first thing to focus on. Couple of sets of 5's. These felt easy in each session. And I got them done without stopping on top of the pull-up bar. My hands are ripped so had to use gloves to protect them.
It's been time since I was inverted for handstand so it seemed like a perfect decision to practice this demanding skill. I took a few sets of trying to stay as still as possible and then couple of sets to walking on my hands. In the end I put a weight vest on and did strict pull-ups as accessory movement.
Friday. Back squat 7x5 across (125kg). Strongmanwod.com workout Grind, 20rds of: 20m farmer's walk, 5 burpees. Time, 15.52
Another morning training session. I've had these more lately. On my holiday they were mostly noon sessions which suit me best. Afternoon is second best option. Mornings are not in my wheelhouse but I'll take it if that's all there is available. No second thoughts over that. Today it was lots of squats. Friday pulls didn't happen because I had farmer's walk in my mind so this came instead of deadlifts.
Strength.
Back squat 7x5 across (125kg)
Lot of volume. This constituted over 4k of back squats which is quite a lot to me. It's usually a bit over 3k when going heavier. And these sets weren't that easy I must say. I had lots of confidence which almost backfired on the very first set. My plan was to hit 3 reps touch'n'go but I almost stayed in the bottom on the second rep =)
That brought me pretty quickly down to earth. Especially as there were 6 more full sets awaiting after getting even that first one in the books. You can probably see from the videos these weren't the lightest ones. But this was a mental win for sure. Super happy for hitting all these sets without misses.
Squats 7x5
The Grind. Time, 15.52
20 rounds of:
20m farmer's walk (40-50kg per hand)
5 burpee
Got to play with a new tool. I had squats and deads scheduled down for today and I had waited these for the entire week. Then yesterday I just realized they have these farmer's walk handles there and those might sub for deads pretty well. So I wanted to test out this little new piece of equipment, normally used more in the strongman scene. This workout was taken from Rob Orlando's strongmanwod.com, workout called the Grind. It was rx'd as bodyweight farmer's walk each hand for 400 meters. Every time you drop the weight, perform 5 burpees on the spot. Time cap 30 minutes.
We have 20 meter grass line which suited perfectly for this one. Making it 20 rounds would constitute 400 meters. After every turn complete 5 burpees, then head on for another round. Had no idea about the weights that should be put on this thing. Bodyweight might have been a lot considering this was the first time. Coach said just put 10's on each end and see how it feels like.
Start of the Grind
The weight was light and didn't tax my lower body in the way I was looking for. It was left unclear whether the empty bar was 20 or 30 kilos so the total load was 40-50kg per hand. This was supposed to be the alternative for deadlifts so the goal was to have some burn in my legs and back. Didn't happen this time, got to go heavier next time on farmer's walk. Might be a good idea to do this for strength. As heavy as possible load for 20 meters. Climb up every 20 meters. Sounds good.
But this definitely had my breathing go heavier. Especially when combined with burpees. Good metcon. It mostly felt in my hands, my grip, and fingers. It's like in deadlift, sometimes feels like my fingers are going to get cut off. Okay this wasn't as bad because the load wasn't that heavy but it reminded the feeling of that. Cool tool to play around. It's not the last time, that's for sure!
Wednesday. 1k row, time 3.22. Strength clean & jerk (max PR 70kg, clean PR 75kg), pair wods consisting of farmer's walk, dumbbell thrusters and step-ups, twice. Floorball in the evening.
