Tuesday. Front squat, build up to a heavy single (PR 138kg). Metcon, 15min amrap of: 12 pull-ups, 300m row, 12 box. Result, 5 rds + 300m row.
Damned it was a tough day at work. We had the longest seminar ever, and had to sit for almost the entire day, for 8 hours. That doesn't do good to human beings. After foam rolling and mobilizing the body I felt okay to get going with heavier front squats. This has been in the back of my head for 3 days now so it was great to get a chance to go for them.
Strength.
Front squat, build up to a heavy single (100, 110, 120, 130, 135, PR 138kg)
Plan was simply to build up, and see how far away I could get today. I reckoned a new record might be available because of all the Smolov squats lately. There were couple of reps at 60 and 80kg, then just singles from 100 kilos on. Those were light up to 120kg. My posture stayed good on these reps and back was in an upright position.
The first heavier one was at 130kg but I felt like that the form looked similar in this one too. Elbows were pointing to the right direction too. Pretty solid lift in my opinion. The next one was my old 1RM at 135kg. I believe I've made that lift 2-3 times in my life but never more than that. There my elbows dropped a little right when I started the ascend from the bottom. That was a tight lift but once I got pass that certain point it was just about standing up. The bottom position, and the turn of direction is the toughest moment.
Before the last rep I did the same thing as when I updated the records on back squat. Piled up 20kg more weight on the bar, stood up with it and counted for 5+ seconds just to feel the weight on my front rack. Psychological game. The descend was slow as hell but at least controlled. That might have eaten up some of the energy but the turnaround back up was alright. In the middle of the ascend my elbows started bailing out and dropping too much. Thus, the lift wasn't as beautiful as I'd like to see but hey, PR is a PR and I'll take it with pleasure!
Squat recap
Metcon. Result, 5 rounds + 300m row
15min amrap of:
12 pull-ups
300m row
12 box
Pauliina hit this one with me. It's been a lot of fun doing same workouts with my wife. And I got to say she's been kicking some ass big time! Rower was a walking distance away from the pull-up rack / box so I used that for recovery. The main inspiration for this one was pull-ups. And I wanted to get heart rate up so rowing and box jumps were great buddies to accompany pull-ups.
I'm happy that I've been able to put pull-ups in my program consistently without any problems. There's been a good bunch of those already in the past month. Those were unbroken today in each of the 6 rounds. That totaled 72 reps. Rowing was 1:45 pace in the beginning and towards the end it was closer to 1:48 pace. The elements were put to this order so that right after rowing you got to go box jumping and burn your legs. Then upper body gets a little rest so I could knock down the pull-ups unbroken. This was a good workout for sure.
Monday. Strength, front squat (max PR 135kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 7 deads (120kg), 30 air squats, 7 hspu. Time 9.09.
Getting back to the barbell. The question is what to do with it. And the natural answer is to squat! It was awkward to hit the gym at about 16.00 and there was no one else but me and Pauliina. Usually there's about 5-10 other people and maybe more on Mondays. Well, we worked for a while together before people started pouring in. I was still thinking whether to go for front or back squats after warm-up. Somehow it ended up in front squat, it felt more natural at that given moment, and I'm happy I did so. It was PR time! Afterwards a metcon I remember having seen done by legend Chris Spealler long time ago.
The King. Picture: @Rubywolff
Strength.
Front squat
2x100, 110, 110, 115, 115, 120, 120kg
1x125, 130, PR 135kg
My goal was to do 7x2 reps, building up to a heavy double. I did exactly that. For some reason the first 120kg set felt heavier than the second. Pauliina was spotting the latter one, maybe it was just mentally lighter because of she securing the lift. I was about done but my lady asked why did I do another 120kg set instead of going heavier. What can I answer to that? She pushed me to go harder so I did.
Next stop at 125kg which felt light. She didn't give any slack: "put more weight on the bar". Yes sir. Next lift of 130kg was tight, no doubt it was heavy. My previous one rep max was 132.5kg so we were close. At this point I was done with the squats. I had the metcon looming in my sight already, anxious to hit it. But she had not had enough. "Today we'll take a new PR!"
Haha I love this woman. For a lot of reasons. But this was just something crazy. She was looking for that new record breaking lift and I couldn't disappoint her. Her eyes were glowing so I tried to answer with passion. Caught my breath, approached the bar, lifted it up, squatted and stood up, as simple as that. I'm very happy I was able to nail it! Old man can still make it happen =)
Squatting. Couldn't get the last lifts on video because there were too many people
Metcon. Time 9.09
5 rounds of:
7 deadlifts, 120kg
30 air squats
7 handstand push-ups
This is something I have seen at least one year ago. It was some sort of throwdown where Chris Spealler was part of. This legend, bodyweight ninja, crushed the workout in just a matter of minutes. He was "a bit" faster than me, no surprise there. This same workout popped up couple of days ago in some site where I was visiting. Probably competitorstraining.com. I didn't remember the specifics but the rep scheme was this.
I went unbroken with the deadlifts each round. It's been a while since deadlifting last time. I took couple of reps prior to the workout with 100-120kg. It was mediocre weight. In a workout like this it starts to weigh more and more towards the end. Squats were bodyweight stuff. I had anticipated these to become an issue. I'm not saying they weren't but I got them unbroken too. It felt like the pace was getting slower towards the end. However, that seemed not to be the story as I look at the round times.
My first round was something like 1:35, and from then on the remaining rounds were about 1:50 per round, couple of seconds over that. That satisfies me a lot. Being able to keep up the pace with all the movements for the entire 5 rounds feels super. I don't wanna go running out of the gates but have a motor that can keep on running for longer time. It's a different game when you have a short workout.
Last Update Show of the Games
Handstand push-ups were the easiest of these movements. I was surprised I got them done so effortlessly, every round. Okay, there were "only" 35 reps in the workout but having a steady pace all the time might have brought more pressure on my shoulders but that was not the case. My legs were smashed after the workout but shoulders were feeling good. Breathing got heavy for sure but still manageable. Definitely a good workout that I suggest to everyone.
The weekend was full of Crossfit Games. Couldn't have asked for a better action! I was like a kid in a candy store when I was by my laptop watching the Games. Pauliina occasionally felt the spirit of the competition with me. Pretty awesome to have a wifey that shares the feelings with me. This competition is like the Olympic Games for me.
Jason Khalipa, finally finishing in 3rd spot
My prediction for the Top 5 were as follows prior to the Games:
Men
1. Rich Froning
2. Scott Panchik
3. Jason Khalipa
4. Matt Fraser
5. Ben Smith
Women
1. Valerie Voboril
2. Julie Foucher
3. Annie Thorisdottir
4. Jenn Jones
5. Kara Webb
On the mens' side I was close with those top guys. Those monsters were all in Top 7 in the final leaderboard. Fraser was even tougher than anticipated finishing in second and beating Khalipa in the process. Froning took 4th consecutive win which is something extraordinary. At this point there's no doubt - if there has ever been - who the king is in this sport. The fittest on earth, no matter what you throw at him, he'll smash it.
The ultimate Champ
I had predicted Valerie Voboril to step up on the first place after finishing 5th and 3rd on the previous 2 years. There were simply more fit women competing against her. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet was the woman to be crowned as the fittest on earth on Sunday night for the first time. This Canadian has always been one of the top girls but she didn't convince before. She really dominated some of the events, muscle-up biathlon pops up to my mind as first thought. She was crazy good! I was cheering for Kara Webb as she was on top of the leaderboard until 9 events. From then on there was a huge meltdown as she couldn't finish 2 workouts in a row and was time capped. That caused her to finally slide all the way to 31st place… I feel sorry for her, she fought bravely for those 9 events.
Anyway, the weekend was extremely fun and exciting to watch and definitely the best time of the year crossfit-wise. And I also get a big training boost for sure! Here's a link to the final leaderboard.
Another training session, working towards being a better athlete. Bench is something I rarely do and it was about to hit some iron on the barbell. I was thinking about doing heavy front squat doubles as well but the end result was a single PR. In the end I wanted my lungs to do heavy work too so there was a 15 minute amrap.