This day was simply phenomenal! A lot of work was done and some personal records were broken. We took off with Toni by rowing our PR's, then we had strength training. I had clean & jerk on my list, Toni concentrated in push press. Then we took a pair wod, we loved it and felt we have more juice so we took another workout after that. In the evening I had my floorball practice. Between sessions we went to buy a regular sand bag with Toni and turned it into a "crossfit sand bag" =)
Row. Time 3.22, improving previous record with 4 seconds. In such a short distance, I have a feeling this was pretty awesome. I didn't have this in mind but as it felt light from the very beginning, I put some more power in the rows and it just slid through. I usually have my damper setting at 8, today as well. I have counted that some time ago I took 9 strokes to reach 100 meters, then it came down to 9, nowadays it's 7-8 strokes. I use a lot of leg power and I pull the handle quite far away and higher than I used to, that means the pull is more fierce and longer. Toni also id his personal record as he reached the momentum after seeing the digits on my clock. He was pulling it like a maniac and finally reached 3.27, that's pure force man!
PR
Strength. Clean & jerk 3-3-3 (60, 65, 70, 75 failed / PR 75kg clean succeeded). I took clean & jerks, sets of 3 reps starting from 60kg. My max for clean is 70kg and I managed to take three reps of c&j today so I was extremely happy. In addition I decided to go for 75kg and got the clean nicely. I used all my juice in that move and I couldn't get it going anymore, I dropped the bar after that. I tried it once more after some rest but it was impossible. I'm glad I got 75kg clean up, 5kg improvement, nice!
Clean & jerk, 70kg
Toni did push presses, 3-3-3-3-2 (60, 65, 70, 72.5k, 75kg). Take a look at his video to witness the last set.
Push press, 75kg, Toni
Metcon. Time 8.13. Use 25kg dumbbells for farmer's walk and 15kg dumbbells for db thrusters. Both me and Toni had farmer's walk on the agenda, my other movements were 60kg step-ups and 15kg db thrusters. Toni's movements were farmer's walk, ring push-ups and 15kg db thrusters, the number of reps are marked after the movement.
90m farmer's walk, (Ring push-ups, 14 reps)
Step-ups, 13 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk, (dumbbell thrusters, 10 reps)
Dumbbell thrusters, 18 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk (ring push-ups, 17 reps)
Step-ups 14 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk (dumbbell thrusters, 10 reps)
Dumbbell thrusters 14 reps (90m farmer's walk)
I hope you guys understand what this workout was all about =) We liked it, a lot! The main idea is that the 25kg dumbbells play the main role in this pair workout. The other one carries them continuously with farmer's walk style. While the other one farmer walks, the other does as many reps as possible during that time. If the one with the 25kg dumbbells, drops the db's, the other one has to stop as well. We did this workout at the gym so that 90 meters was a shuttle walk, 6x15m. My performance is listed first in the bullets above, Toni's movements are in the brackets. You still following? =)
Farmer's walk
I got all sets unbroken except the last two rounds of farmer's walk. My hands were getting numb and I lost my grip on the dumbbells. It was also challenging to grab the dumbbells for db thrusters right after that. This was an awesome workout and got to the whole body exactly as I wanted. It was also great to get this walk on the workout as the gym was empty and we had the possibility to add this one to the wod. The most difficult was definitely the walk. Last time when I did step-ups, I wrote that more reps or more kilos should be added. This time I added reps but still I have the feeling I wanted to be more exhausted after them. Thus, I will add more weights next time. Thrusters were tough but manageable. Let's say I didn't mind Toni dropped his 25kg dumbbells in farmer's walk so I had to drop mine as well.
DB thrusters
Second metcon. Exactly the same, time 8.23. Time difference +9 seconds.
90m farmer's walk, (Ring push-ups, 23 reps)
Step-ups, 12 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk, (dumbbell thrusters, 10 reps)
Dumbbell thrusters, 16 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk (ring push-ups, 13 reps)
Step-ups 12 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk (dumbbell thrusters, 9 reps)
Dumbbell thrusters 17 reps (90m farmer's walk)
You know, we had an awesome feeling after the first workout and we kinda wanted something more. We thought of going for another similar type of workout but Toni threw the idea up to go for exactly the same workout and see how much of a difference will there be. Now it would be a matter of metabolic condition and also very much a mental game!
Our time was 9 seconds slower on the second metcon, not bad =) How about the number of reps between metcons?