Bench is somehow a strange movement. The bar starts to feel heavy after certain weights but I don't even get sweaty during my training. Unless it's a high-rep metcon or something alike. And my metabolism is sick, I get all sweaty without doing nothing. That's why it feels like a rest day when I'm benching. Haven't done bench press in ages with heavy weights so I figured why not try where the max is.
I took light weight in the beginning, then little by little climbed up, dropped the number of reps and increased weights. The 90kg bar was still light, same with the 95, that wasn't too bad. Had to do some work on 100kg but I thought let's jump to 105kg right away. That lift was nothing close to a successful rep. It was kind of boring to miss that lift so I took a triple at 90kg in the end.
Sunday recap
On front squats my original idea was to do couple of sets of heavy doubles, something like 120kg. As I started to put some weight on the bar it felt like it might get a little too challenging to hit 3-5 sets of 2x120kg. However, as I put piled more plates on the barbell and looked the lifts on video afterwards, they looked easy and my confidence boosted and the bar started to feel lighter =)
I was extremely happy on how the lifts looked like. Or let's say I was happy that the lifts looked the same no matter how much iron there was on the barbell. Elbows stayed up and front no matter the weight. I definitely wasn't looking for a max load but as I was able to take 2x125kg up for the first time in my life I knew it might be worth trying the 1 rep max.
The strangest thing was that I took 132.5kg up without huge issues but then 135kg didn't come up. It didn't even feel that heavy. Of course it was heavy but not that heavy. I thought I would take it home and I should have. I'm glad of the PR, no doubt, but it was realistic to get 135 as well. Now I left something to think about for next session. Most important thing about today was the ease how 120-125kg were moving for doubles.
Metcon. Result 290reps
10 kettlebell swing, 32kg
10 pistol squats, alternating legs
10 push-ups
20 walking lunges, with 2x17.5kg dumbbells
Had my 2-pood bell with me. I love training with kettlebells but carrying them around is not cool =) Luckily it's not that long a distance I have to carry them if we go to our home gym. Car does most of the work. The practical issues is the reason I usually train with kettlebells only during weekends. It's not nice to be sweating my butt off for carrying kettlebells before and after work.
You can create killer metcons with kettlebells. I usually tend to do basic movements with 'em: swings, cleans, clean & jerks, snatches and occasional deadlifts. Maybe occasional goblet / front squats. Today swings played a big role in my metcon.
There were some rare elements in today's workout. There's not that much people at the gym during weekends so it's often possible to do different kind of things there. For example those walking lunges are impossible normally 'cause it's too crowded, simply don't have enough room for that. Pistols are awesome but I always forget to do them. So it's like once a month probably that I do them.
Kettlebells made my breathing go heavy. They didn't kill my forearms as they usually do. Maybe the reason was the number of reps. When you do 15-20 consecutive reps it starts to burn the forearms a lot. It also burns the entire body when it turns to high-rep action. Ten reps is something you can nail anytime.
Pistols were tough. Had only 10 reps per round, alternating after each rep, so 5 reps for both legs. It's a highly skilled movement in my opinion. It's not only strength, it's also mobility, balance, and coordination. If you fail to have these qualities it's gonna get you into problems. I try to concentrate in having knees in correct form when I do the squat but it's not always perfect. That's the element I should be working on.
Push-ups. I've intentionally increased the amount of these. Still need to add the reps. Haven't thought about this too much but something needs to be done so that they wouldn't be my "goat" in the future. Nailed the 6 rounds unbroken though.
Toni's PR lift, 85kg OHS
The last movement of the four was lunges. That is something my legs do not like. No matter if it's sandbag in my back or dumbbells on my hands or barbell in either front or back rack position, it feels awful. The burn in my legs is huge. They were suffering already after first round. Okay, there were 3 elements in this metcon that pressured my lower body: kb swings, pistols and lunges. So no wonder they would have enjoyed a short break every now and there.
I found a lane to walk through in lunges for 10 steps / meters, then dropped the db's down, turned around and lunged back. My quads were taking most of the hit during the workout. I think pistols also focus more on quads than hamstrings so lunging after those was not a walk in the park. I'm guessing I'll feel this metcon in my quads tomorrow. The burn in my lower body was tougher than it's been in a while. Go try it out and you probably know what I mean =) My result was 10 lunges short of 6 full rounds. The most important thing was that the round times were quite equal, so I didn't fade out during the workout. That's what I'm always looking for, consistency.
Sunday. Front squat 5-5-5-5-3-1 (max PR 130kg). Air Force modified, time 8.30. Floorball game in the evening.
Tough day. Heavy front squats for starters and main focus on benchmark challenge workout called Air Force. I had decided yesterday evening I'm gonna hit a PR today in front squats and I saw dreams about it couple of times during the night =) I had no other choice but to crash it. The entourage at the gym consisted of Pauliina, Tony the Pony and his wife Saara.
Pony & Don
Strength. Front squat 5-5-5-5-3-1 (80, 90, 100, 110, 120, PR 130kg). Even though I was desperate to hit a new record, I mainly wanted to do sets of 5 reps in the beginning as far as I could go. My previous max was at 125kg. I started carefully with 80kg, adding 10kg after each set. 110kg was tough on the last reps and on the 120kg I got 3 reps. After doing 5 sets already and quite a number of repetitions with heavy kilos I decided to skip current PR of 125kg and go straight up to 130kg. Take a single rep and celebrate. Check!
Front squat, 130kg, PR
Air Force. Time 8.30
20 thrusters
20 sumo deadlift high-pulls
20 push jerks
(20 overhead squats)
20 front squats
Use a 42.5kg barbell for all movements. Complete 4 burpees at the beginning of each minute.
Total of 100 repetitions with a bar, all with the same weight on it, 42.5kg (95lbs). Each minute starts with doing 4 burpees for starters, then continue with the movement where you are at the workout. Starting with thrusters, then sumo deadlift high-pulls, push jerks, overhead squats and finally front squats. Barbell starts from the floor all the time, don't use a rack.
We knew it's gonna be a nightmare to go through this one as you have practically no time to rest as the burpees will be waiting for you just around the corner when the next minute starts again… Even though the barbell is not that heavy but considering the amount of reps and burpees it's gonna make your shoulders scream for pain. And it did.
What surprised us both was that we both failed to complete any overhead squats in this workout. I'm a bit embarrassed I had to skip them totally after trying it for a while. It was simply too demanding to hold the bar overhead and squat neatly in to perfect 90 degrees angle for a full range of motion at that point of the workout. So we did Air Force without the OHS but still I wasted one minute on trying those out. Time was finally 8.30. Here is a 20min time cap on this workout.
Thrusters went practically unbroken, sumo deadlifts took me two separate minutes to go through. Push jerks at that stage felt heavy, I took them 4x5. Front squats in the end went first in 14 reps and 6 reps in the final minute. There were a total of 32 burpees in addition to those actual barbell movements.
Cashout. Triceps training 3x12. I want to get those handstand push-ups going well! This is my ancillary movement for that one.
Game Day. In the evening I have another floorball game. I dared to go to the Box and train hard because it's my turn to be the back-up goalie and let the youngster take his moment today.
Toni's workouts.
Front squats. 5-3-5-1 (80, 90, 90, 100kg). He also took a 110kg attempt, which failed.
Friday. Shoulder press 5-5-3 (max 60kg). Front squat 5-5-5-2-1 (max PR 125kg). Metcon of walking lunges and ring push-ups.
I wasn't sure what to do when I entered the Box today. I've been squatting and deadlifting for quite a while and haven't been able to do much work with my cleans, jerks and snatches. At least not as much as I'd like to and there's a reason for that. Today I decided to give it a shot with shoulder press, then continued to PR my front squat, yammy! Then a short metcon in the end. Toni did something new in his category, snatches with weights, not only technical training this time. Plus a short workout for quality.