Don
360m -> 360m farmer's walk
27 -> 24 step-ups
32 -> 33 dumbbell thrusters
Toni
360m -> 360m farmer's walk
31 -> 36 ring push-ups
20 -> 19 dumbbell thrusters
Not a huge difference, we can conclude that we managed to keep up the pace with both speed and number of repetitions between metcons. After a long day of work it was a notification that got us smiling greatly =) Finally in the evening I had my floorball practice.
Sunday. Back squat 6x5 (max 115kg), weighted lunges 3x5 (60kg). Metcon 15min amrap of burpees, farmer's walk and wall climbs.
Third day at the gym here in Sweden. Together with my girlfriend we've done some pretty good workouts here as the possibilities are a bit different. Especially I'm gonna miss the skierg machine, which I have used on a daily basis here. I can't imagine a better combination of warm-up and upper body conditioning than rowing and skierg after each other. Also the variety of kettlebells here is vast and the possibility to do wall ball shots are awesome. I just have to keep on adding various elements to keep the workouts mixed and versatile. Today my strength training concentrated in my legs: back squats, 6 sets of 5 reps after which I took weighted lunges. There was also a 15min amrap of burpees, farmer's walk and wall climbs. At the end I took the row / skierg combo.
Strength. Back squat 6x5 (80+90+100+105+110+115). Weighted lunges, alternating legs 3x5 (60kg). My hamstrings felt very good from the very beginning and there were no stiffness in my joints. A good sign and positive feeling to start pushing forward. After warm-up I quite rapidly got up to 80kg and started putting some serious weights on the bar. I was wondering how light the weights actually felt, 100kg was far easier than normally. So I added 5 kilos after each set of 5 reps. My PR is 115kg, dating back to September 18th. Today I took that bar up four times. Naturally I could've put more weights on and get maybe 1-2 reps. However, would it have been worth it? I don't think so. I was pleased that I took more reps with this shared PR than go for one rep with higher kilos. Create a good base and build up the base by doing sets of 3 or 5 reps each time. Then you can finally up the kilos with those higher sets. That's what I think. There may be many truth to this one. After back squats I took 3 sets of 5 reps with both legs, alternating them after each rep. All in all, my back squats were rolling today! :)
Metcon. 15min amrap of three movements. Result 6 total rounds, 10 burpees and 30m farmer's walk.
10 burpees
120m farmer's walk (2x20kg kettlebell)
3 wall climbs
I rested for about 10 minutes, gave Pauliina some encouragement with her moves and then took my first metcon. This workout consisted of three different moves for 15min amrap. First 10 burpees, then 120m farmer's walk with 2 x 20kg kettlebells and finally 3 wall climbs. I managed to go for 6 rounds + 10 burpees and 30m walk with the KBs. Total of 70 burpees, 750m farmer's walk and 18 wall climbs. The nature of the workout pleased me. My shoulder and hands started to burn after 4 rounds. Burpees were pretty much my "rest time", they didn't feel bad at all compared to the other moves. Farmer's walk wasn't that bad for a couple of rounds but after ten minutes that distance was quite long in my head. My grip started to come loose and I had to do some mental work to be able to push through. Wall climbs were as energy consuming as they were when I did hero wod Adrian one week ago. That is an awesome movement! Really gets to the shoulders an triceps big time. Also breathing got heavy after four rounds. I liked this one!
Metcon. Final workout included rowing and skierg. Time about 9.00.
500m row
500m skierg
500m row
500m skierg
At the end I still wanted to go for my favorite upper body conditioning machines, rowing and skierg. I did two rounds of 500m rowing and 500m skierg. My transitions were quite slow but the times spent on the machines stayed quite good. Rowing was around 1.40-1.45 / 500m and skierg was around 2.00 / 500m both times.
Pauliina's day consisted of running, legs and back muscles. There were extensive stretching and mobility workouts done at the end of the day. Hopefully our joints are now flexible again.