I entered my training with shoulder press, going up to 60kg. Then I understood my elbows are not not in their best shape and changed to front squat. Elbows were in the verge of getting hammered with pain so I stopped early and prevented further damages. Huh, front squats were easy today! My mid core is rather strong and I'm able to maintain good form with heavier weights as well. I began with 80kg, next 100, added 10kg and was still lifting 5-rep sets. Soon I was ready for my old record (120kg), which I took up twice today. I was mentally forced to add plates to the bar, 125kg, down and up, new PR, c'mon! I was tempted to go for 130kg but it was not a stable attempt and failed. I'm extremely happy with my lifts today.
Front squat 125kg, PR
Metcon. For cooling down, for quality.
3 rounds of
20 walking lunges, 2x25kg dumbbells
10 ring push-ups
This was a quick play to the end. Lunges and ring push-ups. For some reason I haven't done ring push-ups nor regular push-ups for a while. They are awesome and should be in programming constantly. In autumn I did them way more. This little fun wasn't tough, okay holding the grip was difficult with the dumbbells but other than that, it wasn't bad.
Ring push-ups
Toni's workouts. Snatches 5-5-5 (30, 35, PR 40kg). He also did some tens of different type of push-ups, dips and pull-ups.
Toni's snatches
Today's main focus for Toni was snatches. He hasn't done them with a bar that has plates on it. By far it's been purely technique training so it was about time to hit it. And hey, his squat snatches look very natural. The mobility he has been able to create is something I envy. For future development, he should create more speed through hip explosiveness. Otherwise it's difficult to add weights. Anyway, I'm sure he's gonna lift 50+ weights soon.
Tuesday. Front squat (max PR 120kg). Grace (50kg), time 3.10.
I had planned to wake up eagerly and go to the gym. For some reason I slept too late and had to hurry myself on the way. No prob, I had enough time to do some PR's with Toni & Joni =) I went for front squats and hero called Grace. Toni did took bench press, front squat and Grace, Joni concentrated in front squat.
Toni front squatting
Strength. 2-2-2-2-f (90, 100, PR 115, PR 120, f 125kg).
Yeah baby! I wanted to see how much further I could push it with front squats so I took doubles to new digits. I was pumping it with Joni who also managed to squat his new PR of 110kg. I took sets of 90 and 100kg. My previous max was 112.5kg. We thought we put 107.5kg on the bar but after having done my squats I realized there were 115kg, a little miscalculation so to say :) Luckily this way and not downwards. I new it already at 100kg that it's going well today. That 115kg PR lift was easy two rep set so I added it to 120kg and took it up twice as well. I got greedy and wanted to add bets, plates worth 125kg came down but not up. Hey, 7.5kg improve on the max load of my front squat, damned I felt strong!
Front squat, 120kg
Toni shared his old record in bench press with 95kg and front squatted 90kg, which also happens to be his max, dating back to week 47.
Grace. I modified to 50kg. Time 3.10. Grace = 30 x clean & jerk.
This was the third time we've done Grace. First time was 7th September, my time was 5.40, on the same day I PR'd my front squat to 95kg. Hmm, 25kg up in three months time, guess that's ok. Mid-October we took a pair wod with Toni, Double-Grace, and we timed it 5.50. Today my time was 3.10 with same weights, 50kg on the barbell. Next time there are no options, better upgrade it to Rx'd weights, 60kg.
I took 5 sets of 6 reps to reach 30 reps in total. It was mentally easier to go in sets rather than push to the limits and then struggle to the end. I planned to do 6 reps a minute but because my first set was done in about 25 seconds and it didn't feel that bad, I decided to go further rather quickly. I was done two rounds little after one minute. On the second round the bar started to feel heavier and rest periods didn't make their purpose anymore. After fourth round I didn't rest much - at least it didn't feel like it - because goal line was looming somewhere ahead. I pushed through in 3.10 and improved my time with 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Grace, Don
After I finished, Toni got a boost and wanted to have piece of this girl as well. He had same strategy of 6x5 reps which proved to be a success for both of us. The first time Toni did Grace with 40kg and timed it 4.09. Today he went with 50kg and clock stopped at 4.04.
